Budget Staples for Newer Players

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bobthefunny
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Post by bobthefunny » 3 years ago

Prior to our shutdown, I was discussing my Linden deck with a member of my LGS. He then mentioned that he felt that the only reason the deck worked was because of some of the expensive staples (Land Tax), and it could never be built on a budget. Now, the current list is a bit outside of budget at $400, but can easily be brought to $200 by removing a few non-key cards with easy replacements (as it is a mono-W deck, the fetch lands are not necessary, and Sword of Light and Shadow is easily replaceable with some other recursion, such as Emeria Shepherd). That's still not quite 'budget', but is certainly achievable by my estimation, but then I was surprised to hear him say that he did not consider Sun Titan budget at that time, as it had then crept up to $3-5, and claimed that most of his decks sat under $100. This obviously went to show that every person's 'budget' can be quite different.

Well, Sun Titan has again been reprinted, and that brought back up that old discussion in my mind. Since a number of my LGS players tend to be on a stricter budget, I decided to notify my Facebook group of recent reprints and good new cards that were good budget considerations.

I figured I would share those findings with you. Even if it's not something that applies to you directly, you can also pass along the information to other new players who might not be as easily connected. Or, maybe you have a few favorites that I've missed.

I hope to go into Single Target removal and Ramp soon enough in the future, to really round out what can be good additions for new players to help improve their decks. I am of course also keeping a sharp eye on Double Masters prices, as a number of staples could see drastic reductions!

Recent Reprints!
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With Commander 20 and M21, a number of high profile Commander cards have been reprinted and have dropped to decent prices:
Recent Card Draw Additions!
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Continuing from my previous post with some other new budget cards, focusing on card draw!
  • Mazemind Tome is 50 cents. If your deck is outside of normal card draw colors, consider this one.
  • Mentor of the Meek is reprinted yet again in Jumpstart. Down to 75 cents. If you want to make a white weenie deck, you might need one.
  • Keruga, the Macrosage is 25 cents. Companions took a deep dive after their massive nerf, but they may be good considerations for in the 99. Keruga in particular seems to be a decent creature version of Shamanic Revelation (.60). Won't count llanowar elves and basic tokens, but will count mana rocks or some enchantments.
  • Speaking of Enchantments, Garruk's Uprising is 50 cents. Elemental Bond ($1) has proven to be a powerful card, and Uprising is a second copy, with several upsides. The full-field trample is nice.
  • And Shamanic Revelation is 60 cents, as well.
  • Soul of the Harvest is 75 cents. This guy was even in an intro deck for a bit, but remains a good Titan stat line of card draw.
  • Garruk's Harbinger is 20 cents. Showcase version as well. In a creature heavy deck, it's a decent early statline.
  • Beast Whisperer is $2. (down from 3-4).
  • Lifecrafter's Bestiary is $1.
  • Liliana's Standard Bearer is 25 cents. More card draw. The Flash makes the card. Whether you drop it after someone elses wrath, or combo it with your own for a build your own Decree of Pain ($3), or even just use it to refuel off of sacrifice shenanigans. You can draw a bunch of cards after blocking a token onslaught, or even when someone attacks me!
  • Disciple of Bolas is 40 cents, thanks to being reprinted yet again!
  • Species Specialist is 75 cents. You don't even have to be playing tribal. It counts tokens, or you can pick your opponent's creature type and go on a murder spree. Heck, pick your opponents' Commander types (especially if multiple commanders share types), since those might even get recast! Choose Human or Warrior, and he'll trigger himself. Reanimate or Blink to reset!
  • Silversmote Ghoul is 30 cents. This guy might take a bit more work/buildaround to make work - but if your deck runs any amount of lifegain (maybe a loxodon warhammer?) you can consider if he's worthwhile. Self recurring is always powerful.
  • Reconnaissance Mission is a better Coastal Piracy, for 25 cents! Coastal Piracy has been reprinted in Jumpstart, so the price is down to $3.50, from 6+! Of course, Bident of Thassa is still $1.50, so really coastal piracy is the 3rd version you want, unless you're building pirates.
  • undefined are 50 cents. Reprint for Ramp AND Draw.
  • Skullclamp was reprinted in Commander 2020, as well as mystery booster after having missed 2 years (last printed C17). It's at $3.50 - not super budget, but costs less than a pack for any token or small flood decks - looking at you, our 3 resident Edgar Markov decks!
  • Solemn Simulacrum is at $1.25. Our resident persistent sad robot isn't necessarily a shining star in any deck, but is always a solid dependable tool.
  • Ghostly Pilferer is 25 cents. Apparently this powerhouse is seeing CEDH play (believable for the cheap cost), and is also a free discard outlet if you need that!
  • Idol of Endurance at 25 cents. I'm still experimenting with Idol, but it looks to be an interesting source of recursion, allowing for pseudo-protection to cards in GY.
  • Honorable mention: Liliana's devotee is 15 cents. Not actually card draw, but with Black's propensity to self sac into card draw, fresh sources of bodies aren't terrible, especially not on a Zombie Lord type of creature.
Budget pickups: Mass Removal Edition
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I looked up some of my favorite wraths in each color, as well as a few alternates to find what's in 'budget' range. It's quite surprising.

White
  • Rout - 75 cents. Probably still my favorite wrath. 5 mana remains an acceptable cost, but the instant speed capabilities seal the deal.
  • Tragic Arrogance - 50 cents. Contender for my favorite wrath. You chose what remains, and it doesn't target, and it sacrifices. No pesky hexproof/shroud/indestructible. The only issue is that it does no good if your opponent has a singular threat in a category.
  • Hallowed Burial - $1. 5 mana, no indestructible shenanigans.
  • Terminus - $1.50. It's Hallowed Burial, but more expensive, but also with a HEART OF THE CARDS mode. If you're playing with top, you might be able to squeak in instant speed shenanigans!
  • Descend upon the Sinful - 40 cents. 6 mana to clear out indestructibles is still fine, especially since they're gone for good. You might even get a thing!
Blue
  • Evacuation - $3. With Cyclonic Rift ($20) being stupid expensive, and usually primarily concerned about the creatures, more people should consider Evacuation for instant speed bounce.
  • Whelming Wave - 30 cents. 4 mana. Bounce.
  • Crush of Tentacles - $1. 6 mana. Bounce everything. Everything. 1 mana less than cyclonic, for sorcery speed, is still very good. We've just been spoiled by how stupidly costed Cyclonic is.
  • Devastation Tide - $1. Let's make it cheaper! 5 mana to bounce everything. Not only that, but the miracle is much easier to set up in blue, giving more potential for that instant speed reaction.
Black
  • Mutilate - 50 cents. This tends to scale down above 2 colors in a deck, but at that point you have far more options for wraths anyways. For a 4 mana wrath that kills Indestructible creatures, this remains quite good.
  • Dead of Winter - 75 cents. While snow lands are not a free include into a deck, at 75 cents-$1, they're no longer restricted to crazy decks either. This makes Dead of Winter a rather playable 3 mana wrath effect, which is amazing. It's not a Toxic Deluge ($30), but 3 mana wraths are few and far between.
  • Crux of Fate - $2. An auto-iclude in Dragon decks, Crux of Fate can also be played outside of them. It might miss changelings, or weird things might happen against decks with Dragons in them. It's not a Damnation ($35), but makes an acceptable alternate.
  • Deadly Tempest - 50 cents. While Deadly Tempest clocks in a bit expensive at 6 mana, it has the added benefit of adding a bit of injury to the person you were trying to clear out anyways, and might even kill a token deck.
  • Decree of Pain - $3.50. Decree of pain clocks in quite mana hungry, but also has massive upside. The cycling is a powerful mode as well, since it can't be countered and needs to be stifled instead.
  • Finale of Eternity - $1.50. Ok, 3 is not "all", but it still does work, and has a lot of upside. It's my list.
  • In Garruk's Wake - $1. 9 mana is a lot, but this is essentially Black's 'cyclonic rift' of 'not my stuff'.
Red
  • Arcbond - 25 cents. Arcbond can be blanked by single target removal, but the upside of a 3 mana instant speed wrath is pretty high. Just don't miss opportunities of casting it on an opponents' creature as well if the timing is right. Note that the creature does the damage, so deathtouch and lifelink shenanigans can apply.
  • Blasphemous Act - $2.50. This is what we compare the others to these days.
  • Chain Reaction - 50 cents. One wrath in your deck is not enough. Chain Reaction is still good.
  • Bonfire of the Damned - $2. When you really need to torch one player in particular. Don't get too hung up on the Miracle cost. Sometimes you just want to wait until you need to clear someone's tokens.
  • Rolling Earthquake - $3. The problem with most X spell earthquake variants is that they leave those pesky flyers alive. Enter P3K's Rolling Earthquake, because Horsemanship.
  • Sudden Demise - 25 cents. Another X spell, choosing a color might be able to make this one sided, or it might just mean that it's ineffective. Note that color choice is on resolution, so copy effects can let you choose different colors for each copy, should that be needed.
Green
  • Wave of Vitriol - 75 cents. This cleans up a lot of things, and sacrifice gets around all those pesky indestructible gods.
  • Whiptongue Hydra - $5. At the cost of a pack, this is the highest price I'd put on a budget list. Green tends to have issues with mass amounts of flyers, and the Hydra turns that on its head. Adding a Whirlwind onto a sizable reach body is capable of turning the tides.
  • Whirlwind - 50 cents. If the Hydra is too rich for your blood, Whirlwind has remained a decent inclusion for my mono-green decks in the past. You can also be cute with Predator, Flagship effects to launch enemies into the air.
  • Apex Altisaur - $2. Fight. Rage. Fight more. The mana cost is expensive, but Apex Altisaur can clear boards. You can even keep it around to clear more stuff later, or simply save the biggest hit for last for maximum trades.
  • Thorn Mammoth - 25 cents. At first I was put off by 7 mana for a 6/6, but repeated murder turns out to be very very powerful. It keeps opposing Commanders off the board very very well, and with token makers is very easy to trigger on opposing turns.
  • Kogla, the Titan Ape - 50 cents. Again, not "mass" per se, but bending the rules for green. Removal on entering, and then removal on subsequent attacks. A solid creature even if you don't have humans, and a massive threat if you do.
Merciless Eviction gets its own section. (it deserves it)
  • Merciless Eviction - $3 - Highly comparable to Austere Command, you lose some flexibility for the power of exile instead.
Colorless
  • Oblivion Stone - $4 - Colorless. Removal. Recent reprint puts it under a pack.
  • All is Dust - $3.50-4.50 - Colorless. Removal. Recent reprint puts it under a pack.
As a side project, I'm collecting a few generic staples that are under (or at) a dollar, in order to have a small stockpile of cards to bring with me to help out newer players with free additions to help fill in gaps in their decks. (Focusing mainly on ramp, removal, and draw). So far I have found: New Player Budget Decklist!

Next chapter in this tale of discovery - I attempted to put a bunch of this together and build a staple precon for new players. I tried to keep the deck under $50 and each card under $1, but when I finished vastly under the $50 limit, I opted for a few creative upgrades in the $1-2 range. Once I completed that one, i was challenged to make one in ... so I did.

The idea here is to have an easy loaner deck to hand out to new players, or even be able to give it away, as none of the cards hold any special amount of value.
Last edited by bobthefunny 3 years ago, edited 6 times in total.

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Post by Mookie » 3 years ago

This is an awesome reference, thanks for putting it together! My own personal budget limit is $2/card, and it's always interesting to see when reprints add new cards to that budget (or, conversely, to go back and be confused about how much cards inflate over time).

If you ever put together a list of budget ramp options, I'll call out Mana Geyser as my #1 choice for 'card that punches way above its weight'. Although it also looks like it has crept up a bit since I last checked.

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Post by MeowZeDung » 3 years ago

If a player is brand new and just starting their collection there are a lot of great ways to build that first budget deck and still have it be powerful. Inevitably they'll want to build more, and they they get sucked into all the sweet powerful options for various color combos when really they just need to focus on good ramp, draw, and efficient interaction. Seriously.

Dear new player: you don't need 17 wincons, haymakers, and battlecruiser spells. 2-3 ways to win is enough. Really. Spend your magic budget on cards that smooth out your gameplay: ramp, draw, efficient removal.

Honestly, a big part of good budgeting with a new collection is consistency with one deck instead of changing decks every five minutes while your card pool is small and indulging by getting new toys for a dozen different archetypes. Pick one, maybe two for variety. Stick with it for a while, upgrading as you can.

Some good additions to your new player starter kit:
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Post by Inkeyes22 » 3 years ago

I think one of the biggest pieces of advice I can think of, buy a precon! If you get one of the new ones, you can often get them for $50ish and they have the bones of a decent deck. Some of them are even a blast right out of the box. Also, most people that have played for a while have 100 Disenchant/Wayfarer's Bauble/Kodama's Reach etc. that we will probably give you. Need a Terramorphic Expanse? Here take 5! You really don't need a $200 deck to have a blast here. I mean there are multiple articles where they build fun decks for less than the cost of a precon too if they are not available from a big box store.

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Post by Legend » 3 years ago

bobthefunny wrote:
3 years ago
Idol of Endurance at 25 cents. I'm still experimenting with Idol, but it looks to be an interesting source of recursion, allowing for pseudo-protection to cards in GY, and instant speed casts.
Unless I'm mistaken, it doesn't allow instant speed casts.
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Post by bobthefunny » 3 years ago

Legend wrote:
3 years ago
bobthefunny wrote:
3 years ago
Idol of Endurance at 25 cents. I'm still experimenting with Idol, but it looks to be an interesting source of recursion, allowing for pseudo-protection to cards in GY, and instant speed casts.
Unless I'm mistaken, it doesn't allow instant speed casts.
You are correct. I misread the card to being a cast on resolution of the ability, but instead it sets a duration for which you can cast the spell, which means it needs to follow normal timing restrictions.

That makes me a bit sad, but really the main use is getting back things like my Mentor of the Meek and just getting that white CA. A little bit of temporary anti-synergy with Sun Titan, but also a bit of redundancy and overlap of construction, so I still have decent hopes for it.

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Post by bobthefunny » 3 years ago

MeowZeDung wrote:
3 years ago
If a player is brand new and just starting their collection there are a lot of great ways to build that first budget deck and still have it be powerful. Inevitably they'll want to build more, and they they get sucked into all the sweet powerful options for various color combos when really they just need to focus on good ramp, draw, and efficient interaction. Seriously.
Some good advice, and some good cards. Thanks!
Inkeyes22 wrote:
3 years ago
I think one of the biggest pieces of advice I can think of, buy a precon! If you get one of the new ones, you can often get them for $50ish and they have the bones of a decent deck. Some of them are even a blast right out of the box. Also, most people that have played for a while have 100 Disenchant/Wayfarer's Bauble/Kodama's Reach etc. that we will probably give you. Need a Terramorphic Expanse? Here take 5! You really don't need a $200 deck to have a blast here. I mean there are multiple articles where they build fun decks for less than the cost of a precon too if they are not available from a big box store.
Precons are definitely a great entry point, and some of the most common. However, they do have issues. I've found that quite a few tend to stall out quite quickly (especially in the Ikoria bunch. The previous set with the Chainer discard, and morph decks were better), sometimes they also are a bit light on removal, and especially mass removal.


----

Out of curiosity, are you two aware that Wayfarer's Bauble is $3-4 a pop? And Kodama's Reach are $2-3 each? It's quite interesting how much some of these has climbed.

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Post by MeowZeDung » 3 years ago

Yeah, both need a reprint imo. I still think they are good enough for a new player to get early on.
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Post by Inkeyes22 » 3 years ago

Wow, that is kinda crazy, I wonder why and they have both been printed multiple times too.

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Post by Guardman » 3 years ago

Inkeyes22 wrote:
3 years ago
I think one of the biggest pieces of advice I can think of, buy a precon! If you get one of the new ones, you can often get them for $50ish and they have the bones of a decent deck. Some of them are even a blast right out of the box. Also, most people that have played for a while have 100 Disenchant/Wayfarer's Bauble/Kodama's Reach etc. that we will probably give you. Need a Terramorphic Expanse? Here take 5! You really don't need a $200 deck to have a blast here. I mean there are multiple articles where they build fun decks for less than the cost of a precon too if they are not available from a big box store.
Even better about precons is that with a little searching (at least around me) you can get them for around $35 a pop, not $50. That $15 might not seem like a lot, but I know it is the difference between some people getting into commander and them not. And my local LGS is even doing a special $150 for all five Ikoria commander decks, so there are great deals out there for the commander decks. Even better is they do include a ton of staples like Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Lightning Greaves, and a decent mana base.

Also I second asking people for overflow cards. I used to carry a few bulk commons/uncommons around with me to give out to new players.

As for Kodama's Reach, for most decks it is 100% interchangeable with Cultivate, so there's that at least... but I agree, since when has it been so expensive?

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Post by Inkeyes22 » 3 years ago

Guardman wrote:
3 years ago
Inkeyes22 wrote:
3 years ago
I think one of the biggest pieces of advice I can think of, buy a precon! If you get one of the new ones, you can often get them for $50ish and they have the bones of a decent deck. Some of them are even a blast right out of the box. Also, most people that have played for a while have 100 Disenchant/Wayfarer's Bauble/Kodama's Reach etc. that we will probably give you. Need a Terramorphic Expanse? Here take 5! You really don't need a $200 deck to have a blast here. I mean there are multiple articles where they build fun decks for less than the cost of a precon too if they are not available from a big box store.
Even better about precons is that with a little searching (at least around me) you can get them for around $35 a pop, not $50. That $15 might not seem like a lot, but I know it is the difference between some people getting into commander and them not. And my local LGS is even doing a special $150 for all five Ikoria commander decks, so there are great deals out there for the commander decks. Even better is they do include a ton of staples like Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Lightning Greaves, and a decent mana base.

Also I second asking people for overflow cards. I used to carry a few bulk commons/uncommons around with me to give out to new players.

As for Kodama's Reach, for most decks it is 100% interchangeable with Cultivate, so there's that at least... but I agree, since when has it been so expensive?
No $15 is abosultely a barrier for some. Of course the cheaper decks usually are the ones with crappier cards, but for a first foray it doesn't matter too much.

As an aside, I usually run both Kodama's Reach and Cultivate in my g/x decks. Little mana acceleration and ensuring I hit a land drop too, there are few decks that run G that don't want both in my opinion.

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Post by bobthefunny » 3 years ago

New Player Budget Decklist!

Next chapter in this tale of discovery - I attempted to put a bunch of this together and build a staple precon for new players. I tried to keep the deck under $50 and each card under $1, but when I finished vastly under the $50 limit, I opted for a few creative upgrades in the $1-2 range.

The idea here is to have an easy loaner deck to hand out to new players, or even be able to give it away, as none of the cards hold any special amount of value.
---

I did run into a few issue when making the deck. Initially my card draw was all over the place, and didn't quite work too well together, or with the rest of the creature choices. There was also some small issue with single target removal, as my usual go-to's were a bit over the mark.

Thankfully, green ramp is plentiful in budget, but I can easily see future issues for non-green decks, as almost every 2 mana rock is above the $1 mark, and most of my colorless go-to's are not budget.

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Post by bobthefunny » 3 years ago

This post still under construction....

Taking a break for a bit.

====


Budget Ramp

Ok, here we go. Outside of green, this may get tricky. I feel this is one of the more important sections to really find the budget options, as the biggest issue for new players is quite simply falling behind in resources. People sometimes complain about how at the end of the game I have so much more mana than them, and my usual reaction is to suggest more ramp in return. Especially since I see so many decks that start their curve on turn 3 with things like Cultivate and Darksteel Ingot. I may have overestimated how much is actually available to the newer player, however. This is then compounded by the fact that land ramp is not the most exciting thing to be spending massive amounts of money on to improve.

My typical go-to for myself is usually fetchlands ($50ish, per) + Crucible of Worlds ($25) + Rings of Brighthearth ($50). As fetchlands + crucible ensures consistant land drops, while rings + fetchlands turns each fetch into a rampant growth for free. Obviously this is not feasible for new or budget players. Even Sword of the Animist has climbed to $5 per, which used to be one of my go-to recommendations for new players, especially with cards like Relic Seeker, Open the Armory, Deadeye Quartermaster, and Tribute Mage.

Initially I was going to focus a section on 2 cost mana rocks, to encourage some ramp before turn 3, but I ran into a problem there as well! The only mana rocks under $1 are most of the signets (but not Dimir Signet, at $2+), the Talisman of Curiosity with green in them (because green has better options), Moss Diamond (again, green). This leaves Prismatic Lens, Corrupted Grafstone (highly questionable), and Guardian Idol as the major choices to go along most signets. Even Fractured Powerstone is above $2! Luckily, three of the better options (Mind Stone, Everflowing Chalice, and Coldsteel Heart) are just barely above $1.

In the end, the goal is to focus on cheap ramp, such as getting extra lands into play and mana rocks, but will also include some cards which ensure land drops, especially in some of the lighter colors. The goal is to be able to have at least 10 cards in any color combination, hopefully at less than a dollar, with half of those playable on turn 2.

So, here we go:

getting creative
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As you can see, non-green has very little support off the top, but that's where we can get a but creative. Utilizing some reanimation to reuse our burnished Harts or tutoring up some of our other land ramp, or blinking them out is all a possibility to get a bit ahead.
Decklist
Approximate Total Cost:


Colorless
Approximate Total Cost:


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Post by MeowZeDung » 3 years ago

I know it's still under construction, so you might have just not gotten to them yet, but don't forget rituals as budget options.



and so on.
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Post by MeowZeDung » 3 years ago

Oh, and it's a very small and not great corner case, but if we're talking about new players on tight budgets and with small collections it could be relevant: Wild-Field Scarecrow can search up some lands. Probably only worth it in a budget wall/defender tribal build though.
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