Archetype of Imagination - BorbyLoam

Our Vintage players will hate me,
but this card is like two Ancestral
Recalls stapled together. In green.

Eddie back again for the last installment of Archetype of Imagination's series on Assault Loam. It's definitely been a fun ride, and in all, very interesting to see the different decks play out. Each one felt incredibly different, with the first 4-Color Loam list playing very much like a traditional midrange deck with the ultimate goal being to combo off with Seismic Assault and Life from the Loam, the epitome of a grindy win, to the PyroPox deck playing much more like a tempo deck with Smallpox and Young Pyromancer getting you early advantage that you can ride to the end quickly, to this final list which in all honesty, simply felt like a subpar 4-C Gifts list, and if I were to ever try to pilot this list at an event, the entire time I'd simply be wishing I was on Gifts instead. The list I played this past week was the following...

2 Borborygmos Enraged 3 Liliana of the Veil 4 Life from the Loam 3 Seismic Assault 3 Flame Jab 3 Raven's Crime 3 Inquisition of Kozilek 2 Darkblast 2 Unburial Rites 4 Lingering Souls 1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite 1 Eternal Witness 3 Abrupt Decay 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 4 Verdant Catacombs 1 Marsh Flats 2 Arid Mesa 1 Blood Crypt 1 Stomping Ground 1 Overgrown Tomb 1 Godless Shrine 1 Temple Garden 1 Sacred Foundry 1 Raging Ravine 1 Lavaclaw Reaches 1 Tectonic Edge 1 Fire-Lit Thicket 2 Graven Cairns 3 Blackcleave Cliffs 1 Forest 1 Swamp 1 Mountain SB: 1 Abrupt Decay SB: 2 Obstinate Baloth SB: 2 Ancient Grudge SB: 2 Combust SB: 1 Dismember SB: 1 Iona, Shield of Emeria SB: 1 Ray of Revelation SB: 1 Darkblast SB: 2 Batterskull SB: 2 Thoughtseize
Most of the time while I was playing I was just hoping to cast Life from the Loam very, very quickly and ride that to a reanimation target for the win, or dredge into just the right set of lands for the Seismic Assault lock, or enough copies of Lingering Souls that I could actually stall out to do one of the former. The list ultimately feels like just a bad Gifts Ungiven list as without the nice tutoring of Gifts, you're just hoping to mill into your win conditions slowly. I can understand why the list I started with ran more copies of both reanimation spells and Borborygmos, but I didn't want to be too weak to graveyard removal, so I opted against those plans to the extreme extent that it was attempting; maybe that was wrong.

I only got to play two matches of merit, since random matches on Cockatrice have a pretty high variance for quality of opposing decks. One match was against some Elves running Mass Hysteria which just seemed strictly awful, another against what would have been a good Bant Midrange deck, but then it cast Cloudshift, which... I guess is acceptable in some circumstances. Until you have no creatures to flicker because I cast Seismic Assault. Neither of those matches are really deserving of any coverage, but I guess it is a bit of a testament to how varied Modern fields can be, especially if you're running only at FNM.

The matches I do feel were actually worth talking about were Merfolk and UW Midrange/Control. The two seemed to represent the non-black decks in the format quite well. I wish I had gotten the opportunity to play against Affinity and Twin, though I feel as though neither match up should really be too terribly difficult for me. Against Affinity, we have enough sideboard hate and Batterskull that I don't really feel scared at all about it. Against Twin, in any version, enough discard will usually close out games quite quickly.

First, against Merfolk, I fared quite poorly, mainly because of the sheer number of lord effects. In game one, I started very poorly when he cast Spreading Seas on turn two and stuck me off of red mana for a few turns. I barely cast Seismic Assault, but it wasn't enough to stave off the bleeding. When you're facing an army of 5/5's you're not going to do well when you can only throw 6 damage each turn. Game two I decided to side out the Darkblasts and Lilianas because Merfolk's creatures are simply too numerous and large to deal with effectively with either card. I brought in the last Abrupt Decay and the copies of Combust and Iona just to try to get the free win with the reanimation. Unfortunately, I didn't get there and even though I stabilized quite well, I couldn't deal with a resolved copy of Master of the Waves and simply died two turns later.

I always felt like she was
one of the best cards in the
deck. Never unhappy to see
her, and she did so much work.

Next, against  UW Midrange/Control, which I assume was nearly identical to the Shaheen Soorani list since it had Jace Beleren in it, I fared quite the opposite. The first game ended at the beginning: I had two copies of Liliana and got the Dredge engine online quickly. As he was unable to get rid of Liliana or to counter her, I rode her to an easy victory. Game two I boarded out most of my removal in favor of Combust, Thoughtseizes, and Iona. Iona seemed pretty well suited to close out games against control, and that she did spectacularly. Eventually with Iona on blue and Seismic Assault, I ended the game in two turns. Control definitely seems like it's a matchup in your favor as you have reanimation spells and a significant amount of redundancy in your threats.

In summary, I often felt like Iona and Elesh Norn were the better targets, though I only ever cast Elesh Norn against some silly, durdly tier-4 decks. Borborygmos never actually landed into play, and I don't feel bad about that. I'd almost always just rather have Seismic Assault since it's so much cheaper. I can't exactly justify going up on the numbers for Unburial Rites or Borborygmos, but to make Borborygmos actually matter, you'd absolutely need to play four of him. And I'm not comfortable committing to that. Ultimately, I feel like the deck simply plays like a poor version of 4-C Gifts, and I'd always rather play that deck. It's just simply more fun and less grindy, in all the right ways. Plus, why not play blue when you have the opportunity.

Tune in next week when we start our look into some of the most diverse decks in the format: Kiki-Twin! We'll be looking at some of the lesser known lists for some interesting inspiration; I'd rather not sit down and try to write a primer on Tempo Twin or Tarmo Twin; I don't exactly feel too qualified to do so, but if there's demand I could try to get that together. I hope you take the time to comment on and share this post with your play group. We here at The Cauldron would absolutely appreciate it!