I don't know if I want to make this a series but I feel as if this is an issue that should at least be addressed once. The issue in question is money.
Commander for all its fun is an expensive hobby. Many of the cards that are staples in decks are staples because they are good! Anyone with even a semblance of economic knowledge knows that when a product is in demand the price will rise. Especially if the supply is low which can be the case for many of the older (and newer) EDH bombs.
I know I personally have invested well over $400 overtime in my EDH decks. Many of those purchases I will never have to make again (it is a singleton format thankfully) but at some point a commander needs to take the monetary leap of faith.
Now for those of you that are not ready to make that leap yet there are solutions! Thankfully Commander is a fairly slow format. The only time a 4 or 8 man game ends on turn 5 is when someone is being on the douchier side of things. Since these games go on for much longer it is easier to run subpar cards and still come out on top.
It is going to be true that your deck will likely be clunkier than you intended it to be but you get what you pay for.
The purpose of this article is to take some of the pricier buys that a Commander is likely to make and giving a couple of cheaper substitutes that could fill the place of the more expensive card well. I will cover a number of lands which are often the most expensive part and if I recieve positive feedback I will try posting other budget articles. Maybe even a budget deck. Something under $50?
Lets get started...
Fetchlands = Evolving Wilds/Terramorphic Expanse/Panoramas
Landbases are going to be the theme of this article as they are often the most expensive part of a deck. Every single deck needs a manabase. This means that the popularity of your color essentially determines how much you have to pay for lands (good luck blue). Fetch lands are often on another level however because they can be run in any deck even if one of the colors it fetches for is not in the deck because it does not explicitly show the mana symbols of the colors it fetches only naming the basic land type. These are soem of the few cards that actually sneak under Commander's color rules. As a rule of thumb the Zendikar fetches (Misty Rainforest, Arid Mesa, Scalding Tarn, Verdant Catacomb, Marsh Flats) are around $20 while the Onslaught fetches (Polluted Delta, Flooded Strand, Windswept Heath, Bloodstained Mire, Wooded Foothills) are all around $40. That can be a big dent in a 2 color deck with 5 color decks hitting double digit price tags on these lands alone.
Thankfully there are replacements though in the form of Evolving Wilds, Terramorphic Expanse, and the Panorama cycle of lands (Esper Panorama, Naya Panorama, Jund Panorama, Bant Panorama, Grixis Panorama). Now you might be asking yourself why pay so much money if there are cards that replace them. The answer is this: fetches are amazing. They thin your deck making sure you don't draw land as often late game, are recurrable with Crucible of Worlds and fix your mana by grabbing Dual Lands (of the original or shock variety). The difference that makes the original fetches so good is that they fetch the land untapped so you do not waste a land drop. This may seem trivial at first but once you play a game with a fetch and then play a game with an Evolving Wilds you will know the difference.
Savings: Zendikar- $19.00 Onslaught- $39.00
Wasteland = Tectonic Edge/Ghost Quarter
Land destruction is rarely smiled upon but having some in your deck is never a bad thing. The first time you play against Cabal Coffers or Gaea's Cradle you'll wish you had put that Strip Mine in for that basic mountain. Wasteland and Strip Mine are the premeier in land destruction as they don't even take up a spell slot. Thankfully Strip Mine has been reprinted before with a white boarder. These can be found in excess for around $3.99 if you don't mind the white, not bad for one of the best land killers in the business. Wasteland on the otherhand has never been reprinted outside of Judge Foils and those go for $80.00. A regualr Tempest block Wasteland is going to set you back around $50.00.
I personally do not own a Wasteland because of how similar it is to Tectonic Edge. With Strip Mine and Tec Edge I have been able to deal with almost every problem land I have come across. It should be said however, that Wasteland is a strictly better card. Unlike fetches the difference here is trivial unless your intention is to "Waste-lock" someone with Crucible but if you are doing that the $50.00 price tag is the least of your worries.
Savings: $48.00 for Tectonic Edge, $44.00 if you want to shell out for an FNM promo of Tec Edge(you know you wanna).
Dual Lands = Many
Mono colored commanders can ignore this. These are the "money cards" of Magic save for the Moxes and a select few cards from way back in the day (although the Beta duals are pretty old). There are really two series of true dual lands those being the Ravnica shocklands (Hallowed Fountain, Blood Crypt, Breeding Pool, Overgrown Tomb, Watery Grave, Steam Vents, Stomping Ground, Sacred Foundry, Godless Shrine, and Temple Garden) and the Beta duals (Volcanic Island, Underground Sea, Tropical Island, Taiga, Badlands, Tundra, Scrubland, Savannah, Plateau, Bayou). The most expensive shockland is Hallowed Fountain at $30.00 while the an actual Beta dual is around $1500.00. That is not a typo. Ya! You can pick up white border versions for around $150 (all these prices are for Underground Sea some are a little cheaper).
Now there have been many iterations of the dual lands since but none have been quite up to par. For all intents and purposes however these lands function in a similar way. There are three cycles of lands that come to mind the Karoo lands (Azorius Chancery, Boros Garrison, Simic Growth Chamber, Golgari Rot Farm, Selesnya Sanctuary, Izzet Boilerworks, Orzhov Basilica, Gruul Turf, Rakdos Carnarium, Dimir Aqueduct), the Scarslands (Seachrome Coast, Darkslick Shores, Copperline Gorge, Blackcleave Cliffs, Razorverge Thicket), and the taplands (Glacial Fortress, Drowned Catacomb, Rootbound Crag, Dragonskull Summit, Sunpetal Grove, Clifftop Retreat, Sulfur Falls, Isolated Chapel, Hinterland Harbor, Woodland Cemetery). All of these lands produce two types of mana and have some sort of stipulation that determines whether they come into play tapped or not. The Karoo lands are probably the worst replacements for the duals but should be used for any "enemy color" (W/B, U/R, W/R, B/G, U/G) combo as there are no Scarsland cards in those combos. The biggest issue with these lands that does not make them dual lands in the traditional sense is that these lands are simply non-basic lands. The original duals and shocklands all count as both basic land type of each of the colors they produce (example Badlands is a Mountain Swamp because it produces B/R). This is why they can be fetched out by the fetchlands discussed earlier.
Savings:
Shocklands = Scarslands- $14.00
Shocklands = Taplands- $24.00
Shocklands = Karoo- $39.00
Well I hope this small article has helped you. Again if this is something yall wanna see more of I am more than happy to write more of these type of article as money can be one of the things that holds people back the most when it comes to EDH.
Also and I cannot stress this enough. This is not Standard! If your deck is incomplete use it anyway and see how it goes! Everytime you play you gain more insight into the format and your own cards. I never fully decide a decklist until after I have played with it a little cause I always find myself changing cards around that I found less than satisfying. Worst comes to worst ask your playgroup if you can use proxies. This is a last resort but if it gets you paying that seems like a sucess in my book.
Well yall thanks for reading I will be posting the White EDH Staples tomorrow so be on the lookout for that!
Remeber the deck is only as good as the Gentleman playing it!
