Magic the Gathering format: Fun 40

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May 1, 2025

Magic the Gathering format: Fun 40

During the Beasts of the Bay's "Quest for Urza's Chalice" event of 2026, a side tournament proposed to revive the late 90s. Custom boosters were distributed and the 80+ participants were<br>invited to build a deck of 40 cards. Trading was very much encouraged during these three days. There were many cool cards in the set<br>and many gorgeous decks were assembled.

Needless to say, I did not sleep much and had a blast during that "magical" weekend. So much so that I decided to build a set<br>of six decks to recapture the spirit and play with my wife.

What is fun?<br>Here is a list of things that make a game of Magic The Gathering fun to us.

Back and Forth. Many interactions between players are exciting.<br>Spice. A player can occasionally recover from a desperate situation.<br>Diverse borders. If everything is black border, nothing feels special.<br>No Discard. It sucks to have no spells to play.<br>No Land destruction. It sucks to be unable to cast spells.<br>Mild Prison. Too much of it is boring. But Armaguedon is tolerated.<br>Small decks. Sixty-card decks are hard to shuffle. Forty cards "feels" right.<br>Pretty white borders. Portal Three Kingdoms and Fifth Ed white borders are gorgeous.<br>Catnip black borders. Beta is the absolute pinnacle of MtG card beauty.<br>Moxes/Sol Ring. They are a nice touch if not found in abundance.

White/Green<br>Erhnageddon is my second all-time favorite deck. Beta Serra Angels for candies, Balance to save the day, gorgeous Ravages of War from P3K.<br>I am still unsure about having three StP but so far it did not feel like too much.

Green/Red<br>Finishing a game with a Berserk is incredibly satisfying. Candy Arabian Nights Erhnam Djinn, Beta Berserk. Might of Oaks is so fun. P3K's<br>Rolling Earthquake is a great wiper. Thirst for Blood is also cool because they can feed the Berserk or weaken Serra/Vampires.

Black<br>Candy Nightmare. Will-O-The-Wisp and Royal Assassin. When I started, RA was the card everybody wanted along with Shivan. We made Imperial Seal an instant<br>because it was more fun. The Wretched is one of the most beautiful cards in Magic. So weird that the drawing has wings but the creature<br>cannot fly. Other than that, many one-off cards that can be tutored when needed.

Red<br>A hyper-aggressive red deck with a Beta Shivan, Whelps and Fork for candies. The combo Earthquake/Mogg Maniac is super fun. Warrior's Oath won<br>many games in extremis. Three ball lightning may be too much. Homage to my "Urza Ante 2026" deck with a sweet, sweet Fireball. I tried to<br>add a Gauntlet of Might but it was ridiculously broken.

Bant<br>When I started MtG, a friend explained all colors to me. "Blue" was the color of "back-stabbing" (yes he must have had MtG PTSD).<br>Mahamoti Candy and the only non retro-frame card, Redirect, in the whole set because it is so much fun. I became enamored with<br>Lu Xun, Scholar General but it is a bolt magnet.

Red/Black<br>Red/Black is my all-time favorite type of deck. Aggro Aggro Aggro. Candy Vampire and Assassin (that I got signed in-person at MagicCon 2026<br>in Las Vegas). The combo Rolling Earthquake/Maniac is phenomenal (and borderline OP).

Suggestions?<br>If you have suggestions of cards to add/remove or even other deck ideas, shoot me an email!