Budget Deck - Black Green Toughness Deck

"Even if I don't learn anything new as an experience player, it is nice to read and get reminders from others and new perspectives. It would be great to hear from you about the goals behind the decks you build and why you built them like that. maybe also suggested upgrades."
- Paul G.

I was going to type up a big disclaimer about what a budget deck is NOT, but hopefully nobody expects a budget deck to contain all the all-star rares and mythics that you see winning championships. I'll just jump right into our goals for a true BDB budget deck.  These goals typically apply to any deck in our store that falls between $10 and $40.

Goals for a BDB Deck:

• Be budget friendly! The deck is usually built around commons/uncommons, and a few rares are sprinkled on top.
• Be fun to play!  The deck should have an easily recognizable theme or strategy that provides some satisfaction when played correctly.
• Be able to compete!  While you probably won’t win the Pro Tour with it, the deck should still have the ability to win games against your friends, or make a run at Friday Night Magic.
• Be consistent!  We crunch all the numbers to make sure it has a good mana curve, the right number of lands, and balance between creatures and spells so that it can perform well consistently.
• Be creative! We try to give every card a chance. Cards that are often overlooked can be pretty good if put into the right deck.
• Be inspiring! We want our decks to be fun right out of the package, but we also hope that the deck inspires you to upgrade or tweak it to your play style. Maybe you have some cards in your collection that would make the deck better, go for it!

Why our decks are built the way they are:

First, I want to quickly revisit our guidelines from our last post.  Our team has quite a bit of Magic experience from casual play, Friday Night Magic, MTGO, reading articles, forums, blogs, listening to podcasts and watching the pros play on Twitch or YouTube.  We have also been building and selling decks on eBay since 2012.  The culmination of all this experience has led to these guidelines that greatly reduce the time spent designing a deck.

1. Keep the deck to 60 cards.  Don't "water down" the best cards.
2. Start with 23 lands, +/-1 depending on the speed and mana requirements of the deck.
• 20-30 Creatures
• 7-17 Spells
3. Follow the mana curve, have something at each mana cost if possible, with the majority of the deck between 2 and 4.
4. Include a few instants to be able to react to the opponent and avoid being too predictable.
5. Have a clear plan for winning.  Know what cards will win the game and how the rest will support them.

Second, we are guided by the sets of cards we are working with. You may notice when you dissect a set like Khans of Tarkir, there are clear themes.  Set designers build these themes into sets, spread across many of the commons, uncommons, and rares. While Khans has the obvious five clans: Abzan, Jeskai, Mardu, Sultai, and Temur, if you look closer, there are also five more enemy-color themes: White/Black Warriors, Black/Green Toughness, Blue/Green Morph, Blue/Red Spells, and White/Red Monks.  It’s very easy to  build a deck around these themes because the set designers make sure that each color gets a good balance of creatures and spells across the mana curve and that they work nicely together. 

Let's take a look at our Black/Green Toughness deck.  

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MTG-Black-Green-Toughness-Deck-Rakshasa-Deathdealer-Standard-Legal-Magic-Khans-/251797634047

Kin-Tree Invocation by Ryan Alexander Lee

As I'm flipping through a box of Khans of Tarkir, Kin-Tree Invocation immediately catches my eye.  It begs to be exploited by having a high toughness creature in play. I then start to notice other creatures in black and green that mention toughness, like Sultai Flayer and Kheru Bloodsucker. These cards also want me to sacrifice my creatures for full effect.  I’ve found a theme!  I start to look through all my black and green cards for anything with high toughness or that benefits from sacrificing.  I come across Disowned Ancestor as my 1-drop.  Grim Haruspex will let me draw cards when I sacrifice my creatures, and Swarm of Bloodflies will get +1/+1 counters.  So I’ve got a pretty good spread of creatures that work well together across my mana curve. I just need to throw in a few spells to glue it all together.  I think every deck should have removal, and Murderous Cut looks perfect.  It’s one of the set's strongest removal spells, and I’ll be sacrificing creatures any way to help with delve.  I also find Scout the Borders will fit nicely, fetching me a creature or land and fueling delve. This also looks like a perfect opportunity to use Meandering Towershell with toughness 9. Now I just throw in some lands and I have a theme deck on a budget!

--- Main Deck 60

2 Rakshasa Deathdealer

2 Grim Haruspex

3 Meandering Towershell

4 Disowned Ancestor

4 Kheru Bloodsucker

4 Sultai Flayer

4 Swarm of Bloodflies

4 Kin-Tree Invocation

4 Scout the Borders

4 Murderous Cut

2 Death Frenzy

2 Jungle Hollow

11 Swamp

10 Forest

--- Sideboard 15

3 Kheru Dreadmaw

4 Rotting Mastodon

4 Dutiful Return

2 Bitter Revelation

2 Death Frenzy

The mana curve looks a little funky due to the high cost of Murderous Cut, but using delve should give you a discount.

Suggested Upgrades:

We did a series of Facebook posts about upgrading BDB decks, so some of this may look familiar.

• Lands: I would swap in 2 more Jungle Hollows and 4 Evolving Wilds. This will improve the mana base and help with delve. Llanowar Wastes works here too if you want to spend a few extra bucks.

• Fill in the Gaps: I'm pretty happy with how this deck turned out and don't see any obvious gaps. It has creatures across the mana curve with Swarm of Bloodflies or Meandering Towershell up top to finish the game. I think Archer's Parapet is another great, cheap, high toughness option but might be a bit redundant with Disowned Ancestor. The deck has good removal with Murderous Cut and a very effective sweeper in Death Frenzy. The high toughness should hold up well against aggro decks. Identifying the gaps will require some more playtesting.

• Better cards: As fun as Meandering Towershell is here... it should probably come out for a stronger rare that will finish the game quicker, something with flying like a demon, or even Tasigur would work nicely with the graveyard games. Drown in Sorrow is probably a better version of Death Frenzy.

• New Sets: At the writing of this article, I don't have a ton of experience with Fate Reforged, but they have continued the toughness theme with cards like Grim Contest and Sibsig Muckdraggers. These cards might not find a home in this deck, but it's fun to see all the new options each time a new set is released.

Well, I hope this shed a little light on how we come up with our budget decks at BDB. Really, what it boils down to, is maximizing your fun per dollar. We know as well as anybody that Magic can be a very expensive hobby, especially if you buy booster packs trying to find the cards you want. These decks get you into the action quickly and affordably. Until next time...

Patrick