Greetings and welcome to what I hope will be the first of many future articles for Casual and Multiplayer Magic. I am, for the most part, a casual Magic player, having only tried my hand at a few Limited events. I have competed successfully in Extended Magic, winning one first place and one second place finish at a local card shop in Greece, New York on two different occasions... but enough introductions. What I have for you Casual and Multiplayer fans out there is a fun little Extended-legal deck I have dubbed “Lionheart.” I know, it probably seems a little cheesy, and no I did not name my deck Lionheart because I loved the Van Damme movie. I think you'll get it once I show you the entire list:

Lionheart Featured by Eric Plaisted on 2006-07-16 (Extended) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/12281.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 4 Azorius Guildmage 2 Eternal Dragon 4 Lantern Kami 4 Pride of the Clouds 1 Sky Hussar Enchantments 2 Faith's Fetters 3 Glorious Anthem Instants 4 Condemn 4 Echoing Truth	Legendary Creatures 3 Grand Arbiter Augustin IV 3 Isperia the Inscrutable 1 Meloku the Clouded Mirror 1 Patron of the Kitsune Basic Lands 6 Island 8 Plains Lands 3 Azorius Chancery 4 Hallowed Fountain Legendary Lands 1 Eiganjo Castle 1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge 1 Miren, the Moaning Well	Stats: Average mana: 1.77 Average creature mana cost: 3.35 Average creature power: 2.26 Average creature toughness: 2.87 Deck Composition: Basic Lands: 23.33% Enchantments: 8.33% Legendary Creatures: 13.33% Legendary Lands: 5.00% Creatures: 25.00% Lands: 11.67% Instants: 13.33%
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I named it Lionheart for two of my new favorite cards from the Azorius guild; Pride of the Clouds and Isperia, the Inscrutable. Both may not be lions per say, but they are both very lion-like beasts that when used together can be backbreaking to your opponent. After I put in these two gems as the core of the deck I started to flesh out the rest around a few main themes; flying creatures, disruption, and removing blockers so that my Sphinx - Isperia the Inscrutable - can build me an army one attack phase at a time. Pride of the Clouds is a house and a half, it can repeatedly make flying tokens, all for the low price of two mana. You could easily have something like a 7/7 flyer to smash your opponents face.

When the average person thinks of good flyers, Meloku the Clouded Mirror is always at the forefront of people's minds. With Isperia, you can hopefully search him out... and then Isperia and Meloku can play tag team on your enemies. Meloku can make any number of chump blockers so that the Sphinx can go to town and start providing you with cards like Sky Hussar, who can make good use of all those tokens to draw you an extra card each turn. He effectively becomes a free Howling Mine for you each turn, as long as you have two extra creatures to tap down. With both Meloku the Clouded Mirror and Pride of the Clouds in the deck, those creatures should be slowly flooding your opponent's gates. Another added bonus of the Sky Hussar is his synergistic “untap all creatures” ability when he comes into play. Imagine alpha striking your opponent with a horde of flying tokens only to cast the Sky Hussar after the attack, untapping all of your attackers and leaving them all fresh and ready to defend you. It's almost like your team is equipped with a situational global vigilance ability.

Lantern Kami seemed like a good first turn play and additional flyer/chump blocker for this deck although, if you really wanted to expand on the whole “lion” theme of the deck you could easily make these Savannah Lions or even (gasp!) if you're feeling daring, the Lionheart Maverick, which seems like the perfect fit for a thematic deck...? Well, maybe not.

Another good target for Isperia's recruitment drives is the Eternal Dragon. With its cycling ability you can search out copies of your Hallowed Fountains. The Dragon also shrugs off removal like a champ, coming back turn after turn if you can afford it. With all of those lands you've been cycling for, it shouldn't be a big problem. Along the same lines comes one of the dual-purpose cards in the deck, the great Grand Arbiter Augustin IV. Man, that's a long name to spell out. As I said, one of the major themes of the deck is disruption. Augustin provides it in spades, making all of your spells one or two mana cheaper, while at the same time putting your opponent's head in a vice. “Why yes, I will cast my Eternal Dragon on the sixth turn... oh, and my Sky Hussar only costs 3 mana to cast? Isperia is a 3/6 flyer for only four? Nice. What's that? You can't keep up with the onslaught? Blame it on that poor crippled blind guy in the floating hoverchair. He's crippled my adz.”

Adding to the theme of disruption, and also delving into the realm of removing blockers for Isperia, comes the great Azorius Guildmage. What a beauty she is in here. Two mana, either kind, and with enough mana in play she taps down blockers, taps potential attackers, shuts down Pernicious Deeds - and Visara, the Dreadful isn't quite so Dreadful after all. The uses are endless.

Lastly, the Patron of the Kitsune may be a little bit of overkill, but the lifegain it provides can become insurmountable to your opponent, and if you choose to try this deck in multiplayer it works that much better.

Now we continue onto the spells and enchantments. Further extending the theme of disruption is the wonderful Echoing Truth. In this deck it does all sorts of neat things. Sure, its basic use is to remove blocking creatures, but in here it really shines. How? Let's say you played an early Pride of the Clouds, and now wish you could have it back in your hand so that it can start its token-making mojo again. Just bounce it back to your hand. The same thing goes double for the Sky Hussar. Have you played out your Faith's Fetters a little too early, and now a larger threat has come into play? Bounce it back to your hand, slam it back down on the new offending permanent, and while you're at it, score yourself another four life; sound like a good deal? Echoing Truth is also your trump card should you end up facing another opponent with token madness on his/her mind. Echoing Truth gets rid of tokens like an Uzi. It can help you break through tough situations when you are trying to punch through an attack with Isperia.

Condemn is a punishing little instant. It is also exceptional in this deck, as you will mostly find yourself assaulting your opponent with evasive creatures by air. Yu can often bait an opponent into trying to counter-attack when your forces are tapped and seem vulnerable. Don't forget you can also Condemn your own creatures in a pinch, to either gain life or if an attacker runs into something like a Reciprocate or Exile, you can safely put it on the bottom of your deck, where it will await Isperia's call once again while gaining you life in the process. Condemning Isperia alone nets you six life.

Moving on to the enchantments, Faith's Fetters is your all-purpose answer to life's little or big problems. This is especially important if someone else is playing with cards like Meloku the Clouded Mirror, or cards that can hose this flyer deck like Arashi, the Sky Asunder and Silklash Spider. However, all of these problem cards can also be held in check by your Blue chica Azorius Guildmage. I also shouldn't need to tell you that Whirlwind is bad news for this deck; luckily, not many people run it. But if it does come up, you can save an Isperia the Inscrutable with an Echoing Truth and start the whole party over again. Pride of the Clouds is also a very resilient machine in the face of anti-flyer hate.

For the final enchantment entry, we have three copies of Glorious Anthem. With two of these in play, all of your tokens will survive a Pyroclasm, and if you have an ever-expanding army of 3/3 flyers the game should be over in a hurry. It also doesn't hurt that these make your legends and other utility creatures beefier.

I shan't dwell on the manabase... I will just cover the specialty lands, as the rest are fairy obvious inclusions. Eiganjo Castle and Minamo, School at Water's Edge are in there to make your small army of legends even more fearsome. With Eiganjo, Meloku can soak up five damage without dying, and Isperia won't die to anything less than a Force of Nature... get it? By the way, if you start getting irked at Isperia, you better make sure you don't tell her that she has a big butt, otherwise she may come over and rip you a new one with her claws. Sphinxes are known for their sensitive natures after all. Minamo also allows you to give your creatures a pseudo-vigilance effect, being able to attack with them and then untap them afterwards, which can be very frustrating for an opponent who is trying to break through your defenses. Miren, the Moaning Well is in here as a way to help ditch your creatures of harmful effects like Pillory of the Sleepless, or to get rid of an extra Legend in play so you can play another copy in your hand and get a life bonus to boot. The same applies if one of your legends has a Faith's Fetters on it.

A few last notes, and then I will bid you adieu. This deck is customizable to your specific tastes. Any good flyer will be a welcome addition in here. Three others that immediately come to mind are Yosei, the Morning Star; Keiga, the Tide Star; and the very cool Windreaver. So let your imagination run wild, go grab Isperia and take her out for a hot night on the town. She'll never know why you really agreed to take her out to dinner. Well, considering that she's a sphinx and all, she could find out, and then you'll need a body bag.

You know, all this talk of lions has really got me interested in seeing that Chronicles of Narnia movie with Aslan in it, I guess I've just been too busy to see it because I've been playing Magic.

Thanks for listening, and I hope this has provided you with a fun and interesting idea for your local Casual or Multiplayer throwdown.

Later!

Eric Plaisted