That's some great results and a very detailed Report, thank you for the insights!
I see a pattern which I already saw when Golgari Grave-Troll was legal, which is: Dredge is actually a pretty good matchup for us. Bloodghast can't block, Amalgam Comes into Play tapped, Narcomoeba is just a chump-blocker, and with Dryad and ooze we have quite decent graveyard-interaction in the maindeck.
Since the deck is now on the rise again, can you confirm this based on your tournament? I actually haven't played the matchup in a while.
I am also very interested in the UR Drake/Phoenix matchup, which seems to be the new Thing in Modern - how is that one going?
Pretty straight Forward, 11 Fetches, no removal maindeck, and the full 12 one-drops, but no Pelt Collector. And the whole Sideboard-hate Collection in White. The Firespout Looks reallys neat! But again, no lifegain in the SB.
As far as I tested Experiment One seems to please players who prefer resiliency over power, and Pelt Collector pleases players who prefer power over resiliency.
I vote that this is a vines/blossoming situation.
Sounds like the perfect Explanation to me. Pelt Collector should definitely be added to the primer, but maybe not to the Basic list, but as an alternative (maybe 4.5 stars?). In my opinion it is a absolutely valid alternative.
At this point the trickiest thing for me is knowing what to take OUT in which matchups, so if anyone has any tips on that let me know!
Welcome to the Stompy Community
Your start looks really solid, as the other users pointed out, Narnam Renegade only works with Fetchlands (at least 4). And you might want to consider cutting a land, 21 is a good number. But you are definitely on the right way here.
Regarding Sideboarding: My experience is, that you mainly work on the non-creature side, while the beaters stay the same (because they are your way to win the game).
So you want to ask yourself, which spells don't fit the opponents deck. For example, Dismember Comes out against fast Aggro strategies, to save your life total. Creature removal in General Comes out against non-creature Combo Decks. Aspect and Rancor are cutting candidates whenever you face Control or Midrange Decks with lots of removal. And Scavenging ooze tends to be too slow, when you have to be as fast as possible and graveyard strategies are not a concern (for example Ad Nauseam).
These are basically my experiences on which Cards to board out.
Does anybody have an idea how much Players attended the SCG Classic in Dallas? That would really help to get behind this result, because in my opinion this list looks quite unusual.
No removal mainboard, in the Sideboard no lifegain against Burn or Valakut, no cheap artifact removal, no Damping Sphere? And the 3 Meliras looks to me like a waste of Sideboard Slots, because I would expect you can handle the Infect matchup via removal and Vines, and also Infect is not that popular.
Don't get me wrong, I love to see our favorite deck in the Top 16 at SCG, but how is this possible? Maybe a statistical outlier?
Besides the Splash-discussion, I would like to share my thoughts on Pelt Collector. I tested two of them in Addition to the 4 Experiments plus 2 Dryads and Renegades.
My first Impression actually is not really good. So far, the Collector feels to me like a worse Experiment, mostly because the Regeneration seems more relevant to me than Trample. Also, the 2 Counters on Experiment are more easily done than three on Collector - regardless, both of them often get removed before reaching the second Counter, so Experiment regenerates more often than Collector tramples. The "Die-Evolve" on Collector feels more narrow than Toughness-Evolve on Experiment, which happened much more often.
Of Course this is just the first Impression, maybe it's also matchup-biased (I did not keep track of my opponents decks). What do you think so far?
Regarding grinding in the Black splash discussion, I can really recommend Lead the Stampede. I Play 2 out of the Sideboard, and they can be absurd against Control and Midrange.
Might not be as potent as against Standard Affinity, cause the Scales Deck looks more resilient to me. But I haven't played the matchup myself so far.
I actually thought about including Hex Parasite.
I am very curious how this list will work. Please give us some updates as soon as you have first results!
The interaction between Pelt Collector and Groundbreaker seems interesting. For me Groundbreaker was always kind of unimpressive, because it provides no lasting board Advantage. It basically has to win the game, or it is not more than a Burn Spell.
With 8 Evolvers and the "Die"-clause on Pelt Collector that might make him worth the effort. Looking forward to your experinces.
By the way: Does anyone know wht's up with the Price of Gaddock Teeg?! I was just thinking of him cause of the discussion on Terminus - which I think our deck has no real answer to (besides Gaddock). I generally try to play around any kind of massremoval by not playing too many creatures while still applying enough pressure.
Thinking of it, that's actually a spot where Groundbreaker is useful.
I do NOT agree with all the Card Evaluations by the author, especially the Sideboard choices. But the gameplay introductions regarding the sequencing are quite helpful, if you didn't think of that so far. Definitely helped me improving my gameplay with the deck.
Also note that the article is from June 2016, so Narnam Renegade and Steel Leaf Champion did not exist back then.
I see it that way: Since all of our creatures are at least one green mana, Might of the Masses will almost always be worse than Aspect of Hydra. Or the other way around, this deck plays no tokens, so only activating Treetop Village could potentially produce a scenario where Might is better than Aspect.
And because most iterations of the deck want a maximum of 4 Aspect, playing Might as a 5th copy is also no consideration. So in my opinion, no, I think Might of the Masses is not worth a try.
By the way, maybe important Thing to notice about Pelt Collector: It is worded in a way that it doesn't "evolve" out of bigger Toughness (Experiment One does this). So, for example if we put we put a Rancor on Collector, it's a bit harder to evolve it up.
Not the end of the world, but might matter sometimes.
Yeh, I gotta think it replaces E1 more than goes alongside it... because running 8 evolvy things that enter the battlefield as 1/1 ... don't trigger off each other. Which has gotta be a problem.
Yes, this seems like an issue. Maybe an amount of ~6 evolvers is correct, so we have one in the opening hand guaranteed?
I think the most interesting question in testing will be, what is more useful, the double Evolve + potential Trample, or Regeneration.
That looks really powerful. Especially evolving out of dying creatures seems great. I don't think Trample will happen that often, if I remember how often Ex1 gets removed. But if it happens, thats even better.
Big question: Addition or replacement for Experiment One?
calonian dont block mantis and human is maybe the best deck and everywhere now. In this meta it is gold to be a Bad match up for humans
I wouldn't think the inclusion of Harpooner makes us a bad matchup for Humans.
I agree that Reach on the Avatar is a slight problem for Humans, but that is also because it grows by itself into a 4/3 or larger, Harpooner doesn't. Mantis Rider often attacks with Exalted Trigger(s) or carries +1/+1 Counters from Lieutenant, so I guess Harpooner will often be a chump blocker.
Further, a 3/2 with one less Devotion might make the deck weaker against other strategies, were Reach is not a Factor. In this case, it dies to more removal than Tusker - Brutality, K-Command, Snap-Block, Goblin Guide, etc.
And please don't get me wrong, I would actually like this Card to be good in Stompy, but so far I see more Cons than Pros. The only real upside is it being a Plummet for Mantis Rider or Freebooter.
I can't think of many situations where this is better than Plummet, Prey Upon or Avatar of the Resolute. I guess it can be some kind of versatile, but it's only really worth the effort if it kills a creature without dying itself.
That would be the case against Ornithopter, Vault Skirge, Souls or Thopter Tokens and maybe Kitesail Freebooter - assumed, there are no +1/+1 Counters one them.
Without the removal, it is just strictly worse than Avatar, quite similar to Garruk's Companion. I prefer playing Kalonian Tusker, because the 3 Toughness can be really important, and the Harpooner (thats what the Name means - native German here ) has no potential to grow by itself.
In a nutshell: Interesting Card, but i wouldn't think it's worth adding.
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I see a pattern which I already saw when Golgari Grave-Troll was legal, which is: Dredge is actually a pretty good matchup for us. Bloodghast can't block, Amalgam Comes into Play tapped, Narcomoeba is just a chump-blocker, and with Dryad and ooze we have quite decent graveyard-interaction in the maindeck.
Since the deck is now on the rise again, can you confirm this based on your tournament? I actually haven't played the matchup in a while.
I am also very interested in the UR Drake/Phoenix matchup, which seems to be the new Thing in Modern - how is that one going?
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1462374#paper
Pretty straight Forward, 11 Fetches, no removal maindeck, and the full 12 one-drops, but no Pelt Collector. And the whole Sideboard-hate Collection in White. The Firespout Looks reallys neat! But again, no lifegain in the SB.
What do you think?
Sounds like the perfect Explanation to me. Pelt Collector should definitely be added to the primer, but maybe not to the Basic list, but as an alternative (maybe 4.5 stars?). In my opinion it is a absolutely valid alternative.
Welcome to the Stompy Community
Your start looks really solid, as the other users pointed out, Narnam Renegade only works with Fetchlands (at least 4). And you might want to consider cutting a land, 21 is a good number. But you are definitely on the right way here.
Regarding Sideboarding: My experience is, that you mainly work on the non-creature side, while the beaters stay the same (because they are your way to win the game).
So you want to ask yourself, which spells don't fit the opponents deck. For example, Dismember Comes out against fast Aggro strategies, to save your life total. Creature removal in General Comes out against non-creature Combo Decks. Aspect and Rancor are cutting candidates whenever you face Control or Midrange Decks with lots of removal. And Scavenging ooze tends to be too slow, when you have to be as fast as possible and graveyard strategies are not a concern (for example Ad Nauseam).
These are basically my experiences on which Cards to board out.
No removal mainboard, in the Sideboard no lifegain against Burn or Valakut, no cheap artifact removal, no Damping Sphere? And the 3 Meliras looks to me like a waste of Sideboard Slots, because I would expect you can handle the Infect matchup via removal and Vines, and also Infect is not that popular.
Don't get me wrong, I love to see our favorite deck in the Top 16 at SCG, but how is this possible? Maybe a statistical outlier?
My first Impression actually is not really good. So far, the Collector feels to me like a worse Experiment, mostly because the Regeneration seems more relevant to me than Trample. Also, the 2 Counters on Experiment are more easily done than three on Collector - regardless, both of them often get removed before reaching the second Counter, so Experiment regenerates more often than Collector tramples. The "Die-Evolve" on Collector feels more narrow than Toughness-Evolve on Experiment, which happened much more often.
Of Course this is just the first Impression, maybe it's also matchup-biased (I did not keep track of my opponents decks). What do you think so far?
Regarding grinding in the Black splash discussion, I can really recommend Lead the Stampede. I Play 2 out of the Sideboard, and they can be absurd against Control and Midrange.
I run the Standard Anti-Artifact/-Enchantment Package Natural State and Unravel the Aether. Also tried Reclamation Sage which was neat, since it's an additional beater.
Might not be as potent as against Standard Affinity, cause the Scales Deck looks more resilient to me. But I haven't played the matchup myself so far.
I actually thought about including Hex Parasite.
The interaction between Pelt Collector and Groundbreaker seems interesting. For me Groundbreaker was always kind of unimpressive, because it provides no lasting board Advantage. It basically has to win the game, or it is not more than a Burn Spell.
With 8 Evolvers and the "Die"-clause on Pelt Collector that might make him worth the effort. Looking forward to your experinces.
By the way: Does anyone know wht's up with the Price of Gaddock Teeg?! I was just thinking of him cause of the discussion on Terminus - which I think our deck has no real answer to (besides Gaddock). I generally try to play around any kind of massremoval by not playing too many creatures while still applying enough pressure.
Thinking of it, that's actually a spot where Groundbreaker is useful.
https://www.5colorcombo.com/posts/sTZe7P5D8p
I do NOT agree with all the Card Evaluations by the author, especially the Sideboard choices. But the gameplay introductions regarding the sequencing are quite helpful, if you didn't think of that so far. Definitely helped me improving my gameplay with the deck.
Also note that the article is from June 2016, so Narnam Renegade and Steel Leaf Champion did not exist back then.
And because most iterations of the deck want a maximum of 4 Aspect, playing Might as a 5th copy is also no consideration. So in my opinion, no, I think Might of the Masses is not worth a try.
Not the end of the world, but might matter sometimes.
Yes, this seems like an issue. Maybe an amount of ~6 evolvers is correct, so we have one in the opening hand guaranteed?
I think the most interesting question in testing will be, what is more useful, the double Evolve + potential Trample, or Regeneration.
Big question: Addition or replacement for Experiment One?
I wouldn't think the inclusion of Harpooner makes us a bad matchup for Humans.
I agree that Reach on the Avatar is a slight problem for Humans, but that is also because it grows by itself into a 4/3 or larger, Harpooner doesn't. Mantis Rider often attacks with Exalted Trigger(s) or carries +1/+1 Counters from Lieutenant, so I guess Harpooner will often be a chump blocker.
Further, a 3/2 with one less Devotion might make the deck weaker against other strategies, were Reach is not a Factor. In this case, it dies to more removal than Tusker - Brutality, K-Command, Snap-Block, Goblin Guide, etc.
And please don't get me wrong, I would actually like this Card to be good in Stompy, but so far I see more Cons than Pros. The only real upside is it being a Plummet for Mantis Rider or Freebooter.
That would be the case against Ornithopter, Vault Skirge, Souls or Thopter Tokens and maybe Kitesail Freebooter - assumed, there are no +1/+1 Counters one them.
Without the removal, it is just strictly worse than Avatar, quite similar to Garruk's Companion. I prefer playing Kalonian Tusker, because the 3 Toughness can be really important, and the Harpooner (thats what the Name means - native German here
In a nutshell: Interesting Card, but i wouldn't think it's worth adding.