EDH C18 Deck Tech – Lord Windgrace’s Estate

One constant in Magic, is the horrible and gross Lands combo decks. From the Legacy Dark Depths deck to the Modern Scapeshift deck. But what about EDH? What happened to the “Lands Matter” Nature’s Vengeance deck in C18? Well, apparently a lot of players had a different understanding to Wizards about “Lands Matter” vs ”Lands Combo”.

Interestingly enough, M19 made some of the parts to this deck a wee bit cheaper and that makes me VERY happy indeed. It means I am able to look at playing one of the dirtiest decks around and not feel as bad.

A NOTE ABOUT THIS DECK

If you want to keep your friends and your playgroup, you may not want to play this deck, or at least, water it down and maybe take out the gross combo land destruction of  Strip Mine and Wasteland.

THE COMBO

It’s almost as if this deck was built on the grounds of a Legacy staple, isn’t it? Well, that’s exactly where we start.
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
First up we have the good old Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle combo built into the deck. Valakut is known for being entirely terrible and making players grown ever since it hit our grubby little hands because once Valakut hits the battlefield and we have five mountains in play, each additional mountain we play turns into Lightning Bolt.
This is how it works:
Scapeshift
The first combo isScapeshift all your lands TO THE FACE. Okay, sorry I actually need to walk this through. Have Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle in play, have Prismatic Omen in play and then just Scapeshift.

RULES EXPLANATION TIME

When you sacrifice six lands with Scapeshift to grab Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle + 5 mountains, immediately after the event, the game checks what needs to trigger. So for mountain #1, the game sees:
1. Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle is on the battlefield
2. Mountain #1 just entered the battlefield
3. There are 5 mountains on the battlefield other than Mountain #1. Repeat check for all other Mountains.
We can kill more players with more Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle, but how can we get more in a singleton format? Well, we copy them of course! Thespian’s Stage and Vesuva allow us to copy Valakut and that way we can burn multiple opponents at once.
Throw in Ob Nixilis, the Fallen so that target player then loses three life per land that enters play and you have a great way to burn out multiple opponents in one amazing and explosive turn. We can search for the combo pieces fairly easy using all the cool land search cards such as Expedition MapSylvan ScryingCrop Rotation and Realms Uncharted. Oh, don’t let Realms scare you off, we have multiple ways to play lands from the discard pile.
Once you’re all set up, you can even reset the board, sort of, with Warp World. This terrifying Sorcery is expensive and chaotic, but you never know what will happen when you spin the wheel. Will you get a stacked Ob Nixilis, the Fallen or will you get nothing but lands? Who knows!

LANDS, LOTS OF LANDS

Azusa, Lost but Seeking
We want to make sure we can play multiple lands if we can on a single turn, so we should include Azusa, Lost But SeekingWayward SwordtoothThe Gitrog Monster Oracle of Mul Daya and Exploration so we can play an additional land. These help us out not only to empty our hand of lands, but also to assist in playing multiple lands that have ended up in our graveyard via Scapeshift and (Lord Windgrace) using our Crucible of Worlds, (Lord Windgrace) negative three ability to get two lands back into play, Life from the LoamPetrified Field and Ramunap Excavator. Remember that Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle doesn’t care WHERE the mountains come from, only that they are “Mountains”.
Remember what I was saying about the deck being kind of gross? Strip Mine and Wasteland are a combo with both Life from the LoamCrucible of Worlds and anything that allows us to play multiple lands in a turn. Doing this will make you a huge target, but even I like to indulge my terrible side now and then.
Sadly Fastbond is banned in EDH. No Fastbond to zero.
For the landfall triggers outside of the combo, we have Courser of Kruphix for that sweet, sweet life gain. Tireless Tracker can draw us cards over time by creating Clue tokens, and when we pop those tokens, the tracker gets swole. Avenger of Zendikar enters the battlefield and gives you a tiny forest that grows with each land you place into play. Rampaging Baloths provides an army of 4/4 Beasts to smash your opponents with if the need arises to play the long game. And finally, we can also draw a heap of extra cards thanks to Horn of Greed, because whenever a land enters play, that player draws a card. Mmmmm fetchlands!

CRADLE 2 THE GRAVE!

Rocking a sweet combo of Titania, Protector of Argoth and The Gitrog Monster helps us generate a mass of 5/3 Elemental tokens and drawing additional cards respectively. The Gitrog Monster works frightfully well with (Lord Windgrace) and his +2 ability, netting three cards instead of two. We also have Zuran Orb to help us net a whole stack of life if we get desperate.

BY THE POWER OF GREY SCALE!

The pre-con out of the box didn’t really care enough about lands, but more about ramping in to stuff, so we gutted the deck entirely. there are some great cards for OTHER decks, but very few cards we really wanted for this deck, and certainly not enough “Lands Matter” reprints such as Lotus Cobra. But you know, that’s fine because these products are made for newer players, rather than enfranchised players. This means we will see a theme in the deck, but we need to expand on it to make the deck what we want.

Lord Windgrace’s Estate

Lord Windgrace
Liliana Vess
Acidic Slime
Artisan of Kozilek
Avenger of Zendikar
Courser of Kruphix
Demonlord Belzenlok
Den Protector
Eternal Witness
Moldgraf Monstrosity
Multani, Yavimaya’s Avatar
Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
Oracle of Mul Daya
Rampaging Baloths
Ramunap Excavator
Reclamation Sage
Sakura-Tribe Elder
Satyr Wayfinder
Solemn Simulacrum
Terastodon
The Gitrog Monster
Tireless Tracker
Titania, Protector of Argoth
Vizier of the Menagerie
Wood Elves
World Shaper
Wurmcoil Engine
Yahenni, Undying Partisan
Crucible of Worlds
Horn of Greed
Lightning Greaves
Seer’s Sundial
Sol Ring
Swiftfoot Boots
Zuran Orb
Damnation
Demonic Tutor
Explosive Vegetation
Farseek
Gamble
Harmonize
Life from the Loam
Selvala’s Stampede
Splendid Reclamation
Traverse the Ulvenwald
Warp World
Beast Within
Crop Rotation
Entomb
Harrow
Krosan Grip
Realms Uncharted
Reclaim
Burgeoning
Exploration
From Beyond
Phyrexian Arena
Prismatic Omen
Sylvan Library
Arid Mesa
Badlands
Bayou
Blood Crypt
Bloodstained Mire
Command Tower
Dark Depths
Forest
Golgari Rot Farm
Gruul Turf
Homeward Path
Kessig Wolf Run
Luxury Suite
Misty Rainforest
Mortuary Mire
Mountain
Overgrown Tomb
Petrified Field
Smoldering Marsh
Stomping Ground
Strip Mine
Swamp
Taiga
Thespian’s Stage
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
Verdant Catacombs
Vesuva
Wasteland
Wooded Foothills
Rampaging Baloths
Ramunap Excavator
Reclamation Sage

THE PROS

  • Lands decks are more like an exploration of what you can pull off, rather than knowing the straight path. Yes, Valakut/Scapeshift is the fast kill, but there are a number of other ways you can kill in the deck.
  • Not a deck that is widely played, you will catch opponents off guard.

THE CONS

That’s it from me today, I hope you liked this deck tech and you’re enjoying Guilds of Ravnica!

-Cheshire