ToastasaurusRex

Yeah, the way I use MTGVault's prices aren't exactly the most reliable, but I'm already far enough in that if I change the way I do the math, I'm basically re-doing the entire project. Which I might, at some point, but not soon.

It's over 70 every time I check on this site.

All the 1 cmc blue selection cantrips are expensive, they just all are, because so few are modern-playable.

Firstly, I'm just gonna get the little pedantic bits out of the way- the budget for these decks is $15, but the price listed on the side doesn't include sideboard, which is why it looks like I was shooting for under $10.

With that out of the way-

I see the point of this deck to be stacking lots of equipment in creatures, so I'd rather have a larger concentration of less mana-intensive equipment than a smaller concentration of higher-quality equipment. The creatures themselves will make the most of the stat boosts, but if your whole turn grinds to a halt trying to actually make use of the equipment, then that's a pretty slow and ineffective turn. I looked at Sword of Vengence in particular previously, but 6 mana to equip it to a creature is just too slow for what's supposed to be an aggressive deck. I would genuinely rather be playing Khopesh if those were my only two choices, because one of them I'm actually going to be able to use in most games. Khopesh is a minimum mana investment to get all of your synergies running, and a lot less clunky than any of your other options. N, it's not a great card or even that good a card, but these decks are supposed to be on a lower power level so that everyone gets to actually see their decks in action. And there are enough utility equipment that don't boost any stats in the deck that you kinda need a selection of dumb stat-buffs if you're ever going to actually put together lethal damage. Plus, just Voltron-ing up a buff creature is kinda the fun aspect of this deck that makes it appealing to a new player, and being able to give them multiple copies of Khopesh quickly makes that dread work.

The Protection spells are supposed to mitigate the lower number of creatures somewhat, without watering the list down with worse ones, and Make a Stand in particular can be used in response to the Pyroclasms, Planar Outbursts, and other board-wipe spells that a bunch of the slower decks run. This deck is just going to loose without an answer to boardwipes, and besides the black -x/-x boardwipes a few decks run, Make a Stand is that answer. Yes, they all work in the same ways, but there aren't a huge number of things that Indestructible doesn't answer that a mono-white deck CAN answer. Maybe I want some bad white versions of Giant Growth to buff toughness in response to a -x/-x spell, but any deck that runs those also has something like murder, which a stat buff doesn't answer, but indestructible does. If I could just give 'em hexproof through means other than equipment, that'd be great, but I can't, so I work with what I've got.

With Make a Stand in particular- yes, the +1/+0 is irrelevant, and if I could find another low-priced effect in mono-W that gave all your creatures indestructible, I'd probably use that instead, but we work with the cards that exist, not the ones we'd like to have. It's about giving the deck any answer at all to boardwipes, not the stat boost. Plus, it could be used to turn a combat phase of trades into a serious blowout in a casual game, which is the point of this series of decks.

I respect the criticism of the removal package, and I'll take a look at replacing some of them with spells like Puncturing Light or something, maybe 2 copies of Reprisal in the sideboard, but since most of these decks don't have any main-board enchantment removal, if a player is on-point enough to see that this deck that doesn't rely on any enchantments to kill you is in fact vulnerable to enchantment removal, that's actually a great learning moment that I wouldn't want to undermine too terribly much. These decks aren't about being optimal, they're about making a good impression for the fact that this game can be fun.

As for specific suggestions I didn't get to- Dawn Charm uses Regeneration, which is unintuitive and weird and always has been, counter effects in white, which is a thing that I don't want to trick players into thinking is normal, and is expensive, so all Nos on that front, Reliquary Monk I wouldn't use specifically because it's just way older, but in general I'm not throwing dedicated artifact/enchantment removal mainboard, which is why most of these decks have Revoke Existence or similar in the sideboard. And there's no way I'm throwing a card with Vanishing like Riftwatcher into these decks. Not a chance in hell, I'm trying to avoid the needlessly complicated mechanics.

Yeah, I'm just trying not to introduce whole new mechanics willy-nilly to these decks. I'm trying to keep it relatively simple, which is why I've been avoiding Convoke, and random instances of Devotion. I'd be against including the one copy of Aftermath if I weren't running it in several of the decks, which helps a bit. Though if I were going to work with Convoke, Feral Incarnation would totally be worth looking at in this deck, good find.

I think all the Golem cards are expensive, I haven't checked, but I'd also rather not make it so you have to do too much to keep track of where the tokens came from, and with all the golem cards you have to know which tokens are golems because they come with tribal effects. Not to mention that all the token-generators you suggested other than Incarnation add another statline of tokens that players have to keep track of separately, which I'm trying to keep down to 3 at maximum, and I'd rather stick with the two going on here.

And I kinda want the finishers to BE token spam. That's what the deck is for, so that's how you should be trying to win, right?

Mostly I made the guildmages a playset because I assume they're going to get removed. ALL of these decks play removal that can kill the things, and with a lot of the populate cards in the sideboard, the guildmages are sorta your primary means to go off and spam creature tokens, which is supposed to be the point of the deck. The goal is that the mana dorks make those abilities see a lot more use, but it'd be reasonable to cut down to 2 or 3 and put the other copies in the sideboard or something.

But the decks aren't supposed to be optimal, just fun and interesting. So the plays like Timely Reinforcements (which might be too expensive, doesn't it see like, Modern Sideboard play or something? It's real easy for cards to go over budget on this project.) just aren't what I'm shooting for.

With this project, I'm not as worried about the smooth curve or anything, and I'm trying to keep a higher density of hits for Mouth to Feed. Heck, I just switched out Quasali Ambusher for Fleecemane Lion since I realized it was in-budget.

That makes sense- between keeping track of the counters on all the different creatures, on top of Evolve creatures having really weird and uneven stats in the first place, so they cause eachother to evolve more often, PLUS the overrun effect, I can see that getting out of hand. A good lesson there- Creature buffs can be intimidating, don't put too many all together.

Yeah, my thought on the sideboards was that they'd serve less like a real sideboard and more like just your pool of cards to modify your deck with- If someone likes the sideboard cards and just wants them maindeck always, that's their choice. I would also encourage them to essentially sideboard before matchups, since I'm running the assumption that these games are all being played among my Teaching Decks, either me using them against someone I'm teaching, or me teaching a club or something together. It's fair to be able to ask "What deck are you on?" and both players to give a strait answer, then swap a few cards out based on what they think will help.

Thank you. It's actually been a super fun challenge trying to put these decks together on such a low budget.

Though- I would recommend not starting your son with this deck. I'm probably going to start dividing these things into more basic and more advanced ones, where the more basic decks are exactly as advertied, while the more advanced decks are a good way to learn something that can get a bit more involved, like this +1/+1 counters deck, or the prowess deck.

I mean, it probably wouldn't go horribly wrong if he started with this deck, but you might be able to make a better first impression with the Orzhov Control deck, or an aggressive one. That's mostly my 2 cents though, you obviously know who you're trying to appeal to better than I do.

Without a single spell in the main or side board that costs more than 2cmc, I'm just not convinced there's a point to playing electromancer. I also kind don't want the deck to be too reliant on the curiosity combo, since I'm not even sure the deck should be running it. Think Twice and Chemister should be a workable amount of card draw on their own. None of the card choices are ideal, but they're simple, they're cheap, and I think they're good ways to learn. And Ilike having Chemister as a more expensive top-end to the deck.

So do you think that Choice cards like Charm and Chemister are too much for trying to teach like this? You might be right, the Charms do kinda look like an intimidating block of text if you don't get a version with the new bullet-point formatting. Do you remember any specific issues your friends had with the decks? Did Evolve turn out to be a bit much to learn with? I could see that happening. Do you remember any specific cards or interactions they had trouble with that I should avoid using for this project?

I hope you get another chance to teach them, and if you want to try one of my decks for it, please do.

I mean, the first idea was that I wanted an array of decks I could teach, say, my older brother who's never played before, with, but as I was making it I realized that it'd be silly for the decks to cost $50 a piece if the idea is that you're making like, 6 of them to let someone try out a couple of different ideas. The budget idea was secondary, but has definitely been a bigger impact on the deckbuilding challenges than I expected.

If you switch out Treasure Cruise and Dig through Time in the main board (ouch, easier said than done) and Disdainful stroke in the side, you could have this deck set up for the new standard now that Kahns and fate reforged have rotated out. If you do, you can supplement the control package with Declaration In Stone, and add another Win condition with Thing in the Ice.

In these colors, considering you have a decent setup for discard, Fiery Temper might be a great card here. It combines hilariously well with Lightning Axe. Though, for lack of Clue Tokens, I don't know if Daring Sleuth is going to get you much.

It doesn't look like you're getting much of anything out of the color black- one 1-drop that has syngery with vampires, but is the only one in the deck. If you want to use black, you could get some great spells and creatures, but from the cards you've got, it looks like you might be better suited to a Red/Green strategy.

"Ellusive Spellfist" is a great creature for prowess decks, and easy to miss if you just search the keyword prowess. 1&B for a 1/3 that gains +1/+0 and unblockable whenever you cast a noncreature spell. And not outside of budget range either.

Evasion spells would help this deck. I recommend "Ellusive Spellfist" for a creature, "Artful Dodge" and "Distortion Strike" you can get multiple prowess triggers off of (On that note, "Prey's Vengeance is a fun pump spell for prowess), and "Slip through space" is a nice cantrip.

While it's a touch more expensive than some of your other instants and sorceries, "Artful Maneuver" is super powerful in a prowess deck, because it triggers prowess on the rebound as well. Probably worth including somewhere.

I've been playing around with prowess decks a little- Ellusive Spellfist from Dragons of Tarkir is absolutely wonderful. 1/3 for 1 and a blue, so whenever you aren't able to get off a prowess trigger to swing in, it's good at blocking, and getting +1/+0 and unblockable on noncreature spell casts is great. You can't use prowess to save it from removal, like you occasionally might with other cards, but the unblockable is worth it. Not sure what to remove for it, but that's a hell of a card, and I love it.

Depends on what you want- personally, I think counterspells are a bit too slow for this deck, since it means keeping your mana open through to your opponent's turn, not using it to cast prowess triggers, not using that mana to advance your own board state. Maybe switch the 6 counterspells out for 3 Titan's strength and 3 dispel from BFZ- countering instants means you can use it on your own turn to trigger prowess and Jori En while running interference against any instants from your opponents. Plus, 1 mana cost is very nice.

Trying to make a similar deck myself, looking for inspiration- I enjoy using unblockable effects like distortion strike, artful dodge, and slip through space, as well as a greater emphasis on short-term boosting spells like Prey's Vengeance, Giant Growth, Titanic growth, phytoburst and card draw, using Edric, spymaster, draw cards like Urban Evolution, shamanic revelation, Ugin's Insight, Tezzeret's gambit, bident of thassa, etc.

Your setup uses good ramping, control spells, and big anthem effects though, so I can't say I know better at all, just that they might be fun. I'm also glad someone else though Hornet Queen and Sage of Hours would both be hilarious in an Ezuri deck.

Fair Enough. How about Titan's Strength, from Origins?

Monastery Swiftspear would be a great addition here, adding to the deck's speed without sacrificing much power thanks to prowess.