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Budget Etched Champion Decks: Cheap Artifacts That Shine

If you love the idea of turning a humble artifact into a shield and a sword, Etched Champion is your backstage pass to a budget-friendly metalcraft theme 🧙‍♂️🔥. This rare artifact creature — an artifact Soldier with a deceptively stubborn 2/2 body — shows up in Modern Masters 2015 (MM2) with a simple, spicy trick: Metalcraft — This creature has protection from each color as long as you control three or more artifacts. That line isn’t just flavor; it’s a practical, cash-conscious engine for games that feel like a heist movie where you already stole the plan and now you’re wearing the armor. With a small constellation of cheap artifacts, Etched Champion can become an endurance engine that punishes expensive color-removal spells and punishes your opponent’s color-based removal. And in the process, you’ll have a deck that’s friendly to newer players and clings to a tighter budget 🧙‍♂️🎲.

Etched Champion at a glance

Three mana for a 2/2 artifact creature with a dramatic payoff — that’s the price-to-power ratio budget players adore. Etched Champion is colorless by nature, so it slots into any color pairing you favor, or even into a dedicated artifact shell that ignores color identity altogether. Its Metalcraft trigger is the heart of the deck building: once you have three or more artifacts on the battlefield, it’s protected from every color. That protection is not just theoretical—it’s a reliable shield against red blasts, blue counters, and green soaks. In a world where mass removal can swing games, having a creature that becomes effectively hexproof to every color after you’ve assembled a modest number of rocks is a huge value add for a budget build 🔥💎.

Assembling a metalcraft-led budget list

Building around Etched Champion doesn’t require big-ticket rares or mythics. The beauty of a budget artifact deck is the emphasis on cheap, repeatable fuel—think colorless ramp, cheaparlow artifact creatures, and a few resilient consistencies. A practical plan looks like this:

• Stock up on inexpensive rocks that help you hit the three-artifact threshold quickly. Think 0- or 1-mana artifacts and colorless mana sources that accelerate your board state without overspending.
• Fill space with resilient artifacts and token makers that you can recycle or reuse, maintaining a healthy board while you assemble your three-artifact setup.
• Include some low-cost removal or disruption to clear a path for Etched Champion to land and start counting down your opponent’s options — while you’re protected by its Metalcraft condition.
• Look for synergy with other colorless projects. A small cluster of cheap artifacts often synergizes with cards that reward you for possessing multiple artifacts, helping you reach the critical three-artifact mark more reliably.

Budget decks thrive on momentum and redundancy. Etched Champion rewards you for investing in a steady stream of artifacts rather than chasing flashy rares. It’s the kind of card that makes a kitchen-table brew feel like a tournament-ready plan, especially when you see it become a resilient, color-protecting engine mid-game 🧙‍♂️🎲.

Strategic angles and play patterns

In practice, you should lean into tempo and attrition. Put Etched Champion on the battlefield, then begin piling up artifacts to trigger its protection from color. Your goal is to weather early pressure and pivot into a board state where your opponent’s removal can’t easily erase your threat. You’ll often find that Etched Champion acts as both a midrange beater and a durable blocker — a rare combination for a budget deck. Because its protection extends to all colors while Metalcraft is active, you can afford to run a lean disruption suite that hits at just the right moments, preserving your artifacts while your foe stares at a difficult decision point 🛡️⚔️.

Texture-wise, this is where a budget list shines: you trade big flashy plays for reliable, repeatable turns. If your opponent overextends, Etched Champion can survive long enough to turn the tide, especially when your other artifacts offer stunted but consistent pressure or recycling options. The key is to keep three or more artifacts on the battlefield consistently—if you do, your color protections become real, and your opponent suddenly has to think twice before tapping a removal spell that could backfire on them later in the game 🔥💎.

Its predecessors were etched with the wisdom of ancients; its own etchings bear warnings of a future fraught with war. — Etched Champion flavor text

Flavor, art, and card design

Etched Champion isn’t just a power card; it’s a window into the era of Modern Masters 2015, when designers embraced the tactile vibe of artifacts in a modern context. The art by Igor Kieryluk captures a gleaming, rune-etched protector ready to leap into the fray, and the flavor text nods to the ancestral wisdom etched into the metal. The card’s rarity as a rare artifact creature is a nod to the enduring appeal of metalcraft in casual and commander circles. Its colorless nature invites fans to imagine all the color combinations it can inhabit, whether you’re piloting a dedicated artifact deck or weaving it into a broader colorless theme 🎨⚔️.

From a collector’s lens, Etched Champion sits at a friendly price point for non-foil and foil variants, with the data showing modest market values that make it approachable for budget enthusiasts. The synergy with a three-artifact threshold is not just a gameplay mechanic—it’s a design signal: a simple condition that unlocks meaningful protection and strategic depth, all without forcing players to grind for premium cards 🧙‍♂️💎.

Budget valuations and how to upgrade later

Right now, the card’s price reflects a practical entry point into an artifact-focused strategy, which makes it a smart starting point for new players exploring metalcraft. If you want to upgrade later, you can explore adding a few higher-tier (but still affordable) artifacts or splash into a single color to broaden removal options or add a commander-friendly twist. The core lesson remains the same: maximize the number of artifacts on the battlefield, then enjoy the protection that Etched Champion grants as your engine hums along 🔥🎲.

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