Spend Less Playing Commander | Magic: The Gathering On A Budget 

It's a brand new Shuffle Up & Play! Patrick Sullivan VS Cedric Phillips return to battle it out here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-9OeQDAH1dU8.html

"If you cast a ramp spell and don't play a land, you didn't actually ramp" I genuinely think this is why Cultivate and Kodama's Reach are such popular ramp spells. Putting one in your hand means it's always ramp.

The Prof: *narrowly escapes getting compleated by Elesh Norn* Also the Prof: *gets assimilated by the Borg*

I think Prof's deck tech expertise and Magic Arcanum's recent video philosophy of "play the cards you like" is the direction we need to take the game. And proxies.

You and your team consistently provide such fantastic insight, thank you for making videos like this! Even years into this format and decades into this game, these kinds of videos still give me things to consider. Also, much love for continuing to champion the use of proxies!

Very cool to see you tackle budget commander - as these days lots of folks don't have the cash lying around to afford a lot of the pricier cards in the format and content like this shows them that its still very possible to enjoy our format without breaking the bank. And I agree whole heartedly with your deckbuilding breakdown - as proper deck building is often a counter to more expensive decks by providing improved consistency, more interaction, and better synergy.

As a new commander player, this was so good to know. Not sure how viable this would be for content but having a series dedicated to showcase cheaper cards that have similar effects as the splashy counterparts will be excellent.

Literally just make proxies. If your play group has an issue with you making proxies for a deck at a similar power level as their decks then find a new playgroup. Edh is supposed to be a casual, multiplayer format. No one should be taking it seriously enough to worry about proxies

I love to buy valuable cards and collect expensive ones, but what I love above all else is to play the game with friends. So, I tell them all the time to proxy whatever cards they want. It shouldn't be complicated to understand that not everyone is in this game for the enjoyment of the singles economy like I am. Some ppl just want to play without having to climb over a pay-wall.

I immediately put your point on lands into practice, starting a new deck with 40+ and not only was it easier to build (there’s always those hard decisions on the 95-100th card), but it resulted in higher quality non-land cards in the deck. Can’t wait to try it out!

You can get a decent printer for cheaper than many EDH decks.

One thing I've always focused on is having a core idea and looking for synergy with other cards. Often times decks will get expensive and win less when they try to always have the best answer or coolest things but not have a focus on how they're going to win.

Proxies are the heart of my play group, we play all types of games, all types of sets, we love our printer and we love to have fun together brewing decks. The Magic is actually about the Gathering ;)

I always tell people to buy a Pre-con (especially one of the $20-$30) commander deck in the colors they want to play and then buying the singles to reskin it to the commander you want to play. $20 worth of upgrades really helps someone get into the experience and the decks are stout

Make proxies!!! Until you use up all your printers ink at the office 🤣😂

Broke: use budget decks Woke: find a playgroup that allows proxy cards

Small piece of advice that I noticed over time: an easy way of building budget decks is considering commanders that play around cheap cards, making them look better. Commanders like feather (reusable instants or sorceries), edric (cheap, evasive creatures) and even teshar (low cost creatures/artifacts with simple but good effects) can be a good start

I want to applaud you for the initial forward of playing more lands, I did the math on one of my decks recently and found out I was like running idk 9 or so too few lands based on my curve and it runs much more smoothly now (even my Lurrus Companion deck still wants 37 lands). Oftentimes "just run X lands" is not a catch-all for most decks and running more lands is often correct if not the "fun" choice.

Good ideas here Prof. As a budget player, I do want to say one thing on lands. Thanks to the neverending stream of precons, 5 of the color pairs (Azorius, Dimir, Rakdos, Gruul, and Selesnya respectively) each have at least 3 dirt cheap dual lands that can enter untapped (specifically, the Reveal, Tango, and Odyssey Filter lands). That's in addition to the painlands all getting a reprint, and the reprinted lands in Dom Remastered. Exotic Orchard and Path of Ancestry are cheap too. And there are random other duals that are cheap, like Rockfall Vale in Gruul (around $1 at the most). Unless your pods are very powerful or very quick, I don't feel behind in terms of manabase when I play. Even my 3 color decks work about as often as other players that I see. And if you really want a cheap 5 color deck, honestly, go for a Gates deck. Yeah it's weird and inefficient, but in a pinch it works and Maze's End is the cheapest it's been in years.

Love this video. I build a lot of decks, so I tend to quickly run out of copies of popular, pricier cards. Getting creative and finding cheaper cards I haven’t played before has become a fun way to spend time while also making my wide assortment of decks each feel unique. You’re really the best in the west when it comes to advice for getting the most bang for my buck!

in my opinion they should create more cards that do more based on the amount of basic lands you have, while dual lands and the such are useful expensive or well rounded decks still contain like 5-10 basic lands for stuff like rampant growth. what we need is stuff that gives you small perks and bonuses for playing cheaper cards, nothing busted but something that allows you to not fall behind for not spending $500 per deck

Prof, I just wanted to give you kudos for stating on the record that there is nothing wrong with proxying. There are so many people that could be benefitted by that. Also proxying the cards you can't buy as singles is a great way to continue to play Magic without giving Wizards more money.

love this channel and the prof! recently got back into magic and watching these videos makes the trek back into game welcoming and worth it. now just need more people in my area to play. there's not many lgs' around my town.

For card draw in white decks I recommend checking out Seer's Sundial and Cosmos Elixir!

Am currently building my first deck, and the most helpfull thing has been playing it in my LGS. A couple of other people have a deck with the same commander and a lot of them have played with or against similar decks (dragon tribal), and have given me good advice on what cards or types of cards to keep or leave out. Both the peoples advice and simply playing games with it have given me excellent info on how to improve. Making a good decklist is not something you do in an evening, it takes times and testing.

Is it possible to build on a budget? -Let me introduce you to the fantastic concept of proxies! ... All will be print ~

3:50 fetching a basic forest with [[Farseek]], what a classic

watching this while sleeving my first commander deck! Your videos got me really interested in trying the format and found out i have a lot of cool elementals i could build a tri mana deck around. Wish me luck!

Thanks for this Prof! I've been playing for a while and this is still good advice as I need to reign in my spending on the game.

You mention using proxies, is the 30th anniversary proxy set a good source for Commander cards?

This is some excellent advice. The only thing I would add is to look to buy good one drops. Strong decks tend to keep to lower mana curves, with most cards lying between cmc 1-3. Most players getting into the format for the first time either buy a precon (which will very often include only 2 or 3 1 cmc spells), or just cobble together something from their collection (which very often wont have enough unique 1 cmc cards that are good in commander). You usually want at least 15 for most decks.

As always I love the videos. Thank you for continuing to put out quality content. You are a fixture for good in the magic community.

Great work Professor! Good insights for new players who might be feeling behind in their playgroup

Got my signed Greed! Thanks Prof! Excellent vid as always!

My best tip is to look through older sets and you can find forgotten cards that can really help some strategies. There is a card in Ice Age that absolutely wrecked the other side while juicing up my mono-black commander deck.

I am very grateful for your channel Prof! Thank you!

Great video once again prof, for me I always try to watch for reprints or when cards seem really good and are at a low cost

Thank you prof! This video really helped me out! Hopefully we see another budget commander battle video soon!

built my saint celestine commander deck with 60 euros and it hits cheers from italy

I just built a new deck this weekend with a budget I hadn't tried in a long time, just cards I had around the house. I built Talrand with mostly draft chaff cantrips, a couple protection spells, and few emergency counters, it ran great and all the cards are things I normally wouldn't put in a deck. The reaction every other turn of "oh I remember that from back during X set," or "I forgot that existed," was a lot of fun.

thank you prof for the video. it helped me to recheck my deck again for consistency and combo

Prof, this is an excellent video. As someone who is always on a budget, I say thank you!

This is an incredibly good video! I’d add Rashmi is another really fun/good deck to build on a budget too. I’ve played budget since I switched to commander as a student in 2017 and found it’s a good way to regulate power if you have an optimizing mindset to deckbuilding.

I'm new to MtG, only been playing for about 3 months, and I'm lucky to have a local group of tabletop friends to play with (many of them are new to it as well). Until I gain a firm grasp on the rules and nuances of what can be done, I've been concentrating my efforts on building a few super-cheap EDH decks and playing around with different setups during our casual game nights. If I goof up and realize my deck flat-out doesn't work (which recently happened with a golgari spider deck I made), at least I only spent between $30-50 bucks on that mistake. And hey, chances are I didn't waste that money anyway, those cards can always be used in later decks. For me, half the fun of MtG is the building process itself (and the hunt for the right cards)!

simple trick that works in literally every commander: more ccard draw is better, your spells could be less powerful, but if you fling 3 of them a turn you will win, every color has cheap accessible card draw, even my monowhite has like 12 card draw spells that are under 4 dollars

Glad to have another technical video from you professor, and company. Id like to make comment. Moxfield is a pretty easy way to look at a manabase. I play between 35 and 45 lands depending on archetype. I start considering 25 lands will be basics (unless youre doing something strange), and basics can be free if you know where to look. Evolving wilds, slow fetches, various tapped duals, and on color pain lands are great ways to fill in that 10 or so extra lands i end up needing. I stay away from utility lands for optimization reasons. I really want a good synergystic reason to have man lands. Usually it ends up better having a spell or a basic instead. Picking an expensive general or weird line to victory is a pretty easy pitfall to fall into, just like coming up with push-pin and yarn conditional spell situations that might never happen in game. I try not to get hung up on having a card or two, because a deck of 99 cards relies more on GROUPS of cards. Having a snc etb fetch might save you some money that allows you to get a really good package of 10 cards for the same money a fetchland or shock might set you back. Also, make sure to use the set gimmick cards like buyback, cycling, adventures and MDFCs as a way to help you tune for having spells/lands, or in the case of cycling, getting some extra card movement going, and not breaking the bank.

Man, great video!! My friends always ask me how can I build such good decks, usualy, in the commander $100, but they almost always work in the same way, with great consistency. The trick is: sinergy + mana base. No pet cards, constant add/rem cards after experiencing their gameplay, and things like that. Exactly the same thing you said here. To me, there is no need to put hundreds, thousands of money in commander decks, because afterall you just want to make some fun moves, use some wierd cards that play nowhere else, etc. Thats the whole point for me. Thanks!

I think there is one strategy in particular worth mentioning when it comes to strong, cheap mechanics: Stealing creatures from the opponent! Let them pay for Eldrazi and then snatch them and give them a taste of their own own medicine (poisen). E.g. Etali or Machesa the black rose are fantastic in this regard!

Great video, Professor! It's been a minute since you've had an educational video. I'm a huge fan of your diction and vocabulary.

Love love LOVE this video! I'd love to see you expand on the last topic, about not always needing / wanting to win to define your fun in Commander. I LOVE building decks without defensive measures or with specific restrictions; though these are not always budget decks. Eruth Storm but require EVERY playable Storm card + lose the game effects AND no defensive cards makes it truly feel like a slot machine. Even the simplest restriction on Go-Shintai of Life's Origin requiring every single Shrine, not just the best ones or an efficient amount leaves its games feeling very different each time. Admittedly offbeat design decisions are unlikely to be near the top of ideas or priorities for budget players, I see it as another method of resisting gravity's call toward meta and cEDH play dominating your entire Commander experience.

Always good to see decisions I have made weeks ago reinforced in this video. Seems daunting with a limited budget, I remember on of my first games of commander an opponent played a Tundra Turn 1....... internally I was screaming "That's worth more than 3 of my decks combined!"

Always enjoy your videos prof 🙏

What a fantastic idea for a video; I will be upping the land count of all of my decks to see them play more consistently! I cannot wait! I only wish I played more than one evening a week!

Excellent video as always prof

Excellent advice! I got into Commander this year (very much on a budget) and have saved major money by leaning way into one-off ("parasitic") mechanics. I run Farideh dice rolling, Gorion adventures, and Tazri dungeons. You can often make decks that are very consistent, thematic, and cheap by getting the cards that care about rare mechanics and don't matter anywhere else. So pick a niche irrelevant to competitive constructed, and have fun!

Hey Prof! I was waiting on a video like this for a while! Got a commander from Jumpstart 2022 and wanted to build a deck around it. Thanks!

In my experience, I find it difficult to stay on a low budget with mono-color decks because there is a smaller pool of cards available. Budget decks (ironically) are easier to build when you have 2 or 3 colors because you have access to more budget options that a mono-colored deck couldn't flex in. The tradeoff is that your mana base is harder to build.

I've started proxying entire commander decks, it's great. I keep them all under $150 budget so they're not too strong. I buy the sleeves and deckboxes and basic lands from my local game store so I'm still supporting them. I print them in color and spend a couple hours per deck, carefully cutting the cards with scissors, so they look really good. The only people who care are the teenagers at the game store who are obsessed with card prices and cracking packs and selling cards.

What an awesome video man I love this channel

I gave a like here not because this is an awesome video but because of the statement about proxies being a great message 👍 great video

Our friend group recently adopted 5 below commander. Ban sol ring and then any card that has a few LP listings at $5 and below are allowed. You can have pretty decent decks, but at same time, not break the bank.

Thank you professor. You the man!

Thanks for looking out for us, prof!

The Ravnica bounce lands are great with MDFC lands from Zendikar too. They can be used to add a spell back to your hand if you draw them later in the game.

Love your advice, professor. Keep the game affordable and fun 😁

Fantastic video!! Thank you!

I really apreciate your insight into consistency vs power. Flavour to me It's the other ingredient I consider. For me when building a deck I really want to find that crossroad of consistency and flavour, I find that combination the most rewarding. I do have a couple of powerful decks, that I used take out if the table is playing for power, (Light -Paws) but If I'm honest I have way more fun with consistency +flavour. I took out my Minsc and Boo, Timeles Heroes deck for a ride against one of these powerful tables, and it absolutely took everyone by storm, I'ts not "powerful" Its just fast and consistent, It gets me a HUGE hamster to swing every time, and really It's just a joy to take out Urza's and the like with an overgrown rodent. It did made consider if I should retool my other "powerful" decks into flavourfull fun instead. I think power and flavour is posible but harder to come by, but building that way always makes me feel like I'm building everyone's else's same deck.

As a budget player, your advice is spot on. I also play a couple of steal or copy effects in decks with red or blue, works great when someone drops an expensive bomb. Oh you have a consecrated sphinx? Now I have a consecrated sphinx!

Good ol' Farseek. Definitely grabs forests. (I take the point but, having accidentally put Farseek in a mono green deck before...)

Thanks prof! You're doing a better job of attracting new audience than wizards is :)

I have a fynn the fangbearer deck with some of the ramp elves in it and it does not disappoint. 100% recommend if on a budget.

'Into the North, with a package of a couple snow basics and the relevant snow duals is another budget option to help smooth out multicolor manabases if you are in green.

Professor thank you! The only thing I would emphasize is that some colors tend to be more expensive as a whole than others so I would encourage people make a budget deck and slowly add more expensive cards over time rather than feel like they have to buy all the high power ones up front.

Great Video Prof! I also say if you can afford it proxy the super expensive stuff and I highly encourage players to find cheap alternatives like Prof said. No need to go for the big ticket cards when there's something like it that costs a dollar or less.

Redundancy and Synergy are great ways to make up for power. Thx for the tips prof.

There's a lot of older commons and uncommons that we often overlook in building because we keep them in different bins. I keep a box of "playables" separate from the others. Mana geyser, urban evolution, fog, the list goes on. I'm sure everyone has a favorite. The point is, organization is an underrated element of deckbuilding

Thanks! Great insights!

Great work. Very useful for new player.

Lovely advice, great video as always. I'd like to add that it's always an option for other players to power down their deck. Like you say, commander isn't just about winning, and forcing everyone into sweaty levels of magic prevents people making their own synergies, playstyles and just instead having to use whatever EDHREC says. I see a lot of new players spend far too much money on a overly competitive deck, and then just get burned out of the game after less than a few months. It's really kind of sad to see.

Thanks for the tips !

this is a video i will refer back to over and over! thank you!

I LOVE hearing all these tricks I've developed being confirmed by the professor himself! Using cheap alternatives, ramping, keeping your mana curve low (I love combining card draw with an avrage CMC 2 deck, it allows me to just play 3 spells per turn and completely surprise opponents!) - a 2 to 3 cost commander also allows you to get them out really quick, useful if your hand doesn't have anything in it to cast on turn 2 or 3! Speaking of cheap alternatives. I have a white/blue voltron deck that I found a card in that didn't synergise enough - but I had fragmentize laying around, a 1 cost white destroy artifact or enchantment? I used to think it was bad, but in commander paying 1 white to remove someone's sol ring or thran dynamo is pretty fun. and I'm pretty sure fragmentize is one of those two-cent cards! (looked it up, yeah it's cheaper than toilet paper! at 0.02 to 0.10$) Get yourself a fragmentize, people!

Thanks for the insight!

The 21 guild gates + their support package like circuitous route and other cheap gate ramp/fixing actually work fantastic in a 5 color deck on a budget. If you can reliably fetch a Gond Gate in the first few turns you are set! Not to mention cards like Maze's End, Gate Colossus, and Gatekeeper Gargoyle for added synergy/finishers!

Welll, they're not guildgates ... but I threw most of the Baldur's Gate Gates in my 5 colored Shrine Deck including some gate specific ramp cards to search especially for Gond Gate so I can play them untapped xD" As I'm usually on a budget, I probably shouldn't build 5 colored decks, but I love my Shrines and Tiamat 🥲

I added lands to one Precon, I made it Tribal like subtheme for a more snowball effect, and it is more fun. And thank to you I am more happy with my Nethroi + Umori deck.

I do agree with what you said about the manabase. For budget options with the lands, running the slow dual lands like Prairie Stream and Sunken Hollow for example, since these cards are not only 2 colors lands that enter the battlefield untap in most cases, they also have the basic land types that can be fetch by ramp cards. The Temple and the Bounce lands are also useful in the early stages of the game by giving you infomation about the card you about to draw and helping you guarantee your next land drop. Check lands and Slow lands are usually the go to lands that I would run as a budget. They do came in tap for the early stages of the game but the times where its untap when it etb is way higher than it enter tapped. The Mana Sink land (as I call it) can be a great addition to it (Dark Water Catacomb for example). It can really help you fix mana by paying 1 GENERIC MANA for it. You can literally run a colorless with the Mana Sink land and you get 2 colors. However, there is 1 type of land that I don't really recommend players to get but it still does it job. The early lands. These are the one that enter untap if you control you or less other lands. These are great as it enter untap early game but become a guildgate land after the 3rd turn. I don't recommend it but they are dirt cheap. With the Concealed Courtyard being under $1 it is a land that you might want to grab if your deck can go off in the early stages of the game. Shock Lands are THE SAME AS ANY 2 COLORS LANDS. They do the same exact thing that most 2 color lands do: Giving you the choice of the 2 colors it provide. It is unnecessary to get those when you can have a budget option aka Slow dual lands. They both have the basic land types in their cards and they have conditions to enter untap. It is not worth the risk to threw $30-$50 into 3 cards where you can spend those cards for a bunch of nonlands that can help you win the game. LANDS AREN'T MAKING YOUR DECK STRONGERS, DECISION MAKING DOES. A pro player can find ways to win with a crap deck while a new player relies on good cards to do the job.

Great video prof!

As an old guy learning a new GREAT game, I thank you for theses videos

Hell yeah, my first commander deck I built was a budget Yuriko and it does really well

My first EDH deck was mono red and had fetch lands in it because I owned them, but it was goofy fun just burning down the the board and using threaten effects. Simply chaos

Prof, I love your content and have been subscribed since 2014/15 at this point. I understand the love for commander, but I wish you'd give love and attention to 60-card formats like Standard and Pioneer. It sucks, as an avid 60-card player, that the game is seemingly shifting to a primarily casual commander-focus. I'd love to see a standard set review that isn't bogged down by "how will this affect commander" Love your content, and I will continue to support the channel as I always have. You've made playing magic cool for me.

I just want to add to what professor said. - I find that there's more variety in good budget lands than ever. I'll always recommend when buying a pre-con to set aside around $10, and buy some utility/dual lands, you'll quickly see how much smoother and consistent deck feels when you remove the "enter the battlefield tapped" lands. -When constructing, always check other videos/deck sites, and see how others build their deck. It can give you a direction, but most importantly, it can show you cards that work exceptionally good with your commander. Having said that, also go to scryfall, and read the new cards in the color identity you want to build. I've found a lot of underrated cards in Commander Legends 2, that really makes me question why the community haven't really talked much about these. -The perfect time to buy reprints are in the morning in release date, and when the next set is being previewed (usually in about 2 months).

This is quality content right here 👏

I’m glad you went over mana base. There’s so many ppl who believe they need shocks and fetches to just have their deck function (which is crazy).

Always enjoy when the Prof breaks out some Royalty Free Jazz!

Nice Video Proff!

First time viewer of Tolarian Community College. Two notes: A, Professor, you are a content machine; I even watched the full Star Trek ad. B, I'll be back for the next video.

The new capenna fetch lands work well too. Gain 1 life and search for 1 of 3 basic lands. Csn easily put multiples of those for cheap land fixing. I have found them to be a great fit in my commander decks

Commander Clash was just talking about putting more land in decks a few weeks ago. Replace some of the ramp with more synergy. I'm going to try it out with the next deck I make.