[Deck] Aggro Loam

[TheShaun]

Sadly that decklist doesn't describe how damn pimp his actual deck was. Very nice looking, I am envious.

[Antonius]

you asked.

Report

Supplemental Vegas Rant

And yeah, my deck is pretty cool. I'm still missing a Lavamancer and 3 bobs though so it's not really a "Foil" Deck. And don't get me started on that sideboard...

[razvan]

You honestly have the best reports. Great job on top-8ing, way to give the rest of us Loam players hope!

[trivial_matters]

Congrats on the great finish!

Could you maybe explain what you used Noxious Revival for and why you decided to play it? Reading your report you seemed to board it in quite often.

[Antonius]

Surgical Extraction is the primary form of Graveyard hate right now. You can protect Loam from Surgical with Cycling lands, but you can't protect wasteland or cycling lands. That's where Noxious Revival comes in. Also, Noxious Revival can be used to get back Seismic, counter reanimation spells or time walk your opponent.

[Nonex]

I can say little other than congratulations, sincerely. I have some doubts about what I read, though:

- Looks like some number of Seismic Assaults always get boarded out?
- Would you run more than 2 Noxious Revivals?
- I understand there are matchups where Volrath's Stronghold won't be getting anything back, but being a mana source I'd have a hard time boarding it out. What's the reasoning behind it?

[Aggro_zombies]

I can say little other than congratulations, sincerely. I have some doubts about what I read, though:

- Looks like some number of Seismic Assaults always get boarded out?
- Would you run more than 2 Noxious Revivals?
- I understand there are matchups where Volrath's Stronghold won't be getting anything back, but being a mana source I'd have a hard time boarding it out. What's the reasoning behind it?

I can't speak for your last two questions, but Assaults are pretty clunky. They're fine late-game options, but you rarely want to see them early except against some tribal decks.

[Richard Cheese]

Yeah I was also curious about the siding out of Assaults. It looked like it was mostly against control matches, is it just b/c it's a pain to play it around Daze?

[Antonius]

Seismic assault is great but is usually less effective when they have graveyard hate to hamper loam. That's why I usually switch it out for anti-hate (Noxious Revival) or additional removal (Pyroblast--Perish or Edict, if they're in the board). Against decks like painter, you need to cut down on the amount of lands you run and bulk up your threats/answers. If he was on UR I would have boarded out Volrath's/fourth mox/fourth cave for Pyroblasts, but I had to settle for grips cause he was on mono red. And yeah, I could see running three noxious revival (if I cut Liliana of the Veil) the card was really good.

[Richard Cheese]

I generally board in some number of REBs against Imperial anyway, at least for game 2. Most of the time they'll name Blue with Painter anyway, to abuse their own REBs and Jaya, so you can catch them off guard. Then if it comes to game 3, the threat alone will sometimes get them to board out some of that stuff and name another color.

[Jacemindbreak]

Why is your deck so hard to beat with a rock based deck?

[Richard Cheese]

Pre-board it's tough because Rock-style decks generally aren't fast enough to win before the Loam engine gets going. Discard is largely useless as is Wasteland, and Loam just has a stronger late-game advantage engine.

Luckily, you're in black, so you have lots of boarding options. I saw your board from the other thread, Faerie Macabre really isn't good here because a smart Loam player won't overextend into grave hate game 2/3, esp. against black. Extirpate and Leyline of the Void are your best bets. Not sure what your maindeck looks like, but GSZ gives you access to Scavenging Ooze as well.

[Nonex]

What I'm going to say will probably sound like danger of cool things at the very least, but when you mention discard, does it include Encroach? I've seen people keep hands assuming they won't touch their lands except for the occasional Hymn to Tourach, so they never see it coming. The possibility of discarding a dual and extracting it surgically the same turn sounds remote, but pretty appealing.

[Mtre]

Just saw, that this:

will probably see preint in the next set. Looks like a worse BS in red to me, but i think you can somehow abuse it in this deck.

[Aggro_zombies]

Looks like a worse BS in red to me, but i think you can somehow abuse it in this deck.

Um, no, it's an exact Careful Study in red, but with flashback.

I'm not sure what this does here. You don't get any particular reward for putting cards in the graveyard unless you're running Terravore and Knight of the Reliquary, and even then this is -1 card up front and +0 cards when you flash it back. I'm not sure seeing four cards is worth it when for the same total amount of mana you have Harmonize, which shows you one less card but lets you keep them all.

I also have no idea what you would want to cut for this.

[Nonex]

Accustomed as I am to inventing absurd aberrations for all types of tournaments, completely copying a list kind of makes me sick; however, I decided to have no choice before Antonius's version. The main is exactly the same as in his last report. The sideboard, however, looked like this:

3 Surgical Extraction
3 Noxious Revival
2 Krosan Grip
3 Red Elemental Blast
2 Pernicious Deed
2 Phyrexian Metamorph

I just can't remember how I boarded in any game, although it was in the lines of X Assaults, or 1 Mox + 1 Bolt + 1 red cycling land, or something like that. Also, I didn't know if there's an established name for this list, so I named it "Ojalá tengas cáncer" ("Hope you have cancer", in Spanish), for no apparent reason. Horrible taste, I know.

Round 1: MUD

He starts with a somewhat innocuous Chalice @ 1 that's followed by a turn 2 Metalworker. I just drop a land and think I'm doomed, just before topdecking a saviour Mox that lets me land a turn 2 Assault and kill his Metalworker. He lands a Lodestone Golem, I drop the third land and cast a Loam to kill his Golem and pretty much anything he could ever play after that.

I remember boarding Grips and some Revivals, expecting grave hate and expecting him to board out Chalices from what he's seen. Awkward error - he starts with Tomb, Chalice @ 0 and Chalice @ 1, frustrating my turn 1 Mox. He then drops a Metalworker, and next turn he taps it to reveal another Chalice, another Metalworker, a Golem and a Kuldotha Forgemaster. Oh how bad I'd have wanted to draw a Wasteland in time.

Game 3 I Waste his first two lands (Mishra's Factory and Rishadan Port) and drop Lavamancer and Confidant. He sticks a Phyrexian Revoker, but barely anything else. I drop a Crusher, followed by another Revoker on his side. The deal is sealed by attacking with Lavamancer, 7/7 Crusher, and a 4/4 Ooze that previously ate his Revokers (one Gripped and the other previously traded with my Confidant).

1-0


Round 2: ANT

I can't do anything in the whole round. I almost win game 2, though, since I drop both Lavamancers ASAP and start attacking and emptying my graveyard when possible, leaving him at 2 life. I should have optimized my land drops, though, by cracking any fetchland before dropping simple duals. I manage to extract his Dark Rituals surgically and Revival a fetchland of his to gain a turn, or at least force him to crack his fetchland if he wants to draw something new. I remember keeping Assaults in for the occasional flood, but boarding Loams out. Ugh, sideboarding is definitely the bane of my existence as a Magic player.

1-1


Round 3: Punishing Zoo

Every living being on each side gets Bolted in the face. Then, I Pulse his Sylvan Library (I could have done it way sooner, had I just searched the correct lands - I seriously need to improve that point) and drop an apparently worthless Assault that becomes invaluable once I draw and cycle into Loam.

I lose game 2 to a baffling life loss that must be comprised of Bolts in my face, Confidants at work and the occasional combat damage. I'm at 1 life and have two Crushers in front of his Knight of the Reliquary and Goyf, then spend my last two mana cycling lands and see an Ooze that will save me the game unless I die now - which I do at the end of my turn, his Knight searching a Dryad Arbor...

Game 3 is simple, my opening hand has some removal and cycling lands, but all I draw from here are more lands. He just goes his way without the need of anything spectacular.

1-2


Round 4: ???

Completely unknown deck that spends both games throwing targeted discard, cantrips and bouncers. At the end of the round I see Tendrils of Agony on top of his deck, yet no Rituals or artifact mana have ever been cast.

2-2


Round 5: RW Boros

Mostly built from the remnants of some Commander precons, it has all the good stuff you should expect from these colors, perhaps too much - I don't think Goblin Guide and Stoneforge Mystic should go together. Anyway, an early Assault-Loam lock takes care of everything game 1.

Game 2 consists of me desperately searching for Explosives while a Mirran Crusader with Swords of Feast/Famine and War/Peace ends the game in a single swing.

Game 3 has some early removal and a Crusher that beats for 10 in a field just ravaged by an Assault.

3-2


Round 6: Faerie Stompy

Completely surreal round, I start with turn 1 Lavamancer and he starts with turn 2 Trinisphere and turn 3 Pithing Needle on Lavamancer. I Waste his City of Traitors and he gets stuck on a single Island for the rest of the game.

Game 2 he mulls to six and does literally nothing on his first turn. I drop Lavamancer and start beating, he drops Island and then a City of Traitors, then Cloud of Faeries and Jitte. I drop a Mountain, I fill my empty graveyard with two cycling lands and kill the Faeries with Lavamancer. He drops Serendib Efreet and I drop an Assault, discarding my last land and activating Lavamancer to kill it. Some turns later he drops a Sea Drake, but at that time an earlier Confidant has already led me to Loam.

4-2


Round 7: RUG Tempo

You know, there are games where they start with Volcanic Island, Delver of Secrets, just for you to go Wasteland, Mox, Bolt. A 3/4 Goyf is pretty much everything I need.

Game 2 has him going agressive with Goyf and Green Sun's Zenith into Noble Hierarch. I drop a Crusher and rely on him to get big, but he thinks being a 3/3 is da nutz. However, when he drops a second Hierarch and a Delver and I chumpblock his Goyf with a Confidant, that still 3/3 Crusher has nothing better to do than leading me straight into Pernicious Deed @ 2. No regrets.

5-2


Explosives and Revivals have been underwhelming, Metamorphs have never come in, and a friend is asking me "why the fuck are you playing Surgical Extraction when you could be playing Extirpate". The conclusion is clear: I'm still a total noob at building sideboards and even worse at using them. These cards need further testing and I'm sure it doesn't hurt to know something about a deck's specific matchups before playing it in a 100+ players tournament. However, I've had so much fun with the deck that I definitely don't care.

[Antonius]

^^

Bad beats on that Zoo matchup. I haven't lost to zoo in a while, but everytime I match up it always feel like the sort of thing that could go both ways because it's defined as raw power vs raw speed.

Also, I think Seismic Assault (without active loam) is way underrated. One land for a shock still kills like 60% of the dudes in the format. Crazy value.

[trivial_matters]

I played Aggro Loam in small tournament this weekend (about 20-25 players). I only started playing it recently and my lack of practice and experience with the deck showed, hence I finished with quite a disappointing 1-1-3.

Still, playing the deck was fun and it felt powerful so I'll continue practicing with it.

[ESG]

I played Aggro Loam in a 42-man event yesterday and missed Top 8 on tiebreakers. Against BUG Control in the last round, I was Surgically Extracted four times in one game, but I still won it. It went down like this: Extraction on Wasteland, Extraction on Loam, Extraction on post-Spell Snare Dark Confidant, Extraction on Loam (got my fourth one out of the board with Burning Wish to kill his Tarmogoyf). The deck was great all day, but I suffered a random annihilation in Round 2 against a guy playing Hive Mind. Such a bad matchup. I had several close games with a Bant/Bant Maverick deck, with him getting the best of me in the end. I probably could have won that one with tighter play. My other matches on the day were Sneak Attack (with maindeck Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon) (2-1), GW Maverick (1-0) and Goblins (2-1).

[sdematt]

Nice! Then you probably played against James with the Bant Maverick deck :)

-Matt