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By: Gordani, Gordan
Aug 13 2014 12:00pm
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Welcome ladies and gentleman to this second article of Wanderings into budget land. 

There was delay in my planned upload of the article due to unforeseen circumstance. But let’s not delay and start on today’s musings, decklist, and an ounce of advice from long time player. 

Budget, I have heard a lot of people saying that if you are on a budget you should not play magic. That sentence for me cannot be further than truth, for one simple reason, whole world is govern by budget. Countries are ran by people that decide on budget, companies work on budget and difference between successful and failed enterprises is in the way that budget is used. Budget can be vast or can be small, but in no way it is insignificant. 

First; like in every endeavor we have to decide and identify our goals. Goals will be our stepping stones to improvement, to strengthen our collection and our play style. Every human being strives to get better, to learn and to improve. Goals can be large, such as owning every Power Nine card there is on Magic Online.

 
                                                                                       
 
 
Or it can be small such as improving your deck by a single card.
 
My goal is to build up collection to have resources in building every deck I please.  My smaller goals are to build a deck or two which I could play in www.gatherling.com tournaments to increase budgetary flexibility.
 
Second; admit it to yourself that you will lose far more games when constrained with budget simply because more powerful cards are more expensive. Example Goblin Guide is more expensive and stronger than Raging Goblin.
 
                                                                                                                       
 
Third; and this one is the most frustrating to go through, there will be times when you will doubt your ability, when you will feel depressed or even crushed because you knew you lost because you did not have full priced deck in your possession. In those times it is good habit to get into that you play the deck you have as perfectly as you can, even though you will lose and feel bad because of it by the time you get to full priced deck you will make less mistakes and will have more confidence in playing it.
 
 
This is a deck I have envisioned as a pretty straight forward aggro deck, such as gobbos usually are, it has swing with a lot of damage out of nowhere, it can recover well from board wipes and turn around to punish the wipe. Mostly people will say the deck is singular turn sideways creature aggro, but in fact every deck and so does this one have nuance and flexibility that can be seen through playtesting.
 
 
Few words on card choices:
 
1 converted mana cost cards:
Akki Avalanchers Goblin Lackey Goblin Grenade Foundry Street Denizen Skirk Prospector
Avalanchers are here to offset a lot of lands drawn into virtually every mountain equals shock a turn. Goblin grenades are here to provide reach in mid to late game. Foundry Street Denizen is here for early burst and damage. Goblin Lackey is virtual mana and to increase speed of the deck. Prospector serves purpose to filter weaker/extra goblins into stronger ones.
 
2 converted mana cost:
Goblin Piledriver Mogg War Marshal Goblin Bushwhacker Stingscourger Gempalm Incinerator
Piledriver is our strongest damage dealing goblin and in most cases our win condition. Mogg War Marshal is our extra goblin bodies to supply for prospector that gives us 3 mana or 2 creatures for damage. Goblin Bushwhacker even though his official casting cost is 1 his true worth is in his kicker and is used as finisher and pumper to dish out damage. Stingscourger is here to answer variety of creature based combos or even help out with our creature tutors that we will get into bit later. Gempalm Incinerator is here under 2 converted mana cost because his true worth is removal and card acceleration, I’ve placed 2 in main deck because it will be worth in mid game when you are searching for reach cards and multiples earlier slow the deck a lot. 
 
3 converted mana cost:
Goblin Chieftain Goblin Warchief
Both cards give haste to burst the damage out, Chieftain gives increased damage. Warchief gives that crucial lowering of mana cost that later cards have bigger impact.
 
4 converted mana cost:
Goblin Ringleader Krenko, Mob Boss Tuktuk Scrapper
Ringleader is the best card advantage and filter we have which is improved by Warchief on board. Krenko, Mob Boss is our win condition and usually primary target for removal that opponent will designate as biggest threat when on table. If you have haste provider it is usually win on the spot.
Tuktuk Scrapper is for emergency artifact removal before they can start chaining for example Time Vault.
 
5 converted mana cost:
Siege-gang Commander
Reach, win condition and strength of mana pool for late game.
 
SIDEBOARD:
Tormod's Crypt Lightning Bolt Mogg War Marshal Gempalm Incinerator Goblin Ruinblaster
Stone Rain Goblin Warchief
Crypt to deal with graveyard tactics and decks. Lightning Bolt is here to switch out some more expensive creatures to deal with sweepers and to have better burn reach versus control/permission decks. War Marshal, Incinerator, Warchief are here to combat other aggro decks where it’s better to have more creatures and stronger showing of force.  Ruinblaster and Stone Rain are here for simple reason, they are budget dealings  against lands since Blood Moon is too expensive for budget.
 
Whole deck is/will be heirloom legal, no rares above 0.50$, no uncommons above 0.30$, no commons above 0.20$ and there is no mythics :) Also ill add screenshots of matches when rotation of heirloom happens and deck becomes full legal.
Vintage masters gave us resources, cards and lowered prices so that Heirloom events will be even more healthy and varied.
 
My thoughts
 
This is the best time to start building collection for future standard, prices are on the utmost low. Dip in the prices usually happens right after new set is released, people sell out most of cards to play prerelease/release events. Prices will start to rise in heart beat of the events, Grand Prix and Pro Tour. We are coming up to the Modern season. Modern format is flashy, its shiny and appealing to play. We watch at decklists with Remand, Path to Exile, Tarmogoyf, Dark Confidant, and we want to enjoy in those cards too. It is hard to tear our eyes away from those decks, it's hard to stifle yearn for playing the best and most powerful cards in the game. But we should focus on standard and future standard formats. Decks will emerge, rise and fall, cards for standard should be hoarded now, found and valued, kept for future.
 
If you are on budget you do not watch for now, and for right now, your eyes are on the future and you should be patient. 
 
 
My advice in getting next cards:
M15
(In Garruk’s Wake)  (Life’s Legacy)  Indulgent Tormentor  Preeminent Captain
Theros Block:
Fabled Hero Fleecemane Lion Soldier of the Pantheon Reaper of the Wilds
Eidolon of Countless Battles Hero of Iroas Satyr Firedancer Spirit of the Labyrinth
Silence the Believers
Each of those cards are under a ticket a piece. New standard will be wide open so better prepare for it.
 
Stay awesome people and enjoy the life.