Puschkin

That's an easy one, though. I once made a shadow deck that was pretty nasty - even in multiplayer. I'll represent this with Thalakos Misfolk.

WHEN MAKING SUGGESTIONS PLEASE ADD IF FOR MULTIPLAYER OR 1-ON-1!

I will not look at your deck when creating this. If I end up copying you by accident it just means we both think alike or that that is the most efficient way :)
But from the top of my head there are many ways possible how to do that so I think it'll look different.

Oh and I forgot to ask: Multiplayer or 1-on-1?

Please help me to promote this, it'll be fun for everyone involved :)
http://www.mtgvault.com/puschkin/decks/obscure-card-challenge-occ/

THE CONTEST:
You challenge me by suggesting a card/concept you think is too weird, too weak or otherwise hard to play with (or a card that you'd like to see a built around it but can't come up with something yourself). Then I pick the most interesting and(or challenging of those submissions, build a deck around it and try my best to "brake" that card.
Here is a list of possible suggestions that work best:

* Environment changing cards that effect everyone (usually artifacts or enchantments) like the titular Zur's Weirding.
* Cards that are potentially interesting but have severe drawbacks like Lord of Tresserhorn or Psychic Allergy.
* Concepts that seem interesting/funny but you just don't know how to make it work like a deck that wants to run all 20 Eggs from Odyssey or a deck that bases on an odd ability like phasing or banding.

You can, of course, suggest whatever you want, the above is just what I think will work best!

Jessie is spot on.
Tournament aka "competitive": Winning => being creative and having fun
Kitchen table aka "casual": Being creative and having fun => winning.

Money is no issue in that. However, for many people "fun" equals "winning" and that's where people collide.

Our casual group always plays Vintage, simply because it has the biggest card pool and it would be silly to only use a tiny fraction of your card pool. Many of us do own those expensive power cards, however, since we have so huge collections and since it is becoming increasingly difficult to assemble and disassemble decks, we usually build more decks than we retire. Currently I have 23 decks and there no less than 12 in the making. And we have a simple but effective rule: DON'T SWITCH CARDS FROM DECK TO DECK BETWEEN MATCHES! So, while I do own a set of Moxes, I can only pimp one of those 23 decks with it (or spread them among 5).
This has two positive effects: First, of course, you'll rarely see the gamebreaking cards and if you see one, you know you won't see it again this evening. Secondly, it forces you to be ceative and to use a broader spectrum of your collection. At least I do - of course, I could trade for 10 Sylvan Libraries so I can put some in all my green decks, instead, once I used the 4 Sylvan Libraries I own, I'll put Mirri's Guile in the next one. And then I'll give Preferred Selection a try. Or Abundance. And when I run out of those, I need to come up something entirely different - Scouting Trek? Cream of the Crop + Jackalope Herd? And before you know, you are building a deck that is new and creative, something you would never have come up with if you sticked to the same bunch of staples everybody uses. And it is so much fun to kick someone's ass with a bunch of horned bunnies :)

2000$? That's not even enouogh for the Workshops ...

The reasons most people have enchantment/artifact removal in the sideboard:

1) The deck is meant for tournament play which actually has sideboards and a rock/paper/scissors metagame
2) The deck is meant for casual but the meta has only Timmy the Powergamer types of decks with (huge) creatures.
3) The deck has never seen actual play and the author though is simply ignorant about this issue
4) The author is of the all-or-nothing mentality and enjoys games where he either steamrolls the opponent or dies fast, guns blazing.
5) The deck isn't meant to ever be played in multiplayer.

Usually a combination of these.

From my experience joining a multiplayer session with decks that doesn't run removal beyond creature removal is a suicide mission. At best you are at the good will of other players that are able to remove stuff that ruin your play. At worst you simply die or spend the evening being locked out from play. Typically, decks not taking care of non-creature threats are the simple minded aggro and Timmy decks. So, if someone plays a permanent that is a gamebreaker for you, like Gravepact for example, all you can do is to throw everything you have against this player (if you take the player out that controls the Gravepact, the Gravepact will go with him). And that puts both of you in a bad position where you are wasting resources while everybody else that has enchantment removal can sit back, watch the show and step in whenever it is convenient for him.

Otoh, while all of this is basic stuff for me, I tend to forget that most players don't have 20 years of multiplayer experience, so what works and doesn't work in my environment doesn't have to hold true for yours or HokeyPokey Knights :)

Oh, you are right - thought "Juggernaut" but my fingers wrote "Colossus". Damn, that's scary - someone used a Mindslaver on me^^

I am like that, too. It's not that I dislike planeswalkers - I truly think it's a great addition to Magic as long as we get only a few each block. But for some reason that I cannot pin down I always forget about them when building decks. Maybe thst's because they were introduced so late. Maybe it's because they have 3 or 4 abilities that are barely related, so it's not easy to remember what the do. But whatever it is, I forget about them regularily.

Managed to trade for more Ageless Entities and a Purity, so the deck is finally up to 60 cards and legal, ready to be built as a "paper Magic" deck :)

Hey, cool, looks like a deck I would build :) Nice job. This is what casual is about.

Erm ... Retribution of the Meek?
Or did you leave that out on purpose because it would make Interprid Hero unemployed?

Rancor comes back to your hand but Giant Growth is kinda waste. Try Elvish Fury instead.

I know that artifacts and enchantments aren't a big deal in your meta but if they become, I recommend Aura Shards in the sideboard instead of Naturalize.

"Staying off the radar" is
a) easy to say but hard to accomplish if you have no defense
b) what everybody is doing in multiplayer, especially free-for-all games

The latter means, since this is the norm, nobody will actually think you are "off" - a player doing nothing in multiplayer except ramping mana is actually more dangerous than the guy that plays a creature every turn. Because everybody knows that WHEN you will play something, it will be HUGE and NASTY. You could have played that way about 15 years ago, however, today creatures 6+ mana and up can do crazy things on top of being big and having lots of standard abilities, while other spells, especially sorceries of 6+ mana are generally game breakers.
In conclusion, only fools would ignore you.

So, what I would do:
* Replace the Skyshroud Elves and consequently the Elvish Archdruids with Overgrown Battlement and Axebane Guardian. You might also want to replace the BoPs with another mana generating wall like Wall of Roots. This way you still have the same amount of mana ramp and mana filtering but at the same time some potent blockers for any random power 2-3 weenie that hits play early on. There will always be some, even if nobody plays aggressively.
[EDIT]: Maybe replace Rofellos, too, you have a total of 10 lands that count as a Forest[/EDIT]

* Replace the Blasphemous Act with Nevinyrral's Disk. Creatures isn't the only thing to worry about and you currently run zero artifact and enchantment removal!

* Green Sun's Zenith doesn't make much sense in this. I suggest Defense of the Heart instead. Fetch Vigor and/or Avacyn with it and then blow up the world.

* Karakas, if you can afford it. If not, Eiganjo Castle.

* Considering all that mana ramp I think Sisay is more important than Piper, Sisay should be the one with 4 copies.

* I miss the following 2 in your creature mix:
- Reya, Dawnbringer
- Genesis
Both would help you recover from board sweepers (you will not be the only one doing this).

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If this review was helpful for you, please return the favor and comment on one of my decks.

I don't think I can contribute anything that hasn't been done on this site hundreds of times before but I gave it a shot anyway, enjoy!

I actually suggested Darksteel Jugernaut, not Colossus. I am not sure if you will be able to amass 11 (+1 for each sphere) mana to get him out.

Wasn't this supposed to run Mycosynth Golem?

Metalworker might come in handy.

Instead of Dross Golem, I would run Arcbound Crusher :)

I would also consider Darksteel Colossus, I just don't know what to take out.

* Obvious addition would be Dryad Arbor - it's for free no matter how many Spheres you have. (replaces Forests)

* I can see why you want card draw, however, I am not sure if the ones you picked are the best choice for this. The Storyteller is a nice card and you run mostly creatures, okay, but your aim is to slow down the opponent and ideally keep him from casting at all. You won't draw many cards from this ... and the Sage is too expensive for a deck that runs Sphere of Resistance!

* The other problem would be if the opponent manages to get some problematic creatures into play. Since you' mostly have a horde of 1/1s, anything that survives a block but kills one of yours will be a problem. The solution to both this and the previous problem: Ohran Viper! This deck begs for 4 of them in the place of some of the Sages and Storytellers.

* I would prefer Eternal Witness over Noxious Revival. Of course, the casting cost matters a lot in this deck, but card advantage as well. Considering that Amethyst Thorn doesn't affect the Witness and that the card you will most likely want to get back is a destroyed Sphere of Resistance, I think the difference in casting cost isn't a big disadvantage. But you'll get the card immediatedly and a warm body on top of it. Even if you don't have the mana to play the retrieved spell after casting the Witness you still are about to draw a fresh card next turn.

* I guess, if you had a Gaea's Cradle, it would be in, but wanted to mention it anyway. In the same line of thought consider Priest of Titania. If you had these cards I would not have complained about the Sage, BTW.

Maybe check out my newest deck, "pick wisely" as well because it has a similar mix of destruction, combos and making your opponent pick :)
http://www.mtgvault.com/puschkin/decks/pick-wisely/

I guess Slumbering Tora is a misclick and should have been Slumbering Dragon!?

You definately don't need those Elixirs. +3 slots

You want some early defense? I'd say Earthquake fits pretty well. Only problem would be that it kills your own Shaman but if have that one out and the opponent didn't kill it already, you will most likey be busy casting big dragons, so I think you can run both if these in the same deck.

I think Crucible of Fire could be classified as a "win-more" card unless you play lots of smaller dragons. Now, thinking about it, you are concerned about defense, you run Crucible of Fire and we just added Earthquakes ... Dragon Egg sounds like the perfect addition.

I would run Hellrider over Hero of Oxid Ridge since the extra damage is for sure, not matter how many blockers await you. Or, don't run any of these two because it doesn't really fit into the mana curve anyway - you don't have any 3-drops and turn 4 is where you want to play Furnace of Rath and/or burn your opponent to death. Good old Ball Lightning would probably do better in this slot.

As proud I am of you that you thought about non-basics this time, I don't think this particular deck can afford lands that come into play tapped.

Deck is already Legacy and above 150$, so you might as well replace those Lava Spikes with Chain Lightnings.

An alternative to Browbeat would be Cursed Scroll. The biggest difference being that the Scroll can also be used to remove blockers (and it does colorless damage, protection from red would be your doom).

But those are all small impact changes, solid deck!