Budget Decks: Eldrazi-Keeper

Yeah. Eldrazi are pretty damn cool and deadly. Glad some of them get reprinted in Modern Masters 2015.

Thanks. I do think so too about Eldrazi spawns.

lol eldorado instead of eldrazi oops

A deck must have some removal. That's why Prey Upons are going to stay. Going to put in some Overwhelming Stampedes though...

I knew that someone would say that...
But can you say anything better for that slot? Elvish Aberration is exactly what this deck needs. It basically allows you to cast Eldrazi couple of turns earlier.

Don't get me wrong though. I appreciated your suggestion.

My 2 picks would be either
1. Fyndhorn Elder
2. Farhaven Elf

Harrow? rampart growth

I would say to make it work even quicker, something like Quicksilver Amulet, or Elvish Piper, but the only issue then is the price would rise above your targeted budget

I like the idea of Tomb of the Spirit Dragon.

In that case, you can be happy that still 90% of the Hot Page decks are far from budget.
I'm sorry that I cannot please you with my decks. I'm sorry.

Yeah, how dare you cater to new and casual players! ??

New players stay new if they play decks like this, MTGvault has a semi pro team, I should know I've beaten half of them at PTQs, shouldn't that be something to strive for? To be like the pros we respect and support in the GPs, pro tours even worlds! And furthermore, I can no longer recommenend MTG vault to new players because from experience, it has weakened them, I know I'm gonna get a lot of hate but a site I love is a joke in the country it was started in, and budget and dodgy decks don't help that

You do realize that not everyone who plays magic wants to become pro right? In fact I dislike that kind of play, I much prefer casual. Are you saying I shouldn't use this site?

No I'm saying that the site feels like its all for you guys, there is only 1 genuinely powerful deck on the hot page, where many people agree with me. I really just think budget isn't the way forward in standard or modern right now, that does make me sad, as my first competitive deck was £20 or so which led me onto a more powerful but expensive deck which resulted in an even record at my first ptq, so budget can work and its great, but the budget on here isn't that good, which tbh breaks my heart

It is true that this site is filled to the brim with theory crafters who don't make the best decks. BUT, there is nowhere else that has a community that encourages it. Gothy makes a very good point, however, I enjoy this site for it's search engine and community of *ahem* "wishful thinkers." In many groups of magic players, people don't know what formats are, and they don't even know what a meta is. But, they have a different type of fun because of it. Sometimes I wish this site had decks on the front page that reflected the metas of standard, modern, and legacy but it is okay that it doesn't. If you actually want to change something about the front page, make a tutorial series about the metas of tournaments and encourage people to actually understand the game that they play. Personally, I don't care enough to devote time into it.

Damn it man you make the clear points I was trying to make sound beautiful! You wordsmith you! But I have tried to do that, all my decks try and educate and introduce the meta and I would be happy to invest the time, but people ignore it, sure I always get 1-2 likes but not enough to be on the hot age to reach the highest number of people

Also northern Warlord, 10 out of 20 decks on the first page of the front page are budget decks, thats 50% not 90. and out of the ones that aren't budget, only one is considered an actually good deck for its format. That would be the vengevine. also that soulfire deck is close.

I thank you Gothy for feedback. I just want to make one thing sure:
I do not try to make people win tournaments. I'm encouraging them to build cheap decks to play casual with. Though I understand your point, I will not change the way I craft decks here. Maybe I'll create some expensive decks, who knows. But I'm pretty damn sure that the budget decks will always my main idea around here.

Also, I can't thank you enough Lycandros. I know what a true friend looks like when I see one.

Honestly, if new players just play casual, I can't see them improving, and while budget decks reign supreme, vault won't reach its potential

That is the way you think.
I'm not saying you are wrong or anything, but I'm not sure that improving as a player is mandatory. And if player wants to improve himself or herself as a player, high budget decks are not required for it. If you don't believe it, take a look at me and say otherwise. I dare you.
I have always thought and will always think that having fun is the most important thing in MTG. I would have given up playing a long time ago if my friends didn't play with me. I've always played casual only, except I've gone into few preleases too. That's the way I like it. I'll still keep crafting some new sweet decks to challenge my friends with the most funniest ways possible. Back when I created that My Little Pony -themed deck, I brought laughter and fun to my group for like two months. And it only costed like 10 bucks. (I still play with it.)

I understand you completely. Some players do want to become the best. Some of my friends are assembling devastating standard decks right now. But I just think playing standard takes away something important: fun. When playing standard tournaments, no one laughs, everybody looks deadly serious and dead silence is all around. That... That is plain scary. That's not the way I want to go. And I'm sure somewhere there are players who agree with me. That's why my Budget Decks -series exist.

I think you're wrong that standard doesn't bring laughter, the most fun in magic I have is around my friends at FNM playing standard or modern, sure during a close game we get serious because we're thinking of outs, there is a reason that Wizards pushes standard (apart from to line their own pockets) because that's how they see it being played, and I'm inclined to agree. Whenever someone says casual deck, it usually seems a by-word for not very good, and I actually love budget decks, but its not like we can all be Jacob Van Oouton (Probably mis-spelt his name). As I (probably) stated previously budget decks can be great, I went 3-1 at FNM with something that cost like £15, but the thing was it was powerful. I'm not saying never ever build budget or casual decks, I just feel that being budget is an excuse to not be good, and this eldrazi deck isn't good. It is such a shame we haven't had similar tournament experience, because I've made good friends out of opponents at WMCQs and PTQs, and maybe during the game we didn't laugh, but afterwards we laugh, exchange stories and invite each other to events and lament our losses and possible outs, and try and help each other. I remember playing a lvl 2 judge at a Theros PTQ (so it was M14 packs) in round one, first thing he did was get out his playmat: Theros PTQ Top 8, I asked him about it, he had come 2nd... I shat myself! We played 3 wonderful games of magic, with serious counter spell bluffing from me, but when the dust settled and I had won, he came with me to my friend (it was his birthday) and helped him improve his deck, even though there was a chance he might be about to play him. The TO actually gave my friend boosters for free because it was his birthday (Axion games if you're wondering who ran it) but that judge and I are still friends to this day, and I look forward to my next judged tournament so that I can catch up with him. I have hundreds of stories like this, I've never experienced someone rude, overly competitive or arrogant at a big tournament, but maybe I'm just lucky. If we may come to an agreement? Maybe I can try and hunt down some budget decks (I did a series of £5 decks for last standard) and you could try and experience some standard or modern tournaments and I'm sure that we would find that both have a lot of good stuff

I'm glad that you can enjoy tournaments even when I am unable to do so.
Tournaments bring lots and lots money to the Wizards of the Coast, so I'm pretty glad that so many go into them and craft expensive decks. Since if Wizards get money, MTG will keep coming. And if MTG keeps coming, I keep playing. And if I keep playing, I'll stay happy. Tournaments are not meant for me. But I still understand it is great that they exist.

I must once again say that I'm sorry about this deck since it didn't please you. I hope you can still tolerate my other decks. And after all, decks meant for casual shouldn't be judged that badly.

That is my biggest bug-bear though, casual should be judged as any other format, similar to EDH I would have said, is this series for new players? If it is, casual might not be the best format for a new player, I had a friend who joined me as a tourney buddy, but then I didn't play for a while because of exams, when I got back he was getting into casual, and slowly but surely his game play decreased, the last tournament he played in, he came dead last using Boss Sligh in a decent meta game for the deck to prey on, playing casual had ruined the edge he had had, the number of errors and blunders he made was shocking comparing him to before, that's why casual is soured to me.

http://www.mtgvault.com/superkeeper/decks/most-expensive-deck/
Expensive enough?XD

The money wasn't the issue, its the deck quality, and that is illegal everywhere

Its a joke...........................

Sorry, I did kinda realise but I wanted to show that I don't want magic to become: my wallet is bigger than yours

I will make u a great red modern beat down deck! No price limit

someone literally just showed me one lol

Gothy, I hate to say this but in my opinion, MTG has become somewhat of a "my wallet is bigger - therefor I win!" game. I've been playing - admittedly mainly casual - since somewhere around Limited or Revised - more than 20 years - and I've seen it time and again - the more money you have to spend on getting that specific card - or buying more cards period, will net you a better deck.
While I can appreciate that you feel that casual, budget, pauper and so on formats drag down the play skill - I'll respond with my opinion that crafting decks that are competitive against high money decks with less costly and decks full of rare or mythic cards is HARD and takes significant skill and insight. I've actually had a friend put together a couple of Northy's budget decks - and he's been able to compete with a couple of our other friends with low level tournament decks.

I think at the end of the day this debate is simply two different opinions. Two different beliefs on what MTG should be, and how it should be played. Tourneys vs Casual. It's that simple. Each should, and does require, different deck construction mentalities, different approaches, and realistically, will use different cards. There is a considerable list of cards that I don't think you'd ever use in a Tourney, but would be considered staples in some casual formats. That's one of the big reasons that I play almost any format I'm asked to play in.

I now play in tourneys on a semi regular basis - nothing pro, PTQs or such, just my local game stores hosting prereleases and the like - but I do see the meta change and am up on the Tourneys. But, I get just as much, if not more, fun out of our casual nights - where we'll play anything from EDH, Two Headed Giant, Emporer, to Free For All multiplayer games as well as some 1v1 games.

This deck, while it would probably not win many tourneys - would be great fun in 1v1 or any kind of casual play. Northy, well done again, and PLEASE, keep the decks rolling. I'm a huge fan!

This was really interesting! As a player who has to play with pros ( 3 out of the 12 people who go to my FNM regularly make top 8's in ptqs gooddamt >.<) I can really get into the intense feeling of a close standard match and the fact that a single play error or tell can ruin a match for you! Than afterwards you grab a beer and talk about the match, and have a few laughs about topdecks.

Though having fun should be a big part, noting your mistakes and working out why you lost should always be a talking point, even in casual... It seems odd to me that your friend got worse after playing casual is odd, and i agree with you that even if the format is casual you should try and make your plays in the most efficient way.

Then again on casual night i was killed by bees (OH GOD THE BEES), milling from alter or the brood, and in EDH turn 4 cascade wolf run infinite mana (along with 3 other people) and laughed in a very different way XD

Why go for this market....cockatrice and Mana leak are used for putting up pro tour deck-lists... It makes no sense to try and attract people here with deck-lists that will have been put up sooner on other sites... HECK most good deck lists only appear from pros on the day they use them on the pro tour so they were everywhere once people know a good build . . . I don't see how what you saying gets this site traffic. >.<

ALSO, players get good by looking at what people are playing and building decks to go for that, you work out a deck list then trade and buy to get that deck, and you will normally only have one powerful deck unless your a pro and win enough to have enough trades for more than one deck per format.......(because of the cost of building new decks) . .

also it is kinda fun to play against someone when you know what is in the deck they are playing BUT i often prefer playing against new and interesting constructed decks with decks of the same power level!

Casual does't have to mean bad decks, as long as the decks are on the same kind of power level you can get some really interesting and fun games with mechanics that you would never see outside of the casual format!

And that sense of fun is what vault should be working at to promote ^-^ that way it gets traffic and attracts people to the game :D

Those were beautifully placed words! I can't do much but agree.

Typically, going for tournament worthy decks drains all the fun out of the game. Unless you get your fun by stomping opponents of course. But Magic is by heart a game of other components, mainly creativity, but also exploration, imagination and interaction. It has a very strong emphasis on social play, the cards are able to tell stories, the game is made by and for roleplayers.
You should be HAPPY that there is still a place where these elements are nurtured! Countless sites focus on tournaments. Tournaments means that efficiency and results is all that counts - it's a cutthroat environments and cutthroat environments will create cutthroat mentality players! The art of casual is lost to waaaay too many players out there!

Yes, sometimes casual equals not enough skills. However, only competitive players that are already spoiled would think all casuals are without skill. In fact, if you equal casual = no skill and see casual just as a low step on becoming a magic master, then you still haven't really understood what casual play actually means!

Yes, if you always play against weak decks, you won't become a master. But if you always play against tournament decks, you won't either. See, nobody gets better by reading decklist and playing someone else's decks will also only get you that far. Take the winning deck of the last championship and give it to a newbie - he won't know how to play it nor would he be able to understand why this deck works better than others.
You actually need to play and build your own decks and move on. Casual play can help you a lot regarding this, as Necrumlsize pointed out. You need to know basic concepts before you can grasp the advanced concepts other decks use.

Regarding the Hot Page:
There are dozens of reasons why specific decks turn up there, seemingly regardless of the quality of the deck. One of them are discussions like this - meanwhile, this discussion about casual generated 25 replies, that's more than half if the replies this deck got ;)

I tend to prefer casual over tourny play where I am from.

The tournaments are fun, but they are also boring. The decks are all optimized to win the same way every time. No variety, no creativity. Just number crunching and such. I've played one guy twenty+ times and his deck game is always the same. Starts the same. Performs the same. Wins the same way every time.

To me, that is not really that fun. I enjoy having a challenge that isn't just trying to win on turn three or stop my opponent from playing an infinite combo or some stupid thing like that. So, I make my own decks, and between rounds of our tournaments I play casual to pass the time and its more fun that way. I get some of both. I place between third and last of ten to twelve people in our tournaments and tend to win in casual.

So, both are fun. Its sort of silly to say one is blatantly inferior.

Ye I see what you mean man, I have had similar experiences as you, although yikes those 3 guys sound good!!! The thing is, I want to stay on the vault and see non-pros put twists on decks (something I try to do a lot) and it just makes me feel a tad out of place on the site, which doesn't feel right

Gothy has deleted this comment.

I understand you, too. You just have to adjust your useage of Vault a bit:

a) Stop focussing on the HOT page. I know it is not easy, but ignoring it is actually beneficial for everyone involved!
b) Instead have a look at Unloved and Active decks.
c) better yet, use the deck search and tags! Of course many users don't label their decks properly but you'll find the ones that do.
d) Once you have found what you like, interact with the authors of that deck *and stay in touch with them*! Use the Follow function or whatever it is called here and help each other out whenever someone brews up something new.

That way you will find more content that's your taste more reliably.

Don't you love double posts xD

Active decks is probably the best page.

I do do a lot of that, thanks for the points though, seems crazy that genuinely powerful decks that could do awesome on the competitive scene not getting any credit, which makes me a bit sad

Probably because no one is surprised to see most of them?

OK, it was nice using the vault, but I'm gonna stop now, good bye everyone

You have to consider:
A well designed deck has less room for improvement. This also means less replies! But if a deck has flaws, people will comment on that and make suggestions. And if a deck is actually on the weaker side of things, then even novice players may be able to make sound suggestions. In either way, a suboptimal deck has more potential to generate messages. Each message counts toward "hotness". More importantly, once you replied, you get notifications if others reply. This causes a positive feedback loop that has nothing to do with the actual quality of the deck.

Yeah, make a brake. I need that from time to time, too, albeit for slightly different reasons. But I know you'll come back :)
And you can always call me out for help on your decks. I am a bit rusted regarding the tournament scene but my knowledge of cards is vast. As long as you want some twists and fresh ideas on any deck, I am your man.

Cheers Puschkin, have a great one

Tbh he might be better off not using vault and using tapped-out it does more what he was talking about with people posting deck-lists with one or two changes to the list.

You can find them here, too ;) I mean, take any creature type or block mechanic, run a deck search and you'll find countless decks that differ in just a few cards.

I agree with Puschkin. It's really difficult to comment or make suggestions on well-made decks other than to say 'hey, this is awesome!' if you're new or unfamiliar with the cards available. I can sort of do okay in Standard because there are less options, but when it comes to modern I just sort of drool on myself and read comments. Maybe like the page if its something I want to fiddle around with later.

Speaking of which... I'm working on making a standard deck (I'm trying quite hard to make a reasonably competitive capable standard deck) and could use a bit of help with suggestions if anyone is bored or interested. http://www.mtgvault.com/fairemont/decks/sultai-deck/

The day after I try to leave, my friend messages me and says 'look you got 2 decks on the hot page' xD

Yeah but remember? The Hot Page is irrelevant ;)

Not now that it has 2 sexy competitive modern deck ;)

ebin shitstorm imo LOL

Going to necro this thread but I wanted to give my two cents. I'll use starcraft 2 launch as an analogy. When I first played SC2 there wasn't really much of a meta and competitive was beyond janky. Me and my friend played it and got to experiment and play all kinds of weird builds and actually win games! Then people started to actually get good at the game and our Diamond quickly turned into bronze. The thing I realized was how much fun a game can be when you can win and not follow a strict path. Which to me I feel like Standard kind of forces and which is why I really like casual magic. There is so much more fun stuff that can be done with deck building (in my opinion) because of the sheer variety you get to see (and actually stand a chance).

But that's the thing, you can make a wacky deck and still do well, look at the, shameless whore alert, deck on the top of the hot page, its a crazy new modern idea that I've tested hard and it beats staple decks such as Abzan and amulet bloom. There is also a thread on thrre that articulates my enjoyment of competive magic better there

If you want to slam eldrazi and other usually unplayable (due to mana cost!) cards, just try tron, its so much more reliable and you have a fighting chance against people with it! Tron is a deck I highly recommend

you should add a link to a tron deck you recommend, btw tron uses those lands that give you a ton of mana if you have all three. thats pretty much the deck.

I only have my crazy version of going infinite with Mikaeus and Triskelion, but I'll build one tomorrow morning, it uses urza's tower, mine and power plant to generate 7 mana allowing t3 Karn or wurmcoil and turn 6 emrakul after oblivion stoning their board, it also uses cards to find those lands so it is more consistent, the deck is amazing!

Hmph... Gyre Sage sounds worthwhile... Going to the sideboard.