RUG Loam Aggro

[bowvamp]

I like to think of this deck as separate from Aggro Loam because of its significantly different leaning removal wise. The decks play differently because RUG Loam Aggro runs counters and Jace. These make the deck have better matchups against decks like the combo decks that are currently in the meta, while losing some of the edge against decks that have fewer bombs.

Here is my current list:
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Mox Diamond
4 Life from the Loam
3 Tarmogoyf
4 Countryside Crusher
3 Devastating Dreams
1 Barbarian Ring
4 Wasteland
4 Daze
2 Tropical Island
3 Tranquil Thicket
3 Forgotten Cave
1 Forest
3 Wooded Foothills
3 Volcanic Island
4 Taiga
3 Mana Leak
1 Cephalid Coliseum
1 Kessig Wolf Run
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Maze of Ith
2 Huntmaster of the Fells

Sorry for the current jumbled nature of the list, cockatrice doesn't organize very well :(
To those of you who question the effectiveness of 7 counters total against combo, remember that chalice is very effective in this mu. Forgotten Cave and Tranquil Thicket increase the likelihood that your opponent walks into a daze on their key spells early on in the game.

[Seems Good]

I tested a RUG Loam list that was more focused on the seismic assault plan. It actually tested fairly well. One of the big plusses was the inclusion of Force. I also played intuition, which is an absolute boss for loam decks. Finally, I played 2-3 clique which worked extremely well and upped the blue count to an acceptable level. IIRC it looked something like this:


4 Force of Will
4 Daze
4 Life from the Loam
3 Intuition
4 Mox Diamond
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Seismic Assault
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 Fire // Ice

3 Tarmogoyf
2 Vendilion Clique

3 Volcanic Island
1 Taiga
2 Tropical Island
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Scalding Tarn
2 Tranquil Thicket
2 Forgotten Cave
3 Lonely Sandbar
4 Wasteland
1 Island
1 Forest

[GrdiVrag]

Y u no run Punishing Fire + Grove of the Burnwillows? It's great creature control and you can fetch it via Intuition (Punishing Fire/Grove of the Burnwillows/Life from the Loam).

[Seems Good]

Y u no run Punishing Fire + Grove of the Burnwillows? It's great creature control and you can fetch it via Intuition (Punishing Fire/Grove of the Burnwillows/Life from the Loam).

I think it's a good call. The only problem is the blue count is dangerously low at 16 right now, and I don't want to pull out Force as I think it's crucial in the non-aggro build for Loam. I suppose you could pull out of the Goyfs?

[Hanni]

Not running Intuition is wrong.

Here's the build I was playtesting with about a year or so ago:

// Lands (24)
4 [ON] Wooded Foothills
3 [ZEN] Scalding Tarn
1 [ZEN] Misty Rainforest
4 [R] Taiga
1 [R] Volcanic Island
1 [R] Tropical Island
3 [UNH] Mountain
1 [UNH] Forest
3 [ON] Forgotten Cave
1 [ON] Tranquil Thicket
1 [TSP] Academy Ruins
1 [TE] Wasteland

// Creatures (8)
4 [FUT] Tarmogoyf
4 [MOR] Countryside Crusher

// Spells (28)
1 [EVE] Worm Harvest
1 [RAV] Life from the Loam
4 [CST] Brainstorm
4 [TE] Intuition
4 [JU] Burning Wish
4 [R] Lightning Bolt
3 [EX] Seismic Assault
3 [FD] Engineered Explosives
4 [SH] Mox Diamond

// Sideboard (15)
SB: 1 [EVE] Worm Harvest
SB: 1 [RAV] Life from the Loam
SB: 1 [TO] Nostalgic Dreams
SB: 1 [PS] Hull Breach
SB: 1 [TO] Devastating Dreams
SB: 1 [SHM] Firespout
SB: 2 [4E] Red Elemental Blast
SB: 1 [IA] Pyroblast
SB: 4 [ZEN] Spell Pierce
SB: 1 [WWK] Bojuka Bog
SB: 1 [LG] Karakas

The deck was great. It performed alot better for me then Jund Aggro Loam, but no one in the Aggro Loam thread was really into the idea. Intuition is the best card in the entire deck, setting up the Loam engine while grabbing tons of utility. The list is probably in dire need of a tune-up; like I said, this list is about a year or so old.

[Redshift]

Not running Intuition is wrong.

Here's the build I was playtesting with about a year or so ago:

// Lands (24)
4 [ON] Wooded Foothills
3 [ZEN] Scalding Tarn
1 [ZEN] Misty Rainforest
4 [R] Taiga
1 [R] Volcanic Island
1 [R] Tropical Island
3 [UNH] Mountain
1 [UNH] Forest
3 [ON] Forgotten Cave
1 [ON] Tranquil Thicket
1 [TSP] Academy Ruins
1 [TE] Wasteland

// Creatures (8)
4 [FUT] Tarmogoyf
4 [MOR] Countryside Crusher

// Spells (28)
1 [EVE] Worm Harvest
1 [RAV] Life from the Loam
4 [CST] Brainstorm
4 [TE] Intuition
4 [JU] Burning Wish
4 [R] Lightning Bolt
3 [EX] Seismic Assault
3 [FD] Engineered Explosives
4 [SH] Mox Diamond

// Sideboard (15)
SB: 1 [EVE] Worm Harvest
SB: 1 [RAV] Life from the Loam
SB: 1 [TO] Nostalgic Dreams
SB: 1 [PS] Hull Breach
SB: 1 [TO] Devastating Dreams
SB: 1 [SHM] Firespout
SB: 2 [4E] Red Elemental Blast
SB: 1 [IA] Pyroblast
SB: 4 [ZEN] Spell Pierce
SB: 1 [WWK] Bojuka Bog
SB: 1 [LG] Karakas

The deck was great. It performed alot better for me then Jund Aggro Loam, but no one in the Aggro Loam thread was really into the idea. Intuition is the best card in the entire deck, setting up the Loam engine while grabbing tons of utility. The list is probably in dire need of a tune-up; like I said, this list is about a year or so old.


I originally posted the following list in June of 2010 and had been playing something similar to great success for about two years before that.

//Lands (24)
3 Scalding Tarn
3 Wooded Foothills

1 Forest
1 Mountain
1 Island

3 Taiga
3 Volcanic Island

4 Forgotten Cave
1 Maze of Ith
1 Academy Ruins
1 Wasteland
1 The Tabernacle At Pendrell Vale
1 Riftstone Portal

//Spells (36)
4 Mox Diamond
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
4 Life From the Loam
4 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Seismic Assault
4 Intuition
4 Brainstorm
3 Engineered Explosives
1 Worm Harvest

//Sideboard (15)
3 Krosan Grip
3 Firespout
1 Faerie Macabre
2 Tormod's Crypt
3 Spell Pierce
1 Karakas
2 Pyroblast

It was a really good deck, but as Hanni said, could use an update. Also, I guess it wasn't so much aggro loam, but more of a RUG control loam deck.

[TheShaun]

Just wanted to say that I share your frustration at the aggro loam thread. It seemed like anytime I brought up a new idea that didn't exactly match AZ's original list, he'd come in and rage, then all the followers would jump in as well. Not to say that all of my ideas were great, but they never even had a chance at consideration. Here's how AZ seems to have taken the thread, and sadly it has become pretty much "his" thread.

1. Blue sucks in this deck, we've already agreed on this (only he agrees on this)
2. We will lose to combo, stop wasting time trying to change that (I am undefeated against combo the last 4 months)
3. Chalice sucks because you have to run your own 1-mana spells and it doesn't stop anybody anyways (we run bolt, it stops bolt, StP, Extirpate, Surgical, Delver, Brainstorm, Spell Snare.....)
4. Confidant is a must (any deck that doesn't counter him will absolutely kill him before he has the chance to draw you 2 cards, unless it hits late game and their removal is already used up)

I feel that until somebody puts up a decent result with this deck (i.e. a StarcityGames open, GP, or one of the bigger European tournaments that I'm not familiar with), that it won't really be taken seriously. Though I'm liking the blue splash, as well as white, instead of black. I just don't think that the format is very Confidant friendly right now, and black doesn't offer much past Confidant other than maybe Liliana and some decent SB cards.