Budget 101: Mana Drain
At MTGRandom we define Casual Constructed as any format for which players construct decks out of the cards they happen to own or can easily obtain. Our group allows every Magic card ever printed, including silver-bordered ones, but we encourage each playgroup to make its own decisions about which cards to restrict or ban. The primary goal, after all, is for everyone to have fun.
Unless they pull X or Y out of a pack, most casual players have few, if any, opportunities to acquire more powerful and/or expensive cards, and even when they do, their wallets may not allow for it. Budget 101 highlights our suggested substitutes for cards that are out of reach for one reason or another. If having fun is the point, then we need the right cards to build the best decks possible ...
Mana Drain has been a chase card for years, and like most overpowered cards, its value has spiked even more since Wizards began actively supporting Commander in 2011. Even so, there’s no denying its efficiency; it has the same casting cost as Counterspell while yielding additional upside, something Control decks in particular will always want. It also epitomizes Blue’s penchant for producing colorless mana — see Apprentice Wizard et al. — and having that mana during your next main phase is a huge plus. Mana Drain’s current market price is $214.72.
Budget players have two options for Mana Drain-like effects. The first is Scattering Stroke, which carries a fairer mana cost (i.e. four mana, not two) for a counterspell that also offers the chance for mana production. The need to win a clash seems fairly steep at first; however, scry is now an evergreen mechanic, Ponder-type spells are frequent, if not routine, and cards like Sensei’s Divining Top make stacking your library easy enough in any event. All in all, the folks here at MTGRandom are happy to play Stroke in the right deck. Its current market price is $0.17.
The second option is Plasm Capture. For four mana, it allows you to generate mana in any combination of colors, and to do so without hoops, but it doesn't easily fit into a traditional Control deck. Moreover, it forces you to use that extra mana during only your precombat main phase, which may or may not suit your deck’s overall tempo. That said, as Green-Blue fans, we enjoy seeing this card in our hand, particularly given how easy it is to cast earlier than turn four via Green mana ramping. Plasm Capture’s current market price is $0.38.