Landfall in Commander
Commander Deck Help forum
Posted on April 26, 2016, 10:03 a.m. by nobu_the_bard
Hey! So, I've been seeing lots of Landfall-focused Commander decks lately. That is, both here on this site, and at local events and such. I don't have much personal experience to draw upon with the mechanic; it seems like maybe it's a little complicated and low-powered to focus on, though.
The thing is, a lot of people seem to like it, so I don't wonder if maybe I'm just not seeing some potential. My lack of direct experience may be showing here. It's hard to tell for me, reading decklists here, how effective they really will be. The decks I've seen in person possibly were less well-built than what experienced players around here make, and I'm missing out on how the decks really work.
So, I'm interested if anyone could direct me to their landfall decks they're proud of, or have been killed by, or whatever- the point being I'd like to see some that definitely work. They don't need to be like, the most cut-throat competitive decks possible, but I'd like to see some decks that actually make plays and get somewhere, so that I can get a better idea of them. The ones I've been seeing in action have barely had any presence.
I'm asking here because I'd like you to be able to actually be able to say "this deck has had a good showing" or what have you, which I can't be sure of just searching for decks, since I'm not sure what makes a Landfall deck tick.
I hope that makes sense!
It's usually a pretty terrible idea to focus on a single mechanic for a 99-card deck. Still, if you like Landfall, you'll love playing Azusa, Lost but Seeking. Most good deck built around her use effects like Horn of Greed, Avenger of Zendikar, Tireless Tracker, Genesis Wave, etc. The idea is to make a deck with lots of lands and draw to pump out insane amounts of mana and use that mana to do degenerate things.
Other good ramp commanders include Kruphix, God of Horizons and Omnath, Locus of Mana.
April 26, 2016 10:19 a.m.
Most of what makes a landfall deck good is going to be fetch lands (Polluted Delta or even Myriad Landscape), cards that search up multiple lambs and put them on the battlefield (Nissa's Renewal or Tempt with Discovery), and cards that let you play multiple lambs (Exploration or Azusa, Lost but Seeking). That way you can trigger landfall multiple times in a turn, easily up to 5-6 times. So if you have a Rampaging Baloths or even the kinda bad Guul Draz Overseer you can get a crazy amount of value, ie: 6 4/4 beasts or +10/+0 for your whole team. Since there were just more landfall cards printed and cool new commanders like The Gitrog Monster or Omnath, Locus of Rage landfall has grown in popularity.
I don't have a decklist but I hope that will suffice. Good question!
April 26, 2016 10:23 a.m.
nobu_the_bard says... #5
@Boza: Awesome I appreciate it.
@TheDevicer: I don't think it's bad to have one mechanic as the focus of the deck, but be willing to branch into other areas. I think that might be what I'm missing, I haven't seen how Landfall interacts well with other mechanics.
More interested in seeing actual decklists though. It doesn't matter to me what commanders are being used. I've seen a lot that made varying levels of sense.
April 26, 2016 10:25 a.m.
JANKYARD_DOG says... #6
Wildborn Raging Landfall (X Out Maybe's/Help Main) is my build. Won a game with it, so it's not all bad. Still a W.I.P. but I enjoy it, lots of interaction sometimes hard to keep track of.
April 26, 2016 10:34 a.m.
Omnath, Koolaid of Rage
Commander / EDH*
SCORE: 1 | 7 COMMENTS | 378 VIEWS
Is my land-based deck. It is not optimal b/c cards lile Burgeoning are expensive, but still packs a punch.
If you want to see more land-based decks just check out Omnath, Locus of Rage, The Gitrog Monster, and Titania, Protector of Argoth at Edhrec
April 26, 2016 10:46 a.m.
andymaul123 says... #8
My main EDH build is a four-color Dune-Brood Nephilim lands deck (I run Sliver Queen as commander in cases where I'm not playing with my friends). I run it all: Ob Nixilis, the Fallen, Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle, Omnath, Locus of Rage, The Gitrog Monster, Titania, Protector of Argoth, etc. Here's the link if you're interested: Legions of Loam
April 26, 2016 10:53 a.m.
MindAblaze says... #9
My Mayael deck uses fatties that care about lands coming in, but only because my initial goal was to have a smooth running mana base. Stuff like Admonition Angel that is already useful only gets better when you can fetch two or three times a turn between Knight of the Reliquary, Crucible of Worlds and Exploration effects.
April 26, 2016 11:07 a.m.
@nobu_the_bard - The reason it's bad to focus on one mechanic is that you'll end up with a pitifully small pool of cards to draw from. MtG currently has only 70 landfall cards spread across several colors. Many of those cards aren't very good. You'll have some all-stars, but I'd be stretched thin trying to make a passable landfall-dedicated deck.
The reason people love landfall is because it rewards them for playing cards they normally get very little value out of. With that in mind, why not broaden your scope to other cards that reward you for playing lands?
April 26, 2016 11:25 a.m.
nobu_the_bard says... #11
For clarification: I'm not really trying to build such a deck, I'm just interested in the what and how and seeing examples people have had success with. It just seems like something I don't know much about is all.
@Zicca21 & MindAblaze I was thinking something like that, maybe, yeah.
@Mj3913 & griz024 & andymaul123: Excellent! Thank you for the examples.
@TheDevicer: This is probably true and something I was thinking was possibly an issue with Landfall, but wasn't exactly sure if I was missing some insight for not playing other formats where it might have seen more success in general.
Thanks for all of the input guys! I'll read through the linked decklists as time allows.
April 26, 2016 12:25 p.m.
canterlotguardian says... #12
The Real Estate Business Is Exploding (Seriously)
Commander / EDH
SCORE: 5 | 5 COMMENTS | 351 VIEWS
Black really adds a lot to the strategy. It lets you run Herald of Leshrac, Tomb of Urami combo with Titania, Protector of Argoth and something like Warstorm Surge or Pandemonium.
April 26, 2016 3:02 p.m.
I might not have helped your desire to understand landfall decks when asking advice on how to go with Karametra, God of Harvests over the last few days. I'd have to agree with TheDevicer that Landfall itself isn't the best strategy but if you run a ramping general where lands continually fly onto the board it's hard not to run them.
For example, Sporemound, Emeria Angel, Rampaging Baloths, ect. spit out tokens whenever lands ETB. With say Karametra, God of Harvests I get to put a land into play if I cast any creature spell. My creatures act as land ramp, whether it's Jaddi Offshoot or otherwise and that in turn creates tokens, life gain, +1/+1 counters (Undergrowth Champion, Oran-Rief Hydra), ect. ect. with no mana investment other than casting a creature. Then you can drop a Craterhoof Behemoth or attack with an activated Beastmaster Ascension. Aluren and Kor Skyfisher with Karametra out allows you to play out all your lands. Amulet of Vigor means those lands come in untapped. With all those landfall triggers you can easily build a board state or cause some other shenanigans.
April 26, 2016 9:34 p.m.
Some more examples:
- I think [[Primer v2.4]] - OM_RATH!!! (SOI Update!!!) by VexenX is a great example
- Win By A Landslide looks good, but I'm not sure how it actually plays. Any thoughts, Spitfirefox?
- Shamelessly, my Sandbagging w/ Hazezon might be worth looking at as an example of what TheDevicer is talking about. Haz' wants a TON of Land, so while it's not a Landfall deck per se, it's very Land-centric, with a few Landfall effects along the way.
May 4, 2016 3:10 a.m.
Suh dude! Don't be to intimidated by my deck's price either. You can build an Amazing Om_rath in the 100-300 range too (which is low end when it comes to commander decks).
May 4, 2016 3:19 a.m.
Thanks for the plug, clayperce!
My Win By A Landslide deck is so much fun! It has a lot of synergy so almost any cards you have will play off each other. It performs very well - I've learned to time big landfall turns for the most explosive impact. It has draw, ramp, and recovers from a wrath fairly well.
I think people enjoy landfall decks because it's an active strategy and you're rewarded for playing lands, something you want to do anyway. Too much or too little land is never an issue.
Boza says... #2
Karametra, Primal Genesis is what I have been running. The list has not been updated in months, but it is more or less intact.
April 26, 2016 10:18 a.m.