Modern

Getting a Life (from the Loam) in Modern

When we last left our intrepid hero, he had planned a full-scale assault on the SCG Cincinnati tournament with a G/B/u Birthing Pod deck. Alas, never one to stop tinkering with his weapon of choice, he made some crucial changes the eve before the event that resulted in his colossal defeat. Morn his loss!

How did my weekend go? Well, I posted this little tidbit of wisdom the day before the tourney:

The deck I was speaking of, [card]Tempered Steel[/card], had just won the previous weekend. I thought it would fall victim to Affinity Syndrome, wherein it would be fresh in everyone’s mind, and sideboards would be packing enough hate to grind the artifacts to dust. I thought this might let me get an edge by packing additional hate for Wolf Run decks (since team Channel Fireball was running them at the PT).

It turns out I DO have the cojones to run close to zero [card]Tempered Steel[/card] hate. I have great-big-huge-solid-steel-bouncing-hairy cojones (cojones = testicles for those that don’t understand Mexican). However, just because you have the cojones, doesn’t mean you should let those cojones do your thinking for you (a thought to live by, all you hormonally charged teenagers).

(If this is to scale, you’ve got problems)

I think there exists, somewhere in this vast universe, a troop of psychic, reality-altering monkeys that patiently listen to the words of every human, in hopes that they can insert a healthy dose of irony into their lives. In case you haven’t guessed I went 1-2 drop, after encountering the metal menace multiple times.

Now that SCG Cincy has passed, I don’t have any meaningful Standard tournaments to look forward to. So, it’s time to start brewing for Modern!

After looking over a few of the PTQ results, and recent Daily lists, it seemed very obvious that there was a [card]Life from the Loam[/card]-shaped-hole in the format’s heart. One of my favorite mechanics is Retrace. Letting you turn lands into spells (albeit fairly under powered spells) is as good as fried gold. With the printing of [card]Burning Vengeance[/card] and [card]Secrets of the Dead[/card], it seemed like Retrace could fuel a potent Loam engine. This was my first take on the deck:

[deck title=Travis Hall – Retraced Vengeance]
[Lands]
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Tolaria West
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Misty Rainforest
2 Blood Crypt
1 Stomping Ground
1 Fire-Lit Thicket
1 Steam Vents
1 Breeding Pool
2 Watery Grave
1 Overgrown Tomb
2 Graven Cairns
1 Sunken Ruins
1 Island
1 Snow-covered Island
1 Forest
1 Swamp
1 Snow-covered Mountain
[/Lands]
[Creatures]
3 Snapcaster Mage
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Faithless Looting
4 Thought Scour
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Raven’s Crime
1 Flame Jab
3 Life from the Loam
1 Into the Roil
4 Burning Vengeance
1 Secrets of the Dead
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Gifts Ungiven
3 Damnation
1 Worm Harvest
[/Spells]
[Sideboard]
3 Kitchen Finks
2 Haakon, Stromgald Scourge
2 Nameless Inversion
3 Ancient Grudge
3 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Syphon Life
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Now, I’m not the only or first person to take note of [card]Burning Vengeance[/card]’s potential. Another deck placed high in a couple Daily events using the Haakon/[card]Nameless Inversion[/card] combo (which I relegated to the sideboard). Instead, I decided to focus on a version that maximizes the number of cards it “sees” and tries to rip the opponent’s hand to shreds with [card]Raven’s Crime[/card]. [card]Faithless Looting[/card] and [card]Thought Scour[/card] were great at filling the ‘yard fast, and the deck saw enough cards to find the “answers” pretty consistently. This deck was competitive, but it had trouble with opposing deck’s top decking their way to victory. Do you have any idea how frustrating it is to get a Jund deck to no cards in hand, and kill everything they have on the board, only to watch them topdeck back-to-back-to-back [card]Bloodbraid Elf[/card]’s? This was definitely not the deck you want to play if you have an inclination to tilt, rage-quit, or kick things when you’re angry.

Despite my need for anger management, the format still seemed ripe for a [card]Life from the Loam[/card] deck. I decided to give [card]Seismic Assault[/card] a whirl instead of Vengeance. I love Retrace, but it does require you to run a high number of situationally sub-optimal cards. So I put my brewer’s cap back on (it’s actually an officially licensed Indiana Jones fedora) and built this:

[deck title=Travis Hall – Faithless Loaming]
[Lands]
1 Snow-Covered Mountain
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Snow-Covered Forest
2 Fire-Lit Thicket
1 Plains
3 Rootbound Crag
2 Stomping Ground
1 Mountain
2 Misty Rainforest
3 Arid Mesa
2 Snow-Covered Forest
2 Horizon Canopy
2 Raging Ravine
1 Temple Garden
[/Lands]
[Creatures]
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Kitchen Finks
4 Bloodbraid Elf
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
2 Slagstorm
4 Seismic Assault
4 Lightning Helix
4 Faithless Looting
3 Life from the Loam
3 Path to Exile
[/Spells]
[Sideboard]
3 Tormod’s Crypt
3 Ethersworn Canonist
3 Ancient Grudge
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Flame Jab
3 Kitchen Finks
1 Volcanic Fallout
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

This deck has been doing much better (I went 3-1 in this daily a couple nights ago). Unlike the previous deck, this one puts the opponent on a very fast clock with Tarmogoyf and Knight of the Reliquary. It has resilience in [card]Bloodbraid Elf[/card], and can combat aggro decks with a full set of [card]Lightning Helix[/card] and [card]Kitchen Finks[/card].

On some of my card choices:

[card]Faithless Looting[/card]: The deck’s MVP. I wasn’t sure about this card making the leap to Modern, but it is for real. It’s the perfect turn 1 play for this deck, as it can set up a super powered Tarmogoyf on turn 2 (or KotR on turn 3), fill the graveyard for LftL, or help you draw out of a land heavy hand. It can be flashed back if Dredged via LftL in the late game (letting you replace the lands that you’ve returned with legitimate cards). The deck works so much better/smoother with [card]Faithless Looting[/card].

[card]Knight of the Reliquary[/card]: I could not see running [card]Countryside Crusher[/card] instead (a card I really love). The ability to fix your lands, fetch a manland, and fill the graveyard up for LftL is too strong. The Crusher always starts out as a 3/3 (and dies to Lightning Bolt), whereas it’s not that hard for KotR to enter as a 4/4 or more.

[card]Bloodbraid Elf[/card]: I don’t see how you could run less than 4 of this. She’s like the female/elven Hulk Hogan, finding a way to Hulk-Up right when you seem to be destined for defeat. You’ll just cast [card]Bloodbraid Elf[/card], Cascade into a [card]Seismic Assault[/card], or a [card]Lightning Helix[/card], and all of a sudden it’s BOOM! Atomic Legdrop and victory. I briefly considered [card]Huntmaster of the Fells[/card], but it never seemed to do enough.

[card]Lightning Helix[/card]: I went back and forth on running [card]Lightning Bolt[/card] instead. The life gain has been relevant, but it can be [card]Spell Snare[/card]d. It may be that I favor this card over [card]Lightning Bolt[/card] due to the abundance of mono-red decks in the Tournament Practice room.

[card]Slagstorm[/card]: Since my main creatures, [/card]Tarmogoyf[/card] and KotR, will often have an ass-end greater than 3, this is a necessary concession to fight Goblin tokens and Melira combo decks.

[card]Horizon Canopy[/card]: I wanted to highlight this land. Once I get the engine going, I will often leave it untapped to return LftL at instant speed, in response to graveyard removal. I was running [card]Edge of Autumn[/card] to compliment this but [card]Horizon Canopy[/card] has proved good enough for now. I also love using it to play LftL twice a turn in the late game.

Overall, the deck looks like it has the potential to be a player in the format. Life from the Loam is an undeniably strong card (as evident by Grand Prix Lincoln). I am still tinkering with the sideboard to fight Tron decks and [card]Splinter Twin[/card]. Ultimately, the core of the deck, [card]Life from the Loam[/card], [card]Seismic Assault[/card], [card]Faithless Looting[/card], and [card]Tarmogoyf[/card] could go many different directions and could support white, black, or even blue as a third color. If you have any ideas or suggestions, feel free to comment below!

If you like my deck ideas or suggestions, you can follow me on Twitter: @travishall456. I throw around random observations and deck concepts every day.

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