My semicasual/semicompetitive budget Legacy decks

[Strawberry Dwarf]

I. Licilisk

Main:
Mana // Speed:
18 Forest
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Quirion Ranger

Beatdown // Board control:
4 Viridian Longbow
4 Thornweald Archer
4 Tempting Licid
4 Thicket Basilisk

Additional beatdown // Back-up:
4 Durkwood Baloth
4 Penumbra Spider
4 Deadwood Treefolk

Disruption:
3 Heap Doll
2 Thorn of Amethyst

Card quality management:
1 Darksteel Pendant

Sideboard:
2 Wheel of Sun and Moon
3 Nurturing Licid
3 Essence Warden
1 Heap Doll
4 Seal of Primordium
2 Thorn of Amethyst

Speed 4/5, Gameplan performance 4/5, Flexibility 3/5, Late gameplan 5/5, Anticombo protection 2/5

II. Gorgon_Sligh

Main:
Mana // Speed:
17 Mountain
2 Molten Slagheap
4 Simian Spirit Guide

Cc1 Creatures (12):
4 Keldon Halberdier
4 Brass Gnat
4 Martyr of Ashes

Cc2 Creatures (7):
4 Blood Knight
3 Skirk Marauder

Cc3 Creatures (5):
1 Akroma, Angel of Fury
4 Orcish Artillery

Utility // Burn etc:
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Flaring Pain
4 Fury Charm
3 Gorgon Flail
1 Darksteel Pendant

Sideboard:
1 Puppet Strings
4 Thran Foundry
2 Manabarbs
1 Flaring Pain
1 Gorgon Flail
1 Dizzying Gaze
1 Skirk Marauder
4 Red Elemental Blast

Speed 4/5, Gameplan performance 5/5, Flexibility 2/5, Late gameplan 3/5, Anticombo protection 1/5

III. Divine_Scale

Main:
Mana:
20 Plains
4 Guardian Idol

The Core Engine:
4 Restore Balance
4 Ivory Giant
4 Jhoira's Timebug
3 Spawning Pit
2 Arcane Spyglass

Additional board control:
4 Whipcorder
4 Icy Manipulator
3 Oblivion Ring

Disruption:
4 Beckon Apparition
2 Mana Tithe
2 Sphere of Resistance

Sideboard:
2 Wheel of Sun and Moon
1 Oblivion Ring
2 Sphere of Resistance
1 Pearled Unicorn
3 Disenchant
2 Mana Tithe
4 Children of Korlis

Speed 2/5, Gameplan performance 3/5, Flexibility 5/5, Late gameplan 4/5, Anticombo protection 3/5

IV. Suiblack

Main:
Mana:
18 Swamp
2 Molten Slagheap

Beatdown:
4 Darksteel Axe
4 Grimclaw Bats
4 Yotian Soldier

Board control:
4 Snuff Out
4 Skinthinner

Discard:
4 Duress
4 Augur of Skulls

Other disruption:
4 Faerie Macabre
4 Thoughtpicker Witch

Reinforcement:
4 Grim Harvest

Sideboard:
4 Transmogrifying Licid
4 Leonin Bola
4 Death Cultist
3 Crypt Rats

Speed 3/5, Gameplan performance 2/5, Flexibility 2/5, Late gameplan 4/5, Anticombo protection 3/5

[Tiago_B.]

Might be better to write a small explanation on how each deck works, makes it easier to understand and comment about it.

[Strawberry Dwarf]

Might be better to write a small explanation on how each deck works, makes it easier to understand and comment about it.

OK

All these decks are sort of aggro-control type.

Red one and green one are almost twins. They both use direct damage from deathtouch creatures to control board and both suspend beaters as middle/late game decisive factor. They are also able to finish opponents via direct damage.

Green deck is more sophisticated: able to recover from creature destruction with treefolks and play around almost any blockers with lure-licids. Licid + Basilisk is an old and primitive, but efficient way to deal with most opponent's creatures including protection (one point though: changeling ability protects, because the Basilisk's text says "non-wall"). Mass killings of manaelves and rangers (Pyroclasm) slow it terribly - this is the weakest point.

Red deck is more resilient vs mana-denial and early mass killings, but cannot recover in late game. It is more or less old-style Geeba-Sligh upgraded for new creature's power-creep with deathtouch and maintains ability to interact in late game nevertheless. Equipped deathtouching first-strikers and Fury Charms (i.e. defacto Shatters) can face popular Stoneforge Mystic strategies based on Batterskull. Protection can be answered by Flaring Pain or boosted colorless morphs (trample + deathtouch) and flyers. Martyr answers weenies, tokens (EtW, Bridge), elves, goblins or whatever, and has decent synergy with own suspends and flyers. From my experience in Forge, Vault Skirges over Brass Gnats is not an improvement here.

Black deck is probably the weakest one vs aggro, but contains best answers vs combo and also decent late-game strategy reusing graveyard vs control. Most of the time it wins with flyers. Thoughtpicker Witch is the key card vs top-deck tutors, Brainstorms and Doomsday, and to reuse Skinthinners. Skinthinner looks sub-optimal, but it is the best way to deal with Iona-based color lock.

White deck is the hardest one to play correctly. Its strategy relies on resolved Restore Balance + sacrifice to Spawning Pit and tapping opponent's threats. Good timing with Timebugs is crucial, especially if opponents plays counterspells. This deck loses horribly to classic monored Legacy Goblins and sometimes struggles to survive without its key cards.

[FTW]

Thank you for sharing your decks.

While I understand the concept of "budget" and "casual", there are plenty of dirt cheap yet better cards that you could use in your decks to fill the same strategies. In particular, the mana curves look quite high for low land counts. Some of your decks run resistors (e.g. Sphere of Resistance, Thorn of Amethyst) but also have their own high casting cost cards or activation costs. Doesn't that create mana difficulties? Or maybe it doesn't relative to the other decks, but I bet changing the curves and land counts would help your lists run more smoothly.

Example:
You're running the old Thicket Basilisk + Tempting Licid combo to kill all of opponent's blockers. But there are so many cheaper deathtouch creatures these days. For example Wren's Run Vanquisher is pretty cheap for you considering you run some Elves, would be even more reliable with more Elves in the deck. Or you could run Ambush Viper, which doubles as a combat trick. True, Thicket can kill any number of creatures (unlike a 2-power deathtouch creature that can only kill 2), but it's still very expensive for a 2/4. The Thicket combo also doesn't deal with creatures that are already tapped (from attacking or activated abilities). It also really raises your curve to have Basilisk as a 4-of along with other expensive creatures like Deadwood Treefolk and Penumbra Spider. Yes, you have mana acceleration, but 8 mana elves+18 lands still doesn't make it easy to cast them early. These days Green can blow up a lot of creatures using deathtouch and Ulvenwald Tracker or other cheap fight effects like Pit Fight. You can give arbitrary creatures deathtouch with Nightshade Peddler, including any regenerator (River Boa) or indestructible creature (Phantom Centaur, Predator Ooze) or fatty so you can repeatedly make it fight things and live. Meanwhile, these cards are easier on your curve. Also, suspending Durkwood Baloth is pretty bad when you can just spend 3 mana for Leatherback Baloth. Green power creep means waiting several turns for a green fatty is not necessary.

For Sui-Black, I'm confused how Yotian Solider (a defensive card) and Grimclaw Bats (a slow mana sink) count as "beatdown". Why not just run 4 Dark Ritual and churn out aggressive threats like Vampire Lacerator, Carnophage, Skittering Skirge, Dauthi Slayer, Dauthi Horror, Rakdos Cackler, Diregraf Ghoul, Ashenmoor Gouger, Vampire Nighthawk or anything else like that? You can still back that up with a similar discard plan and creature removal via Snuff Out and Shriekmaw. Or if you want a more disruptive angle, you can run Chittering Rats to wreck the opponent's draws for the rest of the game.

Is Flaring Pain better than Skullcrack?

[Strawberry Dwarf]

Indeed there is a lot of room for alternatives.


In particular, the mana curves look quite high for low land counts. Some of your decks run resistors (e.g. Sphere of Resistance, Thorn of Amethyst) but also have their own high casting cost cards or activation costs. Doesn't that create mana difficulties? Or maybe it doesn't relative to the other decks, but I bet changing the curves and land counts would help your lists run more smoothly.

Green deck runs manaelves as accelerators and contains almost no non-creature cards, so Thorn of Amethyst affects opponent more. Early mass killings pose huge problem as I have already mentioned. Originally I tried only 16 lands and it was unacceptable. 18 is right count IMO.

White deck runs Guardian Idols and no really mana-expensive cards or abilities. Sphere can prevent own unwanted suspended Balance, if opponent eliminates Pits and Timebugs from operation. 4 Spheres were too much and created unpleasant situations sometimes, 4 Mana Tithes made the deck too reactive and were almost useless in late game. 2/2 split is right compromise here.

Red and black decks run a few storage lands each. Red deck contains 1 mana-expensive card (red Akroma), but it doesn't matter that much as she is usually played facedown and turned up much later or never. She is here more or less as a surprise and joke for Show and Tell. Red deck has rarely problems with mana.

OTOH, black deck has huge problems with mana quite often. Grimclaw Bats and Skinthinner have really mana-intesive abilities to compete with more efficient modern creatures and as consequence Grim Harvest is either usually lost or its graveyard ability forces me to keep wasting 3 free mana each turn. Bats were intended to become main kill machines utilizing all abundant black mana (with no fetchland thinning), but paying life can be painful in open damage race vs aggro, so I usually end up playing in defense. I have some ideas how to fix it, but I would have to buy/trade cards a bit first as these decks are intended to be built from real paper cards.


You're running the old Thicket Basilisk + Tempting Licid combo to kill all of opponent's blockers. But there are so many cheaper deathtouch creatures these days. (...)

Deathtouch doesn't work vs first strike and vs protection (and damage prevention in general). True-Name Nemesis, Progenitus and Sphinx of the Steel Wind are too popular to be ignored. Viable alternatives for Thicket are: Tangle Asp and Sylvan Basilisk. Compared with Thicket, both have their pros and cons. True, Tangle Asp is much easier to cast and destroys changelings/walls, but it is too prone to red burn and is too small to survive as blocker - trades 1:1 here. Sylvan is excellent in attack - kills before combat damage, but doesn't trigger on defense. Moreover, I have some doubts about Sylvan Basilisk's rulings: text says destroy blocking creature, not all blocking creatures. Thicket has best synergy with Quirion Ranger's ability from these three, but IMO Tangle Asp would be worthy to try.


The Thicket combo also doesn't deal with creatures that are already tapped (from attacking or activated abilities).

Creatures tapped from attacking may become untapped by Ranger and smaller creatures with activated abilities are usually killed by damage from the Longbow equipment.


Also, suspending Durkwood Baloth is pretty bad when you can just spend 3 mana for Leatherback Baloth. Green power creep means waiting several turns for a green fatty is not necessary.

That is the question! Suspend is easy to pay and puts additional psychological pressure on opponent.


For Sui-Black, I'm confused how Yotian Solider (a defensive card) and Grimclaw Bats (a slow mana sink) count as "beatdown". Why not just run 4 Dark Ritual and churn out aggressive threats like Vampire Lacerator, Carnophage, Skittering Skirge, Dauthi Slayer, Dauthi Horror, Rakdos Cackler, Diregraf Ghoul, Ashenmoor Gouger, Vampire Nighthawk or anything else like that? You can still back that up with a similar discard plan and creature removal via Snuff Out and Shriekmaw. Or if you want a more disruptive angle, you can run Chittering Rats to wreck the opponent's draws for the rest of the game.

I agree that the black deck needs complete revision, because it performs really bad just now. But surprisingly, Yotian Soldier is decent creature here and replaced Black Knights, because he acts both as blocker and attacker at the same time and survives Pyroclasm or Cursed Scroll.


Is Flaring Pain better than Skullcrack?

Yes, I think so (because of discard/counterspells).

[FTW]

Shriekmaw seems like a straight up upgrade for your morph. Cheaper removal if you need removal earlier; better beater once you have the mana.

If you run more efficient black creatures (e.g. all 1-3 cc other than Shriekmaw), then Unearth is a much better reanimation spell than spending 5 mana on Grim Harvests. The recursion isn't worth the slowness. There's also Phyrexian Reclamation if you want repeatable effects. Harvest has awful synergy with your deck since you want to tap out for the bats and equipment, but you need to keep 3 mana open at all times for Grim Harvest to avoid it getting exiled. If you had more efficient beaters, you wouldn't need to waste mana on the bats too. The Dauthi cycle is pretty decent for cheap unblockable budget black attackers. Equipment on a Dauthi ends on the game quickly, with your mana open to cast spells and interact with the opponent.

Yotian Solider works on defense, but a sui-black deck doesn't need to be defensive with creatures. You have access to more efficient, more aggressive creatures than many other decks. Black can play better defense by destroying creatures than by blocking. Creatures that can't be destroyed by spells (e.g. protection from black, protection from everything) often can't be stopped by blocking anyway. Yotian Solider also doesn't block flyers (Delver, Clique, Spirit tokens, Flickerwisp, etc.). If you run better removal and more aggressive creatures, I think you'll find you no longer need the 1/4 to block. Not like it really stops Batterskull or Tarmogoyf anyway.

If you're playing against slow casual decks it may not be a big deal, but otherwise I think you're underestimating how slow 5cc creatures and 3-mana equip costs are when you have few lands. 18 lands + 8 fragile Elves is not enough to speed that up consistently (unless the decks you're facing lack removal or are also slow and/or you're not properly randomizing your deck). I would look at recent Standard midrange manabases from the last few years. Many of those decks (e.g. RG Monsters) run mana elves but will also run closer to 24-26 lands to help them consistently play their many powerful 5-drops. There's nothing wrong with 5-drops and 6-drops, especially in a casual environment, but many other constructed formats have proven they're much easier to consistently cast with at least 24 lands. Legacy Elves run around 18 lands, but they also have Gaea's Cradle, more mana Elves, and a significantly lower overall mana curve. Perhaps something to keep in mind.

You can also just lower your curve by running tutors (e.g. Worldly Tutor, Mwonvuli Beast Tracker) instead of having 4-ofs all your fatties. That way you still have as easy access to them but your overall mana curve isn't clogged up with so many expensive cards.

Sylvan Basilisk triggers for each creature that blocks it, so each individual trigger will destroy a different blocking creature (without targetting it). In case you were wondering about the rules. But Walls and Changelings are rarely played so it doesn't have much of an edge. Although you can theoretically kill TNN and Progenitus, you're not playing any haste enablers. Therefore, opponent will have an entire turn between you casting a Basilisk and you being able to attack with it. That means opponent can just attack with their TNN/Progenitus to avoid getting them killed. Meanwhile, you spent 5 mana on a 2-power creature and more mana on a Licid, so chances are they are just plain outracing you. I seriously doubt the Basilisk plan is actually helping you win games against TNN in practice. Those decks also run a number of counterspells and removal spells to disrupt your "combo" for much less mana than you invest in it. So they have multiple lines of play to get around it. With all that said, I doubt the Basilisk combo is helping you win games against those protection cards. Maybe it helps you win games against casual decks with "protection from green" and lots of "first strike" creatures, so there is potential merit there over just running more deathtouch. But 4 copies is probably too many.

In a green deck, Suspending a 5/5 is powerful and potentially scary if done on turn 1. Every later turn of the game, it becomes the worst topdeck ever. What might be a psychological advantage against easy-to-intimidate mediocre plays is more often an information disadvantage against a better opponent. For those turns it is suspended, you are playing with -1 card in hand and they know exactly what is coming and when so they can time their plays and plan out their next turns appropriately. Personal choice I guess. There's merit to running the suspenders in your other colors, but green just has so many cheap fatties already...

With a high enough creature count, your green deck could benefit from card draw like Lead the Stampede. Refuelling after mass-removal is good. You probably don't need card draw yet since your curve is so high that you're playing at most 1 card a turn, but if you lower the curve and play threats faster you might find card drawing offsets any drawback of playing your hand faster. Something to consider.

Red has so many cheap burn effects that the morph guy just seems awful. Has psychological edge with the 1-of Akroma, but at that point you might as well just run 4 Zoetic Cavern in your land slot instead of wasting creatures/removal on a really awful card. Flametongue Kavu, Ghitu Slinger, Ember Hauler and so many others are better creature+burn combos.

Vault Skirge is also miles better than Brass Gnat. 2 damage is nothing compared to having to spend mana every turn to untap the Gnat. Especially nothing when Lifelink can gain the life back.

[Strawberry Dwarf]

I made some changes in my black deck.

First of all, I realized Darksteel Axe doesn't perform enough for its equip cost. The beatdown plan with equipped Grimclaw Bats and Yotian Soldiers isn't that powerful as it seemed to be. The equip cost :2: and Bats' pump cost work poorly together with other mana-intensive abilities, especially the recover cost :2::b: and the morph cost :3::b::b:. The second thing is that these abilities beg for some mana backup, so I decided to employ Blood Pets as additional 1-mana drop. So instead of Bats (out) and Yotians (to SB) I put Dross Golems in as main offensive weapon and Funeral Charms as support instead of Axes. Also without pumping, there is no reason for storage lands anymore. The complete decklist:

20 Swamp

4 Blood Pet
4 Thoughtpicker Witch
4 Augur of Skulls
4 Skinthinner
4 Faerie Macabre
4 Dross Golem

4 Duress
4 Funeral Charm
4 Grim Harvest
4 Snuff Out

Sideboard:
4 Death Cultist
4 Leonin Bola
4 Yotian Soldier
3 Crypt Rats

Just a curiosity: the whole deck is built from commons only now, it contains no uncommons nor rares. It wasn't a purpose.

pros:
- better overall manacurve, better synergy and mana management
- no idle permanents (Axe without creatures, it did happen quite often)
- additional 1st-turn answer to 1-toughness utility creatures (manaelves, Birds of Paradise, Goblin Lackey)
- better interaction with combo without suppressing tempo (Blood Pet mana backup to activate Witch or play instant discard spell)

cons:
- no way to play around Cursed Scroll and some equipments (Sword of Fire and Ice) maindeck
- it is no more suicide black deck, it evolved into utility-based black weenie deck

[Strawberry Dwarf]

A fun note: I have "playtested" the new black deck in MtG Forge just now and won vs Schonegger's Miracle Control (http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/misc/29085_.html) 2-0 :wink:

Game 1
On the play I hit Jace with Duress (saw 2 StP and lands only), then I lured both StP to my 1/1 creatures, resolved Augur, AI played blind topdecked CB, I destroyed his hand and won damage race with Dross Golem over his Snapcaster Mage.

Game 2
On the draw, the AI did nothing the 1st turn, I played Duress and hit Entreat the Angels, after that I started destroying his hand with multiple Augurs, but came under some pressure from Vendilion Clique and Mage. Killed Clique with Charm and with 3 1/1 outplayed the Mage. A turn before death opponent topdecked CB, but too late.

The AI's main mistakes were:
- keeping hands without countermagic and setup spells
- wasting StPs to insignificant 1/1s (Witch and Pet), Augur and Golem were more serious threats
- playing Snapcaster Mage as mere vanilla creature, but maybe there was nothing better to do under Augur's discard

Anyway, the deck works. Augurs + Grim Harvest are devastating vs control and I didn't have to use deck's full potential (e.g. make Snapcaster's ability fizzle with Faerie Macabre or control opponent's library using the Witch).

[Strawberry Dwarf]

Searching in my box of crappy, unused cards, I think I found a golden nugget there: playset of Cry of Contrition. This card really fits into my black deck and pushes it over the edge. Thus, here is the updated decklist:

20 Swamp

4 Fume Spitter
4 Thoughtpicker Witch
4 Augur of Skulls
4 Skinthinner
4 Faerie Macabre
4 Dross Golem

4 Duress
4 Cry of Contrition
4 Grim Harvest
4 Snuff Out

Sideboard:
4 Leonin Bola
3 Death Cultist
4 Abyssal Gatekeeper
4 Crypt Rats

The deck is capable of destroying opponent's hand in a few turns while maintainig pressure, and Cry of Contrition's haunt can be triggered as fast effect during opponent draw step, together with Witch providing often double timewalk. Even the Witch alone is great in fighting tutors, CB/Top lock, Doomsday combos and stacked Miracle spells. Cry often allows to keep Augur in play now to block an early Goyf/Mongoose, while opponent can't block Golems. Whole sideboard is now focused on fighting fast aggro decks (Goblins, Elves, Stompy variants, WW variants, Affinity, Batterskull/Jitte decks) and quick big dudes cheated into play (Show and Tell, Natural Order), again with synergy from Cry of Contrition.

[edit] Additional improvement: Fume Spitter. This card is more useful than Blood Pet, dealing with Delver, Lackey, Mother, mana elves/birds, black utility creatures (Bob, Disciple) etc.

I regret I can't keep Funeral Charms in, but playing without targeted discard would be too risky in modern Legacy.

[Strawberry Dwarf]

And here - another deck, white weenie exploring suspend, tapping, flying, rebels call and surprise:

White Weenie Roar

20 Plains

4 Judge's Familiar
4 Ramosian Sergeant
2 Children of Korlis
4 Whipcorder
4 Knight of the Holy Nimbus
4 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Duskrider Peregrine
4 White Shield Crusader

4 Beckon Apparition
2 Roar of the Kha
4 Oblivion Ring

Sideboard:
1 Pearled Unicorn
2 Wheel of Sun and Moon
4 Disenchant
4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Sunscour

The strategy is obvious: mobilize rebels, i.e. Whipcorders and Knights of the Holy Nimbus (they can be quite annoying, especially when backed with Revoker). Then kill overwhelmed opponent with huge attack with Roar.

[edit] Although Ivory Giant's effect is excellent and decisive, without time counters manipulation is too slow, therefore Crusader works a bit better.

[Strawberry Dwarf]

Monowhite Weenie/Aggro-Control

23 Plains
4 Judge's Familiar
4 Beckon Apparition
4 Ivory Giant
4 Darksteel Axe
2 Darksteel Pendant
4 Whipcorder
4 Knight of the Holy Nimbus
4 Duskrider Peregrine
3 Shackles
4 Magus of the Disk

Sideboard:
4 Abolish
4 Sunscour
4 Sphere of Resistance
2 Wheel of Sun and Moon
1 Serra Angel

(+) Excellent manacurve
(+) Excellent gameplan
(+) Decent flexibility
(+) Evasion (flying)

(-) Insufficent defence vs the Vial/Lackey+Warchief threat
(-) Lack of direct answers to Planeswalkers
(-) Insufficient maindeck disruption to some combos

[Strawberry Dwarf]

Well, the following decks I have built in Mtg_Forge program only, because I don't own some cards. The first one is fun, the idea isn't mine, but I have made some tuning.

Ashes of Haakon

18 Swamp
3 Darksteel Citadel

1 Ornithopter
3 Fume Spitter
1 Death Cultist
3 Carrion Feeder
4 Rotting Rats
4 Stromgald Crusader
4 Undead Gladiator
2 Fleshbag Marauder
2 Haakon, Stromgald Scourge
4 Viscera Dragger

4 Ashes of the Fallen
4 Nameless Inversion
3 Buried Alive

The idea is well-known already: use cycling to find enough mana and to put crudial pieces together, then use Haakon (likely upgraded with Ashes in play) to play cards from graveyard. There is also the infinite-growth combo with Haakon + Ashes + Carrion Feeder + Ornithopter, and other features. Even if disrupted with grave-hate, the deck can still operate as decent Black Weenie. The real fun is how it mocks BUG Delver and Miracles, although the AI makes sub-optimal decisions regularly.

The second one I have built for testing-against purposes. It is my version of Angel Stompy (White Weenie version) deck. A bit costy for my taste in real cards.

Angel Stompy

4 Flagstones of Trokair
4 Darksteel Citadel
2 Karakas
10 Plains
4 Chrome Mox

4 Mother of Runes
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 White Shield Crusader
4 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Paladin en-Vec
4 Exalted Angel

4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Armageddon
1 Runed Halo
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Batterskull

Sideboard:
4 Whipcorder
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Runed Halo
2 Rest in Peace
4 Disenchant
2 Sunscour

The third deck is new version of really old GW Erhnamgeddon deck:

Weregeddon

4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Plains
4 Forest
4 Savannah
2 Secluded Steppe
2 Tranquil Thicket
4 Flagstones of Trokair

4 Werebear
4 Qasali Pridemage
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Aven Mindcensor
4 Serra Angel
4 Barkhide Mauler

4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Evolution Charm
2 Edge of Autumn
2 Life from the Loam
4 Armageddon

Sideboard:
4 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Circle of Protection: Red
2 Wheel of Sun and Moon
4 Oblivion Ring
3 Krosan Grip

[Strawberry Dwarf]

OK, I have decided to explore a small lock-combo Reassembling Skeleton + Contamination a bit.

22 Swamp

4 Thoughtpicker Witch
4 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Reassembling Skeleton
4 Nezumi Bone-Reader
4 Stronghold Assassin
4 Undead Gladiator

4 Contamination
2 Grave Pact
4 Sorin's Thirst
4 Duress

Although it works nicely, it cannot be recommended for competitive play in Legacy, because it is too prone to grave-hate and Pithing Needle.

[Strawberry Dwarf]

Another idea (not working very well yet, but ...):

Relentless Sphinx

4 Lotus Petal
4 Polluted Delta
4 Underground Sea
2 Swamp
1 Island

20 Relentless Rats
4 Sphinx of the Chimes
4 Putrid Imp
4 Street Wraith

4 Careful Study
4 Dark Ritual
4 Exhume
1 Haunting Misery

Winning plan A (combo): Discard & Exhume Sphinx, use her ability discarding Rats, draw whole deck, fill graveyard with creatures and play lethal Misery.
Winning plan B (aggro): Play Rats, Rats, Rats and more Rats, until opponents Goyfs look small and tiny, then attack.

[Strawberry Dwarf]

Updated version of monoblack suicide deck:

BLOOD BATS

21 Swamp

4 Fume Spitter
1 Death Cultist
3 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Augur of Skulls
4 Grimclaw Bats
1 Lurking Informant
3 Fleshbag Marauder
4 Faerie Macabre

4 Duress
4 Funeral Charm
3 Grim Harvest
1 Sorin's Thirst
3 Snuff Out

Sideboard:
3 Death Cultist
2 Leonin Bola
1 Tsabo's Web
1 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Yotian Soldier
3 Crypt Rats
1 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Snuff Out

An updated version of my monored Sligh-deck:

GORGON SLIGH

17 Mountain
4 Ghitu Encampment
2 Molten Slagheap

4 Keldon Halberdier
4 Bloodfire Dwarf
4 Vault Skirge
4 Blood Knight
4 Orcish Artillery
1 Akroma, Angel of Fury

4 Lightning Bolt
3 Fury Charm
4 Pyrite Spellbomb
1 Darksteel Pendant
3 Gorgon Flail
1 Manabarbs

Sideboard:
4 Red Elemental Blast
4 Thran Foundry
3 Dwarven Blastminer
1 Flaring Pain
1 Fury Charm
1 Puppet Strings
1 Manabarbs

Edit:
I have finally figured out how to make Mtg Forge (https://www.slightlymagic.net/wiki/Forge) running in Ubuntu. I switched from Windows Vista and some things work differently.

[Strawberry Dwarf]

Test Deck in Forge: STASIS

20 Island
4 Forsaken City

1 Vedalken Mastermind
1 Wall of Frost
1 Serra Sphinx

1 Jace, Memory Adept
1 Thran Foundry

4 Preordain

4 Stasis
4 Howling Mine
4 Frozen Aether
4 Rescue

4 Force of Will
2 Daze
2 Counterspell
3 Pithing Needle

Sideboard:
Various good stuff, including good grave-hate.

[Mr. Safety]

Black Vise is Legacy legal now...seems like auto-include.

[Strawberry Dwarf]

Back to the "Suspend" theme

ANT'S BALANCE

21 Plains

4 Guardian Idol
4 Sphere of Resistance
1 Darksteel Pendant
3 Spawning Pit
3 Arcane Spyglass

4 Restore Balance
4 Oblivion Ring

4 Heap Doll
4 Jhoira's Timebug
2 Bottle Gnomes
2 Duskrider Peregrine
4 Ivory Giant

Sideboard:
4 Abolish
2 Wheel of Sun and Moon
4 Whipcorder
2 Bottle Gnomes
2 Duskrider Peregrine
1 Sunscour

[ronco]

Is budget being defined as commons only? Or is it a rough dollar limit?

[Strawberry Dwarf]

Some ideas

Painter + Grindstone variation:
(not very budget)

PAINTER'S TAXES :w:

Aggrocombocontrol :wink:

17 Plains
4 Ancient Den
4 Chrome Mox

4 Enlightened Tutor
3 Grindstone
1 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Rest in Peace
1 Rune of Protection: Black
1 Runed Halo

4 Painter's Servant
4 Obsidian Acolyte
4 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Vryn Wingmare
4 Order of the Sacred Torch
4 Northern Paladin

Berserk Stompy version:

11-LAND STOMPY :g:

11 Forest
4 Elvish Spirit Guide

4 Quirion Ranger
4 Scryb Sprites
4 Dryad Militant
4 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Vine Dryad
4 Durkwood Baloth

1 Sylvan Library

4 Rancor
4 Giant Growth
4 Might of Old Krosa
4 Bounty of the Hunt
4 Berserk

Casual:

CHERNOBYL'S REACTOR

4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Vault of Whispers
4 Dread Statuary
4 Urza's Mine
4 Urza's Power Plant
4 Urza's Tower

4 Darksteel Reactor

4 Coretapper
4 Myr Retriever
4 Leaden Myr

4 Contagion Clasp
4 Throne of Geth
4 Energy Chamber
4 Powder Keg
2 Darksteel Pendant
2 Skeleton Shard

OATH OF HORNETS :u::g::w:

1 Forest
2 Island
1 Plains
4 Khalni Garden
4 Faerie Conclave
2 Tundra
2 Tropical Island
2 Flooded Strand
2 Misty Rainforest

4 Proteus Staff
4 Flayer Husk
4 Beckon Apparition
2 Hornet Queen
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Blightsteel Colossus

2 Chalice of the Void
2 Pithing Needle

4 Brainstorm
4 Spell Pierce
1 Piracy Charm
3 Stifle
2 Daze
2 Mana Leak
4 Force of Will

SURVIVAL, BANNED ? (5-color old style)

4 Crumbling Vestige
4 Mana Confluence
4 Tendo Ice Bridge
4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
1 Savannah
1 Scrubland

4 Birds of Paradise
4 Fauna Shaman
3 Werebear
1 Monk Realist
1 Thrull Surgeon
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Merfolk Looter
1 Meddling Mage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
2 Spike Feeder
2 Tradewind Rider
1 Hell's Caretaker
1 Spike Weaver
1 Avalanche Riders
1 Mystic Snake
1 Shriekmaw
1 Ingot Chewer
1 Genesis
1 Shivan Hellkite
1 Verdant Force

1 Liliana Vess
1 Recurring Nightmare
1 Living Death

[Terminator2018]

Is budget being defined as commons only? Or is it a rough dollar limit?
I think budget varies extremely much depending on person.I have some duallands and their price go up and up.

I dont own a single Tarmogoyf and I can forsee its price going down and down. You will see my semibudget decks when I post well at least some of them perhaps.

[Terminator2018]

It is much work to write decks but when I have time during Weekend will try to write at least some deck and it would be fun to test in Cockatrice software against some decks here.

[Strawberry Dwarf]

Playing in Forge vs BUG_Delver and Miracles, I tuned the black deck. DRS is no longer a threat, so 4x Phyrexian Revoker maindeck is not necessary.

23 Swamp

1 Death Cultist
3 Fume Spitter
1 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Grimclaw Bats
4 Augur of Skulls
1 Lurking Informant
3 Fleshbag Marauder
4 Faerie Macabre
4 Dross Golem

1 Flowstone Armor

4 Duress
4 Funeral Charm
2 Grim Harvest
2 Sorin's Thirst

Sideboard:
3 Death Cultist
1 Fume Spitter
3 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Yotian Soldier
1 Fleshbag Marauder
2 Leonin Bola
4 Befoul

[Strawberry Dwarf]

An older idea:

Mono-White Midrange Aggro-Control

23 Plains

4 Beckon Apparition
4 Knight of Sursi
4 Ivory Giant
4 Knight of the Holy Nimbus
4 Duskrider Peregrine

1 Roar of the Kha
2 Abolish
3 Sunscour
4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Suppression Field
3 Oblivion Ring

Sideboard:
4 Augur il-Vec
2 Serra Angel
1 Pearled Unicorn
2 Abolish
1 Sunscour
2 Spawning Pit
2 Wheel of Sun and Moon
1 Oblivion Ring

Maybe you have already noticed my passion for suspend, and this deck indeed explores that. Suspend is great: mocking Terminus, killing Planeswalkers, not interferring with own Sunscour, out of range from any really possible Chalice settings. The second feature is Suppression Field: slowing down opponent's features and making Knight of the Holy Nimbus even better.

[Strawberry Dwarf]

Mono-Blue Delver

8 Island
4 Ash Barrens
4 Esper Panorama
4 Wasteland

4 Delver of Secrets
2 Nimble Obstructionist
2 Dominating Licid
4 Infiltrator il-Kor

4 Preordain
4 Brainstorm
4 Piracy Charm
2 Spell Pierce
2 Stifle
3 Daze
1 Miscalculation
3 Counterspell
1 Forbid
4 Force of Will

Sideboard:
4 Heap Doll
2 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Man-o'-War
2 Kraken's Eye
1 Ratchet Bomb
4 Propaganda

For fun in Forge, not from real paper cards.

[Strawberry Dwarf]

13 DWARVES SUICIDE (the horror fairy tale about 1st - 3rd turn kill)

Mana:
21 Mountain
4 Simian Spirit Guide

Dwarven Shell:
4 Spark Mage
4 Dwarven Blastminer
1 Dwarven Warriors
4 Dwarven Bloodboiler

Immediate Kill:
4 Immolating Souleater
3 Inner-Flame Acolyte
4 Temur Battle Rage
4 Assault Strobe

Other Support:
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Darksteel Pendant
2 Gorgon Flail

...
Vintage version:
- 1 Darksteel Pendant
+ 1 Skullclamp

[Strawberry Dwarf]

I think people don't understand what true original Sligh deck has been supposed to be. The true Sligh deck doesn't sacrifice resources for speed and prefers utility stuff over one-shot aggression cards. It doesn't use Ball Lightning, Fireblast or drawback creatures like Jackal Pup. Manacurve, evasion, versatility - these are the signs of true Sligh deck. Some people think such decks have become obsolete long time ago, well I don't think so. Especially when Deathtouch has been introduced. So, here is my last attempt:

2021 Legacy Sligh

Mana (23):
19 Mountain
4 Ghitu Encampment

Cc1 creatures (12):
4 Brass Gnat
4 Heap Doll
4 Mogg Fanatic

Cc2 creatures (8):
4 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Blood Knight

Cc3 creatures (4):
4 Vithian Stinger

Cc1 stuff (7):
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Pyrite Spellbomb

Cc2 stuff (4):
1 Darksteel Pendant
3 Gorgon Flail

Cc3 stuff (1):
1 Puppet Strings

Other (cc4) stuff (1):
1 Icefall

Sideboard:
4 Bottle Gnomes
4 Duergar Hedge-Mage
4 Red Elemental Blast
3 Leonin Bola

[Strawberry Dwarf]

Building blue deck on budget is little harder than in other colors, because:
1. Blue is naturally reactive color - requirements for card economy are higher
2. The most effective blue cards are Legacy staples - they aren't cheap and/or easily available.

However, there are many "forgotten gems" along the way in MtG history...

4 Faerie Conclave
18 Island

4 Judge's Familiar
1 Quickling
3 Nimble Obstructionist
3 Pestermite
1 Dominating Licid

4 Preordain
4 Telling Time
1 Jace, Unraveler of Secrets

4 Spell Pierce
4 Counterspell
4 Frightful Delusion

4 Piracy Charm
1 Thran Foundry

Sideboard:
4 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Weatherseed Faeries
3 Sea's Claim
2 Thran Foundry
2 Ratchet Bomb

Somehow, it works. Flash, flying, library manimulation, prohibition. And - quite surprisingly - also discard. Like all blue-based decks, it requires some experience and full concentration for player's good decisions.

[Strawberry Dwarf]

The MonoWhite Suspend Aggro-Control
(Taxes Variant)

Mana:
20 Plains
4 Zhalfirin Void

Creatures & Tokens:
4 Beckon Apparition
4 Knight of Sursi
4 Knight of the Holy Nimbus
4 Riftmarked Knight
4 Stonecloaker

Removal:
4 Abolish
4 Sunscour

Taxes:
4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Suppression Field

Sideboard:
4 Angel's Grace
4 Children of Korlis
4 Defender of Law
3 Mangara of Corondor