Shit worth talking about:
There are many loam pox decks for modern out there, I think it's about 12 different WORKING loam pox/assault/value decks that are all different and even through the difference is only few cards the deck plays and is very different. And going through all of them I didn't like a single one but I really wanted to play a graveyard based attriron deck and the only real way to do that is through a loam pox deck, so I made my own version, I focused it only on the thing it is and on the only thing it should do.....be the ultimate attrition deck, just get rid of everything and make sure they can't win, once you have done that just mill yourself and find you win cons.
I also built it in a way to counter as many decks as I could, I did this to make up for the bad matchups and from my expirience it wroks VERY well, as your sb makes up for many bad matchups and the fact that there are matchups you can't lose(unless you brick COMPLETELY!) makes the deck even better.
Vengeful Pharaoh: This guy is a way to have removal all the time, especially early. He came in and out of the deck but I feel like it is essencial to the deck.
Darkblast: A great removal spell that keeps coming back and answers lots of important cards you don't want to waste any other spells on. Things like Bob, lingering souls, mana dorks, damaged dudes, delver, and many others. It is basically here to get rid of 1 and 2 toughness creatures, it also ensures your edict effects hit the right thing.
Spreading Algae: Oh boy is this good here, a turn 2 algae can win games on its own and sure it requires you to have urborg but with 3 in there that won't be hard. STILL TESTING THIS CARD!
EDIT: It makes or breaks games, draw this with urborg and win the game vs most anything, draw this without an urborg and...you die vs anything fast that doesn't run black... It's just rolling the dice, if you don't want this in the deck run either duress, vapors, or anything you feel like is good in your meta.
Smother: It sure aint no abrupt decay, but it also is a lot cheaper.
Geth's Verdict: Makes sure that Thrun, infect and hexproof are never problems.
Consuming Vapors and Duress: You might be asking why I put these 2 togather, it's because they should be lili. While the vapors are great at what they do and so is duress, and for a low price too, Lili just does both those things in a single card.
Life from the Loam: The card advantage engine of the deck, this card will draw you about 9 to 20 cards in a single game if it goes long (if you are winning it will). This fixes your mana, draws you win conditions, destroys their mana and dudes and wins the long game, never run less than 4.
Maelstrom Pulse: A nice catch all, it helps with walkers, tokens, and anything else you don't want to see on the board. If you don't want to buy it run bramblecrush.
Raven's Crime: Makes Life from the Loam absolutely insane, this card comination can win control, combo and even slower midrangy matchups on its own.
Smallpox: This card is not a house it's a damn continent in the right deck. While your opponents will sac a land, a creature, lose a life and dis a card you will sac a land you will get back next turn, dis a card you don't need/don't want/can get back later/want to discard and lose a life which is most of the time irelevant as well. It's a freaking 3 for 1! For BB!
Syphon Life: Makes your burn matchup a bit better, makes sure that you never run out of life in the long games and makes for a slow but efficient win condition.
Worm Harvest: one of my fav cards, a great win con that makes sure you either survive till you got enough worms or go on the offensive and kill your opponent who unlike you has no cards in hand, no dudes and no lands, and due to them doing nothing at all you can afford to spend 5 mana on 2 1/1s.
EDIT: Cut it in favor of Syphon Life, it is just better in most situations, the synergy with Vengeful Pharaoh is amazing as it allows you to use him as your main removal spell.
Garruk Relentless: I put this guy in here cause I have him, I love him and because he is pretty good actually. So, he can make dudes to block or, though not likely, attack. He is a removal spell, and sure a 4 mana bolt is absolutely abysmal but he is a ot more than that. He is at least a wolf and a discad spell, or a bolt and a life gain, or just a win condition.
Wrench Mind: Makes sure you are up on cards and that you don't get blown up out of nowhere.
Blighted Fen: FUCKING FINALLY a land that is also a removal spell, this is the last piece the deck was missing, now you don't need shit like buried ruin+executioners capsule, you can just run normal removal+this! It makes it so you get everything from the gy which is INCREDIBLY important for the deck, also I think this makes it so you can't lose vs g/w auras right?
Gargoyle Castle: A win condition that is not useless when you are not trying to win yet, it also blocks flyers which is relevant vs tokens, mostly those made by lingering souls. Those two things make it IMO better than Bloodghast.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: You need black, A LOT of balck, and this the only land that gives you enough black. And no running 3 isn't bad at all, you can sac them, dis them and even play one while you have one on the board and then just get it back next turn with lftl.
Ghost Quarter and Tectonic Edge: Give you another way of tasting your opponents tears/winning the game.
Treetop Village: a dude, a land, can't die cuz of lftl. Just a great win condiion that requires just 2 mana a turn.
----------HTP----------
It's the utimate attrition deck. You rid your opponents of lands, cards in hand, dudes and slowly but surely their life. You jsut destroy them, OK? OK!
The bad matchups are burn, dever, skred red, really fast decks that don't need setup and can easily win with just one of these: hand, dudes, land+bit of whatever. Pretty much just decks that are built to kill you asap. But most of the games will be lost to bad draws and gy hate, decks that mainboard gy hate are the worst as you can't win without your gy.
The good matchups are control, combo, tron, scapeshift, slow creature decks, g/w auras, other attrition decks and prety much anything with not a lot of gy hate and things that are not bad matchups.
Beacuse of you playing basically purely out of the gy you need to konw A LOT about other decks and the gy hate they run both mainboard and in the sb.
Most of the time you will be sideboarding vs whatever your opponent is sideboarding.
Writing on my new laptop and geting used to the keyboard so if there are a lot of mistakes pls excuse me.
As for the main ups and downs.
The ups are al the good matchups that can make this an amazing meta choice for control players.
The cost, though ideally you'd want 4 lily and some better lands, oh and abrupt decay :D
The fact that it's a deck that, unlike many other modern decks, can't just show the opening hand on turn one, have the opponent do the same and have that decide the game, here you do actually play. You play a very long skill intensive game that can go both ways at many points.
Just as mulligans can DESTROY your deck they can also obliterate your opponents. And I don't mean just the random/dauble edged sword effect. I mean that you having time and starting the game with a free raven's crime is crucial and can tip the balance waaaay in your favor.
As for the examples of this chess-like gameplay(I will add exampes here as time goes on)
My opponent (jund) had 3 cards in hand, 2 lands in play, I played a wrench mind, he though really hard for a while and pitched 2 lands. That was his hard decision, my hard decision was whether I wanted to retrace a Raven's crime or not. I did and I forced him to discard his lili which would have won him the game. He top decked a land and passed the turn. I won the game on the back of that play.
The downs are the not too unlikely chance to die due to either bad matchups or your hand.
The cost :D Yes really, 180$ can buy better decks, not nearly as fun decks imo but better decks nonetheless.
It's a gy deck, a gy deck that dies without its gy, and if you play in paper it is VERY likely that people in your meta will just sideboard gy hate, draw it and without abrupt decay you'll just die to it.