This is just a budget version of my Esper Control list. In the original deck, I mentioned several budget friendly alternative cards and I wanted to show what a fully budget version of that deck might look like.
Here is a list of commonly used cards in modern Esper Control decks and the budget alternatives I replaced them with
-Cryptic Command was replaced with Blink of an Eye and Remand. While neither of these budget options have Cryptic Command's flexibility, they do have similar function as its modes.
-Kaya's Guile was replaced with Foul-Tongue Invocation and Timely Reinforcements. Just like Cryptic Command, there is no good budget option that maintains the same flexibility, but we can mimic the power of its modes with these other options.
-Archmage's Charm was replaced with Supreme Will. While the loss of Archmage's Charm's 3rd mode is quite painful in a modern meta filled with cards like Esper Sentinel, Dragon's Rage Channeler and Raagavan, Nimble Pilferer, this budget option which costs literal pennies is almost identical to the original. Having 4 free mana to deny the counter is extremely unlikely. While the draw mode only gives you one card, you do get to look at 4 and choose the best from among them, which I believe is enough value to at least be a very close comparison.
-Damn was replace with Winds of Abandon. There is only about a $1 difference between these two cards. It is technically a budget option but if you can spare the $4 I would highly encourage just getting Damn so you do not ramp your opponents.
-Snapcaster Mage was replaced with Mission Briefing. Both of these cards have the same mana value and functionally the same text. The loss of a creature is rough, but my decklist runs a few extra creatures from other sources to make sure the deck can still end the game. Otherwise, its pretty much the same card.
-Teferi, Hero of Dominaria was replaced with Jace, Unraveler of Secrets. Both of these planeswalkers have a +1 that draws a card, a -3 that bounces, an emblem that ends the game, 5 starting loyalty, and a mana value of 5. Missing out on the untapped lands hurts, but ignoring that detail the cards are nearly identical.
-Teferi, Time Raveler was replaced with Dakkon, Shadow Slayer. Both planeswalkers come out on turn 3 and remove something from the board. Dakkon is missing many of Teferi's other benefits and his -6 is completely useless in this deck, but I felt as though this was the closest replacement I could find. Other options I considered included Into the Roil and Narset, Parter of Veils.
-Jace, the Mind Sculptor is impossible to replace. Despite this, I replaced him with Narset Transcendent. I chose this card because it is one of the few budget friendly cards I could find that can attempt to soft-lock your opponents out of the game the way Jace, the Mind Sculptor's +2 can. By giving rebound to things like Esper Charm and Thought Erasure from the sideboard, you can make sure that your opponent is constantly hellbent. This is probably is the closest you can get to forcing bad draws on your opponent as you can without breaking the bank. If you think you found an option that works better, please let me know in the comments as I would love to see it.
You might have noticed at this point that the deck runs one copy of Dragonlord Ojutai. The Dragonlord is in this deck for 2 reasons: 1) because it is one of my favorite cards and I think it is slightly underrated, and 2) because helps to enable the one copy of Foul-Tongue Invocation. Timeless Dragon is also in for dragon synergy, and doubles as a way to help fix our mana. A playset of Flooded Strand costs almost twice the amount of this entire deck does and is not an option for budget deckbuilding. Tapped lands are okay, but too many of them quickly makes the deck non-functional. By using cheap dual lands such as Prairie Stream and Snowfield Sinkhole we can use the cycling ability of Timeless Dragon to fix for our colors. The land count of the deck is also a little low compared to most competitive control lists. This is justified by this deck's lack of 8 fetch lands, which would normally be thinning down the land count just as the game gets started.
Thankfully for our wallets, sideboard options are generally cheap. Thought Erasure is a wonderful alternative to thoughtsieze. The increased mana cost is not ideal, but being able to hit any card type is very valuable. Damping Matrix is quite literally a poor man's Stony Silence. The cheap Nihil Spellbomb is this deck's graveyard hate card of choice. Cleansing Nova is much cheaper and similar in effect to Fracturing Gust. Celestial Purge and Noxious Grasp are both solid color-hate sideboard cards. Yahenni's Expertise is another pet card of mine. If your opponent's deck is susceptible to the -3 toughness, being able to cast an extra Thought Erasure, Esper Charm, or just sticking a Dakkon, Shadow Slayer can swing a game from difficult to win to impossible to lose.
Thank you for looking through my deck and reading through my ramblings. I hope you enjoyed the decklist and have a wonderful day :D
