TheBear

With enough card draw, you can get away with 20 lands. I think you can get away with cutting Izzet Charms and Tempers. The Axes/Bolts should cover your bases on removal.

I feel like you are correct to think Elder Deep-Fiend is incorrect in this list, it is powerful and probably has a home in Modern, but I don't think this is the kind of list.

The biggest issue I see in the main is the lack of a Dredge or big self mill type of effect, as those would the best ways to fill your graveyard up with Skaabs/Squees/Amalgams. It may be worth to just play 4-8 off color Dredgers (Golgari Grave-Troll and Stinkweed Imp to be the best options) Just as ways to fill the grave up.

Take a look at "Traditional" Dredge lists as other choices of card draw, Goblin Lore, Burning Inquiry and Tormenting Voice are all great options when paired with Grave-Base decks.

I would also look into other Flashback spells or spells with Retrace, just to give you more options out of the grave. With the retrace spells you could add 2-3 Dakmor Salvage to supplement them (Would also help for a splash for Stinkweed Imps ontop of it all)


For your sideboard, Grave Hate is definetely a bad thing for you, but without Black or Green it limits options.
I would go with Artifacts as your best option, Ratchet Bomb, Engineered Explosives, Pithing Needle, as ways to stop things.
Against Combo, I would say pile in on those Negates and Dispels.

One slight issue, Summer Bloom isn't legal in Modern.

And here is my current list for a Life From The Loam deck, it's been performing pretty well on my end.

http://www.mtgvault.com/thebear/decks/dredge-loam-modern-4/

I would recommend Painful Truths over Dark Confidant in this deck, your CMC on average is pretty high in comparison to a normal Midrange style deck where you would play him, maybe filling in his slots with like 3 Truths and a Fourth Nahiri is correct.

Also, in the sideboard i would recommend a 1x Blightsteel Colossus, if your opponent gets too high on life total, Emrakul's attack will actually not guarantee a win.

I feel like you should have the Force Of Wills in the main, alongside with the Karakas, the moment you play Crop Rotation it makes Karakas much better as a silver bullet in alot of match ups, I would also consider playing a 1x Wasteland in the main with the Rotation, Maze Of Ith is tough for this deck.

Grave-Troll is legal in Modern, it was unbanned about a year ago, this site is really bad at updating with Ban Lists.

http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/banned-and-restricted-announcement-2015-01-19

You don't actually ever need Blue for your Amalgam if the deck is built correctly, it can be discarded via Troll, Faithless or Neonate, and your deck will naturally put it into play just by being itself, with the Gravecrawlers and Bloodghasts.

Having access to the Red just makes the deck overall more consistant, since it will give you a turn 1 play that always fuels your deck.

I'm just going to put an answer to each of these questions on this deck.

For Geralf's Masterpiece, the issue I see is that you NEED to have cards in hand, where when you are playing a Vengevine style deck, you don't actually want much of a hand since everything will be in play so quickly. Me and a buddy of mine have been messing with Vengevines/Loam Dredge decks for the last couple of weeks, and he's never performed amazing in testing.

For Toolbox lands, there really isn't much besides Ghost Quarters for mana locking people, and I guess Manlands but the issue with those are they come into play tapped which can be awkward for a very aggressive deck. And without White you don't have access to something like Vault Of The Archangel, which seems to be the only worth while land from that cycle.

And now my own question, what made you decide to NOT include Red, it seems to give you the best options for cards, in the form of Faithless Looting and the new Insolant Neonate? Aswell as removal in the form of Lightning Axe.
Or the lacking inclusion of more mass Dredge cards or graveyard playable cards, such as Golgari Grave-Troll and Gnaw To The Bone as a way to shut out aggressive decks?

Small issue, Arrogant Wurm is not legal in Modern.

Oh forgot about that small clause, on the "If it's your turn". Then I suppose it would work, alot of moving pieces but it would work.

I don't want to break your heart, but Day's Undoing and Notion Thief don't actually work.

Day's Undoing exiles everything on the stack, including the Notion Thief triggers.

Yeah, this deck looks like a "Classic" POX list, it can be surprisingly tinkered to do a lot of different angles, despite being Mono Black, hell I'm playing Empty The Pits of all cards in my list.

Have you done any work towards a sideboard yet?

I would recommend someway in the main to exile cards out of your own graveyard, something like Spinning Darkness, Murderous Cut or Nihil Spellbomb. Having two Nether Spirits can be awkward sometimes if you do get the odd situation of both in the grave.

And if you continue to run Sensei's Divining Top, I would recommend some way to shuffle your library, otherwise you'll miss out on it's full value. Best option would be some number of black fetches, but I've seen Entomb with some graveyard packages or Expedition Map if you have some form of land toolbox.

Yeah, Chalice seems solid on 0, but that's it, you never want it higher then what you have. It's not tutorable but I think Flusterstorm or Ethersworn Canonist would fill the roll better, as they can come in for different match ups.

Could just be easier to include the larger variety of the Toolbox and just have the majority in the sideboard, since Grafdigger's Cage, Pithing Needle etc. Can be awkward in the main.

As for the main, getting a Sensei's Divining Top or Engineered Explosives off a Trinket Mage always seem positive.

I think the Trinkets give this deck a completely other angle of attack, it gives this deck which normally does not have a toolbox, a toolbox. There is a surprisingly large number a 1cmc Artifacts in the format that can just beat decks.

And if all else fails, can be pitched to Force Of Will.

The list looks pretty good, gotta admit, some choices I would recommend though.

First, I think you want to go all in on Dark Confidant, the card is so powerful in the format, perhaps by slotting out a Divining Top, and maybe the Meek Stone to fit in the play set, if you are worried about not having all the Tops, remember that Trinket Mage can get it also.

In the manabase, maybe try fitting in an Academy Ruins, seems to work really well alongside the Artifacts, being able to recur a Baleful Strix over and over could be back breaking to some decks.

The Impulse and Counterspell in the main, I feel like you can play a second Predict instead of the Impulse, a friend of mine plays Miracles and he runs two to great effect. The Counterspell could just be a 1cmc Counter, since you have a ton of 2cmc with your creatures. Something along the lines of like Spell Pierce or Spell Snare seem about right.

And your Sideboard looks solid, cards I would recommend if you wanna try them out.
Zealous Persecution, Lingering Souls, Nihil Spellbomb, Detention Sphere, Stony Silence, Null Rod, Path To Exile, just to name a few.

I remember a while ago there were Jund decks that played Ajani Vengent, "Ajundi", could be an idea to slip one in here, he seems great at the top of the curve.

If you do add Rebirth, you would add cards like Ichor Wellspring and/or Perilous Myr, artifacts that generate value from them being sacrificed. I also agree with Rabid above, you have a lot of non-artifact spells, and at that some pretty lackluster ones. The only non-artifact spells in this color combination I would want are Mulldrifters, Atog perhaps paired with Fling, various burn spells, the Trinket Mages. Then the rest I would jam with Artifacts, stuff like you have now, but with stuff like the Wellspring if you want to add Rebirths, etc.

I would probably take a look at the Kuldotha Jeskai decks for other ideas on card choices myself, I personally play a Jund Artifacts deck, so the only thing I could recommend would be Kuldotha's Rebirth, go up to 4x Lightning Bolt, and possibly even add in some Firebolt, perhaps making leaning into a U/R Artifact Burn deck? And if you keep with Trinket Mage, I would recommend a 1x Bonesplinter, and a 1x Sylvok Lifestaff along with the Spellbombs for options.

Well, a buddy at my LGS actually does play a RUG lands list, it plays as more of a Control deck then a typical Lands list, has the Academy Ruins / Artifact Package, Jace, Mind Sculptor as an additional win con, even brainstorm was in there I believe. Crop Rotation toolbox package also, it's quite a monster.