(Belbe, Corrupted Observer | Art by Igor Kieryluk / Mr. Orfeo, the Boulder | Art by Daarken)

A Link to the Past

Greetings and salutations from a country which somewhat survived the onslaught of Olympic Games. I'm Arnaud, and I'm thrilled to take you on another journey of weird brews and cheap solutions to make your opponents cry tears of emotion!

It's been a while folks. A whole month since our last Trim, and no polls to guide me into another victim. This time around though, I wanted to produce something a bit different. It's been a year and a half since the inception of this series, and I feel like a little introspection is in order. Not quite on my sanity (it's fraying, thanks for asking), but on the older decks. I wanted to take a look the budget-friendliness of early works and see if they still held their own in the budget court.

The rules remain the same: no card worth more than $1 according to Archidekt may remain in the deck. Any of those will be changed with suitable replacements, so that the deck can still proudly boast a small toll on your wallet.

Without further ado, let's dive into our first contender, my beloved Mr. Orfeo, the Boulder.

Colder Boulder Becomes Moulder

Before we dive in, some ramblings. To this date, this commander is the one I've played most games with. My budget list is slightly different from the one here, given that I follow prices in euros for my personal brews (thank the Triforce for European prices), but it follows the same ground rules. Therefore, I'm quite curious to see how well this first batch stood against the Tides of Time.

After reviewing the list and updating all problematic cards to their cheapest alternative, I'm somewhat relieved. As expected, there are quite a few problematic cards that, sadly, we'll have to part with. But overall, most of the deck remains well below our threshold.

Here is where our main issues lie:

So, 12 cards to replace. I'll tell you, I was dreading I'd have to replace half of the deck. I'll keep all those between $1 and $1.10, hoping they may go down in price sometime in the future.

It's an interesting evolution this. Of all of these cards, most have remained close to our traditional threshold. Aside from Wulfgar of Icewind Dale ($2.94 on TCGplayer) and Blasphemous Act ($2.30), all other cards remained below $2.

At any rate, let's see what we can do to mend things. To keep things consistent, let's try matching the categories, with maybe a tiny shift towards Draw. The initial list was a bit shy on card advantage, so we might as well try solving this issue while we're at it.

Here's what I'm offering, based both on the EDHREC updated page for Mr. Orfeo, the Boulder and a few personal touches.

There we go. 10 Draw spells, 10 Ramp spells, a single boardwipe (but hey, we're here to throw punches, aren't we?) and 5 targeted removal.

A word on methodology. I went on Mr. Orfeo's EDHREC page and filtered cards by price, and then proceeded to review anything that seemed relevant. This is one of the coolest new features on the site. You should definitely give it a shot (on price or one of many other options) if you haven't yet.

You'll notice there's nothing too fancy in most of the veggies. I especially like Rowan's Grim Search, a fantastic Read the Bones effect that can get even better. Ramp-wise, I stuck with classics. Honest Rutstein is a double-duty outlet, as it makes our creatures cheaper as well as giving back a dead big boy. Putrefy is there for lack of better choice. I considered Terminate as well, but I like having options.

The Other category is where things get interesting. Yargle and Multani is an absolute must-play in any Power deck. Granted, it has no evasion, but it's already a monster on its own, and is but begging to grow bigger and get flung into faces. Speaking of Flings, Callous Sell-Sword, Mage Slayer and Brass Knuckles all aim at the same goal: hit face. The first is a nice addition to our finishers, while the other two both act as damage doublers. This deck is all about refinement and delicacy, righjt?

If you strive for more consistency, I'd advocate upping both Draw and Ramp to 12 each, but let's keep the list as is for now.

And with that, here's our updated list.

Mr. Orfeo, the Boulder - Updated List

View on Archidekt

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Commander (1) 1 Mr. Orfeo, the Boulder Creature (16) 1 Aggressive Mammoth 1 Archetype of Aggression 1 Etali, Primal Storm 1 Eternal Witness 1 Feldon of the Third Path 1 Forgotten Ancient 1 Grunn, the Lonely King 1 Halana and Alena, Partners 1 Managorger Hydra 1 Putrefax 1 Quartzwood Crasher 1 Taurean Mauler 1 Thrun, Breaker of Silence 1 Yargle and Multani 1 Ziatora's Envoy 1 Zilortha, Strength Incarnate Ramp (10) 1 Arcane Signet 1 Commander's Sphere 1 Cultivate 1 Farseek 1 Fellwar Stone 1 Goblin Anarchomancer 1 Honest Rutstein 1 Kodama's Reach 1 Sakura-Tribe Elder 1 Talisman of Resilience Artifact (2) 1 Blackblade Reforged 1 Trailblazer's Boots Removal (5) 1 Chaos Warp 1 Feed the Swarm 1 Putrefy 1 Ram Through 1 Tear Asunder Double Power (8) 1 Choose Your Weapon 1 Exponential Growth 1 Fiendlash 1 Mage Slayer 1 Temur Battle Rage 1 Twinferno 1 Two-Handed Axe // Sweeping Cleave 1 Unleash Fury Draw (10) 1 Disciple of Bolas 1 Garruk's Uprising 1 Harmonize 1 Hunter's Insight 1 Mask of Griselbrand 1 Painful Truths 1 Read the Bones 1 Return of the Wildspeaker 1 Rowan's Grim Search 1 Sign in Blood Fling (5) 1 Callous Sell-Sword // Burn Together 1 Essence Harvest 1 Fling 1 Kazuul's Fury // Kazuul's Cliffs 1 Soul's Fire Protection (3) 1 Gaea's Gift 1 Golgari Charm 1 Snakeskin Veil Wipe (1) 1 Gaze of Granite Enchantment (3) 1 Invigorating Hot Spring 1 Phyresis 1 Rite of the Raging Storm Pump (1) 1 Brass Knuckles Land (35) 1 Bojuka Bog 1 Cinder Glade 1 Command Tower 1 Evolving Wilds 1 Exotic Orchard 6 Forest 1 Kessig Wolf Run 1 Llanowar Wastes 1 Mosswort Bridge 5 Mountain 1 Riveteers Overlook 1 Rogue's Passage 1 Savage Lands 1 Skarrg, the Rage Pits 1 Spinerock Knoll 6 Swamp 1 Temple of Abandon 1 Temple of Malady 1 Temple of Malice 1 Terramorphic Expanse 1 Wooded Ridgeline

Now then, on to our next slick lady.

Leave the Belle Be!

I've loved Belbe's unique ability since her inception in Commander Legends (Wizards, please calm down on the greed and give us another set like that one...). While I've never quite been able to win consistently, I've always had a ton of fun, trying to play silly expensive cards with her huge mana reduction. Inconsistent she may be, but she never leaves the table indifferent.

As things stand, this deck fared better than its previous counterpart. There are, at the time of writing, only five cards above our $1.10 threshold, and all below $2. This should be a quick one to solve.

Outs:

• Scavenged Brawler
• Thrull Parasite
• Wondrous Crucible
• Swiftfoot Boots
• In Garruk's Wake

So. Two pingers, a payoff, a protection outlet and a board wipe. Let's see if there are any cheap resources to fill that void. I'm fine with not replacing the wipe, as there are still three left.

Ins:

• Sinister Monolith: Another ping effect, plain and simple, courtesy of Bloomburrow. While 4 mana is nothing to scoff at, I like the versatility. Don't care for the pinging anymore? Just sacrifice it for some card advantage!
• Loyal Subordinate: I can't believe this wasn't in the original list. Granted, it will only trigger if our commander is on the field, but since we don't really care about its effect if Belbe's on a leave of absence, it's not that big of a drawback.
• Oblivion Sower: Belbe's page sure seems to like Eldrazis. And since this one is likely to help us in our Big Mana plan, there's no real reason not to play it.
• Twins of Discord: A new addition from Modern Horizons 3. While the second ability is anecdotal at best, the first one is strongly reminiscent of Void Winnower (though not as powerful, granted). And the body is more than half decent.
• Snakeskin Veil: Boots have gone, and Belbe still needs protection. This is cheap and efficient.

Well, that wasn't too painful, was it? Here's the updated list.

Belbe, Cheap observer - Updated List

View on Archidekt

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Commander (1) 1 Belbe, Corrupted Observer Draw (12) 1 Ambition's Cost 1 Ancient Craving 1 Crushing Disappointment 1 Fierce Empath 1 Green Sun's Twilight 1 Harmonize 1 Nissa's Revelation 1 Read the Bones 1 Regrowth 1 Sandstone Oracle 1 Sign in Blood 1 Syphon Mind Ramp (11) 1 Arcane Signet 1 Coveted Jewel 1 Deathsprout 1 Dreamstone Hedron 1 Elves of Deep Shadow 1 Fellwar Stone 1 Mind Stone 1 Oblivion Sower 1 Solemn Simulacrum 1 Stonespeaker Crystal 1 Talisman of Resilience Ping (15) 1 Archers' Parapet 1 Cryptolith Fragment // Aurora of Emrakul 1 Hooded Blightfang 1 Ill-Gotten Inheritance 1 Loyal Subordinate 1 Noxious Field 1 Okiba Reckoner Raid // Nezumi Road Captain 1 Pestilence 1 Plague Spitter 1 Retreat to Hagra 1 Sanctum of Stone Fangs 1 Shepherd of Rot 1 Sinister Monolith 1 Vampire Neonate 1 Withering Wisps Payoffs (13) 1 Artisan of Kozilek 1 Baleful Force 1 Bane of Bala Ged 1 Breaker of Armies 1 Caller of the Pack 1 Dawnglade Regent 1 Deceiver of Form 1 Desolation Twin 1 Maelstrom Colossus 1 Psychosis Crawler 1 Sandwurm Convergence 1 Thieving Amalgam 1 Ulamog's Crusher Removal (5) 1 Black Sun's Twilight 1 Bladegriff Prototype 1 Meteor Golem 1 Nature's Claim 1 Terastodon Wipe (3) 1 Decree of Pain 1 Gaze of Granite 1 Steel Hellkite Artifact (2) 1 God-Pharaoh's Statue 1 Horizon Stone Evasion (1) 1 Twins of Discord Protection (1) 1 Snakeskin Veil Land (36) 1 Blighted Woodland 1 Bojuka Bog 1 Command Tower 1 Darkmoss Bridge 1 Evolving Wilds 1 Leechridden Swamp 1 Llanowar Wastes 1 Myriad Landscape 10 Snow-Covered Forest 14 Snow-Covered Swamp 1 Tainted Wood 1 Temple of Malady 1 Terramorphic Expanse 1 Woodland Chasm

A Few Outs Before We Dive Back In

This was... unconventional. I hope you enjoyed this short journey back in time.

As I mentioned before, I was both afraid and curious to see whether the decks would remain budget-friendly. And while some cards have definitely gone up in price, none have become eye-gouging.

Which brings me to the reasons which brought me to write this weird article. I'm thinking of adding a section to the regular articles, going back on an old brew and see how it fared. Would you be interested, or should the past remain in the past?

I'm actually looking forward to seeing how the other lists fared, but in the end, your opinion is the one that truly counts.

Let me know in the poll and in the comments below, and I'll see you in two weeks for a more "classical" Trim!

Read more:

From the Brim to the Trim - Submerging Opponents with Buoyant Budget

Brew For Your Buck - Squirrels Budget Mayhem!

Arnaud Gompertz

Arnaud Gompertz has been playing Magic since 4th Edition, back in 1995. He's been an assiduous EDH enthusiast since 2012, with a soft spot for unusual and casual Commanders. He'll always favour spectacular plays against a boring path to victory. Aside from mistreating cardboard, he's a dedicated board games player, loves a challenging video game and occasionally tries to sing with his choir.