Lesser Thief

Commander / EDH Budget Competitive

Archeopteryx

Land (32)

• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Cascade Bluffs
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Fiery Islet
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Forbidden Orchard
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Island
• 1x Luxury Suite
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Morphic Pool
• 1x Plains
• 1x Prairie Stream
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Sea of Clouds
• 1x Shivan Reef
• 1x Snow-Covered Island
• 1x Snow-Covered Swamp
• 1x Spire of Industry
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Sulfur Falls
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Tarnished Citadel
• 1x Underground River
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Windswept Heath

Enchantment (8)

• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Rest in Peace
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Smothering Tithe
• 1x Suppression Field
• 1x Verity Circle
• 1x Waste Not

Instant (24)

• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Cabal Ritual
• 1x Chain of Vapor
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Countersquall
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Demonic Consultation
• 1x Dispel
• 1x Dovin's Veto
• 1x Fire Covenant
• 1x Lim-Dul's Vault
• 1x Mana Leak
• 1x Mental Misstep
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Narset's Reversal
• 1x Negate
• 1x Opt
• 1x Pyroblast
• 1x Red Elemental Blast
• 1x Silence
• 1x Spell Pierce
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Tainted Pact
• 1x Wear / Tear

Sorcery (12)

• 1x Burning Inquiry
• 1x Dark Deal
• 1x Echo of Eons
• 1x Faithless Looting
• 1x Gitaxian Probe
• 1x Mnemonic Betrayal
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Pyroclasm
• 1x Whispering Madness
• 1x Windfall
• 1x Winds of Change
• 1x Yahenni's Expertise

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Jace, Wielder of Mysteries
• 1x Narset, Parter of Veils

Commanders (2)

Artifact (13)

• 1x Azorius Signet
• 1x Cursed Totem
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Grafdigger's Cage
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Smuggler's Copter
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Creativity
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Talisman of Hierarchy
• 1x Talisman of Progress

Creature (7)

• 1x Alms Collector
• 1x Aven Mindcensor
• 1x Baleful Strix
• 1x Dockside Extortionist
• 1x Laboratory Maniac
• 1x Mindblade Render
• 1x Notion Thief

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An attempt at a Budget opus thief deck. This deck is built with the intent of competing with "normal" cedh decks running ABUR duals, Reserved List Cards, High Price Points, etc, that could be seen as something that will prevent a player from wanting to join, what I view as, the best format. This deck is modified based off of my normal Opus Thief Deck, which was in turn stolen from the wonderful Shaper:

deck: Opus Thief - Archeopteryx

First off, a few concessions must be made. We will not be able to take advantage of explosive turns in quite the same way as with the full un-budgeted list. This means we will need to lean fully into our disruption game plan to play the long game, like a good mid-range combo deck. Additionally, Ad Nauseam / Angel's Grace , while cost effective to run in the deck from a wallet stand point; we take much more damage to produce mana in this build.

I tried my best to maintain all game plans of the deck, even allowing for some modicum of explosive starts, but with less fast mana available and less free control magic up, we want to be careful. Luckily, budget does not hurt our main disruption pieces. The real place we are hurt is in wheel quality, no wheel will ever compare to Timetwister , and we give up Wheel of Fortune as well. We also lose Dark Confidant , and in it's place gain Mindblade Render , which while no Roberto Confidante, works consistently with Tymna the Weaver .

Hopefully this deck will suffice as a good way for a more controlly player to get their feet wet in Competitive EDH without having sell their car, or use proxies and allow for them to have a solid shell of a deck that they can upgrade without sacrificing the deck idea/playstyle itself.

This deck came in at 501.82 cents as of 09/22/19. This list is not definitive, but merely an example of what a 500-ish dollar deck could look like.

Date added	4 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	10 - 0 Mythic Rares 44 - 0 Rares 22 - 0 Uncommons 19 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.12
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Spirit 1/1 C, Treasure, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	$200-600ish cEDH, Opus, Possible decks, EDH Decks I Like