It’s no secret that Canadian Highlander can be an expensive format. The format lets you use essentially every card in Magic’s long existence and as such the price range of playable cards varies wildly. With Canlander being one of the few formats in which players can use cards like the Power 9, players will no doubt want to play with those cards. Whilst those cards are a defining part of the format, it’s important to realise that they do not define the format in the same way they do in Vintage. It’s okay to not play with power; the points list system allows for you to play more budget friendly cards and still come away with a deck of a similar, if not identical power level.
SO today, I want to look at some decks in the format that can still give you a good chance to win, whilst not giving your wallet the same beating they can give your opponent. Let's start by looking at the shining example, a staple of every format there is, Mono Red.
Bolt the Rich
Mono red is one of the most customisable decks in the format: you can build more burn based, more creature based, you can play goblins or even go bigger and play what is known as medium red with 3 and 4 drops galore. For today, I want to focus on the first two options that I mentioned.
Mono red has been a game staple for years when it comes to budget decks, and it’s no different here. The deck is extremely customisable and gets new cards near enough every set, whether that be in huge bomb cards like the recently printed Bonecrusher Giant, or the smaller role-players like Skewer the Critics.
Canlander is a very fast format and at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter how you get your opponent's life total to 0. Mono Red has near infinite variants of pay X deal X so no one’s going to judge you for not being able to afford a Wild Slash because they're still going to die to the Shocks and Galvanic Blasts that fill that same role. The Mox Ruby seen in the decklist above is also entirely unnecessary, Ruby can give you more explosive draws for sure but it could easily be more burn or a creature and you’ll still overrun people with pressure.
With the Ruby removed, the deck comes to just under 400 dollars. Now, this is a lot but the majority of the money there is in the mana base. Just like the power cards, fetches aren’t the be all and end all of the format but they do significantly improve the deck: fuelling cards like Grim Lavamancer and allowing you to have a tighter mana base. A mana base of 30 Mountains still lets you cast your spells, and still lets you use your Shock to kill your opponent's 50 dollar Planeswalker.
Mono colour decks like Red Deck Wins are a great starting point for getting into the format; the mana bases are the simplest and let you save money on cards like fetches and dual lands. Mono colour decks do often lack power however, especially on a budget. With that in mind let’s look at playing a multicolour deck on a budget.
Showing Your Budget Prowess
In the above decklist, we’ve taken the previous example of Mono Red and have turned it into a Jeskai deck. This Jeskai Tempo list is looking to play a somewhat similar game to Mono Red, getting the opponent’s life total to 0 as quickly as possible, whilst being a little bit more tricksy. Playing Jeskai allows us to play some more expensive (mana wise) but scarier threats, such as Brimaz, King of Oreskos and True-Name Nemesis.
Despite having 2 extra colours, this decklist is only around 50 dollars more than the Mono Red list from earlier. Again, a lot of that money comes from the 9 fetches that the deck plays, though unlike in Mono Red a 3 colour deck’s mana base is significantly worsened without these cards. The deck also requires you to play lands like shocks, fast lands and checklands in order to make sure that you have the mana you need to cast your spells. This list is also a budget conscious one, we are not playing cards such as Jace, the Mind Sculptor or Force of WIll that are obvious upgrades for the deck, but again, not entirely necessary.
Despite the mana base being so expensive, the addition of 2 more colours has meant that we have more powerful spells at our disposal that are still good budget options. Every colour has good budget cards, but red and blue are certainly 2 of the better colours for this. This is due to the amount of redundancy that these colours have.
I made reference to it earlier, when discussing shock and its many variants, but redundancy is one of the most powerful tools at your disposal when wanting to play on a budget. Examples of redundancy can include cards that do a near identical job at a cheaper price point. For example, comparing Noble Hierarch to Birds of Paradise, or even cards like Llanowar elves.
Another great example is finding a list that maximises on similar effects: the mono red list, for instance, is looking for cards that deal damage at an efficient cost, whilst the Jeskai list is full of cheap and efficient card draw spells. The Jeskai list also takes advantage of cards such as prowess creatures or “army in a can” cards such as Young Pyromancer or, if your budget can afford it, the more powerful but more expensive Monastery Mentor.
So as mentioned, this Jeskai list is only about 50 dollars more than the Mono Red list, and a lot of that is because of the extensive mana base that a 3 colour deck requires. So how would our budget work out if we were to only play 2 colours?
Izzet Cheaper?
For our final decklist, the white has been dropped and we’ve gone for a more streamlined Izzet build. The price difference? This deck is actually more than the Jeskai deck! Despite both decks not including cards like Force of Will and Snapcaster Mage, the 3 colour deck costs less. Both decks have their fair share of expensive cards, such as Brimaz and Jitte in the Jeskai deck or Blood Moon and Back to Basics in the Izzet list, however the average cost of the cards in the Jeskai deck is just slightly lower. Once Izzet has added all the best budget cards, it has to look at the more expensive options. With Jeskai, you have an entire other colour you can look to for options.This won’t necessarily work for every archetype, nor every colour, but it is something that should be considered if you’re being budget conscious.
Budget deckbuilding is hard, but there are many options out there. I hope that these 3 decklists have shown you what’s possible and that it’s okay to experiment beyond just mono colour and two colour decks. If you have fetches already from playing alternative formats, as well as other staple cards, then deckbuilding becomes significantly easier. If you don’t, however, I feel there are ways that you can work towards acquiring such cards in ways that can benefit you beyond Canlander.
Building Your Collection
Once your deck has reached a point where you’re happy with it, you can look at improving it with pricier cards. This will improve both the deck and your collection, which will lead to more options, not just in regards to the deck you have but other decks you can build as well.
As I have referenced after every list, the mana base is often the area of the deck that is the easiest to improve: adding in fetchlands, utility lands, and dual lands. While the fetchlands are extremely important, if not a necessity for 3+ colour decks, I don’t believe that they are the be-all and end-all for 2 colour mana bases. Your deck will likely encounter some consistency issues and may require less colour hungry cards, such as Crackling Drake in the Izzet list, but 8-10 dual lands and some basics will serve you well until fetches can be acquired.
My biggest tip for building a collection is to pick up cards that can have use elsewhere, such as Snapcaster Mage or Force of Will. These cards will make it into the vast majority of blue decks you play in Canlander, or even Commander. Snapcaster mage, however, can also see play in modern which may be more relevant to you. The more formats and more decks that you will personally use the card in, the more you’ll get out of the card, and your money. As a personal example, I recently acquired a Gaea’s Cradle, an incredibly expensive pickup for me, but I have 2-3 decks built for Canlander that can use the card, as well as a Marath commander deck. Not only is that card powerful in those decks but I can now even consider building GW maverick in legacy because I now own a cradle. Even though it was a costly purchase, the fact I can make use of it in multiple formats and in multiple decks meant I was happy to pick it up.
Another thing to consider, when playing between friends, is to allow proxies. Proxies aren’t legal to use in sanctioned events, but if you just want to jam some games with friends it’s a perfectly acceptable way to play with power without paying for it. For example, my playgroup tries their best to get the deck as built as possible and then uses proxies for particular high-end cards such as Time Walk or Ancestral Recall. There is no official stance on proxies in the format, but make sure to check with other players that they are okay with you using them. My friend and fantastic writer Kristen Gregory has a great article about the pros and cons of proxies in casual formats, especially Commander, here.
Speaking of Commander...
99+1 ≠ 100
One of the most popular questions I receive from many Magic: The Gathering players when it comes to deckbuilding is if it is possible to turn your Commander deck into a Canlander deck, the answer to which is a hard maybe.
The reason I bring commander up is because if you play the format you likely already have more of a Canlander deck than you realise. Whilst the majority of decks on the whole can’t be easily translated between formats, a lot of the cards can. From staples like Sol Ring, cantrips like Ponder and Brainstorm, removal spells like Swords to Plowshares or Path to Exile, chances are that a lot of the cards you already own are cards that see a lot of play in the format. This means that depending on how many cards you have, you can save money on your deck or use that money for more impactful cards.
As a broad example let's take a look at my Marath EDH deck:
My Marath deck is a strange beast, and certainly a deck that wouldn’t translate well directly into Canadian Highlander. For starters there are too many cards that care about Marath himself, and too many cards that do too little for their mana cost. Doubling Season may be one of commander’s most defining cards but in Canlander, the card just isn’t good enough.
However, looking at some of the lower costed and more efficient cards, we see that I have cards that are usable in a variety of decks: from spells like Green Sun’s Zenith and Council’s Judgment to creatures such as Scavenging Ooze and Eternal Witness. Almost half of the non-land cards in the deck are playable in some deck in Canlander, and I could certainly use a lot of them in a GWx midrange strategy or some form of Birthing Pod based combo deck.
The End Step
It’s worth remembering, everyone’s budget is different, everyone’s collection is different, and everyone’s needs are different. I hope this article has shown that it is possible to play Canlander without breaking the bank. Ultimately it doesn’t matter if it’s lethal burn from a 10-cent common, or a hit from a 50-dollar Uro, Titan Of Nature’s Wrath. So long as your deck is working, and you’re having fun, then you’re in for a good time in the format.
Questions? Comments? Want to talk about the format? I’d love to hear from you!
I can be found on Twitter @ForceOfWilko.
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