[Deck] RUG Lands

[snorlaxcom]

Went 4-0 at fnm. Meta was pretty degenerate and exciting: dredge, 12 post, tes, enchantress, sneak&show, belcher, worldgorger, and rounded off by fair d&t and grixis delver.

rnd1 dredge
g1 flips his deck over but scoops when he therapies me and sees chasm and loam in the yard
g2 he mulls to 5, bottoms his scry, and proceeds to explode with breakthrough. Therapies my crop, but he scoops when I transmute for tabernacle and have a loam going. He scry'd ashen rider to the bottom ):
1-0

rnd2 12 post
g1 I disrupt some of his mana but bait out his bog. I recover after a bog and waste it so no more copies will screw with me g1. His manabase is quickly destroyed while marit is dredged up.
g2 chalice @1
2-0

rnd3 tes
g1 storm 9 with tendrils t3/4
g2 quick marit
g3 t1 revoker (LED) beats + chalice for 0 + 2X trini + academy > 2X decay
3-0

rnd4 enchantress
We play it out since prize structure sucks for records less than 4-0 and I also like my position vs enchantress.
g1 quick marit with unassuming lands thanks to crops
g2 tracker doesn't care for RiP and gets there while I port stuff and blow up enchantments
4-0

$40 in credit, sweet.

Shout out to mtgfirst.com and their quest for power: lotus event in September. Yesterday was a trial for said event where t8 gets $75 and winner gets more credit + a bye.

R1 burn
g1 gguide gives me stage and I kill t3 with eot crop
g2 t1 top for him and I port him down to one mana his t2. He does a t3 eidolon but my turn I make a witch to avoid price damage.
2-0

R2 burn
g1 i get bolted/spiked and make t2 marit
g2 get bolted/spiked and went for mainphase marit in early turns
2-0

R3 Miracles (ID, but play for funsies)
g1 get an early port but he makes all his land drops. I resolve Intuition, but CB/top is too demanding while he has mentor shitting tokens. Harvest resolves but gets outpaced with mentor + top out. Marit comes online too late.
g2 revoker t2 hits his t1 top. He misses land drops and has no cantrips. I get t3 tracker down and t4 natural combo pieces in play.
g3 he gets CB and RiP down. I stick EE @2 and sit on a grip for b2b/moon. He lands a moon, but I resolve a mox for grip mana. I pick a spot to grip moon (tapping dd for mana) and summon marit when he commits a mentor to the board.
2-0-1

R4 ID Jarvus Yu (RG Lands)
get five guys with jalepeños, good stuff
2-0-2

T8 White Eldrazi
g1 i keep a one lander with crop, loam, mox, exploration, grove, pfire, something. He sticks t1 chalice and I rotate for a fetch hoping to rip a land and play out mox and loam. I don't draw a land for some turns and he plays dudes and a wasteland. I could EE away chalice, but would kill my mox and make no head way
g2 keep a hand with grip for his RiP and port him off plays but I have no follow up for some turns, He rips another stompy land and forces me to grip another RiP and takes Intuition with thought-knot. More dorks come down and he draws wasteland for maze.
Pretty frustrating since this has always been my easiest matchup recently, but being 4-0 against burn these past two weekends I can't really complain about variance.

Winning 2 rounds for $75 credit. Sure. I can free roll events for a while and finally finished my pokemon deck. yay!

Event at scg soon I plan on playing at, we'll see. Didn't use rifstone portal and went back to 2 thicket. Seems fine for now. I may just get another tracker for a grip though. Tracker has been legit. Can't see a spot to use a boseiju yet and portal makes more sense with retrace anyway.

[Crimhead]

The new D&T toys are very interesting. Is it possible D&T will rise to rival Miracles as a top deck (top as in best, not SDT); or even reign supreme like Maverick did in 2012?

Maybe that's a bit of a long shot, but if D&T becomes omnipresent, it is likely that RUG will be the optimal archetype for Lands players. If the stars do align this way, hopefully save Lands experts will start putting their brains into optimising the deck for the (new) meta. The like David Long, Jarvis Yu, Kurt Spiess, Kevin King, etc.

Volrath's Stronghold seems overkill for so few creatures.

I'd originally suggested Stronghold just to recur Trackers, but if Prelate becomes an issue I'd like to play around with a deeper Stronghold package including Shriekmaw and possibly Ingot Chewer in the main or the side. More recurring removal! The big problem will be finding the slots.

Of course I'm not David Long or Jarvis Yu, so my ideas are always highly dubious.

Ingot Chewer is nice if we can use it after dredging, but it doesn't kill SDT or enchantments, so maybe it's just not good enough to run. This could lessen the value of the package as a whole. I'm just brainstorming here.

[snorlaxcom]

The new D&T toys are very interesting. Is it possible D&T will rise to rival Miracles as a top deck (top as in best, not SDT); or even reign supreme like Maverick did in 2012?

Maybe that's a bit of a long shot, but if D&T becomes omnipresent, it is likely that RUG will be the optimal archetype for Lands players. If the stars do align this way, hopefully save Lands experts will start putting their brains into optimising the deck for the (new) meta. The like David Long, Jarvis Yu, Kurt Spiess, Kevin King, etc.



I'd originally suggested Stronghold just to recur Trackers, but if Prelate becomes an issue I'd like to play around with a deeper Stronghold package including Shriekmaw and possibly Ingot Chewer in the main or the side. More recurring removal! The big problem will be finding the slots.

Of course I'm not David Long or Jarvis Yu, so my ideas are always highly dubious.

Ingot Chewer is nice if we can use it after dredging, but it doesn't kill SDT or enchantments, so maybe it's just not good enough to run. This could lessen the value of the package as a whole. I'm just brainstorming here.

Dave originally played my deck at side events, but put rg together for himself after kurt was smashing and that worked out for him. He hasn't expressed interest in playing this again and jarvis has never expressed interest to me (we all play at the same store). All the orginal Lands players I knew from 3 years ago and before I took over the primer no longer play. Life happens. I myself can only play some months out of the year. I used to run a list and give it to a friend to run at events we went to and got some pretty good feedback at the time treasure was not ruled stupid.

Creature packages get eaten by drs so g1 opening up more to drs would hurt and weaken Intuition, but could be ok if d&t ticks up in numbers. If you want to go the creature route it will take quite a few slots to make it consistent enough to be effective g1 without resembling aggroloam. There are lots of "spells" at 1cmc for Lands; flame jab, pyrite spellbomb, dismember, or lock out dorks with barbarian ring + crucible. Most are pretty robust to drs and have been on my backburner if needed. Creatures to consider could be redcap, shriek, flesh bag marauder, and orzohov pontif.

[snorlaxcom]

One got through at 15th. Eldrazi and miracles were everywhere. I finished at 5-3-1 for 57th. I definitely want a third tracker.

[CptHaddock]

One got through at 15th. Eldrazi and miracles were everywhere. I finished at 5-3-1 for 57th. I definitely want a third tracker.

Card is nuts, I think it completely invalidates the need for a B splash unless you really want more than 4 grip type effects. He's basically bob + kotr on a single card.

I really like that list, it looks like he's cut out some of the fluff we sometimes play and streamlined the list. Between 4 rotations, 2 gambles, 3 intuitions and 2 tolaria wests you should basically be able to find exactly what you are looking for. If I get the time I will be trying something similar at my local weeklies as well.

[iostreamer]

One got through at 15th. Eldrazi and miracles were everywhere. I finished at 5-3-1 for 57th. I definitely want a third tracker.

Hey guys Phil here.

While I have been on lands for a few years now, I actually had not played it in a while (played shardless in Worcester) so I based my list on some combination of Snorlax's and Crimhead.

I don't fully remember the specifics of each match and some may not be in order but I believe the day went:

Round 1 Win vs Pox
Not much going on here. He cast Pox once when I had loams and explorations anyways.

Round 2 Win vs Maverick
I derped pretty hard here and didn't realize he had played a dark depths that I could just copy with my own stage for a few turns.

Round 3 Win vs Burn
Not super experienced player, had to read most of my cards. Zuran orb was good here along with chasm.

Round 4 Win vs Oops all spells
Each game was decided on turn 1 where either he won or didn't (I had crop rotation every time for bog)

Round 5 Win vs Grixis Delver
Lost game 2 unexpectedly due to double angler and wasteland on my maze but game 3 I killed 3 creatures with tabernacle and wastelands.

Round 6 Win vs Miracles
g1 lasted most of the round and I essentially milled him out with academy ruins after dealing with the entreats and snapcaster mages (can't Jace to kill me due to ruins). He wasn't playing mentor or cliques main.

Round 7 Loss vs RG Lands
Very bad play by me, lack of MD Karakas probably cost me the first game. Got wrecked by World Breaker and his tracker got bigger than mine in game 2.

Round 8 Loss vs Burn
Lost game 1 to Price + fireblast when I was at 5 life and tried to double crop rotation into the combo on his eot. Couldn't sack enough lands with crop and had to take 2 from the price. Maybe should have gotten chasm instead of stage before he cast fireblast but if he doesn't have it I win and I probably just lose if I get chasm anyways. Bad keep in game 2, should have mulled to 5 (though ended the game with him having 3 price of progress in hand an me having only a forest and some mox diamonds)

Round 9 Win vs BW Eldrazi
Game 2 I had chasm lock without chasm in play (two stages) and had to dredge for infinity turns until I could get tolarian academy for dark depths (both my depths were bottom two cards). I had to replay stage and a wasteland every turn until he was low enough on lands not to be able to play Enbringer (I was at 1) and to keep stage up in case of wasteland which never came. Eventually I found tabernacle and cleared his board to give me breathing room to be able to survive a wasteland on my chasm (thespian stage) and was able to start playing trops to activate transmute for DD.

Miracles was actually my buddy who I drove 14 hours with to come to the Invi. Lost to lands due to being extremely inexperienced in the mirror (pretty much only played against it twice, once vs Snorlax at GP NJ two years ago). I had a 66% chance to play vs either rug delver or eldrazi in round 7 which I feel would have likely put me in the top 8 but unfortunately my inexperience in the mirror likely cost me that one.

The gambles were ok but I think if I were to play again I would go back up to 3 intuition, cut gamble and move Karakas back to the main deck. I would also consider playing World Breaker in the sideboard for the mirror and maybe some other matchups, it seemed pretty sweet when the RG player cast it against me and the recursion seems nice with being able to dredge into it. Tireless tracker I really did not get to cast other than against the lands player but I was too far behind to be able to take much advantage from it. I do think it has replaced the need for Bobs however.

[snorlaxcom]

Lots of burn in the room, but was orb worth it otherwise? I go marit on my turn vs burn which saves me some life from pop because it takes a little too much setup to chasm lock. I pack karakas main because Lands is pretty sizable in the area and only way to actually answer marit. Your eldrazi match was funny to watch them do nothing. I wanted to try a gamble, but 3 Intuitions minimum have been great. Is one worth it to you as loam/pfire 5/4? I agree that bob has been replaced, too.

[iostreamer]

Lots of burn in the room, but was orb worth it otherwise? I go marit on my turn vs burn which saves me some life from pop because it takes a little too much setup to chasm lock. I pack karakas main because Lands is pretty sizable in the area and only way to actually answer marit. Your eldrazi match was funny to watch them do nothing. I wanted to try a gamble, but 3 Intuitions minimum have been great. Is one worth it to you as loam/pfire 5/4? I agree that bob has been replaced, too.

I do like orb as it allows chasm lock without exploration and tutor via tolaria west though I'm not sure if that alone makes it worth it other than the obvious benefits vs burn. I tend to play a much more control game rather than try to go for the combo so there's that. (perhaps why I have much worse results playing RG). Admittedly I did go back and forth on including the orb but decided to in the end just because I find it's a sweet card so maybe not the most valid reason.

Karakas main definitely a requirement, I underestimated it's value.

Gamble I guess is fine though generally I was always happier to see intuition. One time I gambled for zuran orb against burn which ended up working out for me though all the other times I gambled for anything other than loam or a land it ended up backfiring on me. Perhaps I've been approaching it wrong however and it really should be treated as simply +1 loam/pfire but then intuition sort of does that but better if you can afford the 3 mana.

Another thing I should mention is the 4 crop rotation, for a long time I played either 2 or 3 but again that's a card I was almost always happy to have in my hand especially for fetching tabernacle/bog/Karakas (on top of the obvious DD/Stage).

[Dominic Pain]

So has anyone thought about trying Throne of the High City in this deck? Downside, against aggro without maze or chasm, they can easily take the monarchy, but upside continuous drawing/dredging.

Sent from my XT1064 using Tapatalk

[snorlaxcom]

So has anyone thought about trying Throne of the High City in this deck? Downside, against aggro without maze or chasm, they can easily take the monarchy, but upside continuous drawing/dredging.

Sent from my XT1064 using Tapatalk

Seems cool vs miracles in the sb alongside trackers if you have space. Aside from that I don't see what matchups this five drop could improve. Hiding behind a chasm or looping chasms could be nice to draw some gas.

[snorlaxcom]

bruh...

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link

We got a recurrable exploration boys and it dodges decay

[Crimhead]

Four mana and symmetric...

But at a glance it looks like a solid singleton! Maybe in the side? It's bad against certain decks I think.

[Anen]

The symmetrical part is killing me.

[snorlaxcom]

9th at scg richmond

[supremePINEAPPLE]

I thought that decklist looked familiar. Congrats and look forward to a report later!

[non-inflammable]

I've been playing a lot of stax-like decks. I've noticed any sort of "drag" on the cantrippy decks really hurts them; like sphere and trinispere.
Since transmute gets "through" sphere and engineered explosives really isn't affected by sphere of resistance, I'm gonna make a deck list that gets two mana on turn one.

any suggestions?

[snorlaxcom]

I've been playing a lot of stax-like decks. I've noticed any sort of "drag" on the cantrippy decks really hurts them; like sphere and trinispere.
Since transmute gets "through" sphere and engineered explosives really isn't affected by sphere of resistance, I'm gonna make a deck list that gets two mana on turn one.

any suggestions?

During treasure cruise era I did 4 crop and ancient tombs main for this reason. It powered out fast chalice, revoker and trinisphere to stop mana dorks, tops, and vials. More fast mana? You can also do lotus petals. Are you still trying to play loams?

Report coming soon. I just went laptop shopping today.

[snorlaxcom]

First day with a Dell (Inspiron 17 series 7000) and it turned off twice and now it doesn't recognize it's own graphics card hardware (nvidia geforce 940mx). Fuck it. I'll write this from my phone and return the comp tomorrow.

Went to scg richmond for my last legacy events for another year. Did 3-1 in first challenge, 4-0 in second challenge, and 5-2 on Sunday for ninth. Got some more EMA packs and I'll get around to selling those...eventually. I also went 3-0 at a local fnm vs burn, eldrazi, and d&t <--(prelate did nothing vs me there).

Challenge 1

Burn
G1 on the draw I get a hand with crop exploration loam and rip a stage next turn. Hard matchup, right? Lol
G2 I open with double chalice academy fetch crop. Not a combo hand out right but we have lots of interaction and resilient hate. I eat a bolt and chalice at 1. He goes to discard while I get some lands and loam to make land drops while calculating pop damage. I then move to plan for chalice at 2 but he smashes my first one, so I reset another chalice at 1. I drew the third chalice at this point and move to set it for two the next turn. He plays eidolon and I set chalice for 2 to accompany the chalice at one. Judge is called because I say I take no damage. Pop is off of the table so I play blue sources to setup twest. Eidolon hits for two turns while I built up mana to EE it away for X=4. With him at 3 mountains and no permanents in play it's pretty locked up. Even if he suspened rift bolt I would set chalice from the yard for 3 and he would have to have 3 fireblasts and 3 more mountains (me at 9 life). Twest is fired off when drawn and burn goes down in 2.

RGLands
G1 friend I made on the car ride, but his first event with it. He's not optimistic, but anything can happen. He has a slow loam hand, but he assembles marit t4. I tutor for karakas and Intuition takes over with eot exploration. He never gets another colored source besides mox to make any ground. I make a token somewhere and end it.
G2 I keep an okay hand but a turn to slow to deal with marit.
G3 He brought in chalice and set it to one, so I guess I was fine not needing to draw mine. With his tutors offline twest takes over.

Eldrazi Ryan Dail
G1 I win the die roll and Intuition seals it.
G2 He gets oblivion sower out t3 and has too much mana to manage now. He then deploys his biggest threats a turn before I can swing with marit.
G3 I mul into keepable but he has too many dudes. ):

Dark maverick
G1 pfire kills bob and ee gets knights. Stonforge somewhere in there, but then I made a token.
G2 same thing but ee gets 2 knights. Make token by removing ice counters over 5 turns.


Challenge 2

Deathblade Michael Sol
Beat me for the win-and-in at scg Baltimore recently, so I get a redo.
G1 pfire his dorks and make a token. He was unenthusiastic about it.
G2 stuff happened. Neither of us hit sb cards but I still made a token.

Eldrazi
G1 I take it fast as he stumbkes on mana cause wasteland.
G2 he makes no plays until he gets to 4 mana on his mainphase thanks to city and wasteland. He does manage cast a tought-knot but I reveal combo and he has no targets in my hand.

Eldrazi Ryan Dail
G1 redo from our first encounter.
G2 relic of progenitus t1 and eats some lands but is forced to pop it to make his own land drops. I am able to ignore the yard and I make a dude, while he is distracted with mana woes.

Aluren
G1 he plays some shardless bug game but has no answer to marit.
G2 he thoughtseizes me and sees grip and trinisphere. I draw more of the sb hate and make a marit under trini. Really good matchup.

Sunday Legacy Classic

Nic fit
G1 I make marit but he paths and has witness for another path while clocking with sigarda. I stabilize at 4 after resolving Intuition, but he casts rhino twice. 15 Minutes left...Gonna be a long day.
G2 I combo fast and has top t1. He finds no answer t3.
G3 6 minutes left. He plays slaughter games and gets loams, but I don't care. Combo makes it through under a chalice at one as we go to turns ftw.
1-0

Bant midrange
G1 t1 noble is punished by fire thanks to mox on the draw. Pfire continues to kill dorks and maze holds off the bigger dudes while I make a token.
G2 I get a tracker going for a tight race vs tnn but he gets pathed.
G3 I have t2 tracker vs his t2 rip. I have another tracker in hand but I go for mana denial with waste and the on board port. He gets mana for a meddling mage and then I drop tabernacle to tap him out every upkeep. I keep making land drops despite rip and I play tracker two. Hey get big enough and too hot to handle.
2-0

Grixis delver Ed Demicco
G1 he has a strong hand t1 with drs and t2 pyro with triple probe. I have mazes, tab, trop, and a crop in hand. It's not enough to get there.
G2 is a similar draw for him and I can't manage tokens and I die. Very good matchup, so this really stings. Triple probe too stronk.
2-1

D&T
Since I was dispatched so quickly last round I spotted my friend on RG vs d&t. This helped mul decisions as I kept my first 7 and almost would have elected the draw if I won the die roll.
G1 I lead with mox and he goes t2 revoker. Float mana blahblah. He gets a vial late and stays on two plains for a while as I wasted the rest. He had heaths for some reason. I have fun making his life miserable and he scoops cause he doesn't want to wait all day. I had the kill coming but playing vs plains is so cool. No force or decay with a deck that dies to shock,such a wonderfull world
G2 he does things. I loam like a hog (like twice) for land drops since I want to have grips and trackers. He play rip two turns before death. Opened with grip anways.
3-1

Dredge Eric Copenhaver
G1 knew him to play ichorid so I kept a hand that could manage a regular draw. He had a huge t2 and I had Intuition t3 that wasn't likely going to be cast. I setup the least info possible by leading with waste and t2 port his gemstone. He therapied me and I scooped looking at +30 cards in his yard.
We get stopped for a deck check as we present decks after we present to cut. Meh. He mentiined aomething about my deck being tall and if it was triple sleeved. I was using kmc perfect hard and brought out my triple sleeved pokemon deck. We had a nice conversation about early pokemon and noticed all the op cards in pokemon that would never see legacy play.

G2 I open with t1 revoker on led and chalice for zero. I wanted chalice on one, but I valued two layers to cut off LED to limit explosive draws higher than t2 chalice. He eot Nature's claimed chalice and did some looting, but my turn I dropped a trini and locked him out of spells while I transmuted for combo. Made the right call t1.
G3 he gets a dredge going off a looting, but draw step stinkweed flips garbage. He sits there taking draw steps while I go for chalice at 1 to stop dig spells (I forgot it was also stopping the flashback on the 3 therapies in the yard). He now has ancient grudge from hand so that hurts my follow up chalice I was planning on deploying. His turn he cast stinkweed and sacs it to therapy naming some card and missing. I set chalice for one as I draw a trinisphere because I want him to flashback grudge on it before I drop 3ball. He breaks chalice and goes nuts with breakthrough X=1. I rip crop and get bog then throw down trini. He has 3 lands and narc + zombie in play. Attacks coomence and I block with revoker so I have 13 draw steps to do something. I look at my hand and see double stage and chasm. I port his city and that will be my wincon for the moment since I was only a point lower than him and chasm loops could be deployed when I reached 1. I draw DD/twest don't remember and I make a token in turns. He chumps with narc and extends the hand. Fun and intense games with this guy. Would play again.
4-1

Dredge Damon Whitby
G1 we both know what to mul for since we play each other in local Baltimore events. He keeps at 4 and I keep a stacked 7. He goes t1 Pimp and I mox pfire it. He gets some dredging online but I make land drops of port mazes and sit on two crops. I could have made a token earlier but was tired and eot did nothing. I made the token next eot where he was picking up some steam. Whew. Almost fell asleep at the wheel.
G2 he has led and therapies stuff away off of the second casting. I don't get enough going and he beats down too fast.
G3 is my turn to mul and I keep at 5. T1 fastbond 2 lands and t3 trinisphere meets a force pitching narc. Thats all I had in hand to stop the game but now have nothing. He dr ashenrider hitting my green source (trop) and I rip nothing of consequence.
4-2

Rock variant
G1 he has t1 drs and I play mana to not feed it and hold off on mox. He swings with drs and I pitch port to mox and eot his turn Intuition getting a pfire pile. My turn I return grove and junk to hand and shoot dorks. He has goyf now at 3/4 stopped by maze so I don't dredge to feed it and will fire a loam if he wastes. He plays another goyf and now is connecting for 3. I am taking damage and loam back a wased maze, but try to establish UU for twest and ee@2. The sequence seems to be right on time but then they grow. I rip ee off the top and blow up goofs. I shot stonedork and have bskull under two mazes. Marit ends the party as the opp is helpless vs ee lock g1.
G2 opp has lot of two drops that die to shock. Sweet. Grove pfire eat his cards as I am trying to get in with them before he hits sb hate. I have double grove up protecting pfire and buy back slowly, but surely. One sequence I make marit lage eot and while we are both tapped out he surgicals depths and pfires. Is fine since we can get there with tracker in hand and ee loop in the deck. He looks at my sb cards for the match a bit. I now play tracker then fetch for 2 clue tokens. Tracker lives and I build up clue tokens while porting him down. I left mana up to save loam, but don't care about saving loam and crack clues to draw while speeding up the clock. He draws goyfs but tracker is almost bigger than them at this point. I play another tracker and grt double clues. Dudes eat their wheaties and goyfs chump. Some more swings and marit isn't bothered to be woken up again.
5-2

I was 11th going into the last round, but made ninth behind joe lossett and 1.3% breakers. Really stings since two of my loses were in t8 and I was 1-1 vs Ryan Dail. I take some satisfaction that I can still hang and collect my funny money.Went back to 3 ee and they were great. Dropped harvest and rifstone portal to remain at 60 crads. 3 trackers looks to be where I'll settle and remain on 4 grip. Revoker was a G but still could be flex with 1 chalice. Trini was fine in the sb as storm was playing next to me all day and they hose delver. Iostreamer made a t16 a couple of weeks back, so if you can navigate the rgcl matchup well and have a tuned sb this deck should still be live.

[supremePINEAPPLE]

I honestly die to grixis delver way more often than I expect to. On paper it looks like an awesome matchup but in my experience at least they have a lot of annoying tools and the builds are so varied that I just get caught sometimes. I still think it's a good matchup but I'm a lot more cautious nowadays.

Thanks for taking the time to type it all out!

[Sparkii]

I honestly die to grixis delver way more often than I expect to. On paper it looks like an awesome matchup but in my experience at least they have a lot of annoying tools and the builds are so varied that I just get caught sometimes. I still think it's a good matchup but I'm a lot more cautious nowadays.

Thanks for taking the time to type it all out!

The only card in that deck that is actually scary is Gurmag Angler. It's definitely a good matchup, but delver can just do what delver does sometimes.