Without a good way to directly reflect Loam's card advantage into drawing cards or setting back the opponent on lands in a meaningful way (that is not Tectonic Edge or Ghost Quarter), this deck is a hard sell vs. just playing Big Zoo, which provides huge green dudes and a slightly more reasonable clock against combo. I've played a good deal of Aggro Loam and Legacy's toolbox of Wasteland, cycling lands, and Devastating Dreams just doesn't have any comparison here and that largely makes the deck work.
Honestly, this deck might work better as B/G splash W for Smallpox/Death Cloud, which are synergistic well with the Loam plan. That's a different deck entirely though.
That's not to dissuade anyone looking to port Legacy aggro loam to Modern, but just to keep in mind that your game plan might need to be a bit different and focus more the board control elements and grinding out a win with huge dudes and Assault rather than trying to make some kind of LD or card advantage plan work. I've won plenty of games with Aggro Loam just beating face with Bloodbraid Elves, Knights, Crushers, and Goyfs with Loam just ensuring I made land drops to fuel Punishing Fire.
One more card to think about for the instant speed card draw Street Wraith and it can be used while tapped out so you don't even need to next level them for whether or not they have hate.
Graveyard hate, even a single bojuka bog seems kinda well positioned in a metagame with Punishing Fire/Vengevine/Bloodghast/artifact recursion/Knight of the Reliquary/Life from the Loam.. prolly you won't see sideboards packed with gy hate, but I think we'll be quite far from no hate at all..
All that does is lock us out of Punishing Grove for a bit, until they mess up and try to remove our Graveyard. At which point we return as many Punishing Fire as possible.
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"If you don't wear your seatbelt, the police will shoot you in the head."
- To my youngest sister when she was 6.
Everyone knows that good luck and good game are such insincere terms that any man who does not connect his right hook with the offender's jaw on the very utterance of such a phrase is no man I would consider as such.
What about using trade routes to make all our lands cycle for 1?
Obviously making this deck 5c is not an option, but dropping white for trade routes might work.
Just an idea though, it might be too slow to be of any use
This has been my adaption to the list. I don't care for Dark Confidant without Mox Diamond, and Modern Zoo is too fast to take unnecessary damage. I chose to put the Glittering Wish package in as this is extremely versatile against a majority of decks. I also think Seismic Assault is needed as an alternative to Punishing Fire, and compliment each other together. Molten Rain and Ajani Vengeant play a role against Gifts, 12post, and Caw-Blade (when they don't have the caw). I've considered Overgrown Battlement and Noble Hierarch, none of which provide the much needed red mana to cast a Molten Rain, Countryside Crusher, or Seismic Assault. The deck needs some balancing, but I think it is the most consistent build I've worked with thus far.
I don't have a sideboard against Dragonstorm, but we'll see how the meta shifts for this. Tell me what you think.
Edit: Added a second Gaddock Teeg to Zenith in against Dragonstorm. I know Teeg is good against DS, but they run Pyroclasm affects in the sideboard. I won't put in graveyard hate yet until I know for sure I'll need it, but Scavenging Ooze would have been the best target by far for Project X. Removed a Quasali Pridemage for Elspeth.
alrightgame, you already have a sideboard against Dragonstorm: Gaddock Teeg. He stops Dragonstorm from being cast, and I'm pretty sure you can race a Bogardan Hellkite. Qasali Pridemage is also part of the Wish package.
I am truly surprised no one has mentioned zombie infestation as a alternate wincon. It might be a little weak against punishing fire, but I think it's worth looking in to.
Commander: WBGTeneb, the Harvester B Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief B Horobi, Death's Wail BR Kaervek the Merciless WUB Zur the Enchanter WUBRG Reaper King UB Oona, Queen of the Fae U Memnarch
wow, i hadnt realized how many key cards made it from legacy into this deck. I think this deck could be more of a force than most people expect, cause all the cards are hella powerful, resiliant and pretty versatile. Nice work guys!
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The true mind can weather all the lies and illusions without being lost. The true heart can tough the poison of hatred without being harmed. Since beginning-less time, darkness thrives in the void but always yields to purifying light.
I invision a future where one is not mighty when he can silence a crowd with brutality,
but when he leaves them speechless with wisdom.
True but what really punches this deck in the teeth is that lack of cycling lands. The card advantage with those and loam was what made this deck so good.
Sure it is still a decent deck, but no where near as powerful as the legacy counterpart.
People seem to be missing the Raven's Crime Loam engine. I like the Thoughts of Ruin idea.
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In case I didn't tell you, I don't care about your opinion I just want your facts. And not the facts that make you seem smart. I want the ones that are actual facts.
I noticed a 7th place agro loam list that would port to modern quite successfully, if only I could get the manabase correct. The deck is a faster version of agro loam. It wants to play seismic assault 3rd turn, at the same time, enforcing a large wild nacatl. The issue for us though, porting this to modern, is the manabase. This deck has 12 fetches that can fetch any land in the deck. We only have 8 fetches (arid mesa + scalding tarn). How do we build this manabase correctly for modern?
Replacements for maindeck:
2 Sylvan Library replaces by 1 Sword of Fire and Ice and 1 Life from the Loam.
4 Chain Lightning replaced by 4 Rift Bolt
2 Dismember replaced by more terminate (who has the life resources with these lands?)
Manabase (my take, but I feel it is wrong)
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Arid Mesa
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Tectonic Edge
2 Badlands
3 Stomping Grounds
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Swamp
1 Mountain
1 Forest
The forest and the swamp can get in the way of this decks ability to play assault turn 3.
Basic Issue: Play Nacatl as a 3/3 second turn, play Dark Confidant, then have triple red for Seismic Assault. It doesn't appear to be possible in legacy for this deck, so the dream isn't there. It seems that this deck plays Seismic Assault on turn 4, opting to use Nacatl and Goyf to the fullest.
If anyone can solve this riddle of a manabase for modern, please inform me.
// Creatures
4 [FUT] Tarmogoyf
4 [MOR] Countryside Crusher
4 [ARB] Bloodbraid Elf
4 [DDG] Knight of the Reliquary
2 [PD2] Grim Lavamancer
4 [10E] Birds of Paradise
// Spells
4 [RAV] Life from the Loam
4 [8E] Seismic Assault
4 [M11] Lightning Bolt
3 [DKA] Faithless Looting
// Sideboard
SB: 2 [EVE] Worm Harvest
SB: 3 [MBS] Thrun, the Last Troll
SB: 3 [LRW] Gaddock Teeg
SB: 2 [ISD] Ancient Grudge
SB: 2 [JU] Ray of Revelation
SB: 3 [SHM] Kitchen Finks
Almost every land taps for red because of Seismic Assault. Assault is a 4-of because it's the best card in the deck. Without Loam, it turns every topdecked land into gas to either control the board or to be saved until you can burn them out. With Loam, you can have a one-sided Wrath effect or a fast clock. I like RGW a lot better than RGB because RGW gives the deck a fantastic early game for KoTR, who is just a monster when he comes down. Confidant might help with the late game as his benefits increase over time, but so many games are decided during turns 2-4, and KoTR has a much bigger immediate impact dropped on turn 2 than Confidant does. Plus, all the fetches mean you have a lot self-damage anyway.
Only 2 Lavamancer because you don't want to be exiling card from your graveyard too early in the game, although Lavamancer could be replaced by Lightning Helix.
Bloodbraid Elf is the 2nd best card in the deck, after Assault, because Bloodbraid Elf has haste, which helps the clock, it often cascades into something devastating. Plus, it's awesome vs. counterspells.
Faithless Looting is a "meh" card. It could be replaced by a creature like Ohran Viper or Kitchen Finks, or possibly Ancient Grudge or even Golgari Brownscale. Looting is weird. When it's good, it can be pretty awesome, but on the other hand, it's card disadvantage, so often times it isn't too great for that reason.
Horzion Canopy is another "eh" card. The added self-damage is annoying, but when you're land-flooded or on the rare occasion that your KoTR is on the defense, you can EOT sac a land to search up Canopy and draw a card with it. Plus, Canopy is good with Loam to draw another card. But good enough to justify not tapping for R and causing more lifeloss? I'm not sure.
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You like Super Smash Bros.? Melee or Brawl? Check this out! http://projectm.dantarion.com/
It's an updated version of Brawl into an epic, new game.
Part of what makes Aggro Loam tick in all formats, IMO, is LD lands. See if you can squeeze in 1-2 Tectonic Edges. Recurring them with LftL is fun. (Recurring Wastelands in Legacy is really fun.)
I'm also fond of manlands in Aggro Loam because they'll never permanently die with a LftL (unless they get PtE'd). Try two Raging Ravines.
Losing cycling lands blows (and this encourages us to run a lower land count, but then Countryside Crusher gets worse), but what can you do.
I would have tried squeezing in Haunted Fengraf to perform a really shoddy Volrath's Stronghold imitation if you didn't stick mana dorks in your list.
Tectonic Edge is such overkill. You don't need to destroy 1 land when they already have 4. That won't do much against most decks. This is AGGRO loam, after all, and since Modern is so slow now, a deck running a full set of KoTRs, Crushers, Bloodbraid Elves, and Goyfs is seriously an aggro deck, especially with the Bolts and Assaults to back it all up. That said, Raging Ravines might be decent, but it's slow. That means you have at least 5 lands up. It might be decent as 1-of or two-of, but IMO, you really wouldn't want more than 2 or 3 lands that don't tap for R, and you want 23 or at most, 24 lands total. Of course, a healthy fetch count (11-12) is just fantastic for Loam, since it'll let you play out your hand just fine when you'd otherwise be mana-screwed thanks to Loam getting back the fetches. At the end of the day, though, Haunted Fengraf is worse than Faithless Looting, and Faithless Looting isn't too amazing.
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You like Super Smash Bros.? Melee or Brawl? Check this out! http://projectm.dantarion.com/
It's an updated version of Brawl into an epic, new game.
Thing is, you need to destroy one land when your opponent has completed the UrzaTron for what should be relatively obvious reasons. LD lands also take out pesky manlands that you may otherwise have to bust 2 lands from Seismic Assault to kill. Not to mention annoying lands like Moorland Haunt and Pendelhaven.
Hm, good point. I'm not sure that it's worth the inconsistency that it'll add to other matchups, though. The deck is very color intensive, even with Loam. And even with Tectonic Edge, it still seems like a bad MU. I've been trying out Glittering Wish instead of Fathless Looting. To address the Tron matchup by using Glittering Wish to grab some answers (Harmonic Sliver for the big artifact creatures, Dauntless Escort if you think they have Wrath, or Gluttural Response/Vexing Shrusher to answer countspells). My favorite thing about my GWR build is the speed. Burn and Zoo are actually positive matchups (plus you can side in Lightning Helix, Huntmaster of the Fells, Ajani Vengeant and Kitchen Finks to boost it even more). Affinity is still rough though, because they use lots of flyers, Cranial Plating, Ravager to dodge burn, and Tezzeret to back it all up.
I'd say don't bother putting KoTR or Bloodbraid Elf in the wishboard, you need all 4 of those in the MD, although Huntmaster of the Fells is basically the 5th Bloodbraid Elf.
SB: 1 [EVE] Worm Harvest
SB: 1 [LRW] Gaddock Teeg
SB: 1 [SHM] Kitchen Finks
SB: 1 [DKA] Huntmaster of the Fells
SB: 1 [ALA] Sarkhan Vol
SB: 1 [DDH] Ajani Vengeant
SB: 1 [ALA] Realm Razer (for fighting Tron)
SB: 1 [TSB] Mystic Enforcer (to stop Phyrexian Obliterator from destroying you)
SB: 1 [ARB] Dauntless Escort
SB: 1 [ARB] Blitz Hellion
SB: 1 [SHM] Firespout
SB: 1 [TSP] Harmonic Sliver
SB: 1 [SHM] Vexing Shusher
SB: 1 [SHM] Guttural Response
SB: 1 [DDH] Lightning Helix
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You like Super Smash Bros.? Melee or Brawl? Check this out! http://projectm.dantarion.com/
It's an updated version of Brawl into an epic, new game.
Looks tuned to rip apart decks full of X/1's and mana dorks, along with having a decent game against combo (one of Aggro Loam's traditional weaknesses, especially if you build the deck wrong).
Looks tuned to rip apart decks full of X/1's and mana dorks, along with having a decent game against combo (one of Aggro Loam's traditional weaknesses, especially if you build the deck wrong).
Can't argue against it's success. No Worm Harvest and No Faithless looting is surprising to me. Both add a lot of overall consistency and power to the deck.
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Find me online - I'm on Cockatrice * Tag - Badd B - Or on MTGO - Tag - Cbus05
He's really playing a grindy control version rather than "combo combo"
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Out of the blackness and stench of the engulfing swamp emerged a shimmering figure. Only the splattered armor and ichor-stained sword hinted at the unfathomable evil the knight had just laid waste.
I'll tweak the list a bit, get back to you on it, and play a few games when I get home.
Join the Poetry Running Contest!
Honestly, this deck might work better as B/G splash W for Smallpox/Death Cloud, which are synergistic well with the Loam plan. That's a different deck entirely though.
That's not to dissuade anyone looking to port Legacy aggro loam to Modern, but just to keep in mind that your game plan might need to be a bit different and focus more the board control elements and grinding out a win with huge dudes and Assault rather than trying to make some kind of LD or card advantage plan work. I've won plenty of games with Aggro Loam just beating face with Bloodbraid Elves, Knights, Crushers, and Goyfs with Loam just ensuring I made land drops to fuel Punishing Fire.
All that does is lock us out of Punishing Grove for a bit, until they mess up and try to remove our Graveyard. At which point we return as many Punishing Fire as possible.
- To my youngest sister when she was 6.
Obviously making this deck 5c is not an option, but dropping white for trade routes might work.
Just an idea though, it might be too slow to be of any use
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Countryside Crusher
3 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Tarmogoyf
1 Eternal Witness
Spells
1 Ajani Vengeant
3 Molten Rain
4 Life from the Loam
3 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Glittering Wish
3 Seismic Assault
3 Punishing Fire
Land
2 Tectonic Edge
1 Ghost Quarter
2 Horizon Canopy
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Mountain
3 Grove of the Burn Willows
4 Arid Mesa
2 Verdant Catacombs
2 Stomping Grounds
2 Sacred Foundry
1 Temple Garden
1 Skarrg, the Rage Pits
1 Raging Ravine
(Wish Package)
1 Fiery Justice
1 Firespout
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Swans of Bryn Argoll
2 Gaddock Teeg
2 Qasali Pridemage
1 Ajani Vengeant
1 Behemoth Sledge
1 Wurm Harvest
2 Engineered Explosives
I don't have a sideboard against Dragonstorm, but we'll see how the meta shifts for this. Tell me what you think.
Edit: Added a second Gaddock Teeg to Zenith in against Dragonstorm. I know Teeg is good against DS, but they run Pyroclasm affects in the sideboard. I won't put in graveyard hate yet until I know for sure I'll need it, but Scavenging Ooze would have been the best target by far for Project X. Removed a Quasali Pridemage for Elspeth.
Sadly, I wish Commander-only cards were legal, but they're not. Try replacing Scavenging Ooze with Tormod's Crypt (or Loaming Shaman).
WBG Teneb, the Harvester
B Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief
B Horobi, Death's Wail
BR Kaervek the Merciless
WUB Zur the Enchanter
WUBRG Reaper King
UB Oona, Queen of the Fae
U Memnarch
I invision a future where one is not mighty when he can silence a crowd with brutality,
but when he leaves them speechless with wisdom.
Sure it is still a decent deck, but no where near as powerful as the legacy counterpart.
Cockatrice username: Blackcat77
4 Dark Confidant
4 Kird Ape
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Wild Nacatl
Enchantments
3 Seismic Assault
2 Sylvan Library
Instants
2 Dismember
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Terminate
Sorceries
4 Chain Lightning
3 Life from the Loam
4 Arid Mesa
2 Badlands
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Forgotten Cave
1 Plateau
2 Scalding Tarn
3 Taiga
2 Wasteland
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Dark Tutelage
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Lightning Helix
2 Mental Misstep
2 Pyroblast
2 Red Elemental Blast
Replacements for maindeck:
2 Sylvan Library replaces by 1 Sword of Fire and Ice and 1 Life from the Loam.
4 Chain Lightning replaced by 4 Rift Bolt
2 Dismember replaced by more terminate (who has the life resources with these lands?)
Manabase (my take, but I feel it is wrong)
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Arid Mesa
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Tectonic Edge
2 Badlands
3 Stomping Grounds
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Swamp
1 Mountain
1 Forest
The forest and the swamp can get in the way of this decks ability to play assault turn 3.
Basic Issue: Play Nacatl as a 3/3 second turn, play Dark Confidant, then have triple red for Seismic Assault. It doesn't appear to be possible in legacy for this deck, so the dream isn't there. It seems that this deck plays Seismic Assault on turn 4, opting to use Nacatl and Goyf to the fullest.
If anyone can solve this riddle of a manabase for modern, please inform me.
// Lands
2 [BRB] Mountain (7)
2 [M12] Rootbound Crag
4 [ZEN] Scalding Tarn
2 [GP] Stomping Ground
4 [ZEN] Verdant Catacombs
1 [RAV] Temple Garden
2 [RAV] Sacred Foundry
4 [ZEN] Arid Mesa
2 [FUT] Horizon Canopy
// Creatures
4 [FUT] Tarmogoyf
4 [MOR] Countryside Crusher
4 [ARB] Bloodbraid Elf
4 [DDG] Knight of the Reliquary
2 [PD2] Grim Lavamancer
4 [10E] Birds of Paradise
// Spells
4 [RAV] Life from the Loam
4 [8E] Seismic Assault
4 [M11] Lightning Bolt
3 [DKA] Faithless Looting
// Sideboard
SB: 2 [EVE] Worm Harvest
SB: 3 [MBS] Thrun, the Last Troll
SB: 3 [LRW] Gaddock Teeg
SB: 2 [ISD] Ancient Grudge
SB: 2 [JU] Ray of Revelation
SB: 3 [SHM] Kitchen Finks
Almost every land taps for red because of Seismic Assault. Assault is a 4-of because it's the best card in the deck. Without Loam, it turns every topdecked land into gas to either control the board or to be saved until you can burn them out. With Loam, you can have a one-sided Wrath effect or a fast clock. I like RGW a lot better than RGB because RGW gives the deck a fantastic early game for KoTR, who is just a monster when he comes down. Confidant might help with the late game as his benefits increase over time, but so many games are decided during turns 2-4, and KoTR has a much bigger immediate impact dropped on turn 2 than Confidant does. Plus, all the fetches mean you have a lot self-damage anyway.
Only 2 Lavamancer because you don't want to be exiling card from your graveyard too early in the game, although Lavamancer could be replaced by Lightning Helix.
Bloodbraid Elf is the 2nd best card in the deck, after Assault, because Bloodbraid Elf has haste, which helps the clock, it often cascades into something devastating. Plus, it's awesome vs. counterspells.
Faithless Looting is a "meh" card. It could be replaced by a creature like Ohran Viper or Kitchen Finks, or possibly Ancient Grudge or even Golgari Brownscale. Looting is weird. When it's good, it can be pretty awesome, but on the other hand, it's card disadvantage, so often times it isn't too great for that reason.
Horzion Canopy is another "eh" card. The added self-damage is annoying, but when you're land-flooded or on the rare occasion that your KoTR is on the defense, you can EOT sac a land to search up Canopy and draw a card with it. Plus, Canopy is good with Loam to draw another card. But good enough to justify not tapping for R and causing more lifeloss? I'm not sure.
It's an updated version of Brawl into an epic, new game.
I'm also fond of manlands in Aggro Loam because they'll never permanently die with a LftL (unless they get PtE'd). Try two Raging Ravines.
Losing cycling lands blows (and this encourages us to run a lower land count, but then Countryside Crusher gets worse), but what can you do.
I would have tried squeezing in Haunted Fengraf to perform a really shoddy Volrath's Stronghold imitation if you didn't stick mana dorks in your list.
Moderm - Mono blue Tron and Eldrazi variants
Legacy - Building Eldrazi Stompy
My team for ever ever:
Sport Club Internacional
www.internacional.com.br
It's an updated version of Brawl into an epic, new game.
I'd say don't bother putting KoTR or Bloodbraid Elf in the wishboard, you need all 4 of those in the MD, although Huntmaster of the Fells is basically the 5th Bloodbraid Elf.
SB: 1 [EVE] Worm Harvest
SB: 1 [LRW] Gaddock Teeg
SB: 1 [SHM] Kitchen Finks
SB: 1 [DKA] Huntmaster of the Fells
SB: 1 [ALA] Sarkhan Vol
SB: 1 [DDH] Ajani Vengeant
SB: 1 [ALA] Realm Razer (for fighting Tron)
SB: 1 [TSB] Mystic Enforcer (to stop Phyrexian Obliterator from destroying you)
SB: 1 [ARB] Dauntless Escort
SB: 1 [ARB] Blitz Hellion
SB: 1 [SHM] Firespout
SB: 1 [TSP] Harmonic Sliver
SB: 1 [SHM] Vexing Shusher
SB: 1 [SHM] Guttural Response
SB: 1 [DDH] Lightning Helix
It's an updated version of Brawl into an epic, new game.
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
2 Blood Crypt
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Fire-Lit Thicket
1 Forest
2 Ghost Quarter
4 Graven Cairns
1 Lavaclaw Reaches
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Mountain
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
1 Swamp
1 Twilight Mire
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Countryside Crusher
4 Dark Confidant
4 Tarmogoyf
Spells
3 Flame Jab
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Life from the Loam
4 Raven's Crime
3 Seismic Assault
3 Liliana of the Veil
3 Ancient Grudge
2 Darkblast
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Jund Charm
2 Nature's Claim
3 Obstinate Baloth
1 Pyroclasm
2 Torpor Orb
Looks tuned to rip apart decks full of X/1's and mana dorks, along with having a decent game against combo (one of Aggro Loam's traditional weaknesses, especially if you build the deck wrong).
Can't argue against it's success. No Worm Harvest and No Faithless looting is surprising to me. Both add a lot of overall consistency and power to the deck.
It's an updated version of Brawl into an epic, new game.
It does seem like it would be good. Perhaps you could replace Goyf with it.