Multiplayer is all about having the answers to your metagame. Or, failing that, conning some poor soul who does have the answers into using them. Or, failing that, using Jedi Mind Tricks to stop people for no tangible or legitimate reason.

This deck doesn't win with broken power or stupid combos. It wins with a few answers, a little coercion, a few mind tricks, and a lot of synergy. It's a little expensive, but trading for everything in it doesn't take much work. Without further ado, the deck as it stands currently.

One Quick Note:
The Library of Alexandria is in here purely because I own it, and it's randomly awesome. It's very not necessary. I played the deck without it for about two years. Make it an Ancient Tomb.

The Solution Featured by Chris Franson on 2005-09-04 As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/10376.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Artifacts 3 Empyrial Plate 1 Grim Monolith 1 Lotus Petal 1 Mana Vault 1 Mox Diamond 4 Skullclamp 1 Sol Ring Artifact Creatures 1 Darksteel Colossus Creatures 2 Devout Witness 2 Exalted Angel 4 Grim Lavamancer 1 Ramosian Sergeant 4 Whipcorder Enchantments 4 Land Tax	Instants 2 Disenchant 1 Echoing Truth 2 Fire / Ice 1 Mystical Tutor 4 Raise the Alarm 1 Shining Shoal 3 Swords to Plowshares Sorceries 1 Balance 1 Tinker Artifact Lands 1 Ancient Den 1 Great Furnace 1 Seat of the Synod Basic Lands 2 Island 3 Mountain 5 Plains Lands 1 Library of Alexandria Legendary Lands 1 Karakas	Stats: Average mana: 1.46 Average creature mana cost: 3.00 Average creature power: 2.57 Average creature toughness: 2.71 Deck Composition: Basic Lands: 16.39% Instants: 22.95% Lands: 1.64% Artifacts: 19.67% Artifact Creatures: 1.64% Enchantments: 6.56% Legendary Lands: 1.64% Creatures: 21.31% Artifact Lands: 4.92% Sorceries: 3.28%
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/Razorfin Hunter/Meddling Mage/Willbender

Let's go over card choices here first.

Grim Lavamancer
He's a real house in multiplayer, especially with as many ways to literally dump cards into the graveyard as this deck has. Between Land Tax, the sixteen sorceries and instants and Mox Diamond, the deck can support them by itself, along with creature combat.

Whipcorder
Removal for bigger men. Also a complete house in my playing experience. I used to run Leonin Skyhunter here - but honestly, Whipcorder saves your ass where Skyhunter would only be a chump-blocker. He's good for tight, come-from-behind wins against stuff like third-turn Tinker-Colossus and Sneak Attack craziness. You can also bluff him as an Exalted Angel when you think people have removal. He's just generally very good in a lot of multiplayer situations.

Raise the Alarm
This is here purely because of the combo with Skullclamp. Also, it serves well as a removal spell; instant-speed blockers trade well with X/1s. If you cut Skullclamp, however, this should probably be Samurai of the Pale Curtain, or another utility guy more suitable to your metagame.

Devout Witness (Or Razorfin Hunter, or Meddling Mage, or Willbender)
Devout Witness and Meddling Mage are most generally useful here. Willbender is great if you see a lot of control and targeted removal in general; ditto Razorfin Hunter and aggressive decks with lots of X/1s, Goblin Welder-based decks and Elf decks with Priest of Titanias. Meddling Mage fights combo and general ridiculousness like late-game Yawgmoth's Wills, whereas Devout Witness is guaranteed to almost always be good. It's entirely a metagame call here. Also, you can cut these entirely for a spell and an Exalted Angel. Or two spells. They're friggin' metagame slots, and this much detail is really unnecessary. Do what you will.

Exalted Angel
Crazy insane good. She's a huge flyer for cheap with a crazy good ability, pitches to Shining Shoal to make it crazy, and is just all-around a house. The life swing is so important in multiplayer as well. Also, Plate her up for ridiculous beatdown capabilities. One swing with a Plated Angel basically means you win the game.

Ramosian Sergeant
She's awesome in my metagame, because I see a lot of largish men showing up altogether too quickly for my liking. She gets Whipcorders, and dang is she good at it. Cut her if your metagame varies.

Tinker/Colossus
It seems like a cop-out, but it's really really good. Also, if your metagame has a lot of good players, they'll just start running bounce, or Swords to Plowshares, or Gilded Drake, or any one of the million solutions to this guy. This is mostly for the late game, when you've bled all those answers out with midgets and Angels.

Swords to Plowshares/Disenchant
These are pretty self-explanatory. It's multiplayer. People tend to run creatures, artifacts, and enchantments.

Fire/Ice
I tend to see a lot of utility guys/Priests of Titania and extremely large men. This is another solution to that.

Funny story - I used to run Shrapnel Blast here to fight Black decks (Phyrexian Arena and Night's Whisper) and Combo (Spoils of the Vault, Yawgmoth's Bargain). Incinerate would be better here if you see a lot of green men, but Shrapnel Blast is pretty nuts here. Note the synergy with Land Tax here; crack an Artifact Land for five to the dome, activate Lavamancer again, and thin your deck. I'd try to run more artifact lands if you choose Shrapnel Blast, however.

Echoing Truth
Hits cycled Decree of Justice tokens. Hits Rhystic Study for huge tempo boosts. Hits multiple beaters with the same name coming in (or flash it and say, "I wouldn't come here if I were you" for extra Jedi Mind Tricks). Hits Darksteel Colossus. Really, it's just a one-stop answer for a lot of really scary things.

Shining Shoal
This is the best Jedi Mind Trick in the deck. People don't attack you early in the third and fourth game you play with this deck because they've seen the Shoal and don't want to walk into a one-sided Wrath of God. People worry in the late game about attacking you because their life total is low and you have a load of mana untapped. People tend to attack the person who they have to think about combat with the least, and most of the time that means "not you" if you signal having the Shoal.

But little do they know, it's a one-of! Bwaa hah hah!

Balance
It's crazy. It's only occasionally good, but boy, when it is...

Mystical Tutor
Gets the right answer right now.... Or Tinker for the win. If you're into that sort of thing.

Land Tax
A lot of the driving force behind the deck and its synergies. For starters, you don't miss a land drop for a long time, in a generally aggressive deck. Also, it powers Grim Lavamancer and Empyrial Plate, and thins your deck a noticeable margin, making any card draw at all that much more powerful. Also, it allows you to discard Darksteel Colossus should you be unfortunate enough to draw it. Even though your deck doesn't run all basic lands, this is really invaluable.

Skullclamp
You know why it's here. If your play group has banned it, which seems a strong possibility, I'd play Aether Vial here, and cut Raise the Alarm for a two-drop of your choice.

Empyrial Plate
Even with the printing of "better cards" like Sword of Fire and Ice and Umezawa's Jitte, I still run this card. It's simply more synergistic with the deck. It's powered up by Land Tax, and immediately turns any one of your men into a gigantic threat. Jitte's extremely good, no doubt, but I've found that cutesy tricks with Jitte counters are less effective than smashing for lethal right now. You run a ton of removal anyway; I count seventeen slots. Exalted Angel gains life. This is far more effective pump than Jitte could ever hope to be.

Play the Plate.

Artifact Lands
These are holdovers from when I played four Shrapnel Blasts. But they still work with Tinker, and there's nothing better. I mean honestly, in multiplayer, how much artifact removal is going to hit your land?

Karakas
Almost no one plays this gem, so the Legend rule rarely applies to it. It's awesome in post-Kamigawa casual. Gotta love the early "color pie."

Restricted Mana Artifacts
They work with Tinker and Shrapnel Blast. Mox Diamond and Lotus Petal fix your (admittedly weak) colored mana, and Sol Ring, Mana Vault and Grim Monolith lead to early dropping and equipping Skullclamp and Empyrial Plate.

Play Aggro-Control All The Time.
Leave mana open, even for the answers you don't really have, while still applying significant pressure. Don't worry about not swinging in order to tap or shoot guys; if the contest goes to the late game, you can almost invariably outsmash any opponent with an Empyrial Plated Exalted Angel or, heaven forbid, Darksteel Colossus.

Drop Land Tax First Turn, Every Time.
It's awesome, even though it looks like complete trash.

Politic.
You don't have all the answers, but your buddy the pure Control deck - the one who you're sticking a knife into his ribs, suggesting subtle things - does.

Shift Your Role.
You're really good at going from Control to Beatdown and back again. Beatdown decks are decidedly less good at shifting to the Control role. Control is decidedly less good at shifting to Beatdown. I've killed someone turn 4 two games in a row with this. You can race combo, especially with help.

Metagame The Deck.
This version is pretty heavily metagamed towards my group of players, but if I had to cut it down to the bare basics, it'd look something like this:

4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Whipcorder
2 Exalted Angel
4 Land Tax
3 Empyrial Plate
20 Mana Sources

That's twenty-three slots to play with! (Though you'd have to have a weird metagame to cut the Swords to Plowshares.)

Also, don't feel confined to red, white, and blue by any means. Black and green have a lot to offer - but again, they're just not that good in my metagame.

Have some fun, too. But only occasionally. That stuff is dangerous in large quantities.

Until next time,
Chris Franson