MTG Salvation

Quote from amicdeep »

Heroic intervention goes in the same spot as leap and shapers. Personally I prefer it to either as it also stalls put boardwipes.

I disagree with this somewhat. I run 2x Heroic Intervention and 2x Shapers' Sanctuary in my sideboard. The former is best versus board wipes and the latter versus spot removal. When side boarding in, the former often replaces 2x Blossoming Defense and the latter typically replaces 2x Rancor (which is weak against instant speed spot removal).

I completely agree that Evolutionary Leap and Shapers' Sanctuary fill the same spot. The trade off is that Leap is much more mana intensive, but guarantees a creature.

Quote from XmalkuthX »

My experiences with Nature's Way have not been positive. The deck operates on so few lands that two mana is often practically a whole turn, which can be a huge tempo-loss. I think pretty much everything that isn't a creature or a very impactful sideboard card needs to cost one mana.

This was the general consensus on Stompy for a long time, which is why Prey Upon was considered the only alternative to Dismember, even with so many other 2 CMC fight options that buffed and/or operated at instant speed. I haven't tried Nature's Way myself, so I can't comment beyond that.

Any thoughts on Land's Edge? It is mentioned on the first page of this thread in a positive light, but never comes up again.

I like that it gives you something to do with extraneous lands in hand, but I'm guessing it just isn't enough damage to be worth it. Discarding 20 lands does 60 damage (enough to kill a player and half). However, to have that many lands in hand, you'd have to draw ~55 cards, which would be game over with Psychosis Crawler. I guess I'm just looking for a second opinion to confirm my suspicions.

I'm no expert, but I'd put Root Maze in the side board section. It wrecks decks dependent on fetchlands.

Quote from MagicYio »

PS: I haven't written about Witchstalker and Great Sable Stag, and I know these cards were used in the past. What is your opinion on them now?

Witchstalker is a budget Dungrove Elder. I still use him since I don't have Dungroves, but he probably belongs in the "Suboptimal" section as a budget alternative. The Stag competes with Prowling Serpopard and Skylasher, none of which see main deck play.

As a primarily casual and extreme budget player, I think you can get rid of the "casual lists" section. I think the "sub-optimal" section already covers the cards that are worth mentioning. The only change I'd recommend is clearly calling out casual/budget alternatives so they are easy to locate, either with a symbol or a particular colored text in their description so they are easy to find. For example, Garruk's Companion as an alternate for Avatar of the Resolute, Prey Upon as an alternate for Dismember, maybe some of the better one drops as alternates for Kessig Prowler, etc. It may not be worth the effort to do that though.

The only thing I see that might be worth keeping is some form of counter build featuring Hardened Scales, but unless we have someone who has a tested build that we can add to the "alternate lists" section, I wouldn't worry about it.

Great work! I'm glad someone is taking the time to do this.

Some comments/suggestions:
Rather than "Bad" cards, I would rename the section "Sub-optimal" choices. Many of the cards listed there are still decent cards for our deck (e.g., Garruk's Companion if you don't have Avatar of the Resolute). They just aren't as good as other options.

In the Prey Upon description, I would include a comparison to Nature's Way since that is the main board card it is closest to. It still has the advantage of costing less mana than Nature's Way.

Obstinate Baloth - I don't think this belongs in the life gain section. As you state, it's primary purpose is to counter discard from Liliana, et al. Life gain is just a bonus. Perhaps it should go in the "Others" section.

You might consider creating a sub-section against removal and sweepers. Shapers' Sanctuary, Heroic Intervention, and Evolutionary Leap all fall in that category.


Regarding cards you asked about:
Harmonize - I believe this was excluded on the basis that it costs 4 mana.
Eldritch Evolution - The general consensus was that you might as well just put in the 3 CMC creature that you were going to search for. It works well for toolbox decks, but not for Stompy.
Act of Aggression - Sideboard card useful against anyone that drops large game-enders. You steal it and use their game-ender to win.
Nissa, Voice of Zendikar - Perhaps in a Hardened Scales version of the deck? Otherwise, I think the consensus was no, too slow.
Kalonian Tusker - I agree with keeping this in the main board section. I'm actually still running 2 in my list.

In regards to sideboard, I like the following:

Shapers' Sanctuary - Fills a one drop spot and fights single target removal.
Heroic Intervention - Counters board wipes.
Relic of Progenitus - Graveyard hate that replaces itself.
Pulse of Murasa - I run one of these and one Life Goes On. Typically, the extra creature is invaluable by the time I need to gain life.
Unravel the Aether/Deglamer - Complements Natural State by dodging Chalice of the Void at one. Also, shuffling back into the library is often better than putting cards in the graveyard, e.g., Wurmcoil Engine and graveyard-based strategies.

How often have you boarded in Fecundity? Has it worked well? The 3 CMC seems like it might be unreliable with our low land count, resulting in it coming out too late to be effective.

I started with 4 Leatherback Baloths, but more often than not I found that late game I wanted creatures that could do damage the turn it hit the field. (Plus, Path to Exile doesn't care how big the creature is.) As a result, I've settled on 3 Boggart Ram-Gangs and 2 Leatherbacks.

Quote from Myrmadillo »

Were there any cards in Amonkhet, Hour of Devastation, or Ixalan worth considering? Rile is the only one I saw worth considering.

I'll take the lack of response as a no.

Has anyone tried out Aetherflux Reservoir? How many spells do you typically cast when Zada is going off? 10 spells is 55 life, 14 is 105, and 17 is 153, which is basically game over for the table.

Were there any cards in Amonkhet, Hour of Devastation, or Ixalan worth considering? Rile is the only one I saw worth considering.

Thanks for the suggestion!

At this point, I'm moving away from forced attack cards because I've found them fairly ineffective compared to other types of disruption. Kazuul can be a prime target for removal and, when he's not in play, forcing people to attack you isn't a great thing. I like that Trove of Temptation has further utility stapled on (unlike Angel's Trumpet and Grand Melee), but getting one extra mana of any color isn't a huge benefit for a mono-colored deck. Something like a looting effect would have been much more beneficial. That said, when Kazuul is in play, this is liable to net you a 3/3 ogre every turn at the cost of making you a target. The question is whether the opponents are more likely to send sacrificial lambs your direction or send something you can't deal with easily. My concern is that most of the time it will be the latter.

<Reserved for Discussion of Card Selection>


Alternative Cards

• Anti-Air: Homura, Human Ascendant and Chaosphere are outstanding cards that I never managed to acquire. Rather than relying on these cards to give me air defense, I opted to increase the number of dragons in the deck.

As you stated, mono-Red has been picking up a lot of decent card advantage lately. Because of that, I think Journeyer's Kite has been surpassed by other cards. (Also, I don't own Valakut, so I'd rather just draw a card than search out a land.)

I tried Burnished Hart out a while back and eventually cut it. I agree that the 6 mana makes it too clunky. As for Wild-Field Scarecrow, I never managed to find a slot for it. My meta isn't super aggressive, so I haven't needed the early blocker.

Both Endbringer and Outpost Siege have been very good to me, but I don't have some of the more expensive cards (e.g., Mind's Eye). Oddly enough, I'm actually more excited about Vance's Blasting Cannons being a pseudo Outpost Siege than I am about the land side. Not being able to play exiled lands is a pretty big negative though.

Hmm...I was expecting a response to my last comment. I figured I would be the minority opinion and I wanted to hear some counter arguments.