$100 Commander: CEDH On a Budget

What happens when Pauper players get hooked on cEDH ideas but refuse to spend cEDH money? Tony and I built a mini-format we call $100 Commander, high power, compact combos, and mana bases capped around $40.

This whole thing started because Tony and I fell in love with Pauper.

We liked the feeling of:

• Working inside a restriction
• Finding weird, powerful commons that overperformed
• Playing real Magic without spending a fortune

At some point we looked at each other and basically said:

“What if we did this for Commander? High power… but budget?”

That became our homebrew format:
$100 Commander – or as we think of it:

“cEDH on a budget.”

It’s not “casual jank.”
It’s powerful, tuned Commander lists with a hard price cap, using TCGPlayer Low to stay around $100.

• Think Pauper – constraint drives creativity
• Think budget Vintage – busted patterns, not busted price tags
• Think cEDH philosophy – tight builds, fast wins, lots of interaction

All with the challenge of $100 total, including a mana base that’s around $40 instead of several hundred dollars like a lot of fully powered cEDH decks.

What $100 Commander Is (And Isn’t)

Our working definition:

$100 Commander is competitive-leaning Commander where cost is capped, but power is not.

The goals:

• Play to win – real combo lines, real inevitability
• Play fast – low curves, efficient spells, clean interaction
• Play sharp – like cEDH, but inside a $100 deckbuilding puzzle

What it isn’t:

• “Precon plus a few upgrades”
• “I just jammed my binder into sleeves”
• “It’s budget so it’s low power”

We treat this like a format:

• We track prices using TCGPlayer Low
• We build with cEDH principles
• We accept that we can’t just auto-include the expensive staples

And in our version, some of the classic money cards (like Mana Crypt or Dockside Extortionist) are just off-limits by design. Not because they’re banned in official Commander, but because they blow up a $100 budget all by themselves and defeat the purpose of the exercise.

Why It Feels Like Pauper And Budget Vintage

The Pauper Connection

Pauper says: “Play only commons and see how far you can push it.”

What we loved about Pauper:

• The power is in synergy, not price
• Games feel fair but intense
• Deckbuilding becomes a puzzle, not just a shopping list

$100 Commander hits the same notes:

• You can play rares and mythics, but the total price ceiling matters
• You dig for the next-best version of staples instead of auto-slamming the most expensive option
• You discover bulk rares and uncommons that play way above their price tag

The Budget Vintage Energy

Budget Vintage says: “You can still do broken things, just not with an unlimited wallet.”

Likewise, $100 Commander:

• Still chases early wins or locked-up game states
• Still uses tutors, rituals, stax pieces, and compact combos
• Just does it while respecting that you’re not dropping hundreds of dollars on a mana base

That last bit matters.

The Mana Base Problem (And Why We Cap It)

In full cEDH, it’s totally normal for a mana base to be worth several hundred dollars on its own.

In $100 Commander:

• That doesn’t work.
• If we spent like that, the rest of the deck would be basic lands.

So a big part of how Tony and I think about this format:

Manage the mana base around $40 of the $100 budget.

That usually means:

• Basics, shocklands, painlands, and cheap duals
• A few utility lands only if they don’t wreck your curve
• Avoiding “flex lands” that enter tapped just because they’re cute
• Play mono-colored

If the average cEDH mana base is a luxury sports car, our mana bases are tuned hatchbacks with good tires.
Not flashy, but absolutely capable.

Step 1: Choose a Commander That Functions Like a cEDH Engine

Because we’re on a budget, the commander has to carry weight.

In $100 Commander, we look for commanders that are:

• Engines – they draw cards, make mana, or turn your deck into a value machine
• Combo pieces – they’re directly part of or enable a win line
• Or soft lock / stax pieces – they slow everyone else while you advance your plan

When we’re evaluating a potential commander, we ask:

1. Does this commander reward cheap cards?
   • Tokens, spells, sac fodder, looting, graveyard recursion, etc.
2. Can it help close games, not just durdle?
   • Triggers on cast, attack, or sacrifice that can snowball into a kill.
3. Is it reasonably priced itself?
   • If the commander is $25+, that’s a big chunk of the budget gone.

We want the commander to feel like the Pauper “build-around uncommon” meets cEDH engine.

Step 2: Build Like cEDH, Spend Like Pauper

The skeleton of our $100 lists looks very similar to cEDH:

• 30–32 lands (minimal taplands)
• 10–12 ramp pieces (rocks, dorks, rituals, land ramp)
• 10–14 interaction pieces (counters, removal, stack tricks)
• 1–3 compact win conditions / combo lines
• The rest: synergy and velocity

Differences from full cEDH:

• Your rocks are 2-mana rocks and cheap accelerants, not fast mana bombs
• Your interaction is efficient, but budget-friendly (no $50 “free” counters)
• Your lands are functional, not flex pieces that cost more than the rest of the deck combined

The philosophy stays the same:

• Low curve
• No wasted turns
• Never pass with mana unused if you can help it
• Every card should contribute to speed, interaction, or the win

Step 3: Combos Are Not Optional – They’re the Point

In casual EDH, a combo is a “spice slot.”

In $100 high-power Commander, combos are:

• Your way to keep up
• Your way to close games before value engines take over
• Your reward for tight play and deckbuilding

We like combos that:

1. Use 2–3 cards
2. Are supported by the deck’s natural game plan
3. Have pieces that are totally fine on their own

Examples of the type of things we look for:

• A payoff that drains or damages when you sacrifice or create creatures
• A repeatable way to make tokens or recursion loops
• A free or cheap sacrifice outlet or untap effect

We’re not trying to copy-paste cEDH’s exact win lines card-for-card.
We’re trying to mirror the structure:

• Redundant lines
• Synergy between interaction and combo pieces
• The ability to pivot between aggression, stalling, and going for it

Step 4: Interaction Is Sacred

If we’re tuning a list and need to cut something, here’s our rule:

Cut the cute card before you cut the counterspell.

In a high-power meta, even on a budget, you must:

• Respect the stack
• Respect opposing combos
• Have answers to problem permanents

So we prioritize:

• 1–2 mana counterspells and protection effects
• Cheap spot removal for creatures, artifacts, and enchantments
• At least a couple of reset buttons (board wipes, pseudo-wipes, or one-sided blowouts)

Budget doesn’t mean “I just hope nobody does anything broken.”
Budget means “I found the $0.50 version of an answer that still hits what matters.”

Step 5: Using TCGPlayer Low As a “Format Rule”

To keep ourselves honest, we treat TCGPlayer Low like the official price list of the format.

Our process:

First, you need to go into your account settings and set the pricing to TCGPlayer.

1. Start off by building out your deck in Moxfield.
2. Once you do that, click on the more options in moxfield and select "Update to Cheapest"

Once you do this, if you find that your deck is more expensive, I usually sort by price, look at the top 10–15 cards. From there I might make some adjustments to get the total price under $100.

Try to keep total around $100, with roughly $40 of that in lands.

Step 6: Setting Expectations With Your Group

If you sit down and say, “It’s a $100 deck,” people might assume it’s low power.

That’s not what we’re doing.

A better description is something like:

“This is a $100 budget cEDH-style deck. It’s built to be fast and interactive within that budget. It’s not precon power level.”

That helps:

• Casual players grab their more tuned decks
• Spikier players get excited instead of suspicious
• Groups start thinking, “Maybe we should all build one of these.”

Best-case scenario:
Your local group or friend circle ends up with a $100 Commander night, the same way Pauper nights started forming around shared constraints.

Step 7: Where You Go From Here

Once you’ve built one $100 Commander deck, you have two cool paths:

1. Stay in the $100 Ecosystem

• Maintain the deck as prices shift
• Tune it for your meta
• Build more $100 lists in different colors and archetypes
• Treat it like your own budget cEDH format

2. Use It As a Launch Pad to Full cEDH

• Keep the shell and reps you’ve built
• Slowly upgrade: mana base, tutors, interaction, then wincons
• Let the $100 version be your training wheels and testing lab

Either way, you’re not throwing money away.
You’re building skill, reps, and experience – the same way Pauper sharpened your limited/card evaluation skills.

Final Thoughts: High Power, Low Price, Real Magic

For us, $100 Commander started with a simple feeling:

“We love Pauper. We like the cEDH mindset. Let’s mash them together and see how far we can push it on a budget.”

The result is a format where:

• Decks are tight, fast, and interactive
• Combos and clean lines matter
• Money doesn’t decide who gets to play at the “high power” table

You don’t need a multi-hundred-dollar mana base to play powerful Commander.
You need:

• A smart commander choice
• Solid fundamentals
• A few spicy combo lines
• And a willingness to let the $100 cap be part of the fun, not a limitation.

If you are interested in the decks we have been putting together, you can check out our Moxfield here: https://moxfield.com/users/ohioeternal,