For as long as people can’t buy every Magic card for a buck each, people have had to budget their expenditures to fit their own incomes. The very nature of Magic as a collectible game means that some cards are valued more than others. And yet, many cheap cards punch above their pay grades.

I love a cheap card that’s been forgotten. It languishes in the past, with the detritus of time around it. But polish it off, and uncover this beautiful gem that has been forgotten in modern times.

Enter this series, where I investigate some fun options for your next deck-building excursion. All of these cards can be purchased for a buck or less near mint on CoolStuffInc.com as of the writing of this article. They are cheap, and yet, they offer quite a bit of power. Take a look, and see if you can find some cards for your next deck!

Pyre Zombie – Sometimes, you don’t get ahead in Magic by playing cards that give you mounds of card advantage all at once—like Blue Sun's Zenith or Browbeat. Sometimes, you have little cards that keep being used over and over again, such as Punishing Fire or Volrath's Stronghold. The Pyre Zombie is an often-overlooked card that is just one such card. You can recur it for 3 mana in your upkeep. Then, drop it, and you have what I’ll admit is an unsexy 2/1 creature. You can also sacrifice said Zombie to Shock something and then use it over and over again. No, the Pyre Zombie isn’t going to be the best creature or the keenest trick in the deck. It’s not meant to be. And yes, the mana on it is a bit painful. But the PZ does provide you with a trick you can use over and over again—and squeeze out a lot of value as the game goes on.

Planar Birth – This is another tool that I rarely see in play anymore, and again, it does something unique. It brings back all dead basic lands to everyone. They come into play all nice and tapped and ready to go. It’s a great way to fight mass land destruction, and it costs very little to reload your deck. In some formats (Commander), some people run few basics, so you can set up your deck to use this card a lot better than others—especially alongside entries such as Trade Routes. You can easily imagine decks discarding basic lands to set up for a huge Planar Birth. Or maybe you are bringing back a bunch of lands you sacrificed for some effect (such as Squandered Resources or Zuran Orb). Whether as an adjunct to a powerful strategy or as a way to fight land destruction, this is a great spell that really wants another day in the sun.

Impromptu Raid – Speaking of a card that will slide into a lot of decks, take a look at this enchantment, too. It’s like a bit of a Sneak Attack. You can haste out a creature for a turn, and then it dies. You can enjoy the triggers of creatures with enters-the-battlefield (ETB) abilities for just 3 mana each. You can set it up with stuff like Sylvan Library and Sensei's Divining Top in order to reveal something nasty. Plus, the hybrid cost enables you to put it into decks such as the aforementioned B/R reanimation, G/U ramp, G/W Selesnya, and such. It’s another tool at smashing people with stuff that’s fun or small, helping yourself to a more fully-stocked graveyard.

Summoner's Egg – There are a lot of fun games that go on under a Summoner's Egg. First of all, no one sees what card you imprinted. It could be a utility card like Acidic Slime or a nasty creature like Avacyn, Angel of Hope. No one knows! No one swings into it on the ground knowing he or she might kill it because everyone fears it’s the worst possible card. So it’s great defense. Plus, check this out: The Egg does not have defender. A lot of players think it does—don’t point it out to them. I love to equip it with something potent, such as Empyrial Plate, and then swing for some damage. Does your opponent kill the 4/8 Egg that’s taking over the game, knowing he or she will almost always reveal over something worse than the 0/4? It’s hard to make the right call when you don’t have all of the information, and the Summoner's Egg forces people into the wrong call. I particularly enjoy dropping a noncreature, such as a land, under it when I don’t have any creatures to offer—people still play around it. It’s one of the classic bluff cards in Magic, especially multiplayer Magic. Sometimes, Magic isn’t about playing Sol Ring into (insert broken card here). Sometimes, it’s just about having fun. The Egg is fun. As is the next card . . .  (Note that I wrote this article about two weeks ago, and then the Egg was spoiled as “tech” by Travis Woo and jumped in price for a bit post-writing. But it’s mostly come back down in value to $2, so there you go.)

Head Games (Jester's Mask) – You know, for 5 mana, you could play cards like Fugue and Mind Sludge. But nah, let’s play this fun card instead! Let me give you a brand new hand! The fun of this card is incredible. How often do you see someone with a large grip, hiding behind Reliquary Tower? Just take that player’s hand and give him or her all basic lands! I like to give someone situational cards that don’t hurt me. For example, I might give someone Disenchant or Naturalize if I don’t have any major targets. That way, the player will look elsewhere. You can also tag-team with someone to take out the major threats at a table. I can give Joe that Wrath of God, Into the Core, Hero's Downfall, or Swords to Plowshares. We can reset the board state or answer major threats. I also like to use it to help out someone who is badly hurt by mana-screw. Sure thing, Sarah, let’s give you some lands and some business cards, too. Do note that Head Games can only work on an “opponent.” You can’t target a friendly person in a game like Two-Headed Giant or Emperor or Secret Alliances. As you can see, the card is fun, and it can be used in a lot of situations to help the board out. It never feels as bad as a simple discard-your-hand spell, so it doesn’t make enemies.

Fugitive Druid – We began and ended today with 4-mana, 3/2, green, rare creatures from the pre-foil days of Magic. Our final 3/2 is an enabler that clearly works in decks that cast a lot of Auras. The classic Enchantress deck has worked by playing Auras onto a creature that swells (such as Rabid Wombat) and then draws cards off the playing of them via your Enchantress effect (Verduran Enchantress for example). That’s why I think the Fugitive Druid fell off the map a bit—it draws for the Auras placed on it, but it doesn’t artificially grow large. That does increase your drawing and gives you another card for your Enchantress Commander deck. With the increased emphasis on enchantments and Auras, particularly in Theros, remember this cheap little Druid guy for your decks!

That’s another ten cards we looked at today, all a buck or less. And despite those cheap costs, you pick up a card that can really impact the board and the game. Playing fun and casual doesn’t mean you have to pay a lot of money! I hope you found something in here to tickle your deck-building fancy.

See you next week,

Abe Sargent