Sygg, River Cutthroat - Budget Starter Deck

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RowanKeltizar
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Post by RowanKeltizar » 1 year ago

I'm officially on a budget deckbuilding kick. We have a lot of new players coming to our LGS interested in commander I want to be able to lend or sell them decks to start out with. So this will be a series of decklists I'll be putting together so I can quickly add the deck my shopping cart on TCGplayer.

Shoutout to @TheGildedGoose for the inspiration for doing this. I've haven't been this excited for deckbuilding in a while.

Criteria here is that the deck must be less than $50 in TOTAL VALUE, while each single being preferably less than $1 with with some exceptions.

I want these lists to be as powerful as possible while still being within budget. I'll steer away from infinite win cons unless the deck struggles to win otherwise. But the point being is that I want these decks to be competetive while still being budget.

I also want these decks to feel unique and not have too much overlap with decks I already own or that are already featured in my playgroup.

Why Sygg? I think he is a great budget commander in that he only costs 2 to play and can draw you a bunch of cards. My philosophy with budget deckbuilding is that the commander needs to be efficient, and have built in draw and/or ramp. If the commander doesn't have ramp, the list needs to have a relatively low curve of playable cards. These lists are meant to fare well in my playgroup and be a deck the owner can build upon as their budget allows.

Ideally, these decks will be sold double sleeved, with an ultra pro playmat and a set of cheap dice. (if desired)

With Sygg, we want to find ways to damage our opponents on their turns while keeping aggro off our backs. I've slotted in quite a bit of removal, control, and wipes to mitigate damage.

Win con is to drain out our opponents life totals, preferably by getting them to kill eachother and not us :grin: I want to maximize the life loss of our opponents they are taking NOT on our turn. Should be fairly easy to get 3 damage through on our own turn without going 100% rogue tribal. This way should be maximizing our card draw.

There could also be a discard theme here but it might be harder to pull off without a pretty dedicated discard theme since Sygg doesn't have any discard abilities.


Just vomited my brain on the internet here with the help of EDHrec. Very much a WIP at this point. Originally I wanted to go stronger with the rogue tribal but decided to take a different direction. Still think I might put more unblockables in here, but the deck is a bit of mess atm.

Please chime in with hidden gems or other thoughts on the list!
Decklist

COMMANDER

PILLOWFORT

LANDS

Basics

13 Island
12 Swamp
Approximate Total Cost:

Last edited by RowanKeltizar 1 year ago, edited 4 times in total.
WRBKaalia, Zenith Seeker - Certified Air Raid Material
WBElenda, the Dusk Rose - Drain and Gain
WRAurelia, the Warleader - Tokens/Equipment
URNiv-Mizzet, Parun - Controlled Burn primer
BRGHenzie, "Toolbox" Torre - Creature Feature
BRGSoul of Windgrace - Lands Matter
RGWGishath, Sun's Avatar - I'M YOUR DADDY
GWUBAtraxa, Praetors' Voice - Artifact Stax Beatdown
Budget Starter Decks
UBSygg, River Cutthroat
WU Shorikai, Genesis Engine
Image

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Rumpy5897
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Post by Rumpy5897 » 1 year ago

This looks like a neat idea. Get them in-fighting, draw some cards, smack some threatening stuff if they try to hurt you with it. My main concern is how would this actually reliably win, but maybe there's enough various bleed shenanigans to get the job done.

Some thoughts on composition:
  • Undermine/Clutch of the Undercity/Hellish Rebuke/Grave Consequences are gold, awesome hidden gems that play great with the commander. Made me grin as I hadn't properly considered Sygg before.
  • What are you Dark Ritualing into? You don't seem to be rushing into any big mana plays.
  • Why are you running so much graveyard hate? Is the group this is aimed at very heavy in graveyard decks?
  • Megrim feels like a bit of a random include, you don't seem to make people discard. Even if some of your bounce puts them over hand size, that happens after the Sygg trigger already.
  • Zulaport Cutthroat unfortunately only cares about stuff dying on your end, and you don't seem super creature/sacrifice heavy.
  • This list wants Marchesa's Decree, probably even more monarch stuff to lean into getting people to punch each other and not you.
Fun fact - Nexus had me thinking that Talisman of Dominance was four bucks, so I was going to suggest freeing the money up and using it on a Massacre Wurm. Alas, it's just the price gunner being wonky :P
 
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RowanKeltizar
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Posts: 531
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Location: New Mexico
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Post by RowanKeltizar » 1 year ago

Again, awesome picks! Will add them. I wanted to splurge for Wound Reflection in here. $6 on TCGplayer. I can probably make room for it.
WRBKaalia, Zenith Seeker - Certified Air Raid Material
WBElenda, the Dusk Rose - Drain and Gain
WRAurelia, the Warleader - Tokens/Equipment
URNiv-Mizzet, Parun - Controlled Burn primer
BRGHenzie, "Toolbox" Torre - Creature Feature
BRGSoul of Windgrace - Lands Matter
RGWGishath, Sun's Avatar - I'M YOUR DADDY
GWUBAtraxa, Praetors' Voice - Artifact Stax Beatdown
Budget Starter Decks
UBSygg, River Cutthroat
WU Shorikai, Genesis Engine
Image

Dragonlover
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Post by Dragonlover » 1 year ago

One of my playgroup's very first decks, constructed in the heady days of 2011, is this Sygg. He runs a more self-discard based thing, but early on found that a lot of folks will attack him when Sygg is out so he doesn't get the card draw. To capitalise on this he runs Repay in Kind so that once he's been beaten up he can then win anyway. He also runs Darkness but thats like, 15 bucks so not relevant here, I only mention in case it gets some very random reprint and tanks.

Dragonlover
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