BUG Lands

[baboontilt]

A little history to start you off, if not interested just skip to the decklist below :)

I played my first game of Legacy in the heart of Caw-blade Standard, bringing Merfolk to battle at an SCG open. I did reasonably well, but saw a player slowly grinding away with Treetop Villages and Barbarian Rings while holding his opponent at bay with a bevy of Maze of Iths. I was hooked. Not having the cards I needed to play the deck, I slowly segued to UR Delver, then RUG, and finally UWR. All the while I loved the idea of Lands, but couldn't justify picking up Tabernacles and other expensive archetype-specific cards.

The Legacy Pro Tour in Paris this year brought with it Kasper Euser's innovative 14th-place Bant Lands build (http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazin...ar14/welcome#0), and suddenly I had a list I could play. I finished it during the Standard Rounds of the St. Louis open, added a Wasteland to the Wishboard, and learned as much as I could in a 2-2 showing of the Legacy Challenge, and brought it to battle the next day. After a humbling 0-2 start, I rattled off 6 straight wins before falling in the final round. I lost 2 matches to misplays, and had I had more time to practice with the archetype I could have perhaps turned them around.

The week before the Grand Prix, my friend Jeff had a pretty deep run with his own innovative look at BG Turbo Depths: http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...p?DeckID=63421.

Things I liked about the Bant List:

• Having a Wishboard. I will admit this is the first time I got the opportunity to play with one, but tutoring up Combo Pieces, Wasteland (my most often fetched/most useful target), or even an alternate Win-con in Sigarda was a blast.
• The Blue Cantrips were excellent, as were the counterspells. The list was still relatively unknown, so I was able to catch several opponents off-guard with a surprise Force of Will.
• Intuition is still Demonic Tutor+.
• Supreme Verdict is a great Magic card. Over 13 rounds of play, I faced D&T 5 times, so my results were admittedly skewed.
• Life From the Loam. I really can't imagine playing the combo without it.

Things I didn't like about the Bant List:

• It could combo off quickly, but at times could be very slow. Without a more traditional Lands build's ability to slow the opponent down, sometimes they were able to gain too much velocity while disrupting the combo. Wasteland + Deathrite required some time to play around.
• Only 1 Wasteland (with me adding a 2nd to the Wishboard). Opposing Wastelands, Karakas, and general mana denial were all things I missed.

Things I liked about the B/G List:

• Pithing Needle. This addresses most of my Wasteland/Karakas/Deathrite Concerns, although I still prefer Wasteland when I have access to LFtL.
• It combos quickly and efficiently. There is no durdling around here, and the deck goes off with a surprising amount of consistency.
• Thoughtseize. I like this a bit more than Force for what I'm trying to do here.
• Vampire Hexmage. Another combo piece that coincidentally eats Liliana is nice.

Things I didn't like about the B/G List:

• As mentioned before, no Wasteland/Life From the Loam. The former I can see with the addition of needles, but I regularly had to combo two or more times before finishing a game.
• Rite of Consumption. I like this type of effect, but as a 1-of with no way to find it, it seems redundant.

I am working on a more traditional Punishing Fires build, but thought it would also be interesting to cram the two ideas together and see what I could come up with. This is a very rough working list:

3 Vampire Hexmage

4 Crop Rotation
4 Brainstorm
3 Intuition

4 Thoughtseize
4 Ponder
3 Living Wish
3 Life From the Loam
1 Into the North

4 Exploration

3 Wasteland
3 Dark Depths
3 Thespian's Stage
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
1 Snow-covered Forest
1 Snow-covered Island
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Creeping Tar Pit
3 Underground Sea
3 Bayou
2 Tropical Island
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Verdant Catacombs

SB
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Karakas
3 Krosan Grip
1 Dark Depths
1 Thespian's Stage
1 Vampire Hexmage
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Dark Confidant
1 Sylvan Safekeeper


Obviously some numbers are off, and the SB is largely up in the air. Things I have considered, but not committed to due to lack of space:
Engineered Explosives + Academy Ruins
Volrath's Stronghold
Tolaria West
Crucible of Worlds
Ghost Quarter
A white package for Thalia + Canonist out of the board
Swan Song out of the board

It is entirely possible this is just a poor mashup of the three decks, but I'd like to hear any comments/criticisms there might be.

[meffeo]

Necroing the thread, since there is a whole website offering a take on this "unfairly versatile combo/control deck". Credit goes to Lincoln Baxter, III, who did 10-5 (144th place) at GP Seattle.

[renanprezende]

Anyone trying this deck? Been having lots of success with a similar list online

[walked]

Anyone trying this deck? Been having lots of success with a similar list online

Been thinking about firing this up. Share your list?
Looking for a second MTGO deck :)

[Bosque]

Anyone trying this deck? Been having lots of success with a similar list online

There's a reddit with some comments on the deck creator's tourny report with a few things and another list (https://www.reddit.com/r/MTGLegacy/c...ltimore_and_a/), as well as the report in question (http://www.buglands.com/event-result...e-legacy-open/).