Back in May 2012, I suddenly found myself without a job. Should I get another job? Should I do something else? I eventually decided to use the occasion as an opportunity and headed back to school for another master’s degree. After a year as a fulltime student, I emerged with more than $20,000 in debt and began my new job on Thanksgiving of 2013.

And that's why series like the Budget Commander or Foster and Friends are vital parts of who I am as a writer today. The first brings severely restricted Commander decks with roughly $35 a pop, and the latter brings you a smattering of bulk rares that punch above their prices.

I've become very cognizant of the financial value of a card versus its play value.

And that's where today's article steps in. Today, I want to go over some of my budget offerings and tell you about cards that I often lean toward. What are the cheap cards that can mix it up with the best of the best at the casual table? Don't have time or cash for a $20 staple? What cards are running around that can you collect right now, for virtually nothing—for really just a song and a dance?

These are the cards that I have gone back to and leaned into again and again because of their low price tags over on http://www.coolstuffinc.com/.

So let's take a look!

Black Pinpoint Removal

Even though the vast majority of the good stuff has been printed as a common through Magic's history, many of these cards have elevated price tags. To purchase a Murder right now would set you back $0.45. That may not sound too bad, but it's virtually the price of a bulk rare ($0.49). The same is true of Doom Blade, despite all of the copies out there. An uncommon staple (such as, say, Go for the Throat) can set you back $2. For a quarter, in walks some other stuff, such as Rend Flesh, Eyeblight's Ending, or Expunge. If you are on a tight budget, the price difference for a play set of Expunge is $1, and for Murder, Doom Blade, or similar stuff, it’s $1.80. That's not an insignificant savings.

Blue Countermagic

Another highly priced section of cards are the numerous counters. Frankly, there are many counters better than Cancel. Cancel costs just $0.49 for four, so that's sort of the cheap baseline. Counters that are strong in tournament formats tend to be the ones good in Casual Land. So trying to find cards like Counterspell ($1.49), Dissolve ($0.75), Forbid ($1.49), or Dismiss ($0.75) can be a bit high compared to the baseline of a cheap counter in Cancel. So I suggest looking a bit deeper. There are some strong counters that work well generally but also keep things cheap. One I love to use in my decks is Dissipate. It exiles the card countered and costs the same 3 mana as a Cancel, and the Innistrad edition is just $0.35—quite a bit cheaper. The same is true of Faerie Trickery. Standard-legal counters tend to be around Cancel's price, too (such as Countermand). Other cheap options include Dismal Failure, Rewind, Fuel for the Cause (all $0.25 each) and Lost in the Mist ($0.29 for a full set of four).

For the bigger counters that change the game, many multiplayer-friendly ones cost way too much (Spelljack, Draining Whelk, Commandeer, Desertion, etc.) for some budgets. But take a look at the $0.25 Overwhelming Intellect if you want something potent in late game but that’s easy on the wallet.

Mana Rocks

Many mana rocks (artifacts that tap for mana) are bedrock essentials in Commander, with Sol Ring leading the way. Despite heavy printing in the Commander decks (and frankly, the expectation that more are on the way), one still has to drop $5.99 for a copy. That's how vital the card is to the format. Adjunct rocks can also be pricey, too. I love Mind Stone as a fun way to accelerate your mana or sacrifice for a card later (or just before an Akroma's Vengeance or overloaded Vandalblast scours the battlefield). Because of that, it costs $0.75 for the common one from Weatherlight, and that's with a lot of copies out there. Other mana rocks (Gilded Lotus, Coalition Relic, Chromatic Lantern, and Everflowing Chalice) can also cost some cash. The strong mana rocks have some serious costs to them.

So I like to steer to great ones that are cheaper on the wallet. Did you know that Darksteel Ingot is just a quarter? It's true—the one from Magic 2014 is just a quarter—and with indestructible, it is still many players' mana rock of choice for colored mana since it's not vulnerable to mass removal from anything from Pernicious Deed to Planar Cleansing. One fun 2-cost mana rock that you'll often see in my budget decks is Guardian Idol. Turning into a creature is a perfectly acceptable alternative to Mind Stone in most decks, and it also clocks in at a quarter. The tripled Mind Stone (Dreamstone Hedron) is also a quarter, and it’s perfectly fine in the occasional deck that warrants it. You can also dip into newer cards, such as Astral Cornucopia—at $0.49 it's cheaper than most of the quality uncommon mana rocks.

White Pinpoint Creature Exiling

Another key utility that is needed at the kitchen table is white's variants of Swords to Plowshares. Now, Swords is in print as an uncommon in Conspiracy, so it's suddenly in a new position as a cheaper alternative to Path to Exile. Exiling removal is important, and there are some other options (Crib Swap at $0.99) that are a lot cheaper than Path or Swords. If you are really digging for a cheap option, consider Devouring Light ($0.25) or the pricey-mana, but not budget, options such as Trostani's Judgment, Angelic Edict, Soul Nova, or other similar-in-style cards.

Big Beaters

When I build a nice Commander budget deck, one of the places I look to save cash is with bulk rares that have massive play value. The banner example of this is Sphinx of Uthuun. Because of how many times it was reprinted in the modern era, this thing has a pretty low value. And yet, despite low prices ($0.49), it is still a very high-quality creature. It is the perfect example of a strong beater for a budget deck.

Not every beater needs to be at the level of Simic Sky Swallower, Iridescent Angel ($1.99), Consecrated Sphinx ($14.99), or Rune-Scarred Demon ($3.99). A lot of great entries in the modern era have very cheap costs attached simply because so many are out there. I like to look at Standard-legal options since they are in print and tend to have lower values. All of these guys are in Standard and clock in at a buck or less:

• Nongreen Primordials

  • Luminate Primordial
  • Diluvian Primordial
  • Sepulchral Primordial
  • Molten Primordial
• Scourge of Fleets
• Garruk's Horde
• Colossus of Akros
• Hydra Broodmaster
• Jace's Mindseeker
• Zhur-Taa Ancient
• Spawn of Thraxes
• Shivan Dragon
• Shipbreaker Kraken
• Arbor Colossus
• Colossal Whale
• Abhorrent Overlord
• Angelic Skirmisher
• Deadbridge Goliath

That's a pretty nifty-keen list of beaters of a variety of sizes and shapes. This includes the powerhouse Primordial cycle (minus Sylvan Primordial). There are a lot of cheap options to dip into for most decks. From mono-blue (where Scourge of Fleets can be a bouncing blowout) to cheaper stuff (Deadbridge Goliath and Arbor Colossus to hit the board quickly), we even can aid an aggro or mass-creature strategy with the likes of Angelic Skirmisher.

And that list is just Standard-legal guys. There are a lot of other cheap nasties out there, such as Sphinx of Magosi, Bloodgift Demon, Hellkite Charger ($0.75), Sunblast Angel ($0.99), or Rumbling Slum, Flameblast Dragon, Gleancrawler ($0.49). There are very strong options that don't cost a lot but still blow up the red zone with the best of them.

Nonbasic Lands

The great thing about the modern era of Magic is that good-quality, mana-enabling cards have been printed in mass quantities in common and uncommon slots. This was not always the case, but we have Terramorphic Expanse and Selesnya Sanctuary along with Rupture Spire and Izzet Guildgate all waiting for your embrace. You don't have to have the painful fetch lands of Onslaught or Zendikar or the original dual lands in order to be able to play your stuff. We have Bant Panorama!

One important thing to remember is the massive quantity of lands that were reprinted in the Commander products. If you weren't playing back when blocks like Onlsaught, Urza's Saga, or Ravnica: City of Guilds had great common lands, most were reprinted in large numbers. So cards like the cycling lands (such as Barren Moor or Drifting Meadow) are down to a quarter each. These extra lands assaulted our card stock, enabling newer players to acquire high-quality lands of old. This is also true of things like the Vivid lands (Vivid Creek, et al.), the Shards of Alara tapped lands (like Crumbling Necropolis), the Refuges (Akoum Refuge), and such.

Also note that the Innistrad-block rare cycle of lands that used 2 mana for various effects are very cheap. Cards such as Grim Backwoods and Alchemist's Refuge are bulk rares at $0.49 prices. This ten-card cycle is very good for Casual Land, and I dip into them in my budget projects quite frequently. You can add some to your collection on the cheap.

Wow! I expected this article to clock in at just one article, but I'm not nearly done with the various lessons and cards I've uncovered during my research for my budget articles. So make sure to check out the second iteration of these very budget-friendly cards next week!

Did you find anything here? Any other cheap cards in these categories that you want to recommend? Let us know!

See you next week,

Abe Sargent