I create a counterspell tribal deck long time before, with very junk counterspells, I win the hate of a 500€ ur-dragon deck player because I didn't stop countering his best dragon and spells. That was the best day of my life😂😂😂
@crtikhit2244 I counterspelled this guy so hard he scooped. I was playing alela cunning conquerer with wave break hipocamp out so every time I counterspelled or used a pongify effect my spells were replaced with a new card and a faerie. It was beautiful. This was right after he thrashed the table with sheoldred. So he deserved it.
I’ve made like 5 decks for $100, cause my playgroup said my decks are to strong and expensive… so I just built the 5 decks… needless to say half them still destroyed the playgroup.
"If you don't know who to attack, just ask the table or attack the player with the most Green And Blue at the table." You are accurate and I love that idea!
In my eyes, any player that is the "Big Mana" rapport deck needs to be punished early game. Especially Mono Black as their life total is commonly how many cards they can draw and usually wins with a 12-20 mana turn
I love playing budget decks for many reasons, but sneaky value is one of them. If people have never heard of a card you play, they might not target you until they realize its true power, which may be too late.
Or they target you cause you've got a bunch of odd cards and they don't know WHICH one is the problem so they just try and kill you. I'm not salty I swear lol
I feel this so hard, I pretty much exclusively play jank and it just feels so good when a card that at first glace makes you go "why would anyone use this" finds it's niche and perfectly solves a situation
Honestly, in my opinion, the best budget commander is Hewlett-Packard, Laserjet. You can pick it up at your LTS (local thrift shop) when they have it in stock. It does everything! It can even play on a CEDH level. People who run pricier decks can get a bit salty, but most game stores will let you play it.
Some other commander tips: If a creature is not going to be blocking, (value engine, your opponent has no attacks) Swing with it if it is likely to survive, its free damage. I see so many people just keep back their big board of green things because they have not yet achieved the big funny and are only about 3/3-5/5, while my on average 1/2 - 2/2 board of aristocrats gets away with not being pressured at all. Don't snap off removal because someone killed your thing, in a recent game, Player B removed player A's commander, then Player A got to make the choice, hold their removal spell for Player C's commander that would probably come down, a voltron esque 7 mana haste thing, or remove player B's partner commander that was there to enable colors. In general, removing the big thing instead of getting revenge might be worth it. Finally, whatever you do, make sure to have some kind of backup plan for at least one boardwhipe, I am not saying to sandbag literally all of your cards, however drawing some cards while you still can to have a hand full of cards in case something happens, keeping back one carddraw creature, or if that is not your style, keeping up protection are all options that, while they do not instantly win games, at least prevent you from losing on the spot. Yes cards like clever cocealment (or ghostway on a budget) might not be a big beatstick, however they can keep your beatsticks safe through a boardwhipe.
One tip for building budget that I think is often ignored is just being generous with your land count. EDH seems to punish you more for mana screw than flood and land is cheaper to begin with, but also by rounding up in a multi-colour deck you give yourself better odds of having the right pips most games. If you don't have the most flexible lands due to budget this further helps the deck. The Gates theme is something you can run at lower cost to capitalise on affordable dual lands too, especially now the choose Gates exist. Starting with a mono colour commander and being able to cheap out using basics makes things even more budget friendly, though monocolour decks will also feel punishing in terms of limited removal options at low budget, for example. Depends which colour to some extent.
The first tip I give to new EDH player is... make Urself a decklist checklist... Mine is for example: 10-12 ramp, 9-11 interaction, 9-11 draw, the rest is engine/core... that makes U plan and see ahead what problems the deck might have in the future... Ps: Very interesting Yasova deck tech. I'm working on the same concept but using Hofri Ghostforge, since I'll get a copy token for myself off the creatures I sacrifice and will include the revielark and Karmic Guide combo
When you're talking about removal, it's interesting. If you're finding players have better winning power than you, increasing your stopping power your ability to stop them from winning and give you a chance can be a cheaper solution
It's even very easy to build reactive decks on the cheap. Lavinia, Foil to Conspiracy lets you hold up the mana to react multiple times a cycle and rewards you for doing so on top of that.
I want to add two more things to this, already, incredible video: 1- Play combos if you want. At least a combo of your level. Four card combos are fine in a lot of places cause they need preparation and people see them coming. Even two card combos are fine if they are on the right deck/right power level. 2- What commander are you playing is very important while talking about this topic. There are a few of them who are great in almost every power level. Teysa Karlov for example. You can make a 50$ Teysa with commons, uncommons aristocrats, morbid oportunist and cards like the 4cmc black eldrazi. PD: To play a budget commander deck in a powerful table, you need to have a value engine/double trigger/strong as a card commander. I would recommend to try a good commander first in budget and then try other things when you know how to play with good but cheap cards.
Dina is a cEDH deck that can be built on a very tight budget, since the only thing you need is a hulk, reanimation, and some entombs and ramp do get there
combos are pretty simple if you actually sit down and think about it every player who says they dislike combo will have an exception "oh but this style is okay" and then theyll try to define something that feels unnecessarily specific. the actuak trick is, dont make your combos substantially stronger than the rest of the deck. Thats it, thats the entire problem. noone likes picking a deck to match what they were told was battlecruiser, and then whoops they found combo pieces on t10 and the games over. if youre expecting it, you know to keep interaction up, if youre not, it feels unfair and unearned but its also hard to match a deck against these combos, do you match the bulk of the deck? or the combo? either choice often leaves a player feeling like it was unfair. so if youre building something lower power, keep your combos there. leave your high power combo for higher power decks. like, if almost all of your cards set an expectation the combo shouldnt break it, just be another way of following up on it
@@thetrinketmageI actually found it interesting that the 10k deck was only spent on the manabase, because most crazy expense cards don't even have synergies with each other. You would end up with a ton of power, but unable to abuse it properly.
@@evanbutler4347this reminds me of my 1k+ deck with only basic forests. its mostly price in fancy printings, but I found it funnier the more expensive it got, so i started trading for more expensive versions of basically the same thing.
I was really surprised and impressed by some of the budget decks ($25-50) I've tried. With the right picks, and a decent pilot, they can keep relevant with everything up to cEDH. They also make me feel like I'm improving as a pilot, since you're basically intentionally making the format more difficult through constraints. Would recommend absolutely everyone try some out.
As a new player this has already helped so much! I much prefer forcing myself to get creative by putting myself on a budget, and besides having literally every card available is way too overwhelming. This is helping me alot with the decks i wanna build alr
John Benton has been talked about a lot recently as a budget deck that does more than just keep up: its actually an absolute powerhouse (WHY does he have haste jfc). In general non-equipment voltron seems pretty cheap relative to it's power, auras rarely cost more than $5 and combat tricks are almost all under $1.
A note on the combo front: It might look good to make that infinite include your commander, especially if you only need one extra card to make it work, but you should be careful. If your commander being on the battlefield could cause your opponents to die at any moment, they’re going to be way more likely to kill it for no discernible reason.
This is a great video. I've been getting into budget deck building for the challenge of it. I'd like to highlight Ruxa, Patient Professor as a commander that is also very patient with your wallet.
We don't always agree, but I'm 100% with you on this one ! Having a playgroup where we only play 30€ decks for several years, all those advices are on point. I would add something : - people having some form of hate for counterspells or combos need to play a budget deck. A counterspell is probably the best answer but ask for more "skill" (which is a way people can improve, as you said) and playing combos will make you play cards that other people may not have encountered before and by doing so, make your play patterns less easy to read. - make sure to be able to win on different axis if you can. Playing the board and having a combo backup may give the wrong hints to your opponents and even experienced players may not be able to see if you're midrange or aggro. It's one of the biggest things to keep in mind : if people can't predict how you're wanting to win, they may not be able to stop you at the right moment. - play more synergies, you said it but in a way that may not be that clear for beginners ;) goodstuff cards may be less snowbally than a good piece of synergy, and most of those are not that costly. Try to play ramp that fits your themes, rather than just putting a sol ring in every deck, you'll see a big difference ^^
You should see the look on people's faces the first time I pulled off a turn 3 Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis, following up with a turn 4 Traverse the outlands. Even after they bodied Hogaak, begging out 8 basic lands meant I had no mana issues that could keep me from playing a long game. Edit: Also, play find//finality, it slaps.
10:20 sadly, Twinflame requires being able to target one of your creatures, so you have that prerequisite of needing some other creature on your field before Dualcaster mage gets cast in response to Twinflame. For those interested to play a competitive commander option on a budget (no blue, no need of the apocalypse), i recommend; Ich-Tekik, Salvage Splicer with Keskit, the Flesh Sculptor, Old Stickfingers, Anje Falkenrath, Slicer, Hired Muscle and/or Magda, Brazen Outlaw.
@@thetrinketmage After reading the three red spells that combo with Dualcaster Mage, wow, i am wrong. But i see the confusion. the new Molten Duplication and Heat Shimmer would but Twinflame does not!
Recently wanted to make a few budget decks for some variety adjacent to my more expensive decks, and I found myself putting 'Otherwordly Gaze' in all of them. What an underrated card. In some ways it's like an amalgamation of Ponder, Mystical Tutor and Dream Twist.
Another thing that helps a lot is budget utility lands, especially the ones that come in un-tapped. Of course, they usually provide only colorless mana, but on a budget, you usually play in two colors max, so an occasional colorless land-drop doesn't hurt you much and mid-late game, they can save your butt. Both Kessig Wolf Run and Junktown have won me some casual games.
The best thing to look for on a budget, are commanders that enable a strategy or card advantage using budget or niche cards. Henzie is a great commander, he let's you slam budget fatties while keeping your hand full. Vadrik let's you play budget combat tricks and counterspells for cheap. Then you can storm off with relatively inexpensive cards. Hidetsugu and Kairi with top deck manipulation and clonss let's you play some giant spells off the top. Also, as much as people hate it, stax cards are normally pretty cheap. Although they're not very good in low / medium power, the scale in power the faster the group is. Kamahl + Akroma stax is pretty funny.
I love building decks around otherwise niche mechanics for this very reason. When I started I'd try to build things that were much more "robust" (+1s, landfall, etc) but I've found with the right commander you can really make a deck terrifying with mostly
My budget deck is Bess, Soul Nourisher, which is a 1/1 tribal commander (she gets +1/+1 counters whenever one or more base 1/1 creatures enters play under your control, and whenever she attacks, all your base 1/1s gets +X/+X, where X is the number of counters on her). My budget restriction is 1 dollar per card according to Scryfall. I got to scare a table that had stuff like the One Ring, Mana Crypt, or Cavern of Souls. While I didn't win, I did manage to get very far in that particular game.
10:21 you can't target other people's creatures with twinflame. But that doesnt matter, since you dont need to target anything with twinflame to start the combo. "Any number" can be 0.
Love this video. I will throw these decks together to see how they work. I’ve been playing MtG forever, but haven’t been as critical as I should be on my deckbuilding skills, so these videos help a ton. SUGGESTION: Add the cards that could be upgrades for these decks into the “Considering” section on Moxfield. That would be super helpful. Keep up the good work!
One of my favourite cedh decks was my budget Teshar deck. The deck went just above 150€ but only because I already owned a KCI, a Chrome mox and a grand abolisher (before it's reprints), and the deck won pretty consistently because it was dedicated to comboing fast and if it failed it could try again on the next turn sometimes even twice a turn.
One of my favorite budget options as a commander is Raff, Weatherlight Stalwart. He’s cheap, a lot of token making instant and sorceries are cheap and you get both draw and a win con in the commandzone. He’s also in blue and white so removal isn’t hard either.
In my group our casual format is not commander but more of free form about 60 cards/20 life thing. We usually play either free for all or two-headed giant, so a lot of the things about how things work in free for all commander games still applies, but we are not limited to singletons nor do we have commanders. In that group we mostly play with 2 deckpools, which comes from 2 of the people (me and one other) have a bunch of roughly equivalent power level decks, that we then loan out some of to the decks to who else wants to play. It used to be that we largely played with my decks, but over time the other one has made his decks quite a bit stronger, to the point where my decks have trouble keep up. My decks are about a decade old and has not really changed much in many years, so there have been quite a bit of powercreep since then. That and those decks are made mainly on cards I already happen to have in my collection that i wanted to try out, which is why I can have multiple such decks of approximately equivalent power level. His decks are often based on ramping into big creature threats, including things like that craterhoof behemoth as a finisher. I already have a decent amount of interaction/removal in most of my decks, partially because I played a lot of control in 1v1 long ago so I can appreciate how such interaction can help you, so that is not really something I can do much with. With the kind of manabase I have available running 2 colors is fine and 3 can work, but may be a bit streched, but more than that and it will be a challenge, at least without it also having other consequences. This means that it is not easy to jump into blue and green for draw and ramp respectively, so those decks not based on that tends to struggle with those parts. I am trying to figure out how to handle this kind of thing, especially since tons of draw and ramp outside of those colors was quite rare in the cards back then, so I would have to go out and get specific cards to handle that. All that said, those other people, including the other brewer, have specifically encuraged me to use proxies, but so far I have not done so, especially since there is no real guidelines in that casual format on what kind of powerlevel would be acceptable to include. Based on those reflextions I would rather still just look for budget options, such that I could easily buy the few extra key cards i would need, rather than have to proxy in a bunch of expensive cards. I do suspect that the others are proxying in some of their cards based on how much they are encuraging me to do it and how many rare and/or expensive cards those decks have, but I do not really know. One thing I am considering is whether to buy a bunch of sol rings and include those as ramp, as they currently are very cheap compared to the power they generate, but while they are cheap they are kind of artificially cheap so I am unsure of whether that would cause problems one way or another.
I usually try to build my decks pretty budget, might include some more expensive cards if i got it from a precon. My biggest surprise when it comes to budget builds in my Yenna deck, auras are pretty cheap and suprisingly versatile when it comes to what they can do. Ramp with wildgrowth effects, remove threats with Darksteel mutation or Ossification, protect your creatures with Umbras and everything can be copies with the commander. Then you win the game with any of Ethereal armors. For draw you have any of the many enchatresses. The deck performs very well.. until opponents plays some mass enchantment removal (though with Karmic justice they might die for it so that's fine too).
I've been wanting to play a threaten deck for ages, but I didn't think there were any commanders for it. I am very excited to play with Yasova, and I will definitely be trying out your decklist once I get all the cards for it!
I know it wasnt out when this video came out but colossal dreadmask is a nice large and hard to remove threat. If they kill the germ token being able to equip it to a mana dork or token or just going all in on one creature is great
Slammed Basking Broodscale and Rosie Cotton into a Jinnie Fay deck. Infinite Combo that, while stoppable, is super cheap and easy to pull off on turn 4. I think this is a great video to redirect our focus
with budget builds, I try to think in terms of card advantage over card draw, card advantage being anything that lets me see more cards, or play cards that I otherwise wouldn’t be able to play. examples being self mill with a bunch of eternal witness type effects, or any future sight effect (especially with topdeck manipulation), both of which drastically increase the amount of options you have to play cards without explicitly drawing them to your hand, and cards like these are way cheaper than easy repeatable card draw effects tend to be. this is doubly useful as most players won’t feel as threatened by someone doing these things as they will by looking across the table to see someone with 15 cards in hand.
I like to ramp with liquimetal torque so I can use my artifact removal on anything or pair up with someone else to destroy something. The mono black player making the busted enchantment an artifact so the mono red player can remove it always feels great
Fun 3-card combo I accidentally discovered in my Dollar Generals deck (no card >$1): Season of Growth, Herd Baloth, and Arwen Undomiel. As long as Season is onboard, playing the other 2 results in an arbitrarily large OG baloth & an arbitrary number of baloth tokens.
People play pretty high power decks at my lgs so one budget option I've been trying lately is to play more hate cards. Phyrexian Revoker can shut off treasures, or Aven Mindsensor to slow down combo players.
One thing I have been told when it comes to deck building is that everything you do is a tradeoff. The more flavorful your deck is, the less powerful and/or consistent it is. Inversely however, as flavor goes down, the power and consistency goes up. This is why that a tribal Wurm deck is going to be weaker than a generic green good stuff deck. Now obviously certain tribal themes are strong anyways- elves, dragons, goblins. But yeah. I do find myself struggling with the deck building stuff for similar reasons. I have a habit of looking to powerful cards as a quick fix and substitution to my lower skill level. A deck I'm working on right now is Sigarda Font of Blessings. At first it was a primarily angel deck. As you can imagine, it was too slow and clunky. I then shifted gears a little and made it half human, half angel to smooth out the curve. That helped my early game a bit, but didn't solve the greater problems. I'm still slow overall. Currently, the deck is heavy humans with a focus on hate bear style effects, and the few angels I do run still, are either finishers or extra utility. The deck is running better still than before, but it's still lacking a lot. I'm just not at that sweet spot yet with balancing enough card draw and ramp. I have enough removal effects, but card draw keeps stalling out. And balancing card slots is hard. I feel like when things are done, there will only be like 4 angels left.....
Mass Land Destruction is casual commander. You'll see it more outside of cEDH than in it. Often the cost is too high for what won't win you the game outright and is likely to get countered so it has much less of a home there. The cards outclassing people you showed are all high power or staples. High power is still considered casual, namely because it's not cEDH. Mass Land Destruction is also budget friendly, and it works. Magic has had mass land destruction since day one, and the first commander precons had one with Ruination printed in it. It may not be friendly, but neither is watching your opponent draw a third of their deck with Tatyova and keep a grip of free counterspells and pass the turn, giving you the illusion that you'll actually be able to do anything. (much more cruel than the cut and dry state of not having any lands) or watching the guy with smothering tithe have as much mana as the rest of his opponents combined because he got to resolve a single spell on turn 3 when people are still building board states. He'll likely win off it, same as mass land destruction but until he does everyone else gets to play out some turns of fractional value until they lose to it. He who makes the most and spends the most mana should generally win in a game of magic afterall. It may not be fun, which is often the point of playing commander at all.. but if you do appropriate turn zero discussions and the primary goal is to win, I think MLD is totally fine. No worse than other peoples one card go bbbbrrrrrr solutions.
A budget combo that i like is Savage Ventmaw plus Aggravated Assault. I've got two fecks with this combo: Scion of the Ur-Dragon and Xenagos, God of Revels. Not only are both these cards budget friendly but also are not completely dead cards on there own. Ventmaw generates bursts of mana to help you push into the late game early and Aggravated Assault can still be a late game finisher to enable extra combats. Might be considered cheap but it's super disruptive. Any kill spell, disenchant, 4 power blocker stops it so i feel like it's fine.
Managorger is IMO one of the best and sneakiest budget threats available. I've seen that people (including me) generally only notice it once it has 20 or more counters, which may be too late. One more thing I would like to add to your point on skill and politics: deck familiarity, for both your and your opponents' decks. Observe what commanders are at the table, and what cards are played from that commander's deck. You're less likely to get blown out by others if you don't know what to expect; that's likely why you've done well with your Jace Manual Storm CEDH deck: you have practiced with your deck and done your research, so you know what to expect of your deck as well as those of your opponents.
One thing that I think more channels should bring up is that foreign language cards are perfectly legal to use in any format as well, and often can be significantly cheaper. At least in my playgroup we fairly often have to look up rulings for cards anyways, and for cards like Anointed Procession or Cyclonic Rift we already know what the card does.
Looking at the spread, To me it seems the strongest budget friendly color combo (with some exceptions) is White+Green+ an optional third color. Green for cheap ramp, White for Swords and Path, Both have budget options for synergystic card draw, and budget wincons. White also has budget tutors that hunt for auras. So... Galea? Galea.
I run Luxior, Giadas gift and devoted Druid in my mowu loyal companion deck. Never upset to draw either alone and if they combo and make infinite mana even better.
My buddies and I usually play high power, bordering cEDH. However, we all decided to make $20 commander decks. It really makes you have to brew to come up with something that can keep up with mid and low high tier decks. It can be quite fun. Also shows who is an actual good deck builder and who can come up with strategies that are good and strong. I still play two of my budget commander decks. They won't consistently win turn 3-5 but they can still push out wins should the games get long enough. Occasionally even steal some games if I get a god hand.
Video topic idea and if you’ve already done this, please let me know. A video discussing on how to tell if your commander is an enabler, a payoff, or something else. Along with that a discussion on how each of those different type of commander needs different deck buildings considerations. You’ve discussed this before in other videos, but I feel more dedicated video could be helpful. I’ve been playing for seven years now and sometimes I still fail to take that into consideration.
I have defiantly mentioned it before! Honestly I’m not sure I could say enough to get a full vid out of it. But I have an idea I am working on now where that might be a big section of it
@@thetrinketmage sounds great. There have been a hand full of new players at the shop I frequent and for many your videos have been a great help in them getting a grasp on many parts of magic and this is one of the things they have been struggling with.
Id love a video bout you talking bout off meta commanders and or decks you already have, personally im building a Kresh the BloodBraided deck and would love possible insight
I don’t have a video on it but if you go to the moxfield link and go to my account I have a folder for my current decks if you want to see what I am playing right now
Your deck is only as budget as your bulk. That’s the best thing about having a good amount of cards. If you have a surplus of rocks you have rocks in all your decks, if you have a high dollar commander you can build a better version of a budget deck with a stronger front end. Bulk gives you power, you don’t have to spend top dollar at a card store just maybe pick up a pack from time to time just to open and see what’s in there maybe you’ll get an upgrade
The biggest piece of budget advice I think, is that almost every card has a budget version with different limitations. Can't afford Force of Will ? Run Foil. Can't afford Terror of the Peaks ? Warstorm Surge is still just as good as isn't a creature. The main exceptions are the obvious ones like the Ancient Dragons or Smothering Tithe but there are still ways around those, I think. And I totally agree with just removing those high value targets off the board. Your $90 Dockside ain't got shit on Essence Scatter
I'd argue that any commander that have a built-in consistent card draw make for a good budget deck. Tatyova or Jhoira weatherlight captain for example. Also commanders that make otherwise low impact cards strong like Arcades the strategist or Fynn the fangbearer
Budget is a factor, but what really matters is what you are actually trying to do. Zada is my favorite budget deck - you can achieve lethal on turn 4 for $30, and it's a great way to learn Storm.
I've learned that opponents will eventually learn to just kill on sight after a few games. Decks like these get hated out unless you have a back up plan.
Fieldar Retreat is amazing Put it in my Cats and Dogs deck because of the tokens, but I have finished games with an Evolving Wilds giving 10 1/1 tokens +2/+2 and Vigilance
For repeatable card draw, run mystic remora. It’s under $10 right now. Trust me. There is a reason why so many cedh decks run this card despite having access to any legal card regardless of budget. It is absolutely that good.
One of my best politics moments ever was the last round of a game with my budget jank Grist, the Hunger Tide deck. One player was out, and I was going to die if I took a hit, but if I died the active player had no way to deal with the voltron deck that would go after me. I promised that if they left me alone that turn, I would kill the voltron deck for them, and they took the deal - only to realize too late that I had never promised I wouldn't kill both of them at the same time. I won that game, and I was damn proud of it, but the player who cut that deal with me didn't play with me again for a while XD
Personally I use Mind’s Eye as like a budget One Ring. Sure you don’t get protection, yes it cost one more mana, and no it isn’t indestructible like the Ring but, you take damage from it and you can use it multiple times a turn potentially. Mind’s Eye cost 5. You play it and you have three mana up. You can draw a card on each of your opponents draw phase before it’s your turn again….. and you can do that every time they draw and you have one mana to spare. It may not seem like it does a lot at first glance, but throw it in a deck where you have mana to spare and you’ll never not have a full grip as long as it stays on the battlefield. It’s fairly budget friendly, most NM copies are between 5 - 8 bucks depending on the set of it’s foiled. I got one to try it out and ended buying 3 more to put in other commander decks that needed that extra bit of card draw and it is definitely worth it. And it’s colorless so you can slap it in any deck. I know I’m just some random dude commenting this but just grab one or proxy it and see for yourself 🤷♂️
Some pf our budget decks at 25 e can propably keep up with a lot of more powerfull decks. Not our most powerfull decks but most of them. I also bought the Anje *madness* deck and played it against my friends decks between 500-1000 dollar decks and could easily play with them. Its propably the most versatile precon
If you find yourself lacking either mana or card advantage, try looking towards the command zone to plug the gap. Don't underestimate cards like Seal of Cleansing, a 2 drop enchantment that you can sacrifice to blow up another artifact or enchantment. Just having the threat of removal on the board will scare many players out of trying to play their big, scary cards, allowing you time to build up your board. Best of all, it's almost impossible for your opponents to remove such a card effectively, since they're almost guaranteed to either 2 for 1 themselves, or have to give up a high value card in the process
Budget stax. It requires more game knowledge, and a feel for the kinds of games you'll be playing (to know what pieces to bring, when to play them, and how to break parity) but you don't know joy like casting Lavinia into an Eldrazi cascade deck and protecting her while they look at an 80 cent 2-drop folding them clean in half. Blind Obedience alone is worth its weight in gold, doing triple duty stopping treasures, mana rock blinking, and hasty creatures while padding your life total, and providing you with consistent damage that people let just sit wayyyy longer than they should. Many solid stax pieces are less than 3 dollars, and some of the best hatebears are also a fraction of the cost of the combos and finishers they shit on. Include a combo to turn the corner once you've ground the game to a slower pace, and you can genuinely clean up. Despite the grumbling about control and stax, it is super healthy for a format when someone is keeping threats in check and you can win a lot of goodwill when one of your pieces is pinning the archenemy down. I never have more political cachet in a game than when I've given slower decks room to breathe.
That Gaffer card is the kind of card that's going to skyrocket when they print a lifegain precon and don't include it because it's Universes Beyond. This is an auto include in Extort and lifegain angels and I'm slotting him into Omnath, Locus of Creation.
I just want to ask that when you mention a card and put up for us to view can you leave it up for a few more seconds so i can read it??? Thanks for all the content that you make. Your videos have helped my deck building a lot!
Sorry, trying to strike a balance between letting people read the card and not having a static image on screen for too long. I’ll keep this comment in mind though
i am so with you about combos being basically the same thing as a massive overrun effect. had some kid at fnm get really upset last night because of my forensic gadgeteer/basalt mono combo but he was playing ur dragon and had tried to send 40 flying damage at me on the previous turn which he played mostly for free with the commander and another dragon. i genuinely don’t see the difference lol.
Sheoldred that was mentioned in the video is good but it doesn't give you value as much as it used to as spot removal is more common place, especially when in the "powering up to face off other decks".
Normally I’d agree but with search for blex this Sheoldred will usually have a lot of good targets and if you untap with it you are so far ahead. Plus you get value if player number 3 has the spot removal next turn case you force players to sac creatures
@@thetrinketmage makes sense, I would put it in but 7 mana even with ramp is a lot. Another thing to consider (not in this example but in many others) decks usually have "nonbo" cards, card that seem to work in a deck but have little to no synergy but appear in majority of a certain commanders decks.
BLEX MENTIONED my most recent deck is a blex deck, and due to the nature of blex being very much a supporting commander u can swap out for grist or even zask if im feeling spicy (he needs some ramp). very fun and my strongest deck so far, although its an unfortunate combo of kind of oppressive and kind of slow
Wilson Refined Grizzly + Noble Heritage auras is my budget deck and it's able to compete with most other decks fairly well. Aura centred decks in general are pretty cheap and there so much cheap support for auras it's a great place to go if you're looking to play on a budget.
I have an equipment deck around 30 bucks that gets around 20 command damage around turn 5 and is super hard to counter, plus after round 6 ish i have protection indestructible trample double and it’s doing like 30/30 plus it cheats value and it’s just a crazy budget deck
I don't understand why people do this, but I've had many people in my almost 10 year tenure of playing this game that would brag about how expensive their deck is. Just because you're deck has an extra zero attached to the price tag doesn't make it better. Half the time the deck doesn't even need it, it's just for clout and it puzzles me
Oh heck ya. I challenged myself to build a deck that’s under a $100, what it helped me realize is that you don’t have to cram all the “high value” cards in your deck to have success.
congrats on 10k B)
Thanks and thank you for the great artwork!
Next time someone complains they don’t get to use their 50$ card I’ll be sure to mention the removal cost .50c
I create a counterspell tribal deck long time before, with very junk counterspells, I win the hate of a 500€ ur-dragon deck player because I didn't stop countering his best dragon and spells.
That was the best day of my life😂😂😂
@crtikhit2244 I counterspelled this guy so hard he scooped. I was playing alela cunning conquerer with wave break hipocamp out so every time I counterspelled or used a pongify effect my spells were replaced with a new card and a faerie. It was beautiful. This was right after he thrashed the table with sheoldred. So he deserved it.
I’ve made like 5 decks for $100, cause my playgroup said my decks are to strong and expensive… so I just built the 5 decks… needless to say half them still destroyed the playgroup.
Or copy it with a phyrexian metamorph
The counter argument is: Why do you need to gatekeep fun for collectors when removal is .50c?
"If you don't know who to attack, just ask the table or attack the player with the most Green And Blue at the table."
You are accurate and I love that idea!
In my eyes, any player that is the "Big Mana" rapport deck needs to be punished early game. Especially Mono Black as their life total is commonly how many cards they can draw and usually wins with a 12-20 mana turn
I love playing budget decks for many reasons, but sneaky value is one of them. If people have never heard of a card you play, they might not target you until they realize its true power, which may be too late.
Or they target you cause you've got a bunch of odd cards and they don't know WHICH one is the problem so they just try and kill you. I'm not salty I swear lol
@@jaredwright1655 Haha :D
I love playing Abolish, every single time people are like "what is that card?! That's pretty cool!"
I feel this so hard, I pretty much exclusively play jank and it just feels so good when a card that at first glace makes you go "why would anyone use this" finds it's niche and perfectly solves a situation
Honestly, in my opinion, the best budget commander is Hewlett-Packard, Laserjet. You can pick it up at your LTS (local thrift shop) when they have it in stock. It does everything! It can even play on a CEDH level. People who run pricier decks can get a bit salty, but most game stores will let you play it.
Fantastic advice, I'll have to pick one up!
TBH, that would be a funny art proxy for Faceless One. 😂
Eh, I still think the constraints of a budget deck can be more fun
instructions unclear; attempted board politics, ended up watching my commander be bent in half
Hey if you're running budget you could just whip out another one and say "yeah man got any more quarters you want to waste?"
Some other commander tips:
If a creature is not going to be blocking, (value engine, your opponent has no attacks) Swing with it if it is likely to survive, its free damage. I see so many people just keep back their big board of green things because they have not yet achieved the big funny and are only about 3/3-5/5, while my on average 1/2 - 2/2 board of aristocrats gets away with not being pressured at all.
Don't snap off removal because someone killed your thing, in a recent game, Player B removed player A's commander, then Player A got to make the choice, hold their removal spell for Player C's commander that would probably come down, a voltron esque 7 mana haste thing, or remove player B's partner commander that was there to enable colors. In general, removing the big thing instead of getting revenge might be worth it.
Finally, whatever you do, make sure to have some kind of backup plan for at least one boardwhipe, I am not saying to sandbag literally all of your cards, however drawing some cards while you still can to have a hand full of cards in case something happens, keeping back one carddraw creature, or if that is not your style, keeping up protection are all options that, while they do not instantly win games, at least prevent you from losing on the spot. Yes cards like clever cocealment (or ghostway on a budget) might not be a big beatstick, however they can keep your beatsticks safe through a boardwhipe.
One tip for building budget that I think is often ignored is just being generous with your land count. EDH seems to punish you more for mana screw than flood and land is cheaper to begin with, but also by rounding up in a multi-colour deck you give yourself better odds of having the right pips most games. If you don't have the most flexible lands due to budget this further helps the deck. The Gates theme is something you can run at lower cost to capitalise on affordable dual lands too, especially now the choose Gates exist.
Starting with a mono colour commander and being able to cheap out using basics makes things even more budget friendly, though monocolour decks will also feel punishing in terms of limited removal options at low budget, for example. Depends which colour to some extent.
The first tip I give to new EDH player is... make Urself a decklist checklist... Mine is for example: 10-12 ramp, 9-11 interaction, 9-11 draw, the rest is engine/core... that makes U plan and see ahead what problems the deck might have in the future...
Ps: Very interesting Yasova deck tech. I'm working on the same concept but using Hofri Ghostforge, since I'll get a copy token for myself off the creatures I sacrifice and will include the revielark and Karmic Guide combo
Almost double your draw for more success
8:01 Yeah, I have a Selesnya +1/+1 counters deck that it slays in, especially when my Enduring Scalelord is in play. Great card!
When you're talking about removal, it's interesting. If you're finding players have better winning power than you, increasing your stopping power your ability to stop them from winning and give you a chance can be a cheaper solution
Spot removal is cheap!
It's even very easy to build reactive decks on the cheap. Lavinia, Foil to Conspiracy lets you hold up the mana to react multiple times a cycle and rewards you for doing so on top of that.
I want to add two more things to this, already, incredible video:
1- Play combos if you want. At least a combo of your level. Four card combos are fine in a lot of places cause they need preparation and people see them coming. Even two card combos are fine if they are on the right deck/right power level.
2- What commander are you playing is very important while talking about this topic. There are a few of them who are great in almost every power level. Teysa Karlov for example. You can make a 50$ Teysa with commons, uncommons aristocrats, morbid oportunist and cards like the 4cmc black eldrazi.
PD: To play a budget commander deck in a powerful table, you need to have a value engine/double trigger/strong as a card commander. I would recommend to try a good commander first in budget and then try other things when you know how to play with good but cheap cards.
Dina is a cEDH deck that can be built on a very tight budget, since the only thing you need is a hulk, reanimation, and some entombs and ramp do get there
combos are pretty simple if you actually sit down and think about it
every player who says they dislike combo will have an exception "oh but this style is okay" and then theyll try to define something that feels unnecessarily specific.
the actuak trick is, dont make your combos substantially stronger than the rest of the deck. Thats it, thats the entire problem. noone likes picking a deck to match what they were told was battlecruiser, and then whoops they found combo pieces on t10 and the games over.
if youre expecting it, you know to keep interaction up, if youre not, it feels unfair and unearned
but its also hard to match a deck against these combos, do you match the bulk of the deck? or the combo? either choice often leaves a player feeling like it was unfair.
so if youre building something lower power, keep your combos there. leave your high power combo for higher power decks.
like, if almost all of your cards set an expectation the combo shouldnt break it, just be another way of following up on it
So Psychosis Crawler or Queza, Auger of Agonies and Peer into the Abyss are a no-go? 😅
I watched an edh game last night from mtg goldfish. $10k vs $1k vs $100 vs $10. It was pretty surprising
I watched that one as well I wished we saw more expensive cards show up for the $10k deck
@@thetrinketmageI actually found it interesting that the 10k deck was only spent on the manabase, because most crazy expense cards don't even have synergies with each other. You would end up with a ton of power, but unable to abuse it properly.
@@evanbutler4347this reminds me of my 1k+ deck with only basic forests.
its mostly price in fancy printings, but I found it funnier the more expensive it got, so i started trading for more expensive versions of basically the same thing.
I was really surprised and impressed by some of the budget decks ($25-50) I've tried. With the right picks, and a decent pilot, they can keep relevant with everything up to cEDH. They also make me feel like I'm improving as a pilot, since you're basically intentionally making the format more difficult through constraints. Would recommend absolutely everyone try some out.
“Or just attack the player with the most green and blue” yes🗿
As a new player this has already helped so much! I much prefer forcing myself to get creative by putting myself on a budget, and besides having literally every card available is way too overwhelming. This is helping me alot with the decks i wanna build alr
"Attack the player with the most green and blue in their deck" I already feel attacked!
John Benton has been talked about a lot recently as a budget deck that does more than just keep up: its actually an absolute powerhouse (WHY does he have haste jfc). In general non-equipment voltron seems pretty cheap relative to it's power, auras rarely cost more than $5 and combat tricks are almost all under $1.
Been hearing a lot about that commander lately might need to check him out
A note on the combo front: It might look good to make that infinite include your commander, especially if you only need one extra card to make it work, but you should be careful. If your commander being on the battlefield could cause your opponents to die at any moment, they’re going to be way more likely to kill it for no discernible reason.
This is a great video. I've been getting into budget deck building for the challenge of it. I'd like to highlight Ruxa, Patient Professor as a commander that is also very patient with your wallet.
Ruxa is a fun card I want more support for that theme
We don't always agree, but I'm 100% with you on this one !
Having a playgroup where we only play 30€ decks for several years, all those advices are on point.
I would add something :
- people having some form of hate for counterspells or combos need to play a budget deck. A counterspell is probably the best answer but ask for more "skill" (which is a way people can improve, as you said) and playing combos will make you play cards that other people may not have encountered before and by doing so, make your play patterns less easy to read.
- make sure to be able to win on different axis if you can. Playing the board and having a combo backup may give the wrong hints to your opponents and even experienced players may not be able to see if you're midrange or aggro. It's one of the biggest things to keep in mind : if people can't predict how you're wanting to win, they may not be able to stop you at the right moment.
- play more synergies, you said it but in a way that may not be that clear for beginners ;) goodstuff cards may be less snowbally than a good piece of synergy, and most of those are not that costly. Try to play ramp that fits your themes, rather than just putting a sol ring in every deck, you'll see a big difference ^^
You should see the look on people's faces the first time I pulled off a turn 3 Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis, following up with a turn 4 Traverse the outlands. Even after they bodied Hogaak, begging out 8 basic lands meant I had no mana issues that could keep me from playing a long game.
Edit: Also, play find//finality, it slaps.
I love watching your videos instead of playing commander with real people. I love how much I learn about a format I don't play nor care about
10:20 sadly, Twinflame requires being able to target one of your creatures, so you have that prerequisite of needing some other creature on your field before Dualcaster mage gets cast in response to Twinflame.
For those interested to play a competitive commander option on a budget (no blue, no need of the apocalypse), i recommend; Ich-Tekik, Salvage Splicer with Keskit, the Flesh Sculptor, Old Stickfingers, Anje Falkenrath, Slicer, Hired Muscle and/or Magda, Brazen Outlaw.
Sorry slight slip up in the script from when it was originally heat shimmer. But fun fact twin flame can be cast with no targets
@@thetrinketmage After reading the three red spells that combo with Dualcaster Mage, wow, i am wrong. But i see the confusion. the new Molten Duplication and Heat Shimmer would but Twinflame does not!
@@thetrinketmage I just realized this. Unfortunately, copying the spell with Dualcaster Mage does not allow you to change the number of targets.
Recently wanted to make a few budget decks for some variety adjacent to my more expensive decks, and I found myself putting 'Otherwordly Gaze' in all of them. What an underrated card. In some ways it's like an amalgamation of Ponder, Mystical Tutor and Dream Twist.
That card is really interesting! I wonder how much the scry would need to be for a card like that to see play in modern
Another thing that helps a lot is budget utility lands, especially the ones that come in un-tapped. Of course, they usually provide only colorless mana, but on a budget, you usually play in two colors max, so an occasional colorless land-drop doesn't hurt you much and mid-late game, they can save your butt. Both Kessig Wolf Run and Junktown have won me some casual games.
The best thing to look for on a budget, are commanders that enable a strategy or card advantage using budget or niche cards.
Henzie is a great commander, he let's you slam budget fatties while keeping your hand full.
Vadrik let's you play budget combat tricks and counterspells for cheap. Then you can storm off with relatively inexpensive cards.
Hidetsugu and Kairi with top deck manipulation and clonss let's you play some giant spells off the top.
Also, as much as people hate it, stax cards are normally pretty cheap. Although they're not very good in low / medium power, the scale in power the faster the group is. Kamahl + Akroma stax is pretty funny.
I love building decks around otherwise niche mechanics for this very reason. When I started I'd try to build things that were much more "robust" (+1s, landfall, etc) but I've found with the right commander you can really make a deck terrifying with mostly
My budget deck is Bess, Soul Nourisher, which is a 1/1 tribal commander (she gets +1/+1 counters whenever one or more base 1/1 creatures enters play under your control, and whenever she attacks, all your base 1/1s gets +X/+X, where X is the number of counters on her). My budget restriction is 1 dollar per card according to Scryfall. I got to scare a table that had stuff like the One Ring, Mana Crypt, or Cavern of Souls. While I didn't win, I did manage to get very far in that particular game.
10:21 you can't target other people's creatures with twinflame. But that doesnt matter, since you dont need to target anything with twinflame to start the combo. "Any number" can be 0.
Oh my god! Good catch. I think the script had heat shimmer in their originally so I made a slight oops when changing it
@@thetrinketmage that makes sense, strive cards are weird that they can target 0 things, easy to overlook.
@@ravensiIvaGood catch! Did not notice it. Thank you
That Blex deck looks really fun, great video
Love this video. I will throw these decks together to see how they work. I’ve been playing MtG forever, but haven’t been as critical as I should be on my deckbuilding skills, so these videos help a ton. SUGGESTION: Add the cards that could be upgrades for these decks into the “Considering” section on Moxfield. That would be super helpful. Keep up the good work!
I’ll try and get to that when I have time appreciate the suggestion
You've turned me towards control! I never thought I'd like it and it's exactly what I've been wanting out of edh
One of my favourite cedh decks was my budget Teshar deck. The deck went just above 150€ but only because I already owned a KCI, a Chrome mox and a grand abolisher (before it's reprints), and the deck won pretty consistently because it was dedicated to comboing fast and if it failed it could try again on the next turn sometimes even twice a turn.
A fun budget deck I made recently was mari, the killing quill and it throws a rench in so many people's plans
When making the budget decks for this vid I almost made a Mari deck
One of my favorite budget options as a commander is Raff, Weatherlight Stalwart. He’s cheap, a lot of token making instant and sorceries are cheap and you get both draw and a win con in the commandzone. He’s also in blue and white so removal isn’t hard either.
In my group our casual format is not commander but more of free form about 60 cards/20 life thing. We usually play either free for all or two-headed giant, so a lot of the things about how things work in free for all commander games still applies, but we are not limited to singletons nor do we have commanders.
In that group we mostly play with 2 deckpools, which comes from 2 of the people (me and one other) have a bunch of roughly equivalent power level decks, that we then loan out some of to the decks to who else wants to play. It used to be that we largely played with my decks, but over time the other one has made his decks quite a bit stronger, to the point where my decks have trouble keep up. My decks are about a decade old and has not really changed much in many years, so there have been quite a bit of powercreep since then. That and those decks are made mainly on cards I already happen to have in my collection that i wanted to try out, which is why I can have multiple such decks of approximately equivalent power level. His decks are often based on ramping into big creature threats, including things like that craterhoof behemoth as a finisher. I already have a decent amount of interaction/removal in most of my decks, partially because I played a lot of control in 1v1 long ago so I can appreciate how such interaction can help you, so that is not really something I can do much with. With the kind of manabase I have available running 2 colors is fine and 3 can work, but may be a bit streched, but more than that and it will be a challenge, at least without it also having other consequences. This means that it is not easy to jump into blue and green for draw and ramp respectively, so those decks not based on that tends to struggle with those parts. I am trying to figure out how to handle this kind of thing, especially since tons of draw and ramp outside of those colors was quite rare in the cards back then, so I would have to go out and get specific cards to handle that.
All that said, those other people, including the other brewer, have specifically encuraged me to use proxies, but so far I have not done so, especially since there is no real guidelines in that casual format on what kind of powerlevel would be acceptable to include. Based on those reflextions I would rather still just look for budget options, such that I could easily buy the few extra key cards i would need, rather than have to proxy in a bunch of expensive cards. I do suspect that the others are proxying in some of their cards based on how much they are encuraging me to do it and how many rare and/or expensive cards those decks have, but I do not really know. One thing I am considering is whether to buy a bunch of sol rings and include those as ramp, as they currently are very cheap compared to the power they generate, but while they are cheap they are kind of artificially cheap so I am unsure of whether that would cause problems one way or another.
Great video love the lists!
I usually try to build my decks pretty budget, might include some more expensive cards if i got it from a precon. My biggest surprise when it comes to budget builds in my Yenna deck, auras are pretty cheap and suprisingly versatile when it comes to what they can do. Ramp with wildgrowth effects, remove threats with Darksteel mutation or Ossification, protect your creatures with Umbras and everything can be copies with the commander. Then you win the game with any of Ethereal armors. For draw you have any of the many enchatresses. The deck performs very well.. until opponents plays some mass enchantment removal (though with Karmic justice they might die for it so that's fine too).
Love the Losheel deck... amazing versatility as a pauper commander or edh.. or in the 99 of edh decks. Sick stuff
I've been wanting to play a threaten deck for ages, but I didn't think there were any commanders for it. I am very excited to play with Yasova, and I will definitely be trying out your decklist once I get all the cards for it!
shoutouts to End-Raze Forerunners. Craterhoof Behemoth at Home is still pretty good
I lost to that in modern once it was wild
I know it wasnt out when this video came out but colossal dreadmask is a nice large and hard to remove threat. If they kill the germ token being able to equip it to a mana dork or token or just going all in on one creature is great
Slammed Basking Broodscale and Rosie Cotton into a Jinnie Fay deck. Infinite Combo that, while stoppable, is super cheap and easy to pull off on turn 4. I think this is a great video to redirect our focus
with budget builds, I try to think in terms of card advantage over card draw, card advantage being anything that lets me see more cards, or play cards that I otherwise wouldn’t be able to play.
examples being self mill with a bunch of eternal witness type effects, or any future sight effect (especially with topdeck manipulation), both of which drastically increase the amount of options you have to play cards without explicitly drawing them to your hand, and cards like these are way cheaper than easy repeatable card draw effects tend to be.
this is doubly useful as most players won’t feel as threatened by someone doing these things as they will by looking across the table to see someone with 15 cards in hand.
The decks look very interesting
Yeah building budget decks is more fun
Good job!
I like to ramp with liquimetal torque so I can use my artifact removal on anything or pair up with someone else to destroy something. The mono black player making the busted enchantment an artifact so the mono red player can remove it always feels great
Fun 3-card combo I accidentally discovered in my Dollar Generals deck (no card >$1): Season of Growth, Herd Baloth, and Arwen Undomiel. As long as Season is onboard, playing the other 2 results in an arbitrarily large OG baloth & an arbitrary number of baloth tokens.
Thank you for including commander spellbook! Subbed!
People play pretty high power decks at my lgs so one budget option I've been trying lately is to play more hate cards. Phyrexian Revoker can shut off treasures, or Aven Mindsensor to slow down combo players.
Swift reconfig is protection. it only really stops a big attack once or saves your creature from creature removal.
One thing I have been told when it comes to deck building is that everything you do is a tradeoff. The more flavorful your deck is, the less powerful and/or consistent it is. Inversely however, as flavor goes down, the power and consistency goes up. This is why that a tribal Wurm deck is going to be weaker than a generic green good stuff deck. Now obviously certain tribal themes are strong anyways- elves, dragons, goblins. But yeah.
I do find myself struggling with the deck building stuff for similar reasons. I have a habit of looking to powerful cards as a quick fix and substitution to my lower skill level. A deck I'm working on right now is Sigarda Font of Blessings. At first it was a primarily angel deck. As you can imagine, it was too slow and clunky. I then shifted gears a little and made it half human, half angel to smooth out the curve. That helped my early game a bit, but didn't solve the greater problems. I'm still slow overall. Currently, the deck is heavy humans with a focus on hate bear style effects, and the few angels I do run still, are either finishers or extra utility.
The deck is running better still than before, but it's still lacking a lot. I'm just not at that sweet spot yet with balancing enough card draw and ramp. I have enough removal effects, but card draw keeps stalling out. And balancing card slots is hard.
I feel like when things are done, there will only be like 4 angels left.....
Excellent video, love the info.
Mass Land Destruction is casual commander. You'll see it more outside of cEDH than in it. Often the cost is too high for what won't win you the game outright and is likely to get countered so it has much less of a home there. The cards outclassing people you showed are all high power or staples. High power is still considered casual, namely because it's not cEDH. Mass Land Destruction is also budget friendly, and it works. Magic has had mass land destruction since day one, and the first commander precons had one with Ruination printed in it. It may not be friendly, but neither is watching your opponent draw a third of their deck with Tatyova and keep a grip of free counterspells and pass the turn, giving you the illusion that you'll actually be able to do anything. (much more cruel than the cut and dry state of not having any lands) or watching the guy with smothering tithe have as much mana as the rest of his opponents combined because he got to resolve a single spell on turn 3 when people are still building board states. He'll likely win off it, same as mass land destruction but until he does everyone else gets to play out some turns of fractional value until they lose to it. He who makes the most and spends the most mana should generally win in a game of magic afterall. It may not be fun, which is often the point of playing commander at all.. but if you do appropriate turn zero discussions and the primary goal is to win, I think MLD is totally fine. No worse than other peoples one card go bbbbrrrrrr solutions.
They hated him because he spoke the truth
A budget combo that i like is Savage Ventmaw plus Aggravated Assault. I've got two fecks with this combo: Scion of the Ur-Dragon and Xenagos, God of Revels. Not only are both these cards budget friendly but also are not completely dead cards on there own. Ventmaw generates bursts of mana to help you push into the late game early and Aggravated Assault can still be a late game finisher to enable extra combats.
Might be considered cheap but it's super disruptive. Any kill spell, disenchant, 4 power blocker stops it so i feel like it's fine.
Managorger is IMO one of the best and sneakiest budget threats available. I've seen that people (including me) generally only notice it once it has 20 or more counters, which may be too late.
One more thing I would like to add to your point on skill and politics: deck familiarity, for both your and your opponents' decks. Observe what commanders are at the table, and what cards are played from that commander's deck. You're less likely to get blown out by others if you don't know what to expect; that's likely why you've done well with your Jace Manual Storm CEDH deck: you have practiced with your deck and done your research, so you know what to expect of your deck as well as those of your opponents.
I built the Blex deck with cards I had at home. it's super fun and it work!!!
One thing that I think more channels should bring up is that foreign language cards are perfectly legal to use in any format as well, and often can be significantly cheaper. At least in my playgroup we fairly often have to look up rulings for cards anyways, and for cards like Anointed Procession or Cyclonic Rift we already know what the card does.
Not if it makes the card unintelligible to your opponent. In that case, print out an English proxy for reference.
Looking at the spread, To me it seems the strongest budget friendly color combo (with some exceptions) is White+Green+ an optional third color. Green for cheap ramp, White for Swords and Path, Both have budget options for synergystic card draw, and budget wincons. White also has budget tutors that hunt for auras. So... Galea? Galea.
I run Luxior, Giadas gift and devoted Druid in my mowu loyal companion deck. Never upset to draw either alone and if they combo and make infinite mana even better.
What a nice random video to stumble upon
Stick around I’ve got more interesting stuff in the works!
TL:DR Play Control
GISA MENTIONED 🗣️🗣️🗣️‼️‼️‼️ 10:38 (i run gisa and it’s by far my favorite deck)
My buddies and I usually play high power, bordering cEDH. However, we all decided to make $20 commander decks. It really makes you have to brew to come up with something that can keep up with mid and low high tier decks. It can be quite fun. Also shows who is an actual good deck builder and who can come up with strategies that are good and strong.
I still play two of my budget commander decks. They won't consistently win turn 3-5 but they can still push out wins should the games get long enough. Occasionally even steal some games if I get a god hand.
Seeing losheel in the thumbnail got my attention
Video topic idea and if you’ve already done this, please let me know. A video discussing on how to tell if your commander is an enabler, a payoff, or something else. Along with that a discussion on how each of those different type of commander needs different deck buildings considerations. You’ve discussed this before in other videos, but I feel more dedicated video could be helpful. I’ve been playing for seven years now and sometimes I still fail to take that into consideration.
I have defiantly mentioned it before! Honestly I’m not sure I could say enough to get a full vid out of it. But I have an idea I am working on now where that might be a big section of it
@@thetrinketmage sounds great. There have been a hand full of new players at the shop I frequent and for many your videos have been a great help in them getting a grasp on many parts of magic and this is one of the things they have been struggling with.
Funny how this video appeared in my feed as im brewing a budget deck 😊
The algorithm works in mysterious ways
youtube's watching you
Id love a video bout you talking bout off meta commanders and or decks you already have, personally im building a Kresh the BloodBraided deck and would love possible insight
I don’t have a video on it but if you go to the moxfield link and go to my account I have a folder for my current decks if you want to see what I am playing right now
great video! i will try out this Blex deck for sure
Your deck is only as budget as your bulk. That’s the best thing about having a good amount of cards. If you have a surplus of rocks you have rocks in all your decks, if you have a high dollar commander you can build a better version of a budget deck with a stronger front end. Bulk gives you power, you don’t have to spend top dollar at a card store just maybe pick up a pack from time to time just to open and see what’s in there maybe you’ll get an upgrade
Mirkwood bats being ban worthy has got to be satire 😅
I cropped the name but it was not satire at all
@@thetrinketmage you are clearly a very intelligent magic player, you really believe it’s ban worthy?
@@shundo8460 I think the joke is that the actual Commander rules committee put Mirkwood Bats on a watchlist and considered banning it :)
@@aimlessgun did they really? That is absolutely insane to me
The biggest piece of budget advice I think, is that almost every card has a budget version with different limitations. Can't afford Force of Will ? Run Foil. Can't afford Terror of the Peaks ? Warstorm Surge is still just as good as isn't a creature. The main exceptions are the obvious ones like the Ancient Dragons or Smothering Tithe but there are still ways around those, I think. And I totally agree with just removing those high value targets off the board. Your $90 Dockside ain't got shit on Essence Scatter
Love your videos, thanks!
Simic 🌳💧: "WHY ALWAYS US?!" 😭😭😭
Love Blex, thanks for the list
I'd argue that any commander that have a built-in consistent card draw make for a good budget deck. Tatyova or Jhoira weatherlight captain for example. Also commanders that make otherwise low impact cards strong like Arcades the strategist or Fynn the fangbearer
You know, I get that your avatar is a trinket mage. But it also looks like a skittari.
It’s a little bit of both!
I don’t know what a trinket mage is and fully thought it was a warhammer reference up until this comment
I thought it was a skitarri... I even tell my buddies "one of the videos from that skitarri guy" lolol
Budget is a factor, but what really matters is what you are actually trying to do. Zada is my favorite budget deck - you can achieve lethal on turn 4 for $30, and it's a great way to learn Storm.
I've learned that opponents will eventually learn to just kill on sight after a few games. Decks like these get hated out unless you have a back up plan.
@@tempestandacomputer6951 That's true. That's why you ultimately can't be too aggressive with certain commanders.
@@jaysuede2627 Yeah. I unfortunately had to make Kaalia a soft reanimator deck because players just know better nowadays.
9 fingers keene is an honorable mention! I have a decklist thats only like 90 bucks and its a lot of fun
Fieldar Retreat is amazing
Put it in my Cats and Dogs deck because of the tokens, but I have finished games with an Evolving Wilds giving 10 1/1 tokens +2/+2 and Vigilance
Cyberdrive awakener is so funny in my Toggo/Thrasios deck. I turn a pile of rocks into a full board kill
For repeatable card draw, run mystic remora. It’s under $10 right now. Trust me. There is a reason why so many cedh decks run this card despite having access to any legal card regardless of budget. It is absolutely that good.
One of my best politics moments ever was the last round of a game with my budget jank Grist, the Hunger Tide deck. One player was out, and I was going to die if I took a hit, but if I died the active player had no way to deal with the voltron deck that would go after me. I promised that if they left me alone that turn, I would kill the voltron deck for them, and they took the deal - only to realize too late that I had never promised I wouldn't kill both of them at the same time. I won that game, and I was damn proud of it, but the player who cut that deal with me didn't play with me again for a while XD
Thanks for the tips. I’m going to make my own list of edh staples that are lower than $10.00. I’m curious what comes up.
Personally I use Mind’s Eye as like a budget One Ring. Sure you don’t get protection, yes it cost one more mana, and no it isn’t indestructible like the Ring but, you take damage from it and you can use it multiple times a turn potentially. Mind’s Eye cost 5. You play it and you have three mana up. You can draw a card on each of your opponents draw phase before it’s your turn again….. and you can do that every time they draw and you have one mana to spare. It may not seem like it does a lot at first glance, but throw it in a deck where you have mana to spare and you’ll never not have a full grip as long as it stays on the battlefield. It’s fairly budget friendly, most NM copies are between 5 - 8 bucks depending on the set of it’s foiled. I got one to try it out and ended buying 3 more to put in other commander decks that needed that extra bit of card draw and it is definitely worth it. And it’s colorless so you can slap it in any deck. I know I’m just some random dude commenting this but just grab one or proxy it and see for yourself 🤷♂️
I like minds eye and use it in my Heliod deck! It’s not amazing but decent card
Advantage for sure
I made a $45 Ovika deck that overwhelms the table if they let it go. It's a lot of fun to just be a problem.
I recommend the Tap deck, Hylda, Icy crown. Her spells's cheap since tapping is not so cool, beside tap, i use stun effect
Some pf our budget decks at 25 e can propably keep up with a lot of more powerfull decks. Not our most powerfull decks but most of them. I also bought the Anje *madness* deck and played it against my friends decks between 500-1000 dollar decks and could easily play with them. Its propably the most versatile precon
If you find yourself lacking either mana or card advantage, try looking towards the command zone to plug the gap.
Don't underestimate cards like Seal of Cleansing, a 2 drop enchantment that you can sacrifice to blow up another artifact or enchantment. Just having the threat of removal on the board will scare many players out of trying to play their big, scary cards, allowing you time to build up your board. Best of all, it's almost impossible for your opponents to remove such a card effectively, since they're almost guaranteed to either 2 for 1 themselves, or have to give up a high value card in the process
Budget stax. It requires more game knowledge, and a feel for the kinds of games you'll be playing (to know what pieces to bring, when to play them, and how to break parity) but you don't know joy like casting Lavinia into an Eldrazi cascade deck and protecting her while they look at an 80 cent 2-drop folding them clean in half. Blind Obedience alone is worth its weight in gold, doing triple duty stopping treasures, mana rock blinking, and hasty creatures while padding your life total, and providing you with consistent damage that people let just sit wayyyy longer than they should. Many solid stax pieces are less than 3 dollars, and some of the best hatebears are also a fraction of the cost of the combos and finishers they shit on. Include a combo to turn the corner once you've ground the game to a slower pace, and you can genuinely clean up.
Despite the grumbling about control and stax, it is super healthy for a format when someone is keeping threats in check and you can win a lot of goodwill when one of your pieces is pinning the archenemy down. I never have more political cachet in a game than when I've given slower decks room to breathe.
That Gaffer card is the kind of card that's going to skyrocket when they print a lifegain precon and don't include it because it's Universes Beyond. This is an auto include in Extort and lifegain angels and I'm slotting him into Omnath, Locus of Creation.
Oh extort is a really good synergy with the Gaffer!
I just want to ask that when you mention a card and put up for us to view can you leave it up for a few more seconds so i can read it??? Thanks for all the content that you make. Your videos have helped my deck building a lot!
Sorry, trying to strike a balance between letting people read the card and not having a static image on screen for too long. I’ll keep this comment in mind though
bro i JUST finnished a blex landfall deck and i’m building a yasova BPod deck. it feels like as soon as i get an idea everyone does too
i am so with you about combos being basically the same thing as a massive overrun effect. had some kid at fnm get really upset last night because of my forensic gadgeteer/basalt mono combo but he was playing ur dragon and had tried to send 40 flying damage at me on the previous turn which he played mostly for free with the commander and another dragon. i genuinely don’t see the difference lol.
Sheoldred that was mentioned in the video is good but it doesn't give you value as much as it used to as spot removal is more common place, especially when in the "powering up to face off other decks".
Normally I’d agree but with search for blex this Sheoldred will usually have a lot of good targets and if you untap with it you are so far ahead. Plus you get value if player number 3 has the spot removal next turn case you force players to sac creatures
@@thetrinketmage makes sense, I would put it in but 7 mana even with ramp is a lot.
Another thing to consider (not in this example but in many others) decks usually have "nonbo" cards, card that seem to work in a deck but have little to no synergy but appear in majority of a certain commanders decks.
With enough synergy budget doesn't matter
BLEX MENTIONED
my most recent deck is a blex deck, and due to the nature of blex being very much a supporting commander u can swap out for grist or even zask if im feeling spicy (he needs some ramp). very fun and my strongest deck so far, although its an unfortunate combo of kind of oppressive and kind of slow
I love building budget decks because putting in expensive staples is just too lazy for me, it just lacks creativity.
Wilson Refined Grizzly + Noble Heritage auras is my budget deck and it's able to compete with most other decks fairly well. Aura centred decks in general are pretty cheap and there so much cheap support for auras it's a great place to go if you're looking to play on a budget.
I have an equipment deck around 30 bucks that gets around 20 command damage around turn 5 and is super hard to counter, plus after round 6 ish i have protection indestructible trample double and it’s doing like 30/30 plus it cheats value and it’s just a crazy budget deck
I don't understand why people do this, but I've had many people in my almost 10 year tenure of playing this game that would brag about how expensive their deck is. Just because you're deck has an extra zero attached to the price tag doesn't make it better. Half the time the deck doesn't even need it, it's just for clout and it puzzles me
Oh heck ya. I challenged myself to build a deck that’s under a $100, what it helped me realize is that you don’t have to cram all the “high value” cards in your deck to have success.