Quickest Deck for the budget minded

[kraftwerk]

What is a deck that can be made for around $150 and get a quick 1-0 victory?

[J.V.]

Dragon Stompy.

[kraftwerk]

ok i will check that out.
I am just jumping into the Legacy format so ty for help

[Michael Keller]

What is a deck that can be made for around $150 and get a quick 1-0 victory?

A deck filled with Glyphs and Great Walls, of course! Your opponent should scoop on principle alone...(j/k)

Anyways, there is no such thing as getting a "quick 1-0 victory" based on the cost of a deck. You need to earn each win, especially in tournament Magic.

[xsockmonkeyx]

Dragon Stompy.

IDK, if it's the quickest but it's probably the best bang for your buck.

Quickest deck would probably be Belcher.

[from Cairo]

I'd agree Dragon Stompy is probably the strongest deck for the price.

[kraftwerk]

ty all feedback,
this seems to be an interesting format

[Bovinious]

Ichorid is pretty cheap as well, the only pricy thing being LEDs really. It also steals game1s like no other deck...

[Dilettante]

I'd agree Dragon Stompy is probably the strongest deck for the price.

Also agreed. It's fine for most metagames. A bad matchup for it is actually a mirror match... The primary factor for cost is usually the mana base. With City of Traitors around $28 a playset, Ancient Tomb around $10, Blood Moon Effects around $16, Chalices at $24, and 4 pieces of equipment at $40, and Chrome Moxes at $48, the major pieces total $166, add other pieces, total will be somewhere around ~$180. Other decks that fit in the price range include Ichorid Combo, Burn, Suicide Black, and Angel Stompy, but Dragon Stompy is easily the most resilient of them.

[HSCK]

If Angel Stompy is still running Exalteds too expensive...I paid 30 for 3, =/. My Dragon Stompy deck only costs me about 50 so I'd recommend that deck, but I already had Chrome Moxen.

[Whit3 Ghost]

TES with Xantid Swarms.

[Nihil Credo]

TES with Xantid Swarms.

$150 with playsets of Burning Wish, Lion's Eye Diamond, and Chrome Mox?

[Zork]

For cheap decks, your best bet is probably (in order of cheap):

Burn
9-Land Stompy
Dragon Stompy
Ichorid
Belcher/TES (probably overbudget)

[Wallace]

For cheap decks, your best bet is probably (in order of cheap):

Burn

[Thehunter820]

I'd have to say burn with possible splash and dragon stompy

[Mooglar]

Also agreed. It's fine for most metagames. A bad matchup for it is actually a mirror match... The primary factor for cost is usually the mana base. With City of Traitors around $28 a playset, Ancient Tomb around $10, Blood Moon Effects around $16, Chalices at $24, and 4 pieces of equipment at $40, and Chrome Moxes at $48, the major pieces total $166, add other pieces, total will be somewhere around ~$180. Other decks that fit in the price range include Ichorid Combo, Burn, Suicide Black, and Angel Stompy, but Dragon Stompy is easily the most resilient of them.

City of traitors for 28 a playset? are u joking i got mine recently for trade at about 2 a piece, actually ive traded for them before at 2 dollars a piece bfore too and our store sells them for that much also, its used in only 1 format in 1 type of deck theyre defintly not 7 bucks a piece

[Dilettante]

City of traitors for 28 a playset? are u joking i got mine recently for trade at about 2 a piece, actually ive traded for them before at 2 dollars a piece bfore too and our store sells them for that much also, its used in only 1 format in 1 type of deck theyre defintly not 7 bucks a piece

Search for it, then. Currently on eBay, one (1) is going for $5.50 + $1.50 shipping and the Buy It Nows, cheapest is $4.90+$3.50... BUT... they do not accept Paypal... SCG is sold out, their previous price at $7.50ish as is Dave and Adam's, ABU, and Cardhaus. T&T has it at $9. My own playset cost me $24. Times change. You got a bargain, at least...

[mercenarybdu]

Dragon Stompy
U/G Madness (without a lot of fetchlands)
Red Sligh

[scrumdogg]

The answer also depends on what you currently own. If you're coming from T2/Extended & already have playsets of Burning Wish & Chrome Mox - the TES/Belcher/Ichorid spectrum opens up very easily. If you already own a playset of Goyfs, you get Eva Green, Goyf Sligh, and other good aggro-disruption decks. With the Goyfs & some fetches (common enough for Ext) a number of Survival builds can easily be built. Coming in with nothing at all? Take any of the previous suggestions, but do two things first, try them on MWS for free to see if you like the deck, if it fits your playstyle. Secondly, scout out your local Legacy meta & see which if your top choices would have a chance at success & which would get monkeyslapped repeatedly. Dragon Stompy is a good deck, but there are metas where it should stay in the box. Same for all other budget decks.

[Tacosnape]

Dragon Stompy or TES. Dragon Stompy's cheaper and easier to play, TES probably wins more game 1's and is better in a scrubbier metagame.

EDIT: Ichorid's an inexpensive powerhouse deck too, but graveyard hate is rampant.

[romain7]

I would have to agree with dragon stompy. Ichorid is an incredibly good and fun deck to play, but games 2 & 3, the deck gets owned with hate. Ichorid has answers, but the "combo" becomes incredibly dilluted. Plus, for someone new to the deck, it is kind of hard to get used to playing it.(dredging n' all)

[matelml]

TES has the best Power:Cost ratio but you would need to play 4 Xantid Sarm instead of Chant. It is however not very easy to play if you are not used to it and it would be a suboptimal build. Still Xantid Swarms are Ok, almost everyone used to play with them before people realized Chant was better and it was a very strong deck even then. If you are not an experianced Legacy player/ Magic player in general, I think you would win more with Dragon Stompy, although on the long run TES is better.

[Pulp_Fiction]

I think the absolute cheapest and most reliable deck is Affinity and shortly after is Burn. Affinity all you have to buy is Ravager at $30ish for a playset and burn, hell nothing is expensive in burn unless you run Ball Lightning which no one does, the only expensive cards in burn would be Pithing Needle which can go in the SB and (for the budget minded) are not completly necessary. But I personally would (and did when I first got into Legacy) build burn because it is simple, fast, and consistent.

[GreenOne]

I think the absolute cheapest and most reliable deck is Affinity and shortly after is Burn. Affinity all you have to buy is Ravager at $30ish for a playset and burn, hell nothing is expensive in burn unless you run Ball Lightning which no one does, the only expensive cards in burn would be Pithing Needle which can go in the SB and (for the budget minded) are not completly necessary. But I personally would (and did when I first got into Legacy) build burn because it is simple, fast, and consistent.

I'd say burn is not all that great stealing G1s in the current meta, as it has hardly a good matchup both against thresh and combo. Chalice, Trini, counterbalance are not great great friends of it and are quite present in the meta.
I'd go with affinity too. It's really cheap and fast, Needle and/or Tormod can help a lot in the combo matchup (depending on which combo are in the meta) and the goldfish speed is 4th turn, 3rd with a god-hand. And it's unlikely to encounter hate other than Needle and Krosan Grip.

[Bardo]

Putting together TES would run you more than $150, no?

If I were getting into Legacy on a tight budget, I'd go with R/G Beatz. Here's the action:

Lightning Bolt
Magma Jet
Price of Progress
Fireblast

Kird Ape
Quirion Dryad / Scab-Clan Mauler
Mogg Fanatic
Keldon Marauders / Jungle Lion?

Rancor?

Throw in some Forests, Mountains, a few fetchlands, and a couple of Taigas or Stomping Grounds if you have them.

For the sideboard: Blood Moon, Ancient Grudge / Krosan Grip, Pyroblast, Tormod's Crypt, etc.

You can have it all for like $75, maybe less if you go ultra-budget on the mana.

Affinity is also very cheap, as you can play most of the deck in Peasant Magic (all commons); the only things that cost you any real money are the Ravagers, Blinkmoth Nexus and Glimmervoids. After Mirrodin rotated out of Standard, I got the majority of the deck from online stores (Blackborder and SCG) for like $22 w/ shipping; then traded for the Aether Vials, Ravagers, Nexus, and Glimmervoid on MOTL. (Thinking about it, I actually got the 2x Nexus from Frogboy when I was over Zilla's pad.)

[Nihil Credo]

MUC is also pretty cheap (4 FoWs and that's it, really) and it definitely gets a lot of 1-0 victories :)

[Willoe]

Nearly everyone nongreen nonblue deck without fetches nor duals can be purchased pretty cheap. Don't hang me up for that, because I do of course know that i.e. TES is way too expensive even though it's mediocre in the price range. I'd like to know what's the MOST expensive deck in legacy? :S

Anyway, I'd suggest burn. It's a lot of fun and soooo ol skool :D

[ParkerLewis]

I'd like to know what's the MOST expensive deck in legacy? :S

4c Landstill ? Scream at the manabase.

(unless of course you accept an unplayable deck exclusively composed of the most expensive cards in the format like 4 Tabernacle, 4 Moat, 4 Grim Tutor, and the like)

[Knuckles29]

Well I would like to sum up this entire threat by saying budget is fine in an underpowered meta. However, once you face off against Belcher, TES, etc. on a weekly basis... you need money in your deck. Needles, Wishes.. they all add up.

Burn is cheap and effective till you run into Counterbalance machines because Burn is an attrition kill. Counterbalance was made to capitalize on the fact most great spells cost 1-2, and burn's deck is right in the range.

Affinity beats them but cost a little more, but if you run the Hoverguard version, you can get around the Counterbalance/Trinisphere problem.

IMO, combo has been the best style of deck for the last few years. But all that tutoring and slick mana costs $$$ because it is the speed, just like in cars, that makes the $$$'s go away.

Cheap usually means aggro, Stompy, WW, Suicide.. they are all playable. But combo eats them.

I think overall anything that is "budget" limits its wins because it cannot compete against $$$ for too long before being swallowed.

If you wanna try for cheap and effective; the Mono-U Ninja/Still deck that was in extended is a great deck to make a transfer over. You can add money in forces and fetches, but as is, it is really strong and can handle a lot if you move Stifles into MD (I know mutavault is there, but you can make it change out, just won't be as good)

[Bardo]

Well, let's look at a typical TES list and check out the prices:

From here. (http://mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6578)

Using MOTL non-foil price guide (http://www.magictraders.com/pricelists/current-magic), since we can all agree that's fair.

4x Gemstone Mine $3 x 4 = $12
4x City of Brass $2 x 4 = $8
2x Undiscovered Paradise $2 x 2 = $4

4x Dark Ritual
4x Rite of Flame $0.25 x 4 = $1
4x Simian Spirit Guide $0.25 x 4 = $1
4x Chrome Mox $12 x 4 = $48
4x Lotus Petal $2 x 4 = $8
4x Lion’s Eye Diamond $10.50 x 4 = $42
2x Tinder Wall $.1 x 2 = $.2

4x Infernal Tutor $1.5 x 4 = $6
4x Burning Wish $7.5 x 4 = $30
4x Brainstorm $0.5 x 4 = $2

Protection//
2x Xantid Swarm $1 x 2 = $2
4x Orim’s Chant $14 x 4 = $56

Tutor Targets//
3x Empty the Warrens $.33 x3 = $1
1x Tendrils of Agony $1 x 1 = $1
1x Ill-Gotten Gains $2 x 1 = $2
1x Diminishing Returns

(Sideboard Not Included)

Maindeck total: $224

TES =/= budget. And getting this deck at $224 would require a lot of time and patience--add another $60 - $75 if you wanted to get this in less than 3 weeks. Anyhow, does any deck running playsets of Chrome Mox, LED, Burning Wish and Orim's Chant even remotely pass as "budget?"


I'd like to know what's the MOST expensive deck in legacy? :S

I think's it's 4c Landstill, which runs 4x of the following: Tundra, Underground Sea, Tropical Island, Force of Will, Pernicious Deed, Meddling Mage; not to mention 6-8 blue fetchlands, rounded out with a bunch of mid-value cards (StP, Standstill, Engineered Explosives, etc.) And if you really want to push things, you can add a playset of Tarmogoyf. :)


I think overall anything that is "budget" limits its wins because it cannot compete against $$$ for too long before being swallowed.

Swallowed? Budget? They usually charge extra for that. ;)

[Whit3 Ghost]

Budget TES could just run Xantid Swarm, bringing the cost of the deck to about $170.

I got a full Swarm list plus sleeves and some extra stuff for exactly $150, but that was a deal from a friend.

It really helps to be on good terms with people in your area who have bigger collections then you do and who can give you deals on some extra stuff that could come by. Also, be on the lookout for people selling collections, as you can tend to get a lot of stuff for cheap.

[raharu]

The best way to make a budget deck is to aproach the format from an entierly different angle and break some cards you already have, kinda like D. Stompy XD Broken Blood Moons. I still remember when people ignored that card, saying that any deck playing it would just loose because it was a terrible deck. I like how Blood Moon has became a major force in the metagame. I also like how there isn't an "i" in major, but I always think there is...

[Maëlig]

Affinity can be fairly competitive (largely depending on whether people are waiting for it or not) considering its price (for the basic version at least).

[Bardo]

Again, to those above, TES is hardly "budget" and a very poor deck choice for someone to enter Legacy if they have limited experience with the format. Aggro decks tend to be the most forgiving for beginners, then aggro-control, then control/prison, followed by combo.

Budget, to me, would be something you can play in a reasonably competitive Legacy environment for less than $100, assuming you have no cards other than basic lands.

Affinity is probably the best way to go. Using a pretty generic Fling list. (If you want to reduce the combo part of the deck, drop the Flings/Atogs for Myr Enforcer or Somber Hoverguard).

Affinity

4 Aether Vial $3 x 4 = $12
4 Cranial Plating $.25 x 4 = $1
4 Chromatic Star $.12 x 4 = $0.50
4 Thoughtcast $.12 x 4 = $0.50
3 Fling $.50 x 3 = $1.50

4 Disciple Of The Vault $.30 x 4 = $1.20
4 Arcbound Worker $.12 x 4 = $1.00
4 Arcbound Ravager $10.00 x 4 = $40
4 Frogmite $.25 x 4 = $1.00
3 Atog $.25 x 2 = $0.75
2 Ornithopter $.25 x 2 = $0.50

4 Great Furnace $.30 x 4 = $1.20
4 Seat Of The Synod $.30 x 4 = $1.20
4 Vault Of Whispers $.30 x 4 = $1.20
4 Darksteel Citadel $.25 x 1 = $1.00
2 Blinkmoth Nexus $3.25 x 2 = $6.50
2 Glimmervoid $2.25 x 2 = $4.50

Maindeck Total, using MOTL prices (http://magictraders.com/pricelists/current-magic): ~ $75

Sideboard:
Engineered Plague
Winter Orb
Tormod's Crypt

(Sideboard not included)

BOLD = Over $2 / card; recommend eBay or MOTL

Everything else I'd buy from your preferred online cardstore (Blackborder, etc.)

The only investment you really have is Ravagers. The only real downside is that nothing other than the AEther Vials are tranportable to any other deck. It's very linear, so investing in this means you just get to play Affinity in an assortment of configurations. This is why it's a good idea to build up a collection of Onslaught fetchlands, Revised Duals and Forces so your deck choice options are a lot broader.

But if you just need to get into the format, go with Affinity or R/G Beatz (I can price a decent list out, if you'd like).

[xsockmonkeyx]

(I can price a decent list out, if you'd like).

Just do it, it sounds like you enjoy doing this. It's gonna look pretty washed out w/o Goyf though :/

EDIT: It's also going to hard to make Kird Ape and Fireblast play nice without their buddy Taiga.

[sergeantscruffy]

Death and Taxes is pretty cheap as well. You can drop the price even lower by playing Abeyance over Orim's Chant.

[Maëlig]

Or thorn, but that's a subject to debate. :wink:
Somes versions of pox are also relatively cheap, but not that competitive imho.