I'm new and on a budget.
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on March 14, 2021, 9:27 p.m. by WickedWitch
Heyy,
I'm trying the format for the first time for my husband and I know I could just pick up a precon but I wanna show him that I really tried to appreciate the format and every video on the format I saw was saying that building your own deck is part of the fun so I'm gonna try to build it on my own.
I'm on a budget though and I'd like to know which color combinations (in the 2 or 3 colors combinations) or tribe is the most budget and beginner friendly.
We'll be playing 4 players minimums games, the power levels obviously won't be optimal because it's a budget deck.
If this is your first deck, the best recommendation I would give you is to have a think about what you like, and then go from there. Don't limit yourself by picking colour combinations and then trying to find stuff that fits that. Pick a theme you'll enjoy which will drive the deck's colours.
Though, and ignoring the previous statement I made, the more colours you add, the more it will cost. Decent speed mana fixing will involves stuff like shocks and check lands, as well as some basic fetching. But it does give you more options. Be warned though, the more colours you add, the more 'staples' you have available which will make picking the 100 cards a bit more difficult (as you feel like you need to include more stuff).
I would also recommend (if you did want to pick colours) to pick a theme that lets you run green, as this will be the most helpful for you from a ramp situation. Green provides a lot of cheap ramp and fixing which will make your deck more playable and in turn more enjoyable (since you're able to actually make he deck do what its supposed to do).
March 14, 2021 10:05 p.m.
I'm inferring from your post that you know the game, just not the format. Are there any color combinations, strategies, or individual cards you particularly enjoy?
Commander's Quarters and EDHrec.combare good places to start. For my personal thoughts, Elves is easy enough to build, and has been getting a good amount of support recently. Goblins is also reasonable, as is Zombies, using pretty much any other colors you want.
Overall, and tend to be less powerful as main colors in Commander, but they still make good support colors.
The most important advice is, as always, build what makes you happy and have fun!
March 14, 2021 10:13 p.m.
Omniscience_is_life says... #5
and will be the cheapest colors to play, as they have so many amazing options that some of the good ones that are slightly overshadowed stay pretty budget.
You can have a pretty decent cheap ramp package in Simic, with cards like Rampant Growth , Cultivate , Talisman of Curiosity , Growth Spiral , etc. plus card draw in the form of Beast Whisperer , Secrets of the Golden City , Windrider Wizard , et al. So that just makes everything easier, having a good baseline.
BUT, the MOST important thing you can take away from this--play the COMMANDER you want to play. Your commander is the card you will be casting in 99% of games, and as such you really want to love it. I would say take a half-hour or so scrolling through all these cheap legendary creatures (you can change the dollar amount of the cap I set, but for the reasons I said earlier your commander is definitely something worth investing a little into)... and just see what sticks out to you.
March 15, 2021 12:55 a.m.
My go-to advice for any one starting EDH is this:
Pick something about magic that you like, whatever it may be. For most archetypes, there are commanders to do all sorts of things.
I would definitely say that budget doesn't really affect your choice for colors, just pick one that seems fun!
March 15, 2021 11:46 a.m.
TriusMalarky says... #7
Honestly, "don't know what to build and I have a budget" doesn't help much.
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What kind of budget? $50, $100, $200, $382?
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What colors do you like?
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What strategies do you like?
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Any favorite cards you'd like to use?
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Any gimmicks/creature types/other silly thing you want to use?
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What's your playstyle?
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What kind of decks do you expect to see?
You don't necessarily have to answer all of those right now or even ever, but that's the kind of thing that helps people help you. It makes the job a lot easier than just guessing. So some sort of overview that largely answers several of those questions would be super helpful.
March 15, 2021 12:10 p.m.
Gidgetimer says... #8
I feel like I say this in every thread asking about a good deck that is budget/beginner friendly but...
Have you heard the good news of our lord and savior Xenagos, God of Revels ? He is blazingly fast to produce a credible threat and you don't have to over extend since he grants haste. You can build him on an extreme budget (besides his own cost, which has been climbing) and then slowly upgrade with better cards.
March 15, 2021 8:11 p.m.
FormOverFunction says... #9
I’ve written and deleted a number of posts on this...but I think this will be useful (and short) enough. I would recommend a deck in a color (or colors) that you don’t hate (white is too goody-goody/black is too gloomy/etc), and one that has a good mix (50/50 or 60/40 or whatever) of interesting creatures that do interesting things and fun spells that also do weird and interesting stuff. With that mishmash in hand you’ll be best prepared to have fun with whatever happens to be going on with the other three decks. If your only deck ends up being a specifically focused, stuck to the railroad tracks, combo deck... well, after two hours of attempting to cast “Jace’s Backflip” on your Mountain Goat after you get “Inversion Matrix” into play... you may never want to play commander again.
March 15, 2021 8:32 p.m.
FormOverFunction says... #10
I was making up some examples of the arbitrary and yet strangely specific combo pieces that people use. I like being able to explain what my deck is doing, and that’s difficult with some of the cards in magic (not just the new ones). I was sort of riffing on that one combo they used to use for combo wins. Was it Jeskai Ascendancy and Retraction Helix ? Anyways, a lot of the people I’ve played with, who are new to magic (or in this case, maybe just new to EDH) don’t want to play that kind of deck because it’s more enjoyable to smash your rhinoceros, that you just made even bigger, into that dragon that is apparently from a place called Shiva.
March 15, 2021 8:57 p.m.
Gidgetimer says... #11
While in general I agree with FormOverFunction's advice, I would caution against prescribing exactly what is and isn't "fun" or "enjoyable". I would instead simply recommend playing a deck that you find enjoyable in a vacuum.
For many people those decks probably look as Form described. For me for the entirety of the time I have been playing MtG I have enjoyed combo much more than any good stuff or midrange deck. The two things that sounded the least fun in their original post to me were "two hours" and "mish mash".
March 15, 2021 10:44 p.m.
FormOverFunction says... #12
I’m very glad Gidgetimer made this point, because I’m not really good at recommendations on that aspect of the game. I don’t know WickedWitch at all, and my recommendations could literally be the worst ones possible ;p The big strength of this site is we’ve got a wealth of knowledge and perspectives at our disposal, and the common goal of enjoying M:tG. Thanks Gidgetimer!
March 15, 2021 11:23 p.m.
there right building your own deck is a major part of the fun
but they forgot to mention, edh is a completely different animal from a 60 card format and the first few decks new players build result in failure
a decent edh deck averages $5-$10 per card ($500-$1000 deck total)
even budget decks averages $2 per card ($200)
that's a lot of money out the door to build a deck your unsure will work in the format and your not even sure if its your play style
my advise start with a $30-$50 precon and have some fun
i'm sure your hubby will appreciate just being able to play with you
also this way later you can grow and develop the deck together which can be a fantastic bonding process
March 18, 2021 3:35 p.m.
Grubbernaut says... #14
I'm honestly not sure how the recent precons are, but Mitch regularly releases a variety of decks around $50. Obviously not on par with tuned decks, but anything from jank to a 3-4 level deck is possible with some ingenuity.
Grubbernaut says... #2
I'd recommend watching deck techs on Commander's Quarters on youtube until you find one that suits the player; there's a lot of good budget options. :)
March 14, 2021 9:34 p.m.