The fundamental rule for budget building seems would be concisely put use what you already own. So I started really looking long and hard at my collection to see what playable cards I had. I didn't list things that most people have (hymns to tourach, dark rituals, swords to plowshares, and the like but rather cards that were worth a bit more).
Nic Fit is still a work in progress even after a year of tinkering and playtesting since I don't get the opportunity to play that often unfortunately. I think i need a phyrexian tower for sure and beyond that maybe Thrun in replace of a Baloth at the very least and maybe I am silly running too much discard (as they make bad top decks). Beyond that, perhaps library manipulation would be ideal, maybe a sylvan library or a top. Originally, I was going to aim for brainstorm to fill this role (especially since library and deed don't play well together), but I couldn't cut my list down enough to run enough blue for force of will and honestly, if I am playing with shocks, it simply might be too much damage. I thought about white with siege rhino/stoneforge mystic but I am really fond of deed over toxic deluge and I feel that deeds and mystic aren't good friends. I probably should obtain black/green check lands at the very least...hymn is a difficult card to play in some rare situations.
So if I had to summarize...
Am I missing any obvious decks I could potentially consider building with the limited resources I have?
Can i get away with shocks/fetchlands/checklands/something else or should I start the long process of trying to acquire a limited number of duals?
Edit:
Editing out bits about affinity as I am trading away the critical parts to try to form Nic Fit.
I guess the obvious question is how much more are you willing to spend, and what kind of decks do you really like to play? You have some of the pieces for various Stoneblade decks, and/or Maverick as well, but are missing much of the landbase and other pieces.
I think especially playing casually that shocklands are a totally valid way to get rolling on a deck.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Legacy: WRDeath and Taxes UWRMiracles UBTezzerator GTrinity GBWRLoam URLandstill
Modern: WUBValue Titan UMerfolk WGDeath and Taxes
Thanks for the information. I honestly don't really have a dollar amount in mind, but the less the better--to be more exact, I generally will trade into things over time. In a way, I am just looking to get rid of my excess cards and down to a few really nice decks. I am just alot less likely to say trade into duals, especially in multiple numbers or ones involving blue. I can probably by most cards under 15 fairly quickly, especially for stuff that can be searched for and is only needed in singleton. I had looked at Maverick at one point because Savannah's are fairly affordable as duals go, but ended up pushing towards Nic Fit because discard gave some protection against combo and deed is such an amazing card against "fair" decks.
I'll definitely do more research on the various stoneblade decks.
Shocks aren't ideal I know, but with the prices being what they are, I'd rather get the meat of the deck first and then worry about perfection the mana base.
If you enjoy Nic Fit, I'd stay in that territory. There's a lot of room to experiment with your own blend, there are options for splashing any 3rd color into the BG base, and you get to play fairly high casting cost stuff that few other legacy decks will touch. There are Academy Rector, Birthing Pod, Scapeshift... lots of weirdness to play with, including options to use your FoW set, like a BUG birthing pod list.
Speaking of Force of Will and a Stoneforge Mystic package, which gets you well on the path towards one of the various blue blade decks. The duals will cost an arm and a leg however. You could go UW, UWb, UWG with GSZ, there's plenty of options and it appears to be a solid midrange deck (with counterspells) that is hanging around.
Similarly GSZ and Stoneforge along with a few other stuff (DRS, Abrupt Decay, Thoughtseize) lead a fair bit towards GWb Maverick, and yeah the duals are cheaper if you go that route and want to finish the whole deck.
I think the big question is what do you really enjoy playing? With cardboard this expensive, it's good to know you'll enjoy the deck you are getting into.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Legacy: WRDeath and Taxes UWRMiracles UBTezzerator GTrinity GBWRLoam URLandstill
Modern: WUBValue Titan UMerfolk WGDeath and Taxes
I suppose I prefer agro or control over combo. Combo is fine for a pure competitive standpoint and I actually think building a combo deck is fun, but in terms of actually piloting it, it seems to eventually go into fairly linear routes of play. Generally I prefer black or blue as colors because you can interact with your opponent with discard/countermagic. I mean white can interact too, but it requires your entire deck to be based around it through ports/thalia/wasteland. I can't think of any red or green deck that meaningfully interacts...they are like burn that is consistent or belcher that is lighting fast.
I really like Nic Fit because of cabal therapy. I feel like it rewards you for knowing your opponents deck. Plus, it can be fun playing with cards your opponent isn't prepared for, since nic fit often runs 6 casting cost monsters. I really like the how as a midrange deck it can be the aggressor against a combo deck using discard to slow them down and by the same token, against agro, shift to control with disard and deed, tharg, and the like, buying time to assemble superior creatures. Traditionally the combo matches are harder, though less so if you run thoughtseize to augment therapy and especially if you go bug and run FoW.
As you note, there's a lot of personal choice involved--I looked at no less than 5 different builds. There's scapeshift build, a punishing fire build, junk, bug pod, and a bug control list that uses cunning wish to run a wish board of things like empty the pits. I hadn't read much about rector recently. He'd certainly find reoccurring nightmare, though since he's not green, he's not very easy to find himself without something like pod. I dabbled with pod a lot but the problem I always ran into was running a lot of really poor cards just because they happened to be good pod cards.
I'd looked at Marverick a lot in the past and I certainly should consider it again. Both Marverick and fit are essentially green sun zenith decks, while Marvick focuses on small efficient attackers and whites taxing and Fit focuses on ramp and discard. Junk is also actually pretty close, though it moves away from GSZ and focuses on discard and the raw power of dark confidant.
I've been reading about stoneblade and will certainly continue to do so until I am confidant enough to start trying to put a decklist together or decide its not for me.
Thank your for your input and consideration. Sorry for the lateness of the reply, but I've been busy trading collection through an online site for maximum value. I was shocked there was so much demand for cards in the 2-5 dollar range. In theory, once all my trades clear, I could really make a run at getting real dual lands. I don't think if I offered someone 30, 5 dollar cards in real life, they'd trade a bayou to me, so this is a great option. I've already gotten a few things like a dryad arbor and a phyrexian tower is being shipped. I just need to make a decision on what third color to splash and get duals for that or other stuff like burnwillows if I go red.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
4 enlightened Tutor
4 Stoneforge Mystic
1 batterskull
1 umezawa's jitte
1 Liliana of the Veil
2 thoughtseize
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 elspeth, knight-errant
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Pernicious Deed
1 Deathrite Shaman
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Recurring Nightmare
4 Abrupt Decay
Lands
4 polluted delta
4 windswept heath
1 bloodstained mire
4 cabal therapy
4 veteran explorer
2 thoughtseize
1 deathrite shaman
4 green sun's zenith
1 scavenging ooze
4 abrupt decay
2 hymn to tourach
3 pernicious deed
1 phyrexian arena
1 eternal witness
1 Recurring Nightmare
1 obstinate baloth
1 vraska the unseen
1 thragtusk
2 grave titan
9 forest
9 swamp
4 windswept hearth
Nic Fit is still a work in progress even after a year of tinkering and playtesting since I don't get the opportunity to play that often unfortunately. I think i need a phyrexian tower for sure and beyond that maybe Thrun in replace of a Baloth at the very least and maybe I am silly running too much discard (as they make bad top decks). Beyond that, perhaps library manipulation would be ideal, maybe a sylvan library or a top. Originally, I was going to aim for brainstorm to fill this role (especially since library and deed don't play well together), but I couldn't cut my list down enough to run enough blue for force of will and honestly, if I am playing with shocks, it simply might be too much damage. I thought about white with siege rhino/stoneforge mystic but I am really fond of deed over toxic deluge and I feel that deeds and mystic aren't good friends. I probably should obtain black/green check lands at the very least...hymn is a difficult card to play in some rare situations.
So if I had to summarize...
Am I missing any obvious decks I could potentially consider building with the limited resources I have?
Can i get away with shocks/fetchlands/checklands/something else or should I start the long process of trying to acquire a limited number of duals?
Edit:
Editing out bits about affinity as I am trading away the critical parts to try to form Nic Fit.
I think especially playing casually that shocklands are a totally valid way to get rolling on a deck.
Modern: WUBValue Titan UMerfolk WGDeath and Taxes
I'll definitely do more research on the various stoneblade decks.
Shocks aren't ideal I know, but with the prices being what they are, I'd rather get the meat of the deck first and then worry about perfection the mana base.
Thanks you for the input.
Speaking of Force of Will and a Stoneforge Mystic package, which gets you well on the path towards one of the various blue blade decks. The duals will cost an arm and a leg however. You could go UW, UWb, UWG with GSZ, there's plenty of options and it appears to be a solid midrange deck (with counterspells) that is hanging around.
Similarly GSZ and Stoneforge along with a few other stuff (DRS, Abrupt Decay, Thoughtseize) lead a fair bit towards GWb Maverick, and yeah the duals are cheaper if you go that route and want to finish the whole deck.
I think the big question is what do you really enjoy playing? With cardboard this expensive, it's good to know you'll enjoy the deck you are getting into.
Modern: WUBValue Titan UMerfolk WGDeath and Taxes
I really like Nic Fit because of cabal therapy. I feel like it rewards you for knowing your opponents deck. Plus, it can be fun playing with cards your opponent isn't prepared for, since nic fit often runs 6 casting cost monsters. I really like the how as a midrange deck it can be the aggressor against a combo deck using discard to slow them down and by the same token, against agro, shift to control with disard and deed, tharg, and the like, buying time to assemble superior creatures. Traditionally the combo matches are harder, though less so if you run thoughtseize to augment therapy and especially if you go bug and run FoW.
As you note, there's a lot of personal choice involved--I looked at no less than 5 different builds. There's scapeshift build, a punishing fire build, junk, bug pod, and a bug control list that uses cunning wish to run a wish board of things like empty the pits. I hadn't read much about rector recently. He'd certainly find reoccurring nightmare, though since he's not green, he's not very easy to find himself without something like pod. I dabbled with pod a lot but the problem I always ran into was running a lot of really poor cards just because they happened to be good pod cards.
I'd looked at Marverick a lot in the past and I certainly should consider it again. Both Marverick and fit are essentially green sun zenith decks, while Marvick focuses on small efficient attackers and whites taxing and Fit focuses on ramp and discard. Junk is also actually pretty close, though it moves away from GSZ and focuses on discard and the raw power of dark confidant.
I've been reading about stoneblade and will certainly continue to do so until I am confidant enough to start trying to put a decklist together or decide its not for me.
Thank your for your input and consideration. Sorry for the lateness of the reply, but I've been busy trading collection through an online site for maximum value. I was shocked there was so much demand for cards in the 2-5 dollar range. In theory, once all my trades clear, I could really make a run at getting real dual lands. I don't think if I offered someone 30, 5 dollar cards in real life, they'd trade a bayou to me, so this is a great option. I've already gotten a few things like a dryad arbor and a phyrexian tower is being shipped. I just need to make a decision on what third color to splash and get duals for that or other stuff like burnwillows if I go red.