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Thirty Casual Decks under $20 for Magic: the Gathering Ravnica Allegiance


Back in October, right after Guilds of Ravnica was released, we published an article featuring 30 casual decks for Guilds of Ravnica Standard. The response was very positive, so we're back with another round today but with decks for Ravnica Allegiance Standard! These 30 Magic: the Gathering decks are all $20 or under—perfect for new players or for fun casual play without breaking the bank. We've broken the decks into three categories. First up, we have a bunch of Standard decks that use cards released over the past year or so. Second, we have a few Guilds of Ravnica decks that use only cards found in the latest Magic: the Gathering expansion set, Ravnica Allegiance. Finally, at the end, we have a handful of decks that were featured in the last 30 casual decks article but are still playable in Ravnica Allegiance Standard with slight updates or no updates at all.

We tried to minimize the number of rares that show up in decks to make them easier to acquire. For the Ravnica Allegiance 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 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 Decks

The following decks are for Ravnica Allegiance Standard. Each deck is under $20, and the goal is to minimize the number of rares and avoid mythics altogether. The upside of this strategy is that along with being super cheap in paper and on Magic Online, these decks should also be pretty budget friendly on Magic Arena, if you are looking for something different to play in the free-play room. Since the decks are mostly designed for beginners and casual play, I'm not going to break down each deck card by card, so if you have questions about any of the decks, make sure to ask in the comments, and I'll do my best to answer!

One last thing before we get to the decks: Ravnica is a world based around two-color combinations called "guilds," so our decklists use the guilds' names to describe the colors rather than the colors themselves. In case you're a new player and aren't familiar with the guilds, here's a handy chart showing which colors each guild name is referring to:

Guild Name Colors
Selesnya Green–White
Golgari Green–Black
Izzet Red–Blue
Dimir Blue–Black
Boros Red–White
Orzhov White–Black
Simic Green–Blue
Gruul Red–Green
Azorius White–Blue
Rakdos Red–Black

 

Ravnica Allegiance Only

Finally, we've got five decks made only from Ravnica Allegiance cards. If you're brand new to Magic, Ravnica Allegiance is the newest Magic set, which makes it the perfect starting point if you are interested in trying out the game! While limiting the decks to just one set makes them less powerful than the all-Standard decks we just talked about, 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 Guilds of Ravnica. Again, these decks won't compete at the FNM level, but these decks will be great starting points if you're looking for a way to stretch the amount of fun you get from your Guilds of Ravnica booster boxes! 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. 

One last thing before the decks: unlike the Standard decks, each rare only shows up as a one-of in the Ravnica Allegiance 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!

Returning Decks

One of the unique aspects of Ravnica Allegiance and Guilds of Ravnica is that, rather than having all of the colors distributed equally between the two sets, each set focuses on different guilds (or color pairings). As a result, our decklists today are heavier on the builds represented in Ravnica Allegiance but light on Guilds of Ravnica colors. The good news is that we already did a Thirty under $20 article for Guilds of Ravnica (which you can find here). All of the decks in that article are still legal to play in Standard, and most are still close to the $20 budget, so if you're looking for a bunch more cheap decks to play in Ravnica Allegiance Standard, make sure to check them out! While most of the Guilds of Ravnica decks don't get many (or even any) significant changes with the release of Ravnica Allegiance, here are few that do.

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 deck lists for Ravnica Allegiance Standard are 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.



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