When looking at pictures of decks online, the archetype of a deck is usually recognizable. You’ll see The Deck, White Weenie, RUG, Burn, Mono Black, etc.. but sometimes there’s something that breaks the mold. Sometimes it’s simply a new variant of one of the normal deck archetypes that shows creativity or sometimes it might just have a lot of rarely seen cards.

I often save the pictures of decks I like. The most interesting decks to me are these unique and creative ones. So here’s a few decks I’ve saved that I really like.

Enjoy!

First off, this mono black deck just looks beautiful. Every card is Alpha. Imagine it’s August of 1993 and you just bought a bunch of cards from a new game called Magic: The Gathering. The term “Alpha” doesn’t exist yet and you’ve never heard of the Juzam Djinn. You’re deck might look like this (well probably not at all like this but the edges of your cards would look like this!)

At first glance it looks like a typical Old School mono black but look at the mana sources. It’s just basic swamps, a Sol Ring, and a Mox Jet. No Factories, no Strip Mine, no Urborg, and no Library of Alexandria! But of course, those are all cards from later expansions.

Most surprising to me though is the lack of Sinkholes because those were available in Alpha. It’s also hard to gauge the efficacy of the deck. I feel like it could be pretty good but I’d personally prioritize a playset of Sinkholes over some of the cards here. Overall, it’s one of the best looking decks I’ve ever seen. And if anyone really wants to do an Alpha only deck, this might be a good one to copy. Most of the cards here can be bought for under $100 each.

I really love this deck mainly because it’s a mono white deck but it’s not a white weenie. It also features some cards that rarely get to breathe the fresh air outside of a binder or card box. Again, no non-basic lands here as this is an all Beta deck. Some of the lesser seen cards are Holy Strength, Wall of Swords, and Mesa Pegasus, among a couple others. Castle looks like it would combo great with a Wall of Swords and Serra Angel. Whether or not this deck works well, it looks awesome.

I often think about making a non-weenie mono white deck. Mainly because I really love Serra Angel, Wall of Swords, and Moorish Cavalry which I think is a bit underrated.

Most of you probably have seen this one recently. Element’s of Lupo’s deck is of a typical burn but then there’s some surprising and pretty awesome additions. First off, take a look at his Mountains. They’re all Arabian Nights! That’s probably my favorite part of the deck.

The deck also has Ydwen Efreet and Mijae Djinn, two Efreet/Djinn cards rarely seen and both involve the weird coin flipping ability. Bottle of Suleiman is in the deck as well which is a card I’ve wanted to try out in past but never got around to it. I think this is also the first deck that I’ve seen with Falling Star. Overall I really love the theme of this deck. I imagine it could be frustrating when all the coin flippage lands in the opponent’s favor though! It’s bound to happen in some games.

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I’ll probably do more posts showing unique decks again because there are a ton more out there. One of the great things about the Old School Magic community is the emphasis on the casual and social aspect of the game. Therefore, people are free to get creative with decks rather than make the best deck simply to win. It does feel good to win of course, but the process of building a deck that’s completely your own also feels great and is an important aspect that everyone brings to the tavern table! Now someone go build a King Suleiman djinn/efreet destroyer deck!