LD.deck [Primer]

Modern RBW (Mardu)

Politricks

Land (24)

• 4x Arid Mesa
• 1x Field of Ruin
• 4x Flagstones of Trokair
• 2x Ghost Quarter
• 1x Horizon Canopy
• 1x Keldon Megaliths
• 1x Mountain
• 2x Plains
• 4x Sacred Foundry
• 4x Temple of Triumph

LD (19)

• 1x Ajani Vengeant
• 2x Avalanche Riders
• 4x Boom / Bust
• 3x Fulminator Mage
• 4x Molten Rain
• 4x Stone Rain
• 1x Wildfire

Prison (11)

• 4x Ghostly Prison
• 4x Magus of the Tabernacle
• 3x Porphyry Nodes

Value (6)

• 1x Bottled Cloister
• 1x Crucible of Worlds
• 4x Runed Halo

---

Sideboard

Other (15)

• 2x Anger of the Gods
• 1x Boseiju, Who Shelters All
• 1x Crumble to Dust
• 2x Kor Firewalker
• 3x Leyline of Sanctity
• 2x Rest in Peace
• 3x Stony Silence
• 1x Timely Reinforcements

---

Maybeboard

Hate (10)

• 1x Boil
• 1x Chalice of the Void
• 1x Deflecting Palm
• 1x Engineered Explosives
• 1x Grafdigger's Cage
• 1x Kataki, War's Wage
• 1x Ratchet Bomb
• 1x Spellskite
• 1x Torpor Orb
• 1x Trinisphere

AltCon (5)

• 1x Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
• 1x Grim Lavamancer
• 1x Madcap Experiment
• 1x Nahiri, the Harbinger
• 1x Platinum Emperion

Maybe-Main (1)

• 1x Goblin Dark-Dwellers

Removal (5)

• 1x Celestial Purge
• 1x Condemn
• 1x Oust
• 1x Trinisphere
• 1x Wrath of God

---

Intro

This is one of my absolute favorite decks in modern. I'm a player who thoroughly enjoys watching others people not play magic, it's my guilty pleasure. I like to sit there as my opponent draws a card they can't cast, looks at me with eyes that could kill, and says pass in a begrudging tone. So when I saw Bahra, his twitch name, piloting a deck based purely on not allowing opponents to do things and taxing them while denying them lands, yeah I was in love. Before I go in too deep on his deck, which I am pretty much following 100% minus the board, lets go over some pros and cons. The deck reminds me most closely of Lantern. Both decks look to lock out the opponent and minimize their number of outs, though in different ways. Lantern looks to set a hard lock by attacking the opponents hand then controlling their draws, lantern runs more copies of ensnaring bridge because of their low average CMC. LD.deck doesn't care about what the opponent is drawing, the deck one purpose in life is to destroy lands and take advantage of the opponent once they have a low land count. Ghostly Prison is a card traditionally ran in R/W prison decks such as this or sun and moon, it's a good card. But ghostly prison becomes back breaking when paired with land destruction, Magus of the Tabernacle acts in a similar fashion, taxing the opponent for for every creature they want to keep, not to mention it has a big butt for easy blocking.

Is the deck for me?

Reasons to play this deck

You like long games

• This deck makes games go long. When your win condition is locking down the opponent you dedicate most of your deck to it and therefore lack an abundance of win conditions. Watching opponents sit there while you kill then with Keldon Megaliths sounds fun, or what about waiting for Assemble the Legion to run them over?

All about the long game - This deck doesn't do anything turn one, there are a few options turn two but you are mostly a sitting duck until turn three. If you are fine with being fairly bad against fast agro deck then this could be an option for you.

Kappa - You are a troll, not an unsleeved media kind of troll. A troll that abuses cards like ensnaring bridge to prevent opponents from playing the game. This deck has a major tilt factor, if you cheese them game one they are possibly tilted. No one wants to be landless for ten minutes and then have to play against the same strategy.

Reasons not to play this deck

Gotta go fast - Look else where there are plenty of aggro decks that are meta and several that are fringe as well. This is classified as a control deck for a reason. Games stretch out and can get stale.

You like interaction - This deck doesn't really interact. It's only targeted removal spell is Lightning Helix because it can help you kill a creature and gains life. Other than that you are sitting there blowing up lands hoping they can't kill you fast. If you want to have answers for what your opponents do this isn't the deck for you, this deck is built to answer your opponents ability to do things.

You like winning as much as possible - This deck is not tier 1 by any means. It's like moon prison and ponza had a baby, a slow baby. This deck relies upon stabilizing ASAP. Fast decks can ruin the strategy if they can kill by turn three of four, or a deck like burn can get you low by the time you stabilize and just bolt you a few turns in a row since you are so slow at winning. If you want to win as much as possible this deck isn't for you.

The Cards

In this segment I will attempt to break down the deck, it is a straight forward strategy. But there are certain synergies that aren't completely obvious upon first glance. Plus this wouldn't be a proper deck tech without laying it out for you all.

Land Destruction

This is going to be the first category, why? This is LD.deck, land destruction is the deck. It's also the largest category, that said I won't be going over every card. You don't need me telling you that Stone Rain destroys lands. So lets make this short and sweet.

Most of our creatures carrying land destruction or disruption abilities. Avalanche Riders is an all-star, in case you were wondering it is time shifted which is a blessing. The riders destroy a land, can deal some damage and stick around all for the low cost of 8 mana! Okay so maybe creatures have gotten a little better post 8th edition, but the riders destroying a land and providing a body is good. I don't really need to tell you that Fulminator Mage is a good card, but I want to. Fulminator mage is a good card, he's a body that will hit a land in a good portion of modern decks, he's a legacy staple on a stick, he would be more appropriately named magus of the wasteland.

Moving on from LD.creatures, I'd like to highlight two spells that are two of the best cards in the deck. card:Boom/Bust pulls it's own weight and then some. I cannot stress enough how good the card is. A signature combo is Booming your own Flagstones of Trokair and an opponents land. On the play this leaves our opponent on zero land, on the draw on one while fetching a sacred foundry out of our deck because Flagstones doesn't specify basic plains. Plus there are fringe situations where Armageddon isn't a bad mode either. Though to be honest I haven't been in a situation where I've needed to. Wildfire is a bomb, sweeps the board of a variety of threats and destroys 4 lands! I've played several games where this leaves my opponent landless and creatureless, I don't know about you, but a one sided Obliterate sounds like my ideal magic card. Getting the response, "Well." from my opponent and nothing else is a beautiful thing.

Taxing and Interaction

This deck game one doesn't have much interaction. It is a linear deck, it is focused on one goal, don't let your opponents play magic. The deck doesn't have the luxury of premium removal like Path to Exile since it goes against our game plan. a card that we do run is Lightning Helix , good removal that gives us a little more survivability. The life gain is critical in this deck as it is seeking to stabilize and tends to be weak to decks like burn. This is one of the only removal spells in the deck as removing creatures is not the game plan, making them useless is. Ajani Vengeant is a baller, draws agro for us, can lightning helix something, can lock down a land a turn effectively destroying a land, not to mention the ult is crippling.

I've already brushed on the taxing cards of this deck, but I'll go over some more. Crucible of Worlds is insane value. It makes Wildfire much less punishing for us. Plus using the Armageddon mode of card:boom/bust isn't a big deal when we have a crucible. Ghost Quarter can often be an effective Strip Mine against decks like affinity or five color humans that have little to no basic lands. Strip mine and crucible is an infamous combo also if the game drags on even a deck full of basics will eventually run out. Ensnaring bridge, Ghostly prison, and magus are all-stars against creature decks.

Win Conditions

Even the most troll decks need one. I will often get concessions game one, but post board our opponent will usually force us to win. Keldon Megaliths is one of our big cons, yes this land does 1 point of damage if we manage to keep our hand empty. once we lock them we employ this tactic. It's not my favorite win con as lantern has a faster con with Pyrite Spellbomb and a harder lock. But Lantern is tier 2 while this is 3 at best so I won't get anywhere comparing to that deck. Still megaliths eventually gets the job done.

I started playing MTG in RTR-Theros standard. I played casually for a bit and one of my favorite card during this time was Assemble the Legion . This card is still one of my favorite cards. It's actually a fast way to end the game once you get it going and have locked your opponent. Plus it isn't affected by our own prison pieces. They have haste so we are fine with not paying mana for magus, plus they have 1 power so we can always swing through our own ensnaring bridge. This deck does run creatures which means that we can sometimes win off of beating our opponent in the face with 2 power creatures. I mean Snapcaster Mage gets to do it, why not Magus of the Tabernacle ?

The Board

Time to start to wrap this up I will go over the side board I have here and other options that you could slot in in place of what you see here.

Sideboard

2x Anger of the Gods , sweepers are nice to have in modern. Anger works against dredge strategies because it exiles their Amalgams and Bloodghasts. Elves, counter company, affinity. Many decks can be set back by this card. I remember when cards like Slagstorm and Pyroclasm saw a lot of play back in the day. But since anger of the gods was printed a card like this became very valuable. Alternatively, you could run Wrath of God if you want a hard sweeper that will always get the job done. But usually This deck rather have the exile clause and the plan is to make the opponent unable to cast card that anger can't kill.

1x Boseiju, Who Shelters All , it's been a while since I've seen this card. I remember running it in Grishoalbrand, especially since my meta was full of counter magic at the time. it's usually a meta call but with U/W Cheon, uh I mean control, on the rise and Grixis shadow also packing countermagic this land allows us to force our land destruction through which is very important.

1x Defense Grid , the reasons for running this are similar to the reasons for running Boseiju, yet the grid has more application. It can throw collected company decks off tempo by forcing them the cast CoCo at sorcery speed. It downgrades many instant speed plays by either making them more expensive or by making them sorcery speed.

3x Kor Firewalker , Yeah I don't like burn. I'm convinced that it's our worst matchup and will live and die (likely to burn) by that statement. The firewalker can usually kill creatures like Goblin guide or eidolon, or at the very least make them think before swinging in. They can bait you into blocking with it then skullcrack you to kill it so be careful to not get outplayed that way. But over all the lifegain and pro red is just all we can ask for.

3x Leyline of Sanctity , Yeah three more burn hate cards, but when your worst matchup has a high play rate you have to be prepared. This is also great against storm, as even if they side in Empty the Cheons our deck is build to be anti-creature.

2x Rest in Peace , hoses graveyard strategies. Makes delve creatures like gurmag angler bad. The card is good. Another choice is Grafdigger's Cage which also works against Collected Company or Chord of Calling , These are my two main choices but modern has many options for graveyard hate so take your pick.

3x Stony Silence , I mean this is a card. Affinity is basically unwinnable game 1, so we want to change that post board. Shatterstorm is a great sweeper. While we do have anger, anger doesn't hit etched champion or mox opal. these two are the best options I'd say for artifact hate at least in these colors.

Maybeboard

Just going to go over a few cards that I would consider putting in the deck or the board depending on meta shifts.

With eldrazi and Death's Shadow s running around Oust and Condemn are choices that are great. Oust is awesome, it is sorcery speed but it gives you time. it's cheap and by the time they draw it again it may be uncastable. Condemn is hilarious against Death's Shadow. It buries one of there shadows and it sets them back to having their shadows being 0/0s, it doesn't even fill there graveyard or make the shadow available to Kolaghan's Command back.

card:Wear/tear is a great card to not only combat the robot menace but also get rid of pesky enchantments. A flexible card that hates on multiple strategies. Also if you play this deck in a small meta you may start seeing Sacred Ground if people are scared of you or just plain hate you, in which your only out is destroying the enchantment.

Engineered Explosives , Not budget friendly by any stretch, but a great card against aggressive decks. You are only able to hit 2 drops with the card but usually that will be enough. Ratchet Bomb , is another option that is more budget, albeit slower.

Trinisphere is a card that I constantly forget is modern legal. Probably because no one runs it. But this card is possibly good in this deck. We have only two cards that are affected and they are both two drops. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben has always been a crippling card against storm. But with Baral and electromancer Thalia only makes the card cost the original cost. Trinisphere on the other hand completely negates the cost reduction.

Kataki, War's Wage is great against affinity, especially in this deck. It's a Magus on steroids against affinity or lantern.

If you want to win in a big way then Nahiri, the Harbinger with a single Emrakul, the Aeons Torn is a great way to annihilate the competition. Plus it actually threatens to end the game quickly and has to be answered. Generally I'd take out Ajani for Nahiri and our ensnaring bridge for Emrakul.

Kaladesh block gave us a whacky combo that puts a big body in play and makes us hard to kill. Madcap Experiment into Platinum Emperion is a great Win Con. You would obviously take out your other artifacts in order to run to combo so slotting it in isn't too hard. Besides it's not wrong to steal from our Ponza cousins is it?

Matchups

Affinity

This matchup just seems bad for us. This deck suffers against aggressive decks or decks that need only one or two lands to win. Not to mention they have Darksteel Citadel , indestructible lands are the bane of this deck. Your answer to that is wildfire and good luck getting to six mana against affinity. The 3 stony silence go in 100%. You need them to slow them down, though as an affinity pilot for two years now, it's often easy to play through affinity, especially when the opponent drops it and then does nothing to pressure you. But a stony silence into a stone rain on their only non artifact land can set them back. Just hope that their turn one wasn't too insane to recover from.

Burn

I'm convinced that this is your worst matchup. They can operate on little to no lands and kill fast. Even if you can stabilize against the deck your often under 10 life and a few turns of top decking burn spells will eventually kill you. They have crazy reach and our slow win cons allow them plenty of time to draw enough burn. Post board things get better for us. 3 Leyline of Sanctity and 3 Kor Firewalker come in. We need outs to this deck.

Tron

Against a deck that relies on having lands to cast big fatties a deck that actively attacks their mana base is obviously going to be favored. Their outs are assembling tron, you destroying a tron land and then them playing the land that you destroyed the next turn. Still if you can boom on turn two then stone rain the following turn you basically win at that point. the thing about bloodmoon against tron is you still have to win before they play 7 mountains. But this deck won't let them assemble tron and it certainly won't let them play 7 lands. This is a naturally good matchup and that's why you don't have any board slots for it.

Scapeshift

Scapeshift is a matchup that I imagine is good. Another deck that is based on lands and ramping out lands. I haven't played the matchup to be fair so this is all based off my knowledge of how both decks play. It will be hard to keep the opponent off of lands but our goal is not letting them get to 5. 5 means they can through the breach a titan in, 6 means they can simply cast Prime time, and 7 means a lethal scapeshift. so as long as we can keep them low on lands their deck seems mostly dead. But their deck is built to ramp out lands. If I get the opportunity to play the matchup I'll update this section.

That's All Folks

Conclusion

The deck struggles against aggro but still has several sideboard and main deck options to slow them down. Our dream matchup is midrange decks or decks that rely heavily on their mana base. Also the more colors our opponents deck runs the easier it is to disrupt them. Three color decks like death shadow or Jund can sometimes easily be shut off of a color and this is always important to keep in mind when attacking lands. If they only have one blue source and two black and red sources you're often wanting to attack the blue source to attempt to shut them off of an entire color. Combo decks do depend on which combo deck it is. Ad nausuam and storm will be matchups you want lLeyline for as they often operate on low amounts of lands and Ad nausuam runs lotus bloom for quick mana that let them cheat on not having lands. Counters company is a three color deck and you can usually shut them off of mana from lands fairly easily, dorks are annoying but can be dealt with. Control decks seem obnoxious as ever but with hate cards like grid and Boseiju you can attack their manabase and take away a con from them in the form of killing Celestial Colonnade .

Over all the deck is slow and steady but a real tilter when it operates properly. It shuts down people from casting spells, what's better than that? I would say this deck is tier 3 and possibly tier 2, especially tier 2 if your meta is slower or not ready for this deck. This concludes this primer for now. Now go forth and bring destruction to the earth.

Date added	6 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	1 - 0 Mythic Rares 40 - 11 Rares 12 - 4 Uncommons 4 - 0 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	3.58
Tokens	Soldier 1/1 W
Folders	Land destroy