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Thread: Gruul Land Destruction

  1. #1
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    Gruul Land Destruction

    Land destruction has been around in Magic quite a while. I've played a bit of Ponza in Modern, but wondered if LD has the legs in Legacy. I suspect it might be a bit slow in this format however discussion would be at least interesting. Of course other colours of LD are around eg Sinkhole etc. I don't mind if people discuss the other varieties either. Below is a Gruul list I was considering playing at FNM. The gist of the list is to ramp your mana, kill their lands and use your own creatures to take over. Their are 12 LD spells and 4 more effects from the Slimes which presents a fair chance to start early LD, possibly from turn 2 all going well. Of course this may be pushing the proverbial uphill but have at it please.


    4 Arbor Elf
    4 Acidic Slime
    3 Elder Gargaroth

    4 Utopia Sprawl
    4 Wild Growth
    4 Stone Rain
    4 Thermokarst
    2 Trinisphere
    4 Winter's Grasp
    2 Garruk Wildspeaker
    3 Primal Command

    4 Ancient Tomb
    1 Castle Garenbrig
    6 Forest
    2 Lair of the Hydra
    2 Mountain
    2 Stomping Ground
    1 Taiga
    4 Wooded Foothills

    SB:
    2 Carnage Tyrant
    1 Blazing Volley
    2 Pithing Needle
    2 Surgical Extraction
    2 Defense Grid
    2 Naturalize
    1 Ensnaring Bridge
    3 Leyline of the Void

  2. #2
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    Re: Gruul Land Destruction

    LD works in Legacy. It just looks different. It's centred around Wasteland.
    Wasteland + Stifle + Daze (blue tempo)
    Wasteland + Rishadan Port + Aether Vial (nonblue tempo)
    Wasteland + Sinkhole + Smallpox (black Pox)
    Wasteland + Crop Rotation + Elvish Reclaimer + Life from the Loam/Ramunap Excavator (green land tutors + recursion)

    Does Stone Rain.dec have legs in Legacy? Probably not. The 3-mana LD you want to resolve is Blood Moon, Magus of the Moon, Blood Sun, Back to Basics, or Choke. Then you only need to resolve 1 copy to stop many lands, instead of casting multiple Stone Rains.

    You can definitely try a Gruul midrange build like you want. But you're best off starting with cards like Blood Moon, Trinisphere, Choke....

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    Re: Gruul Land Destruction

    Wasteland + Fetchland + Cosmic Intervention + Cataclysm.

    Stop settling for doing what you love - hurt other strategies while you're doing what you love.

  4. #4

    Re: Gruul Land Destruction

    I don't think Gruul midrange is where you want to be.

    If you want to play red-green land destruction, you should consider the following:

    Wasteland, Rishadan Port (best land-based land-hate)
    Crack the Earth, Raze, Flagstone of Trokair (strong synergy here)
    Boom/Bust (acts as a Sinkhole with a Fetch or Flagstone)
    Life From the Loam, Crucible of Worlds, Ramunap Excavator (recur your lands)
    Elvish Reclaimer, Crop Rotation (tutor your lands)

    A deck like this lends pretty well to a Dark Depth's win-con and would end up looking like Lands.dec with more of a land-hate tinge to it. Alternatively, you can try to play a tempo-beatdown strategy with something like Elvish Reclaimer, Dragon's Rage Channeler, and Hooting Mandrils but at that point you are just an inferior Delver deck without FoW.

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    Re: Gruul Land Destruction

    If you add Dark Depths, it ends up being a worse version of GW Depths or Gr Lands. Just play one of those decks? The new 8Mulch version of Lands looks fun.
    8Mulch: https://magic.wizards.com/en/article...03-12#nitric_-
    Regular Lands: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetyp...cy-lands#paper
    GW Depths: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetyp...a-depths#paper


    GR tempo beatdown isn't a thing. You lose Daze, the most punishing tool to push the mana advantage. Just play UR Delver or RUG Delver.

    @OP This is what red green aggro LD looks like in Legacy
    RUG Delver - 11th place MTGO Legacy Challenge: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/rug-delver#paper

    //Lands: 18
    4 Wasteland
    3 Tropical Island
    3 Volcanic Island
    2 Scalding Tarn
    2 Polluted Delta
    2 Misty Rainforest
    2 Flooded Strand

    //Creatures: 14
    4 Delver of Secrets
    4 Dragon's Rage Channeler
    3 Tarmogoyf
    3 Murktide Regent

    //Spells: 28
    4 Force of Will
    4 Brainstorm
    4 Ponder
    3 Stifle
    3 Lightning Bolt
    2 Forked Bolt
    4 Expressive Iteration
    4 Daze

    //Sideboard: 15
    2 Pyroblast
    1 Red Elemental Blast
    1 Carpet of Flowers
    1 Flusterstorm
    1 Grafdigger's Cage
    2 Surgical Extraction
    2 Meltdown
    2 End the Festivities
    1 Submerge
    1 Sylvan Library
    1 Klothys, God of Destiny


    @OP: Don't be thrown off by appearances. This is an LD deck.
    4 Wasteland + 4 Daze + 3 Stifle (on fetchland = 1 mana LD) + 2 SB Surgical (on fetch/dual can screw opponent off an entire color of mana)
    Even though there are no Stone Rain, this deck wins primarily by mana denial + fast clock, protected by cheap counterspells.

    If you're determined to explore the RG Midrange LD space, instead of playing Tempo or Lands/Depths, then you probably want to be on RG Stompy. There was a decent RG Stompy brew that did well on MTGO a while back. Can't find the list yet. It had Blood Sun (instead of Moon), Grove of the Burnwillows, Ancient Tomb, City of Traitors, Chalice of the Void, Trinisphere, Bonecrusher Giant...

  6. #6

    Re: Gruul Land Destruction

    Quote Originally Posted by FTW View Post
    it ends up being a worse version . . . Just play one of those decks?
    That's pretty much the answer to the whole thread. But if OP is hellbent on playing an inferior deck I think those are the two routes he can go to try and at least win some games.

    Alternatively, RG Ponza is actually somewhat viable in Modern. OP's initial list is Modern legal with minimal alterations.

  7. #7
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    Re: Gruul Land Destruction

    I was just throwing it out there and seeing if there were better alternatives really. GW depths or Rainbow depths are decks I've played before with some success. I'm just considering some more out there options. I've also played Monored prison (with and without Khan) and that's also fun. Perhaps I'll try the sinkhole / pox route and see what happens. Thanks all for your replies

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