How to Build A Multiplayer Deck

I often play casual Magic after FNM, and often this takes the form of multiplayer. Too often, I find that the deck I'm using, while strong at duels, is terrible with multiplayer. Only my control decks ever manage to be decent at multiplayer. Hence, due to my preference for Jund at the moment, I decided to make myself a cheap, Standard-legal multiplayer deck.

I've never built a multi-player deck, so I started freeforming what I knew about multiplayer that was different from duels.

• A combo deck will make you the threat next game.
• Card draw is very good.
• Howling Mine makes friends. But is it good? Probably not.
• Bombs need to be more impressive
• Unless it's aimed at them, people won't counter spells. Also why card draw is very good.
• Politics is good (but that's not related to deckbuilding. Or is it?)

I immediately knew I wanted to be blue. A good second color might be black (removal), white (removal, gaining life) or green (Lurking Predators!!!)

I decided on white, since I like lifegain in multiplayer (if it's tacked on to something, of course.) I also need some Wrath effects, and Austere Command and Planar Cleansing are good cheap ones.

I headed on Gatherer to come up with a list of Standard-legal potential card drawing machines. I really wish Tidings was in M10.

Potential card draw:

Mind Spring (probably a 4-of, people get to lots of mana in multiplayer)

Mulldrifter

Divination (doubt it)

Cryptic Command (too expensive)

Covenant of Minds (can use it with someone who owes me)

Ponder (not really card draw, but still good)

Potential lifegain:

Kitchen Finks (almost certainly)

Kiss of the Amesha (also draws cards. I love it.)

Soul Warden (a 4-of)

Potential finishers:

Call the Skybreaker (great for excess lands in late-game, and hard to stop permanently)

Gargoyle Castle: Only 1 or 2.

Potential removal:

Oblivion Ring

Path to Exile

Potential misc:

Plumeveil

Wall of Denial

Wall of Frost

1-of rares I happen to have:

Exotic Orchard

Hallowed Burial

Ajani Goldmane

Jace Beleren

Reveillark (but for what?)

Gargoyle Castle

Captain of the Watch

Another Captain of the Watch

So what do we want to have?

4 Mind Spring

4 Mulldrifter

3 Kitchen Finks

1 Hallowed Burial

1 Ajani Goldmane

1 Jace Beleren

2 Captain of the Watch

2-3 Wall of Denial

2-3 Wall of Frost

3-4 Path to Exile

4 Oblivion Ring
4 Soul Warden

That makes 30-32 slots. Adding 24 lands, we have about 6 slots left.

4 Kiss of the Amesha

2 Call the Skybreaker

But we also need Wrath effects.

-2 Kiss of the Amesha

-1 Oblivion Ring
-1 Mulldrifter
-1 Kitchen Finks

+3 Austere Command

+2 Planar Cleansing

Only in multiplayer is it fine to play with 2-3 of's of lots of decent cards you want to use. I'm embracing the casualness of this format as much as my Spike-crazed brain is able.

So the final decklist:

Lands (24)

12 Plains

10 Island

1 Gargoyle Castle

1 Exotic Orchard

Creatures (15)

2 Captain of the Watch

2 Kitchen Finks

3 Mulldrifter
4 Soul Warden

2 Wall of Denial

2 Wall of Frost

Spells (21)

1 Ajani Goldmane

1 Jace Beleren

1 Hallowed Burial

2 Planar Cleansing

2 Kiss of the Amesha

2 Call the Skybreaker

3 Austere Command

3 Oblivion Ring

3 Path to Exile

3 Mind Spring

This is a pretty crappy duelling deck, but in multiplayer, it does well: playing plenty of card draw and lifegain to keep the game going, some removal for the big creature eyeing ya, and a wide array of finishers (Captain, Call the Skybreaker, Ajani's ultimate) plus some Wrath effects to keep things fair.

I'm looking forward to playing it at FNM as soon as I can wrangle up the cards (not too hard, since I own all the expensive ones and most of the rest are commons)

Until next time, may you let your hair down.

Assassin Magic

In the average Free-For-All, people won't play threats early, because they could get ganged up on. This leads to a slow game indeed, where very little happens in the first few turns. But what if you could play threats without fear, because only one person was gunning for you? Everyone else is gunning for someone else. But you don't know who's after you...

Welcome to Assassin Magic.

I don't know if this format has already been created (probably) but I do know I came up with it myself. Here's how it works. Get a 4-6 player multiplayer game ready. Then, everyone writes down their name and puts it in a hat, or have someone shuffle them randomly. Each player draws a name, and looks at it. If anyone draws their own name, redeal. Once everyone has a hidden name, play begins.

Your objective is to beat the player whose name you drew. If they are eliminated by any means, whoever had them as a target gets 1 point, and receives the eliminated player's current target. The game ends when one player is left standing, and whoever has the most points wins.

Note: If Player A eliminates Player B, and Player B's target is Player A, ALL names are redealt randomly. If your target's on 2 life? That's part of the randomness of the game.

The idea of this format is to make aggro viable in multiplayer and to provide a fast and fun game: with a bit of bluffing. You could attack someone to make them think you're targeting them, or to make your target think that, then blindside them. Of course: you have two players to tackle: the player you're supposed to be eliminating, and the player who's supposed to be eliminated.

This also provides an element of strategy: if Player A has one point already, the rest of the table doesn't want Player A's next target to die, so they may cripple (but not kill) Player A. Of course, Player B's target is Player A, so if Player A's target is already weak and so is Player A, Player B can strike...

Potential House Rules

Last Man Standing: Award +1 to the person who is the last to survive.

Foiled: Award +1 or +0.5 to anyone who kills someone who targeted them.

Variants

Double Trouble: Each player fills in their name twice, then picks one name from a hat. This may lead to one player being targeted by two, and others by none. If a player with two targets is eliminated, add their target to the undrawn pile and each targeting player gets one point and a new target from the undrawn ones.

Two Contracts: Each player fills in their name twice, then picks two names from a hat. The two names must be different. Defeat both of your targets to win the game. If one of your targets is eliminated, you must reveal the name.

Team Assassin: Play 2v2 or 3v3 (3v3 better). Each player fills in their name, and each team picks an opposing team member. If that team member dies, your team wins the game.

Transparency: Play like normal Assassin, but all targets are revealed.

Hopefully on Saturday I get the chance to test it out, playing my R/G deck and seeing how that goes.

Until next time, may you secretly hold all the cards.