Monday 28 July 2014

Casual Magic

I got a chance to play Magic: The Gathering with Liz for the first time in a while. Both kids had gone to bed early, so we were spending sometime together. We weren't sure what decks to play (considering she hadn't played a game outside of pack wars for quite a while). In the end I picked two more casual decks that I had constructed but not played that often. One was a Zombie deck (mainly black with a little blue), and the other was a bloodthirst/counter themed deck. 

BR Bloodthirst
This deck has a very low curve.

One
3 Rakdos Cackler
4 Gut Shot
4 Tormented Soul
4 Goblin Fireslinger

Two
4 Stormblood Berserker
4 Duskhunter Bat
4 Contagion Clasp

Three
4 Volt Charge
2 Cryptborn Horror
1 Hellhole Flailer

Four
4 Gorehorn Minotaurs
1 Bloodfray Giant
1 Rakdos, Lord of Riots

The deck can (and did) push through a lot of damage quite quickly. The Cryptborn Horror was played in one game and was pretty sizeable (about a 6/6) early on in the game.  

Bu Zombies
This deck has an odd curve (by which I mean the converted mana cost of most of the cards is an odd number...)

One
4 Gravecrawler
4 Diregraft Ghoul

Three
4 Geralf's Messenger
4 Diregraft Captain
4 Cemetery Reaper
4 Forbidden Alchemy

Four
4 Moan of the Unhallowed
1 Door of Destinies

Five+
2 Rise from the Grave
1 Grimgrin, Corpse-Born
1 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
1 Zombie Apocalypse
1 Army of the Damned
1 Killing Wave

Lands
14 Swamps
4 Cavern of Souls
3 Dimir Guildgate
2 Vivid Marsh
1 Drowned Catacomb

There was an awkward point during one game where I managed to draw three Cavern of Souls, but wanted to cast Moan of the Unhallowed and didn't have the coloured mana available... The deck was quite fun. A little slow to get going, but was able to get in a fair amount of damage quite quickly once it had. In some ways, it is a little too aggressive for some of the cards, particularly the five plus costing ones, and maybe even the Cemetery Reaper. The Door of Destinies worked quite well, even though I had to take a turn off to cast it, I could cast two cheaper Zombies next turn to get a big boost. 

The games were quite fun, and it was nice to play a much more casual game than usual.