[Official] Simon's Budget Guide to Playing on a Budget

[SimonWhite]

I do this because I want to help people, there are lists here sorted by play style and then listed in order of cheapest to most expensive, but nothing over 50$. I love to grow the community and will totally help you upon request, in fact if you look though this there are many more deck lists in the pages beyond this one, I don't add them all to this page. If you have a question or request I am here most days and if this only helps on person that is enough for me. I'm going to be adding more decks so check back sometimes if you are interested.

Latest Update: 12/12/12

Added:

- Curiosity Storm Combo 10$
- Mono Red Stuffy Doll Combo 25$
- Bant Control 45$

Aggro - Aggro is faster, mainly creature oriented decks that try to race your opponents life total by getting into the red zone.

UG DREDGE:

Added in the 11/20/12 Update.

This deck is awesome, I forgot to add this one in the first post, it's the cheapest on the list and I love it. I wish this was a real competitive strat because this deck is so fun. It's really silly and has some of the biggest, cheapest creatures in the format. When I first saw this deck, budget didn't even cross my mind, it looked so powerful. The problem is the lack of Ravnica cards in it makes it weaker than other decks in the format. Decks need inter-block synergies to be the best. Not saying its not good, just saying why it's not a the top tables.

Sample Decklist:

Simic Dredge
4 Evolving Wilds 11 Forest 7 Island 4 Mulch 4 Tracker's Instincts 4 Wingcrafter 4 Boneyard Wurm 4 Screeching Skaab 4 Armored Skaab 2 Skaab Ruinator 4 Splinterfright 4 Deadbridge Goliath 4 Ghoultree	Sideboard: 4 Tormod's Crypt 4 Pithing Needle 4 Gnaw to the Bone 3 Clone

Difficulty Level: [==========] 30% Easy

Sample List Investment: 10$

Budget Modifier: If you like this deck. Get. The. Lands. For. It. Hinterland Harbor should always be in here. Makes it more consistent and then, you will win more games. When Gatecrash hits we might get some new goodies for it, as well as a guildgate us budget players can gladly use. (Maybe in addition to the shock and Inn Land as 12 duals is better than 8.) Have fun!

Tips: In games 2 and 3, people might side in hate for you like Tormod's Crypt and what not. You have to think like an aggro player in terms of your graveyard, don't overextend your yard into a yard-wrath.

RATS AGGRO:

This deck is, Mono Black Rats. This deck was inspired by Shrieking Affliction which seemed pretty powerful to me then was cemented when I lost to it playing Jund in an FNM a little while ago. This deck is really good at beating non-budget decks because most of the time you are going to send their last paycheck (Thragtusks and whatnot) straight to the graveyard. Pack Rat also helps speed up the clock.

Sample Decklist:

Black Rats
4 Ghost Quarter 20 Swamp 4 Drainpipe Vermin 4 Pack Rat 4 Ravenous Rats 4 Appetite for Brains 4 Shrieking Affliction 2 Tragic Slip 2 Ultimate Price 4 Mind Rot 4 Gruesome Discovery 4 Mutilate	Sideboard: 4 Tormod's Crypt 4 Duress 4 Pithing Needle 3 Curse of Death's Hold

Difficulty Level: [==========] 20% Easy

Sample List Investment: 10-15$

Budget Modifier: This deck will not get any cheaper than this, this is one of the cheapest decks that I plan to write about so I can't help you there. Although, if you do like this deck or want to have more success playing it and you have a few more dollars the first thing I would do is get a playset of Rakdos's Return and the lands to support it. Dragonskull Summit and Blood Crypt. If you go this way you can put in burn over the bad black removal like Tragic Slip and Ultimate Price for Searing Spear and Pillar of Flames, those kills most of the creatures, and sometimes players.

Tips: When sideboarding the Tormod's Crypt goes in for the UW Flash deck with Pike, and the Unburial Rites deck. Duress is for decks that Appetite for Brains is lacking, like Mono Red and UW Flash, Pithing Needle is for the Planeswalkers and Curse for Weenies. Good luck!

MONO RED:

This deck is one of the ones in here that I find more competitive because decks very similar to this, and not too much more expensive are being played near the top tables right now, and will continue to place. Not to say that it's the deck to beat or anything but it's not cutting any 50$ staples to satisfy a budget requirement.

Sample Decklist:

RDW
2 Hellion Crucible 22 Mountain 4 Pillar of Flame 4 Searing Spear 4 Brimstone Volley 4 Rakdos Cackler 4 Stromkirk Noble 4 Ash Zealot 4 Rakdos Shred-Freak 4 Lightning Mauler 4 Gore-House Chainwalker	Sideboard: 4 Tormod's Crypt 4 Reckless Waif 4 Flames of the Firebrand 3 Traitorous Blood

Difficulty Level: [==========] 20% Easy

Sample List Investment: 15-25$

Budget Modifier: This deck could certainly use some Hellriders, those are 4-5$ a pop and are the most worth it investment for a red deck player. As well as in the higher end people are adding in 3 lands and 4 Thundermaw Hellkite.

Tips: When playing this try to attack and block in profitable ways, sometimes I see people giving up more than they need to sacrifice to get those last points of damage in, and it's honestly only the last point of damage that matters. When sideboarding the Tormod's Crypt goes in for the UW Flash deck with Pike, Reckless Waif is for decks that don't play 1 drops, and only put it in when you are on the play. Flames is for other Aggro, and Tokens, while Traitorous Blood is for Thragtusks and other biggies.

BLACK WHITE TOKENS:

This deck is a lot of fun but at this price range is a little lacking when it comes to lands. When playing this its hard to keep a hand with either all black and all white and with only 4 copies of anything even similar to a dual land colors get hard. Isolated Chapel is the first thing listed in the Budget Mod. section.

Sample Decklist:

BW Tokens
4 Evolving Wilds 8 Plains 10 Swamp 2 Vault of the Archangel 4 Pack Rat 4 Blood Artist 3 Skirsdag High Priest 4 Intangible Virtue 4 Gather the Townsfolk 4 Lingering Souls 4 Midnight Haunting	3 Killing Wave 2 Ultimate Price 2 Tragic Slip 2 Altar's Reap	Sideboard: 2 Appetite for Brains 4 Cremate 2 Duress 4 Knight of Glory 3 Rootborn Defenses

Difficulty Level: [==========] 40% Medium

Sample List Investment: 20-30$

Budget Modifier: This deck needs land more than most because there is no guildgate OR m10 land to put in here, Isolated Chapel turns this deck from a budget casual deck to a real one. After that Sorin, Lord of Innistrad would be legit but that's about all unless you add another color, like blue, or red.

Tips: In this one you need to know how many tokens to make, you don't want to over-extend (Make more tokens than you need to win) into a wrath effect (Terminus, Supreme Verdict)try to practice putting out enough tokens to apply pressure but not too many that if they were all gone you would lose. (Sometimes you will all out race though.)

GREEN WHITE STOMP:

This deck is stretching the budget a little bit but could be really fun if this is what you are into, I know a lot of people are really into green and this is one of the better green decks in a while. Not a bad choice at all.

Sample Decklist:

GW Stompy
10 Forest 6 Plains 4 Selesnya Guildgate 4 Sunpetal Grove 4 Arbor Elf 4 Avacyn's Pilgrim 4 Dryad Militant 4 Strangleroot Geist 4 Centaur Healer 4 Loxodon Smiter 4 Wolfir Silverheart	4 Rancor 4 Selesnya Charm	Sideboard: 4 Pithing Needle 4 Purify the Grave 4 Knight of Glory 3 Sundering Growth

Difficulty Level: [==========] 30% Low-Medium

Sample List Investment: 40-50$

Budget Modifier: To makes this deck cheaper you could possibly replace the Sunpetal Grove for some Evolving Wilds or Basics but the more you do that the less consistantly you will be albe to cast your spells, which is never fun. On the upper side there is a lot, starting with Silverblade Paladin, then Thragtust and other staples.

Tips: Like the last deck you can't over-extend or you will sometimes get blown out, this deck does have the advantage of being bigger than most aggro decks though. Watch out for counters since Caverns are not a budget option.

MONO WHITE AGGRO:

This is for sure what I would pick from this section, aggro, I love White Weenie and have played it in many formats in Magic's history. This is a pretty good version too! Another thing I like about this version is that it doesnt have to cut much because it can't afford it, this is a perfectly reasonable list, even in this manor.

Sample Decklist:

White Weenies
2 Ghost Quarter 22 Plains 4 Champion of the Parish 4 War Falcon 4 Azorius Arrester 4 Knight of Glory 4 Precinct Captain 4 Silverblade Paladin 4 Odric, Master Tactician	4 Faith's Shield 4 Gather the Townsfolk	Sideboard: 4 Elite Inquisitor 4 Rest in Peace 4 Oblivion Ring 3 Rootborn Defenses

Difficulty Level: [==========] 30% Low-Medium

Sample List Investment: 45-55$

Budget Modifier: You can't go down on this list, it just wouldnt work without the Paladins. You can buy some Thalias though, and that would help in some matchups, but you would have to cut down on spells (Faiths Reward.)

Tips: Don't over-extend. Smash face. Have fun.

Combo - Combo are decks that win in otherwise unconventional ways. Often 2 cards work together to kill someone.

UR STORM:

Added in the 12/12/12 Update.

This deck is awesome, I personally don't play on a budget, so when I lose to something I make note of it, even more so when it is something like this. I got the idea of this deck from someone who I lost to on Magic Online, I was playing full-blown 400tix Frites and this bro comes in and combos me with his Guttersnipe and Curiosity, I was blown away. If you haven not already got it, this deck wins by landing some guys that scream spells matter, electromancer makes everything you have into an OP version, 1 mana draw 2 instant, along with guttersnipe, 1 mana draw 2 instant deal 2 damage, then with curiosity, 1 mana draw 3 instant deal 2, plus most of these spells have flashback. I call this storm because it's a resource based combo instead of a 2 card combo. Land Curiosity on a Guttersnipe with some lands up and an Electromancer, spend your mana, gain MASSIVE card advantage and MASSIVE damage is dealt.

Sample Decklist:

Standard Storm
4 Evolving Wilds 8 Island 4 Izzet Guildgate 6 Mountain 4 Curiosity 4 Goblin Electromancer 4 Guttersnipe 4 Delver of Secrets 4 Faithless Looting 4 Desperate Ravings 4 Negate 4 Searing Spear 4 Think Twice 2 Divination	Sideboard: 4 Tormod's Crypt 4 Pillar of Flame 4 Pithing Needle 3 Dissipate

Difficulty Level: [==========] 50% Mid Level

Sample List Investment: 10$

Budget Modifier: Lands if you can get them. Steam Vents and Sulfur Falls.

Tips: Try to hit all your land drops and go off when they are tapped out. Sometimes you can win without the combo but not often, it's easy to assemble because you have so much draw, good luck!

SEANCE COMBO:

This Combo works because of the way Seance, Mirror-Mad Phantasm and Laboratory Maniac work together. To win with this deck all you need to do is find a way for the Mirror-Mad to get into the Graveyard while you have a Seance in play. On your opponent's turn activate the Seance targeting the Mirror-Mad, active its ability, can't shuffle the token into the deck! Find no others, mill your entire deck. Upkeep, use Seance to get the Lab Maniac which is now in your 60 card Graveyard, and draw your card. If they respond with removal, use Think Twice.

Sample Decklist:

Seance Combo
4 Azorius Guildgate 2 Desolate Lighthouse 4 Evolving Wilds 6 Island 4 Izzet Guildgate 2 Mountain 2 Plains 4 Faithless Looting 4 Thought Scour 4 Alchemist's Apprentice 4 Screeching Skaab 4 Armored Skaab 2 Izzet Charm	4 Pillar of Flame 3 Supreme Verdict 4 Séance 1 Think Twice 1 Laboratory Maniac 1 Mirror-Mad Phantasm	Sideboard: 3 Tormod's Crypt 4 Negate 3 Think Twice 4 Flames of the Firebrand 1 Supreme Verdict

Difficulty Level: [==========] 50% Medium

Sample List Investment: 10-15$

Budget Modifier: This deck could really use a better mana base but the cards are fine, you don't even want terminus because you would like to have your guys in the yard, not on the bottom.

Tips: Think Twice in response to removal to win the game before the kill spell kills you! If they are heavy on removal consider siding in the other 3 Think Twice and waiting to have 6 mana.

SURGE COMBO:

This deck works because, well, I'm not sure if it even works. This is a silly thing my friends and I thought of, and we haven't tried it but it looks EPIC, pretty silly and loads of fun. The idea is to ramp really fast to 9, cast Diabolic Revelations for X=4, get 3x Diabolic Revalations and 1x Primal Surge, pass, drop a land, and surge them, that should win the game on the spot with 100% of your deck being permanents. So it's a 9 mana 1 card combo that makes your deck building funny, is it worth it? We will see!

Sample Decklist:

Surge Combo
4 Evolving Wilds 12 Forest 4 Golgari Guildgate 4 Swamp 4 Arbor Elf 4 Avacyn's Pilgrim 4 Mana Bloom 4 Dawntreader Elk 4 Scorned Villager 4 Vessel of Endless Rest 3 Gilded Lotus	4 Diabolic Revelation 3 Essence of the Wild 1 Akroma's Memorial 1 Primal Surge	Sideboard: 4 Tormod's Crypt 4 Pithing Needle 4 Warden of the Wall 3 Hollowhenge Scavenger

Difficulty Level: [==========] 20% Low

Sample List Investment: 10-15$

Budget Modifier: This deck can't get any cheaper, but I have no idea what I would do with this deck if it used more money... If you want to know, I'll think about it more, just ask!

Tips: I have no idea what to say about this deck... You tell me!

RITES COMBO:

This deck works by abusing the enters the battlefield trigger on Angel of Glory's Rise to bring back of lot of humans you put in your own graveyard. This works really well vs Zombies because of the Angel's other effect. This works a lot like a combo deck because of the way you can use Champion of Lambholt to kill them all at once, with nothing they can do about it. You get to stack all the triggers for each human returned.

Sample Decklist:

Human Frites
2 Evolving Wilds 5 Forest 4 Golgari Guildgate 3 Plains 4 Selesnya Guildgate 4 Sunpetal Grove 2 Swamp 4 Avacyn's Pilgrim 4 Cathedral Sanctifier 4 Borderland Ranger 4 Champion of Lambholt 4 Geist-Honored Monk 4 Angel of Glory's Rise	4 Grisly Salvage 4 Mulch 4 Unburial Rites	Sideboard: 3 Tormod's Crypt 4 Appetite for Brains 4 Heroes' Reunion 4 Ray of Revelation

Difficulty Level: [==========] 50% Medium

Sample List Investment: 20-25$

Budget Modifier: Lands, Shocks and m10 lands are good. You could even add red for Faithless Looting to make it a but more explosive. Or you could go all out and turn it into a real non-human Frites deck that you see slung around the top tables.

Tips: Sidebaord in Heroes' Reunion for Red and Zombies to buy you a coule turns time to combo off on them.

STUFFY DOLL:

Added in the 12/12/12 Update.

This deck is silly, you will like this deck if you are a red mage, if you like to be different or generally if you like having fun because its really a blast! You land a Doll, then try to copy a deal 13 damage spell. Sometimes you can just race them with the smaller burn and blocking, but not often, give it a shot though!

Sample Decklist:

Stuffy Doll
2 Ghost Quarter 22 Mountain 4 Faithless Looting 4 Pillar of Flame 4 Searing Spear 4 Wild Guess 4 Stuffy Doll 1 Harvest Pyre 4 Reverberate 4 Chandra, the Firebrand 3 Into the Maw of Hell 4 Blasphemous Act	Sideboard: 4 Tormod's Crypt 4 Pithing Needle 4 Smelt 3 Annihilating Fire

Difficulty Level: [==========] 30% Easy

Sample List Investment: 20-25$

Budget Modifier: Build another deck? This one is set. Maybe you can brew a verson with another color, but I'm not sure you would even want it.

Tips: Dont be afraid to use spells you might need later to control the board, this deck is kinda like mono red control in a way.

WALLS COMBO:

This combo is one of my favorites, when I saw this on Reddit before RTR came out I was way happy, almost played this at states trying to sneak a win, but I never put the effort into it. It wins by getting any 4 walls, one of which must be a Axeblade Guardian, then bind that with Galvanic Alchemist and make infinite mana. (Tap for 4 blue, untap for 3, leaving you with 1, tap for 4 blue, untap for 3 leaving you with 2, 100,000 times.) Then use a Increasing confusion from the grave or hand to get them. That is why Mulch and Trackers is so good, if you have to put an increasing in the grave, yippee!

Sample Decklist:

Walls Combo
2 Evolving Wilds 10 Forest 4 Hinterland Harbor 6 Island 4 Arbor Elf 4 Mulch 4 Tracker's Instincts 4 Fog Bank 4 Haunted Guardian 4 Hover Barrier	2 Increasing Confusion 4 Syncopate 4 Axebane Guardian 4 Galvanic Alchemist	Sideboard: 3 Tormod's Crypt 2 Increasing Confusion 3 Pithing Needle 3 Negate 4 Favor of the Woods

Difficulty Level: [==========] 40% Medium

Sample List Investment: 40-50$

Budget Modifier: Once again, you could cut the 8$ Innistrad land to save 90% of the money on this deck, but it wouldn't be nearly as smooth. I'm not sure what you could add if you had more money on this one as it seems good to me like this, even though this is so cheap. Thragtusk? haha. (dat format)

Tips: Side in Favor of the Woods vs burn or aggro and it will stop them from attacking most of the time and buy you lots of time to get your combo, just make sure not to put it on something small enough to die to their burn or removal.

Control - Control decks often play spells that direct the flow of a game and them drop a big finisher. Midrange and Tempo also under this section.

BURNING CONTROL:

This deck is based around the draft pick Burning Vengence but I have had a lot of success with this online (MODO) and others have as well to some degree, in standard, and block.

Sample Decklist:

Burning Vengence
4 Dragonskull Summit 4 Evolving Wilds 7 Island 8 Mountain 1 Swamp 2 Devil's Play 4 Faithless Looting 4 Geistflame 4 Pillar of Flame 4 Desperate Ravings 2 Izzet Charm 4 Searing Spear 4 Think Twice 4 Forbidden Alchemy	4 Burning Vengeance	Sideboard: 4 Tormod's Crypt 3 Pithing Needle 2 Ultimate Price 2 Dissipate 4 Rolling Temblor

Difficulty Level: [==========] 50% Medium

Sample List Investment: 15-20$

Budget Modifier: Lands, for all of these I am saying lands and I mean it, decks get much stronger with smooth mana. This one isn't so bad, but it could always benifit from being better.

Tips: Kill creatures before the player, trying to use all your mana each turn.

MONO U FLASH:

This deck is very strong, but very challenging. I would honestly play this at a PTQ if I thought that blue and counters was a good strategy before playing the UW flash version, unless Resto. Angel was really well positioned in the metagame. I love this deck.

Sample Decklist:

Mono Blue Delver
2 Ghost Quarter 21 Island 4 Delver of Secrets 4 Augur of Bolas 4 Invisible Stalker 2 Runechanter's Pike 3 Syncopate 4 Thought Scour 4 Unsummon 4 Cyclonic Rift 2 Essence Scatter 2 Think Twice 3 Dissipate 1 Rewind	Sideboard: 3 Tormod's Crypt 4 Pithing Needle 2 Essence Scatter 4 Frostburn Weird 2 Runechanter's Pike

Difficulty Level: [==========] 80% Hard

Sample List Investment: 15-20$

Budget Modifier: This version would only benefit from getting some Snapcaster Mages but I'm not sure how many or how much because I like the Stalker and you can't cut lands or spells very easily.

Tips: Think about everything you do deeply before you do it, let 1 thing resolve that you shouldn't and you have already lost.

MONO B CONTROL:

This deck is very strong but always lacking, mono black control will always be something players try to make work in every standard. I have seen threads every standard season but I have never seen 1 top 8. (Well once with trading post, but thats it in the last 4 years.) That said I don't doubt this decks power at FNM or a bit more competitive events. You have all the tools you would want.

Sample Decklist:

Mono Black Midrange
24 Swamp 4 Vampire Nighthawk 4 Bloodline Keeper 4 Bloodgift Demon 4 Duress 4 Tragic Slip 4 Sign in Blood 4 Murder 4 Tribute to Hunger 4 Mutilate	Sideboard: 4 Tormod's Crypt 4 Appetite for Brains 4 Pithing Needle 3 Curse of Death's Hold

Difficulty Level: [==========] 40% Medium

Sample List Investment: 30-35$

Budget Modifier: I'm not sure I know any other black cards that I would put in here, if you wanted to expand, think about spashing another color or two.

Tips: Try to make your opponent over extend so you can wrath them and get the most value, sometimes the way you cast removal makes them think you don't have it when you really do.

BANT CONTROL:

Added in the 12/12/12 Update.

As of right now at the time of this update, this is probably the deck I would play if I was on a 50$ budget, it's very similar to the real version and I think it would have good matchups v.s. aggro as well as control after side. There isn't too much to playing this that I can tell you, you will just have to practice, as any deck with blue, there are more choices and it gets a little bit more difficult managing you life total and your card advantage, and then you have to stablize and win the game, but you'll get the hang of it if you try.

Sample Decklist:

Bant Control
1 Alchemist's Refuge 4 Evolving Wilds 5 Forest 4 Glacial Fortress 5 Island 2 Plains 4 Sunpetal Grove 2 Azorius Charm 4 Farseek 2 Selesnya Charm 4 Dissipate 4 Oblivion Ring 4 Amass the Components 4 Supreme Verdict	4 Augur of Bolas 4 Centaur Healer 3 Drogskol Reaver	Sideboard: 4 Dispel 4 Rest in Peace 4 Clone 3 Silklash Spider

Difficulty Level: [==========] 50% Mid Level

Sample List Investment: 45-50$

Budget Modifier: Lands, Sphinx's Revolation, Angel of Serenity, Snapcaster Mage, Thragtusk, Thragtusk There is infinite room to pump money into this, the nice part is that you don't have to though.

Tips: Practice a lot, know when to use your spells, know when to wrath and how to get the most value out of it.

[mabberman]

since this is useful i'll stick this

[The Dork Knight]

Great thread. All sensible decks, with solid lists and good explanations. It's going to make the post I've been writing for the last week auto-redundant, which has many similar deck ideas.

[jambarama]

I was brewing some budget standard decks not long ago as well. One is quite similar to your B/W aggro, I'll have to run yours and see what I can swap in. I thought I'd share them, since they're don't really merit their own post.

COMBO:

Sample Decklist:

Izzet Experiment
4x Battle Hymn 1x Burn at the Stake 4x Dangerous Wager 1x Desolate Lighthouse 4x Epic Experiment 4x Faithless Looting 4x Goblin Electromancer 4x Goblin Rally 2x Island 4x Krenko's Command 11x Mountain 4x Past in Flames 1x Psychic Spiral 4x Reforge the Soul 4x Steam Vents 4x Sulfur Falls

Three win conditions - psychic spiral after enough reforge the soul can do it, burn at the stake with enough goblins, or simply attacking with enough 1/1 goblins.

This deck is difficult to play, you have to get a sense of how long to wait to cast Epic Experiment, the sequence of play, and whatnot. The deck is fun, but gets gutted by terminus, mass unsummon, sever the bloodline, or even electrickery. But it can really take people by surprise.

Other options include Devil's Play as an optional finisher, Guttersnipe as a finisher, Infernal Plunge for more mana. I left out Guttersnipe because, as the only meaningful creature, it draws hate right away. Devil's Play isn't necessary, Burn at the stake and Psychic Spiral are competent finishers. Infernal Plunge it out because Battle Hymn cast & flashed back provides plenty of red mana.

Worldspine Win
4x Mwonvuli Beast Tracker 3x Worldspine Wurm 4x Boneyard Wurm 3x Elvish Visionary 4x Descendants' Path 4x Faithless Looting 4x Wild Guess 4x Terrifying Presence 4x Fog 2x shattered perception 12x Forest 12x Mountain

Another janky combo deck. Here's how it works. First, cast Descendants' Path & have boneyard wurm on the field. Then cast Mwonvuli Beast Tracker to put worldspine wurm on top of your library. Next turn it gets cast for free. The red looting stuff is to find the combo pieces and make sure boneyard wurm stays alive.

I've seen versions that use lots of ramp and more big wurms, like Elderscale Wurm and Armada Wurm. I don't think they work as well, though they don't fold if boneyard wurm gets killed. Rootbound Crag would greatly improve the deck as would Stomping Grounds when released.

AGGRO:

Morbid Demons
4x Altar's Reap 3x Bone Splinters 4x Desecration Demon 4x Doomed Traveler 4x Intangible Virtue 4x Lingering Souls 4x Midnight Haunting 10x Plains 3x Skirsdag High Priest 12x Swamp 4x Tragic Slip 2x Typhoid Rats 2x Vault of the Archangel

This is an easy deck to play. It leverages 2-for-1 creatures (doomed traveler) or 1/1 spirits, with sac spells (bone splinters, midnight haunting) to trigger morbid for Tragic Slip and Skirsdag High Priest. The Desecration Demon typically gets through too, because sacrificing creatures triggers morbid as well.

For non-budget options, Sorin, Lord of Innistrad is terrific, I'd add 2x and take out the typhoid rats. This plays OK without Isolated Chapels, but they'd obviously be an improvement.

Vampire Nighthawk was a tough one to cut since it is so solid, but with it, the deck had too many 3-drops and Midnight Haunting & Lingering Souls. Other options: Loyal Cathar (if you've got better mana fixing), Demon Lord of Ashmouth (triggers morbid & gives you a large resilient creature). [/deck]

GDW
4x Ambush Viper 24x Forest 4x Predator Ooze 3x Prey Upon 4x Rancor 2x Revenge of the Hunted 4x Strangleroot Geist 3x Ulvenwald Tracker 4x Wolfir Avenger 4x Wolfir Silverheart 4x Young Wolf	Sideboard: 3x Acidic Slime 4x Grave Bramble 4x Ground Seal 4x Naturalize

This deck was much stronger with Dungrove Elder and Beast Within as unconditional removal, but it still isn't a bad deck. RtR didn't add anything either, but it is fast and resilient enough that it has done just fine at FNM type games. The biggest issue is terminus and the lack of removal.

EDIT: Meant to mention this. With your Black control deck, I was trying something similar, and really liked Black Cat as an early chump blocker. Sever the Bloodline still makes sense in the sideboard IMO, for angel/centaur tokens.

Other Edits: Still learning deck/sideboard markup.

[SimonWhite]

Originally Posted by jambarama

I was brewing some budget standard decks not long ago as well. One is quite similar to your B/W aggro, I'll have to run yours and see what I can swap in. I thought I'd share them, since they're don't really merit their own post.

COMBO:

Sample Decklist:

Three win conditions - psychic spiral after enough reforge the soul can do it, burn at the stake with enough goblins, or simply attacking with enough 1/1 goblins.

This deck is difficult to play, you have to get a sense of how long to wait to cast Epic Experiment, the sequence of play, and whatnot. The deck is fun, but gets gutted by terminus, mass unsummon, sever the bloodline, or even electrickery. But it can really take people by surprise.

Other options include Devil's Play as an optional finisher, Guttersnipe as a finisher, Infernal Plunge for more mana. I left out Guttersnipe because, as the only meaningful creature, it draws hate right away. Devil's Play isn't necessary, Burn at the stake and Psychic Spiral are competent finishers. Infernal Plunge it out because Battle Hymn cast & flashed back provides plenty of red mana.

AGGRO:

This is an easy deck to play. It leverages 2-for-1 creatures (doomed traveler) or 1/1 spirits, with sac spells (bone splinters, midnight haunting) to trigger morbid for Tragic Slip and Skirsdag High Priest. The Desecration Demon typically gets through too, because sacrificing creatures triggers morbid as well.

For non-budget options, Sorin, Lord of Innistrad is terrific, I'd add 2x and take out the typhoid rats. This plays OK without Isolated Chapels, but they'd obviously be an improvement.

Vampire Nighthawk was a tough one to cut since it is so solid, but with it, the deck had too many 3-drops and Midnight Haunting & Lingering Souls. Other options: Loyal Cathar (if you've got better mana fixing), Demon Lord of Ashmouth (triggers morbid & gives you a large resilient creature). [/deck]


This deck was much stronger with Dungrove Elder and Beast Within as unconditional removal, but it still isn't a bad deck. RtR didn't add anything either, but it is fast and resilient enough that it has done just fine at FNM type games. The biggest issue is terminus and the lack of removal.

I've been doing this for sideboard:

3x Acidic Slime
4x Grave Bramble
4x Ground Seal
4x Naturalize

Though with zombies disappearing, Grave Bramble hasn't been out of the sidebar much.

EDIT: Meant to mention this. With your Black control deck, I was trying something similar, and really liked Black Cat as an early chump blocker. Sever the Bloodline still makes sense in the sideboard IMO, for angel/centaur tokens.

Not bad. I like your mono green deck, but I have never liked epic experiment in any form. Good luck with these, tell me how it goes.

[Pluvialis]

There's only 56 cards in your BW tokens deck

[The Dork Knight]

Originally Posted by Pluvialis

There's only 56 cards in your BW tokens deck

I suspect it's land, most the other decks are running a conservative mana base, considering mono-white had 24 land, I thought it odd BW had only 20.

[Goat Warlord]

Great work! I'm still new to the game. What is the difference between each of the types of decks? I'm sure that would help out quite a bit of people.

[TheTennesseeFireman]

Great work. If you have time for one last touch, I'd recommend putting in links to threads for each deck, so those who are interested can find resources more easily.

[Carl]

I was looking at tournament reports. I noticed there was tcg magic tournament in Montreal recently and there was a G/W deck just like yours that made top 4. The most expensive cards they had in the deck were 4x Loxodon Smiters and 3x Silverblade Paladins. The deck was devoid of any angels or thragatusks. With the non basic lands the deck would only cost around $120. Most G/W decks cost at least $250-300 because they run cards like thragatusk.

[SimonWhite]

Originally Posted by Pluvialis

There's only 56 cards in your BW tokens deck

Originally Posted by The Dork Knight

I suspect it's land, most the other decks are running a conservative mana base, considering mono-white had 24 land, I thought it odd BW had only 20.

Yeah, fix'd that didn't even notice, thanks!

Originally Posted by Pluvialis

There's only 56 cards in your BW tokens deck

Originally Posted by The Dork Knight

I suspect it's land, most the other decks are running a conservative mana base, considering mono-white had 24 land, I thought it odd BW had only 20.

Originally Posted by The Dork Knight

Great thread. All sensible decks, with solid lists and good explanations. It's going to make the post I've been writing for the last week auto-redundant, which has many similar deck ideas.

Originally Posted by shinbatsu

The difficulty bar is a really nice touch. Great work!

Originally Posted by TheTennesseeFireman

Great work. If you have time for one last touch, I'd recommend putting in links to threads for each deck, so those who are interested can find resources more easily.

Thanks guys! Thanks a lot, I'll try to get some morecontent in here.

Originally Posted by Carl

I was looking at tournament reports. I noticed there was tcg magic tournament in Montreal recently and there was a G/W deck just like yours that made top 4. The most expensive cards they had in the deck were 4x Loxodon Smiters and 3x Silverblade Paladins. The deck was devoid of any angels or thragatusks. With the non basic lands the deck would only cost around $120. Most G/W decks cost at least $250-300 because they run cards like thragatusk.

Yeah, that's interesting I do believe that these decks could be pretty well competitively.

[jambarama]

The surge combo deck looks like it could benefit from a laboratory maniac and soul of the harvest. If you can surge through all permanents, then lab maniac will win on the spot if you can get a single soul of the harvest trigger.

[SimonWhite]

Originally Posted by jambarama

The surge combo deck looks like it could benefit from a laboratory maniac and soul of the harvest. If you can surge through all permanents, then lab maniac will win on the spot if you can get a single soul of the harvest trigger.

That would lose to 1 Ultimate Price, 1 Unsummon, 1 Searing Spear, 1 Anything. That way I have it written now you would probably need a lot more removal.

EDIT: Added one more Aggro deck at the top, I can't believe I forgot to add that!

[Goat Warlord]

What decks have you had the most consistency with? Quite a few of the decks look really fun, but I wouldn't want to make a deck and lose more than I win.

[SimonWhite]

Originally Posted by Goat Warlord

What decks have you had the most consistency with? Quite a few of the decks look really fun, but I wouldn't want to make a deck and lose more than I win.

Well since many of these deck are using strictly less powerful cards and lands that aren't generally optimal, maybe a mono colored deck, or one of these decks you go out and buy the Inn-Lands and M10-Lands for.

If you want to win, just go for the red deck and get Hellriders, that would be the closest thing in here to being Tier 1 competitive, but there are other options because everyone has a different play-style. I don't think any of these decks are bad, but some might not be winning machines. (Surge Combo etc.)