$20 deck challenge

[mgrinshpon]

In college, neither me nor my friends had any money to play Magic and we needed a "format" where money doesn't matter. My friends still don't spend money on magic so they need something cheaper than legacy. Enter: the $20 deck challenge.

As the name suggests, each deck costs $20, not counting basic lands or the sideboard. The deck should remain $20 post-board. The price metric is the TCGPlayer Mid price at the time of searching, e.g. if a card suddenly spikes in price afterwards, you're fine. We measured the price of a card is as measured from its cheapest edition. Example: [CNS] Swords to Plowshares is $2.49 but all you have are Judge Foil Swords to Plowshares ($700+). Those still count as $2.49 StP.

If people are interested, I can post all of the deck lists I've played with. Below are some examples I made back in late 2013. Though I've made 8Post, Delver, and Infect lists (before Treasure Cruise was printed), they're not as fun to play as the ones below. Thoughts?


~$15 G Reality Acid

14 Forest
4 Utopia Sprawl
3 Wild Growth
4 Abundant Growth
1 Aura Gnarlid
1 Drake Familiar
4 Dream Stalker
4 Elvish Visionary
3 Ghostly Flicker
4 Kor Skyfisher
3 Lone Missionary
1 Momentary Blink
4 Mulldrifter
1 Parallax Dementia
4 Prophetic Prism
4 Reality Acid
1 Sea Gate Oracle
//Sideboard:
1 Aven Riftwatcher
1 Lone Missionary
4 Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
2 Parallax Dementia
1 Reap and Sow
4 Thermokarst
2 Tin Street Hooligan




$19.40 WU About Face

8 Island
7 Plains
4 Glacial Fortress
1 Adarkar Wastes
4 Benevolent Bodyguard
4 Daru Spiritualist
4 Nomads en-Kor
4 Tireless Tribe
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
4 Condemn
4 Inside Out
4 Twisted Image
4 Veil of Secrecy




$19.95 B The Dark Knight

19 Swamp
3 Dakmor Salvage
4 Haakon, Stromgald Scourge
4 Knight of Infamy
4 Black Knight
4 Stinkweed Imp
3 Delirium Skeins
4 Duress
3 Raven's Crime
3 Sign in Blood
4 Smallpox
1 Worm Harvest
4 Nameless Inversion

[apple713]

Isn't burn the best?

additionally, the pauper format on MTGO would be a great resource to brainstorm ideas. i'm not sure there is much room for innovation in this "challenge"

[-Spooky-]

Isn't burn the best?

additionally, the pauper format on MTGO would be a great resource to brainstorm ideas. i'm not sure there is much room for innovation in this "challenge"

You'd be surprised...lol

I've played a few similar formats. one of them was $100 or less, one was $10 or less, and one was $5 or less. All of them are very fun. There is also the 10 cent challenge, where every card in your deck must be 10 cents or less according to tcg low price.

I have about 15 decks that could fit the bill in your $20 format, and many of them are very strong. I played a few of them for fun against some legacy decks and actually won a few matches. Even with the $5 builds! If you are interested (or anyone else is) I can post some or all of the lists.

[Bed Decks Palyer]

Isn't burn the best?

additionally, the pauper format on MTGO would be a great resource to brainstorm ideas. i'm not sure there is much room for innovation in this "challenge"
Pauper isn't the best, although I agree that it's fien for ideas. Unfortunatela it's overran by Delvers, moreover the $20 format allows w/e cheap rares you wish to play. I like it.
Edit: I just looked up the Gondo Combo. Wow, that's funny deck!

[tescrin]

I have a lot of these, but the last one I made was enjoyable and fast:

-61 cards-
-~30-
4 Goblin Cohort
3 Legion Loyalist
4 Mogg Conscripts
3 Mogg Flunkies
4 Goblin Bushwhacker
4 Goblin Wardriver
4 Goblin Chieftan
2 Sensation Gorger
1 Krenko
1 Goblin Ringleader

-~10-
2 Rise of the Hobgoblins
2? Goblin War Strike
2? Faithless Looting
3 Earthquake (?)

21 lands?
(buncha mountains, 1-2 teetering peaks, 1-2 barbarian ring, 1-2 keldon megaliths)


Obviously I could memorize it better, but it's casual so w/e BIIITCH. It may be like $25, but then I'd just cut a Rise of the Hobs. It beats down hard though since it is often swinging for about 2-4 T2 and 8-12 T3. It was a fun deck because of people bitching online about Cohort, Conscripts, and Flunkies. A couple of the numbers are slightly off.


Fun turns are something like:
-Cohort->Wardriver->Cohort + Bushwhacker (total of 15 on T3)
-Cohort->Bushwhacker->Chieftain (total of 11 T3)
-Cohort->Flunkies-> Bushwhacker or chieftain (10-16 T3)

etc.. As you can imagine even with a board wipe it will tear you down a turn or two later most of the time. War strikes, earthquakes, rings, and megaliths solve most random issues I could encounter and Krenko/Hobs/Ringleader/Gorger helps get CA if the game actually goes late. Most of my Krenko's/Ringleaders are for a more tradiational "controlling" gobbo list; which is part of why they're 1-ofs.

[HdH_Cthulhu]

Imho 10 cent is a little to harsh. I would like a 1$/1€ limit. Now you can make a crap rare format like: Nonelands must be rare but under 1$ XD