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



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46 thoughts on “Spend Less Playing Commander | Magic: The Gathering On A Budget”

  1. Sorry but 43 lands is just waaaay too much and I think the average player will be flooded a lot more often than you let on in your argument here with that amount. I don't buy the argument that "you can always cast your commander" with the mana either, because once you get it out you'll still have nothing to do with a grip full of basics. Most decks really should not be running more than 38 imo.

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  2. 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.

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  3. I reccomend going through your collection first. If you've been playing for awhile, you probably have all sorts of cards stashed away that you've completely forgotten about. I can't even count how many times I almost bought a card I already had lying around in a box somewhere. It's always good to check if you have any decent cards that you can use in your collection or in one of your other decks you haven't played in awhile.

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  4. The best way to build a cheap commander deck is to play a different format instead!

    I would rather play six 15 minute games and loose five of them then play one 90 minute game and loose all of them. In addition it is much easier to build a LGS (local game shop) competitive standard deck on a budget. I have won many games playing decks that have no rares against decks that have all the tricks money can buy. I miss being able to go online and buy a complete common/uncommon playset for each set release for under $20. I would sit on the floor of my apartment for hours building decks from just those cards. I was able to average about $5 a deck and they were stronger than most pre-constructed decks. As a result it was common to show up at my LGS with a box of 20 or more decks. I understand why rotating formats are frustrating for people that spend big dollars for expensive rares only to have them rotate out. I also appreciate that once a year the dominate deck will rotate out and the game becomes fresh again.

    In short I don't understand why commander has become the most popular format in MTG

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  5. I play a lot of commander on spelltable and 50% of people play too few lands and they know it but they wear it as a badge of honor like its smarter to play a high risk high reward strategy.

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  6. Card Kingdom's base iternational delivery is $29.99 USD!!!!!!!
    Since I moved from Australia to Germany, I was hoping that it would drop, but it hasn't, and there are many places where they just dont deliver….
    It is a bit irritating how every youtuber talks about card kingdom, and how they only deliver in US.
    Sorry I don't live there?
    Feeling kind of ousted.
    The prices you talk about quickly spiral beyond that range when talking about the ebay market, those values are nothing like those on Card Kingdom's.

    Anyway, thanks for the video, it is always nice to learn more from you, Prof!

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  7. Professor forgot about sac mana rocks. There are a ton of good artifacts that you can add to your deck that provide you with mana, but have a secondary ability that lets you sac for card draw.

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  8. 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.

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  9. 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.

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  10. Putting sufficient lands in your deck isn't sexy, but it has teeth; if you're hitting all your land drops and curving out, you're going to get to your big spells sooner, and that's the game right there.

    In my experience, not enough people play interaction: kill spells, counterspells, and other ways of getting big threats off the board. Play more interaction than you think you need; you'll rarely be sorry.

    Tutors are nice, but enough card draw will eventually get you what you otherwise need, so focus on draw.

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  11. Step 1: Buy one copy of any card you want to play
    Step 2: Proxy any card you want to play in multiple decks
    Step 3: Potest WotC for giving a cease and decist to Card Conjurer, what was a fantastic site for making proxies and custom cards (seriously, more people should be mad about this)
    Step 4: Have fun!

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  12. Never forget that commander is generally played with 4 people. Each card on the table/spell on the stack has 6 other eyeballs watching. Budget decks can absolutely shine as long as you can pilot your deck to the utmost and wait for the right moment to pull the trigger. A 40$ card is easily stopped with a 40cent counterspell or a disenchant, with exceptions obviously. I will always point to my friends 50$ jhoira deck that stomps thousand dollar monsters.

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  13. I will use this guide to upgrade my Chaos Incarnate precon. The deck is sweet and fun but it contains 40 lands out of the box and a high mana curve.
    I think I will go down to 38 lands and cut some of the 6+CMC and non synergestic cards to lower the curve.
    Hello from France prof ! 🇫🇷

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  14. 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.

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  15. I'm thumbs downing all MTG content that comes my way & thumbs up for all F&B content because you know why have some self respect people. Best way to spend less on MTG is to print your own proxies & never give Hasbro another penny if they tell you U can't do that I think I heard somewhere that you can't own a set of rules to a game make your own cards.

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  16. 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.

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  17. 100 bulk cards?
    5.00

    A new pack of sleeves?
    12.99

    Paying UPS store to print on high quality card stock?
    8.00

    An Ultra Pro Tower
    14.99

    Hey look I have a complete decked out amazing commander deck and it only cost me….
    39.98

    40 bucks for any deck you want and it comes with sleeves and a deck box.

    What. A. STEAL.

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  18. My friends and i just buy a box of each set and do commander draft with some altered rules and buy precons and use what we have from that when making our decks. Keeps power level low and lets us all play jank

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  19. It is called a printer. It prints images on paper. You put it in front of a basic land/common and no one cares because there is no single competitive tournament in your area. Thank me later.

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  20. Lol, I don't 'buy cards for my decks' me and my husband just enjoy spending an afternoon cracking packs occasionally. . .if cards fit into a deck. . . I'll maybe tweak it. . .all while making set themed decks that. . .usually don't run well, but are fun to play. That's how my Ur-Dragon got to be where it is now.

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