Hello and welcome to this week's Budget Brew! This week will mark two firsts for Budget Brews. First, we're going to tackle a format I haven't played since Worldwake, and we're doing a mono-coloured deck. With Standard rotating and Modern in shock over the recent unbanning's I don't even want to try and touch those formats from a budget stand point, since we have no idea what the meta will be like for either I'm going to introduce, Budget Brews: Commander Edition!
That's right, we're going to be looking at some budget Commander options. Now, I have to admit I may be able to do some brewing in anything from Legacy to Standard, I've even dabbled in a bit of pauper, but Commander is just beyond me. One of each card, and you can literally do just about anything. What's a budget mage to do?
Well, we ask for help. I turned to a friend of mine whose long-time nickname is “The Commander Dude.” While the shop I went to was concerning themselves with the Origins Prerelease and what Modern implications some of the cards could have, he was looking for a Commander game. So it only made sense I went to him for help.
He responded to my message with glee and said, “Craig, have I got the deck for you!” He then shared a Mono-Green list that dedicated itself to doing something that only green can do: ramping up and smashing face.
Thrun, the Last Troll. I know him as a sideboard staple for green decks to battle blue mages, and he has long been a thorn in my side. He dodges everything short of Wrath of God and Damnation, and the deck we're working with today even shores up weaknesses to Wrath-effects. So, I figured it made perfect sense to play him in a format known for bringing nuclear weapons to a gun fight.
I also decided there's only one thing you can call a deck like this...
The game plan is simple, bring Thrun out turn four, protect him with equipment, and smash face. Ramp up, play some blockers and send Thrun in again and win the game.
All told you can pick up this 100 card for about $100CAN when you purchase it at WizardTower.com own site or if you're looking to play Commander online it's about $50CAN in TIX.
Now's about the time I'd talk about special cards and the game plan for the deck, but like I said earlier the game plan is simple. Play Thrun, make him big mean and unblockable (or give him trample), and move in for the win.
After playing a few matches online over Xmage with it, I think it's defenitely better in a one-on-one game. I was playing four player games, and went pretty much under the radar the entire games, until I started doing my thing but I was subject to sitting through people doing their infinite turns and making a billion tokens and all the sorts of things that make me not want to play Commander on a regular basis, unless my playgroup had an understanding of no infinite combo's.
One thing I did realize however is that you can have some fun playing Commander, and it doesn't have to be that expensive to make a decent straight forward beat down commander deck.
Well, that's all I have this week! Next week we'll return the usual grinding while we try to untap the multiverse and make it more affordable!
I have started to stream! I get on mostly on night, but plan on doing some random day streams when I'm able. I have a full schedule posted on Twitch and I look forward to getting some viewers! Right now I play strictly over Xmage, but am going to try to join the CardHoarder Network so I can borrow cards and play competitive Magic over MTGO.
Have an idea for something you'd like me to brew up? Give me a shout in the comments! You can also follow me on Twitter, @maibuddha, Reddit /u/maibuddha, or you can join my Facebook group!
