eon hub would hurt more than help imo...if he is wanting ivory tower that is, but there are better life gain options imo Beacon of Immortality, Animal Boneyard + Sigil of the new dawn or heck if he wants to play U/W/X he could go animal boneyard + chamber of manipulation tap 2 lands & pitch a card to not only nab a creature your opponent controls but sac it and gain life equal to it's toughness every turn toss in green for seedborn muse and you have a solid life gain engine imo that does similar to what black does w/o using black. Also even w/o both chamber or boneyard in play they are solid by themselves.
Land Tax is pretty solid even though it's not exactly budget it's not overly priced like some cards either, I think that $20 range is good for it especially if you're playing against heavy ramp this is a good answer to that.
Pretty much all of the above, it's the most competitive uncompetitive format in the game. You know it's funny too because my bro and a friend of mine used to make 100+ card decks before EDH even got around. We were actually tweaking ideas for a similar game type, but it didn't involve a general and you could do various stuff like pay 2 life and add 1 colorless mana to your mana pool if you have X lands or deal a point of damage to an opponent, trying to mimic that horrible battlegrounds game on xbox. If EDH had been out a decade ago I probably would have stuck around and not sold my cards i'm sure, but it wasn't and nobody really played 1.5 it's hard being one of the only few guys with 50 1.x and 1.5 decks and nobody to play against because their standard decks are too slow or they don't want to spend $300 on a deck.
I've never seen or heard anyone say they've hard cast FoW. Fact of the matter is I've never seen a vintage game run for more than 5 rounds and if you're speaking EDH play wise it's possible people have hard cast it, but from a competitive stand point of view i'd ditch a card and pay a life over dumping my mana to counter something. I don't see how Traumatic Visions is EDH playable honestly. Perplex is on the edge of being unplayable and if transmute wasn't part of the package it by no means would be viable. With all the 3 CMC cards U/B has though it's a damn good card imo. Mix in Green and you get all the mana fixing you need. Even white has Land Tax so yeah Vision isn't a good card at all imo.
As I said Perplex isn't great, but not bad either. If I had to choose counterspell or perplex sure i'd pick counterspell. However why would I need $20-$30 tutors if I have enough cards in my deck that cost 2-3 cmc anyways?
Honestly you don't need an expensive land base to play EDH...If you already have em great use em, if not I wouldn't break my bank buying expensive cards for a pretty casual format.
Sydri + thornbite staff = deathtouch damage to all opponents' creatures.
Sydri + voltaic construct + gilded lotus/grim monolith/basalt monolith (or mana vault, during upkeep) = infinite mana.
Sydri + training grounds + grim monolith/basalt monolith (or mana vault, during upkeep) = infinite mana.
Sydri + staff of nin = tap, destroy target creature.
ultimately with the construct one you could be a douche and use sol ring and just never end your turn because you can actually do something. Never thought Lattice would jump that high $$ wise ever too. I'm starting to see a trend of "if Sydri wasn't my general this deck would kinda suck."
BTW EDH very rarely drives the prices up on cards, it has and always be vintage that does. Unless I have missed something over the past decade.
You've missed something. There are plenty of cards driven only by EDH. Vintage is too small to have a significant effect outside of some of its signature cards. Legacy and modern have a greater impact on card prices, but it's not out of the realm of possibility for EDH demand to push a card up into the $10 range. Look at Regal Force. It doesn't see any play outside of EDH/casual to the best of my knowledge, but its relative scarcity and strong effect keep it pretty pricey.
I picked up a foil 9th Greater Good for about $6 some years ago, and it's unquestionably my favorite card. I don't typically play decks that can really take advantage of it, but I've built decks for the express purpose of using and/or abusing it several times now.
Sorry man you're right, I didn't say in all cases it was vintage/legacy but most of the time. I'm not saying those are the only formats that drive prices up. However, a decade ago if you went to a game shop and asked to play EDH everyone would look at you stupidly :| I miss those days of being able to get into 1.5 for relatively cheap unless you're a foil whore which still cost around $600 but typical 1.5 decks didn't run but $200-$300 for something that genuinely worked. As far as EDH goes I think it does drive some prices up, however you'd think with Labman being a wincon in alot of decks nowadays he'd be a bit more valuable than he is. I wonder if he's a sleeper hit like Kiki-Jiki was or something, again I might be missing the point.
I'm not sure how it's an auto win unless you pack it with creatures and lands with return & good. Maybe i'm just blind though. I mean if you don't hit any creatures it's no good.
My deck is nearly half creatures, so when dredging 3-6 you're almost guaranteed to hit one every time. I have literally never done anything but mill my entire deck when casting Greater Good in that deck.
ahh yeah makes sense to me...wasn't sure how many creatures you ran in it. Sounds like a solid deck.
Depending on your colors you choose some very useful pillowfort cards imo include Righteous Aura (shuts down general damage and overall a power house) Sigil of the New Dawn (again can be very useful with sac creatures) Platinum Angel (Might not be a great card but she does her job) Blazing Archon (expensive to cast but when it comes down to it, this is a great creature) Arena of the Ancients (don't need your general as much as your opponents? Then this card is for you) Privileged Position (while not exactly a "budget" card it's a great card to have anyways) Copy Enchantment (make a second P.P and your opponents can't do much) Children of Korlis (teamed up with Sigil it can be pretty nice)
if you're going mono white I would suggest Eight-and-a-half-tails or Mageta the lion but since you want a solid draw engine for tower you'll probably want to mix in U. Or Black depending on how you want to play it you could do Staff of Domination + Magus of the Coffers which is auto win right there with 8 swamps.
I'm no expert on this but I believe I listed some solid cards that obviously get overlooked
This card is basically autowin in Sidisi. Sac a zombie, dredge twice, pitch the dredged cards, generally get two zombies back out. Churn through your entire deck, Dread ReturnLaboratory Maniac, win the game.
I'm not sure how it's an auto win unless you pack it with creatures and lands with return & good. Maybe i'm just blind though. I mean if you don't hit any creatures it's no good.
yeah it's a solid card in green and just because Starcity is selling them for around $7 and they are sold out doesn't mean they are selling them, they might just not have stocked them recently. BTW EDH very rarely drives the prices up on cards, it has and always be vintage that does. Unless I have missed something over the past decade.
Ahh thanks for the Terraformer idea man yeah was looking at tomb as well but since they are hard to find and I have plenty of old terraformers laying around I'll probably add him in. Although I do have some Vexing Devils I guess I could trade they seem to be creeping up $$ wise and i'm using them for modern anyways. Maybe Blanket would be a better fit for budget with staff of dom & magus of the coffers combo too.
Oops terraformer fits in perfectly for blanket & tomb so I got that covered :)...besides the 1 activation cost I don't see how I overlooked him or how he was printed as a common.
Land Tax is pretty solid even though it's not exactly budget it's not overly priced like some cards either, I think that $20 range is good for it especially if you're playing against heavy ramp this is a good answer to that.
I've never seen or heard anyone say they've hard cast FoW. Fact of the matter is I've never seen a vintage game run for more than 5 rounds and if you're speaking EDH play wise it's possible people have hard cast it, but from a competitive stand point of view i'd ditch a card and pay a life over dumping my mana to counter something. I don't see how Traumatic Visions is EDH playable honestly. Perplex is on the edge of being unplayable and if transmute wasn't part of the package it by no means would be viable. With all the 3 CMC cards U/B has though it's a damn good card imo. Mix in Green and you get all the mana fixing you need. Even white has Land Tax so yeah Vision isn't a good card at all imo.
ultimately with the construct one you could be a douche and use sol ring and just never end your turn because you can actually do something. Never thought Lattice would jump that high $$ wise ever too. I'm starting to see a trend of "if Sydri wasn't my general this deck would kinda suck."
Sorry man you're right, I didn't say in all cases it was vintage/legacy but most of the time. I'm not saying those are the only formats that drive prices up. However, a decade ago if you went to a game shop and asked to play EDH everyone would look at you stupidly :| I miss those days of being able to get into 1.5 for relatively cheap unless you're a foil whore which still cost around $600 but typical 1.5 decks didn't run but $200-$300 for something that genuinely worked. As far as EDH goes I think it does drive some prices up, however you'd think with Labman being a wincon in alot of decks nowadays he'd be a bit more valuable than he is. I wonder if he's a sleeper hit like Kiki-Jiki was or something, again I might be missing the point.
ahh yeah makes sense to me...wasn't sure how many creatures you ran in it. Sounds like a solid deck.
Spellbook
Library of Leng
Reliquary Tower
Depending on your colors you choose some very useful pillowfort cards imo include
Righteous Aura (shuts down general damage and overall a power house)
Sigil of the New Dawn (again can be very useful with sac creatures)
Platinum Angel (Might not be a great card but she does her job)
Blazing Archon (expensive to cast but when it comes down to it, this is a great creature)
Arena of the Ancients (don't need your general as much as your opponents? Then this card is for you)
Privileged Position (while not exactly a "budget" card it's a great card to have anyways)
Copy Enchantment (make a second P.P and your opponents can't do much)
Children of Korlis (teamed up with Sigil it can be pretty nice)
If you're planning on going white which i'm sure you are obviously you'll want removal
Swords to Plowshares
Wrath of God
Oblation
other people can help me out on this
if you're going mono white I would suggest Eight-and-a-half-tails or Mageta the lion but since you want a solid draw engine for tower you'll probably want to mix in U. Or Black depending on how you want to play it you could do Staff of Domination + Magus of the Coffers which is auto win right there with 8 swamps.
I'm no expert on this but I believe I listed some solid cards that obviously get overlooked
I'm not sure how it's an auto win unless you pack it with creatures and lands with return & good. Maybe i'm just blind though. I mean if you don't hit any creatures it's no good.
Ahh thanks for the Terraformer idea man yeah was looking at tomb as well but since they are hard to find and I have plenty of old terraformers laying around I'll probably add him in. Although I do have some Vexing Devils I guess I could trade they seem to be creeping up $$ wise and i'm using them for modern anyways. Maybe Blanket would be a better fit for budget with staff of dom & magus of the coffers combo too.
Oops terraformer fits in perfectly for blanket & tomb so I got that covered :)...besides the 1 activation cost I don't see how I overlooked him or how he was printed as a common.