MTG Salvation

Here's a typical legacy list:

From that, we need to change duals, diamonds, and the sideboard minus leylines. Here's a straight port, without putting too much thought into it:


Here's Lectrys's list:




The general idea of the deck is to abuse Life from the Loam and cards that care about lands, like Seismic Assault, Knight of the Reliquary, Countryside Crusher, Worm Harvest.

The Punishing Grove combo is usually found in there too, just because you can get your grove back easily even if they destroy it. You can destroy their lands with Ghost Quarter + Loam. Dark Confidant is good because you usually have a lot of lands, thus you take less damage from him, and even if you flip a card your curve is low. You also run a lot of utility lands, because you can easily get them back from a dredged loam.

The strength of the deck is its resilience, you have a lot of engines that you can easily recur, so you can easily grind your opponent out. Or, you can just straight up win with Tarmogoyf beatdown.

A common option is splashing white for Knight of the Reliquary, Path to Exile and Horizon Canopy, but this creates an awkward mana base and makes running assault difficult. Knight is great with all the lands in the graveyard though, and greatly helps with assembling a toolbox of lands.


Crucible of Worlds to recur lands easier.
Swans of Bryn Argoll combined with Seismic Assault to burn swan, dredge loam off of one of the draws, dredge loam, burn the swan more, etc.
Buried Ruin to recur Engineered Explosives.
Putrefy/Mortify as removal.
Thoughtseize as disruption.
Horizon Canopy Instant speed card draw is important, so we can save Loam in response to GY hate. Can be fetched with KotR in instant speed too.

If you actually want to turn it into a primer, I actually constructed one in anticipation of someone starting this thread. You want me to put it in?

Here's my current Jund-coloured list:


Knight of the Reliquary is an awesome Terravore "substitute" (she's often better than the Vore), but she either stretches your mana base really thin or forces you into Junk or Naya colours.

I'll put your list into the OP. Seems pretty good.

KotR is definitely a consideration, and it's not too hard to play 4c with fetches, but what else do we want in there?

I think Chalice of the Void is kind of mandatory MD in this format, or at least how this format looks like it's going to turn out. The only spells that we could even consider running at 1 CMC are Raven's Crime, Flame Jab, and Thoughtseize, but every other deck is sure to either go T1 Vial, pass or T1 Wild Nacatl/Kird Ape/Loam Lion/Steppe Lynx/Figure of Destiny/Goblin Guide/I could keep going. The fact that we can't drop it turn 1 off Mox hurts, but landing it should still seal the deal against a ton of decks....like Zoo.

This deck is nearly a straight conversion from Legacy, and I think it's really good. Punishing Fire is just so good with Loam/Grove.

Dakmor Salvage seems kind of slow, but it is a fair point that it's not as easy to get Loam when you're only running 4 copies of Loam (as opposed to being able to run 4 Intuition to get Loam as well in Legacy Lands). I think 1-2 Oracle of Mul Daya and/or Azusa, Lost But Seeking could be slotted in here rather nicely.

Quote from Malacoda

I think Chalice of the Void is kind of mandatory MD in this format, or at least how this format looks like it's going to turn out. The only spells that we could even consider running at 1 CMC are Raven's Crime, Flame Jab, and Thoughtseize, but every other deck is sure to either go T1 Vial, pass or T1 Wild Nacatl/Kird Ape/Loam Lion/Steppe Lynx/Figure of Destiny/Goblin Guide/I could keep going. The fact that we can't drop it turn 1 off Mox hurts, but landing it should still seal the deal against a ton of decks....like Zoo.

This deck is nearly a straight conversion from Legacy, and I think it's really good. Punishing Fire is just so good with Loam/Grove.

Dakmor Salvage seems kind of slow, but it is a fair point that it's not as easy to get Loam when you're only running 4 copies of Loam (as opposed to being able to run 4 Intuition to get Loam as well in Legacy Lands). I think 1-2 Oracle of Mul Daya and/or Azusa, Lost But Seeking could be slotted in here rather nicely.

I'm not 100% on the chalice. I get it, but I'm not sure if it's worth sacrificing MD slots.

This being a pretty straight legacy conversion is one of the reasons I'm thinking it should be a competititive deck.

Azusa feels like overkill, and Oracle is too expensive. I think salvage provides a consistent dredge engine which can be used towards getting your Loams/Fires in the yard. If only there was a Volrath's Stronghold equivalent...

Not having Cycling Lands is going to hurt this deck quite a lot, what about going into White for KotR and Horizon Canopy?

Quote from Feaor

Not having Cycling Lands is going to hurt this deck quite a lot, what about going into White for KotR and Horizon Canopy?

Horizon Canopy is actually a great idea, gives us GY hate protection with instant speed draw. I'm not exactly sure how a 4c list would work in modern, so please help me out if you can.

Seismic Assault isn't needed when you have Grove. Also KotR is great in this deck.


Well you can run the m12 artifact recurring land and Explosives.

Whoops. I had written this thing about how the cycle lands could replace Dakmor Salvage, then deleted it because I realized they weren't in the format, but I didn't delete the part about Salvage. It's a solid card.

At least early in the format, when EVERYONE is either playing Zoo or Vial-based decks, Chalice is probably needed main. It can be relegated to the side as we see fit.

Feaor, I don't think the loss of the cycle lands hurts us badly enough to force a 4-color manabase, though it does hurt and though both KOTR and Horizon are great. Perhaps dropping black is a good idea - we lose Dark Confidant and Dakmor, along with some removal, but that's it.

EDIT: Uh...pooping, you do realize Seismic is one of the deck's main engines? I don't think that Grove honestly can be considered a reliable "wincon."

Azusa isn't overkill. Have you played this in Legacy? It's like dropping two Explorations; completely nuts. But you only need one.

Quote from Malacoda

Whoops. I had written this thing about how the cycle lands could replace Dakmor Salvage, then deleted it because I realized they weren't in the format, but I didn't delete the part about Salvage. It's a solid card.

At least early in the format, when EVERYONE is either playing Zoo or Vial-based decks, Chalice is probably needed main. It can be relegated to the side as we see fit.

Feaor, I don't think the loss of the cycle lands hurts us badly enough to force a 4-color manabase, though it does hurt.

You have no way to get back Loam at instant speed, people are likely going to play Extirpate and Surgical Extraction because there definitely is graveyard shenanigans in the format and losing Loam is HUGE in this deck. Especially when you don't have Burning Wish to grab a copy from the sideboad.

Quote from Malacoda

Whoops. I had written this thing about how the cycle lands could replace Dakmor Salvage, then deleted it because I realized they weren't in the format, but I didn't delete the part about Salvage. It's a solid card.

At least early in the format, when EVERYONE is either playing Zoo or Vial-based decks, Chalice is probably needed main. It can be relegated to the side as we see fit.

Feaor, I don't think the loss of the cycle lands hurts us badly enough to force a 4-color manabase, though it does hurt and though both KOTR and Horizon are great. Perhaps dropping black is a good idea - we lose Dark Confidant and Dakmor, along with some removal, but that's it.

Uh...pooping, you do realize Seismic is one of the deck's main engines? I don't think that Grove honestly can be considered a reliable "wincon."

Azusa isn't overkill. Have you played this in Legacy? It's like dropping two Explorations; completely nuts.

In legacy I've seen several 4c versions with Grove as the only engine do well, and one has won SCG Baltimore. It's easier to get rid of large creatures with Assault though, if toughness is >2 then punishing fire is quite awkward.

Quote from Feaor

You have no way to get back Loam at instant speed, people are likely going to play Extirpate and Surgical Extraction because there definitely is graveyard shenanigans in the format and losing Loam is HUGE in this deck. Especially when you don't have Burning Wish to grab a copy from the sideboad.

Lands is viable in Legacy, and without Loam the deck can normally barely function. This deck has Tarmogoyf, Bob, and Countryside Crusher as beaters IN ADDITION to the Loam engine. Removing Loam hurts a lot, but it isn't the end of the world by far. Graveyard hate is mandatory in Legacy, but Loam based decks do fine there. I don't think it would be worth running red if we were to remove Seismic Assault; I would go straight into Junk because I would run KOTR over Crusher every day, even without Punishing Grove.

Your primer starter looks pretty good, NaYon! I'm personally not convinced I need 4 Chalices in my maindeck, what with Elves and Faeries taking a hit, but I'll do more testing. Traditionally, this deck does well against aggro (more removal, bigger men) and control (dredge Loam, all your creatures are must-counters so one has to sneak through), but badly against combo (turn 1 do-nothing, turn 2 Bob, turn 3 Knight of the Reliquary, turn 4 your opponent combos out).

How about Cosmic Larva as a Terravore substitute? It is a fatty with trample. The downside can be mitigated by Life from the Loam.

Extirpate and Surgical Extraction are in....errr....what SB again? If this deck takes off, maybe. But what are they afraid of, Dredge?

Right now, I don't see any reason whatsoever to run graveyard hate in Modern. Maybe that will change in the future, but as it is I don't think we need to fear it yet.

It's just a smart safe move to carry three Tormod's Crypt's with you everywhere you go.

Quote from Feaor

You have no way to get back Loam at instant speed, people are likely going to play Extirpate and Surgical Extraction because there definitely is graveyard shenanigans in the format and losing Loam is HUGE in this deck. Especially when you don't have Burning Wish to grab a copy from the sideboad.

Horizon Canopy much? And there is nothing you can do about Extripate.

Quote from Poopingmypants

Horizon Canopy much? And there is nothing you can do about Extripate.

Yes, I've added Canopy to cards to consider as an answer to GY hate.

Other alternatives are Absorb Vis, Edge of Autumn, Igneous Pouncer, Molten Frame, Viscera Dragger.

Horizon Canopy is probably more reasonable, but mountaincycling is actually kind of relevant with shocklands.

Cycling avoids split second yes/no?

http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75842/19143830/Cycle_vs._Split_second

nah actually you cant. punishing fire can be saved, but i dont think theres any way to save loam

Quote from IAMBOSS

http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75842/19143830/Cycle_vs._Split_second

nah actually you cant. punishing fire can be saved, but i dont think theres any way to save loam

Ok thanks. I was misinformed. I guess we just accept extirpate, and cut losses against other GY hate.

I guess the white splash is pretty necessary without the cycle lands. Or we run Mikokoro, Center of the Sea.

So what's a newer list look like? None of the Primer lists include KOTR or Horizon Canopy.

Has anyone playtested this? I'm kind of hoping a deck like this will take off. I don't want to play Zoo for months.

Quote from Zelderex

So what's a newer list look like? None of the Primer lists include KOTR or Horizon Canopy.

That's because no one has an idea yet. Let me try (take this with a grain of salt):

Chalice of the void is unplayable in the main without mox diamond as on the play it will not be nearly as good against zoo.

And this deck isn't an easy port from a legacy list as it loses a lot of the best utility lands (wasteland, maze of ith), manabase stability and acceleration (rifstone portal, mox diamond) which allows for the playing of four colors and the cycling lands which were the main engine of the deck. In addition it also loses burning wish which allowed you to get loam even after extirpate and devastating dreams as board control. Testing needs to be done if these losses don't cripple the deck enough to destroy its competitiveness.

I don't a 4-color version can work as getting four colors without some form of fixing is really difficult.