INTRODUCTION: PLAYING CHEAPLY
Commander can be a daunting format for players to enter. Aside from the extensive card pool and overwhelming number of decisions that go into making a deck, there is the cost of the various powerful cards to consider. Cards like Intuition, Gaea's Cradle and Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker are not cheap but are considered format staples that help players on their path to victory. As anyone who has seen it can attest, using Tooth and Nail to search up Primeval Titan and Avenger of Zendikar while having a Anger in the graveyard can bring the pain very quickly. Unfortunately many players, especially newer ones, don't have access to the expensive format staples. Those players are often confined to budget cards that are easily available and cheap to acquire. Today I am going to look at a cheap deck that has some game against the field. It is possible to build a competitive budget deck, and although it has been a while since I have written a budget article I think based upon a reader suggestion it is time for a new one.
Sometimes it can feel like opponents are swimming in cash.
Before we get on to the meat of the article, I just want to refer you to my original budget article, a deck doctor article based on a deck using Kaervek the Merciless found HERE. There are also the two articles I wrote concerning updating the available precon decks using Xira Arien found HERE and Rubinia Soulsinger found HERE. Those are just some other budget references for your viewing pleasure.
MULTIPLAYER THEORY
Before getting on to the deck, I am going to very briefly cover some multiplayer theory. As most of you are aware, multiplayer games last longer than duels and require more resources for the decks to be competitive. Tarmogoyf may kick ass in duels, but it isn't nearly as powerful when going up against 3 other players. With that said, there are a couple of general principles to keep in mind when putting a deck together.
- Card Advantage - Whether it is through card drawing, destruction that leaves a body behind, or repeatable effects, it is important that you have multiple methods of card advantage. Don't pack Terror; use Ashes to Ashes, or even better, Damnation.
- Answers - You aren't going to have the answer for everything but it is important to be prepared for the graveyard recursion and control that is prevalent in the format.
- Threats - How are you going to win? Hopefully your deck has multiple synergies, all working together toward your goal of victory.
- Politics - Do you want to lay low, or show that you are playing a powerful deck? Do you want to tick everyone off and become a target for everyone?
I told you it would be brief. If you want more in depth articles about multiplayer theory, you should Google Anthony Alongi, Abe Sargent and The Ferret. But this is enough for our purposes here. Obviously whenever you build a deck for a multiplayer game you should keep these principles in mind and I'm sure most of you know them already. The reason I bring these up specifically is that when you are playing under a budget, these principles become even more important. You want to consider all of these issues, but keep the deck under a budget for our purposes. Almost every card in the deck should fit with these principles somehow. Let's see what I can do.
THE DECK: I CHOOSE YOU (TO DISCARD)!
I started to think of preparing a deck with the above principles in mind. I also wanted the deck to cost about as much as the precons that are available, about 20 tix. First, I threw control out the window. Many of the cards necessary to play control cost a decent amount and I don't think that I could do it in the amount that I set for myself. I thought about playing beatdown, but that strategy often folds to Wrath of God. I wanted something that had a way to create a position of power that would be hard for opponents to come back from. That's when I found this guy:
He looks so annoyed. I guess I would be too if I knocked stuff over all the time with my shoulder pads like I expect he does. Anyways, while he may appear to be low on the political scale, his ability provides for some interesting shenanigans. You get to make an opponent discard (randomly, which is pretty sweet against control players) and you get a token as well. There are enough people that cycle cards and other discard effects like Greater Good played that you will often mise a bunch of tokens. But the biggest reason I thought Nath would be good is for the following cards:
If you have Nath out with any of these cards, you can make all your opponents discard their hands (certain conditions required for Cabal Conditioning) while getting a crapload of elf tokens. And if you have the Hypnotist out, you can make sure that your opponents cannot keep their hands past your turn. Nath helps with the discard as well. Mindslicer hurts you also, but that shouldn't be too much of an issue when you are all on the same level playing field. Of course, if someone draws and plays a Damnation that can ruin your plans, but hopefully you still will have a hand of a few cards while everyone else doesn't. In addition, the discard strategy is great against control and combo players.
Admittedly Nath can tick people off. But if you don't rush him out there as fast as possible he should draw less hate. And Nath by himself isn't extremely threatening, as he only takes out one card and creates one token a turn.
With mass discard and token making we have two pretty good methods of card advantage. It is now up to me to include some synergistic cards. I wanted to make sure that I included a lot of good utility spells that the average player will find useful and would use in other decks. Let's take a look at the deck I came up with:
At the time I am submitting this article, the deck comes out to $20.45, which is pretty darn close to the amount you can spend on a precon. I didn't realize that Gilt-Leaf Palace was over a ticket, so you can take that out for Evolving Wilds, Jund Panorama or Rupture Spire and get the whole thing under 20. There are a couple of different things going on with the deck, so let's break it down a little.
| Discard |
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Mindslicer, Myojin of Night's Reach, Sadistic Hypnotist, Tar Fiend, Chains of Mephistopheles, Cabal Conditioning, Syphon Mind: So while discard plays a part in the theme, I didn't want to overload the deck with cards like Bottomless Pit or Persecute. Instead, I went with the four main cards that have already been described plus some support cards. Chains of Mephistopheles is pretty sweet, in that it can prevent people from getting huge hands and drawing a ton of cards without making them discard a bunch as well. Chains was really good each time I played it. The only problem that can occur is when you have a method of drawing cards as well, but even then it is usually worth the price to play the Chains. And Tar Fiend can make an opponent discard while leaving behind a large body. |
| Tokens |
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Ant Queen, Living Hive, Mycoloth, Pentavus, Skeletal Vampire, Triskelavus, Verdant Force, Necrogenesis, Urza's Factory, Sprout Swarm: Another way of generating card advantage is through creating tokens. Spitting out a ton of little guys can add up to trouble for your opponents. All these methods, plus Nath himself, can lead to making a decent sized army. The artifacts obviously cost a lot but come with useful abilities. The deck also contains Beastmaster Ascension and Kamahl, Fist of Krosa to support your token army and make them huge. This is obviously the second part of my card advantage strategy. |
| Destruction |
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Acidic Slime, Indrik Stomphowler, Shriekmaw, Terastodon, Wickerbough Elder, Withered Wretch, Plague Boiler, Relic of Progenitus, Bojuka Bog, Necrogenesis, Pestilence, Putrefy, Ashes to Ashes, Mwonvuli Acid-Moss, Grave Pact, Butcher of Malakir: There is a whole mess of destruction in this deck. I included a decent amount of graveyard hate so that people can't return all the stuff that I make them discard. Grave Pact and the Butcher both help with creature control. I found that I lost to dedicated token strategies, so I also included Pestilence. I considered Pestilence Demon, but his casting cost seemed daunting. The good thing about most of my answers here is that they are repeatable or leave a decent sized body behind. |
| Card Draw |
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Graveborn Muse, Skullmulcher, Skullclamp, Mind's Eye, Harmonize, Syphon Mind, Mikokoro, Center of the Sea: This may not seem like a lot of card draw, but in practice it was more than enough. I was always drawing this stuff. Even if I didn't draw it, I had enough things going on that I didn't need to worry about card draw. Just remember to avoid using Mikokoro until the end of the turn before yours. Unless you are really hoping to draw something to play. Again, more card advantage. |
| Ramp |
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Civic Wayfinder, Farhaven Elf, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Veteran Explorer, Journeyer's Kite, Cultivate, Explosive Vegetation, Mwonvuli Acid-Moss, Kodama's Reach, Search for Tomorrow: Another thing that the deck does well is make land drops, and oftentimes the deck can accelerate a bunch. Having more mana than your opponents means that you can drop bigger threats and play bigger spells faster than them. Being able to drop both Nath and Myojin of Night's Reach on turn 8 is certainly possible with this deck. A lot of these are 2 for 1's, leading to additional card advantage. |
| Recursion |
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Chainer, Dementia Master, Genesis, Gleancrawler, Puppeteer Clique, Necromancy, Oversold Cemetery, Beacon of Unrest, Dread Return: If your opponents are going to be putting a bunch of stuff in the graveyard, you might as well take advantage and steal it. Chainer, the Clique and the Beacon are all good at doing this. In addition, you can recur your own stuff with the Oversold Cemetery and Gleancrawler. You usually have no problem using the flashback ability of Dread Return due to the amount of tokens the deck can create. |
So on top of all that there are a couple of fun beaters in here, like Vulturous Zombie and Grave-Shell Scarab that have their uses, and Loxodon Warhammer can give things trample and help you out with life gain.
Like I said previously, you want to get to the point where you can make everyone discard their hands when you have Nath out to make a huge token army. Up to that point, you try to generate tokens, destroy things that are causing problems, and otherwise survive. I will admit that even if you are able to pull off the plan, you are still susceptible to a Wrath of God that can wipe out your army after your opponents draw. In addition they have access to their Commanders as well. But you should at least be able to hurt people real good most of the time before they do something to screw up your plans.
When playing this deck, you need to be a little bit political. Nath can annoy certain players, and how you interact with the other players will determine just how much hate you get early on. Feel free to mention that the deck only cost 20 tix as well. That will definitely think of you as less of a threat. As for the remainder of the multiplayer principles I mentioned above, I have card advantage and answers. The only way to figure out of the deck has enough threats is to play it!
The deck actually has a decent amount of Commander staples that you will be able to use in future decks. Here are a few of them:
All those, plus a bunch of lands and a decent deck? That's not bad for 20 tix. Let's see how it does in action!
THE GAME: FIGHT!
Let's look at my opponents for this game:
Rafiq can be either Commander based aggro or Bant control/good stuff. The Vorosh decks I have seen are typically good stuff decks as well that seem to run a lot of
Temporal Manipulation effects to make him bigger based upon his combat damage trigger. Drana can be vampire tribal or mono-Black control. We just have to see what plays out. Rafiq wins the roll. Here is my opening hand.
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Great because it can search up dual lands.
Me: Draw
Harmonize. Play Swamp, then
Cultivate for 2 Swamps. Attack R with my Explorer (38).
Round 4
D: Swamp, then
Temple Bell, which she uses immediately. I draw a Swamp.
Round 5
Me: Draw
Gilt-Leaf Palace. I attack D with the Explorer, who is killed by the
Phyrexian Rager. Everyone gets 2 basics into play. R’s library now reveals
Fertilid, while V’s has
Bloodstained Mire on top. I play a Swamp, then Nath and use Oran-Rief to give him a counter. Then I play
Beastmaster Ascension. This is a mistake, as I had no way to make a significant amount of tokens at the time.
Never lasts long, because the first person to use it searches up a way to destroy her.
Round 6
R: Loses 3 life (35) and searches up a card. Then plays
Oblivion Stone (which he probably just searched up) and sacs it to blow up the world. V could have bounced and saved Sakashima, but decides not to.
D: Swamp, then
Sign in Blood (33). Then
Cruel Edict, targeting Vorosh. D could have targeted Butcher to get rid of both creatures, but didn’t. V and R make comments about me being a team with D now, which will have consequences next turn. D then plays
Wayfarer's Bauble, sacing it for a Swamp.
Round 7
That's a lot of cards!
Me: Draw
Deadwood Treefolk and play a Forest. I don't want a player with 71 cards in hand to have a
Seedborn Muse, but I have a plan. Play my STE and sac it for a Swamp, triggering the Butcher. R uses
Fertilid to grab an Island, then sacs the
Fertilid to my
Butcher of Malakir. I then play
Deadwood Treefolk, returning my STE to my hand. I replay the STE and sac it again for another land, making R sac the
Seedborn Muse to the Butcher. I’m surprised that he let all this happen without countering something. I then use Oran-Rief to pump my Treefolk, and attack R with my Butcher. Unfortunately R has
Path to Exile for the Butcher, and I search up another Swamp. I debate playing the Chains, but once again decide not to due to the card draw in my hand.
Costs a lot, but can hurt a ton too.
Round 8
R: Gets 7 mana from the
Mana Drain. First, he plays
Exploration. Then uses
Bojuka Bog to get rid of V’s large graveyard. Next, casts
Tooth and Nail, entwined, for
Primeval Titan and
Avenger of Zendikar, getting a bunch of tokens,
Tropical Island and
Seaside Citadel. Plays
Academy Ruins, then
Bribery targeting D and getting
Xathrid Demon. With all his tokens he should be able to feed the Demon for a while. He doesn’t drop a
Reliquary Tower, so he has to discard a mess of cards, including
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, who shuffles everything discarded into his library.
Me: The two Blue players are tapped out, and I have a ton of mana, so now is my chance to do something. I draw
Putrefy, and play Nath for the second time. Then I play
Myojin of Night's Reach and pop him, getting 16 elf tokens. Finally I use Oran-Rief to pump all of them and play
Gilt-Leaf Palace.
D: Plays the Swamp he draws and then casts Drana.
Round 9
R: Nothing.
Me: As R is the only player with a card in his hand, I use Nath’s ability to make him discard it and get a token. I then draw
Cabal Conditioning. I go to
Putrefy Drana, when both R and D concede. This is kind of common, but usually when they have a lot less life. V is the only opponent left, but he has Keiga. I’m worried about losing Nath if Keiga dies, so I only attack with my tokens, one of which gets killed by Kiega (5). Unfortunately afterwards R points out that if I had attacked with everyone, I would have taken V out. This was just a matter of overthinking things. I play
Skullmulcher, eating 5 tokens, drawing the following:
Round 10
Round 11
R: Nath makes me discard my
Vulturous Zombie and gives him a token. He then plays the
Trygon Predator he drew. But that’s not enough blockers, and I take him out the next turn.
CONCLUSION
As you can see, I needed a few different things to go my way to pull off a win here. Two players drew a whole ton of cards but couldn't really do anything with them. The Blue players got into a counter war, tapping out before I made my big move. The board was wiped right before I played my combo, leaving very few threats out there to cause problems. And two opponents conceded shortly thereafter. While all of this stuff helped me out a ton, it isn't always required. But you want to take every advantage you can get when playing this deck, because everyone else is usually playing with over 100 tix more worth of cards than you, if not more.
You can find the deck for purchase or download
HERE. Like I said, it comes in around 20 tix, so that's pretty cheap. There are plenty of ways to money it up though, including
Gaea's Cradle,
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth,
Cabal Coffers,
Scapeshift,
Primeval Titan,
Avenger of Zendikar,
Woodfall Primus,
Sword of Light and Shadow,
Damnation,
Decree of Pain,
Creakwood Liege,
Primal Command and
Demonic Tutor. I'm sure that you can think of more.
So I was winning just under half of my games with this deck, which isn't bad for a budget deck. The deck really needs its "combo" to win, though, so I think a
Diabolic Tutor should be included as well. Some other decent cheap cards to consider adding in the deck include
Phyrexian Plaguelord as a sac outlet/destroyer of little things,
Coat of Arms,
Pestilence Demon,
Silklash Spider and
Arashi, the Sky Asunder. It should be noted that the deck has a hard time against fliers, especially Black fliers. Vorosh could create a lot of problems for this deck, but you should beware of just about any flying Commander.
The other issue is that even when you do "combo" off, you don't always get that many elves. Plus, they are tiny little 1/1 guys. If you only net 12 elves it's going to take you a while to beat people down.
Beastmaster Ascension and Kamahl are supposed to help with this problem though. Again,
Coat of Arms could help, and possibly
Joraga Warcaller or Ezuri. But the latter two seem a little limited to me.
I know that the mass discard strategy isn't to everyone's liking, but I didn't receive many complaints about the deck. Nath would occasionally grab a useful card like
Condemn but it wasn't usually something that would make players specifically target me. And although there were plenty of games where I felt outclassed for the most part I was able to put up a good fight, interact and was often perceived as a threat despite my lack of money cards. I hope you enjoyed this budget article. Until next time!
Leviathan, aka Tarasco on MTGO
mrmorale32 at yahoo dot com
14 Comments
Great article, as usual.
One note: in round 6, Sakashima cannot be bounced in response as the ability only triggers EOT.
I knew if someone could make a deck that was costed like a preconsted one but could actually win games it would be you. Great job. There's even a lot of cards in here that I should pick up.
I wish I would have been able to read this article when I started playing commander. It would have really lessened the learning curve.
Great article. Nath was the first commander deck I built for MTGO, though I don't play him much anymore because I felt I was annoying people. Wei Night Raiders was a nice addition to the deck since no one could block him. I didn't build up such a discard-based deck, but putting him out and forcing discard against non-blue players drew me some hate. I should probably have been less aggressive with him.
How did you modify your MTGO play space to remove the user's avatars and shove everything to the top of their playmats? The toughest part for commander on MTGO for me is the screen size and real estate, and that would be so much better for me.
To modify your play space, when playing a game you need to to go Gameplay Settings. In the Graphics Preferences box change your Game Table Design from Big Card to Compact. To get the display to look like my screenshots you will also have to reduce the chat log also.
Thanks for the comments guys!
It's odd that they only give you access to this in game. Thanks - I do like it a lot better, though the graveyard loss is a odd choice. I'm surprised they didn't at least put a tomb stone at the top near health and cards in hand to give you a running count.
You are surprised by poor UI in MODO?
Oh right, I forgot.
I always enjoy these articles.
Though budget building is something I always skirt the boundaries on.
So much as, I have no additional funding to get new cards.
Any new card I get means I had to sell something, usually many somethings.
But I wouldn't really call my decks 'budget' since many have (now) pricey cards.
Getting them before they are *money* helps.
There are plenty of cards I dream of obtaining some day heh.
But I feel that the middle ground isn't such a bad place to be.
And still manage to win a fair amount of the time, sometimes I even get to be "that guy".
I tried using the compact myself and not a big fan of it. I like to see everyone's graveyard since it's so vital in Commander.
Yeah, it's a trade off and definitely takes some getting used to. You have to click in the play area of the player you want to look at to see their graveyard. I know I made a few targeting mistakes when I first made the switch as well. But the extra space is very nice, especially when there are a ton of permanents out there. I actually made the switch for the articles, but I have stuck with it.
I love the budget deck construction. I don't know if cabal conditioning could be something else to lower your curve because A) you need something good on the field, B) it cost a million mana. Also, the compact desktop is great for when you are on a notebook with a smaller screen like myself.
It seems like {Geth, lord of the Vault} would be a good addition to the deck if you are focused on the discard strategy as would the new {Sangromage} (or whatever she is called). Gaining life is always a good thing and she costs like .15tix.
Like the budget deck though.
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
I just played my first game with this deck...so sick. I made a few alterations though...mainly
-Genesis
+Oracle of Mul Daya
and then
-Pendelhaven, -Gilt-Leaf Palace
+Evolving Wilds, +Reliquary Tower
The deck is so smooth.
Winning with everything was great. Lol.
Sweet! Glad to know it wasn't just me getting lucky with the deck and that someone else can do well with it. I had no idea that the Oracle was only a ticket, that's a great inclusion.
yeah genesis, was like .5 tickets too much for what i had on me. So i figured i would find something i owned to replace it. I had forgotten i had the oracle at first and was like...sweet.