I've had the idea for this budget modern deck for a while, and I wanted to see what it could do. The main cards I was intrigued by were
Funeral Charm
and
Piracy Charm
: cheap, instant speed discard effects, that also double as removal for 1 toughness creatures. Once your opponent gets to the point that they are top-decking, you can completely shut them down by causing them to discard at the end of their draw step.
After a lot of failed experimentation with
Waste Not
, I decided to go for a modified version of the 8-Rack deck, which relies on
The Rack
and
Shrieking Affliction
to deal a large amount of quick damage in late game. My standard arsenal of discard spells includes
Funeral Charm
and
Piracy Charm
(my best late game discard effects),
Raven's Crime
(which can be repeated, making use of late game land draws), and
Wrench Mind
((which gets rid of 2 cards against most decks). I also recently acquired
Inquisition of Kozilek
to help stop early threats.
I've had the lack of
Thoughtseize
brought up as a negative about this deck, but I don't consider it as such. Having access to
Mana Leak
and
Countersquall
makes up for not being able to remove a turn 2 threat from their hand. Late game, the life loss, sorcery speed, and the fact that it can't effect land makes
Thoughtseize
and similar effects less potent than my current discard arsenal. (Honestly, even if I spent the money for them, I feel like
Watery Grave
and
Polluted Delta
have the same issue. Burn and aggro don't need me helping them along, and sitting at 20 life while Storm tries to go off makes sure they have to work for it.)
The lack of
Ensnaring Bridge
has been brought up repeatedly as the biggest drawback to this budget version of the deck. I'm aware of this, but it increases the cost of the deck substantially. Currently, I include 2x
Bile Blight
for smaller creatures and/or tokens and 2x
Murderous Cut
for straight removal.
Consume the Meek
deals with the most popular creatures in the format en masse.
Funeral Charm
and
Piracy Charm
can also give +2/-1 to remove small creatures or buff a flipped Delver to 5 power as a finisher/trade. Against heavy creature decks, I can sideboard in more removal.
Delver of Secrets
takes advantage of the large number of instants and sorceries to pose an early game threat, at best dealing some damage or trading with a more dangerous creature, and at worst causing them to spend a turn and remove another card from their hand dealing with it.
For sideboard: I have 3x
Ravenous Trap
to deal with anything that uses the graveyard (Dredge, Reanimator, Living End, Pyromancer Ascension). I have 2x
Pithing Needle
to shut down combo pieces (especially for Splinter Twin) or removal I'm aware of (I've seen
Engineered Explosives
and
Oblivion Stone
come up). I have additional
Countersquall
to side in against creatureless/low creature decks. I have additional
Consume the Meek
to side in against smaller creatures and
Dismember
to side in against graveyard removal that stops my Dredge.
Ghost Quarter
and
Shadow of Doubt
are my new meta inclusions to deal with land based decks. Honestly, I'm considering making
Shadow of Doubt
mainboard if it proves effective (shutting down someone's fetch land on turn 1 or 2 is just mean). Finally, I included
Perplex
as a little surprise post board.
Suggestions on other ways to work around the issues of building on a budget are welcome. The main goals at this point would be to: increase the rate of discard, further slow opponents down, increase efficient creature removal, increase efficiency of mana base.
Note:
Liliana of the Veil
and
Ensnaring Bridge
are not budget cards. Please stop suggesting them.
Original deck idea: Wasted Charm (Modern)