This thread is dedicated to the posting of casual decks for feedback. A lot of people don't have the time or money to invest in competitive play, so casual decks provide a nice alternative.

Right now, I want to build a blue-black control deck based on Evoke, Hell's Caretaker and Grave Pact. Here's what I'm thinking.

[DECK]4 Martyr of Frost
4 Augur of Skulls
4 Soul Manipulation
4 Hell's Caretaker
2 Grave Pact
4 Nevermaker
4 Shriekmaw
4 Mulldrifter
4 Puppeteer Clique
2 Mournwhelk[/DECK]

Basically, the deck looks to disrupt early with Martyr of Frost or Augur of Skulls, being able to Evoke Shriekmaw for whatever threat sneaks out.

The deck makes good use of Soul Manipulation by bringing back the Martyr of Frost, Augur of Skulls or Shriekmaw early or Mulldrifter late.

There is a soft lock with Hell's Caretaker and Nevermaker. Hell's Caretaker with Grave Pact is another soft lock. Sacrificing a Puppeteer Clique to a Hell's Caretaker is living the dream.

Some cards I looked at, but didn't add were [CARD]River Kelpie[/CARD] (to draw tons of cards), [CARD]Skeletal Vampire[/CARD] (to have tokens for Hell's Caretaker or a sac outlet to turn on Grave Pact) and [CARD]Corpse Connoisseur[/CARD] (to act like a janky [CARD]Survival of the Fittest[/CARD]).

What do you think of my card choices? Are there any artifacts or lands that would serve this strategy?

I really like Corpse Connoisseur in that deck. Too bad you can't sacrifice Unearthed creatures to the Caretaker. But adding him might give you a chance to thin out the number of Evokers a bit to add more permisson/other useful cards. And just recycling Corpse Connoisseur and another card just makes me giddy. Heck, you can even use him to add more Hell's Caretakers with the help of your current one.

Wow Hell's Caretaker sure is shitty for how good his avatar was.

He is the poor man's Recurring Nightmare.

I realized that Rise/Fall is another card that supports this strategy - the Rise half of it anyhow.

Here's the list I have now:

[DECK]4 Martyr of Frost
4 Augur of Skulls
4 Rise//Fall
4 Soul Manipulation
4 Hell's Caretaker
2 Grave Pact
4 Nevermaker
4 Shriekmaw
4 Mulldrifter
2 Puppeteer Clique
14 Swamp
10 Island[/DECK]

I see the deck playing out with a Martyr of Frost or August of Skulls on T1/T2 and then a Soul Manipulation or Rise to slow down my opponent while restocking my creatures. There are a lot of tricks to play to gain tempo against other creature decks, so the deck should be pretty strong against creature decks, but will definitely face trouble against non-creature based control decks. I ordered the cards and will be playing games with the deck next weekend. I have to decide if Nevermaker is good enough and if I ever hit the lock with it.

Splash for [card]Cauldron Dance[/card]!

I think corpse dance might be pretty good in this deck...

You know what would be 'fun?'

[deck]4 Crypt Angel
4 Murderous Redcap
4 Shriekmaw
4 Nucklavee
4 Izzet Chronarch

4 Spinal Embrace
4 Slave of Bolas
4 Cauldron Dance

Kher Keep
Volrath's Stronghold
Miren, the Moaning Well[/deck]
other lands

oh boy, yeah.

does a nekrataal can fit in the deck?

If anything, I think the deck needs more cards to play on turns 1-3 to stay alive.

Maybe [card]Bone Shredder[/card]

[CARD]Ghitu Slinger[/CARD] seems good too.

The cards for this deck came in the mail yesterday, so I pulled it together. It is an absolute beating against creature-based decks since the tempo you're generating between Shriekmaw, Rise and Soul Manipulation can be really tough to overcome. Especially if you keep bringing Mulldrifter back to your hand to keep the engine alive. You finish them off pretty easily with Puppeteer Clique grabbing their beaters and keeping the path completely clear. I won every game against a Naya deck 20-0.

Then I played against a super janky milling deck that beat me because it had no creatures which makes for a lot of dead cards in hand. I'm sure this deck would do equally bad against almost any other controls decks. I lost every game against the control decks 20-20. (Fucking mill!)

I'm not sure that there is really any way to fix that and I'm not really sure that I care. But if you play casually you're going to run into a lot of creature decks and this is going to dominate them.

I sometimes run this block deck on the casual room:

[deck]4 Matca Rioters
4 Wild Nacatl

4 Exploding Borders
4 Jund Charm
4 Naya Charm
4 Bant Charm
2 Esper Charm
4 Path to Exile
2 Resounding Thunder

4 Armillary Sphere

5 Mountain
5 Forest
4 Plains
2 Swamp
2 Island
2 Naya Panorama
2 Jund Panorama
2 Bant Panorama[/deck]

Are there any cards I want from Alara Reborn for this deck?

[deck]4 Firemane Angel
2 Seizan, Perverter of Truth
2 Divinity of Pride
2 Patron of the Kitsune

4 Mortify
2 Beacon of Immortality
2 Beacon of Destruction
2 Beacon of Unrest
3 Moonlit Wake
4 Hide//Seek
4 Congregate
2 Void
4 Lightning Helix

1 Sacred Foundry
1 Blood Crypt
1 Godless Shrine
2 Boros Garrison
2 Rakdos Carnarium
2 Ozrhov Basilica
2 Caves of Koilos
2 Sulfurous Springs
2 Battlefield Forge
2 Mistveil Plains
2 Plains
2 Swamp
2 Mountain[/deck]
I've been tinkering with and evolving this one for quite a while now. It works best in 4-5 player games where I can avoid attention in the early game. I'm still looking for a way to turn a high life total into an actual advantage, rather than something that helps me not die.

i assume [card]trace of abundance[/card] is a good one

[card]Test of Endurance[/card]?

That's the obvious one, yeah, but I don't like winning like that. It just feels too cheesy. Especially with Congregate.

Hmm but what should I cut? :confused:

Esper Charm maybe?

Yes, Esper Charm is the weakest spell in the deck, but it's the only card advantage I run... should I replace it with something like Kiss of the Amesha or Covenant of Minds[/card] instead of acceleration/fixing?

I often find myself with so much mana and little to do with it, I have made the following changes:

-2 Path to Exile
+2 Banefire

[CARD]Searing Meditation[/CARD], [CARD]Fire Covenant[/CARD]

[cardimg]Fire Covenant[/cardimg] + [cardimg]Mogg Maniac[/cardimg]

[cardimg]Stuffy Doll[/cardimg]

HAY GUYS

Mongrel wants suggestions for this U/B controllish decklist. Card pool is type 1, but he is avoiding the obv power suggestions because of the house rules.

Aim is to have almost every card bleed opponent to death slowly.

[deck]
4 Undermine
4 Mundungu
4 Countersquall
4 Forsaken Wastes
4 Shadowmage Infiltrator
[/deck]

He has other cards in mind, but wants to see what you guys come up with.

[cardimg]agent of masks[/cardimg]

splash it <_<

Oh man, way back when I first started playing I think the first deck I ever built was a janky "blue land destruction" deck made mostly from 4E commons.

[deck]
4 Psychic Venom
4 Erosion
[/deck]

Of course, the erosions aren't very splashable. But Venom is and I heard Rishadan Port is still a good card.

He's trying to stay away from cards that gain life. Forsaken Wastes and lifegain is a non-bo.

Psychic Venom is on the "possibles" list.

[cardimg]shepherd of rot[/cardimg]

[cardimg]blightspeaker[/cardimg]

[cardimg]orzhov guildmage[/cardimg]

[cardimg]leechridden swamp[/cardimg]

[cardimg]subversion[/cardimg]

What he's trying to do is have all or most of the cards having dual functions, like the counterspell package. Even Forsaken Wastes has an important secondary function (preventing lifegain so the plinking works).

leechridden swamp has a dual function - making mana!

Blightspeaker also has a dual purpose. It gets you more Blightspeakers.

Run one [card]mirror entity[/card] for stupid pet tricks.

Things I found, some may have been said already:

[DECK]
Absorb Vis
Bond of Agony
Cackling Imp
Clutch of the Undercity
Death Bomb
Death of a Thousand Stings
Despoil
Flayed Nim
Guiltfeeder
Hissing Miasma
Kokusho, the Evening Star
Laquatus's Champion
Lich Lord of Unx
Maga, Traitor to Mortals
Phthisis
Pillar Tombs of Aku
Profane Command
Roiling Horror
Soul Reap
Soul Scourge
Urborg Syphon-Mage
Volrath's Motion Sensor
Wicked Akuba
Wound Reflection
[/DECK]

Anything that gains you life is more of a secondary thing, so it's ok even with wastes out.

[CARD]Patron of the Nezumi[/CARD]
[CARD]Relic Bane[/CARD]
[CARD]Sleeper Agent[/CARD]?
[CARD]Dimir Infiltrator[/CARD]
[CARD]Noxious Field[/CARD]
[CARD]Death of a thousand Stings[/CARD]
[CARD]Entropic Eidolon[/CARD]
[CARD]Gibbering Descent[/CARD]
[CARD]Thoughtcutter Agent[/CARD]
[CARD]Wand of Ith[/CARD]
[CARD]Vexing Arcanix[/CARD]
[CARD]Seizan, Perverter of Truth[/CARD]
[CARD]Telim'tor's Darts[/CARD]
[CARD]Psychogenic Probe[/CARD]
[card]Thought Prison[/card]
[CARD]Maralen of the Mornsong[/CARD]
[CARD]Stormscape Apprentice[/CARD]
[CARD]Barbed Wire[/CARD]
[CARD]Pendrell Mists[/CARD]
[CARD]Plague Spitter[/CARD]
[CARD]Festering Evil[/CARD]
[CARD]Caustic Tar[/CARD]
[CARD]Liability[/CARD]
[CARD]Circle of Affliction[/CARD]

You guys are doing this all wrong. Psychic Venom is on the possibles list, eh?

[deck]
4 Psychic Venom
4 Pooling Venom
4 Propaganda
[/deck]

edit: I'm totally winning, right?

Here's my Casual Multiplayer Monoblack control.

[deck]
4 Innocent Blood
4 Abyssal Gatekeeper
2 Infest
2 Barter in Blood
4 Mindslicer
4 Diabolic Intent
4 Phyrexian Arena
4 Corrupt
4 Twisted Abomination
2 Zombify
2 Soldevi Digger
3 Cabal Coffers
21 Swamp
[/deck]

How to play:

1. Diabolic Intent on your Mindslicer, grabbing Phyrexian Arena.
2. Win

More:

1. Sac effects to clear the board.
2. Coffers to power Digger while still palying all your spells. Digger to recycle stuff you want to use again.
3. Intent and Abom to shuffle those cards back near the top.

Concerns:

1. [card]Consume Spirit[/card] might be better than Corrupt in this deck, what with the Coffers and all.
2. Additional card drawing like [card]Syphon Mind[/card] or [card]Necrologia[/card] might be nice.
3. I want [card]Syphon Soul[/card]. Syphon Soul is good in multiplayer but this deck is tight as is.
4. Also you can use the Intents to toolbox this deck out with stuff like [card]Tormod's Crypt[/card], [card]Avatar of Woe[/card] or other win condition, [card]Befoul[/card], [card]Eradicate[/card], [card]Mindslaver[/card], ... uh [card]Phyrexian Tribute[/card]?
5. I'm keeping this casual which means I'm not putting my money rares in here, but obv 4 [card]Damnation[/card] or 4 [card]Mutilate[/card] is better than 2 Infest and 2 Barter. Well, then again Barter deals with Multiplayer shenanigans like [card]Darksteel Colossus[/card].

Thoughteries?

I feel that deck wants a big, ridiculous monster. [card]Helldozer[/card]?

-1 Swamp, +1 [CARD]Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth[/CARD], to let the Coffers power themselves up.
Instead of the Digger, consider [CARD]Reito Lantern[/CARD]. It lets you get back cards you want to tutor for without having to burn through all the stuff on top; if you're just using it to shuffle general Good Stuff back in without specifically tutoring for it, it lets you avoid putting Not-So-Good Stuff back in as well. Plus, it lets you mess with other people's recursion. I couldn't say without actually testing it, but it seems like Coffers would stiff give you enough to pay for the extra cost, plus you'd be using it slightly less often.

Since you are running Digger/Lantern already, go with [card]Planar Portal[/card]. Puts a good use to all that Coffers mana.

Good suggestions all around. I built this from memory and haven't played in a few years. I think the old version had Reito Lantern and Planar Portal, those cards had just fallen out of my brain. Yes this deck wants at least one big fatty, my default choice is [card]Avatar of Woe[/card]. I just wanted a rough draft. It'll probably tweak out to be more toolboxxy. (Twisted Aboms are great but I think they're taking up space.

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth is an excellent suggestion.

edit: fuck, why not just run 1x Darksteel Colosssususususuususs.