Anatomy of the Deck
Every car has an engine. This deck has one too:4 Life from the Loam
4 Exploration
4 Manabond
Blue Lands boast of (and relies on) the repeatable card advantage brought about by Life from the Loam. By dredging Loam each turn, you can repeatedly “draw” 3 lands a turn. In a deck filled to the brim with non-basic lands that double as spells, you get an Ancestral Recall every turn all for just 1g.
Apart from destroying the fundamental limitation of drawing only 1 card a turn, Blue Lands went beyond the other restriction of playing only 1 land a turn by playing Exploration and Manabond. Exploration is a solid card on its own but Manabond is effective only on the 1st turn or when combined with Life from the Loam. In the first case, you get a huge tempo boost and usually 3 or more lands on board. Throw in a Life from the Loam and you'll get to play at least 3 lands per turn. Hyper dredging by cycling Tranquil Thicket allows you to cast Loam 2-3 times a turn. With a Manabond, you can place 9 or more lands on board in a single turn. That is why I consider Manabond to be better than Exploration. Remember card advantage wins games?
Lands that act as spells:
4 Mishra's Factory
3 Tranquil Thicket
1 Cabal Pit
1 Barbarian Ring
4 Maze of Ith
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
1 Glacial Chasm
4 Wasteland
4 Rishadan Port
1 Tolaria West
1 Academy Ruins
What other win condition is better than the original manland, Mishra's Factory? Previous incarnations have used Treetop Village and Nantuko Monastery but since blue is the best color in Magic, they were quickly ditched. Some decks kept Cabal Pit and/or Barbarian Ring for recurring creature control and the deck morphed to a more controllish build with Maze of Ith. Glacial Chasm does the same trick on its own if you're willing to pay some life. Throw Life from the Loam into the mix and you are immune to attacks at a cost of 1 life a turn. Here's how this works:
Step 1: Glacial Chasm (sac a land)
Step 2: pay 2 life, dredge Life from the Loam, play a land.
Step 3: sacrifice Glacial Chasm, Loam back Chasm, play Chasm, sacrificing the land you played last turn.
Step 4: repeat turn Step 4.
If you have an Exploration or a Manabond, you effectively get to Chasm lock your aggro opponent for free. Zuran Orb adds on to the trick by sacrificing Glacial Chasm to gain 2 life on your opponent's end step just before step 3.
Wasteland, Rishadan Port, and The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale forms the backbone of 43-lands' disruption package. Less mana = less creatures = more win for you. In the mid game, Tolaria West fetches you Tabernacle, Glacial Chasm, Zuran Orb, Engineered Explosives and any other land to help you stabilise. Academy Ruins recurs important artifacts that can lock out an opponent even through Qasali Pridemage and Krosan Grip.
The tutor package includes
4 Intuition
1 Crucible Of Worlds
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Zuran Orb
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Mindslaver
Sometimes, Life from the Loam gets targeted by Extirpate. That's why you have Crucible of Worlds. The rest of the artifacts are fetched out using Intuition and play important roles against different decks. Explosives doesn't really work much against a fast zoo deck, but it works wonders against a slower counter-top deck. Ensnaring Bridge just stops attacks period. In between Manabond and Exploration, you can get your hand size small enough. Against Zoo, Zuran Orb is an all-star as it gains life to prevent a burn-out and reduces the amount of damage from Price of Progress. Mindslaver was the kill-con of the past but is getting omitted cause making people concede is just so much more satisfying. And to ensure your opponent gets depression, you have Oblivion Stone to deed away your opponent's board, leaving your fated Exploration behind.
Intuition plays an important part in this deck as it fetches the above listed singleton that can turn matchups around. In most cases, you will tutor out 1 Life from the Loam, alongside 2 other disruption pieces to protect yourself. It sets up the Chasm lock or triple Maze of Ith against aggro, recurring Explosives or Oblivion Stone with Academy Ruins, and mana denial with Wasteland, Ghost Quarter, and Tabernacle. Triple Exploration or Manabond in cases where you already have access to Loam is also a possbility. And when you Intuition out Loam and Tolaria West, you can tutor out something every turn. Of course, with more decisions, the easier it is to make mistakes and to throw away the game.
How the Deck Works
Step 1) Exploration/Manabond, preferably the formerStep 2) Intuition for Life from the Loam and stuff to help you stabilize
Step 3) Ask your opponent to concede
Seriously, Step 3 is the most important step when playing this deck. Often times, you will win the first match after 30-40 minutes of play. In a tournament, this will mostly result in a draw the next match and you'll still win the round with an overall score of 1-1-0. Unless you really aim to win with delay tactics and a time-out, asking the opponent to concede is the best solution for both you and your opponent. This may be hard to do if your opponent is as obstinate as a baloth, but put the facts on the table and he might bite it.
For those looking for a decklist, here's one for reference:
Blue Lands – 10th Denver SCG 22nd August 2010 – Anthony Hill
1 Forest
2 Bayou
1 Cephalid Coliseum
2 Ghost Quarter
4 Maze of Ith
3 Mishra's Factory
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Rishadan Port
3 Tolaria West
3 Tranquil Thicket
3 Tropical Island
1 Verdant Catacombs
4 Wasteland
1 Academy Ruins
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
4 Mox Diamond
Disruption (5)
1 Crucible Of Worlds
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Zuran Orb
Others (15)
4 Exploration
3 Manabond
4 Intuition
4 Life from the Loam
Sideboard (15)
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Pithing Needle
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Trinisphere
4 Dark Confidant
3 Krosan Grip
1 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
1 Karakas
1 Volrath's Stronghold
Being a deck that revolves around the graveyard, 43-lands has to be prepared for graveyard hate. Pithing Needle counters the more abundant Relic of Progenitus and Tormord's Crypt, and the less seen Faerie Macabre and Withered Wretch. Krosan Grip deals with Leyline of the Void now appearing in M11 boxes near you.
Dark Confidant and Meloku presents your opponent with a Plan B when they sideboard out creature removal. Confidant gives this deck another draw engine and also morphs the deck into Eternal Garden if Volrath's Stronghold, Eternal Witness and Profane Command are added.
Against slow control decks, Smokestack can give Blue Lands the win as you can churn out more permanents than they can. Against combo, they have 4 x Prayers. Other than that, the most effective hate will have to be 3 x Fasting and 2 x Abstinence from Sin. Of course there's Mindbreak Trap and Chalice of the Void, but these tend to not put up too much resistance so some players forgo the combo matchup altogether.
Legacy Scapeshift – 15th Philadelphia SCG 6th June 2010 – Louis Gentile
1 Forest
1 Misty Rainforest
3 Stomping Ground
4 Taiga
2 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
2 Vesuva
3 Rishadan Port
4 Wasteland
4 Mishra's Factory
1 Treetop Village
1 Raging Ravine
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Glacial Chasm
2 Tranquil Thicket
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
4 Maze of Ith
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
2 Mox Diamond
Win (4)
4 Scapeshift
Others (18)
4 Burgeoning
4 Exploration
4 Life from the Loam
3 Crop Rotation
3 Gamble
Sideboard (15)
3 Zuran Orb
3 Leyline of the Void
2 Ancient Grudge
3 Krosan Grip
1 Flame Jab
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Karakas
Scapeshift made it as a contender in extended last season, but in Legacy? Serious?
It does seem that there's a substantial overlap with 43-lands.dec but an actual kill condition in the form of Scapeshift has made the deck infinitely faster. To support the deck, there's a full complement of Taiga and 3 addition Stomping Ground. Worried about your opponent's Wasteland on Valakut? There's the backup Vesuva. Force of Will? Boseiju. And to replace Intuition, players have explored options such as Gamble, Burning Wish, and the more limited (but instant speed) Crop Rotation. Not that there's anything else you want to search out for apart from Tabernacle, Glacial Chasm, and Bojuka Bog. There's not a lot of discussion about the deck so it is probably just a random. Though right minds might make it work somehow in the future.
UG Upheaval – SCG 24th May 2010 – proposed by Doug Linn
1 Forest
6 Island
4 Flooded Strand
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Tropical Island
2 Simic Growth Chamber
2 Wasteland
2 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
Disruption (10)
4 Force of Will
1 Thwart
3 Upheaval
2 Zuran Orb
Win (4)
4 Hedron Crab
Others (22)
4 Exploration
4 Summer Bloom
3 Horn of Greed
2 Crucible Of Worlds
1 Scroll Rack
4 Brainstorm
4 Impulse
Although it is note a straight-up variation of Lands.dec, UG Upheaval explores what a deck based on lands can do in a different direction. The idea is to mana ramp using Exploration and Summer Bloom, all the while drawing more fuel using the engine of Horn of Greed. This culminates with an Upheaval with mana floating for (multiple) Exploration on the same turn. Hedron Crab post Upheaval allows you to mill the opponent out of the game. Crucible of Worlds alongside fetchlands allows you a never ending supply of draws off Horn of Greed and Oboro gives you endless landfall triggers.
However, the originator could not get the deck to be more than a curiosity and has left it hanging. Intrigued by the idea of the deck, and hoping that standard players will find it interesting, I headed to the article's forum and made some alterations as suggested by others. Taking a page out from standard Turboland, I came up with something like this:
Standard to Legacy Turboland
16 Forest
8 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Tropical Island
4 Lotus Cobra
Draw (21)
4 Exploration
4 Summer Bloom
4 Horn of Greed
3 Scroll Rack
4 Fathom Seer
2 Recycle
Win (3)
3 Hedron Crab
This is a combo deck with engines that generate extra mana and cards. Exploration, Summer Bloom, and Lotus Cobra lets you accelerate your mana to play Horn of Greed and/or Recycle turns 3 or 4. With either or both of your card engines online, your lands cantrip and you can then draw massive number of cards, generating mana off Lotus Cobra in the meantime. Fathom Seer acts as chump blocker and a Gush for 3 mana and gives you more land drops should you need it. Previous iterations have considered mana elves and Quirion Ranger but the lack of draw hurts the deck. Scroll Rack is rather amazing in this deck as it allows you to mulligan less and draws you into engines faster. It is an underused gem in legacy and I'll advise people to pick it up if they have not.
Unfortunately, the deck is still in its infancy and is nothing more than a brainstorming exercise. It has literally 0 disruption pieces and is just a goldfish attempt that doesn't win turns 1-3. Moreover, I'm uncertain whether such a high land count is needed or whether Crucible of Worlds with fetchlands will give it that boost it needs. Addition spells can also be added in by removing more lands and relying of Fathom Seer + Scroll Rack to draw you into that Summer Bloom. Treasure Hunt has been tested for a while but it has been lackluster. Maybe Time Warp and Avenger of Zendikar will fit into this deck just like they did in standard. Perhaps standard readers will like to expound on the deck idea and give it a whirl playing with legacy folks next time.
Further Reading
MTG The Source 43-lands.dec thread
This is the page full of tips and tricks you want to read
Legacy Scapeshift
UG Upheaval Tweet this!
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