Killing Them and Our Game Plan

4c Loam attacks and tries to prevent us from winning on one primary axis, with permanents. They may have a couple of discard spells, but pretty much just with permanents, and they play no counterspells. The permanents that they do play have such a variety of how they prevent us from winning like cards Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Gaddock Teeg, Wasteland, and Chalice of the Void. All of those are completely different and that makes it hard for us to try to play around, and beat one of them preemptively through the way we sculpt our hand. We are going to need our discard spells as a catch-all to be able to take whatever they have and give us insight on how quickly we need to combo off or to sculpt a hand around their known hate pieces. Discard with the combination of bounce spells is how we need to approach answering their permanents. Playing that type of game is often the hard route, but sometimes our hand is not fast enough to combo off under their lock pieces. An easier way to beat them is just be having a very fast hand that can combo off on turn one or two. We need to play and make mulligan decisions that either have a quick kill or an answer to their permanents. If a hand has neither and is slow then it’s probably a mulligan. When evaluating speeds of hand consider just because we can make Empty the Warrens that there’s a chance of a sweeper, but those odds are low since they have so few with no cantrips, but something to keep in mind.

 

Sideboarding

This is a pretty easy sideboard swap by removing some cantrips and adding in some ways to interact with permanents. The opponent is only trying to fight us with a variety of permanents and the more they have in play the harder it will be to win the game. This means we need to focus on winning quickly before they get into play or be able to bounce/destroy a permanent, and then go ahead to combo off. Having a hand full of cantrips and interaction is just not good enough here. We need to have a fast hand with the ability to interact just in case, and this sideboard plan helps make that happen.

Game Play

Onto an example match!

I am a couple turns into the first game against an unknown matchup, and my opponent had an amazing start against me with a turn 2 Chalice of the Void on 1. This is traditionally pretty bad news for a storm player, but luckily I only 1 card in my hand with 1 cmc. My hand is also not very good though as my first couple draw steps were redundant tutors.

I then fetch out my second basic because I can afford to play around a potential Wasteland, and then use one of my copies of Infernal Tutor to get another Lion’s Eye Diamond to be able to get enough mana to combo off in a future turn. On my opponent’s turn he casts a Green Sun’s Zenith for x=2 and puts a Gaddock Teeg into play. ouch…getting pretty tough. When he passes back I draw a Chrome Mox and then cast it to imprint one of my copies of Burning Wish as a red source to cast my other Burning Wish to grab the Grapeshot. I immediately cast it along with the Lotus Petal to get rid of the Gaddock Teeg with the plan to combo off on the following turn:

On my opponents fourth turn he just makes his land drop and passes the turn back to me, and I draw a Dark Ritual. Another one drop to be countered. My opponent has four cards in hand, but isn’t casting anything. That worries me, but I know I need to hurry up before another lock piece comes down, so I decide to just go for it this turn and play out both of my Lion’s Eye Diamond and then cast my tutor floating 3R 3B and grab a Burning Wish for an Empty the Warrens with storm 5.

I had the option to also Ad Nauseam here with 1 color floating, but I figured that had a lower chance of winning on that turn with the Chalice of the Void in play, 4 artifacts and 4 tutors already been used. This opens myself up to a wrath of course, but I was banking on the fact they probably only have 0-1 in their maindeck and I liked those odds better than Ad Nauseam, but I don’t think it’s a clear cut decision.

After a couple turns of trading goblins with Dryad Arbor and my opponents drawing blanks I end up getting the first game. My opponent shows me his hand with Wasteland saying he was holding it the whole game. Good thing I fetched out basics earlier.

Up 1-0

I sideboard accordingly and draw my opening 7.

Before my opponent begins his turn he puts a Leyline of the Void in play. On my first turn I just simply play a fetchland and pass because my hand has a second turn Ad Nauseam and a bounce spell. His second turn he just plays a Sylvan Library and he hopes he can untap. I draw a Dark Ritual for my second turn and proceed to storm off into an easy one.

Good enough.

2-0

This match exemplifies many angles of this matchup and how we can’t play around everything. For example, in the first game I could afford to play around Wasteland fairly easily. I only drew fetch lands and didn’t have major color requirements. It was a grind with a little luck to be able to win through a Gaddock Teeg and a Chalice of the Void. I could not play around if he had a sweeper. I took that chance hoping he only had 0-1 in his maindeck and I figured odds of winning that route would be higher than an Ad Nauseam with a Chalice of the Void on 1. I predetermined what I was willing to try to beat and play around vs what I chose to gamble on. In a matchup like this attacking on very few angles, but varied hate pieces sometimes you do have to make these decisions based on hand context. If you would have made any decisions differently than me, especially game 1, then make sure to let me know! Thanks for reading and hopefully you play against less hate cards than I do!