Also, what are your opinions about the jund version of the deck? I also like the idea of 3 assault, 2 bear enchantment, 1 twister, but how effective can this be in relation to 3 or 4 Assault and 2 vortex?
Also what does countryside crusher bring to the table?
Countryside Crusher is a weird one. It sounds extra mediocre on paper but it's usually a 3cmc 5+/5+ dude that makes sure you only draw gas every turn. I'd recommend trying it out if you haven't played with it before.
@Vannatar - Ruination Rioter seems like it could be pretty interesting in an aggressive deck like you said. I like that it can turn an Assault activation into more than 2 damage. It also makes any sort of attacking really gross for the opponent if you have any number of lands in the graveyard. I may test him out over Goyf, just to see what it's like.
Also, I totally agree on not running 4 of Stomping Ground in a deck normally. All the lands you listed are great and in my Temur variant of the deck I split it up more. The only reason I'm advocating for 4 in the list I submitted is because Koth gives the deck a "mountains matter" theme and Cinder Glade felt a little too sketchy with only 5 basics. Also, having enough green sources to get multiple castings of Loam or activations of Living Twister are important to keep in mind for the mid- to late-game. Though cutting a Stomping Ground for a Glade probably wouldn't be the worst but I'm a big fan of very consistent turns 1-3 in Modern. Thus the 4-of concession.
@Cryptic Commander - Wrenn and Six could easily be a 3-of over a Countryside Crusher. Depends on how full the 3-slot feels in playtesting. I mainly didn't want to get stuck with a bunch of Wrenn in hand. They don't work as well in multiples as Loam does unfortunately. But I am really excited to see them in action.
Barring other spoilers that may get included, this is where I'm sitting on a decklist once we get our new toys. It's a really light green splash in a primarily red deck. Trying to be fairly aggressive while having the Assault+Loam package to grind out games. A decent top end to give some late game punch.
Not sure on Goyf v Young Pyromancer. I'm just worried there aren't enough ways to trigger YP and make him worthwhile and Goyf is generally just a big dude. So I'm leaning that way.
I could see swapping out Koth and getting Ayula's Influence in to a more green supported deck over Living Twister. I have wanted to play Koth in Loam for a long time and this seems like a good opportunity to test him out.
Why not just play Ayula's Influence as Seismic Assault 5+ and stay RG? Bloodbraid Elf with 6+ copies seems pretty good. Free activations is what makes Assault so strong. This is a bit slower but you can just EoT in a handful of bears every turn.
Yeah, I had Thought Scour in the deck awhile ago but the Scry 2 is important as I want to dig for the combo pieces of the deck and without a good way to recur the Assault, blindly milling isn't exactly where I wanted to be with the deck. Instant speed draw would be nice but the digging quality of Serum Visions is really what the deck wants.
@Dos_Rouge: I think the deck sits where it has for awhile, it's decent and has a strong attrition game but it doesn't close out games quickly. So it has rough combo match ups. Like most modern decks though, it can place fairly well but I don't know what sort of a meta modern would have to take for Assault Loam to be dominant.
@Xour: I don't think the deck is completely SOL against graveyard hate. Like, losing the Loam engine is rough but beating down with Countryside Crusher, Bloodbraid Elf, or manlands is viable. As is Assault turning your lands into Shocks. I took out the counter magic in my deck and tried running a set of BBE in their stead. It went fairly well at the tournament I played in, going 2-1-1. I beat Jeskai Control, Mono-White Midrange, drew with Jeskai Control (though I was a turn away from winning and would have won had he not drawn back to back Snapcasters during extra turns) and lost to UW Taking Turns. I liked being more proactive but not having ways to interact outside of damage was rough. I'm not sure how to balance that though as counter magic with BBE is awkward.
Graveyard hate is going to be tough for a graveyard based deck to deal with, otherwise it isn't good hate. You could maybe run some number of Maelstrom Pulse over the Lightning Axes in your deck or just prioritize digging for removal spells for it during games. I don't believe Lantern has a great way of dealing with Assault once it is in play. So I'd say focus on that game plan against them. You can Dredge through a Cage so getting the Loam engine going is where I would start for that match up. You could try adding a Crucible of Worlds or two to your sideboard and pursue a land destruction lock on them. Wheel of Sun and Moon also came up as a potential sideboard card while I was poking at this problem.
Capt. Nick, you seem to be the Temur Loam-master. Got any updated list post unbannings/Dominaria? Jace does fit the deck nicely in my opinion.
There wasn't anything in Dominaria that stuck out as a useful inclusion into Temur Loam. Though I do really like Sylvan Awakening as a card and I think this deck wouldn't be the worst place for it as a 1-of in the board. Jace, the Mind Sculptor is a nice addition to the deck as he does a lot of what you want and is much better than Nissa, Steward of Elements or Jace Beleren. This is the list I am playing with now:
The sideboard is really open to tuning and those are just general answers cards I like running. I would like to slot an Engineered Explosives in there but I don't really have a problem with where it is at right now. If you have any questions about the decklist, I'd be happy to answer them. I've only played a couple tournaments with it since the unban and have done pretty well with it.
I know that this isn't technically a Loam Pox thread, but I figure it's easier to find people to talk to than elsewhere, even if the chat feels pretty dead. I was wondering about our Lantern control matchup. Due to this rule: 502.47a Dredge is a static ability that functions only while the card with dredge is in a player’s graveyard. “Dredge N” means “As long as you have at least N cards in your library, if you would draw a card, you may instead put N cards from the top of your library into your graveyard and return this card from your graveyard to your hand.” we know that dredge doesn't stop us from milling ourselves. Memory's Journey doesn't do enough when you're not in blue because the flashback exiles the card. Is it worth while to have a Buried Ruin + Elixir of Immortality package (or some other choose to reshuffle package) in the 75?
I don't think dedicating sideboard slots to anti-milling is really going to do anything for you. Mill is how Lantern wins but getting around the lock is what will allow you to win through it. So you need answers to their lock pieces. So, bringing in more artifact removal should work well for you. Though, you're running 4 Ancient Grudge so I can't imagine you'd have trouble finding some hate. They can't really deal with that well, since it works from both your hand and graveyard. You could consider running Nature's Spiral or Treasured Find to get back milled Assaults. I haven't personally had trouble against Lantern with Loam decks. We tend to operate in a way that they can't handle without seeing several "silver bullet" artifacts. If you can stay ahead of those hate cards, you should be able to win without much trouble and before milling out becomes an issue.
It isn't really an Assault Loam deck without the Seismic Assault. Gitrog Monster was found to be a bit too win-more when it came out. You can go infinite with Dakmor Salvage, Monster and a discard outlet. So that's probably worth looking into if you are heading down that road. Traverse is a sweet tutor but it may be difficult to get Delirium online with no Looting style effect or cantrip artifacts MB like Mishra's Bauble or Nihil Spellbomb. I'd also want a 1-of Maelstrom Pulse in the deck. It may be personal preference but I like the unrestricted removal of it.
@LoveFromTheLoam - Big creatures is something Green/Red just doesn't handle particularly well on its own. That's why the Jund lists are popular. You get access to Liliana of the Veil, Fatal Push, Terminate, Abrupt Decay, and Maelstrom Pulse. All of which deal with creatures, regardless of their size. Splashing for a set of Path to Exile seems weak if you aren't going to utilize the white for something like Knight of the Reliquary or the strong sideboard cards white has available to it.
If you haven't played with Countryside Crusher in the deck, you should give it a try with or over Tireless Tracker it makes sure you are always drawing gas and gets big fairly quick. It's a very strong card. Courser of Kruphix is underwhelming in comparison and I think you really should get a fourth Faithless Looting in there for digging and filtering.
I'd play Field of Ruin over Tectonic Edge. You aren't going to be color screwing any of the control or mid-range decks often enough with Tec Edge. So it is just a way to interact with utility lands. Which Field does but doesn't put you down a land. Field also works a turn faster than Tec Edge. Ghost Quarter hits Tron and Eldrazi fastest; so I'd run those over Tec Edge as well. If it was me, I'd run a 3-2 split of Field and Quarter.
With the number of basic Forest you are running, I would have to think Thicket is pretty important for being able to cast Assault on curve. I get that you want to play around your own Blood Moons but how often do you need more than 2 Forests in play? Could you up the number of dual lands while cutting from your Forests? Like, -2 Forest, +1 Stomping Ground, +1 Sheltered Thicket? As far as other utility lands, if you had some form of recursion (Crucible of Worlds or Ramunap Excavator), Ramunap Ruins could be a decent inclusion. Otherwise, Treetop Village is a decent man-land. Horizon Canopy has draw a card printed on it. Kessig Wolf Run gives Trample and can buff your guys. As does Skarrg, the Rage Pits. And I believe that's all the relevant stuff.
How has Molten Vortex been for you? I like that it comes in under counter magic but I've lost games to not being able to activate it enough to stabilize or kill my opponents. I usually run 3 Assaults in my deck. Though I run a Temur version of the deck. So I have a bit more dig with Serum Visions and counter magic of my own to help Assaults stick.
I played with Kiora, the Crashing Wave for awhile and while she was solid, the abilities never felt overwhelmingly strong. A free draw for a turn is the most relevant part and for that, you may as well run Jace Beleren. I would highly recommend trying out Nissa, Steward of Elements. She can be a 3-drop or more, +2 is huge for a 'walker, and Scrying 2 every turn smooths out your draws significantly. Also, randomly dropping creatures into play off her 0 is pretty sweet upside. What is the Narnam Renegadedoing for your deck? Is it just a early blocker?
I tend to sit on counter spells and play a longer game when I suspect graveyard hate is coming in against me. Relic of Progenitus can be played around pretty easily and they'll tend to pop it in response to a Loam, so baiting that is a solid line. Surgical Extraction is a bit rough if they hit Loam but playing a beat down game with every land you draw turning into 2 damage is still pretty good. Rest in Peace is a real hoser. Goyf just becomes chump material and then it becomes a game of drawing Bolts and lands. Raging Ravine is solid in this area. Boarding into Scavenging Ooze and Thrun, the Last Troll gets around smaller Goyfs and represent real threats individually.
I mentioned in my tourney report that I've been kicking around playing Young Pyromancer over Goyf. It isn't hurt by graveyard hate as much and seems stronger in the Death's Shadow match for making chump blockers. The only problem being that he's a bit easier to remove than Goyf. So he'd have to be played differently than you would with Goyf (not jamming him into play on turn 2 basically). Potentially, spells could be shoehorned in over creatures. I'd have to do some digging for that, but it is a possibility.
I have been kicking around the idea of running Curse of the Swine. Since it Exiles creatures straight up and derpy 2/2's are very easy for RUG Loam to deal with. Otherwise, Pongify, Rapid Hybridization, or Beast Within are the best destroy effects we can play.
I played in a 1k Modern event last Sunday and did alright. Placed 20 out of 56 with an overall score of 3-2-1. I was going to do a more detailed write up but this past week has been really busy. I played against UW Pillow Fort round 1 and drew, then had odd pairings for the rest of the tournament. I beat a Living End/Scapeshift combo deck, Elfball, and Esper Delver. I lost to Jeskai Control and Grixis Death's Shadow.
The main things I took away from the tournament were:
-Tarmogoyf is fairly awkward in the Death's Shadow match up. Delve tends to cut into his P/T and keeps him from effectively deterring attacks (his intended role in the deck). I've been kicking around ideas for replacements and I'm thinking Young Pyromancer would be decent. GrixisDS's creatures don't have evasion, so generating a bunch of chump blockers should be fairly effective. Having the reach with burn spells was really nice here. I had some awkward mid-late game draws (basically no dig and no Assaults) the match didn't feel that bad post-board but their top decks start to get better than ours as the game goes on but I don't think they can beat a resolved Assault. Dismember is solid removal here but getting it Stubborn Denial'd really sucks.
-Against Control, I used to try to bump up the control elements in my deck to stick an early threat and protect it for longer. I think that I'm going to try boarding in to more of an aggressive game plan for this match up in the future. Thrun does a lot of work in this match up but without some additional support, he can't win games by himself. Ghost Quarter is always a champ in this match up against Celestial Colonnades.
-Curator of Mysteries never came into play during the tournament. I cycled him against Control to protect a Loam, which was nice. I think I'm going to keep it in and see how it continues to play out. Having the versatility of being a 1 mana cycle or a 4-drop beater that gets benefits with Assault seems solid.
If you want to know more about a particular match, I can give you some general high and low points of each but I don't have a sharp memory of the event so I'll spare you the foggy details for now.
@Existenz: I like the synergy of Hollow One and Leave // Chance with the deck but without support, they don't do a whole lot. I'd like to hear how they work out for you. Chance caught my eye as a neat interaction with a grip of lands and Loam in the yard. Drawing 4-7 cards seems good and being able to cast it from the 'yard is a nice bonus. 4cmc is a little rough though and Leave seems too "all-in" for my tastes. Fiery Justice seems like sweet tech for the DS match up. Let me know how testing goes for you!
Yeah, having the mana to cast Crusher isn't the problem. It's just that 3cmc vs 2cmc is pretty big. Like, being able to Loam and cast Goyf on turn 4. But also, 1G is less restrictive in terms of available usable lands. So if I need to use 1RR that may eat up some of my available blue sources or may require me to use my one R/G land in play. Something along those lines tends to come up between turns 3-5. But you're correct, double Red isn't a problem for the deck.
If you think double Bolt is a better meta call, sounds good to me. I'm still adjusting to the meta since I've just recently been getting back into Magic. The all or nothing philosophy was just my old deck building mentality. I'm open to changing that though. With Shadow decks running around and having to deal with large guys, I can get behind wanting to 1-for-1 with a Shadow. Once creatures start getting beyond x/4's, it is difficult to stabilize the board with Assault. Though, having burn to point at the Shadow player's face sounds good to me as well.
I agree Faithless Looting isn't the best draw spell ever but I've never really had an issue casting it turn 1. You see 2 more cards and get to sculpt the best 6 from the 8 cards you have during resolution. It's not the same as being left with 7 but it's pretty solid. Especially when you can benefit from those cards in the yard. Also, if you were playing Goyf, it's great for setting up a fat one on turn 2.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern:
RUG Forever A Loam
Counter CatUWRG
RGTitan Fall
QuestSteelUW
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Countryside Crusher is a weird one. It sounds extra mediocre on paper but it's usually a 3cmc 5+/5+ dude that makes sure you only draw gas every turn. I'd recommend trying it out if you haven't played with it before.
Also, I totally agree on not running 4 of Stomping Ground in a deck normally. All the lands you listed are great and in my Temur variant of the deck I split it up more. The only reason I'm advocating for 4 in the list I submitted is because Koth gives the deck a "mountains matter" theme and Cinder Glade felt a little too sketchy with only 5 basics. Also, having enough green sources to get multiple castings of Loam or activations of Living Twister are important to keep in mind for the mid- to late-game. Though cutting a Stomping Ground for a Glade probably wouldn't be the worst but I'm a big fan of very consistent turns 1-3 in Modern. Thus the 4-of concession.
@Cryptic Commander - Wrenn and Six could easily be a 3-of over a Countryside Crusher. Depends on how full the 3-slot feels in playtesting. I mainly didn't want to get stuck with a bunch of Wrenn in hand. They don't work as well in multiples as Loam does unfortunately. But I am really excited to see them in action.
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Countryside Crusher
2 Living Twister
4 Bloodbraid Elf
1 Hazoret the Fervent
Spells: 21
4 Faithless Looting
2 Flame Jab
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Life from the Loam
2 Wrenn and Six
4 Seismic Assault
1 Koth of the Hammer
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Prismatic Vista
4 Stomping Ground
2 Sheltered Thicket
2 Field of Ruin
1 Forest
4 Mountain
1 Raging Ravine
1 Fire-Lit Thicket
1 Blast Zone
Not sure on Goyf v Young Pyromancer. I'm just worried there aren't enough ways to trigger YP and make him worthwhile and Goyf is generally just a big dude. So I'm leaning that way.
I could see swapping out Koth and getting Ayula's Influence in to a more green supported deck over Living Twister. I have wanted to play Koth in Loam for a long time and this seems like a good opportunity to test him out.
@Xour: I don't think the deck is completely SOL against graveyard hate. Like, losing the Loam engine is rough but beating down with Countryside Crusher, Bloodbraid Elf, or manlands is viable. As is Assault turning your lands into Shocks. I took out the counter magic in my deck and tried running a set of BBE in their stead. It went fairly well at the tournament I played in, going 2-1-1. I beat Jeskai Control, Mono-White Midrange, drew with Jeskai Control (though I was a turn away from winning and would have won had he not drawn back to back Snapcasters during extra turns) and lost to UW Taking Turns. I liked being more proactive but not having ways to interact outside of damage was rough. I'm not sure how to balance that though as counter magic with BBE is awkward.
3 Countryside Crusher
4 Bloodbraid Elf
Spells: 28
3 Ancestral Vision
4 Serum Visions
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Faithless Looting
1 Flame Jab
2 Search for Azcanta
4 Life from the Loam
4 Seismic Assault
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Lands: 25
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Island
1 Forest
1 Mountain
3 Steam Vents
1 Stomping Ground
1 Breeding Pool
1 Spirebluff Canal
1 Copperline Gorge
1 Raging Ravine
1 Sheltered Thicket
2 Cascade Bluffs
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Hazoret the Fervent
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Nature's Claim
1 Back to Nature
1 Spellskite
1 Ghost Quarter
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Anger of the Gods
1 Flame Jab
Edit: Forgot that I swapped (-3) Snapcaster Mage for (+3) Ancestral Vision.
There wasn't anything in Dominaria that stuck out as a useful inclusion into Temur Loam. Though I do really like Sylvan Awakening as a card and I think this deck wouldn't be the worst place for it as a 1-of in the board. Jace, the Mind Sculptor is a nice addition to the deck as he does a lot of what you want and is much better than Nissa, Steward of Elements or Jace Beleren. This is the list I am playing with now:
3 Snapcaster Mage
3 Countryside Crusher
Spells: 29
4 Serum Visions
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Faithless Looting
1 Flame Jab
2 Spell Pierce
4 Deprive
4 Life from the Loam
4 Seismic Assault
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Lands: 25
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Island
1 Forest
1 Mountain
3 Steam Vents
1 Stomping Ground
1 Breeding Pool
1 Spirebluff Canal
1 Copperline Gorge
1 Raging Ravine
1 Sheltered Thicket
2 Cascade Bluffs
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Counterflux
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Dispel
1 Nature's Claim
1 Back to Nature
1 Spellskite
1 Ghost Quarter
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Anger of the Gods
1 Flame Jab
The sideboard is really open to tuning and those are just general answers cards I like running. I would like to slot an Engineered Explosives in there but I don't really have a problem with where it is at right now. If you have any questions about the decklist, I'd be happy to answer them. I've only played a couple tournaments with it since the unban and have done pretty well with it.
I don't think dedicating sideboard slots to anti-milling is really going to do anything for you. Mill is how Lantern wins but getting around the lock is what will allow you to win through it. So you need answers to their lock pieces. So, bringing in more artifact removal should work well for you. Though, you're running 4 Ancient Grudge so I can't imagine you'd have trouble finding some hate. They can't really deal with that well, since it works from both your hand and graveyard. You could consider running Nature's Spiral or Treasured Find to get back milled Assaults. I haven't personally had trouble against Lantern with Loam decks. We tend to operate in a way that they can't handle without seeing several "silver bullet" artifacts. If you can stay ahead of those hate cards, you should be able to win without much trouble and before milling out becomes an issue.
If you haven't played with Countryside Crusher in the deck, you should give it a try with or over Tireless Tracker it makes sure you are always drawing gas and gets big fairly quick. It's a very strong card. Courser of Kruphix is underwhelming in comparison and I think you really should get a fourth Faithless Looting in there for digging and filtering.
I'd play Field of Ruin over Tectonic Edge. You aren't going to be color screwing any of the control or mid-range decks often enough with Tec Edge. So it is just a way to interact with utility lands. Which Field does but doesn't put you down a land. Field also works a turn faster than Tec Edge. Ghost Quarter hits Tron and Eldrazi fastest; so I'd run those over Tec Edge as well. If it was me, I'd run a 3-2 split of Field and Quarter.
With the number of basic Forest you are running, I would have to think Thicket is pretty important for being able to cast Assault on curve. I get that you want to play around your own Blood Moons but how often do you need more than 2 Forests in play? Could you up the number of dual lands while cutting from your Forests? Like, -2 Forest, +1 Stomping Ground, +1 Sheltered Thicket? As far as other utility lands, if you had some form of recursion (Crucible of Worlds or Ramunap Excavator), Ramunap Ruins could be a decent inclusion. Otherwise, Treetop Village is a decent man-land. Horizon Canopy has draw a card printed on it. Kessig Wolf Run gives Trample and can buff your guys. As does Skarrg, the Rage Pits. And I believe that's all the relevant stuff.
How has Molten Vortex been for you? I like that it comes in under counter magic but I've lost games to not being able to activate it enough to stabilize or kill my opponents. I usually run 3 Assaults in my deck. Though I run a Temur version of the deck. So I have a bit more dig with Serum Visions and counter magic of my own to help Assaults stick.
I mentioned in my tourney report that I've been kicking around playing Young Pyromancer over Goyf. It isn't hurt by graveyard hate as much and seems stronger in the Death's Shadow match for making chump blockers. The only problem being that he's a bit easier to remove than Goyf. So he'd have to be played differently than you would with Goyf (not jamming him into play on turn 2 basically). Potentially, spells could be shoehorned in over creatures. I'd have to do some digging for that, but it is a possibility.
Here's the deck I played:
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Snapcaster Mage
1 Curator of Mysteries
Spells: 27
4 Serum Visions
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Spell Pierce
4 Life from the Loam
4 Deprive
4 Seismic Assault
3 Anger of the Gods
2 Nissa, Steward of Elements
Lands: 25
1 Breeding Pool
2 Cascade Bluffs
1 Copperline Gorge
1 Forest
2 Ghost Quarter
2 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Mountain
1 Raging Ravine
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Sheltered Thicket
1 Spirebluff Canal
3 Steam Vents
1 Stomping Ground
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Counterflux
2 Dismember
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Nature's Claim
1 Ghost Quarter
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Spellskite
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Dispel
1 Ceremonious Rejection
The main changes were trying out Curator of Mysteries over Keranos, God of Storms and finding room in the Board for Ghost Quarter, Dispel and Ceremonious Rejection. I was expecting more Tron to be in the event than there ended up being.
The main things I took away from the tournament were:
-Tarmogoyf is fairly awkward in the Death's Shadow match up. Delve tends to cut into his P/T and keeps him from effectively deterring attacks (his intended role in the deck). I've been kicking around ideas for replacements and I'm thinking Young Pyromancer would be decent. GrixisDS's creatures don't have evasion, so generating a bunch of chump blockers should be fairly effective. Having the reach with burn spells was really nice here. I had some awkward mid-late game draws (basically no dig and no Assaults) the match didn't feel that bad post-board but their top decks start to get better than ours as the game goes on but I don't think they can beat a resolved Assault. Dismember is solid removal here but getting it Stubborn Denial'd really sucks.
-Against Control, I used to try to bump up the control elements in my deck to stick an early threat and protect it for longer. I think that I'm going to try boarding in to more of an aggressive game plan for this match up in the future. Thrun does a lot of work in this match up but without some additional support, he can't win games by himself. Ghost Quarter is always a champ in this match up against Celestial Colonnades.
-Curator of Mysteries never came into play during the tournament. I cycled him against Control to protect a Loam, which was nice. I think I'm going to keep it in and see how it continues to play out. Having the versatility of being a 1 mana cycle or a 4-drop beater that gets benefits with Assault seems solid.
If you want to know more about a particular match, I can give you some general high and low points of each but I don't have a sharp memory of the event so I'll spare you the foggy details for now.
@Existenz: I like the synergy of Hollow One and Leave // Chance with the deck but without support, they don't do a whole lot. I'd like to hear how they work out for you. Chance caught my eye as a neat interaction with a grip of lands and Loam in the yard. Drawing 4-7 cards seems good and being able to cast it from the 'yard is a nice bonus. 4cmc is a little rough though and Leave seems too "all-in" for my tastes. Fiery Justice seems like sweet tech for the DS match up. Let me know how testing goes for you!
If you think double Bolt is a better meta call, sounds good to me. I'm still adjusting to the meta since I've just recently been getting back into Magic. The all or nothing philosophy was just my old deck building mentality. I'm open to changing that though. With Shadow decks running around and having to deal with large guys, I can get behind wanting to 1-for-1 with a Shadow. Once creatures start getting beyond x/4's, it is difficult to stabilize the board with Assault. Though, having burn to point at the Shadow player's face sounds good to me as well.
I agree Faithless Looting isn't the best draw spell ever but I've never really had an issue casting it turn 1. You see 2 more cards and get to sculpt the best 6 from the 8 cards you have during resolution. It's not the same as being left with 7 but it's pretty solid. Especially when you can benefit from those cards in the yard. Also, if you were playing Goyf, it's great for setting up a fat one on turn 2.