Elegant, fair, powerful but requires work, lots of different and subtle applications... an excellently designed card.
ttian
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(2 votes)
that's not very dead
KismetSamba
★★★☆☆ (3.8/5.0)(4 votes)
it's like the green version of brainstorm.
SavageBrain89
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(4 votes)
The Golgari aren't all about death ttian, they're about increasing the vitality of life through death, power, and ambition.
Laurelle
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(3 votes)
Great card for higlhander. Harder to remove or get rid of, it's a waste to counterspell it.
Ritius
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
Oh Seismic Assault deck, how thoust so dearly love this card. This and Seismic and pretty much just fill in the deck with draw and mana accelerate and you're good to play competitively.
Maraxas-of-Keld
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(8 votes)
Card advantage is card advantage, even if it is lands. Tranquil Thicket, Quicksand, Seismic Assault, and Wasteland can turn that card advantage into effects that change the gamestate, and if the opponent can't kill you, that card advantage will win you the game.
ClockworkSwordfish
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(2 votes)
This is basically a repeatable Mulch, in a way, and Mulch is a fantastic card in any graveyard deck. It puts Incarnations into graveyards, puts beefy creatures in the graveyard to be Breath of Lifed later, it puts flashback cards where you can get them for cheaper, etc. Oh, and it gives you all the lands you'll ever need. Great cards, both Mulch and Life From the Loam.
ddde
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
@cats_and_me: almost. dredge 3 means you miss a regular draw from that to get this card back, so effectively you are spending 5 mana for 2 extra draws repeatedly
This is simply my favorite card... so much power in such a little shell.
I salute you loam
Gabriel422
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
Seen an opponent go Gifts Ungiven into Gifts Ungiven, Life from the Loam, Wildfire and Recollect. Couldn't help but be amazed.
(The ending is clear: we got Wildfired, but he got this.)
cats_and_me
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
This card is part of one of the most interesting and effective card-draw engines! :) Together with cycle lands like Tranquil Thicket, you can draw three cards for five mana as many times as you like, but you have to spend the first two mana at the same time and during the main phase.. Also, you can trigger powerful cards like Lightning Rift or Astral Slide over and over! :)
Edit: True, you have to skip one draw to get this card back into your hand, but you choose between skipping one of your draw steps and skipping one of the draws when cycling a land card.. Thank you for your correction! :)
Narim
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(2 votes)
I think this have it's place in decks (especially landfall) using multiple Harrows and fetch lands... it's really potent tool to abuse landfall...
Lateralis0ne
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(1 vote)
....I have two of these.
Why aren't they in a deck?
I'mma build a Legacy Loam deck. I'll post results soon.
supershawn
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
since no one else did I'll mention the obvious, dredge means you draw less cards, even if it normally makes up for that, THIS makes you have more lands becuse when you dredge a bunch of lands end up in your graveyard, also the reason why they made a land with dredge.
Studoku
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
This + cycle lands in EDH is so much fun. Dig up 3, cycle them all, use the final draw to get loam back.
Works out at 6 mana for drawing two cards with buyback. Not bad for green/black.
Rezzy64
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(4 votes)
Every time I hear people talk about this card I get sad. Back when Ravnica first came out I was still in my early Timmy stages, I didn't fully grasp the concept of card advantage and I thought Dredge was terrible. Yes I was a hardcore noob during Ravnica. I opened this card in a booster at my local card shop and a loud resounding "What the hell is this good for?" was heard from my mouth. Many advanced players came over to me and gasped. One very sneaky player came over very quickly and smiled. "I'll trade you a Grozoth for that." I made that trade so fast that my Timmy spirit was on fire. I thought I had taken that guy for a sucker. Now... I look back on that day, and simply shake my head, if only I had known.
Supernova122
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@ Rezzy64 Heyy dont feel bad, i stopped playing magic back in the onslaught days and when i returned i was a noob to what was worth so much, ended up trading off my Jace, The Mind Sculptor i just opened and never realized how rediculous that card was! I honestly got jipped, i would have rather either kept it or sold it for 100 bucks but no i got like 50 or so rares that were junk, and a frost titan was all that really was of worth. Yeah i know how you feel lol
On topic though, i made a dredge deck and would love to have gotten some of these cards for it but they run like 12 bucks at the place i go to so its kinda not worth it to me, might as well buy baneslayers for 10 :\ but excellent card, i understand it's usage and worth fully! 4/5
theis999
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This might get huge again, with the new modern format.
DacenOctavio
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Green card advantage wins games.
Condor_96
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Essential for any self-respecting dredge deck. 5/5
I wish they'd get around to printing a version of this card WITHOUT dredge. It's a GREAT little card in-and-of itself, but I think a version with Flashback would be pretty awesome, as there are so few ways to get lands OUT of a grave without Crucible (which draws a LOT of hate, even in innocent applications)
I honestly just hate it's pricetag.
Goatllama
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This is an absolutely beautiful card, and subtly powerful. I know for a fact that I didn't realize the implications of its effects immediately. Just amazing. 5/5
tcollins
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
When combined with things like Wasteland, Strip Mine and Crucible of Worlds this card is full of hatred and pain. That said, it's still fantastic and functional card when its not used with completely broken lands.
zenitramleirdag
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
i have a casual modern deck that uses this and stormbind..
This is one of those cards that gets better and better the more $ your deck is worth.
Majora_13
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Question: since it says up to 3, can I opt to target 0 lands? There are certain games where I just wanted to get this into the graveyard to start dredging, but didn't know if it was legal to cast it with no land in the graveyard.
blurrymadness
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I'm building a Mana Vortex deck using this. I get my lands for cheap, everyone else suffers a drain on their mana until they give up the mana war. Beautiful.
Comments (35)
I salute you loam
(The ending is clear: we got Wildfired, but he got this.)
Edit: True, you have to skip one draw to get this card back into your hand, but you choose between skipping one of your draw steps and skipping one of the draws when cycling a land card.. Thank you for your correction! :)
Why aren't they in a deck?
I'mma build a Legacy Loam deck. I'll post results soon.
Works out at 6 mana for drawing two cards with buyback. Not bad for green/black.
Back when Ravnica first came out I was still in my early Timmy stages, I didn't fully grasp the concept of card advantage and I thought Dredge was terrible. Yes I was a hardcore noob during Ravnica. I opened this card in a booster at my local card shop and a loud resounding "What the hell is this good for?" was heard from my mouth. Many advanced players came over to me and gasped. One very sneaky player came over very quickly and smiled. "I'll trade you a Grozoth for that."
I made that trade so fast that my Timmy spirit was on fire. I thought I had taken that guy for a sucker.
Now... I look back on that day, and simply shake my head, if only I had known.
Heyy dont feel bad, i stopped playing magic back in the onslaught days and when i returned i was a noob to what was worth so much, ended up trading off my Jace, The Mind Sculptor i just opened and never realized how rediculous that card was! I honestly got jipped, i would have rather either kept it or sold it for 100 bucks but no i got like 50 or so rares that were junk, and a frost titan was all that really was of worth. Yeah i know how you feel lol
On topic though, i made a dredge deck and would love to have gotten some of these cards for it but they run like 12 bucks at the place i go to so its kinda not worth it to me, might as well buy baneslayers for 10 :\ but excellent card, i understand it's usage and worth fully! 4/5
I honestly just hate it's pricetag.
*sigh*
Can't win them all...