Standard: 5 Budget Decks to start in Magic Arena

Standard post-Wilds of Eldraine has become one of the most fun formats to play in Magic Arena. The variety of archetypes available in the competitive environment is still great, there are possibilities for every strategy, and the games are rewarding.

However, when we start on the digital platform, our main limitation is the number of wildcards available. Rare and mythic cards are the most difficult obstacle to optimizing decks in Magic Arena, and we don't always get the best draft experience to farm gems and booster packs.

Therefore, having accessible options to take advantage of the platform's main competitive format is essential. In this article, I present five budget deck options for playing Wilds of Eldraine Standard!

The five lists chosen for this text were selected based on some criteria:

1) All lists must have a maximum of 12 rare cards and four mythic cards. The mana base is only preferable in lists where having untapped lands in the first turns makes a big difference, and if we have enough slots for it!

2) The decks need to function and win games in the Best of One environment, and were not considered for Best of Three, as the environment of these matches is more refined and requires maindeck optimization before considering the sideboard.

3) Rare and mythic cards must be essential to the archetype's strategy, or be individually good to the point where they can be used in other decks.

4) All lists must have potential for optimization. "Budget" versions of pre-established archetypes must also consider the investment necessary to transform it into the optimized version.

Mono Red Stompy - 0 Rares

Mono Red Stompy is one of several variants of Mono Red Aggro present in Standard. In this version, with zero rare or mythic cards, we aim to win in the fewest turns possible, dealing as much as possible in each combat, giving up flexibility in favor of a more explosive start.

One of the most interesting points of this version is the interaction between Cacophony Scamp with pumps and Monstrous Rage, which allows for a quick victory as early as the third turn. Cacophony Scamp is also punishing for players who rely on removals to hold the match.

To complement this proposal, creatures with Prowess become more threatening with pumps, while Phoenix Chick goes over most blockers. We also run other classic staples, such as Play with Fire, Kumano Faces Kakkazan and Lightning Strike,

Mono Red Stompy is very objective, and there aren't many tricks in how to play it: find the best openings and try to deal at least one point of damage each turn. It's a deck where either you win quickly, or the game enters an irreversible state where you've already lost. With zero rares or mythics, it is the ideal entry point for players new to Standard.

Upgrades to Mono Red involve having a more flexible game plan beyond the fourth turn. Creatures that generate some value, threats that cost a little more but can deal more damage, and even greater flexibility against sweepers are some of the key points of optimized versions.

Mono Blue Tempo - 4 Rares

Mono Blue Tempo is another ideal strategy for beginner players with a shortage of rare wild cards in Magic Arena. Unlike the list above, this one does not have such an objective game plan and requires more understanding of the format and the Metagame to be properly played.

In Mono Blue, our stance is to be disruptive and then attack: we use our bounces and counterspells to delay the opponent's game to the point where we throw them too far back, and then, we cast our threats to end the game before the opponent manages to recover.

To exert pressure, our creatures are cheap and have some added quality: either by protecting themselves, or by having evasion and an arbitrary amount of power. Haughty Djinn, the only rare card on this list, is your main wincondition and the threat that must be kept in play at all costs.

And to ensure we find the cards we need, our cantrips and card advantage package makes it possible to dig deep for answers or threats, with the guaranteed bonus of growing up Haughty Djinn, or fueling the cost reduction for Tolarian Terror.

Another advantage in Mono Blue Tempo compared to the other decks in this article is that upgrades for its optimized version require few rare cards, with March of Swirling Mist being the most important, as it guarantees protection against Sunfall, removes blockers at an opportune moment, or even works as a pseudo-Fog when necessary.

On the other hand, this ease also means that there is little potential for evolution for the archetype, and it is not among one of Standard's main competitors at the moment.

Simic Poison - 8 Rares

Simic Poison is a combo deck focused on the interaction between Venerated Rotpriest and Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief: the Phyrexian creature specifies that an opponent gains a poison counter every time a creature you control is the target of a spell, and since Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief copies spells that target other creatures to it, your opponent will gain two poison counters for each spell you cast.

To maintain redundancy, we also have Stormchaser Drake to turn our spells into cantrips and provide another way to extract value from them and find our winconditions.

Twelve protection spells ensure our creatures stay in play. This number can be amplified to 16 with Shore Up, making it a viable choice in certain Metagames. However, we need other proactive options to advance our game plan and set the Tempo in our favor.

Combat Research is excellent alongside Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief, as it guarantees two copies of the enchantment in play and, consequently, two extra draws per turn your creatures attack. Aspirant's Ascent grants more instances of Toxic for your creatures in addition to evasion. If played alongside Venerated Rotpriest and Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief, it grants up to five poison counters in a single turn.

To complement the spells package, we have cantrips that help us find our threats and/or the effects we need in the game. Experimental Augury is excellent in this regard due to its ability to proliferate, but we can replace it with Impulse, which looks for one more card for the same cost.

In addition to the manabase, which we can improve with Yavimaya Coast and Dreamroot Cascade, some effects help increase the redundancy of the list. Invasion of Ikoria works as extra copies of our creatures, while March of Swirling Mist is more comprehensive in protecting our cards from Farewell or Sunfall.

Elusive Otter is a recent addition to Wilds of Eldraine that allows for a more aggressive and less combo-dependent stance, but it also requires some changes to the list and improving our aggressive stance to get the most out of it.

Selesnya Enchantments - 4 Rare, 4 Mythic

Selesnya Enchantments is another of the most common strategies in the Best of One environment, as it is one of the most efficient answers against Mono Red Aggro in the format. In this environment, we gave up most value engines in favor of a more aggressive strategy.

Generous Visitor rewards us for playing enchantments by amplifying the power of our creatures, while Michiko's Reign of Truth and Katilda, Dawnhart Martyr take advantage of the number of enchantments we have in play. Katilda, in fact, was chosen as the rare card on this list because it interacts better with the Aggro stance we need, while holding up the pressure of other similar archetypes.

Katilda also interacts with Hallowed Haunting, our mythic pick and the best guarantee we have for maintaining our board advantage in long games. And with 20 enchantments to cast, we have enough to make the most of this card.

Jukai Naturalist and Spirited Companion are excellent plays in the early turns alongside Generous Visitor, and still work well in later stages of the game. Jukai Naturalist's Lifelink is another efficient method of holding off aggressive decks in the early turns, especially alongside Michiko's Reign of Truth.

Commune with Spirits helps with finding specific enchantments. Our preferred targets for it are Ossification if we need to deal with an immediate threat, Hallowed Haunting if we want to sequence an efficient turn with Jukai Naturalist, or any of the pump enchantments to speed up our game.

As for interactions, Audacity and Royal Treatment help us bypass combat math while putting more enchantments into play, while Ossification should be used to deal with larger creatures.

As one of the competitors in the current Metagame, the possibilities for improvements for Selesnya Enchantments are specific. In the most aggressive version for Best of One, priority should be given to the mana base, which needs more untapped lands to operate at the ideal time. The new Calix, Guided by Fate is also a suitable option.

As for Best of Three, the list needs more ways to extract value from its permanents, a point where The Restoration of Eiganjo, Teachings of the Kirin and Rite of Harmony stand out, while Wedding Announcement and Virtue of Loyalty are optional in some lists.

Azorius Soldiers - 7 to 11 Rare

Azorius Soldiers is another of Standard's top competitors today, and one that requires a decent number of rare wildcards.

One of the essential points for it to work is a decent amount of untapped land. Therefore, although we can reduce the number of rares to up to seven, or invest them in other staples, such as Knight-Errant of Eos, we chose to use four wild cards in the mana base, as this allows the deck to carry out its proposal in Best of One without major issues.

The game plan for this version is simple: put several soldiers into play, cast Harbin, Vanguard Aviator and attack with your army to secure +1/+1 and flying for your creatures. Our biggest weakness, in fact, is that this variant is too dependent on Harbin to win games, or on our opponent's lack of disruption for us to pressure on with Wedding Announcement.

To compensate for some gaps in rare cards, we have Coppercoat Vanguard to increase the power of our Humans, and Gavony Dawnguard, of which we can take advantage of its effect due to the various instant-speed plays we have, in addition to the low cost of other cards, which ensures we can play two or more of them in a single turn to change the Day and Night cycle.

Improvements to Soldiers mean, ironically, reducing the number of soldiers and typal interactions in favor of the individual quality of other cards. Knight-Errant of Eos and other duals are essential, while Werefox Bodyguard and Virtue of Loyalty show up in some lists.

That's all for today

If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments.

Thanks for reading!