Budget Legacy Guide V5

[-Spooky-]

After 2 long years (has it really been THAT long?!) I have finally gotten the drive to finish version 5 of my budget legacy guide. As of right now, the guide has a little over 65 decks to check out, and is now using a fancy new Google Doc format. So, come on in and check out the budget lists! (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1me_bqX45Fh_auKaETDcE6GgxWq569qspmBk1VoOtBHU/edit?pli=1#)

As a side note, about 20 more decks are scheduled to be added within the coming week. So, be sure to check back in a bit!

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please drop me a line!

[Bongo]

Thanks a lot for doing this!

Of all these decks, which one do you think is the most competitive one? In other words, which deck has the highest chance to win a tournament?
If you can't decide, can you give us a Top 3?

[Zooligan]

Manaless Dredge maybe??

[Stuart]

This rocks - nice work. Are you spreading the word on Reddit, etc? Those sites are polluted with people asking how to play Legacy for under $300.

[-Spooky-]

Thanks a lot for doing this!

Of all these decks, which one do you think is the most competitive one? In other words, which deck has the highest chance to win a tournament?
If you can't decide, can you give us a Top 3?

This is tough to answer, because it depends a lot on your meta. Both dredge variants are very powerful simply because if your meta is not prepared for it, they can sweep through opponents with sheer brute force and uncommon tactics. Other favorites are Burn, Reanimator and Ooze strategies, and Enchantress. Another powerful deck that I have been playing for over a year is Turbo Depths. I have a budget list that I am planning on putting into the article soon. Thanks to the new B/G tap land the deck can actually be built 95% in tact for less than $300. Th deck is insanely strong, and I am always ready to spread the gospel of Marit Lage.

@Stuart: Thanks! Nice to know my hard work is appreciated! I am most certainly spearding the word on reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/MTGLegacy/comments/5ag8mm/budget_legacy_guide_65decks_version_5/) and other sites. The more the merrier, ya know?

[filln]

This is freaking outstanding. I plan to share with friends who are hesitant due to the high cost barrier of the format. Thanks for all your hard work, it's very much appreciated!

[-Spooky-]

This is freaking outstanding. I plan to share with friends who are hesitant due to the high cost barrier of the format. Thanks for all your hard work, it's very much appreciated!

Oh stop it, you! (https://i.imgur.com/ea1LOX7.png) I'm more than happy to help build the legacy community. I started playing on a budget, and I want to share what I learned about budget deck building with everyone I can. Plus, I have a ton of fun making decks!

[Captain Hammer]

This is fantastic Spooky.

I think a deck like Eldrazi would have a ton of appeal to new/budget players. Easy to play, fun, aggressive and very competitive.


Manaless Dredge maybe??

Dredge is very easy to hate out. Any deck packing 4 Leyline in the board will shut it down completely. The same goes to any glass canon budget decks like Elves and Belcher. They can win a tournament or two against an unprepared meta but they are very easy to answer.

I am certain that a well tuned Eldrazi list would actually be the most competitive budget list in legacy. Eldrazi is the most competitive deck in the format and you actually don't lose much in the conversion to a budget Eldrazi list.

You honestly can't go wrong bringing the following budget eldrazi list to any tournament...

Budget Eldrazi

//Mana
4 Eye of Ugin
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Cloudpost
4 Glimmerpost
3 Vesuva
2 Crystal Vein
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

//Threats
4 Eldrazi Mimic
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Reality Smasher
4 Endless One
4 Oblivion Sower
4 Conduit of Ruin
2 Trinisphere
2 Expedition Map
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Breaker of Armies
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger

//Sideboard
4 Pithing Needle
3 Faerie Macabre
3 Dismember
3 Warping Wail
2 Tsabo's Web

Such a list will be very effective in any meta no matter how competitive.

It's basically my current Eldrazi list but I swapped out the only two maindeck cards that put it out of the budget price range with effective substitutes.

-4 City of Traitors
-4 Chalice of the Void
+2 Expedition Map
+2 Trinisphere
+2 Crystal Vein
+1 Glimmervoid
+1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

I also modified the sideboard to make it significantly more affordable while giving you options against a variety of decks.

SB: +2 Pithing Needle
SB: +2 Tsabo's Web
SB: +3 Warping Wail
SB: +3 Faerie Macabrel
SB: -4 Leyline of the Void
SB: -3 Thorn of Amethyst
SB: -2 Trinisphere
SB: -2 All is Dust

[-Spooky-]

This is fantastic Spooky.

I would like to contribute to it.

I think a deck like Eldrazi would have a ton of appeal to new/budget players. Easy to play, fun, aggressive and very competitive.

What cards would you need me to remove from the below list to make this list budget friendly?


//Mana
4 Eye of Ugin
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Cloudpost
3 Glimmerpost
3 Vesuva
1-2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

//Core
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Eldrazi Mimic
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Reality Smasher

//Flex
4-3 Endless One
4 Oblivion Sower
4 Conduit of Ruin
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Breaker of Armies
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger

//Sideboard
4 Leyline of the Void
3 Trinisphere
2 Thorn of Amethyst
2 Dismember
2 Pithing Needle
2 All is Dust

I would be happy to tweak the list to remove the non-budget friendly cards from this list while finding a way to still have it function well. Just let me know what you need me to find budget replacements for.

As a start, I am thinking Chalice of the Voids and City of Traitors could be replaced with Crystal Veins, and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoths.

Would Grim Monoliths, Basalith Monoliths and Voltaic Keys be too pricy to be considered budget friendly?

I would love to make Eldrazi a viable budget deck, but I am very skeptical of the quality the deck would have. Chalice of the Void, for example, used to be a cost effective card. Now, the card is not even close to budget. It is, however, one of the reasons the deck is good at all. I just don't know if Eldrazi can function with some of those key cards missing.
When deciding if a deck can even be made budget, the first thing I do is pull up a couple "real" lists, tune them all into a single list that I like, and the put that list into a website like MTGGoldfish, to see the price. Then, I start eliminating cards that I think the deck can still work without, and replacing them with budget options. When I've made all the budget replacements I think are acceptable I then check the price. My current ceiling is $300. If it's more than that, I normally scrap the project.

[Captain Hammer]

I find that Chalice of the Void has become increasingly less potent the more play it sees in the format.

There are no longer any viable decks that aren't unprepared for chalice. The remaining decks in the format all plan for chalice and pack tons of counter magic, discard and Abrupt Decays to deal with it. They expect to see chalice in atleast 30% of the matchups they face.

My wins with the deck aren't coming off the back off chalice as much as they are the crazy mana efficiency of the Eldrazi mana base.

In addition, Trinisphere and Thorn of Amethyst from the board offer suitable substitutes for Chalice of the Void on a budget when needed.

So, yes I think it's a mistake not to include Eldrazi in your budget database.

The real loss that Budget Eldrazi suffers is City of Traitors. However, by going bigger and utilizing the post manabase, the deck can compensate for this adequately.

Spooky, I highly encourage you to add the list I edited into my post above to your database. If you are unsure about it, feel free to test it in a few matches against tier one non budget decks and I am confident you will come away very impressed by it's performance.

[-Spooky-]

I find that Chalice of the Void has become increasingly less potent the more play it sees in the format.

There are no longer any viable decks that aren't unprepared for chalice. The remaining decks in the format all plan for chalice and pack tons of counter magic, discard and Abrupt Decays to deal with it. They expect to see chalice in atleast 30% of the matchups they face.

My wins with the deck aren't coming off the back off chalice as much as they are the crazy mana efficiency of the Eldrazi mana base.

In addition, Trinisphere and Thorn of Amethyst from the board offer suitable substitutes for Chalice of the Void on a budget when needed.

So, yes I think it's a mistake not to include Eldrazi in your budget database.

The real loss that Budget Eldrazi suffers is City of Traitors. However, by going bigger and utilizing the post manabase, the deck can compensate for this adequately.

Spooky, I highly encourage you to add the list I edited into my immediate post above to your database. If you are unsure about it, feel free to test it in a few matches against tier one non budget decks and I am confident you will come away very impressed by it's performance.

I will definitely look into it. Thanks for the contribution! I do hope it works out. The more decks I can present to people, the better. :)

[Captain Hammer]

I will definitely look into it. Thanks for the contribution! I do hope it works out. The more decks I can present to people, the better. :)

Excellent.

I verified that the list falls under your range so Im hoping you'll be including it in the database shortly.

Its a shame that Cavern of Souls is a $70 card now. I would prefer to play 2 Cavern to 2 Crystal Vein. However its not anywhere near as big a loss as it is in other tribal lists, Crystal Vein has been exactly what I needed in some situations (allowing me to cast a Kozilek or Ulamog a turn earlier singlehandedly winning the game).

I've tried the budget list listed above last night and again this afternoon against a variety of decks and I couldn't be happier with its performance. It generally manages to wreck fair decks including Miracles, D&T, Shardless, Delver, and the Mirror matchup thanks to Oblivion Sower and playing bigger eldrazi than other eldrazi decks. None of the decks that this budget deck beat were budget decks themselves btw.

Its only weakness seems to be ultra fast combo decks like ANT and Belcher (Needle doesn't answer goblin tokens) that it doesn't have the tools to disrupt even post board. I think it might need post board combo hate in metas where combo is expected. Perhaps Thorn or Sphere or something along those lines are worth playing in the board in combo metas even if they increase the decks budget a bit.

[Beatusnox]

Not sure if doc is totally broken or if its just Tapatalk, but I get an error when I attempt to see it.

Is LEDless dredge on there? Without LED deck is maybe 2-300.

Sent from my ASUS_Z00TD using Tapatalk

[Echelon]

Dredge is very easy to hate out. Any deck packing 4 Leyline in the board will shut it down completely. The same goes to any glass canon budget decks like Elves and Belcher. They can win a tournament or two against an unprepared meta but they are very easy to answer.

It's a metagame predator, nothing wrong with that. That being said, I've both top 8'd with it and gone 0-5. When it's good, it's really good. When it isn't, prepare to have a bad day.

[Captain Hammer]

Not sure if doc is totally broken or if its just Tapatalk, but I get an error when I attempt to see it.

Is LEDless dredge on there? Without LED deck is maybe 2-300.

Sent from my ASUS_Z00TD using Tapatalk

Not just you. I get an error from my iPhone too. Maybe its not working on mobile devices.

Is Eldrazi on there yet? The list I posted up is 300 and it frequently wrecks tier one $5000 decks with the exception of ANT (an issue for all budget deck and easy to fix for that list if the budget is expanded slightly to allow for combo hate like sphere or thorn so that's not a valid reason to discount it).

[-Spooky-]

Not sure if doc is totally broken or if its just Tapatalk, but I get an error when I attempt to see it.

Is LEDless dredge on there? Without LED deck is maybe 2-300.

Sent from my ASUS_Z00TD using Tapatalk

People have been having issues viewing the document on mobile. If you are trying to look at it on your phone I would suggest testing the link on a computer, or using the Google Docs app on your phone to look at it, instead of the web browser.

LEDLess dredge is indeed in the list. :)




Is Eldrazi on there yet? The list I posted up is 300 and it frequently wrecks tier one $5000 decks with the exception of ANT (an issue for all budget deck and easy to fix for that list if the budget is expanded slightly to allow for combo hate like sphere or thorn so that's not a valid reason to discount it).

The list you posted, and a list I was working on, are both above $300 according to the sources I use. Right now, your list sits at just under $400 (https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/503224#paper).

I am trying to see how I can bring the price down while still maintaining its power. The easiest way to lower the price would be to get rid of Ancient Tomb, but the card is so integral to the deck that I feel removing it would make playing the deck trivial.

[Captain Hammer]

I see. I had added up the lowest prices I saw on tcgplayer and it added up to under $300 but some of the cards were in moderate condition and maybe I didn't take shipping costs into account. Also the foil ancient tombs are cheaper than the tempest tombs but mtggoldfish doesn't use the foil prices. Prices fluctuate daily as well.

That's why I think being very strict about enforcing a $300 cutoff when a deck just barely goes over is a mistake imo. However if you insistent that it must strictly fall under $300, I would make the following changes...

-1 Kozilek
-2 Trinisphere
-1 Ancient Tomb (I strongly discourage making this cut unless absolutely needed to get it to qualify as budget)
+2 Warping Wail
+2 Dismember

Edit: Just found out Kozilek the Great Distortion is $3 instead of $20. So play the cheaper Kozilek for budget reasons.

Ideally, don't cut any Ancient Tomb (tcgplayers lowest price is much more reflective of how much players actually will buy the card for but mtggoldfish uses their median price instead and thus tends to overestimate prices slightly anyway) and make this change to qualify the deck as budget...
-1 Kozilek, Butcher
-2 Trinisphere
+1 Kozilek, Distortion
+1 Dismember
+1 Warping Wail

You can cut dismembers and warping wails from the board to fit in ANT hate.

[MaximumC]

Just wanted to chime in and say this list is awesome. It's reminiscent of the casual decks that Wizards would post on their website on a more-or-less weekly basis until a few years ago, highlighting powerful synergies or combos that are good, but just barely nudged out of serious consideration due to marginally more powerful or more consistent options.

Love it!

[-Spooky-]

Just wanted to chime in and say this list is awesome. It's reminiscent of the casual decks that Wizards would post on their website on a more-or-less weekly basis until a few years ago, highlighting powerful synergies or combos that are good, but just barely nudged out of serious consideration due to marginally more powerful or more consistent options.

Love it!
Thanks! I actually have never read the articles you are talking about. Is there an archive for them? They sound interesting.

[sco0ter]

Great list. I'd like to suggest to add Affinity. It could be built on a budget as well.

[-Spooky-]

Great list. I'd like to suggest to add Affinity. It could be built on a budget as well.

Working on it! :)

[Warzim]

Hi, First of all thank you so much for your outstanding work. I'm pretty new to legacy and people like you make me happy that I got into it, It's such a great community!

I'm just wondering if anyone have an idea about a similar list but for MTGO. I think that the fact that prices are a lot different on MTGO would allow people to try out new strategies online that they could not afford in the meatworld (Bayou being like 7.5tix) and other cards beeing severly overpriced (150 tix for the playset of unmasks ? 10 tix for a Daze???) .

I've picked up BR rea and I'm slowly tunrning it into tin finns (the deck that made me want to play legacy) in the paper world, but since I can't play as often as I'd like, I'd be interessted in a cheapo MTGO deck to play around and sadly, some of the budget option you've created dont translate well in legacy.

Anyway thanks a lot for your time and effort, It's incredibly helful !

[-Spooky-]

Hi, First of all thank you so much four your outstanding work. I'm pretty new to legacy and people like you make me happy that I got into it, It's such a great community!

I'm just wondering if anyone have an idea about a similar list but for MTGO. I think that the fact that prices are a lot different on MTGO would allow people to try out new strategies online that they could not afford in the meatworld (Bayou being like 7.5tix) and other cards beeing severly overpriced (150 tix for the playset of unmasks ? 10 tix for a Daze???) .

I've picked up BR rea and I'm slowly tunrning it into tin finns (the deck that made me want to play legacy) in the paper world, but since I can't play as often as I'd like, I'd be interessted in a cheapo MTGO deck to play around and sadly, some of the budget option you've created dont translate well in legacy.

Anyway thanks a lot for your time and effort, It's incredibly helpful !

Hey Warzim! I do not play MTGO, so I'm not really a good person to ask as far online prices and decks go. I don't really know the online meta, so I don't know what would perform well there. I can tell you, though, that all of the decks I present are on MTGgoldfish, which has an option to view the decks based on MTGO prices as well as paper. So, if a deck looks fun to you, click the tab that lets you see its price online, and see if you can afford it!

[ironclad8690]

Hi, First of all thank you so much four your outstanding work. I'm pretty new to legacy and people like you make me happy that I got into it, It's such a great community!

I'm just wondering if anyone have an idea about a similar list but for MTGO. I think that the fact that prices are a lot different on MTGO would allow people to try out new strategies online that they could not afford in the meatworld (Bayou being like 7.5tix) and other cards beeing severly overpriced (150 tix for the playset of unmasks ? 10 tix for a Daze???) .

I've picked up BR rea and I'm slowly tunrning it into tin finns (the deck that made me want to play legacy) in the paper world, but since I can't play as often as I'd like, I'd be interessted in a cheapo MTGO deck to play around and sadly, some of the budget option you've created dont translate well in legacy.

Anyway thanks a lot for your time and effort, It's incredibly helful !

What is your budget? If you want to go the tin fins route, be warned that goryos vengeance is quite expensive.

Here is what I would do:

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/571191#online

Build that list, but put duress for unmask. Also, you can sub extirpate for surgical. That brings the price down quite a bit. Mono black or RBx reanimator would be cheaper.

[Warzim]

Hey Warzim! I do not play MTGO, so I'm not really a good person to ask as far online prices and decks go. I don't really know the online meta, so I don't know what would perform well there. I can tell you, though, that all of the decks I present are on MTGgoldfish, which has an option to view the decks based on MTGO prices as well as paper. So, if a deck looks fun to you, click the tab that lets you see its price online, and see if you can afford it!

Yeah, I saw that it's really helpfull !


What is your budget? If you want to go the tin fins route, be warned that goryos vengeance is quite expensive.

Here is what I would do:

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/571191#online

Build that list, but put duress for unmask. Also, you can sub extirpate for surgical. That brings the price down quite a bit. Mono black or RBx reanimator would be cheaper.


Why not good idea thanks! But I'm not necessarily looking to build Tin fins on mtgo since i'm building it in the paper world.

I'm looking for a "not too expensive" competitive to enjoy some leagues.
I saw manalessdredge and some iteration of Belcher but I find these decks too easily shut down by silverbullets.

I also saw some nic fit variants but is it really competitive?
I dont have enough experience in legacy and especially on MTGO to make meta calls.

My budget is around 200/300 tix.

Thanks for the help !

[-Spooky-]

Yeah, I saw that it's really helpfull !




Why not good idea thanks! But I'm not necessarily looking to build Tin fins on mtgo since i'm building it in the paper world.

I'm looking for a "not too expensive" competitive to enjoy some leagues.
I saw manalessdredge and some iteration of Belcher but I find these decks too easily shut down by silverbullets.

I also saw some nic fit variants but is it really competitive?
I dont have enough experience in legacy and especially on MTGO to make meta calls.

My budget is around 200/300 tix.

Thanks for the help !

I might be biased, because I play the deck as my main, but the Turbo Depths list in the article is one of the strongest (if not the strongest) list in the whole guide. It's less than 200 tix online, too. the deck got 1st place at Eternal weekend this year, and again, I play it whenever I plan on winning a tournament. It's very strong.

[Warzim]

I might be biased, because I play the deck as my main, but the Turbo Depths list in the article is one of the strongest (if not the strongest) list in the whole guide. It's less than 200 tix online, too. the deck got 1st place at Eternal weekend this year, and again, I play it whenever I plan on winning a tournament. It's very strong.

Nice thanks a lot !

And what would be the first upgrade you'd do as someone who knows the deck well?

[-Spooky-]

Nice thanks a lot !

And what would be the first upgrade you'd do as someone who knows the deck well?

The first upgrade would be at least one bayou, then fetches, then finish the land base. Honestly that's pretty much the only major difference from stock lists. You can't run the fetches without at least one dual land, though. You could replace 2 Duress and 2 IoK with 4 Thoughtseize, too, but honestly I think the lands are more important.

[Captain Hammer]

Wanted to contribute a budget list as well...

4 Death’s Shadow
4 Dark Confidant
4 Flesh Reaver
4 Street Wraith

4 Thoughtseize
4 Duress
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Sinkhole
3 Reanimate
2 Fatal Push
2 Dismember
2 Snuff Out

16 Swamp
3 Wasteland

Any suggestions on how to improve this budget list?

[Captain Hammer]

Thank you for the awesome guide.

I do wish the guide gave some guidance as to the viability of the different lists. There are a lot of tier 3/4 decks on the list that will get completely slaughtered (like Black Weenies and a whole ton of others) which might discourage a new player starting out in legacy after he invested the time to build those decks.

I feel like the below budgetable decks are a on a higher level of viability than the rest, and they should be categoried as the recommended choices...

Burn/Sligh

Eldrazi

Affinity

Mono Green Elves without Gaea's Cradle

BG Nic Fit Pod

Phasenought

Storm

Dredge

Depths

Dreamhalls and some other combo decks

Goblins/Merfolk

Death and Taxes if your budget is fairly high

Dragon Stompy variant if the budget is fairly high

OmniTell if your budget is fairly high

Mono Blue Delver

Mono Black Reanimator

Mono Green Infect

Mono Green Enchantress

Dredge

Maybe a couple of the other decks that I'm not familar with, but most of the decks on that list are a leap below these in terms of viability.

This way, a player brand new to legacy in nudged to invest in a budget deck that might get them decent results instead of investing in something like Black Weenie that wouldn't even hold it's own in Modern.

[Echelon]

Dredge

4 LEDs are a budget choice..? :laugh:

I would've gone with Manaless Dredge, which is lethal enough in its own right.

[Captain Hammer]

4 LEDs are a budget choice..? :laugh:

I would've gone with Manaless Dredge, which is lethal enough in its own right.

The OP's link has a viable dredge list. That's what I'm referring to.

Several of the decks in the OP's link are absolutely awful and have absolutely no shot of winning, like Black Weenie, Aura Gnarly etc.

I narrowed down the stuff in the OP to the decks that are actually decent in legacy. Those should be listed at a higher tier and recommended as starting points for newbies.

[Echelon]

Most are still rather dreadful. And BG Pod Fit should just be BG regular Nic Fit. Pod is just too slow and durdly to be anywhere near competitive.

[Clark Kant]

Most are still rather dreadful. And BG Pod Fit should just be BG regular Nic Fit. Pod is just too slow and durdly to be anywhere near competitive.

Yes, this "guide" is pretty much worthless since it has so much complete garbage on it (Black Knight hasn't been a legacy viable card for the past 15 years), and a bunch of actually viable strategies posted in this thread still aren't included in the guide.

[OliviaM]

This rocks - nice work. Are you spreading the word on Reddit, etc? Those sites are polluted with people asking how to play Legacy for under $300.

Have the same thoughts!!:smile:

[Captain Hammer]

Thank you for the awesome guide.

I do wish the guide gave some guidance as to the viability of the different lists. There are a lot of tier 3/4 decks on the list that will get completely slaughtered (like Black Weenies and a whole ton of others) which might discourage a new player starting out in legacy after he invested the time to build those decks.

I feel like the below budgetable decks are a on a higher level of viability than the rest, and they should be categoried as the recommended choices...

Burn/Sligh

Eldrazi

Affinity

Mono Green Elves without Gaea's Cradle

BG Nic Fit Pod

Phasenought

Storm

Dredge

Depths

Dreamhalls and some other combo decks

Goblins/Merfolk

Death and Taxes if your budget is fairly high

Dragon Stompy variant if the budget is fairly high

OmniTell if your budget is fairly high

Mono Blue Delver

Mono Black Reanimator

Mono Green Infect

Mono Green Enchantress

Dredge

Maybe a couple of the other decks that I'm not familar with, but most of the decks on that list are a leap below these in terms of viability.

This way, a player brand new to legacy in nudged to invest in a budget deck that might get them decent results instead of investing in something like Black Weenie that wouldn't even hold it's own in Modern.

I would also add The Gate to this list

Is it possible to build Curse Stompy on a budget? Didgerdoo Minotaur Tribal (with Seething Song and Blood Moon).

Pretty much a bunch of Stompy decks could be built on a budget utilizing cards like Crystal Vein, Sandstone Needle, Cloudpost, Lake of the Dead, Dark Ritual, Seething Song etc instead of City of Traitors.

[Reeplcheep]

I would also add The Gate to this list

Is it possible to build Curse Stompy on a budget? Didgerdoo Minotaur Tribal (with Seething Song and Blood Moon).

Pretty much a bunch of Stompy decks could be built on a budget utilizing cards like Crystal Vein, Sandstone Needle, Cloudpost, Lake of the Dead, Dark Ritual, Seething Song etc instead of City of Traitors.

Yah the city of traitors is an issue, almost half the cost of the deck. Crystal vein/gemstone caverns/peat bog could do an ok job of replacing them.

Chalice/karn/lattice/chrome mox are moderately expensive but unfortunately not really replaceable.

The only unique $$ card in curses is Helm; it is RL but not TOO expensive (40$ each). You could cut the MD helms for Ill gotten gains or murderous rider relatively easily but you at least want 1 for karn.

[OliviaM]

Really so long. Great job. My congratulations!!!

[the Thin White Duke]

Great ideas here everyone. How about a budget Sneak Attack deck? Cut City of Traitors and Chalice and this becomes pretty budget and still playable, right?

[Mr. Safety]

I'm putting together a couple of Dredge lists, both Manaless and LEDless, to see if they can do some powerful things. LED is obviously insane but well out of my price range. I think some newer cards really push this budget archetype into better territory, especially Once Upon a Time, Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis, Force of Vigor, and Thassa's Oracle + Balustrade Spy for Manaless. All of those cards are super affordable, the most expensive being Oracle at around $12 USD currently (and you only need 1.) I put together a Manaless list for about $75 USD because I had spare chaff in my collection.

[Captain Hammer]

Mono Blue Mill is probably viable now.

The new mill legend + the kicker spell mills your entire opponents deck and both are inexpensive cards.

[jmlima]

I'm putting together a couple of Dredge lists, both Manaless and LEDless, to see if they can do some powerful things. LED is obviously insane but well out of my price range. I think some newer cards really push this budget archetype into better territory, especially Once Upon a Time, Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis, Force of Vigor, and Thassa's Oracle + Balustrade Spy for Manaless. All of those cards are super affordable, the most expensive being Oracle at around $12 USD currently (and you only need 1.) I put together a Manaless list for about $75 USD because I had spare chaff in my collection.

Speaking of Hogaak:

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3558422#paper

[Mr. Safety]

Speaking of Hogaak:

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3558422#paper

Another list, like Rainbow Depths, that avoids the Submerge problem by running budget duals. Nice.