MTG Salvation

Quote from i-never-smile

I agree; EE is likely the bread-and-butter of a deck like this.

Another thing to consider is that Courser of Kruphix has 4 toughness, gains life, and is very live with lands (as well as giving you an idea of when to dredge/not to dredge Loam based upon a known topdeck. And because of that 4 toughness, the card survives opposing Bolts--and it also survives 3-damage sweepers like Firespout, Anger of the Gods, and Slagstorm. Considering that 3-damage sweepers kill the vast majority of threats from many aggro decks (usually everything but Goyf and Knight of the Reliquary from Zoo decks), having an engine piece that survives your sweepers is always a good thing. And you could play 3 different ones to put into a Gifts pile, which would also be able to get a Loam in that 4th slot (or something else to recur, if you already found a Loam).

I second Courser but with some reservations. On the one hand, Courser is almost always going to be able to block and survive Zoo attackers in a vacuum. Nacatl, Ape, Lion, E1, and Boar can't kill him. Pridemage, Guide, and Emissary can't attack into him at all without dying. Courser is particularly strong in a deck like ours that is all but guaranteed to have extra land drops per turn (turn 2 Courser into a follow-up land drop is nasty), and we are definitely going to profit from the life gain.

So why the reservations? Zoo can kill Courser pretty easily. The worst case scenario is a Rampager using Bloodrush to both kill the Courser and ensure damage to you, but even eating a Bolt or Helix guarantees a kill. That's not necessarily a reason to avoid Courser, but it is a reason to not depend solely on the centaur. Courser also isn't very good against the other premier aggro deck in the format: Modern. Affinity can just fly over the guy, deal so much damage in one Plating swing that the lifegain doesn't matter, or just win through Inkmoth poison counters. Again, not necessarily a reason to ditch Courser, but it means we shouldn't view him as some anti-aggro panacea. That's not to suggest we are viewing it like that. Just a word of caution.

What about Magus of the Tabernacle? He seems very, very good against aggro and tokens. He steals their tempo and blocks very well.

Good discussion on Courser.

Elsewhere Flask could be an interesting way to turn on a singleton Valakut or Emeria, The Sky Ruin and cut out the 4x Prismatic Omen. It could also combo well with Vedalken Shackles to take a threat. A nice Gifts Pile could be Elsewere Flask, Realmwright, Prismatic Omen, and Valakut. The flask is also sweet with Academy Ruins because you retain your draw for the turn if you play it.

EDIT: Turns out Elsewhere Flask doesn't work the way I thought. Oh well. If it did I guess Scapeshift decks would have already figured it out.

Here's an artifact version. I really like the idea - thanks Chaam, on page 1 - of Sakura-Tribe Scout over Summer Bloom. She can block or eat up removal otherwise destined for Azusa. It ramps us up to 3 on turn 2 which is pretty amazing and continues to function turn after turn if left alone. I also really like to have multiple turn 1 plays in Modern.

Silent Arbiter is a great creature to be playing in an Academy Ruins version. He makes Mystifying Maze awesome...unless the creatures have great ETB abilities.

I'm very concerned that this deck falls prey to both artifact and GY hate.

There may be too many win conditions between Inkmoth/Kessig and Lashwrithe.

Quote from i-never-smile

I agree; EE is likely the bread-and-butter of a deck like this.

Another thing to consider is that Courser of Kruphix has 4 toughness, gains life, and is very live with lands (as well as giving you an idea of when to dredge/not to dredge Loam based upon a known topdeck. And because of that 4 toughness, the card survives opposing Bolts--and it also survives 3-damage sweepers like Firespout, Anger of the Gods, and Slagstorm. Considering that 3-damage sweepers kill the vast majority of threats from many aggro decks (usually everything but Goyf and Knight of the Reliquary from Zoo decks), having an engine piece that survives your sweepers is always a good thing. And you could play 3 different ones to put into a Gifts pile, which would also be able to get a Loam in that 4th slot (or something else to recur, if you already found a Loam).

underlined phrase is really useful.

Quote from Caspian

Here's an artifact version. I really like the idea - thanks Chaam, on page 1 - of Sakura-Tribe Scout over Summer Bloom. She can block or eat up removal otherwise destined for Azusa. It ramps us up to 3 on turn 2 which is pretty amazing and continues to function turn after turn if left alone. I also really like to have multiple turn 1 plays in Modern.

Silent Arbiter is a great creature to be playing in an Academy Ruins version. He makes Mystifying Maze awesome...unless the creatures have great ETB abilities.

I'm very concerned that this deck falls prey to both artifact and GY hate.

There may be too many win conditions between Inkmoth/Kessig and Lashwrithe.

moz.the.blessed's DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
1 Elsewhere Flask 4 Engineered Explosives 1 Oblivion Stone 1 Silent Arbiter 2 Executioner's Capsule 4 Azusa, Lost but Seeking 4 Sakura-Tribe Scout 3 Raven's Crime 4 Gifts Ungiven 1 Lashwrithe 1 Crucible of Worlds 4 Life from the Loam	4 Verdant Catacombs 4 Misty Rainforest 3 Tolaria West 1 Bojuka Bog 1 Mystifying Maze 1 Mouth of Ronom 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 1 Overgrown Tomb 1 Breeding Pool 1 Stomping Ground 1 Snow-Covered Forest 1 Snow-Covered Swamp 1 Kessig Wolf Run 1 Academy Ruins 3 Ghost Quarter 2 Tectonic Edge 1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle 1 Inkmoth Nexus 1 Horizon Canopy

why not drop kessig instead? and win with inkmoth + lashwrithe (good find on lashwrithe). And, idk, but yours is not so land-y. EDIT : Ouch, Elswhere Flask also turn inkmoth into basic.

sakura tribe is haunted-fengraf-able, unlike summer bloom and explore. also you can consider eternal witness as a 1 of (for recurring gifts for example)

Interesting to note: Skyshroud Ranger allows 5-8 copies of Sakura-Tribe Scout.

Thinking about it, those might be the right engines for playing multiple lands in a turn. Lands, as a Legacy deck, is entirely built around Exploration and Manabond--and even then, it still plays Mox Diamond as well. So I think a lot of accel is the way to go. I worry about how well these cards work against removal and alongside EE/sweepers in the same deck, but they seem like an option worth examining. When Skyshroud Ranger was last Standard-legal, it saw some play in Bant-colored Chord of Calling lists.

As far as Courser goes, I'm not trying to sell it too hard--I just think it's an interesting tool that could draw you a card or two, make up the life from a fetch and a shock, and slow the opponent's aggression by a turn or so. If it's played and then you play a land off the top of your deck and gain 1 life, I could care less if it gets Ghor-Clanned the next turn by an attacking Kird Ape. It's still a scenario where they spent 2 mana on their turn, you only lost 1 life in total (from the Kird Ape, but offest by the 1 life gained), and you're ahead a card from the land drop off the top. Maybe it's a good card to play alongside Loam as a back-up draw engine, like how Aggro-Loam decks (have always?) use(d) Bob.

Courser and Azusa together are quite exciting.

So... a possible engine looks like:

4 Sakura-Tribe Scout
2-4 Skyshroud Ranger
4 Azusa, Lost But Seeking
0-2 Courser of Kruphix
4 Life From the Loam
30+ Lands

That leaves roughly 10 to 16 slots open for non-land, non-engine cards.

Having so many creatures as the engine changes the nature of the deck I think. Legacy Lands works so well because it doesn't operate on the normal axis of interaction. It's harder for the opponents cards to interact with non-creature permanents and spell-like but uncounterable lands. Since the deck could run be running 6-8 weenies...how best to take advantage?

Grislebrand? Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur keeps coming up in my mind.

Could Grim Harvest work in combination with Dredging? Just keep your 2 mana up and if you lose a dork you can ressurect anything in your yard. Wondering about crazy stuff like Prophet of Kruphix/Seedborne Muse and Chord of Calling. Untapping all your lands each turn would open up some possibilities. Man-lands would get better.

I'm a bit lost as to where to go from here.

I could see adding arena and a stinkweed imp to gum up the ground and act as sort of removal, but I think this list really wants some sweepers and wraths. I bet you'd crush control matchups but....

I don't care for the Sakura-Tribe Scout strategy simply because they lose value very quickly. I realize that later in the game the deck will be actually drawing cards very rarely between Loam dredging and Academy Ruins recursion, but when you do need to draw an answer they are clogging up the deck. Their use is also very narrow. Because they don't provide playing additional lands like Azusa they don't have the same sweet later interactions with Crucible. Maybe I'm underestimating their power but I don't really see the appeal.

Has anyone done any thinking on Trade Routes? It was brought up earlier but the thought didn't seem to go anywhere. To me it seems like a really nice additional engine for the deck in the later game. Granted, the late game isn't really the deck's issue right now, but it still seems like a route (hehe) worth exploring a little deeper.

This is the list I'm fiddling with right now.



There's a lot that I like about this list and some other things that need tweaking. I feel like it wants the 4th Engineered Explosives, and I'm also thinking of a single Elixir of Immortality just to insure the long win. I kind of want Eternal Witness and Haunted Fengraf for Summer Bloom recursion, but I don't know how much else it would be good for given that I can already recur most of the rest of the deck. 32 lands is close to where I want to be I think; I'm not sure where I could cut to fit in more and it should provide the right level of consistency along with versatility. Yet, I can't help but feel that I might need one or two more.

My early game protection lies mostly in EE and Raven's Crime, and unless the deck's engine gets rolling fast I don't know if it will be enough. However, the Syphon Life, Kabira Crossroads, and Springjack Pasture are there to see if a little extra life might be enough just to keep us alive while we get rolling, then later pulling us out of range of their burn.

This is completely untested, but it's a solid starter for how I would want to build the deck for myself.

Thanks for your input Brojimbo, Trade Routes is an interesting option.

I'm still banging my head against this deck, hoping to find a solution. Right now I'm investigating Dryad Arbor. This is a very unique card and plays very well with Azusa and Loam. It can have a Lashwrithe or any other pump spell equipped and be a win-condition, it can be a recurring blocker, etc.

Right now these are the cards that seem abusable with it:
Trading Post - Seem like a sweet card for this deck.
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord - This is a pretty exciting man with 4 Arbors in the deck. He reccurs easily and could burn someone out without need for a combat step. Would likely also run something like Reassembling Skeleton next to him for a few more creatures to pump him
Grave Pact - Doesn't dredge well but very powerful effect.
Molten-Tail Masticore - Fairly resilient, Discarding isn't a problem and a way to deal damage...not too exciting
Phyrexian Soulgorger - I don't mind if he dies...can sac Dryad Arbour ad nauseum. Exciting blocker and swings for the win very fast.

I'm liking the Stinkweed Imp, Arena combination. It's great to have more Dredge enablers once the engine is cranking.

Anyone like Scepter of Dominance?

Another GY based card: Haakon, Stromgald Scourge
Enables infinite Nameless Inversion, work great with Knight of the Reliquary who likes lands and there's also Ethersworn Adjudicator which seems very sweet. Honourable mention goes to Court Hussar.

Quote from Caspian

Another GY based card: Haakon, Stromgald Scourge
Enables infinite Nameless Inversion, work great with Knight of the Reliquary who likes lands and there's also Ethersworn Adjudicator which seems very sweet. Honourable mention goes to Court Hussar.

There's a better deck utilizing Haakon engine than this one.

Quote from moz.the.blessed

Quote from Caspian

Another GY based card: Haakon, Stromgald Scourge
Enables infinite Nameless Inversion, work great with Knight of the Reliquary who likes lands and there's also Ethersworn Adjudicator which seems very sweet. Honourable mention goes to Court Hussar.

There's a better deck utilizing Haakon engine than this one.

What deck is that, exactly?

And why does that have anything to do with whether or not a Lands deck can use the Haakon engine? Does only one deck get to use Lightning Bolt, or should we have Zoo and Burn thumb wrestle for rights to that card?

Quote from i-never-smile

Quote from moz.the.blessed

Quote from Caspian

Another GY based card: Haakon, Stromgald Scourge
Enables infinite Nameless Inversion, work great with Knight of the Reliquary who likes lands and there's also Ethersworn Adjudicator which seems very sweet. Honourable mention goes to Court Hussar.

There's a better deck utilizing Haakon engine than this one.

What deck is that, exactly?

And why does that have anything to do with whether or not a Lands deck can use the Haakon engine? Does only one deck get to use Lightning Bolt, or should we have Zoo and Burn thumb wrestle for rights to that card?

A variant of Modern Knight there's a variant using Haakon and Nameless recursion. I think that's better since there's not only nameless as "knight"

I don't understand how Modern Knights, a deck that has done basically nothing for tournament showings, is a better deck than anything else.

If Haakon is good enough at just being a removal engine for the Lands deck, then it's playable in the Lands deck. Whether or not it goes in some other deck is irrelevant. And it's not like we're worried about finding Haakon but not a removal spell; this is a deck that's going to dredge through half of itself on a regular basis, and there are a couple different changeling removal spells.

And there's always the consideration that Knight of the Reliquary is, obviously, a knight that happens to be good with lands. That's pretty good for a Loam deck with Haakons, right?

I had a crack at a Haakon version. I think it has promise. Nameless Inversion is a very powerful removal spell when it can be cast multiple times. I tried Knight of the Reliquary but I found that I very rarely had lands in the GY long enough for the Knight to be big. This could be a mistake, running even a couple KoR could be worth it. One nice thing about Changeling spells is that they turn on Murmuring Bosk which is a very nice land to be fetching.

Nice Gifts Pile: Haakon, Nameless Inversion.

Please ignore the coloured mana...I haven't worked that out yet.



Hated out so hard with GY destruction...

PS. One knight I missed before was Knight-Captain of Eos. Recurrable fog on a stick...spicey!

Just found this thing. Is there still active development?

what is the current 'core' of the deck? I've seen plenty of variants but no recent 'default' list.

Are we set on azusa/Sakura-Tribe Scout? I think exploration will not work in modern quite the same way, nor will the land density. We are playing around 30 lands and don't have access to the best legacy lands. It is fine to rely on fancy lands for some things, but answers to early aggression will come from pyroclasm effects before they come from desert IMO.

I just wanted to post this version that I have been working pretty diligently on, it's Grindy and it isn't as fast as maybe the engine above but it is a nice late game deck, it has a hard time against aggro but overall a good end and mid game.
If you have any suggestions feel free to post, also ignore the prices I'm just actually buying this at the moment.

B/U/G Lands

Artifacts:
1 Batterskull 20.00 ~
1 Elixir of Immortality
3 Engineered Explosives 8.00~
3 Expedition Map 2.00~
1 Oblivion Stone 12.00~

Total Artifacts 62.50

Creatures:
3 Bloodghast 10.00~
4 Stinkweed Imp 1.00~

Total Creatures 34.00~

Instants:
3 Darkblast 1.00~
3 Abrupt Decay 10.00~

Total instants: 33.00~

Land:
2 Academy Ruins 7.00~
3 Breeding Pool 9.00~
2 Creeping Tar Pit 11.00~
1 Dakmor Salvage .50~
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Gargoyle Castle .25~
3 Polluted Delta 30.00~
1 Mouth of Ronom
3 Overgrown Tomb 9.00~
3 Quicksand
2 Snow Covered Forest
1 Snow Covered Island
1 Snow Covered Swamp
2 Tolaria West 6.00~
3 Verdant Catacombs 36.00~
1 Watery Grave 9.00~

Total for Land Base Roughly 320.00
Sorcery:
4 Life from the Loam 4.00~
3 Raven's Crime .75 ~
1 Worm Harvest .75~

Sideboard:
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Pithing Needle 3.00~
1 Torpor Orb 3.00 ~
2 Witchbane Orb
3 Golgari Brownscale
2 Spellskite 22.00~
3 Golgari Charm 1.50~
1 Chalice of the Void 6.00~

Total SB 62.75

Total Deck 530~

Anyone done any updates to this deck? I've been messing around with it using Westvale Abbey. Since Abbey is the closest a thing we have to Dark Depths

Definitely possible :P. Kher keep does something similar and is much cheaper. It´s not a win condition on it´s own of course, but it seems the abbey would take a lot longer to get turned on. Also, path to exile really stops the demon dead in it´s tracks. But i mean, playing ravens crime to wreck hands, until you can transform the abbey sounds reasonably possible.

I´d honestly love for this deck to work, it seems sweet! As long as they keep printing interesting lands, this deck can have a chance. I cant wait to find a deck to put some realms uncharted in. Is playing 1 copy of each urza land too bad? You could search them up with gifts or uncharted realms

Another interesting card that might be considered is Drownyard temple. It´s just a "free" land you can put into play... there has got to be some loops or engines around this card for this deck. I guess as it stands, it´s a land you can use to play your retrace spells for free with. It becomes an "engine" with trade routes (although that costs 5). Too bad it´s not a forest, it could be great with Dark heart of the wood if it were. Basically, anything that lets you sacrifice a permanent or land that remotely does anything interesting, could potentially become an engine with the drownyard. I think that card has some potential. It still isn´t dealing with the "How do we control the board" problem... but of course, that depends on the effect of said "hypothetical card"

This is my current deck list, the engine is sound and works very well, controlling the board seems to be the hardest part

so yea, i've been trying to figure a way to play lands in modern for a long time
been reading this thread over and over

this is what i came up with and surprisingly it lead me to a good results (3-1) in a 12players tournament on friday:


its very easy to empty our hands to get bridge working, straight after that - we draw a card in our turn so we can attack with our 1/1 tokens then play that card after to have 0 cards in hand again.
i chose to have 4 leyline of sanctity in sideboard because i know alot of ppl like to play hurkyl's recall
2 bojuka bog main to have a game against dredge, snaps, living end, etc
you may wonder why im not playing worm harvest and its because if i would focus on this i would just lose to graveyard hate (which is a thing in current meta) therefore decided to go for the thopter-sword combo which the new kaladesh land Sequestered Stash can find or ofcourse the best card in the deck - Wargate
back to nature and ghost quarter are in the sideboard because im afraid from blood moon and tron.
nissa, vastwood seer is there for the grindy matchups
and must also pay attention to another kaladesh land - inventors' fair which is doing wonders against graveyard hate, in terms of thopter-sword combo

a friend suggested me to try and play some tireless tracker instead of ensnaring bridge

i would like to hear what you guys think

I'll start off the comment by saying I've never played the deck, nor do I really know what it's trying to do. But from the little I've gathered, it seems like you're recurring lands from the graveyard. Why no Splendid Reclamation?

i thought about it, but its an absolutely dead card as long as its not in my opening hand or atleast the first card i draw. cuz very quick i will try to dredge every possible turn, all artifacts and lands are recruitable from graveyard, this one is not
plus - its a non-permanent card therefore i cant wargate it against graveyard hate

the pluses of this card are minor compare to its minuses, it will come in handy 3 out of 10 games

Recurring cards like raven's crime and flame jab seem good in a deck like this.

I'm not sure you're appreciating



this guy is better than Azusa for instant speed tricks and cost.

Loam, KotR, and Realms will add consistency and resilience

There is nothing wrong with this "moat" package:

Desert

Quicksand

Turntimber Grove

Rustic Clachan

Gravity Well


There's no reason not to use Courser of Kruphix. Just none. Shuffling and Courser is scry 1(sort of), and gives added reason to play Mosswort Bridge and loam. Not to mention Mosswort is stupid good with any cards that put stuff on top of your library... like Mortuary Mire. You could instead use Windbrisk Heights

Quicksand + Knight of the Reliquary + Gravity Well, even without lands in graveyard, is obscenely gross, and there is no reason not to take advantage of enchantments over artifacts in green/white. God forbid you play multiple Quicksand's. You can play KotR as early as turn 2, albeit naked. and Quicksand/KotR is a 3 point swing that costs no mana, without anything else you might do... like finding another Quicksand, or Tectonic, or fetch.