I'm trying to keep my standard decks in something resembling a budget, and one of the challenges is that the dual lands that form the foundation of a good mana base are often some of the more expensive cards in a deck.
One thought I've had is to try to focus my attention to a limited number of color pairs, so I'm investing in what I want to play, and not always trying to netdeck the latest dominant archetype. As long as I enjoy the color pairs, I can find the latest incarnation of what's working in Standard in those colors.
I'm trying to figure out how many color pairs is enough to make sure I'm not locked into a pair that may become unplayable as changes occur in rotation, but also small enough that I'm not investing in a lot of cards that drive up my spending.
I've only been playing (for the second time) since Ravnica so I don't have a good perspective on the ebb and flow of what color pairs are usually decent in standard, and if any have a history of always being closer to the bottom of the pack. Any advice?
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----- "I cannot tune a harp or play a lyre, but I know how to make a small city great." - Themistocles
Notoriously, any land with blue in it is always way more pricey than any other dual. If you've been playing since RAV you should definitely have some buddy/check lands and shocks, they are relatively cheap now (<10$) and an easy addition to any deck. Also once KTK rotates the fetches should drop a bit.
As for color pairings, R/W burn is always a pretty inexpensive archetype and you can even forgo the W completely and just use basics. I find red deck boring however and I absolutely crave blue cards. I'm a control player at heart, you really ought to figure out what style of play you enjoy and go from there.
"If fetch lands are reprinted I really believe they will be in allied colors (aka Onslaught fetches). If the fetch lands are reprinted you better believe that we'll all be fetching up basics. This would lead me to believe that the set after THS may have a reprint as the temples can't be fetched but it's pure speculation." - posted 03/22/2014 proved correct during Khans spoiler season.
"The set releases for fall 2015 (Blood, Sweat and Tears) and fall 2016 (Lock, Stock and Barrel). One or both of those 2 blocks (I'm betting) are going to contain either Fetch reprints or (more likely) Filter reprints. Filter lands still need a reprint. They are getting pretty high up there and it's been longer than ZEN so it makes a little more sense that Filter lands would see print earlier that fetches." - posted 03/22/2014 proved incorrect about filters coming earlier than fetches, still pending on filters in Origins block.
I just got back into standard back in Sept. with Khans, and started with budget decks. And now (as a heavy control player) I have access to or have trade power to have access to, pretty much any of the rares I could dream of wanting to use within a control strategy. How did I do it?
First, I decided what type of deck I wanted. I love control and always want to play control, so naturally, I picked control. What type of deck do you like playing? Aggro, midrange, control. Whichever one you pick, plan on sticking with that style of deck for a long time to come.
Second, and this is kind of along the same lines as the first point, but pick your favorite color to be your base. This doesn't mean you have to play mono-color, but it may mean that that's one color that will be appearing in your decks on a consistent basis. For me, it was blue, because I love counters and card draw.
Next, pick the other color or colors for your deck. For me, I picked U/R control to start off, because I wanted cheap burn, a sweeper for small creatures in Anger of the Gods, cheap counters, and card draw. Now that you have that settled, imagine you have no budget for a moment, and write down your ideal decklist. This will be your goal that you work towards over time (hence, make sure you enjoy the type of deck and color pairing).
Once you have your ideal decklist, price it out, and see how much your deck costs, and how many of those cards you already own. Compare this to your cash budget for the deck, then begin prioritizing what cards you will chase after first. This may or may not mean going after the more expensive rares first. Ask yourself several questions. How crucial is this card to the deck's main strategy? How many card slots am I able to fill on my ideal list with my current budget? Are the substitutes for expensive cards? While some combination of Duress and Despise can be used a budget substitutes for Thoughtseize, if Thoughtseize is on your ideal list, you should still be pursuing Thoughtseize while using the alternatives in the meantime. There is reason Thoughtseize is a $20 card after all. This holds true of the dual lands as well. Most of the scry lands aren't too expensive, and Khans brought us dual and tri-color taplands. For 2 color decks, you'll probably end up running Tranquil Cove anyways right now given the current mix of lands available in standard, but until you get the scry lands and/or fetches, you can use the tri-lands or Evolving Wilds in place as you work your way to your ideal list.
These next two tips are perhaps the most important.
1. Buy singles and not packs! This cannot be stressed enough. Yes, there's a chance you could spend $4 on a pack and get one of the $30+ Dragonlord Ojutai you need for your ideal decklist, but that chance is very very small. More often than not, you will not be opening the cards you need from packs. That money would be better spent buying singles outright. You could buy 9 packs for $36 and not see a single rare you need for your deck. Yeah, maybe you'll get a few cards with some value that you can trade, but again, why put that hassle and risk on yourself when you could use the same amount of money to buy an Ojutai outright and be one more step closer to your ideal decklist?
2. Trade. At my LGS, we get a pack for entering FNM. Sometimes you get junk rares. Sometimes you get rares of value that you aren't going to be using (Don't jump ship into a different deck or color pairing just because you opened 1 nice valuable rare). Instead, trade it for cards on your ideal decklist. Trading cards costs you no money, and chances are, if you opened a valuable rare, there's someone else at the FNM looking to trade for it.
For me and my U/R control deck, I got lucky and opened a couple Sorin, Solemn Visitor in my packs for entering FNM. What did I do with them? I traded them for Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker, a couple Dig Through Time, and a little something else for my deck. After all, they were cards that weren't on my ideal decklist that I was working towards, nor were they even remotely close to the colors I was playing at the time. Then one night after an FNM, a few months later, I took a step back and realized my standard deck was valued at ~$250, and I was almost in shock, because I certainly didn't spend that much cash buying singles for the deck (I only spent about $50 on single back when I started the deck). But what had happened was I reached my ideal decklist.
So what did I do next? Well, without trading off any of my prime tools for U/R control, I began hunting down black cards like Hero's Downfall and accompanying dual lands like Temple of Malice and Temple of Deceit, then some fetch lands. Next thing I knew I had access swap between U/R control, to B/R control or U/B control. Now I've been working on collecting some of the white cards I'd want for control decks. Now I am capable of assembling almost any standard control deck I could dream of and having 95% of the deck already in my collection. This relates back to one of the early things I said, stick with the type of deck you enjoy playing. If I woke up tomorrow and wanted to play G/R devotion, that wouldn't be happening unless I was willing to give up a lot of my control rares I worked hard to collect, for a deck that I might not want to keep playing (in fact, I know I wouldn't because I love control decks too much). That brings me to my last piece of advice, don't trade away any valuable rares that you might want to come back to in the future. While I'm not running Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker in my current deck, I'm not trading away either. If you have valuable cards that you might want to come back to and play in a future deck, do yourself a favor and don't trade them. In fact, if they're not in your FNM deck, leave that at home, so they're not even in your trade binder and you can't possibly be tempted to trade them.
Well, I hope this you were able to find something useful in this long rant of mine. Cheers.
Notoriously, any land with blue in it is always way more pricey than any other dual. If you've been playing since RAV you should definitely have some buddy/check lands and shocks, they are relatively cheap now (<10$) and an easy addition to any deck. Also once KTK rotates the fetches should drop a bit.
As for color pairings, R/W burn is always a pretty inexpensive archetype and you can even forgo the W completely and just use basics. I find red deck boring however and I absolutely crave blue cards. I'm a control player at heart, you really ought to figure out what style of play you enjoy and go from there.
The lands you're mentioning are not legal in Standard. Perhaps you thought this was the Modern section?
Notoriously, any land with blue in it is always way more pricey than any other dual. If you've been playing since RAV you should definitely have some buddy/check lands and shocks, they are relatively cheap now (<10$) and an easy addition to any deck. Also once KTK rotates the fetches should drop a bit.
As for color pairings, R/W burn is always a pretty inexpensive archetype and you can even forgo the W completely and just use basics. I find red deck boring however and I absolutely crave blue cards. I'm a control player at heart, you really ought to figure out what style of play you enjoy and go from there.
The lands you're mentioning are not legal in Standard. Perhaps you thought this was the Modern section?
Derp! Saw the title and immediately thought eternal.
While the statements still hold true, if I could have gone back and done it all over again. I would never have bought into standard. You spend more initially, but you get SO much more longevity out of your deck(s) if you buy modern/legacy staples instead of standard cards. I play standard but it's mostly just brews or borrowed decks. My collection is vast now and some sage advice would be to put your money in solid, solid, solid cards. What are solid cards? Stuff like Thoughtseize, Vendilion Clique, Tarmogoyf, Fetches, Shocks etc... will always be played, no matter how many prints. Everyone needs land and I've found that by investing in a solid landbase, you can pretty much run any deck you want.
This upcoming MM15 release is going to be pure value for you since you don't already own the cards. You can crack boxes and trade anything you get more than 4 of. I wish someone had told me this before I bought into my standard decks.
"If fetch lands are reprinted I really believe they will be in allied colors (aka Onslaught fetches). If the fetch lands are reprinted you better believe that we'll all be fetching up basics. This would lead me to believe that the set after THS may have a reprint as the temples can't be fetched but it's pure speculation." - posted 03/22/2014 proved correct during Khans spoiler season.
"The set releases for fall 2015 (Blood, Sweat and Tears) and fall 2016 (Lock, Stock and Barrel). One or both of those 2 blocks (I'm betting) are going to contain either Fetch reprints or (more likely) Filter reprints. Filter lands still need a reprint. They are getting pretty high up there and it's been longer than ZEN so it makes a little more sense that Filter lands would see print earlier that fetches." - posted 03/22/2014 proved incorrect about filters coming earlier than fetches, still pending on filters in Origins block.
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One thought I've had is to try to focus my attention to a limited number of color pairs, so I'm investing in what I want to play, and not always trying to netdeck the latest dominant archetype. As long as I enjoy the color pairs, I can find the latest incarnation of what's working in Standard in those colors.
I'm trying to figure out how many color pairs is enough to make sure I'm not locked into a pair that may become unplayable as changes occur in rotation, but also small enough that I'm not investing in a lot of cards that drive up my spending.
I've only been playing (for the second time) since Ravnica so I don't have a good perspective on the ebb and flow of what color pairs are usually decent in standard, and if any have a history of always being closer to the bottom of the pack. Any advice?
"I cannot tune a harp or play a lyre, but I know how to make a small city great." - Themistocles
As for color pairings, R/W burn is always a pretty inexpensive archetype and you can even forgo the W completely and just use basics. I find red deck boring however and I absolutely crave blue cards. I'm a control player at heart, you really ought to figure out what style of play you enjoy and go from there.
"The set releases for fall 2015 (Blood, Sweat and Tears) and fall 2016 (Lock, Stock and Barrel). One or both of those 2 blocks (I'm betting) are going to contain either Fetch reprints or (more likely) Filter reprints. Filter lands still need a reprint. They are getting pretty high up there and it's been longer than ZEN so it makes a little more sense that Filter lands would see print earlier that fetches." - posted 03/22/2014 proved incorrect about filters coming earlier than fetches, still pending on filters in Origins block.
First, I decided what type of deck I wanted. I love control and always want to play control, so naturally, I picked control. What type of deck do you like playing? Aggro, midrange, control. Whichever one you pick, plan on sticking with that style of deck for a long time to come.
Second, and this is kind of along the same lines as the first point, but pick your favorite color to be your base. This doesn't mean you have to play mono-color, but it may mean that that's one color that will be appearing in your decks on a consistent basis. For me, it was blue, because I love counters and card draw.
Next, pick the other color or colors for your deck. For me, I picked U/R control to start off, because I wanted cheap burn, a sweeper for small creatures in Anger of the Gods, cheap counters, and card draw. Now that you have that settled, imagine you have no budget for a moment, and write down your ideal decklist. This will be your goal that you work towards over time (hence, make sure you enjoy the type of deck and color pairing).
Once you have your ideal decklist, price it out, and see how much your deck costs, and how many of those cards you already own. Compare this to your cash budget for the deck, then begin prioritizing what cards you will chase after first. This may or may not mean going after the more expensive rares first. Ask yourself several questions. How crucial is this card to the deck's main strategy? How many card slots am I able to fill on my ideal list with my current budget? Are the substitutes for expensive cards? While some combination of Duress and Despise can be used a budget substitutes for Thoughtseize, if Thoughtseize is on your ideal list, you should still be pursuing Thoughtseize while using the alternatives in the meantime. There is reason Thoughtseize is a $20 card after all. This holds true of the dual lands as well. Most of the scry lands aren't too expensive, and Khans brought us dual and tri-color taplands. For 2 color decks, you'll probably end up running Tranquil Cove anyways right now given the current mix of lands available in standard, but until you get the scry lands and/or fetches, you can use the tri-lands or Evolving Wilds in place as you work your way to your ideal list.
These next two tips are perhaps the most important.
1. Buy singles and not packs! This cannot be stressed enough. Yes, there's a chance you could spend $4 on a pack and get one of the $30+ Dragonlord Ojutai you need for your ideal decklist, but that chance is very very small. More often than not, you will not be opening the cards you need from packs. That money would be better spent buying singles outright. You could buy 9 packs for $36 and not see a single rare you need for your deck. Yeah, maybe you'll get a few cards with some value that you can trade, but again, why put that hassle and risk on yourself when you could use the same amount of money to buy an Ojutai outright and be one more step closer to your ideal decklist?
2. Trade. At my LGS, we get a pack for entering FNM. Sometimes you get junk rares. Sometimes you get rares of value that you aren't going to be using (Don't jump ship into a different deck or color pairing just because you opened 1 nice valuable rare). Instead, trade it for cards on your ideal decklist. Trading cards costs you no money, and chances are, if you opened a valuable rare, there's someone else at the FNM looking to trade for it.
For me and my U/R control deck, I got lucky and opened a couple Sorin, Solemn Visitor in my packs for entering FNM. What did I do with them? I traded them for Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker, a couple Dig Through Time, and a little something else for my deck. After all, they were cards that weren't on my ideal decklist that I was working towards, nor were they even remotely close to the colors I was playing at the time. Then one night after an FNM, a few months later, I took a step back and realized my standard deck was valued at ~$250, and I was almost in shock, because I certainly didn't spend that much cash buying singles for the deck (I only spent about $50 on single back when I started the deck). But what had happened was I reached my ideal decklist.
So what did I do next? Well, without trading off any of my prime tools for U/R control, I began hunting down black cards like Hero's Downfall and accompanying dual lands like Temple of Malice and Temple of Deceit, then some fetch lands. Next thing I knew I had access swap between U/R control, to B/R control or U/B control. Now I've been working on collecting some of the white cards I'd want for control decks. Now I am capable of assembling almost any standard control deck I could dream of and having 95% of the deck already in my collection. This relates back to one of the early things I said, stick with the type of deck you enjoy playing. If I woke up tomorrow and wanted to play G/R devotion, that wouldn't be happening unless I was willing to give up a lot of my control rares I worked hard to collect, for a deck that I might not want to keep playing (in fact, I know I wouldn't because I love control decks too much). That brings me to my last piece of advice, don't trade away any valuable rares that you might want to come back to in the future. While I'm not running Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker in my current deck, I'm not trading away either. If you have valuable cards that you might want to come back to and play in a future deck, do yourself a favor and don't trade them. In fact, if they're not in your FNM deck, leave that at home, so they're not even in your trade binder and you can't possibly be tempted to trade them.
Well, I hope this you were able to find something useful in this long rant of mine. Cheers.
The lands you're mentioning are not legal in Standard. Perhaps you thought this was the Modern section?
Derp! Saw the title and immediately thought eternal.
While the statements still hold true, if I could have gone back and done it all over again. I would never have bought into standard. You spend more initially, but you get SO much more longevity out of your deck(s) if you buy modern/legacy staples instead of standard cards. I play standard but it's mostly just brews or borrowed decks. My collection is vast now and some sage advice would be to put your money in solid, solid, solid cards. What are solid cards? Stuff like Thoughtseize, Vendilion Clique, Tarmogoyf, Fetches, Shocks etc... will always be played, no matter how many prints. Everyone needs land and I've found that by investing in a solid landbase, you can pretty much run any deck you want.
This upcoming MM15 release is going to be pure value for you since you don't already own the cards. You can crack boxes and trade anything you get more than 4 of. I wish someone had told me this before I bought into my standard decks.
"The set releases for fall 2015 (Blood, Sweat and Tears) and fall 2016 (Lock, Stock and Barrel). One or both of those 2 blocks (I'm betting) are going to contain either Fetch reprints or (more likely) Filter reprints. Filter lands still need a reprint. They are getting pretty high up there and it's been longer than ZEN so it makes a little more sense that Filter lands would see print earlier that fetches." - posted 03/22/2014 proved incorrect about filters coming earlier than fetches, still pending on filters in Origins block.