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View Full Version : 2nd Place at Minneapolis Legacy 5k with Aggro Loam



cuthbertthecat
09-04-2010, 10:04 PM
Title just about sums it up. I had been playing aggro loam for a good while before this event, and thought it was a good metagame call with both merfolk's and goblin's increased popularity as of late. I tried out a few different lists and single card variations before settling on this list:
Decklist:

4 Dark Confidant
4 Countryside Crusher
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Terravore

4 Life from the Loam
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Mox Diamond
3 Seismic Assault
2 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Engineered Explosives

4 Wooded Foothills
4 Wasteland
4 Tranquil Thickett
4 Forgotten Cave
3 Bloodstained Mire
2 Mountain
2 Taiga
1 Badlands
1 Bayou
1 Forest
1 Volrath's Stronghold

Sideboard:

4 Leyline of the Void
4 Firespout
3 Zuran Orb
3 Krosan Grip
1 Thorn of Amethyst

Anyway, for the report:


Round 1 v. Dylan with Enchantress

Game One: He wins the roll. His turn one is forest, wild growth. I keep a hand that goes turn one fetch for forest, play mox diamond, play life from the loam. On his turn he plays a heath, cracks for a plains, and plays an argothian enchantress. I play a crusher and pass. He plays an enchantress's presence. Crusher grows and swings. He lands a solitary and a sterling grove with a constant chain of enchantments that involves sigil of the empty throne. Eff. I lose shortly thereafter.

Sideboarding: I forget what I bring out, but grips and firespouts come in.

Game Two: He gets an early setup based on argothian enchantress, but I have firespout and engineered explosives. Goyf gets there.

Game Three: Similar to game two, except for he gets a wheel of sun and moon on me. It doesn't end up mattering, as goyfs are still plenty large out of his graveyard. Goyfs turn sideways.

1-0 Matches, 2-1 Games

Round Two v Zoo/Sligh

Game one: Turn one chalice for one, turn three chalice for one. Wastelands keep him off mana, and I play around price of progress to avoid a blowout.

Sideboarding -4 Dark Confidant, -2 Maelstrom Pulse +4 Firespout, +2 Zuran Orb

Game two: This game is pretty close, aside from the fact thatI had three(!) chalices on one. It comes down to my terravore, zuran orb, and 4/4 crusher v. his 6/6 knight of the reliquary and two tormod's crypt. He swings with knight, I block with crusher and use zuran orb to gain life and trade. He fireblasts me in response to put me at one, and then I go back up to 5. He crypts me to keep terravore at a rational power, but a goyf joins the team and gets there.

2-0 Matches, 4-1 Games

Round Three v. Cool guy with vengevine survival(sorry I forgot the name, possibly the coolest guy I played against all day)

Game one: He has a hand full of nonbasics and heirarchs, which are answered with wastelands and explosives. He doesn't see a survival or other discard outlet.

Sideboarding -4 Chalice, -4Bob, -1 crusher, terravore, and tarmogoyf +4 Leyline of the void, +4 Firespout, +3 Krosan Grip

Game two: I start with double black leyline in play with a hand that can still power out turn two crusher. This one takes a while as he sets up chumps like basking rootwalla, but the leylines are bad for him. I make a brutal misplay, thinking that rootwala only gets a +1/2 for his ability, and swing into one with a 2/3 goyf. It ends up not mattering, as the crusher eventually makes his way through the wall of chumps. He does see a survival this game, but I have the grip.
3-0 Matches, 6-1 Games

Round 4 v. Dredge

Game one: He mulls to five, something I am very fond of seeing. I am not so fond when he casts a turn one tireless tribe, discards grave troll in upkeep, dredges it, discards it, plays cephalid colleseum, and wrecks my things.

Sideboarding: -2 Maelstrom Pulse, -1 Terravore, -1 Life from the Loam +4 Leyline of the Void

Game two: I am unhappy when I have to mull to six, and am even less happy when he announces that he is not mulling. I settle for a slow hand with an engineered explosives in it. He has some trouble finding a dredger, but eventually does and proceeds to cephalid colleseum putting three ichorid, black creatures, dread return, and iona into the graveyard, among other things. I lose shortly thereafer.

3-1 Matches, 6-3 Games

Round 5 v. Vengevine Survival(there was tons of it at this event)

Game one: His turn one tropical, heirarch eat a wasteland and a pulse, respectively. He never stabalizes on mana.

Sideboarding: Same as other vengevine survival matchup.

Game two: I don't open leylines in my hand. At one point, I 3 for 1 him with a firespout, but it doesn't matter. Survival+Vines get there.

Game three: There's the leyline. And the firespouts, and the wastelands. My deck does exactly what it's supposed to do.

4-1 Matches, 8-4 Games

Round 6 v. Goblins

Game one: I am on the play, and land a turn one chalice for one. I power out my fat, and his guys never get there.

Sideboarding: -4 Chalice of the Void, +4 Firespout

Game Two: Turn one vial. Turn two vial. Turn three go insane. I need to rip a firespout and don't. I get slain by two enormous piledrivers.

Game Three: Similar to game two, except that I three for one him twice with firespouts and he runs out of gas. My enormous/enormous terravores get there.
5-1 matches, 10-5 games

Round 7 v. Andrey Yanyuk with Allies(!)

Andrey and I are buddies, and we designed the deck the morning of the event. We had done some testing for this matchup between rounds, and it did not look good for the allies.

Game one: He gets a pretty strong start involving tidehollow scullering away my life from the loam when I have a seismic assault on board, and then casting another taking my goyf. Things are looking bleak, but I manage to cycle into an explosives, set it on 2, and clear his board. Loam+seismic get there.

Sideboarding: -4 Dark Confidant, +4 Firespout

Game two: He keeps a land light hand, and I draw firespouts, chalice, and fat. This one ends quickly.

It sucked to have to play against a freind, especially one playing a deck as cool as allies. He ends up finishing x-3 :/

Round 8 v. Goblins

We I.D. into top 8.

TOP 8

Semifinals v. Zoo

Game one: She gets a fast start, but I am able to land some fat and a seismic and stabalize. I end up killing her with seismic+loam for 18.

Sideboard: Same as other zoo matchup

Game two: I mull to six, and keep a sketchy hand with wasteland and two tranquil thickets as the only lands, but with a chalice, firespout, and goyf. She plays a turn 1 taiga, nacatl. I play a tapped thickett. She misses land drop and plays a second nacatl. I play wasteland and play a chalice on 1. She beats for 4 on her turn. On my turn, I rip an explosives, pay 2 to set it on 1, and pass. She beats for 4, plays a horizon canopy, and passes. I draw another waste, waste the taiga, and blow the explosives. She draws and plays a forest, and passes the turn. I waste the canopy, play goyf, and she fails to find another land.

Quarterfinals v. Vengevine Survival
At this point, I am fairly sick of this deck.

Game one: He gets survival online and steamrolls me. Not too much of a story here.

Sideboard: Same as other Vengevine Survival Matchups.

Game two: No leyline, but plenty of firespouts, pulses, and explosives. He doesn't find a survival, and the fat gets there.

Game three: Start with leyline in play, waste his trop to keep him off of three mana for trygon predator. Firespout takes care of the heirarchs, and the fat kills him.

Finals v. Bomberman w/ recruiters and painterstone.

Game one: I get an early wastelock on him, he never has a chance to recover.

Sideboarding: -4 Dark Confidant, -1 goyf, -1 terravore, -1 Crusher, -1 Life from the loam, +4 Leyline, +3 Krosan Grip, +1 Thorn of Amethyst

Game two: We both get good starts, I try to explosives on one, it gets forced. He painterstones me the turn after.

Game three: start with leyline. He gets double painter to play around grip,and uses lion's eye diamond to fuel his grindstone to kill me.

All in all, it was a pretty good day. I wouldn't make any changes to this deck except for maybe packing some answers to Emrakul/Progenitus in the board. The astonishing part of the day was the abundance of Vengevine Survival. I had no idea the deck was so popular.

Mantis
09-06-2010, 06:16 AM
Congratulations on the finish, I really like your deck and especially the Maelstrom Pulses, it answers Survival and EtW tokens.
One question though, why didn't you play Burning Wish and Devastating Dreams? This is the play I always feared with Goblins and I can expect the same to be true for Zoo and quite a few other decks without counters.

Odd Mutation
09-06-2010, 06:51 AM
Hi,

Great performance! I'm a fan of the deck too. Last time I played it, I got 9th on breakers.

The biggest step forward for this deck was the abandonment of Burning Wish -which I was reluctant to do but never regretted- and the inclusion of Dark Confidant. How do you value Dark Confidant?

I had +1 Eternal Witness main and liked to play with 3 Maelstrom Pulses (+1 Maelstrom Pulse) instead of the 2 Terravores. What's your oppinion on this? The Witness too cute/unnecessary? Were the Terravores ever a liability considering sideboard hate? You prefer 2 main deck Terravores to maybe sideboard in 2nd or 3rd game? Or keep them in? Not too much relic of Progenitus?

How would you deal with the Emrakul/Progenitus decks, Show and Tell versions and Natural Order versions? I used to try to bottle neck their mana with Devastating Dreams. Do you think this is a valid plan? Especially considering that Show and Tell is just 3 mana...

Thanks and again, congratulations!

Robrecht

cuthbertthecat
09-06-2010, 02:08 PM
Congratulations on the finish, I really like your deck and especially the Maelstrom Pulses, it answers Survival and EtW tokens.
One question though, why didn't you play Burning Wish and Devastating Dreams? This is the play I always feared with Goblins and I can expect the same to be true for Zoo and quite a few other decks without counters.

I don't play wish because it is too slow, and I don't play dreams because getting it countered is just awful. Don't get me wrong; I love the idea of the wishboard and played it in this deck for a long time, but legacy has just gotten too fast for it. You have to sacrifice slow toolboxes for faster answers. Dreams is awesome agaisnt decks like zoo and goblins, but the chance of playing against a blue matchup and having cards that you can't really cast outweighs the benifit in the non-blue aggro matchups.

cuthbertthecat
09-06-2010, 02:15 PM
Hi,

Great performance! I'm a fan of the deck too. Last time I played it, I got 9th on breakers.

The biggest step forward for this deck was the abandonment of Burning Wish -which I was reluctant to do but never regretted- and the inclusion of Dark Confidant. How do you value Dark Confidant?

I had +1 Eternal Witness main and liked to play with 3 Maelstrom Pulses (+1 Maelstrom Pulse) instead of the 2 Terravores. What's your oppinion on this? The Witness too cute/unnecessary? Were the Terravores ever a liability considering sideboard hate? You prefer 2 main deck Terravores to maybe sideboard in 2nd or 3rd game? Or keep them in? Not too much relic of Progenitus?

How would you deal with the Emrakul/Progenitus decks, Show and Tell versions and Natural Order versions? I used to try to bottle neck their mana with Devastating Dreams. Do you think this is a valid plan? Especially considering that Show and Tell is just 3 mana...

Thanks and again, congratulations!

Robrecht

Dark Confidant is absolutley required for this deck. I was testing a g/w/r version of this deck with knight over confidant, and I ran out of gas far too often, not to mention becoming more suceptable to 'yard hate. I had also tested with witness; it was cool in certain matchups, but the ability to pound somebody's face in with trampling 12/12's was more appealing to me. Terravores can also easily come out and not be missed if you're bringing in leyline and are afraid of crypt and the like. Emrakul/Progenitus decks are easily the worst matchup. Your only out to progenitus is to try and race with your fatties, who, in all liklleyhood, could deal 20 damage faster than progenitus. Emrakul, however, is a different story. The annhilator is really backbreaking, especially if they got the extra turn off of it or it is hastey. Slowing down their development is the only solid answer, and against cards like show and tell, you have to have a very fast waste-lock and a fast clock. I was thinking about adding either diabolic or chainer's edict to the board for these matchups.

jin
09-09-2010, 01:38 AM
I don't play wish because it is too slow, and I don't play dreams because getting it countered is just awful. Don't get me wrong; I love the idea of the wishboard and played it in this deck for a long time, but legacy has just gotten too fast for it. You have to sacrifice slow toolboxes for faster answers. Dreams is awesome agaisnt decks like zoo and goblins, but the chance of playing against a blue matchup and having cards that you can't really cast outweighs the benifit in the non-blue aggro matchups.

Well said about burning wish. Some charbelcher decks came to this conclusion as well and I think I see a trend going on here. It seems way more consistant without the burning wishes as well as you are not clogged up with multiple burning wishes that you don't really need. I also like your reasoning for not playing Dreams because of blue decks.

Anyway, congrats on your finish. I really like your list. I think I'll give it a try. In many ways it solves a lot of Aggro Loam's Zoo problems. At one point, I had Kitchen Finks and Firespout to fight zoo, but it seems like your plan is just way better. I also like Thorn as a 5th Chalice. You even solved the problem of creatures being dumped into the yard. I had to use Eternal Witness and Genesis which was really slow.

For the Survival Madness matchups don't you think you oversideboarded? It just seems like you win with leyline and you don't if you don't have it, but that just maybe because of my misreading your report.

What would you take out from your sideboard to answer Progentius/Emrakl? I'm curious.

cuthbertthecat
09-09-2010, 04:21 PM
Well said about burning wish. Some charbelcher decks came to this conclusion as well and I think I see a trend going on here. It seems way more consistant without the burning wishes as well as you are not clogged up with multiple burning wishes that you don't really need. I also like your reasoning for not playing Dreams because of blue decks.

Anyway, congrats on your finish. I really like your list. I think I'll give it a try. In many ways it solves a lot of Aggro Loam's Zoo problems. At one point, I had Kitchen Finks and Firespout to fight zoo, but it seems like your plan is just way better. I also like Thorn as a 5th Chalice. You even solved the problem of creatures being dumped into the yard. I had to use Eternal Witness and Genesis which was really slow.

For the Survival Madness matchups don't you think you oversideboarded? It just seems like you win with leyline and you don't if you don't have it, but that just maybe because of my misreading your report.

What would you take out from your sideboard to answer Progentius/Emrakl? I'm curious.

As far as the survival matchups go, the deck is just too explosive. If you just have leyline, they can land survival, tutor for trygon, and in another turn or so be back in full force. If you just bring in grip, they can still use their creature discard outlets to get vines and rootwalas online. If you just bring in firespout, vengevine can still come back out of nowhere and kill you. However, the combination and redundancy of the answers almost guarantees that you'll have one, if not more. For example, in one matchup I had a black leyline in play and he had a survival. End of turn he discards a rootwala to grab a trygon and spends his turn casting it. I firespouted on my turn, killing his rootwala, trygon, and aquamoeba. The answers have good synergy with each other, forcing them to overextend into another answer. I don't think I oversideboarded, but if you find that a select amount of answers works for you then by all means keep the threat density of the deck high for games 2 and 3.

As for what to take out for answers to emrakul/progenitus, possibly the zuran orbs and the thorn, which would make storm combo a worse matchup but show and tell actually winnable.

Hiawg
09-10-2010, 12:19 AM
Great list and thanks for the report!

How would you have boarded against merfolk/fish and against ANT/storm combo? Also, can you explain how those two match-ups generally go -- how you have to play, what your priorities are, etc? (Forgive me if it's an obvious question, I don't have much experience with aggro-loam).

Congratulations on your finish! :)

jin
09-10-2010, 05:17 AM
As far as the survival matchups go, the deck is just too explosive. If you just have leyline, they can land survival, tutor for trygon, and in another turn or so be back in full force. If you just bring in grip, they can still use their creature discard outlets to get vines and rootwalas online. If you just bring in firespout, vengevine can still come back out of nowhere and kill you. However, the combination and redundancy of the answers almost guarantees that you'll have one, if not more. For example, in one matchup I had a black leyline in play and he had a survival. End of turn he discards a rootwala to grab a trygon and spends his turn casting it. I firespouted on my turn, killing his rootwala, trygon, and aquamoeba. The answers have good synergy with each other, forcing them to overextend into another answer. I don't think I oversideboarded, but if you find that a select amount of answers works for you then by all means keep the threat density of the deck high for games 2 and 3.

As for what to take out for answers to emrakul/progenitus, possibly the zuran orbs and the thorn, which would make storm combo a worse matchup but show and tell actually winnable.

Ok, i just play tested a Vengevine Survival deck and I think I know what you mean. I totally forgot about predators. I guess you were experienced with that Survival deck already.

I also tried your deck; man I love how it runs. I just crushed my opponent's NOpro CounterTop deck with a 10/10 Terravore smashing face. Awesome! The great thing about it outside of the extra speed difference (you really feel this after playing burning wish aggroloam decks) is it has quite a bit of creatures which makes being aggro not a problem. The loam bit feels extra but within reason. Thanks for posting your list!

cuthbertthecat
09-10-2010, 05:02 PM
Great list and thanks for the report!

How would you have boarded against merfolk/fish and against ANT/storm combo? Also, can you explain how those two match-ups generally go -- how you have to play, what your priorities are, etc? (Forgive me if it's an obvious question, I don't have much experience with aggro-loam).

Congratulations on your finish! :)

Against merfolk/fish, chalices come out and firespouts come in, same plan as goblins. Game 1, try to get a seismic online, ptherwise your high threat density and lack of islands make it a rough game for merfolk. Don't underestimate them and let down your gaurd, however, because coralhelm commander ends games out of nowhere. Against ANT, as in ari lax's ant, the matchup is unfavorable, but still winnable. Chalice shines here, and if they don't fetch basics wasteland can stall them long enough to attack them out of profitable ad nauseam range. They can still tutor chain to kill you, but it is difficult with chalice on board. Against epic storm, the matchup is a bit better; it is harder for them to tutor chain, they play all nonbasics, and one of their wincons is empty the warrens which gets taken care of by pulse and explosives. For the sideboard, I like to take out 4 dark confidant for the three zuran orb and the one thorn, however, you may want to cut something other than bob from the mainboard, such as one of each fat creatur and a life from the loam.

cuthbertthecat
09-10-2010, 05:04 PM
Ok, i just play tested a Vengevine Survival deck and I think I know what you mean. I totally forgot about predators. I guess you were experienced with that Survival deck already.

I also tried your deck; man I love how it runs. I just crushed my opponent's NOpro CounterTop deck with a 10/10 Terravore smashing face. Awesome! The great thing about it outside of the extra speed difference (you really feel this after playing burning wish aggroloam decks) is it has quite a bit of creatures which makes being aggro not a problem. The loam bit feels extra but within reason. Thanks for posting your list!

Yeah, vengevival is the flavor of the month deck, at least around here. Countertop matchups are pretty good for you, how often was he able to cast natural order, and how many of those games did you end up winning?

Odd Mutation
09-11-2010, 06:56 AM
I like your sideboarding a lot. Aside from all the synergies, that's another fun part of the deck: sideboarding is not as difficult compared to other decks.

Versus combo, I'm taking out all my Seismic Assaults and one Terravore for 3 Zuran Orb and 1 Thorn of Amethyst. I figure my creatures are faster/better in this matchup.

Versus Enchantress I board 3 Seismic Assault and bring in 3 Krosan Grip. I understand you like something extra for the Argothian Enchantress in the form of Firespout but do you think they are really necessary?

Thoughts?

cuthbertthecat
09-11-2010, 12:39 PM
Against combo, I like to have seismic out because it can make ill-gotten gains a much less safe storm engine. Against enchantress, that looks good, I would recommend the firespouts though. Grip isn't that big a deal for them if each enchantment draws another 1-3 anyway.