I'm a spike player at heart and I've been meaning to build a less degenerate deck for awhile, but not wanting to spend tons of money since that is funding my main deck. I have a compulsive need to play optimal or near optimal substitutes, so I'm trying to think of commanders I can build as optimally as possible that won't get out of control budgetwise and hopefully won't be as oppressive as my Derevi deck, but still be competitive in nature.
Norin the Wary is a consideration since I can see it being fairly budget friendly and the flicker theme seems to be fun. I'm a little concerned about mono-red's flexibility in a multiplayer format to overcome issues, but maybe a little money will go into artifact solutions.
The problem with Norin is that while he's a lot of fun, he relies very heavily on a few specific cards. Which makes him...fun, but vulnerable.
Instead, might I suggest Daretti, Scrap Savant? He can helm a variety of Red decks, most notably the obvious Mono-Red-Artifact-Shenanigans, but more importantly, he can give any deck extra stability through the use of his looting ability, which helps you in smoothing out your setup. I found that even just out of the box, his commander deck can hold its own against the lower tier built decks, and it doesn't take much to push him further.
If you don't mind investing just a bit more, I'd push myself into Izzet to go for a full-blown Artifact Combo list, using blue to tutor, smoothen out draws and a few other tricks. I personally have a relatively cheap Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius list that employs artifact combos as wincons, which goes off relatively reliably around turn 6/7. It's not degenerate, but definitely needs to be kept in check before randomly exploding.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
My Commander decks:
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
Karametra, God of Harvest is fairly decent (and has loads of available upgrades if your budget increases over time!). The general build is loads of 1-3 drops that give you "free" mana ramp when Karametra is out and then some utility/card draw and last part is the biggest fatties possible. Molimo, Maro-Sorcerer and the likes can be huge while still being fairly cheap, and can be upgraded with Avacyn, Angel of Hope and Avenger of Zendikar/Craterhoof Behemoth.
Kresh the Bloodbraided is a fun puzzle. He doesn't get degenerate as quickly as stuff like Prossh or Karrthus but definitely has a lot of ways to be optimized. Out of my 21 decks, Kresh is probably the one I fiddle with the most. Jund lends itself to a lot of flexibility, and if Derevi is your other commander branching out into Black and Red means the decks aren't really competing for power-card attention that much.
I think Alesha, Who Smiles at Death is really fun. I have her built and if I take out five or so cards, she would be under $100. You have a ton of utility creatures with etb effects that are commons and uncommons. Here's a few cards that are really good with her:
I would suggest finding one of the rarer mono-colored generals and designing around it. Most generals can be made at a reasonable casual-competitive balance within, say, a 2-to-4 hundred budget.
As was said above, any deck can be made into a budget deck. I have a Xira Arien deck that is just over $100, and like $15 is a Sorin Markov I had from way back. It really is not the commander, but what is in the deck, that makes it budget. Ramp, draw spells, and counterspells are all relatively cheap and very good (you do not need Force of Will in every deck, but Counterspell is a dollar). The easiest way to keep a deck cheap is to run basics: the more colors you choose to run the more ramp spells become necessary to supplement having duals.
As for suggestions, Ezuri, Renegade Leader practically builds itself, and if you have been playing Magic for any decent amount of time you have elves for it.
What for you is budget/cheap? For some people $100 is super cheap, but for others it can be far too much of an investment.
Budget is about $100-200. I'm really aiming for a "75%" deck. Strong, but not degenerate and I'm just trying to get a handle on what the least expensive routes are to achieve that. I think blue and black are the most expensive, but blue seems to do well with poor man stand ins that operate effectively...black on the other hand doesn't. I'm a bit weary on mono colors since the lack of flexibility in matchups worries me.
I'm building this mainly as a fallback deck for casual play since my Derevi is super competitive and is the only deck I own. I just want something a few notches down in power, but still something to respect. The budget concern is mainly because this is a fun deck and I'd rather put money into the 4 missing cards in Derevi that are very expensive.
Alesha definitely looks fun. I also really like Deretti...but he's kinda overplayed in the casual meta here...and damnit i want to be a unique butterfly.
I would go the enchantress route. Easily doable at under 200 I know that is not specifically a commander but more of a theme. Edric ends up being mostly cheap 1 drops but then you are not really being a unique butterfly. I have seen some Animar decks that are competitive and in the price range you are talking about as well.
I do like me some Animar. I just don't trust myself with GU...The urge to play cards I abuse from Derevi are too strong. Edric might be different though since you can build him more token/aggro than infinite creatures and permissions locks.
Budget is about $100-200. I'm really aiming for a "75%" deck. Strong, but not degenerate and I'm just trying to get a handle on what the least expensive routes are to achieve that. I think blue and black are the most expensive, but blue seems to do well with poor man stand ins that operate effectively...black on the other hand doesn't. I'm a bit weary on mono colors since the lack of flexibility in matchups worries me.
I'm building this mainly as a fallback deck for casual play since my Derevi is super competitive and is the only deck I own. I just want something a few notches down in power, but still something to respect. The budget concern is mainly because this is a fun deck and I'd rather put money into the 4 missing cards in Derevi that are very expensive.
Alesha definitely looks fun. I also really like Deretti...but he's kinda overplayed in the casual meta here...and damnit i want to be a unique butterfly.
If you like the idea of Daretti, then why not play Izzet Artiface Shenanigans with Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius at the helm? You don't need many expensive artifacts, Niv himself acts as a way to make use of infinite mana (Which you can get from Grand Architect + Pili-Pala, for example), and it's in general a blast to play. There's a lot of cheap artifact support that happens to work great, in a big part thanks to the new precon.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
My Commander decks:
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
For superbudget I'd check out the Budget series on GatheringMagic, it has several decks for ~$35. As for 75% decks, just check out Jasons series on GatheringMagic, I'll bet several of those are around $1-200. I've built an even more budget version of the Nath-deck there, and it's quite fun (elfball with some stax).
Budget commanders I'd reccommend / want to make decks of myself would be Ruric Thar, the Unbowed, Wrexial, the Risen Deep (my girlfriend and I are actually making an EDH out of him at present.....Ruric Thar is hilarious against control decks. I've been wanting to do a deck with him for a while now.
Not sure if it's competitive but it'll definitely be fun to play.
Have you considered Gaddock Teeg? The guy has a lot of potential, shuts down a lot of top tier decks and is relatively cheap to build around. He's next on my list after i finish building Riku, of Two Reflections and playtesting Ruric.
Ruric and Lazav are definite considerations. I worry about black and blue cost though, it's hard not to run those two without thinking of the optimal expensive cards (though i do have most of the blue cards in my derevi deck i can borrow). Ruric seems good since he still lets people play, but at a price.
Gaddock Teeg on the other hand is a deck I would build purely to win, just like with Derevi. He's simply too oppressive for what I'm looking for in a fun alternative deck (I already run him in Derevi and often tutor him out).
Mayael the Anime Waifu can be built relatively inexpensively if you get a decent amount of inexpensive fat creatures and cheap ramp. It can easily creep up in price if you want to add more expensive fat cards like Craterhoof Behemoth or Primeval Titan.
Get some old uncommon eldrazi, inexpensive fat and cheap land ramp, and you can be golden because even crappy fatties can be terrifying if you drop them suddenly from your library.
I'm a huge fan of Yisan, The Wanderer Bard. My regular, optimized build is about $800 but almost all of that is in special lands and fast artifact mana. I made a budget build that got it down to about $95, and it still works really, really well. He is a lot fun, quite fast, but rarely feels "unfair".
I can second Toshiro. Like most monoblack you want Coffers and Urborg, which have recently gone up in price a bit, but the rest of the deck can be put together fairly cheap and still remain effective.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Opal-eye, Konda's Yojimbo ~ Rayne, Academy Chancellor ~ Toshiro Umezawa ~ Jaya Ballard, Task Mage ~ Yeva, Nature's Herald
Teysa, Orzhov Scion ~ Tajic, Blade of the Legion ~ Selvala, Explorer Returned ~ Savra, Queen of the Golgari
Marchesa, the Black Rose ~ Sydri, Galvanic Genius ~ Alesha, Who Smiles at Death ~ Riku of Two Reflections ~ Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
Norin the Wary is a consideration since I can see it being fairly budget friendly and the flicker theme seems to be fun. I'm a little concerned about mono-red's flexibility in a multiplayer format to overcome issues, but maybe a little money will go into artifact solutions.
Instead, might I suggest Daretti, Scrap Savant? He can helm a variety of Red decks, most notably the obvious Mono-Red-Artifact-Shenanigans, but more importantly, he can give any deck extra stability through the use of his looting ability, which helps you in smoothing out your setup. I found that even just out of the box, his commander deck can hold its own against the lower tier built decks, and it doesn't take much to push him further.
If you don't mind investing just a bit more, I'd push myself into Izzet to go for a full-blown Artifact Combo list, using blue to tutor, smoothen out draws and a few other tricks. I personally have a relatively cheap Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius list that employs artifact combos as wincons, which goes off relatively reliably around turn 6/7. It's not degenerate, but definitely needs to be kept in check before randomly exploding.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
And many more
Bruna, Light of Alabaster
Tasigur, the Golden Fang
Alesha, Who Smiles at Death
Yasova Dragonclaw
As for suggestions, Ezuri, Renegade Leader practically builds itself, and if you have been playing Magic for any decent amount of time you have elves for it.
What for you is budget/cheap? For some people $100 is super cheap, but for others it can be far too much of an investment.
I'm building this mainly as a fallback deck for casual play since my Derevi is super competitive and is the only deck I own. I just want something a few notches down in power, but still something to respect. The budget concern is mainly because this is a fun deck and I'd rather put money into the 4 missing cards in Derevi that are very expensive.
Alesha definitely looks fun. I also really like Deretti...but he's kinda overplayed in the casual meta here...and damnit i want to be a unique butterfly.
Ruric Thar is hilarious against control decks. I've been wanting to do a deck with him for a while now.
Excellent point
BMickey and the Zombies
WThings That Fly With Spears
G
Did You Just Main Phase an Ambush Viper?BGCulling Dais Lolziness a la 1-2 drop Cube
Standard
WBGAbzan Outlast
EDH
WUBRG Sliver Overlord
WGRhys the Redeemed and Those not quite
UBWrexial, the Risen Deep (work in progress)
BBalthor the Defiled (work in progress)
Balthor is ******* hilarious, I forgot about him.
What better card is there than the ONLY Zombie Dwarf Legend in the game?? Take THAT, Ugin!
BMickey and the Zombies
WThings That Fly With Spears
G
Did You Just Main Phase an Ambush Viper?BGCulling Dais Lolziness a la 1-2 drop Cube
Standard
WBGAbzan Outlast
EDH
WUBRG Sliver Overlord
WGRhys the Redeemed and Those not quite
UBWrexial, the Risen Deep (work in progress)
BBalthor the Defiled (work in progress)
If you like the idea of Daretti, then why not play Izzet Artiface Shenanigans with Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius at the helm? You don't need many expensive artifacts, Niv himself acts as a way to make use of infinite mana (Which you can get from Grand Architect + Pili-Pala, for example), and it's in general a blast to play. There's a lot of cheap artifact support that happens to work great, in a big part thanks to the new precon.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
GBU Sidisis Vegetarian Zombies. Tutorless reanimation GBU
GB75% Nath of the Gilt-Leaf. My GFs elf tribal deck.GB
Comments, advice and feedback always appreciated.
Ruric and Lazav are definite considerations. I worry about black and blue cost though, it's hard not to run those two without thinking of the optimal expensive cards (though i do have most of the blue cards in my derevi deck i can borrow). Ruric seems good since he still lets people play, but at a price.
Gaddock Teeg on the other hand is a deck I would build purely to win, just like with Derevi. He's simply too oppressive for what I'm looking for in a fun alternative deck (I already run him in Derevi and often tutor him out).
or mistform ultimus everything tribal-related voltron (its surprisingly good: elephant graveyard, swarmyard, master of the pearl trident, master of waves and lord of the unreal makes your general pretty freaking good)?
or maybe edric, spymaster of trest weenies?
Legacy - Solidarity - mono U aggro - burn - Imperial Painter - Strawberry Shortcake - Bluuzards - bom
Get some old uncommon eldrazi, inexpensive fat and cheap land ramp, and you can be golden because even crappy fatties can be terrifying if you drop them suddenly from your library.
WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftain
B Toshiro Umezawa
BG Pharika, God of Affliction - Necromancy and Politics
WWW The Church of Heliod
WBR Zurgo, Helmsmasher
RG Wort, the Raidmother
UBR Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge
UG Vorel of the Hull Clade
I'm a huge fan of Yisan, The Wanderer Bard. My regular, optimized build is about $800 but almost all of that is in special lands and fast artifact mana. I made a budget build that got it down to about $95, and it still works really, really well. He is a lot fun, quite fast, but rarely feels "unfair".
UTeferi, Temporal ArchmageU's prison: blue is the new orange is the new black.
Mizzix Of The Izmagnus : wheels on fire... rolling down the road...
BSidisi, Undead VizierB: Bis zum Erbrechen
GTitiania, Protector Of ArgothG: Protecting Argoth, by blowing it up!
GYisan, The Wanderer BardG: Gradus Ad Elfball.
Duel EDH: Yisan & Titania.
In Progress: Grand Arbiter Augustin IV duel; Grenzo, Dungeon Warden Doomsday.
Teysa, Orzhov Scion ~ Tajic, Blade of the Legion ~ Selvala, Explorer Returned ~ Savra, Queen of the Golgari
Marchesa, the Black Rose ~ Sydri, Galvanic Genius ~ Alesha, Who Smiles at Death ~ Riku of Two Reflections ~ Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
Here's a budget list!
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/mikaeus-extreme-sub-20-budget-edh/