Best Budget Modern Decks
Modern forum
Posted on Jan. 8, 2016, 5:25 p.m. by BlueMageBrandon
I want to start playing Modern and am looking for some deck ideas. I do have a budget of around $100 - $300. I think the best way would be to get something I can continually upgrade as I go. I also don't want something that is dominating the meta. One reason why I'm iffy about Modern is that the format is so defined and that you always see the same decks. Some decks that I have thought about are the Event Deck, U/R Delver, Fish, and maybe Abzan. Thank you all for your help in advance. The community here is amazing and I hope someday I can help noobs like me, too.
EDIT: Bx Eldrazi also looks fun.
You may want to look into soul sisters. It's a fun deck that I like to think is pretty decent. It's not a tier 1 deck but can handle it's own. It's also super easy to make an extreme budget version that you can add on to down the road with Serra Ascendant and Ranger of Eos which are a couple of the more expensive cards for the deck. Hope this helps!
January 8, 2016 5:44 p.m.
Boggles! Always fun to see an opponents facial expression mirriring that of the little turd creature that just just killed them Slippery Bogle
January 8, 2016 5:49 p.m.
LastAssassin47 has a great idea as well with UR delver/prowess. Stormchaser Mage has really made that deck a lot better.
January 8, 2016 5:51 p.m.
BlueMageBrandon says... #6
LastAssassin47 Do you think it would win some matches and/or a FNM? U/R is one of my favorite color combos and Stormchaser Mage seems fun.
January 8, 2016 6:20 p.m.
I'm a huge fan of the Emeria Control Decks. I have a version here:
UW Emeria Control
Modern*
SCORE: 1 | 0 COMMENTS | 231 VIEWS
Without the Snapcaster Mage it is probably within your budget range. Also, SaffronOlive at mtggoldfish.com did a great series on the Emeria Control which can be found here: http://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/budget-magic-94-50-tix-modern-mono-white-emeria-control
January 8, 2016 6:32 p.m.
Wizard_of_the_Broke says... #9
I really like Storm personally, and you can find multiple Storm lists on my profile that fit a number of budgets. The thing is, Storm just isn't that resilient. It'll win games at FNM, sure. And it's not that common these days so it does catch people by surprise. But the thing is, every type of Storm deck I know can get absolutely hosed by a popular card in the format. Sometimes it loses to a Lightning Bolt-ed Goblin Electromancer, sometimes it loses to an Abrupt Decay-ed Pyromancer Ascension, and sometimes it just loses to a plain old Remand. I'd also add that while the difficulty of playing those decks is often overstated, it's still takes a good bit of practice.
That said, I think LastAssassin47 is right. I've been playing a budget UR Delver list for some time and it's great (you can also find that on my profile). I highly recommend it as a $150-$300 Modern deck that can be upgraded gradually. And it's about to get a lot, lot better with Stormchaser Mage in the mix. I don't know what the exact list will look like, but I think some sort of UR aggro or tempo (or even URx) will be a great budget deck in the format for some time to come. There's also a budget-ish mono-black midrange deck with a bunch of Eldrazi floating around. That's certainly worth a look, but it doesn't sound like it fits your playing style.
January 8, 2016 7:01 p.m.
YamishiTheWickedOne says... #10
If you went UR prowess your main creatures would be Delver of Secrets Flip, Monastery Swiftspear and Young Pyromancer. Maybe Grim Lavamancer since you build a lot of grave. I'm assuming you can't exactly afford things like Cryptic Command or Snapcaster Mage. So you'd have to make do with Lightning Bolt, Electrolyze, Izzet Charm, Vapor Snag, Spell Pierce, Dispel, Mana Leak and things like Second Guess, Remand and Spell Snare if you can afford them. Gitaxian Probe and Thought Scour are good draw power. Can you afford Serum Visions or Sleight of Hand? Forked Bolt and even Assault Strobe might help you.
January 8, 2016 7:02 p.m.
IzzetFanatic says... #11
If you hate people... Play this deck: its price is less then it says because I have foils.
January 8, 2016 9:23 p.m.
mathimus55 says... #12
Lots of options. Besides storm and the UR delver variants like people mentioned you can do a few fun decks like Mono-green stompy which is always fast, consistent, straightforward and easy to upgrade.
One of my favorite <$100 decks is Kiln Fiend combo where you play a ton of cheap crantrips and explode for tons of damage, kind of like a creature based storm almost except it's less about rituals and building a storm count and more just blasting someone for 25 turn 3.
I would check out MTGGoldfish's channel for some super cheap budget brews too. It's an AWESOME resource for all sorts of decks that you can check out, most times coming in under $100 and they give you a linear upgrade plan for the decks as you go too. Simic Evolve was one of my all time favorites but they have decks for all different play styles that aren't the mainstream archetypes that other people will be playing
January 8, 2016 9:39 p.m.
BlueMageBrandon says... #13
Ok. I've decide to go with UR Delver/Prowess. However, using all of your advice, I have too many cards. Now obviously i'm no expert so any advice on what to cut (and/or add) would be helpful.
UR Prowess 1st Modern Deck
Modern*
SCORE: 1 | 0 COMMENTS | 9 VIEWS
LastAssassin47 says... #2
UR Prowess
Little more aggresive version of UR Delver. Not hard to play and quite cheap. (Few $ above your budget, but you can easily cut some fetches.)
January 8, 2016 5:39 p.m.