RG Lands #4: Epic Loot
Main
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
4 Wasteland
4 Rishadan Port
4 Thespian’s Stage
3 Tree Fetch
3 Maze of Ith
3 Dark Depths
3 Tranquil Thicket
2 Taiga
1 Forest
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Glacial Chasm
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
4 Crop Rotation
4 Punishing Fire
4 Life from the Loam
4 Mox Diamond
4 Gamble
4 Exploration
2 Manabond
Board
4 Krosan Grip
4 Sphere of Resistance
3 Chalice of the Void
3 Courser of Kruphix
1 Karakas
A while back, I posted my desire to try a few brewish choices with this deck, but I decided ultimately that I should learn to play the accepted version of the deck as it is before testing non-traditional card choices. Hence, the list features only minor tweaking from the last tournament. Thus, with no further ado, the report:
Round One: Adam with Solidarity
Game One: This one was a heartbreaker, for a couple of reasons. I keep a hand with a Gamble, a Mox Diamond, and the natural combo. I make land drops the first two turns on the play (a Grove and a Stage), and then, on my third turn, I drop a Mox Diamond and a Dark Depths, essentially saying to my opponent, Deal with this or lose. My opponent has two islands in play and says go. On my draw step, after making the witch EOT, I draw a Crop Rotation and Adam plays High Tide and Reset. With only two Islands, I reason that I still have a chance, since he could very well fizzle. With four mana, he Opts, then Opts again, finds Snap, Snaps my witch, and has all the mana he needs to go off. Of course, since I’m a dope, I kind of get into automatic mode and don’t think about the Crop Rotation in my hand. At one point, he finds a Snapcaster Mage and targets Snap. If I Crop Rote for a Bog at this point, he can’t play the Snap again and thus won’t net any mana. It might not have made a difference, but it would have better to try than to just go on and let him win.
I board out: 4 Punishing Fire, 3 Maze of Ith, 1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, 1 Glacial Chasm
I board in: 4 Sphere of Resistance, 3 Chalice of the Void, 2 Krosan Grip (just in case)
Game Two: I see no hate in my seven- or six-grips, so I mull to five and find lands and a Gamble. On turn one, I Gamble for a Sphere, which I get to keep but which gets Spell Pierced immediately. The game drags for a bit, since I’m putting no pressure on Adam and he wants to hit lands. I get to the point where I find a second Sphere, which resolves, and have two lines: I can play a Bog to wipe Adam’s graveyard, or a I can play a land that doesn’t enter tapped to Port an Island. I decide that Porting an Island is better since I have Sphere out. Not sure the other line would have won me the game, but Adam Wipes Away my Sphere and goes off for the win.
0-1
Round Two: Matthew with Death and Taxes
Game One: I keep a phenomenal hand with a Manabond, a Mox Diamond, a Wasteland, a Tranquil Thicket, a Life from the Loam, a Grove of the Burnwillows, and a Punishing Fire. On the draw, after Matt plays a Karakas, I cast Mox Diamond losing Thicket, then I play Grove. I cast Manabond off of Mox, discard my Loam and my Fire and put my Wasteland into play at end of turn. I then Waste Matt’s Karakas, leaving me with Mox, Grove, and Manabond. Matt plays a Wasteland and, on my draw step after I dredge, he Wastes my Grove. I feel like this is a pretty bad exchange for him, since my deck has a bunch of lands in it, but I shrug and pass. Matt plays a Port and I draw a Mox Diamond. Matt then plays another Port and I draw a Crop Rotation. I cringe. I’m getting pretty far behind even though I had a great opener. Matt plays a Plains and casts a Stoneforge Mystic. I draw a Port, play a Mox Diamond discarding Port, cast Loam, return Port, Grove, and Wasteland to my hand, and put them into play with Manabond. I Waste a Port. Matt plays a Plains and passes. I feel pretty good when I start dredging and putting more land into play, though Matt beats me with a Batterskull for a couple of turns before I find a Maze of Ith. He’s also played a Revoker naming Mox and a Flickerwisp. Eventually, the game progresses to the point that I’m at three life, Matt has a Flickerwisp, a Batterksull, and a Revoker, I have three Mazes of Ith in play (one a copied Stage), and the ability to cast a Punishing Fire. Even though I’m low on life, I feel like I’ve got the game locked up. So, on my turn after dredging, I have to decide between two lines: Punishing the Revoker and getting my Moxes back, or Punishing the Flickerwisp. I decide to Punishing the Revoker, thinking that I’d like to have the mana and that both Wisp and Batterskull are lost in my Mazes. I even have an extra one in case Matt has a Wasteland. I don’t realize that this play loses to Wasteland plus a second Flickerwisp, which is exactly what happens. Ugh.
I board out: 2 Manabond, 2 Crop Rotation
I board in: 2 Courser of Kruphix, 2 Krosan Grip
Game Two: I keep a hand with a Gamble, a Crop Rotation, lands, and a Stage. Seems good, if slow. I decide to hold the Gamble for a while, both to make sure I keep the Rotation and to not play into Rest in Peace. Matt plays a Plains after I play a land, then I play another land, then Matt plays a Plains and a Spirit of the Labyrinth. After I play a Stage, Matt tutors on his upkeep for a Rest in Peace, which he then plays. He beats me for three, and then on my turn I play a fourth land and decide that I’ll go ahead and make a gigantic blunder. At first, I reason that I should play around Wasteland, so I go ahead and Crop Rote one of my lands with the intention of finding Depths and making the witch then and there. In the middle of this, I look at Matt’s three plains and think, Well *****, he’s probably got Flickerwisp in his hand—so after Crop Roting, I do nothing! I have a tapped land, so I can’t make a Stage at the end of his turn. He plays a Thalia and beats me with Spirit. Still deciding I should play around Flickerwisp, I play a land and pass. On this turn, he plays Wasteland and I think again, Well *****. Matt beats me for five, so I’m at nine. I play a land and Gamble to find Wasteland, hoping to keep it in hand so I can Waste his Wasteland and then make a witch when he tries to Waste my Depths. But, having three cards in hand after the Gamble, I lose the Wasteland, and get beaten to death after playing miserably.
0-2
Round Three: Infect (I forget this guy’s name.)
Game One: I keep a decent Loam Mox hand with Crop Rotation after Infect plays a Tropical Island and a Glistener Elf. After playing my Mox and Loaming back lands, Infect plays an Inkmoth Nexus and beats with his Elf. I Loam back a fetch, play it with the intention of fetching a Forest and Crop Roting it for a Wasteland but Infect Stifles the fetch. He then beats for more, and since on my turn I want to play one of the lands in my graveyard, not in my hand, I Loam before playing a land, the Loam gets Dazed, and Infect wins the next turn with some pump spells.
I board out: 1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, 1 Bojuka Bog, 1 Tranquil Thicket
I board in: 3 Chalice of the Void
Game Two: I keep a hand with Loam, lands, and a Maze of Ith, thinking that the Maze will be good enough since Infect has a low creature count. Then Infect proceeds to play two Glistener Elves and an Inkmoth Nexus, and when he draws a Forest to play his invigorate for free, I just don’t have answers for all his creatures. I die, sickened and heaving.
0-3
Round Four: Bye
1-3
Analysis
Of my mistakes:
Clearly my worst showing with the deck. I think I need to improve my usage of Crop Rotation considerably. I forget a lot of the time that it can fetch utility lands, not just the combo. For example, while I certainly should have known to Rote for a Bog against Solidarity, against Infect, if I had simply been more patient, I could have concentrated on making land drops and Crop Roted for a Glacial Chasm when he went for the win. During my second game against Infect, I just kept a poor hand without realizing it was a poor hand. Later another player told me I should look for Grove-Fire hands against Infect, which makes sense. Hands with decent acceleration seem good as well, since Infect plays a lot like a tempo deck. As for the Death and Taxes match: obviously second-guessing myself during the second game was pure idiocy; I should have just gone for it during my turn since I didn’t have anything else going. The first game of the match was very interesting, and ultimately I’m not sure if I should have known to take the line I didn’t take. In hindsight, I know that Firing the Revoker instead of the Flickerwisp cost me the game, since I’d have taken two damage instead of exactsies when Wasteland took away one Maze and the second Flickerwisp took away another—but getting my Diamonds back seemed like the right decision, since I could have dredged into something that would have required the extra mana. I’m not sure; you guys can be the judge.
Of the board:
I’m starting to like Chalice less and less. Maybe there’s a reason most lists are only running one. The only deck it seems ideal against is Miracles, where you want to board out both Crop Rotation and Manabond. Against combo decks, you want to keep both of those cards, so Chalice could just as easily lose you the game as win it. I also think that Courser of Kruphix, while interesting, has too much tension with Krosan Grip. They serve similar functions, anti-graveyard hate tech, but it seems like you either want to destroy the graveyard hate outright with Grip, or just win independent of your graveyard with the combo. To that end, I think both Courser and Chalice are leaving my board in favor of, at the very least, the fourth copy of Dark Depths and perhaps some number of Thorn of Amethyst.
So there you have it. Until next time.
Results
[Aggro]
UR Delver Cruise: 0-2
Napoleonic Delver: 1-0
Merfolk: 1-0
Bug Delver: 1-0
Rug Delver: 0-1
[Combo]
Storm: 1-1
Solidarity: 0-1
Infect: 0-1
[Midrange]
Bug Midrange: 0-0-1
Maverick: 0-1
Shardless Bug: 1-0
[Control]
Death and Taxes: 2-1
Pox: 1-0
Loam Pox: 1-0
Miracles: 1-0-1
Mud: 0-1
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