Did you know that there are casual formats other than Commander? That there are players who are playing sixty-card decks right now at kitchen tables across the world? It's true!

In homage to these vestiges of sixty-card enthusiasts who are fighting against what sometimes seems to be a sea of casual-laden Commander articles, I figured I would build a quartet of decks around cards from Khans of Tarkir. Let's all shuffle some smaller decks for a while!

Liches and Eldrazi ? Casual | Abe Sargent

• Creatures (8)
• 4 It That Betrays
• 4 Kheru Lich Lord

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 2 Jace, Memory Adept

• Spells (24)
• 3 Cultivate
• 3 Kodama's Reach
• 4 Bitter Revelation
• 4 Compulsive Research
• 4 Extract from Darkness
• 4 Maelstrom Pulse
• 2 Compulsion

• Lands (26)
• 7 Island
• 7 Swamp
• 8 Forest
• 4 Opulent Palace

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The goal of this deck is to drop Kheru Lich Lord and then reanimate It That Betrays with it and smash with your new Eldrazi friend for a nasty punch or two. Then, you win the game. Yay winning!

Let's focus on the Lich Lord and the graveyard. Bitter Revelation seems to be a fun way to draw cards here since it mills two cards. Though to be fair, B/G/U contains a lot of ways of doing that! I like Compulsive Research and Compulsion for discard and drawing. Both work well in this sort of deck.

But the best card here by far has to be Extract from Darkness. Why? Well, not only does it mill everyone for a pair of cards (including you), but you can recur your It That Betrays if it's the best choice—or something else if you prefer. Perhaps John has an Akroma, Angel of Wrath you covet or Jane just milled a Primeval Titan that suits your fancy.

After that, we just toss in obvious cards such as land-fetching or Jace, Memory Adept to do some damage with the graveyards (and draw some cards, too).

There are hundreds of cards that could make the cut, from self-milling cards like Mulch to flashback spells like Roar of the Wurm. You can steal creatures (Treachery comes to mind), counter stuff, and blow out some additional removal instead of Maelstrom Pulse. The basic concept of using Kheru Lich Lord to Shallow Grave just one creature from your deck is one that can be built in a ton of different ways, so you can easily support it with a variety of cards new and old alike.

The Big Stuff ? Casual | Abe Sargent

• Creatures (23)
• 2 Krosan Tusker
• 2 Thragtusk
• 2 Zhur-Taa Ancient
• 3 Canopy Crawler
• 4 Garruk's Packleader
• 4 Rattleclaw Mystic
• 4 Ravenous Baloth
• 2 Surrak Dragonclaw

• Spells (11)
• 3 Mizzium Mortars
• 2 Cyclonic Rift
• 2 Warstorm Surge
• 4 Temur Ascendancy

• Lands (26)
• 5 Island
• 5 Mountain
• 8 Forest
• 4 Contested Cliffs
• 4 Frontier Bivouac

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I saw Temur Ascendancy and started to brainstorm some fun ways to run it. I quickly thought about a Naya-based deck that used all of the R/G cards that care about big creatures, such as Spearbreaker Behemoth. That'd be a fun way to take this deck, right?

That works! I wanted to run Garruk's Packleader for double-card-draw love for the bigger stuff, and since it was a Beast, we could easily add in more Beasts. Ravenous Baloth was the next place I dipped. In leaped Thragtusk and Zhur-Taa Ancient, and even Canopy Crawler for pumping. With just a few spots left for big Beasts, I felt Krosan Tusker would be good to grab land early or have a Boar Beast late. I round out the deck with our good khan Surrak Dragonclaw and the Rattleclaw Mystics.

For any Beast-based deck, that's where the lion's share of the deck has to be. Only Contested Cliffs is run to help the tribe outside of creatures. But that's okay! Support is an easy thing to include. Let's use that blue to include Cyclonic Rift to bounce every opposing critter and then serve for a lot of Beast-inspired damage. Mizzium Mortars felt like a useful addition in that zone.

I just have two empty card slots, so what about Warstorm Surge? That should prove to be a useful addition to a deck with some high-power options.

Just as with many of the decks being explored today, there are a plethora of other cards that would work well. You could push the tempo element beyond Cyclonic Rift. Or you could add in a few X spells or perhaps some countermagic or artifact or enchantment removal. Indrik Stomphowler is on-theme and works as a removal option. Get your Beast on!

Sacrificing My Love ? Casual | Abe Sargent

• Creatures (20)
• 2 Champion of Stray Souls
• 2 Eater of Hope
• 2 Soul of Innistrad
• 4 Blood Bairn
• 4 Grim Haruspex
• 4 Swarm of Bloodflies
• 2 Ob Nixilis, Unshackled

• Spells (14)
• 2 Rescue from the Underworld
• 2 Bitter Revelation
• 4 Dictate of Erebos
• 4 Bubbling Cauldron
• 2 Whip of Erebos

• Lands (26)
• 26 Swamp

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This is a (mostly) Standard-legal deck that dips into Magic 2014 a bit but otherwise is a nice selection of recently-released cads for your sacrificing pleasure!

You know how to kill stuff, right? You sacrifice them to things like Blood Bairn for no mana but just a simple pump. Eater of Hope and Bubbling Cauldron join the deck for some additional sacrificing fun. Those are perfectly acceptable cards to harness for a deck like this.

The fact that this deck is a budget-friendly, Standardish deck doesn't mean we can't run some serious powerhouses for the casual table. Enter Dictate of Erebos. It'll turn your fun theme deck into a seriously intriguing deck.

Then, we have a few cards to flex things, such as Soul of Innistrad. The Soul is large and in charge with two pertinent abilities that will let you rebuild your dead creatures. It certainly seems to be a potent player for us. Champion of Stray Souls will swap alive creatures for dead ones. You can also do a nice sacrifice that blows out a lot of stuff. Generating that many triggers just warms me. Plus, it recurs itself to continue the pain.

Rescue from the Underworld is like a Champion Junior with just a one-time-use. Then, we rock Whip of Erebos, and Bitter Revelation makes another appearance.

You can easily find some non-Standard cards for a deck like this. From Fallen Angel to Carnage Altar, there are a ton of great ways to build this deck to fit your deck stock and personal tastes.

Of Altars and Bombs ? Casual | Abe Sargent

• Creatures (8)
• 4 Auriok Salvagers
• 4 Trinket Mage

• Spells (28)
• 2 Ghostly Flicker
• 4 Thirst for Knowledge
• 4 Open the Vaults
• 1 Darksteel Forge
• 2 Aether Spellbomb
• 2 Ichor Wellspring
• 2 Origin Spellbomb
• 2 Sensei's Divining Top
• 2 Skullclamp
• 3 Mycosynth Wellspring
• 4 Altar of the Brood

• Lands (24)
• 12 Island
• 8 Plains
• 4 Darksteel Citadel

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The Altar of the Brood is a bit different since it triggers for any permanent that enters your battlefield—they could be lands, token creatures, artifacts, or anything else. Because of that, it can fit into a lot of different decks. It works with a lot of strategies, from Lifeline to Living Death. Because it costs just 1 mana, I decided to put it in an artifact shell and tutor it out with Trinket Mage.

Skullclamp is a nice way to draw cards from dying things. The Sensei's Divining Top has a well-established pedigree, too.

Auriok Salvagers will pull back some smaller artifacts for another go while the Open the Vaults can return all of the dead artifacts en masse. You can see how nasty that'd be with a fully stocked 'yard. The Wellsprings are also here for some useful triggering that turns into cards and/or lands. They also want to leave play or return with the best of them.

Note that Ghostly Flicker doesn't just enable you to flicker out creatures, but also lands or artifacts—you can flicker and return a Wellspring for another trigger. Trinket Mage is a great target, too, and you generate more Altar triggers. It's another fun card!

You could add in a ton of other cards, such as Grinding Station, Sanctum Gargoyle, Academy Ruins, Dispeller's Capsule, Sage of Lat-Nam, or Thopter Foundry. Plus, the Altar enables you to explore a ton more options as well!

And that concludes the four decks I wanted to share. Add your own cards and stylings to the decks; make them your own. Is there anything here you want to build around? Any ideas you are taking into your sixty-card deck world?

See you next week,

Abe Sargent