I scrubbed out of the San Jose PTQ on Saturday playing Jacobs aggro-loam. The only maindeck changes were as follows:
-1 Putrefy
-2 Slaughter Pact
+3 Smother
-1 Golgari Rot-farm
-1 Swamp
+1 Godless Shrine
+1 Plains
Smother was pure gold all day, except against Affinity where I was really missing Slaughter Pact (for Enforcers). The white mana was to play O-rings out of the sideboard for Sulfuric Vortex. Up until the last minute, I also had Teegs and Katakis in the sideboard. I ended up running Cranial Extraction in place of Teeg to ease my color requirements.
Taking out Teeg was correct, though...TEPs was not highly represented. Dropping the Katakis was totally stupid.
The aggro loam deck has very few threats, and I found it hard to seal the deal most games. Blossom is ridiculously slow in a format with Tribal Flames and Cranial Plating. It's not even that good against Wizards, where it's supposed to shine.
Round 1: Beat 5c-zoo. Jitte + Worm Harvest = win.
Round 2: Lost to Josh Silvestri in a very close match. He was playing a version of Naya Zoo.
Round 3: Drew with Affinity (!). I got him down to no cards in hand and no lands in play, but my 5/6 Tarmogoyf couldn't attack into his Enforcers at a profit. The game just dragged on and we eventually drew.
Round 4: Drew with Wizards. This was very frustrating, because if we had had 7 extra turns instead of 5, I clearly would have won. Oh well. Also, Pithing Needle is fantastic against Wizards. I had one needle on Mutavault and another on Relic at one point.
Round 5: Lost to "3-drop.dec" Seriously, this guy had every single 3-mana fatty in Extended. During the match I saw Doran, War Monk, Knight of the Reliquary, and Matca Rioters (!). Game 2 he just out-aggroed me and I couldn't find a Damnation.
Nice report, and congrats on a decent finish. It sucks the mulligan decisions costs you 2 matches. Nice list, I have been thinking of the Idea of a Loamless GB rock list, like taking Michael Jacob's list and taking out the Loam engine.. and adding Eternal Witnesses. Good Luck next time, I have one this weekend so I will be back with a report after the PTQ. Again decent finish and Good luck in the next one Mishima.
Conversely, I've been tinkering with a MORE aggro-oriented version of aggro loam. I replaced Finks with Doran and Bitterblossom with Sculler (-1 Darkblast to get the full 4). It ups the clock against TEPs, while adding more disruption to every matchup. I've felt that Bitterblossom is way, way too slow against almost everything....this is the best fix I've come up with.
I've been hearing that Choke is pretty bad against Wizards now that they've started playing non-island islands. It still seems like a stone-cold beating against Bant, though. Bant seems like a tough deck for aggro loam to beat, so I think Damnations + Choke is a pretty good plan.
I think you want 4 Thoughtseize and 4 Loam in the board, because you love drawing them. Also, 3 Fracturing Gusts in possibly 3 too many. I could see having a singleton as an "oops, I win" against the robots. If Gust is your only sideboard plan against Affinity though, I'm afraid you won't live long enough to cast it.
Hope that helps. Your list should beat Zoo and Bant all day, but I could see it having some trouble with Wizards or TEPs.
Stupid Red Burn may be a tier 2 strategy, but Naya Zoo with maindeck Sulfuric Vortex is the real deal and very tough for loam to beat. CoP:R off a white splash seems very solid to me.
I've been running aggro loam on MWS and I'm getting killed by red decks running Sulfuric Vortex (naya zoo, burn.dec, etc.) I'm going to try splashing white (2x Godless Shrine) and running 3 Oblivion Ring in place of Slaughter Pacts + 1 Putrefy. If someone else wants to give this a try, we can compare notes.
I like the maindeck configuration and don't want to hurt my other matchups, but I hate being completely cold to a popular card game 1.
I think this deck can be tuned to beat anything, but not everything (if that makes sense). The version in the top 8 at LA is set up to beat Wizards and Elves, plus have a good sideboard matchup against Zoo. Rather than diluting the deck in an attempt to be 50/50 in every matchup, it's probably better to assess the meta and choose a version that's well positioned.
Where I play, there's little or no Zoo (naya or domain) so being set up to handle Wizards and the mirror is key. Therefore, I care a little less about Sulfuric Vortex.
Adding white for Knight seems mediocre to me. However, splashing for Path to Exile has been a serious upgrade in my testing (-1 Crime, -2 Slaughter Pact, -1 Dark Blast). One untapped plains keeps Sower off your back, deals with Archmage/Finks, and kills turn-1 Nacatl on the draw.
Also, I've tested quite a few games now and have never cast Putrefy to destroy an artifact. Would Mortify be better? Solves Vortex game 1, Bitterblossom in the mirror, and Threads (though that is being played less).
Can somebody describe a good sideboarding plan for Aggro Loam? I see lots of great sideboards, but I'd like to hear some discussion on what to bring in/take out for specific matchups. Thanks!
-1 Putrefy
-2 Slaughter Pact
+3 Smother
-1 Golgari Rot-farm
-1 Swamp
+1 Godless Shrine
+1 Plains
Smother was pure gold all day, except against Affinity where I was really missing Slaughter Pact (for Enforcers). The white mana was to play O-rings out of the sideboard for Sulfuric Vortex. Up until the last minute, I also had Teegs and Katakis in the sideboard. I ended up running Cranial Extraction in place of Teeg to ease my color requirements.
Taking out Teeg was correct, though...TEPs was not highly represented. Dropping the Katakis was totally stupid.
The aggro loam deck has very few threats, and I found it hard to seal the deal most games. Blossom is ridiculously slow in a format with Tribal Flames and Cranial Plating. It's not even that good against Wizards, where it's supposed to shine.
Round 1: Beat 5c-zoo. Jitte + Worm Harvest = win.
Round 2: Lost to Josh Silvestri in a very close match. He was playing a version of Naya Zoo.
Round 3: Drew with Affinity (!). I got him down to no cards in hand and no lands in play, but my 5/6 Tarmogoyf couldn't attack into his Enforcers at a profit. The game just dragged on and we eventually drew.
Round 4: Drew with Wizards. This was very frustrating, because if we had had 7 extra turns instead of 5, I clearly would have won. Oh well. Also, Pithing Needle is fantastic against Wizards. I had one needle on Mutavault and another on Relic at one point.
Round 5: Lost to "3-drop.dec" Seriously, this guy had every single 3-mana fatty in Extended. During the match I saw Doran, War Monk, Knight of the Reliquary, and Matca Rioters (!). Game 2 he just out-aggroed me and I couldn't find a Damnation.
Conversely, I've been tinkering with a MORE aggro-oriented version of aggro loam. I replaced Finks with Doran and Bitterblossom with Sculler (-1 Darkblast to get the full 4). It ups the clock against TEPs, while adding more disruption to every matchup. I've felt that Bitterblossom is way, way too slow against almost everything....this is the best fix I've come up with.
Hope that helps. Your list should beat Zoo and Bant all day, but I could see it having some trouble with Wizards or TEPs.
I like the maindeck configuration and don't want to hurt my other matchups, but I hate being completely cold to a popular card game 1.
Where I play, there's little or no Zoo (naya or domain) so being set up to handle Wizards and the mirror is key. Therefore, I care a little less about Sulfuric Vortex.
Just my 2 cents.
Also, I've tested quite a few games now and have never cast Putrefy to destroy an artifact. Would Mortify be better? Solves Vortex game 1, Bitterblossom in the mirror, and Threads (though that is being played less).