Over the last few weeks I’ve been posting a bunch of decks and have gotten comments and messages with some great suggestions. Extremely happy with how the decks play, probably more so than I was before I switched to budget magic if I'm honest.
My goal at the beginning was to have a set of decks that I could use, but that could also be used as a contained, semi-balanced set of duel decks when we have beer and pizza style game nights. I have some friends who will play mtg but have no interest in buying or collecting and I’ve done a similar thing in the past with pauper decks. It worked really well so I think this should too with some effort.
I was originally on the fence about completing the full 32 decks (my other set is only 16), but have been enjoying the journey so far, so thought why not? I’m just struggling to pick commanders for a few of the colour combinations. I want each deck to be fairly unique and follow a different strategy/archetype (so no repeating spellslinger, control, discard, burn etc. which I’ve already got represented). Here’s what I was thinking so far:
Bant – Voltron – [[Rafiq of the Many]]
Esper – Dungeons with [[Sefris of the Hidden Ways]]?
Grixis – First one I’m not sure about. Would [[Obeka, Splitter of Seconds]] work as a suspend commander?
Jund – Absolutely no idea. All I can think of is group slug with something like [[Winter, Misanthropic Guide]] or [[Yurlok of Scorch Thrash]] but would that be fun to play?
Naya – +1/+1 counters – [[Tifa, Martial Artist]]
Mardu – Treasures – [[Vihaan Goldwaker]]
Temur – Once again, no idea. I think Temur is probably my least favourite combo, it’s certainly the one I play the least. The only thing I could think of was something like energy, but I played someone’s precon once and wasn’t overly impressed by the mechanic (though that could have just been an issue with that deck).
Abzan – Toughness – [[Doran, the Siege Tower]] or [[Felothar the Steadfast]] maybe? Small rant though. I bought Doran I think a year or so ago and paid fifty cents Australian (that’s like 35c American). Apparently, he’s nearing $8 now.
Jeskai – Lifegain/Card Draw – [[The Archimandrite]]. I like the idea of gaining life, getting a bunch of cards, then that making my creatures bigger, which I use to get more life, etc.
Sultai – Poison Counters – [[Xavier Sal, Infested Captain]] – In my head I have this stupid plan involving Thallids, toxic/infect, and proliferation.
WUBR – Thopters – [[Breya, Etherium Shaper]]
UBRG – Cascade/Discover maybe with [[Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder]]?
BRGW – The only commander I have for this colour combo is [[Saskia the Unyielding]]. Would "encouraging" combat work? Lots of goad, [[Nettling Imp]], [[Thantis, the Warweaver]], maybe a few of those curses that give benefits when someone gets targeted? Once again, is that going to be fun to play?
RGWU – I have [[Aragorn, the Uniter]] and [[Avatar Aang]], I assume they’d be legendary tribal and bending respectively? I’m leaning toward Aragorn because I feel Aang would be a nightmare to get going. The other thought I had was a 4-colour blue deck with cards like [[Swirl the Mists]] to make all of Aragorn’s abilities trigger every time.
GWUB – Superfriends? – [[Atraxa, Praetor’s Voice]] I’ve never played superfriends before, but I kind of want to try it now with the new empower Jace mechanic and all those “Way of the” enchantments.
5 Colour – Five Colour Towns – [[The Wandering Minstrel]] – I was thinking about something that is a bit like a pauper gates deck, only with towns, and the Minstrel instead of [[Basilisk Gate]]
Really just looking for thoughts and suggestions at the moment to help me get started. Especially if someone’s already built a budget deck for one of these cards, I’d love to hear about things that have actually been played and how they went/what worked/what didn’t etc.
Whatever decks I settle on have to be able to be built on a tight budget. Under $50 (card kingdom prices) excluding the commander or basic lands. The majority of those cards under $1, with only a few slightly more expensive (certainly nothing that hits the $2 mark).
Decks so far:
| Ultima, Origin of Oblivion - Tron-esque | Abdel Adrian, Gorian’s Ward - Blink Weenies | Piper Wright, Public Reporter - Clue Affinity | Tinybones, Pocket Nuisance - Discard | Imodane, the Pyrohammer - Burn | Ghalta, Primal Hunger - Stompy | Hylda of the Icy Crown - Control | Lazav, Dimir Mastermind - Mill | Chainer, Nightmare Adept - Self-Discard/Madness | Raggadragga, Goreguts Boss - Dork Tribal | Garnet, Princess of Alexandria - Saga/Enchantress | Akawalli, the Seething Tower - Graveyard | Vito, Fanatic of Alcazotz - Aristocrats | Bruenor Battlehammer - Equipment | Balmor, Battlemage Captain - Spellslinger | Bonny Pall, Clearcutter - Lands/Landfall |