Standard: 5 Budget Decks to Play Best of One

Aetherdrift has just shown its impact and potential in competitive Magic through the Pro Tour, and it is natural that, with it, new decks will show up in the coming weeks.

But for many, Magic is still an unknown game. While a portion of the audience is very loyal and closely follows the news, others bet more on casual games, whether at Commander tables, with friends, at the kitchen table, or on Magic Arena, where the cost of investing in new decks can be steep for many.

In this article, we present five Budget decks inspired by the news that Pro Tour Aetherdrift brought to Standard, all aimed at Best of One matches, and with the potential to, with the right improvements, be great competitors in ranked games and Best of Three.

Mono Red Mice (8 Rares)

Despite not running any Aetherdrift cards (except for the reprint of Lightning Strike that was already in Standard), Mono Red Mice is a solid choice of a cheap deck for players who want to start in Magic Arena ranked games, always with the potential of a “free-win” against unprepared opponents.

Its plan involves using Manifold Mouse to turn Heartfire Hero and Emberheart Challenger into constant threats as you give them Trample or Double Strike to follow up with pumps like Monstrous Rage and Turn Inside Out, pressuring your opponent's life every turn.

Another win line involves Callous Sell-Sword, who can sacrifice Heartfire Hero or Cacophony Scamp to deal damage equal to their power to the opponent and trigger their ability, which will also deal damage equal to their power, culminating in a “combo”.

Improvements for this version usually vary between two strands: the first is more focused on the pump plan and uses Slickshot Show-Off, while other versions go for a more “go wide” strategy with Hired Claw and Screaming Nemesis - in this case, it is also worth investing in a few copies of Witchstalker Frenzy as well.

Orzhov Bounce (8 Rares)

Competitive Orzhov Bounce is a relatively new deck, which had the highest win rate at Pro Tour Aetherdrift. Here, we tried to reduce the number of rares and mythics in the list and bet even more on the interaction that the archetype proposes, which involves a card that, normally, would be terrible to play in Bounce: Temporary Lockdown.

In addition to responding perfectly to Aggro decks and Bounce mirrors, Temporary Lockdown can be returned to the hand with Nurturing Pixie after exiling all of our enchantments in play, returning them to the battlefield and reusing the ETB of each of them, culminating in a powerful snowball effect.

To compensate for the lack of manlands and increase the consistency of this plan, we added Mischievous Pup to increase the number of Bounces, making it more consistent.

Another important interaction of these cards is with Unholy Annex, which in addition to being our primary source of card advantage, also has the mode of creating a demon token, and if we return it to the hand, we can create more tokens to finish the game.

As a relatively new archetype, we'll still have to wait for the Metagame to adapt to see how it develops, but upgrades include, in addition to duals like Concealed Courtyard, Bleachbone Verge and Caves of Koilos, cards like Beza, the Bounding Spring and Liliana of the Veil, as well as Soulstone Sanctuary to increase the consistency of Unholy Annex.

Selesnya Beanstalk (4 Rares, 4 Mythics)

Up the Beanstalk is one of the most powerful cards in the current Standard season and should remain so through rotation. As we gain more tools that cost five or more, but have alternative ways to play, the more effective this enchantment becomes.

This list is largely geared toward answering common Best-of-One decks in Magic Arena while trying to extract value from Up the Beanstalk with Ride’s End, Luminous Rebuke, Sunfall, and Overlord of the Mistmoors, our primary win condition.

In addition to these, Obstinate Baloth is a safe wall to gain breath against Aggro and punishes Hopeless Nightmare and other discard effects in Bounce decks, while Pawpatch Formation doubles as life gain plus draw or answer against flying threats and enchantments.

Improvements to Selesnya Beanstalk would likely involve expanding the scope of cards for Domain lists, like the version used by Matt Nass to win Pro Tour Aetherdrift, which also requires a large investment of wildcards.

Golgari Self-Mill (4 Rares, 4 Mythics)

Zevin Faust surprised the world by reaching the Top 8 of his first Pro Tour with a list that few if any players had high expectations for, but which also takes advantage of Up the Beanstalk and alternative costs to extract value from the enchantment - this time, with creatures in the graveyard.

The plan here is to use creatures that put cards into your graveyard to feed other spells that reduce their cost for each creature in the graveyard, allowing you to sequence several of them in a turn with one or more copies of Up the Beanstalk in play, creating an efficient clock mix with a constant source of card advantage.

Improvements for this archetype, at the moment, involve exclusively improving the mana base with as many untapped lands as possible and with Underground Mortuary for consistency. In addition, Harvester of Misery is a good low-cost removal that feeds the Golgari Mill's plan while, in longer games, it can become a one-sided sweeper.

Azorius Control (8 Rares, 4 Mythics)

Azorius Control is back on the menu, and thankfully, the card that brought it back from the dead is an uncommon: Stock Up is as close to Dig Through Time or Memory Deluge as the format has today, and it boosted the archetype's win rate and viability during the Pro Tour.

Our plan here is as classic as it gets: respond to what your opponent does, maintain a resource advantage with your draws and permanents, and win the game when the inevitable comes.

The win condition can be any of Jace, the Perfected Mind, Beza, the Bounding Spring or Overlord of the Mistmoors, but I chose Jace because he also works as a source of card advantage and to hold games, not to mention that Mill ends up being more efficient when we don't have complementary threats.

Improvements include adding Get Lost as more comprehensive removal, as well as expanding our win conditions with Overlord of the Mistmoors and Beza, the Bounding Spring, as well as more dual lands, both untapped and more functional options like Restless Anchorage and Meticulous Archive.

That's all for today!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for reading!