Fear not my zoot suit clad friend, there is a way to build a 5-color deck on a budget. The problem is that you have to do a little pride swallowing and be a little imaginative on your end. The first thing we are going to do is find a general that is 5-color, something that won't be a huge strain on our lack of mana diversity and a general that will fit into our thrifty deck building budget.
Cue Reaper King.
Look at this ugly dude. Scarecrows? Before you turn you nose up in disgust to this Shadowmoor outcast, look at those mana symbols. This guy will allow us to cast him without being to hard on our mana. If we are stuck on 3 colors, we can still cast him. He will be just a bit more expensive.
Sweet! Scarecrows! Lets do it! What else do we have for scarecrows?.....I...oh....um....oh.....ew...oh god....oh make it stop! Yes. It's that bad. So, lets forget we ever looked at scarecrows. I feel like I need a shower after looking at those other scarecrows. But there is a way we can abuse the Reaper King, and that is with changelings. Being a 5-color deck, we can use the cream of the crop from the changelings and still get the destroy a permanent bonus. So, what are the best?
Chameleon Colossus
The Colossus is something that can get pretty out of hand and against mono-black decks, he can win the game all by himself.
Mirror Entity
When you have Reaper King in play, you might as well read this card as "Spend X to give all your creatures X+1/X+1". While you check my math, I will continue by saying that this guy is something special. Like his jolly green friend before him, Mirror Entity had a great knack for finishing games all by himself. Also, at just a single white, you need not fear tying up your mana in him.
Shapesharer
Oh, you just played a Titan? I'd like to be a Titan! You just played your general and I hate him? Well lets just get that pesky general off the battlefield. Very versatile and might even get a few two for ones off of him.
Taurean Mauler
This is one of those guys who was built before commander really hit the scene. If you are able to get this guy to stick, he can get really large really fast off of your opponents just playing spells. Last I heard, playing spells in Magic is a good thing.
Cairn Wanderer
Another "scarecrow" that can do some obscure things. At a 4/4 for 4B, he has a decent size body. However, this guy becomes a late game hero. Your deck begins to pile up in your graveyard, the Wanderer only gets better.
Ripetide Replicator
Don't give me that look. When you start thinking of this card as 4 mana to destroy a permanent, you will start thanking me.
Now that we have a decent base of creatures, we can start looking for ways to get a good selection of mana sources for the deck. As I said before, we want to do this as cheap as possible and nothing is cheaper in Magic than some basic lands:
3x Island
3x Forest
3x Mountain
3x Swamp
3x Plains
There we go. 15 lands. Good night everybody.
....More? Okay fine. Lets take a look at some affordable dual lands and ramp spells:
Shards Tri-Lands
There are 5 tri-lands from the Shards of Alara block, they all come into play tapped, but they all produce 3 colors. I think these are going to be the best for our deck, and along with being so awesome, they are also uncommon. Ka-Ching.
Springjack Pasture
Another clunker, but this will help protect us with some chump blocking goats and we can then cash them in later for some mana later.
Rupture Spire
As long as you have another land in your opening hand, you can play this on turn two and give your access to all the colors. Good in my book!
Pain lands
Pain lands are any of the dual lands that produce two colors, but deal one damage to you. Pain lands are still pretty affordable and are not as painful in commander.
City of Brass
If the pain lands were Europe, City of Brass is Russia. It's big, you often never want to go there, but sometimes, you just have to...I think that analogy works. City of Brass is a 5-color producing powerhouse. We are a big fan.
Grand Coliseum
Same as above, just comes into play tapped and we can tap it for colorless...move along...move along.
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Alright, this is the deepest we are going to go into our pocket books. This card is hovering around $20.00, which is about half the price of the cheapest dual land. This card, 99 times out of 100 we are going to name Scarecrow. This will produce all five colors to cast our general, along with being super sneaky and allowing us to cast any of our changelings. This card should become a commander staple very soon. You just name whatever your general is and you can avoid the awkward Hinders and Spell Crumples in life.
Command Tower
This will set you back maybe $2.00, but it will be worth every penny. This little gem from the commander sets will allow you access to all 5 colors without breaking a sweat.
Birds of Paradise
Trivia time! How many times has Birds of Paradise been reprinted in complete sets?
.........
Jeopardy music
............Times up!
Did you 14? You would be correct! Since this little bird is Magic the Gatherings village bicycle, you can get the on the cheap. One green and it gives you all the manas.
Harrow
This can fix your mana in a quick way. Only drawing forests? Not a problem! Go get yourself some basic lands and set yourself free of your mana issues. Great thing about this card too is that you can technically think of it as a one mana ramp spell (because the come into play untapped).
Exploding Boarders
I have loved this card since drafting Conflux. You search out a basic land and then throw a lava axe at your opponents face. This can easily slide into our deck.
Explosive Vegetation
Another great ramp spell. Go get any two basic lands and like our friend Harrow, they will come into play untapped and you get use of the right away.
Fellwar Stone
The fact that our deck is going to want all the mana, Fellwar Stone is going to only give us value. Anything our opponents play with benefit the Fellwar Stone, along with ramping our deck into Reaper King range.
Exotic Orchard
Same with Fellwar Stone, this card is going to give you 3-5 colors of the Magic rainbow. Plus, this card has been reprinted in a bunch of commander decks and planechase decks, so it won'thurt your pocket book too hard.
Other things that you have to keep in mind while building your 5 color deck on a budget (or any 5 color deck for that matter) is the ratio of lands and mana fixers that produce certain colors and what you are putting into your deck. Say, for example to you have 10 cards in your deck that produce black mana. That means, 10.10% of your deck can produce black mana. Are you going to want to put Gristelbrand into your deck? Probably not. Sure, he is a sweet card and your deck COULD cast him, but you have to understand ratios. If you deck has only 10.10% black mana sources that means that roughly, 1 in every 10 cards is going to give you 1 black mana. Using that math, to get 4 black mana, you are going to have to go through 40 cards (roughly). Sure, there are times where you become mayor of magical christmas land and you live the dream, but it is much better to make your deck consistent, rather than lucky.
The list goes on and on with the cheap 5 color cards you can use. You just have to be a little imaginative and sometimes, you just have to swallow your pride and play some cards that other players snarl at and say "Exploding Borders? Bah! Who plays that?" Then point the damage at the whiners face. Blam. Five. Whiner.
We have now a grand total of 37 cards and that is including our basic lands and our general. Lets fill in some cards here and there and see what my deck is going to look like:
General (1)
1x Reaper King
Creature (32)
1x Chameleon Colossus
1x Taurean Mauler
1x Cairn Wanderer
1x Changeling Hero
1x Mirror Entity
1x Shapesharer
1x Birds of Paradise
1x Sakashima the Impostor
1x Higure, the Still Wind
1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
1x Bringer of the Black Dawn
1x Bringer of the Blue Dawn
1x Bringer of the Green Dawn
1x Bringer of the Red Dawn
1x Bringer of the White Dawn
1x Diligent Farmhand
1x Quirion Trailblazer
1x Moggcatcher
1x Seahunter
1x Wood Elves
1x Grim Poppet
1x Heap Doll
1x Mistmeadow Witch
1x Pili-Pala
1x Wingrattle Scarecrow
1x Scarecrone
1x Shell Skulkin
1x Sylvan Ranger
1x Glissa, the Traitor
1x Nephalia Smuggler
Land (35)
3x Forest
3x Island
3x Mountain
3x Plains
3x Swamp
1x Battlefield Forge
1x Caves of Koilos
1x Llanowar Wastes
1x Shivan Reef
1x Yavimaya Coast
1x Adarkar Wastes
1x Brushland
1x Karplusan Forest
1x Sulfurous Springs
1x Underground River
1x City of Brass
1x Springjack Pasture
1x Arcane Sanctum
1x Crumbling Necropolis
1x Jungle Shrine
1x Savage Lands
1x Seaside Citadel
1x Rupture Spire
1x Command Tower
1x Cavern of Souls
Sorcery (7)
1x Austere Command
1x Explosive Vegetation
1x Harsh Mercy
1x Spitting Image
1x Exploding Borders
1x Open the Vaults
1x Rite of Replication
Artifact (11)
1x Door of Destinies
1x Coalition Relic
1x Prismatic Lens
1x Spectral Searchlight
1x Darksteel Ingot
1x Riptide Replicator
1x Urza's Incubator
1x Fellwar Stone
1x Obelisk of Alara
1x Conjurer's Closet
1x Vessel of Endless Rest
Instant (9)
1x Crib Swap
1x Spin into Myth
1x Condemn
1x Ghostway
1x Hinder
1x Harrow
1x Swords to Plowshares
1x Bant Charm
1x Path to Exile
Enchantment (7)
1x Wild Pair
1x Conspiracy
1x Oversold Cemetery
1x Phyrexian Arena
1x Maelstrom Nexus
1x Call to the Kindred
1x Descendants' Path
Well there you have it. I hope you had fun and I hope we did Cillian Murphy well. Well, keep those pesky birds away from your crops and remember: Trade Smart. Trade Fair. Trade Here.
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