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5 months ago ::
Jan 06, 2013 - 10:41AM
#1
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Date Joined:
Jul 22, 2011
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Hi all, So multiplayer is mostly what I play, and it's the most fun too. Lately, cards like Reverent Silence  have been creeping into pretty much any deck I own that can run it. And then it hit me! I've started building decks with "Political" cards in them?!?  Whilst my example above, isn't a true politics card (like Howling Mine  ), it's an example of one I like a lot. So it gave me an idea - What are you favourite political cards for MP?
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5 months ago ::
Jan 08, 2013 - 7:37AM
#2
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Date Joined:
Aug 27, 2009
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I recently built a deck using snow as the theme, and rimewind cryomancer  and friends have been hilarious to deter opponents from using planeswalkers against me. A friend has a deck using thornscape master  (along with all of the other ____scape masters and apprentices) to slightly annoy players until seedborn muse  seals the deal. I like the flavor of the deck, though. He also has a phelddagrif  deck that is pure politics. Most activated abilities can be political, like royal assassin  for example. He can kill most things, but it is a deterrent enough for players to leave you alone; it depends on how you use it. I also like standstill  , not so much for multiplayer, but I like the politics of it. It's kind of hard to think of political cards when so many cards can be political. I personally see politics as the key to winning in multiplayer, unless you have something completely oppressive dominating the board.
HOW TO AUTOCARD! When posting in a text box, type [c ]Plains[/c] to make your post show Plains  . Are you making a casual mill deck? Please read.
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Control is the key of a mill deck. You should free up your mana as much as possible so that you can respond to whatever your opponent is doing. Having some way to remove threats, both real and percieved, is necessary to survival. Real threats are those that are already on the field, and are something a simple unsummon  or doom blade  can remove. Percieved threats are those that aren't on the field, something a simple duress  or counterspell  can deal with. Controlling the board will allow your mill deck to continuously perform, if you use permanent style mill, that is.
One-Shot Mill spells are something you should avoid. You can toss tome scour  s at your opponent until your hand runs out, but that isn't going to be enough to mill them to death. With 1-shot mill spells, like tome scour , you have to treat them like burn spells. Therefore, the only "good" 1-shot mill spells are sanity grinding  (in the right deck) and mind funeral  . Try to find more permanent styles of milling, like memory erosion  , hedron crab  , and curse of the bloody tome  , so that you don't have to waste your mana each turn doing something that those permanents can do with a single mana/turn investment. Keeping your mana open allows you to respond with control elements.
Traumatize  Rant. Traumatize is a terrible card for a multitude of reasons. First, it costs 5 to cast, which is a large investment for a mill deck. Milling half a library sounds neat, but if you do the math, it really isn't that much. An average 60 card deck starts with drawing 7 cards. Then, barring any draw spells on their end, or ramp on yours, 5 turns will go by, where they draw 5 more cards, leaving 48 in the deck. Unless they had a deck with more than 60 cards, or you ramped it out, the most you'll ever mill with a single Traumatize on turn 5 is 24 cards. That's not too shabby, but hang on, there's more! If they drew any additional cards or if they were milled before turn 5, that number will be much lower. In addition, any more Traumatize's you draw will only mill less and less as the game goes on...which is the point of a mill deck. My whole point on Traumatize is the it is NOT worth the 5 mana investment, not even with haunting echoes  . You can mill more than 24 before turn 5...which you can then cast the echoes.
If you look at a mill deck like a burn deck, you'll notice that it takes longer to win with mill than with burn. For example, lightning bolt  costs 1 and does 3 out of the 20 damage needed to win (barring any lifegain or damage prevention). For mill, that same investment of 1 would have to mill 9 cards out of an average 60 card deck to be the equivilent of lightning bolt . The problem is that there is no mill card that can do that...except hedron crab , over a period of time. The initial investment of 1 will pay off in 3 more land drops to make the crab equal to a bolt. However, the crab nets you more mill beyond those 3 land drops, making it better as the game draws on. Other cards, like curse of the bloody tome , are excellent ways of milling an opponent because the initial investment of   is all you have to pay in order to put your opponent on a clock. All you have to do is stay alive, which is the true goal of a mill strategy.
There are other ideas for mill decks that are specific to certain types of strategies. Combo mill decks can mill an entire player's library out from under them. Secondary mill strategies are usually tied to another strategy, like drowner of secrets  in a merfolk deck, or halimar excavator  in an ally deck. Milling can be done in certain decks that are able to ramp out enough mana to make use of the higher costing mill spells, like using 16 x post  to pay for X on sands of delirium  or for ambassador laquatus  . Multiplayer mill decks are even tougher to build, but can be done. Being a slower environment[/c], it is easier to ramp in multiplayer, allowing for big X spells, like mind grind  , to be useful. Consuming aberration  is another star player. The more straightforward strategy is to use mesmeric orb  and dreamborn muse  while being the only deck at the table that can deal with it  . There are always new strategies coming out with each new set, so check gatherer for any new mill cards that you find to be the most fun for you!
Now you can say that you haven't fallen into the trap that most new players fall into when they build their first mill deck!
 : Order, Law, Faith.
 : Knowledge, Artifice, Control.
 : Corruption, Death, Self-Interest.
 : Freedom, Destruction, Victory.
 : Nature, Growth, Life.
 : Progressive, but too controlling.
 : Focused, but short sighted.
 : Skilled, but hypocritical.
 : Unified, but without a sense of self.
 : Cunning, but devious.
 : Inquisitive, but incautious.
 : Rational, but impulsive.
 : Powerful, but spiteful.
 : Instinctive, but selfish.
 : Fearless, but reckless.
Name:  Keino
 =100 Class: 
 x 236 Diety: 
 125/200
Weapon: Staff of Fire ( =2x dmg/ =4+3 dmg)
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5 months ago ::
Jan 08, 2013 - 9:08AM
#3
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I run political puppets in EDH, but I realized quickly that the guys I play with have a short memory of who helped them. More often they turn into petulant children by not honoring their agreements they made when I handed out a favor. Now I have it tailored to gift out nasty stuff with zedruu the greathearted  along with nice stuff if i am feeling generous. The hunted cards ( Hunted Dragon  and it's ilk) are very good for politics, if your playgroup is on the small side.
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5 months ago ::
Jan 08, 2013 - 10:58AM
#4
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Date Joined:
Jul 22, 2011
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I run political puppets in EDH, but I realized quickly that the guys I play with have a short memory of who helped them. More often they turn into petulant children by not honoring their agreements they made when I handed out a favor.
LOL
I see that sort of behaviour akin to "take the open shot". If you're open, and you're an experienced player, most peeps will know you also deserve to cop your oughts.
Funny you say Royal Assassin Keino - I have a Deathtouch B/G deck using 4 of those guys. That deck runs pretty light on overall threats but it pretty damn hard to kill due to it's defence and ability to punish anyone attacking frequently. ...I also have a couple Seedborn Muse  in there too, together with Thornbite Staff  . LOL - they don't piss me off!
It's a deck I don't play too often, as it really helps all the control/combo players survive long enough to rape the table.
Another card I like is Chain Lightning  .
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5 months ago ::
Jan 09, 2013 - 2:44PM
#5
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Date Joined:
Jul 17, 2003
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I'm not sure if these count as political cards, but the following affect everyone for the sake of a) speeding up the game and b) working well to my advantage. Mana Flare  , Oath of Lieges  , and Rites of Flourishing  - everyone loves extra mana/land, the trick is to make it work best to my advantage. Prosperity  and any other card that forces everyone to draw extra cards - similar to the above idea, but is maximized by cards like Firestorm  and Psychosis Crawler  . Hex  strikes me as very political in nature, but as I cannot find my lone copy - nor recall which deck I put it in - I really cannot speak from experience. The Hunted guys were mentioned by trann and work quite well. Cheers!
A shout out to Gaming Grounds in Kent, Ohio and Gamers N Geeks in Mobile, Alabama.
www.zombiehunters.org for all your preparation needs.
http://shtfschool.com/ - why prepping is useful, from one who has been there.
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5 months ago ::
Jan 09, 2013 - 8:36PM
#6
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Date Joined:
Oct 10, 2007
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Death By Dragons  has produced a few giggles in our playgroup.  I really, really want to give Curse of Stalked Prey  a run, too, but I can't seem to find the right deck to fit it into yet (not too many red things enjoy having +1/+1 counters... the list is pretty short). 
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5 months ago ::
Jan 10, 2013 - 2:28AM
#7
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Date Joined:
Nov 10, 2009
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STEP 1: Find your cousin
STEP 2: Get your cousin in the cannon
STEP: 3 Find another cousin
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5 months ago ::
Jan 12, 2013 - 5:25AM
#8
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Date Joined:
Jan 12, 2013
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5 months ago ::
Jan 15, 2013 - 4:40AM
#9
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4 months ago ::
Jan 15, 2013 - 1:01PM
#10
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Date Joined:
Jul 22, 2011
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I think green is a great political color. Some examples:
.............
These are just off the top of my head. Cards that 'appear' to help everyone, but you should get the most out of them if you've built your deck correctly.
I agree - Green definitely has a lot of the "help everyone" type cards.
I like Dense Foliage  a lot too.
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