Budget Magic: $45 (7 tix) Modern Restore Balance
A few weeks ago Richard posted some videos of a Mono-Blue Tron deck for Modern that cost only 105 tix online and $265 in paper. While that deck is awesome and certainly one of the most affordable top tier decks, today we will be looking at a deck that is far cheaper, perhaps even the least expensive deck in all Modern: Restore Balance. You can build this deck for seven tickets online and $45 in real life. If you are looking for an uber-budget option that actually has game against some of the best decks in the format, make sure to stick around. I won't talk about the deck too much here, because I cover everything in the deck tech video, so just a quick reminder: if you enjoy the budget magic series and the other video content here on MTGGoldfish, make sure to subscribe to the MTGGoldfish Youtube Channel to catch all the latest videos.
Editors Note: We broke the Internet. The price of the deck on Magic Online has tripled since this was originally posted from 7 tix to ~ 20 tix. Still a great bargain though!
Deck Tech
Round 1 vs Mardu Tokens
Round 2 vs Abzan Midrange
Round 3 vs Four Color Gifts
Upgrades
One of the great thing about this deck is that even though it is a uber-budget build it isn't that far away from being an optimal build. What cards would I add to the deck if cost was no concern?
Dismember, without a doubt, is the one card I want most in this deck. I might be tempted to play one in the maindeck, but I really think having at least three and maybe four in the 75 would be a great addition. Although it didn't come up once in my testing, in theory Restore Balance is very weak to the Spinter Twin combo. Unless we manage to resolve a Restore Balance on turn three, we literally have zero outs to an end of turn Pestermite into Splinter Twin. Dismember solves this problem in the most efficient way possible, and since it costs three it doesn't interfere with our plan of cascading into Restore Balance. I think I would start by dropping the Demonic Dread and two Ingot Chewers from the board for the phyrexian instant.
The Restore Balance deck is actually a very natural home for maindeck Bloon Moons since the idea is to only have one land on the battlefield anyway, and because we can bounce a Mountain with our borderposts just as easily as anything else. Considering we run a full set of Simian Spirit Guides, sticking a turn-two Blood Moon is actually a reasonable possibility. It gives us another three-mana spell that can win the game on its own (like cascading into Restore Balance) and actually works pretty well with Restore Balance. Not only does it avoid the sorcery's effect since it is an enchantement, but it makes rebuilding after the massive land-wipe even harder for our opponent. Instead of just hoping to peel lands off the top to rebuild, they need to hope to peel the right lands. While I'm not sure how many our deck can support, I'm leaning towards cutting Demonic Dread (by far the worst of our cascade spells) from the main along with the Oblivion Ring, which I rarely cast and board out in many matchups, for two Blood Moons.
While our deck actually wants some number of Evolving Wilds or Terramorphic Expanses because we have five different basics, playing one of these basic-only fetches on turn one doesn't really slow us down at all (since we can just play two Borderposts on turn two, rather than one on each of the first two turns). I think playing four is likely better than playing six. Arid Mesa allows us to search up our two most important colors of mana while also allowing us to search up our singular Mistveil Plains. While it didn't come up on camera, there are some games where you draw/cast all four copies of Restore Balance and being able to put them back on the bottom of your library can be very important.
I'm not sure on the either Tezzeret, but I think they are worth testing in the March of the Machines slot. While March is harder to kill since it can't be attacked by creatures, Tezzeret is definitely a more powerful option that does everything March of the Machines does and then some. I'm not sure if cutting the enchantment altogether is the right play, or if a split would be better. It's also possible that we could cut a single borderpost for a Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas since he can find us more borderposts anyway. Next time I play the deck, I'll be cutting one Veinfire Borderpost and two March of the Machines for some mixtures of Tezzerets.
