It’s considered common knowledge that you can’t do ramp scout on a budget, after all its one of the most expensive decks in the game, requiring a ton of epics and legends. I disagree, while granted the end build is expensive it is possible to build a highly competitive cheap version of ramp scout. There are additional benefits that all of the cards we ask you to craft here see high level competitive play so you can trust that you aren’t wasting your dust on budget alternatives that delay getting to the end version. It is also easy to slide any legendaries you do acquire straight into the decklist, no changes in strategy required just put them in and have fun.

This deck only requires 5 epics to craft and zero legendaries. The 3 hist grove were monthly reward cards and so aren’t available in booster packs, you will need to fork up 1200 gems for them upfront, I recommend dusting some of the bad cards you get from the story mode to pay for it. The story mode gives you 1 thorn histmage for free, the other 2 can come a little slower as you earn the gems to pay for them. Every other epic and legendary comes from either the story mode or from the alduin and paarthurnax starter decks available in the store for 500 gold (a lot of the commons and rares are in these decks too if you’re missing them). You receive one starter deck at random for free upon completing the story mode. The soul gem cost on legend-decks is often misleading, as it will count cards as costing the full amount even if we plan to acquire them for free so don’t be too daunted by whatever figure this website is showing you.

You will need to craft a couple of additional commons and rares too depending on how your booster packs have fallen, scout’s report and soul tear are 2 cards that aren’t available through alternative means, with 3 soul tear being mandatory for this deck to function.

This build is heavily geared towards beating aggressive decks, a strategy I strongly advocate for beginners at the lower levels. If you wish to skew the deck in a slower direction you can remove the 3 midnight snack and 1 giant bat for 3 thieves guild recruits and the 3rd dovah of the voice (but don’t come complaining to me when someone rushes you down). If you wish to skew it further against aggressive decks you can remove 1 greybeard mentor, 1-2 dovah of the voice and possibly alduin for the 3rd giant bat and some number of crushing blows.

Upgrading your cards as you acquire more, I would recommend filling out a few of the epics, you will want a 3rd preserver of the root asap and a 2nd shadowfen priest is nice (available in the aela starter deck). I like 2 leaflurker and 2 shadowfen priest and a 3rd of either isn’t particularly important. For your legendaries odahviing is the priority with red bramman a close 2nd, red bramman can potentially be acquired through selecting the argonian portrait so I would hold off on crafting him until level 32. Next up is tazkad, I personally am not a big fan of tazkad in ramp scout but his unbelievable combo with soul tear can’t really be denied. That is a lot of unstoppable face damage if you keep bringing him back, larger each time. The last important legendary to craft is nahagliiv based on raw power and his dragon tag. Ungolim can be considered but is relatively unimportant and doesn’t make the cut in many end-game versions. Skeletal Dragons are useful but are ultimately replaceable and can be the last things you craft for the deck.

The dark brotherhood expansion is a significant boost in power level to ramp scout and your next gold purchase after the alduin and paarthurnax starter decks. Dark Guardian is a staple of end-game builds at the moment and sanctuary pet, astrid and brotherhood slayer all come in and out of popularity for ramp scout. Eclipse Baroness lets you move away from the shout based end-game, cutting dovah of the voice and greybeard mentor and feel free to experiment with gravesinger if you don’t have the high end legendaries yet. If you are interested in spending money on TESL then I recommend the brotherhood expansion.

If you know that ramp scout is for you then argonian is a fine portrait selection, if a little random. At level 24 and 32 you get a 50/50 between the underwhelming black marsh warden and the insane red bramman. If you win the red bramman at 24 I recommend changing your avatar to another race before 32. The argonian epic rewards are useful too with preserver of the root and shadowfen priest being some of the best hits you can get in the game.

If you would like to know more about what finished product ramp scouts look like I recommend checking out the https://betweenthelanes.net/ meta snapshots. I usually help write them and I can practically guarantee there will be a sample of ramp scout decklists on there for a long time to come.

If you read all the way to the end thanks guys. I’ll finish up as usual by plugging my stream where you can feel free to ask any questions regarding this guide or other aspects of the game.

https://www.twitch.tv/turquoiselink