Five Budget M21 Decks for You to ❤

Core Set 2021 is upon us, and it is the perfect foundation upon which to build for the following year. Today, I’m looking at the five uncommon cards that use allied colors, and sketching out some budget-friendly decks you can use on Arena or in paper.

(Note, each deck will use common and uncommon cards, including some from Core Set 2020 which does not rotate out for another three months. I will include some potential upgrades that are rare or mythic, and I’ll cover the ‘enemy’ color combinations in a future article.)

Let’s get to it!

Watcher of the Spheres

White and Blue want to take to the skies in M21, and that’s fine by me. Watcher makes all your other fliers cheaper to cast, but the real trick is using that ‘saved’ mana in an effective way. We’ve got some instant speed answers to protect our growing airforce, and the game plan is simple: go over their defenses and peck away at them until they’re dead.

4 Healer’s Hawk
4 Watcher of the Spheres
4 Empyrean Eagle
3 Rally of Wings
1 Mystical Dispute
4 Daybreak Chimera
4 Lofty Denial
4 Tide Skimmer
3 Winged Words
1 Wingspan Mentor
4 Elite Guardmage
12 Island
12 Plains

Potential Upgrades: Skycat Sovereign, Brazen Borrower, Temple of Epiphany

Obsessive Stitcher

Blue and Black is going to use its own graveyard as a resource in M21, with a special emphasis on reanimating dead creatures and putting them straight onto the battlefield. Obsessive Stitcher can both put good creatures into your ‘bin’ and get them back out again, so our deck is going to support that plan.

4 Archfiend’s Vessel
4 Obsessive Stitcher
2 Carrion Grub
2 Gorging Vulture
4 Mire Triton
4 Waker of Waves
2 Goremand
2 Spined Megalodon
2 Tomebound Lich
4 Heartless Act
1 Finishing Blow
3 Call of the Death-Dweller
1 Rain of Revelation
1 Kasmina, Enigmatic Mentor
12 Swamp
12 Island

Potential Upgrades: Eat to Extinction, Liliana, Waker of the Dead, Temple of Deceit

Dire Fleet Warmonger

Black and Red has a self-sacrifice theme in M21, so we’ll want to find creatures that don’t mind dying (or give you another benefit when they do.) Warmonger can become quite large in combat (though you can only activate his ability once per turn) so we’ll try and support him with lots of little bodies to consume.

4 Serrated Scorpion
4 Footlight Fiend
4 Grim Initiate
4 Dire Fleet Warmonger
3 Tibalt, Rakish Instigator
4 Goblin Arsonist
4 Village Rites
4 Orzhov Enforcer
1 Drag to the Underworld
4 Heartless Act
2 Call of the Death-Dweller
11 Mountain
11 Swamp

Potential Upgrades: Rankle, Master of Pranks, Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger, Temple of Malice

Leafkin Avenger

Red and Green are focused on creatures with power of four or more in M21, and the other sets in standard offer plenty of bodies to meet the goal. Leafkin Avenger does have a way to use extra mana to close out the game, but we’ll mostly want to just attack with solid midrange creatures supported by a little bit of ramp and burn.

4 Paradise Druid
4 Drowsing Tyrannodon
4 Loathsome Chimera
4 Warden of the Chained
3 Turret Ogre
4 Leafkin Avenger
1 Bolt Bend
2 Furious Rise
2 Garruk’s Uprising
2 Nessian Hornbeetle
3 Fire Prophecy
3 Adventurous Impulse
12 Forest
12 Mountain

Potential Upgrades: Bonecrusher Giant, Klothys, God of Destiny, Temple of Abandon

Conclave Mentor

Green and White in M21 are all about counters of the +1/+1 variety (sorry, Ikoria). This deck will attempt to go wide with smaller creatures and then selectively power them up with counters, sometimes even at instant speed as a combat trick.

2 Light of Hope
4 Conclave Mentor
3 Feat of Resistance
3 Barkhide Troll
3 Glowstone Recluse
2 Splendor Mare
4 Vulpikeet
2 Wildwood Scourge
1 Courage in Crisis
1 Invigorating Surge
1 Hydra’s Growth
3 Jiang Yanggu, Wildcrafter
1 Mowu, Loyal Companion
1 Renata, Called to the Hunt
4 Pollenbright Druid
1 Swallow Whole
4 Idyllic Grange
8 Plains
12 Forest

Potential Upgrades: Basri Ket, The Ozolith, Temple of Plenty

So there you go! Five budget-friendly decks to get you warmed up with Core Set 2021. Take one for a spin and let me know how it goes down in the comments.

We’ll see ya!
—Ryan