Budget Blue - And How to Join Vintage.

[Harlequin]

Breaking into Vintage is not an easy task.  The idea of this thread is to talk about what is the best bang for your buck when it comes to breaking into a zero-proxy enviorment - on a budget.  Now, remember this is not nessisarily the "Cheapest" deck you can build.  Building a deck like Ichorid, or Monoblack storm, or Dragon, are all very 'cheap' decks.  Unfortunatly, the cards in those decks are generally not "Staple" cards for vintage.  By spending money to build a cheap deck, you are limiting yourself to always playing that deck.  Worse than that is that should you choose to branch out into other vintage decks, you will be forced to start over again.  So again, the goal is to build a starter deck that is competative, has it's roots in vintage staple cards, and weighs in under $300.

A few quick pointers on Buying a deck:

>> Do some homework.  Get your list together, and write down everything you need.  Hit up some popular card sites (Findmagiccards.com, Starcitygames.com, etc).  Also look at "Completed Auctions" on Ebay for the cards you are looking for.  DON'T go by the lowest price.  Generally speaking expect to spend about 33% to 50% more than Ebay or the lowest price on Findmagiccards.  But this will give you an idea of what prices are good, bad, or a rip-off.  Remember that all these internet prices will include about $3 to $5 of shipping and handling.  Plus there is added risk of not getting what you paid for...  But again the main purpose of this research is to know what cards are worth buying in your local store and what cards you might want to be trading for or ordering online.

>> Go to the store, and be as friendly as possible with the store owner.  Inevitably, a store owner will over value some of thier cards.  And it is always a bad Idea to go: "Seriously!? $10!  I can get it for $3 off ebay!!"  This won't get you anywhere with the owner.  The best response to an over valued price is to say "Ok, let's put those in the maybe pile... I was expecting to pay a little less for those."  This way, you are not issulting the store owner, but not ripping yourself off.  When you're nearing the end of the purchase, the owner may end up downscaling some of the cards in the maybe pile.  If they don't then just say No.  Then, come back in a few days and somewhat casually ask "Say, have the Serindib's come down at all from the last time I was here?"  This is somewhat of a dicky thing to say, but it's all in the attitude.  You've given the store owner some time to lets say ... update his prices, and with any luck the ower will be more in-line with market price and you'll get a better deal.   If they don't come down, then see what you can do in terms of trading with players and look at making an internet purchase.

>> Ask store owners for Beat Cards.  When dealing with your average store, they will have a few copies of each of the cards you are looking for.  Right off the get-go when you are asking for cards at the counter let them know that you are looking to save money wherever possible.  Let them know that you will take beat cards off thier hands (at a discount of course).  This is a good way to shave a dollar here and there off your purchase, this will add up.  You should see my first set of FOW's, they are beat to heck - but I got them for $20 a pop.

>> Make friends with players.  Talk to people at the store, look through thier trade binders, and express intrest in the cards you need.  Most vintage players are quite friendly and will often give you the better end of a deal if they know you are still starting out.  If someone asked me nice enough, and let me know they were knew to vintage and interested in a trade - I'd probably just give them a playset of brainstorms just to get them on thier feet.

>> See if your friends have cards to borrow.  Borrowing cards in a great way to get a jumpstart into the format.  Most serious vintage players have a few fetches or forces in thier binder that are not nessisarily for trade - but can be lent out for the day.



Without further ado, here is "Budget Blue"
---------------------------------------------
12 Island* (0)
4 Terramorphic Expanse* (c)
4 Ghost Quarter (u)
1 Stripmine (u)
1 Lotus petal (u)
1 Sol ring [$9-13] (or just another island)
1 Mana Vault (u)
--> 24
4 Brainstorm (u)
4 Ophidian + (r)
4 Ponder + (c)
--> 12
2 Sower of Temtation [$6-8]
2 Morphling [$12-16]
3 Back to Basics (r)
3 Frozen AEther (r)
--> 10
4 Force of Will [$25-30]
2 Foil** (r)
2 Echoing Truth/Rushing River (maybe 1 and 1) (c)
3 Nix/Spellsnare*** (R/u)
3 Shadow of Doubt (r)

==== Sideboard ========
4 Energy Flux (u)
4 Serandib Efreets ($4-$6 for green-frame revised)
3 Vedalken Shackles
4 Hydroblast/BEB // or Propaganda (u)
=======================

A Look at the Budget:
The biggest finantial hit is Force of will, but it's a worthy hit as explained above.  In terms of value per $ Force of will is about the best investment you can make.  Without force of will, you are really at a disadvantage in vintage.  Force will run you about $100 to $120 for the set.

The other cards listed with prices are going to add up to another $65~ish.  However alot of this stuff (like Morphlings and Sol ring) are easy to find in other player's trade binders. 

After that I tryed to break stuff down into groups.  I started with rarety, but it doesn't actually follow the rarety of the card in the set it was printed.  Rather, it serves as a pricing guideline.
C = Common, expect to pay anywhere from 0.25 to 0.50 on these.
U = Uncommon, expect to pay about 0.50 to 1.50
R = Semi-Junk Rare, expect to pay about $1-3.

In the above list, we're looking at about $5 worth of commons, $20 worth of Uncommons, and about $30ish worth of Rares.  The entire cost of the deck, from scratch is roughly $250 - sideboard included.  Which is really not bad for a vintage deck.  Espcially when you consider that the vast majority of your fundage being invested in 'staple' cards for vintage.

Some Budget Points and/or Meta-game Subsistutions:
*- 12 Islands, 4 Terramorphic Expanse is basically $0.  I understand the Terramorph is a TERRIBLE card, but it's also a common... so you should have no problem getting a play set for cheap or free.  The shuffle effect is very nessisary though.  This should ultimately be changed over to 9 Islands and 7 Fetchlands (Polluted Delta, Flooded Strand) but those fetches run in the $15 range).  So this is something to aspire to. Blue fetchlands again are a vintage staple that will be used in almost any deck you make in the future. Also they will always be valuable in trade should you decided to get away from blue.

** Foil should ultimately be replaced with Misdirrection.  MisD runs about $8-10.  Foil is actually better when you don't have that many fetchlands.  However, Foil becomes worse and worse as you start replancing those islands with fetches.  Just keep that in mind as you accumulate fetches, you will also need to switch out the Foils.

***- Nix vrs Spellsnare.  You could also go with Daze here.  If you are in an advanced metagame where you are expecting Gush-powered decks with FoW etc... run Nix.  Its a house!  If you are in a zero-proxy, lower power meta run your choice of: Spell Snare, Mana Leak, or even Maindeck Blue elemental blasts.  This is your metagame counterspell slot.  Maindecking Vedalken Shackles is an option here as well.

+ About Ophidian and Ponder.  Again, if you're in a low-power meta game and you are facing alot of aggro decks.  You might opt for something more appropriate for this slot.  Orphidians are definatly no good if your opponent has blockers, so instead you want to bring the battle into the sky!  In those 8 slots I would go with something like:
3 Curiosity
3 Flying Men (or even Spell Sutterer Fairy)
2 Serandib Effreets

Then maybe even cut Morphling all together (or just run 1) and go with 3-4 Sower of Temptation.  Curious flyers make very powerful draw engins.
--------------------------------------------
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Playing the deck itself:

This deck is a classic "Out Resource My Opponent" deck.  In the early game, you have quick countermagic to keep your opponent disrupted.  Get some early card advantage online with either Orphidian or the Curiosity engin depending on your meta (see above). 

Next order of buiness is to try and drop a Back to Basics or a Frozen AEther (or one of each for super bustedness).  At this point you should be out-mana'ing and out drawing your opponent.  Now you can drop a Morphling bomb and start ending the game.

Frozen EAther and Back to Basics are great against a powered metagame.  Together, they will really give gush-based combo a run for thier money.  First off, together fetchlands and other non-basics become completely worthless. 

Ghost Quarter!?!?  Why would I want to help my opponent get basics When I'm planning to play Back to Basics?  Keep in mind, that once your opponent knows you are playing B2B they will fetch/search/play thier basic lands early and often.  So if your opponent is running only 1 or 2 basics they Ghost Quarter very quickly becomes Stripmine.  Also it alows for a backbreaking combo.  Let's set the stage.  Each player has had about 5-6 turns.  Your opponent has three basics in play, and you have back to basics on the board, a few islands and two untapped ghost quarters (remember not to tap them, because B2B will not alow them to untap).  Your opponent casts Merchant scroll, what is the one card in your hand that will TOTALLY destroy them?     >>> Shadow of Doubt <<<  You fire off a shadow of doubt with counterspell backer.  It resolves, you draw a card, Merchant scroll shuffles the deck...... Now you have two stripmines in play.  You strip thier two basics and the shadow of doubt disallows them to search for a replacement land!  Back Breaking.

The sideboard I propose above is for an aggro-heavy metagame.  Shackles are great in any aggro matchup.  You shouldn't have to worry about null rod, because your deck has no other activated artifacts, so noone in thier right mind would bring them in.  Efreet is great for dominating the sky, and getting some consistant damage across the board.  Most aggro decks will have some red (if they arn't mono-red), so Hydro/BE blast are pure gold.  If you expect more diversely colored Agro (like White We you can swap that with Propaganda.

Energy Flux is very good against Shop-based Agro, but again you might not even see shop-aggro in a non-proxy enviroment seeing as how shops are close to $1k for a play set.  So again, something like Propagand or any of the other aggro-cards listed above are good.  You also might consider Extract, Rootwater theif, or even Counterbalance (for combo); Added Bounce (oath), Chalice of the void (oath), or even some Null Rods of your own ($12ish range).

OMG PROXIES!
------------
Obvisouly, throwing 10 proxies at this deck takes the price from $250 down to about $75.  And that's as is.  But if you have spare proxies, then shoot for the stars!

First Picks:
- Black Lotus (cut an island or manavault).  Adds security to early turns and alows for earlier wins.

- Ancestral Recall (cut a ponder or curiosity).  Super busted raw drawing cards.  Control needs cards.

- Mox Sapphire (cut island or manavault).  Again, just a powerful early play that puts you ahead of the game.  Note that Even given full proxies, I probably wouldn't cut Lotus Petal, so don't cut petal for Sapphire here.

Second Picks:
- Fetchlands (terramorphs and islands).  Fake it 'till you make it!  Fetches are great with brainstorm so the more the marrier.

- Timewalk (cut a creature or a ponder).  Timewalk is a fantastic card, but ultimately it doesn't add a whole lot to the control plan.  But using it to simply draw a card and untap your lands is not terrible.

Final Thoughts:

Playing control is hard but rewarding.  The learning curve is much greater than that with combo or aggro.  By playing this deck, you will be forced to play interactively.  This will keep you engaged in the game and will help you activly learn to play better. 

At the end of each game I would highly suggest engaging your opponent with "I'm a bit new to this format.  Did you see any misplays I made?"  It's a great way to see mistakes you may never even knew you made.  This is especailly important if you loose (and could possibly be inappropriate if you win). 

[GUnit]

I don't mean to be a jerk, because you obviously spent a while on your article, it's well thought out, and the idea is extremely good, but this list spends an awful lot of money on cards that aren't vintage staples at all. The only real staples you've listed are FoW, Brainstorm, Sol Ring, Lotus Petal, Mana Vault, Strip Mine and the bounce spells, of which only FoW has a relevant price tag (9-13 for a Sol Ring is waaaaaay expensive). In my opinion, the best way to approach this would be to pick a relatively cheap, fully functional vintage deck which doesn't lean too heavily on power, such as landstill or fish, and then suggest budget alternatives to the most expensive pieces (ie. mana drain -> counterspell). Also, where's Fact or Fiction in your list?

[Crankster]

I agree with GUnit, other than playing fact in mono-u without power.
The problem with the decklist is that Morphling, B2B and serendibs are not tier 1 cards. Building fish, while pricier, is probably a better start since it won't leave you as hobbled against powered decks. Goblins is another great example, the full deck will not be that expensive and you can play legacy with it aswell.

[Harlequin]

I hear what you're saying about Morphling.... but really what else can you build for under $300.  I can almost guarentee that it won't be blue + another color because it's not realistic to play a x/U fish deck without a playset of duels and fetches.  If you build something like goblins, then you are basically stuck playing goblins until you rebuild and entire deck from scratch.  Most of the cards that are "sub-vintage" are only running you up about $1 or so (with the acception of Morphling, that I only suggest running two of, and offer a subistution plan for).  I challenge the nay-sayers to come up with an alternate list that means the criteria layed out in the first paragraph:
- Under $300
- Provides good groundwork for mobility to other decks
- Holds water as a vintage deck (I'm not talking about winning a tournement - but could be expected to have a chance to winning a few rounds)

[Ulthrion]

Hey there,

I am a mostly casual player with a large interest in playing vintage eventually, so these "getting started" articles always interest me. I've been getting my hands on some vintage staples over the last couple of months (not specifically aimed at one deck/archetype though) like sol ring, academy, yawgmoth's will etc. and when I first read this deck I mostly agreed with the other comments made here. However, after giving the subject a little more thought, I think that this can actually be a good basis for a beginner's deck. Here are some comments on the choices you made:

Without further ado, here is "Budget Blue"
---------------------------------------------
12 Island* (0)
4 Terramorphic Expanse* (c)
4 Ghost Quarter (u)
1 Stripmine (u)
1 Lotus petal (u)
1 Sol ring [$9-13] (or just another island)
1 Mana Vault (u)

You already said that Terramorphic Expanse is bad in this deck, and the question is how important are the shuffle effects for this deck. I think that they could be exchanged for islands (or maybe keep 1 or 2), and add Merchant Scroll to the deck for more shuffling. It is slower to activate brainstorm with a merchant scroll shuffle than it is with a terramorphic expanse, but only by 1 mana, because the expanse's fetch comes into play tapped. On the other hand, they're basically free to get, so getting a playset is not a bad idea after all.

Mana Vault seems a bit odd given the mana cost of the cards in this deck, but a 2nd turn frozen aether or shackles activation might be worth it. In any case, it's a good card to own I think.

4 Brainstorm (u)
4 Ophidian + (r)
4 Ponder + (c)

I'm not completely sold on Ponder, because it can still force you to play with 1 or 2 bad draws down the line. There is too little brokenness in this deck to justify running a 1-mana, dig-3 card (which seems to be the reason why this is played). I think that changing out a few for Merchant Scrolls might be  abetter idea. It's a true and tested vintage staple, and you can easily search for you bounce, or ancestral if you start proxying. Even now, you can use it to find shadow of doubt if you have a lot of ghost quarters out.

2 Sower of Temtation [$6-8]
2 Morphling [$12-16]
3 Back to Basics (r)
3 Frozen AEther (r)

This is the part with the most critisism, mainly because of Morphling's price tag to usability ratio outside of this deck. Might I suggest switching these for Meloku, the Clouded Mirror? She is a lot cheaper on the budget, I have seen her in some lists on these forums, and her land-returning ability has a nice synergy with Foil below.

As for Sower of Temptation, I'm not really sure if it's the best choice, and I think it's worth noting to people who seek to cut the budget of this deck even further that control magic can also be played in this slot. If your opponent has no creatures, then the Sower isn't worth casting anyway (4 mana for a 2 power beater). In addition, control magic is a bit safer in terms of removal. The question whether you'll use control magic outsideof this deck is just the same as for the sower, so I think it's a nice budget alternative that should be kept in mind.

4 Force of Will [$25-30]
2 Foil** (r)
2 Echoing Truth/Rushing River (maybe 1 and 1) (c)
3 Nix/Spellsnare*** (R/u)
3 Shadow of Doubt (r)

Force of Wills are a pain, and it's an investment that I still have to make. But as stated just about everywhere, if you want to play vintage, you'll just have to. Foil is a nice budget addition, and it allows some nice tweaks to the deck. Meloku, as I mentioned earlier, is one, but it is also a nice card to have when you want to play Gush. Gush is cheap to get, and is making quite an impact. In addition, it draws you extra card, including Islands you might not need that can be pitched to Foil (or shuffled away with Brainstorm). Effectively giving you more Force of Will for in the mid- to late game.

I have personally been testing Shadow of Doubt, as I really like the card. I must say that if you get to counter something with it, it's awesome (I haven't even thought about the synergy with Ghost Quarters). Other than that, it's never a truely dead card due to the cantrip effect. However, it can be hard to find the spare mana to cast it, which makes it dead for a few turns, which could prove fatal. Then again, I would definately suggest investing in them as they can be a nice surprise for people, and they aren't that expensive anyway.

Another counterspell you might want to look at for the metagame slots is disrupt. It also cantrips, which makes it good enough in my eyes, and it can stop early scrolls for ancestral. It's also quite good against ritual effects, as it can turn their mana calculations upside down, and draw you a card as well.

==== Sideboard ========
4 Energy Flux (u)
4 Serandib Efreets ($4-$6 for green-frame revised)
3 Vedalken Shackles
4 Hydroblast/BEB // or Propaganda (u)
=======================

I don't have any sideboard experiences, so I can't really comment on this. If you have trouble casting Energy Flux, then switching some for Hurkyl's Recall might just do the trick (they shouldn't be too expensive, and can be used in sideboards in future decks as well).
The Serendib Efreets seem a bit odd and pricey as well. I have no idea what else to put in these slots though.

EDIT: How is Leyline of the Void instead of Serendib Efreet? It's a widely used card and shouldn't cost any more than the efreets. In addition, with the hybrid mana on shadow of doubt, and the power/cheapness of duress (which anyone should also get a playset of), it can be a good starting point to add black mana to the deck in the form of Polluted Delta / Underground sea, giving you some sort of longer term plan to expand this deck with some more solid vintage staples that you are pretty much garantueed to use in the future.

Nice read, keep up the good work!

[grahf]

regarding fetchlands: as a "budget player" (one who can't justify splurging on a playset of polluted deltas), I have found that the mirage fetchlands (bad river for UB, flood plain for UW) generally work better for me than terramorphic expanse.  Although the fetch comes into play tapped, the land you get does not, unlike terramorphic.  This often works out just fine, because you don't always need or want to crack the fetch immediately (i.e., waiting for a brainstorm).  You can go 1st turn tapped fetch, 2nd turn island, and represent UU if you need it, or if not, then brainstorm and reshuffle on your opponent's EOT.  You cannot do this with terramorphic.  Also, the mirage fetchlands search for basic land types, like the onslaught ones do, so as your budget deck expands into a second color you can seamlessly incorporate dual lands that can be fetched.

Just a hint for cheapos like me.

[hauntedechos]

but really what else can you build for under $300.

I live in Canada, and my friend built manaless Ichorid for $200.  Of course sans Bazaar, but then again, even that's still under the usual 5 proxy allowance.  Just a suggestion.

[Crankster]

The problem harlequin, is that your own deck doesn't meet what you ask of it. It's actually quite awful! Wouldn't it be better to start with a deck with a chance rather than one that is just a mock-up of a real deck?

[hauntedechos]

@ crankster:  I think your logic makes sense.  I realise that the point of this thread is to offer a gateway into Vintage on weekly allowance.  But seriously, if you are going to buy Forces anyways, you might as well take the extra month and save up for the creature base of Fish.  Better yet, why not just build TMWA?  poppets and gathans are cheap, simmians are cheap.  about the most expensive items on that list (aside from moxen etc.) are the Duress, Moon effects and Cabal therapies.  In the end, I don't think that making a U based budget deck is very viable for all the reasons everyone has posted.  However, TMWA is very viable right now and has good matches.

I don't mean to hijack the thread here, but really; if you are not going to build Ichorid, then I'd seriously say build TMWA.

my two cents

[donpuzo]

I think too, that with the investments on force of wills, only a little bit more is needed to do a decent fish.

I think that the best option (cheaper, for the lands) would be a mono-blue merlfolk fish.

[Harlequin]

There are two big topics that I think people are overlooking: 

#1) Mobility to other decks.  Sure you can buy Ichorid Parts for cheap... but outside of Cabal, the cards you buy are not going to help you play anything but ichorid.  So you better enjoy it!

#2) Dual Lands are not Free, Fetchlands are not free... so right there any multi-color decks should expect to spend $100 to $150 on LANDS ALONE. 

A deck like TMWA is alos a good starting deck, But it has shades of both of the issues above... Your might be able to get away with running just a playset of bloodstained mires, and no Badlands.  However, Mires are really only used in one vintage deck (and goblins too I guess).  So that is money wasted should you decide to 'go blue.' 

When you boil the deck down, yes, ill admit there are some "throw away" cards... that you will likely replace as soon as possible.  Frozen AEther, Morphling, Foil, Terramorphs - even with two Morphlings you're looking at probably less that $50 here (or the price of 1 fetch and 1 blue-dual).    The other main hang up people seem to be having is on cards like B2B, Sower, Serindib, 'Phids, Shadow of Doubt, etc.  I would consider these cards remotely vintage.  They aren't staple cards by any means, but they are nice to have on hand.  Even if you eventually go WU fish having Sowers or Serindibs for the board.  Also cards like Shadow of Doubt and Nix or Spellsnare are nice to throw in the maindeck as meta-counters.  So I wouldn't say the money spent here is a total loss.

I agree that fish is where this deck wants to end up.  But consider this deck a stepping stone to fish.  The big next step is to decide Black or White - then go after Polluted Delta or Flooded Strand respectively.  Then go for two dual lands.  After that spend another $50~ish Hashing out the build.  Confidant + Duress for black;  Aven Mindcensor, Katati, Meddling Mage and Swords to Plow.    But from this deck to 'Almost Fish' is still upwards of $150.