Thanks to Koto_Uchiha & Froze Over for the help!
Previous primer can be found here.
I: The Deck
1) Why should I play lands?
Lands is a control deck that focuses on well, lands. Over the years, Wizards of the Coast has decided to print many awesome land cards with abilities other than producing mana. Lands uses these cards as well as supportive enchantments and artifacts to create a very interesting deck unlike any other. However, due to the price tag and cards that do not cross over into other legacy decks, the deck is not common, but it is extremely fun to play.
2) How does the deck even work with all that land?
With the printing of Punishing Fire, the combo with Grove of the Burnwillows was established. Into the legacy scene comes Deathrite Shaman, and the Grove/Fire combo is necessary now to deal with such threats. The combo also comes in handy against other creature based decks, and can be used to handle pesky planeswalkers as well.
4) How does a deck like this win?
Honestly, the deck really doesn’t “win”. I’d go out to say games are won at least 50% of the time from the opponent scooping it up from the extreme mana denial or something like an Engineered Explosives lock with Academy Ruins. Aside from that, Lands has a few “manlands”, which are lands that turn into creatures by paying mana, such as Mishra’s Factory and Creeping Tar Pit. They can be tutored up once a game is locked up for the slow win.
The new legend rule released in 2013, gave us lands players a very deadly combo with Thespian’s Stage and Dark Depths. By copying the Dark Depths with stage, the following happens:
1) Thespian’s Stage targets Dark Depths with it’s clone ability.
2) Ability resolves, you now have two Dark Depths in play. Under the new legend rule, we must pick one to stay on the battlefield. We sacrifice the original Dark Depths and keep the Thespian’s Stage.
3) Thespian’s Stage becomes a copy of Dark Depths with 0 Ice counters on it, triggers, gets sacrificed and out comes the 20/20, flying, indestructible Marit Lage.
It's worth noting here that if your opponent lets your copy ability resolve, then tries to stifle the Thespian Stage's new Depths ability "When this card has 0 Ice counters, Put.." let them. They counter the ability, then the land sees that it once again has zero counters and just triggers again. Waste that stifle!
With this combo, lands now has a way to kill extremely fast, and should the token die, Life from the Loam can bring back both pieces of the combo to be done again. Decks in the past have also used cards like Worm Harvest and Mindslaver for the win, but this new combo is definitely the way to go.
II: Card Choices
Enchantments:
Exploration: This card really lets the deck go into overdrive. It’s pretty self explanatory. Playing multiple lands per turn = Winning. Always a 4 of.
Manabond: This aids exploration in dumping lands into play. It’s usually boarded out game 2 so you don’t get blown out by gravehate once you activate it. 1-2 of in Intuition-based lists. 3-4 of in the combo version.
Sylvan Library: Library is amazing as usual. Allows us to see three cards deep to plan strategies ahead, and if we’re already ahead, lets us pay life to quickly establish a lock or soft lock. Usually played in Enlightened Tutor versions, it’s never more than a 1 of.
Artifacts:
Mox Diamond: Any colored mana at the cost of what you say? Pitching a land? But we can’t possibly get land back! Ha! 4-of, possible 3-of.
Engineered Explosives: Creature/Enchantment/Planeswalker/Artifact killer that’s recurrable through Academy Ruins AND tutorable via Tolaria West. There’s usually at least two copies in the 75.
Ensnaring Bridge: Sometimes this just wins games against aggro. It’s slightly fallen out of favor with our new win-con being a 20/20, but 1-2 should try to find space in the 75. It has synergy with Manabond for quick hand dumping. One neat trick with this and Creeping Tar Pit is to dredge, get three lands back, swing with the pit and trigger Manabond/Exploration to prevent swingbacks.
Zuran Orb: Transmutable via Tolaria West, this saves us against quick aggro, and burn decks. This flat out beats Price of Progress with land recursion. It also protects manlands from removal effects. Almost always 1 in the maindeck.
Oblivion Stone: The big boom. This and Academy Ruins can get pretty silly, and it punishes players that overextend. Sadly, it still gets hit by Abrupt Decay, so you can’t let it sit around and add fate counters like before. Still good though, especially in E-Tutor builds.
Intuition: The possibilities with tutoring three cards are endless, there are so many piles you can make to frustrate your opponents. A resolved Intuition can easily let you pull ahead in the game. Piles will be discussed below. In Intuition builds, usually a 2-3 of. Entirely game state dependent on what you tutor for.
Basic Intuition piles usually go for Life from the Loam and two lands that either deny more mana (Ports, Wasteland), or finish combos (Dark Depths, Thespian Stage, Grove).
If you expect your opponent has a Vendilion Clique and he wants to tuck your loam on the bottom of your library, simply grab 2x Loam + 1 Land with your pile.
You can also in a pinch, tutor for 3x Exploration if you really need the acceleration.
Gamble: This card was played as a 4-of in the old style lands lists, but fell out of favor. With the new Dark Depths + Thespian’s Stage combo, they are seeing a resurgence in the combo lists as a 3-4 of. You can use this to tutor Life from the Loam, and even if they discard it, who cares? Nice 1 mana tutor.
Crop Rotation: Note that you have to sacrifice a land as an additional cost, meaning you lose if it’s countered, but a resolved Crop Rotation is amazing. You can rotate lands being targeted by opposing Wastelands, and it has the additional value of being instant speed so you can abuse lands like Bojuka Bog, Glacial Chasm or a Karakas facing down an Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. Again with the new Dark Depths+Thespian’s Stage combo, this card becomes BROKEN. If you have one of the two lands for the combo, simply EOT rotate into the other piece, make a 20/20, untap and swing in. Very deadly. 3-4 in combo lists, possibly in the maindecks or sideboards of [CARD]Intuition[CARD] lists.
Life from the Loam: If you’re even thinking of playing this deck, you should know what this card does. This card makes the deck work. It does exactly what we want to do. Recur lands, and give us a way to cycle through our deck faster than simply drawing a card each turn to find the lands we need.
Ravens Crime: Discard a land card to make your opponent discard a card. Loam and repeat and your opponent quickly has no hand. Works very well with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth.
Lands:
Academy Ruins: This land creates a soft lock with Engineered Explosives, and can bring back any artifacts that happen to hit the graveyard from dredging or destroy effects. With Academy Ruins in play, you can do silly things like slam Ensnaring Bridge over and over against aggro and even mill people out recurring Mox Diamond should the game progress that far.
Wasteland: Legacy is full of non-basic lands, from duals, legendaries and all of the inbetween. In some games, a single timely Wasteland can spell the end for some decks, but recurring these over and over can be game-winning. You can also use these to save your own manlands from exile effects like Swords to Plowshares, should you run them.
Ghost Quarter: Essentially Wasteland #5, it can also be used to strip the few basic lands in your opponents deck, then turn into strip mine. In a pinch, you can Ghost Quarter your own land to fetch your singleton basic Forest.
Rishadan Port: The second half of our mana denial plan, activating your Rishadan Ports on your opponent's upkeep keeps their mana in check and lets them only play instants during that time.
The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale: This land wrecks aggro strategies, and also acts as mana denial. You can wait for it to trigger, have your opponent pay for whatever creatures they would like to keep, then follow up with Rishadan Ports tapping the rest of their lands down.
Maze of Ith: Another aggro denial land in our arsenal, this keeps us from dying to silly legacy beasts like Tarmogoyf. Maze of Ith really shines against decks that run very few creatures, like tempo. It can also save us from the dreaded turn 1 Goblin Lackey.
Glacial Chasm: Requires you to sacrifice a land when it comes into play, and has a fairly steep upkeep cost, but wins games. Combined with an Exploration effect, you can hardlock aggro decks out of the game. This land became better with the printing of Thespian’s Stage, as you can copy it in response to an opposing Wasteland to never drop the lock.
Bojuka Bog: Gravehate in the form of a land? Sold. Works well with Zuran Orb, as you can sacrifice it and recur it to reuse it.
Tranquil Thicket: Cycle lands can give us card advantage, but it also has the added effect of being able to dredge Life from the Loam at instant speed. This can be used to escape extraction effects, and can even be used during your main phase to get around cards like Vendilion Clique.
Mishra’s Factory: A great manland. Low activation cost, and can become a 3/3 blocker. Lists used to run 3-4, but with the new wincon, the land count dropped and these fell out of favor. Nowadays, it’s a 1 of, if at all. If you expect a lot of Geist of Saint Traft in your meta, this is not a bad call.
Thespian’s Stage: Combos with Dark Depths as our new wincon. Also can double up as an extra Rishadan Port or something else silly. Don’t forget you can copy your opponents lands too! It can dodge Wastelands by copying a basic land.
Dark Depths: 20/20 Indestructible/Flying spaghetti monster? Sign me up.
Nephalia Drownyard: A fairly new addition, some players are finding this useful against the blue decks that like to stack their draws with cantrips. It can also mill players out if need be.
Forest: Yes. A basic land. We play 1. Sometimes. Thanks Blood Moon.
Fetchlands: Any green fetchland will do. Since most land decks are 3+ colors, these help us smooth out our manabase and get the correct mana when needed. With Exploration + recursion, it also lets us obtain extra mana sources fairly quick. Note that running the same fetchland makes it an easy extraction target, so we run mostly 3 or 4 different green fetchlands.
Duals: Any dual with green will do. There’s really no limit to what you can play in a deck with so many colors. Each color gets you something for the deck.
Sideboard:
Dark Confidant: This guy is an amazing card, but works even better with the low mana curve of the deck. Post board, he gives us a way to get extra cards so we are not so reliant on the graveyard, and he also provides beats.
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben: A hatebear that only adds to our mana denial plan, she shuts down combo and provides a clock.
Geist of Saint Traft: Some choose to run geist in the sideboard as a quick clock, that is castable turn 2. As some players choose to leave removal in the maindeck for post-board bobs/ manlands, these will be sure to surprise them. Great against control decks like miracles too.
Chalice of the Void: Shuts down many legacy decks with low mana costs, especially combo decks, our worst matchups. Some games can be decided with a Turn 1 Chalice of the Void @1.
Trinisphere: Another card against combo, this card shines against the new Omni-Tell variants.
Sphere of Resistance: Similar to Thalia, Guardian of thraben plus it gets around creature kill spells and taxes everything, but it does not provide a body to attack with. Another way for us to tax.
Mindbreak Trap: Good against storm, but the artifact hate is generally better as you can recur them with academy ruins.
Last Rites: Pitch a bunch of lands to nuke your opponent's hand, then recur them. Seeing some play in the combo versions since they can Gamble for it.
Cards that have fallen out of favor:
Ancient Grudge: A solid card in the sideboard, because it fits in with the loam plan and can be cast from the graveyard of the one basic Forest in the deck. It is not played because people prefer Krosan Grip with Split Second.
Cephalid Coliseum:Was used in blue builds as an optional win condition or fill the graveyard to add cards to the threshold count. Hasn't been used in ages from what I know, but should at least get an honorable mention here.
Nantuko Monastery: This one is a relic from the past, where the threshold was easier to get. A 4/4 vanilla creature with first strike? Nice, but Mishra’s Factory has proven to be better because it doesn’t rely on the graveyard.
Other manlands: There are numerous other manlands, that have and have not seen play in stages of very early development of this deck. Treetop Village would be an example.
Smokestack: Another old card that has fallen out of favor, Smokestack turns your recursion and extra land drops into a combo that eats away your opponents field.
Mindslaver: And oldie but goodie, this wincon has since fallen out of favor. Combos with Academy Ruins for a lock.
III: Decklists
There's a few versions of the deck running around. There is a newer combo version of lands and the more traditional Intuition based lands.
Intuition-Lands (20th Place @ SCG:Milwaukee, by Froze Over)
IV: Matchup Analysis (Still filling in, if you have specific information, feel free to PM me!)
RUG: Favorable
Their entire deck is nonbasic lands, so you can easily tear apart their manabase. Watch for stifles on Engineered Explosives and Maze of Ith, but otherwise, Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale and land destruction is amazing here. Engineered Explosives lock flat out wins game 1, as they have nothing to stop it. Delvers can be shot with Punishing Fire, and they cannot kill Marit Lage tokens.
Expect: They will most likely bring in Surgical Extraction, Grafdigger’s Cage, and possibly Life from the Loam or Ancient Grudge.
Side in: Chalice of the Void will win you games, sometimes turn 1 if you can cast it @1. Aside from that, bobs force their bolts, and can block early Nimble Mongoose.
Side out: Manabonds, Intuition
Shardless BUG: Unfavorable
These guys have all the tools to stop what we like to do from Deathrite Shaman to Abrupt Decay. Punishing Fire, Maze of ith, and sometimes Tabernacle will help you a lot in this matchup. Your intuitions will likely not be resolved making it very hard to get any sort of combo that helps online unless you draw into it. An Engineered Explosives lock might seal the deal against them you found fast enough.
Expect: Now that they know you are playing lands they will be looking for that turn one Deathrite Shaman, attempt to have a Punishing Fire in the opening hand.
Side in: Dark Confidant, Chalice of the Void, Trinisphere, Cursed Totem, Abrupt Decay
Side out: Intuition, Crucible of Worlds, Manabond
Death and Taxes: Even/ Slightly Favorable
Our main plan is to tax and this deck will drop a turn 1 vial and use all their mana to tax you instead. Engineered Explosives, Tabernacle, and Punishing Fire are your best friends in this matchup. Expect them to side in Rest in Peace and watch out for Flickerwisp out of the vials to temporarily take out your mazes and chasms to get damage in.
Expect: Be ready for graveyard hate. Abrupt Decay will be able to kill almost everything they put on board.
Side in: Krosan Grip, Dark Confidant, Ensnaring Bridge, Abrupt Decay
Side out: IntuitionCrucible of Worlds, Manabond, Bojuka Bog 1-2 Wasteland If additional space needed.
Maverick: Favorable
Punishing Fire destroys this matchup. Even an active Mother of Runes can simply be double punishing fired, and Engineered Explosives can destroy this deck. Watch out for versions splashing black for Deathrite Shaman and maindecked Scavenging Ooze. Maze of Ith is also very good here. You can punishing fire Knight of the Reliquary after a Bojuka Bog. Try to cut them off green during the length of the game.
Expect: Crypt, Relic, Extraction effects, Krosan Grip, Bojuka Bog
Side in: Krosan Grip, Abrupt Decay, Revoker, Ensnaring Bridge, Engineered Explosives
Side out: Intuition, Manabond
Elves: Favorable
This matchup is like any other combo deck... except we can Punishing Fire, Engineered Explosives, Tabernacle and Glacial Chasm the combo pieces. Tabernacle gets "shut down" by a Gaea's Cradle, so have a waste ready. A quick Natural Order on their side can end the game for you, so be careful. The most common elves deck don't run any wasteland, so you're free to do as you please, but they are running Deathrite Shaman as a mana dork.
Expect: Abrupt Decay, Viridian Shaman, Progenitus (possibly)
Side in: Trinisphere, Chalice of the Void, Sphere of Resistance, Ethersworn Canonnist, Engineered Explosives, Phyrexian Revoker.
Side out: Maze of Ith (Leave 1-2 in), Intuition, Bojuka Bog, Karakas, Manabond. Boarding is a little difficult since you have so much you want to bring in, but they're a creature combo, so you still want to keep things like fires in.
ANT/TES: Even/Slightly unfavorable
Most people say that this matchup is very one sided, but when you look at it, most of their landbase is non-basic. They are able to do the turn 1 kills, but it’s not as likely as belcher and the like. Ports are also all stars in this, as many times, the single mana counts. Try to cut them off colors when they fetch basics and you should be fine. A quick marit lage can also take this match.
Expect: Surgicals or artifact gravehate like tormod’s crypt or relic. Our postboard game against them is amazing, probably favorable, if the turn 1 wins don’t show up.
Side in: Chalice/Trinisphere/Canonist/Thalia/Sphere of Resistance/Mindbreak Trap/ Revoker/ Dark Confidant
Side out: Intuition, manabond, maze of ith, glacial chasm, karakas, punishing fire. (Keep Tabernacle in, it’s safe against Empty the Warrens)
Belcher: Unfavorable
Turn 1 combo decks are the bane of lands. Game 1, we have very little to interact with them, they have a single land, so wastelands and ports are dead. An early glacial chasm or Marit Lage will be needed to take this game.
Sideboard: Some belcher variants don’t even sideboard, and the ones that do probably don’t have anything for you.
Side in: Chalice/Trinisphere/Canonist/Thalia/Sphere of Resistance/Mindbreak Trap/ Revoker/ Dark Confidant
Side out: manabond, maze of ith, glacial chasm, karakas, punishing fire, Tabernacle, Bojuka Bog. Keep Intuition in as they can’t interact with it, and you can intution for 3x hate if you run it.
High Tide: Beyond Unfavorable
This may be our worst matchup along with Omni-Tell. Mono blue, no disruption besides ports, they can High Tide in response to a port activation, and their Time Spirals do nothing whatsoever to help you. Artifact hate game two is easily dealt with an EOT Cunning Wish->Hurkyl’s Recall or Rebuild, then combo. Thalias are great in this matchup as it requires more spells to get rid of. There’s a story of a lands player who sat down across from a High Tide player. Lands knew what Tide was on, but not vice-versa. Tide kept their 7, lands scooped as not to give away information and sideboarded. Matchup got slightly easier with Marit Lage so we can race as their combo turn is turn 4, but still a terrible matchup.
Expect: They are using a wishboard almost without any graveyard hate. It contains their win-condition (Blue Suns Zenith) and many bounce/removal spells.
Side in: Chalice, Trinisphere, Canonist, Thalia, Sphere of Resistance, Mindbreak Trap, Revoker, Dark Confidant
Side out: Manabond, Maze of Ith, Glacial Chasm, Karakas, Punishing Fire, Tabernacle, Intuition.
Miracles: Even/Depends on the Version
Depending on the version, this can be either a great matchup or a terrible one. Terrible one meaning the combo version, maindeck Rest in Peace, and usually Blood Moon as well. Both versions tend to run moon, but usually 1, possibly 2 in the 75. They have an ample number of basics, but they need to hit 4 mana for jace. They also have very little pressure, which lets you expand your board state very well. Entreat can be stopped by placing an EE @ 0 for safety late game. Try to count how many basic land they have G1, it will help you a lot in future games if you plan to Ghost Quarter them. Cutting them off double white can win you the game.
Expect: Rest in Peace, Surgical Extraction, Blood Moon, Disenchant, Oblivion Ring
Side in: Thalia, Dark Confidant, Chalice of the Void
Side out: Intuition, Manabond (Note: Depending on the number of creatures/Entreat the angels, you may opt to board out Glacial chasm/Tabernacle and possibly a Maze of Ith. I like to bring in chalice as Chalice @ 1 stops Brainstorm/Sensei's Top/STP/Surgical/Spell Pierce etc.)
Blade Control:
Merfolk: Even
Merfolk is an interesting matchup. Ensnaring bridge game 1 instantly wins the game if you go hellbent. An Engineered Explosives lock will do the same. Remember that their lords give islandwalk, so Tropical Island can hurt if you're playing more manlands and need to block. Punishing fire does a lot of work here, as long as they have singleton lords, they are 2/2. Beware though, you can quickly get rushed down by angry 4/4 lords in a few turns if you aren't careful. As with any aggro deck, Maze of Ith and Tabernacle are good here. Your wastelands only hit mutavaults in this matchup, and ports can slow them down if they haven't resolved an Aether Vial.
Expect: Relic of Progenitus, Surgical Extraction, Echoing Truth. Game 2, you can win off Ensnaring Bridge again as they usually only board in 1-2 bounce spells, which you can simply replay.
Side In: Thalia, Dark Confidant, Ensnaring Bridge, Engineered Explosives
Side Out: Intuition, Manabond
Burn: Unfavorable
Price of Progress HURTS. Zuran orb ASAP, ports and wastes don’t do very much here, maze can save you damage against Goblin Guides, Hellspark Elementals or Keldon Mauraders. Your fastest way out of this matchup is making 20/20 tokens. Thespian stage + Glacial chasm can work too, but chasm alone doesn’t cut it.
Expect: Smash to Smithereens, Sufuric Vortex, Surgical Extraction
Side in: Chalice of the Void, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Ethersworn Canonist, Dark Confidant
Side out: Punishing Fire, Intuition, Manabond
Sideboard: Chalice 1 helps a lot, but chalice 2 shuts down price of progress, flame rift, keldon and the sideboarded smash to smithereens. Jund:
Show and Tell variants: Unfavorable
Like other combo decks this is a bad matchup for us. Game one attempt to tax them and keep them off show and tell mana then be ready for whatever they throw into play this match can go several ways depending on which version they are playing. The decks are so volatile that you could be porting them off mana, then die to a sudden City of Traitors/ Ancient Tomb, Show and Tell -> Death. If the deck is running red, it is sneak and show. Ensnaring Bridge immediately wins. If monoblue, you will need ports and the Depths combo immediately. If you play Raven's Crime, that is your #1 go-to card in this matchup.
Sideboard: Sideboard depending on the version. Against Omni-Tell, you board out creature hate, ie: Tabernacle, Glacial Chasm, Punishing Fire (Keep maze for the hardcast Emrakul, they usually play 1-2) Putting in a Trinisphere into play off a Show and tell against Omni can win you the game. Against Sneak and Show, still take out the weaker hate like Punishing Fire, but keep in the Chasm, Maze, and Ensnaring Bridge.
Side in: Ensnaring Bridge, Krosan Grip, Trinisphere, Sphere of Resistance, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Side out: Punishing Fire, Zuran Orb, Engineered Explosives
Mono-Black Pox: Favorable.
Preboard this matchup should be easy to win. You should be able to bring everything back to the game, that gets destroyed. Deny them their mana, they only have one win condition. They have a slow game plan, similar to ours, but they can disrupt your mana. I even managed to cast Loam under a Nether Void. It crippled him more than it did to me. Be prepared for Game 1, cause takes a lot of time, we disrupting their mana, they keep disrupting our mana. They have easy ways to deal with Marit Lage, but if you keep recurring it, eventually they should be out of fodder.
Postboard this matchup gets a little trickier. More disruption and graveyard hate can give you a hard time. It can easily happen, that you go to time in game two.
Expect: Leyline of the Void, Pithing Needle, maybe Extirpate
Side in: Dark Confidant, Krosan Grip, maybe Chalice of the Void
Side out: Crucible of Worlds, Riftstone Portal, Intuition, Manabond
I finally got interested in lands and posted on the old thread, it gets closed down. lol. Anyways I thank Sparki for some good suggestions. Here is what I'm building/tinkering with. Initially I included the Savannah for a white splash to play Ray of Revelation and activate Nantuko Monastary. Sparki suggested Canonist for the board and I really can't see why I didn't think of it first.
Initially I included the Savannah for a white splash to play Ray of Revelation and activate Nantuko Monastary. Sparki suggested Canonist for the board and I really can't see why I didn't think of it first.
The process of building the deck is going to be slow and expensive. That is why you see 3 Wasterlands and 3 Mazes. Obviously a cheap lands deck does not exist but I'm trying to make it as cheap as possible.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Stasis players like me are like those old gray haired convicts that have been locked up for 40 years straight. You can take us in a fight but you know you'll lose a testicle in the process of winning.
Decks I play
Legacy
Dredge 0
DredgeGBRU
AffinityXRUB
GoblinsRWB
10 land StompyG
BurnR
DreadstillURW
BelcherGR
Death and Taxes W
Enchantress GWR
BUILDING
Legacy Lands GBRUW
I'll never tell you the flavor text of Teferi's Imp!!
I finally got interested in lands and posted on the old thread, it gets closed down. lol. Anyways I thank Sparki for some good suggestions. Here is what I'm building/tinkering with. Initially I included the Savannah for a white splash to play Ray of Revelation and activate Nantuko Monastary. Sparki suggested Canonist for the board and I really can't see why I didn't think of it first.
The process of building the deck is going to be slow and expensive. That is why you see 3 Wasterlands and 3 Mazes. Obviously a cheap lands deck does not exist but I'm trying to make it as cheap as possible.
I like the list much better now. You can also try enlightened tutor with the white splash, as it fetches Crucible, EE, Zuran Orb, Exploration, Manabond, Cannonist, Bridge, Chalice and Crypt.
As for making the deck, don't worry. It took me almost a year to fully complete the deck.. then I decided to foil it out. Over two years ago, and still not done.
I like the list much better now. You can also try enlightened tutor with the white splash, as it fetches Crucible, EE, Zuran Orb, Exploration, Manabond, Cannonist, Bridge, Chalice and Crypt.
As for making the deck, don't worry. It took me almost a year to fully complete the deck.. then I decided to foil it out. Over two years ago, and still not done.
Let me know when they make a foil Tabernacle. But thanks again for the suggestions. In terms of pimping out a deck, the most pimp I wanna get is my burn deck with all basic mountains from Arabian Nights.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Stasis players like me are like those old gray haired convicts that have been locked up for 40 years straight. You can take us in a fight but you know you'll lose a testicle in the process of winning.
Decks I play
Legacy
Dredge 0
DredgeGBRU
AffinityXRUB
GoblinsRWB
10 land StompyG
BurnR
DreadstillURW
BelcherGR
Death and Taxes W
Enchantress GWR
BUILDING
Legacy Lands GBRUW
I'll never tell you the flavor text of Teferi's Imp!!
Let me know when they make a foil Tabernacle. But thanks again for the suggestions. In terms of pimping out a deck, the most pimp I wanna get is my burn deck with all basic mountains from Arabian Nights.
Those mountains are expensive now! Get the 4th wasteland instead!
@sparkii: Why do you not play manabond? My list is like halfway between yours and Frozen over. I miss the manabond when i don't play then, but i hate them half the time when i do play them.
@sparkii: Why do you not play manabond? My list is like halfway between yours and Frozen over. I miss the manabond when i don't play then, but i hate them half the time when i do play them.
It's a great card, don't get me wrong, but the deck is slowly going more spells/enchantments and less land as time goes on. The deck used to be called 43 lands. Now it's hovering around 34-37.
I don't like manabond because I don't like always pitching the tutor or artifact (Without Ruins) I have in hand. Personal preference I guess. Plus, you pretty much board them out every game. I used to play it as a 2-of, but just completely cut it and haven't looked back.
I like manabond cause it can allow for an explosive start. But pitching artifact without an Academy or pitching tutors is a major pain. Also, is Manabond's ability "You may" still or did they change the wording on the card. If they changed the wording I'll just take them out.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Stasis players like me are like those old gray haired convicts that have been locked up for 40 years straight. You can take us in a fight but you know you'll lose a testicle in the process of winning.
Decks I play
Legacy
Dredge 0
DredgeGBRU
AffinityXRUB
GoblinsRWB
10 land StompyG
BurnR
DreadstillURW
BelcherGR
Death and Taxes W
Enchantress GWR
BUILDING
Legacy Lands GBRUW
I'll never tell you the flavor text of Teferi's Imp!!
Its a may clause, you don't have to. Especially if you magically have no lands in hand, and dont really want to discard, but even if you have a LftL and want to dredge next turn, you can however reveal your hand and discard your hand.
Depends on the playstyle.. I personally like crop rotations right now because they give you the "Oops, I win" type of spell, and you can do silly things like Bojuka Bog and Karakas. Glacial chasm is pretty good too.
So first off, I'm one Tabernacle and one Wasteland away from being done with this deck and I'm excited to go play this at tournaments without borrowing cards!
I have been devoting myself more to the Depths combo, trying to rush it out instead of going to the long grindy game.
So first off, I'm one Tabernacle and one Wasteland away from being done with this deck and I'm excited to go play this at tournaments without borrowing cards!
I have been devoting myself more to the Depths combo, trying to rush it out instead of going to the long grindy game.
Your list looks very similar to mine. Or mine like yours?
I'm debating going a 2/2 Split on Stage/Depths, but that also means I have to find ANOTHER foil depths.
Your list looks very similar to mine. Or mine like yours?
I'm debating going a 2/2 Split on Stage/Depths, but that also means I have to find ANOTHER foil depths.
Heh, I do agree with you there! This has been where I've been going lately, I'm actually surprised on how I've been doing. I've beaten ANT, Elves, RUG Delver, and a few other random match ups with a good deal. I'm so very happy with how things are going. I just picked up a foil Misty for the deck last night as well.
So it seems that reanimator of many variants is becoming popular. A big problem I would like to note is Tidespout Tyrant... Probably Ashen Rider as well.
I've been playing Lands for a while, however I have only run into Reanimator a few times. Our game 1 matchup seems to be a really low percentage, and the primary reason for this is because of the above two creatures they choose to reanimate. Our only real maindeck answer to this problem is;
1) Hope they bin their creature on their own turn giving you a turn to transmute into bog
or
2) Run crop rotation and hope that the game 1 you play against them, you have a crop rotation in the opening hand.
So it seems that reanimator of many variants is becoming popular. A big problem I would like to note is Tidespout Tyrant... Probably Ashen Rider as well.
I've been playing Lands for a while, however I have only run into Reanimator a few times. Our game 1 matchup seems to be a really low percentage, and the primary reason for this is because of the above two creatures they choose to reanimate. Our only real maindeck answer to this problem is;
1) Hope they bin their creature on their own turn giving you a turn to transmute into bog
or
2) Run crop rotation and hope that the game 1 you play against them, you have a crop rotation in the opening hand.
Anyone have any input on this Match-up?
Ports shut them down pretty hard if you can get them early. Maze of Ith also beats them pretty handily, minus Tidespout.
Back in the day, when Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur was mandatory drawing, I actually milled someone out because they can't beat Maze of Ith.
While I've been on the down-low for the last few weeks with respect to Legacy, at some point I'll be grabbing a couple more Grove of the Burnwillows and playing this deck proper. I'll post my list here again for people to look at in the meantime.
What's the difference between an intuition lands list and a non-intuition land list:confused:
Is one more control-ly than the other? Is one just more viable than the other? I'm not really sure..
What's the difference between an intuition lands list and a non-intuition land list:confused:
Is one more control-ly than the other? Is one just more viable than the other? I'm not really sure..
If not running intuition, the list usually cuts blue out of the deck. The only thing blue gets you without intuition is Tolaria West, Academy Ruins and Creeping Tar Pit.
Without blue, they use other tutors like entomb, gamble, crop rotation, etc, and end up either looking like the combo version listed in the primer or that new jund depths deck that made a scene.
There was also a time when decks would still run blue without intuition for the above cards, but ran Enlightened Tutor over intuition, but I haven't seen any lists do that for a long time.
Is anyone out there still playing the R/G lands build that Kurt Spiess piloted? I am thinking about switching from the classic 4 color build to the 3 color based on inconsistency issues that I have been running into over the last several tournaments.
Is anyone out there still playing the R/G lands build that Kurt Spiess piloted? I am thinking about switching from the classic 4 color build to the 3 color based on inconsistency issues that I have been running into over the last several tournaments.
Can you link the list? I haven't had the chance to go up and see/play with him recently and I've really been hoping to see his list as I've heard to plays very well.
Can you link the list? I haven't had the chance to go up and see/play with him recently and I've really been hoping to see his list as I've heard to plays very well.
Its on the first page of the primer, under Kurt Spiess, third decklist
Kurt is an exceptional player, on top of being a nice guy. I live in the Columbia area so we run into each other often. I know he is off the list and was playing some Miracle control deck for the GP.
I was just wondering if anyone else had was still actively pushing the deck and if they had made any changes or had any insight to provide.
Also on a more personal note being as we live in the same area, where do you play as I think I would remember seeing someone playing lands around.
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Thanks to Koto_Uchiha & Froze Over for the help!
Previous primer can be found here.
I: The Deck
1) Why should I play lands?
Lands is a control deck that focuses on well, lands. Over the years, Wizards of the Coast has decided to print many awesome land cards with abilities other than producing mana. Lands uses these cards as well as supportive enchantments and artifacts to create a very interesting deck unlike any other. However, due to the price tag and cards that do not cross over into other legacy decks, the deck is not common, but it is extremely fun to play.
2) How does the deck even work with all that land?
First of all, we try to outrace our opponents out of the starting gates with cards like Manabond, Exploration, and Mox Diamond. Once we establish an abundance of mana, we use cards like Rishadan Port, Wasteland and Ghost Quarter to deny our opponents mana. Then, using cards like Life from the Loam (Which we can tutor for via Intuition, Gamble, and to a lesser extent, Burning Wish) and Crucible of Worlds create an engine where we can drop multiple lands a turn and recur our Wastelands and Ghost Quarter.
3) What else does the deck run other than that?
We have had some nifty lands printed like Glacial Chasm, The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale and Maze of Ith, which help early creature threats which we try to establish a lock. We can also use the awesome Tolaria West to transmute out any land in our deck, and even get cards like Engineered Explosives and Zuran Orb. (Mox Diamond too, in a pinch!)
With the printing of Punishing Fire, the combo with Grove of the Burnwillows was established. Into the legacy scene comes Deathrite Shaman, and the Grove/Fire combo is necessary now to deal with such threats. The combo also comes in handy against other creature based decks, and can be used to handle pesky planeswalkers as well.
4) How does a deck like this win?
Honestly, the deck really doesn’t “win”. I’d go out to say games are won at least 50% of the time from the opponent scooping it up from the extreme mana denial or something like an Engineered Explosives lock with Academy Ruins. Aside from that, Lands has a few “manlands”, which are lands that turn into creatures by paying mana, such as Mishra’s Factory and Creeping Tar Pit. They can be tutored up once a game is locked up for the slow win.
The new legend rule released in 2013, gave us lands players a very deadly combo with Thespian’s Stage and Dark Depths. By copying the Dark Depths with stage, the following happens:
1) Thespian’s Stage targets Dark Depths with it’s clone ability.
2) Ability resolves, you now have two Dark Depths in play. Under the new legend rule, we must pick one to stay on the battlefield. We sacrifice the original Dark Depths and keep the Thespian’s Stage.
3) Thespian’s Stage becomes a copy of Dark Depths with 0 Ice counters on it, triggers, gets sacrificed and out comes the 20/20, flying, indestructible Marit Lage.
It's worth noting here that if your opponent lets your copy ability resolve, then tries to stifle the Thespian Stage's new Depths ability "When this card has 0 Ice counters, Put.." let them. They counter the ability, then the land sees that it once again has zero counters and just triggers again. Waste that stifle!
With this combo, lands now has a way to kill extremely fast, and should the token die, Life from the Loam can bring back both pieces of the combo to be done again. Decks in the past have also used cards like Worm Harvest and Mindslaver for the win, but this new combo is definitely the way to go.
II: Card Choices
Enchantments:
Exploration: This card really lets the deck go into overdrive. It’s pretty self explanatory. Playing multiple lands per turn = Winning. Always a 4 of.
Manabond: This aids exploration in dumping lands into play. It’s usually boarded out game 2 so you don’t get blown out by gravehate once you activate it. 1-2 of in Intuition-based lists. 3-4 of in the combo version.
Sylvan Library: Library is amazing as usual. Allows us to see three cards deep to plan strategies ahead, and if we’re already ahead, lets us pay life to quickly establish a lock or soft lock. Usually played in Enlightened Tutor versions, it’s never more than a 1 of.
Artifacts:
Mox Diamond: Any colored mana at the cost of what you say? Pitching a land? But we can’t possibly get land back! Ha! 4-of, possible 3-of.
Engineered Explosives: Creature/Enchantment/Planeswalker/Artifact killer that’s recurrable through Academy Ruins AND tutorable via Tolaria West. There’s usually at least two copies in the 75.
Ensnaring Bridge: Sometimes this just wins games against aggro. It’s slightly fallen out of favor with our new win-con being a 20/20, but 1-2 should try to find space in the 75. It has synergy with Manabond for quick hand dumping. One neat trick with this and Creeping Tar Pit is to dredge, get three lands back, swing with the pit and trigger Manabond/Exploration to prevent swingbacks.
Crucible of Worlds: Self explanatory. Recurring Wastelands, fetches, Ghost Quarters and pretty much everything else is great. Works well with Zuran Orb as a lifegain outlet, and can be a hard graveyard lock with
Bojuka Bog. It also helps in games 2 and 3 if Life from the Loam is to be surgical’ed.
Zuran Orb: Transmutable via Tolaria West, this saves us against quick aggro, and burn decks. This flat out beats Price of Progress with land recursion. It also protects manlands from removal effects. Almost always 1 in the maindeck.
Sensei’s Divining Top: More popular when Enlightened Tutor builds were big, top sometimes sees play over Sylvan Library. It has the added benefit of being able to save your Life from the Loam from a Surgical Extraction.
Oblivion Stone: The big boom. This and Academy Ruins can get pretty silly, and it punishes players that overextend. Sadly, it still gets hit by Abrupt Decay, so you can’t let it sit around and add fate counters like before. Still good though, especially in E-Tutor builds.
Instants/Sorceries:
Enlightened Tutor: Great card. Gets you an accelerant via Exploration/Manabond, removal via Engineered Explosives or Oblivion Stone, or furthers your lock with Crucible of Worlds or Ensnaring Bridge. Also fetches neat sideboard cards. It’s very situational depending on what you’re holding in your hand. 1-3 of in Enlightened Tutor builds.
Intuition: The possibilities with tutoring three cards are endless, there are so many piles you can make to frustrate your opponents. A resolved Intuition can easily let you pull ahead in the game. Piles will be discussed below. In Intuition builds, usually a 2-3 of. Entirely game state dependent on what you tutor for.
Basic Intuition piles usually go for Life from the Loam and two lands that either deny more mana (Ports, Wasteland), or finish combos (Dark Depths, Thespian Stage, Grove).
You can also get Academy Ruins, Life from the Loam, and any artifact in your deck (ie: Engineered Explosives, Crucible of Worlds, etc.
If you expect your opponent has a Vendilion Clique and he wants to tuck your loam on the bottom of your library, simply grab 2x Loam + 1 Land with your pile.
You can also in a pinch, tutor for 3x Exploration if you really need the acceleration.
Other fun piles include:
Life from the Loam, Punishing Fire, Grove of the Burnwillows
Life from the Loam, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, Raven's Crime
Gamble: This card was played as a 4-of in the old style lands lists, but fell out of favor. With the new Dark Depths + Thespian’s Stage combo, they are seeing a resurgence in the combo lists as a 3-4 of. You can use this to tutor Life from the Loam, and even if they discard it, who cares? Nice 1 mana tutor.
Crop Rotation: Note that you have to sacrifice a land as an additional cost, meaning you lose if it’s countered, but a resolved Crop Rotation is amazing. You can rotate lands being targeted by opposing Wastelands, and it has the additional value of being instant speed so you can abuse lands like Bojuka Bog, Glacial Chasm or a Karakas facing down an Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. Again with the new Dark Depths+Thespian’s Stage combo, this card becomes BROKEN. If you have one of the two lands for the combo, simply EOT rotate into the other piece, make a 20/20, untap and swing in. Very deadly. 3-4 in combo lists, possibly in the maindecks or sideboards of [CARD]Intuition[CARD] lists.
Entomb: Another tutor, that can give you easy access to Life from the Loam, or if you already have it, another land that you need. Got Academy Ruins? Entomb an Engineered Explosives or Ensnaring Bridge. Generally fallen out of favor, but decent.
Punishing Fire: Combos with Grove of the Burnwillows for recurrable damage. With the uprise of Deathrite Shaman, this combo has become almost mandatory in current lands lists. In reality, this combo nukes almost all of legacy’s creatures, such as Stoneforge Mystic, Dark Confidant, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Delver of Secrets and more. The combo also has the added benefit of shooting down planeswalkers and can even become a very slow wincon.
Life from the Loam: If you’re even thinking of playing this deck, you should know what this card does. This card makes the deck work. It does exactly what we want to do. Recur lands, and give us a way to cycle through our deck faster than simply drawing a card each turn to find the lands we need.
Ravens Crime: Discard a land card to make your opponent discard a card. Loam and repeat and your opponent quickly has no hand. Works very well with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth.
Lands:
Academy Ruins: This land creates a soft lock with Engineered Explosives, and can bring back any artifacts that happen to hit the graveyard from dredging or destroy effects. With Academy Ruins in play, you can do silly things like slam Ensnaring Bridge over and over against aggro and even mill people out recurring Mox Diamond should the game progress that far.
Wasteland: Legacy is full of non-basic lands, from duals, legendaries and all of the inbetween. In some games, a single timely Wasteland can spell the end for some decks, but recurring these over and over can be game-winning. You can also use these to save your own manlands from exile effects like Swords to Plowshares, should you run them.
Ghost Quarter: Essentially Wasteland #5, it can also be used to strip the few basic lands in your opponents deck, then turn into strip mine. In a pinch, you can Ghost Quarter your own land to fetch your singleton basic Forest.
Rishadan Port: The second half of our mana denial plan, activating your Rishadan Ports on your opponent's upkeep keeps their mana in check and lets them only play instants during that time.
The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale: This land wrecks aggro strategies, and also acts as mana denial. You can wait for it to trigger, have your opponent pay for whatever creatures they would like to keep, then follow up with Rishadan Ports tapping the rest of their lands down.
Maze of Ith: Another aggro denial land in our arsenal, this keeps us from dying to silly legacy beasts like Tarmogoyf. Maze of Ith really shines against decks that run very few creatures, like tempo. It can also save us from the dreaded turn 1 Goblin Lackey.
Glacial Chasm: Requires you to sacrifice a land when it comes into play, and has a fairly steep upkeep cost, but wins games. Combined with an Exploration effect, you can hardlock aggro decks out of the game. This land became better with the printing of Thespian’s Stage, as you can copy it in response to an opposing Wasteland to never drop the lock.
Bojuka Bog: Gravehate in the form of a land? Sold. Works well with Zuran Orb, as you can sacrifice it and recur it to reuse it.
Tranquil Thicket: Cycle lands can give us card advantage, but it also has the added effect of being able to dredge Life from the Loam at instant speed. This can be used to escape extraction effects, and can even be used during your main phase to get around cards like Vendilion Clique.
Karakas: There’s lot of legendary creatures running around the legacy format, from Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, Griselbrand, Gaddock Teeg and other randoms. Shines in matchups like Reanimator and Sneak and Show.
Mishra’s Factory: A great manland. Low activation cost, and can become a 3/3 blocker. Lists used to run 3-4, but with the new wincon, the land count dropped and these fell out of favor. Nowadays, it’s a 1 of, if at all. If you expect a lot of Geist of Saint Traft in your meta, this is not a bad call.
Creeping Tar Pit: Kicked Mishra’s Factory out of the best manland spot. Unblockable, Jace killing machine. Used to be the wincon before Thespian’s Stage/Dark Depths combo, may now be seen as a 1-of in decks.
Grove of the Burnwillows: Combos with Punishing Fire, produces green mana. Nuff said.
Tolaria West: The double blue transmute cost is a bit steep, but being a re-usable tutor via Life from the Loam is too good to pass up. It fetches any land in your deck, with the added bonus of being able to fetch Mox Diamond, Zuran Orb and Engineered Explosives. Also fetches Chalice of the Void.
Thespian’s Stage: Combos with Dark Depths as our new wincon. Also can double up as an extra Rishadan Port or something else silly. Don’t forget you can copy your opponents lands too! It can dodge Wastelands by copying a basic land.
Dark Depths: 20/20 Indestructible/Flying spaghetti monster? Sign me up.
Barbarian Ring, Cabal Pit: Usually not needed with Punishing Fire, it can be used to take out pesky hatebears and a slow wincon.
Nephalia Drownyard: A fairly new addition, some players are finding this useful against the blue decks that like to stack their draws with cantrips. It can also mill players out if need be.
Forest: Yes. A basic land. We play 1. Sometimes. Thanks Blood Moon.
Riftstone Portal: A neat land that can make our Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, Dark Depths, Glacial Chasm and Maze of Iths produce mana. It also works through Blood Moon which is a bonus.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: Same as above, this lets our non-mana producing lands get some love. Works well with Raven’s Crime.
Fetchlands: Any green fetchland will do. Since most land decks are 3+ colors, these help us smooth out our manabase and get the correct mana when needed. With Exploration + recursion, it also lets us obtain extra mana sources fairly quick. Note that running the same fetchland makes it an easy extraction target, so we run mostly 3 or 4 different green fetchlands.
Duals: Any dual with green will do. There’s really no limit to what you can play in a deck with so many colors. Each color gets you something for the deck.
Sideboard:
Dark Confidant: This guy is an amazing card, but works even better with the low mana curve of the deck. Post board, he gives us a way to get extra cards so we are not so reliant on the graveyard, and he also provides beats.
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben: A hatebear that only adds to our mana denial plan, she shuts down combo and provides a clock.
Ethersworn Canonist: Another hatebear that hoses combo. Tutorable via Enlightened Tutor should you run it.
Geist of Saint Traft: Some choose to run geist in the sideboard as a quick clock, that is castable turn 2. As some players choose to leave removal in the maindeck for post-board bobs/ manlands, these will be sure to surprise them. Great against control decks like miracles too.
Chalice of the Void: Shuts down many legacy decks with low mana costs, especially combo decks, our worst matchups. Some games can be decided with a Turn 1 Chalice of the Void @1.
Trinisphere: Another card against combo, this card shines against the new Omni-Tell variants.
Sphere of Resistance: Similar to Thalia, Guardian of thraben plus it gets around creature kill spells and taxes everything, but it does not provide a body to attack with. Another way for us to tax.
Mindbreak Trap: Good against storm, but the artifact hate is generally better as you can recur them with academy ruins.
Cursed Totem: Shuts down certain decks like maverick, and shuts down Deathrite Shaman. Recurable via Academy Ruins.
Krosan Grip: Castable with our single forest, kills pesky cards such as Rest in Peace, Blood Moon, Counterbalance, Leyline of the Void and more.
Abrupt Decay: A bit harder to cast than Krosan Grip, but can hit creatures and walkers like Liliana of the Veil. A decent all around destroy spell.
Phyrexian Revoker, Pithing Needle: Generally used to stop planeswalkers, but can stop Deathrite Shaman cold as well.
Tormod’s Crypt: Transmutable via Tolaria West, reusable with Academy Ruins.
Last Rites: Pitch a bunch of lands to nuke your opponent's hand, then recur them. Seeing some play in the combo versions since they can Gamble for it.
Cards that have fallen out of favor:
Ancient Grudge: A solid card in the sideboard, because it fits in with the loam plan and can be cast from the graveyard of the one basic Forest in the deck. It is not played because people prefer Krosan Grip with Split Second.
Ray of Revelation: Gets rid of Blood Moon, can be cast even when dredged away, but has fallen out of favor and doesn't see play. See Ancient Grudge.
Cephalid Coliseum:Was used in blue builds as an optional win condition or fill the graveyard to add cards to the threshold count. Hasn't been used in ages from what I know, but should at least get an honorable mention here.
Nantuko Monastery: This one is a relic from the past, where the threshold was easier to get. A 4/4 vanilla creature with first strike? Nice, but Mishra’s Factory has proven to be better because it doesn’t rely on the graveyard.
Other manlands: There are numerous other manlands, that have and have not seen play in stages of very early development of this deck. Treetop Village would be an example.
Smokestack: Another old card that has fallen out of favor, Smokestack turns your recursion and extra land drops into a combo that eats away your opponents field.
Mindslaver: And oldie but goodie, this wincon has since fallen out of favor. Combos with Academy Ruins for a lock.
III: Decklists
There's a few versions of the deck running around. There is a newer combo version of lands and the more traditional Intuition based lands.
Intuition-Lands (20th Place @ SCG:Milwaukee, by Froze Over)
1 Bayou
3 Tropical Island
1 Taiga
1 Forest
1 Karakas
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
2 Tolaria West
2 Tranquil Thicket
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Verdant Catacombs
1 Misty Rainforest
4 Wasteland
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Mishra's Factory
1 Academy Ruins
4 Rishadan Port
3 Maze of Ith
1 Thespian's Stage
1 Dark Depths
1 Glacial Chasm
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
3 Punishing Fire
4 Life From the Loam
3 Intuition
Enchantments (6):
4 Exploration
2 Manabond
Artifacts (8):
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Zuran Orb
2 Engineered Explosives
4 Mox Diamond
4 Dark Confidant
2 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Ethersworn Canonist
3 Crop Rotation
2 Krosan Grip
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Nephalia Drownyard
Sparki's Intuition-Lands list, 8th place SCG Oakland
Lands: 36
1 Academy Ruins
1 Bayou
1 Bojuka Bog
2 Dark Depths
1 Forest
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Glacial Chasm
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Karakas
3 Maze of Ith
1 Misty Rainforest
4 Rishadan Port
1 Taiga
2 Thespian's Stage
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
2 Tolaria West
3 Tropical Island
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth,
1 Verdant Catacombs
4 Wasteland
1 Wooded Foothills
3 Intuition
3 Punishing Fire
3 Crop Rotation
Sorceries: 4
4 Life from the Loam
Enchantments: 4
4 Exploration
Artifacts: 8
1 Crucible of Worlds
2 Engineered Explosives
4 Mox Diamond
1 Zuran Orb
1 Notion Thief
1 Nephalia Drownyard
3 Chalice of the Void
2 Phyreixan Revoker
4 Sphere of Resistance
2 Krosan Grip
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Barbarian Ring
1 Bojuka Bog
2 Dark Depths
1 Forest
1 Glacial Chasm
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Karakas
3 Maze of Ith
1 Misty Rainforest
4 Ghost Quarter
2 Taiga
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
3 Thespian's Stage
1 Tolaria West
2 Tropical Island
1 Verdant Catacombs
4 Wasteland
1 Wooded Foothills
4 Crop Rotation
3 Engineered Explosives
1 Crucible of Worlds
4 Exploration
2 Intuition
2 Gamble
4 Life from the Loam
4 Mox Diamond
3 Punishing Fire
3 Krosan Grip
1 Trinisphere
1 Subterranean Tremors
3 Tireless Tracker
2 Sphere of Resistance
2 Surgical Extraction
Combo-Lands: (14th place @ SCG Legacy Open by Kurt Spiess)
1 Glacial Chasm
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
4 Maze of Ith
1 Misty Rainforest
4 Rishadan Port
1 Savannah
2 Taiga
4 Thespian's Stage
3 Tranquil Thicket
1 Verdant Catacombs
4 Wasteland
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
2 Dark Depths
4 Mox Diamond
4 Exploration
2 Manabond
3 Crop Rotation
4 Punishing Fire
4 Gamble
4 Life from the Loam
1 Chalice of the Void
1 Crucible Of Worlds
4 Sphere of Resistance
1 Trinisphere
3 Ethersworn Canonist
3 Seal of Primordium
2 Dark Depths
IV: Matchup Analysis (Still filling in, if you have specific information, feel free to PM me!)
RUG: Favorable
Their entire deck is nonbasic lands, so you can easily tear apart their manabase. Watch for stifles on Engineered Explosives and Maze of Ith, but otherwise, Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale and land destruction is amazing here. Engineered Explosives lock flat out wins game 1, as they have nothing to stop it. Delvers can be shot with Punishing Fire, and they cannot kill Marit Lage tokens.
Expect: They will most likely bring in Surgical Extraction, Grafdigger’s Cage, and possibly Life from the Loam or Ancient Grudge.
Side in: Chalice of the Void will win you games, sometimes turn 1 if you can cast it @1. Aside from that, bobs force their bolts, and can block early Nimble Mongoose.
Side out: Manabonds, Intuition
Shardless BUG: Unfavorable
These guys have all the tools to stop what we like to do from Deathrite Shaman to Abrupt Decay. Punishing Fire, Maze of ith, and sometimes Tabernacle will help you a lot in this matchup. Your intuitions will likely not be resolved making it very hard to get any sort of combo that helps online unless you draw into it. An Engineered Explosives lock might seal the deal against them you found fast enough.
Expect: Now that they know you are playing lands they will be looking for that turn one Deathrite Shaman, attempt to have a Punishing Fire in the opening hand.
Side in: Dark Confidant, Chalice of the Void, Trinisphere, Cursed Totem, Abrupt Decay
Side out: Intuition, Crucible of Worlds, Manabond
Death and Taxes: Even/ Slightly Favorable
Our main plan is to tax and this deck will drop a turn 1 vial and use all their mana to tax you instead. Engineered Explosives, Tabernacle, and Punishing Fire are your best friends in this matchup. Expect them to side in Rest in Peace and watch out for Flickerwisp out of the vials to temporarily take out your mazes and chasms to get damage in.
Expect: Be ready for graveyard hate. Abrupt Decay will be able to kill almost everything they put on board.
Side in: Krosan Grip, Dark Confidant, Ensnaring Bridge, Abrupt Decay
Side out: Intuition Crucible of Worlds, Manabond, Bojuka Bog 1-2 Wasteland If additional space needed.
Maverick: Favorable
Punishing Fire destroys this matchup. Even an active Mother of Runes can simply be double punishing fired, and Engineered Explosives can destroy this deck. Watch out for versions splashing black for Deathrite Shaman and maindecked Scavenging Ooze. Maze of Ith is also very good here. You can punishing fire Knight of the Reliquary after a Bojuka Bog. Try to cut them off green during the length of the game.
Expect: Crypt, Relic, Extraction effects, Krosan Grip, Bojuka Bog
Side in: Krosan Grip, Abrupt Decay, Revoker, Ensnaring Bridge, Engineered Explosives
Side out: Intuition, Manabond
Elves: Favorable
This matchup is like any other combo deck... except we can Punishing Fire, Engineered Explosives, Tabernacle and Glacial Chasm the combo pieces. Tabernacle gets "shut down" by a Gaea's Cradle, so have a waste ready. A quick Natural Order on their side can end the game for you, so be careful. The most common elves deck don't run any wasteland, so you're free to do as you please, but they are running Deathrite Shaman as a mana dork.
Expect: Abrupt Decay, Viridian Shaman, Progenitus (possibly)
Side in: Trinisphere, Chalice of the Void, Sphere of Resistance, Ethersworn Canonnist, Engineered Explosives, Phyrexian Revoker.
Side out: Maze of Ith (Leave 1-2 in), Intuition, Bojuka Bog, Karakas, Manabond. Boarding is a little difficult since you have so much you want to bring in, but they're a creature combo, so you still want to keep things like fires in.
ANT/TES: Even/Slightly unfavorable
Most people say that this matchup is very one sided, but when you look at it, most of their landbase is non-basic. They are able to do the turn 1 kills, but it’s not as likely as belcher and the like. Ports are also all stars in this, as many times, the single mana counts. Try to cut them off colors when they fetch basics and you should be fine. A quick marit lage can also take this match.
Expect: Surgicals or artifact gravehate like tormod’s crypt or relic. Our postboard game against them is amazing, probably favorable, if the turn 1 wins don’t show up.
Side in: Chalice/Trinisphere/Canonist/Thalia/Sphere of Resistance/Mindbreak Trap/ Revoker/ Dark Confidant
Side out: Intuition, manabond, maze of ith, glacial chasm, karakas, punishing fire. (Keep Tabernacle in, it’s safe against Empty the Warrens)
Belcher: Unfavorable
Turn 1 combo decks are the bane of lands. Game 1, we have very little to interact with them, they have a single land, so wastelands and ports are dead. An early glacial chasm or Marit Lage will be needed to take this game.
Sideboard: Some belcher variants don’t even sideboard, and the ones that do probably don’t have anything for you.
Side in: Chalice/Trinisphere/Canonist/Thalia/Sphere of Resistance/Mindbreak Trap/ Revoker/ Dark Confidant
Side out: manabond, maze of ith, glacial chasm, karakas, punishing fire, Tabernacle, Bojuka Bog. Keep Intuition in as they can’t interact with it, and you can intution for 3x hate if you run it.
High Tide: Beyond Unfavorable
This may be our worst matchup along with Omni-Tell. Mono blue, no disruption besides ports, they can High Tide in response to a port activation, and their Time Spirals do nothing whatsoever to help you. Artifact hate game two is easily dealt with an EOT Cunning Wish->Hurkyl’s Recall or Rebuild, then combo. Thalias are great in this matchup as it requires more spells to get rid of. There’s a story of a lands player who sat down across from a High Tide player. Lands knew what Tide was on, but not vice-versa. Tide kept their 7, lands scooped as not to give away information and sideboarded. Matchup got slightly easier with Marit Lage so we can race as their combo turn is turn 4, but still a terrible matchup.
Expect: They are using a wishboard almost without any graveyard hate. It contains their win-condition (Blue Suns Zenith) and many bounce/removal spells.
Side in: Chalice, Trinisphere, Canonist, Thalia, Sphere of Resistance, Mindbreak Trap, Revoker, Dark Confidant
Side out: Manabond, Maze of Ith, Glacial Chasm, Karakas, Punishing Fire, Tabernacle, Intuition.
Miracles: Even/Depends on the Version
Depending on the version, this can be either a great matchup or a terrible one. Terrible one meaning the combo version, maindeck Rest in Peace, and usually Blood Moon as well. Both versions tend to run moon, but usually 1, possibly 2 in the 75. They have an ample number of basics, but they need to hit 4 mana for jace. They also have very little pressure, which lets you expand your board state very well. Entreat can be stopped by placing an EE @ 0 for safety late game. Try to count how many basic land they have G1, it will help you a lot in future games if you plan to Ghost Quarter them. Cutting them off double white can win you the game.
Expect: Rest in Peace, Surgical Extraction, Blood Moon, Disenchant, Oblivion Ring
Side in: Thalia, Dark Confidant, Chalice of the Void
Side out: Intuition, Manabond (Note: Depending on the number of creatures/Entreat the angels, you may opt to board out Glacial chasm/Tabernacle and possibly a Maze of Ith. I like to bring in chalice as Chalice @ 1 stops Brainstorm/Sensei's Top/STP/Surgical/Spell Pierce etc.)
Blade Control:
Merfolk: Even
Merfolk is an interesting matchup. Ensnaring bridge game 1 instantly wins the game if you go hellbent. An Engineered Explosives lock will do the same. Remember that their lords give islandwalk, so Tropical Island can hurt if you're playing more manlands and need to block. Punishing fire does a lot of work here, as long as they have singleton lords, they are 2/2. Beware though, you can quickly get rushed down by angry 4/4 lords in a few turns if you aren't careful. As with any aggro deck, Maze of Ith and Tabernacle are good here. Your wastelands only hit mutavaults in this matchup, and ports can slow them down if they haven't resolved an Aether Vial.
Expect: Relic of Progenitus, Surgical Extraction, Echoing Truth. Game 2, you can win off Ensnaring Bridge again as they usually only board in 1-2 bounce spells, which you can simply replay.
Side In: Thalia, Dark Confidant, Ensnaring Bridge, Engineered Explosives
Side Out: Intuition, Manabond
Burn: Unfavorable
Price of Progress HURTS. Zuran orb ASAP, ports and wastes don’t do very much here, maze can save you damage against Goblin Guides, Hellspark Elementals or Keldon Mauraders. Your fastest way out of this matchup is making 20/20 tokens. Thespian stage + Glacial chasm can work too, but chasm alone doesn’t cut it.
Expect: Smash to Smithereens, Sufuric Vortex, Surgical Extraction
Side in: Chalice of the Void, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Ethersworn Canonist, Dark Confidant
Side out: Punishing Fire, Intuition, Manabond
Sideboard: Chalice 1 helps a lot, but chalice 2 shuts down price of progress, flame rift, keldon and the sideboarded smash to smithereens.
Jund:
Show and Tell variants: Unfavorable
Like other combo decks this is a bad matchup for us. Game one attempt to tax them and keep them off show and tell mana then be ready for whatever they throw into play this match can go several ways depending on which version they are playing. The decks are so volatile that you could be porting them off mana, then die to a sudden City of Traitors/ Ancient Tomb, Show and Tell -> Death. If the deck is running red, it is sneak and show. Ensnaring Bridge immediately wins. If monoblue, you will need ports and the Depths combo immediately. If you play Raven's Crime, that is your #1 go-to card in this matchup.
Sideboard: Sideboard depending on the version. Against Omni-Tell, you board out creature hate, ie: Tabernacle, Glacial Chasm, Punishing Fire (Keep maze for the hardcast Emrakul, they usually play 1-2) Putting in a Trinisphere into play off a Show and tell against Omni can win you the game. Against Sneak and Show, still take out the weaker hate like Punishing Fire, but keep in the Chasm, Maze, and Ensnaring Bridge.
Side in: Ensnaring Bridge, Krosan Grip, Trinisphere, Sphere of Resistance, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Side out: Punishing Fire, Zuran Orb, Engineered Explosives
Goblins: Favorable.
We definitely have the upper hand in this matchup. Maze of Ith, Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, Glacial Chasm and Punishing Fire are all-stars in this matchup. Be aware of Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. She can slow us down quite a bit and paired with their Wasteland +Rishadan Port they can give us quite the headache. When we have recurring Glacial Chasm online, they can’t win, but be careful and don’t let them overextend, because they can pull a win from nowhere with a top decked Wasteland. Also be cautious about Krenko, Mob Boss and Goblin Warchief/Goblin Chieftain. They can flood the board with hasty Goblin tokens in no time. Engineered Explosives is situational in this matchup, it really depends on the board state. An early softlock with Academy Ruins[/CARDS] or if the board is full of tokens Engineered Explosives is really good, but because their curve relies on Goblin Lackey and Aether Vial, thus making it is so irregular; they have creatures with CMC 1, 2, 3, 4 and even 5.
Expect: If the opponent is playing the red-white build, expect Rest in Peace to come otherwise either Tormod’s Crypt or Relic of Progenitus. Or both.
Side in: Krosan Grip, Dark Confidant, Ensnaring Bridge, Abrupt Decay
Side out: Intuition, Crucible of Worlds, Manabond
Mono-Black Pox: Favorable.
Preboard this matchup should be easy to win. You should be able to bring everything back to the game, that gets destroyed. Deny them their mana, they only have one win condition. They have a slow game plan, similar to ours, but they can disrupt your mana. I even managed to cast Loam under a Nether Void. It crippled him more than it did to me. Be prepared for Game 1, cause takes a lot of time, we disrupting their mana, they keep disrupting our mana. They have easy ways to deal with Marit Lage, but if you keep recurring it, eventually they should be out of fodder.
Postboard this matchup gets a little trickier. More disruption and graveyard hate can give you a hard time. It can easily happen, that you go to time in game two.
Expect: Leyline of the Void, Pithing Needle, maybe Extirpate
Side in: Dark Confidant, Krosan Grip, maybe Chalice of the Void
Side out: Crucible of Worlds, Riftstone Portal, Intuition, Manabond
Useful Links:
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?28107-Deck-Lands - Lands Primer on the Source
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ur-Oco1B0S0 - Sparki playing against Show and Tell, pretty funny game
http://www.twitch.tv/scglive/b/467891662 - Jump to 6:43(hours) to watch the Lands.dec
WGURBLands!WGURB
WGUInfectWGU
Legacy Lands Primer
Top 8 SCG Oakland 2014
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-:pops:
Have any questions or concerns? Come take a dip in my pool.
3 Gamble
2 Intuition
4 Life from the Loam
2 Punishing Fire
4 Exploration
3 Manabond
1 Crucible of Worlds
2 Engineered Explosives
4 Mox Diamond
1 Zuran Orb
1 Academy Ruins
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Forest
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Glacial Chasm
3 Maze of Ith
2 Mishra's Factory
2 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Nantuko Monastery
4 Rishadan Port
1 Savannah
1 Taiga
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
3 Tolaria West
3 Tranquil Thicket
2 Tropical Island
3 Wasteland
2 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
3 Krosan Grip
3 Surgical Extraction
3 Chalice of the Void
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Tormod's Cyrpt
Initially I included the Savannah for a white splash to play Ray of Revelation and activate Nantuko Monastary. Sparki suggested Canonist for the board and I really can't see why I didn't think of it first.
The process of building the deck is going to be slow and expensive. That is why you see 3 Wasterlands and 3 Mazes. Obviously a cheap lands deck does not exist but I'm trying to make it as cheap as possible.
Decks I play
Legacy
Dredge 0
DredgeGBRU
AffinityXRUB
GoblinsRWB
10 land StompyG
BurnR
DreadstillURW
BelcherGR
Death and Taxes W
Enchantress GWR
BUILDING
Legacy Lands GBRUW
I'll never tell you the flavor text of Teferi's Imp!!
I like the list much better now. You can also try enlightened tutor with the white splash, as it fetches Crucible, EE, Zuran Orb, Exploration, Manabond, Cannonist, Bridge, Chalice and Crypt.
As for making the deck, don't worry. It took me almost a year to fully complete the deck.. then I decided to foil it out. Over two years ago, and still not done.
WGURBLands!WGURB
WGUInfectWGU
Legacy Lands Primer
Top 8 SCG Oakland 2014
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I'll try this deck out, it looks fun And if it is, it'll be a good deck to build for a long-term project
Thanks Argentleman;)
WB Teysa token aggroBW (retired)
MAKING (Onmath, Numot, maybe something in Esper)
Let me know when they make a foil Tabernacle. But thanks again for the suggestions. In terms of pimping out a deck, the most pimp I wanna get is my burn deck with all basic mountains from Arabian Nights.
Decks I play
Legacy
Dredge 0
DredgeGBRU
AffinityXRUB
GoblinsRWB
10 land StompyG
BurnR
DreadstillURW
BelcherGR
Death and Taxes W
Enchantress GWR
BUILDING
Legacy Lands GBRUW
I'll never tell you the flavor text of Teferi's Imp!!
Do it! It's a very fun, rewarding skill intensive deck, and very unique.
Those mountains are expensive now! Get the 4th wasteland instead!
WGURBLands!WGURB
WGUInfectWGU
Legacy Lands Primer
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It's a great card, don't get me wrong, but the deck is slowly going more spells/enchantments and less land as time goes on. The deck used to be called 43 lands. Now it's hovering around 34-37.
I don't like manabond because I don't like always pitching the tutor or artifact (Without Ruins) I have in hand. Personal preference I guess. Plus, you pretty much board them out every game. I used to play it as a 2-of, but just completely cut it and haven't looked back.
WGURBLands!WGURB
WGUInfectWGU
Legacy Lands Primer
Top 8 SCG Oakland 2014
Helpdesk
My Cube on CubeTutor
Decks I play
Legacy
Dredge 0
DredgeGBRU
AffinityXRUB
GoblinsRWB
10 land StompyG
BurnR
DreadstillURW
BelcherGR
Death and Taxes W
Enchantress GWR
BUILDING
Legacy Lands GBRUW
I'll never tell you the flavor text of Teferi's Imp!!
WGURBLands!WGURB
WGUInfectWGU
Legacy Lands Primer
Top 8 SCG Oakland 2014
Helpdesk
My Cube on CubeTutor
Second: Here's a list of my current list
1x Academy Ruins
1x Bojuka Bog
1x Dark Depths
1x Forest
1x Ghost Quarter
1x Glacial Chasm *F*
3x Grove of the Burnwillows *F*
1x Horizon Canopy
1x Karakas
3x Maze of Ith
1x Misty Rainforest *F*
4x Rishadan Port
1x Savannah
1x Taiga
1x The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
2x Thespian's Stage
1x Tolaria West
1x Tranquil Thicket
3x Tropical Island
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Verdant Catacombs
4x Wasteland
1x Wooded Foothills
2x Engineered Explosives
4x Mox Diamond
1x Zuran Orb
Instant (8)
2x Crop Rotation
3x Intuition
3x Punishing Fire *F*
4x Life from the Loam
Enchantment (4)
4x Exploration
3x Chalice of the Void
1x Ensnaring Bridge
2x Ethersworn Canonist
3x Krosan Grip
1x Pithing Needle
2x Sphere of Resistance
3x Trinisphere
So first off, I'm one Tabernacle and one Wasteland away from being done with this deck and I'm excited to go play this at tournaments without borrowing cards!
I have been devoting myself more to the Depths combo, trying to rush it out instead of going to the long grindy game.
Your list looks very similar to mine. Or mine like yours?
I'm debating going a 2/2 Split on Stage/Depths, but that also means I have to find ANOTHER foil depths.
WGURBLands!WGURB
WGUInfectWGU
Legacy Lands Primer
Top 8 SCG Oakland 2014
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My Cube on CubeTutor
Heh, I do agree with you there! This has been where I've been going lately, I'm actually surprised on how I've been doing. I've beaten ANT, Elves, RUG Delver, and a few other random match ups with a good deal. I'm so very happy with how things are going. I just picked up a foil Misty for the deck last night as well.
I've been playing Lands for a while, however I have only run into Reanimator a few times. Our game 1 matchup seems to be a really low percentage, and the primary reason for this is because of the above two creatures they choose to reanimate. Our only real maindeck answer to this problem is;
1) Hope they bin their creature on their own turn giving you a turn to transmute into bog
or
2) Run crop rotation and hope that the game 1 you play against them, you have a crop rotation in the opening hand.
Anyone have any input on this Match-up?
Ports shut them down pretty hard if you can get them early. Maze of Ith also beats them pretty handily, minus Tidespout.
Back in the day, when Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur was mandatory drawing, I actually milled someone out because they can't beat Maze of Ith.
WGURBLands!WGURB
WGUInfectWGU
Legacy Lands Primer
Top 8 SCG Oakland 2014
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My Cube on CubeTutor
Nice work on the new primer.
While I've been on the down-low for the last few weeks with respect to Legacy, at some point I'll be grabbing a couple more Grove of the Burnwillows and playing this deck proper. I'll post my list here again for people to look at in the meantime.
1 Barbarian Ring
1 Bayou
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Dark Depths
1 Forest
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Glacial Chasm
1 Karakas
3 Maze of Ith
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Riftstone Portal
4 Rishadan Port
1 Savannah
1 Taiga
1 Thespian's Stage
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
3 Tolaria West
2 Tranquil Thicket
3 Tropical Island
2 Verdant Catacombs
4 Wasteland
1 Windswept Heath
1 Manabond
4 Mox Diamond
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Zuran Orb
4 Life from the Loam
1 Gamble
2 Intuition
2 Enlightened Tutor
2 Chalice of the Void
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Trinisphere
1 Tormod's Crypt
2 Abrupt Decay
A few quick notes:
-Riftstone Portal is there because I face a lot of Blood Moon in my meta.
-Two copies of Engineered Explosives really help fight tribal decks and True-Name Nemesis.
Is one more control-ly than the other? Is one just more viable than the other? I'm not really sure..
Thanks Argentleman;)
WB Teysa token aggroBW (retired)
MAKING (Onmath, Numot, maybe something in Esper)
If not running intuition, the list usually cuts blue out of the deck. The only thing blue gets you without intuition is Tolaria West, Academy Ruins and Creeping Tar Pit.
Without blue, they use other tutors like entomb, gamble, crop rotation, etc, and end up either looking like the combo version listed in the primer or that new jund depths deck that made a scene.
There was also a time when decks would still run blue without intuition for the above cards, but ran Enlightened Tutor over intuition, but I haven't seen any lists do that for a long time.
WGURBLands!WGURB
WGUInfectWGU
Legacy Lands Primer
Top 8 SCG Oakland 2014
Helpdesk
My Cube on CubeTutor
Can you link the list? I haven't had the chance to go up and see/play with him recently and I've really been hoping to see his list as I've heard to plays very well.
Its on the first page of the primer, under Kurt Spiess, third decklist
Kurt is an exceptional player, on top of being a nice guy. I live in the Columbia area so we run into each other often. I know he is off the list and was playing some Miracle control deck for the GP.
I was just wondering if anyone else had was still actively pushing the deck and if they had made any changes or had any insight to provide.
Also on a more personal note being as we live in the same area, where do you play as I think I would remember seeing someone playing lands around.