Hey it's me again! I originally wrote the Child of Alara lands.dec primer before handing it over to my good pal crimhead after I retired the deck.
I'm back again, and I couldn't stay away from the archetype! My tastes have returned to a fun, rampy jank deck that hopes to win in many different ways by jamming multiple combos and synergies into one piles of cards! The focus here is on the Gitgood Monster and throwing/blasting lands at our opponents! It's still very much a Work in Progress, as I find what works and what doesn't, and acquire some of the more pricey cards like Azusa, Lost but Seeking after having sold the deck to pay rent!
Alternative Generals
Child of Alara This goes without saying, heck, I created the primer for this deck! The Maze's end wincon is the most consistent wincon for this style of deck, so losing it is rough. However, it can be slow and requires Amulet of Vigor to win the turn you drop Scapeshift. Dropping blue and white gives us an easier land base to work with, however we lose white's protection, tutors, and synergies. We dont lose much from blue, however. Also Child is a much stronger general for the strategy, however, this specific brew uses more non-land permanents, so Child actually isn't as important a piece to lose to gain consistency.
Adun Oakenshield Highly overpriced, he offers us a Genesis style recursion. I dont find it particularly better or worse than Xira to motivate me to purchase him, but he may be better. He would run the same style of deck.
Phelddagrif / Derevi, Empyrial Tactician If you want to run Bant, these two generals are probably solid choices, given the hate they can draw, it's iffy. As I've stated above with Child of Alara, I dont find blue strong enough for this archetype to justify running Bant or including blue at all.
Honestly, Xira is ran specifically for the colors. Not that she's the worst thing in the world. She blocks a single flying creature herself, and in a pinch, can draw a card. It doesnt happen often, but it is an option! My last Lands.dec brew was thematically all five colors (see the Child of Alara primer, I originally wrote it!), and I jammed in all of the good tutors and fun lands-matter cards in those colors. A year or two after retiring the deck, one of my good friends built Naya and then Jund lands.dec once The Gitrog Monster was spoiled. He had fun with it, but eventually took it apart. Through that, I cannibalized his deck and re-brewed this archetype that I had helped make famous through this site.
It seems many others on reddit and Salvaton here have had the same idea of experimenting with lands.dec in the wedge colors, typically Naya, Bant, or Jund. I personally think Naya is one of the better color combinations due to all that white offers, in protection for your lands, additional tutors, etc. However, black grants us raw card draw, the best tutors in the game, and now, The Gitrog Monster. Before Gitrog, despite the card draw and tutors, white would probably be more solid for the gameplan. Gitrog offers us an engine that can allow us to win, and another excuse to run Kozelik 1.0, without sacrificing deckslots to dead cards. They're just less than stellar!
Why Xira? Lands.dec?
You might like this deck if
You enjoy ramping
You enjoy playing highly synergistic cards and combo
You enjoy playing from your graveyard
You might dislike this deck if
You dislike combo, if so, you can drop the combo pieces for more high CMC creatures that help impact the board more!
You dislike ramping, some players dont enjoy shuffling and tutoring. This makes sense, and if so, this isn't the deck for you
You dislike having few creatures in play. This deck doesnt run many creatures, and they tend to be either single high value targets or small, insignificant creatures.
Current Brew Status:
I'm looking to make room for a card like Explore or perhaps another basic land or two, as I not only want to dump lands, but continue to draw through the deck quickly, usually not for specific spells in particular, but just more options. The deck naturally draws into combos or the tutor to complete a combo and it's super fluid and fun when it "goes off". However, a lack of lands or a lack of specific colored lands is the issue in cycling through the deck. This deck fails when it bricks on land/colors/card quantity. Tireless Tracker has been an all star as an engine that dissuades anything but a mass attack on us, being a threat piece, and all the while a solid draw engine.
Borborygmos Enraged Allows us to pitch lands to kill problem creatures and ping players. He's a huge threat in himself outside of his activated ability too!
Omnath, Locus of Rage An amazing creature that rewards us for playing more lands and makes it dangerous to wipe our board.
Oracle of Mul Daya Oracle helps us ramp harder and dig deeper through our deck for lands. Depending on the board and if you plan on using Loam or Borborymos, it's best to just get the lands out there rather than drawing them.
Realm Seekers A late game beater combined with a mana dump that allows us to find combo pieces.
Solemn Simulacrum Soaks damage, finds us a land to ramp us (at a key turn no doubt, we usually slow down come 4-5 lands), and replaces himself.
Tireless Tracker Much like our other landfall creatures, this guy gets big and makes Clues, which are overcosted draw effects, but gives us a mana dump.
Ulvenwald Hydra ydra I want to try as a way to more quickly get my combos online as well as providing a relevant body to block with.
Enchantments
Burgeoning One of the most powerful cards in our deck, it allows us to ramp as hard as we are able, particularly in the early game. This allows for faster, more explosive blowouts via our wincons.
Exploration One mana ramp spell that keeps us dumping our hands and ramping throughout the game.
Pernicious Deed All purpose rattlesnake that tends to affect our opponents more than it does us. The beauty of the deck is this piece can be sacrificed in the mid to late game once we've reaped the value of Exploration and similar ramp/draw engines for more efficient ones to reset our opponents' boards.
Phyrexian Arena Slow but consistent card draw at the cost of a little life. This would be replaced by Necropotence, but we dont want to risk exiling combo pieces. The largest disadvatange of either choice is the double black mana cost, which can be difficult early on.
Prismatic Omen Combo piece with Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle. It also helps us color fix. I tend to only drop this as part of the combo. If I do otherwise, it's to color fix when I cant/dont expect to need the combo and can allow it to eat removal over another, more valuable permanent.
Seismic Assault Wincon via The Gitrog Monster. It's also incredible thematic and turns hands of mana flood (assuming we can color fix for RRR) into removal.
Sylvan Library Card quality filtering, with the added bonus of paying 4 life to draw additional cards.
Artifacts
Crucible of Worlds Usually allows us to replay fetch lands and recur some lands our opponents destroy. It's a huge rattlesnake, but also incredibly valuable to our gameplan. Synergy with Zuran Orb and Glacial Chasm.
Expedition Map An excellent turn 1-2 play if we lack green sources, but can also fetch missing combo pieces.
Horn of Greed An incredibly fun group hug effect that tends to benefit us the most.
Mind's Eye An expensive, but high quality draw engine that benefits the amount of excess mana we tend to have. This is in the testing phases
Sol Ring Solid ramp piece, as our mana curve is around 3.23.
Entomb This is the trickiest tutor in the deck, and I often hesitate to use it. It's best utilized when we can return a partiuclar land from the graveyard, or reanimate the Gitrog monster.
Nissa, Vital Force This planeswalker excited me out the gate in the spoilers, and hasn't disappointed. I typically +1 her, then -5 her to make her emblem. Her -3 aint shabby either if we absolutely need it, but that emblem is so good with this deck. Helps us have an engine our opponents cant interact with.
Hydra replaces sage as I'm good in my meta on hate cards. Usually dont need as many. Hydra I want to try as a way to more quickly get my combos online as well as providing a relevant body to block with. Temple of the False God comes in to replace Kessing as Kessing rarely was impactful. Temple just gives us lots of manas.
Garruk runs into the same issue as most walkers in EDH: If he doesnt have a huge immediate impact, he will be removed and not be worth his mana cost. Here, we rarely have blockers up to protect him, and even then, our new ramp options like Lotus Cobra have done what he does, but better, and at less risk. I've always wanted to try out Realm Seekers as a way to tutor up combo pieces like Dakmor Salvage or Valakut
I was missing Genesis in games where my key creatures got removed prior to comboing or mid combo. Safekeeper was there to protect my creatures, but never was needed or appeared when I didnt need him. He's better as one of the 99 with Gitrog as the helm.
I'm still trying to nab a Fire-Lit Thicket. In any case, I'd like to say at this point, I'm finding the deck is hitting its stride. I'm not usually starved for lands or card advantage, Lotus Cobra is downright fantastic, and things are good. If I had to make another change, I'd change out Reclamation Sage for another filter land or place Genesis back in.
R&S is a placeholder for Fire-Lit Thicket. Inkmoth Nexus was a proxied alternate wincon that took too much to get off the ground. I find it hard enough to get to enough lands to Scapeshift or make Avenger of Zendikar relevant, let alone the 13 or so you need to one shot someone. (11 for Kessing buff including Kessing, 2 for Inkmoth including Inkmoth)
Reap and Sow is still a fun card I wanna test to see if the Entwine is solid at nabbing us a relevant land straight into play along with removing some problem land.
Paradise has screwed more over more than it's ability to trigger landfall consistently has been useful (or its color making ability) due to being a huge tempo loss early if its my only green source. So lets add in the last fetch we need. Cobra replaces grip as we need more ramp, less removal.
We need more ramp, and I dont have issues getting flooded with lands so often that these creatures are needed in addition to my other, similar effects except on rare occasion. It goes to the maybeboard, and nature's lore comes in (over Sylvan Scrying surprisingly enough) to help us ramp more. I need colored mana early, and I need it into play, not necessarily into my hand. Putting it into my hand is nice, but I still need to play it.
Another "put a land into play" creature was cut since they're typically dead cards. Typically. We shall see. In any case, it does hurt to cut Baloths, as he has some great synergy with the deck. But, we are adding in cycling lands to abuse with Life from the loam to make an expensive, but synergistic engine. One that's been working out pretty well for the deck.
This deck is by no means fast or deadly, but it sure is fun.
Removed underperforming cards. We have too many spells and not enough lands. I want to eventually put in every cycling land, and well, I dont own them all yet. However, Explore will be tested in the place of Gardener. Usually he would get one or two activations off anyway. His flip side is also too slow even for casual tables to make an impact. Council was also slow and was there for our big Landfall/late game creatures to return lands to our hand for a big windfall of explosiveness, but I cant even get to that point yet.
Despite recursion being powerful, I tend to have too much of it. I also have too many "place a land into play" cards, but I wanna ensure I can ramp hard and fast. It may end I drop one of those for more lands or for more land tutors. For now, I find I brick hard on 4-6 lands and durdle, unable to topdeck more land. So I need more lands.
I need more ways to dig through the deck, funny enough, while still having "Land" cards. I run too few of them! It's tough to make cuts, but Worm Harvest was the weakest link, never really able to make a difference. Either the graveyard gets exile, or I cant get there. Could be in the future I retool the deck to take advantage of Beastmaster's Ascension to fix that issue, but for now, nope. Connections is too slow, and not ideal card draw. Skyshroud Claim is absolutely necessary as I test, since we tend to brick around 3-4 lands and need a way to continue placing lands into play.
Ghirapur Orrery wasn't performing well since I was rarely at less than three cards. Also helping opponents is no bueno. Dark Depths is a no-brainer, which gives us another huge threat and wincon!
Removed Noxious too soon. It's still solid as a 2 life instant speed savior of something being exiled, like LftL. Mina and Denn, again, were a flex slot that was pretty overcosted for its effect. Azusa, Lost but Seeking for Courser of Kruphix. Azusa actually allows us to play additional lands, whereas Courser only allows it from the top of the deck. That being said, the lifegain can be important, but ultimately doesnt help us win the game, but just allows us to recover the life we pay for fetching lands, our card draw, etc.
I'm retooling the deck away from trying to copy Gitrog combo, and focusing on the lands aspect. While these cards can work, I can make it work without them with Loam/Borgy.
Mina and Denn are a flex slot for Seer's Sundial as well. Just seeing how much Draw vs play extra land cards I need.
Farseek and Claim net me my duals and help us ramp harder outside of creatures/enchantments.
Walking Atlas is another creature to keep our face and walkers safe, while helping us ramp. His added bonus is not needing green in our opening hand!
Finally, signal the clans is a fun card that allows us to find one or more wincons for two mana.
Strict upgrade for the frog. Sage comes in for more ways to deal with stax pieces and blood moon effects. Revival is necessary to help us keep things from being exiled or to replay things.
Crypt wasnt super helpful and was murdering me pretty fast. Strip mine comes in as a target to grab when people Tempt to Discovery at the table. Wastes might come back,but for now, Inkmoth Nexus comes in as another wincon to win via Kessing. And I was missing a card, so Green Sun's Zenith is added as a test slot while i wait for Pucatrades to come in.
I've really been enjoying playing this deck. Unlike my last 5c lands archetype, I find all of the tutors and draw keep your hand full of things to cast. I however do wish there was more removal and better ways to assemble the gitgood combo. I will be working on this deck this week and hope to make some solid changes.
Crypt wasnt super helpful and was murdering me pretty fast. Strip mine comes in as a target to grab when people Tempt to Discovery at the table. Wastes might come back,but for now, Inkmoth Nexus comes in as another wincon to win via Kessing. And I was missing a card, so Green Sun's Zenith is added as a test slot while i wait for Pucatrades to come in.
Strict upgrade for the frog. Sage comes in for more ways to deal with stax pieces and blood moon effects. Revival is necessary to help us keep things from being exiled or to replay things.
I'm retooling the deck away from trying to copy Gitrog combo, and focusing on the lands aspect. While these cards can work, I can make it work without them with Loam/Borgy.
Mina and Denn are a flex slot for Seer's Sundial as well. Just seeing how much Draw vs play extra land cards I need.
Farseek and Claim net me my duals and help us ramp harder outside of creatures/enchantments.
Walking Atlas is another creature to keep our face and walkers safe, while helping us ramp. His added bonus is not needing green in our opening hand!
Finally, signal the clans is a fun card that allows us to find one or more wincons for two mana.
Removed Noxious too soon. It's still solid as a 2 life instant speed savior of something being exiled, like LftL. Mina and Denn, again, were a flex slot that was pretty overcosted for its effect. Azusa, Lost but Seeking for Courser of Kruphix. Azusa actually allows us to play additional lands, whereas Courser only allows it from the top of the deck. That being said, the lifegain can be important, but ultimately doesnt help us win the game, but just allows us to recover the life we pay for fetching lands, our card draw, etc.
Ghirapur Orrery wasn't performing well since I was rarely at less than three cards. Also helping opponents is no bueno. Dark Depths is a no-brainer, which gives us another huge threat and wincon!
Glad you are playing a Lands again Grom! The new deck looks sweet - I linked it in the old primer.
Oh shoot I totally forgot to tell ya! Yep a buddy of mine had a leftover jund/naya lands deck he let me pick pieces from. I decided to do jund to include the black tutors/draw/frog! It's a blast, about as fun as playing the 5c old build you guys still are working on! I love your changes! And thanks for the link buddy!
Many games I hit the issue of too many non-land cards, and getting mana screwed. This should help bring down the curve while still fetching us land.
I'm looking to make room for a card like Explore or perhaps another basic land or two, as I not only want to dump lands, but continue to draw through the deck quickly, usually not for specific spells in particular, but just more options. The deck naturally draws into combos or the tutor to complete a combo and it's super fluid and fun when it "goes off". However, a lack of lands or a lack of specific colored lands is the issue in cycling through the deck. This deck fails when it bricks on land/colors/card quantity. Tireless Tracker has been an all star as an engine that dissuades anything but a mass attack on us, being a threat piece, and all the while a solid draw engine.
I'd like a Tribe scout, honestly I'm considering cutting one or two of those effects for more lands or more tutors. They tend to clog my hand alot. Atlas has the added advantage of being useful without green sources, which happens.
Scrying I cut early on. Could come back. It's just another tutor among many "to hand" tutors, when I prefer "to battlefield" ones.
I need more ways to dig through the deck, funny enough, while still having "Land" cards. I run too few of them! It's tough to make cuts, but Worm Harvest was the weakest link, never really able to make a difference. Either the graveyard gets exile, or I cant get there. Could be in the future I retool the deck to take advantage of Beastmaster's Ascension to fix that issue, but for now, nope. Connections is too slow, and not ideal card draw. Skyshroud Claim is absolutely necessary as I test, since we tend to brick around 3-4 lands and need a way to continue placing lands into play.
Despite recursion being powerful, I tend to have too much of it. I also have too many "place a land into play" cards, but I wanna ensure I can ramp hard and fast. It may end I drop one of those for more lands or for more land tutors. For now, I find I brick hard on 4-6 lands and durdle, unable to topdeck more land. So I need more lands.
That looks like a blast to play and I love the synergy you've built and are still building upon. Mirri's Guile can also set up a favorable draw if you can't reach for Sylvan Library. Once again tho very awesome build and I like originality where most people love to grab the best deck on the net.
Removed underperforming cards. We have too many spells and not enough lands. I want to eventually put in every cycling land, and well, I dont own them all yet. However, Explore will be tested in the place of Gardener. Usually he would get one or two activations off anyway. His flip side is also too slow even for casual tables to make an impact. Council was also slow and was there for our big Landfall/late game creatures to return lands to our hand for a big windfall of explosiveness, but I cant even get to that point yet.
Another "put a land into play" creature was cut since they're typically dead cards. Typically. We shall see. In any case, it does hurt to cut Baloths, as he has some great synergy with the deck. But, we are adding in cycling lands to abuse with Life from the loam to make an expensive, but synergistic engine. One that's been working out pretty well for the deck.
This deck is by no means fast or deadly, but it sure is fun.
We need more ramp, and I dont have issues getting flooded with lands so often that these creatures are needed in addition to my other, similar effects except on rare occasion. It goes to the maybeboard, and nature's lore comes in (over Sylvan Scrying surprisingly enough) to help us ramp more. I need colored mana early, and I need it into play, not necessarily into my hand. Putting it into my hand is nice, but I still need to play it.
Lore is ok. It's not thrilling me. Trying sad robot in it's place since we do tend to see creatures swing our way before we can lock the board with Constant Mists. He comes down later, but has the added benefit of soaking damage and replacing himself.
Have you thought about maybe using the new 4 color commanders? Or maybe the partner commanders? The w/b/g/r ones? Gives you less space *trying to cram 50,000 cards into one deck* but gives you some great add ons. Emeria Shepard, Knight of the Req, karametra God of the Harvest, Terra Eternal, Admination Angel, etc...
Have you thought about maybe using the new 4 color commanders? Or maybe the partner commanders? The w/b/g/r ones? Gives you less space *trying to cram 50,000 cards into one deck* but gives you some great add ons. Emeria Shepard, Knight of the Req, karametra God of the Harvest, Terra Eternal, Admination Angel, etc...
I've considered it but I've done 5 colors before, and it's a mess. Three gives me more wiggle room for including just the essentials. If I added white, it would dilute the deck enough to cause [more consistent] mana screw. I do struggle sometimes to hit double black early. Heck, double green is difficult. Landing Seismic Assault has been difficult as well. I'm trying to acquire filterlands atm for the deck.
I would prob only run white in a four color deck just for the tutors (academy rector, E-tutor, maybe KotR?). It's really a deckbuilding challenge for myself to constrain it to three colors and not be tempted to go four or five.
Speaking of, I've been brewing up a Naya version of this as well to test alongside it.
Adding the rest of the cycling lands. Signal is a decent to hand tutor that may return. More draw makes up for it in a way. Genesis was overcosted and difficult to justify unless I was already super behind and he's not made a huge difference. If I need more recursion, I'll run it.
Paradise has screwed more over more than it's ability to trigger landfall consistently has been useful (or its color making ability) due to being a huge tempo loss early if its my only green source. So lets add in the last fetch we need. Cobra replaces grip as we need more ramp, less removal.
R&S is a placeholder for Fire-Lit Thicket. Inkmoth Nexus was a proxied alternate wincon that took too much to get off the ground. I find it hard enough to get to enough lands to Scapeshift or make Avenger of Zendikar relevant, let alone the 13 or so you need to one shot someone. (11 for Kessing buff including Kessing, 2 for Inkmoth including Inkmoth)
Reap and Sow is still a fun card I wanna test to see if the Entwine is solid at nabbing us a relevant land straight into play along with removing some problem land.
I'm still trying to nab a Fire-Lit Thicket. In any case, I'd like to say at this point, I'm finding the deck is hitting its stride. I'm not usually starved for lands or card advantage, Lotus Cobra is downright fantastic, and things are good. If I had to make another change, I'd change out Reclamation Sage for another filter land or place Genesis back in.
Current Brew Status:
I'm looking to make room for a card like Explore or perhaps another basic land or two, as I not only want to dump lands, but continue to draw through the deck quickly, usually not for specific spells in particular, but just more options. The deck naturally draws into combos or the tutor to complete a combo and it's super fluid and fun when it "goes off". However, a lack of lands or a lack of specific colored lands is the issue in cycling through the deck. This deck fails when it bricks on land/colors/card quantity. Tireless Tracker has been an all star as an engine that dissuades anything but a mass attack on us, being a threat piece, and all the while a solid draw engine.
1x Ash Barrens
1x Badlands
1x Barren Moor
1x Bayou
1x Blood Crypt
1x Bloodstained Mire
1x Bojuka Bog
1x City of Brass
1x Command Tower
1x Dakmor Salvage
1x Darigaaz's Caldera
1x Dark Depths
1x Drownyard Temple
1x Exotic Orchard
5x Forest
1x Forgotten Cave
1x Glacial Chasm
1x Maze of Ith
1x Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
1x Misty Rainforest
2x Mountain
1x Overgrown Tomb
1x Polluted Mire
1x Petrified Field
1x Savage Lands
1x Slippery Karst
1x Smoldering Crater
1x Stomping Ground
1x Strip Mine
2x Swamp
1x Taiga
1x Temple of the False God
1x Thespian's Stage
1x Tranquil Thicket
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
1x Verdant Catacombs
1x Vesuva
1x Windswept Heath
1x Wooded Foothills
1x Nissa, Vital Force
Creature (15)
1x Avenger of Zendikar
1x Azusa, Lost but Seeking
1x Borborygmos Enraged
1x Eternal Witness
1x Genesis
1x Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1x Lotus Cobra
1x Omnath, Locus of Rage
1x Oracle of Mul Daya
1x Realm Seekers
1x Solemn Simulacrum
1x The Gitrog Monster
1x Tireless Tracker
1x Titania, Protector of Argoth
1x Ulvenwald Hydra
Sorcery (16)
1x Blasphemous Act
1x Creeping Renaissance
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Explore
1x Farseek
1x Green Sun's Zenith
1x Hull Breach
1x Kodama's Reach
1x Life from the Loam
1x Regrowth
1x Scapeshift
1x Skyshroud Claim
1x Splendid Reclamation
1x Toxic Deluge
1x Vandalblast
1x Wheel of Fortune
1x Crucible of Worlds
1x Expedition Map
1x Horn of Greed
1x Mind's Eye
1x Sol Ring
1x Zuran Orb
Instant (7)
1x Beast Within
1x Constant Mists
1x Crop Rotation
1x Entomb
1x Realms Uncharted
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Worldly Tutor
Enchantment (7)
1x Burgeoning
1x Exploration
1x Pernicious Deed
1x Phyrexian Arena
1x Prismatic Omen
1x Seismic Assault
1x Sylvan Library
Gitrog monster combo
Avenger of Zendikar tokens
Assault/Loam
Angry Omnath
Valakut Combo
Changelog
Removed:
Swamp
Added:
bojuka bog
Obvious cut. I dont like cutting basics, but my meta has been graveyard heavy lately and its time to bust out hate.
4/27/2017
Removed:
Added:
Hydra replaces sage as I'm good in my meta on hate cards. Usually dont need as many. Hydra I want to try as a way to more quickly get my combos online as well as providing a relevant body to block with. Temple of the False God comes in to replace Kessing as Kessing rarely was impactful. Temple just gives us lots of manas.
3/28/2017
Removed:
Garruk Wildspeaker
Added:
Realm Seekers
Garruk runs into the same issue as most walkers in EDH: If he doesnt have a huge immediate impact, he will be removed and not be worth his mana cost. Here, we rarely have blockers up to protect him, and even then, our new ramp options like Lotus Cobra have done what he does, but better, and at less risk. I've always wanted to try out Realm Seekers as a way to tutor up combo pieces like Dakmor Salvage or Valakut
3/13/2017
Removed:
Sylvan Safekeeper
Added:
Genesis
I was missing Genesis in games where my key creatures got removed prior to comboing or mid combo. Safekeeper was there to protect my creatures, but never was needed or appeared when I didnt need him. He's better as one of the 99 with Gitrog as the helm.
3/12/2017
Removed:
Reap and Sow
Added:
Exotic Orchard
I'm still trying to nab a Fire-Lit Thicket. In any case, I'd like to say at this point, I'm finding the deck is hitting its stride. I'm not usually starved for lands or card advantage, Lotus Cobra is downright fantastic, and things are good. If I had to make another change, I'd change out Reclamation Sage for another filter land or place Genesis back in.
2/21/2017
Removed:
Inkmoth Nexus
Added:
reap and sow
R&S is a placeholder for Fire-Lit Thicket. Inkmoth Nexus was a proxied alternate wincon that took too much to get off the ground. I find it hard enough to get to enough lands to Scapeshift or make Avenger of Zendikar relevant, let alone the 13 or so you need to one shot someone. (11 for Kessing buff including Kessing, 2 for Inkmoth including Inkmoth)
Reap and Sow is still a fun card I wanna test to see if the Entwine is solid at nabbing us a relevant land straight into play along with removing some problem land.
Removed:
Added:
Paradise has screwed more over more than it's ability to trigger landfall consistently has been useful (or its color making ability) due to being a huge tempo loss early if its my only green source. So lets add in the last fetch we need. Cobra replaces grip as we need more ramp, less removal.
Removed:
Skyshroud Ranger
Added:
Nature's Lore
We need more ramp, and I dont have issues getting flooded with lands so often that these creatures are needed in addition to my other, similar effects except on rare occasion. It goes to the maybeboard, and nature's lore comes in (over Sylvan Scrying surprisingly enough) to help us ramp more. I need colored mana early, and I need it into play, not necessarily into my hand. Putting it into my hand is nice, but I still need to play it.
Removed:
Added:
Another "put a land into play" creature was cut since they're typically dead cards. Typically. We shall see. In any case, it does hurt to cut Baloths, as he has some great synergy with the deck. But, we are adding in cycling lands to abuse with Life from the loam to make an expensive, but synergistic engine. One that's been working out pretty well for the deck.
This deck is by no means fast or deadly, but it sure is fun.
2/1/2017
Removed:
Added:
Removed underperforming cards. We have too many spells and not enough lands. I want to eventually put in every cycling land, and well, I dont own them all yet. However, Explore will be tested in the place of Gardener. Usually he would get one or two activations off anyway. His flip side is also too slow even for casual tables to make an impact. Council was also slow and was there for our big Landfall/late game creatures to return lands to our hand for a big windfall of explosiveness, but I cant even get to that point yet.
1/31/2017
Removed:
Noxious Revival
Added:
Misty Rainforest
Despite recursion being powerful, I tend to have too much of it. I also have too many "place a land into play" cards, but I wanna ensure I can ramp hard and fast. It may end I drop one of those for more lands or for more land tutors. For now, I find I brick hard on 4-6 lands and durdle, unable to topdeck more land. So I need more lands.
Removed:
Added:
I need more ways to dig through the deck, funny enough, while still having "Land" cards. I run too few of them! It's tough to make cuts, but Worm Harvest was the weakest link, never really able to make a difference. Either the graveyard gets exile, or I cant get there. Could be in the future I retool the deck to take advantage of Beastmaster's Ascension to fix that issue, but for now, nope. Connections is too slow, and not ideal card draw. Skyshroud Claim is absolutely necessary as I test, since we tend to brick around 3-4 lands and need a way to continue placing lands into play.
1/22/2017
Removed:
Skyshroud Claim
Added:
Farseek
Many games I hit the issue of too many non-land cards, and getting mana screwed. This should help bring down the curve while still fetching us land.
12/31/2016
Removed:
Ghirapur Orrery
Added:
Dark Depths
Ghirapur Orrery wasn't performing well since I was rarely at less than three cards. Also helping opponents is no bueno. Dark Depths is a no-brainer, which gives us another huge threat and wincon!
12/26/2016
Removed:
Added:
Removed Noxious too soon. It's still solid as a 2 life instant speed savior of something being exiled, like LftL. Mina and Denn, again, were a flex slot that was pretty overcosted for its effect. Azusa, Lost but Seeking for Courser of Kruphix. Azusa actually allows us to play additional lands, whereas Courser only allows it from the top of the deck. That being said, the lifegain can be important, but ultimately doesnt help us win the game, but just allows us to recover the life we pay for fetching lands, our card draw, etc.
12/25/2016
Removed:
Added:
I'm retooling the deck away from trying to copy Gitrog combo, and focusing on the lands aspect. While these cards can work, I can make it work without them with Loam/Borgy.
Mina and Denn are a flex slot for Seer's Sundial as well. Just seeing how much Draw vs play extra land cards I need.
Farseek and Claim net me my duals and help us ramp harder outside of creatures/enchantments.
Walking Atlas is another creature to keep our face and walkers safe, while helping us ramp. His added bonus is not needing green in our opening hand!
Finally, signal the clans is a fun card that allows us to find one or more wincons for two mana.
12/23/2016
Removed:
Syphon Life
Farseek
Walking Atlas
Added:
Geth's Verdict
Noxious Revival
Reclamation Sage
Strict upgrade for the frog. Sage comes in for more ways to deal with stax pieces and blood moon effects. Revival is necessary to help us keep things from being exiled or to replay things.
12/13/2016
Removed:
Mana Crypt
Llanowar Wastes
Added:
Strip Mine
Inkmoth Nexus
Skyshroud Claim
Crypt wasnt super helpful and was murdering me pretty fast. Strip mine comes in as a target to grab when people Tempt to Discovery at the table. Wastes might come back,but for now, Inkmoth Nexus comes in as another wincon to win via Kessing. And I was missing a card, so Green Sun's Zenith is added as a test slot while i wait for Pucatrades to come in.
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
Removed:
Mana Crypt
Llanowar Wastes
Added:
Strip Mine
Inkmoth Nexus
Green Sun's Zenith
Crypt wasnt super helpful and was murdering me pretty fast. Strip mine comes in as a target to grab when people Tempt to Discovery at the table. Wastes might come back,but for now, Inkmoth Nexus comes in as another wincon to win via Kessing. And I was missing a card, so Green Sun's Zenith is added as a test slot while i wait for Pucatrades to come in.
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
Syphon Life
Farseek
Walking Atlas
Added:
Geth's Verdict
Noxious Revival
Reclamation Sage
Strict upgrade for the frog. Sage comes in for more ways to deal with stax pieces and blood moon effects. Revival is necessary to help us keep things from being exiled or to replay things.
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
Added:
I'm retooling the deck away from trying to copy Gitrog combo, and focusing on the lands aspect. While these cards can work, I can make it work without them with Loam/Borgy.
Mina and Denn are a flex slot for Seer's Sundial as well. Just seeing how much Draw vs play extra land cards I need.
Farseek and Claim net me my duals and help us ramp harder outside of creatures/enchantments.
Walking Atlas is another creature to keep our face and walkers safe, while helping us ramp. His added bonus is not needing green in our opening hand!
Finally, signal the clans is a fun card that allows us to find one or more wincons for two mana.
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
Added:
Removed Noxious too soon. It's still solid as a 2 life instant speed savior of something being exiled, like LftL. Mina and Denn, again, were a flex slot that was pretty overcosted for its effect. Azusa, Lost but Seeking for Courser of Kruphix. Azusa actually allows us to play additional lands, whereas Courser only allows it from the top of the deck. That being said, the lifegain can be important, but ultimately doesnt help us win the game, but just allows us to recover the life we pay for fetching lands, our card draw, etc.
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
Ghirapur Orrery
Added:
Dark Depths
Ghirapur Orrery wasn't performing well since I was rarely at less than three cards. Also helping opponents is no bueno. Dark Depths is a no-brainer, which gives us another huge threat and wincon!
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
https://fieldmarshalshandbook.wordpress.com/
RUGLegacy Lands.dec
RUGBLegacy Lands.dec
RGLegacy Lands.dec
WUBRG EDH Lands.dec
UBR EDH Artificer Prodigy
B EDH Relentless Rats
Oh shoot I totally forgot to tell ya! Yep a buddy of mine had a leftover jund/naya lands deck he let me pick pieces from. I decided to do jund to include the black tutors/draw/frog! It's a blast, about as fun as playing the 5c old build you guys still are working on! I love your changes! And thanks for the link buddy!
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
Removed:
Skyshroud Claim
Added:
Farseek
Many games I hit the issue of too many non-land cards, and getting mana screwed. This should help bring down the curve while still fetching us land.
I'm looking to make room for a card like Explore or perhaps another basic land or two, as I not only want to dump lands, but continue to draw through the deck quickly, usually not for specific spells in particular, but just more options. The deck naturally draws into combos or the tutor to complete a combo and it's super fluid and fun when it "goes off". However, a lack of lands or a lack of specific colored lands is the issue in cycling through the deck. This deck fails when it bricks on land/colors/card quantity. Tireless Tracker has been an all star as an engine that dissuades anything but a mass attack on us, being a threat piece, and all the while a solid draw engine.
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
I'd like a Tribe scout, honestly I'm considering cutting one or two of those effects for more lands or more tutors. They tend to clog my hand alot. Atlas has the added advantage of being useful without green sources, which happens.
Scrying I cut early on. Could come back. It's just another tutor among many "to hand" tutors, when I prefer "to battlefield" ones.
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
Added:
I need more ways to dig through the deck, funny enough, while still having "Land" cards. I run too few of them! It's tough to make cuts, but Worm Harvest was the weakest link, never really able to make a difference. Either the graveyard gets exile, or I cant get there. Could be in the future I retool the deck to take advantage of Beastmaster's Ascension to fix that issue, but for now, nope. Connections is too slow, and not ideal card draw. Skyshroud Claim is absolutely necessary as I test, since we tend to brick around 3-4 lands and need a way to continue placing lands into play.
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
You may be right. I'll look into it. I'm not super sold on it as it's a tutor for a draw engine. Or removal, or a weaker wincon.
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
Noxious Revival
Added:
Misty Rainforest
Despite recursion being powerful, I tend to have too much of it. I also have too many "place a land into play" cards, but I wanna ensure I can ramp hard and fast. It may end I drop one of those for more lands or for more land tutors. For now, I find I brick hard on 4-6 lands and durdle, unable to topdeck more land. So I need more lands.
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
Added:
Removed underperforming cards. We have too many spells and not enough lands. I want to eventually put in every cycling land, and well, I dont own them all yet. However, Explore will be tested in the place of Gardener. Usually he would get one or two activations off anyway. His flip side is also too slow even for casual tables to make an impact. Council was also slow and was there for our big Landfall/late game creatures to return lands to our hand for a big windfall of explosiveness, but I cant even get to that point yet.
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
Added:
Another "put a land into play" creature was cut since they're typically dead cards. Typically. We shall see. In any case, it does hurt to cut Baloths, as he has some great synergy with the deck. But, we are adding in cycling lands to abuse with Life from the loam to make an expensive, but synergistic engine. One that's been working out pretty well for the deck.
This deck is by no means fast or deadly, but it sure is fun.
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
Skyshroud Ranger
Added:
Nature's Lore
We need more ramp, and I dont have issues getting flooded with lands so often that these creatures are needed in addition to my other, similar effects except on rare occasion. It goes to the maybeboard, and nature's lore comes in (over Sylvan Scrying surprisingly enough) to help us ramp more. I need colored mana early, and I need it into play, not necessarily into my hand. Putting it into my hand is nice, but I still need to play it.
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
Nature's Lore
Added:
Solemn Simulacrum
Lore is ok. It's not thrilling me. Trying sad robot in it's place since we do tend to see creatures swing our way before we can lock the board with Constant Mists. He comes down later, but has the added benefit of soaking damage and replacing himself.
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
I've considered it but I've done 5 colors before, and it's a mess. Three gives me more wiggle room for including just the essentials. If I added white, it would dilute the deck enough to cause [more consistent] mana screw. I do struggle sometimes to hit double black early. Heck, double green is difficult. Landing Seismic Assault has been difficult as well. I'm trying to acquire filterlands atm for the deck.
I would prob only run white in a four color deck just for the tutors (academy rector, E-tutor, maybe KotR?). It's really a deckbuilding challenge for myself to constrain it to three colors and not be tempted to go four or five.
Speaking of, I've been brewing up a Naya version of this as well to test alongside it.
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
Added:
Adding the rest of the cycling lands. Signal is a decent to hand tutor that may return. More draw makes up for it in a way. Genesis was overcosted and difficult to justify unless I was already super behind and he's not made a huge difference. If I need more recursion, I'll run it.
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
Added:
Paradise has screwed more over more than it's ability to trigger landfall consistently has been useful (or its color making ability) due to being a huge tempo loss early if its my only green source. So lets add in the last fetch we need. Cobra replaces grip as we need more ramp, less removal.
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
Inkmoth Nexus
Added:
reap and sow
R&S is a placeholder for Fire-Lit Thicket. Inkmoth Nexus was a proxied alternate wincon that took too much to get off the ground. I find it hard enough to get to enough lands to Scapeshift or make Avenger of Zendikar relevant, let alone the 13 or so you need to one shot someone. (11 for Kessing buff including Kessing, 2 for Inkmoth including Inkmoth)
Reap and Sow is still a fun card I wanna test to see if the Entwine is solid at nabbing us a relevant land straight into play along with removing some problem land.
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
Reap and Sow
Added:
Exotic Orchard
I'm still trying to nab a Fire-Lit Thicket. In any case, I'd like to say at this point, I'm finding the deck is hitting its stride. I'm not usually starved for lands or card advantage, Lotus Cobra is downright fantastic, and things are good. If I had to make another change, I'd change out Reclamation Sage for another filter land or place Genesis back in.
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
Vial Smasher the Fierce / Tana, the Bloodsower
Vial Smasher the Fierce / Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper
Vial Smasher the Fierce / Reyhan, Last of the Abzan
Tana, the Bloodsower / Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper
Tana, the Bloodsower / Reyhan, Last of the Abzan
Produced anything of value to a Lands.dec build. I recently built the Child of Alara 5-color one after eying it for years, but I have a Prossh, Skyraider of Kher deck that I'm not in love with, I think Prossh just builds itself and plays out the same everytime because it's so Commander focused. I may want to try this out.