An introduction to Block Casual - Magic: The Gathering

Magic: The Gathering (MTG) is a card game often associated with overly expensive bits of cardboard that have an unsatisfactorily short lifespan, or indeed with cheap bits of cardboard that see even less play after their one use in a draft or sealed format. Block casual was the brain child of my regular gaming group to solve two problems.

 

Firstly, we've all got boxes full of unused commons and uncommons leftover from drafts and sealed decks. These cards form the bulk of a set, but unfortunately never see the light of day and are soon forgotten once that set rotates. A rare few will see constructed play, but the majority will not. MTG sets have so many fun and interesting mechanics that are immediately forgotten once those sets cease being drafted. Block Casual lets you dig out these forgotten cards and give them a new lease of life.

 
Secondly, we wanted a format we could play in a pub/kitchen table/food establishment without fear of destroying anything valuable. We have all envisioned (or experienced) the nightmare scenario of a can of alcoholic beverage toppling over and flowing all over our expensive modern deck. Block casual decks will generally cost around £10 at most - the price of a couple of pints in a central London pub. Playing block casual means you can eat your greasy fried chicken and Doritos without feeling guilty touching your cards. Penny sleeves are still recommended for ease of shuffling though and for a little bit of protection (give your cards some dignity).

So now that you know the goals behind Block Casual, how do you play it?

A Block Casual deck is comprised of cards from any single MTG block (e.g. Theros block, which includes the Theros, Born of the Gods and Journey into Nyx sets) with any number of common cards, up to 12 uncommon cards and no rares or mythic rares.

• Cards must be from a single block
• Up to 12 uncommons
• Any number of common cards
• No rares of mythic rares

Here's an example deck, made using cards from the Theros block:

Block Casual Theros UW Heroic

Uncommons:
4 Battlewise Hoplite
4 Ordeal of Thassa
4 Phalanx Leader

Commons:
4 Lagonna-Band Trailblazer
4 Akroan Skyguard
4 War-Wing Siren
4 Gods Willing
4 Aqueous Form
4 Chosen by Heliod
2 Fate Foretold

13 Plains
9 Island

This deck adheres to the previously outlined construction rules. It uses all 12 available uncommon slots (the rest are commons) and uses only cards from a single block. The deck also counts 60 cards, the minimum required for a legal deck.

So you've built yourself a deck; Does my opponent need to build a deck from the same block? Not necessarily. Block casual can be either played inter-block or intra-block.

Your play group could try and build the best deck they can construct within the confines of a single block and fight it out to see which is best - this is intra-block play.

Players in your play group could instead pick their favourite block to build a deck from, and play them against one another. Want to know how a Return to Ravnica Rakdos Unleash deck would fare against a Mirrodin block Affinity deck? This format gives you the opportunity to find out. This is inter-block play.

Are there any banned cards? Block Causal is using the 'Block Constructed' banned and restricted list as a soft guideline, with cards on those lists undergoing playtesting to see how they work in the Block Casual environment. Cards like Lingering Souls and Intangible Virtue are banned in Innistrad Block Constructed but may or may not end up being banned in Block Casual.

The card(s) currently on the Block Casual ban list are:

• Skullclamp

If the Block Casual format has interested you then best thing you can do is to build a few decks and take them to your local MTG group and give it a go.

More information about the format, including decklists, block reviews and other discussion articles can be found at http://blockcasualmagic.com (currently under construction).

Put your brewing hat on and get building!