"Oh, I only play standard."

[Deebiia]

I've heard this remark from many people at my local card shop, as well as "dirty casual". I was grown on casual and most of my decks are casual. I get hate from friends because I play casual. What ever happened to playing the game to have fun? Why is casual "so bad"? I'm not sure if this is just around my area, or if others see/hear this too.

[Mikefrompluto]

Dirty casual?

Most (all) of the people at the LGS I used to go to only played Standard. The group I was playing with for awhile only played Standard as well, but said it was cool that I used my Casual decks against them. Then they complained about an "unfair advantage" when I beat them even though they said it was cool in the first place. I dropped those suckers and now I'm working on building up a Casual playgroup.

[Bman0121]

Every magic player ever needs a Commander deck so they can have some fun with the deck

[gtfotis]

I'm still new, but I play anyone.. It's not like there's someone keeping tabs on my wins and losses so I just like seeing how my deck does against random decks. That's just me I guess, a noob's insight.

[Kaleo42]

Problems with casual can be boiled down to the fact there are no boundaries. A game without rules isn't fun...if someone abuses the lack of rules. Sure regular game play rules are in place but no restrictions on deck building is a huge issue if anyone takes the time to make a turn one or two kill or OP board position. This possibility of just getting blown out by someone's fun combo or lightning fast aggro deck just ruins the game's longevity.

Most players fix this by playing an established format like standard or commander, but there are other options. If your play group is reasonable you can set boundaries to what you can use however anyone outside of the group becomes instantly alienated by not knowing your casual restrictions.

I love playing casual with even powered decks but a "keeping up with the joneses" mentality eventually sets in as people try to slowly one up each other.

[Vampyvyrus]

I'm still new, but I play anyone.. It's not like there's someone keeping tabs on my wins and losses so I just like seeing how my deck does against random decks. That's just me I guess, a noob's insight.

I've been playin since zendikar and this is what I do. My lgs only does standard but I play test against modern and casual decks to get an idea of how good my deck is. Honestly, I just enjoy the game.

[Moneekahh]

Our friends at our LGS poke fun at Noah and I, saying things like, "who only plays modern and EDH. That's so weird". If a casual player wants to play against me I say "sure, ill play you. But my deck is competitive modern." Just so they know what they are getting themselves into. Haha.

[Spikepit]

I make standard based decks for my students to learn the game, how to build and run a deck. However, I play with them using my casual decks with cards as far back as Beta, not to WINWINWIN but to keep them on a level fair playing field against each other.

I just feel like the "casual sucks" player play for both fun and win, but the win does out rule the fun even slightly. Old school and true casual gamers just play for the giggles I feel and if there's a win, well happy days!

[IntoFire]

I hear you bro,my friend does the same thing when me and my other friend play modern.He asks:"Why modern?",and we answer:"Because we like to",then he says:"Why not standard?",we say:"Because we like modern."Then he just stares at us in disgust for the rest of the day.For him,it's all WIN here WIN there(just like Charlie Sheen's 20/20 interview on Good Morning America mash-ups).When he loses he's always a grouch.Although it depends on his mood,sometimes he gets mad,other times he calmly displays his disappointment,like the one time I was playing Azorius Control and just shut him down on turn 6. He conceded after that,he said"Well,you {Oblivion Ring}ed my {Liliana of the Dark Realms}, I was supposed to get it back by using a {Cyclonic Rift}, but you milled that with your {Psycic Spiral} and also some other cards that were vital to my victory.That's why I concede."

[Spikepit]

See! That's why you play casual! Why limit yourself to plans A, B and C in a standard deck when you could have the WHOLE alphabet! 😜

[Agrus Kos, Enforcer of Truth]

Our group has this as a policy: Who cares? We can basically use whatever we want, although standard decks are most common because standard decks can be used almost anywhere. Although I am pretty bumbed because we usually play during lunch at school and this year I don't have any lunches because of stupid AP classes.

[Birdbrain]

I say, try all formats. Standard is stupid anyway

[MarduArrow]

Standard is stupid anyway

This, like honestly, why bother spending time and money perfecting a deck that in a couple months will be completely useless in its format, look at all the pre rotation decks, as soon as innistrad block rotates out they all lose major components, sometimes even half the deck, which is why I only play casual and commander, more fun plus i don't lose half my deck with every new set that gets released

[Millionlittlee]

Some sort of deck is going to survive rotation

[Wackaman9001]

RDW will, but reanimator got boned unless we see a good reanimate in theros, Blitz is keeping some stuff but lost some of its anti-control({Thalia, Guardian of Thraben}) and heavy hitters({Champion of the Parish}). hexproof is losing some of its main creatures, but it is getting some things back. At least Pillow Fort is going to thrive, right?