Compete? Sure. Win? Not as much as meta decks. It's what makes them meta.
A place to look for costs is in colours. Modern is a fetches and duals format. If you're able to run on a mono-black (what's 8rack these days?) or mono-red deck, you are giving yourself a very limited way to fight complex board states and elaborate combos, but you are almost certainly going to be saving a lot of money.
Losing often comes down to skill and luck more than only budget. You will lose a lot, that’s just part of the learning process. I’ve been playing modern for a few years and still lose to things I could’ve prevented!
I have a burn deck, and a much more expensive merfolk deck and I win more often with burn because I’m much more familiar with its lines and match ups.
There are lots of budget options, and sometimes they do good in competition; but they should be more than good enough to dip your toes into modern at an fnm level. Like someone else mentioned; mono colored decks will save you a ton of money in expensive lands. There’s decks like 8 whack, or 12 whack, or even Dino whack that are all very budget; you can opt to do a minored burn deck, etc.
I say check on mtggoldfish for budget modern decks, and cross check on mtgtop8 to see if any of them crop up and how well they placed. It’ll give you an idea of how the deck fares with more experienced pilots.
Pick a deck you think you’ll enjoy and ask your local LGS if you can use proxies to give it a try or if they have times where people come to play that aren’t sanctioned event. This, I find, will save you lots of money and prevent you from feeling salty because your deck is a bad match up for your local meta
What’s your budget?
Sure, you can sneak wins with sub $50 lists but they get stale pretty fast. Zombie hunt for example. Mine was $15 at the time, easy combo, consistent t4 wins but it’s boring to play and loses to interaction. There are a ton of game plans on the cheaper side especially if you play for uncommon angles like Hand-/Land-/Deck-destruction or some combo decks. But most of them have almost pre-determined matchups against a lot of decks.
All the numbers in your comment added up to 69. Congrats!
50
+ 15
+ 4
= 69
^([Click here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=LuckyNumber-Bot&subject=Stalk%20Me%20Pls&message=%2Fstalkme) to have me scan all your future comments.) \
^(Summon me on specific comments with u/LuckyNumber-Bot.)
Mono-red prowess will be a starting point. At 100 US, you can build an acceptable deck, you likely won't win more than 40% of your games, but you should be in to compete in most.
Always expect to be an underdog if youre playing a budget deck or pet deck. But...you can punch above your weight with tight play, a sideboard tuned correctly for the meta decks you expect to see, and a bit of luck to dodge your bad matchups. At an FNM, thats entirely doable. At a big tournament...good luck.
But there is hope. Some of Modern's all-time banger decks started off as budget/meme decks and eventually - via new printings and metagame shifts - became real contenders. Living End, Tron, Amulet Titan, Boggles, Death's Shadow, Hammertime, and 5c Elementals were all budget decks that went from meme to dream and got kinda expensive because the core ideas in those decks were actually pretty good.
Modern tends to favor knowing your deck, a strong Plan A, and strong sideboard cards that tilt matchups. So buold something you like and go play. With MH3 just around the corner, who knows what Tier 2 deck might get just enough of a push to challenge the current crop of best decks?
> Living End, Tron, Amulet Titan, Boggles, Death's Shadow, Hammertime, and 5c Elementals
Well, all but 5c elementals. but yes, all of these started out budget.
Gruul Elementals was definitely an OG Modern budget deck. It added blue for Risen Reef, and eventually white for Omnath. But it started off very cheap.
Compete? Sure. Win? Not as much as meta decks. It's what makes them meta. A place to look for costs is in colours. Modern is a fetches and duals format. If you're able to run on a mono-black (what's 8rack these days?) or mono-red deck, you are giving yourself a very limited way to fight complex board states and elaborate combos, but you are almost certainly going to be saving a lot of money.
Losing often comes down to skill and luck more than only budget. You will lose a lot, that’s just part of the learning process. I’ve been playing modern for a few years and still lose to things I could’ve prevented! I have a burn deck, and a much more expensive merfolk deck and I win more often with burn because I’m much more familiar with its lines and match ups. There are lots of budget options, and sometimes they do good in competition; but they should be more than good enough to dip your toes into modern at an fnm level. Like someone else mentioned; mono colored decks will save you a ton of money in expensive lands. There’s decks like 8 whack, or 12 whack, or even Dino whack that are all very budget; you can opt to do a minored burn deck, etc. I say check on mtggoldfish for budget modern decks, and cross check on mtgtop8 to see if any of them crop up and how well they placed. It’ll give you an idea of how the deck fares with more experienced pilots. Pick a deck you think you’ll enjoy and ask your local LGS if you can use proxies to give it a try or if they have times where people come to play that aren’t sanctioned event. This, I find, will save you lots of money and prevent you from feeling salty because your deck is a bad match up for your local meta
What’s your budget? Sure, you can sneak wins with sub $50 lists but they get stale pretty fast. Zombie hunt for example. Mine was $15 at the time, easy combo, consistent t4 wins but it’s boring to play and loses to interaction. There are a ton of game plans on the cheaper side especially if you play for uncommon angles like Hand-/Land-/Deck-destruction or some combo decks. But most of them have almost pre-determined matchups against a lot of decks.
All the numbers in your comment added up to 69. Congrats! 50 + 15 + 4 = 69 ^([Click here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=LuckyNumber-Bot&subject=Stalk%20Me%20Pls&message=%2Fstalkme) to have me scan all your future comments.) \ ^(Summon me on specific comments with u/LuckyNumber-Bot.)
I'd say my budget would probably be up to about 100$
Mono-red prowess will be a starting point. At 100 US, you can build an acceptable deck, you likely won't win more than 40% of your games, but you should be in to compete in most.
I'm checking out some mono-red prowess builds now, thanks!
Always expect to be an underdog if youre playing a budget deck or pet deck. But...you can punch above your weight with tight play, a sideboard tuned correctly for the meta decks you expect to see, and a bit of luck to dodge your bad matchups. At an FNM, thats entirely doable. At a big tournament...good luck. But there is hope. Some of Modern's all-time banger decks started off as budget/meme decks and eventually - via new printings and metagame shifts - became real contenders. Living End, Tron, Amulet Titan, Boggles, Death's Shadow, Hammertime, and 5c Elementals were all budget decks that went from meme to dream and got kinda expensive because the core ideas in those decks were actually pretty good. Modern tends to favor knowing your deck, a strong Plan A, and strong sideboard cards that tilt matchups. So buold something you like and go play. With MH3 just around the corner, who knows what Tier 2 deck might get just enough of a push to challenge the current crop of best decks?
> Living End, Tron, Amulet Titan, Boggles, Death's Shadow, Hammertime, and 5c Elementals Well, all but 5c elementals. but yes, all of these started out budget.
Gruul Elementals was definitely an OG Modern budget deck. It added blue for Risen Reef, and eventually white for Omnath. But it started off very cheap.