My multiplayer group consists of three other guys, all of us in our twenties and thirties. Each of us has with wives and/or girlfriends, so Magic isn't our number one priority. We see each other at Friday Night Magic and try to get together two or three times a month to play simple multiplayer Magic. Our format is mostly Type 1: build anything you like, but we allow breaking the restricted list rules as long as the deck is legal in any format (Block, Type 2, Extended, or Legacy).
Our group contains some classic types of players:
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Player A - An experienced player with a large card collection, and good rules knowledge. Plays with expensive, powerful, cards and makes either fairly good combo decks or strong utility decks. A Spike with a little Timmy and Johnny thrown in.
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Player B - A “Golden Age of Magic” player (Alpha through Alliances) who recently started back up again (in this case around Kamigawa Block). At first, very hampered by confusion with pre-6th edition rules and “the Stack." His decks started out as mostly mana acceleration and large, fat creatures, making him very Timmy... But he's getting better about utility, card advantage and tempo.
- Player C - A newer player who is fairly competitive and is picking up the tournament scene. He learns quickly, and usually he just plays “his current Type 2 deck” (although not a net-deck). He shows potential, especially at deck building. I would say he's a Johnny with a little Spike.
- Player D - Another newer player, although he isn't putting Magic as a very high priority. He doesn't have a lot of cards and plays very casual decks, mostly in the newer block. He's not very competitive, and is there mostly to be with friends and hang out. A Timmy/Johnny.
As you can see, we have almost a perfect balance of Spikes, Timmies, and Johnnies. The decks I'm listing below are definitely from a “Spike” perspective, although they're not quite as cut-throat. If you are a Johnny, maybe the “utility deck” isn't really your thing (by definition, you like to do things your way anyhow). However, The Timmies and Spikes out there in the world should keep reading.
One thing these decks are not is Combo. Although I'm interested in playing a combo deck at some point, as our group and the newer players evolve, I want to hold back a little on showing them “Fruity Pebbles” or Evacuation/Biorhythm or some weird infinite mana/Prosperity/Iron Maiden combo. Although part of me likes the idea of killing everyone during their upkeep, I don't think it benefits the group right now to play games like that. It's just not very fun, in my opinion, and leads to an arms race. Eventually, for the sake of balance, the group should be exposed to these types of decks. As his card collection grows, I suspect player C will eventually create a true combo deck. We'll see.
A quick comment about our group's size: if you are considering starting up a multiplayer night, I would strongly encourage aiming at four players to start with. Having a fifth person to substitute if someone is absent is also a good idea. I like playing with four people for a number of reasons the main reason being that games don't last three hours, leaving eliminated players to wait forever before they can get back into the game. I know you can make up house rules to circumvent this issue, but I'm not a big fan of a million house rules and strange variants. Start with playing simple chaos multiplayer Magic, attacking and targeting anything and anyone you like. A four-player group game should take no more than an hour, while some go a lot quicker.
Four players also allow for easy team games; at the end of the night, you can pair up the better players with the worse players, thus giving everyone an opportunity to win at least one game. If you read The Ferrett's recent article about group game dynamics and evolution, the quickest way to disband your group is to beat up on everyone week in, week out. Playing a few team games really lightens the mood.
When we started group game night about a year ago, this is the first deck idea I came up with. It's been through a couple of adjustments but overall, it's very close to what I started with.
The first thing you'll notice is I'm not a big fan of four-ofs in group game decks. This isn't so much a planned deck strategy as it is a preference on my part. I certainly understand the idea of making decks with only ten to fifteen different cards, but to me group games are supposed to be about surprise and variety. I like decks that are fairly consistent in the early game (thus the three Will-o'-the-Wisps), but offer a lot of variation in the later game.
As for the deck, the idea was to use a black-based Swamp deck to abuse Cabal Coffers, using my dual lands to splash blue and green. Yes, the deck is expensive, with twenty-two rare spells, five of the power ten, and thirteen hard-to-find lands it's hard for me to hold back when I'm given an opportunity to show off all the cool stuff I own! Maybe that's a fault on my part.
Unfortunately, the flashiness might work against it; this deck can draw too much attention to itself, drastically reducing its effectiveness if I walk into a random game. However, if you're worried about the expense, the spells in the deck are all staples that I think any group game player would gain benefit by owning. And most of the spells are one-ofs.
If you don't want to buy the duals, there is still a very good deck here if you abandon the Cabal Coffers idea and instead use a combination of land/artifacts/spells to create a three-color mana base.
The combination of black/green/blue gave me access to some extremely good group game magic cards:
1. Pernicious Deed
2. Genesis
3. Kokusho, the Evening Star
4. Shadowmage Infiltrator
5. Gilded Drake
All of these cards are arguably better in a group game setting, despite amazing in duels. The blue also gives me access to card drawing and bounce, both strong group game abilities.
Where does this deck go wrong? The first iterations of this deck had mana problems way too often, since I was relying way too much on Cabal Coffers being the accelerant to get into all my money spells. The answer was to abandon some high-mana spells for early-game searchers like Sensei's Divining Top, Brainstorm, and Impulse. These cards keep the swamps flowing, which is the key to the deck, and you could argue for the inclusion of more card searching.
The reliance on mana is also this decks biggest weakness. Decks that attack mana resources (Armageddon, Limited Resources, Winter Orb) in combination with artifact hate can give this deck fits. I can sometimes survive one big hit on my mana, but decks geared towards denial have a big advantage on this deck.
As far as changes, my group is evolving enough to the point where one or two Counterspells might be worth trying. If your group plays a lot of combo, mass discard also could work (like Cabal Conditioning). Ravnica is really interesting since in includes both the new Dimir and Golgari guilds. There are good creatures (Sisters of the Stone Death, Dimir Doppleganger, and Vulturous Zombie) and utility spells (like Putrefy) that could easily be added. Perplex or Drift of Phantasms could be very good as a search card to get Yawgmoth's Will, Pernicious Deed, or Capsize (probably the three most tutored-for targets).
Overall, I think it's a strong multiplayer deck that's flexible enough to win in a variety of circumstances. The card variety and colors also makes it a fun deck to play, and you can switch out cards if you need to surprise your play group.
As for deck #2, I wanted to use the remaining colors (R/W) and come up with a similar multi-purpose deck. This is where I'm at:
Unlike my first deck, this deck does have some three- and four-ofs Land Tax, Burning Wish, and Swords to Plowshares. Our group does restrict Wishes to a “sideboard," although it can be written down as long as everyone knows I own the card. We started with fifteen-card sideboards, but I'm actually leaning towards only ten.
Regardless of your local policy on Wishes, though, there is a good deck here with a lot of flexibility. Again, there are lots of rares (forty total), but I'm trying to make the best deck, not meet a budget. Fortunately, my group doesn't like Unglued/Unhinged cards, or Rare-B-Gone would wreck both my decks.
This deck does not have the multi-player bombs of Pernicious Deed, Yawgmoth's Will, or Kokusho... But it's a little more consistent and redundant in its win method. The creature curve is a little smoother. The equipment has a few more legitimate targets in this deck.
You'll also notice that in addition to all the options I could pull with Burning Wish, there is a lot of maindeck artifact removal. This is mostly a metagame decision, since Equipment is just too good not to include in most multiplayer decks these days, and everyone in our group plays them. There is also plenty of artifact mana and card drawing, which are legitimate targets in most group games. Eliminating artifact mana also helps set up a powerful Armageddon, Decree of Annihilation, or Cataclysm play with your Burning Wishes.
On the creature end, the only complaint I see is maybe with the high-end casting cost guys. It's a little random, and Ravnica might bring a lot more choices. I think both Razia, Boros Archangel and Firemane Angel could go in the deck if you want to have fun with the new cards. I would probably take out Eternal Dragon, Avatar of Fury, and/or Shivan Hellkite, but it's really up to you.
There are a couple of cards that worked out much better than I anticipated: On the mana end, Gilded Lotus is amazing. Ramping up to eight mana gives this deck a huge boost, being able to cast many of the big guys while possibly leaving open mana for Swords, or a Pulse, or Wishing for a spell and casting it the same turn. Gilded Lotus on the board also makes you much more confident going after that Armageddon or Cataclysm to wipe out land on the board. It also doesn't draw a lot of fire for some reason, especially if your opponents know you have Sword of Fire and Ice and Jitte floating around in your deck. If I had to lose the power 9 stuff, I'd seriously consider adding another Gilded Lotus.
On the spell end, I really like Pulse of the Fields in group games. I guess maybe that's an obvious choice, but I don't see a lot of negatives in playing with one copy in your decks. Commander Eesha is also a surprising gamebreaker; I never realized how great “protection from creatures” was until the last couple of months. Being unblockable with the equipment is perfect when you definitely want to get through, which also applies to the Soltari Guerillas. Commander Eesha is also an exceptional blocker again all sorts of flying beatsticks, dragons, and angels. Pulling targeted or mass removal out of your opponents' hands with a four-mana guy is good efficiency and that's what you want to do so you can set up your big guys later in the game.
I think you can see evidence of my belief in a flexible, fun deck with a lot of various draws and plays. I understand most people won't have Moxes or a Library of Alexandria to add to all their group game decks but the structure of my decks is solid. Emulating even some of the basic utility cards and creatures will give you a great starting point for a deck and hopefully bring a lot of success and fun to your group.
Thanks for reading,
Joel Christman
Delaware
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