Welcome to the Realm of the Child. I'll be the first to admit that this IS NOT my deck idea. It was created by another user (Illusivek), but they dont seem to be on much anymore...so i hope to continue the deck idea. So here is his orginal first post. (note: all deck changes will be done in a second list below.)
1) Why is this deck using Child of Alara as the general?
2) The General Strategy of the Deck, and How it Plays.
3) Is This the Right Deck for You?
4) The Decklist Unveiled.
5) Card Choice Breakdown.
6) Strengths and Weaknesses.
7) Other Directions Child Can Go.
8) Conclusion
Why is this deck using Child of Alara as the General?
So why are we playing an angry baby that's just another pseudo-Oblivion Stone effect? Well, first and foremost, this deck wants access to all five colors so it play the best cards for the strategy it follows. That alone narrows the general choice significantly. We chose Child because it provides a wrath that is easily brought back to be played again and again. Remember, going to the command zone is a replacement effect with a may clause, you can decide when you want Child to blow up, allowing it to go to the graveyard, and when you don't, such as somebody trying to hijack your child's nuke by killing it. Child gives us access to a wrath all the time, so we don't need to run as many maindeck.
Taking a closer look at child's ability shows us that it destroys all non-land permanents. Yes, you guessed it, a lot of our key engine pieces are in the form of lands, in addition to a number of powerful effects stored in out landbase. This deck runs a plethora of Maze of Ith-esque effects. It's just like the classic Icy Manipulator, Wrath of God combo: the more you wrath, the less creatures they have, the more effective your manipulator is. Obviously the whole deck can't be lands, so we run a lot of recursion to offset Child's rather explosive temper tantrums.
The Basic Strategy of the Deck, and How it Plays
This is a slow deck, think of it like an iceburg. That isn't necessarily a bad attribute though, as it can be used to our advantage. Being slow allows us to stay under the radar, and not draw too much hate. We run a lot of stalling pieces in the form of lands: Maze of Ith-esque effects, Glacial Chasm, The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, etc. As a general rule of thumb, the longer a game goes on, the more land drops you will get, and the more powerful recursion becomes. When piloting this deck, throw the idea you're trying to win the game. You're trying to slow down the game, so use Child like a rattlesnake to buy time and get people to attack elsewhere. If you start taking heavy hits, and Child just can't stick, it's time to lay Glacial Chasm. As long as you can keep recurring Chasm and laying it every turn, you're near untouchable. The goal is to buy time to set up our slow, but powerful and difficult to disrupt engines. Most control decks in EDH are typically combo control, they want the game to go long to set up their combos and win. When playing this deck, think of yourself as the control player's control deck. You don't just want the game to go on long, you want it to go on as long as you possible. If that means saving another player and making a friend with your Maze of Ith, so be it. Anything to keep the game going and people leaving you alone. Your three recursion engines are Genesis, Volrath's Stronghold, and Emeria, the Sky Ruin. These engines are going to keep your cards coming back. The most preferable of these is Emeria, as it requires no resource investment, but it's also the hardest to set up. Generally, Stronghold is the second option. If the opponent disrupts one of these engines by targeting our lands with removal, Life from the Loam can always bring them back.
This brings us to our main card advantage engine. This deck utilizes every ability packed into Life from the Loam's massive card advantage locomotive engine. Loam provides a number of effects. Firstly, it brings back Fetchlands, such as Windswept Heath, to ensure white dual-land drops for Emeria. I've never had trouble getting Emeria online before, Loam let's you just keep playing fetches. Secondly, as we already discussed, Life from the Loam let's us bring back our primary creature recursion engines, adding resiliency. Thirdly, it combo's with Cycling Lands, such as Forgotten Cave, to allow us to build up massive card advantage. Finally, it fills our graveyard with juicy targets for both itself and other engines. In a nutshell, the basic strategy of this deck is to slow the game down enough so that you can piece together one of these engines and win – the longer the game goes on, your chances of winning also increase.
Is This the Right Deck for You?
You might enjoy the Child of Alara Lands deck if:
+You like recursion
+You like lands decks
+You enjoy long games
+You like staying under the radar in multiplayer
+You like having access to a “Wrath” all the time
+You don't mind not doing anything on opponent's turns
You might not enjoy the Child of Alara Lands deck if:
-You hate using land destruction
-You dislike difficult to master decks that are confusing
-You don't like taking long turns
-You are on a strict budget, this is an expensive deck to built.
-You like fast decks that come out explosively and just win
-You dislike linear strategies
Genesis – Fantastic recursion engine for our creatures Necrotic Sliver – Answers Bloodmoon, doubles as a lategame way to destroy the opponents manabase. Knight of the Reliquary – Late game win condition, as it get's massive. Also doubles are a non-basic land tutor. Eternal Witness – Recurable regrowth, great with Intutition, a staple in any deckrunning green. Sun Titan – Acts as a combined Exploration and Crucible of Worlds. Oracle of Mul Daya – The acceleration – allows us to consistently lay lands if used in conjunction with fetchlands' shuffling. Azusa, Lost but Seeking – Allows us to power out more lands a turn, this and oracle are deadly acceleration if left untouched. Primeval Titan – One of the best green creatures ever printed, tutors for any 2 lands and puts them in tapped. It provides huge flexibility and ramping opportunity. Glen Elendra Archmage – Provides late game insurance that your opponents can't interact with you, counter's most common forms of hate this deck has trouble with (Armageddons, Blood Moons, etc.). Also a Negate lock if recurred. Voidmage Prodigy – Late game insurance. Doubles as a Counterspell lock.
Instants & Sorceries: 21
Beseech the Queen – Fantastic Tutor considering you're never missing a land drop, can be payed under a Blood Moon for colorless to go fetch an answer. Buried Alive – With the amount of recursion in this deck, this is basically a triple demonic tutor for creatures:Genesis, Sun Titan, Primeval Titan is a typical lineup. Mystical Tutor – Get's any instant or sorcery, fantastic flexibility. Time Warp – Doubles as both a better Explore, and a win condition. Late game it's pretty easy to get infinite turns by using Eternal Witness, Emeria, the Sky Ruin, a sacrifice outlet, such as Diamond Valley, and Time Warp. Tooth and Nail – Tons of Flexibility in the late game, can get any 2 creatures straight from your deck and put them into play. All Suns' Dawn – Great in any 5 color deck. Typically get's back a couple creatures and a tutor, massive card advantage. Conflux – Absolute bomb, basically reads pick 5 cards from your deck and put them into your hand. Although it doesn't get artifacts or lands, we run enough tutors that this can tutor for, so that's not a problem. Demonic Tutor – Any card to the hand, simple and sweet. Global Ruin – Hoses mono and two colored decks, while you usually stay on 5 lands. Gamble – Although risky, we run enough recursion to be effective. If you have 0 cards in hand, it's a free way to get another loam dredge, a Genesis in the 'yard, or a Riftstone Portal. Also, it'sautomatically playable under Blood Moon effects. Scapeshiftt – If this resolves, you usually end up with 7-8 plains, 1-2 sac outlets, and Vesuva copying a previously tutored for Emeria. Life from the Loam – Fantastic card advantage, self reccuring, fills the yard, simply amazing in a deck like this. Summer Bloom – Last time I checked a triple timewalk as far as lands go is great, great with Crucible of Worlds, as you can replay the same fetchland three time. Wargate – Grabs any permanent and puts it on the field, doubles as a land tutor for three mana. Diabolic Tutor - Grab anything, just like demonic. Realms Uncharted – Gifts Ungiven for lands, Petrified Field is usually a target unless we already have Life from the Loam. Intuition – Fantastic Flexibility, in a deck with this much recursion, it's like a triple Demonic Tutor. Entomb – Usually target's Life from the Loam or Genesis in the early game, although in the late game with a recursion engine online it's just like Demonic Tutor, sometime better withEmeria, the Sky Ruin. Crop Rotation – Solid way to get Riftstone Portal in the yard, gets any land and puts it on thebattlefield. Worm Harvest – One of our win conditions, typically spits out anywhere from 20-40 tokens; just keep retracing this and eventually it will resolve. Vampiric Tutor – One mana, instant speed, Demonic Tutor's flexibility.
Enchantments: 3 Burgeoning – In a four player multiplayer game, played early, it's basically a Manabond with no drawbacks. Manabond – Discard your hand to play all the lands, combined with Life from the Loam and a cycling land, such as Forgotten Cave, it get's ridiculous. Exploration – Simple acceleration, let's us play more lands a turn.
Lands: 60
Forgotten Cave – Combined with Life from the Loam, it allows for multiple activations every turn. Also doublesas a way to protect Loam at instant speed, allowing you to give a nice head-fake to graveyard hate. Lonely Sandbar – See Above Secluded Steppe – See Above Tranquil Thicket – See Above Barren Moor – See Above
2 Forest – Decks like this need to run basics and fetchlands (Windswept Heath, etc.), to provide resiliency to Blood Moon effects. Most of our tutors don't cost double of the same color, so we can find answers and still maneuver under a moon effect.
2 Plains – See Above.
3 Swamp – See Above.
1 Island – See Above. Riftstone Portal – If you're expecting a Blood Moon, this is a great tutor target. It allows you increased maneuverability under moon effects. Flagstones of Trokair – Helps against opposing Armageddons, work's nicely in conjunction with Crop Rotation, Scapeshift, and Global Ruin. Darksteel Citadel – Helps against opposing Armageddons. Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace – Allows you to tax opponents if you have nothing better to do with your mana, as you can usually get whatever land you discard back with Life from the Loam. Beautiful synergy with Genesis and Riftstone Portal. Bojuka Bog – Great, easily tutorable graveyard hate. Vesuva – With all the nice lands in the deck, why not have two of something? Pretty neat with Emeria, the Sky Ruin. Tolaria West – Recurable land tutor combined with Life from the Loam. Strip Mine – One of our late game win conditions, Crucible of Worlds + Strip Mine + one of our many Exploration effects usually spells defeat for the opponent. Boseiju, Who Shelters All – If you find yourself sitting down with 3 decks that want to say no, you can say no back. Cephalid Coliseum – Sacrificing land drops hurt, but this is a solid way to sculpt your hand. Glacial Chasm – Primary defensive lock down card. “Can't touch this” is right. Recur it and another land over and over again for a huge amount of time. What's even better is that your opponents then turn on each other. Kor Haven – Second only to Maze of Ith in dealing with single threats.1 Maze of Ith – Deals with big creatures, including generals, rather nicely. Survives Child of Alara's Nuclear Bombings. Mystifying Maze – Although it does have some collateral of reactivating opposing Enter the Battlefield Effects, it does get rid of pesky counter's and Dark Depths' Tokens. The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale – Our answer to token decks. We tutor up Tabernacle, they tutor up Gaea's Cradle, we tutor up Strip Mine, they tutor up Life from the Loam, we tutor up Bojuka Bog, they cry as 100 tokens disappear during their upkeep. Now we are well equipped to deal with both large single opposing creatures, and large swarms. Emeria, the Sky Ruin – One of the best recursion engines ever printed, and top choice for our deck's three. It takes a while to set up, but once it's online it's almost always “Good Game”. Volrath's Stronghold – Tied with Genesis for the number two option of recursion. Requires more investment in resources while online, but requires much less setup. Academy Ruins – Even though we only have four artifacts, this is still well worth it. Combines well with both Jester's Cap to strip the opponents decks of ways to interact with you, and Expedition Map to get a guaranteed land every turn, and therefore a guaranteed online Emeria. Slow, but powerful. Petrified Field – Get's any land back, typically one of our four lands with Realms Uncharted, unless we already have a Life from the Loam out. High Market – Instant speed way to sacrifice Child. Miren, the Moaning Well – This and Diamond Valley make up our life gain engine, which can help offset Glacial Chasm. Allows us to instant speed sacrifice Child, or abuse comes into play affects in combination of an online recursion engine. Diamond Valley – See Above.
[Phyrexian Tower] - This deck needs sacrificial outlets, and many times we sacrifice creatures during our own turn. Although certainly not as good as Diamond Valley, it get's the job done.
Fetches and Duals: The original dual lands were kept because sometimes we need a certain color combo to guarantee the playability of our spells. All of the non-white Ravnica duals were cut in favor of basics to help against Blood Moon effects.
There are a number of strength's and weaknesses this deck has. Firstly, we're going to go over the weaknesses. This deck's vulnerabilities can we classified into three categories: Blood Moon Effects, Armageddon effects, and Graveyard Hate.
Even though graveyard hate seems like it would be downright devastating, it's not. Here's why: Most EDH decks run about 2-4 pieces of 'yard hate, of which you should see 1-2 every game. Yes, it does hurt to get Loam along with a pile of lands removed, but the deck is designed so you aren't too reliant on any single card for an effect. We have three recursion options, which are the backbone of the deck. If worst comes to worst, we wreck their lands with Necrotic Sliver and Strip Mine, and then beat down for four turns with Child.
Next in potency comes Armageddons. They wipe you're lands off the field, leaving you with a small board position, compared to most other players. Even though we have plenty of land recursion in the form of Life from the Loam, and lands that survive Armageddons, Darksteel Citadel and Flagstones of Trokair, Armageddon's are still our second biggest threat. If you're expecting an Armageddon, tutor up Loam as soon as possible and hold a few lands back in hand.
Finally, we come to Blood Moon effects. Only two of these exist, in the form of Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon. These things are a real pounding, as they disrupt your entire game plan. That's why we run 2 basic lands of each color except red, and a full spectrum of fetchlands to find them, in addition to Riftstone Portal. Fortunately, almost all of our tutor's are easily castable under Moon effects, Conflux being the exception.
In conclusion, no matter how many basics and indestructible land effects you play, Armageddons and Blood Moons still hurt like a hole in the head. The plus side to this is that you know the few cards that really hurt your deck, and rest don't really affect you that much. Also, red and white are argueably the weakest colors in EDH, and Blood Moons are really only run in Mono Red and occasionally R/X.
This deck has a plethora of strengths. Firstly, your opponents typically only pack so many answers to lands in a given deck, which severely limits how they can interact with you, especially considering how many ways we have to bring back those lands. In multiplayer, this deck has a fairly strong matchup against almost all types of decks. Extremely fast aggro can give you trouble, if they can disrupt you enough before you lay Child, it can be difficult to recover. Fortunately, aggro decks aren't usually played in multiplayer. Creature based decks fall before this deck like servants. Their lack of ability to interact with your land based answers combined with a recurring wrath is enough to hammer down that nail, six feet deep. Once they figure out it's simply impossible for them to get through any meaningful damage because of your Maze effects and Child, they'll find someone else to give grief. The typical Mono-Blue control deck that is effective in multiplayer (less counterspells as they only trade 1-1 against 3 other opponents) can't keep you off of your cards forever due to all the recursion. Eventually they'll tap out and you can go find Boseiju for the win. You can disrupt all the usual Blue combos, which are permanent based, with Child of Alara. It's a simple problem solved, just try to hold onto Child as long as you can. Your stuff just keeps coming back, they'll need tons of removal to put you back in your shoebox. If they blow up your Emeria, just get it back. Most people just don't run enough removal toward lands to be able to disrupt you enough to gain control of the game. This deck is excellent at flying under the radar, and not looking like a threat. Even if you throw down Emeria early, people basically ignore it because they don't expect a five color deck hitting seven plains. You can also play the politics with all the Maze effects. Politics is a tool, just like a first turn Sol Ring. Ignoring politics is like ignoring the double time walk (in terms of mana) that Sol Ring gives you: it's a part of multiplayer.
In summary, this deck is a force to be reckoned with, but it builds slow, so be careful. You dominate the late game, so keep the game going as long as possible: You have favorable matchups, in multiplayer, against a lot of the decks out there.
Conclusions
In conclusion, this Child of Alara lands deck is a blast to play, and is a strong choice in multiplayer. It has a few vulnerabilities, but those can be played around. It can be made on a budget, and becomes much less expensive with Ravnica duals replacing Original Duals, and with the omission of Tabernacle. It's an insanely strong deck, and is extremely resilient. The goal of this thread is to be the starter of an ongoing EDH Lands discussion, much like Legacy Primers. Thanks for reading the Primer and enjoy the discussion.
[/SPOILER]
I got interested in this deck for a few reasons, including the reason of my group has a guy who plays a griefer deck that is rife with LD. I also loved my Aggro loam deck and love the land archetype.
A few things i will note, because i want to keep it this way
People need to keep in mind that this is a land-based attrition-control deck, NOT a five color control deck. You don't want to be leaving mana up, and cutting Crucible is just about the worst idea ever. Life from the Loam is more synergistic, but more vulnerable to graveyard hate since you have to overextend to make it work. Crucible is the BEST card in the entire deck, and it's not even close.
You're NOT the control deck(yes, i do control, but my strategy is more attrition), and you're NOT the aggro deck. It's an attrition deck that locks people out by using obscene amounts of recursion and uncounterable threats like Emeria and Strip Mine. You've got inevitability over just about every deck in the format. Child is a wrath that you use when necessary, but not terribly frequently.
This deck is SLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWW. It is an iceberg and the longer a game goes on, the closer i can draw them to the iceberg and sink them
so for ease here is the list, with Child of Alara as the general :
Is it me, or is your general Azusa, Lost but Seeking yet you run Gamble? Or I missed an invisible legendary creature here?
Or you don't happen to know you can only include cards who share the same color as your general? No offence, just making sure.
crap. crap. crap.
General is Child of Alara. And he is a damn good choice for he nukes all Nonland permanents. Azusa is awesome in any deck that wants to projectile vomit lands. Thank you for the heads-up
In my opinion though, if you were running 60 land edh, Azusa would be best. Child of Alara breaks the deck's speed by half. Mono-green Azusa should be able to answer any permanent and the lands should be able to control/prevent any aggro/own.
In my opinion though, if you were running 60 land edh, Azusa would be best. Child of Alara breaks the deck's speed by half. Mono-green Azusa should be able to answer any permanent and the lands should be able to control/prevent any aggro/own.
Here is why:
So why are we playing an angry baby that's just another pseudo-Oblivion Stone effect? Well, first and foremost, this deck wants access to all five colors so it play the best cards for the strategy it follows. That alone narrows the general choice significantly. We chose Child because it provides a wrath that is easily brought back to be played again and again. Remember, going to the command zone is a replacement effect with a may clause, you can decide when you want Child to blow up, allowing it to go to the graveyard, and when you don't, such as somebody trying to hijack your child's nuke by killing it. Child gives us access to a wrath all the time, so we don't need to run as many maindeck.
Taking a closer look at child's ability shows us that it destroys all non-land permanents. Yes, you guessed it, a lot of our key engine pieces are in the form of lands, in addition to a number of powerful effects stored in out landbase. This deck runs a plethora of Maze of Ith-esque effects. It's just like the classic Icy Manipulator, Wrath of God combo: the more you wrath, the less creatures they have, the more effective your manipulator is. Obviously the whole deck can't be lands, so we run a lot of recursion to offset Child's rather explosive temper tantrums.
In other words, this deck (which ive run in proxy a few moments ago) can trade the consistency of Azusa for the access to other colors.
I've run Horn of Greed to good effect in my Angry Baby.
except, i dont run terrible many spells and my CA is already good. But otherwise, i love that card.
This deck acts more like an iceberg, literally i try and drive for a long, long,long game,that.....well, theres a reason why this deck is considered a control's control deck. And i like it like that, i want to draw out a game to the point of literally driving my griefer friend insane, to the point where no matter how much destruction, he can never make headway
This is an interesting deck. I'm not strong at all on 5-color stuff, but I have a couple "maybe" cards for consideration.
Buried Ruin? To get back a Crucible or other needed artifact.
Yawgmoth's Will could possibly be worth something. With Azusa in play it's an immediate mass LD recovery.
Maybe Corpse Dance? With cheap buyback it's one of my favorite cards when you've got sac outlets (high market/Phyrex Tower), or self saccing creatures. You could reanimate a GE Archmage or Voidmage to counter spells repeatedly at will since you don't have to rfg them at eot. Or Necrotic Sliver over and over in the same way. With Tower/Market in play, it also has some sick, sick synergy with Sun and Primeval Titan as they have haste, trigger twice then sac and repeat next turn. And obvious synergy with Eternal Witness.
This is an interesting deck. I'm not strong at all on 5-color stuff, but I have a couple "maybe" cards for consideration. Buried Ruin? To get back a Crucible or other needed artifact. Yawgmoth's Will could possibly be worth something. With Azusa in play it's an immediate mass LD recovery.
Maybe Corpse Dance? With cheap buyback it's one of my favorite cards when you've got sac outlets (high market/Phyrex Tower), or self saccing creatures. You could reanimate a GE Archmage or Voidmage to counter spells repeatedly at will since you don't have to rfg them at eot. Or Necrotic Sliver over and over in the same way. With Tower/Market in play, it also has some sick, sick synergy with Sun and Primeval Titan as they have haste, trigger twice then sac and repeat next turn. And obvious synergy with Eternal Witness.
On Corpse Dance: Corpse Dance is a nice engine, and something I considered when i found this deck, but the deck has tons of ways to get the recusion engines we have, and don't really need another one. Also, we run enough creatures so that Child might not be the first on top. The deck does alot on it's turn usually, and can't really afford to keep 2-3 mana open every turn so i can be ready to counter a spell if needed.
Will looks good, and the ruin seems very decent. Ill think about it and im really looking forward to more ideas.
My hand (in testing on cockatrice either: was empty after a massive Manabond or its full with the CA ive picked up. Also,Summer Bloom is like a 3 turn Time Walk for me. I'd much rather have 4 land drops over 2 and a card with the way this deck runs.
Treasure Hunt ......... Im honestly really considering it . Manabond Synergy is utterly staggering. I can recur any card i discard, and it can help me by discarding some cards (Genesis and Riftstone Portal)
Cool deck man. I was always a fan of the 38 land deck in legacy so when I saw this I got really excited. Think ill take this for a spin in cockatrice today.
Constant Mists is a good repeatable fog if you need that kind of effect, works well with lots of land. Not sure how much you'd need it, but it's a suggestion.
Ah....Horn of Greed and the Sundial are good, but ive found myself in a peculliar situation... i go through enough of my deck fast. In both games, i won with under 10 cards in my library....so im afraid to add anything that goes through my deck faster.
Also, im fortunate that no one runs B2B, in my group....because the only person who would, hates blue. I only see blood moon effects
Constant Mists is a good repeatable fog if you need that kind of effect, works well with lots of land. Not sure how much you'd need it, but it's a suggestion.
I forgot about that card, it'll go on my "to test" list for now.
Im not sure about suggestions right now but I've always been in love with this deck idea and I was thinking of trying to build it. That having been said I'm a bit poor for cards and I wanted to know your opinion:
dual lands > tabernacle
or
Tabernacle > dual lands?
Either way expect me to start proxying this up and getting some suggestions to you soonish.
In my Life From the Loam deck, one of my MVPs is easily Hermit Druid. Like you said, you have plenty of recursion engines, and he almost acts like a tutor for your LftL. Unless you're worried about people mistaking you for a pure combo build, I'd suggest giving him a whirl.
Also, Seismic Assault is a lot of fun, but it will probably be too hard for you to hit RRR.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"I have seen the true path. I will not warm myself by the fire—I will become the flame."
—Lim-Dul, the Necromancer
In my Life From the Loam deck, one of my MVPs is easily Hermit Druid. Like you said, you have plenty of recursion engines, and he almost acts like a tutor for your LftL. Unless you're worried about people mistaking you for a pure combo build, I'd suggest giving him a whirl.
Also, Seismic Assault is a lot of fun, but it will probably be too hard for you to hit RRR.
actually, the assault wouldnt be, and it would turn a weakness into a strength. and im not a buyer into the druid.....he would die too much in my group.
and the previous poster, id say dual lands by far. Tabernacle is a creature neuterer. i get around it by sheer mana. and if you have a choice, go for the W/X ones. Emeria is an engine.
If you're looking at seismic assault, I think you should also consider trade routes. It allows you to protect all your lands from land destruction and when end game comes, return all your lands and discard them to seismic. I used to use trade routes in a combo deck with horn of greed and exploration/fastbond to keep drawing cards.
If you're looking at seismic assault, I think you should also consider trade routes. It allows you to protect all your lands from land destruction and when end game comes, return all your lands and discard them to seismic. I used to use trade routes in a combo deck with horn of greed and exploration/fastbond to keep drawing cards.
the thing is that i can shrug off land destruction through use of LoftL and Crucible. Trade Secrets is a card i hear a lot of, but i never liked.
For what it's worth, I'm probably one of the people who's invested the most time in this archetype, and was definitely one of the first to start exploring the 50-some land decks with Child of Alara.
There's been some pretty extensive discussion about it on some other websites, and I've put up two articles about it on Quiet Speculation. Links!
Thank you again, DNC
Welcome to the Realm of the Child. I'll be the first to admit that this IS NOT my deck idea. It was created by another user (Illusivek), but they dont seem to be on much anymore...so i hope to continue the deck idea. So here is his orginal first post. (note: all deck changes will be done in a second list below.)
[/SPOILER]
I got interested in this deck for a few reasons, including the reason of my group has a guy who plays a griefer deck that is rife with LD. I also loved my Aggro loam deck and love the land archetype.
A few things i will note, because i want to keep it this way
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Expedition Map
1 Null Rod
1 Spine of Ish Sah
1 Genesis
1 Necrotic Sliver
1 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Eternal Witness
1 Sun Titan
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
1 Primeval Titan
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Voidmage Prodigy
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Beseech the Queen
1 Buried Alive
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Time Warp
1 Tooth and Nail
1 All Suns' Dawn
1 Conflux
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Global Ruin
1 Gamble
1 Scapeshift
1 Life from the Loam
1 Summer Bloom
1 Wargate
1 Realms Uncharted
1 Intuition
1 Entomb
1 Crop Rotation
1 Worm Harvest
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Burgeoning
1 Manabond
1 Exploration
Lands: 60
1 Forgotten Cave
1 Lonely Sandbar
1 Secluded Steppe
1 Tranquil Thicket
1 Barren Moor
2 Forest
2 Plains
3 Swamp
1 Island
1 Riftstone Portal
1 Flagstones of Trokair
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Vesuva
1 Tolaria West
1 Strip Mine
1 Cephalid Coliseum
1 Glacial Chasm
1 Kor Haven
1 Maze of Ith
1 Mystifying Maze
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Academy Ruins
1 Petrified Field
1 High Market
1 Miren, the Moaning Well
1 Diamond Valley
1 Volcanic Island
1 Underground Sea
1 Tundra
1 Tropical Island
1 Taiga
1 Scrubland
1 Savannah
1 Plateau
1 Badlands
1 Bayou
1 Godless Shrine
1 Temple Garden
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Marsh Flats
1 Flooded Strand
1 Arid Mesa
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Polluted Delta
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Windswept Heath
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Verdant Catacombs
540 Peasant cube- Gold EditionSomething SpicyOr you don't happen to know you can only include cards who share the same color as your general? No offence, just making sure.
Mayael beats
crap. crap. crap.
General is Child of Alara. And he is a damn good choice for he nukes all Nonland permanents. Azusa is awesome in any deck that wants to projectile vomit lands. Thank you for the heads-up
540 Peasant cube- Gold EditionSomething SpicyMayael beats
Here is why:
In other words, this deck (which ive run in proxy a few moments ago) can trade the consistency of Azusa for the access to other colors.
540 Peasant cube- Gold EditionSomething Spicyexcept, i dont run terrible many spells and my CA is already good. But otherwise, i love that card.
This deck acts more like an iceberg, literally i try and drive for a long, long,long game,that.....well, theres a reason why this deck is considered a control's control deck. And i like it like that, i want to draw out a game to the point of literally driving my griefer friend insane, to the point where no matter how much destruction, he can never make headway
540 Peasant cube- Gold EditionSomething SpicyBuried Ruin? To get back a Crucible or other needed artifact.
Yawgmoth's Will could possibly be worth something. With Azusa in play it's an immediate mass LD recovery.
Maybe Corpse Dance? With cheap buyback it's one of my favorite cards when you've got sac outlets (high market/Phyrex Tower), or self saccing creatures. You could reanimate a GE Archmage or Voidmage to counter spells repeatedly at will since you don't have to rfg them at eot. Or Necrotic Sliver over and over in the same way. With Tower/Market in play, it also has some sick, sick synergy with Sun and Primeval Titan as they have haste, trigger twice then sac and repeat next turn. And obvious synergy with Eternal Witness.
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On Corpse Dance: Corpse Dance is a nice engine, and something I considered when i found this deck, but the deck has tons of ways to get the recusion engines we have, and don't really need another one. Also, we run enough creatures so that Child might not be the first on top. The deck does alot on it's turn usually, and can't really afford to keep 2-3 mana open every turn so i can be ready to counter a spell if needed.
Will looks good, and the ruin seems very decent. Ill think about it and im really looking forward to more ideas.
540 Peasant cube- Gold EditionSomething SpicyAlso, have your tried Treasure Hunt at all?
My hand (in testing on cockatrice either: was empty after a massive Manabond or its full with the CA ive picked up. Also,Summer Bloom is like a 3 turn Time Walk for me. I'd much rather have 4 land drops over 2 and a card with the way this deck runs.
Treasure Hunt ......... Im honestly really considering it . Manabond Synergy is utterly staggering. I can recur any card i discard, and it can help me by discarding some cards (Genesis and Riftstone Portal)
540 Peasant cube- Gold EditionSomething Spicy540 Peasant cube- Gold EditionSomething Spicy540 Peasant cube- Gold EditionSomething Spicy540 Peasant cube- Gold EditionSomething SpicyAlso, I find Back to Basics has hurt me more than Blood Moon.
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Ah....Horn of Greed and the Sundial are good, but ive found myself in a peculliar situation... i go through enough of my deck fast. In both games, i won with under 10 cards in my library....so im afraid to add anything that goes through my deck faster.
Also, im fortunate that no one runs B2B, in my group....because the only person who would, hates blue. I only see blood moon effects
I forgot about that card, it'll go on my "to test" list for now.
540 Peasant cube- Gold EditionSomething Spicydual lands > tabernacle
or
Tabernacle > dual lands?
Either way expect me to start proxying this up and getting some suggestions to you soonish.
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Also, Seismic Assault is a lot of fun, but it will probably be too hard for you to hit RRR.
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actually, the assault wouldnt be, and it would turn a weakness into a strength. and im not a buyer into the druid.....he would die too much in my group.
and the previous poster, id say dual lands by far. Tabernacle is a creature neuterer. i get around it by sheer mana. and if you have a choice, go for the W/X ones. Emeria is an engine.
540 Peasant cube- Gold EditionSomething Spicythe thing is that i can shrug off land destruction through use of LoftL and Crucible. Trade Secrets is a card i hear a lot of, but i never liked.
540 Peasant cube- Gold EditionSomething SpicyThere's been some pretty extensive discussion about it on some other websites, and I've put up two articles about it on Quiet Speculation. Links!
http://www.quietspeculation.com/2011/05/lands-before-time/#!
http://www.quietspeculation.com/2011/07/the-atomic-baby/#!
" Forum discussion">http://forum.mtgcommander.net/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=6866&view=next
hope this helps! Always glad to see more discussion about the archetype!
Anyway, I was just thinking. Have you considered Equinox? It flat out shutsdown a lot of cards you worry most with this deck.