Little known fact: There is a modern legal 2cmc card that can counter activated abilities... and its a cantrip.
This brings us to UR Stax, an extremely competitive land destruction deck that can easily dominate midrange and control heavy metas.
The problem with Land destruction is that it's slow, and gives the opponent too much time to build enough of a board presence to win once their lands are gone. By playing 12 2-mana land deprivation effects, we can stop the opponent before anything gets out of hand.
The Deck
Land Denial:
2cmc:
Squelch--The reason to play the deck. On the play (and also on the draw), it can be ridiculous. imagine t1: land, opponents turn, play fetch, pass turn. t2: land and pass, when your opponent fetches at the end of your turn, you can counter the ability of the fetch, and draw a card on top of it all. If youre opponent isn't playing aggro, theres a good shot you just locked them out for the rest of the game.
Boom/Bust--when you target a darksteel citadel, or a fetch on your side, this becomes a 2cmc "destroy target land" even when you dont have one of these, its usually worth it to blow up an extra land. The bust half can put away a game if we have a Frost Titan out.
Spreading Seas--doesn't destroy a land, but it does lock our opponent out of a color, which can be good enough a lot of the time. (dont play this in a blue heavy meta, Trickbind can act as squelch 5-8 instead)
3cmc:
Stone Rain--straight to the point. kill the lands.
Molten Rain--even better with some incidental damage (dont be afraid to blow up a basic though)
Fulminator Mage--surprisingly versatile, you can kill a nonbasic at instant speed, or block to buy some time, or once your opponent is locked out, you can use it as a clock. Remember: this deck is very slow. you can have games where your opponent is locked out, and you just need a way to deal 20 damage even if its over 10 turns.
4cmc:
Roiling Terrain--can end games by itself. combined with your opponents fetches. its possible to do 8 or more damage all by itself
Annex--the only thing better than blowing up your opponents land is taking it for yourself.
Sowing Salt--...or exiling it and all the other copies in the deck. devastating vs tron (although thats not exactly a tough matchup). can also provide some advantage by removing a 4-of shock from your opponents deck.
everything else
Pyroclasm--kills the early stuff so you dont lose to t1 delver of secrets going all the way.
Frost Titan--impossible for your opponent to kill without at least 3 lands. also can tap down any lands your opponent happens to have.
Wandering Fumarole--manlands are always a nice way to finish the job. this one does 4 damage a turn on an empty board. (and doesn't die to a bolt).
anyways, hope you all enjoy. (at least more than whoever you play against). I'd love suggestions, or help with the primer, or anything youve got.
