dknight27

Assuming this build is budget and for casual, this is how I would build it. Just to give you some ideas

https://www.mtgvault.com/dknight27/decks/casual-budget-prowess/

Best advice here, up the lands to 21, cut way way down on the 3-drops, up the 1-drops

You can probably get away with 20 lands in here, the curve is pretty low and you can survive on 2 fielded lands for quite a while if necessary. It might also be worth thinking about a copy or two of nurturing peatland.

The first thing that jumps out at me is that the blue balance doesn't really fit with the red balance. Hierarch doesn't pump red mana, and there are 27 red mana symbols in the deck, with only 5 lands that add red. Meanwhile, there are 3 lands that pump blue , with 4 hierarchs, for only 6 mana symbols.

I love royal scions in zoo. They either kill useless topdecks or pump a critter while building toward a hand refill. Mantis rider is also quite powerful, but with only the 6 maindecked cards and 3 sideboard, I'm not sure if the splash is worth it.


Another consideration in here is elvish reclaimer that benefits heavily from the 10 fetches and 2 sac/draws, ups the 1-drop threats, can pull the sac/draw lands late game to keep material working when you're top decking, and at full power is un-burnable and a reliable beater.

I'm not the biggest fan of rampager in here at first glance, even if he can be used in a pinch to squeeze out a win.



Just my initial thoughts, perhaps I'm off base here

That's fair. Only thing I can think to recommend off the top is some mainboarded swords to plowshares and/or ponder to both lower the curve, up the sorcery count for goyf (ponder), and keep cheap removal (swords).

Other than that (once sideboard is set for glittering wish), this looks excellent

Are we going for competitive legacy here?

What sort of budget are you working from here?

I know black is the traditional build so you can hit the 1-drop discards, but I wanted to see if you can build lantern control without black. Path to exile is attractive to me because it removes threats and causes a search, so you can squeeze an extra shuffle when you need it.

Not sure if this will work or not, just wanted to work with it a bit

Normally dredge decks want to play a turn 1 mill card so turn 2 you can have a critter hit the field. This build is gunna take a couple turns to discard the material or mill into what you need

My initial impression is that the curve is too high. Dredge likes 1-drops and speed more than pretty much anything. I would consider stitcher's supplier. 1-drop, helps gravecrawler, mills well.

What legality, budget, and level of competition are you going for?

Your number 1 priority should be to lower the curve as much as possible

Even with this tiny curve, 17 lands just looks too scary for me

Even with 25 lands, the curve seems way too high in here as is. 13 4-drops is gunna clog you up, and it gets even worse when you add snap to the mix. I would consider cutting the 4-drops down considerably and swapping in good 1-drops like fatal push, inquisition of kozilek, opt/thought scour.

Fiery islet is a natural consideration as well.

Just my initial thoughts

Even with the low curve and aether vial, 19 lands is mighty slim. I would consider upping it to 20 and knocking up the fetch lands (ostensibly evening out the dead topdecked lands) so you have fewer mulligans/slow starts.

Side grave hate would do a good consideration too, especially as you have white so you can run rest in peace

I gotcha. Even if this is casual, there are some tweaks I would propose. If you're playing in vintage, you get to use the awesome vintage cards (budget version) that you don't get to use anywhere else. The budget cards you positively need to use are: Gitaxian probe, Brainstorm, Sol ring, Ponder, Skullclamp. Everything but Skullclamp is restricted in vintage, so you can only use 1 copy. Skullclamp you can use 4 copies.

Exalted is sort of a unique strategy in magic, as you want critters on the field, but you only want to attack with 1 every turn. So, the deck is vulnerable to mass removal (nukes), but doesn't get the benefit of doing massive swarm damage. So, you have to take advantage of the critter drop every turn to boost the attacker. Meaning, every turn you want to play a critter with exalted in mainphase 1, and attack with the critter from last turn, taking advantage of the exalted boost. This makes up for the vulnerability with speed. Unfortunately, that means your critter drops need to be as reliable and fast as possible. To that end, I recommend maxing out the easy to cast (mana color wise) and low cost critters over the "better" mid-tier critters. 4 akrasan squire, 4 aven squire, 4 knight of glory for sure. Then take a look at qasali pridemage and sighted-cast sorcerer. Giltspire avenger is too hard to get out (color wise) on a budget, as is sigled paladin. Court archers is "ok" but you don't really care about blocking in this deck (you want to outrace opponent), so a cheaper option might be better.

Your support spells are ok, but realistically aren't needed for what this deck is trying to do. You're trying to outrace opponent, so you don't need to gain life or anything like that. Aqueous form is nice for unblockable, but it doesn't produce good card advantage. Selesnya charm is ok, but there are better versions. I would suggest cutting most of them in favor of cards like swords to plowshares and preordain.




However, taking into account that this is a budget build so you can't use exalted's grand master, noble hierarch, I would give some thought to forgetting the bant color scheme entirely and just going mono-white. Yes, you don't get to use rafiq, but going monowhite fixes the mana problems, lets you use sleeker cards more quickly, and realistically doesn't lose much (if any) momentum when compared to a budget bant verison. Or, if you want to keep some diversity, go white/blue and you can use the cool vintage cards, the white cards above, plus ardent plea and ethercaste knight. Realistically, that's what I'm gunna recommend, as its a compromise between power and speed/playability.

This is how I would build that deck:

https://www.mtgvault.com/dknight27/decks/vintage-budget-exalted/

What format are we aiming for here?

It's entirely possible, I'm by no means claiming it is "good" at the things it does, but the reason I want to consider it, at least in a budgetary capacity, is because it has such a wide array of effects (even if those effects are impotent compared to their hyper-specific alternatives). Basically what I'm getting at is that it can possibly save some slot space to keep the sideboard less crowded. I run into the problem all the time of filling out a sideboard and going deck by deck on the matchups and finding at least one that I basically don't have room to side against. And, although I hate to use a fantasy sports term, I think dovin is a candidate for a "flex" spot, that sides against enough hyper-specific matchups to be a consideration.

That's just my thought process, maybe I'm way off base here

Biggest advice I can give is to pull down the curve and up the lands. Speed is more important than pretty much anything else

All is dust goes a long way in builds like this, and is realistically a must have.

I've had a lot of success in my karn build with doubling cube, mystic forge, winter orb, and silent arbiter. Just some considerations