Welcome all casual wanderers! Remember, of course, that not all who wander are lost. In fact, some of us make it a point to wander quite a bit. I'd like to talk today about a necessary mechanic found at, most likely, all kitchen tables. I'm talking about tutoring.

When you're not buying booster boxes, or stopping by the card shop to pick up a playset of your favorite rares, alot of us are often found trying to play a deck with one copy(maybe two) of the best card we pulled out of the three or four(or one) booster packs we could afford this week. Many times we try to play with one card in a deck, only to remove it several games later out of frustration and a lack of consistency.

Today I hope to lay out in front of you some excellent options to keep you playing those cards.

A good place to start when building a deck is at the WOTC website. Many of you may be familiar with the gatherer, but for those of you not, here it is.  It is an extremely useful tool for sifting through the almost unimaginable number of pieces available to the casual magic player. If you type in the word "tutor" it calls up fifteen cards in the blink of an eye. Unless you are an older player, or a seasoned veteran of the gatherer, you are most likely not familiar with all fifteen of these cards. It should be mentioned that two of these cards are from the Unglued and Unhinged sets which(at least at my kitchen table) are rarely used, if not banned, sets.

What's interesting, is that even though these cards have relatively low converted mana costs and enable you to search your library for anything from a creature card to a sorcery, they represent only the tip of the great iceberg that is the casual tutoring collection. In fact, WOTC seems to release new ways to seek out your deck's main components with each new set they release.

My very first non- diabolic tutoring experience came in the form of that wonderfully dynamic Ravnica common, Dimir Infiltrator. It was just after Dissension had been released and I was intent on bringing my Simic deck to my local shop for Friday Night Magic. I had splashed black into the deck and realized that by running a couple of Infiltrators I could search for much needed copies of Remand, Vinelasher Kudzu, Terror, or Plaxmanta. Unfortunately, I got my first lesson in improper mana curves and learned that transmuting for a Remand was just plain stupid. The coolest thing to come out of the experience was when I actually played the Infiltrator in the late game, grafting three counters onto him, and started swinging with my 4/6 unblockable.

Of course, by then it was too late, but for a couple of turns I was on top of the world. Brokenhearted, I headed home to dismantle the deck and finally pony up the scratch to buy multiple copies of the cards I had so desperately wanted to draw, but ended up searching my library for. The Infiltrators went back to the common box as I was convinced they belonged nowhere but in a Glimpse deck(which I did not have).

What I did learn that night, however, was that if you could spare the time to search for a card or two, then transmute was definitely a good way to go. It could only be played as a sorcery, but it was(at the time) virtually uncounterable, and less costly than a Diabolic Tutor. When Planar Chaos emerged and my Simic deck began to revolve around Vorosh, the Hunter, I found a safe and happy place for my transmute cards. In fact, Dimir Houseguard proved itself to be one of the most useful tutors ever printed when Damnation reared its ugly head. I only own two Damnations, but with a couple Houseguards, in any given deck I feel like I own a playset. My love of transmute began to extend to each and every card that carried the ability, even Brainspoil, which, if not for its mutability, would easily be in the running for "worst card ever."

One of the biggest complaints you hear about Transmute are its limitations in comparison with other tutors. Though transmute is generally cheaper than some of your classic tutors, it does have the drawback of having to reveal what you have searched for. That's why this article is called "Tutoring in the Casual Setting". Transmuting on turn three for a Remand in a best of three match up at Friday Night Magic is like bashing the headlights out on a cop car while wearing a day-glo t-shirt with your name, address, and social security number strewn across both the back and front... while two cops are sitting in the car. Nothing good is going to come of the situation.

However, transmuting for a Plaxmanta on turn three which you are not going to use until turn nine in a multiplayer casual game is like smiling and waving at two cops in a cop car who are unwittingly driving over the ten penny nails you laid in the road ten minutes before their arrival (do not do this). Sure, we all like to think we pay attention to everything in casual games, but small details tend to fly under the radar all the time and often come back to haunt us (Yes, Cheatyface has made it into a number of our games). For this reason alone, the transmute cycle should always be considered a gift from the gods of casual play.

A more recent addition to the casual tutor scene are that friendly cycle of Harbingers from the Lorwyn block. What originally would have been cast as creature tutors, had the advent of tribal instants and sorceries opening a new door for lovers of tribal decks.

The Elvish Harbinger carries with it not only an excellent mana fix, but the ability to seek out everything from an Elvish Piper to an Eyeblight's Ending. Though they still carry that devastating drawback of revealing the card you are pulling, in the right deck that drawback can be turned to your advantage.

Placing a card on top of your library enables all sorts of Clash trickery and can make cards like Kaboom! deal damage in the double digits. These cards can also be quite synergistic with the Kinship mechanic. Though they are not necessary in every build, it is almost a no brainer to include these harbingers in tribal decks. Though some are a bit overcosted(I'm looking at you Giant Harbinger) they can be extremely useful when you want to play with that one copy of Ball Lightning you managed to trade off your buddy last Saturday. 

What kind of Harbinger shenanigans have you been pulling off? Let me know in the forums.

One of my favorite decks of late has been my Enchanted Evening deck. When I originally pulled my only copy I was using Brainspoils to find it, and Dimir Houseguards to dig out one of my two copies of Primeval light. I could swing all day with my Trygon Predators and drop bombs like Indrik Stomphowler to dominate the board. When it evolved into the Evening/Patrician's Scorn/Persist deck it is now, I dropped the transmute cards and picked up an Idyllic Tutor.

Speaking of enchantments, is anyone out there using Three Dreams? Finding the right cards has never been easier. You can't forget about Auratouched Mage. Dig out an Arcanum Wings and then swap it for an Armadillo Cloak. You like the idea of using a creature that doubles as a tutor? Try using Stonehewer Giant to grab your Sunforger, unequip to dig out a Lightning Helix. The possibilities are endless.

Of course, no article on tutoring in the casual setting would be complete without discussing the wish cycle.

You may choose a sorcery card you own from outside the game, reveal that card, and put it into your hand. Remove Burning Wish from the game.

--Burning Wish

From outside the game?!

This is one of the best casual bombs ever dropped!

One major problem many players have with multiplayer casual is that you have no sideboard, and you enter the game with only a vague notion of the metagame. Sure you might know your friends decks pretty well, but knowing which ones they are shuffling up right then and there can be extremely difficult. Personally, I like to rotate my decks into different sleeves and ocassionally(gasp) play them naked(without sleeves, not in the buff!). So it can be kind of disheartening when you realize around turn four or five that you are playing your token deck and two out of the three other guys at the table are packing a total of eight damnations.

The wish cycle circumvents issues such as these.

My personal favorite is Death Wish for Magus of the Mirror. To be honest, though, I have seen a Golden Wish for a Platinum Angel seal the deal on more than one occasion.

Now Future Sight gave us Glittering Wish, which was an interesting twist to Standard play for a short while, but when you imagine the extent of multi-colored cards that exist in the game of magic and expand your sideboard to contain any and all of those cards which you own, you can see the impact this card can have in a casual setting. Is your opponent playing high costed spells, or paying evoke costs left and right? Glittering Wish for Kaervek, the Merciless is not just a good idea, its a backbreaker.

Hopefully by now you have come to the same conclusion as myself. One could conceivably write an entire book on cards that fetch other cards and the mathematical implications of tutoring in the casual setting, but my goal today was to mosey around the room with a tray of hors d'ouvres to whet your appetite for expiscation.

Start digging through your cards and reading the italicized print. Grab that one bomb rare that’s been ever so frustrating to play, and throw it in a deck.

Explore the tools WOTC has given you to play with the hand you're dealt.

Until next time, this is Hamsandwich saying: Don't be afraid to whip it out and play with it.

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