Welcome Back!

This week, I was brewing. Oh yeah. I was brewing like a crazy person, and I have this totally wacky list I want to share with you. It has made two opponents rage quit so far, and will probably make many more do the same if I continue to play and develop it. Without further ado, here is a little something called [c]Terravore[/c] Land Sac:

[d title=”Terravore Land Sac”]

Creatures

4 Terravore

4 Knight of the Reliquary

4 Birds of Paradise

4 Noble Hierarch

4 Sylvan Safekeeper

Instants & Sorceries

4 Swords to Plowshares

3 Life from the Loam

Artifacts

4 Mox Diamond

3 AEther Vial

1 Zuran Orb

Enchantments

3 Exploration

Land

1 Plains

3 Forest

1 Verdant Catacombs

3 Wasteland

3 Flagstones of Trokair

4 Windswept Heath

4 Savannah

1 Thespian’s Stage

1 Dark Depths

1 Sejiri Steppe

Sideboard

1 Oracle of Nectars

3 Disenchant

2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

1 Life from the Loam

3 Grafdigger’s Cage

1 Bojuka Bog

2 Zuran Orb

[/d]

So there it is. Let me explain some of the deck.

Creatures

There are three general categories of creatures in this experimental list. First off, we have the mana dorks. In a deck where lands will be sacrificed repeatedly to gain value, we need to make sure that there is always mana available to cast our stuff. [c]Noble Hierarch[/c] and [c]Birds of Paradise[/c] are the two obvious choices, as they produce our two colors of mana.

The second class of creature are dudes that win the game. We have two: [c]Terravore[/c] ([c]Duh[/c]) and [c]Knight of the Reliquary[/c]. Both get boosts from the presence of lands in the graveyard. The world’s second most popular Lhurgoyf has trample, which is a big anti-chumpblock tool, while [c]Knight of the Reliquary[/c] can search up a variety of lands that, in this case, can just win the game. Knight can get a [c]Sejiri Steppe[/c] to protect a creature, or the Marit Lage combo if the opponent is clogging up the board or there are not enough relevant threats in play.

The final creature class is made up of just one guy. Good old Olle Rade, aka [c]Sylvan Safekeeper[/c], who is here to make sure the meager eight beaters are not smote down by removal spells. He also ups the dead-land count and all at a convenient CMC of 1. While multiples are absolutely terrible, having 1 is important enough to me, at least in the preliminary stages of testing, to warrant a full playset.

Instants & Sorceries

There is not a whole lot to say here. [c]Swords to Plowshares[/c] is the best creature removal spell in the format. [c]Life from the Loam[/c], while it may seem to be contrary to the deck’s plan, is amazing at gaining value and putting lands back into play so they can be used again with Olle Rade and [c]Zuran Orb[/c]. This devilish card can also [c]Wasteland[/c]-lock someone, which warranted a rage quit in my first testing game.

I am also going to throw [c]Exploration[/c] in here, since its best friend in the deck is [c]Life from the Loam[/c]. The simple ability to play multiple lands is so unfair when the lands can be used to pump and protect our creatures, prevent the opponent from casting any spells, and gain life against burn. It is not a necessary spell, but can lead to explosive starts and a very fast mana advantage.

Artifacts

[c]AEther Vial[/c] is the oddball here – I have plenty of fast mana through the dorks, but I don’t want to be reliant on green mana every single game. The Vial may be a bit redundant, but this warrants further testing. I have already mentioned [c]Zuran Orb[/c] a couple of times. It is a land-sacrifice outlet that is also great against aggro and burn decks. The best part about the orb is that it costs no mana to play. Hey, it even adds 1 to the storm count!

Finally, [c]Mox Diamond[/c] gets its own paragraph. This in tandem with [c]Exploration[/c] and a mana dude can generate six mana or more on turn two. It also produces both colors of mana that we need, while putting land into the graveyard. I think that for this deck, the Diamond is better than any on-color Mox, since we want land in the graveyard and making both colors of mana is a better use of a “free land.”

The Sideboard, or rather Maybeboard

This sideboard is 100% experimental. I have done 0 test games with it. It is my best guess for what to do with hedges against a variety of strategies that I predict to be tougher for the list. Such strategies include Burn, Combo, and Stoneblade decks. I really do not know what to play here, but I may update this as time goes by if I have more success with the list.

It started from just a fun little concept of “let’s break [c]Terravore[/c],” but evolved into a competitive-looking deck. I’d love to see how more play-testing reveals this deck’s strengths and weaknesses. If you have any ideas, please post a comment below! I love feedback and suggestions on my brews.

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the list, and see you next week!

/Peyton