Lately, I’ve had a mighty craving for something new. Something with the variety and freedom of Commander deck-construction but easier to shuffle. Something unapologetically about the reduction of a single opponent’s life total to 0. A juicy, nonrotating card pool that won’t deck my bank account. Yeah, that’s what I want.

I convened a meeting of the Looter supercommittee. We schemed and debated long into the night. I won’t deny that some friendships will never be the same. In the end, we got there. At first, I dubbed it “Bratty Goblin Highlander,” but the marketing team wanted more mainstream appeal, a name to really move units. And so, “Filth Casserole” was born.

How to Make a Casserole

1. Your deck has a minimum of fifty cards.
2. You can only have a single copy of any card other than basic lands.
3. Legal card sets and banned cards are the same as for the Modern format.
4. No sideboards (so Glittering Wish is bad; sorry).
5. All the other usual stuff applies. 20 life, mulligans, blah, blah, blah. Please let me know if this part needs further explanation.

So, it’s fifty-card Modern singleton, yeah? Not so freaky, but it hits the spot. I think a majority of the cards banned for Modern would actually be fine in Filth Casserole, but let’s start off simple. Version 2.0 might have unbannings. Let’s leave Jace on ice for now.

Excuse me. Why?

I’m glad you asked. You’d better be wearing your “convince me” pants.

1. One love.

Singleton decks are cooler than Fonzie making love to a Winter Orb. The oneness of Casserole fosters sublime deck-construction and play.

During deck-construction, you will lavish the full force of your creative power on every precious slot. Plant a bountiful crop of two-card synergies. Sleeve up a who’s-who of cherished all-stars. If you don’t own a copy of the pricey tournament flagship, there’s a teetering stack of options just waiting to see play. Give that pet card the call. When any card is just one in fifty, you have a lot of freedom.

And every hand you draw is a unique blend of your lovingly chosen weapons. Variety: It’s a spicy meatball! . . . Or something! This is nothing new to all you Commander vets, but it’s still quite satisfying to explain.

2. Sometimes you just wanna tussle.

There are the evenings when you want a rich social and strategic experience with the goal of enjoyment for all. And then there are the evenings when you just wanna lay a beating on a suckah. Are you in the same room as one other person with a Filth Casserole deck? Good. Target acquired. Now destroy.

3. Modern lovers.

The boundary of the Modern card pool is a bit arbitrary, but I like what it does. The pool is vast enough to fill any deck with oohs and aahs while limiting the number of $100 sure-wish-I-hads. We like to play with all of our old cards, yes, and I encourage everyone to keep that flame alive, but let’s launch this particular format with the goals of inclusiveness and ease of entry. With the Modern pool and the singleton restriction, anyone can put together a fun Casserole deck. Everyone should. Now.

What’s Cookin’, Good-Lookin’?

I hashed out some sample decks. Take note that these are untested and posted here purely for the purpose of getting juices flowing.

First up, a U/B control list. It prices out pretty high, but there’s plenty on the archetype’s bench to substitute according to your own budget. If you like the feeling of a battlefield in your merciless iron fist, this is for you:

[cardlist]

[Creatures]

1 Consecrated Sphinx

1 Dark Confidant

1 Grave Titan

1 Mulldrifter

1 Shadowmage Infiltrator

1 Snapcaster Mage

1 Treasure Mage

1 Trinket Mage

1 Duplicant

1 Sphinx Summoner

1 Steel Hellkite

1 Wurmcoil Engine

1 Vendilion Clique

1 Venser, Shaper Savant

1 Wydwen, The Biting Gale

[/Creatures]

[Planeswalkers]

1 Jace Beleren

[/Planeswalkers]

[Spells]

1 Agony Warp

1 Cryptic Command

1 Gifts Ungiven

1 Go For The Throat

1 Mystical Teachings

1 Pact Of Negation

1 Remand

1 Repeal

1 Slaughter Pact

1 Soul Manipulation

1 Batterskull

1 Chimeric Mass

1 Dimir Signet

1 Executioner's Capsule

[/Spells]

[Lands]

2 Island

2 Swamp

1 Creeping Tar Pit

1 Darkslick Shores

1 Dimir Aqueduct

1 Drowned Catacomb

1 Faerie Conclave

1 Ghost Quarter

1 Halimar Depths

1 River of Tears

1 Sunken Ruins

1 Tectonic Edge

1 Tolaria West

1 Underground River

1 Urza's Factory

1 Watery Grave

1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse

1 Darksteel Citadel

[/Lands]

[/cardlist]

Moving on, if your sympathies are on the other side of the pie, you might try something like:

[cardlist]

[Creatures]

1 Avacyn's Pilgrim

1 Devoted Druid

1 Fauna Shaman

1 Heritage Druid

1 Imperious Perfect

1 Joraga Treespeaker

1 Kitchen Finks

1 Knight of the Reliquary

1 Llanowar Elves

1 Masked Admirers

1 Nest Invader

1 Nettle Sentinel

1 Quillspike

1 Regal Force

1 Steward of Valeron

1 Thelonite Hermit

1 Wilt-Leaf Liege

1 Rhys the Redeemed

[/Creatures]

[Planeswalkers]

1 Ajani Goldmane

1 Elspeth Tirel

1 Garruk Wildspeaker

[/Planeswalkers]

[Spells]

1 Congregation at Dawn

1 Scatter the Seeds

1 Sprout Swarm

1 Bestial Menace

1 Spectral Procession

1 Gaea's Anthem

1 Glare of Subdual

1 Glorious Anthem

1 Eldrazi Monument

[/Spells]

[Lands]

4 Forest

4 Plains

1 Brushland

1 Dryad Arbor

1 Gavony Township

1 Horizon Canopy

1 Razorverge Thicket

1 Stirring Wildwood

1 Sunpetal Grove

1 Temple Garden

1 Treetop Village

1 Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree

1 Windbrisk Heights

1 Pendelhaven

[/Lands]

[/cardlist]

Ya smell what I’m cookin’? Filth Casserole, baby.

What Will You Bring to the Pot Luck?

That’s the pitch. Nothing so extreme, but plenty promising. Now let’s make it happen.

I’ll be at Worlds in San Francisco, stalking the hall with a piping-hot Casserole between my oven mitts, eager to serve unfortunate tasters. As the event approaches, I’ll have more detail about the San Francisco Casserole Cookoff.

Additionally, I plan to organize MTGO meetups. Keep your eyes on the GatheringMagic forums and my own Twitter for the latest Filth Casserole event info.

But you don’t have to wait for my signal. No. Filth Casserole belongs to the people now. It’s out in the streets. It’s rising up! Run wild, my brethren, and spread the truth of Casserole! Wherever you shuffle up, I urge you to proudly bear the insignia of Filth Casserole (available here as a high-resolution PDF file) to let others know that you are an individual of exceptional quality who is armed with a fifty-card deck.

May all of your casseroles be filthy!