Flamewright | Art by Mathias Kollros

Defense Wins Championships

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. Well, we finally made it to our first five-color deck of the series. I'll admit I've been avoiding doing a WUBRG list, in part because of how to address the mana. As we'll see, a massive portion of the cost of the initial deck is tied up in fetchlands, shocklands, and triomes. Taking out the expensive lands is basically going to mean rebuilding the entire thing from scratch, which I typically don't cover in depth.

Fortunately, I think I've figured out a way to address this. Our budget package today gets better by making more than just ten swaps, so we'll go through the usual process to start, and then I'll provide a short list of an additional ten swaps. Then, we can take a look at what pieces of the existing mana base the savings will cover, so you can get the most bang for your buck buying the existing mana base. That is kind of the whole purpose of the series isn't it?

Anyway, onto our budget theme, which maybe you've already guessed given the title. I fell in love with the Defenders archetype when I won a Conspiracy draft by killing someone with Vent Sentinel and Flamewright. Since then, I've always looked for a viable commander. Arcades is obvious, but we lose out on the two cards I just mentioned. I tried Pramikon but green has a ton of good cards that I didn't want to pass up on. I'm sure at some point we'll get a true five-color Defender commander, but until then we'll go with the latest iteration of Tazri:

As we'll see, a HUGE number of Defenders payoffs have activated abilities. This Tazri helps us find them, and helps us pay the costs to activate them. Like I said at the top, we'll start with the usual process and then get into more ways to maximize the savings and mana base. To start, Tazri's list clocks in at a whopping $513.65. Here's the first round of nonlands we'll take out of the deck:

1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. Agatha's Soul Cauldron ($42.19)
               2. Thrasios, Triton Hero ($18.26)
               3. Seedborn Muse ($11.77)
               4. Bloom Tender ($11.44)
               5. Delighted Halfling ($10.38)
               6. Chulane, Teller of Tales ($9.94)
               7. Faerie Mastermind ($7.08)
               8. Assassin's Trophy ($6.80)
               9. Thousand-Year Elixir ($6.47)
               10. Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy ($5.66)

Total Value of Cuts: $129.99

We'll get a little more into the mana base savings later, but if you were to remove all the lands that would make the above list, you would have save $308.36, bringing the total savings to $438.35. That right there is 85% of the cost of the deck, but you'd also need to find replacements for about 20 lands. Let's see what we can do about keeping some of those in the deck.

Additions

Activate Shields

I already spoiled our first two additions: Vent Sentinel ($0.05) and Flamewright ($0.15). Yes, I'm adding them for nostalgia, but also because they are exactly what we want the deck to do: Defenders with activated abilities. Next, we have two mana dorks well suited for the deck. Axebane Guardian ($0.22) is not only a defender with an activated ability, but does some critical work fixing our mana and accelerating too. Overgrown Battlement ($0.02) doesn't provide the fixing but still lets us accelerate as fast as we can deploy the Defender brigade. Finally, Doorkeeper ($0.21) is yet another Defender based win-con with an activated ability.

United Defense

Dominaria United (DMU) gave us a bunch of new additions for the archetype. To start off, we have two more Defender win-cons in Blight Pile ($0.02) and Coral Colony ($0.03). Blight Pile hits each opponent and doesn't come with the risk of helping an opponent with a graveyard deck, making it the best win-con we have. As such, it will probably be the main target for Shield-Wall Sentinel ($0.08), our defender that finds more defenders. Wingmantle Chaplain ($0.06) was widely considered the mythic uncommon for the DMU, and provides us with a steady stream of Birds to attack and block while we set up our slow, inexorable Defender kill. The last two don't have activated abilities, so no taking advantage of Tazri, but they fit the theme so well that it's hard not to include them. We'll have a few more examples of that later.

The Best Offense is a Good Defense

Even though we're putting literal Walls around ourselves, sometimes we need to speed up the clock and just smack our opponents. Walking Bulwark ($0.07) is another DMU card that really does a lot of things right. It checks our main two boxes; Defender with an activated ability. It's also easy on the mana to cast and activate, helping us circumvent the color requirements that this deck demands. It enables Defender beat downs but most importantly gives our other creatures haste, really helping to push those activated abilities without waiting a turn cycle.

Brewing One Step Further

...And that's the top ten. We got there really fast! Let's check in on the savings like we usually do, then we'll get to the bonus round of swaps.

Well, we shattered all of the previous savings records for the series. The budget package we swapped in was less than a dollar, and swapping out that and the mana base with cheaper lands means we took a deck that was over $500 down to under $100. We could easily stop there for max savings, but let's look a bit further. Here's some rapid fire BFYB to remove the next ten pricey nonlands and add more Defenders-matter cards to the list:

1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. Birds of Paradise ($4.91) for High Alert ($0.40)
               2. Lightning Greaves ($4.90) for Perimeter Captain ($1.09)
               3. Deathrite Shaman ($4.21) for Stalwart Shield-Bearers ($0.35)
               4. Three Visits ($4.16) for Assault Formation ($1.43)
               5. Elven Chorus ($3.99) for Wakestone Gargoyle ($0.23)
               6. Quest for Renewal($3.97) for Portcullis Vine ($0.02)
               7. Samut, Voice of Dissent ($3.34) for Crashing Drawbridge ($0.27)
               8. Training Grounds ($3.20) for Slaughter the Strong ($0.15)
               9. Chromatic Lantern ($3.17) for Ancient Lumberknot ($0.10)
               10. Faeburrow Elder ($2.96) for Dusk // Dawn ($0.14)

These swaps save us an additional $63.43. With nearly $500 in savings now, let's say we're willing to put $100 back into the mana base so we can actually cast all these sweet Defender cards. Here's a list of those lands that I think maximize playability for the $100 we're allowing ourselves:

• Misty Rainforest ($16.71) - the largest color requirements in the deck are in Bant, so this is the cheapest fetchland for that shard.
• Hallowed Fountain ($9.43) - the cheapest shockland for Bant that turns our Misty into white mana.
• Ziatora's Proving Ground ($5.65) - one of the cheaper triomes that turns Misty into red and black mana.
• Marsh Flats ($10.45) - the cheapest fetchland around!
• Spara's Headquarters ($7.33) - the Bant triome for our primarily Bant deck.
• Jetmir's Garden ($7.54) - the next cheapest triome to maximize the two fetchlands for our money.
• Arid Mesa ($12.00) - Next cheapest fetchland up, giving us another way to find red mana.
• Stomping Ground ($9.57) and Temple Garden ($11.47) - next cheapest shocklands.

That leaves us with just under $10 to spend on upgrading the rest of the mana base. Here are some additional lands that aren't in the original list that I'd recommend:

• Krosan Verge ($0.13) - This isn't restricted to getting basic Forest and Plains so it can really help fix your mana.
• Riftstone Portal ($1.04) - one of my pet cards, I'm always looking to put it in a deck. Here, Tazri helps get it into the graveyard.
• Murmuring Bosk ($0.31) - a "triome" that we can get with fetches, Nature's Lore, etc.

These three will go in for Flooded Strand, Wooded Foothills, and Mana Confluence, the most expensive lands in the original list.

Wrap Up & Savings

Phew! That was a lot, but it definitely gives our deck a much better balance of theme, functionality, and budget. Summarizing all our swaps and savings puts us at a total savings of $370.59, a new deck price of $143.06, saving 72% of the original total. Looking at the new list, there are a bunch of cards that don't necessarily make sense for the Defenders theme, so there's probably additional brewing to be done, but I think I've used up enough of your brain's processing power. I know mine is gone.

I'd really love some feedback on how we took the process a step further this time. Do you want to see more of this sprinkled into the series going forward? Or should I just stick to the top ten? 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:

Brew For Your Buck - Unearthing the Infinite

From the Brim to the Trim - Nerfing Budgets and Shrinking Opponents Alike

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.