I was inspired by my friend Regis' Damia deck to see what I could do with such a powerful draw engine. It turned out to be ripe for a crushing quarters deck. At the time I made the deck, every card cost less than a quarter other than Damia.
My goal with the deck was to discard as much of my hand for value as possible to take full advantage or her draw back to seven ability. This is a new direction for me in commander as I never want to be close to having no cards in hand if possible. This is why it's so cheap to make an effective self discard deck.
Step 1 Discard.
There are a ton of cheap enchantments and creatures that allow you to discard for benefit.
This was my main discard engine. Two cards for a 2/2 zombie is a steep price, but not if you have a guaranteed refill to 7 cards in hand each turn. I just wait until right before my next turn when the coast is clear and clear out my hand to get a new one. It's like every day is Christmas!
When building on a budget you have to look for the added value in a card that is hidden in it's ability. Stronghold machinist turns any card into a counterspell. You can only use it once each round, but the value of the deterrence can't be ignored. Who's going to cast a spell at you when they can see the counter waiting on the board.
Finally a little insurance that I can get back some of the cards in my engine as needed. Again, this ability is undervalued because of the discard, but think of it as making every card in your deck into a one black mana regrowth for creatures.
Step 2 Make Stuff.
You know what I like better than value...More Value. There are plenty of cheap cards waiting to reward you for discarding. Let's see how much we can get for each discard.
With Drake Haven in play I get a 2/2 flying drake for 1 mana each time I discard.
Add in Faith of the devoted and I drain everyone for 2 life.
Add in Wharf infiltrator and now for each card I discard I can pay 4 mana to:
1. Drain my opponents for 2 life
2. Gain 2 life
3. Get a 2/2 flying drake
4. Get a 3/2 horror
I have plenty of mana to do this as Damia is heavy on cheap ramp to get her out early. Most of the cards in the deck are cheap to cast to make sure we can get down to no cards in hand each turn so there's plenty of mana to get all this value.
Step 3 Profit
How are you going to win with a bunch of cheap zombies, drakes and horrors? Well, knowing me it's not always going to be combat. I prefer the less direct means of death such as:
I don't know why he's so grim when I'm always so happy to see him. With Konrad in play, there's a chance my discards will deal damage to all my opponents. Then once I have a bunch of tokens in play it's time for his buddy in crime:
I got to give credit to Commander's Quarters Jank episode with Quest for the Janklord for this little beauty. Once I get him in play, I sacrifice everyone except Konrad for the first wave of damage. Sacrifice all of them to a free sac outlet (there are many in the deck, knowing me) Then I pull out my shiniest quarter or less card:
This is one of my new favorite jank cards. Now I get double the number of creatures back as they've gone to the graveyard twice once for Emrakuls Evangel and once to the sac outlet. I sac all of these again and I've dealt 4 damage for each creature I started with. So I basically have a win con at 11 creatures on the board including Konrad and Evangel which is easy for this deck to achieve through discard. I've also got some graveyard hate to help this along if I'm a little short on living creatures, a common problem for an aristocrat like myself.
Step 4 Protect Damia
Damia's gonna draw a lot of fire real quick, but being in sultai, there's tons of ways to protect her.
With so many token creatures out, let's put a free sac outlet on her that regenerates her. Gotta love a free sac outlet for 2 mana that protects our card draw.
Then we'll make her hexproof for less than a quarter. Don't ignore the +1/+1 counter effect on this. I nearly took out a player with commander damage from Damia with this and Trepanation blade on her (Trepanation blade mainly to make them discard cards to trigger Konrad).
One of the best all purpose protection auras out there for less than a quarter and just one black mana, because board wipes always find a way.
Damia was fun to build on a super tight budget and to play. Sultai is great for crushing quarters episodes mainly because there's decent ramp in green even under a quarter, decent counters in blue at any price and sac outlets a plenty in black. She fixes one of the hardest things to do on a budget, which is reliably draw. With so much card draw, it let me build a commander deck out of a lot of cards I wouldn't normally consider. Consider giving this gorgon a go. It won't hurt your wallet as much as it will hurt your opponents.
At the time I made this decklist, every card on it other than Damia was under a quarter. Prices may have changed since then.