If you follow me on twitter, you’ve probably noticed me talking about playing Magic: the Gathering at lunch. Several weeks ago, one of my co-workers asked if I’d be interested in playing with him and another guy, and I happily agreed. We decided to limit our investments by restricting our decks to only common and uncommon cards from the Innistrad block and M13. That allowed us each to buy complete uncommon+common sets for reasonable prices so that we’re all building from the same set of cards without needing to buy pricy rares.
The three of us meet up in the work cafeteria twice a week to play during lunch. We usually get to play about 2 games each during the hour, and have fun trying out different deck concepts against each other. Playing at lunch is a nice way to break up the work day with some fun time, and it definitely gives me something to look forward to on those days.
Currently, I have two decks that I’ve been using with good results. The first deck is a red and green deck that is focused on a fast mid-sized creature offense with some direct damage support. It generally does best when able to quickly get out a Flinthoof Boar, and it has to finish off my opponent quickly because it is so focused on fast creature offense which doesn’t work as well once an opponent has time to get out a lot of creatures or manages to shut down attackers.
Piggy Deck
Land (20)
Creatures (20)
- Arbor Elf × 4
- Bladetusk Boar × 4
- Elvish Visionary × 4
- Flinthoof Boar × 4
- Goblin Battle Jester × 4
Other Cards (20)
- Chandra’s Fury × 2
- Farseek × 2
- Rancor × 2
- Ring of Kalonia × 2
- Ring of Valkas × 2
- Searing Spear × 4
- Titanic Growth × 4
- Trumpet Blast × 2
The second deck I’ve been using recently is a blue and green graveyard deck based on a deck my brother had when I played against him at Gen Con. It is designed to mill itself with skaabs and Tracker’s Instincts in order to then take advantage of the large graveyard that results. For offense, it uses Boneyard Wurms and Wreath of Geists, preferably on an Invisible Stalker, in order to deal a lot of damage once there are enough creature cards in my graveyard. Then for defense, it is able to use Gnaw to the Bone to regain plenty of life and Spider Spawning to provide a bunch of blockers with reach. This deck’s biggest drawback is that it can have a slow start since it needs to get several creature cards into the graveyard before it picks up steam.
Graveyard Deck
Land (24)
- Evolving Wilds × 4
- Forest × 10
- Island × 6
- Swamp × 4
Creatures (20)
- Ambush Viper × 2
- Arbor Elf × 4
- Armored Skaab × 4
- Boneyard Wurm × 4
- Invisible Stalker × 2
- Screeching Skaab × 4
Other Cards (16)
- Gnaw to the Bone × 2
- Memory’s Journey × 4
- Spider Spawning × 2
- Tracker’s Instincts × 4
- Wreath of Geists × 4
I’ve been using those decks for a couple of weeks now though, so I’m thinking that I’ll scrap both and make a couple new ones to start using next week. I have a few ideas for decks I’d like to make, like a Roaring Primadox deck or a black and white human deck, but I probably won’t make a decision until when I sit down and start going through cards this weekend. The deck that I really am looking forward to making is a blue and red goblin deck, but that has to wait until we start using Return to Ravnica cards since it’s most likely going to makes use of Guttersnipes, Goblin Electromancers, Goblin Rallies, and Izzet Charms.
Scott's Game Room 