Some new ideas in here for Jund Loam Pox after Origins rotates. Partial credit to Cipher001 for inspiration. Very much a first draft, but I think this could be a very good deck for around $300. I've wanted to build Loam Pox for a while, and I think Origins might just have the right tools to help me do so effectively without the super-expensive stuff.
Here's a very good pre-origins primer on Loam decks by thatjunkmage, if you're unfamiliar with the archetype: Life from the Loam - Modern Primer.
How the deck works:
The deck is basically a tap-go control build with a bunch of recursive abilities and some static board elements. Your opponent plays things, you destroy them. We can hit land, creatures, and most other things, including the opponent's hand. And thanks to Life from the Loam, we never run out of resources to do that stuff while we try and find a win condition.
So the name of the game is really prioritizing (these are not set in stone, but decent guidelines).
Kill creatures. You have no blockers. You don't always have to kill them the second they drop, but you have to do it.
Smallpox
, Terminate, Lightning Bolt,
Firespout
, and
Molten Vortex
are your guys (and Abrupt Decay if need be).
Disrupt their land base. Keep them form casting something problematic. Use Ghost Quarter and
Smallpox
.
Get them topdecking. This is an important step. If you can't do it, they'll be able to cast more than you can handle much of the time. Use Raven's Crime. Repeat.
Once your opponent's board is in shambles and they have few or no cards to work with, you've got room to go offensive. And at this point, you should have a comparative abundance of stuff to work with in your graveyard and on the board, including
Molten Vortex
,
Syphon Life
, and Seismic Assault. Repeat until they're dead.
*Optionally, you can sideboard in stuff that changes these around. Things like
Zombie Infestation
and
Dark Heart of the Wood
mean that creature destruction is less of an immediate priority every turn, and you can hit them earlier on other fronts, and wait longer for a winning board state.
Thoughts on some card choices:
Molten Vortex
- I think this is the card that is going to make this archetype a lot better. Unlike the harder-to-cast Seismic Assault, it can be used as a solid board control element in the early and mid game, as well as a win condition in the late game. We can deal damage to creatures all day (including up to 6 points on turn 3,etc.), then instantly start reducing life totals once the board is clear. A blend of the more aggressive versions and the attrition-style versions of Loam might seem like it won't do either strategy well, but I really like the balance so far.
Molten Vortex
can really help us grind through creatures, then change gears and start hitting the opponent's face at any point. I'm still playing with how many to run, and whether a 1-of Seismic Assault might still make sense, as the deck still needs it's mana to cast Loam, et al. in the late game, making the 3-mana version the significantly faster finisher. Having them both on the field simultaneously makes me cringe, but making a 1-drop redundant isn't the end of the world.
Molten Vortex
is a 4-of because I want to see it early, and because we have several cards that let us pitch it if we have a dead one in hand. Further, this strategy is susceptible to Abrupt Decay, Inquisition of Kozilek, and other things, so again I think the redundancy makes sense.
Magmatic Insight
- This is another new guy that got my attention, and it works incredibly well here. Lacks the very useful flashback ability of
Faithless Looting
, but also has far less downside, which matters since we're doing an attrition thing, not an all out aggressive thing.
Noxious Revival - Not always present in Loam, and has largely been replaced in Modern by Eternal Witness. I opted for Noxious Revival for a few reasons. The deck doesn't have much need for a 2/1 body. In fact, it revives the value of our opponent's removal (in game 1, anyway), and provides a target for
Smallpox
. In part because we don't have creatures, we're super-reliant on disruption to slow the opponent. Noxious Revival isn't great at disruption, but Eternal Witness just can't do it. It's also nearly as cheap (both CMC and $) as it gets, and as instant as it gets (playing it on opponent's end step to set up your draw isn't as good as getting it straight in hand, but it's good enough - and we also pack draw power to make up the difference).
Dakmor Salvage - This is usually a 1-of utility in Loam, but I think it's better than it gets credit for. It's sort of a half-assed Loam, but it's a CMC=free half-assed Loam. Can be useful in the early game if we don't find Loam, don't grab green mana, or need our mana elsewhere. It also helps us dredge for Loam/land in that situation. But my real favorite thing that it does is improve the way the deck mulligans. Nearly any starting hand with this and Vortex is acceptable against a large number of decks. It also boosts hands with Raven's Crime,
Magmatic Insight
,
Faithless Looting
, and
Smallpox
, but no Loam. And Dakmor Salvage isn't redundant, meaning using 2 Salvages simultaneously, or using it alongside Loam works just fine.
Syphon Life
- Helps us in long games where we need to revive our life total. It's costly, but efficient on two fronts and hard to disrupt.
Everything else in the deck is pretty standard Loam Pox and/or Loam Assault fare.
Sideboard Notes:
Phyrexian Arena - An experimental piece of the deck. I'm not gonna buy Liliana or Bob, so this is permanent advantage in their place for long game situations. Not as powerful of course, but will keep me fueled with stuff to disrupt my opponent and help me find wincons.
Dark Heart of the Wood
- In playtesting Golgari Brownscale, I found that I had a hard time pitching it into the graveyard or sacrificing it whenever I wanted or as often as I wanted to.
Dark Heart of the Wood
is a less versatile card, but a more reliable lifegain engine, and a pain to remove for my opponent.
Firespout
- Less efficient boardwipe than
Pyroclasm
or Anger of the Gods, but versatile. I like it because I will often go to my token engine strategy, which doesn't produce flyers - while decks that can match me creature-for-creature will be making flyers via Lingering Souls et al..
Jund Charm - A second Bojuka Bog or a 3rd board wipe.
Nature's Claim - Gives us an extra removal option, but also lets us kill our own enchantments for lifegain if we have redundancy, or Phyrexian Arena gets too painful.
Worm Harvest and
Zombie Infestation
- These are our alternate wincons. Our opponent is likely to remove targeted removal and boardwipes after game 1, so these make sense. Also, they're likely to board in enchantment removal, and these, along with some of the above, help dilute those effects.
The rest of the sideboard is pretty standard Loam stuff.
Budget notes:
A playable version of this deck could be made cheaper by changing up the land base, replacing Abrupt Decay with a combination of creature removal and Maelstrom Pulse, and swapping Phyrexian Arena for more
Faithless Looting
s or
Magmatic Insight
s. Further, the deck could also drop in plenty of expensive stuff - in fact, it really seems to want 3-4 more fetchlands, but the options out there that could be added immediately would be the most expensive cards in the deck.
