I would like to apologize to you. It has been quite some time since I have written up some fun, sixty-card casual decks that have extreme fun themes rather than the normal and usual suspects. I am a bad Abe. Mea culpa.

As my offering to you, here are some funtastic decks ready to rock and roll. Here we go!

Fallout 4 Deck ? Casual | Abe Sargent

• Creatures (19)
• 2 Giant Cockroach
• 2 Glowrider
• 2 Heartstabber Mosquito
• 2 Mass of Ghouls
• 4 Weathered Wayfarer
• 2 Armored Transport
• 2 Needlebug
• 3 Assembly-Worker

• Spells (16)
• 1 Temporary Insanity
• 2 Irradiate
• 4 Urza's Rage
• 1 Hint of Insanity
• 2 Power Surge
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Urza's Armor
• 2 Flowstone Armor
• 2 Power Armor

• Lands (25)
• 2 City of Brass
• 2 Mana Confluence
• 2 Rupture Spire
• 2 Urza's Mine
• 2 Urza's Power Plant
• 2 Urza's Tower
• 4 Mishra's Factory
• 4 Nomad Outpost
• 4 Wasteland
• 1 Hall of the Bandit Lord

Buy This Deck

If you have been living under a prophetical rock, you may not have realized that a new RPG video game called Fallout 4 was recently released. I’ve already invested around seventy-five hours into it, and that number growing. It’s not as good as New Vegas, but it’s still worth playing and figuring out. It’s (mostly) set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland more than two hundred years after a nuclear war, near the Boston area. The game is designed to have you explore and run into pre-nuclear-war stuff as well as creatures, places, and more that have occurred in a post-fallout world.

Mass of Ghouls — There are various mutated humans that are called ghouls, and some have gone feral.

Heartstabber Mosquito — There are some flying insects that duplicate it’s effect.

Giant Cockroach — It’s been mutated by radiation!

Irradiate — Duh.

Hint of Insanity, Temporary Insanity — There are pretty maddening trials that await survivors.

Glowrider — Ride that nuclear fallout!

Weathered Wayfarer — Virtually everyone is both weathered heavily by conditions and moving about.

Power Armor, Urza's Rage, Urza's Armor — There are various fusion-supported power armors in the game.

Power Surge — Uh oh, look out!

Flowstone Armor — The picture looks a bit like a certain weapon.

Assembly-Worker, Mishra's Factory — A lot of quests are done in and around factories, such as the Boston Beanery.

Urza’s Lands — See above.

Wasteland — Duh.

Hall of the Bandit Lord — You often invade these.

I think that’s a good solid representation of the world of Fallout. You could go into a lot of directions with super mutants (Orgg perhaps) and synths (the colored artifact creatures from Esper might work), and so on.

That, my friends, is a crazy theme. That’s what I‘m looking for.

Let’s do some more media; this is fun!

All right, let’s dig into another post-apocalyptic work, this time with a mutations/psychic feel. There was a hugely influential novel in the early ’70s called Hiero’s Journey by Sterling Lanier. It’s set five hundred years after The Death, and our good hero is a Canadian descendant of the Métis people who survived the war. He is a priest, roaming the countryside and establishing order, with his giant mutated moose, which he controls telepathically, an intelligent psychic bear sidekick, and his own slate of psychic powers. Per Hiero Desteen is a fighter, a ranger, a psychic, and a hero. He’ll adventure out and face a bunch of terrors, and he uses a pre-war sword, has an old and rare gun with exploding shells, and has a bunch of adventures.

This book introduces a lot of concepts that are found in later fantasy, sci-fi, and RPGs. This book is listed by Gary Gygax in his famous Appendix N of the Dungeon Master’s Guide, where he discusses influences on the game. The book has a ton of synergies with the game (psionics and the concept of leveling up, and there’s another order of psychics that are very much the modern fantasy view of druids fully formed, and there’s more). But you’ve probably never heard of it. I read it a few years ago and loved it.

So let’s do a crazy deck in this book’s honor

Psychic Rangers ? Casual | Abe Sargent

• Creatures (20)
• 1 Elusive Krasis
• 1 Gorilla Chieftain
• 1 Plaxcaster Frogling
• 1 Vigean Hydropon
• 2 Axebane Stag
• 2 Elder Druid
• 2 Pathbreaker Wurm
• 2 Razorclaw Bear
• 2 Zodiac Monkey
• 4 Borderland Ranger
• 1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
• 1 Experiment Kraj

• Spells (16)
• 2 Psionic Blast
• 2 Psychic Barrier
• 2 Psychic Purge
• 2 Ranger's Path
• 2 Call of the Wild
• 2 Exploration
• 2 Mind Control
• 2 Psychic Possession

• Lands (24)
• 12 Forest
• 12 Island

Buy This Deck

Many of the creatures here fought on the side of Per Hiero Desten. We have the woman he would rescue—a princess from a faraway land in old Delaware and DC (represented by Azusa, Lost but Seeking, although the character is actually a black woman who can hold her own in a fight)—and a psychic druidesque mentor (Brother Aldo) he’d meet called Eleveners because they believed in an Eleventh Commandment after the war—to keep nature safe—and he had a different set of nature-based psychic powers. Elder Druid does well there. Aldo’s character is immune to attack by animals and mutated beasts that aren’t evil, and he can summon aid, although it’s random, to fight for him. Call of the Wild seemed to fit that. (He prevents an attack by a great unknown wormlike creature, so Pathbreaker Wurm seems solid.)

Other powers Per Desteen has are here as well. And how come there’s no Moose in Magic? I went with Elk, but that’s crazy that we haven’t seen one token Moose card ever printed. Anyway, that’s my take on the psychic ranger cleric warrior guy Per Hiero Desteen.

Okay, now let’s leave behind both media and post-apocalyptic stuff and head to another theme or two.

My grandmother had a small subsistence-level farm that she worked her whole life. I’d occasionally help out with it as well when I came to visit. I’d love to see if I could create a farm and agriculture deck. One of the problems with Magic conceptually when it comes to extreme themes is that the vast majority of cards focus on either fighting or casting spells—might or magic, if you will. There’s not a lot of room for love, diplomacy, or farming. But let’s see what we can do.

In the Name of Farming ? Casual | Abe Sargent

• Creatures (15)
• 2 Elvish Farmer
• 2 Shu Farmer
• 2 Shu Grain Caravan
• 2 Yoked Ox
• 3 Shu Soldier-Farmers
• 4 Yoked Plowbeast

• Spells (22)
• 1 Refreshing Rain
• 4 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Bountiful Harvest
• 1 Mulch
• 1 Summer Bloom
• 2 Acorn Harvest
• 2 Incremental Growth
• 2 Plow Under
• 4 Cultivate
• 1 Compost
• 1 Farmstead
• 2 Sharpened Pitchfork

• Lands (24)
• 11 Forest
• 11 Plains
• 2 Springjack Pasture

Buy This Deck

I want to make sure we have enough creatures to matter. Many farmers and agriculture-minded folks are smaller with low power. We don’t have a lot of beats, from Elvish Farmer and Yoked Ox to the virtual Venerable Monk iteration of Shu Grain Caravan. So I made sure to run a few bigger creatures where possible (Yoked Plowbeast comes in a four-pack) to increase our ability to smash. I also tossed in some fun cards like Incremental Growth to build a better monster.

Beyond that, I added in some other cards to make creature tokens or to flex us into other directions. Want to get some farming done? Well, grab your Sharpened Pitchforks and head out to Plow Under that Compost.

So we can do farms, too, by the by. Excellent! What’s next?

As long as I’ve been alive, I’ve had a fascination with animals that have gone extinct long before my birth. From recent creatures like the moa and back to the trilobite and such, I’ve really had a real desire to see a lot of stuff up close and personal.

Back in Time ? Casual | Abe Sargent

• Creatures (25)
• 1 Bayou Dragonfly
• 1 Emerald Dragonfly
• 1 Venomous Dragonfly
• 1 War Mammoth
• 1 Yavimaya Gnats
• 2 Allosaurus Rider
• 2 Carnivorous Plant
• 2 Dire Wolves
• 2 Giant Mantis
• 2 Goliath Beetle
• 2 Pygmy Pyrosaur
• 2 Sabretooth Tiger
• 2 Woolly Mammoths
• 4 Pygmy Allosaurus

• Spells (10)
• 4 Become Immense
• 2 Primal Command
• 4 Primal Growth

• Lands (25)
• 1 Jungle Basin
• 12 Snow-Covered Forest
• 12 Snow-Covered Mountain

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Then we have that giant Insect. Often in old works, when the ancient world is encountered, you don’t know until you see an insect that’s huge. It’s a sign, but it can be overcome. It gives folks a false sense of security—or a clue that things are wrong.

This era of Primal Growth and plants that will eat you without another thought is a fun place to look at for another extreme theme.

Let’s do one more!

One of the classic themes of Magic’s cards is that earth has gotten good and pissed off at someone. Every color has some sort of angry world to deal with (Blue? Violent Eruption, Flood. White? Armageddon, Winds of Rath. Black? Sinkhole, Blight). We’ll hit up red and green, which I think have the most, but who knows? But today? Earth is pissed!

Earth Is Pissed ? Casual | Abe Sargent

• Creatures (19)
• 2 Anger
• 2 Force of Nature
• 2 Gaea's Revenge
• 2 Locust Swarm
• 2 Rage Nimbus
• 2 Stalking Vengeance
• 4 Wilderness Elemental
• 3 Yeva, Nature's Herald

• Spells (22)
• 1 Comet Storm
• 1 Fissure
• 1 Hail Storm
• 1 Sandstorm
• 2 Lightning Bolt
• 1 Aftershock
• 1 Hurricane
• 1 Ice Storm
• 1 Rolling Earthquake
• 1 Squall
• 1 Tropical Storm
• 2 Desert Twister
• 2 Earthquake
• 2 Lava Burst
• 1 Meteor Storm
• 1 Storm Front
• 1 Tornado
• 1 Sword of Vengeance

• Lands (25)
• 10 Forest
• 10 Mountain
• 1 Skarrg, the Rage Pits
• 4 Gruul Turf

Buy This Deck

Someone pissed off the earth, and good luck surviving that! This is sort of what happened with Kavu during the Invasion story line. Phyrexia invaded, and these creatures were awoken specifically to deal with the threat.

And remember that the very land itself is not ready to forgive. So out some creatures to bring you back down. Gaea's Revenge? Anger? Force of Nature? And they are all led by Yeva, Nature's Herald. So get ready to get smash-stomped by nature.

Tsunami, Blizzard, Typhoon, Cyclone, and Flashfires are rocking it as well. Nature's Wrath might be a little too hosey. What about something like Omnath, Locus of Rage? Or is that too Zendikar for this sort of deck?

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed our five-set of extreme themes. We have decks inspired by post-apocalyptic media, angry Gaea, creatures long since extinct, and even a spot of farming for you. This article is important because there is a lot of value in remembering that Magic, at its core, is a game. Games are supposed to be about having fun and enjoying the company of others. How much fun would it be to unleash a theme night when everyone builds an extreme theme and then plays it and you have to guess the theme? So go out there and get your themes on!