RuG Lands: A Concept and Sideboard Guide

Introduction

Hello! My name is Kai, also known as DeathWrongShaman on discord, DeathWrongShaman420 on MTGO, or @deathWrongShamn on Twitter.  I am a 20 year-old math major and an enormous Legacy fan.  I started playing Magic when I was 8, and Legacy sometime in 2016: I was on red-black Reanimator using shock lands, and have slowly moved my way up to what I consider to be the pinnacle of Legacy decks: Lands!  I finished paper Lands about two years ago and have been playing almost nothing else since.  Then about eight months ago I started playing MTGO and my love for the deck has grown since.  Recently I placed 17th out of 264 in a MTGO Super Qualifier and was asked if I would like to write something for the Legacy Lands website and of course I said yes!  So I am going to share my list, insight into my decision making on cards both in and out of the list, and a sideboard guide! Bear with me, this is the first article that I have written, but hopefully not the last.

So What Am I Writing About? Why Is There a Picture of a Blue Card?

This is my current RuG Lands list, with Punishing Fire and a blue splash! I have been toying around with RuG lands and BuG lands for a while, and this is the list that feels the most powerful to me at the moment.  With the amount of blue spells I have in this list, the opportunity cost for playing blue is very low.  The list plays like a very traditional RG Lands list with PFire, but now has some very powerful tutorable removal and sideboard interaction.  I will now go over the cards I chose to put in the deck, and the cards I chose to leave out!

My Decisions

Lands decks have a fundamental ~45 cards that they need to operate.  I would not play a shell that did not run at least:

4 Wasteland
4 Urza’s Saga
3 Thespian’s Stage 
3 Dark Depths (This could be two but I do not think two is correct)
1 Boseiju, Who Endures
1 Blast Zone
1 Karakas
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth
2 Maze of Ith
At least 9 green lands including Boseiju (I prefer 11-12)
4 Mox Diamond
4 Exploration
4 Crop Rotation
4 Life from the Loam
At least 3 Saga Targets
Somewhere between 33-36 lands total
And at least 4 answers to Magus of the Moon and 4 answers to Blood Moon

Now for the fun part, the decisions!  

Decisions Decisions Decisions 

There are a ton of different builds of lands and cards that can fill out the rest of the deck.  I will now go into my decisions!

Punishing Fire/Grove of the Burnwillows VS Sphere of Resistance

The legacy meta has warped around Orcish Bowmaster and become very creature heavy, making Punishing Fire a very powerful recurable removal spell that answers a majority of creatures in the format and that also overloads Surgical Extraction with additional targets.  A requirement to play PFire is at least 3 Grove of the Burnwillows, to make sure that the PFires are always active.  

HOWEVER, there is a big additional component to this choice.  Punishing Fire does not work well with mainboard Sphere of Resistance, which has become increasingly popular.  I have chosen to continue with the recurable removal package instead of transitioning to a more prison heavy build with two Ancient Tombs and Sphere in the main.  This is primarily because I feel PFire is incredible in matchups against tempo, midrange, and creature decks, such as Delver, Shadow, and DnT, while Sphere is actively bad in those matchups.  PFire also gives us a lot of room to catch up from behind, and play a more controlling strategy.  Meanwhile Sphere helps against combo decks a lot, and will undoubtedly give us free wins, but the decks that Sphere is good against can often turn one kill, or cast an initiative creature, or can play through Sphere on turn 1, like reanimator. This makes Sphere of Resistance on the draw much weaker, especially in the blind.  It also makes games much more play/draw dependent which increases the amount of variance in the game, and that frustrates me as a player so I personally like to avoid it.  Simply put, I feel as though Punishing Fire is a very powerful effect, and after a lot of testing, I do not like the play patterns or variance that Sphere of Resistance creates when it is in the mainboard.

If we look at this a little deeper, we could make the claim that, when played with Urza’s Saga, Mox Diamond, and Wasteland, Sphere of Resistance is the penultimate tempo card, ON THE PLAY.  Almost nothing feels as powerful as Saga, Mox Diamond, Sphere on the play, because when your opponent is casting their 1 drop, you have 2 5/5’s and another artifact you tutored up.  However this changes on the draw.  Blue Decks get their first Ponder in to find interaction, Delver plays a turn 1 3/2 flier followed by a Wasteland, DnT plays out an Aether Vial, Reanimator casts Entomb setting up a turn 2 Reanimate, Initiative cast their Chrome Mox and Seasoned Dungeoneer on turn 1, Mystic Forge plays a Karn, the Great Creator, Shadow reanimates a Troll through your Sphere, or simply your opponents deck does not care about the tax effect.  Sphere of Resistance does not take the “tempo emblem”, but instead protects it, meaning if your opponent has already made a proactive play the card is much worse.  Legacy has seemingly developed a habit of decks making powerful turn 1 plays in the blind, regardless of interaction, making Sphere of Resistance on the draw in game 1 much worse.  Lands is a control deck that has no cantrips and instead relies on its ability to have incredibly powerful draws, recurring answers and threats, and explosive opening hands.  When we increase the number of dead draws later on and the number of spells that are dead once they hit the graveyard, remove our ability to continuously deal with pesky creatures through Punishing Fire, and add more cards that are bad in our opening hands on the draw in the blind, we damage the resilience and consistency of the deck.  I would rather have a card like PFire that excels in all the matches its good in, versus Sphere which is only good in certain matchups and often only good on the play.

Blue Cards

SO NOW WE TALK ABOUT THE BLUE SPLASH!!

Mainboard

I am a big advocate of the blue splash!  The cost to play it is super low, right now I only have one Tropical Island as a fetchable blue source (and moxen and an Otawara if necessary).  In the mainboard having access to Aether Spellbomb and Otawara, Soaring City is very powerful in a meta full of reanimated Griefs and Trolls, Murktide Regents, Construct tokens, and opposing Marit Lages.  Bounce removal is an effective form of removal, and using the tutor off of Urza’s Saga to clear out blockers for your constructs is a powerful tempo play.  Looping Otawara with Life from the Loam, as another recurable removal spell/answer, is a very powerful answer, and of course having answers to Archon of Cruelty or Kaldra Compleat is very strong.

Sideboard

In the sideboard we get some powerful tools too! These are Blue Elemental Blast and Flusterstorm.  Blue Elemental Blast is an obvious one, giving us an answer to prison spells such as Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon, as well as Caves of Chaos Adventurer and other red value spells.  Then we get to Flusterstorm.  The key to the blue splash.  Flusterstorm provides us with a new angle to the spell based combo matchup; the stack!  Combining countermagic with land destruction, permanent based tax effects, and graveyard hate creates a diverse arsenal to unload in the combo matchups.  Sphere is a very relevant piece in terms of taxing Storm, Doomsday, Reanimator, Sneak and Show, and etc. and Flusterstorm gives us the ability to protect our Spheres from hate as well as interrupt a combo.  BUT THAT’S NOT ALL!! With the rising popularity of Forth Eorlingas as the win condition of choice for UWx control, having an uncounterable answer for it in that matchup is amazing.  It also is a very strong piece of interaction to protect your spells that matter in the blue control matchups, or protect a 20/20.

Other Blue Cards

There are a few other powerful blue cards I have tried to varying levels of success.  I will briefly state my thoughts on them.

Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath: A powerful card to have and a solid engine, but it is a strain on the manabase, and I do not believe it can be supported in a RuG list.  It could be worth exploring in a UG shell, or a BuG shell that could commit more to blue mana.

Sifle:  A gimmicky card that can be a good piece of interaction against Storm, Thassa’s Oracle, and Initiative, but the applications are narrow and I have found Flusterstorm to be a better and more versatile form of interaction.

Spell Pierce:  An alternative to Flusterstorm, that can interact with artifacts and planeswalkers.  If Mystic Forge or Artifact Storm decks became more popular I would consider a split but right now I prefer Flusterstorm.

Slogurk, the Overslime:  This card.  This card is awesome.  I absolutely love it.  An amazing powerful threat that dodges removal and serves as an alternative to Loam as well.  Looping it with Karakas is amazing.  It looks gimmicky but overall I think it is incredible, and I want to find room for the card in the 75 but as of now, I cannot justify it.  I would say that to play it we would need to add either a Waterlogged Grove or a third green fetch, but in my current list there is no room.  Slogurk is something I will test again undoubtedly.  

I mean look at it, what a card.

Field of the Dead: This is one of the more controversial and non-stock cards that appears in all of my lists.  However I am a strong advocate of this card.  It is a powerful utility land, that provides inevitability against UWx control decks, and can give you some very powerful and explosive hands in combination with Loam and Exploration or Thespian’s Stage.  It also gives you some very good redundancy against a Surgical Extraction that hits Urza’s Saga.  Everytime I get close to cutting it, I am once again reminded of the powerful effect that it has. While it could for sure be cut for Ghost Quarter or a third Maze of Ith, I am set on playing the card and very happy with it.  I have even considered a second copy in the main or sideboard for UWx control matchups where tutoring can be difficult, but I do not think that is needed right now.

Ancient Tomb: If Sphere is in your 75 you need this. Period. 

Saga Targets: On top of Aether Spellbomb, I play Shadowspear, Pithing Needle, Soul-Guide Lantern, and Expedition Map.  I am not going to go into detail about all of these choices, but I tutor them all up consistently and am very happy with the array. Shadowspear especially is a very powerful card for the “construct stompy” gameplan.  If I were to cut one, I would move Soul-Guide Lantern to the sideboard which I have done in some lists, but I find myself missing it a lot when I do. 

Kozilek’s Return: I like having a sweeper in the sideboard, and have considered a second over PFire #3, and Kozilek’s Return is the best option in my opinion.  While Pyroclasm is cheaper, the instant speed part of KReturn is relevant with Forth Eorlingas as a prevalent threat.  Volcanic Fallout has been kicked around but the double red is a strain on the manabase.

And that is the thought process behind my card selections! I have tweaked the numbers on cards like Force of Vigor, Thespian’s Stage, and Red Elemental Blast, but in the end have found myself very satisfied with the numbers I am at in this current metagame.

Sideboard Guide for RuG Lands

This is not a set in stone guide, use your intuition! Here is how I roughly sideboard for a few of the common decks in the meta right now!  Again this often changes based off of cards I see in game 1.

URx Delver

In: 2 Red Blast, 1 Blue Blast, 1 KReturn
Out: 1 Pithing Needle, 1 Karakas, 1 Field of the Dead, 1 Ancient Tomb

Shadow/UB Scam

In: 2 Red Blast, 2 Surgical, 1 KReturn
Out: 1 Field of the Dead, 1 Karakas, 1 Ancient Tomb, 1 Crucible of Worlds, 1 Boseiju

Jeskai Control (with Forth Eorlingas)

In: 2 Surgical Extraction, 2 Red Blast, 3 Flusterstorm, 1 KReturn, 1 Blue Blast 
Out: 1 Dark Depths, 1 Tabernacle, 2 Maze of Ith, 1 Crop Rot, 1 Mox Diamond, 1 Aether Spellbomb, 2 PFire (If I see Narset/Days Undoing, I bring out 1 PFire, 1 Soul-Guide Lantern)

4cc/5cc with or without Yorion

In: 2 Surgical Extraction, 2 Red Blast, 2 Flusterstorm, 4 Sphere of Resistance
Out: 1 Dark Depths, 1 Tabernacle, 2 Maze of Ith, 1 Mox Diamond, 1 Aether Spellbomb, 3 PFire, 1 Crop Rot

Death and Taxes

In: 2 Force of Vigor, 1 KReturn
Out: 1 Soul-Guide Lantern, 1 Bojuka Bog, 1 Dark Depths

Cradle Control

Play

In: 4 Sphere of Resistance, 1 KReturn
Out: 1 Crucible of Worlds, 1 Aether Spellbomb, 1 Field of the Dead, 1 Otawara, 1 Boseiju

Draw (maybe? or just the same as above)

In: 3 Flusterstorm, 1 KReturn
Out: 1 Crucible of Worlds, 1 Aether Spellbomb, 1 Field of the Dead, 1 Boseiju

Initiative/Moon Stompy 

In: 4 Sphere, 2 Force of Vigor, 1 Blue Blast, 1 KReturn
Out: 1 Soul-Guide, 1 Pithing Needle, 1 Crucible of Worlds, 1 Field of the Dead, 1 Blast Zone, 1 Bojuka Bog, 1 Karakas, 1 Life From the Loam (if no red keep 4th loam over blue blast)

Storm (essentially any variant)

In: Everything but KReturn and Red Blasts
Out: 3 PFire, 1 Crucible, 1 Shadowspear, 1 Aether Spellbomb, 1 Expedition Map or Needle (if you see Wishclaw Talisman), 2 Maze of Ith, 1 Karakas, 1 Field of the Dead, 1 Blast Zone 

IF ECHO OF EONS BRING RED BLASTS AND BRING OUT 2 LOAMS

Lands

In: 2 Force of Vigor, 2 Surgical Extraction
Out: 1 Dark Depths, 1 Tabernacle, 2 PFire

If Elvish Reclaimer keep PFire’s over Maze and another land

Naya/Abzan Depths

In: 2 Surgical Extraction, 1 KReturn
Out: 1 Depths, 1 Ancient Tomb, 1 Yavimaya

Breakfast

In: 2 Surgical Extraction, 4 Sphere of Resistance, 3 Flusterstorm, 2 Red Blast
Out: 1 Crucible of Worlds, 2 Maze of Ith, 1 Karakas, 1 Field of the Dead, 1 Aether Spellbomb, 1 Shadowspear, 2 Life from the Loam, 1 Expedition Map, 1 PFire

Not sold on this boarding yet, it also changes if they have Stoneforge for Kaldra

Mono Black Helm/Mono black stompy/scam

In: 4 Sphere of Resistance, 2 Force of Vigor, 1 KReturn
Out: 1 Field of the Dead, 1 Bojuka Bog, 1 Soul-Guide Lantern, 1 Crucible of Worlds, 1 Life From the Loam, 1 Fetch Land, 1 Otawara

Reanimator

In: 4 Sphere, 3 Flusterstorm, 2 Surgical Extraction
Out: 1 Crucible of Worlds, 1 Pithing Needle, 1 Shadowspear, 3 PFire, 1 Field of the Dead, 1 Blast Zone, 1 Maze of Ith

Red painter

In: 1 KReturn, 2 Surgical, 2 Force of Vigor, 1 Blue Blast
Out: 1 Field of the Dead, 1 Karakas, 1 Maze of Ith, 1 Otawara, 1 Crucible, 1 Aether Spellbomb

Doomsday

In: 4 Sphere, 3 Flusterstorms, 2 Red Blast, 2 Surgical
Out: 3 Pfire, 1 Shadowspear, 1 Spellbomb, 1 Soul-guide, 1 Field of the Dead, 2 Maze of Ith, 1 Tabernacle, 1 Crucible

BUG List

I 5-0’d twice on MTGO with this list with some tweaks to the sideboard.  This list feels powerful, but a bit unrefined, and if I were to play it now, Veil of Summer would be an Opposition Agent.  I would encourage anyone to try it, and if you do let me know how it goes!

Final Thoughts

I think Lands is very well positioned right now, and that legacy is in a healthy and fun place.  Legacy is full of strong tempo and control decks that punish spell based combos, and decks like 4c control and UB Scam are good matchups for Lands.  I think this list is great and I would recommend anyone who is interested to try it out!  I feel relatively strong in my “Sphere in the Side” philosophy, but that is not to say I believe it is an objectively correct decision.  The first 45 cards in your Lands deck are way more important than the last 15.  If you give this list a try, or have any questions, please let me know! I would love to hear any thoughts, concerns, questions, or opinions and will always respond as fast as I can!

Discord: DeathWrongShaman
MTGO: DeathWrongShaman420
Twitter: @deathWrongShamn