Magic Deck Vortex: Land Savvy Contest Results! (RTDB)

This deck building contest was a bit of a challenge. What started off as just a deck borrowed from a fellow playtester became a full-fledged deck building contest. I'd like to thank Elliot Fox for letting me use his LandSavvy.dec to base the contest on. That being said, let's get on with the contest!

The idea for this contest was to use Elliot Fox's LandSavvy.dec theme and make a deck with it. In all, we had 8 competitors who all did very well with their decks. This is the first Raiding the Dollar Bins deck building contest, so I was quite happy to see the involvement of these deckbuilders.

The entries for this competition were a lot of fun to judge because each contestant brought different types of decks to the table, which was one thing I was afraid would not happen. I didn't know that there were that many different ways to make a land deck! I think probably the MVP card of the contest was Planar Birth. It's ability to get all lands in all graveyards makes it a key combo piece that many contestants took advantage of. It was fun to test and grade all of these decks. Some deck builders made insane combo decks, while others took advantage of Planar Birth, while one deck builder actually made his deck with a... mill function? You mean you can empty your opponent's library with a land-based deck? Yep. It was Raiding the Dollar Bins to the core of what RtDB stands for.

Mudhole was this deck building contest's "Bad Rare" insert. The ability of Mudhole is very counteractive to the desire to make a land deck. If you could somehow make this card work for you, you have my salute, and a +5 modifier.

Again, thanks to all the contestants, to Elliot, and John Streetz for letting me run the competition and the column on MDV! Couldn't do this without you!

Here they are in no particular order, the much anticipated, long awaited LandSavvy.dec rebuilds:

Combos:
1) Constant Mists + Crucible
2) Crucible +Zuran Orb + Horn of Greed
3) Sakura-Tribe Scout + Quirion Ranger + Horn

I really do enjoy the Elephant Grass and Constant Mists lockdown combo, which I think should be a prominent part of the deck, but unfortunately, it doesn’t seem you have many ways of getting them other than a lucky draw. You’re working with a 100 card deck, after all. With a 50/50 ratio, you’re going to be drawing about half spells, half lands. This is a pretty good ratio when you’re working with cards like Horn of Greed and Exploration. You say that Budoka Gardener and Thelonite Druid are your win conditions, but it seems to me that you should have more of both of them.

A good deck, but a little sketchy when it comes to getting your key cards. You rely a little too much on the Mists/Grass lock, and if you don’t get it, the deck flounders.

Focus: 3/6
Cohesivity: 5/6
Balance: 4.5/6
Creativity: 6/6
Overall-Playability: 4/6

Total Score: 22.5
Modifiers: +1+3+1= +5
Final Score: 27.5

Now listen. I may not be the sharpest brick in the drawer, but I know a remade Mono-Green Aggro deck from Standard when I see one. The only thing that you have added to give it a slight land theme are the Genju and Gardeners. Not cool at all.

Besides this breach in creativity, the deck looks and performs quite well. At times, the land theme is definitely apparent, and at other times, it’s not there at all.

Focus: 5.5/6
Cohesivity: 3.5/6
Balance: 4.5/6
Creativity: 0/6
Overall-Playability: 5.5/6

Total Points: 19
Modifiers: +1-1=0
Final Score: 19

Combos:
1) AEther Flash+ Repercussion
2) AEther Flash+ Inflame
3) Inflame + Natural Emergence

This deck makes me happy. It’s a very creative, yet still land based theme. You’ve integrated major creature control so that you can swing through with your Genjus for lethal damage. I think that 23 lands may be a bit too few, but with aggressive mulliganing, I’m sure you can get what you need. The problem is, you want to have your opening 7 cards.

I just now noticed that you could use the Naturalize of your own deck after blockers are assigned to destroy your own emergence. It would be expensive, but if you need the lands and they’re all going to die, you can block all the damage and keep your lands.

Focus: 5/6
Cohesivity: 5/6
Balance: 4/6
Creativity: 5.5/6
Overall-Playability: 4.5/6

Total Points: 24
Modifiers: +1+3= +4
Final Score: 28

Well, Elliot here is the same Elliot who sent me the original decklist for LandSavvy.dec, and he’s responded admirably with a remake of his first build. Along with more consistent land animation, and pump spells, he gets the job done better than ever, and cards like Coat of Arms and Dwell on the Past are just icing on the cake.

Again there aren’t any creatures, because Elliot hopes to draw some of his land animation and combo out for the kill before you can remove his 20 life. Unfortunately, this is again the weak point of the deck, merely because of decks like Sligh Red and Weenie Rush.

I really do wish that this deck had a few Zuran Orbs or some other stall like Constant Mists that will help you until you can get the combo out. These would be ideal to work with, especially with Horn of Greed. These combos would have bumped your score considerably.

Focus: 5.5/6
Cohesivity: 5/6
Balance: 4.5/6
Creativity: 6/6
Overall-Playability: 4.5/6

Total Points: 25.5
Modifiers: +1+1= +2
Final Score: 27.5

Combos:
1) Akki Raider + Impending Disaster
2) Mudhole + Planar Birth
3) Crucible of Worlds + Zuran Orb + Horn of Greed
4) Impending Disaster + Zuran Orb
5) Terminal Morain + Akki Raider

I love it! You sacrifice all your lands and make an extremely large Akki Raider and Fling it! Or... destroy all your opponent’s lands with Impending Disaster, Mudhole him, and then Planar Birth! It’s a one-sided Armageddon that’ll never let your opponent have those lands back!

Color issues sometimes occur, but most of the time, Terminal Moraine takes care of the problems.

In this case, since all land is destroyed, and you are not playing spells like Molten Rain and Demolish, I will not be giving you the Land Destruction modifier of -4

Jack has also shown us what happens if you take advantage of modifier points. His total modifier is a +10!

Focus: 5.5/6
Cohesivity: 4/6
Balance: 3/6
Creativity: 6/6
Overall-Playability: 4.5/6

Total Points: 23
Modifiers: +1+1+3+5= +10
Final Score: 33

Combos:
1) Scouting Trek + Oath of Druids + Planar Birth
2) Living Wish + Scouting Trek + Oath of Druids + Terravore
3) Living Wish + Trek + Birth + Altar of Dementia

Although Raine wasn’t in a writing mood, he sure did send in a nice deck. This is the first deck I’ve seen to use tutors like Burning Wish, Enlightened Tutor, and Living Wish, and it’s good, considering all the combo pieces these decks have been having.

This deck works by using Scouting Trek and Oath of Druids to send all your lands to the grave and then play them all tapped with Planar Birth. When you use Oath, you’ll get a Thaumatog along with it, so you’ll have a ton of lands, and a nice little Thaumatog to eat them for the win! Or, if you can’t force through the damage, Altar of Dementia and Thaumatog will mill your opponent.

While Raine did use Mudhole, it isn’t a key player in the deck. While it is helpful if people are taking advantage of your Births, it’s not a key card, so no modifier... sorry.

Focus: 4/6
Cohesivity: 5/6
Balance: 4/6
Creativity: 5/6
Overall-Playability: 5/6

Total Points: 23
Modifiers:+1+3= +4
Final Score: 27

Combos:
1) Rowen + Scouting Trek
2) Planar Birth + Scouting Trek + Foster
3) Lifegift + New Frontiers

The life gain side of this deck is one that is unique, and a side that I like. You use that, along with your token generators to stall out the game while you build up your mana base for your large “play all the lands in my deck” combo, which makes things fun with Molimo, and Copper-Leaf Angel.

With all the land search and land work, getting your Plains for Planar Birth isn’t a problem.

What I like about this deck the most is that it is compact and focused on one goal. It truly does show a great build of the deck.

Focus: 6/6
Cohesivity: 5.5/6
Balance: 5/6
Creativity: 5.5/6
Overall-Playability: 5/6

Total Points: 27
Modifiers:+1+1+3= +5
Final Score: 32

Combos:
1) Ambush Commander + Verdant Succession + Goblin Bombardment
2) Land Tax + Seismic Assault
3) Zombie Infestation + Rites of Spring + Sprouting Vines

	[back to top]
	<<Search and Destroy>>. 105 card casual deck.
	Lands 1 Vault of Whispers 1 Swamp 1 Tree of Tales 1 Great Furnace 3 Mountains 1 Ancient Den 4 Plains 4 Wooded Foothills 4 Windswept Heath 30 Forests Creatures 3 Ambush Commander 4 Krosan Tusker 4 Sakura-Tribe Elder	Other Spells 3 Sprouting Vines 4 Kodama’s Reach 4 Living Wish 4 Rites of Spring 4 Enlightened Tutor 4 Sterling Grove 4 Goblin Bombardment 1 Saproling Cluster 1 Seismic Assault 1 Land’s Edge 1 Land Tax 1 Verdant Succession 1 Zombie Infestation 1 Sulfuric Vortex 1 Seal of Cleansing 1 Seal of Doom 4 Sensei’s Divining Top 2 Blasting Station 1 Coat of Arms 1 Feldon’s Cane Sideboard 1 Kamahl, Fist of Krosa 1 Ambush Commander 2 Eternal Witness 1 Sanctum Custodian 1 Troubled Healer 1 Army Ants 1 Orcish Lumberjack 1 Maze of Ith 1 Swamp 1 Plains 1 Forest 1 Mountain 1 Rith’s Grove 1 Strip Mine
	by Joachim Grob

This deck takes advantage of a lot of tutoring, but gets off to a wrong start by adding 4 Enlightened Tutor, 3 more than allowed in Vintage formats. -3 Modifier for that.

That being said, this deck is nuts. Because this deck has so many one of’s and different win conditions, it’s literally a different deck each time you play it. And I like that. It makes it more fun and a little harder to sideboard against.

Combos range from crazy damage combos to strange enchantment kills. There is no lack of different ways to play this deck given the hand you draw.

Focus: 3/6
Cohesivity: 5/6
Balance: 5/6
Creativity: 6/6
Overall-Playability: 5/6

Total Points: 24
Modifiers:+1+1+3-3= +2
Final Score: 26

Rankings and Winners by Points
1) Winner! Jack S. - 33 pts.
2) First Runner-up! EinsteinMonkey - 32 pts.
3) Second Runner-up! Rune Holm (Scarzzurs) - 28 pts.
4) Elliot Fox - 27.5 pts.
4) John Thomas - 27.5 pts.
6) Raine - 27 pts.
7) Joachim Grob - 26 pts.
8) Sontag - 19 pts.

Favorite Decks
(This is subjective as I pick my favorite 3 decks from the list, no matter how they scored by points, I’m going to pick the ones that I thought were the coolest or most fun)

1) Einsteinmonkey’s “Cheers!”
2) Joachim Grob’s “<<Search and Destroy>>”
3) Jack S.’s “Leave No Stone Unturned.dec”

Congratulations to all those who placed, and thank you to all other participants for submitting your decks, and for being a part of the first ever RtDB’s Deck Building Contest. We’ll be doing this again soon, I promise! I’ve actually already had people asking for another. We’ll see what next time brings about.

Until then this is Death_By_Beebles, signing out!