(Spelunking | Art by Ernanda Souza)

Cave-Related Title Here

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. We haven't talked much about The Lost Caverns of Ixalan much on the series so far and if you were patiently waiting, goodness do I have a deck for you. You may already know how much I like moving lands in and out of the graveyard, and today we're at it again with two heroes from Ravnica, or should I say... Cavnica:

Borbyflip (as they will be referred to for the rest of the article) is pretty straightforward. Draw a card, dump some lands, shoot a thing. This is a great way to remove problem utility creatures or blockers for swinging with our rather large commander. Lost Caverns of Ixalan brings a whole new land subtype to play around with, and there are even payoffs for having Caves in our graveyard! First, let's look at what we're removing:

1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. Cyclonic Rift ($24.67)
               2. Crucible of Worlds ($15.11)
               3. Roaming Throne ($9.27)
               4. Worldly Tutor ($8.36)
               5. Exploration ($8.25
               6. Solphim, Mayhem Dominus ($8.20)
               7. Life from the Loam ($7.40)
               8. Wrenn and Seven ($5.02)
               9. Oracle of Mul Daya ($4.99)
               10. Titania, Voice of Gaea ($4.61)

Total Value of Cuts: $95.88

A good amount of savings for our top 10, but for the first time in BFYB history (I think) the mana base cuts actually outdo the top 10 in terms of savings. So we're going to take the opportunity to replace the expensive lands (11 to be exact) with Caves to further our deck's synergy and reserve our top 10 for nonlands as usual. After we replace the expensive lands with Caves our savings on the mana base comes out to $157.83.

Additions

Cave Diving

The first and most obvious card we'll add is Spelunking ($0.98). Yes, it does say "Cave" in its rules text, but the power here is helping out the rest of our mana base to be able to overcome its main shortcoming. Not only do we get access to the mana right away but we can also activate abilities of those lands that much faster. Calamitous Cave-In ($0.11) is another great Cave payoff, adding another wrath to the deck to sweep the board, after we've bounced Borbyflip of course!

Up next are two ramp spells: Glimpse the Core ($0.21) is a Rampant Growth effect early which is always good, but also has some late game utility that it doesn't share with its cousin. It can re-buy a Hidden Volcano for some red fixing, or another Discover, or maybe a Volatile Fault to snipe another pesky land. Scared Robot, a.k.a. Scampering Surveyor ($0.13) is another new cousin to an iconic card that in my opinion will always go hunting for Forgotten Monument, instantly turning all your Caves into Mana Confluences.

Descending Towards a Win

The other mechanic from The Lost Caverns of Ixalan that we're going to feature is Descend, since our commander gives us a very reliable way to dump permanents in the graveyard and also trigger it during our turn. Brass's Tunnel-Grinder ($0.94) adds another method of card selection to start, once it flips you can cast a free spell per turn just by tapping it for mana. In a similar fashion, The Everflowing Well can flip very quickly after you play it, which can lead to some explosive, game-winning plays. Imagine copying City on Fire or Virtue of Strength? Just remember not to legend rule yourself! We also have Matzalantli, the Great Door ($0.95) that can become a better Gaea's Cradle (yea, I said it) and Bygone Marvels ($0.66) as an excellent recursion spell for our deck.

Coming To Ixalan Arom An Omenpath Near You

Our last two cards are not actually from The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, but synergize great with the plan for the deck. The first one is Cavalier of Flame ($1.61). This lava loving lad does a bunch of things, including buffing the team, a pseudo-wheel to when it enters, and most importantly blasts our opponents for a bunch when it dies. You can even use Borbyflip's ability to kill it yourself if you want. Lastly is Ayula's Influence ($0.31), in case we want an additional discard outlet for our lands. The mana cost isn’t that bad considering our reliance on green mana and our ability to fix colors. Heck, we’re already playing Seismic Assault and this should be even easier to cast!

Wrap Up and Savings

Let’s take a look at what we saved:

A 76% savings, not bad at all. I’m glad we got to feature so many new cards too. It’s always fun when an existing commander gets a huge boost because of the theme and/or mechanics from a new set, kind of like my personal Pirate typal deck! You could also modify this list even further and go full-on “lands with subtypes” theme and add all the Gates and their payoffs too!

Also, as a heads up: This will be my last “normal” article of the year, and next time we’ll have a summary of all the BFYB stats from 2023! If you have any ideas that might be interesting stats to share, be sure to let me know in the comments, along with anything about this deck of course. So I’ll see you next time when we (examine a bunch of numbers from) brew for your buck!

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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 - Here Are My Dragons

The Over/Under - Predicting the Popularity of March of the Machine Commanders

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.