First things first - this article is about how to win in chaos multiplayer games.* Maybe you feel that chaos is all about fun, not winning. Maybe you're outraged that I would dare defile the purity of chaos with Spike Power. If so, you shouldn't read this article.

But let's face it: you're at StarCityGames.com. You're a Spike, and you know it. Now let's get on to the tech.

Chaos Basics
Maybe you've never played chaos before, scared away by the relentless hordes of n00bs in the multiplayer room (many of them play 1/1/1 Emperor, but that's a rant for another day). Perhaps you played a game or two, but your Affinity deck got trounced by five people concentrating solely on killing you. Whatever your reason for not playing chaos, this section is for you. The more advanced players probably can skip it.

The first thing to remember in chaos is, you don't want to be a threat. In other words, you can throw those Arcbound Ravagers out the window, Bobby.** The second thing to remember is that you still have to win. There are three general ways to win without appearing as a threat - at least in the Magic Online metagame.

I. "Plains, Chrome Mox, Chrome Mox, Chrome Mox, Isamaru, Hound of Konda, Savannah Lions, Savannah Lions, Savannah Lions, go."
In other words, lay a metric ton of creatures or other threats, and kill your opponents before they have the chance to say "Urklem."*** This strategy doesn't work particularly well, especially if people realize that you drew eleven cards.

II. "I cast Fireball for one million damage. Wait, one million and one. Forgot my Llanowar Elves."
In other words, look innocent, then crush everyone with one super-combo or super-creature. This strategy is very popular, but rather vulnerable to countermagic. Fortunately, countermagic pretty much doesn't exist in online multiplayer.

III. "I Rend Flesh your Eternal Witness, and target you with Vulshok Sorcerer's ability. You're at three."
In other words, win in the late game with card advantage after all the other players are dead so you don't have as many threats to deal with. When it's only you and Billy, you don't care about acting like a threat. This strategy is not as popular, but it is very common to see strategy II become this as the game wears on and the major threats are gone.

Even if your deck is not built for one of these strategies, it is very possible that you can play it in chaos and do reasonably well. You just have to keep in mind the main strategy: Don't be a threat. This is a good way for those of you who don't have very many cards or very much time to still play chaos. And don't worry about people quitting on you because you use mean cards - chaos people tend to be much more forgiving, because you can just kill the people who piss you off. It's essentially a self-correcting environment.

There's some other, more advanced stuff, like weaseling around and making other people seem like threats (if this interests you, see The Ferrett's archives), but that's basically it. I would go over some more advanced strategy, but it really depends on who you are. My advice is more than likely completely inapplicable to you. Or maybe I'm just lazy. Anyway, on to deckbuilding.

Building a Chaos Deck
So, you've played a few chaos games with your secret Standard tech, Vassal's Duty, and maybe even won a game or two. But you can't shake the feeling that there has to be something better; something that can win almost every chaos game you play. (Well, assuming that a whole bunch of other people don't read this article and do the same thing as you, therefore reducing your chance of winning). In fact, there is something that can win you every game.

But there's a catch: You haven't made it yet.

A chaos deck is a reflection of your own unique personality, particularly politically (in the Magic sense, not in the "I think I'll vote in my candidate for President" sense). Do you love to make friends? Maybe a Howling Mine deck is right for you (but beware - many players rightfully fear an ulterior motive, and attack you the instant you lay a Mine).

Do you like to lay back, look innocent, and suddenly demolish your opponents? Maybe some weird combo deck is the right one.

Personally, I am a big fan of cards like Seal of Fire and Shock - I want to send my opponents at someone else for fear of my powerful cards on the board and the tricks I certainly have up my sleeve, and then crush them while their backs are turned. I love my Form of the Dragon deck. But if you tend to play extremely aggressively, laying a threat every turn and never leaving mana open, you'd probably find it boring and overly controllish.

So, the first step in the process is to figure out what kind of deck you want. Almost all Magic Online decks follow the form of "Do XYZ in the early game, then lay an unstoppable threat in the late game," and the unstoppable threat doesn't really tend to matter as much in deck construction. A deck centered around getting a ton of mana with green acceleration, then hard casting a Darksteel Colossus, for example, would probably work just fine with a colossus of the Krosan variety instead. So the most important thing is to figure out how you plan on surviving long enough to play your unstoppable threat. Some common strategies, their downsides, and their usual colors are:

Lay low. Play nothing but lands.
Downside: If someone decides to attack you, you're pretty much screwed.
This sort of deck can be any color.

Play seemingly innocuous (read: bad) cards, which assemble into an unstoppable combo.
Downside: It doesn't work more than once against a given group.
This sort of deck can be any color, but tends to gravitate towards blue or artifacts.

Play insanely powerful cards or an infinite combo. Kill everyone before they can send their pathetic, weak creatures to your dome.
Downside: People get used to it.
If you play the same deck over and over, you will discover first-hand just how hard it is to survive five people, all dedicated to your death and sending all their resources your way. Not only that, insanely powerful cards and decks tend to also be insanely unfun.

Lay defensive creatures like Sunweb. Anyone who attacks you will find that their forces are decimated.
Downside: Direct damage, unblockable creatures, and so on.
This type of deck is often white, for its walls.

Lay offensive creatures, such as Genju of the Spires. Anyone who attacks you will find themselves dead.
Downside: Blockers.
This sort of deck can be pretty much any color.

Attack other players.
Downside: This strategy is idiotic.
You do not want to make enemies in the early game. The only reason you should really be doing anything to other players is if they will hurt your win condition. Obviously, the guy with Transcendence as his win wants to kill the guy with the targeted lifegain, and he should. This sort of deck can be any color.

Help everyone with cards like Howling Mine and New Frontiers. Who wants to attack the guy with Howling Mine, after all?
Downside: Some people do.
Helping the entire board is often the precursor to something sinister (i.e. New Frontiers for ten followed by Heartbeat of Spring, Early Harvest, Rude Awakening, Early Harvest, Fireball for sixty). Additionally, helping the entire board invariably screws someone over. You may think everyone will love you for playing a Hunted Wumpus, but the guy who's suddenly facing down a Shivan Dragon doesn't exactly agree. This sort of deck is usually green and brown.

Help everyone by killing all the major threats. The guy whose Hypnox you just Chainer's Edicted might be a bit mad at you, but you've suddenly become the friend of everyone at the table.
Downside: If the only threats people lay are 1/1s and such, or if people lay threats you can't deal with, this deck becomes the "kill anything that comes at you" strategy, with all its downsides.
In fact, a deck based around this strategy will be perfectly capable of performing as the other, and vice versa. This sort of deck is also red or black, perhaps with a green or white splash.

Kill anything, anything at all, that comes your way. Terror every Suntail Hawk, Carbonize every Genju of the Spires, and so on. Nobody will want to attack you, so you live.
Downside: If someone gets a threat you can't kill, you're pretty much screwed.
Terror.dec has major problems against large black creatures, for example, and the chance that someone is playing black is pretty high. Additionally, you don't always have enough spot removal to kill everything that comes at you, and global removal makes enemies. This kind of deck is usually black or red, perhaps with a splash in white or green for Naturalize/Disenchant effects.

Counter all threats. Nothing can get through to you if it doesn't exist.
Downside: You can't counter everything, and these kinds of decks tend to make enemies.
This kind of deck is blue. Duh.

Sweep the board. Repeatedly. Nothing will survive to attack you.
Downside: This also makes enemies, and Wrath of God isn't much good against the Darksteel Colossus that Bob just accelerated out.
This sort of deck is usually white or black, perhaps with a bit of red.

Accelerate so fast, it's impossible for you to die before you win.
Downside: There will still be plenty of players in the game, so the chances of one of them having a way to stop your threat is much higher.
This kind of deck is almost invariably green.

So, you've decided on a strategy, either from the list above or of your own creation. Now, you have to decide on the win condition. It should be something that fits in with the strategy itself. For example, a counter deck doesn't want to win with the newest crappy Control Magic variant - nothing should be there to control. Bribery would be a better fit.

Similarly, a green acceleration deck would not want to win with small fliers - you went this fast so you could win fast. Consider Darksteel Colossi instead.

Let's assume that you've figured out what your deck's strategy is, and how it wins. All you really need to do now is... build the deck. Don't just include any old powerful cards - you want ones that fit in with the deck's strategy, and particularly the win condition. In a deck that lays blockers and wins with Test of Endurance, Spirit Link is a much more palatable choice than in most decks. If your Zombie deck wins with a massive Drain Life effect, you may wish to consider Maggot Carriers to bring people's life totals down. And so on.

It's pretty much basic deckbuilding and common sense from here on in. Just make sure that (unless your deck warrants it) your cards don't attract too much attention. It is often worth playing a less-powerful card if it keeps people from beating you into the ground, particularly if you have a way to get around what makes it less powerful. For example, Wall of Hope is better than Isamaru, Hound of Konda.... in a Rolling Stones deck. With Glorious Anthem and all the other Crusade variants that are legal. And if your other five players have anti-Hound decks.

You may be a bit overwhelmed by all this, so I've put together a little example of the process. First, I decide that my deck will be one that kills anything that comes near me. I decide to go into monored, because I suck at building mana bases and am pretty much broke, so can't buy good dual lands. Keeping with the theme of "nobody attacks me, ever," I go with the Moat effect of Form of the Dragon as my win.

My main problems now are big creatures (particularly indestructible ones) and hordes of small fliers. To take care of the big creatures, I add Grab the Reins and Ensnaring Bridge. To take care of the hordes, I add some Embermage Goblins****, Vulshok Sorcerers, and Pyroclasms. I add some Echoing Ruins for utility, the standard 24 Mountains, and fill up my remaining eight slots with random burn.

In playtesting, I make a few more changes. Here's my final decklist.

Form of the Dragon Featured by Musteval on 2005-05-22 As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/9723.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Artifacts 4 Ensnaring Bridge 4 Pyrite Spellbomb 4 Thunderstaff Creatures 4 Embermage Goblin	Enchantments 4 Form of the Dragon 4 Genju of the Spires Instants 4 Carbonize 4 Grab the Reins Sorceries 4 Echoing Ruin Basic Lands 24 Mountain	Stats: Average mana: 1.87 Average creature mana cost: 4.00 Average creature power: 1.00 Average creature toughness: 1.00 Deck Composition: Artifacts: 20.00% Basic Lands: 40.00% Enchantments: 13.33% Sorceries: 6.67% Instants: 13.33% Creatures: 6.67%
Download this deck in Apprentice format!		Download this deck in Magic Online Text format!

I play some games with it, and find that - gasp - laying Form of the Dragon when another player has direct damage or fliers is a bad idea! Pyroclasm turned out to be pretty useless, with far fewer infinite hordes of 1/1s showing up than I had anticipated. The few times I cast it, it did little but make enemies. So I switched them out for Thunderstaves, which turn away 1/1s just as well and provided use at other times (particularly when Form is out). I switch Shock for Pyrite Spellbomb, as permanents are a better way to keep attackers away than instants you may or may not be holding.

I keep Carbonize, as it demolishes Kokusho, the Evening Star, who is very common. Grab the Reins becomes my best friend, demolishing Darksteel Colossi and Kokushos alike. Embie keeps his special place in my heart, right next to Ancestral Recall.

I discover that Ensnaring Bridge, too, is a late game card. And I switch out the Vulshok Sorcerers for Genjus of the Spires, which are just plain better at repelling foes.

I debate adding Aegis of Honor, as I always seem to get killed by X spells (flying is very rare in chaos, I've found)... and then I remember that I'm broke (in fact, I only run three Bridges, because that's all I can afford.).

Finally, I enter my deck in the Weekly FFA tourney, and lose. It's all good.

Finally, a short breakdown of the Magic Online metagame, such as there is one. The decks you encounter are generally as follows (margin of error: 9%)

• Monoblack Control: 10%
• Five-Color Sunburst/Domain: 10%
• Mono-green acceleration: 20%
• Insane combo: 20%
• Decks that actually play artifact and enchantment removal: 1%
• Other: 39%

Well, that's all the time I have for now. I hope you enjoyed the article - feel free to respond on the forums, give me free stuff on Magic Online******, or whatever.

Musteval (Musteval on MTGO)

* - Defined here as Extended multiplayer games without spell range and with the maximum number of players (currently six) where players choose which opponent to attack. On MODO. I would simply call them free-for-alls, but then my witty title doesn't work.

** - DISCLAIMER: I take no responsibility for any Ravager-dirtying which may occur due to throwing them out windows. Although I'm not sure how you can throw bytes on the Wizards server out the window.

*** - Why are they saying "Urklem?" I have no clue.

**** - I love this guy. You should really try him out some time.

***** - The only real solution in this situation is Seafarer's Quay, which will be reprinted in Saviors. Otherwise, you're pretty much doomed.

****** - I currently need Kokusho, the Evening Stars, Umezawa's Jittes, Cranial Extractions, Fact or Fictions, Flametongue Kavus, all IPA rares, and anything else that can be easily sold. And Chimney Imps, which may or may not actually be decent in multiplayer.