The Best BUDGET Cards of 2024 | EDHRECast 347

What are the most common budget commanders from EDH? What are the best budget cards of the year? Let's take a closer look!
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[@nathones]

I think the average deck is way less than 600. People will often build their “ideal”decks online, which will inflate the cost.

[@WumboWings96]

Not to mention that Archidekt takes the sideboard price into account unless you turn that off

[@mathimus55]

That's definitely a factor. There's also folks who build stuff like pauper commander decks that just label it as regular commander along with lots of other factors. The data isn't perfect but we're going with the best data we have

[@mathimus55]

@@WumboWings96 This is out of respect for 60-card players where the sideboard is still part of the deck when you're playing them in tournaments. If you're looking for a category that doesn't count towards the price but are cards you want to keep in mind the maybeboard is the tool I'd use instead.

[@punkypinko2965]

Yeah I think the average deck estimation is wildly off in the real world and it's more like $300 - $400 at most. I can't believe, at least in my experience playing at my LGS, that the average is $600. That would have to mean that almost half the players or more are playing $1000+ decks because I see a lot of $200 - $400 decks. $1000 + $200 = $1200 / 2 = $600. That doesn't math for me. I think you're right: the average IDEAL commander deck is $600 but in reality because you know people don't have that much money on average is much lower. I just don't believe that the average commander player spends on average $600 on every one of their decks. They would have to spend that much on average for every one of their decks for it to be an average.

[@mathimus55]

@@punkypinko2965I’ve seen both sides of the argument when playing in the wild. I’ve sat in casual pods at MC’s where my $600-700 deck was half the price of the other 3. Special printings, secret lairs and other high end things like that also play a factor where the cheapest copy might be $2 but they have a chase version that’s $100. There’s lots of factors out there pushing and pulling against each other. We’ve never said the data was perfect, just reporting what we are able to see because that’s what players tell us.

[@pretty_fly_for_a_jeskai]

I dont think decklists online reflect decks in paper, but as thats really all of the data we have, it is what it is.

[@EDHRECast]

Yep, it's imperfect but it's what we've got to work with. As the saying goes, we go to war with the army we have, not the army we wish we had.

[@gully041]

It would be really nice if you guys had an Archidekt link or something in the description with all the cards you talk about in these types of episodes. I normally listen on my phone while at work, and there are instances where I want to pick up a card or two you mentioned. It would be nice to be able to come to the KZbin upload and grab the list of everything to pick out the ones I want.

[@Kjos_jax]

For that, you just simply stop the video and resume it later when you're able to jot it down. That's how I do all MTG magic content because I also listen to stuff at work

[@ZorroDitXav]

As someone who belongs in this corner conversation, no. Can't pause it amd listen to silence until my break in two hours. Have to tap the earbud to pause, dig into my overalls, and pull it out of my pants pocket, lookie card, switch over to my TCG app, add, and get back to the video, play, pocket, back to work. 'Tis a hassle indeed. I don't think it'd be too much for them to simply jot down a list of all the highlighted cards in the video's description, though.

[@meltie77]

@@ZorroDitXav I second this. I often listen when driving or cycling and that would really help me.

[@Kjos_jax]

@@ZorroDitXav then you do it when you have the time. Not at work...

[@ZorroDitXav]

And listen to silence in the meantime?

[@pixelbomb97]

I would love if this episode was 3 hours. I've not been able to keep up with all the releases this year, so I need videos like this to compile the minor power creeps and make my all of my decks better for a 10 dollar TCGplayer order.

[@TheSmartCinema]

Uncommon commanders will naturally have a lower average cost because of the Pauper EDH decklists that affect the data. Since Commons are inexpensive, it lowers the avg price by a lot

[@wedgearyxsaber]

CEDH decks, likely proxied, will also affect it the other way, MUCH more (I think this was mentioned in the video)

[@1notdeadfred]

Real talk- If you just proxy your mana base, your average deck cost can drop a solid 60-70% and that's even if you aren't including the OG dual lands. I own 1 copy of each land I use in decks. I proxy them in the actual decks. Has saved me somewhere in the range of 1,500$ and I don't even have a number of decks in the double digits yet.

[@WorldsGreatestVidiot]

This! ^

[@mathimus55]

With how aggressive they're reprinting mana base pieces, unless you're playing ABU duals I don't know if that's true anymore unless you're playing 5c only fetches/triomes/shocks.

[@Blacklodge_Willy]

I mean this respectfully, at that point why own a copy of each land you use? Why not just 100% proxy?

[@1notdeadfred]

@@Blacklodge_Willy I've met the occasional person who gets grumpy about it. It's nice to have a black box you can pull out and say "See I own them, now piss off." People are weird man.

[@Blacklodge_Willy]

@@1notdeadfred that I agree on haha. I used to play on and off with a military buddy of mine who had all proxy decks due to traveling so often. He always said "if anyone wants proof I own these cards I'll video call my girlfriend right now to show you" lol

[@michaelpatalano9884]

My favorite is Disorienting Choice. It’s 4 mana to either blow up your opponents best Art/Ench, or you tutor ANY 3 lands. It’s insane

[@imaginarymatter]

My favorite budget card is Lively Dirge. For

[@dominicsheehy5828]

Yes! My pick too.

[@EDHRECast]

Good pick.

[@fhgwdads05]

Great review. Fangs of Kalonia is yet another example of how many heaters MH3 has at the C and U rarities, and as a fellow +1/+1 counter enjoyer I'm glad to see its praises sung.

[@CamiloNavarroo]

600 dollar average is wild. Down here in my country (Colombia), specifically at my store we have Friday tournaments where the budget is 100 USD. And on Saturday we have leagues that go from 120 USD budget for beginners, to 80 USD budget for advanced players. My most expensive deck is faaaaar from even making it to 200 USD.

[@Kjos_jax]

I run a store where we cater to beginners and none of the decks are that low. You can build a deck for $10 but everyone wants to upgrade and have more decks and more options. And with new cards constantly coming out decks increase in value over time. I actually think the average is pretty low considering some people have decks that are $20,000

[@EDHRECast]

Bear in mind there's a lot behind those stats. cEDH decks are gonna tug the price upward, etc.

[@woaaaaahhh1287]

I was shook and checked my deck lists on moxfield, and they're all around $250 max, with one clocking in at $175. I feel like there is some "theoretical deck" inflation going on here pumping up the average

[@Kjos_jax]

No offense, but if you're capping out at 250 you are not building decks correctly. That's the cost of a decent mana base in most cases

[@woaaaaahhh1287]

@Kjos_jax the way I write my name upon this world is by winning games with 32 basics, like 4 dual lands, and a reliquary tower 😎

[@EDHRECast]

(Dana here) It's been my experience that the difference between a $200 dollar deck and a $500 deck winds up being just a couple cards. The deck looks cheap, then you add a couple of good lands a couple of pricey chase cards like Teferi's Protection or Doubling Season and suddenly it's twice the price.

[@Kjos_jax]

@@EDHRECast I agree

[@isidoreaerys8745]

18:36 Matt is right. Your fancy equipment spells like Shadowspear, Anduril and Mithril Coat Nonbo with Arna because the copies will simply vanish. She works best with cheap nonlegendary equipments that give you ward or make a treasure each time you attack.

[@isidoreaerys8745]

And Aura’s with ETB effects like Sheltered by Ghosts. Cumulative Ward 2. And exile a permanent each attack.

[@jacquesdespadas]

This was a great topic and needs to become a regular part of the yearly cycle. You guys turned me on to at least a dozen cards this episode alone. Happy New Year everyone!

[@EDHRECast]

Good note, thanks for the feedback and kind words.

[@rwaaful]

I recently built a melek deck for about $150 and it slaps. His ability is so strong and I either win through commander damage and a gravitic punch / fling or just Chandra’s ignition after I mill half my library (with Tunnelvision) highly recommend giving him a try!

[@Kjos_jax]

How do you build a good deck for $150? A good mana base is twice that

[@Fornost42]

People seem to be forgetting that the $600 average was the median, which is just the number in the middle of all deck prices. As Joey says 10 seconds later, the mean and mode (total of all prices divided by number of decks and most frequent price occurrence respectively) are much more what you’d expect. Not to mention, when you’re building online, you might put the most optimal cards in each slot, especially staples and mana bases. What’s actually in your deck box may very well be different, or like the hosts mention, you could have proxies.

[@lightfut]

See y'all next year and thanks for a good one!

[@xanderjones6239]

Thanks for a great year, Joey, Matt, and Dana! I know this game brings us together, but we stay for the personalities. See yall in 2025 ❤

[@EDHRECast]

Thanks for the kind works and thanks for watching/listening!

[@okgut2033]

this year was wild with the number of new cards. we broke the 2k non reprint cards, and with reprints, we have over 6k. That's also a new record.

[@EDHRECast]

Moar blood for the blood god.

[@okgut2033]

@EDHRECast normally i would say yes, but that amount of cards implies a lot like: - we as a community have to be far more active to step back instead of oops armsrace others that can't afford to buy displays of every set or whatever budget the secondary marked throws at us. - it's impossible to keep track of cards without starting to actually work and make lists. - wizzards itself can't avoid doubling up on things that exist and have to stick on templates. They also have less time to be creative or build in magic function worlds. - the natural powercreep is disrupted and also runs exponentially. Or banns have to come more frequently.. maybe even a splitt in commander like wizzards always wanted (looking at you brawl). - we as consumers will be emotionally destabilised easier, maybe even run into addiction. Thanks to the amount of ingrease dopamine with all the shiny versions and chase cards and over all more consume. We already saw a portion of that aggression running towards the rc. - everything is playable. That's not something "bad" but also not really "good" as well. - everything will be a value deck first and everything else second. Cause templates and cause midrange is the most popular gameplan so far. I really hate to be gloomy about having more cards. But wizzards themselves aren't hiring more people for that more amount of cards. So the only part i can hope something change to be better is ourselves as a community.

[@sosukelele]

On OtJ having plenty of budget commanders: the overflow of legendary creatures in the mainset resulted in a fair amount of them being uncommon, which means that they can be played in pauper commander

[@PraisetheSon]

All of the decks I make are around $50. I even have a $20 commander deck. 250 as budget blows my mind.

[@RedCometNurse]

I have 30 commander decks and only one of them is worth more than $600. That figure seems kind of absurd.

[@jlaw131985]

I’ve been collecting forever and I’ve got some older cards that wound up spicy, but $600 seems like so much. I guess I only have one Teferi’s Protection, and am missing a lot of “staples”…but still, how is it that expensive? I think if I threw my Sliver Queen in a deck, I would still have trouble hitting that price.

[@Blacklodge_Willy]

To be fair on average, 30 Commander decks seem pretty absurd. Imagine the same total cost of your 30 decks spread across 5-6 decks. I think it's reasonable to think two or three of those decks would average in the $600 range.

[@jlaw131985]

@@Blacklodge_Willy I have about...probably 15, but I don't think one of them breaks $400.

[@SaltyProductionsHD]

Hedge Shredder is under $2 and is absolutely bonkers in any self mill deck!

[@MikhailHudon_ZerithFarron]

when I was challenged to do an under $1 per card challenge, I made a pretty powerful Elminster deck for $25 because aggressive scry cards are not at all desirable by the community. Awesomely enough, butt loads of over costed Haymakers that no one wants are incredible when they're cast for basically free. This deck has a whacky 90% win rate with the only real challenge is the lack of early ramp. choosing a mechanic that is rarely or never looked at goes a long way in these challenges.

[@JonReid01]

Can you paste your list please?😊

[@WumboWings96]

Personal experience with Vile Mutilator since I haven’t played with it in paper yet. Had it in a draft in MTG Arena and every single time it dropped onto the field, I won the game 😂

[@AlarminglyBad]

Arna Kennerud + modular is a FUN time

[@thatonedudejake]

I'll make a deck for $50-100, then slowly upgrade over several years. I can't imagine spending $500 on a deck immediately

[@EDHRECast]

(Dana here) So this certainly doesn't apply to everyone, but take me for example; I might well build a $500 deck, but I'm not paying $500. That $25 Strip Mine was $3 when I got it, the $40 Nykthos was $5, etc. I'm puling from a pool of backstock that was way cheaper when I acquired it. Or even if they cards weren't cheaper, they're ones I picked up from a pre-release kit or an FNM draft, that sort of thing, so while they're a $10 card, the $10 is priced into the experience of the event. A $500 deck might well just cost $50 to make.

[@thatonedudejake]

@EDHRECast yeah I have some decks that have climbed from the initial price into the 300-400 range due to the usual mechanism (shock lands were cheaper before, got a nice pull from a prize pack, gifted an expensive card, etc), but only one of my 14 or so decks hits that $500 mark. It's just kind of a surprising number tbh.

[@FernandoGonzalez-hu3id]

That Average deck cost is definitly inflated I have 12 decks on the site all of them between $400 and $450, but every single one of them includes Urborg, Coffers, Stronghold, Nyctos, Demonic Tutor and Deadly Rollick ($228) of witch i only own a copy of each, but since i build my decks modulary i include them Putting Cards on Archideckt is free

[@ospero7681]

12 decks, and all of them in the same color? I couldn't begin to imagine doing that - if anything, I have the opposite problem, I get annoyed when a new fun-looking commander is released for a color combination I already play. 😄

[@FernandoGonzalez-hu3id]

@ospero7681 not all of them aré the same color, they just all have Black. 2 Mono Black (Whisper/Yargle) 2 Orzhov (Teysa/Breena) 2 Dimir (Wilhelt/Ngatrod) 2 Rakdos (Strefan/Chainer) 2 Golgari (Shelob/Lyssaga) Is there overlap between them, sure but that is by design. After the Pandemic both my budget and playtime took a hit, so by building my decks modularly and leting them share manabases and Staples I can get diferent play experiences inside my límited budget

[@Kjos_jax]

No offense, but if your decks are capping out that low then you just aren't building them correctly. A good mana base costs that in most cases

[@Kjos_jax]

​@@ospero7681yeah, I can't stand playing the same deck all the time, much less sticking to the same colors all the time... I like to have decks of every color and color combo. Then have power levels among those colors. It's not just for me but for other players as well. I can't stand when someone only has one deck and it's ultra powerful... They've painted themselves into a corner and get frustrated when no one wants to play with them

[@FernandoGonzalez-hu3id]

​@@Kjos_jax i did not know there was an objectivly correct way of building a deck in this casual format...

[@dustinmartin648]

I love Joey's thinking! My friends and I do extreme build challenges, and we plan on doing a "Numbers Game" challenge where every card in your deck has to be the same CMC. So, Melek IMMEDIATELY caught my attention by being able to abuse the cost reduction on everyone's turn! Fun stuff!

[@ylygylygynda]

Assemble the Players goes right into my Arcades Defenders deck.

[@neimaddamienjackson9256]

Most of my best decks are around 400 or less. I love sniping up all the niche bulk rares and utility common and uncommons as sets comes out. Helps me spend less and be less overwhelmed by the expensive power

[@adamhall1340]

You guys missed a pun! Joey: was that "effective"? Matt: No but it was "affective". That was a great one.

[@freefitguy]

I think there’s also some discrepancy depending on what it is using to estimate prices. I build on Moxfield and they use CardKingdom prices which are often slightly inflated over TCG market. That being said, I get it’s a metric to use that’s the same across ALL decks so still value to it as a tool to compare between decks (even if the total cost is inflated). I LOVED this episode and was able to pick up a number of fun additions to my decks for under $10 total. Thanks for putting in the work this year here’s to a great 2025!

[@hanschristopherson8056]

The average deck being like $200 more than the median is pretty crazy

[@QuestionMarc]

Between proxies and decks that people design on deckbuilding websites but don'tactually build, the actual value of the average BUILT commander deck is way less than the $600+ price quoted in this episode.

[@Aerix]

Our pod had a couple budget challenges. My favorites were our $15 decks. Rendmaw enchantress/unatural was mine and I built my wife Jenny Flint & Madame Vastra clues. Our peak moment was her wrathing the board and then casting "follow the bodies" to make 34 clues. And then sunshot militia and later chao jun to finish the board.

[@thaddeuscole3718]

Love a stats episode and a budget cards episode 👍

[@eliasdejaye677]

Joey, Melek is so fun! 20/10 should build

[@Grumbl3cakes]

I can definitely recommend melek reformed reaearcher as a fun commander. I too grew enamored with casting big spells on the cheap, and its every bit as great as it sounds. I've built my deck where all my non mdfc spells are 4 mana or more.

[@Darkscotty76]

I also love Connecting the Dots for my goblin deck. Best way to not burn out mod game

[@nolifeSnorlax]

Come back wrong seems busted …thanks for shouting it out I immediately bought 4 😅😂

[@EDHRECast]

The fact that it can take a cmdr is huge.

[@caedmonr112]

Hearing that the median deck price is $500 is wild to me. Barring my most expensive deck (a cedh build), every single deck I own is under $270. Many of which are closer to $100 or $150!

[@Kjos_jax]

That is what pre-cons are worth out of the box though. You don't add anything good?

[@caedmonr112]

There's two assumptions you seem to be making. The first and biggest is that good = expensive. I don't think this is true in the slightest. Sol Ring is ~$1.50 and is arguably the most powerful card ever printed, and there are tons and tons of powerful cards that don't cost more than $1. For what it's worth, my perception is that I'm considered the most dangerous player at the table in my playgroup despite many of my friends decks being significantly more expensive than mine. The second assumption is that I'm starting from a precon and upgrading for each (or for a majority) of my decks. This is only true for 2 out of 8+ decks I own (counting off the top of my head, it's likely over 10). I build the vast majority of my decks from scratch. The bottom line is that how good and powerful a deck is can correlate to price, but is not caused by price. I've wiped tables in store events with a built from scratch deck that costs

[@Kjos_jax]

@@caedmonr112 I agree with much of what you said but you're the one assuming I didn't know those things. My comment wasn't meant to imply all your decks started as pre-cons. I'm saying that the The value contained in the average precon is higher than the number you mentioned for your average deck Price. Meaning you have less costly cards than come in the standard precon. Just math... Also, if you only have 8 decks then you're probably still very new to the game. That's about how many pre-cons come out a year. I run a game store and build custom decks for people on a regular basis. Everything from fungus tribal to cedh. Personally, I don't enjoy CeDH or the ultra high-powered cards. I'm not interested in locking in one out of the game or countering everything they do. I like to play at a level where everyone gets to do their thing and I win anyway. You too?

[@conerchambers1214]

100% agree with Dana in the beginning. Out of my 15 decks, only 3 of them are above $250 and that’s with cards like Inkshield, Tprot, Smothering Tithe, surveil lands, shocks, fetches, battle bonds and the like. I really do wonder if the data separated certain printings or could discern things like reserve list

[@Kjos_jax]

If your decks are capping out that low then you should probably look into some upgrades. Some pre-cons out of the box are worth that. A good mana base alone is several hundred

[@conerchambers1214]

⁠@@Kjos_jaxThat’s the fun part, these are pre con mana bases sans the fetches, shocks, battle bonds and surveil lands. Reprints mean that overall $ is still lower. I would love to get around to upgrading the mana bases by adding tons of the great lands like Yavi and Urborg, but my playgroup doesn’t have a need for them. Also, not in the spot financially to be upgrading all of my decks to have perfect mana bases with no need in games to upgrade them either. It would be a waste of money

[@Kjos_jax]

@conerchambers1214 if your mana bases work for you then more power to you. Once you own the cards you can proxy them. No one is asking you to buy mana bases for every single deck. Reprints are an awful thing because people should have faith in the game and their investment in it. Trust me I am in this world and have been for 30 years. I'm not saying nothing should ever be reprinted. I'm just saying the amount of reprints they come out a year are killing the game we love

[@conerchambers1214]

🙄😂😂😂

[@olipod5470]

A few observations: 1) The average EDH paper deck is definitely cheaper than 600$, decks will cost you more than they’re worth, cEDH are stretching the average way high and players are inputing their perfect list on websites but the real deck will be cheaper. The median is already more reasonable. 2) MH3 was a GREAT set for budget players, so many commons and uncommons that are really good. And all those MDFCs? Oh my god! 3) We need that kind of video every year, definitely

[@ZorroDitXav]

Some are already mentioning that a handful of posted decklists are going to be more "wishlists" than actual completed decks, so that would definitely inflate that average. I have not been a listener of this channel for too long, but I'm sure they've mentioned this, they seem pretty dang smart about their website and hobby, but I think another huge variable they don't seem to be accounting for is the fact that it's more the invested players really that post their decks anywhere online. Some people, myself included, never post their decks to share. I've been playing for 20+ years and could very well make decks around that average of $600, but as I look over my TCG app of my private deck lists, my average is definitely in that $250 area, $37-1,500 range over about 17 decks. It's EDH. This site is probably the *most* comprehensive collection of data we have available to us, but we all know it can't be anywhere near a complete snapshot.

[@brbdoo]

My budget commander is Skullbriar and before my most recent upgrades it was sitting at $180. Fairly basic voltron deck with hydras, Corpsejack, and Forgotten Ancient. The upgrades have just been supplementing the proliferate keyword because it wasn't much of a thing when I first built it. Now it's sitting at $250 and I could easily bring that to $280 by picking up an Ozolith, but I don't really need it.

[@Momo_pstat4]

46:32 i have a partners deck which uses lunar insight to do some gross stuff. It regularly reads 3 mana draw 4, and that tends to be the floor. I then use that draw power to become punching power, and thus people fall over real quick

[@Mobius_ll]

Was just telling my wife the other day about this card. Any deck that makes regular tokens would love to get value out of this card.

[@hugmonger]

I feel like EDH Rec needs a way to mark your deck as Concept, Digital, Paper cuz like.... Are people really spending over $300 per deck? Like are you really buying multiple shocks, and battle bond lands and so on? When I spend $100 on a deck I feel pretty bad

[@Kjos_jax]

I would say people are spending a lot more than that on average. A good mana base cost more than that

[@Kjos_jax]

No one said you spent $100 on a deck to have $100 deck. Buying a precon is worth over $100 so any upgrades you make from there will increase that base price

[@Kjos_jax]

People seem shocked that the average cost is between $500 and $600... Yet I'm surprised it's not higher. In a 100 card format, having $100 deck means an average of $1 per card. Even precons out of the box are worth more than that

[@MisterDragon]

Out of the dozens of players I play with regularly, I think only one person has a single deck over 300 bucks... Yes, the figures do sound absolutely bonkers. Most people I know have their decks priced at 50-200.

[@EDHRECast]

(Dana here) I'm gonna bet you're underestimating the cost of a lot of their lists. I tried to build a budget Edric list for a deckbuilding contest recently, and even with no dual lands, running almost all common creatures, etc I struggled to get it under $50. I'm not saying they're playing $1000 decks mind you, but I bet a lot of their deck prices are higher than you think.

[@MisterDragon]

@EDHRECast I still doubt it considering my Tiamat deck is probably one of the most expensive in the pool and that one is barely 300 according to archidekt and I certainly didn't spend that much to make it. Even if you account for "reprint value" from pre-cons inflating the online value Vs what somebody actually paid to build the deck, it'd still be a stretch to find more than one player in my pools who cracks 300. (We do have one guy who swings casual 600+ around but for obvious reasons he stopped playing those decks in our pools.) But here's what I think is really going on: The stats are based on people who actually submit online decklists, which is probably a crowd that is already far less casual then most people I play with, most of which do not track online lists and rarely buy bulk singles for a list. In those pools I'm already the exception for making digital lists at all and I probably consume more magic KZbin content than all but 2-3 of them. I suspect that for every online list submitted to edhrec/moxfield/archidekt etc there's another person, maybe even two or three, that literally only engage on paper and don't do much tuning after absorbing new cards from sealed play or the occasional booster box.

[@timbombadil4046]

Vile Mutilator is going right into Araumi. The Dusk Mangler comparison is definitely fair. Can't wait to Encore three out at once.

[@jeremyhayes1163]

Average cost of decks tracks with me. My lower powered are all around $400 and my more powerful push $1,000

[@pauldyson8098]

Embrace the Unkown and Wild Wasteland went right the hell into my Pia "Bring Your Daughter to Work Day" deck. Such great value.

[@cwba1rd372]

5:05 and I thought my $550 deck was crazy expensive. I was agreeing with Dana thinking $250 haha

[@Kjos_jax]

Dana is known for using less powerful and less expensive cards. He's not the average player and there are people out there with decks worth several thousand dollars so the average being 500 actually seems rather low

[@marcelinorodriguez7628]

My decks are all $60 or below with tax, lands, and shipping

[@Kjos_jax]

When you get more experienced you'll start upgrading them... Even mana bases can't be had for less than 60 unless you're proxying

[@dustinmartin648]

As an almost exclusively budget player, the $690+, $500+, or even $250 dollar decks are absolutely WILD to me 😂 I regularly do $50 budget decks and sometimes $10-25 hyperbudget challenges, and my decks still run very well and are fun to play. I just don't see the need for all these crazy expensive cards, but more power to those people, couldn't be me

[@Kjos_jax]

You can build decks for $10, but most people want to continue upgrading them. It's a fun process that doesn't end so I actually think this average is pretty low because a good mana base costs hundreds of dollars

[@jayjayhooksch1]

Before I sold my collection (30th anniversary and universes beyond turned me off the game) I had about 10 commander decks at about the 500$ range. Now I use that as a baseline for decks that I proxy, knowing thats what I would spend if I wanted to financially support wotc. My decks are now all under 50$ including full art variant cards, fancy basics, all the tokens necessary, sleeves and deck box.

[@Kjos_jax]

I love how you have to preface that with that you don't play anymore. Yet you still watch videos about magic...

[@jayjayhooksch1]

@Kjos_jax I still play, I just don't give any money to WOTC anymore, and that includes supporting the secondary market around their game.

[@PasDeMD]

I know you called it out--my average deck may "cost" around $500ish dollars, but high quality proxies cost around $37 per 100. I don't have a legit fetch or dual for every single one of my (too many) decks.

[@serafimb2319]

Matt will finally get his long requested Temur Energy commander in Aetherspark commander set!

[@cid7707]

Yarus is easy to build by just slaming two precons from Karlov and duskmourn together.

[@leonfriedemann9151]

For me cards that worked well: Polygoyf and souls of the lost... Eithet trigger your creature etb stuff or sack em for greater good smack with trample all for 3 mana... Or just have a 2mana 10/10, that fuels your reanimator chananegans, ripples of undeath, prolifewhale, fecund greenshell, all are fun an powerful, in germany the flares are all dirt cheap, for what they do favorites the red, black and white one .... There are so many cool cards 😅 Best reprint: necromancy finally in new border and artwork❤

[@Suavek69]

My most expensive deck is around 450USD according to Archidekt, and my friends tell me quite often that it's quite expensive compared to what they are running. So I really don't think 600USD is average. But then again, I hate spending money on lands, so that might be why. The rest of my decks are all below 100USD

[@ajaydassani9931]

Monstrous vortex and birthing ritual

[@JackbatMurphy]

All my decks were bought for 50-80 euros with 20-30 in shipping. Even if you add 50 in upgrades then my most expensive deck would be 160. I cannot imagine spending 600 on a deck unless you're buying all the cedh stuff. I play PL 6-8.

[@scottricks1676]

Im not a budget player per say, but i build out of my collection 1st and most my decks on mox feild are around 300-400 or so. Granted I dont play "optimal" I tend to like to play more casual.

[@baulsmahoney]

It would be nice if you put a link to the card list in the description.

[@SilimSavertin]

Thinking 690 bucks is average for a deck is insanity. Nobody in a LGS actually spends that much on a deck. Online decklists are utterly cracked.

[@VendiVidiVinci]

I might have impacted the result of Kraum, I builted 3 differents version of him at 100 $ 😅. Edit: Imo nelly is less "hyper budget" because the precon have Trouble in pairs which increase the cost a lot

[@GallantLee]

I think the data is off, because the decks built aren’t always in paper… or in my case include proxies so all those fetch lands/duals etc.

[@rileyobannon7936]

Finally, something I can tell my gf I'm above average on!

[@canbeone7277]

Really, using Mussolini's definition of Fascism as a design philosophy for commander is wild.

[@JaimeAGB-pt4xl]

Great question at the start... due to the nature of the game, and to keep the experience fun for everyone, my playgroup makes a the effort to keep the decks starting (when the deck is initially built at the very least) to be 200-250 USD ... this allows (most of the time) the decks to be focused and do some powerful stuff (but not the most broken) at the expense of excluding the mana base and of course, excluding all the Braindead cards

[@kazeinu0151]

I feel like the vast majority of my decks fall within the $100-$200 range and that when I'm building decks online the price gets a bit inflated. Just one aspect that comes to mind is calculating a cost for lands, like defaulting to a $2 basic and suddenly your deck cost is $80 more than it should be (lands are essentially free)

[@Spencer4686]

I have a deck I like to keep around 100 dollars and I'm regular cutting stuff because cards just naturally seem to be going up 🤦

[@RebelOfTheWorld]

And here i am limiting my budget to $50 per deck

[@sofasquirrel]

I try to start at $250. After I play a few games and swap out a "few" cards I find my decks getting out of hand fast $350+ easily. Much to the dismay of my wife lol 😅.

[@ilkoderez601]

So if you're calculating deck cost from EDHRec, that doesn't translate into real life does it?

[@unseeliedream42]

my avg is smaller than your avg but i deserve luv anyway O_O

[@EDHRECast]

It's not the size of the boat but how it floats.

[@Thessik73]

My average deck is $300ish, but that's taking expensive foils and fancy basics into account. If I used cheap versions of cards, only one would be over $300, and only just. That one is, of course, my pet deck. (Ur Dragon, but all the dragons are Legendary)

[@Kjos_jax]

Ur dragon out of the box is worth more than $300 though... You downgraded the precon?

[@IslarfPokemon]

Yarus is a secretly unique commander in a way be just guves all your creatures haste. Which isnt actually that common.

[@nicolefalleur3540]

Dang I have 59 of these things

[@brennanmohr7348]

Making arna right now. Seems so so so degenerate.

[@AdoreHorror]

I just dont play those expensive pay-to-win staples. I can understand an average around $300 but I play lots and I only have one deck that breaks that. Vs other games like one piece where I just bought a meta list for $30, MTG has a problem

[@jsoholt11]

For once im above average 😅

[@LeviRStev]

That average price may be the number that gets aggregated from the deck data, but I don't think decks out in the wild are $500 on average unless you're talking about adjusting for special art treatments and stuff. I'd be curious to know what the average value is of decks that do not contain an OG dual lands.

[@Kjos_jax]

I actually think the number is way higher. You're not accounting for the people walking around with multiple $2,000 decks

[@LeviRStev]

@@Kjos_jax Those people certainly exist, but I think there are quite a lot more people walking around with $50 and $100 decks than there are people with $2,000 decks.

[@Kjos_jax]

@@LeviRStev Yes, but when you factor in averages those numbers become inflated for every person with over $1,000 deck and I have several of those and no dozens and dozens of people who have even more expensive decks than I do

[@evanelliott8231]

☀️ 💧 💀 🔥 🌳

[@TheQSwizzle]

This made me run my own numbers. 17 decks, $120 Average. Most Expensive being $230. I know nothing

[@Kjos_jax]

You have more decks than the average content creator, which I find strange. These people get paid to discuss magic for a living and get free product a lot of times but only have like nine decks or less... Why!? Lol

[@Kjos_jax]

How do you build decks so cheaply? A good mana bass is more than $200

[@TheQSwizzle]

@@Kjos_jax my average cost for lands is legitimately $3-$7

[@TheQSwizzle]

@@Kjos_jax 8 are less than $50. I love me a cheap synergy deck

[@Kjos_jax]

@TheQSwizzle absolutely! And a $50 deck can be improved upon. Don't tell me you're satisfied and think decks are complete? ever

[@boingy2828]

You want to talk about awesome budget cards from 2024? Boingo has got you! Modern Horizons 3, at uncommon sits the wonderful enchantment Muster the Departed. 2W for an enchantment that gets you a 1/1 Spirit with Flying and the other ability populates on end step if a creature died this turn. Most tokens are going to die when they attack/block, and so long as you have a token to populate, it refreshes itself. I run this in my Caesar deck, and I love getting an extra creature token of any kind. $0.12 last I checked as well. Wonderful little card for token decks

[@Z-S-H]

I have 8 decks and only 1 is expensive in the $1000 range The rest are give or take $50 around $300. No I don't use expensive fetches, or shock lands in my cheaper decks and you know what? They.. work.. just.. fine.. It is a min/max myth that you need all that expensive $hit to have a "good" deck. Edit: I have 1 deck that is less that $100 that I have won with multiple times 😉 it's how you play not what you play 👍

[@Etzlo1]

they really should change the commander rule, have it be an option to use it as a replacement effect

[@MetallicMutalisk]

Average deck is 690? I have 13 decks and I don't think they all add up to so much...

[@Kjos_jax]

Even a good mana base costs hundreds of dollars I think the 690 is low

[@jackfriedman9777]

I have like 12 decks and my average cost came out to about $150 including basics. $400 avg deck is absurd and I don’t believe you

[@Kjos_jax]

What you're describing is anecdotal evidence. You can't expect the entire world to have the experience that you do... I actually think 400 is very low.

[@TheLarch]

I have 60 lists on Moxfield and only 4 of them clear $300 and none of them are $400

[@Kjos_jax]

You are not building your decks correctly then no offense Just a manna base alone is hundreds of dollars

[@TheLarch]

@Kjos_jax I'm not playing cEDH, so there is no correct way. Are you aware of the expressive nature of this format? And do you think most players buy every fetch and dual for every deck? I would decrease the number of pods I could join and balloon my costs. Sorry, but offense taken.

[@Kjos_jax]

@TheLarch Yes, every deck runs/should run fetchlands unless it is mono colored. They are less than the cost of a city of brass at this point. I'm very aware of how expressive it is as I build custom decks for people all the time and budgets are usually under 100. I'm all about themes and don't run good stuff or just because it's good cards. Synergy and purpose matter in my opinion. Our store revolves around mtg primarily and even pre-cons get upgraded. We host game nights and I've taught hundreds of people how to play. It's always enjoyable because I don't let people stomp beginners. We're not big fans of cedh, comboing off, locking people out of the game, or any cards that say "you win" on them. I personally don't use tutors either because all the aforementioned go against the spirit of the game. What makes you think I don't understand the expressive nature of the format my friend? No one said you had to do anything. I'm just letting you know that you are on the bass level of deck building. You're welcome to stay there if you choose to and that's why we have in-house decks of all power levels, colors, etc. so everyone can play and enjoy the greatest game around. We're in fact being inclusive, not gatekeeping. If you were in our store and only had your $150 deck, You shouldn't be expected to enjoy a game against someone with a $2,000 deck right? Even based on this video you are way below average. Are you offended by Joey and Dana as well?

[@TheLarch]

@@Kjos_jax Well, Joey and Dana aren't insulting me, so no. If you understand the format so well, why would you imply there's a correct way to build decks? You should know there isn't. Honestly, how dare you speak to anyone that way? Enjoy being lord of a card shop.

[@Kjos_jax]

@@TheLarch They, along with every other major mtg content creator, agree with what I've stated here though. No need to be hostile. I'm not lord of anything... and I speak to people in a very kind and humble manner. Have fun playing however you choose. I put fun over winning too but I think being able to do things almost every turn is fun regardless of whether or not I win as a result. Have a good one and try not to be so touchy

[@robertprueter3292]

That average price is in no way reflective of the deck building experience. I was out of Magic for over a decade and dove back in *hard* this year. In 12 months I built 11 decks of various commanders ranging from popular (Omnath, Locus of Rage and Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls) to less popular (Doran, Siege Tower and Eriette, the Charmed Apple) to downright obscure (Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs), and not a single one cost me more than 300 US dollars. Most were in the $225-275 range. I did pull some from my old stock, but a good chunk of these decks were built from brand new/new to me cardboard. I don't have data to explain why youe figure is higher, outside of anecdotal observations, but for a new player entering commander, 500 is way too high.

[@AeonHeals]

these prices are so inflated, wth... most of the cards are at least half as many euros, often even less

[@nandomgu]

Would live an edhrec cast episode about best hacks using chatgpt during deckbuilding and for commander

[@mathimus55]

My favorite hacks using chatgpt is to ask them for the url to scryfall

[@Deathkeeper43]

Cringe

[@guyvascm]

My decks are around $350-700