Forcing the Will: Aggro Loam

Hello fellow Legacy enthusiasts and welcome once more to another article of Forcing the Will! Today, I will be covering the Legacy metagame, some Legacy news, and of course the Legacy deck known as Aggro Loam. I know you are all anxious to get to those videos- so let’s get right into it with the recent Legacy metagame!

Legacy Metagame

10/12/2010 (Event #1657135)

(4-0) Ub Merfolk
(3-1) New Horizon
(3-1) Dredge
(3-1) BGU Control
(3-1) Rb Goblins
(3-1) Zoo
(3-1) Aggro Loam

10/12/2010 (Event #1657136)

(4-0) Zoo
(3-1) Death and Taxes (DnT)
(3-1) Uw Merfolk
(3-1) New Horizon
(3-1) Belcher

10/15/2010 (Event #1671904)

(4-0) UBGW Landstill
(3-1) Death and Taxes (DnT)
(3-1) Death and Taxes (DnT)
(3-1) Survival Bant
(3-1) Vengevine Survival

10/16/2010 (Event #1671929)

(4-0) UBGW Landstill
(3-1) Aluren
(3-1) Enchantress
(3-1) Goblins
(3-1) Affinity

10/18/2010 (Event #1671959)

(4-0) UBGW Landstill
(3-1) Death and Taxes (DnT)
(3-1) Affinity
(3-1) Rb Goblins

10/25/2010 (Event #1690073)

(4-0) Ad Nauseam Tendrils (ANT)
(3-1) Aggro Loam
(3-1) Enchantress
(3-1) Sneak Show
(3-1) Aluren

11/1/2010 (Event #1711692)

(4-0) New Horizon
(3-1) Helm Line
(3-1) UR Landstill
(3-1) Bant/Natural Order
(3-1) White Stax

11/4/2010 (Event #1733679)

(4-0) Affinity
(3-1) Zoo
(3-1) Zoo
(3-1) Elves
(3-1) Affinity

Top Legacy Decks Breakdown »

DECK	WINS	PERCENTAGE OF WINS
1. Affinity	4	9.76%
2. Death and Taxes (DnT)	4	9.76%
3. Landstill	4	9.76%
4. Zoo	4	9.76%
5. Goblins	3	7.32%
6. New Horizon	3	7.32%
7. Aggro Loam	2	4.89%
8. Aluren	2	4.89%
9. Enchantress	2	4.89%
10. Merfolk	2	4.89%
11. Survival	2	4.89%
12. Ad Nauseam Tendrils (ANT)	1	2.44%
13. Bant	1	2.44%
14. Belcher	1	2.44%
15.GBU Control	1	2.44%
16. Dredge	1	2.44%
17. Elves	1	2.44%
19. Sneak Show	1	2.44%
20. Stax	1	2.44%
TOTAL:	41

Not much can be determined from the past 4 weeks of Legacy Daily events. With only 41 decks placing in the past 4 weeks, there isn’t much of a meta especially when you consider that in the past 3 weeks, only one event fired per week. I know many might be surprised and worried about the online Legacy format, but I can confidently say there is good reason for the low attendance these past few weeks. If you didn’t notice, the drop came when Scars of Mirrodin was first released online, and I would assume most Legacy players were busy drafting, buying, and building decks around the new set. In addition, we are getting an updated Banned and Restricted list this week, and I know many Legacy players are waiting to see what happens to the format. The biggest topic is whether or not Survival of the Fittest is going to get banned or not. I personally don’t think the card is so overpowered that it should be banned, but with recent paper Legacy events, Survival has been taking hold of the Top 8 quiet easily. All that said, I would expect the Legacy events to start firing at a more consistent pace in the next week or so.

News

The Legacy MTGO Deck Series is officially on sale in the MTGO store for $29.99 for either deck. You can read more about these two decks in my previous article here. The price is a steal for either of the decks, but I have been seeing more Exiler decks than any other in the Tournament Practice room. Also, we have the updated Banned and Restricted list that should be released by the time this article goes up. Keep an eye out for any changes to the Legacy Format here.

Aggro Loam

Okay, with all of that out of the way, here we are- the section of my article that you’ve all been waiting for! Aggro Loam decks have been around since the good old days, back when Invasion block was legal in Extended. The focus of Aggro Loam is to lay down a single big, bad creature while clearing the opponent’s board of creatures and lands for just long enough to swing in for the win. If that fails, the deck has a number of backup plans (depending on the opposition). For example, we could use the Life from the Loam-Seismic Assault combo, Life from the Loam Barbarian Ring combo, or even abuse Volrath’s Stronghold to continue to bring down our fallen monsters. I’ll cover the interactions more in my videos, but first let’s take a look at the two different deck types of Aggro Loam.

First off we have a standard Aggro Loam build:

Lands (27)

Creatures (14)

Other Spells (19)

Sideboard (15)


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A pretty solid list of cards if you ask me. I haven’t played much of this version of Aggro Loam, but I can tell you that it can be just as deadly. The version I chose to play abuses Burning Wish to provide more options to win, but before I reveal my build let’s take a look at some cards that I won’t be covering my video.

Bloodghast – This fun little creaturehas an amazing interaction with Life from the Loam. If you dredge up one of these bad boys, just lay down a land card and watch it jump to serve. In addition, if you get multiple copies on the battlefield, you can attack indiscriminately into your opponent. The only downside to this guy is that he can’t block.
Terravore – This guy is crazy good if put in the right deck, a deck like Aggro Loam. I was running 2-3 copies of this guy originally but decided to remove him in the end. The reason being is that lately there have been a ton of decks running off the graveyard, and in response players have been packing the appropriate amount of graveyard hate. Don’t get me wrong- I love me some 15/15 trample Goyf action, but when that Goyf can die to a Relic of Progenitus, I think it’s time to give our Goyf friend a little rest (at least until the format isn’t so hateful).
Barbarian Ring — I’d love to run this in Aggro Loam as it can provide an addition win condition, but it tends to be really slow. I find Ring does better in the Lands deck rather than Aggro Loam, but you should know that the option is still there.
Damnation — This is more of a sideboard and Wish option that anything else. It helps stabilize the board if you find yourself overwhelmed. I chose to run Devastating Dreams for my board sweeper instead, but it might not be a bad idea to add one to a Wish-based sideboard.
Nostalgic Dreams — Dreams is a great maindeck or sideboard option for Aggro Loam- it allows you to return any number of cards you may have dredged up. I found that I wasn’t using this card nearly as much as I would have liked, but in certain situations, it was quite useful.
Firespout — Here’s another sideboard and Wish card. Firespout is predominantly used to clear the board of all those small creatures and buy some time. I chose to run Pyroclasm instead since it costs 1 less mana and doesn’t require 2 different colors to deal damage to all creatures, but Spout does deal 1 more damage than Pyroclasm. Just play with the one that you like the best for the expected meta.
Krosan Grip — This is the best way to combat that pesky countermagic. The split second ability will allow you to play Grip without any trouble (unless they have a Counterbalance with a 3 converted mana cost card on the top of their library). Bring this in against any deck that likes to pack artifact and enchantment hate or win conditions.
Leyline of the Void — Here is one of the best sideboard cards to take advantage of the increase in graveyard-based strategies. This card is most useful against Dredge but can also help combat Survival, Thopter, and Loam decks.
Pernicious Deed — Deed is my all-time favorite board sweeper ever, hands down. This card can destroy just about everything except for non-artifact lands and planeswalkers. Deed is most useful against Affinity, but I can almost always find a reason to board this card in. It definitely belongs in the sideboard in the non-Wish version and comes in versus Affinity, Zoo, Thopter, Enchantress, and assorted aggro decks.
Thorn of Amethyst – This sideboard card has not been seeing enough play. Amethyst can stall off a combo deck long enough for you to get a win in. I find it’s best against Ad Nauseam Tendrils (ANT) but can also help combat those counter heavy decks.
Zuran Orb — If you’re having trouble staying alive against an aggro or burn deck bring this bad boy in. ZOrb can help you gain enough life to pull through for the win. I am a big fan of this card, but once again I find it more useful in Lands than in Aggro Loam.

There are many more cards that can be added to Aggro Loam, but I felt that those above were the most important to discuss. Let’s now take a look at the wish version of Aggro Loam that I chose to run.

Lands (28)

Creatures (11)

Other Spells (22)

Sideboard (15)


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I will now discuss the cards and provide game play of the deck in the videos below. So sit back, relax, and enjoy!

Aggro Loam Deck Tech