Unfortunately, as many players know, Magic: The Gathering is extremely expensive. With the average constructed deck costing hundreds of dollars, it becomes tough for any MTG player to make their money go the distance. This is especially true in Commander, where individual cards can cost hundreds of dollars.
For those interested in making their money go as far as possible, there are some strong budget options available if you know where to look. These won’t be quite as good as the $50 Game Changers, but thanks to the multi-opponent nature of Commander, MTG color hate cards have a lot of underrated potential.
Insight MTG
Insight is as powerful and situational as it is simple. If you have multiple opponents in green at your table, Insight will easily net you a ton of cards. Generally, if Insight draws you at least three cards over the course of a game, this enchantment has performed extremely well. This is a rather low bar to cross, so long as one of your opponents is playing green, Insight will generally pull its weight.
The issue crops up when none of your opponents are playing green. This is rather unlikely, but in the case it does happen, it’s in your best interest to have a way to turn Insight into something better. Fortunately, this isn’t difficult to do thanks to a wide variety of blue Commanders with Looting and Rummaging abilities.
Baral, Chief of Compliance, Emet-Selch, Unsundered, and Atreus, Impulsive Son are all examples of Commanders that can use their abilities to turn a dead Insight into new cards. Considering the raw card draw this card can offer, as well as a downside that’s easy to work around $1 seems like a steal.
Llawan, Cephalid Empress MTG
Chances are, if you’ve played Commander long enough, you’ve been annoyed by a blue MTG player at least once. Not only is having all of your crucial spells countered rather frustrating, but some of the most frustrating Game Changers, like Thassa’s Oracle and Rhystic Study, exist in the color. If you ever want to shut your annoying blue friend down completely, Llawan, Cephalid Empress does exactly that.
Llawan’s ability to both bounce all blue creatures to hand and prevent your opponents from casting them means that almost any blue Commander gets permanently shut down by this card. Worse yet, with a bit of work, Llawan can lock all of your opponent’s Commanders out of the game until it dies.
Painter’s Servant has the uncanny ability to turn all cards in the game to a single color. Choosing Blue will allow Llawan to reset your opponent’s boards and prevent them from casting creatures until the card is gone. Similarly, Shifting Sky can make all of your opponent’s permanents blue, ensuring that Llawan is a one-sided board wipe. While this card’s effect is certainly powerful enough to warrant building around, it’s also a bit nasty to play against, so use this $1 card with caution.
Wash Out MTG
Wash Out is surprisingly flexible, capable of resetting a wide array of boards regardless of what colors your opponents are playing. At worst, you’ll have to reset a portion of your own board. Even in this case, similar to a normal board wipe, Wash Out will still be more detrimental for your opponents than it will for you.
To get the most out of Wash Out, your best bet is to restrict your own color identity as much as possible. After all, the less your colors overlap with your opponent’s, the less that Wash Out will affect your own board. For that reason, Wash Out is best used with Mono-Blue Commanders. Better yet, if you have a Commander with a blue identity that mainly uses colorless or Devoid cards, Wash Out will almost always be a one-sided board bounce.
All of this means that Wash Out is, all things considered, a very flexible card for a color hoser. For many, this $0.50 sorcery can function as a budget, albeit significantly worse Cyclonic Rift. Alternatively,for non-blue decks that want a card like Wash Out, there are some other cards, like Sudden Demise, that can do a similar thing.
Snake Pit MTG
Snake Pit offers a potent effect that casts a wider net on what your opponents are doing. Thanks to targeting both Blue and Black spells, there’s a very good chance that Snake Pit will be generating a healthy amount of creature tokens over the course of a game. All of that said, for some MTG Commander decks, generating a bunch of 1/1s isn’t the most interesting payoff in the world.
Obvious Snake Typal Commanders aside, Snake Pit does a lot of work in decks that can utilize the bodies created by the enchantment. Token-based Commanders like Baylen, the Haymaker, and Jetmir, Nexus of Revels can quickly make these little Snakes hit like a truck. The tokens can otherwise be used to stall for late-game commanders like Damia, Sage of Stone, and as Aristocrat fodder for Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest. This gives the card a reasonable amount of flexibility across archetypes, making this army in a can effect surprisingly applicable. Available for just $0.30, Snake Pit should easily outperform its price point.
Reap MTG
It doesn’t take much for Reap to offer an incredible effect for just two mana. There isn’t a single card in MTG that offers the player the ability to return a potential three or more cards from the graveyard to the hand for just two mana. Even if you’re returning two cards, the rate on Reap is insane.
The downside for Reap, for specific decks, is surprisingly easy to get around, as well. The new MTG The Last of Us Commander Ellie, Brick Master, for example, gives your opponents Black Fungus Zombies. Rendmaw, Creaking Nest does a similar thing, flooding the board with Goaded 2/2 Flying Black Bird tokens.
While Rend is a slam dunk for these Commanders, the card is situational outside of that. Even if one of your opponents is playing black, you’ll generally want some sort of graveyard strategy to make sure you can get the most out of Reap. The situational instant goes for about $1.50 in better conditions on the secondary market, but more often than not, this card will easily outperform its price point.
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