Editted by John Streetz

Eleven years ago, I was introduced to Magic the Gathering. I was one of those people who got into playing by looking at what I thought was cool artwork and things progressed from there. I remember when I had my hands on a Draconian Cylix from Fallen Empires. Wow!

Once I become interested in learning the game I went out and bought a starter deck of fourth edition. I read the rules. My brother and I figured out what was going on in the game… or at least we thought. However, we were really lost. After coming to terms while this I put the cards on the shelf for the first time.

I started high school not too long after that and began seeing some of my friends playing the game. I was interested in how they were spending hours upon hours of their free time playing this game at school and afterwards. They wanted someone else they could whelp on from time to time so they showed me the ropes. Perhaps I was easy prey. So, I got whooped just about every time I played. Despite this, I still wanted more… so I did. I bought more cards, earned more experience by playing and thus learned two fundamental rules to this game.

First and foremost it is just a game. Games are meant to be fun. It really doesn‘t matter if you win or lose. Second, it is important to have a solid base of cards to be able to build around. Even if you are a poor kid on the block you can still get decent decks together just by trading. And that’s exactly what I did back then.

Knowing these two concepts, how do you actually play Magic: the Gathering with any savvy?

As I mentioned earlier, and important concept in playing the game is having a decent collection of cards to build decks with. Another concept, which I realized through experience and during evolution of the game, is that decks need to have some sort of theme or focus.

After I got back into magic for the first time, I recall my local comic store started selling Magic theme decks for the first time. After thinking about these 'theme' decks I thought to myself -- 'I keep losing all these games because I don’t have a solid theme behind my decks.' Perhaps this concept of deck building could help me.

This is where I searched and read and scoured all of my cards until I found a good combination of cards to build a deck with and around. I really liked the beatdown decks that had the huge green monsters, but how do I get them out into play before my opponent completely spanks me? I figured I needed some mana acceleration like wild growth and other mana cards to get my feet off the ground. However, even with this added mana acceleration it seemed my deck was doing less favorable than I would have liked.

At this point in time; Tempest, Mirage and Alliances were being sold at my local comic store. I just so happened to pick up a Kaysa and a Verdant Force in some booster packs I opened. Thus, I built a deck around them. I remember thinking a 7/7 creature that produces a 1/1 saproling token every turn isn‘t bad. That and with a Kaysa in play, they would be 2/2 creatures. I thought to myself that a hoard of 2/2 saprolings could do some serious damage - so I tried it. I came to find out, after some fine-tuning, it stomped my buddies. It seemed the Verdant Force and Kaysa had quite a bit of beatdown synergy so I have always kept a deck with those two together.

With this card combination you should play Kaysa and then follow up a few turns later with a Verdant Force. That is where you have a 2/2 creature coming out every turn! I was happy with what I found out.

Here is a deck list that I am using with those two now. It has seventy cards and is a little scatter brained, but it is a solid deck.  This is the deck I play:

You are probably asking yourself why I have 70 cards in this deck. Well, I liked how they all worked together. I used to try and make my decks as economical as possible and only include the common 60. However, I have found that when you are playing casually, having more variety of cards lends to better surprises against your opponent. Thus, I keep a few more in than what is necessary, while all along keeping a solid deck base around my main combination. It really does help when you are playing a large multiplayer game, which, for me, happens often enough. A local pizza joint allows us Magic players to use their space once a week.

When you get an eight player game going, having a 1/1 come out every turn is not bad. Neither is having an occasional life gain spell is good when one or more of your opponents like to give you a shellacking before you can establish your creature base. It is also nice to see a few surprised faces when you are playing a larger deck, even though it isn’t that much larger. That and having a larger deck helps against mill themed decks. On top of that, things really do work out well with what I put together here. It seems to have something for every occasion. The only problem is that you are vulnerable to super fast decks, such as white weenie decks and the like.

Now, for the sake of everyone on a budget, I understand that Verdant Force is not the cheapest card out there. I have found it is much cheaper to pick it up on eBay. I bought the pair that I have in the above deck for around seven dollars a pair. Not too bad considering some places want about twice that for the Force, and sometimes more.

So, below is a deck list that will probably work just as well if not better if you have the money and/or resources to put it together. Also remember, this is a CCG. We are all allowed to trade one another for cards. It is significantly more focused than my original but may cost you a bit more to put together.

I hope you enjoy this deck as much as I have, and make it your own. What I put in my initial deck might be some ideas of what you can put in to make it your own. I am sure you will enjoy this as much as I have. I’ve posted the second decks together because someone once said that even the three hundred card decks don’t really play well if there are too many different cards in it. So enjoy, remembering that casual magic isn’t about winning or losing, it really is all about having fun.

This is what I have taken from the lessons I learned years ago. First of all, have a theme to your deck. Second, make sure the theme of your deck is easily executed by having some focus to your deck. It isn’t an easy task and I am still working on that today.

Until Next Time,

toojaks

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