[Deck] Land Ho! - Life from the Loam sleaze

[Finn]

Just about anything of GR or GRb Life from the Loam design seems to be called Land Ho these days. But it is actually just a blanket term for many decks like The Rock describes GB card advantage decks.

"Land Ho" GR aggro-control.

Decklist update: Feb 21, 2006

3 Life from the Loam
4 Roar of the Wurm
4 Wild Mongrel
3 Terravore
2 Regrowth

1 Seismic Assault
4 Firestorm
3 Devastating Dreams
4 Gamble
4 Burning Wish

4 Mox Diamond

1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
1 Quicksand
1 Barbarian Ring
4 Wasteland
4 Taiga
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Mountain
3 Forest
2 Tranquil Thicket
2 Forgotten Cave

SB:
4 Red Elemental Blast
4 Pithing Needle
1 Devastating Dreams
1 Life from the Loam
1 Hull Breach
1 Shattering Spree
1 Regrowth
2 Pyroclasm

The concept is rather simple, actually. Get to 3 land, cast Seismic Assault. Assault, over and over again with Life from the Loam. This has changed. Seismic Assault is now a secondary win condition. Mongrels, Terravores, and Wurm tokens do a smashing job by themselves.

In practice, however, it is rarely that simple. Since Legacy is such a powerful format, Land Ho, while based on this 2-card combo plays much more of a control role. While at the helm, you will find yourself accumulating cards in the graveyard while keeping the opponent down as much as possible. Eventually, you will be able to cast Seismic Assault if you are going to win. There is no rush.

And then there is the 3-color less creature-oriented focus which plays more like control with a combo finish.
Update 9/4/06 by bane of the living:

4x Wasteland
1x Barbarian Ring
1x Mountain
1x Forest
1x Swamp
3x Taiga
1x Badlands
1x Bayou
4x Forgotten Cave
4x Tranquil Thicket
1x Barren Moor
4x Wooded Foothills
3x Mox Diamond

3x Exploration
3x Life from the Loam
3x Burning Wish
4x Gamble
3x Devastating Dreams

3x Cabal Therapy
3x Duress

3x Wall of Blossoms
3x Eternal Witness

3x Seismic Assualt

Thats my current list. I took some pieces of Sexy Rector's most current one. Id post his but if he wanted it here you'd see it I guess. The biggest difference between our builds is he doesnt play with Exploration. I for one am glued to the card. I wouldnt be playing this deck anymore without it. I also cut Graveshell Scarab because drawing him in your opening hand is almost like taking a mulligan. Hes a great win condition in Confinement, but we have Assault and Barbarian Ring to win with. Assault > all.

Wishboard..
1 Shattering Spree
1 Hullbreach
1 Duress
1 Cabal Therapy
1 Cave In
1 Last Rites
1 Cranial Extraction
1 Life from the Loam
1 Devestating Dreams
1 Pyroclasm
1 Innocent Blood
1 Firebolt
1 Haunting Echoes
1 Regrowth
1 Nostolgic Dreams

[The Sinister Minister]

I may have to check with the rules forum but wouldn't Sylvan Library be the nuts with dredge? Since it says "choose two cards drawn this turn" to put back you can potentially dredge three times in one turn as opposed to once. Casting loam more and speeding up the Seizmic Assault kill considerably.

OMG it's a deck that can abuse the piss out of Nantuko Cultivator lmao.

[Finn]

Nantucko Cultivator is a card that I would not have ever thought of. Thank you so much. I had to look it up, and I'm going to try it.

As for Sylvan Library, you are quite right. It works just how you think it does. In fact, that was one of reasons I began work on the concept. However, there are some compelling reasons why not to use it:

1. All three draws must be replaced. If you draw even one card from the Library, you are responsible for putting two back or taking life. That means there must be three Life from the Loam in the graveyard. That was possible when I had blue for Intuition, but blue is now out for good. The searching and card drawing elements of the color are being managed better without it.

2. Dredging nine cards per turn is a heckuva lot. It's unsustainable. You either win fast or lose slow that way.

3. It is really overkill card advantage anyway. Getting the three lands each turn really is enough. Getting nine (a.) costs six mana to manage (b.) requires nine lands in the graveyard unless you can pitch them immediately, and (c.) is overkill. As it is I discard lands on some turns.

For all its benefits, I just don't want to use up the spot on Sylvan Library. I would bet that some of the other folks mesing with it will come to the same conclusion.

[No_Life_No_Future]

how about running mana bond?

Card type: Enchantment

Casting cost: G

Oracle text: At the end of your turn, you may reveal your hand and put all land cards from it into play. If you do, discard your hand.

It seems this card would acclerate the deck extremely well...

Remeber the good old days as a kid where you played with mana dump and big creatures... so do i...

The card would work great with recoup and life from the loam...

Whats with the tranquil grove?

[Finn]

OK, I have been able to do some playtesting. At a local tournament the deck went

tie vs. Landstill, 1-1
beat Goblins 2-1
beat MBC 2-1
lost to Burn 1-2
beat Landstill 1-0
beat Goblins 2-0

Additionally, I have tried a number of test games on Apprentice. The results are not quite as promising.

2-3 vs. Goblins
0-2 vs. Landstill
0-1 vs. Burn
3-0 vs. various Black builds
2-1 vs. Elves?

As you can see, the important strong matchups went rather poorly. Burn is still a problem, and I do not have any experience with this against either Flame Vault or Solidarity combo.

Since the black came out (including Duress and Nightmare void) the combo and Landstill matchups have gone down a bit, but the Goblins matchup has improved. But strangely, a major reason why I have been having trouble with Goblins (and really any of the losses) has been improper land supply. (heh, in a deck with 30 of them)

I have to believe that this is a glitch, so I am going to be toying with extra basics and asking all of you for help with the Burn and Combo matchups.

The current sideboard looks like this:

4 Red Elemental Blast
4 Ivory Tower
3 Hail Storm
1 Naturalize
3 Null Rod - This keeps Crypts and Furnaces from eating up the graveyard, not to mention hosing Flame Vault and Affinity. Withered Wretch is still a problem. (would Pithing Needle be better?)

[bigbear102]

Well, I have been working on this deck for a while now, so here it is:

Seismic Loam

4x Yavimaya Elder
4x Wall of Blossoms
3x Eternal Witness


4x Seismic Assault
3x Life from the Loam
3x Burning Wish
3x Regrowth
3x Exploration
3x Sensei's Divining Top
2x Naturalize
2x Constant Mists

3x Forgotten Cave
4x Tranquil Thicket
4x Taiga
5x Forest
4x Mountain
3x Wasteland
4x Wooded Foothills

SB
1x Regrowth
1x Life from the Loam
1x Pyroclasm
1x Flashfires
1x Tsunami
1x Meltdown
3x Red Elemental Blast
2x Pyroblast
4x Sirocco


The deck actually runs quite well, and I would suggest that you test it out before making suggestions or bashing it outright, because on paper it does look like a lot of random cards, but they work very well together.

Card Choices

Seismic Assault: The win condition, Land's Edge was tested in it's place for the easier mana cost, but Assault's ability to fry creatures is way too important to overlook.

Life from the Loam: This is the engine, with it you can kill the turn after Assault hits usually, with exploration out, that turn sometimes.

Burning Wish: Loams 4-7. Also gives flexibility to the deck, and lets you win games you shouldn't

Sensei's Top: It sets you up in the early game, and is a free draw mechanism to activate dredge while comboing.

Exploration: This card is kind of out of place, I just threw it in here on a hunch, and it has paid off greatly. Running 27 land makes it amazing.

Constant Mists: Gives you outs against gobbos and other aggro, very good with exploration on the table.

Yavimaya Elder: This is the best land searcher I have found. It not only gets you land, but provides a much needed body in a pinch, that's why it makes the cut over some other sorceries which would provide the same function.

Witness/Regrowth: These give you a very consistent draw engine. With one in your hand, you can begin dredging asap, which lets you find Assault faster. Also very good against control.




Matchups:

Goblins: This match is in your favor. You drop walls and elders, then wish for pyroclasm. By that time you hopefully have drawn mists and can lock them. Early Assault is very good because it turns your hand into free shocks. Usually this game takes a while because you have to clear their board before risking tapping out to kill them. Constant Mists and Burning Wish are your best friends.

Landstill/U based control: This matchup is kind of tricky. You have to play smart, and use your regrowth effects. You do have more outs than they have counters. Play the long game, because usually a wall will hold them off for quite a while. Game 2 sees 5 Blasts, and possibly Sirocco if it's worth it.

Solidarity: Game 1 you race them, which is possible, and hope your burning wish for tsunami/cast tsunami resolves. Game 2 brings in 4 Sirocco and 5 Blasts, this is now heavily in your favor.

Aggro Control: As it goes with all combo, your worst matchup. Whether it be Bw Deadguy, or Gro, this match is not a good one. It is still very winnable via regrowths and wishes for an answer.


The deck is very resilient, and can pull itself out of near unwinnable situations, so proxy it up and test it for a while, and then tell me what you think. I have gotten the deck as far as I can, and am reasonably happy with its performance, but would appreciate any input I could get.

[Artowis]

See CAL in Extended for general suggestions. Solitary Confinement is a house and would make the translation to this format rather well to wreck Goblins and Gro. The black splash would also seem effective, though that's a bit up for debate.

Oh and have you considered the 4th Burning Wish; since LFTL, Pyroclasm and Hull Breach (Though you currently don't run it) are some of the best cards you have?

[Finn]

http://mtgthesource.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=28;t=822

There must be an echo in here. I'm not harping on you Bigbear, although you probably should have checked. But I will bet you get a lot of response while I couldn't get these boys to help if i dangled carrots in front of them.

Burning wish is a good call. I am using it in my latest build and I like it.

[TheSorcerer]

Hoi!

I've been working on a similar deck for a few days now. What I have come up with up until now is a little of to your list, but basicly the same. My deck has a very good matchup against Goblins due to MD Pyroclasm, Slice & Dice and Lightning Rift. However, I got smacked by Solitaire pre SB a few times now. The list currently looks like this:

4x Wooded Foothills
4x Taiga
4x Forgotten Cave
4x Tranquill Thicket
4x Mountain
2x Forest
3x Wasteland

4x Mox Diamond (I'm thinking about replacing this with Exploration)

3x Eternal Witness
3x Life from the Loam
3x Burning Wish

4x Lightning Rift
4x Seismic Assault

4x Lightning Bolt
4x Sparkspray
3x Pyroclasm
3x Slice and Dice

Sideboard
1x Hull Breach
1x Life from the Loam
1x Regrowth
1x Devastating Dreams
1x Pyroclasm
1x Slice and Dice
1x Thoughts of Ruin
4x Xantid Swarm
4x Naturalize

Greets

TheSorcerer

[Zilla]

Seismic Assault/Life from the Loam threads merged. - Zilla

[BryanReilly]

Lands-23
4 wooded foothills
8 forest
7 mountains
2 tranquil thickets
2 forgotten caves
Enchantments-4
4 seismic assaults
Instants-8
4 harrows
4 magma jets
Socerys-15
3 pyroclasms
3 wildfires
3 burning wishs
3 life from loam
3 mulch
Creatures-10
4 sakura tribe elder
3 eternal witness
3 fledgling dragon
Total-60
Sideboard-15
3 trinishere
3 pyroblasts
3 red elemenal blasts
3 hull breach
1 pyroclasm
1 life from loam
1 regrowth
Some of my card choices
Harrow I think is pretty good in the deck because it's 2G instant sac a land search for two basic lands put into play untapped. This goes really good with life from loam which allows you to get the sacked land back to your hand. Sakura tribe elder is there to speed up the deck and chump block.
Pyroclasms and wildfire are my mass destruction of creatures plus wildfire destoys four of each players lands.
My spot removal are magma jet which lets me fix my draws.
Eternal witness is there to get back anything that is needed like life from loam or anything else.
My win conditions are seismac assault,with this I can use un needed land to do damage or use land from life from loam, and fledgling dragon which will have threshold more times than not. My draw engine is the four cycling lands, mulch, and life from loam. To slow combo decks and help deal with control decks I have defense grid in the main and trinishere in the sideboard.

My sideboard has 6 wish targets wich can really be anything you want for your meta. Plus the rest of my sideboard is for things like grow. I would like help with this so any suggestions would be appreciated thanks. Once I get some more play testing in I will post results.

[Proz0r]

Hi, first of all, here's my list:

4 Nimble Mongoose
4 Werebear
4 Goblin Lore
4 Control of the Court

3 Life from the Loam
3 Devastating Dreams
4 Burning Wish

4 Seismic Assault

4 Mox Diamond
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Taiga
1 Forest
1 Mountain
4 Barbarian Ring
4 Forgotten Cave
4 Tranquil Thicket
4 Wasteland

SB:
1 Life from the Loam
1 Devastating Dreams
1 Hull Breach
1 Cave-In (secret tech vs goblins)
1 Reverent Silence
3 Zuran Orb
3 Pithing Needle (shuts down Wretch and Tormod's Crypt)
3 Tormod's Crypt
1 Gaea's Blessing

I've been working on it for several weeks now. It uses Nimble Mongoose and Werebear for a fast clock and to provide early blockers. Often you have threshold turn 3 due to Goblin Lore and Control of the Court. These cards also make you find a Life from the Loam early, and they throw lands for Loam in your graveyard.

Devastating Dreams is very very good. Often you play it for 2, making sure that your creatures survive. It's also a very good reset button.

The Burning Wishes are little Demonic Tutors in this deck, they can get Life from the Loam and Devastating Dreams. They can also provide an answer.

Seismic Assault is probably the weakest card in the deck. Its mana cost is just very hard to get, but when this card hits the table, you will win.

The mana base might seem a little weak, 8 cycle lands is alot. However, Mox Diamonds fixes this problem and it also allows you to cast Werebear or Goblin Lore on turn 1. Mox Diamond also survives a Devastating Dreams.

I have had very good results with this deck.

-Proz

[martyr]

Whatever course this deck takes, I think it'll probably have to include either Mox Diamond or Chrome Mox. The RG aggro build seems to rely on Life from the Loam being active immediately after a Devestating Dreams, and keeping a mana source on the table pretty much unconditionally seems the best way to do this.

Ivory Tower? I was initially skeptical, but I can see that it works rather well with Life from the Loam.

Quick Question: what do you do against Cranial Extraction -> Life from the Loam? Cry?

Finally, four Seismic Assaults seems like an awful lot, especially with 4x Burning Wishes to get Regrowth or whatever. I'd probably cut it to two, but I haven't played the deck at all, so whatever works for you. I think Prozor's list is closer to what I'd play if I decided to try this out, but it still seems like it would have problems with unlucky Goblin Lores and such.

[Zilla]

Quick Question: what do you do against Cranial Extraction -> Life from the Loam? Cry?

Burning Wish for Life from the Loam.

[Finn]

Martyr is right about the need for a mox. Every once in a while I will simply lose because my opponent is able to rebuild faster than I can. The way that can happen is if I am forced to cast Devastating Dreams without the ability to cast Life from the Loam on the following turn or two. This is usually the result of discarding lands at random when I don't want to.

I am considering putting Gamble back in. I have not been overly happy with Burning Wish. Mana is usually in short supply since I like to kill/sacrifice it for various purposes.

I actually own both Goblin Lore and Control of the Court so I would love an excuse to use these cards. Proz0r, how is that working out for you?

[Proz0r]

Hi,
Yea it's right that you need acceleration. If you test my list, you will see that the Mox Diamonds are insane and should NEVER be cut. I also thought about more acceleration, because having 2 mana at your first turn is just insane with this deck. I tried both Exploration and Chrome Mox. You would think that Exploration would fit in nicely, but you don't need it at all because all your cards costs 2 mana. It's nice to put multiple Barbarian Rings into play per turn, but I just think Exploration is too conditional. Chrome Mox, however, gives you a very good boost. But it is only good when you have it in your starting hand. Plus, it gives card disadvantage. If you play them, I think you should play 2.

I tested Gamble as well, I started with 4 of them. I didn't like the carddisadvantage they create, plus I can find Life from the Loam quickly with Wish, Lore and Control. This is why I cut them.

I didn't test Ivory Tower, but it seems like it is inferior to Zuran Orb. Zuran Orb gives you life immediately when you draw it, Ivory Tower doesn't.

You are right, my list might seem a bit roughly made. Every card is included 4 times (or 3 with one in the board). I did this because it is an aggro deck and because lots of cards go to your graveyard with Loam and the random discard. Four Seismic Assault might seem alot, but you can filter them into other cards with Goblin Lore or Control of the Court.

I think that the good thing about my list is, that it doesn't completely rely on Life from the Loam. You can also win by going the aggro way, drop some creatures and then play a Dreams. That's why a Cranial Extraction for Life from the Loam doesn't kill you. Plus, putting an opponent on a clock is a good thing for the deck.

-Proz

[Sexy_Rector]

Hey Proz,

Your list is only 56 cards .....

Lmk what the other 4 cards are.

[Proz0r]

Hey,
Yea you're right, I forgot the Wastelands. I just edited the decklist.

-Proz

[Bongo]

I really like how this deck works.

However, I can't find a streamlined decklist, everybody posted his own version.
So far, the core of this kind of deck seems to be:

-Life from the Loam
-Mox Diamond
-Devastating Dreams

After that the choices I've seen vary wildly, there is everything from Cycling to Threshold.

I think the best approach to improve this deck is to choose the best win-conditions. From what I've seen, Roar of the Wurm seems to be the best because it can be discarded to Dreams or dregded and still be used. It's also a win condition that doesn't require Regrowth-effects.
Seismic Assault is terrific, but the RRR cost is hard to pay for, so I don't know if it's optimal.
Lightning Rift costs too much mana to activate over the course of a game and is a bit on the slow side.
The threshold approach is interesting and might be the way to go.


1. Do you agree with Roar of the Wurm?

2. What do you think about Stormbind and Nantuko Cultivator?

3. Should Seismic Assault be included inspite of its prohibitive casting cost?

[Sexy_Rector]

As a very avid fan of this deck and it's myriad of incarnations, I have tested, retested, and tested again my version of the deck.

I really like the direction Bongo went with this by addressing fundamental problems that are typically associated with this 'flavor' of deck; however, several more questions [other then the ones listed] needs to be addressed before this deck or those resembling it can be truly effective in the current legacy metagame.

1) Acceleration. Mox Diamond/Exploration or no? Is both to many? I know that there have been several games where you get both in opening hand and it is horrible. Conversely, when you get neither you deck is very, very slow.

2) Color splashes. Eventhough you are running anywhere from 26 - 29 lands, the color splash really hurts the stability of your mana base because of the large presence of cycling lands, wastelands, barbarian rings, and possibly man lands. Splashing a 3rd/4th color makes your more reliant on fetchlands which drastically reduces the number of basic lands which in turns gives goblins and other decks w/ similar mana denial strategies a better game against you. The benefits of the color splash include a more flexible gameplan against your bad matchups, which include sligh/burn [which absolutely owns this deck] and solidarity.
[ See Below ]

3) Proper Kill conditions. I don't think there is any singular kill condition that can do the job on it's own but a variety of different ones. Roar of the Wurm/Terravore have proven to be the most effective but both are vulnearable to StP and give your opponent lots of time to find answers while you dig for a win. Seismic assualt is hot and does the job nicely; however, it's triple red can be a serious strain on the manabase especially if you are attempting to have a third color.

4) Spot control. This deck has a huge problem with spot control and it's only answer is usually found in the form of burning wish for either pyroclasm/hull breach. Meddling mage can really through a wrench in your game plan. The problem here is space. There is not really room to add any spot control without weakening your overall gameplan and synergy.

5) Consistency. This deck, much like landstill, has the potential to post decent win percentages against any deck in the current legacy format. However, this deck cannot beat all of those decks with any possible combinations of sixty cards. This mite seem redundant but it is quite important. For instance, a deck like gro, because of the strength and nature of cards like StP, Counterspells, meddling mage, et cetera gives the deck a certain flexibiltiy and resiliency that is not found with in this deck at the current moment and allows it to post [at the very least] decent percentages against most decks. This deck on the other hand has very large win percentages [ 80 % + ] and very low win percentages [ lower then 20 + ] game 1. What cards should we focus on to make this deck more overall consistent?

6) Optimization. What is the optimized list [excluding colored splashes]?

Possibilities,

Mana Base :

Xx Forests/Mountains
Xx Taigas
Xx Wooded Foothills
Xx Wastelands
Xx Barbarian Ring
Xx Mishara Factory
Xx Cycle Lands

Search/Utility/Engine

Xx Control of the Court/Goblin Lore
Xx Burning Wish
Xx Mulch
Xx Life from the Loam
Xx Wall of Blossoms
Xx Eternal Witness/Regrowth
Xx Yavimaya Elder
Xx Mox Diamond
Xx Exploration

Blow up your opponent stuff

Xx Devastating Dreams
Xx Pillage [meh ... ]
Xx Wildfire

After the world is destroyed, kill your opponent

Xx Roar of the Wurm
Xx Wild Mongrel
Xx Barbarian Ring Recursion
Xx Terravore
Xx Nantuko Cultivator
Xx Seismic Assualt
Xx StormBind

7) Brief Matchup analysis

a) Goblins : You absolutely own this matchup, devastating dreams wrecks them. Their only real threat is aether vial, and that can be dealt with via a burning wish.

b) Solidarity: You can kindof slow them down game 1 with devastating dreams before they go off but your clock is very slow and they have all the time in the world to go off. You will not be winning game 1 that often at all. Many board possibilities, especially with a black splash and a decent creature base.

c) Gro : Again, if you are patient and not 'trigger happy' this is a very favorable matchup (especially with a white/black splash). Once you resolve devastating dreams, they have no outs because you just blew up 1/4 of their lands and killed all their doods. Wasteland recursion in this matchup is a wrecking ball.

d) Sligh : You get owned and bad. You blow up their lands, they fireblast in response. Many, many, many games you are sitting there at 3-5 life rebuilding while your opponent is just waiting to top deck a mountain to kill you.

e) Salvager Combo : This deck is more susceptible to wastelands so it helps out the matchup. Hitting a few of their lands is often more then enough to end the game.

f) Landstill/Wombat : Wombat is a bye against this deck, they have 0 relevant cards in their maindeck and you can always burning wish for flashfires to kick them in the junk again. Landstill is pretty much in the same boat, they have counterspells but you have wasteland recursion for almost a large percentage of their mana base. A resolved crucible can be bad times though.

g) RGSA/Survival variants : You absolutely own all mid ranged aggro decks. They cannot rebuild as quickly as you can, and a resolved devastating dreams for 3/4 is almost always game. ATS can be problematic because of FoW but no one really plays it anymore ....