Hello awesome Commander and budget fans! You'll love this series: each deck tries to come in at or under the previous decks budget, and I take this stuff seriously. The last deck was a budget take on a pricey archetype called "Clone Matters" in Izzet where you Clone your Commander and run stuff like Mirror Box. It's here (https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/abesargent-04022024-budget-commander-76-izzet-clone-matters). The cost for it was $31.12 so that's our target for this week!

Who am I building around this week? Someone from my Favorite Commanders to Play Against List (https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/abesargent-07192024-commanders-you-dont-mind-playing-against). But who?

This guy! Your five uncommon Rakdos mana nets you a feasible reach and lifelinking 3/3 body with an ability to add one damage to noncombat sources to anything and a Spellslinger trigger to Shock any target. Since he's an uncommon, he's sold out here, but .39 on other sites, so that's how I'll price him for this challenge.

Let's get started!

Mana, Ramp and Lands

<50 cents

• Jagged Barrens
• Rogue's Passage
• Scavenger Grounds
• Command Tower
• Rakdos Carnarium
• Ash Barrens
• Bandit's Haul
• Bonder's Ornament
• Charcoal Diamond
• Commander's Sphere
• Darksteel Ingot
• Desert of the Glorified
• Desert of the Fervent
• Fire Diamond
• Glittering Stockpile
• Rakdos Cluestone
• Stonespeaker Crystal
• Sunscorched Desert
• Terramorphic Expanse
• Bloodfell Caves
• Evolving Wilds
• Rakdos Guildgate
• Tramway Station

It's $6.63 for this and my Commander!

Now let's start my deep dive! Since our Commander costs five, third-turn mana rocks will drop him a turn early. Those are pretty heavy here plus the two cheap Diamonds (Fire and Charcoal) that cost two but ETB tapped. Most of the three-drops tap for any color of mana, but two are great at card draw. Bonder's Ornament will tap with four to make everyone draw a card that owns it. Bandit's Haul turns crimes committed into loot counters on it. Just once per turn though, then you can pull two off to draw a card and then that also requires two mana.

Glittering Stockpile will also toss counters here while doing so, to save up for sacrificing for one big boost of mana for X burn spells. Stonespeaker Crystal taps with two to sac for a card and to exile opposing graveyards to force them to knock off abuse at instant speed. It's one of my favorite mana rocks ever.

Now let's turn to lands. There are two pinger Deserts that are in my colors, both are here. Those count as crimes, kill, noncombat damage to increase and loads more. I am running the two cycling Deserts too so I can find sacrificial fodder for the colorless tapping Grounds that taps with two to sacrifice one and exile all graveyards yours too. Love it loads!

Synergies and Backup Win-cons

Now after doing mana in my normal decks I follow with interaction, card draw and synergies/win cons. In budget I want to make sure that I can do what my decks wants, so I often move to key synergies and backup winning conditions next.

$1

• Fiery Inscription
• Judith, Carnage Connoisseur
• Mechanized Warfare

$.75

• Coruscation Mage
• Double Vision
• Underworld Dreams

<50 cents

• Pestilent Spirit
• Fire Servant
• Blisterspit Gremlin
• Guttersnipe
• Ill-Gotten Inheritance
• Unruly Catapult

Let's start with enchantments that help me out! Double Vision costs five, and then gives me a free copy for my first spell I cast every turn, not just mine. Then next the ironically harder to cast but cheaper three-drop Black enchantment Underworld Dreams will force my foes to get tinged when they draw that precious card!

Now let's turn from enchantments to dorks. This time the five-mana one is a 3/4 Rakdos with an instant/sorcery trigger that you can really build around as my backup Commander, since she can either give it deathtouch to kill and lifelink to gain life if burn or make a 2/2 Imp token with a death trigger to shoot for two for each foe. The three-drop 3/2 also gives those abilities to your spells as well as rocking menace for evasion and deathtouch naturally.

Next up is Coruscation Mage! It'll turn nondork casts into tings of your foe, like Guttersnipe, less damage but more triggers. It's offspring here is awesome since each will be increased by Tor Wauki. It's also harder to answer with targeted removal. Fire Servant has a 4/3 body and lets us turn Red instant/sorcery damage dealers to double that damage! Love it loads here. There are more Red increasers and doublers that are pretty cheap, but I need to wait until later.

Coming in at $13.32 with early synergies and win cons!

Answers

Now this where the "burn" section matters!

<75 cents

• Spikefield Hazard
• Comet Storm
• Bedevil
• Feed the Swarm
• Tectonic Hazard
• You Are Already Dead
• Electrickery
• Vulshok Sorcerer
• Abrade
• Cunning Sparkmage
• Firebolt
• Incinerate
• Lightning Strike
• Mirrodin Avenged
• Prodigal Pyromancer
• Rolling Thunder
• Syr Karah, the Bold
• Shock

Let's start with burn! I am doing a deep dive here! The X spell costs double Red to start, but will shoot X damage divided among any number of targets! I also tossed in the Comet Storm powerhouse. I did like flashback here, so I tossed in the sloooow one-drop Shock at sorcery speed or flashback for five. Flashback gives you two triggers from your stuff.

Most of the one-mana shoot each opposing foe and their stuff for one damage are sold out and pricey since they are great, so I only managed two: Electrickery and Tectonic Hazard. Since they are non-combat with Tor Wauki they are now two damage each to opposing stuff. We also have two great ways to turn them into deathtouch mass removal spells. The instant costs one base for one target, and then two if you want to kill all opposing stuff that comes into your space. The sorcery shoots your foe's stuff for one base mana.

I did want some non-burn related targeted removal. This pair was it! The bulk rare instant speed Rakdos colored harder to cast will destroy three potential things, and is my only artifact removal here. Just one enchantment removal was printed in Black, at sorcery speed, so it's here too! Both will also destroy dorks and one planeswalkers if their loyalty is too big for burn.

Now let's turn to two cantripping instant one cost instants that will destroy something already damaged, trigger our stuff, and then not be down a card if you cast a card since they replace themselves. They are recently printed and surprisngly costly, but You Are Already Dead and Mirrodin Avenged are great here. I really love them with pingers...

...like this pair! The legendary 3/3 uncommon legendary Knight Syr Carah, the Bold is first. She can tap to ping any target, increase with Tor Wauki, kill with the above to, or give her deathtouch. You can also get card flow from her by casting what we are built around or damaging a foe! Hasty Cunning Sparkmage also taps to ping one target for a damage. I am also running the bigger sized but harder to cast Vulshok Sorcerer and then base Prodigal Pyromancer. Those four are great longer game win cons and pingers.

That's 41 cards at $19.69. Nice removal and pingers!

Card Advantage

We need to draw those cards! Enter this small section!

$1

• Morbid Opportunist

<50 cents

• Faithless Looting
• Festival of Embers
• Florian, Voldaren Scion
• Magus of the Wheel
• Read the Bones
• Stargaze
• Vance's Blasting Cannons
• Diresight
• Light Up the Stage
• Bitter Revelation

We need to draw burn, removal, win cons and other stuff! Florian, Voldaren Scion costs three mana for an on-curve first striking 3/3 body. They have a post-combat trigger to dig X which is life lost by foes this turn, and cast one you just exiled from them this turn. This is play so you can drop a land not cast. Nasty good! Faithless Looting is next with you looting two cards and then flashback for three. It's a Commander Classic. And did your foe take damage? Cast the impulsive card Light Up the Stage next for just one!

Since I am in Black, I leaned into life swapping for card draw. My favorite here is still Bitter Revelation to dig four for two cards. These two just printed aren't bad either! The common surveils two first, better than scry, and then you'll draw two. It's better than Read the Bones which is also here. The uncommon X spell costs two to start, you'll dig twice X and then draw it and the rest in your graveyard for recursion.

Let's finish with three-cost dorks! Morbid Opportunist has a once/turn trigger for when another dork dies to draw that card! For you or your foe's stuff that works, unlike most of these for your stuff instead. Magus of the Wheel is a bigger 3/3 with a sac for two tap and then everyone gets a free Wheel of Fortune! Great card flow there!

The Last Ten

Ready for my next slate of synergies I skipped due to cost or less important stuff? I only have 19 instant/sorcery and many aren't burn, so I cannot ignore that. I also need things I haven't dipped into like recursion over than Festival of Embers.

$2

• Torbran, Thane of Red Fell
• Virtue of Courage

$1.50

• Lightning Bolt

$.75

• Angrath's Marauders

<50 cents

• Coiling Rebirth
• Zagras, Thief of Heartbeats
• Invoke Calamity
• Fireball
• Flick a Coin

Let's start with recursion! Coiling Rebirth costs five, gifts a card, and recurs any dead dork back, and that's a lot of stuff here like trigger killers. Then if you gifted that card, you'll make a free offspring copy, great for stuff like Guttersnipe! Invoke Calamity costs a rougher five mana, mostly all Red, but then you can flashback cast two spells from your graveyard that cost 6 or less total for free. Getting three more triggers from your stuff seems pretty solid role-playing here!

Now let's turn to synergies again! The seven-drop will double all damage you control from combat to noncombat, and then is on an okay sized 4/4 with double damage. The six-drop also has a 4/4 body but with a strong three keywords like evasion in flying and haste to swing now. Don't sleep on deathtouch either or that it gives it to your pingers. Your stuff also gains deathtouch to planeswalkers.

Now let's turn to pricey support cards! Torbran, Thane of Red Fell costs four and adds two damage to your Red damage. Nasty here! Hard to cast though. Virtue of Courage costs two to Shock something and then five to turn noncombat damage into exiling card flow!

Up to $31.27 total. I tossed in the instant Bolt, Torbran and Virtue and went 15 cents over, so I pulled Evolving Wilds to make it even! We finished at 59 cards not 60 in order to make those final pricey stuff in budget with two split modal land cards. I'm sure Mark Wischkaemper won't mind!

Here's my final list:

Rakdos Burn and Pingers | Commander | Abe Sargent

• Commander (1)
• 1 Tor Wauki the Younger

• Creatures (17)
• 1 Angrath's Marauders
• 1 Blisterspit Gremlin
• 1 Coruscation Mage
• 1 Cunning Sparkmage
• 1 Fire Servant
• 1 Florian, Voldaren Scion
• 1 Guttersnipe
• 1 Judith, Carnage Connoisseur
• 1 Magus of the Wheel
• 1 Morbid Opportunist
• 1 Pestilent Spirit
• 1 Prodigal Pyromancer
• 1 Syr Carah, the Bold
• 1 Torbran, Thane of Red Fell
• 1 Unruly Catapult
• 1 Vulshok Sorcerer
• 1 Zagras, Thief of Heartbeats

• Spells (24)
• 1 Abrade
• 1 Bedevil
• 1 Bitter Revelation
• 1 Coiling Rebirth
• 1 Comet Storm
• 1 Diresight
• 1 Electrickery
• 1 Feed the Swarm
• 1 Flick a Coin
• 1 Fireball
• 1 Firebolt
• 1 Incinerate
• 1 Invoke Calamity
• 1 Light Up the Stage
• 1 Lightning Bolt
• 1 Lightning Strike
• 1 Mirrodin Avenged
• 1 Read the Bones
• 1 Rolling Thunder
• 1 Shock
• 1 Spikefield Hazard
• 1 Stargaze
• 1 Tectonic Hazard
• 1 You are Already Dead

• Enchantments (8)
• 1 Double Vision
• 1 Fiery Inscription
• 1 Festival of Embers
• 1 Ill-Gotten Inheritance
• 1 Mechanized Warfare
• 1 Underworld Dreams
• 1 Vance's Blasting Cannon
• 1 Virtue of Courage

• Artifacts (9)
• 1 Bandit's Haul
• 1 Bonder's Ornament
• 1 Charcoal Diamond
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Darksteel Ingot
• 1 Fire Diamond
• 1 Glittering Stockpile
• 1 Rakdos Cluestone
• 1 Stonespeaker Crystal

• Lands (41)
• 1 Ash Barrens
• 1 Bloodfell Caves
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Desert of the Glorified
• 1 Desert of the Fervent
• 1 Jagged Barrens
• 1 Rakdos Carnarium
• 1 Rakdos Guildgate
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Scavenger Grounds
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Tramway Station
• 15 Mountain
• 14 Swamp

Buy This Deck Export text

What else would you want? Desert is cheaper. Shivan Gorge is great! Bojuka Bog? Hero's Downfall and Chaos Warp are around a buck each. Swiftfoot Boots or Lightning Greaves or even Lavaspur Boots?

Maha is pricey but awesomely killable with your pingers and burn laden stuff! Exsanguinate? Bulk rare Mizzium Mortars? Harvester of Souls (just $1.49)? Swapping in Damnable Pact or adding might be great since you can target and kill foes with decking or damage. Archetype of Finality? Basilisk Collar? Cinder Pyromancer? Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh is just three bucks here. Ashling, Flame Dancer to turn magecraft into ramp and card flow? Cut of the Profits to copy? Cheap burn pumping bodies Embermaw Hellion or win-con Rakdos Charm since you don't have a big board? More pingers? Untapping stuff like Thousand-Year Elixir? Giving instantly deathtouch for pingers on cantrip form like Bladebrand. This is surprisingly deep!