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This thread is for discussion of this week's Building on a Budget, which goes live Wednesday morning on magicthegathering.com.

Wouldn't Paradise Mantle be utterly hilarious here?

I was thinking, with this being WB, you could probably throw in Sorin, Lord of Innistrad. With Mentor of the meek, his + ability would get you an extra card each turn.

Yeah, Aligarius. Budget decks love brand new $30+ planeswalkers.

another decent way to make it standard and cut another rare would be skinwings over those swords

I think Painsmith needs to be in this decks. Combo's deathtouch with mortarpod as well as adding a large power boost with all those extra cards you're drawing.

Is it just me or does it seem like quite the play error from UB Zombies dude to attack with both his Geralf's Messengers? I mean, if he only attacks with one of them, he actually forces Jacob to burn his Spellbomb on only one Messenger, which should be better for him.

Nice deck

i think Worldslayer would be funny, and Infiltration Lens might be a a nice way to replace the sword or try the need-a-lot-of-mana Argentum Armor, and Elbrus, the Binding Blade is another funny one (but a little expensive)
Doom Blade could replace dismember, but i dont think thats the right call.

I'd be none too amused if someone brought this deck to a Casual game.

Blah blah casual doesn't mean anything blah.

Chances are he just forgot that Sword of Vengeance isn't in M12 until the last minute.

@Qmark: yes, Paradise Mantle would be hilarious here.


@Minus_Prime: I think Aligarius meant "If you're lucky enough to have this, put it in."


@aquariansword: I don't think that Skinwing is an efficient use of mana even in this deck. It's 4 mana for a 2/2 flier that w/o puresteel has no application, since the equip cost puts you out an entire turn.

Mar 7, 2012 -- 2:58AM, Nyktos wrote:

Blah blah casual doesn't mean anything blah.

Chances are he just forgot that Sword of Vengeance isn't in M12 until the last minute.

He tried something different. I like that he did something else. And the deck is Modern legal. I like that he is trying different things.

As for the deck, Livewire Lash may be good. Trepanation Blade could also be really good. Though, it would help Flashback style decks.

@DeEer: Infiltration Lens is good, and the curve is faster for it. More cards are good. You have to equip it to a Ghoultree type card-something that can survive a block, doesn't have too much effect if chumped, and will put on the hurt if they leave it unblocked. Essentially, force them to block. I've been trying to fit it into my self-mill deck for a while now, since it seriously lacks card draw.

EDIT: Strata Scythe in SB for matchups against WW/Mirror/anything that shares a color with you is BRUTAL. It turns anything into something that must be killed NOW.

Mar 7, 2012 -- 5:18AM, Vlad74205 wrote:

Mar 7, 2012 -- 2:58AM, Nyktos wrote:

Blah blah casual doesn't mean anything blah.

Chances are he just forgot that Sword of Vengeance isn't in M12 until the last minute.

He tried something different. I like that he did something else. And the deck is Modern legal. I like that he is trying different things.

As for the deck, Livewire Lash may be good. Trepanation Blade could also be really good. Though, it would help Flashback style decks.

Or there just isn't a good standard replacement for Sword of Feast and Famine and Sword of War and Peace

Dispatch should be great in here. If not for budget purposes Mox Opal might play a part as well. Other equipment uses for cheap could be Silver-Inlaid Dagger and Butcher's Cleaver

Honestly, i think the biggest reason to run black is Painsmith . Helps turn all your measly artifacts into actual damage, gives you more beats, bodies, long game, and bait removal.

Against a green deck sideboarding art removal or that new card that destroys all artifacts, wouldn't that neuter this deck idea?  and it's not that uncommon given puresteel is still in some metagames and swords etc.  I do like the idea of trepanation blade though you lose the vigilance side.  maybe some extra accorders shield or avacyn's collar.  then again a good 1 or 2 off batterskull would be an nice addition if you can get them.

W/U just gives you so much more reach and inevitability with this deck though.  You get Moorland Haunt , Trinket Mage , and counterspells to help stop wraths from ruining you.  The W/U version of this deck literally turns every single card into a cantrip, and it just gets completely demoralizing to play against.

Mox Opal does, indeed, help this deck by miles.  But this is a budget column, so whatever.

I also have no idea why this deck isn't running  Silver-Inlaid Dagger , which is a complete beating.  That card is absurd even if there are no other humans in the deck.  I hear an endless supply of 3/1 flyers is pretty silly.

Jacob, I feel like you missed the best reason to play black: Vault of the Archangel. When you get Paladin with metalcraft, a Mortarpod, and a pile of tokens together, the Vault just makes good things happen.

Your best replacement for Sword of Vengeance is Piston Sledge. The enters-play equip is great, and the paladin offsets its regular equip cost. If you need to sacrifice an artifact, you can usually get rid of an extra Mortarpod (you don't usually need more than 1 at a time).

I'd rather play a set of Dispatch instead of the current 6 removals. It's just generally better, especially for cleaning up zombies, undying creatures, anti-aggro monsters like Wurmcoil Engine, and vs. reanimator decks. Also, cutting a couple removal spells frees up some space for Vault Skirge, which is a really useful roleplayer for Puresteel Decks, and probably needs to be a 4-of. The skirge swings equipment really well, it's immune to Doom Blade and Go for the Throat, and it helps set up metalcraft.

To fit the full set of Vault Skirge, you could cut a Mentor of the Meek and the maindeck spellbomb.I don't think you ever need more than 1 Mentor of the Meek at a time, so 3 is probably enough. With the spellbomb, you cut a 1 or 2 mana cantrip that might be useful sometimes for a 1 or 2 mana creature that's useful most of the time.

Etched Champion is an upgrade over Bloodline Keeper. The Champion is another metalcraft enabler, it's easier to cast since it's cheaper and doesn't need double black, and it's really tough for most other decks to deal with. On top of that, the Champion is a couple bucks cheaper (~$5, vs $7 for Bloodline Keeper).

Cutting the black removal cards and Keepers also lets you cut swamps so you can fit in the Vaults.

I also really like Celestial Purge and Timely Reinforcements vs. casual decks, since there are plenty of aggressive red and/or black based decks right now. So, if I were going to play this deck, it'd probably look more like this:

24 Lands:
4 Isolated Chapel
4 Evolving Wilds
3 Vault of the Archangel
2 Swamp
11 Plains

14 Creatures:
4 Vault Skirge
4 Puresteel Paladin
3 Etched Champion
3 Mentor of the Meek

Mar 7, 2012 -- 5:18AM, Vlad74205 wrote:

He tried something different. I like that he did something else. And the deck is Modern legal. I like that he is trying different things.

He's made Modern decks for Modern before. They weren't one card away from being Standard-legal and they were tested against other Modern decks, not Standard ones.

Mar 7, 2012 -- 2:58AM, Nyktos wrote:

Blah blah casual doesn't mean anything blah.

Chances are he just forgot that Sword of Vengeance isn't in M12 until the last minute.

You caught on to that, too? Ha, he's forgotten about what's in standard before.

It was a good article until Sword of Vengeance. There's a few good pieces of discourse in these comments, though, that I think can truly save the deck... Him trying to pass this off as casual is more insulting than if he had tried to pass it off as standard. But it really isn't that bad looking. 

Ugh, why do you guys always have to hate on JVL so much?  I like his articles a lot more than any of the previous authors.  In fact, it seems like he's trying to cater more to the really budget players lately, which should make a lot of you happy.  Personally, I prefer the higher budget decks.

Mar 8, 2012 -- 12:01AM, tdewald wrote:

Ugh, why do you guys always have to hate on JVL so much?  I like his articles a lot more than any of the previous authors.  In fact, it seems like he's trying to cater more to the really budget players lately, which should make a lot of you happy.  Personally, I prefer the higher budget decks.

Quiet down, JVL.                  

i was thinking about a modern deck with:
Spellweaver Helix
Flame Jab
Secrets of the Dead
Choice of Damnations
Raven's Crime

anyone nice suggetstions? 

Mar 8, 2012 -- 12:01AM, tdewald wrote:

Ugh, why do you guys always have to hate on JVL so much?  I like his articles a lot more than any of the previous authors.  In fact, it seems like he's trying to cater more to the really budget players lately, which should make a lot of you happy.  Personally, I prefer the higher budget decks.

Lets look at JVL's deck. Bloodline Keeper is the most expensive card in the deck. Can you name a Modern legal card that can do the job he sloted for it as well? This guy makes tokens and can pump them up for a good cost.
Mentor of the Meek and Puresteel Paladin are the basic idea of the deck.
Dismember is a good spot removal spell, and also seems to be JVL's favorite.
Faith's Shield is ok to protect a creature or push through a little damage, and great when near death. Nothing else can do this job.
Both Flayer Husk and Mortarpod have no equals elsewhere. A creature, a Metalcraft enabler, and removal.
Lingering Souls can create card advantage and has back up from mass removal not available in other token makers.
Go for the Throat and Tragic Slip are good removal that are first prints.
Swiftfoot Boots is replaceable. My guess is this was added for a cheap equipment to help Metalcraft.
Nihil Spellbomb is good at taking out graveyard decks. There's better in Standard, but not much else in Modern.

As most of the comments on here show, Standard doesn't have a budget friendly equipment for the Sword of Vengeance slot. In some ways, that Sword is better then the other popular Swords.

When your building a casual deck, how often do you look at what format it fits into?