Who needs blue? - Undefeated to a split finals with 4 Color Loam

Here is a no frills report.

The venue was THE store (we basically just have one yes) Dragon's Lair in Stockholm, Sweden.
Somewhere between 40 and 50 people showed up, and as I understand it that is about as large as a legacy event in Sweden gets.

As is the custom, I will excuse all my grammar and spelling mistakes for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to not being a native english speaker.

Prologue:
A couple of months ago I started brewing a Junk Depths list with Mox Diamonds, Chalice of the Void, Knight of the Reliquary, Green Sun's Zenith, Life from the Loam and Living Wish.
Not too long after that Niklas Kronberger won the Bazaar of Moxen 9 with his 4 Color Loam deck.
At the time I didn't even know that there existed such deck, because I started playing magic again this last december, after a 13 year break. I actually didn't even have a DCI number before this.
Anyway, I noticed his list was pretty much the same as mine minus the Living Wishes, Dark Depths and Thespian's Stages (and the wish board obviously), but sporting a red splash for Punishing Fire.
I started testing his list, and felt that it was a overall more stable deck than mine.
But as I said, the list were so similar that I felt a 1x Dark Depths and 1x Thespian's Stage would fit in quite naturally, and it did of course.

Here is the list that I used:

Land (26)
2x Bayou
1x Dark Depths
1x Dryad Arbor
3x Grove of the Burnwillows
1x Horizon Canopy
1x Karakas
1x Maze of Ith
1x Savannah
2x Scrubland
1x Taiga
1x Thespian's Stage
2x Tranquil Thicket
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2x Verdant Catacombs
4x Wasteland
2x Windswept Heath

Creature (10)
4x Dark Confidant
1x Gaddock Teeg
4x Knight of the Reliquary
1x Scavenging Ooze

Instant (6)
3x Abrupt Decay
3x Punishing Fire

Sorcery (6)
3x Green Sun's Zenith
3x Life from the Loam

Artifact (8)
4x Chalice of the Void
4x Mox Diamond

Enchantment (1)
1x Sylvan Library

Planeswalker (3)
3x Liliana of the Veil

Sideboard (15)
1x Ancient Grudge
2x Choke
1x Engineered Plague
3x Ethersworn Canonist
2x Golgari Charm
4x Leyline of the Void
1x Qasali Pridemage
1x Slaughter Games

For people that don't know, 4 Color Loam is a control deck more than anything else, but it's usually lumped together with Aggro Loam because they have some similarities.

I'll compared to Niklas Kronbergers 75, as his list has surely already been dissected by those interested in these kind of decks.
I've reduced the number of cycle lands to a meager 2x Tranquil Thicket and 1x Horizon Canopy (if that even counts). The reason for this is that I've felt that the meta is too fast and I very rarely have time to start Loam+Cycling, unless if it's in a control mirror.
Of course I'm not oblivious to the fact that it can save the Loam from a Surgical or the like, but being able to respond by floating a mana, sac & tutor with the Knight for a Canopy is enough I think. This isn't Lands.dec, so getting the Loam removed isn't the end of the world.
The 2x Barren Moors have become 1x Green Sun's Zenith and 1x Thespian's Stage and 1x Tarmogoyf has become 1x Dark Depths.
And 1x Taiga has become the 3rd Grove of the Burnwillows now.
The extra 1x Green Sun's Zenith helps with ramp or when you need a land for the Knight to sac (Dryad Arbor), against combo (Gaddock & Ooze) and when you are out of gas (Knight).
Thespian's Stage and Dark Depths are self-explanatory.

Main event:
As I said, I recently started playing after a 13 year hiatus, so this would actually be the first time I play in a proper tournament with top8, legacy or otherwise.

Now for the games.
I don't remember everything play by play or turn by turn, so I'll try and capture the games in broad strokes.
When I I don't remember too much of a game and I won it, it probably means I locked them with Punishing, Wasteland and/or Liliana, not that nothing happened during the whole game.
When I say combo, I mean Stage+Depths=Marit Lage

Round 1 vs. UB Tezzeret
I know him and what he is on. This isn't exactly a great matchup as UB Tezz is a pretty unorthodox deck that can attack from a lot of angles.
G1 I'm in the driver seat from the get go. I have 2x Dark Confidant in starting hand. He forces the first, the second one resolves. I get a Knight and start to go for the combo. He has a Baleful Strix in play and I draw a Abrupt Decay which I plan on using on his strix so I can kill him at once with my Marit Lage when she appears. He plays a Ensnaring Bridge so I have to Decay it instead of the Strix. I combo and attack with everything, he blocks the Marit Lage with the strix. On his turn he, of course, plays a Jace and bounces my token. My Confidant and Knight kills his Jace and keeps bashing my opponent until he is very low on life. He then draws and plays a Wurmcoil Engine. It isn't a immediate threat as I have a Maze of Ith, I cannot however attack and kill him because he will block with lifelink. Turns and eternities passes us by. I'm a bit stressed because he could draw his Thopter combo. I eventually get more creatures so I can finally attack him for lethal and Maze my creature that he blocks. My Confidant drew me like 15 cards.
G2 It is the opposite of G1. I think I have two Knights killed, countered I reckon. After that I have nothing of importance. He has a big Tezz at first and then a small one. His artifacts start becoming 5/5s and he has Wurmcoil. We are close to time so I try to stall. I Ancient Grudge and some other stuff so buy time. He kills me on turn 4 in time. Of course he does.
0-0-1

Round 2 vs. Miracles
Because I will face someone else who has gone to time, I assume there is a high probability of him being on Miracles. My assumption is correct.
To be honest I don't remember too much of this round because I kind of crushed him.
G1 He lands a early Counterbalance but doesn't have a top. I keep casting stuff that Miracles don't like, Confidants, Gaddock Teeg, Lilianas. He doesn't hit anything in like 10 spells with his Counterbalance, but he keeps up a while by removing my stuff, but eventually it's just too much for him.
G2 I feel a bit sad for him, I have it all. Confidant, Liliana, Punishing, Loam and Sylvan Library. In case you don't know, these cards work in synergy with each other which makes them completely broken in a control matchup. He even Cliqued me once, put my Punishing at the bottom and I drew a new Punishing instantly from the Clique draw. I think maybe he put a Rest in Peace in play, but I Abrupt Decayed it without taking too much damage from it. I drew my Slaughter Games and removed his Entreats, which means he has basically zero outs unless I manage to kill myself. I then proceed to present my combo which prompts him to concede.
1-0-1

Round 3 vs. BUG Control (I'm not sure if this was Round 3 or 4 tbh, I've might've mixed them up)
I know him and kind of know what he is on. I'm not sure if this deck has a proper name, but it is definitely not a normal BUG Control. Jace and Liliana obviously, but with Deeds, Innocent Blood, Loam, Worm Harvest and so on.
G1 Not much to say. He removes my threats and the game certainly looks to be going in his favor. But then he floods out while I top deck threat after threat.
G2 He thinks I'm on BW Deathblade or Junk, which I usually played before starting with 4 Color Loam. So he doesn't sideboard correctly against me. I start with it all. A Leyline of the Void in my starting hand and then a Chalice for 1 and plenty of threats. I get Loam online and just run away with the game. He does put up a fight though but I'm never really threatened.
2-0-1

Round 4 vs. BW Deathblade (Again, not entirely sure if this was Round 3 or 4)
As I said, I used to play this very deck before so I know it in and out, and I know I'm a massive favorite in this matchup.
G1 He owns me so hard that it is almost funny. Reason is, he just keeps casting discard after discard and taking whatever relevant I have.
G2 It's a game of epic proportions. He starts by discardraping me again and follows it up with Stoneforge and Batterskull. I get Grove and Punishing online. I manage to stabilize when I'm on 4 life and he is on 30+. I have to double Punish his Germ token every turn because he has mana enough to pick it up and replay it. He gets more lands so he can recast his Batterskull and deploy additional threat in the form of Deathrites and Lingering Souls and I get more lands so I can cast Punishing additional times. I get a Golgari Charm in time for his Spirit tokens. He starts drawing Wastelands and goes efter my Groves. I draw a Loam just in time to rebuild. He is eventually at 45+ life because of my Grove activations.. He can not get out of my Punishing+Loam lock however and I think I get a Chalice for 1. I simply bide my time because I will eventually draw a ginormous Knight or Stage+Depths and he won't be able to swords. I combo and his 40+ life doesn't seem so impressive after that.
G3 Because G2 took a lifetime, we just had a few minutes for G3. I mull 4 and he T1 Inquisition of Kozilek and T2 Hymns. We go to time before he can kill me, phew.
2-0-2

Round 5 vs. ANT
I know what he is on because I sat nearby him in a earlier round. Even if I hadn't, I'd put him on storm or at least some other "hard" combo because of archetype stereotyping, if you know what I mean.
G1 I get an amazing starting seven which has Fetch, Grove, Loam, Punishing, Knight, Liliana and Abrupt Decay. And by amazing I mean I have to snapmull it because I know he is on storm. I get a suspect 6 but it has 3 lands and a Zenith and I'm on the play so here goes nothing. He Brainstorms and ponders, no discard. I T3 Zenith for 2, he looks a bit alarmed and says resolves. I say Gaddock, he concedes.
G2 He keeps 7. I keep a insane hand with Leyline of the Void, Chalice of the Void, Ethersworn Canonist, Zenith, Knight and 2 lands. So I start with the Leyline in play. He starts with Lotus Petal, cracks it and ponders, chooses to shuffle and draw. He doesn't draw a land. I play a land and a Chalice of 0. He draws a land I think. I play a land and play a Canonist. The game is already over unless he has like Massacre, Chain of Vapor and can go off the same turn, which he doesn't. He plays a LED and looks at me as if asking if it resolves, I point to my Chalice, he concedes. He shows me after the game that he had a very good starting hand and was just one card shy of going off.
3-0-2

Intermission.
Because my last round was over very fast, I have some spare time to stretch my legs and scout potential opponents. I get notified that I'm ranked 8th going to the last round of the swiss. Everyone ranked 1-7th can draw into top8, so that means I'm gonna face the 7th ranked and I have to win.

Round 6 vs. Black & Taxes/Deadguy Ale
I have no idea what he is on. He casually asks me if I want to draw, I decline. I get a bit disheartened by the fact that he seems perfectly up to snuff while I'm getting a bit fatigued. He is very nice though and talks while we play, which just puts me even more off my game.
G1 He goes Basic Swamp and Aether Vial. I'm baffled. He plays a Tidehollow Sculler and takes my Punishing.. Then one more Sculler and a Thalia and so on, I'm dead. I know that this is very favorable matchup for me.
G2 I T1 Land, Mox, Chalice for 1 which more or less wrecks him. He does his best to overcome his disadvantages and I play pretty sloppy, but I win anyway, not sure how, a big Knight perhaps, maybe I went for the combo because he had RiP in play, no one knows. He shows me a hand with like 1x Aether Vial, 2x MoMs, 2x Deathrite after he concedes.
G3 He goes Basic Land and no T1 play. Well ok then, on my T1 I Land, Mox, Chalice for 1 again. He obviously doesn't have a Vial, MoM or Deathrite, but at least he can't Plow my creatures then. I have Grove and Punishing which invalidates the majority of his deck. I play a Knight on maybe T4, he plays a Revoker naming Knight and a Thalia. I'm a bit strapped on mana so he somehow has enough time to equip the Revoker with a Sword of Fire and Ice, which would actually be a real problem if not for my Ancient Grudge in hand. I'm not put under any pressure, after the SoFaI incident, that my Punishing can't deal with. I think I have it all by end, meaning Liliana, Knight, Punishing, Loam and Stage+Depths.
4-0-2

So, top8. I think I ended up 3rd in the swiss.

Quarterfinal vs. UW Stoneblade (but I think he is on Miracles during the whole round)
I'm pleased that the games will not be on time now, because I'm pretty tired and need to take my time to not screw up.
G1 I don't why I put him on Miracles, he fetched basics I guess. I think he plays a T3 TNN and my brain stopped working so I still put him on Miracles. Anyway, I play a Liliana and kill his TNN and after that he didn't really play anything more to pressure me, perhaps a Clique. I don't remember too much which means it probably was smooth sailing for me.
G2 Turns out to be pretty epic. I play and resolve Sylvan Library, Liliana and Choke, perhaps he forced a Chalice for 1 also. Anyway, I think my three permanent have more or less already won me the game before it even started. He responds in kind with a Blood Moon and shortly after that he Engineered Explosives for 0 so my Mox is no more. Seeing as I play zero basics, this wasn't such a good situation for me. So both of us can more or less do nothing while I tick up my Liliana. I get her to 7 loyalty and then force him to sacrifice his Blood Moon or his Basics. He puts his Blood Moon in the graveyard. I put a Confidant in play after her ultimate and pass the turn. He puts in a new Blood Moon on his turn, mmkay. So we are locked down again, but this time I have a clock. My Confidant is joined by a mighty Dryad Arbor and Chalice for 1. I keep attacking him for 3 each turn and both of us just pass while locked down. When he is on 4, I think, he Council's Judgments and grudgingly exiles my Confidant. My Liliana goes to 7 and then ultimates again. The 1/1 Mountain Dryad takes me the last distance.
I'm flabbergasted by how the last game turned out and even more so when he says that he isn't on Miracles. Great guy btw, hope to play against him again.
5-0-2

Semifinals vs. Shardless BUG
I know him and what he is on. Knowing someone is on Shardless BUG doesn't help too much though. It's a rematch of the BoM9 finals!
G1 He just crushes me like Shardless are known to do from time to time. Deathrites, Shardless into Goyfs, Lilianas, Jaces and so on. He Decays, edicts and bounces what I play, good times.
G2 I don't remember, which probably means I have Punishing and Grove to kill off everything except Goyfs which I just Decayed or stared down with a Knight. Maybe this is the game where I was greedy (as I am always) and didn't ultimate my Liliana on 6, but ticked her up to 7 and then she got Decayed. I win anyway. Maybe I killed him with the combo.
G3 An arduous game. I think I mull to 6 and open with a Land, Mox and Gaddock Teeg which feels more like a joke than anything else. Over the first few turns of Abrupt and Liliana fencing he established a slightly favored position. He sets up a Shardless into Ancestral Vision with a Brainstorm. I, however, draw a Grove which goes along nicely with the Punishing that is in my graveyard. He keeps pressuring me with Agents and DRS I believe. I play a Confidant and then a Knight. He draws a Wasteland for my Grove but I draw a Loam to get it back. He edicts me with his Liliana and my Bob has to go. While all this is happening my Punishing continues to give me incremental advantages by either taking away loyalty from his planeswalkers, killing creatures or being pitched to Liliana discards. He gets a goyf that is a 6/7 by now. He is greedy and brainstorms with his Jace instead of bouncing my Knight, resulting in that I can EoT fetch a Thespian's Stage and untap. So now I can summon Marit Lage at will and he has pretty few outs. I pass and he doesn't find what he needs.
6-0-2

Finals vs. ???
Immediately after my semifinal game is over the other finalist asked if we should split, I jumped at the proposal because I was so tired. I found out shortly after that he played Noble Fish (Bahra Bant) which is a overwhelmingly positive matchup for me, oh well.

Epilogue:
Well I have to say I'm content with how my first tournament participation went.

Anyway, concerning the deck I'll just copy and paste what I wrote in the Aggro Loam thread a while back, because it still accurately represent what I feel about the deck.

I like this deck a lot, it can play out in so many different ways, being a controlling lands deck in some cases, a Jundish/Maverickesque midrange in others and a (albeit little slow) combo in some. More often than not, it's everything at the same time, which makes it hard for most conventional decks to defend against all it's angles.
It plays cards that are already very powerful by themselves and they work synergistically with each other, i.e. Knight becomes more powerful with Loam, Liliana with Loam/Punishing, Knights can fetch Grove for Punishing, Chalice protects Marit and Knight from Swords and so on. I can understand why it was able to win the BoM9 and I do not understand why it's so fringe.
The Thespian's Stage+Dark Depths fits so naturally into the deck, given that you can both tutor and dredge into it, as well as Loam it back should Marit get removed. Also, the Knight is usually fairly large after you've executed the combo, because of all the lands in the graveyard.
If you kill them with Marit Lage the first game, they will often board and/or use resources to try and play around the combo, and then you can just lock them with Waste or Punishing instead, or simply play a normal midrange game.
Or vice versa if you wastelock them the first game and they don't know about the combo, you can surprise them the second game.
Also the combo doesn't care about graveyard hate, which is the decks main weak point.
I'd like to fit in a Volrath's Stronghold somewhere, for grindy control matchups.
It's weak matchups would be blue combo and Blood Moons.
The mana base is obviously super greedy, but it is a Loam, Punishing and Chalice deck after all, so a mull to 6 or even a 5 isn't usually that bad.

Very nice! Have you made any changes since this tournament, like adding the Volrath's Stronghold that you were thinking about?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dosferra

I do not understand why it's so fringe.

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I think you wrote it. It attacks from several angles and as such, this deck isn't easy to pilot. My guess, only. I stopped playing LftL based decks some time around Relic of Prog printing and sold the cards when RiP went out.
Add to the fact that the mulligans are quite an often thing and contrary to usual BS deck, you don't have a luxury of free unmulligan, and ehre you got why there's not so much appeal for the masses, esp. when combo mu seems to be not really thrilling pre-board.
The small, yet maybe still important reason is that the deck is a bit more Owlin' than people might bear, so the usual hooded dood will stay away from it, esp. if playing Loam would mean he's not in line with the rest of his group and might be ridiculed cause he doesn't play the usual set of SFM, DRS, BS, LED, DRit, IT, TNN and Jitte (not in one deck, of course).

Loam was one of my most beloved decks I ever played. The durdly nature was what I loved, it was sooo funny. And powerful! :)


Congrats on your Finnish. :-P

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LOLWut

Very nice! Have you made any changes since this tournament, like adding the Volrath's Stronghold that you were thinking about?

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Yes I did try out Volrath's Stronghold, as the 61st card. It was great in grindy games, especially against other BGx decks, such as Shardless, Jund and Nic Fit. But these are matchups that are already favorable or at the very least even.
What I'd like to improve is the early game, primarily the first 1-3 turns, as this where the deck can be quite cumbersome. Volrath's Stronghold doesn’t help in that department so I’ve shelved the idea for now. Solutions that don’t rely on the graveyard would be preferable as well. For instance vs. Miracles your creatures are usually exiled via Swords or RiP, or put at the bottom of the library so the Stronghold doesn’t really help there either.
I haven’t been able to test as much as I like because Punishing Fire was bugged and didn’t work for about 2 weeks on MTGO. At the moment my list looks the same except that I have changed one of the Scrublands into another fetch, as the most common reason for mulliganing is not having a green source.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bed Decks Palyer

I think you wrote it. It attacks from several angles and as such, this deck isn't easy to pilot. My guess, only. I stopped playing LftL based decks some time around Relic of Prog printing and sold the cards when RiP went out.
Add to the fact that the mulligans are quite an often thing and contrary to usual BS deck, you don't have a luxury of free unmulligan, and ehre you got why there's not so much appeal for the masses, esp. when combo mu seems to be not really thrilling pre-board.
The small, yet maybe still important reason is that the deck is a bit more Owlin' than people might bear, so the usual hooded dood will stay away from it, esp. if playing Loam would mean he's not in line with the rest of his group and might be ridiculed cause he doesn't play the usual set of SFM, DRS, BS, LED, DRit, IT, TNN and Jitte (not in one deck, of course).

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I think you’ve got it right on pretty much every point there. Especially on the one about Brainstorm and mulliganing.
The deck usually has no problems with consistency in the long run, as it has Dark Confidant, Sylvan Library, Loam+Cycle lands, Green Sun’s Zenith and Knight for drawing, filtering and tutoring. But, just as it has been brought up recently in several posts and articles, I think most people feel that they can’t really give up playing blue because of Brainstorms omnipotence.
With that said, pretty much every fair deck that runs Brainstorm is a positive matchup for 4-Color Loam. The losses in these games come almost exclusively from the deck beating itself, which I admit is frustrating to say the least.