[Deck] 43 Lands

[Amon Amarth]

Below is what my testing of Stage/Depths Lands has led to. My meta is very combo-heavy, thus the focus on that in the board. Somewhat surprisingly, I haven't been missing the Dark Confidants. Going all-in on combo hate in the board may be correct even for a larger field, given that this deck is now really strong against just about all non-combo. Rest in Peace, Blood Moon, Back to Basics, and Price of Progress are really the only non-combo things I fear these days, and they aren't too prevalent.

4 Life from the Loam
4 Exploration
2 Manabond

3 Intuition
3 Punishing Fire
1 Engineered Explosives

4 Mox Diamond

2 Dark Depths
2 Thespian's Stage

4 Wasteland
4 Rishadan Port
1 Ghost Quarter

4 Maze of Ith
1 Glacial Chasm
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
1 Karakas
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Academy Ruins

4 Tolaria West
1 Tranquil Thicket

1 Forest
3 Tropical Island
1 Taiga
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Windswept Heath
2 Wooded Foothills

Sideboard:
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Sphere of Resistance
2 Trinisphere
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Zuran Orb
1 Crucible of Worlds
2 Krosan Grip

I've been tinkering with a list that is very close to this although I have another Stage because of it's utility. I'll have to ty cutting black too and see how it feels.

[snorlaxcom]

I agree with the oblivion stone. The novelty of destroying planes walkers is easier solved with punishing fire. I think I will still add a 61st, not too sure yet.


You need to run crucible and bridge. As long as this is a control deck, the 4 main silver bullets need to stay. Intuition would be 100x worse without these cards. I have contemplated a chalice md, as well as a trinisphere, so you don't just bend over to combo. Plus they can help with the waste lock. Very impressed with the decks performance over the past weekend, and I am writing a tournament report in the meantime.

Do you still think bajuka bog is a relevant MD slot? I changed that slot to a thespian's stage as it can save chasm from a timely waste and post rules change it can also save legendary lands from being wasted at eot, namely tabernacle.

What is the rationale for running 3,4, or 5 fetches? Is this number fixed in Etutor lists or am I missing something?

[OneBigSquirrelGod]

Do you still think bajuka bog is a relevant MD slot? I changed that slot to a thespian's stage as it can save chasm from a timely waste and post rules change it can also save legendary lands from being wasted at eot, namely tabernacle.

What is the rationale for running 3,4, or 5 fetches? Is this number fixed in Etutor lists or am I missing something?

Bog isn't as good as it once was. I will be adding stage and depths (one of each) and dropping bog and oblivion stone from my SCG list.

[OneBigSquirrelGod]

http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...974#post734974

Here is the article I wrote for SCG, that they did not use (for reasons I cannot disclose). Any Questions, feel free to ask (on here, or good ol' Facebook).

[SteakKnife]

http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...974#post734974

Here is the article I wrote for SCG, that they did not use (for reasons I cannot disclose). Any Questions, feel free to ask (on here, or good ol' Facebook).

Nice article!

Other than dropping bog and ostone for stage/depths, what other changes would you consider?

Would you keep your sideboard the same?

[OneBigSquirrelGod]

I would. Very solid. Wish I had a 100% answer to Geist... Which the gears are turning as we speak

[snorlaxcom]

I would. Very solid. Wish I had a 100% answer to Geist... Which the gears are turning as we speak

Seems pretty durdly, but is baleful strix an option that we can recur with academy? We still get the card draw for the turn in case we want to resume dredging. They usually cut removal after boarding so an exiled birdie is less likely. I added an Urborg back in and this has helped the thespian stage become active in games more often too.

[HammafistRoob]

I would. Very solid. Wish I had a 100% answer to Geist... Which the gears are turning as we speak

Engineered Explosives? Oblivion Stone? Creeping Tar Pit? Glacial Chasm? Tabernacle + them having no lands? Seems like enough to me.

[cuthbertthecat]

Thrun the Last Troll is a pretty sick answer to Geist. I don't think its what this deck wants to be doing at all, but it beats the shit out of small men backed up by burn.

[Dark Ritual]

Usually the answer to geist is zuran orb + maze of ith the angel token. Even if you don't have the zuran orb, a 2/2 creature that can't be mazed isn't a huge issue. Could try mishra's factory as well for killing geist and if it doesn't have summoning sickness they can't attack short of a swords to plowshares/removal spell for it.

@hjalte: Thespian's stage isn't remotely dead even if the combo doesn't work yet. In a deck based on lands, stage has a lot of utility by copying other lands like maze, chasm, or a land that's the target of a wasteland but not legendary. It can also be a wasteland against opposing legendary lands. Depths is pretty dead though seeing as how the 30 mana requirement to activate it 10 times is pretty steep but its still doable at least once the game is locked down.

[snorlaxcom]

It can also be a wasteland against opposing legendary lands.

Not with the new rules bro. I mean I guess you can use it to waste a legendary for the next week or so, but otherwise it has been great for saving my chasms and tabernacles on crucial turns.

Thrun the Last Troll is a pretty sick answer to Geist. I don't think its what this deck wants to be doing at all, but it beats the shit out of small men backed up by burn.

You don't just bring in the combo hate cards? They overlap well with burn matchups.

[JoshA]

This is my favorite deck by far, I have been playing it for months now, really looking forward to a faster wincon (depths/stage)

What I don't get is why lately everyone has been talking about dropping dark confidants from the side..I found in heaps of local tournaments that I would side 4 dark confidants in every match up except burn..he is amazing for speed..so much so I put them main..here is my list I would love suggestions on what you guys think..bobs main are by far the best change I have ever done IMO.

4 dark confidants

2 intuitions
3 punishing fires

4 life from the loam

1 ensnaring bridge
1 crucible of worlds
1 zuran orb
1 ee
4 mox diamonds

4 exploration
1 manabond

3 tropical islands
2 bayou
1 tagia
4 wasteland
4 rishadan port
4 maze of ith
2 tolaria wests
2 tranquil thickets
2 grove of the burnwillows
1 karakas
1 tabernacle
1 ghost quarter
1 academy ruins
1 urborg
2 wooded foothills
1 forest
1 creeping tarpit
1 glacial chasm

Side

4 chalice of the void
3 abrupt decays
2 trinisphere
1 tormods crypt
2 cursed totem
3 choke (still in testing, mainly against show and tell variants all there basics are islands so choke would really stop/slow them expecially with the ports, I feel if omniscience hits we lose..even with trinishpere)

[Antonius]

I'm pretty stoked about playing lesbian's stage, myself....
since urborg is being looked at as a way to potentially speed up the combo, has anyone looked into running Raven's Crime again? I know that was a thing, i guess back when misstep was legal but I haven't been keeping up that much on the development of this deck.

[Wanderlust]

Ugh... our OmniShow matchup seems totally unwinnable. I just lost an on-the-play game in which I went turn one Mox Diamond discarding Ghost Quarter, fetch a Trop, Life from the Loam those back, turn two Manabond, Sphere of Resistance, turn three Trinisphere, turn four Glacial Chasm lock (to turn off Release the Ants), and start Porting him. In the next few turns, he is STILL able to Show and Tell in a Dream Halls, draw his deck with Enter the Infinite, cast Emrakul, Cunning Wish for Rushing River to bounce both my artifacts, annihilator trigger me, cast another Enter the Infinite so he doesn't deck himself, Annihilator me again killing Glacial Chasm, and Release the Ants me to death. ::Flip the table::

[JoshA]

Ugh... our OmniShow matchup seems totally unwinnable. I just lost an on-the-play game in which I went turn one Mox Diamond discarding Ghost Quarter, fetch a Trop, Life from the Loam those back, turn two Manabond, Sphere of Resistance, turn three Trinisphere, turn four Glacial Chasm lock (to turn off Release the Ants), and start Porting him. In the next few turns, he is STILL able to Show and Tell in a Dream Halls, draw his deck with Enter the Infinite, cast Emrakul, Cunning Wish for Rushing River to bounce both my artifacts, annihilator trigger me, cast another Enter the Infinite so he doesn't deck himself, Annihilator me again killing Glacial Chasm, and Release the Ants me to death. ::Flip the table::

Yea dude the show matchup is horrible...I have beaten it before only because he was mana screwed..I feel with the depths combo we might be able to be faster if thete digging and you can land a chalice for 1...

Im testing choke as I have said..im thinking of dropping a tropical island from my list if it works...in theory it seems good..even against bug, rug, deathblade. Basically anything that runs islands just to slow them...we will still have 4 moxs and tolaraia wests, creeping tar pit for blue of we need it...

[cuthbertthecat]

You don't just bring in the combo hate cards? They overlap well with burn matchups.

He was asking about Geist in specific. The Spheres and such are good against the non-Geist parts of Geist decks, but not against Geist itself.

[OneBigSquirrelGod]

Ugh... our OmniShow matchup seems totally unwinnable. I just lost an on-the-play game in which I went turn one Mox Diamond discarding Ghost Quarter, fetch a Trop, Life from the Loam those back, turn two Manabond, Sphere of Resistance, turn three Trinisphere, turn four Glacial Chasm lock (to turn off Release the Ants), and start Porting him. In the next few turns, he is STILL able to Show and Tell in a Dream Halls, draw his deck with Enter the Infinite, cast Emrakul, Cunning Wish for Rushing River to bounce both my artifacts, annihilator trigger me, cast another Enter the Infinite so he doesn't deck himself, Annihilator me again killing Glacial Chasm, and Release the Ants me to death. ::Flip the table::

Did you at least try to ghost quarter his lands?

[snorlaxcom]

I would. Very solid. Wish I had a 100% answer to Geist... Which the gears are turning as we speak

Image.ashx.jpg

[Wanderlust]

Did you at least try to ghost quarter his lands?

I wish I had an exact play-by-play of that game... knowing how I could have played it better would be awesome. I do know that he didn't drop a Sol land until way late, it was all islands until then (he never missed a drop the whole game). At the time, I know I decided it would be a waste of my own resources to be Ghost Quartering islands against a deck full of islands - I was tying to Port him as much as possible instead. But it's totally possible I missed a crucial Ghost Quarter (or some other way to deny him mana) at a crucial time that would have kept him 1 mana short of the insanity that he was able to assemble.

[MGB]

There's really no reason to play this deck over any other control deck in the format right now like Miracles or Landstill.

Those other control decks have basically the same level of aggro-fighting ability, but don't regularly get blown out by combo like this deck does. And those decks don't randomly scoop to cards like Back to Basics (or Blood Moon) like Lands does either.