Hello all!
I was wondering what the top unpowered/budget decks are so far in 2019. I’m looking to play at EW this year, and a couple trials in my area. I played in it last year with Mono Red Prison, and did fairly well. Just looking to see what other options are out there currently
Thank you!
Moon Stompy and JacoDrazi are still the obvious choices. Unpowered Delver and Hatebears are also probably fine.
Landstill is an option that doesn't need power to function. Although, out of all the options, this might be the toughest to pilot correctly if you've never piloted Landstill before or aren't sure what the meta will be like at EW.
I think you could play 4 Collector Ouphe and 4 Yixlid Jailer main along with Spirit Guides to cast them on t1 and spam a bunch of free wins? Mix in Thaila and that sounds solid
There has to be a budget deck that capitalizes on Collector Ouphe and Force of Vigor. G/W Hatebears with Thalia(s)? R/G Beats?, something built off of @ChubbyRain's Jund decks? Green Eldrazi? I bet any budget deck that used to run green is boosted up a whole deck tier by adding 4 of each.
@brass-man
“There has to be a budget deck that capitalizes on Collector Ouphe and Force of Vigor.”
4 Collector
4 FoV
2 Sylvan Library
8 Spirit Guides
4 Blood Moon
4 Magus
4 Misstep
That seems like a decent place to start. Now add in some sold green dudes (Scavenging Ooze, Tarmogoyf, etc). DRS and Wrenn and Six also seem good if you can afford the fetches to make it work. If you can then you also get access to Assassins Trophy.
I’ve been looking at Green Eldrazi. Channel is especially fun when you have it.
I did a brew of a r/g eldrazi list a couple months back.
That said, I started rebrewing the list, depowered it, and updated with WAR, MH1 and M20 in mind.
Here's my rough draft.
1 Domri, Anarch of Bolas
1 Chalice of the Void
3 Lightning Bolt
1 Kaervek's Torch
3 Collector Ouphe
4 Ancient Stirrings
4 Force of Vigor
1 Channel
2 Sylvan Library
3 Boreal Druid
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Reality Smasher
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
1 Wrenn and Six
2 Karn, the Great Creator
2 Taiga
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Forest
1 Mountain
<Sideboard>
3 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Blood Moon
1 Trinisphere
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Mycosynth Lattice
2 Pyroblast
2 Nature's Claim
2 Goblin Cratermaker
I play Mono Red Moon and its great. If you want something different try Brassman's Survival list with Serum Power in place of Bazaar. You'll get aggro hands and be able to maximize the turn one Survival hands.
@stuart so I’ve been looking online for a updated Jacodrazi list, and all I can find are from couple years ago. Are there any updated lists out there ?
@chikararyuu have you had a chance to test this list? It looks really sweet!
@popedeuce37 As far as I can tell, no. I assume there must be a way to incorporate Karn the Great Creator, though he does kind of contract the deck's purpose (breaking Null Rod's symmetry) and can't get powered out that quickly. It's also possible the deck should be messing around with cards like Walking Ballista.
@stuart what delver variants are good when unpowered? UR would be my top pick.
Here is what I have right now. Definitely a work in progress. I have been testing with Emerald and Lotus, but you could replace with Sol Ring and Mana Crypt or lands.
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Wasteland
4 Eldrazi Temple
3 Cavern of Souls
1 Strip Mine
7 Forest
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Channel
4 Ancient Stirrings
4 Collector Ouphe
4 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Reality Smasher
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Matter Reshaper
4 Karn, the Great Creator
2 Karn, Scion of Urza
Sideboard
4 Force of Vigor
3 Tormod’s Crypt
2 Grafdigger’s Cage
1 Chalice of the Void
1 Mycosynth Lattice
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Sorcerous Spyglass
1 Walking Ballista
@brass-man the problem is these decks REALLY need moxen even off color ones to deploy their hate cards on turn 1
@iamactuallylvl1 I agree that's traditionally an issue, but I think that may be LESS true now specifically because of Force of Vigor. In Survival decks I've been wanting to run fewer and fewer moxes. Maybe there's a different approach to a budget deck that better gets around the 2-drop hatebear problem? There's plenty of turn 1 interaction when you look outside of hate bears, particularly in black (discard) and blue (counters).
Budget questions are difficult because everyone has a different definition for what counts as a budget deck. Some people consider Dredge a budget deck, others want their collection to cost less than a single Bazaar. Can you run Dual Lands? Force of Wills? Survival of the Fittest? Wastelands? Do you already happen to own some expensive card that changes the calculus? I can brainstorm ideas for days but I have no idea what's actually feasible for any particular person to own.
Here are some half-baked budget ideas that I'm curious about, which I haven't seen anyone put work into:
UG(x) Delver - heavy on free and one-drop threats and disruption to get around the mox problem. Maybe this would look like old Legacy Threshold decks. Obviously this deck would WANT Time Walk and Ancestral, but I've always felt Delver's consistency/redundancy make it less power-reliant than other blue decks.
BG(x) Death's Shadow - Love me some Death's Shadow. All of the cards you want are 0s and 1s anyway which make moxes worse (Thoughtseize, Mental Misstep, Street Wraith), and you get to cut your Dual lands for Shocklands.
(there's probably a U/G/B Shadowfish deck that combines both of these, but I bet it stretches the budget requirements)
Elves! - Modern/Legacy Elf combo, if you can actually figure out how to play it, is already pretty consistent. Force of Vigor gives it a level of interaction it never had access to in Vintage before. I'm not sure how much of a difference that makes but I'd love to know.
Bazaarless Survival - This has to be a thing. I'd have to spend some time to figure out exactly what the implications are (there could be many). Cutting Bazaar makes Hollow One worse but it makes your mana more consistent and frees up a lot of space. Maybe this deck is G/U or G/R for looting effects and some additional one-drops. You know you want to play G/R Bazaarless Faithless Survival. Admit it.
@brass-man said in Budget/unpowered decks in 2019:
Bazaarless Survival - This has to be a thing. I'd have to spend some time to figure out exactly what the implications are (there could be many). Cutting Bazaar makes Hollow One worse but it makes your mana more consistent and frees up a lot of space. Maybe this deck is G/U or G/R for looting effects and some additional one-drops. You know you want to play G/R Bazaarless Faithless Survival. Admit it.
Certainly one could cut down to 1-2 Hollow One for such a build. I’d definitely play at least 1 Hogaak though. Probably interested in 4 ESG and maybe even stay as close to mono-green as possible?
I think the new RG Planeswalkers that gets land back from gy would be very strong in Eldrazi. Between the new canopy lands, and karplusan mountains, shouldn't be a Mana issue. Would be amazing for wasteland obv, alongside the new sac and draw lands, and pinging w ever can chump. Maybe worth the splash?
