by Stuart Ziarnik

A few years ago I wrote an article about playing Old School without breaking the bank. The article was a decent resource, but the sad joke of it was that you really can’t play competitive Old School on a budget: Power, Duals, Reserved List staples, and proxy rules mean that the good competitive decks all cost well into the five figures, and your only budget options are mono-color aggro.

Since that time, however, we’ve started playing Middle School! Middle School was intentionally designed to allow for peak nostalgia and quality gameplay without an enormous cost barrier. While there are still expensive cards and decks, there are fewer heavy-hitting Reserve List cards in the format, and most scenes allow for liberal use of gold-bordered printings, any art/frame, and even proxies. As a result, Middle School is comparatively much more affordable than Old School, Vintage, and even Legacy and Modern.

That said, it’s still possible to blow a bunch of money on this format, and in 2024 who isn’t tightening their belts? We thought now was a good time to guide current and prospective players towards some powerful, interesting, and interactive decks that can be built without blowing out your budget.

Define “Budget”

Unfortunately, we must begin by discussing money. What defines “budget” will vary from player to player depending on their income, life circumstance, austerity, extravagance, etc. If you’re coming to Middle School from sanctioned Vintage, a $1000 deck might be a breeze for you. On the flip side, for a Pauper player, $300 could be a big ask.

Initially I considered limiting the scope of this article to decks you could build under $100. However, after compiling those decks, I found that I wound up in pretty much the same place as my original Old School article did: you can build aggro, and that’s about it. Those are fun decks (I play Sligh myself), but I believe a format’s quality and potential can be measured in diversity of gameplay and archetypes, so I wanted to allow for thriftier players to try a variety of strategies. As such, I limited myself to $200 decks.

$200 isn’t the cheapest deck in the world, but an unfortunately reality is that, like most hobbies, Magic costs money - even proxying decks can run you $20+ in bulk, sleeves, and ink! I felt that $200 was reasonable: setting aside $100/month (or $50/pay period, if you’re bi-monthly) is reasonable, and unlike formats such as Standard (which rotate) or Pauper (which gets new printings and more frequent bannings), Middle School’s cardpool is pretty stable: if you invest this money now, your deck and its value probably will stick around for the next decade.

Of course, I should clarify that these pricing estimates were arrived at pretty quickly and roughly using TCG prices as of March 2024, when I’m writing this. Likewise, the prices reflect cheaper printings, and especially gold-bordered printings (looking at you, Fetches and Force of Will). For the most part this should still allow players to stick to old frame and original art, but you might have a few ugly newer cards sneak in. Another unfortunate reality is that we budget players can’t be aesthetic snobs. As a final note on pricing: this article may or may not age well! Premodern continues to grow in popularity, which drives prices up. On the flip side, expensive non-RL staples can also get reprints; there are ally Fetch reprints coming in June, which will hopefully drive down prices. So whether you’re reading this in 2024 or 2028, take my guide with a grain of salt.

The Pricy Boys

Middle School still has its share of heavyweight, expensive cards. If you’re trying to keep costs down, here are some cards to avoid:

  • Mox Diamond
  • Gaea’s Cradle
  • Grim Monolith
  • City of Traitors
  • Lion’s Eye Diamond
  • Intuition
  • Survival of the Fittest
  • Gilded Drake

Of these cards, Mox Diamond is probably the most limiting: there are lots and lots of Diamond decks, and it enables numerous different strategies. Survival is also a pretty big enabler, as it slots in Elves, Zombie Infestation, Full English Breakfast, etc. Most of the rest, however, are fairly niche, and you could spend years on this format without touching them.

The biggest pain-point with these cards is that you generally want a full playset of each. Unlike EDH or formats with restricted lists where you only need to save up once, with these cards, you could take months saving up for a Gaea’s Cradle, and then still need three more! While longterm I think that’s a decent use of your money, there are probably more impactful purchases short-term if you’re on a budget.

Other Staples

Outside of those especially pricy cards, there are a lot of $10-50 cards in Middle School that come up in many, many decks. If you can swing it, I would recommend gradually collecting towards these, as once you have them they’ll open up lots of options for you. Off the top of my head, some priority acquisitions would be:

  • Onslaught Fetches
  • Painlands & City of Brass
  • Force of Will
  • Wasteland

Now, these all have numerous printings! Ally Fetches are currently pretty expensive, but FOW and Wasteland are significantly cheaper than they were five years ago. And then there’s gold-border: all of these cards become significantly more affordable with World Championship printings.

If you’re a Vintage, Legacy, or even Modern player, there’s a good chance you own some or all of these staples already. If that’s the case, you’ve already made a very good dent in Middle School’s cost!

World Championship Decks

As mentioned earlier, most Middle School and Premodern tournaments allow for use of gold-bordered World Championship Deck cards. For those unfamiliar, in the late 90s and early 00s Wizards printed a bunch of decks from the pro tour, giving them gold borders and different backs. For much of their history these cards have been ignored and stuffed into the back of players’ collections, but recently they’ve had a bit of a renaissance: once they’re sleeved up they look great, and are generally available for significantly cheaper than their black-bordered counterparts.

If you’re on a budget, I strongly recommend looking at gold-bordered cards. As a caveat, though, just remember that they’re currently not legal for sanctioned play. So if you’re considering buying something like Force Of Will or Flooded Strang and might eventually want to register them in a sanctioned format, springing for the black-bordered versions might be a better investment.

A Note on Proxies

Proxies are divisive and I won’t change anyone’s attitudes towards them here. However, I want to point out two things:

  • Most Middle School scenes are proxy friendly. If you want to proxy some Mox Diamonds, no one’s going to judge you for it.
  • Proxying is a very smart way to spend your money intelligently. If you’re considering buying into a new deck or format, proxy first to make sure you like it! Once you’ve played a few games, you can decide if you really want to spend your money on those cards or if you might end up regretting it.

The Decks

I’ve selected 10 decks from our leagues to highlight. For each I’ve included a rough estimate of costs, a quick writeup on why they’re cool, and thoughts on eventual upgrades from future investments. Importantly, though, none of these include budget concessions: we aren’t playing the cheap versions of good decks! These are all good, optimized decks on their own that could eventually be converted into other decks. To that end I tried to limit myself to decks that have Top 8’d leagues, or barring that, came very close! Point being, any of these deck should allow for quality gameplay and strong finishes.

As noted above, I wanted to avoid the trap of exclusively offering aggro decks – no one needs an article telling them that Sligh is a useful budget option! However, there are still a few listed out, and a number of other mono-color aggro decks exist in the format which aren’t here. I was also pleasantly surprised by the abundance of good control decks available on a budget.

Readers will note that combo is underrepresented here. Unfortunately, most competitive Combo decks in Middle School tend to run a variety of pricier cards. There certainly are some budget Combo decks out there, but they’re either not widely tested yet, or haven’t put up convincing results.

UG Madness

Deck photo courtesy of author

Madness is one of the classic decks many players think of when dipping their toe into this format. Rootwalla, Mongrel, and Wurm outclass most other creatures in Middle School, and with access to card draw, countermagic, Naturalize, bounce, and grave hate, you can play a powerful tempo plan that interacts with most strategies. Tempo Madness is the least expensive deck I’m presenting here: the above list can be built for about $75 all told!

Potential upgrades: if you like Madness, investing in Survival Of The Fittest makes a lot of sense. Survival Madness decks look pretty similar to this list, but get access to Squee for card advantage, as well as toolbox cards like Gilded Drake and Waterfront Bouncer. As noted earlier, Survival will also open up many other non-Madness deckbuilding options. Force of Will is also a solid card to consider – it doesn’t synergize with Madness as well as Foil does, but is more ubiquitous and flexible. Lastly, some Madness decks splash White for Meddling Mage and Swords to Plowshares, so investing in Flooded Strand and Windswepth Heath would open up that option.

White Weenie

Deck photo courtesy of Phillip Collier

I said I’d offer some mono-color aggro, right? Let’s start with a classic: White Weenie! Phillip Collier played this list to a Top 8 finish using unblockable Shadow creatures, which is very powerful. The creatures themselves could also become another tribe depending on your tastes, such as Knights. This list should come out at roughly $100, with Tithe being the most expensive card.

Potential upgrades: not much immediately comes to mind. With Mox Diamonds, Land Taxes, and Scroll Racks you could build a pretty strong Tax/Rack Aggro deck. But that’s a big step up from $100!

The Rock

Deck photo courtesy of Sato Junya

Much like Madness, The Rock is a go-to for many new Middle School players, as it was very popular in Extended. Also like Madness it’s quite interactive, so budget certainly won’t be holding you back from interesting gameplay. This list will probably cost about $150.

Potential upgrades: Deranged Hermit is a very powerful finisher that plays really well with Cabal Therapy. Recurring Nightmare and Necropotence are also strong engine cards that work well with this strategy. The Rock is an incredibly modular deck, and that modularity doesn’t always have a big price tag: you can look at options like Veteran Explorer, different threats, and different disruption. It’s a great deck to tinker with while staying in your budget.

Grixis Control

Deck photo courtesy of Jake Hilty

There are a variety of ways to build Blue Control without breaking the bank. Jake’s Grixis build gives you great card advantage via Accumulated Knowledge and Fact or Fiction, as well as ample removal and reach. This list should cost you about $150.

Potential upgrades: it’s possible this list would benefit from Polluted Delta or Bloodstained Mire, though that’s not necessarily true. Likewise, some number of Intuition could be interesting, given the Accumulated Knowledge plan. If you go that route, you’ll open the door to playing a good UB Psychatog deck, too.

Sligh

Deck photo courtesy of author

Red Aggro is the elephant in the room for budget discussions, and I’d be doing a disservice to ignore it! Sligh is a Tier 1 strategy in Middle School, and this list should come in around $175 all told.

Potential upgrades: many Sligh lists forgo Rishadan Port and instead load up on red Fetchlands (Wooded Foothills and Bloodstained Mire) and Ball Lightning.

Nether Spirit Control

Deck photo courtesy of Bryan Hockey

Nether Spirit Control is a cousin of The Rock that plays a little more controllingly and relies more on the graveyard. You should be able to build Nether Spirit Control for under $200.

Potential upgrades: for this deck, my suggestions actually move us in an even more budget-friendly direction! Recently, pilots have been experimenting with Mulch, which plays well with all your cards. If you want to try that, perhaps trimming 1-2 Necros, that makes the deck even cheaper.

Counter Rebels

Deck photo courtesy of Robert Wilson

Counter Rebels is a midrange control deck that plays as a hybrid between White Weenie and Landstill. This is a great way to try the format, as you get a strong proactive creature plan while having access to countermagic and Disenchant. This list runs a little under $200.

Potential upgrades: this deck gets you pretty close to UW Landstill. Investing in Force of Wills, Wastelands, and Humility will cost a bit, but they’re great cards to own.

Stasis

Deck photo courtesy of Paul Garrett

With Gush, Daze, Force of Will, Black Vise, and Forsaken City in the cardpool, Middle School is perhaps the best format for Stasis. You could call this a control deck, a combo deck, or a prison deck. Either way, this is a powerful, hilarious, and sadistic way to try the format, and will run you about $200.

Potential upgrades: not much immediately occurs to me, as only certain cards play well with Stasis! You might decide you want a full 4 Force of Will.

Suicide Black

Deck photo courtesy of Keith Sweeney

Suicide Black is the final mono-color aggro deck I’ve selected. Keith’s deck gives you some good interaction via discard, a strong mana denial plan through Wasteland and Sphere, and a powerful clock. This should cost just under $200, with Sphere of Resistance as the big investment.

Upgrades: I can’t think of any truly expensive cards to add. You might want to mess around with Necropotence (and that’s certainly a helpful staple for brewing in Middle School), but Keith’s list probably doesn’t want it.

RB Goblins

Deck photo courtesy of Herb Wilson

Closing it out, I’ve selected Goblins: another Tier 1 strategy that’s much beloved by players. Goblins gives you a strong aggro deck that can absolutely grind, thanks to cards like Goblin Ringleader and Matron. In addition to the lands, Lackeys and Sharpshooters cost a bit – this whole thing will run you about $200.

Potential upgrades: some players splash Green instead of/in addition to Black, as access to Naturalize is pretty good. If you go that route, you’ll needed Wooded Foothills, which unfortunately don’t come in gold border (though they’re still a good investment). Alternatively, you could go mono-red, add Rishadan Port, and have an even more budget-friendly deck!

Closing Thoughts

As I’ve recently been looking at my high-end binder and wondering how I can ever afford a Timetwister to round out my Power 9 collection, I can’t help but appreciate that Middle School is not defined by its price barrier. In my five years playing this format, I have spent under $1000 total and gotten to build a variety of fun, interesting decks – which is a gaming experience we all should have access to. I hope this guide is helpful for players who are budget-conscious, whether you’re just getting into the format now or are deeply enfranchised and looking for a fun deck to try.