Legacy: Cloudpost Ramp - Deck Tech and Sideboard Guide

Greetings, Legacy fans! Today, we'll review another deck that was recently buffed by Modern Horizons 3: Cloudpost Ramp (also known as 12-Post). This deck, alongside Eldrazi Aggro, is one of the decks that best took advantage of this new batch of cards. It has definitely stepped out of the shadows and become once again relevant in this format.

The list we'll show you, besides guaranteeing a Challenge 64 for MTGO player TrueFuturism, plays 6 different cards from this set!

Cloudpost Ramp truly resembles its Modern brother, Urzatron. Both decks want a combination of lands that create way more mana than usual. You can then use this mana to accelerate an Eldrazi creature, or lock down the game with Karn, the Great Creator + Mycosynth Lattice. You can also simply use The One Ring to create enough cards and eventually get a win condition. The most significant difference is that, in Legacy, you'll have to deal with Wasteland. Before, Pithing Needle was the answer, but now Disruptor Flute, which is more versatile, is better.

With this deck, the main idea is still hoarding enough Locus lands (Trenchpost and Glimmerpost) to create an obscene amount of mana with Cloudpost. Previously, we played Vesuva to hit this critical mass, but now that MH3 came along, we play Planar Nexus. Besides enabling our Cloudposts, this card adds a new angle to this deck because of its interaction with Urza's Tower: Nexus counts as all types of Urza lands and, therefore, Tower will give you 3 mana without forcing you to play the other parts from Tron.

The rest of the lands, thanks to Crop Rotation, are true toolboxes. Besides the lands in the list below, players often use Dark Depths, Echoing Deeps, Maze of Ith, Talon Gates of Madara, Thespian's Stage, and Vesuva.

Apart from the land base, this deck includes a few ways to find them. Namely, the aforementioned Crop Rotation, Once Upon a Time (which is banned in many formats), and the excellent Sowing Mycospawn. Then, it includes several useful cards. Vexing Bauble stops an infinite array of strategies in this format, from alternative cost counterspells to combo decks. Kozilek's Command is even stronger in this list than in Eldrazi Aggro, considering you can use a huge X with it. Finally, there's Disruptor Flute, which stops your great enemy, Wasteland, but is useful against any other deck. For instance, you can name Blood Moon, and it might just save you in many games.

The One Ring and Karn, the Great Creator give you cards constantly as you play.

Lastly, this list includes one copy of Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, which you can tutor with Eye of Ugin and use as an alternative win condition, and one copy of Elvish Spirit Guide to accelerate/fix your mana.

A few other cards that can also appear in this archetype are Elvish Reclaimer, Magus of the Candelabra, Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, Candelabra of Tawnos, Green Sun’s Zenith, Kozilek’s Return, Rise of the Eldrazi, Spelunking, and Swords to Plowshares.

This deck might lean towards the control side of the MTG archetype spectrum, but it is not as versatile in terms of which hands you can keep, unlike Bant Control.

Your initial land combination and how you develop them will determine how your game goes. Is it a Cloudpost hand? Is it an Urza's Tower hand? Will you accelerate a Sowing Mycospawn with Kicker? Will you lock down the game with Karn, the Great Creator? Once Upon a Time will let you keep less objective hands because, for nothing at all, it lets you look at your deck a bit more.

Hands:

This hand is dangerous: It has Once Upon a Time, so you can find more action, but, in practice, you'll have to mulligan it to 5 because you usually don't want to draw Glacial Chasm or Bojuka Bog. You can't even play put Vexing Bauble in play on turn 1. Verdict: Mulligan - it's not worth the risk.

Now, this hand is interesting. You can start with Once Upon a Time, Boseiju, and put Bauble in play on turn 1, which means you'll be able to put Cloudpost in play on turn 2 with enough mana to play Crop Rotation on a second Cloudpost. This, in turn, means you can start turn 3 with 4 mana, and you'll be able to get even more if you find another Locus. From then on, even if you didn't draw any specific action-based card, you already have Command and the second Vexing Bauble to look for more resources. Verdict: Keep, as it has a clear game plan.

This hand doesn't go anywhere, though 2 Flutes are tempting against a few decks in particular. Verdict: Mulligan nearly always. You can consider keeping it if you're against a few decks that are more vulnerable to Disruptor Flute.

This hand basically has everything you expect from this deck: Once Upon a Time, to get more information, Cloudpost, which you can already accelerate with Planar Nexus, and Command to deal with creatures or to draw a card/create an Eldrazi Spawn token on turn 2. You can also play Yavimaya into Crop Rotation, depending on your opponent (and which two cards you draw). Verdict: Easy keep.

As this deck plays Karn, the Great Creator, your sideboard is limited - a good part of it is filled with targets for his ability. The most critical card in this toolbox, however, is Mycosynth Lattice, which, if you cast it with Karn, doesn't let your opponent create any mana. That's because Lattice turns all cards, including lands, into artifacts and Karn disables all abilities, including mana abilities, of all artifacts.

Our next options are Ensnaring Bridge, which can lock down boards full of creatures. Tormod's Crypt and Grafdigger's Cage are great against graveyard tactics, and Expedition Map is an extra tutor for lands. In games with a lot of attrition in which Lattice isn't viable, you can use it to find Eye of Ugin. Finally, there's Walking Ballista, which is a respectable threat considering how much mana this deck plays.

Other artifacts I saw in lists with Karn are Boompile, Cityscape Leveler, Cursed Totem, Haywire Mite, Liquimetal Coating, Phyrexian Metamorph, and occasionally a 4th copy of The One Ring.

In the deck we're working with, the most interesting option we have that is not in Karn's range are 4 Swords to Plowshares and 1 Plains to summon them. Considering how dominant Psychic Frog is, Plowshares - which was already the best removal available on the market - is even more well-positioned, so that's why it is so popular. On top of it all, these cards are quite useful against Eldrazi and Red Prison, which are also quite popular in the format. Otherwise, this deck plays extra answers for the graveyard; Surgical Extraction and 2 Force of Vigor, the best answer for its arch enemy, Blood Moon.

Other cards that occupy this space in other decks are Carpet of Flowers, Choke, Endurance, Krosan Grip, Leyline of the Void, and Veil of Summer.

Frognator

The most popular deck in the format is no easy opponent because they have access to Wasteland (and, eventually, can bring up Harbinger of the Seas from their sideboard), discards, counters, and Psychic Frog, if all else fails. They can also combo quite fast.

Vexing Bauble deals with their counters, and, post-side, Swords to Plowshares prevents the Frog from getting out of control.

In:

Out:

Eldrazi Aggro

They need Wasteland to knock you out of the ring, so considering keeping hands that don't lose immediately to it. Finding Ensnaring Bridge with Karn, the Great Creator used to be an automatic win against old Eldrazi lists, but the new list can explode Bridge with Wastescape Battlemage or deal damage over it with Glaring Fleshraker, so be careful. The One Ring, on the other side, can buy you enough time to knock them out of the ring instead.

In:

Out:

Red Stompy

They play 4 Blood Moon in their main deck. Get ready for an exhausting match. Game 1 basically depends on whether they have this enchantment or not, and if you can answer it with Boseiju, Who Endures. If you can't, you'll hardly be able to handle their pressure. Post-side, you have Force of Vigor, which I, as a Red Prison player, fear to this day.

In:

Out:

Control

This is your favorite opponent! You'll create too much mana, and they won't be able to counter many of your threats, either because they're triggered abilities or because Vexing Bauble disables Force of Will.

In any case, from The One Ring to Sowing Mycospawn, you'll create a lot of value, and they will usually run out of resources. You don't even have to sideboard against them - but you can bring 1 Plains instead of Glacial Chasm.

In:

Nothing.

Out:

Nothing.

Painter

You're naturally protected against their combo because of Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. Karn, the Great Creator is also a great threat to their strategy. That being said, they can deal with them - either with Pyroblast and Painter's Servant or simply by switching to a more aggressive approach with Broadside Bombardiers and Phyrexian Dragon Engine.

Your plan will be to take advantage of the time Emrakul buys you to push the advantage your mana gives you and create resources with the ring. Eventually, Karn will deal with the rest.

In:

Out:

When I was researching this deck, I found a video on YouTube. The creator said they had just taken a break from MTG and come back into it - they also had the old 12-Post list and thus decided to update it. In a rare moment for Legacy, he showed that he had to return almost half of the old list to their card folder. And that basically sums it up: Cloudpost Ramp is a new, but old deck at the same time. It clearly illustrates the power level Modern Horizons implemented in this format.

So, if you like creating a billion mana, this is the deck for you.

Did you like this list? Would you build it differently? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below!

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!