Unfortunately, over half of the cards you mentioned are not legal in modern.
The cards legal in modern are 4 and 6 CMC, so they would require provisions to handle their casting cost.
If you are trying to use borderpost / artifact ramp, then "Borderpost Restore Balance" might be a more effective end game. If you aren't familiar, check it out here.
You can ramp into a cascade of Restore balance faster than you could ramp into wildfire and it yields a stronger result with roughly the same drawbacks.
In your second list, have you considered Ajani Vengeant? He is in color for the list and the +1 and -7 abilities are good land denial/destruction effects.
I am not a fan of crack the earth, but I had a situation come up where it was in fact useful. After I had wiped my opponent's land, he still had a tarmogoyf remaining in play out of bolt range. I was more than willing to sacrifice a land to get rid of it. That is admittedly a narrow scenario, making it a useful card maybe 2 out of 20 games. LOL
Alrighty I thought I'd get my 2 cents in on the topic at hand. To my personal credit I played the ORIGINAL tournament shell that existed during the black summer of '96. Then the 4 major pillars back then were Necro, Erniegeddon midrange, Turbo Stasis control and RG Land Destruction which used earhams and balduvians with ramp and land destruction. Since info was scarce the LD build didnt get quite the following it could have as the Type 2 "seasons" rotated rather quickly so a lot of the deck rotated and the archetype died. Shortly after this rotation Tempest printed a card that would have made the build truly backbreaking (and the one card I have not seen ONE PERSON mention) and that is ROOT MAZE.
....... take a moment to read the card and let it sink in (given the contex of the subject at hand). It's the magic card that puts your opponent 1 turn behind and is the only card that BEATS THE TOPDECKED LAND! Your opponent cannot "catch up" on the next turn with a lucky topdeck anymore! Oh and if you hate islands as much as I do ( **** YOU COUNTERSPELLS! ) you'll notice a nice surprise in my board
So with that I will share my current Modern build that takes advantage of Root Maze!
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Simian Spirit Guide
3 Tarmogoyf
4 Countryside Crusher
1 Shivan Wumpus
1 Huntmaster of the Fells
4 Stone Rain
4 Molten Rain
4 Boom/ Bust
2 Life from the Loam
Side
2 Blood Moon
2 Choke
2 Root Maze
2 Pithing Needle
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Huntmaster of the Fells
2 Pyroclasm
1 Crucible of Worlds
As you can see the land destruction is followed up with any combination of a Root Maze (sooooo backbreaking when you do it off the 2nd turn fetch-boom) soft lock with your quarters (nail em on upkeep) and cheap beats. Stormbind Seismic split is twofold. First drawing second seismic is miserable and both work together. Stormbind is clunkier than Seismic in the same situation but you can pitch any card to Stormbind which is great in late game when you can pitch your land destruction for 2 to the noggin. Crucible compliments the loams and helps you draw gas while making land plays.
Speaking of drawing gas that is my primary motivation for the crusher (not to mention how big he gets getting you to your gas). Goyf is a great card but sucks balls in the early game so only 3.
Part of my successes with the deck has to do with doing my homework. Most noteably researching the land bases of your opponents. For example, I know which decks are the most susceptable to a ghost quarter strip lock because they contain less than 4 basic lands! I know which decks to Blood Moon and which I do not - I only use Moon when it GUARANTEES my opponent cannot resolve anything meaningful (like a GBx deck) meaning it does not get used vs tron (tron has colourless stuff so it doesnt stop them)or decks with lots of basics in them. You also need to know which colours too attack to prevent your opponent from resolving dangerous spells (like green in rock to stop goyfs and abrubt decays). Also total number of lands in a deck matters too as this will determine how long you can keep your opponent down before you run out of gas they start catching up on land drops.
I hope this has been helpful. Look forward to your darts and laurels! CHEERS!
I just wanted to invite you guys over to the RW lockdown primer above. Relaunched a couple of months ago- as part of the lockdown we include RW landkill and stax-landkill as part of our remit- boom busts, molten rains, stone rains, modern gq-crucible locks- we love them as much as you guys- I reduced a pod deck to a solitary pod after 20+ turns the other day... We are always looking for new like-minded contributors! Come over any time- you are always welcome.
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Important to note* Heliod's Pilgrim can NOT tutor for Spreading Algae as it is not an Aura. It is an enchantment, but if you read the Pilgrim it says "AURA" for example see Rancor.
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Active Modern Decks
U Tron GW Bogles RG Loam UR Blue Breach RBU Grixis Goryo BRU Grixis Delver GBR Jund GBW Junk
Important to note* Heliod's Pilgrim can NOT tutor for Spreading Algae as it is not an Aura. It is an enchantment, but if you read the Pilgrim it says "AURA" for example see Rancor.
I wanted to suggest a completely different win strategy. If the goal is to deny them access to land, then the result is going to be a hand size for them that gradually approaches 7. Ebony Owl Netsuke? This is basically the closest thing we have to Black Vise which was a common win condition for old land destruction decks back in the 90s. You can add in Sculpting Steel for extra copies of it.
Along this lines, what would be the most cost-efficient way to force your opponent to have 7 (or more) cards by the end of your turn? Some kind of spell where you get something with a "tradeoff" that the opponent draws some large number of cards.
Kanaoka Yoshihiko, a Japanese Modern player, has been tearing up the Happymtg.com circuit for a few weeks now with various takes on Land Destruction. His most recent list went all the way to the top.
So using cheap attrition cards like Stone Rain and Smallpox, comboed with Myth Realized, you're able to just straight grind out your opponent and beat them to death with a huge Avatar at the end of it all. The planeswalker package plays nicely with all of these cards--forking Smallpox or a Stone rain with Chandra seems sweet, mana denial as well as removal with Ajani, Liliana is a staple in Pox decks, and Sorin makes tokens to beat down and sac. Going for his emblem plays nicely with the Pox theme here.
Dat Crack the Earth doe. Note that all of our artifacts can draw us cards when saced. Also works so well with Flagstones.
I've been playtesting this on Cockatrice and it definitely has a lot of nice symmetry. I added a second Urborg and dropped a Myth Realized to try and help with mana screw. I've noticed that with 21 land I'm often sitting on 3 CMC spells unable to do anything for a couple turns sometimes.
I've been testing that list on cockatrice for a while and for the most part it works out great. My game against GW collected company though went just awful. Collected company is so much card advantage that it can be difficult to out attrition.
Turn 1 Chromatic Star, turn two Crack the Earth is amazing though. DEFINITELY try that list out if you have the chance. I might change to a 3/1 Koz thoughtseize split, but that's just some minor tweaking. A terminate or two might not be a bad idea someone in the 75.
To those that have been testing Kanaoka Yoshihiko's LD deck. Now important is the nihil spellbomb graveyard ability? I was thinking of making the deck and using terrarion instead.
The graveyard ability probably isn't as important as is the ability to cantrip for one mana. It helps too with any cards that might have flashback (and thusly ruining your card advantage), and straight up hoses delver decks.
I would say the graveyard exile is pretty important. Shutting off Tasigur, UR Storm, Grislebrand Reanimator, and other grave based strategies is huge. You'll almost always run into on at an FNM or a Tournament. While it's not the main reason to run the card, the fact that it has the ability to do both is what gives it the edge over terrarion if you are only looking at it's draw ability. Now if you feel like you need the burst mana ramp, Terrarion is the card to go with.
This deck look amazing. I put it into TappedOut immediately to give it a try. I can see it completely wrecking anything that plays black with ease, but how does it fair vs aggro type decks of other colours? seems like it might be a tad slow to beat them. Super cool idea though!
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The cards legal in modern are 4 and 6 CMC, so they would require provisions to handle their casting cost.
You can ramp into a cascade of Restore balance faster than you could ramp into wildfire and it yields a stronger result with roughly the same drawbacks.
In your second list, have you considered Ajani Vengeant? He is in color for the list and the +1 and -7 abilities are good land denial/destruction effects.
I am not a fan of crack the earth, but I had a situation come up where it was in fact useful. After I had wiped my opponent's land, he still had a tarmogoyf remaining in play out of bolt range. I was more than willing to sacrifice a land to get rid of it. That is admittedly a narrow scenario, making it a useful card maybe 2 out of 20 games. LOL
....... take a moment to read the card and let it sink in (given the contex of the subject at hand). It's the magic card that puts your opponent 1 turn behind and is the only card that BEATS THE TOPDECKED LAND! Your opponent cannot "catch up" on the next turn with a lucky topdeck anymore! Oh and if you hate islands as much as I do ( **** YOU COUNTERSPELLS! ) you'll notice a nice surprise in my board
So with that I will share my current Modern build that takes advantage of Root Maze!
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Simian Spirit Guide
3 Tarmogoyf
4 Countryside Crusher
1 Shivan Wumpus
1 Huntmaster of the Fells
4 Stone Rain
4 Molten Rain
4 Boom/ Bust
2 Life from the Loam
3 Lightning Bolt
1 Root Maze
1 Stormbind
1 Seismic Assault
1 Crucible of Worlds
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Treetop Village
4 Stomping Ground
2 Forest
5 Mountain
Side
2 Blood Moon
2 Choke
2 Root Maze
2 Pithing Needle
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Huntmaster of the Fells
2 Pyroclasm
1 Crucible of Worlds
As you can see the land destruction is followed up with any combination of a Root Maze (sooooo backbreaking when you do it off the 2nd turn fetch-boom) soft lock with your quarters (nail em on upkeep) and cheap beats. Stormbind Seismic split is twofold. First drawing second seismic is miserable and both work together. Stormbind is clunkier than Seismic in the same situation but you can pitch any card to Stormbind which is great in late game when you can pitch your land destruction for 2 to the noggin. Crucible compliments the loams and helps you draw gas while making land plays.
Speaking of drawing gas that is my primary motivation for the crusher (not to mention how big he gets getting you to your gas). Goyf is a great card but sucks balls in the early game so only 3.
Part of my successes with the deck has to do with doing my homework. Most noteably researching the land bases of your opponents. For example, I know which decks are the most susceptable to a ghost quarter strip lock because they contain less than 4 basic lands! I know which decks to Blood Moon and which I do not - I only use Moon when it GUARANTEES my opponent cannot resolve anything meaningful (like a GBx deck) meaning it does not get used vs tron (tron has colourless stuff so it doesnt stop them)or decks with lots of basics in them. You also need to know which colours too attack to prevent your opponent from resolving dangerous spells (like green in rock to stop goyfs and abrubt decays). Also total number of lands in a deck matters too as this will determine how long you can keep your opponent down before you run out of gas they start catching up on land drops.
I hope this has been helpful. Look forward to your darts and laurels! CHEERS!
I could see amulet of vigor root maze Storage Matrix orb of dreams blind obedience etc being used to create a solid tempo advantage.
Your list is intriguing, but when I playtested with it, it never came together for me. I feel like I am missing something...
U Tron
GW Bogles
RG Loam
UR Blue Breach
RBU Grixis Goryo
BRU Grixis Delver
GBR Jund
GBW Junk
Active Legacy Decks
BR Reanimator
4 Dark Confidant
4 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Heliod's Pilgrim
3 Magus of the Tabernacle
Other Permanents:
4 Spreading Algae
1 Spirit Link
2 Liliana of the Veil
1 Angelic Destiny
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Life From the Loam
4 Smallpox
4 Shadow of Doubt
2 Lingering Souls
Land:
4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Flagstones of Trokair
4 Ghost Quarter
1 Vault of the Archangel
4 Marsh Flats
1 Godless Shrine
2 Temple Garden
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Swamp
1 Plains
1 Forest
U Tron
GW Bogles
RG Loam
UR Blue Breach
RBU Grixis Goryo
BRU Grixis Delver
GBR Jund
GBW Junk
Active Legacy Decks
BR Reanimator
oracle disagree
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=165531
U Tron
GW Bogles
RG Loam
UR Blue Breach
RBU Grixis Goryo
BRU Grixis Delver
GBR Jund
GBW Junk
Active Legacy Decks
BR Reanimator
Finishers:
2xFrost Titan
2xInferno Titan
4xDestructive force
Mana ramp:
4xWall of Roots
4xOvergrown battlement
4xAnnex
4xMwonvuli acid-moss
4xSearch for tomorrow
Lands:
2xforest
3xIsland
3xMountain
2xStomping ground
2xBreeding pool
4xFrontier Bivouac
4xRaging Ravine
Others:
2xEnsnaring bridge
4xDream leash
Optional cards
2xGruul keyrune
2xSimic keyrune
2xGarruk, primal hunter
Deck around $160 due lands and the bridge.
http://deckstats.net/deck-5539718-9cb7c6d31bd75e2e2feeca70fa2a065b.html
Creatures:
2xFrost Titan
2xInferno Titan
2xKazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
4xWall of Roots
4xOvergrown battlement
Spells:
4xAnnex
4xMwonvuli acid-moss
4xDream leash
2xGarruk, primal hunter
4xDestructive force
Artifacts:
2xEnsnaring bridge
2xCoalition relic
2xStorage matrix
2xDefense grid
Lands:
2xforest
3xIsland
3xMountain
2xStomping ground
2xBreeding pool
4xFrontier Bivouac
4xRaging Ravine
Deck around $156.
I'm seeking a replacement for destructive force
Along this lines, what would be the most cost-efficient way to force your opponent to have 7 (or more) cards by the end of your turn? Some kind of spell where you get something with a "tradeoff" that the opponent draws some large number of cards.
Kanaoka Yoshihiko, a Japanese Modern player, has been tearing up the Happymtg.com circuit for a few weeks now with various takes on Land Destruction. His most recent list went all the way to the top.
Hold on to something, it's a wild one.
1 Molten Rain
4 Crack the Earth
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lingering Souls
4 Smallpox
4 Stone Rain
3 Myth Realized
1 Ajani Vengeant
1 Chandra, the Firebrand
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
2 Liliana of the Veil
4 Chromatic Star
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Blood Crypt
2 Mountain
2 Swamp
3 Godless Shrine
3 Sacred Foundry
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Flagstones of Trokair
1 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Kor Firewalker
1 Leyline of the Void
1 Boil
2 Zealous Persecution
3 Wear // Tear
1 Damnation
1 Wrath of God
3 Timely Reinforcements
You still with me?
So using cheap attrition cards like Stone Rain and Smallpox, comboed with Myth Realized, you're able to just straight grind out your opponent and beat them to death with a huge Avatar at the end of it all. The planeswalker package plays nicely with all of these cards--forking Smallpox or a Stone rain with Chandra seems sweet, mana denial as well as removal with Ajani, Liliana is a staple in Pox decks, and Sorin makes tokens to beat down and sac. Going for his emblem plays nicely with the Pox theme here.
Dat Crack the Earth doe. Note that all of our artifacts can draw us cards when saced. Also works so well with Flagstones.
"There are no two words in the English language more harmful than 'good job'." -Terrance Fletcher, Whiplash (2014)
Very fun deck.
Turn 1 Chromatic Star, turn two Crack the Earth is amazing though. DEFINITELY try that list out if you have the chance. I might change to a 3/1 Koz thoughtseize split, but that's just some minor tweaking. A terminate or two might not be a bad idea someone in the 75.
Cheeri0sXWU
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This deck look amazing. I put it into TappedOut immediately to give it a try. I can see it completely wrecking anything that plays black with ease, but how does it fair vs aggro type decks of other colours? seems like it might be a tad slow to beat them. Super cool idea though!