Hey everyone! Dan here, and on today’s installation of Commander Cube Coverage I’ll be delving into the world of budget EDH cubes. The word “cube” in regard to magic is frequently synonymous with “expensive,” and today I wanted to challenge that by building two fun and balanced budget EDH cubes with one cube costing 620 dollars, and another costing 360 dollars. The link to the 720 dollar cube is Link, and the link to the 360 dollar cube is Link. The archetypes and cards discussed in this article are present in both cubes. I’ll be delving into the archetypes and playables I selected, as well as upgrade paths for those looking to build on their budget cube experience over time. Both of these cubes were modeled after my personal edh cube, which was used as a starting point to further trim down the budget.
Before we begin, I wanted to lay out the general setup of this cube and how it functions in gameplay. The cube is a 4 player, 360 card cube drafted as 3 twenty card packs, with two commanders seeded in each pack. During the draft, you take two cards per pick and build a 60 card deck including commanders.
That being said, lets jump into the archetypes!

: Blink

Azorius blink is a classic archetype, with lots of cheap support cards to fill out the cube. Examples include blink payoffs like Mulldrifter and Palace Jailer, with enablers like Restoration Angel and Eerie Interlude.

: Stompy

Everyone wants to smash face every so often, and Gruul always brings the beats. Ramp such as Kodama's Reach and Cultivate allow for acceleration into aggressive game enders like End-Raze forerunners and Hellkite Tyrant.

: Tokens

Flooding the board with generators like Scute Swarm and Felidar Retreat into haymakers like Overwhelming Stampede and Return of the Wildspeaker help knockout multiple opponents at once late game.

: Graveyard

Self-mill and reanimation galore, Dimir graveyards brings grindy value with enablers like Waker of Waves and Gravebreaker Lamia, as well as payoffs like Victimize and Sepulchral Primordial.

: Aggro/Tokens

Similar to Selesnya with a commander that helps scale to 4-player multiplayer magic through the Melee mechanic, Boros aggro punches fast and hard.

: Spellslinger

With instants and sorceries to copy galore like Sublime Epiphany and Mystic Confluence and payoffs like Guttersnipe and The Mirari Conjecture, Izzet Spells has no shortage of interaction at instant speed.

: Aristocrats

No creature sticks around for long in this archetype with sacrifice outlets like Woe Strider and Viscera Seer]], especially paired with drain effects like Falkenrath Noble and Mayhem Devil. If you’d like to be even more sinister, throw in some Act of Treason effects such as The Akroan War and Zealous Conscripts to steal your opponents creatures!

: Reanimator

Similar to Dimir, Golgari reanimator pairs self-mill with reanimation to cheat large creatures into play such as Titanoth Rex and Terrastodon.

: Ramp/Lands

Who needs to reanimate threats when you can just ramp into them? Simic ramp utilizes spells like Migration Path to accelerate into creatures like Rampaging Baloths and Trench Behemoth.

: Taxes/Control

We round out the archetypes with Orzhov death and taxes, slowing your opponents down with cards like Archon of Emeria and Tithe Taker while closing out the game with payoffs like Felidar Retreat and Approach of the second Sun.

Building or editing your own budget cubes:
One of the best ways to delve into archetypes for budget cubes is to look to the archetypes of recent standard and supplemental sets. One example of this is the Selesnya counters archetype of M21 limited. With enablers and payoffs like Conclave Mentor, Basri's Lieutenant, and Basri Ket, there is no shortage of cheap, synergistic, and powerful cards that can find home in budget cubes. Both cubes I created can be cloned directly to play immediately with friends or can be adjusted to your budget!

And that concludes my coverage on EDH budget cubes! If you would like to discuss different archetypes I did not cover that you feel should see play in budget commander cubes, or would like to further discuss ones I did mention feel free to comment on this article or tweet at me @DacleinMTG. Happy cubing!