Mikaeus, Extreme Budget Version
Due to Mikaeus' increase in price this deck is now over $20, however, using TCG low prices or MCM it should be drastically cheaper than what is displayed on tappedout. Click for more deck price info!
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Previously Tappedout used an extension that measured card prices on TCGplayer at Low, Medium and High pricings. This decks budget constraints were restricted to follow the "Low" pricings. As long as the "Low" was under $20, the deck had achieved its goal!
However Tappedout removed the High/Med/Low listings and instead replaced it with an extension that ONLY shows Medium! This caused the decks price to skyrocket on the right tab, but in reality, the deck price hasn't actually changed.
When building a deck with these budget constraints you have to take every tool you have at your disposal. Heavily played cards, foreign cards, white border printings etc are OK. If your budget is so limited, the only reasonable thing is buy the cheapest alternative.
Want to cut the price of the deck to UNDER $10? Make a high quality Mikaeus proxy as your general, details down below!
How it all began
A long time back, a friend of mine repeatedly complained about the prices of EDH decks, how it was impossible to make a good deck without having to spend several hundred dollars.
I disagreed and thought that a deck could be expensive, but still built casually, just like a deck can be cheap and be built to be cutthroat. He then challenged me to make a strong $20 deck if I was so sure I was right. While he obviously meant it as a joke, I took the challenge, and now almost four years later we have this deck to show for it.
I decided to use
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
as my general as soon as I started. He is in a strong EDH color, and goes infinite with a ridiculous amount of cheap cards, and was at the time of creation only $4 himself.
Unfortunately, I have realized that making the ultimate budget deck is a self defeating prophecy. The popularity of the deck has caused the price increase of so many cards, including Mikaeus himself. While the deck is still cheap, achieving a $20 budget is now impossible. Maybe if WotC finally reprinted Mikaeus!
Why would I want to play this deck?
Let me warn you now, there are not many casual playgroups that would appreciate you playing this kind of deck, and that you might not even enjoy piloting the deck yourself. This is a deck aiming for the most efficient and brutal kills you can get within its building constraints, there is no playing around, no "spirit of the format".
This is a recurring problem with these kinds of decks. I'm talking about that stax deck you wanted to make, but after finally constructing it and bringing it to a night of magic, nobody ever wanted to play against it again. At least not TOO often.
That is usually how these deck ideas end, they are awesome as you build them, but when you finally bring it to the table nobody is enjoying themselves, so they end up scrapped for parts or gather dust in a box somewhere. There is one big difference here, and that difference is the low price-tag.
A major reason I love this deck is the feeling I get as my opponent sits back and realizes he got crushed by a deck that costs less than one twentieth (Or even one hundredth!) of his own, even they usually can't keep back a smile, or at least some form of reaction. In fact, that feeling alone makes me enjoy playing this deck! As long as I find willing opponents, I have no trouble playing this deck.
As a bonus, the budget constraints imposed on this deck help its variation, even though you win by going infinite almost every game (Commander damage lethal can happen from time to time), you don't do it with the same pieces! The interaction as you try to clear the table for your non-evasive beaters or try to get that equipment to get you through keeps the variation high enough that the deck stays enjoyable for far longer than it reasonably should.
But that is the reasons I have for playing it.
You might have an EDH league at your store that you wish to play in, you may simply wish to shut up your friend who claims EDH is all about the money, or you have long been wanting to make an EDH deck, but the EDH decks your friends play are too pricy for you to make the jump. Either way, when a deck is this cheap, it is easier to justify giving it a chance before tossing away the idea!
On the flip side, due to the budget restrictions, the deck also has a lot of silver bullets that it has a hard time beating. I have tried to mitigate them, but most appropriate answers are outside my financial reach, instead I have embraced an all-in strategy in the hopes of taking people out before they can shut me down.
Guide on budget deckbuilding!
Aka "How to Handle your Money", a compilation of tips and directions from a professional budget builder (I can call myself that, right?) There's also links to the alter image of Mikaeus and guides on how to make proxies here!
This is fairly long!
One thing I have been told countless times since I made this deck is that my $20 claim is a lie, that in reality my deck is far more expensive. They are both completely right and completely wrong, depending on how you approach this statement.
If you simply go on TCG player right now, click the "autoload deck" button and order the first thing the deckbuilding tool spews out then yes,
you will get a deck more expensive than $20, FAR more expensive. Some people also prefer to shop only from a single store with large stocks, possibly their local game store, Cardkingdom, ChannelFireball or SCG.
This is comparable to being a broke student and only buying prime cut tenderloin from a specialty store when you could buy ground beef from the mart across the street.
That beef was damn expensive, how dare you claim you made your dinner for $20!
When you are trying to make the cheapest functioning deck possible, it is unreasonable to expect it to be built from the most expensive store possible
(I'm looking at you, SCG!), or even decently priced store aggregates like TCG (buying from here is generally not a bad deal for Americans).
No, when building with this tight a budget you go ONLY go for the cheapest.
Now the question is, HOW do I find these cheap cards I claim exist? There are places even cheaper than TCG?
There are! It is a magical place called Magiccardmarket.eu (You can use this link to give me a referral!)* and Ebay.
If you make an account on MCM thanks to this, please add "Sleazebag" as your referral! It costs you nothing but gives me a few dollars of discount (if you make a purchase within 30 days of registration).
*Unfortunately Magiccardmarket doesn't ship out of Europe. Ebay listings or TCG is your best bet.
What affects a cards value?
Everyone knows a cards condition affects its price. Another important factor is its printing.
A white bordered card goes for far less than a black bordered one, if the black bordered card had a short print-run, it can be far more expensive again and so on.
This is common knowledge, supply and demand.
Another thing you have probably experienced is the guy who loves to show off his super expensive Japanese foils.
Language affects the price of a card, and it affects the card greatly.
What might not have crossed your mind however is just how many languages Magic is printed in (it's 10 by the way!), and that not all of them are valued even nearly as highly.
In fact, a majority of languages are worth LESS than the English prints!
How much less exactly? Well, theres a certain language called Italian...
And yes, ALL languages are legal in sanctioned tournaments. You don't need to worry about that for even a second.
Ever considered following the TCG "Low" pricings to be unreasonable?
Well, feast your eyes on my Mikaeus decklist put on Magiccardmarket:
The total cost of a FULL Mikaeus deck on Magiccardmarket (Mikaeus included!) is less than $9! Wow!
Well it's not that simple. This list simply shows the cheapest price for each single card. The problem is, it's not the same guy who has the cheapest price for each single card (and there's probably nobody that has ALL of them).
Which brings us to our next topic.
Shipping
If you ordered the cheapest card from every seller, the total would probably vary from $50 to $100 (depending on where you live) even though the original cost is $9. That's what almost 70 different shipments does.
What you need to do is find the right combination of sellers and pricing, find a guy who has a large stock while also having a very low average price. 3-5 different vendors is a nice goal to set yourself.
Another important thing to remember is that if you find a combination of sellers that has MOST but not all of the cards you need, there are many other completely valid alternatives you can use to fill out the few missing slots. It's not necessary to add four shipments from four new sellers! Adapt your decklist to what is available!
And remember, when the money is tight, paying $5 for a moderately played spanish card isn't all that bad when the normal price is $15!
Although be cautious if you choose to order damaged cards, they risk not being tournament legal or simply unplayable.
Going FREE mode - Proxies!
Sure,
Angus Mackenzie
at $20 is a sweet deal, but what if you can't afford that either? If the staples you absolutely want to run are out of your grasp financially (or you simply don't want to invest in this hobby), there is still an option left available for the casual player. Those who simply want to play EDH with their friends and don't plan on bringing their decks to sanctioned tournaments or EDH leagues.
That is proxies.
Now before I go into detail, keep in mind that creating imitations of magic cards and passing them off as real is highly illegal and will likely result in you getting prosecuted (and lifetime banned from magic) and that these are only for use in casual play (No tournaments!)
What I am talking about now however is not the simple act of taking a piece of paper, writing "Black Lotus" on it and putting it into a sleeve with a basic land, but taking real magic cards, wiping away the front and printing new and awesome looking art on the front! In the end, the result will look far more impressive than the usual card it represents, and in EDH, that's what matters.
Normally people dislike playing against decks using proxies, however when you put enough effort into your proxy, they stop looking at it as one and instead look at it as a "pimped" version of the original. Especially when the proxy is of your commander. Obviously, if you were to proxy a card in this deck, you would have to pick
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
. And in the spirit of keeping this deck as cheap as possible, I have gotten a proxy of our very own Mikaeus made. Click the image below and it will link to a high-resolution version that you can use to print out your own.
Allow me to present, the new Mikaeus!
The original art is made by JasonTN
The guy who created the card has made lots of awesome proxies in high resolutions that you can simply print out and use, check them here!
Well, we now have the awesome digital images, but how do we carry that awesomeness over to paper? It's easier than it seems!
If you want to learn how to print your own proxies, check out the links below, the cards they make look simply amazing!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFgjJC2etz0
I hope that cleared up a lot for people unsure of how to best get their moneys worth when purchasing cards online. Follow this advice and you will be spending half as much for the same cards as everyone else!
How the deck plays
The way the deck works is really straightforward, and makes use a huge amount of infinite combos. Your job is to get a sacrifice outlet into play, for example
Blasting Station
, next you get your Mikaeus into play, then you play a creature that can manipulate counters in a manner that goes infinite with Undying, for example
Tatterkite
.
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
+
Blasting Station
+
Tatterkite
= Infinite damage!
Now, while having an infinite combo like that is great, this deck doesn't go for half measures. The main focus of this deck is redundancies. If you didn't draw
Blasting Station
? Well, there is a whole list of other cards that can do the same job just fine...
If you pair ANY of the cards from the left and right list, you have an infinite combo with Mikaeus in play! This is how you are expected to win with this deck, although we still have a lot of cards remaining to help you achieve that goal.
I have put the remaining cards in five seperate categories. Tutors, Evasion, Value, Ramp and Disruption
Tutors
You don't always draw the cards you need to win, we are however playing black, the color of tutors! There aren't that many traditional tutors we can fit into this deck with our budget constraints, but we play those we can. These help you sculpt your hand and get the last card you needed to win.
In search for budget options, I came over the
transmute keyword (and
transfigure). These are amazingly useful in a deck packed with redundancies such as this! Every single transmute card we run can tutor for either a Sac Outlet, Sac Fodder, or another useful card like a removal spell or a ramp. Not to mention having a situationally useful effect of its own.
Dimir House Guard
is a sac outlet (although it needs another card for it to be useful) that can tutor for
Flesh-Eater Imp
or
Lingering Tormentor
Shred Memory
can tutor for removal,
Bloodthrone Vampire
, or a
Spincrusher
Dimir Machinations
can tutor for some of the best engines in the deck,
Blasting Station
and
Tatterkite
, as well as direct removal.
Netherborn Phalanx
this card can kill your opponents on its own if they are flooding the board with tokens, but the real reason it is in the deck is that it can tutor for
Triskelion
, a card that goes for infinite damage on its own together with Mikaeus and the strongest card in this deck. It can also tutor for Mikaeus himself if he gets tucked!
Overall they are extremely good (and budget friendly) additions to the deck. The only traditional tutor that is currently run is
Diabolic Tutor
, tutors that cost more than 4 mana are a bit too slow for my meta, and all of the cheaper ones are too expensive. Check the list at the bottom for some alternative tutors at 5 CMC.
Evasion
One of the weakest parts of this deck is that most of the time you win by swinging an infinitely huge vanilla creature one way and hope it doesn't get blocked. That usually isn't good enough.
Cards like
Dauthi Embrace
,
Strider Harness
,
Chariot of Victory
and
Fleetfeather Sandals
help you in this situation. Being able to give your creatures haste and evasion is extremely valuable in this deck, as it gives your opponents barely any time to react to the sudden OHKO creature you put into play.
Value
Playing
Gray Merchant of Asphodel
with Mikaeus in play in a 4 man EDH game will restore you 30 life, assuming you do not have any other black devotion in play, the time this guy can buy you is immense and definitely worth running even though he doesn't go infinite.
Pawn of Ulamog
helps you reach critical mass by giving you tokens every time something dies, while also giving you infinite mana and 0/1 tokens in the event of you getting a sac combo out. Often I use him together with undying and a sac outlet (without infinite) to generate a 3-4 mana in a turn which allows me to combo out.
Strands of Night
is an AMAZING reanimator tool. For the neglilible price of sacrificing a swamp, 2 life and 2 mana, you get to put your infinite combo back into play from the graveyard! Repeatedly! Who cares if you lose a swamp when everyone else dies?
Diabolic Servitude
is a new addition to the deck. It was brought to my attention that with Mikaeus in play, you can stack the undying trigger so that it resolves before the servitude exile, returning servitude to your hand and the creature to play! Simply amazing value for only $0.10.
Sign in Blood
gives much needed draw during the earlygame when you have nothing in particular to do.
Night's Whisper
and
Promise of Power
saw a reprint in C14 so it is now added as well!
Ramp
One of the larger challenges in a black budget deck is ramp. You want to get the necessary mana to combo out as fast as possible, but very little passes our tight wallet. There are however still a few manarocks that pass our criterias!
Charcoal Diamond
,
Leaden Myr
,
Phyrexian Totem
,
Basalt Monolith
. Most of these are strictly inferior versions to other manarocks, lowering their prices while still giving us what we so desperately need. But black has other answers, namely single use mana rituals!
Dark Ritual
and
Culling the Weak
can give us huge bursts of mana for little cost, allowing us to cheat in our combo several turns before we normally could, catching our opponents unaware.
Heartless Summoning
may also allow you to play a lot of creatures quickly, but be careful, you might end up killing your own creatures.
Jeweled Amulet
allows us to store one mana left over one turn and use it another and can help you ramp when you need it (Enables 3 mana turn 2!)
Sol Ring
is now cheap enough to see play thanks to Commander 2014! This is the best thing ever! Now they just need to reprint
Contamination
and
Necropotence
!!... A man is allowed to dream.
Disruption and Removal
Usually this deck is fine with not interacting with the table until it kills someone, but sometimes an opponent threatens to outpace you, that is when these cards come to use. A suit of instant speed removal comes in handy for removing a threat heading your way, or that pesky blocker which would stop you from stomping their face.
Doom Blade
,
Victim of Night
and
Rend Flesh
should give you what you need for any situation.
Mutilate
is the only boardwipe cheap enough and good enough to run.
Nevinyrral's Disk
: The second best thing to come out of Commander 2014 is Nevinyrral's Disk going down to only $0.6!!! Mono black REALLY needs effects like this,
Oblivion Stone
and
Perilous Vault
to deal with enchantments and artifacts. Unfortunately the other two are too expensive, but we have Disk!!!
Engineered Plague
is a card you can use to slow down token based strategies, or screw over decks with 1 toughness generals. Naming Elemental against an
Animar, Soul of Elements
EDH deck never gets old (Currently not in the decklist due to pricing ($0.4), only play this if your meta runs 1 toughness generals or elves/goblins)
Infernal Darkness
is a budget friendly version of
Contamination
that can completely lock out the table to buy you time for your combo. Contamination is probably the first card I would add if I was given the chance! Too bad it is $4! Just pray there aren't any other mono black decks at your table.
Dystopia
is there to ensure you have answers to white enchantments (and their scary stuff). It's currently in my "sideboard" as nobody plays
Nevermore
or
Rest in Peace
at my LGS. Their loss!
On the topic of enchantments, black has NO way to deal with them. At all. Artifacts do, but those are expensive. What can we play to cover this huge weakness?
Well, there are some ways, none of them particularely awesome.
Ratchet Bomb
is a bit slow, but has a huge range of use. It also takes enchantments.
Eye of Doom
will almost always backfire in some way (only exception is if you have an empty board really), but it works as a last ditch effort to blow up something that would otherwise kill you.
DECK UPGRADES
Commander / EDH Sleazebag
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Well ok guys, you got your wish granted! I finally sat down and made a NON budget version of my $20 Budget Mikaeus deck! If you own the deck and you are interested in which cards would improve upon it, or want to see how I would make this deck -without- these budget restraints, check out this decklist!
Thank you for checking out my deck
If you have any input or suggestions please come with them! I'm always interested in making the deck more efficient.
Keep in mind that I am under extreme budget limitations so only cards below 20 cents are up for consideration. Got an idea for a more expensive card? Suggest it on my non budget decklist!
Feel free to check out my other decks on my profile, they may not be as cheap but they are all awesome!
