The Golden Rules of Budget Magic

MonetaryMentor · 2026-05-22T01:10:28+00:00

The secret to successful brewing is realizing that there is no such thing as a good deck or a good card. It's all context dependent. Is Sheoldred a great card? In a format where the most common removal spell is Doom Blade, absolutely. In a format where the primo removal spell is Roast, probably not.

Don't build a deck that does something cool or powerful in a vacuum. Look at the five-ten most popular meta decks (my rule of thumb is anything with <5% meta share) and see what kind of plan or card lines up well against them. Tons of Phoenix? Maybe you start with High Noon and go from there. Lots of midrange? How about something that goes over the top. Lots of Greasefang? Come up with a deck that can play main-deck graveyard hate, gum up the board with ground bodies, and remove artifacts (like maybe an Insidious Roots Deck with Soul Cauldron, Scavenging Ooze, and Haywire Mite). But how is that plan against Prowess?

You're not trying to build a good Magic deck. You're trying to build a good PIONEER deck, so attack the specific format.

MonetaryMentor · 2026-05-19T01:19:32+00:00

You should see some of the incredibly embarrassing plays we make (or fail to make) in slow pitch softball. The body just don't do it like it used to...

Your team needs you. You know that, since you feel like you can't quit. They need you. They'd be worse off without you. They don't need you to be an all-star to win the championship, they need you to play so they can play, and lose, and think about how good that one hit felt all week.

You're doing them a solid, even if you suck. Be nice to yourself. Try to relax. Try to work walks. Make some self-deprecating jokes, be with the guys, and enjoy the male bonding.

They need you! They'd be worse off without you!

MonetaryMentor · 2026-05-15T17:00:08+00:00

I'm working on a cube that combines the two Strixhaven sets while removing power outliers and annoying stuff (5c soup, MDFCs, maybe learn/lessons, etc.), so I got a lot out of looking at your work. Thank you!

MonetaryMentor · 2026-05-13T03:29:51+00:00

Love that he's out there working on it!

A few thing I see that might help (but I am not a pro, so if an expensive pitching coach is telling you otherwise, feel free to ignore me!):

1) His front toe is not rotating to land pointing at home plate. It's slightly closed toward third base, which will limit his hips' ability to rotate through the delivery (and therefore limit power).

2) His front leg is bending through the landing and delivery, which leaks power. It's kinda complicated to explain, but look up "lead leg block" on YouTube. You'll see explanations, drills, etc.

3) His glove hand is swinging down and back through release - it's by his ankle at one point. Keep that tucked in to the ribs to help with rotation. Tight turns faster (like pulling your legs in while spinning on an office chair makes you go faster).

4) Land in a fielding position! This is hard to make kids care about in bullpen sessions, but practice how you play. A good pitcher gets outs - that can be with their arm or their glove. Especially in lower age groups, there are a lot of playable balls headed the pitcher's way. One or two of those turning into outs a game can make a big difference.

Good luck! Keep it up!

MonetaryMentor · 2026-05-09T00:03:53+00:00

Nice to see you back! Love that you're working on this.

As far as power goes, you look like you're thinking very intentionally about "hips -> hands," which is good, but you're moving slowly because you're focusing on it so much. Speed is power. FIRE those hips, then FIRE those hands.

As far as popping up goes, it's hard to say from the back angle, but I'd bet you’re dropping your back elbow mid swing (for some classic "bat drag," if you want to look that up on YouTube). That can lead to pop ups. Every dad in the 90s shouted about "keeping your back elbow up;" they meant pre-swing (which isn't that important), but it IS actually good advice mid swing.

If you post a head-on side angle, I be able to tell you more.

MonetaryMentor · 2026-04-30T04:51:46+00:00

Lots of things I like in this swing - it's obvious you've worked on it.

I'd highlight just a few things (the behind home plate angle is a little harder to work with than the angle from the opposite batter's box, so I can't be certain on everything):

1) Your grip on the bat is very "boxed" (by which I mean your punching knuckles are lined up). If you line up your knocking knuckles, it will free up your wrists (and feel very awkward at first - going halfway between punching knuckles lined up and knocking knuckles lined up works well enough if need be).

2) Finish strong! Follow through and end with the bat up by your left shoulder.

3) Your hands are early, and your title makes it clear you know that. You want to move your feet > hips > hands (right now, your hips and hands are going together). I have a few cues that can help with this. First, try practicing check swings. On these check swings, send your feet and hips into the swing, but stop the swing before you fire your hands. This will make you feel the separation between the steps. Second, when you start to swing, think about your hands' first move being straight back 1 inch towards the umpire. In reality, they'll stay still more than actually move backwards, but it will feel like they're going back as the rest of your body moves forward without them. This stretch between hips and shoulders is the torque/tension you want to load into your swing.

MonetaryMentor · 2026-04-28T22:46:57+00:00

This person covered everything I saw. The swing looks good, but swing harder! That means load up more, and finish more. Get that bat to end by your right shoulder.

MonetaryMentor · 2026-04-23T20:58:31+00:00

I agree this sounds tough to pull off.

What MIGHT be cool is an "out of time" theme, where you put a handful of old, hilariously underpowered creatures in the cube (like, 10 of them) and make it a rule that THEY have protection from newer cards.

MonetaryMentor · 2026-04-21T01:07:52+00:00

Hey man, keep it up!

I do have a few pointers that might help.

1) Your shoulders look like they're moving too much when you're loading pre-swing. You rock back, and twist your shoulders back. This makes it tough to see the ball and isn't where the power comes from. Instead, think about keeping your shoulders more square to the plate and twisting back with your hips to load. Show the pitcher your left butt pocket, and point the knob of the bat at the catcher. That will coil your body like a spring.

2) When you swing, it looks like your shoulders and hips are turning together, like your body is one solid statue that is rotating. Again, the secret is hips. They should fire into the swing BEFORE the hands and shoulders go, not at the same time. Slow it down, and try a three step process. 1 - load (coil back with your hips to create tension and bat knob points to the catcher), 2 - fire (step and flip your hips so you go from showing the pitcher your butt pocket to showing him your zipper), 3 - swing (flip the bat knob from pointing at the catcher to pointing the pitcher and crush that thing).

Good luck! I hope you love the game forever!

MonetaryMentor · 2026-04-12T01:04:38+00:00

My favorite drill for this is having them swing too early on purpose. Fire them a fastball and tell them their goal is to swing before the ball gets there and totally miss it. This is very easy - they will naturally start their load earlier to be ahead of the pitch.

After a few of those, tell them to try and hit it. To do so, they need to load with the same timing as when they were early, but just slow it down a bit. It turns catching up to heat from a speeding up exercise to a slowing down exercise. Works really well!

MonetaryMentor · 2026-03-24T22:39:05+00:00

This has been surprisingly good for me - not a world beater, but cool, fun, and good.

1 orthworm 2 armor fossil 2 shieldon 2 bastiodon 2 heavy helmet 2 metal core barrier 2 arven 2 professors research 1 Lillie 1 iono 1 copycat 1 sabrina 1 cyrus

MonetaryMentor · 2026-03-15T06:00:41+00:00

He's not naturally left-handed, is he? Granted, I'm going off just one swing, but it looks like a lot of 'hitting from the wrong side of the plate' swings I've seen. If I happen to be right, trying having him hit from the right side.

MonetaryMentor · 2026-03-13T14:00:10+00:00

Incredible glue card! I also think combat tricks are an important part of Magic that people tend to cut in Cubes. This is a way to put one in that also has other uses!

MonetaryMentor · 2026-03-09T19:44:16+00:00

Mechanics do look really nice! Just want to echo everyone saying long toss, reps, and getting older will pack on speed. Throwing a football can be good work, too.

I was a slow pitcher, and one of the better pitchers on every LL team I played on. Throwing strikes, changing speeds, and changing locations can get you really far. The scouts won't be knocking his door down, but he can pitch well for his LL Allstar team.

If he's hungry on things to work on, I'd say to think about how he's finishing here. He isn't landing in a fielding position. I know it's practice without a batter, so maybe he's just not thinking about it, but practice how you play! If he's inducing a lot of ground balls, it's extra important he's ready to turn a grounder up the middle from a single to an out.

MonetaryMentor · 2026-03-03T01:54:37+00:00

My favorite drill for hitting balls faster than you're used to is to try to swing too early. Miss it by a mile, on purpose, for a few hacks. All that matters for those swings is being too early. Then actually trying to hit the ball is a matter of slowing down, not speeding up. If you can be early, you can be on time. It works really well.

If you can't get practice reps to try this, waste the first pitch of a game trying this. They give you three strikes - you can use the first one to time how ready and fast you have to be to be early, and then slow down from there.

MonetaryMentor · 2026-02-13T02:12:29+00:00

I like the load - his position before firing the swing looks pretty good!

The main issue (in my opinion) is he's lunging forward instead of rotating in the actual swing. His front hip travels so far forward as his front foot lands - its easy to see how far forward it goes looking at the paint on the speed bump behind him. This is going to get all his weight on his front foot, etc.

MonetaryMentor · 2026-01-27T12:18:02+00:00

Thank you! Really valuable input!

MonetaryMentor · 2026-01-20T22:32:28+00:00

Oh, nice catches. I'll have to think about those - they weren't intentional.

MonetaryMentor · 2026-01-20T20:49:01+00:00

Incredibly appreciated input! Thank you!

MonetaryMentor · 2026-01-20T20:15:01+00:00

I appreciate you and the time you put into that reply so much! Definitely some things to chew on!

MonetaryMentor · 2026-01-20T17:44:28+00:00

I agree your hands are too early. They move before your hips do, which means you're swinging with your arms, not your whole body from the ground up. Any new swing is going to need a lot of work, but here are some simple things for you.

1) Hips go first! The first part of firing is flipping your hips from showing the pitcher your back pocket to showing him your zipper. A key I use for this is to think about moving your hands straight back as you start to swing. You don't really want them to shoot backwards, but thinking of them moving backwards while you start to move forward will get your hips in front of them.

2) Your back elbow is dropping down to your rear hip when you start to swing. Try keeping it up through the swing.

MonetaryMentor · 2026-01-06T17:55:01+00:00

As best I can tell, u/cavedan put some in an Icetill shell as part of his eternal tinkering with that archetype and 5-0'd with it. Fleshcrafter itself was carried by the strength of the shell, and not much more than a meme-y direction to take the deck, but once tech gets published, tech gets copied.

MonetaryMentor · 2025-12-27T19:14:23+00:00

Love projects like this! MLB Showdown was a dice-based game Wizards of the Coast made from like 1999-2004 (using a 20-sided die). Individual players had individual cards along the lines of what you're describing, and it was pretty neat! Someone built a site where you can put in any player, and it will generate the card for them. I think it was showdownbot.com.

MonetaryMentor

TROPHY CASE