BUG Leovold Loam

[lavafrogg]

I am typing this up right now because I want to start discussion, but I think I did something pretty cool. I have played variations of bad loam decks for years but have not posted about one for quite a while.

I will edit he opening post as I play and with discussion obviously...

This is a mostly BG based loam deck with a blue splash for Leo and Baleful Strix.

List:

Creatures:

Creatures (13)
3 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
4 Dark Confidant
4 Baleful Strix
2 Tombstalker

Disruption (11)
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Collective Brutality
3 Abrupt Decay

Walkers (3)
3 Liliana of the Veil

Loam Things (9)
4 Mox Diamond
3 Life from the Loam
2 Sylvan Library

Land (24)

4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Polluted Delta
2 Swamp
1 Forest
1 Island
4 Wasteland
1 Barren Moor
1 Tranquil Thicket
1 Cephalid Coliseum
1 Academy Ruins
3 Bayou
1 Underground Sea
1 Tropical Island

Sideboard (15)
4 Hymn to Tourach
3 Ground Seal
2 Toxic Deluge
2 Fatal Push
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Liliana, the Last Hope


Changes:

In: Cephalid Coliseum, 2 Polluted Delta Out: 2 Cycle lands

In: Academy Ruins Out: Barren Moor

There it is.. help/shred/lets go!

[Megadeus]

How is there not a Cephalid Coliseum to lock these opponent out?

[lavafrogg]

How is there not a Cephalid Coliseum to lock these opponent out?

Because you are smarter than me.

The manabase is not right.

I did not try and get cute with the mana base yet, thank you for the feedback!

[Megadeus]

Also too many cycle lands. You probably don't need more than 2 TBH. Replace with a coliseum for the lock, and maybe like a tar pit or something. I feel like you want a man land, but you also want it to help cast stuff

[lavafrogg]

Also too many cycle lands. You probably don't need more than 2 TBH. Replace with a coliseum for the lock, and maybe like a tar pit or something. I feel like you want a man land, but you also want it to help cast stuff

Yeah, I know most of the cycle lands will get replaces except a few, just didn’t know the replacements. I also don’t ant to get too cute. Added more fetch lands and took out the cyclelands.

[Tzeentch]

I feel like this deck could use academy ruins very well as a way to recur baleful strix and possibly engineered explosives Or crucible of worlds. Maybe cut a barren moor and a collective brutality

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[lavafrogg]

I feel like this deck could use academy ruins very well as a way to recur baleful strix and possibly engineered explosives Or crucible of worlds. Maybe cut a barren moor and a collective brutality

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I really don't want go get too cute with the mana base, I will look at Academy Ruins as it is a great card but I feel like Coliseum might do the same thing... late game lock out/card draw. I'll add one and see what happens.

[Yeaux]

I think of http://buglands.com when I look at your list - which I'm a big fan of since it combines two of my favorite types of decks (loam and BUG stuff). I'm guessing the DD / Thespian's Stage combo had crossed your mind in a deck like this as another angle of attack. Looking at your list, if I was going to add those, I'd think about cutting the chalices and brutalities for some number of crop rotations, the combo, and some cantrips.

[lavafrogg]

I think of http://buglands.com when I look at your list - which I'm a big fan of since it combines two of my favorite types of decks (loam and BUG stuff). I'm guessing the DD / Thespian's Stage combo had crossed your mind in a deck like this as another angle of attack. Looking at your list, if I was going to add those, I'd think about cutting the chalices and brutalities for some number of crop rotations, the combo, and some cantrips.

You are the 5th person to send me that link ;). This is more of a BG deck that happens to have blue cards for Strix and Leo. As I am more of a BG player, I would rather play Chalice in this meta than just try and be a worse Deathrite deck.

I feel like someone who knows more than me said “Don’t play worse version of something else”.

This deck is trying to be a better version of the current Loam decks with the Chalice into Leo and a slightly better manabase. I could add the combo but, once again, I want to have a fairly stable mana base in this meta. I will keep reading BUG lands as he has a ton of good info on matchups where Loam is relevant.

Does anyone know if buglands.com guy is on the source?

[Megadeus]

You are the 5th person to send me that link ;). This is more of a BG deck that happens to have blue cards for Strix and Leo. As I am more of a BG player, I would rather play Chalice in this meta than just try and be a worse Deathrite deck.

I feel like someone who knows more than me said “Don’t play worse version of something else”.

This deck is trying to be a better version of the current Loam decks with the Chalice into Leo and a slightly better manabase. I could add the combo but, once again, I want to have a fairly stable mana base in this meta. I will keep reading BUG lands as he has a ton of good info on matchups where Loam is relevant.

Does anyone know if buglands.com guy is on the source?
Late response, but I'm not sure if he is or not. He is the guy who created the top decked app and he does post on facebook from time to time in the Atlanta eternal group so maybe just try messaging him on there

[Mr. Safety]

Collective Brutality/Liliana coupled with Loam is just pure gas, nice. I'm pretty sure your deck would really appreciate some high-impact planeswalkers like Jace, probably better than Leovold. Here is my reasoning: in other Leovold decks, they take advantage of the targeting trigger to draw extra cards and then Force of Will/Counterspell/Spell Pierce the spell. In this version you don't have ways of maintaining that kind of synergy. I think Dark Confidant is by far superior for card draw reasons unless you commit to more blue with Force of Will. It's older technology, but Intuition seems tailor-made for a deck like this.

[JackaBo]

I think you, and many others, wrongly value Leo on it's card drawing ability. In many matchups that's just flavor text to be honest. The real power of Leo is shutting down cantrips. Thus Leo is strongest when opponent doesnt have removal and need to dig their way out. Thus Leo works great with targeted discard (to snag that bolt) or as a follow up to hymn. FOWing a bolt on Leo can be ok if you know there's no other bolts and grip full of cantrips. Daze n pierce seldom counters removal against a good opponent. Counters to save creatures ("protect the Queen") are just not that powerful, which is why the most popular creatures are hard to remove or unfavorable to remove. Leo is neither.

[lavafrogg]

Collective Brutality/Liliana coupled with Loam is just pure gas, nice. I'm pretty sure your deck would really appreciate some high-impact planeswalkers like Jace, probably better than Leovold. Here is my reasoning: in other Leovold decks, they take advantage of the targeting trigger to draw extra cards and then Force of Will/Counterspell/Spell Pierce the spell. In this version you don't have ways of maintaining that kind of synergy. I think Dark Confidant is by far superior for card draw reasons unless you commit to more blue with Force of Will. It's older technology, but Intuition seems tailor-made for a deck like this.

I am utilizing Leo more as a hatebear/lock piece than card advantage. The fact that he cantrips on any removal is a bonus to the shutting down of card draw.

He is like a different Gaddock Teeg.

I also am already running Dark Confidant and Baleful Strix.... tons of creature based card draw.

[Megadeus]

And he combos with coliseum to basically mind Twist the opponent

[Fox]

I think you, and many others, wrongly value Leo on it's card drawing ability. In many matchups that's just flavor text to be honest. The real power of Leo is shutting down cantrips. Thus Leo is strongest when opponent doesnt have removal and need to dig their way out. Thus Leo works great with targeted discard (to snag that bolt) or as a follow up to hymn. FOWing a bolt on Leo can be ok if you know there's no other bolts and grip full of cantrips. Daze n pierce seldom counters removal against a good opponent. Counters to save creatures ("protect the Queen") are just not that powerful, which is why the most popular creatures are hard to remove or unfavorable to remove. Leo is neither.

I think there's bigger problems in this list than the concept of building around Leovold; mainly 4 Dark Confidant and massive CMCs. This list is trying to mash-up Aggro Loam with a strategy that needs to be more blue. Protecting the queen is fine, but there's a few key concepts your deck has to incorporate concerning Leovold: Crop Rotation [no Chalice] for Karakas and Liliana, the Last Hope [no Lilly-otV]. If you're not incorporating protection from exile effects and yard recursion with a Leovold-centric strategy, the deck isn't really going in the right direction. Even in theory, AggroLoam is just a better deck when it keeps P-Fire and uses a card like Chandra-ToD if it wants a huge payoff rather than do this weird Leo thing.

The basic ideas in Leo Prison should look something like this:

DRS x4
Leovold x2

Liliana, the Last Hope x2
JTMS x1

Search for Azcanta x1
Sylvan Library x1
Pernicious Deed x1

Brainstorm x4
Crop Rotation x2
Abrupt Decay x2
Thoughtseize x3
Collective Brutality x2
Toxic Deluge x2
FoW x3
Life from the Loam x2
Blue flex slot x3 (Ponder, Stifle, Strix, SCM all options) - the key here is it's bringing you up to 14 total blue cards

Polluted Delta x4
Misty Rainforest x3
Bayou x2
Underground Sea x3
Tropical Island x1
Island x2 (this extra basic could be Swamp)
Forest x1
Swamp x1
Bojuka Bog x1
Ghost Quarter x1 (can be Wasteland #3)
Wasteland x2
Cephalid Colosseum x1
Karakas x1
Thespian's Stage x1
Dark Depths x1

The deck could be customized to have a blue count of 16 for FoW playset, Depths/Stage isn't required if you're looking to reduce total land count, and Loam could be brought down to a 1-of if you wanted to incorporate Entomb/Darkblast/Vengeful Pharaoh-style shenanigans. A sideboard should probably include Nephalia Drownyard, EE, anti-burn cards (Hydroblast), Surgical, Diabolic Edict, another Deed, and a few Flusterstorm. Probably fine to finish off the board with a few Fatal Push, Tabernacle if you own it, and even something spicy like Nissa, Vital Force. It's just very hard to imagine that Leovold is ever meant to be played competitively with Mox Diamond/Chalice instead of DRS and cards that increase consistency.

[Mr. Safety]

I also am already running Dark Confidant and Baleful Strix.... tons of creature based card draw.

Which is exactly my point: why do you need Leovold? Just to shut down opponent's extra draws? That seems ok, I guess. I just don't think he's worth a blue splash, nor do I think Baleful Strix is worth the blue splash. Once you dip your toe into blue waters it's pretty hard to ignore the more powerful options in that color (Jace, Intuition.) Just my opinion, anyway.

EDIT: I also noticed 2x Tombstalker with 4x Dark Confidant...without a way to manipulate your library. I don't think this is smart. Tarmogoyf seems much better in that space.