The 10 Most Fun Budget Commander Decks in Magic Ranked

Last updated on March 20, 2026

Commander's Sphere | Illustration by Ryan Alexander Lee

The unfortunate truth about Magic is that how fun a deck is and how much money it costs seem to have a direct relationship, at least to a certain point. Sure, you don’t have to win to have fun, but you’re also going to have more fun if your deck can actually do something before you lose. If you’re stuck playing your fourth tapped dual land and have a single common creature on the field while your opponents already have their game plan online, you feel like the game will end without you participating much.

Luckily, spending more money on a deck isn’t the only solution to this problem. While certain builds might require a baseline amount of money to start casting spells, there are plenty of other strategies that can work well on a tighter budget. Knowing which commanders and play styles lend themselves to a lower budget is important for knowing how to build a cheaper deck.

For this list, you will see several mono-color and 2-color decks. While these sometimes mean less flexibility in deck building, they will save you money on lands. It’s possible to play multicolor decks on a budget, but it means putting up with some slower mana options. There's certainly room to upgrade these decks, so if you think you'll really enjoy one, this is a good starting place.

What Are Fun Budget Commander Decks in MTG?

Slimy Piper | Illustration by Borja Pindado

Fun budget Commander decks are decks that won’t cost you too much money but can still pull off fun moves. These decks can stand their own in most casual playgroups, so you won’t feel like your lower budget is holding you back in Commander Brackets 3 and under.

I consider a budget deck to be any deck less than $100, including basic lands. While this might seem like a lot, it’s only an average of $1 per card in Commander. It’s worth double checking the decklist prices since card costs are always changing.

Honorable Mention: Proxy Any Deck You Want

Before I get into any specific decks, I think it’s worth remembering that Magic is a game. If you play for fun and not in a sanctioned tournament, you can make proxies for whatever deck you want to play. If there are a few expensive cards holding you back from playing a deck you really want, use rule 0 to talk with your playgroup and see if they’re OK with proxies. There are also programs like Cockatrice and Xmage where you can play Commander for free using any card you want.

You shouldn’t have to feel excluded from having fun playing Magic just because you can’t drop a few hundred dollars on a deck. That said, if you or your group aren’t comfortable using proxies or you want to play somewhere that doesn’t allow them, these decks are a good alternative!

#10. Teysa Karlov

Teysa Karlov | Illustration by Magali Villeneuve

This is your standard aristocrats deck. No twists, no frills, no wild two-card infinite combos, just plain old value and death drainer effects like Cruel Celebrant and Vindictive Vampire. You’ll use Dimir House Guard as both a tutor and free sacrifice outlet, alongside Bloodthrone Vampire and Carrion Feeder. Many of your creatures create tokens when they die, like Doomed Traveler, Hunted Witness, and Garrison Cat. Those tokens will serve as both lifelinkers to balance out your life total and as extra fodder for your sacrifice effects.

This deck runs some less popular tech to stay cheap. Casting of Bones is a fun way to gain some advantage, and with Teysa on the field you’ll draw six and discard two cards. Dark Privilege gives your Orzhov commander some survivability and a free sac outlet where you’d otherwise rely on Darksteel Plate or Commander's Plate.

And that’s about all there is to it. Aristocrats decks are by no means exciting, but they’re an excellent way to slowly squeeze the life from your opponents, which is fun in its own right. If you’re looking for a cheap introduction to the archetype, this deck is for you!

#9. Eriette of the Charmed Apple

Eriette of the Charmed Apple | Illustration by Magali Villeneuve

Eriette of the Charmed Apple can make a specific category of cheap cards a lot more powerful, in this case auras. While there are some auras that are a bit more expensive, there are lots of good ones that fit into a deck on a tighter budget. Eriette’s abilities also allow these cards to be a bit more versatile.

A card like All That Glitters is typically just a buff for you, although a significant one to be fair. However, if you put it on one of your opponents’ creatures instead, now you’ve created a massive creature that can only attack your opponents, but a threat that at least one of them will want to keep around. If your other opponents remove the creature, it’s not a huge loss because you’re still taking an opponent’s threat off the board.

Auras like Ossification also work well in this deck because they help to fuel Eriette’s second ability while being more difficult to remove. There’s likely going to be a lot more creature removal at a given table than land destruction, so your opponents need cards that specifically destroy enchantments to get rid of cards like Lithoform Blight or Underworld Connections.

This deck is a lot of fun but is lower on the list because its cost is starting to creep towards the higher end of what I’d consider a “budget” deck. There are some cuts you can probably make to help its cost go down if you need it to be more budget friendly, like Hall of Heliod's Generosity or Ghoulish Impetus.

#8. Archelos, Lagoon Mystic

Archelos, Lagoon Mystic | Illustration by Dan Scott

Archelos, Lagoon Mystic solves one of the main problems that a lot of budget decks have, and that’s the need to use slower mana sources. Multicolor lands that have ways to come in untapped cost way more than something like Jungle Hollow or Guildgates. Thanks to Archelos’s ability, you’ll be able to slap these down untapped as though they were original dual lands instead.

Archelos can also slow down your opponents, as long as you have a good way to tap your commander down without needing to risk an attack. Cards like Loam Dryad and Saruli Caretaker are good ways to tap Archelos while also getting a good benefit from it. Suddenly your opponents feel like they’re running your cheap mana base instead of their own.

Because Archelos makes ramp spells like Nissa's Pilgrimage or Circuitous Route so much better, it’s a good commander for a lands build like this one. Cards like Scute Swarm and Avenger of Zendikar can be very impactful when you’re dropping multiple lands on a turn.

Big spells like Army of the Damned or X spells like Villainous Wealth are also good payoffs for a deck that drops a lot of lands.

#7. Light-Paws, Emperor’s Voice

Light-Paws, Emperor's Voice | Illustration by Randy Vargas

I don’t condone the use of Light-Paws, Emperor's Voice on even my worst enemies. For years we cried and moaned about the lack of a strong mono-white commander, and now we’re reaping what we’ve sown. That’s right, for less than a precon, you can keep the “white can’t play EDH” bit alive!

There’s no special trick to this Light-Paws deck. You just get to tutor up two auras for the price of one every time you cast one. This basically turns Light-Paws into a turn 3 or 4 kill when you can cast something like Mantle of the Ancients, which tutors Sage's Reverie, and then follow up the next turn with Holy Mantle and All That Glitters. Another one-trick pony (fox?), this deck steamrolls opponents who aren’t ready with removal the second your commander hits the ground.

Other optimal play patterns include ramping on our first two turns, then casting Light-Paws into a 2-cost enchantment like Rune of Sustenance, which lets you tutor up something like Eland Umbra for protection. With Light-Paws surviving a round of removal, you can drop a 4-cost aura on your next turn and grab either All That Glitters (again) or Daybreak Coronet and begin the beatdown with a nigh-unremovable Light-Paws, Emperor's Voice.

#6. Muldrotha, the Gravetide

Muldrotha, the Gravetide | Illustration by Jason Rainville

Muldrotha, the Gravetide is among the best Sultai commanders and one of MTG's best self-mill commanders. Being able to cast cards from your graveyard can be used well with dredge or other self-mill mechanics, aristocrats, and sacrifice mechanics. It can also just help keep any strategy consistent, since it’s harder to permanently remove your cards from the game.

This deck makes use of cards like Aether Spellbomb and Executioner's Capsule which can be sacrificed for additional benefits. Thanks to Muldrotha, you’ll be able to use these effects multiple times. In a higher budget Muldrotha deck, this would also mean running fetch lands, but here I’ve used the cheaper alternatives like Grixis Panorama and Evolving Wilds which are still more effective when they can be played back out of the graveyard.

You also have a few sources of self-mill like Stitcher's Supplier and Satyr Wayfinder. This is almost as good as additional card draw in a Muldrotha deck, without being as pricey. Cards like these or Wood Elves that have helpful ETB effects are also more useful than usual since you can sacrifice them and cast them again for another trigger.

#5. Krenko, Mob Boss

Krenko, Mob Boss | Illustration by Karl Kopinski

While you can certainly make a more powerful Krenko, Mob Boss deck than this one, you really can’t go wrong with just slapping a bunch of low mana value goblins together into a deck. There are also just so many fun and flavorful goblin cards to choose from that it can be a lot of fun just putting a deck like this together by looking for your favorite ones.

Goblins like Goblin Trashmaster and Goblin King are incredibly effective in a Krenko, Mob Boss deck because even the smallest buff has a big impact when spread across a lot of tokens. Quest for the Goblin Lord is another good way to buff your tokens.

Cards like Goblin Grenade and Goblin Barrage give you other ways to make use of your tokens besides just attacking with them. Goblin Bombardment can be especially powerful since it costs no mana to activate. If an opponent tries to wipe the field of your goblins, you can just sacrifice them all at instant speed and deal damage to players as you see fit. If your army is big enough, you can even just sacrifice a chunk of it to take that player out while keeping the rest.

#4. Haldan, Avid Arcanist + Pako, Arcane Retriever

Pako, Arcane Retriever | Illustration by Manuel Castanon

Haldan, Avid Arcanist and his pet dog Pako, Arcane Retriever are one of the most powerful “partner with” commanders, frequently used in cEDH lists as both advantage generators and win conditions. This list forgoes the typical competitive build and instead capitalizes on some plain ol’ commander damage to win.

This Temur pair works in tandem to aggressively assault your opponents and steal their most valuable spells off the top of their library. Perhaps one of the best ways to build a budget deck is by simply stealing all your opponents’ high-value cards; you’ll save a buck and still get to cast that Smothering Tithe or Bolas's Citadel.

Basically, this deck wants to play Pako as soon as possible and then attack with it every turn that it can. You’ll use evasion spells like Charge Through and Veil of Secrecy to get Pako’s damage through while protecting it and Haldan from targeted removal with Memory Lapse, Spell Rupture, and You Find The Villains' Lair. The best part? This budget Commander deck only runs $20.

#3. Winota, Joiner of Forces

Winota, Joiner of Forces | Illustration by Magali Villeneuve

Winota, Joiner of Forces had its time in the sun during Ikoria’s Standard. Known for their explosive turns, this Winota deck can blow up the board in just two or three turns. Technically, there’s a situation where this deck closes out a game on just turn 3, but it's more likely that it’ll dust your foes on turns 5 or 6.

The magical Christmas-land scenario where you get a turn 3 win(ota) looks like this:

• Turn 1: Play a land, cast Sol Ring, drop two cheap creatures like Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh, Ornithopter, or Ornithopter of Paradise.
• Turn 2: Play a land and cast Winota, Joiner of Forces. Attack to get at least two triggers off of your Boros commander, digging through the top of your library to find human creatures that’ll create the most non-humans. The best-case scenario involves hitting Lena, Selfless Champion and Evangel of Heliod, netting you nine non-human Soldier tokens.
• Turn 3: Attack with everything. If no one’s destroyed your commander or interacted with your board, you should see something like six or more triggers off of Winota, Joiner of Forces. Look for cards that will maximize damage like Raphael, the Nightwatcher and Angrath's Marauders.

At this point you should have enough damage on the board to end the game. If you don’t, simply rinse and repeat on the following turn! I dare you to show me another turn-3 win in a $14 Commander deck!

#2. Talrand, Sky Summoner

Talrand, Sky Summoner | Illustration by Svetlin Velinov

This may be controversial, but I believe that Talrand, Sky Summoner is the single best merfolk creature WotC’s ever produced. There’s a simple genius to its design; you’re playing mono-blue, so running a high number of instants and sorceries was already your M.O., and the Drake tokens Talrand creates are their own evasive win condition.

A long while ago I built a $20 Talrand deck for this very website, and it turned out to be insanely oppressive to play against. Turns out that a deck stuffed to the brim with only counterspells is less fun in a pleasant sense, and more fun in an obscene sense. This deck includes every counterspell I could get my hands on for less than $1, bringing the total price to a triumphant $19!

This deck is another one trick pony: Play Talrand as soon as possible, then counter every single spell your opponents try to play while you amass an army of flying 2/2s. You can give your drakes a little buff with Favorable Winds, or turn them into surprise 5/5s with Day of the Dragons, but it’s really not necessary. What’re they gonna do, board wipe you? Sike! Counterspell. Trying to Murder Talrand? Nope! Negate. Opponents think they’re safe to cast their haymakers when you’re all tapped out? Just kidding! You have Thwart.

#1. Jhoira of the Ghitu

Jhoira of the Ghitu | Illustration by Kev Walker

Jhoira of the Ghitu’s ability to suspend any card gives you a lot of fun options when it comes to deckbuilding. You can essentially slap a bunch of high mana value cards with splashy effects into the deck and watch your opponents’ faces as they realize what’s coming in just a few turns. This Jhoira is unique in that it has a very powerful effect, but it doesn’t need to stay on the field to see it through. As long as you suspend some good cards before Jhoira’s gone, you’ll still be set up pretty nicely.

Some cards like Tyrant of Discord or Tidal Force are difficult to hard cast, and so don’t see as much play, making them cheap. However, thanks to Jhoira it’s a lot easier to get them on the field. While cards like Niv-Mizzet, Parun or Arcanis the Omnipotent might get played more often, it’s still nice to have a way to avoid their restrictive cost and possibly get them out more quickly.

Aside from big creatures, this deck also has some very splashy spells like Aminatou's Augury or Mnemonic Deluge. One with the Multiverse is one of the better cards in this deck, as it gives you a significant advantage each turn and you can cheat it out early with Jhoira.

This deck also has built-in ways to benefit from casting big spells. Ovika, Enigma Goliath can make you quite a few tokens thanks to this deck’s steep mana curve. Wild-Magic Sorcerer gives one of your suspended cards cascade each turn which could easily give you a second massive spell for free.

Commanding Conclusion

Sol Ring | Illustration by Mike Bierek

Arguments about Magic being pay-to-win or the idea of spending thousands on a deck can be very discouraging for newer players looking to pick up the game. It can also make veteran players feel stuck with the decks they already have, afraid of sinking the same amount of money into a new build. It’s always good to keep in mind fun budget options like these that can help you get started in the game or keep it fresh and exciting while not breaking the bank.

Which is your favorite budget commander? Ready to add a little more knowledge and improve your EDH deckbuilding? What’s the least you’ve ever spent on a Commander deck? Do you think precons are also fun budget decks? Let me know in the comments or on Draftsim’s X.

Thank you for reading and see you next time!