It’s no secret that Magic: The Gathering is an expensive hobby to maintain. Even before the upcoming Standard price hikes, putting together a viable deck in the format could easily run you several hundred dollars. For that reason, we like to highlight more affordable strategies when they emerge. This past weekend, an innovative Caves deck, which can be built on a budget of just $30, put in a solid performance in an MTG Online Standard Challenge.
This deck plays many of the now-bulk Cave synergy pieces from The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, combined with the card draw engine that is Up the Beanstalk. The result is a colorful, chaotic list unlike anything else in Standard right now. If you want to wander off the beaten track for a budget price, you can’t do much better than this.
$30 Budget Caves In MTG Standard
This budget Caves deck comes to us via Matsukasa10, who piloted it to a top eight finish in Saturday’s MTG Online Standard Challenge. As the name suggests, this deck is all about lands with the Cave subtype from Lost Caverns of Ixalan. There are a lot of these in Standard right now, and a surprising number of payoffs for running them, too.
For example, running a mostly-Caves manabase turns Bat Colony into three 1/1 fliers for three mana, which is a great rate. It also lets it serve as a Luminarch Aspirant on future turns, provided you keep making your land drops. That’s a pretty powerful package all told.
The fun doesn’t stop there. Gargantuan Leech is a big, chunky creature that you can essentially cast for half price if you’re using Caves. A four mana 5/5 with Lifelink is still good even by current standards, and Leech can go lower than that with some work.
On top of those you also get access to Calamitous Cave-In, which is a powerful board wipe in red that also hits planeswalkers. Both this and Leech scale off of Caves in your graveyard as well as those in play. This is extremely relevant because a lot of Caves, Promising Vein, Captivating Cave, etc., have effects that ask you to sacrifice them.
Overall, these cards are the heart of the deck. Combined with a manabase that consists of 23 Caves and four Basics, you can consistently get the most out of them. Being in four colors is a challenge to be sure, but Caves like Captivating Cave and Forgotten Monument go a long way towards fixing that issue.
Bean There, Done That
Supporting this MTG budget Caves package is something we’ve seen plenty of in Standard recently: an Up the Beanstalk engine. This sneaky little two mana enchantment got itself banned in Modern, but it’s still free to terrorize Standard. Here, it provides the card advantage necessary for an otherwise clunky off-meta strategy to function.
Up the Beanstalk is only as good as the five plus mana spells you pair with it, and Matsukasa10’s list has some crackers. Ride’s End has been showing up a ton lately as a “five mana” exile-based removal spell you can typically cast for two, and it performs that same role here. Dealing with big threats on the cheap and drawing a card always feels great.
On top of that, Gargantuan Leech from the Caves package plays nicely here too. You can easily cast it for just a couple of mana later on in the game, but it’ll always draw you a card off of Beanstalk. This can lead to some crazy snowball turns later on, and is a nice bit of incidental synergy.
The last, and perhaps the most interesting, of the Beanstalk enablers in the deck is Imodane’s Recruiter. When cast on its Adventure side, this card gives you two 2/2s and a card. Alternatively, you can drop its creature side after a Bat Colony for a big swing in the air. It’s a flexible piece, good both when you’re ahead and behind.
Rounding out the list are a few utility creatures. Cathar Commando is a nice answer to artifacts and enchantments, while Phyrexian Missionary offers some welcome recursion for your Leeches, etc. The deck also runs a lone copy of Anoint with Affliction, which is handy to have early game against the likes of Gruul Aggro.
Cheap And Cheerful?
Matsukasa10’s budget MTG Caves deck is a breath of fresh air in Standard. It’s awesome to see an entire archetype that’s been pretty much written off put up great results. What’s even more awesome is the low price of entry here. For just $30, or $3 in MTGO tix, it’s hard to go wrong with this list.
Sure it’s not as consistent as the likes of Gruul Aggro or Domain, but it’s much, much cheaper. According to MTG Goldfish a current Gruul Aggro deck will run you nearly $300, while Domain will cost over $500. Even on the low end with Mono-Red Prowess, you’re looking at at least $200 to sleeve up a deck in Standard right now. In that context, $30 for a deck that can get you Challenge wins is an absolute steal.
That said, it’s certainly a deck with some tough matchups. Matsukasa10 went 5-2 with the list overall, which is an admirable record but not on par with the likes of Esper Pixie and Azorius Omniscience from the same event. Playstyle-wise it feels a bit like a powered-down Domain, what with the four colors and the reliance on Up the Beanstalk. It has a bit more of an aggressive edge, however, which lets it push through surprising Aggro wins on occasion. That’s a tool Domain doesn’t have on its $500 belt.
All in all, while it’s not going to break the meta, Matsukasa10’s Caves deck gives you a lot of Magic: The Gathering for your money. Its low price makes it an attractive prospect right now, too. With Standard about to shift thanks to Tarkir: Dragonstorm, investing in a tier one deck is a risky business at best.
