Eternal Conflict – Gauging Interest in a Budget Classic PRE

Today I want to talk about something a little bit different.

I’ve always been a fan of budget decks. I’ve been building them my entire life. As a kid I used to scour the bargain bin at my local cardstore on Saturday mornings, putting together deck after deck. On another website, I wrote well over 50 articles covering a huge variety of casual decks, almost always including budget versions. Now that I write exclusively about Classic, there isn’t any real opportunity for budget considerations. For the most part, if you’re showing up with a cheap deck to a Classic tournament – you’re going to have a rough day.

Based on my love of budget decks, you’d think that I would be a fan of Pauper – but unfortunately that’s not the case at all. I gave the format a bunch of chances, and it is just not for me. I understand why some people like it, and definitely understand the desire for a ‘budget’ format – but Pauper’s card pool is just way too restrictive for me. Uncommons and rares generally produce more interesting effects than commons, and there are hundreds/thousands that can be had for under a dime. When it comes to budget deckbuilding, I personally embrace junk rares – kicking them out of the format is the last thing on my mind.

All of this thinking lead to an idea: Why not run a budget Classic tournament? Sure the definition of ‘budget’ is a tough one, but I think it can make it happen. Let’s start with $50 – seems simple enough. I’m really curious to see which decks fall out from this. Will they be effective budget versions of competitive decks? Will they be modern versions of old favorites? Will any innovative new archetypes emerge? How will the metagame work to hate out some of the more obvious decks?

So here’s what I’m thinking for a Budget Classic PRE.

The Short:

Build a Classic deck for less than 50 tickets, including sideboard. Play a bunch of matches, and hopefully win some decent prizes.

The Long:

If there’s enough interest in this event, I’m going to do some work and decide on two dates – one for the event, and one deck registration deadline.

Each player interested in this tournament will be required to send me an email prior to the registration deadline detailing out their deck of choice. All cards must be Classic legal. The total cost of all cards must be under $50.00 according to the latest prices from mtgotraders.com (you can use the lowest legitimate price and have basic lands for free). I will verify your deck’s total cost on that same day you send it in, and your choice will be locked in for the tournament. If there’s a cost issue then I’ll respond and give you a chance to update your list.

On tournament day we’ll get everyone into a room and play it out. Here are the specifics:

< 18 Players: 3 rounds of swiss, top 4.

18 – 24 Players: 3 rounds of swiss, top 8.

24 – 39 Players: 4 rounds of swiss, top 8.

40+ Players: 5 rounds of swiss, top 8.

• There is no entry fee.
• You must used the same exact deck that you submitted.
• You cannot change your deck at any point.
  I will use DCI-Reporter for all pairings, tiebreakers, etc.
• If you don’t join your assigned match within 10 minutes of the announcement, then your opponent will get a match win.
• Results must be reported by both players within 5 minutes of a match ending.
• Matches will be played in Anything Goes.
• Matches will be Classic, and watchable.
  Matches will be best 2 out of 3, 1 hour per match.
• There are no intentional draws.
• Everyone needs to be cool. Please don’t make my life difficult!

I will be providing something decent when it comes to prizes for the top 4 – I’m thinking along the lines of a low-end dual land. We’ll see how much interest there is, and go from there. So those are the basics, what do you guys think?

Thoughts on Decks

Before I wrap this article up, I want to go through a quick rundown of some decks that jump into my head as I’m writing this – some potential options for this tournament.

Dredge

Dredge is the first deck that jumps into my head as I’m writing this. This one is definitely powerful and potentially ‘broken’, but I think that the $9 value of Bridge From Below will keep the deck in check. If you run a full playset of Bridges, then a huge percentage of your budget is already spoken for.

Running Bazaar of Baghdad alongside Bridge is out of the question, and it’ll be tough to craft a resilient deck with the rest of your budget. Sure you can get something together, but without easy access to five colors – and without Bazzar, Dredge isn’t nearly so scary. Maybe the deck will be good, but I don’t think it’s too broken.

Burn

The second deck that jumps into my head is burn, which is a really cheap and somewhat competitive Classic/Legacy deck. It’s possible to put together a decent version of this one for under 50 tickets.

I’d say that going into this one, Burn is the boogeyman. It’s probably the most obvious deck choice, but will have a definite target on its head. Maybe this deck really is the best in the format, or maybe it will go down hards to cards like Kor Firewalker, Chill, Warmth, Circle of Protection: Red, Sphere of Law, or this next deck…

CounterbalanceTop

There are a million different variations of this deck. Playsets of this vicious combination will cost you around $14 to put together, with plenty more to play with to complete your deck. Trinket Mage isn’t too bad here, and Pithing Needle has come way down in price. Maybe there’s something here…

Oath

A single Oath costs 50 tickets, this deck is out of the question.

Elves

Elves is another potential boogeyman – super powerful monocolored deck without a ton of expensive cards. This one is definitely scary, but again there are ways to fight against it… Trinisphere, Ethersworn Canonist, Engineered Plague, Pithing Needle, Volcanic Fallout, etc.

Polymorph

Polymorph is very cheap though. If you want to cheat some gigantic monster into play, then this may be your best bet.

Tendrils Storm

If you start with playsets of Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, and Lotus Petal then you’re up over 20 tickets. Chrome Mox, Lion’s Eye Diamond, Vampiric Tutor, and Demonic Tutor are all very expensive. A budget manabase will be very fragile for Tendrils, but there could definitely be a way to make this one work – maybe U/B, maybe U/R, maybe some other combination.

Merfolk

Monocolored decks are going to be attractive in this format. Merfolk will be able to assemble their creature base on the cheap, but is totally out of luck when it comes to stuff like Force of Will, Daze, and Mutavault. Aether Vial seems potentially powerful in this format, although Standstill is around $3 per copy…

White Weenie

Speaking of monocolor decks, maybe Vial can find a home in white weenie? Is this a format that Land Tax could do well in? Maybe alongside Armageddon – just like the old days?

Affinity

Ravager is around $7 per copy, but the rest of Affinity is reasonably cheap to put together. Maybe this one could be a contender? Remember that Skullclamp is also available, and only costs a couple of quarters.

Mono Black Control

Powerful archetypal cards like Duress, Hymn to Tourach, Smallpox, Smother can be had for very cheap. As for win conditions, Tombstalker is kind of expensive at $3 per copy – but Nyxathid is much cheaper at only $1 each. It seems like this deck could be solid?

Hopefully reading this list will give you some ideas on what to play, what not to play, and what to make sure your deck can handle. I’m not going to go TOO in depth on these ideas, since I’m curious to see what everyone else comes up with. That’s the whole point of having this tournament in the first place!

Zoo

The traditional Zoo deck is extremely reliant on fetchlands and duals, so a straight up port will be weakened big time by its manabase. That being said, there may be some way to focus in on one or two colors in order to create something powerful. Maybe something like R/G Zoo with Wild Nacatl, Kird Ape, and lots of burn?

Reanimator

Entomb is prohibitively expensive, but cards like Buried Alive, Careful Study, Animate Dead, and Reanimate probably aren’t. There are also plenty of sweet reanimation targets that fit into the budget classification. Akroma is about $1, same goes for Inkwell Leviathan. Iona will run you $4+, but it may be worth trying to squeeze in a single copy.

Wrap-Up and Questions

So what do you guys think? Would you play in an event like this? Is there anything major that I’m missing? If I do run this, what’s the best day of the week/time for you? Which decks do you think will be good/bad? Think the event will be won by an obvious option like Elves… or will a creative deck come out of nowhere to take down the title?

I also want to reach out to players who aren’t Classic regulars for this tournament. Players who have always wanted to enter the format, but haven’t been able to due to budget concerns. Any thoughts on how to best get the word out to them would be much appreciated.

Let me know in the comments guys, thanks for reading!

Steve Gargolinski

spgmtg@gmail.com