3 Budget Replacements for Pricey Commander Staples!

There are a ton of great commander cards that are pricey and go into a ton of decks. Let's talk about some great alternatives that you can pick up that don't break the bank and still offer most of the same functionality.
This video is not financial advice.
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#mtg #magic #magicthegathering #edh #mtgedh #commander #mtgcommander #mtgcommunity #mtgcards #budgetmtg #mtgbudget #shorts

[@sablesalt]

Reminder that the best budget alternative is always a proxy friendly playgroup

[@Breviparopus]

You're not even playing the game at that point

[@Breviparopus]

@saintseraph to be fair with the amount of reprints putting prices down you can still make a incredibly powerful deck on a budget. It just takes more deck building skill

[@jamesfilyawDigginGabe]

​@Breviparopus why? Why be elitist? Some people have bills to pay, and cant afford $40 bucks for a piece of cardboard. Why do people like you have to make things harder on those that literally cannot afford it? At the end of the day, itll do the same thing, and still be a piece of cardboard. So tell me, how are you 'not playing the game at that point'

[@sablesalt]

@saintseraph I agree, that's why you can proxy them too since they can be hard to find 👈😎👈

[@sablesalt]

@@Breviparopus using weaker or stronger cards isn't a measurement of deckbuilding skill as much as people on both ends say, it's more about cutting.

[@hexbox2182]

Here’s an addition one for bolt bend, boltbender. It’s a little more expensive to set up but when you do it. No one can respond to the activation since it’s a special action. Kinda like pseudo split second.

[@DagDog97]

i looked it up and you’ve just convinced me to pick up a copy gor a deck 😂 Didnt even know it existed 😭

[@GellyGelbertson]

boltbender says "when this is turned face up", indicating a triggered ability. so, while the action of turning the card face up is a special action, the trigger that comes as a part of it can be responded to. however, triggered abilities in general are just harder to respond to, so boltbender remains hella in my books.

[@Aedi]

"when this creature turns faceup" effects are triggers, so people can respond but they are nice, usually relatively cheap to activate, since you spent theana to morph it. theyre not spells, so hit by less counterspells, and you can use them as long as you have priority, so you get around split second, gfand abolisher, etc

[@Lifemourne]

If my opponent was playing suboptimal cards just because of budget restrictions, I'd encourage them to proxy.

[@brandonjensen586]

I prefer suboptimal options. It makes games more diverse. I’m tired of seeing the same cards played over and over again

[@n00exec]

I use Flood of Tears alongside Omnicience... no one expects ever that exquisite combo :3

[@levicurtis6669]

Proxying is neat, and cool, actually

[@Chonus]

yes, I agree.

[@CristianM93]

No

[@Chonus]

@@CristianM93 Ok then, would you like to play against my real 1500$ deck?

[@CristianM93]

@@Chonus Omg! Look how rich you are!!! The problem is not about the price of the cards, it's about original cards. If you cannot afford the card (or the game) there are other many different and not fake options you may add to the deck. Piracy is the problem, you rich boy! My deck is around $200 and works well, I don't need to have your expensive cards to play and enjoy the game with original ones.

[@Chonus]

@@CristianM93 That's just a dumb mentality and imaginary limitation your imposing yourself and others. Richard Garfield, the creator of magic is pro proxy. Price doesn't always determine power, you can build a 50$ Teshar combo deck that would pub stomp. That's cool that your fine with your 200$ deck, but other people aren't content with only exploring the game with the limited budget they are restricted to. Proxying doesn't mean you can show up at the LGS with fast mana and free counter spells without some serious rule 0 discussion, It still means you have to be a thoughtful deck builder, and that you can accurately evaluate your decks power. But by the way you talk I can tell you're just a noob who probably reeee's at any 30$ card instead of actually having an understanding of archetypes an threat assessment.

[@Bingchillingggggg]

Or proxies of all of them😈

[@krunchyapples]

I'm a big fan of flood of tears. Probably one of the better blue board wipes simply because you can almost always put yourself ahead with that free cast

[@Zakading]

Filter Out is also a real contender as a Rift replacement. Doesn't remove creatures, but takes care of every other thing that blue can often have problems with removing en mass.

[@rafael.s.rafael]

yep, for creatures just use aetherize

[@nothingnothing4155]

Flood of tears is a very nice card, especially with an archaeomancer. Just sit on the initiative till someone finds an answer.

[@DUxMORTEM]

The problem with Flood of Tears is that its not Instant speed. Thats why Cyclonic Rift is so good.

[@Ceyx000]

If only emergence zone existed..

[@xeper9458]

@@Ceyx000 If only cards that allowed you to cast sorceries at instant speed existed 😆

[@MattHarb]

Similar to Bolt Bend. Stubborn Denial is a great budget counterspell. Keeping 1 Mana open is always easier than keeping 2

[@rvgdustin1670]

I bought a Foil Foil. the Pay off was 1 random game x months later, I countered my opponent with it and noticed that it was foil. He was like "Is that a foil Foil that countered my combo piece?", I was like "yes, I foiled you with my foil foil".

[@b.b.4879]

As another free couterspell I also direct to Daze. Return an island to your hand, counter target spell unless opponent pays 1. Nobody expects to get their spell countered, when the blue player is tapped out and has 1 card left in hand

[@RenegaderDTA]

I love daze also can do non basic island and basic ones. Also if you did it on your turn and havent land drop and need to free up one island mana. I always tell people daze is a budget alternative to force of will if you time it right and they can't pay an additional mana. I guess foil can be better if you run a lot of madness costs to and time it right.

[@noahmurtha4036]

Ricochet trap (while more specific) is also a solid budget option for swat

[@mjohn3126]

All can go in Stella Lee. Nice

[@blbbry]

i wouldnt recommend foil for stella lee tho because stella lee is a very fast deck and you can't take time to discard lands or other cards

[@iamatrain4397]

Definitely picking up a foil for my Aesi deck, im usually the immediate issue at my regular playgroup table so having that extra counterspell out of nowhere would really help with getting targetted out of the game last minute

[@melekparagon9231]

Aetherize is a good replacement for cyclonic rift it may only work on attacking creatures, but it's a solid defensive play at 4 mana and is less then a buck.

[@henrylindsey9121]

I only know this because of my Mr. House deck, but an alternative to Bolt Bend at the same amount of mana is Wyll's reversal. Roll a D20 and add the greatest power among creatures you control, if you hit a 1-14, you choose new targets and if you hit a 15 or higher, you choose new targets and copy the spell with new targets for that copy

[@shapooopiefour7173]

Notably, playing blue, you can draw cards to make up for Foil. That’s what I’ve found when I played it.

[@compuyoutub]

Flood of Tears has always came through for me whereas Cyclonic Rift never has.

[@SirRiconious]

Bolt Bend will go great in my Atla Palani Draggie Eggs deck!

[@kingginger3335]

If the card you put into play for the Flood of Tears is Omniscience, then you've effectively done the same thing as Cyc Rift.

[@jimryanor6616]

Except it's not at instant speed which is why cyclonic rift is so powerful. Also if you don't have omniscience (it being a 1/99) you now have an empty board while the rest of the table has a round to rebuild.

[@kingginger3335]

@jimryanor6616 True. But it takes some set up for that kinda that. So you'll wait until the right time to do it.

[@martynass]

@@jimryanor6616 thank you, yes. The whole point for cyc rift is its instant speed. By casting it on ir own turn the whole point is to cast it under effects like grand abolisher and then do something even afterwards under grand abolisher effect or remove all blockers and attack. Flood of tears is NOTHING alike the least. Flood of tears is literally black and white compared to cyc rift and is crap even with omnicience set up, you can even swing out with creatures after flood of tears, cuz summoning sickness.

[@martynass]

😂😂😌🧖‍♂️

[@kingginger3335]

@@martynass lol I'm not comparing the 2 things. I was just making the point that if you played FoT and then played Omniscience, you would just dump your hand back on the battlefield. Cyclonic Rift is miles ahead of the FoT Omniscience combo. You're getting way too upset about this lol. Btw, you could give your creatures Haste.

[@lovetownsend]

Foil! I never even knew it. Thank u added to buy list when I do buy stuff

[@shanebauer8091]

For my Brenard, Ginger Sculptor deck i run Profaner of the Dead instead of the cyclonic rift.

[@Jerorawr_XD]

My favorite with flood of tears is abusing the "put a permanent onto the battlefield" effect. Pair it with an eternal witness, izzet chronarch or archaeomancer and you can hold a gun to the rest of the board's head for the rest of the game.

[@noobwant3d]

I’ll just proxy.

[@Dark-Pikachu1]

Can’t do that in Tournament

[@PrattJasonAshton]

I have 4 near mint Alliance Force of Wills... why isn't this a power 10??????

[@lordgod9958]

Misdirection is a solid force replacement Flare of denial is viable in the right deck

[@Ronnocsnave42]

More of these pleaaaasssseeeeee

[@rex5807]

If wizards made a new key word what would you'll want it to be for me it would be something like "heavy" it would prevent spells or abilities from sending permanent back to hand or deck

[@MageSkeleton]

Currently, there are only two cards that can achieve what Cyclonic Rift does; Filter Out and that Thunder Junction white card.

[@isaisaldana2191]

I need a budget replacement for Dockside💀

[@thedeadstillplays5857]

evacuation is always a good cyclonic rift sub it's only like 11 cents 2 blue 3 any for a whole board bounce but the drawback is that it hits your stuff too

[@Playingwithproxies]

Bolt bend is only single target deflecting swat just lets you pick new targets

[@jackfitzpatrick4059]

I play Chef's kiss instead of deflecting swat

[@SonnigesDeutschland]

No money for good cards? Just play bad cards!

[@craigstuckey319]

Right? Just save up. Instead of having 40 decks maybe build a couple of actual playable decks instead?!?!?

[@MTGRecon]

Personally I find foil to be the only card that's not "good" from this list, but even with that if you are looking for free counterspells to protect combos it's one of the few. Bolt Bend and Flood of Tears are nowhere near bad IMO, they're just not staples.

[@Ghaespar]

I'm playing both Swat and Bend in my cedh Pantlaza deck

[@DUxMORTEM]

Instead of running Foil you can just run Misdirection and change the counter spell to Misdirection itself.

[@Ultinuc]

Misdirection is more expensive than foil AND it's only a free answer to a counterspell. Foil IS a counterspell

[@lisan3627]

This, it doesn't hit as much as a FoW, but Foil is genuinely horrific unless you're in Monoblue and even then it's a pretty restrictive cost.

[@clementb6963]

I love playing bolt bend against etherium decks

[@SapphireSandwichBoys]

"3 for 1 yourself" "free counterspell" which is it man

[@Drezha3]

The name escapes me right now but there’s another card like bolt bend that came out of thunder junction. It’s a spree card that either redirects a target and/or copies a spell or ability

[@xeper9458]

return the favor?

[@Drezha3]

@@xeper9458 yep that’s the one

[@CidAghast]

Sometimes it’s not about the effect it’s about the specific niche that affect has for example cyclonic rift isn’t good because it bounces the board cyclonic rift is good because it bounces the board and then it’s your turn

[@simongpunkt]

another option if you run izzet colors is swerve. All 3 can be searched with Sunforger who doesn't care about the free casting cost at all. Enjoy!

[@nunavutstonefist5500]

Flood of Tears + Omniscience

[@ceulgai2817]

OR, Hear me out: Proxy them. Save the real cards for the comp players who need them. Also, instead of Flood of Tears, I suggest Consuming Tide.

[@rafael.s.rafael]

Usualy, when you will use Cyclonic Rift to take care of one especific problematic player... River Rebuke sound a good replacement in this case

[@VoidGivenForm]

2 card combo, omniscience nd flood of tears

[@drenth27]

Fucking hell I remember rift being a bulk rare.

[@Frubeling]

Budget option that still costs R, requires your connabder to be 4/X and stipulates single target is different enough in function to not be an option

[@Frubeling]

And Flood of Tears not being one sided and being sorcery speed AND not having a single target mode makes that also not even worth considering in the same slot

[@benjaminlehman3221]

Printer go brrr

[@denshitenshi]

Flood of tears is good but instant speed is the biggest selling point to cyclonic rift :(

[@origaminosferatu3357]

Aetherize is the true Cyclonic replacement. Ok it doesn't hit everything but it hits the important stuff and barely anyone ever prepares for it.

[@jordanfears453]

Why not run Redirect instead on the first one?

[@Dark-Pikachu1]

Bro

[@blade4993]

Me who got deflecting swat cause I bought kalamax precon

[@guillaumebenoit3550]

Both time I've won against the best guy of my group, I used bolt bend to fuck up his plan to kill my plantlaza and kill his creature.... It was just nice. It's I. Every deck now

[@LAIAWAN]

Don’t have to sell ur savings to wizards, buy Proxies.

[@virtueofabsolution7641]

Wait does your playgroup allow cycrift? 🤔

[@mannyramirez5630]

Good luck searching foil on tcg player or card kingdom

[@sheahi]

Wash out is better than flood of tears imo.

[@thisissostupidqsdfva]

I have so many proxys😅

[@deathnights-bane3301]

Forth eorlingas, form a posse

[@JustaSmilingHedgehog]

or you just get a 50 dollar printer and say f you to all those price hikers.

[@OnedayOFFICIALYT]

Im sorry Deflecting swat is HOW MUCH?

[@Dark-Pikachu1]

A better one is Returned in Favor for first one

[@thomasmcmahan2631]

just proxy lol, no point in playing bad cards

[@xXToxin_]

What set(s) is deflecting swat from?

[@MTGRecon]

It was originally in an Ikoria Commander Precon, and then was reprinted in Commander Masters.

[@acerbicgeoff7821]

I literally have a foil embossed full art deflecting away that I've never read the text on, and didn't know the value of until right now edit: apparently that copy is 70. Wtf?

[@deadPan-c]

imagine not using proxies 💀

[@sheahi]

Bolt bend is getting pricey

[@miguelfreitas5343]

If you mentioned Bolt Bend as a replacement to Deflecting Swat, I have to also mention Stubborn Denial as a replacement for Fierce Guardianship :p It's the same effect replacement, one mana to counter anything as long as you control a creature with power 4 or greater. They're both in my Brudiclad deck and they work wonders

[@paulbuckley2301]

I fully encourage stomping people with budget options rather than proxying. We need to drop the mentality that you're playing against people's wallets. Deckbuilding and piloting skill can beat many high budget decks.

[@jaysolexplores]

I dunno. I play cedh so all those cards are just too jank or mana intense to play

[@Dark-Pikachu1]

That’s doesn’t matter to you anyways CEDH Format is 90% proxies

[@jaysolexplores]

@@Dark-Pikachu1 tell that to my local lgs when they throw 1ks..... no proxies allowed

[@EzekielKhalilGuzman]

One word buddy proxy although not as good but still the same

[@crunter6523]

What about you don't suggest cards that aren't played because, you know, they aren't at the sufficient power level. In a format when you can only play 1 copy of each card, if there was a replacement it would be played as well.

[@MTGRecon]

People play commander at all sorts of power levels, and while some of these suggestions are deck specific, things like Bolt Bend can be powerful and throw your opponents off, even if it’s not cEDH viable.

[@crunter6523]

@@MTGRecon If you say stuff like "throw your opponent off" you're already ceding the fact that the card isn't good enough enough. at all power levels. Even in casual play there are good cards to play in suboptimal strategy. The honest answer is that you wanted to make this video for content and you didn't care if it was accurate or not.

[@MTGRecon]

@@crunter6523 just because people haven’t seen a card, doesn’t make it bad. I say “throw people off” since there are tons of cards that every player knows and are somewhat expecting, and a good card someone hasn’t seen can throw them off. I think commander and KZbin would get real boring if people only ever talked about the most efficient cards that exist. If you want to go play cEDH, that’s totally fine, but this video isn’t for that style of play. There are tons of people who play suboptimal cards on purpose, because a lot of people prioritize having fun over winning or don’t want to spend crazy amounts on cardboard. There’s nothing wrong with caring about winning, but assuming everyone plays in the exact way is something I try to avoid.

[@alecsmith8341]

Or just proxy and don't sweat it

[@fdkugb]

All the comments here from people who seem offended that any option existing other than their favourite make me just want to not play in their group. I'm sure their friends like them, but I personally can't stand when someone dumps on a strategy because it's not what they use.

[@LucRice]

Or proxy

[@kiritadoshi]

Proxy. Proxy. Proxy. And proxy.

[@radicalstatue3029]

Proxies are $1.....

[@scottcisek2376]

Foil is just plain bad….

[@Dark-Pikachu1]

It depends if you have something to draw of instant and Sorcery

[@Thibaut-p1z]

More 🎉❤

[@AspieGG]

these comments are reminding me why meta-based games are trash. People can play whatever cards they want.

[@braindead3806]

PROXY GANG

[@the_metamancer]

P R O X Y

[@AuntSteve]

I prefer to proxy, mostly cause it makes some of the sweatest losers in this hobby unreasonably angry. That said, I only proxy for art normally. It'll be on top of a real version, IE an expensive art Sol Ring on a normal one.

[@Slowrath]

Please just proxy, nobody should willing 3->1 themselves for foil. Bad recommendations.

[@PersevereWest]

Or just proxy

[@spacewizardpip1111]

Don’t play Foil ever that shit is horrible

[@skylersuarez598]

I can buy all of these cards for a dollar, y’all are suckers

[@alexanderkraken7920]

Sure, champ

[@skylersuarez598]

@@alexanderkraken7920 I was making a joke that I can proxy these