[discussion] Wasteland

[thefreakaccident]

So, I have quickly realized that wasteland went from almost out of the format (except for goblins and LD based strategies) up until very recently when several varients of threshold did well in worlds while running wasteland.

Now, everybody is running wasteland... thresh (which never ran it before to my knowledge), landstill (which had dropped it saying it hurts its' own manabase too much), and every other deck packing stifle. Now it seems that wasteland is being ran in order to harm manabases of decks with 'weaker' manabases.

The thing is, why are the decks with the 'weakest' manabases in the format preparing to go LD?

Why has wasteland become so popular recently?

[Volt]

Why has wasteland become so popular recently?

Because somebody did well with a deck containing Wastelands, and we're all a bunch of whores.

[Silverdragon]

Wasteland is obviously good against weak manabases and seeing a meta full of them gives you a reason to at least try to play Wasteland in your deck. Threshold only needs 1G to play a big threat and G to produce a smaller but still credible threat. Aside from Counterbalance/Counterspell and the various splashes the deck can operate on a single blue mana so having just a lone Topical Island can be enough to get going. Under these assumptions it looks like Threshold isn't hurt that much by playing Wasteland itself but can seriously hurt opposing Threshold Decks.
Landstill is a bit different I think because it has a harder time playing Wasteland and not screwing its own manabase. However once again Wasteland is good in the mirror eliminating opposing manlands and destoying your opponents already weak manabase.
So basically I'd say it's a risk vs. reward question. How far do you want to go to improve the mirrormatch (or rather the Landstill/Threshold match)?
With Goblins on the decline it seems only logical that you want to play a shakier manabase to improve the matchup against the deck(s) you are currently most likely to face.
Of course as has already been mentioned many times Wasteland and the corresponding manabases are on a constant shift from vulnerable to Wasteland-proof depending on metagame presence of the Einöde.

[sammiel]

there is already a thread about wasteland on the same page of this subforum, but here goes:

like all things in legacy: wasteland waxes and wanes. People play decks that get raped by wasteland, people tighten up their manabase, people stop playing wasteland, people play decks that get raped by wasteland.

[DragoFireheart]

Wasteland is over-rated. I run Stripmines which are much better. :tongue:

[Di]

Wasteland Thread (http://mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6822)

Please continue the discussion on Wasteland there.