(Throne of the High City | Art by Pablo Mendoza)

Wearing the Crown

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. The Brew For Your Buck method was born when I was building yet another commander deck (Alesha, Who Smiles at Death). I couldn't spend the money on the "optimal" build at the time, and I also didn't want to buy cards I knew I'd replace later. So I value engineered the most expensive cards out of the deck with suitable budget replacements, kept 90/100 of the original cards that I wanted, and ordered that sweet cardboard. Then I said to myself, "Self, this would be a good idea for a budget article series." I worked hard on that first article submission, it was approved, and Brew For Your Buck was born.

Well, here we are again with a deck I want to build, so I thought why not just make my thought process into an article, to prove the concept over again and of course, allow myself to order some more sweet cardboard. The deck in question is outside my usual playstyle (no black?!) and very suited for a multiplayer experience:

A commander from the criminally underrated Battle For Baldur's Gate, I opened The Council of Four in one of my prize packs from the prerelease and wished I was able to draft around it. The price of the average list from EDHREC isn't too bad, coming in at $189.07. Some staples and new Wilds of Eldraine cards make the list for removals:

1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. Teferi's Protection ($23.31)
               2. Moonshaker Cavalry ($17.98)
               3. Smothering Tithe ($12.14)
               4. Alandra, Sky Dreamer ($9.62)
               5. Farewell ($8.73)
               6. Loran of the Third Path ($6.68)
               7. Smuggler's Share ($5.18)
               8. Virtue of Loyalty ($5.03)
               9. Faerie Mastermind ($4.77)
               10. Monologue Tax ($4.75)

Total Value of Cuts: $98.19

If we were to swap out the lands that would make the above list (and I will, since I don't own any copies) it brings our total savings to $120.13.

Additions

Our friendly neighborhood politicians can be taken in a lot of different directions. Knights seem to be popular lately with the release of the Cavalry Charge precon from March of the Machine, but I want to go in a different direction. I'm thinking that we give our Council an executive branch, and there's no better executive than a divinely appointed one, right? Right. That means it's Monarch time.

Monarch is one of my favorite mechanics and I'd argue one of the best mechanics for Commander. It incentivizes attacking with the best reward there is: drawing cards. Those two things combined keep the game moving. Life totals go down, everyone stays gassed up. The Council of Four helps us keep the crown with their big butt and ability to spit out chump blockers for incoming attacks. Let's see what we can find to capitalize even further.

The Return of the King

If you're an avid reader of the series, you know that no Universes Beyond crossover will ever top The Lord of the Rings (LTR) for me. Even though we've had a set release since we were all tempted by the Ring, I'm still going to shove some LTR cards in your face because hey, I'm building the deck. Fortunately, one of the LTR precons also featured a lot of Monarch cards for us to jam.

The first ability on Archivist of Gondor ($0.10) is flavor text; our zero-power commander won't be doing combat damage anytime soon. But that second ability is really spicy, doubling up the card draw for having the crown. It incentivizes our opponents to attack us even more, but with cards like Champions of Minas Tirith ($0.21), we are built to resist the onslaught. We even kept Ghostly Prison and Propaganda from the original list, so our new friends from Gondor add even more redundancy. Speaking of friends from Gondor, we might as well run Faramir, Steward of Gondor ($0.52) too. With Faramir out, we take the crown just by casting our commander or eight of the other creatures in the deck and then generate more blockers to help us keep it.

The Emperor's Old Groove

Monarch has been around for a while and some of the older cards fit our new deck perfectly. Palace Jailer ($0.10) is the poster child, being one of the first Monarch cards ever printed and maintaining its top status in Vintage Cube. It makes us the Monarch, removes a threat, and even has a Lord of the Rings printing. Not quite as old, Archon of Coronation ($0.30) adds a whole new layer onto the defenses we're throwing up for ourselves. Suddenly we become immune to burn and alpha strikes by our opponents. Just note that in the unlikely event someone hits you with a creature they are still doing combat damage, so they'll sadly get the crown despite your life total not changing. This won't happen, however, if you've got Protector of the Crown ($2.17) on the board. This one pushes the budget definition a little bit, but it basically means your opponents need to kill this before they can take the crown back from you. If you can protect this guy with all of the extra cards you've been drawing, you'll never lose the crown again.

New Faces at Court

We've got two brand new Monarch cards I'd like to try out: Court of Ardenvale ($1.05) and Court of Vantress ($0.82). Similar to the original court cycle, these give us something no matter what and something better if we start the turn with the crown. The white one is a Sun Titan trigger each turn, which works with almost half of the nonland cards in the deck, and getting one of those back to hand if we're not the Monarch isn't the end of the world either. The real tomfoolery really begins with the blue one though. Copying a Dictate of Kruphix, a Venser's Journal, or heck, even a Court of Ardenvale is really strong, and it does that without the crown! Making a token copy of one of those is just icing on the cake.

My Majesty

To wrap up, I wanted to add two more creatures that (short of a removal spell) can guarantee that we get the crown back if it managed to get stolen from us. Azure Fleet Admiral ($0.04) and Canal Courier ($0.09) both can become unblockable to push through the combat damage to an opposing Monarch. The Pirate does it all on its own, and Canal Courier can be aided by one of our many expendable tokens lying around.

Wrap Up and Savings

Let's take a look at what we saved, now with card links in the table!

We saved 61% of the cost and all ten of the cards we added have the word Monarch in their text box. I'd say we did a good job on this budget package. Since I'm going to put this deck together, I thought I'd share a few more thoughts with you about refining the build:

• Two mana rocks will be important to ramp out the many Monarch cards that cost four. Most of the good ones are in the list. Find room for Prismatic Lens?
• Add Throne of the High City for flavor.
• Replace Fell the Mighty with Sculpted Sunburst?. Maybe Slaughter the Strong too?
• Foil as a free counter that utilizes the extra cards in hand.
• Curse of Verbosity?

I haven't flushed all of these out, so they won't be reflected in the deck list below, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on these or more potential changes in the comments. Once I have a final list I'll post a link on Twitter (I'm still not calling it X) so be sure to give me a follow there!

Here's the final list:

As usual, I'd love to hear your take on this deck, the BFYB process, commanders or themes you'd like to see, or anything else! Let me know down below in the comments; I'm usually pretty good about responding. If not 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.

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.