Blood Loam

[GrimoirePath]

Just tinkering with a bunch of ideas, and this one is fun. It still needs tuning, to be sure, and I hope Im not repeating something that already exists. I did a search, and didn't see this as a deck.

4 Blood Ghast
4 Nether Traitor
4 Deathrite Shaman

4 Life From the Loam
4 Abrupt Decay
4 Exploration
4 Mox Diamond
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Crop Rotation
2 Deadly Allure

4 Wasteland
3 Maze of Ith
2 Mishra's Factory
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Centaur's Garden

3 Bayou
1 Forest
1 volraths stronghold
1 Urborg
1 Swamp
5 Fetchlands

The gist is to be able to use Bloodghast's landfall in concert with Life from the Loam and Exploration, so you can consistently bring the ghast back to the battlefield whenever it dies. When it dies, you can bring the Nether Traitor back to the battlefield from the graveyard. Either can be sacrificed to play Cabal Therapy out of the yard. Deadly Allure can be played from the yard as well, as a way to wipe the opponents board.

Maze of Ith helps to hold back flyers and anything else thats on the board when you don't have a blocker. Wasteland and Ghost Quarter are there to help slow the opponent down, and lock them out with Life From the Loam. Abrupt Decay can hit graveyard hate, counterbalance, and other nuisance cards. Volrath's stronghold is there to put a dredged Deathrite Shaman back on top of the deck. Centaur's garden is a dredgeable giant growth to pump which ever ghast or traitor can break through. Mishra's Factory rounds it out for some extra knock around power that can recurred through loam.

The seemingly oddball is the Deathrite Shaman, and he is there (well, because he is the nuts) to fix mana, and help burn the opponent down to ten (which should be easy should they be cracking fetchlands, using force of will, gitaxian probe, ancient tomb, etc.) at which point ghasts have haste. He can also pump you up a few life should that become crucial.

Grave hate will drastically hinder the deck, but depending on the sideboard and the opening hand, it might be playable still with care. Tormods crypts will leave the opponents yard open for Deathrite to make use of, but RiP definitely makes it an uphill battle. Cabal Therapy and Abrupt Decay are there on that front

[Mr. Safety]

Loam Pox is an established deck with many similarities, and it has used drs in the past. Smallpox has so much synergy with loam/bloodghast that it seems odd without it. Also, Crop Rotation is much more powerful with Dark Depths/Thespian's stage. Utility lands/silver bullets like bojuja bog and volraths stronghold are great with rotation, but it feels soooooo good to combo into a 20/20 indestructable flyer.

If you want to tutor some powerful plays, maybe Buried Alive would be good. BA for triple bloodghast, landfall trigger into 6 power. Seems ok.

[GrimoirePath]

Yeah, marit lage is ill. I play R/G lands primarily, and was trying to steer into a different direction. The buried alive combo is pretty tight. Good idea.

[Mystical_Jackass]

Not bad. My worry's that enemy DRS or RiP will absolutely annihilate this deck... it's pretty much game-over if that happens, that's why having a 20/20 flying, indest to combo into is great insurance.

As for what it is, I really think throwing some Entomb to accelerate your creatures and 4 Jitte is a good way to go--basically, you get so much more value from Jitte vs Deadly Allure. Lets say opponent drops a 4/5 goyf and just sits there, even having 2x Ghasts your pretty much at a dead end. However having a Jitte to constantly keep re-equip and swing will help you power through the big guys and great removal for Bob's, MOM, DRS, etc.

The other idea I have is to run 3sphere & maybe even a Nether Void. Think about it, you've got exploration, Mox & Loam to nuke their lands... if you're sitting at 3-4 lands and they're at 2-3, drop a Trinisphere/Nether Void and you can just play underneath it and ride ghasts/DRS to victory. And as an added benefit for Nether Void, your removal won't get countered by it either.

That's my thoughts, its a pretty vulnerable deck to gy hate but still has some potential. The issue is that, unlike Reanimator or some decks that have maybe an "instance" its vulnerable to gy, then either they stop it or they don't, this deck is vulnerable to gy throughout the course of the match you know... they might draw into RiP 4 turns later, but that might still might be enough to screw you over, you know what I mean.

[GrimoirePath]

I've been tinkering with the deck, and have been playing it with four Buried Alive which with the nuts opening hand can drop three blood ghasts turn 1 (mox diamond > dark ritual > buried alive selecting three ghasts > land drop.)

Four entombs is a must to find Loam. And yes, grave hate really kills the deck. I am actually thinking it might need four Krosan grips to come in post board, and potentially even pulling the abrupt decays altogether, except that they are very good at wiping chalice.

I like Nether void conceptually, except that loam will probably toss it into the yard. A straight game plan is necessary so Leyline of the void doesn't just insta-win. Surgical Extraction after cabal therapy or Krosan gripping the grave hate?

[GrimoirePath]

List currently looks like this:

Blood ghast -

4 Blood Ghast
3 Maze of Ith
4 Life From the Loam
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Exploration
2 Crop Rotation
4 Dark Ritual
4 Mox Diamond
4 Wasteland
2 Mishras factory
2 Nether Traitor
3 Cabal therapy
2 deadly allure
4 entomb
4 buried alive

2 Bayou
1 tranquil thicket
1 Forest
1 volraths stronghold
1 Urborg
1 Swamp
4 Fetch

Took the traitors down to 2. They are better out of the yard than hard cast, and man lands seem essential to make sure loam can find lands to land fall Ghasts back into play. Dark rituals will probably get pulled post board, as they are mainly there to try and hit turn one buried alive. They can trade out for four Krosan grips to hit whatever grave hate comes in. I think I might need one more Bayou. Deadly allure is still a maybe, I just like being able to call it up for removal, though it isnt great against decks with token generators like peezy and mentor. They can be pulled post board for a Tabernacle in that case.

[GrimoirePath]

Played the deck last night with good results. Against reanimator the deck was solid once I brought in a Karakas and a Tabernacle. I am pulling the Nether Traitors entirely for now. Four blood ghasts and four mishras factories are plenty. I may leave Tabernacle in the main. Great synergy not needing to pay for the ghasts, then just recurring them with a land drop. Cabal Therapy is a powerhouse with recurring creatures.

I played against miracles too, and did very well. Oh, I traded out Volraths Stronghold for Mortuary Mire. It generates black and with loam can be utilized for its creature dredging effect for cheaply. Here is the list right now:


4 Blood Ghast
4 Life From the Loam
4 Deathrite Shaman
3 Exploration
2 Crop Rotation
4 Mox Diamond
4 Cabal therapy
2 Deadly allure
4 Entomb
3 Buried alive
3 Abrupt decay

3 Bayou
4 Wasteland
4 Mishras Factory
4 Maze of Ith
1 Tabernacle at the Pendrell Vale
1 Forest
1 Mortuary Mire
1 Urborg
1 Swamp
4 Fetch

[GrimoirePath]

Really liking this spoiler card. (http://media.wizards.com/2015/c15_9dsm28ccakCDSk2/en_KVm4xroxCo.png)

Could make a good addition to the deck. Also I have been tinkering with bridge from below. I pulled abrupt decays for now. They might be SB, but more likely Krosan Grips will be. List currently sits here:

4 Blood Ghast
4 Maze of Ith
4 Life From the Loam
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Exploration
2 Crop Rotation
4 Mox Diamond
4 Wasteland
4 Mishras factory
4 Cabal therapy
3 deadly allure
4 entomb
2 Bridge from Below

3 Bayou
1 Forest
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Mortuary Mire
1 Urborg
1 Tabernacle
1 Swamp
4 Fetch

The big changes are pulling buried alive and rituals for now. I always find myself wanting to dredge loam, and too many sorceries and instants gums the board. Mortuary Mire replaced Volraths Stronghold as it produces black, requires no extra costs, and can be wasted or quartered should it need to be recurred, which is only necessary to bring back a deathrite shaman.

The addition of Bridge From Below allows for some great plays. An entombed or dredged Bridge in the grave, followed by Cabal Therapy, sacrifice Bloodghast to flashback Cabal Therapy, trigger Bridge From Below, play a land or crack a fetch basically results in you getting to hit the opponents hands for two cards while gaining two 2/2 tokens all for one black mana. Clutch.