Winning With Lands In Bof1 Standard

Putting Many Lands In The Graveyard Wins Games

Do you like synergy? Do you like a deck where each and every card works well with every other card? Well, this is the deck. Literally months in the making, I have been tinkering with this land-based, Standard Bof1 deck that gets to play cards you’ve probably never thought could be this effective. And the result has been one of the most fun decks for me to play in a long, long time. Almost every turn feels impactful, and certain opposing strategies almost can’t stop it.

And it’s here where I would give a general overview of how the deck wins, but that’s the thing about a synergy deck: this deck overwhelms with value, more than any game plan. You gain life, draw cards, have bigger creatures than them, and swarm them—often all in the same turns. It’s better to simply explain how the cards interlock with each other. The actual, full list is at the bottom of the article.

Oh, and you might want to read these explanations over twice, just to get a handle on how it all works.

Aftermath Analyst

This helpful early-turn creature puts lands into the graveyard to pump up Slogurk, gains you life from Titania, and makes sure you have targets for Blossoming Tortoise. And that’s just when Aftermath Analyst enters the battlefield. The real blowouts are when you bring back lands. With Spelunking in play, they all enter untapped, and, if some of them happen to be Brokers Hideout, you’ll gain life off it, and maybe life off Titania, and possibly double-trigger Tatyova. You can win games just by using this ability with a Tatyova in play. Oh, and Aftermath Analyst is not a bad blocker against Mono-Red.

Spectral Adversary

This deck has thirty lands in it. You can pay for this card’s ability a lot. And doing that at different times offers different strategies. Remove all their blockers. Make their blocks terrible. You can even protect your own cards if you need to. Though that doesn’t mean you should always save Spectral Adversary for those turns. Sometimes you just want an early-turn creature for protection or aggression. Spectral Adversary is also one of your only ways to stop big flyers in the early turns.

Spelunking

Combo-enabler, ramp, card draw, and occasionally life gain, this card literally makes every turn better it’s in play. I don’t have much else to say about it. There’s a reason the deck runs four copies.

Titania, Voice of Gaea

Yes, you can actually pop that meld ability reliably. And it’s fun every time. Titania gains you incremental life gain—sometimes multiple times a turn if you have a Blossoming Tortoise and/or a Brokers Hideout—and that’s often important for longer games. Reach is good, too, for obvious reasons. But Titania melding is also one of the most common ways you win. Sometimes it’s just because of how much trample damage you can do. But the even more powerful way is if you can get a ton of Tatyova triggers. If you have Spelunking out, you’ll generate a LOT of untapped attacks, as well as that previously mentioned massive trampling creature. Any Brokers Hideouts that come back will also just add to the triggers—including often pumping up Slogurk.

Slogurk, the Overslime

This card gets incrementally bigger without you having to plan for it, and, if it does die, you can reclaim cards like Argoth or Hidden Nursery to set up later turns. It’s amazing how many combat tricks you can do with this card, as well. Pop an Aftermath Analyst during combat and the Brokers Hideout triggers will pump Slogurk. Attack with him alongside a Blossoming Tortoise, and Slogurk will get even bigger by the time blockers roll around. Slogurk is the most disposable of the creatures in this deck, but that doesn’t make him not excellent.

Tatyova, Steward of Tides

Despite being a two-of, Tatyova is so important. There are many, many ways to overwhelm your opponent with flying creatures. And, if you have a Blossoming Tortoise (or two or three) in play, the lands get pumped up. You can be super aggressive with this ability, too, as your lands dying isn’t that big of a problem. You even get triggers off other creatures when it happens. Just remember that the lands lose flying if Tatyova dies.

Blossoming Tortoise

This is the best card in the deck, hands down. It’s not even close. And it’s all because of the abilities. The first one ramps. The second one makes Hidden Nursery/Hidden Cataract and Argoth cheaper to activate—which is more relevant than you might imagine. And the third one I’ve already mentioned above.

Wrenn and Seven

Want some big creatures? Want to suddenly drop a bunch of lands on the board? Wrenn and Seven is just a great card in this deck. Most of the time, you’ll make a token, then draw some lands, and then sacrifice Wrenn and Seven for a second token. Because of all of the ramp, you can sometimes even play Wrenn and Seven on turn four, which is just brutal.

Doppelgang

This card is hilarious and wins a lot of games. Copy your opponents’ best cards. Copy your best cards. Spelunking will draw a bunch of cards (and maybe gains you life.) Blossoming Tortoise gets a bunch of cards in your graveyard and a bunch of lands into play. Wrenn and Seven’s tokens are perfect to copy. It’s just all good. The one thing you need to make sure of, though, is that you don’t target legendary creatures. The copies won’t survive. Though you can do some silliness with Slogurk’s death ability and Wrenn and Seven’s zero ability if you really want/need a ton of lands entering play.  

Hidden Cataract/Hidden Nursery

This deck uses up its hand fast. It just seems to happen a lot. But that’s not usually an issue, because you can pop, and then reuse, the discover mechanic many, many times. Because the deck is so synergistic, there are very few cards you don’t want to discover. Also, sacrificing a cave triggers Titania and Slogurk, just as a nice bonus. Make sure to choose to put cards like Doppelgang or redundant legendaries in your hand, though.

Argoth, Sanctum of Nature

Really just a combo piece. You won’t need to make a 2/2 all that often, but if you have mana to spare, and milling is beneficial anyway, it’s not a bad move. Just be careful not to deck yourself. This deck already can sometimes run out of cards because of how aggressively it mills itself.

Plaza of Heroes

Mana-fixing isn’t a big deal in this deck, but it’s still nice to have a few—and a lot of the creatures in this deck are legendary. The main reason it’s here is to protect Titania, either for life gain or to set up the meld turn. Its protection ability is also made cheaper by Blossoming Tortoise, which is relevant sometimes.

Brokers Hideout

Actually an incredible card in this deck. The life gain matters, and it works so well with most of the other cards. I’ve activated it three times in the same turn—and paired with Titania, that’s enough to completely turn around a game. It also allows you to return lands to play with abilities, like Blossoming Tortoise, without reducing the number of lands in your graveyard.

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And those are the core cards. Obviously, there are a few other cards in the deck—but they mostly feel self-explanatory now that the main synergies are laid out. I know that thirty lands seem like a lot, but this deck really wants them—and can utilize all of that mana for truly blowout turns. The main fun of playing this deck comes from how resilient it is. Hand attack, burn attack, creature swarms—if you’re an adaptable enough player, you can overcome most strategies through controlled life gain, effective Doppelgang targeting, well-timed usages of Spectral Adversary, and just over-scaling your creatures because of that high-land count. You don’t even have to mulligan almost ever in Bof1—you’re not likely to miss land drops, so you’ll always have access to some tools. And all of that together, I think, makes for a deck that you should give a try.

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Deck

4 Blossoming Tortoise (WOE) 163

3 Brokers Hideout (SNC) 248

4 Spelunking (LCI) 213

1 Otawara, Soaring City (NEO) 271

6 Forest (ZNR) 280

2 Bonny Pall, Clearcutter (OTJ) 196

3 Hidden Nursery (LCI) 276

3 Slogurk, the Overslime (MID) 242

5 Island (ANA) 3

2 Hedge Maze (MKM) 262

3 Doppelgang (MKM) 198

3 Hidden Cataract (LCI) 273

2 Wrenn and Seven (MID) 208

4 Aftermath Analyst (MKM) 148

2 Tatyova, Steward of Tides (DMU) 222

1 Boseiju, Who Endures (NEO) 266

3 Titania, Voice of Gaea (BRO) 193

3 Plaza of Heroes (DMU) 252

3 Argoth, Sanctum of Nature (BRO) 256

3 Spectral Adversary (MID) 77

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