RG Assault Loam (Enchantment based)

[Valtrix]

Been on a loam kick lately, and game up with this pretty cool loam idea:

//Mana
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Stomping Ground
1 Forest
4 Mountain
2 Raging Ravine
2 Fire-Lit Thicket
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Scalding Tarn

//Win-cons
4 Seismic Assault
4 Tarmogoyf

//Control
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Seal of Fire
2 Flame Jab

//Dig
4 Commune with the Gods
4 Kruphix's Insight
4 Abundant Growth

//Other
4 Life from the Loam
4 Utopia Sprawl

//Sideboard
SB: 4 Seal of Primordium
SB: 3 Blood Moon
SB: 2 Courser of Kruphix
SB: 2 Ancient Grudge
SB: 4 Obstinate Baloth

It's a ton of fun to play, but I haven't gotten much real testing in (thanks Cockatrice!). However, it's just a lot of fun to play and some hands are really scary, especially when you have the "combo" early. I kind of view this as a soft-lock combo deck--Loam + assault doesn't win you the game immediately, but damn if it doesn't give you a lot of power/flexibility as well as ending the game quickly when you need it.

One thing I really like is that there are a lot of really powerful enchantments to dig for--I think that that could give this deck immense SB potential. Not sure what the bad MUs are, but there is splash potential for sure. If enchantments are worth while, another color might be appealing. (Aegis of the Gods? Circle of Protection: Red?).

I had being that guy that just posts a deck list, but unfortunately I won't have a lot of time to test right now, but I really like this concept and how the list is turning out and wanted to share it. Maybe it can be tuned further. Any suggestions/comments would be great.

[Bed Decks Palyer]

Is there any way how tio reliably find particular lands? I think that those green Gifts Ungiven aren't the best card under the sun, but it still might be good to incorporate some search-for-Ghost-Quarter effect.
Is Savage Twister or anything similar legal? Not that Assault cannot kill dudes, but something like good old Dev Dreams could be good. Maybe that red Geddon that sacrifices land s equal to number of cards in your hand, I think control must like that.
Should there be Horizon Canopy somewhere?

[Mr. Safety]

I've done quite a bit with jund colored loam assault. Access to ravens crime/liliana/smallpox is really powerful, not to mention abrupt decay. I tried Mulch for a while, but I like the commune idea with enchants. You're double feeding the strategy by getting a card and getting lands into the yard.

Is 22 lands enough? I guess the dig does quite a bit to skimp on lands. I was always on 25-26 with jund, because of smallpox etc.

[Valtrix]

Is there any way how tio reliably find particular lands?...
Should there be Horizon Canopy somewhere?

Nope. It would require a splash color. It's doable, but there are two main issues with running a lot of "utility" lands. The first is that the utility lands in modern just aren't that good. You can't really tec edge or ghost quarter somebody out of the game (unless they're scapeshift!), so it's not a super viable way to go. There's just not enough powerful lands in modern to make finding them worth it. Secondly, Seismic assault really wants every land to be red, which is relevant. This is actually the main reason I don't run horizon canopy. Plus the burn-out decks can be tough, so I think you want to hurt yourself as little as possible.


Is Savage Twister or anything similar legal? Not that Assault cannot kill dudes, but something like good old Dev Dreams could be good. Maybe that red Geddon that sacrifices land s equal to number of cards in your hand, I think control must like that.

There are lots of options for mass removal. Pyroclasm is defintely better than savage twister though. I'm not sure they're needed though. Nothing like devestating dreams unfortunately--gunning for the lands is just not really viable.


I've done quite a bit with jund colored loam assault. Access to ravens crime/liliana/smallpox is really powerful, not to mention abrupt decay. I tried Mulch for a while, but I like the commune idea with enchants. You're double feeding the strategy by getting a card and getting lands into the yard.

Yeah, I was trying out some Jund lists too. The mana was just so rough and I felt like loam was really underutilized in my list without ways to find it. I really wanted to push loam itself so I figured the best way to abuse it was with seismic assault. This led me to trying out Commune with the Gods and Kruphix's Insight to assemble my "combo". The deck has a ton of velocity in actually putting these cards together, and when you jam a seismic assault you're in a really good position. Goyf also gains a lot from these cards. It's really easy to get goyf huge really quickly (and he's generally a 5/6 because of enchantments). I also love the sideboarding potential that these enchantment digging cards give.


Is 22 lands enough? I guess the dig does quite a bit to skimp on lands. I was always on 25-26 with jund, because of smallpox etc.

There's 22 lands because there's 4 utopia sprawls! They're quite powerful in this deck. The amount of lands has been good for me in testing--This deck really often just wants to stay on 3 mana so that all the other lands can be tossed out to seismic assault.

[Mr. Safety]

Talk to me about what you're thinking on the enchantments. Moon and Choke are obvious. What else?

[Valtrix]

Here's my list of cards to play nicely with Commune with the Gods and Kruphix's Insight:

Choke
Blood Moon
Seal of Primordium
Courser of Kruphix
Lifegift
Ancient Grudge
Ray of Revelation
Golgari Brownscale

If we want to splash, I think white is the only worthwhile splash (limiting to only one white colored mana):
Peace of Mind
Circle of Protection: Red
Eidolon of Rhetoric
Rule of Law
Ghostly Prison
Porphyry Nodes
Stony Silence

Also, I want to find room for Tec Edge in the 75 probably, but I just can't figure out where. It's not entirely free when the main spell to play costs RRR. But from some mana analysis sites I've seen 22 ways to get red is about what we want to get RRR on time, so there could be room to make room for them. 2 lands for 2 tec edge would probably be good. Abundant growth can help mitigate awkwardness. Perhaps over 1-2 basic mountains would be good, and could SB the 3rd or 4th one too when needed.

[Mr. Safety]

Here's my list of cards to play nicely with Commune with the Gods and Kruphix's Insight:

Choke
Blood Moon
Seal of Primordium
Courser of Kruphix
Lifegift
Ancient Grudge
Ray of Revelation
Golgari Brownscale

If we want to splash, I think white is the only worthwhile splash (limiting to only one white colored mana):
Peace of Mind
Circle of Protection: Red
Eidolon of Rhetoric
Rule of Law
Ghostly Prison
Porphyry Nodes
Stony Silence

Also, I want to find room for Tec Edge in the 75 probably, but I just can't figure out where. It's not entirely free when the main spell to play costs RRR. But from some mana analysis sites I've seen 22 ways to get red is about what we want to get RRR on time, so there could be room to make room for them. 2 lands for 2 tec edge would probably be good. Abundant growth can help mitigate awkwardness. Perhaps over 1-2 basic mountains would be good, and could SB the 3rd or 4th one too when needed.

Why not Ghost Quarter? I have found that it is faster against tron and less taxing against manlands. It also fixes yiur own colors. If you are pinched on mana GQ only costs a land drop. If you draw into blood moon it can convert into a forest too. I found that the basic land it provides is negligable, ya gotta kill those manlands for cheap.

Also...Raging Ravine? Treetop Village? Moon is in the board, and maybe entering tapped is too much.

I wish we had a better green prison type of enchantment...something that did a pseudo-ghostly prison. Red provides a version of Pestilence...but seismic is just better.

What I wouldn't give for Tangle Wire in modern...

[cherub_daemon]

I wish we had a better green prison type of enchantment...something that did a pseudo-ghostly prison. Red provides a version of Pestilence...but seismic is just better.


Best I can do is Root Maze. I doubt they'll reprint Elephant Grass any time soon.

[Valtrix]

The simple reason to not run ghost quarter is that it does almost nothing against Scapeshift, which is something one should really prepare for and is a matchup this deck needs to address. That alone is enough reason for me to prefer tec edge. Plus, the only decks which have manlands which you care about and tec edge might not stop them is anything running inkmoth nexus. But, between all the burn I don't think they are that scary (plus the board options). Tec edge is also much better against control decks. (Faerie conclave out of the ascendency decks might also matter too, but I think we have enough options against them already.) Even if GQ is better against tron, its percentage of the meta is not that large I think. Perhaps playing 2 tec edge main and then boarding in 2 ghost quarters in addition would be a slightly better strategy. I will have to think about it.

Also, I may not have ghostly prison, but I'm perfectly happy to just use seismic assault to kill all the creatures.

[Mr. Safety]

I guess I'm just underrating then velocity. The many ways this deck draws extra cards makes redundancy of lock pieces unnecessary.