Well, for $1 I guess one can't make it better, prove me wrong
BbearZ: I stand corrected for Invigorate. 18 lands are enough in my (pauper and Legacy) experience, I never felt mana screwed, but oh well, make it +2 forests, +2 Ranger's Guile, -4 Primal Bellow. And now we have a 98c deck!
izzetmage: Not in $1 build for $2 budget this and Vines of Vastwood fits better. $5 gives us Rancor and Pendelhaven, $20 for Inkmoth Nexus... I think that's it.
If it works for you, I guess it's okay. I just can't see myself playing 3 drops in a 18 land deck. Especially when Rot Wolf doesn't give you much more than what your lower cost creatures provide.
TYPE: BUDGET ($20.00 LIMIT)
REMAINING BUDGET: -$0.38
NEXT NON BUDGET UPGRADES: Path to Exile $3.50 ea, Clifftop Retreat $4.95 ea and Sunpetal Grove $1.95 ea would add mana consistency, and better removal options.
Strategies:
-Drop cheap creatures which make each other stronger
-Descendents Path gives free creatures each turn, Bloodbraid Elf cascades into other Allys
-Evangel give protection from color -> swing through unblocked
TYPE: BUDGET ($20.00 LIMIT)
REMAINING BUDGET: -$6.90
NEXT NON BUDGET UPGRADES: Vexing Devil $3.70 ea and lava spike $2.00 ea would add better damage to mana spent ratio, also Magma Jet $3.00 ea improves Draws through scry filtering.
Strategies:
-Drop cheap hasty creatures, unearth them again
-Use Burn for more damage, burn pumps Kiln Fiend
-Race the opponent to 20 damage
Weakness:
Pro-Red Creatures - colorless removal Ghostfire $.04 ea OR Splash removal from a second color.
How to Play:
Basically, play Doomed Traveler and Gideon's Lawkeeper early to stave off opponents attack, and once the pump spells comes into play, the flying tokens should more than overwhelm the opponent. Duress for removing spells we have problem dealing with or wrath effets, and Tragic Slip as cheap and budget creature removal spell.
I know it's outside of budget, but it did just rotate out as well. Honor of the Pure Plays like Intangible Virtue, costs two, and pumps all your creatures so even Gideon can push a little bit.
Cost:18.88 Curve: 0-1/2/3/4/5/6+ == 12/8/16/0/4 How to play: play evasive/hexproof dudes, suit up your dudes with big sticks powered out by ramp. turn sideways. The deck offers some synergy between scryb and joraga/arbor elf for mana tricks. Bellowing tanglewurm offers a fat body and board evasion. Equipement offers a solid stat bonus and can make any of the equipped creatures a threat, including mana dork beats-in a pinch.
Non budget upgrades:
-swords of things and stuff- virtually any sword can fit this deck, the creatures are naturally evasive or resilient beaters, swords provide synergy with on hit effects and pseudo evasion with protection from colors as well as a nice stat buff.
- batterskull- decently sized body itself, can be EASILY powered out from mana dork ramp, turns anything its attached to into a decent sized threat
-Alternate build Idea
- Vengevine/ramgang/uktabi drake may offer the deck a little more explosive flare for those players who want something more aggressive with a hasty beater to drop in, give them a stick, and send them into the redzone.
How to play: This is a decklist I dredged up and modernized from my old standard makeshift mannequin deck. It won through controlling the board with raw card advantage due to many of the business spells being also attached to a body- similar to the Pod decks of now. You basically played the card advantage game by opening with your ramp and keeping board presence by removing creatures and making them discard. Once you start getting into the 5 mana+ territory, the deck hits it's stride. With card synergy and continual power plays, such as profane command reviving a shriekmaw and nailing their dude, or instant speed revival/chump blocking with a come into play effect creatures. Evoke offers a nice alternate cost for early game, and it doesn't matter if your dudes are in the yard as theres several ways to recur. Evoke in and of itself is great with Mimic Vat's and caused me to replace makeshift manneqin for these as its reusable CiP stick. Most of the deck's business spells are attached to an evasive body, and this capitalizes on it in spades. Over the course of the game, you'll be ahead with raw card advantage ideally when you stabilize. For the win, you should be attacking with your evasive beaters/mimic vat tokens as they come, and you will be building up mana to land a large profane to the dome in a pinch.
Non budget upgrades:
-creeping tar pit- offers an unblockable weenie that bites for 3, not to mention it also offers both colors on a single land
- Solemn simulacrum, has excellent come into play and leaving abilities, he curves nicely with the accelerants, ramps for mana to further push out the business spells, chump blocks early weenies ANNNNND is VERY synergistic with mimic vat.
- damnation over zenith
Alternate build idea
- alternate build can focus more on card disruption by replacing shriekmaw with mournwelk, offering a reusable 8 card suit of hand destruction when paired with entomber exarch. deck already has plenty of creature removal in the form of sweepers, spot spells, and profane command
Mono Green land destruction. Play walls to ramp and block early weenies and start your land lockdown. Nuke permanents until you get enough mana to drop a terastodon or blightsteel. Exarch doubles not only as a nuke spell but also as a tutor for a finisher such as terastodon to lock in your board position, or blightsteel to end the game quick, fast, and in a hurry- IF you feel confident that they can't answer it. Spine of Ish sah can recur with phyrexia's core, also spine and beast within can nail problematic creatures that can run over or past you walls.
Non budget upgrades
- primal command- plow under for perm, tutor, lifetotal reach, just a great utility spell for this deck
- ulamog- indestructable, nukes a perm, makes them sac a few, ect ect
Alternate build Idea
Adding esnaring bridge and bottled cloister stops aggro cold on provides a draw engine. allows some anti aggro capabilities.
Decided to work on making a green sligh deck based on the alternative build from the previous mono green aggro, I've been testing this online and love it. It's partially based on the old "hasty green" deck from timespiral. Nobody expects the speed from a green deck, or the constant size threats its able to crank out.
How to Play: Lay hasty dudes, turn sideways with a stick. This deck is quite explosive. Common plays include turn 1-elves, turn 2, grafted wargear, turn 3 uktabi + groundbreaker for 11 pts of damage. Or if you landed a forcemage, make that 14pts....ON TURN 3!!!!! The deck offers some built in resiliency with the gheists and the equipements/rancors to turn anything you really want to into a threat- suit up a lanowar elves with a rancor and wargear to turn him into the 6/3 trampling beat stick he always wanted to be. Turn your lowly flying shock of an uktabi you saved from echoey death into a 4/3 scourge of the skies with a morning star. Stuck with a primal forcemage but no hasty beats? SUIT HIM UP!!! I won a game with a rancored, double wargeared, morning star toting Primal forcemagenaut colossus on mtgO. It twas teh sexy.
This thread is awesome. Keep up the good work guys! (I'm the person who started the original thread in the budget forum) I hope this encourages more people to try out modern. It's nice to not to potentially lose a large part of your deck every year @ rotation.
I had NO idea you could build a solid modern deck for $20 or less. I guess it's all that stuff regarding using fetch and shock lands in your manabase.
For our side in standard, the manabase is almost always the part that eats a huge chunk out of your funds, and as such I find making mono colored decks or mono w/ splash works well. I'm sure modern is a different animal, hey you guys know it best
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
BUDGET DECK BUILDER SINCE 93'
Modern ------------------------- WU Azorius Titan Midrange
Commander ------------------- WUG Derevi, Empyrial Tactician
***Are you looking for cards priced below TCG NM "LOW" and with FREE SHIPPING? - Click HERE! for my sales thread - 485 Feedback 100% positive!***
How to play: The deck is a lifegain deck/midrange aggro. It plays walls to accelerate into 4 cc stuff like the baloths and heirarchs for a solid body and life. Faithmenders make the lifegain go bonkers, with primal commands going off for 14 and whatever else you do, or you gaining 8 life and getting a 4/4 body to boot. The deck puts some serious reach on aggro decks, and can midrange out a game in its own accord. The beats are solid, and the deck is packing a full suite of answers/removal in the form of primal command/beast within/oblivion ring, for problems that deny your lifegain or creatures that you may not be able to deal with. To end the games and give an answer to the typical "WHY U NO WIN GAMES WITH LIFEGAIN ?!?!" question fronted to many life decks, the deck uses 2 cards I've been looking to abuse for awhile: Chalice of Life and Death, and Felidar sovereign. Chalice gains life, and can end games in a hurry when it switches to "kill" and Sovereign can be had with a primal, gains live and is a sizable body in its own right, and has a "win the game" effect if met, which is pretty easy to achieve in this deck. If you like putting beef on the table, ANNNDDDDD like putting some serious reach in your life total, this deck is for you.
Non budget upgrades
MAWR PRIMAL COMMAND! - nails permanents, tutors for creatures, gains life, and reshuffles your grave FIRST so you can fetch that sovereign they doombladed last turn.
Batterskull- hard to remove, gains live, fits the curve, has beefy stats that can be added to any other fatty in the deck if you so choose
MAWR FELIDAR SOVEREIGN!!!- cuz onesies don't sit well with me unless its a true toolbox deck
MAWR BEAST WITHIN!!!!- instant speed green removal for ANYTHING! sure, it poops out a 3/3 elephant, but when your rocking 30+ life with 0/4 walls and 4/4 dudes, do you really care?
Stirring wildwood- dual color manland= more beats and more color fixing is more fun for everyone! (if your playing green/white)
This thread is awesome. Keep up the good work guys! (I'm the person who started the original thread in the budget forum) I hope this encourages more people to try out modern. It's nice to not to potentially lose a large part of your deck every year @ rotation.
I had NO idea you could build a solid modern deck for $20 or less. I guess it's all that stuff regarding using fetch and shock lands in your manabase.
For our side in standard, the manabase is almost always the part that eats a huge chunk out of your funds, and as such I find making mono colored decks or mono w/ splash works well. I'm sure modern is a different animal, hey you guys know it best
I'm actually just getting back into MTG from a break, I played standard, but got tired of rotations and price to play, so a friend talked me back into the game with the new modern format being a teensy bit more wallet friendly in a casual environment if you do it right.
I LOVE budget building- sure I understand its forgoing optimal choices for suboptimal ones, but you still can have a blast and a solid deck without breaking the bank! Thanks so much for starting this thread up, it's letting me play with all the ideas in my brain and letting me get nostolgia off my chest
Play mana, play enchantments! Sounds simple, and it is, you turtle your way behind norn's annex (which can land as early as turn 3) windborn muse, and the sphere, meanwhil laying hondens and curses to softlock your opponent out of the game. Eventually, you'll finish them off with damage from the curses and hondens. Plinking their lifetotal may not sound like a viable strategy, or fast enough to be relevant, but when they take 3-4 damage a turn, can only play one spell, your gaining 4 life a turn and drawing two cards ON TOP OF them paying roughly 4-8 mana per creature to attack you, it works out.
Non budget upgrades
Idyllic tutor- fetches really ANYTHING you need in your deck when you need it
Ghostly prison- comes down a turn earlier than windborn, and is immune to removal, id drop the spheres for these personally
lands- the deck does alright for color fixing, but if you swap in dual and fetch, then swap the artifact ramp for land pulling stuff like farseek/rampant growth, it equals deck thinning, which means more business spells....hooray.
- any good, fast cheap enchantment recursion/protection, the price of some the legal stuff was absurd...
- dual manlands for color fixing and to add an extra "aggro" win con to the deck in case the enchantments are annihilated
Alternate build Ideas
- Nevermore, Runed halo, oblivion ring, aura of silence, story circle and the new oblivion ring from RtR can be added for a more proactive control element
Ive been testing the above lists previously online on mtgdeckbuilder and in proxy forms, most of the lists are based/updated on old decks I played and continually tweaked back in the day and had a good time with.
some other lists im cooking up for this based on some of my old stuff are
- dredge midrange
- artifact trinket deck
-modular/proliferate deck
- affinity skies- not quite as speedy as tempered steel, but more consistent with innately beefy guys
My attempt at building the Cheapest dredge possible. I ran out of ideas for inexpensive Wincons, but then I had and Idea. Burning Vengeance and Haakon, Stromgald Scourge.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"I am disillusioned enough to know that no man's opinion on any subject is worth a damn unless backed up with enough genuine information to make him really know what he's talking about."
-H. P. Lovecraft
The idea to this deck came from _Spookie_'s budget legacy articles, who got it from Brad Strickman's legacy deck Berserk Shadow.
I tinkered a bit and the deck is still in the testing phase. It is obviously slower than the legacy version of the deck, but goes off consistently on turn 4-5 and got a possibility of going off on turn 3.
To those of you who have not read that article I would recommend it, it is a good read.
I will briefly explain how the deck works to those of you unaware:
It is a combo deck that functions by dropping your life-total to 4 or below and attacking with a Death's Shadow who have been amplified by a Tainted Strike for a lethal amount of poison counters.
The first few rounds should be used to disrupt their hand removing any pesky removal that might go your way and dropping a spellskite to protect the shadow.
Spellskite's ability can be used to drop your life total to the required amount and can serve as a chump blocker the turn before going off if things are looking grim. Plunge into darkness and spoils of the vault can search for combo pieces while sending your life total down to the wanted zone.
So far I have liked the aggro-matchup the best, since they focus on dropping my lifetotal and usually run targeted removal which spellskite can absorb.
Apostle's blessing and aphotic wisp serve as a way of getting past blockers who might be standing in your way.
For less than 20 bucks I find it a blast to play. Inquisition of Kozilek is the only really expensive card in the deck and could be replaced by another 1cmc discard spell, even though I would not recommend it. To make it non-budget running thoughtseize over gixitian probe might be an option to consider, you are paying 2 life for both anyway.
Maybe a Glissa jund Rock like setup? a lot of the spellbombs from mirrodin offer some decent abilities and using red/black offer some spot removal to activate her trigger....
I'll do some digging and see if I can whip something up, not tier one, but it should be fun (hee hee, I made a rhyme, a limerick, a fanciful whimsy)
How to play: The deck is a midrange control/aggro deck that utilizes a wide toolbox of choices to handle diverse situations. It ultimately is capable for tutoring for what it needs with the treasure/trinket mages, then finishing the game with pumped creatures via grand architect and Caged sun. It offers a wide variety toolbox in both the 1cc and 6cc range. Also it has a few synergies and softlocks to seize the game if they get online, ie mindslaver or spine of ish sah and phyrexias core. Both are expensive but between the engineers, the architects and the caged suns, the deck is capable of reaching oodles of mana. Also there is synergy between contagion engine's proliferate and the charge counters on altar of shadows and everflowing chalice for extra mana ramp. It's a cute deck.
Non budget Upgrades:
Academy ruins-for mindslaver lock
Solemn Simulacrum- can get powered out, can get sacced and can get brought back just a good general guy
If it works for you, I guess it's okay. I just can't see myself playing 3 drops in a 18 land deck. Especially when Rot Wolf doesn't give you much more than what your lower cost creatures provide.
Sexy Sig by mchief111 @ Rising Studios
EDH
G Isao
Lemme see then...
$1 version:
18 Forest
Creatures (16)
4 Glistener Elf
4 Ichorclaw Myr
4 Blight Mamba
4 Necropede
Pumps and Evasion (26)
4 Llanowar Augur
4 Mutagenic Growth
4 Giant Growth
4 Groundswell
4 Apostle's Blessing
4 Primal Bellow
2 Ranger's Guile
4 Fog
4 Hornet Sting
4 Nature's Claim
3 Nourish
$5 (actually 4.99) version:
18 Forest
Creatures (16)
4 Glistener Elf
4 Ichorclaw Myr
4 Blight Mamba
4 Necropede
Pumps and Evasion (22)
4 Llanowar Augur
4 Mutagenic Growth
4 Groundswell
4 Rancor
3 Vines of Vastwood
3 Apostle's Blessing
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Fog
4 Hornet Sting
4 Nature's Claim
3 Nourish
$20 (19.92) version:
13 Forest
3 Inkmoth Nexus
2 Pendelhaven
Creatures (14)
4 Glistener Elf
4 Ichorclaw Myr
4 Necropede
2 Blight Mamba
4 Mutagenic Growth
4 Groundswell
4 Rancor
4 Vines of Vastwood
2 Ranger's Guile
2 Apostle's Blessing
Other (8)
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Fog
4 Nature's Claim
3 Nourish
3 Gut Shot
1 Hornet Sting
Well, if I find any new ideas about budget infect monogreen I'll answer, otherwise I reckon my point is already clear.
Commander: Child of Alara BURGW, Adeliz, the Cinder Wind UR
Tiny Leaders: Gwafa, Hazid Profiteer UW
Regular Pauper: Stompy G, Mono-G Tron G, Infect G
Cost: $20.38 (TIMESTAMP: 9/22/2012)
4 Kazandu Blademaster (.14)
4 Kabira Envangel (.13)
3 Talus Paladin (.25)
4 Akoum Battlesinger (.01)
4 Oran Rief Survivalist (.01)
4 Bloodbraid Elf (1.30)
4 Descendent's Path (.25)
4 Lightning Helix (1.50)
4 jungle shrine (.77)
4 evolving wilds (.02)
1 gavony township (.95)
3 mountains
3 forests
8 plains
TYPE: BUDGET ($20.00 LIMIT)
REMAINING BUDGET: -$0.38
NEXT NON BUDGET UPGRADES: Path to Exile $3.50 ea, Clifftop Retreat $4.95 ea and Sunpetal Grove $1.95 ea would add mana consistency, and better removal options.
Strategies:
-Drop cheap creatures which make each other stronger
-Descendents Path gives free creatures each turn, Bloodbraid Elf cascades into other Allys
-Evangel give protection from color -> swing through unblocked
Weakness:
-Board Wipes & Wrath Spells
Name: R Budget RDW/BURN
Cost: $26.90 (TIMESTAMP: 9/22/2012)
4 burst lightning (.08)
4 rift bolt (.71)
3 Searing Blaze (.08)
3 Staggershock (.10)
4 hellspark elemental (.79)
4 hells thunder (.81)
4 bogart ram gang (.68)
4 Kiln fiend (.08)
2 ball lightning (1.24)
16 Mountains
$26.90
TYPE: BUDGET ($20.00 LIMIT)
REMAINING BUDGET: -$6.90
NEXT NON BUDGET UPGRADES: Vexing Devil $3.70 ea and lava spike $2.00 ea would add better damage to mana spent ratio, also Magma Jet $3.00 ea improves Draws through scry filtering.
Strategies:
-Drop cheap hasty creatures, unearth them again
-Use Burn for more damage, burn pumps Kiln Fiend
-Race the opponent to 20 damage
Weakness:
Pro-Red Creatures - colorless removal Ghostfire $.04 ea OR Splash removal from a second color.
I know it's outside of budget, but it did just rotate out as well. Honor of the Pure Plays like Intangible Virtue, costs two, and pumps all your creatures so even Gideon can push a little bit.
My decks:
BGx Nic Fit
Abzan Aggro
RIP Pod
Standard: Abzan Aggro
timestamp- 10/2/12
Cost:18.88
Curve: 0-1/2/3/4/5/6+ == 12/8/16/0/4
How to play: play evasive/hexproof dudes, suit up your dudes with big sticks powered out by ramp. turn sideways. The deck offers some synergy between scryb and joraga/arbor elf for mana tricks. Bellowing tanglewurm offers a fat body and board evasion. Equipement offers a solid stat bonus and can make any of the equipped creatures a threat, including mana dork beats-in a pinch.
Non budget upgrades:
-swords of things and stuff- virtually any sword can fit this deck, the creatures are naturally evasive or resilient beaters, swords provide synergy with on hit effects and pseudo evasion with protection from colors as well as a nice stat buff.
- batterskull- decently sized body itself, can be EASILY powered out from mana dork ramp, turns anything its attached to into a decent sized threat
-Alternate build Idea
- Vengevine/ramgang/uktabi drake may offer the deck a little more explosive flare for those players who want something more aggressive with a hasty beater to drop in, give them a stick, and send them into the redzone.
Cost: 18.36
Time Stamp: 10/2/12
4 Dimir Signet .40
4 Mind Stone 1.80
4 Shriekmaw 1.68
4 Mulldrifter 1.00
4 Entomber Exarch .08
4 Go for the throat 2.76
3 Mimic Vat 2.25
3 Profane Command 2.73
3 Black Sun's Zenith 4.26
4 Salt Marsh 1.08
9 swamp
6 island
How to play: This is a decklist I dredged up and modernized from my old standard makeshift mannequin deck. It won through controlling the board with raw card advantage due to many of the business spells being also attached to a body- similar to the Pod decks of now. You basically played the card advantage game by opening with your ramp and keeping board presence by removing creatures and making them discard. Once you start getting into the 5 mana+ territory, the deck hits it's stride. With card synergy and continual power plays, such as profane command reviving a shriekmaw and nailing their dude, or instant speed revival/chump blocking with a come into play effect creatures. Evoke offers a nice alternate cost for early game, and it doesn't matter if your dudes are in the yard as theres several ways to recur. Evoke in and of itself is great with Mimic Vat's and caused me to replace makeshift manneqin for these as its reusable CiP stick. Most of the deck's business spells are attached to an evasive body, and this capitalizes on it in spades. Over the course of the game, you'll be ahead with raw card advantage ideally when you stabilize. For the win, you should be attacking with your evasive beaters/mimic vat tokens as they come, and you will be building up mana to land a large profane to the dome in a pinch.
Non budget upgrades:
-creeping tar pit- offers an unblockable weenie that bites for 3, not to mention it also offers both colors on a single land
- Solemn simulacrum, has excellent come into play and leaving abilities, he curves nicely with the accelerants, ramps for mana to further push out the business spells, chump blocks early weenies ANNNNND is VERY synergistic with mimic vat.
- damnation over zenith
Alternate build idea
- alternate build can focus more on card disruption by replacing shriekmaw with mournwelk, offering a reusable 8 card suit of hand destruction when paired with entomber exarch. deck already has plenty of creature removal in the form of sweepers, spot spells, and profane command
10/3/12
G Mono Green LD
Cost 15.73- cards pricing organized in total vs number
4 Wall of Roots - .76
4 Axebane guardian -.12
4 Vine Trellis- .20
3 Brutalizer Exarch -. 15
1 Blightsteel colossus - 4.25
4 Beast Within -.3.92
4 Mwonvuli acid moss - .32
4 Plow Under- 3.36
3 terastodon- 2.07
3 Spine of Ish Sah -.30
18 Forest
How To Play:
Mono Green land destruction. Play walls to ramp and block early weenies and start your land lockdown. Nuke permanents until you get enough mana to drop a terastodon or blightsteel. Exarch doubles not only as a nuke spell but also as a tutor for a finisher such as terastodon to lock in your board position, or blightsteel to end the game quick, fast, and in a hurry- IF you feel confident that they can't answer it. Spine of Ish sah can recur with phyrexia's core, also spine and beast within can nail problematic creatures that can run over or past you walls.
Non budget upgrades
- primal command- plow under for perm, tutor, lifetotal reach, just a great utility spell for this deck
- ulamog- indestructable, nukes a perm, makes them sac a few, ect ect
Alternate build Idea
Adding esnaring bridge and bottled cloister stops aggro cold on provides a draw engine. allows some anti aggro capabilities.
Decided to work on making a green sligh deck based on the alternative build from the previous mono green aggro, I've been testing this online and love it. It's partially based on the old "hasty green" deck from timespiral. Nobody expects the speed from a green deck, or the constant size threats its able to crank out.
Stamp
10/5/12
Cost: 16.84
GGreen Deck Wins
4 Llanowar Elves .08" target="blank">Llanowar Elves .08
4 Arbor Elves .08" target="blank">Arbor Elves .08
Beats
4 Uktabi Drake- .20" target="blank">Uktabi Drake- .20
4 Strangleroot Gheist- 1.32" target="blank">Strangleroot Gheist- 1.32
4 Ground Breaker- 3.84" target="blank">Ground Breaker- 3.84
4 Boggart Ram-Gang- 2.80" target="blank">Boggart Ram-Gang- 2.80
4 Grafted Wargear- 2.76" target="blank">Grafted Wargear- 2.76
4 Vulshock Morning Star-.16" target="blank">Vulshock Morning Star-.16
4 Rancor- 5.28" target="blank">Rancor- 5.28
4 Primal Forcemage .32" target="blank">Primal Forcemage .32
How to Play: Lay hasty dudes, turn sideways with a stick. This deck is quite explosive. Common plays include turn 1-elves, turn 2, grafted wargear, turn 3 uktabi + groundbreaker for 11 pts of damage. Or if you landed a forcemage, make that 14pts....ON TURN 3!!!!! The deck offers some built in resiliency with the gheists and the equipements/rancors to turn anything you really want to into a threat- suit up a lanowar elves with a rancor and wargear to turn him into the 6/3 trampling beat stick he always wanted to be. Turn your lowly flying shock of an uktabi you saved from echoey death into a 4/3 scourge of the skies with a morning star. Stuck with a primal forcemage but no hasty beats? SUIT HIM UP!!! I won a game with a rancored, double wargeared, morning star toting Primal forcemagenaut colossus on mtgO. It twas teh sexy.
Non budget upgrades
Vengevine- hasty, sizable body, recurs, nuff said.
Swords of things and stuff- provides additional advantageous benefits for hitting your opponent with a trampling haster or a flying haster
Birds of paradise- flies, and makes green, good choice to suit up in case you run out of steam with your topdecks
I had NO idea you could build a solid modern deck for $20 or less. I guess it's all that stuff regarding using fetch and shock lands in your manabase.
For our side in standard, the manabase is almost always the part that eats a huge chunk out of your funds, and as such I find making mono colored decks or mono w/ splash works well. I'm sure modern is a different animal, hey you guys know it best
BUDGET DECK BUILDER SINCE 93'
Modern ------------------------- WU Azorius Titan Midrange
Commander ------------------- WUG Derevi, Empyrial Tactician
***Are you looking for cards priced below TCG NM "LOW" and with FREE SHIPPING? - Click HERE! for my sales thread - 485 Feedback 100% positive!***
Annnnnnnd the other budget deck for the day...with a name somewhat fitting in regards to me hogging the posts...
GWGET A LIFE!
Cost 20 on the NOSE!
4 Wall of Roots -.76
3 Vine trellis -.20
4 Loxodon Heirarch 1.80
4 Obstinate Baloth .60
4 Rhox Faithmender 1.88
4 Oblivion Ring .96
2 Beast Within 1.96
3 Primal Command 7.38
4 Chalice of life/death .04
1 Felidar Sovereign 3.30
4 tranquil garden .16
4 Graypelt Refuge .68
9 forest
5 plains
How to play: The deck is a lifegain deck/midrange aggro. It plays walls to accelerate into 4 cc stuff like the baloths and heirarchs for a solid body and life. Faithmenders make the lifegain go bonkers, with primal commands going off for 14 and whatever else you do, or you gaining 8 life and getting a 4/4 body to boot. The deck puts some serious reach on aggro decks, and can midrange out a game in its own accord. The beats are solid, and the deck is packing a full suite of answers/removal in the form of primal command/beast within/oblivion ring, for problems that deny your lifegain or creatures that you may not be able to deal with. To end the games and give an answer to the typical "WHY U NO WIN GAMES WITH LIFEGAIN ?!?!" question fronted to many life decks, the deck uses 2 cards I've been looking to abuse for awhile: Chalice of Life and Death, and Felidar sovereign. Chalice gains life, and can end games in a hurry when it switches to "kill" and Sovereign can be had with a primal, gains live and is a sizable body in its own right, and has a "win the game" effect if met, which is pretty easy to achieve in this deck. If you like putting beef on the table, ANNNDDDDD like putting some serious reach in your life total, this deck is for you.
Non budget upgrades
MAWR PRIMAL COMMAND! - nails permanents, tutors for creatures, gains life, and reshuffles your grave FIRST so you can fetch that sovereign they doombladed last turn.
Batterskull- hard to remove, gains live, fits the curve, has beefy stats that can be added to any other fatty in the deck if you so choose
MAWR FELIDAR SOVEREIGN!!!- cuz onesies don't sit well with me unless its a true toolbox deck
MAWR BEAST WITHIN!!!!- instant speed green removal for ANYTHING! sure, it poops out a 3/3 elephant, but when your rocking 30+ life with 0/4 walls and 4/4 dudes, do you really care?
Stirring wildwood- dual color manland= more beats and more color fixing is more fun for everyone! (if your playing green/white)
I'm actually just getting back into MTG from a break, I played standard, but got tired of rotations and price to play, so a friend talked me back into the game with the new modern format being a teensy bit more wallet friendly in a casual environment if you do it right.
I LOVE budget building- sure I understand its forgoing optimal choices for suboptimal ones, but you still can have a blast and a solid deck without breaking the bank! Thanks so much for starting this thread up, it's letting me play with all the ideas in my brain and letting me get nostolgia off my chest
BEHOLD!! THE ULTIMATE IN FUN CHEAP GOLD OLE' FASHIONED JANK!!!!!
Stamp: 10/6/12
Cost: 9.39
BURW CURSE OF THE HONDENS!!!
2 Azorius signet - .24
2 Orhzov signet - .10
2 Boros signet -.12
4 windborn muse -1.76
4 Norn's Annex - .88
3 Sphere of safety - .15
2 Honden of Night's Reach -.32
2 Honden of Infinite Rage -.36
2 Honden of Cleansing Fire -.10
2 Curse of Misfortunes -.26
1 Curse of Exhuastion -.01
4 Curse of the pierced heart -.04
2 Curse of Thirst .01
1 Curse of bloodletting -.15
3 Vivid Meadow -.99
2 Vivid Marsh -.98
5 plains
3 swamp
2 island
2 mountain
How to play:
Play mana, play enchantments! Sounds simple, and it is, you turtle your way behind norn's annex (which can land as early as turn 3) windborn muse, and the sphere, meanwhil laying hondens and curses to softlock your opponent out of the game. Eventually, you'll finish them off with damage from the curses and hondens. Plinking their lifetotal may not sound like a viable strategy, or fast enough to be relevant, but when they take 3-4 damage a turn, can only play one spell, your gaining 4 life a turn and drawing two cards ON TOP OF them paying roughly 4-8 mana per creature to attack you, it works out.
Non budget upgrades
Idyllic tutor- fetches really ANYTHING you need in your deck when you need it
Ghostly prison- comes down a turn earlier than windborn, and is immune to removal, id drop the spheres for these personally
lands- the deck does alright for color fixing, but if you swap in dual and fetch, then swap the artifact ramp for land pulling stuff like farseek/rampant growth, it equals deck thinning, which means more business spells....hooray.
- any good, fast cheap enchantment recursion/protection, the price of some the legal stuff was absurd...
- dual manlands for color fixing and to add an extra "aggro" win con to the deck in case the enchantments are annihilated
Alternate build Ideas
- Nevermore, Runed halo, oblivion ring, aura of silence, story circle and the new oblivion ring from RtR can be added for a more proactive control element
some other lists im cooking up for this based on some of my old stuff are
- dredge midrange
- artifact trinket deck
-modular/proliferate deck
- affinity skies- not quite as speedy as tempered steel, but more consistent with innately beefy guys
- b/w rack aggro or b/r
-b/r with possible blue lobotomy deck
4 Stinkweed Imp (RAV, .48)
4 Magus of the Bazaar (PLC, .72)
4 Merfolk Looter (M12, .4)
4 Necroplasm (RAV, .56)
2 Haakon, Stromgald Scourge (CSP, 3.34)
2 Glen Elendra Liege (PC2, 2.50)
4 Nameless Inversion (LRW, .4)
4 Burning Vengeance (ISD, .4)
4 Faithless Looting (DKA, .28)
4 Wings of Velis Veil (LRW, .8)
2 Dakmor Salvage (DDJ, .20
2 Crypt of Agadeem (ZEN, .26)
3 Rakdos Guildgate (RTR, .15)
3 Izzet Guildgate (RTR, .15)
5 Swamp
4 Island
2 Mountain
DECK: Vengeance Dredge
DATE: 10/8/2012
PRICE: $8.82
My attempt at building the Cheapest dredge possible. I ran out of ideas for inexpensive Wincons, but then I had and Idea. Burning Vengeance and Haakon, Stromgald Scourge.
"I am disillusioned enough to know that no man's opinion on any subject is worth a damn unless backed up with enough genuine information to make him really know what he's talking about."
-H. P. Lovecraft
I tinkered a bit and the deck is still in the testing phase. It is obviously slower than the legacy version of the deck, but goes off consistently on turn 4-5 and got a possibility of going off on turn 3.
To those of you who have not read that article I would recommend it, it is a good read.
I will briefly explain how the deck works to those of you unaware:
It is a combo deck that functions by dropping your life-total to 4 or below and attacking with a Death's Shadow who have been amplified by a Tainted Strike for a lethal amount of poison counters.
The first few rounds should be used to disrupt their hand removing any pesky removal that might go your way and dropping a spellskite to protect the shadow.
Spellskite's ability can be used to drop your life total to the required amount and can serve as a chump blocker the turn before going off if things are looking grim. Plunge into darkness and spoils of the vault can search for combo pieces while sending your life total down to the wanted zone.
So far I have liked the aggro-matchup the best, since they focus on dropping my lifetotal and usually run targeted removal which spellskite can absorb.
Apostle's blessing and aphotic wisp serve as a way of getting past blockers who might be standing in your way.
(9th of October 2012)
4 Death's Shadow
4 Spellskite
Spells 32
4 Tainted Strike
4 Apostle's Blessing
4 Aphotic Wisp
4 Spoils of the Vault
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Duress
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Plunge into Darkness
20 Swamp
Avg cmc: 1.2
Cost: 18.36$
For less than 20 bucks I find it a blast to play. Inquisition of Kozilek is the only really expensive card in the deck and could be replaced by another 1cmc discard spell, even though I would not recommend it. To make it non-budget running thoughtseize over gixitian probe might be an option to consider, you are paying 2 life for both anyway.
Decks I play:
-Friedrich Nietzsche
I'll do some digging and see if I can whip something up, not tier one, but it should be fun (hee hee, I made a rhyme, a limerick, a fanciful whimsy)
UTrinkets for Treasure
Cost: 18.01
Stamp: 10/10/12
4 treasure mage -.08
4 Grand architect - 1.40
4 Vedalken Engineer - .36
4 Etherium Sculptor - 3.40
4 Everflowing Chalice - 2.88
6cc:
2 contagion engine -1.56
2 caged sun - 1.48
1 spine of ish sah - .10
1 alter of shadows - .19
1 mindslaver - .60
1cc:
1 elixir of immortality -.04
2 pithing needle - 1.60
2 springleaf drum -.50
2 brittle effigy - .24
1 avarice totem - .06
4 Tolaria West - 3.32
13 island
How to play: The deck is a midrange control/aggro deck that utilizes a wide toolbox of choices to handle diverse situations. It ultimately is capable for tutoring for what it needs with the treasure/trinket mages, then finishing the game with pumped creatures via grand architect and Caged sun. It offers a wide variety toolbox in both the 1cc and 6cc range. Also it has a few synergies and softlocks to seize the game if they get online, ie mindslaver or spine of ish sah and phyrexias core. Both are expensive but between the engineers, the architects and the caged suns, the deck is capable of reaching oodles of mana. Also there is synergy between contagion engine's proliferate and the charge counters on altar of shadows and everflowing chalice for extra mana ramp. It's a cute deck.
Non budget Upgrades:
Academy ruins-for mindslaver lock
Solemn Simulacrum- can get powered out, can get sacced and can get brought back just a good general guy