Land-based Strategies in Premodern
PLUS: MOM set review, Dredge at home, and Chilean national champs this weekend
I returned to Magic in 2016 after selling out in 2003 (just after the release of Mirrodin) thanks to a coworker of mine I noticed playing a game of Legacy during lunch. The next time I was back to my childhood home I dug out my favorite deck that had been spared liquidation: a kitchen table MUD deck that ran a full set of the busted and banned Urza’s block cards plus Mana Vaults and Sol Rings. The win conditions? Phyrexian Colossus, Phyrexian Processor, or Stroke of Genius. I played a few games of my deck against his contemporary Legacy deck, and they were surprisingly close. My mana acceleration was absurd but my threats were terribly outclassed. Eventually I decided to build myself a proper Legacy deck and the one I gravitated towards was Lands. It really tickled me how the deck operated on an entirely different axis… plus I was (and still am) terrible at combat math so the prospect of swinging in with a 20/20 was very appealing.
Fast-forward two years later to 2018 and I’d gotten myself entangled into Premodern. Of course the first decks I built were tied to nostalgia… Trix, Psychatog, and the like. But I was always curious if my love of nonbasics could translate into Premodern. From time to time I drop in some Premodern propaganda into the Legacy Lands Discord and if I were to try to convince some of that exceptionally skilled and good-looking crowd to try Premodern, here’s my best take on “Lands”-y strategies available in the format that I would introduce them to…
But first there are a few things to establish upfront:
Basics Rule — The top decks in the format have an ample supply of basics, often around 10 or more. Mana-fixing, especially for enemy colors, is notoriously bad in Premodern without dual lands so often top strategies will narrow to one or two colors. That said, there are a vast array of decks in the format that do rely upon shakier manabases that can be disrupted.
Manlands are Legitimate Threats — Constraining colors of top Premodern decks is difficult but manlands are commonplace and a key target for Wastelands and Dust Bowls. Powerful cards like Standstill, Oath of Druids, and Pernicious Deed all incentivize the usage of manlands.
Repeatable Nonbasic Land Recursion Doesn’t Exist — There is no Life from the Loam or Crucible of Worlds. The best we can offer is Cartographer, Nostalgic Dreams, and Holistic Wisdom. None of them provide card advantage the same way Life from the Loam does.
Utility Nonbasics are Weak — The format doesn’t offer much in the way of Bojuka Bog, Karakas, Thespian’s Stage, Maze of Ith, or Blast Zone. Besides manlands and Wasteland/Dust Bowl, you will often see Barbarian Ring, Volrath’s Stronghold, Kor Haven, Quicksand, Rishadan Port… and that’s about it. There are a few others in niche strategies (e.g., Griffin Canyon) but by and large there aren’t a ton of options.
With these rules established, let’s dive into what decks do have a strong Lands-y and nonbasic element to them.
Lands
A natural starting point! There are a few versions of this deck and no established list has truly been settled upon yet. The common elements are Exploration and Horn of Greed… and a lot of lands. Most versions typically play Summer Bloom and win through a large Seismic Assault after drawing a lot of land and replaying them using cards like Rith’s Grove and Undiscovered Paradise. Nils Håkon Delphin also had an innovative variant that got Top 16 in the August 2021 Webcam Monthly by including cards like Burning Wish and Portent for added consistency and flexibility while also playing Future Sight as another card engine alongside additional Lair lands to makeup for shaving of lands and color fixing.
Important to know that this deck archetype also has the blessing of Martin Berlin, the format’s founder, as he played a variant of it at the 2022 European Championships. Cloudgoat Ranger also recorded his Top 8 run in the November 2020 Webcam Monthly on the deck. Flint Espil, the reigning North American Champion, also played Lands that month and Top 8’ed.
Similarities to Legacy Lands: The deck is also called Lands! Exploration and Horn of Greed are your version of Life from the Loam, generating card advantage before comboing off with Seismic Assault.
GW Prison Oath
Developed by Patrick Burt, this deck aims to constrain an opponent’s mana through Rishadan Port, Wasteland, Dust Bowl, and Sphere of Resistance while simultaneously pressuring them with manlands and the threat of an Oath of Druids trigger. If you’d like to learn more about the deck’s history, Patrick joined the All Tings Considered podcast in episode 139 and 177 to discuss it. The deck has somewhat morphed into a GW Threshgeddon build, which is more proactive, but the GW Prison Oath build remains a strong contender. If you’re interested in the Threshgeddon build, you might want to check out the top item in the Content section below.
Similarities to Legacy Lands: Prison element and a full set of Wasteland, Rishadan Port, and Mox Diamond will feel like familiar friends. A combo finish of Oath of Druids into a big creature is also a nice touch.
UG Turbo Lands
The Zvi Mowshowitz classic still sees some play in Premodern from time to time, relying upon the engine of Horn of Greed, Exploration, and Gush, eventually looping Time Warps with Gaea’s Blessing to win the game. Cloudgoat Ranger recorded the March 2022 webcam monthly on the deck.
Similarities to Legacy Lands: Your nonbasics aren’t terribly exciting here but you certainly get to play a lot of lands with Exploration. You also have a combo finish but generally lack the prison element.
“Land Locked”
A spicy deck unveiled by Matteo Gallo Lux earlier this year, the deck pressures an opponent’s mana through various means, most notably through Mana Breach or the pairing of Horn of Greed and Words of Wind. The deck can stumble if pressured early by creatures and so a nice transformative sideboard by Brandon Econ is a smart move. Word is that Lanny Huang has been developing his own variant with Rhystic Study and Propaganda…
Similarities to Legacy Lands: If you hate your opponent having lands and/or utilizing them for mana, this is the deck for you. The prison element is turned up to the max in this build.
Others
Other decks can capture more narrow elements of what makes Legacy Lands special. You’ve got stuff like Parfait (prison plus Land Tax gets three lands… kind of like Life from the Loam?), Tron (kind of making a comeback in interest, if not as many results), Pyrostatic Oath (RG colors, prison element), and Ponza. What else am I missing? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter.
March of the Machine Set Review
The latest set only has one Premodern legal printing… and it’s got new art! Can you guess what it is?
Deck Highlight
James Hadley’s Zombie Infestation deck caught the eye of many after taking down ELD’s Premodern Open Championship earlier this month. The deck looks explosive and honestly just like a fun deck to play.
Content
🏆 The finals of the March 2023 Webcam Monthly between Flint Espil’s Sligh feat. Goblin Patrol vs. Dmitri Novikov’s The Actual Solution took place last night. You can catch the replay on Twitch. Congrats to both on an excellent month!
👨🌾 Patrick Burt joins the Premodcast to discuss his work on GW Threshgeddon and all sorts of other wonderful green-white decks.
✍️ Mike Flores recaps his winning run at April’s NYC Premodern meetup while on UW Landstill. Be sure to check out the deck his third round opponent was playing… and for more of the results and photos, check Twitter.
🧪 A custom playmat featuring False Cure art that I commissioned from artist @paipitations arrived
🎨 Cardboard Crack gives Premodern a shoutout in their latest comic
⁇ Tom Metelsky joins William Hirst on the I’ve Got ?????s podcast to discuss The Rock and Tom’s win in the February 2023 Webcam Monthly
🐈 Fpawluszmtg takes his own spin on GW Threshgeddon through an MTGO league
⚔️ The third episode of Dueling Grounds, featuring Francisco Pawluszek and Tom Metelsky is up with new takes on Madness and Dead Guy Ale
🍑 The Southeast U.S. Premodern Discord has been launched, featuring players from Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, and North Carolina so far
🎤 Sam Black, the winner of Spring Cup at Misty Mountain Games, jumped on the All Tings Considered podcast to discuss his “Oathless Parfait” / “Blue Parfait” deck
🔨 The Moxforge monthly has uploaded the two semi-final games, featuring UR Ankh Tide vs. Survival Elves and UW Weenie vs. Zombie Evolution. Coverage in German but beautiful decks and gameplay transcend language barriers.
👴 OLDMTG released a new gameplay video featuring UW Control vs. UB Zombie Infestation
🐉 MTG Phil (great name) has an in-depth deck tech on his Palladia-Mors deck for Singleton Brawl featuring Premodern cards you know and love
🖊 Black Inked Games is out with his second podcast episode, touching upon Dead Guy Ale
📊 MTGTop8 is now supporting Premodern
Classifieds & Upcoming Events
Send me your Premodern (and related format) events! I’m also going to try out a small Classifieds section to signal boost items of interest. Items bolded below are newly added.
Classifieds
Anyone based in the Oklahoma City area? @IvanLooze in the Premodern Discord is seeking to kickstart a Premodern community there.
Premodern Events
🇨🇱 [Chile, Apr. 29] The National Championship will take place in Santiago, Chile with registration available here. The event will also be broadcast on the @premodernchile Twitch channel.
🇺🇸 [United States, Apr. 30] ELD's Time Vault Games in Bellingham, MA is hosting a Team Trios event featuring Premodern, Legacy, and Vintage. Great selection of formats!
🌐 [Webcam, May 1] Signups for the May Webcam Monthly are now up on Facebook.
🌐 [MTGO, May 1] The Magic Online Society is hosting a free to play event with prizes at 7pm EST.
🇺🇸 [United States, May 6] QBK Sports in New York City will be hosting a full-proxy event. The NYC Premodern crew is a great one, highly recommend showing up if you can!
🇩🇪 [Germany, May 6] Ultra Comix Nuremberg is hosting their 11th Premodern event.
🇺🇸 [United States, May 7] Advantage Games in Northglenn, CO is hosting a Premodern event at 12pm.
🇺🇸 [United States, May 9] The monthly NYC meetup will take place with four rounds starting at 6:30pm. Let me know via email/Twitter/FB/Discord if you’re interested!
🇺🇸 [United States, May 11] Phoenix Comics and Games in Seattle, WA is hosting their monthly Thursday Night Premodern event at 6pm. Gold border and legible proxies allowed.
🇺🇸 [United States, May 13] ELD’s Time Vault Games in Bellingham, MA will be hosting their latest Premodern Open.
🇪🇸 [Spain, May 14] A tournament will be held in Granollers, Barcelona, Spain at La Camperia.
🇨🇿 [Czechia, May 20] The Czech Premodern Championships will be held in Prague and has increased its capacity after initially selling out.
🇺🇸 [United States, May 20] Slypatch Gaming in West Allis, WI is hosting the Milwaukee Premodern Championship with the winner getting a Mox Diamond.
🇸🇬 [Singapore, Jun. 2] Interest is being gauged on Facebook about holding a “Singapore Premodern Championship” during the South East Asia Regional Championships.
🇺🇸 [United States, Jun. 2-3] The North American Premodern Championship will take place at LobsterCon in Boston. Open admission has now closed.
🇫🇮 [Finland, Jun. 10] The Finnish Premodern Nationals will take place at Bar & Cafe Lategame in Tampere, Finland.
🇺🇸 [United States, Jul. 1] Misty Mountain Games in Madison, WI is back with the annual Midwest Championship with Twitch coverage courtesy of Cloudgoat Ranger.
🇦🇷 [Argentina, Aug. 12-13] Dates and location (Buenos Aires, Argentina) are now confirmed for the South American Premodern Championship!
🇺🇸 [United States, Sep. 23] Misty Mountain Games in Madison, WI is hosting the Fall Cup with Twitch coverage courtesy of Cloudgoat Ranger.
🇩🇪 [Germany, Sep. 30] The European Championships will take place in Darmstadt, Germany with further details to come. Sign up on their website to receive updates for registration.
🇳🇱 [Netherlands, Nov. 5] Registration for the Dutch Nationals at the Uthden Troll Cup V are now open!
🇺🇸 [United States, Dec. 9] Misty Mountain Games in Madison, WI wraps up the year with the Misty Mountain Finals with Twitch coverage courtesy of Cloudgoat Ranger.
Other Format Events
🇺🇸 [United States, Apr. 29] Team Serious is hosting a Middle School event at Superscript in Lakewood, OH.
🌐 [Webcam, May 1] Signups for the Classic Legacy (legal sets before Scars of Mirrodin block) Webcam Monthly are now up and open to a worldwide audience after previously being limited to Spain. Proxies are allowed. I’m personally excited to join and test out some decks!
🌐 [Webcam, May 1] Signups for the Type 2 Webcam Monthly which covers Mirage, Visions, Weatherlight, Tempest, Stronghold, Exodus, and Fifth Edition are now up.
🇺🇸 [United States, May 27] The Milwaukee Massacre Middle School event will take place at a TBD venue.
Muchas Gracias por comentar sobre el primer Campeonato Nacional de Premodern Chile
This is always a pleasure to read ur newsletter. I'll do my best for creating a french community around premodern.