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In fact, I have possibly the most enjoyable article to write - an article on casual Magic.

This is good because these days it seems that nobody actually plays casual Magic. People play competitive Magic - yay Affinity, I love you (just kidding). People also play annoying Magic (like the guy who pretends to forget his life total). People play money Magic (hello Power 9 hunters!), and draft Magic, but nobody seems to just sit down, pull out a deck that they just threw together and have a game.

I honestly think that it is a little depressing. Although I occasionally indulge in the forms listed above, casual Magic is the most enjoyable. You can play with any card that's available, including the underused Chimney Imp. The problem is finding people to play against, and after posting a message on the boards of this very site, I found that, as Sting put it, I was "not alone in being alone."

To preface these articles I'm going to say that I began playing sometime around Legends and stopped just after Mirage came out. Mirrodin was when I decided that it would be fun to play again, as there were (what appeared to be) some interesting cards.

This article will firstly discuss why Magic is fun. It will also cover some of the deck types, provide a Confusion in the Ranks deck, and conclude with some insane ramblings and thoughts on what has happened to the game that has brought it to its current state.

It is interesting to note what has and what has not changed between the time that I stopped playing Magic and now. Perhaps the most evident change, and also the most significant change, is the draft. These days, it seems that almost everybody drafts on a regular basis as opposed to seven or eight years ago where the occasional sealed deck was all the limited Magic that saw play. I can appreciate why drafting is fun, but this article is about why casual Magic is more fun.

When playing, I honestly don't care if you're playing "rogue Affinity Tooth and Nail Bidding with super secret tech". I don't even care if my deck has the most consistent draw possible. I just want to have a good time when I play. So what if I have only one copy of Kudzu or Pentavus in my deck? It doesn't have to be consistent, just enjoyable!

Casual Magic is where one can find this enjoyment. Interestingly, many of these reasons overlap with the reasons why drafting is enjoyable. So what is enjoyable about casual Magic?

• Randomness in the deck - Variety is the spice of life, and I like to have that when playing. It's much more enjoyable to get a different hand based around the same theme every game rather than two Welding Jars, a Seat of the Synod, a Myr Enforcer and an Arcbound Ravager every time.
• Can take back - At some stage, everybody is frustrated by a silly play, and although it's helpful to learn from one's mistakes, I do that when I work, not when I'm having fun playing a game. It's a lovely feeling to be able to go 'Oops! I didn't mean to do that, is it OK if I take that back?' and not having your opponent look at you like you're an idiot.
• Can relax while playing - This is related to being able to 'undo' moves. If I have to take note of every single play that I make, it takes away a lot of the enjoyment.
• Can play with non top tier cards - Believe it or not, I don't own four copies of Arcbound Ravager, nor do I own four copies of Tooth and Nail. Even more bizarre is the fact that I don't want to. I have other things to spend my money and time on. This is one aspect of drafting that I really like, everybody has the same starting point, give or take the randomness of the packs. When playing casually, you and your opponent can agree on the level of the decks you wish to play with, and go from there. Additionally, you can actually make use of a lot of those rares that you end up with that are unplayable in competitive constructed Magic. Shield of Kaldra, anyone?

The following are a few of the main types of decks in casual Magic:

1. Thrown together decks - These are made up of cards that you play with just because they're cool. Force of Nature fits in here. Nothing beats an 8/8 creature for six mana (and by nothing, I mean almost nothing). You can throw a deck together with these sorts of cards pretty easily. The decks don't need to have amazing synergy (buzzwords are cool), but the cards should help each other though. Think Icy Manipulator and Royal Assassin. Together they aren't going to win any tournaments, but they're going to cause a little bit of trouble for your opponents.
2. Fun decks - Fun decks tend to be built around a particular 'fun' idea/concept, though the definition of fun varies significantly from player to player. A good example of this is Confusion in the Ranks, a most enjoyable card (especially for multiplayer games of six of more players), or Shahrazad (my personal favourite). Although Shahrazad is a key card in some competitive decks (Type One in this case obviously), it also goes well in a deck designed for some fun. It's good to play with these decks every now and again just for some sillyness.
3. Combo decks - I have a friend who loves counters. It's a little scary actually as it seems as though he can't get enough of them. Naturally, somebody who loves counters marries Power Conduit. There are a lot of horrible cards that Power Conduit make very good, take the Fallen Empires Homarids for example. Nobody played with these guys, but they are significantly improved with Power Conduit, not to the point of being competitive, but to the point of being not bad.
4. Non competitive, competitive decks - Generally these are tier two decks. They're the style of deck that will never win tournaments, but can make for an enjoyable game.
5. Competitive decks - In order to be viable for casual Magic, competitive decks need to be played pretty sloppily and tend to not be as fun as the other deck types but are still feasible nonetheless.
6. Stasis decks - Just kidding, never, ever, ever play Stasis decks in casual Magic. It is rude and uncouth. Winners don't play casual Stasis decks, kids!

After saying all this, I need to actually back this list up. So to begin, I will donate this Confusion in the Ranks deck. I realise that many of the cards are bad, but that's the thing - it's OK. We're being kind and donating them to our opponent in exchange for some (hopefully) good creatures.

This deck is reasonably enjoyable to play, cheap to build and plays differently depending on what deck it is facing. All in all, a good time!

Now I guess it's time for my rant!

So what actually happened to casual Magic? When I ask myself, I answer this question with a small number of things. As mentioned earlier, people spend a lot of time drafting, and this has caused people to gradually shift away from playing casually. Obviously this is good for Wizards, as it brings in plenty of money. And the result? It seems that Wizards designs four types of cards. The first are those designed to be played in a draft, such as Tel-Jilad Outrider and Turn to Dust. For a draft they are both excellent cards, yet I honestly have never seen them played outside of one.

The second type of cards are those designed for tournament play. There are cards that work in incredibly obvious ways with other cards. Arcbound Ravager is a prime example. The third type is the cards that end up filling people's trade folders, the chaff that I always end up as my first pick in a draft. The aforementioned Confusion in the Ranks is a perfect example of this. With a casting cost of 3RR, it is almost unusable in a casual deck. I say almost as there is no such thing as an unusable card in a casual deck. A casting cost of RRR would be much more usable as would 4U for Shared Fate.

The fourth type of cards are the cards that you rip in order to show people the blue strip that you get in real Magic cards. Think Myr Mindservant and wonder why Wizards ever printed it.

The third type of card mentioned above is definitely the most annoying, and I don't understand why Wizards does it. Let's examine the two cards - Tower of Fortunes and Mind's Eye. The effect for both cards is a semi reasonably drawing ability. The main problem is the price of the draw for Tower of Fortunes, eight mana for four cards? I think not! Even Well of Lost Dreams is better, so why even print Tower of Fortunes if it is going to be unusable by comparison? Why not make the cost more reasonable? Even draw four for four mana and the tower doesn't untap during your next upkeep would be much more playable for casual. The end result is that many of the best casual cards are those from earlier days, Revised to Tempest.

In other words, there are less cards available that cater to the casual player. The cards that are available are overcosted. There are also fewer casual players anyhow. Oh well, at least they brought back Juggernaut.

Continue reading the adventures of the amazing casual Magic player when the story continues next time with a look at some cheap Type One-ish casual decks.

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