Ultra Budget Meria (EDH / Commander)

Here is my take on a very budget version of a Maria, Scholar of antiquity. I challenged myself to no include a single card that is a dollar or more (heck most are under 0.50$) resulting in a deck that is going for about 40USD. What's the difference between this deck and any other 40$ pile of card you ask? well this deck actually wins surprisingly fast.

Two words: Affinity Voltron. Name of the game is to play as many artifacts as possible, with quite a few of them being equipments. Then your commander gets out, arms herself and go to town. This would usually be a quite slow strategy, but thanks to our commander's ability, our cheap artifact fill the role of mana rocks and usually give you access to 6+ mana on turn 4. And it only gets better from here as each artifact you play add one more mana to our pool. The other ability of our commander also insure us that we never run out of fuel.

Now I separate equipments into 3 categories: Protection, Evasion and Buff.

First is protection. Mirror shield and Mask of Avacyn Will ensure that our commander don't fall to removal. Sanctuary blade can also give you protection from one color, so if you see a lot of white, black or red (Blasphemous Act Wink Wink) at the table, those would be good guesses.

Then we have Evasion. Anything that gives Flying, Trample, or anything that helps us dodge blockers (See Skyblinder Staff or Saddle of the Cavalier) is a good equip. First-Strike (And Double-Strike) is not exactly evasion, but will ensure we can swing without loosing the interaction.

And finally, any artifact that are either very cheap (Bronze Cudgels, Strength-Testing Hammer) and/or give a decent boost (Argentum Armor, Moonsilver spear) round up the rest of the equipments. (Oh yeah, Golem-skin gauntlets is a perfect exemple of filling both role)

As for the other artifact, I didn't just blindly fill the deck with 1-drop artifact (But there's a few). I wanted my small artifacts to have an use in a pinch. Also, anything that cantrips on ETB is pretty good, but even there I only ran the ones with useful effects.

Also here are the not so obvious good inclusions that I am glad are under a dollar:

Traxos, Scourge of Kroog and Battered Golem: Whenever you cast an artifact, these will untap, which mean more mana/exile-draw. with a mana-reducer like Jhoira's familiar and foundry inspector, this can go very wild very quick.

Kazuul's Toll collector and Fervent Champion: Your backup voltron bullies for when your commander as been put out of commision. These can come down, equip EVERY equipments for free (Or very very cheap) and then finish the job your commander couldn't.

Red sun's Zenith: You will often do 15+ damage with this. Like take a look at X spells in general, this deck can easily take a few more than I currently run.

Key to the city: You can tap this with your commander and then draw a card when it untap, which mean this card become a pure draw engine when you don't need the unblockable, which is also very good.

Scaretiller: Another tap target for your commander, and the reason why I run evolving wilds, terramorphic expanse, ash barrens and shire terrace. an extra land will help if your commander gets dealt with. It also lets us reuse buried ruin.

Snow lands? For Arcum's astrolabe? Really?: Hey... if you want an even more budget list you can run regular basics. Pretty sure you cut like 10$ just by doing that. 10$ you could use to get cards like:
Colossus hammer: which is the best 1-cost equip you can run
Saheeli's directive: which is an x-spell that will usually put down 6+ artifact on the board (My personnal best is 21)
Bloodforged Battle-Axe: which usually is hard to equip when it copies too much, but in this deck too much is like 16 insted of 4.
Howling mine: can be tapped with our commander which mean we're the only one drawing from this.
Mystic Forge: I mean, just read the card. combined with your commander's ability, how many card do you think you're casting?
Ugin, the ineffable: Basically transforms our deck into a cheeri0 deck, and good god with mystic forge it is insane. You will cast your entire deck, not even exaggerating.
Blinkmoth Urn: Yet ANOTHER artifact that our commander can tap so that only us get to use, removing its downside.
Dance with calamity: I'd cut Metalwork colossus, but yeah I easily see myself casting 5+ artifacts off of this.
Sol ring: I mean, it is over a dollar and you probably already have it. Run it, shouldn't have to explain that one.
Liberator, urza's battlethopter: Flash on artifact is no joke
Unwinding clock: This is why flash on artifact is no joke.
Or just a better mana base.

Anyway thanks for looking at my decklist. I've had a lot of fun building it AND playing it. I am really ashamed to say it actually beats most of my other commanders which aren't budget at all. Watch out for Vandalblast and Cleansing nova!