I love these kinds of budget challenges. Right now, we're in the midst of building four decks for $100 total - that's approximately a $25 budget per, but the nice thing is we don't have to be exact.

I also like how budget challenges are the sort of limitation which stretch you. Today's Commander does exactly that - this is a way of playing I really dislike, but it's going to push me out of my comfort zone and get me doing it. Let's take a look.

This five mana 5/5 gives us access to three colors in Abzan (). It has Deathtouch and Lifelink, too, which is great. But the big thing is the Mutate cost; for 7 mana, we can Mutate Nethroi, adding her to another non-Human Creature. Whichever one is on top gets all the qualities of the Creatures we've Mutated below it. In this case, Nethroi, every time she Mutates, will return up to 10-Power-worth of Creatures from the 'yard to the 'field. Seems good. Let's take a look.

Nethroi, Apex of Death | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (1)
• 1 Nethroi, Apex of Death

• Creatures (29)
• 1 Acidic Slime
• 1 Auspicious Starrix
• 1 Boneyard Lurker
• 1 Cavern Whisperer
• 1 Chittering Harvester
• 1 Cubwarden
• 1 Dirge Bat
• 1 Essence Symbiote
• 1 Fertilid
• 1 Gemrazer
• 1 Glowstone Recluse
• 1 Huntmaster Liger
• 1 Insatiable Hemophage
• 1 Majestic Auricorn
• 1 Migratory Greathorn
• 1 Necropanther
• 1 Nyx Weaver
• 1 Old Stickfingers
• 1 Phantom Nishoba
• 1 Ravenous Chupacabra
• 1 Reclamation Sage
• 1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1 Satyr Wayfinder
• 1 Seedship Broodtender
• 1 Skull Prophet
• 1 Stitcher's Supplier
• 1 Venomized Cat
• 1 Vulpikeet
• 1 Zagoth Mamba

• Instants (10)
• 1 Abzan Charm
• 1 Back for More
• 1 Biosynthic Burst
• 1 Corpse Churn
• 1 Dark Endurance
• 1 Deathsprout
• 1 Grapple with the Past
• 1 Grisly Salvage
• 1 Mythos of Nethroi
• 1 Village Rites

• Sorceries (7)
• 1 Austere Command
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Duneblast
• 1 Farseek
• 1 Mulch
• 1 Rampant Growth
• 1 Winding Way

• Enchantments (8)
• 1 Abzan Ascendancy
• 1 Cemetery Tampering
• 1 Crawling Infestation
• 1 Crawling Sensation
• 1 Deadbridge Chant
• 1 Death's Oasis
• 1 Deathreap Ritual
• 1 Moldervine Reclamation

• Artifacts (5)
• 1 Abzan Banner
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Indatha Crystal
• 1 Lifecrafter's Bestiary
• 1 Perpetual Timepiece

• Lands (40)
• 10 Forest
• 5 Plains
• 9 Swamp
• 1 Blossoming Sands
• 1 Canopy Vista
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Dakmor Salvage
• 1 Deceptive Landscape
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Grim Backwoods
• 1 Jungle Hollow
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Sandsteppe Citadel
• 1 Scoured Barrens
• 1 Temple of Malady
• 1 Temple of Plenty
• 1 Temple of Silence
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse

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One thing I knew from the moment I started this build: it's going to be mana-hungry. 40 Lands gives us that excellent starting point, and we're going to want to ramp. Green helps a lot, of course, but card draw is also key here, so we are running a couple of mana rocks in addition to Green fetch spells like Cultivate and Farseek. Abzan Banner and Commander's Sphere both turn into cards later. Indatha Crystal can be Cycled later or cast early. Fertilid is a great example of a card which works really well here - we play it out, remove some counters and get some Lands. It dies. Then Nethroi returns it for us, ready to keep pulling Lands! Migratory Greathorn does a nice job too of keeping Lands flowing. Skull Prophet makes mana and helps us mill cards.

I think about card draw a lot when I build decks. The more I play, the more I find card draw is worth its weight in gold - the more cards I draw, the better I fare in a game. However, a deck like this gets its card advantage in different ways - basically, rather than draw, it dumps its cards into the Graveyard, then returns them time and again using Mutate. This is what's so hard for me - I simply hate dumping cards in the 'yard, even when it makes sense to do so.

However, you'll notice a distinct reduction in the amount of straight draw spells in this deck. Yeah, we have Deathreap Ritual and Moldervine Reclamation. We have Abzan Charm and Village Rites. But the majority of our "draw" spells are more like Corpse Churn or Crawling Infestation - ways to put more and more cards into our Graveyard, where we can interact with them mostly through Nethroi, but also other cards like Back for More and Necropanther.

Most likely, a giant Creature Mutated beyond recognition will win us the game; Nethroi is the obvious choice, but it could be something else comes along. I can see a situation where Old Stickfingers or Phantom Nishoba ends up being the main Creature, with all kinds of Mutations making them big and even more dangerous. Zagoth Mamba would be an interesting winner as well, given how small it is, but with enough Mutations, it can do some damage to a board.

That Mamba is removal, too. We have Reclamation Sage and Acidic Slime. We have Ravenous Chupacabra (a great one to keep returning) and Dirge Bat. There are a number of Creatures which Mutate into answers for problems, and we're running them. Dark Endurance will save one of our Creatures, Deathsprout kills something and ramps us, Mythos of Nethroi is a wacky but useful removal spell for us, and Duneblast is wonderful for us. "Okay, you guys lose all your stuff. I'm going to lose everything but one Creature... let's see... hm... how about I keep the one Creature I've got with six Mutations on it? Yeah, seems good."

Cemetery Tampering seems useful in a deck where we'll reliably have a large 'yard. Old Stickfingers is similarly influenced by our Graveyard. In addition to the Mamba, we also have Essence Symbiote - both Creatures which care about Mutation without having Mutate themselves. Perpetual Timepiece is a nice mill machine and great reset, should we need it (it's possible we could get close to milling ourselves in a grindy game). Lifecrafter's Bestiary does a lot of things we like. Abzan Ascendancy doesn't fit perfectly, but those little Tokens can add up. Death's Oasis, on the other hand, is awesome, allowing us to churn our 'yard even more with each death.

All told, this one will cost you (minus basic Lands) $24.16 at the time of this writing. This is an excellent upgrade platform - the kind of thing you start with cheap, then add things as you can afford them or open them in Drafts or whatever. My first add would be Eerie Ultimatum - held till the late game that would be a game winner, but it was too spendy for this budget round.

Total spent: $48.03

Total remaining: $51.97

Thanks for reading.