Essentials of casual play, new ways of playing CC decks and more - Paul Reinhardt ---------- Original Message ---------------------------------- From: fftaroxorz05@aol.com Date: Thu, 21 Apr 2005 12:32:23 -0400 Hello everyone, it's me again with another article. If you've seen my tourney reports, you'll know I play a Zombie Chaos with about a 10% difference than Eric Wu's. However, I still enjoy a good casual match against a friend or a newcomer. Here's a few tips about keeping things casual: -First of all, run it in Advanced format. IT keeps nasty cards out of the game that turn fun matches into high stakes tourney matches. -Remember, winning isn't really "essential" in casual. The point is to have fun. With that handy information, I'd suggest leaving all Chaos builds behind. -Running more than the usual number of tributes keeps things interesting as well. Normally subpar tributes like Lesser Fiend and the like can dominate in pure casual. -Don't run Jinzo. This is like running counters in casual MTG, you'll just be kicked out of the group (unless everyone runs it too). Traps form the best part of a casual deck most of the time (Bad Simochi decks, Skill Drain decks, Lock decks, etc) so negating them with a good tribute is a bad idea. -Don't worry about deck size. Casual matches are much slower than normal, and having a few extra cards isn't a horrible idea. -Go above and beyond with themes. Want to run Amazoness? Throw in two The A. Forces, a card that normally couldn't fit into a competitive deck. Running Spellcasters? Throw in Magical Hats and 3 Fuhma Shuriken/Black Pendant for some fun. Like I said, the point is to have fun. -Personally, I like running Tier 3 and below decks, the kind that work awesomely if you get everything but, more often than not, fall apart. Such additions as Spirit Ryu to Dragon and running Creator/BEWD/Paladin can really work with the slower pace. Those tips are for pure casual, usually to level the playing field against newer players. As I mentioned, many groups will have their owned banned cards (Jinzo and BLS top the list) so they can run whatever they want without the hassle of beating Tier 1 decks and their respective cards. Now, in addition to that, I'd like to share a few ideas about Chaos and other Tier 1 decks I've come across and have shared with other people with good effect. Spellcaster Chaos - Worried about Darks? How's 3 Skilled Dark Magician and 1-2 Dark Magician sound? This build also grants you access to Dark Magic Attack and, when the Spellcaster support somes out, will probably be a Tier 2 deck at least. This easily turns Spellcaster from a casual deck into a competitive archetype. Field Warrior - Want to run a Warrior deck without BLS that can't just as easily include it? This centers around running Maraudings, Command Knight, and Solar Flare Dragons to keep your opponent from attacking. I opted to also include Ultimate Baseball kids for the 1400 bonus from Command Knight and the easy bonuses from Solar Flares. Plus you can launch your non-Marauding "blockers" should you need to get ready for a Scapegoat (1000-2000 damage just to flip a Scapegoat if your opponent attacks is priceless). I didn't include the DNA Transplant thing to make Ultimate Baseball Kid able to launch Scapegoat tokens or DNA Surgery to give Solar Flare's a 400 bonus, since thats cluttering the deck up a little too much. Like I said, even though Blade Knights and Magician of Faiths are a good idea, there aren't enough lights and darks to warrant BLS in this build. Zombie Aggro - Probably run out there already (I'm sure someone in Team Comic Odyssey or Team Savage has this deck), this deck throws in the 3 Turtle, 2 V-lord, and depending on your style, 1-3 Spirit Reapers in with the Enraged, Berserks, DDAs and other staples of an Aggro deck. Swarm, damage, and control... this deck has it all! It works especially well because you can remove Turtle for a Gigantes, unlike in Zombie Chaos where Turtle is a dead card in the graveyard. The last area I wanted to touch was on player to player respect. There are plenty of times I've faced players that think playing a monster and then attacking, with any time period in between, means I can't do anything. As writers covering the SJ championships in Ponoma pointed out, the top end players pass priority and declare phase changes like they should, respecting each other's opportunities to activate cards and the like. What will this game be reduced to if everyone just plays to win? I know in tournaments you play for the prizes, but that's no excuse to cheat or try to sneak around an opponent's rightful opportunity to play their end of the game. Playing just to get the packs or the credit or whatever the prize may be is no good if everyone dislikes you and you can't trade/sell to anybody :-P Thats it for me, hope this helps anyone concerned about how to play without resorting to netdecking! Paul Reinhardt, Jeklor on the boards FFTARoxorz05@aol.com