What if the format was 20 rares or mythics, 20 commons, 20 uncommons per deck? Or maybe a criteria such as up to 1/3 of the deck can be rare or mythic, the rest common or uncommon?
Why not make it $X bucks or less? The purpose is to be a budget format, so make the limit the budget itself (like the deck can't pass a certain amount/budget) or individual cards can't pass a certain price. The ban list would change dynamically with the market movement although checking it constantly would be somewhat burdensome.
Problem is it won't result in what I would call a "low budget" format. The 20 rares/mythics are still going to be the powerful big money cards. The 20 commons may have some affect in lowering the overall price of a deck but not exactly into low budget territory. I think to achieve a true budget format you would have to limit the rare count much more and that is assuming you are talking about a standard type format. There are plenty of high dollar commons and uncommons in the eternal format so I don't know if your typical deck would be considered "budget". That being said, there are many different interpretations of what constitutes "budget".
Why not make it $X bucks or less? The purpose is to be a budget format, so make the limit the budget itself (like the deck can't pass a certain amount/budget) or individual cards can't pass a certain price. The ban list would change dynamically with the market movement although checking it constantly would be somewhat burdensome.
Considering prices change daily, checking is just one problem. Next thing you know, the deck you've been building for the past week now no longer works. That's the reason why wizards doesn't tamper with the B&R list too often -- it creates situations where a player's efforts and money go down the drain.
As for the OP's suggestion: peasant and pauper exist. Just modify it to include rares/mythivs. 20 is not budget in any way.
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"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
Yeah, but I thought the idea of the topic was a new casual budget format, so checking prices wouldn't be a problem. I guess I misinterpreted that. Pauper is a more fitting format indeed. However, not playing some of the more cheap rares is kinda dull and it's easier to just netdeck as it is a proper format.
My bro-in-law and his friends play a format using the star system at the MTG gatherer website. They can only use cards with 2 star or less ratings. Some of the ratings may fluctuate a bit, they do accept some variance in the internal card rating of the deck.
We're basically stuck with pauper until wizards figures out what the heck to do for the long haul with non-rotating formats. Every non-rotating format has kind of become unplayable thanks to cost restricting who can afford the best cards, and the last thing someone wants to do is play magic and feel like they are playing a pay to win game.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
My boardgaming playgroup wanted to play M:tG but non-eternal formats are a pain to care about for people who don't play more than a couple times a month, and they didn't like playing with 100 cards or the absurd prices of Legacy decks. So I made up a format where ante, conspiracies and everything on the RL is banned, every card that has ever been a rare is restricted to one copy, and the rest is up to you. That way all they have to do when brewing is go to magiccards.info and see if the card they want to use is resserved, rare or 4x able.
I play a 5C creatures tempo deck thanks to Ancient Ziggurat being uncommon, and they've built pretty fun stuff like Esper Merfolk, 4C Prison/Stax, 8Rack/Pox with a Rat tribal base rather than Lilly+Thoughtseize+IoK, etc.
It's a shame Pauper is insufferable because it's pretty much solved with a massive chasm between Tier1 and Tier2, changes at a ridiculously slow pace because newer commons are near Homelands tier unplayable and the only shakeups the format gets are downgrades in Masters sets.
To be frank, the most budgety and the most expensive format is probably legacy. The reason it is budget is that there is basically no rule against playing proxies, so it's basically free to play in that regard. On the downside, it's not very fun playing exclusively proxies and I tend to go for the alternate art cards for some of the harder to get ones. Over all, if you aren't bothered by proxies you can probably make a readable and enjoyable deck for about 120 usd via proxy cards and what ones you can get from stores.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
There are lots of different ways of handling the acquisition of new packs / retiring older cards / trading / introducing new people / etc., and keep everything price friendly.
EDH: Bruna, Light of Alabaster | Karlov of the Ghost Council | Breya, Etherium Shaper | Marchesa, the Black Rose | Queen Marchesa | The Mimeoplasm | Avacyn, Angel of Hope |
Pauper:
Orzhov Nightsky Mimic
Frequent lurker and vorthos player
The only budget format is this : play with cards you already own!
Either choose the player with the largest collection in your group to donate their bulk, or all donate draft spares to a box. Then just build and play from that box, adding bulk draft spares as needed. Each player gets 100 random cards to start and then has to trade back to the box or other players to change these.
Realistically no budget format survives interaction with strangers (even Pauper has tuned decks) so just play invite only bulk box.
I already do this as a matter of principle. I'm a kitchen table player who is more skilled at building decks than my friends, so I limit myself to a budget of roughly $50 worth of nonland cards. I exclude the lands as it's hard to build a deck with good 3 color manabase for $50, but I limit myself to painlands, checklands, and anything cheaper.
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>Can run playset of Force of Will (uncommon in Alliances btw)
Seems legit
Considering prices change daily, checking is just one problem. Next thing you know, the deck you've been building for the past week now no longer works. That's the reason why wizards doesn't tamper with the B&R list too often -- it creates situations where a player's efforts and money go down the drain.
As for the OP's suggestion: peasant and pauper exist. Just modify it to include rares/mythivs. 20 is not budget in any way.
"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
My bro-in-law and his friends play a format using the star system at the MTG gatherer website. They can only use cards with 2 star or less ratings. Some of the ratings may fluctuate a bit, they do accept some variance in the internal card rating of the deck.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I play a 5C creatures tempo deck thanks to Ancient Ziggurat being uncommon, and they've built pretty fun stuff like Esper Merfolk, 4C Prison/Stax, 8Rack/Pox with a Rat tribal base rather than Lilly+Thoughtseize+IoK, etc.
There could be something similar to commander, but smaller. Like 70 cards, two copies of each card restriction, no sideboard.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
this this THIS
also $X or lower is AWFUL because cards change price, so is a pain in the ass follow if you deck is legal each day or not.
Another somewhat cheap and fun format is build your own standard.
I don't blame anyone for seeking alternatives.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
There are lots of different ways of handling the acquisition of new packs / retiring older cards / trading / introducing new people / etc., and keep everything price friendly.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
Bruna, Light of Alabaster | Karlov of the Ghost Council | Breya, Etherium Shaper | Marchesa, the Black Rose | Queen Marchesa | The Mimeoplasm | Avacyn, Angel of Hope |
Pauper:
Orzhov Nightsky Mimic
Frequent lurker and vorthos player
Either choose the player with the largest collection in your group to donate their bulk, or all donate draft spares to a box. Then just build and play from that box, adding bulk draft spares as needed. Each player gets 100 random cards to start and then has to trade back to the box or other players to change these.
Realistically no budget format survives interaction with strangers (even Pauper has tuned decks) so just play invite only bulk box.
Peasant has a limit of 5 Uncommons per deck.