How to beat FOTD?

[Haman]

My meta is filled with Field of the dead lately. Apart from tutoring for a massacre wurm, Is there any good way to deal with FOTD?

[Mookie]

Field of the Dead

Without additional information, it's difficult to say what the optimal solution to your problem is. What decks are people running Field of the Dead in? What decks are you running? What part of the card is most problematic?

Anyway, there are a lot of possible answers to Field of the Dead. The simplest solution is just to kill it - Strip Mine, Avalanche Riders, Acidic Slime, Wasteland, Ghost Quarter, Wave of Vitriol... there are a lot of ways to kill lands. If you want to get a bit more exotic, you could look into Vedalken Plotter / Political Trickery and steal it outright. The Trickster-God's Heist is a new option for that. Turning off its abilities with Spreading Seas, Blood Moon, or Blood Sun is also an option. If you want to stop your opponents from playing it consistently, run Opposition Agent or Aven Mindcensor to shut down tutoring. Stuff like Primal Order, Price of Progress, and Treacherous Terrain can punish ramp strategies that have lots of nonbasic lands.

If you're not looking to shut off Field of the Dead entirely and just want to deal with the tokens, Illness in the Ranks and Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite are both options. Sarulf, Realm Eater and Ugin, the Spirit Dragon are both very good at neutralizing tokens too. Propaganda effects make it difficult for go-wide strategies to mount an efficient offense, or you can just run blockers. Void Winnower makes it impossible for tokens to block, or you can just run evasive threats.

Now, of course, it's difficult to say that any of these are 'good' ways to deal with a single problematic card - if your opponent manages to get Field of the Dead out early and generated a bunch of tokens before you're able to get it off the table, or if they have a recursion effect to replay it after you kill it, that may be a problem. Ultimately, the best strategy may just be to not let Field define the game - it's excellent in prolonged games against fair decks, so try to just end the game before it's relevant instead... or do something so over-the-top that a small horde of zombie tokens doesn't matter.

[Krishnath]

Strip Mine, Wasteland, Ghost Quarter and similar cards are a necessity if your meta is full of Field of the Dead. Basically, you need cards that can remove the offending land. The above three and other similar cards have the advantage of being colorless, meaning they can go in *any* deck.
If you are having issues with them recurring the card once it hits their graveyard, there are plenty of options dealing with that as well, including Tormod's Crypt.

As Mookie said, there are multiple spells as well that deal with it, in most colors. Particularly green, red, and black, are amazing at destroying lands.

[Haman]

usually bring a couple of decks, some decks have 2 land destruction lands or spell, but even if i managed to get 1 to deal with one FOTD , they got ways to recur. Withe the printing of Reshape the earth, It feels like every game there are zombies everywhere.

The toughest FOTD deck in my meta are
Turbo landfall Yarok : ETB deck with counterspell and recursion
Mono Green Multani : Midrange Control with tons of mass removal...

I have problem fighting the green multani deck, if the deck I ran is full of permanents... then i cannot survive mass sweeping...if do nothing... then the zombies will come for the least protected player.

FOTD is pretty obnoxious in meta that don't play 2 cards combo win

[illakunsaa]

Armageddon and Aven Mindcensor.

[brainface]

At some point, I feel like you've just to to drop sadistic sacrament and friends played as early as possible to take the pet combo away. Alternatively, waaaayyy more nonbasic land hate than you're playing? Ruination them fools and their seven lands with different names.

[JovialJovian]

Mookie has hit a lot of the go-to options,

Volcanic Fallout is a card I think is often overlooked. Great way to deal with a horde of 2/2s, even on short notice.
Hallowed Moonlight can put a nail in that Reshape the Earth/Scapeshift type quick dump of tokens.
Alpine Moon naming Field of the Dead switches it off entirely.
Grafdigger's Cage both blocks recursion of lands, and prevents searching them to the battlefield.
Scavenger Grounds hoses graveyards, and isn't subject to counterspells.
Rakdos Charm pulls double duty, it can cut out a recursion attempt instantly, and if the event of a huge horde of zombies, can do tons of damage to the opponent directly.

I would tend to shy away from Armageddon or Ruination, while powerful these types of effects are also huge feel-bad plays for your opponents, and make for slow, plodding games for the most part.

[Dunharrow]

You don't want to dedicate your deck to stopping this one card. If the issue is the tutoring, you can play hate cards for tutors. If the issue is the recursion, you can play more graveyard hate.

[pokken]

I would say field of the dead is mostly a table problem. When it drops that person is public enemy number one. Until your table realizes that it's gonna be a hard one because they'll keep spamming 3 zombies a turn until they die.

Everyone should have some of the things that hose it (mainly grave hate and search hate) so focus it on them.

Overwhelming value cards like this are mainly why I prefer to close games with combos since it's so hard to pack enough varied answers for all this stuff.

A few different approaches you can take as well:

* One thing I did not see mentioned in terms of approach to deal with it is to race with vigilance and/or lifelink while removing the payoffs. Usually those decks require an overrun effect to finish people off, or they're sacc'ing the zombies for something. A vigilant x/3 critter forces them to leave back 2 zombies to kill it in combat, and kills one every time they swing, so you can make it really it taxing on them - forcing them to wait to alpha strike you - with just a few decent vigilant or lifelink attackers.

* Ghostly Prison effects scale really well against Zombie horde. Windborn Muse Mangara, the Diplomat etc.

* Mass goad effects can be pretty clutch; force them to attack with everything. Stuff like Disrupt Decorum and Reins of Power tend to pay pretty serious dividends.

One of the best ways I've dealt with field players is getting them to over-extend killing someone else by discouraging attacks (having too many solid blockers, etc.) and then popping them myself. Winds of Abandon is really good for that as well.

I have also stolen it with Agent of Treachery which is one of the best ways since there's almost no way to get it back once you have it.

[Ruiner]

Aether Flash can be a great solution if you are in red. Also has the bonus of dealing with quite a few other things so it isn't exactly a narrow hate card either.

[hyalopterouslemur]

Lands aren't sacred. You need to be able to destroy them. Especially nonbasics, I can't count the number of times I've run away with the game because basic lands. In fact, just toss in Back to Basics, Ruination, and Primal Order just for lulz; FOTD decks tend to run a ton of nonbasics.

Beyond that, I find Massacre, Pestilence, Pyroclasm and Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite also useful. Suture Priest makes it sting.

[pokken]

The vast majority of time killing a Field of the Dead does almost nothing since the way they trigger it multiple times is by playing lands from the graveyard. Land destruction is not the answer to land decks almost ever.

[Ertai Planeswalker]

Praetor's Grasp is a very decent answer. They will never draw it and don't even know it's missing. And you can play ityourself once you can trigger it.

[ConstantMists]

As mentioned previously Aether Flash plus Repercussion will make a Field of the Dead player sorry he shuffled his deck up.

[3drinks]

"BuT lAnDs ArE tOo sAcReD tO rEmOvE" 🙄

This is why responsible tables don't use this rhetoric in attempt to protect their board, because it leads to situations where someone exploits that one thing. Its no different than grave hate, if people suddenly believe the grave is sacred and shouldn't be interacted with, then suddenly games get stolen by Worm Harvest..........(this happened on game nights even, the c18 decks had no yard hate and windgrace spiraled a harvest out of control).

Nothing is sacred. Players play what will win them games, and players that argue defending a specific card or mechanic are trying to protect their designed win con. If someone plays a Gaea's Cradle, do you just let that sit while people make all the mana too?

This is a really easy solution...just remove the offending land. Its not that difficult a problem such as to agonize over something you "can't beat". Every deck can run strip mine and wasteland, and every deck can run Expedition Map to find them. He'll if you're in B...then Tainted Aether is a hilariously effective out to this card.

[pokken]

This is a really easy solution...just remove the offending land.

OK so I want to reiterate this - Field of the Dead is pretty mediocre if you're not playing fetchlands from your graveyard. That's the whole plan pretty much. There are maybe two spells that exile a land. So needing to get rid of Field reliably you need land removal AND graveyard hate. This is just unrealistic for most decks to have reliably.

The standard land package from the bin I play is:

• life from the loam
• crucible of worlds
• ramunap excavator

Then four or five ways to tutor for those, and sometimes also Scaretiller and Ancient Greenwarden and of course Eternal Witness.

TL;DR Again, in most lands decks removing lands is useless. Removing lands is good for mana ramping lands like Gaea's Cradle in non-land decks.

[Guardman]

I will second that Field of the Dead decks don't really care if you have land destruction. It's nothing more than a minor inconvenience as they have a lot of ways to get it back and other cards from the graveyard.

Land destruction for Field of the Dead decks only really works in decks that are running it incidentally. For example, I play it in my Korvold, Fae-Cursed King deck since it is basically a free token maker. The deck doesn't abuse it, so it is pretty fair all things considered. I also don't care whether or not I have it each game since it isn't my main win condition. So land destruction works fine against it there.

On the other hand, I've played against Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath who uses it as they're main win condition. They find it easily and it is very easy for them to get it back into play by either Life from the Loam or Crucible of Worlds for example. They also have ways to copy it in Vesuva and Thespian's Stage. So usually what happens is they get out two Field of the Dead in the same turn, meaning you have to kill two and take out their graveyard at the same time. Land destruction isn't enough against that deck.

I actually expect this problem might get worse since I've seen talks of making an Orvar, the All-Form deck which entire goal is to play Field of the Dead and make a bunch of copies of it. I don't know how good it will be, but I'm sure it will at least be annoying.

The best advice is to play a solid mix of answers. Blood Sun is great, as is Alpine Moon. So is Ashiok, Dream Render and anything else that prevents searching. Or if you want real fun, play Zo-Zu the Punisher and watch as all the ramp decks cry. Land destruction can work, but it needs to be backed up by graveyard hate to really be effective.

Also to give you an idea of just how widespread Field of the Dead has become, I was playing a game and someone plays Tempt with Discovery. Every player at the table searches up Field of the Dead.

[hyalopterouslemur]

Ah, but you can make them hurt. Hence Primal Order and Ankh of Mishra

Other than that, its a standard token deck. And if you keep their lands under 7, you're golden.

[3drinks]

Also to give you an idea of just how widespread Field of the Dead has become, I was playing a game and someone plays Tempt with Discovery. Every player at the table searches up Field of the Dead.

Widespread? I've literally never seen this card see play outside of lolstandard. Let alone as the entire engine for a deck's finisher. Where's the stats to back up such a bold claim?

Unrelated, but, who TF takes the tempting offer? I suspect there's some serious threat assessment issues in your own little group to be addressed, if this is "always happening".

[toctheyounger]

Also to give you an idea of just how widespread Field of the Dead has become, I was playing a game and someone plays Tempt with Discovery. Every player at the table searches up Field of the Dead.

Widespread? I've literally never seen this card see play outside of lolstandard. Let alone as the entire engine for a deck's finisher. Where's the stats to back up such a bold claim?

Unrelated, but, who TF takes the tempting offer? I suspect there's some serious threat assessment issues in your own little group to be addressed, if this is "always happening".

It's a fairly common win con for Golos, Tireless Pilgrim too.

In regards to original query, I feel like Eye of Singularity would put in some work - play as many lands as you like, you're stuck with one zombie regardless (FWIW it also nerfs Yarok, the Desecrated doubling ETB triggers that make tokens). Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite too if you're inclined that way, Rakdos Charm, Hallowed Moonlight, Archfiend of Depravity, could all do work too. Otherwise, you'll need to nip it in the bud by exiling the land itself: Archon of Justice, Ashen Rider, Karn Liberated, Scour from Existence and such.

I'm also going to go on record to say that lands.dec do not care about land destruction, they just work around it. If you can exile it, great, but there's a fairly good chance lands player has an instant speed way to sac the land and recur it: Crop Rotation, Harrow, Zuran Orb, Sylvan Safekeeper, all that stuff.

I think the best way to deal with it is to make it not worth spamming landfall, which is why Eye of Singularity is my first thought. There's bound to be other cards, this is just the one I use for mono white token control.

[Guardman]

Also to give you an idea of just how widespread Field of the Dead has become, I was playing a game and someone plays Tempt with Discovery. Every player at the table searches up Field of the Dead.

Widespread? I've literally never seen this card see play outside of lolstandard. Let alone as the entire engine for a deck's finisher. Where's the stats to back up such a bold claim?

Unrelated, but, who TF takes the tempting offer? I suspect there's some serious threat assessment issues in your own little group to be addressed, if this is "always happening".

My calling it widespread is mostly a mixture of my own personal experiences, talking to friends, and doing some light online reading. So don't take it as a hard and fast statement of fact. Your experience probably differs.

A lot of decks in my meta run it even if their deck isn't tuned for it since it is easy enough trigger.

As for the Tempt with Discovery, it was a guy from my playgroups. One of his decks is a group hug Phelddagrif deck. We know it well enough to know that while it has some win conditions (like Field of the Dead), giving him extra lands and an active Field isn't going to make him a threat. The decks real threat is his ability to play kingmaker and play politics.

[ZenN]

I can definitely attest to Field of the Dead's growing ubiquity. It has ended up in almost all of my decks at this point, along with almost every deck of every person in my group. Card is really strong. You don't need to be abusing it with playing lands from the graveyard and whatnot. Every deck with a proper mana base has some number of fetches, and very many decks run some amount of land tutor ramp.

[RxPhantom]

OK so I want to reiterate this - Field of the Dead is pretty mediocre if you're not playing fetchlands from your graveyard. That's the whole plan pretty much. There are maybe two spells that exile a land. So needing to get rid of Field reliably you need land removal AND graveyard hate. This is just unrealistic for most decks to have reliably.

I don't think this is true. It certainly maximizes its benefit, but I've seen plenty of instances of it being effective without recurring fetches. Lands don't need to be a central theme of the deck for FotD to earn its spot in the deck.

I run it in Yarok with no land recursion, but that doesn't need an explanation.

As for the dealing with it, I've had a lot of success with Declaration in Stone lately. Token swarms happen, or try to happen, pretty often and even when you don't use it that way, it's still overperformed for me. Taking care of the land itself would be better, but setting their zombie count back to zero can be a real setback.

[pokken]

How many games are going to the point where you re making enough zombies people can't just block them? We're talking playing 6 lands after yarok to get you to 11 and that's like 12 zombies. Womp?

A single sweeper cleans that up.

It's really controllable easily outside of fetchlands where you're doubling up on zombies without yarok and playing multiple lands.

[ZenN]

How many games are going to the point where you re making enough zombies people can't just block them? We're talking playing 6 lands after yarok to get you to 11 and that's like 12 zombies. Womp?

It's not about making an overwhelming army. It's the consistent and frequent bodies. Whether they be speed bumps, sac fodder, pot shots, etc. As some examples:

• Single edict effects become next to useless. One of the people in my group runs a Thraximundar deck, and since we've all started running Field of the Dead he has had a very, very hard time getting any Thrax kills, because we've almost always got sac fodder and chump blockers.
• Holding up fetch lands until after a wrath means you can almost always have an attacker, which is particularly relevant when a pot shot is needed. Everybody running Field of the Dead has made life much more difficult for the Superfriends deck in my group, since we're much more likely to have attackers to come at his walkers, even after a wrath.
• Any deck with even a remote amount of synergy (extra lands, creature ETB triggers like Aura Shards, sac benefits like Korvold, Fae-Cursed King, go-wide benefits like convoke cards, etc) all get huge value from having a steady stream of new bodies without having to do anything but just play the game.

You're really underestimating the value of the card. It's effectively a free 2/2 nearly every turn, or more, at the low opportunity cost of a single enters-tapped colourless land.