Jason Mathews
* Level 1 DCI Judge
*game store employee
* gaming for over 15 years

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02.02.04  -  Casual Angel Deck

 

Well hello to all you fans of the Magical cards. Its been another week and I’m back at the computer, safe in the Deck garage, and taking on a Casual Angel deck. To go along with this weeks theme of casual deck I am going to have my usual rant be about casual play. For those of you that aren’t used to the deck garage the following two to three paragraphs are where I try to enlighten my readers about aspects of the game of magic that usually have nothing to do with the actual deck I am fixing. So if you are here only to look at the deck fixing skip the next two or three paragraphs and read what you came for, the deck fixing. Don’t forget to send your decklist and comments to pojojason@hotmail.com

cas•u•al

Pronunciation: (kazh'OO-ul)
adj.
1. happening by chance; fortuitous: a casual meeting.
2. without definite or serious intention; careless or offhand; passing: a casual remark.
3. seeming or tending to be indifferent to what is happening; apathetic; unconcerned: a casual, nonchalant air.
4. appropriate for wear or use on informal occasions; not dressy: casual clothes; casual wear.
5. irregular; occasional: a casual visitor.
6. accidental: a casual mishap.
7. Obs.uncertain.
 

Take note of meaning 2. Without definite or serious intention. Magic at its very core is a game of less than serious intention. If your going to sit down to a game its almost always in a casual atmosphere, surrounded by friends or family, and with the intention of having fun. The casual deck is therefore by its name a deck that is used for informal play without to much of a serious intent. A deck of this nature could be made to fit any of the formats such as extended, standard, vintage, or even Limited. Its my belief that the most casual of deck is not hampered by any of those formats.

When most of us started playing magic we would have been referred to as “Casual Players”. This was that wonderful time when we would have had are decks that we referred to as angel decks, dragon decks, death decks also known as a black deck or multitude of other cute names. This might be the time when you would have started a conversation with the statement “I have this _____ deck” you insert the name of deck for your own memory. Almost all of us will meet these Casual Players and many of us will take them under our wing with the idea that we can make them better players not realizing that they still have some of the magic of the game that some of us may have forgot.

I myself am not the most casual of player. I play tournaments and focus on mainly the tournament side of magic and judging magic tournaments. With the creation of Magic Online and starting a new collection of cards online, I found myself building what I would consider casual decks. I found myself playing with cards that I would normally just toss aside as a bad card and really enjoying myself. It brought memories of the times when it was all just casual magic to me. I now find myself building the occasional deck just for fun and keeping at least one casual deck just for those occasions when I meet a new player and want to have a game for fun. My record with my current fun deck is something like 41 losses and maybe 12 wins. Normally with this kind of record I would have tossed the deck away and lamented on the time lost playing it, but I am happy with every game I have played because it is my fun deck. So I bring this up to recommend that if you want to have some fun build a casual deck. Remember that as a casual player is where we all started and it can be a great time to revisit that style of play. Enjoy your time with the casual players and don’t look down on them for not being the best of player if they are not as good as you. For all of you tournament players like myself, remember that its not an exaggeration to say that Casual magic players outnumber us by at least 10 to 1. So in a fight the casual players would kick our collective tournament butts, except for Brian Kibler because he is pretty big. Take my advice and enjoy a casual game.

For those of you that are interested I have included my current casual deck, and you can feel free to use it and tell me what you think. I warn you though, if you like winning it may not be the deck for you. Well that’s enough ranting on with the deck fixing. What follows is the email I received from Daniel wanting me to fix his Angel deck.

 

Hi Jason,

I have create this angel deck. I want to upgrade it to a higher level and I want your advise :

Creatures

3X Angel of Mercy
1X Avatar of Hope
1X Blinding Angel
1X Exalted Angel
2X Haunted Angel
1X Melesse Spirit
1X Sanctum Custodian
1X Soul Warden
4X Sustainer of the Realm
3X Voice of Duty
3X Voice of Grace
3X Voice of Law
2X Voice of Reason
2X Voice of Truth
1X Wall of Glare

Non-Creatures Cards

1X Akroma's Blessing
1X Arrest
1X Demystify
2X Eye for an Eye
3X Healing Salve
1X Holy Day
1X Humble
1X Moment of Silence
2X Worship

Lands

21X Plains

It would be really good if you can take a look at a better construction (Do it the way you want, as long it stay an angel deck). If you can do a sideboard too it would be great. Thanks in advance

Daniel Bélanger


 

Well this is what I would do to make this Angel deck more competitive. I have used cards that are a little more hard to come by if you are on a budget. I tend to go for the cards that I think are most effective. I have said time and time again that I don’t normally include side boards if you don’t tell me what you are playing against most often, but I include a few basic items that should be useful in most environments.

4 Exalted Angel

4 Blinding Angel

4 Voice of All

2 Voice of Duty

2 Voice of Grace

4 Wrath of God

4 Story Circle

4 Swords to Plowshares

4 Decree of Justice

3 Disenchant

2 Worship

19 Plains

4 Temple of the False God

Sideboard

2Circle of Protection Red

2Circle of Protection Black

4 Wing Shards

2 Akromas Vengeance

3 Breath of Life

2 Akroma Angel of Wrath

This set up for the deck will give you a lot more defense and ways to deal with problems you might come up against. I used more multiples so that your draws would be more consistent. A few more removal spell should allow you to deal with your opponents threats and the wraths should help you in group games.

So another week has come and gone and I look forward to receiving more deck list from the pojo readers. Send you deck list to pojojason@hotmail.com As always I tell you that the more information you can include with you decklist the better I can help you. Thanks for reading and send any comments or ideas to me also.

Jason’s Casual decklist

WARNING DON’T USE IF YOU ONLY LIKE WINNING

2 Goblin Charbelcher

2 Proteus Staff

2 Tower of Fortunes

4 Solemn Simulacrum

4 Wood Elves

1 Kamahl Fist of Krosan

4 Fertile Ground

4 Wild Growth

4 Explosive Vegetation

4 Moment’s peace

2 Harrow

4 Far Wanderings

1 Journey of Discovery

4 Rampant Growth

1 Tooth and Nail

14 Forest

2 Island

1 Mountain

 

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