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Thread: 10/15 Jupiter Games NELCQ: 9th place with Aggro Loam

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    10/15 Jupiter Games NELCQ: 9th place with Aggro Loam

    I took Aggro Loam to the Jupiter Games monthly NELCQ tournament. I've been playing this deck for awhile now, and it was a great choice in the Mental Misstep metagame. When that got banned however, combo decks started coming back in force, which are the worst matchups this deck has.

    I decided to look into the major decks I predicted to be a part of the metagame, and see if I could adjust my maindeck enough to handle it. The decks that I figured would be most popular were Reanimator, Snapcaster based control, High Tide, TES (with or without Past in Flames), and Dredge (since it usually has a strong combo matchup). I noticed is that all of these utilized the graveyard, and are fairly light on creatures. I decided to make a big maindeck change, which would strengthen all of these matchups but weaken myself against creature based decks. Here's the list.


    4 Mox Diamond
    4 Life from the Loam
    1 Sylvan Library
    4 Tarmogoyf
    1 Eternal Witness
    3 Punishing Fire
    3 Countryside Crusher
    3 Seismic Assault
    4 Dark Confidant
    2 Liliana of the Veil
    3 Extirpate
    2 Maelstrom Pulse
    3 Forgotten Cave
    3 Tranquil Thicket
    2 Taiga
    2 Badlands
    1 Bayou
    1 Forest
    1 Swamp
    1 Mountain
    3 Wasteland
    2 Grove of the Burnwillows
    3 Bloodstained Mire
    3 Wooded Foothills
    1 Volrath's Stronghold

    Sideboard
    3 Pyroblast
    2 Tormod's Crypt
    3 Devastating Dreams
    2 Ancient Grudge
    3 Chalice of the Void
    2 Terminate


    A few notes about the list: Maybe should have had 4 Countryside Crushers, He beats very hard and very quick. Liliana is an absolute monster in this deck. Extirpates were the obvious metagame hate maindeck change. Devastating Dreams is there for small creature decks like Goblins or Merfolk. They never got a chance to see play. Terminate comes in for big creatures like Goyf and KoTR, which are otherwise hard to deal with. Chalice is for Storm. All in all I was very happy with the maindeck Extirpates. They were very relevant in 5 of my 7 matches, and they weren't necessarily bad in the other 2. This report is going to be done from memory and life tracking, so may not be completely accurate.


    Round 1 - Timur with Reanimator

    He has a kind of slow start, digging through his library a whole bunch. I had a triple Mox Diamond draw, which gave me a pretty strong start. I'm dredging through my library, just trying to find a monster. I think he misplays on his 3rd turn. He has 2 mana up, I have a Crusher in my graveyard. He casts Careful Study and discards Animate Dead. This makes it pretty obvious that he has plenty of Reanimation spells, but no dudes. Animating my crusher would probably have gone well here. Eventually I just have too much for him to deal with and he still hasn't seen a dude.

    I expect him to bring in Show and Tell so I bring in Pyroblast and Terminates, took out Punishing Fire and something else. Game 2 is another game sort of like the first, except this time he has dudes but no reanimation. I beat him down in short order. I never like to win by my opponent just drawing dead, but I'll take it.


    Round 2 - Dan Jordan with Reanimator

    Game 1 I'm doing my thing, he casts Entomb on the end step of my 2nd or 3rd turn, putting a Jin Gitaxias in the yard. I have a Crusher in mine and Loam engine running. He casts Exhume, I Extirpate Jin Gitaxias. He calls a judge to verify that I'm not pre-sideboarded, and then tanks for a bit. His hand is FoW, Brainstorm, blue card. He ends up forcing his own Exhume to prevent me from stomping down, but it doesn't end up making a difference as I take game 1.

    I sideboard the same way I did round 1. I have a pretty aggressive start, I think turn 1 Confidant turn 2 Crusher. He casts Show and Tell turn 3 but I have the Pyroblast. My next turn I beat him down to single digits but he has Entomb and Animate Dead for his Sphinx of the Steel Wind, which I am pretty much dead to. He had Thoughtseized my Liliana away the previous turn, and my digging couldn't find me another in time.

    Game 3 was a beating. I think I got Liliana in play early, making us both discard. Not sure if that was the right thing to do, as I binned a Loam and he binned Jin Gitaxias. He Exhumes on his turn and I don't have a dude yet. He draws 7 end of turn I have Liliana kill Jin on my turn, but the damage has been done. At this point my memory is a little fuzzy, as I know he managed to remove Liliana somehow, but I don't remember how. Regardless, He gets a Sphinx in play again from a Show and Tell, and ends the game soon after.


    Round 3 - Damon with LED Dredge

    Game 1 he is on the play and casts Cabal Therapy on himself, hitting 2 Golgari Grave Trolls. My turn I fetch for a Bayou and Extirpate them, prompting another judge call. He was super friendly up to this point, but immediately turned VERY sour, can't believe he had to get paired against "one of those people". I shrug it off and try to stay focused, I win game 1 as he can't recover before I take over with Goyf and Seismic Assault.

    I bring in Tormod's Crypts for I think Sylvan and something else slow. You need to have a way to interact with Dredge in the first 2 turns, and I generally tend to take things out that don't do that. I end up mulling to 5, but it doesn't matter because he turn 1 kills me. Guess I should have kept my 7 and saved some time.

    Game 3 I open with turn 1 Confidant and Crypt. He draws, discards a dredger, says go. Bob starts giving me card advantage and beating down, I play Liliana on turn 2. I know that dredge is a deck that wants to discard, but I felt like with my crypt in play I was safe. I can always just pop it as soon as I see something scary hit the graveyard, and might be able to force him to over-commit to the graveyard this way. His dredges don't hit anything great for awhile as I continue beating down. Eventually he gets a Bridge from Below and Ichorid, so I blow his yard up after I make him discard with Liliana again. I have a Seismic Assault in play but haven't been able to find a Loam yet. He starts to do something, hitting me with a Firestorm that also kills Confidant. I don't have anymore hate yet, but he doesn't get enough going to finish me off before I draw enough lands to just win with Seismic Assault.


    Round 4 - Dan Rae with Snapcaster BUG

    I don't remember a whole lot about what happened here, his deck didn't really seem like it ever got going properly. Game 1 I remember us trading wastelands for a bit, he Stifled one of my fetches, but he had no means of pressure at all. I eventually get a 7/8 Goyf to stick while he has a Confidant. I hit it with Punishing Fire and beat for the win.

    I didn't see very much blue so I didn't bring in Pyroblasts, but Terminate definitely came in. He started off ahead for game 2 but I eventually down his 7/8 Goyf with a Maelstrom Pulse then drop my own alongside a Crusher and beat for the win. Sorry I don't remember a whole lot about this match, as I'm sure it was actually more interesting that I'm making it seem.


    Round 5 - Brian with Non-LED Dredge

    Game 1 he has a very resilient hand, with a turn 1 discard outlet. I do have an Extirpate but hold on to it probably a bit too long. I don't want to use it on a dredger since I'm pretty sure he has more in hand, so I decide to save for either Bridge or Ichorid. The first scary thing that he bins is a Narcomoeba, and I think I misplay by not Extirpating it. My reasoning was that a Narco and Tireless Tribe is not going to scare me at all, but I think in hindsight I should have as I had no pressure at all yet and needed to slow him down a bit. Regardless, he ends up stomping me the whole game.

    Game 2 I bring in Crypts again. We both have pretty good starts but I have a Crypt in play waiting for maximum value. At some point he baits me to blow it with a Nature's Claim and I do, as he has plenty of Dredgers and Bridges in the yard. He had hit me once or twice with an Ichorid, but clearing the yard gave me some breathing room. He still had a discard outlet and a dredger though, plus a few zombies and Narcos that had slipped into play. His next dredge hits Iona and Dread Return, which he promptly casts naming black. I think that black was the correct color for him to name, stopping Liliana, Terminate, and Maelstrom Pulse from killing Iona. I also had 2 of those in my yard along with Eternal Witness, and the Stronghold in play, so I could have easily killed he the next turn had he not named black. I try to bait an easy kill by attacking with a 5/6 Goyf while holding Punishing Fire in my hand but he doesn't fall for it. I start digging like mad and eventually hit my Seismic Assault. I'm about to play it and pitch a bunch of lands to kill Iona when I instead try to bait the block again with my Goyf attack, which he again doesn't fall for. Then I just pitch 4 lands to his dome for the win. I think I had drawn both Crypts this game which really let me slow him down for a very long time.


    Round 6 - Eric English with Next Level Thresh

    I was 99% sure he was playing this going in, as I can't remember the last time I've seen him play something else in Legacy. Game 1 he is stuck on a Lavamancer and 2 lands, neither of which makes green. I have Loam engine rolling but not finding anything. I felt like he was just sitting there begging me to kill him, but the deck just wouldn't let me. Eventually I'm able to force through a Seismic Assault and he just scoops.

    Game 2 I bring in Pyroblasts and think about Terminate, but I (probably wrong) leave them out, instead thinking my burn will handle Lavamancers and Cliques, and I can just out-size Goyf. Being on the draw against NLT sucks, as they can pressure you but you know that if they have land up they're going to stifle your fetch. He has an early Lavamancer, counters my Crusher, but then I get Liliana in play and go to work. I think I mess up here again, since his Lavamancer is tapped from attacking me and I instead have Liliana +1 to make us both discard. I am thinking that I know discard will hurt him pretty badly, but not thinking that this makes Liliana eventually dead to Lavamancer. I should have just made him sacrifice the Lava-man right away. As a result, he ends up shooting her down and surviving with the guy in play still. I drop a Bob when he only has one card in his yard, but I believe he Preordains to get another card in there so he can shoot it. I think next turn he drops Clique on my draw step to take away the last breathe of fight I had left. I do have a Seismic Assault in play to try and save myself but am not drawing lands. On the last turn I managed to draw a land to kill Clique, but he has the Stifle for Assault. Brutal.

    Game 3 I just make a dumb mistake, then let that dumb mistake lead to even more. I'm pretty pissed about this because I was going to top 8 if I had won it. I know to play around stifle, so turn 1 I fetch right away for a Taiga, looking to set up turn 2 Sylvan or Goyf, depending on his turn 1 play. I would have gotten a forest, but both fetches I had were Bloodstained Mire. Turn 1 he Wastelands my Taiga. Turn 2 I play my other fetch and pass, he drops his own fetch and I immediately say "oh shit you dumbass". Next turn I drop Grove of the Burnwillows and try to fetch, of course he has the Stifle. His turn he wastes my Grove. I now have zero permanents in play. He dominates this game. I end up playing Forgotten Caves, which is something I absolutely hate ever having to do. He Cliques me during my next draw step, and of course I don't decide to Pyroblast it because I'm still pissed about the Stifle. He doesn't even remove anything, not wanting to risk me drawing a land and getting my deck rolling. I blast the Clique but he has another, again not putting anything on bottom. My life total goes to zero in short order, and I end the game with zero permanents in play. Eric went on to win the whole thing, which made me feel a bit better about my loss.


    Round 7 - Mike with NLT

    We went into this as #1 and #2 in tiebreakers among the X-2's, with a very small chance of an X-2 making top 8. There were 2 guys at 13 points, which meant that many of the 15's who wanted to draw couldn't risk it. My hope was that enough of them would play it out so that one of us would sneak in with 15 points and better breakers. Alas, it was not to be, as #8 ended up with 16 points. Still, playing for top 16 and $75 isn't terrible.

    Mike was a very fun opponent to play against, as were almost all of my other opponents during the day. Game 1 he's on the play and has a turn 1 Stifle on my fetch, turn 2 Goyf. I have Loam going, which is actually bad for me right now though as it's just growing his Goyf while not finding me anything good. He continues to beat me down, countering or killing any threat I propose

    Game 2 I bring in Terminates and Pyroblasts. I stomp him pretty badly this game, he keeps 2 lands but one of them gets wasted on my 2nd turn. Then I play a Crusher and a 4/5 Goyf, and he scoops shortly after.

    Game 3 is a great game, quite a bit of swinging both ways. I have a turn 2 Sylvan with Daze mana up, and honestly I think that Sylvan won me the game. He has a super counter heavy hand but no creatures. He counters a ton of stuff that I throw out there, Assault, Goyf, Bob, Crusher. I haven't seen a Loam still but am building resources. I start to feel good, as this deck is amazing in a long run and he isn't pressuring me at all. He then plays Surgical Extraction on my Goyf, cutting my win conditions almost in half. I have an opportunity to close the game out but he outplays me in an interesting situation. I have another crusher in hand, 2 red mana sources, 1 green, and a Wasteland. He has bolted my guy before, so my plan is to play Crusher with the Wasteland up, and use the Wasteland in response to a bolt to keep it alive. He is sitting at 2 Volcanics and a Wasteland. When I cast Crusher he responded by Wasting my Wasteland. I think that he sees my line of thinking and wants to prevent it, so I respond by wasting his Volcanic. He then returns that Volcanic to his hand and Dazes the Crusher, making me feel pretty dumb. Regardless, I was still in great shape with the Sylvan and him having no pressure. I think his next turn he draws a goyf that is quite huge at this point and I get pretty concerned. I draw Eternal Witness and cast it, trying to return a Crusher that will get bigger than Goyf in no time. He plays another Surgical Extraction on my Crusher :( . I chump his Goyf with the witness, and finally find the cards that I need from Sylvan - Loam and Assault. His hand is pretty much gone at this point, so I feel safe playing both. I have a Forgotten Caves in my hand to protect Loam from another Extraction. I use Assault to kill his Goyf, then I start slow rolling it. In hindsight I probably should have just gone nuts and used Loam 3 times in my next turn and killed him, but I was too cautious about another Extraction. I don't think there's anything he could have drawn at this point though to save himself, so I didn't feel too bad about slowing it down. I end up getting the win 2 points at a time.

    I finish the tournament in 9th place. Sort of frustrating to just barely miss out, but at least I know that it was because I got out-played and not just drawing bad. I was very happy with the deck choice for this particular tournament. I wish I could have brought honor to the Aggro Loam archetype with a top 8, but this wasn't bad. I wish I could have run into the Merfolk or Goblin players in the room, but there weren't many of them. I think there was a single Merfolk in the top 8, and very few Goblins players at all throughout the entire room. This deck is still viable in my opinion, but you need to address the combo matchup game 1 now I believe. It is a very very fun deck to play, with countless difficult choices to make every game. Jupiter Games is always a fun place to play, with great staff, location, and prize support. Only gripe is that it often starts 30-45 minutes late, but runs very smoothly from there on out. Great time, can't wait to come back again.

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    Re: 10/15 Jupiter Games NELCQ: 9th place with Aggro Loam

    Great report. This is Dan from Round 4 and you basically have the match exactly how it was. My deck didn't do a whole lot for me and you were in control the whole time. In game 2 it was pretty similar except I managed to remove a couple of loams with coffin purge but Sylvan Library put you so far ahead and you just crushed me with Seismic Assault discarding 7+ lands
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    Re: 10/15 Jupiter Games NELCQ: 9th place with Aggro Loam

    Quote Originally Posted by TheShaun View Post

    Game 1 I'm doing my thing, he casts Entomb on the end step of my 2nd or 3rd turn, putting a Jin Gitaxias in the yard. I have a Crusher in mine and Loam engine running. He casts Exhume, I Extirpate Jin Gitaxias. He calls a judge to verify that I'm not pre-sideboarded, and then tanks for a bit. His hand is FoW, Brainstorm, blue card. He ends up forcing his own Exhume to prevent me from stomping down, but it doesn't end up making a difference as I take game 1.
    Best game ever. Forcing his own exhume is beautiful.

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    Re: 10/15 Jupiter Games NELCQ: 9th place with Aggro Loam

    Nice job on 9th. I'm Timur, your round 1 opponent. That game 1 was awful for me. Game 1 I should have stolen your Crushers earlier. I got 1 but I gave you too much time to set up. Game 2 was just awful. Hopefully next time, my business associates can have a word with you before Seismic Assault burns me to death.

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