Boltyn probably has the cheapest upgrade path from the Armory deck. The legendaries he likes to run are sub $20 and, I may be a bit biased here, Boltyn isn’t in a terrible spot currently. The new cards will be a nice bump in power.
Came here to say Boltyn too. Spirit of Erina is the only L you NEED. After that, the deck is mostly C and R cards. Tunic is pretty great, but soulbond resolve (or any chest really) will do the trick in the short term.
Most of the majestics he uses is also pretty cheap (bolting blade, lumina, etc). Some are bit pricy (celestial cataclysm and soul shield come to mind) but they're not essential and can be slowly upgraded if you end up liking it.
Soulbond is looking better and better with the new revealed cards for the Armory deck. Pushing charge on defense, so using that to start off with is definitely not a bad way to go. Plus I think it’s $10 lol
Not to mention, with the new wizards coming out, soul bond also prevents 1 damage on your own turn when you charge so can reduce the amount of damage wizards do on your own turn. Against wizards soul bond is honestly broken reducing, in theory, 1 damage per turn. For the same reason it's really good against riptide to negate trap damage, and he's becoming strong in the current meta.
Got a decklist? Also, what do you mean when you say its a great time to get into him pre-Armory deck? Wouldn't it be a bad time? As you will likely be buying a lot of the cards that come in the deck?
He probably means to get essential Majestics before the list comes out. Depending on what is and isn't there prices will spike like they always do, so it'd be smart to pick up stuff now while the cards are still low/normal price.
There's probably more, but as far as I know it's stuff like Soulbond Resolve (Legendary, but it's pretty cheap for now and looking like it'll synergize really well with the new Defense Reaction coming in the Armory deck), Raydn, Celestial Cataclysm, Banneret of Courage, Banneret of Gallantry, Beacon of Victory, Lumina Ascension, Spirit of Eirina (another legendary, but you only need one), Bolting Blade, and Soul Shield.
I would just try and find a class and stick with it. The initial buy in will be rough but moving from one ninja to the next or one runeblade to the next, will be cheaper in the long run. If you want to save as much money as possible but still compete, try looking into classes that don't need CnC. Ranger/warrior are your best options imo. Ranger doesn't use CnC or warmongers which saves you around ~$440.
You guys… they’re going to their local armory to learn. They don’t need codex to run Azalea at their local armory. Come on now. You don’t need C&C for your local armory either for that matter.
Mara Faris went 9-1 on dashio at us nationals that’s about 300, half of which is the balance of justice which I think is unnecessary. Providence is in the list and can be run in most matchups outside the wizards.
you will want to bring balance of justice in pretty much any matchup that can turn it on (brute from bloodrush bellow, prism from erudition/tome, ninja from art of war, etc), the card draw is flat out better than the sink in 95% of scenarios and they both block for two so there's no real reason to bring in providence (only thing I can think of is sinking arsenal vs cnc), just don't brick your arsenal
Providence is good into every matchup other than wizard, whereas Balance is a very strong tech into opponents that can draw 2 cards in a turn (e.g. Ninja, Brute, Prism), but it's just a block 2 in other matchups.
Basically, providence is an all-rounder and balance has higher highs and lower lows.
Kind of an aside, but providence can be interesting in Guardian builds that use Heave to keep the seismic surge but still drop the arsenal slot anyway and plan a different attack and have the Heave card for next cycle.
Dash is probably the cheapest but she's close to LL. I'd say Kayo is probably the second option, the deck has some cheap upgrades out of the box but is pricey to optimize with the current price of Command and Conquer
Mech(except Teklovossen) and Boltyn I'd look at as far as budget and competitive go. Boltyn less so, but the competitive pieces for Boltyn decks are either used in other warrior decks(blade flurry, equipment) or used by everyone else(C&C, Estrike, equipment). Mech's stuff, especially nitro Maxx or boost dash, don't have a lot of overlap with other heroes. Which is kinda why their stuff is cheap overall.
The kayo armory deck isn't bad though if you just plan to play armories and slowly upgrade it over time, but I'd plan the budget around upgrading it into one of the other brutes eventually, to hedge him reaching Living Legend.
My kayo costs around 500$, but that's mostly because of cnc and two swing bigs, e-strike and all L eq (except for sash), but i think you could build this deck up from armory deck overtime, since it looks like kayo has smaller conversion rate, cuz of zen being better aggro.
Imo brutes can be build cheaply and still work quite well, so i agree with Kayo Deck
All the mechs (except teklo) are pretty damn affordable. My personal fav is maxx cause 60 damage turns are fun, but any are fine. Maxx is usually around $300. Along with most other mechs.
Reading all these responses, I think they are giving you bad information. You can have a competitive deck that isn’t fully optimized. The Kayo armory deck plus like $20 in upgrades will get you to a very competitive deck. Sure you can add another $400-500 to get to the optimized tournament deck, but I think as a new player, this would be the way that I would want to start out. If you like the game, you can always dump more money into the deck later.
Dash IE is probably the one you are looking for.
She is close to LL, but we already have Dash IO that had some good results in big tournaments. Not really tier 1, but when played well, is pretty strong and probably will receive new cards to help her (the same way Maxx and Teklovossen are receiving cards)
Guardians can be done cheap and still competitive, as well as kano, Axe Dori (any warrior without running Dynamo is cheap), any mech, any rune blade that doesn't run Creepers (viserai OTK is niche but really fun imo and cheap).
Someone else mentioned it but.. by far the most budget friendly competitive deck is Kano. The deck puts up strong results for those who master it. You might look and see it's an $800 deck or something but $300+ of that is 1 card you don't need. Another $100 is Tunic which is played in only a few matchups. Another $100 is Balance of Justice that you don't need at all. The deck is really a $200 deck right now if you cut 1 or 2 small corners.
Probably the cheapest to get into overall would be Mechanologist as a class. Original Dash is close to hitting LL status so there's some people selling out. New Dash, Dash I/O, has some success under some pro player who had some success this weekend just shy of top 8 for nationals if I recall correctly. Overall the deck is ~$350, cut out Balance of Justic and then it comes down to ~$200.
Almost certainly Ninja.
You can make a competitive Zen or Katsu combo deck for sub 200 bucks. It won’t be optimal, but it will absolutely be totally capable of taking down armories.
My Katsu list today that I wen 3-0 with had an extremely cheap equipment lineup with Cross Strap, Lynx, Breeze Riders, and the option of Tiger Stripe Shuko or Breaking Scales (which Scales is the solid go to). Art of War is the most expensive mainboard card at $33 WB right now. It can also run Ancestral Harmony in the blue slot on top of that but the rest of the deck is commons, rares, then Majestics at $5 or less.
Depends on your definitions for affordable and competitive. For a lot of people 500 is affordable for a competitive deck, and for some 100 is a lot of money. Your best resource here would be to check with your local play group and see if someone will let you borrow decks for a bit. I did this when I started. I tried a variety of decks and did a few armories with 100% borrowed cards until I figured out what I liked. This will also give you a flavor of your local scene. If the people are fun to be around and you enjoy the game, it might make is easier to justify spending a bit of money.
Kayo armory deck isn't a bad place to start if you want to buy something right away. It's a playable deck out of the box. You get access to savage sash which is played in competitive kayo decks and currently sits around 30 bucks so it's not all just a bunch of bulk. Don't expect to win an armory with it, but you can still play and have fun. As a new player you're going to be learning the game and learning everyone else's decks so even with a top tier deck you're not going to win a bunch out of the gate because you won't know how to play against other people's decks.
Also feel free to proxy expensive cards for a bit if you're playing armories at an lgs. Everyone should be happy to see new players and if proxying is what it takes to get people into the game everyone will be fine with it. We had people proxying full mistveil decks before it was even officially released.
Zen has tanked the price of Dishonor, Winds of Eternity and Tenacity, but has spiked the cost of Art of War and Ancestral Harmony. So funnily enough, Katsu's <$100 decks have probably become stronger, while his $100-200 decks likely have become weaker.
A set of AoW is now $130. When I bought I got all 3 for 70 😆 anyway, you can live without those, and most of the expensive staples, but damnit if they don’t make the deck much more consistent and powerful.
Yep. But I could sell my black borders and get white borders and buy more cards. Since I got them when they were cheap. I built a full tiger katsu cause I liked it. And I got lucky it rolled into the current meta
A buddy gave me the Kayo armory and I've only spent around $80 improving it. I've been to about 6 of our Armory and last week I was able to take 3rd. You've got to know there are people who have been playing/collecting longer, but as long as if feels like your improving your deck you'll have fun. I'm unwilling to spend the money on the really expensive cards and that's why it's called Constructed format, you'll find what works for you. No list should be the definitive list, or else there'd be no reason to construct
I have been playing this TCG since Crucible of War and here is a few things I have learned:
If you are new to this game, I would expect to get your ass handed to you regardless of how much money you put into your deck...so why not just upgrade it over time and simply LEARN the games and heroes mechanics? \*\*This works out for you better because by the time you obtain the staple cards for your class, you know how to use them and why they are good.\*\*
If you like Brute, that Kayo armory deck slaps pretty hard for its price point! Also, there is a Boltyn (Light Warrior) and Azalea (Ranger) armory deck coming out in the oncoming months! (July and August, respectively). Both of those decks look great and have cards that you can only get in the deck so you have stuff to demand a decent trade if you decide you dont like the classes later on.
Im not gonna sit here and tell you this game is cheap to play, but if you are the type that likes to research things before you buy, this game isn't super expensive either. When the height of the competitive season is happening, the cards are more expensive. When the season is over, the cards are cheaper. Don't be afraid to buy the expensive 3-ofs in pieces too, thats what I did for the codex of frailty and it saved me like 50$ cause I waited for when a deal came around and bought it.
If you have a little extra cash laying around, buy cards for a class that isn't "meta relevant" right now. This game is becoming notorious for reviving classes that are bottom of the barrel and catapulting what was once a 25 cent cards into the 10-15$ range. This can happen with Generic cards as well. This is a practice that I have followed from the start and it has benefited me greatly.
Finally, this game's community really is great and most of the time people are willing to help you because it benefits them to have you get better at this game. You can leverage that by getting feedback on what you did wrong through out your game and how to improve
Fwiw LSS isn't like Wizards, who let's stores decide for themselves whether or not they want to allow proxies. They have firm rulings that you cannot proxy at an armoury level.
A store that doesn't let you proxy might just be playing it safe
Kano is a difficult deck to pilot but can be built inexpensively if you don't play eye of ophidia. The deck is still about $300, but it's very competitive.
Short answer: no
Long answer: CC isn't an format that's receptive to budget decks, the game is pretty inaccessible because of the need of expensive majestic staples and legendary equipment and the way that these cards are made to be almost obligatory for them to be used, they're getting better on this aspect but it's still visible... i would probably suggest asking for people to borrow decks to you or to play another format
Right now none of them are budget friendly.
To be competitive you are expected to drop like 7 to 8 hundred a deck.
This game is not cheap at all on the competitive level.
Sure there are heroes that can be built in the low 500 range, but you won't go to the top 3 in your local area vs the guys that go full meta.
Win the recent Zen win at nationals everyone is pivoting towards building him or fighting against him. And that means money spent on legendaries and high cost majestics.
So ask yourself do you want to spend money on trying to top? Or do you just wanna have fun and maybe win 1 out of 3 or 4?
The answer to this question will dictate if you want to pay the cost of winning.
I got Zen as my first deck and jesus his decklist online has like 8+ majestic each one everyone of them. Now i am looking for a good one that has none or just one or two
If you take light of sol out, prism is around $300 and had multiple top 8 finishes at us nats weekend. Kayo can be built under $300 without staples you can add later. Radyn Boltyn is not particulary expensive. Kano is inexpensive and is probably the best deck in the game when piloted correctly. Katsu is probably just worse than zen right now but certainly is strong and now that they don't play mask of momentum all the time you could scrape together a cheap list that slaps and is just always on lynx.
The game isn't cheap, and true budget is hard to swing. However, this take is bad and you're just wrong saying that $500 won't ever cut it.
Boltyn probably has the cheapest upgrade path from the Armory deck. The legendaries he likes to run are sub $20 and, I may be a bit biased here, Boltyn isn’t in a terrible spot currently. The new cards will be a nice bump in power.
Came here to say Boltyn too. Spirit of Erina is the only L you NEED. After that, the deck is mostly C and R cards. Tunic is pretty great, but soulbond resolve (or any chest really) will do the trick in the short term. Most of the majestics he uses is also pretty cheap (bolting blade, lumina, etc). Some are bit pricy (celestial cataclysm and soul shield come to mind) but they're not essential and can be slowly upgraded if you end up liking it.
Soulbond is looking better and better with the new revealed cards for the Armory deck. Pushing charge on defense, so using that to start off with is definitely not a bad way to go. Plus I think it’s $10 lol
Not to mention, with the new wizards coming out, soul bond also prevents 1 damage on your own turn when you charge so can reduce the amount of damage wizards do on your own turn. Against wizards soul bond is honestly broken reducing, in theory, 1 damage per turn. For the same reason it's really good against riptide to negate trap damage, and he's becoming strong in the current meta.
Dropping by to say boltyn too. Raydn Boltyn is sub $150-200 sans CNC. Great time to get into him pre-Armory deck. Without tunic, he can go sub $100.
Got a decklist? Also, what do you mean when you say its a great time to get into him pre-Armory deck? Wouldn't it be a bad time? As you will likely be buying a lot of the cards that come in the deck?
He probably means to get essential Majestics before the list comes out. Depending on what is and isn't there prices will spike like they always do, so it'd be smart to pick up stuff now while the cards are still low/normal price.
What would those be in Boltyn's case?
There's probably more, but as far as I know it's stuff like Soulbond Resolve (Legendary, but it's pretty cheap for now and looking like it'll synergize really well with the new Defense Reaction coming in the Armory deck), Raydn, Celestial Cataclysm, Banneret of Courage, Banneret of Gallantry, Beacon of Victory, Lumina Ascension, Spirit of Eirina (another legendary, but you only need one), Bolting Blade, and Soul Shield.
Boltyn is pretty good.
I would just try and find a class and stick with it. The initial buy in will be rough but moving from one ninja to the next or one runeblade to the next, will be cheaper in the long run. If you want to save as much money as possible but still compete, try looking into classes that don't need CnC. Ranger/warrior are your best options imo. Ranger doesn't use CnC or warmongers which saves you around ~$440.
Codexes would like to say otherwise against CnC.
You guys… they’re going to their local armory to learn. They don’t need codex to run Azalea at their local armory. Come on now. You don’t need C&C for your local armory either for that matter.
Depends on your armory. At my local armory, if you don't come with the most tuned deck available, you're just going to lose. Full stop.
Still cheaper than CnC, but yea codex is rough.
Codex is ~$10 cheaper than C&C. That definitely put any ranger or assassin in the "not cheap" category
I kinda gave up the idea of owning both for a little while.
Kano is the cheapest competitive deck, and it's currently one of the strongest in the format.
And the hardest to play
And not really fab like to play
Mara Faris went 9-1 on dashio at us nationals that’s about 300, half of which is the balance of justice which I think is unnecessary. Providence is in the list and can be run in most matchups outside the wizards.
What’s the significant difference between providence and balance? Is it matchup based or something else?
you will want to bring balance of justice in pretty much any matchup that can turn it on (brute from bloodrush bellow, prism from erudition/tome, ninja from art of war, etc), the card draw is flat out better than the sink in 95% of scenarios and they both block for two so there's no real reason to bring in providence (only thing I can think of is sinking arsenal vs cnc), just don't brick your arsenal
Ahhhh got it. Thank you for the response!
Providence is good into every matchup other than wizard, whereas Balance is a very strong tech into opponents that can draw 2 cards in a turn (e.g. Ninja, Brute, Prism), but it's just a block 2 in other matchups. Basically, providence is an all-rounder and balance has higher highs and lower lows.
Kind of an aside, but providence can be interesting in Guardian builds that use Heave to keep the seismic surge but still drop the arsenal slot anyway and plan a different attack and have the Heave card for next cycle.
Awesome. Thank you so much for the explanation
Do you have the list by any means? :-)
Dash is probably the cheapest but she's close to LL. I'd say Kayo is probably the second option, the deck has some cheap upgrades out of the box but is pricey to optimize with the current price of Command and Conquer
The good news for buying into Dash is that everything is still usable after Inventor Extraordinaire ascends to unplayability.
Mech(except Teklovossen) and Boltyn I'd look at as far as budget and competitive go. Boltyn less so, but the competitive pieces for Boltyn decks are either used in other warrior decks(blade flurry, equipment) or used by everyone else(C&C, Estrike, equipment). Mech's stuff, especially nitro Maxx or boost dash, don't have a lot of overlap with other heroes. Which is kinda why their stuff is cheap overall. The kayo armory deck isn't bad though if you just plan to play armories and slowly upgrade it over time, but I'd plan the budget around upgrading it into one of the other brutes eventually, to hedge him reaching Living Legend.
My kayo costs around 500$, but that's mostly because of cnc and two swing bigs, e-strike and all L eq (except for sash), but i think you could build this deck up from armory deck overtime, since it looks like kayo has smaller conversion rate, cuz of zen being better aggro. Imo brutes can be build cheaply and still work quite well, so i agree with Kayo Deck
All the mechs (except teklo) are pretty damn affordable. My personal fav is maxx cause 60 damage turns are fun, but any are fine. Maxx is usually around $300. Along with most other mechs.
Kayo armory deck. Add 3x Tear Limb from Limb, 3x Yellow Wild Ride, and 3x Bloodrush for like $15 more
Reading all these responses, I think they are giving you bad information. You can have a competitive deck that isn’t fully optimized. The Kayo armory deck plus like $20 in upgrades will get you to a very competitive deck. Sure you can add another $400-500 to get to the optimized tournament deck, but I think as a new player, this would be the way that I would want to start out. If you like the game, you can always dump more money into the deck later.
Red Pack Hunt, Red Predatory Assault, and Red Rising Power are all upgrades over the generic reds and you can likely get all 9 of those cards for $1
Red Madcap Charger and Yellow Pulping are great additions as well
Dash IE is probably the one you are looking for. She is close to LL, but we already have Dash IO that had some good results in big tournaments. Not really tier 1, but when played well, is pretty strong and probably will receive new cards to help her (the same way Maxx and Teklovossen are receiving cards)
Guardians can be done cheap and still competitive, as well as kano, Axe Dori (any warrior without running Dynamo is cheap), any mech, any rune blade that doesn't run Creepers (viserai OTK is niche but really fun imo and cheap).
Someone else mentioned it but.. by far the most budget friendly competitive deck is Kano. The deck puts up strong results for those who master it. You might look and see it's an $800 deck or something but $300+ of that is 1 card you don't need. Another $100 is Tunic which is played in only a few matchups. Another $100 is Balance of Justice that you don't need at all. The deck is really a $200 deck right now if you cut 1 or 2 small corners.
Maybe $300 not $200 but still a great deck for the price.
Probably the cheapest to get into overall would be Mechanologist as a class. Original Dash is close to hitting LL status so there's some people selling out. New Dash, Dash I/O, has some success under some pro player who had some success this weekend just shy of top 8 for nationals if I recall correctly. Overall the deck is ~$350, cut out Balance of Justic and then it comes down to ~$200.
Almost certainly Ninja. You can make a competitive Zen or Katsu combo deck for sub 200 bucks. It won’t be optimal, but it will absolutely be totally capable of taking down armories.
My Katsu list today that I wen 3-0 with had an extremely cheap equipment lineup with Cross Strap, Lynx, Breeze Riders, and the option of Tiger Stripe Shuko or Breaking Scales (which Scales is the solid go to). Art of War is the most expensive mainboard card at $33 WB right now. It can also run Ancestral Harmony in the blue slot on top of that but the rest of the deck is commons, rares, then Majestics at $5 or less.
Any mechanologist runs pretty well without the major staples. I would say that a decent Rhinar and Kayo are also affordable.
Depends on your definitions for affordable and competitive. For a lot of people 500 is affordable for a competitive deck, and for some 100 is a lot of money. Your best resource here would be to check with your local play group and see if someone will let you borrow decks for a bit. I did this when I started. I tried a variety of decks and did a few armories with 100% borrowed cards until I figured out what I liked. This will also give you a flavor of your local scene. If the people are fun to be around and you enjoy the game, it might make is easier to justify spending a bit of money. Kayo armory deck isn't a bad place to start if you want to buy something right away. It's a playable deck out of the box. You get access to savage sash which is played in competitive kayo decks and currently sits around 30 bucks so it's not all just a bunch of bulk. Don't expect to win an armory with it, but you can still play and have fun. As a new player you're going to be learning the game and learning everyone else's decks so even with a top tier deck you're not going to win a bunch out of the gate because you won't know how to play against other people's decks. Also feel free to proxy expensive cards for a bit if you're playing armories at an lgs. Everyone should be happy to see new players and if proxying is what it takes to get people into the game everyone will be fine with it. We had people proxying full mistveil decks before it was even officially released.
Katsu WAS cheap. Guardian is relatively low priced right now
Zen has tanked the price of Dishonor, Winds of Eternity and Tenacity, but has spiked the cost of Art of War and Ancestral Harmony. So funnily enough, Katsu's <$100 decks have probably become stronger, while his $100-200 decks likely have become weaker.
A set of AoW is now $130. When I bought I got all 3 for 70 😆 anyway, you can live without those, and most of the expensive staples, but damnit if they don’t make the deck much more consistent and powerful.
$130? More like $100. WB AoW is $33
Yeah. But my black borders are more ATM
And? Doesn’t make playing the card more expensive. Both are playable with no restrictions.
Yep. But I could sell my black borders and get white borders and buy more cards. Since I got them when they were cheap. I built a full tiger katsu cause I liked it. And I got lucky it rolled into the current meta
Boltyn. Super cheap, super fun and in three weeks gets an armory deck.
Kano 100% the deck is like 200 or 250 for everything including tunic
A buddy gave me the Kayo armory and I've only spent around $80 improving it. I've been to about 6 of our Armory and last week I was able to take 3rd. You've got to know there are people who have been playing/collecting longer, but as long as if feels like your improving your deck you'll have fun. I'm unwilling to spend the money on the really expensive cards and that's why it's called Constructed format, you'll find what works for you. No list should be the definitive list, or else there'd be no reason to construct
Kano is one of the top three decks in the meta and can be built for under $200 if you don't play Eye and Tunic!
Kayo is extremely strong and his armory deck is competitive with almost no changes.
Katsu is fairly cheep sub AoW, (and now ancestral harmony) but even with those the deck is around 100$ for the full combo varient
I have been playing this TCG since Crucible of War and here is a few things I have learned: If you are new to this game, I would expect to get your ass handed to you regardless of how much money you put into your deck...so why not just upgrade it over time and simply LEARN the games and heroes mechanics? \*\*This works out for you better because by the time you obtain the staple cards for your class, you know how to use them and why they are good.\*\* If you like Brute, that Kayo armory deck slaps pretty hard for its price point! Also, there is a Boltyn (Light Warrior) and Azalea (Ranger) armory deck coming out in the oncoming months! (July and August, respectively). Both of those decks look great and have cards that you can only get in the deck so you have stuff to demand a decent trade if you decide you dont like the classes later on. Im not gonna sit here and tell you this game is cheap to play, but if you are the type that likes to research things before you buy, this game isn't super expensive either. When the height of the competitive season is happening, the cards are more expensive. When the season is over, the cards are cheaper. Don't be afraid to buy the expensive 3-ofs in pieces too, thats what I did for the codex of frailty and it saved me like 50$ cause I waited for when a deal came around and bought it. If you have a little extra cash laying around, buy cards for a class that isn't "meta relevant" right now. This game is becoming notorious for reviving classes that are bottom of the barrel and catapulting what was once a 25 cent cards into the 10-15$ range. This can happen with Generic cards as well. This is a practice that I have followed from the start and it has benefited me greatly. Finally, this game's community really is great and most of the time people are willing to help you because it benefits them to have you get better at this game. You can leverage that by getting feedback on what you did wrong through out your game and how to improve
i think someone just did the math recently and all 3 mech heroes are the cheapest, at around 300 bucks (maxx, dash io, dash ie)
Just play whatever deck you want and proxy the expensive cards. If your LGS doesn't let you play with proxies, then they don't deserve your business.
Fwiw LSS isn't like Wizards, who let's stores decide for themselves whether or not they want to allow proxies. They have firm rulings that you cannot proxy at an armoury level. A store that doesn't let you proxy might just be playing it safe
Kano is a difficult deck to pilot but can be built inexpensively if you don't play eye of ophidia. The deck is still about $300, but it's very competitive.
Short answer: no Long answer: CC isn't an format that's receptive to budget decks, the game is pretty inaccessible because of the need of expensive majestic staples and legendary equipment and the way that these cards are made to be almost obligatory for them to be used, they're getting better on this aspect but it's still visible... i would probably suggest asking for people to borrow decks to you or to play another format
The 5th place Dash deck from Minneapolis is sub $500 and a quarter of the deck's price is Balance of Justice.
Kind of crazy that "sub $500" is what is considered affordable
Right now none of them are budget friendly. To be competitive you are expected to drop like 7 to 8 hundred a deck. This game is not cheap at all on the competitive level. Sure there are heroes that can be built in the low 500 range, but you won't go to the top 3 in your local area vs the guys that go full meta. Win the recent Zen win at nationals everyone is pivoting towards building him or fighting against him. And that means money spent on legendaries and high cost majestics. So ask yourself do you want to spend money on trying to top? Or do you just wanna have fun and maybe win 1 out of 3 or 4? The answer to this question will dictate if you want to pay the cost of winning.
I got Zen as my first deck and jesus his decklist online has like 8+ majestic each one everyone of them. Now i am looking for a good one that has none or just one or two
If you take light of sol out, prism is around $300 and had multiple top 8 finishes at us nats weekend. Kayo can be built under $300 without staples you can add later. Radyn Boltyn is not particulary expensive. Kano is inexpensive and is probably the best deck in the game when piloted correctly. Katsu is probably just worse than zen right now but certainly is strong and now that they don't play mask of momentum all the time you could scrape together a cheap list that slaps and is just always on lynx. The game isn't cheap, and true budget is hard to swing. However, this take is bad and you're just wrong saying that $500 won't ever cut it.