So this is a project I wanted to engage in- To make a set of 10+ super-budget 60-card decks that are simple, relatively easy to play, relatively easy to understand, and bring across the fundamentals of how Magic Works. We've since gone way past 10, with tons more in the works, and I've really enjoyed the challenge of trying to make these decks easy to play and understand, fun, and all under a $15 budget, sideboard included.
The main goal here is that you could easily build these deck for a low cost and use them as an easy introduction to how magic works, to teach a group of new players both how to play, and give them a sense of Why, a sense of what fun things they're getting into. These decks aren't gonna be particularly good, or even legal in any particular format if it stops me from including a card I think is good for the deck, but they should be fun and interesting without being too hard to get into. They should be an easily-accessible example of how fun Magic: The Gathering can be.
So this one started out trying to be a control deck, and then ended up migrating over to Midrange when I realized that Phylactery Liche and a bunch of value artifacts wasn't gonna pan out, particularly since artifacts don't add to your devotion. So instead we have a deck with 3 kinds of cards and nothing else- creatures with solid stats that are going to murder your opponent, cards that draw more cards, and cards that murder your opponent's creatures. In other words- my kinda deck.
As for budget: Maindeck cost is currently at ~$11 (according to the middle blue numbers on this very site under estimated value), sideboard at about ~$3, so under the $15 budget.
So mostly this section is going to be notes on why I think these are good cards to learn from:
Vampire Nighthawk needs no introduction, it's a bonkers card that I keep fitting into these decks whenever budget allows, Herald of Torment I'm leery of because of that self-damage adding up between sources, but a 3/3 flier for 3 is strong, and being able to put your Titan in the air as a 7/8 is pretty back-breaking. Sangromancer is nice because it effectively adds lifegain to your removal spells, which is a good counterbalance for Herald and your draw spells, Marshmist Titan might not his the battlefield earlier than turn 5, but you can probably play him alongside another creature as a massive tempo swing, which is still really good, and, last but not least, Gary the Gray Merchant of Asphodel will drain your opponents for a ton and restore a bunch of life.
Drown in Sorrow is strong against most agro decks, read the bones and succumb to temptation give you card advantage, Kiku's shadow is a sweet kill spell, murder is always solid, Originally I ran Tragic Slip, but I feel like Last Gasp's reliability is more important, and Tribute to Hunger was my attempt to add some lifegain to the removal package, which is also good for killing those glyph keepers I keep giving to blue decks.
Hey, would you look at that. I don't have to make excuses about the Mana base this time.
As for the sideboard, this IS supposed to be a sideboard they learn how to use, to make their deck perform better in the right matchups, or just in general to customize their decks within constraints.
I'm gonna be honest, I mostly just went ham on giving more options for the removal spells here. Black doesn't exactly have a huge variety of sideboard cards besides that, so that's what we got: More Kill spells. Tendrils of Corruption is slow, but should gain you a bunch of life, so it'll be good against midrange, last gasp is cheap, so you can play it against agro, and Font of Return was the sweetest Black value card I found. I could probably fit Liliana's Defeat in here somewhere, since it's good against basically any black deck, but I'm honestly just not convinced what to cut for it.