[Budget] Commander: Edric vs Grenzo, Dungeon Warden vs Meren vs Greven vs Selvala, Explorer Returned

Edgar23 · Post by **Edgar23** » 4 years ago

Hey guys,
I´m looking for a long time for a budget Commander.My playgroup playes pretty expensive decks and i can´t keep up with the budget. Some of them play combo decks but we play casual. So non of the decks has just one combo with and the remaining cards are just removal, counter etc. We always play free for all with 4.
My budget is around 50-75€. I watched many videos and checked resources like edhrec, Commander Quarters, reddit,.... But the experience from you players is important for me. I´m looking for a strong budget commander wich is fun to play. The funlevel and a unique playstyle is important for me. But also the deck must keep up with expensive decks. I find Edric, Grenzo the Dungeon Warden, Meren, Greven and Selvala, Explorer Returned pretty interesting. And was wondering wich commander you guys recommend the most on the 50-75€ budget? Feel free to suggestio some other commanders. Also if you have a link from a budget deck, feel free to post it. That would be perfect!

Thanks for the help
Habe a nice day!

materpillar · Post by **materpillar** » 4 years ago

I've had a ton of fun with Lazav, the Multifarious (thread / decklist). My list has Training Grounds and some expensive lands but those are more luxury items. After those the most expensive card is hedron crab. You voltron people out with some really janky cards and it feels great. It's got Blue/Black so you can tune it pretty well to be able to deal with the most common threats in your meta. There's something immensely satisfying about killing incredibly tuned decks with Gingerbrute + Phage the Untouchable.

Hawk · Post by **Hawk** » 4 years ago

I imagine that Meren is the best of these options:

Edric, Spymaster of Trest is undoubtedly the strongest of these commanders, and on its face adding a bunch of flying men to a deck sounds very affordable - but that deck really wants its time walk effects too, as well as its "free" counters, and that can balloon up your budget fast. As an extremely aggressive build, it also wants good dual lands in a way that other lists won't care as much about - A shock + fetch base feels a lot more essential for a deck that wants to murder everyone on turn 6 or 7 compared to a deck that wants to draw out to turn 20.

Grenzo, Dungeon Warden and Selvala, Explorer Returned are both reasonable commanders but not top tier, I feel. Selvala's best builds are also not super budget friendly.

Meren is, herself, a bit spendy. But I think most of her signature cards are very affordable, and she's insanely powerful. As a more midrange commander she won't mind running a mediocre manabase, especially not with the predisposition to go full bore on Sakura-Tribe Elder and friends.

Edgar23 · Post by **Edgar23** » 4 years ago

Thanks for the suggestions!
@materpillar I will check your deck out!

@Hawk
What would be a good budget for Eric?
For Grenzo I found that primer budget deck: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=22095&hilit=Grenzo // dont know how strong it is.
Greven is not a option?
I find Meren also nice. But her strongest cards are pretty expensive. Its not that easy building her on a budget.
You can suggest also some other commanders?
Greets!

tempoEDH · Post by **tempoEDH** » 4 years ago

I would absolutely recommend Grenzo. Edric is pretty fun, though it can get extremely linear sometimes. Meren is pretty fun, but it has trouble winning, in my personal experience, without a couple more expensive pieces. Selvala, can't really say much about. I've played her a couple of times, and I personally did not enjoy the deck, but you might feel very differently about it. I know one of my friends built a Selvala combo deck with a rather odd strategy. It's actually built around turning all of his lands into creatures and then using untap all creatures effects to storm off and gain too much mana, play his whole deck. It's actually pretty interactive and fun to play against, as opposed to most combo decks, because no matter how his combo plays out, everyone else at the table is drawing 20-30 cards. Grenzo is one of my personal favorite commanders, and I rebuilt him after a few new cards got released. Specifically, Cauldron of Eternity, Fires of Invention, and the ruling change to London Mulligan (where you DO put the cards you get rid of from your hand on the BOTTOM of your library, so it's good to proactively mulligan down to like 5 cards every game to choose the bottom 2 cards). Grenzo is synergistic, never feels like you've wasted a turn, either. A really fun and unique gimmick that can be supported with very low cash. And, if you ever expand your budget range, he scales into a pretty powerful deck that never loses his interactivity, synergy, and fun.

Good luck with the deckbuilding!

Outcryqq · Post by **Outcryqq** » 4 years ago

Which commander looks the most fun to you? In my opinion, most commanders can be made on a budget, so I'd first go for something I find interesting, then build from there. You can usually find budget card choices to support a commander.

I like Grenzo, Dungeon Warden and have a deck of his built. I saw that you found Snowfox's list, and that's an amazing resource to have. I'd like to help you more, but my build isn't very budget friendly. However, I think you can build a goblin version that is quite in line with your budget.

The issue I think you'll have with Selvala, Explorer Returned and Edric, Spymaster of Trest is that the payoff cards are generally expensive, even if the rest of the deck is cheap. For Selvala, most people will want payoff creatures like Craterhoof Behemoth, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, Avacyn, Angel of Hope, or Archangel of Thune, all of which would eat up most of your budget. For Edric, as Hawk indicated, you're going to want time spells like Nexus of Fate, Time Warp, Temporal Manipulation and the cheap quality counterspells, all of which will eat up most of your budget.

I agree that Meren of Clan Nel Toth is a really powerful card, and most of the quality includes or the substitutes can be done on a budget. My only issue is that you said you wanted a unique playstyle, and in my experience Meren isn't unique.

I've never seen a Greven deck, so I can't tell you about that.

Are you considering other alternatives? The morph/manifest precon Kadena, Slinking Sorcerer is pretty cheap and available, and many of the upgrades I put into mine are cheap as well. The deck plays a very unique way, and I think can be done respectably on a budget.

Good luck with your deck choice!

Edgar23 · Post by **Edgar23** » 4 years ago

Hey,
I like that you botch recommend Grenzo. But doesn´t he has also, like meren, problems closing out games on a budget?
I can´t rate the budget list from Snowfox's. Do you guys think it would be finde if I would run that list?
I think the most fun is playing Grenzo and Meren. So many interactions and funny thinks. But yeah all Meren decks i checked are similar. But I still like that playstyle. Edric seems also fun with all that extra tunrs. He and Meren, both need some expensive cards for winning the game. Its a hard decision.

Kadena, Slinking Sorcerern looks also fun. But a dude out of my group plays her.
Thanks for the help!

Hawk · Post by **Hawk** » 4 years ago

I think Grenzo is doable. I read your budget wrong - on that budget it seems like you could afford a copy of Kiki-jiki, Mirror Breaker, Heartstone, and Ashnod's Altar. You can do your manabase on a budget (more Dragonskull Summit, Smoldering Marsh, Temple of Malice, and Canyon Sloughs, less Blood Crypt, Luxury Suite, and Bloodstained Mire). You'll definitely miss having power cards like Dockside Extortionist and Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger - but most of Grenzo's best cards are a dollar or less, and you'll have a strong grindy list that can also go infinite with Kiki + Conscripts, Kiki + Crafter, or any number of snowfox's patented "Digger Loops".

EDIT: Painlands are $11 bucks now? Yeesh.

Outcryqq · Post by **Outcryqq** » 4 years ago

Grenzo is fine and you should have no problems closing out games. Kiki-jiki, Mirror Breaker and Zealous Conscripts ends games and is cheap, plus a number of other combos. And if you'd prefer goblins, it's easy to flip goblins and go quasi-infinite with cards like Skirk Prospector, Thornbite Staff, and Krenko, Mob Boss - all of which AFAIK are cheap.

Edgar23 · Post by **Edgar23** » 4 years ago

@Hawk I pulled a Kroxa from a booster. So I can incould him. But with 6 power. It will be not that easy cast him from the bottom? :D
@Outcryqq would you link me your goblin Grenzo deck?

Thx! I think I go for the budget Grenzo list from Snowfox's.

Outcryqq · Post by **Outcryqq** » 4 years ago

https://www.mtgsalvation.com/decks/3039 ... s-doomsday

That's an old list that tried to do goblins but keep doomsday combos. I'd just swap out combo pieces for strong goblins.

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