In the casual world, there tend to be some cards that are worth more than others. Sometimes, they are casual all-stars! The cheapest Akroma, Angel of Wrath is $8 right now. She's an all-star. You expect a high price tag for her, Darksteel Colossus, and those sorts of things.

But a lot of cards have higher price tag simply because they are quality utility cards: Cultivate, Counterspell, Doom Blade, and Swords to Plowshares. Sure, you might be sitting on a stack of Cultivates from a Magic 2011 Draft or from breaking up Commander (2013 Edition) product. But if you are not, can you afford to drop almost $6 on a play set of Cultivates for your next kitchen-table brew?

Last week, I looked at some cheap cards and lessons that I took away from my various budget articles I’ve written for GatheringMagic.com. Today, I want to finish that and suggest some budget-friendly alternatives to the expensive cards you encounter. You can always find a cheaper Swords to Plowshares or Beacon of Unrest if you research. So let's look!

Land-Fetching

For my articles, I tend to use Peregrination. Sure, it's 1 mana more to play than Kodama's Reach or Cultivate, but you can acquire a play set of that uncommon for less ($0.8) than one copy of Kodama's Reach or Sakura-Tribe Elder. The scry certainly doesn't suck either. Another cheap option is Krosan Tusker. I've discussed its value before in my columns, and it’s just a quarter apiece for the cheapest. It also fits some decks better, such as those that use creatures in the graveyard as fodder for spells, reanimation, and such. Perhaps because of the massive reprinting it has seen in subsequent products, I'm not too surprised that Armillary Sphere is also just worth a quarter. It's the best colorless mana-fetcher out there, and it almost always makes the cut in my budget multicolored Commander articles. It is the Sol Ring of budget builds.

After those, there are a lot of cheaper options that can suit your needs. Rampant Growth, Pilgrim's Eye, Mycosynth Wellspring, Harrow, Edge of Autumn, Kor Cartographer, and so forth.

Reanimation

It all depends on your deck. In Commander, Unburial Rites may be restricted to Orzhov decks, but there, it’s probably worth the $0.49 price tag. Similarly, Vigor Mortis's $0.25 suits Golgari nicely. There are things out there like Rise from the Grave for a quarter (which can pull a creature from any 'yard, not just your own), Tempt with Immortality for $0.99, and so forth. Don't think the classic, overprinted Zombify will be cheap either—it's a full $0.99 for any version. At that price, you might as well run Tempt with Immortality! Or perhaps Dread Return will be worth the fifty-cent upgrade.

Don't forget recently printed cards in Conspiracy! Extract from Darkness is a great option for Dimir reanimation. Meanwhile, Victimize was reprinted as an uncommon, so keep any of those you open for your deck stock.

Disenchants and Naturalizes

One of the best ways to slip in ways to blow up artifacts and enchantments into your deck is to piggyback them onto some other type of removal. Whether it an expensive Vindicate or a cheap Desert Twister ($0.35), you can play the flexibility to blow up anything.

I find that the best removal tend to be both powerful and cheap when they cross colors. For example, suppose you are playing a Brion Stoutarm Commander deck. Regardless of price, what would be the best options for you? A best-of list would almost assuredly list Wear // Tear and Orim's Thunder. The former is $0.49, and the latter $0.25. Because they are two colors, the demand is lowered. This is true of a lot of color combinations. Dismantling Blow is awesome (also a quarter), Hull Breach can give you a two-for-one trade cheaply (for $0.45), and don't forget how cards like Seal of Cleansing ($0.35) and Seal of Primordium ($0.25) will work in modern decks built around enchantments from Theros block.

Don't forget to do some research, and feel free to combine some of these items. Sure, Mortify might cost a buck in its cheapest version, but don't forget to check Putrefy (which you might be surprised to discover is just $0.35). These cards combine the flexibility of a Desert Twister with the cheaper tendencies of gold cards. You'll find some good options out there.

Card-Drawing

So, when I am building a budget Commander deck for my article, where do I look for this sort of card-draw? I like Staff of Nin, but it's gone up in price recently and now sits at $1.25. If that rubs you the wrong way, don't forget Honden of Seeing Winds at a buck. That quarter difference is a lot to some folks!

I've written an article inspired by how useful Treasure Trove was, right after my “The Top 100 Cards for Multiplayer.” In fact, I would recommend that article for a lot of ideas for alternative cards on the cheap to some of multiplayer's greatest, and often costly, cards. You can pick up four Troves for the price of a Honden. And while they take mana to sink, the reusability is quite potent. Plus, a Trove is not targeted by opposing removal as much as a Mind's Eye or a Staff of Nin.

This is also true of card-draw spells. Something like Blue Sun's Zenith is just a buck. Despite being a rare, that's half the price of a Harmonize. Recurring Insight ($0.49) or Soul's Majesty ($0.75) are out there and can suit the needed purposes of drawing more cards for happiness and joy.

Other Stuff

After spending two weeks on this stuff, I've looked at creature removal, exiling, artifact and enchantment removal, counterspells, card-draw, big beaters, and more. We still didn't look at things like mass removal, discard, land destruction, or many more. Do we need a bunch more articles?

Not really—there have been several principles for finding the cheap cards that we've pulled out in these two articles. So, let's look at those principles, and then you can find your own stuff!

Standard tends to be cheaper than older stuff for commons and uncommons — Valuable, lower-rarity cards like creature removal or land-fetching are usually cheaper when they are in Standard, and people have all that they need. Cards such as Rescue from the Underworld, Peregrination, and so forth are great, cheap options.

Standard rares and mythics tend to be more expensive than older stuff — Sure, you'll find great cards that are Standard-legal, such as Diluvian Primordial, but once you step outside Standard, cards that were once pricey have fallen to very budget-friendly levels. Consider the fall Dreadbore has taken. It used to be worth a lot, and it has tumbled and tumbled to just $2. What do you think will happen post-rotation? This utility card has now fully become a budget-friendly card because it won't be feasible in any tournament formats.

Non-Standard Cards that flirt with other formats tend to be more expensive — What is the best pinpoint-creature-removal spell of all time? If you play kitchen-table Magic, it's probably Swords to Plowshares. Well, guess what—you also see it in Legacy- and Vintage-legal tournament decks. Because of that, it has a higher cost. Tournaments have driven up the prices of staples such as Sensei's Divining Top and Eureka. So we have to go outside that list and unearth the cheaper stuff.

And with these four principles, you can explore the quality, utility creatures, mass-removal spells, Walls, land destruction, discard, and more that I skipped in this series.

We live in the best time for casual players because the vast majority of cards that are amazing in our format are significantly cheaper than they used to be. You can build a great deck for very little. There’s no drop-off from that Beacon of Unrest to that Obzedat's Aid. Embrace it, and live a victorious and fun-filled Magic life without emptying that wallet!

See you next week,

Abe Sargent