Lands Control-Combo

Canadian Highlander* BUG (Sultai) Combo Competitive Control Loam

fischboys

Land (40)

• 1x Bayou
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Cephalid Coliseum
• 1x Dark Depths
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 5x Forest
• 1x Glacial Chasm
• 4x Island
• 1x Lonely Sandbar
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Maze of Ith
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Strip Mine
• 4x Swamp
• 1x Temple of Mystery
• 1x Thespian's Stage
• 1x Tolaria West
• 1x Tropical Island
• 1x Underground Sea
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Wasteland
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Sorcery (18)

• 1x Ancestral Vision
• 1x Collective Brutality
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Dark Petition
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Inquisition of Kozilek
• 1x Life from the Loam
• 1x Maelstrom Pulse
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Raven's Crime
• 1x Regrowth
• 1x Seasons Past
• 1x Sylvan Scrying
• 1x Thoughtseize
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Traverse the Ulvenwald
• 1x Treasured Find

Enchantment (5)

• 1x As Foretold
• 1x Exploration
• 1x Fastbond
• 1x Search for Azcanta  ^Flip
• 1x Sylvan Library

Planeswalker (4)

• 1x Jace, Architect of Thought
• 1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
• 1x Liliana of the Veil
• 1x Liliana, the Last Hope

Artifact (4)

• 1x Crucible of Worlds
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Zuran Orb

Creature (15)

• 1x Courser of Kruphix
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  ^Flip
• 1x Leovold, Emissary of Trest
• 1x Primeval Titan
• 1x Ramunap Excavator
• 1x Snapcaster Mage
• 1x Tasigur, the Golden Fang
• 1x The Gitrog Monster
• 1x Tireless Tracker
• 1x Titania, Protector of Argoth
• 1x Trinket Mage
• 1x Vampire Hexmage
• 1x Vendilion Clique
• 1x Walking Ballista

Instant (14)

• 1x Abrupt Decay
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Crop Rotation
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Fact or Fiction
• 1x Gifts Ungiven
• 1x Golgari Charm
• 1x Intuition
• 1x Mana Leak
• 1x Miscalculation
• 1x Mystic Confluence
• 1x Remand
• 1x Sultai Charm

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Maybeboard

Instant (6)

• 1x Cryptic Command *list*
• 1x Daze
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Negate
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Spell Pierce

Sorcery (3)

• 1x Capture of Jingzhou
• 1x Temporal Manipulation
• 1x Time Warp

Creature (1)

• 1x Muldrotha, the Gravetide

Artifact (1)

• 1x Nihil Spellbomb

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Our main gameplan is to control the game with wraths and counterspells until we win with one of our "win the game combos". Now I know what you're thinking? "Why do we play turbo land synergies if our main plan is to be a control deck? Why not just play Scapeshift?" The main reason comes from the inherit value that the Land's package gives. With how wonderfully good Fastbond is we can sometimes just "Whoops" into a turn one Strip Mine lock or infinite mana. If Fastbond is in our opening hand we are often put so far ahead that we just win, and if we draw it late game it is a combo piece that helps us end the game. While my metagame is quite small (especially in comparison to the motherland, Victoria) I have had a lot of success controlling the game, locking out my opponents, and grinding my way to victory. If you like powerful nothing, if you like winning with a one shot from a 20/20 Flying, Indestructible, Avatar, or if you think Fastbond is the best card in Highlander I highly recommend you try this build.

Points:

Fastbond 1 Gifts Ungiven 2 Demonic Tutor 4 Strip Mine 2 Intuition 1

Combo:

The main combo is going to be Dark Depths + Thespian's Stage, which together make the 20/20 Marit Lage. In addition to this we also have a couple ways to make infinite life and mana.

Infinite Mana + Life: Fastbond + Crucible of Worlds / Ramunap Excavator + Zuran Orb

Infinite Mana: Fastbond + Crucible of Worlds / Ramunap Excavator + Glacial Chasm / Courser of Kruphix + Strip Mine

The Grind:

More often than not we will find ourselves in a position where we have locked out the game or our opponents can no longer interact with us. This usually comes from a Strip Mine + Crucible of Worlds lock or Glacial Chasm + Crucible of Worlds + Exploration / Fastbond prison. The problem is usually not winning from that point but rather GETTING to that point. We have a good amount of spot removal and counterspells so usually single threats aren't too bad so we usually have to worry more for go wide strategies. We have a few wrath's but sometimes we will get them too late or not at all. If that is the case, I highly recommend aggressively tutoring for Glacial Chasm. Unless you can just win, staying alive is always better in this deck than trying to advance your win condition and combo off. Glacial Chasm wont by itself lock out the game, it will usually buy you enough time to find a Crucible of Worlds effect to help live. Another great way to grind out the game is to start looping Seasons Past. If you're not familiar, this is possible because Seasons Past is placed on the bottom of the library upon resolution. Because of this we can Demonic Tutor or Dark Petition for it and recast it returning the tutors to our hand to repeat. This synergy is very useful if you have locked out the game but have no way to win or end the game without multiple tutors. you can do this by getting both tutors in the grave, either by milling or casting, then casting Seasons Past to return both, using one to find a card you're looking for and the other to refind Seasons Past. This uses a lot of mana, but again is very effective if you have already locked out the game and have the privilege of taking your sweet, sweet time. Probably the best way to find what we want is through Cephalid Coliseum + Crucible of Worlds. this lets us every turn draw three and discard three to find whatever we need to win the game. The best part is that because we have Crucible of Worlds on the field already we can freely discard any lands because we can just play them anyways.

Ending the Game:

After infinite mana has been acquired there's a few ways to win on the spot. One way is to cast Walking Ballista for an arbitrarily large amount and shooting them 'till dead. Another way is to activate Tasigur, the Golden Fang an infinite times to mill your deck and put all non lands into your hand. You can then loop Collective Brutality or Walking Ballista until dead. Dealer's choice. if Tasigur, the Golden Fang is unavailable you can Seasons Past with tutors to similarly loop any spell you want. While the spell loops are more fun, the better win condition, in my opinion, is Cephalid Coliseum. Notably it says "Target player" so if you use the infinite mana explanation above you can create infinite blue mana then activate Cephalid Coliseum until they draw and discard their entire library. (Note: I highly recommend you first loop it on yourself until you mill Strip Mine so that you can destroy their mana base, so as to limit the amount of responses they can have)

While rarer, we sometimes just win with beatdown. Titania, Protector of Argoth, Tireless Tracker, and The Gitrog Monster are usually quite good at this, especially when you get Titania, Protector of Argoth + Zuran Orb and make a ton of 5/3's on endstep.

Notable Exclusions:

The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale: Due to budget reasons I do not nor will ever likely own a The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, that being said if you do i highly recommend you finding a place for it.

Force of Will: Force of Will is often described as one of if not THE best counterspell. In this deck however we simply do not have enough blue spells to consistently cast this for free, and if we do have a blue spell we really don't want to exile it. Most of our blue spells are to give consistency to the deck or to counter spells themselves, so Force of Will tends to be not as good as we hope if we have to exile a draw spell, and its really bad if we have to pay the full five mana. That being said I am looking at other counterspells and would love to hear your opinions on the various counterspells.

Date added	6 years
Last updated	5 years
Card Score	6 / 10
Legality	This deck is Canadian Highlander legal.
Rarity (main - side)	16 - 0 Mythic Rares 44 - 0 Rares 18 - 0 Uncommons 9 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.54
Tokens	Clue, Elemental 5/3 G, Emblem Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, Emblem Liliana, the Last Hope, Marit Lage, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	Highlander, CANLANDER