“Budget.”

It’s a cringeworthy word. When I hear it, I immediately think back to Boy Scouts, for some reason, where they taught you that one of the twelve tenets to being a good Boy Scout, nay, a good PERSON, was to be “thrifty.” The Boy Scouts, however, teach a lot of high concepts to 12-year-olds. I would have preferred that they had taught me how to properly set up a tent. The one time I went camping in Boy Scouts, we ended up camping in a playground. We took all the tents and turned the jungle gym into a giant, tarp-covered igloo. Disappointingly, “resourceful” is not one of the placards in the Boy Scout oath.

“Budget.”

A budget is something that my dad had to have, providing as he did for five children on a single income back in the eighties. My mother would have called it, “being frugal.” I called it, “not getting a pony for my birthday.” It implies that there is a set figure associated to a particular task; you have thirty dollars budgeted to pay the telephone bill, for instance.

I don’t believe anyone builds decks this way. I don’t believe that, in preparation for Friday Night Magic, that even my father would sit down with his thirty dollars, and only buy cards that would stay within his budget. So I propose a rechristening of this idea.

Basically, we need new PR.

“Thrifty” is actually a much better word for the decks I prefer to build nowadays. Careful and diligent in the use of resources. “Provident” is one better. Having or showing foresight; providing carefully for the future.

Building a deck thriftily means using your resources to their best advantage – using your existing card pool, and supplementing it where you can with cards that will provide you value in the long run. Nobody starts a deck from scratch; it’s important when building thriftily to evaluate what cards you already own that can fit into spots. You might not be able to buy four Troll Ascetics by Friday’s tournament; do you have Hunting Moas that could be used in the spot until you can buy or trade for Trolls?

Building with providence means that, when looking to fill holes in decks that will require you to spend money, you take a moment of thought to look into what cards you’ll be able to use in the future – in future decks, and even in future formats. For example, your mono-green deck needs a three-drop. You’ve got the option to buy either four Ohran Vipers or four Troll Ascetics. They’re roughly the same cost, but the provident choice here would be to buy four Troll Ascetics, which you’ll be able to play for a lot longer in Standard.

We’ll still call it “building on a budget,” as that’s already caught on. But I’d much rather call it something catchy like “Deck Minimum: Thrifty” or “Providence, Teferi’s Island.” This is why I work in computer software and not in marketing. (I also came up with “Thrifty Ways to Leave Your Lover,” but then it would just be an article about bus fares.)

Lorwyn, Land of Providence

Lorwyn is a land made for provident builders. Sure, there are some cards like Thoughtseize that are up in the stratosphere, and Garruk Wildspeaker ain’t exactly a cheap hire either, but the breadth and depth of the tribal mechanic gives the thrifty builder a number of options to play around with. As of right now, there are only eight rares listing on Star City that cost ten dollars or more. That’s fairly amazing for a big set.

Another great thing about Lorwyn for budget builders is that, in most cases, the uncommons have far greater impact than the rares. All of the new lords with the exception of Scion of Oona and Mad Auntie are uncommon, and most tribes have great creatures in the common and uncommon slot to flesh out a deck. If you’ve bought a Fat Pack or a box, you probably have plenty of tools to start building a competitive tribal deck.

Take a look at the currently-hot UG Faeries deck, one of which went undefeated at Worlds this year:

U/G Faeries A Standard deck, by Hong Fei Yeung 0th place at a Worlds tournament in New York City, New York, United States on 2007-12-02 As reported at http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgevent/worlds07/stundefeated Print this deck!
Maindeck: Artifacts 2 Loxodon Warhammer Creatures 4 Birds of Paradise 3 Mistbind Clique 4 Mystic Snake 3 Pestermite 4 Scion of Oona 4 Scryb Ranger 4 Spellstutter Sprite 2 Wall of Roots	Instants 2 Psionic Blast 1 Remove Soul 4 Rune Snag Basic Snow Lands 6 Snow-Covered Forest 6 Snow-Covered Island Lands 3 Faerie Conclave 2 Treetop Village 4 Yavimaya Coast Legendary Lands 2 Pendelhaven	Sideboard: 2 Pithing Needle 3 Sower of Temptation 3 Spectral Force 1 Vesuvan Shapeshifter 4 Flashfreeze 2 Naturalize
Download this deck in Apprentice format!		Download this deck in Magic Online Text format!

The most expensive rares in the deck are the Psionic Blasts, but you could easily swap those for either more countermagic (like Faerie Trickery) or possibly some more interesting removal a la Ovinize. Nothin’ says tricksy Faerie shenanigans like turning a Tarmogoyf into a sheep. Yes, I know Ovinize does not hit your opponent about the ears and shoulders to finish the game off, but still – it would be pretty funny.

By the same token, Lorwyn’s Elves also are a powerful tribe with the ability to perform well without stretching the wallet. Numerous players won their respective States tournament with Elves, including Conrad Jackson in Florida:

Elves A Standard deck, by Conrad Jackson 1st place at a States/Champs tournament in Orlando, Florida, United States on 2007-10-28 As reported at http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgevent/states07/standardfl Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 4 Elvish Champion 4 Imperious Perfect 4 Llanowar Elves 4 Masked Admirers 4 Riftsweeper 4 Wren's Run Vanquisher Enchantments 4 Oblivion Ring Legendary Creatures 3 Saffi Eriksdotter Planeswalkers 4 Garruk Wildspeaker Snow Creatures 3 Boreal Druid	Basic Lands 11 Forest 2 Plains Lands 4 Brushland Legendary Lands 1 Pendelhaven Snow Lands 4 Arctic Flats	Sideboard: 2 Dodecapod 3 Scryb Ranger 4 Naturalize 3 Pollen Lullaby 3 Eyes of the Wisent
Download this deck in Apprentice format!		Download this deck in Magic Online Text format!

Obviously, in a “budget” world, the Garruk’s would have to be replaced, but there are a myriad of pointy- eared replacement possibilities that would have great synergy with the deck. Some other Elves that saw play over States weekend include Thornweald Archer, Wren’s Run Packmaster, and Immaculate Magistrate, all fairly inexpensive options.

Tribal, as a deck theme, has historically offered a way to build competitive decks from commons and uncommons. Onslaught, the first tribal block, had Goblins at the top of the food chain, but even Goblins didn’t run many rares. This is Matt Severa’s Top 8 Goblins deck from the Onslaught Block Constructed GP: Detroit 2003:

Matt Severa from GP: Detroit 2003

3 Goblin Burrows
21 Mountain

4 Clickslither
4 Gempalm Incinerator
4 Goblin Piledriver
4 Goblin Sledder
4 Goblin Warchief
4 Siege-Gang Commander
4 Skirk Prospector
4 Sparksmith

4 Shock

The deck ran all of a dozen rares, and at least two of them still hold value now: the Piledriver leads the charge in current Extended Goblins builds, and Siege-Gang Commander was reprinted in Tenth Edition. The rest of the deck is made up of commons and uncommons with a tight synergy, thanks to the tribal nature of Onslaught block.

My personal pet choice of the tribes in Lorwyn is Merfolk. I was very happy to see the return of the bright blue fish men to prominence, and with all of the great tools in Lorwyn, it’s fairly easy to put together an aggressive deck that utilizes the Merfolk’s natural (or unnatural) Islandwalk to slip past defenders and crunch your opponents.

4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Merfolk Looter
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Riptide Pilferer
4 Tideshaper Mystic
4 Mulldrifter

4 Piracy Charm
4 Rune Snag
2 Delay

4 Faerie Conclave
18 Island

This is a fairly simple build with only one real straightforward plan – make fishies and send them into the red zone. The Reejerey and the Lord work at pumping up all your little fish-men, and the Mulldrifter and the Silvergill Adept make sure you keep drawing cards. Piracy Charm works double-duty here, both acting as removal for many of the one-toughness creatures out there, as well as finishing the job that Riptide Pilferer starts.

Rares you can possibly add to this build: Cryptic Command (flexibility plus answers a lot of problematic cards), Psionic Blast (gives the deck that last little oomph to finish off your opponent).

Of course, Merfolk aren’t just Blue in Lorwyn – they’re also White. Adding in the White gives you access to great removal options (Oblivion Ring, Condemn) as well as to a strong, protective father figure in Sygg, River Guide. If you have any of the Blue-White rare lands like Adarkar Wastes or Wanderwine Hub, you can adjust the mana base accordingly, although Vivid Creek and Boreal Shelf are available as well to those without.

But I think I prefer the Blue. Merfolk are just … Blue to me. Ever since the old days with Tidal Warriors. They just deserve to be single-colored. My old Merfolk decks had a bit of extra disruption to them in Winter Orb … say, isn’t there a card combo nowadays that’s popular in Standard that also prevents your opponent from untapping enough to do anything about your fish-flavored physicalities? Why yes, there is, and it’s Blue to boot. The Pickles combo is a perfect thing to splice onto the Merfolk deck, giving you a fairly inexpensive disruption element that doesn’t interfere with your primary plan:

4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Riptide Pilferer
3 Tideshaper Mystic
3 Mulldrifter
3 Vesuvan Shapeshifter
3 Brine Elemental
2 Merfolk Looter

4 Piracy Charm
4 Rune Snag

4 Faerie Conclave
18 Island

The Shapeshifter works major overtime in this deck. He plays his usual part in the Pickles soft-lock if you want him to, but he also can flip up and copy one of your Merfolk Lords to assist in the quick beatdown.

So, Lorwyn offers many possibilities for the finance-minded deckbuilder, and this is where I’m starting. I’m going to take Mer-Pickles to Friday Night Magic in the hopes of seeing how our finned friends do against the field. Next week, I’ll take a look at what worked, what didn’t, and try and tweak this into a winner. And by then, I’m sure another brilliant “budget” idea will have reared its head.

Until I find a witty catchphrase,

Dave