Welcome to what I hope is the first of a multitude of articles where I give an overview of the Casual Forum Boards at Star City Games. I hope to do some kind of writeup every week or so.

For purposes of my own sanity, I have started with only decks that were posted or talked about in the week of 2/6-2/12. I'll only hit the highlights, so feel free to check out the Casual Forums to add or post your own decks.

Peasant Cephalid Breakfast?
First up, we have a smart bit of innovation from Jyuan83, who was looking for assistance with his Peasant format Cephalid Breakfast combo. Without Sutured Ghoul, he found himself unable to combo out as quickly (although comboing out on turn 5 or 6 in Peasant Magic seems pretty fast to me). Although he couldn’t find much help, Jyuan83 finally remembered the existence of Necratog, which seems to fill the gap. He hasn’t said how well it’s working, but the deck looks like something peasant enthusiasts should take a look at.

3 Cephalid Illusionist
4 Nomad En-kor
4 Blood Celebrant
4 Hapless Researcher
1 Necratog

4 Impulse
4 Commune with Nature
4 Brainstorm
3 Duress
4 Lotus Petal
1 Defy Gravity
1 Krosan Reclamation
3 Unearth
2 Pentad Prism

10 Swamps
8 Islands

Peasant Sligh:
Even though it’s been a month, people are still poking at MagicDave’s Peasant Sligh deck. I guess there’s something about fire that just fascinates us on a primal level. It doesn’t hurt that Red has some of the most clearly-focused commons, either. But the deck hasn’t been innovated upon so much as it has been discussed; if you’re looking for a solid burn deck on the cheap, it’s a good place to start even if it won't blow your mind with its originality.

A Pair Of Strange Decks
Cyna1B01 has proposed a couple of intriguing decks: One is a BUGStill deck, using the interaction between Dual lands and the Genju to enchant one land with multiple Genjus, thus exploiting two abilities. That's notable because it’s the first of its kind in the casual forums.

This thread also briefly discusses a few rules to clarify how the abilities of the Genji can be best exploited. A smart use of Crucible of Worlds is worth mentioning here, as well as running Damping Matrix to solve a whole host of creature-related problems that leave his deck untouched.

The other deck is a Full English Breakfast deck that doesn’t use Squee, Goblin Nabob. It seemed odd to me, but Cyn has some clear reasons for why he wasn’t using the only goblin that never attacks. I don’t exactly agree with him - Squee and Survival of the Fittest go together like Lego blocks. But Cyn gave a clear argument: Squee just slowed his deck down in his metagame, and provided an example from play experience where his deck ran just fine, Nabob or no. He admitted that given a more control-oriented environment, Squee would be the nuts.

It’s hard to argue with someone when they’re being so…rational. How completely contrary to Internet standards! Get him!

Ninja Attack!
Scattercat has kicked off the inevitable obsession with ninjas that we’re all bound to have. Most of us have been waiting for ninja decks since Champions' theme was announced — and now that they’re finally here, we’ve got a couple decks built to test the hooded ones out. Scattercat kept his selections more in the budget realm, using Escape Artist and asking for suggestions that could be used in Magic Online. I suggested using Standstill to help keep the pressure of the ninjas on… So here’s a trial decklist.

4 Standstill
4 Cavern Harpy
4 Carnophage
3 Mistblade Shinobi
3 Throat Slitter
3 Okiba-Gang Shinobi
3 Shadowmage Infiltrator
4 Counterspell
4 Duress
2 Chrome Mox/Undermine/Daze
4 Polluted Delta
9 Island
9 Swamp

My Betrayers of Kamigawa boxes just arrived yesterday, so I haven’t had a chance to build this deck, much less test it out. I also don’t have a Chrome Mox or Undermine. As a result, I’m far more interested in using Ronin Warclub in that position in order to push the aggressive nature of the deck (despite the fact that it subverts the theme).

Multiplayer Multidesign!
Lastly, in a fine example of everyone contributing a little to make something I think is really cool, we have an interesting Multiplayer deck started up by fedaykin13. He began with the germ of an idea using Syphon Soul and Eternal Witness, but didn’t have much more than that.

Some ideas were thrown about, but Metaljessie suggested using a Rock-like build, adding Syphon Mind to the mix, providing an initial decklist. Dearnhardt4ever8 and merl brought Thrashing Wumpus and Hurricane to the party, but it was ormo’s suggestion of Panoptic Mirror that finally lit a fire and gave me this:

Belzebozo’s Syphon Filler
13 Swamp
4 Tainted Wood
7 Forest
4 Syphon Mind
4 Syphon Soul
3 Panoptic Mirror
3 Regrowth
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
3 Pernicious Deed
3 Thrashing Wumpus
4 Hurricane
4 Naturalize
4 Eternal Witness

There were some good suggestions after that, some relating to how the deck should be built if it was for duelling — but I think the one card we missed is Crystal Shard. Repeatable effects are always very, very powerful in multiplayer, and the ability to repeatedly bounce an Eternal Witness is strong stuff, as many Standard decks have proven. I’m looking forward to trying this one in group, perhaps with a touch of blue for the Shard; Sakura-Tribe Elder should make splashing an Island or two easy.

That’s it for now — but keep talking, people! Let’s see what can be done for next week!