For many players, the biggest inhibiting factor when it comes to deciding what deck to play is price. Even in Standard, some decks cost upwards of $500 to construct. Once you factor in rotation and metagame shifts, it can be very difficult to keep up.
While it’s not uncommon for players to resort to playing a cheap red aggressive deck to help keep costs down, this style of deck is not for everyone. Fortunately, this past weekend, a unique budget-friendly option made a name for itself.
The strategy in question is Simic spells, and it’s a great inexpensive option in both paper and on MTG Arena. The deck made it all the way to the top four of the 349 player Magic Online Standard Showcase Challenge, boasting its competitive viability. For those looking to get into Standard without breaking the bank, Simic spells is a nice starting point.
Main Gameplan
- Mana Value: 6U
- Rarity: Common
- Stats: 5/5
- Card Type: Creature- Serpent
- MTG Sets: Dominaria United, Foundations
- Card Text: This spell costs 1 less to cast for each instant and sorcery in your graveyard. Ward 2 (Whenever this creature becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, counter it unless that player pays 2.)
This deck’s main gameplan is rather simple: get enough instants and sorceries into your graveyard to successfully reduce the casting cost of Tolarian Terror and Eddymurk Crab to one or two mana. Both of these creatures are quite large. Tolarian Terror has the bonus of having Ward 2, while Eddymurk Crab can tap down opposing attackers and give you some breathing room.
In order to maximize these creatures, you need access to a high density of cheap instants and sorceries. Luckily, this deck does not disappoint. Bushwhack and Analyze the Pollen provide you with low-cost ways to get spells into your graveyard. Similarly, Seed of Hope and Cache Grab help fuel your graveyard while providing some card selection in the process.
While Simic doesn’t have much in the way of permanent removal, Into the Flood Maw and Unsummon can stave off early pressure from the opponent. You’re mostly just looking to buy time until you can land your threats and pull ahead with some impactful synergies.
Incredible Synergies
- Mana Value: 1G
- Rarity: Uncommon
- Card Type: Enchantment
- MTG Sets: Wilds of Eldraine
- Card Text: When Up the Beanstalk enters the battlefield and whenever you cast a spell with mana value 5 or greater, draw a card.
Speaking of synergies, this deck has more tricks up its sleeve than just racing to land big haymakers. Most importantly, this deck is built to abuse Up the Beanstalk. Up the Beanstalk is an incredible value engine. The best way to use it is to fill your deck with cards that have mana value five or greater but can be cast on a discount.
Obviously, Tolarian Terror and Eddymurk Crab fit the bill. On top of that, though, This Town Ain’t Big Enough does everything you want. So long as you have something to bounce on your side of the board, you can cast This Town Ain’t Big Enough for two mana and bounce one of your opponent’s nonland permanents.
Well, both Up the Beanstalk and Stormchaser’s Talent pair perfectly with the powerful instant. Stormchaser’s Talent even has the upside of being able to buy back This Town Ain’t Big Enough from your graveyard to your hand. In the late game, you can keep bouncing your own Stormchaser’s Talent and replaying it, flooding the board with Otters in the process.
This is a great strategy versus the wide range of midrange decks in Standard at the moment. Up the Beanstalk will keep the card advantage flowing, while you continue to return your opponent’s clunky threats back to their hand over and over.
Meanwhile, your large monsters can turn the corner quickly. This Town Ain’t Big Enough and Unsommon serve as ways to save your haymakers from removal like Go for the Throat. This deck has an incredible late game, so as long as you can fend off early pressure from aggro decks, you’re in good shape.
Perfect Choice on a Budget
- Rarity: Rare
- Card Type: Land- Forest Island
- MTG Sets: Murders at Karlov Manor
- Card Text: (Tap: Add G or U.) Hedge Maze enters the battlefield tapped. When Hedge Maze enters the battlefield, surveil 1. (Look at the top card of your library. You may put it into your graveyard.)
As strong as this deck is in general, perhaps its biggest quality is its price tag. In paper, the deck doesn’t even crack $100. Most midrange decks are worth way more, and Domain decklists sometimes creep over $500.
The only cards worth over $5 here are the copies of Hedge Maze and Ghost Vacuum, both of which are pretty replaceable. By staying only two colors, the manabase isn’t super pricy as a whole.
Plus, nearly every spell in the deck is a common or uncommon. There’s a total of 18 rares in the deck, 10 of which appear in the manabase.
This is a huge edge when you’re looking to craft the deck using Wildcards on MTG Arena. There are a couple other strong Standard decks, including Convoke, that are cheap in paper but utilize a much higher volume of rares. This deck provides the best of both worlds.
It’s not often you see a non-aggro deck serve as a strong budget option, but Simic spells delivers. The archetype’s performance this weekend is truly remarkable and proves that inexpensive decks can still win in cutthroat environments.
