[Deck] 43 Lands

The build I most recently played:

4 Mox Diamond

4 Taiga
3 Volcanic Island
1 Mountain
1 Forest
4 Wooded Foothills

4 Maze
4 Waste
4 Port

2 Forgotten Cave
1 Tranquil Thicket
3 Tolaria West

1 Academy Ruins
1 Tabernacle
1 Vesuva
1 Valakut
1 Glacial Chasm

1 Zuran Orb
1 Engineered Explosives
4 Manabond
4 Exploration
3 Intuition
3 Life from the Loam
4 Burning Wish

--SB
3 Grip
1 Karakas
3 Chalice
2 Tormod's
2 Seismic Assault
1 Hull Breach
1 Call the Skybreaker
1 Devastating Dreams
1 Loam

The benefits of Valakut is simply this: you win a lot faster, you can win without controlling the board, and you can win without ever leaving the safety of your chasm. Put simply, once you have Loam and a Manabond, it takes, on average, 3 turns to win. You can sit under a chasm, paying an irrelevant sum of life every upkeep, while setting up the win. The first target with Tolaria West is either Zuran Orb (for recurring mountains) or Vesuva (to start crossing over multiple chasms) After that, its simply a matter of getting 3 mountains in hand and discarding them into play for 18 damage.

I experimented with Burning Wish in this build and found it to be so-so. Assault out of the board was not as good as I had hoped; today, I'm going to play a different build that eschews burning wish for a fourth color (black) and replace the Assaults with Meloku/Volrath's Stronghold. I think im going to run a set of bobs in place of the wishboard. All other hate/anti-hate cards remain the same.

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Originally Posted by Antonius

The benefits of Valakut is simply this: you win a lot faster, you can win without controlling the board, and you can win without ever leaving the safety of your chasm. Put simply, once you have Loam and a Manabond, it takes, on average, 3 turns to win. You can sit under a chasm, paying an irrelevant sum of life every upkeep, while setting up the win. The first target with Tolaria West is either Zuran Orb (for recurring mountains) or Vesuva (to start crossing over multiple chasms) After that, its simply a matter of getting 3 mountains in hand and discarding them into play for 18 damage.

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The winning faster point is taken, but I think you'd still need to maintain a pretty stiff lock or else you spend your valakut drops killing random creatures. If such an outcome happens, do you have to waste or orb your own duals just to loam them back? That seems really slow. Also, the blue lands deck usually doesn't care about breaking chasm and recurring it - i'm not sure why this is an advantage. Also, how are you getting 3 mountains --> 18 damage from one valakut?

I think it bears noting that with an undisrupted loam+manabond, almost every lands build kicks ass... the improvements that are most crucial concern the resiliency of the deck against disruption.

Finally, out of curiosity, how does this build compare with the Scapeshift lands builds? Have you tested/compared the two?

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Originally Posted by Antonius

The benefits of Valakut is simply this: you win a lot faster, you can win without controlling the board, and you can win without ever leaving the safety of your chasm. Put simply, once you have Loam and a Manabond, it takes, on average, 3 turns to win. You can sit under a chasm, paying an irrelevant sum of life every upkeep, while setting up the win. The first target with Tolaria West is either Zuran Orb (for recurring mountains) or Vesuva (to start crossing over multiple chasms) After that, its simply a matter of getting 3 mountains in hand and discarding them into play for 18 damage.

I experimented with Burning Wish in this build and found it to be so-so. Assault out of the board was not as good as I had hoped; today, I'm going to play a different build that eschews burning wish for a fourth color (black) and replace the Assaults with Meloku/Volrath's Stronghold. I think im going to run a set of bobs in place of the wishboard. All other hate/anti-hate cards remain the same.

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So you cut Factories for more mana-producing lands.

While many people argue factories do nothing, I find them valuable to clock your opponents in some of the matchups, especially in post-board games.

I think you could play any win condition imaginable and win if you have Chasm + Loam + Manabond. The burden of proof is on you for why your kill is better than the others. Mindslaver can win just as effectively in a Loam - Manabond situation.

The things to focus on when discussing a kill condition are two things:

1. Utility when not being used for the kill.
-your build adds 5 mana-producing lands that do little else to the deck. There are marginal benefits to casting spells and not being mana-screwed, but all in all, the cards changed make the deck worse (without Valakut)
-Mindslaver is entirely dead, but it is only one slot. Additionally, you can slaver-lock over two turns to some effect, including a wrath of god every other turn with Tabernacle.

2. Space in deck
-Mindslaver requires one slot. This requires 5 slots.

I think iostream has it right; resiliency is the most important factor in Lands! decks, and yours seems extremely poor against graveyard hate.

What is your typical boarding strategy against say, Natural Order Counterbalance - Top or Enlightened Tutor Thopter-Top?

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The winning faster point is taken, but I think you'd still need to maintain a pretty stiff lock or else you spend your valakut drops killing random creatures.

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The stiff lock is double chasm. I'll say it again because I wasn't so clear the first time, but Vesuva--the primary facilitator of double chasm--is so flexible in this build because it also serves as a second valakut. Likewise, using Zuran orb to recur your duals also fits handily into the way the deck plays because orb is already so damn good at stalling the game--whether its directly, but regaining life lost to opposing creatures, or indirectly, by recouping life paid to maintain a chasm. It also bears noting that with a manabond or explorations, Zorb + Loam is a mana generating engine.

Also, you say that sacking duals to Zorb is slow, but i'm guessing you have yet to play a game where the only thing you have to do to win that same turn is find a way to get three of your lands in play into your hand. This kill engine is also streamlined because every piece it needs to operate is either efficient in some other manner or has other applications (Orb, Vesuva) or is fetchable with Tolaria West. Note that Mindslaver, the only other instant-win we have yet to discover for this deck, is not.

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Also, how are you getting 3 mountains --> 18 damage from one valakut?

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Read what I said about getting Vesuva first; thats how you get 6 damage off each mountain. Lands played through Manabond enter the battlefield at the same time, thus causing all their triggers to stack and resolve at the same time. So if you have three mountains in play, you only need three more in hand + Valakut + Vesuva to deliver a (usually) fatal 18 damage. It is not hard to get to that count at all.

Also, when I say "sit under chasm" i literally mean, sit under chasm. Pay the cumulative upkeep, because usually you'll kill them before it gets to 3+ age counters anyways.

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I think it bears noting that with an undisrupted loam+manabond, almost every lands build kicks ass...

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Of course, but the question is, at what point do you just instantly win? With more traditional builds, that happens when you have crossed the 13-mana threshold, tutored up your Academy Ruins and somehow found your singleton Mindslaver. How easy is it to find that singleton? In theory it shouldn't be so hard, but in practice it isn't run into often enough to end games with extreme precision. As I said before, you can't snatch it with Tolaria and the Intution that you saw in your first 8-15 cards (after that, you rarely pass up an opportunity to loam, amiright?) was probably used to get Loam/Tolaria/(business)--not Mindslaver. Your best shot at getting that Mindslaver when you need it is using Cephalid Coliseum to "draw" nine--but that requires you have 3 loams in your graveyard.

@ mcchainmail--

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I think you could play any win condition imaginable and win if you have Chasm + Loam + Manabond. The burden of proof is on you for why your kill is better than the others. Mindslaver can win just as effectively in a Loam - Manabond situation.

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Yes, but using the Valakut kill engine often allows you to get the same efficiency out of Exploration that you would usually get out of Manabond. Manabond adds a base of 3 land drops to each turn, barring any cycling lands that allow you to further gas up loam. Recurring chasm essentially eats two of those additional land drops, thus reducing manabond's efficiency to Exploration's levels.

The Valakut clock is faster than the clock that is Chasm's cumulative upkeep. As such, you can usually afford to just pay life into Chasm instead of sacking and recurring chasm. Thus your exploration becomes as effective as manabond would otherwise be, under a chasm-lock.

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your build adds 5 mana-producing lands that do little else to the deck. There are marginal benefits to casting spells and not being mana-screwed, but all in all, the cards changed make the deck worse (without Valakut)

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I don't think you can just dismiss those benefits as marginal. Dual lands can be used to cycle and thus gas up your loam or just see that one extra card on turn 1 or turn 2. Factories cannot.

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the improvements that are most crucial concern the resiliency of the deck against disruption.

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I think dealing with that is more in the realm of how you construct your sideboard and brings me to the next evolution of the build. Having 4x Bob in your board just turns game 2 completely on its head.

I played this build today, and I was extremely happy with it, despite being short 2 duals from my "ideal" list.

4 Mox Diamond

4 Wooded Foothills
3 Taiga
1 Barbarian Ring (supposed to be a 4th Taiga)
1 Bayou
3 Volcanic Island
1 Mountain (supposed to be a Badland)
1 Forest

4 Wasteland
4 Port
4 Maze

2 Tranquil Thicket
2 Forgotten Cave
3 Tolaria West

1 Valakut
1 Vesuva
1 Academy Ruins
1 Tabernacle
1 Glacial Chasm

4 Exploration
4 Manabond
4 Loam
4 Intuition
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Zuran Orb

--SB
1 Meloku
4 Dark Confidant
1 Volrath's
3 Krosan Grip
3 Chalice
2 Tormod's
1 Karakas

Going from zero creature (not even manlands) to Meloku/Bob after board seems like a cheap rope-a-dope but it does work and it is brutal. Bob, in particular, is sick because it goes right around all of the graveyard hate and is absolutely stellar, especially in matches where certain utility lands (wasteland vs mono-color, maze vs creature-less control) are marginal-to-useless. Despite how awesome bob is, I did lose a game and draw a match due to misplays made with bob. Heres some tidbits I can remember for the short, 5-round tournament

Round 1 vs Ur Dreadstill

Game 1 I keep a slower hand with loam but no acceleration I get Mana producing lands, a couple of cyclers a couple of wastelands and double maze. He stuns me with Dreadnought backed by wasteland and a couple of extra stifles. Life sucks sometimes, but keeping that hand was probably a mistake. And That is one of my flaws as a player--I'm always more inclined to keep, even if there are some doubts.

Game 2 - I see two Bobs: first gets Dazed the second gets countered by a blind-flip to counterbalance. He untaps and gets Countertop going so I'm forced to tutor up ee, which he counters using force, pitching force. I get academy ruins in play to protect my ee from Relic, but he then overpowers me by playing a second blood moon. I lose ee. At this point, he has 3 basic islands, a volc, moon and countertop. I have zuran orb and five or six mountains. He makes a trinket mage, gets another relic and starts the beatdown. A turn after the second moon, I draw Meloku but have no islands. Some turns later, I draw Vesuva and use it to copy his island--judge confirms thats legal-- and Play meloku next turn with daze mana up. He had a third force, though, so no luck with stealing the game.

Round 2 vs ub Merfolk

Game 1 - don't remember much, it was a steam roll. I had wastelands for his duals and drew more ports than he could get lands. He scoops before I blow him up.

Game 2 - Again, I'm able to dominate his mana and largely slow him down. I made two bobs out that provided ridiculous card advantage. But I also played like an idiot and used the one tolaria west I saw to fetch a second maze (he later exiled it with Relic, thus preventing me from recurring it) instead of Zorb. I end up dredging into Zorb, then use a loam to get Ruins. I finally put Zorb back on top with 2 life left. First bob flips Zorb...second Bob flips Loam. Leyline of Anticipation, why are you never there when I need you? >_<

Game 3 - I make some good drops of a T1 exploration and he gets a T1 vial, followed by a turn 2 Silvergill. I grip his Vial before he can get it past 1 counter then waste him down to stick him at 1 island for much of the game. Later, I get Zorb online and he gets a curscatcher and a Lord to accompany his Silvergill. I dredge into Meloku then get Volrath's to recur him (and lose 5 life in the process--ooh, how I must learn to play with bob correctly). He attacks; I use meloku to rob him of islandwalk and slaughter his forces. The game is pretty much over from there.

Round 3 vs NO Elves

Game 1 - I get a fast start with exploration/mox diamond, and make a turn 2 tabernacle, which pretty much hammers him before he can get any kind of mana engine shenanigans started. I blow him up on the seventh or eighth turn.

Game 2 - I had assumed he was playing elfball, so i boarded out wastelands for Chalices and made a little more room for grip. He stuns me with a turn 3 NO >> Prog followed by Turn 4 NO >> Terrastadon. Pretty good.

Game 3 - Chalices come out for Bob. I get Double Bob + Manabond out on the field and he can do nothing to disrupt me once Chasm comes down. Time gets called and I once again make a key error. On my last turn, I use volrath's and Academy Ruins to pay for bobs. After cycling and westing and stuff I end up being 1 colorless mana short of casting a third loam to get the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th mountain I needed to do terrible, terrible damage. Mistakes, mistakes.

Round 4 vs MBC ---

Not much to say on this matchup; it wasn't much of one. My opponent's MB was focused entirely on creature kill. I handily took game 1. After boarding he brought in leylines and took out most creature kill. I ran off with double bob and crushed him with Meloku + Manabond.

Round 5 -- I get matched up against a friend playing Eva Green (very favorable matchup). Due to the very top-heavy prize payout of the tournament (only top 3 got prize after 5 rounds of swiss...) he was still in the runnings with 3-1. I had no chance with 2-1-1. So I intentionally scooped and we play tested his deck against my UW Counterthop. He ended up getting 2nd. he told me he would give me a favorable trade in exchange for my kindness, but time will only tell

All this valakut discussion is sure interesting and I like how this deck is not so GY dependent as traditional lands build, however I d still like to hear more about sideboarding and playing around GY hate - with Blue Lands that is. Like - why no one runs ancient grudge SB when relic and crypt are both artifacts - and a vial, which is super-annoying. Are chalices better than trinispheres? (I mean - trinis just completely lock people down under the LD pressure this deck puts up) Why some people don't run crucibles sb? What do you do if you get a decent hand and opp opens with leyline? Or do you just mulligan until you get a grip?

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Originally Posted by Oddus

All this valakut discussion is sure interesting and I like how this deck is not so GY dependent as traditional lands build, however I d still like to hear more about sideboarding and playing around GY hate - with Blue Lands that is. Like - why no one runs ancient grudge SB when relic and crypt are both artifacts - and a vial, which is super-annoying. Are chalices better than trinispheres? (I mean - trinis just completely lock people down under the LD pressure this deck puts up) Why some people don't run crucibles sb? What do you do if you get a decent hand and opp opens with leyline? Or do you just mulligan until you get a grip?

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The main problem with Ancient Grudge is that opponents can pop Crypt/Relic in response to it, and the activation cost of those artifacts are extremely cheap, so this happens basically all the time you play grudge. Krosan Grip skirts around this issue. This problem is not so much the case with problematic enchantments like Leyline or CB, which is why some people play Ray of Revelation over Ancient Grudge. In addition, cycling lands allow you to at least protect your loam against Crypt/Relic, so we're not just relying on Grip.

Extirpate is the biggest problem for this deck, and the reason why many people really do play Crucible in the board, myself included. I'm not sure why you claim that no one plays crucible.

As for Trinisphere, it's an interesting idea. I haven't tested it. My gut feeling is that it's too slow against combo, and the disadvantage that it slows down Loam is a significat one. That could be an acceptable price to pay in the right metagame, perhaps one heavy in elves or goblins?

2 iostream

Never said no one plays crucible, but some lists don't run it. Grudge makes crypt/relic pop, which is fine if you are drawing cards, which is what you usually do when you see one, unless you bait it with thicket in hand (grudge is still better in this situation I think). I don't have overly big playtesting experience - some merfok, countertop bant, aggroloam is what I mostly play. I am actually thinking about running bojuka bog SB as a gy hate,cause it's tutorable, uncounterable and unstoppable.

Trinis used to be a sb part for this deck I think some time ago, and I agree it's VERY slow and un-tutorable (save intuition), but I'm more worried about locking down opponent post-board, not just using it as anti-combo. What I mean is - you are much less likely to get a crypt for 3 mana, esp with all wasteland/port/quarter action going. And extirpate. Leyline stays a problem, but that is always a bet I suppose.

On the combo topic - I think the most prevalent is show and tell one, and this one neither chalice nor trini stops - am I right here? So basically what exactly is chalice for? TES? They have ways to fight both, and trini is even harder in a way, since they don't go anywhere until they get rid of it, which is hard to do because of it. I'm mostly thinking in vacuum here though, so I would love to hear what you think!

And what about dragon stompy? We just hope no one plays it? :)

Dragon Stompy is an acceptable loss. When you play a deck whose strategy is as linear and powerful as this one, there are certain bad matchups that one must simply expect and accept.

As to trinisphere--I've played versions of lands that ran Trinispheres and 3-5 2-lands maindeck. It was definitely fun and extremely brutal but not always consistent. Chalice is simply better than trinisphere because it can be tutored up. If you get to game 3, you've likely seen their graveyard hate, and that's enough information to use Chalice to shut it off. Chalice is especially effective against decks like New Horizons or Survival, whose reliance upon their own graveyard forces them to run Crypts and thus makes chalice @ 0 very powerful. Of course, you can't stop them from using bog--but they're only running 1 or 2 of those max, so just play around it. Or crush their mana before they can get to GW for Knight.

As to extirpate--Burning Wish is also fairly effective at going around it; but I have yet to get hit with extirpate in my year of running lands, so I just haven't thought to much about that contingency. I probably will find space for Crucible soon.

Burning Wish is no longer an out to Extirpate as it can't grab exiled cards. Also, just for the sake of making a clear point for future arguments: Crucible of Worlds is a staple in Lands-sideboards by now that sees increasingly maindeck play as recent lists of Stephen Menendian have shown.

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Originally Posted by Oddus

All this valakut discussion is sure interesting and I like how this deck is not so GY dependent as traditional lands build, however I d still like to hear more about sideboarding and playing around GY hate - with Blue Lands that is. Like - why no one runs ancient grudge SB when relic and crypt are both artifacts - and a vial, which is super-annoying. Are chalices better than trinispheres? (I mean - trinis just completely lock people down under the LD pressure this deck puts up) Why some people don't run crucibles sb? What do you do if you get a decent hand and opp opens with leyline? Or do you just mulligan until you get a grip?

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So if 4 mountains get crypted out of the game, you lose? or if you lose your valakut, how can you still win? This is why I asked for sideboarding plans; do you have an out at that point in the game?

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Originally Posted by iostream

The main problem with Ancient Grudge is that opponents can pop Crypt/Relic in response to it, and the activation cost of those artifacts are extremely cheap, so this happens basically all the time you play grudge. Krosan Grip skirts around this issue. This problem is not so much the case with problematic enchantments like Leyline or CB, which is why some people play Ray of Revelation over Ancient Grudge. In addition, cycling lands allow you to at least protect your loam against Crypt/Relic, so we're not just relying on Grip.

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Crypt / Relic isn't what you're really afraid of any more; most opponents don't know when to pop it, or will only be able to catch one Loam with it (not the end of the world)

Ray of Revelation answers the actual "hoser" cards; Blood Moon and Back to Basics, which it is next to impossible to win through. You really can't answer Counterbalance with Ray, as any good opponent just leaves CB on 2 to counter Loam.

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Originally Posted by Julian23

Burning Wish is no longer an out to Extirpate as it can't grab exiled cards. Also, just for the sake of making a clear point for future arguments: Crucible of Worlds is a staple in Lands-sideboards by now that sees increasingly maindeck play as recent lists of Stephen Menendian have shown.

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I know this, but Burning wish still gets the Loam out of your Board; you know, the one that extirpate can't exile.

@mcchainmail - The sideboard plan is to transform yourself into an entirely different monster with Confidants and Meloku. I think Crusher out of the board might also be worth testing, given how much red Valakut! allows.

For those who already play Oblivion Stone MD or plan to play it,
have you removed Mindslaver from the deck??

How do you usually kill?
Deck the opponent, mishras beatdown, slaver the opponent, etc...?

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Originally Posted by Antonius

I know this, but Burning wish still gets the Loam out of your Board; you know, the one that extirpate can't exile.

@mcchainmail - The sideboard plan is to transform yourself into an entirely different monster with Confidants and Meloku. I think Crusher out of the board might also be worth testing, given how much red Valakut! allows.

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That's why I asked for sideboard plans a couple posts ago; to see how you stack up against hate.

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Originally Posted by Davetradint

For those who already play Oblivion Stone MD or plan to play it,
have you removed Mindslaver from the deck??

How do you usually kill?
Deck the opponent, mishras beatdown, slaver the opponent, etc...?

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I'm incorporating it into my sideboard as soon as I find a foil copy. I think the strength is answering It That Betrays, Blood Moon, Magus of the Moon and Chalice at 2.

I saw Antonius play at that tournament and his strategy seemed to work pretty well for him. He was playing Lands before it got so popular and he's had a article written on SCG about his prior Lands build, if I was playing Lands I definitly wouldn't blow away his suggestions.

Though I am not sold yet on the valakut plan, the bob+meloku plan seems like it would really work out well, cause people usually side out removal and bring gravehate in on autopilot, so we basically get loam-on-legs bob and killer-meloku)) that's probly really is a best answer to gravehate - just switch to another route.

I am also going to try gargoyle castle as a win-condition MB. I've seen it blink occasionally on the thread, but no one seemed to write how it performed in testing. Seems like a fair deal for 5 mana and fits the theme..

I've played gargoyle castle many times in the past. It is OK.

WHat do you guys think of this idea - after sideboard morph this deck into scapeshift combo? We need to incorporate valacut MD to accomplish this, but it can totally throw opp off in g2 where we can side in scapeshift, confidant and just go for the throat. I bring this up because g2 is ALWAYS MUCH harder cause loam is still our soft spot and gravehate is never going to go, but maybe instead of playing around it we can just play straight through it..

Lands Results for GP Columbus and GenCon Indianapolis:

I had 3 byes going into the Grand Prix, so the results arent that impressive:

Round 4 - Damon Whitby - Dredge

Game 1 - I struggle to gain the advantage, and draw into Chasm, and with no explo/manabond, the chasm begins to deal 2 damage every other turn, in order to draw 1 card for every 2 life. Upon goin to 5, I draw into Intuition, and have exactly 3 mana left, and I fetch up 3 manabonds, and begin to drop lands, and lock him out.

Game 2 - I start with the only crypt I have in SB in my hand. He begins with city of brass, LED, breakthrough, with a thug in yard. he does not dredge any more dredgers. I crypt him, and just wreck his face the whole game. He was sad. Great Success.

Round 5 - Kai Ruan - Zoo

Game 1 - I fetch up Zuran Orb G1,and chasm lock him, and beat him with factories.

Game 2 - I Fetch up Orb yet again, and get chasm, and survive 2 Price of Progress'. Great Success

Round 6 - Donald Kastner - Thopter Foundry Control

Game 1 - THis game stalls out for 39 minutes,and I didnt see what was going on, and thought I had a chance. I didnt... so I scoop with 11 minutes to go

Game 2 - I start off strong with 2 factories, and a treetop, swingin at his face fast. not fast enough, because he swords the treetop and a factory, and when the 5th turn of time is called, I was 1 turn off of killing him... He didnt say much, kinda seemed like a D-bag, but w/e (just cuz he beat me?)..... Epic Fail...

Round 7 - Vincent Lanceford - Zoo

Game 1 - Chasm Lock

Game 2 - Drops turn 3 Pyrostatic Pillar, and I have ZOrb, but Im stuck at 4, because I cast loam, I goto 2, then I get chasm out, and sac to orb at EOT, gooto 4... eventually, I find Ghost Quarter, and nuke every land he has. Great Success!

Round 8 - Steve Sadin

Game 1 - He mulls to 4, and I win

Game 2 - I mull to 4, and He wins

Game 3 - I mull to 5, and he just has the better cards... Epic Fail

Round 9 - Paulo Vitor D. da Rosa

Game 1 - I Lock him out with ports and wastes, and 30 minutes in he scoops'em up.

Game 2 - He needles Maze of Ith, and beats my ass with Goyf and Vendilion Clique

Game 3 - There are about 100 people watching, and I get him really low with creatures, and he drops needle, naming Factory, and being at 5 I was really close to beating the Pro Tour winner, but Unfortunately, He Gets Jace on the board, and before time is called in rounds, he Ultimate's my ass, and that would be the end of the game.

3-3 overall, And I do believe that the deck performed very well, as did I, but It just didnt get there. I will give Sadin and Rossa some credit, they were really nice people, and normally the pro's I play against are total assholes. Overall It was a fun learning Experience.

Legacy Championships Prelim - Thursday

Round 1 - The Gate

I dont know why this is a good deck.. I seemed to steamroll it after barely touching its manabase 2 games maybe luck was on my side, I have no Idea.

Round 2 - Dredge

I Lose game 1 to not knowhing what I was playing against, and Game 2, I make an error of not dredging loam when I potentially had lock.... My Bad.... Epic Fail

Round 3 - Scapeshift.dec

I just had more lands to kill lands... plain and simple

Round 4 - Team America

Game 1 I just annihilate him by killin his lands, and with no idea what he's playin, I dont side anything dramatic,
Game 2 He lands tombstalker, and kills my green source, so I cant get back Maze of Ith's... Fail
Game 3 I use the land strategy, because it seems to be working very well! and I get there with Ghost Quarters.

Round 5 - Bant

Same thing as stated above. Manabase+wasteland+ghost quarter+port=2-0

Split Round 6 to guarantee top 8

Top 8 - UWB Landstill

I dont now how landstill beats this deck, but It did for a change, and the guy had a really bad deck list, with really bad sideboard cards (envelop, etc)... but It got there, So I give credit where creditis due.. good Job Buddy (Tormods cryptr Reoccuring...)

Legacy Championship

Round 1 - Jace Control

Game 1 - He lands Jace, and then Elspeth, and he has 2 tarmogoyfs, and I just beat him, with EE for 4, and plenty of acceperation to get around his guys.. we start Game 2, and Time is called

Round 2 - Zoo

Game 1 - I get there with Chasm Lock and creatures.
Game 2 - I lose to 2 Tormods Crypts and creatures...
Game 3 - I lose to Price of Progress with 4 Ports, Maze of Ith, and Factory on the board, Manabond, Life from the loam, and Tolaria West in Hand

Round 3 - Enchantress

Game 1 - Ghost Quarter and 2 ports in opening Hand... Hell yeah Ill keep it. He sprawls a forest, I kill it, he plays another one, I tap it next turn with the port n diamond, and I continue to Quarter his lands until he stops drawing thim. He never cast another spell the rest of the game, because tolaria west tutors for port 3 and 4.

Game 2 - Same exact opening hand, same scenario, Lock him out, except this time he runs out of basic lands, so Ghost Quarters turns into Strip Mine. Great Success

Round 4 - Survival Madness

Game 1 - I do What lands is intended on doing, Port, Waste, Maze, Factory, tabernacle, barb ring, long epic battle, but I win:laugh:

Game 2 - A little more rough. He drop Wheel of sun and Moon, and then Relic, I Grip Wheel, and force him to blow relic, He lands survival, I play Loam #2, and he fetches up Macab, and removes it, so I draw an intuition, and Intuition for loam thicket thicket, and whatever he does, he's screwed, so He macabs my thickets, and then He drops Wheel #2. I get explosives online, and just start pissin him off. So surviving through 2 WoS&M, 2 Fairy Macabre, and 1 Relic of Progenitus, The Lands Player Taes it home.

Round 5 - Red Dragon Stax Stompy

Game 1 - You would think I lose this one, but I do indeed win this one. I wastelock him, after he chalices for 0 and 1. including port and trinisphere on the board... gg

Game 2 - I Drop Smokestacks myself, then Crucible, I grip his Crucible, and its just downhill for him from there.

Round 6 - GW Survival

Game 1 - I Win after 8 minutes of stomping his teeth in

Game 2 - He has like 18 Fairy Macab's in his deck, adn he just removes my Graveyard every time a card goes in it, and kills me ith Knight of the Reliquary

Game 3, He casts Loyal Retainers, and discards Emrakul, with the trigger on, sacs retainers, and I got shit-stomped by an emrakul... gg (nice deck btw, it worked very well together.

Round 7 - Merfolk

Game 1 - Chasm Lock with crucible

Game 2 - Lose to Island Walk

Game 3 - On the Verge of Dying.. need a taiga to cast Firespout, dredge loam, Maze, Port, Fetchland.... Great Success.

Round 8 - Merfolk

Game 1 - We actually stood up, and I bent him over the table and just straight up pounded him (Joking, but thats what it felt like)

Game 2 - Coralhelm commander. 4/4 flier... How do you deal with that with Maze of Ith's and factories. simple, you just know how combat tricks work and you will be just fine, swing in 2 factories, and he blocks one, maze the one blocked by the mutavault, pump the other one, and since you're still in combat, maze the same one again, and repeat the process... and if that isnt enough to make him cry, then I wasted his mutavault. Go Go Gadget Lands.

So Overall I went 3-3 at GP Columbus, 4-2-1 in the Prelim, and 6-2 at the championship. Overall the Deck Performed Well... Here's a list by the way

4 Manabond
4 Exploration
4 Life From the Loam
3 Intuition
3 Mox Diamond
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Zuran Orb
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Oblivion Stone *(TECH)*

4 Rishadan Port
4 Maze of Ith
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Wasteland
3 Treetop Village
3 Tropical Island
1 Taiga
1 Forest
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Riftstone Portal
1 Academy Ruins
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
1 Glacial Chasm
3 Tranquil Thicket
3 Verdant Catacombs
1 Barbarian Ring
1 Karakas
2 Tolaria West

61 Cards

Sideboard

4 Krosan Grips
3 Firespout
2 Oblivion Stone
1 Smokestacks
1 Mindslaver
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Zuran Orb
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Crucible of Worlds

The sideboard changed slightly, like I ran -1 Grip, -1 Slaver, and -1 Crucible at the GP, and +3 Trinispheres. And You know Oblivion Stone is good when Menendian Takes your Idea, and then quotes you in his article (that's a joke)! Overall the matches were great, and that's my story!

That landstill deck you lost to in top 8 isn't terrible like you think it is. Your opponent was rooming with me and he's actually one of the strongest players I know. He admits though that beating lands in any capacity is a miracle. Too bad you're the one that happened to get "miracled".

Quote:

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Game 2 - Drops turn 3 Pyrostatic Pillar, and I have ZOrb, but Im stuck at 4, because I cast loam, I goto 2, then I get chasm out, and sac to orb at EOT, gooto 4... eventually, I find Ghost Quarter, and nuke every land he has. Great Success!

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Not that it matters, but isn't it better to sac the chasm in your upkeep in response to the trigger? I don't know what interactions in Legacy care about it, but just in general it's better.