by Connor Mullaly
Overview
Lotus Field is a combo deck that has been present in Pioneer since the early stages of the format and had its breakout performance at the Pioneer Regional Pro Tour. It relies on getting a copy of Lotus Field in play and copying it with Thespian’s Stage, and then utilizing spells that untap your lands such as Hidden Strings and Pore Over the Pages. Back then, it used Underworld Breach and Tome Scour as the main combo engine. Since the ban of Underworld Breach, the deck has gone through many iterations and has gained upgrades in most new sets that have come out. In the last two years, lists did well featuring Doublecast, Enter the Infinite and Peer into the Abyss as the main engines to draw your entire deck before winning with Jace, Wielder of Mysteries. Going off always involved drawing cards, whether that be through Pore over the Pages or one of the larger draw spells. Now, the deck uses Emergent Ultimatum for a deterministic win that is a lot easier and also does not involve drawing cards (which has made Narset, Parter of Veils a much smaller problem than it used to be). I want to give a shoutout to Ryan Waligora (WingedHussar) and Nam Dang (Nammersquats) for their work innovating this new version of the Ultimatum package earlier this year.
Lotus Field may be a combo deck, but it functions much more like Modern Tron than it does a traditional Storm strategy. It is at its best against midrange decks that try to interact with the board, because those decks typically have a slow clock and dead creature removal. It is at its worst against fast aggressive decks, especially when those decks also have interaction for spells like Eidolon of the Great Revel, Spell Queller or Thoughtseize. Therefore, Lotus Field is not always a good choice for the Pioneer metagame: if your local scene is dominated by Burn and Spirits, it may be a good idea to pick up a different deck for that weekend. If you see a lot of Jund/RB Midrange and Izzet Phoenix, it’s definitely a good time for you to learn Lotus Field.
The Core
- 4 Arboreal Grazer
- 4 Hidden Strings
- 3-4 Pore Over The Pages
- 4 Sylvan Scrying
- 4 Shimmer of Possibility (This was often Strategic Planning when the deck played multiple Dig Through Time)
- 4 Vizier of Tumbling Sands
- 2 Wish Effects (We have them split between Fae of Wishes and Mastermind’s Acquisition right now, but sometimes 2 Fae of Wishes will be correct. Because of Slaughter Games and Necromentia effects we have them split right now. Dark Petition also means that we want to board in our sideboard cards a lot more, so Mastermind’s gets better in the postboard games).
The Current Build
4 Arboreal Grazer 1 Fae of Wishes 4 Vizier of Tumbling Sands 1 Lier, Disciple of the Drowned 3 Bala Ged Recovery 1 Behold the Beyond 2 Dark Petition 4 Emergent Ultimatum 4 Sylvan Scrying 4 Hidden Strings 1 Mastermind's Acquisition 1 Omniscience 3 Pore Over the Pages 4 Shimmer of Possibility 1 Forest 2 Yavimaya Coast 1 Breeding Pool 4 Botanical Sanctum 2 Temple of Mystery 4 Lotus Field 4 Thespian's Stage 2 Otawara, Soaring City 2 Boseiju, Who Endures 1 Blast Zone Sideboard 2 Sphinx of the Final Word 1 Path of Peril 1 Approach of the Second Sun 3 Leyline of Sanctity 1 Alpine Moon 2 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon 3 Thought Distortion 2 Anger of the Gods
Emergent Ultimatum gives this deck an entirely new dimension of having a deterministic win just by resolving the single spell (I’ll break down the specifics of that later!). Using Omniscience, Dark Petition and Behold the Beyond, you are able to combo from very little base. Lier is also a useful get off of Ultimatum (and can be a 7-mana win on its own!), but you usually want to save that for postboard games when opponents board out their removal.
As for the manabase, it is relatively unchanging. The biggest recent addition are the channel lands from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. Boseiju, Who Endures and Otawara, Soaring City being tutorable and uncounterable ways to answer hate pieces like Narset, Parter of Veils, Damping Sphere, and Deafening Silence has been a big part of the reason why Lotus Field has been doing so well lately. At first, I was worried about having two copies of two legendary lands, but the benefits have far outweighed the risks and I have been very happy with two of each.
Alternative Sideboard Options
March of Swirling Mist: I was unimpressed with this card and would have almost always rather had a sweeper. However, if your opponents are playing hatebears that Anger of the Gods and Path of Peril don’t answer well, it can be a good addition.
Mystical Dispute: Dispute is useful when your blue opponents are being more proactive and tapping out for threats like Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, Thing in the Ice, and Narset, Parter of Veils. Right now, control decks are being much more reactive and holding up mana for counterspells (which has been aided in a big way by The Wandering Emperor). Therefore, I think that tapping out for uncounterable threats like Thought Distortion and Sphinx of the Final Word is the place to be right now.
Nine Lives: This has been good against Burn in the past, or when decks like BW Auras are very popular. Now that red decks have a higher density of one-drop threats and less burn, it is usually better to just have a sweeper.
Thoughtseize: I have seen people playing several copies of Thoughtseize over Thought Distortion in order to be better against Narset’s Reversal. Personally, I haven’t encountered enough Narset’s Reversal to make that swap yet, but I could see metagames where it’s correct.
Blink of an Eye/Void Snare/Wilt: These were all good ways to answer hate pieces that are much less necessary with the additions of Boseiju and Otawara. If people start playing a lot more hate pieces, you may want to add these to go along with the lands.
Supreme Verdict/Shatter the Sky: Can be good if there are threats that outsize Anger of the Gods (like in an Auras strategy). Path of Peril will usually be better, though.
Gameplay Decisions
Each game with Lotus Field has two very distinct stages. The first is setting up your mana, and the second is executing the combo. Setting up your mana usually means having a Lotus Field and a copied Thespian’s Stage in play, although you may have a Vizier of Tumbling Sands in play instead (usually postboard because people are likely to board out most of their removal), or you may have two natural copies of Lotus Field. 99% of the time, all the decisions you make (especially your mulligans) should be focused on getting your mana set up rather than comboing. This means in opening hands, you should prioritize the Sylvan Scrying that will find Thespian’s Stage over a payoff like Emergent Ultimatum. I mulligan very aggressively, often going to 4 or 5 cards to look for Field, Stage and 2 additional lands. I do not keep any 7 or most 6’s without Lotus Field or Sylvan Scrying unless they have multiple copies of Shimmer of Possibility.
Once you have your mana assembled, use Hidden Strings, Pore Over the Pages and Vizier of Tumbling Sands to make as much mana as you can, and then cast one of your payoff spells. One of the biggest technical things to keep in mind is the exact color requirements for Emergent Ultimatum, so you may sometimes want to float 1 or 2 black mana before using an untap spell. This is the easiest win with Ultimatum. You need to have 1 blue floating and 2 Hidden Strings left in your deck, as well as Spell Mastery active (Ultimatum exiles itself, so it won’t turn this on!!!). Keep in mind that Behold the Beyond discards your hand, so cast the Ultimatum last in your chain. Use Ultimatum to get Dark Petition, Behold the Beyond and Omniscience. Your opponent will likely shuffle Omniscience away. Cast Petition and then Behold (so that Behold resolves first): use Behold to get Strings, Strings, Omniscience and use Dark Petition to get Bala Ged Recovery. Use your floating blue and the black mana from Petition to cast both Strings and put Omniscience into play. Bala Ged Recovery back the Behold the Beyond, and use it to get one Wish (Fae or Acquisition) as well as another tutor to find the Approach of the Second Sun for the second time. Remember that Approach specifies “cast from your hand,” so you don’t want to try to cast it for the win off of an Emergent Ultimatum. This win may change somewhat depending on your opponent’s interaction and what spells you’ve already had to use.
Matchups and Sideboarding
I won’t give exact ins and outs for sideboarding because the deck changes so often, and you should adapt the sideboard to your expected metagame. Instead, I’ll go through the important interactive cards from the opponent, as well as what cards I generally like to bring in and cut. Always feel free to play with this: I’m still learning new things about sideboarding as I go. Spend time getting familiar with what sideboard cards people are likely to bring in against you in certain archetypes. Finally, the deck used to play more (3 or 4) copies of Fae of Wishes. Because we’re down to 2 wishes now and we have Dark Petition, I usually just bring in whatever sideboard cards will be strong and don’t leave them in the sideboard for games 2 and 3.
Izzet Phoenix
We generally go a lot faster than them, but be aware that with Galvanic Iteration and Temporal Trespass, they can present lethal damage out of nowhere over two extra turns. They bring in a wide array of countermagic to fight our combo (including Mystical Dispute, Narset’s Reversal, Spell Pierce, and Invasive Surgery), but they usually don’t have them in game 1. They will also bring in Narset, but it is much less strong than it used to be. Some people may be running Alpine Moon if they really want to be ready.
I usually like to cut my Arboreal Grazers and trim 1-2 Shimmer of Genius and Bala Ged Recovery for Sphinxes, Thought Distortions and any countermagic I may have.
Mono-Red Aggro
This is a difficult matchup, where they goldfish very quickly and have Eidolon of the Great Revel to make our combo more difficult. Hardcast your Fae of Wishes as a blocker if you can and try to sweep their board, as they have less burn than they used to. Postboard, they gain access to Cemetery Gatekeeper, Roiling Vortex and (hopefully rarely) Scab-Clan Berserker.
I like to bring in all of my cheap sweepers (not Ugin) and sometimes Leylines. I shave a couple copies of Ultimatum (as a hedge against Vortex, but I’m still not sure if this is correct), and a copy or two of Shimmer and Recovery.
Rakdos/Jund Midrange Variants
There are a lot of variants of this strategy, but they are generally very slow and clunky preboard with a lot of dead removal/interaction. Postboard, they gain access to more Thoughtseize effects, Go Blank, and maybe Necromentia. Because of this, try to play your Lotus Field as soon as possible before they have a chance to name it with Necromentia.
I like to bring in Leyline of Sanctity and Ugin, the Spirit Dragon in this matchup. Sometimes I’ll bring in a sweeper or two if they’re a more aggressive version. I usually cut my Arboreal Grazers and try to keep hands with as much action as possible.
Winota
Winota goes fast! Try to keep fast hands against them, but know that they get slower postboard, usually adding Archon of Emeria and Elite Spellbinder as tools against you. Sometimes they’ll have Deafening Silence too, so be mindful of how you use your Bosjeijus and your Blast Zone. Not many technical tricks to this matchup.
Bring in all your sweepers including Ugin. You’re fine to shave on Recovery and Shimmer, but I would probably go down a couple of payoffs as well because your sweepers are high-impact. I’m not really sure which are the right ones.
Azorius Control
This is a matchup that is generally favorable, but can go either way based on how prepared your opponent is. The printing of The Wandering Emperor made it a lot more difficult because they don’t have to tap out to apply a clock anymore. Postboard, they’ll be bringing more countermagic (including Dovin’s Veto and Mystical Dispute), as well as Rest in Peace to hurt your Recoveries and Dark Petitions. This is a matchup where I love to hardcast Vizier, for several reasons. It lets us cast two meaningful spells in one turn more quickly to play through countermagic, it can pay for Mystical Dispute by itself, and it can put pressure on a Narset. Also, be mindful of using Stage to copy Lotus on your main phase to play around Field of Ruin.
Bring in your uncounterable spells here and any countermagic you have. Cut your grazers and shave on Recovery and Shimmer, maybe a payoff if you need to. Remember that Sphinx is awesome at beating countermagic but DOES NOT make Omniscience uncounterable.
Lotus Field
Go fast. Try to get Alpine Moon in play to shut off their Lotus. Copy with Thespian’s Stage main phase to avoid getting hit by Boseiju. Board in your Alpine Moon and your Thought Distortions.
Jeskai Ascendency
This is a pretty clean race and is similar to the mirror, but they probably have more countermagic. I like Thought Distortion in this matchup, and you can shave some of the slower pieces.
Fires of Invention
You should pretty easily get game one because their big payoff, Agent of Treachery, doesn’t interact well with us. Postboard, they get access to Ruric Thar (before the Ultimatum combo broke out, it was usually Void Winnower) and countermagic. I like our own countermagic as well as Thought Distortions, but I’m not sure if Sphinx is what the matchup is about.
Spirits
This is another tough one because they play at instant speed with both their pressure and their disruption, so it’s hard to play around the counterspells. Bring in all your sweepers and any countermagic. This is one matchup where we’re really hurt by making the switch to Sphinx of the Final Word from Niv-Mizzet, Parun: if you expect a lot of Spirits, consider switching back to Niv-Mizzet or adding more Mystical Disputes to your sideboard.
That’s it from me today! I hope this is a good starting point to help you learn Lotus Field, which I believe is one of the best decks in Pioneer and will be a great choice for the upcoming Regional Championship Qualifier Season. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter @MullalyConnor. I also offer Lotus Field coaching as well as a more in-depth guide through Twitter, so if you enjoy the deck and want to go deeper, that’s the place to find me. Happy untapping!
Thoughts of a Doge.. 