I AM the Senate

Modern Budget Combo Control Counters Humans Midrange Proliferate WU (Azorius)

Balaam__

Creature (17)

• 4x Azor's Elocutors
• 4x Flux Channeler
• 3x Grateful Apparition
• 3x Judge's Familiar
• 3x Thrummingbird

Sorcery (7)

• 4x Contentious Plan
• 3x Index

Instant (16)

• 4x Dawn Charm
• 4x Ethereal Haze
• 4x Holy Day
• 4x Unbounded Potential

Land (20)

• 6x Island
• 10x Plains
• 4x Port Town

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Sideboard

Instant (13)

• 2x Echoing Truth
• 2x Gigadrowse
• 3x Mana Tithe
• 2x Searing Light
• 4x Spell Snare

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Maybeboard

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Leyline of Sanctity

Artifact (1)

• 1x Everflowing Chalice

Land (1)

• 1x Prahv, Spires of Order

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Full Disclaimer: This entire deck was built on a whim after reading a dialogue exchange between Squee_Spirit_Guide and Icbrgr on Squee’s deck Filibuster (deck challenge). I thought the idea looked super neat and wanted to create the penultimate budget version of the deck, while still retaining some level of functionality and playability.

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What is a bill, but an ‘as yet unrealized’ idea? Well we have an idea of our own, and it involves trying to win through Azor's Elocutors while remaining as inexpensive a deck as possible. The arbitrary threshold I’ve set in stone is no more than $1 per card. Let’s see if we can take this bill of an idea all the way to the top.

Capitol Hill

As we are a Hyper Budget deck—think ‘Galactic Empire at heart, but with the budget of the Rebel Alliance’—we forego the more expensive types of lands. Nary a Fetch land or Dual land in sight. Instead it’s back to basics here (literally), along with a very cost effective way to smooth over any rough edges.

•Basic Plains and Islands abound, with the differential skewed in favor of {W} mana.

•Port Town is a great alternative to other, pricier options and has a high chance to enter untapped.

Government Shutdown

Quite apropos, we will be doing a bit of filibustering of our own on our way to triggering our wincon. Azor's Elocutors will lose a counter whenever we take damage, hence preventing said damage takes priority. Since we cannot possibly account for every conceivable source or variety of damage that will be directed toward us, the shrewd approach is to identify the most likely cause and focus our efforts specifically in that direction.

Combat damage would be the top contender, followed closely by direct damage spells and abilities. We run a slew of spells dedicated to tying up the opponent’s attacking creatures in bureaucratic red tape, miring them in stagnation.

•Holy Day and Ethereal Haze completely shut down any combat damage for the remainder of the turn, and buy precious time for our officials to deliberate.

•Dawn Charm, alongside Judge's Familiar will function as a means to counter direct damage targeting us. The former also functions as another ‘truce’ card, or even to forestall any assassination attempts against our political figureheads.

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So far, so good—let’s take our bill of an idea and meet the individuals running the show.

The Cabinet

Unlike how it works in real life, there is harmony and synergy between all our little politicians, and they function rather well as a collective.

•Think of Judge's Familiar sort of like Teddy Roosevelt’s pet Hyacinth Macaw. Our avian friend is loyal and true, and will hurl itself in the line of fire to protect us quicker than a secret service agent. Perhaps that’s what happened to Teddy Roosevelt’s other pet bird, his renowned one-legged chicken…? A faithful companion indeed.

•Grateful Apparition and Thrummingbird are functionally similar, aiming to Proliferate through combat damage. An earlier draft of this deck focused more on abusing spells like Slip Through Space to force Proliferation, but that gradually evolved into this current list and that strategy largely fell by the wayside. These two creatures remain, as at the very least having flying blockers is never a bad thing. They may just land an attack that helps top off that last filibuster counter too, you never know.

•Flux Channeler is an absolute necessity. She will undoubtedly contribute more than anything toward the realization of enough filibuster counters to clinch the election and have the title of Winner bestowed upon us. Non-creature spells abound, many of which cause Proliferation themselves, and thus a nasty chain effect can transpire. By all means play multiples; as no one ever once said, “The world can never have enough lawyers.”

•Of course, the lynchpin of the deck would be none other than Azor's Elocutors. A bit on the mana intensive side of things at a whopping {3}{WU}{WU}, these guys demand we grind out a grueling game. Without any sort of ramp or the ability to cheat them into play, we’re looking at a Turn 5 play leveraging a Turn 7 or 8 win—if all goes to plan. Which always happens, as varying forms of government the world over have proved countless times throughout human history. No, these guys will need a little nudge in the right direction, and we intend to provide that through Proliferation spells and abilities.

The Whip

In addition to Flux Channeler and the naturally occurring filibuster counter that we will accrue at the beginning of our upkeep, we run playsets of two different spells that function much like The Whip in relation to The Senate and The House. In case you aren’t familiar with the terminology, in the olden days if the Senators didn’t vote the way you wanted them to, you whipped them.

Show

Let’s light a fire under Azor's Elocutors and see if we can’t motivate them to speed things up a bit.

•Contentious Plan incites Proliferation and replaces itself with a draw. What’s not to like?

•Unbounded Potential offers a nice assortment of options, Proliferation among them. Should you have the mana available, why not make the politician’s dream of more power a reality? C’mon…you can trust them…

TL;DR

•Manipulate things behind the scenes with Index, setting up subsequent draws.

•Cast Flux Channeler and Judge's Familiar in preparation for our squabbling politicians.

•Cast Azor's Elocutors as early as possible…which will be Turn 5 (Good Luck).

•Capitalize on as many Proliferate spells and abilities as possible, warding off combat damage with Filibuster spells. Sacrifice Judge's Familiar as necessary to stifle direct damage spells.

•With 5 filibuster counters accrued, on your next upkeep prepare to take the Oath of Office and utter those immortal words:

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The Sideboard

Due in no small part to the extreme budget allocated for this deck, we’re ill equipped to deal with certain archetypes. Burn decks and aggro builds will likely power right through us (what do you expect for <$20?), but we hold up surprisingly well against combo, mill and a few other types of decks.

We have some additional tech at our disposal here in the sideboard to help give us an edge.

•Mana Tithe is cheap and effective (particularly when following a sacrificed Judge's Familiar), and the lone {W} makes casting it a breeze compared to the double {U}{U} of Counterspell.

•Spell Snare is equally effective in a format rife with 2cmc cards.

•Echoing Truth bounces weenies like a dachshund on a trampoline, and as for tokens? (In thick Italian accent) Forget about it.

•Gigadrowse can really screw up the opponent’s tempo and give them a taste of what filibustering is all about. Nicely held in reserve alongside a few untapped islands for the opponent’s turn prior to the turn we expect to win on.

•Searing Light in lieu of a sweeper like Wrath of God, because A) killing our own Politicians is bad, and B) it’s a cheaper card.

”For a fact, I am aware that time is what you men are trying to gain, forasmuch as you have perceived that the word is being promulgated by me.”

Top Ranked	Achieved #1 position overall 2 years ago
Date added	2 years
Last updated	2 years
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 0 Rares 10 - 4 Uncommons 26 - 9 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.05
Folders	Modern, deck ideas, Modern Decks, zIdeas, budget decks, To Build, Modern Ideas, Cool Decks