So I am trying to get a friend into EDH so he can play with me at EDH tournaments, and I want to build a cheap but effective deck for him. What are some good/competitive decks that can be built on a budget?
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Purph wouldn't be too bad on a budget. In general, ETB Value decks that don't require very specific pieces like most combo or control decks do tend to be pretty cheap. I'd go U/W, U/G, or Bant.
Just to clarify, by not on a budget re:manabase do you mean has full ABUR duals / shocks / fetches, etc.? Because the slowdown in efficiency definitely becomes more noticeable in budget decks when three or more colors join the party.
Azami, Lady of Scrolls Wizard combo can be built relatively cheaply, just replace some of the more expensive counters and mana rocks you see in competitive builds, and it shouldn't run you more than $200 at the max.
Any commanders that win you the game with one other card and them in play can be built fairly budget: Mikaeus, The Unhallowed, Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, Niv-Mizzet, The Firemind all really just need their combo-ing card and then rest of the deck around that can be built to protect the combo.
Edric is pretty easy to build on a budget and have it be competitive with good decks. The formula for success is pretty simple: A ton of cheap creatures backed up by cheap counters/bounce, then Overrun effects as finishers and/or Time Walk effects. Some people go with an Elves subtheme, which can be nice for finishing games faster as the lords turn your 1-2 drops into a real clock without having to rely on Overruns. Others just go for minimal casting costs and evasion (i.e. every version of Scryb Sprites you can find). Either way the basic idea is the same: play a bunch of creatures in the first 3 turns then use them to draw a boatload of cards while countering what matters.
I don't believe that in a competitive environment like a tournaments that you can find a budget solution in EDH. You can go with mono colored decks to save money on lands, but to get it tuned to the point where you can hold up against decks that have a lot of money put into them, it's going to cost. I like the Purphoros and Azami suggestions, but also remember that the Purphoros and Azami decks with money in them will usually beat out the budget deck too.
All that said, I'd recommend Mono Red or Mono Blue too (with blue being less dependent on the general since it's all good).
A lot of people seem to recommend Talrand, Sky Summoner for a budget deck. Quite a few lists on here.
I would also suggest talrand. If these tournaments are 1v1 talraand is a nightmare to go against head to head. Its basically counter/draw card.dec with a bounce subtheme.
I'm going to second Talrand. People say he does awful in Multiplayer but honestly, he can probably do really nasty things to a table with Proteus Staff/Polymorph/Mass Polymorph.
We can do both 1v1 tourneys and 4 FFA, except they are at different LGS's. He likes Blue, green and red decks, so Talrand and purp should work fine.
I am also thinking of lending him my Edric deck and see how he likes it, since it can be budgeted easily
Daretti, Scrap Savant can be built rather cheap too. Pick up the precon, get Mycosynth Lattice and Darksteel Forge and you already got the most expensive parts of your deck out of the way, then find a few cheap artifact combos (The station package, Ashnod's Altar/Any creature that brings or leaves 2 tokens or more/Nim Deathmantle) and voila.
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My Commander decks:
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
Another vote for Purph. You can create a fantastic foundation on a budget and pimp it out over time with things like Wheel of Fortune and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker. My current list is actually quite a bit cheaper than the deck I built a year or so ago, as it turns out putting in expensive tech cards like Sensei's Divining Top and Blood Moon actually doesn't do the deck as much good as another simple burst of damage would.
If you want to play tournaments, mono color is the way to go. With more than that, the land budget alone will probably be too high for a competitive deck. Mono color saves money in the mana base so you can shift it to the them cards that will make the deck work.
For 1v1, talrand counter everything deck seems popular, although probably boring at times.
For multiplayer, Purphoros might give you more reach as you can kill everyone faster.
Talrand might be overall cheaper, and in multiplayer can be interesting as you can't counter everything, so some skill is involved in making the right plays. In 1v1, you just counter the big stuff, bounce the creatures, and fly over to victory. Time Warps help close out the game when you get 6-8 tokens in play. Caged Sun and friends help build mana and boost the drakes as well. I have killed 2 players (not from 40) with a Caged Sun, 8 Drakes, and a Time Warp or two, which is not hard to do in mono blue.
I don't believe that in a competitive environment like a tournaments that you can find a budget solution in EDH. You can go with mono colored decks to save money on lands, but to get it tuned to the point where you can hold up against decks that have a lot of money put into them, it's going to cost. I like the Purphoros and Azami suggestions, but also remember that the Purphoros and Azami decks with money in them will usually beat out the budget deck too.
All that said, I'd recommend Mono Red or Mono Blue too (with blue being less dependent on the general since it's all good).
Well yeah, any machine is going to run smoother after it's oiled
But the OP isn't giving us enough info, me thinks;
What type of deck does his friend like to play?
What colors does he like?
Any particular theme?
What types of lands does he have?
I mean, we could sit here all day putting up suggestions and it's not going to help him get any closer to where he wants to be; we need mroe info.
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Oath of the Gatewatch; the set that caused the competitive community to freak out over Basic Lands.
You can build a decent Narset, Enlightened Master deck for that much also. Granted the 3 color manabase can get a little pricey. Does your friend already play and have a collection? Sometimes it's best to work around what he already owns to save $$$
Maelstrom Wanderer can be pretty cheap to build. Most expensive cards in mine are lands, foils of cheap cards, Divining Top, Kiki-jiki, and Venser, Shaper Savant. Big splashy spells, ramp, top-deck fixing, and a very hard to deal with general.
I have a budget Maelstrom Wanderer deck, it plays pretty solid against other decks with more money put in them. The inherent card advantage can be great. I'm going to put in a vote though for Melek, Izzet Paragon. You can do a lot with the deck, especially if you run things like Jace's sanctum to let you scry, Goblin Electromancer to further reduce costs, Talrand, Sky Summoner also synergizes with the build, puking drakes as you cast things from your deck. Young Pyromancer fills a similar role as Talrand. Guttersnipe can squeeze more efficiency out of your spells, and if you decide that a Purphoros will fit the deck, when he's mixed with guttersnipe and Talrand your spells will have "put a 2/2 drake into play and each opponent loses 4 life" just stapled onto them. It gives you an excuse to run one of my favorite counterspells, Counterflux, which can come in handy. Mystic Speculation is a great card just for reusable top-deck sculpting card as a budget sensei's that dodges most removal, and gives you more flexibility in terms of what you have on top of your deck for Melek to cast. Crystal Ball can be used to dig even more for anything you might want, or be used just to rearrange order. Pyromancer's goggles will do wonders if you're casting anything off the top of the deck with Melek. Pyromancer's goggles + Melek, Izzet Paragon + fireball (or any of its cousins) on top of your library + Increasing Vengeance flashbacked + 15 or more mana = at least one player spontaneously combusting. Reiterate is another great self-recurring doubling spell for later in the game (not to mention reiterate synergizes well with anything that reduces cost of instants and sorceries, such as Sanctum and Electrolyzer, bumping it down from 6 mana to 4, and pyromancers goggles lets you copy it again). Run a strong cantripping counter spell suite (things like Bone to Ashe, Dismiss, or any of the other various counters.) If you can find room in the budget, a Cryptic Command will do wonders for the deck. Archaeomancer and Call to mind can help recur your spells, and call to mind will be more effective if cast from on top of your library. Cyclonic Rift, blasphemous act, and capsize can all be used for various removal. Run a small number of creatures, and Proteus Staff can turn a guttersnipe or a drake token from talrand, or an elemental from Young Pyromancer into a game ender, like Darksteel Colossus, or if the budget can find room for him, an Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre. Tidespout Tyrant is another game ender, especially mixed with a capsize and a lot of mana. Other good counterspells and spot removal include Rewind, so that you don't leave yourself open, and Snap for the same reason. Both can be used to actually increase available mana if you have a temple of the false god out. Pongify and Rapid Hybridization are both the same card for the most part, and still some of the most efficient removal pieces you can use. Disperse might be considered Jank, but it can still bounce blight steels and problem gods that haven't hit their devotion yet. Curse of the Swine can be used to surgically gut and remove bigger threats to you, and with the various ways to copy your spells can be a totally one-sided board wipe. Run Keranos, God of Storms for that extra card draw, and sometimes burn. With enough devotion he can become a dedicated chump blocker, or someone to squeeze in some extra damage. Blue red can be an expensive mana base to run, but if you run heavier towards blue or red, a caged sun can make life a lot easier, and can allow you to cast more spells. If you pick up all of the cards I mentioned, that would run about $118 bucks, but just by cutting the cryptic command and ulamog, the cost drops down to $55. Of course that's only 32(30 without cryptic and ulamog) cards out of 100 slots. But hopefully that gives you a good idea, and might be a fun deck to run
I run an esper control deck, and I find that 11-12 counterspells can do well to control in a 4 player game, and can be very aggressive in a 1v1 when coupled with bounce and other removal. Anyways, have fun responsibly!
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If this is in the wrong place feel free to move it.
Draft my Peasant Cube.
Azami, Lady of Scrolls Wizard combo can be built relatively cheaply, just replace some of the more expensive counters and mana rocks you see in competitive builds, and it shouldn't run you more than $200 at the max.
Mono Black Control is a shell that can be built reasonably budget with a host of commanders - Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief, Maga, Traitor To Mortals, and Oona, Queen of the Fey all operate very similarly, allowing a big mana kill either through themselves or cards like Exsanguinate.
Any commanders that win you the game with one other card and them in play can be built fairly budget: Mikaeus, The Unhallowed, Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, Niv-Mizzet, The Firemind all really just need their combo-ing card and then rest of the deck around that can be built to protect the combo.
UTeferi, Temporal ArchmageU's prison: blue is the new orange is the new black.
Mizzix Of The Izmagnus : wheels on fire... rolling down the road...
BSidisi, Undead VizierB: Bis zum Erbrechen
GTitiania, Protector Of ArgothG: Protecting Argoth, by blowing it up!
GYisan, The Wanderer BardG: Gradus Ad Elfball.
Duel EDH: Yisan & Titania.
In Progress: Grand Arbiter Augustin IV duel; Grenzo, Dungeon Warden Doomsday.
[center][color=Blue]
Edric Spy and die
Azami the lady of the draw
Naya Zoo
Past decks
Orloro
sharuum the hegemond
Mono black control
splinter twin
All that said, I'd recommend Mono Red or Mono Blue too (with blue being less dependent on the general since it's all good).
WUBRGPauper Battle BoxWUBRG ... and why I am not a fan of Wayne Reynolds' Illustrations.
I would also suggest talrand. If these tournaments are 1v1 talraand is a nightmare to go against head to head. Its basically counter/draw card.dec with a bounce subtheme.
Failing that, I would recommend Purph.
Hidetsugu - Combo Damage
Ezuri - Elfball
Theorycrafting:
Selvala - "A hunter must hunt."
Selvala - Budget
I am also thinking of lending him my Edric deck and see how he likes it, since it can be budgeted easily
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
For 1v1, talrand counter everything deck seems popular, although probably boring at times.
For multiplayer, Purphoros might give you more reach as you can kill everyone faster.
Talrand might be overall cheaper, and in multiplayer can be interesting as you can't counter everything, so some skill is involved in making the right plays. In 1v1, you just counter the big stuff, bounce the creatures, and fly over to victory. Time Warps help close out the game when you get 6-8 tokens in play. Caged Sun and friends help build mana and boost the drakes as well. I have killed 2 players (not from 40) with a Caged Sun, 8 Drakes, and a Time Warp or two, which is not hard to do in mono blue.
Well yeah, any machine is going to run smoother after it's oiled
But the OP isn't giving us enough info, me thinks;
What type of deck does his friend like to play?
What colors does he like?
Any particular theme?
What types of lands does he have?
I mean, we could sit here all day putting up suggestions and it's not going to help him get any closer to where he wants to be; we need mroe info.
fastest win was turn three cost me about 190 or so but i am still building on it.
[center][color=Blue]
Edric Spy and die
Azami the lady of the draw
Naya Zoo
Past decks
Orloro
sharuum the hegemond
Mono black control
splinter twin
WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftain
B Toshiro Umezawa
BG Pharika, God of Affliction - Necromancy and Politics
WWW The Church of Heliod
WBR Zurgo, Helmsmasher
RG Wort, the Raidmother
UBR Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge
UG Vorel of the Hull Clade
I run an esper control deck, and I find that 11-12 counterspells can do well to control in a 4 player game, and can be very aggressive in a 1v1 when coupled with bounce and other removal. Anyways, have fun responsibly!