So I am making a new deck for my multiplayer playgroup after the loss of my first deck, Heartless Hidetsugu. I have a max of $200 to spend, so this is rather budget, but I am only really looking for general ideas. So let me give you some information about my playgroup's meta...
Overall, the meta is quite deadly with most games ending by turn 6/7 or 12. We have Kaalia, Rhys, Animar, Teferi (planeswalker), Sliver Overlord, Ghave, Pheldagrif, Nekusar, Prrash, and Ezuri being commonly played. Everybody runs board wipes and hate for all card types except land destruction. Commonly what wins is sleeping combo decks that come out of nowhere and either put too many creatures on the field or protect a combo so it cant be targeted.
As for me, I am a Johnny player and I enjoy decks that are fun to play and do interesting things every game. HH was fun but I wasnt too thrilled by always ending the game by tapping him with haste and double damage. I dont want the deck to be too vulnerable because the meta will just kill it before it does anything or too prone to overextending. Regardless, if it does things that make people laugh or kill/largely impact people in unique ways I will enjoy playing it. Especially if it can muster up a few different ways (unlike HH which always ended the same even with different pieces to fill the same roles).
My first thought was to suggest Nekusar wheels but it looks like you already have one of those in your meta Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge can be a BRUTAL deck. My brother runs his with a thief sub theme (used to be Thrax) and it wrecks our table if he doesn't get checked early. You just play everyone else's decks lol.
You already had a mono R deck so if you wanna stay in your comfort zone, you could go red artifacts (Daretti, Scrap Savant). I took mine apart because it was TO MUCH combo; I was taking 5 minute turns just pulling off all of my per turn combos/activations.
Another option is something like Sharuum the Hegemon combo; most of her combo pieces are cheaper ($$ wise) and you can make a pretty cheap budget version of her and still semi-consistently win on turn 8-10.
Personally I'd try to avoid blue. Blue for me is to easy to sepnd money on as counterspells get more and more expensive. I'd say try using white/Green and shutting artifacts off with stuff like Stony silence or fracturing gust personally artifacts are how a lot of decks deal with fixing and with their main game plan and I feel that is an easy to start a new deck.
I second Daretti with full endorsement. His combo piece list is fairly similar to Sharuum in that there are a TON of artifacts to abuse, and mono-R seems your bag - I personally run Daretti as my sole Commander deck (so far; Nekusar seems amazing to me!) and got him on paper (barring enemy fetches) very quickly and VERY cheaply, even considering I probably owned less than 1/10 of the deck from its genesis (that said, I got his deck in preorder, so it was about $15 less than it is on the secondary market nowadays - BUT! You can always pick and choose what cards within the deck itself that you want to get).
Personally I'd try to avoid blue. Blue for me is to easy to sepnd money on as counterspells get more and more expensive. I'd say try using white/Green and shutting artifacts off with stuff like Stony silence or fracturing gust personally artifacts are how a lot of decks deal with fixing and with their main game plan and I feel that is an easy to start a new deck.
I'll second Karador. It is one of my favorite decks and it is resilient to board wipes. Many of the pieces are cheap and the more expensive cards just make it better (but aren't necessary).
I feel like Sharuum is a great deck for a "Johnny"
As mentioned earlier, you can construct quite a good shell at a budget. This is a great thread on an engine/combo sharuum build which is a blast to play.
I've also heard good things about Karador, but I can't bring myself to play a deck without blue
I play a nice Karador, Ghost Chieftain deck. Very resilient, can combo off, but doesn't have to be built that way. Is a good deck, would recommend.
Brago, King Eternal is another good idea. He can combo easily and get a ton of value out of the rest of your deck.
Titania, Protector of Argoth is good so long as you don't play more than 2 other players. She can kill quite quickly, but really shines when there are fewer players due to the need to win through creature combat damage.
If you are wanting to calm everyone the fudge down and win through a grind, Gaddock Teeg is your man. Stops the combo decks, allows you to build around so you get the most out of him, and prevents all wraths but the conditional ones.
Finally, because MLD isn't something in your meta, maybe add it. MLD is fantastic, without it, everyone ramps like crazy and the game is out of control. Make a mana rock heavy deck with the white/red MLD. I like Zurgo Helmsmasher for this. My deck is definitely not budget (closer to $3000), but the ability to drop Zurgo quickly, drop MLD/MLD+Wrath is insanely powerful. Zurgo is then a 3 hit KO to anyone. Would recommend.
Overall, the meta is quite deadly with most games ending by turn 6/7 or 12. We have Kaalia, Rhys, Animar, Teferi (planeswalker), Sliver Overlord, Ghave, Pheldagrif, Nekusar, Prrash, and Ezuri being commonly played. Everybody runs board wipes and hate for all card types except land destruction. Commonly what wins is sleeping combo decks that come out of nowhere and either put too many creatures on the field or protect a combo so it cant be targeted.
As for me, I am a Johnny player and I enjoy decks that are fun to play and do interesting things every game. HH was fun but I wasnt too thrilled by always ending the game by tapping him with haste and double damage. I dont want the deck to be too vulnerable because the meta will just kill it before it does anything or too prone to overextending. Regardless, if it does things that make people laugh or kill/largely impact people in unique ways I will enjoy playing it. Especially if it can muster up a few different ways (unlike HH which always ended the same even with different pieces to fill the same roles).
Thank you in advance!
Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge can be a BRUTAL deck. My brother runs his with a thief sub theme (used to be Thrax) and it wrecks our table if he doesn't get checked early. You just play everyone else's decks lol.
You already had a mono R deck so if you wanna stay in your comfort zone, you could go red artifacts (Daretti, Scrap Savant). I took mine apart because it was TO MUCH combo; I was taking 5 minute turns just pulling off all of my per turn combos/activations.
Another option is something like Sharuum the Hegemon combo; most of her combo pieces are cheaper ($$ wise) and you can make a pretty cheap budget version of her and still semi-consistently win on turn 8-10.
I'm interested to see what you decide to do
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Riku of Two Reflections is a pretty silly general that will give you plenty of options for terrorizing your opponents.
Jhoira of the Ghitu is also a pretty good Johnny general that will definitely let you be competitive in your meta.
Go ahead and run, you'll only die tired.
Those who might never meet are pooled together
You say that you are a Johnny I'd say look into Saffi Eriksdotter or Karador, Ghost Chieftain
Happy hunting,
~Lil Kalki
Proud Disciple of the Church of the Wary
I'll second Karador. It is one of my favorite decks and it is resilient to board wipes. Many of the pieces are cheap and the more expensive cards just make it better (but aren't necessary).
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As mentioned earlier, you can construct quite a good shell at a budget. This is a great thread on an engine/combo sharuum build which is a blast to play.
I've also heard good things about Karador, but I can't bring myself to play a deck without blue
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Brago, King Eternal is another good idea. He can combo easily and get a ton of value out of the rest of your deck.
Titania, Protector of Argoth is good so long as you don't play more than 2 other players. She can kill quite quickly, but really shines when there are fewer players due to the need to win through creature combat damage.
If you are wanting to calm everyone the fudge down and win through a grind, Gaddock Teeg is your man. Stops the combo decks, allows you to build around so you get the most out of him, and prevents all wraths but the conditional ones.
Finally, because MLD isn't something in your meta, maybe add it. MLD is fantastic, without it, everyone ramps like crazy and the game is out of control. Make a mana rock heavy deck with the white/red MLD. I like Zurgo Helmsmasher for this. My deck is definitely not budget (closer to $3000), but the ability to drop Zurgo quickly, drop MLD/MLD+Wrath is insanely powerful. Zurgo is then a 3 hit KO to anyone. Would recommend.
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