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May 1, 2012 -- 10:12PM, aquariansword wrote:

From a reputable dealer its going to run about 105 dollars+ shipping. Somewhere like starcitygames. That isnt budget. And saying sure this 8 dollar rare isnt 15 anymore makes it budget is untrue. 6-8 dollars is still a high price on a rare. Restoration Angel is a 6 dollar rare and whos to say the release foil will be less. In a few weeks the angel will be cheaper. Even blade splicers a few bucks. It all adds up really. And saying oh you can just trade for it all misses the point JVL. Its also dismissive. For one I cant trade for them and even if I did it would be the same as purchasing since it still ties up the money I would otherwise have in the cards I am trading with. Its like saying oh its free it only took time. Its an oppertunity cost.

Try to keep the deck under 50 dollars if you would. Even if its in 50 mtgo tics. Thats still more flexible then older and better building on a budget writes gave themselves.

I mean if an 8 dollar rare is ok then why not 4 glacial fortresses. At least that card is a staple people should try to pick up anyways. And if we are playing cores and wellsprings why does this deck not have a spine of ish sah in it? The honor of the pure plan doesnt make a ton of sense but ok. Just puts another 15 bucks in the deck for a questionable sideboard plan that doesnt really shore up any matches. Is it there to protect against curse? Honor of the pure isnt strong against control otherwise. Its alot better in creature matchups.

This deck can be had for under $100 even if you have to buy every single card, which I find unlikely if you play FNM at all.  When Tier 1 decks range from $300-$400, that is definitely budget.

Setting a limit of $50 is arbitrary, ridiculous, and would cripple the competitiveness of these decks.
 

May 1, 2012 -- 11:50PM, tdewald wrote:

May 1, 2012 -- 10:12PM, aquariansword wrote:

From a reputable dealer its going to run about 105 dollars+ shipping. Somewhere like starcitygames. That isnt budget. And saying sure this 8 dollar rare isnt 15 anymore makes it budget is untrue. 6-8 dollars is still a high price on a rare. Restoration Angel is a 6 dollar rare and whos to say the release foil will be less. In a few weeks the angel will be cheaper. Even blade splicers a few bucks. It all adds up really. And saying oh you can just trade for it all misses the point JVL. Its also dismissive. For one I cant trade for them and even if I did it would be the same as purchasing since it still ties up the money I would otherwise have in the cards I am trading with. Its like saying oh its free it only took time. Its an oppertunity cost.

Try to keep the deck under 50 dollars if you would. Even if its in 50 mtgo tics. Thats still more flexible then older and better building on a budget writes gave themselves.

I mean if an 8 dollar rare is ok then why not 4 glacial fortresses. At least that card is a staple people should try to pick up anyways. And if we are playing cores and wellsprings why does this deck not have a spine of ish sah in it? The honor of the pure plan doesnt make a ton of sense but ok. Just puts another 15 bucks in the deck for a questionable sideboard plan that doesnt really shore up any matches. Is it there to protect against curse? Honor of the pure isnt strong against control otherwise. Its alot better in creature matchups.

This deck can be had for under $100 even if you have to buy every single card, which I find unlikely if you play FNM at all.  When Tier 1 decks range from $300-$400, that is definitely budget.

Setting a limit of $50 is arbitrary, ridiculous, and would cripple the competitiveness of these decks.
 

I disagree. Although I do agree that picking an arbitray number like $50 would be counter intuitive (as it doesn't take into consideration fluctuating market prices) I don't think it's ridiculous to have a reasonable range. I think $100 is way too high personally. Budget players want budget decks. Just because random people can afford to spend $300 on a deck doesn't change or mean anything to a budget player's wallet. Tier 1 decks could be $4000 and it wouldn't change what I can afford. I think an acceptable range for most true budget players is the $30 - $60 mark. That's the price of an average boardgame and it probably is what most people who are watching their wallets can afford at best. If I spent over $100 every time I wanted to make a deck I would be broke to be honest. I've made plenty of fun, competitive decks that are in that range, but I come to this site to read what a quote unquote professional can provide in terms of deckbuilding expertise and insight. Most of the time I feel let down and like he falls short of the mark.

I appreciate JVL adressing some of the issues we've been talking about the last few weeks on budgets, but to be honest I expect him to do something again that is completely dismissive or insensitive to budget players in the next article or one after. That's the way it seems to go with him. One good, affordable deck that is properly playtested and written well in this column followed by 5 or more unplaytested, over budget decks with illegal cards in them or other such errors.

Anyway if you're reading this JVL or the editor, can we get an article about budget mana solutions? And not just an article with a ton of green solutions or something...to be honest that's what usually winds up killing my wallet when deckbuilding. Finding decent lands that don't slow down my tempo or whatnot is really difficult. It seems like every time a somewhat usable attempt at a dual land is made, it dominates standard and runs for 8-12 dollars and playsets just become too expensive. Would be nice to know if JVL has any ideas on that.