@ ThEdUnCeCaP -- Being a budget player doesn't necessarily mean that every card is a cheap dollar rare. It just means, at least in my opinion, that you cap yourself on a price limit for each deck you make. Whatever fits in my $50 budget for standard decks is fair game.

@ Tempest -- Was curious to why you didn't mention that - I'll make the change.

Wanted to stop by and say that you've done an amazing job with this deck. It's an incredibly fun deck and I love it so much I thought I would try to get some suggestions from you on how to improve it, if the budget wasn't so tight. Any obvious things that come to mind other than dual lands? Thanks a lot and keep up the amazing work!

@ Gullo -- Thanks! I honestly don't think there's anything this deck needs that's more expensive. Tamiyo and her emblem could be helpful with extorting, and Geist of Saint Traft is a low-CMC game finisher. Neither of these are necessities and they aren't cards I wish I had room in the budget for, but I'm sure they could help.

I still feel like you don't have enough one drops. You should add more to make full use of Orzhov Charm

What about Twilight Drover , Treasury Thrull and Way of the Thief or Holy Mantle ? Or adding Nightveil Specter ? Just tossing around ideas, I haven't had a chance to play with this setup, but those are some cards that seem possible at first glance... I would definitely have Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts in mine though...

@ Tempest -- Agreed, but what to remove?

@ xWickedxOne -- Teysa isn't bad, but I've just removed another 7 CMC card from the deck because it never got played. I think the only things that I'll be adding are more 1-drops and/or another cipher card (although there aren't really any good ones aside from Hands of Binding ).

if you want more one drops how about : Boros Elite , Shadow Alley Denizen , Trained Caracal , Judge's Familiar , or as mentioned earlier -Dutiful Thrull

As far as what to take away... I would take out at least 2 Hands of Binding if not more, and 1 Kingpin's Pet and 1 Tithe Drinker ... and replace those 4 with one drops.

I'd probably take out all 4 Hands of Binding just to have 2 Blind Obedience in there at all times, but that's just me... I'd rather have more options for extort then the cipher ability...

Just my thoughts anyways...

did you notice that cipher will trigger extort?

better yet... leave the Tithe Drinker and take out a Dissipate instead!

Dissipate is the only counter spell in the deck and most, if not all, should blue decks should have a counter spell. :/

@ Tempest Didn't think about that! Maybe drop 1 Hands of Binding , 1 Kingpin's Pet and 1 Dissipate for 3 more one drops?

I'm not saying to take them all out... just 1

maybe. lets see what ducttapedeckbox thinks about it. i think it could be possible

idk... im just trying to think of ways to fix the mana curve...

ok sounds good... sorry for blowing up your post ducttapedeckbox

Don't worry, I have forgotten to respond to your posts tempest and xWickedxOne!

First, thank you for putting in the effort to help me with this deck! I really do appreciate it.

As far as one drops go, I think I'm most likely to include Dutiful Thrull or Doomed Traveler . Three of them sounds good, and dropping one Kingpin's Pet sounds good. I don't want to drop any Hands of Binding because it's extremely helpful in the games I play with this deck, and because this deck was originally support to combine extort and cipher; HoB is the only card left in the deck with cipher.

Now that I have the draw power from Mentor of the Meek , I was thinking of dropping the two Azorius Charm s, opening the two needed slots. I might go as far as dropping a Mentor for another Parasite.

What do you guys think?

Sounds like a great idea! I do like the options with the AC though... What about keeping 1 Azorius Charm and drop 1 Dark Favor ? instead of dropping both AC's..

@ xWickedxOne -- I do too, but having only one or two makes it impossible to rely on them; I'd prefer to mainboard a Charm only if I can fit 3+ of them. What do you think about dropping the 3rd Mentor?

That's fine. You don't want too many of those

Why Dutiful Thrull over Doomed Traveler ? I was play testing and without mana ramp, it's hard to decide whether to use the mana for mentor of the meek, extort, or regen. Regen would help you keep it alive so you could use HoB on it, but the extra token triggers mentor and doesn't require and mana. It's like either paying one black mana to keep the creature alive, or one of any (blue since its not in extort) to draw a card and still get another 1/1.

@ tempest -- That is true, I didn't think of it that way. I'll make the change now.

Just learned you can extort off of a ciphered spell, since you are still casting a spell. Hooray for our decks!

I really like this deck especially since it is such an amazing budget deck! +1 from me! i am running an extort deck and need some help if you wouldnt mind taking a look and shedding some light

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Hidden Strings considering it can act as "ramp," it helps you keep mana open on your opponent's turn, its an extort trigger, and it gives you the mana for extort.

Are you going to update for Theros? And I would heartily second Hidden Strings as a cipher, other cheap one time ciphers include Paranoid Delusions and Trait Doctoring