Recently, I competed in two Untap Open Leagues using decks made to counter the expected meta. I’d like to talk through my deck choices, how I settled on both of them, and the mistakes I made.
First up, let’s talk about my much more successful deck. I’d never piloted Lands in a tournament before, but I’d piloted various proxied builds for my friends to playtest against in the past. So while I wasn’t experienced in tournament play with it, I wasn’t a complete novice either.
For Season 10 of UOL Legacy, I anticipated a lot of Fair Blue Wrenn and Six piles. I chose to pilot this Lands build, as I feel Lands has a huge advantage in the matchup against Fair Blue Wrenn decks.
Lands by GlassNinja
| Lands (35) 4 Grove of the Burnwillows 4 Wasteland 4 Thespian’s Stage 3 Dark Depths 1 Blast Zone 2 Taiga 1 Forest 1 Mishra’s Factory 1 Verdant Catacombs 1 Misty Rainforest 1 Wooded Foothills 1 Sheltered Thicket 1 Tranquil Thicket 1 Karakas 1 Ancient Tomb 1 Bojuka Bog 1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale 1 Glacial Chasm 1 Maze of Ith 4 Ghost Quarter Artifacts (4) 4 Mox Diamond Spells (14) 4 Crop Rotation 4 Life from the Loam 3 Punishing Fire 3 Gamble Enchantments (5) 4 Exploration 1 Sylvan Library Planeswalkers (2) 2 Wrenn and Six | Sideboard (15) 1 Chandra, Awakened Inferno 1 Force of Vigor 3 Trinisphere 3 Tireless Tracker 1 Pulse of Murasa 2 Krosan Grip 2 Chalice of the Void 2 Drop of Honey |
Let’s go over some of my card choices and how they worked out.
Build
My land base was fairly average for a Lands list, with Karakas, Maze of Ith, Glacial Chasm, Blast Zone, Ancient Tomb, and Mishra’s Factory as my utility lands.
Karakas, Maze, and Chasm have been the standard defensive utility lands for years. Blast Zone from WAR felt tailor-made for the deck as a repeatable board wipe to complement Tabernacle.
The Cycling lands allow for instant speed recursion of Loam. Tomb allows for a turn 2 Marit Lage and turn 3 kill, while Factory is great at being a ground combatant.
I also added in the full complement of Ghost Quarters, as the format around the time of submission had been dominated by IceBURG and Czech/4c Delver, both featuring Wrenn and Six. Ghost Quarters are effectively Strip Mines against Czech, and quickly wear through IceBURG’s basics as well.
IceBURG by GlassNinja
| Lands (20) 1 Verdant Catacombs 1 Bloodstained Mire 1 Volcanic Island 1 Bayou 1 Badlands 1 Snow-Covered Swamp 1 Tropical Island 1 Underground Sea 2 Wasteland 2 Snow-Covered Island 4 Polluted Delta 4 Scalding Tarn Spells1 Liliana’s Triumph (21) 1 Kolaghan’s Command 1 Liliana, the Last Hope 2 Thoughtseize 2 Fatal Push 3 Abrupt Decay 4 Ponder 4 Force of Will 4 Brainstorm Planeswalkers (5) 2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor 3 Wrenn and Six Artifacts (4) 4 Arcum’s Astrolabe Creatures (9) 1 Leovold, Emissary of Trest 2 Plague Engineer 3 Snapcaster Mage 3 Tarmogoyf | Sideboard (15) 1 Damping Sphere 1 Red Elemental Blast 1 Blue Elemental Blast 1 Pyroblast 2 Surgical Extraction 1 Nihil Spellbomb 1 Hydroblast 1 Narset, Parter of Veils 1 Ashiok, Dream Render 1 Ancient Grudge 2 Liliana’s Triumph 1 Kolaghan’s Command 1 Leovold, Emissary of Trest |
4c Delver by GlassNinja
| Lands (20) 4 Wasteland 2 Volcanic Island 1 Underground Sea 3 Tropical Island 4 Scalding Tarn 4 Polluted Delta 1 Fiery Islet 1 Badlands Spells (25) 2 Spell Pierce 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Force of Will 4 Daze 4 Brainstorm 2 Abrupt Decay 1 Preordain 4 Ponder Creatures (12) 1 True-Name Nemesis 4 Tarmogoyf 1 Leovold, Emissary of Trest 2 Gurmag Angler 4 Delver of Secrets Planeswalkers (3) 3 Wrenn and Six | Sideboard (15) 2 Vapor Snag 2 Thoughtseize 3 Surgical Extraction 2 Pyroblast 2 Plague Engineer 2 Karakas 2 Ancient Grudge |
The usual playset of Loams, Moxen, Crop Rotations, and Explorations are present as well. This is what gives Lands its amazing utility, explosiveness, and grind all at once, and I would never play Lands without those slots set.
My other utility, however, is a little different than I’d had it in the past. 2 Wrenn, 3 Gamble, 3 Punishing Fire, and 1 Sylvan Library mainboard are a little different from the package I was used to playing (Manabond, 4 Gamble, 4 Punishing Fire).
Wrenn and Six is a great mainboardable Crucible of Worlds that’s both more and less vulnerable. It dies to things like Bolt if you use the -1, and it dies in combat, but it otherwise dodges the artifact and enchantment removal package that’s good against Lands and commonly boarded in. This alone makes it worth including, but it also has a great ultimate that wins the game if you get there by turning on Loam-chains while allowing draws, as well as infinite Crop Rotations, Gambles, and Punishing Fires that don’t rely on Grove lifegain.
Sylvan Library has been on a slow rise over Manabond for awhile now. Being able to stack the top of your deck or Dredge back multiple Loams in a turn (tip: since it’s a replacement effect, you don’t have to put multiple Loams from your library back on top) is huge utility. Finally, going down to 3 Gamble and 3 Punishing Fire is a slight concession to both adding the 2 Wrenn and the fact that the format isn’t hyper creature-heavy. However, because of the power boost from Wrenn, as well as the additional coverage she provides against creatures, dropping the PFire is fine. Losing the Gamble is removing an early game conditional tutor for power, which is again a fine concession.
Sideboard
I ended up with the usual two copies of Drop of Honey, 3 Tireless Tracker, 2 Chalice, 3 Trinisphere, and 1 Pulse of Murasa. I went down 1 Krosan Grip from what I was used to for a new option: Force of Vigor. Being able to wipe out 2 hate pieces on an opponent’s end step without paying mana is a great place to be. The last new option is a particularly spicy one: Chandra, Awakened Inferno. She absolutely hoses control decks of all sorts since she’s able to come down through countermagic and has an uninteractable clock. She can wipe the board vs go-wide decks or nuke a single large, threatening creature. She slices and dices in a million nice ways.
Basic Gameplan
Lands’ basic gameplan is to play mana acceleration (Mox Diamond or Exploration), get a Life from the Loam into the graveyard, and Dredge it every turn. This allows you to loop Wastelands and Ghost Quarters to pressure opposing mana and repeatedly recur lands like Dark Depths to threaten winning the game in short order. Loam effectively turns most of your draws into Ancestral Recalls, quickly burying opponents in card advantage. Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale is one of the most busted lands ever printed, allowing you to board wipe creature-based decks after you cut them off their mana.
My ending record was:
2-0 over Slivers
2-0 over Esper Reanimator
0-2 loss to 4c Loam
2-1 over UG Snow-Chain
1-2 loss to Spiral Tide
2-0 over Czech Delver on the downpair
I missed Top 8 by 2 places on Opponent Match Win%, but had the best Game Win% of any of the other 12-point players.
Vs Slivers
These games went fairly by-the-book. Tabernacle is huge against their go-wide, Vial-centric plan, and even some of the new additions, like Cloudshredder Sliver, don’t provide a good avenue to fight Marit Lage for long. Game 1, I won off of Marit Lage and Exploration + Glacial Chasm + Loam locking out my opponent’s chances. Game 2 was on the back of a Turn 3 Marit Lage swinging, slowly eating away fliers.
Vs Esper Reanimator
This list was close to a UB Reanimator ft. Unburial Rites. Fast Marit Lage took game 1. Game 2, he Surgical Extractioned my Loams, but missed one in my deck. I had a Gamble, and found the Loam in my deck while searching. I had intended for a risky Marit Lage play (knowing he had 2 copies of Swords to Plowshares), but opted for the safe line of Loam. A judge call started. I opted to exile the last Loam and go for the Depths instead, partially out of annoyance over the call, partially to not make my opponent feel like I was angle-shooting too much in a fun league environment. He went for an Entomb for Deep Analysis into Brainstorm line, looking for a way to not die. He didn’t find it.
Vs 4c Loam
I find 4c Loam to be a difficult deck to play against. They have a lot of angles of attack and tools in the matchups, and I let myself get a little tilted because of a delay in the match time. Game 1, I made a fatal error, opting to make a Marit Lage to block a Knight of the Reliquary, intending to kill on the crack back. My opponent played Liliana of the Veil during Main 2, and I promptly lost the game to double Knight. Game 2, I ended up with no colored sources until my 4, which had Depths, Mox, Stage, Loam. My opponent opened with two copies of Leyline of the Void and Decayed my Mox when I missed a land drop. I proceeded to topdeck all 3 other Loams before conceding to double Dark Confidant with Knight.
Vs UG Snow-Chain
One of our resident spice experts cooked up this list:
Snow Chain by Timbola
| Lands (19) 4 Misty Rainforest 1 Verdant Catacombs 4 Prismatic Vista 3 Snow-Covered Forest 5 Snow-Covered Island 1 Tropical Island 1 Waterlogged Grove Creatures (17) 3 Walking Ballista1 Eternal Scourge 3 Misthollow Griffin 2 Trinket Mage 1 Hydroid Krasis 4 Birds of Paradise 4 Ice-Fang Coatl Artifacts (2) 1 Engineered Explosives 1 Relic of Progenitus Spells (13) 4 Brainstorm 4 Force of Will 1 Force of Negation 4 Manipulate Fate Enchantments (6) 4 Food Chain 2 Back to Basics Planeswalkers (2) 2 Narset, Parter of Veils | Sideboard: (15) 3 Blue Elemental Blast 1 Carpet of Flowers 1 Echoing Truth 1 Ensnaring Bridge 2 Flusterstorm 1 Force of Vigor 1 Grafdigger’s Cage 1 Pithing Needle 2 Return to Nature 1 Veil of Summer 1 Weather The Storm |
This, I felt, was a hugely problematic deck. It had a fast combo (Birds, Chain, exile Birds → Eternal Scourge, go off), strong lock elements (Back to Basics), potentially infinite Marit Lage blockers (Griffin + Relic or Chain), and even reach (Ballista)! It was too basic heavy to lock with Wastelands and Ghost Quarters effectively. Postboard, it had plenty of ways to slow me down and affect my mana, and I’d almost always have to be wary of him simply playing Food Chain and killing me from nowhere.
Game 1, he just does a Food Chain thing, and I die fast. I board into enchantment removal and Chandra. Game 2, I keep a hand of Krosan Grip and some acceleration. I hold up Grip until he lands a Chain. He goes for an attack, and I Grip the Chain. I draw a second Grip and Chandra back to back. I know I need to get to 9 mana to deploy Chandra and not die. I eventually get there, and three emblems could race three Griffins when I backed it up with Chandra -3s. Game 3, I mulligan to 6, but had the Turn 2 Marit Lage (Forest, Exploration, Stage. Depths, Crop Rotation for Tomb, make a Marit Lage) in the opener. I decide to risk it, and he doesn’t have the Force.
Vs Spiral Tide
As soon as I saw this matchup, I expected to do poorly. Game 1, I keep the T2 Lage and get an unexpected kill in. I board into Chalices, Trinispheres, and Trackers, trying to up my clock as much as possible. Game 2, I get nowhere. My double Chalice is met with double Force, and I draw too slowly to stop the Turn 4 combo. Game 3, my opponent gets in an awkward spot, milling multiple Turnabouts to blind Predicts and I have a shot at actually Ghost Quartering him off lands, despite him running only basics. He had only 1 Turnabout left in deck, and needed to draw it to go off. He found it on a blind draw step and killed me.
Czech Delver
This matchup is easy as can be. Tabernacle and Punishing Fire make short work of creatures, his Wastelands pale compared to mine, and I can grind better than he can. He needs to be able to stop almost everything I play, and even if he Wastelands a Tabernacle after I play it, I can wipe his board repeatedly anyway. There isn’t much that Czech can accomplish in the matchup unless I draw slow and he draws fast.
League Reflection
This did not end up my expected metagame, either in matches I played or in overall metagame representation. At the time of submission, IceBURG and Czech represented the top placements and play%, followed by UR, Stoneblade, RUG, Sneak and Show, and ANT. I was reasonably sure a lot of people would be on the Wrenn hype train, or doing something fair-ish but wanted a deck with strong sideboard options against combo just in case.
The actual meta ended up looking like this:
Or for a more simplified view:
This has some harder matchups for Lands, as the high presence of 4c can be challenging, and High Tide attacks Lands very well overall.
What went right:
- I played pretty well overall, with only 1 match I would say I misplayed.
- I lost to the people I should lose to and beat a few that I should have lost to as well.
- I sideboarded mostly correctly and didn’t lose to any unexpected tech opponents brought in.
- While I didn’t Top 8, it was off of the back of being the only downpair.
What went wrong:
- Lands was likely not the best choice for this metagame.
- I misplayed badly against 4c Loam and should have taken at least a game.
- My sideboard could have been better tuned for this metagame.
If I had to resubmit Lands to this League, I think I would keep the mainboard mostly the same. I would be tempted to look at Manabond over Sylvan Library. Since control was so underrepresented, the explosiveness of Manabond would likely lead to more T2 kills, giving me points back in matchups like Spiral Tide, Snow Chain, and Reanimator. The sideboard would be radically changed, going down the Pulse of Murasa, 1 Tracker, and 1 Drop of Honey for an additional Chandra, Chalice, and another piece of grave-hate (possibly a Surgical Extraction or Tormod’s Crypt).
Looking Back
If I’d been free to pick any deck for the League, and not just modify, I would have looked at either ANT or Sneak and Show. ANT has one of the highest Turn 1 potentials of a non-glass cannon deck, while S&S lets me leverage good matchups against both the combo and fair decks in the meta fairly well, and there were fewer edicts backed by countermagic running around than expected.
