[EDH] Jund Aggro Loam

[Aggro_zombies]

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/edh-aggro-loam/

The idea for this deck came from my love for old-school Aggro Loam, the way it was prior to advent of the newfangled four-color versions that cut sweet cards like Seismic Assault for loose manabases and fat Knights. EDH doesn't give me quite the consistency I would like, but it does let me play a Jund Lands Grind-'Em-Out deck, so it's good enough.

COMMANDER:
Xira Arien

The logic here is that Xira gives you a long-game consistency that lets you try to keep up with blue decks. However, as the deck has evolved, I've liked her less and less, and I'm considering switching her out for either Adun Oakenshield or Darigaaz, the Igniter: the former because he lets me play a gross value game, and the latter because he just ends the game. Certainly, there are some games where Xira's card draw keeps me from running out of gas, but I'm not averse to cutting her.

LANDS:
1x Arcane Lighthouse
1x Ash Barrens
1x Badlands
1x Barren Moor
1x Bayou
1x Blood Crypt
1x Bloodstained Mire
1x Bojuka Bog
1x Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1x Canyon Slough
1x Command Tower
1x Drownyard Temple
1x Dust Bowl
5x Forest
1x Forgotten Cave
1x Golgari Rot Farm
1x Gruul Turf
1x Mirrorpool
2x Mountain
1x Overgrown Tomb
1x Petrified Field
1x Polluted Mire
1x Rakdos Carnarium
1x Savage Lands
1x Sheltered Thicket
1x Slippery Karst
1x Smoldering Crater
1x Stomping Ground
3x Swamp
1x Taiga
1x Temple of Abandon
1x Temple of Malady
1x Temple of Malice
1x Thespian's Stage
1x Tranquil Thicket
1x Verdant Catacombs
1x Volrath's Stronghold
1x Wooded Foothills

Some things of note here: first, between Temples and cycling lands, your mana gives you a lot of consistency. Second, the bouncelands are secretly MVPs, enough that I'm seriously considering running Darigaaz's Caldera. The reason is that lands in hand are often more valuable than lands in play, so running bouncelands let me use cards like Crucible of Worlds to get lands back into my hand, in addition to letting my play my cycling lands for mana early. Cycling lands in particular are very important to this deck for a reason I'll get to in a moment. Past that, this deck runs an assortment of utility lands like Boseiju and Arcane Lighthouse to battle different decks.

Notable Omissions: Kessig Wolf Run, Dark Depths, manlands. Wolf Run is okay, but I like it a lot more when the commander is natively combat-capable, and Xira does not attack well in the slightest. No manlands mostly because I didn't have a lot of room for them - the dual color lands were in at one point but were just kind of so-so, and Inkmoth doesn't make a whole lot of sense without KWR. As for no Depths...it also doesn't make a lot of sense without KWR because it's super easy to chump a 20/20, and Marit Lage actually doesn't kill all that quickly in this format.

CREATURES:
1x Acidic Slime
1x Archfiend of Ifnir
1x Azusa, Lost but Seeking
1x Borborygmos Enraged
1x Courser of Kruphix
1x Eternal Witness
1x Greenwarden of Murasa
1x Groundskeeper
1x Loaming Shaman
1x Olivia Voldaren
1x Oracle of Mul Daya
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Riftsweeper
1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Shriekmaw
1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
1x The Gitrog Monster
1x Tilling Treefolk
1x Titania, Protector of Argoth
1x Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
1x Undead Gladiator
1x Wickerbough Elder
1x World Breaker
1x Wurmcoil Engine
1x Yavimaya Elder

Most of these are pretty straightforward value guys, but I do want to point out that Archfiend of Ifnir is fucking nutty and has started warping the deck around himself. You want to run a bunch of cycling lands in Aggro Loam anyway, and once you pair those with Loam and this guy, you can Wrath the board through indestructibility or toughness-pumping shenanigans basically at will. There are a few other decent cycling cards in these colors as well, and before too long you end up with a powerhouse five-drop crushing creature decks beneath its heel.

Notable Omissions: Omnath, Locus of Rage, Tireless Tracker, Avenger of Zendikar. Certainly, all three of these are powerful landfall guys, but going wide - or tall, or a combination of both - isn't a huge priority. Omnath is the closest to making the cut and I've found he's just kind of a big dumb beater, while Tracker could make it in if Xira becomes something else. Avenger is too slow to get going. Also, all three suffer from the fact that they're mostly late-game power plays in a deck that's not lacking them.

INSTANTS:
1x Chaos Warp
1x Crop Rotation
1x Magmaquake
1x Starstorm
1x Vampiric Tutor

Magmaquake deserves special mention here because opposing planeswalkers represent the biggest threat to your value game, especially when they're in durdley planeswalker control decks that are generally resistant to single high-power attackers. Starstorm gets in by virtue of being a Wrath that cycles to trigger Archfiend.

Notable Omissions: Realms Uncharted, Abrupt Decay, Constant Mists. Mists was one of the last cuts and could make it back in very easily, but the Archfiend mostly supplants it. Decay is better in a Spikier meta that what I have. Realms seems great on paper and I really want to like it, but I haven't found it to be super impactful in the games I've played - it's a far hue and cry from Gifts Ungiven.

SORCERIES:
1x Beacon of Unrest
1x Creeping Renaissance
1x Damnation
1x Decree of Pain
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Edge of Autumn
1x Gamble
1x Life from the Loam
1x Sylvan Scrying
1x Toxic Deluge
1x Traverse the Ulvenwald
1x Worm Harvest

Edge of Autumn is perhaps the most questionable inclusion here, and I will freely admit it gets a pass because 1) it cycles, and 2) it lets me recycle a land like Bojuka Bog. Otherwise, this is a pretty straightforward mix of value cards and control cards. Beacon has been okay so far.

Notable Omissions: I'm actually kind of at a loss here. There's a lot of removal I *could* be running, but I'm not sure I need more Wraths and targeted removal in these colors is so-so. I could see running one-off black card draw spells, too, but the cycling cards already let me churn through my deck, so I don't feel a ton of need for that either.

ENCHANTMENTS:
1x Destructive Flow
1x Exploration
1x Pernicious Deed
1x Phyrexian Arena
1x Phyrexian Reclamation
1x Seismic Assault
1x Sylvan Library

Pretty straightforward here, too. Destructive Flow is one I'm proud of, as it punishes unfair decks more than fair ones while letting me reuse my lands (or just sacrifice Drownyard Temple endlessly). I could see cutting Reclamation for something else if I switch to Adun.

Notable Omissions: Burgeoning, Zendikar's Roil, Asceticism. I've found Burgeoning to be overkill in most land-based decks, so I never bothered to include it here. It's also a card that's at its best in UG/x decks, as blue's card draw means you'll have lands to spare on your opponents' turns for a long time. Zendikar's Roil is actually the most palatable landfall token maker because the generator card dodges my Wraths, but the 2/2s aren't super impactful and the card doesn't make them fast enough to be relevant. Asceticism is good at protecting high-value guys but is really kind of garbo otherwise, and I don't have enough here that I'd want to shield.

ARTIFACTS AND PLANESWALKERS:
1x Crucible of Worlds
1x Zuran Orb

1x Garruk Wildspeaker
1x Karn Liberated

I almost want to lead off with the Notable Omissions section because I think all of these are pretty obvious, and the objections are over the things that didn't make the cut. That said, the Karnfather is probably the most controversial choice: he's good against control decks and the exile effect is solid in colors that normally lack it, so he gets the nod over other options like Vraska or Freyalise.

Notable Omissions - Artifacts: Sol Ring, Sensei's Divining Top, Horn of Greed, equipment. Sol Ring and its ilk are cards I've greatly soured on over the years, and I try not to include them in any of my decks anymore unless they have a heavy artifact theme or some other need for powerful fast mana. I don't think the card generates positive play experiences when played early and doesn't do a ton when played late. As for Top: with all the cycling and shuffle effects, paying a bit more mana to improve my draws would be welcome, but the card is really fiddly and it doesn't improve draws all that much in a singleton format. Horn is symmetrical and therefore not worth it. Equipment is better when your commander can attack worth a damn.

Notable Omissions - Planeswalkers: Nissa, Vital Force, Liliana, Heretical Healer, Chandra, Flamecaller, Ugin, the Spirit Dragon. Nissa was in the deck instead of Karn, but she actually wasn't particularly useful. Her ult is great but can be very win-more, her +1 is a very mixed bag, and her -3 is fantastic and honestly the best part about the card. I could see adding her back in at some point, but I'm not in a hurry. Liliana, Heretical Healer - and any other Lili, for that matter - is good for giving the deck a grindy game against control but is not usually so hot in midrange hell, so she gets a nod in the maybeboard. Chandra was in as an additional control card but was by far the clunkiest one and got cut accordingly. Ugin is huge and powerful but is just another haymaker in a deck full of them.

OVERALL THOUGHTS:
In a world of midrange creature nonsense, the board control deck is king. This deck isn't super themed or anything, but it's powerful and fun and calls back to a deck and a play experience I very much enjoyed in the Legacy of a decade ago or so. I intentionally stayed away from the (numerous) two-card combos available in these colors in no small part because I stubbornly want to end people by throwing lands at them with Assault or Borborygmos. You might enjoy this deck if: you like Aggro Loam, you like board control decks that are more proactive, and you like to durdle. You would not enjoy this deck if: you are looking for a high power level or competitive deck, you want to do broken things, or you don't enjoy sitting with your thumb up your ass for five turns while you burn through your deck with cycling cards to find the one card you want to use to finish people off.

[Davran]

First things first, this deck looks sweet.

Of all of your choices, I think I agree the least with leaving Tireless Tracker out. It's value has less to do with the +1/+1 counters and more to do with the Clue tokens. Not only do they give you something to do with spare mana, but they're easy permanents to sacrifice if you're ever facing down some sort of stax deck. They also fill the somewhat important role of card advantage in a deck without the draw power of blue.

[deakmana]

A few card suggestions:


Countryside Crusher
Centaur Vinecrasher
Entomb
Devastating Dreams
Splendid Reclamation


Crusher and Dreams used to be staples in older aggro loam builds. Vinecrasher is yuuuge and recurs easily. Entomb can tutor up your Loam, Vinecrasher, or a land (if you have Loam/Crucible already). Splendid is just disgusting.

[Aggro_zombies]

I ran Splendid before. It was okay. The biggest strike against it is that, in the late game, lands in hand are better than lands in play because of Assault and Borborygmos, so I cut it for Creeping Renaissance. There's probably a point in the midgame where Splendid is specifically better because of the explosive ramp, but I'm not sure where that would be.

Crusher and Vinecrasher didn't make it because they're mostly just huge vanilla duders, and single large attackers that don't have any utility aren't really worth much in general.

Entomb is a card I've been flirting with. It's powerful but narrow, which means it's closest to Traverse. Honestly, it may just be better than Traverse since it can sometimes be difficult to enable Delirium in this deck. I'll have to try it.

Dreams was good in Legacy in no small part because artifact mana was rare. It's not rare in EDH, so I'm leery of scenarios where I Mind Twist myself to get a true Wrath off and people just keep playing as normal.

Fun fact about Tireless Tracker: the very early version of this deck was Shattergang Brothers, mostly because they provide some strong board control. Tracker's ability to generate artifact tokens saved me from having to run Signets and a bunch of other low-value artifacts as sacrifice fodder, and the card draw was nice as well. Eventually I switched to Xira because the Shattergang package - mostly cards that replace themselves when sacrificed, or which provide multiple bodies - took up a lot of space and competed with the lands and "lands matter" cards I also wanted to run. Tracker got dropped shortly thereafter because I ran into a lot of situations where my hand would fill up on cards, so the Clues were worth less, and the body on the Tracker was just so-so. If I drop Xira for a general that doesn't draw, I'll probably add Tracker back since she helps smooth the midgame out a lot.

Discussion question: if given the choice of pairing the deck as-is with Xira, Adun Oakenshield, Darigaaz, the Igniter, or another Jund general, who would you pick and why?

[Davran]

Discussion question: if given the choice of pairing the deck as-is with Xira, Adun Oakenshield, Darigaaz, the Igniter, or another Jund general, who would you pick and why?

I guess it depends what you need your commander to do for you. Adun and Xira are more or less the same - both exchange 3 mana for some sort of card advantage. In terms of your overall game plan, drawing a card is probably better than raise dead since what you really want is lands, not dudes.

Of course the problem with Xira is she's a 1/1, so if the lands plan doesn't pan out it's not like you can go for commander damage or whatever. Enter Darigaaz. He's a clock on his own, and if you're really doing nothing you can fire up his ability to make that clock just a little bit faster.

Another option is some combination of partners. I think the only realistic options as far as that goes are Vial Smasher the Fierce and either Tana, the Bloodsower or Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper. Tana is sort of lame as a 2/2 since you're not really giving her some pants or a sword, but Ikra could be interesting. Both it and Vial Smasher give you random "value" on things you're probably already doing, which is always nice.

Overall, I think Darigaaz is the "power" option while Xira is the "safe" option. It's probably going to be difficult to nail down which is better without some testing, though.

[Dice_Box]

Its decks like that that keep Manabond banned.

Do you have a Bazaar? If so I think this is a good deck to slot it into. Also a Sakura-Tribe Scout and a Storm Cauldron seem to both offer advantages.

I would echo Entomb. Its just too useful if what you wish to do is get a card like Loam into the grave. If you have Stronghold active it just becomes nuts.

[Aggro_zombies]

Yeah, I was leaning towards Darigaaz too. Vial Smasher almost seems like she could be in the main somewhere, but I'd need to get one first.

I do have a Bazaar, but it's in my Sidisi Dredge deck. I guess I could swap it back and forth.

Entomb should probably replace Traverse. I'll have to dig out my extra copy.

And the most broken addition for this deck wouldn't be Manabond necessarily...it would be Prime Time. I used to have a Child of Alara 65 Lands control deck with Prime Time back in the day and the jolly green giant was hands down the best card in the deck. Then they banned him and the deck kind of fell apart after that.

[AngryTroll]

The idea for this deck came from my love for old-school Aggro Loam, the way it was prior to advent of the newfangled four-color versions that cut sweet cards like Seismic Assault for loose manabases and fat Knights. EDH doesn't give me quite the consistency I would like, but it does let me play a Jund Lands Grind-'Em-Out deck, so it's good enough.
This deck looks awesome. I really like EDH decks that echo my favorite decks from formats or ages that are now gone. I loved Legacy Aggro Loam, and this gets to play not just the best cards from that deck, but all the cards that were in the deck as it evolved and a bunch of cards that were never quite good enough to make the Legacy version.


Notable Omissions - Artifacts: Sol Ring...Sol Ring and its ilk are cards I've greatly soured on over the years, and I try not to include them in any of my decks anymore unless they have a heavy artifact theme or some other need for powerful fast mana. I don't think the card generates positive play experiences when played early and doesn't do a ton when played late.
This is exactly how I feel about this topic. Sure, the cards are good, but do they generate positive play experiences?


Discussion question: if given the choice of pairing the deck as-is with Xira, Adun Oakenshield, Darigaaz, the Igniter, or another Jund general, who would you pick and why?
I was pleasantly surprised with Xira in my Jund deck. I find myself drawing cards with her much more often than I thought I would, and she chumps fliers for me more often than I thought would be relevant as well.

I see Darigaaz on your potential list but not Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund; is there a reason for this? Karrthus seems like the most aggressive option for ending the game. I'm a sucker for the old card frame and old, cool legends in particular-I keep trying to assemble a Vaevictis Asmadi Jund deck. I'm very tempted to sleeve this up with Vaevictis as the general for fun.


Other thoughts:
I really like Vraska the Unseen and Garruk, Apex Predator in control decks in this color (if they can hit 7 mana for Garruk), but you already mentioned your reasoning for not running Vraska.

Reach of Branches is a card I always want to consider EDH Loam decks. It's no Worm Harvest, but it fulfills a similar role.

[Aggro_zombies]

Updated decklist here (http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/edh-aggro-loam/).

I've dusted this deck off again because of the announcement of the Jund Lands Commander deck they'll be releasing next month (I think?), so why not update the version I already have before Xira Arien gets replaced as the general?

Amusingly, though, I've been thinking about adding a fourth color and running Partner commanders. The genesis for that was the printing of Tatyova, Benthic Druid in Dominaria, which made me really want to run blue in a Landfall-based deck. The problem is, the best payoffs are in Gruul, and having black makes the deck way more consistent both in terms of tutoring and in having strong board control, so you end up locking yourself into Glint-Eye or whatever you want to call UBRG. There are a bunch of different Partner combinations that accomplish that, but the most compelling one is Vial Smasher the Fierce and Thrasios, Triton Hero. Thrasios himself is a pretty powerful payoff for a deck that wants to get a bunch of mana in play, while Vial Smasher is...not the worst, but given that you spend many turns just casting Loam repeatedly, not great either.

So at this point, the decision comes down to: is there a strong enough general in the new deck releasing to keep me in just Jund, or is it better to go BURG and get access to (off the top of my head):

Tatyova, Benthic Druid
Trade Routes
Laboratory Maniac

Academy Ruins
Tolaria West

There's not a ton of blue cards that are Lands-specific, but the ones that are there are pretty powerful, and you give yourself access to counterspells and a second powerful win condition in the form of Lab Man. It's something to think about for now, at least until they reveal the new commander product.

[Ace/Homebrew]

So... is Lord Windgrace strong enough?

[Davran]

So... is Lord Windgrace strong enough?

I hope so, since the other two commanders for the Jund deck have nothing to do with lands other than you need some lands to cast them. Swing and a miss out of WotC for the "lands matter" deck.

[Aggro_zombies]

So... is Lord Windgrace strong enough?
I...don't know?

The +2 is a pretty big upgrade on Xira, so that's a good sign.

The -3 is okay. I'd much rather return the lands to hand so I can reuse cycling lands, but this isn't bad either.

The ultimate is fine, if unexciting.

I'll have to put together a UBRG list first and compare the two to see whether I want to stay in Jund. I have some ideas for it but haven't taken the time to actually sketch it out, which makes it harder to make the call. For what it's worth, the manabase won't get much worse since I have all of the fetches / duals / shocks I need, but I suspect that I wouldn't run all of the ones that are available in those four colors just because you really, really want green, want black, and kind of want red and blue at some point.

And woof, today's spoilers have been rough, with only two new red cards that care about lands and a bunch of mediocre green reprints. The real theme of the deck seems to be Ramp Matters, which is basically every casual green EDH deck ever, so it feels like they're really missing an opportunity here.

[Aggro_zombies]

Updates to the list underway. I have a Lord Windgrace (LW) in the mail, so he'll take over the deck when he gets here.

- Ash Barrens, +Dakmor Salvage: Salvage turns LW's plus ability into an always-on draw two, so that's nice. Ash Barrens wasn't really doing anything and the cycle synergy with Archfiend wasn't enough to keep it in.

- Kessig Wolf Run, +Detection Tower: Stripping hexproof off of opponents is occasionally really clutch.

- Vesuva, + Mana Confluence: Vesuva was basically a Command Tower 60% of the time anyway, so...

- Groundskeeper, +Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace: Groundskeeper has an argument for its continued inclusion because it works with LW's plus, but it's really weak otherwise. I'm testing RMDP as a tool against midrange decks, but it's been lackluster so far.

- Zombie Sidisi, +Avenger of Zendikar: Normally I hate these kinds of obvious staple army-in-a-can cards, but Avenger defends LW like a champ and he works well with Turntimber Sower, which seems like a great card.

- Thragtusk, +Tireless Tracker: Swagtusk was very medium, and so is this card. This card is at least cheaper and gives me a mana sink, though.

- Ulamog, +GSZ: As soon as I realized that almost all the creatures I run are green, GSZ seemed like an obvious inclusion. I have a nice diversity of effects for it but don't currently have a way to get creature removal with it, so maybe I should fix that.

- Phyrexian Arena, +Destructive Flow: there's been an influx in partner commanders and five-color decks around here lately (more on that in a second), so this seems like a fine way to punish greedy manabases while leaving the fair decks relatively unharmed.

- Edge of Autumn, +Constant Mists: Lesson Learned: Don't run questionable cycling cards just to enable one of the best board control tools in your deck, because in the absence of that tool you're left with a very questionable card. Instead, run cards that protect your vulnerable planeswalker commander.

- Praetor's Council, +Windgrace's Judgment: LW is pretty solid, but his Judgement is silly strong. I thought this card was a sorcery at first and figured it was about on par with Maelstrom Pulse, but then I realized it was an instant and that I could cast it during people's EOT or as a response and I was all in.

Thoughts on the Deck:

I'm sticking with just Jund right now for two reasons: one, I can't figure out what Glint Eye build I like, and two, I really, really hate the partner commanders. They lend themselves to a style of Commander I despise, namely "Multicolor Draw-Go Control with a bunch of random staples, the most efficient on-color answers, powerful filtering, a light counterspell suite, and some kind of infinite combo so I can actually win". I don't like sitting down at a table and instantly being able to guess your deck list to within five or fewer cards, and I really don't like watching you play a land and pass for turns six through the end of the game while pretending to hold up one of your seven counters (which your sandbagging to force through your combo anyway, nice bluff idiot). In my deckbuilding experiments with Thrasios and Vial Smasher, I found my builds either increasingly moving in that direction or else ending up as random piles of 74 good spells that I couldn't coherently trim down to make room for lands. Jund at least is straightforward because there's fewer things I feel compelled to run, even if that means there's fewer options of what I can run.

I would like to try to get some or all of the following cards in the deck, since they all work with LW in some way: Rings of Brighthearth, The Chain Veil, and Contagion Engine. Engine was an all-star when I ran it in Daretti, but he synergized with the type line, so maybe it's not as good here. I'd also like to try to get Seedborn Muse and Silklash Spider in as an additional powerful effect and an additional defensive card, respectively. Turntimber Sower is going in for sure as soon as my copy arrives.