Discussion Forum

I'm a big loam fan myself and I believe cheap cards like seismic assault are powerful enough to make a budget deck that actually works. another such card that is somewhat of a sleeper yet very powerful combined with loam is Solitary Confinement. Making your deck 3 colors might not be the correct choice on a budget but its something to concider.
A while back a guy posted a deck here that used land tax and seismic assault as an engine, which was interesting.

For your GR version have you concidered playing Orcish Lumberjack? I've always liked that card and to me it seems like its made for seismic assault.

On a 2 color mana base you could concider playing blood moon/magus of the moon for land disruption.

Do bear in mind that the meta is filled with deathrite shaman which makes mana and color screwing decks a lot harder to accomplish, it also gives them a means of removing key graveyard cards like life from the loam. I guess it's one of the resons why punishing fire is popular once more.

I've seen Lumberjack before, just never thought to put it in a deck like this. Turn 2 seismic assault is pretty tempting, but it's sort of a dead draw later in the game. I'll have to try it out.

Actually all of your suggestions are good, if I get the chance I'll try to test them all. I especially like the Solitary Confinement lock, that has the potential to be really dirty.

I have thought about Deathrite Shaman quite a bit. WHY is it a 1/2? If it was 1/1 I could Flame Jab it all day (along with Bob, Clique, Lavamancer, Snapcaster, Revoker, Thalia, Hierarch, Lackey, etc). I guess there is always Assault and Lightning Bolt...

Mox Diamond is a dead draw as well later in the game, in that regard it's pretty much the same. Lumberjack is just a turn slower and more vulnerable then Mox.

With the new legendary rule comming up I'm starting a Dark Depths/Thespian's Stage Loam build. If you're able to invest in a single Dark Depths it might not be a bad combo to include in your deck. (you can probably find one around 20$ in EX condition). I'll be playing Knight of the Reliquary to help me fetch these lands but you can also go with crop rotation and or Living Wish.
It will be pretty powerful I think, Only wasteland and stifle interact with the combo, and once it's a creature only swords to plowshares and path to exile can deal with it. If triggered at the end of opponents turn it's a 1 turn kill.

The way I see it Deathrite Shaman/Abrupt Decay has made the format weaker/slower and less crazy. Sure combo hasn't changed but everything else has. People now play Abrupt Decay and Red or Black removal instead of Swords to plowshares which is great and there's less RUG around which means less stifle.

[QUOTE=Seth]The way I see it Deathrite Shaman/Abrupt Decay has made the format weaker/slower and less crazy. Sure combo hasn't changed but everything else has. People now play Abrupt Decay and Red or Black removal instead of Swords to plowshares which is great and there's less RUG around which means less stifle.[/QUOTE]

Considering that Depths/Stage can go in any deck and is literally a one shot, I guarantee that legacy decks will start including (at the very least in sideboard) answers to the combo.

[QUOTE=Seth]
With the new legendary rule coming up I'm starting a Dark Depths/Thespian's Stage Loam build. If you're able to invest in a single Dark Depths it might not be a bad combo to include in your deck. (you can probably find one around 20$ in EX condition). I'll be playing Knight of the Reliquary to help me fetch these lands but you can also go with crop rotation and or Living Wish.
It will be pretty powerful I think, Only wasteland and stifle interact with the combo, and once it's a creature only swords to plowshares and path to exile can deal with it. If triggered at the end of opponents turn it's a 1 turn kill.
[/QUOTE]

So the Stage'd copy of Depths will have no counters on it because it is already in play, thus creating the token without Hexmage? Sweet combo! Even it the token eats a StP, we have Loam do it again.

TCG has Dark Depths for like 24-29 dollars in decent condition, I''ll have to hunt around for a cheaper one. I feel like Crop Rotation will be inadequate when trying to assemble the combo, KotR is much better when you need to go get multiple lands. Going down that route would mean splashing white though, which could be annoying.

Cardkingdom has Dark Depths NM for 27$, EX for 23$.

Knights are better because they are a win condition on their own. The only real danger to knights is people playing Submerge, that's a real pain.
Knights have lost some of their power due to Deathrite but in a Loam build that isn't even relevant.

On a budget 3 Color Loam without Mox and fetch and duals will be very difficult to make it competitive, I still think GR with seismic Assault and Devastating Dreams is the way to go on a budget.

I was looking at your current build and playing Sakura-Tribe Elder might be better then explore as it is a great blocker, against fair decks it buys you a turn while accelerating your land base and it gets around Jitte.

This is my Depths Loam homebrew I'm playing with

4 Mox Diamond

4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Dark Confidant
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Tarmogoyf
1 Qasali Pridemage
4 Mother of Runes
1 Gaddock Teeg

3 ThoughtSeize
3 Life from the Loam
2 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Abrupt Decay
3 Swords to Plowshares

1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Sylvan Library

4 Wasteland
1 Forest
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Windswept Heath
1 Dark Depths
1 Horizon Canopy
2 Savannah
2 Bayou
1 Scrubland
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Karakas
2 Tranquil Thicket
1 Thespian's Stage
1 Maze of Ith


// Side

4 Thalia
3 Thormod's Crypt
1 Raven's Crime
1 Abrupt Decay
4 Chalice of the Void
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Thoughtseize


So far it seems pretty stable and allround

Played it last night at legacy FNM and went 2 wins, 1 loss, 1 draw. Won against Bant and Maverick, tied with a weird BWUG Snapcaster midrange deck, had to take a loss in the first round because I showed up late. Overall, pretty happy with the deck.

Against fair decks like Jund, Maverick, Bant etc you have a great matchup. Against combo you'll have to sculpt your sideboard. Here is what I would expect when playing your deck at an average 60person tournament

- Sneaky Show (and other Show and Tell variants): Very though matchup and probably unwinnable. Red Elemental Blasts will help a little but I would probably concider the match an auto-loss as trying to defend against it with your deck is just a waste of siddeboard slots.

- Reanimator and Dredge: These are games you can win but you need to dedicate the sideboard slots. I always pack about 5 anti graveyard cards like Tormods Crypt, Grafdiggers Cage, Surgical Extraction (which is also great against combo in general). Against dredge (and elves and Maverick variants) your creature sweepers will be great as well, Firespout and Devestating Dreams, Engeneered explosives.

- Storm Combo (TES and ANT): This is unwinnable with your currect build and comming up with a defense against them in a UR deck is really hard. There is stuff like Pyrostatic Pillar which is a pain for them. Chalice of the Void is good but doesn't guarantee a win, they can play through it. Phyrexian Revoker on Lions Eye Diamond slows them down in many cases but again it doesn't guarantee anything.

- Burn: Jund players tell me they have difficulty beating Burn and since you are playing the same colors I guess you face the same difficulties. Chalice of the Void on 1 seems like an excellent plan to me and having a Umezawa's Jitte or two that you can side in might win you games against burn.

- Miracles/Blade Control: 2x Choke will help, red elementel blast is great against Jace, that new UW oblivion ring, snapcaster, counterbalance, etc... Chalice of the void on 1 against Miracles wins you the game outright if they haven't played their Sensei's Divining Top yet. (I know because I've been that Miracles player). It just devestates their already slow deck.
Seismic Assault is good against them but theyr will attack your graveyard so don't bet on Loam.
Ancient Grudge is great against Blade Control.

- Pox: is winnable
- Merfolk: is autowin, they can't beat Lavamancer and blasts
- goblins: winnable
- Death and Taxes: winnable
- Jund: winnable if you can deal with their goyfs
- Rug: should be winnable

all in all you have a promising deck that has the potential to T8.