Budget EDH: Heron's Flock

Commander / EDH Budget GW (Selesnya) Humans

ShiningSpear

Creature (30)

• 1x Angel of Glory's Rise
• 1x Archon of Valor's Reach
• 1x Avacyn's Pilgrim
• 1x Baird, Steward of Argive
• 1x Benalish Marshal
• 1x Benevolent Bodyguard
• 1x Briarbridge Patrol
• 1x Bygone Bishop
• 1x Champion of Lambholt
• 1x Citadel Castellan
• 1x Dearly Departed
• 1x Den Protector
• 1x Devout Chaplain
• 1x Duskwatch Recruiter  ^Flip
• 1x Fiend Hunter
• 1x Hamlet Captain
• 1x Hanweir Militia Captain  ^Flip
• 1x Heron's Grace Champion
• 1x Honored Hierarch
• 1x Juniper Order Ranger
• 1x Knight of the Holy Nimbus
• 1x Lone Rider  ^Flip
• 1x Mentor of the Meek
• 1x Odric, Lunarch Marshal
• 1x Shanna, Sisay's Legacy
• 1x Thalia's Lieutenant
• 1x Thraben Inspector
• 1x Tireless Tracker
• 1x Ulvenwald Tracker
• 1x Yisan, the Wanderer Bard

Land (36)

• 1x Blossoming Sands
• 1x Canopy Vista
• 1x Elfhame Palace
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 11x Forest
• 1x Fortified Village
• 1x Graypelt Refuge
• 1x Krosan Verge
• 15x Plains
• 1x Selesnya Sanctuary
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Tranquil Expanse

Instant (9)

• 1x Blessed Alliance
• 1x Condemn
• 1x Eerie Interlude
• 1x Harrow
• 1x Moment's Peace
• 1x Naturalize
• 1x Repel the Abominable
• 1x Return to Dust
• 1x Sundering Growth

Sorcery (7)

• 1x Dusk / Dawn
• 1x End Hostilities
• 1x Harmonize
• 1x Hour of Revelation
• 1x Increasing Devotion
• 1x Kodama's Reach
• 1x Lay of the Land

Commander (1)

Artifact (9)

• 1x Behemoth Sledge
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Crown of Convergence
• 1x Darksteel Ingot
• 1x Lifecrafter's Bestiary
• 1x Selesnya Signet
• 1x Slayer's Plate
• 1x Tamiyo's Journal
• 1x Transmogrifying Wand

Enchantment (8)

• 1x Always Watching
• 1x Armadillo Cloak
• 1x Authority of the Consuls
• 1x Collective Blessing
• 1x Commander's Authority
• 1x Fertile Ground
• 1x On Serra's Wings
• 1x Ulvenwald Mysteries

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Maybeboard

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Rampant Growth
• 1x Rout

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My playgroup recently posed a challenge: build a commander deck with total cost under $40 in paper. This is my first pass, helmed by Sigarda, Heron's Grace. There are some obvious creature choices that would be great in this deck, such as Champion of the Parish and Mirran Crusader, and so on, but making them fit the budget is a bit tough. Suggestions are appreciated so long as they fit the price cap*.

*Note that the price listed on TappedOut isn't representative of the actual cost. My current build shows as about $55, but actual cost of cards through TCGplayer is $38.

So let's talk tech!

The Goal

It's Selesnya humans, so... do Selesnya things. Go fast and hit hard with lots of value. Lots of our creatures are really cheap to cast, so you can go wide pretty quickly. Hanweir Militia Captain   and Sigarda, Heron's Grace herself both facilitate this by generating tokens, and Commander's Authority speeds that up as well. We have couple anthem effects in Benalish Marshal, Always Watching , and Crown of Convergence, and Thalia's Lieutenant works as a pseudo-anthem for all our humans on the field when it hits.

On that note, this deck can also go tall pretty easily. Lieutenant, Champion of Lambholt, and Juniper Order Ranger all get bigger whenever a creature comes into play, with the last one also buffing the creature entering the field as well. Shanna, Sisay's Legacy is a good scaling threat with some evasion, and Sigarda, Archon of Valor's Reach, and Angel of Glory's Rise all make for some big flying threats. Slayer's Plate, Armadillo Cloak, and Behemoth Sledge give our dorks some extra buffs should the need arise as well, helping fight through demons and dragons and the like. Odric, Lunarch Marshal is a solid finisher as well if we've got Sigarda, Archon, or an equipped/enchanted creature on the board, spreading all their keywords to our entire army.

Card Advantage

Any good G/W deck wants to generate value, and boy does this deck have value. Bygone Bishop gets you a clue token every time you cast a creature with CMC 3 or less (which is most of the deck), and Mentor of the Meek lets you pay 1 to draw a card whenever a creature power 2 or less enters the battlefield (again, most of the deck). Note that Mentor says "enters the battlefield" and not "cast;" this means we can draw cards whenever we get a token from Militia Captain or Sigarda. With both Bishop and Mentor on the field, the card advantage you can generate is insane.

Supplementing these are Lifecrafter's Bestiary and Crown of Convergence. Bestiary was popular in Standard prior to rotation, giving us an upkeep scry and also letting us draw cards on creature casts. Crown has been a surprise all-star in this deck, letting you dump the top card of your library to the bottom at any time for two mana while occasionally buffing your creatures. That might not sound like much on paper, but it's pulled more than its weight every time I've gotten it to the field.

Otherwise, we've got Tireless Tracker and Ulvenwald Mysteries generating clues, the former getting bigger when we sac a clue, and the latter generating tokens when we sac a clue. Tamiyo's Journal passively generates clues and sacrifices them to dig for cards, which works very well in tandem with Briarbridge Patrol, letting you put a creature you tutor up directly onto the battlefield. Yisan, the Wanderer Bard does a similar thing much faster, letting you put bigger and bigger creatures onto the battlefield straight from your deck. That can end games if left unattended for too long. Duskwatch Recruiter   functions as a weaker Collected Company, letting you dig for creatures and ramping them out if he transforms.

Removal

Being as this is a budget deck, we're missing out on some of the best stuff White has to offer, but we are certainly not lacking. For board wipes, we've got Dusk, Hour of Revelation, and End Hostilities, all of which are solid alternatives to Wrath of God and can be better in certain situations. Fiend Hunter removes a single threat when it hits the field- great for taking out enemy commanders- and Ulvenwald Tracker lets one of our creatures smack an opponent's creature. I ended up putting Transmogrifying Wand in over Beast Within for repeated spot removal. It loses some value since it can only target creatures, but you get to do it three times (and it's slightly easier on your wallet).

For artifacts and enchantments, we've got Naturalize, Sundering Growth, and Return to Dust (with the aforementioned Hour of Revelation hitting everything but lands). All three are good in a pinch, but Growth and Return both offer some extra value by generating a token and hitting a second target, respectively. Devout Chaplain is great repeatable removal as well, since this deck should never be wanting for humans.

Protection

As this is a creature deck, we want ways to make sure our creatures stay alive (and I guess our own life total is important, too). Authority of the Consuls gets us a life every time an opponent's creature enters the battlefield on top of making them enter tapped, protecting us from hasty threats and letting our own creatures swing in unimpeded. Blessed Alliance is a super versatile card that deals with single large threats, and Condemn is basically a super-budget Path to Exile. Moment's Peace is a fog with recursion, and Eerie Interlude protects all our creatures from board wipes.

In the event someone does wipe the board, we have Angel of Glory's Rise to get all our humans back onto the battlefield. This can be incredibly powerful in the late game; a lot of our humans have ETB triggers, and this makes them all go off again. Angel also is the single best target we have for our Den Protector. If someone wipes the board again, we can play Protector face down and Megamorph it to get Angel back, which we can then play again and get all our humans back. Den Protector is a solid go-tall threat, but it's much better reserved to get back Angel of Glory's Rise.

Finally, we have Archon of Valor's Reach and Baird, Steward of Argive. Archon is a big, nasty threat that can keep opponents off their cantrips and removal, and Baird is basically a Ghostly Prison on a stick. Just some extras to help keep us in the game.

Ramp and Fixing

This is probably where being a budget deck hurts the most, as we don't have access to many great lands and none of the best mana rocks. We do have some dual lands, but they're mostly pretty slow; Blossoming Sands, Canopy Vista, and the like. Selesnya Signet, Darksteel Ingot, and Commander's Sphere all offer a wee bit of ramp and color fixing, and we can always pop Sphere for a card later in the game. Fertile Ground is a solid enchantment that provides both ramp and color fixing, and Avacyn's Pilgrim is a potential turn one play for some extra mana.

Lay of the Land, Harrow, and Kodama's Reach all dig lands out of our deck. Kodama's Reach should honestly be swapped out for Cultivate; they do exactly the same thing for the same cost, but the latter is a couple bucks cheaper. Reach just simply happened to be the card that I own, but it still fits under budget. If you do swap it out for Cultivate, you could also swap Lay of the Land for a slightly costlier Rampant Growth or Explosive Vegetation. As its stands, it gets the job done; you don't need a ton of mana for much of anything in this deck, so premium ramp isn't an absolute necessity.

That about does it for Sigarda. I've played it against only a handful of decks so far, but it has performed surprisingly well against decks running more powerful cards. The only immediate, glaring weakness I can see with it right now is its lack of graveyard hate. Fortunately, it's really easy to slot in something like Tormod's Crypt or Sentinel Totem without going over budget, and there are tons of options if you like the deck and want to upgrade.

Date added	6 years
Last updated	6 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	1 - 0 Mythic Rares 31 - 0 Rares 23 - 0 Uncommons 18 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.14
Tokens	Clue, Human 1/1 W, Human Cleric 1/1 BW, Human Soldier 1/1 W, Morph 2/2 C, Ox 2/4 W, Spirit 1/1 W
Folders	Commanders, Budget EDH