Two weeks ago, you shared that I should spend whatever was necessary for my Commander deck. Last week, I broke down some options if you weren't interested in that. This week, we're hopping into a money machine to see where a Commander deck can really go. Before we get ahead of ourselves, take a quick look back to see where the deck was and why we came to that point.

Then, if you think you can play with the big boys, break out your wallet and pony up for entry.

Unlimited Ticket Works

Let's look at some semantics first: What does it mean to operate without a budget? Is there any sense to searching for multiple prices when we're aiming to acquire cards that, effectively, form a long-term collection for use?

Hunting for deals takes time, effort, and a little frustration; hunting for the very best deal is an enormous undertaking. Running down methods of acquiring cards other than from dealer bots is a topic for another day. For this article, I'm going to cite the price given by a major online card retailer. There are several reasons you should consider pricing by large dealers.

1. Big dealers have the stock.

Aside from when there is a "run on the market" for a card, the biggest and most reputable dealers have the card or cards you're after. Where there are certainly several dealers I'd classify as "saves you money," that savings comes at a different cost: time.

Spending a few minutes waiting for a bot to open up only to discover that, as usual, the card you're looking for isn't there is a frustrating feature. Of course, cards that's aren't in significant demand are likely to be there; the staples we're going after today simply don't restock on cheaper bots at any predictable rate.

This is related to the second reason.

2. Big dealers move cards at market rate.

The reason larger dealers have stock is because the cards are priced correctly. If the market value for a card jumps up, the current stock sells until the prices are updates. Smaller bots sell more rapidly due to the price undercutting they apply; larger bots are adjusted to the correct price more quickly, similar to paper dealers changing prices after Banned List and Restricted List announcements.

More important, this means that the larger dealers can buy cards for more as well. And you can use this as a litmus test for what the rate is if you do decide to check out cheaper vendors.

3. Price comparisons are relevant.

As a result of both having immediate stock and listing the market price, combing through what a big dealer offers and pricing out what your deck will cost yields a fair approximation of cost. While it certainly behooves you to find the less expensive cards and scour for deals, knowing what we have to beat first makes the remainder an easier problem to solve.

It's important to point out here that prices for cards on MTGO fluctuate much more rapidly and frequently than paper cards. By pricing everything out from one dealer, it becomes a lot easier to price-check weeks down the road when values have shifted.

All You Care to Eat

So why am I citing reasons to shop at big dealers? When you're buying staples where the price is likely to only go up, it doesn't really matter where you pick them up. Yes, spending some time to find a deal is good. Do it if you want. But you're going to want to check in somewhere big first—how will you know when you find a deal without knowing the baseline?

So take these prices as current for today (and be prepared to double-check down the road):

There's a lot going on here, but much of this has been hit upon in the previous two weeks. If I was emptying as much as I wanted, these are the cards I would pick up. Let's review this in smaller chunks:

Sword of Fire and Ice, Sword of Light and Shadow, Sword of Feast and Famine

These three are the unholy trinity of colorless card advantage on creatures. Reanimation, card-drawing, discarding during the combat step, and untapping lands are all very powerful things to do. The fact that all three together provide protection from the rainbow isn't just gravy—it's part of the reason that these Swords are killer.

To frame this differently, I've picked up two paper copies of Feast and Famine even with the price at peak thanks to its required place in Caw-Blade decks in Standard. It's just . . . that . . . good. And I now can't imagine a Commander deck where I wouldn't want three slots devoted to this trio of edges.

Putting these into my current deck would nudge out things like Journeyer's Kite, Nature's Will, and Loxodon Warhammer.

Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary, Sol Ring, Primeval Titan, Mana Crypt, Mana Vault

Mana-ramping is one of the most powerful things a Kamahl, Fist of Krosa deck can do. Ramping empowers things like Ant Queen and Wolfbriar Elemental. Those are the most obvious combinations. However, with enough mana, it's possible to make Kamahl a one-man force of death.

Converting a large number of lands into creatures, then dropping multiple Overruns, can end games fast. I know mainly because I've done this multiple times. Waiting and holding Kamahl back is often the best course for maximizing your mana. Ramping through the colorless mana to power out real mana-rippers, like Primeval Titan, or casting every Forest-fetcher for Rofellos, is a solid plan every time.

Adding these mana-getters is pretty straightforward: Citanul Hierophants, Myojin of Life's Web, Timber Protector, Treefolk Harbinger, and Journeyer's Kite are all very modest cards compared to the mana band above.

Avenger of Zendikar, Garruk Wildspeaker, Woodfall Primus

Green doesn't get a lot of spells that straight-up draw cards. What it does have in spades, though, are permanents that grind out advantages in the game. Avenger is a powerful finisher that can turn something like a late-game Gaea's Blessing or Kodama's Reach into a crushing victory, with Garruk Wildspeaker providing everything a green mage could ever want and Woodfall Primus as a hard-to-kill and kills-opponent's-stuff Trampling beat-stick.

These sources of powerful advantage tower over relatively tame bodies, like Dauntless Dourbark, Pelakka Wurm, and Verdeloth the Ancient.

Sensei's Divining Top, Crucible of Worlds, Gilded Lotus

These artifacts are core components in almost every Commander deck. Top is an obvious draw filter, and works especially well here where there is an overabundance of shuffle effects (thanks to all the land-searching). Crucible of Worlds is a powerful staple that rebuys some lands, and insulates against those who would Armageddon the world. Gilded Lotus is particularly interesting: tapping to generate Black Lotus mana seems to be a good thing to have. (It is. 100%.)

Obvious changes, like pulling out Crystal Ball, Reach of Branches, and Asceticism, make these staples easy to include specifically for my deck.

Maze of Ith, Gaea's Cradle, Yavimaya Hollow, Wasteland, Vesuva, Strip Mine

I'm rather fond of utility lands, and I believe many of you are, too. Thanks to the recent release of Urza's Destiny for MTGO, Yavimaya Hollow is now available to regenerate lots of creatures. Gaea's Cradle is another Urza-time-frame land, and it's the most classic of powerful Green mana-generators (I'm sure you can think of a few things to do with it).

Wasteland and Strip Mine are the fearsome pair that keep things like Volrath's Stronghold (and Gaea's Cradle) in check. While combining these cards with Crucible of Worlds is just plain evil (despite the obvious allure), nobody can take offense to having their Cabal Coffers knocked off.

The final land is one of my favorite tutor targets: Maze of Ith. To "maze" a creature means to shut it down almost completely. Trample, protection from a color, and other normal routes to avoiding having your legs taken out aren't as effective against a colorless, repeatable, attack-breaker.

It's almost too easy making room, as we have the likes of Ghost Quarter and Mystifying Maze, Llanowar Reborn, and a superfluous number of Forests.

What would this do to the deck?

"Kamahl, Fist of Wallet"

• Creatures (30)
• 1 Acidic Slime
• 1 Avenger of Zendikar
• 1 Borderland Ranger
• 1 Civic Wayfinder
• 1 Deadwood Treefolk
• 1 Genesis
• 1 Indrik Stomphowler
• 1 Krosan Tusker
• 1 Masked Admirers
• 1 Mold Shambler
• 1 Primeval Titan
• 1 Rampaging Baloths
• 1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1 Seedborn Muse
• 1 Seedguide Ash
• 1 Silklash Spider
• 1 Spearbreaker Behemoth
• 1 Sylvan Ranger
• 1 Terastodon
• 1 Tornado Elemental
• 1 Vigor
• 1 Wickerbough Elder
• 1 Wolfbriar Elemental
• 1 Wood Elves
• 1 Woodfall Primus
• 1 Yavimaya Dryad
• 1 Arashi, the Sky Asunder
• 1 Baru, Fist of Krosa
• 1 Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
• 1 Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Garruk Wildspeaker

• Spells (38)
• 1 Harrow
• 1 Krosan Grip
• 1 Momentous Fall
• 1 Rootgrapple
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Desert Twister
• 1 Gaea's Bounty
• 1 Howl of the Night Pack
• 1 Hurricane
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Nature's Lore
• 1 Nature's Spiral
• 1 Rampant Growth
• 1 Reap and Sow
• 1 Recollect
• 1 Regrowth
• 1 Revive
• 1 Rude Awakening
• 1 Soul's Majesty
• 1 Sylvan Tutor
• 1 Three Visits
• 1 Tooth and Nail
• 1 Fecundity
• 1 Greater Good
• 1 Lurking Predators
• 1 Lignify
• 1 Sensei's Divining Top
• 1 Crucible of Worlds
• 1 Culling Dais
• 1 Gilded Lotus
• 1 Mana Crypt
• 1 Mana Vault
• 1 Mind's Eye
• 1 Oblivion Stone
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Sword of Feast and Famine
• 1 Sword of Fire and Ice
• 1 Sword of Light and Shadow

• Lands (31)
• 20 Forest
• 1 Maze of Ith
• 1 Slippery Karst
• 1 Strip Mine
• 1 Tectonic Edge
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Tranquil Thicket
• 1 Treetop Village
• 1 Vesuva
• 1 Wasteland
• 1 Gaea's Cradle
• 1 Yavimaya Hollow

Buy This Deck

Or, to put this into ticket terms:

Yes, that's right: I'd spend more money than the initial digital translation from paper by about $30. It's pretty strange to see cards worth such wildly different prices online than in paper. But I think if you wanted to evolve the most powerful deck, picking up a few universal pieces along the way, this is a pretty good start.

Bonus: Snow-Covered Lands

While I personally skip most of the snow-covered goodness floating around, some of you really dig it. Fortunately, I've still got you covered. By replacing nineteen of the normal Forests with the Snow-Covered Forest variety, then swapping the last Forest for Scrying Sheets, you angle away from benefitting many other players if you go the Strata Scythe or Extraplanar Lens routes. Even better, with a little extra mana, you can scrape yourself past any of the basic Snow-Covered Forests that might be floating at the top, especially with Sensei's Divining Top or Crystal Ball around.

This would be an extra 3 tickets and change to swap in, not including extra flex Snow-Covered Forests for increasing the count later, if desired.

What makes me point it out in the "unlimited budget" article is that going to the Snow-Covered path is almost entirely unnecessary. The marginal advantages of snow lands is fairly narrow (exception: Red decks and Skred) but requires investment above what you normally need for basic lands: nothing. And if you wanted to set it up for every color, you're looking at 15 to 20 tickets just for enough copies of the basics.

Going snow is up to you, but for what it's worth, I believe snow is a little overrated and underwhelming.