Budget Building

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Rustria

13 June 2011

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If anyone has been following Jacob Van Lunen’s Building on a Budget articles, they might have noticed that a lot of the decks he’s been posting are either unoriginal or reduxes of pre-constructed decks or his previous decks where almost nothing is changed. I’m not knocking Lunen’s ability, I started reading Lunen’s articles and those got me hooked all of the entire dailymtg.com articles. I’m just hoping his articles will improve in the future. It could be that this standard doesn’t allow good budget decks (coughJMScough). Meanwhile I am going to try to write my own Building on a Budget type of article. I will try to build a deck under $50 according to coolstuffinc.com. (Disclaimer: I realize $50 is not budget to most people. Coolstuffinc.com is very on the high end true price. That being said, the decks’ values’ should be around $30. That is about the lowest cost for a competitive budget deck.) If you have any ideas for decks email me at [email protected]. If you have any ideas for the deck either comment here or on the deck itself. I will make a copy of the deck for community edits and an original copy. Without further ado, here is the article. –Rustria

Can you think of a red and blue combo deck? How about one that doesn’t have infinite creatures as a win con? I’ll give you a hint. It was definitely more heard of a while back; something to do with infinite turns, I think. Well unfortunately “infinite turns” isn’t really possible in this standard, with only three cards giving extra turns away. So let’s look at a, technically less powerful but still good, version of this deck. The deck is Pyromancer Ascension for anyone who hasn’t gotten it yet. The deck uses Pyromancer Ascension to cast enough burn to kill your opponent. There is a lot of support that doubles as triggers to the ascension. Let’s get started with card choices.

Pyromancer Ascension is the card the deck is built around. It doubles pretty much everything in the deck, from Lightning Bolt to Gitaxian Probe. Not much to say that hasn’t been said, other than a definite four-of. Almost every spell is a four-of in this deck, unless I specify it assume 4 are to be included.

Gitaxian Probe is probably the most important draw spell in this deck. It doesn’t cost any mana (when you want it to) and replaces itself. It also gives you insight to your opponent’s hand. This deck can be disrupted by a lot of things, including leonine relic-warder. I cannot stress how good this spell is in this deck.

Preordain is an amazing support card for any deck. In this deck it really excels. Think about doubling it. It can dig three cards down into your library and is cheap enough to trigger Pyromancer Ascension easily without disrupting much.

Tezzeret's Gambit is awesome in this deck. It acts as the old Divination and proliferates at the same time. It can easily make a turn 3 active ascension. The card draw is especially important because we need to draw into the burn spells for the kill.

Lightning Bolt is one of our win-cons. It provides creature kill and player kill. Not much more to say about it.

Burst Lightning is a versatile burn spell. It definitely is worth five mana to deal 8 damage to anything, divided if you so choose.

Pyroclasm is necessary, in my opinion. If you’re meta has even a decent amount of weenies, you need this spell. In testing it proves invaluable against those kind of decks. I’m only including 2 for now. If your meta has more CawBlade type decks then use Crush instead.

Into the Roil: This deck needs enchantment and definitely artifact removal. Into the Roil serves as that. It’s really helpful.

Mana Leak is definitely good for this deck. It one of the best counter spells available in this standard.

Noxious Revival is the tech for this deck. This card is very cool. Two of them can trigger Pyromancer Ascension within a turn and they are easily combined with any draw spell you cast. This spell allows you to have an active Pyromancer Ascension on turn 2. This spell is that good. There are those of you who will doubt its power. To you, I say, test it (and play well).

Mana base: This being a budget article, fetch lands aren’t really within budget. So I’m going to include 4 Terramorphic Expanses and 2 Evolving Wilds. The other lands will be 9 Islands, 6 Mountains and 1 Forest. That is just a basic mana base. If you feel like upgrading it and still keeping it budget look at cards like: Halimar Depths, Tectonic Edge, etc.

Here is the finished deck:

PyroAscension

Legacy Rustria

SCORE: 5 | 12 COMMENTS | 1141 VIEWS | IN 1 FOLDER

Sideboard: The sideboard is a tricky thing. There are two things you can do with the sideboard: transformative sideboard or just regular sideboard. The transformative sideboard offers a way to keep the surprises coming for your opponent. To use the transformative sideboard, you would take out Pyromancer Ascension, Noxious Revival, and some other cards (as you see fit) and put in the cards that change the deck. The two transformative sideboards I could think of were SplinterWin and a Kiln Fiend type. SplinterWin is the Splinter Twin + Deceiver Exarch combo for those of you who didn’t know. That sideboard would most likely take up around 12 slots with 4 Deceiver Exarch, 4 Splinter Twin, and 4ish Spellskite leaving about 3 spots open to customize. SplinterWin, however, makes this a non-budget deck, therefore if I recommend that I would be ruining the whole point of the article. The Kiln Fiend-type sideboard adds another combo to the deck. The sideboard would include: 4 Kiln Fiend, 4 Immolating Souleater, 4 Fling, and 3 Distortion Strike. This offers the turn 3 win with a 10/1 Immolating Souleater attacking your opponent and then being flung at his or her face. Kiln Fiend has wonderful synergy with this deck also and Distortion Strike is great with it. If you choose to go with a normal sideboard, include two more copies of Pyroclasm and look at cards like: Crush, Spell Pierce, Mental Misstep (not budget), Shatter, Manic Vandal, and anything else you can think of.

Games:

PyroAscension vs. Darkblade

My opponent wins the roll. I mulligan down to 5 and keep Island, Gitaxian Probe, Gitaxian Probe, Lightning Bolt, Pyromancer Ascension. My opponent keeps his hand. He leads with a Darkslick Shores and an Inquisition of Kozilek, taking my ascension. I draw a Burst Lightning, play my Island and cast Gitaxian Probe. I see three lands, a Doom Blade and a Jace, the Mind Sculptor. I draw a Mountain and pass. My opponent plays Seachrome Coast and passes back to me. I draw a Lightning Bolt. I cast Gitaxian Probe to draw a card and his hand has not changed. I draw Terramorphic Expanse, and play it. I pass. My opponent draws, plays a land, and casts a Squadron Hawk and searched up the rest before passing the turn. At the end of his turn I break Terramorphic Expanse for a Mountain. I draw and cast a Preordain. I see a Mountain and Mana Leak. I put them both on bottom and draw an Island. I play it and pass turn. My opponent draws and casts a Stoneforge Mystic searching up Sword of Feast and Famine. He attacks with the sole Squadron Hawk and hits for 1. He plays another land then casts another hawk and passes. I draw an Into the Roil and pass. My opponent draws a card and plays a land. He uses stoneforge to throw down the sword, equips it to a hawk and attacks with said hawk and its buddy. I kicked Into the Roil the sword and take two while drawing a Pyroclasm. He passes turn. I draw a Preordain and cast it. I see an Into the Roil and Island, I bury both and draw an Island. I play the Island and cast Pyroclasm killing my opponent’s entire field. And I pass turn. My opponent plays a land and casts Jace, the Mind Sculptor. He proceeds to fateseal me, he puts the card on bottom. He casts another hawk and passes. At the end of his turn I Lightning Bolt his Jace. I draw an Island and play it. Then I shoot Jace with a Burst Lightning and pass turn. My opponent Inquisition of Kozileks me, in response I shoot his hawk down with my remaining Lightning Bolt. He then casts Gideon Jura, commands my creatures to attack him and passes the turn to me. I draw an Island and pass without playing it. My opponent casts his Sword of Feast and Famine, animates Gideon Jura, equips the sword and attacks with Gideon. He connects for 8, untaps his lands and I have to discard my Island. He casts Squadron Hawk and a Stoneforge Mystic, searching for another Sword of Feast and Famine. He passes to me. I draw a Lightning Bolt and concede.

PyroAscension vs. Soul Sisters

My opponent wins the roll. I keep my original seven of 2 Pyromancer Ascension, 2 Island, a Evolving Wilds, a Mana Leak and a Lightning Bolt. My opponent keeps as well and leads with a Kabira Crossroads putting him at 22. I draw Into the Roil and play my Evolving Wilds. My opponent plays a Plains and Suture Priest and passes. I break my land and search up a Mountain. I draw a Mountain (of course) and play an Island. I then cast Pyromancer Ascension and pass the turn. My opponent plays a land, casts Sword of War and Peace and attacks with Suture Priest. He passes. I draw a Noxious Revival, play a Mountain and pass turn. My opponent plays a land and attempts to equip the priest with a sword. I bolt the priest in response. He casts a Inquisitor Exarch, gaining two life and he passes. I draw a Mana Leak and play an Island. I pass with 4 mana up. My opponent attempts to cast Stoneforge Mystic, I cast a Mana Leak and when he pays, I Mana Leak it again, putting a counter on Pyromancer Ascension. He attacks with Inquisitor Exarch and I go down to 17. He passes turn. I draw a Tezzeret's Gambit and I cast it for 3. I draw an Evolving Wilds and an Island. I play the Island and pass turn. My opponent plays a Plains and equips the sword and attacks. I let it through and take 8 while he gains 2 life. He passes his turn. I draw a Mana Leak and play an Evolving Wilds. I pass with 5 mana open. My opponent casts a Sword of Body and Mind and attempts to equip it. In response, I cast a kicked Into the Roil targeting the exarch and Sword of War and Peace (copy), Noxious Revival, and breaking Evolving Wilds for a Forest. The Noxious Revival puts Tezzeret's Gambit and itself on top of my library, in that order and the Into the Roils draw me those two cards. He passes turn. I draw a Mountain and play it. Then I cast Tezzeret's Gambit, full cost, to draw me four cards: Pyromancer Ascension, Tezzeret's Gambit, Lightning Bolt, and Island. I pass turn with 3 mana open, discarding a Pyromancer Ascension.

My opponent attempts to recast the Inquisitor Exarch but I double Mana Leak it. He then casts Sword of War and Peace and Ajani's Pridemate. At the end of his turn, I bolt the pridemate and him. I draw an Into the Roil and play my Island. I cast another full cost Tezzeret's Gambit to refuel my hand and I draw: Lightning Bolt, Gitaxian Probe, Tezzeret's Gambit, and Island. I pass with 4 mana open. My opponent plays a Glimmerpost and passes the turn. At the end of his turn, I double Lightning Bolt him down to 18. I draw a Terramorphic Expanse for turn and play my Island. I cast Gitaxian Probe to draw 2 cards, Pyroclasm and Burst Lightning, and see a Phyrexian Metamorph in my opponent’s hand. I pass turn with 8 mana open and a full hand. My opponent casts Stoneforge Mystic and searches up a Batterskull. He considers for a while and attempts to equip Sword of War and Peace to stoneforge. I kicked Burst Lightning in response, targeting him and the Stoneforge Mystic. He passes the turn and at the end of his turn I cast Noxious Revival returning a Lightning Bolt to the top of my library. For my turn, I draw, surprise surprise, Lightning Bolt. I cast a full Tezzeret's Gambit and draw: 2 Mountain, Gitaxian Probe, and a Mana Leak. I cast the Gitaxian Probe to draw two more cards, Into the Roil and Mountain. I pass discarding Terramorphic Expanse and a Mountain. My opponent attempts to cast Batterskull but I have the Mana Leak ready. He cast Ajani's Pridemate and passes. At the end of his turn, I Into the Roil his pridemate and Sword of War and Peace and Lightning Bolt his face for 6 putting him at a lowly 8 life points. I draw a Preordain for turn. I cast it and see 2 Noxious Revival. I keep one and throw the other to the bottom. While the original Preordain is on the stack, I cast the Noxious Revival and put both Tezzeret's Gambit and Lightning Bolt on top of my library. I keep the cards and draw the gambit, which I promptly play. I draw Lightning Bolt, Island, Pyroclasm, and Into the Roil. I pass while discarding an Island.

My opponent casts the sword again, then proceeds to cast Stoneforge Mystic, (searching a Mortarpod), and attempt to equip it with Sword of War and Peace. I kicked Into the Roil both of those and draw a Terramorphic Expanse and a Burst Lightning. At the end of my opponent’s turn, I Lightning Bolt him for 6 taking him down to 2 life. I draw an Island and finish him off with a Burst Lightning. I win.

The decks I played against show some of the more scary opponents for this deck. If Soul Sisters had gone off, I would have lost. I’m not sure how the game would have gone if my opponent had drawn the leonine relic-warder I was worried about. And, of course, Darkblade is the boogyman in the current meta so this was just a teaser of the deck. Go out and test it for yourself. It’s fun, especially if you’re a Johnny. If you have any suggestions on the deck comment on the deck itself: PyroAscension. If you have any comments on the article, post them here. I’ll try to have another budget deck posted within a week, at most two weeks. Email me your awesome budget ideas and your tappedout username at [email protected]. Thanks!