As we have closed the chapter on the Delver tree, we peel back to the original chapter of Budget to Tiered to bring you more powerful combo decks; and this time we have Turbo Depths.



In the quickest amount of time in any of the Budget to Tiered series so far, I’ll walk you through how I would upgrade to one of the meanest dedicated combo decks the format has to offer. As always, these are just guides, and by no means is anyone expecting you to go out and drop $200 for a dual if you don’t have it. Save up and take a little longer if you need to – the format isn’t going anywhere. Let’s jump in:

Month 0 – $225-275

Buying into Budget Depths

For less than the price of budget Reanimator, we have – like most of the budget decks in this series – a version of the deck that’s likely too under-powered to make Day 2 of a Legacy GP, but it can win at FNMs and other low level events. It does this in a watered down version of how the tiered deck does it: make an impossibly huge creature like your life depends on it. For ~$250, we’re trading away speed for paying bills on time, so at least we’ll be able to cry under some warm, running water when we lose to a top-decked Force of Will. In the board, there are some pretty standard choices, but your “off the wall” budget replacements are Throne of Geth and Not of this World. This version is a little more susceptible to Chalice on 1, so that’s where Throne comes in. Not of this World is great vs targeted removal from DnT or Miracles, but not so great against edict effects.

Month 1 – $175-225

Better, Expensive Lands

+3 Verdant Catacombs, +2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

-2 Forest, -1 Swamp, -2 Overgrown Tomb

Since this is basically a two colour Lands deck, it makes sense that you’ll need good lands in order to make this deck work. And honestly, that’s where most of the money for this upgrade is tied up: the lands. Fetches, duals, and utility lands are only going up, because most of those will never be reprinted, and the ones that will (like fetches) aren’t getting reprinted in any meaningful way. Basically, King’s Budgeting Tip: if you buy fetches or duals, try your very hardest not to get rid of them. If you’re looking from moving on from one deck to another, that’s totally understandable. But just remember that the likelihood of them even being the price they were when you bought them a year earlier is slim to none.

Month 2 – $175-200

Biting the Bullet

+1 Bayou

-1 Overgrown Tomb

Not a whole lot to say here. To me, it’s best to just get one of your Bayous of the way, as soon as possible. The full tiered deck is only playing 2 duals, while our budget list started on 4 shocks. Let’s get this land out of the way before a deck overhaul to reduce the amount of games we’ll lose to ourselves shocking in our last Overgrown Tomb – which was few and far between anyways, but now you have the option to shock or fetch an untapped dual.

Side note: I will say this every single article. Please please PLEASE don’t pay full price for a near mind dual. For building on a budget, it’s important to find the grossest, dirtiest, barely playable version of a dual that you can, since (at time of writing) TCGPlayer market price on a NM Revised Bayou is $279.11. Don’t pay that price; it’s super easy to find an HP for $175 or cheaper. If it plays in a sleeve, it’s just as good as a near mint Alpha.

Oh, speaking of a deck overhaul:

Month 3 – $150-175

A Major Overhaul

+3 Sylvan Safekeeper, +1 Verdant Catacombs, +4 Lotus Petal, +1 Dryad Arbor, +1 Karakas, +2 Tormod’s Crypt, +2 Assassin’s Trophy

-1 Sylvan Scrying, -1 Expedition Map, -2 Swamp, -4 Ancient Stirrings, -4 Not of this World, -2 Throne of Geth

Here’s the real bulk of what’s going into the tiered list. Sylvan Safekeeper gives your Marit Lage shroud, so those pesky Swords to Plowshares fall off the stack, and Lotus Petals speed up the clock of your main deck. In the side, we bring in Dryad Arbor as a fetchable way to avoid edict effects, and Karakas vs Sneak and Show as well as the mirror match round out the lands in the sideboard. You’ll likely never have both of these coming in for the same matchup, so plan on removing one of your mainboard utility lands that aren’t good in that situation. The other sideboard cards are a pair of Tormod’s Crypt, because graveyards are a thing that – besides Faerie Macabre – you can’t really deal with, and a pair of Assassin’s Trophy, which become Abrupt Decay numbers 3 and 4 vs Chalice decks, and just all around good permanent removal against decks that will try to keep you on your toes with Wasteland (looking at you, Wrenn&Six.dec).

Month 4 – $175-200

Woah, that was quick!

+1 Bayou

-1 Overgrown Tomb

And that’s all folks! Thought it’s one of the easier paths to follow, I still felt it was important to put it out there. Next time, we’re going to work our way into a fun and interesting combo path, from one graveyard strategy to another, that will likely take two articles. So I hope you’re as excited as I am!

As always, let me know what you think about the way I approached this deck upgrade, what pros and cons there are for different cards, and if you’ve built a deck following any of my articles!

Daniel Darity

@theking8426