As a fan of Aggro decks but also someone who likes to see diversity in the format I was happy to see that it wasn’t Mono-Black Devotion that took the cake this past weekend. While not exactly a new concept this is quite a powerful and spicy little number. With its very aggressive curve it is poised to burst out of the gates and lay the smack down immediately to dispatch any opponent swiftly.
by Bruce Gray – Casual Encounters
Since I started writing for Three Kings Loot back in February I’ve highlighted a fair number of decks. The one thing that most of these decks have in common is that I would describe them all as being “budget” decks. This means that I am interested in trying to find a relatively inexpensive way to build a deck that is still powerful and presents a number of problems for my opponents. These decks aren’t usually Tier 1 competitive decks, but they can surprise someone who underestimates what the deck can do. Today, I’m going to showcase some budget substitutions that will allow you to build your own budget deck and help you to keep your cost down. We’ll look at land, creatures, and lastly other spells in an effort to briefly touch on all the key elements of your very own budget deck.
If you routinely stop by here on The Bag of Loot you know that I have a thing for land. Basically Magic is entirely dependent on the land you draw. I don’t care how many awesome spells you have in your library, if you don’t have the land to cast them you are likely sunk (unless you’re playing Legacy/Vintage in which it seems possible to play with no land). Without access to the correct land it doesn’t matter what spells you have, you’re likely to lose. As a result, this is one of the few areas where you really can’t skimp too much. You can use things like Guildgates and Life Gain lands from Zendikar if you aren’t fussy on format, but most people want to play Standard. If you want to play Standard you need the lands. It becomes even MORE apparent in the realm of Modern where Fetches and such are super expensive. Bottom line, unless you play Casually and you and your friends don’t mind you mixing in different things, you’re probably on the hook for having the “right” land for your deck. Temples. Shocks. Mana Confluence. Nykthos. Guildgates. Pain Lands. There is a large variety of lands available, some more expensive than others, but if you want to play you need to get the right ones for you and your deck and cheaping out and just running basics just won’t cut it usually.
While you can’t cut corners on your land, you most certainly can make up ground with the suite of creatures you opt to run. Basically, at almost each and every converted mana cost along the curve you can run a variety of choices. Now, the creatures that are very expensive in a given format are expensive because they are the optimal creature for that converted mana cost in that colour. That doesn’t mean that alternatives don’t exist. These alternatives are typically much cheaper and can help keep your cost down. Don’t believe me? Let’s look at a few examples.
Let’s start with Stormbreath Dragon. 4/4 flying for 5 mana and has haste, protection from white, and a Monstrosity ability. There’s no doubt this is a premium creature and well worth the $15 a card you’ll pay as a single. However, there are other options available to you if you really wanted to run a creature at the 5 spot that was more inexpensive. Hypersonic Dragon is the same 4/4 with haste and 5 mana (although a blue and red are part of its casting) meaning it could fit the bill. Scourge of Valkas from M14 fits those stats pretty well too and is still a dragon. Both of these options are red, can fill the same hole in your deck and cost you significantly less in terms of money to pick up.
Blood Baron of Vizkopa is another 5 mana creature, this one is 4/4 with protection from white and black, lifelink, and can trigger some ridiculous bonus if you have enough life, or your opponent is running low on life. Some other options at 5 cmc are Serra Angel (which is unexciting, but still perfectly viable), Keepsake Gorgon, and Celestial Archon. These are all very playable at five and are even in Black and White so they can hold a spot in your deck. Don’t let me fool you…Blood Baron is the optimal choice, but if you’re budget is tight, these guys are viable options.
Polukranos a 4 mana for 5/5 hydra with a ridiculous Monstrosity ability. This one is tough to replace because 5/5 for 4 mana AND has an ability is pretty ridiculous. However, there are a few options available like Deadbridge Goliath. This is probably the closest from a statistical standpoint, and isn’t a bad card and makes a suitable alternative. If you can splash another colour, Reaper of the Wilds is another solid option and much cheaper as well. A 4/5 for 4 mana is pretty close and the abilities on it make it a tricky critter to deal with…and costs a fraction of what Polukranos costs.
Soldier of the Pantheon– The aggro decks out there are not immune from having some pricey cards too. Soldier of the Pantheon is a $2 card that is a 2/1 for 1 mana. There is no doubt that they are an optimal 1 drop to kick start your beatdown with an aggro deck, but $8 for four 1 mana creatures leaves me scratching my head and my wallet empty. You could opt instead to run Favoured Hoplite or Satyr Hoplite, both 1 drops that can lead the beat down band wagon for you in place of the Soldier. They need a little more work than the Soldier, but with their Heroic triggers might give you a bigger beat stick with which to bring the pain. If you really wanted the 2/1 for 1 you can instead turn to RTR block and grab the Dryad Militant as an inexpensive option.
Boon Satyr – This super awesome 4/2 for 3 mana is a staple in Green decks, but can also Bestow for a very reasonable 5 mana…oh…and has flash. There is really nothing else that approaches this level of versatility, explosive damage, and just being down right nasty to play against. No wonder it’s $1.50 a card. However, you could run Feral Invocation if you were looking for the Flash aura effect. If you wanted the Flash effect on a creature, Briarpack Alpha probably comes closest as a 3/3 for 4 mana and a fun Enter the Battlefield trigger.
Brimaz, King of Oreskos– King Kitty is a huge threat at 3 mana and the abilities packed on him are just full on value…no wonder he’s $20 a card. However, if you wanted a card with just about as much devastating punch, Fabled Hero runs you about a $1 and packs double strike and heroic. Things can get out of control very quickly with our Hero…and the extra money you saved will bring a smile to your face as well.
Now, these are just some suggestions for substitutes in your deck to help keep the cost down. All the substitutions have significant drawbacks compared to the optimal creatures in the deck. I fully admit that a Serra Angel doesn’t stack up with Blood Baron very well, and that Fabled Hero is a poor substitute for King Kitty. However, if you’re wallet can’t handle the $80 to pick up a playset of Brimaz, Fabled Hero can do in a pinch.
Spells are a little tougher to replace. The super expensive spells and staples of a format are that way because they don’t have a substitute…or at least not exactly. The thing is spells don’t leave behind a body that can be utilized after they have been cast, so you need the impact of the spell itself to be pretty terrific. However, there are a few options for some of the spells.
Thoughtseize– This Legacy playable piece of hand disruption just crushes decks by stripping away all the most important pieces of your opponent’s hand. It really is crippling…and it is going to be in rotation for another 14 months! Yikes. However, at $20 a card is a little steep. Duress is probably the closest option and is regularly reprinted. It is a little more limited in terms of what it hits, but let’s be honest, you are almost always going to take an instant or sorcery spell from your opponent because you can find other answers in your deck to deal with creatures and planeswalkers. So, Duress is a reasonable substitute. Brain Maggot is another possible route, and it even gives you a body. Sin Collector is the last option, but for 3 mana is significantly slower and not as optimal.
Supreme Verdict- Premium 4 mana wrath effects are always key to a control player’s strategy. Supreme Verdict really has no equal because it also can’t be countered…meaning that you hit it and your opponent cries every time as they watch their board disappear. However, at $8 a card this can burn a hole pretty quickly in your wallet. The only REAL option is Planar Cleansing…but it’s a 6 mana sorcery…which feels kind of yucky. Fated Retribution is another option…but it’s 7 mana (although thankfully at instant speed). These can do in a pinch if you really want to play the control game, but you may have to alter you game strategy because you’ll need to get to at least 6 mana to have either of those spells come online.
Sphinx’s Revelation- Ok, there is no equal to this card. Mass card draw AND life gain is a Control player’s dream come true. However, the most important piece is always the card draw because it gives you access to more resources. Divination is the cleanest way to get access to some of the card drawing power of Sphinx’s Revelation, but Jace’s Ingenuity from M15 will be another option that draws 3 cards for 5 mana at least at instant speed meaning you can jam it on your opponent’s turn. After that, you can play poorer spells like Inspiration, or the more expensive Opportunity, but you’re still longing to get a Sphinx’s Revelation and run it.
Hero’s Downfall- Instant speed spot removal of creatures AND Planeswalkers is huge. However, Black has lots of good removal right now ranging from Ultimate Price to Bile Blight to Doom blade. This means that Black decks should have no issue dealing with creatures…pick your removal spell of choice and go to work. Planeswalkers are tougher, but you can always resort to fighting them directly which always gives you at least one option.
Planeswalkers- I have no substitute for a Planeswalker. Honestly, they represent 3 (or 4) potential different spells and abilities that you just can’t replace in your deck. You can try but prioritizing which of the abilities are most pertinent to you and your deck and substituting for cards that recreate that effect, but you still need to pay for it while the Planeswalker can replicate that effect for free turn after turn. No, there’s no real option to playing these guys if you want to emulate a Tier 1 deck, but lots of decks can also run just fine without a Planeswalker (just look at Mono-Black Devotion decks that typically run no Planeswalkers).
Well, there we have some options to help limit the damage done to your bank account while still allowing you to play and have fun with some solid decks. Of course the options available go up significantly when you start shifting formats from Standard to Modern, but so do the price tags on the optimal cards. I hope this was helpful to you guys and that it gives you a few options to go out and brew some of your own decks using some of these alternative pieces.
Thanks for reading and until next time Keep it fun, keep it safe…keep it casual.
Bruce Gray @bgray8791
The deck works on a very strong a linear path up the mana curve from one to three in an effort to clog the board with beaters. We start it off with Dryad Militant and Soldier of the Pantheon that both unchecked can start to swipe chunks off the opponents life total. Next are the Selesnya two drops with Voice of Resurgence which is amazing against control decks or removal in general and Fleecemane Lion which given the chance will turn into a Monstrous beast which opponents will be having fits to try and remove. Then we have continued profit in three drops from Boros Reckoner which can attack into small blockers and still push through damage or act as a brick wall against attackers and Loxodon Smiter which is basically a great 4/4 for three with some added value. The sole four drop creature in the deck is Ghor-Clan Rampager but it will most often be used for its Bloodrush ability to pump an attacking creature to push through extra damage to finish off the opponent. Moving over to the spells in the deck we start first with the ever useful Brave the Elements which with almost every creature being White, Ghor-Clan Rampager is the only exception, will be a key tool enabling alpha strike pushes past defenses to destroy the opponent or a way to ensure your creatures survive to fight through removal or as blockers against a flurry of attackers. The deck also sports two different charms with multiple useful modes to take advantage of. Selesnya Charm is capable of either giving a creature a boost with Trample to push for a kill, can exile a large creature as long as it has power of 5 or more, or is able to put a 2/2 Knight token onto the battlefield which is also White to take advantage of Brave the Elements as well. The other charm is Boros Charm which can be used as direct damage to scorch your enemy, is able to save all your permanents from destruction in a pinch, or will grant Double Strike to one of your creatures if you need it to deal a final blow to take you on a path to victory. The deck also takes advantage of the new mana fixing land Mana Confluence in order to smoothly run a three color manabase using a bare minimum of into play tapped lands.
Eric J Seltzer
@ejseltzer on Twitter
Email: ejseltzer@hotmail.com
Esper Human – Esper Midrange
Takao, Shota
2nd place at GP Shizuoka 2013 Top 8
Lands (25)
Creatures (24)
Other Spells (11)
Sideboard
This deck got a lot of heads turning at Grand Prix Shizuoka on Dec. 22nd. Esper Midrandge or Humans piloted by Shota Takao, so named for its interactions between its humans paired up with Xathrid Necromancer. It is based on the more recent Orzhov Midrange strategy that evolved out of Paul Rietzl Orzhov Midrange at Pro Tour Theros. Takao was running into problems against Pack Rat so he added blue for Detention Sphere which also give him access to Lyev Skyknight. Adding the third color did not make the mana worse by taking full advantage of all the duals in Hallowed Fountain, Watery Grave, Godless Shrine, Temple of Deceit and Temple of Silence.
Esper Midrange has a strong match up against the three major decks in the format: Mono-Blue Devotion, Mono-Black Devotion, and Blue-White Control. The interaction between Whip of Erebos with Obzedat, Ghost Council is very important in these matches. You use the Whip to bring Obzedat back into play from the graveyard, then by stacking the triggers properly you can exile Obzedat to his trigger and return him back into play on your next turn.
As two-drops Takao opted to make a metagame call with a singleton Cartel Aristocrat which is strong against Domestication used mostly in Mono-Blue Devotion, Imposing Sovereign to slow down aggro decks and Daring Skyjek to speed up the clock especially when paired up with Lyev Skyknight, Desecration Demon or even Mutavault to activate Battalion. Adding a set of Detention Sphere allows him to drop the Hero’s Downfall that can get awkward to cast on the double black. Accompanied with a singleton of these removal spells Doom Blade, Ultimate Price and Far // Away again a metagame call.
Blood Baron of Vizkopa can be devastating against white and black based decks like this one, but Takao has answers like a Far // Away and two Supreme Verdicts in the main as well as access to Thoughtseize and another Far // Away and Supreme Verdict in the sideboard. Imposing Sovereign is also interesting as it stops Blood Baron but only for the turn it was summoned.
Overall Shato Takao got a lot of attention with this deck as it kept winning him round after round giving him a 14-1 record going into Quarterfinals, but finally losing in the finals to the GP Shizuoka champion Ryo Nakada piloting Orzhov Human.
Orzhov Human – White Weenie
Ryo Nakada
1st place GP Shizuoka 2013
Lands (22)
Creatures (29)
Other Spells (9)
Sideboard
Ryo Nakada piloted this Orzhov Human list to take down the final Grand Prix of the year in Shizuoka. The first thing we notice about the deck is that it is basically a White Weenie deck with a splash color similar to the Boros ‘white weenie’ that Ben Lundquist used to win SCG L.A. in November. This time we see a black splash instead of red for Xathrid Necromancer and Orzhov Charm in the main as well as a plethora of answers in the sideboard.
Generally White Weenie comes out of the gates fast, but then is weak to sweepers like Supreme Verdict and Mizzium Mortars. Enter Xathrid Necromancer which can be dropped on turn 3 making your opponents sweepers awkward to use by leaving an army of 2/2 Zombies behind to deal with. The Orzhov Charm in the main is used as cheap instant removal to clear the path for your team or can also be used to bring back a 1-drop in your graveyard onto the battlefield. The black becomes more then a splash once you look into the sideboard, with all black except for a singleton Pithing Needle. Bringing in Dark Betrayal against the strong and popular Mono-Black Devotion decks. A fourth Xathrid Necromancer to use against sweepers from UW and Esper control decks. Profit // Loss against the mirror and other popular ‘White Weenie” versions and probably also good against burn decks like Boros Burn. I imagine the Sin Collectors are used to get your opponents removal and sweepers. The Thoughtseize and Pithing Needle is the decks only answers to planeswalkers.
This version of White Weenie curves out almost like its predecessor with the exception of a turn 3 Xathrid Necromancer instead of Ajani, Caller of the Pride or Frontline Medic. Orzhov Humans starts off with a turn 1 Boros Elite, Dryad Militant or Soldier of the Pantheon followed on turn 2 with a Daring Skyjek, a Precinct Captain or an Imposing Sovereign and finally comes turn 3 with a Banisher Priest to clear the path for more beats or Xathrid Necromancer to “protect the team”. Spear of Heliod helps speed your clock by pumping your team and can act as removal against big threats. And in classic White Weenie fashion Brave the Elements protects your team against targeted spells or helps push through an alpha strike for the win.
Creatures (17)
Sideboard
Now here’s a pretty wild looking deck. With a very strong curve of Soldier into Voice into Reckoner into Advent it has some serious beef out of the gate. Backed up with Satyr and Fleecemane with an Ooze for utility it has a very aggressive creature package. Using Chandra as a source of card advantage it also helps to slip by any nuisance blockers. Finally it is rounded out with a removal package of Chained to the Rocks & Lightning Strike, which doubles as reach to hit the dome, and Mizzium as a sweeper. The Charm is there for some real utility that can either push through some lethal damage with trample or surprise an alpha strike with a knight…but most important may be the exile mode as a way to deal with pesky Gods.
W/R Aggro (White Weenie)
Ben Lundquist
1st Place at StarCityGames Standard Open on 11/3/2013
Lands (22)
Creatures (26)
Planeswalkers (3)
Other spells (9)
Sideboard (15)
A couple weeks ago I introduced a Boros”White weenie” deck that made top 8 at Grand Prix Louisville piloted by Justin Herrell. This weekend Ben Lundquist piloted a Boros deck similar to this white weenie strategy and took down the standard SCG Open in L.A.
Ben’s version uses Boros Elite and Frontline Medic with the Battalion abilities which can get activated early on thanks to Mutavault. Brave the Elements is very powerful as a win condition or to protect against removal. Boros Charm seems better versus control, to protect against sweepers or to hit 4 points to a Planeswalker like a Jace, Architect of Thought which will nerf you’re already small creatures. Ajani, Caller of the Pride in the main instead of the sideboard looks interesting as well, reminds me of Elspeth, Knight-Erant in some of the old White Weenie decks. Another new bear that we didn’t see in the old list is Azorius Arrester in the main instead of Banisher Priest which are now in the sideboard. Once you board in those Priest against Aggro it gives you good tempo. I imagine the Fiendslayer Paladin are great against Mono red and Mono Black which are prominent in this meta.
Last big obvious change is the extra red spells in the sideboard instead of just Boros Charm in the main. Mizzium Mortars and Warleader’s Helix against aggro and Burning Earth probably against control like Sphinx’s revelation strategies.
Orzhov Midrange
David Doberne
2nd Place at StarCityGames Standard Open on 10/20/2013
Main Deck
60 cards
25 lands
18 creatures
16 other spells
Sideboard
15 sideboard cards
