For today’s article I’ve invited mana_station after watching them play on the 90’s MTG Twitch stream.
A little bit about our guest of today:
Started playing Legacy in 2004, piloting various decks through the years before settling on Mono Green Cloudpost in 2020. Since then, I’ve been playing Post exclusively. Proudest finishes include top 8 in a Legacy 5k in North Carolina (TheGatheringPlaceGames), top 4 in Bifrost 2k NYC, as well as several consecutive top 8/ top 4 finishes in Gamestoria’s monthly 1k’s (the shop from 90’s MTG in NYC- Queens).
A lot has changed since February, including some very techy new spice. I will definitely get to that, but since this is a budget list, lets start out with the biggest changes to the deck- the changes for the wallet. Since February, there have been some reprints, and we are able to pick up some of the decks staples for for a considerably lower price than previously. The biggest changes price wise are:
- Reprinting of Cavern of Souls- bringing it from $50-60 down to $30
- Reprinting of Carpet of Flowers- Bringing it from $12-15 down to $4 per card
That’s almost $100 cheaper than a couple of months ago. Those are some very important cards in the maindeck and sideboard, and I wouldn’t skip out on them for budget purposes if I could help it.
Now let’s move on to the first decklist:
Decklist: Budget Cloudpost version 1: Elvish Spirit Guide
Most of these cards are pretty standard in Cloudpost, with the exception of a couple new additions:
Echoing Deeps
This new addition to the deck is kind of like Vesuva, but it copies lands in graveyards, including our opponents graveyard.This is especially useful if we need to sacrifice one of our 1 of lands with Crop Rotation or Elvish Reclaimer, but we want a copy of it later on. Echoing Deeps essentially provides us with 2 copies of all of our1 of lands. It is also very useful if our opponent destroys one of those lands, since we can now just make a copy of it.
Playing a turn 1 cavern of souls on Elf and casting Elvish Reclaimer is fairly common, but sometimes feels bad cause we used our only cavern on elf, but want our Primeval Titan to be uncounterable a few turns later. Sure we can search for a Vesuva and copy Cavern of Souls naming Giant, but the truth is we don’t really need that first cavern around. Now we can sacrifice our first cavern and get Echoing Deeps, naming Giant and casting an uncounterable Primeval Titan.
Elvish Spirit Guide
This card is not only extremely budget friendly. Decklists with 3-4 copies have been putting up tons of great results over the last few months. This includes many top 8 finishes in large tournaments, both in paper and online.
Legacy has sped up a lot over the past year. Elvish Spirit Guide (Credit to TrueFuturism for this spicy new tech) has been a great way to help a slow deck like Cloudpost keep up with the rest of the format. In addition to accelerating us, it can do some very cool and unique things for the deck! Here are some of my favorite things Elvish Spirit Guide enables:
- Holding up Crop rotation + Elvish Spirit Guide gives us the ability to develop our board state while not leaving ourselves vulnerable to opposing combo and interaction
- Holding up Crop Rotation with all of our lands tapped,. This is especially useful in a few scenarios. First off, it gives us the ability to protect our Cloudposts and other lands from Wasteland without any mana up. The ability to play a turn 1 Cloudpost and protect it from opposing Wastelands is very cool and can accelerate our game plan significantly.
- It also helps us find Bojuka Bog against opposing Graveyard strategies such as Reanimator, UB Scam, Cephalid Breakfast, Painter etc. A well timed Crop Rotation into Bojuka Bog can be extremely punishing and often a game winning play when responding to a Reanimation spell.
- Creating a 20/20 Marit Lage with only 2 lands on the battlefield. If we have an Elvish Spirit Guide + Crop rotation in hand, with Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth and Dark Depths out, we can tap both of our lands for green mana, exile our Elvish Spirit Guide, sacrificing our Yavimaya, and search our deck for Thespian’s Stage, to then copy Dark Depths and make our 20/20 flying indestructable.
- Elvish Sprit Guide + Veil of Summer is also a very interesting tool to have in our box, as it enables some very valuable interactions and possibilities such as:
- Holding up turn 0 Veil of Summer against an opposing discard spell such as Grief or Thoughtseize vs UB Scam or Reanimator, or vs a Storm Deck going off turn 1
- Lets us tap out for an important spell and protect it, often drawing us a card in the process. A well timed Veil of Summer responding to an opposing Force of Will vs tempo or control can often times be a game winning play, and it can draw us a card in the process.
- Pays for Daze while tapping out for a spell
- Accelerates our game plan. Notable examples: turn 3 Primeval Titan is now possible, previously only available turn 4 at the earliest. Turn 2 Green Sun’s Zenith for Gaddock Teeg or Mawloc. These plays could even be a turn sooner if you have 2 Elvish Spirit Guide in hand.
Budget Cloudpost Version 2: no Elvish Spirit Guide
This is a real budget version of the deck. This version cuts Elvish Spirit Guide for more redudancy and consistency/innevitability, but sacrifices a little bit of speed in the process. In place of Elvish Spirit Guide we have:
- Kozilek, the Great Distortion: This is essentially a budget version of Kozilek, Butcher of Truth which but is better in many cases as it has the potential to draw more cards as well as protect itself against Swords to Plowshares while countering other important spells as well. It doesn’t annhiliate, but it does have some evasion, which can come in handy. The biggest downside is that it doesn’t shuffle itself back into the graveyard if it’s countered, discarded, or destroyed. This makes it a liability against decks like Reanimator or UB Scam, as our opponent could reanimate it. Its also nice to have a second deck shuffling effect vs Painter, in case we draw Emrakul, The Aeons Torn, so this is another sacrifice. The third disadvantage is that if it is countered, we can’t search it up again with Eye of Ugin like we would be able to with Kozilek, Butcher of Truth. I have personally run both at various times, and I don’t think this has been relevant for me personally, but it could be. In the current meta, I would suggest the other Kozilek if you can afford it, but this Kozilek is a great choice as well, and costs only a couple of bucks compared to a $30-40 for the other one.
- Walking Ballista: This is a great removal option and gives us the ability to win the game outside of combat and win the game the same turn we cast it. Important to remember we can fetch for Walking Ballista with Eye of Ugin as well. Walking Ballista is a great removal spell for opposing creature heavy decks such as Death and Taxes, Cradle Control, 8-Cast, or other creature heavy decks. It is also great having a main deck answer to some of our biggest problem creatures such as Magus of the Moon and Opposition Agent. Other times it can be useful in pinging an opposing Delver to buy us more time. In short, Walking Ballista is tutorable creature that functions as a removal spell and a win condition that really helps round out the deck.
- Ramunap Excavator: a great tool to help you get back both Locus lands as well as important 1-ofs that you wheeled away with Crop Rotation, Chasm or Reclaimer.
- Expedition Map #4
These cards provide us consistency and inevitability and are great both early and late game. Having 4 copies of each of these really helps us improve our odds and helps us make sure we find the things we need to finish the game.
Ways to save even more money
I wouldn’t recommend cutting or substituting any of the cards for budget purposes, but if I was a new player and needed to save money, the first thing I would replace would be 3 Force of Vigor in the sideboard with 3 Krosan Grip. However, it needs to be said that in the right match-ups, Force of Vigor is one of our most powerful cards in the 75, and if I could afford it I wouldn’t skip on it.
- As mentioned above, Kozilek the Great Distortion is another great way to save money, but Kozilek, Butcher of Truth is probably the better card to include if you can afford it.
- You’ll notice these versions also cut a single green fetch land, which is mostly there to help our Elvish Reclaimer pump up to a ¾ faster. Notably, basic forest is a better top deck vs an on board Blood Moon or Opposition Agent, and also gives us the extra basic to search up vs opposing Boseiju’s, Ghost Quarters, or Assassin’s Trophy.
- In a similar vein, you’re really on a budget you could consider cutting the second Yavimaya for another basic forest
The mana base in both lists is in my opinion the bare minimum of a starting point to be in the sweet spot of budget friendly but also very competitive. While technically you could swap out many of the more expensive lands in the deck for basic forests such as Boseiju, who Endures or Cavern of Souls, I wouldn’t recommend it, as they are integral to the play-style and strategy of the deck as well as learning how to play Cloudpost.
Upgrade path options
$30/€40- 2nd Boseiju, who Endures. Many games we will play out a Boseiju as a green mana source, so it is very useful to have a second in the deck to search up with Expedition Map or topdeck into.
$20/€25- 4th Force of Vigor #4. As mentioned, this card is a powerful tool in the 75 and can often win us games outright against many decks. A 4th copy would be great, although not necessary
$200/€220 4 copies of The One Ring. This card functions best with 4 copies, as drawing multiples allows us to “reset” and offset the life-loss, buy casting a second, third, or 4th ring and sacrificing the previous copy. In addition to the card draw and card advantage we generate from The One Ring, the protection from everything is often times enough to buy us enough time to stabilize and win the game. I would still run 1,2, or 3 copies of it if I didn’t have 4, but I believe 4 is the ideal number. The One Ring also helps us keep up in card advantage against decks like 4/5 Color Control in the increasingly fast meta.
$2000+/€1500+ The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale. This card is great for obvious reasons, but I think it’s important to state that it is by no means a necessity. I have seen several pilots make top 8 in very large tournaments in paper as well as Legacy Challenges online (some of the largest online MTGO Legacy tournaments, which take place twice weekly) with Maze of Ith in place of Tabernacle. This especially says a lot about the card, as on MTGO Tabernacle is only a few bucks vs the couple of thousand price tag in paper. Tabernacle is very meta dependent, and in some cases Maze of Ith is just better.
Mono Green Cloudpost is an extremely rewarding deck with a very unique play-style. It maintains a great balance of being competitive while not sacrificing too much in terms of also maintaining a competitive edge and relatively affordable price tag compared to many other decks in the budget Legacy category.
Resources – learning the ropes
For people interested in resources for learning how to play the deck, TrueFuturism is one of the most skilled Cloudpost pilots on the planet. I highly recommend tuning into his twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/fakefuturism
You can often find him streaming the Legacy Challenge Saturdays or Sundays, and I believe he streams leagues as well other days. You can check him out on Youtube for some very good Cloudpost content:
https://www.youtube.com/@fakefuturismmtg5063
If you’re really dedicated or serious about learning the deck, I would consider becoming a Patreon of his, as it gives you access to his very detailed Mono Green Cloudpost primer, sideboard guide, as well as his thoughts and match up data surrounding the archetype and lots of valuable information that he has contributed to the archetype.
I also recommend checking out into_play (Tony Murata) on Youtube. He is probably the most prolific cloudpost player in the world and has been playing the deck for more than a decade. Although he hasn’t been active on youtube for 11 months and the meta has shifted a lot, his videos are very relevant, and you can learn a lot through watching and listening to his videos, including how to play the deck very well:
Thank you for reading my write up on Budget Legacy Cloudpost for November 2023. You can catch some of my Mono Green Cloudpost matches on Youtube here, or say what’s up to me on twitter @m4n4_st4tion.
Read more about building Cloudpost on a budget on our deck page here!