Budget Semi-Casual Legacy Suggestions

[Anubis647]

Hello, all! First time poster here (just found the site about a week ago, I hope this is in the right section and right formatting) and I was hoping to get some suggestions to build a Legacy deck to play with a friend of mine. He runs a Mono-Black Reanimator deck with all the bells and whistles (Entomb, Exhume, Putrid Imp, Animate Dead, etc... with Iona, Jin, Elesh Norn, etc.), but no disruption save Duress, and he insists on playing this deck because obviously he has invested some into it. I want to have a deck that is able to play him on a similar power level so I don't auto-lose to Iona or Elesh Norn on turn 2, but I have a budget restriction as well. I don't foresee myself doing many Legacy tournaments because there isn't much in my area, but I wouldn't rule it out completely and might try to build whatever I have into a more competitive version on down the road. So far I've done a little investigation into Merfolk and UW Miracles, as the colors I'm mostly comfortable with are Blue, Red, and White. I also enjoyed reading about ANT, TES, etc... but they seem to be out of my range.

Anyway, I have store credit up to $414, and I was hoping some more knowledgeable posters here might be able to give me some suggestions and/or provide some discussion. Thanks!

[Slag]

I think an affinity variant would be the most fun for your scenario. It's an active, fast moving deck that ignores Iona and can run graveyard hate without blinking an eye. It should be within your price range, depending on the build, and can be played in a serious tournament should the occasion arise.

[Anubis647]

Goblins and Affinity were actually two of the first decks I looked into but I read that they had really bad matchups... I figured it was due to Elesh Norn and Blazing Archon. I've always wanted to build Affinity because it looks like a lot of fun.

One thing I forgot to add--I want to be able if possible to play without too much graveyard hate so it won't seem like I'm just metagaming him. For example, I ran a control list with Rest in Peace on Cockatrice which just ended the game there and wasn't really enjoyable for either of us.

[Bed Decks Palyer]

I think you want to kill one too many bird with one stone.

Either you may build a deck that defeats your friend (and then something like budget UW control might work: you'll have counters and removal and RiP: no need for the fancy stuff, just play painlands, Reprisals, Counterspells, Rest in Peace and see what happens).
Or you may build a deck that may work in tournaments, but then you may lose to your friend's deck, as your own won't be that perfectly tuned to fight his strategy.

I'm not sure if budget Affinity is what it once was. Without Tezz it might be quite underwhelming.

[Anubis647]

I think you want to kill one too many bird with one stone.

Either you may build a deck that defeats your friend (and then something like budget UW control might work: you'll have counters and removal and RiP: no need for the fancy stuff, just play painlands, Reprisals, Counterspells, Rest in Peace and see what happens).
Or you may build a deck that may work in tournaments, but then you may lose to your friend's deck, as your own won't be that perfectly tuned to fight his strategy.

I'm not sure if budget Affinity is what it once was. Without Tezz it might be quite underwhelming.

You're probably right... I kinda thought that as I was typing it out. Let's just say then that I want to build a deck to play with my friend and forget about the potential competitive plans for now. I'd really just like a 40-50% win rate or so, just to make it somewhat fair. I could make a dedicated GY removal deck, but that wouldn't be enjoyable, either. I've beaten him once or twice with a Pauper Izzet Blitz deck, but that was without Iona maindecked. I noticed Ravagers had gone down a good bit (probably due to MM), but on the flip side Mox Opal has almost doubled since I last checked...

Also, I have a tentative UW and tentative Merfolk if anyone would be interested in seeing them. I also own things like Counterspell, Ponder/Preordain/Brainstorm, Lightning Helix (more Modern, I think), Lightning Bolt, and Delver. Just no "great" cards really.

[Bed Decks Palyer]

Thing is that playing against full-power Reanimator isn't very lovely, but the deck is weak to so many cheap answers that it's also not really lovely. Either you may make an agreement to build and play some different decks (when playing for fun), and when he decides it's time to Reanimate, he needs to accept that you also want to have chance and thus use Crypt/Relic/Cage/w-e.

You may always build something like this:

_______________________________________________________________________________
Shandalar Deckpilots' Deckkit Summer 2014 Platinum Edition

Preconstructed decks:

Cloudy Sky
13 Plains
13 Island
12 counterspells
8 board control
6 library manipulation
4 sweepers
4 fliers


Grassy Horizon
12 Plains
12 Forests
8 manadorks
12 fat dudes
8 removal
6 utility cards
2 Armageddon


Isle of Horror
11 Island
11 Swamp
8 library manipulation
8 discard
4 discard outlets
4 cheap counterspells
8 reanimation spells
6 really fat dudes


Sulfurous Lair
10 Swamp
10 Mountain
4 Faithless Looting
1 Seething Song
20 Rituals
1 Past in Flames
2 Living Death
3 Diabolic Tutor
4 Dragonstorm
5 Dragons


Woodland Redoubts
9 Mountain
9 Forest
20 small dudes
20 burn
2 Rancor



24 Manarocks:
24 manarocks


Prize pool:

Adarkar Wastes
Brushland
Karplusan Forest
Sulfurous Springs
Underground River
Bad River
Flood Plain
Grasslands
Mountain Valley
Rocky Tar Pit
Faerie Conclave
Forbidding Watchtower
Ghitu Encampment
Spawning Pool
Treetop Village
Barbarian Ring
Cabal Pit
Centaur Garden
Cephalid Coliseum
Nomad Stadium
Azorius Chancery
Dimir Aqueduct
Gruul Turf
Rakdos Carnarium
Selesnya Sanctuary
Akoum Refuge
Graypelt Refuge
Jwar Isle Refuge
Kazandu Refuge
Sejiri Refuge


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