Some players don’t engage in casual play. Any game that is played outside of a tournament setting is simply “Tournament Practice.”  But most of us enjoy throwing together an extemporaneous deck for a casual multi or single player game.  In casual play (much like the ’sealed’ format) victory isn’t overdependent upon which playsets you bought on ebay or what net-deck you decided to copy this week.  Players find these casual formats to be fun because the games that are played in them are well balanced.  When a friend and I sit down for a casual game of Magic, my intentions are to have an ‘epic-struggle-for-the-multiverse’ where, regardless of our vast card collections or skill level, the game remains in contention and therefore – stays interesting.

This is what a casual game should look like.

As MTG grows older (and we do with it) the gap between casual/new players and veterans grows ever wider.  Older expansions become almost impossible to keep track of, let alone actually obtain.  The advantage battle-hardened players have over their more casual counterparts can become insurmountable if certain steps aren’t taken to level the battlefield.   To achieve this, there are several gentleman’s rules you and your Magic group can experiment with that can help keep that disparity in check.  All of the following rules are completely informal and are not intended to be set in stone.  Please consider them in that context.

Limit Protection/Hate – Protection is a somewhat controversial issue.  In a casual atmosphere, where many (if not all) of your decks are known to each of your other Magic playing friends, playing with too much protection can be an issue.  A turn four, mana accelerated, Oversoul of Dusk against a shiny new Grixis Deck is Game Over.  Of course you could argue that decks should include contingency plans for such occasions, if not within the deck itself then at least somewhere in the sideboard.  But what you must remember though (and I’ll harp on this throughout this article) is that your goal isn’t just to disembowel your opponent.  The goal is to disembowel your opponent and have fun.  I wouldn’t want you to hold back in your deck construction, but what is the point of playing with several, cheap, protection from black creatures against a mono black deck?  It isn’t fun for either party.  Other cards like Story Circle are also unnecessarily frustrating in a casual (probably mono-colored) environment.  Consider limiting cards that reduce the game to a “draw X against Y deck and win” situation.  Particularly because you know what your opponent is bringing to the table.  On the flip side, your group members need to both create and bring to the table a variety of decks in order to avoid a mismatch.

I've always had that in my deck, I swear!

Avoid Direct Counters -  Losing to your friends Goblin deck?  Grab some ‘Protection from Goblins‘ for next game!’   Is your buddy reaching for his ‘Big Baddie’ Green deck?  Go for the creature destruction!  Okay, we get the point.  There’s a counter for everything in Magic.  When in a casual atmosphere, you should hope and pray for a good game.  A close game where you didn’t simply “paper, rock, scissors” your opponent.  Most of us are at a level where we understand that every deck can be countered by something.  Don’t ruin your friend’s excitement about his new Giant deck by playing something you know will obliterate it.  Most of us only have a few casual decks and being forced to play them against a deck tailor made to beat it is no fun at all.  You should also be mindful of  the decks you are bringing to your casual matches.  Bring a variety (and make sure your friends do too) so that you can swap out if a given match up is a complete disaster.  Avoid situations where one deck directly offsets another.  This can happen on purpose, and it can happen by chance.  Be prepared to deal with both.

Allow Minor Actions to be Reversed - You and your friend are locked in a titanic struggle that has lasted the better part of an hour.  Life totals are dangerously low.  Your fiendish opponent (and longtime magic buddy) draws his next card and thinks he’s about to make a breakthrough with his 6/1 trample Ball Lightning.  You are both at 1 life and you have no hand and no cards in play.  Foolishly, your opponent taps his pain land to pay for the card he just drew, killing him in the process.  Is the 45 minute struggle for domination over?  Of course not.  Strategic forgiveness for game ending, silly mistakes is key to keeping a casual atmosphere.  Do you really want a game to end either way because someone accidentally tapped a pain land?  Keeping all of the variables straight in your head while under pressure is certainly part of the game.  But why let an otherwise great game end tragically?  In a tournament situation?  – Go for it.  MTGO? – It’ll punish them for you.  However in a casual atmosphere, allowing players to take back a hasty action (particularly in the midst of a great game) is an informal rule I have adopted.

Be Mindful in Multiplayer – Multiplayer politics is a very complicated subject matter.  I won’t try and encapsulate all of the details here.  All of these rules easily apply to MP but in some cases the stakes are even higher.  A player can be either outright killed, or otherwise shut out of an entire 80 minute game.  Its hard to set a specific rule in order to avoid this but what often ends up happening is one of two things.  Either the group smells weakness and swarms the afflicted player; or the group ignores the afflicted player all together.  My personal group tends to let the other player live (though no actual “rule” has ever been issued) in what I like to think is an effort to keep everyone in the game and having fun.  As I said, multi-politics is extremely complex and varies based on deck type, number of players and the attitude of your particular group.  Just stay mindful of the fact that all of these rules apply 10 fold in multiplayer and no one enjoys being shut out of an one hour game after turn three.

Some combos are no longer meant for this world.

Eschew Heavy Land Destruction/Heavy Discarding – Some combos were never meant to be played together.  Wizards never intended for a player to put every land destruction card ever printed into the same mono colored deck.  They were spread out over 15 years of expansions for a reason.  The fact that you actually put them into a deck and obliterated your buddies best offering does not, in fact, make you cool.  The same applies to heavy discarding.  Nothing is more frustrating than not being able to play a spell.  And while a bit of frustration is healthy in any competitive atmosphere, a deck built around the worst kind of hosing is not enjoyable, and was not intended by the creators of the game.

At the risk of sounding like a hypocrite I want to emphasise:  You need not hold back as a player. If you take one thing away from this article it should be that I do not want you to dummy the game down for your less skilled friends.   These informal, non-chelant rules are designed to help make your casual games more enjoyable.  You probably won’t have to employ most of these decrees because you and your group might already employ some of them naturally.  But sometimes it needs to be explicitly stated that Legacy Land Destruction decks are not something you want to waste your time with in a casual game.  So if you’re struggling with a diverse group of MTG friends with a diverse set of MTG egos; give one or two of these informal rules a shot.  Feel free to comment here with your own experiences.

Like this article? Try these:

1. Advancing your MTG group through Natural Selection
2. Why you gotta (color) hate?
3. An MTG Lover’s Guide to Spicing Up Your Duels
4. Best Practice – A Healer’s Guide
5. Mana Mismanagement