Topic: Need advice on land destruction deck... (RUB)

Hey guys,

I've accumulated quite a lot of cards in my time collecting magic and build several decks, but never exclusively built a land-kill deck.

I play casually with average and experienced opponents and occasionally competitively. I have few issues with my other constructed decks where I am able to balance the creature/sorcery/instant and mana curve without difficulty (e.g. a white soldier token deck is easy to make).

However, I'm finding it really difficult to create a deck which is predominantly geared towards land destruction. I know it's probably not going to be the strongest deck and is going against the standard grain of Ravnica, Innistrad and Core blocks. however, If I somehow manage to pull it off with standard that would be super cool. Ideally I'd like to envisage a deck which creates a permanent land-card advantage to the point where my opponent is struggling to get there lands/bombs out and is virtually mana screwed.

However, I realize this deck won't be strong against a weenie deck of 1-3 drops and this is a problem as my simulation runs appear to be less exciting as I initially anticipated. I don't have much experience running a relatively creature-less decks, but I did want to throw in some Goblin Electromancer and spell recycling techniques to keep the lock-down consistent until Elixir of Immortality and Charmbreaking devils come into play... rinse wash and repeat.

Is there any way I can improve this deck to survive against early aggression and avoid being mana screwed myself during this early vulnerable period?

(ps: I know I did get lucky to pull two deathrite Shamans but I'd rather not splash out for super expensive cards for this deck if I can avoid it).

Thanks! any advice is highly appreciated.

http://deckbox.org/sets/313994

Firestarter (Raze n' Burn) by Space Goblin.

1 Evolving Wilds
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Hellion Crucible
3 Island
9 Mountain
1 Rakdos Guildgate
6 Swamp
2 Deathrite Shaman
1 Devil's Play
1 Elixir of Immortality
3 Contaminated Ground
1 Dreadbore
4 Goblin Electromancer
1 Illusionist's Bracers
3 Brimstone Volley
1 Gem of Becoming
3 Craterize
4 Demolish
2 Destroy the Evidence
3 Maw of the Mire
1 Polluted Dead
1 Scorch the Fields
1 Survey the Wreckage
1 Charmbreaker Devils
2 Into the Maw of Hell
1 Thunderous Wrath
1 Rite of Ruin

#60

Sideboard:
2 Dimir Guildgate
2 Izzet Guildgate
2 Rakdos Guildgate
1 Stensia Bloodhall
1 Bump in the Night
1 Elixir of Immortality
2 Chronic Flooding
1 Contaminated Ground
2 Ravenous Rats

#14

Re: Need advice on land destruction deck... (RUB)

A few thoughts:

1) As you already identified, this isn't really the best strategy out there in standard.  It'd be great fun if you get it to work, but I don't know how likely that is.

2) I would load up on the cheaper land destroy spells rather than the high-end CMCs.  Specifically, Scorch the Fields, Survey the Wreckage, Into the Maw of Hell, and Rite of Ruin could potentially be dropped.  They're expensive and really don't give you the best payoff.  The only real reason I didn't mention the others is because they're cheaper and, in the case of Maw of the Mire and Destroy the Evidence you get more than just land destruction out of it.  Maw gives you life gain, which I think will be essential to staying alive long enough to really get anywhere.  DtE actually will end up netting you two lands in their yard.

3) I'd suggest adding some mill stuff with the "Until you hit a land" effects, i.e., Consuming Aberration/Balustrade Spy/Trepanation Blade.  They'll cost the opponent lands AND other stuff.  The aberration also provides you another possible win-con in the process.

4) I would DEFINITELY run 4x Ghost Quarter given the prevalence of the shocklands.  Several people aren't even running any basics at all these days.

5) I would try to reduce it to 2-3 colors ideally to ensure that the ironic event where you're land-screwed doesn't happen.

6) I would also suggest some more removal as you're currently only sitting at six options.  I fear you will find many instances where you need to deal with some added creature(s) and just run out of firepower.

7) I'm not sure your three artifacts really benefit you much.  The only one I'm seeing as that useful is the Gem of Becoming and you would be much better served by Gilded Lotus.

8) Don't forget that simply tapping their lands and keeping them tapped could serve the same purpose as destroying the lands in many instances.  I'm thinking specifically about Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, but anything that lets you "tap target permanent" could do the same thing.

9) I would actually suggest going with Jund colors (RBG) to give you more ramp options with green while also adding Acidic Slime to the mix.  Toss in a Conjurer's Closet and said slime will destroy at least one land per turn with no added cost.

10) Dual Casting could be of considerable use to you, pending that you find a good creature to put it on.

Anyway, I wish you the best of luck with it, but I fear many of your efforts will be wasted as I just don't see how it will be competitive.

Re: Need advice on land destruction deck... (RUB)

Abrupt decay could be a decent option since it deals with early game aggression, farseek could also get your land kill spells going sooner

Re: Need advice on land destruction deck... (RUB)

You might consider running effects that destroy permanents instead of specifically mentioning lands.  If you can clear out someone's creatures then they'll just be left sacrificing land to something like Undercity Plague.  You could consider running Rakdos Keyrune or Dimir Keyrune as insta-creatures that would survive sweepers.  Then you could run Mutilate or something similar and your guys would be safe.  You can cipher cards onto the Keyrunes, and the cipher ability will stick around even when the Keyrune isn't a creature.

I'd also consider Smallpox if you're not constrained to Standard-legal cards.

Re: Need advice on land destruction deck... (RUB)

Thanks guys. Some very good suggestions so I've made some modifications to the original deck. Dual Casting looks amazing and appears to complement goblin electromancer very nicely. Abrupt Decay looks great but unfortunately don't own a copy of this. I might substitute out the contaminated grounds with dual casting (can get 2-in-1 morbid spells) on my next visit to my local game store to look for singles. The ooze/conjuration combo looks like a neat trick but I've decided to reserve your idea for a future Simic/ooze deck to re-trigger evolve so haven't included it.

When i get more cards (such as ghost quarters and gilded lotus) I would substitute as necessary.

Here is the modified decklist.

4 Dimir Guildgate
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Forest
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Golgari Guildgate
1 Gruul Guildgate
1 Hellion Crucible
1 Island
2 Mountain
3 Rakdos Guildgate
1 Stomping Ground
2 Swamp
1 Watery Grave
2 Deathrite Shaman
1 Devil's Play
2 Killing Glare
2 Contaminated Ground
1 Dreadbore
4 Goblin Electromancer
1 Mind Grind
3 Brimstone Volley
1 Dimir Keyrune
1 Gem of Becoming
2 Trepanation Blade
3 Balustrade Spy
3 Craterize
4 Demolish
2 Consuming Aberration
2 Destroy the Evidence
3 Maw of the Mire
1 Charmbreaker Devils
1 Thunderous Wrath
1 Undercity Plague

#61

Sideboard:
1 Stensia Bloodhall
1 Bump in the Night
2 Elixir of Immortality
2 Chronic Flooding
1 Contaminated Ground
4 Dual Casting
1 Illusionist's Bracers
2 Ravenous Rats
1 Polluted Dead

#15

Last edited by SpaceGoblin (2013-02-10 17:23:00)