You don’t need to spend hundreds to play great Magic. Budget decks can be powerful, competitive, and fun — and building on a budget sharpens your deckbuilding skills. Every deck on this page costs under $100 in paper, and many cost under $50.
Budget Decks
Our cheapest competitive deck lists — each with a full card breakdown, mana curve analysis, and video walkthrough from MTGGoldfish:
- $20 Mono-Blue Towns (Standard) — Budget tempo with counterspells and big finishers.
- Eerie Auras (Standard) — Enchantment-based aggro that punches way above its price.
- Aetherdrift Goblin (Standard) — Fast tribal aggro on a budget.
- Merfolk (Standard) — Tribal tempo with lord synergies.
Browse all decks → — Filter by price to find more budget options.
Budget Deckbuilding Tips
- Start with a proven shell. Find a competitive deck list and replace the expensive cards with budget alternatives that fill the same role.
- Prioritize the mana base. Cheap dual lands and basics work fine — you don’t need fetchlands or shocklands to win games.
- Focus on one format. Spreading your budget across multiple formats is expensive. Pick Standard, Pioneer, or Pauper and go deep.
- Buy singles, not packs. Cracking packs is fun but inefficient. Buy exactly the cards you need from TCGPlayer or your LGS.
- Build around commons and uncommons. Many of Magic’s best cards are commons. Build your deck’s foundation with cheap, efficient spells.
- Consider Pauper. The entire format is commons-only, so most decks cost $30-$50. See our Pauper format guide.
Explore More
- Deck Database — All 46+ deck lists with price breakdowns.
- Deckbuilding Guides — Master the fundamentals of deck construction.
- The Complete Casual Deckbuilding Guide — Start here if you’re new.
- Pauper Format Guide — The ultimate budget format.