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Ultra-Budget (<$10) "Forgotten Epitaph"

Modern* Budget Combo Mill

ruy343


Sideboard


I like to screw with how the game works, and I couldn't pass up the opportunity when I saw Epitaph Golem seling for a few paltry cents to make an ultra-budget deck that turns the game upside-down. Green and Blue have some great cards in the latest set for milling yourself, and Epitaph Golem lets me place cards on the bottom of my library. What if I milled my library so that the bottom of the library was also the top of the library? I could control my draws perpetually!

So here's the plan for the first few turns (it usually takes 10-12 to mill myself completely): Crawling Sensation lets me mill myself and get tokens to stay alive. Forgotten Creation also lets me mill my entire hand worth of cards every turn, and Groundskeeper lets me pull the lands I need from the graveyard. Also, Forgotten Creation + Groundskeeper can let me draw more cards at the start of my turn (use spare mana to pull lands to hand, then forgotten creation lets me discard them - since I draw the same number of cards I discarded, I just created a 2-mana draw-a-card ability!). Most importantly, Crawling Sensation and Forgotten Creation both have self-milling abilities that are optional, so I can choose not to use them when I get to the bottom of my library.

Once I mill my entire deck (should take a few turns - the downside of this deck), I will have complete control of my draws, so I can put in a variety of useful cards in a variety of colors to take out a any opponent, and I can re-use them all with total impunity. Ever After is a particularly fitting card since it recycles itself (I added some big, cheap Eldrazi without cast effects to fetch with it), and Soul Swallower will definitely enjoy having a full graveyard for the delirium effect. Displacement Wave is there in case an opponent is using tokens and things are getting out of control (yes, it'll nuke my own tokens as well, but my tokens are just a means to survive until the end game).

I also included a few spells that let me investigate (namely Press for Answers + Root Out + Tamiyo's Journal ), which can be continually recycled on a given turn as long as I have mana to feed them. Since my mill strategy uses Forgotten Creation + Groundskeeper , I'll likely never miss my land drops because they always come to hand, and my manabase can have whatever colors it needs.

Is it competitive? Probably not - I have yet to test it. But it looks dang fun to play, particularly in a multiplayer format!

Please, feel free to make suggestions, but try to keep your suggestions budget (less than $0.50 per card).

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Updates Add

So, I've run this deck against a friend of mine in a 1v1 matchup, and it actually didn't turn out too badly - I won 2-1. I definitely had the mana advantage (groundskeepers and card draw made it easy to always hit my land drops), but he had the ability to disrupt my combos, so it took quite a bit longer to reach the end of my deck. However, I hit delirium very early, and was able to flip my Autumnal Gloom  Flips on turn 3, which were able to survive removal by my opponent.

Soul Swallower is easily removed (my opponent had a black deck full of removal), as is Forgotten Creation, but eventually I ended up having a handful of cards available to me to play while my opponent ran out of removal spells, which eventually allowed me to dominate the board. When I pulled out my eldrazi, it was over.

A note - just because you CAN discard your hand and draw a new one doesn't necessarily mean that it's a good idea. I decided to discard away some useful creatures at one point, and I regretted it afterwards when my opponent destroyed my Forgotten Creation. However, in a multiplayer game with two or more opponents, you won't be the biggest threat on the board, so you're much more likely to slip in under the radar.

Revision coming soon.

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Date added 8 years
Last updated 6 years
Key combos
Legality

This deck is Modern legal.

Rarity (main - side)

11 - 1 Rares

14 - 2 Uncommons

12 - 2 Commons

Cards 60
Avg. CMC 3.32
Tokens Clue, Insect 1/1 G
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