Hmm, Seris what do you think about cutting 1 Wreak Havoc, 1 Stone Rain, squeezing in 2 Beast Within's.

That would give 9 3 cmc land destruction cards instead of 8, so more consistent turn 2 land destruction.

And it would be 1,2 more card to deal with creatures.

And since it would be a 2 of, it likely wouldn't come out turn 1, which could be a good thing, since if destroyed a land on turn 1 with Beast within, the 3/3 could really beat me up before get rid of it.

But 2 Beast within could be real good for destroying a turn 3 dropped Tarmogoyf, or getting rid of a turn 2,3,4 Woolly Thoctar(a 5/4 for 3 cmc)drop.

What do you, others think about that?

Yeah Seris, I totally get what you mean about Liquimetal Coating.

Used to run a variant of this deck that had 3 Liquimetal Coating, 3 Crush (1 cmc artifact removal),Ancient Grudge, 9 to 11 artifact removal, 9 to 11 non artifact destruction land destruction cards,in order to try and mitigate when Liquid Metal did not come out.

But still got stuck with artifacts that did not destroy land, when Liquid Metal did not come out.

That's what's nice about 4 Wreak Havoc, 4 Acidic Slime, is that if Liquid Metal does not come out, you don't get stuck with artifact cards that do not destroy land, and you can use wreak havoc, Acidic slime to destroy artifacts, land, enchantments, even when Liquid Metal does not come out.

So the way I have it set up Liquid Metal works great whether it comes out or not, I am going to destroy everything.

It's just that when Liquid Metal comes out, I destroy everything, even better, even more consistently.

So no downside, and lots of upside to running liquid metal wreak havoc, wrecking ball, Acidic slime together in this deck.

Yeah, I see I might of jumped the gun a bit. But I'm not that familiar with such dedicated LD decks and how they deal with various problems on the board. I realize you've done your homework a lot better :)

Hey Naksu, it's ok. I was just showing you that I wasn't dismissing yours, or anyone else's suggestions.

I wanted to show you what would happen if made the suggestions you made.

Not as a way to make you feel bad, dismiss your suggestion.

I don't want you or anyone else to feel like as if had made a bad suggestion.

I just want you, others to understand the logic of why I either agree with or disagree with a suggestion.

And I do take suggestions, as the 2 Beast Within's wouldn't be in the deck if I didnt.

I hope that belps.

Please keep on making suggestions, whether they are agreed with or not, whether they are explained why they work or do not work or not, as that's the only way we will learn, improve, etc.

Hey Seris, thanks for suggesting Beast Within. I think that 2 Beast Within is a nice fit with everything else in deck.

I playtested about 15 to 25 to 35 sample hands, and the 2 Beast Within's seem to help a little.

Beast within actually killed a 4 cmc 6/6 that came out mid game, because drew no land destruction, and only lands for 4 straight turns(which is really hard to do in this deck)

And the deck was able to handle destroying a land with Beast within on turn 2, creating a 3/3 turn 2 that was dealt with by a turn 3 Acidic Slime drop that destroyed another land

If have 8 mana available, which is doable by turns 5,6,7 with birds, spirit guide, can destroy 4 of foe lands per turn.

Here How:

Have Acidic Slime already out.

Have Conjurer's Closet out.

Have Charmbreaker out and have 1 3 cmc land destruction card in hand, and 1 in graveyard, OR no Charmbreaker iut, but have 2, 3 cmc land destruction cards in hand, or draw 1 during turn destroying 4 lands in a turn, per turn.

So tap 3 mana, destroy land, then tap 3 more mana destroy a land, then tap 2 mana sacrifice Mirrorpool, copy 3 cmc land destruction spell, destroy 3rd land.

Then at end of turn bounce Acidic Slime to destroy 4th land during turn.

That's not possible to do with Mimic Vat because have to kill Acidic Slime to trigger Vat, and have to pay 3 mana to use Vat to destroy a land.

So because of that Conjurer's closet is a better fit in deck, then Vat is.

Having all but Wrecking Ball of your creature removal being contingent on drawing and keeping one of your 3 copies of Liquimetal Coating in play seems overconfident. Since you want to make this compete with established decks, you should know that popular decks like jund and company have main-deck answers for your artifacts.

Yeho, that's why have 4 Wrecking Ball. And 4 Acidic Slime also deals with creatures, and is not dependent upon Liquimetal Coating, because of DEATHTOUCH ability of Acidic Slime. Also have Beast Within.

Also it's not just 1 way, strategy. Either opponent is not going to get creatures out, won't destroy liquimetal coating artifact, because THEY ONLY HAVE 1, OR NO LAND, or if they do get out creature, destroy artifact, then will either already have 1 of 4 Wrecking Ball, in hand already, or will draw 1 of 4 wrecking balls, or reuse 1 of 4 wrecking Balls from graveyard, by using Charmbreaker, or by having, drawing, playing 1 of 4 Acidic Slime with DEATHTOUCH.or can Beast Within their creature if creature is a 4/4 or bigger creature.

Also that's what Metaboard, and sideboard is for. If decks are using 1 cmc cards to shut down my deck, then will metaboard, sideboard in 3, 2 cmc counterspells to counter their 1 cmc cards that are shutting down my deck.

Also the deck doesn't have to have Acidic Slime, or Liquimetal Coating artifact out for a long time, where it can be destroyed.

I can hold onto it in hand, then play it, immediatly use it before it gets destroyed.

Also the deck just needs to delay opponent, until get out win con. The deck can easily do that.

But in order to do that deck needs to do the following things well:

1. Destroy lands CONSISTENTLY TURNS 1,2,3: With 8 mana creatures, birds, spirit guides, 23 land destruction cards, 31 ways to get, draw, get those 23 land destruction cards out destroying lands turns 2 and continuing to do that thru turn 17.

And if they try to counterspell with 2 lands mana, then will use 3,4 wreak havoc, that cant be countered.

So because of that consistent land destruction is COVERED.

1. In case decks get out 2,3 lands, mana, and 1 creature,an or 1 artifact, an or 1 enchantment, an or 1 planeswalker, this deck needs to be able to deal with those things. And this deck does have that COVERED also.

Also if decks spend 2 out of the 2 or 3 mana, lands they have getting a creature, threat out, they then won't have the mana, during the SAME turn to counterspell stop me from destroying their creature, threat.

Also because of the SHEER LOTS OF removal in deck, then deck can either bait, switch, or if temporarily stopped, wait to draw, reuse, more removal later..

Between the deck, sideboard, metaboard, crafty playing skill, there is a way to deal with the better decks.

That's not to say it, that will always happen, but often enough to win at least 53% of games against the better decks, which is enough for the deck to finish in the top 4 to top 8 to top 16 to top 32,in the money, prize pool, depending on the size, quality of decks, what types of decks, skill level of players, size of tournament whether 39 to 69 to 100 to 150 to 250 to 400 players.

Also back when infect was tier 1.5 to tier 2, rogue deck, a player won a Grand Prix, PTQ, tourney, because he was a good enough skilled player, and because nobody was expecting infect, and so did not sideboard, Metaboard for it.

That same kind of thing can happen with a land destruction deck like this or a variant of a land destruction deck like this.

so i've looked at your deck, and through all of the comments made so far and i think i have some advice, that im suprised hasn't been mentioned.

first of all. why do you still have black? yes i understand you like the ability to kill creatures, but your only black card in the deck is Wrecking Ball (and you dont need black for Surgical Extraction (and theres only 1 card in the meta board that needs black and its double black and is worse than Stone Rain which isn't even a 4 of in the mainboard)). without black you can simplify your mana base. i don't know that you get color screwed often by the looks of your mana base, but it probably would help save you some life to get rid of City of Brass and Mana Confluence. yes they help you play Spell Burst in the side, but you really don't need to be playing that in your side. my advice? cut Wrecking Ball and simplify your mana base.

second, why 63 cards? you even mention in one of your own posts that you don't see the point in needlessly watering your deck down. while 63 isn't much bigger than 60, its still more cards than you need and therefore more cards than you should play (there are exceptions to this rule, but your deck is not one of them). if you take my first suggestion then this is already covered. if not, there are other things i can suggest, but since each suggestion would need it's own reasons and explanations, i wont list them right here.

i see you are using Liquidmetal coating as a way to kill creatures with your artifact hate cards (and i guess this applies to enchantments as well). which means it helps 7 (4 Acidic Slime and 3 Havoc Festival and possibly Splinter if youre counting metaboard) of your cards be more useful but doesn't do anything on it's own. it literally NEEDS other cards to be good. this card is a 3 of card that turns some of your other cards into removal, but not necessarily the ones you have now. it also doesnt matter if you do have them, because you just had to spend mana and a card to turn that other card into removal. if creatures are the issue maybe Flame Slash or Roast or even Dismember if for some reason you deal with indestructible creatures. Lightning Bolt is versatile since it can hit face, but i'm assuming that you'd rather have something that can deal with a wider range of creatures. i'd like to think 8 pieces of consistent removal (4 wrecking ball and 4 Flame Slash) would be better than 4 consistent and 7 cards that need a 2 mana do nothing card before they become removal spells. however if you took the first suggestion, this may result in too little creature removal, so i could understand keeping it in.

your "lock" of flickering brutalizer or charmbreaker recursion is a great. it gives you something to work towards that finishes out the game. a lot of dedicated land destruction decks forget to add this type of thing. i don't really have much to say about this other than maybe drop 1 brutilizer and 1 conjurer. brute is nice, but expensive and not something you want to see early. closet is also something thats good to see later rather than earlier. and since you can pretty effectively keep people off their land for several turns using lower costed land removal spells, its ok if they are only 2 ofs each since you have time to look for them. but if you only remove 1 i'd make it -1 brute since its role in the synergy can be replaced with slime.

Boom feels like it would suit you better mainboard. cast it targeting your own fetch and it's essentially a cheaper Stone Rain. if you took my first suggestion you'd probably be able to play 2 Darksteel Citadel if your worried about not having enough targets on your own side of the field. that would also give you more colorless mana sources for Mirrorpool. as you know, early land destruction is key to this style of deck.

TL:DR

plan A:

-4 Wrecking Ball (its your only black card, and not really a good enough reason for black in the deck)

-1 Brutalizer Exarch

-1 Conjurer's Closet

+3 Boom

-2 Spell Burst in the side.

-1 City of Brass

-2 Mana Confluence

-1 Reflecting Pool

+4 some combination of Bloodstained Mire and/or Darksteel Citadel

edits to mana base

Plan B:

-3 Liquidmetal coating

-1 Brutalizer Exarch

-1 Conjurer's Closet

+2 Roast/other kill spells

i would play test this and give you some feedback, but i now realize it's 2 in the morning and i have work tomorrow (today). so i probably shouldnt do that right now. best of luck.

It wouldn't be the first time a deck's awesomeness passes by me completely, but this would be one of those cases... It destroys lands alright, but in the likely event that your starting hand doesn't contain 2 Simian Spirit guides, a Molten Rain and a Land (plus something to follow it up), I don't see how you keep your opponent from doing anything. I mean, you will surely be able to keep them from getting to 5+ lands, but Modern is still a Turn 4 format in my opinion, so I think that rate is too slow.

Comparing this to Eric Froehlich's attempt, I think your version lacks ramp most of all. Eric has Arbor Elf + Utopia Sprawl , which is a lot more consistent (while a little slower) than Simian Spirit Guide, or Birds of Paradise.

The biggest problem I'm seeing is Affinity, though. If I gauge your deck right, a turn-1 Darksteel Citadel will make you concede, and even without it, Affinity will win the race with Memnites and one-time-use lands (as you only have 6 instant-speed spells) alone, that is if you do target the lands. Of course if you don't manage to destroy their very first land, the second turn (with a second land) will be well enough for your opponent to cast whatever they need to to cut you down in time. Affinity may not be as dominant as it used to be, but if you only consider it to be the Top 8's bouncer, you need to prepare for it more than you are doing. In my opinion, assessing this deck's power vs. Affinity can be outlined by considering each 4+ CMC card in the deck to be about the value of a Phyrexian Tribute).
More or less the same applies to other fast decks, or decks that can ramp into enough mana in a single turn to produce a threat early enough.

On the flip side, I see you tearing decks like Tron, Ad Nauseam, or the late Splinter Twin to pieces. The winning chances for those decks are about non-existant, and probably limited to the amount of times you will get flooded or screwed with your opening hand.

Either way, I didn't come here to insult, but to point out what I think the weaknesses are. As I said, maybe I'm just missing something, so I'd be happy to read and learn from your answer :)

Before I comment, respond to the last 2 comments, I want to say I really appreciate all the comments, but especially the last 2 well thought out comments

What do you guys think of these changes- TEAR 1/Kill Land Cascading board- the idea is to try a surprise win game 1 with the land destruction then use cascade to run a huge amount of hate on specific strategies- with effectively nine copies of war's wage, affinity is a lot less scary.

Aholder, thanks for your comment. I agree with some of the suggestions you made. And disagree with others.

Here are the 1's I agree with and why.

Boom/Bust:

I have been against this card, because I didn't see a way to use it without screwing self.

Turn 1 land. Turn 2 fetch land, Wooded foothills, can't tap for mana before play boom, so fetch for mountain, or forest, boom, my land gone. FAIL

But your Darkstar Citadel suggestion fixes that.

Turn 1 land, citadel, Turn 2 if no citadel first turn, then citadel 2nd turn then can cast Book it destroys foe land, doesn't destroy my land.

Between the birds, spirit guides, citadels, Wooded Foothill fetch lands, that probably makes BOOM consistently safe, doable on turns 1,2,3.

Brutalizer Exarch, I am unsure about whether agree, or disagree.

The problem with only running 2 is with 2 Brutalizer Exarch, 2 Charmbreaker, 1 of those 4 cards doesn't come out earlier, and have to sustain land destruction longer, or find a alternative way to win, when, if they don't come out, or come out too late.

The problem with running 3 Brutes, was covered by you. Wish was possible to run 2 and 1/2 a Brute.

I think 3 Brutes is ok, if willing to Mulligan if get 2 brutes in opening hand, getting 1 Brute early is not that bad. But if not willing to Mulligan if get 2 Brutes in opening hand, then should run 2 Brutes.

Darksteel Citadel: Definitely going to add 3,4 of them to add Boom/Bust main deck, and to help with Mirrorpool.

Conjurer's Closet: I agree with -1 because like you said, don't need it until late mid game to early late game to help sustain land destruction. And it really sucks when get 2 5 cmc closet in opening hand, or drawn early. And making that change could give me eitheranother land destruction card slot, or if cut 1,2 of 1,2 other things could run 2,3 Clan Defiance,or 2,3 Devils Play, or 2 or 3 Comet, etc.

What I don't agree with,an or will split the difference, meet you halfway on, or maybe, maybe not do:

Mana Base: I can take out 1 Mana Confluence, leaving 1 City Brass, 1 Mana Confluence. That means likely only get 1 of them into play, in case a bird does not come out. Likely don't get stuck with 2 of them in play early. Only need 6,7 black mana sources in 4 birds, 1 City Brass, 1 Mana Confluence, maybe, maybe not 1 reflecting pool.

Taking out 1 Mana Confluence, and maybe, maybe not 1 reflecting pool, 1 Rootbound crag, 1 Copperline Gorge, makes room to add 3, or 4 Darksteel Citadel. Leaning towards 3 Citadel, because 4 of them would mess up mana base I think.

I am not going to take out both, all the City Brass, Mana Confluence, reflecting pool.

I need at least 4 birds, and 2 other black mana source lands, that can also provide, green, red, colorless for Mirrorpool, and 1 of city of Brass, and 1 of Mana Confluence does that.

That leads me to:

I totally disagree with you about wrecking Ball. No way I am going to take it all the way out. And I am going to run 3 or 4 of them.

Like I said earlier, there is not room for bolts path to exiles, doomblades type of removal cards THAT DONT ALSO GIVE YOU THE OPTION, CHOICE OF DESTROYING A LAND.

So if you are going to have me cut the wrecking Balls then there better be a 3 to 5 cmc removal card that doesn't cost black, that is red or green that destroys a creature, that also gives me the option of destroying a land, all without a 3/3 creature token being given foe, like with Beast Within.

If that kind of card does not exist in Modern Format, Wrecking Ball stays in.

Now where I might be able to split some difference, meet you partway here, is maybe cutting 1 Wrecking Ball, 1 Conjurer's Closet, and maybe 1 of something else to run 2,3 Clan Defiance,or 2,3 Devils Plays, or 2,3 Comet.

I won't be taking 2 counterspells out of sideboard, metaboard part of deck. It's needed for those decks like affinity, that only need 1 mana, or no mana to cast stuff into play, and to help deal with counterspell control decks.

You know what's a card that I honestly believe is 2,000% underrated in Modern LD? Crack the Earth. It's best early-game when your opponent doesn't have very many permanents in play, but if you can hit 1 or 2 consistently on turns 1-2, maybe 3, it's not going to be a good time for your opponent.

Thanks for your comment Bluescope.

You don't need to have 2 spirit guides, and if do have 2 spirit guides you don't have to use them both.

And you can get 1 of 4 birds, as well.Between the 4 birds, and 4 Spirit guides, it's easy to get 1 of them turns 1,2.

If have 2 Spirit guides turn 1, then Molten Rain, Stone Rain, Beast Within, Boom/bust (which is going in), can destroy a land turn 1 and have enough left over to destroy a land turn 2.

But if have 2 spirit guides, and no way to destroy a land turn 2 If destroy a land turn 1, then skip turn 1 destroying a land, then spend 1 spirit guide, destroy a land turn 2, then spend another spirit guide, destroy a land turn 3, then turn 4 if don't have a bird, should still have 3 mana by turn 3, and either a 3 cmc land destruct card, or Boom/bust, or a Bird in play, to destroy a land turn 4. Then destroy a land turn 5.

Most to almost all the time, about 77 to 80 to 83% of the time, the deck will, would, should, etc, destroy land turns 1,2,3, then continue to destroy a land every turn.

Opposing decks will usually not get more then 1,2,3 land early on, before you destroy their land down to 1 or no land by turns 3,4,5,6,7.

Almost no way will opposing decks get 3,4,5,6 lands, UNLESS you are extremely UNLUCKY, and get a BAD DRAW, where you don't draw any Land Destruction cards, and only draw land cards for 4,5,6 turns in a row kind of thing.

As far as Affinity Decks go. Your right that deck is weak against affinity decks.

Fortunately not everyone plays affinity.

Also Liquimetal Coating, Conjurer's Closet, Wreak Havoc, Acidic Slime, then Bouncing Acidic Slime, reusing Wreak Havoc with Charmbreaker, Brutalizer Exarch, Beast within, all deal with artifacts.

then I can sideboard in counterspells to deal with affinity artifact decks, because altho they don't have to spend mana to cast spells, their spells do have to be cast, and can be counterspelled.

Also I can metaboard in Ancient Grudge, Splinter, and other artifact hate.

Also another thing to keep in mind, is that for a deck to be a good tournament deck, it doesn't have to do well against all decks, whether in meta or not.

You only have to beat the decks that show up at the tournament.

Affinity decks are a HUGE problem with this deck.

Fortunately not everyone runs affinity, and if everyone starts running affinity, then can sideboard, Metaboard AFFINITY HATE CARDS.

Also another point about this deck:

EXPENSIVE, OBNOXIOUS, REDICULOUSLY EFFECTIVE, $1350 Modern Format decks are ESPECIALLY ANNOYING.

This deck was made to ENJOY the AWESOME SOUND, SIGHT of $75 to $200 cards being sent to the graveyard to trouble you no more, while hearing the RICH players complain, whine, wail, cry, etc, about their EXPENSIVE $300 cards going to the graveyard.

This deck is meant to be COMPETITIVE, LEVEL, EQUALIZE THE PLAYING FIELD.

That doesn't mean you consistently win some to most to almost most of the time.

It means that every game your deck, or this deck gives decks a run for its money win or lose.

Example: I made a standard land destruction deck back in worldwake, zendikar, scars,etc, days,that finished top 7 to top 13 out of 29 to 59 players on a consistent basis at FNM, tournaments. It won about 49.9% of its games.

Everybody hated playing the deck, because it was a spoiler deck. It had about a 50/50 chance of winning, losing no matter what the deck.

So what would often happen is the tournament leader, with his EXPENSIVE DECK, would have to play me in a match, 2nd to last natch round, and lose the match to me, thus costing him first place, only to see me lose to a cheaper less expensive lower tier deck in last match round, and only to see me finish in 14th place out of 60 players.

That deck was a spoiler deck, that leveled, equalized the playing field, that was competitive, gave each deck a run for its money, but still only won about 49.99% of its games.

This deck is like that deck as far as goal, purpose, what it does, would do, should do, etc, goes.

Also remember can't win them all, so ok with having 1,2,3 decks that weaker against, and 1,2,3 decks that average against, and 1,2,3 decks that strong against, and 1,2,3 decks that dominate against those 1,2,3 decks.

Canter,problem with Crack the earth is I would have to sacrifice a permanent,probably a bird, or a land, as well. It would hurt me, just as much as the opponent, because it would deramp me.

The only way I could see it as playable would be if I draw a Spirit Guide or 2. But if I don't draw a spirit guide or 2, then Crack the earth is a dead card for me.

I think between Boom/Bust other 3 cmc land destruction cards, that Crack the earth, and any similar cards that hurt both me, and opponent, are not good fits with this deck.

Maybe if I run it as a 2 of to shoot for mid game, turns 5,6,7,8, when don't care about losing a bird, spirit guide, in order to destroy either a land or creature.

But early game, turns 1, 2, 3, I would not want a Crack the earth, unless had 1,2 spirit guides in addition to a bird being out.

Turn 4 is questionable on whether would want a cracked earth or not.

Also problem with a turns 5,6,7,8 Crack the earth is that foe may have 2 creatures, with 1 being a crap chump blocker, and the other a better creature, so the foe would probably just sacrifice his crap chump blocker, keep his better creature.

Also by turns 5 to 8, foe may not have any land, creatures, permanents to sacrifice.

So late game Crack the earth could be a semi dead draw.

Just really questionable, iffy 50/50 on whether Crack the earth would, could fit in this deck.

Now if you have a way around the part of me having to sacrifice a permanent, then it's in.

Also maybe I could not play a land, then remove a spirit guide, then play Crack the earth, destroy foe land, then play a land for the turn.

That would be doable.

Hmmm think there is room for a 2 of Crack the earth.

That last thought of not playing a land, then playing crack, then playing a land afterwards, just barely by skin of teeth, puts Crack of earth into deck by as a 2 of.

How is Crack the Earth good? If the goal is to set your opponent behind why are you also putting yourself behind by destroying your own permanent?

Mikeal. I understand your reasoning for Wrecking Ball. you've made clear that you won't remove it unless a there's a 3-5 mana card that has the ability remove land and stop creatures. I see now that my previous suggestions didn't fit these conditions. So I would like to offer some other possible ideas.

Storage Matrix: it doesn't remove lands or creatures. So why add it to this list? Well because when you cast it your opponent has to make a choice between creatures and their land now. So if they choose creatures, then you've essentially kept them off of their tapped lands. If they choose lands in an attempt to try and use some of their other spells, then any creatures they attack with will no longer be a threat. You will always choose lands as you don't need to attack unless you are in the end game and have a charm breaker out. At which point you should basically have it in the bag. Pros: forces your opponent to make tough choices between mana and creatures. It doesn't really affect you. Cons: your opponent gets to make the choice still. Doesn't help against decks that don't play creatures.

Icy Manipulator: this doesn't remove any threat permanently but it can deal with anything for the price of 1 mana per turn. It also can hange targets if you find that there's something more pressing that you want to stop. Say you play it and tap down their land during their upkeep. You keep tapping this land and using your other spells to destroy their other lands. Eventually you draw more LD than they have land. So now you can destroy the land you were tapping and use icy to tap down other troublesome things like creatures. Pros: always has value. Your choice what to hit. Has the ability to change targets depending on what is the most threatening in a given situation. Cons: requires 1 mana per turn.

Incendiary Command: offers a multitude of options. Destroys a land. Wipes board of all creatures with 2 or less toughness which I would imagine would be the most prominent type of creature that can be played with the amount of mana you usually leave your opponent with. It can cycle your hand if you're getting flooded or if you're looking to dig for your end game lock. Can hit face for 4. Not something I expect you to choose often, but it's nice to have options. Pros: land destruction plus anything else you want. Will always be useful. Wipes out wide strategies (like affinity and zoo). Cons: might not be able to kill a goyf that landed early or a gur may that was delved with all their destroyed land.

Lavaball Trap: 8 drop? That's not part of the conditions. Well the trap cost is 5 and I think with the prominence of fetches you should be able to get it off reasonably easily. It destroys 2 lands and will kill just about any creature your opponent can land. No need to choose between the two. Pros: insane value. Two lands and a creature. All destroyed for 5 mana. Cons: might not always be able to do what you want it to.

Crack the Earth: I personally don't like this card as it will put you down a land but I thought I'd at least mention the pros and cons of it since it's mentioned in an above post. This is not a turn 1 play as much as it looks like one. This is a turn 3 or 4 play. If you play it turn 1 you are taking both you and your opponent back to T0. Now you have to try and build back up to three mana for stone rain before your opponent gets 2 mana for goyf. Which is not as easy given you have 1 less land than before. However it's insanely good T1 if you cast it using simian before you play a land. But that's not consistent enough that I'd plan for that. No the best use is T4ish time when you've destroyed their land and they have nothing but a big creatures left that you couldn't destroy. Now you cast it knowing that they'll have to sac the creature and you'll still have enough mana to play a LD next turn if needed. Pros: cheap can hit creaturesCons: you opponent gets to choose what it hits. You lose a land. Can't be effectively played before T3 anyways barring great opening hands.

Wild Swing: random effects are not that great usually. But this card will destroy either a land or a creature. So I thought I'd add it to the list. pros: hits both types and sits comfortably at 4 mana. Con: random.

Primal Command: is sort of the a jack of trades card. Doesn't quite do anything perfectly but will always be mildly useful. returning a land to the top of the library would be a common option. I know it doesn't remove it permanently but by putting it back on top you've put them behind a land and they lose a draw. Since they could have drawn a land to begin with, this is essentially the same scenario as destroying a land. I would not advise the shuffle effect even though it would get rid of the land on top, because it will fill there library with land and possibly still result with a land on top. This card can tutor up your death touch slime and gain you 7 life so that you survive and can play the creature that will kill their creature. It can also put the land on top and tutor slime if you're not in any danger of losing to whatever creature they've played. Even without a creature on field you can simply return their land and tutor slime/exarch/char breaker to start your end game phase. Or possibly just gain 7 life to stave off burn or combo decks like storm. Not the best removal or LD but versatile enough to do both with some success. Pros: versatile. Cons: about medium effectiveness at everything it does.

Those are about all the suggestions I have for 5 or less mana. Although there were a few 6 drops that were very promising. But those would come down to late to be truly effective.

I should probably also mention a few things that I might not have made clear because I was fairly tired when I posted last night. The edits to the mana base were only intended to be made if you took out Wrecking Ball and Spell Burst since you wouldn't need anything besides green, red, and colorless. On that note I may be mistaken in assuming this but judging from the wording of your last post (unless you ninja me) you sound like you're implying City of Brass and Mana Confluence would help get colorless mana for Mirrorpools effects. That's not the case and I'm not certain if you meant to imply that, but I know several people who have made that mistake before so I wanted to clarify that in case someone else was reading through and wasn't aware. Also with the inclusion of citadels getting the colorless mana is less of an issue anyways.

Also I should have suggested this when I advised taking out Spell Burst but you have other sideboard options that should kill affinity. And other decks that play threats at 0 and 1 mana.

Pyroclasm: cheap and effective. Kills almost every threat that can be played for 0-1 mana with the notable exceptions of Gurmag Angler/tasigur delved. It doesn't get rid of man lands though as its not instant speed. but you're an LD deck. I hope lands aren't too much of an issue.

Volcanic Fallout is good if you're looking to clear a board through counter spells.

Well if burn or other non creature decks are taking over with 1-2 drops then maybe sideboard Trinisphere. There are no more problems assuming you can keep them off three mana (if you can't, then something else went horribly wrong).

Hopefully some of these cards prove useful. If not, oh well. I just wanted to make sure you were aware of your options.

Ok. Apparently I take forever to actually type my messages because there are 3 or so new posts since I started typing mine. So I will clarify something. In my last post I mention something about mikeas last post. That was the one that he responded to me in. Just wanted to clarify to avoid confusion.

Hello, thanks for your comment.

I thought the same at first.

But there's a trick to making Crack playable.

Turn 1 you don't play any land at first.

So turn 1: Upkeep, draw, 1st main phase, no play land, remove spirit guide, play crack, foe sacrifices a land. You don't have a land out, so you no sacrifice a land, end of 1st main phase. Attack, combat phase, 2nd Main phase, play a land, pass turn.

On turns 2,3 you don't want to play crack. On turn 4, you may or may not want to play crack.

You play Crack on turns 4,5,6,7 IF, IF , IF , you have enough land, Birds, spirit guide, etc, say 4,5,6 land, 1 bird, or 1 spirit guide, and your opponent has only 1 ok creature, and or at least 1 land.

If those conditions are not met, then hold on to crack, don't play Crack until those conditions met.

If those conditions are not met, then Crack can, could be a semi dead to dead card, draw.

That's why only rum 2 Crack of earth, so that might get 1 out turn 1, an or get 1 turns 4,5,6,7, and maybe not get 1 at all, an or not get 1 either in turns 7,8,9, or until extreme turn 13 late game.

It's a 2 of conditional card that will probably help deck, and probably won't hurt deck, an or at least not hurt deck much, or where it's tolerable, in exchange for the possible benefit.

Also as long as I have lots of permanents, and foe only has 1,2 permanents, I will gladly sacrifice a permanent, to keep foe at 1 or no permanents in play.

It's like the trade strategy in chess, where if have a edge, advantage, lead, etc, you trade, kill, capture, exchange pieces, because it hurts your opponents more then it hurts you.

Also if they have a big 7/7 creature out, I will gladly sac a bird, or a land to make them sacrifice that big 7/7.

After a LOT of tweaking, sample hand testing, I found that the 2 of beast Within's, and 2 of Crack of earth, and Molten, and Stone Rain at 2,3, and Acidic Slime at 3 of, and Wrecking ball at a 3 of, that all those things was destroying CONSISTENCY, created problems.

So I cut the Liquid Metal Coatingscut the 2 Crack of Earths, cut the 2 Beast Within's, cut 1 land,cut the 2,3 4 cmc Wreak Havoc, in order to add 2 5 cmc Primal Command, and 2 Incendiary Command, run Wrecking Ball, Molten, Stone Rain, Acidic Slime, all as 4 ofs, go down to 60 cards, all in order to improve draw, consistency, consistently remove land by, on turns 1,2, and do the following.

1.2 5 cmc Primal Command fetches Acidic Slime to stop creatures, remove 2 land, by first removing 1 land, then fetching Slime, playing Slime to remove another land. It also fetches my win con creatures Brutal Exarch, Charmbreaker.

Also Primal Command gives me lifegain, and is a good target for Charmbreaker graveyard recursion.

1. 2, 5 cmc Incendiary Command, allows me to destroy a nonbasic land (which is good since everybody plays with nonbasic land these days), and it deals 4 damage to foe, and it wipes all 2/2's off the board, and it let's me draw 7 cards, to dig for mimic vat, Mirrorpool, Brutal Exarch, Acidic Slime, Charmbreaker, and it can be reused from graveyard by Charmbreaker, and it's like a Clan Defiance, Devils Play, Comet Storm, etc, except that in addition to dealing 2 damage to creatures, 4 damage to foe, like a great burn card, that also removes land, draws cards, things that most to almost all burn cards don't do.

The changes give me 4 Acidic Slimes, 4 Wrecking Balls, 4 commands, 2 Mimic Vats, 3 Mirrorpools, 2 Brutal Exarchs, 2 Charmbreaker, that either destroy, deal with creatures, or helps me get things that deal with creatures.

Aholder, thanks for taking the time to explain what each card you suggested does.

Some of your suggestions I was familiar with in Storage Matrix, Icy Manipulator.

Some I was not familiar with like Prime Command, Incendiary Command, Wild Swing, etc.

Lol don't know why I missed those when I did a database search for land destruction cards.

I using your suggestion of Primal Command, and incendiary command.

Also some good sideboard, metaboard suggestions.

I know Acidic Slime has deathtouch. I also know that there are a lot of bolts, helixes, burst lightnings, and electrolyzes being played right now.

Yeho, Acidic Slime is not going to die IMMEDIATLY some to most of time, as soon as he enters play.

And if he does, that's what Mimic Vat is for, so that if they kill slime they trigger the Slime Vat combo.

And before you say they will destroy Vat, it probably won't be destroyed for 2,3,4 turns.

Also again like I said, I can play it when need to deal with a threat, so that they can't destroy it turns before.

Also like I said if they spent 1, 2 mana of their 1,2 lands if have that many lands if they are lucky to have that many lands, to put out a creature threat, then then they won't have the mana THAT TURN, to deal with anything of mine.

Basically Acidic Slimes job is to destroy artifacts, enchant, land, and then DELAY creature threats for 2,3,4 turns, which is usually enough time.

Also the thing your not seeing, getting is this deck is not just doing, relying on only 1 strategy.

The deck, according to the card odds calculation thing, and playtesting, destroys lands consistently by turns 1,2, about 79% to 90% turn 3 at the extreme latest,(only happens about 13 to 23% of the time at extreme most), and continues destroying land alternating back and forth between destroying 1 land a turn, and 1 land per 2 turn, so continues to destroy 1 land per every 1.5 turns, and continues doing this until about turn 13 to turn 17, what with 25 land destruction cards, and about 33 ways to get those 25 land destruction cards out.

All that means, that opposing decks will be LUCKY to have even 1,2, lands, 3 lands at extreme most, let alone any more then that.

And the ONLY way opposing decks will have 3,4,5 lands, is IF extremely BAD, UNLUCKY draw, and draw 3,4 to 8,9 lands in a row and DEFY the PERCENTS, HIGH PROBABILITY of that NOT happening.

As it is that kind of crap only happens 9% to 17% of time.

That crap shouldn't happen though because of 25 land destruction cards, and a 38.3% Land Mana Ratio, and because of 4 Wooded Foothills fetch lands, and search library, shuffle library, draw 7 card, draw cards.

So because of that, they either have no land, or only 1,2 land.

So unless they are a deck, with a lot of 1,2 mana cost spells, creatures, etc, or a Affinity deck, they are going to have a hard time with this deck.

Now if they happen to get a creature threat out (not likely with only 1,2 mana, then either a 4 of Wrecking Ball(usually 1,2 of them come out), and a 4 of Acidic Slime (usually 1 or 2 of come out, and or can easily fetch 1), an or 2 of Primal Command,V which can search for Acidic Slime, an or gain 7 life, an or 2 of Incendiary Command, which can board wipe their 2/2, that they spent 1 to 3 mana on with only 1,2, land, 3 at most. And or 2 Brutalizer Exarch that Fetches Acidic Slime, an or Charmbreaker that let's me reuse graveyard to get a wrecking ball, an or mimic vat, an or Mirrorpool to copy Slime, Exarch, an or if nothing else block with Slime, Exarch, Charmbreaker, Spirit guide, Birds, etc.

Bottom line the deck will find a way to deal with decks by either not allowing mana, lands, or by, will find a way to deal with creature 5hreats if they get lucky to have mana, lands.

And only pure low cmc blitz, horde, hard core aggro decks, same kind of infect decks, pure lots of low cost counterspell decks, 1,2 cmc decks, affinity decks, ramp, burn decks, are the only decks weak against.

Fortunately those decks won't be played often, because of all the sideboard HATE cards against those decks.

And my sideboard, metaboard deals with those decks with cards like trinisphere, tunnel ignus, surgical extraction, Autumn's veil, Slagstorm storm + the incendiary command already in deck, Witchbane Orb, those cards will shut down problem decks that are problems for this deck.

Unless there is a 3 cmc or less card, besides crack of earth, Beast within, that can only be played as a 2 of, that messes up consistency of deck, that makes me sac stuff, give opponents 3/3, etc, unless there is a 3 cmc or less card that destroys lands, and deals with creatures at same time, without negatives like crack, Beast within, then that's the best that can do.

Can't throw in Wild Swing, as that's 4 cmc, and would water down decks ability to destroy land by turns 1,2

And if you say pure dedicated land destruction decks can't be competitive tier 1.5 in Modern format, your full of it.