Hello awesome folks! I hope that you are having an awesome day today! Today I wanted to take on a new budget challenge, the 77^th of my article series where I grab a deck that's cheaper or on target with the previous one. The previous one was in April of this year for a total of just $31.12 with a Clone Matters brew (Budget Commander #76: Izzet Clone Matters! | Article by Abe Sargent (coolstuffinc.com)). This series was created since many "budget" Commander decks were hardly qualified, so giving you a true one should be key, since I was unemployed for a while.

Here's my Esper Commander! She costs four, for a 4/4 with lifelink, on-curve. Then when your Aura attaches a foe's nonland permanent with lesser or equal mana value, you'll steal it! Note that'll work for everything, not just dorks. She's amazing in all of your Aura Esper builds in the 99 or leading, and since she only costs 0.75 here, she's pretty cheap and won't start you down a bad place.

Remember that prices cited here could be different from when it's edited or you read! The secondary market fluctuates. But the core key cheap stuff remains. I grab the cheapest near mint price here on CoolStuffInc.com and if sold out I'll grab another.

Ready?

Mana, Ramp, Lands

Let's start with making sure I can cast my spells!!!

<$.50

• 1 Arcane Sanctum
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Orzhov Basilica
• 1 Orzhov Signet
• 1 Ash Barrens
• 1 Azorius Chancery
• 1 Bandit's Haul
• 1 Burnished Hart
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Darksteel Ingot
• 1 Dimir Aqueduct
• 1 Dismal Backwater
• 1 Forlorn Flats
• 1 Letter of Acceptance
• 1 Lonely Arroyo
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Sandstorm Verge
• 1 Scoured Barrens
• 1 Soured Springs
• 1 Stonespeaker Crystal
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Tranquil Cove

Let's start with cheap mana rocks! Bandit's Haul is first, it taps for any color, and when you commit a crime like targeting opposing dorks with Auras, you'll toss a counter here, and tap two mana and swap two counters for a card. The Crystal for two colorless, can be tapped with two again, this time to sac, draw, and then exile (target for crime purposes) other graveyards.

The dork costs three for a 2/2 on-curve body that spends three mana to sacrifice for ramping out two basics tapped. The land taps for colorless, and then taps for three to make unblockable a dork at sorcery speed only, like Rogue's Passage, also here.

The bounce Karoo cycle are all cheap in my colors, and I tossed in the Deserts from this set that'll ping a foe on arrival for crimes. You can also bounce them with a Karoo land to drop again on a future turn!

Card Draw

Normally I'd do interaction next, but I have Auras as interaction built in, so let's make sure we draw that stuff instead of wondering around next.

<$.50

• 1 Mesa Enchantress
• 1 Nerd Rage
• 1 Righteous Authority
• 1 Sage's Reverie
• 1 Sram, Senior Edificer
• 1 Hateful Eidolon
• 1 Concentrate

  1 Ashiok's Reaper

• 1 Fact or Fiction
• 1 Rune of Flight
• 1 Rune of Mortality
• 1 Tidings
• 1 Astral Wingspan
• 1 Take Flight
• 1 Flight of Fancy

Let's start with Auras that ETB and draw you cards! The common blue four-drop is an Aura Mulldrifter - it gives the dork flying, and draws two on arrival to the battlefield. The three-drop uncommon also ETBs with two cards, like a evoked Mulldrifter, and then the dork gives you no max hand size and then when you have at least ten cards, you'll give it +10/+10 size! The White one can draw you a passel of cards equal to your Auras.

Sram, Senior Edificer costs two for a Bear sized 2/2 and then has a cast trigger for your Aura, Equipment and Vees to draw that card! I am also running Mesa Enchantress! Righteous Authority is Azorius five-drop to give the dork a size boost equal to my hand count, and then I draw another card in your draw step like a Howling Mine for just you.

Hateful Eidolon costs one on-curve for a 1/2 lifelinking enchantment too! It has a death trigger for an enchanted dork, to draw that card, for each Aura you controlled on it! Nasty! I am also running Ashiok's Reaper with a death trigger for cards too. Take Flight costs four, gives flying and +1 power and then when it attacks, you'll draw that card! I like to have some emergency card draw that just draw when you need or have no board like Tidings or Fact or Fiction and Concentrate.

With 15 card draw choices, we have used a budget of 12.02. Nice and cheap!!!

Answers

Since we can steal non-lands at, usually, sorcery speed with my Auras, next are my other answers.

<$.50

• 1 Confirm Suspicions
• 1 Winds of Rath
• 1 Minion's Return
• 1 Pentarch Ward
• 1 Dissipate
• 1 Eaten by Piranhas
• 1 Hinder
• 1 Benevolent Blessing
• 1 Negate
• 1 Unholy Indenture

Let's start with Aura answers to removal. The Black three-drop with flash will give the enchanted dork a death trigger to come back for another run around the block! It's here to bring back a dying chump blocker or someone about to die. The two mana White common with flash too will give the dork pro from one color of your choice! Then you can answer any targeted removal, chump blocking, or slip through a big defense of one color to kill out of nowhere. Ditto Pentarch Ward!

Now let's turn to counters, since I am in Blue, I wanted four cheap on the money ways to stop anything castable like instants or sorceries you cannot steal or protect your stuff. Negate is a heavily printed Commander Classic that only costs little, and counters anything you care too for just two mana. Confirm Suspicions will counter anything, not just non-dorks, and then you'll make three Clues for card flow.

The mass removal spell is a bulk rare in cost, it costs one more than the default Wrath of God, and doesn't kill things with Auras. The Aura removal spell costs two, has flash, the enchanted dork becomes a base power and toughness 1/1 and loses all abilities - great answer to nasty opposing Commanders without killing them and getting them recast!

10 cards later we are done with answers! We spent 14.70. We are about halfway done with our budget, next is the big stuff!

Synergies and Winning Conditions

$1.25:

• 1 Umbra Mystic

$0.99

• 1 All That Glitters
• 1 Ajani's Chosen
• 1 Archon of Sun's Grace
• 1 Corrupted Conscience
• 1 Eidolon of Countless Battles
• 1 Mantle of the Ancients
• 1 Moon-Blessed Cleric

$.70

• 1 Demon of Fate's Design

<$.50

• 1 Ethereal Armor
• 1 Heliod, the Radiant Dawn
• 1 Infinite Reflection
• 1 Celestial Archon
• 1 Archon of the Wild Rose
• 1 Heliod's Pilgrim

Now let's turn to synergies and winning conditions, Let's start with both! The Aura costs five, controls the enchanted dork, and gives it infect to kill with poison out of nowhere! The critter costs an on-curve four mana for a 3/4 with both flying and lifelink, and makes 2/2 flyers to fly and kill and block with an enchantment ETBs and then the team gets lifelink while this Archon is out!

Archon of the Wild Rose costs four, for a 4/4 flying on-curve body too, and enchanted dorks will have a base size of 4/4. Nasty since we are going wide with Auras, not big! Demon of Fate's Design costs six for an enchantment dork body with a 6/6 size and flying and trample double evasion and that's rough to stop. Then you can cast, for free, one enchantment each turn of yours by life, not mana, equal to their mana value. Free stuff? Do I need to say more? Then he's a sac engine for enchantments for three mana to pump his power equal to their mana value again.

Now let's stick with synergies here. The three-drop 2/2 gives your Auras totem armor! That's pretty strong from where I am sitting to save your stuff! Then the enchantment God costs one more, has an ETB effect to recur an enchantment to your hand, and can be flipped for no more than four mana at sorcery speed to this 4/6 body where you can cast your stuff at instant speed, so you can steal opposing dorks EOT, or in combat to block someone that swings at you. As long as you have mana and cards, people are not going to walk into a double card swing.

How about some win-con enchantments? All That Glitters costs two, gives your dork +1/+1 equal to your artifact AND enchantment count! I also tossed in one-drop Ethereal Armor in this genre. Eidolon of Countless Battles costs three, four for bestow, to give size equal to your dork AND Aura count too. Given dorks are stolen by Auras, and we'll often make a token too, that could a killer fast.

Now let's finish with this Aura Azorius duo made in Commander decks! The former costs five, for something that only enchants your dork, with an ETB trigger to recur any number of Auras and Equipment attached to this dork, great recursion and making a beater. The latter costs six for a Blue rare that also has an ETB trigger, this time to turn each other nontoken you control into a copy of it. That doesn't end, so ideally, you'll steal a nasty beater or card draw machine like Consecrated Sphinx and copy. Then nontokens ETB as copies of the enchanted dork too!

We finish this section, after one take with 10 cards left and 25.92 spent! I have left 5.20. That's an average of 52 cents per card left. Note that Retether costs 1.20 elsewhere, sold out here at CSI. I grab it now to give myself an even 4 bucks for 9 cards.

Fun Auras

$.99

• 1 Unquestioned Authority

<$.50

• 1 Protective Bubble
• 1 On Serra's Wings
• 1 Angelic Gift
• 1 Grisly Transformation

$27.94 left with four slots open and a chance to add stuff in that I passed up previous for budget.

$.99

• 1 Auramancer's Guise
• 1 Brillant Restoration
• 1 Sigil of the Empty Throne

Zephid's Embrace isn't expensive and gives a base pump plus shroud, and next up is a Time Spiral uncommon in Auramancer's Guise will give the enchanted dork power and toughness equal to double the Auras here, and vigilance too, don't forget that. It does count itself, but only what's here on this dork. Still, that can be a backup win-con out of nowhere.

That gives us our full budget and balance!!! Here's my deck!

Control Auras | Commander | Abe Sargent

• Commander (1)
• 1 Eriette, the Beguiler

• Creatures (13)
• 1 Ajani's Chosen
• 1 Archon of Sun's Grace
• 1 Archon of the Wild Rose
• 1 Ashiok's Reaper
• 1 Burnished Hart
• 1 Celestial Archon
• 1 Demon of Fate's Design
• 1 Eidolon of Countless Battles
• 1 Hateful Eidolon
• 1 Heliod, the Radiant Dawn
• 1 Heliod's Pilgrim
• 1 Mesa Enchantress
• 1 Sram, Senior Edificer

• Instants (5)
• 1 Dissipate
• 1 Confirm Suspicions
• 1 Fact or Fiction
• 1 Hinder
• 1 Negate

• Sorceries (5)
• 1 Brilliant Restoration
• 1 Concentrate
• 1 Retether
• 1 Tidings
• 1 Winds of Rath

• Enchantments (26)
• 1 All That Glitters
• 1 Angelic Gift
• 1 Astral Wingspan
• 1 Auramancer's Guise
• 1 Benevolent Blessing
• 1 Corrupted Conscience
• 1 Eaten by Piranhas
• 1 Ethereal Armor
• 1 Flight of Fancy
• 1 Grisly Transformation
• 1 Infinite Reflection
• 1 Mantle of the Ancients
• 1 Minion's Return
• 1 Nerd Rage
• 1 On Serra's Wings
• 1 Pentarch Ward
• 1 Protective Bubble
• 1 Righteous Authority
• 1 Rune of Flight
• 1 Rune of Mortality
• 1 Sage's Reverie
• 1 Sigil of the Empty Throne
• 1 Take Flight
• 1 Unholy Indenture
• 1 Unquestioned Authority
• 1 Zephid's Embrace

• Artifacts (8)
• 1 Bandit's Haul
• 1 Bonder's Ornament
• 1 Letter of Acceptance
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Darksteel Ingot
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Orzhov Signet
• 1 Stonespeaker Crystal

• Lands (40)
• 8 Island
• 10 Plains
• 6 Swamp
• 1 Arcane Sanctum
• 1 Ash Barrens
• 1 Azorius Chancery
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Dimir Aqueduct
• 1 Dismal Backwater
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Forlorn Flats
• 1 Lonely Arroyo
• 1 Orzhov Basilica
• 1 Path of Ancestry
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Sandstorm Verge
• 1 Soured Springs
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Tranquil Cove

Buy This Deck Export text

There we go! Things I cannot run but you might want to add later are Hall of Heliod's Generosity, Winds of Abandon, Eriette of the Charmed Apple, Kor Spiritdancer, Idyllic Tutor, Three Dreams, Gift of Doom, Reliquary Tower, and others. Many of those are actually pretty cheap here, and if you added to $50, the Spiritdancer is just 1.99 here, Three Dreams 2.49, the Tower 2.99 and more. Those are pretty cheap and nice budget additions. You could also help out the land base with bulk rares like the check lands Sunken Hollow for 0.49 each. That's where I'd really focus and keep this cheap! You also might want to toss in Auras for non-dorks to steal those too. Enjoy the stealing!