I wanted a deck to play Meddling Kids in. However, because the card is super busted and not legal in any format, I decided the best thing to do was create a hyper casual deck where every card in the deck was either a child, food, or a toy. The best way to do this is with the Stranger Things Friends Forever to get us all five colours on children. I decided I could include the Spongebob Squarepants counterspell even though Spongebob isn't a child, because it's a very childish counterspell. I'd call this a bracket 1 deck in spirit, as it isn't designed to be competitive at all or do anything in particular, other than running a lot of children. However, playtest cards and un cards mean it's not legal at any table, so have a rule 0 talk before deploying it.
The mana base is kinda awkward, but I tried to make it the most competitive part of the deck without relying too heavily on fetch lands.
I'm actually quite proud of this one, so I'll go into a card by card.
Commanders
So, for starters, every creature in our deck is either a human child or a toy. This starts with our commanders, Mike, the Dungeon Master and Eleven, the Mage. And they way it works is, Mike is your secondary commander with some synergies, but is mostly a way to protect Eleven, and Eleven is your main draw engine. Our plan is to swarm the board with children and attack people down to low life totals. Eleven's secondary effect goes mostly unused. She's just here to attack and draw you cards. You usually want to deploy Mike first and not play Eleven until you have two open mana to protect her. We're not really built around our commanders, they're just the children who give us 5 colours with the Partner mechanic. Having said that, there are a few synergies in the deck with Mike.
Politics
Meddling Kids is the heart and soul of the deck, but must be played with great caution. It's purpose here is to be a political piece - words like Target, Exile, Enters, Destroy, Return, etc are all very powerful options, but you're likely to limit yourself in the process. More importantly, picking the wrong word will ruin alliances. Picking the right word will forge them. Imagine a blue player is archenemy and you pick Counter, Spell, or Target? There might be some splashback on other decks, but the right word will cripple one player significantly more than others. So when you decide to cast the card, reach out to the table and see what words they think should be blocked. This effect is powerful, and can absolutely ruin someone's day, but the real goal isn't doing the most debilitating damage to your opponents, it's helping your friends enough to forge an alliance. I would also hesitate to completely turn someone's deck off with the word. If you find yourself at a CEDH table playing Jank, sure. But in a casual commander game, nobody is going to let you play Meddling Kids if you're using it to ruin their experiences, but maybe they'll agree to play if you use the Meddling Kids in a way that makes the game more engaging and fun for the table.
Water Gun Balloon Game barely makes the cut, and the idea is simple. Usually one of the decks at the table will be the best at getting bears, and usually they'll get ahead on bears. So reveal the card in your hand and ask the storm player if he wants some Pink Bears. Maybe you can forge an alliance. If not, don't put the card on the table.
Killer Cosplay is a lot more fun if you take suggestions for what cards to cosplay at the table. The goal shouldn't be to turn your creature into the optimal thing, it should be to create a story for the game.
Forbidden Orchard and Grove of the Burnwillows are likewise tools to help form an alliance, potentially as early as turn 1. Offer the player you think is mostly likely to be on your side some free lifegain, or maybe even a steady stream of tokens. Just don't be surprised if you earn the ire of the rest of the board in the process.
You should generally be aiming to make friends playing this deck. Try and deploy your interaction not in the most efficient or direct way, but instead in a way that makes you least threatening. Disruptive Student or Adric, Mathematical Genius, for example, don't have to be activated at the optimal time, or for the biggest impact. The real power of Disruptive Student, and to lesser degree Adric, is that you get to choose who to use them on and when, and you can make friends just by not countering spells. This is true of all of the removal in the deck, both hard and soft.
Triple Triad is a powerful engine, but we're not exploiting it too much. It has incidental synergy with Adventures, and digs through your deck a little bit faster, but the goal isn't to steal everyone's shit. You also don't have to cast every spell you can with Triple Triad, so use the spells you do flip as leverage in politics. With 40 lands in the deck a lot of the time you'll just be hitting lands, but every land you clear off the top makes Eleven's draw more powerful.
Adventures
Garenbrig Squire triggers off of creatures with an adventure entering, so it can grow pretty fast in the right hands, whereas others it's just a 2/2. However, a 2/2 that slowly grows is a viable win condition, so even though it's pretty suboptimal I think it's the best possible child or toy for the slot.
Kellan, the Fae-Blooded tutors equipment, most notably the pair of Baseball Bats, and can provide a lord style effect while equipped.
Kellan, Daring Traveler creates map tokens that help you make your land drops in a deck without a lot of ramp. His on attack trigger can be multiplied and stacks with Eleven's attack trigger and other similiar combat triggers to dig you through your deck faster.
Kellan, Inquisitive Prodigy is sort of an all-in-one shop that gives you artifact hate, ramp, and artifact/clue value while also being an adventure for the cards that care about that.
Curious Pair creates food. There are a couple food cards in the deck as well as a couple more broadly artifact cards, and being an adventure is dope too.
Giant Killer is effective removal on a body. It is a 1-drop in theory, but I wouldn't basically ever want to play it that way.
Unlike Giant Killer, you should almost never cast Flaxen Intruder 's adventure. If you see it in the extreme late game sure, bears, but mostly she's here for flavour and to give you some actual 1 drops.
Artifacts/Clues/Food/Treasure/Equipment
Tidus, Blitzball Star is ready to snowball at a moments notice, and has incidental synergy with Baseball Bat. Likewise Ace's Baseball Bat won't make you any friends among Daleks and makes your offensive creatures significantly harder to block, and is great on Tidus. To balance this, our other equipment is much weaker. Spy Kit seems flavourful as all get-out, and may create cool interactions, but we're not abusing it. Souvenir T-Shirt should be played wearing no more than one piece of WOTC merchandise. Sidequest: Play Blitzball
is a powerful piece of equipment when transformed, but don't feel obligated to flip it as quickly as possible.
Will the Wise and Max, the Daredevil are both tools to get clues. We aren't maxing out on Max's ability to produce clues, but you should aim to get 1 clue on the turn you play it. Will is a very political cards, you will make enemies when you cast this card, but you can also make friends.
Lucas, the Sharpshooter works well with these disposable artifacts, and goad is a powerful political tool. Who you goad, and who you don't goad, can very well decide the outcome of games. It sacrifices Piggy Bank and Living Phone for value as well.
Marionette Apprentice is a solid two for one that triggers Tidus and creates material for Lucas to slingshot.
Deep Dish Pizza is an absolute bomb. The little bit of damage and lifegain is nice icing, but really this is here for the Ancestral Recall effect. You do need busted cards like this to keep up in the modern game with a deck like this, but consider not deploying it early and making yourself archenemy. Instead, suspend it after alliances are already solidified.
Leisure Bicycle has cycling, which is a flavour win. It's also an incredibly powerful vehicle, and you should basically never be cycling it. This is one of your main card advantage/selection engines. However, because it's a powerful playtest card, I would only deploy it in the early game if I was mana screwed.
Jack-in-the-Mox is our Sol Ring. Arguably it's a lot weaker and less consistent than Sol Ring. Still, it helps us have explosive starts and also creates narratives for games, where it adds just the right, or just the wrong mana, or blows up in my face. Sol Ring is not a toy, so I run this.
Instant Ramen and Candy Trail are cantrips, but also food for the food synergies, and cheap artifacts for Tidus. Three Bowls of Porridge is temporary removal, and the tap effect can get really powerful when combined with Tidus, Baseball Bat, and Giant Killer. As an interactive card, always remember that the goal isn't to interact in the optimal way, it's to interact in the way that makes you the most friends.
Dustin, Gadget Genius helps to deploy our equipment, and the food that isn't Deep Dish Pizza.
Greta, Sweettooth Scourge produces a free artifact, and usually converts it and maybe even some other food to cards.
Inventor's Apprentice is usually going to be a 2/3 for 1, and gives us something to play turn 1.
Misc.
Pir, Imaginative Rascal and Toothy, Imaginary Friend are here. Toothy isn't technically a child, but he makes it here by virtue of being partnered with one of the coolest kids ever. These two provide you with a win-condition, and some card advantage. Toothy grows really fast if Eleven is on the board, and the fact that removing it draws you cards makes it an insane 2 for 1 or better, provided you put any counters on it.
Toby, Beastie Befriender is a cheap 2-for-1, basically a much worse Pir. Sometimes you'll have enough creature tokens, thanks to Rinoa Heartilly and Dog Walker. You're really hoping to see both of these cards in the same game to tell a story.
Saffi Eriksdotter can create a mini loop with Mike, and protects your threats, namely Eleven.
Gau, Feral Youth is a cheap aggressive creature, and has incidental synergy with Mike. Those two alone are a reasonably powerful engine.
Little Girl is a real nothingburger of a card. If you see her with City of Brass she's basically a free 0/1, if you don't she's a 1 mana 0/1. But she's also absolutely essential to the deck. When possible, muck up life totals, to make them harder to track.
Magical Hacker should be used sparingly, preferably after alliances are stabilized. Either that or when it's funniest. Craterhoof Behemoth anyone?
MacCready, Lamplight Mayor crews a bicycle and gives it skulk. It also in a low stakes way encourages people not to attack you. Absolutely worth the slot.
I'm not going to go in depth about the mana base. The goal was to have it be funny, flavourful, and competent, without using too many fetch lands.
Benders
Because the ATLA crew are children, I wanted to incorporate them into the deck. Avatar Aang
and Fire Lord Zuko have firebending, which can be used alongside food or clues for value. Aang also becomes a draw engine with other benders. You can't flip him, as there is no air bender in the deck, but being a draw engine that gets better when paired with benders is still pretty good. Zuko grows your board after adventures, so it fits into that part of the deck. Toph, the First Metalbender has the most synergies in the deck, since she can animate artifacts as well as lands, though notably she says non-token, so it's actually a lot worse than I initially thought. Katara, Water Tribe's Hope is basically a second Rinoa Heartily. We don't really have any ally synergies, however, when combined with Aang her waterbending ability becomes an insane draw engine, and it can also work to close out games if you have enough creatures and mana.
