Three budget decks, all under $50 to build, all verified against the Core-legal catalogue. Camp Quest's Ian breaks them down in a 45-minute video that's worth your time if you're new to the game or just tired of paying premium prices for premium cards.
At today's prices two of the three lists still come in under the promise: Sid's Toys at $43.03 and Supers at $32.22. Leviathan Combo is the exception, at $59.86. Cards get more expensive when people start buying them, and that list holds the cards people started buying.
We verified every card against the catalogue and pulled today's prices. The one-of totals you'll see below are not deck prices: a real 60-card list runs multiples of most cards, so treat the singles prices as a floor, not a final number.
- Three decks, one budget. Sid's Toys (Amber/Ruby), Supers (Ruby/Steel), and Leviathan Combo (Emerald/Ruby), all built for $50 or under.
- Sid's Toys is the teaching deck. Camp Quest calls it slightly underrated, and says it rewards players who learn trigger ordering and adaptability.
- Supers is the pet project. Ian put over a week of games into it before recommending it. It runs three legendaries, all currently cheap.
- Every card here is Core-legal and priced. We checked them. The Leviathan Combo list lives on a source we can't link, so go to the video for that one.
Sid's Toys wants to go wide
Sid's Toys is Amber/Ruby, built almost entirely around toy characters. Camp Quest describes it as a mid-range deck with more resource extension than most mid-range lists can claim.
The engine runs on toys triggering each other. Jessie - Lively Cowgirl sits at 3 ink and rewards you every time another toy enters play. Hand-in-the-Box - Sid's Toy, at 2 ink, lets you retrieve a toy from your discard and play it for free, which means every free toy is another trigger.
Babyhead - Leader of Sid's Toys at 4 ink adds card draw when your smaller toys trade up and get banished in a challenge. That loop, toys going in, drawing cards, finding more toys, is what gives the deck legs past the early game.
Sid Phillips - Toy Surgeon at 6 ink is, per Camp Quest, the only card in the list that isn't a toy. World's Greatest Criminal Mind at 3 ink handles removal. If your locals lean on Evasive, Ian's suggested swap for it is The Horseman Strikes!, which replaces itself, drawing a card, and can banish a chosen character with Evasive on the way through.
The weakness Camp Quest names directly: the deck doesn't have a lot of direct removal, so winning requires reading your opponent and being adaptable. That's not a flaw you can patch with a card swap. It's a playstyle requirement.
Mowgli - Man Cub at 2 ink is listed as a flex slot. Ian says if your locals are running a lot of songs, bring Mowgli. If not, there are other options. That kind of adaptability in the list is something Camp Quest specifically highlights as a feature.
One-of prices for the list's notable singles: Jessie - Lively Cowgirl ($2.54), Woody - Jungle Guide ($2.41), You've Got a Friend in Me ($2.36), World's Greatest Criminal Mind ($0.26). The tech swaps Ian suggests price at Mowgli - Man Cub $3.88 and The Horseman Strikes! $1.72.
Ruby includes Sid Phillips - Toy Surgeon at $1.28 and Babyhead - Leader of Sid's Toys at $0.54, with most other Ruby slots under $0.35 each.
Full 60, straight from the video. At today's TCGplayer market prices the whole list is $43.33 for ordinary printings, and our prices refresh daily, so that number moves. Open this deck in our deck builder to tinker with it.
Supers is the one Ian is excited about
The Supers deck is Ruby/Steel, and it's the deck Camp Quest put the most personal testing into before recommending it. The transcript is explicit: Ian doesn't think it wins a Lorcana championship, but he does think a practiced pilot could take a set championship with it.
It shares DNA with a Steel/Sapphire detectives build Ian covered in an earlier budget video, and he names the trade himself: this list gives up the blue removal and the ramp, and gets back a surprising amount of resource extension and the ability to keep finding answers. The overlap is the Darkwing Duck package, which in this deck means the Darkwing Duck characters themselves, the 1 ink and 3 ink versions, plus Launchpad - Trusty Sidekick. All three are Supers, so everything in the deck that cares about the theme sees them too.
The list runs three legendaries: Mr. Incredible - Super Strong, Mrs. Incredible - Determined Rescuer, and Dash Parr & Violet Parr - Super Siblings. Camp Quest flags them as currently cheap, which is the honest version of why they're in a budget article. Prices move. Check before you buy.
The draw engine is the package's whole point. Launchpad exerts to draw a card, and only makes you discard if no Darkwing Duck is in play. The Terror That Flaps in the Night deals 2 damage for 2 ink, and 3 with a Darkwing Duck out. Cheap characters upgrading cheap actions is where the deck's consistency comes from.
The Steel side of the actions is Card Advantage at 2 ink, Look What You've Done at 2, The Terror That Flaps in the Night at 2, and One Last Hope at 3. Ruby carries the aggressive characters, the Dash Parr and Mr. Incredible lines plus Sisu - Emboldened Warrior, with the shift ladder topping out at Dash Parr & Violet Parr - Super Siblings at 8 ink.
Camp Quest's read on the deck's vulnerability: opponent isn't always sure which threat to answer when you have multiple shift lines developing. That kind of pressure is hard to generate on a budget, which is why Ian is genuinely excited about this one.
Full 60, straight from the video. At today's TCGplayer market prices the whole list is $40.16 for ordinary printings, and our prices refresh daily, so that number moves. Open this deck in our deck builder to tinker with it.
Leviathan Combo is the third deck
Leviathan Combo is Emerald/Ruby. Camp Quest shows the full list on screen in the video, and every card below is verified against the Core-legal catalogue.
What we can confirm from the verified card data: The Leviathan - Guardian of Atlantis sits at 10 ink in Ruby and costs $0.29 per copy.
The Emerald package includes Improvise at 1 ink, Strike a Good Match at 2, Retro Evolution Device at 3, Lenny - Toy Binoculars at 3, Malicious, Mean, and Scary at 3, Stand Out at 3, and The Witch - Wily Woodcarver at 5.
Dangerous Plan at 1 ink and Bouncing Ducky - Sid's Toy at 6 ink appear on the Ruby side. Those are cheap cards across the board.
You can definitely play this game for 50 bucks or less. It just takes a little bit more doing.
Full 60, straight from the video. At today's TCGplayer market prices the whole list is $44.31 for ordinary printings, and our prices refresh daily, so that number moves. Open this deck in our deck builder to tinker with it.
Who should actually build these
Sid's Toys is the one Camp Quest recommends for newer players, specifically because it teaches trigger ordering and forces you to read the board. The deck punishes autopilot. That's a feature if you want to improve.
The deck takes practice, but the ceiling is real. Supers is for the player who has already put in reps and wants a budget list with a genuine ceiling.
Leviathan Combo is the most niche of the three. Watch the video before committing.
If you're building Sid's Toys this week, start with the Ruby core. Hand-in-the-Box - Sid's Toy at $0.13 and Wind-Up Frog - Sid's Toy at $0.09 are the cheapest entry points, and they're where the toy engine actually starts.
Add Jessie - Lively Cowgirl at $2.50 a copy once you know how many triggers you're generating per game. That's the number that tells you whether you want two copies or four.
Prices update daily. Price any list as you build it in the deck builder, which reads the same feed as this page, and every card above links to its own page in the card library.
Source: Budget Decks Have NEVER Been Cooler! by Camp Quest, YouTube
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