{"ops":[{"insert":"Anthony Alongi was literally the first content creator for multiplayer Magic: the Gathering formats. He started and wrote the “Casual Friday” column for the revered site The Dojo as early as 1999, then brought that column to StarCityGames.com a couple of years later. Shortly after that, Wizards of the Coast asked him to write the Tuesday “Serious Fun” column as they launched their own MTG content site. He did that for several years, and also served as an event reporter at various Pro Tours in the early 2000s. He was the best known casual Magic name in the game during his writing career; and by most colleagues' accounting, he was likely for a time the only non-pro, non-staff person in the game who made more money than he spent on it. \n\nHis most well-known work was the “Multiplayer Card Hall of Fame,” which ranked cards based on several “animal elements” to generate a workable quantitative system for understanding why a given card, while correctly dismissed by Pro Tour and duel players, might still be good against multiple opponents. Animal elements included “rattlesnake” (to convey warning), “gorilla” (to convey broad power), “cockroach” (to convey repeatable uses), “plankton” (to convey feeding all), “pigeon” (to convey scaling with population), and “spider” (to convey surprise card advantage).\n\nAs children grew and his day job got more demanding, Anthony set aside MTG content for about a decade. He kept in touch with the Magic community, writing occasional updates to his theories and ideas on multiplayer Magic, and eventually joined with the late and legendary Sheldon Menery, godfather of the Commander format, for the Elder Dragon Statesmen podcast hosted by StarCityGames.com. They produced about a year’s worth of content together, for as long as Sheldon could manage it.\n\nDuring all this time, Anthony (look folks, it’s not at all strange to talk about yourself in the third person, just stick with me here) has been accumulating decks, both of his own creation and preconstructed, and now has a collection of more than 200. This is easier than most readers might suspect: it is a simple matter of growing old, getting irritable, and refusing to take older decks apart. By going through them sequentially, Anthony limits how tired he gets of any one deck, allowing him to keep increasing the tally with each new interesting idea.\n\n******\nStandard strategic approach notes and disclaimer(s) for all my decks:\n\nI just started (in May 2026) uploading all of my (200+) decks into Archidekt. This is going to be a slow process so if you’re seeing notes that refer to other decks that you can’t find, give me a short moment and I’ll have more stuff up soon."},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"I generally aim for high synergy, short of optimization. (Tier 3+, if you track that sort of thing.)"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"I like games that last 8-12 turns and aim to demonstrate the deck’s synergy within that timeframe."},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"I prefer to win but don’t relentlessly pursue that goal, because I am an adult who enjoys playing games with friends. So you’ll occasionally see silly cards. Enjoy them!"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"I have 200+ decks and do not want to bore my friends, so my goal is to have NO non-land card in more than 3-4 decks. If you’re wondering why a certain “obvious staple” isn’t in this deck list, that’s probably why."},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"I’m continuously updating (each deck gets a look at newer cards every six months) so of course there may be changes around the margins. "},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nThanks for checking out my deck(s). Peace.\n\nAnthony Alongi\nProgenitor of Multiplayer Magic Content Creation\nFormer Columnist for Wizards of the Coast, StarCity Games, The Dojo\nFormer Podcaster (Elder Dragon Statesmen) with the Late, Great Sheldon Menery\n\n"}]}