Hey all, I'm sort of new to posting on here but wanted to throw my loam deck into the ring as a viable option. I've been playing Loam because since 2014 because of this forum, and now I want to show what I've done with the deck. I've taken this list to my local FNM and won a couple times and have been doing well on untap with it as well. Here's the list:
The first thing that jumps out of the list is the 2 copies of Burning Vengeance. I added these as a joke after trying many things in its slot, but after a few games of testing, I realized it was a very reasonable backup plan for Assault Loam. With Burning Vengeance and Flame Jab, every land turns into an Arc Trail. This plus Life from the Loam deals 9 damage per turn. It's a fast clock and clears the board even easier than Assault Loam. Note that this is not the main plan of the deck, just a backup plan. The two copies can be discarded to both Faithless Looting and Lightning Axe to get rid of the dead enchantment if need be.
The second major difference is the 3 copies of Sheltered Thicket. I think the cycle lands have been undervalued in this thread as they let you deal 10 damage per turn while Assault Loam'ing with 6 lands. That's how the games go with this deck. Assault Loam my opp's board, gradually playing lands up to 6 lands in order to deal 10 dmg per turn to kill them. With 2 copies of loam in your yard and at least 4 lands, you deal 10 damage every other turn with cycle lands which is also a better rate than the normal Assault Loam combo. It helps the deck a lot.
The last major difference is the simple manabase. I'm only playing two colors, so I'm not very vulnerable to Blood Moon. These colors also let me play a million burn spells which is very helpful in a long game. I have gone Bolt Bolt or end of turn Bolt into triple Flame Jab to kill my opp many times with this deck, and it is an easy way to steal a game from someone who is playing over aggressive.
The sideboard is the weakest part of the deck and is just kind of thrown together. I have two storm decks at my lgs, so I'm playing 3 Damping Sphere and 3 Tormod's Crypt, Abrade hits artifacts and creatures so comes in in many matchups, Ancient Grudge kills artifacts at a better rate, Beast Within hits everything and usually comes in G2 to fight graveyard hate, and the rest are kind of random cards I think would be good in different matchups. If anyone has any suggestions for the deck, that would be great since I have been refining this list for a while now and don't know where to go next with the list.
I play Huntmaster of the Fells out of the sideboard in my RGx Assault Loam decks as a way to gain advantage against grindy decks that are attacking my graveyard. In those grindy matchups, it is very easy to land a Huntmaster on a cluttered board and just go to value town against some decks, gaining life, making tokens, killing my opp's dorks while dealing them damage. That being said, I don't think it is necessarily a 4-of card to have in your maindeck, but I can definitely see it as a 1-of in Ponza or other fringe RG decks to gain value over time.
LONG time lurker here. I figured it was time to start posting, and what better way is there be to start than to post a decklist of my long time favorite archetype Assault Loam. I've been playing it for a while now at my LGS which used to run proxy tournaments, and once they stopped I built this budget version. This is the iteration I have been working on for 5 months now, and it has been doing well for me at my local FNMs.
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.
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.
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.
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Lightning Axe
3 Flame Jab
4 Life from the Loam
4 Satyr Wayfinder
3 Young Pyromancer
2 Burning Vengeance
2 Anger of the Gods
4 Seismic Assault
4 Countryside Crusher
1 Fire-Lit Thicket
1 Forest
3 Ghost Quarter
5 Mountain
2 Rootbound Crag
3 Sheltered Thicket
2 Stomping Ground
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Abrade
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Beast Within
3 Damping Sphere
2 Gnaw to the Bone
2 Huntmaster of the Fells
1 Nature's Claim
3 Tormod's Crypt
1 Worm Harvest
The list is just a straightforward RG AssLoam deck built up from scratch. You have your removal in Lightning Bolt, Lightning Axe Flame Jab, Anger of the Gods, and Seismic Assault, threats in Countryside Crusher, Young Pyromancer, Seismic Assault, and Burning Vengeance, and card filtering in Faithless Looting and Satyr Wayfinder. There are a few key differences which I will now go through however.
The first thing that jumps out of the list is the 2 copies of Burning Vengeance. I added these as a joke after trying many things in its slot, but after a few games of testing, I realized it was a very reasonable backup plan for Assault Loam. With Burning Vengeance and Flame Jab, every land turns into an Arc Trail. This plus Life from the Loam deals 9 damage per turn. It's a fast clock and clears the board even easier than Assault Loam. Note that this is not the main plan of the deck, just a backup plan. The two copies can be discarded to both Faithless Looting and Lightning Axe to get rid of the dead enchantment if need be.
The second major difference is the 3 copies of Sheltered Thicket. I think the cycle lands have been undervalued in this thread as they let you deal 10 damage per turn while Assault Loam'ing with 6 lands. That's how the games go with this deck. Assault Loam my opp's board, gradually playing lands up to 6 lands in order to deal 10 dmg per turn to kill them. With 2 copies of loam in your yard and at least 4 lands, you deal 10 damage every other turn with cycle lands which is also a better rate than the normal Assault Loam combo. It helps the deck a lot.
The last major difference is the simple manabase. I'm only playing two colors, so I'm not very vulnerable to Blood Moon. These colors also let me play a million burn spells which is very helpful in a long game. I have gone Bolt Bolt or end of turn Bolt into triple Flame Jab to kill my opp many times with this deck, and it is an easy way to steal a game from someone who is playing over aggressive.
The sideboard is the weakest part of the deck and is just kind of thrown together. I have two storm decks at my lgs, so I'm playing 3 Damping Sphere and 3 Tormod's Crypt, Abrade hits artifacts and creatures so comes in in many matchups, Ancient Grudge kills artifacts at a better rate, Beast Within hits everything and usually comes in G2 to fight graveyard hate, and the rest are kind of random cards I think would be good in different matchups. If anyone has any suggestions for the deck, that would be great since I have been refining this list for a while now and don't know where to go next with the list.
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.