MtG Monday: Away Decks

It has been some time since my last MtG post, and for good reason: I play and think about this game far less than I do DnD and fantasy roleplaying games in general.

Still, I got to play a few games with the Ohio group over Christmas Break.  It was fun, mostly because old friends were there, from my college days of gaming.  We shared lots of laughter, but only four games: a 4-player, a 4-player, a 6-player, and an 8-player game; three with an 'Ohio' deck, and one with a borrowed and untampered with Dragon Commander precon.  I died at the helm of the dragons, but took some players with me.

Finding fitting MtG art can be difficult, so this will have to do.

I leave decks in Ohio: several 60-ish cards at my brothers, and a pair of larger decks at G's house.  This makes flying home a bit lighter, and lets my decks see play, even if I am not there (to include a monoblack bit of nastiness that has migrated to Columbus and reportedly dominates multiplayer games down there among the Buckeyes).  These deck collections take up little space and provide me something to play with when I visit at home.

As a group, the Ohio players have no set format beyond 'no more than 4 of a kind' in a deck.  This often results in tribal decks or trick decks. Games are won on the backs of creatures or the occasional mass-damage spell (or B's Battle of Wits), as anything else requires more effort at deckbuilding than most of the Ohio group is interested in. For those in the group still buying cards, this often translates to untampered-with preconstructed decks of one stripe or another, with several of the group members keeping between 10 and 60 decks of various sorts available.  All told, winning is nice, but it is more about gathering together over a mutual hobby. 

That said, I managed to win a game, with a Black-Green pseudo-commander deck I had cobbled together a few years back from an Ohio pawnshop.  It is not quite commander because despite being at least 100 cards, it features a few playsets, notably Rampant Growth and Read the Bones - fuel for an otherwise weaker goodstuff deck. 

The box with the BG deck also holds a Blue-Red deck, built along the same lines and at the same time - pawnshop scroungings for a meh counterburnish flying pile of a deck.  I didn't even consider playing it; looking it over at the house, I am convinced this was the proper choice.

Both decks include lots of instants, because the Ohio group likes to interfere with one another's combats, and I know that I wanted to embrace that aspect of Magic, because it is something I rarely do in Alabama. (Anymore, playing Magic is something I rarely do in Alabama).

Now the decks are home to edit (and sleeve).  When complete, I'll return them to Ohio, to dwell at G's house forevermore. 

Writing this out and looking the decks over, I realize two things: one is that I prefer to build Commander decks and two is that the box I'm using will hold three decks, so one more is on the plate.

With three decks, I can use all five colors.  The decision point is how to go about it.  I know the BG deck is staying because it works.  I am torn between keeping the UR deck, but rebuilding it from the ground up and adding a monowhite deck, or going Blue-White and a monored deck.  

Frankly, I'm leaning towards the latter, because I happen to have most of a monored Commander deck set aside that will never be finished, otherwise.  Also, UW decks build themselves, especially decks involving flying.  None will be reliant on the Commander being in play, so each of the decks are just thematic goodstuff.

Which is helpful, because I know I will be buying singles as well as sleeves.  Hopefully, I won't spend too much between the three decks (beyond Dragonshield sleeves at nearly $12 for 100).

Some singles I know I'll need involve Monarch.  The games up north are only duels at the end, so Monarch will be fun.  

One thing for certain is that all three decks will be heavy on evasion and support, and light on tricks and rules abuses. I'm actually excited to build. 

As for the game I won, Wormwood Dryad (with Loxodon Warhammer equipped) served admirably, keeping me in play and eventually winning the game.  So both cards are staying.

Why no one killed it is beyond me.