Ultimate Price is standard legal. You can always cut the Duskwatch Recruiters for more Pilgrim's Eye and Gather the Pack; that card is like $2.50. Additionally, when it's too expensive just cut lands for slightly worst lands; in this case, cut Hissing Quagmire for either basic lands or more Evolving Wilds, since it's like #3.50-$4.00. Basically, just cut expensive cards for less expensive cards until it works, lol.
This list comes from my budget deck thread in this forum. Since you're looking at a budget of $30 or so, we can cut the Traverse the Ulvenwalds and Ishkanah, Grafwidow for some less expensive options. Pilgrim's Eye is great as an emerge target for Distended Mindbender which also fuels delirium. Gather the Pack is also very good at fueling delirium, and does a (somewhat?) similar thing to Traverse, so probably just add 2 Pilgrim's Eyes and 2 Gather the Packs and call it a dayI haven't done any sideboard work, but I wouldn't worry about it too much (for now). Just jam some conditional cards in the sideboard that you can bring in or something.
I totally understand feeling frozen because of so many options, lol. Especially with budget decks, you can basically do anything you want; it's a bit of an embarassment of "riches". Oh god, puns. Any way, yeah try green/black, it's definitely a good deck. Don't expect it to do all the work for you though, budget decks especially reward tight play. Since many people will have decks with more powerful cards, you have to do your best to beat your opponent yourself without having your deck do it for you. Best of luck, let me know how it goes.
Yo. Today I've got a brew that is is extremely linear and fun. The game-plan is to dump as many lands as possible into our graveyard, and then cast a massive Splendid Reclamation. At that point, start playing Kozilek, the Great Distortion and Part the Waterveil over and over until your opponent dies. We have Rogue's Passiage to make Kozilek a reliable kill. THe most expensive part of this deck is Kozilek, the Great Distortion which is currently running $4-$6. Feel free to try another bomb, Kozilek was just the first I thought of that's reasonably priced.
Yo, so I saw someone post this as a concept for a thread in another post, and it seemed like a great idea. In this thread, anyone can post a card, like Harmless Offering. Then, any other people can reply to that post with a decklist containing Harmless Offering. There is no limit to the number of people that can reply to a card with a decklist; if 10 people want to make a response to Harmless Offering, then that's fine! I want to encourage productive conversation here, and get all of you 'doing better' at your local FNM's and weekend events. Budget Magic is a beautiful thing. Let's keep it classy.
Having access to 4 Wastes for Ruin in Their Wake is just not enough to be able to consistently cast it on turn 2 for much value, so I'd recommend either going up to 4 Evolving Wilds and 4-7 Wastes, or cutting the package altogether. Likewise, 6 white sources (3 evolving wilds 3 plains) might not enough to reliably cast Descend Upon The Sinful on curve, so I'd recommend adding more white or cutting the Descent (8-9 sources should be enough?) I could be wrong about this; the anticipates and other draw spells might be enough to find white if you need it. A small issue is Spell Shriveldoesn't count as a blue spell for Prism Ring, which is the most important card in the deck, so I'd recommend going back to 4 Clash of Wills.
All in all, I think that the mono blue prison deck basically does what it does decently well, even if it sometimes flood. After all, every deck sometimes floods, even Delver in Legacy which sometimes plays as few as 18 lands. I'm not so sure that adding green for ramp is worth it. In any case, best of luck!
I'd strongly recommend cutting black in favor of Draconic Roar and Thunderbreak Regent. These cards are just so powerful,, and the black isn't doing much. Collective Brutality is, sadly, a pretty disappointing card in my experience, and definitely not worth splashing (it doesn't even make most of my black decks, so why splash for it?). Another burn option is Exquisite Firecraft
Some very powerful budget cards in the G/B color combination right now are Grapple with the Past (don't leave home without them! so good), Duskwatch Recruiter, Haunted Dead, Distended Mendbender, Gnarlwood Dryad and Wailing Ghoul (I know it looks bad, but graveyards need fuel). Try throwing some of these in there. I posted a budget GB deck of my own in another thread; take a look if you'd like. Good luck!
Thanks for the suggestion but should I worry that it has cards from dragons of tarkir since it'll rotate out soon?
Howdy Striker.
Honestly I just recommend buying some of the cards that are rotating that aren't that expensive; uncommons, commons, budget rares, that sort of thing. Don't buy something expensive like Collected Company, but cards like Fiery Impulse are great, and, fortunately, cheap.
I just posted a couple of decks on here if you'd like to take a look. Best of luck in you search!
Yo, I've been brewing budget decks like crazy lately, and I have a few that I'd like to share. If you are trying to get into magic: the gathering and would like to play in FNM or something, try these out; most will run less than $30 or so, and the most expensive part will be the sleeves. Sideboards are just a list of options; I dont recommend sleeving them up as-is, but pick and choose and come up with 15 that you like. As always, if there is a card in here that exceeds your budget, go to www.gatherer.wizards.com and look for alternatives! Enjoy.
I really enjoy this list. It is inspired by Bloodhall Priest and Lupine Prototype, which are obviously insane cards to have in play with no cards in hand. So, as you may have guessed, this deck is incredibly good at dumping its hand. Every single creature in the deck is either a pay-off card, or a card that enables you to dump your hand. Noose Constrictor is the most reliable way to drop your entire hand into your graveyard, but Haunted Dead, as always, puts in a ton of work here also. The biggest issue with this deck is the mana base. Fortunately we can play Oath of Nissa to smooth that out a ton, and make mana less of an issue.
This is a pet deck of mine that i've played on stream a couple of times in friendly standard leagues on mtgo. It's extremely fun to play, has TONS of extremely interesting lines to take, and is always taken off-guard. We use a few colorless producing lands to use Spatial Contortion, which is incredibly powerful, along with 12 creatures that can easily win the game alone. Pepper in the necessary 4 Anticipate and some counter-spells, and we've got ourselves a deck. Don't forget that you can cast Clash of Wills for 0 on your own spells in a pinch, if you need to trigger Niblis of Frost to win a race, or to add another instant to your graveyard for Curious Homonculus. Doing this has won me many games.
I'll fix this up at some point probably, just couldn't be bothered to keep working on it! Let me know if you want to see more of these, and thanks for reading.
The only way they can interact with Executioner is with doubling on board creatures. Every other piece of removal they can interact with. That makes it fantastic. Especially with most of the U/W decks running a high amount of Denials in the side, Executioner is extremely well positioned. Aetherspouts or Vault might be our second best options, though since they match up poorly against Denial when it matters, I think that the discrepancy in power level between these two and Executioner is notable enough to justify packing our new Orc Warrior.
The arguments for Aetherspouts and Vault in the side which are justifiable to me along the lines of "Executioner is bad against G/R aggro and devotion, aetherspouts and vault are great." Sure. I 100% concede these points. But U/W heroic is a very popular deck amongst PTQ grinders, so packing some Executioners in the side right now is 100% necessary.
I entirely disagree with negative assessments of merciless executioner. It is our literal best card against U/W heroic, because they are forced to commit an extra creature to the board or else they lose their 4/5 or 6/6 or what have you--which then opens them up to crux being minimally a 2-for-1 unless they can strive ajani's presence. Especially because post-board games are intensely difficult in this matchup, we need a strong piece of difficult-to-interact-with removal. Murderous cut is a fine card, and I ran 1 in the main and 1 in the side--which I was very happy with.
I strongly discourage 4x Drown in Sorrow. It doesn't hit anything in Abzan Aggro except Deathdealer (and not always), and it is horrible against heroic. So I run Executioner for those guys. I could definitely see trading an Executioner for a Drown in Sorrow because Drown is good against G/R Aggro and that's probably our worst matchup. Actually, yeah, do that. But generally speaking Drown is not very good right now; it's good against exactly two decks. At least Executioner can come in against most midrange strategies and two of the aggro strategies.
Participated in a PTQ today, went 3-0 into losses in rounds 4 and 5 against U/W heroic and G/R aggro. I think this list is pretty close, but I"m ditching this archetype. There might be too many archetypes in this format currently to have a pure control deck; we don't have Sphinx's Revelation. Good luck to everyone else.
I ran with 61 cards. I actually think this was correct; we wanted something like 26.5 lands, but nothing is worth cutting. If you really can't stand running 61, cut whatever is weakest in your meta. Don't cut the Silence the believers. Sometimes you're facing down an ashcloud phoenix and are praying for one off the top.
Sideboard needs work; 3 executioner is either perfect or too much, depending on how much heroic you're expecting (I would expect quite a bit right now if we're talking about PTQ's/GP's etc). The Crux of Fate, Murderous Cut, and 3rd Disdainful Stroke (in the sideboard) need replacement. Possible another negate in the side.
2x Deathcap Cultivator
4x Distended Mindbender
4x Duskwatch Recruiter
4x Gnarlwood Dryad
4x Haunted Dead
1x Ishkanah, Grafwidow
4x Wailing Ghoul
4x Grapple with the Past
2x Ultimate Price
4x Vessel of Nascency
Land (24)
1x Evolving Wilds
8x Forest
4x Hissing Quagmire
4x Llanowar Wastes
7x Swamp
2 ruinous path
3 transgress the mind
1 duress
This list comes from my budget deck thread in this forum. Since you're looking at a budget of $30 or so, we can cut the Traverse the Ulvenwalds and Ishkanah, Grafwidow for some less expensive options. Pilgrim's Eye is great as an emerge target for Distended Mindbender which also fuels delirium. Gather the Pack is also very good at fueling delirium, and does a (somewhat?) similar thing to Traverse, so probably just add 2 Pilgrim's Eyes and 2 Gather the Packs and call it a dayI haven't done any sideboard work, but I wouldn't worry about it too much (for now). Just jam some conditional cards in the sideboard that you can bring in or something.
I totally understand feeling frozen because of so many options, lol. Especially with budget decks, you can basically do anything you want; it's a bit of an embarassment of "riches". Oh god, puns. Any way, yeah try green/black, it's definitely a good deck. Don't expect it to do all the work for you though, budget decks especially reward tight play. Since many people will have decks with more powerful cards, you have to do your best to beat your opponent yourself without having your deck do it for you. Best of luck, let me know how it goes.
First, you need to post the deck with deck tags. use {Deck="Deck Name"] and {/deck] to do so. (Replace the { with [ )
Gnarlwood Dryad is extremely powerful, so that is the first card I'd recommend. Second, Grapple with the Past and Gather the Pack are absurdly good at fueling graveyards for value. These are easily better than vessel of paramnesia and fork in the road. Finally, try Deathcap Cultivator; since you have some 4-drops and 5-drops, having access to some mana ramp is quite important.
Possible list:
4 Gnarlwood Dryad
4 Duskwatch Recruiter
4 Deathcap Cultivator
3 Inexorable Blob
4 Soul Swallower
3 Geralf's Masterpiece
2 Terrarion
4 Gather the Pack
4 Vessel of Nascency
4 Grapple with the Past
4 Evolving Wilds
6 Island
10 Forest
To be honest, black seems like a much better splash than blue, to have access to Distended Mindbender, Ultimate Price and Haunted Dead.
Hope this helps! Good luck.
Enjoy!
4x Contingency Plan
4x Gather the Pack
4x Nagging Thoughts
4x Part the Waterveil
4x Splendid Reclamation
9x Forest
6x Island
4x Lumbering Falls
3x Rogue's Passage
4x Yavimaya Coast
4x Noose Constrictor
4x Ulvenwald Captive
2x Anticipate
I'll start off:
Zada, Hedron Grinder
Anyone can reply! Go!
Having access to 4 Wastes for Ruin in Their Wake is just not enough to be able to consistently cast it on turn 2 for much value, so I'd recommend either going up to 4 Evolving Wilds and 4-7 Wastes, or cutting the package altogether. Likewise, 6 white sources (3 evolving wilds 3 plains) might not enough to reliably cast Descend Upon The Sinful on curve, so I'd recommend adding more white or cutting the Descent (8-9 sources should be enough?) I could be wrong about this; the anticipates and other draw spells might be enough to find white if you need it. A small issue is Spell Shriveldoesn't count as a blue spell for Prism Ring, which is the most important card in the deck, so I'd recommend going back to 4 Clash of Wills.
All in all, I think that the mono blue prison deck basically does what it does decently well, even if it sometimes flood. After all, every deck sometimes floods, even Delver in Legacy which sometimes plays as few as 18 lands. I'm not so sure that adding green for ramp is worth it. In any case, best of luck!
Hope this helps. Happy magicking.
Some very powerful budget cards in the G/B color combination right now are Grapple with the Past (don't leave home without them! so good), Duskwatch Recruiter, Haunted Dead, Distended Mendbender, Gnarlwood Dryad and Wailing Ghoul (I know it looks bad, but graveyards need fuel). Try throwing some of these in there. I posted a budget GB deck of my own in another thread; take a look if you'd like. Good luck!
Howdy Striker.
Honestly I just recommend buying some of the cards that are rotating that aren't that expensive; uncommons, commons, budget rares, that sort of thing. Don't buy something expensive like Collected Company, but cards like Fiery Impulse are great, and, fortunately, cheap.
I just posted a couple of decks on here if you'd like to take a look. Best of luck in you search!
Jund Madness/Hellbent
Tappedout list: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/budget-jund-madness-70/
I really enjoy this list. It is inspired by Bloodhall Priest and Lupine Prototype, which are obviously insane cards to have in play with no cards in hand. So, as you may have guessed, this deck is incredibly good at dumping its hand. Every single creature in the deck is either a pay-off card, or a card that enables you to dump your hand. Noose Constrictor is the most reliable way to drop your entire hand into your graveyard, but Haunted Dead, as always, puts in a ton of work here also. The biggest issue with this deck is the mana base. Fortunately we can play Oath of Nissa to smooth that out a ton, and make mana less of an issue.
4x Bloodhall Priest
4x Cryptbreaker
4x Haunted Dead
4x Heir of Falkenrath Flip
2x Incorrigible Youths
4x Lupine Prototype
4x Noose Constrictor
4x Oath of Nissa
6x Forest
2x Hissing Quagmire
4x Llanowar Wastes
2x Mountain
4x Smoldering Marsh
2x Swamp
4x Fiery Temper
2x Ultimate Price
1x Dead Weight
2x Distended Mindbender
2x Fiery Temper
2x Radiant Flames
2x Transgress the Mind
1x Ultimate Price
Mono U Tempo
This is a pet deck of mine that i've played on stream a couple of times in friendly standard leagues on mtgo. It's extremely fun to play, has TONS of extremely interesting lines to take, and is always taken off-guard. We use a few colorless producing lands to use Spatial Contortion, which is incredibly powerful, along with 12 creatures that can easily win the game alone. Pepper in the necessary 4 Anticipate and some counter-spells, and we've got ourselves a deck. Don't forget that you can cast Clash of Wills for 0 on your own spells in a pinch, if you need to trigger Niblis of Frost to win a race, or to add another instant to your graveyard for Curious Homonculus. Doing this has won me many games.
Tapped out list: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/budget-mono-blue-tempo/
4x Anticipate
4x Clash of Wills
2x Drag Under
3x Epiphany at the Drownyard
1x Negate
4x Spatial Contortion
4x Unsubstantiate
4x Niblis of Frost
2x Rattlechains
4x Reality Smasher
Land (24)
4x Foundry of the Consuls
14x Island
4x Shivan Reef
2x Yavimaya Coast
1x Dispel
1x Docent of Perfection Flip
1x Engulf the Shore
1x Epiphany at the Drownyard
1x Horribly Awry
2x Icefall Regent
2x Imprisoned in the Moon
1x Matter Reshaper
2x Negate
1x Scatter to the Winds
1x Sphinx of the Final Word
1x Summary Dismissal
Budget GB Delirium
This deck is incredibly customizeable, and the truly great thing is that you there are so many possibly upgrade paths to take if you can trade for more valuable cards, like Liliana, the Last Hope. With this deck I chose to go for full-on synergy in order to enable the two powerful cards Haunted Dead and Distended Mindbender. We play 12 graveyard enablers in Grapple with the Past, Vessel of Nascency, and Wailing Ghoul as a reliable engine, a few pieces of disruption, and then some efficienct cards in Duskwatch Recruiter, and Gnarlwood Dryad.
Key cards: Grapple with the Past,Vessel of Nascency, Gnarlwood Dryad
Tapped out list: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/budget-sultai-midrange-1/
2x Deathcap Cultivator
4x Distended Mindbender
4x Duskwatch Recruiter Flip
4x Gnarlwood Dryad
4x Haunted Dead
1x Ishkanah, Grafwidow
4x Wailing Ghoul
4x Grapple with the Past
2x Ultimate Price
4x Vessel of Nascency
Land (24)
1x Evolving Wilds
8x Forest
4x Hissing Quagmire
4x Llanowar Wastes
7x Swamp
2 ruinous path
3 transgress the mind
1 duress
I'll fix this up at some point probably, just couldn't be bothered to keep working on it! Let me know if you want to see more of these, and thanks for reading.
The arguments for Aetherspouts and Vault in the side which are justifiable to me along the lines of "Executioner is bad against G/R aggro and devotion, aetherspouts and vault are great." Sure. I 100% concede these points. But U/W heroic is a very popular deck amongst PTQ grinders, so packing some Executioners in the side right now is 100% necessary.
I ran with 61 cards. I actually think this was correct; we wanted something like 26.5 lands, but nothing is worth cutting. If you really can't stand running 61, cut whatever is weakest in your meta. Don't cut the Silence the believers. Sometimes you're facing down an ashcloud phoenix and are praying for one off the top.
2 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
2 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
4 Hero's Downfall
4 Bile Blight
1 Silence the Believers
1 Murderous Cut
3 Crux of Fate
4 Dissolve
3 Thoughtseize
1 Disdainful Stroke
1 Negate
1 Divination
2 Jace's Ingenuity
4 Dig Through Time
4 Dismal Backwater
4 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Opulent Palace
1 Temple of Mystery
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Swamp
4 Island
2 Radiant Fountain
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1 Silumgar, the Drifting Death
1 Liliana Vess
2 Drown in Sorrow
1 Murderous Cut
3 Merciless Executioner
1 Crux of Fate
2 Disdainful Stroke
1 Negate
1 Thoughtseize
Sideboard needs work; 3 executioner is either perfect or too much, depending on how much heroic you're expecting (I would expect quite a bit right now if we're talking about PTQ's/GP's etc). The Crux of Fate, Murderous Cut, and 3rd Disdainful Stroke (in the sideboard) need replacement. Possible another negate in the side.
Cheers,
Clownstabber