I will start by saying that Land Destruction decks have a bad connotation toward them. Many people will say that this type of deck leads to your opponent not being able to play magic because they don't have the mana to do anything, therefore they spend the entire game/match drawing and going to discard making the game un-fun for your opponent. Therefore if you play one, people may be very upset and I think they shouldn't let a deck type upset them so easily. Strangely enough there are a few deck types that I think fall into the same category as Land Destruction (LD) but they don't receive nearly has much hate
Control Decks - These decks typically prevent you from resolving any spells or if you happen to be lucky enough to resolve one, they remove the threat immediately, leaving the sense of hopelessness to the opponent. This one is more widely accepted because at least you get to tap mana and play spells but in my opinion it's not that much different than LD
Storm Decks - This typically win on turn 2 or 3 and normally take 10-15 minutes to actually complete the win. As an opponent all you can do is sit there and watch them draw cards, make ridiculous amounts of mana then finally cast there winning storm card. As an opponent you really don't interact with the storm player, you just hope that they mess up while casting 10-12 spells around turn 3. This means the opponent got to play at most 3 turns of magic and at worst 2. Doesn't sound much different than LD in the interactivity department.
Combo Decks (i.e. painter's servant deck or goblin charbelcher deck)- These are about as quick as storm decks and if you don't have an immediate answer you lose immediately. These are typically way quicker than LD but no one seems to care about the lack of fun an opponent has when facing one of these
All of the deck types listed above are not unbeatable but they take preparation to stand a chance against them. LD is the exact same. The only difference is most people will not be prepared for dedicated LD and that's a fact that the pilot of a LD deck should take advantage of. I think most people do not like strategies that impede their own or do not stick to the status quo. Oh well, too bad for those folks because here comes Mono Red Land Destruction!
The object of the deck is simple. Keep your opponent off as many land drops as possible until you can land a big threat and win the game. Let's go over this deck in detail.
Mana Ramp
In Legacy speed is king. As such you want to maximize your chances of destroying land on turn 2. As such you need a little ramp and luckily for us we have 8 cards that help us do that.
Sandstone Needle - Land that produces RR. Comes in handy when casting Molten Rain and Pillage on turn 2. You only get two uses but that should be more than enough to get to going
Rite of Flame - Get's better the more copies you use
Land Destruction
There are 16 land destruction spells in the deck. Being able to cast enough of these on time will be the deciding factor in many games. Notice that they all have a CMC less than 3.
Stone Rain - vanilla LD card that's the easiest to cast.
Molten Rain - LD card that acts as burn when it hits a nonbasic land.
Pillage - LD card that acts as artifact removal when needed.
Boom // Bust - Two mana LD card. This card is the reason there are 4 Darksteel Citadel in the deck. Targeting the Citadel turns this symmetrical effect into a one sided one
Win Cons
Magnivore - 4CMC Haste whose power and toughness equals the number of sorceries in all graveyards. With 22 sorceries in our deck he becomes a beatstick easily and must be answered when he hits the table
Stormbreath Dragon - 5CMC dragon with haste and pro-white. Protection from white is probably the most important because everyone is using Swords in legacy as their primary removal tool. The monstrosity ability also allows him to swing for 7 + the number of cards in our opponents hand, which should be significant if we are blowing up lands like we are supposed to
Lock Down
Trinisphere - New edition added 01/31/2016. This works so well with the LD Theme. Kill one or two of their lands and they can't play anything for quite some time. Has made this strategy much more viable and consistent. Really helps against free blue counters like Force of Will and Daze
Solutions to Red Problems
As we all know, Red is absolutely horrible at destroying enchantments...actually its not horrible it just can't do it. But rest assured my red mages I have a solution. Viashino Heretic + Liquimetal Coating = Vindicate + damage equal to the CMC of the destroyed permanent for 1R. Not only does this address our enchantment problem it also gives us a 2 card combo answer to any permanent problem you may face in magic plus some damage to boot. Yes, I realize the heretic doesn't pass the bolt test but repeatable permanent destruction and damage seems like a fair trade off
3 Graveyard Hate: Surgical Extraction (Possible replacement Grafdigger's Cage). I'm not sure which is better here. Surgical gives me the precision to get rid of a card for good in a game, but sometimes you can't afford the 2 life to cast it. I like the cage because you can just cast it on curve with the deck and just wait for the graveyard deck to try and deal with it
2 Price of Glory - Tired of your opponent doing things on your turn? well this little enchantment adds the nasty little effect of blowing up lands tapped on an opponent's turn. Just realize that this effects both players. We worry about this less because we run very few instants. This deters counter magic and EOT shenanigans
1 Banefire - Having one of these against a control deck can win you the game
3 Artifact Hate: In addition to Viashino Heretic in the MD, the following cards come in as extra insurance against the numerous annoying artifacts we will see while playing - Vandalblast,Shattering Spree. Vandalblast has the benefit of destroying all artifacts. Shattering spree can target multiple artifacts and its copies get around a Chalice of the Void for 1
6 Boardwipes: Aggro decks and mana dorks are a pain in this deck's you know what . To help I have added 3 Volcanic Fallout and 3 Pyroclasm. Pyroclasm can hit early with a CMC of 2 and volcanic fallout can't be countered, which may be relevant against any decks that use counters for tempo
There are a few cards that you should be weary of while playing this deck. They all have the ability to erase all you hard work destroying lands so beware. This is by no means a complete listing of the cards to look out for.
Suggestions and opinions are always welcome. All in all, just have fun with the deck and just remind people that their lands are a resource that you have no problem taking away from them. Good Luck Magic Players!!!!!!
Hey Ryadriz thanks for your interest. I have play tested this a few times on MTGO and here is where I stand:
Control Matchups - The most popular I see is Miracles and this has about a 50% win rate. This all normally depends on your first 3 turns. Normally one or more things need to happen to ensure a good game against control:
If you can manage to pop a land on turn 2 and 3 you are normally going to have a successful game.
If not attempt to keep the control player off there secondary color (in this case white) in hopes of finding more LD.
If 1-3 hasn't happened hope to get through with your win cons because they have wasted their resources else where. Most of the time the main wincons that get through are Ghitu Encampment, Banefire and if we are desparate for a little more damage from Volcanic Fallout Edit: I forgot to mention that Price of Glory does wonders if it sticks
Death and Taxes - This match-up is very favorable because of all the artifacts they run. Just blow up lands and try to mana screw them. If they get through blow up every artifact they play with the Heretic and deal anywhere from 2-5 damage a pop or hit them with the additional artifact hate from the SB. Seriously I had a Heretic deal 12 damage on his own one game. Eventually you will be ready to go over the top with Stormbreath Dragon and all of his pro-white glory
Manaless Dredge - Pre-board not a fun matchup at all. All of your LD is pretty much useless. You just hope to land a threat faster than they can go off. Post board you side in Surgical Extraction or Grafdigger's Cage. Facing this the first time made me realize how much i prefer the cage vs extraction in this deck. As a matter of fact I have a playset of the cage on the way now.
Aggro Decks - Pyroclasm and Volcanic Fallout are your best friends. You land 1 or 2 of these and your match up is favorable. Blowing up a few lands in the early game helps too because they tend to run very few lands.
Everything else is normally a pretty good match up because they are not expecting it and have no answers for it
Firstly, thanks for taking the time to post to my thread. I appreciate the feedback. I did think about Simian spirit guide. There were two reasons why Rite of Flame made the cut.
Rite of Flame is a sorcery and Magnivore needs as many sorcery cards in the grave as possible
As far as Chalice of the Void or Trinisphere they could be good additions. I would worry that the 3sphere would make Boom // Bust and Rite of Flame worse and I don't believe 3sphere prevents the free counters Force of Will and Daze. I believe turns 2 and 3 are my most important turns for LD and want to maximize my chances at hitting both turns if possible. Using either of these would probably push my LD plan back about 1-2 turns
I am curious as to what you would take out of this current deck list to make these changes.
Thanks for your reply. Gorilla Shaman is a nice card. Im not sure its faster or better.... It takes 5+ turns to blow up a artifact of cmc 2 or greater without ramp and it can only hit non creature artifacts... Viashino Heretic doesn't have the non-creature clause... only takes 1R in 4turns to blowup its first artifact and it deals damage to boot. It also blocks 2 power creatures like a boss. If i wanted to hit a batterskull it would take 11 mana with the gorilla shaman and only 2 with the heretic
Chalice of the void could also be trinisphere that also makes Force of will to cost 3 etc. So if you'll keep the opponent off 3 land/mana he/she can't cast anything. And those both are great against aggro and combo.
About the manabase: I think 8 tap lands is too many if you reliably want to cast LD on turn 2. That is why I replaced 2 Ghitu Encampments for 1 dust bowl (late game to keep opponent off lands) and 1 mountain.
Hi,
According to your list we have the following changes
Total cost of deck with changes $175. Which in terms of budget isn't as bad as I thought it would be. I am strongly considering adding 3 trinisphere. Making free counters not be free anymore would really give this deck an edge. I also agree with the number of tap lands so i'm considering trading 1 Ghitu Encampment for a Mountain
So I think my deck will look a little something like this
@kcd111 I'm sure the shaman is a house in pauper Most people will pop the LED in response to the shaman destruction unfortunately. I'm not sure if Dack Fayden would be good in this particular deck, but I love the card and I will try to break that card very soon
Seems interesting. What would be the win con in the current list? Would it be the painter's servant/grindstone? Also it seems like you are moving away from the land destruction theme and making it a sub theme
After giving it some consideration and suggestions so far I have decided to add 3 Trinisphere in place of the 2 Banefire and 1 Rite of Flame. Trinisphere is such a work horse for this deck. Landing it just before or after some LD really adds consistency in the deck. Changes can be seen under the Edit: 01/31/2016 section above the deck list
The correct number of Rite of Flame is either 0 or 4. Any other amount just diminishes the whole point of the card.
Sideboard Magus of the Moon and/or Blood Moon? Too often the card just reads "destroy all lands your opponent controls. that player cannot play lands." When people play around Moon, they fetch ONE basic preemptively at the beginning of the game. That's usually about it. You just need to drop Moon and then Stone Rain their basic... very hard for 3 color decks to do anything.
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Edit: 01/31/2016
+ 3 Trinisphere
- 1 Rite of Flame
- 2 Banefire
Old cost of Deck: $80
New cost of Deck: $101
4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Ghitu Encampment
4 Sandstone Needle
12 Mountain
Creature
4 Viashino Heretic
3 Magnivore
4 Stormbreath Dragon
3 Liquimetal Coating
3 Trinisphere
Sorceries
3 Rite of Flame
4 Stone Rain
4 Molten Rain
4 Pillage
4 Boom // Bust
3 Surgical Extraction
2 Shattering Spree
1 Vandalblast
3 Pyroclasm
2 Price of Glory
3 Volcanic Fallout
1 Banefire
Total cost of Deck: ~$101
Control Decks - These decks typically prevent you from resolving any spells or if you happen to be lucky enough to resolve one, they remove the threat immediately, leaving the sense of hopelessness to the opponent. This one is more widely accepted because at least you get to tap mana and play spells but in my opinion it's not that much different than LD
Storm Decks - This typically win on turn 2 or 3 and normally take 10-15 minutes to actually complete the win. As an opponent all you can do is sit there and watch them draw cards, make ridiculous amounts of mana then finally cast there winning storm card. As an opponent you really don't interact with the storm player, you just hope that they mess up while casting 10-12 spells around turn 3. This means the opponent got to play at most 3 turns of magic and at worst 2. Doesn't sound much different than LD in the interactivity department.
Combo Decks (i.e. painter's servant deck or goblin charbelcher deck)- These are about as quick as storm decks and if you don't have an immediate answer you lose immediately. These are typically way quicker than LD but no one seems to care about the lack of fun an opponent has when facing one of these
All of the deck types listed above are not unbeatable but they take preparation to stand a chance against them. LD is the exact same. The only difference is most people will not be prepared for dedicated LD and that's a fact that the pilot of a LD deck should take advantage of. I think most people do not like strategies that impede their own or do not stick to the status quo. Oh well, too bad for those folks because here comes Mono Red Land Destruction!
The object of the deck is simple. Keep your opponent off as many land drops as possible until you can land a big threat and win the game. Let's go over this deck in detail.
Mana Ramp
In Legacy speed is king. As such you want to maximize your chances of destroying land on turn 2. As such you need a little ramp and luckily for us we have 8 cards that help us do that.
Land Destruction
There are 16 land destruction spells in the deck. Being able to cast enough of these on time will be the deciding factor in many games. Notice that they all have a CMC less than 3.
Win Cons
Lock Down
As we all know, Red is absolutely horrible at destroying enchantments...actually its not horrible it just can't do it. But rest assured my red mages I have a solution. Viashino Heretic + Liquimetal Coating = Vindicate + damage equal to the CMC of the destroyed permanent for 1R. Not only does this address our enchantment problem it also gives us a 2 card combo answer to any permanent problem you may face in magic plus some damage to boot. Yes, I realize the heretic doesn't pass the bolt test but repeatable permanent destruction and damage seems like a fair trade off
There are a few cards that you should be weary of while playing this deck. They all have the ability to erase all you hard work destroying lands so beware. This is by no means a complete listing of the cards to look out for.
Suggestions and opinions are always welcome. All in all, just have fun with the deck and just remind people that their lands are a resource that you have no problem taking away from them. Good Luck Magic Players!!!!!!
Firstly, thanks for taking the time to post to my thread. I appreciate the feedback. I did think about Simian spirit guide. There were two reasons why Rite of Flame made the cut.
As far as Chalice of the Void or Trinisphere they could be good additions. I would worry that the 3sphere would make Boom // Bust and Rite of Flame worse and I don't believe 3sphere prevents the free counters Force of Will and Daze. I believe turns 2 and 3 are my most important turns for LD and want to maximize my chances at hitting both turns if possible. Using either of these would probably push my LD plan back about 1-2 turns
I am curious as to what you would take out of this current deck list to make these changes.
Thanks for your reply. Gorilla Shaman is a nice card. Im not sure its faster or better.... It takes 5+ turns to blow up a artifact of cmc 2 or greater without ramp and it can only hit non creature artifacts... Viashino Heretic doesn't have the non-creature clause... only takes 1R in 4turns to blowup its first artifact and it deals damage to boot. It also blocks 2 power creatures like a boss. If i wanted to hit a batterskull it would take 11 mana with the gorilla shaman and only 2 with the heretic
Hi,
According to your list we have the following changes
Total cost of deck with changes $175. Which in terms of budget isn't as bad as I thought it would be. I am strongly considering adding 3 trinisphere. Making free counters not be free anymore would really give this deck an edge. I also agree with the number of tap lands so i'm considering trading 1 Ghitu Encampment for a Mountain
So I think my deck will look a little something like this
4 Darksteel Citadel
3 Ghitu Encampment
4 Sandstone Needle
13 Mountain
Creature
4 Viashino Heretic
3 Magnivore
4 Stormbreath Dragon
3 Liquimetal Coating
3 Trinisphere
Sorceries
3 Rite of Flame
4 Stone Rain
4 Molten Rain
4 Pillage
4 Boom // Bust
3 Surgical Extraction
2 Shattering Spree
1 Vandalblast
3 Pyroclasm
2 Price of Glory
3 Volcanic Fallout
1 Banefire
Total cost of Deck: ~$101
@kcd111 I'm sure the shaman is a house in pauper Most people will pop the LED in response to the shaman destruction unfortunately. I'm not sure if Dack Fayden would be good in this particular deck, but I love the card and I will try to break that card very soon
Seems interesting. What would be the win con in the current list? Would it be the painter's servant/grindstone? Also it seems like you are moving away from the land destruction theme and making it a sub theme
Sideboard Magus of the Moon and/or Blood Moon? Too often the card just reads "destroy all lands your opponent controls. that player cannot play lands." When people play around Moon, they fetch ONE basic preemptively at the beginning of the game. That's usually about it. You just need to drop Moon and then Stone Rain their basic... very hard for 3 color decks to do anything.