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.
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.
You can also play a single Darksteel Citadel to be fetched with Mage, which conveniently gives you a way to convert your Ghost Quarters into Plains (GQing a Citadel sends GQ to the graveyard as Citadel is indestructible). Might be a cutie feature (also at odds with sb Stony Silence), but if you want to experiment with Trinket Mage you can consider this one. Old Eggs tech.
The cards I was lacking finally arrived in the mail. So my major changes were to run trinket mages instead of pilgrim's eye and a few artifacts to fetch main board, including a darksteel citadel.
In my first test game that went long, I had an unexpected interaction. I had used a trinket mage to find Darksteel Citadel early in the game. I had seven lands in play, an Emeria Shepherd, but my only land in hand was a ghost quarter. I played the Shepherd, then used the it to get back a card from my graveyard. Then used Ghost Quarter on the Darksteel Citadel and found a plains, which brought back another card. It was a pretty great interaction. Later in the game, I used Sun Titan to bring back Quarter, which again let me get two Emeria Shepherd triggers. Its probably win more, but I was still pretty happy with it.
I've been thinking about suppression field. I'd probably cut Venser if I played it and would have to rethink some other cards (Mortarpod, Aetherspell bomb), but it just seems like such a powerful card. I mean it basically wins against Twin and makes the new age podless decks clunky and makes every deck using fetches slower. The vast majority of our deck isn't affected by it at all.
We used to see Energy Field with rest in peace and helm of obedience. The idea is you could take no damage or mill them out with how helm is worded. Rest in Peace isn't bad on the surface either--it can beat graveyard based decks like reanimator or dredge by itself unless they have an out like abrupt decay. Enlightened Tutor brought the whole package together since it could find either half of either combo. The deck hasn't seen any real play in 3 years though.
That being said, I think there's too many cannot be countered cards to make old school control effective. Cavern of Souls, Abrupt Decay, and the like make it really hard to deal with all the threats thrown at you. If something like a first turn Delver resolves, your deck kinda folds to it. I mean, he's got some number of dazes and forces to fight against your dazes and forces when you try to repeal, EE or use cursed scroll (scroll seems even worse in that you might struggle emptying your hand out). Likewise, say a 4 color delver deck also is packing deathrites, that can slowly tap clock you out, since you aren't winning fast either.
You might crush people with back to basics sometimes though. There's some mono blue tempos lists that sometimes will storm a tournament that do alright, but they aren't pure control lists like you want to build. Most of the control lists used to use Vedalken Shackles.
I talked to another guy about building this deck as a competitive deck on a shoe string budget. But I am going to suggest combo is what you want. Combo is usually the cheapest route into legacy in general because most of the cards are relatively cheap and legacy has some really powerful cards that have been printed to death. The 20 dollar limit requires us to know what pricing standards you can use--so we can check your deck against them. TCGplayer low at 20 percent is alot more powerful card than say Star City Games. That aside, I think mono color black combo is what we want.
So first, what does this deck try to do? It is basically reanimator deck, that's much slower than the full powered version, but wins instantly when it does combo out. The basic combo is to cast buried alive or dimir machinations to find buried alive. This lets us put three creatures in our graveyard. So we put in Ooze, Phyrexian Devourer, and Triskelion. We then cast animate dead or exhume on Ooze.
He gains the following to powers from our creatures. We need to look up the oracle text on Phyexian Devoeurer.
Exile the top card of your library: Put X +1/+1 counters on Phyrexian Devourer, where X is the exiled card's converted mana cost.
Remove a +1/+1 counter from Triskelion: Triskelion deals 1 damage to target creature or player.
So now you can flip your whole deck and ping your opponent to death at instant speed. Even if they had a removal spell, you basically keep putting damage on the stack. So the only real problem is counter spells--and that's why you pack 8 disruption spells. Something like a leyline can be an issue but they can't actually afford it easily on your price plan. And of course, you can just attack them with a gigantic ooze without removing the counters.
So in an ideal game:
First turn: Swamp, Dark Ritual, Buried alive.
Second Turn: Animate or Exhume. Win.
But a realistic game might go.
Turn 1, swamp, duress.
Turn 2, Swamp, distress.
Turn 3, swamp, buried alive. (Note, if you have a dark ritual, you win here.)
Turn 4 Animate/Exhume, win.
If you have to use dimir machinations to find buried alive, it delays you a turn, but it still pretty reasonable.
Effectively, you run 8 animate effects and 4 buried alive, but also 4 tutors for buried alive with dimir machinations. We run two copies of our creatures in case we draw one. Distress can be used on ourselves to get one into the graveyard, if we get really unlucky and draw both but in my testing that almost never happened.
In the long term, you grab a single necromancy because dimir machinations can tutor for it. Beseech the Queen is basically a tutor for either half the piece, increasing your tutor count for either half by 4...though its a pricey card for a 20 dollar budget and will have to wait until you get more money. Shred Memory can help lower your price a bit, if its too high, since it can sub for an animate or exhume--like I said in the beginning, its tough to price a deck out with money when different sites use different amounts and prices move up and down so much.
Ultimate price is just a filler kill spell that can by you some time to cast your other combo pieces and can stand in for Beseech until you get the budget or if you want to slowly build into another deck. Monocolor isn't a big deal when most people aren't going to be using two colors anyway. The other way to go with it, was sign in blood. It gave you the power to draw more raw cards, which isn't the worst way to spend your turn by any means.
Finally, you might promote people to use graveyard hate if you do too well (tormod's crypt or relic of prog). Something like pithing needle lets you shut them down. Higher price cards like Rest in Peace or Graf's Cage will probably never see play because of price limits for a sideboard card.
The main advantage this deck has over a pauper list is you can play with rares that aren't worth much like Ooze, Trisk, and Devourer.
Without knowing your metagame, is tough to say, how we'll you do. If a guy is like 24 counter spells, you'll have a tough time even with 8 discard spells. But against any "fair" deck, they probably won't be able to clock you fast enough.
If you are interested, I used to play a monogreen overrun deck that usually could win by turn 5 and I could probably dig up a deck list. It wouldn't be a deck I'd normally suggest for legacy (ie it can't interact with taxes, countermagic, or discard to stop real combo decks), but it might be overwhelming for budget decks. (The idea was to drop stuff from the original Zen block, like Nest Invader that made tokens and ramp up with elves and such. Then on turn 5, overrun/overwhelming stampede and hit for lethal. It was incredibly consistent.
I mostly play legacy, so forgive my lack of knowledge about the modern format in general, but this deck has caught my interest. I was looking at pilgrim's eye that some decks have been running. I am curious about maybe subbing it out for Trinket Mage. Trinket Mage can fetch Darksteel Citadel which while colorless is still a land. This is the biggest hurtle because we want plains on the field so fetching a colorless land slows that goal.
The added benefits are we can build a toolbox of cards to find with Trinket Mage for the main and side board for situations when making our land drops aren't our biggest concern.
The first card that springs to mind is actually already in the deck, Aether Spellbomb. If its good enough to play already, then its a pretty good to be able to find it. Instead of running 2, maybe having one "on demand" would free up deck space.
Instead of Ratchet Bomb, maybe Engineered Explosives as it could be found when needed.
Likewise, if we play esper, we can play fetchable removal with Executioner's Capsule This could replace something like seal of doom that I've seen floating on a list or two. The double black might make it not good enough though, but at least we wouldn't be casting it on curve as much.
I've noticed most decks want to pack some enchantment or artifact removal in their sideboard, so a fetchable one would be Dispeller's Capsule. Seems like a great way to stop Rest in Peace or similar graveyard hate.
More questionable would be artifact discard such as Necrogen Spellbomb or Scroll of Griselbrand. These could be activated during the opponent's draw phase and reoccurred with the Titan late in the game. They might be win more, but I could see an opponent being locked out of playing anything but instants or cards with flash, if they are hellbent.
Pithing Needle is an answer to problematic things like planeswalkers like LotV. This also is another answer to scavenging ooze's annoying ability. In pinch it could be used to stop enemy ghost quarters to protect Emeria.
Maybe we could equip our weaker creatures with Leonin Bola—it could hold off a Wurmcoil engine from Tron or other scary guys like Etched Champions.
If we wanted a threat, we could use the powerhouse at least in standard, Hangarback Walker. Our end game seems really strong without him though.
I really don't know if the tool box is worth sometimes being stuck with a colorless land rather than a plains, but I thought I'd mention Trinket mage. I also pondered Gift of Estates. Its a mana cheaper and could get us potentially 3 plans early on. The draw back is if we get ahead on land, it really doesn't do anything. Maybe Knight of the White Orcid would be better than gift since it relevant effects outside of ramp.
Basically, learning one deck inside and out is really powerful advantage that can't be duplicated easily. It is also a format thing though. You need to know what to play around and if you run a card like cabal therapy, you have to know what your opponent's gameplan is and what is the critical linchpin. Its not about knowing the top 8 or whatever, legacy is so diverse anything literally could show up from enchantress to storm to tezzerator to reanimator.
I am really fond of back to basics in a dual color deck. If you can drop it fast enough, you can sometimes turn your enemies deck into lotus petals. It does require some concessions...you want to avoid double mana costs and run more basics. I most often saw it in monoblue tempo decks. It feels like a bloodmoon type effect...but they don't even get colorless.
If you want to go the miracles route, then I'd at least run entreat the angels. It just got reprinted in the new FTV so its price is pretty much at rock bottom. I'd probably cut the fastlands regardless in the miracle shell. If you have enlightened tutor you could think about a main deck rest in peace and energy field. The tutors open up the option of helm of obedience. With how the card is worded, with RIP in play, it mills their entire deck because you mill until X cards go into their graveyard. It means you are attacking through 3 very different angles...you can spawn angels at the end of their turn, you can beatdown with stoneforge, or you can threaten to combo out and win. It helps make up for not having Jace, though, Jace being what he is, its hard playing without him. Also having main deck rest in peace really can mess with some graveyard decks and energy field can flat out defeat some agro decks by itself. Enlightened Tutor also finds your counterbalance lock. I'd look at Misdirection as an answer to abrupt decay as well. Its not as good as force but it can do some work for you. If you do play tutors, detention sphere is amazing silver bullet (especially against empty the warrens) as is pithing needle.
I still really like true-name nemesis. He's just too good at carrying equipment through flooded boards to get jitte counters or sword triggers. I'd be afraid of a geist walking into a snapcaster.
I'd use deathrite shaman over birds of paradise in Maverick...even if you don't slip in a black mana source to fetch up. Even without any other black cards in there, you can threaten abrupt decay by leaving the appropriate mana open. He gives you game against graveyard tactics and lifegain is never bad, as is extra defense point and the ability to attack. Once fetchlands are exhausted as resource, you probably don't need his mana power anyway. I'd drop knight of reliquary without a land package to back him up. Mirran Crusader seems to be better at carrying equipment and if you are afraid of bolt, countermagic, or discard, I'd go Loxodon Smiter. I'd replace the squadron hawks with something like scavenging ooze--one copy is enough to tutor for. Maybe Eternal Witness or other value or hate bearers depending on your meta. Sylvan library is another power house for maverick as a singleton because against combo that doesn't care about your life, you can draw extra cards.
I was looking at Spooky's budget thread again and I realized you could try to build more heavily around the stoneforge effect. He calls the deck a tribe called quest.
It is like affinity meets stoneforge mystic. The real powerhouse play a turn 1 holy quest into a turn 2 or 3--argentum armor. Being able to vindicate one of their threats each turn is pretty amazing or a land. You have almost no stack interaction, but such is the way of monowhite. It definitely a rogue deck and by no means as strong as say building towards miracles but it might do well locally depending on your metagame.
I think you could make Deadguy without Dark Confidant, but if you don't want to, then let's not worry about that option. I was going to suggest along with your discard, you could use a graveyard removal effect like surgical extraction to fight against a combo deck better. (Take away Show and Tell from Omnitell and the deck is just a pile of cantrips.)
Basically stoneforge mystic will bring white into anything besides red. (Incidentally, the only red/white deck I've seen in legacy was Goblins splashing white for Thalia.)
If you mean just green, you move into Maverick's territory. Maverick is the other deck that often uses mother of runes besides Death and Taxes.
Maverick relies on Green Sun's Zenith to have a toolbox of creatures. Knight of the Reliquary is its usually big attacker. Knight can also fetch lands, so they rely more on wasteland and karakas for fun tricks. Sometimes they even run the dark depths/thespian's sage combo to get a 20/20 indestructible. Its key element besides GSZ is Thalia. Without her, you are on the road to being Junk more. There's some cards like the aforementioned Deathite shaman and his constant companion abrupt decay as well as discard. Maverick does really well to beat delver and can fight some combo decks though those aren't easy battles. It struggles with Miracles. So right now the meta in general is unfavorable to Maverick. But if you like that deck, you can certainly work on it. Most pros say that if you know a deck inside and out, you'll do better than playing the best deck for the meta. Heck, my first deck was Nic Fit complete with stoneforge mystics--I basically chose it because I could run basics profitability. I ran shocks and never lost a game because of them, though the deck is packed random life gain with scavening ooze, deathrites, and seige rhinos (previously thragtusk).
Now if you meant, White, Blue, and Green....that deck is of course Bant hexproof. Its an interesting deck that tends to go more midrange and play bigger threats...sometimes even having Natural Order and Progentinus as an out. I don't think that's what you want though because it really relies on its forces of will more than most and those are hard to replace for any blue deck. Blue is the most expensive color in magic...blue duals are often times double the cost of other combinations, with the exception of maybe Bayous.
As for Delver, you could drop the three treasure cruises (again banned) and the sword of light and shadow. Generally, you want to stick to 3 pieces of equipment...many decks just run a jitte and batterskull. Delver definitely is an aggressively creature. He's just very powerful when you are running alot of spells...with your cantrips he's a 3/2 flying for 1 often times. Think of a turn delver into a turn 2 mystic, into a turn 3 batterskull. In an ideal world, he'll do 6 damage before the batterskull even comes online. Add in a bit of damage from fetches or stuff like thoughtseize, and your opponent might be sweating. If the batterskull and delver connect again (for 7), that's 13 damage....you opponent might only have a turn to live. It makes something like true name so scary because it doesn't take much to push them over the edge hence why lightning bolt is often splashed for. Granted, its unlikely they won't have any interaction, but it gives you an idea of how fast the deck can be. Delver is a bit of beast because he's blue and efficient. It seems like most colors have great creatures now, so often times its what type of removal do you want? Like I love Abrupt Decay so I tend to go with those colors. It is just really satisfying to break a miracle lock or kill something without being dazed.
I think he's better than Mother of Runes in a way because Mother suffers the problem of most x/1's...they are very frail. With Grixis Young Pryomancer running amok, we are seeing alot more -1/-1 effects being put in side boards like we did during the era of True-name Nemesis and poor Mother is caught in the cross fire. Its not that she's bad, but she's not for every deck for sure either.
I'd actually consider running more basics with a pure blue/white set up. Miracles gets away with running fewer since its only 2 colors. The real power in doing is you can punish people with more money than you--running back to basics I'd consider the old counter stand by of counterspell over mana leak.
Treasure Cruise is banned in legacy.
I'd really cut the geists for true-name nemesis. The nemesis just is a great equipment carrying guy. I'd probably cut feast and famine though since 4 equipment is probably one too many. Its a bit different style of deck but maybe you could even run out delver. You have alot of spells to flip him.
The other option is to try to go dead guy ale--that is black/white. The big advantage is you really don't have to play nearly as budget--scrubland is alot more budget than any blue dual land. Instead of forces of will, you can use thoughtseize, iok, duress, cabal therapy, and hymn to tourach. You get powerful cards like lingering souls. Gurmag Angler does work in grixis and could definitely be an option for you or you could run Dark Confidant if you keep you curve lower. Deathrite shaman even without green is worth considering--he ramps and empties out GY's. If you do splash green (maybe a single overgrown tomb or something) you can use it to nail GY decks.
That's the competitive deck that functions on this premise--use discard to hammer them and then drop an undercosted thread. Abyssal Persecutor for example is a huge threat for the mana. Gatekeeper of Malakir lets you get a 2/2 and kills a creature. Innocent Blood solves the problem of Persecutor and lets you remove creatures with shroud and such. The idea is to out attrition your enemy and play no dead cards yourself.
Classically the Gate can storm a small tournament but if you are playing in a really large one is falters to its own inconsistency as do most decks without Brainstorm/Ponder/Tops or some combination of card search like Sylvan Library. When I dabbled in it, I generally was frustrated when I ran into a hard lock like Energy Field/Rest in Piece, Ensnaring Bridge, or Solitary Confinement. The only real out is to splash green for ABrupt Decay--well the best out I found at least, maybe not the only. I sometimes struggled with really fast combo decks like a strong draw from reanimator. The worst situation was something like Entomb/Careful Study and then a lotus petal and reanimate. Once they drew 7 cards of Griselbrand I was usually sunk because they'd have too much countermagic to protect him. The slower combo decks tended to be easier, especially when I was packing thoughtseize. I could disrupt their key cards and give my guys time to finish the game out.
Lightning storm would give you back instant victory, but it would require alot of guides (and sufficient lands) in the deck to make it happen. Winning in response to your opponent doing something might help you bait them into casting enough spells to make mindbreak trap useful.
As the poster above me suggested, this is a modern deck--I was actually unaware. looked a bit at those threads. Their win condition involves Simian apirit guides and lightning storm. The guides are uncounterable mana and the first you draw can be used to help power out your combo a bit faster. The interesting difference than using Spooky's sickening dreams is lightning storm is an instant So you can win in response to your opponent tapping out or trying to resolve a disruptive element like discard or a prison effect--sorta like a quasi Solidarity deck. It also means you can spend maximize the time sculpting your hand before going for it at the last second.
The thread also had some advice that was interesting. I saw a Nic Fit deck blow someone out by flashing in Notion Thief in response to brainstorm (drew 3, opponent lost 2 cards). This would be a far from common problem but since AN puts cards in your hand rather than draws them, such a thing wouldn't work against it.
I don't think it is an optimal deck by any means, but I think you could probably storm a local tournament with it. I mean after all, a guy did really well with splinter twin in a miracle shell during eternal weekend and that's just a really vulnerable combo to being two-for oned. (Admittedly, infinite damage is nice but generally entreat or jace gets the job done). The deck takes 6 mana to work but its not without its merits. You win on the stack, grave yard hate doesn't really hurt you at all (especially if you sack the cabal rituals for simains). Playing around Thalia is easier than it is say for something like storm and trinsphere is a two mana set back instead of back breaking. There's nothing in play for them to interact with at all--every removal spell is dead against you. Even Angel's Grace is acceptable in multiples against an agro deck because it acts like a poor man's fog. The hardest thing is the mana base and we can't really afford to run basics without investing alot more money in fetches and duals (and it would mess with lightning storm too).
Patrician's Scorn is interesting tech the author suggests. It hates out Leyline of Sanctity. Maybe a sideboard card?
I thought about something like using simian or elvish guides to get Manamorphose x2 (would have to not draw the entire deck to avoid losing to the cards) for two black and a blue, then a quicken and an tendrils of agony. Maybe chain some rituals along the way to build up storm. Realistically, it is too many dead cards to ever work though.
I think you need more lock pieces, chalice of the void comes to mind. You want to reliably have one each game. Maybe ancient tombs to power it out. A turn one chalice at 1, can shot down as much as a 1/3 of some decks plays. Blanking that many cards is pretty amazing. This takes us down the path towards an established deck.
The deck you probably want to look at it Mud though. Its not budget and not much transfers over to other decks, but it is a deck designed to play trinisphere/chalice/lodestone golem and then power out really powerful artifact guys (wurmncoil engine and such) and can combo into blightsteel colossus for a combo finish if needed. (You can power out a win sometimes at fast as turn 2 or 3. In other cases, you can disrupt them pretty well too on the first or second turn.)
The problem with land destruction that isn't wasteland in legacy tends to be it is too slow to be effective consistently. A deck like say Delver, only runs 16-18 lands to begin with. It is perfectly happy dropping a turn 1 delver, and then daze/force of will any relevant plays and Grixis will surely play some discard as well. Deathrite shaman is equally a problem. On the flip side, a deck like reanimator can drop a big guy on turn 1 or 2--a first turn griselbrand will bury you in card advantage.
If you check out Spooky's thread, he's got a deck that uses wildfire and destructive force, basically like modern eminent domain.
Burning Wish really isn't a budget any card more but most of the list is pretty decent still. The biggest difference between say wildfire and stone rain is for the extra mana you get to sweep the board. So the idea is get a lock into place (you run 7), then sweep their creatures and lands, and then drop something like inferno titan to finish. Titan's bolt power keeps any creatures from racing you.
We can budget more of the deck. More signets and less stuff like coalition relic. Maybe less sundering titans and other cheaper finishers with more impact. I think chalices against help immensely. Basically his list is a stronger starting point. The best thing is you aren't trading one stone rain for one land, but instead clearing 4 lands and some number of creatures for one spell.
If we were to budgetize it further, we'd get something like:
The key buys are Ancient Tombs, Trinisphere, and Chalice of the Void. The nice thing is they go into mud or any other stompy style deck seamlessly.
The other cards are all under a dollar...most are basically bulk. We avoid the cards like thrano, glided, and coalition that see alot of EDH and have 5 dollar price tags because of it.
If you have something playable like say a wurmcoil engine or a Sark, Dragonspeaker, you could easily replace the finishers.
I should also note that maybe Lodestone golem is better than Scuttling doom engine because he's a disruptive element too. You could make an argument for steelhell kite as well. All are well under a dollar. Once those new hedron mana rocks come out, maybe you could use those in place of something as well.
Thanks for replying and giving advice
I looked as some cheerios lists the main problem is four copies of Glimpse of Nature is worth about as much as the entire Ad Nauseum deck which would make it hard to stay under $100
Legacy is a super expensive format. when the blue duals cost 200 or so each, budget can mean alot to different people.
The most obvious way to keep the price down is to remove the cunning wish board and add more nasuem and angel's grace. If you don't own the pacts of negation, then drop those since they are 20 each. You drop ancient tombs and just put more painlands in your deck or whatever to make the mana work. Silence is another card you could up or some other type of cantrip.
Basically, you spend 5 mana for your two combo cards and then win the game instantly. The best part is if you are desperate, you fire of AN by itself and try to dig for a petal+angel's grace. The solitary foil is if they wait to try to counter sickening dreams, you can counter back--it also explains the use of your islands as part of the mana base. Islands also help you cantrip to color fix or to find your combo pieces.
With a lotus petal (for white) and a few rituals, you could combo off on turn 1, though that's pretty unlikely. Duress helps you bait countermagic and be proactive.
I can get 87 dollars for the whole list on a major online retailer. Anything you might own (lotus petals, pain lands, rituals, cantrips, etc) it becomes even more affordable.
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.
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.
4 wall of omens
4 lone missionary
3 court hussar
3 flickerwisp
2 trinket mage
3 sun titan
1 emeria shepherd
4 path to exile
1 aether spellbomb
2 mortarpod
3 detention sphere
1 venser, the sojourner
1 darksteel citadel
3 emeria, the sky ruin
4 hallowed fountain
4 flooded strand
4 ghost quarter
2 island
7 plains
The cards I was lacking finally arrived in the mail. So my major changes were to run trinket mages instead of pilgrim's eye and a few artifacts to fetch main board, including a darksteel citadel.
In my first test game that went long, I had an unexpected interaction. I had used a trinket mage to find Darksteel Citadel early in the game. I had seven lands in play, an Emeria Shepherd, but my only land in hand was a ghost quarter. I played the Shepherd, then used the it to get back a card from my graveyard. Then used Ghost Quarter on the Darksteel Citadel and found a plains, which brought back another card. It was a pretty great interaction. Later in the game, I used Sun Titan to bring back Quarter, which again let me get two Emeria Shepherd triggers. Its probably win more, but I was still pretty happy with it.
I've been thinking about suppression field. I'd probably cut Venser if I played it and would have to rethink some other cards (Mortarpod, Aetherspell bomb), but it just seems like such a powerful card. I mean it basically wins against Twin and makes the new age podless decks clunky and makes every deck using fetches slower. The vast majority of our deck isn't affected by it at all.
We used to see Energy Field with rest in peace and helm of obedience. The idea is you could take no damage or mill them out with how helm is worded. Rest in Peace isn't bad on the surface either--it can beat graveyard based decks like reanimator or dredge by itself unless they have an out like abrupt decay. Enlightened Tutor brought the whole package together since it could find either half of either combo. The deck hasn't seen any real play in 3 years though.
That being said, I think there's too many cannot be countered cards to make old school control effective. Cavern of Souls, Abrupt Decay, and the like make it really hard to deal with all the threats thrown at you. If something like a first turn Delver resolves, your deck kinda folds to it. I mean, he's got some number of dazes and forces to fight against your dazes and forces when you try to repeal, EE or use cursed scroll (scroll seems even worse in that you might struggle emptying your hand out). Likewise, say a 4 color delver deck also is packing deathrites, that can slowly tap clock you out, since you aren't winning fast either.
You might crush people with back to basics sometimes though. There's some mono blue tempos lists that sometimes will storm a tournament that do alright, but they aren't pure control lists like you want to build. Most of the control lists used to use Vedalken Shackles.
4 dark ritual
Combo piece 1
4 Buried Alive
4 Dimir Machinations
Combo piece 2
4 animate dead
4 exhume
Disruption
4 distress
4 duress
In the deck
2 necrotic ooze
2 Phyrexian Devourer
2 Triskelion
22 swamp
Long term
1 necromancy
4 Beseech the Queen
Short term
4 ultimate price
4 Shred memory (maybe)
4 Sign in Blood
1 Pithing needle (maybe)
So first, what does this deck try to do? It is basically reanimator deck, that's much slower than the full powered version, but wins instantly when it does combo out. The basic combo is to cast buried alive or dimir machinations to find buried alive. This lets us put three creatures in our graveyard. So we put in Ooze, Phyrexian Devourer, and Triskelion. We then cast animate dead or exhume on Ooze.
He gains the following to powers from our creatures. We need to look up the oracle text on Phyexian Devoeurer.
Exile the top card of your library: Put X +1/+1 counters on Phyrexian Devourer, where X is the exiled card's converted mana cost.
Remove a +1/+1 counter from Triskelion: Triskelion deals 1 damage to target creature or player.
So now you can flip your whole deck and ping your opponent to death at instant speed. Even if they had a removal spell, you basically keep putting damage on the stack. So the only real problem is counter spells--and that's why you pack 8 disruption spells. Something like a leyline can be an issue but they can't actually afford it easily on your price plan. And of course, you can just attack them with a gigantic ooze without removing the counters.
So in an ideal game:
First turn: Swamp, Dark Ritual, Buried alive.
Second Turn: Animate or Exhume. Win.
But a realistic game might go.
Turn 1, swamp, duress.
Turn 2, Swamp, distress.
Turn 3, swamp, buried alive. (Note, if you have a dark ritual, you win here.)
Turn 4 Animate/Exhume, win.
If you have to use dimir machinations to find buried alive, it delays you a turn, but it still pretty reasonable.
Effectively, you run 8 animate effects and 4 buried alive, but also 4 tutors for buried alive with dimir machinations. We run two copies of our creatures in case we draw one. Distress can be used on ourselves to get one into the graveyard, if we get really unlucky and draw both but in my testing that almost never happened.
In the long term, you grab a single necromancy because dimir machinations can tutor for it. Beseech the Queen is basically a tutor for either half the piece, increasing your tutor count for either half by 4...though its a pricey card for a 20 dollar budget and will have to wait until you get more money. Shred Memory can help lower your price a bit, if its too high, since it can sub for an animate or exhume--like I said in the beginning, its tough to price a deck out with money when different sites use different amounts and prices move up and down so much.
Ultimate price is just a filler kill spell that can by you some time to cast your other combo pieces and can stand in for Beseech until you get the budget or if you want to slowly build into another deck. Monocolor isn't a big deal when most people aren't going to be using two colors anyway. The other way to go with it, was sign in blood. It gave you the power to draw more raw cards, which isn't the worst way to spend your turn by any means.
Finally, you might promote people to use graveyard hate if you do too well (tormod's crypt or relic of prog). Something like pithing needle lets you shut them down. Higher price cards like Rest in Peace or Graf's Cage will probably never see play because of price limits for a sideboard card.
The main advantage this deck has over a pauper list is you can play with rares that aren't worth much like Ooze, Trisk, and Devourer.
Without knowing your metagame, is tough to say, how we'll you do. If a guy is like 24 counter spells, you'll have a tough time even with 8 discard spells. But against any "fair" deck, they probably won't be able to clock you fast enough.
If you are interested, I used to play a monogreen overrun deck that usually could win by turn 5 and I could probably dig up a deck list. It wouldn't be a deck I'd normally suggest for legacy (ie it can't interact with taxes, countermagic, or discard to stop real combo decks), but it might be overwhelming for budget decks. (The idea was to drop stuff from the original Zen block, like Nest Invader that made tokens and ramp up with elves and such. Then on turn 5, overrun/overwhelming stampede and hit for lethal. It was incredibly consistent.
The added benefits are we can build a toolbox of cards to find with Trinket Mage for the main and side board for situations when making our land drops aren't our biggest concern.
The first card that springs to mind is actually already in the deck, Aether Spellbomb. If its good enough to play already, then its a pretty good to be able to find it. Instead of running 2, maybe having one "on demand" would free up deck space.
Instead of Ratchet Bomb, maybe Engineered Explosives as it could be found when needed.
Likewise, if we play esper, we can play fetchable removal with Executioner's Capsule This could replace something like seal of doom that I've seen floating on a list or two. The double black might make it not good enough though, but at least we wouldn't be casting it on curve as much.
I've noticed most decks want to pack some enchantment or artifact removal in their sideboard, so a fetchable one would be Dispeller's Capsule. Seems like a great way to stop Rest in Peace or similar graveyard hate.
More questionable would be artifact discard such as Necrogen Spellbomb or Scroll of Griselbrand. These could be activated during the opponent's draw phase and reoccurred with the Titan late in the game. They might be win more, but I could see an opponent being locked out of playing anything but instants or cards with flash, if they are hellbent.
Tormod's Crypt and Relic of Progenitus are fetchable graveyard hate.
Chalice of the Void could stop Hive mind kills or living end.
Pithing Needle is an answer to problematic things like planeswalkers like LotV. This also is another answer to scavenging ooze's annoying ability. In pinch it could be used to stop enemy ghost quarters to protect Emeria.
Maybe we could equip our weaker creatures with Leonin Bola—it could hold off a Wurmcoil engine from Tron or other scary guys like Etched Champions.
If we wanted a threat, we could use the powerhouse at least in standard, Hangarback Walker. Our end game seems really strong without him though.
I really don't know if the tool box is worth sometimes being stuck with a colorless land rather than a plains, but I thought I'd mention Trinket mage. I also pondered Gift of Estates. Its a mana cheaper and could get us potentially 3 plans early on. The draw back is if we get ahead on land, it really doesn't do anything. Maybe Knight of the White Orcid would be better than gift since it relevant effects outside of ramp.
I read an article a while back by Reid Duke and I think he really nailed it. For reference if your curious
Basically, learning one deck inside and out is really powerful advantage that can't be duplicated easily. It is also a format thing though. You need to know what to play around and if you run a card like cabal therapy, you have to know what your opponent's gameplan is and what is the critical linchpin. Its not about knowing the top 8 or whatever, legacy is so diverse anything literally could show up from enchantress to storm to tezzerator to reanimator.
If you want to go the miracles route, then I'd at least run entreat the angels. It just got reprinted in the new FTV so its price is pretty much at rock bottom. I'd probably cut the fastlands regardless in the miracle shell. If you have enlightened tutor you could think about a main deck rest in peace and energy field. The tutors open up the option of helm of obedience. With how the card is worded, with RIP in play, it mills their entire deck because you mill until X cards go into their graveyard. It means you are attacking through 3 very different angles...you can spawn angels at the end of their turn, you can beatdown with stoneforge, or you can threaten to combo out and win. It helps make up for not having Jace, though, Jace being what he is, its hard playing without him. Also having main deck rest in peace really can mess with some graveyard decks and energy field can flat out defeat some agro decks by itself. Enlightened Tutor also finds your counterbalance lock. I'd look at Misdirection as an answer to abrupt decay as well. Its not as good as force but it can do some work for you. If you do play tutors, detention sphere is amazing silver bullet (especially against empty the warrens) as is pithing needle.
I still really like true-name nemesis. He's just too good at carrying equipment through flooded boards to get jitte counters or sword triggers. I'd be afraid of a geist walking into a snapcaster.
I'd use deathrite shaman over birds of paradise in Maverick...even if you don't slip in a black mana source to fetch up. Even without any other black cards in there, you can threaten abrupt decay by leaving the appropriate mana open. He gives you game against graveyard tactics and lifegain is never bad, as is extra defense point and the ability to attack. Once fetchlands are exhausted as resource, you probably don't need his mana power anyway. I'd drop knight of reliquary without a land package to back him up. Mirran Crusader seems to be better at carrying equipment and if you are afraid of bolt, countermagic, or discard, I'd go Loxodon Smiter. I'd replace the squadron hawks with something like scavenging ooze--one copy is enough to tutor for. Maybe Eternal Witness or other value or hate bearers depending on your meta. Sylvan library is another power house for maverick as a singleton because against combo that doesn't care about your life, you can draw extra cards.
I was looking at Spooky's budget thread again and I realized you could try to build more heavily around the stoneforge effect. He calls the deck a tribe called quest.
4 Glint Hawk
3 Puresteel Paladin
3 Memnite
4 Mother of Runes
4 Ornithopter
4 Squadron Hawk
4 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Wall of Omens
4 Swords to Plowshares
Enchantments-4
4 Quest for the Holy Relic
Artifacts-5
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Batterskull
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Argentum Armor
16 Plains
It is like affinity meets stoneforge mystic. The real powerhouse play a turn 1 holy quest into a turn 2 or 3--argentum armor. Being able to vindicate one of their threats each turn is pretty amazing or a land. You have almost no stack interaction, but such is the way of monowhite. It definitely a rogue deck and by no means as strong as say building towards miracles but it might do well locally depending on your metagame.
Basically stoneforge mystic will bring white into anything besides red. (Incidentally, the only red/white deck I've seen in legacy was Goblins splashing white for Thalia.)
If you mean just green, you move into Maverick's territory. Maverick is the other deck that often uses mother of runes besides Death and Taxes.
Maverick Thread
Maverick relies on Green Sun's Zenith to have a toolbox of creatures. Knight of the Reliquary is its usually big attacker. Knight can also fetch lands, so they rely more on wasteland and karakas for fun tricks. Sometimes they even run the dark depths/thespian's sage combo to get a 20/20 indestructible. Its key element besides GSZ is Thalia. Without her, you are on the road to being Junk more. There's some cards like the aforementioned Deathite shaman and his constant companion abrupt decay as well as discard. Maverick does really well to beat delver and can fight some combo decks though those aren't easy battles. It struggles with Miracles. So right now the meta in general is unfavorable to Maverick. But if you like that deck, you can certainly work on it. Most pros say that if you know a deck inside and out, you'll do better than playing the best deck for the meta. Heck, my first deck was Nic Fit complete with stoneforge mystics--I basically chose it because I could run basics profitability. I ran shocks and never lost a game because of them, though the deck is packed random life gain with scavening ooze, deathrites, and seige rhinos (previously thragtusk).
Now if you meant, White, Blue, and Green....that deck is of course Bant hexproof. Its an interesting deck that tends to go more midrange and play bigger threats...sometimes even having Natural Order and Progentinus as an out. I don't think that's what you want though because it really relies on its forces of will more than most and those are hard to replace for any blue deck. Blue is the most expensive color in magic...blue duals are often times double the cost of other combinations, with the exception of maybe Bayous.
As for Delver, you could drop the three treasure cruises (again banned) and the sword of light and shadow. Generally, you want to stick to 3 pieces of equipment...many decks just run a jitte and batterskull. Delver definitely is an aggressively creature. He's just very powerful when you are running alot of spells...with your cantrips he's a 3/2 flying for 1 often times. Think of a turn delver into a turn 2 mystic, into a turn 3 batterskull. In an ideal world, he'll do 6 damage before the batterskull even comes online. Add in a bit of damage from fetches or stuff like thoughtseize, and your opponent might be sweating. If the batterskull and delver connect again (for 7), that's 13 damage....you opponent might only have a turn to live. It makes something like true name so scary because it doesn't take much to push them over the edge hence why lightning bolt is often splashed for. Granted, its unlikely they won't have any interaction, but it gives you an idea of how fast the deck can be. Delver is a bit of beast because he's blue and efficient. It seems like most colors have great creatures now, so often times its what type of removal do you want? Like I love Abrupt Decay so I tend to go with those colors. It is just really satisfying to break a miracle lock or kill something without being dazed.
I think he's better than Mother of Runes in a way because Mother suffers the problem of most x/1's...they are very frail. With Grixis Young Pryomancer running amok, we are seeing alot more -1/-1 effects being put in side boards like we did during the era of True-name Nemesis and poor Mother is caught in the cross fire. Its not that she's bad, but she's not for every deck for sure either.
Treasure Cruise is banned in legacy.
I'd really cut the geists for true-name nemesis. The nemesis just is a great equipment carrying guy. I'd probably cut feast and famine though since 4 equipment is probably one too many. Its a bit different style of deck but maybe you could even run out delver. You have alot of spells to flip him.
The other option is to try to go dead guy ale--that is black/white. The big advantage is you really don't have to play nearly as budget--scrubland is alot more budget than any blue dual land. Instead of forces of will, you can use thoughtseize, iok, duress, cabal therapy, and hymn to tourach. You get powerful cards like lingering souls. Gurmag Angler does work in grixis and could definitely be an option for you or you could run Dark Confidant if you keep you curve lower. Deathrite shaman even without green is worth considering--he ramps and empties out GY's. If you do splash green (maybe a single overgrown tomb or something) you can use it to nail GY decks.
Deadguy ale tournament placer
You could try to go to three colors but that's a bit more pricey. Do you want a decklist for blue/white or black/white?
That's the competitive deck that functions on this premise--use discard to hammer them and then drop an undercosted thread. Abyssal Persecutor for example is a huge threat for the mana. Gatekeeper of Malakir lets you get a 2/2 and kills a creature. Innocent Blood solves the problem of Persecutor and lets you remove creatures with shroud and such. The idea is to out attrition your enemy and play no dead cards yourself.
Classically the Gate can storm a small tournament but if you are playing in a really large one is falters to its own inconsistency as do most decks without Brainstorm/Ponder/Tops or some combination of card search like Sylvan Library. When I dabbled in it, I generally was frustrated when I ran into a hard lock like Energy Field/Rest in Piece, Ensnaring Bridge, or Solitary Confinement. The only real out is to splash green for ABrupt Decay--well the best out I found at least, maybe not the only. I sometimes struggled with really fast combo decks like a strong draw from reanimator. The worst situation was something like Entomb/Careful Study and then a lotus petal and reanimate. Once they drew 7 cards of Griselbrand I was usually sunk because they'd have too much countermagic to protect him. The slower combo decks tended to be easier, especially when I was packing thoughtseize. I could disrupt their key cards and give my guys time to finish the game out.
The thread also had some advice that was interesting. I saw a Nic Fit deck blow someone out by flashing in Notion Thief in response to brainstorm (drew 3, opponent lost 2 cards). This would be a far from common problem but since AN puts cards in your hand rather than draws them, such a thing wouldn't work against it.
I don't think it is an optimal deck by any means, but I think you could probably storm a local tournament with it. I mean after all, a guy did really well with splinter twin in a miracle shell during eternal weekend and that's just a really vulnerable combo to being two-for oned. (Admittedly, infinite damage is nice but generally entreat or jace gets the job done). The deck takes 6 mana to work but its not without its merits. You win on the stack, grave yard hate doesn't really hurt you at all (especially if you sack the cabal rituals for simains). Playing around Thalia is easier than it is say for something like storm and trinsphere is a two mana set back instead of back breaking. There's nothing in play for them to interact with at all--every removal spell is dead against you. Even Angel's Grace is acceptable in multiples against an agro deck because it acts like a poor man's fog. The hardest thing is the mana base and we can't really afford to run basics without investing alot more money in fetches and duals (and it would mess with lightning storm too).
Edit:
The non budget thread
Patrician's Scorn is interesting tech the author suggests. It hates out Leyline of Sanctity. Maybe a sideboard card?
I thought about something like using simian or elvish guides to get Manamorphose x2 (would have to not draw the entire deck to avoid losing to the cards) for two black and a blue, then a quicken and an tendrils of agony. Maybe chain some rituals along the way to build up storm. Realistically, it is too many dead cards to ever work though.
The deck you probably want to look at it Mud though. Its not budget and not much transfers over to other decks, but it is a deck designed to play trinisphere/chalice/lodestone golem and then power out really powerful artifact guys (wurmncoil engine and such) and can combo into blightsteel colossus for a combo finish if needed. (You can power out a win sometimes at fast as turn 2 or 3. In other cases, you can disrupt them pretty well too on the first or second turn.)
The problem with land destruction that isn't wasteland in legacy tends to be it is too slow to be effective consistently. A deck like say Delver, only runs 16-18 lands to begin with. It is perfectly happy dropping a turn 1 delver, and then daze/force of will any relevant plays and Grixis will surely play some discard as well. Deathrite shaman is equally a problem. On the flip side, a deck like reanimator can drop a big guy on turn 1 or 2--a first turn griselbrand will bury you in card advantage.
If you check out Spooky's thread, he's got a deck that uses wildfire and destructive force, basically like modern eminent domain.
Here's his list:
4 Inferno Titan
3 Sundering Titan
Spells [33]
4 Burning Wish
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Coalition Relic
3 Destructive Force
3 Gilded Lotus
3 Gruul Signet
3 Talisman of Impulse
3 Thran Dynamo
3 Trinisphere
4 Wildfire
1 Worn Powerstone
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Crystal Vein
8 Mountain
4 Sandstone Needle
Burning Wish really isn't a budget any card more but most of the list is pretty decent still. The biggest difference between say wildfire and stone rain is for the extra mana you get to sweep the board. So the idea is get a lock into place (you run 7), then sweep their creatures and lands, and then drop something like inferno titan to finish. Titan's bolt power keeps any creatures from racing you.
We can budget more of the deck. More signets and less stuff like coalition relic. Maybe less sundering titans and other cheaper finishers with more impact. I think chalices against help immensely. Basically his list is a stronger starting point. The best thing is you aren't trading one stone rain for one land, but instead clearing 4 lands and some number of creatures for one spell.
If we were to budgetize it further, we'd get something like:
3 Scuttling Doom Engine
4 mind stone
4 Gruul Signet
2 izzet signet
4 Talisman of Impulse
4 worn powerstone
3 Trinisphere
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Wildfire
4 Destructive Force
4 Crystal Vein
8 Mountain
4 Sandstone Needle
The key buys are Ancient Tombs, Trinisphere, and Chalice of the Void. The nice thing is they go into mud or any other stompy style deck seamlessly.
The other cards are all under a dollar...most are basically bulk. We avoid the cards like thrano, glided, and coalition that see alot of EDH and have 5 dollar price tags because of it.
If you have something playable like say a wurmcoil engine or a Sark, Dragonspeaker, you could easily replace the finishers.
I should also note that maybe Lodestone golem is better than Scuttling doom engine because he's a disruptive element too. You could make an argument for steelhell kite as well. All are well under a dollar. Once those new hedron mana rocks come out, maybe you could use those in place of something as well.
Legacy is a super expensive format. when the blue duals cost 200 or so each, budget can mean alot to different people.
Here's Spooky's list from the budget thread:
3 Ad Nauseam
3 Angel's Grace
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Cunning Wish
4 Dark Ritual
4 Duress
4 Lotus Petal
2 Pact of Negation
3 Peer Through Depths
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
1 Sickening Dreams
3 Silence
2 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Brass
4 Darkslick Shores
1 Ebon Stronghold
4 Gemstone Mine
2 Seachrome Coast
Let's budget his list even further to
4 Angel's Grace
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Dark Ritual
4 Duress
4 Lotus Petal
4 Peer Through Depths
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
1 Sickening Dreams
4 Silence
1 foil
4 Adarkar Wastes
4 Underground River
4 Caves of Koilos
2 island
The most obvious way to keep the price down is to remove the cunning wish board and add more nasuem and angel's grace. If you don't own the pacts of negation, then drop those since they are 20 each. You drop ancient tombs and just put more painlands in your deck or whatever to make the mana work. Silence is another card you could up or some other type of cantrip.
Basically, you spend 5 mana for your two combo cards and then win the game instantly. The best part is if you are desperate, you fire of AN by itself and try to dig for a petal+angel's grace. The solitary foil is if they wait to try to counter sickening dreams, you can counter back--it also explains the use of your islands as part of the mana base. Islands also help you cantrip to color fix or to find your combo pieces.
With a lotus petal (for white) and a few rituals, you could combo off on turn 1, though that's pretty unlikely. Duress helps you bait countermagic and be proactive.
I can get 87 dollars for the whole list on a major online retailer. Anything you might own (lotus petals, pain lands, rituals, cantrips, etc) it becomes even more affordable.