[Deck] Death Cloud Rock/Loam Control

I haven't had the chance to proxy this up and playtest with a buddy of mine, but after playing Aggro Loam against ANT for a couple hours, I've come to the conclusion that this deck is even harder pressed to put pressure on it than that was, and I got my ass handed to me repeatedly.

So from what I know for sure, as frogboy said, combo is an absolute lose matchup. You are pretty much going to have to run completely out of the sideboard for it, or just shelve it up as an auto loss.

When I do get a chance to put it together, it'll be run against ANT, Ichorid, Goblins, UGR Moon Thresh, 4C Landstill, and possibly White Stax. So it'll have a nice little gauntlet of matches under it's belt on my end.

I'll also update with whatever list I choose, but suffice it to say the deck is amazingly tight. I'm having troubles trying to balance all the different stuff in here, just because there's so few 4-of.

This weekend I went 2-1 with the following list:

4 Kitchen Finks
1 Terravore
2 Tombstalker

3 Damnation
3 Death Cloud
4 Diabolic Edict
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Life From the Loam
4 Mox Diamond
2 Raven's Crime
3 Thoughtseize
1 Worm Harvest

SB
4 COTV
3 Grip
2 K Choke
3 Extirpate
3 E Plague

I played a lot of the same decks as last time, so I could compare some of my changes.

Suicide Black
Game 1: He gets some early Negator beats, and plays another dude. I play Garruk then Edict on the same turn and win with the walker.
Game 2: By turn 3 he has 3 negators. I only draw one removal spell and no blockers. I lose.
Game 3: He has 2 negators on turn 6 I Death Cloud for 3 killing his land his dudes and his hand. A persistent Finks seals the deal.
1-0

Manlands and Land Destruction (same deck from last time)
Both games he has Spreading Algae, and Urborg. I never have more than one land in play. I am sad.
1-1

Goyf-Sligh
Game 1: Early burn and Ram-Gang beats put me at low life. We go into a creature stalemate. I am too low on life to Cloud, and drawnno Damnation. The turn before I kill him with a Stalker he topdecks a mountain and makes a Figure of Destiny big and flying and makes me dead.
Game 2: I edict a dude. Two turns later I get a damnation 2 for 1. I win with Stalker in the air and Finks holding the ground.
Game 3: By turn 5 I Damnation 2 for 1 twice thanks to some Mox Diamond Acceleration. Garruk finishes the game.

Damnation and Garruk are awesome in the deck. Garruk can go mana acceleration for LFTL and cycling, or make tokens and stall or beat. I always loved to see him.

Damnation got me 2 for 1's all day. It seemed like a lot of people didn't see it coming. Also, if they hold back dudes Thoughtseize and Raven's Crime will get rid of them anyways.

I am not sold on Mox Diamond. The early acceleration was nice but It may be better to have STE as an early blocker. I can't decide between these two.

I woult like to have 1 or 2 more threats (+1 Tombstalker, +1 Terravore), but I have no idea what to cut.

How did the manabase look? I can't tell whether or not the Mox Diamonds really had a place without seeing the rest of the list. Also, I'm not sure I'd rule out the Diamonds immediately, as the STE's can only go for basics. Smoothing out the manabase while still wanting to see GG and BB at the same time (turn 3 with Diamond or after STE activation), while only having 4 duals is pretty tight.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DeathwingZERO

How did the manabase look? I can't tell whether or not the Mox Diamonds really had a place without seeing the rest of the list. Also, I'm not sure I'd rule out the Diamonds immediately, as the STE's can only go for basics. Smoothing out the manabase while still wanting to see GG and BB at the same time (turn 3 with Diamond or after STE activation), while only having 4 duals is pretty tight.

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The mana base was:
3 x Bayou
5x Fetch
3x Tranquil Thicket
4x Barren Moor
1x Volrath's Stronghold
5x Forest
5x Swamp

I never had problems getting gg bb by turn 3 with a Diamond, or turn 4 without. I also only had to play one cycle land.

I am thinking about cutting one forest for a Maze of Ith.

Maze might be a good call, it'd be great against opposing fatties not backed by Wastelands, which is a lot of decks.

Obviousness aside, are you still thinking of cutting the Diamonds? I've been looking over the list and trying to fit 3-4 of STE back in, but it'd cut out important stuff. I keep thinking with Finks, STE, Garruk and Damnation in the deck now (with Ith coming soon), that Edicts can be taken out. Thoughts on that?

I am going to leave the Edicts in for the tournament today as well as the Diamonds. I could see switching the Edicts to STE's, but the problem I see is against a control matchup. If I don't empty their hand then they only have 6 big mana sweepers and a Maze to deal with. This buts me in the awkward spot of having to chump block Goyf for many turns.

This saturday I played in a tournament at Jupiter Games. Here is the list:

4x Finks
2x Tombstalker
1x Terravore

4x Mox Diamond
4x Life from the Loam
4x Edict
3x Garruk
3x Damnation
3x Death Cloud
3x Thoughtseize
2x Raven's Crime
1x Worm Harvest

3x Bloodstained Mire
2x Wooded Foothills
3x Bayou
3x Tranquil Thicket
3x Barren Moor
1x Maze of Ith
1x Volrath's SH
2x Wasteland
4x Swamp
4x Forest

SB
4x COTV
3x Engineered Plague
2x Choke
3x Extirpate
3x K Grip

In the Main event I did terrible.

Round 1: Ichorid
I lost, and there was nothing I could do about it.

Round 2: Counter Slivers
In game 1 I mull down to 5 and never see more than 2 lands. In game 2 I mull down to 6 and never see more than three lands.

Round 3: Merfolk
Game 1 I remove some early dudes with edict, and then land a Garruk. I eventually Cloud away his hand and board, then beat Him with Garruk. Game 2 a quick Engineered Plague wrecks him. A second on draws a concession.

Round 4: Canadian Thresh
Game 1 I mull to 5 and lose a lot. Game 2 I Thoughtseize him. He wastes my Bayou on turn 2 and I neverget more than 2 land in play.

After that I dropped and played a 10 man side event. I went 3-0 beating mono blue faries, Alluren elf comb , and counter slivers.

I am sorry to say that I think I may cut Death Cloud to 2 for another Vore, or stalker.