[Deck] 43 Lands

[blueneverfails]

well with the banning of m. tutor, we can start to focus more on red aggro and more blue, has anyone got suggestions for changes to this, my first one would be to auto include nomad stadium for against burn since that seems to be the most played deck, also it is still worth it to mainboard crypt with reanimator taking a shit and will be dead by gpt time.

Also can anyone here give a good testament to living wish, I will be just starting to test it and I'm a little bit iff on it. It feels really slow to me but I guess with us playing mox diamond, we could practically put and creature in there we want such as muloku.

[Serbitar]

Why would you play Nomad Stadium over Zuran Orb? Maybe one Orb MD, one more after board. Also, how is Burn the "most played deck"?

I guess when Reanimator really declines there is no more need for the MD Crypt, Ensnaring Bridge and Karakas (which some lists have). You probably still want all of these in the board though.

I can give no advise as to Living Wish. I haven't tested it, but to me it looks awful, unless you manage not to loose too many lands MD. But the 22 slots (Loam, Exploration, Manabond, Intuition, Mox, 1 EE, 1 Mindslaver/Smokestack) look set in stone, and I would not want to go below 36 or so lands.

[blueneverfails]

When I said burn, I did not mean the deck burn, I meant burn spells in general, it was refering to zoo actually since that will be the most played deck. and duh, I feel like an idiot now for not think zuran orb, when I play them. As for living wish, it seems to help the situational matchups, and to make us more consistant against random jank, which is actually needed in big tournies, you never know what you run into.

[Antonius]

I haven't played in couple weeks, but the Living Wish actually looks pretty on paper, IMO. Meloku tops the list of most-gangster win conditions in this deck; His ability to turn Tabernacle into a completely one-sided effect while beating down AND stalling with chump blockers is nuts... Also, I don't think anyone caught this, but Meloku IS synergistic with Tabernacle. the cost of his ability is return a land--any land. So, you bounce the Tabernacle at the end of their turn, replay it on yours. Never even trip about that upkeep cost.

Other wish targets--Confidant, another tabernacle or chasm in board, Witness, creatures that blow up artifact/enchantments, fleshbag--seem really good to have. The only advantage it doesn't have over burning wish is that it can't get Loam. I would love to test the tech, but unfortunately I sold my living wishes a while back...

anyways, this is my current build:

4 Exploration
3 Manabond
4 Loam
4 Intuition

1 EE
1 Slaver
1 Zuran

4 Mox Diamond

1 Forest
3 Tropical Island
1 Savannah
1 Bayou
4 Windswept Heath

2 Tranquil Thicket
3 Tolaria West

4 Port
4 Wasteland
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Maze

1 Vesuva
1 Cephalid Coliseum
1 Cabal Pit

1 Tabernacle
1 Chasm
1 Academy Ruins
1 Urborg

--Sideboard
4 Dark Confidant
3 Krosan Grip
2 Ray of Revelation
3 Tormod's Cypt
3 Chalice of the Void

--

Wow, now that I think more about Meloku/Volraths in this deck, I really like it. Meloku is just a gangster. He doesn't need 13 mana to lock the game; he all he needs is an active manabond. Then the only thing that can negate him is a Sharpshooter. But every other deck is going to get cheesed to death with 1/1 flyers. Green firespout doesn't even solve the problem... The flaw with that build though is that I don't think Lands can fit both Volrath's and Academy ruins. Too clunky. So you'll have to choose between powerhouse creatures or powerhouse artifacts. But meloku's ability to cheese the opposing creatures is roughly equivalent to EE's ability to remove them. I don't think there is a creature equivalent to Zuran Orb, though.

[johanessen]

What about using Entomb as a tutor instead of Intuition?

[Antonius]

This is my meloku build:

4 Exploration
3 Manabond
4 Loam
4 Intuition

1 Meloku
1 Grazing Gladeheart

4 Mox Diamond

1 Forest
3 Tropical Island
1 Savannah
1 Bayou
4 Windswept Heath

2 Tranquil Thicket
3 Tolaria West

4 Port
4 Wasteland
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Maze

1 Vesuva
1 Cephalid Coliseum
1 Cabal Pit

1 Tabernacle
1 Chasm
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Urborg
1 High Market

--Sideboard
4 Dark Confidant
3 Krosan Grip
1 Ray of Revelation
1 EE
1 Academy Ruins
3 Tormod's Cypt
2 Chalice of the Void

I move EE/Academy ruins to the board, along with all the other necessary recursive artifacts. Grazing Gladeheart is there as a stand-in for Zuran Orb, though I think there might be better creature-based lifegain options. High Market was added to function as Meloku's protection from Swords.

[Serbitar]

If you're black already for Confidant/Cabal Pit, what is the big problem with playing Volrath's Stronghold over, say, the Vesuva in your list? Then you can either cut Slaver for Meloku or play Meloku after boarding.

Entomb is interesting (cf. this which was pre Tolaria West), but I think it cannot fill all the functions Intuition fills. Most notably, it can't find your enchantments. It also finds either Loam or good lands/artifacts (though it probably is worth testing, whether dredging Loam earlier makes up for that). Also Entomb requires much heavier commitment to black, and you probably don't want to loose Tolaria West for it. Colors already can be an issue.

[Antonius]

Vesuva allows you to double Chasm Lock, which pretty much GG's anyone that's trying to win with a Timing push off of wasteland.

[videogamer99]

I like this deck a lot. I like the 1-of Vesuva. I want to play this deck instead of Zoo, but I cant afford it. I want to switch to this deck in time for GP, but Ill play Zoo if I cant finish this. My only question is if the blue splash is the only viable way to play this deck or if the RGw build is still good? Either way, this is the build I would play if I had somehow acquired the cards for this deck:

Spells
4 Exploration
4 Intuition
4 Life from the Loam
4 Manabond

Artifacts
4 Mox Diamond
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Zuran Orb

Lands
4 Maze of Ith
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Rishadan Port
4 Wasteland
3 Tolaria West
3 Tranquil Thicket
3 Tropical Island
1 Academy Ruins
1 Bayou
1 Forest
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Glacial Chasm
1 Misty Rainforest
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills

Sideboard
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Extirpate
3 Krosan Grip
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
1 Karakas
1 Smokestack
1 Zuran Orb

[proraptor]

what do you guys think of maybe using treasure hunt in 43 land? It's seems good because you can get over the problem of milling your enchantment's and spells with loam and it's cost less to play then intuition and transmuting. Not saying that you should replace them for a treasure hunt but maybe cut some card here and there?
By the way do you guys often have the problem that rishadan port issen't effective because of the tabernacle softlock. I can only use my port turn 1 up to 3 and 50 percent of those times I don't have it on the board!

[Julian23]

I don't get what you mean. Port+Tabernacle is a great combo. Don't make the mistake to port their lands immedeatly during their upkeep because they will just respond by tapping them for mana and paying for Tabernacle. Wait till _after_ they paid for Tabernnacle to port. Besides that I have to disagree heavily with Port being only effective during the first three turns!

[proraptor]

the things was I had a tournament yesterday and the most players had 3 creature's for instance and 3 mana and a fetch, and they paid for the creature's and then fetched in main fase so you didn't have something to port. After the point when they didn't lay any mana down you were already loaming and using your wasteland to disrupt there mana pool. So in most of my games I only could use port up to 1 or 2 times effectively and in mid game I shut them down completely so there was no reason to port anymore

[Julian23]

I'd call that mission accomplished. So they fetch for a turn which allows them to have 1 mana for 1 turn, no big deal. The turn afterwards you port their fourth land while still being able to Loam or cast Intuition unless you missed several landdrops.

Another very important thing about Port is being able to shut down basic lands and cut them from a color. Other applications are tapping their mana during your turn to prevent any expected shenanigangs like Extirpate before Loaming (and getting it back with Thicket before passing the turn).

[That nice guy]

I picked this deck because I wanted to autowin against decks like zoo. While playing this at the last tournament this weekend their were two zoo decks that maindecked price of progress and raped me.

Suggestions to get around this?

P.S. please don't respond by saying get zuran orb. Because they either respond to the casting of it or I waste to much trying to get it and they kill me another way.

[That nice guy]

I picked this deck because I wanted to autowin against decks like zoo. While playing this at the last tournament this weekend their were two zoo decks that maindecked price of progress and raped me.

Suggestions to get around this?

P.S. please don't respond by saying get zuran orb. Because they either respond to the casting of it or I waste to much trying to get it and they kill me another way.

[mchainmail]

I picked this deck because I wanted to autowin against decks like zoo. While playing this at the last tournament this weekend their were two zoo decks that maindecked price of progress and raped me.

Suggestions to get around this?

P.S. please don't respond by saying get zuran orb. Because they either respond to the casting of it or I waste to much trying to get it and they kill me another way.

1. What version are you running?

Get better with the deck. There's no way to sugar coat it. The deck has a very steep learning curve to win. The faster zoo decks can be difficult, mostly when they lead t1 steppe lynx and you don't have Maze. But with tight play, you will typically be fine.

There is a lot of variance in hands, and you really need to sit and play with a lot of them before you can be successful.




When you are trying to get Zuran Orb, instead get Glacial Chasm. Once chasm is in play, let it sit for a turn or 2 (taking up to 6 life) and then set up Zuran Orb. There is no such thing as an auto win (at the last event, a Lands deck beat Dragon Stompy) but yes, the deck is designed to beat Zoo.

[Davetradint]

Hi everyone!
I'm new to the deck and was wondering what purposes serve Savannah, Bayou and Taiga. Apart from obviously adding mana...
Are they for any special reason? To play easily sideboard cards? If we play 4 Mox D., which ones are cuttable?

Has anyone tried Rifstone Portal?

[Julian23]

I'd say the non-Korean ones.

Taiga fuels Barbarian Ring while Bayou mostly generates black mana for sideboard extirpates. Some versions use Volrath's Stronghold as well however those usually utilize Urborg (Tomb of Yawgmoth, haha). I would not recommend cutting Mox Diamond, however some list cut down to 3. I don't like this as Mox Diamond usually acts as a semi-timewalk early on. Regarding Riftstone Portal, I would only run it in mana heavy versions relying on the Mindslaver lock (13 mana, including 1 blue and Academy ruins).

[Julian23]

/deleted

[Serbitar]

What the question about the off-color duals really brings up is, which splash-color we want.

Red offers Barbarian Ring and Ancient Grudge.
White offers Ray of Revelation and maybe more Combohate (there was one SB Ethersworn Canonist in a SCG Top8).
Black offers Volrath's Stronghold (enabling Meloku or even Hexmage/Depths), Dark Confidant, Extirpate, Cabal Pit. Even Fleshbag Marauder/Slaughter Pact.

From this it seems like black has the most to offer. Cabal Pit does what Barbarian Ring does mostly (kill Meddling Mage and other weenies). Ray of Revelation might even be supportable just off of Mox Diamonds - against Back to Basics or Blood Moon you probably want to keep a hand with Mox anyway - or just be replaced by another Krosan Grip.