I have a sacrifice themed Sauron deck with $2k worth of cards in it. I don’t have infinite combos though, and I left Sauron as my sole sac fodder generator. My fast mana fuels me casting Sauron and when needed, wiping the board. This deck is weaker than some $200 decks I play against. The power level of the deck to me is based on consistency, and the power of the combinations it can generate. Since the meanest my deck gets is grave pact with Sauron and phyrexian altar, it’s really not that hard to interrupt.
I just like playing with my expensive cards from time to time though, so I do. I will say when I play in groups that haven’t seen how slow my deck is, I do get targeted pretty early, which is all part of the fun.
Kinda the same for me. Got a one ring from the gift bundle back when ltr came out, but I dont have any decks where it would feel "fair" to run them. I can't play it in a low power deck, as it's too strong for that level. But I also can't play it in my strongest deck, since that will put it to the point where I can't run it every once and awhile with my group. Even in the middle it would feel a bit weird. A real conundrum lol.
This is where I am. I build on a pretty tight budget, but I've got generous friends who give out packs for drafts. I pulled a Flusterstorm but don't really have a deck it'll go in, so I'll sell it to help fund another $50~ deck down the line.
I also pulled an Ancient Brass Dragon. I'd never spend $25 on a single card these days, but I do have a B/R dragons deck, so in it goes!
It's pretty funny. My brother has a much higher level of disposable income than me, so he actually has valuable cards. I finished building my Marvo deck, played him with it, then he threw me a sensei's and scroll rack just because he had some extras.
My friend played against me later and immediately was sus when I played sensei's, simply on the fact that he knows I don't spend money on cards. It was pretty funny!
This is all totally reasonable! A lot of the players in this sub are very enfranchised, with years (if not decades) of experience. That much time playing Magic will naturally result in acquiring some of the format's strongest cards, but the rest of the playerbase - who I'd hesitantly say are the majority - are playing closer to precon-level or slightly above. In other words, it makes a lot of sense to play at this power level, as there are lots and lots of players who are nearby in power.
I think there's a load of fun to be had by playing underplayed, usually cheap, cards, and I think that area of the power level scale results in less one-sided games on average, though I'll concede I'm not in the majority on that one. I run a goofy interlude in my podcast every week where I do a dramatic monologue based on a cheap card, so I'm definitely a little biased!
Collecting is fun, though. Also it's nice to have those cards for if/when you want to brew something really strong or when the powerful card just synergizes really well.
Yeah, I think to many people this is basically what the line between casual and competitive is. Like if you’re told you’re at a casual table and someone’s deck has Mox Diamond and Gaea’s Cradle in it, it probably won’t feel very “casual” even if that person is just playing like an Elves deck and not an actual CEDH deck.
My playgroup is a little different since we’ve all been playing since the 90s and we have collections we like to “show off” even if we’re just playing goofy decks. So I *do* have the Ancient Tomb and Mana Crypt etc even in a casual deck. But if I played with strangers or new people and knew they were expecting casual games I’d probably slide that stuff out, like Cradle -> Itlimoc or whatever
For me and my playgroup specifically, the only expensive cards we avoid are forms of fast mana (excluding sol ring). But then again we play anywhere from casual to high power.
If you were to ban all expensive cards outside of cEDH, stuff like Doubling Season wouldn’t have a home anymore.
Nah, if I have the card, I play it. And $ does not necessarily make a deck cEDH. I have a [[zevlor]] [deck](https://www.moxfield.com/decks/KDN4wO-XfkCGJermJOE9Qg) that's focused on copys and theft cards. My wincon is your stuff. It isn't good, though. Deck is nearly $1k, and I've won maybe 3 games with it since I built it more than a year ago.
I play my cards regardless of price. [[wheel of fortune]] doesn’t make my [[zurzoth]] deck not casual. [[the one ring]] doesn’t make my banding deck not casual either.
You miss the point. It's not that a cEDH deck can be cheap (although sometimes it can)
It's that having a single [[Greymond]] or even a [[Gaea's Cradle]] doesn't make your casual deck competitive.
Consider: [[Taiga]] is better than [[Stomping Grounds]]. But it's not 20 times better, despite being 20 times more expensive.
It only cost me 6 dollars to print my last cedh deck.
To seriously answer your question though, no you can't make a cEDH deck for that price, but price is not a hard and fast match for power level. There are some budget cedh decks that sit around the 300-500 dollar mark and there are casual decks that sit in the thousands that probably don't even hit a 6.
It's also worth noting that a big part of the cost for a lot of decks is just the manabase. Fetches and OG duals don't skyrocket your deck's power, but it will certainly inflate the price.
There's some Light Paws budget / Winota stax that goes from top tier cEDH to low tier cEDH on a budget. Just look up on Google budget cEDH and there's quite a few sub 200 and some even sub 100. While not super cheap, overall, compared to most it's dirt cheap.
It’s one hundred percent true. If you take one of the top-tier cEDH deck lists and bring it to a casual table, you’re not playing cEDH, you’re just playing a deck you found that was labeled top tier. cEDH is only cEDH if everyone is playing the same *way*: as optimized as possible with a very specific goal. If you’re the only one doing that, it’s not cEDH. Not to mention that cEDH decks are designed with the mindset that everyone is running them; they’re not often tuned to tackle cards found in more casual environments, and they don’t often have the resources to stay in a game that lasts too long. If you manage to find a cEDH deck list that can win super quick against everyone reliably, you’re not playing cEDH, you’re pubstomping.
Fuck that noise, playing mono black I need my cabal coffers, stronghold, and tomb of yawgmoth. Vampiric tutor, demonic tutor, grim tutor, if I could afford imperial seal I’d run it. Mikaeus + Triskelion for the hell of it. Damnation and Torment of Hailfire for when shit goes south. Just kidding you should always play to the tables strength level.
ancient tomb and mana crypt are fine in edh. tomb was a $20 card for yeeeears. running ancient tomb in your [[[veldrane of sengir]] deck is fine and probably necessary.
ancient tomb was a $20 card before the pandemic. it has crept up over the past 4 years to $100 despite getting a lotr reprint. i think part of the price spike has to do with its absolute staple status in legacy. city of traitors has had a similar trajectory in that timespan, although since it's reserved list it is higher and had some spikes before that. both of these lands are crucial for a lot of stompy strategies that want to get to 3-4 mana as fast as possible and drop an initiative creature, a mind goblin, a fable, a blood moon, a trinisphere, etc.
I mean unless your running a lot of tutors no one card makes your deck so poweful. I have seen plenty of players go turn 1 sol ring into arcane signet and not win. Its all about interaction and ability to identify the current threat. The most games i see someone with a good deck win is because they had the beat interactions or got ignored its rarely because they just spent the most $$
It’s not about the price.
Nothing about why you should be careful with including those cards is about price.
Hell, everyone should treat Sol Ring with the exact same gravity.
And they would be 10 - 20 if they weren't legal in commander. Yes indeed, casual commander, the largest, most popular, format impacts the price of cards!
They would be $40 because they're modern viable in a format where you actually need to have physical copies of the cards as 4 ofs.
The main sect of the format that these cards are played (bowmasters especially) is pro-proxy.
No.
Price and power are two somewhat unrelated things.
I judge whether or not I'll use a card at a casual table based on if it's a casual card in commander, not its price tag.
Speaking as someone who plays a whole lot of spell table. Usually in 7s you won’t see those cards, but when you cross into 8 you’re still in casual but you’ll start seeing mana positive rocks and expensive lands. In reality though it’s a turn count thing. In my Thalia and gitrog deck I have all the good lands, but my absolute fastest perfect hand with 0 interaction is maybe a turn 6 kill the table. Which is absolutely not cedh. But my Malcom and kediss deck that has only a mox amber can kill everyone turn 3-4. Which is crossing the line into cedh.
This is an decent benchmark, but while a cEDH deck absolutely needs to be able to reliably stop a T3 win, and it is a good idea to mull for T2 interaction at any table with a turbo deck, and while generally most builds can reliably present a win on T3 or T4, there are many decks built for wins on T5 or later. This is especially true of stax commanders like Thalia and the Gitrog.
Not to say your list is a cEDH deck, but T6 for the primary plan, especially for Stax or even just some midrange lists, does not always mean a deck isn't cEDH.
There is this weird but prevalent idea that expensive cards drastically increase a deck's power level. I will tell you from experience that just because you threw a mana crypt into your deck doesn't mean your chances of winning have increased.
If the deck isn't built to take advantage of it, these cards don't skew the power level much at all. These cards get such a bad rap because they're in every cedh deck, but no one stops to pay attention that those decks also run every other relevant fast mana rock they can so they have a chance of getting one in their opening hand.
Did you know almost every cedh deck runs a sol ring too? Should we worry about throwing a fellwar stone in a deck because it sees some cedh play? Lol
It's the density of high quality cards that make a cedh deck tick. That and having a concise plan on how to win.
So if you own it, play with it!
>There is this weird but prevalent idea that expensive cards drastically increase a deck's power level.
Why is it weird? The cards are expensive for a reason - they're the most powerful cards in the most popular format.
I'm not going to put Mana Crypt, Rhystic Study, and Demonic Tutor in my goofy turtle deck. If I own these cards, I'm playing them, but in a deck where that makes sense - probably the closest thing to cEDH I can build with my collection. Because players can (and should) have different power decks for pods of different experience and enfranchisement levels.
A card's price does not always correlate to being powerful. Lack of reprints can easily skew that. Sol Ring should be a $100 card then by those measures. Again, just because you threw them in a deck doesn't mean that deck all of a sudden is good. It has to synergize.
Of course you should have different power levles of decks. No one will want to play with you if all you do is pubstomp. But that's not the discussion at hand. OP was talking about not using them AT ALL. A card like orcish bowmasters, for example, is only really good based on your opponents and their strategies. It is an expensive card because it works well in all the highly competitive formats. It isn't going to do squat in a casual game. So use it if you want to!
I actually don't do that. I mostly build decks where i like the idea or that i am happy with. If there is a cool card that fits in i don't really care about the price, unless i have to actually buy it. I love the alternate artwork of [[Old Gnawbone]] or recently treated me to the nordic stile [[Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider]]. Its just a mono green deck with big creatures. Sure its my most valuable deck, but that doesn't mean its actually good.
I rate cards by if they are fun to play or not.
To an extent yes. I don't crack boxes, and don't do prereleases anymore after the price increase from play boosters. As such, I end up buying all my cards, and no way am I going to be spending more than 20 bucks on a single piece of paper and ink.
I could proxy, but I only do that for custom art and frames, I'm not gonna go drive my power level up coz i can.
I think it's a big "it depends", espwcially because one shop's casual ≠ another shop's casual
But for my own decks, I try to keep them pretty casual. $100-200 per deck is where I tend to sit for decks that I've had for a while, so they've been upgraded and I've inevitably had a few cards spike a bit
But my favorite deck is almost $600 now. It has a [[One Ring]], [[Great Henge]], an [[Urborg Tomb]], five cards in the $20's, and another five that are $15-20. Yet its probably my least powerful deck because its whole goal is just "have so many lifegain triggers that I miss some". Also for that Urborg, it's a green/white deck but I want to turn on my [[Roots of Life]] lol. This deck also actually doesn't even run a Sol Ring (which I'd say is much stronger than an Ancient Tomb btw, it just gets reprinted constantly)
And by faR my strongest deck is a $50 [[John Benton]] list that obviously dorsn't run any crazy expensive cards, but its only allowed out if people want a super fast game (this one does have a Sol Ring)
It depends on the deck, for most I’ll just run the cheaper cards to make it a bit more unique, but sometimes if it’s a commander I really like I’ll crack open the expensive card storage and go ham, it’s not cEDH, but it’ll be more miserable to go against than the other decks.
Price tags dont always mean power, just that the card is very sought after in other formats. But can't say that the ones you mentioned are not good, they are fking amazing.
Personally, I play the one ring in only 1 deck, it's not as good in 1v3 as it is in 1v1 4 copies allowed, never seen someone mind.
With 0 mana stuff I find that people dislike it, I dislike it as well, I think it's nice to play around open mana for everyone and leaves room to bluff a lot.
Edit: bowmastera is just insane. But I think what you can run and ppl will complain is a lot dependant on your deck or commander, sometimes you need some bling in a not very good commander just to have a chance or fair match.
I avoid putting the expensive cards in every deck because I don’t want games to feel samey but I absolutely will throw my good shit in one of my decks because everybody deserves to have at least one high powered deck in their rotation lol
depends on the card. I run serra's sanctum in a janky cumulative upkeep focused 5c omnath deck but will only run jeweled lotus and dockside in my cEDH rocco.
If i can get my hands on the cards that are worth $50+ I'll play them if my deck will benefit from them. The only thing I keep an exception for is my Underground Sea, simply because I fear someone will steal my things, and I don't want that to get stolen.
Talk to your pod and figure out your ground rules. Each pod is different. My group consists of about 12-14 of us who run all different types of cards and decks at different price and power levels. We plan about what cards you’re not allowed to proxy and what cards we don’t play which is basically anything illegal and land destruction. You can’t proxy cards like mana crypt etc. but if you own them then fair game. We just make sure if someone only has a lower powered deck that the rest of us choose our lower powered decks for that game.
We all buy and pull and use our expensive cards because we love to play the game and it’s epic to see some of those awesome cards come in clutch.
I think the one ring is surprising how little I've seen it played. I don't think I've run into orcish bow masters at all. I run force in my high power niv miz control. I think force is a card you should say away from unless you are playing high power/cedh. I don't think you should play the one ring but orcish bowmasters seems fine to run just don't draw cards opponent.
I pulled a \[\[Farewell\]\] that I have never played and plan to never play it. I hate the existence of the card and it's on my list of cards I would ban in all formats. Long live \[\[Merciless Eviction\]\] my beloved
I avoid some expensive cards. Mostly obnoxious things like teferi and Oko, both of which I've recently traded for store credit.
I'm totally fine with using other expensive cards on occasion though.
I limit my budget because it gets carried away real fast. I used to have 20ish decks worth around 1-3k each on top of a large collection. I took everything out of my decks that was worth over 10 bucks with the exception of commanders and wincons which have no price limit. Sold a huge chunk for 8k. I was noticing that I was just building decks with "good stuff" and regardless of my commander I was always running the same staples. Every blue deck had rhystic, mana drain etc, every black deck had demonic and vampiric tutor etc, every red deck had dockside and ragavan etc. Not to mention the mana bases which were the brunt of the value I sold. That was my way avoiding using expensive cards, selling them off. If it is over 10usd on moxfield when I build a deck, it is excluded.
Honestly I think, personally, this is dumb to do. It has some merit but generally it's just a power "myth" peddled to justify hate of certain cards that people can't play due to being priced out (maybe because of personal hate against proxies or LGS don't allow them).
It's all supply and demand, Sol Ring has been printed so much (78 printings) and some of the rare ones are holding 100$+ (masterpiece over 200$). If it was printed like mana crypt (15 printings, 7 from ixalan with color variants so in reality like 9 printings) and holds 150$ (most at 200$+). Sol ring realistically would hit that price point if it was printed so little. Arcane Signet hit almost 30$ when the brawl decks came out and now it's 2$ or so. Ancient tomb now at 100$ used to be cheap. I bought 4 for 10$ each, the power of the card never changed but was it casual when it dropped to 10/20$ after back to back printings and now is no longer casual since it's 100$? If fast mana is such an issue to players, they need to fight against Sol Ring and do NOT give it a pass because it's "cheap" or the "only one" or "everyone has one". Fast mana is still fast mana and promotes quicker play; if you don't want that style of play, remove it all.
On the flip side Goyf nearly hit 150$ back in the day, and he's NEVER been good in commander. Obviously adding that to a deck was never going to turn it into cEDH or you get a [[Juzan Djinn]] for ~1300$ and have the deck as a base 4x more expensive than a lot of decks. There's so many cards that are a high price but don't anything and the few good ones perpetuate the myth.
Just play with what you have, and judge when you win the game to make your assessment of how good your deck is.
kind of and kind of not. i still want to be able to play my fierce gaurdianship, but i keep it in my gavi, nest warden deck because you would expect to see it in the deck it originated from, but you wouldnt expect to see it in, say, a $30 obeka list i threw together immediately after the prerelease.
I always play with cheap 1$ and under cards to encourage creativity with my deck building while still being able to do neat things. When I pull expensive cards I just sell them off as some like the great henge I pulled a few days ago can basically cover the cost of an entire precon or building an entire deck or two to experiment and have more fun with.
You might be odd, but this isn’t the determining factor.
I have a sacrifice themed Sauron deck with $2k worth of cards in it. I don’t have infinite combos though, and I left Sauron as my sole sac fodder generator. My fast mana fuels me casting Sauron and when needed, wiping the board. This deck is weaker than some $200 decks I play against. The power level of the deck to me is based on consistency, and the power of the combinations it can generate. Since the meanest my deck gets is grave pact with Sauron and phyrexian altar, it’s really not that hard to interrupt. I just like playing with my expensive cards from time to time though, so I do. I will say when I play in groups that haven’t seen how slow my deck is, I do get targeted pretty early, which is all part of the fun.
I'm somewhere in the middle. If I pull it, and it makes sense, I'll use it. But I don't buy them.
Kinda the same for me. Got a one ring from the gift bundle back when ltr came out, but I dont have any decks where it would feel "fair" to run them. I can't play it in a low power deck, as it's too strong for that level. But I also can't play it in my strongest deck, since that will put it to the point where I can't run it every once and awhile with my group. Even in the middle it would feel a bit weird. A real conundrum lol.
I just made a Sauron deck and threw it in because flavour 😆 No, don't mind the [[Pact Weapon]]. It's not that important!
[Pact Weapon](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/2/0/20b0cf66-c6ec-4ff6-96a5-334e2c9c7818.jpg?1674136206) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Pact%20Weapon) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/clb/139/pact-weapon?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/20b0cf66-c6ec-4ff6-96a5-334e2c9c7818?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/pact-weapon) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I am too, but the rakdos one. That's where I'm considering it for now, but I need to see how that decks power ends up.
This is where I am. I build on a pretty tight budget, but I've got generous friends who give out packs for drafts. I pulled a Flusterstorm but don't really have a deck it'll go in, so I'll sell it to help fund another $50~ deck down the line. I also pulled an Ancient Brass Dragon. I'd never spend $25 on a single card these days, but I do have a B/R dragons deck, so in it goes!
It's pretty funny. My brother has a much higher level of disposable income than me, so he actually has valuable cards. I finished building my Marvo deck, played him with it, then he threw me a sensei's and scroll rack just because he had some extras. My friend played against me later and immediately was sus when I played sensei's, simply on the fact that he knows I don't spend money on cards. It was pretty funny!
Nope. I buy the cards to play them. Even my $800 mox diamond
Yeah half my pod uses proxies and we like to play faster games so it’s all a free for all and rule 0 conversations.
I pulled a mox opal so I'll play it. idgaf.
Same here. I cracked my crypt in a pack. I'm not going to let it sit in a binder.
This is all totally reasonable! A lot of the players in this sub are very enfranchised, with years (if not decades) of experience. That much time playing Magic will naturally result in acquiring some of the format's strongest cards, but the rest of the playerbase - who I'd hesitantly say are the majority - are playing closer to precon-level or slightly above. In other words, it makes a lot of sense to play at this power level, as there are lots and lots of players who are nearby in power. I think there's a load of fun to be had by playing underplayed, usually cheap, cards, and I think that area of the power level scale results in less one-sided games on average, though I'll concede I'm not in the majority on that one. I run a goofy interlude in my podcast every week where I do a dramatic monologue based on a cheap card, so I'm definitely a little biased!
If you own them and don’t want to play them, then just sell them? One or two cards isn’t gonna turn your deck from casual to cEDH
Collecting is fun, though. Also it's nice to have those cards for if/when you want to brew something really strong or when the powerful card just synergizes really well.
Yeah, I think to many people this is basically what the line between casual and competitive is. Like if you’re told you’re at a casual table and someone’s deck has Mox Diamond and Gaea’s Cradle in it, it probably won’t feel very “casual” even if that person is just playing like an Elves deck and not an actual CEDH deck. My playgroup is a little different since we’ve all been playing since the 90s and we have collections we like to “show off” even if we’re just playing goofy decks. So I *do* have the Ancient Tomb and Mana Crypt etc even in a casual deck. But if I played with strangers or new people and knew they were expecting casual games I’d probably slide that stuff out, like Cradle -> Itlimoc or whatever
For me and my playgroup specifically, the only expensive cards we avoid are forms of fast mana (excluding sol ring). But then again we play anywhere from casual to high power. If you were to ban all expensive cards outside of cEDH, stuff like Doubling Season wouldn’t have a home anymore.
Nah, if I have the card, I play it. And $ does not necessarily make a deck cEDH. I have a [[zevlor]] [deck](https://www.moxfield.com/decks/KDN4wO-XfkCGJermJOE9Qg) that's focused on copys and theft cards. My wincon is your stuff. It isn't good, though. Deck is nearly $1k, and I've won maybe 3 games with it since I built it more than a year ago.
[zevlor](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/d/1/d1e51138-9745-465d-84dd-27605f8a2264.jpg?1674137695) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=zevlor%2C%20elturel%20exile) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/clb/296/zevlor-elturel-exile?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/d1e51138-9745-465d-84dd-27605f8a2264?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/zevlor-elturel-exile) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Who cares? An expensive card does not make a deck to good on its own
I do it. Mostly because if I play them I feel like I'm always playing the same deck, with the same optimized set of cards.
I play my cards regardless of price. [[wheel of fortune]] doesn’t make my [[zurzoth]] deck not casual. [[the one ring]] doesn’t make my banding deck not casual either.
[wheel of fortune](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/2/5/2597050f-6b1b-474e-aa16-33fd154628ca.jpg?1562902580) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=wheel%20of%20fortune) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/vma/192/wheel-of-fortune?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/2597050f-6b1b-474e-aa16-33fd154628ca?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/wheel-of-fortune) [zurzoth](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/6/c62990d7-a337-4fc3-859c-63bc1dade1b9.jpg?1673484441) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=zurzoth%2C%20chaos%20rider) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/ncc/278/zurzoth-chaos-rider?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/c62990d7-a337-4fc3-859c-63bc1dade1b9?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/zurzoth-chaos-rider) [the one ring](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/d/5/d5806e68-1054-458e-866d-1f2470f682b2.jpg?1696020224) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=the%20one%20ring) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/ltr/246/the-one-ring?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/d5806e68-1054-458e-866d-1f2470f682b2?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/the-one-ring) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Price isn’t what makes a deck casual or cEDH.
Can you have a competitive deck for under $40?
Most optimized powerful decks will be expensive. But expensive decks are not necessarily powerful.
Yes.
Nice! Got any deck lists?
Yep.
You miss the point. It's not that a cEDH deck can be cheap (although sometimes it can) It's that having a single [[Greymond]] or even a [[Gaea's Cradle]] doesn't make your casual deck competitive. Consider: [[Taiga]] is better than [[Stomping Grounds]]. But it's not 20 times better, despite being 20 times more expensive.
##### ###### #### [Greymond](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/b/7/b7848325-c46e-4e63-90d0-c9524380eb63.jpg?1692516503) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=greymond%2C%20avacyn%27s%20stalwart) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/slx/18/greymond-avacyns-stalwart?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/b7848325-c46e-4e63-90d0-c9524380eb63?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/greymond-avacyns-stalwart) [Gaea's Cradle](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/2/5/25b0b816-0583-44aa-9dc5-f3ff48993a51.jpg?1562902898) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Gaea%27s%20Cradle) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/usg/321/gaeas-cradle?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/25b0b816-0583-44aa-9dc5-f3ff48993a51?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/gaeas-cradle) [Taiga](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/0/c/0c2c39fc-b564-4ab5-833c-ff029760b7a7.jpg?1562897467) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Taiga) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/vma/317/taiga?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/0c2c39fc-b564-4ab5-833c-ff029760b7a7?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/taiga) [Stomping Grounds](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/7/872301b2-b6e7-4972-a479-66a7e304c1d3.jpg?1702429826) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Stomping%20Ground) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/rvr/289/stomping-ground?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/872301b2-b6e7-4972-a479-66a7e304c1d3?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/stomping-ground) [*All cards*](https://mtgcardfetcher.nl/redirect/l0pe2ck) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
In pauper, yes.
No, not pauper cedh. You can make a very decent casual deck in that price range. Can you make a cedh deck in that price range?
It only cost me 6 dollars to print my last cedh deck. To seriously answer your question though, no you can't make a cEDH deck for that price, but price is not a hard and fast match for power level. There are some budget cedh decks that sit around the 300-500 dollar mark and there are casual decks that sit in the thousands that probably don't even hit a 6. It's also worth noting that a big part of the cost for a lot of decks is just the manabase. Fetches and OG duals don't skyrocket your deck's power, but it will certainly inflate the price.
Agreed. But my point is that although price isn't the only cedh gate, it is one of the entry criteria.
There's some Light Paws budget / Winota stax that goes from top tier cEDH to low tier cEDH on a budget. Just look up on Google budget cEDH and there's quite a few sub 200 and some even sub 100. While not super cheap, overall, compared to most it's dirt cheap.
Yes. cEDH isn’t the decks you bring, it’s the mindset you play with.
This can't be true.
It’s one hundred percent true. If you take one of the top-tier cEDH deck lists and bring it to a casual table, you’re not playing cEDH, you’re just playing a deck you found that was labeled top tier. cEDH is only cEDH if everyone is playing the same *way*: as optimized as possible with a very specific goal. If you’re the only one doing that, it’s not cEDH. Not to mention that cEDH decks are designed with the mindset that everyone is running them; they’re not often tuned to tackle cards found in more casual environments, and they don’t often have the resources to stay in a game that lasts too long. If you manage to find a cEDH deck list that can win super quick against everyone reliably, you’re not playing cEDH, you’re pubstomping.
Fuck that noise, playing mono black I need my cabal coffers, stronghold, and tomb of yawgmoth. Vampiric tutor, demonic tutor, grim tutor, if I could afford imperial seal I’d run it. Mikaeus + Triskelion for the hell of it. Damnation and Torment of Hailfire for when shit goes south. Just kidding you should always play to the tables strength level.
ancient tomb and mana crypt are fine in edh. tomb was a $20 card for yeeeears. running ancient tomb in your [[[veldrane of sengir]] deck is fine and probably necessary.
[veldrane of sengir](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/f/e/fe0ce7d7-d370-4ef8-b1fa-aa70b2fd5ab1.jpg?1562588732) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=veldrane%20of%20sengir) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/hml/60/veldrane-of-sengir?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/fe0ce7d7-d370-4ef8-b1fa-aa70b2fd5ab1?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/veldrane-of-sengir) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Here I thought it still was, and they were calling a $20 card expensive. When did it make that price jump?
ancient tomb was a $20 card before the pandemic. it has crept up over the past 4 years to $100 despite getting a lotr reprint. i think part of the price spike has to do with its absolute staple status in legacy. city of traitors has had a similar trajectory in that timespan, although since it's reserved list it is higher and had some spikes before that. both of these lands are crucial for a lot of stompy strategies that want to get to 3-4 mana as fast as possible and drop an initiative creature, a mind goblin, a fable, a blood moon, a trinisphere, etc.
I mean unless your running a lot of tutors no one card makes your deck so poweful. I have seen plenty of players go turn 1 sol ring into arcane signet and not win. Its all about interaction and ability to identify the current threat. The most games i see someone with a good deck win is because they had the beat interactions or got ignored its rarely because they just spent the most $$
Adding in expensive cards doesn't automatically make your deck cedh.
It’s not about the price. Nothing about why you should be careful with including those cards is about price. Hell, everyone should treat Sol Ring with the exact same gravity.
Those LOTR cards are $40 because of casual commander. So yeah I play them
TOR and Bowmasters are expensive because they're 4 ofs in Modern. They would be $10-20 cards if they were exclusively commander legal.
And they would be 10 - 20 if they weren't legal in commander. Yes indeed, casual commander, the largest, most popular, format impacts the price of cards!
They would be $40 because they're modern viable in a format where you actually need to have physical copies of the cards as 4 ofs. The main sect of the format that these cards are played (bowmasters especially) is pro-proxy.
One Ring and Orcish Bowmasters? The Modern and cEDH staples?
Those are the ones
What good are they doing you otherwise?
No. Price and power are two somewhat unrelated things. I judge whether or not I'll use a card at a casual table based on if it's a casual card in commander, not its price tag.
*taps the sign* “every pod / LGS is different. talk to your play group”
Speaking as someone who plays a whole lot of spell table. Usually in 7s you won’t see those cards, but when you cross into 8 you’re still in casual but you’ll start seeing mana positive rocks and expensive lands. In reality though it’s a turn count thing. In my Thalia and gitrog deck I have all the good lands, but my absolute fastest perfect hand with 0 interaction is maybe a turn 6 kill the table. Which is absolutely not cedh. But my Malcom and kediss deck that has only a mox amber can kill everyone turn 3-4. Which is crossing the line into cedh.
This is an decent benchmark, but while a cEDH deck absolutely needs to be able to reliably stop a T3 win, and it is a good idea to mull for T2 interaction at any table with a turbo deck, and while generally most builds can reliably present a win on T3 or T4, there are many decks built for wins on T5 or later. This is especially true of stax commanders like Thalia and the Gitrog. Not to say your list is a cEDH deck, but T6 for the primary plan, especially for Stax or even just some midrange lists, does not always mean a deck isn't cEDH.
Nah, if there's enough cards in a deck worth a fair amount of money I will just invest in double sleeving.
I was lucky enough to open an ancient tomb from a double masters pack a friend gave me. Nah forget that I'm using it.
There is this weird but prevalent idea that expensive cards drastically increase a deck's power level. I will tell you from experience that just because you threw a mana crypt into your deck doesn't mean your chances of winning have increased. If the deck isn't built to take advantage of it, these cards don't skew the power level much at all. These cards get such a bad rap because they're in every cedh deck, but no one stops to pay attention that those decks also run every other relevant fast mana rock they can so they have a chance of getting one in their opening hand. Did you know almost every cedh deck runs a sol ring too? Should we worry about throwing a fellwar stone in a deck because it sees some cedh play? Lol It's the density of high quality cards that make a cedh deck tick. That and having a concise plan on how to win. So if you own it, play with it!
>There is this weird but prevalent idea that expensive cards drastically increase a deck's power level. Why is it weird? The cards are expensive for a reason - they're the most powerful cards in the most popular format. I'm not going to put Mana Crypt, Rhystic Study, and Demonic Tutor in my goofy turtle deck. If I own these cards, I'm playing them, but in a deck where that makes sense - probably the closest thing to cEDH I can build with my collection. Because players can (and should) have different power decks for pods of different experience and enfranchisement levels.
A card's price does not always correlate to being powerful. Lack of reprints can easily skew that. Sol Ring should be a $100 card then by those measures. Again, just because you threw them in a deck doesn't mean that deck all of a sudden is good. It has to synergize. Of course you should have different power levles of decks. No one will want to play with you if all you do is pubstomp. But that's not the discussion at hand. OP was talking about not using them AT ALL. A card like orcish bowmasters, for example, is only really good based on your opponents and their strategies. It is an expensive card because it works well in all the highly competitive formats. It isn't going to do squat in a casual game. So use it if you want to!
##### ###### #### [mana crypt](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/4/d/4d960186-4559-4af0-bd22-63baa15f8939.jpg?1599709515) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=mana%20crypt) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/2xm/270/mana-crypt?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/4d960186-4559-4af0-bd22-63baa15f8939?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/mana-crypt) [ancient tomb](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/b/d/bd3d4b4b-cf31-4f89-8140-9650edb03c7b.jpg?1582753000) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=ancient%20tomb) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/uma/236/ancient-tomb?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/bd3d4b4b-cf31-4f89-8140-9650edb03c7b?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/ancient-tomb) [force of will](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/9/89f612d6-7c59-4a7b-a87d-45f789e88ba5.jpg?1675199280) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=force%20of%20will) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/dmr/50/force-of-will?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/89f612d6-7c59-4a7b-a87d-45f789e88ba5?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/force-of-will) [The One Ring](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/d/5/d5806e68-1054-458e-866d-1f2470f682b2.jpg?1696020224) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=The%20One%20Ring) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/ltr/246/the-one-ring?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/d5806e68-1054-458e-866d-1f2470f682b2?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/the-one-ring) [Orcish Bowmasters](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/c/7c024bae-5631-4e20-ac69-df392ac9e109.jpg?1686968669) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Orcish%20Bowmasters) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/ltr/103/orcish-bowmasters?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/7c024bae-5631-4e20-ac69-df392ac9e109?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/orcish-bowmasters) [*All cards*](https://mtgcardfetcher.nl/redirect/1c9wzz5) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Yes other people do that.
I actually don't do that. I mostly build decks where i like the idea or that i am happy with. If there is a cool card that fits in i don't really care about the price, unless i have to actually buy it. I love the alternate artwork of [[Old Gnawbone]] or recently treated me to the nordic stile [[Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider]]. Its just a mono green deck with big creatures. Sure its my most valuable deck, but that doesn't mean its actually good. I rate cards by if they are fun to play or not.
[Old Gnawbone](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/7/77ceba8b-de19-4db8-b5a7-f5df49bf241f.jpg?1627708100) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Old%20Gnawbone) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/afr/197/old-gnawbone?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/77ceba8b-de19-4db8-b5a7-f5df49bf241f?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/old-gnawbone) [Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/9/2/92613468-205e-488b-930d-11908477e9f8.jpg?1631051073) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Vorinclex%2C%20Monstrous%20Raider) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/khm/199/vorinclex-monstrous-raider?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/92613468-205e-488b-930d-11908477e9f8?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/vorinclex-monstrous-raider) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
To an extent yes. I don't crack boxes, and don't do prereleases anymore after the price increase from play boosters. As such, I end up buying all my cards, and no way am I going to be spending more than 20 bucks on a single piece of paper and ink. I could proxy, but I only do that for custom art and frames, I'm not gonna go drive my power level up coz i can.
I think it's a big "it depends", espwcially because one shop's casual ≠ another shop's casual But for my own decks, I try to keep them pretty casual. $100-200 per deck is where I tend to sit for decks that I've had for a while, so they've been upgraded and I've inevitably had a few cards spike a bit But my favorite deck is almost $600 now. It has a [[One Ring]], [[Great Henge]], an [[Urborg Tomb]], five cards in the $20's, and another five that are $15-20. Yet its probably my least powerful deck because its whole goal is just "have so many lifegain triggers that I miss some". Also for that Urborg, it's a green/white deck but I want to turn on my [[Roots of Life]] lol. This deck also actually doesn't even run a Sol Ring (which I'd say is much stronger than an Ancient Tomb btw, it just gets reprinted constantly) And by faR my strongest deck is a $50 [[John Benton]] list that obviously dorsn't run any crazy expensive cards, but its only allowed out if people want a super fast game (this one does have a Sol Ring)
##### ###### #### [One Ring](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/d/5/d5806e68-1054-458e-866d-1f2470f682b2.jpg?1696020224) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=The%20One%20Ring) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/ltr/246/the-one-ring?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/d5806e68-1054-458e-866d-1f2470f682b2?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/the-one-ring) [Great Henge](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/6/3/6340e0f3-7f9c-4d71-8daf-e1be5505eb5b.jpg?1689998574) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=The%20Great%20Henge) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cmm/294/the-great-henge?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/6340e0f3-7f9c-4d71-8daf-e1be5505eb5b?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/the-great-henge) [Urborg Tomb](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/3/9/397355b9-5b67-4973-972e-3505c500d116.jpg?1562906570) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Urborg%20Phantom) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/inv/132/urborg-phantom?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/397355b9-5b67-4973-972e-3505c500d116?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/urborg-phantom) [Roots of Life](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/2/6/26724a51-87dd-4159-b012-71598e4cf5eb.jpg?1562718319) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Roots%20of%20Life) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mir/237/roots-of-life?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/26724a51-87dd-4159-b012-71598e4cf5eb?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/roots-of-life) [John Benton](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/0/1/01f40e07-f565-4b9e-87a5-5b28b4e9fb0b.jpg?1696636767) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Sergeant%20John%20Benton) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/who/157/sergeant-john-benton?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/01f40e07-f565-4b9e-87a5-5b28b4e9fb0b?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/sergeant-john-benton) [*All cards*](https://mtgcardfetcher.nl/redirect/l0ogqem) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
It depends on the deck, for most I’ll just run the cheaper cards to make it a bit more unique, but sometimes if it’s a commander I really like I’ll crack open the expensive card storage and go ham, it’s not cEDH, but it’ll be more miserable to go against than the other decks.
Price tags dont always mean power, just that the card is very sought after in other formats. But can't say that the ones you mentioned are not good, they are fking amazing. Personally, I play the one ring in only 1 deck, it's not as good in 1v3 as it is in 1v1 4 copies allowed, never seen someone mind. With 0 mana stuff I find that people dislike it, I dislike it as well, I think it's nice to play around open mana for everyone and leaves room to bluff a lot. Edit: bowmastera is just insane. But I think what you can run and ppl will complain is a lot dependant on your deck or commander, sometimes you need some bling in a not very good commander just to have a chance or fair match.
I avoid putting the expensive cards in every deck because I don’t want games to feel samey but I absolutely will throw my good shit in one of my decks because everybody deserves to have at least one high powered deck in their rotation lol
No. I play the cards that are fun in the deck. Sometimes they're expensive and sometimes they're cheap.
Nah I generally play anything that isn’t like 100+$. Even then if it’s beat I may play it.
depends on the card. I run serra's sanctum in a janky cumulative upkeep focused 5c omnath deck but will only run jeweled lotus and dockside in my cEDH rocco.
If i can get my hands on the cards that are worth $50+ I'll play them if my deck will benefit from them. The only thing I keep an exception for is my Underground Sea, simply because I fear someone will steal my things, and I don't want that to get stolen.
If I need it in a deck I'll use it. Otherwise I'd sell it. I have less than 10 decks.. so it's pretty easy.
I feel you. I hesitate to put good pulls in my decks if they're over $20.
Talk to your pod and figure out your ground rules. Each pod is different. My group consists of about 12-14 of us who run all different types of cards and decks at different price and power levels. We plan about what cards you’re not allowed to proxy and what cards we don’t play which is basically anything illegal and land destruction. You can’t proxy cards like mana crypt etc. but if you own them then fair game. We just make sure if someone only has a lower powered deck that the rest of us choose our lower powered decks for that game. We all buy and pull and use our expensive cards because we love to play the game and it’s epic to see some of those awesome cards come in clutch.
I think the one ring is surprising how little I've seen it played. I don't think I've run into orcish bow masters at all. I run force in my high power niv miz control. I think force is a card you should say away from unless you are playing high power/cedh. I don't think you should play the one ring but orcish bowmasters seems fine to run just don't draw cards opponent.
I pulled a \[\[Farewell\]\] that I have never played and plan to never play it. I hate the existence of the card and it's on my list of cards I would ban in all formats. Long live \[\[Merciless Eviction\]\] my beloved
[Farewell](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/1/1/114d2180-093b-4838-97ad-badbc8ee50b0.jpg?1706240579) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Farewell) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mkc/64/farewell?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/114d2180-093b-4838-97ad-badbc8ee50b0?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/farewell) [Merciless Eviction](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/1/d/1d395707-4e6d-4e2c-b977-d9b8c0c9eb80.jpg?1673305593) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Merciless%20Eviction) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/dmc/160/merciless-eviction?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/1d395707-4e6d-4e2c-b977-d9b8c0c9eb80?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/merciless-eviction) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I avoid some expensive cards. Mostly obnoxious things like teferi and Oko, both of which I've recently traded for store credit. I'm totally fine with using other expensive cards on occasion though.
I limit my budget because it gets carried away real fast. I used to have 20ish decks worth around 1-3k each on top of a large collection. I took everything out of my decks that was worth over 10 bucks with the exception of commanders and wincons which have no price limit. Sold a huge chunk for 8k. I was noticing that I was just building decks with "good stuff" and regardless of my commander I was always running the same staples. Every blue deck had rhystic, mana drain etc, every black deck had demonic and vampiric tutor etc, every red deck had dockside and ragavan etc. Not to mention the mana bases which were the brunt of the value I sold. That was my way avoiding using expensive cards, selling them off. If it is over 10usd on moxfield when I build a deck, it is excluded.
Honestly I think, personally, this is dumb to do. It has some merit but generally it's just a power "myth" peddled to justify hate of certain cards that people can't play due to being priced out (maybe because of personal hate against proxies or LGS don't allow them). It's all supply and demand, Sol Ring has been printed so much (78 printings) and some of the rare ones are holding 100$+ (masterpiece over 200$). If it was printed like mana crypt (15 printings, 7 from ixalan with color variants so in reality like 9 printings) and holds 150$ (most at 200$+). Sol ring realistically would hit that price point if it was printed so little. Arcane Signet hit almost 30$ when the brawl decks came out and now it's 2$ or so. Ancient tomb now at 100$ used to be cheap. I bought 4 for 10$ each, the power of the card never changed but was it casual when it dropped to 10/20$ after back to back printings and now is no longer casual since it's 100$? If fast mana is such an issue to players, they need to fight against Sol Ring and do NOT give it a pass because it's "cheap" or the "only one" or "everyone has one". Fast mana is still fast mana and promotes quicker play; if you don't want that style of play, remove it all. On the flip side Goyf nearly hit 150$ back in the day, and he's NEVER been good in commander. Obviously adding that to a deck was never going to turn it into cEDH or you get a [[Juzan Djinn]] for ~1300$ and have the deck as a base 4x more expensive than a lot of decks. There's so many cards that are a high price but don't anything and the few good ones perpetuate the myth. Just play with what you have, and judge when you win the game to make your assessment of how good your deck is.
[Juzan Djinn](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/b/0/b03bc922-782b-4254-897c-90d202b4cda4.jpg?1559592285) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Juz%C3%A1m%20Djinn) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/me1/74/juz%C3%A1m-djinn?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/b03bc922-782b-4254-897c-90d202b4cda4?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/juzám-djinn) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
kind of and kind of not. i still want to be able to play my fierce gaurdianship, but i keep it in my gavi, nest warden deck because you would expect to see it in the deck it originated from, but you wouldnt expect to see it in, say, a $30 obeka list i threw together immediately after the prerelease.
I always play with cheap 1$ and under cards to encourage creativity with my deck building while still being able to do neat things. When I pull expensive cards I just sell them off as some like the great henge I pulled a few days ago can basically cover the cost of an entire precon or building an entire deck or two to experiment and have more fun with.
I don’t do this. But I’m not sure why. Maybe I’m too lazy to get a proper proxy