Budget Grixis: A Darkly Powerful Combo

Grixis is a color pairing that can do a whole lot. There are many expensive staples in the color combination, but luckily, there are a ton of budget options too. Building a budget Grixis deck is very easy to do. Over the course of Magic, there have been plenty of cheap alternatives to expensive staples released. This helps to construct decks that don’t require a ton of money to actually purchase and play with.

Budget Grixis Staples

In Grixis, there is a large variety of things you can do. Theft, tribal, and spellslinger are all among the various archetypes available in Grixis. For budget Grixis decks, you have the option to run some weaker versions of powerful spells, trading power for a cheaper admission.

Theft Staples

One of the most popular archetypes in Grixis is Theft. These are cards that steal cards from your opponents and cast them as if those cards were in your hand instead. Hostage Taker is a way to steal a creature directly from the battlefield and claim it as your own. You can turn your opponents attacking you into stealing their spells with Cunning Rhetoric. Triple Triad can potentially cast multiple spells in one turn for free, assuming the cards your opponents exile have a lower mana value than yours. Stolen Strategy lets you cast spells from the top of your opponents’ libraries by exiling them, but need to spend mana to cast them.

Spellslinger Staples

Another common archetype in Grixis is Spellslinger. Luckily, there are a lot of powerful, cheap spells you can cast. Feed the Swarm and Withering Torment are the only two good ways to remove enchantments while not being too costly. Nightscape Familiar helps to discount your Blue and Red spells to cast more spells every turn. With its effect, Frantic Search is essentially a free spell. Archmage Emeritus draws you a card when you cast or copy instant and sorcery spells to ensure you never run out of action.

Budget Tutors

Black is the color best known for tutors. In Commander, since you have 99 cards, the odds of you drawing the card you need are low. Tutors help to add a ton of consistency to your deck. The best tutors are quite expensive, but there are plenty of solid budget ones. Diabolic Tutor is an unconditional tutor, as is Mastermind's Acquisition. The Cruelty of Gix has read ahead, letting you immediately search your library for a card while also gaining the benefits of the Saga itself.

Budget Grixis Commanders

The staples in budget Grixis vary, and heavily depend on the commander itself. It has a suite of removal, but they are usually found in all decks. So, the rest of this article will be looking at budget Commander deck options to showcase how to build a budget Grixis deck and the various options that Grixis has access to.

Edward Kenway (Pirates)

The Pirate creature type is heavily established in Grixis. There are three different popular commander choices, Edward Kenway, which leans more into Vehicles, and Admiral Beckett Brass, which is more about theft. Admiral Brass, Unsinkable is a very budget option since it heads a Pirate precon. The build discussed here will focus on Edward Kenyway (and the other two feature in the deck).

This version of Pirates mixes Pirate creatures with Vehicles, crewing Vehicles with Pirates and Assassins to create Treasure tokens. Some of the best Vehicle options include Brotherhood Vertibird, Hoard Hauler, Mobilizer Mech, and Phoenix Fleet Airship. You want a balance between the two creature types to ensure you’re making the most out of Edward Kenway‘s effect.

You can take advantage of a variety of effects. With how many Treasure tokens you make, Rain of Riches makes it so you can cascade your first spell every turn. Double Down doubles up on all your Pirate creatures, giving you more fuel for your Vehicles to get crewed by. Mu Yanling, Wind Rider gives all your Vehicles flying to make it easier for them to connect for damage, which then lets you cast spells from the top of your opponents’ libraries with your commander.

A sample decklist can be viewed below. It is heavy in Pirate creatures and Vehicles, with only a small handful of other support cards and removal spells.

Lynde, Cheerful Tormentor (Curses)

Curses are a special kind of Aura that is attached to a player and often has a negative effect attached to it. This can be in the form of either making others benefit from attacking them (Curse of Opulence) or just punishing them for game actions (Cruel Reality). For a commander, Lynde, Cheerful Tormentor is the best choice, as if an Aura would be removed, you can instead attach it to yourself to send to someone else when your turn comes back around.

The deck is very passive, so you want ways to protect yourself by slowing combat down as much as possible. Silent Arbiter only lets one creature attack and block each combat, with Crawlspace only allowing two creatures to attack each combat. Propaganda forces mana to be paid in order for players to attack you. All of these keep you safe while spreading Curses around to your opponents.

All Curses are enchantments, so you can take advantage of various enchantment support cards. Demon of Fate's Design lets you use life instead of mana to cast an enchantment spell. If you need a particular Curse off of you, it lets you sacrifice it before the negative effect happens. Protean Thaumaturge can turn into any other creature you control whenever enchantments enter. You can make all your enchantments cost one extra mana to remove with Callaphe, Beloved of the Sea to make them harder to remove.

A sample decklist can be viewed below. There have been a lot of Curses released over the years, so you have a ton of options in the budget range. More expensive Curses aren’t included, but there are various additions you can make if you ever want to upgrade this base build.

The Twelfth Doctor + Vislor Turlough (Theft Hug)

This is a partner pairing of The Twelfth Doctor and Vislor Turlough. The deck is a mixture of Theft and Group Hug. The idea is to exile spells from your opponents’ libraries, which gives them demonstrate with The Twelfth Doctor. Then, you copy the spell and let another player copy that too (perhaps even the original owner). So, you steal spells, then pick and choose who else gets to play that spell, too, blending Group Hug and Theft themes together.

The best permanents are the ones that let you exile multiple cards a turn. This gives you more options for what to cast, as well as makes it so you don’t have to attack to steal a spell. Triple Triad is the best, since you can cast multiple spells for free. Share the Spoils gives all players the ability to cast a spell from a pool, then replace it with the next card in their library. When an opponent casts a spell, Mind's Dilation lets you potentially play a nonland card for free.

In many cases, you still have to cast the spell using its original colors. As such, you need ways to generate mana of specific colors. Thieving Varmint lets you add two mana of any color at the cost of one life. Chromatic Lantern gives the ability to tap for any color to all your lands, while being a mana rock itself. You can use Sonic Screwdriver as a mana rock, or to make a creature unblockable as sometimes, a creature needs to deal damage to steal from the top of a library.

A sample decklist can be viewed below. Most of the deck consists of cards that exile cards from libraries. Despite the large creature suite, your battlefield is going to primarily consist of spells that came from your opponents’ libraries.

Obeka, Splitter of Seconds (Multiple Upkeeps)

Obeka, Splitter of Seconds is a very unique commander that turns combat damage into extra upkeep steps. While this doesn’t untap lands or draw cards, this does let you re-trigger effects that happen during the upkeep. You have other ways to gain extra upkeeps with Paradox Haze and The Ninth Doctor to act as secondary commanders.

There are various reasons you would want extra upkeep steps. One such reason is for the cycle of Court cards, such as Court of Ambition and Court of Cunning. Alternatively, there are cards with upkeep triggers, including Palace Siege and Extravagant Replication. These cards can quickly snowball as you deal more damage and get more upkeeps.

Obeka, Splitter of Seconds is the key of the deck. You want to constantly raise its stats so that you get more upkeeps. Cards like Trailblazer's Boots and Whispersilk Cloak are vital to ensure its unblockable. Ring of Evos Isle, Ring of Valkas, and Ring of Xathrid are a cycle of cards that put a +1/+1 counter on it if it’s a certain color at the upkeep. This, of course, synergizes with the commander to give it a ton of extra counters.

A sample decklist can be viewed below. Most cards have an effect that triggers on the upkeep, and help to enable as many upkeeps every turn as possible.

Goro-Goro and Satoru (Hasters)

Goro-Goro and Satoru is a commander that turns creatures dealing damage into a 5/5 Dragon token (so long as they entered the battlefield that turn. You can get a maximum of three Dragons every turn, and with it only costing 3 mana, you can get your commander on the battlefield early. Since Goro-Goro and Satoru can easily give creatures haste, you can usually get at least one, if not more. Some more free ways to give your creatures haste include Mass Hysteria and Fervor.

The best enables are cards that have myriad, including Elturel Survivors, Dalek Squadron, and Goldlust Triad. Every time they attack, that’s three token copies that are being made that turn and potentially dealing damage. Then, those become 5/5 Dragons, allowing for a consistent stream of tokens being made that are quite strong.

Another very useful tool in the deck is the cards that give your creatures double strike. Assuming the creature entered that turn, they’ll make an extra Dragon token if your commander is on the battlefield. Raphael, the Nightwatcher gives attacking creatures double strike, and can be cheated in by bouncing an unblocked creature to your hand. Berserkers' Onslaught has the same effect and is harder to remove thanks to not being a creature. You can give your creatures double strike regardless if they’re attacking or not with Rage Reflection.

A sample decklist can be viewed below. The deck features various creatures with haste and myriad, along with cards that bounce creatures to make them enter the battlefield again to ensure you trigger your commander.

In Conclusion

Budget Grixis decks have a large variety of playstyles. Whether you like slower Control decks like Curses, or more Aggro decks like Hasters, or something in between like Theft, there is something for you. The color combination is a lot more varied than a lot of other tri-colored decks. As far as Tribal decks go, there isn’t a ton in Grixis colors, but Pirates, Demons, Vampires, and Wizards are the most common (although Demons can be a struggle to build on a budget).

Grixis may struggle in some departments, being weak in ramp and color fixing, but succeeds in other things such as draw power and removal. Black and Blue in particular are home to a lot of budget options for powerful effects, making budget Grixis decks even cheaper than other budget color combinations. Budget Grixis is one of the easiest ways to build a budget multi-color deck. So, if you want to play a three-color deck without spending a ton of money, Grixis is a great route to go.