I've tried white splash for a while and even though Blessed Alliance and Dromoka's Command looks good while deckbuilding, requiring 2 mana is a big concern. However, I haven't faced many bogles to test the true power of Blessed Alliance. However, in the end I decided to replace spells we have with 1 cmc ones. So, here are my points:
No removal in main seems really strange. I almost always find a use for a removal in game 1. I guess Tuskers get replaced with Paths in games 2 and 3. In a white splash I'd definitely have 2x Blessed Alliance (sb) and 2xDromoka's Command (mb or sb), so I find the sideboard not up to my taste. ( Maybe bogles were banned for that tournament ) However, the pilot had some success with the list, would've been great if had a chance to hear the matchups and the card choices.
Thanks, it really is solid. I haven't tested Greenwheel Liberator just because I think Narnam Renegade is almost always better than her. Comes down early, and even without revolt can kill almost anything, with revolt attacks/blocks more favorably, and let's you keep up mana for your protection spells and pumps. However, the biggest plus of narnam is deathtouch. I feel like one of the most overlooked combos is deathtouch + trample. Narnam Renegade paired with Rancor gives you a chance against elves, humans, death's shadow decks.
The first match I joined the queue with the white sideboard splash I was paired with Bogles, which was funny. I lost game 1, then game 2 on turn 3 I played an untapped Temple Garden, passed the turn with 3 mana open and the opponent didn't attack on turn 3, I killed them on turn 4 I didn't know Blessed Alliance scared them this much. Unfortunately though I had to leave game 3 for a real life issue. For the Stony Silence part, it deals with hardened scales affinity, affinity, and KCI (however they still can improvise and get their Ensnaring Bridge), but I think combinations of 2x Natural State, 2x Deglamer, 2x Pithing Needle, and 2+1x Dismember can deal with them anyhow. By the way is Damping Sphere any good against KCI?
As a last point, I am planning to add 1x Horizon Canopy which I found in a box after finishing a friendly league 4-1 with the mono green list. My only loss was against Ad Nauseam.
Back to Nature is a very fine solution, one that I've used from time to time in my sideboard, but I think its uses are so narrow. What I had in mind was cards that give me a better game against bogles as well having some other uses in some other matchups. The thing is I only play on mtgo, so my meta is something like this.
I'm running this list for a while now and it's been quite successful in 2-man queues and friendly leagues lately. The sideboard tries to cover as much matchups as possible, I've been tuning it for a while and I've settled for the list.
Well, as I said I am happy with the list, 3 playsets of 1-drops lets me be aggressive as well as be defensive when needed (in terms providing early blockers against burn, humans, and giving me more creatures before a Liliana of the Veil hits the board)
The problem is I still have almost no game against bogles. The best I can hope for is turn 1 fetch into Narnam Renegade, turn 2 Rancor and hold up mana for Natural State, and then hope to have Deglamers and the 2nd Natural Statein hand for the following turns. As you might have already guessed, this happens not that often, which led me thinking of splashing a color just for the sideboard. I am thinking of going white with 2 Temple Gardens in the main. I don't want to lose the aggressive part of our game plan, so 3+ cmc cards are not in my radar, except from 1 card that you'll see soon.
Here are the cards I've been thinking of, they are not just for bogles, but the ones I thought to appear in a GW sideboard:
Blessed Alliance - Best option against bogles, good against humans (can make them sac, or untap 2 creatures to block)
Spellskite - 2nd best option against bogles that I could think of, might be a bit slow if we want to protect it against Path to Exile, might be good against burn also
Dromoka's Command - Good against burn and maybe sometimes against bogles, fight is also relevant against spirits, humans, pyromancer
Knight of Autumn - A very versatile card overall, can be used against burn, humans, spirits, maybe even more? A bit slow against bogles, and without a flicker effect it's not enough against them
What do you guys think about a white splash in sideboard? I feel like white offers the most, and also the best option against bogles, but maybe black and red have some good options too? I remember there have been some debates on going Gx for better sideboard options but I don't remember if there was a card by card evaluation.
And what matchups do you guys struggle the most against?
Charnel Troll can grow a 3/3 evolve creature, that's why I like to keep him. Also, If he survives, he attacks at least as a 5/5 trampler, which is huge. Midnight Reaper seems like a card for grinding, which we know any variant of stompy is really bad at, or it requires a sac outlet, it can be used in a reversed melira combo However, if I'm missing a useful trick, please let me know.
For the fun part: I have proxied and played almost any other deck and somehow I cannot enjoy any of them as much as I do stompy. Small zoo and gobots are close in terms of fun but their inconsistency and so low resiliency takes the fun part from them after some games. However, I'm a big fan of +1/+1 counters, I've tried to build mono green Hardened Scales decks but they were also not resilient enough, Hardened Scales that is not on a stick is not good for a stompyish style deck. So, I've been trying to build something with Winding Constrictor. The creature base is so similar to stompy, I've tried Bloodhall Ooze for a while and even though it's great when it works, it's so much inconsistent. So, lately I've been having so much fun with this build
I still couldn't try the abzan list but I guess I'll have fun with it. It has big creatures, some combat tricks, a little bit more creature removal (compared to my 2+1 Dismembers and 0+1 Prey Upon stompy list), and a fun planeswalker. I wanted to keep it like stompy (so that I could post it in this topic :)), big creatures and combat tricks, so that's why I removed the Inquisition of Kozileks and Thoughtseizes.
I still feel like none of the builds can match the power of Rancor + Aspect of Hydra, but they are quite close.
Lastly, another really fun build is this RUG Evolve deck. It tries to gain board presence in first 2-3 turns and then have counterspell backup. I feel like Pelt Collector can work better than Experiment One in this build even though the builds do not have Rancor just because the deck have access to counter spells. However, I won't argue about that deck in here as it already has a separate topic for itself.
Anyways, here are some fun builds for you to try and enjoy. Note that the sideboard choices and landbase are not perfect. I tried to have some sideboard answers for all the decks but I might have missed some, now that I think about it I was planning to add 2x Blessed Alliance for the bogles matchup but I forgot. So, have a good day/night, and thoughts and comments are very welcome.
I’ve tried to make Hardened Scales work in a stompy shell for about 2 years and the decks are never as powerful as stompy itself. The reason it is good in affinity is because it’s never a bad top deck, actually it might be just what they want to top deck, however, for stompy it’s the worst top deck. They move the counters, we only get them on etb triggers, apart from Scavenging Ooze of course.
1- Why do you guys deny Dismember and go for Nature's Way?
2-
Wow sorry for that, I somehow read that "U" as "W", better not write posts here as first thing in the morning
4 Experiment One
4 Dryad Militant
4 Narnam Renegade
4 Strangleroot Geist
4 Avatar of the Resolute
2 Scavenging Ooze
3 Steel Leaf Champion
Spells
4 Aspect of Hydra
4 Vines of Vastwood
2 Dismember
4 Rancor
10 Forest
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Treetop Village
1 Dryad Arbor
2 Damping Sphere
2 Pithing Needle
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Natural State
2 Deglamer
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Dismember
1 Torpor Orb
1 Prey Upon
1 Feed the Clan
I have a 2nd list with this sideboard:
2 Damping Sphere
2 Stony Silence
1 Blessed Alliance
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Natural State
2 Deglamer
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Dismember
1 Torpor Orb
1 Prey Upon
1 Feed the Clan
The first match I joined the queue with the white sideboard splash I was paired with Bogles, which was funny. I lost game 1, then game 2 on turn 3 I played an untapped Temple Garden, passed the turn with 3 mana open and the opponent didn't attack on turn 3, I killed them on turn 4 I didn't know Blessed Alliance scared them this much. Unfortunately though I had to leave game 3 for a real life issue. For the Stony Silence part, it deals with hardened scales affinity, affinity, and KCI (however they still can improvise and get their Ensnaring Bridge), but I think combinations of 2x Natural State, 2x Deglamer, 2x Pithing Needle, and 2+1x Dismember can deal with them anyhow. By the way is Damping Sphere any good against KCI?
As a last point, I am planning to add 1x Horizon Canopy which I found in a box after finishing a friendly league 4-1 with the mono green list. My only loss was against Ad Nauseam.
4 Experiment One
4 Dryad Militant
4 Narnam Renegade
4 Strangleroot Geist
4 Avatar of the Resolute
2 Scavenging Ooze
3 Steel Leaf Champion
Spells
4 Aspect of Hydra
4 Vines of Vastwood
2 Dismember
4 Rancor
10 Forest
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Treetop Village
1 Dryad Arbor
2 Damping Sphere
2 Pithing Needle
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Natural State
2 Deglamer
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Dismember
1 Torpor Orb
1 Prey Upon
1 Feed the Clan
Well, as I said I am happy with the list, 3 playsets of 1-drops lets me be aggressive as well as be defensive when needed (in terms providing early blockers against burn, humans, and giving me more creatures before a Liliana of the Veil hits the board)
The problem is I still have almost no game against bogles. The best I can hope for is turn 1 fetch into Narnam Renegade, turn 2 Rancor and hold up mana for Natural State, and then hope to have Deglamers and the 2nd Natural Statein hand for the following turns. As you might have already guessed, this happens not that often, which led me thinking of splashing a color just for the sideboard. I am thinking of going white with 2 Temple Gardens in the main. I don't want to lose the aggressive part of our game plan, so 3+ cmc cards are not in my radar, except from 1 card that you'll see soon.
Here are the cards I've been thinking of, they are not just for bogles, but the ones I thought to appear in a GW sideboard:
What do you guys think about a white splash in sideboard? I feel like white offers the most, and also the best option against bogles, but maybe black and red have some good options too? I remember there have been some debates on going Gx for better sideboard options but I don't remember if there was a card by card evaluation.
And what matchups do you guys struggle the most against?
For the fun part: I have proxied and played almost any other deck and somehow I cannot enjoy any of them as much as I do stompy. Small zoo and gobots are close in terms of fun but their inconsistency and so low resiliency takes the fun part from them after some games. However, I'm a big fan of +1/+1 counters, I've tried to build mono green Hardened Scales decks but they were also not resilient enough, Hardened Scales that is not on a stick is not good for a stompyish style deck. So, I've been trying to build something with Winding Constrictor. The creature base is so similar to stompy, I've tried Bloodhall Ooze for a while and even though it's great when it works, it's so much inconsistent. So, lately I've been having so much fun with this build
4 Narnam Renegade
4 Winding Constrictor
4 Strangleroot Geist
4 Avatar of the Resolute
3 Scavenging Ooze
2 Charnel Troll
1 Dreadbore
2 Thoughtseize
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Fatal Push
1 Dismember
2 Forest
2 Swamp
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Blood Crypt
2 Overgrown Tomb
2 Stomping Ground
3 Raging Ravine
1 Blooming Marsh
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Spike Feeder
2 Damping Sphere
2 Golgari Charm
2 Natural State
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Damnation
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Torpor Orb
Lately I've been thinking of 2 things about this build:
So I have something like this in mind:
4 Narnam Renegade
4 Avatar of the Resolute
4 Winding Constrictor
4 Strangleroot Geist
3 Scavenging Ooze
2 Charnel Troll
2 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Fatal Push
1 Dismember
3 Path to Exile
3 Dromoka's Command
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Windswept Heath
2 Godless Shrine
2 Temple Garden
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Blooming Marsh
2 Forest
2 Swamp
2 Plains
2 Rest in Peace
2 Stony Silence
2 Damping Sphere
2 Golgari Charm
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Damnation
3 Knight of Autumn
2 Natural State
I still couldn't try the abzan list but I guess I'll have fun with it. It has big creatures, some combat tricks, a little bit more creature removal (compared to my 2+1 Dismembers and 0+1 Prey Upon stompy list), and a fun planeswalker. I wanted to keep it like stompy (so that I could post it in this topic :)), big creatures and combat tricks, so that's why I removed the Inquisition of Kozileks and Thoughtseizes.
I still feel like none of the builds can match the power of Rancor + Aspect of Hydra, but they are quite close.
Lastly, another really fun build is this RUG Evolve deck. It tries to gain board presence in first 2-3 turns and then have counterspell backup. I feel like Pelt Collector can work better than Experiment One in this build even though the builds do not have Rancor just because the deck have access to counter spells. However, I won't argue about that deck in here as it already has a separate topic for itself.
Anyways, here are some fun builds for you to try and enjoy. Note that the sideboard choices and landbase are not perfect. I tried to have some sideboard answers for all the decks but I might have missed some, now that I think about it I was planning to add 2x Blessed Alliance for the bogles matchup but I forgot. So, have a good day/night, and thoughts and comments are very welcome.
What is your mainboard like?