Swan Lands **Primer**

Modern* Competitive Control Infinite Combo Loam Primer RUG (Temur)

Kelvin-escesare

Land (38)

• 1x Blast Zone
• 3x Boseiju, Who Endures
• 2x Cascade Bluffs
• 1x Castle Vantress
• 1x Dakmor Salvage
• 1x Den of the Bugbear
• 1x Field of Ruin
• 2x Forgotten Cave
• 3x Gemstone Caverns
• 1x Ghost Quarter
• 3x Halimar Depths
• 2x Ketria Triome
• 4x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Otawara, Soaring City
• 1x Raging Ravine
• 2x Scalding Tarn
• 3x Sheltered Thicket
• 1x Snow-Covered Forest
• 1x Snow-Covered Island
• 1x Snow-Covered Mountain
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Stomping Ground
• 1x Surtland Frostpyre

Sorcery (6)

• 2x Life from the Loam
• 4x Treasure Hunt

Creature (7)

• 3x Slogurk, the Overslime
• 4x Swans of Bryn Argoll

Enchantment (6)

• 2x Molten Vortex
• 4x Seismic Assault

Planeswalker (3)

• 3x Wrenn and Six

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Sideboard

Land (8)

• 2x Blast Zone
• 2x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Boseiju, Who Endures
• 1x Ghost Quarter
• 1x Radiant Fountain
• 1x Scavenger Grounds

Sorcery (3)

• 1x Anger of the Gods
• 1x Life from the Loam
• 1x Worm Harvest

Instant (1)

• 1x Veil of Summer

Artifact (3)

• 2x Chalice of the Void
• 1x Engineered Explosives

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Maybeboard

Land (7)

• 1x Dwarven Mine
• 1x Fiery Islet
• 1x Ghost Quarter
• 1x Hall of Storm Giants
• 1x Haunted Fengraf
• 1x Tolaria West
• 1x Witch's Cottage

Sorcery (3)

• 1x Flame Jab
• 1x Mystic Speculation
• 1x Worm Harvest

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Leyline of Sanctity

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Mashup of the Swans of Bryn Argoll + Seismic Assault combo, Modern Lands, and Assault Loam. This combo/control deck is more resilient than 42-Land Swan Hunt and sacrifices very little speed.

Headliner Combo

Seismic Assault (preferably played first) + Swans of Bryn Argoll is the headliner combo

1. Discard a land to deal 2 damage to Swans
2. Swans draws us 2 cards
3. Repeat 1. and 2. until we draw our deck
4. Discard 10 lands to deal 20 damage to opponent

Since the deck has more lands than nonlands, we draw 1.3 lands on average. Once we find Dakmor Salvage, we keep discarding and dredging it instead, which draws 1.65 lands on average. Since, on average, we draw more than one land per land discarded, we can usually keep drawing until we draw the whole deck. However, it is possible to get unlucky drawing double nonlands and run out of lands. It is also possible to end up with less than 10 lands. Overall we have a 90% chance of getting 10 lands.

Even without 10 lands, we can still win with Life from the Loam next turn. Also if we combo off with an extra available, we can cast Life from the Loam with Simian Spirit Guide to complete the combo, even if we only manage to draw 7 lands. If we only have , Treasure Hunt works too but is riskier. See below for more on the math.

Powerful Synergies

Loam + Assault/Molten Vortex is a backup combo dealing 6 damage/turn, which typically kills turn 5 (occasionally turn 4)

Loam + Worm Harvest dumps lands into the grave and gives us that many Worms every turn. This backup combo provides inevitability against control/midrange, ensuring we can win through any amount of discard/removal. Harvest is also the preferred win condition if we fail to start with Assault or Vortex because drawing into one is much slower than Loaming into Harvest.

Loam + Sheltered Thicket dredges unlimited cards and draws unlimited lands. Holding Thicket in hand also protects Loam from removal

Commune with the Gods fetches both of our combo pieces, Loam, Worm Harvest, Thicket, and Dakmor Salvage. Sometimes it produces a lethal Worm Harvest by itself.

Treasure Hunt digs for our spells while also filling our hand with lands to pitch to Assault or Worm Harvest.

Dakmor Salvage lets us cut lands, while still increasing our combo chance (read how in Headliner Combo). It also ensures a land every turn for Worm Harvest, or even Assault in a pinch.

This deck actually contains 47 spells!

Don't be deceived by the low spell count. Since color fixing is hardly an issue in this deck, we can play 16 utility lands. Some of these (e.g. Halimar Depths) are even more powerful than spells legal in Modern.

Dakmor Salvage is the most important card in the deck! It lets us cut lands, while still increasing our combo chance (read how in Headliner Combo). It also ensures a land every turn for Worm Harvest, or even Assault in a pinch.

Halimar Depths is a Ponder that counts as a land

Sheltered Thicket + Life from the Loam dredges unlimited cards and draws unlimited lands. Holding Thicket in hand also protects Loam from removal

Gemstone Caverns is a Simian Spirit Guide that counts as a land

Ghost Quarter/Tectonic Edge are silver bullets against Tron

Lumbering Falls/Treetop Village provide inevitability if we run out of lands. Also Lumbering Falls is very difficult for control decks (our greatest weakness post-sideboard) to answer

Bojuka Bog is a silver bullet for Dredge and other grave-reliant matchups

Fetch and basic lands are important against Blood Moon

These are in the Maybeboard:

Horizon Canopy protects Life from the Loam from grave hate

Haunted Fengraf lets us recur Swans and combo-off, if we've been skipping our draw to dredge Loam every turn. This is actually one of the fastest ways to find Swans. But if we already have Loam, it only takes 2 additional turns (less if we have Sheltered Thicket/Horizon Canopy) to deal 18 damage.

Tolaria West tutors up any of our silver bullets

Why 38 lands?

38 lands is the exact number we want for the combo.

With 39+ lands, we have over 95% chance to swan-combo-draw 10 lands for the kill, before decking ourselves. With 38 lands (34 remaining after playing 4), this sharply drops to 34% chance (see table below). Of course, this assumes we played exactly 4 lands (35 lands remaining), didn't fetch, didn't burn any creatures, and need to deal 19/20 damage.

Adding a single Dakmor Salvage makes it possible to combo with less than 39 lands (chance to combo with 38 lands total - 34 remaining - rises from 34% to 75%). I suspect that knowing when to draw 2 or dredge Dakmor might further increase our chances, though I haven't done the math.

Chance of reaching 10 lands, depending on the number of Dakmor Salvages and total lands in the deck Show

Also keep in mind that even if we fail to reach 10 lands, we're guaranteed to Loam for the kill next turn. Also if we combo off with an extra available, we can cast Life from the Loam with Simian Spirit Guide to complete the combo, even if we only manage to draw 7 lands. If we only have , Treasure Hunt works too but is riskier.

Mainboard Cards Discussion

Sideboard Cards Discussion

Chalice of the Void is great against control (our greatest weakness), incl. Death's Shadow, Abzan, Jeskai, as well as Storm

Anger of the Gods is great against our toughest combo matchups, Dredge and Affinity, and any stray creature decks

Swan Song is our only way to stop non-creature combos, Tron, Storm, and Scapeshift

Reclamation Sage gets rid of Leyline of Sanctity while dodging all the most popular counterspells (which hit other A/E removal), Stubborn Denial, Dispel, Spell Pierce, Negate, Spell Snare, and Swan Song.

Why not these cards?

Countryside Crusher is bad. Our deck currently contains no creatures to kill (we can win with Swans in response to removal). Crusher just turns on our opponents' 8 (on average) creature removal spells.

Serum Visions. Our deck doesn't have many threats. Scrying 2 isn't going to help with that.

Top Ranked	Achieved #16 position overall 6 years ago Achieved #3 position in Modern Infinite Combo 2 years ago
Date added	7 years
Last updated	2 years
Exclude colors	WB
Splash colors	WB
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	3 - 2 Mythic Rares 41 - 8 Rares 6 - 2 Uncommons 7 - 3 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.59
Tokens	Emblem Wrenn and Six, Goblin 1/1 R, Worm 1/1 BG
Folders	Competitive Modern, For the future, Nice Decks, Deck Ideas, LandFall, Ideas, Decks I like!, Lands (Modern/Standard), Interested, _Interesting decks from other people