Budget Nethroi (EDH / Commander)

Abzan decks are known for playing around their graveyard and an aristocratic style as well, but Nethroi is a different challenge from other decks that do the same. Many of those decks love large threats like Lord of Extinction or Sun Titan, and others like Tasigur, the Golden Fang use their graveyard as a second hand for constant interaction. With how Nethroi reanimates creatures, it seems most efficient to keep low to the ground with 0-2 power creatures to get the max value out of every mutation. And with a budget, that seems much easier, especially since Nethroi easily gets around mana costs with a simple 7-mana dump.

There's the regular ramp and deck thinning packages all commander decks need, though a good portion of these cards are creatures that mesh well with Nethroi as both Mutate targets and future value with things like Farhaven Elf and the Draw 1 walls.

For the targets you really want to hit with Nethroi, there's the Wide package and Big Hitters - self explanatory, but a few stand-out cards that seem to do the best are Biowaste Blob, Sweet-Gum Recluse, and Custodi Soulbinders. Great creatures I've always found use with.

The sacrifice package is there for when certain creatures become stale on the board, mainly the ETB cards. You could probably cut one of the outlets and a few of the payoffs for other scenarios, but I found this to be a good balance.

Interaction is interaction, but a nice card I found that combos extremely well with Nethroi is Slaughter of the Strong. Very efficient at destroying opposing boards at 3 mana and also keeps a good portion of your board in tact, specifically Doomed Artisan and your death payouts like Zulaport Cutthroat.

But the most important card out of all of these, in my opinion, is Jeskai Barricade. Its ETB Bounce effect on a creature makes it perfect for Nethroi as one of this deck's major issues is how expensive Nethroi takes to cast just once, let alone two or three times if your opponents have counters, board wipes, and graveyard hate. Not to mention dodging stax effects like Drannith Magistrate since Nethroi already dodges other stax like Hushbringer and Cursed Totem. Jeskai Barricade is personally my favorite answer to get around stax, commander tax, and graveyard hate. This deck relies heavily on Nethroi continuously coming down, and a single Bojuka Bog or targeted GY hate can really set each mutation back. But if Nethroi's in your hand, it dodges all of it. The Barricade also resets etb effects, has 0 power for free reanimation by Nethroi, and (best of all) is very unassuming to your opponents. So it might not be the thing they try and take out with an exile effect.

The Maybeboard is the budget Fabricate and Modular package that could fit into the deck, though I don't like them as much as the other options this deck has.