Epic budget deck stories!
Standard forum
Posted on May 5, 2016, 6:50 p.m. by clayperce
I'm looking for stories about budget decks that are fighting WAY above their weight class.
You know ... stuff like a $70 Werewolf deck that, with tight play and lucky draws, took down a $700 Tier 1 deck. Or a $45 Madness deck that's now playing on a Game Day Champion mat.
These are the games where -- whether you were piloting the budget deck or sitting on the other side of the table -- you probably just sat there for a few minutes afterwards, wondering "What just happened?!?"
Please tell us about those games!
ninjaclevs13 says... #3
I originally bought the Zendikar event deck, and added a few Carrier Thralls and a Liliana, Heretical Healer Flip that I had. It's basically a nasty sacrifice deck that works stupidly well. It's always done well at casual fnm's, but it's recently been beating this try hard guy with the all-out [partially foiled] Bant Company. He's always salty af when he loses. Let me know if you want a list! This deck is sweet and can swing for 20+ unblockable turn 4 or 5 with Nantuko Husk + Rogue's Passage.
May 5, 2016 7:46 p.m.
I play UW spirits right now for fun. It's not my competitive deck, but no one takes it seriously and I have been winning against everything but humans right now.
May 5, 2016 8:33 p.m.
noobplayer17 says... #5
My brother has just recently gotten into modern a few months ago. This was when eldrazi were nearly ruining the format. My brother built a mono green Hardened Scales deck that absolutely crushed.
The deck played Collected Company, which has now jumped to around $25 apiece. He got them when they were $3. Even then, that is the only money card. All basic forests and cheap cards. Compared to most modern this is an extremely cheap deck.
He played his first modern fnm with the deck and is paired against the professional build of infect. Guy was super confident and kind of cocky. Started to get serious when my brother companies into two Managorger Hydra with Hardened Scales out ...every spell cast is +2/+2.
Our store is very competitive and commonly have players ranking highly in big state tournaments. He has done very well against all flavors of modern staples and builds. The only deck at the time to give him trouble was the eldrazi list. They were pretty even. The eldrazi player informed him that his was the only deck to play against that wasn't just a breeze!
Pretty good for a budget build!!
May 5, 2016 8:34 p.m.
PistonGolem says... #6
My brother, who played modern but couldn't build a deck well, built a modern mill deck and fought it against my standard at the time. Here is what happened.
When the game started, the draw was not nice to me, I had to mulligan down to 6. I looked at my scry. Whirler Rogue. I did not have enough land, so I put it on the bottom. Anyways, eventually he milled me down to four cards in my deck, we both had a few creatures on the field, mostly me with my Thopter tokens, but he had 16 life, I had 2 life. My field had Whirler Rogue and a Chief of the Foundry and about 6 thopters, with a few other creatures. I had a copy of Kolaghan Forerunners in the deck for some random reason I put it there.
I drew a card. Artificer's Epiphany. 3 cards left in my deck.He knew about the Kolaghan Forerunners, because he has a bad tendency to let my thopters survive a little too long. So I played my Artificer's Epiphany, drew two cards. I smiled, he realized what happened, and he frantically searched my graveyard and exile zone(yes, he used freaking INGEST in MODERN MILL) but it wasn't there. I dashed it, tapped two thopters to make it unblockable. And then within a minute of playing it, I had an attack force that won the game due to an unblockable 12/3 Forerunners. The deck I built was with only 17 bucks. That Scry Though...
May 5, 2016 9:32 p.m.
readerrw07 says... #7
Khans event deck, no changes, 2nd place at FNM in the pre-origins meta
May 6, 2016 2:37 a.m.
Dalektable says... #8
Back in THS / RVN Standard I played a thirty dollar Mono Blue Flyers deck with an artifact subtheme with Ensoul Artifact. First FNM I took the deck to, I got first place beating Mono Black Devotion, Esper Control, Mono Blue Devotion, RW Aggro and Naya Hexproof. For those that remember, these were all tier 1-2 decks so it was a sweet performance, every round people gathered around to watch my deck haha.
May 6, 2016 7:48 a.m.
SpringingTiger says... #9
About three years ago (after I'd been playing casually for about eight months), I decided to try going to my first FNM. This was during INN/RTR Standard, when Jund, UWR Flash, Aristocrats, and Bant Hexproof were among the top decks, and everyone was playing with $150 mana bases (I know, that sounds like nothing compared to last year). I was playing a modified version of the Strength of Selesnya event deck. Build from scratch my deck would probably cost about $40. The end result? First place for me! I enjoyed that evening.
May 6, 2016 5:52 p.m.
Three nights ago, I took my Goryo's Hulk deck which is a more economic build of bubble hulk or Flash Hulk to Friday Night Magic. I entered in Modern format. I ended up 3/2,winning 7 matches. The highlight for me was taking down an Urza-Tron loaded with foil Karn planeswalkers, Ugins, and fetchlands And I pulled turn 2 & 3 wins against a tournament player's burn deck
amazingdan says... #2
A while ago, I was playing a $20 Sultai Assault Formation deck, based on a deck on this site. I played against an Atarka Red deck(back when it was super meta). Beat the shit out of him. He would get in some damage, maybe kill a creature or two, but I always stabilized at around 10 health and just took over the game with my 0/Xs. He said gg just as respectfully as anybody, but you could tell he was SUPER salty. That round ended up being my only win, but it was enough to knock him out of Top 8. Great night, worth every cent(with most of the cards being literal cents).
May 5, 2016 7:07 p.m.