Land Destruction on a $50* budget
I wanted to make a land destruction deck because I think playing Armageddon is hilarious, sue me. But the thing about mass land destruction spells is that they blow up your lands too. Luckily there are these neato lands which are indestructible, so of course I put all of them in here. The most prevalent series of these are the "bridge" series which are artifact lands that come in tapped and can produce one of either two colors. Ex: Darkmoss Bridge Tanglepool Bridge. The main reason we are playing five colors is so we can fit as many of these lands in our deck as we can. Although there are a few exceptions like Darksteel Citadel and Cascading Cataracts which also helps us with color fixing. So our main objective is to play indestructible lands and then cast a mass land destruction spell and laugh while our opponents contemplate conceding.
Taking Advantage of Indestructible Lands
While mass land destruction is the best and most fun way of abusing indestructible lands there are other ways as well. One way is to animate our lands into massive indestructible creatures. Imagine casting Awakening of Vitu-Ghazi turning our Cascading Cataracts into an indestructible 9/9. Since these lands are indestructible they will be invulnerable to most board wipes and most removal. Even popular exile effects like Anguished Unmaking, Grasp of Fate, and Utter End can't touch our creatures because they are still technically lands. Now our opponents are narrowed down to using their Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, and Merciless Eviction if they want to get rid of our indestructible land creatures.
Now that you're convinced animating our indestructible lands is a great idea it's time to introduce you to what cards we'll be using to do so. First up we have the Awaken cycle which are spells that have a regular casting cost and a more expensive "Awaken" casting cost. When you cast the spell for the Awaken cost you will get an additional benefit of putting a number of +1/+1 counters on a land you control and turning it into a creature permanently. Some examples include Scatter to the Winds, Part the Waterveil, and Planar Outburst. Note that we can still use these to target our lands that are already creatures because the ability doesn't explicitly say non-creature land, so if you wanted to buff up just one land creature even more you can do so. Halimar Tidecaller will also allow us to get back an Awaken card from our graveyard while giving our land creatures flying.
Next up we have the "Animate Non-Creature Artifact" theme of cards. Since the vast majority of our indestructible lands are also artifacts we can use cards like Animating Faerie, Kenku Artificer, and Rise and Shine to turn our indestructible lands into beefy creatures. Although notably these cards will not work on artifacts/lands that we have already animated since they can only affect non-creature artifacts. So if you have only one indestructible land in play and both a Wall of Resurgence and an Animating Faerie in hand, be sure to cast the Animating Faerie first because you can still put the 3 +1/+1 counters from Wall of Resurgence on the land creature afterwards. While Skilled Animator can technically animate our artifact lands it does so by changing its base power and toughness. This is notably different than all our other methods which turn our lands into 0/0 creatures and put +1/+1 counters on them. You have to be careful of your sequencing because if you cast Skilled Animator and then Awakening of Vitu-Ghazi with both targeting the same land you will only get a 9/9 not a 14/14 because it turns it back into a 0/0. So remember for both Skilled Animator and Woodcaller Automaton try to use these on lands you have already animated with +1/+1 counters for maximum efficiency.
Besides the Awaken cycle we have lots of creature cards that animate our lands. We have temporary animation through Embodiment of Fury, Llanowar Loamspeaker, Embodiment of Insight, and Obuun, Mul Daya Ancestor. We also have permanent animation through Liege of the Tangle, Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper, Tatyova, Steward of Tides, Waker of the Wilds, Wall of Resurgence, and Woodcaller Automaton. Our planeswalker Nissa, Who Shakes the World synergizes with our game plan exceedingly well by not only animating our lands but her ultimate gives all our lands indestructible which Armageddon greatly appreciates. Her first ability will also give land creatures she animated vigilance, which is perfect since we can swing with our indestructible creatures at no cost and then tap them for mana to cast a spell in our second main phase if we want or just use them as an effective blocker.
The Commander
At first glance, our commander Child of Alara seemingly has little to do with our strategy. However, I think you will find out quickly that your opponents are not as enthusiastic about Armageddon as we are. Having an effective board wipe in the command zone is a great way to slow down everyone else so that we can live long enough to draw into our mass land destruction. Also if you are simply not drawing any indestructible lands during a game for example because you ran out of good karma by deciding to build a land destruction deck, you can still animate your "regular" lands. When Child of Alara dies our regular land creatures are in-fact NOT nonland permanents so they will survive this board wipe. Our commander is also great to detonate either before or after a mass land destruction spell so we can set our opponents back to the stone age. To take further advantage of our commander we have indestructible mana rocks Darksteel Ingot and Skyclave Relic which will not only survive the board wipe, but also can be animated by the "Animate Non-Creature Artifact" cards mentioned above. Casting Child of Alara can be difficult with our budget mana base for sure but Cascading Cataracts, our budget "fetchlands", mana rocks, Voyaging Satyr, and Llanowar Loamspeaker will help us fix our mana to have a shot at casting our commander. We can also use Boros Charm to save our permanents from an untimely fate for a one-sided board wipe. There are also some interesting interactions with our removal spells described below.
Removal Spells
My two favorite removal spells in the deck are Beast Within and Generous Gift. These two spells are incredibly versatile in our deck. First and foremost they can be used to destroy our opponents' lands, which is hilarious. However, they can also be used to destroy our own commander Child of Alara to trigger a board wipe with favorable timing AND we get a 3/3 creature token to attack with while our opponents try to rebuild their board states. But wait there's more! Since we have so many indestructible permanents in our deck we can target our own Slagwoods Bridge and just get a 3/3 creature token if we need it! This is because getting the 3/3 creature token is not contingent on the targeted permanent being destroyed. We could also use Beast Within or Generous Gift to destroy our Fall of the Thran if we are in an advantageous position after having destroyed all lands. Dire-Strain Rampage is another versatile spell that we can use to either get rid of an opponent's best artifact/enchantment/land or we can target our own indestructible land and use it as a ramp spell. Acidic Slime is an auto include which helps to either destroy lands or problematic artifacts/enchantments.
Land Destruction
Ah yes, perhaps one of the most beloved magic the gathering strategies of all time: land destruction. We have targeted land destruction with Waking the Trolls, Obsidian Charmaw, and Boom / Bust. Similar to Beast Within and Generous Gift we can cast the Boom half targeting our own indestructible land so we lose absolutely nothing. Although our best bet is usually to go with mass land destruction to get the maximum benefit. For mass land destruction we have Armageddon, Fall of the Thran, Impending Disaster, the Bust half in Boom / Bust, Catastrophe and Decree of Annihilation. I wasn't sure what a good ratio of mass land destruction would be in a deck like this, I didn't want to put in too many because usually it just takes one to do the job, and having more than one in your hand doesn't feel too great. Even if we still have destructible lands on our side of the battlefield, if we have the mana we can first cast Sylvan Awakening or Boros Charm and then the mass land destruction spell for a completely one-sided board wipe. Although typically it's important to get out as many indestructible lands as possible before casting a mass land destruction spell.
Fetching Your Indestructible Lands
If we can't get out our indestructible lands, then casting an Armageddon may actually hurt us during a game so it's important to get these lands out as early as possible. We can use Expedition Map and Sojourner's Companion's ability to get an indestructible artifact land into our hand in the early game. We can use Ghirapur Orrery as a way to get multiple indestructible lands out onto the field as well as baiting opponents into playing all their lands before we blow them all up. If we get lucky, Animist's Awakening can grab us a bunch of indestructible lands from the top of our library. Nylea's Intervention is this deck's best way of getting as many indestructible lands as we need into our hand.
*Good luck finding everything for $50.00
