I need a cheap standard deck
Standard forum
Posted on Dec. 20, 2013, 7:04 p.m. by apt142
So, my local game shop has this once a year, end of year tournament they do. It is invitation only. Invitations are given to good patrons of the store. About 50 people are invited, they expect mid thirties to show up. I'm not sure how many of them are die hard standard players, but I suspect quite a few.
The tournament is standard format and I've been invited.
I'm a big fan of Commander and sealed. I've attended a few events of each at the store but never standard. I tend not to play it because of the financial investment and volatility of the format.
But, now I need a standard deck to bring to the tourney. I want to do well because there are great prizes at stake. But, I don't want to drop a lot of coin into a deck I'll only play once. (I'm under no delusion that I can throw a bunch of commons together and win flawlessly.)
So, great Standard Gurus of tapped out, any suggestions? I'd love to take something a bit different so long as it can also be competitive. (There was a Cyclops build I saw once that looked good, but I think some of the key pieces rotated out.)
Oh and I have about a week to throw this thing together.
Unforgivn_II says... #3
Maze's End decks are very cheap and always a threat. The only real threats are some rogue Land destruction decks, which can be sided against.
December 20, 2013 7:10 p.m.
I would suggest just borrowing a deck from a friend or from another player at your LGS. Most magic players, especially if you know them personally, are willing to lend someone a deck for a one-time use.
December 20, 2013 7:11 p.m.
I'll be able to borrow some resources. So, there is that. I have great friends.
Red Deck Wins or a White Weenie would suit me. Are there any links to lists that might work for me?
December 20, 2013 7:17 p.m.
NumberSeven says... #7
i find that aggro is pretty cheap compared to control. you'd play with cards like Rakdos Cackler and such, though for any aggro deck thats multicoloured you'll have to drop money for playsets of the shocklands if you want more consistency, unless you set it up to be quite heavily one colour with a splash of the other
Black Devotion could be very cool, good chance to get Desecration Demon , where i live they are like $10 each, but for the stats, the 2 devotion and its ability, awesome card. my current deck i'm trying to make to attend my first fnm is a rakdos deck and Desecration Demon is one of my finishers
December 20, 2013 7:24 p.m.
The more I research the more it looks like RDW is a good choice for me. I have access to some Reckoners for it.
How important are the Mutavaults? I'm seeing varying counts in the different deck lists out there.
December 20, 2013 7:42 p.m.
They're pretty damn amazing vs boardwipes. You basically avoid them for the most part. Trading Mutavaults is also ok. Not necessary though.
December 20, 2013 8:08 p.m.
They are probably the only cards in the deck list that I can't get my hands on. I think that's going to hurt me a bit.
December 20, 2013 9:55 p.m.
rockleemyhero says... #11
what he said. I would buy them and then trade them. Or sell them to some people after the tournament. Think of it as "renting" the cards for like $10 bucks (if you sold them to someone for a little less than what you paid for)
December 20, 2013 10:03 p.m.
greyfox92404 says... #12
Hey apt142, feel free to use any of the decks I put together, I build budget decks as a hobby for fnm, and they all do really well(after much fine tuning and testing). I have 4 that are STD and they are all under 30$ with the exception of my Rakdos, which is 50$.
Feel free to playtest them, I'm sure you'll enjoy them. greyfox92404
December 21, 2013 1:56 a.m.
greyfox92404 says... #13
Check out my deck, it might fit what you want. And it's a lot of fun to play. Nothing like a 12/6 unblockable with double strike and hexproof turn 5.
Purple Hurple
December 21, 2013 2:02 a.m.
Dalektable says... #14
apt142 Here is my white weenie build which has received some love from the site
A Good Man Goes To War
, this takes a slight twist on the white weenie route though. If you don't like the route i took, you could easily switch it up a bit and run a more swarm-y type deck.
December 21, 2013 2:24 a.m.
Fantastic decks both. I do really like the idea of being the non-traditional deck in the lot. I feel like that could be a big advantage. And I do really like that these are deck ideas offered to me rather than something I copied from somewhere.
December 21, 2013 2:17 p.m.
This is the deck I will be going with. It's a pretty much straight netdeck.
It's one of the few decks that I was able to borrow and buy all of the combo pieces out of at short notice. Also, it tends to be a style of deck that I enjoy.
So, I have some question that I would love the standard community to help answer. I'm looking at the sideboard on this and I am trying to see what pieces work for what match ups.
The Skullcrack
s look to be black devotion and UW Control tech. Hammer of Purphoros
also look to be a UW Control tech. Seismic Stomp
looks like a blue devotion/master of waves tech. Peak Eruption
looks to be a mirror match tech.
Am I right in those conclusions? What advice would you suggest for playing this deck? My play tests basically say the strategy is go as aggressive as I can and kill their life total as fast as I can.
What are my toughest match ups with this deck. (Black devotion looks like a breeze to me.)
December 23, 2013 2:31 p.m.
Any idea what people play at your shop? If your meta is heavily mono-blue devotion, I wouldn't play this deck, as the matchup is atrocious, even post board. If you still want to play this, at least swap in Legion Loyalist for Firedrinker Satyr to improve the matchup. Skullcrack is also in there for the mono-blue matchup as it negates Master of Waves ability to prevent damage from red sources allowing him to die in combat or to an overloaded mortars, but I would actually run Electrickery instead of Mizzium Mortars as a cheaper alternative.
Good luck, hope this helps a bit.
December 23, 2013 5:19 p.m.
This is an article from gatheringmagic.com about the construction of a relatively cheap, yet competitive deck. The deck is rogue and will take opponents by surprise. I am a control player and I have faced this deck at my local game shop twice and it crushed me. It may be weak to aggressive strategies, but most decks have a weakness.
http://www.gatheringmagic.com/playing-on-a-budget-standard-bluegreen-flash/
Have fun.
December 23, 2013 8:13 p.m.
WovenNebula says... #19
There was a competitive red deck a few months back that was all commons and cost about 20 or less to build and I believe it was in the top 8, can't find the link but if I do I'll post it.
December 24, 2013 2:24 a.m.
chillistills says... #20
Mono white weeny is very cheap and can play really decently. Use Spear of Heliod rather than Ajani, Caller of the Pride , that way the most expensive card is probably Soldier of the Pantheon or Precinct Captain .
Otherwise rakdos aggro that did well in a recent GP is ridiculously cheap Rakdos Aggro Navas GP Santiago
December 24, 2013 12:13 p.m.
I play this Sunday and I'll let everybody know in this thread.
December 27, 2013 10:45 a.m.
Red Weenie Wins!
I know it might be to late but this is my Red blitz deck that has been doing really well for me at FNM's. Another thing about Skullcrack that you should keep in mind is that it's great against White Weenie decks that drop Brave the Elements and block your guys(or any other deck with loads of Protection from X) since damage cant be prevented :)
December 28, 2013 6:20 a.m.
So... I did well. The last match I was in determined whether I would be a top 8 or not. (Which was a single elimination scheme.) Unfortunately that last match was the worst match up for me. I lost to a Master of Waves deck. (This after narrowly beating another blue devotion deck earlier.)
So, in the end I was like 12 out of 35+.
I appreciated the support of the community here. I had a good time and felt good about the deck I ran. Thanks!
December 30, 2013 5:49 p.m.
Death by mana dork, no seriously...#tableflip non foil version runs around $30-$40...
January 6, 2014 3:38 p.m.
I like that Rakdos Aggro deck: it's quite easy on the budget and its mana-curve looks like a middle finger! LOL
Arvail says... #2
You may want to consider one of the three big devotions. You have to shove some money into big creatures, but you don't need to drop anything into mana fixing, which is nice. You'll probably need around $200 to make these effectively. I really can't think of anything too cheap that would do too well. Maybe G/W aggro or G/W mid range. Possibly even some color + White heroics. That could be between $50 to $150.
December 20, 2013 7:09 p.m.