[Deck] Dark Depths

[apple713]

I agree that you should not run life from the loam if its just for recurring the combopieces. But you can integrate a sort of loam package (like in loampox, or other loamdecks).
Cards often run together are Wasteland (ofcourse), Punishing Fire, Grove of the Burnwillows, Cyclelands (forgotten cave, barren moor for cardadvantage), Mox diamond, Gamble/entomb, Burning wish (3 loams maindeck, 1 in board), Devastating dreams, Raven’s crime, Worm Harvest

Loam is very synergetic with PFire/Grove. By dredging you get these in the yard, and have recurrable creaturekill. Pfire handles DRS very well, especially with gamble to tutor for it. Gamble also gets you your pieces, but with loam as backup (random discard). It’s very true that DRS is everywhere, but the advantage is also that players pack less gravehate in the sideboard because they run DRS main.

I like playing with loam, but you must feel comfortable with this strategy. Playing a loambased deck though, has the advantage that you can retrieve your combopieces.
But as you pointed out, the graveyard is vulnerable, so I also include Dark Confidant and Sylvan Library (especially when your opponent swords the token, you have 20 extra life to pay for carddrawing). I’ll also test Faithless looting.

Further cards are disruption (inquisition of Kozilek, Thoughtseize, Hymn to Tourach, sinkhole, abrupt decay). In the poxvariant there’s also smallpox, that gives a very strong manadenialplan along with sinkhole, devastating dreams, croprotated wastelands or Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, and Loam recurring wasteland. But the reason I am dropping smallpox (and some part of the manadenialplan) is that you can’t run Dark Confidant along with it. I also run Raging Ravine and Tomb of Urami as a backup plan. So this is what I’ll test (no sideboard included yet):

2 Dark Depths
2 Thespian’s Stage
4 wasteland
1 Raging Ravine
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
2 badlands
2 bayou
4 verdant catacombs
2 Barren Moor
1 Forgotten Cave
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Tomb of Urami

3 Life from the Loam
3 Punishing Fire
4 Gamble
3 Crop Rotation
4 Dark Confidant
2 Sylvan Library
2 Faithless Looting
4 inquisition of Kozilek
3 Hymn to Tourach
2 Abrupt Decay
4 Mox diamond

I agree that Depths combo makes the decks you mentioned better. I dont however think that even after those decks are impoved they compare to the version I've come up with.

I've had the unfortunate task of testing playing against Loam strategies and almost an exact list like yours. I think i played 2 lands.deck matchups and 3 loam deck with pfire. I lost 1 match out of those. It was to loam/pfire. Loam is very slow to get started and sometimes the game is over before they ever cast it.

I wish you luck in your testing. However I would suggest that you play a handful of games with the list i've come up with so you can compare.



On a seperate note, Someone who was helping test the deck picked it up and said they were having some trouble with it. It requires a lot of knowledge about the format and their decklists. I Can detail certain situations and how to play around them if people would like as they are not necessarily intuitive. Just ask me to if you are interested and i'll work on a post. Sometimes you have to bait your opponent with certain spells and land drops. Forcing them to use their resources in a manner thats not the main focus allows you to take advantage of the INSTANT crop rotations. Knowing which lands to play and fetch for is also another important aspect. Often times it depends heavily on if you have an urborg or not. If you have an urbog, savannah is the best to search for. Without urborg bayou and scrubland are the best to search for because BB is required for Hexmage. DRS can often provide the 1 colored mana you dont have but he can't produce BB. There are only 5 fetchland targets but there are 7 fetchlands...seems odd however with the use of urborg its not always necessary to use the fetches...consider them swamps.

The main goal is combo. Assembling it is often your first priority. However, dont neglect your aggro aspect and forget to attack with idle creatures.