Lands has been a powerful archetype in Legacy for quite some time, but the deck is incredibly slow. Outside of the occasional quick Dark Depths kill, be prepared to play a marathon series of games if you’re going up against the archetype. Well, that is unless you alter your gameplan to take a much more aggressive approach.
Magic Online user faultedform brewed up a really sweet shell that takes a much more aggressive slant despite abusing a lot of the same utility lands. In doing so, this deck is capable of winning games as early as turn two while still having a chance in the grindy matchups.
Applying Pressure
At its core, this take on Legacy Lands is built to maximize a handful of creatures with Landfall that are capable of taking over games if left unchecked. At the top of the food chain is Tifa Lockhart, a legend that demands a removal spell immediately. All it takes is targeting Tifa with Scale Up, then playing and cracking a Fetchland to deal lethal damage out of nowhere. Throw in a copy of Berserk to pair with Scale, and any land drop will do the trick.
Your other two Landfall creatures, Scythecat Cub and Bristly Bill, Spine Sower, aren’t quite as explosive but still threaten to deal a lot of damage in short order. If you don’t have a pump spell to pair with Tifa, putting +1/+1 counters on her is still a good way to pile on damage. Spreading +1/+1 counters around makes it easier to fight through removal, too.
What these cards can be weak to, however, are counterspells. In a format ruled by Force of Will, you need ways to ensure that your potent threats resolve, and Frenzied Baloth does just that. Besides making your creatures uncounterable, Baloth is also your strongest tool against The One Ring, which sees tons of play in Stompy and combo decks alike.
With 14 two-mana creatures in the mix, it’s in your best interest to have some form of acceleration to try and get games over with quicker. Luckily, Elvish Spirit Guide allows you to jam Tifa or Cub on turn one instead of turn two. This can be the difference between winning and losing against the array of fast combo decks in the format.
Obviously, this portion of the deck doesn’t overlap with traditional builds of Legacy Lands. Given how important it is to trigger Landfall multiple times in a turn, however, there is a lot of incentive to play other land tutors besides just Fetchlands.
Lands Package
As you build out a formidable board of attackers, the easiest way to get extra Landfall triggers is just to resolve Crop Rotation. Alongside Tifa, converting one of your lands into a Fetchland for two additional triggers gives you a pretty good chance of sending in lethal damage without a pump spell involved.
Adding to the number of land tutors in your deck, Elvish Reclaimer doubles as a way to get extra land drops, and can become a beefy threat pretty easily. Even ignoring its activated ability, a one-mana creature that gets out of Lightning Bolt range is no joke.
Where things get interesting, though, is when you factor in the ability for Reclaimer and Rotation to grab utility lands that collectively excel in a variety of situations. Against decks with lots of kill spells, tutoring for Sejiri Steppe or Talon Gates of Madara in response to removal can be a game-changer. Versus Reanimator, your opponent will constantly have to fear the potential play of Rotation grabbing Bojuka Bog and fizzling their copy of Reanimate on the spot.
This deck even goes as far as to incorporate singleton copies of Dark Depths and Thespian’s Stage for an alternate angle of attack. Making a 20/20 isn’t always easy given how many archetypes utilize Wasteland, but just the threat of this combo is enough to strike fear in the hearts of your opponents.
Top Matchups
Overall, despite being a strange configuration, this list lines up surprisingly well against a lot of the top archetypes. Against decks like Dimir Tempo that rely on Daze and Wasteland to keep you off-balance, simply fetching up basic Forests and casting Baloth puts the opponent in rough shape. Things only get better after sideboarding when Veil of Summer and Legolas’s Quick Reflexes enter the equation.
Meanwhile, your blazing starts give you a chance to race some of the slower combo decks like Mystic Forge. While traditional Lands decks risk getting outclassed by Glaring Fleshraker, Tifa threatens to Trample right over the puny Eldrazi Spawn tokens en route to victory.
The Stompy matchup, on the other hand, can feel extremely swingy depending on your opponent’s draws. On one hand, your wealth of basic lands and Elvish Spirit Guides make a quick Magus of the Moon of minimal concern. On the flip side, though, a fast Broadside Bombardiers from the opponent is particularly difficult to beat, since it mows down your creatures turn after turn while applying pressure. You don’t have much in the way of removal of your own, so you’re at their mercy.
This lack of interaction really comes back to bite you against Cephalid Breakfast, and other extremely fast combo decks. If your opponent curves Nomads en-Kor into Cephalid Illusionist on the play, you have little recourse.
As a mono-green deck, it’s pretty difficult to address these weaknesses. The good news, at least, is that you can present fast kills of your own that give you a chance in the event your opponent doesn’t have a nut draw. It may not be a top-tier archetype, but Mono-Green Landfall has what it takes to put up a strong performance here and there if things go your way. So, if you’re looking for something unique to play and you don’t want to shell out money for dual lands, consider taking this deck for a spin.
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