Considering the obstacles, I set a higher budget than normal: $50. I want to come in under $40, but I’m not sure I can do it, so instead, I just want to be under $50. Anything else is gravy.

Before we begin the Talrand deck, we need to answer some questions. First, what sort of a creature base do we run? Assuming we emphasize instants and sorceries, which ones work? Do you run Delver of Secrets? Looters? Beaters? Also, do you run something like Favorable Winds or Gravitational Shift? What about Adaptive Automaton?

Every noninstant, nonsorcery card removes synergy from the deck as fewer and fewer spells exist to trigger Talrand. So, every card that is not an instant or sorcery must be so powerful that it has to be in the deck. There are some choices I’ve seen that are not that powerful. Wonder? Lore Broker? Quicksilver Gargantuan? I’ve seen some decks with thirty to thirty-five spells total, with the rest being permanents of various sorts. Ugh.

To be fair, I once played against a deck in real life at the card store that was just lands, Talrand, and spells. That’s equally poor. Some of the best permanents will be better than the sixty-fifth instant or sorcery.

"Budget Talrand"

• Commander (0)

• Creatures (3)
• 1 Archaeomancer
• 1 Lunar Mystic
• 1 Mnemonic Wall

• Spells (58)
• 1 Aetherize
• 1 Blue Sun's Zenith
• 1 Capsize
• 1 Dismiss
• 1 Dissipate
• 1 Dominate
• 1 Exclude
• 1 Fact or Fiction
• 1 Fervent Denial
• 1 Foil
• 1 Gather Specimens
• 1 Keep Watch
• 1 Lost in the Mist
• 1 Opportunity
• 1 Overwhelming Intellect
• 1 Pongify
• 1 Rapid Hybridization
• 1 Ray of Command
• 1 Repulse
• 1 Reweave
• 1 Rewind
• 1 Spell Burst
• 1 Spell Contortion
• 1 Spin into Myth
• 1 Time Stop
• 1 Traumatic Visions
• 1 Visions of Beyond
• 1 Faerie Trickery
• 1 Acquire
• 1 Call to Mind
• 1 Deep Analysis
• 1 Distant Melody
• 1 Flow of Ideas
• 1 Inundate
• 1 Legerdemain
• 1 Merchant Scroll
• 1 Mind Spring
• 1 Recurring Insight
• 1 Sleep
• 1 Spelltwine
• 1 Stolen Identity
• 1 Switcheroo
• 1 Talrand's Invocation
• 1 Tidings
• 1 Walk the Aeons
• 1 Wash Out
• 1 Knowledge Exploitation
• 1 Cast Through Time
• 1 Coastal Piracy
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Eyes of the Watcher
• 1 Favorable Winds
• 1 Opposition
• 1 Spellweaver Volute
• 1 Caged Sun
• 1 Elixir of Immortality
• 1 Runechanter's Pike
• 1 Sphinx-Bone Wand

• Lands (38)
• 32 Island
• 1 Lonely Sandbar
• 1 Mystifying Maze
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Remote Isle
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Terrain Generator

Buy This Deck

I came in under budget by a lot, so I added a few “luxury” cards such as Cyclonic Rift and Caged Sun at the end to clock in at $49.37. (Remember that all financial numbers can change not only between the writing of this article and when it is read, but even between publication of it at midnight and then later that day.)

To begin, I wanted my powerful engines. I began with Favorable Winds and Coastal Piracy. With a large horde of Drakes, these should enhance their value considerably. I also wanted the powerful Cast Through Time and Sphinx-Bone Wand. With an enhanced quantity of spells running around, both of these reach epic proportions of awesome.

After that quartet of engines was included, I moved to the spells I knew I wanted. I began with counters, and I spent about a half hour looking at counters and seeing what granted good benefits for the price. I had to steer clear of Forbid, Hinder, Spelljack, and others. Therefore, I went with the exiling hotness of Faerie Trickery and Dissipate, the card-drawing deliciousness of many choices, and even the bounce of Lost in the Mist. One clever card was Traumatic Visions. With a small number of ways of finding mana in blue—and most well over my budget—the basic landcycling of the Visions can find a needed Island in a pinch. (One of the last cards I pulled was Trade Routes, and this was a 3-mana cycle with it out). It also doubles as a counter when needed. Foil is awesome here; it’s easy to have a discard for it if you need to play it free. Finally, I forced my deck into accepting Time Stop. While it can serve as a counter-like card in an emergency, or as a Fog, it’s really meant to be there as an emergency card to break if needed. It can answer anything from an Obliterate to an activated Oblivion Stone.

Therefore, I felt just a bit more bounce was needed. Aside from Lost in the Mist, Capsize and Repulse round out the bouncing. These gave the deck a few more tools in case they were needed. If you count Spin into Myth, it counts, too. For creatures, I also added the Pongify and Rapid Hybridization kill spells. Blue has little true creature-kill, and the 3/3 ground pounder won’t get in the way of my attacking hordes of 2/2 flying Drakes. Plus, with all of the bounce around, they may not even be for long in this world. Add Reweave to my “removal” options—it’s an instant Polymorph variant for more than just creatures. You can Reweave a really nasty artifact, enchantment, planeswalker, or even land. I love Reweaving nasty lands such as Volrath's Stronghold into Swamps.

Don’t forget the power of Knowledge Exploitation. It’s a tutor that plays the card and can find needed removal. If you need something taken care of, most decks at the Commander table are packing removal of various types. You can find anything from Plague Wind to Fracturing Gust, if you want mass removal, or Decimate- and Hull Breach–type cards if you don’t. While Bribery was just too far out of the budget for this deck, Acquire, surprisingly, was not. Play it, steal the best artifact from someone’s library, and drop it right out. It should turn the tables quite nicely.

Spellweaver Volute is one of those odd cards that just works sometimes, and this should be one of those times. This deck has enough ammunition to work both halves: the imprinting and the sorcery-playing. But imprinting opposing instants such as Murder, Terminate, Krosan Grip, and Swords to Plowshares works as well. It’s another way to put some spells on our side of the table to increase our options. Another odd card is Gather Specimens. You drop it and steal people’s creatures when they enter the battlefield. It often just acts as though it says, “Counter target creature spell. Put it into onto the battlefield under your control.” But, when it does something else, such as steal a bunch of tokens off a Zombie Apocalypse or Entreat the Angels, it breaks the game into little pieces.

Despite the great card-drawing we spiced the deck with in various places, I wanted to enhance it. I was able to fit in some staples, such as Fact or Fiction, Recurring Insight, Flow of Ideas, and Deep Analysis (since you play it twice, it triggers Talrand twice). I even grabbed Tidings and Opportunity and some other treasures. Some people turn their Talrand decks into a motor that has a ton of 1-mana cantrips, with the goal of speeding through their decks and spitting out a lot of 2/2 dorks. I thought about that. But Ponder and Brainstorm add up to $3.25 right there. Sleight of Hand clocks in at $3. These 1-mana cantrips often cost a lot more money that you might realize. I didn’t want to be stuck with Portent. The deck blows through cards quite quickly as it is, so I added Visions of Beyond. It can be that 1-mana cantrip if you need, but it also draws you three later on. This rare costs the same, at $1.25, as Ponder. (For this reason, I ran the Elixir of Immortality—to help keep my deck stocked with goodies as the game goes on. Feel free to use it earlier to decrease the likelihood of drawing lands later—there’s nothing to protect from graveyard removal.)

After that, I tossed in a few cards to round things out and called it a deck. Terrain Generator will throw out Islands into play. That gives me something to do when I have drawn too many cards. I wanted one final card-draw spell, so Keep Watch jumped in. I should be happy to attack with it in my hand! Sleep will lock down an opponent so that you can get in a swing with a bunch of Drakes. It also keeps those creatures down in case other players also want to exploit said player. Since that opponent cannot immediately untap his or her creatures, he or she will be open for some time. You can get in for two hits but you leave yourself open for a very angry counterattack. Others may also fill the gap. Mystifying Maze joins a deck that needs defense. Finally, I couldn’t afford most Time Warps, but Walk the Aeons was just a buck. That was an automatic inclusion. Plus, you can buy it back, so there’s that.

Some cards I considered were unable to make the cut for money reasons: Coat of Arms, Eldrazi Monument, and Gauntlet of Power. Others were considered but dismissed for space or play reasons, such as Kraken's Eye, Lapis Lazuli Talisman, and Arcane Melee.

However, Day of the Dragons was different. I could afford it, and it made my Drakes into Dragons—rawr! But I felt it was just out of flavor for my Drake deck. So, it was dismissed not for power or financial reasons, but flavor reasons.

Cards to consider if you either have the cash or the deck stock are Blatant Thievery, Guile, Sapphire Medallion, Turnabout, and Extraplanar Lens.

I went in a slightly different direction than many Talrand decks, but this seems worth it. It has everything I need to make things work. Sure, it misses many multiplayer and Commander staples as well as great expensive cards, but Magic is often more about what you do have than what you don’t. Focus on the cool interactions this deck has, and it will work.

See you next week,

Abe Sargent