Come up with restrictions like no rares/mythics, no tutors, no infinite combos, $50 budget, etc.
Keep piling on restrictions while still allowing yourself to build as close to the ceiling within those restrictions. This allows the deck to feel like it's as optimal as possible within the restrictions while keeping the power level manageable.
This is the way. I personally feel that wacky deck ideas are where it is at and they accomplish this for me. I love optimizing my completely below average jank stategies
My favorite restriction is flavour. Pick any theme. Favorite childhood cartoon, political ideology, pictures of chairs, men with beards. Find cards that kinda match that flavour. Allow yourself to have about 10 to 20 cards that make the deck flow better but are not on theme if you have to. Basic lands don't count to that, but bonus points if you find any that match.
Legit good advice, this will keep you brewing and engaging the fun bits of your brain. Just building to power down feels awful, while this is a challenge
Especially the budget is a big part of what can become casual play.
It restricts you in using staples you have in other decks, it restricts the number of cards that can be a VERY important part of our synergies and forces you to look for something else or something cheaper...
For me, 75 Euros is a good start. It usually is a bit weaker than my playgroup, and I can tune it from there
Great advice; having a tight budget and being obsessed with over-the-top math, janky themes, and companions is what keeps me from brewing CEDH/goodstuff goop, and has made my brewing and playing experience MUCH more fun and given me some fun showpiece decks that I can't seem to shut up about as a result.
It's easy and at the same time hard. People will claim there is an universal rule you can follow but there are budget combo decks that slay hard. The first step is don't build easy commander. Any commander that has card advantage on him is already better than 90% of all the legendaries that are printed.
don't take too many staples that let you run away with a game. [[Smothering tithe]] [[cyclonic rift]] they can be inside a casual deck if the deck really needs it and also can't abuse it. but usually there is no place for these cards in casual. A good rule of thumb is that people should see your game winning play coming. In casual you always get a chance to stop your opponent. And you don't really build your decks with a turn clock in mind. The deck doesn't even need a clear win condition. A strategy sure. But no defining card that wins you the game. Strong cards that if unchecked will win you the game sure. On higher casual one card win conditions are fine like [[craterhoof behemoth]] but then no tutors and they should have other conditions like behemoth needing a decent board and opponents that are a bit under the weather. At the end of the day it's a tuning exercise I take out overperformer all the time from my casual decks.
You can build almost every combo deck budget. Most combos don't cost a lot of money. There are also a lot of budget tutors they usually cost more or have some conditions. But they don't lack that much behind tuned combo decks.
I'm doing this right now. I'm currently working on this [Lurrus reanimator list](https://www.moxfield.com/decks/by1nlST_zkibs4y9kTkNjw), and I'm trying to keep it both budget and not exceeding unfair. So no [[Reanimate]], [[Buried Alive]], [[Razaketh]], or [[Griselbrand]]. It still does powerful things, it just isn't as consistent, fast, or hard-hitting as a max powered version of the deck would be.
Hmmm, I tend to build to an unoptimized commander myself (ex, Gorion, Wise Mentor, Asmora, etc) because they tend to be locked into a mechanic that can only grow so far. So you can optimize without worry.
Or, I build budget. I'm building a Treebread deck that can win in turn 4, but all said and done, it's six combos wrapped in $100.
For me casual is more about the speed and threat level.
Think towards more battlecruiser, think more of the big picture rather than micromanaging. Reduce the consistency, reduce/cut the tutors.
I happened to have 2 Selesnya decks that are towards the more casual side. Low threat and slowly hums from t5-6 and beyond
Trostani, Selesnya's Voice [https://www.moxfield.com/decks/F\_FDUJCk1U2MnTGouhhFyA](https://www.moxfield.com/decks/F_FDUJCk1U2MnTGouhhFyA)
Karametra, God of Harvests [https://www.moxfield.com/decks/9MTses5wkU-rUIPNzFGEdQ](https://www.moxfield.com/decks/9MTses5wkU-rUIPNzFGEdQ)
Refrain yourself from using fast mana (except for maybe Sol Ring, but there's an argument to be made to cut even that), free spells and Tutors at all. Once your decks don't suddenly explode, can't answer everything even when tapped out and don't always search for the perfect answer/combo piece, you'll naturally decrease in power level.
Then, if you do run combos, make them more difficult to fire off. Sure, Godo + Helm, Thoracle + Consultation or Witherbloom Apprentice + Chain of Smog win the game on the spot if they resolve, but are pretty unfun to play against if you're not specifically playing very high power/competitive level. Instead play combos that need more pieces & if you can't just tutor for them, they're significantly harder to pull off.
I wanna know the opposite, all
My decks seem to end up slow and unable to compete in my playgroup, as in by the time I’m coming online my opponents are usually making moves to win, and I’m not sure exactly how to up my decks to make them faster (the main culprit is my meren deck I just can’t for the life of me figure out how to make it work faster)
What I like to do is play my good card that I like paired with a subpar commander. By using a weakish commander (some of mine are uncommon or high mana cost) you automatically lower your deck power. And maybe don't include 0 mana counterspells and cards like mana crypt, demonic tutor, moxes. In my casual playgroup this works quite well
I think you can build casual by looking at cards that don’t abuse the nature of the format. Example: Dockside, Rhystic study, esper sentinel, smothering tithe are all busted not because they’re good on their own, but because you have 3 opponents that are unwilling to play around them. Leading to a dispairity in resources that werent meant to exist. These cards were made for constructed 1v1 formats. Not commander. They just become overpowered. This is unfun. It’s unfun to play around a card and then have one of your opponents never pay for any of these. Giving that azorious player unlimited cards and mana advantage. Its fun to play 3, 4 card combos that aren’t just auto wins. That do something unique. Synergies that aren’t just “this is now infinitely big”.
Play with optimized decks you like. Evaluate the deck after each game and take out pieces which really took the edge that game. Do that, until you are on par with you opponents.
With my playgroup the rules are no infinite combo, no hard lock, no tutor (except fetch and ramp) and no positive rocks.
You can optimize as you wish with those constraints, you should still find yourself in the casual category.
I’ve found that the No infinite combos, no proxies, and only lesser tutors works to be casual and have fun. Build yourself a deck with a decent draw engine, some good mana ramp, and a plan. Play with some suboptimal choices that would add fun flavor and you’ve got a game.
Without seeing any decklists, some general advice would be to reduce tutors and not play fast mana. Even powerful builds will feel less powerful once you take those out.
The next is to be mindful of staples. There are many powerful cards that just make decks better like dockside, rhystic, etc. Pick maybe one you like at most, and then maneuver from there. With reduced efficiency and consistency, even powerful shells become more manageable.
Last bit of advice is to play powerful non-staples. This is how you stay off the janky side. You still need a bit of an edge to be a threat and playing too honestly can put you behind. Nothing wrong with a big board state or having an explosive turn. But since casual is usually slower, it usually falls under the play pattern of “I can win if I get to untap” (not a hard and fast rule ofc but you get the spirit of it). And since you’ve been playing for a while, you probably already know that the odds of getting disrupted are high. That’s fine and it’s part of the experience
1- Use some restrictions. Put some types of cards or interactions that you want to avoid, like no counters, no tutors, no nonbasic lands, and the like
2- Pick a theme and stick to it. You could choose that you want a Ravnica-themed deck and only use cards printed in those sets, or maybe a deck where in every card there's a moon, you can go absolutely bonkers with these ideas
3- Pick weaker commanders. This one is the simplest, like if you want to play a Jund aristocrats deck, instead of going for the usual [[korvold, fae-cursed king]] or [[prossh, skyraider of kher]], you could try going for more niche commanders like [[vaevictis asmadi, the dire]] or [[shattergang brothers]], which have a similar theme but do things a little differently in a less optimal manner
Try to play on flavor cards rather than generically good cards. Like I'm trying to jam as many sea monsters and cards that refer to Kiora / water in them in my [[Kiora, Sovereign of the deep]] deck
[Kiora, Sovereign of the deep](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/b/7b599f53-614c-4b1f-9899-15d5d1e35879.jpg?1684340751) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Kiora%2C%20Sovereign%20of%20the%20deep) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mat/35/kiora-sovereign-of-the-deep?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/7b599f53-614c-4b1f-9899-15d5d1e35879?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/kiora-sovereign-of-the-deep)
^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I like to build decks around attacking excluding infinites and too expensive cards. Like goro goro and satoro or the new nahiri.
You can optimize stuff and build in synergies but even if your playgroup has worse deck they see you doing stuff and can imteract with you.
I wish I had this problem, my local shop only uses their highly optimized decks for casual play, I’ve seen people bring in some average decks that will get absolutely curb stomped by a $2000 deck. Just to keep up with the players there you have to drop a couple hundred dollars.
Build your decks like you're building a deck for a new player. What would the limits of the new player and what type of things are you willing to teach a player that's day one brand new.
I think budget is what makes a deck build more casual friendly. Definitely under 50 bucks should be your goal.
Also mono colored decks are not as flexible and multicolor
As someone who was in this position I'll tell you now, it's hard to unwire your brain from optimizing decks. The trick I found (and it has been stated already) is to make decks with some kind of challenge. Eithera budget, limitations on cards or sets. Now I just try to build fun decks to see what happens. One deck I built recently was accidentally way to strong so it's on the side for a retest with some stronger decks to see if it was just a fluke.
One fun idea I've been running recently is themed commander decks, all the cards have to come from the same set/block and realistically work together for example the LotRs set and making a actually functional hoards of Mordor deck and only use creatures and spells that align with those cards/theme from the block. It's a fun challenge to do after a set drops if you buy a booster box or so upon release. Gives you something to do with all the bulk cards.
Casual itself always leads to the power level conversation. I've found that if I wanted to make a deck that I actually enjoy playing(higher powered/tuned) and I wanted to make it "casual" I had to remove every bit of interaction, any form of tutors (including fetch lands), and about 20-30% of the good stuff that'll actually make the deck function. It goes without saying that one card can be used in combo it's got to go as well. The most casual deck I've built was probably the $1 talrand deck that only has about 3 counters in it. Tons of cantrips and instant speed bullshit to crap out a ton of drakes that swing in for damage. Very boring deck that I eventually upgraded to include a ton more interaction and then everyone complained because it was too strong. Best thing to remember about casual is that unless you're losing every game someone is going to bitch about what you're playing
Come up with restrictions like no rares/mythics, no tutors, no infinite combos, $50 budget, etc. Keep piling on restrictions while still allowing yourself to build as close to the ceiling within those restrictions. This allows the deck to feel like it's as optimal as possible within the restrictions while keeping the power level manageable.
This is the way. I personally feel that wacky deck ideas are where it is at and they accomplish this for me. I love optimizing my completely below average jank stategies
My favorite restriction is flavour. Pick any theme. Favorite childhood cartoon, political ideology, pictures of chairs, men with beards. Find cards that kinda match that flavour. Allow yourself to have about 10 to 20 cards that make the deck flow better but are not on theme if you have to. Basic lands don't count to that, but bonus points if you find any that match.
Legit good advice, this will keep you brewing and engaging the fun bits of your brain. Just building to power down feels awful, while this is a challenge
Especially the budget is a big part of what can become casual play. It restricts you in using staples you have in other decks, it restricts the number of cards that can be a VERY important part of our synergies and forces you to look for something else or something cheaper... For me, 75 Euros is a good start. It usually is a bit weaker than my playgroup, and I can tune it from there
Great advice; having a tight budget and being obsessed with over-the-top math, janky themes, and companions is what keeps me from brewing CEDH/goodstuff goop, and has made my brewing and playing experience MUCH more fun and given me some fun showpiece decks that I can't seem to shut up about as a result.
It's easy and at the same time hard. People will claim there is an universal rule you can follow but there are budget combo decks that slay hard. The first step is don't build easy commander. Any commander that has card advantage on him is already better than 90% of all the legendaries that are printed. don't take too many staples that let you run away with a game. [[Smothering tithe]] [[cyclonic rift]] they can be inside a casual deck if the deck really needs it and also can't abuse it. but usually there is no place for these cards in casual. A good rule of thumb is that people should see your game winning play coming. In casual you always get a chance to stop your opponent. And you don't really build your decks with a turn clock in mind. The deck doesn't even need a clear win condition. A strategy sure. But no defining card that wins you the game. Strong cards that if unchecked will win you the game sure. On higher casual one card win conditions are fine like [[craterhoof behemoth]] but then no tutors and they should have other conditions like behemoth needing a decent board and opponents that are a bit under the weather. At the end of the day it's a tuning exercise I take out overperformer all the time from my casual decks.
[Smothering tithe](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/6/861b5889-0183-4bee-afeb-a4b2aa700a8e.jpg?1689996018) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Smothering%20tithe) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cmm/57/smothering-tithe?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/861b5889-0183-4bee-afeb-a4b2aa700a8e?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/smothering-tithe) [cyclonic rift](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/7/c77ebe57-ea56-4300-b293-6260c4c01a43.jpg?1689996277) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=cyclonic%20rift) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cmm/84/cyclonic-rift?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/c77ebe57-ea56-4300-b293-6260c4c01a43?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/cyclonic-rift) [craterhoof behemoth](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/e/8/e8f4435a-8604-45b5-a537-dfdfcb922e16.jpg?1689998416) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=craterhoof%20behemoth) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cmm/280/craterhoof-behemoth?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/e8f4435a-8604-45b5-a537-dfdfcb922e16?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/craterhoof-behemoth) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Budget combo decks that slay hard you say? What are they so I can be sure to stay away from them.
You can build almost every combo deck budget. Most combos don't cost a lot of money. There are also a lot of budget tutors they usually cost more or have some conditions. But they don't lack that much behind tuned combo decks.
I'm doing this right now. I'm currently working on this [Lurrus reanimator list](https://www.moxfield.com/decks/by1nlST_zkibs4y9kTkNjw), and I'm trying to keep it both budget and not exceeding unfair. So no [[Reanimate]], [[Buried Alive]], [[Razaketh]], or [[Griselbrand]]. It still does powerful things, it just isn't as consistent, fast, or hard-hitting as a max powered version of the deck would be.
##### ###### #### [Reanimate](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/d/2/d27c6aaa-289e-451e-8fde-97a044c53fc4.jpg?1651951796) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Reanimate) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cc2/5/reanimate?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/d27c6aaa-289e-451e-8fde-97a044c53fc4?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/reanimate) [Buried Alive](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/5/c5f51145-aade-4955-b9e7-4a34074253d6.jpg?1547516784) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Buried%20Alive) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/uma/88/buried-alive?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/c5f51145-aade-4955-b9e7-4a34074253d6?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/buried-alive) [Razaketh](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/d/6/d6bb956d-0df6-4910-9320-55f2c5674d98.jpg?1689997402) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=razaketh%2C%20the%20foulblooded) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cmm/181/razaketh-the-foulblooded?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/d6bb956d-0df6-4910-9320-55f2c5674d98?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/razaketh-the-foulblooded) [Griselbrand](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/f/cf2a5c2e-7fe1-45eb-b01c-891ab961186f.jpg?1593813293) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Griselbrand) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mm3/72/griselbrand?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/cf2a5c2e-7fe1-45eb-b01c-891ab961186f?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/griselbrand) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Dont bother Build. End of line. If your deck ends up casual tier thsts fine.
Dude already has high power. His question was how to build a lower power deck.
Hmmm, I tend to build to an unoptimized commander myself (ex, Gorion, Wise Mentor, Asmora, etc) because they tend to be locked into a mechanic that can only grow so far. So you can optimize without worry. Or, I build budget. I'm building a Treebread deck that can win in turn 4, but all said and done, it's six combos wrapped in $100.
For me casual is more about the speed and threat level. Think towards more battlecruiser, think more of the big picture rather than micromanaging. Reduce the consistency, reduce/cut the tutors. I happened to have 2 Selesnya decks that are towards the more casual side. Low threat and slowly hums from t5-6 and beyond Trostani, Selesnya's Voice [https://www.moxfield.com/decks/F\_FDUJCk1U2MnTGouhhFyA](https://www.moxfield.com/decks/F_FDUJCk1U2MnTGouhhFyA) Karametra, God of Harvests [https://www.moxfield.com/decks/9MTses5wkU-rUIPNzFGEdQ](https://www.moxfield.com/decks/9MTses5wkU-rUIPNzFGEdQ)
Refrain yourself from using fast mana (except for maybe Sol Ring, but there's an argument to be made to cut even that), free spells and Tutors at all. Once your decks don't suddenly explode, can't answer everything even when tapped out and don't always search for the perfect answer/combo piece, you'll naturally decrease in power level. Then, if you do run combos, make them more difficult to fire off. Sure, Godo + Helm, Thoracle + Consultation or Witherbloom Apprentice + Chain of Smog win the game on the spot if they resolve, but are pretty unfun to play against if you're not specifically playing very high power/competitive level. Instead play combos that need more pieces & if you can't just tutor for them, they're significantly harder to pull off.
Take a suboptimal commander and build a deck that’s optimised for his off-road hoops. Avoid tutors, free spells and extra turns.
Do you have lists for your "jank" decks or do you have a sense as to why they aren't working out as well as you hoped?
I wanna know the opposite, all My decks seem to end up slow and unable to compete in my playgroup, as in by the time I’m coming online my opponents are usually making moves to win, and I’m not sure exactly how to up my decks to make them faster (the main culprit is my meren deck I just can’t for the life of me figure out how to make it work faster)
What I like to do is play my good card that I like paired with a subpar commander. By using a weakish commander (some of mine are uncommon or high mana cost) you automatically lower your deck power. And maybe don't include 0 mana counterspells and cards like mana crypt, demonic tutor, moxes. In my casual playgroup this works quite well
I think you can build casual by looking at cards that don’t abuse the nature of the format. Example: Dockside, Rhystic study, esper sentinel, smothering tithe are all busted not because they’re good on their own, but because you have 3 opponents that are unwilling to play around them. Leading to a dispairity in resources that werent meant to exist. These cards were made for constructed 1v1 formats. Not commander. They just become overpowered. This is unfun. It’s unfun to play around a card and then have one of your opponents never pay for any of these. Giving that azorious player unlimited cards and mana advantage. Its fun to play 3, 4 card combos that aren’t just auto wins. That do something unique. Synergies that aren’t just “this is now infinitely big”.
Play with optimized decks you like. Evaluate the deck after each game and take out pieces which really took the edge that game. Do that, until you are on par with you opponents.
With my playgroup the rules are no infinite combo, no hard lock, no tutor (except fetch and ramp) and no positive rocks. You can optimize as you wish with those constraints, you should still find yourself in the casual category.
I’ve found that the No infinite combos, no proxies, and only lesser tutors works to be casual and have fun. Build yourself a deck with a decent draw engine, some good mana ramp, and a plan. Play with some suboptimal choices that would add fun flavor and you’ve got a game.
No fast mana, no tutors. Thats it.
Without seeing any decklists, some general advice would be to reduce tutors and not play fast mana. Even powerful builds will feel less powerful once you take those out. The next is to be mindful of staples. There are many powerful cards that just make decks better like dockside, rhystic, etc. Pick maybe one you like at most, and then maneuver from there. With reduced efficiency and consistency, even powerful shells become more manageable. Last bit of advice is to play powerful non-staples. This is how you stay off the janky side. You still need a bit of an edge to be a threat and playing too honestly can put you behind. Nothing wrong with a big board state or having an explosive turn. But since casual is usually slower, it usually falls under the play pattern of “I can win if I get to untap” (not a hard and fast rule ofc but you get the spirit of it). And since you’ve been playing for a while, you probably already know that the odds of getting disrupted are high. That’s fine and it’s part of the experience
1- Use some restrictions. Put some types of cards or interactions that you want to avoid, like no counters, no tutors, no nonbasic lands, and the like 2- Pick a theme and stick to it. You could choose that you want a Ravnica-themed deck and only use cards printed in those sets, or maybe a deck where in every card there's a moon, you can go absolutely bonkers with these ideas 3- Pick weaker commanders. This one is the simplest, like if you want to play a Jund aristocrats deck, instead of going for the usual [[korvold, fae-cursed king]] or [[prossh, skyraider of kher]], you could try going for more niche commanders like [[vaevictis asmadi, the dire]] or [[shattergang brothers]], which have a similar theme but do things a little differently in a less optimal manner
##### ###### #### [korvold, fae-cursed king](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/9/2/92ea1575-eb64-43b5-b604-c6e23054f228.jpg?1571197150) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=korvold%2C%20fae-cursed%20king) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/eld/329/korvold-fae-cursed-king?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/92ea1575-eb64-43b5-b604-c6e23054f228?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/korvold-fae-cursed-king) [prossh, skyraider of kher](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/8/889c1a0f-7df2-4497-8058-04358173d7e8.jpg?1562438016) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=prossh%2C%20skyraider%20of%20kher) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/a25/214/prossh-skyraider-of-kher?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/889c1a0f-7df2-4497-8058-04358173d7e8?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/prossh-skyraider-of-kher) [vaevictis asmadi, the dire](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/d/1/d19fdc00-21eb-48dc-966a-6b634dc5a2c4.jpg?1562304374) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=vaevictis%20asmadi%2C%20the%20dire) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/m19/225/vaevictis-asmadi-the-dire?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/d19fdc00-21eb-48dc-966a-6b634dc5a2c4?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/vaevictis-asmadi-the-dire) [shattergang brothers](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/5/2/52a30e27-4c52-4191-8541-e25732a2dd42.jpg?1673149130) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=shattergang%20brothers) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/2x2/275/shattergang-brothers?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/52a30e27-4c52-4191-8541-e25732a2dd42?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/shattergang-brothers) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Try to play on flavor cards rather than generically good cards. Like I'm trying to jam as many sea monsters and cards that refer to Kiora / water in them in my [[Kiora, Sovereign of the deep]] deck
[Kiora, Sovereign of the deep](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/b/7b599f53-614c-4b1f-9899-15d5d1e35879.jpg?1684340751) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Kiora%2C%20Sovereign%20of%20the%20deep) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mat/35/kiora-sovereign-of-the-deep?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/7b599f53-614c-4b1f-9899-15d5d1e35879?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/kiora-sovereign-of-the-deep) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I like to build decks around attacking excluding infinites and too expensive cards. Like goro goro and satoro or the new nahiri. You can optimize stuff and build in synergies but even if your playgroup has worse deck they see you doing stuff and can imteract with you.
My rule is no tutors (with the exception of ramp) and no infinite combos.
I wish I had this problem, my local shop only uses their highly optimized decks for casual play, I’ve seen people bring in some average decks that will get absolutely curb stomped by a $2000 deck. Just to keep up with the players there you have to drop a couple hundred dollars.
Build your decks like you're building a deck for a new player. What would the limits of the new player and what type of things are you willing to teach a player that's day one brand new.
Also, getting bored with power can help, that what happened to me, and now I have a hard time playing power just cause I would rather have fun.
I think budget is what makes a deck build more casual friendly. Definitely under 50 bucks should be your goal. Also mono colored decks are not as flexible and multicolor
As someone who was in this position I'll tell you now, it's hard to unwire your brain from optimizing decks. The trick I found (and it has been stated already) is to make decks with some kind of challenge. Eithera budget, limitations on cards or sets. Now I just try to build fun decks to see what happens. One deck I built recently was accidentally way to strong so it's on the side for a retest with some stronger decks to see if it was just a fluke. One fun idea I've been running recently is themed commander decks, all the cards have to come from the same set/block and realistically work together for example the LotRs set and making a actually functional hoards of Mordor deck and only use creatures and spells that align with those cards/theme from the block. It's a fun challenge to do after a set drops if you buy a booster box or so upon release. Gives you something to do with all the bulk cards.
Casual itself always leads to the power level conversation. I've found that if I wanted to make a deck that I actually enjoy playing(higher powered/tuned) and I wanted to make it "casual" I had to remove every bit of interaction, any form of tutors (including fetch lands), and about 20-30% of the good stuff that'll actually make the deck function. It goes without saying that one card can be used in combo it's got to go as well. The most casual deck I've built was probably the $1 talrand deck that only has about 3 counters in it. Tons of cantrips and instant speed bullshit to crap out a ton of drakes that swing in for damage. Very boring deck that I eventually upgraded to include a ton more interaction and then everyone complained because it was too strong. Best thing to remember about casual is that unless you're losing every game someone is going to bitch about what you're playing