Thirty Casual Decks under $20 for Magic: The Gathering Theros: Beyond Death

Tweet by SaffronOlive // Jan 27, 2020

30 under $20 theros: beyond death standard

We've been publishing a bunch of cheap, casual deck lists after the past few set releases. Today, we have our latest installment of the Thirty under $20 series, with a bunch of cheap, fun decks featuring cards from Magic's newest set: Theros: Beyond Death! The set itself is overflowing with enchantments, which makes for some fairly unique decks compared to most sets, with many of the builds focusing on various enchantment synergies, from loading up one creature with a bunch of auras to turn it into a massive attacker to going wide with enchantment-based token strategies!

Like in the past, with today's decks, we tried to minimize the number of rares that show up in decks, to make them easier to acquire. For the Theros: Beyond Death–only decks specifically, none of the decks has more than one of each rare since those are the numbers you're likely to open if you crack a couple of boxes. These decks are appropriate for fun, casual play and for new players. If you're looking for higher-powered decks (more appropriate for FNM), we play budget decks every week on the Budget Magic series, with a typical budget of $100. If you want to go all-out, you can check out fully powered decks used in tournaments and by pro players.

Standard

First, we have Standard decks, which take advantage of all of the cards currently legal in Standard. Theros: Beyond Death is the second set released since rotation, which means these decks are built around cards from Guilds of Ravnica, Ravnica Allegiance, War of the Spark, Core Set 2020, Throne of Eldraine, and, of course, Theros: Beyond Death. The primary goal of these decks is to keep the price tag down under $20, which means (mostly) avoiding mythic cards altogether and minimizing the numbers of rare cards whenever possible.

Theros: Beyond Death Only

Next, we have some decks made only with Theros: Beyond Death cards. If you're brand new to Magic, Theros: Beyond Death is the newest Magic set, and it's built around the theme of enchantments, which means not only auras that we can put on our creatures to increase their power and grant additional abilities but also creatures that are enchantments themselves! While limiting the decks to just one set makes them less powerful than Standard decks, the upside is simple: you should (on average) get the cards you need to build all of these decks by cracking a couple of boxes of Throne of Eldraine. They are also perfect for Magic Arena, especially if you are just starting out and don't have many cards in your collection, since they don't require many rare (or any mythic) wildcards to build and you'll mostly be rewarded with packs from Theros: Beyond Death, so many of these cards will naturally show up in your collection over the next month or two (if they aren't there already). While these decks won't compete at the FNM level, they will be great starting points if you're looking for a way to stretch the amount of fun you get from your booster boxes or casual free-to-play Magic Arena! One last thing before the decks: unlike the Standard decks, each rare only shows up as a one-of in the Throne of Eldraine decks, no matter how good it might be in the deck. This is not only to keep the price down but because if you crack two boxes, you'll get about one of each rare, on average. If you happen to open multiple copies of one of the rares in the decks, don't be afraid to upgrade by sticking it in over one of the less powerful cards!

Past Thirty under $20s

A few months ago, we published the Throne of Eldraine edition of Thirty under $20. If you're looking for more cheap, casual fun, make sure to check it out! All of the decks featured in the Throne of Eldraine edition are still legal for Standard play, and you might even find a new home for some new Theros: Beyond Death cards among the Throne of Eldraine lists!

Conclusion

Anyway, that's all for today. A quick reminder on the way out the door: all of the decks we talked about today are designed to be for casual play, like having fun with a friend on your kitchen table, and aren't really designed for competitive play. If you're looking for more powerful (but still budget-friendly) decks that are perfect for Friday Night Magic, make sure to check out our Budget Magic series. If you are looking for competitive tournament-worthy decks, you can find them on the metagame page. Hopefully, these super-cheap decklists for Theros: Beyond Death Standard will be helpful and fun! If you have any questions, make sure to let me know in the comments. As always, leave your thoughts, ideas, feelings, and suggestions, and you can reach me on Twitter @SaffronOlive or at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.