Spring is almost here! March is nearly finished! For many of us -- whether we are students ourselves, or raising students at home -- spring break is almost here as well!

It's about this time each year that I start to long for sunshine and newness. (I live in western Michigan, an area plagued by cloudy skies due to the proximity of Lake Michigan. So I take sunshine and newness very seriously.)

In the spirit of looking for something fresh I'd like to share some deck-building challenges that my Commander group has been trying lately. I've found each of these to be fresh and fun. They've also given me a new appreciation for the format.

The 50 Cent Deck Challenge

The Challenge: each member of your group must construct a brand new Commander deck using only cards that cost $.50 or less. Preferably, players will use Commanders they have never built around before.

You might be surprised by the number of solid, build-around-me commanders available for $.50 or less. Here are a few commanders that, as of this writing are only $.50 on Cool Stuff Inc:

• Zurgo Helmsmasher
• Jori En, Ruin Diver
• Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun
• Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts
• Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
• Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief
• Sosuke, Son of Seshiro
• ...and many more

What will this do for your Commander group? This challenge, perhaps more than any other, levels the playing field of all the decks being played. If your group is imbalanced in any way -- if there's one person that always seems to win . . .  or one person with vastly better cards than everyone else . . .  or if your group includes new players who are still learning how to play -- this is the challenge for you.

But what I like best about this challenge doesn't have to do with balancing the game. What I like best is that this challenge will push you to use cards you wouldn't normally use. This challenge forces you to break the online, deck-building metagame of EDHREC / Reddit (if you know what I mean). By doing so, you end up discovering powerful and fun Commander cards that many people don't use.

For example, a friend of mine built a $.50 deck around Ruric Thar, the Unbowed. In doing so he discovered Frontier Guide, a card he'd never played because he started playing after the original Zendikar block, and because the Commander podcasts he listened to typically ignore it. But after the first game he played it he immediately loved it, and squeezed lots of value out of this 25 cent card.

A fun game-within-the-game is finding affordable mana rocks and board wipes. The typical mana rocks and the best board wipes won't be in this deck. Goodbye Sol Ring, Thran Dynamo, and Cyclonic Rift. And for that matter, goodbye Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots. But hello Cluestones, Star Compass, and Infest (a quasi-board wipe under the right circumstances).

Here's a deck from my group. A full-on, 100% colorless build.

Waste the Rubbish -- Commander | BTKiii

• Commander (1)
• 1 Hope of Ghirapur

• Creatures (24)
• 1 Artisan of Kozilek
• 1 Bane of Bala Ged
• 1 Brass Squire
• 1 Chief of the Foundry
• 1 Cogwork Assembler
• 1 Core Prowler
• 1 Crackdown Construct
• 1 Darksteel Gargoyle
• 1 Darksteel Sentinel
• 1 Deal Broker
• 1 Desolation Twin
• 1 Dross Scorpion
• 1 Endbringer
• 1 Eternal Scourge
• 1 Foundry Inspector
• 1 Junk Diver
• 1 Kozilek's Channeler
• 1 Metalwork Colossus
• 1 Myr Retriever
• 1 Palladium Myr
• 1 Pilgrim's Eye
• 1 Scrap Trawler
• 1 Shimmer Myr
• 1 Steel Hellkite

• Instants (2)
• 1 Scour from Existence
• 1 Warping Wail

• Artifacts (37)
• 1 Argentum Armor
• 1 Blinkmoth Urn
• 1 Darksteel Ingot
• 1 Dreamstone Hedron
• 1 Elixir of Immortality
• 1 Ghostfire Blade
• 1 Gonti's Aether Heart
• 1 Hedron Archive
• 1 Hero's Blade
• 1 Icy Manipulator
• 1 Magnifying Glass
• 1 Mask of Avacyn
• 1 Mask of Memory
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Orbs of Warding
• 1 Pacification Array
• 1 Pristine Talisman
• 1 Quietus Spike
• 1 Rogue's Gloves
• 1 Shell of the Last Kappa
• 1 Shuko
• 1 Sisay's Ring
• 1 Skeleton Key
• 1 Spine of Ish Sah
• 1 Staff of Nin
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Sword of Vengeance
• 1 Tamiyo's Journal
• 1 Temple Bell
• 1 Thought Dissector
• 1 Trailblazer's Boots
• 1 Ugin's Nexus
• 1 Unstable Obelisk
• 1 Untethered Express
• 1 Ur-Golem's Eye
• 1 Voltaic Key
• 1 Worn Powerstone

• Lands (36)
• 15 Wastes
• 1 Blasted Landscape
• 1 Blinkmoth Well
• 1 Darksteel Citadel
• 1 Desert
• 1 Encroaching Wastes
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1 Haunted Fengraf
• 1 Inventors' Fair
• 1 Mage-Ring Network
• 1 Mystifying Maze
• 1 Nephalia Academy
• 1 Quicksand
• 1 Radiant Fountain
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Sea Gate Wreckage
• 1 Shrine of the Forsaken Gods
• 1 Sunscorched Desert
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Tomb of the Spirit Dragon
• 1 Zoetic Cavern

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Pros to the 50 Cent Deck Challenge: Forces you outside of the typical Commander meta and helps you discover great cards you might have otherwise overlooked.

Cons to the 50 Cent Deck Challenge: Prices vary between stores. This may cause confusion in your group. For example, when Masters 25 released there were copies of Swiftfoot Boots for $.44 at one online store and $.75 at another. So, is Swiftfoot Boots legal or not? In my group, we decided to pick a handful of stores and agreed that if you could find the card at any one of those locations for $.50 or less, then it was legal.

The $20 Challenge

And now for something completely different . . . 

The challenge: with $20 (and not a penny more!) players must buy a Commander they do not already own and build new deck around this creature. Any money that is leftover may be used to buy other cards for the deck. The rest of the deck is then completed with cards already owned by the player.

I recently accepted this challenge and built a deck around Etali, Primal Storm. I picked up Etali from Cool Stuff Inc for $3.99 (at the time). But my big purchase for this deck was a played copy of Aggravated Assault at $10.50. Then, with the remaining $5.50 I picked up essential pieces for this deck that I didn't already own. This included a lot of inexpensive cards like, Wild Guess, Mana Geyser, Ogre Battledriver, and Fire Diamond.

This was an enormously fun challenge! I was surprised by how strong my deck ended up. Here's the list:

Etali, Primal Storm -- Commander | Andy Rogers

• Commander (1)
• 1 Etali, Primal Storm

• Creatures (15)
• 1 Artisan of Kozilek
• 1 Falkenrath Marauders
• 1 Flameblast Dragon
• 1 Generator Servant
• 1 Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
• 1 Mad Prophet
• 1 Markov Blademaster
• 1 Molten Primordial
• 1 Ogre Battledriver
• 1 Otepec Huntmaster
• 1 Pyreheart Wolf
• 1 Soul of Shandalar
• 1 Stalking Vengeance
• 1 Taurean Mauler
• 1 Treasonous Ogre

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Koth of the Hammer

• Instants (8)
• 1 Arcbond
• 1 Dead // Gone
• 1 Desperate Ritual
• 1 Expedite
• 1 Inferno
• 1 Rack and Ruin
• 1 Reverberate
• 1 Smash to Smithereens

• Sorceries (13)
• 1 Earth Rift
• 1 Faithless Looting
• 1 Fury of the Horde
• 1 Infernal Plunge
• 1 Jokulhaups
• 1 Mana Geyser
• 1 Mass Mutiny
• 1 Molten Psyche
• 1 Reforge the Soul
• 1 Relentless Assault
• 1 Tempt with Vengeance
• 1 Tormenting Voice
• 1 Wild Guess

• Enchantments (8)
• 1 Aggravated Assault
• 1 Blood Moon
• 1 Fervor
• 1 Goblin War Drums
• 1 Outpost Siege
• 1 Possibility Storm
• 1 Retreat to Valakut
• 1 Sunbird's Invocation

• Artifacts (16)
• 1 Boompile
• 1 Crystal Ball
• 1 Elixir of Immortality
• 1 Everflowing Chalice
• 1 Fire Diamond
• 1 Gilded Lotus
• 1 Hammer of Purphoros
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Ring of Valkas
• 1 Seer's Lantern
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Strata Scythe
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Thran Dynamo
• 1 Whispersilk Cloak

• Lands (38)
• 29 Mountain
• 1 Buried Ruin
• 1 Desert of the Fervent
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Looming Spires
• 1 Mirrorpool
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Smoldering Crater
• 1 Smoldering Spires
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse

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Pros to the $20 Challenge: Investing $20 into a brand new deck all at once, including a brand new Commander, is just a ton of fun. It gives you the feeling of buying a whole new deck, even though you already own some of the cards. It's like buying an inexpensive pre-con, but instead of buying reprints, you're using cards you already have. And $20 seems like just enough money to let you pick up some nice new cards without breaking the bank, and without wildly disrupting your group's metagame.

Cons to the $20 Challenge: Not everyone will be able to participate in this. To some, spending $20 on Magic is no big deal; a weekly occurrence. But to others, it will be a barrier. You'll just need to see what your group is up for.

New Set, New Commander Challenge

The challenge: all players in a group must build a new Commander deck based on different legendary creatures from the newest Magic expansion set.

The only cost to this challenge is the cost of one card: the commander!

Players don't have to buy any other cards from the new set if they don't want to. If they would like, players can construct their decks entirely from cards they already own, save for the commander. They are also free to buy new cards as needed. The point of this challenge is not to put limits on the budget or the card pool, but to try out new commanders and have them face off.

My group has done this many times. None of us are Standard players, so most of us have little interest in buying packs (aside from running an occasional draft). But during previews weeks we've often called dibs on commanders, pre-ordered them, and then scheduled a game night to have them clash.

The following decklist is the result of one such experiment. Everyone in my group built around a different elder dinosaur from the Ixalan block (I played the Etali deck listed above). The deck that won the most games, was my buddy Sam's Nezahal, Primal Tide. I encourage you to give this deck a try. It is insanely powerful, especially if you can get Nezahal out on turn three or 4 as Sam did a few times.

Nezahal, Primal Tide -- Commander | Sam C.

• Commander (1)
• 1 Nezahal, Primal Tide

• Creatures (21)
• 1 Burnished Hart
• 1 Chasm Skulker
• 1 Clever Impersonator
• 1 Colossal Whale
• 1 Deep-Sea Kraken
• 1 Fog Bank
• 1 Inkwell Leviathan
• 1 Kraken Hatchling
• 1 Lorthos, the Tidemaker
• 1 Murmuring Phantasm
• 1 Pearl Lake Ancient
• 1 Reef Worm
• 1 Scourge of Fleets
• 1 Shipbreaker Kraken
• 1 Sigiled Starfish
• 1 Silent Arbiter
• 1 Steel Hellkite
• 1 Stormsurge Kraken
• 1 Stormtide Leviathan
• 1 Thing in the Ice
• 1 Tromokratis

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
• 1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

• Instants (15)
• 1 Blue Sun's Zenith
• 1 Cackling Counterpart
• 1 Capsize
• 1 Counterspell
• 1 Dig Through Time
• 1 Dispel
• 1 Engulf the Shore
• 1 Exclude
• 1 Icy Blast
• 1 Insidious Will
• 1 Into the Roil
• 1 Mystical Tutor
• 1 Negate
• 1 Overwhelming Denial
• 1 Polymorphist's Jest

• Sorceries (7)
• 1 Crush of Tentacles
• 1 Curse of the Swine
• 1 Deep Analysis
• 1 Displacement Wave
• 1 Flow of Ideas
• 1 Serum visions
• 1 Whelming Wave

• Enchantments (6)
• 1 Encrust
• 1 Imprisoned in the Moon
• 1 Monastery Siege
• 1 Quest for Ula's Temple
• 1 Retreat to Coralhelm
• 1 Rhystic Study

• Artifacts (12)
• 1 Basalt Monolith
• 1 Dreamstone Hedron
• 1 Fireshrieker
• 1 Icy Manipulator
• 1 Kefnet's Monument
• 1 Nevinyrral's Disk
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Sword of Vengeance
• 1 Thought Vessel
• 1 Thran Dynamo
• 1 Vedalken Orrery

• Lands (36)
• 31 Island
• 1 Blighted Cataract
• 1 Buried Ruin
• 1 Lonely Sandbar
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Skyline Cascade

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Pros: This challenge forces players who might be stuck playing the same old decks to take a risk. And because everyone is playing brand new creatures, players do not have the benefit of much data on EDHREC, or other decklists posted online. The players in your group will have to be creative!

This challenge also has a flavor appeal for the Vorthoses in your playgroup. While the new set is out and getting all of the attention on Twitter and Reddit, you'll be playing a Commander game that matches the flavor of the online Magic buzz of the day.

Cons: The lack of information online may frustrate some players. It depends on how much players depend upon net-decking.

Old Card Frames Only

This deck-building challenge was inspired by Game Knights, Episode #15: Commander Nostalgia with LoadingReadyRun.

The challenge: players must construct decks using only cards printed with old card frames.

This includes any cards printed from Alpha through Scourge. When 8th Edition released in July of 2003 the card frames changed. Cards in 8th Edition and any set released after July 2003 may not be used. Timeshifted cards, or any other cards that may have an old card frame, are allowed.

I built the following deck around Sol'kanar the Swamp King. I've played it many times. It's not a consistently great deck, but it's a consistently fun deck. The art alone is amazing. (I love seeing the old set symbols. The crescent moon of The Dark is my favorite.)

This challenge will force players to either (a) sink a lot of money into old printings of Commander staples, like Sol Ring (which I did not do), or (b) use cards you would otherwise overlook in most situations. For example . . . 

Cuombajj Witches? Never played with them before. Now I love them!

Grave Robbers + Wand of Denial? That's a fun little combo.

Tower of Coireall? It might actually find a home in a regular Commander deck due to the prevalence of Fog Bank. Perhaps with an artifact-loving deck built around Sydri, Galvanic Genius.

Chaos Moon? Totally weird. Definitely chaotic. Feels like an un-card. Great art though!

Here's my Sol'kanar list. Yes, he could be a lot stronger with cards like Grafted Exoskeleton and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. But I'm having fun playing him in this medium-powered deck. I encourage you and your group to give this challenge a try.

Sol'kanar the King of Old Card Frames -- Commander | Andy Rogers

• Commander (1)
• 1 Sol'kanar the Swamp King

• Lands (26)
• 11 Island
• 6 Mountain
• 9 Swamp

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Pros to Old Card Frames Only: Like the previous challenges, this one will force players out of their boxes. Avoiding new card frames removes so many Commander staples from your card pool, that your board states may sometimes be unrecognizable. No more Eldrazi. No equipment cards. No planeswalkers. No transforming lands. And a lot less tokens in general. This is a good thing! Your group will experience Magic in a whole new way.

This challenge also has a game-within-the-game because old cards are so different than today's cards. Old mechanics. Old phrasing of the rules text. Old (and often weaker) power levels on creatures. The little idiosyncrasies of old cards will force players to basically become students of Magic history in order to win the game.

Cons to Old Card Frames Only: Unless your collection is deep, this could be an expensive challenge. To save money I encourage you to embrace white-bordered sets (anathema to some, I know). Search for reprints in Chronicles, Revised, IV, V, VI, and 7th Edition. Sol'kanar the Swamp King is a solid, playable commander, even in modern contexts. As of this writing, the Chronicles version is only $.25 on Cool Stuff Inc.

End Step

I hope you and your group give some of these deck-building challenges a try this spring. My group is having a lot of fun trying them. It's enlivened our games nights (and incidentally, increased our group texting about Magic during the week too).

Tell me which challenges you try on Twitter via @Steamfloggery. I'd love to hear about what your group is up to.