Getting back into magic

[Trigen]

So I haven't played magic in a long time and I my friends have convinced me too play again. The problem with this lies in the fact that I am a poor college student. So i was wondering if you all could point me in a good direction for very cheap decks (~$15). I looked into the cheap red-green aggro deck on here but I'm not sure if it's for me. Any input you guys could give me would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[EnialisLiadon]

What format(s) do they want to play?  Or just casual?  What's the power-level of the decks they play?  $15 can get you a pretty fun casual deck, but getting slaughtered by high-calibur decks game after game is no fun.

[Trigen]

What format(s) do they want to play?  Or just casual?  What's the power-level of the decks they play?  $15 can get you a pretty fun casual deck, but getting slaughtered by high-calibur decks game after game is no fun.

We all play casual, don't really enforce any specific types rule set. As for power-level most of the decks are pretty terrible.. even with my limited knowledge of the current meta i can tell that a deck with a 4 card combo that costs 9+ mana isn't a good win condition. There are a few good players and they play with some basic good cards, like 2-3 duel lands in a deck maybe a play set of demonic tutors in 1 deck and sol rings in another. Nothing major. No one plays like Tier 1 net decked type 1 decks with P9 or anything like that.

I saw a deck listed on here it was T1 Red/Green aggro that looked appealing, but i figured i'd get some expert opinions before i went and started buying cards again.

[andrewpate]

You can build the R/G Madness deck from the bottom of this article for just a few dollars if you change the Call of the Herds out for your favorite common or uncommon beater.  My little brother has had that exact deck (Call of the Herd included) put together for a couple of years and it plays very well.

A Vintage R/G Beatz list aimed at actual tournament use will probably not be as impressive.  They often have cards like Root Maze, Null Rod, Gorilla Shaman, etc. that don't really do much outside of the Vintage meta, since they attack specific cards or strategies and do very little against anything else.

[ShoryuuReppaX]

A couple of months back a friend challenged me to build a slew of decks, each costing less than 10 dollars. I researched more heavily in combo and control decks, since they seem more difficult to construct with limited funds. Here are some of my researched combo/control setups:

- Sands of Time + Equipoise. Old school combo, both pieces incredibly cheap. Its not particularly difficult to formulate a deck around this combo. Somewhat viable from years and years ago when Visions was in standard. It played somewhat like a mix of Stasis, Parfait, and Stax. I found this deck amazing primarily because I didn't expect a decent lock deck could be built without any money cards.

- Overgrown Estate + Nefarious Lich + Sickening Dreams. Somewhat viable a couple years back in Extended. Again, pieces are surprisingly cheap, and the combo itself is so fun. Who doesn't like drawing 20+ cards then nuking the board and everyone for 20+ damage? In case you're wondering, the game plan usually consists of accelerating with Rampant Growthesque cards, disrupt with discard and/or creature kill, and fish out the combo with tutors (I suggest Idyllic Tutor for its decent price tag, unless that jank jumped the last couple months).

- A couple years back someone (think it was Ben Bleiweiss) posted an article on mtg.com on a super-cheap deck called slushie. Essentially, it casted many Dawn's Reflections and Overgrowth on a land, then repeatedly Twiddled it for mana. It used Tangle Golem and Rush of Knowledge to draw, and it would cripple the enemy board with a Temporal Fissure. In testing, it was lackluster, for it felt like the worst Tendrils deck ever. In case you're wondering why Temporal Fissure, its because the deck can't sustain a high enough storm count to kill with Brain Freeze, and even Tendrils itself was iffy.

- Tite Sight. It was an Odyssey-Onslaught constructed gem. Its an odd-looking ditty, but the best description I have is the Turboland finisher condensed into 1 turn. Not particularly expensive, and a blast to play. Here's a very old decklist: http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/4532.html. Obviously, the money cards (Cunning Wish) can be cut with minimal losses.

- Dream Halls just got off the honor farm. I'm sure you can think of something to do with that.

- Another oldie that's fun to build around is Oath of Ghouls. Its pretty strong, but I suppose it has always played second fiddle to Oath of Druids and possibly even Oath of Scholars.