MtG budget decks for War of the Spark

Chandra, Fire Artisan by Ryota-H

First time writing about Magic the Gathering on this blog! I have been playing Magic Arena a lot for the past few months and have been pleasantly surprised with how generous the game is. Unlike Shadowverse, it does not give you a bunch of things upfront, but it is very easy to make a strong deck quickly with the proper amount of planning. Being good at draft also helps a lot too.

The criteria for budget decks is different from paper Magic compared to Magic Arena. In paper, prices of cards are purely determined by supply and demand, as well as what decks are top tier in the various Constructed formats. So it is possible for weak mythics and rares to be low price, while even some commons and uncommons can have high prices. In Arena, every card of a certain rarity costs the same as the others due to the Wildcard system. So my standard for a budget deck in Magic Arena is one that minimizes the amount of rares and mythics.

However it is still important to be able to win, so I have trimmed down and made a list of the most competitive budget decks in the current War of the Spark meta. Given enough play time, each of these decks should be capable of reaching Platinum rank every season in the best-of-one Ranked queue.

Mono Red Aggro AKA Red Deck Wins

4 Lightning Strike (XLN) 149
4 Shock (M19) 156
4 Viashino Pyromancer (M19) 166
2 Risk Factor (GRN) 113
4 Runaway Steam-Kin (GRN) 115
4 Light Up the Stage (RNA) 107
2 Skewer the Critics (RNA) 115
20 Mountain (WAR) 261
4 Ghitu Lavarunner (DAR) 127
4 Goblin Chainwhirler (DAR) 129
4 Wizard’s Lightning (DAR) 152
4 Fanatical Firebrand (RIX) 101

This is by far the most popular deck in Magic Arena, and also quite possibly the strongest deck in the BO1 format. This is a very fast aggressive deck utilizing cheap, efficient creatures combined with a ton of burn spells to win games quickly. It is a fairly easy deck to play but a big part of the learning curve is determining when it is optimal to use burn spells to get rid of blockers vs using them for face damage.

The most notable card that will be lost in Rotation is Goblin Chainwhirler from Dominaria, who is a powerhouse of a 3 drop. Seeing as how aggressive low cost creatures and burn are part of Red’s color identity, some form of RDW will be viable in every single meta. So this is a great investment if you enjoy playing this type of deck.

If you have all of the NPE prebuilt decks unlocked, they should have already given you 2 Viashino Pyromancer, 4 Shocks, and 4 Lightning Strikes(from Primal Fury and Strength in Numbers combined). While it is not in the decklist shown, the 1 copy of Rekindling Phoenix(from Chaos and Mayhem) is a great inclusion if you are missing some of the top end cards.

There is some debate over what the correct late game card advantage engine is for this deck. Experimental Frenzy is the slowest one, but also has the highest power ceiling. It is capable of enabling some truly nutty plays and allows you to come back from games that would normally be unwinnable. However it is risky in this WAR meta because lots of decks are running Enchantment removal. Chandra, Fire Artisan is a new card from the set who is basically a ticking timebomb: she provides card advantage but discourages your opponent from attacking her, since the damage she takes is reflected back. However she is very weak to hard removal. Then there is Risk Factor, which is the most aggressive card here costing a whole 1 mana less than both Frenzy and Chandra. If you really have no wildcards left to spare you can try Flame of Keld as a budget replacement, but be aware that this card is generally inferior to the previous 3. I have went with Risk Factor in the decklist shown due to how much burn we are running, but honestly just pick whichever option suits your playstyle the best.

Mono Blue Tempo

3 Dive Down (XLN) 53
20 Island (DAR) 256
1 Essence Capture (RNA) 37
4 Pteramander (RNA) 47
2 Callous Dismissal (WAR) 44
4 Merfolk Trickster (DAR) 56
4 Opt (DAR) 60
4 Tempest Djinn (DAR) 68
4 Wizard’s Retort (DAR) 75
4 Curious Obsession (RIX) 35
2 Mist-Cloaked Herald (RIX) 43
4 Siren Stormtamer (XLN) 79
4 Spell Pierce (XLN) 81

This deck was extremely popular in the previous Ravnica Allegiance meta, at one point even considered the best deck in Standard. In War of the Spark, it has fallen off quite a bit due to cards like Teferi, Time Raveler and Blast Zone. But it is still a strong deck in the right hands. The playstyle of this deck involves playing a lot of evasive creatures(with unblockable or flying), enchanting them with Curious Obsession for a card advantage engine, and then protecting your creatures from enemy removal using counterspells. This is by far the most difficult deck to play out of all the ones listed here. However playing this deck forces you to master the fundamentals of the game, so I would say that this is the deck to play if you want to improve at Magic. In particular it teaches the importance of playing at Instant speed and the risk/reward assessment of tapping out vs leaving up mana for counters.

Unfortunately, almost this entire deck gets destroyed by Rotation. Tempo based blue decks are kind of an anomaly so it is very unlikely that some form of this deck will still exist after Rotation. However, Mono Blue Tempo is also the cheapest deck listed in this post by far with a grand total of only 4 rares(Tempest Djinn). 1 of those Djinns you get for free too, from the Arcane Inventions prebuilt. So it really is a small investment.

If you are running into a lot of aggro in your local meta, it can be worth replacing some of the low cost creatures with Surge Mare. The 5 health from the mare provides an amazing blocker in the early game.

Mono White Weenie

2 Adanto Vanguard (XLN) 1
4 Conclave Tribunal (GRN) 6
4 Venerated Loxodon (GRN) 30
2 Unbreakable Formation (RNA) 29
4 Law-Rune Enforcer (WAR) 20
4 Benalish Marshal (DAR) 6
20 Plains (WAR) 252
4 Dauntless Bodyguard (DAR) 14
4 History of Benalia (DAR) 21
4 Skymarcher Aspirant (RIX) 21
4 Snubhorn Sentry (RIX) 23
4 Legion’s Landing (XLN) 22

This is probably the 2nd or 3rd most popular deck in Magic Arena. This is an aggressive deck that floods the board with cheap, efficient creatures and then buffs them to win the game quickly. Fairly simple deck that does not have to worry about playing at Instant speed for the most part.

This is one of the most expensive decks in this post, with 4 Mythics(History of Benalia) and a sizeable number of rares. In addition, a lot of key cards are going away in the upcoming Rotation including History, Benalish Marshal, and Legion’s Landing. However good early game creatures and buffs are part of White’s color identity, so White Weenie is an eternal archetype that is playable in basically every meta. Some cards already have functional replacements, like Gideon Blackblade from the new set as another 3 mana powerhouse alongside Benalia and Marshal.

The decklist shown has 4 History of Benalias. Luckily you get one copy for free from the Auras of Majesty prebuilt. In addition if you have all of the NPE prebuilts unlocked, you should have 3 copies of Leonin Warleader, 1 Shalai, and 1 copy of Resplendent Angel. These are decent substitutions if you are missing some of the top end cards from the list shown above.

Mono Green Stompy

3 Blanchwood Armor (M19) 169
4 Vine Mare (M19) 207
4 Llanowar Elves (M19) 314
4 Kraul Harpooner (GRN) 136
4 Nullhide Ferox (GRN) 138
4 Pelt Collector (GRN) 141
4 Growth-Chamber Guardian (RNA) 128
22 Forest (RNA) 264
4 Ghalta, Primal Hunger (RIX) 130
4 Steel Leaf Champion (DAR) 182
3 Thrashing Brontodon (RIX) 148

This deck gets the name from its general playstyle of summoning a bunch of big creatures(some with Trample), and then just crushing the opponent with them.

In my opinion, not only is this the weakest deck in this post, it is also the most boring one. It is also the most expensive deck as well. This is an extremely one dimensional deck with basically zero interaction, as the gameplan is always just to curve out into big creatures and hope that your opponent cannot deal with them. However if you enjoy playing this type of deck for some reason, it can be a decent investment because ramp and big creatures are part of Greens color identity. So some form of green stompy will always be viable in every meta.

If you have all of the NPE decks unlocked, you should already have the full 4 copies of Llanowar Elves, 2 copies of Blanchwood Armor, and 1 copy of Ghalta from Forest’s Might. In addition if you were around for when the GameAwards promo code was still active, then you should have a 2nd copy of Ghalta. If you are running low on Wildcards, other free cards that you can use as substitutions include Carnage Tyrant(from Primal Fury) and Thorn Lieutenant(from Auras of Majesty).

Izzet Drakes

4 Chart a Course (XLN) 48
3 Dive Down (XLN) 53
4 Shock (M19) 156
3 Enigma Drake (M19) 216
4 Lava Coil (GRN) 108
1 Beacon Bolt (GRN) 154
4 Crackling Drake (GRN) 163
3 Discovery // Dispersal (GRN) 223
4 Steam Vents (GRN) 257
3 Pteramander (RNA) 47
8 Island (RNA) 261
5 Mountain (RNA) 263
3 Augur of Bolas (WAR) 41
4 Opt (DAR) 60
4 Sulfur Falls (DAR) 247
3 Spell Pierce (XLN) 81

The playstyle of Izzet Drakes can best be described with the phrase Protect the Queen. Every single drake in the deck starts off weak but can turn into a potential game ending threat. The deck plays a lot of sorceries and instants that draw cards, which also make the drakes stronger. The main goal is then to get some drakes on board and then protect them with 1 mana instants(Dive Down and Spell Pierce), and turn the corner into a win.

Seeing as how Izzet Drakes is 2 colors, this is an amazingly cheap deck. No mythics and the only rares are in the manabase. In addition, unlocking all of the NPE prebuilts gives you a fair number of the required cards. You get 1 Sulfur Falls, 4 Shocks, 3 Enigma Drakes, and 2 Chart a Course. If you do not have the full playsets of Sulfur Falls and Steam Vents, you can replace them with the taplands Izzet Guildgate and Highland Lake. But do be aware that it hits the consistency of the deck.

Izzet Drakes was fairly popular in the past 2 metas, but has unfortunately taken a hit in War of the Spark. The biggest reason is that this format contains lots of planewalkers, and the deck has a lot of trouble interacting with them. In addition Teferi, Time Raveler is seeing lots of play and that card single handedly shuts down this entire deck. Lava Coil is the best red removal available at 2 mana, but it is a completely dead card against Control decks and planeswalkers. So it can be worth replacing it with Lightning Strike if you see a lot of them in your local meta. Lightning Strike gives this deck extra reach and also allows us to snipe off planeswalkers after they use their minus ability.

Boros Feather Heroic

3 Lightning Strike (XLN) 149
4 Adanto Vanguard (XLN) 1
6 Mountain (RIX) 195
4 Shock (M19) 156
6 Plains (M19) 261
3 Gird for Battle (GRN) 12
2 Boros Guildgate (GRN) 243
4 Sacred Foundry (GRN) 254
4 Defiant Strike (WAR) 9
4 Dreadhorde Arcanist (WAR) 125
4 Feather, the Redeemed (WAR) 197
4 Tenth District Legionnaire (WAR) 222
4 Clifftop Retreat (DAR) 239
4 Reckless Rage (RIX) 110
4 Sheltering Light (XLN) 35

A new deck archetype pushed in War of the Spark, this is a somewhat aggressive deck that relies on Dreadhorde Arcanist and the namesake Feather to beat the opponent on board by constantly recurring pump and protection spells.

There are no mythics but quite a bit of rares in this deck, clocking in at a total of 16. However it is not actually that important to play creatures on curve with this deck, so you can kind of get by without the full playset of the rare lands. So substituting them with the taplands Boros Guildgate and Stone Quarry is acceptable.

If you have all of the NPE decks unlocked, you should already have a full playset of both the Shocks and Lightning Strikes. Adanto Vanguard is an amazing card against control but is a liability against aggro. So if you are seeing mostly aggro in your local meta, it can be worth substituting it for Burning Prophet. If you sign up for a free trial of Amazon Prime, you can unlock a free Boros Legion deck by linking your Amazon and Twitch accounts for Twitch Prime. Legion Warboss and Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice are excellent additions to this deck and can replace some of the pump spells.

Omen of the Ten was a mistake

Galmieux, Omen of Disdain by 77gl

I was inspired to write this post after seeing a lot of people talk about how bad and/or unfun the Altersphere meta was. Looking back over the cards from that expansion, it had a very reasonable power level and many cards had very interesting designs. So what happened? What should have been a great meta was ruined by the fact that Altersphere released right after Omen of the Ten, which in contrast was anything but a reasonable expansion. It has become increasingly clear to me recently that many of the problems from the Altersphere meta and even our current Steel Rebellion meta are caused by cards from Omen.

It kind of pains me to write this because Omen of the Ten is one of the best expansions ever from a flavor perspective. It was really awesome how it was built around the theme of the ten commandments, and how the male omens obey the commandments while the female omens disobey them. Or how the commandments translate to card effects and in-game mechanics. To my knowledge, it is also the first time that original characters were created for new cards, as the vast majority of cards before contained characters borrowed from Rage of Bahamut and other Cygames IPs. But even though the flavor was so amazing, Omen has overall steered the game in a negative direction. There are a number of issues with this expansion.

Powercreep

Let’s get the most obvious issue out of the way first. The power level of this expansion is ridiculous. In my opinion it is on the same level as the old powercreep trio of RoB/TotG/WD from 2017. Keep in mind the expansion that preceded Omen was Brigade of the Sky, and that was already considered a powercreep one. But Omen just turned it up to eleven. Many of the English language streamers noticed the unusually high power level of Omen during spoiler season, and attributed it to the fact that the 2018 World Grand Prix would be played in that expansion’s meta. I guess the logic was the power level was intentionally set high so that the WGP would be flashy and mostly feature the new cards.

While the power level of this expansion was ridiculous, not every class benefited equally. In particular, Dragoncraft was one class that was pushed extremely hard in Omen. Which brings me to the next point.

The Dragon problem

I have noticed that in card games that have a Legacy and Standard Rotation format, there is one thing that mostly happens when a new set comes out. There is almost always a huge power level difference between Rotation and Legacy, so the vast majority of new cards only end up seeing play in the Rotation format because they are not strong enough to compete with the power level of Legacy. And then occasionally you will see cards that see no play in Rotation, but end up becoming staples in the Legacy format due to the proper support from the larger cardpool. The Fairy Wisp generators like Aria and Flower of Fairies are the best examples of this: never taking off in Rotation, but being a perfect fit for Unlimited Roach Forest.

Very rarely do new cards become staples in both formats. When this happens, it is generally a sign that the new cards are broken since they can compete with the other broken cards from the past. This is pretty much what happened with the entire Disdain package from Dragon. Cerberus, Hound of Hades for Shadow is also guilty of this.

The Disdain package single handedly negated all of ramp’s inherent weaknesses and made Dragon(the most degenerate class in the game) Tier 1 in both Constructed formats for a very long time. Ramp is a very dangerous mechanic, and in other card games it comes with an opportunity cost: you are losing cards in hand and giving up early game tempo for a mana advantage later in the game. The Disdain package allows Dragon to ramp while drawing extra cards and maintaining board control.

Even without ramp, this expansion also made Dragon have the premiere aggro deck in Unlimited. Because for whatever reason, the slow ramp class gets to have broken early and mid game cards too. I have lost count of the amount of games where I am playing a slow Control or Combo deck against Aggro Dragon, and I notice that somehow the face deck has managed to draw more cards than me, while simultaneously taking the board, pressuring my life total, and removing my followers for less pp than I am spending to remove his. We know that the majority of the SV developers are Magic the Gathering players, and I would not be surprised at this point if they mostly main green. It feels like they just decided to remove all of green’s weaknesses and make it capable of doing everything. Does anyone else think it is crazy how even after one nerf, Galmieux is still an auto include in every Dragon deck in both formats?

Anyway out of all the classes, it is glaringly obvious that Dragon was pushed the hardest in this expansion. It obviously worked, since literally every single player in the Top 16 of 2018 World Grand Prix brought Dragon in their lineup. Dragon completely dominated the Omen and Altersphere Rotation metas, and is surprisingly not Tier 1 anymore in Steel Rebellion. But I think the class is mainly being held down by Blood, and if that class gets nerfed then we will just get a repeat of what happened in the last two metas.

Invocation

This was a new mechanic introduced from this expansion, and in my opinion it is inherently degenerate. Getting a tempo advantage from playing cost reduced(or free) followers from hand is one of the most frequently complained about things in this game. But there is something even more broken than that: playing cards for free out of your deck. This is pretty much what Invocation is. Anyone who has played Hearthstone during the time when Mean Streets of Gadgetzan was in Standard knows how broken Patches the Pirate is. In SV it requires a bit more work than just playing one pirate, but the general idea of pulling cards for free out of your deck without spending any resources is completely broken.

The effect that this mechanic had on Blood was particularly warping: in the entirety of Omen and Altersphere every single Blood deck in both formats was a Flauros deck. Simply put if the deck did not have Flauros it was not competitive. I suppose that it is kind of a miracle that Steel Rebellion managed to change that as we finally have competitive Blood decks that do not use Flauros(Machina Blood in Rotation and the return of Aggro Bats in Unlimited).

I think the only acceptable Invocation card is Prophetess of Creation, and that is primarily because 1)the Invocation requirements are so steep and take the entire game to hit and 2)she MUST be summoned through Invocation, and cannot be played normally from hand. But I would honestly not be surprised if Prophetess were to become oppressive in the future: all it would really take is for Rune to get a cost reduction 6pp card and something less awkward than Raio/Edict to use for the 7pp requirement.

Mjerrabaine

A very unique card kickstarting the Highlander archetype in SV. Unfortunately because of how powerful and swingy his leader effect is, the experience of playing as and against Mjerrabaine decks is awful. It feels like none of the decisions from either play matter, and the only thing that matters is whether or not Mjerrabaine is drawn on curve. When you fight against Highlander decks you also cannot play around anything since everything is a 1 of. Sometimes the Mjerrabaine player happens to play common constructed cards on curve and you don’t even realize that it’s a Mjerrabaine deck until it is too late. I would have actually preferred if his Fanfare effect was just Reno Jackson’s from Hearthstone, since healing is at such a premium in Shadowverse.

Forestcraft

Some people try to push the narrative that Forest is a long term underpowered class and hated by the developers. I am here to tell you that this is nonsense. In fact if you look back through Shadowverse’s history and see which class most frequently showed up in Tier 1, it would be Forest.

With that said.. this expansion would be the beginning of the end for Forest in Rotation. Forest was consistently Tier 1 in every Rotation meta since the format was introduced, and Omen of the Ten was the class’s downfall. A big reason is that Forest got one of the worst Omen themes next to Shadow. Izudia is a slow 10pp follower in a class that has a lot of trouble playing the long game, and his effect has absolutely no relation to the effects that his followers have. True to its name, Unkilling does not actually help you win the game: it either annoys the opponent or helps you not lose. The best Forest card in this expansion is Liza, who is a generic valuebomb creating a 10,500 vial barrier for playing the class since she is auto-include in both formats. The other best Forest card from Omen is Luxglaive Bayle. Does anyone actually like this card? Bayle is obviously strong, but cost reduction followers are one of the most hated types of cards in this game and I don’t think anyone was asking for more of them.

Forest would later become quite strong for a brief period of time in the last half of Altersphere, but it was only because of a buff to Greenglen Axeman and a key card(Lina and Lena) being withheld in the mini expansion. Thankfully Steel Rebellion has made Izudia Forest somewhat competitive(word being used very loosely), but it doesn’t change how disconnected the effect of the Omen is from his other Unkilling followers. You compare the theme of Unkilling to the theme of Disdain and it is crystal clear which class was pushed more.

Puppet Portal and Lishenna

Lishenna, Omen of Destruction was printed in this expansion, encouraging a slow control style of playing Puppets. While I am not a fan of Lishenna’s design due to her deck having very little in the way of board interaction, the real issue is that she was pushed at the expense of an old archetype. The release of Omen coincided with a double nerf on Nicholas, Stalwart Inventor and Vengeful Puppeteer Noah, which pretty much destroyed the aggressive version of Puppet Portal forever. It is true that Puppets was too good during the Brigade of the Sky meta, but Nicholas was really the only card that needed to get changed. The old deck’s playstyle was also a lot more interactive than Lishenna’s.

The conspiracy theorist in me believes that old Puppet Portal was nerfed so harshly because Cygames wanted players to use the new Omen cards. I am glad they created a new archetype in this expansion for Portal but it did not have to devour an old one in the process.

Odds and ends

I know that Rune is a complete joke in both Constructed formats right now, but this is also the expansion that gave us Truth’s Adjudication and Anne, Mysterian Prodigy.

I like the Usurpation theme a lot, but it does bother me that Octrice is a Last Wards hate card… who also happens to do a ton of things at once. Even if her fanfare whiffs, she has full stats, an evolution effect that generates more cards, and good late game scaling due to her Enhance effect.

Not everything that came out of Omen was a mistake. Orichalcum Earth Rune with Founder from the Altersphere meta is one of my all time favoite decks, and it would not exist without Owen and Orichalcum Golem, two cards that came from this expansion. But overall I feel that OotT has worsened the game.