Budget Blue Showcase: The CHILLIEST and CHEAPEST Decks

Sometimes, you want to build a Commander deck without spending a ton of money. That’s where budget builds come in. These are decks that sacrifice some power in favor of not having to spend too much money. In our Budget Blue Showcase, we’ll be going over six different decks of varying styles for those looking for a new deck to bring to your Commander night. Mono-Colored decks are the easiest to build on a budget, as you don’t have to worry about dual lands, which can add to the price tag. All of these are Mono Blue, each within its own unique category, two in each one.

While Mono-Colored decks may seem boring at first glance, they’re anything but! Despite the restriction to just one color, there is a lot you can do with them, even if you’re not planning on spending a ton of money as you’re about to see.

Interested in perhaps a different color? We have you covered. If Mono White budget decks are more your speed, you can check out our budget White Deck Showcase over this way.

Budget Blue Showcase: Control Decks

Love telling people “No?” Then you’ll love Control. These two decks are heavy control decks. A lot of counterspells, lots of ways to slow the game down. They might not be for everyone, as Control naturally is a lot slower and often leads to becoming “public enemy.” After all, no one wants their spells to get countered! But if you’re fine with playing the villain, you’ll love these decks.

Baral, Chief of Compliance

One look at Baral, Chief of Compliance tells you exactly the kind of deck it is. You’re constantly countering spells with stuff like Counterspell and Dispel. A natural downside of Control decks is running out of steam, but since your commander draws you cards when you counter a spell or ability, this gets around that. Since your spells are discounted, you can play less optimal counterspells like Dissipate when costs the same as a Counterspell after the discount.

To help actually be able to win the game, you want cards that can create tokens when you cast spells. Cards that do this include Talrand, Sky Summoner, Murmuring Mystic, and Docent of Perfection. There’s also Chrome Host Seedshark as a way to make some Incubator tokens. On enchantments you have Metallurgic Summonings and Shark Typhoon as well, both of which have some alternative uses as well.

The deck doesn’t make the most threatening battlefields. So, there are alternative win conditions in the deck. Both Triskaidekaphile and Twenty-Toed Toad can win you the game once you have a specific number of cards in your hand. With how much you draw, it is rather easy to reach these numbers. There are also Fblthp, Impossibly Lost and Laboratory Maniac which win the game when you don’t have any cards left in your library.

A sample decklist can be viewed below. As expected, the deck runs a ton of counterspells and payoffs for them.

Namor the Sub-Mariner

Namor the Sub-Mariner is a hybrid deck, half Control and half a Merfolk deck. The commander encourages you to play noncreature spells with as many Blue pips in it as possible, and that’s something a lot of counterspells have. Cards like Future Sight and The Magic Mirror turn into permanents that come along with three 1/1 Merfolk tokens, helping to advance your board state.

Since Namor makes Merfolk, you also run a lot of Merfolk support cards. Lord of Atlantis gives them all +1/+1 and islandwalk, so if anyone has an Island, you can make your Merfolk unblockable (or if you have Harbinger of the Seas. There is also Summon: Leviathan for a potential one-sided board wipe, and Mist Dancer to give all your Merfolk flying and a toughness boost.

Blue mana dorks oftne can create mana, but mana that is locked into being used for instant and sorcery spells. These are also usually attached to Merfolk, such as Volshe Tideturner and Hydro-Channeler. Since they’re Merfolk, you can take advantage of all the Merfolk support cards, while having mana kept up to be used for your more expensive counterspells.

A sample decklist can be viewed below. The creature suite consists of Merfolk and Merfolk support, while much of the rest of the deck consists of Control spells with lots of Blue pips.

Budget Blue Showcase: Big Bodies

Blue isn’t a color that you expect to be great at cheating out creatures. That is normally something more reserved for Red or Black. However, there are some Blue commanders that make it easy to cheat out big creatures, and that’s exactly what these next two commanders do.

Braids, Conjurer Adept

What if you didn’t have to use mana at all to play creatures? That’s what Braids, Conjurer Adept does. It is half a Group Hug deck, since your opponents get to take advantage of its effect too. To help keep others from attacking you, there is stuff like Propaganda to make it harder for opponents to attack you. You also have Howling Mine and Dictate of Kruphix to give everyone some extra juice so they won’t want to attack you in the first place.

This build of Braids utilizes a lot of clone effects, such as the namesake Clone, Phyrexian Metamorph, and Clever Impersonator. The idea of the deck is to have your opponents play their strong creatures, and then copy them with your copy spells. Mono Blue doesn’t have a ton of great creatures for a budget, so why play your own when you can copy your opponents?

Even though the deck is a Group Hug one, you can stop your opponents from being able to take advantage of Braids. If you phase it out, it won’t exist until your turn comes back around. The best way to do this is with Vanishing, as you can keep doing it instead of only using one spell for it. You also have Slip Out the Back and Reality Ripple, though you can only use these once. This makes it so Braids is gone during your opponents turn, so they don’t get to cheat permanents out.

A sample decklist can be viewed below. There are a lot of ways to copy creatures, and ways to keep opponents away from attacking you.

Jalira, Master Polymorphist

Who doesn’t love transforming others? Jalira, Master Polymorphist certainly does! The creatures in the deck are all high-mana values, with the idea being to create tokens with cards like Hard Evidence and Thopter Spy Network that you polymorph with your commander to turn them into significantly threatening creatures.

Even though Eldrazi are usually pricey, you have some great budget options in Ulamog's Dreadsire, Pathrazer of Ulamog, and Bane of Bala Ged. Some other good cards to polymorph into include Hullbreaker Horror and Stormtide Leviathan. You’re generally never casting these spells, instead cheating them out with your commander or other polymorph effects.

Speaking of other polymorph effects, you don’t want to just rely on your commander. Polymorph decks can stall out if they’re not constantly swapping into new creatures. So, you run cards like the namesake Polymorph, Mass Polymorph, and Reweave. There aren’t a ton of options in Mono Blue, but enough to make the deck work, and you always have access to the effect with your commander.

A sample decklist can be viewed below. Lots of token generators, and lots of creatures to polymorph into.

Budget Blue Showcase: Miscellaneous

These last two decks are ones that don’t quite fit into any of the other categories. They are a little different from the other decks that we’ve talked about so far, but that doesn’t mean they’re any less fun! They’re a bit more of unorthodox builds, utilizing effects without the traditional payoffs.

Leonardo da Vinci

The novelty of playing a Leonardo da Vinci deck is one that is hard to resist. Thopter Tribal isn’t a deck you would really ever consider, but that’s what this deck is (kind of). The concept is that you’re using Leonardo da Vinci’s effect to make token copies of expensive artifacts that come back as Thopter tokens. Then, you want a loaded hand so you can use its other effect to give them all a big stat boost. This allows you to cheat around expensive mana costs, and take advantage of powerful enter the battlefield triggers.

The tokens come back as artifact creatures, so you can make them extra powerful with cards like Steel Overseer and Iron Spider, Stark Upgrade constantly putting +1/+1 counters on them. You can give them all hexproof with Padeem, Consul of Innovation to make them harder to remove, and you can make an extra token of all your Thopters with Worldwalker Helm‘s ability.

You do need to have mana to use Leonardo’s ability, and it can be a bit costly in a color that can’t ramp. Luckily, you can discount it to be cheaper with Training Grounds. Omen Hawker provides enough mana to make it so you only need to find one extra mana to pay. Once you get Vision, Spectral Synthezoid on the battlefield, you can start cheating out noncreature spells, and Nexus of Becoming serves as a secondary commander.

A sample decklist can be viewed below. There are a ton of powerful artifacts to cheat out to make a powerful board state quickly.

Neerdive, Devious Diver

Self-Mill and Voltron aren’t archetypes you would normally think of when making a deck. That is exactly what Neerdiv, Devious Diver is. You’re milling spells, then casting them from your graveyard to boost up its stats. Afterward, you swing in for a ton of damage after you put various Equipment on it. There are some cards you actively want in the graveyard, such as Wonder, to make the strategy more consistent.

A good majority of the spells in the deck can be cast from the graveyard. This may be in the form of a creature with disturb like Malevolent Hermit, a card with flashback such as Artful Dodge, or a card that can harmonize, including Winternight Stories. Many of these spells are cheap, so you can use them normally, then cast them again from the graveyard later. This makes it so you don’t really care about most spells that get milled, since you can just cast them later anyway.

For the other side of the equation, you have ways to make your commander a more threatening attacker. Whispersilk Cloak and Brotherhood Regalia both offer protection while also making it unblockable. Ring of Evos Isle puts more +1/+1 counters on it and can give it temporary hexproof too in order to help keep it safe from removal. The higher the power your commander gets, the better, as that’s more cards you can self-mill whenever it gets tapped. And, it also makes it easier to win through commander damage when you start casting spells from your graveyard.

A sample decklist can be viewed below. There is a decent balance of Equipment and cards that can be used from the graveyard, as well as some light self-mill support.

In Conclusion

This Budget Blue Showcase went through a variety of different commanders. Something for fans of Control players, Artifact decks, Clone decks, and more. Mono Blue has a lot of toys and archetypes within it that allow for just about any kind of deck to be built on a budget.

Mono Blue, despite being the color known as Control, can be just as aggressive as it can be slow. It’s really up to the deck itself. As seen in this Budget Blue Showcase, both are present, as well as the center child of Midrange.

Want to see a deeper dive on Mono Blue? Check out our guide on the best Blue staples for those who want to boost up the power of your Mono Blue budget decks if you ever run into some expensive cards you want to buy!