Gleeful Demolition | Art by Tuan Duong Chu

With a Little Help From a Friend

Hello, fellow brewer, and welcome back to Brew For Your Buck, where we swap out the top 10 most expensive cards in a deck with 10 budget cards that add a unique twist. I've got a special article for you this time, but the set up requires a bit of a story. I reconnected with a friend from college through Magic and I'm thankful the game brought us back together. When I came up for the idea for this series he was a big supporter. He gave me so much positive reinforcement (and continues to do so) plus his help proofing that first article for its acceptance submission was invaluable to getting me to where I am now. So, this article is dedicated to my friend, and if you'll forgive me for an inside joke: Hi Ryan.

Not too long ago, Ryan and I were discussing the worst thing about him: he doesn't have a Commander deck with black in its color identity. I suggested an Aristocrats theme, since that playstyle isn't similar to any of his other decks, and he told me that Sedgemoor Witch was the card that got him back into Magic. Well, that got our brewing gears turning: a black deck that is a cross between Aristocrats and Spellslinger, which led us to:

Doesn't get much better than a spell that's a sac outlet in the command zone! We'll focus on Awaken the Blood Avatar with our budget package, but Extus being a recursion engine is important for the long game. Sedgemoor Witch is already in the deck, so I think we've met all of Ryan's requirements. The deck starts at a whopping $406.74, so let's find out where we can save Ryan some money (he does have a baby on the way after all).

1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. Dockside Extortionist ($63.78)
               2. Anointed Procession ($43.27)
               3. Demonic Tutor ($27.97)
               4. Mondrak, Glory Dominus ($23.89)
               5. Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation ($21.47)
               6. Smothering Tithe ($15.56)
               7. Blood for the Blood God! ($6.32)
               8. Ruinous Ultimatum ($5.32)
               9. Pitiless Plunderer ($4.74)
               10. Anguished Unmaking($4.47)

Total Value of Cuts: $216.79

Wow, those first six cards on the list are expensive. Losing Pitiless Plunderer is the real bummer, as that would have really helped out my plan for the deck, but we'll get to that in a second. As we usually see with three color decks, there's a lot of value in the mana base. Replacing the expensive lands leads to an additional $124.84 in savings, for a total of $341.63.

Like I said before, our budget package is going to focus on Awaken the Blood Avatar, especially ways that can enable casting it multiple times in a single turn. The best way to do this is to use the act of casting our signature spell to help it cast itself again. So we want things that generate creatures or mana through casting a sorcery, sacrificing creatures, or other creatures dying. Let's take a look:

Additions

Cast a spell, make a dude, kill the dude.

The Sedgemoor Witches of the world will be some of the best cards in the deck, so we're looking to ways to maximize them. Two of them, Young Pyromancer and Storm-Kiln Artist are both Shamans, a creature type that Harmonic Prodigy ($1.56) cares a lot about. It also cares about the Dualcaster Mage in our deck, and in conjunction they allow you to copy Awaken the Blood Avatar twice for just three mana. We can also add another copy of this effect if we're willing to do a minimal amount of work. Cemetery Protector ($0.86) can exile a sorcery from a graveyard and immediately start pumping out tokens. It's also some incidental graveyard hate for anyone in the pod abusing theirs.

We have some creatures that leave a token behind when the die, but we can do better than just one for one. First, Requiem Angel ($0.84) only cares about non-Spirits dying, not tokens. While we have the Angel on the battlefield, sacrificing a non-Spirit is basically mana-neutral as far as Awaken is concerned, powering up our plan for casting it many times over. Impulsive Pilferer ($0.09) might not seem like much, but follow this logic. For five mana, one to cast it and four to Encore it, you get four creatures and four treasures to sacrifice, By our Awaken math, that's five mana to get TWELVE back, including two sets of the black and red mana needed to cast our now-favorite sorcery.

"Rituals"

Each creature we have available to sacrifice to Awaken is essentially two generic mana, so cards that create multiple creatures become something like a ritual in our deck. Three is the magic number of creatures we want to sacrifice, which will bring Awaken down to just the colored mana plus commander tax. The best of these are Kuldotha Rebirth ($1.08) and Gleeful Demolition ($0.71). One mana and the loss of a Treasure or another random artifact essentially adds six mana to be used to cast our commander. They're also spells, which synergize with cards already in the deck like the aforementioned Sedgemoor Witch. Both of them are cheap enough that with the right draw, we can cast Awaken as early as turn three, really putting the pressure on opponents.

If you thought one mana for six was good, how about zero? Triplicate Spirits ($0.21) features one of my favorite mechanics, Convoke, which means we can maybe cast it for free by tapping a bunch of creatures that we're going to sacrifice anyway. Sram's Expertise ($0.38) will make the magic three creatures we need and be able cast nearly half the cards in our deck for free along with them, making it sneakily mana efficient for a higher upfront cost.

Command Zone payoffs

Our last two cards take advantage of the fact that we are aiming to cast our "commander" as many times as we can in a single game. Fury Storm is the best payoff for us and thankfully is already in the deck. Considering Awaken the Blood Avatar is an eight mana spell, tacking on Cascade might be useful, no? Allow me to introduce you to Flamekin Herald ($0.16), who wants you to cast everything in the deck for free. Well, almost everything. The last card we're going to add is Skull Storm ($0.53), which should reduce our opponents' boards to nothing and then lower their life totals so that the attacking Blood Avatars can finish them off.

Wrap Up & Savings

Let's see what we saved:

82%!? That's some insane savings! One of the best jobs we've done to date. Ryan, I hope you like it, thank you for all your support, and welcome to the world of black mana, my friend.

What do you think, reader? Any cool cards I missed to help cast Awaken for cheap? Are you missing a color from your commander decks? Why?Let me know in the comments and I'll see you next time when we brew for your buck!

Follow me on Twitter @BrewForYourBuck

Please note: card prices listed in this article are accurate at the time of writing, but prices can vary over time and between locations.

Read more:

Do Your Worst - Mono-Blue Aristocrats

Deep Analysis - Aristocrats

Brian Cain

Brian played Magic intermittently between 2003 and 2017 when he fully embraced his love for Commander. Finding ways to maximize the value of each piece of cardboard in the deck is one of his favorite things to explore, especially if it involves putting lands in the graveyard! Outside of Magic, Brian works as a consultant in the marine industry, turning his passion for boats and ships into a career.