Following the last article of this series, there was some interest from the readers in finding my thoughts on sideboarding in a Casual setting. While I still hold firm to the fact that a sideboard is not a Casual thing, there is something to be said about changing your deck in Casual.

In this article we will discuss the broad overview of how to Meta in your local gaming scene, namely, your home dinner table.

Thank you for your continued support and reading of my articles. I know I series hop a bit, but in the end, I hope to entertain and keep you interested no matter what series I am using.

What could be a more intimate scene to play a few games of Magic than your dinning room table?

The woman has left and took the kids, your buddies from high school are coming over, the chips and … beverages are on the counter, and you’re itching to get to shuffling.

The gang is scheduled to be here around 6:30, and it is only 5:00 right now. I could sit back and watch some Bernie Mac re-runs on the TV to kill time, perhaps freshen up from work, or maybe even straiten the living room up. But why on earth would I want to do something like that when I could get a leg up on Joey before he even gets here.

That stupid Enduring Renewal/ Recycle deck he has really aggravates me. Then there is Bobby’s Nightmare deck. And don’t even get me started on Tyrone’s control deck. Speaking of which, why doesn’t he ever counter that dag-gone Enduring Renewal?!

Thinking about your buddies’ decks usually is inspiring enough to help you generate another deck idea, and usually that is because his deck pulpit beat your deck last week.

But why should you change decks completely? Is there no way to stop that train once it gets moving? Perhaps not, but why not give it a try before just quitting on a promising deck idea. Always remember one absolute truth to Magic deck construction.

Once a deck is taken apart, it will never work again for you;. never, ever, ever.

Not to get too far side tracked here, but if you have not discovered it yet, once a deck is working properly, it becomes a living being of sorts. It will develop a personality, and has a sense of humor, and even has ears. Further, it does not like being taken apart anymore than you want your legs removed. If you don’t believe me, think back to the last gaming session you had. How many times did you have your opponent right where you wanted him and drew six straight lands? How many times did you desperately need a Swords to Plowshares top deck, and got it… then the next three draws were all Swords to Plowshares as well? Ahh… remember it now? Tell me that it did not do that on purpose for a laugh. Or how about when you get so in sync with your deck that you begin calling your top decks, and sure enough, the deck produces exactly what you need. Mathematically, the card could have been any of the remaining cards, yet the one you always need is right there. Coincidence? Or does that deck simply love you and give you the cards that you need to keep you in love with it?

Now that my point is driven home, keep your deck happy for a little bit longer by not taking an axe to it. Simply arm your deck to be better suited against your problem match-up. Remember, its only 5:45 now.

The fun thing about playing your buddies is that you pretty much know what decks that they will show up with. In tournament play, you must change your deck and playstyle to be competitive. In a Casual setting, who cares what you play, so long as you’re having a good time. However, everyone wants to still win. So why not turn your gaming group into a semi-competitive group.

This is not to say that you’re going to make these guys blood thirsty guys who are spending $40 a week getting the best cards available. What you are doing is just increasing the difficulty level of play a little bit, with the cards you already have, and the end result is a competitive group and better players in the long run.

Since you are not using a sideboard, how can you stop the Enduring Renewal/ Recycle train wreck that awaits you at 6:30? Disenchant/ Naturalize is the easiest and most effective method. You might be thinking to yourself as you sit reading, “But, isn’t it a dead card more often than not?” The problem with a lot of non-competitive players is that they under value the use of a card. While you might think of Disenchant as a situational card, I call it a get out of jail free, White counterspell.

Let’s face it, in Casual play, you can feel free to drag out your Jester’s Caps, Nevinyrrel’s Disks, Mind Over Matter, Moat, and all of those countless, normally terrible, creature enchantments and equipment cards. I used to make a killing playing Casual because the guys I played with were tournament guys and built their decks as such. This meant that they did not main deck Artifact and Enchantment hate, only creature removal. So cards like Grinning Totem, Zur’s Wierding, Sylven Library, Magma Mine, and Ivory Tower were coming into play and were going to stick around making and impact like a champion, and there was nothing that they could do about it.

So why not be the first one to main deck three copies of Disenchant? Why not stock up on Circle of Protection: Black to stop the Nightmare deck? What…? Is he going to bring in his Black Disenchant and break it? Why not be the one who plays the uncounterable creatures like Akroma (Red) and pummel your control player friend.

Control decks can be tough to play against if they access to the old, non-watered down countering spells. There is definitely a reason Dissipate, Force of Will, and Forbid were never reprinted, and also why Power Sink and Counterspell were phased out. We used to play those spells plus Arcane Denial and Wrath of God with Kjeldorian Outpost and crushed everyone, especially when Tradewind Rider was printed.

Sweet merciful crap I miss those days!

When you are playing your first game, and down to the table comes an Enduring Renewal with a thud, you know for sure that Joey is going to be cocky. “Here it comes! The beginning of the end!” Let him reveal his cards, and follow that up with an, “At the end of your turn, Disenchant the Enduring Renewal.” Suddenly, the embarrassment sets in, Tyrone and Bobby start razing Joey about his remarks and getting his combo broken up on the same turn he started it, and you finish the whole play by rolling him up into an easy win, as he over extended himself to lock you up.

The following game, you blow up Bobby by banging your hand hard on the table and revealing the Circle of Protection: Black the turn after Bobby plays his 6/6 flying Nightmare. The next game you wait until Tyrone gets his pieces in place and you Obliterate the board and start over fresh.

Just like that, you are now shuffling your deck with more confidence, and those around you are upset. “Stupid COP!” Yells Bobby. “If he didn’t play Disenchant…” mutters Joey. “Who the hell plays Obliterate in casual!?” demands Tyrone.

Ah, Casual fun!

And this is where the fun true begins. You had your day in the sun, but next week your guys are coming back for vengeance. Lord only knows what they will be bringing to game night, and so you must be prepared. You know for a fact that Bobby needs to bring in a second color to get around the COP, and Tyrone will have his deck set up to go faster in order to operate before the Obliterate happens, and Joey needs to find away to either protect his enchantments or bring them back from the graveyard.

By you taking the initiative and metagaming against them, you have propelled your group into becoming better players in general. Those guys now have to meta against you, or face the same situation as last week, and let’s face facts here, we are only playing the game to win. Anyone who says they play for fun doesn’t lose all of their games, or they would have quit along time ago. However, more so than this, most likely, they will begin to meta against each other as a sneak tactic. Which is always great for a laugh.

Casual metagaming is loads of fun, as you will always be surprised what someone will try to pull on you. The first time someone tries to play Suffocation following a Lightning Bolt, all you can do is laugh. Or when Bobby brings out his Quagmire Druid in an attempt to break a COP: Black, and you just Lightning Bolt it before it gets past summoning sickness.

Or when Bobby finishes looking at the old card lists and brings down a Gloom on you, and you are stuck paying 4 to prevent damage with that COP, then you start seeing Meta at its best.

Yes, it can get to be too much if you have guys who are playing a lot of color hate spells, but that is where you need to switch things up again. This is not to say, ‘Now kill your deck!’ It is telling you, make a second deck, and play the same color sleeves. When your buddy Bobby goes first and Dark Rituals into a Gloom, he probably wont like it very much when you start your turn by playing a Forest and a Llanowar Elf. Who saw that coming?! You had been playing that Red and White deck for the last two years.

A term that I recently read in the forums really comes to mind now, and I am glad the guy said it, as I had never thought about terming the situation before.

Generalization. No, Generalization is not a White Enchantment that produces 1/1 General Tokens that don’t tap to attack. It means to make your deck able to take care of business in every general situation. Meaning; having a Disenchant available, being able to stop your opponent’s lock before it is synched in, and somehow being able to keep Akroma off of your back all at the same time.

Being General does not limit your deck by using up card slots. It makes your deck more fun by keeping you competitive against the tricks that your friends, inevitably, will try to pull on you.

This means that you should have a few ways to kill nasty creatures, especially the ones that don’t attack or block – like Royal Assassin. You should be able to stop a Kjeldoran Outpost, perhaps a Wasteland? You should be able to stand up to your friends Dragonstorm, how about a copy or two of Stifle?

Remember that there are rules, but in Casual… bah…! Stupid rules! Yea, some cards like Enlightened Tutor are restricted, but I am not fetching a broken Enchantment or a Memory Jar or anything like that. If I am using the Tutor to get at things like Pursuit of Knowledge so I can draw seven cards and make Mulitani a 24/24, then it is ok to play four Enlightened Tutors. Maybe Channel is (was) restricted, but I am only using it to cast a second turn Cloudscrapper. Screw tournament rules. What fun are rules if we don’t break them on the floor and throw the pieces out the window right? Bobby doesn’t care about your feelings when he sends in his 14/14 Nightmare, why should you care when you send in your 13/13 Cloudscrapper.. on turn three.

The best thing about Casual is that you can try anything that you ever envisioned trying. You can try out a new combo on your friends. You can try to lock them down with Stasis (See next weeks Shifting Lineaments for more on this). You can try to over run them with 45 45/45 Metallic Slivers (created by a Silversmith) and a Sliver Legion if you want.

The sky is the limit in Casual play, and by learning to metagame your environment, you will push your friends to the next level of both skill and entertainment.

Just remember one thing. Always be willing to take a loss from time to time and let your friend blow you up occasionally, as no one likes to be the beating stick all the time. It makes for more fun. Also, if you see your friend trying a new combo, and you see a more efficient way of doing so, pipe up and tell him. This does not mean that you should not try to disrupt it later on, it just means that your degree of difficulty is going up, as now he is getting better.

All in all, Casual is overall the most fun environment to play, as you will never know what you will be facing from game to game.

Join me next time when I break out the old dusty tome that I packed away a decade ago, and teach you guys why you should never, ever, ever try to play Stasis… especially in a place where your friends are not afraid to punch you in the face.

cpn

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Articles Spotlights from 2007:
Lorwyn Theme Week Intro & Schedule of Events
Blink And Bounce: Timing is Key
Going Blind: XCB Metagaming - A Prolonged Conclusion.
The Science of Magic: Genetic Engineering, Part Two.
Shifting Lineaments: Casual Metagaming (Pt. 2).
The Dungeon Of Malefict: Pure Evil!
Land Week Introduction & Schedule.
Combofusion: Legends Timeshifted.
One Card to Rule Them All: Coastal Piracy
Irrational Love: Chimeras. The Lego's of Magic.