I am in a bit of an uncommon situation, I have some dual lands, but NONE of the real staples outside of that. When I look at budget legacy lists, most are budget because they dont run duals, yet they are still a few hunderd dollars. Since I have duals, I am hoping that there are some good T1.5 or T2 decks that are cheap outside of the lands.
Here are the duals I have for reference in helping me:
4x Savannah
3x Volcanic Island
3x Badlands
2x Bayou
2x Plateau
1x Tropical Island
1x Taiga
Also have 1 Wasteland, btw
I have over 4 of all KTK fetches, but 0 ZEN fetches, so keep ZEN fetches out of the lists please, I am trying to stay on a budget, that being said, use as many KTK fetches as you'd like.
I would love to hear your thoughts and lists, most budget lists are not helpful because of the situation im in, but maybe you know of a rouge T2 deck that needs the duals I have but is otherwise cheap.
If you suggest a list, please make it under $200 of the cards I dont have, if there are some crucial adds that make it more expensive, just put them in a separate deck list with a note that it exceeds the $200 mark and that this is what you sould build up to in the future, but please DO NOT go over $400 ( I dont want the "crucial" adds to be 4x FoW, 3x Wasteland 4x JTMS 4x Scalding Tarn )
Thanks for any help you may give, and have fun deck building with these constraints
I would probably select the deck you actually want to play and trading the unused duals for what you need to build the deck. You have the duals, that's the hard part.
Consider: Storm lists play 2x Underground Sea, 1-2x Volcanic Island, 1 Bayou, 0-1 Badlands, 4x Polluted Delta, 3x Bloodstained Mire. You could trade for two Seas, a set of LEDs, and the rest is cheap anyway. Look into ANT/TES, they align pretty closely with what you have, but really, if you're willing to trade, you could play just about anything without too much money.
This is the immediate deck that comes to mind because it's what I play. You have enough there to build/trade into Storm and still have leftovers.
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Legacy: TES
EDH: Grand Arbiter $tax, Freyalise Stompy, Mimeoplasm Death From the Grave
Im not trading away any duals, nor am I buying any more duals, outside of trading, I am looking for suggestions of what I could build that is still budget that can be vastly improved by my duals.
For example, a mono green elves deck seems to be a common budget deck. Given that I have fetches I could run 4x Windswept Heath, 4x Wooded Foothills, 2x Bayou, to splash for Deathrite Shaman.
Except elves needs Gaea's Cradle.
I mean, i guess you could play on a budget, but you have the resources to choose a deck and play the fully loaded version so im not sure why you wouldn't. 200 bucks is not a lot to work with, even if you have the right duals. Its not a huge deal since you'll wind up with some unused ones, but since you don't want to trade them....well, i guess you could play maverick or hatebears. Probably still want a Karakas or two for it. Or enchantress. But almost everything else is out of your budget and would require some more capitol.
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EDH: Grand Arbiter $tax, Freyalise Stompy, Mimeoplasm Death From the Grave
Honestly not as much as I thought. The problem is less expensive staples (brainstorm, swords to plowshares, etc) eat up tons of your budget. I think your best bet is not to build a budget deck but build a deck you actually like and fits your play style. It would be alot more fun than a pile of duals.
The big addon would be Force of will. This deck might want divert or misdirection in the place of spell pierce because abrupt decay really ruins your day. Its really close to the 200 dollar limit. The real issue is...it uses none of your duals. The glacial fortress give you a strong out against choke.
This deck is around 160. Almost all the value is in the inkmoths. Like both the other decks, Force of Will is really needed. Berzerk and noble hierarch would be long term goals.
This is similar to a deck I built. You could budget it even more by cutting white and running hymns. Its around 160 right now. The really nice thing is you could in about anything and it would probably be fine. Have an Ugin? Sure plug him in instead of Eslpeth. The Meme for Nic Fit is just go bigger than your opponent and whatever you choose within reason is fine. A baneslayer angel? Why not?
Decks I considered and rejected with quick notes:
Eldrazi--city of traitors, chalice of the void, and the nuts and bolts are around 120. Doesn't use any of your lands though.
Death and Taxes--wasteland, ports, karakas
Maverick--wasteland, equipment, stoneforge, kotr
merfolk--forces, folk
Rug--force, wasteland, best green creature ever printed
Jund--planswalkers, best green creature ever printed
Bant--Force of will, natural order
Reanimator--duals, force
Mud--city of traitors, metalworker, grim monolith, ugin, wurmcoil
Burn--Goblin guides, nuts and bolts
Lands---tabernacle
Bug--force, planeswalkers
Sneak Snow--Sneak, show, city of traitors
Elves--cradle, nuts and bolts
Belcher--led
storm--led
grixis--duals
painter--recruiter
enchantress--serra's sanctum? Maybe this one could work, but its so tier 2.
Honestly not as much as I thought. The problem is less expensive staples (brainstorm, swords to plowshares, etc) eat up tons of your budget. I think your best bet is not to build a budget deck but build a deck you actually like and fits your play style. It would be alot more fun than a pile of duals.
The big addon would be Force of will. This deck might want divert or misdirection in the place of spell pierce because abrupt decay really ruins your day. Its really close to the 200 dollar limit. The real issue is...it uses none of your duals. The glacial fortress give you a strong out against choke.
This deck is around 160. Almost all the value is in the inkmoths. Like both the other decks, Force of Will is really needed. Berzerk and noble hierarch would be long term goals.
This is similar to a deck I built. You could budget it even more by cutting white and running hymns. Its around 160 right now. The really nice thing is you could in about anything and it would probably be fine. Have an Ugin? Sure plug him in instead of Eslpeth. The Meme for Nic Fit is just go bigger than your opponent and whatever you choose within reason is fine. A baneslayer angel? Why not?
Decks I considered and rejected with quick notes:
Eldrazi--city of traitors, chalice of the void, and the nuts and bolts are around 120. Doesn't use any of your lands though.
Death and Taxes--wasteland, ports, karakas
Maverick--wasteland, equipment, stoneforge, kotr
merfolk--forces, folk
Rug--force, wasteland, best green creature ever printed
Jund--planswalkers, best green creature ever printed
Bant--Force of will, natural order
Reanimator--duals, force
Mud--city of traitors, metalworker, grim monolith, ugin, wurmcoil
Burn--Goblin guides, nuts and bolts
Lands---tabernacle
Bug--force, planeswalkers
Sneak Snow--Sneak, show, city of traitors
Elves--cradle, nuts and bolts
Belcher--led
storm--led
grixis--duals
painter--recruiter
enchantress--serra's sanctum? Maybe this one could work, but its so tier 2.
Thank you so much for this reply, I was afraid I was going to get all "just fork up cash and buy a full deck since you have some duals" responses, but your suggestions are very helpful.
I am really leaning towards building the delver deck, when looking at T1 delver decks, they are always extremely expensive even if I have the duals and fetches, so this is the exact kind of response I was looking for, something that utilizes what I have and budgets on what I dont have.
The Junk deck also catches my eye because I have the rhinos, elspeth, rec sage, painful truths, and dromoka from playing standard, so with that in mind it becomes pretty cheap and is essentially just the abzan mid-range I played so much of in THS/KTK standard
There's alot of room for choice in those shells too. You could probably try say Young Pyromancer in a similar delver shell too for example. That list in particular really shines because you are trying to burn your opponent out. That style of deck was super popular when treasure cruise is a thing.
I felt like I said just add 4 force of wills to alot of decks but if you play blue, you almost always play brainstorm and force, so without them duals aren't as strong. Force of Will is just the strongest card you can play against unfair decks in alot of situations--its just a great hedge card. Delver style decks land a threat and then protect it and disrupt the opponent for the win.
Source thread/ That thread is super active. Its a great way to learn about the many variations on the deck. You can also find alot of good threads on the legacy reddit.
Nic Fit is one of those solid tier 2 decks but it has alot of fans because the joke is you can play whatever you want and gets made of fun for being an EDH deck sometimes. I choose white because Siege Rhino is really cheap as cards go for how good it is. I use a phyrexian tower in my deck, but in an ideal set up, I'll Veteran Explorer on turn one, sac it to the tower, get 2 basics into play untapped, and then cast a turn 2 Rhino. More commonly though, I'll use Cabal Therapy and Veteran Explorer to put basics into play (most legacy decks run few if any) and ramp myself while disrupting the opponent. I'll also note, if you happen to have path to exile rather than swords to plowshares, they can be better since you are ramping all their basics into play anyway.
Pernicious Deed is your catch all against fair decks. Decks tend to play things with casting costs between 1-3, so its easy to kill them all. With Sun Titan, its hard lock until they draw their removal. You can wipe away their board with over and over again. Abrupt Decay is a nice catch all for something like counterbalance.
Like I was saying before, the idea is to go over the top. Legacy is inbred--most cards cost 3 or less, so using a 4, 5, or 6 drop that's decently pushed is too much for them.
Green Sun's Zenith lets you run 4 extra rhinos effectively. But it also lets you find deathrite shaman or scavenging oozes. Rec Sage basically is a fetchable board clear. If you run something like recurring nightmare or Meren of Clan Ne Toth then you can loop powerful cards in and out of play. I've beaten opponents with ensnaring bridges off rhino triggers. But name a powerful card in EDH, like say Eternal Witness and you can put that card in Nic Fit and work. Another example is Gaddock Teeg. He can shut some types of combo decks down.
I really like Sigarda, Host of Herons. She has hex proof (JTMS proof), is fetchable with GSZ and turns off LoTV sac effect. Against something like Miracles, they really need terminus or council's judgment or they lose to her. If they terminus here, then you can refetch her with GSZ.
Painful truths could just as easily be something like Sensei's Diving Top or Slyvan library. I liked it because it was essentially draw 3 for 3. So off a turn 1 deathrite, you could just overwhelm your opponent with sheer card advantage.
You can also use other colors rather than white. Red gives you grove of the burnwillows and punishing fire, that can keep boards clear and powerful cards like Slaughter Games to hose combo. Sometimes they'll build around scapeshift and use that to instant kill the opponent.
Furthermore, blue is really popular with pod decks. You just pick value creatures and pod your way up the chain. You can see decks build around "veteran walkers" too and use powerful bug color plainswalkers, though they tend to be pricey. These variants often use Baleful Strix and as you might have guessed, force of will. Force helps shore up the combo match up.
Finally, you could keep it simple and go black and green without a third color. This would give you powerful 2 double black cards like Hymn to Tourach. This is how I started. I used to run two grave tians. Whenever I got them on the table, they took over the game if my opponent could not win quickly without fail. I just struggled to find them sometimes since they weren't fetchable with GSZ. I played innocent blood instead of swords back then. It was amazing for its price tag, but its harder to suggest with just how good Siege Rhino is for the price today, especially since you have duals already.
Nic Fit is generally see as worse than something like Dark Maverick in the same colors. I really liked it because there are so many options of what to play, you can customize your deck for your metagame. I think because you can personalize what you are ramping into, its hard for your opponent to prepare or even understand what they might be facing. You'll do better with most fair match ups and worse against unfair ones like Storm, Belcher, or Reaninmator. Its worth noting, you need to understand your opponent's game plan alot with Nic Fit--so you know what to name with cabal therapy. I used to board in thoughtseizes when I was on the black/green plan to help against combo though Duress could work too.
There are decks like 12 post and mud that go bigger than we do, but they are vulnerable to non basic hate like wasteland and the various versions of agro loam/lands that sometimes will play a crucible of worlds and try to lock their opponent out of the game by constantly wastelanding. Instead, we have one of the most sturdy bases possible because of all the basics we run. Even if our duals get destroyed and our ramp plan is thwarted, we still can actually cast our threats.
As always, I would spend time reading that thread on the source, watch streams and youtube videos, and proxy and playtest before investing in any deck.
I am in a bit of an uncommon situation, I have some dual lands, but NONE of the real staples outside of that. When I look at budget legacy lists, most are budget because they dont run duals, yet they are still a few hunderd dollars. Since I have duals, I am hoping that there are some good T1.5 or T2 decks that are cheap outside of the lands.
Here are the duals I have for reference in helping me:
4x Savannah
3x Volcanic Island
3x Badlands
2x Bayou
2x Plateau
1x Tropical Island
1x Taiga
Also have 1 Wasteland, btw
I have over 4 of all KTK fetches, but 0 ZEN fetches, so keep ZEN fetches out of the lists please, I am trying to stay on a budget, that being said, use as many KTK fetches as you'd like.
I would love to hear your thoughts and lists, most budget lists are not helpful because of the situation im in, but maybe you know of a rouge T2 deck that needs the duals I have but is otherwise cheap.
If you suggest a list, please make it under $200 of the cards I dont have, if there are some crucial adds that make it more expensive, just put them in a separate deck list with a note that it exceeds the $200 mark and that this is what you sould build up to in the future, but please DO NOT go over $400 ( I dont want the "crucial" adds to be 4x FoW, 3x Wasteland 4x JTMS 4x Scalding Tarn )
Thanks for any help you may give, and have fun deck building with these constraints
Consider: Storm lists play 2x Underground Sea, 1-2x Volcanic Island, 1 Bayou, 0-1 Badlands, 4x Polluted Delta, 3x Bloodstained Mire. You could trade for two Seas, a set of LEDs, and the rest is cheap anyway. Look into ANT/TES, they align pretty closely with what you have, but really, if you're willing to trade, you could play just about anything without too much money.
This is the immediate deck that comes to mind because it's what I play. You have enough there to build/trade into Storm and still have leftovers.
EDH: Grand Arbiter $tax, Freyalise Stompy, Mimeoplasm Death From the Grave
For example, a mono green elves deck seems to be a common budget deck. Given that I have fetches I could run 4x Windswept Heath, 4x Wooded Foothills, 2x Bayou, to splash for Deathrite Shaman.
I mean, i guess you could play on a budget, but you have the resources to choose a deck and play the fully loaded version so im not sure why you wouldn't. 200 bucks is not a lot to work with, even if you have the right duals. Its not a huge deal since you'll wind up with some unused ones, but since you don't want to trade them....well, i guess you could play maverick or hatebears. Probably still want a Karakas or two for it. Or enchantress. But almost everything else is out of your budget and would require some more capitol.
EDH: Grand Arbiter $tax, Freyalise Stompy, Mimeoplasm Death From the Grave
Budget Miracles
2 Council's Judgment
4 Counterspell
2 Entreat the Angels
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Terminus
3 Counterbalance
3 Energy Field
2 Helm of Obedience
4 Rest in Peace
4 Sensei's Divining Top
4 spell pierce
4 flooded strand
4 polluted delta
5 islands
3 plains
The big addon would be Force of will. This deck might want divert or misdirection in the place of spell pierce because abrupt decay really ruins your day. Its really close to the 200 dollar limit. The real issue is...it uses none of your duals. The glacial fortress give you a strong out against choke.
U/R Delver
2 Grim Lavamancer
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Stormchaser Mage
4 Brainstorm
3 Chain Lightning
4 Daze
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Ponder
3 Price of Progress
4 spell pierce
3 volcanic island
4 flooded strand
1 bloodstained mire
2 island
2 mountain
Just like the last deck, this deck needs Force of Will. This deck is less than 100 dollars.
Infect
4 Brainstorm
1 Crop Rotation
4 Daze
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 spell pierce
4 Invigorate
4 Vines of Vastwood
4 Blighted Agent
4 Glistener Elf
4 stifle
4 Inkmoth Nexus
4 polluted delta
4 flooded strand
3 forest
4 island
This deck is around 160. Almost all the value is in the inkmoths. Like both the other decks, Force of Will is really needed. Berzerk and noble hierarch would be long term goals.
Nic Junk Fit
4 veteran explorer
4 siege rhino
4 green sun's zenith
3 pernicious deed
4 swords to plowshares
3 painful truths
1 scavenging ooze
2 deathrite shaman
1 sun titan
1 eternal witness
1 garruk relentless
1 elspeth, sun's champion
1 sigarda, host of herons
1 dragonlord dromoka
2 abrupt decay
1 reclamation sage
2 savannah
4 windswept hearth
4 woodedfoot hill
4 forest
4 swamp
2 plains
This is similar to a deck I built. You could budget it even more by cutting white and running hymns. Its around 160 right now. The really nice thing is you could in about anything and it would probably be fine. Have an Ugin? Sure plug him in instead of Eslpeth. The Meme for Nic Fit is just go bigger than your opponent and whatever you choose within reason is fine. A baneslayer angel? Why not?
Decks I considered and rejected with quick notes:
Eldrazi--city of traitors, chalice of the void, and the nuts and bolts are around 120. Doesn't use any of your lands though.
Death and Taxes--wasteland, ports, karakas
Maverick--wasteland, equipment, stoneforge, kotr
merfolk--forces, folk
Rug--force, wasteland, best green creature ever printed
Jund--planswalkers, best green creature ever printed
Bant--Force of will, natural order
Reanimator--duals, force
Mud--city of traitors, metalworker, grim monolith, ugin, wurmcoil
Burn--Goblin guides, nuts and bolts
Lands---tabernacle
Bug--force, planeswalkers
Sneak Snow--Sneak, show, city of traitors
Elves--cradle, nuts and bolts
Belcher--led
storm--led
grixis--duals
painter--recruiter
enchantress--serra's sanctum? Maybe this one could work, but its so tier 2.
Thank you so much for this reply, I was afraid I was going to get all "just fork up cash and buy a full deck since you have some duals" responses, but your suggestions are very helpful.
I am really leaning towards building the delver deck, when looking at T1 delver decks, they are always extremely expensive even if I have the duals and fetches, so this is the exact kind of response I was looking for, something that utilizes what I have and budgets on what I dont have.
The Junk deck also catches my eye because I have the rhinos, elspeth, rec sage, painful truths, and dromoka from playing standard, so with that in mind it becomes pretty cheap and is essentially just the abzan mid-range I played so much of in THS/KTK standard
I felt like I said just add 4 force of wills to alot of decks but if you play blue, you almost always play brainstorm and force, so without them duals aren't as strong. Force of Will is just the strongest card you can play against unfair decks in alot of situations--its just a great hedge card. Delver style decks land a threat and then protect it and disrupt the opponent for the win.
Source thread/ That thread is super active. Its a great way to learn about the many variations on the deck. You can also find alot of good threads on the legacy reddit.
Nic Fit is one of those solid tier 2 decks but it has alot of fans because the joke is you can play whatever you want and gets made of fun for being an EDH deck sometimes. I choose white because Siege Rhino is really cheap as cards go for how good it is. I use a phyrexian tower in my deck, but in an ideal set up, I'll Veteran Explorer on turn one, sac it to the tower, get 2 basics into play untapped, and then cast a turn 2 Rhino. More commonly though, I'll use Cabal Therapy and Veteran Explorer to put basics into play (most legacy decks run few if any) and ramp myself while disrupting the opponent. I'll also note, if you happen to have path to exile rather than swords to plowshares, they can be better since you are ramping all their basics into play anyway.
Pernicious Deed is your catch all against fair decks. Decks tend to play things with casting costs between 1-3, so its easy to kill them all. With Sun Titan, its hard lock until they draw their removal. You can wipe away their board with over and over again. Abrupt Decay is a nice catch all for something like counterbalance.
Like I was saying before, the idea is to go over the top. Legacy is inbred--most cards cost 3 or less, so using a 4, 5, or 6 drop that's decently pushed is too much for them.
Green Sun's Zenith lets you run 4 extra rhinos effectively. But it also lets you find deathrite shaman or scavenging oozes. Rec Sage basically is a fetchable board clear. If you run something like recurring nightmare or Meren of Clan Ne Toth then you can loop powerful cards in and out of play. I've beaten opponents with ensnaring bridges off rhino triggers. But name a powerful card in EDH, like say Eternal Witness and you can put that card in Nic Fit and work. Another example is Gaddock Teeg. He can shut some types of combo decks down.
I really like Sigarda, Host of Herons. She has hex proof (JTMS proof), is fetchable with GSZ and turns off LoTV sac effect. Against something like Miracles, they really need terminus or council's judgment or they lose to her. If they terminus here, then you can refetch her with GSZ.
Painful truths could just as easily be something like Sensei's Diving Top or Slyvan library. I liked it because it was essentially draw 3 for 3. So off a turn 1 deathrite, you could just overwhelm your opponent with sheer card advantage.
You can also use other colors rather than white. Red gives you grove of the burnwillows and punishing fire, that can keep boards clear and powerful cards like Slaughter Games to hose combo. Sometimes they'll build around scapeshift and use that to instant kill the opponent.
Furthermore, blue is really popular with pod decks. You just pick value creatures and pod your way up the chain. You can see decks build around "veteran walkers" too and use powerful bug color plainswalkers, though they tend to be pricey. These variants often use Baleful Strix and as you might have guessed, force of will. Force helps shore up the combo match up.
Finally, you could keep it simple and go black and green without a third color. This would give you powerful 2 double black cards like Hymn to Tourach. This is how I started. I used to run two grave tians. Whenever I got them on the table, they took over the game if my opponent could not win quickly without fail. I just struggled to find them sometimes since they weren't fetchable with GSZ. I played innocent blood instead of swords back then. It was amazing for its price tag, but its harder to suggest with just how good Siege Rhino is for the price today, especially since you have duals already.
Nic Fit is generally see as worse than something like Dark Maverick in the same colors. I really liked it because there are so many options of what to play, you can customize your deck for your metagame. I think because you can personalize what you are ramping into, its hard for your opponent to prepare or even understand what they might be facing. You'll do better with most fair match ups and worse against unfair ones like Storm, Belcher, or Reaninmator. Its worth noting, you need to understand your opponent's game plan alot with Nic Fit--so you know what to name with cabal therapy. I used to board in thoughtseizes when I was on the black/green plan to help against combo though Duress could work too.
There are decks like 12 post and mud that go bigger than we do, but they are vulnerable to non basic hate like wasteland and the various versions of agro loam/lands that sometimes will play a crucible of worlds and try to lock their opponent out of the game by constantly wastelanding. Instead, we have one of the most sturdy bases possible because of all the basics we run. Even if our duals get destroyed and our ramp plan is thwarted, we still can actually cast our threats.
As always, I would spend time reading that thread on the source, watch streams and youtube videos, and proxy and playtest before investing in any deck.