-What is this article about?
-Legacy and its rules
II. Basic tips on getting into legacy and saving money
-Making Proxies
-Borrowing
-What you already have
-Common Budget Replacements
-The Change Jar
III. Budget Decks- Established
-Burn
-Dredge
-Affinity
-Elf Ball
-Chant Life
-Mono Black Control
-Cephalid Breakfast
IV. Budget Decks- Rogue
-Polymorph
-Spring Tide
-Cheerios
-BG Infect
-White Knights
-Berserk Stompy
-Kiln Fiend
-Living End
-Goblin Storm
-Hypergenesis
-Shoal Infect
-Sac Land Tendrils
V. Budget Decks- Super Budget
-DragonStorm
-Mono-Red Storm
-Mono-Green Beats
-Pox
-Suicide Black
-White Weenie
VI. Final Notes and Additional Reading
-Price Guides
-The Format
-Playing Better Magic
VII. Updates and Edits Log
I. Introduction
What's the Point of this article?
As anyone can tell you Legacy (type 1.5) is one of the most popular Magic the Gathering formats, and it is only getting more popular. This growth in popularity can be contributed to a number of things, including the ever so popular SCG Open series. As an obvious result of this growth, more and more people who are new to the format are showing up asking all kinds of questions about Legacy.
While I would love to be able to just write every little thing that I know about playing in legacy tournaments into this article, I know that I cannot. Most of what you need to know about magic will be learned from experience. Instead, what this article will include is a list of tips on how to save money when building and playing your decks, as well as a comprehensive list of each of the best "bang for your buck" decks in legacy. Each of the decks listed will cost no more than $250 at the time I write this.
Decks will be presented in the most simple and understandable fashion I can do. Included in each decks sub-section will be..
-Link to the decks primer on this site if available
-Basic introduction
-Basic deck list
-Price Estimate
-Links to articles that explain the deck and its strategies in more detail
-Links to videos of the deck being played
-Explanations on why the deck can be budgeted.
This article is merely meant to act as a starting point for those of you who need a little push to get started.If you are looking to get into legacy but are afraid to because of the apparent complexity or cost then this thread is for you. In here are multitude of tips on how to get into legacy without spending every dime you have. If you have a question, feel free to ask, don't be shy, its why this thread is here.
I have also written a series of articles on budget Legacy called Squandered resources. The articles are meant to act much like this thread, providing information on the budget decks of legacy for those of us who can't spend large sums of cash to fuel our favorite hobby. You can find my articles here.
Legacy and it's Rules The Ban List
Legacy is an eternal constructed format. What this means is it allows cards from all legal sets to be used in pre-constructed decks. There is no single block required to construct decks from and all cards from a brand new set become legal once the set is released. The format is similar to vintage, however, unlike Vintage; it maintains only a banned list, and no restricted list. Cards that are banned, obviously, can not be used legally in tournament play for power or game-play reasons. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen people ask for a link to the legacy ban list, or simply present a deck for legacy not knowing that it uses illegal cards. On that note, I have included a link to the legacy ban list here.
II. Basic tips on getting into legacy and saving money
Making Proxies
I cannot stress enough in words how important this section is, so I'm going to attempt to stress is with cool faces.
The smartest thing you can do when getting into legacy is make proxies. What is a proxy? Well, a proxy is basically a fake card. Proxies are not meant to be counterfeits, rather, they are meant to act as replacements for specific cards so that you can test those specific cards, or an entire deck, before you spend money on the real thing.
Making proxies can save you immeasurable amounts of money and frustration simply because they allow you to test whether or not a card works in a specific deck, if a specific deck fits your play style, or is even good enough to spend your money on in the first place.
Do NOT net deck. ever. Net decking, AKA seeing a deck get first then buying the exact list without any or little knowledge of the deck and how it works, is the biggest mistake a Legacy player can make. Don't expect to place in any tournaments if you do this. Making proxies allows you to practice with a particular deck without net-decking.
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Additional reading and helpful links- "Proxy card" on wikipedia
Borrowing
Sharing is caring. When getting into the legacy scene its unlikely that you will have every staple card needed to build whatever deck you want to use. You also can't be expected to spend the money on the cards either, otherwise you wouldn't be reading this article. This is where borrowing comes into play. When you start going to legacy tournaments its good to make some friends here and there at whatever place you regularly go to. Do some trades, get to know people. Its not rocket science, just try to be a nice guy. Help people out by letting them borrow decks or cards you own to play in a tournament. This way, when the time comes, you can borrow decks and cards from them.
Placing high in a tournament usually yields store credit, which means, if you place enough times you will be able to get the cards you need from the store without spending money. Just remember when you finally get your own versions of card(s) that you had borrowed to thank whomever let you borrow their stuff in the first place. Also, don't forget later on to help newbies that are going through what you are likely to experience soon. Magic is a community, if you are nice to people, they will be nice to you.
When looking for decks to try in legacy, you should first look at what cards you currently own so you know what successful legacy decks you are closest to owning.
Rather than re-type what you can see in another part of the forums, I am going to simply link you to the thread in the forums that talks about legacy staples. All you need to know is that building decks based on what you already have can save you lots of money. Makes sense doesn't it? Here ya go.
Common Budget Replacements
Finding cards that can replace the most expensive cards in legacy can be tough. The cards are expensive because they are the best at what they do. That doesn't mean we can't find some alternatives that are almost as good as them! Here is a basic list of cards that can replace other commonly used cards that are a little too expensive to buy right away.
The Change Jar
Yeah, you read that right. You would be amazed at how well this one works. Keep a change jar. Find some random jar that can hold a good amount of change and label it "Legacy spending money" or "My shiny new Force of Will Play set". Whatever works for you. Everyday empty your pockets into it before you go to sleep, no matter how small the amount, it all adds up. Even if it doesn't look like much it will help you, I promise. Last time I emptied mine it came out to about $200 bucks! Doing this allows you to actually be able to buy food and pay rent or whatever, while still being able to get good decks for your favorite hobby.
III. Budget Decks- Established
This section is all about the most powerful of the decks I will be presenting. Each deck here is, or was at one time, a tier 1.5 or higher deck. These are your best options for "bang for your buck". Burn Primer Basic Description-
The optimal deck for a beginner. No real description needed. Fire off as many burn spells as you can and kill them before they kill you.
Why the Deck Can Be Budgeted-
Burn is a mono-color deck with an all basic land base. No dual lands means you save a ton of money. Beyond that, the deck does not have blue or green, which means no force of will or Tarmagoyf.
Dredge Primer- Basic Description-
Dredge is an aggro synergy/combo deck. The deck works by replacing all of its draws with dredges, getting as much of its library into the graveyard as it can as quickly as possible. By discarding Dredgers like Stinkweed Imp and Golgari Grave-Troll to Putrid Imp, Tireless Tribe, Breakthrough, and Careful Study the deck excels at what it does. Ichorid, and Narcomoeba are cheated into play, both of which trigger Bridge From Below when they flash back Cabal Therapy or Dread Return. Dread Return brings Flame-Kin Zealot into play for the aggro win.
Why the Deck Can Be Budgeted-
The deck's cards are inexpensive, simple enough. The land base is all non-basic, but each land is only $3-4. Also, the version of the deck that does not use Lion's Eye Diamond is often considered better than versions that do.
Affinity Primer- Basic Description-
The deck is a very single minded and speedy aggro deck that works off of the power of Arcbound Ravenger and cranial plating. Play a bunch of artifacts and begin attacking either with Cranial Plating equipped creatures, Master of Etherium, or Arcbound Ravager. Thoughtcast gives you one cost card draw and Disciple of the Vault helps you win the game if the ground stalls.
Why the Deck Can Be Budgeted-
The decks land base is extremely inexpensive for a multi-color deck. Tezzeret versions of the deck have been placing better than sligh versions but are much more expensive, as Tezzeret is around $50 as I write this.
Elf Ball Primer- Basic Description-
Creature based Combo deck with potential swarm/aggro wins. The deck generates near infinite mana with the combo of Nettle Sentinel, Heritage Druid and Glimpse of nature. Every time you play another Elf, you gets to reuse Nettle Sentinel. Eventually, after using a stream of searches and casting a stream of elves, you generate enough storm to kill them with grapeshot or enough mana to cast Emrakul The Aeons Torn.
Valley-less Mono White Life AKA Chant Life Primer- Basic Description-
Scepter-Life Works off of a number of 3 card combos that allow the player to gain preposterous amounts of life. Repeated activation of Nomads En-Kor ability with Daru Spiritualist creates infinite toughness. Condemn, Worthy cause or Starlit Sanctum can then be activated to gain that amount of life. The well known “scepter chant” combo (Orhim’s Chant and Isochron Scepter) adds flavor and control to the deck. While the Absence of Diamond Valley will have its drawbacks, the deck being mono white allows for a play-set of cards like Condemn to find their way into the combo.
Why the Deck Can Budgeted-
The deck is mono-colored which means no Dual lands or Fetch lands, and no Diamond Valley takes a large chunk out of the price as well.
Mono Black Control Primer- Basic Description-
The deck starts by using low cost discard spells like Duress, Inquisition of Kozielek and Hymn to Tourach as early disruption. Anything the opponent actually plays will most likely fall to one of the 13+ removal spells the deck is packing. After the opponent runs out of gas, the deck goes aggro with Nantuko Shade and Tombstalker/Abyssal Prosecutor for the win.
Why the Deck Can Budgeted-
Mono color always helps. Besides this, the deck can get away with running ghost quarter instead of wasteland, or neither at all. Dark Confidant is replaced by Phyrexian Arena, which dies to removal much less often and doesn't kill you from tombstalker's mana cost. Thoughtseize is replaced by Duress.
Cephalid Breakfast Primer- Basic Description-
Cephalid breakfast is a graveyard based combo deck that works off of the card combination of Cephalid Illusionist and Nomads en-kor. By using Nomads en-kor to target Cephalid illusionist an arbitrary number of times it is possible to mill yourself for every card in your deck. While this may seem like suicide, a number of different win conditions can be used to make this combo actually worth doing. The traditional and most popular win condition for the deck uses Sutured Ghoul, Dragons breath and Lord of Extinction. The breakfast player will deck himself out, resulting in 3 narcomeobas hitting the field along with dread return, Dragon’s breathe and either lord of extinction or 4 tarmagoyf hitting the graveyard. The player will then flashback dread return by sacrificing the 3 narcomeobas on the field, targeting sutured ghoul. When sutured ghoul hits the field the player removes either 4 tarmagoyf or 1 Lord of extinction to make the ghoul lethally large. Upon entering the field, dragons breath will be equipped straight from the graveyard to the ghoul, allowing for a hasted swing with a lethal fatty with trample. This can be done as fast as turn 0-1 but is usually accomplished on turn 3.
Why the Deck Can Be Budgeted-
The decks actual combo pieces and Cantrips cost little to nothing so the only part of the deck that could cost anything would be the land base, which can be constructed with rainbow lands and alternatives to the dual lands.
IV. Budget Decks- Rogue
In this section you will find a series of decks that, while not as good as the decks above, can certainly hold their own against some of the best out there.
As a note, I will go into less detail with the decks listed below as there is much less content that discusses them online. However, feel free to ask about any of them within the thread.
Polymorph Basic Description-
Everyone likes really big creatures, especially us. Most fatties used in legacy are creatures that can end a game by themselves and are not all that expensive either. Polymoprh is a cheap mono-colored deck that was made possible (at least in mono color) by the release of the living weapons in the New Phyrexia Set. Use either the living weapon Flayer Husk or the land/creature produced by Mishra's Factory or Wind Zendikon as an outlet to Polymorph or its stick version Proteus Staff. Since there is only one creature in the deck you can congratulate yourself as you play an Emrakul for 3 or 4 mana.
Also, the deck can easily splash white or black for additional protection and token producers like Beckon Apparition or Lab Rats. Chrome Mox can also be added for additional mana acceleration.
Spring Tide Basic Description-
Mono-Blue combo deck that works by using High Tide to generate large amounts of mana. Cards like Cloud of Faeries untap your lands so that you can produce more mana. Your cantrips, draw cards, Cunning Wish and Merchant Scroll help find multiple High Tide or other cards needed. Eventually, the deck wins with a lethal sized Brain Freeze or Blue Sun's Zenith targeting the opponent. The Zenith is very nice because you can wish for it and use all your extra mana to use it on yourself, then continue to combo out, finding the card later to help you combo out more, or kill the opponent. Some lists also use Diminishing Returns to help fuel the players hand more.
Sideboard Talk-
Normally, I hate providing sideboards with my deck lists simply because a sideboard is something that should be constructed based on each individual players meta. therefore, I don't want people to copy a sideboard that they found online because chances are it will be almost useless. However, because this deck uses Cunning Wish, I feel an example sideboard is needed. So, here you are. Just remember to use with caution.
Cheerios Basic Description-
Zero cost creature combo deck. There are 2 versions of the deck that have seen play. In the first version listed, Cast glimpse of nature or Multani's presence with a chalice of the void at zero. Draw your entire deck as you cast each creature, then kill your opponent with a lethal storm spell with mana from songs of the damned. The second version runs 4 Gaea's Cradle, which is a $60 card, so it's a but out of our price range.
BG Infect Primer- Basic Description-
Simple enough deck. Play your infect creature as soon as possible then attack. If it gets through, power it up and try to get 10 poison counters on your opponent for game. Invigorates life gain effect is meaningless, as you will be winning with poison.
White Knights Basic Description-
White Weenie Tribal Knights. Nothing too complicated about it. Control the field with Swords to plowshares and swarm your opponent to death. This deck was able to place 4th in an 88 man tournament on 3/5/2011.
Berserk Stompy Basic Description-
As taken from The Source...
Berserk Stompy is a variation of the old Stompy decks, that ran several green creatures along with a lot of Giant Growth-like effects (usually referred to as pumps or growths) to try to win as fast as possible.This variation of the deck focus on the double-damage card "Berserk" combined with pumps to deal a large amount of damage in no time.
Besides it's namesake card, the deck is very inexpensive to build. If you spend wisely by getting the from the vault version of berserk, which is priced at $40 on starcitygames, you can get the deck for around $218 bucks.
Kiln Fiend Basic Description-
Similar to the Berserk Stompy deck, Kikn fiend is a creature based combo/aggro deck that seeks to kill the opponent with fast and heavy hits provided by Kiln Fiend. Manamorphose, Gitaxian Probe and Lava Dart work to make the fiend as big as possible while discard, bolts, lavamancer and Aphotic Wisps clear the way.
Living End Basic Description-
Made popular by the Modern format, Living End is a combo deck that focuses on cycling large creatures into its graveyard and then following up with a cascade spell into its namesake card. Because the living end is hit with cascade you do not have to wait for its suspend and your cycled creatures begin swarming the field as your opponent loses all of his.
Goblin Storm Basic Description-
Another deck straight out of modern. Goblin Storm works much like many of the storm decks you may already be familiar with. Power out an early empty the warrens, which should net you around 10-14 goblins. If played early enough the opponent could just die within the next couple turns. If played in combo with Goblin Bushwacker, the game is usually over then and there.
Hypergenesis Basic Description-
Similar to the Living End deck, this deck seeks to resolve a cascade spell, only this time you get the normally suspended Hypergenesis, which allows you to resolve any of the multitude of fatties the deck contains. The difference between the decks is, quite frankly, speed. Its not unheard of for the deck to cascade into Hypergenesis on turn 1.
Shoal Infect Basic Description-
Yet another combo deck straight from modern, this deck works a lot like Berserk Stompy and Kiln fiend. Resolve an infect creature, attack your opponent and pump the creature with Blazing Shoal discarding either Progenitus, Reaper King, Searing Wind or Dragon Storm, dealing lethal infect damage in one blow.
Sac Land Tendrils Basic Description-
MTGSali user Jin15 has written a beautiful primer on this budget storm combo deck, which you can find here.
The description given in the primer:
Sac Land Tendrils is a Legacy format storm combo deck designed to be fast and competitive yet still extremely budget friendly. It's fairly simple and easy to learn to play, but like any storm combo deck it rewards practice and the skill of it's pilot.
The origins of this storm combo archetype come out of the Pauper format deck known as "The Pauper Perfect Storm". I piloted TPPS for quite a long time and eventually came to the conclusion that not only was it one of the most consistent storm combo decks I've ever played, but that it could actually be very competitive in the Legacy format with some tweaking, tuning, and the addition of some powerful Legacy format cards. After a few months of work (and more playtesting against Merfolk and Counter Top than I'd ever care to remember) I came up with what I feel is the most consistent and best performing competitive storm deck you can play in Legacy for $160 or less, and I gave it a name : Sac Land Tendrils.
The deck was named for it's unique use of sac lands from the Invasion expansion, which can tap for one color of mana or be sacrificed for two different allied colors of mana, and for employing Tendrils of Agony as it's primary win condition.
This is the super budget section. All decks presented here are less than $100 to buy and are very powerful in their own right, but probably won't win you any tournaments. Keep in mind that any of these lists can be upgraded by adding a little bit more money to them. This means that they are good starting points for decks because you can make them and then upgrade them as time goes on and you get more money. An example of this would be adding Berserk to the Mono green beats list.
DragonStorm Basic Description-
Faster than it looks, this deck can power out an instant win with dragon storm by turn 3. Use rituals like Seething song to power out an early dragonstorm, which targets 4 Bogardan hellkite, who hit your opponent for 20 once they hit the field. Empty the warrens is an alternate win con and if worse comes to worst, you can power out a hellkite or bladewing on turns 2 or 3 and beat your opponent the old fashioned way. Burning Wish acts as extra copies of either dragonstorm or Empty the warrens.
Mono-Red Storm Basic Description-
Very similar to the Dragonstorm list. Storm your way to a win with Empty the Warrens or Multiple Grapeshot, which are drawn into and/or wished for. Empty the Warrens and Grapeshot can also be used in combination.
Mono-Green Beats Basic Description-
Nothing to explain here. Take the most basic magic strategy you can have and make is as efficient as possible without using Tarmogoyf or Berserk.
Pox Primer- Basic Description-
Deny your opponent of his creatures and options with pox and its smaller versions. Your deck is built to survive the blows that pox deals to both of you and maximize the effect it has on your opponent.
Suicide Black Basic Description-
Basically a Black version of Mono-Green Beats. Kill your opponent using cheap creatures that also hurt you. Hopefully you win the race.
White Weenie Basic Description-
Swarm the field with low cost and efficient white creatures. Your equips Help give card advantage and allow the advantage in the damage race. Swords to plowshares, oblivion ring and path to exile help control the field while mother of runes protects your fighters.
Legacy is undoubtedly the most diverse format in magic. Because of this, it can seem pretty daunting to try and get into. In this section you will find a few pointers on how to get used to the vastness of legacy, as well as links to what I believe to be some of the most informative and helpful articles/websites out there for people looking to get into the format.
MTGDeckbuilder.net has every single deck I have listed in this article ready for you to goldfish. Just use this link here and then look for the deck you want to test. The folder the deck is on on the left sidebar will mirror the section it is under in this article.
Price Guides Xeno Ninja Has made a list of a good number of the decks in legacy and exactly how much each would cost you if you hard bought every card. You can find the list here.
Tcgplayer.com is nice for constructing entire decks and using the price guide to get an idea on how much they will cost.
The Format
Use these articles, written by the best of the best in terms of magic minds, to get to know the format a little better.
Playing Better Magic
These are some great articles that help you in the actual playing department of magic. Whether it be getting ready for a big tournament, or just plain not forgetting to rez that ichorid before you draw, these guys have it covered for you. I can vouch for every one of these articles and how informative they are. Don't skip over these, read them, you will come out of it with a much better understanding of this game and how to play it.
Eternal On The Other Side Of The Ocean - Building A Gauntlet by Carsten Kotter
-Finished and polished on 4-8-2011
-Made some changes to a few deck lists and changed their prices accordingly. 4-10-2011
-Replaced Urbord Elf with Birds of Paradise in the infect list and replaced Rogue Elephant with Thrun the Last Troll in the mono green beats deck. 4-28-2011
-Changes Made on 6/13/2011
Changed infect list
Changed Mono-Green Beats List
Changed White Weenie List
Added Mono-Blue Polymorph deck
Added Blue-White PolyThopters deck
Added Spring Tide Deck
Added Additional Pattern of Rebirth Deck
Added Mono-Red Storm List
-Changes Made on 10/16/2011
-Fixed a lot of prices
-Added a lot of decks
-Took out a lot of decks that had become too expensive due to recent price changes
Anywho, good article. Pretty informative, good explanations to each deck. Maybe a suggestion for each deck for what cards to look out for (Like Trygon Predator for Affinity...GOD I HATE THAT CARD *wants to rip one up*)
Another note for each deck here - Most people have common sideboard hate for each deck here (Kor Firewalker in SB's against Burn/Sligh, Trygon/Annulagainst Affinity, Back to Nature/K-Grip for Enchantress, etc.) but that's expected with every deck. Note your deck, and think of SB cards against general decks in the area, and maybe anti-hate for your deck (Like Hanna's Custody for Affinity, Leyline of Punishment for Burn/Sligh, etc.) so your stuff gets through, and their SB options just became useless.
I confess that I haven't read it all, but it was about time that somebody stepped in and made this kind of thread.
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well thank you, lol. i admit, it was a lot, im not surprised that people are not going to read all of it. i'm planning on adding to it a bit as well.
@xeno- i dont ever recall kor firewalker being a "common" sideboard card in legacy, but whatever. ill add something in about what cards to look out for when playing each deck i suggested.
btw, if anyone has any suggestions on decks that i may have missed, go ahead and post up. ill see what i can do.
-Your opponent playing Iona naming white? Not a problem. Just cast painter’s servant and name some other color. Same goes for decks running cards like doom blade, just name whatever the card in question can’t target and its one less card you have to worry about.
Uhh, correct me if I'm wrong, but Painters Servant doesn't get around Iona. Whatever you cast is still white in addition to the painters servant colors, so you wouldn't be able to cast it.
just bought my first 2 wasteland , looking for 2 more , 2 piledrivers , 3 lackeys and i have legacy goblins . Also ordered a white /red original dual and will buy more to build the red /white variant of the goblins . Don't know about the rishadan ports though are they necessary ?
Splash white goblins eh? No one has done that since 2007, but I always liked that build. Only go for that if you are running swords to plowshared though.
As far as the ports go, it depends on how competative you want to be. If you are trying to win a tournament, or at least top 8, you will need the 3-4 ports. The deck will run good without them yes, but the optimal goblin deck will run them.
Hey Spooky, thank you very much for creating this thread. As someone just getting into eternal formats, this is very informative and helpful!
Also, maybe a good thing would be to list some cards that might be a good idea to invest in that a lot of the decks used...some of the cards you will undoubtedly see at a tournament. I know it would help me a lot. For instance, pretty much every deck I've seen has Aether Vial in it.
Hey Spooky, thank you very much for creating this thread. As someone just getting into eternal formats, this is very informative and helpful!
Also, maybe a good thing would be to list some cards that might be a good idea to invest in that a lot of the decks used...some of the cards you will undoubtedly see at a tournament. I know it would help me a lot. For instance, pretty much every deck I've seen has Aether Vial in it.
Hey, thanks man, means a lot cuz I worked a long time setting this thing up. As far as listing popular cards, someone already did that here at mtg sali. I just linked to the thread. The link should be somewhere in the introduction of the article.
Thank you !!! This is very useful !!! I just realized I could build Mighty Quinn for ~$100 !
I have a playset of Force of Will, but no lands to back blue up except a set of scalding tarns, so is there a deck I could start building towards with that ?!!? Mono-blue would be an option, but I don't have many other good blue cards...
Thank you !!! This is very useful !!! I just realized I could build Mighty Quinn for ~$100 !
I have a playset of Force of Will, but no lands to back blue up except a set of scalding tarns, so is there a deck I could start building towards with that ?!!? Mono-blue would be an option, but I don't have many other good blue cards...
well, mono blue merfolk is relatively inexpensive if you already have the FoW's. anything more than mono-color and you run into the duel-lands issue. here is a list you can try and run off of. note that wasteland is still around 40 bucks.
you could also try the combo deck spring tide, which is usually kind of expensive, but if you already have the forces, is much less so. note that the deck does not need fetchlands to work.
Hey man Thanks for the guide, Ive been playing standard/extended for about a year now, and im looking to get into legacy, i like the idea of a storm deck but i didn't see a budget list in your list of decks, any chance you could post a budget U/B storm (if you have one) deck that could help me get started. Thanks
Hey man Thanks for the guide, Ive been playing standard/extended for about a year now, and im looking to get into legacy, i like the idea of a storm deck but i didn't see a budget list in your list of decks, any chance you could post a budget U/B storm (if you have one) deck that could help me get started. Thanks
edit: I have a budget of about 150-200 dollars
hey, sorry for late replay. i will def. get on that for you. im not exactly sure what i can do about a blue black storm list... but ill try my best. it would help to know what cards you already have that would be relevant to a deck like that.
if you are looking for combo that will cost 150-200 cephalid breakfast works pretty well. but, once again, ill see what i can work up with U/B storm.
Yea Ive only gotten into magic in the last year and a half and Ive spent most of my time in Standard, and the last month or two in extended. Cephalid Breakfast looks fairly interesting to play so ill look at that and try and play it a bit with proxies or something. I don't really have many cards before the Alara block which is my main problem, I do however have a full set of Misty Rainforests and Verdant catacombs. Appreciate the time man.
Hey So Ive spent some time reading up about Cephalid Breakfast, and Im beginning to like the list alot more, i looked at the list under this forum and it came out at about 276 dollars, on the other hand i went to primer and one of the main lists came out at 169 dollars. So Im wondering what list should I run, and what should be in sideboard thanks!
Hey So Ive spent some time reading up about Cephalid Breakfast, and Im beginning to like the list alot more, i looked at the list under this forum and it came out at about 276 dollars, on the other hand i went to primer and one of the main lists came out at 169 dollars. So Im wondering what list should I run, and what should be in sideboard thanks!
ok well, i checked into U/B storm combo for you and this is what i could find as far as successful variants go. There is a lot to look at, so i put everything in spoiler tags.
this is a version by Ari Lax, who is a very good magic player. obviously this is not a budget version, but i wanted to present this to you to show you a couple of points.
ANY storm combo deck you run is going to run Lions eye diamond. this card is $40 give or take a couple almost anywhere you look, and the decks usually will not work with out it.
Ari Lax's version ran Grim Tutor which is way above most peoples price range at around $120.
beyond this, you have thoughtseize, which is $25-30 and Infernal Tutor, which is about 5 a pop. this all adds up pretty fast, and its obvious that these are the cards (besides the land base) that are what make the deck expensive.
so, we need to look at what these cards do and see if there is anyway we can replace them.
lets start with thoughtsieze, since its the easiest to replace. its in there to protect the combo and get rid of potentially lethal cards of your opponent (like tarmogyf, KotR or Charbelcher), what can do all of that for 26 dollars less? how about Inquisition of Kozilek? note that this does not stop Force of will, but it hits pretty much everything else you will need to worry about.
infernal tutor does not need to be replaced. $5 is easily reached, and the deck cant run without it.
Lions eye diamond is a WHOLE different story. it will be very difficult to build a working version of the deck without this card, as its purposes are 3 fold.
1-it is a 0 cost artifact spell, which adds to storm count
2- it add 3 mana to your pool which allows you to play more spells
3- it discards your hand, which allows hellbent on your infernal tutor.
the most we can do to replace this is put in chrome mox, at thats not helping much. chrome mox adds to the storm count, gives us one mana and can possibly take one card to add to hellbent. however, its not nearly as good as lions eye diamond....
next is Grim tutor. this one is a doozy, it searches for whatever we need at the moment. after a bit of thinking however, i came up with something that i believe may be a suitable replacement, and at $5 bucks to boot. Lim-Dûl's Vault . this card is instant speed, costs one mana less, fits the mana colors of the deck and can net you more than just one card needed if played right with brainstorm or other cantrips.
the landbase is not that bad for you, as you already "have a full set of Misty Rainforests and Verdant catacombs." it may look like the 2 underground sea in the deck would make it out of yoru price range, but in truth Watery Grave serves the exact same purpose. it is fetchable and the life loss really does not ever matter, as you are a combo deck.
taking all this in, this is what the deck looks like.
the biggest problem i see with this budget version again is the lack of Lions eye diamond. this is a big problem. but, again, if you have your heart set on a Budget UB storm deck, this is about as good as you are going to get.
Im glad you like Cephalid breakfast, as it is a MUCH easier deck to play, MUCH easier deck to budget AND its a good deck to boot. (established competitive on this site)
You basically have 2 options when creating a budget list of Breakfast. you can either go for the speedy rainbow land version that wins on turns 0-2 often, but runs little protection and is cheaper to build, or the more consistent but more expensive build. I would suggest the more consistent build, as you will win more often.
here is the list i run. your fetchlands will help bring the price down a ton, and the Shock lands from dissension etc will help a lot too.
you can simply replace 1 or 2 of the scalding tarn with verdant catacombs, but i would not replace all 3.
this version of the deck runs aether vial, which is VERY key to winning your counterbalance variant match-ups, as well as any other deck that runs counterspells.
running the shock lands allows for the use of fetchlands, which help your cantrips become more successful, as well as daze for extra protection.
overall this deck is going to run you around $200, but i am confidant that it is the best of the budget versions.
you can play around with adding a 4th aether vial, wont really make a huge difference, i just prefer 3.
ill answer your sideboard question the way i helped someone else.
well as with every deck in legacy, you should include at least 4 slots simply for graveyard hate, to even up your Lands.dec and dredge matchups. dredge sometimes uses pithing needle for antihate, so having an inconsistant number of each graveyard hate card makes it harder for them to answer. it should look something like this...
2 tormods crypt
1 nihil spellbomb
1 relic of progenitus
from here, you can decide to go with the basic sideboard that most decks would use, or you can choose to use a sideboard that completely changes the decks win condition in games 2 and 3 to a painter/grindestone kill, simply because in games 2 and 3 your opponent will be putting in their own graveyard hate.
option one would look like this...
1 way of revelation
2 Path to Exile
3 Echoing Truth
2 Meddling Mage
3 duress
duress helps against combo decks that are faster than your own, while way of revelation and echoing truth are there to handle things like humility and moat, or whatever else you may need them against. meddling mage is a silver bullet for whatever you need him for that can be tutored up with worldy tutor or eladamris call.
option 2 would look like this
4 Grindstone
4 Painter's Servant
1 Trinket Mage
2 echoing truth or duress
tricket mage can be found with worldly tutor and he finds the grindstone. servant can also be searched for. this is a sideboard meant to change the deck completely for games 2 and 3, so your opponents sided in hate is meaningless.
overall, you can change these up however you want, but these are what i would suggest. good luck with the deck!
oh, almost forgot, as far as comboing out when you dont have silence or pact, i usually dont like that, which is why i run the landbase with the poor mans duel lands instead of the rainbow land landbase. this way, i can run 4 daze as well in my main list. ups the protection a lot.
Team america eh? Actually yes, this deck is very competative. There are many different varients, but each varient only changes a few cards. The version you linked to looks pretty solid, I would probably only run 3 stalkers, 4 seems a bit much. My advice would be to try and checkout different deck lists at tcdecks or other places and proxy out the lists.
Overall though yes, the deck is very good. I've considered biulding it before, but its out of my price range.
Yea I really like that list, I cant justify buying all 8 shock lands right now so would u get 2 and 2 and than put an extra plains and Island in? or how would you change that land base
Yea I really like that list, I cant justify buying all 8 shock lands right now so would u get 2 and 2 and than put an extra plains and Island in? or how would you change that land base
well, there are actually 7 shocks in that list, not 8 but... let me see here.
you COULD replace a few and put in plains and islands in the other slots. you would run into some mana issues, but the deck should still run relatively well. you other option is to use city of brass in the extra slots, which would prevent mana screws, but they cant be searched out or used for daze. either one would be fine at this point, but sooner or later you will want the 7 shocks.
So I am liking the deck but what happens when you draw into stuff that u want in your grave yard when u combo?
either you put them back into the deck with brainstorm, discard them if you are running careful study or you combo out like usual and use cabal therapy on yourself instead of your opponent before you actually rez something.
that reminds me. after you combo out with nomads and illusionist ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS use both cabal therapies before you even TRY to rez someone, because you only have one rez in the deck.
Team america eh? Actually yes, this deck is very competative. There are many different varients, but each varient only changes a few cards. The version you linked to looks pretty solid, I would probably only run 3 stalkers, 4 seems a bit much. My advice would be to try and checkout different deck lists at tcdecks or other places and proxy out the lists.
Overall though yes, the deck is very good. I've considered biulding it before, but its out of my price range.
Awesome! I currently play standard (a blue black control list that's relatively similar to the decklist I posted), and I am planning on purchasing the cards in the list from a combination of people I know and specific dealers who would have good prices/might cut me a deal over the course of 2-3 months.
What would be the best order to get things?
Should I get the duals or the Goyfs first? Please note that I have standard fetches and Jaces, so those parts aren't a necessity.
Awesome! I currently play standard (a blue black control list that's relatively similar to the decklist I posted), and I am planning on purchasing the cards in the list from a combination of people I know and specific dealers who would have good prices/might cut me a deal over the course of 2-3 months.
What would be the best order to get things?
Should I get the duals or the Goyfs first? Please note that I have standard fetches and Jaces, so those parts aren't a necessity.
the land base is the most important part of any deck, period. always get the lands first. you can function to some degree without the goyfs, but you cant say the same about the lands.
Duals for sure. You already have the Standard fetches so you can still function rather well on 1 or 2 duals (I played Zoo with 3 duals total for awhile...heh). As for Goyf you can either build decks that don't use Goyf (obviously) or you can build decks that have a good substitute for Goyf (for example, Doran isn't bad as a sort of replacement for Goyf).
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I. Introduction
II. Basic tips on getting into legacy and saving money
III. Budget Decks- Established
IV. Budget Decks- Rogue
V. Budget Decks- Super Budget
VI. Final Notes and Additional Reading
VII. Updates and Edits Log
As anyone can tell you Legacy (type 1.5) is one of the most popular Magic the Gathering formats, and it is only getting more popular. This growth in popularity can be contributed to a number of things, including the ever so popular SCG Open series. As an obvious result of this growth, more and more people who are new to the format are showing up asking all kinds of questions about Legacy.
While I would love to be able to just write every little thing that I know about playing in legacy tournaments into this article, I know that I cannot. Most of what you need to know about magic will be learned from experience. Instead, what this article will include is a list of tips on how to save money when building and playing your decks, as well as a comprehensive list of each of the best "bang for your buck" decks in legacy. Each of the decks listed will cost no more than $250 at the time I write this.
Decks will be presented in the most simple and understandable fashion I can do. Included in each decks sub-section will be..
-Link to the decks primer on this site if available
-Basic introduction
-Basic deck list
-Price Estimate
-Links to articles that explain the deck and its strategies in more detail
-Links to videos of the deck being played
-Explanations on why the deck can be budgeted.
This article is merely meant to act as a starting point for those of you who need a little push to get started.If you are looking to get into legacy but are afraid to because of the apparent complexity or cost then this thread is for you. In here are multitude of tips on how to get into legacy without spending every dime you have. If you have a question, feel free to ask, don't be shy, its why this thread is here.
I have also written a series of articles on budget Legacy called Squandered resources. The articles are meant to act much like this thread, providing information on the budget decks of legacy for those of us who can't spend large sums of cash to fuel our favorite hobby. You can find my articles here.
Legacy and it's Rules
The Ban List
Legacy is an eternal constructed format. What this means is it allows cards from all legal sets to be used in pre-constructed decks. There is no single block required to construct decks from and all cards from a brand new set become legal once the set is released. The format is similar to vintage, however, unlike Vintage; it maintains only a banned list, and no restricted list. Cards that are banned, obviously, can not be used legally in tournament play for power or game-play reasons. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen people ask for a link to the legacy ban list, or simply present a deck for legacy not knowing that it uses illegal cards. On that note, I have included a link to the legacy ban list here.
I cannot stress enough in words how important this section is, so I'm going to attempt to stress is with cool faces.
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The smartest thing you can do when getting into legacy is make proxies. What is a proxy? Well, a proxy is basically a fake card. Proxies are not meant to be counterfeits, rather, they are meant to act as replacements for specific cards so that you can test those specific cards, or an entire deck, before you spend money on the real thing.
Making proxies can save you immeasurable amounts of money and frustration simply because they allow you to test whether or not a card works in a specific deck, if a specific deck fits your play style, or is even good enough to spend your money on in the first place.
Do NOT net deck. ever. Net decking, AKA seeing a deck get first then buying the exact list without any or little knowledge of the deck and how it works, is the biggest mistake a Legacy player can make. Don't expect to place in any tournaments if you do this. Making proxies allows you to practice with a particular deck without net-decking.
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Additional reading and helpful links-
"Proxy card" on wikipedia
The site I use to make perfect proxies
Borrowing
Sharing is caring. When getting into the legacy scene its unlikely that you will have every staple card needed to build whatever deck you want to use. You also can't be expected to spend the money on the cards either, otherwise you wouldn't be reading this article. This is where borrowing comes into play. When you start going to legacy tournaments its good to make some friends here and there at whatever place you regularly go to. Do some trades, get to know people. Its not rocket science, just try to be a nice guy. Help people out by letting them borrow decks or cards you own to play in a tournament. This way, when the time comes, you can borrow decks and cards from them.
Placing high in a tournament usually yields store credit, which means, if you place enough times you will be able to get the cards you need from the store without spending money. Just remember when you finally get your own versions of card(s) that you had borrowed to thank whomever let you borrow their stuff in the first place. Also, don't forget later on to help newbies that are going through what you are likely to experience soon. Magic is a community, if you are nice to people, they will be nice to you.
Additional reading and helpful links-
Vintage Avant-Garde - Breaking Into Eternal: Getting Cards Without Paying A Fortune by Brian DeMars
What You Already Have
When looking for decks to try in legacy, you should first look at what cards you currently own so you know what successful legacy decks you are closest to owning.
Rather than re-type what you can see in another part of the forums, I am going to simply link you to the thread in the forums that talks about legacy staples. All you need to know is that building decks based on what you already have can save you lots of money. Makes sense doesn't it?
Here ya go.
Common Budget Replacements
Finding cards that can replace the most expensive cards in legacy can be tough. The cards are expensive because they are the best at what they do. That doesn't mean we can't find some alternatives that are almost as good as them! Here is a basic list of cards that can replace other commonly used cards that are a little too expensive to buy right away.
The Duel Lands-
The dual lands are used in Legacy for a number of reasons. One of the main reasons, is the fact that they can be fetched by the fetch lands. Shock lands are the only other multi-color lands that are fetchable, so they are the best option when it comes to budget land bases.
* Badlands -- Blood Crypt
* Bayou -- Overgrown Tomb
* Plateau -- Sacred Foundry
* Savannah -- Temple Garden
* Scrubland-- Godless Shrine
* Taiga -- Stomping Ground
* Tropical Island -- Breeding Pool
* Tundra -- Hallowed Fountain
* Underground Sea -- Watery Grave
* Volcanic Island -- Steam Vents
Other Staples-
* Force of Will -- Pact of Negation/Daze
* Tarmagoyf -- Putrid Leech/Quirion Dryad/Vinelasher Kudzu
* Wasteland -- Ghost Quarter, Dust Bowl
* Swords to Plowshares -- Condemn
* Orim's Chant -- Silence
* Moat -- Island Sanctuary, Ghostly Prison
* Dark Confidant -- Phyrexian Arena
* Thoughtseize -- Duress/Inquisition of Kozilek
* Price of Progress -- Fame Rift
* Engineered Explosive's -- Ratchet Bomb/Powder Keg
The Change Jar
Yeah, you read that right. You would be amazed at how well this one works. Keep a change jar. Find some random jar that can hold a good amount of change and label it "Legacy spending money" or "My shiny new Force of Will Play set". Whatever works for you. Everyday empty your pockets into it before you go to sleep, no matter how small the amount, it all adds up. Even if it doesn't look like much it will help you, I promise. Last time I emptied mine it came out to about $200 bucks! Doing this allows you to actually be able to buy food and pay rent or whatever, while still being able to get good decks for your favorite hobby.
This section is all about the most powerful of the decks I will be presenting. Each deck here is, or was at one time, a tier 1.5 or higher deck. These are your best options for "bang for your buck".
Burn
Primer
Basic Description-
The optimal deck for a beginner. No real description needed. Fire off as many burn spells as you can and kill them before they kill you.
Sample Deck-list-
4 Goblin Guide
4 Hellspark Elemental
4 Keldon Marauders
Other Spells-29
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Rift Bolt
4 Lava Spike
4 Fireblast
4 Chain Lightning
4 Flame Rift
3 Price of Progress
2 Magma Jet
19 Mountains
Price-
~$130
Helpful Links-
Legacy Burn Wiki
Legacy’s Allure – Legacy Burn: Toward a Fiery Conclusion
GP Columbus Top 32 with BURN by Patrick Sullivan
Videos of the deck-
SCG Open Richmond Legacy Round 9 Phillips (Burn) vs Wayne (No Goyf) G1
Live Coverage of StarCityGames.com Open: Los Angeles-Just watch any video with Patrick Sullivan.
Why the Deck Can Be Budgeted-
Burn is a mono-color deck with an all basic land base. No dual lands means you save a ton of money. Beyond that, the deck does not have blue or green, which means no force of will or Tarmagoyf.
Dredge
Primer-
Basic Description-
Dredge is an aggro synergy/combo deck. The deck works by replacing all of its draws with dredges, getting as much of its library into the graveyard as it can as quickly as possible. By discarding Dredgers like Stinkweed Imp and Golgari Grave-Troll to Putrid Imp, Tireless Tribe, Breakthrough, and Careful Study the deck excels at what it does. Ichorid, and Narcomoeba are cheated into play, both of which trigger Bridge From Below when they flash back Cabal Therapy or Dread Return. Dread Return brings Flame-Kin Zealot into play for the aggro win.
Sample Deck-list-
4 Cephalid Coliseum
4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
2 Tarnished Citadel
Creatures-29
4 Tireless Tribe
4 Grave Troll
4 Putrid Imp
4 Narcoemeba
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Ichorid
3 Golgari Thug
1 Flame-Kin Zealot
1 Sphinx of Lost Truths
4 Breakthrough
4 Bridge From Below
3 Dread Return
3 Careful Study
3 Cabal therapy
Price-
~$250
Helpful Links-
Deep Analysis – Tuning Legacy Dredge
Unlocking Legacy - Dredging its Way to the Top
Videos of the deck-
Live Coverage of StarCityGames.com Open: Los Angeles- Watch any matches with Frankie Mach, Devyn March, Timothy Froehlig or Kyle Dunne.
Why the Deck Can Be Budgeted-
The deck's cards are inexpensive, simple enough. The land base is all non-basic, but each land is only $3-4. Also, the version of the deck that does not use Lion's Eye Diamond is often considered better than versions that do.
Affinity
Primer-
Basic Description-
The deck is a very single minded and speedy aggro deck that works off of the power of Arcbound Ravenger and cranial plating. Play a bunch of artifacts and begin attacking either with Cranial Plating equipped creatures, Master of Etherium, or Arcbound Ravager. Thoughtcast gives you one cost card draw and Disciple of the Vault helps you win the game if the ground stalls.
Sample Deck-list-
1 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Ancient Den
4 Great Furnace
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Vault of Whispers
Artifacts-10
3 Springleaf drum
4 Cranial Plating
3 Mox Opal
4 Disciple of the Vault
4 Arcbound Ravager
3 Master of Etherium
4 Memnite
3 Ornithopter
3 Signal Pest
2 Vault Skirge
2 Shrapnel Blast
4 Galvanic Blast
Sorceries-4
4 Thoughtcast
Price-
~$225
Helpful Links-
Matt+Elias The Long and Winding Road – The New Kings of Legacy
Insider Information - Affinity for Legacy
Videos-
Live Coverage of StarCityGames.com Open: Dallas/Fort Worth- Matches with Blake McCracken.
Why the Deck Can Be Budgeted-
The decks land base is extremely inexpensive for a multi-color deck. Tezzeret versions of the deck have been placing better than sligh versions but are much more expensive, as Tezzeret is around $50 as I write this.
Elf Ball
Primer-
Basic Description-
Creature based Combo deck with potential swarm/aggro wins. The deck generates near infinite mana with the combo of Nettle Sentinel, Heritage Druid and Glimpse of nature. Every time you play another Elf, you gets to reuse Nettle Sentinel. Eventually, after using a stream of searches and casting a stream of elves, you generate enough storm to kill them with grapeshot or enough mana to cast Emrakul The Aeons Torn.
Sample Deck-list-
4 Birchlore Rangers
3 Elvish Archdruid
3 Elvish Visionary
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Heritage Druid
4 Llanowar Elves
1 Mirror Entity
4 Nettle Sentinel
3 Priest of Titania
1 Regal Force
2 Wirewood Hivemaster
3 Wirewood Symbiote
1 Concordant Crossroads
2 Genesis Wave
4 Glimpse of Nature
4 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Staff of Domination
Lands-15
14 Forest
1 Wirewood Lodge
Price-
~$165
Helpful Links-
Deck Tech: Legacy Elves
Chatter of the Squirrel — Legacy Elves!
The Long And Winding Road – Legacy: Elves!
Videos-
Live Coverage of StarCityGames.com Open: Los Angeles- Matches with Wil Strickland and Matt Sperling.
MTG Legacy Elf Deck Tech
Valley-less Mono White Life AKA Chant Life
Primer-
Basic Description-
Scepter-Life Works off of a number of 3 card combos that allow the player to gain preposterous amounts of life. Repeated activation of Nomads En-Kor ability with Daru Spiritualist creates infinite toughness. Condemn, Worthy cause or Starlit Sanctum can then be activated to gain that amount of life. The well known “scepter chant” combo (Orhim’s Chant and Isochron Scepter) adds flavor and control to the deck. While the Absence of Diamond Valley will have its drawbacks, the deck being mono white allows for a play-set of cards like Condemn to find their way into the combo.
Sample Deck-list-
15 Plains
4 Starlit Sanctum
Creatures- 19
4 Daru Spiritualist
4 Nomads en-Kor
4 Shaman en-Kor
4 Task Force
2 Mother of Runes
1 Emrakul the Aeons Torn
4 Orhim's Chant
4 Condemn
4 Silence
2 Worthy cause
Enchantments-1
1 Test of endurance
4 Aether Vial
3 Isochron Scepter
Price-
~$200
Helpful Links-
Going Infinite - Grand Prix: Philadelphia *15th Place*
Life in Legacy
Videos-
N/A
Why the Deck Can Budgeted-
The deck is mono-colored which means no Dual lands or Fetch lands, and no Diamond Valley takes a large chunk out of the price as well.
Mono Black Control
Primer-
Basic Description-
The deck starts by using low cost discard spells like Duress, Inquisition of Kozielek and Hymn to Tourach as early disruption. Anything the opponent actually plays will most likely fall to one of the 13+ removal spells the deck is packing. After the opponent runs out of gas, the deck goes aggro with Nantuko Shade and Tombstalker/Abyssal Prosecutor for the win.
Sample Deck-list-
3 Bojuka Bog
4 Marsh Flats
13 Swamp
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Volrath's Stronghold
Creatures-16
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
3 Nantuko Shade
2 Shriekmaw
3 Tombstalker
4 Vampire Nighthawk
1 Damnation
4 Dark Ritual
2 Duress
2 Go for the Throat
4 Hymn to Tourach
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Nevinyrral's Disk
3 Phyrexian Arena
2 Smother
Price-~$200
Why the Deck Can Budgeted-
Mono color always helps. Besides this, the deck can get away with running ghost quarter instead of wasteland, or neither at all. Dark Confidant is replaced by Phyrexian Arena, which dies to removal much less often and doesn't kill you from tombstalker's mana cost. Thoughtseize is replaced by Duress.
Helpful Links-
Legacy's Allure - Controlling The StarCityGames.com Indianapolis Legacy Open
Videos-
StarCityGames.com Open-Indianapolis Deck Tech: Monoblack Control in Legacy
Cephalid Breakfast
Primer-
Basic Description-
Cephalid breakfast is a graveyard based combo deck that works off of the card combination of Cephalid Illusionist and Nomads en-kor. By using Nomads en-kor to target Cephalid illusionist an arbitrary number of times it is possible to mill yourself for every card in your deck. While this may seem like suicide, a number of different win conditions can be used to make this combo actually worth doing. The traditional and most popular win condition for the deck uses Sutured Ghoul, Dragons breath and Lord of Extinction. The breakfast player will deck himself out, resulting in 3 narcomeobas hitting the field along with dread return, Dragon’s breathe and either lord of extinction or 4 tarmagoyf hitting the graveyard. The player will then flashback dread return by sacrificing the 3 narcomeobas on the field, targeting sutured ghoul. When sutured ghoul hits the field the player removes either 4 tarmagoyf or 1 Lord of extinction to make the ghoul lethally large. Upon entering the field, dragons breath will be equipped straight from the graveyard to the ghoul, allowing for a hasted swing with a lethal fatty with trample. This can be done as fast as turn 0-1 but is usually accomplished on turn 3.
Sample Deck-list-
4 City of Brass
2 Darkslick Shores
1 Tendo Ice Bridge
2 Mirrodin's Core
4 Gemstone Mine
2 Razorverge Thicket
2 Seachrome Coast
4 Cephalid Illusionist
1 The Mimeoplasm
4 Narcomoeba
1 Lord of Extinction
1 Murderous Redcap
4 Nomads en-Kor
1 Shaman en-Kor
3 AEther Vial
2 Cabal Therapy
1 Dread Return
2 Eladamri's Call
4 Pact of Negation
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
4 Silence
4 Worldly Tutor
Price-
~$250
Helpful Links-
Cephalid Breakfast: Its Design, And How To Play It
The Year of the Rogue Decks
Videos-
Live Coverage of StarCityGames.com Open: Los Angeles-Matches with Joe Lossett
Why the Deck Can Be Budgeted-
The decks actual combo pieces and Cantrips cost little to nothing so the only part of the deck that could cost anything would be the land base, which can be constructed with rainbow lands and alternatives to the dual lands.
In this section you will find a series of decks that, while not as good as the decks above, can certainly hold their own against some of the best out there.
As a note, I will go into less detail with the decks listed below as there is much less content that discusses them online. However, feel free to ask about any of them within the thread.
Polymorph
Basic Description-
Everyone likes really big creatures, especially us. Most fatties used in legacy are creatures that can end a game by themselves and are not all that expensive either. Polymoprh is a cheap mono-colored deck that was made possible (at least in mono color) by the release of the living weapons in the New Phyrexia Set. Use either the living weapon Flayer Husk or the land/creature produced by Mishra's Factory or Wind Zendikon as an outlet to Polymorph or its stick version Proteus Staff. Since there is only one creature in the deck you can congratulate yourself as you play an Emrakul for 3 or 4 mana.
Also, the deck can easily splash white or black for additional protection and token producers like Beckon Apparition or Lab Rats. Chrome Mox can also be added for additional mana acceleration.
2 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
Other Spells-38
4 Daze
4 Flayer Husk
4 Lotus Petal
4 Spell Snare
4 Polymorph
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
3 Proteus Staff
4 Spell Pierce
4 Wind Zendikon
3 Ancient Tomb
12 Island
4 Mishra's Factory
Price-
~$140
Spring Tide
Basic Description-
Mono-Blue combo deck that works by using High Tide to generate large amounts of mana. Cards like Cloud of Faeries untap your lands so that you can produce more mana. Your cantrips, draw cards, Cunning Wish and Merchant Scroll help find multiple High Tide or other cards needed. Eventually, the deck wins with a lethal sized Brain Freeze or Blue Sun's Zenith targeting the opponent. The Zenith is very nice because you can wish for it and use all your extra mana to use it on yourself, then continue to combo out, finding the card later to help you combo out more, or kill the opponent. Some lists also use Diminishing Returns to help fuel the players hand more.
4 Cloud of Faeries
Other Spells- 40
1 Brain Freeze
4 Brainstorm
3 Cunning Wish
4 High Tide
4 Ideas Unbound
3 Meditate
4 Merchant Scroll
4 Ponder
3 Retraced Image
3 Snap
4 Spell Pierce
3 Turnabout
16 Island
Price with sideboard-
~$115
Sideboard Talk-
Normally, I hate providing sideboards with my deck lists simply because a sideboard is something that should be constructed based on each individual players meta. therefore, I don't want people to copy a sideboard that they found online because chances are it will be almost useless. However, because this deck uses Cunning Wish, I feel an example sideboard is needed. So, here you are. Just remember to use with caution.
1 Brain Freeze
1 Capsize
1 Chain of Vapor
2 Disrupt
3 Divert
1 Meditate
1 Pact of Negation
1 Rebuild
1 Snap
1 Turnabout
1 Wipe Away
Helpful Links-
Unlocking Legacy – Solidarity and Spring Tide: The Best of Both Decks by Anwar Ahmad
Cheerios
Basic Description-
Zero cost creature combo deck. There are 2 versions of the deck that have seen play. In the first version listed, Cast glimpse of nature or Multani's presence with a chalice of the void at zero. Draw your entire deck as you cast each creature, then kill your opponent with a lethal storm spell with mana from songs of the damned. The second version runs 4 Gaea's Cradle, which is a $60 card, so it's a but out of our price range.
Sample Deck-list- "Moldy" Version
4 Crimson Kobolds
3 Crookshank Kobolds
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Kobolds of Kher Keep
4 Memnite
4 Ornithopter
4 Phyrexian Walker
4 Shield Sphere
4 Street Wraith
1 Autumn's Veil
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Glimpse of Nature
4 Land Grant
4 Lotus Petal
4 Multani's Presence
1 Songs of the Damned
1 Tendrils of Agony
2 Overgrown Tomb
Price-
~$225
Helpful Links-
Deck Tech: Cherri0s with Marc Agel
BG Infect
Primer-
Basic Description-
Simple enough deck. Play your infect creature as soon as possible then attack. If it gets through, power it up and try to get 10 poison counters on your opponent for game. Invigorates life gain effect is meaningless, as you will be winning with poison.
Sample Deck List-
4 Ichorclaw Myr
4 Phyrexian Crusader
4 Plague Stinger
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Glistener Elf
2 Viridian Corrupter
2 Might of old Krosa
4 Invigorate
4 Rancor
4 Groundswell
4 Vines of Vastwood
Lands-20
2 Forest
4 Inkmoth Nexus
2 Llanowar Wastes
2 Misty Rainforest
3 Overgrown Tomb
1 Pendelhaven
1 Swamp
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Verdant Catacombs
Price-
~$220
Helpful Links-
Deck Tech: Poison with Carl Godon
White Knights
Basic Description-
White Weenie Tribal Knights. Nothing too complicated about it. Control the field with Swords to plowshares and swarm your opponent to death. This deck was able to place 4th in an 88 man tournament on 3/5/2011.
Sample Deck List-
4 Hero of Bladehold
4 Knight Exemplar
4 Leonin Skyhunter
4 Mirran Crusader
4 Student of Warfare
4 Wall of Omens
4 White Knight
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4 Honor of the Pure
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Flagstones of Trokair
16 Plains
Price-
~$220
Berserk Stompy
Basic Description-
As taken from The Source... Besides it's namesake card, the deck is very inexpensive to build. If you spend wisely by getting the from the vault version of berserk, which is priced at $40 on starcitygames, you can get the deck for around $218 bucks.
4 Gladecover Scout
4 Kavu Predator
4 Silhana Ledgewalker
4 Skarrgan Pit-Skulk
4 Slippery Bogle
1 Xantid Swarm
4 Berserk
4 Invigorate
4 Might of Old Krosa
4 Rancor
3 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Seal of Strength
16 Forest
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Pendelhaven
Price-
~$220
Kiln Fiend
Basic Description-
Similar to the Berserk Stompy deck, Kikn fiend is a creature based combo/aggro deck that seeks to kill the opponent with fast and heavy hits provided by Kiln Fiend. Manamorphose, Gitaxian Probe and Lava Dart work to make the fiend as big as possible while discard, bolts, lavamancer and Aphotic Wisps clear the way.
2 Countryside Crusher
4 Flamekin Harbinger
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Kiln Fiend
Other Spells-27
3 Aphotic Wisps
2 Assault Strobe
3 Duress
3 Gitaxian Probe
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lava Dart
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Manamorphose
2 Arid Mesa
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
4 Bloodstained Mire
3 Mountain
2 Scalding Tarn
3 Swamp
1 Blood Crypt
Price-
~$220
Living End
Basic Description-
Made popular by the Modern format, Living End is a combo deck that focuses on cycling large creatures into its graveyard and then following up with a cascade spell into its namesake card. Because the living end is hit with cascade you do not have to wait for its suspend and your cycled creatures begin swarming the field as your opponent loses all of his.
4 Architects of Will
4 Deadshot Minotaur
3 Faerie Macabre
2 Ingot Chewer
2 Jungle Weaver
4 Monstrous Carabid
2 Shriekmaw
4 Street Wraith
2 Valley Rannet
2 Beast Within
4 Demonic Dread
3 Living End
4 Violent Outburst
Lands-20
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
1 Blood Crypt
3 City of Brass
4 Copperline Gorge
2 Forest
1 Mountain
2 Swamp
3 Verdant Catacombs
Price-
~$150
Goblin Storm
Basic Description-
Another deck straight out of modern. Goblin Storm works much like many of the storm decks you may already be familiar with. Power out an early empty the warrens, which should net you around 10-14 goblins. If played early enough the opponent could just die within the next couple turns. If played in combo with Goblin Bushwacker, the game is usually over then and there.
4 Goblin Bushwhacker
3 Simian Spirit Guide
Other Spells-38
4 Desperate Ritual
4 Empty the Warrens
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Manamorphose
3 Peer Through Depths
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
3 Pyretic Ritual
4 Rite of Flame
4 Seething Song
4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
1 Island
1 Mountain
3 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
Price-
~$185
Hypergenesis
Basic Description-
Similar to the Living End deck, this deck seeks to resolve a cascade spell, only this time you get the normally suspended Hypergenesis, which allows you to resolve any of the multitude of fatties the deck contains. The difference between the decks is, quite frankly, speed. Its not unheard of for the deck to cascade into Hypergenesis on turn 1.
2 Angel of Despair
1 Blightsteel Colossus
4 Chancellor of the Annex
4 Chancellor of the Tangle
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
2 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
2 Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
1 Progenitus
4 Simian Spirit Guide
1 Terastodon
4 Ardent Plea
3 Demonic Dread
3 Hypergenesis
2 Oblivion Ring
4 Violent Outburst
Lands-19
4 City of Brass
4 Forbidden Orchard
3 Gemstone Caverns
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Pillar of the Paruns
Price-
~$180
Shoal Infect
Basic Description-
Yet another combo deck straight from modern, this deck works a lot like Berserk Stompy and Kiln fiend. Resolve an infect creature, attack your opponent and pump the creature with Blazing Shoal discarding either Progenitus, Reaper King, Searing Wind or Dragon Storm, dealing lethal infect damage in one blow.
4 Blighted Agent
1 Reaper King
Other Spells-36
4 Blazing Shoal
2 Gitaxian Probe
4 Muddle the Mixture
4 Pact of Negation
4 Peer Through Depths
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
4 Searing Wind
1 Snapback
4 Spell Pierce
1 Summoner's Pact
1 Hall of the Bandit Lord
4 Inkmoth Nexus
12 Island
2 Tolaria West
Price-
~$210
Sac Land Tendrils
Basic Description-
MTGSali user Jin15 has written a beautiful primer on this budget storm combo deck, which you can find here.
The description given in the primer:
4 Lotus Petal
4 Rite of Flame
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
[23 Cantrips/Draw]
4 Chromatic Star
3 Chromatic Sphere
4 Ponder
4 Manamorphose
4 Night's Whisper
4 Ideas Unbound
4 Burning Wish
3 Tendrils of Agony
[14 Lands]
4 Sulfur Vent
4 Geothermal Crevice
4 Ancient Spring
2 Gemstone Mine
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Grapeshot
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Diminishing Returns
1 Shattering Spree
1 Chain Lightning
1 Eye of Nowhere
2 Thoughtseize
2 Echoing Truth
3 Silence
Price-
~$100-160
This is the super budget section. All decks presented here are less than $100 to buy and are very powerful in their own right, but probably won't win you any tournaments. Keep in mind that any of these lists can be upgraded by adding a little bit more money to them. This means that they are good starting points for decks because you can make them and then upgrade them as time goes on and you get more money. An example of this would be adding Berserk to the Mono green beats list.
DragonStorm
Basic Description-
Faster than it looks, this deck can power out an instant win with dragon storm by turn 3. Use rituals like Seething song to power out an early dragonstorm, which targets 4 Bogardan hellkite, who hit your opponent for 20 once they hit the field. Empty the warrens is an alternate win con and if worse comes to worst, you can power out a hellkite or bladewing on turns 2 or 3 and beat your opponent the old fashioned way. Burning Wish acts as extra copies of either dragonstorm or Empty the warrens.
Sample Deck-list-
4 Bogardan Hellkite
4 Simian Spirit Guide
2 Rorix Bladewing
Other Spells-34
3 Dragonstorm
4 Pyretic Ritual
4 Seething Song
4 Rite of Flame
4 Burning Wish
4 Desperate Ritual
3 Empty the Warrens
4 Manamorphose
4 Lotus Petal
4 Sandstone Needle
12 Mountain
Price-
~$70
Mono-Red Storm
Basic Description-
Very similar to the Dragonstorm list. Storm your way to a win with Empty the Warrens or Multiple Grapeshot, which are drawn into and/or wished for. Empty the Warrens and Grapeshot can also be used in combination.
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Pyretic Ritual
4 Seething Song
4 Rite of Flame
4 Burning Wish
4 Desperate Ritual
4 Lotus Petal
4 Manamorphose
3 Grapeshot
3 Empty the Warrens
2 Street Wraith
16 Mountain
Price-
~$80
Mono-Green Beats
Basic Description-
Nothing to explain here. Take the most basic magic strategy you can have and make is as efficient as possible without using Tarmogoyf or Berserk.
Sample Deck-list-
4 Jungle Lion
2 Leatherback Baloth
2 Thrun, The Last Troll
4 Silhana Ledgewalker
4 Skarrgan Pit-Skulk
4 Skyshroud Elite
2 Garruk's Companion
2 Talara's Battalion
3 Briar Shield
2 Hidden Gibbons
4 Might of Old Krosa
3 Mirri's Guile
4 Rancor
4 Vines of Vastwood
16 Forest
Price-
~$60
Pox
Primer-
Basic Description-
Deny your opponent of his creatures and options with pox and its smaller versions. Your deck is built to survive the blows that pox deals to both of you and maximize the effect it has on your opponent.
Sample Deck-list-
2 Nether Spirit
Other Spells-36
4 Dark Ritual
1 Raven's Crime
4 Innocent Blood
4 Funeral Charm
4 Duress
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Smallpox
4 Pox
4 Chimeric Idol
2 The Rack
2 Spinning Darkness
21 Swamp
Price-
~$50
Suicide Black
Basic Description-
Basically a Black version of Mono-Green Beats. Kill your opponent using cheap creatures that also hurt you. Hopefully you win the race.
Sample Deck-list-
4 Carnophage
4 Vampire Nighthawk
4 Dauthi Slayer
3 Phyrexian Negator
4 Sarcomancy
4 Nantuko Shade
4 Duress
4 Go for the Throat
2 Hatred
1 Kaervek's Spite
2 Spinning Darkness
4 Dark Ritual
20 Swamp
Price-
~$70
White Weenie
Basic Description-
Swarm the field with low cost and efficient white creatures. Your equips Help give card advantage and allow the advantage in the damage race. Swords to plowshares, oblivion ring and path to exile help control the field while mother of runes protects your fighters.
Sample Deck-list-
4 Leonin Skyhunter
4 Squadron Hawk
4 Elite Vanguard
4 Leonion Relic-Warder
2 Jötun Grunt
4 Mother of Runes
4 Goldmeadow Harrier
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Path to Exile
4 Honor of the Pure
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Crusade
20 Plains
Price-
~$65
Legacy is undoubtedly the most diverse format in magic. Because of this, it can seem pretty daunting to try and get into. In this section you will find a few pointers on how to get used to the vastness of legacy, as well as links to what I believe to be some of the most informative and helpful articles/websites out there for people looking to get into the format.
My series of articles on budget legacy, Squandered Resources.
MTGDeckbuilder.net has every single deck I have listed in this article ready for you to goldfish. Just use this link here and then look for the deck you want to test. The folder the deck is on on the left sidebar will mirror the section it is under in this article.
Price Guides
Xeno Ninja Has made a list of a good number of the decks in legacy and exactly how much each would cost you if you hard bought every card. You can find the list here.
Tcgplayer.com is nice for constructing entire decks and using the price guide to get an idea on how much they will cost.
The Format
Use these articles, written by the best of the best in terms of magic minds, to get to know the format a little better.
The Long And Winding Road – The Legacy Cookbook: Spring 2011 by Matt Elias
So Many Insane Plays - Your Complete Guide to Legacy: The 50 Decks of Legacy by Stephen Menendian
Vintage Avant-Garde - What You NEED To Know About 10 Of The Best Legacy Decks by Brian DeMars
Starcitygames.com Legacy / Type 1.5 Article Center
Playing Better Magic
These are some great articles that help you in the actual playing department of magic. Whether it be getting ready for a big tournament, or just plain not forgetting to rez that ichorid before you draw, these guys have it covered for you. I can vouch for every one of these articles and how informative they are. Don't skip over these, read them, you will come out of it with a much better understanding of this game and how to play it.
Eternal On The Other Side Of The Ocean - Building A Gauntlet by Carsten Kotter
The Long & Winding Road – You, But Better by Matt Elias
Flow of Ideas – The Most Important Word in Magic by Gavin Verhey
Flow of Ideas: So You Want To Win A PTQ? by Gavin Verhey
-Finished and polished on 4-8-2011
-Made some changes to a few deck lists and changed their prices accordingly. 4-10-2011
-Replaced Urbord Elf with Birds of Paradise in the infect list and replaced Rogue Elephant with Thrun the Last Troll in the mono green beats deck. 4-28-2011
-Changes Made on 6/13/2011
Changed infect list
Changed Mono-Green Beats List
Changed White Weenie List
Added Mono-Blue Polymorph deck
Added Blue-White PolyThopters deck
Added Spring Tide Deck
Added Additional Pattern of Rebirth Deck
Added Mono-Red Storm List
-Changes Made on 10/16/2011
-Fixed a lot of prices
-Added a lot of decks
-Took out a lot of decks that had become too expensive due to recent price changes
-More decks and information in the works!
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Getting Started in Legacy and Legacy Budget Primer 5!
Special thanks to Bornnover for the banner used in those articles.
Anywho, good article. Pretty informative, good explanations to each deck. Maybe a suggestion for each deck for what cards to look out for (Like Trygon Predator for Affinity...GOD I HATE THAT CARD *wants to rip one up*)
Another note for each deck here - Most people have common sideboard hate for each deck here (Kor Firewalker in SB's against Burn/Sligh, Trygon/Annulagainst Affinity, Back to Nature/K-Grip for Enchantress, etc.) but that's expected with every deck. Note your deck, and think of SB cards against general decks in the area, and maybe anti-hate for your deck (Like Hanna's Custody for Affinity, Leyline of Punishment for Burn/Sligh, etc.) so your stuff gets through, and their SB options just became useless.
Food for thought, VISIT MY THREAD
Heroes of the Plane
The Price of Legacy
The Price of Legacy 2.0!
Decks:
EDH
Malestrom Wanderer Group Chaotic Hugs
Tasigur, The Golden Fang Valu-Town
Modern
Too many to List...
Legacy
GWBNic-Fit PodGWB
G12-Post (Building)G
well thank you, lol. i admit, it was a lot, im not surprised that people are not going to read all of it. i'm planning on adding to it a bit as well.
@xeno- i dont ever recall kor firewalker being a "common" sideboard card in legacy, but whatever. ill add something in about what cards to look out for when playing each deck i suggested.
btw, if anyone has any suggestions on decks that i may have missed, go ahead and post up. ill see what i can do.
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Getting Started in Legacy and Legacy Budget Primer 5!
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Uhh, correct me if I'm wrong, but Painters Servant doesn't get around Iona. Whatever you cast is still white in addition to the painters servant colors, so you wouldn't be able to cast it.
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Splash white goblins eh? No one has done that since 2007, but I always liked that build. Only go for that if you are running swords to plowshared though.
As far as the ports go, it depends on how competative you want to be. If you are trying to win a tournament, or at least top 8, you will need the 3-4 ports. The deck will run good without them yes, but the optimal goblin deck will run them.
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Also, maybe a good thing would be to list some cards that might be a good idea to invest in that a lot of the decks used...some of the cards you will undoubtedly see at a tournament. I know it would help me a lot. For instance, pretty much every deck I've seen has Aether Vial in it.
Hey, thanks man, means a lot cuz I worked a long time setting this thing up. As far as listing popular cards, someone already did that here at mtg sali. I just linked to the thread. The link should be somewhere in the introduction of the article.
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I have a playset of Force of Will, but no lands to back blue up except a set of scalding tarns, so is there a deck I could start building towards with that ?!!? Mono-blue would be an option, but I don't have many other good blue cards...
What Class Are You?
well, mono blue merfolk is relatively inexpensive if you already have the FoW's. anything more than mono-color and you run into the duel-lands issue. here is a list you can try and run off of. note that wasteland is still around 40 bucks.
4 Coralhelm Commander
4 Cursecatcher
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
4 Spell Pierce
Enchantments [4]
4 Standstill
4 Aether Vial
Lands [20]
4 Mutavault
4 Wasteland
12 Island
you could also try the combo deck spring tide, which is usually kind of expensive, but if you already have the forces, is much less so. note that the deck does not need fetchlands to work.
4 Cloud of Faeries
Instants [23]
1 Muddle the Mixture
1 Turnabout
2 Meditate
2 Pact of Negation
2 Snap
3 Cunning Wish
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 High Tide
2 Ponder
4 Merchant Scroll
4 Preordain
4 Time Spiral
Enchantments [1]
1 Trade Routes
Artifacts [2]
2 Sapphire Medallion
Lands [16]
1 Flooded Strand
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
12 Island
these are your two main choices when it comes to mono blue decks that use force of will. hope this helped!
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edit: I have a budget of about 150-200 dollars
hey, sorry for late replay. i will def. get on that for you. im not exactly sure what i can do about a blue black storm list... but ill try my best. it would help to know what cards you already have that would be relevant to a deck like that.
if you are looking for combo that will cost 150-200 cephalid breakfast works pretty well. but, once again, ill see what i can work up with U/B storm.
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ok well, i checked into U/B storm combo for you and this is what i could find as far as successful variants go. There is a lot to look at, so i put everything in spoiler tags.
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/legacy/21100_Deck_Tech_Ari_Laxs_Storm_Combo.html
the decklist is here...
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
Instants
1 Ad Nauseam
4 Brainstorm
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Dark Ritual
4 Duress
2 Grim Tutor
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
4 Infernal Tutor
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
1 Tendrils of Agony
2 Thoughtseize
3 Island
2 Swamp
Lands
4 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Underground Sea
ANY storm combo deck you run is going to run Lions eye diamond. this card is $40 give or take a couple almost anywhere you look, and the decks usually will not work with out it.
Ari Lax's version ran Grim Tutor which is way above most peoples price range at around $120.
beyond this, you have thoughtseize, which is $25-30 and Infernal Tutor, which is about 5 a pop. this all adds up pretty fast, and its obvious that these are the cards (besides the land base) that are what make the deck expensive.
so, we need to look at what these cards do and see if there is anyway we can replace them.
lets start with thoughtsieze, since its the easiest to replace. its in there to protect the combo and get rid of potentially lethal cards of your opponent (like tarmogyf, KotR or Charbelcher), what can do all of that for 26 dollars less? how about Inquisition of Kozilek? note that this does not stop Force of will, but it hits pretty much everything else you will need to worry about.
infernal tutor does not need to be replaced. $5 is easily reached, and the deck cant run without it.
Lions eye diamond is a WHOLE different story. it will be very difficult to build a working version of the deck without this card, as its purposes are 3 fold.
1-it is a 0 cost artifact spell, which adds to storm count
2- it add 3 mana to your pool which allows you to play more spells
3- it discards your hand, which allows hellbent on your infernal tutor.
the most we can do to replace this is put in chrome mox, at thats not helping much. chrome mox adds to the storm count, gives us one mana and can possibly take one card to add to hellbent. however, its not nearly as good as lions eye diamond....
next is Grim tutor. this one is a doozy, it searches for whatever we need at the moment. after a bit of thinking however, i came up with something that i believe may be a suitable replacement, and at $5 bucks to boot. Lim-Dûl's Vault . this card is instant speed, costs one mana less, fits the mana colors of the deck and can net you more than just one card needed if played right with brainstorm or other cantrips.
the landbase is not that bad for you, as you already "have a full set of Misty Rainforests and Verdant catacombs." it may look like the 2 underground sea in the deck would make it out of yoru price range, but in truth Watery Grave serves the exact same purpose. it is fetchable and the life loss really does not ever matter, as you are a combo deck.
taking all this in, this is what the deck looks like.
4 Chrome Mox
4 Lotus Petal
Instants
1 Ad Nauseam
4 Brainstorm
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Dark Ritual
4 Duress
2 Lim-Dûl's Vault
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
4 Infernal Tutor
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
1 Tendrils of Agony
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Island
2 Swamp
Lands
4 Misty Rainforests
4 Verdant catacombs
2 Watery Grave
the biggest problem i see with this budget version again is the lack of Lions eye diamond. this is a big problem. but, again, if you have your heart set on a Budget UB storm deck, this is about as good as you are going to get.
Im glad you like Cephalid breakfast, as it is a MUCH easier deck to play, MUCH easier deck to budget AND its a good deck to boot. (established competitive on this site)
You basically have 2 options when creating a budget list of Breakfast. you can either go for the speedy rainbow land version that wins on turns 0-2 often, but runs little protection and is cheaper to build, or the more consistent but more expensive build. I would suggest the more consistent build, as you will win more often.
here is the list i run. your fetchlands will help bring the price down a ton, and the Shock lands from dissension etc will help a lot too.
3 Aether Vial
Creatures-16
4 Cephalid Illusionist
1 Karmic Guide
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
4 Narcomoeba
4 Nomads en-Kor
1 Pestermite
1 Stern Proctor
4 Brainstorm
2 Cabal Therapy
1 Dread Return
2 Eladamri's Call
4 Pact of Negation
4 Ponder
4 Worldly Tutor
4 Daze
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Island
3 Scalding Tarn
3 Breeding Pool
4 Hallowed Fountain
1 Plains
this version of the deck runs aether vial, which is VERY key to winning your counterbalance variant match-ups, as well as any other deck that runs counterspells.
running the shock lands allows for the use of fetchlands, which help your cantrips become more successful, as well as daze for extra protection.
overall this deck is going to run you around $200, but i am confidant that it is the best of the budget versions.
you can play around with adding a 4th aether vial, wont really make a huge difference, i just prefer 3.
ill answer your sideboard question the way i helped someone else.
hope all this helped! =)
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Is this deck decent:
http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/deck.asp?deck_id=743147
Like, will it compete in a reasonable regard?
Team america eh? Actually yes, this deck is very competative. There are many different varients, but each varient only changes a few cards. The version you linked to looks pretty solid, I would probably only run 3 stalkers, 4 seems a bit much. My advice would be to try and checkout different deck lists at tcdecks or other places and proxy out the lists.
Overall though yes, the deck is very good. I've considered biulding it before, but its out of my price range.
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well, there are actually 7 shocks in that list, not 8 but... let me see here.
you COULD replace a few and put in plains and islands in the other slots. you would run into some mana issues, but the deck should still run relatively well. you other option is to use city of brass in the extra slots, which would prevent mana screws, but they cant be searched out or used for daze. either one would be fine at this point, but sooner or later you will want the 7 shocks.
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either you put them back into the deck with brainstorm, discard them if you are running careful study or you combo out like usual and use cabal therapy on yourself instead of your opponent before you actually rez something.
that reminds me. after you combo out with nomads and illusionist ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS use both cabal therapies before you even TRY to rez someone, because you only have one rez in the deck.
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Getting Started in Legacy and Legacy Budget Primer 5!
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Awesome! I currently play standard (a blue black control list that's relatively similar to the decklist I posted), and I am planning on purchasing the cards in the list from a combination of people I know and specific dealers who would have good prices/might cut me a deal over the course of 2-3 months.
What would be the best order to get things?
Should I get the duals or the Goyfs first? Please note that I have standard fetches and Jaces, so those parts aren't a necessity.
the land base is the most important part of any deck, period. always get the lands first. you can function to some degree without the goyfs, but you cant say the same about the lands.
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Getting Started in Legacy and Legacy Budget Primer 5!
Special thanks to Bornnover for the banner used in those articles.
MTGDeckBlog - a place for me to dump my deck ideas (mostly Legacy). Some good, some bad, but mainly you decide