You can’t go to a magic tournament these days without hearing someone saying how they wished they could play modern or legacy but cant afford it, or that when their standard deck is up to par they will invest in the old stuff.

As a human being from planet earth, I can tell you that eternal is expensive, but all magic is expensive. As a magic player, I would argue that its actually cheaper to play modern then standard. This is down to the cards being eternal. (not rotating out)

Wasteland will be destroying non basics till the end of time, while Force of Will is countering spells and Swords to Plowshares is exiling creatures. Unfortunately there is no way to get these cards cheap but there are a few strategies you can use to make it easier.

Buy or trade for staples in both formats

A lot of cards that are good in legacy are also good in modern and there are legacy equivalents of most modern decks for example Jund, Burn, Ad Nauseam / Storm, Elves or Affinity. Finding a deck like this, that you like means that you will be able to play both formats with relatively few changes to the lists and saving you valuable cashola.

Play Mono Red

Burn is one of the cheapest decks in both formats, while also being lightning fast and super nerve-wracking to play against. Playing against a burn mage at 1 life in the top 8 of a pptq is up there with learning to drive and first day of school stress levels. It is definitely  worth considering this deck as it is almost entirely commons and uncommons and many of the rares are cheap or (while optimal) exchangeable with another cheap burn spell.

Try to get any cards that go into a legacy or modern deck

In general, cards don’t often trade out of formats, meaning its rare to find someone who will trade you eternal staples for standard ones. I suggest if you find a person looking to do this, take them up on it. Say you have a Show and Tell now and don’t want to play Show and Tell… Well, it will be much easier to turn a Show and Tell into what you do want, than any of the standard cards that you had before.

If you do focus on a deck then proxy it up and play a few games with it to make sure you really like it or try and go for staples that fit into other decks first such as lands for example.

This also goes for newer eternal staples that are cheap. Spellskite was once $5, the same goes for Mox Opal at around the $10 mark. Picking up staples while they are cheap is one of the best ways to build on a budget because its almost guaranteed that they wont be cheap for long.

Try to pick up cards out of season

During seasons, especially modern season, card prices can sky rocket. Avoid cards during these times if you can as the prices tend to settle down a little after the season ends. Obviously a good trade is a good trade but its worth bearing in mind that prices may be more affordable out of season.

Don’t be afraid to buy with cash

I understand this is part of the trading series and building on a budget but the way I built my legacy decks on a budget of £30-£50 a week was saving up a few weeks at at time and buying the cards that I knew would never get cheaper and were very hard to trade for. This included Dual Lands, Karakas and Show and Tell.

At the time I was spending all my spare money on cards for legacy and modern decks so I didn’t have much money for partying or anything else but  by the end of the year I could build almost any legacy or modern deck I wanted. As those cards never rotate I still have them 3 years later and what’s more they have been slowly ticking up in value. If I wanted to sell them now, I would almost certainly get more than I paid for them.

I know you want the best ways to get these decks cheap but just buying these very high value cards can save you a lot of trade value while guaranteeing you get the card.

Remember it takes time

Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither are modern or legacy decks. It will take time to complete your deck but if you add a card or two to it every week you will be slinging your favourite spells in no time!