I can't enter weekday tournaments anymore sadly (the 9-5 job thing kinda tears a hole in that plan) but I can always offer suggestions:
Red Deck Wins is currently Mr. Win, and it's relatively cheap to build. 4-ofs of a ton of the best standard burn spells, a Koth if you own one, and maybe some Hasty sideways-turners (Goblin Guides are a must, and only cost around $5 apiece these days). If you want something cheap and winning, it's the deck to run.
Check out the Wizards and GathererMagic articles if you're interested in additional info, alternatively there's deckcheck.de for decklists and whatnot. Showing up to watch a tournament and asking players questions is also a pretty good way to learn a thing or two about the current meta, the guys are often pretty helpful (both the players and the staff) all you have to do is be friendly and don't bug them while they're in the middle of a match.
I'd help more but unfortunately I am not quite as up to date as I used to be on the Standard format, although I hear U/B control, even post-Jace2.0-banning is doing pretty well (although with the current mana base and need for Jace1.0 playsets it might be a tad on the pricey list for a budget decklist).
Hope that helps!
Thu Jul 07, 2011 1:59 pm