MTG Salvation

I recently got a friend of mine into Magic. I had him start with a pre-constructed deck which was pretty shabby. I am a 20 year veteran of Legacy and Vintage and I wanted to get him playing in my circle. He didn't have a whole lot of money to spend but he did want to play black. This is my rogue creation I created for only $30 and I must say I am very proud of this build.

Don't have a lot of cash? Need a deck to stomp your annoying friend and make him/her cry? Welcome to Budget Shadow!

First of all, this is a tempo deck. There are 22 one drop spells, 16 two drops and 6 three drops. This is of course calculating cards such as Apostle's Blessing (which you only pay 1 and Tombstalker which you will most likely be paying 2). It is designed tempo wise for you to drop one to three spells every turn until your hand is empty.

The idea is to sit safely behind Royal Assassin and beat down your opponent with evasion creatures (such as Dauthi Slayer) enchanted with pump spells (such as Unholy Strength). Protect your dudes with Apostle's Blessing and Duress. Gain card advantage with Sign in Blood, Hymn to Tourach and Hypnotic Specter. Munch your opponents creatures with the Royal Assassin + Rathi Trapper combo for late game.

Your main strategy is to play your Duress and Hymn to Tourach spells first followed by your unblockable creatures and finally cast Sign in Blood late game when your hand is empty and/or drop Tomb Stalker for the finish.


EDIT: Changes have been made since the original deck has been posted. Testing shows the deck is light on removal. Paralyze has been main boarded as it combos nicely with Royal Assassin. Also Dark Ritual results in card disadvantage, two Swamps have been added to supplement this. Apostle's Blessing has been replaced with Undying Evil. That being said Predator's Gambit and Unholy Strength have been replaced with Bonespitter. The reasoning behind this is that you can still save your creatures but your pump spells don't die with them. Here are the following changes.

-4 Dark Ritual -2 Unholy Strength +4 Paralyze +2 Swamp
-4 Apostle's Blessing +4 Undying Evil
-4 Predator's Gambit +4 Bonesplitter

Updated List:


Original List:


You can order every card online from any random Magic vendor for about $30. Enjoy winning!!

It is a really strong competitive deck in Legacy. You might not get first place (depending on where you are playing) but you will get major respect points for your design and you will guaranteed destroy all of your friends whom are not playing at a tournament level. We've been testing it a bit and have tuned it up while still keeping it budget.

New changes include Bonesplitter over Unholy Strength and Predator's Gambit as you don't suffer card disadvantage if your opponent destroys your enchanted creature. It's slower but more competitive late game. Also for tempo reasons we've cut Hypnotic Specter for Dauthi Horror limiting the number of three drops for a larger amount of two drops. The new list flows smoother.



I've got a sweet budget Stasis $75 and Sisters of Mercy $155 list here if you want more options on solid budget decks. PM me for a super budget build of Sisters of Mercy and sideboards etc...

I have to disagree on bad moon. Most of the time, developing your board state will be hindered by opposing removal. Bad moon is precisely the same effect on two creatures as bonesplitter has on one without any issues on opposing creatures which also might be black. This argument becomes more moot if you run things like mardu strike leader which generates tokens. However, it's a bit high on the curve. I suggest that bloodsoaked champion is probably a stronger choice. I also question the need for dark ritual. You're not a storm deck, you have no use for a top decked one. Why run it? You could run two more swamps and have two card slots free. Same is for sign in blood or apostle's blessing. You could just as easily run maindeck grave hate in bojuka bog or withered wretch. Legacy is a format rife with graveyard decks and every card needs to do something relevant. You could likewise run a bit more surprise creature removal in dismember, or terror (admittedly there are far better two mana options, but this is one I happen to remember the name to and the newer cards aren't always on the tip of my tongue). I would highly recommend taking a look at the gate for ideas on how to run a bit better!

Obviously Dark Confidant would be good in this deck. What do you think about Pain Seer? The fact that you also can use 1 black mana to tap it on the endface is also a choice so you don't actually have to attack with it...

What about...

I forwarded this to my buddy as a "gateway drug" into Legacy. Typically people fear the cost of legacy, so being able to have a decent deck for this cheap is pretty awesome!

The Gate

That's the competitive deck that functions on this premise--use discard to hammer them and then drop an undercosted thread. Abyssal Persecutor for example is a huge threat for the mana. Gatekeeper of Malakir lets you get a 2/2 and kills a creature. Innocent Blood solves the problem of Persecutor and lets you remove creatures with shroud and such. The idea is to out attrition your enemy and play no dead cards yourself.

Classically the Gate can storm a small tournament but if you are playing in a really large one is falters to its own inconsistency as do most decks without Brainstorm/Ponder/Tops or some combination of card search like Sylvan Library. When I dabbled in it, I generally was frustrated when I ran into a hard lock like Energy Field/Rest in Piece, Ensnaring Bridge, or Solitary Confinement. The only real out is to splash green for ABrupt Decay--well the best out I found at least, maybe not the only. I sometimes struggled with really fast combo decks like a strong draw from reanimator. The worst situation was something like Entomb/Careful Study and then a lotus petal and reanimate. Once they drew 7 cards of Griselbrand I was usually sunk because they'd have too much countermagic to protect him. The slower combo decks tended to be easier, especially when I was packing thoughtseize. I could disrupt their key cards and give my guys time to finish the game out.

Changes have been made since the original deck has been posted. Testing shows the deck is light on removal. Paralyze has been main boarded as it combos nicely with Royal Assassin. Also Dark Ritual results in card disadvantage. Apostle's Blessing has been replaced with Undying Evil. That being said Predator's Gambit and Unholy Strength have been replaced with Bonespitter. The reasoning behind this is that you can still save your creatures but your pump spells don't die with them. Here are the following changes.

-4 Dark Ritual -2 Unholy Strength +4 Paralyze +2 Swamp
-4 Apostle's Blessing +4 Undying Evil
-4 Predator's Gambit +4 Bonesplitter

New Build:


@Kilplow Yes, The Gate is great mid range deck. Budget Shadow leans more towards the tempo strategy. A great beginner deck for those wanting to get into legacy.

If your not playing dark ritual you might as well just play it in modern, it is a straight modern, just hym for mind wrench.

Which is good, your friend can get twice the fun, playing two formats

Good point Bioship!

May as well just run something in line w/the original Suicide Black

That looks like a solid Suicide Black list. Suicide Black is typically really strong against control. Maybe Kjeldoran Dead to sac your Flesh Reaver should they get too dangerous also they are really good with Geralf's Messenger and Bloodghast. I'd actually bump down to 16 Swamp. You really don't need that much mana to power this deck. Plus you are already running 4x Dark Ritual. Also, either Sarcomancy, Diregraf Ghoul, Bloodsoaked Champion or Vampire Lacerator in the Carnophage slot makes more sense. Bloodsoaked Champion really shines here. Nice deck though!

First of all: amazing list! Was jumping around looking for budget legacy decks and I really think this one sees a lot of games through.

One suggestion, though: considering that our creatures cannot be blocked, wouldn't Mask of Memory be a good candidate?

What side board are you running with this?

I like a list heavier on the Shadow... I'm also probably the only person you'll ever see playing Mind Bomb.

Cool lists. This is the kind of list that I used to run back in 95-98. Here are some staples that I always loved that put in work and I don't see mentioned above:

Thrull retainer
A 1 drop +1/+1 that functions as a regeneration shield. It saves your guys from Lightning bolts.

Black Knight. 2/2 first strike is relevant, great with thrull retainer or unholy strength. Protected from Swords to Plowshares, the #1 removal spell.

Erg raiders; With unholy strength a 3 mana 4/4.

I like the bloadsoaked champion.

I think I would run something like:


Maybe?

Creature suite is just easy to cast creatures with utility.
Gatekeeper comes with sacrifice; black knight has first strike and prot. white, bloodsoaked recycles, reaver is super cheap. Gurmag angler takes advantage of the cheap discards to land a big fat.

Lots of discard. 2 of each, whatever your budget allows. 4 hymn to tourach for sure. Good way to start of is to just blast your opponents hand and then drop value creatures that commence beatdown.

Infernal contract lets us draw 4 cards for 3 mana. Sure it costs half our life but with Reaver etc that's not a big cost. This card will let us pull ahead and is under a buck.

Diabolic edict lets us kill opposing creatures and maybe our own dangerous reaver.

Thrull retainer protects our knights from lightning bolts. But is maybe the weakest card.

Grey merchant takes advantage of all those black dots we put down to finish them off after they stabilize against essentially our bears with upside, or survive ourselves.

Quote from Ryadriz »

Nether Traitor seems very good for this build.

Good call. Not sure how I missed him, but I picked up 2 to add.

yeah that's good. I think the point of this deck is to stay budget monocolor, so the BB should not be an issue. Maybe even good if you run Grey Merchant.

i've been playing this deck for around two months

Its too slow


4x Tormented Soul
4x Royal Assassin
2x Rathi Trapper
4x Undying Evil

Tormented soul does not hit enough even with bonesplitter.

Instead of four Royal Assasins I think they should be two

And I never end up using Undying Evil. Enemies tend to hit me in the face rather burning my creatures.-

I think maybe it oculd be 2x royal assassin and x2 undying evil and add x4 dark ritual for speeding up early game?



Thank you guys.-

With Dauthi Horror and the other Dauthi creatures being errata'ed to having a tribal creature types, would running them with something like Stoneforge Masterwork be viable as a 1/2-of?

I'm going to use some variant of this get to doink around in some Legacy events locally, so just trying to spitball some ideas.

Also, not budget, but of you have a playset of Æther Vial sitting around, would those be worth working in?

If you go shadow you should run something like

16 swamps
4 lotus petal
4 dark ritual

4 dauthi horror
4 dauthi warlord
4 dauthi slayer

4 infernal contract
4 duress
4 hymn to tourach
4 diabolic edict (or gatekeeper of Malakir)

??? Add spice of course


I actually used to play during Tempest "standard":

16 swamps
4 lotus petals
4 dark rituals
4 dauthi horror
4 black knight
4 dauthi slayer
4 hatred
4 sarcomancy
4 carnophage
4 unholy strength
4 I cant remember but maybe cull the weak ?

Quote from FuzzyDan »

With Dauthi Horror and the other Dauthi creatures being errata'ed to having a tribal creature types, would running them with something like Stoneforge Masterwork be viable as a 1/2-of?

Have you tried this idea? I like the look of this deck a lot, but it seems like switching out many of the non-Dauthi creatures for Dauthi ones, especially Dauthi Warlord, plus Stoneforge Masterworks might be really strong. I guess I'm just not sure why going full in on Shadow isn't the plan. Also, would Swiftfoot Boots or Lightning Greaves be a worthwhile inclusion?

I made a similar deck, though I was hampered by what cards I actually own right now (bunch of my good discard cards are in my version of 8Rack):