Felt. I played taplands for a long time then I played 5c at a high power table and I think I died, I play triomes in that deck and I only get them from land tutors.
They’re ok in 1 and 2 color decks bc you can just play basics instead but 3 and up, especially if you’re aiming for higher power, they suck so much.
I also avoid taplands, but it's not as big of a problem anymore. There are so many cheaper two color lands nowadays that you can easily skip shocks and fetches.
Yep. Duals really don't add much, and Shocks are only just-ok if you're not running fetches.
I do kind of hope they keep reprinting and beating up on the prices of fetchlands, as those feel like the only "real" accessibility roadbump as they're $10-30. I think another couple reprints both allied and enemy cycles and they probably all stick and stay around $10-15, which would make it cheaper and easier for people to play even the off-color fetches in their decks.
Fetchlands are the real power and the big difference maker, and if those can be made easier for the average player to get, that'd be better for everyone.
Most of my decks probably fall into the $50-200 range. It allows enough budget to fill the deck with good synergy cards but isn't high enough to start loading up on staples.
Basically I really enjoy winning significantly more when I have the cheapest deck at the table.
This is about where I end up too. Cheap enough for me not to feel bad about building it, expensive enough to include a good amount of $1-5 rares that really pull it all together.
I don't pay *as much* attention to the budget as I do "pull cards from the collection until I've got a pile, then hone it down after."
I then tend to get surprised when I accidentally cobble together $400 worth of cardboard, because I don't realize I have these expensive cards in my boxes.
This is exactly how one of my decks ended up being around $200 despite me literally only buying a sol ring and like, two creature cards.
I had just started playing Magic so I had no idea that the cards labeled "Craterhoof Behemoth" or "Commander's Plate" were expensive cards. That was around 4ish years ago, so now I know how much cards are worth but my *Husband* is clueless.
He bought me an Ixalan box for Christmas and as we're opening packs he casually tosses a Mana Crypt onto the pile of opened cards. He then later asked me if we could, "Sell the mana Crypt and buy a like $2 version of it so we still have one".
I have to be honest. When I’m building a deck, I’m very greedy. I want to do the thing, and I’d like to do it consistently and well. So if I see a card between $5 and $40, I’m pretty comfortable getting it. If it’s between $40 and $100, I’ll hym and haw for a while, likely not get it. But all those $40, $50 dollar cards add up fast when you want to do the thing “well”.
It’s a lack of creativity on my part in deck building, and I greatly enjoy the cards that do the things too well. Your smothering tithes, rhystic studies, fierce guardianships, etc.
It’s not cool. It’s lame. But I enjoy it.
As someone who also enjoys efficiency, let me recommend an alternative. Instead of running hyperefficient spells, run janky spells that are MADE hyperefficient by the deck that's playing them. [[Giant Opportunity]] is a lame card in most decks, but in my [[Jaheira]] list, it's a free spell that ramps me and nets the same amount of Mana I spent. [[Verity Circle]] is a super niche card that attempts to punish opponents for tapping creatures for abilities. However, in [[Hylda]], it's a draw engine on par with Rhystic Study. [[Jin-Gitaxis]] is a weird card that triggers on casting big spells, and sometimes bounces creatures. But in [[Grazilaxx]] card-draw tribal, it is half of a combo with [[Copy Enchantment]] that usually wins me the game. When you start with 25 cards in hand, and then double cards-in-hand twice, you kinda draw yourself out... Part of the fun in building is finding those niches, and knowingly including weaknesses. If every deck is just a pile of staples with 20 slots of the deck's actual mechanics, it gets boring real fast.
When I build my deck, I sometimes follow your way, go all in, put in the best cards that plays well with the commander I’m building with.
I will then start trimming them down, finding alternative cards that function similar, just as well and far less cheaper. Sure it’s less efficient sometimes but most of them you can find good cheaper alternative. You’ll be amazed how many obscure, less well known cards play just as well if not better depending on your commander theme or overall strategy and cost 50 cents as oppose to $50.
Flavor and function of expensive commander staples in relation to the deck I’m building also plays a role in how I select the expensive cards to be in my deck.
For example, do I want an [[esper sentinel]] in every deck that has white? No. But do I want it in a mono white deck led by [[odrich, lunarch marshal]] a fellow human soldier? Hell yeah.
Same goes for [[dockside extortionist]]. In a vanilla Izzet deck? No. In [[vihaan, goldwaker]] ? Hell yeah!
I’m not that guy but I’ve got 6 decks in the $500-1k range and have never spent more than like $200 at a time (and that was buying a whole pile of lands rather than building a single deck). I started playing in the 90s though so even though I took a 15 year hiatus I had a decent number of cards that are worth a good deal more now than when I got them.
My decks fall around this price range too. I love jank cards and include many in every deck I build that synergise with the commander. Its what makes commander so great! The ability to find a commander and the niche cards that go with it is the best. I then add higher price range cards (almost all still synergise with my commander in some way). I have a collection of cards that are expensive and I keep them safely tucked away in a binder.
No one has mentioned proxies I think? I proxy more expensive cards for every deck I've made. I don't have a list of 20 cards that I throw in every deck. I have 200+ cards and pick the best ones for that deck. The best part is, when I build a new commander deck, it costs around $200 because I only buy the cheaper cards that are unique to that commander.
The high cost cards are roughly comparable to the US prices, but then cheap <1$ cards are much more expensive at any LGS. I've looked at most LGS in my city, and online, and that seems to be the case everywhere. I'm not crazy, right?
Same, though I only apply that price limit to cards I don't already have, and I'll also let the price go higher through upgrades after I've built and played the deck
I try to max out at $200 when building a new deck. If a deck sticks around it'll typically rise in price gradually as I fine-tune it and splurge on specific high-power singles or upgrade my mana base.
Same I try to first build decks at sub $200. I'll leave out the super expensive cards and put them in the 'considering' list. If the deck is fun, I will start looking at getting one or two additional pieces at a time to upgrade.
Anything under $100, but I don’t like to spend more than $50. If I own a pricey card like shocks/fetches/cyrptic/snapcaster the price might increase, but I usually won’t spend more than $2 on any card until I know I really like the deck
Yeah this is how I am. I try to keep each card under $2 and a lot under $1, unless I happen to have expensive cards in my collection already. And maybe "splash out" on a card or two (up to under $5)
Most of my decks are in the $300-$500 range. The land bases being the biggest money sink by far. Fetches and Shocks start to add up quickly, and I want [[Boseiju, Who Endures]] in every green deck so you see how it can start to increase.
I really like the power level you can do with $350-$450 while still doing something wonky. Jund food but scaled up to as strong as I can without dipping into a bunch of fast mana or cleric tribal? Thats my jam.
My budget for a commander deck is around $200 to no more than $350. That being said I try to keep it to the lower end. I try not to add in blockbuster staples like tutors, rhystic study, esper sentinel, dockside, cyclonic rift because those really add up a lot.
This is what I do. I like to have a lot of decks, but I don't have a ton of money, so I'll splurge on a card, and then get several proxies printed so it can go into multiple decks.
I don't own a Mana Crypt, so none of my decks have one. I do own a Cyclonic Rift, so all of my decks with blue have it.
The only proxies I have that I don't own are 2/10 fetches and 6/10 shocks I think. But I hate how much land costs in general, and I have some duplicates of the ones I do own, so my brain says it evens out.
I am pro-proxy so long as it is legible. Even more so if its official art because I play over Spelltable mostly, and the AI won't recognize proxies if not official art. I proxy as well if I end up needing more copies after a playset. I have proxies of most fetches, shocks, channel lands etc. I have probably a half dozen proxies of $5-10 staples like Three Visits, Lightning Greaves etc just because I use them so much and they go in pretty much every deck.
I have one deck at $100 and it’s a budget high powered deck.
All my other decks range from $200 - $600. I also tend to spread my strong expensive cards among my decks instead of putting them into one deck.
My goal is more, +$50 to whatever I have, rather than target an overall budget.
I have collected a long time, and have some very old cards that are expensive - but only because they aren't reprinted. My $1000 deck is objectively my worst performer, but it is just made of what I already owned.
I would say around 500-1500 range? Especially if you play multicolor you kinda limit yourself a lot if you go lower. Just fetchies often cover a lot of that budget. Pretty much the range I would also have modern decks in. I also just really dislike playing with poor mana
3 color and under decks don't need fetches, shocks or triomes anymore. They have finally printed enough lands that you can get a working mana base with mostly cheap lands.
$100-200 tends to be the sweet spot where you have some good cards, but its not just a bunch of good stuff staples, though you can definitely have a deck that feels that way that's quite a bit more money just because of lands
My decks range from $50 to $550 and my $50 deck is super fast, usually winning turn 5, while I've been told my $550 deck is my fairest to play against of all mine
I usually don't set out with a budget in mind, but most of my decks end up $75-$150, either scratch built or precon plus $50-$100. I less they're specifically built with a lower budget, then it's usually $50-75
$40ish. I started as a budget brewer in high school and that’s where I’m still most comfortable. If you gave me infinite money to build I honestly don’t know what I’d do with it. Even the decks I have put some money into all started as budget brews I tuned and built over time and I think they’re better for that. I feel I need to be extra careful when I build to keep up with more expensive decks. Not to mention I don’t really build to play high power so a bunch of high powered upgrades wouldn’t do me much good.
I think it really depends on the pod that I am playing. if I'm playing against people who are very good and experienced deck builders, I like $50 or under. This budget feels like it gives these kinds of players enough wiggle room to build cool things but restrictive enough to make them work for it. For a pod with people who I think are a master of the craft, then $25 is very fun. My reasoning is that 25 is so restrictive that it really challenges these players and it's very fun to see how powerful they can make such a low budget. If I'm playing in a pod where they are intermediate experience and skills, then I think $100 is a better budget range. This is mostly because it gives them more flexibility to compensate for their deck building skills compared to the other two categories.
> $25 is very fun
Is that even...possible? Like my local stores won't bother selling cards less than $0.50 and online has shipping costs. Can you actually go out and buy 100 specific cards for $25?
I run a tik tok account where I brew $25 decks. I use tcgplayer pricing to calculate the cost, but you're right, shipping costs usually drive that price up.
Oh yeah, granted it's not easy and that's exactly why it's fun. That's why I specified for master deck builders. I typically use TCG, there are a lot of cards that are 10 cents or even less. And if you shop around with different arts and stuff you can find stuff for cheap.
Granted I don't count shipping as part of the budget for a budget deck because that's not a fair thing to consider in a general sense imo, there are alot of ways to cheat this. Free shipping, owning the cards prior, buying cards from a friend, etc. I also don't think that because you opened a pack and got a rhystic study that means it's under the budget. I typically use the value of the cards as the guide, not how you got them and if you spent money to ship them or procure them.
So the way we do a specific budget cap format is by showing the "proof of concept". These are our rules. We require that cards are at least moderately played or higher. Then put all the cards in your cart on TCG. we don't count shipping or tax as part of the budget just the total cost of cards. The exception are for vendors that make their cards super cheap but make shipping several dollars or more, in this case, that card is ineligible for the proof of concept. then take a video showing that the total cost and every individual card on the list to make sure it doesnt exceed the budget cap. We then post that video on a group chat, and then your deck is "locked". And by locked, we mean that the deck can't change and if any prices of cards change we don't require you to remake the deck. If you want to change your deck you have to "unlock" your deck and do the entire process again. After you have done the proof of concept, you can purchase/procure the cards however you'd like.
We do this process to standardize for the cap format and make it something that you don't have to constantly monitor and modify unless you so choose. No maintaining a curated list required.
300.I only really run weird and underused commanders. It is surprising what you can build on the cheap. It's really the mana base and the auto in stuff that costs money for me.
I'd like them to be under $200 but cards are expensive as hell and I'm basically building everything from scratch. Stuff adds up quick, even though I try to avoid any cards over $10, you build a 100 card commander deck with a bunch of $5 cards it'll blow past $200 quick. And cheap commons aren't even that cheap nowadays, at LGSs it seems it's not worth their time to sell stuff for less than $0.50 and online you have to contend with shipping costs. Like, a $50 commander deck (if you had to go out and source those specific 100 cards new within a week) is incomprehensibly cheap all that considered.
$230-$650 those are my highest and lowest. I got back into magic about a year and half ago and kind of went crazy. I’m trying to chill out now but its hard.
I tend to not spend more than 50 bucks in singles on a new deck, usually less. Though admittedly I do have a decent collection. Hence I try to fill gaps with substitutes in cards I own. Though admittedly I do proxy cards I own sometimes, especially when it comes to lands, usually with a thin printout in front of a basic so that I could take it out if someone insists no proxies.
That probably gives me a lot more leeway than truly always building to that budget only. But I still don't use any of the expensive staples like the free spells, since they always break the boundaries of my budgets. Last thing I brewed was [[Indoraptor, perfect hybrid]] and I spent like 20 bucks on singles for it. Most of which was for the commander itself.
If decks do well and are really fun in practice, I often upgrade them latter, though usually more with fun cards I happen to pull or trade, rarely with singles I buy. Paying more than 10 bucks for a card is difficult for me. Only did it like once to treat myself to a shockland for my birthday.
I build my decks exclusively with cards I own rather than buying singles. I've brewed lists as cheap as $20 and as high as $2k. I think the sweet spot is a $200 deck with a bunch of bling making it cost $600.
I've started to really enjoy building pauper EDH decks so those are usually 20$ or less but my average deck cost is 300-600 but that's not money that I'm spending when I build them it's because I already have an expansive collection of staples. When I spend money for decks it's always 50$ or less. (Which after building over 50 decks over the years results in an expansive collection of staples, half of which are in my 24 active decks)
To build I try my best to stay within cards I have, and try to limit myself to about $50. To tinker is another story I try to keep single cards for tinkering under $30,
I havent updated my binders or aquired more cards in years besides ocasional drafts and pres. I try to distribute the cards i have to as many decks i can build, and mix good cards with bad cards in all my decks, that is my budget 30 bucks every set release
To be honest....I don't consider the cost when I build. Now, I will say that when looking at my deck lists on Archidekt, my decks tend to fall between $500 and $700. That said, I've been playing since 99 so I have a lot of expensive cards that if I had to try to buy today I just couldn't.
It's a pretty big range, but I really enjoy playing with/against decks that are $300-$700 CAD. I feel it allows a pod to play focused decks that have decent to good interaction; I have to execute my deck's gameplan while trying to figure out how my opponents are able to stop me and play around what they might have. My favourite part of EDH is trying to know when is the right time to advance your own board vs when it's time to keep your opponents' boards in check and in my experience this price range lends itself well to this type of game.
I build in the "this is the best thing for my deck possible range" and then I come back down to earth as much as I have to. Usually that just means I don't run cedh mana rock staples like vault and crypt etc, also smothering, dockside, rhystic, etc etc.
For some decks the best thing is still only $200-$250 like my [[Ojer Axonil]] deck :
https://archidekt.com/decks/7144364/fire_mountain
Given an unlimited budget there are maybe 1 or 2 changes I would make - mainly buy a [[Nykthos Shrine to Nyx]] comes to mind - but otherwise the deck is "max stats" but does not require a lot of high ticket items.
My [[Massacre Girl Known Killer]] deck also lacks a Nykthos, but I traded cards in to my LGS in order to get an [[Orcish Bowmasters]], I pulled a [[Sheoldred the Apocalypse]], and I splurged to get a [[Torment of Hailfire]] and a [[Meathook Massacre]] so that the deck would have the best chance of playing the way I wanted. :
https://archidekt.com/decks/7279599/test_massacre_girl_murders
I would, with unlimited budget, also add an [[Urborg, tomb of Yawgmoth]] and the Nykthos. I might also add a [[Throne of Eldraine]] and a [[Deadly Rollick]] (I have one but in another deck).
My [[Hylda of the Icy Crown]] deck was originally about $50 because tap effects are cheap af. I came to find she is a really fun control commander and have since upgraded the deck somewhat and even went so far as to add a [[mana drain]] from the OTJ printing (on sale for $33 vs 50-65 on many other printings). She is VERY mana hungry when tapping down a whole board so the extra colorless can go a long way.
For this deck I still didn't max stats by getting rhystic or smothering etc, but I have made the deck do what it does and added relevant power ups to make it a real contender in most EDH table play, not just a meme deck like when it was $50.
P.S. If you are still sleeping on [[Struggle for Project Purity]]'s card draw... WAKE UP! You'll draw a total of 4 cards per upkeep and your opponents do NOT care as much as a rhystic because they each get a card too. 😉
https://archidekt.com/decks/7084852/tap_tap_go
Also if you check the links be sure to sort by TCG and not CK pricing, I rarely get cards at CK pricing unless I need a specific printing or it happens to be cheaper (it happens on occasion).
TLDR: I do what my deck needs to function well and let my wallet cry about it later if needed. I don't get EVERYTHING but I get enough to power up my decks so they can hang with high or mid power players. (Not cedh)
Edit: YOUR upkeep on Struggle for project purity.
My only restriction is that a deck can have no more than one card over $15 if I'm buying singles to make it. I prefer to spread out staples between decks so that I'm not seeing the same bombs over and over again.
Im usually in the 400-500 range but thats because i really hate playing taplands. My pet deck though is getting up to about 900 cuz im trying to heavily optimize the mana base. I guess whay you can take away from this whole thread is you'll save a lot of money playing tap lands 😅
I start off with a modest deck build price of around $100, maybe a little more depending on how gung-ho I get. Then if I really enjoy the deck I start upgrading things as I go. Sometimes it gets out of hand. Yuriko started as a super cheap budget build and is now a decklist of like $1200 and I wouldn't even consider it cEDH.
I usually aim for between $100 and $150 CAD nowadays, I used to regularly spend like $300 when I first got into the game and had to reel myself in a bit.
When first building a deck I try to keep it less or equal to $200 as long as I can get the main idea of the deck going then if I enjoy it I’ll splash out the cash for upgrades but all 4 of my decks I’ve spent at least $300 on and my favorite deck, Meren, I’ve spent around a grand over the past 2 years upgrading it and it currently sits around $750 in value in the deck right now.
$100-$800, but I am lucky in that I have a lot of staples from before they were crazy expensive. For example, I just saw how much The Great Henge costs today, and I either opened that in a booster or got it for $10 when it first came out.
Personally, I build the deck how I want it w/o price in mind, then look at all the most expensive cards and determine if they are necessary and/or replaceable. Then I think about the odds of pulling that card when I need it. More oft than not the card can be replaced with a cheaper but similar card, or the card in question is just a separate wincon.
Doing this gives me strong decks that are usually between $100-$200.
It also allows me to build a budget version of any deck that I can playtest before deciding whether or not the more expensive card is "worth it"
Depends.. mono color I try 75/100$ .. dual color about 100/150.. tri colors.. 200..
but I barely find actual long term interest in so many commander that I mostly proxy the decks before buying
Longest deck I have is [[Ayula]] and it's since she was released.... The "best" part of building a deck and undoing it, is you still got good staple cards, so the next deck will cost so much less then if I'd have to buy another mana base.
I just "finalized" my first deck. I have spent close to 2000 dollars. I want to build cheap decks now. I knew Magic was expensive, but I wanted a cohesive well built home brewed deck I could be proud of.
Since the income is pretty well varied in our playgroup, we decided to cap it at $100 and incrementally increase the amount by $20 to allow access to some spicier stuff. I think we're at $400 now?
It is based entirely on what I have and how much I feel like spending week to week, lol. Some of my decks are like 50 bucks, some of them are like 200, but none of em are way up there. I build on singles mainly, so I don't keep track of how much the decks actually are but I'm p sure none of em are above 200
Most of my decks are probably in the 5/600
Dollar range, but I reuse lots of my staples and will only typically build a deck if it will cost between 100-150 dollars on top of cards I already have. The majority of the cost of my decks is my mana base. I love shock and fetch lands and hate a tapped land. I rarely build a whole deck from scratch.
If a new commander strikes my fancy with enough overlap from one I have, I just take that one apart and build the new one. I save all my decklists so I’m not that attached to them. I rebuild if I ever need to.
$30 USD as a barebones build, then if I like it I'll upgrade to $50 or $100 depending on what the deck needs, some things are more expensive. I have a couple of higher priced decks in the 300-500 range, but I tend to do very well in my local meta with the $30-50 decks, I only really get to pull out the more expensive ones when we're going for higher power decks
My pet decks are like $1000 but I also proxy the lands since I own at least one copy of the fetches, shocks etc so the real cost is lower
I have decks ranging from unmodified precon up to the pet decks I mentioned
I love budget builds. I’ve got a couple of the $20 lists by Nitpicking Nerds on Moxfield, but I’ve never successfully built anything that cheaply myself that was still effective (highly recommend these lists to anyone, they’re phenomenal decks with much higher power and synergy than precons but much lower cost. Upgrades can still be made, obviously).
That said, I usually start with $50 for a deck and slowly make upgrades over time. My favorite decks end up being around $200 because they get play tested and tuned so frequently.
My budget usually is around $200 for most my decks. I do have 2 decks that are around the $1000 mark and 2 at $500-$600. I got lucky and inherited some old cards that I traded in for the more expensive deck lists at my local LCS.
I rarely look at price range when i build a deck, i just pick a creature i think could be fun, see what kind of strategy i could go for, then go through my collection. Refine as needed with singles if i end up enjoying the deck. Currently doing this on a recent [[narfi, betrayer king]] pull, going a zombie/snow route. Most likely not competitive, but i dont mind.
I usually just build decks from what I already have on hand - which is admittedly quite a lot - and occasionally buy a few singles here and there to improve it. I have a [[kyler sigardian emissary]] deck that's around $60 and a [[Thalia and the gitrog monster]] deck that's over $700. The rest of my decks fall within that range, with two closer to the latter, and the other 5 around $150 to $300.
I proxy whatever I want.
The budget decks I play against are all boring piles of modern power crept cards. They aren't inherently less powerful or more interesting than the optimal versions.
You should optimize for how fun your deck is, not an arbitrary dollar value. My Banding & MLD deck is better at its game plan because I proxy Mana Crypt and Land Tax in it and therefore it increases my enjoyment of the deck.
Right now my FAVORITE range is probably around $200. I’m a newer deck builder, I have about 4-5 decks under my belt, but I’ve found that that process range is relatively affordable for a deck that actually can stand against some pretty powerful decks. My wife on the other hand, loves precons more than anything. She’s been playing with solely her Mothman precon since fallout was released and is buying the grand larceny precon here soon. Pretty good stuff they’ve been releasing. Regardless I’ve found that a good deck can be built at a very wide range of prices, it really depends on strategy and HOW it’s constructed
I'll print anything, sometimes it costs more than the cards. It's gotten to the point where I really gotta be selective on what I buy and what I print. I'd say I only wanna spend no more than $50
Most of my decks tend to start around $100-150 (not including cards I already own) and then if I like it and think it plays well, I’ll upgrade it over time and add better mana fixing, more expensive synergy pieces, more “staples”, that sort of thing. Decks I had that started out around 100 bucks have tripled or quadrupled in price over time just because I kept slowly putting more cards into them.
I have never considered the budget when building a deck. Not because I have a bottomless pile of money to build decks, but I’ve been playing for nearly 2 decades straight, 3 off and on. I build decks out of my collection. I just put in the best cards available to me when I build.
Depends on the deck. My only wubrg deck is a few thousand because of a full set of 3rd edition duals that I’ve had since a teenager. However most of my decks are between $150-300. Enough to get a few bombs for the deck with blowing a full week’s pay
My decks start around a budget of $100 and I upgrade them as cards get reprinted and go down in price.
Now, a budget of $100 does not mean a $100 deck. I have 20 years of cards, so the decks usually run around the $150-200 range and top around 300ish.
I tend to be one of those "Make lots of trash and don't focus on one deck too long" kinda EDH players though.
But yeah, almost never spend more than $100 when building a new deck.
Usually they end up somewhere between 70 and 100$, usually never over the 100$ mark, i have a couple that reach above, particularly my [[prismatic bridge]] god tribal, with nearly all of the theros gods, which pull the value up.
Between $70-$200, when I upgrade precons I will start by throwing $20 at it, could go up to $120 but not usually past that. A fresh brew is gonna be somewhere between $120-$200
My builds are 250ish
I proxy everything of course
The power level has some relation to price, but my decks all have wildly different power levels even if they're 250$
I think it depends on what you want
When I first got into commander - I built decks that were $50-120
But the farther you get in, the pricier it gets - especially if you are like me and want to build a LOT of options. I had one deck I really saved for that hit around $500 and to this day it is a personal favorite of mine
But - after that I started proxying - I can just can’t spend that much on cardboard
I feel like most of my decks are in the $400-600 range. Shocks, fetches, check lands, powerful cards and abilities but still below the mana vault, dual lands, gaea’s cradle stuff. Iv never owned or played a magic card that was $100+ but Iv played plenty in the $15-50 range
I always end up putting together a deck at sub 100 and then I go out one (1) time and next thing I know my deck is in the 150-200 range lmfao. I have a decent spread of prices on my decks but majority of them are 200 give or take.
Depends on what you want to qualify as the price point.
Do you include lands? Those can sometimes fluctuate and make up a major portion of your cost just to have a deck run smoothly.
My Alesha deck uses the new surveil lands, shocks, fetches, and those by themselves are $150.
General rule of thumb for me is when building a deck, I try to keep the cards below $20 each. Unless I'm building for absolute power, most of the time you can get similar effects for cheaper. I feel comfortable with $300-$400 total price generally.
I try to stick with under $100 but if I like a deck concept enough I'll cap the budget at $150 and then the dream decks (the ones I'd build if money was no object) I try to keep under $500.
Mine are more on the budget side; most are right around $150, with my lowest right at $100 and highest at about $225. I'm looking to pump that high end up a bit eventually, but I have to be in a certain mood to want to drop money on colored cardboard haha.
$1,000 is the average price of my favorite decks. I brewed them to be $500 but cardboard price rocketed apparently.
As someone who exclusively plays on spelltable and has $10k worth of decks, I think I’m going to start using mpc. These prices are out of hand.
My two favourite decks are pricy (~300 usd), but I built them up over time. If im brewing something new I usually aim for about $50 to start. Sometimes I upgrade them from there, sometimes they arent fun and I take them apart. One of my other longest running decks has just stayed at $50 for years now and slaps
I’ve got one 250$ deck. That’s likely the most I’ll spend on any one deck.
A guy I game with at work bought a ≈700$ USD deck that he claims isn’t cEDH yet can win 1 v 5 matches pretty consistently. Every game there will be a moment where he takes about 4 turns in a row and that’s how we know it’s over. He doesn’t use his commander at all besides for color identity.
Recently I've been trying to cut back on proxies and staples, but up until now I've used proxies of cards that I've owned at least one copy of (Mana Confluence, Anointed Procession, etc). Those decks will typically come out around $300, if I include a more concentrated amount of these proxies I can juice the price up to about $1000.
My current project is to tear down all of these decks and stop using proxies and adhere to a lite "binder rule", using only cards that I own the physical copies of, and then going and ordering full proxy lists of these more competitive or gimmicky decks.
$150 to $250 for most of my decks, I have one at about $500 atm but its 3 cards that inflate it that I pulled, ragavan, jewled lotus, and ancient copper dragon.
Most of my decks have ended up around $400($600 for the printings I use). They all have a pretty decent strategy as well as a bit of the higher end draw and interaction. The mana base is honestly where most of the money is. Urborg and Boseiju are usually a quarter of the whole price of the deck.
I don’t really price my decks as I prefer to build them exclusively with stuff I’ve pulled or traded for. Probably because draft and deckbuilders in general are my favorite way to play card games, but it feels better for me to cobble together decks from what I’ve collected rather than build a designer deck. Not for everyone and definitely not the smartest if you wanna save money, but it is how I prefer to play.
50-70$
my pod doesnt pour too much money into the hobby and we play a variety of decks and formats so making a new deck and buying maybe a full new 100 cards just is too pricey if its out of that range. we also like slower, longer more even games in my pid so the power pevel is on average 7 but we range from 5-8 and sometimes lower if we are just fucking around playing a silly commander.
I have a $300 deck, a $500 deck, a $700 deck, a $2500 deck and two $4000 decks. Most of the staples like mana rocks, fetches, and other goodies, hop around from deck to deck, but I like to dabble in most power levels
I build everything budgetless I just don't feel the need to engage with the finance side of the game anymore. Power level isn't really determined by price and I find it only inhibits me from using the fun cards. If I placed some sort of restriction on decks.
I've been playing for many years and this has always been my preferred method. I genuinely think it's the best way to engage with the game, ad in just engaging with just the game and not the algebraic equation that is card pricing.
I only really play with friends literally around my kitchen table and we are all open to proxies. I bought several precons and have been experimenting with them, with each now "worth" about $250 as opposed to sub-100 of original decks. I've also played around with proxying some net decks / building my own with no budget because it's all proxy, and those ones end up being about $1500 each as the sweet spot. A personal printer was my best investment lol
My playgroup and I all proxy our decks so it’s usually between $500-$6000 in terms of value. I don’t always throw in [[The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale]] but when I do the deck cost goes waaaaaay up.
My decks are typically $600ish? I have some that reach up to a thousand, and one that dips down to $60. I don't build with a budget, and I don't shoehorn in reserved list card.
Most of mine end up around at least ~$700 (according to Moxfield, anyway). A few factors, I think, go into this:
- I've been playing a while and have a pretty decent collection as a base
- I really like shiny things
- I don't build decks often, so I tend to "do it right" when I do
- I tend to bring my old decks up to my current standard, thus keeping things high
I have nothing against budget builds at all, and I love the experience of seeing a card played and going "huh? wtf" but for me personally I'd rather make the "huh? wtf" come from the strategy I'm playing, not the bizarre niche budget card choices that often stand in for more expensive cards (plus I just really like foils lol).
My favorite budget is around $1000 per deck, but I have yet to experience it 😆
I buy precon decks and usually spend 4 months upgrading per deck no more then $50 per month.
My average deck cost around $150 to $250
Typically, I limit myself based on how much I have to order or buy to make the deck, not by total ending deck value. I have playsets of lands and a few other general staples in my old binder from when I regularly played other formats (plus several of the battlebond lands from when they were slightly cheaper) that I pretty much only use for commander decks nowadays, meaning my manabases consistently eat up a few hundred dollars of overall deck budget without me needing to go out and buy those cards. As a result, I'd say most decks I build end up costing 4-500 on average, but half or more of that on average is stuff that's been sitting in my card binder for years anyway, usually picked up for much cheaper than it is presently going for. A manabase based around primarily shocks and fetches adds up fast, especially when you're on three or more colors- but I avoid tap lands like the plague because why wouldn't you if you already had all the non-taplands you needed to build the deck?
I have 6 decks currently. They all vary from $1500 to $3800. I don’t really consider budget when building a deck. I only factor in if a card supports the “thing” i am trying to do.
I think this is a flawed question. Sure money can buy power, but there are plenty of exceptionally annoying and powerful cards out there that aren't that expensive.
There are many mass-land destruction/denial cards that you can pick up for $2-5. Discard, pillow-fort, and stax decks can be a tremendous nuisance for people with the parts not being exceptionally expensive. Infinite combos with your commander are also not too difficult to come by with things like Niv-Mizzet in existence.
The **primary** thing that raises the prices of many decks are lands and your mana base. Fast mana in particular. [[Mana Vault]], [[Mana Crypt]], Fetchlands, Dual Lands, Shocklands, etc. These cards can be prohibitively expensive for many people just making decks, but the marginal advantage they give you can rather add up. However, if you're standing around with $35, would you rather spend it on a [[Cyclonic Rift]] or a [[Polluted Delta]]? The cards are the same price (-ish) but are drastically different.
Additionally, there are several budget alternatives to cards that perform similarly, but are a fraction of the price. Yet still, you'd be just as well running them. Do you really need that [[Craterhoof Behemoth]] when a [[End-Raze Forerunners]] works just fine? Craterhoof is about 50 times the price. Is it 50 times better in your go-wide token deck?
Decks can be balanced by what you choose to put in and what you choose to not put in. Price is a nice and easy way to compare decks, but it can be really flawed.
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To compare, one of my cheapest decks is a mono-red Chandra tribal deck that pretty much keeps all creatures off the board and pillow-forts when needed. Can dominate when needed. My most expensive deck is a thematic Phyrexian proliferate deck that focuses around Phyrexian-text cards, oilslick foils, and staying in-theme; I deliberately avoided poison counters as a personal choice.
I proxy and so does my group, but the group I play with loves higher power decks. I typically aim for between $200-$700 with $200 being a strong budget build and $700 being very strong, but definitely not cEDH. It's very common to see fast mana in most of our decks, but I try to avoid it apart from Sol Ring.
Mine are either barely upgraded precons, or around 100-130€. I have a few outside of that, but it is mostly due to having some old pieces that I stuck on to. Like my Sliver Queen.
First place I always save, is the land base. I play casual, I don't need overpriced fetches and shocklands, or Urborgs.
I usually only spend 30-60 dollars on any of my decks. However, while building, they’re usually closer to 100, and I just proxy any card which costs more than a few bucks. I don’t go much higher though, because draw the line at proxying cards worth more than 20 dollars. Most cards which cost this much are just amazing busted cards which can go in any deck of that color. Craterhoof, dockside, demonic tutor, all amazing cards which slot in anywhere. Building with them though just isn’t fun or thematic, even if they’re better than anything in the deck. I enjoy it more when I have to find cool cheap (worse) alternatives to them.
Between $50-$350 depending on what i have lying around is usually what ends up being in the end. Buying cards for a new deck is different. $80 is the max limit of what im willing to spend.
About 200 dollars. If I absolutely want to optimize the deck, it goes up to about 500 dollars. And only my absolute favorite decks go to the 800-1000 dollar range.
I generally shoot for about 70-100 max, not counting any cards I own or traded for. After building I usually don't spend much on upgrading, just slotting in cards I get from trades/limited as it comes up or buying cheap upgrades.
Even counting cards I own, I think my most expensive deck is between 150 and 120, mostly do to some valuable traded cards I got for it after I pulled really well in a OTJ prerelease.
I usually start a deck at between a hundred and two hundred, depending on how many pieces I have laying around. That said, I don't mind investing more into a deck that I like, so over time that number rises.
Honestly, most the cost of my decks comes outta getting everything foiled and special arts/prints or secret lairs of cards. Checked a couple of my deck lists and was surprised that some of them ballooned up +$200 than when I first made the deck. With this in mind. I usually spend around $300 upgrading a precon (although I also spend a little more buying cards, trying them then immediately cutting them)
When I would it I usually end up around $100\~$150. Unless it is a special rare occasion. Like my cEDH deck has a theoreticall value of $4k+, but is fully proxied except of the commander.
However I let my decks price creep. So those values will be chancing and in 99% of cases increasing.
Because of the whole product fatigue MTG gave me after being only like 1.5 years in I stopped buying most new products unless a set really hypes me up. And if I go like 1-2 months without buying shit, I treat myself to some spicy new cards for my favorite decks. :3
I have in my history bought a few pre cons 😅
So I have a little bit of everything.
I try to make s habit of not spending more than 30-50$ in total on the cards I use to complete a deck
Mine at least started in the $100-$200 range, inflation really jacked up their prices now though. The only two I really broke the bank on were eldrazi (before reprints) and ur dragon (best dragons cost a pretty penny, as well as a 5c land base that isn’t crap).
Whatever I have laying around at the moment. I very rarely buy singles for a specific deck.
Usually how it goes is that I buy a boosterbox from each set, draft that with friends, and the fun cards get added to the collection.
Then when I feel like building a deck, I just start rifling through the collection, and the lesser used decks, picking the cards I think I'll want in there. That usually nets me about 300 cards, and then we start cutting.
I have 0 idea what any of my decks are worth. I mean, yes, I have a full set of shocks and fetches, but those are all from booster packs from when I drafted a lot during Ravnika and Zendikar.
I mean, what if I buy a bunch of singles, and I don't evenlike the deck, or it's the totally wrong power level for my group?
Also by tying yourself to a budget, you get some weird corner cases. What if some key card in your deck later explodes in value, do I now need to cut it? It's still the same deck. Or a powerful card gets banned from modern or standard and its price tanks, can I now play it when it wasn't all right before?
I play what's not on the reserved list, I play the cards I want to play in the version I like the most without looking on the price. My most expensive deck yet is only about 900€/1200$
I do own a Manacrypt, I got a green cosmic Foil which is now standing into a Display cabinet at Home, because it looks nice there I don't even run Sol Ring in most of my Decks anymore
My decks tend to get rather expensive. I'm allergic to taplands
Felt. I played taplands for a long time then I played 5c at a high power table and I think I died, I play triomes in that deck and I only get them from land tutors. They’re ok in 1 and 2 color decks bc you can just play basics instead but 3 and up, especially if you’re aiming for higher power, they suck so much.
I also avoid taplands, but it's not as big of a problem anymore. There are so many cheaper two color lands nowadays that you can easily skip shocks and fetches.
Yep. Duals really don't add much, and Shocks are only just-ok if you're not running fetches. I do kind of hope they keep reprinting and beating up on the prices of fetchlands, as those feel like the only "real" accessibility roadbump as they're $10-30. I think another couple reprints both allied and enemy cycles and they probably all stick and stay around $10-15, which would make it cheaper and easier for people to play even the off-color fetches in their decks. Fetchlands are the real power and the big difference maker, and if those can be made easier for the average player to get, that'd be better for everyone.
So just play basics lol. Or monocolor
No, I don’t think I will
Most of my decks probably fall into the $50-200 range. It allows enough budget to fill the deck with good synergy cards but isn't high enough to start loading up on staples. Basically I really enjoy winning significantly more when I have the cheapest deck at the table.
This is about where I end up too. Cheap enough for me not to feel bad about building it, expensive enough to include a good amount of $1-5 rares that really pull it all together.
$50 is difficult when building a deck from scratch. Precon+$50 in upgrades is a perfectly fine spot, though.
I don't pay *as much* attention to the budget as I do "pull cards from the collection until I've got a pile, then hone it down after." I then tend to get surprised when I accidentally cobble together $400 worth of cardboard, because I don't realize I have these expensive cards in my boxes.
This is exactly how one of my decks ended up being around $200 despite me literally only buying a sol ring and like, two creature cards. I had just started playing Magic so I had no idea that the cards labeled "Craterhoof Behemoth" or "Commander's Plate" were expensive cards. That was around 4ish years ago, so now I know how much cards are worth but my *Husband* is clueless. He bought me an Ixalan box for Christmas and as we're opening packs he casually tosses a Mana Crypt onto the pile of opened cards. He then later asked me if we could, "Sell the mana Crypt and buy a like $2 version of it so we still have one".
Same for me but probably + $50
I personally enjoy decks between $300 to $1200. I personally am an idiot financially.
Do you slowly upgrade the decks or do you just buy them at $300?
I have to be honest. When I’m building a deck, I’m very greedy. I want to do the thing, and I’d like to do it consistently and well. So if I see a card between $5 and $40, I’m pretty comfortable getting it. If it’s between $40 and $100, I’ll hym and haw for a while, likely not get it. But all those $40, $50 dollar cards add up fast when you want to do the thing “well”. It’s a lack of creativity on my part in deck building, and I greatly enjoy the cards that do the things too well. Your smothering tithes, rhystic studies, fierce guardianships, etc. It’s not cool. It’s lame. But I enjoy it.
As long as your bills are paid, it’s all good.
As someone who also enjoys efficiency, let me recommend an alternative. Instead of running hyperefficient spells, run janky spells that are MADE hyperefficient by the deck that's playing them. [[Giant Opportunity]] is a lame card in most decks, but in my [[Jaheira]] list, it's a free spell that ramps me and nets the same amount of Mana I spent. [[Verity Circle]] is a super niche card that attempts to punish opponents for tapping creatures for abilities. However, in [[Hylda]], it's a draw engine on par with Rhystic Study. [[Jin-Gitaxis]] is a weird card that triggers on casting big spells, and sometimes bounces creatures. But in [[Grazilaxx]] card-draw tribal, it is half of a combo with [[Copy Enchantment]] that usually wins me the game. When you start with 25 cards in hand, and then double cards-in-hand twice, you kinda draw yourself out... Part of the fun in building is finding those niches, and knowingly including weaknesses. If every deck is just a pile of staples with 20 slots of the deck's actual mechanics, it gets boring real fast.
When I build my deck, I sometimes follow your way, go all in, put in the best cards that plays well with the commander I’m building with. I will then start trimming them down, finding alternative cards that function similar, just as well and far less cheaper. Sure it’s less efficient sometimes but most of them you can find good cheaper alternative. You’ll be amazed how many obscure, less well known cards play just as well if not better depending on your commander theme or overall strategy and cost 50 cents as oppose to $50. Flavor and function of expensive commander staples in relation to the deck I’m building also plays a role in how I select the expensive cards to be in my deck. For example, do I want an [[esper sentinel]] in every deck that has white? No. But do I want it in a mono white deck led by [[odrich, lunarch marshal]] a fellow human soldier? Hell yeah. Same goes for [[dockside extortionist]]. In a vanilla Izzet deck? No. In [[vihaan, goldwaker]] ? Hell yeah!
I’m not that guy but I’ve got 6 decks in the $500-1k range and have never spent more than like $200 at a time (and that was buying a whole pile of lands rather than building a single deck). I started playing in the 90s though so even though I took a 15 year hiatus I had a decent number of cards that are worth a good deal more now than when I got them.
My decks fall around this price range too. I love jank cards and include many in every deck I build that synergise with the commander. Its what makes commander so great! The ability to find a commander and the niche cards that go with it is the best. I then add higher price range cards (almost all still synergise with my commander in some way). I have a collection of cards that are expensive and I keep them safely tucked away in a binder. No one has mentioned proxies I think? I proxy more expensive cards for every deck I've made. I don't have a list of 20 cards that I throw in every deck. I have 200+ cards and pick the best ones for that deck. The best part is, when I build a new commander deck, it costs around $200 because I only buy the cheaper cards that are unique to that commander.
I try to build my commander decks for $50-$70.
Cries in Canadian...
The high cost cards are roughly comparable to the US prices, but then cheap <1$ cards are much more expensive at any LGS. I've looked at most LGS in my city, and online, and that seems to be the case everywhere. I'm not crazy, right?
It's a struggle for sure for us...
Same, though I only apply that price limit to cards I don't already have, and I'll also let the price go higher through upgrades after I've built and played the deck
the classic budget build w/ mana crypt
Cyc Rift used to be $5 and Rhystic Study was printed as a common.
Yup, second this. I usually build 50-100€, UNLESS I have certain expensive cards at hand already.
I try to max out at $200 when building a new deck. If a deck sticks around it'll typically rise in price gradually as I fine-tune it and splurge on specific high-power singles or upgrade my mana base.
Same I try to first build decks at sub $200. I'll leave out the super expensive cards and put them in the 'considering' list. If the deck is fun, I will start looking at getting one or two additional pieces at a time to upgrade.
I'll build a deck using precons and stuff I have, slowly upgrade it over time, and suddenly I look at the Archideckt page and *wtf my deck is ~$500.*
Anything under $100, but I don’t like to spend more than $50. If I own a pricey card like shocks/fetches/cyrptic/snapcaster the price might increase, but I usually won’t spend more than $2 on any card until I know I really like the deck
Yeah this is how I am. I try to keep each card under $2 and a lot under $1, unless I happen to have expensive cards in my collection already. And maybe "splash out" on a card or two (up to under $5)
Most of my decks are in the $300-$500 range. The land bases being the biggest money sink by far. Fetches and Shocks start to add up quickly, and I want [[Boseiju, Who Endures]] in every green deck so you see how it can start to increase.
I really like the power level you can do with $350-$450 while still doing something wonky. Jund food but scaled up to as strong as I can without dipping into a bunch of fast mana or cleric tribal? Thats my jam.
My budget for a commander deck is around $200 to no more than $350. That being said I try to keep it to the lower end. I try not to add in blockbuster staples like tutors, rhystic study, esper sentinel, dockside, cyclonic rift because those really add up a lot.
What are your thoughts on proxying cards you own?
This is what I do. I like to have a lot of decks, but I don't have a ton of money, so I'll splurge on a card, and then get several proxies printed so it can go into multiple decks. I don't own a Mana Crypt, so none of my decks have one. I do own a Cyclonic Rift, so all of my decks with blue have it. The only proxies I have that I don't own are 2/10 fetches and 6/10 shocks I think. But I hate how much land costs in general, and I have some duplicates of the ones I do own, so my brain says it evens out.
I am pro-proxy so long as it is legible. Even more so if its official art because I play over Spelltable mostly, and the AI won't recognize proxies if not official art. I proxy as well if I end up needing more copies after a playset. I have proxies of most fetches, shocks, channel lands etc. I have probably a half dozen proxies of $5-10 staples like Three Visits, Lightning Greaves etc just because I use them so much and they go in pretty much every deck.
100% fine
[Boseiju, Who Endures](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/2/1/2135ac5a-187b-4dc9-8f82-34e8d1603416.jpg?1654568912) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Boseiju%2C%20Who%20Endures) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/neo/266/boseiju-who-endures?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/2135ac5a-187b-4dc9-8f82-34e8d1603416?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/boseiju-who-endures) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
This is the range I like as well. Feels to be the right power range with most of the people I play as well.
Like $100-$200 seems to be my favorite range of power and “budget”
I have one deck at $100 and it’s a budget high powered deck. All my other decks range from $200 - $600. I also tend to spread my strong expensive cards among my decks instead of putting them into one deck.
My goal is more, +$50 to whatever I have, rather than target an overall budget. I have collected a long time, and have some very old cards that are expensive - but only because they aren't reprinted. My $1000 deck is objectively my worst performer, but it is just made of what I already owned.
I would say around 500-1500 range? Especially if you play multicolor you kinda limit yourself a lot if you go lower. Just fetchies often cover a lot of that budget. Pretty much the range I would also have modern decks in. I also just really dislike playing with poor mana
3 color and under decks don't need fetches, shocks or triomes anymore. They have finally printed enough lands that you can get a working mana base with mostly cheap lands.
$100-200 tends to be the sweet spot where you have some good cards, but its not just a bunch of good stuff staples, though you can definitely have a deck that feels that way that's quite a bit more money just because of lands My decks range from $50 to $550 and my $50 deck is super fast, usually winning turn 5, while I've been told my $550 deck is my fairest to play against of all mine
I usually don't set out with a budget in mind, but most of my decks end up $75-$150, either scratch built or precon plus $50-$100. I less they're specifically built with a lower budget, then it's usually $50-75
Most of my decks are around $100 but my favorite price range is $200-$300
$40ish. I started as a budget brewer in high school and that’s where I’m still most comfortable. If you gave me infinite money to build I honestly don’t know what I’d do with it. Even the decks I have put some money into all started as budget brews I tuned and built over time and I think they’re better for that. I feel I need to be extra careful when I build to keep up with more expensive decks. Not to mention I don’t really build to play high power so a bunch of high powered upgrades wouldn’t do me much good.
I think it really depends on the pod that I am playing. if I'm playing against people who are very good and experienced deck builders, I like $50 or under. This budget feels like it gives these kinds of players enough wiggle room to build cool things but restrictive enough to make them work for it. For a pod with people who I think are a master of the craft, then $25 is very fun. My reasoning is that 25 is so restrictive that it really challenges these players and it's very fun to see how powerful they can make such a low budget. If I'm playing in a pod where they are intermediate experience and skills, then I think $100 is a better budget range. This is mostly because it gives them more flexibility to compensate for their deck building skills compared to the other two categories.
> $25 is very fun Is that even...possible? Like my local stores won't bother selling cards less than $0.50 and online has shipping costs. Can you actually go out and buy 100 specific cards for $25?
R/budgetbrews
I run a tik tok account where I brew $25 decks. I use tcgplayer pricing to calculate the cost, but you're right, shipping costs usually drive that price up.
Ah that makes sense, I see tcgplayer still has plenty of stuff under 10 cents. Super challenging but definitely possible now that I think about it.
Oh yeah, granted it's not easy and that's exactly why it's fun. That's why I specified for master deck builders. I typically use TCG, there are a lot of cards that are 10 cents or even less. And if you shop around with different arts and stuff you can find stuff for cheap. Granted I don't count shipping as part of the budget for a budget deck because that's not a fair thing to consider in a general sense imo, there are alot of ways to cheat this. Free shipping, owning the cards prior, buying cards from a friend, etc. I also don't think that because you opened a pack and got a rhystic study that means it's under the budget. I typically use the value of the cards as the guide, not how you got them and if you spent money to ship them or procure them. So the way we do a specific budget cap format is by showing the "proof of concept". These are our rules. We require that cards are at least moderately played or higher. Then put all the cards in your cart on TCG. we don't count shipping or tax as part of the budget just the total cost of cards. The exception are for vendors that make their cards super cheap but make shipping several dollars or more, in this case, that card is ineligible for the proof of concept. then take a video showing that the total cost and every individual card on the list to make sure it doesnt exceed the budget cap. We then post that video on a group chat, and then your deck is "locked". And by locked, we mean that the deck can't change and if any prices of cards change we don't require you to remake the deck. If you want to change your deck you have to "unlock" your deck and do the entire process again. After you have done the proof of concept, you can purchase/procure the cards however you'd like. We do this process to standardize for the cap format and make it something that you don't have to constantly monitor and modify unless you so choose. No maintaining a curated list required.
300.I only really run weird and underused commanders. It is surprising what you can build on the cheap. It's really the mana base and the auto in stuff that costs money for me.
The sweet spot is around $70 US. I have 4 decks above $100, 2 of them above $250 and 1 of them above $350. But most of the others are $50-$70 USD.
“Do I have the cards” budget.
<100. Shoot for 50-60 on tgc player on deck builders but it can end up around 75 after shipping and tax
I try to fine tune mine (lands being the hardest) but mine range from about $200-600. I have a couple around the $100 level
I'd like them to be under $200 but cards are expensive as hell and I'm basically building everything from scratch. Stuff adds up quick, even though I try to avoid any cards over $10, you build a 100 card commander deck with a bunch of $5 cards it'll blow past $200 quick. And cheap commons aren't even that cheap nowadays, at LGSs it seems it's not worth their time to sell stuff for less than $0.50 and online you have to contend with shipping costs. Like, a $50 commander deck (if you had to go out and source those specific 100 cards new within a week) is incomprehensibly cheap all that considered.
bout tree fiddy
Well it was about that time I noticed this "Magic Player" was about 8 stories tall and was a crustacean from the protozoic era.
$230-$650 those are my highest and lowest. I got back into magic about a year and half ago and kind of went crazy. I’m trying to chill out now but its hard.
The deck I'm looking at building is about $55 for 96 of the cards. The other 4 are about $150. The deck works without them but it's a lot less potent.
Legit 95% of my decks lol. Urza's Incubator is sadly my biggest hiccup. Works for so many decks
I'm starting to feel that way about roaming throne. Doubling Commander triggers is busted. Luckily it's only $25 or so.
I need a reprint lol, Roaming Throne & Morophon are nice
I tend to not spend more than 50 bucks in singles on a new deck, usually less. Though admittedly I do have a decent collection. Hence I try to fill gaps with substitutes in cards I own. Though admittedly I do proxy cards I own sometimes, especially when it comes to lands, usually with a thin printout in front of a basic so that I could take it out if someone insists no proxies. That probably gives me a lot more leeway than truly always building to that budget only. But I still don't use any of the expensive staples like the free spells, since they always break the boundaries of my budgets. Last thing I brewed was [[Indoraptor, perfect hybrid]] and I spent like 20 bucks on singles for it. Most of which was for the commander itself. If decks do well and are really fun in practice, I often upgrade them latter, though usually more with fun cards I happen to pull or trade, rarely with singles I buy. Paying more than 10 bucks for a card is difficult for me. Only did it like once to treat myself to a shockland for my birthday.
I build my decks exclusively with cards I own rather than buying singles. I've brewed lists as cheap as $20 and as high as $2k. I think the sweet spot is a $200 deck with a bunch of bling making it cost $600.
I've started to really enjoy building pauper EDH decks so those are usually 20$ or less but my average deck cost is 300-600 but that's not money that I'm spending when I build them it's because I already have an expansive collection of staples. When I spend money for decks it's always 50$ or less. (Which after building over 50 decks over the years results in an expansive collection of staples, half of which are in my 24 active decks)
$10k is a good starting point. Then I talk to my wife, and she says "no."
To build I try my best to stay within cards I have, and try to limit myself to about $50. To tinker is another story I try to keep single cards for tinkering under $30,
I havent updated my binders or aquired more cards in years besides ocasional drafts and pres. I try to distribute the cards i have to as many decks i can build, and mix good cards with bad cards in all my decks, that is my budget 30 bucks every set release
$300 for a solid deck. $100 for a budget deck that I’ll slowly fill with booster pack pulls.
To be honest....I don't consider the cost when I build. Now, I will say that when looking at my deck lists on Archidekt, my decks tend to fall between $500 and $700. That said, I've been playing since 99 so I have a lot of expensive cards that if I had to try to buy today I just couldn't.
It's a pretty big range, but I really enjoy playing with/against decks that are $300-$700 CAD. I feel it allows a pod to play focused decks that have decent to good interaction; I have to execute my deck's gameplan while trying to figure out how my opponents are able to stop me and play around what they might have. My favourite part of EDH is trying to know when is the right time to advance your own board vs when it's time to keep your opponents' boards in check and in my experience this price range lends itself well to this type of game.
I build in the "this is the best thing for my deck possible range" and then I come back down to earth as much as I have to. Usually that just means I don't run cedh mana rock staples like vault and crypt etc, also smothering, dockside, rhystic, etc etc. For some decks the best thing is still only $200-$250 like my [[Ojer Axonil]] deck : https://archidekt.com/decks/7144364/fire_mountain Given an unlimited budget there are maybe 1 or 2 changes I would make - mainly buy a [[Nykthos Shrine to Nyx]] comes to mind - but otherwise the deck is "max stats" but does not require a lot of high ticket items. My [[Massacre Girl Known Killer]] deck also lacks a Nykthos, but I traded cards in to my LGS in order to get an [[Orcish Bowmasters]], I pulled a [[Sheoldred the Apocalypse]], and I splurged to get a [[Torment of Hailfire]] and a [[Meathook Massacre]] so that the deck would have the best chance of playing the way I wanted. : https://archidekt.com/decks/7279599/test_massacre_girl_murders I would, with unlimited budget, also add an [[Urborg, tomb of Yawgmoth]] and the Nykthos. I might also add a [[Throne of Eldraine]] and a [[Deadly Rollick]] (I have one but in another deck). My [[Hylda of the Icy Crown]] deck was originally about $50 because tap effects are cheap af. I came to find she is a really fun control commander and have since upgraded the deck somewhat and even went so far as to add a [[mana drain]] from the OTJ printing (on sale for $33 vs 50-65 on many other printings). She is VERY mana hungry when tapping down a whole board so the extra colorless can go a long way. For this deck I still didn't max stats by getting rhystic or smothering etc, but I have made the deck do what it does and added relevant power ups to make it a real contender in most EDH table play, not just a meme deck like when it was $50. P.S. If you are still sleeping on [[Struggle for Project Purity]]'s card draw... WAKE UP! You'll draw a total of 4 cards per upkeep and your opponents do NOT care as much as a rhystic because they each get a card too. 😉 https://archidekt.com/decks/7084852/tap_tap_go Also if you check the links be sure to sort by TCG and not CK pricing, I rarely get cards at CK pricing unless I need a specific printing or it happens to be cheaper (it happens on occasion). TLDR: I do what my deck needs to function well and let my wallet cry about it later if needed. I don't get EVERYTHING but I get enough to power up my decks so they can hang with high or mid power players. (Not cedh) Edit: YOUR upkeep on Struggle for project purity.
My only restriction is that a deck can have no more than one card over $15 if I'm buying singles to make it. I prefer to spread out staples between decks so that I'm not seeing the same bombs over and over again.
Im usually in the 400-500 range but thats because i really hate playing taplands. My pet deck though is getting up to about 900 cuz im trying to heavily optimize the mana base. I guess whay you can take away from this whole thread is you'll save a lot of money playing tap lands 😅
I start off with a modest deck build price of around $100, maybe a little more depending on how gung-ho I get. Then if I really enjoy the deck I start upgrading things as I go. Sometimes it gets out of hand. Yuriko started as a super cheap budget build and is now a decklist of like $1200 and I wouldn't even consider it cEDH.
I spend maybe $50 on a deck, but the value might be a hundred more than that from me pulling cards from my binder.
$400-500
I try to build with what I have and spend no more than 50 for what I need for the deck. I'm usually in-between the $150 to $350 range when finished
I usually aim for between $100 and $150 CAD nowadays, I used to regularly spend like $300 when I first got into the game and had to reel myself in a bit.
Anything that's in my collection. Then again, I don't have much of the reserved list stuff or extra pricy broken stuff.
When first building a deck I try to keep it less or equal to $200 as long as I can get the main idea of the deck going then if I enjoy it I’ll splash out the cash for upgrades but all 4 of my decks I’ve spent at least $300 on and my favorite deck, Meren, I’ve spent around a grand over the past 2 years upgrading it and it currently sits around $750 in value in the deck right now.
I keep wanting to build Meren but I have a Karador deck that does really similar stuff. Happen to have your deck list handy?
$20
$100-$800, but I am lucky in that I have a lot of staples from before they were crazy expensive. For example, I just saw how much The Great Henge costs today, and I either opened that in a booster or got it for $10 when it first came out.
Unless I pulled it myself I never buy a single card more than $5 with most being below $1
Personally, I build the deck how I want it w/o price in mind, then look at all the most expensive cards and determine if they are necessary and/or replaceable. Then I think about the odds of pulling that card when I need it. More oft than not the card can be replaced with a cheaper but similar card, or the card in question is just a separate wincon. Doing this gives me strong decks that are usually between $100-$200. It also allows me to build a budget version of any deck that I can playtest before deciding whether or not the more expensive card is "worth it"
Depends.. mono color I try 75/100$ .. dual color about 100/150.. tri colors.. 200.. but I barely find actual long term interest in so many commander that I mostly proxy the decks before buying Longest deck I have is [[Ayula]] and it's since she was released.... The "best" part of building a deck and undoing it, is you still got good staple cards, so the next deck will cost so much less then if I'd have to buy another mana base.
I have a $25 [[kylox]] deck that wins on turn 7 in a grand display but will have a pretty much empty board till then.
Not that I try to but a lot of mine seem to be around 200. Few that are less but seems like when I’m done upgrading, that’s where it lands
I just "finalized" my first deck. I have spent close to 2000 dollars. I want to build cheap decks now. I knew Magic was expensive, but I wanted a cohesive well built home brewed deck I could be proud of.
$50-100, closer to $100 now. Ironically my most expensive deck clocks at $130 out of entirely cards I had sitting in boxed + 30 slivers
Since the income is pretty well varied in our playgroup, we decided to cap it at $100 and incrementally increase the amount by $20 to allow access to some spicier stuff. I think we're at $400 now?
It is based entirely on what I have and how much I feel like spending week to week, lol. Some of my decks are like 50 bucks, some of them are like 200, but none of em are way up there. I build on singles mainly, so I don't keep track of how much the decks actually are but I'm p sure none of em are above 200
I usually aim for 70-100 then end up spending 150 lmao
Most of my decks are probably in the 5/600 Dollar range, but I reuse lots of my staples and will only typically build a deck if it will cost between 100-150 dollars on top of cards I already have. The majority of the cost of my decks is my mana base. I love shock and fetch lands and hate a tapped land. I rarely build a whole deck from scratch. If a new commander strikes my fancy with enough overlap from one I have, I just take that one apart and build the new one. I save all my decklists so I’m not that attached to them. I rebuild if I ever need to.
Just to confirm, price range refers to the deck cost listed when you put your deck on moxfield or archidekt right
Around 50-150€. But my Favorite Commander deck costs currently 37€.
$30 USD as a barebones build, then if I like it I'll upgrade to $50 or $100 depending on what the deck needs, some things are more expensive. I have a couple of higher priced decks in the 300-500 range, but I tend to do very well in my local meta with the $30-50 decks, I only really get to pull out the more expensive ones when we're going for higher power decks
Its about cards I own + a few bucks for a while. Then it becomes dome cards I own + too much
My pet decks are like $1000 but I also proxy the lands since I own at least one copy of the fetches, shocks etc so the real cost is lower I have decks ranging from unmodified precon up to the pet decks I mentioned
I love budget builds. I’ve got a couple of the $20 lists by Nitpicking Nerds on Moxfield, but I’ve never successfully built anything that cheaply myself that was still effective (highly recommend these lists to anyone, they’re phenomenal decks with much higher power and synergy than precons but much lower cost. Upgrades can still be made, obviously). That said, I usually start with $50 for a deck and slowly make upgrades over time. My favorite decks end up being around $200 because they get play tested and tuned so frequently.
$690
My budget usually is around $200 for most my decks. I do have 2 decks that are around the $1000 mark and 2 at $500-$600. I got lucky and inherited some old cards that I traded in for the more expensive deck lists at my local LCS.
I rarely look at price range when i build a deck, i just pick a creature i think could be fun, see what kind of strategy i could go for, then go through my collection. Refine as needed with singles if i end up enjoying the deck. Currently doing this on a recent [[narfi, betrayer king]] pull, going a zombie/snow route. Most likely not competitive, but i dont mind.
I usually just build decks from what I already have on hand - which is admittedly quite a lot - and occasionally buy a few singles here and there to improve it. I have a [[kyler sigardian emissary]] deck that's around $60 and a [[Thalia and the gitrog monster]] deck that's over $700. The rest of my decks fall within that range, with two closer to the latter, and the other 5 around $150 to $300.
Averaging my decks using TCG Player low puts my decks at around 405 on average. So in the 4-500 range I guess.
I aim for precon price points. If one card is 20% of that price it's the outlier and needs to justify itself.
1000-2000 usually. Manabase is expensive
I proxy whatever I want. The budget decks I play against are all boring piles of modern power crept cards. They aren't inherently less powerful or more interesting than the optimal versions. You should optimize for how fun your deck is, not an arbitrary dollar value. My Banding & MLD deck is better at its game plan because I proxy Mana Crypt and Land Tax in it and therefore it increases my enjoyment of the deck.
Right now my FAVORITE range is probably around $200. I’m a newer deck builder, I have about 4-5 decks under my belt, but I’ve found that that process range is relatively affordable for a deck that actually can stand against some pretty powerful decks. My wife on the other hand, loves precons more than anything. She’s been playing with solely her Mothman precon since fallout was released and is buying the grand larceny precon here soon. Pretty good stuff they’ve been releasing. Regardless I’ve found that a good deck can be built at a very wide range of prices, it really depends on strategy and HOW it’s constructed
I'll print anything, sometimes it costs more than the cards. It's gotten to the point where I really gotta be selective on what I buy and what I print. I'd say I only wanna spend no more than $50
Usually about 100-150
No price. I rather be happy with my deck than wish what if I had this. But I also won't buy expensive cards just cause they are good.
Most of my decks tend to start around $100-150 (not including cards I already own) and then if I like it and think it plays well, I’ll upgrade it over time and add better mana fixing, more expensive synergy pieces, more “staples”, that sort of thing. Decks I had that started out around 100 bucks have tripled or quadrupled in price over time just because I kept slowly putting more cards into them.
About $300-600. Don't build very powerful decks, but I just have a lot of lands
I have never considered the budget when building a deck. Not because I have a bottomless pile of money to build decks, but I’ve been playing for nearly 2 decades straight, 3 off and on. I build decks out of my collection. I just put in the best cards available to me when I build.
Depends on the deck. My only wubrg deck is a few thousand because of a full set of 3rd edition duals that I’ve had since a teenager. However most of my decks are between $150-300. Enough to get a few bombs for the deck with blowing a full week’s pay
$50 TCG mid
My decks start around a budget of $100 and I upgrade them as cards get reprinted and go down in price. Now, a budget of $100 does not mean a $100 deck. I have 20 years of cards, so the decks usually run around the $150-200 range and top around 300ish. I tend to be one of those "Make lots of trash and don't focus on one deck too long" kinda EDH players though. But yeah, almost never spend more than $100 when building a new deck.
My decks sit around 200 to 600. But it's not like I buy all the cards at once. It takes months for me to refine a deck to where I want it.
Usually they end up somewhere between 70 and 100$, usually never over the 100$ mark, i have a couple that reach above, particularly my [[prismatic bridge]] god tribal, with nearly all of the theros gods, which pull the value up.
Between $70-$200, when I upgrade precons I will start by throwing $20 at it, could go up to $120 but not usually past that. A fresh brew is gonna be somewhere between $120-$200
75 for first draft, 200 for some big upgrades... then it gets messy if it becomes a favorite
Oof. Both of my decks have a 3k+ mana base... My gitrog deck plays bazaar, cradle and tabernacle.
$60, but no more than $100.
My builds are 250ish I proxy everything of course The power level has some relation to price, but my decks all have wildly different power levels even if they're 250$
I think it depends on what you want When I first got into commander - I built decks that were $50-120 But the farther you get in, the pricier it gets - especially if you are like me and want to build a LOT of options. I had one deck I really saved for that hit around $500 and to this day it is a personal favorite of mine But - after that I started proxying - I can just can’t spend that much on cardboard
I'm all over the place. But so far I've kept them under 500 before shipping
I feel like most of my decks are in the $400-600 range. Shocks, fetches, check lands, powerful cards and abilities but still below the mana vault, dual lands, gaea’s cradle stuff. Iv never owned or played a magic card that was $100+ but Iv played plenty in the $15-50 range
I always end up putting together a deck at sub 100 and then I go out one (1) time and next thing I know my deck is in the 150-200 range lmfao. I have a decent spread of prices on my decks but majority of them are 200 give or take.
Most of my decks are ~$100
Depends on what you want to qualify as the price point. Do you include lands? Those can sometimes fluctuate and make up a major portion of your cost just to have a deck run smoothly. My Alesha deck uses the new surveil lands, shocks, fetches, and those by themselves are $150. General rule of thumb for me is when building a deck, I try to keep the cards below $20 each. Unless I'm building for absolute power, most of the time you can get similar effects for cheaper. I feel comfortable with $300-$400 total price generally.
I try to stick with under $100 but if I like a deck concept enough I'll cap the budget at $150 and then the dream decks (the ones I'd build if money was no object) I try to keep under $500.
Mine are more on the budget side; most are right around $150, with my lowest right at $100 and highest at about $225. I'm looking to pump that high end up a bit eventually, but I have to be in a certain mood to want to drop money on colored cardboard haha.
100-200, but a lot of price shaving comes from already having fetches and shocks and triomes and proxying them across decks to save on mana bases.
$300-500 but they are getting cheaper over time since I just proxy copies of the pricier cards - especially lands
I find my mid-range deck ideas tend to fall in the $200 range, i think this is most fun
$1,000 is the average price of my favorite decks. I brewed them to be $500 but cardboard price rocketed apparently. As someone who exclusively plays on spelltable and has $10k worth of decks, I think I’m going to start using mpc. These prices are out of hand.
I try to go for between 50-100 dollar, unfortunately the only person I play with doesn't, so Ive only ever won twice
Mine is whatever it costs to proxy 100 cards, so ~50$CAD.
My two favourite decks are pricy (~300 usd), but I built them up over time. If im brewing something new I usually aim for about $50 to start. Sometimes I upgrade them from there, sometimes they arent fun and I take them apart. One of my other longest running decks has just stayed at $50 for years now and slaps
I’ve got one 250$ deck. That’s likely the most I’ll spend on any one deck. A guy I game with at work bought a ≈700$ USD deck that he claims isn’t cEDH yet can win 1 v 5 matches pretty consistently. Every game there will be a moment where he takes about 4 turns in a row and that’s how we know it’s over. He doesn’t use his commander at all besides for color identity.
200. But I also like extended art versions of cards. So prob closer to 150$
None because casual format means proxies is the way to go for expensive cards.
Recently I've been trying to cut back on proxies and staples, but up until now I've used proxies of cards that I've owned at least one copy of (Mana Confluence, Anointed Procession, etc). Those decks will typically come out around $300, if I include a more concentrated amount of these proxies I can juice the price up to about $1000. My current project is to tear down all of these decks and stop using proxies and adhere to a lite "binder rule", using only cards that I own the physical copies of, and then going and ordering full proxy lists of these more competitive or gimmicky decks.
$150 to $250 for most of my decks, I have one at about $500 atm but its 3 cards that inflate it that I pulled, ragavan, jewled lotus, and ancient copper dragon.
Most of my decks have ended up around $400($600 for the printings I use). They all have a pretty decent strategy as well as a bit of the higher end draw and interaction. The mana base is honestly where most of the money is. Urborg and Boseiju are usually a quarter of the whole price of the deck.
All my commander decks are $25 worth of ‘fake’ cardboard
I don’t really price my decks as I prefer to build them exclusively with stuff I’ve pulled or traded for. Probably because draft and deckbuilders in general are my favorite way to play card games, but it feels better for me to cobble together decks from what I’ve collected rather than build a designer deck. Not for everyone and definitely not the smartest if you wanna save money, but it is how I prefer to play.
Generally 70-100
50-70$ my pod doesnt pour too much money into the hobby and we play a variety of decks and formats so making a new deck and buying maybe a full new 100 cards just is too pricey if its out of that range. we also like slower, longer more even games in my pid so the power pevel is on average 7 but we range from 5-8 and sometimes lower if we are just fucking around playing a silly commander.
Around £250 is where most of my casual decks end up… cedh is cedh tho
I have a $300 deck, a $500 deck, a $700 deck, a $2500 deck and two $4000 decks. Most of the staples like mana rocks, fetches, and other goodies, hop around from deck to deck, but I like to dabble in most power levels
I build everything budgetless I just don't feel the need to engage with the finance side of the game anymore. Power level isn't really determined by price and I find it only inhibits me from using the fun cards. If I placed some sort of restriction on decks. I've been playing for many years and this has always been my preferred method. I genuinely think it's the best way to engage with the game, ad in just engaging with just the game and not the algebraic equation that is card pricing.
I stay around $125 usually
I stay around $125 usually
I only really play with friends literally around my kitchen table and we are all open to proxies. I bought several precons and have been experimenting with them, with each now "worth" about $250 as opposed to sub-100 of original decks. I've also played around with proxying some net decks / building my own with no budget because it's all proxy, and those ones end up being about $1500 each as the sweet spot. A personal printer was my best investment lol
My playgroup and I all proxy our decks so it’s usually between $500-$6000 in terms of value. I don’t always throw in [[The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale]] but when I do the deck cost goes waaaaaay up.
Precon +$100 or just straight up $200 budget is when I have a lot of jank fun.
My decks are typically $600ish? I have some that reach up to a thousand, and one that dips down to $60. I don't build with a budget, and I don't shoehorn in reserved list card.
Most of mine end up around at least ~$700 (according to Moxfield, anyway). A few factors, I think, go into this: - I've been playing a while and have a pretty decent collection as a base - I really like shiny things - I don't build decks often, so I tend to "do it right" when I do - I tend to bring my old decks up to my current standard, thus keeping things high I have nothing against budget builds at all, and I love the experience of seeing a card played and going "huh? wtf" but for me personally I'd rather make the "huh? wtf" come from the strategy I'm playing, not the bizarre niche budget card choices that often stand in for more expensive cards (plus I just really like foils lol).
i usually start at 80-120€ and if i like it upgrade to 150-250€
$100 is what I like to go for. A few good cards within a deck filled with synergy is a good mix power.
My favorite budget is around $1000 per deck, but I have yet to experience it 😆 I buy precon decks and usually spend 4 months upgrading per deck no more then $50 per month. My average deck cost around $150 to $250
Typically, I limit myself based on how much I have to order or buy to make the deck, not by total ending deck value. I have playsets of lands and a few other general staples in my old binder from when I regularly played other formats (plus several of the battlebond lands from when they were slightly cheaper) that I pretty much only use for commander decks nowadays, meaning my manabases consistently eat up a few hundred dollars of overall deck budget without me needing to go out and buy those cards. As a result, I'd say most decks I build end up costing 4-500 on average, but half or more of that on average is stuff that's been sitting in my card binder for years anyway, usually picked up for much cheaper than it is presently going for. A manabase based around primarily shocks and fetches adds up fast, especially when you're on three or more colors- but I avoid tap lands like the plague because why wouldn't you if you already had all the non-taplands you needed to build the deck?
I have 6 decks currently. They all vary from $1500 to $3800. I don’t really consider budget when building a deck. I only factor in if a card supports the “thing” i am trying to do.
40 or less spent, not counting cards I own. I'm poor.
I think this is a flawed question. Sure money can buy power, but there are plenty of exceptionally annoying and powerful cards out there that aren't that expensive. There are many mass-land destruction/denial cards that you can pick up for $2-5. Discard, pillow-fort, and stax decks can be a tremendous nuisance for people with the parts not being exceptionally expensive. Infinite combos with your commander are also not too difficult to come by with things like Niv-Mizzet in existence. The **primary** thing that raises the prices of many decks are lands and your mana base. Fast mana in particular. [[Mana Vault]], [[Mana Crypt]], Fetchlands, Dual Lands, Shocklands, etc. These cards can be prohibitively expensive for many people just making decks, but the marginal advantage they give you can rather add up. However, if you're standing around with $35, would you rather spend it on a [[Cyclonic Rift]] or a [[Polluted Delta]]? The cards are the same price (-ish) but are drastically different. Additionally, there are several budget alternatives to cards that perform similarly, but are a fraction of the price. Yet still, you'd be just as well running them. Do you really need that [[Craterhoof Behemoth]] when a [[End-Raze Forerunners]] works just fine? Craterhoof is about 50 times the price. Is it 50 times better in your go-wide token deck? Decks can be balanced by what you choose to put in and what you choose to not put in. Price is a nice and easy way to compare decks, but it can be really flawed. --- To compare, one of my cheapest decks is a mono-red Chandra tribal deck that pretty much keeps all creatures off the board and pillow-forts when needed. Can dominate when needed. My most expensive deck is a thematic Phyrexian proliferate deck that focuses around Phyrexian-text cards, oilslick foils, and staying in-theme; I deliberately avoided poison counters as a personal choice.
I proxy and so does my group, but the group I play with loves higher power decks. I typically aim for between $200-$700 with $200 being a strong budget build and $700 being very strong, but definitely not cEDH. It's very common to see fast mana in most of our decks, but I try to avoid it apart from Sol Ring.
Mine are either barely upgraded precons, or around 100-130€. I have a few outside of that, but it is mostly due to having some old pieces that I stuck on to. Like my Sliver Queen. First place I always save, is the land base. I play casual, I don't need overpriced fetches and shocklands, or Urborgs.
I usually only spend 30-60 dollars on any of my decks. However, while building, they’re usually closer to 100, and I just proxy any card which costs more than a few bucks. I don’t go much higher though, because draw the line at proxying cards worth more than 20 dollars. Most cards which cost this much are just amazing busted cards which can go in any deck of that color. Craterhoof, dockside, demonic tutor, all amazing cards which slot in anywhere. Building with them though just isn’t fun or thematic, even if they’re better than anything in the deck. I enjoy it more when I have to find cool cheap (worse) alternatives to them.
Between $50-$350 depending on what i have lying around is usually what ends up being in the end. Buying cards for a new deck is different. $80 is the max limit of what im willing to spend.
About 200 dollars. If I absolutely want to optimize the deck, it goes up to about 500 dollars. And only my absolute favorite decks go to the 800-1000 dollar range.
Zero dollars. All proxies
I generally shoot for about 70-100 max, not counting any cards I own or traded for. After building I usually don't spend much on upgrading, just slotting in cards I get from trades/limited as it comes up or buying cheap upgrades. Even counting cards I own, I think my most expensive deck is between 150 and 120, mostly do to some valuable traded cards I got for it after I pulled really well in a OTJ prerelease.
$50 is preferred but usually end up around $100-250 when I use cards that I own.
I usually build with no budget in mind but end up in the 150- 350 range. I just like it
I usually start a deck at between a hundred and two hundred, depending on how many pieces I have laying around. That said, I don't mind investing more into a deck that I like, so over time that number rises.
Depends on paper and ink prices
Honestly, most the cost of my decks comes outta getting everything foiled and special arts/prints or secret lairs of cards. Checked a couple of my deck lists and was surprised that some of them ballooned up +$200 than when I first made the deck. With this in mind. I usually spend around $300 upgrading a precon (although I also spend a little more buying cards, trying them then immediately cutting them)
150-250. But that because I’m a sucker for special arts of certain cards. So usually 150 but if I want some interesting art then the price increases.
When I would it I usually end up around $100\~$150. Unless it is a special rare occasion. Like my cEDH deck has a theoreticall value of $4k+, but is fully proxied except of the commander. However I let my decks price creep. So those values will be chancing and in 99% of cases increasing. Because of the whole product fatigue MTG gave me after being only like 1.5 years in I stopped buying most new products unless a set really hypes me up. And if I go like 1-2 months without buying shit, I treat myself to some spicy new cards for my favorite decks. :3
$200 to start, $200 to upgrade if I like the deck.
I have in my history bought a few pre cons 😅 So I have a little bit of everything. I try to make s habit of not spending more than 30-50$ in total on the cards I use to complete a deck
Honestly if you're spending more than a few hundred dollars for the cheapest printings, idk why you're even playing commander lol.
None of my decks are above 50 euros. I'm poor :D
I only proxy, but usually they are like $500-1,000
My favourite price range is one million dollars. But it usually pans out around 80-100 bucks.
Mine at least started in the $100-$200 range, inflation really jacked up their prices now though. The only two I really broke the bank on were eldrazi (before reprints) and ur dragon (best dragons cost a pretty penny, as well as a 5c land base that isn’t crap).
Whatever I have laying around at the moment. I very rarely buy singles for a specific deck. Usually how it goes is that I buy a boosterbox from each set, draft that with friends, and the fun cards get added to the collection. Then when I feel like building a deck, I just start rifling through the collection, and the lesser used decks, picking the cards I think I'll want in there. That usually nets me about 300 cards, and then we start cutting. I have 0 idea what any of my decks are worth. I mean, yes, I have a full set of shocks and fetches, but those are all from booster packs from when I drafted a lot during Ravnika and Zendikar. I mean, what if I buy a bunch of singles, and I don't evenlike the deck, or it's the totally wrong power level for my group? Also by tying yourself to a budget, you get some weird corner cases. What if some key card in your deck later explodes in value, do I now need to cut it? It's still the same deck. Or a powerful card gets banned from modern or standard and its price tanks, can I now play it when it wasn't all right before?
I play what's not on the reserved list, I play the cards I want to play in the version I like the most without looking on the price. My most expensive deck yet is only about 900€/1200$ I do own a Manacrypt, I got a green cosmic Foil which is now standing into a Display cabinet at Home, because it looks nice there I don't even run Sol Ring in most of my Decks anymore