I am happy where the list is at. However, the meta has had some recent shifts and I have been tweaking the list to adapt.
Cards I have tried:
Liliana, the Last Hope
: She is the real deal. She is removal, her ultimate wins the game, her minus buys back KoTR, which previously had been forever stuck in the graveyard. Her downtick also digs for
Punishing Fire
and lands to buy back with W6. She definitely deserves a spot in the 75. For right now she is in the side.
Assassin's Trophy
: Great card. This blows up
Gurmag Angler
s, JTMS, and just about everything else. For a while I had two in the main. I have since shaved it down to one with three Decays. Hitting lands has proved to be very useful against Post decks that don’t run basics.
Thalia, Heretic Cathar
: Felt good. She is a threat in a threat light deck, profitably blocks a lot of creatures, and allows you to
Wasteland
your opponent’s fetch lands before they can be used. Situationally she can be very good. If I could Green Sun’s for her, she would be an include, but for now I have cut her.
Toxic Deluge
: This has saved me many times against go wide strategies. I have played it in both the main and the side and I think that it deserves a spot in the 75.
Plateau
: Instead of the second
Bayou
(I only own one). It was situationally good but a second
Bayou
is much better. Not producing green or back (the two main colors of the deck) hurt.
Horizon Canopy
: I played this for a while before switching to
Ghost Quarter
which is an amazing card. After playing
Ghost Quarter
, I won’t ever sleeve up this deck without one in the main.
Ghost Quarter
: Auto include. See above.
Deathrite Shaman
: RIP sweet prince. He was a great one of and an awesome
Green Sun's Zenith
target at one CMC.
Ramunap Excavator
: Is situationally good. I would almost always rather Green Sun on three for a Knight instead of this, so I only ever use it when I top deck it. However, it can be a really bad top deck. Also, W6 is a much better card and fills a similar role.
Vindicate
: Good but a little expensive with a CMC of three.
Toxic Deluge
is better for the go wide strategies that I can struggle against.
Assassin's Trophy
is also just a better card in a lot of situations.
Grim Flayer
: I thought it would fit great into this list but it wasn’t good. I was hoping it would fill a spot between
Dark Confidant
and
Sylvan Library
. The problem was that I don’t always have delirium which means it’s almost always outclassed by bigger creatures.
Leovold, Emissary of Trest
: It felt okay. I would almost always rather Green Sun’s on three for a Knight (similar to
Ramunap Excavator
). I already have a good Delver matchup so I don’t need the help there. It might help the Elves matchup although it may be too slow. It would help the Sneak and Show matchup. However, this matchup is already so bad that I don’t think Leovold is the answer I need there. I didn’t have him in the deck for very long and he could use more testing.
Swamp
: For a while I ran this as a one of. It was an effort to combat the large number of Miracles players playing
Back to Basics
and the occasional
Blood Moon
. The number of these decks has decreased recently so I have taken it out. When I was playing a basic
Swamp
, I included a
Marsh Flats
instead of the second
Windswept Heath
. The second Heath also wasn’t needed because I’m not playing
Dryad Arbor
.
Wrenn and Six
: I got REALLY excited when I saw this card spoiled. It’s like W6 was designed specifically with 4c Loam in mind. It does everything that we want to be doing. I’m currently running three and that feels like the right number. I think that it completely replaces
Life from the Loam
(the deck’s namesake). However, some other lists still run Loam as a one of.
Sylvan Library
: It’s no
Brainstorm
but this is one of the best cards in the Legacy format. I have played up the three main, but I think that two is the correct number. I definitely wouldn’t play less than that.
Green Sun's Zenith
: I have gone down to one main. Some lists have completely removed the Green Sun’s package but I don’t feel that is correct. There are too many matchups where
Gaddock Teeg
is the best card in your deck. It is also important for fetching sideboard cards like
Collector Ouphe
and
Qasali Pridemage
.
Dark Confidant
: I have gone down to three main. This is a card that you typically don’t want to see multiples of. It is also susceptible to W6’s downtick.
Sylvan Library
is a better card, harder to remove, and I’m already playing two of them. My main beef with Bob is that he is raw card advantage rather than card selection. Card selection is better than raw card advantage and it is also what
Sylvan Library
provides.
Dark Depths
: I honestly don’t know why this isn’t standard in 4c Loam lists. There are a lot of decks that have a really hard time interacting with it (I’m looking at you Blue decks). It also provides a clock in a deck that can have a hard time closing out games. It provides a line of play that your opponents have to consider and play around. Overall, it has been phenomenal for me. Another benefit is that you also play
Thespian's Stage
which can be used to create a second copy of
Maze of Ith
.
Notable exclusions:
Dryad Arbor
: In my opinion, this is a terrible card. It’s terrible in your starting hand. It’s terrible as a top deck. It’s a card that you never want to draw. I don’t like the turn one
Dryad Arbor
off
Green Sun's Zenith
, I would rather save my Green Sun to tutor for a good card later in the game. Watching videos of others play 4c Loam with
Dryad Arbor
, it is almost never better than just playing
Deathrite Shaman
in the same spot. (Update, Deathrite is now banned.) I’m not playing Jitte or other equipment, so
Dryad Arbor
doesn’t fill the same roll as it does in Maverick. I’m open to being convinced otherwise (but not really). Instead of
Dryad Arbor
, I play the
Dark Depths
package.
Overall: 25-19-3 matches (53.2%), 80-66-4 games (54.1%)
Matchup results:
Lands: matches (3-1) games (6-3)
D+T: matches (4-3) games (11-8)
12 Post: matches (4-3-1) games (10-8-1)
Eldrazi Post: matches (1-0) games (2-0)
UR Delver: matches (2-0) games (4-2)
Elves: matches (0-1) games (0-2)
UWr Stoneblade: matches (1-0) games (2-1)
UW Stoneblade: matches (0-1) games (0-2)
Sneak and Show: matches (0-3) games (2-6)
BUG Delver: matches (1-1) games (3-2)
Grixis Delver: matches (2-0) games (4-2)
Grixis Control: matches (1-3) games (2-6)
Infect: matches (2-1) games (4-2)
Tendrils Storm: matches (1-0) games (2-1)
UB Reanimator: matches (0-0-1) games (1-1-1)
BR Reanimator: matches (3-1) games (7-4)
Steel Stompy: matches (1-1) games (4-3)
Mono R Painter: matches (1-0-1) games (3-1-1)
Czeck Pile: matches (0-1) games (1-2)
TES Storm: matches (0-1) games (1-2)
Dredge: matches (1-0) games (2-1)
Grixis Reanimator Brew: matches (0-1) games (1-2)
4c (no red) Midrange Brew: matches (0-0-1) games (1-1-1)
Temur Cascade Brew: matches (0-1) games (1-2)
Stasis Jank.dec: matches (1-0) games (2-0)
Tournament Results:
GP Portland side events:
I have included notes of the things I remember.
12-9-2018 Double-Up event results: (1-1-1) matches, (4-2) games. I was really burned out by day three and did not play well.
Round 1: BR Reanimator Brew (1-2) He ran 4x
Phyrexian Obliterator
in the main. After losing G1, I realized I could have won with a different line.
Round 2: Mono R Painter (2-0)
Round 3: Steel Stompy (1-0) Against a friend. ID so we could get lunch.
12-9-2018 Second event results: (0-3) matches, (1-6) games.
I was really burned out after 18 rounds of Legacy in three days.
Round 1: Lands (0-2) Miss-played Scooze both games and it died to
Punishing Fire
before it could take over the game.
Round 2: Ad Nauseum Storm (1-2) Mulled to four or five G3.
Round 3: Grixis Control (0-2) Might have miss-played my
Liliana, the Last Hope
in G2.
12-8-2018 Double-Up event results: (1-2) matches, (3-5) games.
Round 1: LED Dredge (2-1) On the play, he had 26 power on the board on T2.
Leyline of the Void
and Chalice on 1 got me there G2 and G3.
Round 2: Sneak and Show (1-2) I won a game against S+S!
Round 3: 12 Post (0-2) Against a friend. We drew to get lunch. Wasn’t playing tight.
12-8-2018 Second event results: (2-1) matches, (5-4) games.
Round 1: Grixis Reanimator (1-2) My opponent didn’t know what they were doing. He was running a brew with
Crackling Drake
and luck sacked G2 and G3.
Round 2: D+T (2-1)
Round 3: 12 Grixis Control (2-1) I should have been 2-0 but threw away G1 twice.
12-7-2018 Double-Up event results: (2-0-1) matches, (5-2-1) games.
Round 1: Mono R Painter (1-1-1) T1
Blood Moon
in G3 slowed me down a lot.
Round 2: Eldrazi Post (2-0) Very easy matchup
Round 3: 12 BR Reanimator (2-1)
Leyline of the Void
got me there.
12-7-2018 Second event results: (1-2) matches, (3-5) games.
Round 1: D+T (2-1)
Round 2: Czeck Pile (1-2)
Round 3: 12 Grixis Control (0-2)
11-12-2018 Tournament results: 2-1 matches, 5-2 games.
Round 1: 12 Post (2-0)
Round 2: BR Reanimator (2-0)
Round 3: Temur Cascade Brew (1-2)
10-29-2018 Tournament results: 2-2 matches, 5-5 games.
Round 1: Steel Stompy (1-2)
Round 2: Grixis Delver (2-1)
Round 3: Stoneblade (0-2) Main deck
Back to Basics
is the real deal.
Round 4: Infect (2-0)
10-1-2018 Tournament results: 1-1-1 matches, 4-3-1 games.
Round 1: 12 Post (1-2) This is a good matchup and I could/(should?) have mulled game three. Got mana screwed and lost.
Round 2: Steel Stompy (2-0) Against a new player.
Round 3: 4c (no red) Midrange Brew (1-1-1) I misplayed game two. He has three lands in play all of which were basic, an Island, a Forest, and a Swamp. I decided to activate KotR to fetch a
Ghost Quarter
and hit his Island. I wanted to take him off of JtmS and
True-Name Nemesis
. I should have hit his swamp to take him of
Gurmag Angler
because he had a second basic Island in his deck. I lost to a resolved Gurmag later in the game. Game three went to time and I was one turn short of burning him out with
Punishing Fire
. I would have won the game if I had started the
Punishing Fire
plan a turn earlier or not tapped my mana wrong earlier in the game to give him an extra life with
Grove of the Burnwillows
.
9-26-2018 Tournament results: 2-2-1 matches, 6-6-1 games.
Round 1: Mono White Taxes (1-2) Mana screwed game three.
Round 2: UB Reanimator (1-1-1) Got slow played and would have won the match if my opponent wouldn’t have been an ass hole.
Round 3: Steel Stompy (2-0) Against a new player.
Round 4: UR Delver (2-1)
Bomat Courier
Delver deck.
Punishing Fire
and
Wasteland
were amazing here.
Round 5: Grixis Control (0-2) Didn’t play around
Surgical Extraction
with my
Punishing Fire
s.
9-24-2018 Tournament results: 4-0 matches, 8-2 games, 1st out of 10.
Round 1: Lands (2-0) New Lands player. We both played sub-optimally.
Round 2: Steel Stompy (2-1) This was a grind. Game three was very close.
Round 3: BR Reanimator (2-1) Sword to Plowshares,
Diabolic Edict
,
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
with
Wasteland
, and
Phyrexian Revoker
were good.
Round 4: Infect (2-0) Neither of these games were close.
Wasteland
,
Punishing Fire
,
Abrupt Decay
,
Ethersworn Canonist
, and
Liliana of the Veil
were good. I was able to lock my opponent out of the game.
Ethersworn Canonist
was amazing and allowed me to respond to their pump spell with removal and it prevents them from going for the combo kill.
6-25-2018 Tournament results: (3-1) matches, (7-5) games, 2nd out of 7.
Round 1: Tendrils Storm
G1: I was on the play and didn’t know what he was on. He went off T2.
G2: I was on the play. I landed a
Phyrexian Revoker
naming LED. He killed it with
Abrupt Decay
. He tried to go off T3, fizzled, and scooped.
G3: He was on the play and mulled to 5. He took my Chalice with
Gitaxian Probe
and
Cabal Therapy
. On my T1, I top decked another chalice and played it on 0. I was able to
Green Sun's Zenith
for
Gaddock Teeg
. Teeg and a Knight closed out the game.
Round 2: Grixis Delver (2-1)
G1: He won the die roll and was on the play. He flooded the board with dudes and blew me out.
G2: My removal lined up with his dudes and I closed the game fast with a huge Knight.
G3: This was a grind fest. We were both in top deck mode and I thought he had me when he cast a
Gurmag Angler
with a flipped delver on the board. I top decked a land and passed. Taking the Delver and the Angler to the face on his turn. On my next two turns I top decked a
Maze of Ith
and a Knight to stabilize. I landed a Chalice on 1 and was able to grind him out from there.
Round 3: Sneak and Show (1-2)
G1: Got Emrakuled.
G2: On his T2, my opponent cast
Show and Tell
into
Omniscience
into a cast Emrakul. I
Diabolic Edict
ed him on his extra turn and he didn’t have another threat to cast with
Omniscience
. We both durdled for a while, while I tried to close the game. I swung for lethal with two Knights only to have them returned to my hand with
Echoing Truth
. I recast one of them after combat and closed the game next turn.
G3: T2
Show and Tell
into
Omniscience
into Emrakul and Grisselbrand.
Round 4: Death and Taxes (2-1)
G1: I was able to grind him out with
Punishing Fire
. This is a 50/50 to slightly unfavorable matchup so it is really important to win G1.
G2: He flooded the board and I didn’t draw
Toxic Deluge
or any of my sweepers.
G3: I emptied my hand for a T2 5/5 Knight hoping that he didn’t have removal. He didn’t have it. I removed his creatures with a
Punishing Fire
and an
Abrupt Decay
. I was able to land a second Knight to close out the game.
6-13-2018 Tournament results: (3-0) matches (one bye), (4-1) games, 1st out of 7.
Round 1: Bye I love playing legacy which means I hate byes.
Round 2: BUG Delver (2-0)
I love me some grindy Magic and this was some of the grindyest Legacy I have played.
G1: We trade resources and removal. I get hit with
Hymn to Tourach
. He plays a
Tombstalker
. I cast Lili downticking her to remove the Stalker. My Lili gets hit with
Abrupt Decay
. I remove his
Delver of Secrets
and
Deathrite Shaman
s by recurring
Punishing Fire
. We grind back and forth for 26 minutes before I am able to close the game with beats from
Scavenging Ooze
,
Dark Confidant
, and draining his life with
Deathrite Shaman
. Two
Punishing Fire
s to the dome finish the game.
G2: This game plays out similar to the last game with us trading resources and removal. The game culminates with both of us hellbent with Lilianas on the battlefield racing toward an ultimate. I also have a
Chalice of the Void
on one. He plays a creature forcing me to downtick my Liliy which allows him to pull ahead in the Liliy race. I play a Scooze which forces him to downtick his Liliy pulling me ahead in the race. At some point I am able to catch him with a
Choke
to keep three of his lands tapped down. I eventually win the Liliy race and ultimate her. I give my opponent the option of his tapped lands and Liliy or four untapped lands. He chooses Liliy. I then cast a top decked
Phyrexian Revoker
naming Liliy. I only have twenty or so cards left in my library. Next turn I cast a
Chalice of the Void
on two which locks both of us off of most of our library, but I’m ahead on the board. I win the game nine turns later with beats from the Revoker. He isn’t able to cast another spell.
Round 3: Death and Taxes (2-1)
G1: This game was fairly close until he pulled away with a Jitte equipped to
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
.
G2: He didn’t cast a spell his T1 and I misplayed slightly by playing
Dark Confidant
on my T2 rather than a
Chalice of the Void
on 1. My Bob ate a swords on my opponents T2 and he cast a Vial. My T3 I cast the Chalice realizing my mistake. I’m really glad this misplay didn’t cost me the game and the match. I was able to grind him out with and unanswered
Liliana of the Veil
backed up with removal.
G3: I removed a
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
and a
Flickerwisp
with a
Toxic Deluge
for 1. The next turn I resolved a
Liliana of the Veil
and was able to grind him out with a 11/11
Knight of the Reliquary
using Liliy to control his board and hand.
Liliana of the Veil
is really important in this matchup. She was essential to controlling the board which allowed me to win games 2 and 3.
6-6-2018 Tournament results: (2-1) matches, (5-2) games, 3rd out of 8.
Round 1: 12 Post (2-0) Wasteland, Gaddock Teeg, and Knight got me there.
Round 2: Mono White Taxes (1-2) This matchup isn’t unwinnable, but it isn’t good. Chalice and Wasteland don’t do a lot. I won game two with a turn two Lily, followed up with removal, and a chalice on one for his removal, mom, and vial.
Round 3: Lands (2-0) If they don’t combo off right away, this is a good matchup.
5-16-2018 Tournament results: 1-1 matches, 3-3 games**
5-9-2018 Tournament results: 3-0 matches, 6-2 games, 1st out of 6.
4-25-2018 Tournament results: 1-1-1 matches, 3-4-1 games, 4th out of 8.
