- CrypticCommander
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Member for 8 years, 5 months, and 15 days
Last active Thu, Sep, 2 2021 20:44:46
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WizardMN posted a message on Finale of Promise + Increasing VengeanceYes, this works. Since you are casting both spells at the same time, you choose what order to cast them. As long as you cast Vision first, it will be on the stack and a legal target for Vengeance. And, since you cast Vengeance from the Graveyard, it will copy Vision twice.Posted in: Rumored Card Rulings -
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michaelvogler posted a message on BW TokensUnless you get really lucky, almost all builds will lose to Tron pre and post board. I won one match against Tron with a "normal" or stock build after my opponent mulled to 5 in game 3. I only won game 1 because I ran outside cards like Castigate and Memoricide. Sideboard Surgical Extraction and Memoricide would really help you out. In general, it's one of those matches that you just let it go and board for all of your other matches.Posted in: Midrange
If Tron is big in your meta, you cut spectral procession and run 5 copies of Ghost Quarter and/or Tectonic Edge/Field of Ruin. Tidehollow Sculler is also a good card in addition to all of your other discard effects. Aven Mindcensor also deserves a nod. Basically, you delay tron and then you strip their hand of anything they could do once they have the mana. The problem with this strategy is you give up so many points against the rest of the field that the benefits of Tokens are negated.
Rock/Jund/and Abzan are pretty much auto wins. If you lose the match then it is entirely on your playing the deck wrong. MVPS include RiP, Zealous Persecution, and Auriok Champion.
Burn is a favored match up for us. Again, running Auriok Champion, Sorin, Solemn Visitor are necessary. Collective Brutality just means "oops, I win."
I'm not surprised to see these decks doing well. Tokens preys on all of the winning strategies that we are currently seeing. Izzet Phoenix would be another "oops I win" match.
A note on Rest in Peace, if you struggle with a match up, RiP is almost always a strong consideration for inclusion. It always hurts your opponent more than you (losing flashback on Lingering Souls isn't that big of a deal when opp has an 0/1 Tarmogoyf or Snapcaster Mage becomes two mana 2/1 pit viper for no value).
Zealous Persecution provides the same role for our deck as Temur Battlerage does for Shadow. It has the added advantage of versatility in creature matchups because it can be a board wipe and/or alter the combat maths so you can effectively kill their creatures for only slight card disadvantage (you might lose 1/2 of the front side of Lingering Souls+Persecution to kill an opposing Tarmogoyf). -
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suckmyfoot posted a message on [Primer] Assault LoamHi,Posted in: Midrange
Competitive Modern League 2019-01-15, (5-0)
Format: Modern
MAIN:
3 Liliana of the Veil
1 Bedlam Reveler
1 Grim Flayer
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1 Scavenging Ooze
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Collective Brutality
4 Faithless Looting
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Life from the Loam
2 Thoughtseize
1 Traverse the Ulvenwald
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Assassin's Trophy
3 Fatal Push
3 Seismic Assault
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
1 Blood Crypt
2 Bloodstained Mire
1 Field of Ruin
1 Forest
1 Graven Cairns
1 Mountain
1 Overgrown Tomb
4 Raging Ravine
1 Stomping Ground
1 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Wooded Foothills
SB:
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Anger of the Gods
2 Damping Sphere
2 Fulminator Mage
1 Huntmaster of the Fells
1 Ishkanah, Grafwidow
1 Jund Charm
1 Kolaghan's Command
2 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Raven's Crime
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4 Faithless Looting
3 Fatal Push
1 Raven's Crime
1 Conflagrate
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
Two-Drops (17)
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Dark Confidant
2 Scavenging Ooze
3 Life from the Loam
2 Commune with the Gods
2 Assassin's Trophy
Three-Drops (6)
3 Liliana of the Veil
3 Seismic Assault
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Bloodstained Mire
2 Blackcleave Cliffs
1 Raging Ravine
2 Stomping Ground
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Blood Crypt
1 Sheltered Thicket
2 Gemstone Mine
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Graven Cairns
1 Copperline Gorge
2 Mountain
2 Ghost Quarter
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Assassin's Trophy
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Anger of the Gods
3 Tireless Tracker
2 Thoughtseize
1 Raven's Crime
1 Damping Sphere
While the RGx AssaultLoam archetype in general is known for having great removal, Jund Loam extends this by having unconditional removal like Fatal Push and Assassin's Trophy combined with hand disruption in Liliana of the Veil, Raven's Crime, and other targeted discard. Lili is especially good in the deck because of Loam, as we can discard excess lands while keeping "real cards" and the opponent gets ground out.
Dark Confidant is the best card in the deck imo. It is what really incentivizes playing these colors. Because of the large amount of lands we run, it hits a lot of lands and lets us draw cards even when we want to dredge loam. While Tireless Tracker is a really good long game card advantage engine + threat, the mana investment we need to put into tracker makes it so sometimes we win/lose the game with clues on the table, unable to find opportunities to crack them in our curve. Confidant lets you draw cards each turn with Assault Loam online, and really is indescribably good.
That is the traditional deck, but I wouldn't really play it right now because of the amount of damage it deals to itself. Instead, I think the best option right now would be Naya Loam... I have a few lists for this one, but I don't know which one would be best for the metagame. The incentives for this version are good sideboard pieces and hate, even potentially boarding in Rest in Peace with a transformational sideboard, though I haven't updated that version since 2013, so it needs some work. It could look something like this:
3 Path to Exile
4 Birds of Paradise
1 Arbor Elf
2 Lightning Axe
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Commune with the Gods
3 Life from the Loam
3 Tireless Tracker
2 Knight of Autumn
3 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Courser of Kruphix
2 Ajani Vengeant
24 Lands
2 Rest in Peace
2 Stony Silence
1 Damping Sphere
1 Wear // Tear
1 Beast Within
2 Timely Reinforcements
1 Knight of Autumn
1 Courser of Kruphix
2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Settle the Wreckage
I have seen Naya Loam decks that run Monastery Mentor which try to cast Loam + Flame Jab + Flame Jab + Flame Jab to make 4 tokens in one turn then give all your monks +4/+4 and swing for 21 the next turn. I have seen lists that combine Countryside Crusher with Knight of the Reliquary to have them fuel each other and both grow large. I used to play a list that played Commune with the Gods to find Retreat to Coralhelm and had KnightFall inside AssaultLoam (1 of Retreat with 4 KoRs, so some games you just 2 card combo kill). The Naya Loam archetype it the most flexible of the four major color combinations, and is hard to build because of it.
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I found the best two drops to fill that slot were Scavenging Ooze and Young Pyromancer. They both are credible threats in my meta, especially with the extra spells I play for Bedlam Reveler.
Satyr Wayfinder was originally in the deck as a 1/2 of because of my awful manabase. It finds lands, Loam and Flame Jab on top of other things and carries a nice chumping body. The Wayfinders also let me cut a few lands. I'm on 23 right now, and a turn 2 wayfinder "mini-tutors" for Loam and other graveyard spells while counting as a land. In the late game, he comes down as a shock attached to a 1/1 that can often be what I need to stabilize. Block for a turn against a goyf and kill it the next with Loam-Cycle-Loam.
Commune with the Gods is good when it finds you Seismic Assault, but is terrible when it misses. When you Commune and hit a Countryside Crusher turn 2 instead of committing anything to the board in an archetype where you likely have another three drop in hand already, it feels so bad. I don't play many "good" creatures, though with Goyf Commune has 4 more big hits, so often a 4 of Commune would hit a Wayfinder, a Flame Jab, and 3 lands. I found Wayfinder more consistent. Commune late game is way better though, especially when I commune into a Bedlam Reveler
I always just preferred to play threats over commune like more Trackers and Scoozes, but with Bedlam Reveler demanding a high number of spells in the deck, I decided to throw a couple back in.
In my testing with Molten Vortex, I've found you need to really build your deck around it to make it good. In certain matchups, like you said, in humans, spirits, and infect, it cleans house. In others, it's an t1 enchantment that wants you to be playing lands while discarding them and using your entire turn to do it. Out of the sideboard, I like it a lot, though in the maindeck it can sometimes be too much for our resources; at least, in my experience.
I like your manabase. I'd like to play more fetches, but again, I'm building this up again since my store banned proxies last year. Still, one essential thing to playing the deck in this meta is Sheltered Thicket. I think it would be advantageous to cut a mountain for one more Sheltered Thicket in your list. Cycle lands are incredibly powerful in loam, as they let you deal 10 damage in a turn with Seismic Assault. With Goyfs rolling around and TiTis at an all time high, having enough damage to kill high toughness creatures is essential.
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I think you may have too many draw spells. Opt, Serum Visions, and Hieroglyphic Illumination can all be used turn 1 to draw cards, which seems like a lot to me. Glimmer of Genius is a good card and synergizes with Torrential Gearhulk well, but I'm not sure that you need both that 4 mana draw spell and the illumination. I would say to cut two draw spells for two more counterspells, perhaps Disallow, maybe Absorb, maybe more Mana Leak, up to you.
I would recommend playing 1 Settle the Wreckage over Supreme Verdict. They are practically the same price, and Settle the Wreckage can be cast off of Torrential Gearhulk to have more wraths attached to a 5/6 body.
On your manabase, you could probably cut one Port Town and an Island for 2 Prairie Stream, which late game will usually come down untapped unlike the Port Town which will usually enter tapped late game. Early game it's the other way around, but Celestial Colonnade has shown that taplands in UW Control don't hurt that bad, so I think [/card]Prairie Stream[/card] would help the manabase.
Another possible land to add is Nimbus Maze, which is a really weird card, but with either Farmland or Prairie Stream will tap for blue and white. I'm not sure where that would slot in, but it's just another option.
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You also have to recognize that tarn is also widely played in legacy and is the most played fetch in Vintage. While wide-scale reprints would likely bring Tarn's price down, I still would guess that it'd still be more pricey than Bloodstained Mire.
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UW Control and UW Spirits are hard to compare because they are fundamentally different. I think both are viable options in the modern metagame, and the better deck to choose for you is based on your playstyle. Spirits is a aggressive deck with tempo aspects in Spell Queller and Mausoleum Wanderer while UW Control is your stereotypical control deck. I would guess that UW Control would be the worse deck on a budget, but I don't really know, it depends on what your budget is.
How much are you looking to spend on a deck? That would give me an idea of what cuts you could make. For instance, if your budget is under 100, a consistent Jeskai deck may be tough to build.
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Empyrial Archangel is a less committal Elderscale Wurm that I have used in the past in Dramatic Entrance decks. This is one of the old Gifts targets, and could be good in this deck.
Ruric Thar is a solid card against KCI, storm, and random other decks. They cast three spells, they are dead.
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4 Faithless Looting
2 Lightning Axe
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Flame Jab
4 Life from the Loam
4 Seismic Assault
1 Sweltering Suns
1 Heaven // Earth
Creatures: (14)
3 Scavenging Ooze
3 Young Pyromancer
3 Satyr Wayfinder
3 Countryside Crusher
2 Tireless Tracker
3 Copperline Gorge
2 Fire-Lit Thicket
1 Forest
3 Ghost Quarter
5 Mountain
2 Rootbound Crag
2 Sheltered Thicket
2 Stomping Ground
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Ratchet Bomb
2 Tormod's Crypt
2 Alpine Moon
1 Huntmaster of the Fells
1 Damping Sphere
1 Abrade
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Nature's Claim
1 Beast Within
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Lightning Axe
1 Gnaw to the Bone
I am the worst sideboarder. Does anybody have any tips, specific to the loam deck or not, on how to sideboard, or any resources or articles that they like on the subject?
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The traditional Assault Loam deck is Jund, and plays just like Jund except with a combo finish. With Seismic Assault and Life from the Loam you can get back three lands per turn and discard them, dealing 6 damage each turn to kill all of your opponent's threats. Then, with your Goyfs and other threats you beat through while dealing the rest of the damage straight to their face with the AssaultLoam combo. The deck goes way bigger than the traditional Jund deck and has a better matchup against control because of the dredge on Loam.
Nowadays, the deck can be built in any RGx shell. Jund Loam has Fatal Push, Dark Confidant, Liliana of the Veil, targeted discard spells, etc. Temur Loam has countermagic and often plays Skaab Ruinator. Naya Loam plays Path to Exile, Knight of the Reliquary, Monastery Mentor, and good sideboard cards. All of these versions have there own intricacies and are viable depending on the metagame.
RG Loam is weird because you don't get any special intricacies, but instead you just get the traditional Loam shell with less removal, less interaction, and less threats. A huge restriction is put onto the deck, and it being a budget version does not help.
That being said, I am very happy on how it turned out.
3 Flame Jab
3 Lightning Bolt
2 Lightning Axe
1 Heaven // Earth
4 Life from the Loam
3 Young Pyromancer
4 Satyr Wayfinder
4 Seismic Assault
2 Burning Vengeance
4 Countryside Crusher
2 Sweltering Suns
4 Rootbound Crag
4 Game Trail
3 Ghost Quarter
3 Sheltered Thicket
1 Forest
9 Mountain
1 Worm Harvest
2 Damping Sphere
2 Beast Within
1 Lightning Axe
1 Gnaw to the Bone
2 Dragon's Claw
1 Abrade
1 Pulse of Murasa
1 Nature's Claim
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Ancient Grudge
In the early game, the goal is to control the board with removal like Lightning Bolt, Lightning Axe, and Flame Jab while setting up your hand and graveyard with filtering like Faithless Looting and Satyr Wayfinder. Bolt and Axe are two fairly standard cards while Flame Jab is probably really weird. By itself, it is relatively good on the draw, as you are able to kill early creatures fairly well with it. It absolutely hoses some decks as a reccurable Gut Shot like Affinity and Elves, but it really shines in conjunction with Life from the Loam. The two cards make it so that you can Arc Lightning every turn for five mana by retracing the Flame Jab. This may not sound like much, but when you are grinding and your opponent is consistently killing your Seismic Assault and you need your last few points of damage, it is passable.
This combo is also good in conjunction with all of your threats. With a Young Pyromancer on the battlefield, you Arc Lightning every turn while making four tokens. With Countryside Crusher, you clear blockers with the Bolt while pumping it to be considerably more large. And with Burning Vengeance, each Flame Jab turns into a Lightning Bolt. Flame Jab + Life from the Loam is one of the defining combos of the deck that ties the pieces of the puzzle together.
Most of the threats were brushed over there, but here they will be explained more in depth. Young Pyromancer makes tokens in conjunction with all the removal in the deck, and when comboing off with AssaultLoam, you also create a token each turn which can be used to chump big things that you can't kill yet. Countryside Crusher is arguably a better Tarmogoyf in this deck. First, it makes you never draw lands while giving you information on whether you should dredge or not, which is pretty good by itself. It's second ability is what makes it shine however, for whenever you discard a land to Seismic Assault or Flame Jab or dredge up a land, it grows. And because our deck is really good at killing our opponent's things, Crusher can crash through to win us the game on its own when it goes unanswered. Also, Heaven//Earth and Sweltering Suns are in the deck to catch up if we fall behind on board.
Seismic Assault is a pretty self explanatory entry in the AssaultLoam deck, but Burning Vengeance is really not. Burning Vengeance is purely in the deck to capitalize on Loam + Flame Jab, which is actually a really good three card combo. It can also get triggered by Faithless Looting flashback, but that's just incidental. I have tested many cards in this slots, from creature threats like Managorger Hydra to filtering spells like Insolent Neonate, Tormenting Voice and Cathartic Reunion. Out of all of these, surprisingly Burning Vengeance is the card that has had the greatest impact. You can cast it turn 3 then turn 4 double bolt something, or just cast a Flame Jab from your yard without a Loam to bolt something instead. The card is surprisingly good, and is a really decent threat in this deck. I would not play more than 2 however.
The best addition to the Loam deck in the past few years are the cycle lands. Sheltered Thicket makes this deck soooo much better. Once the deck hits AssaultLoam, you can deal 6 damage as you choose among your opponent's board. Generally, you save up the lands until you need to use them to kill a big threat or kill your opponent in one shot, but still, you get the ability to deal 6 more damage every turn. In the new loam decks, as you do this, you play lands until you get up to 6 mana. At that point, you can dredge Life from the Loam, cast Loam, cycle Sheltered Thicket, dredge Life from the Loam, and cast dredge Life from the Loam to get a total of 5 lands back dealing 10 damage per turn. This makes you grind harder and kill faster.
The sideboard is kind of built for my meta, so I can't say much if it is right or not (at my LGS I also have 2 Back to Nature in SB since there are two bogles players there which is the worst matchup for a deck based around a million removal spells). With this version I am currently 7-0-1 with a draw against a grindy Collected Company deck. I could make this a fully fledged primer for the deck with specific matchup spreads,but for now I think this is a fine overview of the deck. If you have any suggestions, those would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
EDIT: Forgot to include in title, but the deck is ($150). Most of that money is from Loam and Seismic Assault. My starting list before I bought cards over time was around $70, but seeing how the price of Loam has gone up from just under 10 dollars to just under 20, I guess the deck is decidedly less budget friendly now. The first version I played had 3 Loams, Molten Vortex instead of Seismic Assault and Desert of the Fervent instead of Sheltered Thicket to save money but still - if anyone would like to see that more budget, less powerful deck let me know.
Deck is now 10-2-1 with losses to KCI and 8-Rack and a tie with Counters Company.