"If you cast a ramp spell and don't play a land, you didn't actually ramp" I genuinely think this is why Cultivate and Kodama's Reach are such popular ramp spells. Putting one in your hand means it's always ramp.
You can cast rampant growth on turn two sure, but if you miss your land drop in turn three you wasted turn two, instead of just taking a three land hand.
I think Prof's deck tech expertise and Magic Arcanum's recent video philosophy of "play the cards you like" is the direction we need to take the game. And proxies.
Spent more on proxies this month than I did wizards-printed cards. Technically I don't think I should ever buy sealed product, LGS round here only have Draft and Commander and draft comes with the sealed packs I need and commander is all secondary-market singles.
Build your deck to have fun, PLAY your deck to win is what I've found works for me. I'll put "suboptimal" but fun cards into my decks, but at game time it's no holds barred :)
You and your team consistently provide such fantastic insight, thank you for making videos like this! Even years into this format and decades into this game, these kinds of videos still give me things to consider. Also, much love for continuing to champion the use of proxies!
Very cool to see you tackle budget commander - as these days lots of folks don't have the cash lying around to afford a lot of the pricier cards in the format and content like this shows them that its still very possible to enjoy our format without breaking the bank. And I agree whole heartedly with your deckbuilding breakdown - as proper deck building is often a counter to more expensive decks by providing improved consistency, more interaction, and better synergy.
As a new commander player, this was so good to know. Not sure how viable this would be for content but having a series dedicated to showcase cheaper cards that have similar effects as the splashy counterparts will be excellent.
I love to buy valuable cards and collect expensive ones, but what I love above all else is to play the game with friends. So, I tell them all the time to proxy whatever cards they want. It shouldn't be complicated to understand that not everyone is in this game for the enjoyment of the singles economy like I am. Some ppl just want to play without having to climb over a pay-wall.
Additionally they also don't want to deal with having such high value items either. MTG cards get lost, stolen, or damaged all the time and when they cost +$50 or more it can get stressful when something bad happens.
I lost a LOT of cards in a house fire, and pulled some out of the wreckage a week later. My 75% remaining Cavern of Souls is the one proxy nobody has argued against, and I'm not paying $50+ for a replacement.
One thing I've always focused on is having a core idea and looking for synergy with other cards. Often times decks will get expensive and win less when they try to always have the best answer or coolest things but not have a focus on how they're going to win.
I want to applaud you for the initial forward of playing more lands, I did the math on one of my decks recently and found out I was like running idk 9 or so too few lands based on my curve and it runs much more smoothly now (even my Lurrus Companion deck still wants 37 lands). Oftentimes "just run X lands" is not a catch-all for most decks and running more lands is often correct if not the "fun" choice.
Small piece of advice that I noticed over time: an easy way of building budget decks is considering commanders that play around cheap cards, making them look better. Commanders like feather (reusable instants or sorceries), edric (cheap, evasive creatures) and even teshar (low cost creatures/artifacts with simple but good effects) can be a good start
Love this video. I build a lot of decks, so I tend to quickly run out of copies of popular, pricier cards. Getting creative and finding cheaper cards I haven’t played before has become a fun way to spend time while also making my wide assortment of decks each feel unique. You’re really the best in the west when it comes to advice for getting the most bang for my buck!
This is some excellent advice. The only thing I would add is to look to buy good one drops. Strong decks tend to keep to lower mana curves, with most cards lying between cmc 1-3. Most players getting into the format for the first time either buy a precon (which will very often include only 2 or 3 1 cmc spells), or just cobble together something from their collection (which very often wont have enough unique 1 cmc cards that are good in commander). You usually want at least 15 for most decks.
Proxies are the heart of my play group, we play all types of games, all types of sets, we love our printer and we love to have fun together brewing decks. The Magic is actually about the Gathering ;)
Am currently building my first deck, and the most helpfull thing has been playing it in my LGS. A couple of other people have a deck with the same commander and a lot of them have played with or against similar decks (dragon tribal), and have given me good advice on what cards or types of cards to keep or leave out. Both the peoples advice and simply playing games with it have given me excellent info on how to improve. Making a good decklist is not something you do in an evening, it takes times and testing.
I always tell people to buy a Pre-con (especially one of the $20-$30) commander deck in the colors they want to play and then buying the singles to reskin it to the commander you want to play. $20 worth of upgrades really helps someone get into the experience and the decks are stout
watching this while sleeving my first commander deck! Your videos got me really interested in trying the format and found out i have a lot of cool elementals i could build a tri mana deck around. Wish me luck!
My first commander deck was a GRU elemental tribal deck bc those were the cards I had. I printed a proxy of Animar as an elemental commander and have enjoyed it a lot! Have fun!
in my opinion they should create more cards that do more based on the amount of basic lands you have, while dual lands and the such are useful expensive or well rounded decks still contain like 5-10 basic lands for stuff like rampant growth. what we need is stuff that gives you small perks and bonuses for playing cheaper cards, nothing busted but something that allows you to not fall behind for not spending $500 per deck
If you don't have a prevalent artifact theme in your deck, and you chose to do a mono colored deck, the mana base is good and cheap almost always. I still do think that there is a commander for everyone even in mono color.
Good ideas here Prof. As a budget player, I do want to say one thing on lands. Thanks to the neverending stream of precons, 5 of the color pairs (Azorius, Dimir, Rakdos, Gruul, and Selesnya respectively) each have at least 3 dirt cheap dual lands that can enter untapped (specifically, the Reveal, Tango, and Odyssey Filter lands). That's in addition to the painlands all getting a reprint, and the reprinted lands in Dom Remastered. Exotic Orchard and Path of Ancestry are cheap too. And there are random other duals that are cheap, like Rockfall Vale in Gruul (around $1 at the most). Unless your pods are very powerful or very quick, I don't feel behind in terms of manabase when I play. Even my 3 color decks work about as often as other players that I see. And if you really want a cheap 5 color deck, honestly, go for a Gates deck. Yeah it's weird and inefficient, but in a pinch it works and Maze's End is the cheapest it's been in years.
Man, great video!! My friends always ask me how can I build such good decks, usualy, in the commander $100, but they almost always work in the same way, with great consistency. The trick is: sinergy + mana base. No pet cards, constant add/rem cards after experiencing their gameplay, and things like that. Exactly the same thing you said here. To me, there is no need to put hundreds, thousands of money in commander decks, because afterall you just want to make some fun moves, use some wierd cards that play nowhere else, etc. Thats the whole point for me. Thanks!
Prof, I just wanted to give you kudos for stating on the record that there is nothing wrong with proxying. There are so many people that could be benefitted by that. Also proxying the cards you can't buy as singles is a great way to continue to play Magic without giving Wizards more money.
I love how much important you put on lands. Not only is mana base just a very good place to invest, it can more easily be moved between decks! Once I saved up and got a solid set of the more expensive lands, I found deck building a lot funner because I didn't have to fight mana base.
For anyone who might care. You can make any commander deck for free on table top simulator from steam. Me and my friends play on it all the time and we are able to use decks that are $2000 for free. I guess maybe not for free, you have to pay $20 for tabletop Simulator per person. But that it gives you access to any magic card you can think of. Want 4 black lotic in your deck? Go for it. I mean it's cheaper and just as legitimate as the anniversary packs that were released.
simple trick that works in literally every commander: more ccard draw is better, your spells could be less powerful, but if you fling 3 of them a turn you will win, every color has cheap accessible card draw, even my monowhite has like 12 card draw spells that are under 4 dollars
Professor thank you! The only thing I would emphasize is that some colors tend to be more expensive as a whole than others so I would encourage people make a budget deck and slowly add more expensive cards over time rather than feel like they have to buy all the high power ones up front.
Excellent advice! I got into Commander this year (very much on a budget) and have saved major money by leaning way into one-off ("parasitic") mechanics. I run Farideh dice rolling, Gorion adventures, and Tazri dungeons. You can often make decks that are very consistent, thematic, and cheap by getting the cards that care about rare mechanics and don't matter anywhere else. So pick a niche irrelevant to competitive constructed, and have fun!
Also, in case this isn't common knowledge: in EDHrec you can search any commander you like, hit Average Deck, and specify Cheap. Fantastic source of inspiration imo.
My best tip is to look through older sets and you can find forgotten cards that can really help some strategies. There is a card in Ice Age that absolutely wrecked the other side while juicing up my mono-black commander deck.
I just built a new deck this weekend with a budget I hadn't tried in a long time, just cards I had around the house. I built Talrand with mostly draft chaff cantrips, a couple protection spells, and few emergency counters, it ran great and all the cards are things I normally wouldn't put in a deck. The reaction every other turn of "oh I remember that from back during X set," or "I forgot that existed," was a lot of fun.
I think there is one strategy in particular worth mentioning when it comes to strong, cheap mechanics: Stealing creatures from the opponent! Let them pay for Eldrazi and then snatch them and give them a taste of their own own medicine (poisen). E.g. Etali or Machesa the black rose are fantastic in this regard!
Captain N'ghathrod as well! I almost never get a mill win, I usually win with other people's cool artifacts and creatures. Plus there are tons of horrors that steal stuff
Short answer to me is *yes* Long answer to me is *yes, but it takes more than just the right cards; it takes a smart pilot* . I knew a guy who had only six decks - each of which was mono-colored and cost less than $100 each. Kami, 8½, Zo-Zu, Marwyn, Kothophed and Hope of Ghirapur. The decks were super cobbled together and each had all of *ONE* powerful card each, but the way he piloted them to both get into people's heads and perform well made each one a real treat to play against.
I'm new to MtG, only been playing for about 3 months, and I'm lucky to have a local group of tabletop friends to play with (many of them are new to it as well). Until I gain a firm grasp on the rules and nuances of what can be done, I've been concentrating my efforts on building a few super-cheap EDH decks and playing around with different setups during our casual game nights. If I goof up and realize my deck flat-out doesn't work (which recently happened with a golgari spider deck I made), at least I only spent between $30-50 bucks on that mistake. And hey, chances are I didn't waste that money anyway, those cards can always be used in later decks. For me, half the fun of MtG is the building process itself (and the hunt for the right cards)!
You can actually make EDH decks with just common cards, and an uncommon legend as your commander. It's called Pauper EDH, and allows you to make a complete deck with less than 30$ almost always. You wouldn't believe how high the power level of these can be. There are countless infinite combos that rely only on common cards, and those actually feel fair, because they are slow and the answers are balanced. It's a pretty fun format!
I just want to add to what professor said. - I find that there's more variety in good budget lands than ever. I'll always recommend when buying a pre-con to set aside around $10, and buy some utility/dual lands, you'll quickly see how much smoother and consistent deck feels when you remove the "enter the battlefield tapped" lands. -When constructing, always check other videos/deck sites, and see how others build their deck. It can give you a direction, but most importantly, it can show you cards that work exceptionally good with your commander. Having said that, also go to scryfall, and read the new cards in the color identity you want to build. I've found a lot of underrated cards in Commander Legends 2, that really makes me question why the community haven't really talked much about these. -The perfect time to buy reprints are in the morning in release date, and when the next set is being previewed (usually in about 2 months).
Always good to see decisions I have made weeks ago reinforced in this video. Seems daunting with a limited budget, I remember on of my first games of commander an opponent played a Tundra Turn 1....... internally I was screaming "That's worth more than 3 of my decks combined!"
I`m pretty sure that`s not the case, the idea of shocks and fetches is literally to improve consistency by thinning the deck out and allowing for more optimal plays. Obviously not all decks need it but for my cutthroat decks it is highly desireable, as it allows you help get the cards you need more easily. Imagine having a spell that has a triple coloured cost and you only have 2 of that colour needed to play it because you had 3 basics, or if you did have the 3rd colour it enters tapped, you`ve lost a turn which you couldn`t play it on curve.
@@RHINOJL for the use case you’re describing it makes sense to include those lands, especially for cutthroat play. But most players don’t think that way. For the casual environments a lot of players are convinced they need those expensive lands for their decks. Even at my LGS I hear players talk about how they need the expensive cards for their deck even when that expensive card doesn’t bring much value to their plays. Part of me is convinced that the inexperienced players are listening too much to content creators (experienced players) but don’t understand the reasoning behind the statements being made. Do fetches and shocks need to be $50? I don’t think so but I also don’t agree with including them in products like precons.
@@Smaul002 I have observed mostly in video games but to a lesser extent in tabletop games there is a new culture where you are expected to be able to watch someone on twitch, learn a trick or two, and now you're elite at the game. Real deep mtg knowledge is antithetical to this new gamer culture.
As someone who wants to get back into EDH and wants to make a deck using cards from previous pack openings (I know, heresy) this video came out just in a nick of time. Thanks Prof!
Haha! I'm just getting into commander and commited said heresy myself. I managed to make a decent power level 5-6 Kaza, Roil Chaser deck that I'm pretty pleased with!
In my experience, I find it difficult to stay on a low budget with mono-color decks because there is a smaller pool of cards available. Budget decks (ironically) are easier to build when you have 2 or 3 colors because you have access to more budget options that a mono-colored deck couldn't flex in. The tradeoff is that your mana base is harder to build.
Our friend group recently adopted 5 below commander. Ban sol ring and then any card that has a few LP listings at $5 and below are allowed. You can have pretty decent decks, but at same time, not break the bank.
Another advice that I can give (because it works for me) is that you may put in some Cards that give you the Initiative, let you venture into the Dungeon or let you become the Monarch. The Initiative lets you visit the Undercity and the first Room gives you a Basic Land of your choice from your Deck. By using Rooms of Dungeons to your Advantage you are a bit more flexible in your turns and can get more advantages as you progress and maybe even get some Synergy. The Monarch lets you Draw Cards during each End Phase and we all know that even one single Card can keep your Game going. I don‘t have the Money to buy expensive Cards, so I have built Decks with the most Cards being from the Forgotten Realms and Baldur‘s Gate Set combined. You would think at first the Cards won‘t do much, but they work very well together and are very fun to play. So I recommend, to give the a Shot. Have a nice day people.^^
Literally just make proxies. If your play group has an issue with you making proxies for a deck at a similar power level as their decks then find a new playgroup. Edh is supposed to be a casual, multiplayer format. No one should be taking it seriously enough to worry about proxies
Facts . I have real decks , but if someone rolls up with a printed out deck .... I won't even raise an eyebrow . My only condition is that I be able to be readable and ideally looks like the card (printed not drawn )
My old playgroup from high school would typically trade and build decks together, and if we needed stuff to help each other keep up we'd help out, made the games more fun and evenly matched
@@tuskedwings7453 The issue isn't with proxies in this case, that's an issue with matching powerlevels. It's not better if someone shows up with real powerful cards to a low power level table.
I've started proxying entire commander decks, it's great. I keep them all under $150 budget so they're not too strong. I buy the sleeves and deckboxes and basic lands from my local game store so I'm still supporting them. I print them in color and spend a couple hours per deck, carefully cutting the cards with scissors, so they look really good. The only people who care are the teenagers at the game store who are obsessed with card prices and cracking packs and selling cards.
I LOVE hearing all these tricks I've developed being confirmed by the professor himself! Using cheap alternatives, ramping, keeping your mana curve low (I love combining card draw with an avrage CMC 2 deck, it allows me to just play 3 spells per turn and completely surprise opponents!) - a 2 to 3 cost commander also allows you to get them out really quick, useful if your hand doesn't have anything in it to cast on turn 2 or 3! Speaking of cheap alternatives. I have a white/blue voltron deck that I found a card in that didn't synergise enough - but I had fragmentize laying around, a 1 cost white destroy artifact or enchantment? I used to think it was bad, but in commander paying 1 white to remove someone's sol ring or thran dynamo is pretty fun. and I'm pretty sure fragmentize is one of those two-cent cards! (looked it up, yeah it's cheaper than toilet paper! at 0.02 to 0.10$) Get yourself a fragmentize, people!
09:50 For those who like building decks with constraints, I highly recommend building one from the Pioneer card pool too. That typically costs half of the regular EDH decks. Instead, I spend the saved money to buy cards in the reserved list as they are assured not to be reasonable again as long as MTG lasts.
@@TolarianCommunityCollege it shows and in my meta it is much needed. Thank you for the great advice. I just upped my land count so I’m hoping my decks will be a bit more competitive with my playgroup
As the video states near the end; PROXY. But still buy stuff from your local gaming shop. My local store advocates Proxy play for pretty much all formats and whenever I go, their tables are full. The only modern border MTG product I've ever bought is Jumpstart. If the store has no Jumpstart boosters, I just buy a couple of random packs for someone I know who can't afford them. Unless you're a collector, a tournament player or a finace bro, cardboard is cardboard and fun is fun.
A few years ago I got a new playgroup with way more money than I at that moment. So my mindset was: If I can't outspend your deck, I must make sure you can't play your deck. So I made a Derevi Stax & "Steal your stuff deck". Made me more evil, but also budget friendly haha.
I love that this comes out the day after I get in an argument on TikToc about whether or not people are able to build a good deck on a budget. Magic: The Gathering has 30 years of product. There is always a budget alternative for deck building if you know what you're doing. Without having to use proxies too.
What a fantastic idea for a video; I will be upping the land count of all of my decks to see them play more consistently! I cannot wait! I only wish I played more than one evening a week!
I once played against someone who had only 1 single forest in his mono green deck filled with Llanowar elves and similar cards to get out more bigger creatures. It was slow in the first few rounds, but snowballed into an unstoppable force.
3:40 "Mana ramp shouldn't come at the expense of your lands" Yes, this is true, but when you switch out a land for a ramp spell, you only are suffering the consequence if you find yourself on a turn with no land. Otherwise, it's a HUGE improvement over just having another land, because you'll have the opportunity of dropping a second mana source in one turn.
Slaughter Pact is so good and underplayed. It can absolutely catch people off guard, and even if your next turn will be a bit slower because of it; When you actually need it, you would've been dead anyway.
Buying Precons from my LGS and then going online to sites with budget upgrades is my new hobby. Then when shopping for cards, on TCG is what I use, remember shipping is a thing so I try to buy as much from one seller as possible to avoid shipping costs. Some stores charge significantly more for shipping than others.
Welll, they're not guildgates ... but I threw most of the Baldur's Gate Gates in my 5 colored Shrine Deck including some gate specific ramp cards to search especially for Gond Gate so I can play them untapped xD" As I'm usually on a budget, I probably shouldn't build 5 colored decks, but I love my Shrines and Tiamat 🥲
I use the gates in my morophon dragons deck, and while one member of my playgroup groans about it, it's effective, and i feel good about it, mostly because of uncommon things that were in things like dragon's maze like "hold the gates" (why yes, i'll happily gain +0/+3 to +0/+11 and vigilance on my whole board)
I've gotten proxies from 2 different places. The first place (that I can no longer remember) was amazing and the second site was terrible quality. Y'all got any recommendations for someone who doesn't own a printer?
One thing it's worth mentioning: pay attention to your play group. While it's true that a low mana curve is preferable, having many high-mana heavy-hitters is not a bad thing. I play a lot of aggro decks that rely on small 2-3 mana spells to build up power over time, but if your playgroup is not cEDH-level games might drag on and more lands will hit the board than you previously anticipated and you'll be able to cast things like "In Garruk's Wake" or a big X-costed spell even without green ramp. If your small creatures are synergic but can't make a difference late in the game in might be a good idea to swap them out for something that can give you benefits when you have the extra lands on your board.
Oh how I wish this came out 3 weeks earlier. I just finished building my Jaxis Commander deck and my poor checkbook (It is however a really fun deck). Joking aside an incredibly informative video and it will definitely help with future builds. Cheers!
a huge tip i have for playing on a budget is playing highly synergistic cards over raw power. i have an Orvar, the all form deck that i built for 25 dollars and it is INCREDIBLY powerful. That commander makes many terrible and cheap instants super powerful. Many cards are like this and it may take a bit more homework, but a little creativity goes a long way.
People just need to be okay with playing decks that aren't "high powered" sometimes. That's not to say you can't have a good deck, but you can also build decks out of the cards you have sitting in a box in your closet. It's allowed.
That's how me and my roommates have been building decks since we got addicted to the format last year. helps that we've both been on and of playing the game for over 20 years.
With so many precon commander decks at $30 or below, you can always buy one whose theme you really like and upgrade it. The mana base isn't that great but with some of the budget options proff went over and a few other changes you'd be surprised how well they can play.
Most of mine are precon upgrades - and since I've spent some money on manabases here and there I'll just proxy the lands if I ever build new decks in those colors.
I reccomend going through your collection first. If you've been playing for awhile, you probably have all sorts of cards stashed away that you've completely forgotten about. I can't even count how many times I almost bought a card I already had lying around in a box somewhere. It's always good to check if you have any decent cards that you can use in your collection or in one of your other decks you haven't played in awhile.
Manabases are KEY. You want to try to stay below 10 "tapped" lands. I recently built a 4 color commander deck using the mirage fetches, battle lands, man lands, and basics and it runs pretty smoothly. The deck itself is about $200, but the manabase is probably below $50.
Glad to have another technical video from you professor, and company. Id like to make comment. Moxfield is a pretty easy way to look at a manabase. I play between 35 and 45 lands depending on archetype. I start considering 25 lands will be basics (unless youre doing something strange), and basics can be free if you know where to look. Evolving wilds, slow fetches, various tapped duals, and on color pain lands are great ways to fill in that 10 or so extra lands i end up needing. I stay away from utility lands for optimization reasons. I really want a good synergystic reason to have man lands. Usually it ends up better having a spell or a basic instead. Picking an expensive general or weird line to victory is a pretty easy pitfall to fall into, just like coming up with push-pin and yarn conditional spell situations that might never happen in game. I try not to get hung up on having a card or two, because a deck of 99 cards relies more on GROUPS of cards. Having a snc etb fetch might save you some money that allows you to get a really good package of 10 cards for the same money a fetchland or shock might set you back. Also, make sure to use the set gimmick cards like buyback, cycling, adventures and MDFCs as a way to help you tune for having spells/lands, or in the case of cycling, getting some extra card movement going, and not breaking the bank.
Love love LOVE this video! I'd love to see you expand on the last topic, about not always needing / wanting to win to define your fun in Commander. I LOVE building decks without defensive measures or with specific restrictions; though these are not always budget decks. Eruth Storm but require EVERY playable Storm card + lose the game effects AND no defensive cards makes it truly feel like a slot machine. Even the simplest restriction on Go-Shintai of Life's Origin requiring every single Shrine, not just the best ones or an efficient amount leaves its games feeling very different each time. Admittedly offbeat design decisions are unlikely to be near the top of ideas or priorities for budget players, I see it as another method of resisting gravity's call toward meta and cEDH play dominating your entire Commander experience.
There's a lot of older commons and uncommons that we often overlook in building because we keep them in different bins. I keep a box of "playables" separate from the others. Mana geyser, urban evolution, fog, the list goes on. I'm sure everyone has a favorite. The point is, organization is an underrated element of deckbuilding
@@Nemissis4265 commander being a casual format, means there aren’t tournaments or pay-outs…. More than Half the people in my LGS proxy out expensive parts of their commander decks. I have a completely proxied out alt/art squirrel deck to enhance the flavor of the deck. My particular store is PACKED every Friday/Saturday and Sunday night for Commander. And are highly profitable because of that. Proxies encourages more engagement and accessibility to Magic. More people playing in store = more money. For OFFICIAL tournaments, yes, please buy the cards. That being said, my store runs “unofficial” proxy friendly modern leagues all the time and gets huge turn out, charges per head and gives prize support…. I love my LGS❤
I made a card called rainbow lotus. it's 0 to cast and you can tap it to add 1 mana of each color. it doesn't use the color symbols tho, just text, so I can run it in any commander deck
Lovely advice, great video as always. I'd like to add that it's always an option for other players to power down their deck. Like you say, commander isn't just about winning, and forcing everyone into sweaty levels of magic prevents people making their own synergies, playstyles and just instead having to use whatever EDHREC says. I see a lot of new players spend far too much money on a overly competitive deck, and then just get burned out of the game after less than a few months. It's really kind of sad to see.
It's digital, but utilizing frogtown and tabletop simulator, it's easy to use whatever cards you want, and I can play with my buddies out of town. No need to print/buy proxies and it's super easy. Highly recommend if you're feeling priced out of commander.
But my deck wouldn't be complete without Dockside, Ulamog, and Ragavan! :P. I actually think my most expensive card is Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. It's amazing because I recently checked my TCG order history and I paid $5 for it. It's truly scary how much a card can leap in price in just a few years.
I really apreciate your insight into consistency vs power. Flavour to me It's the other ingredient I consider. For me when building a deck I really want to find that crossroad of consistency and flavour, I find that combination the most rewarding. I do have a couple of powerful decks, that I used take out if the table is playing for power, (Light -Paws) but If I'm honest I have way more fun with consistency +flavour. I took out my Minsc and Boo, Timeles Heroes deck for a ride against one of these powerful tables, and it absolutely took everyone by storm, I'ts not "powerful" Its just fast and consistent, It gets me a HUGE hamster to swing every time, and really It's just a joy to take out Urza's and the like with an overgrown rodent. It did made consider if I should retool my other "powerful" decks into flavourfull fun instead. I think power and flavour is posible but harder to come by, but building that way always makes me feel like I'm building everyone's else's same deck.
@@forbunnie We use proxies of cards we can afford, but can't find. This way, we don't power creep our decks. Because honestly, casual commander is more fun.
Best advice I give is to look through your deck and rank the cards and do it in many ways, rank your removsl, rank your ramp, rank your creatures, then rank them by mana value.
My budget land rules for 3 colour decks: -37 lands -No more than 2 tap dual lands -max 9 budget duals (inc tap) 28 basics -equal amounts of each colour generation (shift number of basics to suit which duals you have) -pure colourless utility lands are not counted in the 37 -3 of signets/talismans/cluestones in ramp aid colour fixing (one of each colour pair your 3 colour deck can use) Most my 3 colour decks follow these rules and are pretty consistant. Exceptions are decks containing high percentages of gold border multicolour spells. Fine if you have up to 5 in there, but jiggle the amount to see. Would be interested in seeing more of your commander staple alternatives 👌
I do agree with what you said about the manabase. For budget options with the lands, running the slow dual lands like Prairie Stream and Sunken Hollow for example, since these cards are not only 2 colors lands that enter the battlefield untap in most cases, they also have the basic land types that can be fetch by ramp cards. The Temple and the Bounce lands are also useful in the early stages of the game by giving you infomation about the card you about to draw and helping you guarantee your next land drop. Check lands and Slow lands are usually the go to lands that I would run as a budget. They do came in tap for the early stages of the game but the times where its untap when it etb is way higher than it enter tapped. The Mana Sink land (as I call it) can be a great addition to it (Dark Water Catacomb for example). It can really help you fix mana by paying 1 GENERIC MANA for it. You can literally run a colorless with the Mana Sink land and you get 2 colors. However, there is 1 type of land that I don't really recommend players to get but it still does it job. The early lands. These are the one that enter untap if you control you or less other lands. These are great as it enter untap early game but become a guildgate land after the 3rd turn. I don't recommend it but they are dirt cheap. With the Concealed Courtyard being under $1 it is a land that you might want to grab if your deck can go off in the early stages of the game. Shock Lands are THE SAME AS ANY 2 COLORS LANDS. They do the same exact thing that most 2 color lands do: Giving you the choice of the 2 colors it provide. It is unnecessary to get those when you can have a budget option aka Slow dual lands. They both have the basic land types in their cards and they have conditions to enter untap. It is not worth the risk to threw $30-$50 into 3 cards where you can spend those cards for a bunch of nonlands that can help you win the game. LANDS AREN'T MAKING YOUR DECK STRONGERS, DECISION MAKING DOES. A pro player can find ways to win with a crap deck while a new player relies on good cards to do the job.
I know its frowned upon in some play groups, but there are a lot of cheap infinite combos that you can add to budget decks to get a massive power spike if you're able to find the pieces. I use this as a way to spend very little on my decks while still being able to be a relevant threat at tables opposed to being largely ignored by the table while im casting all my little crackling drakes and spellheart chimeras since now they know that if I draw enough cards I might just pull a win out from under them
Its not as frownd apon as proxys lol. Having a cheap infinit comparid to the 200$ combo that can go off turn 2 thats FAKE when jimmy buffet has bean collecting for 20yrs and snot noses thinks they can proxy and go to a turny with them they will get laghed off the table
It's a brand new Shuffle Up & Play! Patrick Sullivan VS Cedric Phillips return to battle it out here: ruclips.net/video/9OeQDAH1dU8/видео.html
"If you cast a ramp spell and don't play a land, you didn't actually ramp" I genuinely think this is why Cultivate and Kodama's Reach are such popular ramp spells. Putting one in your hand means it's always ramp.
Yeah, that consistent land drop each turn is super important.
it can arguably be better than an Explosive Vegetation because it only costs 3 to cast instead of 4.
You can cast rampant growth on turn two sure, but if you miss your land drop in turn three you wasted turn two, instead of just taking a three land hand.
The question is, how many lands do you play? I hover between 37-40 typically but that only equates to approx 22-24 lands in a 60 card format.
@@Sariya_Inari and if you're in more than 2 colours and want to cast spells that are 6 mana on turn 6, you're already looking good there.
I think Prof's deck tech expertise and Magic Arcanum's recent video philosophy of "play the cards you like" is the direction we need to take the game.
And proxies.
Spent more on proxies this month than I did wizards-printed cards. Technically I don't think I should ever buy sealed product, LGS round here only have Draft and Commander and draft comes with the sealed packs I need and commander is all secondary-market singles.
Build your deck to have fun, PLAY your deck to win is what I've found works for me. I'll put "suboptimal" but fun cards into my decks, but at game time it's no holds barred :)
Nope it ruins the entire point of the game
@@Nemissis4265 eh
@@Nemissis4265 the entire "point of the game" is you buying overpriced cardboard cutouts. Everything else is just a marketing ploy to cement that.
The Prof: *narrowly escapes getting compleated by Elesh Norn*
Also the Prof: *gets assimilated by the Borg*
You and your team consistently provide such fantastic insight, thank you for making videos like this! Even years into this format and decades into this game, these kinds of videos still give me things to consider. Also, much love for continuing to champion the use of proxies!
Wow, thank you! That means a lot to us!
Very cool to see you tackle budget commander - as these days lots of folks don't have the cash lying around to afford a lot of the pricier cards in the format and content like this shows them that its still very possible to enjoy our format without breaking the bank. And I agree whole heartedly with your deckbuilding breakdown - as proper deck building is often a counter to more expensive decks by providing improved consistency, more interaction, and better synergy.
Awesome to see you here! Excited to see what you build next!
As a new commander player, this was so good to know. Not sure how viable this would be for content but having a series dedicated to showcase cheaper cards that have similar effects as the splashy counterparts will be excellent.
I love to buy valuable cards and collect expensive ones, but what I love above all else is to play the game with friends. So, I tell them all the time to proxy whatever cards they want. It shouldn't be complicated to understand that not everyone is in this game for the enjoyment of the singles economy like I am. Some ppl just want to play without having to climb over a pay-wall.
Additionally they also don't want to deal with having such high value items either. MTG cards get lost, stolen, or damaged all the time and when they cost +$50 or more it can get stressful when something bad happens.
Damn you are a good friend
I lost a LOT of cards in a house fire, and pulled some out of the wreckage a week later. My 75% remaining Cavern of Souls is the one proxy nobody has argued against, and I'm not paying $50+ for a replacement.
Well said.
I encourage my friends to cross that paywall because it's fun and also a good investment!
One thing I've always focused on is having a core idea and looking for synergy with other cards.
Often times decks will get expensive and win less when they try to always have the best answer or coolest things but not have a focus on how they're going to win.
Totally agree. Its nice to see unique cards and not play agianst a boring goodstuff high impact deck
I want to applaud you for the initial forward of playing more lands, I did the math on one of my decks recently and found out I was like running idk 9 or so too few lands based on my curve and it runs much more smoothly now (even my Lurrus Companion deck still wants 37 lands). Oftentimes "just run X lands" is not a catch-all for most decks and running more lands is often correct if not the "fun" choice.
Small piece of advice that I noticed over time: an easy way of building budget decks is considering commanders that play around cheap cards, making them look better. Commanders like feather (reusable instants or sorceries), edric (cheap, evasive creatures) and even teshar (low cost creatures/artifacts with simple but good effects) can be a good start
Love this video. I build a lot of decks, so I tend to quickly run out of copies of popular, pricier cards. Getting creative and finding cheaper cards I haven’t played before has become a fun way to spend time while also making my wide assortment of decks each feel unique. You’re really the best in the west when it comes to advice for getting the most bang for my buck!
This is some excellent advice. The only thing I would add is to look to buy good one drops. Strong decks tend to keep to lower mana curves, with most cards lying between cmc 1-3. Most players getting into the format for the first time either buy a precon (which will very often include only 2 or 3 1 cmc spells), or just cobble together something from their collection (which very often wont have enough unique 1 cmc cards that are good in commander). You usually want at least 15 for most decks.
Proxies are the heart of my play group, we play all types of games, all types of sets, we love our printer and we love to have fun together brewing decks. The Magic is actually about the Gathering ;)
Am currently building my first deck, and the most helpfull thing has been playing it in my LGS. A couple of other people have a deck with the same commander and a lot of them have played with or against similar decks (dragon tribal), and have given me good advice on what cards or types of cards to keep or leave out. Both the peoples advice and simply playing games with it have given me excellent info on how to improve. Making a good decklist is not something you do in an evening, it takes times and testing.
I always tell people to buy a Pre-con (especially one of the $20-$30) commander deck in the colors they want to play and then buying the singles to reskin it to the commander you want to play. $20 worth of upgrades really helps someone get into the experience and the decks are stout
the problem is buying singles fucking annoying and i cannot be arsed. so print what i wanna play and use what i get from drafts.
watching this while sleeving my first commander deck! Your videos got me really interested in trying the format and found out i have a lot of cool elementals i could build a tri mana deck around. Wish me luck!
My first commander deck was a GRU elemental tribal deck bc those were the cards I had. I printed a proxy of Animar as an elemental commander and have enjoyed it a lot! Have fun!
in my opinion they should create more cards that do more based on the amount of basic lands you have, while dual lands and the such are useful expensive or well rounded decks still contain like 5-10 basic lands for stuff like rampant growth. what we need is stuff that gives you small perks and bonuses for playing cheaper cards, nothing busted but something that allows you to not fall behind for not spending $500 per deck
Check out "Tiller Engine" . Something like that for basics would be pretty neat.
Yeah, colors apart from mono red and black could get a few more of those types of cards.
If you don't have a prevalent artifact theme in your deck, and you chose to do a mono colored deck, the mana base is good and cheap almost always. I still do think that there is a commander for everyone even in mono color.
Kinda like the full gate suite is for 5 colour?
I win tables with precons. You don't have to dump hundreds of dollars into a deck for casual edh
10:25 be aware if talrand is your commander, most players will focus kill you by turn 4. Its usually assumed your running 50 counters.
Good ideas here Prof. As a budget player, I do want to say one thing on lands. Thanks to the neverending stream of precons, 5 of the color pairs (Azorius, Dimir, Rakdos, Gruul, and Selesnya respectively) each have at least 3 dirt cheap dual lands that can enter untapped (specifically, the Reveal, Tango, and Odyssey Filter lands). That's in addition to the painlands all getting a reprint, and the reprinted lands in Dom Remastered. Exotic Orchard and Path of Ancestry are cheap too. And there are random other duals that are cheap, like Rockfall Vale in Gruul (around $1 at the most).
Unless your pods are very powerful or very quick, I don't feel behind in terms of manabase when I play. Even my 3 color decks work about as often as other players that I see. And if you really want a cheap 5 color deck, honestly, go for a Gates deck. Yeah it's weird and inefficient, but in a pinch it works and Maze's End is the cheapest it's been in years.
Man, great video!!
My friends always ask me how can I build such good decks, usualy, in the commander $100, but they almost always work in the same way, with great consistency. The trick is: sinergy + mana base. No pet cards, constant add/rem cards after experiencing their gameplay, and things like that. Exactly the same thing you said here. To me, there is no need to put hundreds, thousands of money in commander decks, because afterall you just want to make some fun moves, use some wierd cards that play nowhere else, etc. Thats the whole point for me.
Thanks!
Prof, I just wanted to give you kudos for stating on the record that there is nothing wrong with proxying. There are so many people that could be benefitted by that. Also proxying the cards you can't buy as singles is a great way to continue to play Magic without giving Wizards more money.
I don't mind proxies. I just prefer the real cards for myself. And I acquire them in ways that doesn't give hasbro or wotc money.
@@benjaminwileman4771 I agree but for the ones that can't, we should be welcoming of proxies.
@Faisal Mirza yep no doubt! As long as people are honest about using them when they sit down to play
I love how much important you put on lands. Not only is mana base just a very good place to invest, it can more easily be moved between decks! Once I saved up and got a solid set of the more expensive lands, I found deck building a lot funner because I didn't have to fight mana base.
You can get a decent printer for cheaper than many EDH decks.
For anyone who might care. You can make any commander deck for free on table top simulator from steam. Me and my friends play on it all the time and we are able to use decks that are $2000 for free. I guess maybe not for free, you have to pay $20 for tabletop Simulator per person. But that it gives you access to any magic card you can think of. Want 4 black lotic in your deck? Go for it. I mean it's cheaper and just as legitimate as the anniversary packs that were released.
For card draw in white decks I recommend checking out Seer's Sundial and Cosmos Elixir!
simple trick that works in literally every commander: more ccard draw is better, your spells could be less powerful, but if you fling 3 of them a turn you will win, every color has cheap accessible card draw, even my monowhite has like 12 card draw spells that are under 4 dollars
Professor thank you! The only thing I would emphasize is that some colors tend to be more expensive as a whole than others so I would encourage people make a budget deck and slowly add more expensive cards over time rather than feel like they have to buy all the high power ones up front.
Which colours would you categorize as more/less expensive ?
Excellent advice! I got into Commander this year (very much on a budget) and have saved major money by leaning way into one-off ("parasitic") mechanics. I run Farideh dice rolling, Gorion adventures, and Tazri dungeons. You can often make decks that are very consistent, thematic, and cheap by getting the cards that care about rare mechanics and don't matter anywhere else. So pick a niche irrelevant to competitive constructed, and have fun!
Also, in case this isn't common knowledge: in EDHrec you can search any commander you like, hit Average Deck, and specify Cheap. Fantastic source of inspiration imo.
My best tip is to look through older sets and you can find forgotten cards that can really help some strategies. There is a card in Ice Age that absolutely wrecked the other side while juicing up my mono-black commander deck.
I didn't scroll far enough before commenting but yes, this point! Especially looking at lower rarity!
Everyone already knows about necropotence 😁
I just built a new deck this weekend with a budget I hadn't tried in a long time, just cards I had around the house. I built Talrand with mostly draft chaff cantrips, a couple protection spells, and few emergency counters, it ran great and all the cards are things I normally wouldn't put in a deck. The reaction every other turn of "oh I remember that from back during X set," or "I forgot that existed," was a lot of fun.
I think there is one strategy in particular worth mentioning when it comes to strong, cheap mechanics: Stealing creatures from the opponent! Let them pay for Eldrazi and then snatch them and give them a taste of their own own medicine (poisen). E.g. Etali or Machesa the black rose are fantastic in this regard!
Captain N'ghathrod as well! I almost never get a mill win, I usually win with other people's cool artifacts and creatures. Plus there are tons of horrors that steal stuff
this strategy however, does not win you friends
Short answer to me is *yes*
Long answer to me is *yes, but it takes more than just the right cards; it takes a smart pilot* . I knew a guy who had only six decks - each of which was mono-colored and cost less than $100 each. Kami, 8½, Zo-Zu, Marwyn, Kothophed and Hope of Ghirapur. The decks were super cobbled together and each had all of *ONE* powerful card each, but the way he piloted them to both get into people's heads and perform well made each one a real treat to play against.
I'm new to MtG, only been playing for about 3 months, and I'm lucky to have a local group of tabletop friends to play with (many of them are new to it as well). Until I gain a firm grasp on the rules and nuances of what can be done, I've been concentrating my efforts on building a few super-cheap EDH decks and playing around with different setups during our casual game nights. If I goof up and realize my deck flat-out doesn't work (which recently happened with a golgari spider deck I made), at least I only spent between $30-50 bucks on that mistake. And hey, chances are I didn't waste that money anyway, those cards can always be used in later decks. For me, half the fun of MtG is the building process itself (and the hunt for the right cards)!
You can actually make EDH decks with just common cards, and an uncommon legend as your commander. It's called Pauper EDH, and allows you to make a complete deck with less than 30$ almost always. You wouldn't believe how high the power level of these can be. There are countless infinite combos that rely only on common cards, and those actually feel fair, because they are slow and the answers are balanced. It's a pretty fun format!
@@mattkent5869 Slight correction any uncommon creature can be your commander for PDH.
I just want to add to what professor said.
- I find that there's more variety in good budget lands than ever. I'll always recommend when buying a pre-con to set aside around $10, and buy some utility/dual lands, you'll quickly see how much smoother and consistent deck feels when you remove the "enter the battlefield tapped" lands.
-When constructing, always check other videos/deck sites, and see how others build their deck. It can give you a direction, but most importantly, it can show you cards that work exceptionally good with your commander. Having said that, also go to scryfall, and read the new cards in the color identity you want to build. I've found a lot of underrated cards in Commander Legends 2, that really makes me question why the community haven't really talked much about these.
-The perfect time to buy reprints are in the morning in release date, and when the next set is being previewed (usually in about 2 months).
Always good to see decisions I have made weeks ago reinforced in this video. Seems daunting with a limited budget,
I remember on of my first games of commander an opponent played a Tundra Turn 1....... internally I was screaming "That's worth more than 3 of my decks combined!"
built my saint celestine commander deck with 60 euros and it hits
cheers from italy
Thanks for looking out for us, prof!
I’m glad you went over mana base. There’s so many ppl who believe they need shocks and fetches to just have their deck function (which is crazy).
I`m pretty sure that`s not the case, the idea of shocks and fetches is literally to improve consistency by thinning the deck out and allowing for more optimal plays. Obviously not all decks need it but for my cutthroat decks it is highly desireable, as it allows you help get the cards you need more easily. Imagine having a spell that has a triple coloured cost and you only have 2 of that colour needed to play it because you had 3 basics, or if you did have the 3rd colour it enters tapped, you`ve lost a turn which you couldn`t play it on curve.
@@RHINOJL for the use case you’re describing it makes sense to include those lands, especially for cutthroat play. But most players don’t think that way. For the casual environments a lot of players are convinced they need those expensive lands for their decks. Even at my LGS I hear players talk about how they need the expensive cards for their deck even when that expensive card doesn’t bring much value to their plays.
Part of me is convinced that the inexperienced players are listening too much to content creators (experienced players) but don’t understand the reasoning behind the statements being made. Do fetches and shocks need to be $50? I don’t think so but I also don’t agree with including them in products like precons.
@@Smaul002 I have observed mostly in video games but to a lesser extent in tabletop games there is a new culture where you are expected to be able to watch someone on twitch, learn a trick or two, and now you're elite at the game. Real deep mtg knowledge is antithetical to this new gamer culture.
@@benriemersma6406 The "shuffler" in Arena is messing a lot of newbies up. it's like if you spend 50 bucks all of a sudden you top deck the win
Which is something the prof advocated in the past.
As someone who wants to get back into EDH and wants to make a deck using cards from previous pack openings (I know, heresy) this video came out just in a nick of time. Thanks Prof!
Haha! I'm just getting into commander and commited said heresy myself. I managed to make a decent power level 5-6 Kaza, Roil Chaser deck that I'm pretty pleased with!
In my experience, I find it difficult to stay on a low budget with mono-color decks because there is a smaller pool of cards available. Budget decks (ironically) are easier to build when you have 2 or 3 colors because you have access to more budget options that a mono-colored deck couldn't flex in. The tradeoff is that your mana base is harder to build.
Our friend group recently adopted 5 below commander. Ban sol ring and then any card that has a few LP listings at $5 and below are allowed. You can have pretty decent decks, but at same time, not break the bank.
Broke: use budget decks
Woke: find a playgroup that allows proxy cards
Woker: Play on spelltable using moxfield and it's playtest function
Stoke: use foiled proxies!
@@interestedviewer2097 Wokest: Abandon physical medium and use your imagination.
More like nice person:supports their local store. Scummy: use proxies and tell other people to use proxies
Having proxies of cards you will never own is lame
Another advice that I can give (because it works for me) is that you may put in some Cards that give you the Initiative, let you venture into the Dungeon or let you become the Monarch.
The Initiative lets you visit the Undercity and the first Room gives you a Basic Land of your choice from your Deck.
By using Rooms of Dungeons to your Advantage you are a bit more flexible in your turns and can get more advantages as you progress and maybe even get some Synergy.
The Monarch lets you Draw Cards during each End Phase and we all know that even one single Card can keep your Game going.
I don‘t have the Money to buy expensive Cards, so I have built Decks with the most Cards being from the Forgotten Realms and Baldur‘s Gate Set combined. You would think at first the Cards won‘t do much, but they work very well together and are very fun to play.
So I recommend, to give the a Shot.
Have a nice day people.^^
Literally just make proxies. If your play group has an issue with you making proxies for a deck at a similar power level as their decks then find a new playgroup. Edh is supposed to be a casual, multiplayer format. No one should be taking it seriously enough to worry about proxies
Facts . I have real decks , but if someone rolls up with a printed out deck .... I won't even raise an eyebrow . My only condition is that I be able to be readable and ideally looks like the card (printed not drawn )
Me and my friends agree if you plan on buying it or you want to test it before you spend that chonky 30$+ on a card go for it
Agreed, so long as it isnt someone showing up with proxy moat, mishra workshop etc
My old playgroup from high school would typically trade and build decks together, and if we needed stuff to help each other keep up we'd help out, made the games more fun and evenly matched
@@tuskedwings7453 The issue isn't with proxies in this case, that's an issue with matching powerlevels. It's not better if someone shows up with real powerful cards to a low power level table.
As an old guy learning a new GREAT game, I thank you for theses videos
Thanks prof! You're doing a better job of attracting new audience than wizards is :)
Professors of the Coast!! Rise up!
I'm pretty new to mtg, so videos like these are very much appreciated.
I've started proxying entire commander decks, it's great. I keep them all under $150 budget so they're not too strong. I buy the sleeves and deckboxes and basic lands from my local game store so I'm still supporting them. I print them in color and spend a couple hours per deck, carefully cutting the cards with scissors, so they look really good. The only people who care are the teenagers at the game store who are obsessed with card prices and cracking packs and selling cards.
I LOVE hearing all these tricks I've developed being confirmed by the professor himself!
Using cheap alternatives, ramping, keeping your mana curve low (I love combining card draw with an avrage CMC 2 deck, it allows me to just play 3 spells per turn and completely surprise opponents!) - a 2 to 3 cost commander also allows you to get them out really quick, useful if your hand doesn't have anything in it to cast on turn 2 or 3!
Speaking of cheap alternatives. I have a white/blue voltron deck that I found a card in that didn't synergise enough - but I had fragmentize laying around, a 1 cost white destroy artifact or enchantment? I used to think it was bad, but in commander paying 1 white to remove someone's sol ring or thran dynamo is pretty fun. and I'm pretty sure fragmentize is one of those two-cent cards! (looked it up, yeah it's cheaper than toilet paper! at 0.02 to 0.10$)
Get yourself a fragmentize, people!
You mention using proxies, is the 30th anniversary proxy set a good source for Commander cards?
no
Some of them are more expensive than the originals! Also people hate them more than proxies tbh
@@TolarianCommunityCollege love how he answered that :D
09:50 For those who like building decks with constraints, I highly recommend building one from the Pioneer card pool too. That typically costs half of the regular EDH decks. Instead, I spend the saved money to buy cards in the reserved list as they are assured not to be reasonable again as long as MTG lasts.
This is quality content right here 👏
Thank you! We put a lot of hard work into it.
@@TolarianCommunityCollege it shows and in my meta it is much needed. Thank you for the great advice. I just upped my land count so I’m hoping my decks will be a bit more competitive with my playgroup
3:50 fetching a basic forest with [[Farseek]], what a classic
Is it possible to build on a budget?
-Let me introduce you to the fantastic concept of proxies! ... All will be print ~
As the video states near the end; PROXY. But still buy stuff from your local gaming shop.
My local store advocates Proxy play for pretty much all formats and whenever I go, their tables are full. The only modern border MTG product I've ever bought is Jumpstart. If the store has no Jumpstart boosters, I just buy a couple of random packs for someone I know who can't afford them.
Unless you're a collector, a tournament player or a finace bro, cardboard is cardboard and fun is fun.
Make proxies!!! Until you use up all your printers ink at the office 🤣😂
A few years ago I got a new playgroup with way more money than I at that moment. So my mindset was: If I can't outspend your deck, I must make sure you can't play your deck.
So I made a Derevi Stax & "Steal your stuff deck". Made me more evil, but also budget friendly haha.
I love that this comes out the day after I get in an argument on TikToc about whether or not people are able to build a good deck on a budget. Magic: The Gathering has 30 years of product. There is always a budget alternative for deck building if you know what you're doing. Without having to use proxies too.
MtG TikTok is a worse deck builder than anyone else just about. I’ve been fighting that fight for years now.
You can build a good deck on a budget, you cant build a good Cedh deck on a budget
@@bonidc6732 I will agree to that definitely.
What a fantastic idea for a video; I will be upping the land count of all of my decks to see them play more consistently! I cannot wait!
I only wish I played more than one evening a week!
I once played against someone who had only 1 single forest in his mono green deck filled with Llanowar elves and similar cards to get out more bigger creatures. It was slow in the first few rounds, but snowballed into an unstoppable force.
3:40 "Mana ramp shouldn't come at the expense of your lands" Yes, this is true, but when you switch out a land for a ramp spell, you only are suffering the consequence if you find yourself on a turn with no land. Otherwise, it's a HUGE improvement over just having another land, because you'll have the opportunity of dropping a second mana source in one turn.
Slaughter Pact is so good and underplayed. It can absolutely catch people off guard, and even if your next turn will be a bit slower because of it; When you actually need it, you would've been dead anyway.
Buying Precons from my LGS and then going online to sites with budget upgrades is my new hobby. Then when shopping for cards, on TCG is what I use, remember shipping is a thing so I try to buy as much from one seller as possible to avoid shipping costs.
Some stores charge significantly more for shipping than others.
Welll, they're not guildgates ... but I threw most of the Baldur's Gate Gates in my 5 colored Shrine Deck including some gate specific ramp cards to search especially for Gond Gate so I can play them untapped xD" As I'm usually on a budget, I probably shouldn't build 5 colored decks, but I love my Shrines and Tiamat 🥲
I use the gates in my morophon dragons deck, and while one member of my playgroup groans about it, it's effective, and i feel good about it, mostly because of uncommon things that were in things like dragon's maze like "hold the gates" (why yes, i'll happily gain +0/+3 to +0/+11 and vigilance on my whole board)
Prof, I really appreciate you advocating for responsible consumerism when talking about things one can afford or not.
Print proxies, Commander becomes very cheap and you stop supporting this atrocious company that is WotC /Hasbro.
The best answer lol
This, we need more of this.
Thats what i do. Cause of ADHD and such i order proxies. So they feel the same. But tldr any card over 15$ i proxy
The issue with that is that everybodys decks are just crazy overpowered if you just do that
I've gotten proxies from 2 different places. The first place (that I can no longer remember) was amazing and the second site was terrible quality. Y'all got any recommendations for someone who doesn't own a printer?
Got my signed Greed! Thanks Prof! Excellent vid as always!
Shout out to Commander Quarters for getting me back into Commander with his budget brews
ah, the baby thumbnail...
One thing it's worth mentioning: pay attention to your play group.
While it's true that a low mana curve is preferable, having many high-mana heavy-hitters is not a bad thing.
I play a lot of aggro decks that rely on small 2-3 mana spells to build up power over time, but if your playgroup is not cEDH-level games might drag on and more lands will hit the board than you previously anticipated and you'll be able to cast things like "In Garruk's Wake" or a big X-costed spell even without green ramp. If your small creatures are synergic but can't make a difference late in the game in might be a good idea to swap them out for something that can give you benefits when you have the extra lands on your board.
Oh how I wish this came out 3 weeks earlier. I just finished building my Jaxis Commander deck and my poor checkbook (It is however a really fun deck). Joking aside an incredibly informative video and it will definitely help with future builds. Cheers!
Decklist please?
a huge tip i have for playing on a budget is playing highly synergistic cards over raw power. i have an Orvar, the all form deck that i built for 25 dollars and it is INCREDIBLY powerful. That commander makes many terrible and cheap instants super powerful. Many cards are like this and it may take a bit more homework, but a little creativity goes a long way.
People just need to be okay with playing decks that aren't "high powered" sometimes. That's not to say you can't have a good deck, but you can also build decks out of the cards you have sitting in a box in your closet. It's allowed.
That's how me and my roommates have been building decks since we got addicted to the format last year. helps that we've both been on and of playing the game for over 20 years.
With so many precon commander decks at $30 or below, you can always buy one whose theme you really like and upgrade it. The mana base isn't that great but with some of the budget options proff went over and a few other changes you'd be surprised how well they can play.
Most of mine are precon upgrades - and since I've spent some money on manabases here and there I'll just proxy the lands if I ever build new decks in those colors.
Dang this man played a basic forest with Farseek. Clearly the editor did not follow Prof's advice and read the card!
playing a forest with farseek is a great way to throw your opponents off track
I reccomend going through your collection first. If you've been playing for awhile, you probably have all sorts of cards stashed away that you've completely forgotten about. I can't even count how many times I almost bought a card I already had lying around in a box somewhere. It's always good to check if you have any decent cards that you can use in your collection or in one of your other decks you haven't played in awhile.
Idk prof, printing ink is pretty expensive nowadays for my proxies
Manabases are KEY. You want to try to stay below 10 "tapped" lands. I recently built a 4 color commander deck using the mirage fetches, battle lands, man lands, and basics and it runs pretty smoothly. The deck itself is about $200, but the manabase is probably below $50.
The Borg Queen: We will add you to our perfection.
Elesh Norn: girl plz
Glad to have another technical video from you professor, and company. Id like to make comment. Moxfield is a pretty easy way to look at a manabase. I play between 35 and 45 lands depending on archetype. I start considering 25 lands will be basics (unless youre doing something strange), and basics can be free if you know where to look. Evolving wilds, slow fetches, various tapped duals, and on color pain lands are great ways to fill in that 10 or so extra lands i end up needing. I stay away from utility lands for optimization reasons. I really want a good synergystic reason to have man lands. Usually it ends up better having a spell or a basic instead. Picking an expensive general or weird line to victory is a pretty easy pitfall to fall into, just like coming up with push-pin and yarn conditional spell situations that might never happen in game. I try not to get hung up on having a card or two, because a deck of 99 cards relies more on GROUPS of cards. Having a snc etb fetch might save you some money that allows you to get a really good package of 10 cards for the same money a fetchland or shock might set you back. Also, make sure to use the set gimmick cards like buyback, cycling, adventures and MDFCs as a way to help you tune for having spells/lands, or in the case of cycling, getting some extra card movement going, and not breaking the bank.
Wotc says proxies can be made to play test decks. Stop playing magic and start play testing magic.
Love love LOVE this video!
I'd love to see you expand on the last topic, about not always needing / wanting to win to define your fun in Commander. I LOVE building decks without defensive measures or with specific restrictions; though these are not always budget decks. Eruth Storm but require EVERY playable Storm card + lose the game effects AND no defensive cards makes it truly feel like a slot machine. Even the simplest restriction on Go-Shintai of Life's Origin requiring every single Shrine, not just the best ones or an efficient amount leaves its games feeling very different each time.
Admittedly offbeat design decisions are unlikely to be near the top of ideas or priorities for budget players, I see it as another method of resisting gravity's call toward meta and cEDH play dominating your entire Commander experience.
19 minutes is a long time to say "Proxy everything because there's no reason to own real cards in a format without sanctioned tournaments."
well it depends on who your friends are
There's a lot of older commons and uncommons that we often overlook in building because we keep them in different bins. I keep a box of "playables" separate from the others. Mana geyser, urban evolution, fog, the list goes on. I'm sure everyone has a favorite. The point is, organization is an underrated element of deckbuilding
I do this too, a binder for playables but I use it to power down decks depending on play groups
Buy proxies
Thanks!
Cheers!
You know what is a good way to play Commander on a budget? Make your own cards, just make proxies.
Lol garage magic maybe. At a store you better have that card, not going to get into any turnys or pay out games with proxys
@@Nemissis4265 commander being a casual format, means there aren’t tournaments or pay-outs…. More than Half the people in my LGS proxy out expensive parts of their commander decks. I have a completely proxied out alt/art squirrel deck to enhance the flavor of the deck.
My particular store is PACKED every Friday/Saturday and Sunday night for Commander. And are highly profitable because of that.
Proxies encourages more engagement and accessibility to Magic. More people playing in store = more money.
For OFFICIAL tournaments, yes, please buy the cards. That being said, my store runs “unofficial” proxy friendly modern leagues all the time and gets huge turn out, charges per head and gives prize support…. I love my LGS❤
I made a card called rainbow lotus. it's 0 to cast and you can tap it to add 1 mana of each color. it doesn't use the color symbols tho, just text, so I can run it in any commander deck
What proxy website do you recommend?
@greenwave819 why not just "make" an instant that wins the game, since cheating is so fun
Lovely advice, great video as always. I'd like to add that it's always an option for other players to power down their deck. Like you say, commander isn't just about winning, and forcing everyone into sweaty levels of magic prevents people making their own synergies, playstyles and just instead having to use whatever EDHREC says. I see a lot of new players spend far too much money on a overly competitive deck, and then just get burned out of the game after less than a few months. It's really kind of sad to see.
Just proxy everything
It's digital, but utilizing frogtown and tabletop simulator, it's easy to use whatever cards you want, and I can play with my buddies out of town. No need to print/buy proxies and it's super easy. Highly recommend if you're feeling priced out of commander.
But my deck wouldn't be complete without Dockside, Ulamog, and Ragavan! :P. I actually think my most expensive card is Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. It's amazing because I recently checked my TCG order history and I paid $5 for it. It's truly scary how much a card can leap in price in just a few years.
I really apreciate your insight into consistency vs power.
Flavour to me It's the other ingredient I consider. For me when building a deck I really want to find that crossroad of consistency and flavour, I find that combination the most rewarding. I do have a couple of powerful decks, that I used take out if the table is playing for power, (Light -Paws) but If I'm honest I have way more fun with consistency +flavour.
I took out my Minsc and Boo, Timeles Heroes deck for a ride against one of these powerful tables, and it absolutely took everyone by storm, I'ts not "powerful" Its just fast and consistent, It gets me a HUGE hamster to swing every time, and really It's just a joy to take out Urza's and the like with an overgrown rodent. It did made consider if I should retool my other "powerful" decks into flavourfull fun instead.
I think power and flavour is posible but harder to come by, but building that way always makes me feel like I'm building everyone's else's same deck.
This is never an issue to my group. We're in a 3rd world country, most our decks are ~$50. We taught ourselves how to build decks like that.
Honestly, same. We also use printed proxies.
@@forbunnie We use proxies of cards we can afford, but can't find. This way, we don't power creep our decks. Because honestly, casual commander is more fun.
@@ToadimusPrime It totally is!
Always enjoy when the Prof breaks out some Royalty Free Jazz!
Pretty sure the whole point of commander is to foil out an expensive deck that does nothing to make your friends jealous. Am I doing it wrong?
Best advice I give is to look through your deck and rank the cards and do it in many ways, rank your removsl, rank your ramp, rank your creatures, then rank them by mana value.
My budget land rules for 3 colour decks:
-37 lands
-No more than 2 tap dual lands
-max 9 budget duals (inc tap) 28 basics
-equal amounts of each colour generation (shift number of basics to suit which duals you have)
-pure colourless utility lands are not counted in the 37
-3 of signets/talismans/cluestones in ramp aid colour fixing (one of each colour pair your 3 colour deck can use)
Most my 3 colour decks follow these rules and are pretty consistant. Exceptions are decks containing high percentages of gold border multicolour spells. Fine if you have up to 5 in there, but jiggle the amount to see.
Would be interested in seeing more of your commander staple alternatives 👌
I do agree with what you said about the manabase. For budget options with the lands, running the slow dual lands like Prairie Stream and Sunken Hollow for example, since these cards are not only 2 colors lands that enter the battlefield untap in most cases, they also have the basic land types that can be fetch by ramp cards. The Temple and the Bounce lands are also useful in the early stages of the game by giving you infomation about the card you about to draw and helping you guarantee your next land drop. Check lands and Slow lands are usually the go to lands that I would run as a budget. They do came in tap for the early stages of the game but the times where its untap when it etb is way higher than it enter tapped. The Mana Sink land (as I call it) can be a great addition to it (Dark Water Catacomb for example). It can really help you fix mana by paying 1 GENERIC MANA for it. You can literally run a colorless with the Mana Sink land and you get 2 colors. However, there is 1 type of land that I don't really recommend players to get but it still does it job. The early lands. These are the one that enter untap if you control you or less other lands. These are great as it enter untap early game but become a guildgate land after the 3rd turn. I don't recommend it but they are dirt cheap. With the Concealed Courtyard being under $1 it is a land that you might want to grab if your deck can go off in the early stages of the game. Shock Lands are THE SAME AS ANY 2 COLORS LANDS. They do the same exact thing that most 2 color lands do: Giving you the choice of the 2 colors it provide. It is unnecessary to get those when you can have a budget option aka Slow dual lands. They both have the basic land types in their cards and they have conditions to enter untap. It is not worth the risk to threw $30-$50 into 3 cards where you can spend those cards for a bunch of nonlands that can help you win the game. LANDS AREN'T MAKING YOUR DECK STRONGERS, DECISION MAKING DOES. A pro player can find ways to win with a crap deck while a new player relies on good cards to do the job.
srry for the long comment but i hope it helped
I came here thinking he was just going to say play PEDH, but was pleasantly surprised. I completely agree with going for consistency
This fellow always brings some surprise!
I know its frowned upon in some play groups, but there are a lot of cheap infinite combos that you can add to budget decks to get a massive power spike if you're able to find the pieces. I use this as a way to spend very little on my decks while still being able to be a relevant threat at tables opposed to being largely ignored by the table while im casting all my little crackling drakes and spellheart chimeras since now they know that if I draw enough cards I might just pull a win out from under them
Give us the tech! Whatcha got?? :D
Its not as frownd apon as proxys lol. Having a cheap infinit comparid to the 200$ combo that can go off turn 2 thats FAKE when jimmy buffet has bean collecting for 20yrs and snot noses thinks they can proxy and go to a turny with them they will get laghed off the table