Lands Excavation v2

Legacy Casual Combo Creatureless Enchantment Jank RUW (Jeskai, America) Theme/Gimmick

Sir_Walrus

Land (20)

• 2x Arid Mesa
• 3x Flooded Strand
• 4x Hallowed Fountain
• 2x Island
• 2x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 3x Plains
• 4x Sacred Foundry

Enchantment (16)

• 3x Excavation
• 2x Greater Auramancy
• 3x Land's Edge
• 4x Leyline of Sanctity
• 4x Runed Halo

Sorcery (4)

• 4x Wrath of God

Artifact (12)

• 4x Chalice of the Void
• 4x Ensnaring Bridge
• 4x Mindslaver

Instant (4)

• 4x Path to Exile

Planeswalker (4)

• 4x Teyo, the Shieldmage

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Sideboard

Enchantment (8)

• 2x Aura of Silence
• 4x Nevermore
• 2x Rest in Peace

Instant (2)

• 2x Chain of Vapor

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion

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Ladies and gentlemen, I bid you welcome to the deck you wish you knew of a long time ago. A terrifying Mindslaver deck like no other, going so hard on the jank that this entire mash of cards is a truly synergistic machine. This is an 'updated' decklist (though it is entirely a new way to play it), with a more complete and highly unnecessary description.

Welcome to Version 2 of Lands Excavation

The Brief, Boring History

Lands Excavation is an accidental discovery while looking through a lot of old and extremely cheap cards. Originally a manland beatdown idea that went horribly wrong, using Land's Edge to close out the game after swinging in with big boi lands. This then became a draw deck where I tried to fill my hand with lands to dump on my opponent, and finally a mindslaver deck where I could make the opponent effectively kill themselves, and if they didn't actually die, they had no hand, no lands, and preferably no other board presence. TL;DR: This is pure, casual jank that I try to force through tournaments sometimes.

Since the last

Since version 1 of Lands Excavation a very long time ago, much has changed. The decks sped up, I have become better at actually thinking when I do these things, and dear lord the dredge. Oh, the dredge... The main problem I was facing was my inability to stop from getting the combo done to me first, which is a problem to say the least. A lot of time my opponents just dumped their hand on me and I died, pure and simple. Aggro was a problem too, but I have overcome these struggles. I have risen beyond basics and 3 copies of each tron piece. With War of the Spark coming right as I'm making this whole thing and seeing Teyo, the Shieldmage who is just too damn perfect, the deck changed once again. Believe it or not, I found the blue/red combo we are trying to pull off works best in a white prison deck; funny how that works.

But the dream lives on, and the combo never dies.

I don't want to read, what is this combo you're on about?

Step 1: Get something to hexproof yourself, namely Leyline of Sanctity or Teyo, the Shieldmage .

Step 2: Get Excavation and Land's Edge on the board. Greater Auramancy if needed, but who the heck is going to see a Excavation and know what we're doing game 1?

Step 3: Mindslaver a poor soul.

Step 4: During the slaved turn, sac all of their lands to Excavation since it says any player can. Then use Land's Edge to dump their entire hand into their graveyard, as it does not have a cost, says any player may use it, and any card may be discarded. If they are not utterly and horribly dead from target firing themselves with the lands they pitch, then they have no mana base, are top decking, and are very low on life.

The Rundown, card for card.

The Lands

v1 had Tron, but when we have 8 mainboard hexproof pieces, Ensnaring Bridge and Chalice of the Void , we have nothing but time, so banking on getting the perfect lands is removed in favor of more colored mana, and there are a lot of symbols in our casting costs. v1 also had the problem of too many colored symbols while still trying to set up Tron.

Making Them Don't

This is a prison deck at its heart. Chalice of the Void , Ensnaring Bridge , Leyline of Sanctity , Runed Halo , all serve to stop the opponent from doing anything important, if you're not aware of what prison actually is. We are delaying, countering, and letting them fill their hand with cheap and fine fuel for Land's Edge .

Big Boi Combo Pieces

Which are Excavation , Land's Edge , Mindslaver , and hexproof either from Teyo, the Shieldmage or Leyline of Sanctity . The Excavation + Land's Edge + Mindslaver are self explanatory; these are what the deck is built around. And a quick word on Teyo, the Shieldmage , he is a god of a card. For 3 mana, we have a planeswalker that gives hexproof (dodging enchantment hate and fulfilling an important step) that makes blockers to protect itself if we don't have Ensnaring Bridge or just need something to live a bit longer.

The Extra Bits & Sideboard

Wrath of God and Path to Exile remove mean creatures and get even more lands onto the opponent's field. Aura of Silence , Nevermore and Rest in Peace that are bought in as we need them against artifacts/enchantments, graveyard and Nevermore for pretty much anything else. 1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion if we really can't win with the combo (sinful I know, but needs must at times) and 2 Chain of Vapor , which can sac our opponents lands to bounce their more important permanents back to hand to dump in grave. The other 4 slots can be for whatever you fancy, be it more removal, counterspells, etc. as needed for where you play.

The Problems

Anything that would normally stop prison, and something that doesn't need to swing or target us to win ( Ad Nauseam , Helix Pinnacle , the usual). Needless to say, the biggest thing this deck has against it is itself and its jank. Such a specific and linear combo is bound to have more answers than I can think of, it's slow hence why we're running a prison setup to buy time, and not drawing what is needed to either close out the game or cripple someone into submission is the worst threat of them all.

The most important question of all: Where is X?

Put it in, take out what you don't like. As long as you have Excavation + Land's Edge + Mindslaver and that is the way to win, then I encourage you to go ahead by any means you find to work best. Run Tron to accelerate the Mindslaver, more counterspells, more artifacts than enchantments or so on. I see this less as a sort of 'deck tech' and more showing off a crazy unknown combo to the masses that wanna see it. It fit in Izzet control with some success and is okay so far in a Jeskai-ish prison, so it is as modular as you can make it.

In Closing

From what vested modern and legacy players might usually have, chances are you probably have a lot of this stuff already, save for the might of $.72 Land's Edge and $.25 for Excavation. Change the deck how you need to in order to survive your table, lgs or leagues, and don't forget to laugh manically if you pull this combo off, because it is hard, but nothing is better than killing someone with two cards they never knew even existed until then.

Version 1 of the deck, which is only a little more than $100 but definitely not as consistent can be found here Lands Excavation

Date added	5 years
Last updated	4 years
Splash colors	UR
Key combos	Excavation + Land's Edge + Mindslaver
Legality	This deck is Legacy legal.
Rarity (main - side)	12 - 3 Mythic Rares 32 - 4 Rares 11 - 4 Uncommons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.77
Tokens	Emblem Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Soldier 1/1 W, Wall 0/3 W