Multiplayer games can let you try out new deck ideas and can be a lot of fun as well. Things that would get you killed in one-on-one, for example, may not get you killed in multiplayer/group games. They can even get a little goofy, really allowing some fun for all players (yourself included).

Tribal and theme decks will run rampant across the tables. Crazy combos could make appearances.  Try thinking of group games as survival in the wild.  In group games there is a lot of territory to cover and only the strong survive.

Speed is no longer the point. Sure your average speed deck can run down one person and make the kill like any predator; however the 'herd' in multiplayer will just turn around and stomp you into oblivion. Successful group decks turn into a pack hunter; one that can come at it's opponents from many different angles. There are also decks that turn into a herd beast, where any threat is controlled.

In this first article I’m going to cover the 'herd beast' style. This multiplayer deck strategy is like an elephant: a little slow, but hard to take down. Many of this design are control decks, or lockdowns. Something that takes a little time to come out, but when it does no one else can do very much. A great card for this is good old Ensnaring Bridge.

It keeps your opponents from making any major moves against you, while building up you defenses for later. Ensnaring Bridge is in demand for many common group decks. From here you can work up just about any attack form. Green lets you set up large creatures then blast the Bridge out of the way for a flood. Or you can sit behind your Bridge with red and burn your opponents to the ground. Blue can deny your opponents while building an army, then bounce the bridge and harass. White does pretty much the same thing. And finally with black you can sit back and suck your opponent life. But enough with the colorful descriptions, here is some decks that show what I mean.

Multiplayer Madness Decks...

With this deck you just hold back and let it build up. Then when you’re ready, you unleash your creatures.  Here is a little Green/White Rav deck:

It helps to have some life gain in the mixture if you can fit it. In fact life gain cards truly shine in this format. I was very impressed with Ravinca in that it had some very group-friendly cards in it. The last few sets have not really had many of them.

If you were willing to go extended, Aura Shards can very helpful. It allows for better control of your opponents. In a deck like this an alternate for the Ensnaring Bridge is the Windborn Muse. Once again it controls your opponents’ ability to hurt you, but in this case it allows you to also let them have at each other.

Another card that would go nicely in this deck would be Ivory Mask. This would keep some of the 'pack hunters' at bay.

And now for something old school.

This is an old school recursion deck. Once again you sit back and wait. But the fun with this is you can still have a little fun with everyone while in waiting.

(Personal note: this deck makes a lightning rod out of you. Once people know what you’re playing they do tend to focus on you.)

One of the nice aspects of this design is that your creatures don’t have to match your mana base. It allows you to finally use those big creatures in your collection that you can never quite fit in a deck. This is what I mean when I say it can play hard but still be a little goofy. This is one of the few ways to really use cards like Living Death to their full capacity. There are many cards that work well in one-on-one but come into their own in group. With the size of your creatures you will be able to use you Pestilence to its full capacity. The Consume Spirit is to keep your life up. Bog Witch is to dump needed creatures into the graveyard, and give you needed man.

While the point of this deck style is to thump your opponents, control is everything. With cards like Ensnaring Bridge you are controlling your opponents’ ability to attack. It does make for a slowed game, but that is one of the facets of control. You grind them to a standstill while working on your own methods to win.

Ensnaring Bridge is just one of many ways to control the game but it is also one of the easiest. Not many single cards can dominate the environment, and that is what you need in a group game. You don’t have a lot of space in group deck for control. As said in Einsteinmonkeys article, Wrath of God is another great control card. It’s fast and dominates the entire environment.

Another example of control in the old days was a creature with protection from black combined with Pestilence. You should dedicate at least one slot in your deck for a control factor of some kind, but from there on try to have some fun.

What would Snakes be with a Shotgun?

Yeah... just what that says... what would they be with a shotgun?

This is a fun but lethal little deck. I built it just recently to have some goofy fun in the Kamigawa block and it turned into something nasty. The main combo card is the Clash of Realities. It allows you to smack you’re opponents creatures every time you bring one of your own in (assuming they are spirits). The Sosuke allows you to keep your opponents at arms length. While it is a herd style deck it also provides a little reach, much like the Pestilence does in Living Dead. This style of deck is somewhere between a herd and a pack hunter. Rather than just sit back and grow, it does go after others. This hybrid is most common in group.

In a one-on-one fight it’s just that, a fight. But group games are much more social. Multiplayer games can be a place to let your imagination take flight. Because of the delay in play you don’t have to be as aggressive in your deck design.

In order to really play group games you have to change you’re whole metagame. The synergy is completely different. When you are in one-on-one play you only think about who you’re playing against. In group you have to be able to spread yourself out. There are times you may have to hold back on a play in order to let someone else do the damage for you. Sometimes you’ll stick your neck out to save a weaker opponent if it means damaging a stronger one.

Another thing to keep in mind when building is if you are just going into a melee style game or is there going to be partners. If you are going in as partners with someone you need to concentrate on cards that specify opponent(s). You need to work out what you can do help them so you don’t end up throwing out a Dampening Matrix while he’s putting out Mojin.

Well there is just a few of the ideas behind creating something fun for multiplayer. Next time I will go over the concept of spell decking.

Vatiildal

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