[Deck] RUG Lands

[Ingo]

Surgical is everywhere here as a nod to BR Reanimator. Otherwise, I've seen RIP, Faerie macabre and things like tormod's crypt too. I'm not a fan of tracker in the current meta, too much decay and plow. There's often too much to Surgical out in the deck and you play careful with the Depths plan if you go that route. My most commonly surgicaled card aside from Loam is wasteland, still leaving you ghost quarters, pfire and EE recursion, as well as the combo.

There's lots of combo where I play, I'll give your sideboard a spin in an RG version (although that's probably a bit softer to Extraction as there's an engine less without EE-Ruins, and might have more need of Tracker)

[UseLess]

I had my first (paper) outing with RGu lands last week. Played it to a surprising 4-1 finish and it was a blast to play. I've always loved lands as an archetype (also got a lands themed EDH deck) but found it too expensive to build. Got myself a Tabernacle a while ago and without the need for Port and Grove it wasn't actually that much more expensive so I got to finally try it out! The list isn't optimal because I couldn't get my hands on a second Explosives and third Taiga at GP Copenhagen for a reasonable price. Sideboard is obviously a bit whacky as I'll have to figure out what I do and do not like. List is basically R/G with a blue splash for explosives. I like the more controlling style of RUG lands better and only have 3 depths/stage, so hence I post it here.

4 Life from the Loam
4 Gamble
4 Exploration
4 Crop Rotation
4 Molten Vortex
4 Mox Diamond
1 Engineered Explosives

1 Forest
2 Taiga
1 Stomping Grounds
2 Tropical Island
2 Verdant Catacombs
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
4 Ghost Quarter
4 Wasteland
3 Dark Depths
3 Thespian's Stage
3 Maze of Ith
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
1 Karakas
1 Glacial Chasm
1 Barbarian Ring
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Academy Ruins
1 Tranquil Thicket

--

3 Krosan Grip
3 Tireless Tracker
3 Sphere of Resistance
2 Chalice of the Void
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Tranquil Thicket
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Warping Wail

My matchups were:
2-0 BG good stuff
0-2 ANT
2-1 BReanimator
2-0 Pox
2-0 Elves

I kept the blue splash to a minimum because Vortex is very red mana hungry, as I experienced in the last online tournament here on the Source. The idea was to play 3 Vortex and 2 EE, but that didn't work out. I liked having Vortex in my opening hand frequently as it was very strong throughout, but drawing multiple copies was very awkward. Once I get my second EE I'll be testing the 3/2 split and see what I like best. EE came up once against pox, but it was really good there, taking out Liliana and Ensnaring Bridge. I would like more cycle lands in the mainboard, but just didn't know what to cut for space. I really hope that they will print the enemy cycle fetch lands in HOU, because then I can substitute one tropical for them. Haven't tried out the RG cycle land yet, so that I'll also test. I once saw the stomping grounds and wanted it to come into play untapped, so I'm a bit hesitant about that land. On the other hand, I never fetched more than one tropical, so I would have no issues replacing the second for a cycle land. I was lucky against reanimator and had some good draws here and there, but overall the deck just felt smooth and worked well. I'm definitely happy with the result and it's a good starting point for further fine-tuning. I'm not so sure about the trackers in the sideboard because I would like so much other stuff in there as well, but that is something for future testing.

[kravkenov]

I had my first (paper) outing with RGu lands last week. Played it to a surprising 4-1 finish and it was a blast to play. I've always loved lands as an archetype (also got a lands themed EDH deck) but found it too expensive to build. Got myself a Tabernacle a while ago and without the need for Port and Grove it wasn't actually that much more expensive so I got to finally try it out! The list isn't optimal because I couldn't get my hands on a second Explosives and third Taiga at GP Copenhagen for a reasonable price. Sideboard is obviously a bit whacky as I'll have to figure out what I do and do not like. List is basically R/G with a blue splash for explosives. I like the more controlling style of RUG lands better and only have 3 depths/stage, so hence I post it here.

4 Life from the Loam
4 Gamble
4 Exploration
4 Crop Rotation
4 Molten Vortex
4 Mox Diamond
1 Engineered Explosives

1 Forest
2 Taiga
1 Stomping Grounds
2 Tropical Island
2 Verdant Catacombs
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
4 Ghost Quarter
4 Wasteland
3 Dark Depths
3 Thespian's Stage
3 Maze of Ith
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
1 Karakas
1 Glacial Chasm
1 Barbarian Ring
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Academy Ruins
1 Tranquil Thicket

--

3 Krosan Grip
3 Tireless Tracker
3 Sphere of Resistance
2 Chalice of the Void
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Tranquil Thicket
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Warping Wail

My matchups were:
2-0 BG good stuff
0-2 ANT
2-1 BReanimator
2-0 Pox
2-0 Elves

I kept the blue splash to a minimum because Vortex is very red mana hungry, as I experienced in the last online tournament here on the Source. The idea was to play 3 Vortex and 2 EE, but that didn't work out. I liked having Vortex in my opening hand frequently as it was very strong throughout, but drawing multiple copies was very awkward. Once I get my second EE I'll be testing the 3/2 split and see what I like best. EE came up once against pox, but it was really good there, taking out Liliana and Ensnaring Bridge. I would like more cycle lands in the mainboard, but just didn't know what to cut for space. I really hope that they will print the enemy cycle fetch lands in HOU, because then I can substitute one tropical for them. Haven't tried out the RG cycle land yet, so that I'll also test. I once saw the stomping grounds and wanted it to come into play untapped, so I'm a bit hesitant about that land. On the other hand, I never fetched more than one tropical, so I would have no issues replacing the second for a cycle land. I was lucky against reanimator and had some good draws here and there, but overall the deck just felt smooth and worked well. I'm definitely happy with the result and it's a good starting point for further fine-tuning. I'm not so sure about the trackers in the sideboard because I would like so much other stuff in there as well, but that is something for future testing.

Congrats for you run with Lands !

I think you can easily shave a Tropical Island for a second Explosives. From my personal experience, 1 Tropical and the 4 Moxes are enough to trigger Academy Ruins. Playing 6 fetches is IMO a bit too high. For an additional Cycle land and a 4th Thespian, maybe go down to 4 fetches (you could even go down to 3 fetches and play a 4/4 Thespian/Depths).

With the full Vortex package, I personally like to play 2 Barbarian. It give a way to find a "kind of Punishing Fire effect" while loaming if you didn't manage to get à Vortex in the battlefield.

[Sparkii]

Pretty set on my vegas list at this point. Anyone else going to be there?

[kravkenov]

Pretty set on my vegas list at this point. Anyone else going to be there?

Not living on the same area, so no, I won't be there (sadly).

[mgrinshpon]

New card to enable Depths, recurrable with Academy Ruins, can copy Sphere of Resistence on someone else's turn, and blocks goyfs all day long.

[Crimhead]

New card to enable Depths, recurrable with Academy Ruins, can copy Sphere of Resistence on someone else's turn, and blocks goyfs all day long.

Terribly clunky though (especially if you need Academy Ruins to get it).

[kravkenov]

New card to enable Depths, recurrable with Academy Ruins, can copy Sphere of Resistence on someone else's turn, and blocks goyfs all day long.

I think it is a new tool for grinds matchup. It is not something you want in your first seven cards for sure, but it deserve some reflection. The card can enable some crazy shenigans : double Exploration, double Sphere during opponent turn, block Tarmogoyf, copy Mother of Runes to protect your Lage, Filter your draw in the form of Sylvan Library, can be Show in front of Griselbrand/Emrakul, really it's look like there is many things to do !

I'm super excited (already pre-order a playset) and can't wait to test it mainboard :,)

[Tekko]

did we abandon this thread and all go over to the RGCL thread? are things simpler if we keep them split?

[Crimhead]

did we abandon this thread and all go over to the RGCL thread? are things simpler if we keep them split?

With the blue splash eing more common in RGCL, and with RUG lists running more Gamble and less Intuition/T.West, The decks have kind of blurred together. Especially with the RGb build (Main deck Decay, SB Thoughtseize) being considered just a RGCL variant, I think most of us no longer feel the need for separate threads.