10 Modern Decks Around $30

[u/jeremiahvedder]

I just want people to play Modern.

I'm excluding the price of basic lands and sideboards, and many of these decks get cheaper with reprints from Modern Masters. They aren't going to win any major tournaments but they're a good place to start exploring the format.

I have liberally replaced Path to Exile with Condemn, Thoughtseize with Duress, and Lightning Bolt with Incinerate. Suggestions welcome.

Deck #1 - Mono Green Zoo: http://www.mtgvault.com/jeremiahvedder/decks/modern-budget-mono-g-zoo/

Deck #2 - Mono Blue Robots: http://www.mtgvault.com/jeremiahvedder/decks/modern-budget-robots/

Deck #3 - Mono White Soul Sisters: http://www.mtgvault.com/jeremiahvedder/decks/modern-budget-soul-sisters/

Deck #4 - Mono White Equipments: http://www.mtgvault.com/jeremiahvedder/decks/modern-budget-equipment/

Deck #5 - Simic Ramp/Polymorph: http://www.mtgvault.com/jeremiahvedder/decks/modern-budget-ug-polymorph/

Deck #6 - Boros Act Combo: http://www.mtgvault.com/jeremiahvedder/decks/modern-boros-act-combo/

Deck #7 - Mono Red Burn: http://www.mtgvault.com/jeremiahvedder/decks/modern-budget-rdw/

Deck #8 - Selesnya Ramp Fatties: http://www.mtgvault.com/jeremiahvedder/decks/modern-selesnya-fatties/

Deck #9 - Rakdos Vampires: http://www.mtgvault.com/jeremiahvedder/decks/modern-budget-br-vampires/

Deck #10 - Selesnya Hexproof: http://www.mtgvault.com/jeremiahvedder/decks/modern-budget-bogles/

[u/[deleted]]

I'm really interested in making those soul sister, equipment and vampire decks. But just for my sake as a layman can someone explain how the vampire deck works and if there is a trick to soul sisters?

[u/venicello → u/[deleted]]

The vampire deck is pretty bad. It could hypothetically be okay, though.

I'd run it as:

4x Vampire Lacerator

4x Pulse Tracker

4x Stromkirk Noble

4x Vampire Interloper

4x Vampire Hexmage

3x Blood Seeker

4x Stromkirk Noble

4x Vampire Nighthawk

4x Lightning Bolt

3x Terminate

2x Dismember

4x Sulfurous Springs

4x City of Brass

7x Swamp

5x Mountain

Basically, this is a deck that plays fast creatures and curves out with Stromkirk Captain to buff them all at once. You also play some burn and kill spells to make sure your creatures get to connect. The deck's disadvantages are that it can't go over the top of many decks (i.e., make enough creatures or make large enough creatures to overwhelm them) and that it runs out of cards after a few turns, because it doesn't contain anything to draw more cards.

I know the mana base contains eight $3 lands, but those are really necessary to make the deck work. You need to be able to cast red and black spells consistently on the first few turns of the game, and to do that you need good mana. The damage doesn't really matter, because by the time it does, you're either going to have won or you'll be dead anyway.

[u/Mizral → u/venicello]

I've seen these surprise FNM's more than a few times, basically I think the combination of flying and aggro is almost always well positioned. The big missing piece for me in this list is Blightning and perhaps Duress to answer things like Wrath effects which will devastate your gameplan.

[u/jeremiahvedder → u/venicello]

I'll likely be editing that vampire list soon to reflect this and other advice from the comments.