I posted a while back asking for advice on how to play the deck and got a lot of good feedback. I've been very distracted lately, and realized that I never responded to the posts or said thanks. First off, thanks to everyone that helped me out. A lot of the posts were very informative and helped me understand the deck better. Secondly, I never posted the list I'm running. Here it is:
I don't feel like the numbers are optimized, I'm not really sure what numbers I want for a few of the cards (ie. Dryad Militant, Dismember, Avatar of the Resolute). I'm also unsure what my sideboard should look like for the MTGO meta. Any advice on what I should be changing around would be greatly appreciated. If anyone who has some experience with MTGO would be willing to help stabilize my sideboard, I'd greatly appreciate it. I'm quite new to online magic, and haven't played a ton of it.
So far for my online record I'm something like 2-23 with the deck over Tournament Practice room, 2-man Ques, and a single "Friendly" Modern League (which I managed to 0-5 like a boss). This is pretty frustrating as a player that's been playing for a few years, haha. I really lack the skill set to pilot stompy appropriately(?), but I'm determined to get the hang of it. So far, it seems like I've played the gamut, only seeing Jund and Dredge twice.
I'll keep playing, and screenshot my hands to ask the thread what to ship and what to keep. At this point the deck is feeling so inconsistent to me. I've been having games of drawing 7 lands in a row, and then missing land drops 7 turns in a row the next game. At this point I'm not really sure what to keep, as no choice I've been making has turned out for me.
Thanks for being an awesome thread (I'm serious, the discussion on other non-tier 1 threads is absolutely abysmal).
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Currently Playing: R8whackR WUBGAtraxa Stax-Superfriends *Under Construction*WUBG
So far it looks promising, I'll continue with my tests and post results later. Feel free to add any suggestion, particularly good creatures against Merfolk or Tron?.
Really have you not read the thread? Maybe you missed my post 4 above yours but here it is again
I have been testing Eldritch Evolution in place of 4 Collected Company and 1 Surrak replacing Baloth. If surrak is in hand I mulligan. 2 EE's not bad but drawing a third sucks. Drawing into a second not bad. 4 Out 10 times i was able to sac strangleroot to go get surrak. 1 of those surrak was in hand. Rancor is great still, aspect is great, vines really plays no help early cause of the two mana cost and we are tapped out. Great after turn 4 and a resolved Surrak. Havent tried a build with young wolf to make worth while trade of sac 1 cc creature to get a baloth or a dungrove elder or Ram-Gang for haste. thats 3 mana for 5 power but the wolf has no haste. Best scenario is always Geist with no counter for whatever. Great thing is sac happens as cost so defeats removal...i like that
Sorry, I'm blind.
Do you play mana dorks?
Surrak is nice for surprise burst, but the real Evolution MVP for me is Thrun. Sometimes you lose card advantage by going EE(Avatar) -> Thrun, but a lot of decks just can't beat Thrun, and you can do it after combat (bluffing buffs).
Like you said young wolf is a difficult choice, evolving just for Baloth/Dungrove/Ram-Gang is not worth it imho, but wolf enables Melira, Finks from the board or even Scooze against GY matchups. I need more testing on this.
Also agree on drawing 3 EE sucks, but it is a slim chance, maybe we should run 3 EE max.
I really like the card, like StompBee said it enables a "Toolbox Stompy", at least for sideboard, with few silver bullets, without diluting our plan too much(retaining the burst).
Hello there stompers, on mtggoldfish there's a list that 5-0ed the competitive league on the 8th of July. With 3 Rancors, 3 Dismembers, 3 Treetops, 18 forests, 2 Dungroves, 4 Baloths, and no Scoozes. What do you all think?
Also, what are your thoughts on suicide zoo match up? I find it the as the most difficult one really.
Hello there stompers, on mtggoldfish there's a list that 5-0ed the competitive league on the 8th of July. With 3 Rancors, 3 Dismembers, 3 Treetops, 18 forests, 2 Dungroves, 4 Baloths, and no Scoozes. What do you all think?
Also, what are your thoughts on suicide zoo match up? I find it the as the most difficult one really.
That's a slower list but it falls in the normal range. He's gone in heavy on mainboard Dismember and Treetops. My original list was more like that one but it seemed too slow to me.
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I went out to a small 8 person event tonight to try out some tweaks to my deck. This is the list I ran:
Match 1 2-0: Played against a guy with a homebrew Kamigawa-block RW deck who apparently won several matches at this same shop last week (this shop alternates between Tier 1 cutthroat and random non-competitive decks from what I've seen). Not a feel good win but we had a nice chat after, nice guy, just not anywhere near modern power level.
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Match 2 0-2: Jund did Jund things and ground me out. One of the matches was a mulligan to six where I kept a one-lander, got my one drop Thoughtseized and didn't draw lands. After the last event I now refuse to keep a one-lander on the initial draw but will consider keeping a strong 1 lander on 6 and definitely on 5.
I sided in Dismember (kill goyfs?), Pulse of Murasa (get my discards back?), but not Scooze. Talking to this guy and several other players, Scooze was one of my biggest weapons to shrink goyf and get value in a long, grindy match. I have a very hard time with sideboarding but it's getting better as I learn the hard way and ask people questions.
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Match 3 0-2: Grixis Control. I got the play but then had to mulli to 5 and got ground out. I once again failed to sideboard in Scooze going with some mix of Pulse, Dismember (for Kalitas) and Thrun, and got nowhere game 2.
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Match 4 1-2: Red blue green control of some sort, with Pestermites, Bounding Krasis, goyf, bolt, Remand, Snapcaster, Anger of the Gods, and Huntmaster of the Fells as notable cards. Game one on the play I won on the back of a Dungrove Elder who grew to 7.
Game two I boarded in Scooze (learning from my mistakes), two Pulse and Thrun. I drew Thrun in my opening hand, had some back and forth, had a lone Dungrove killed by Anger of the Gods, until finally dropping Thrun. Next turn double Rancor on Thrun with two mana open for regenerate and I swung in. After combat I had the option to cast Strangleroot Geist as a blocker or leave two mana open to regenerate, I was at 13 health, and I didn't give nearly enough consideration to the idea that he could kill me despite him having goyf, a 3/3, and a 2/1 on board. I didn't think he could kill Thrun in any way, but I decided to play it safe and leave the two mana for regenerate. Next turn he animated a manland I had totally ignored and killed me. He might still have had it with some removal on the Geist but I was quite annoyed by my misplay from a winning situation.
Game three I didn't draw as well, but held onto a Dungrove until hitting 4 Forests. I got a Rancor on it and had him to 1 HP with lethal next turn, but then he drew Huntmaster of the Fells and started a cycle of gaining life and making tokens which kept puting him just out of range. The next two turns if I had drawn Aspect, Vines, Rancor, I would have had it, but I kept drawing Forests and ending up at 1 short of lethal damage (I would lose the Dungroves to blocks, as well). Then he drew a goyf and put himself fully out of range. Two very close games.
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Overall I believe I am losing to a combination of small but important misplays, incorrect deckbuilding choices, bad sideboard swaps, strings of bad luck mulligans, and lastly simply being outclassed by Tier 1 decks. Misplays, deckbuilding, and sideboarding can improve with practice so there's upside there. Bad luck draws are part of the game, and Stompy as a Tier 2 deck is always going to be at a disadvantage vs T1 decks with favorable matchups, so those factors will remain.
The next time I go out I will try the following list. Main deviations from norm, still on 3/3 Baloth/Dungrove mainboard, still running Nettle Sentinels until Kessig Prowler shows up (their downside has seldom been a big detriment so far), still running no Treetop Villages (bad Dungrove synergy, screws up idea curve-out scenario, and what good are they VS. Goyf, Kalitas, all the stuff the grindy decks are playing as threats?).
I played in an Modern Night event and LCQ, went 3-2, 2-1-1, 0-2 in quarters respectively.
(I played -1 Scooze +1 Aspect at modern night).
Came looking for some inspration here, and I noticed all the lists I see here run at least 21 lands. Surprisingly lands were most of the time no concern to me, I may mulliganed 1 hand at whole LCQ due to lack of lands.
Eldritch Moon certainly has some interesting cards. Will keep on testing.
Often I hold open mana through combat and cast a creature spell second main to untap Nettle Sentinel. In that scenario it's fine. Other times you have Experiment One on the field and have to cast a creature pre-combat to buff it, in which case it's also fine. Strangleroot and Rancor also come in pre-combat to untap it. Occasionally you find yourself with only a pump spell in hand to untap Nettle Sentinel which totally sucks, you're right.
Right now I feel like the upside of having 2 power 1 drops 9-11 is worth the occasional downside as the deck can't goldfish turn 4 without a one drop. I lost too many games especially to linear decks by being a few points of damage off and had to try something to increase the consistency of the fast starts. The number of times the Nettle Sentinel downside has hit me and the number of times it has been punished has been very low. The split second Kessig Prowler is available I'm totally with you on ditching the Nettle Sentinel because it has the potential to cost you a game.
Hello there stompers, on mtggoldfish there's a list that 5-0ed the competitive league on the 8th of July. With 3 Rancors, 3 Dismembers, 3 Treetops, 18 forests, 2 Dungroves, 4 Baloths, and no Scoozes. What do you all think?
Also, what are your thoughts on suicide zoo match up? I find it the as the most difficult one really.
I've been testing myself Suicide Zoo as I love the deck. The most common sequence, both Kiln and non-Kiln Fiend version is playing 1-2 phyrexian mana spells, apostle blessing if blockers or no Temur Rage and/or Assault Strobe. You can use two strategies:
-First one: try to win the damage race. Sometimes Suicide Zoo players go wild with lifelose till the point that they can't even untap lands or play phyrexian mana because they die.
-Second one: against non-Apostle's blessing versions, just cast Vines of Vastwood in resp to Temur Battle Rage.
Thanks for the reply, but what I wanted to know was people's opinion about the match up, not the strategy against them. Like what are your approximate win rate against them, do you see the match up as a favourable one or not. Maybe I wasn't clear enough though.
It's not a terrible match-up but one that require practice. Strangleroot Geist is really good at blocking a guy and cracking back then next turn. Sometimes they just getcha a lot like Infect.
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is this the one drop we've been waiting for and needing!?!?!? No one is gonna want to block this guy with a Goyf or eldrazi or whatever. This set is giving us a lot of new things. I luv it.
Playing this means you're giving your opponent free removal for your own undercosted green fatties -- since when a creature becomes a copy of Permeating Mass it obviously also gets its static ability. Don't think it's a good idea.
is this the one drop we've been waiting for and needing!?!?!? No one is gonna want to block this guy with a Goyf or eldrazi or whatever. This set is giving us a lot of new things. I luv it.
Playing this means you're giving your opponent free removal for your own undercosted green fatties -- since when a creature becomes a copy of Permeating Mass it obviously also gets its static ability. Don't think it's a good idea.
I never even thought about that. You bring up an interesting point. However, we would still have the advantage of instant speed pump spells should the entire table become copies. Cuz with the exception of affinity & zoo what other decks have a way to pump a creature like we do? I also still don't think opponents would block this until they knew they were within reach of dying to it plus pump spells. Would an opponent want this instead of a Voice of Resurgence, Noble heirarch, death shadow, goyf, kalitas, arcbond ravager,vault skirge, etc? I feel like most modern staple creatures are strictly better than this guy and no one would want to lose their awesome dudes. I think this guy will do some work for our deck.
started back into mtg and decided on stompy. had a great time making tier 1 decks sweat it out, but i lost nonetheless. i have a control heavy meta. i played against 2 jeskai nahiri decks. eventually i just ran outta gas as i kept getting 1v1'd. any suggestion on sideboard cards? pithing needle? 4 vines in the main?
started back into mtg and decided on stompy. had a great time making tier 1 decks sweat it out, but i lost nonetheless. i have a control heavy meta. i played against 2 jeskai nahiri decks. eventually i just ran outta gas as i kept getting 1v1'd. any suggestion on sideboard cards? pithing needle? 4 vines in the main?
Welcome back to mtg and welcome to stompy! Against jeskai nahiri I'd say we're favored, just don't overcommit to the board to get blown out by a wrath effect. 1 Thrun, the Last Troll in the sideboard is great value against them, also 2 pithing needles shut down their planeswalkers, and/or manlands when needed. Never leave your house without a playset of Vines! Against control, vines should protect mostly Dryad Militant, and Scavenging Ooze. 2 Relic of Progenitus also helps, and for the last week I've been trying 1 Torpor Orb, which helps against many decks, and in this case against Snapcaster Mages. If you have a control heavy meta, Guttural Response might help.
lol well that's where my problem is. i'm searching all my old binders and deckboxes for the right sideboard cards. i've found 1 pithing needle, 2 guttural, no thruns, 1 grafdigger, so i'm slowly building my sideboard against the local meta.
Deck changes from last time:
Two Scooze mainboard strongly recommended to me by various Jund/Grixis/Snapcaster players and pretty standard in lists here. With two Scoozes being virtual 3 drops but playable on 2, I moved a Dungrove to the sideboard to avoid slowing down too much and ditched one Kalonian. 2x Relic took Scooze's place in the sideboard, and the Relics did quite a bit of work.
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33 people, six rounds tonight.
Match 1: Death's Shadow Zoo. It was a really rough back-and-forth match in which he had 3 Nacatls, 2 Monastery Swiftspears, some white 0/1, and Death's Shadow out. I let him swing in with a big Death's Shadow then trampled over his smaller blockers with Rancor and Aspect topdecks two turns in a row. I tried siding in two Act of Aggression which I didn't draw. G2 I was trying to go wide to catch him on the swing back but he dropped two Death's Shadow, then caught me off guard with a fetch and shock after I let his Death's Shadow swing in which buffed its damage enough for him to get lethal. I thought better of the Acts (too many small blockers, it's a Tron hate card at heart) and sided in 3 Dismember instead, which on second thought was also bad (usually played Death's Shadow at 6+, can't take the damage, too many small zoo creatures). G3 was a non-game: I mulled to 4 on 1 lander, bad 1 lander, 0 lands, and 0 lands which I took out of frustration then realized I was on the play.
1-2
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Match 2: Bye. I walked across the street and bought a small peanut-butter-chocolate milkshake to drown my sorrows. Free win I guess.
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Match 3: Skred Red. I lost the first game getting Skredded down to one creature then completely sealing the game by letting him Ult his Koth of the Hammer by forgetting to swing at it on 5 counters. Game 2 and 3 all I sided was one Dungrove, Thrun seemed slow (might be worth it). I ran him over with early aggression and big Dungroves he couldn't kill.
2-1
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Match 4: *edit* Jund. I distinctly remember him playing Goyf, I don't know why I wrote down Grixis in my notes. I lost game one after he stabilized at only 2 life. Game two I did an extensive sideboard swap I had been thinking about for this and Jund. All three Nettle Sentinels out, Kalonian out, 3 Aspect of Hydra out. Thrun, Dungrove, 2 Relics and 3 Dismembers in. It worked very well and I ground him out waiting for 4 lands to drop Dungroves (dodge Anger of the Gods), drawing in to Thrun, clearing his graveyard to shrink his Goyfs with Relics and Scoozes.
2-1
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Match 5: My opponent was also 3-1 and suggested we draw into a likely top 8. I had never heard of this concept and had no idea whether it was a good idea. The natural skeptic in me suspected that he had more to gain if he was suggesting it, and he said he was very tired and not enjoying having to pilot his deck. Asking the store employee, all he could say "as a tournament official all I can say is that in this Swiss a 3-1-x can often reach top 8. I cannot advise either way." I was curious to see how this strategy worked out and I'm a sucker for the lower-risk higher-percentage route so I went with it on the condition that we played a friendly match so I didn't have to sit out another round.
RB storm- I've gotten rolled over by this matchup every other time I've played against it so I'm stoked to have dodged it. Then it turns out that my opponent was borrowing the deck after being out of Magic for years, was dead tired, and wasn't playing it near its potential. I was helping him with storm and mana counters and still went 2-1 off of T1 Dryad Militant screwing up his lines and him just losing to the deck. Sided in 3 Nature's Claim for his copy-spells enchant (worked great), should have sided in Relics too. Should have played the match for real, as it turned out.
Draw - unofficial 2-1
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Standings into last match put me in 8th place. I now learn about how this system works from the other top folks discussing strategy. Apparently enough people have done well enough that the 3-1-x isn't good enough for auto top 8. More people would have had to play into a lower record for that to work out. Apparently if I match with somebody above me they'll draw with me for top 8, but if I match down we have to play it, draw isn't good enough. I get matched down so I have to play out the next match for top 8.
Match 6: Blue White Control. I win game one off of waiting for her to tap out then dropping a Dungrove. 3 cryptic commands in a row tapping my board down is rough but I'm exiling them with Scooze and I run her out of cards. I side out 1 Aspect, 1 Tusker, 2 Nettle Sentinel for 2 Relics, Dungrove, Thrun. I mull to a weak 6 with 3 lands but does have Dungrove, keep and scry a decent threat. I get out-controlled and run down in the long game by Restoration angel beats. Game 3 I mull to a middling six again, then proceed to draw 8 lands in an almost unbroken streak. I think it goes land land Relic cycle for land/exile her spells land Dryad Militant land Relic into Avatar land Thrun the turn before I die to Angel/Snapcaster beats. She showed the Wrath in hand so Thrun wouldn't have trumped if drawn earlier. Relic did a ton of work overall- really liking it.
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So in the end the decision to be tricky with the round 5 draw didn't pay off and I ended up 11th out of the 33. In the future I think I'll just play it out until the final standings are known and the result of a draw is agiven.
The deck ran great- I really like the early aggression of the 11 one drops with some staying power through maindeck Dungroves and Scooze. Top-decking Scooze can be great as you dump your mana into pumping him. The Nettle Sentinels only caused a slightly suboptimal play once- forcing a Leatherback Baloth play before combat, but I didn't have any pump and the combat went fine anyway so no big deal.
The only change I'm considering is swapping out the two Pulses for 2x Guttural Response. Tonight was only the second time I've played UW but Guttural response on Cryptic Command would be a blowout. Pulse was supposed to fight Jund and Burn but I like the Relic/Dungrove/Dismember/Thrun package more. Not a lot of Burn in the meta and honestly I'm not too afraid of the burn matchup- our creatures are bigger and block well, they tend to fetch and shock a lot, we can establish a board before Eidolon and beat them down without casting spells. Burn is not auto-win but with all the U/x/x control in the meta Guttural Response has been recommended to me by several Stompy fans in the room and I think they're right.
TL;DR: Are these match reports a constructive addition to the thread or a waste of space? I don't care if people skip over them (I enjoy writing them) but I don't want to actively detract from the thread with clutter.
TL;DR: Are these match reports a constructive addition to the thread or a waste of space? I don't care if people skip over them (I enjoy writing them) but I don't want to actively detract from the thread with clutter.
Thanks for the report, and nice result. As far as your question goes, I find these types of posts to be the most valuable. "I played this, here's how my games went, and here's my thoughts" are some of the best bits of data you can get. Please continue doing them!
i enjoy match reports. i like people's explanations of why they run their 75 over a different 75. it'd be cool if you did a more detailed sideboard for each round. would help me tremendously
TL;DR: Are these match reports a constructive addition to the thread or a waste of space? I don't care if people skip over them (I enjoy writing them) but I don't want to actively detract from the thread with clutter.
They're nice for the growth of a thread in my opinion. Gives information on match ups, which are good which are bad.. if sideboard cards are helpful or not... etc. Theory crafting and card discussions are good, but posts of actual games against other decks are important as well. Please continue post match up reports if you have the time. thanks. :>
I would like to contribute on match ups as well.. however our LGS here has stopped Modern, and only do Standard for now. I'm still hoping that they would change their mind.
I really want to get the 4th Treetop Village/22nd land in the MD, but can't find the room. In the sideboard I want a 3rd graveyard hate spell, I've already softened up to decks like dedicated Dredge lists by dropping down to just 2 Relic. (My recent lists have been playing 2-3 Grafdigger's Cage + 1-2 Relic Of Progenitus.) I also want a second Reclamation Sage, but can't decide if it's worth it. Only realistic cut for that would be a Natural State. Thoughts on the sideboard silver bullets approach? Or the list in general? Constructive criticism appreciated.
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I posted a while back asking for advice on how to play the deck and got a lot of good feedback. I've been very distracted lately, and realized that I never responded to the posts or said thanks. First off, thanks to everyone that helped me out. A lot of the posts were very informative and helped me understand the deck better. Secondly, I never posted the list I'm running. Here it is:
4 Avatar of the Resolute
2 Dismember
3 Dryad Militant
2 Kalonian Tusker
4 Experiment One
20 Forest
4 Leatherback Baloth
3 Rancor
2 Scavenging Ooze
4 Strangleroot Geist
2 Treetop Village
4 Vines of Vastwood
2 Dungrove Elder
2 Fog
2 Prey Upon
2 Naturalize
2 Pulse of Murasa
2 Feed the Clan
2 Choke
3 Relic of Progenitus
I don't feel like the numbers are optimized, I'm not really sure what numbers I want for a few of the cards (ie. Dryad Militant, Dismember, Avatar of the Resolute). I'm also unsure what my sideboard should look like for the MTGO meta. Any advice on what I should be changing around would be greatly appreciated. If anyone who has some experience with MTGO would be willing to help stabilize my sideboard, I'd greatly appreciate it. I'm quite new to online magic, and haven't played a ton of it.
So far for my online record I'm something like 2-23 with the deck over Tournament Practice room, 2-man Ques, and a single "Friendly" Modern League (which I managed to 0-5 like a boss). This is pretty frustrating as a player that's been playing for a few years, haha. I really lack the skill set to pilot stompy appropriately(?), but I'm determined to get the hang of it. So far, it seems like I've played the gamut, only seeing Jund and Dredge twice.
I'll keep playing, and screenshot my hands to ask the thread what to ship and what to keep. At this point the deck is feeling so inconsistent to me. I've been having games of drawing 7 lands in a row, and then missing land drops 7 turns in a row the next game. At this point I'm not really sure what to keep, as no choice I've been making has turned out for me.
Thanks for being an awesome thread (I'm serious, the discussion on other non-tier 1 threads is absolutely abysmal).
R8whackR
WUBGAtraxa Stax-Superfriends *Under Construction*WUBG
I've been testing
- 1 Surrak and 1 Thrun maindeck
- few Young Wolf maindeck
- some sideboard silver bullets (Melira, Reclamation Sage) + some Kitchen Finks.
So far it looks promising, I'll continue with my tests and post results later. Feel free to add any suggestion, particularly good creatures against Merfolk or Tron?.I have been testing Eldritch Evolution in place of 4 Collected Company and 1 Surrak replacing Baloth. If surrak is in hand I mulligan. 2 EE's not bad but drawing a third sucks. Drawing into a second not bad. 4 Out 10 times i was able to sac strangleroot to go get surrak. 1 of those surrak was in hand. Rancor is great still, aspect is great, vines really plays no help early cause of the two mana cost and we are tapped out. Great after turn 4 and a resolved Surrak. Havent tried a build with young wolf to make worth while trade of sac 1 cc creature to get a baloth or a dungrove elder or Ram-Gang for haste. thats 3 mana for 5 power but the wolf has no haste. Best scenario is always Geist with no counter for whatever. Great thing is sac happens as cost so defeats removal...i like that
Do you play mana dorks?
Surrak is nice for surprise burst, but the real Evolution MVP for me is Thrun. Sometimes you lose card advantage by going EE(Avatar) -> Thrun, but a lot of decks just can't beat Thrun, and you can do it after combat (bluffing buffs).
Like you said young wolf is a difficult choice, evolving just for Baloth/Dungrove/Ram-Gang is not worth it imho, but wolf enables Melira, Finks from the board or even Scooze against GY matchups. I need more testing on this.
Also agree on drawing 3 EE sucks, but it is a slim chance, maybe we should run 3 EE max.
I really like the card, like StompBee said it enables a "Toolbox Stompy", at least for sideboard, with few silver bullets, without diluting our plan too much(retaining the burst).
This is roughly the list i'm testing now
4 Dryad Militant
4 Experiment One
2 Young Wolf
4 Avatar of the Resolute
4 Strangleroot Geist
2 Leatherback Baloth
1 Surrak, the Hunt Caller
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
20 Forest
2 Treetop Village
Non-Creature Spells (14)
4 Rancor
4 Aspect of Hydra
3 Vines of Vastwood
3 Eldritch Evolution
4 Kitchen Finks
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
2 Scavenging Ooze
8 tbd
Also, what are your thoughts on suicide zoo match up? I find it the as the most difficult one really.
That's a slower list but it falls in the normal range. He's gone in heavy on mainboard Dismember and Treetops. My original list was more like that one but it seemed too slow to me.
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I went out to a small 8 person event tonight to try out some tweaks to my deck. This is the list I ran:
4 Avatar of the Resolute
4 Dryad Militant
3 Dungrove Elder
4 Experiment One
2 Kalonian Tusker
3 Leatherback Baloth
3 Nettle Sentinel
4 Strangleroot Geist
4 Aspect of Hydra
4 Vines of Vastwood
Enchantment (4)
4 Rancor
Land (21)
21 Forest
2 Act of Aggression
1 Creeping Corrosion
3 Dismember
3 Natural State
2 Pulse of Murasa
3 Scavenging Ooze
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
Match 1 2-0: Played against a guy with a homebrew Kamigawa-block RW deck who apparently won several matches at this same shop last week (this shop alternates between Tier 1 cutthroat and random non-competitive decks from what I've seen). Not a feel good win but we had a nice chat after, nice guy, just not anywhere near modern power level.
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Match 2 0-2: Jund did Jund things and ground me out. One of the matches was a mulligan to six where I kept a one-lander, got my one drop Thoughtseized and didn't draw lands. After the last event I now refuse to keep a one-lander on the initial draw but will consider keeping a strong 1 lander on 6 and definitely on 5.
I sided in Dismember (kill goyfs?), Pulse of Murasa (get my discards back?), but not Scooze. Talking to this guy and several other players, Scooze was one of my biggest weapons to shrink goyf and get value in a long, grindy match. I have a very hard time with sideboarding but it's getting better as I learn the hard way and ask people questions.
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Match 3 0-2: Grixis Control. I got the play but then had to mulli to 5 and got ground out. I once again failed to sideboard in Scooze going with some mix of Pulse, Dismember (for Kalitas) and Thrun, and got nowhere game 2.
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Match 4 1-2: Red blue green control of some sort, with Pestermites, Bounding Krasis, goyf, bolt, Remand, Snapcaster, Anger of the Gods, and Huntmaster of the Fells as notable cards. Game one on the play I won on the back of a Dungrove Elder who grew to 7.
Game two I boarded in Scooze (learning from my mistakes), two Pulse and Thrun. I drew Thrun in my opening hand, had some back and forth, had a lone Dungrove killed by Anger of the Gods, until finally dropping Thrun. Next turn double Rancor on Thrun with two mana open for regenerate and I swung in. After combat I had the option to cast Strangleroot Geist as a blocker or leave two mana open to regenerate, I was at 13 health, and I didn't give nearly enough consideration to the idea that he could kill me despite him having goyf, a 3/3, and a 2/1 on board. I didn't think he could kill Thrun in any way, but I decided to play it safe and leave the two mana for regenerate. Next turn he animated a manland I had totally ignored and killed me. He might still have had it with some removal on the Geist but I was quite annoyed by my misplay from a winning situation.
Game three I didn't draw as well, but held onto a Dungrove until hitting 4 Forests. I got a Rancor on it and had him to 1 HP with lethal next turn, but then he drew Huntmaster of the Fells and started a cycle of gaining life and making tokens which kept puting him just out of range. The next two turns if I had drawn Aspect, Vines, Rancor, I would have had it, but I kept drawing Forests and ending up at 1 short of lethal damage (I would lose the Dungroves to blocks, as well). Then he drew a goyf and put himself fully out of range. Two very close games.
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Overall I believe I am losing to a combination of small but important misplays, incorrect deckbuilding choices, bad sideboard swaps, strings of bad luck mulligans, and lastly simply being outclassed by Tier 1 decks. Misplays, deckbuilding, and sideboarding can improve with practice so there's upside there. Bad luck draws are part of the game, and Stompy as a Tier 2 deck is always going to be at a disadvantage vs T1 decks with favorable matchups, so those factors will remain.
The next time I go out I will try the following list. Main deviations from norm, still on 3/3 Baloth/Dungrove mainboard, still running Nettle Sentinels until Kessig Prowler shows up (their downside has seldom been a big detriment so far), still running no Treetop Villages (bad Dungrove synergy, screws up idea curve-out scenario, and what good are they VS. Goyf, Kalitas, all the stuff the grindy decks are playing as threats?).
4 Avatar of the Resolute
4 Dryad Militant
3 Dungrove Elder
4 Experiment One
2 Scavenging Ooze
3 Leatherback Baloth
3 Nettle Sentinel
4 Strangleroot Geist
4 Aspect of Hydra
4 Vines of Vastwood
Enchantment (4)
4 Rancor
Land (21)
21 Forest
2 Act of Aggression
1 Creeping Corrosion
3 Dismember
3 Natural State
2 Pulse of Murasa
1 Scavenging Ooze
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
*edit* PS. Holy crap is Kalitas a pain in the ass. That one card stopped me dead in my tracks almost every time it was dropped.
1 Treetop Village
3 Aspect of Hydra
4 Avatar of the Resolute
3 Dismember
4 Dryad Militant
1 Dungrove Elder
4 Experiment One
2 Kalonian Tusker
4 Leatherback Baloth
4 Rancor
3 Scavenging Ooze
4 Strangleroot Geist
4 Vines of Vastwood
1 Deglamer
1 Feed the Clan
2 Gut Shot
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
2 Natural State
1 Oxidize
2 Prey Upon
1 Pulse of Murasa
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Unravel the Aether
I played in an Modern Night event and LCQ, went 3-2, 2-1-1, 0-2 in quarters respectively.
(I played -1 Scooze +1 Aspect at modern night).
Came looking for some inspration here, and I noticed all the lists I see here run at least 21 lands. Surprisingly lands were most of the time no concern to me, I may mulliganed 1 hand at whole LCQ due to lack of lands.
Eldritch Moon certainly has some interesting cards. Will keep on testing.
MTGO: UberMower
Right now I feel like the upside of having 2 power 1 drops 9-11 is worth the occasional downside as the deck can't goldfish turn 4 without a one drop. I lost too many games especially to linear decks by being a few points of damage off and had to try something to increase the consistency of the fast starts. The number of times the Nettle Sentinel downside has hit me and the number of times it has been punished has been very low. The split second Kessig Prowler is available I'm totally with you on ditching the Nettle Sentinel because it has the potential to cost you a game.
Thanks for the reply, but what I wanted to know was people's opinion about the match up, not the strategy against them. Like what are your approximate win rate against them, do you see the match up as a favourable one or not. Maybe I wasn't clear enough though.
Playing this means you're giving your opponent free removal for your own undercosted green fatties -- since when a creature becomes a copy of Permeating Mass it obviously also gets its static ability. Don't think it's a good idea.
I never even thought about that. You bring up an interesting point. However, we would still have the advantage of instant speed pump spells should the entire table become copies. Cuz with the exception of affinity & zoo what other decks have a way to pump a creature like we do? I also still don't think opponents would block this until they knew they were within reach of dying to it plus pump spells. Would an opponent want this instead of a Voice of Resurgence, Noble heirarch, death shadow, goyf, kalitas, arcbond ravager,vault skirge, etc? I feel like most modern staple creatures are strictly better than this guy and no one would want to lose their awesome dudes. I think this guy will do some work for our deck.
started back into mtg and decided on stompy. had a great time making tier 1 decks sweat it out, but i lost nonetheless. i have a control heavy meta. i played against 2 jeskai nahiri decks. eventually i just ran outta gas as i kept getting 1v1'd. any suggestion on sideboard cards? pithing needle? 4 vines in the main?
Welcome back to mtg and welcome to stompy! Against jeskai nahiri I'd say we're favored, just don't overcommit to the board to get blown out by a wrath effect. 1 Thrun, the Last Troll in the sideboard is great value against them, also 2 pithing needles shut down their planeswalkers, and/or manlands when needed. Never leave your house without a playset of Vines! Against control, vines should protect mostly Dryad Militant, and Scavenging Ooze. 2 Relic of Progenitus also helps, and for the last week I've been trying 1 Torpor Orb, which helps against many decks, and in this case against Snapcaster Mages. If you have a control heavy meta, Guttural Response might help.
the numbers in front of the cards are what I run.
4x Avatar of the Resolute
4x Dryad Militant
2x Dungrove Elder
4x Experiment One
1x Kalonian Tusker
3x Leatherback Baloth
3x Nettle Sentinel
2x Scavenging Ooze
4x Strangleroot Geist
4x Aspect of Hydra
4x Vines of Vastwood
4x Rancor
Land (21)
21x Forest
2x Act of Aggression
1x Creeping Corrosion
3x Dismember
1x Dungrove Elder
3x Natural State
2x Pulse of Murasa
2x Relic of Progenitus
1x Thrun, the Last Troll
Deck changes from last time:
Two Scooze mainboard strongly recommended to me by various Jund/Grixis/Snapcaster players and pretty standard in lists here. With two Scoozes being virtual 3 drops but playable on 2, I moved a Dungrove to the sideboard to avoid slowing down too much and ditched one Kalonian. 2x Relic took Scooze's place in the sideboard, and the Relics did quite a bit of work.
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33 people, six rounds tonight.
Match 1: Death's Shadow Zoo. It was a really rough back-and-forth match in which he had 3 Nacatls, 2 Monastery Swiftspears, some white 0/1, and Death's Shadow out. I let him swing in with a big Death's Shadow then trampled over his smaller blockers with Rancor and Aspect topdecks two turns in a row. I tried siding in two Act of Aggression which I didn't draw. G2 I was trying to go wide to catch him on the swing back but he dropped two Death's Shadow, then caught me off guard with a fetch and shock after I let his Death's Shadow swing in which buffed its damage enough for him to get lethal. I thought better of the Acts (too many small blockers, it's a Tron hate card at heart) and sided in 3 Dismember instead, which on second thought was also bad (usually played Death's Shadow at 6+, can't take the damage, too many small zoo creatures). G3 was a non-game: I mulled to 4 on 1 lander, bad 1 lander, 0 lands, and 0 lands which I took out of frustration then realized I was on the play.
1-2
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Match 2: Bye. I walked across the street and bought a small peanut-butter-chocolate milkshake to drown my sorrows. Free win I guess.
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Match 3: Skred Red. I lost the first game getting Skredded down to one creature then completely sealing the game by letting him Ult his Koth of the Hammer by forgetting to swing at it on 5 counters. Game 2 and 3 all I sided was one Dungrove, Thrun seemed slow (might be worth it). I ran him over with early aggression and big Dungroves he couldn't kill.
2-1
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Match 4: *edit* Jund. I distinctly remember him playing Goyf, I don't know why I wrote down Grixis in my notes. I lost game one after he stabilized at only 2 life. Game two I did an extensive sideboard swap I had been thinking about for this and Jund. All three Nettle Sentinels out, Kalonian out, 3 Aspect of Hydra out. Thrun, Dungrove, 2 Relics and 3 Dismembers in. It worked very well and I ground him out waiting for 4 lands to drop Dungroves (dodge Anger of the Gods), drawing in to Thrun, clearing his graveyard to shrink his Goyfs with Relics and Scoozes.
2-1
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Match 5: My opponent was also 3-1 and suggested we draw into a likely top 8. I had never heard of this concept and had no idea whether it was a good idea. The natural skeptic in me suspected that he had more to gain if he was suggesting it, and he said he was very tired and not enjoying having to pilot his deck. Asking the store employee, all he could say "as a tournament official all I can say is that in this Swiss a 3-1-x can often reach top 8. I cannot advise either way." I was curious to see how this strategy worked out and I'm a sucker for the lower-risk higher-percentage route so I went with it on the condition that we played a friendly match so I didn't have to sit out another round.
RB storm- I've gotten rolled over by this matchup every other time I've played against it so I'm stoked to have dodged it. Then it turns out that my opponent was borrowing the deck after being out of Magic for years, was dead tired, and wasn't playing it near its potential. I was helping him with storm and mana counters and still went 2-1 off of T1 Dryad Militant screwing up his lines and him just losing to the deck. Sided in 3 Nature's Claim for his copy-spells enchant (worked great), should have sided in Relics too. Should have played the match for real, as it turned out.
Draw - unofficial 2-1
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Standings into last match put me in 8th place. I now learn about how this system works from the other top folks discussing strategy. Apparently enough people have done well enough that the 3-1-x isn't good enough for auto top 8. More people would have had to play into a lower record for that to work out. Apparently if I match with somebody above me they'll draw with me for top 8, but if I match down we have to play it, draw isn't good enough. I get matched down so I have to play out the next match for top 8.
Match 6: Blue White Control. I win game one off of waiting for her to tap out then dropping a Dungrove. 3 cryptic commands in a row tapping my board down is rough but I'm exiling them with Scooze and I run her out of cards. I side out 1 Aspect, 1 Tusker, 2 Nettle Sentinel for 2 Relics, Dungrove, Thrun. I mull to a weak 6 with 3 lands but does have Dungrove, keep and scry a decent threat. I get out-controlled and run down in the long game by Restoration angel beats. Game 3 I mull to a middling six again, then proceed to draw 8 lands in an almost unbroken streak. I think it goes land land Relic cycle for land/exile her spells land Dryad Militant land Relic into Avatar land Thrun the turn before I die to Angel/Snapcaster beats. She showed the Wrath in hand so Thrun wouldn't have trumped if drawn earlier. Relic did a ton of work overall- really liking it.
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So in the end the decision to be tricky with the round 5 draw didn't pay off and I ended up 11th out of the 33. In the future I think I'll just play it out until the final standings are known and the result of a draw is agiven.
The deck ran great- I really like the early aggression of the 11 one drops with some staying power through maindeck Dungroves and Scooze. Top-decking Scooze can be great as you dump your mana into pumping him. The Nettle Sentinels only caused a slightly suboptimal play once- forcing a Leatherback Baloth play before combat, but I didn't have any pump and the combat went fine anyway so no big deal.
The only change I'm considering is swapping out the two Pulses for 2x Guttural Response. Tonight was only the second time I've played UW but Guttural response on Cryptic Command would be a blowout. Pulse was supposed to fight Jund and Burn but I like the Relic/Dungrove/Dismember/Thrun package more. Not a lot of Burn in the meta and honestly I'm not too afraid of the burn matchup- our creatures are bigger and block well, they tend to fetch and shock a lot, we can establish a board before Eidolon and beat them down without casting spells. Burn is not auto-win but with all the U/x/x control in the meta Guttural Response has been recommended to me by several Stompy fans in the room and I think they're right.
TL;DR: Are these match reports a constructive addition to the thread or a waste of space? I don't care if people skip over them (I enjoy writing them) but I don't want to actively detract from the thread with clutter.
Thanks for the report, and nice result. As far as your question goes, I find these types of posts to be the most valuable. "I played this, here's how my games went, and here's my thoughts" are some of the best bits of data you can get. Please continue doing them!
They're nice for the growth of a thread in my opinion. Gives information on match ups, which are good which are bad.. if sideboard cards are helpful or not... etc. Theory crafting and card discussions are good, but posts of actual games against other decks are important as well. Please continue post match up reports if you have the time. thanks. :>
I would like to contribute on match ups as well.. however our LGS here has stopped Modern, and only do Standard for now. I'm still hoping that they would change their mind.
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4 Dryad Militant
4 Experiment One
3 Kessig Prowler
3 Scavenging Ooze
4 Strangleroot Geist
3 Aspect Of Hydra
3 Dismember
4 Rancor
4 Vines Of Vastwood
18 Forest
3 Treetop Village
1 Dismember
2 Eldritch Evolution
1 Lodestone Golem
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
4 Natural State
1 Obstinate Baloth
1 Reclamation Sage
2 Relic Of Progenitus
2 Spellskite
I really want to get the 4th Treetop Village/22nd land in the MD, but can't find the room. In the sideboard I want a 3rd graveyard hate spell, I've already softened up to decks like dedicated Dredge lists by dropping down to just 2 Relic. (My recent lists have been playing 2-3 Grafdigger's Cage + 1-2 Relic Of Progenitus.) I also want a second Reclamation Sage, but can't decide if it's worth it. Only realistic cut for that would be a Natural State. Thoughts on the sideboard silver bullets approach? Or the list in general? Constructive criticism appreciated.