Bend, but Don't Break

[Boros_Blendo]

I love the idea of archetypes, but only to a degree. Sometimes, the archetype can limit you. By this, I mean that a red, burn deck struggles in a lot of multi-player games. So, the deck included here is where I bent the archetype just enough that I can play it in Two-headed Giant and 3-player in addition to duels. This thing has more sweepers than most of my free-for-all decks. Yes, people can choose what works best for them in the "choice" cards, but the result is always in my favor in the manner I built it as the damage the choices do match my best damage spells. Just recently, I burned out the opposing side in a 2HG game, even though my partner was mana hosed.

Another example is that a friend of mine has a mill deck. For the longest time, he would play that in a FFA and almost never mill anyone to death. He's added and refined, and now he can easily mill the entire table in a true FFA-viable deck. I don't even mind that he does it, it's just so cool to witness.

So, the question here is: where do you bend the archetype to make a deck cross a boundary that it would not otherwise cross so that you can use it more often?

Flaming Hot Revenge

Decklist

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

Artifacts 1

1 Skullclamp

Creatures 16

4 Hellspark Elemental

4 Vexing Devil

4 Ball Lightning

4 Spark Elemental

Instants 8

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Flame Javelin

Sorceries 16

4 Chain Lightning

4 Flamebreak

4 Browbeat

4 Breaking Point

Lands

20 Mountain

Approximate Total Cost:

[Diz]

I personally often go all-in on my archetypes for the sake of efficiency, but I have been known to include pet cards (i.e. Bounty of the Luxa) for the sake of augmenting an already-existing gameplan until I find I can no longer keep those cards in for the sake of furthering the gameplan.

[Boros_Blendo]

I personally often go all-in on my archetypes for the sake of efficiency, but I have been known to include pet cards (i.e. Bounty of the Luxa) for the sake of augmenting an already-existing gameplan until I find I can no longer keep those cards in for the sake of furthering the gameplan.

Haha, I do that in a number of decks, too...efficiency and reliability are two things I strive for (that, and sheer fun). I have friends who love 60 card singleton, and they do a pretty good job of great synergistic layers. I don't enjoy the randomness of singleton in 60 card format, and any singleton 60's tend to die an early death in my collection. If I wanted singleton, I'd just shuffle in my commander from an edh deck without Command Tower and other stuff like that, and bash with that. So, my playgroup is a weird mishmash of play styles. In the case of the deck I posted here, though, this deck in almost this lineup ended an Emperor's game where I killed my opposing wing by turn 5, and the Emperor resigned not long after. I think it's now my longest lasting deck since converting it from a Kobold tribal (yeah, wrap your head around that one.) I still have all the Kobolds, too, in full playsets.

[Diz]

I personally often go all-in on my archetypes for the sake of efficiency, but I have been known to include pet cards (i.e. Bounty of the Luxa) for the sake of augmenting an already-existing gameplan until I find I can no longer keep those cards in for the sake of furthering the gameplan.

Haha, I do that in a number of decks, too...efficiency and reliability are two things I strive for (that, and sheer fun). I have friends who love 60 card singleton, and they do a pretty good job of great synergistic layers. I don't enjoy the randomness of singleton in 60 card format, and any singleton 60's tend to die an early death in my collection. If I wanted singleton, I'd just shuffle in my commander from an edh deck without Command Tower and other stuff like that, and bash with that. So, my playgroup is a weird mishmash of play styles. In the case of the deck I posted here, though, this deck in almost this lineup ended an Emperor's game where I killed my opposing wing by turn 5, and the Emperor resigned not long after. I think it's now my longest lasting deck since converting it from a Kobold tribal (yeah, wrap your head around that one.) I still have all the Kobolds, too, in full playsets.

Yeah, 60-card singleton is like playing Yu-Gi-Oh! playground/anime style. :p While that may have once been an appealing option, I can safely say that is no longer the case.