Creature (33)
- 1x Arbor Elf
- 1x Boreal Druid
- 1x Dosan the Falling Leaf
- 1x Duskwatch Recruiter Flip
- 1x Elvish Archdruid
- 1x Elvish Mystic
- 1x Elvish Pioneer
- 1x Endless One
- 1x Fyndhorn Elves
- 1x Genesis Hydra
- 1x Great Oak Guardian
- 1x Groundbreaker
- 1x Hunted Troll
- 1x Llanowar Elves
- 1x Lupine Prototype
- 1x Mistcutter Hydra
- 1x Phyrexian Soulgorger
- 1x Polukranos, World Eater
- 1x Priest of Titania
- 1x Primeval Protector
- 1x Quirion Ranger
- 1x Ravaging Riftwurm
- 1x Reclamation Sage
- 1x Scryb Ranger
- 1x Sheltering Ancient
- 1x Skullwinder
- 1x Squallmonger
- 1x Surrak, the Hunt Caller
- 1x Temur Sabertooth
- 1x Ulvenwald Tracker
- 1x Wirewood Symbiote
- 1x Woodland Bellower
- 1x Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
Instant (12)
- 1x Aspect of Hydra
- 1x Autumn's Veil
- 1x Avoid Fate
- 1x Beast Within
- 1x Benefactor's Draught
- 1x Emerald Charm
- 1x Groundswell
- 1x Invigorate
- 1x Momentous Fall
- 1x Nature's Claim
- 1x Savage Summoning
- 1x Vines of Vastwood
Enchantment (5)
Artifact (5)
Planeswalker (1)
Commander (1)
Sorcery (10)
- 1x Eldritch Evolution
- 1x Harmonize
- 1x Life's Legacy
- 1x Nostalgic Dreams
- 1x Phytoburst
- 1x Prey Upon
- 1x Reverent Silence
- 1x Rishkar's Expertise
- 1x Soul's Majesty
- 1x Weird Harvest
Land (33)
Maybeboard
Creature (9)
- 1x Eternal Witness
- 1x Fierce Empath
- 1x Myr Superion
- 1x Phyrexian Dreadnought
- 1x Priest of Titania
- 1x Sakura-Tribe Scout
- 1x Seeker of Skybreak
- 1x Shaman of Forgotten Ways
- 1x Somberwald Stag
Artifact (1)
Instant (6)
- 1x Aspect of Hydra
- 1x Crop Rotation
- 1x Natural State
- 1x Setessan Tactics
- 1x Summoner's Pact
- 1x Worldly Tutor
Land (4)
Enchantment (5)
- 1x Concordant Crossroads
- 1x Greater Good
- 1x Hall of Gemstone
- 1x Triumph of Ferocity
- 1x Utopia Sprawl
Sorcery (3)
Budget Deck Series:
In this series, I'm building decks around the $50-90 range that are reasonably competitive (I'm sticking as low as possible, unless I believe that the deck absolutely must be a higher amount). I've noticed that way too many "budget" lists are frankly bad. Budget players, by virtue of the fact that they're on a budget, need good advice more than anyone else. If they buy a shitty deck, they're stuck with it, and that's really unfortunate. I hope to contribute some less-bad decks to the pool to give budget players better advice than what they're currently receiving. I should note that I don't normally play budget decks, but I do play at a very competitive level.
You might like this deck if: you want the stupidest, fastest, and jankiest deck possible on a two-digit budget and you don't mind it being a bit of a glass cannon. Also if you like challenges, since these combos are weird. Also, if you need to keep up in a hyper-competitive meta.
This deck works best at: tables without a lot of interaction and with people who you won't mind unfriending.
Welcome to the wonderful world of Selvala combo.
This deck probably looks hilariously weird to a lot of people, almost as if it doesn't really have a way to win the game. Well, this deck is pretty much an all-in combo deck with a hilariously janky but surprisingly effective game plan that revolves around playing huge ass minions (usually so big they have downsides), getting infinite mana, and blasting people with creatures that have haste after you draw your whole library. When goldfishing, this deck can consistently get wins by turn 5, usually turn 4 and sometimes turn 3.
While it's tempting to build Selvala as another ramp-into-big-things commander, she's actually incredibly goddamn powerful as a combo powerhouse. The idea is to play overcosted creatures like Phyrexian Dreadnought and Phyrexian Soulgorger, use those to net tons of mana and draw a card, then eventually go infinite with something like Staff of Domination or Umbral Mantle. Really simple, pretty linear strategy, but incredibly fast and effective, so who's complaining.
Due to budgetary constraints, our version of the deck will be a little less consistent (read: won't have enough removals and tutors). We're assuming that this deck will catch people off guard the first couple weeks you play it, but it might be hard to really interact with some of the hate you might receive in future games.
This deck was inspired by a list I've seen a few times in my LGS, which seems to be a copycat of this list, Selvala Brostorm, by asm and tw0handt0uch. It's a cool list, and be sure to give some love to them for coming up with the general idea behind this. I've adjusted their list in part to make it far more affordable with a double-digit budget plus a couple other adjustments that I personally prefer like adding Prey Upon. Their list is much more capable of goldfishing wins on turns 3-4 consistently with more freedom on mulligans; whereas ours is more of a consistent turns 4-5 deck. On the other hand, their list is another $550, so yeah. Both their list and mine suffer from the same problems of being weak to things like Linvala, Keeper of Silence, Phyrexian Revoker, Eidolon of Rhetoric, and Spirit of the Labyrinth as well as constant spot removal aimed at the commander. The 1-turn faster win is nothing to scoff at, but since both decks are generally losing to the same things, I think your group's meta is going to determine how this deck fares out more than the extra $550 does.
Total cost: $90
Oh damn. We just barely made it on the budget.
Why is this deck so expensive? Well, this deck is just impossible to build functionally without Staff of Domination. It fulfills a lot of roles in this deck, not only as a 3rd copy of Umbral Mantle but it's a target for Genesis Hydra when you go infinite in order to draw out your whole deck. It's literally every part of your win condition wrapped into one card! Between that and Selvala herself, we've already eaten 33% of our budget on 2 cards. Yikes.
This deck probably looks hilariously weird to a lot of people, almost as if it doesn't really have a way to win the game. Well, this deck is pretty much an all-in combo deck with a hilariously janky but surprisingly effective game plan that revolves around playing huge ass minions (usually so big they have downsides), getting infinite mana, and blasting people with creatures that have haste after you draw your whole library.
The deck's gameplan is pretty straightforward. Here it is:
- Get infinite mana
- Draw deck (sometimes optional, usually not)
- Win game
Simple right? Let's break that down a bit further.
Step 1: Get infinite mana
Your main ways of doing this will be with the following three cards, with the appropriate requirements listed parenthetically:
- Umbral Mantle (5 power creature, 7 starting mana),
- Staff of Domination (6 power creature, 7 starting mana), and
- Sword of the Paruns (5 power creature, 11 starting mana).
You just tap Selvala for mana, then untap her, then tap again, if you can meet all those requirements. The requirements assume playing the card from hand and that Selvala is tapped.
Sometimes you can get lucky and hit one of these combo pieces with a large but finite Genesis Hydra. I'm not going to get into the specifics on the probabilities of that happening.... haha, just kidding, I totally am! See below on what to cast Hydra for to maximize the chances of going blind and getting infinite mana. Because we know from above how much additional mana we need to go infinite, we also know to either leave 4 or 7 mana open, discounting the CMC of the card we're going for.
Another combo worth noting to get infinite mana is Temur Sabertooth, Wirewood Symbiote, a spare 1 mana elf like Elvish Mystic, and a 6 power creature. This combo requires 6 starting mana assuming the spare elf is out and Sabertooth/Symbiote are in hand. Substituting a more expensive elf or getting fancy with Scryb Ranger/Quirion Ranger + Elvish Pioneer will require more innovation. I'm not going to get into how to do that because dear god this deck is already confusing enough, but I will just say it's possible. Have fun figuring it out! Temur Sabertooth can bounce Greak Oak Guardian for infinite in a lot of scenarios too, although that requires a very big creature (10+ power).
Emerald Charm + Skullwinder + Temur Sabertooth goes infinite with an 8+ creature.
Last but not least, Elvish Archdruid can be untapped infinitely and fill a similar role as the commander. This is basically a last-ditch way to go infinite if your commander's been hated out by Phyrexian Revoker or has been hit so many times with removal that you can't really use her anymore.
Step 2: Draw deck
Alright, you have infinite mana. Now what? Simple: draw your whole deck!
This deck is both reasonably consistent but also wildly janky (thanks, low ass budget!) such that I'm honestly not even sure what to tell you on how to combo out. Every time I combo out, it's like.... a liiiiiittle different from the last time. But make no mistake, if you have infinite mana, chances are you can somehow assemble the cards in your hand in a way that lets you win. Just, uh, figure it out.
Staff of Domination has a built-in way to draw infinitely on infinite mana. Genesis Hydra can be cast at infinite size to get the Staff of Domination, which can then go infinite. With infinite mana, we can make an appropriately sized hydra that will draw our deck out with Garruk, Primal Hunter.
With Eldritch Evolution, you can got for Duskwatch Recruiter to get infinite creatures from your deck, including Genesis Hydra which can get you any permanent you want. I'm not sure when you'd ever go for anything else, honestly.
Temur Sabertooth can usually help you draw the deck, so long as you control the biggest creature (e.g. an infinitely large Hydra). Just bounce the creature and keep recasting it, and you'll draw out.
You can also win if you have infinite untaps with Umbral Mantle or Sword, Yisan, the Wanderer Bard, and a way to grant haste with either Swiftfoot Boots or Surrak, the Hunt Caller . If you need to use Surrak for haste to start tapping Yisan, you need to win outside of combat (see section below this one). Usually you get Duskwatch Recruiter on 2 then Dosan the Falling Leaf on 3. Also Genesis Hydra on 2 and Skullwinder on 3 is a good combo just in case Duskwatch is in your GY or exiled-- get back Genesis Hydra with Skullwinder's ETB, then cast for X=100 to get Staff of Domination.
Even with just large finite mana and no way to infinitely untap Yisan, chaining Wirewood Symbiote into Scryb Ranger into (whatever, usually Skullwinder) into Temur Sabertooth can often lead to the win. Unless you happen to have Quirion Ranger or Wirewood Symbiote already out, you'll need to have another untap to go from 3 to 4 safely to get the Temur Sabertooth then combo out. So just keep that in mind when you're doing the Yisan win.
Step 3: Win game.
Alright, you've drawn your deck. Now what? There are two ways to win: either in combat or outside of combat.
The outside combat win is to get infinite life with Staff of Domination, then deal infinite damage with Squallmonger . Pretty simple.
The combat win involves giving things haste, buffing them infinitely, and swinging. I didn't include Concordant Crossroads into the deck for budgetary reasons, so instead we need to rely on other ways to give creatures haste (and ideally trample too) for the combat win. I know "Build Your Own Win Con" isn't the best way to construct a deck, but it's all we've really got thanks to the budget. Here's what you'll be playing:
- Things that buff infinitely with Temur Sabertooth: Great Oak Guardian, Primeval Protector
- Things that get infinitely large: Genesis Hydra, Endless One , Mistcutter Hydra
- Things with haste: Groundbreaker , Mistcutter Hydra
- Things that give haste: Instill Energy (pseudo-haste), Surrak, the Hunt Caller , Swiftfoot Boots
- Things that have trample and/or flying: Groundbreaker , Scryb Ranger, Sheltering Ancient
- Other things to keep in mind when swinging for lethal: Nostalgic Dreams returns important things from your graveyard; Vines of Vastwood gives instant speed hexproof; Temur Sabertooth can get indestructible; Staff of Domination can tap down all enemy creatures; Ulvenwald Tracker can be given haste and untapped infinitely to pop boards full of creatures that are problematic; Dosan the Falling Leaf keeps people from doing anything sneaky.
As can be seen here, even though the dearth of haste and evasive attackers may seem concerning, there are just so many ways to win during combat regardless.
Interacting and tech choices
I was surprised at how much interaction I was able to put into this deck despite it being pretty linear and lightning fast. It's not a lot, but it's juuuust enough for me to be comfortable signing off on this deck as being a good use of your money. The interaction runs the whole gamut, from artifact/enchantment removals like Nature's Claim and Reverent Silence, to some creature removal like Prey Upon, Ulvenwald Tracker and Lignify and obviously the everything-removal green staple Beast Within. The fight effects are really good in this deck; since we're running so many junky fat creatures, they rarely fail to destroy things. Ezuri's Predation tops out our removal and basically our curve. It's OK. Sometimes you just have a bunch of mana and nothing else to do so why not? It's not something I'd add in a higher budget build, but on a lower budget it's fine and in the event you get enough mana to cast it and Selvala has been successfully hated off the table forever, it can be its own win condition.
The removal package is pretty flexible insofar that you can find appropriate removals in green. Krosan Grip and Natural State are good additions if you're facing more artifacts or enchantments; Savage Punch , Setessan Tactics and Somberwald Stag are a few more good fight effects for a creature meta. Ghost Quarter or Strip Mine hates out broken lands; Song of the Dryads is good if you can afford it or have one lying around; Hall of Gemstone acts as both hate against multicolored decks and a way to protect yourself during your own turn against non-green instants.
When you get shut down
Honestly, this deck doesn't fare too well when you're getting hated off the table. If your commander survives the turn its played, it's very likely you can win the next turn. That's not always gonna happen, and from there it can get pretty sticky. Your best bet at that point is to hope some fatty sticks on the board and you can just swing at things normally. In the long-run value game, Ulvenwald Tracker is your friend, and Ezuri's Predation is one of your main win conditions if you draw it and get mana for it.
Upgrades
This deck is one of the cheaper competitive decks available-- as you can see, we've made a really effective version of it on a pretty tight budget! From here, you'll want to start moving from a turn 4-5 deck to a turn 3-4 deck, which means adding faster mana, creature tutors, and Phyrexian Dreadnought . Ooooh yeah, a 1 mana 13/13 is pretty busted in this deck, even if you only get to tap Selvala for the 13 mana once. Tutors will inevitably replace the Hydras, since the Hydras are usually just redundant (and less effective) versions of things like that 3 mana 8/8, or the 1 mana 13/13.
Here's what I'd change in the following order:
- Replace Forest with Utopia Sprawl
- Replace Elvish Archdruid with Priest of Titania
- Replace Swiftfoot Boots with Lightning Greaves
- Replace Savage Summoning with Greater Good
- Replace Surrak, the Hunt Caller with either Hall of Gemstone or Elvish Archdruid (depending on meta)
- Replace (simultaneously) Forest/Titanic Growth with Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx/Crop Rotation
- Replace Ezuri's Predation with Phyrexian Dreadnought
- Replace Endless One with Summoner's Pact
- Replace (simultaneously) Forest/ Primeval Protector /Polukranos, World Eater/Myr Superion with Green Sun's Zenith/Dryad Arbor/Somberwald Stag/Fierce Empath.
- Replace Skullwinder with Eternal Witness
These changes combined will push the deck more toward a consistent turn 4 instead of turn 4-5 as well as giving it a wee bit more resilience if your commander dies. The upgraded list can be found here, for your convenience and goldfishing needs: Upgraded Budget Selvala Combo. It ends up being about $160 even. All of these cards are listed in this deck's maybeboard.
By the way, the reason we add Somberwald Stag to the upgraded deck even though it's perfectly affordable on our budget is because it's a creature, and with a high density of creature tutors it becomes far more appealing to have some sort of removal-on-a-stick with a creature. Without a high density of creature tutors, the pay-5-deal-4-damage isn't so appealing (Prey Upon is almost always better unless your board has been wiped or you need to hit something with deathtouch like Atraxa), so we don't include it in this version.
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| Top Ranked |
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| Date added | 7 years |
| Last updated | 7 years |
| Legality | This deck is Commander / EDH legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 4 - 0 Mythic Rares 26 - 0 Rares 22 - 0 Uncommons 18 - 0 Commons |
| Cards | 100 |
| Avg. CMC | 2.51 |
| Tokens | Beast 3/3 G, Faerie 1/1 U, Wurm 6/6 G |
| Folders | Cool decks, Budget Decks to Consider, Commander, Commander, decks I want, Budget Decks, Llanowar, Competitive/Top EDH, Take Note, Elf Commander |
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