I’m looking to make a $50 budget deck which you can see here.
The deck feels generally well-balanced for normal play, but seems to have the issue that it can’t really win until it draws one of its combos, those combos being:
Ivy Lane Denizen + Herd Baloth/Scurry Oak Vigean Graftmage + Faeburrow Elder/Kami of Whispered Hopes/Incubation Druid Devoted Druid + Swift Reconfiguration
The Ivy Lane combos produce infinite creatures, the other combos produce infinite mana, with Devoted Druid also letting grab infinite nonland topdeck-casts from Falco by spending the -1/-1 counters. Once I hit any of them, I can crank out enough resources to make a play toward winning the game.
However, the game feels awfully slow and inconsistent when it revolves around drawing at least one of three specific cards, plus one of the 1-3 matching combo pieces, and then having both on the field, uncountered, long enough to win the game. Feels fragile, more than a lot of combo decks I see others go for.
Am I doing this right? I currently have Threats Undetected and Shared Summons in the deck to try and help set myself up for this a bit better, and I figure that my draw/scry options, with Falco’s help, can dig pretty far for cards like these, but I want to know if maybe I’m going about this totally wrong.
First of all I can say you dont going totally wrong on this approach. Making a $50 combo deck can get a bit tricky. We in our Playgroup build 50€ Decks (we are in Germany) for each other. So not building for ourselves :)
But before i mention any cards, what are your thougts about the deck? Do you want it to be a fast combo deck - trying to assemble combo as fast as possible and your only win condition? Or more like combo control - you stall the game as long as possible and then finish off with your combo ? All in all, to find your combo you need more card draw. Especially on small budget because the tutors are limited. Do you want that we mention cuts and adds? or you want doing on your own and just some suggestion?
While the combos are nice, what I usually enjoy playing (and what I’m hoping to do most in the deck) is to do “soft combos”, things that don’t immediately win the game but quickly create out-of-hand boardstates. One of my favorite examples would be Agent’s Toolkit/Crystalline Giant + Denry Klin + Goldberry allowing me to put a ton of counters on Denry and turn all my future creatures into super-soldiers.
So while it may not be the best available strategy, I guess what I’m looking for is to make a fun midrange deck with some cool elements that sometimes hits a combo to win faster. It makes me think that maybe the answer is to stop focusing so hard on combo play at all, giving up options like Swift Reconfiguration to supply better midrange consistency.
Would be a good approach. I think [[Master Chef]] and [[Renata, Called of the Hunt]] could be good adds. Every ETB you get an addtional counter. Do you thougt about cheap cantrip spells like [[Opt]] and [[Consider]]? Cutting Swift Reconfiguration combo would be best, cause it seems not that good outside of the combo. The other combos are parts that do something on their own if you deploy them before.
When im playing green i like some cheap mana elves. Early ramp or later a blocker.
Not sure if $50 is a hard limit, or a soft budget. It’s a $10 card but I feel like Cathar’s Crusade opens up a lot of possibilities for more comboing in counters matter.
Fathom mage/ Wizard class is a draw your whole deck combo for $3.30
Body of Research/Simic ascendancy win the game for $4.00. Simic ascendancy might just be a good card for the deck in general. Didn’t look to see if it was in your list.
Endless detour/Approach the second sun is a win $2.50
Vizier of Remidies/Kitchen Finks/ sac outlet is unlimited life $0.70 + sac outlet cost
Wildwood Scourge/Enduring Scale Lord is an infinite loop of growing 2 creatures with +1/+1 $0.70
Vorel/Magistrate Cepter is unlimited turns for $1.10
Sorry if this isn’t exactly what you are looking for. Don’t know the deck too well and the budget makes it hard to think of things off the top of my head. Hopefully someone else might chime I’m with better anwers.
Unfortunately $50 is a hard cap, it’s for an LGS Budget League, and in general I dislike when cards like Cathar’s eat up so much of a deck’s budget. That said, I really appreciate the rest of your ideas, I already have Fathom Mage just for being good in the deck, I hadn’t considered bringing Wizard class but that seems like a perfect fit.
I’ve been considering Approach of the Second Sun, maybe it is worth my time to bring. I’m already packing endless detour just as a general utility card.
Thanks for the tips!
Oh no I totally get it. I had a feeling it was a $50 hard cap, but just in case it was more of a I have $50 to make a new deck sort of thing Crusade might have been worth it. Hard cap I would have the same feelings you did about 1/100 cards being a fifth of the decks budget. Glad I could help even if it was just a card or two!