So a little while ago on this here site, there was an article about building an “anti-social” multiplayer deck. While I'm not entirely sure how a “social” multiplayer deck would play out (since, after all, you are trying to pound your opponents into astral dust), I'll write about a different type of deck evolution.

For those who don't know, multiplayer Magic is a beast that is entirely separate from your usual head-to-head variety. In a free-for-all battle of wits and stamina between planeswalkers, only the ruthless, cunning, and tactful can survive. You must know your opponents to win (and know them better than you would in two-player Magic), and you must be able to think outside of the comfy strategies you came to the table with. And most important of all, you must be reflexive, capable of dealing with unusual situations, and capable of creating situations yourself.

The first thing I do when I'm designing a deck is to come up with a concept that I think is fun. I've seen a Searing Meditation deck crop up at FNM for a couple of weeks now – and since I own three copies of the Meditation, I've wanted to go that route. I also have a pair of Firemane Angels, one Honden of Cleansing Fire, and one Honden of Infinite Rage. I've decided to build my deck around this nest of cards, and I'll start by transforming a basic Plains into a Searing Meditation proxy.

I think this is a good spot to discuss one of the nuances of the ways that I design decks: My pool of cards is weird. I possess smatterings of old stuff, but it's mostly new stuff. It's made up almost exclusively from drafts/prizes, with a few cards that I bought individually thrown in for kicks. So if I miss cards that should really be included, it's because I don't have ‘em and didn't see ‘em.

So far we have four Meditations, two Angels, and two Shrines. Just for giggles, let's add my full playset of Sacred Foundries and Boros Garrisons to the mix (we'll need a high top-end curve to get the proper machine-gun Meditation effect going anyway, and mana-fixing is nice, and the bounceback effect isn't so bad in multiplayer unless you're playing against a slew of wicked combo decks, which I am not – know thy metagame).

Also, we'll add a pair of Sunhome, Fortress of the Legions to give us some recurring combat tricks when other options run dry. We'll reserve twelve spaces for plains and mountains (twenty-two lands total), and we've got half the deck already. But what else? I answer you with one word:

Tacos.

“Tacos” are Temple Acolytes, for those not in the know. Taco is a 1/3 blocker (a great thing to have at a multiplayer table, since three toughness requires a player to really want to invest a card to take him out individually, and sits above the slews of Grizzly Bear-sized attackers). Taco can also swing for some insignificant retributive damage when necessary.

But more importantly, when Taco comes into play, you gain three life. Guess what? That triggers your Searing Meditations. Taco costs two mana. This means that, for just four mana, you can Shock whatever you want, get an efficient guy to hold the fort, and give your life a little nudge. It might as well be a sorcery that reads “3W: Create a 1/3 white cleric token, deal two damage to target creature or player, you gain three life.” Not a bad deal at all, really. It's Lightning Helix with a kicker.

And speaking of Lightning Helix, let's run four of those. It's an amazingly powerful card that also – gasp! – sets off the Meditations. Very few casual R/W decks will willingly play without Lightning Helix, and ours isn't going to be one of them.

So at this point, we have a pretty simple theme going: Cheap cards that have a decent effect, and give you life on the side to trigger the Meditations. I'm a big fan of Disenchant in multiplayer decks, but it doesn't give you life. Sadly, Terashi's Grasp doesn't come in an instant-speed variety, but it does give you life. I'm not sure which one I'd rather have four of – so for the purposes of playtesting, I'm gonna make it two and two. (And so Michael Flores screams – The Ferrett)

Card count: Forty-two. Forty-six if we run a playset of Swords to Plowshares. Why do I like Swords so much? Because Kokusho, the Evening Star is ridiculous in five-person games, and Swords negates that issue for a single white mana. I can also see a late-game situation where you'd use it on one of your own guys to fire off some more Meditation-fuelled Shocks at your opponents, maybe even as a combat trick. Plus, it's just a card that's good at fixing a wide variety of nasty situations, for one single mana. So again, the card count remains at forty-six.

We're relying on enchantments, let's add a single (restricted) Enlightened Tutor. Forty-seven. Also, Urza's Legacy has a gem of a one-drop for a deck that relies on keeping enchantments in play - no, I'm not talking about any kind of enchantress silliness (and splashing green would just take all the fun out of this anyway). I'm talking about a figure we can all truly relate to in life: the Tragic Poet. Go on, click the little link and figure out why I'd run him, I'll dig up my two copies and throw them in. Forty-nine.

So where were we again? Looking for cheap ways to gain life in a multiplayer game? Just a week ago, I drafted a trio of Benediction of Moons. Suppose I have two Searing Meditations in play, in top-deck mode with some mana available to burn.

“Play Benediction of Moons, haunting Mike's Grizzly Bear, I gain eight life, triggering Searing Meditation to kill Mike's Grizzly Bear, haunt gives me eight more life and I do two to John's dome.”

Doesn't that sound like fun? The random chance of a haunted dude dying while you have open mana is pretty cool too, as it lets us do unexpected things at the table. Plus you're gaining a lot more life then 1 mana should let you gain. Plus the concept of a lunar benediction is a cool enough one to get thrown in. We're up to fifty-two cards now.

All of our creatures so far have a way of helping us when they come into play or go to the graveyard. I don't have any real witty way of introducing cards 53-56 to you, so I'll just give you the name and let you look it up for yourself: Angelic Renewal. With Taco, it's an amazing trick to get even more damage/life, and it lets you recycle the Tragic Poet. It's not quite as cool as Radiant's Dragoons, ‘cuz you have to pay echo again – but for those who went the monk route instead, you get even more utility out of that choice.

Screw it, I'm adding in a Venerable Monk. I only have one anyway. Fifty-seven.

Now, I'd like some form of mass removal. With Firemane in the ‘yard and a Boros Garrision + Searing Meditation in play, resetting the board sounds like it works in my favor. Since we're in R/W, I'm gonna play around with two Razia's Purifications. I can foresee interesting situations cropping up when a half-dozen people have to pick the three permanents that really count. I can also foresee Wrath of God making an appearance in this deck at some point, especially with those Angelic Renewals.

And finally, a single Kraken's Eye.

Hear me out. Of all the colors, in a chaotic multiplayer environment, the color that will see the most play, on the most different turns, at the most instead speed, will be blue. Someone countering someone else's spell triggers your Meditations. A lot of random stuff triggers your Meditations. Also, it gives you a single artifact for the deck. That means if people are packing artifact kill, it won't bother you, and if they aren't, you have a pretty solid addition to your enchantment roster.

Finally, it's only one copy. When it shows up, it'll be useful, and when it doesn't, you won't miss it.

So there. I've gone through my entire mental deck construction process. I apologize for having a somewhat random assortment of cards available to me, but such is the way of things. I really, really want two more Firemane Angels, and some Battlefield Forges would be nice too. Right now, the deck looks like this.

Taco Prayers
4 Boros Garrison
4 Sacred Foundry
2 Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
8 Plains
4 Mountains

2 Tragic Poet
4 Temple Acolyte
1 Venerable Monk
2 Firemane Angel

4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Lightning Helix
2 Disenchant
1 Enlightened Tutor

3 Benediction of Moons
2 Terashi's Grasp
2 Razia's Purification

4 Angelic Renewal
4 Searing Meditation
1 Honden of Infinite Rage
1 Honden of Cleansing Fire

1 Kraken's Eye

So on to step 2 of the process. Let's play a few games and see how we do.

First Note:
When designing the deck, I thought that the life gain would make up for Terashi's Grasp's extra mana cost and slow speed over Disenchant. Even with Meditation in play, this is not the case. Not the case at all.

Out: 2 Terashi's Grasp
In: 2 Disenchant.

I just don't feel comfy playing against a half-dozen decks at once without some form of underpriced instant-speed artifact/enchantment kill. Call me timid.

The other thing I quickly noticed is that if you have an Angelic Renewal in the ‘yard and another one in play, then the Tragic Poet turns into a recurring chump blocker (block, damage on, tap/sac for the one in the yard, then sac the one in play to get the poet back, on your turn re-play the Renewal that was previously in your ‘yard). This is not an uncommon scenario, and it turns our nifty little one-drop into oh so much more. I still have yet to draw the singleton Kraken's Eye, so I can't comment on its usefulness, but Tutoring for the single Honden copies is fun.

Swords and Helix are amazing. Double-striking Poets are fun.

Also, I'd like to remind people that Taco's Oracle text doesn't have that little “from your hand” clause. And I still haven't, in ten games, drawn Kraken's Eye. This is the part of the process where it gets pulled from the deck. I've also decided that yes, I want Wrath of God. I myself don't own any, but I had two lent to me over the weekend, and squeezed them in for the monk (venerable though he may be) and said Kraken's Eye.

Searing Meditation Featured by Brady Tully on 2006-03-26 As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/11556.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 2 Firemane Angel 4 Temple Acolyte 2 Tragic Poet Enchantments 4 Angelic Renewal 4 Searing Meditation Instants 4 Disenchant 1 Enlightened Tutor 4 Lightning Helix 4 Swords to Plowshares	Legendary Enchantments 1 Honden of Cleansing Fire 1 Honden of Infinite Rage Sorceries 3 Benediction of Moons 2 Razia's Purification 2 Wrath of God Basic Lands 4 Mountain 8 Plains Lands 4 Boros Garrison 4 Sacred Foundry 2 Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion	Stats: Average mana: 1.55 Average creature mana cost: 2.75 Average creature power: 1.75 Average creature toughness: 2.50 Deck Composition: Sorceries: 11.67% Basic Lands: 20.00% Instants: 21.67% Legendary Enchantments: 3.33% Creatures: 13.33% Enchantments: 13.33% Lands: 16.67%
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Closing Words:
If I were to add some cards I don't have, I would probably run two more Firemane Angels, and drop some of the little tricks in favor of more mass removal, putting everyone in start-over mode multiple times over the course of a game. Thanks for following along at home.

Tully, out.