Land Destruction in Standard

I was introduced to Magic by a friend of mine who has a land-destruction deck. I have been killed over and over by the vise. I know how irritating that is. Too sad that for a long time, no Tier 1 land destruction deck has been available to standard for a while. Mainly, they attribute this to the absence of 3-mana land destruction spells like Stone Rain and Pillage, cards which I remember distinctly belonging to my friend's deck. His First turn Forest to a Birds of Paradise often ends with a turn 2 Stone Rain or Pillage on my only land. *sad face*




In my attempt to bring back this feeling, only this time on the opposite end of the table, I tried to brew up a Standard Land Destruction Deck, taking inspiration from Conley Woods's Magical Christmas Land Deck he played during Worlds 2009. Here's the decklist:

Lands (25)
2 Tectonic Edge
2 Dragonskull Summit
3 Raging Ravine
5 Forest
4 Mountain
2 Rootbound Crag
3 Scalding Tarn
4 Verdant Catacombs

Creatures (19)
4 Acidic Slime
4 Mold Shambler
4 Lotus Cobra
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Goblin Ruinblaster

Other Spells (16)
4 Demolish
4 Roiling Terrain
4 Violent Ultimatum
4 Lightning Bolt

Sideboard (15)
4 Terminate
4 Lavaball Trap
3 Chandra Nalaar
4 Manabarbs

The main deck is basically straightforward. You would wanna ramp into four mana (where the deck starts doing things) and destroy all lands and lock your opponent while beating them up with 2/1 snakes, 2/2 oozes, and 3/3 elephants!

But "magic" of this deck is when it is able to pull off a turn 3 Violent Ultimatum! KAPOW!

Let's look at the card choices.

The Creatures





The creatures are basically what you expect, given the standard environment. The weakest of these, I would say, would be Goblin Ruinblaster - having only the ability to blow up non-basics - it is weaker now in a meta where basic Plains and Mountains are in Tier 1 decks. The best I would say is Mold Shambler. This Hill Giant passes of as a 3/3 for 4, or a 3/3 for 6 that eats a land, an enchantment, an artifact, or even a planeswalker! Acidic Slime is good offensively and defensively. Lotus Cobra and Birds of Paradise are key ramp creatures essential to the deck's functioning.

The Spells






Without 3-mana Pillage or Stone Rain, Demolish is the most efficient land-destruction spell in the format (well, aside for the pseudo-land destruction spells in the guise of Spreading Seas and Convincing Mirage). Roiling Terrain punishes decks that fetches a lot. Violent Ultimatum is the star. When you're casting this bomb, you're surely winning in short time; although, in most matches I side them out for removal. And lastly is Lightning Bolt. As long as this baby is standard-legal, nobody should be playing a deck with red without it. IT IS A MUST.

The Sideboard
The sideboard is basically packed with removals. Terminate is an obvious best removal given the colors. Chandra is a way to deal with Baneslayer Angels (although I could cut this for Combust, maybe, but, I like Chandra's flexibility). Lavaball Trap is against Turboland, and Manabarbs against decks that taps a lot of lands to cast its spells.

Playing the Deck
I have to be honest: I only test my decks at Workstation. The deck is awesome against Jund! I had more games where the other player just disconnected than games I won. It has problems with red decks, almost unwinnable. The only strategy I have is to not play landy, but just play aggro. Even that is doubtful. Against Turboland is a tight one. However, game 2, when you are able to stick a Manabarbs, they just often concede. I haven't tested against control decks that much, so I don't know how it plays around Mana Leak and other counterspells yet.

Well, that's about it. Try building it (those who have the money to do so) and bring it in any FNM, and be hated! haha