Feeling stompy

[fimo]

Hi everybody!
I wonder why it is so rare to see around stompy decks featuring the classic lock pieces in the form of sol lands + chrome mox + chalice of the void + trinisphere. Simian spirit guide or lotus petal can give the additional mana to play a T1 3cc lock piece which often steals the game. It seems like today there are a lot of millioncolors.dec so I would imagine that such a deck would pray on all these greedy mana bases. I think that moon effects are heavily underplayed in a format that allows you to play a T1 blood moon.

It seems to me that there are two main directions to take with the deck:
- Play red. This gives access to extra lock pieces / mana denial in the form of blood moon, magus of the moon and stone rain
- Play white. This gives access to mana denial in the form of thalia, suppression field and aven mindcensor. Perhaps even Armageddon.

I wonder whether you have suggestion regarding the way to go in today’s metagame with such deck. Red or white? Moon effects or white effects? Storm is becoming very big so I would like to live the dream of T1 trinisphere.

comments are appreciated

[theillest]

Hi everybody!
I wonder why it is so rare to see around stompy decks featuring the classic lock pieces in the form of sol lands + chrome mox + chalice of the void + trinisphere. Simian spirit guide or lotus petal can give the additional mana to play a T1 3cc lock piece which often steals the game. It seems like today there are a lot of millioncolors.dec so I would imagine that such a deck would pray on all these greedy mana bases. I think that moon effects are heavily underplayed in a format that allows you to play a T1 blood moon.

It seems to me that there are two main directions to take with the deck:
- Play red. This gives access to extra lock pieces / mana denial in the form of blood moon, magus of the moon and stone rain
- Play white. This gives access to mana denial in the form of thalia, suppression field and aven mindcensor. Perhaps even Armageddon.

I wonder whether you have suggestion regarding the way to go in today’s metagame with such deck. Red or white? Moon effects or white effects? Storm is becoming very big so I would like to live the dream of T1 trinisphere.

comments are appreciated

There is an active dragon stompy thread to check out. 8 Moon effects can put the hurt on many DTBs. Some of the field cares a lot less. You don't see them taking major tourneys because it's a luck and mulling dependent deck. I think hatebears have an even weaker plan. You can also look at painter or stax if you like that lock flavor.

[Dice_Box]

Most active Stompy thread with 3 Red lists currently in disctuion: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...-Dragon-Stompy
The Green Stompy thread: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...Berserk-Stompy
The White Stompy thread: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...k-Angel-Stompy
The Painter thread:http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...perial-Painter
(Note that Painter is more of a Combo deck that runs off the stompy mana base and part of the red versions control elements and not a Stompy deck in it's traditional definition.)

The reason you do not see them around is that their strengths are mostly in attacking Meta's and less attacking whole Tournaments. Painter does see some high placements sometimes but it is by far the most expensive of the groups to play. It is also my favorite version to play.

[Barook]

The reason you do not see them around is that their strengths are mostly in attacking Meta's and less attacking whole Tournaments. Painter does see some high placements sometimes but it is by far the most expensive of the groups to play. It is also my favorite version to play.

I think it's more of a consistency issue than anything in long tournaments. Brainstorm decks consistently do well because they can fix their draws with cantrips. If your topdecks suck, you're boned.

Stompy decks also lose alot of power if they're on the draw because your opponent actually can do stuff (fetch basics, play mana dorks/Vial, etc.) on their T1 instead of being locked out.

[Dice_Box]

Yes I can see that. I think that is why Painter gets better placements. Because it plays Combo/Control in a more midrange format. Some decks have taken to using Top as a way to soften the draws. But yes, that opening hand can be a killer when you looking for a coloured mana, a SOL land and a lock piece while hoping not to have your lock counted.

[Infinitium]

If you're going for consistency Artifact Stompy might be worth checking out; high landcount (24-ish) with manlands and wasteland to fix floods, Phyrexian Revoker to gimp quite the few T1 plays that otherwise give you trouble and with a slight blue splash you have more than enough threats in the 3-4cc range (Master of Etherium, Lodestone Golem, Phyrexian Metamorph etc) to bring the game to a close before the opponent can stabilize, and Crucible of Worlds gives some semblance of a longer gameplan in itself.

[FTW]

The version getting the highest placing, I think, is actually running the 2 colors you didn't mention: Blue/Black.

Check out the 8Tezz lists. They may have found the solution to consistency issues, getting to run Thirst for Knowledge to dig and Jace+Tezzeret both to dig and as resilient win conditions.

I was always a fan of Armageddon Stax, but the deck's biggest issue is that matches take forever and you get a ton of 1-0-1 or 0-1-1 matches :s.

Anyway, I'm surprised no one linked ArmaStax... it's not a "stompy" deck but plays the same mana denial + artifact lock piece theme, like a bad version of Vintage Stax. Something like this:

4 Chalice of the Void
4 Trinisphere
4 Crucible of Worlds
4 Ghostly Prison
3-4 Smokestack
0-4 Lodestone Golem
3-4 Armageddon
0-2 Humility
0-2 Moat
0-3 Magus of the Tabernacle
0-1 Batterskull
0-3 Suppression Field
0-2 Baneslayer Angel
0-2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

4 Mox Diamond
4 Flagstones of Trokair
4 Wasteland
3-4 Mishra's Factory
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
x Basic Plains
0-1 Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
0-1 Kor Haven

Obviously you pick card combinations that synergize. For example, Lodestone Golem+Magus obviously doesn't play well with Moat/Humility, and Suppression Field doesn't play well with utility lands. Humility builds would win off Factories and Batterskull and Elspeth, Moat builds off Baneslayer and Elspeth. Lodestone Golem builds would probably have higher artifact counts. Etc.

There is also Demon Stompy with Nether Void and Tomb of Urami FTLOLz.

[Shawon]

If you can get past the misconception that Affinity is just an artifact aggro deck and look at all the cards the archetype in general is capable of playing, you will find that Affinity can be the best type of Stompy deck in the format right now. You can run the same Sol lands as Stompy builds if you want, except you also run Mox Opal and if your lock plan doesn't work out, you can just bash your opponent's face in relatively quickly.

I'm running an Affinity build right now featuring the Human Blood Moon. Magus of the Moon is actually pretty friggin good in the deck because you disrupt your opponent's manabase... except your artifact lands are still artifacts so you can still swing with heavy Cranial Platings or big Ravagers. And the best part is that you can still run other colors because of the colored artifact lands and artifact mana. Tell me what Stompy deck you know of that can play Magus of the Moon, Stoneforge Mystic, and Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas in the same goddamned deck?

[fimo]

thanks for the inputs and thanks for the links. I can see the main problem is consitency and Sensei's Divining Top is probably too awkward with chalice of the void. Splashing blue probably helps in consistency but you have to give up strong lock pieces in the form of moon effects and tax effects. It seems, however, that results-wise it is a good idea.

However, I am curious for the meta right now to know what are the most effective lock pieces on top of trinisphere and chalice of the void: moon effects (blood moon, magus of the moon), tax effects (thalia, lodestone golem), permanent destruction (armageddon, smokestack)?
Which of these effects do you think that hurt the most the current DTB?

@ Shawon: can you post the list?

[Barook]

However, I am curious for the meta right now to know what are the most effective lock pieces on top of trinisphere and chalice of the void: moon effects (blood moon, magus of the moon), tax effects (thalia, lodestone golem), permanent destruction (armageddon, smokestack)?
Which of these effects do you think that hurt the most the current DTB?

Blood Moon effects - mana basis are so greedy right now, a T1 Moon effect on the play can often result in auto-win.

[Bed Decks Palyer]

I played Faerie Stompy but dropped the deck when S&T became a thing. If I have to choose between a two card 15/15 flyer and two cards 4/3 flyer (and yes, you shouldn't play Sea Drake without preemptive Chalice), frankly I decided that the latter has no real meaning. That's also when I sold my SOL lands...

If I'd build Stompy deck today (in the original meaning of "Stompy", not the Affinity; which I consider a really powerful deck, btw), I'd choose between Geddon Stax and Dragon Stompy. And I think Dragon Stompy would win, because the eight Moons are really devastating and the deck is pretty fast. I played Stax (but ok, it was years ago) and the thing was that I finished many matches with 0-1, 1-1 results and it definitely sucks. Also, I won my share of games against Stax by simply playing Delver turn1, Daze your Trinisphere, Mongoose turn2, keep Force for anything that kills me. Armageddon is not a good card when you stare at three angry dudes and have no way how to fetch your sole Tabernacle.
Compared to this, I had much more trouble when fighting DS, because it's lock is very fast and they might easily kick you out of game on turn0. And even if you stick Delver, the nature of the deck makes it hard to lose to a mere 3/2 flyer, because DS plays 24 creatures or how many...
Faerie Stompy does little. The only atttractive thing are the flyers (and FoW, of course, but...), that are especially dangerous with equips. But many of the old lists' creatures die to flipped Delver, so it's hard to justify them. Maybe the new lists (with JTMS and x/4 dudes) are better - I can't tell, as I don't follow the deck for two years.

So yes, for me it's definitely DS > MUD > Armastax > Fae Stompy > Green/Demon Stompy. (Only if you already own Nether Void, then I'd think about the black version. But honestly, is Void that much better than 6-8 Moons?)

[Shawon]

@ Shawon: can you post the list?

Moon Affinity

Mana
16 Artifact Lands ()
4 Opal
4 Drum

Critters
12 Free guys
4 Signal Pest
4 Ravager
4 Magus of the Moon

Business
4 TC
4 Plating
4 Galvanic Blast

[MGB]

The problems are:

a.) consistency issues of counting on drawing and landing the Sol-lands and Chalice. These are great foils to the format but if you *don't* land them, then your mana curve is inferior to the mana curve of the tier1 decks.

b.) most of the creatures in stompy decks are of the inferior variety when compared to what is playable in other decks.

I personally have played every stompy deck and am currently playing Soldier Stompy - mono white chalice/ sol-land deck that uses Soldiers to get around point B. I feel as if the Soldier tribe has the best creatures for any stompy deck that can be made right now. And Wizards has been printing more and more good Soldiers recently, and it's only a matter of time before there is a critical mass of these guys.

[Gheizen64]

Moon Affinity

Mana
16 Artifact Lands ()
4 Opal
4 Drum

Critters
12 Free guys
4 Signal Pest
4 Ravager
4 Magus of the Moon

Business
4 TC
4 Plating
4 Galvanic Blast

Mmh sorry what's TC? Personally i never liked to play too many 0 cmc dudes they make the deck too inconsistent for my tastes, especially with DRS blocking you forever. Never felt the Ravager either, but i guess i'm more of a midrangey stompy type.

[Shawon]

Mmh sorry what's TC? Personally i never liked to play too many 0 cmc dudes they make the deck too inconsistent for my tastes, especially with DRS blocking you forever. Never felt the Ravager either, but i guess i'm more of a midrangey stompy type.

TC= Thoughtcast

DRS rarely blocks for profit thanks to Frogmite + Battle cry from Signal Pest. The free guys make the deck actually more consistent since you need fast internal synergies to actually operate the deck to its premium.