It was nice to see a well-written article about casual multiplayer again on StarCityGames.com. In keeping with that trend I wanted to share a couple solid, fun multiplayer decks with the rest of you. Both of these decks are pretty solid, if a little outdated. I've used them for years and rarely had to make changes to them.

Any group that plays Chaos magic a lot has a couple decks in its Metagame that make everyone groan. Sometimes you'll see someone drop Island, Forest and you'll know that he's playing that weird Malignant Growth deck. Both of these decks tend to illicit that kind of response from my opponents. There's nothing more gleeful for me than listening to my opponent ask,"What deck is that?" or"Is that the suchandsuch deck?" You can't tell me it's not fun to destroy someone with cards that they would never have put in a deck.

Without further ado here's deck #1:
4 Ashen Ghoul
4 Nether Shadow
4 Krovikan Horror
4 Death Spark
3 Shard Phoenix
3 Buried Alive
2 Undead Gladiator
2 Shivan Phoenix
2 Recurring Nightmare
2 Pyre Zombie
1 Avatar of Woe
1 Minion of Leshrac
1 Necrosavant
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
1 Sword of Light and Shadow

12 Swamp
3 Bloodstained Mire
4 Badlands
6 Mountain

Basically, the deck is designed to generate extreme card advantage through creature recursion. It's also meant to punish people by being able to retaliate with many different weapons at either instant speed or hasty creatures. First, I want to walk through some of the key cards.

Ashen Ghoul / Nether Shadow
This is the engine that makes the deck run. Getting these into the graveyard quickly is key. Obviously, you can use Buried Alive if you need to, but it's often better to be able to play them as chump blockers or even attackers, if you think you can trade. Your goal with this deck is to survive until the later turns where you can use your mana to really punish people. I find that it's often better to put Ashen Ghoul, Pyre Zombie, Undead Gladiator into the graveyard, but it truly depends on how aggressive my opponents are being.

Krovikan Horror
Ahhh... The card that everyone loves to hate. The fact that this deck wins will annoy people. The fact that you have to take 30-45 seconds at the end of the guy to your right's turn will drive them nuts. I would suggest playing Magic Online for a while just so you can get your timing down. Krovikan Horror with multiple creatures, Death Sparks, and Goblin Sharpshooter becomes really nasty. Later in the game, it's not uncommon to do your untapped mana in damage distributed in one point chunks to players and/or creatures of your choice. I can't stress enough the sadistic glee that you will get from this event. There are two things that are important to keep in mind when using the Horror. First, let the Death Spark resolve before you sac a creature to the Horror. Your opponent can't kill a Death Spark if you make sure to do this. Second, if someone tries to kill your Horror, try to resist the urge to retaliate. It's safer (usually) to ping your own Nether Shadow so that you don't lose the Horror.

Shard Phoenix
I love this guy. He's a mini-Earthquake whenever you want and will often help your smallish army bring down something big. He costs no mana to sac and he flies in the attack. Pretty nice for five mana.

Undead Gladiator
Cycle him often and always. If he's in play you've probably done something wrong.

Avatar of Woe / Minion of Leshrac / Necrosavant / Goblin Sharpshooter
These are in the deck to help counter certain strategies that can really pound you. The Avatar is big and will always cost just two for you. He also helps you get rid of annoying creatures that might be out of damage range. The Minion is a specific counter to those annoying White mages who play a CoP of every color (sometimes with Jade Monoliths so that they can"claim" it's part of their strategy). The Minion can just eat their lands until you win by attrition. Necrosavant is there just because sometimes you need a recurrable fatty, and the Sharpshooter is there to give you reusable Red damage and some mana light protection against weenies.

Sword of Light and Shadow
This is a new addition that I'm trying as it provides several useful abilities. It protects a key creature against Swords to Plowshares. It provides resusable life gain and recursion for key creatures that may have been killed. The icing is that it adds a little fat to your army. If this plays well, I'll probably add another couple pieces of Equipment (probably four max). Other possibilities: Specter's Shroud, Sword of Fire and Ice, Skullclamp (if I were to include this, I'd probably want some way to avoid decking myself though).

Armageddon
Loathe the White mage that dares to play this in a multiplayer environment. Your deck is truly mana intensive and doesn't exactly curve out well. Compound this with the fact that anybody who plays Armageddon probably has a plan to deal with the fall out, and you've got yourself a bad situation. My first rule of thumb is to always attack the White mage anyway, since he's likely got Swords to Plowshares. That intensity only goes up if I see him dropping artifact mana. If you get in a situation where your group just loves their world blowing up spells, then I suggest you always hold back a swamp so that at least you can have recurring Ghouls and Shadows immediately.

Graveyard Hate
It's pretty rare that someone maindecks this in multiplayer. If you see a zombie player who happens to be running Withering Wretches though, you need to start doing some pummeling.

Disintegrate
This isn't so much a card to fear, as it is a card to keep in mind when playing. While they're unlikely to waste a Disintegrate on an Ashen Ghoul it's entirely possible that they'll toast that Shivan Phoenix that keeps flying over for 3.

General Strategy
Ideally, your first couple turns go something like this:

Swamp, Go.
Swamp, Nether Shadow, Attack for one, Go
Mountain, Buried Alive for Ashen Ghoul, Krovikan Horror, Undead Gladiator (in that order), attack for one, return the Horror to your hand, Go.

Don't be afraid to hold back the Nether Shadows as chump blockers, if somebody is stupidly playing a quick deck with lots of fat. You'll have plenty of time later to do cool things with them, so don't be in a rush. While this deck can outrace some decks (and you should try to pound the White mages if at all possible) it is really designed for the long term. Remember though, you have no disruption, so anybody who even looks like they have some kind of combo lock deck needs to be dealt with severely. The only other thing to add is not to over commit with the one-ofs. They're designed for specific problems so use them accordingly. Sure you can get them back in a couple ways with this deck but don't count on that as someone at the table will surely be playing some control variant.

Deck #2
The above deck is a good example of taking a theme and pounding it into the ground. The other way I love to make decks is by making bad cards good. This is a hobby of all Rogue and Casual deck makers, but it's fun and a good brain exercise. Back in the day before Sligh there was a Red card that people ridiculed often. Orcish Artillery. Wizards even went so far as to reprint an alternate in Ice Age, Orcish Cannoneer. I always liked the efficiency of this card. A 1/3 body that plinks for two is terrific, but how do you get rid of the drawback? While I was contemplating that idea, I also realized that there was a Blue card of similar crappiness: Psionic Entity. Both of these cards intrigued me, but when you mentally confine yourself to two colors it makes it difficult to fix the problem. Finally, I got my hands on a couple dual lands, so now we can have some fun.

4 Psionic Entity
4 Orcish Artillery
4 Orcish Cannoneer
4 Sacred Boon
4 Spectral Shield
4 Circle of Protection: Red
3 Reckless Embermage
4 Fellwar Stones
4 Noble Purpose
1 Land Tax

5 Plains
3 Islands
6 Mountains
3 Flooded Strands
4 Plateau
4 Volcanic Island

I haven't updates this deck with Darksteel or Mirrodin yet, but some changes are obvious. Darksteel Ingots, Test of Faith, and Scythe of the Wretched will replace the Fellwar Stones, Sacred Boons, and Spectral Shields. Scythe of the Wretched in particular is wonderful, as it makes your Entities and Embermages nigh indestructible."What? You Terror my Entity, well I kill his Llanowar Elf / Prodigal Sorcerer / Leaping Lizard (don't ask), and bring my Entity and the Elf over to the side of Good." Fun stuff. (I actually realized as I was writing this that if you could somehow get Psionic Entity to kill itself, you could throw in Lightning Greaves and have an infinite combo... hrmm... maybe a new deck for Jeff).

The deck doesn't really need a blow-by-blow description, but the general strategy is important. The idea is to sit behind your men until things get set up. Remember that in multiplayer people rarely want to lose their creatures for fruitless attack. Don't think,"I'll take three damage to kill that two-toughness creature" instead think,"He's going to attack poor Bob because he doesn't have any creatures." Once you have a CoP or Noble Purpose in play, your Orcish Artillery comes online. Once you get a Test of the Faith or Scythe of the Wretched, your Psionic Entities and Reckless Embermages come online. This deck isn't for you if you have trouble remembering to do things at the end of the turn.

At first glance it appears like this deck would be vulnerable to mass removal. And while Akroma's Vengeance can be painful, the rest of the mass removal crew just isn't a big deal. As long as you don't overextend, you'll be fine against creature removal, and once you get even modestly set up your lands are extraneous.

Additionally, don't underestimate the power of big creatures. With the Test of Faith your Reckless Embermage can get to be a 5/5. That's a big body. It's especially nice because you can block for as many turns as you want and then still plink on that last turn.

The main joy of this deck is the sheer surprise value the first time,"Is that Psionic Entity?" and the fear and loathing you'll get after awhile from your playgroup,"Jeff, you just dropped a Mountain and a Flooded Strand. Is that the deck I think it is?"

For those of you looking to change things a bit, I would suggest abandoning the Blue and perhaps adding Green for Seedborn Muse and Armadillo Cloak. I think that might be a bit greedy though...

As always, feel free to email me at laxrulz777@hotmail.com

Jeff Hall