Budget Foundations Cards You May Have Missed - Bulk Up!

We've all been there: cracking packs from a new set and skipping straight to the rare and foil. Then the rest of the stack gets tossed into a box that we'll eventually open months later and say, "Wait, when did I buy a pre-release pack?"

This is where I come in! I'm Tyler "Savesya" Bucks, and I've scoured countless bulk boxes and returned with a report of the best commons and uncommons for Commander from the latest Magic set, Foundations!

The Bulk Up series will prove that there are hidden gems in every pack just waiting to be discovered! Here's my list of budget cards that you should keep an eye out for when you're opening packs or the next time you buy singles. Let's kick things off with the new releases, then close it out with some great reprints of staples every deck needs.

Black - Vampire Gourmand

Starting things off with a new aristocrats card, Vampire Gourmand. Many decks look for ways to sacrifice their creatures for value, so stapling that onto a creature that allows you to draw a card and punch some damage through is a win-win. Plus, its creature type makes it an easy inclusion in plenty of Vampire kindred decks!

If you have an Edgar Markov deck, this would make great use of all those Vampire tokens you have sitting around.

Blue - Mischievous Mystic

Speaking of draw synergies, Mischievous Mystic is a slam dunk in any deck that draws more than one card a turn. Not only is a 2/1 flying body for two mana a great rate, but making tokens for simply furthering your game plan will help propel you ahead in games! This little fella will do more work than you might think in a lot of your blue decks.

A great home for this card would be in a The Council of Four deck as a way to close out the game!

White - Divine Resilience

Divine Resilience is a white player's dream! For one mana you can save a key creature that would otherwise parish in combat or a board wipe. However, for a total of four mana, you can save your entire board from your enemy's wrath! Don't hesitate to fire this off for its cheaper cost, since you never really know when a sweeper is coming, or even using it as a way to swing out with your whole board for a protected attack.

Myrel, Shield of Argive could be a fun deck to throw this card into. Protection for your commander or your whole team can really stick it to anyone who was just waiting to cast their removal until after you pass your turn!

Green - Quakestrider Ceratops

This may not be the flashiest card on the list, but it sure is the biggest. Quakestrider Ceratops has twelve power for only six mana, and even though it has no other abilities, there are plenty of homes for a creature this size. Whether your deck's theme is Dinosaurs, power matters, no abilities, or if your commander grants your board trample (see Surrak Dragonclaw), this dino will be big trouble for your foes!

I could see this card included in a deck for The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride. Drawing twelve and putting up to twelve lands into play sounds good, right?

Red - Bulk Up

Next up, we get to a card that may or may not have inspired the name of this article series. Bulk Up might seem niche, but any beat down strategy, Dragon kindred, or especially Voltron deck could just end the game with this card. Even though the six-mana flashback cost seems steep, I do think most of your opponents will be taken by surprise when Bulk Up makes its second appearance of the game.

A commander like Slicer, Hired Muscle would love this card. Doubling the power of something that has double strike is intense, better bust out the calculator!

Multi-Color - Wardens of the Cycle

Looking at a couple multicolored spells before moving on to the reprints, Wardens of the Cycle is such a house. Not only is it an Elf and an outlaw, it also is a great callback to Deathreap Ritual. While I love that enchantment, I've found it hard to slot into creature-heavy graveyard decks.

Wardens of the Cycle however fits that strategy so well, and even though it doesn't trigger on each end step, this will stuff pad your life total or refill your hand, depending on what you need at the time.

Of course, if you have a Lathril, Blade of the Elves deck, this fits right in, but any graveyard deck will welcome these wardens into their ranks!

Multi-Color - Dreadwing Scavenger

Another card that fuels graveyard decks is Dreadwing Scavenger. This three-mana Nightmarish Bird loots whenever it enters the battlefield or attacks, and it can become more of a threat if you hit threshold! This makes it perfect for nesting in a blink deck or a reanimator deck, and it's especially strong with all the new threshold/Delirium synergies we've gotten in the past few sets.

Araumi of the Dead Tide is a bit of a niche deck, but I think Dreadwing Scavenger would work nicely in the early game, and would be insane if you encore it from your graveyard (so much looting...).

Notable Reprints

Moving on to some of the great reprints in the set. While some of these may look familiar, others may slip under the radar due to new art or having their rarity shifted from other sets. Since there are so many returning cards in this set, let's focus in on something every deck needs: removal.

Green - Reclamation Sage

First off, you know 'em, you love 'em: Reclamation Sage. This is one of the most played cards on EDHREC, and for good reason. Even though you may know what it does, you might not have enough copies to go in all your green decks, so next time you look through your bulk, keep an eye out for this one.

Blue - Imprisoned in the Moon

Here's a card that strikes fear in any player who relies on their commander: Imprisoned in the Moon. Recently downshifted from a rare to an uncommon, this enchantment provides a way to lock down a threat instead of simply removing it straight up, which can lead to reanimation or just recasting the removed piece. The victim you targeted with this can't be too mad, though: you did ramp them!

Black - Feed the Swarm

Next up is a black staple, Feed the Swarm. Removing a creature when you're in a pinch is great, but the ability to snipe an enchantment in mono-black is even better. A lot of black players' games have been saved by this simple common, and I, for one, welcome it back into our bulk piles...

Red - Abrade

Another great two-mana removal for two permanent types is Abrade. I've never had this in my hand and wished that it was something else. So many creatures in Commander die to three damage, and it seems that each set we get another crazy powerful artifact, so Abrade's staying power will continue to be proven time and time again.

White - Stroke of Midnight

Finally, the card that was on the tip of everyone's tongues as Wilds of Edraine was released, Stroke of Midnight. Three mana to deal with any nonland permanent is such a nice rate, with the only drawback being that 1/1 token your opponent gets to make. While this isn't a homerun on every level, it's a great silver bullet card to have in your collection for the next time someone rolls in with a kill-on-sight commander.

The Wrap Up

So there you have it, a short list of budget commons and uncommons to keep your eye out for while cracking into the new Foundations set. Even if the pack's rare might be lackluster, maybe there's treasure hiding in the cards you skipped over to get there.

Thank you for spending a little bit of time with me, but it looks like it's the stroke of midnight, so I need to transform into a 1/1 Human and head on out!