GW Budget Staples - Deck shell for new players!

User avatar
bobthefunny
Resident Plainswalker
Posts: 467
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him
Contact:

Post by bobthefunny » 3 years ago

New Player Deck of Staples!

I've been looking into some of the recent reprints of staples, and how it's brought the price down to acceptable levels for new players. I noticed a lot of great reprints and new cards in white and green - specifically in terms of ramp, draw, and budget staples. I decided to try and put together a deck and see if I could make something that looked halfway reasonable, but still had room for improvement. I started with cards at $1 or less, but when I finished at $39, I allowed for a few creative upgrades in the $1-2 range.

This deck hosts a good amount of synergy and cute interactions (Basri's Lieutenant + Renata, Called to the Hunt / Juniper Order Ranger), with a lot of synergy for Sun Titan and Idol of Endurance. I opted to go with a hybrid token/+1 counter theme, as it seemed quite flexible. The green card draw enchantments in Elemental Bond etc. got cut as the overall power is too low, however I enjoyed the potential cute synergy with Stonecloaker.

Some obvious upgrades would be in the removal suite: Swords to Plowshares and Path to Exile aren't terribly more expensive, and even Generous Gift could make an appearance alongside Beast Within. Emeria, the Sky Ruin gives a huge power spike in a land slot, and should be easy to activate with all the search we have. Ulvenwald Hydra and other non-basic land search could be useful to find Emeria, Vitu-ghazi, and Gavony. Skullclamp is an easy fit with the tokens for some card draw. In the more powerful side, Zendikar Resurgent can replace one of the top end card draws to give a mana boost, and Cathars' Crusade can slot into one of the +1 counter synergy slots. All of these cards also currently sit in the under $10 range. While that sits outside of budget considerations, getting a powerful card in under the cost of 2 packs makes it easily achievable should someone want to reach for it.


Budget Commander Options
Approximate Total Cost:

Chorus of the Conclave is the cheapest Commander option (money-wise), and helps give us an additional wincon. They synergize with the +1 counter themes, as well as make use of our excess of mana-ramp to turn our low-cost early utility into late game monsters. Chorus could consider adding the Green enchantment draw effects (Elemental Bond) back in, though at a slight risk of commander dependency.

Emmara, Soul of the Accord Guarantees the deck an early play, which it is otherwise fairly light on. She also fits into the token theme, and Glare of Subdual was included on the possibility of running Emmara. If tailoring towards Emmara, I would consider swapping out one of the anti-enchantment creatures for Nullmage Shepherd, and possibly including some extra Vehicles.

Tolsimir Wolfblood gives us an anthem in the Command Zone, which helps boost up the decks winconditions, which it is otherwise potentially lacking. He still fits with the Token theme as well, being able to refresh the Voja token whenever needed. Tolsimir could consider adding the Green enchantment draw effects (Elemental Bond) back in, though at a slight risk of commander dependency.

Selvala, Explorer Returned is an excellent new-player Commander, as she is able to fix both mana and draws as needed, and gives new players something exciting to do.

Karametra, God of Harvests is another easy way to power the deck into the lategame, by helping reach that top end curve much faster. Once there, the deck's draw and recursion can help power the endgame. You might want to consider more manasinks though, in the line of Soul of Theros, either in terms of token production, +1 counter production, or some form of overrun effect.


In the end, I decided to build the deck "Pre-con" style, with one face legendary, and two alternates in the deck. Emmara, Soul of the Accord will lead the helm, with Tolsimir Wolfblood and Chorus of the Conclave as alternate backups.


Decklist
Approximate Total Cost:


cuts
1 Elemental Bond (creatures too small)
1 Garruk's Packleader (creatures too small)
1 Garruk's Uprising (creatures too small)
1 Descend upon the sinful (for Akroma's to hit art/ench)
1 Curious Herd (unproven)
Approximate Total Cost:


Return to “Decklists”