Arrowni
03-22-2010, 01:32 PM
Very well, I wanted to display my latest "invention" which has been developed the last few weeks mostly testing online and getting fine results all around. The principle is that from the old Rifter deck, who ran its course back in the day when goblins still were considered the deck to beat, and was considered a hate/metagame deck. My first experiences came out negative, when I found out most of the tools white used to stop the opponents were too slow or no longer effective, and even bombs like Elspeth came often way too late to be relevant. I decided to make a new deck altogether focusing in Lightning Rift as well as a new obvious card that did not exist back in the Rifter days and its a house on its own: Life from the loam.
My experience with Loam decks made me choose black as the third color, because Raven's Crime is a very powerful combination and black is only second to blue when it comes to control options. The blue route of this deck is left to be tested, but I'm afraid it has too little board control to be of any real consequence in a zoo oriented meta. Here is the version I'm currently using:
Black Rifter
// Lands
3 [R] Badlands
4 [ON] Barren Moor
3 Bayou
2 [ON] Bloodstained Mire
1 [ALA] Forest (3)
2 [BD] Swamp (1)
1 [PLC] Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 [ZEN] Verdant Catacombs
3 [TE] Wasteland
1 [P2] Mountain (3)
2 [EVG] Tranquil Thicket
// Creatures
2 [FUT] Tombstalker
3 [ON] Undead Gladiator
// Spells
3 [FNM] Chainer's Edict
2 [PLC] Damnation
2 [FD] Engineered Explosives
3 [OD] Innocent Blood
4 [RAV] Life from the Loam
4 [ON] Lightning Rift
3 [AP] Pernicious Deed
2 [9E] Phyrexian Arena
3 [EVE] Raven's Crime
3 [LRW] Thoughtseize
2 [ARB] Maelstrom Pulse
// Sideboard
SB: 2 [ARB] Maelstrom Pulse
SB: 4 [FUT] Tarmogoyf
SB: 3 [MM] Unmask
SB: 3 [DK] Maze of Ith
SB: 3 [PLC] Extirpate
[B]Why do I run this?
This deck has an excellent matchup against tempo UGW and merfolk thanks to the heavy amount of removal you pack. The Lftl engine gives you recurring Wastelands which can destroy zoo once you stabilize -which will happen as long they don't pack too much burn-, other aggro decks without burn are utterly lost against you too. The control matchup is likely to lean on your favor thanks to Lightning Rift, which is very hard to remove and nearly unstoppable with lftl and undead gladiator. Like most controlish loam decks your ability to compete with combo is impaired, but you can fall down in your discard and hate to steal some games. All in all, this can be a powerful metagame deck with much better options that those of the original rift to switch between one strategy and another.
Your strengths
My build focuses in two important aspects: Making creature removal irrelevant by playing an alternative kill and Raven's Crime to clean the path before playing your big threats, and restricting you opponent's board using wasteland and discard while you build up card advantage. Almost every card you run can net you some tempo/card/virtual card advantage which will make less prepared decks run out of options quickly while you keep gas in hand most of the game. The deck has a deceptively simple game plan, is very redundant and plays with powerful cards without ever depending in a simple strategy.
Your weaknesses
This deck comes close to be a pure control deck, which means is very hard to out-speed pretty much anything. There are some aggressive hands to it, but not consistently enough, and rarely they pass through removal. Your combo matchup is abysmal, specially with graveyard related strategies which will appreciate a timely Raven's Crime, not exactly the kind of thing you want to hear when Reanimator is blossoming -but you still have one of the best colors to graveyard hate them out of the game-. Elspeth can single-handly win the game against you if you cannot resolve Maelstrom Pulse. The goblin matchup depends on who has the most mana denial. Price of progress has the annoying ability to own you.
Why Lightning Rift?
Its fair to ask if Lightning Rift brings enough to the table to use this deck instead of another Loam variation, starting by the fact you run a whole color just to use it. In truth, LR is a reliable alternate win condition that's very compact -nothing forces you to run 4 nor to use the gladiator slots, loam decks already run cycling lands-, powerful on its own, pretty hard to remove and useful most of the time -shooting you opponent into the dome is rarely negative-. Its the kind of card which lean both control and aggro matchups to your favor, and those are exactly the kind of decks you're trying to beat by playing this.
Card choices.
Manabase: You have a relatively healthy set of lands, enough cycling and wastes to pass through and I even threw out a few basics in case things go wrong. Depending on how much non-basic hate you expect you may want to switch some of your cycle lands to forgotten caves and cycle through blood moon effects. I haven't faced much wastes besides in the goblin matchup, so the count I'm running is working very well.
Wasteland: Wins games. People should play it more.
Tombstalker: Fast clock, effective, easy to delve thanks to dredge so it normally costs 2. Evasion is golden. Your prime way to go aggro.
Undead Gladiator: Has cycling. Can switch useless cards in your hand for little investment. If the opponent doesn't play white is very hard to get rid of him. Three of power can be a dangerous clock when backed with lightning rift. The only cycling card I run apart from lands. One of the cards you can use if you dredge them away.
Chainer's Edict: Cheap removal that kills Progenitus and flashbacks for card advantage. Can be used if dredged away.
Damnation: Kills armies, Progenitus and has no ill effect on your board most of the time.
Engineered Explosives: Good to remove pesky enchantments, artifacts, doubles as creature removal and makes you resistant to pithing needle naming Pernicious deed.
Innocent Blood: A cheap answer to early threats and Progenitus, just in case we don't kill the guy enough already.
Lftl: Drawing engine, recurs wastes, resistant to countermagic... Actually I feel stupid explaining this.
Lightning Rift: Spot removal and win condition that comes relatively early and its hard to shut down for your average deck. It makes you win even more card advantage when you use Lftl. I run four because you dredge them away often enough and at times you kill them with your own removal cards.
Pernicious Deed: The strongest non-tarmo green card in the deck. You run it because its stupid strong. You don't run 4 because its incredibly mana hungry and at times even Damnation will be cheaper. Again, is kind of stupid to explain why this is good.
Phyrexian Arena: A house against control, alternate draw when Lftl is indisposed. Its hard to remove, dodges counterbalance and survives Pernicious Deed most of the time but you can kill it with it if life loss gets you in trouble.
Raven's Crime: Below average early, an absolute house once Lftl gets going. You can use it when dredged away.
Thoughtseize: Gives you the edge against control early, gives you hope against combo, and is one of the strongest turn one plays you have. Late in the game, just discard it with Undead Gladiator.
Maelstrom Pulse: Another powerful way to get rid of whatever they send at you, specially useful against Elspeth.
Krosan Grip: I don't play it, but is a solid option if somehow they are countering Pulse, Deed and explosives. You're likely to have creature removal anyways.
Gigapede: Can be used if dredged away, keeps pinpoint removal useless but its kind of expensive and doesn't cycle.
Lightning Bolt or other burn: Since you're running red already you can pick other removal, they may help you finish off the opponent fast but otherwise they don't seem all that compared with removal at your disposal.
Terminate: You can play it if you like spot removal better, but needing to have red kind of sucks.
Sideboard Choices
Maelstrom Pulse: In match-ups with relevant artifacts or enchantments. You can side them in for the Phyrexian Arena when facing red aggro.
Tarmogoyf: In combo matchups where you need a faster clock this guy does what he does best in every deck -turning sideways-. Its actually easy to clear the path for it with all the removal you have. Can be side in against decks who don't have good removal against it or where the advantage of not playing creatures is minor. Just don't play it against board control decks and you should be fine. (Not having it maindeck can make this deck a sort of budget option -even thought duals aren't budget in any sense-, but you still need something to have a faster clock against combo or you roll and die).
Unmask: Against combo. You have so many dead cards in your deck that removing is not going to matter anyways, so you may as well do it.
Extirpate: Against combo and graveyard based strategy. Good to follow up a first turn Unmask. It screws with Reanimator in a good day, so whats not to love?
Maze of Ith: Against blue decks without many threats, can make you hold onto life long enough to destroy your enemy with Lightning Rift.
REB/Pyroblast: You have a relatively good match against non-combo blue decks, but I guess these are options in case you're scared of Show and Tell or Mystical Tutor.
Duress: Kind of like Unmask.
Choke: Strong card but your match against blue is already good.
Blood moon: It hoses you, but helps in the lands matchup.
Destructive Flow: Its in your colors so if you don't mind winning without lands its all fine and dandy.
Pithing Needle and other generic cards: You can always specialize depending in what you expect to face in your meta. Life gain can be a plus if you want to improve your zoo/goyf slight matchup.
Match ups
The deck is undergoing testing, but the results are pretty similar to other loam-control decks so its not hard to figure out how things will go. Just from my own testing:
Great matches: Merfolk, Tempo Threshold/counterbalance, low-threat vial decks, blue control and most aggro control.
Good matchups: Zoo (without too much burn), Goblins.
Bad matchups: Combo, burn decks and reanimator.
I will be making a more focused testing against tier decks later on with the additions and comments I get from this thread. Hopefully you'll find this deck as interesting as I do :wink:
My experience with Loam decks made me choose black as the third color, because Raven's Crime is a very powerful combination and black is only second to blue when it comes to control options. The blue route of this deck is left to be tested, but I'm afraid it has too little board control to be of any real consequence in a zoo oriented meta. Here is the version I'm currently using:
Black Rifter
// Lands
3 [R] Badlands
4 [ON] Barren Moor
3 Bayou
2 [ON] Bloodstained Mire
1 [ALA] Forest (3)
2 [BD] Swamp (1)
1 [PLC] Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 [ZEN] Verdant Catacombs
3 [TE] Wasteland
1 [P2] Mountain (3)
2 [EVG] Tranquil Thicket
// Creatures
2 [FUT] Tombstalker
3 [ON] Undead Gladiator
// Spells
3 [FNM] Chainer's Edict
2 [PLC] Damnation
2 [FD] Engineered Explosives
3 [OD] Innocent Blood
4 [RAV] Life from the Loam
4 [ON] Lightning Rift
3 [AP] Pernicious Deed
2 [9E] Phyrexian Arena
3 [EVE] Raven's Crime
3 [LRW] Thoughtseize
2 [ARB] Maelstrom Pulse
// Sideboard
SB: 2 [ARB] Maelstrom Pulse
SB: 4 [FUT] Tarmogoyf
SB: 3 [MM] Unmask
SB: 3 [DK] Maze of Ith
SB: 3 [PLC] Extirpate
[B]Why do I run this?
This deck has an excellent matchup against tempo UGW and merfolk thanks to the heavy amount of removal you pack. The Lftl engine gives you recurring Wastelands which can destroy zoo once you stabilize -which will happen as long they don't pack too much burn-, other aggro decks without burn are utterly lost against you too. The control matchup is likely to lean on your favor thanks to Lightning Rift, which is very hard to remove and nearly unstoppable with lftl and undead gladiator. Like most controlish loam decks your ability to compete with combo is impaired, but you can fall down in your discard and hate to steal some games. All in all, this can be a powerful metagame deck with much better options that those of the original rift to switch between one strategy and another.
Your strengths
My build focuses in two important aspects: Making creature removal irrelevant by playing an alternative kill and Raven's Crime to clean the path before playing your big threats, and restricting you opponent's board using wasteland and discard while you build up card advantage. Almost every card you run can net you some tempo/card/virtual card advantage which will make less prepared decks run out of options quickly while you keep gas in hand most of the game. The deck has a deceptively simple game plan, is very redundant and plays with powerful cards without ever depending in a simple strategy.
Your weaknesses
This deck comes close to be a pure control deck, which means is very hard to out-speed pretty much anything. There are some aggressive hands to it, but not consistently enough, and rarely they pass through removal. Your combo matchup is abysmal, specially with graveyard related strategies which will appreciate a timely Raven's Crime, not exactly the kind of thing you want to hear when Reanimator is blossoming -but you still have one of the best colors to graveyard hate them out of the game-. Elspeth can single-handly win the game against you if you cannot resolve Maelstrom Pulse. The goblin matchup depends on who has the most mana denial. Price of progress has the annoying ability to own you.
Why Lightning Rift?
Its fair to ask if Lightning Rift brings enough to the table to use this deck instead of another Loam variation, starting by the fact you run a whole color just to use it. In truth, LR is a reliable alternate win condition that's very compact -nothing forces you to run 4 nor to use the gladiator slots, loam decks already run cycling lands-, powerful on its own, pretty hard to remove and useful most of the time -shooting you opponent into the dome is rarely negative-. Its the kind of card which lean both control and aggro matchups to your favor, and those are exactly the kind of decks you're trying to beat by playing this.
Card choices.
Manabase: You have a relatively healthy set of lands, enough cycling and wastes to pass through and I even threw out a few basics in case things go wrong. Depending on how much non-basic hate you expect you may want to switch some of your cycle lands to forgotten caves and cycle through blood moon effects. I haven't faced much wastes besides in the goblin matchup, so the count I'm running is working very well.
Wasteland: Wins games. People should play it more.
Tombstalker: Fast clock, effective, easy to delve thanks to dredge so it normally costs 2. Evasion is golden. Your prime way to go aggro.
Undead Gladiator: Has cycling. Can switch useless cards in your hand for little investment. If the opponent doesn't play white is very hard to get rid of him. Three of power can be a dangerous clock when backed with lightning rift. The only cycling card I run apart from lands. One of the cards you can use if you dredge them away.
Chainer's Edict: Cheap removal that kills Progenitus and flashbacks for card advantage. Can be used if dredged away.
Damnation: Kills armies, Progenitus and has no ill effect on your board most of the time.
Engineered Explosives: Good to remove pesky enchantments, artifacts, doubles as creature removal and makes you resistant to pithing needle naming Pernicious deed.
Innocent Blood: A cheap answer to early threats and Progenitus, just in case we don't kill the guy enough already.
Lftl: Drawing engine, recurs wastes, resistant to countermagic... Actually I feel stupid explaining this.
Lightning Rift: Spot removal and win condition that comes relatively early and its hard to shut down for your average deck. It makes you win even more card advantage when you use Lftl. I run four because you dredge them away often enough and at times you kill them with your own removal cards.
Pernicious Deed: The strongest non-tarmo green card in the deck. You run it because its stupid strong. You don't run 4 because its incredibly mana hungry and at times even Damnation will be cheaper. Again, is kind of stupid to explain why this is good.
Phyrexian Arena: A house against control, alternate draw when Lftl is indisposed. Its hard to remove, dodges counterbalance and survives Pernicious Deed most of the time but you can kill it with it if life loss gets you in trouble.
Raven's Crime: Below average early, an absolute house once Lftl gets going. You can use it when dredged away.
Thoughtseize: Gives you the edge against control early, gives you hope against combo, and is one of the strongest turn one plays you have. Late in the game, just discard it with Undead Gladiator.
Maelstrom Pulse: Another powerful way to get rid of whatever they send at you, specially useful against Elspeth.
Krosan Grip: I don't play it, but is a solid option if somehow they are countering Pulse, Deed and explosives. You're likely to have creature removal anyways.
Gigapede: Can be used if dredged away, keeps pinpoint removal useless but its kind of expensive and doesn't cycle.
Lightning Bolt or other burn: Since you're running red already you can pick other removal, they may help you finish off the opponent fast but otherwise they don't seem all that compared with removal at your disposal.
Terminate: You can play it if you like spot removal better, but needing to have red kind of sucks.
Sideboard Choices
Maelstrom Pulse: In match-ups with relevant artifacts or enchantments. You can side them in for the Phyrexian Arena when facing red aggro.
Tarmogoyf: In combo matchups where you need a faster clock this guy does what he does best in every deck -turning sideways-. Its actually easy to clear the path for it with all the removal you have. Can be side in against decks who don't have good removal against it or where the advantage of not playing creatures is minor. Just don't play it against board control decks and you should be fine. (Not having it maindeck can make this deck a sort of budget option -even thought duals aren't budget in any sense-, but you still need something to have a faster clock against combo or you roll and die).
Unmask: Against combo. You have so many dead cards in your deck that removing is not going to matter anyways, so you may as well do it.
Extirpate: Against combo and graveyard based strategy. Good to follow up a first turn Unmask. It screws with Reanimator in a good day, so whats not to love?
Maze of Ith: Against blue decks without many threats, can make you hold onto life long enough to destroy your enemy with Lightning Rift.
REB/Pyroblast: You have a relatively good match against non-combo blue decks, but I guess these are options in case you're scared of Show and Tell or Mystical Tutor.
Duress: Kind of like Unmask.
Choke: Strong card but your match against blue is already good.
Blood moon: It hoses you, but helps in the lands matchup.
Destructive Flow: Its in your colors so if you don't mind winning without lands its all fine and dandy.
Pithing Needle and other generic cards: You can always specialize depending in what you expect to face in your meta. Life gain can be a plus if you want to improve your zoo/goyf slight matchup.
Match ups
The deck is undergoing testing, but the results are pretty similar to other loam-control decks so its not hard to figure out how things will go. Just from my own testing:
Great matches: Merfolk, Tempo Threshold/counterbalance, low-threat vial decks, blue control and most aggro control.
Good matchups: Zoo (without too much burn), Goblins.
Bad matchups: Combo, burn decks and reanimator.
I will be making a more focused testing against tier decks later on with the additions and comments I get from this thread. Hopefully you'll find this deck as interesting as I do :wink: