The Casual Gamer

The good news this week is that Nerdageddon Comics, Cards, and Collectibles officially achieved “Core Store” status with Wizards of the Coast. This means we can hold Friday Night Magic, Pre-Release Tournaments, and Game Days starting April 1^st, 2014. We also will have buy-a-box promos and from the vault cards. We’re very excited.

With all this I have been thinking a lot about my deck. As a casual gamer I find myself torn between two decks. The one I actually play with and the one I wish I played with. Most people would think that owning your own comics and cards store would mean you get to play with any card. The thing is most of my “good” cards are sitting on display in the store.

I tend to build my decks on a budget. It adds a challenge and allows me to be more creative. If you’re running on a budget then you’re probably not net decking. That means funky theme decks with a twist.

The deck I’m actually building is a mono-black deck with a shared relationship between the heroic, devotion, and bestow mechanics. It is made to use heroics for early game with enchants and bestow to grow for huge devotion drops by turn 6+. Here’s a look:

Deck: Big Black Beats

Creatures: 22
4 Tormented Hero
4 Pack Rat
3 Spiteful Returned
4 Agent of the Fates
2 Herald of Torment
2 Erebos, God of the Dead
3 Gray Merchant of Asphodel

Spells: 15
3 Deviant Glee
4 Bile Blight
3 Dark Favor
2 Doom Blade
3 Scourgemark

Lands: 23
3 Rakdos Guildgate
20 Swamp

If you’re wondering, the total cost for this deck is roughly $37.83. That is magic on a budget. The heavy cost in the deck is Erebos and the rats. Those six cards make up 75% of the cost of the deck. It’s best when building a budget deck to have some higher priced cards. My rule is to try to get 10% of my deck worth about 75-80% its total value. To make a competitive deck, even one under 40 dollars, you still need a few big cards.

I am finishing this deck currently as I hunt down the pack rats. Once it is together I will develop a sideboard with testing.

The best starting hand has a Tormented Hero and a few enchants. He can be a big force on turn two with a dark favor. A 5/2 can put pressure on early. It also will make a target for removal by your opponent. That isn’t bad as I’d rather have removal wasted here than with Agent of Fates.

Agent of Fates helps keep the board clear while also using enchants to build a monster. The bestow in the deck triggers heroics while also adding more to the devotion count or providing early game creatures if needed.

I would be looking to drop merchant by turn 6. Hopefully a tormented hero has scored a hit early as in digital testing I was able to drop a merchant for 10 on turn 6. A 5/2 hero on turn two has the ability to bring an opponent under 10 before it is dealt with.

There are holes in the deck. Yet I see why mono-black devotion is a popular deck. If you have forty dollars, and want a puncher’s chance, then big black beats is a good deck.

That is the deck I am actually playing. If money wasn’t an issue then mono-blue devotion would be the deck I would be building. I’ll let you look before I explain:

Deck: Master Bomb

Creatures: 21
4 Vortex Elemental
4 Frostburn Weird
4 Nightveil Specter
3 Thassa, God of the Sea
4 Master of Waves
2 Purphoros, God of the Forge

Spells: 16
2 Curse of the Swine
4 Cyclonic Rift
2 Disperse
4 Fated Infatuation
2 Voidwalk
2 Stolen Identity

Lands: 23
15 Island
2 Izzet Guildgate
2 Mountain
4 Steam Vents

It has similar card break down to my black deck. Both run twenty three lands and run more creature spells. The real difference is the price, as Master Bomb will run about $196.27.

The basis for this deck is Master of Waves. I love this card. I want to just overload the board with elemental tokens.

This build is meant to get out defensive creatures like the weird and vortex. Both are great early game blockers and the vortex is a fun trick during any phase of the game. The specter is a staple of blue devotion. The same goes for Thassa to help fish out your master of waves.

You want to drop the master as early as possible. Even if it drops with only 2-3 blue devotion on the board you still want it out. Once the master is on the board it opens up a creature advantage and allows for the spells like Infatuation, Voidwalk, and Stolen Identity to reach full effect.

Infatuation puts a copy of Master on the board for more tokens and helps keep the tokens alive when you phase out the master with voidwalk to create even more tokens. I personally like to toss my ciphers on Thassa then use her ability to make her unblockable to trigger ciphers for either voidwalk, stolen identity, or both.

The deck has a low mana curve and the potential for a large force of huge elementals once the master of waves and it’s copies give out bonuses.

I’d like to put this deck together, and I may try to get a piece here or piece there, but if you swing by the shop you’ll probably see me flopping cards from my black devotion deck. Maybe someday I’ll get Master Bomb sleeved and out for a test.

This week at Nerdageddon we’ll be doing a booster draft on Thursday night. On Friday is Standard Constructed FNM. Both events have sign ups at 6 and start at 7. Please try to be to the store by 6:55 to ensure you can play in the events.