I'm an enthusiast for this deck, and I find it odd too that this doesn't even have a proper primer and more discussion. The facebook community is pretty active though.
I think I'll be testing BbearZ's list, just instead of dungroves I'll probably add two more aspects, sometimes I rather gamble on the christmasland curve for the win.
Has anyone tried yet upping the manacurve with dorks to play 4cmc cards? We have some explosive options (mainly CoCo and Surrak, which I would use because of the haste it gives), I'm really interested on the potential of this type of plays on Stompy, I find the pseudo-evasion of Steel Leaf very relevant regarding this, Baloth didn't have that, but it adds up to a more explosive plan, trying to sneak in a big chunk of damage.
edit: I've tried setessan tactics btw, it's okay-ish when you have a stale board that you need to disrupt to get some damage in, but feels really bad when you need to put pressure and you draw it.
If there was a ‘best list’ people could agree on, we wouldn’t be 6180 replies deep.
Some people like Blossoming Defense. Some don’t.
Some like Narnam Renegade. Some don’t.
Rhonas. Groundbreaker. Dungrove Elder. Hashep Oasis. Treetop Village. All of these cards are loved by some and shunned by some.
It would greatly help to have a definition of what is "stompy" and what isn't. So we don't so often fall into discussions around lists that people consider "not stompy" for X or Y reasons, and maybe with a clear definition of what we want stompy to be we can look better at new cards in terms of how they affect our deck.
Unlike other deck archetypes, we don't revolve around a particular combo or card, as far as I understad, our overall definition of stompy is to play creatures that are green and can end the game on turn 4, trying to avoid disruption or using strategies that can be further disrupted or that dilute our initial gameplan: to deal 20 damage by turn 4.
Nicol Bolas, an ancient elder dragon from the era of the great dragon war. Evil.
Planes, entire worlds, unaware of the existence of other worlds as part of the multiverse.
Plains, a vast field, mostly associated with white mana on this game.
Ajani Goldmane, a leonin warrior whose brother died and who is a planeswalker.
In high fantasy, a leyline is a flowing river of magic, and yes, it can move, it often don't, but it is possible.
Imagine the leylines as the lines of a magnetic field, and the god in question as a small magnet having this lines passing through itself, drawing mana from them and giving mana back.
Some anecdotal numbers from stuff I've read in Twitter. Someone saying STD only has about 100 people signed up in the league.
It's very relevant. See, at this time, start of every season, Modern tends to be quite dead online because most people are busy playing Standard and Limited with the new cards.
And generally speaking, STD leagues tend to have twice or 3 times as many people signed up than MDN leagues.
Well, right now, at the very beginning of a new set, MDN has about 250 people, STD has about 100. Food for thought, seems to imply either people are REALLY disinterested about this STD, or people are quite happy about this MDN, or, most likely, both.
TBH, I think it's both too. And for the same reasons.
Standard feels like a solved format with little to no room for playing a preferred strategy, unless it happens to be saheeli combo or mardu vehicles. Modern on the other hand, even with the results of DS, feels open...like any deck could potentially give a surprise. I imagine that the reaction people is having towards this meta is due to that, and just the prospect of checking out if my pet deck or favorite archetype has a chance of dealing with the dominant strategy is entertaining.
But you can't cast Myr Superion without BTE/herbalists, and you can't cast Talara's Battalion without another drop on that turn. You can cast Exemplar alone. Even if it's an inefficient play.
I rather a format made healthier by printing new cards rather than by bannings/unbannings.
Whenever they ban something people lose money, and I'm not talking about people that treat this game as an investment, but rather players that pay hard earned money for the expensive cards required to play this format.
I like "no changes", even if some people believe that their preferred playstyle should be better positioned in the meta (AKA control, AKA blue), I would much rather see progress in that regard by adding new elements to the game.
Right now there are decks that are really strong against Death Shadow but doesn't show up due to decks like Tron being present. Does that mean that tron should get banned instead? but then tron is strong because the decks that predate on tron are being predated by other decks, and so on, and so on. In that regard, percentages mean little. Just add new cards and let the meta shift, and unless something is just so clearly broken that you can't print anything to beat it without destroying the depth of the game, then use the bannings.
If twin was a victim of a different mentality when regulating the format, or truly deserved it's ban, it's already done, R&D is allowed to change their opinion and to learn from their experiences, celebrate that they're being more cautious, and don't ask blood for blood when you see they are not butchering another deck because they killed the one you liked.
Also, I've seen this deck pop up on the metagame list of mtggoldfish, I wonder how long until it is moved from deck creation to developing competitive. There is an astounding lack of information about this deck online, specially considering how fun it is to play.
If Walking Ballista being a card that can't be hit by CoCo or Chord is being considered, why isn't Helix Pinnacle? It does nothing on its own, but it's a one drop, and has built in protection, can win you games out of a CoCo (if you get the other pieces) or out of Chord (at the end of opponents turn). Things that Walking Ballista can't do, due to summoning sickness.
My prediction is that the decks will not be about iconic races, but classes.
Soldiers/Warriors/Knights, Wizards, Rogues and either Druids or Shamans.
They will all be multicolored, maybe one of them on 3 colors, but most of them on 2.
So, is the Vizier of the Menagerie the card draw engine this deck is missing? It doesn't die to bolt, it doesn't reveal the card to your opponent, it fixes the mana even for colorless, it synergizes with stirrings (stirrings lets you filter your top 5 cards in case what you see isn't what you need).
It is card advantage when you have creatures on top, but it is no scrying.
Has anyone tried yet upping the manacurve with dorks to play 4cmc cards? We have some explosive options (mainly CoCo and Surrak, which I would use because of the haste it gives), I'm really interested on the potential of this type of plays on Stompy, I find the pseudo-evasion of Steel Leaf very relevant regarding this, Baloth didn't have that, but it adds up to a more explosive plan, trying to sneak in a big chunk of damage.
edit: I've tried setessan tactics btw, it's okay-ish when you have a stale board that you need to disrupt to get some damage in, but feels really bad when you need to put pressure and you draw it.
It would greatly help to have a definition of what is "stompy" and what isn't. So we don't so often fall into discussions around lists that people consider "not stompy" for X or Y reasons, and maybe with a clear definition of what we want stompy to be we can look better at new cards in terms of how they affect our deck.
Unlike other deck archetypes, we don't revolve around a particular combo or card, as far as I understad, our overall definition of stompy is to play creatures that are green and can end the game on turn 4, trying to avoid disruption or using strategies that can be further disrupted or that dilute our initial gameplan: to deal 20 damage by turn 4.
Planes, entire worlds, unaware of the existence of other worlds as part of the multiverse.
Plains, a vast field, mostly associated with white mana on this game.
Ajani Goldmane, a leonin warrior whose brother died and who is a planeswalker.
Imagine the leylines as the lines of a magnetic field, and the god in question as a small magnet having this lines passing through itself, drawing mana from them and giving mana back.
TBH, I think it's both too. And for the same reasons.
Standard feels like a solved format with little to no room for playing a preferred strategy, unless it happens to be saheeli combo or mardu vehicles. Modern on the other hand, even with the results of DS, feels open...like any deck could potentially give a surprise. I imagine that the reaction people is having towards this meta is due to that, and just the prospect of checking out if my pet deck or favorite archetype has a chance of dealing with the dominant strategy is entertaining.
Whenever they ban something people lose money, and I'm not talking about people that treat this game as an investment, but rather players that pay hard earned money for the expensive cards required to play this format.
I like "no changes", even if some people believe that their preferred playstyle should be better positioned in the meta (AKA control, AKA blue), I would much rather see progress in that regard by adding new elements to the game.
Right now there are decks that are really strong against Death Shadow but doesn't show up due to decks like Tron being present. Does that mean that tron should get banned instead? but then tron is strong because the decks that predate on tron are being predated by other decks, and so on, and so on. In that regard, percentages mean little. Just add new cards and let the meta shift, and unless something is just so clearly broken that you can't print anything to beat it without destroying the depth of the game, then use the bannings.
If twin was a victim of a different mentality when regulating the format, or truly deserved it's ban, it's already done, R&D is allowed to change their opinion and to learn from their experiences, celebrate that they're being more cautious, and don't ask blood for blood when you see they are not butchering another deck because they killed the one you liked.
Soldiers/Warriors/Knights, Wizards, Rogues and either Druids or Shamans.
They will all be multicolored, maybe one of them on 3 colors, but most of them on 2.
It is card advantage when you have creatures on top, but it is no scrying.