General That awkward moment. . .

[FlowerSunRain]

So, someone I work with knows I plays Magic and he mentioned wanting to play. He asked me what kind of decks I have, and I told him I haven't played constructed in like 15 years and basically only play cube. He looked confused, then told me he mostly plays white and blue. He didn't mention any format, so I'm thinking he's pretty new.

I'd like to play with him, but the age old conundrum of playing casual constructed comes into play: I don't know how to make a deck for it. I have no idea how sophisticated his deckbuilding is, so even if I put together something silly like a Tibalt/Squee deck (that I want to build for giggles), it might turn out that even though it would 0-x in any tournament it is legal in (Legacy or Modern depending), it will roll him because it has a good curve and strong synergy, while he's just making doing with whatever cards he has. On the other hand if I just make a pile from random stuff lying around, he might drop a turn 1 sol ring into something dumb and that isn't very fun. Obviously my ulterior motive is to get him interested in cube, but this classic situation caused by the disparities of the CCG format makes that initial contact. . . awkward.

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

I would just ask him more questions first.

In a vacuum, I would introduce him to pauper, as the simple mana bases and price makes it somewhat less intimidating, but there is still enough depth to hold ones attention. Either that or invite him to draft origins. Its hard to say without knowing what kind of gaming experience he is looking for or expecting.

 

[Chris Taylor]

burning vengence is my casual go to

 

[ahadabans]

Here's what I do. I use my test cube deck lists. You might think they are overpowered, and the more broken ones are, but any constructed deck with a focus will always be more consistent than your cube decks. And so it's usually not as lopsided as you might expect.

Last time I did this my friend played a WB token thing and I didn't have enough removal. Second game he died to a 40 point overrun courtesy of craterhoof. But he was excited about it. He hasn't seen some of those cards and it made him more curious about my cube. Seeing what I built made him want to see what he could build with it.

I let him and others pilot some of my cube test decks. Didn't go well because I never make simple decks and everyone was misplaying them. So that was bogus.

 

[Dom Harvey]

I agree that Tibalt might be too good with Squee, instead:

 

[Diakonov]

I've done exactly what ahadabans suggested with positive results. It gives you an opportunity to test out some of your stranger cube ideas, so it's satisfying for both parties involved.

 

[FlowerSunRain]

Thanks for the suggestions, this is what I was thinking of building just to have a casual deck for when people want to play:

Ones (16) 4 Faithless Looting 4 Fiery Temper 4 Firebolt 4 Lava Dart Twos (4) 4 Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded Threes (13) 4 Squee, Goblin Nabob 2 Reckless Wurm 4 Violent Eruption 3 Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh Fours (3) 3 Fledgling Dragon Fives (1) 1 Shard Phoenix

Lands (23) 4 Barbarian Ring 18 Mountain 1 Dwarven Ruins

I might change the chandras to something else, it feels weird to throw a $10 card into this pile.

 

[Chris Taylor]

yeah flip planeswalkers in the "Hey here's magic" experience?
I approve of tibbers tho

Maybe something like Kris mage, or another spellshaper?

 

[FlowerSunRain]

Again, I'm not sure how much he knows, I gotta get more info, I just need a deck to have in hand. I'll make something like this and then just jam something out of my cube.

 

[safra]

Play a Duel Decks against itself, it's what they're for. Elspeth v Kiora is good, Eldrazi v Zendikar is lopsided and favours the Eldrazi, so it's better if there's a real skill disparity (you play the Allies)

 

[Jason Waddell]

I played Jace v Vraska a lot with my brother and enjoyed it.

I would go against Chris and say don't play a non-interactive "spells only" deck like burning vengeance. Most casual decks don't interact on that axis, I mean, this guy's could be an exception, but it's potentially a formula for some very boring Magic.

 

[Chris Taylor]

I played Jace v Vraska a lot with my brother and enjoyed it.

I would go against Chris and say don't play a non-interactive "spells only" deck like burning vengeance. Most casual decks don't interact on that axis, I mean, this guy's could be an exception, but it's potentially a formula for some very boring Magic.

I figured you'd put enough merfolk looters and something beefy like Charmbreaker Devils so it's a control deck with a cool enchantment, not "what the hell are you even doing" dredge style kind of thing.

 

[FlowerSunRain]

So I talked to him again and apparently he's been playing a long time. However he is completely disconnected from the competitive aspect and general discourse of the game.

Tibalt/Squee seems fine.

 

[Aoret]

I've run into this problem a lot and I feel like I've got it basically solved. You explain that you're out of the constructed loop, you summarize the "pickup constructed problem" (bringing knives to gun fights) and then you ask him to let you play one of his decks.

This shows interest in the new player, results in an even fight (or at least lays the blame at their feet if not), and hopefully opens them up to discussion about wtf kind of magic you play.