Budget Building Challenge Pt. 2
Challenges and Articles forum
Posted on Nov. 22, 2014, 11:25 a.m. by Dalektable
Hey everyone! So a long time ago I held a budget building challenge (a link to which can be found on my page if you are so interested!), and I figured now might be a good time to hold another. Except this time, the terms are a little bit different. So, let's take a loom at what this challenge entails.
Requirements
1) Your deck must be standard legal.
2) Your deck must cost fifty dollars or less on TCGPlayer Mid pricing as provided by Tappedout.
3) No multiple deck's allowed. Each person has only one submission, and it cannot be changed once submitted.
4) If someone else submitted Mono Red Aggro, you may not also submit Mono Red Aggro. This is to keep the "meta" of this challenge fresh so we don't have a lot of mirror matches.
How It Will Work
The Tournament: So, how it will work is I will fire a tournament on November 28th, six days from now. It will be a swiss, and the cutoff will be at either 8 or 16 players. If we don't reach sixteen players, then only the first eight submissions will take a part in the tournament however, any submitted afterwards will be considered for the creative category. I may extend the tournament date in an attempt to reach 16 players if the contestants so desire.
Creative Winner: Out of the submitted decks I will pick my personal favorite deck from a creative standpoint. This being what I believe to be the most fun and innovative deck submitted. And, as great as your villainous wealth deck may be, if it can't win games then I can't pick your deck. It needs to be creative as well as good!
Prize
Your prize will be the lifelong glory of winning the Great Budget Building Challenge of 2014 (This for both the creative winner and winner of the tournament). Oh, and I will also feature you on my youtube channel MTGNerdsUnited! Yes, my ultimate goal for this challenge is to find the absolute best budget deck to be offered up by the tappedout community to show my subscribers. This will be my first "Budget Deck Tech" for the standard season. So no pressure! This will get your deck idea out into the world for others to see and be inspired from.
So that's basically it guys! Get to brewing and submitting your decks for your chance to win honor and glory for your username.
Dalektable says... #3
xcn For cards whose prices are not listed for some reason, I would recommend looking those up on TCGPlayer at the mid price listing. Just try to stay within the price range listed! Even though Goblin Rabblemaster's price isn't on tappedout, you should know not to run four because that alone costs more than fifty dollars :P
November 22, 2014 12:12 p.m.
This is mine!!! Very fun
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/16-11-14-budget-uw-heroic/
November 22, 2014 1:49 p.m.
Servo_Token says... #5
Enjoy seeing this happening again.
Definitely losing the creative side of the competition, but I feel like this is good enough to get there.
November 22, 2014 6:08 p.m.
Dalektable says... #6
tooTimid I'd be interested to see what you'd bring to the table.
November 23, 2014 4:27 p.m.
Dalektable says... #8
Preferably a sideboard will be included, though in the tournament I will not be using them in matches.
November 23, 2014 5:09 p.m.
Sounds great! I love challenges like this. I have wayyyyy to many pet cards. How about some zombie tribal??? There and Back Again || Budget Challenge. Best of luck to all, thanks for doing this Dalektable.
November 23, 2014 5:23 p.m.
laughingman123 says... #10
November 24, 2014 9:54 a.m.
Kiora_Fan-01, TheGamer, GlistenerAgent, and TheHroth show us what you got.
November 24, 2014 2:57 p.m.
Thanks for linking me here tooTimid, this is a great idea!
My control deck:
UW Control: Budget Building Challenge Playtest
Standard
SCORE: 0 | 0 COMMENTS | 1 VIEWSNovember 24, 2014 5:04 p.m.
I'm with TheGamer here: thanks for tagging me, tooTimid!
Lets see what I can come up with! Chromanticore comes to mind again and again...MUAHAHAHAHAHA!!
November 24, 2014 5:45 p.m.
5 colour seems weak. The mana base is wayyyyy too expensive. Here we go then:
Sage Of Hours Combo On A Budget Playtest
Standard
SCORE: 0 | 0 COMMENTS | 7 VIEWSNovember 24, 2014 6:37 p.m.
Alright, I'll throw in a Mono-white Heroic deck. Hopefully this will add to the fun.
New Dawn Soldiers - Budget Playtest
Standard
SCORE: 0 | 0 COMMENTS | 1 VIEWSNovember 25, 2014 4:37 p.m.
Dalektable says... #17
Hey everyone! We need one more submission for the tournament, any would be appreciated!
November 27, 2014 8:13 p.m.
Dalektable says... #19
Time to start! Round One!
UW Heroic xXxDNAxXx vs Sage Combo TheHroth
Mono Green Ramp laughingman123 vs Satyr Tribal Potter2003
Soldiers sewellius vs UW Control TheGamer
Mono Black Aggro ThatBlueMage vs BR Zombies tooTimid
November 28, 2014 8:11 a.m.
Dalektable says... #20
xXxDNAxXx Heroic vs TheHroth Sage Combo 2-0. Sage Combo was on the draw to try to find it's combo piece. Heroic played out as it is expected to, but the sage combo was inconsistent. It seems for that deck to function you need sage in the opening hand to work, so I mulled down to three first game without finding one so kept a hand with a scry land and a couple spells. Second game went similarly, except I actually got sage online but once it was out it didn't matter.
laughingman123 Mono Green Ramp vs Potter2003 Satyrs 2-1. Game one, Satyrs got xenagos and obelisk online and quickly closed out the game while ramp got flooded. However, game two and three satyrs drew no real threats against ramps hoard of monkeys and Hydra Broodmaster, which ended the game whenever it hit the table.
sewellius Soldiers vs TheGamer UW Control 1-2. Great decks, the both of you! I am sad not to see soldiers going farther, it was one of my favorite decks in this challenge. However, how games went it seems Control had all the answers, even with the huge amount of threats presented from soldiers. In fact, game three UW Control cast three wraths while sitting at 4 life before being able to stabilize. Fantastic job the two of you!
ThatBlueMage Mono Black Aggro vs tooTimid BR Zombies 2-0. MBA did the thing it does, which is beat face. I liked the concept of tooTimid's deck, however it seemed to stumble piecing together its parts while MBA just played threat after threat.
Round Two will be as follows...
UW Control vs Ramp
Mono Black Aggro vs UW Heroic
November 28, 2014 9:14 a.m.
Sweet! Im advancing to the Semis! Good luck everyone in the Semis, and thanks for participating everyone :D
November 28, 2014 10:10 a.m.
Dalektable says... #22
Azorius Control vs Mono Green Ramp
Game One: Mono Green wins the dice roll, keeping it's seven while UW has to go to 6. Mono Green ends up curving out well, while UW gets stuck on three land, not enough mana to cast any double mana costing cards. (Plains, Island, Radiant Fountain) On to game 2!
Game Two: Both mull to six, control on the play. After Last Breath'ing two mana ramp creatures, mono green gets stuck on mana for a few turns while UW keeps a full hand of spells while hitting every land drop. Finally, mono green picks up pace and starts to play threats but every one is either countered or answered. Eventually the first Prognostic Sphinx is followed up by another, and the game was over. Onto game three!
Game Three: Both keep their opener, mono green is on the play. Mono Green starts out with a very strong start, but for multiple turns draws just forests and no actual threats. Much like the second game, Control got the upper hand landing a couple win conditions and pinging away while countering any opposing threats, making UW win the match!
Congrats TheGamer, you're moving on to the finals!
November 28, 2014 10:51 a.m.
Dalektable says... #23
Mono Black Aggro vs UW Heroic
Game One: Mono Black keeps it's opener with a nice curve, as does UW Heroic though the hand is a little land heavy. MBA wins the die roll and chooses to play. After a super quick game, UW Heroic closes out the game with a Favored Hoplite supported by an Aqueous Form. The was almost had by MBA, but an Ordeal of Heliod put heroic jus out of range by a single point of damage. Great game! On to game 2.
Game Two: Both decks keep their opener, MBA chooses to play first. This game follows exactly as the previous game did. Both decks had fabulous hands, Mono Black Aggro had gotten the heroic down to a low life total before an Ordeal of Heliod off the top saved him. An Aqueous Formed 8/9 Favored Hoplite put this game to a close.
xXxDNAxXx moves on to the finals!
Note ~ This was a very interesting match up. Both decks held their own against eachother, and played at the same pace. MBA may have been a tad faster, but Ordeal of Heliod was enough to make the difference. I've always said the card is great, no one ever seemed to believe me.
Now, in the finals we have UW Heroic vs UW Control, which azorius powerhouse will end up on top?
November 28, 2014 11:08 a.m.
Yay! My control roots are finally starting to pay off!
November 28, 2014 11:08 a.m.
UW Heroic is a pretty bad match up though, but lets see what happens! good luck xXxDNAxXx!
November 28, 2014 11:12 a.m.
Dalektable says... #26
Finals! UW Control vs UW Heroic
Game One: Heroic keeps it's opener, while control mulls to six to keep a counter-spell heavy hand. In most match ups, I feel this would be a good hand but game one you shouldn't know what it is you're playing against so I have to keep this even though it's not good here. Control wins the dice roll and chooses to play. After a series of the worse draws I have seen in my entire life (every win con in the deck and card draw I can't cast) UW Heroic closes out the game quickly against UW Control. Moving on to game 2.
Game Two: Both deck's keep their opener. UW Control handles the first couple creatures, but finally a hoplite is landed and supported by protection spells. In an effort to run it out of it's resources, control has to wrath away the hoplite. Promptly, this is followed by a Heliod's Pilgrim freshly drawn by the heroic player. At this point, control is out of answers and plays a Prognostic Sphinx in order to dig for anything as it's exhausted it's hand. Unable to find anything, heroic closes out the game with a Hero of Iroas protected by a hand full of protection spells.
Congrats xXxDNAxXx on winning the tournament! Your deck ran smoothly, as expected, and did what the deck does. Also, good job TheGamer on making it so far. Your deck had some problems in the finals, but that doesn't take away from the quality of the deck you've put together. Oh, and we have one more winner to announce...
The creative winner of the challenge is... sewellius with Mono White Heroic Soldiers. I haven't yet seen a deck like it, and it plays out very smoothly. It ran a fantastic soldier theme while supporting a good heroic backup. Very powerful and fun deck.
Thank you all for participating! You all did a great job with your decks and I look forward to doing another of these in the future. A modern one perhaps? Regardless, I will be posting the videos soon on my youtube channel and then on this thread. Thanks again everyone!
November 28, 2014 11:28 a.m.
Sweet! Congrats to xXxDNAxXx! Im laughing my ass off when you said that those were the worst draws you've ever seen in your entire life. Those are absolutely terrible things to draw, ofc it happens in the finals :P
But no matter what, the UW Heroic deck was great! Definitely deserved to win the challenge. I'd be super interested in doing a modern one, but you'd probably have to increase the max cash total to like $75 or so.
If you can, it'd be great if you link me to the forum in the comments somewhere so i dont forget to post a deck :)
November 28, 2014 11:37 a.m.
Dalektable says... #28
TheGamer Will do! I was thinking I would make the price for a modern challenge 100 dollars so there can be some room for more innovation.
November 28, 2014 12:36 p.m.
Yeah, that makes more sense Dalektable. $100 seems better.
November 28, 2014 12:43 p.m.
Dalektable says... #31
xXxDNAxXx You might want to check out the second page, friend :p
November 29, 2014 1:46 p.m.
Aw bummer. I didn't make it past the first round. I'm glad at least that you liked my entry for the challenge, Dalektable. :)
December 1, 2014 6 p.m.
Oh whoops, I didn't even notice that I won the creative challenge. I appreciate the highlight. :)
xcn says... #2
A lot of Khans cards, and even some M15 cards, don't seem to have prices up - will we have to just go check that for ourselves, or should we submit some kind of request to the site to update those?
November 22, 2014 11:44 a.m.