Budget Showcase: Cheap Commander Decks For You

There are so many commander options in EDH. Be it in the form of commanders themselves, or from the 99 included in the decklists. For this Budget Showcase, we’ll look exclusively at budget options for various commanders. For this article, budget decks are considered to be under $100. We’ll be looking at three different categories, with two commanders in each category.

Budget Showcase: Partner Commanders

Partner commanders are ones that let you play two commanders if they both have partner. Although not named, partner-adjacent cards, such as those with Doctor’s companion or Friends Forever, are still usually called partner commanders. These are strong commanders, and you can build some solid decks without needing to spend a ton of money on them. You also have one less card in your main deck, making it easier to keep your deck within a budget.

Halsin, Emerald Archdruid + Inspiring Leader

For the first deck in the Budget Showcase, we’ll be looking at the pair of Halsin, Emerald Archdruid and Inspiring Leader. The idea of the deck is to make a ton of tokens for cheap, then use Halsin, Emerald Archdruid‘s effect to make them into 4/4 creature. When animated, Inspiring Leader will give them an extra +2/+2 stat boost to turn all your tokens into 6/6 creatures.

The best token generators are the ones that incubate. This is because the tokens come with +1/+1 counters, so when Halsin, Emerald Archdruid turns them into 4/4s, those counters still apply the stat boost. So, you never actually have to transform them into creatures. If you have mana to spend, Progenitor Exarch can create a ton of tokens when it enters. If you have a lot of lands, Glistening Dawn provides a ton of counters on a token. Similarly, Converter Beast creates a token that comes with five counters.

The other kind of token generators you want to run are ones to constantly give you tokens every turn. Awakening Zone gives you an Eldrazi token that you can either turn into a creature with Halsin, Emerald Archdruid or sacrifice them to ramp a bit. Kinbinding gives you a 1/1 Kithkin every turn, and if you have multiple creatures entering, it gives all your creatures a big stat boost. Skrelv's Hive tokens can’t block, but they do have toxic, so you can potentially take opponents out of the game through infect.

A sample decklist can be viewed below. Most cards in the deck create tokens when they enter, or have effects that create tokens so you have a constant stream of them.

The War Doctor + Clara Oswald

The War Doctor takes advantage of a unique ruling. Every time you have to exile cards until you reveal a specific card, it triggers The War Doctor‘s effect since each reveal is treated as its own exile. You want Green to have as many cascade cards as possible, and Clara Oswald is the best option since the others are middling at best for this deck.

The lower the cascade, the better. You don’t want to actually cascade into a spell, as that gives The War Doctor more counters by revealing more. To guarantee you don’t hit anything, attacking with TARDIS gives your next spell cascade. With that, cast any spell that only costs one mana, and exiling your whole library and get that many counters on The War Doctor. Bigger on the Inside gives a spell cascade, too. So, make sure to use it on cheap spells. Apex Devastator gives you four cascade triggers. While it reveals a lot, you still get a lot of spells for free.

There are passive ways to exile cards. Plargg and Nassari exiles a lot of cards from all players, and lets you cast two of those spells for free. Strago and Relm and Wand of Wonder both forces opponents to exile cards from their libraries until they reveal a specific card type. Depending on what they’re playing, you can exile a ton of cards for a ton of The War Doctor triggers.

A sample decklist can be viewed below. You want to turbo out The War Doctor, then keep it protected as you load it up with time counters.

Budget Showcase: Funky Stuff

This segment of the Budget Showcase will focus on out-of-the-ordinary commanders. Instead of playing with more “normal” effects, you can do more unique things with them. If you want something a little more “spicy” than the average deck, look no further than these two commanders. Part of the fun of Commander is how many weird decks you can play, either because the commander itself is unique or because the playstyle is unorthodox when compared to more “traditional” ones.

Three Dog, Galaxy News DJ

Most Aura decks are about just putting a ton of Auras on one creature. Not Three Dog, Galaxy News DJ, however. Instead, this deck wants to have a wide battlefield of creatures, then use your command to give them all an Aura you sacrifice. So, instead of sticking Spirit Mantle or Ethereal Armor on one creature, you get to enchant them to all of your creatures.

One downside of Aura decks is you can run out of juice, so you want card draw. Kor Spiritdancer, Sram, Senior Edificer, and Mesa Enchantress all draw a card when you cast an Aura. For extra draw when you copy them, Angelic Gift, Rune of Sustenance, and Sage's Reverie draws a bunch of cards once Three Dog, Galaxy News DJ spreads them to all your creautres.

In addition to Auras, you want cards that provide tokens. Jacked Rabbit can create a ton when it attacks, especially after you boost it up with Auras. Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin does the same, on top of giving itself counters for an extra stat boost. Assemble the Legion gives you a growing army of tokens, which can become massive threats once they start getting Aura tokens on them.

A sample decklist can be viewed below. You want a ton of creatures on the battlefield before you start sacrificing Auras in order to get the most out of Three Dog, Galaxy News DJ‘s effect.

Magar of the Magic Strings

Despite being from an Un-set, Magar of the Magic Strings can be used legally in Commander. It’s very unique in that it’s a Spellslinger deck but instead of casting them, you’re attacking with spells. The idea is to load up your graveyard with powerful spells such as Army of the Damned and Rise of the Eldrazi to cast them for free when you attack with them after you animate them with your commander.

You need ways to get these spells into the graveyard, as you often won’t have enough mana to actually cast them. Oriq Loremage is the best, as not only can you put any card from your library into the graveyard, it’ll also get a stat boost to make it a threat. The Infamous Cruelclaw discards a card from your hand and lets you cast a spell for free, potentially hitting one of your big mana spells which puts two powerful spells into your graveyard. Faithless Looting and cards like it help you to dig for your enablers, while discarding the cards you want in the graveyard.

To ensure your animated spells are cast, you want to make them unblockable. You can accomplish this by giving them shadow with Dauthi Embrace and Dauthi Trapper. Shadow is a very rare keyword, so you’ll likely have free access to direct combat damage. You also have a plethora of artifacts like Key to the City, Whispersilk Cloak, and Psychic Paper for guaranteed unblockable damage.

A sample decklist can be viewed below. It’s important to note that the spells animated with Magar of the Magic Strings are exiled if they’re ever removed, so once a spell is gone, it’s gone for good.

Budget Showcase: “The Bulk Bin”

This part of the Budget Showcase I like to call “The Bulk Bin.” I call it this because what’s in the 99 isn’t super important. The effects of these commanders carry the decks, and can be played at varying price tags. Even a card you’d find in the bulk bin of a local game shop can be impactful thanks to the effects of these commanders. This makes them fantastic budget options for you, and you can cut around certain cards if you so desire.

General Ferrous Rokiric

For General Ferrous Rokiric, you want to cast as many multi-colored spells as possible. The amount of mono-colored cards is incredibly low, saved primarily for interaction. You even have a sub-commander in Hero of Precinct One, although the tokens it makes are far weaker. Tome of the Guildpact also gives you card draw for all your multicolored casts.

There are a lot of multicolored spells in the deck that give subtle boosts to your deck. Winota, Joiner of Forces is great since most of your creatures are Humans, and the tokens your commander makes aren’t to trigger it. Kirol, Attentive First-Year can copy a trigger of General Ferrous Rokiric to get two tokens for the price of one. With how many creatures you create, Warleader's Call provides a solid stream of burn damage while providing a blanket stat boost to all your creatures.

With how many artifacts will wind up on your battlefield, you can take advantage of that. Sentinel Sarah Lyons gives all your creatures a stat boost when an artifact enters (which should be every turn). Alibou, Ancient Witness provides all your artifact creatures haste while it deals burn damage to wherever you like. Bayek of Siwa gives historic creatures (ones that are artifacts, legendary, or Sagas) double strike, something most of your creatures are.

A sample decklist can be viewed below. All you have to do is play your commander, then keep casting cheap multicolored spells to amass an army of 4/4 tokens.

Ruxa, Patient Professor

Perhaps the face of budget decks, Ruxa, Patient Professor is built around the cheapest archetype in the entire game: vanilla creatures (ones with no effects). In addition, it’s mono-colored, so you don’t even need to run any lands outside of Forests if you don’t want to. All you need is some discounting artifacts like Emerald Medallion and Rhonas's Monument to make it work.

Since your vanilla creatures can be treated as though they weren’t blocked, cards that boost stats are fantastic. Unnatural Growth and Zopandrel, Hunger Dominus can both double your creatures’ stats, and these effects stack if they’re both on the battlefield. Though they only last for a turn, Vitalizing Wind and Preposterous Proportions can provide giant stat boosts for your creatures to close out games easily.

The one downside is a lot of your creatures are a bit costly in mana. Monster Manual helps to them onto the battlefield for cheap. Ojer Kaslem, Deepest Growth requires you to connect for combat damage, but can cheat a creature and land onto the battlefield. With how high your devotion count usually gets, Nyx Lotus generates a ton of mana to cast your biggest spells.

A sample decklist can be viewed below. While vanilla creatures aren’t impactful passively, with Ruxa, Patient Professor, they turn into massive threats to close out games with just one combat.

In Conclusion

This Budget Showcase showed off a variety of decks and archetypes. Whether it’s a mono-colored deck or multicolored, you can build any kind of deck on a budget (even Five-Color decks). Whether you want to play a funky animated Spellslinger deck or a deck of all vanilla creatures, these are great introductory decks. Or, they’re also great choices if you want to keep the impact on your wallet light.

Budget decks aren’t bad decks. They’re weaker than those with more money put into them, but you can still win games with budget ducks. You don’t need to heavily invest in decks to enjoy Commander. Any of the six decks in this Showcase is more than capable of winning games. They are catered to the Bracket 3 level, as any level higher than that, you’ll need to actually invest money into your deck. But, so long as you’re playing in Bracket 3, you’ll do more than okay in your games.