So this is a project I wanted to engage in- To make a set of 10+ super-budget 60-card decks that are simple, relatively easy to play, relatively easy to understand, and bring across the fundamentals of how Magic Works. We've since gone way past 10, with tons more in the works, and I've really enjoyed the challenge of trying to make these decks easy to play and understand, fun, and all under a $15 budget, sideboard included.
The main goal here is that you could easily build these deck for a low cost and use them as an easy introduction to how magic works, to teach a group of new players both how to play, and give them a sense of Why, a sense of what fun things they're getting into. These decks aren't gonna be particularly good, or even legal in any particular format if it stops me from including a card I think is good for the deck, but they should be fun and interesting without being too hard to get into. They should be an easily-accessible example of how fun Magic: The Gathering can be.
This is one of the more advanced decks- Not really the first decks you want people learning with, but a sweet, budget deck you can use once new players are already on their feet to really knock their socks off and get them to think about something you can do in Magic that they might not have otherwise realized. Flicker might be one of the least advanced 'advanced lessons', but it's still an odd strategy that takes some work to get into.
I love Flicker decks, and this is a pretty sweet flicker deck. Not an amazing one though- without Thragtusk or something similar, green is actually a pretty vestigial addition to the deck, even if Coiling Oracle is great, that's about all the green does outside of the sideboard. That said- Conclave naturalists and Centaur Healer are great sideboard cards, and Coiling Oracle is a great value card to flicker that can ramp you mana if you're lucky.
The flicker deck feels a little limited in its options if you stick to Azorius, but I also feel like green only answers some of the problems- again, if you're not just playing Thragtusk, in which case all of your problems are answered rather eloquently. So I'm also making an Esper version to see how it compares.
As for budget: Maindeck cost is currently at a little less than ~$11.30 (according to the middle blue numbers on this very site under estimated value), sideboard at about ~$2.75.
So mostly this section is going to be notes on why I think these are good cards to learn from:
Let's start by going up the mana curve of creatures- Coiling Oracle is a great creature, replaces itself in your hand, or occasionally ramps you mana, which is often even better. Also just gets you on the board reasonably well. The follow-up on 3 is Deadeye Harpooner, which is lackluster when just played most of the time, since it's hard to get that revolt trigger consistently at times, but is super-powerful when you're flickering it midcombat with Ghostly Flicker or Displace to block, dodge damage, and then blow something up all in the same turn.
Spire Patrol serves a couple of purposes- It slows down your opponent significantly, it opens up any target to die to Harpooner, and it's also probably the creature you're going to kill your opponent with- 3 power is enough to sting, so long as your can hold control of the board long enough to use it, which the card does a solid job of helping you do.
Alongside Patrol, Archaeomancer lets you bring back your own flicker effects ad infinitum, which lets you get a real value engine running, which is super useful. And, finally, Cloudblazer is just a blatant value play- flicker it, draw 2, gain a little life, and just keep doing it for as long as you feel like it.
To flicker these creatures- we have Displace and Ghostly Flicker, which return the creatures instantly, but only target 2 of them, and Eerie Interlude, which flickers as much as you want, but they only come back end-of-turn, which limits the shenanigans you can pull off a little. Much sweeter value though.
Negate and Crystalization serve as your interaction cards that aren't flickering in and out of exile, and serve their purposes wonderfully- they're strong and fair, and I like having the strictly-better pacifism that's not really that much better, but is fancy in multicolor.
Finally, the real wincon- Call for Unity. Because you should be flickering creatures every turn as much as you can manage, this bad boy should be ticking up into a powerful anthem effect pretty quickly- you hold down the board for three turns with this thing in play, and you're going to start cracking in for a hell of a lot of damage.
Manabase is meant to be a touch lacking, but also super-budget. Look, you try to build a 3-color mana base for less than $2, it's gonna suck, alright? That's the name of the game with budget 3-color manabases.
As for the sideboard, this IS supposed to be a sideboard they learn how to use, to make their deck perform better in the right matchups, or just in general to customize their decks within constraints.
Centaur Healer seemed like a solid effect to flicker, as well as a strong defensive body you could use to protect yourself against the kinds of decks you want lifegain against.
Conclave Naturalists lets you Naturalize every time you flicker, which is pretty sweet, Mistmeadow Witch is there so players can try it out and learn that the slower but repeatable effect isn't actually that great, and the rest of the sideboard is just interaction cards, since there are so few in the main.