As this site is focused on budget deck building, here are a few budget decks I built. My decks focus on multiplayer casual matches. Even if that is not your style, looking over the decks might give you some good deck building ideas.
The first Budget deck is called Global War. I really enjoy playing this deck in casual multiplayer settings. This is my most expensive deck and according to MTGVault has a low price of about $20.18. The reason the deck is so expensive is because it relies on a lot of non-basic lands. It only has one basic land- a single mountain. Of course, I have tried to purchase the cheapest non-basic lands I could.
You can see that I draw from across a wide variety of sets to create this deck which I think gives it some of its strengths. Richard Garfield felt that format restrictions were necessary because, “We all realized from the start that we couldn’t just keep adding cards to Magic and expect it to stay popular. One reason for that is that each successive set of cards were a smaller and smaller percentage of the entire pool of cards, and so would necessarily have less and less impact on the whole of the game.”
I feel it is precisely that reason, however, that reduces the advantage that a player who has invested in a new premium card has over a budget deck. By drawing from a wide variety of sources, I can effectively counter some of the newer threats.
Urzatron provides a decent mana-ramp. The deck has Ancient Amphitheaters and Jungles Shrines to provide for the white mana necessary to effectively utilize the Desolation Giants. Blasphemous Act works well at disposing of creatures should your opponents get too many on the field.
Jaya Ballard, Task Mage is an extremely fun card. I include 4 of them because they quickly die. Jaya is still a creature card and was a precursor to the Planeswalkers. In general, I don’t like the fact that Planeswalkers are so hard to target and provide players with a lot of advantages.
Richard Garfield wrote, “Common cards had to be simple, but not necessarily less powerful, than rare cards—if only rare cards were powerful, players would either have to be rich or lucky to get a decent deck.”
I feel the Planeswalkers have kind of moved Magic in a different direction. They are not the only cards like that. (As a short aside, I have to say, it seems that both Army of the Damned or Endless Ranks of the Dead are much more powerful than Moan of the Unhallowed. Everyone can come up with plenty of examples where the rare card is both more expensive and effective.)
Getting back to the deck at hand the rare but affordable, Jaya Ballard, Task Mage, is a great card for people who do not have the budget for a planeswalker.
This deck also includes many Elixirs of Immortality. Elixir of Immortality is one of my favorite new cards as it is suitable for any deck. It provides you with a great way to counter mills. In this deck, it is necessary to replace the creatures you may be forced to lose as well as some of the life you will lose with spells like Inferno.
This deck is great for creature control in general and I find it very fun to play. This deck can win its fair share of casual multiplayer matches.
Here is the deck:
The next deck for your consideration in casual multiplayer is Rainbow Coalition. The deck utilizes all lands and all colors. Richard Garfield hoped players would play multicolor decks writing, “One thing I knew I wanted to see in the game was players using multicolor decks.”
Unlike Global War, this deck is much more defensive. According to MTG Vault, the low deck estimate for this deck is $10.91. It has one card which you may not wish to use. A long time ago, I obtained a Peacekeeper, most likely in a booster pack. Today, Peacekeeper is a fairly expensive card. A few good substitutes might be an Aerie Mystic or Spirit of Resistance which I mention in the side deck. Hopefully, the Fortune Thief will also help keep you alive.
In any case, the strategy is fairly simple- survive long enough to cast Coalition Victory. Ondu Giants provide you with the ability to get your lands out at a reasonable pace. The dual color creatures and Wild Mongrels will help satisfy the creature requirements.
The best chance of winning is by casting the Coalition Victory spell. If you are not into defensive decks, Rainbow Coalition is probably not for you. In my experience, this deck struggles a bit, and of the budget decks featured in this article, is the hardest to play with. This deck is a bit experimental deck and probably not suited for routine play.
Here is the deck:
If you want a bit more offense, you could try using the Alloy Golems. Here is the side deck:
If you are interested in another budget deck feel free to check out my True Blue. MTG Vault put the low cost of the deck at $8.82. True Blue is designed on an exchange theory. The goal is to take control/possession/or ownership of everything your opponent has. It is a multiplayer control deck. Save the Whispersilk cloaks for the Beguiler of Wills or perhaps a Master Thief that has taken possession of something incredible like a Platinum Angel. The Take Possession is used primarily for counteracting Planeswalkers by stealing them. Budget conscious as always, I was able to purchase Beguiler of Wills for under $1.
This deck is fairly competitive, but not nearly as simple or effective as Global War and may need some tweaking in the future.
The deck is here:
Moving on to a simpler but effective green deck, we have The 70. MTGVault put the low cost of this deck at $5.60.
This is a very versatile green deck. I generally hate decks that are this large, but the deck manages to balance its size and provide a player with a lot of options. It can defend well against flying creatures, destroy enchantments, lands, and artifacts, has unblockable and regenerating creatures, and even a few surprising spells. The deck is fairly straight-forward to play and can win.
The deck is here:
Finally, we have a Swamp deck which I have enjoyed playing owing primarily to the interactions between Pestilence and Reassembling Skeletons: SM4. The SM is appropriate because Pestilence will cause you pain as well. As I like to say, you may not always win with Pestilence, but you will always have fun. The deck is a bit more land shy than my usual decks, but the dark rituals and pristine talismans should make up for it. MTGVault places the deck’s low cost at $6.06.
The deck is here:
Keep in mind all of these decks are meant for casual play and were designed for free for all multiplayer matches.
Conclusion
In order of recommendation, I would say The 70 represents the best value, followed by Pestilence and True Blue, with Global War representing a very effective but expensive deck. Coalition Victory is a bit too experimental for routine play, relying too heavily on one card to achieve victory, but still has some excellent cards worth looking at.
magicmakrel 