Cloudpost (Original Sketch)

Cloudpost is a Locus land first printed in Mirrodin (2003), that enters the battlefield tapped. It adds colorless mana for each Locus on the battlefield. It’s a Locus land that rewards having multiple Locus lands in play – the classic “Post” engine. Cloudpost has exponential mana scaling – each extra Locus multiplies its output; the engine scales faster than most ramp. That makes big plays (or multiple big plays) possible in a single turn. Cloudpost enters tapped, so early turns can be slow – the deck’s game plan is to survive the early turns and then explode once multiple Locus lands are assembled. At the 2004 World Championships, Gabriel Nassif reached the Standard Top-8 with a UW Cloudpost / Control deck. Designed to beat the ubiquitous Affinity decks, his blue-white control deck also plays well against anti-Affinity decks. This deck played cards like Wrath of God, Decree of Justice, Akroma’s Vengeance and Thirst for Knowledge to control the game ¬– paired with counters such as Annul, Rewind, Mana Leak and Condescend. Once stabilized it would win the game with Exalted Angel, Eternal Dragon or Soldier / Angel tokens. Cloudpost is a staple card in Legacy, defining an entire archetype called “Post” since 2011. There are many different variations in Legacy right now, such as the classic “12-Post” / Mono-Green Cloudpost decks – these play the full Cloudpost engine (many copies of Cloudpost, Glimmerpost, Planar Nexus, and Vesuva); built to ramp into huge threats (Eldrazi) or other mana sinks (The One Ring and Karn, the Great Creator). Colorless / “All-Post” (Tron-ish / Eldrazi finishers) are colorless builds that play cards like Thought-Knot Seer, All Is Dust, Ugin, Eye of the Storms, Chalice of the Void, and Grim Monolith. Recently, a new variant called “Blue Post” has been favored – playing blue cards like Force of Will, Force of Negation, Stock Up and Thundertrap Trainer. Cloudpost is not on the Reserved List.