Castle Phoenix is probably the most economical - Since the ICE came out, the Phoenix can be had for a little less than before. There is also the Jeti (don't know which models have all the features - pretty sure the Jeti Spin does) and you may be able to still find an Atlas, which I think Wil Hubin said works pretty well. The Hackers are (or used to be) re-labelled Jeti's. None are 'inexpensive' compared to the Chinese ones, but really not that bad.
I really must stress that Governor mode is not absolutely necessary - I've been flying a Twister on a 3-cell setup with a Super Simple 50 amp ESC and a Hubin timer (with the throttle 'advance' feature). I have done more complete patterns in the past year than in the previous 10 years combined (all glow powered). I have also used a JMP-2 timer, which also has the advance feature, as does the Z-tron (don't know which model). If you can somehow account for the battery droop, you can get a system that will fly through the pattern. I use 4200 mah (3s2p) and 3700 mah (3s1p) batteries and set the timer for 5:20. Power through the 4-leaf is more than adequate. When Spring gets here, I will be starting to get a 4-cell setup going and have a Phoenix 45 for it, but a minimal amount of testing done late last fall showed that while it is noticeably better than the old setup through manuevers, it isn't absolutely necessary.
A smaller (30 amp) system, flown mostly for sport, is also flying well - though un-governed. This is the one that I have tried 3 different Chinese ESC's - supposedly with governor - on, including one of the Turnigy's (Plush, I believe). Like I said above, none of them actually governed nor had any method of setting a governed RPM. One of them - supposedly a 'heli' model - would only run the motor at about 2000 RPM in Governor mode, though it worked normally with Governor mode turned off. The Plush and one other didn't appear to have any effect whatsoever with Governor mode turned on, versus with it off.