Spider Spawning | Art by Steve Prescott

Limited Inspiration

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. Until now we've looked at a lot of different two-color decks, in part because as we add colors the most expensive cards tend to just be the mana base, which for us creates a weird dynamic for removing and adding cards. Based on your feedback, we're going to switch it up a bit. We'll only look at the top ten nonland cards going forward, trusting you to adjust your mana base as needed for your budget and deck functionality. I'll include "additional savings" from the mana base after the list of cuts just so it's clear.

With that out of the way, let's move on to today's deck. My favorite way to play Magic besides Commander is Limited. I started my foray into drafting back in the Scars of Mirrodin block, and yes, I forced Infect until I didn't, then 3-0'd the FNM with a red-white beatdown deck. After Scars block, something happened that is now mythical in the annals of Limited: triple Innistrad draft. And within that format was one of the most famous Limited decks of all time. Shadows Over Innistrad: Remastered kind of brought it to Arena, but we are bringing it to Commander. Yes, dear reader, today's budget package is the Spider Spawning deck, shoehorned into an existing Commander deck as a tribute to the fun I had all those years ago.

Fortunately, we have a perfect commander to do this: Sidisi, Brood Tyrant. Sidisi is all about getting creatures in the 'yard, which happens to be perfect for Spider Spawning. Being in Sultai also allows us to play all of the cards we need for Spider Spawning and its myriad of friends that made the 40-card deck pop.

Looking at the average list on EDHREC, the deck clocks in at $367.40. As expected, seven of the top 10 most expensive cards are lands. Taking out that many without replacing them with basics or other budget lands would probably be catastrophic in a deck looking to mill itself, so as mentioned before we're going to look at the top 10 nonlands to remove:

1. 1. 1. 1. 1. Demonic Tutor ($40.15)
            2. Cyclonic Rift ($35.81)
            3. Reanimate ($11.05)
            4. Life from the Loam ($10.02)
            5. Birds of Paradise ($6.65)
            6. Entomb ($5.91)
            7. Buried Alive ($5.90)
            8. Assassin's Trophy ($5.53)
            9. Deathrite Shaman ($5.37)
            10. Cryptbreaker ($5.27)

Total Value of Cuts: $131.66

We can save an additional $134.04 by replacing the expensive lands with budget options, for a total savings of $265.70.

Additions

The Trinity

To start off, we know we're adding Spider Spawning ($0.11), it's the namesake card of the deck. In Innistrad Limited there were other key cards needed to infinitely loop it. One reason why the deck was so silly is because a lot of these cards would be close to last picks since they really didn't do much in any other draft deck. These were Runic Repetition ($0.02) and Memory's Journey ($0.15). Once you were down to only a few cards left in the deck, you could use Memory's Journey to shuffle Spider Spawning and Runic Repetition back into your deck, then use Runic Repetition to put Memory's Journey back into your hand and repeat to make unlimited Spiders.

Classic Support

Some of the classic support cards for the draft deck are already in our list, like Deranged Assistant and Splinterfright, but we have a few more classics to add. Gnaw to the Bone ($0.12) keeps you alive as you mill yourself towards that state of bliss, and while we have plenty of ways to mill ourselves, Selhoff Occultist ($0.07) goes into overdrive in Commander, with more players at the table, creature tokens (like the Zombies that Sidisi makes) dying, and board wipes flying around.

Best Impressions

The decks that really got to pop off had multiple copies of the key cards. Well, we can't do that in Commander, but thankfully we've been to Innistrad three times (as of 2023), so we can look to the sister sets for redundancy. Midnight Hunt and Crimson Vow tried to capture the nostalgia, like we're doing today, bringing us Vilespawn Spider, Rootcoil Creeper, and Turn the Earth. Vilespawn Spider is already in the deck, which really threw me for a loop as to why the card it pays homage to isn't. Rootcoil Creeper ($0.07) is not in the deck, but it is a great addition, being a mana dork to get us to Sidisi early and acting as a one-shot Runic Repetition. Turn the Earth ($0.13) is essentially Memory's Journey with some extra flexibility and lifegain thrown in.

Commanding Shifts

Okay, okay, I know we can't only jam Limited cards into the deck, so the last few cards are proof that I am not lost in a Bruce Springsteen song. This is Commander, after all, and there are some sweet additions that can supplement our Limited dreams. Mausoleum Secrets ($0.84) is one of my favorite tutors on a budget, and this is a perfect home for it. It can find 31 of the cards in our deck for two mana at instant speed, making it a really powerful tutor for us. In a similar vein, Songs of the Damned ($0.78) can give us a huge burst of mana, again at instant speed to fuel a big turn. Finally, the newly reprinted Oversold Cemetery ($0.47) will let us grab a key creature out of our graveyard. Most of the time we want them to stay in there, but with all the milling we're doing, this card can act more like card draw than recursion.

Wrap Up and Savings

Let's take a look at what we've saved:

We achieve a massive 72% cost reduction from the average if we make these swaps and cut out the pricey lands. And hey, maybe by cutting out just the nonlands, you can keep one of the expensive lands for your collection! I definitely like this new method going forward, so look for more mana base savings in the future.

Thanks for taking this journey down memory lane with me. Memory's Journey lane? Something like that. As always, I look forward to your feedback in the comments, and I'll see you next time when we brew for your buck!

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.