Legions of Loam

Commander / EDH Five Color Midrange Tokens

andymaul123

Land (41)

• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Badlands
• 1x Bayou
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Canyon Slough
• 1x Dark Depths
• 1x Flagstones of Trokair
• 1x Flamekin Village
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Forest
• 1x Gaea's CradleGC
• 1x Glacial ChasmGC
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Maze of Ith
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Plains
• 1x Plateau
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Savannah
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Scrubland
• 1x Sheltered Thicket
• 1x Stomping Ground
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Taiga
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Thespian's Stage
• 1x Tundra
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Volrath's Stronghold
• 1x Westvale Abbey  ^Flip
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Creature (16)

• 1x Azusa, Lost but Seeking
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Dune-Brood Nephilim
• 1x Knight of the Reliquary
• 1x Lotus Cobra
• 1x Mina and Denn, Wildborn
• 1x Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
• 1x Oracle of Mul Daya
• 1x Orcish Lumberjack
• 1x Ramunap Excavator
• 1x Tatyova, Benthic Druid
• 1x The Gitrog Monster
• 1x Tireless Tracker
• 1x Titania, Protector of Argoth
• 1x Turntimber Sower
• 1x Weathered Wayfarer

Enchantment (11)

• 1x Exploration
• 1x Goblin Bombardment
• 1x Land Equilibrium
• 1x Mana Echoes
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Overburden
• 1x Prismatic Omen
• 1x Seismic Assault
• 1x Song of the Dryads
• 1x Squandered Resources
• 1x Sylvan Library

Artifact (6)

• 1x Crucible of Worlds
• 1x Mox DiamondGC
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Zuran Orb

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Lord Windgrace

Commander (1)

Sorcery (14)

• 1x Cataclysm
• 1x Creeping Renaissance
• 1x Demonic TutorGC
• 1x Harmonize
• 1x Life from the Loam
• 1x Merciless Eviction
• 1x Scapeshift
• 1x Seasons Past
• 1x Splendid Reclamation
• 1x Summer Bloom
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Walk the Aeons
• 1x Wheel of Fortune
• 1x Worm Harvest

Instant (10)

• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Crop Rotation
• 1x Enlightened TutorGC
• 1x Faith's Reward
• 1x Nature's Claim
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Realms Uncharted
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Sylvan Reclamation
• 1x Vampiric TutorGC

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Maybeboard

Creature (1)

• 1x Turntimber Sower

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Lord Windgrace

Land (1)

• 1x Volrath's Stronghold

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Legions of Loam is a EDH deck, commanded by Sliver Queen, that features a prominent lands-matter theme and a tokens sub-theme. I'm slowly working on foiling/blinging this deck out, so I try to keep all versions of cards exactly as I own them in paper.

Overview and Playstyle

At its heart Legions of Loam is a high-synergy engine/toolbox deck. It has been designed to be as non-linear as possible, and can pack a punch in all but the most competitive tables. The general goal, regardless of match-up, is to move lands between your hand, battlefield, and graveyard and reap the rewards of those zone changes. Match-ups will determine whether this deck plays more defensively or offensively, though it leans to the former.

Utilization of the graveyard is important, though the deck is less reliant on it than reanimator/dredge decks will be. The mana base is fluid due to running all ten fetchlands, and double- or triple-color costs can be achieved with proper planning. Though it can perform better than most decks under tight resources thanks to its low average CMC, it has a glaring weakness shared by many higher-end mana bases against cards like Back to Basics, Ruination, etc.

Lines of Play

Packages

A lot of the deck has synergy, but some groups of cards go above-and-beyond. I refer to these chunks as "packages", and establishing them help dictate lines of play as the game unfolds. Below are a few of the important ones.

Tokens

1. Worm Harvest, Sliver Queen, Dune-Brood Nephilim, Titania, Protector of Argoth
2. Skullclamp, Goblin Bombardment
3. Gaea's Cradle, Westvale Abbey  

The tokens package is one of the easier to assemble thanks to Sliver Queen being always available. Essentially once you have a token-producer, you'll want to get your hands on an outlet and a pay-off card. Mixing and matching a card from each of the three categories is generally effective.

Card Filtering

1. Weathered Wayfarer, Knight of the Reliquary, Arid Mesa, Demonic Tutor, etc
2. Sylvan Library, Sensei's Divining Top, Oracle of Mul Daya

There are tons of ways to shuffle your library as represented by the first category, so taking advantage of cards in the second can help you leverage an oft-ignored resource.

Landfall

1. Tireless Tracker, Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle, Ob Nixilis, the Fallen, Lotus Cobra, etc
2. Fetchlands, Scapeshift, Splendid Reclamation, Faith's Reward

Landfall is pretty easy to evaluate, but these cards all generate impressive value when combined with big effects or just successive fetchland activations. Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle requires Prismatic Omen. Much like Knight of the Reliquary, Tireless Tracker's primary purpose is to generate clues for card advantage. Becoming a handy beater is just icing on the cake.

Chasm Defense

1. Glacial Chasm
2. Exploration, Mina and Denn, Wildborn, Oracle of Mul Daya, The Gitrog Monster, Azusa, Lost but Seeking
3. Life from the Loam, Crucible of Worlds, Mina and Denn, Wildborn

Sometimes you just need to set up a fort in the Glacial Chasm to beat the heat. To best accomplish it, you'll need a way to keep parity and a means of recursion. Mina and Denn, Wildborn are one of the better choices since they have both in one card. The chasm is great against aggro, Purphoros, infect, Nekusar, and many other common strategies. It won't save you from a stormed-up Tendrils of Agony or a fat Exsanguinate, but it covers a lot of bases and will usually give you enough time to get back into a game. Bonus points if you're able to get Monarch while you're in the Chasm for some extra advantage.

Seasons Past Loop

1. Seasons Past
2. Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor

Pretty standard interaction: play Seasons Past with a tutor in your graveyard. Rinse and repeat. The gem here is including Squandered Resources and Splendid Reclamation. Squander away your lands for mana, bring them back for landfall triggers via Reclamation, cast Seasons Past. Twelve (12) lands are required between your board and yard to get infinite mana and iterations; eleven (11) can get you infinite iterations but not mana. Flagstones of Trokair cuts this initial investment down to 7 or 8, depending on how many plains are able to be fetched in your deck. Infinite mana can be piped into Sliver Queen for tokens, which can be instantly lethal if Goblin Bombardment is available.

Land Sacrifice

1. Squandered Resources, Crop Rotation, Zuran Orb, Scapeshift, Cataclysm, Fetchlands, etc
2. The Gitrog Monster, Titania, Protector of Argoth, Land Equilibrium
3. Faith's Reward, Splendid Reclamation, Life from the Loam, Crucible of Worlds

There is a lot of cross-over between this and the landfall package, but these lines of play are important enough to discuss on their own. Generally, if you have a card from the first list you'll want to start looking for cards in list two or three (or both!). The biggest impact plays are sacrificing your lands to Squandered Resources or Cataclysm and then casting Faith's Reward or Splendid Reclamation. Adding a card from list two adds even more value to the play. A single Cataclysm with either Crucible of Worlds or Life from the Loam and a Titania, Protector of Argoth turns a losing board-state into a probable win. Squandered Resources and The Gitrog Monster on the field is equivalent to, "Add mana to your mana pool equal to two times the number of lands you have, then draw cards equal to the number of lands you have". Land Equilibrium forces opponents to play along our axis; this deck can perform on extremely lean resources and theirs probably can't. Even without a method of recursion, these types of plays enable surprising moments of bursty power that can help snag a victory.

Loam Assault

1. Seismic Assault
2. Life from the Loam, Creeping Renaissance, Necropotence, Wheel of Fortune
3. The Gitrog Monster, Crucible of Worlds, Worm Harvest

This line of play is one of my favorites. Once you resolve Assault you'll want gasoline, which is the second category. A cherry on the cake is utilizing cards in the third category to get extra benefits from chucking lands, like drawing cards, playing those lands, or making dudes. Assault, like Bombardment, allow us to stay on the offensive while hiding in Glacial Chasm and take down enemy resources like planeswalkers.

Time Walking

1. Walk the Aeons
2. Prismatic Omen
3. Life from the Loam, Crucible of Worlds, Azusa, Lost but Seeking

Pretty straightforward here. With Prismatic Omen out, all of your lands are Islands. You can buy Walk the Aeons back repeatedly now, and actually go infinite with cards in the third row. Azusa and a recursion piece will let you play those islands right back and keep on truckin'.

Considered Cards and Possible Additions

Currently in Testing

Here are the cards currently being tested. At any given time there are several slots that can change out cards to see what fits the best. Currently testing:

• Land Equilibrium
• Tatyova, Benthic Druid
• Turntimber Sower
• Overburden
• Lord Windgrace
• Walk the Aeons
• Breeding Pool
• Volrath's Stronghold

C18 brought a couple of new toys in Windgrace's deck, so I've updated my Dominaria-era testing suite to include those. I've swapped out Hazezon for Windgrace, Alchemist Refuge for Volrath's Stronghold, and Mana Breach for Turntimber. I'm not sure how Windgrace will fare in the 99, but we'll see!

Deck History

This deck started as a non-lands Ghave, Guru of Spores deck when I got back into MTG again. From there it slowly transitioned to include more lands-based things until I did a big overhaul and made it W/G/B lands/tokens. After that, I made another deck with Intet, the Dreamer to play Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle and the R/U lands cards I couldn't play in my first deck. After I while I stumbled onto people using Nephilim as commanders and discovered Dune-Brood Nephilim! I merged the two decks, dropping blue, and didn't look back. After 2016 I had hoped for a suitable commander, tested Tymna and Tana, and decided against using them. For a while I played true five color with Maze's End. Dominaria has brought me back to true-blue five color once more.

Date added	9 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	13 - 0 Mythic Rares 68 - 0 Rares 11 - 0 Uncommons 4 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.93
Tokens	1/1 N Creature Sand, Cat Warrior 2/2 G, Clue, Elemental 5/3 G, Human Cleric 1/1 WB, Marit Lage, Plant 0/1 G, Sliver 1/1 C, Worm 1/1 BG
Folders	Commander Folder, Cool decks, Decks of interest, Competitive Decks, Cool Decks, EDH, Cool decks, Legions of the Loam, Sliver, help