I love Loam decks and before DRS was banned I was considering making one. I see only one problem with this perfect deck: You have 59 cards in the mainboard. Other than that it's lookin' mighty fine.

Jacques

Yeah, There's supposed to be 26 lands. The site never updates the list when I change it, apparently. Thanks for pointing that out!

I gold fished you deck a little, and like it quite a bit. One thing I found though is I was often wanting more green sources of mana.

Might it better to replace the Svogthos with a Tree Top Village?It would give you another green source, and is just a better man land.

I think you could use a few more lands in general. Maybe cut some other cards like a few flame jabs and or ravens crimes, maybe even worm harvest.

Have you tried the crushers main deck? It has a lot of synergy in the deck, and it can get out of hand fast.

bogtrog

I've hardly even gotten all of the pieces to this deck in the mail yet, so I haven't gotten to live test it at all.

In regards to Treetop Village , I wanted to get a playset, but I was far too stingy to shell out the whole dollar apiece for them... After I lose with this build enough times, i'll probably get a playset, but for now, I want to see how it goes without.

Right now, I feel that the Seismic Assault main is enough for game one, and the crushers can come in later. Like Pack Rat in standard, I just don't want to be devoting myself to it every game.

Just did some major overhauls, and I feel that this deck is finally tournament ready. I'm not saying that it'll take down a GP, but I believe it'll do well at your local event. Tell me what you guys think!

This deck has pequed my interest! Would you mind giving me a run down of how this works? Any interesting combos with this deck? What is a keepable hand and what isn't? I am considering building a deck like this and I would love to know how to work it! Thanks and a +1 in advance!

Any filter lands? Like the black green one? Or black red? I feel as though all these dual black sources could be rounded out with a filter land. Just a suggestion?

3n3rgy2

Thanks! Glad you like it.

To start the game off, it really doesn't matter if you go first or second. That shouldn't influence your decision to keep or mull. The god hand in this deck, if I could pick 7 cards, would be Blood Crypt , Raven's Crime , Copperline Gorge , Life from the Loam , Seismic Assault , Mountain , Mountain . Just play your hand out in that order, and you pretty much have the game. A non-keepable hand would be one that has less than 2 lands, or less than 3 lands that are off-color to the cards in your hand. You just can't keep a hand with 2 swamps as your only mana sources. Use the fetch lands to your advantage early game, and loam them back to find all of your basics early. Because apparently Blood Moon can be a thing.

There aren't any interesting combos, per say, but the deck just wins off of synergies. Between Worm Harvest , Seismic Assault , and Countryside Crusher , you have so many options to just drown them in card advantage. Everything plays off of each other, and you have the option to do whatever you need to every turn. Playing big zoo? Pick off their dudes as soon as they play them with Seismic Assault . Playing UWR? pick off their hand with Raven's Crime , then Flame Jab them to death for the lols.

Some key moves would be to use Faithless Looting or Life from the Loam as quickly as possible to start filling up your grave. I've loamed for 1, even though that isn't the full potential of the card, it helped me because I then dredged into 3 lands. Heck, i've gotten away with playing loam for 0 just to get it in the yard. Also, remember that you have man-lands. They provide great blockers in a pinch, and can be a great source of beat down if you want to get things over with quickly.

As for your comment about filter lands, I don't think that they're necessary. The mana is super tight as it is, so I would just be adding to the budget. Also, this is, at it's core, a red deck, so G/B lands won't be too much help in the end.

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask!

Awesome! I LOVE it! I'm looking to put a little more money into this deck by adding 2 Liliana of the Veil and possibly going to a Playset of Countryside Crusher

Lili's good. Definitely has a place here. I don't know about the 2 more crushers though. It's something worth testing out, definitely.

I remember back in 2012 the champions deck had 4 of the crushers in it as well as lilliana. Plus my playgroup plays removal and control so its in my best interest to run 4.

Here is what I came up with, with heavy inspiration from your deck. Loam retrace!

So I literally just realized tonight that you can dredge off of Faithless Looting ...

I may have to change my gameplan up a bit to accommodate this. Thinking also about making a more dredge-centric deck that uses more things like Golgari Thug . Thoughts?

Wow Magic

needs Young Pyromancer

PooPlayer

Could you explain the benefit of YoungPeezy in this build? I'm not seeing why / how he fits in here.

makes you a tonne of tokens, a friend has a loam deck and uses them to great effect

Maybe a Gavony Township? Helps your tokens outlast 1 and 2 damage board wipes...

Firstly, I'm new to modern (standard-only player up until recently) and I just love this deck, and basically just Life from the Loam in general after seeing Raph Levy and Gerry Thompson make videos on TCG Player and SCG, respectively. It's just such a gross engine. I came upon this deck going through your Loam Primer since I'm having trouble piloting Raph's list intelligently and have lost a bunch of matches on Cockatrice, so I'm essentially just trying to get better with it (it's been a great help!). I'm used to playing graveyard strategies in standard but this deck is an entirely different animal, and it's turning out to be much trickier to pilot than I expected, even after watching some videos.

It seems like your deck is trying to play a longer game with Worm Harvest than Raph's deck is, and you've obviously made some different choices. It's unfortunate that Tarmogoyf is so ridiculously expensive (same with Liliana of the Veil), as the Countryside Crusher/Seismic Assault variants really appeal to me...so for now, I'm stuck with a more budget-friendly version that plays Bloodghast, etc.

So I guess I have a few questions for you as far as general gameplay is concerned, as well as some about your deck choices (just so I can understand the archetype better - I apologize if I'm bombarding you!):

• Do you start dredging as soon as possible? Other than the obvious turn 1 Looting or turn 2 Infestation, how do you prioritize your plays? I was prioritizing casting/flashing back Lingering Souls when I didn't have much else to do, but I feel like I'm sequencing poorly.

• Follow up to the above: when do you stop dredging and choose to naturally draw?

• Do you also feel significantly behind when you don't draw/dredge a Loam? Even a turn 2 Infestation feels week when you don't have your engine going, and even with it, it's basically just a 2/2 every turn which can get outclassed easily unless you have something more going.

• What are your thoughts on including Terminate?

• Do you find that Gnaw to the Bone is good enough against burn, even with 3x more Golgari Brownscale in the board?

• How do you feel about Darkblast? Since I've been playing Raph's list a bit, I haven't been loving it. It seems narrow against a lot of the field and while having another dredge enabler seems good, it's not really something I'm finding myself wanting to get back. Is it just a nod to tokens/pyromancer/snapcaster/hierarch/etc that's not really needed? I can see the value in the 6th dredge card, since your list only has 5. Do you find yourself not being able to dredge as often as you'd like?

• I'm having difficulty deciding when to cast Smallpox. I know it's matchup-dependent, but do you typically hold onto it until the midgame, or do you try to cast it on turns 2-4?

• Similarly, I'm having trouble deciding when to blow Ghost Quarter. Do you wait until they've hit a few land drops and try to keep them off their colors once they've already played a few basics, or do you prefer to play it as soon as your mana curve allows in an attempt to slow them down?

• How do you handle it when graveyard hates comes in? I played against a Nihil Spellbomb yesterday and literally had no idea what to do - stop dredging into it or dredge once or twice more and tempt them into blowing it? It just seemed particularly crushing and I'm sure I could have played it better.

• Have you played any Collected Company decks? I was getting destroyed and it seemed far too difficult to keep up with the decently-sized bodies rapidly coming in to play against my 1/1s and 2/2s. It would seems like Raven's Crime would be good, but they get a board presence pretty quickly and you take damage while emptying your own hand of lands and not really advancing your boardstate much.

I suppose I could have posted this in your primer as well, but since there were some deck-specific questions, I felt it better to do it here. Thanks in advance!

Regulus1010

First off, love the enthusiasm. It's awesome to see someone that really wants to get better as a player as you do.

To start off on the deck, the first step that you really need to make is to know the deck. That was probably the biggest step for me, was to memorize the entire 75. If you don't know what is in your deck that could help you in the next turn, you're going to have a very difficult time playing. This deck requires you to play the following turn right now, if that makes sense. So for example, the game is presently on turn 3, but you are currently playing out turn 4 in head. This isn't always the case, as things change on a dredge sometimes, but typically you just need to be ahead of your opponent in gameplan. This requires you to really know the format. If you want to pilot this deck to success, knowing your opponent's general gameplan isn't enough. You need to know what they want to do every turn, then know what you want to do to counter that every turn and do it a turn before. An example here would be playing against twin. You can't assume that by just knowing that they want to make a million dudes, you know the matchup. You need to know that if they cast a turn 3 Deceiver Exarch at your end step, there's an 85% chance that a Splinter Twin is being dropped next turn, and they are going to tap out for it. Which means that on turn three, your Murderous Cut needs to be ready to fire, which means that you should probably dredge your loam turn three instead of drawing a card. This deck is extremely interactive, and rewards skillful predetermination.

Now, moving on to your sequencing questions and such...

How and when to dredge: This is highly boardstate dependant, but as a general rule, you want to dredge until there are about 20 cards in your yard. This number isn't concrete, but it lets you have access to a majority of your recursion spells (Raven's Crime, Loam, Lingering Souls), as well as plenty of delve fuel. Dredging is, however, matchup dependant. Against any deck that wants to go past turn 5, You want to start dredging immediately to get value on them, so you can sometimes pitch a loam for 0 lands just to get it in the yard. Aggro decks, you'll probably want to hold back, take out their key cards with your removal, make them discard as much as possible, then start dredging every turn for value. In both instances however, Faithless Looting is amazing turns 1 and 2, so always try to land that early. Aside from this rough outline, you really need to feel when to dredge, and this is something that you will acquire over a long period of playing the deck. This deck rewards patience both in game and in the real world aspect, wherein the longer you play it, the more fluidity you have in your decision making.

In the case of not being able to get a loam, yes, typically I do feel a bit uneasy not having one in the first 5 turns of the game. Thankfully, Faithless Looting has flashback, so you can use that to dig as much as you need to. But yes, sometimes you do just lose games because you didn't have a loam. It's Magic, it happens. You essentially never get mana screwed in this deck, but you will get loam screwed from time to time. You cannot let that deter you from the gameplan though, as variance happens no matter what you play.

How do I feel about Terminate? It seems fine, essentially a 5th Abrupt Decay with a bit more reach. it's good, definitely a card that can be played here. I don't personally use it because I feel that Eternal Witness is just better in that slot, because it's a 5th everything on a body. But it's a fine include.

Gnaw to the Bone is a personal inclusion for my meta, as I play a lot of affinity and burn regularly. That, as well as the 3rd Brownscale, are flex spots in the sideboard that can be adjusted however you need.

Darkblast: Seems kind of bad to me. If I were to include another dredger for the sake of it being another dredger, I would probably include Stinkweed Imp for the deathtouch rather than this card. It just doesn't take out much of anything of relevance in the format anymore with bob confidant mostly gone and this larger shift toward big creatures that we're seeing. Including another dredger is fine, but personally I would only do it if my meta were a bit more grindy.

Very similar to Thoughtseize, there are correct and incorrect times to cast Smallpox. The best times to cast this are when you are on the play with a backup land in hand on turn 2 when your opponent drops an Urza's Power Plant, or when they have a single fetch (uncracked) out. Against the tron matchup, feel free to cast it any time because land disruption is the business in that match. Against black decks, it's also a fair choice to cast it pretty much whenever you feel comfortable. Anything with red or blue (or both) in it doesn't care about about smallpox, so only cast it in the perfect scenario then side it out asap (dead cards make great Zombie Infestation fodder!). While this card is very good when it is good, it can also be very meh. Archetypes that smallpox is good aginast: Jund / Sultai (Not junk, they have lingering souls), Tron, affinity, scapeshift, boggles, genesis wave in the early game, other renegade niche scenarios.

Ghost Quarter is very similarly played to Smallpox. It is more of a late game card that you want to recur with loam in effort to grind them out of their lands, as well as a very early game drop in land dependent matchups like tron and scapeshift. If you want to get the most out of ghost quarter, you need to know the key land drops of every archetype in the format, and know if that will bother them by using it. For example, if playing against UR delver, popping their turn one Steam Vents does almost nothing because of the high density of basics they have. Whereas popping the turn one Watery Grave against grixis delver is awesome because they don't have as many basics and need to hit all of their colors on turn 2.

Handling grave hate: Carry a towel, because you're going to be crying a lot.

But seriously, it depends on the type of hate you're seeing. If it's a one off hate card that you can't see coming (Bojuka Bog), just play as you normally would and be a little bit sad when it happens. If it's a one off hate card that you can see coming and can play around (Relic of Progenitus), just make sure you hold a dredge card in your hand, and play as normal. If it's a recurring / constant form of hate (Rest in Peace), proceed to scoop phase if you don't draw an Abrupt Decay within like 3 turns of it being cast. If you want to play it out, go for it, you might eek out a win, but you also need to realise that if you're in a large tournament, taking the loss and getting that extra time to rest may be more worth than trying to slog through it just to lose. We're not the best graveyard deck against grave hate. Fortunately, there aren't many graveyard decks out there, so a lot of the hate is in the form of one shots to beat the delver decks.

I've honestly never played against a collected company deck, so I can't really help there. My only advice would be to utilize Raven's Crime to it's fullest. Maybe you could be the one to learn to pilot against them?

And again, I would like to thank you for showing such interest in the deck, as well as the game in general. Best of luck getting the ropes down on this one! Just let me know if you have any more questions or anything!

Thanks so much for your detailed response! I definitely know that I have a lot to learn, but I really enjoy decks that have a lot of play to them as well as graveyard strategies, so this archetype seems like a great fit for me. I mean, cmon, its like you get to play with a 10+ card hand in most games!

I think that Im typically pretty good at memorizing 75s, and Ive already gotten mine down. Your explanation about playing the following turn right now makes complete sense to me. Also, I know that learning the format will come with time but Ive watched some videos, and even though thats not as good as actual practice, its a start.

• Your comments about Darkblast were helpful. I think Ill cut one and add Eternal Witness instead and cut the one in the board for the 3rd Abrupt Decay. I dont want to cut both dredge enablers there, but I do also like the idea of Eternal Witness as well. Ive seen that card in a bunch of other lists and milling over all me Zombie Infestation is really obnoxious.

• To that end, Ive noticed that sometimes your luck is just garbage with your dredges and you mill over everything you actually want to draw - like Zombie Infestation. However, if you dont have a Looting in hand/yard or stop dredging for a turn to naturally draw into it, youre never going to draw them anyway. I feel like if I dont get Infestation in my opening hand, Im probably not casting it that game and that feels somehow wrong.

• When do you side in Bojuka Bog and when you do, do you cut other lands or just non-land cards that are dead in the matchup? I feel like its good against a lot of blue decks as a 1-of, since they often play Snappy and that card can be a beating, especially if theyre snapping back a Helix or something.

That's all I can think of for now - thanks again!

Bojuka Bog comes in for Ghost Quarter 95% of the time. the other 5% is when they're playing Crucible of Worlds or Loam, then it comes in for any other land.

I usually bring it in for Grixis delver, as that's really the only snapcaster deck that truely relies on it, as well as reanimator decks, or decks that use multiple copies of Tasigur, the Golden Fang and Tarmogoyf.

Is it possible to do a budget version of this deck?

Bockduck

Yes, it is. It's not going to be as reliable because you won't have access to fetches and shocks, but it's doable. I can build a budget list and link you in it later if you are interested.

Excellent! Yes Im very interested. If the deck could be under 200 it would be great.