Green White Land Destruction in Modern

Control decks have taken on many forms throughout the history of the game, with plenty of people having a burning hatred for them. Counterspells, kill spells, things that some people consider to be “unfun.” But no control deck is quite so ubiquitously hated as land destruction, the archetype that denies the fundamental ability to play the game. So naturally, that’s what I decided to spotlight this time around. Today's deck comes to us from MTGO user Westminster. 

Westminster

GW Land Destruction

Hornet Queen

Nissa, Vastwood Seer

Eternal Witness

Birds of Paradise

Walking Ballista

Vivien Reid

Karn, Scion of Urza

Primal Command

Mwonvuli Acid-Moss

Beast Within

Mana Tithe

Windswept Heath

Temple Garden

Plains

Forest

Brushland

Ghostly Prison

Runed Halo

Utopia Sprawl

Obstinate Baloth

Trinisphere

Nevermore

Ensnaring Bridge

Choke

Porphyry Nodes

The Modern version of Land Destruction is probably very different from the main place we see it show up: the kitchen table. While Billy’s green-red deck probably just runs a bunch of 1-of land destruction spells, we get to be a bit more focused than that (translation: the deck actually runs win conditions).

Birds of Paradise gives us some nice early ramp to play our bigger spells, and Eternal Witness helps us get back things we lose along the way. Nissa, Vastwood Seer is a decent little land tutor that flips into a win condition, and Hornet Queen is a great way to either finish out a game, or stabilize when you’re taking a beating. Finally, we have Walking Ballista, a great way to dump all of our mana into a creature to push through that last bit of damage.

Karn, Scion of Urza is a nice card advantage engine that doubles as a wincon when we tick him up high enough, and Vivien Reid lets us dig for a win condition or more land to cast one, while also giving us access to a game-winning ultimate and a versatile removal spell for cards like Ensnaring Bridge or Cranial Plating.

Mana Tithe lets us blindside the opponent early in the game, while also sometimes being able to come out later on to catch something more expensive. Beast Within is all-purpose removal, taking care of absolutely any problematic permanent (including lands!) that we can target. Mwonvuli Acid-Moss and Primal Command are our two primary land destruction spells, with Acid-Moss also ramping us and Command giving us some welcome versatility. Utopia Sprawl is a great way to ramp, while Runed Halo and Ghostly Prison give us a way to protect ourselves while we build up to our finishers.

The manabase isn’t anything too exciting, with nine basics, 4 fetches and shocks, and 4 Brushland. The sideboard, however, is very exciting. Porphyry Nodes does a good job of chipping away at creature decks, Choke cripples blue decks that would otherwise counter our spells, and Ensnaring Bridge helps us keep creature decks at bay while we stabilize. Nevermore lets us completely stop our opponent from casting their win condition, and Trinisphere takes care of decks that rely on a lot of low-cost cards. Finally, Obstinate Baloth helps against grindy decks, or decks that are trying to run us over quickly.

Tips:

• At first glane, Primal Command doesn’t look like “real” land destruction, since the land goes back on top of their library. However, you can also make them shuffle their graveyard into their library, resulting in a similar outcome.
• Mwonvuli Acid-Moss doesn’t say to search your library for “a card named Forest,” but instead just says to search “for a Forest card,” which means you can also grab Temple Garden with it.
• Be careful with Porphyry Nodes out. If you have a Hornet Queen in hand, wait to play it until after Nodes is gone, since it will almost immediately start eating away at your tokens.
• If your opponent is threatening, even if it’s with a Beast Token that you created, you can Beast Within that creature on the opponent’s turn to survive just a little bit longer.
• Against burn, you’ll probably want your Runed Halo to name Eidolon of the Great Revel, since that card will kill you more quickly than anything else.

Extra Spice:

• Acidic Slime has seen play in these kinds of decks for quite some time, and for good reason: the card is gas. Slime is almost always a 2-for-1, and being land destruction on top of that is fantastic.
• Arbor Elf has great synergy with Utopia Sprawl, since Sprawl makes Elf into a one-mana dork that can produce two mana.
• Wilderness Reclamation definitely leans more heavily into the spice than the last two cards, but it still seems like a really fun card to sleeve up. Being able to cast your Hornet Queen, and then immediately play Beast Within in your opponent’s upkeep is a great feeling.
• Tireless Tracker has become something of a midrange staple since its printing, and with all the land drops you’ll be hitting, it seems like a perfect fit here.
• Sylvan Awakening is a good surprise finisher, and can hit for a lot of damage later in the game without vulnerable to most of the removal that sees play.

GW Land Destruction may not be the strongest deck in the format, but it’s definitely a good way to tilt your opponent. The deck may not appeal to everyone, but if you like winning with 4/4 lands or a bunch of 1/1 insects, I recommend you give it a try. While you may not take down an SCG invitational with this list, it’s still weird, fun, and leaves you a lot of room to experiment.