An EDH Deck for Only $1 on Magic Online!? SaffronOlive's "Penny Dreadful" Isperia the Inscrutible Flying Tribal Commander Deck

by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

I happened to be browsing MTGGoldfish for some budget Commander decklists, and came across this Isperia the Inscrutible Flying Tribal Commander deck brewed by none other than the legendary SaffronOlive!

At the time, that I found this decklist, it hadn't yet been played on MTGGoldfish's Commander Clash video series. It would be featured on the Penny Dreadful episode of Commander Clash. In this episode, SaffronOlive would play this deck against four other decks that cost around 1 event ticket to build on Magic Online! (This Isperia deck costs about $30 to build in paper, which is still mega cheap!)

"Penny Dreadful" is a variant of Commander similar to 1DH in paper. In 1DH, you build a deck with cards that cost $1 or less each. In Penny Dreadful, you're looking to build an entire 100 card Commander deck - including the Commander - for 1 event ticket or less. This means spending only 0.01 tix - roughly a penny - on each card. While card values fluctuate, there's an official Penny Dreadful list that changes with each set release, so this is what you should build from. You can also use the Scryfall search engine, which has a filter for Penny Dreadful.

If you ever wanted to play Sphinx Tribal, or Flying Tribal in general, this is a nice cheap way to do so! There are three other "Penny Dreadful" decks featured in this Commander Clash video, led by Hazezon Tamar, Brago, the Eternal, and Shu Yun, the Tempest.

Here's the Penny Dreadful episode. The original episode page with the Penny Dreadful deck lists can be found here.

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In case you’re interested in building an extremely cheap but fun tribal deck, here is the decklist!

Creatures (29)

1     Hypnotic Siren    
1     Stratus Dancer    
1     Stonecloaker    
1     Argent Sphinx    
1     Conundrum Sphinx    
1     Dungeon Geists
1     Thunderclap Wyvern    
1     Archon of Redemption    
1     Cloudblazer    
1     Guardian of Tazeem    
1     Jwar Isle Avenger    
1     Master of Predicaments
1     Prognostic Sphinx    
1     Serra Sphinx    
1     Sphinx of Lost Truths    
1     Arbiter of the Ideal    
1     Cerulean Sphinx    
1     Draining Whelk        
1     Sphinx of Jwar Isle    
1     Sphinx of the Chimes
1     Sunblast Angel    
1     Thousand Winds
1     Uyo, Silent Prophet
1     Alhammarret, High Arbiter    
1     Diluvian Primordial    
1     Emeria Shepherd    
1     Goliath Sphinx    
1     Resolute Archangel
1     Sphinx of Uthuun    

Spells (21)

1     Curse of the Swine    
1     Negate
1     Compulsive Research    
1     Crib Swap    
1     Dissipate    
1     Dissolve    
1     Forbid    
1     Concentrate    
1     Insidious Will    
1     Plea for Power
1     End Hostilities    
1     Jace's Ingenuity    
1     Planar Outburst    
1     Tidings    
1     Traumatic Visions    
1     Winds of Rath    
1     Opportunity    
1     Phyrexian Rebirth    
1     Planar Cleansing    
1     Recurring Insight    
1     Treasure Cruise    

Artifacts (9)

1     Brittle Effigy    
1     Corrupted Grafstone    
1     Azorius Cluestone
1     Azorius Keyrune
1     Magnifying Glass
1     Manalith    
1     Ojutai Monument    
1     Seer's Lantern
1     Spectral Searchlight    

Enchantments (2)

1     Isolation Zone    
1     Gravitational Shift    

Lands (38)

1     Azorius Guildgate        
1     Blighted Cataract        
1     Calciform Pools        
1     Coastal Tower        
17     Island        
1     Meandering River        
1     Moorland Haunt        
10     Plains        
1     Tranquil Cove        
1     Transguild Promenade        
1     Vivid Creek        
1     Vivid Meadow        
1     Warped Landscape

If anyone would like me to do an in-depth deck tech on this deck, or any other deck, Penny Dreadful or otherwise, I’d be happy to do so. Just let me know. Until then, enjoy this extremely cheap EDH list!