What is a Budget Deck?

Writing about What a Budget deck should be easy, but writing Why you should and How to make it wouldn't.

That one anime everyone watched.

First of all, What is a Budget Deck? A deck that costs $100 or less. Problem solved.

... Actually no. I'm right about the part that it's $100 or lower, but it's not as simple as that. Lemme go into more details.

Such a moneysaver...

If you invested into other Card games aside from Vanguard, then you know just how much money you have to spend into Trading Card Games. Normally a Vanguard deck nowadays cost from $200-500, and normally people can't afford it. See where I'm coming from? Just reducing the price to $100 or less is already a big achievement.

What people think: Budget isn't competitive.

Lemme prove them wrong right now. Budget decks aren't competitive? No. Sure, since you're conserving money, the quality of the deck falls low compared to the competitive tournament-topping decks, but that doesn't mean that it's bad. Actually that's the key point. Just building a deck for $100 isn't enough. You need to add in the Staples (Sentinels, but the respective Staples? Depends), come up with a winning image, whether it be stall game, one turn risk-everything, conserve a big hand, whatever. The fundamentals are the same as building a normal deck, and once you learn how to factor in Budget in your builds, it's as good as done. So Simple right?



Until you get used to it, no, and it's not that easy. You need to throw away almost every single staple a normal deck should have. For example... You know Royal Paladins? Lemme make a budget deck with this real quick.

I'm here to save your thing, people!

Normally G-era Royal Paladins continue to Superior call from the deck over their Grade 2 units, to get extra attacks and combos off. You can still do this people, under $100. Easily.

First of all, you need to remove this guy. Sure, as much as he is pretty much the best finisher in the game if used right, his price is pumped up too much for you to use in a "budget" deck. You can use instead of him... Let's see... One option is Sanctuary Guard Dragon. He can solve the problem of Boosters in Royal Paladin decks nowadays. Another option is to use the G-era support properly by running Knight of Greatspear, or if you have a bundle of them, why doesn't Marianus work?

I am Siiiick!

Mostly, the extra Grade 3 out of Altmile is just normally a Stride fodder, considering that you don't wanna ride anything else but Altmile, and that you have Sicilus to search up him. It's usually a "just in case" measure, or a card with a Rear-Guard skill so that it won't be wasted once you end up calling it. So preety much it can be anything you want (As long as the base power is 11k) so you can try out the various options.

Then, we move on to the Grade 2 lineup.

Usually Royal Paladin decks run a 12 Grade 2 deck, consisting of Jewel Knight, Swordmy, Knight of Twin Sword, and Knight of Fragment. There are reasons NOT to run this lineup in a budget Royal Paladin build.

#1 Example of Expensive Staple.

One is: Swordmy and the Jewel Knights needed to use with her is too expensive. Unfortunate since it works too well with the deck. Jewel Knights nowadays are just a no-no, no matter how you look at it (in terms of budget). But still, the fact that Boosters are a problem in this deck is a fact, and that stands. To solve that, you can run the two original Garmore and Snogals to solve the booster problem (Along with Draws, of course. This is the time that they shine.) Moving on to two: Knight of Fragment, is yet another expensive card, but a Staple card in decks, and usually decks cannot run without this Fragment (No pun intended). Well, there are ways to work around this.

I am a Breed of Fragment.

If you have been listening (Or reading) then you should have figured out that you should be reducing foiled cards as much as possible. In other words, Fragment, as useful as he may be, needs to leave. In his place, Brede, a 12k attacker, is the closest thing to him right now. Also, it's TD exclusive! Perfect, since you're gonna be buying 2 G-TD02 for this certain Royal Paladin build. Anyway, Knight of Twin Sword is also a TD exclusive, so there's no need to remove him! (And if you do, impacts will be big) So in the end, your whole Grade 2 lineup should look something like: 4 Brede 4 Garmore and 4 Knight of Twin Sword.

Then we move on to the Grade 1 lineup. As I said earlier 4 Snogal for booster works. Then 4 Perfect Guards (TD exclusive ones), then let's look at the other options we have. 4 Sicilus is a Staple, but if you can't afford it, then you're free to let him go. Then let's see... Archer of Heaven's Tower? Felax? Gigantech Shot-Putter? It's your choice, and I won't stop you.

Thank god this is in the Trial deck.

Then we have the Grade 0...A.K.A. the trigger lineup. Since Draws synergize well with Garmore, 4 Margal, then 8 Critical. Or if you want to run a few Encourage Angels then that's a solid option.

Finally... We have the Grade 4 lineup, A.K.A. Stride. I can see you guys looking at me like "Seriously?". In budget builds, even the G-zone needs to be tendered with care. 4 Gablade is a must, (And since it's a TD exclusive, it's perfect) then a few Samuils if you can afford it (I mean, 1-2 is enough, and it's dirt cheap). Then lastly, run Jirron. The +5k to any unit is amazing, I can't even talk. Hmm? Why don't I run Saint Blow? Simple. It's because I don't like Saints. ... All jokes aside, it's because it's a Staple of 4 in every Royal Paladin deck, as a foil. Do you know how ridiculous the price of one Saint Blow is? It goes from $20-25 or so. No one is willing to drop $80-100 for a Playset of a

#2 Example of Expensive Staple.

card (Just buy a budget deck with that much money) no matter how good it is.

 Either way, that's how a budget deck should look like. I can approximate the price of $50 or so for the deck I just mentioned. Either way, that's what a budget deck is.

Chrono Sendou... Waitno.

Next up for me is "How". The easiest way to make a Budget deck is to drop $30-40 for 2 G-Trial Decks.

I mean, it's true. If you buy two G-Trial Decks, modify it a bit for $10, then you're ready to go and win a tournament. Aside from Trial Decks? Old decks (Joke). Actually some of the old decks that are supported might be a good budget build, like Majesty Lord Blaster... Actually, I take that back. I'm preety sure sellers will price up Majesty like crazy just because Religious Soul Saver came out to support him. Once the hype dies down, you're a-okay to make a Majesty Lord Blaster deck. Another might be a Phantom Blaster Overlord deck... Oh wait, Phantom Blaster Dragon (Break Ride) as a Generation Rare came out, pumping the price up to $50 on it's own or so... Then we have to turn to our last Season 1 boss, Dragonic Overlord the End... Oh wait, there's still The X and The Ace to pump up the price of The end... Well, for people who wants to revive their old deck, wait until the hype dies down.

Either way it's important to know which decks are specifically budget. I'm not talking about buying Trial Decks for meta decks, I'm talking about minor clans. All the small clans that rarely get supported and is seriously underestimated. Just because people think that they're bad, doesn't mean that they are. In fact, they can be better than the meta clans, even win tournaments. People just never try to actually try them out. The best example for this is Megacolony. Sure, compared to retire and lock, it is underpowered, measuring about +0.5 or so in terms of math, but if used right, it can be deadly. Either way, that'll be for another blog, so for now, here's a list of all of those minor budget clans.

Oracle Think Tank, Murakumo, Nubatama, Tachikaze, Pale Moon, Spike Brothers, Dark Irregulars, Bermuda Triangle, Megacolony.

So that's about it. All of the above clans should be cheaper to build compared to the other clans, since the rest are meta clans.

Then we move on to the final part of this blog: Why? Because it conserves you money. No, really. That's pretty much the only reason. Spending $500 on a hobby is considered too much, and most people would agree to this. Your parents will scold you, and if you're already grown up, fully independent, then you know that there are better things that you can do by conserving that money. If you conserve that amount of money, then you might as well go eat in a restaurant. But still, there are some stuff that you have to do, because it's just too fun (Invalid!). Well, budget decks solve the whole problem of this. By building a budget deck correctly, just by thinking and planning a little, you get to conserve $400 for free. And the quality and the competitive ability of the deck will not go down at all. So, why should you use Budget decks? Simply because you can conserve a load of money.

Well, that's about it for now. If you wanna ask anything, then comment down below. Also, if you find typos or anything here, lemme know as well. Either way, thank you for your time.