[Budget] The Best Blue Commons in the Game

[Clark Kant]

To prove a point to a friend about the budget requirements of getting into magic, I made a bet...

The only rules were, the deck has to be monocolor, no uncommons, no rares and if possible, no artifacts (this one rule isn't iron clad so if there is an absolutely nutty powerful common artifact you can think of, I would gladly run it).

After glancing over time spiral I immediately settled on blue...

Here is the list I threw together...

18 Island
2 Repeal *
4 Sigil of Sleep (*)
4 Unstable Mutuation
4 Daze
4 Counterspell

4 Sage of Epityr *
4 Flying Men
4 Looter il Kor
4 Spiketail Hatchling
4 Spiketail Drakeling
4 Ninja of Deep Hours

The deck performed extremely well, well enough that it even caught me by surprise and I won the bet.

But now I deeply desire to perfect it.

The cards with the * next to them are the cards that I am unhappy with. Sigil of Sleep has a (*) next to it because I like the card, but I'm not positive if I want to play more than 2.

I would really appreciate your advice on replacing those slots.

I've already tested Brainstorm, Serum Visions, Spindrift Drake and Impulse and was very unhappy with all 4. They're good cards but they don't suit this particular deck well. I wish I could play Flying Men, Curiosity and/or Standstill but alas, they're uncommons I believe.

Do you guys have any suggestions for blue commons that I'm forgetting? Make sure they fit the curve (ie. 2cc or less). I just need to replace 8 slots so all I need are two good cards, preferably with one of them being a 1cc creature.

Thanks in advance.

If I get no advice, I'll just go with my gut and run 4 Cloud Sprite and 4 Mana Leak in those slots. But I would really appreciate some feedback. The deck really is quite good and I believe very close to being something special.

[Clark Kant]

For creatures:
At 1 mana you have:
Cloud Pirates
Cloud Sprites
Drifter il-Dal
Manta Riders
Martyr of Frost
Shrieking Drake
Thought Nibbler

At 2 mana you have the option of:
Aquamoeba
Cloud of Faeries
Coast Watcher
Fathom Seer
Hammerhead Shark
Rimewind Task Mage
School of Piranha
Waterfround Bouncer

For spells:
1 mana:
Disrupt
Envelop
Essence Flare
Force Spike
Opt
Psychic Purge
Seal of Removal
Veil of Birds

2 mana:
Accumulated Knowledge
Aether Burst
Boomerang
Cunning
Echoing Truth
Ideas Unbound
Mana Leak
Memory Lapse
Miscalculation
Prohibit
Rune Snag
Snap
Sunken City

Out of all of those I would probably go with Cloud Sprite and Fathom Seer. Essence Flare is an interesting option if you're looking for more mutation effects. Cloud of Faeries have always been a solid choice as well.

It's not surprising that the list you came up with did well. It's basically the same thing as the classic (i.e. merfolk-style) fish deck. In fact, all you need to do is add Curiosity and Standstill and you pretty much have Fish circa 2002.

Thank you very much for your extremely well thought out post.

I actually was considering Fathom Seer but thought it might be too slow (3 to morph + return 2 lands and thus having to recast them) for a deck that's meant to win very quickly.

But I haven't tested it so I will now test that card.

If it doesn't work out, I will likely be going with Portent instead, because its like Brainstorm without the reliance on fetchlands. Plus it lets me peek at my opponents upcoming hands, and arrange them so they get their good card last, and I can remember to leave mana untapped that turn to counter it. Or maybe I'll try Cloud of Fairies.

I lost interest in Mana Leak because though like I said, this deck is meant to be very fast, the deck also rarely has lands untapped, and it would be nice to not to have too many useless effects if the game does go long (I'm already running Daze, and 2 Spiketails afterall).

[xsockmonkeyx]

Mask of Memory looks really good here with all of your little evaders. It's technically an uncommon but its still like 10 cents.

Ophidian?

[Cavius The Great]

Thank you very much for your extremely well thought out post.

I actually was considering Fathom Seer but thought it might be too slow (3 to morph + return 2 lands and thus having to recast them) for a deck that's meant to win very quickly.

But I haven't tested it so I will now test that card.

If it doesn't work out, I will likely be going with Portent instead, because its like Brainstorm without the reliance on fetchlands. Plus it lets me peek at my opponents upcoming hands, and arrange them so they get their good card last, and I can remember to leave mana untapped that turn to counter it. Or maybe I'll try Cloud of Fairies.

I lost interest in Mana Leak because though like I said, this deck is meant to be very fast, the deck also rarely has lands untapped, and it would be nice to not to have too many useless effects if the game does go long (I'm already running Daze, and 2 Spiketails afterall).


Who are you quoting? I can't see that dude's post for some reason. Wierd...

[freakish777]

Vulshok Morningstar was a common in Darksteel... having your 20 or so small creatures not so small is probably decent (obviously if you want to un-budget it, Sword of Fire/Ice is the way to go).

[Brushwagg]

I'm not seeing some of the BEST ones anywhere in this tread.

Braistorm
Impulse
Echoing Truth
Daze
Counterspell
Serum Visions
Portent
ETC...

Not sure why some of them were not included in a list or the deck that was posted.

[Zilla]

Brainstorm is one of the best commons ever printed. I'm really surprised not to see it in the list, even if you don't have fetchlands to abuse it. Considering that your curve stops at 2 and Brainstorm helps your early draws, you could probably get away with dropping 2 Islands and 2 Repeals in favor of Brainstorm and still do just fine on mana. It'd help your curve and prevent manaflood in the late game as well.

I'd consider Cloud of Faeries in the sage slot, since it helps accellerate you in the early game and has good synergy with countermagic.

Mana Leak could take the place of the Sigils, and perhaps they could be moved to the board for the aggro matchup.

Aside from that, I sure wish Curiosity were within the bounds of the rules you've set for yourself, because they'd go perfectly in the Sigil slot.

Also, what about a sideboard?

You have 8 Blasts if you want them, and Tormod's Crypt seems like a no-brainer. Echoing Truth seems like a wise choice as well. I wish Submerge weren't an uncommon because it's savage, savage tech against Thresh. What else is there?

[Brushwagg]

Aside from that, I sure wish Curiosity were within the bounds of the rules you've set for yourself, because they'd go perfectly in the Sigil slot.


There's alway Ohphidan Eye. But it costs 3, and probably is to slow. The only plus side is it can be played at instant speed.

[Clark Kant]

Thank you for all the feedback everyone.

You know what, after reading up on Peasent Magic, I decided to make this a peasent deck, which means I CAN run 4 Curiosity.

So all that remains is what creature to run in place of the sage, Cloud Sprite or Cloud of Fairies. I like Sprite myself just because you can cast it turn one, and follow it up with a curiosity turn two.

So the final build will likely look something like this...

18 Island
2 Sigil of Sleep
4 Curiosity
4 Unstable Mutuation
4 Daze
4 Counterspell

4 Cloud Sprite
4 Flying Men
4 Looter il Kor
4 Spiketail Hatchling
4 Spiketail Drakeling
4 Ninja of Deep Hours

I mentioned that I tried Brainstorm. It doesn't work in this deck, for the same reason that it never worked in Fish, even though fish decks run 6-8 fetchlands and 4 FoWs. (Yes, I know I could use FoW as my 4 uncommons instead of Curiosity, but it defeats the whole point of building a budget deck to run $20 cards.)

The cards just get aren't powerful in this deck, they are consistent, but there are no silver bullet answers, just tempo, that's why Brainstorm isn't very strong, esp without Forces to try to draw into in response to a spell.

[Iranon]

Have you considered relying more heavily on ninjas? Flying Men, Cloud Sprite, Thalakos Seer and Cloud of Faeries all have considerable synergy with that plan, and Mistblade Shinobi would fit perfectly into a tempo-oriented approach.

Unfortunately, I can't think of an elegant way to keep your ninjas useful in the long run that involves only commons. Writ of Passage works like a charm but I'm not sure it's worth running when most of your creatures have evasion anyway.
Snap can bounce blockers for no effective mana cost, creating yet more tempo but I'm not sure that's worth a card. Ack, now I want to build a blue Tempo/Stompy deck that incorporates the Spring Tide mana engine although that is almost assuredly a brainfart; a wandering mind is a terrible thing.

Incidentally, it looks as if Spring Tide would rock in peasant magic. The tutor department suffers and Brain Freeze is banned, but the draw is still strong with Prosperity which doubles as a kill condition when backed up by 1-2 Feldon's Canes. Your untap engine will actually be better than its Legacy equivalent because Frantic Search isn't banned.
It doesn't resemble your opening list, but seemed relevant considering the thread title... just a thought.

[Barsoom]

I really think that you can try -1 Island +1 Sigil of Sleep.
I have a fish deck with Merfolk (http://mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4447&highlight=merfolk) and i run 17 island and never have mana problems.
Your mana curve is also less expensive than mine.
Only a tip.

[xsockmonkeyx]

The whole 4 uncommon no rare thing is too arbitrary to be really be considered what pauper is supposed to be; cheap and decent. Sometimes (printed) rarity has nothing to do with monetary value. Like you said, some commons/uncommons are expensive(FoW, Berserk, Sinkhole) but also decent rares can be found in the quarter bin.



19 Island
1 Seat of the Synod

4 Mask of Memory
1 Bonesplitter
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Blue Spellbomb
1 other 0-1cc thing

4 Daze
4 Counterspell
4 Brainstorm

4 Flying Men($3 each is pauper?)/Cloud Sprite
4 Looter Il-Kor
4 Cloud of Faeries
2 Sea Sprite
4 Ninja of Deep Hours
4 Trinket Mage