Budget Alternatives to Commander Staples 

You guys are right, I should replace all my staples with Grave Titan.

This is practically everything the channel's been leading up to! Definitely going through some awesome strides with this channel, yall seriously are fantastic fanatics outdoing yourselves regularly! Whether they come daily or monthly or whatever I always look forward to sitting down with you guys :)

It's fun to watch you rant about pests when Spawning Pit makes spawns

That logo-flickering-sputtering-light-sound at the end of each video puts me in some sort of relaxed tranquil state everytime 👌

Thank you for this. Even though I have a handful of the expensive cards, it gets tiresome seeing every other channel casually suggest $25+ cards like it's no big deal. That could be a whole workday for some of us!

I was surprised to not see Vorinclex as a replacement for doubling season but then I found out it’s like 30 dollars itself already 😅

Another plus to “Foil” is you pitch the cards to your graveyard instead of exiling like FOW. Great for graveyard decks :)

Really enjoyed that you labeled your sections. Makes it much easier to find the cards relevant to my decks. Thank you very much

“They are insects, not pests” says the guy who has obviously never had to deal with termites. 😂

My dudes this was a good one 👍🏻 more of these please. I’d love to be more budget friendly in the future.

A benefit about End Raze Forerunners over Crathoof that's been relevant for me before is that if an opponent manages to fog or teferi's protection out, etc when go for the strike...End Raze leaves you a much better body on the field for next time. Craterhoof post etb is just a vanilla 5/5, forerunners at least leaves you a vigilant, trampling 7/7

My wallet needed this, thanks!

Great video! I love foil and sometimes makes it in my not budget lists. Foil in Rielle is chef's kiss

My only quibble with your list is the Eldrazi Titans. It's really hard to replace their graveyard reshuffle effect on the original Ulamog and Kozilek, which is the primary reason I even include one in my decks. I agree that there's better and cheaper big monsters to use as finishers.

Love budget options this will come in handy thanks Joe and BZ

Give me more mono-white staples grades! I know you guys loved that series, and I did too! Thanks for all the videos, glad I found and have been binging you guys lately.

Alright I’m gonna say it. I like Grave Titan. He’s an absolute force in my araumi deck

Talking about Doubling Season, don't forget about tokens where I found myself that instead of spend a whole turn playing DS for future tokens, it is more efficient make tokens early in the game and then populate them or play second harvest

Thanks. I love these budget alternative videos since like you guys mentioned, I'm just looking for x effect

"69 cents, a nice price I'd say" I see what you did there. Also, Nice.

Just to note for those who don’t know, Adrix and Nev, Twincasters work as a replacement for doubling season for tokens (it’s actually better for tokens being 4 mana and having ward 2) but of course it requires being simic+

Thanks for showing me eerie interlude. Dodge board wipe and get ETB triggers to go off in one card!

Profaner of the Dead is one of my favorite budget replacements for Cyclonic Rift. Only hits creatures but also only hits your opponents and that's usually all you need for an alpha strike

This is a great video. I had no idea phyrexian altar was so expensive cuz it had gone down to 10 when ultimate masters came out, and I just assumed it stayed there

Let me tell you that i've been watching all your most recents videos, GREAT CONTENT! I wish I've know your channell before, you are doing an amazing work.

I seriously appreciate videos like this for us newbs

For the Titans, I don't even care about the creature, just the text that shuffles my graveyard into my deck. Still a great video!

Another budget option for The Great Henge is Guardian Project. Unless you're building for tokens every creature will draw you a card and if you have bounce/flicker effects it gets even better.

This is pretty much exactly the kind of video I asked for not too long ago, git some good alternatives for the super pricey staples

Great video love this also a great free counter is Daze of my fav's if they are tapped out.

A good replacement for the behemoth is Marton Stromgald, I have it in my Hazezon Tamar deck, since I have by default a ton of haste inablers

Cant forget about Conclave mentor and thermopod as some awesome budget alternatives! I would also recommend trying out Dead of Winter if you have some snow lands laying around.

I’ve really been enjoying Spectral Deluge as a one sided wipe. Even in decks with Cyclonic Rift.

Etali has won me a game in such a huge fashion. Because of my fancy for foils these budget options kinda get pricier. Thanks for the video!

Love the content. For real keep it up!

Amazing video, guys!

thank you for the effort and work you put into your content. will there be another video like this ?

Great video guys I knew some of these but not all

I use River’s Rebuke as a Rift substitute. Not a full board wipe, but if it can push back a player who’s getting ready to go off, it can feel like a public service. I mostly use it in my Kinnan deck that has mana coming out the ears and not much mass removal.

for Cyclonic Rift replacements, i feel that Flood of Tears is underrate as well. yes its a bit expensive at sorcery speed, but the potential to cheat something into play is nice too ^^

Nitpicking correction here is you referred multiple times to Emrakul as “he” it’s stated in lore and in cards that Emrakul is a “she or her”

Something that I love about videos about this is it shows that in these larger formats if you can't afford the better cards, you can still make strong decks if you take the time to figure out what you need and then go for the more focused option or can put up two slots instead of one. Obv you can't get a power 8/9/10, but honestly commander is simply more fun with imperfections.

Put Frontier Siege in my enchantress deck because I didn't have a spare Smothering Tithe and because Siege is way cheaper. Turns out the Dragons mode isn't completely dead in a deck that makes flying angel tokens. I like that you are talking about budget like this. There are times when you want a "less good" version of something. Noyan Dar wants to run weird boardwipes that don't kill your animated lands, so Supreme Verdict (arguably the best Wrath ever) is out.

Love the "shenans" callback! Gotta respect continuity😂

Glad I'm in the proxy gang

All is see when I look at ghostway, eerie interlude and teferi's protection is the scarecrow army blinking along with Reaper King, coming to steal everyone else's hopes and dreams (and lands, mostly lands). Brings a tear of joy to my eye every damn time.

Spawning pit makes spawn artifact creature tokens. I’m pretty sure strixhaven is the first time pest became an actual creature type

Green sun zenith effects are precisely the reason why henge is so expensive. You have to cast the card to beast whisperer to draw you. I feel like some of the best options were left out that draw a card if the creature is power/toughness higher than x. Those allow you to draw off tokens like rampaging baloths and really lets some cool decks go off.

i love artisan of kozilek. even level 9 and 10 decks have to respect it when i added it to my fresh out the box precon

There's a great interaction with Archaeomancer and Evacuation as long as you have 9 mana. Every turn, say goodbye to your creatures. ;) I like Sunder and Scourge of Fleets, too.

Thank you for the alternatives. Recently found a 60 card deck that has 3 Henge in the list >.< this will definitely help keep the cost down

Engulf the shore is actually great in some two and three color decks! I run it in Nymris cause she got that big booty, and it usually ends up being a single sided board wipe except for her. I also have it in Eligeth and Thraximundar for the same reason. If your commanders got big enough toughness and you just want to clean up the board a little bit, it's okay that you only have 4-5 islands!

Budget free sac outlet that also produces mana is Thermopod in Red. Just a little FYI, noticed he wasn’t mentioned in the Phyrexian Altar section.

Just to let you know, there are a few other free counterspells that are alternatives to the blue forces: Thwart: bounce 3 islands (a terrible cost, but it's great for game ending stacks on a budget) Misdirection: Exile a blue card to redirect for free, can be used to end counter wars, or to protect your commander from spot removal Commandeer: Exile 2 blue spells to gain control of a spell (if it's a permanent, it comes into play on your side of the field, and if it targets you can reselect targets. The best use I've seen is stealing a decree of pain. Everything dies, but now I get to draw 20 >:))

Another one for the cyclonic rift on a budget is spectral deluge, does the same thing as another card you mentioned with the added benefit of foretell, so you can pretend it's Saw it Coming.

The price tag on Doubling season and Parallel lives is the sole reason I immediately bought Adrix and Nev precon commander deck. Adrix and Nev is one of those cards I anticipate will also approach those levels of prices once they stop selling strixhaven precons. On another side note, Growing Rites of Itlimoc is a semi budget alternative to Gaea's Cradle. Sure, it's approaching 30 dollars compared to its older price tag of sub 10 on release, but I'll take that over what is currently easily over 750. And I can assure you, the decks that run Gaea's cradle will be flipping into Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun just fine without even breaking a sweat.

An alternative to The Great Henge is Guardian Project (3G), which you can get for about $10. In Commander, it reads: draw a card whenever a creature enters then battlefield.

Enjoying the fact I got a wheel of fortune ages ago for like $70 (actually less since I had a good amount of store credit) It’s banged up to hell since the condition I got it up wasn’t great, but still love having the thing. Great seeing these budget cards too since they are definitely great to play as well. 26:17 Humble defector aka Humble Exchange student in my group.

I did actually run into a deck that had Eldrazi titan in the decklist and an altar of dementia loop was my only option to win. Dude had the titan in his hand!

That was really good guys :D

An honorable mention for the counters doublers is Corpsejack Menace or Winding Constrictor if you're running Golgari or Abzan counters which is pretty underrated. There's also Conclave Mentor (G/W) from M21 that has the same effect as Hardened Scales but when it dies, you gain life equal to its power Another point in favour of Foil over Force of Will is you're discarding instead of casting to exile. A deck like Hakim, Loreweaver or Gisa and Geralf want things pitched into the graveyard to cast or pull out later on and that fuels the engine for free

Hate to break it to you but Kozilek, the Great Distortion absolutely can go into every deck; the only reason he isn't expensive like the others is because he doesn't have the shuffle-titan clause which is one of the only reason the others generally get played.

Great content Nerds

Magus of the Wheel is so underrated. Good mention and for what it is worth its way good.

A decent option for replacing Rift is Wash Out. While a sorcery it can provide you with a one sided wipe to get in and win a game.

Humble defector has a neat little combo with Homeward path

Me who recently bought doubling season for my chatter-fang deck. 👀 Parallel lives was almost as much so I was convinced by my boyfriend that I can use doubling for more instances if I ever want to put it in a different deck. Was a long consideration period though.

I was extremely fortunate enough to pull a Teferi’s protection Japanese Alt Art from my Japanese Strix box 📦 🎉

22:55 instead of Damnation you could use Nightmare Unmaking too, 5 CMC you choose if you exile all creatures with power less than/or equal to thw number of cards in your hand; or exile all creatures with power greater than/or equal to the number of cards in your hand. To me that is a great boardwipe in most black decks, also exiles

Another good one for teferis protection is glorious protector

Vedalken Orrery vs Tidal Barracuda. Nice video guys.

Forgot Disrupting Shoal. It's not cheap but it's definitely useable in situations where you absolutely need something. It really does require you have more options available for card draw, but it is another option. There's also Daze

For counter spells I would of giving a mention to stubborn denial. yeah its noncreature but those are typically the bigger threat spells.

Ghalta is absolutely mental in Xenagos. Especially when you have something like Temur Battle Rage or critical hit. Or both. I just added Fiendish Duo, so that lucky 8-drop (Duo + ghalta) will be epic.

Humble defector would be fun with this green creature who has an effect that at the beginning of every end step each player gains control of all cards they own. Brooding Saurian is the name looked it up

Really useful !

One of my friends has an adrix and niv twincasters deck, and had doubling season up, and then cast mystic reflection (I think that's the card, the next time a creature comes into play it comes in as a copy of target creature) and then put the hornet queen (again pretty sure that's the card name but not 100%, makes token flying deathtouchers) and got eight of them, then ended up with 256 tokens total, then I hit him with the legions end on the tokens

Fun fact, the gatherer text for Void Winnower actually says "Yes, your opponent can't even. We know."

With soul of the harvest it gets you an extra card if you use kodamas effect after summoning a creature that brings in another

I play Engulf in Aesi, it almost always hits high toughness. It's good alternative for Rift there.

Loved it just remember wheel of misfortune is honestly probably the 2nd best wheel effect and it’s like 3$

I actually have End Raze forerunners in my Volo deck, and turns out +4/+4 to all my creatures is actually very close to a craterhoof effect.

Semester's end is a good replacement for teferi's protrctio specially for non-token creature / planeswalker strategies.

Also, foil puts the cards in the graveyard instead of in exile - may be notable for graveyard decks.

Aetherspouts can actually work better than cyclonic rift in certain situations. It is only attacking creatures, but if you’re playing magic you’ll likely have people that want to attack you.

29:00 I was going to such Guardian Project as a card you forgot, but then Looked it up on TCGPlayer and it moved up a bit to $12. Still a bit budget but depends on player's budget. its a great green Enchantment draw for commander. Only does nontoken, but its a come into play effect, so it can be abused and at only 2GG it get setup fast. I run it in my GB Elves myself.

Honestly, at this point I watch your videos just to see how many creative ways you guys can include a jab at grave titan. 😂 don't get me wrong I love how much of a better commander player I've become because of your content but the GT jokes give me life.

I would add Windfall and Tolarian Winds for Wheel of Fortune. Yes, slightly different effects, but also powerful.

I like Ruin Grinder as my replacement for Wheel of Fortune. 6 mana for a menace beater that lets everyone choose to wheel if it dies (and if a player doesn't kill it, they get beaten in the face with it).

This was a great video

Thwart is another free counterspell. The free cost is pretty steep but if its late game or you are blue green it can be a nice budget alternative to force of will.

Evacuation is also a good alt to cyc rift. That having been said, I actually prefer aetherize and aetherspouts outright (illusionist's gambit is also good). I like keeping my opponents' creatures on board if possible and getting them to attack each other (I usually play a low win con count, and generally try to grind out a win rather than deploy a bomb, so having opponents' with creatures to use against each other works for me), and hold cards like aetherize for that specific moment when they make the difference. I also prefer asymmetric board wipes, and while I don't play a lot of creatures in control decks, the few I do play are usually pretty critically important. Hence why cards like aether gale, hex, or river's rebuke are my go to mass removal spells, over something like perplexing test.

Hey guys, as a huge fan who even watches your videos with the sound off, I think you should double check your language settings. For some reason my captions are trying to translate it to Vietnamese 😅. Might be an issue on my end.

You actually missed my favourite free counterspell, Thwart. It's niche but it's really good in Tatyova, Aesi, Uro, etc. Misdirection is also something I would bring up, while not being a counterspell per se, it can operate similarly and in many cases be better.

I almost feel like Blossoming Bogbeast is a decent replacement for Pathfinder Ibex if you're really looking to save money (only $0.66). But this video was great and really encourages people to dissect these staples and see what effect they really need from a card.

In place of Craterhoof, if you also are playing white, could be Jazal Goldmane. It's not hard for it to add up to hundreds of damage.

Overwhelming Stampede is wild. It's in my Ghatla deck. Get out some chump creatures. Maybe lay an Unnatural Growth and cast Stampede. Dragon Throne of Tarkir does the same thing but it's an equip-able artifact that taps your biggest creature so you can do it every combat to be extra mean.

Primal vigor is also a great under $20 alternative for doubling season

Earthshaker Giant (from the not so well known Game Night 2019) is a nice $4 replacement for Craterhoof Behemoth.

I personally went with primal vigor in place of doubling season myself.