Focus on Legacy Assault Loam.

In preparing for the Invitational, I am going ahead and doing research on the lesser known decks, on the off-chance I find a diamond in the rough.

Legacy Spotlight: Life from the Loam

It was once said that:
“In any rational format, Life From The Loam eventually emerges as the most powerful card drawer in the format.”

Legacy may be back to that point where the fair decks exist in enough numbers that Loam is a good deck.

The Loam decks I want to focus on are: G/R/w, and G/R/b.

Why G/R as a base of all of them? I strongly believe one of the strongest things to do with LftL is to throw 10 lands at your opponent's face with Seismic Assault, or leave them with no lands following a Terravore or Countryside Crusher (see Devastating Dreams).


G/R/w:
//25
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Windswept Heath
3 Taiga
1 Savannah
1 Plateau
1 Plains
1 Forest
4 Wasteland
2 Tranquil Thicket
4 Forgotten Cave
1 Bojuka Bog

//26
1 Maze of Ith
1 Gamble
2 Firebolt
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Burning Wish
3 Life from the Loam
3 Devastating Dreams
1 Armageddon
4 Mox Diamond
3 Seismic Assault

//10
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Terravore

Sideboard
1 The Tabernacle at the Pendrell Vale
1 Nostalgic Dreams
1 Devastating Dreams
1 Worm Harvest
1 Life from the Loam
1 Pyroclasm
1 Reverent Silence
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyroblast
1 Krosan Grip

Deathrite Shaman is a hugely problematic card. I've taken this into account by taking the liberty of running 7 direct answers to it (3 Firebolt and 4 Swords to Plowshares). Seismic Assault also answers it, albeit a bit slower and he's already had quite an impact on your board by that point. Firebolt is kind of an odd one, but when Deathrite/Bob and SFM are the creatures you most want to kill, Firebolt provides you with the opportunity to do so on time, while potentially killing another one later on in the game. Your best draw looks something like this: t1, fetchland + mox diamond (discarding something), play loam, t2 Terravore off the fetch, t3 dreams them to oblivion. A lot of decks will struggle to beat that draw (not to mention Combo Elves).

Unfortunately, a deck like this (being the epitome of a fair deck) is inherently weak to combo decks, and I don't think it's really worth trying to fix it in the maindeck, and even Chalice of the Void  might not be good enough.

Note: Most fair blue decks without countertop cannot possibly keep up with you if you play 100%. Rest in Peace Countertop is probably the hardest matchup, but it isn't unwinnable (indeed if you expect more of this deck, I would probably board more Krosan Grips.)

The Nostalgic Dreams / Worm Harvest is necessary in the board, because there will be times where you dredge away a large number of your win cons.

G/R/b:

//25
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Taiga
1 Badlands
1 Bayou
1 Forest
1 Swamp
4 Wasteland
2 Tranquil Thicket
4 Forgotten Cave

//25
4 Mox Diamond
4 Abrupt Decay
4 Burning Wish
1 Firebolt
3 Life from the Loam
3 Devastating Dreams
3 Thoughtseize
3 Seismic Assault

//10
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Dark Confidant
2 Terravore

Sideboard
1 Nostalgic Dreams
1 Devastating Dreams
1 Worm Harvest
1 Life from the Loam
1 Pyroclasm
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Thoughtseize
1 Reverent Silence
1 Slaughter Games
1 Last Rites
4 Duress
1 Deathmark

Similar ideas to the former list. Dark Confidant is pretty nuts here as a backup engine to Loam. I might again just consider conceding the combo matchup (cut Thoughtseizes for more removal (a split of Pulse/Lightning Bolt makes sense here).

If you ever get to resolve Last Rites and/or Slaughter Games, I think they are nearly unbeatable for a lot of the spell-combo decks at the moment (minus TES which has burning wishes too....)

Hoogland's 4c Loam looks pretty interesting too: http://starcitygames.com/events/coverage/deck_tech_4_color_loam_with_je.html