So this deck has a bit of a story. Originally I wanted it to be a GU deck based around lands. I sadly no long have the deck list, but it used cards like Coiling Oracle, Ior Ruin and Khalni Heart Expedition to pump up a Vinelasher Kudzu, then Trade Routes to get the lands in my graveyard to pump Terravore, and had some Sphinx of Magosi as a alternative wincon. While I liked the theme of the deck, it just never seemed to work very well; the pieces of the puzzle just weren't there. Any tweaking I did didn't seem to help much, and I found myself taking more and more blue away. I didn't want to scrap the deck, but it was clear that it wasn't gonna work in it's current form.
I tried going monogreen, but only having access to 4 cycle lands hurt the deck. I tried doing G/, as white has a decent number of land tutor cards, but never quite got it to a build I was happy with. G/ got kicked around, but I just didn't see the tools needed to make it work.
Then, I reread Terravore and noticed something I'd always glossed over: "Terravore’s power and toughness are each equal to the number of land cards in all graveyards." Suddenly, it all seemed so obvious, and I set out making it R/.
I still wanted the focus to be on getting lands into MY OWN graveyard, so I limited myself to land destruction spells that still accomplished that. I also decided to splash white at the last second, replacing the Vinelashers with the Knight of the Reliquarys, as they're more reliable (Vinelashers suck if you don't get them out in the first 3 turns), and opted to run Riftstone Portal over any Plains, as they also allow my Evolving Wilds' and Ghost Quarters to tap for colored mana.
31 lands may seem excessive at first, but not when you break it down: 10 of those are cycle lands, which ideally should never actually be put into play. 4 are Evolving Wilds, so those don't stick around very long. The 3 Riftstone Portals want to be in the graveyard more than anything, and the Petrified Fields and Ghost Quarters aren't really meant to be used as lands. So, all told, there's only about 9 lands that I actually want to play, and have stay out.
It still has some glaring weaknesses. For one, it has no direct way to deal with creatures, so if my opponent has something in the flying or some other form of evasion, I can't touch it. In fact, I have no "control" elements at all apart from LD. I pretty much have no way of doing anything direct to my opponent.
I'm not trying to make this deck competitive in any way, I just want it to be good, as well as fun to play with (and hopefully against). Suggestions are welcome.
I played a deck competitively back in Extended immediately before the banning of Sensei's Divining Top. It was called Confinement-Assault-Loam, and it was a blast to play (though I built it, got to play it twice coming t16 each time and then Top got banned which meant Life from the Loam was high-risk and ruined the consistency of the deck). It had a very similar concept to yours, and if you'd like to read further, I can share my experience of this pet deck with you.
Mine ran 26 lands, if I recall right, and I can only seem to find partial lists laying around my office, but for the most part this is what I ran:
There's 3-4 cards missing, but this seems what I played back then. I fixed it up for Legacy, bombed out at two SCGs with it (Devastating Dreams doesn't cut it in a format full of free/cheap counterspells as being double-Dazed is GG) and then made it something like this for casual play:
Truth be told, I actually wound up moving Strip Mine and Balance OUT of this deck because, well, it's too damned powerful. Cataclysm is a decent replacement without being obscene and still pecks away at lands too.
The original plan of the deck was, game 1, land a kill method while shoving as many lands into the graveyard as possible, build up to four lands and then bring as many lands back to hand as possible (while still keeping a creature on field, in Terravore's case) and still cast Devastating Dreams in the same turn. In normal games against Faeries, if they tapped out for any reason, the game would be over as pitching 3-4 cards to Dreams would wipe their fields and eliminate their lands with only my huge-ass Terravore left in play and them without enough mana to Vedalken Shackles it anymore. Game 2, the goal was to buy some turns with Solitary Confinement and either land a wincon a la the creatures or burn them from behind the Confinement with Seismic Assault with Burning Wish to fetch any necessary bullets to finish the job.
Getting a Devastating Dreams countered by a Force of Will is probably once of the saddest things ever, especially if the dude had 2 cards left in hand exactly and already played 2 Forces earlier in the game. Just wanted to let you know lol.
The casual iteration of the deck does about the same thing, land a win condition and then Cataclysm/Armageddon to shut the opponent out, usually only leaving them with a creature and land (Shattering Spree, Tranquility and Hull Breach pulled via Wish if its a problem) or no land at all while you bleed them out by keeping a fistful of lands and continue dropping threats. Now, while most of the time my creatures are significantly larger, it does fail when larger dudes are dropped that you can't handle (Darksteel Colossus for example)- and Confinement isn't meant to be a permanent solution, just to buy turns so if you actually let your opponent get that far and you can't burn them out with Seismic Assault, it's GG. Not exactly the most competitive deck in the world anymore (as its an Extended port) and Reanimator, Sneak Show and about a billion other decks do better, but it's still a lot of fun to play casually even against the aforementioned decks because if you're given an inch, you take a mile, easily.
Yeah, like I said, not exactly planning on taking this to any tournaments, just want something "competitive" within a casual play circle. Shocklands, the original duallands, and the fetchlands are all a bit out of my price range, but if I ever got a hold of any of them, I'm sure I'd play them. Though I actually playtested with the fetchlands, and I found they were pretty unnecessary.
Countryside Crusher is a good suggestion, I may try to work some of those in. I worry they have the same problem as Vinelasher Kudzu in that they aren't very effective late-game, but I could do some playtesting in MWS and see. I also may look into adding either Devastating Dreams or Seismic Assault, as having some form of direct damage or board wipe would be very beneficial, and still fits the deck. Maybe borrow your Burning Wish/"silver bullet" sideboard idea.
Thresher Beast- this guy is awesome! 4/4 for :3mana::symg::symg: that if blocked defending player sacrifice a land... else, they'll take four to the face. combined the Sustenance
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I tried going monogreen, but only having access to 4 cycle lands hurt the deck. I tried doing G/, as white has a decent number of land tutor cards, but never quite got it to a build I was happy with. G/ got kicked around, but I just didn't see the tools needed to make it work.
Then, I reread Terravore and noticed something I'd always glossed over: "Terravore’s power and toughness are each equal to the number of land cards in all graveyards." Suddenly, it all seemed so obvious, and I set out making it R/.
3x Secluded Steppe
4x Tranquil Thicket
3x Ghost Quarter
2x Petrified Field
3x Riftstone Portal
4x Evolving Wilds
3x Forgotten Cave
6x Forest
3x Mountain
3x Loaming Shaman
4x Terravore
4x Eternal Witness
4x Knight of the Reliquary
Spells
3x Raze
3x Crop Rotation
3x Scorched Earth
4x Edge of Autumn
2x Realms Uncharted
31 lands may seem excessive at first, but not when you break it down: 10 of those are cycle lands, which ideally should never actually be put into play. 4 are Evolving Wilds, so those don't stick around very long. The 3 Riftstone Portals want to be in the graveyard more than anything, and the Petrified Fields and Ghost Quarters aren't really meant to be used as lands. So, all told, there's only about 9 lands that I actually want to play, and have stay out.
It still has some glaring weaknesses. For one, it has no direct way to deal with creatures, so if my opponent has something in the flying or some other form of evasion, I can't touch it. In fact, I have no "control" elements at all apart from LD. I pretty much have no way of doing anything direct to my opponent.
I'm not trying to make this deck competitive in any way, I just want it to be good, as well as fun to play with (and hopefully against). Suggestions are welcome.
Mine ran 26 lands, if I recall right, and I can only seem to find partial lists laying around my office, but for the most part this is what I ran:
4x Countryside Crusher
3x Eternal Witness
3x Seismic Assault
3x Solitary Confinement
3x Sensei's Divining Top
4x Burning Wish
3x Devastating Dreams
3x Life from the Loam
4x Stomping Ground
4x Sacred Foundry
4x Wooded Foothills
4x Tranquil Thicket
4x Forgotten Cave
1x Mountain
1x Forest
1x Devastating Dreams
1x Life from the Loam
3x Shattering Spree
2x Hull Breach
4x Wrath of God
1x Cleanfall
2x Morningtide
There's 3-4 cards missing, but this seems what I played back then. I fixed it up for Legacy, bombed out at two SCGs with it (Devastating Dreams doesn't cut it in a format full of free/cheap counterspells as being double-Dazed is GG) and then made it something like this for casual play:
4x Countryside Crusher
4x Knight of the Reliquary
3x Eternal Witness
2x Armageddon
3x Cataclysm
3x Life from the Loam
4x Burning Wish
3x Solitary Confinement
2x Seismic Assault
3x Sensei's Divining Top
4x Plateau
4x Wooded Foothills
1x Mountain
1x Forest
3x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine
4x Tranquil Thicket
4x Forgotten Cave
1x Devastating Dreams
1x Life from the Loam
1x Armageddon
1x Balance
2x Wrath of God
1x Cataclysm
2x Morningtide
1x Paraselene
3x Shattering Spree
2x Hull Breach
Truth be told, I actually wound up moving Strip Mine and Balance OUT of this deck because, well, it's too damned powerful. Cataclysm is a decent replacement without being obscene and still pecks away at lands too.
The original plan of the deck was, game 1, land a kill method while shoving as many lands into the graveyard as possible, build up to four lands and then bring as many lands back to hand as possible (while still keeping a creature on field, in Terravore's case) and still cast Devastating Dreams in the same turn. In normal games against Faeries, if they tapped out for any reason, the game would be over as pitching 3-4 cards to Dreams would wipe their fields and eliminate their lands with only my huge-ass Terravore left in play and them without enough mana to Vedalken Shackles it anymore. Game 2, the goal was to buy some turns with Solitary Confinement and either land a wincon a la the creatures or burn them from behind the Confinement with Seismic Assault with Burning Wish to fetch any necessary bullets to finish the job.
Getting a Devastating Dreams countered by a Force of Will is probably once of the saddest things ever, especially if the dude had 2 cards left in hand exactly and already played 2 Forces earlier in the game. Just wanted to let you know lol.
The casual iteration of the deck does about the same thing, land a win condition and then Cataclysm/Armageddon to shut the opponent out, usually only leaving them with a creature and land (Shattering Spree, Tranquility and Hull Breach pulled via Wish if its a problem) or no land at all while you bleed them out by keeping a fistful of lands and continue dropping threats. Now, while most of the time my creatures are significantly larger, it does fail when larger dudes are dropped that you can't handle (Darksteel Colossus for example)- and Confinement isn't meant to be a permanent solution, just to buy turns so if you actually let your opponent get that far and you can't burn them out with Seismic Assault, it's GG. Not exactly the most competitive deck in the world anymore (as its an Extended port) and Reanimator, Sneak Show and about a billion other decks do better, but it's still a lot of fun to play casually even against the aforementioned decks because if you're given an inch, you take a mile, easily.
Sig and Avatar drawn by me.
Countryside Crusher is a good suggestion, I may try to work some of those in. I worry they have the same problem as Vinelasher Kudzu in that they aren't very effective late-game, but I could do some playtesting in MWS and see. I also may look into adding either Devastating Dreams or Seismic Assault, as having some form of direct damage or board wipe would be very beneficial, and still fits the deck. Maybe borrow your Burning Wish/"silver bullet" sideboard idea.
Sustenance- a quick boost at the cost of a land.
Thresher Beast- this guy is awesome! 4/4 for :3mana::symg::symg: that if blocked defending player sacrifice a land... else, they'll take four to the face. combined the Sustenance
King of Misfortune & Master of Rocket Launchers
"Do ya feel lucky? Because you'd better start runnin' while you still can."
375 Misfortune {+3 signed AP's} & 104 Rocket Launcher (41 AQ/ 63 Rev)
Edgar Rice Burroughs, forgotten legend of the word.