Budget (very budget) Tog

[mikee]

Hi everyone, this is my first post on TMD.

I played magic alot a few years back, just as beserk got unrestricted I believe, and I remember that tog was a very popular deck type for t1 back then. I recently (this week) have been getting back into magic and especially type 1.

I dont have too huge a collection of cards, and I dont want to spend too much money on this deck, because it will only really be for casual play, but I was wondering what a good build of truly budget tog would be, or is it even worth building it this way?

Allright so I have a few issues, first of all, although aggro is known to dominate control, I find this a little too true at the moment. I get absolutely rolled once my opponent has a creature on the board, as I have no real effective way to remove it, and it puts me on a lets say 7 or 8 turn clock, which is long, but sometimes not long enough. So I was wondering, keeping my deck black and blue as I dont have duals or fetchlands, how could I effectively take care of creatures. I was thinking chalice? Im not sure. Flood is somehwta effective, but it ties up my mana in ways I would prefer it not to.

Secondly, I find that my brainstorms dont work that well. When I put the two cards back on my deck, they are two cards I dont really want, and I woudl rather find some way to make them shuffle in instead of just going on the top. I know most people use fetchlands for this purpose, but I simply don't want to spend the money on fetchlands. Is there any kind of tech I could find that would be useful, while also shuffling my brainstorm cards?

Any other suggestions, for budget mana base would be good, or for my drawing or disrupting/countering cards? ANy thoughts would be good, this is very rough.

Land (26)      
17x Island
9x Swamp

Disruption/Counter (18)      
4x Counterspell               
3x Duress                   
1x Flood                         
4x Mana Leak                                                                                 
                       
Draw(16)
4x Brainstorm                     
4x Accumulated Knowledge
3x Deep Analysis        
1x Yawgmoth's Will               
1x Gush                         
1x Windfall                     
1x Fact Or Fiction               
3x Impulse               

Win (4)                                                                                  
4x Psychatog   

[Necrologia]

Welcome to TMD Mikee.

The reason you're having trouble with aggro is that your deck is so slow. Fully powered Tog can throw out some Moxen for a quick Intuition -> AK. This gives Tog plenty to eat, allowing for either a quick win, or at the least the ability to block and kill attackers long enough for Will to show.

Brainstorm without a shuffle effect can work in some decks, but this simply isn't one of them. You're not digging for another piece of acceleration like combo does, and you're not looking for your next bomb like Workshop Slaver used to. About all Brainstom is doing in your deck is helping smooth out your early land draws, and occasionally helping you dig for a counter. Impulse does that better.

Vintage Tog works on the principle of fast mana so that it can chain draw spells and then protect tog for the win. That's why Drain is so good in the deck; it helps accel early, and protect tog later on. With not even a Sol Ring or a Chrome Mox in the deck your best bet is going to be finding an Extended tog list and working from there. They tend to be more suited to handling aggro with maindeck Edicts and the like, so if you really must play tog I'd start there.

If, instead, you just want to play Vintage, and you really want to play a control deck on such a limited budget, I'd try Landstill. Landstill doesn't even want more than a Mox or two, so the loss of power is more of a non-issue than it is with tog. The primary components of the deck, Mishra's Factory, Faerie Conclave and Standstill are all uncommons, and while the lands are getting a little old, it really shouldn't cost that much to grab em off ebay or even Starcity. Good luck.

[mikee]

Allright yeah. I was thinking that it was just too slow. I was also thinking that I could add like some disk or chalice or something to that effect, or masticore, powder keg? etc.

Also, I definitely do not need to play tog, I was looking at oath earlier, but I think it, too loses alot being unpowered and lacking the FoWs and such.

So yeah, landstill, I was actually looking at that earlier today and it seems like a very cool deck to me. Can it function  with stability with only 2 colors, no duals, and no power? If so, I would definitely like to look into that, and in fact I while right now. I was always a fan of the lands that attack, so I think it would be cool to play a deck like that.

[sa17dk]

If it's casual why dont you just proxy?

In all honesty though, youre better off with an Extended deck with your budget limit.

[mikee]

Allright well, I would just rather not proxy, cause its better to play with real cards, and it feels weird proxying for casual.

However, I came up with this deck for landstill. I decided to go for red over white because the decks my friends play, and I belive my area's meta (although I really can't be sure at the moment) is mostly small aggro creatures, that burn would very effectively take care of, and there are no worldgorger dragons or anythign to worry about.

I was looking for comments on a) the mana base, are there any cheap cards that I could add in that would make the deck more stable mana-wise?

I am also wondering about the 4x Impulse, shoudl this be substituted for AK, deep analysis, etc?

And also, the counter choices, is there any other budget counters that I could use? (just no mana drain or FoW)

Counter Magic (13)
4x Mana Leak
4x Counterspell
2x Misdirection
3x Teferi's Response

Removal/Burn (12)
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Fire/Ice
4x Disk

Draw/Utility (7)
4x Standstill
3x Impulse

Mana (28)
4x Faerie Conclave
4x Mishra's Factory
12x Island
8x Mountain

This could also be rather easily turned into a pretty decent, fully powered version (2 moxen, time walk, lotus, ancestral, 4 mana drain + something ) for any tournaments with a 10 card proxy limit.

Any thoughts?

[Revvik]

I can add that if you're going the Landstill route, using a full set of Wastelands and a Strip Mine is very good if you can fit them in without worrying about the loss of colored mana (not as big of a problem with fetchlands, but oh well).  Crucible of Worlds is also an excellent card, but you aren't running Drains - so until you do, it's not that huge.

If you want a shuffle effect for the 'Tog list you posted, try Merchant Scroll.  I've been running two Scrolls in my own build for a while now, and they pull their weight.

[mikee]

The thing about wastelands is that I know that none of my friends have duals, or bazaars, or LoAs, or other such things, so it's not quite as effective, although I would still be depriving them of their basic lands. But to me it just doesn't seem worth the mana inconsistency, since I dont have duals or fetches. In the future, perhapos I will get a set of fetches and then maybe a set of wastelands, but thanks for the thought.