[DECK] Steel Stompy

[AggroSteve]

@ alter ego:

could you show me your mono U list, i i most interestet in this one, so please either send me a PM or post the list here

the biggest problem i got with the mono U list is lifepoints we lose from Tomb and metamorph
i have jitte for that problem but i would love to see how other people solved the problem (in mono U)

[yaoser]

@ metalwalker:

I recalled you mentioned in a past posting a while back that this deck would be in a better position if it had access to three sets of sol-lands, but that wizards would most likely not print another.

What is your opinion of using Crystal Vein as "sol-lands" 9-12? With Crucible of Worlds, it would be able to recur -- sacrificed to provide extra 2 mana when needed and 1 mana under normal usage. At this point, it seems the only lands it would be replacing would be Wastelands. Would you say that land destruction would be more important for this deck than having a third set of "sol-lands"?

[GGoober]

Hey haven't posted in awhile since I've been more busy in real life and have been playing other decks etc

@Alterego: very interesting situation! And Welder is the worst thing you can ever face off :( I mean I was literally beating the crap out of URPainter and 1 Welder stopped me from doing anything for over 5 turns lol.

@aggrosteve:
I think monoU isn't as appealing as it once was except for stability and ease of casting blue-based spells (total 8 if you're playing 4 Master and 4 Metamorph). With just adding a couple of Glimmervoids and Ancient Den, you can splash W for SFM which I highly recommend. It solves the lifeloss issue in the early game, also tutors for Jitte/Plating and drawing Batterskull isn't bad either since you can easily hardcast it on turn 3 (same speed as vialing it in from SFM on turn 3).

To answer your problem, the only way I tackled the lifeloss problem was actually running 2-3 Jitte (2 minimum). There's not much else you can do except to chain draw Etched Champion/Master to be on the defense and then swing for lethal after stalling.

@Yaoser:
Crystal Vein IMO does not count as a sol land. To be able to use it for 2 mana, you sacrifice it (the cost of a land drop). If your spell gets dazed/fow'd/coutnered, you are so behind that you will lose easily. If I were an opponent and Steel STompy leads off with a Crystal Vein into an unthreatening spell, I will still FoW it because Steel Stompy player will be so behind to recover. Even with Crucible of Worlds, Vein is still a bad card because it is generating 2 mana at the cost of a land drop i.e. if you sacc'd vein then recurred it the next turn, you would only benefit from vein the first time you used it:
1st time: vein gives 2, regular land gives 1
2nd time: vein gives total 2 (+2 from last turn), regular 2nd land gives 2 (+1)
3rd time: vein gives total 2(+4), regular land gives 3 (+3)
With Vein you don't keep any of your land drops (this is bad because stompy needs consistently large mana if you're going to the mid game).

Vein is only good in combo'y Stompy decks e.g. Meandeck MUD (and even those decks don't play it). For those decks, you can afford to lose your land drop in order to power out bombs fast. Steel Stompy doesn't run bombs the way Meandeck MUD does, neither does it play Monolith/Metalworker to compensate for the loss of the land.

Hope this answers your question :)

I have a recent idea on whether we can drop blue entirely out (losing master) and focus on white with a stronger manabase and play Blade Splicer (1/1 puts a 3/3 golem, golems have first strike). I'm not sure but I intend to test it some day. Losing master is sad (also lose hibernation in the board), but maybe a very equipment/SFM focused list with lots of first strikers (Blade Splicer/Legionaire) could make up for it. Blade Splicer is nice in an equipment centered list because it adds more bodies to slap a Plating/Jitte.

Sample list:

Lands: 22
4 Wasteland
2 Inkmoth Nexus
4 City of Traitors
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Ancient Den
4 Plains

Accelerants: 9
2 Mox Diamond
3 Mox Opal
4 Aether Vial

Creatures: 24
4 Steel Overeer
4 SFM
4 Blade Splicer
4 Etched Champion
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Phyrexian Metamorph

Equipments: 6
2 Jitte
1 Plating
2 Batterskull

SB:
4 Thorn of Amethyst
3 Oblivion Ring
3 Seal of Cleansing
1 Sword of Feast/Famine or Body and Mind
4 Chalice of the Void

Flex slots for SB is the mix of Orings/Seals/SoBM/SoFF depending on your metagame.

I think Blade Splicer could be as powerful as Master of Etherium. They each have their pros/cons. Blade Splicer makes the list mono-colored, much more consistent to cast Orings/Seals postboard. Blade Splicer is unsituationally good i.e. Master is dependent on board position. Blade Splicer is 2 body in 1 card so it is great against 1-1 removal and more bodies = better with equipments like Plating/Jitte/Batterskull.

Vial > Chalice MD for reasons I've provided before on earlier pages. Vial really solves the mana-consistency of stompy. However most Stompy lists can't play Vial because they don't have a curve that fits Vial. Steel Stompy has a pretty low curve and the list can function fine without Vial. If your opponents keep their MM in, they're at the loss, not you (unless you kept a hand dependent on Vial which you should never do in this deck e.g. you should never keep a hand that is dependent on that lone Ancient Tomb in your hand since 1 Wasteland will wreck your next 3-4 turn plays because you're playing an archetype that is inconsistent to begin with.).

[Greenpoe]

Have you tried Sphere of Resistance at all? It would go great with Metamorph and Lodestone Golem with Vial to dodge the costs. A first turn Sphere could be a huge tempo gain.

[AlterEgo]

My current list:
1x Blinkmoth Nexus
4x Ancient Tomb
4x City of Traitors
4x Inkmoth Nexus
3x Wasteland
4x Seat of the Synod
4x Darksteel Citadel
4x Etched Champion
4x Lodestone Golem
4x Phyrexian Metamorph
4x Steel Overseer
4x Master of Etherium
3x Cranial Plating
2x Crucible of Worlds
2x Sword of Fire and Ice
3x Mox Diamond
3x Mox Opal
4x Chalice of the Void

4x Vault Skirge
3x Thorn of Amethyst
4x Ratchet Bomb
4x Tormod's Crypt

I don't do anything about the lifeloss problem, except being careful and maybe board Vault Skirge when it matters. (Though I haven't tested this yet)

[AlterEgo]

My current list:
1x Blinkmoth Nexus
4x Ancient Tomb
4x City of Traitors
4x Inkmoth Nexus
3x Wasteland
4x Seat of the Synod
4x Darksteel Citadel
4x Etched Champion
4x Lodestone Golem
4x Phyrexian Metamorph
4x Steel Overseer
4x Master of Etherium
3x Cranial Plating
2x Crucible of Worlds
2x Sword of Fire and Ice
3x Mox Diamond
3x Mox Opal
4x Chalice of the Void

4x Vault Skirge
3x Thorn of Amethyst
4x Ratchet Bomb
4x Tormod's Crypt

I don't do anything about the lifeloss problem, except being careful and maybe board Vault Skirge when it matters. (Though I haven't tested this yet)

[Maveric78f]

The W splash (for SFM) looks better than the U (for Master). Also Crucible does not seem to be in the spirit of the aggro-ness of the deck.

[GGoober]

Hey guys, I don't have time to reply to posts, but I'm posting the decklist that I'm running tomorrow. The list is pretty strong and there are 3 slots that I'm not confirmed on yet.

Lands: 22
6 Plains
4 Ancient Den
4 Wasteland
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors

Accelerants: 7
4 Aether Vial
3 Mox Opal

Removal: 4 (+6 if you count 2 Jitte and 4 Metamorph)
4 StP

Equipments: 5
1 SoFI (could be 2nd Batterskull but I don't own the 2nd one)
1 Batterskull
2 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Cranial Plating

Creatures: 22
4 Steel Overseer
2 Phyrexian Revoker
4 SFM
4 Etched Champion
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Phyrexian Metamorph

SB: 15
3 Oring
2 Seal of Cleansing
4 Chalice
4 Thorn of Amethyst
1 SoFF
1 Phyrexian Revoker

StP is pretty huge for the deck. You no longer autolose when your opponents drop a Knight/Bob. Vial/SFM is central to the deck, making the Ancient Tomb hurt less. Batterskull is easily castable in the deck, you don't need Vial/SFM for the deck to function, and the combination of Vial/Sol-lands frees you up from keeping hands that depend on Sol-lands or are Wasteland prone.

I had some decent testing with the list on Wednesday. I was testing 3 Blade Splicers but found them to be subpar and I've replaced them with 2 Revokers and the SoFI/2nd Batterskull.

Another option is to go +2 Mox Diamond, +2 Crucible and swap the 2 Plains for 2 Inkmoth, but I'm not too sold on that decision. Will post results tomorrow and reply to the posts when I get back tomorrow.

Looking more like an aggro deck than a Chalice deck now lol. But seriously dumb aggro sometimes gets there. There are some strengths in this list over a deck like Bant/Junk etc. Champion negates quite a lot of strategy, and 4 Metamorph is really insane against the meta of Stoneblade. You can chain Batterskulls yourself or pick your opponent's Batterskulls off. Your SFM comes in pretty fast with the manabase and you are not stranded dead if they remove the mystic. You have some inbuilt tempo with the Sol-Land + Wasteland + Golems and Steel Overseer is still the backbone of the deck. Loss of Master is somewhat sad but the manabase is incredibly consistent for a monoW build. I like how the deck now has 2 Jitte + 1-2 Batterskull (4 SFM to fetch for it) to stabilize for the life total, and a total of 4 StP + 2 Jitte + 4 Metamorph as solution to opposing creatures (or copy theirs).

[GGoober]

@Greenpoe: I've tried Sphere. It's a win-more card in most situations because it requires you to be on the play to fully benefit from it. If you are casting spheres on the draw/turn 2, it ends up backfiring on you because they would have led with a Goyf/SFM/Bob etc. If they Wasteland you and you don't recover, it backfires again. Sphere is really good against control/combo (i.e. decks that don't play creatures primarily) and I tend to put the Sphere effects in the SB as a result, and never maindeck. In this situation, Thorn is much stronger.

@AlterEgo, nice list! I am convinced that white is definitely the correct splash instead of blue (mostly because of SFM and Oring/Seal of Cleansing in the SB).

Here's a report, I took first place in a small 20 local tourney (we usually only have 9-14 players but 4-5 players came to the store from Louisana to rock some Legacy!)

Here's the list I played (expecting a meta of Reanimator, Blade decks, NORUG, Merfolks).

Lands: 23
2 Inkmoth Nexus
5 Plains
4 Ancient Den
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Wasteland

Accelerants: 7
3 Mox Opal
4 Aether Vial

Creatures: 22
4 Steel Overseer
2 Phyrexian Revoker
4 SFM
4 Etched Champion
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Metamorph

Equipments/Others: 9
2 Jitte
1 Batterskull
1 Cranial Plating
1 Crucible of Worlds
4 Swords to Plowshares

SB:
1 Crucible of Worlds
4 Chalice
4 Thorn of Amethyst
3 Oblivion Ring
2 Seal of Cleansing
1 SoFI


MATCH 1: Devan with 1-land Belcher
Game 1:
He goes off turn 2 since I don't have Chalice/Thorns etc.

Game 2: -4 Overseer, -4 Etched Champion, -4 Vial, -1 StP, +4 Chalice, +4 Thorn, +3 Oring, +2 Seal of Cleansing
I lead with Turn 1 Chalice@0 and Thorn off a tomb. He was stuck since he could not cast a cmc spells with a hand stranded with Chrome Mox LED. He got close to activating Belcher after resolving a Belcher but did not have gas to activate Belcher and couldn't draw into more accelerants under Spheres before a Golem locks him up.

Game 3: Thankfully he goes turn 1 Belcher pass the turn to activate. I lead off with a Thorn and have a Seal of Cleansing in hand. Unfortantely I cannot cast my Seal because I needed a white mana. After 2 turns heart thumping hoping my Thorn buys me enough time, I rip the Ancient Den to pop his Belcher leaving him with a Chrome Mox and a land in play with nothing else.

1-0 (2-1-0)


MATCH 2: Dustin with UB Reanimator
Game 1: I'm not sure who I'm playing against but keep a hand of Revoker, SFM, 2 Wasteland, 2 Ancient Den, 1 Golem. He leads off fetching Island, Swamp negating my Wastelands in hand, and proceeds to bring out It that Betrays, and I scoop it up.

Game 2: -4 Steel Overseer, -4 Etched Champion, -1 Crucible, -1 Jitte, -1 Opal, +4 Thorn, +4 Chalice, +3 Oring
I lead off with Chalice@1, it does not have the force. I follow up with a Thorn, and then a Metamorph on Thorn, and finally a Golem, stealing the game.

Game 3: I commented how he's going to destroy me now because he's on the play. I think he decides to keep a greedy hand (he showed me after that it was 4 2cmc reanimation spells but required Careful Study/Entomb). He plays Island, I play Wasteland Vial resolves. He passes his turn 2 to me to my surprise and I lead off with Chalice. He does not have the FoW. He gets locked under Chalice from there and my hand is amazing: 2 Metamorph, 1 Thorn. I resolve Thorn and vialed in 2 Metamorph when I knew that he had little outs at this point, and sealing the game up with Chalice@2.

2-0 (4-2-0)


MATCH 3: Jeff with Team America (White build with SFM
Game 1: I suspect he's playing some UWx SFM deck when I saw a Tundra earlier. This automatically makes me feel a little happy because this deck has a favorable matchup against other SFM decks (you have your own Mystic, viable, and more importantly, you have Etched Champion that negates their Batterskull and Metamorphs to really break Batterskull).

I win the die roll and resolve a Vial. He runs out a turn 2 SFM, and I hardcast a Revoker naming SFM (I have my own SFM in hand). He gets to 4 mana plays a Jace while I vial in a SFM tutoring Jitte (I have Batterskull in hand). I cast Jitte it resolves, get a Champion online with Vial and kill Jace. He cannot keep up with Champion + Jitte and scoops it up.

Game 2: -1 Crucible, -1 StP, -1Opal, +3 Oblivion Ring
He's on the play and I keep a hand of Vial, SFM, Champion, Opal, Ancient Den, Wasteland, Ancient Tomb. He plays fetchland go, I lead with Vial into Ancient Tomb factoring Daze. He thinks for awhile and lets it through (I think he doesn't have the FoW but he is pausing to maybe set up an act). He runs out a SFM grabbing Batterskull. I don't remember the details here but the game got pretty long. The board position was:

Him: 2x SFM, 2x Batterskull, 1 Jace, 1 Elspeth, 6 lands, 1 Wasteland, 37 life.
Me: Vial@4, 1 Champion, 1 Metamorph (copied his SFM to tutor up a Jitte), 1 Batterskull, 2 Inkmoth, 1 Opal, 1 Ancient Den, 15 life

He swings and pumps a 7/7 flying vigilance lifelink Batterskull bringing me to 8. I go in with Champion and pump him to a 6/6 with Jitte killing Elspeth, then killing Jace after. I got to the point where I finally drew lands and I equipped the Batterskull onto champion. We were called to time but since I won game 1, I won the match. Champion + Batterskull + Jitte was a little silly lol.

3-0 (5-2-1)



MATCH 4: admiral_arzar with NOHulkPatternGSZ.wtfbbq
Game 1:He leads off with fetchlands into Arbor, which I StP before he untaps. He goes on tilt, forgetting that my latest tech was running StP maindecks :) I got some quick Golems/Metamorphs and he scooped to game 2.

Game 2: I have no idea how the deck works so I bring in the same combo hate package knowing Thorn slows his Natural Order and Pattern of Rebirth. I lead with Thorn Thorn which he answered with Birds of Paradisex2 and Viscera Seer. Way to go! My SB tech is worthless. What's even more annoying was I am now more mana-constrained with the double sphere in play and I took 16 damage from my ancient tomb alone...

All's good, because I plan to play Jitte and equip on my Metamorph targeting his Viscera Seer. I'm at 2 life. He swings in with Seer, I take it and plan to swing in next turn to blow his Seer and BoP up and then stabilizing with Jitte. I go in with Jitte @1 life, he blocks with BoP, sacs to Visera seer fizzling my Jitte counters and swings in with the Seer FtW.

I lost to Seer. And I pointed this matchup. Thanks for being a bad player and not knowing what that deck does. It was fun that we were both trolling each other playing jank :P

3-1 (6-4-1)



MATCH 5: Simon with monoU Merfolk
Game 1: After he Fow pitching Cursecatcher, I put him on Merfolks and dance a friendly Merfolk dance (this deck beats Merfolks :D). He got some decent beats in with a scary Coralhelm. I made the mistake to plow his Reejery instead of his Coralhelm (since my deck can't answer fliers outside of Jitte/StP while I have champion/dudes on the ground). Regardless, I curved out fast enough with Vial@4 and an Overseer putting my 8/6 and 6/4 Lodestones to victory.

Game 2: We essentially raced each other. He won the race with 5 in the air while I was racing the ground with Champions and Overseer. I was 1 turn behind. It was interesting to note that I can draw Metamorph and copy his Coralhelm and pumping it to the same size and put a +1/+1 counter from Overseer.

Game 3: I decide that my deck is going to show Merfolk what a powerful draw against Merfolk is. I keep a tremendously greedy hand of: 1 vial, 1 Ancient Den, 1 SFM, 1 Revoker, 2 Champion, 1 Metamorph (OMG!!) I knew Simon was playing 3 FoW in his Merfolk list and probably boarded out MM against me (it's dumb to keep MM against Steel Stompy). Since I was on the play, he has 3 outs to my Vial (if he really wants to pitch a card and counter it since we both know that this matchup is also very attrition/aggressive and every creature card counts). I kept the hand after analyzing the situation, knowing that his odds of having 3 FoW to my Vial was smaller than my outs to draw potentially another Vial or a land or a Sol land. I lead with Vial, it resolves, and I breathe a sign of relief knowing that my plays are going to be hyper aggressive.

I drew a land, baited a Daze with a Revoker and Vialed in SFM. He plays his own Vial and a needle on my SFM. This is going to get interesting since we both have Vials out. I vial in a Steel Overseer, followed by 2 Champions and he keeps the pressure up with Mutavault and x2 lords. I decide to take the damage in from Mutavault beats going to 8 in fear of Lords killing my trump cards (Champion). With an Overseer in play, I finally outgrow all his fish and he was not in a favorable position to swing. I go in with 1 Champion playing conservatively (since Merfolk fucks you over). Vialed in Metamorph copying Overseer (now my dudes get +2/+2 a turn), and then vialed in Champion again and swing in for lethal, all the time maintaining a good defense that can't be broken through.

4-1 (8-5-1)


TOP 4: Eugene with Hypergenesis/Show and Tell
Game 1 I sigh at not having MD'd Chalice today (such a combo heavy meta!!)
I did win the die roll and open the god-hand with 1 Ancient Tomb, 1 City, 1 Wasteland, 1 Vial, 1 Golem, 1 Metamorph, 1 something. I bait FoW with a Vial, he doesn't have it. I go with a turn 2 Golem which resolves (he has the FoW he mentions later but decides he can just cascade 1-2 turns later and kill me anyway). I play a Metamorph that resolves copying Golem, wastes his land and he is way behind. He dies in the next 2 turns while I tutor a Plating with SFM as a safety decision in case he does break through with Hypergenesis and I have to race hinm.

Game 2: -1 Crucible, -4 Vial, -4 Overseer, -4 Champion, +3 Oring, +2 Seal of Cleansing, +4 CHalice, +4 Thorn
I lead off with Chalice@0 and a Vial. I get a thorn online next turn and Wastes his volcanic Island. Once a golem comes in and having Metamorph in my hand, I knew that his only out was Show and Tell (and I have the Metamorph ready). However, knowing that he missed the landdrop and did not have the FoW, I copied the Golem to lock him out for another 2 turns (just enough time for two 5/5s to steal the game in 2 turns).

5-1 (10-5-1)



TOP 2: Devan with Belcher (same dude in MATCH 1)
Game 1: I roll a 20!
Open with turn 1 Revoker naming Belcher. And I also have a turn 2 SFM for Batterskull shutting off the Empty the Warrens backup plan, followed by a Golem and a Metamorph = time to scoop it up.

Game 2:
We both know that this game he has to mull for a turn 1 win, that way he can win this round and next round I will have to mull for a turn 1 Chalice/Thorn.

Unfortunately he mulls to 5. And my hand was strong as usual against combo/belcher. I lead off with Chalice@0 + Thorns, copy a Thorn with 1of2 Metamorphs in hand. Land a Revoker and start beating while he is completely shut off from casting spells unless he pays 3 colorless for a non-creature spells (1 Thorn, 2 Metamorph copying Thorn).

All in all, the deck performed great, StP/Vial/Oring/Seal of Cleansing/SFM/Batterskull were amazing. The Metamorph is simply the best creature in the deck and I am glad to be playing 4 of them. They are especially insane with Vial. Metamorph copying Champion/Batterskulls/opposing creatures/Progenitus/Emrakul, along with Oring in the SB gives you a very good chance agaisnt the unfair decks that the UB or monoU versions run into. SFM is impressive because it makes any dude in your deck good, but more importantly, if you resolve a Champion, most aggro decks won't be able to beat a Champion with Jitte/Batterskull/Plating. I am definitely going to be testing this a little more. Sadly, this deck is no longer a Chalice-aggro deck. It is still based off the Stompy shell/explosiveness/manabase and is a pure Chalice-aggro deck against control/combo, but the MD for now is actually an aggro deck that has inbuilt synergy and explosiveness from the artifact shell and is highly dependent on the synergy with Champion/SFM/Equipments/Overseer to have a decent chance against other aggro decks.

6-1 (12-5-1)

Changes that I would make:
Revokers are pretty insane but that maybe the matchups/meta. I would probably play 3 MD and cut out the Crucible.

I feel the list needs a 2nd Batterskull. This deck is very capable of hardcasting Batterskull but 1 was doing fine so far. In fact, Jitte is probably the better equipment in terms of mana efficiency, but I'm not sure 3 is overkill.

Other thoughts:
Not sure if I should play 2-3 Mox Diamonds. I don't particularly like the current list without Mox diamond, but my playtesting and theory was that with Vial, I am now setting my mana development much easier. I tended to board out the 3rd Opal a lot in many games, and I know that having Diamonds would not have mattered too much as well since I was trying to fit in business spells over accelerant slots. I still need plenty of playtesting to know what fits best.

I've tested Blade Splicer and Phyrexian Legionare in the slots of the Revokers, and I'm still mixed which is better. With the current list, Vial is always going to be on 4 and 2 (4 in the late-game). If I play with Blade Splicer, the curve is a little smoother so I can have an incentive to set Vial@3 and ramp it accordingly. However, I think I would rather have Legionaire or Revoker over Blade Splicer. I'm not sure yet since I've done limited testing with Blade Splicer.

The white list is really about SFM/Oring (and Seal of Cleansing to some extent). StP was the latest addition and was great! (You now have 4 StP, 2 Jitte, 4 Metamorph as outs). You can always consider other white cards e.g. Glowrider, Ethersworn CAnonist depending on your meta, but I found my MD/SB configuration to be pretty decent.

[Reckless Assault]

I read the first few pages of this post and then jumped to the last page and I have to say I'm kind of disappointed with what the decks turned into. I like the chalices way better than the vials, and I know you covered that above, but it really doesn't seem like the deck needs vials. With the sol lands and all the moxen you (had been) running you seem to have plenty of mana available to cast your creatures and the vials seem to just be overkill, I feel like the chalices would help way more, although since you're keeping them in the sideboard it could just be a difference in what decks we're both facing.

I also liked the MoE that you had in earlier and feel like that was a better splash than going white for SFM. I know that equipment is great and that its nice to search for it and put it into play for only 2 mana, but with all the mana you've got available, and especially with you running the vials, I don't think the decreased cost of getting equipment into play would make that much of a difference. I had been playing a steel stompy with SFM variant before and to be honest I was never than impressed with it (although I seem to be alone on this). I'd rather just have more equipment in the deck.

You've obviously tested and played this way more than I have, but I think the deck has lost a lot of threats giving up the MoE and man-lands to fit more white in, and cutting the cranial platings to 1 since it's now searchable. Multiple cranial platings have been huge for me, especially with inkmoth nexuses or champions. And cutting the chalices and the revokers has lost a lot of the locks that the deck had before as well.

[mrjumbo03]

^ Care to share your list? I'm looking at this deck as my next project and for now, I'm still leaning towards the Chalice build with Masters.

[AggroSteve]

hehe me too, and i as well would prefer the chalice list with masters

i will build myself a mono U build

the list (if interested) is the following

4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitor
4 Blinkmoth Nexus (do not have inkmoth nexus, and not sure if i want to get them, this one does the job fairly well)
4 Seat of the Synod
1 darksteel citadel
1 island
4 Wasteland
3 Mox Diamond
2 Mox Opal

4 steel overseer
3 porcelain legionaire
4 Etched Champion
4 Master of Etherium
4 Lodestone Golem
3 Phyrexian Metamorph

4 Chalice of the Void
3 Cranial Plating
2 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
2 Crucible of World

SIDEBOARD (not completely sold on it,..... are there any suggestions?)

2x ratchet bomb / powder keg
4x thorn of amethyst
3x rushing river
3x pinthing needle
3x relic of progenitus

[Reckless Assault]

Here's the list I'm working with:

4 Etched Champion
4 Lodestone Golem
3 Phyrexian Metamorph
3 Master of Etherium
3 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Magus of the Moon

2 Blood Moon
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Cranial Plating
2 SoFI

3 Mox Diamond
3 Mox Opal
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Inkmoth Nexus
4 Great Furnace
2 Seat of the Synod
2 Volcanic Island
2 Island

I know the moon effects might seem to have pretty bad synergy with the artifact lands (for getting metalcraft) cranial plating and Inkmoth nexus, but I'll try to explain.

I actually started with a moon deck and ended up working it into Steel Stompy instead of the other way around. From what I've seen moon effects completely wreck most competitive decks, especially if you've managed to drop a chalice for 1, getting rid of a lot of removal spells for the magus. If nothing else it becomes a threat that must be dealt with immediately. As long as it's down the platings and masters are weaker, but at the same time as long as the moon is down I have a major advantage and don't really need the extra 2 power points I might be missing out on, and when I don't have the moons out I'm compensated by the extra threats of the nexus and the platings and masters.

[Qweerios]

Artifact lands under moon effects are still artifacts. Just like Dryad Arbor, Artifact and Creature are supertypes and remain so despite being mountains. So your Seat of the Synod becomes an Artifact Land - Mountain the same way Dryad Arbor becomes a Creature Land - Mountain and now adds red mana instead of green mana.

If anything, I think Magus should replace MoE in those builds and try to win with colorless/red artifacts.

[Qweerios]

I tinkered with the idea of playing Chalice + Moons with an artifact shell and, damn, is this deck powerful. I tried it out on cockatrice for a few hours and have destroyed a good 10 different decks (all except Rock(StP, Qasali, Vindicate)). Here is what I played:


Creatures (26)
4 Vault Skirge
4 Steel Overseer
3 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Etched Champion
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Magus of the Moon

Artifacts (12)
4 Mox Opal
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Cranial Plating

Enchantments (2)
2 Blood Moon

Lands (20)
4 City of Traitors
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Great Furnace
4 Vault of Whispers

Sideboard (15)
3 Tormod's Crypt
2 Relic of Progenitus
4 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Dismember


Steel Overseer is surprisingly powerful with Skirge, Etched, and Metamorph. He comes down pretty fast and puts some huge pressure on your opponent to remove him, he even makes Revoker threatening. I tried playing 3 Opal but the card is simply an all color mox in this deck and the benefits of having one on T1-2 far outweighs the drawbacks of drawing 2 during a game.

[tsabo_tavoc]

@The Moon builds: This was my take RW with Stoneforge Mystic in the Steel Stompy shell: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?21536-RW-Moon&p=573186&viewfull=1#post573186
After some extensive testing, the deck showed to be about even against NO RUG, Team America, and Big Zoo. A first turn Moon is one of the central game plans, so the correct number of Mox Diamond is 4. I can see a MonoR build works, but there is no incentive to splash blue, as Master of Etherium is the worst threat in Steel Stompy.

I picked up Metalwalker's Vial build (monoW) recently. I used to like Vial in Chalice Stompy (Deep U) until Mental Misstep was printed. Metalwalker dodged all Mental Missteps from his latest tournament, which changed my thought, there is always 60% chance of dodging a first turn Misstep and Vial is absolutely > Mox Diamond in the blue MUs. Thinking about it, Vial from the boards may have even more values. In the nonblue MUs, Vial is not necessarily good; For the blue MUs, all the Missteps are sided out only to let the Vial resolve. I still have not decided where to put them.

A change I quickly made was swapping the StPs for Chalices, as StPing opponent's creatures are not as good as saving yours from StPs, plus Chalice is a cheap Artifact, enabling Metalcraft. There is little antisynergy between Vial and Chalice (as was the case of Deep U). You (normally) do not play Chalice first if you have both in hand. On the other hand, a late Vial is more often than not useless, regardlessly of any Chalice on the table. Furthermore, with Vial on the battlefield, we can comfortably set Chalice@2!

I only had a few games against Team America, went 8-8. Zoo is potentially problematic (especially for Metalwalker's build), which is my next deck to test against.

[Reckless Assault]

Sweet, well I'm even more pumped about this if the moons don't even hurt my artifact count.

I played with the overseers some, and I just didn't like them, I felt like they were slowing me down. They don't add any pump right away, and were having to remain tapped to keep increasing the size of my other creatures. If not dealt with they are obviously a huge deal, but they seemed just too easy to deal with. The masters on the other hand offer immediate (although not lasting if they die, unlike the overseers) pump, and they almost always have at least a 5/5 body when coming down, protecting them from burn spells, and giving them a larger body than goyfs. After playing with both, the masters seemed far more helpful, at least to me.

You're definitely right about the opals, like I said I kind of moved into steel stompy from just moon stuff, and the 3/3 split was me coming down off of the initial 4 mox diamond and 2 opals (from when I was running less artifacts).

Also the cranial platings have been huge for me, so I should probably bump them to 4 as well, although I don't know if I can part with the SoFI easily, as I really like the creature removal (or extra damage) and card drawing at the same time.

I also don't know about the skirges. The flying and lifelink are good, and I like the idea of having a 1cc creature that isn't affected by the chalices, but on the other hand, it's still only a 1/1 and I think there could be a lot better creatures to put in that slot.

I had run a splash of white for Stoneforge Mystics and batterskulls and jittes before, but I found that after taking them out for just more aggressive creatures and more equipment that I didn't need the lifegain when I just put my opponent on a much faster clock.

Give the masters a try if you haven't already and see if you like them better than the overseers (or even with the overseers instead of the skirges), if not maybe I missed something when I was playing with the overseers.

[tsabo_tavoc]

I had run a splash of white for Stoneforge Mystics and batterskulls and jittes before, but I found that after taking them out for just more aggressive creatures and more equipment that I didn't need the lifegain when I just put my opponent on a much faster clock.

Give the masters a try if you haven't already and see if you like them better than the overseers (or even with the overseers instead of the skirges), if not maybe I missed something when I was playing with the overseers.

Master costs 3 (therefore comes down @turn2), does not disrupt, does not have any evasion, and his pump effect is not as good as Overseer's. If any of the points were reversed, I would play Master. He just seems very 'fringely' playable and it did take many games before I lost hope in him. It is doubtful you said about the much faster clock, as Master is chump blocked all day. This deck hardly races Aggro ever.

For the MonoW build: a Plains should easily be a Karakas.

[Reckless Assault]

Tsabo, I really liked your moon deck. When I was trying to find a deck to build around moon effects yours was easily my favorite. I really didn't like the SFMs though, and that's why I ended up here to try to get ideas for a more aggressive steel stompy theme going around the moon.

The master seemed to be the best fill for my last creature slot that I had, and it has worked well for me so far. I would still take the master of the overseer any day of the week, but your points about lack of evasion or disruption are spot on. Considering that I don't like and don't want to go back to SFM, are there any other better disruptive or dangerous artifact creatures out there that would be a better fill than the masters? Are the SFMs just way better than I'm giving them credit for? (I could easily be missing something, I'm just starting to get back into magic) Colored things are fine as the only blue cards I have (not counting the metamorphs) are the masters and can be easily substituted for a different color splash.

I'm still really against the vials maindeck, but I do kind of like sneaking them in from the sideboard after your opponent has boarded out their mental missteps (the one card sure to get boarded out against this deck).

[Qweerios]

If you look at the creatures in the deck, none of them are real threats aside from Lodestone Golem. However, they are all utility creatures or great equipment carriers. The real killer in this deck (Moon/Metalcraft) is Cranial Plating and Steel Overseer. When looked through that scope, Vault Skirge is the perfect addition because he is fast, evasive (extremely relevant), and offsets tombs and phyrexian mana with Lifelink. All of those abilities' power level increase exponentially when coupled with Overseer or Plating. Skirges are also great Mox enablers early on and have won me games. As for Overseer vs. MoE, I think it depends on what variant of the deck you use. Playing Moon effects is probably not ideal for MoE because producing blue mana can be an issue, besides, Overseer fits perfectly in the curve and synergizes so well with Etched Champion and Vault Skirge. I admit though, that when looked at individually, MoE is the better card for its sheer size and instant lord effect. Also, I wouldn't bother with either of those if you play a SFM package, Etched Champion is all you need.

Something I found shocking while reading through this thread were the manabase of some of the decks. I think Mox Diamond is a terrible card in a stompy deck unless you use Crucible of Worlds. When I see lists that play 22 lands (8 of which produce 2 mana), 3 Mox Opal, and 3 Mox Diamond and have a curve maxing out at 4 I can't help but feel something is wrong. I understand the logic of playing 6 Moxes and a higher land count to support Mox Diamonds for extremely explosive starts but that to me is a bad investment. Playing a total of 28 mana sources will get you flooded and highly decreases topdeck quality. Topdeck card quality happens to be extremely important in a stompy deck because hand size decreases rapidly. Rushing chalices, moons, or threats in order to create a soft lock or put your opponent on a fast clock at the expense of card advantage and card quality is a reciepe for disaster. Chalice and Moon are great cards but will not win you the game on their own in most cases simply because a good amount of decks out there are either:

a)Unafected by them;
b)Able to recover from them relatively quickly;
c)Able to play their most relevant cards through them

Of course, this little bit of criticism doesn't apply to lists playing Crucible, Wastelands, and Mishras because they can abuse some of the drawbacks I have just discussed. In turn, playing with those cards is more akin to a Chalice/Control deck than a straight-up stompy deck. In short, don't use Mox Diamond with an aggro strategy unless you play KotR.

[Reckless Assault]

I'm gonna have to side with Qweerios on this one. I had been grouping my moxes with my artifacts in my head, so it didn't draw attention to just how ridiculous the amount of mana in my deck was.

I will agree that dropping a first turn chalice or moon is huge, but the moons don't necessarily need to come down turn one to be effective (in fact I prefer to drop them t2 after a chalice to protect the magus from various removal/burn spells), with the sol lands its still not difficult to drop a chalice first turn.

If I'm dropping 2 of my moxes, the blue mana would be more difficult and I guess I'll have to get on board with the overseer over the master.

Qweerios, I've been playing with your list some, and are you not having issues getting red mana for the moons at all with only 4 red lands and the moxen? Also I'm really missing the SoFI in there. How would you feel about cutting a skirge and a plating for two swords?

[Qweerios]

I built the deck thinking I would have trouble having access to red mana to cast one of my 6 moons. I have played about 20 games with it thus far and have never been short on red mana. I think it is an extraordinary coincidence because, statistically, 8 sources of red mana shouldn't be enough for 6 red spells. I would like to have 10-12 sources but I will not tinker with it until it screws me over at least a few times. To answer your question, I don't think cutting creatures for a 5th and 6th equipment is a good idea. Vault Skirge makes the deck so consistent and is definitely a card you would like to see more if you packed 2 SoFI. If you ask my opinion, I think 6 equipments is too many and that SoFI, despite being an awesome card, is inferior to Cranial Plating. What this deck lacks is a couple of Dismembers. Suffering unanswered Dark Confidants and Grim Lavamancers are calamities. The cards I consider for replacement are 2 Blood Moon, 1 Phyrexian Metamorph, and 1 Phyrexian Revoker. Those cards could safely be moved to the sideboard in favor of more interactive cards.

[Secretly.A.Bee]

Glimmervoid? The Indestructible Artifact Land? Also, there is the option of using X# of Trinket Mage to search for the artifact lands/Opals.

There is this:
2-3x Mox Opal Obvious.
2-3x Mox Diamond The decision of what 2/3 split you want to be made for yourself.
1x Glimmervoid Acts as a Mox while being your land drop OR a pitch to Diamond.

This makes me want to lean to a lineup like this:

3x Mox Opal
2x Mox Diamond
1x Glimmervoid

OR

2x Mox Opal
2x Mox Diamond
2x Glimmervoid

OR

3x Mox Opal
1x Mox Diamond
2x Glimmervoid

There are other choices as well, but I think Glimmervoid might actually fix at least a couple things you are struggling with. Coalition Relic has also been used to moderate success in other stompy builds, stax as well. Further fixes your access to colored mana of your need, and also furthers the ability to further splash into a tertiary color.

Esperzoa was mentioned and is in fact a force to be reckoned with. Deep Blue, back in the day, was awesome, it essentially let you run 8 Sea Drakes. I happen to know that it's ability makes Tangle Wire a sick and twisted recurring nightmare that will not affect you in the least, and Mox Opal bounces just as well, along with artifact lands. Gives you another flyer for added evasion to ensure hits with Plating.

Also, there's Steel Hellkite, and I think he's underrated. Also, Spellskite would work well in here. Ever thought of going for a U based artifact list. Can't artifacts that have U in their casting cost be tossed to Force of Will? That would help argue the usefulness of Trinket Mage, being something that can be pitched or used as an all-around tutor for it's usual toolbox or other silver bullet slots.

I hope my musings help this deck get better. I actually have been slowly picking up cards to build something just like this (well, you know). I have quite a bit of the list, just haven't sat down and taken a look at what I actually need to get this completed.

Anyway, expect more from me in discussion from now on.

-ABC

EDIT::: Also, for the Aggro matchup, there are a few options. Propaganda is helpful, and Ghostly Prison for the white build. Crawlspace works okay. I still like Esperzoa + Tangle Wire. That is sick.

[Reckless Assault]

I had been using the SoFI as a means of taking out confidants and lavamancers. I agree that cranial plating is better for cost and sheer amount of damage, but the swords are great at killing the opponents utility creatures, card drawing, and protecting creatures from burn (especially important since burn is unaffected by the moons). I wouldn't take out artifacts or creatures to slide in the dismembers which neither help your artifact count or apply any aggressive pressure. I'm not in favor of having 6 equipments either which is why I was looking at taking out one of the platings (still having more of them than the swords). If the decks going to have moon effects, I think I want at least 6 in there, so I'm not looking to move any of them out of the main deck, but I suppose a revoker might be missed less than a skirge (although I'd have 2 in the sb, because revokers are nasty in the right spots).

Glimmervoids, while great for balancing more colors, really don't serve as a mox at all since they are a land (ie not helping you get extra mana down fast). They also aren't an artifact, so I think you'd be better off going with artifact lands there.

And I'm not entirely sure on the rules since I'm just starting to get back into Magic and I know the rules were changed rather drastically in some ways. But I'm pretty sure you're still going to have to tap permanents from the tanglewire, even if you're returning it to your hand (since that happens in your upkeep, which is the same time the tangle wire is going to be doing its thing). Spellskite is kind of cool, but its 0 power makes it not fit so well in a stompy deck. It looks like you're looking to go more control anyway with tanglewires and whatnot, so maybe it will work better for you.

[Qweerios]

Glimmervoid? In a deck playing 1-2 colors and no dual lands? I'll take the dual lands, or even basics first.

I tinkered with what cards to cut maindeck for Dismember and came to the conclusions that cutting Revokers to 2 and Metamorphs to 2 is a significant drop. On the upside, I moved the 2 Blood Moons to the sideboard with relative ease. The fact that the deck is not Moon/Chalice centric and functions extremely well in their absence is what made me lose hope in the enchantment as MD material. Unlike Magus, Moons don't carry equipments. Not only would I have to change a couple of Darksteel Citadels in favor of red mana producing lands in order to play 6 moons, but the enchantment does nothing else than offer a moon effect that might already be in place. At 3CMC, I think SoFI has much more impact on the game than Blood Moon.

[Reckless Assault]

I've been play testing a lot with it, and I think you're right on the blood moons. I like how they aren't as easily removed as the magus, but if I already have a magus down, they are just dead weight. I also tend to use the metamorphs to copy the magus to hold the lock (and also have a pumpable artifact magus) and I think they would be less missed than the extra revoker.

I've taken out 2 of the citadels in favor of mountains, and will probably leave it like that even with the moons in the sb. I don't want the deck's manabase to become shaky after boarding, and I definitely don't want to waste extra sb space with lands. I was also hating it when I ran into cards like Path to Exile and having it just be a better StP.

I'm still really not sold on dismembers. What makes them so useful that you'd be willing to cut a threat or another artifact for them? Have you found them that necessary? I like how every card in this deck other than the mana and the chalices is a direct threat. This is quite probably a stupid suggestion, but I like flametongue kavu better than dismembers (although I'd never md them) because they at least have a body to go with the effect.

[Qweerios]

Unanswered Dark Confidants are game breaking. Playing the beatdown game when chalice and moon are unavaillable or ineffective becomes much easier when you can clear goyfs, kotr, and SFM when they fetch batterskull. I tried them MD and they worked out fine. I wouldn't "cut" anything right now for Dismembers but they are definitely my next addition. I played with 4 Platings and 2 SoFI and it works quite well. Pro red is actually quite a relevant maindeck tool when facing red based decks, it gives us a needed edge when Magus is subpar. I currently play 2 SoFI over the 2 Blood Moons and the following sideboard:


2 Tormod's Crypt
2 Relic of Progenitus
4 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
2 Sphere of Resistance
3 Dismember


I think the 2 Maindeck Mountains are a great idea but I am not entirely sure if they are better than Darksteel Citadels. The PtE and red mana argument are good but I am not sure if they are worth it. Citadel is essentially an artifact basic land due to its immunity to Wasteland. Citadels will enable Metalcraft when Mountains won't, and pumps plating. I think enabling Metalcraft is much more important than having PtE food or access to additional red mana. If anything, I would cut Vault of Whispers b4 Citadel, black mana is as useful as blue mana in this deck. I swapped the 2 Blood Moons for 2 Sphere of Resistance following my loss to combo elves... one of the only MU I lost to so far.

[Reckless Assault]

Yeah I realized as soon as I posted last that I'd way rather have the citadels than the vaults. I think I'd still like to have at least 1 basic in the deck, but I'll give the spheres and the rest of the sideboard a look, and if the extra moons really aren't needed, there's no need to have 2 mountains in there.

Why two Tormod's Crypt and two Relic of Progenitus? Do you ever drop a chalice for 0 against a graveyard based deck? If not I think I'd rather have 4 crypts, unless you are boarding out the chalices for the graveyard hate.

[Qweerios]

I actually never gave GY hate any thoughts. I usually pack 2 Crypts and 2 Progenitus as a general GY package. 4 Tormod's Crypt would indeed be better than the 2/2 split.

[tsabo_tavoc]

Tsabo, I really liked your moon deck. When I was trying to find a deck to build around moon effects yours was easily my favorite. I really didn't like the SFMs though, and that's why I ended up here to try to get ideas for a more aggressive steel stompy theme going around the moon.

The master seemed to be the best fill for my last creature slot that I had, and it has worked well for me so far. I would still take the master of the overseer any day of the week, but your points about lack of evasion or disruption are spot on. Considering that I don't like and don't want to go back to SFM, are there any other better disruptive or dangerous artifact creatures out there that would be a better fill than the masters? Are the SFMs just way better than I'm giving them credit for? (I could easily be missing something, I'm just starting to get back into magic) Colored things are fine as the only blue cards I have (not counting the metamorphs) are the masters and can be easily substituted for a different color splash.

I'm still really against the vials maindeck, but I do kind of like sneaking them in from the sideboard after your opponent has boarded out their mental missteps (the one card sure to get boarded out against this deck).

You are right. After a few more games, I reckoned Vial is only good against blue. It starts to tap when aggro decks is overrunning you, or after your hand was stripped by black based midrange/control. As for SBing it, there could be better anti-blue cards than Vial. Too many Moxes is not good for mid-late games, as Qweerios pointed out, and this deck wins at mid-late games (8-10 turns). Therefore, I constrain myself to 2 Mox Diamond & 2 Mox Opal after cutting Vials.

Master is worse than Overseer because 2 >> 2+Color in Steel Stompy. If you are looking for a beater in Red, I would recommend 1-2 Moltensteel Dragon. The selling point of SFM is that Equipments become so much more accessible that you don't big dumb threats that do nothing otherwise.

@Moon splash: How has playing only 4 Magus been going? Is it just a Simian Spirit Guide on the battlefield that randomly annoys an opponent but rarely screws any (a Turn 2 Moon can be well prepared against after all)? For your side, it more often than not synergises well with City of Traitors, but discourages playing utility lands. Also, 8 color sources is not enough support for a 4-of (not even for a 1-of, if it constitutes one of your main plans.), I would definitely play 1-2 Mountain.

@Dismember: I would definitely try it, but the question is for which MUs and how would you SB? It is not an Artifact after all, and competes slots with Timely Reinforcement for my monoW version. Reinforcement is there to punish Zoo/Sligh/Merfolk/Goblin, definitely better than Dismember for those MUs.

[Reckless Assault]

Yeah, I played with sideboarding the vials, but I don't like them enough to remove other cards from the sideboard.

I've given up on the master, if I were playing more straight steel stompy than moon I'd probably be able to slide them back in.

I've moved my moons (but not the magus) to the board and they still work pretty well. They obviously don't come up as often, but I don't find myself relying on them as much either. Running more moons I would be kind of in trouble if my lock broke, but if nothing else they are still a body to stick equipment on, and they do still bring a pretty big burden to my opponents as well. They become one more threat that needs to be handled ASAP, and even if they get killed, they take a removal spell that would have been aimed at the overseers or other lock creature.

I'm still toying with dismembers so I'm not quite sure if I'll be keeping them or not, but I haven't been unhappy with them when I've boarded them in. I haven't had much trouble with deciding which cards to board out, because there's usually at least one lock piece that doesn't really affect any particular opponent.

What I am having trouble with are things like moats or ensnaring bridges. I know that red and artifact aren't great at dealing with enchantments, and I don't really want to have to splash a color. I'm thinking of just tossing a few shattering spree into my sideboard for the bridges and other artifacts decks, but I'm hoping that someone has a better idea of dealing with artifacts and/or enchantments.

[GGoober]

Hey guys, I haven't had the time to post in awhile, but also because I wanted to confirm the performance of the list, I rather have actual results backing them up before I claim anything in theory.

Here's the list that I've done well for the past 3 weeks:

22 LANDS:
4 Wasteland
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Ancient Den
6 Plains

8 ACCELERANTS:
4 Aether Vial
2 Mox Opal
2 Mox Diamond

22 CREATURES:
3 Steel Overseer
3 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Etched Champion
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Phyrexian Metamorph

5 EQUIPMENTS:
2 Batterskull
2 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire/Ice (previously 1 Cranial Plating, SoFI is better for the white build tending mid-range)

4 REMOVAL:
4 Swords to Plowshares

15 SIDEBOARD:
3 Oblivion Ring
2 Seal of Cleansing
4 Thorn of Amethyst
4 Chalice of the Void
1 Manriki-Gusari (flex slot)
1 Phyrexian Revoker (flex slot)


Let me emphasize on the strengths of the white-build, in contrast to monoU and UB that I have played extensively in the past.

The strength of monoU is aggression with Master of Etherium, and to some extent Hibernation in the board. With Master, you have 8 lords which add a ton of synergy to the aggro gameplan. This deck plays the style of Merfolks very much, and fits stronger with Chalice MD (i.e. disrupt + smashing in)

The strength of the UB build is complete brokeness. You don't care about anything but rushing out Bob and Tezz 2.0. The UB build can single-handedly win with a resolved Bob/Tezz. This is the build that plays the most accelerants (4 Mox Diamond, 3 Opals). Access to Perish is huge.

The weakness of monoU is outside of its good matchups, it has a tremendously hard time against its bad matchups: discard, Pernicious Deed (even with Rushing RIver it was still bad), Qasali Pridemage.dec.

The weakness of the UB build was its weak manabase and its reliance on Bob/Tezz (since you are more inconsistent by playing even more mana sources). In general, if I were to play monoU or UB, I would most definitely go with UB because it actually plays spells that win the game v.s. a straight up synergistic list for monoU.

However, 2-3 months ago, I began testing the white list to a large extent. I kept the same shell as monoU, replacing Master of Etherium with SFM. It proved to be promising. The W-build had a much consistent gameplan even if it did not smash faster like the monoU or isn't as broken as the UB build. However, it gave up raw power for a consistently powerful gameplan: which was as simple as grabbing Batterskull and Jitte/SoFI/Plating EVERY game. If one would recall, Stompy in the past has won bulk of games with either a big dude or a dude with an equipment slapped on it. This is what SFM does: she consistently makes sure that you will at least see 1-2 equipments in the game every time, and this ultimately led me to realize how consistently powerful SFM is.

What breaks SFM in the white Steel STompy shell is really Etched Champion and the insanely fast manabase. In most SFM decks, it is difficult to get a sword/batterskull in play without the SFM, but in Steel Stompy, you can easily hardcast a turn 3 Batterskull without SFM, so you don't really care if they removed your SFM. Tutoring and having the equipment is a form of card advantage, which the tutored equipment generates even more card advantage. Bulk of the games are won with equipments, and many aggro decks just cannot match a Champion with Batterskull/Jitte/SoFI attached to it.

Now, given that the white splash has convinced you that it's amazing, you guys will have to take my word and test the latest list with Chalice in the SB and Vials/StP maindeck.


The first thing I did was moving the Vials MD. My reasoning was simple: I wanted to drop my land count from 24 to 22, and my mox count from 5-6 to 4. The simplest replacement was adding these 4 slots with Vials. This meant I had to cut Chalice or some other cards. I eventually decided that Chalice was the weakest card in the deck, when considering what Vial does for the deck.

1) If Vial resolves, you have greater mana-space to work with. You can ramp out your threats twice as fast, make SFM/Etched Champion immune to counter-magic.
2) Vial allows you to keep hands that are questionable for Stompy.dec i.e. hands with iffy manabases (e.g. 1 Ancient tomb susceptible to a Wasteland). When Vial is in play, you are basically killing your opponents' wastelands, while amplifying your own Wastelands
3) Vial is critical in resolving 3 creatures: SFM/Etched Champion/Metamorph. For most parts, it is set at 2 until you draw a Champion, and you ramp it to 4 when you draw Metamorph.
4) When considering Vial and Chalice v.s. combo, Chalice wins straight off. When considering it against aggro, Vial gets the thumbs up simply because the format is more 2cmc dominated than 1cmc (Goyfs/Bobs/SFM/Pridemage etc). Chalice is only good against little Zoo and Goblins on the play, but is weak against most aggro decks, both these two decks no longer see heavy play. When considering Vial v.s. blue-based decks/control, Vial single-handedly is more powerful than Chalice.

Vial is susceptible to Mental Misstep, and so is the recently added StP. But Steel Stompy could always play the gameplan without Vial or Misstep. It's manabase is still capable of powering out huge threats fast. If your opponent draws Misstep on Vial + Wasteland, you are running into the same situation as you would if you were getting Wastelanded in the first place without playing Vials, but Vial now adds that option where if it resolves, you are completely immune to wastelands. this is the most important reason for me playing with Vials. It's consistent for your manabase and creatures-casting, and you can still play the game without it.

StP became the recent addition, because simply, with the 6 Plains and heavy reliance of SFM/Oring/Seal, you are forced to play around 10 lands that tap for W (and 4 Moxes). StP allows you to survive the onslaught that you would otherwise lose to: Pridemage/Goyfs/bob. Without StP, you would solely have to rely on drawing equipments/Metamorph. Now, with 4 StP, 4 Metamorph, 2 Jitte, 1 SoFI, you have a solid gameplan against aggro, which is the deck's weakest matchup (Steel Stompy is amazing against combo and control for most parts).

So hope my explanation for the decklist flowed. Lastly, the SB of 3 Oring and 2 Seal of Cleansing is critical. Orings can come in against any deck playing around 6-8 creatures, further putting them on a pressure. It is amazing against Show and Tell (4 Metamorph + 3 Oring + Lodestone/Thorns), and it comes in with SEal of Cleansing against any artifact/enchantment based deck.

I just want to add that I've done well in the last 3 tourneys:

1) First place in 22 man local event (matchups: Belcher x2, Merfolks, Reanimator, Hulk Rebirth, Esper America, Hypergenesis)
2) Top 4 (we split) at a 14 man local event (matchups: Esperblade, Merfolks, Imperial Painter, something else x2)
3) Top 4 (we split) at a 12 man local event (matchups: Esperblade, Esper America, Imperial Painter, Goblins, something else)

Granted my local events are small, we have good players who love the format and we know what we're doing. Mostly, I design decks not to beat my local tourneys. I love designing decks that are good against the current meta that isn't the DTB because the reason I play Legacy isn't to win, but rather to have fun and actually feel happy that I've succeeded in building a decent list.

If you have any questions with the list, feel free to post here. The summary for the deck is really a consistent aggro gameplan backed with equipments (thanks to SFM), and once you reach the stage where Champion + equipment is in play, you would most likely win. You can still draw broken hands like Turn 2 golem, Turn 3 Golem/Metamorph + wasteland (another reason why I play this deck beceause those draws are broken if they don't have an answer lol). The current list is extremely stable in mana and consistent. It has a great matchup against combo/control where the Chalice/Thorns come in togheter with 4 Lodestone + 4 Metamorph + 4 Wasteland. It fights artifact hate fairly well because SFM/Batterskull is an alternate route. The 6 basic plains adds to being slightly resilient to Null Rods/Deed/Energy Flux, and the 3 Oring/2 Seal of Cleansing have greatly improved the deck's worst matchup.

If there are a few bad matchups off the top of my head, I'll point them out here:
1) Deck with Hymn, esp. Pox (Champion is really terrible here :/)
2) Deck with flyers (not too common, but Serra Avenger was a beast when I played against D&T a year ago)
3) NORUG with multiple Ancient Grudge and FoW for the Metamorph. In general, you have a good chance against NORUG. They have to counter SFM/Jitte/Metamorph, but if you somehow resolve any of these spells, you should be fine. Note: Champion + Batterskull beats Progenitus.

Highlight for today's matchup:

Goblin player has a board of 6 1/1 tokens, 1 matron, 1 Siege-gang commander. I'm at 8 life with Vial@4 and an Etched Champion (He Goblin tinkerer'd my Jitte and earlier). I Vialed in Metamorph targetting SGC (he was tapped out). I had a Mox Opal and Mox Diamond and 2 Plains, shocked off his SGC, and Vialed in another Metamorph targeting my Metamorph to get another SCG and 3 Goblins, he scooped :P

[Al-ucard]

I played yesterday your list but with only 1 batterskull (there are 61 cards in your list) against zoo, merfolks, WB fish and the gate and only lose 1 game in all afternoon against the zoo player because I don't remember that opponent has SoFi in hand and attacked with my lonely champion, so opponent kill him with the fire ability of SoFI.

Then I tested against a friend of mine with reanimator and planeswalker stax and I have to say that in the first match it's almost impossible to win this machups, maybe we need MD a pair of oblivion rings to solve the problems of cards like ensnaring bridge or something like that, moat comes to mind too. Then I will put something against reanimator or graveyard decks with the oblivion rings we don't have in side.

In my testings the poor cards in the deck where aether vial and steel overseer, so I will start cutting from there:

23 LANDS:
4 Wasteland
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Ancient Den
2 Mishra's Factory
5 Plains

4 ACCELERANTS:
2 Mox Opal
2 Mox Diamond

22 CREATURES:
3 Steel Overseer
3 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Etched Champion
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Phyrexian Metamorph

5 EQUIPMENTS:
2 Batterskull
2 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire/Ice

6 REMOVAL:
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Oblivion ring

15 SIDEBOARD:
4 Tormod's/Relic/Surgical extraction...?
1 Oblivion Ring
2 Seal of Cleansing
4 Thorn of Amethyst
4 Chalice of the Void

Thoughts?

[GGoober]

Right now, Overseer is feeling weak since I've drifted away from the 8lord strategy. 3 Revoker has been very solid against my weaker matchups. The reason you find Vial weak is because your meta doesn't have a bunch of blue-based control decks. In my meta, we have quite a lot of blue-decks that are not combo (e.g. Reanimator): UW Stoneblade, Esperblade, Excalibur, NORUG, Team AMerica, Vial is almost GG when it resolves when I play it in my meta.

I would probably be swapping the Overseers for Porcelain Legionaire. If you have trouble with Reanimator in your meta, swap the vials for Chalices. Once again card choices/decks should be optimized on your expected meta. I've moved Chalice in the SB because I'm just feeling in the current overall metagame, Chalice is weak MD, when you face a sea of blue-control decks with SFM.

Keep testing. The white list has huge potential. I would go up to 2 ORings in your SB because they are pretty amazing. I don't worry about GY hate because my meta doesn't have Dredge and occassionaly REanitmator pops up. Against Reanimator. 4 Orings, 4 Thorns, 4 Lodestone, 4 Wastelands, 4 Chalice (They lose to CHalice if they resolve) is more than sufficient, don't forget the 4 Metamorphs too, and 4 StP for Jin Gitaxias. The thing about Reanimator, you are immune to Iona, and somewhat to Jin-Gitaxias (since you can race him when he's online even if he's drawing 7 cards). If you get a Champion + Jitte/Batterskull, that's already as threatening if not more threatening than what they can play out. I mean, Champion + jitte/Batterskul races a Progenitus. The backbone of the deck is really Champion for guaranteed wins. The equipment tutoring every game has helped the deck's consistency to a large extent. I almost always tutor Batterskull even if they have removal for SFM. Because you can hardcast BAtterskull easier in this deck, once batterskull is in play, your aggro matchups become much favorable. THe only time I tutor Jitte before Batterskull is when my opponents are playing Goblins/Dredge/Elves/SFM/NORUG etc. You get the idea. Jitte also beats Dredge if you're looking for outs against Dredge. Against Dredge, get Jitte out fast, get a ton of Golems/Thorns/Metamorph out and they can never cast a spell, they'll get some zombies a couple of turns, but those lose to Jitte when you kill the bridge and have an online Jitte.

Hope this helps. Just remember when sideboarding, you don't want to dilute too much of your aggressive gameplan. Slowing opponents down means nothing if you can't win (the main problem with Stax in Legacy).

[soiber2000]

I was the one Alucard said playing reanimator and walker stax. I'd like to say a couple of things. First, i tested this deck in the past but the blue version. The deck was good but not as i expected. The other day watching the white version performance i was really impressed. As metalworker says, it has a great potential and I don't discard trying it in a large tournament.

Also as metalworker said, his version is prepared for a meta that Alucard didn'd face the other day, but I really think that vial is a good call, because in our large tournaments we also face UW stoneblade NO Rug and Team America, and if resolved is a great solution for those decks.

Then, the reanimator and stax pairing. All decks have a bad matchup and both of them are ad for your maindeck. But I think you have enough answers for them in board. As also metalworker said, a resolved chalice i GG in reanimator. If your pair it with thorn and oblivion ringnyou have plenty of answers. Don't forget that we didn't play postboard, all matches were pre, so your conclusions are correct but just keep in mind that, we have to test a lot more, and with sideboard. And remember that match that I put a Jin in play turn two, i have only a misstep in hand to protect him. You played swords and I missteped, but then with the draw 7 I drew a Fow, you played metamorph and I fowed it so the game was over, but keep in mind you had 2 answers maindeck and I drew protection. Now think about it if you would also have chalice, thorn and oblivion.

Well, to sum up, I think the deck has a good potential and we have to test it a lot more. Champion with equipment is insane, and if you add 4 metamorphs the thing is getting better. Good deck, time to test.

[mrjumbo03]

@Metalworker, What can you cut for that final card? I really don't like running 61 card decks but as I have not tested the white version as much as you have, I don't know which is optimal to cut. I play DnT regularly and I wanted to try a different angle which uses different colors but I'm open to changing to the mono-W version if testing proves that it is more powerful.

[GGoober]

List I played yesterday (-1 Plains, -1 Revoker, +2 Oblivion Ring MD, swap Overseer for Legionaire. As much as I feel Overseer is weak, at 2cmc, nothing else seems to have more value than Overseer, Legionaire felt weak most of the time).

21 LANDS:
4 Wasteland
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Ancient Den
5 Plains

8 ACCELERANTS:
4 Aether Vial
2 Mox Opal
2 Mox Diamond

21 CREATURES:
3 Porcelain Legionaire
2 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Etched Champion
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Phyrexian Metamorph

5 EQUIPMENTS:
2 Batterskull
2 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire/Ice

6 REMOVAL:
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Oblivion Ring

Mrjumbo, from this list, cut a Mox. You can go 3 Mox Opal or 3 Mox Diamond if you want to drop to 60, instead of a 2-2 split. Go Mox Diamond if you need the speed over the card quality. I.e. speed for metagames with lots of combos, go for Mox Opal if you suspect a lot of black splash decks with Hymns etc, i.e. you want to minimize card disadvantage.

My 61 list is 61 for a reason, I know most ppl hate 61 card. The 61st card in my list is the 4th Mox. You can probably trim down to 21 land and the deck is still fine because you have 4 Vials (similar to Merfolk except a Wasteland hurts you most).

I went 2-1-1 yesterday missing Top 4. Weren't too many players, but my draws were against UWr Stoneblade (had to spend 3 turns fighting an Energy Flux, Oring saved my ass). He had maindeck Manriki Gusari so that was annoying and took much longer to fight. My game 1 was a hand of shit but I kept it because it had double Wasteland (he usually plays Hypergenesis). My loss was against Dredge. Game 1 I got a fast Golem online, a SFM into Jitte and Etched Champion locking him out of mana with a Wasteland, Jitte keeps tokens in check. Game 2 he overruns me on the draw. Game 3 I keep an iffy hand that beats a regular dredge draw (2 Etched Champion on turn 2,3 and a Batterskull castable on turn 3 i.e. Dredge won't be able to race it), but he went turn 2 breakthrough dump his deck. In hindsight, I should have mulled since I had 4 Thorns + 4 Chalice on the play to stop his insane plays but I took a risk.

I beat Merfolks. Game 1 Merfolks made me rage and kill 1000 baby seals. He drops Vial, I play City of Traitors into Revoker naming Vial. He plays Wasteland and Dismembers my Revoker (that's 4 cards from his hand: Land, Vial, Wasteland, Dismember). I play Ancient Den, pass turn (risk of losing to no lands), he Vials Coralhem (5th card in hand) Wasteland (6th card in hand), and then another Coralhem (7/10 cards in hand). I lose. My friend trolls me saying Merfolks is so good. Game 2: My vial resolves and he vials his stuff. I Vial in double Champion. He gets a Coralhelm that could get there. I Vial Metamorph copying an existing SFM tutoring Jitte, so I have Batterskull + Jitte, he could not beat that). Merfolk decides to shit on itself in game 3 (Yaay!). He goes Mutavault Vial. I go turn 1 Revoker. He complains he didn't have the Island for Daze and I thought to myself, "Well Merfolks can't always draw the perfect 7 hand that answers everything right?" He double Forces some of my plays but that makes me super happy (I think Merfolks should board out Force against Steel Stompy because it's just number of creatures v.s. number of creatures). he ramps Vial to 3, drops 2 dudes with it, but stays stuck with a hand of 1-2cmc dudes while I have a Lodestone in play locking him out from playing them since his deck decides not to draw him lands. Easy win.



An interesting matchup yesterday was against Show and Tell/Eureka. This dude at our playgroup makes a lot of us ragequit by simply playing a balls-in-the-wall turn 1/2 Show and Tell/Eureka (8 cantrips deck is accelerant, Force, Dudes, ESG/Lotus Petal, Show/Eureka so he draws any combination and starts dumping dudes without a thought). It was hilarious how our matches went:

Game 1: He dumps Progenitus, I drop a SFM tutoring into a Jitte. He swings for 10 I'm down to 10, I swing with Batterskull equipped with Jitte go to 14, he swings with Progentius I go to 4, I swing with Batterskull, +4/+4 with Jitte, gain 8 life go to 12, he swings I go to 2, I play SoFII swing in pump +4/+4 gain 10 life and deal him 12 damage for lethal lol. (That is how powerful Batterskull/Jitte/Sword is!!)

Game 2: He Eurekas into 2 Blightsteel, 1 Progenitus, 1 Emrakul (nice Eureka bro!). I dump a hand of 1 Lodestone Golem, 1 Metamorph on Progetnius, 1 SFM into Batterskull, dump another Batterskull, and 2 Oblivion Rings into play. If I am correct, for Eureka, since we're dropping things one by one, Oblivion Ring works on the correct targets whereas it wouldn't have worked if he show and telled.

Thanks for the reading and trying out the deck. It looks like a pile, but I've been having a load of fun playing it (despite not liking SFM strategy in Legacy for most parts). The white build has greatly solved the biggest problem for Steel Stompy: Aggro matchups. Without life-gain, you very often lost to your own Ancient Tombs a lot of times. The thing about consistently getting Jitte/batterskull is that they stabilize you, but is completely unfair since all your creatures are constantly gaining the Jitte/Batterskull 'ability'. You also don't care if they remove your SFM. Vial is the most powerful card in the deck. My friend and I have been re-evaluating how powerful Vial is (he's playing Vial in an Exacalibur build and it's amazing with SFM/Spellstutter Sprites/Goyfs). If Vial resolves, you have double the creature output, and for this deck, you want to spend your mana equipping or further playing spells.

The nice thing is postboard, when you're cutting creatures down against combo, Vial naturally comes out, allowing you to un-awkwardly fit in 4 Chalice + 4 Thorns. The other builds of Steel Stompy always had awkward sideboarding situations where your threat density falls. SFM negates this to a large extent.

I will be updating the OP sometime this week, and I will catalog the older builds so that they are stil available.

[Esper3k]

Game 2: He Eurekas into 2 Blightsteel, 1 Progenitus, 1 Emrakul (nice Eureka bro!). I dump a hand of 1 Lodestone Golem, 1 Metamorph on Progetnius, 1 SFM into Batterskull, dump another Batterskull, and 2 Oblivion Rings into play. If I am correct, for Eureka, since we're dropping things one by one, Oblivion Ring works on the correct targets whereas it wouldn't have worked if he show and telled.

Yes, you can O-Ring things that are dropped in via Eureka, but not because of the way you think it works (O-Ring also works if you drop it in via Show & Tell).

All the permanents from Eureka/Hypergenesis/Show & Tell come in at the same time (order matters for things like Humility on Eureka/Hypergenesis). Presuming no Humility, the O-Ring triggers won't go on the stack until after Hypergenesis/Eureka resolves. Abilities/Spells target when they go on the stack, so at the time the O-Ring abilities go on the stack, the Blightsteels/Emrakul will be in play and targetable by the O-Ring abilities. This is also true if you Show & Tell O-Ring in and exile their Emrakul.

The difference between this and Phyrexian Metamorph is that when you Show & Tell in a Phyrexian Metamorph and say they bring in Progenitus, you can't copy the Progenitus because it's not in play as Phyrexian Metamorph comes into play. Essentially, what Metamorph is copying (and remember, it doesn't target and you don't need to announce what it's copying until it resolves) must be in play before the Metamorph. Because Show & Tell puts both objects into play at the same time, Metamorph can't actually copy it. If I remember correctly, this is different with Eureka/Hypergenesis because you actually take turns putting things into play.

[pandaman]

Esper3k, are you sure all permanents enter the battlefield from Hypergenesis and Eureka come into play at the same time? Eureka and Hypergenesis say "starting with you, each player may put an x card from his or her hand onto the battlefield." which I interpret to mean that you take turns and each enters the battlefield at a different time (not using the stack but at different times during resolution of the spell). But Show and Tell says "each player puts..." If all permanents for Hypergenesis and Eureka enter the battlefield at the same time Phyrexian Metamorph wouldn't work?

I thought that Show and Telled cards both enter at the same time, but Hypergenesis and Eureka permanents enter the battlefield in the order that the players play them in. So Phyrexian Metamorph won't work with Show and Tell, but it will work with Eureka or Hypergenesis because someone drops a Progenitus, for example, and then when it's your turn to put one in you put a Phyrexian Metamorph copying Progenitus (which will happen not using the stack because it's a state based effect, meaning that both are put to the graveyard without using the stack because the legendary rule is a state based effect?).

Would love someone to clarify this for me.

And metalwalker, that was a ridiculous hand to have against Eureka into 4 fatties... I can only imagine the guy's face... what did you O-Ring when you did it?

[mrjumbo03]

So Misstep just got banned, there'll be a bunch of things that Chalice will be hitting again now.

[GGoober]

FUCK YES!!

Actually, that works both ways:
MM banned meaning our Vial strategy is stronger. BUT with MM banned, it means primarily control is weakened (vial decks are stronger). This puts combo, Zoo and many other decks back, which puts this deck in a big testing stage again.

I was going to just play this deck for as long as the meta with MM/NORUG/Stoneblade was around but looks like we'll have to go back and trying things out.

But the Vial/StP strategy is always better for sparingly-little combo metagames, but if you have some significant amount of combo/reanimator/zoo etc, Chalice should be back once again. However, I've had postive matchups against Storm from all my testing. It is extremely hard for them to beat 4 Thorn, 4 Chalice, 4 Wasteland, 4 Golems, 4 Metamorph (copying Thorns/Golems), and Batterskull/Jitte against the fast EtW plan. The only storm deck that is truly resilient to Steel Stompy is High Tide (Spiral/Solidarity), or if Storm goes Thoughtseize turn 1 and combo off turn 2, but there is nothing you can do about that outside of playing Force of Will. I am inclined to say that even with MM ban, I still prefer the StP/Vial route, but I'll see what the meta looks like, and do more testing against that before optimizing the correct route.


@Esper3K: You are correct on the rules. I remembered posting on the Rules discussion about a year ago when playing Landstill/Humility/Oring v.s. Show and Tell v.s. Eureka.

[pandaman]

@Esper3K: You are correct on the rules. I remembered posting on the Rules discussion about a year ago when playing Landstill/Humility/Oring v.s. Show and Tell v.s. Eureka.

Thanks, will file that one away.

[mrjumbo03]

@ Metalworker, what do you think about some Dismembers in the 75 for some removal in the Mono-U version? I'm not arguing against the Mono-W, I guess it's just playstyle :) I've been playing Stoneforges for almost a year now and want to try something different :)

[Esper3k]

@Pandaman: Yes, you are correct in that you can Metamorph something with Hypergenesis / Eureka (I actually said the same thing at the end of my previous post :) ). I misspoke when saying that they enter the battlefield at the same time. What I meant was that while they do enter at different times, etb triggers won't go onto the stack until after Hypergenesis / Eureka resolve.

[Koby]

EDIT: I'm a noob.

Holy shit this deck is ridiculous!

Turn 1 - A-Tomb, Mox Diamond, SFM (Batterskull) eats a Bolt
Turn 2 - City of Traitors, Cast Batterskull - Germ eats a PtE
Turn 3 - Cast SFM getting w/e, Metamorph copying Batterskull...

LOL

[Al-ucard]

I've playing with this deck for the last 3 weeks and since I say in the past I liked it a lot, since it has the same good pairings than GW Zenith, and a better pairing against control (aether vial) and combo (chalice, thorn in side and lodestones main), but it has a very bad pairing against GW Zenith itself, since a flying creature with equipment its gg for us.

Any thoughts to improve this matchup?

Thanks

[GGoober]

LOL Rukcus, people ignore the newer list or haven't gotten to testing it. It looks like a pile, but during the MM/Stoneblade meta, it was sick. You have 4 SFM + 4 batterskull + 4 champion + 2 Jitte + 2 Batterskull and you don't give a fuck if they StP your SFM, if you get the equipment in hand, the damage is done. Metamorph is actually a skill intensive card in this deck. There are times when you want to Metamorph SFM to tutor for relevant equipment or just simply to build card advantage, or there are times where Metamorphing a Top/Batterskull is invaluable because you can gain some advantage, but return Top/Batterskull to your hand and reuse the Metamorph later. Metamorph being 3cmc with a stompy manabase is always a plus, not to mention he gives you out against Progenitus/Emrakul MD.

Metamorph is like the best card in the deck. I haven't done much brainstorming/tweaking post MM ban because I'm not sure if I want to play Chalice MD. I want to see how the meta settle before deciding. Vial has been amazing especially when you want Metamorph and Champion and SFM resolving. Post MM, Vial becomes even more ridiculous, and against Merfolks, having a Vial is pretty relevant in not auto-losing.

Irregardless, if the meta proves to be too combo-centric, one can cut 4 Vials, 4 StP and go with 4 Chalice and 4 Orings maindeck. I'm not sure yet.

Yeah Alucard, GW decks are generally bad. The WORST matchups are actually mono black discard/control/aggro. You have nothing to tempo, Edict effects wrecks this deck, and Hymn is the best card against the stompy archetype. BUG lists also tend to destroy this deck due to Deed, but you are not completely vulnerable with the newer lists with a stable manabase and the ability to win just with SFM.

There are some cards that you can consider if you're worried about too many pinpoint removal. I think ESper3K suggested the 3/4 Flying Angel that gives hexproof to our artifacts if we have Metalcraft. I haven't tested against GW extensively, but the most worrisome cards are Pridemage and Knights. You need to try to mull and resolve Etched Champions which are key in this matchup. If they are playing SFM themselves, grab Manriki before any equipment because Manriki beats SFM.decks by itself.

A big weakness of monoW Steel Stompy is flyers. During SCG Dallas (I played the monoU version) and Death and Taxes was a tough matchup since he had Mangara and Serra Avenger and Flickerwisp, both of which puts a fast clock and kills you. If flyers bother you, I would opt for 3-4 Ornithopers (great for metalcraft and equipments) and run SoBM/SoFF maindeck. You definitely need 1 SoFF somewhere in the MD/SB.

I still haven't had time to update the opening post, and for now, I'm testing other fun decks (primiarly Delver of Secrets and Solidarity/Snap Tide) but this deck is always the one that I would sleeve out and play because I enjoy the deck a lot. It has fair game against control/combo, and is a little weak to the non-popular decks e.g. mono-black pox/control, GW, MD Deed.deck, Hymns etc.

[GGoober]

For anyone interested, this is my Chalice post-MM list:


Lands: 22
6 Plains
4 Wasteland
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Ancient Den

Dudes: 23
4 Steel Overseer
3 Phyrexian Revoker
4 SFM
4 Etched Champion
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Phyrexian Metamorph

Equipments: 4
2 Jitte
2 Batterskull

Accelerants: 5
3 Mox Diamond
2 Mox Opal

Disruption/Others: 7
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Oblivion Ring

Cut the 3rd Mox Diamond or 3rd Oring if you want to streamline to 60 cards.

Losing StP/Vial is pretty significant, but with a heavier combo metagame with Dredge/Reanimator in the mix, Chalice is more important. Against Zoo/GWx decks, you have to rely on Champion/Metamorph/Oring to stall the ground, and then win the game with Champion/Equipments. If there're more Junk/Zoo in your meta than Merfolk/Gobs, cut the 2nd Jitte for a relevant Sword (SoFF or SoBM).

The SB for a general metagame will be:
1 Sword of X/Y (depending on your meta)
1 Manriki-Gusari
4 Thorn of Amethyst
2 Seal of Cleansing
7 flex slots (could be Ethersworn Canonist, StP, 4th Oring, 4th Revoker, Sword of X/Y etc, Crucible of Worlds etc)

[mrjumbo03]

I don't think you'd need those Canonists considering postboard you already have 4 Thorns + 4 Chalices + 3 Revokers (I can see the 4th in the SB because that's what I do with my DnT list) +4 Metamorphs that can copy those 12 cards, you're good to go. Also, without manlands, Crucible is kinda meh. Maybe some combination of Tormod's Crypt and Relic of Progenitus for some mandatory grave hate, and what about Hanna's Custody? I just don't know where it can be good though.

Edited to add: I've been running the Mono-U list for 2 weeks and it's been mostly good. Awesome job on this deck Metalwalker! Once I get my hands on some foil batterskulls, I'm a put the mono-W to the test.

[Koby]

Hanna's Custody invalidates all your equipment. That's pretty much the worst card for this deck.

[GGoober]

Yeah my friend suggested Indomitable Archangel which was a good idea against Grips/Grudge/Pridemage, but you lose on your SFM-equipment plan unless you are only planning on using Batterskulls and equipping to SFM/Indomitable Archangel. It's an interesting idea nevertheless

I was playtesting a wild idea, but dismissed it after not being too satisfied. It does have some potential but it's not worth the instability to wasteland and artifact hate.

Basically, it's a UW shell with no basics (much like the UB list, -6 Plains, +4 Glimmervoid, +2 Seat of the Synod)
It runs +3 Thopter Foundry, +1 Sword of the Meek, together with the SFM package and plays with MD Master and Hibernation in the SB.

I didn't like being prone to Wastelands and getting destroyed by Deed/Energy Flux/Meltdown against narrow artifact hate (one big weakness of the UB build in the past) so I decided against it, but the UW experimental list was interesting since you retain the same explosiveness of the deck and consistency with SFM but you have a combo-win with Thopter.

In the end, when I was thinking of the idea and playtesting a few goldfished games, it didn't make sense because the UB (old) build with Bobs (or the Abyss) and Tezz was just much stronger

But it goes to show that Mox Opal, Mox Diamond, Glimmervoid makes color-splashing very easy for Steel Stompy.archetype, whereas other Stompy variants running Chrome Mox are forced into mono-colored and less ability to incorporate newer cards/strategies from new sets.

[Esper3k]

Oops, yeah I thought that angel gave Hexproof, not Shroud, heh.

[Beautiful-Decay]

Hello Metalwalker. I'm still playing your B/U list (because I bought those cards in the first place ;)) and dosen't like a little girl (SFM) help my metal-guys in battle. (Yes I value the look of the cards too ;)) However, How would a "final list" of the U/B list look like? since so many suggestions have been brought up, Skirge + Overseer<3 etc. :) I would really appreciate help ^^

[GGoober]

This was the list that I was playing for UB before I switched to monoW


Lands: 23
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Wasteland
3 Seat of the Synod
4 Vault of Whispers
4 Glimmervoid

Dudes: 22
4 Dark Confidant
4 Steel Overseer
3 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Etched Champion
4 Master of Etherium
3 Phyrexian Metamorph

Equipment: 3
3 Jitte

Accelerant: 6
4 Mox Diamond
2 Mox Opal

Bombs/Others: 7
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas

SB:
3 Perish
4 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Sword of X/Y
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
5 flex slots (winter orb, Lodestone Golems, Crucible, the Abyss)

You can fiddle around with maindeck slots for Revoker, and drop the 4th Mox Opal, but the goal in general for UB is to power out Tezz/Bob/the Abyss ASAP and win from there. I haven't tested 4 Tezz MD, but 3 seemed good enough.

[neoryujin]

Is there anybody still playing Cranial Plating? I was just wondering if a few Invisible Stalker has a place in this deck (perhaps instead of Master of Etherium?).

Though not an artifact (Bob & SFM aren't either), but one turn earlier to cast than Master of Etherium or Etched Champion, hard to get rid of, and will definitely pass through their defense. If you're not planning to block anyway, this'll wreck some chaos with Jitte, Swords & Plating ... (would perhaps feel like a Hexproof Lavamancer every turn).

[GGoober]

Cranial Plating is still really good, but these days I prefer to opt for Sword of X/Y (1 MD, 1 SB) to shore up the weaker matchup. Plating is great against control/combo and potentially against Zoo where you just try to race them. The biggest strength of Plating is that it is very easy and cheap to equip and cast.

Anyway, this is the list that I've been optimizing for the current meta of:
Thresh/Team America/Merfolk/combo/Reanimator.

Lands: 22
6 Plains
4 Ancient Den
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Wasteland

Accelerants: 9
4 Aether Vial
3 Mox Diamond
2 Mox Opal

Dudes: 22
4 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Ethersworn Canonist
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Etched Champion
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Lodestone Golem

Equipments: 4
1 Jitte
2 Batterskull
1 Sword of Fire/Ice

Others: 4
4 Swords to Plowshares

SB: 15
4 Oblivion Ring
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Sword of X/Y/Manriki/flex-slot

This keeps the traditional shell but cutting Overseer for more Revokers. Since the meta is faster with a heavier splash of combo, having the Revokers maindeck (there's always a target for Revoker in almost any matchup) would help. Overseer was really good against a slower meta i.e. every turn you gain makes Overseer stronger, but I'm afraid that the speed of Overseer in the current meta isn't going to cut it. The nice thing is that the monoW build has ways of pumping your creatures with equipments, to offset the loss of overseer.

MD-hate against combo = 14
i.e. 4 Wasteland, 4 Revoker, 2 Canonist, 4 Lodestone Golem (+lifegain off Batterskull/jitte)

Postboard, you will have a total of: 23 (+4 Thorn, +4 Chalice + 1 Canonist)

I opted for Vial because I was doing quite a lot of testing and the deck is far less broken without Vial. Having Vial not only makes your gameplan/manabase more consistent (one of the big problems of Steel Stompy), but with the heavier curve on 2cmc creatures, this powers the Vial-into-SFM/Canonist/Revoker while allowing you to resolve crucial spells such as Champion/Metamorph without risk on getting countered. Vial maindeck is far stronger than Chalice maindeck against any deck playing blue and Chalice will come in against the relevant matchups. Vial allows you to play as aggressive if not more aggressive like Merfolks (Turn 1 Vial, Turn 2 Wasteland, StP their dude, ramp to 2-4 and start cheating dudes in).

The only MD slots I'm iffy with is StP. With 3 Mox Diamond + 8 sol lands (I up'd another Diamond to allow easier casting of Thorn/Chalice postboard), I was thinking going with 3 MD Oblivion Ring maybe a better option. This also adds 3-4 more SB slots (possibly GY hate e.g. Crypt). I'm still undecided with Oring over StP. Oring is pretty easy to cast/versatile unlike StP, but StP is a lot cheaper and comes in faster at instant speed.

I've been playing a lot of UB Dreadstalker with Delvers. It's really fun but when goldfishing Steel Stompy, it just makes me wonder why am I not just playing this deck that is much more aggressive and actually has a consistent mid-game now thanks to SFM. The synergies in the deck is pretty incredible. Metamorph is highly flexible and copying any SFM/equipments/champion/Lodestone (couupled with Wasteland) is pretty devastating.

The list should have a strong matchup against Reanimator: 4 Oblivion Ring, 4 Metamorph, 4 Thorn, 4 Chalice, 4 Wasteland, 4 Golem, 3 Canonist post-board.

The side-boarding is very smooth as well. Against combo, you board out 4 StP + 4 Vial and 1 Champion into your 9 hate. You can always drop the 1-2 Diamond against mid-range decks running multiple artifact hate and add in Orings/Sword of X/Y etc.

[Koby]

You should replace one of the Plains with Karakas. It add so much to the Reanimator matchup (which admittedly is taken care of by Metamorph, but w/es)

I would run +1 Canonist -1 Etched Champion in the MD. I find that Champion is sometimes clunky, and with Metamorphs, you get enough uses from him.

[Esper3k]

You should replace one of the Plains with Karakas.

Can you explain further on this line of thinking? Yes, Karakas helps against Reanimator / Emrakul, but in a deck like this, where you have no way to dig for it or tutor it out, you're never going to see it with any sort of consistency when you need it.

[Koby]

Sure, but there is zero risk to run it either. When you draw it, it can help.

[Esper3k]

Sure, but there is zero risk to run it either. When you draw it, it can help.

Well, it can get Wastelanded and hit by Blood Moon / B2B (in our meta, there's actually a fair amount of Blood Moons running around).

[Koby]

Well, it can get Wastelanded and hit by Blood Moon / B2B (in our meta, there's actually a fair amount of Blood Moons running around).

Guess that's why the deck runs Mox Diamond/Opal.

[GGoober]

I haven't even considered the lone Karakas. I will definitely pack one if the meta has reanimator/show/NO etc (the current meta). Getting Wastelanded sucks, but ever since I went from the older builds with Inkmoth to the UB build to 6plains monoW, the list has been pretty stable (much credit to vial).

Karakas totally slipped my mind. It's pretty terrible outside of Reanimator/Clique etc but I think the benefits outweigh the drawbacks if the meta has plenty of cheaty legends.

I'm personally not too scared of Moon effects. It's always an active Knight or Crucible that destroys this deck. Opal/Diamond does the trick, but Vial/Plains helps. The deck is still primarily colorless, which is why it's still 'stompy' because most things are castable off sol-lands

[Esper3k]

Guess that's why the deck runs Mox Diamond/Opal.

The deck certainly has other ways to generate white mana, but playing Karakas over a basic plains is hardly zero risk as you claimed.

[Koby]

More reasons for Canonist x4 maindeck - Snapcaster Mage is neutered.

[Esper3k]

More reasons for Canonist x4 maindeck - Snapcaster Mage is neutered.

Now that's just downright mean.

I like it!

[GGoober]

LOL, that's pretty sick, VIALing in a Canonist is even more funny :D I'll try to find space for a 3/3 Revoker/Canonist split in the MD (which I think it's the best, obviously depending on what decks you face in your meta).

[tsabo_tavoc]

piloted this deck at the GP, finished 5-4.

Round 1: Vial Zombie (BW) 2-0
Round 2: Affinity (WUB) 2-1
Round 3: Mavericks (GW) 2-1
Round 4: Nic Fit (BGW) 0-1
Round 5: Patriot (UWR) 1-2
Round 6: Imperial Painter (RW) 2-0
Round 7: Belcher (RG) 0-2
Round 8: Infect Stompy (UG) 1-2
Round 9: Cat Sligh (RGW) 2-1

My decklist:

4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Ancient Den
3 Seat of the Synod
4 Inkmoth Nexus
3 Plains
1 Karakas
3 Mox Diamond
2 Mox Opal

4 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Spellskite
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Etched Champion
2 Aven Mindcensor
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
3 Lodestone Golem

4 Chalice of the Void
1 Cranial Plating
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Batterskull
2 Oblivion Ring

4 Leyline of the Void
4 Aether Vial
2 Thorn of Amethyst
2 Glowrider
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Crucible of Worlds

Nothing can be cooler than playing 9 different archetypes Day 1; Nothing can be bitterer than knocking out of Day 2 by Belcher. I would add more matchup information if anyone is interested.

[Al-ucard]

A think I consider a lot in my testings is the fact that we need some oblivion rings MD, what about playing with only 20 dudes and quit 1 vial or 1 StP to fit 3 Oblivion ring? something like this:

22 Lands
6 Plains
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Wasteland
4 Ancient Den

20 Creatures
4 Etched Champion
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Phyrexian revoker
4 Phyrexian metamorph
4 Lodestone Golem

18 Others
4 Aether vial
3 Oblivion Ring
3 Swords to Plowshares
2 Mox Diamond
2 Mox Opal
2 Batterskull
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Umezawa's Jitte

[GGoober]

piloted this deck at the GP, finished 5-4.

Round 1: Vial Zombie (BW) 2-0
Round 2: Affinity (WUB) 2-1
Round 3: Mavericks (GW) 2-1
Round 4: Nic Fit (BGW) 0-1
Round 5: Patriot (UWR) 1-2
Round 6: Imperial Painter (RW) 2-0
Round 7: Belcher (RG) 0-2
Round 8: Infect Stompy (UG) 1-2
Round 9: Cat Sligh (RGW) 2-1

My decklist:

4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Ancient Den
3 Seat of the Synod
4 Inkmoth Nexus
3 Plains
1 Karakas
3 Mox Diamond
2 Mox Opal

4 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Spellskite
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Etched Champion
2 Aven Mindcensor
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
3 Lodestone Golem

4 Chalice of the Void
1 Cranial Plating
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Batterskull
2 Oblivion Ring

4 Leyline of the Void
4 Aether Vial
2 Thorn of Amethyst
2 Glowrider
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Crucible of Worlds

Nothing can be cooler than playing 9 different archetypes Day 1; Nothing can be bitterer than knocking out of Day 2 by Belcher. I would add more matchup information if anyone is interested.


Congrats! I'm sorry if the deck failed you in a big event :/ But hope you had a fun with the deck anyway. Losing to Belcher was surprising. The only way I am thinking is: he wins the die roll and goes off turn 1-2 when you have no hate, you win game 2 by mulling to hate, he wins game 3 on turn 1-2 again. Or he won game 2 if you didn't mull into Sol-land + hate.

How did the UWr Patriot matchup went? In general the deck functions incredible against opposing SFM decks (especially control variants). I'm guessing that was a close game.

I can imagine Nic Fit being a bad matchup because any deck with Hymn and resilience to Wasteland is going to have an edge against a fairly inconsistent deck that wins partly due to the tempo generated from a prison strategy.

I guess infect-stompy got there as well :/

Any thoughts on your list, the deck? How did the Inkmoth work out? I've cutted the Inkmoth for a more stable manabase. I don't quite understand the Seat of Synod (for EE?) I would play Darksteel Citadel instead and play +2 more Orings (good against Reanimator) instead of EE in the SB. Let us know your thoughts but I hope you had fun regardless!

[TkDodo]

How did the UWr Patriot matchup went? In general the deck functions incredible against opposing SFM decks (especially control variants). I'm guessing that was a close game.


I was the R5 opponent with UWr Blade Control. Yes, it was a very close match. We had like 15 minutes left on the clock after game 2, and i somewhat god-handed G3, having double counters for chalices I think, double SFM and Clique for his Etched Champion. He metamorphed my Batterskull, but I equiped with pro-black sword and alpha-swung right in time. G2 was over quickly though as I had no chance against Lodestone Golem, Etched Champion+Equip+Metamorph on Champion. G1 was a long grind, finally resulting in a Batterskull win for me, but I remember my opponent playing an early Etched Champion without having Metalcraft, who instantly got bolted. Since I had no outs to a pro-all-colors creature pre-board except racing it, it could totally have turned out differently had he waited a turn or so I guess.
But I remember all three games being very good against a very nice opponent. It was a great experience for me!

[NecroYawgmoth]

I don't quite understand the Seat of Synod (for EE?) I would play Darksteel Citadel instead and play +2 more Orings (good against Reanimator) instead of EE in the SB. Let us know your thoughts but I hope you had fun regardless!

I think he played the Seats because of P. Metamorph? O-ring as a 4-off woulld be quite nice IMO... But I only had the experience with them in Angel Stompy [where I loved them], so I don't know if it's also needed here.

[mrjumbo03]

What about Cataclysm in the SB? It can be pretty devastating to a lot of decks, and I guess the Sol Lands will help in allowing you to play it as well. It's only really bad against KoTR and to a certain extent Goyf, but I'm sure we can come out on top with the ability to choose an artifact creature as creature, and another artifact creature as an artifact effectively giving us 2 bodies against their 1. Is there any way to solve the discard.deck matchups both the U and the W versions of the deck?

[tsabo_tavoc]

Congrats! I'm sorry if the deck failed you in a big event :/ But hope you had a fun with the deck anyway. Losing to Belcher was surprising. The only way I am thinking is: he wins the die roll and goes off turn 1-2 when you have no hate, you win game 2 by mulling to hate, he wins game 3 on turn 1-2 again. Or he won game 2 if you didn't mull into Sol-land + hate.

How did the UWr Patriot matchup went? In general the deck functions incredible against opposing SFM decks (especially control variants). I'm guessing that was a close game.

I can imagine Nic Fit being a bad matchup because any deck with Hymn and resilience to Wasteland is going to have an edge against a fairly inconsistent deck that wins partly due to the tempo generated from a prison strategy.

I guess infect-stompy got there as well :/

Any thoughts on your list, the deck? How did the Inkmoth work out? I've cutted the Inkmoth for a more stable manabase. I don't quite understand the Seat of Synod (for EE?) I would play Darksteel Citadel instead and play +2 more Orings (good against Reanimator) instead of EE in the SB. Let us know your thoughts but I hope you had fun regardless!

Many thanks, and I had tons of fun playing this deck, while surprising many opponents.

The Belcher game was epic and went as

Game 1: I won the die roll. Sol-land -> Chalice@1. His turn, Chrome Mox (pitching a card), 4 * Spirit Guide, Seething Song, Belcher, revealing the Taiga too late.

Game 2: boarded in 2 Thorn, 2 Glowrider, 1 Explosives, 1 Jitte, out 4 Champion, 1 Aven, 1 BG Sword. I played and kept a hand of: City of Traitors, Ancient Den, Chalice, Glowrider, Mox Opal, 2 irrelevants. I had the options of landing a turn 1 Chalice @ 0 or 1, but did not have 3 mana to land a turn 1 Glowrider. I started as Den, Opal, Chalice@0. If he gave me another turn, I could pretty much seal the game with Glowrider. But that did not happen, he drew and went Elvish Spirit Guide, Tinder Wall, Rite of the Flame, Burning Wish to find a Goblin War Strike (I knew it was time to topdeck the lone Explosives when he made this play), then Rite of the Flame No.2, 1 LED (countered by Chalice), Land Grant looking for the Taiga, and Empty the Warrens making 14 Goblins. Of course I was not fortunate enough to find the Explosives in 2 turns and lost.

After the match I asked him if Chalice @ 0 was the right play and he agreed. (12 0cc accelerants VS 8 1cc). The match would have gone differently if I did not play "optimally". Also, the last minute swap of 2 Glowrider and 2 Thorn cost me the game. I don't like all combo hates being solved by 1 card (Hurkyl's Recall, Rebuild or Meltdown), but I never played High Tide/ANT/TES. Belcher is not an easy MU, and I would say 50-50. At a 4-2 record, one deserves playing against Belcher instead of ANT/TES.

The Nic Fit NU is unfavourable, but the games were not desperate. I mulled to 5 G1, and he kept G1 and G2. He had Lilliana both games, which were pretty unfair against me. Otherwise, my Champion could have done some serious damage. I have not got an early Aven to stop his early GSZ (into Harmonic Silver G2!), but it came in time after an Academy Rector received lethal combat damage). He managed to topdeck the Recurring Nightmare nevertheless, and it was a Recurring Nightmare to me. I still luckily drew G2 and ended 0-1. In fact, in the last extra turn, I topdecked Cranial Plating and placed 8 Poison counters on him.

In my 3 games against Infect Stompy, I mulled to 5, kept, and mulled to 4, respectively (he kept all 3 hands), and never saw a Chalice, nor a Spellskite. I stole G2 after a turn 1 Sol-land into Thorn and he decided not to FOW (misplay as he later expressed), and raced with a Plated Inkmoth. (Fun fact, this was his first game killed by Poison in the tournament.)


I was the R5 opponent with UWr Blade Control. Yes, it was a very close match. We had like 15 minutes left on the clock after game 2, and i somewhat god-handed G3, having double counters for chalices I think, double SFM and Clique for his Etched Champion. He metamorphed my Batterskull, but I equiped with pro-black sword and alpha-swung right in time. G2 was over quickly though as I had no chance against Lodestone Golem, Etched Champion+Equip+Metamorph on Champion. G1 was a long grind, finally resulting in a Batterskull win for me, but I remember my opponent playing an early Etched Champion without having Metalcraft, who instantly got bolted. Since I had no outs to a pro-all-colors creature pre-board except racing it, it could totally have turned out differently had he waited a turn or so I guess.
But I remember all three games being very good against a very nice opponent. It was a great experience for me!

Hi Dominik, many thanks for your comments. It was really nice meeting you there! Too bad the match took too long to allow us chatting more.

I probably misplayed G1, but I kept a hand with only 1 cheap (cc<=2) Artifact (Mox Diamond) and Champion, 2*Metamorph, Oblivion Ring. As you showed me a U-fetch turn1, I did not expect to Metamorph any of your stuffs early. I kind of rushed to play the turn 1 Champion, praying you didn't have the answer. You had a turn 2 Stoneforge and I copied your Stonforge to find a Jitte, which got Spell Snared. My other Metamorph resolved to copy your Batterskull after you landed a Jace. I also had the mana to Oring the Jace, but you had the FOW.

G2 I boarded in 4 Aether Vial, 1 Crucible (he has Wasteland), and out 2 Mox Diamond, 2 Seat of the Synod, 1 Lodestone Golem. I resolved a turn 1 Vial from a Sol-land, which stole the game.

G3 I did not get any Vial in the opening 7, but they were solid to keep. You had the Spell Pierce for my turn 1 Chalice, then landed a turn 2 Stoneforge. I had the Metamorph in hand and felt kind of safe. Then you Cliqued away my only Champion, countered my Chalice by Snapcaster->Pierce, Brainstormed into the BG Sword to seal the game. I had an Aven on the battlefield which was kind of irrelevant.

In all, those were some very nice games and we kept our starting 7s in all 3 games. Your game 3 hand was strong, but not really a god draw. This deck folds to Clique.

more to come...

[Jules]

Cranial Plating is still really good, but these days I prefer to opt for Sword of X/Y (1 MD, 1 SB) to shore up the weaker matchup. Plating is great against control/combo and potentially against Zoo where you just try to race them. The biggest strength of Plating is that it is very easy and cheap to equip and cast.

Anyway, this is the list that I've been optimizing for the current meta of:
Thresh/Team America/Merfolk/combo/Reanimator.

Lands: 22
6 Plains
4 Ancient Den
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Wasteland

Accelerants: 9
4 Aether Vial
3 Mox Diamond
2 Mox Opal

Dudes: 22
4 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Ethersworn Canonist
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Etched Champion
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Lodestone Golem

Equipments: 4
1 Jitte
2 Batterskull
1 Sword of Fire/Ice

Others: 4
4 Swords to Plowshares

SB: 15
4 Oblivion Ring
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Sword of X/Y/Manriki/flex-slot

This keeps the traditional shell but cutting Overseer for more Revokers. Since the meta is faster with a heavier splash of combo, having the Revokers maindeck (there's always a target for Revoker in almost any matchup) would help. Overseer was really good against a slower meta i.e. every turn you gain makes Overseer stronger, but I'm afraid that the speed of Overseer in the current meta isn't going to cut it. The nice thing is that the monoW build has ways of pumping your creatures with equipments, to offset the loss of overseer.

MD-hate against combo = 14
i.e. 4 Wasteland, 4 Revoker, 2 Canonist, 4 Lodestone Golem (+lifegain off Batterskull/jitte)

Postboard, you will have a total of: 23 (+4 Thorn, +4 Chalice + 1 Canonist)

I opted for Vial because I was doing quite a lot of testing and the deck is far less broken without Vial. Having Vial not only makes your gameplan/manabase more consistent (one of the big problems of Steel Stompy), but with the heavier curve on 2cmc creatures, this powers the Vial-into-SFM/Canonist/Revoker while allowing you to resolve crucial spells such as Champion/Metamorph without risk on getting countered. Vial maindeck is far stronger than Chalice maindeck against any deck playing blue and Chalice will come in against the relevant matchups. Vial allows you to play as aggressive if not more aggressive like Merfolks (Turn 1 Vial, Turn 2 Wasteland, StP their dude, ramp to 2-4 and start cheating dudes in).

The only MD slots I'm iffy with is StP. With 3 Mox Diamond + 8 sol lands (I up'd another Diamond to allow easier casting of Thorn/Chalice postboard), I was thinking going with 3 MD Oblivion Ring maybe a better option. This also adds 3-4 more SB slots (possibly GY hate e.g. Crypt). I'm still undecided with Oring over StP. Oring is pretty easy to cast/versatile unlike StP, but StP is a lot cheaper and comes in faster at instant speed.

I've been playing a lot of UB Dreadstalker with Delvers. It's really fun but when goldfishing Steel Stompy, it just makes me wonder why am I not just playing this deck that is much more aggressive and actually has a consistent mid-game now thanks to SFM. The synergies in the deck is pretty incredible. Metamorph is highly flexible and copying any SFM/equipments/champion/Lodestone (couupled with Wasteland) is pretty devastating.

The list should have a strong matchup against Reanimator: 4 Oblivion Ring, 4 Metamorph, 4 Thorn, 4 Chalice, 4 Wasteland, 4 Golem, 3 Canonist post-board.

The side-boarding is very smooth as well. Against combo, you board out 4 StP + 4 Vial and 1 Champion into your 9 hate. You can always drop the 1-2 Diamond against mid-range decks running multiple artifact hate and add in Orings/Sword of X/Y etc.

What are your Boarding Plans against Thresh/Team America/Merfolk? Is it really necessary to use 9 (!) Sideboard Slots for the Combo Matchup?

I really like this Deck and will test it for the first time in a little Tournament next Wednesday.

[GGoober]

@tsabo_tavoc: wow Belcher player drew the nuts :P You are exactly right about decks like Nic Fit beating Steel Stompy. Similar decks include MBC/MUC, BW/Deadguy, GB-loam, Pox etc. Edict effects hurt the deck the most. However, the older list I was running with 4 Inkmoths and 2 Crucible does help against these matchups significantly. In general, if Steel Stompy cannot slow-down an opponent it no longer becomes good because this deck functions a little like Maverick/DnT in the way that your cards interact with an opponent to stop them from interacting with you (e.g. Sword of X/Y, Champion, Revoker, Vial, Lodestone etc) but against such decks, you can't really achieve that. You mentioned Clique is an issue. I don't disagree with you. The matchups that I lost in the past were to Clique/Coralhem/Serra Avenger. The deck doesn't fend off flyers well because your strategy is based on Batterskull/Champion being hate-cards to ground attackers so you can't use that advantage in the air. Granted that you can easily beat those decks with SoFI/Jitte on a dude, but those decks are going to try their best to stop you from doing so (counter-magic) so to be fair, it's not really that the deck folds to clique, but rather the archetype of blue that protects the Clique and continues to slow you down with countermagic/removal (i.e. Ux decks with flyers) that become the real problem.

@Jules: Yes you need as many slots for the combo matchup. Against combo, I cut:
-4 Vial
-3 Oring (if not Show/Tell)
-4 Champion (too slow and worthless)
+4 Thorn
+4 Chalice
+1 Canonist
+2 flex slots (4th Revoker, Seal of Cleansing etc)

You lose almost nothing from cutting cards but gain way more from bringing in the hate. You still have ~18 creatures and SFM itself is a fast way to neutralize combo. Your only fear against combo is if they go off turn 1 or turn 2 after Duressing your hate. It happens, but every deck loses to that if they are not playing blue (even black discard will lose to that).

For Thresh, the SB'ing depends whether you're on the play/draw. If you're on the play, I'll board in 4 Chalice and board out some Canonist/Revoker (keep Revoker against TA naming Deed/EE) and equipment. If you're on the draw, I'll board out 2 Lodestones because they are too fragile and slow on the draw against Daze/Bolt/FoW etc. Against these tempo decks, you want to have 8-removal spells (this gives them a big headache usually) and play around Daze and their tempo whenever possible. What I mean by this is: Tempo decks are going to tempo you when you play a spell. If you don't give them any tempo, they aren't really building threats until a turn later, which you nullify some strategy because you're around equal turns being 'slow'. Against Team America/Discard-tempo, that's different and it's a lot harder because Hymn/Thoughtseize hurts Stompy-archetype very hard. But against Tempo Thresh, make sure not to run into 2-for-1's and as long as they're not racing you too fast, you can afford to play around the tempo.


A few thoughts came with today's testing.

The list I played was -4 StP -1 Batterskull, +1 SoFF +4 Oring in the above list Jules quoted. This frees up 4 slots in the SB, which you can play almost anything at this moment.

The few thoughts I had that didn't really occur to me until later as an enlightenment was: Having Chalice on the draw against decks like UWb Esperblade, Team America, Thresh, Combo etc is actually not great. Even though these decks fold to Chalice, they have infinitely too much answers on the draw against you (discard/Daze/Pierce/Snare). You can't really escape the combo matchup with not playing Chalice because it's still the best card against them but for Team America/Tempo decks, you actually don't want to board in the chalice on the DRAW. I rather have Vial against these decks (and best with playing Vial turn 1 on off a sol-land so their only outs are FoW which I'm fine with or Pierce). Against Merfolks, you should have an easy time :) Just remember that the only way to beat Merfolks is have more dudes than them i.e. make sure that you can FoW-bait/Daze-bait them into losing tempo while you are not losing as much (hence correct-baiting). This gives you some edge against their countermagic. You want to resolve Champion/Vial/SFM primarily in this matchup (if you resolve Vial you can play the game as well as they do with Vial). They have a tough time dealing with Jitte/Champion/SFM/Vial/SoFI. Coralhelm is the only real issue for you just as Tombstalker/Delver/Cliques are issues.

I also find another subtlety of the deck on the draw. Mox Diamond becomes stronger because you now have an opening '8', and the manaboost from Diamond on the draw becomes more visibly relevant (it wasn't really visibly relevant until I put some thoughts into it). As a result, when cutting a few Moxes for SB slots, I tend to drop 2 Mox Opal on the draw to board more hate-cards on the DRAW, but keep the Diamonds in. On the play, I can afford to cut Diamonds instead of Opals (now the 7 opening hand kinda feels the effects of the card-disadvantage from Diamond).

I know this is a little too detailed for small plays, but having noticed the slight subtleties yesterday, I think it does in fact add up and kinda streamline how I board in games, and judge the importance of Mox Diamond on the draw with an opening '8' and how it is weaker with an opening '7' on the play. I definitely know that I want Chalice in my SB, unless my meta is >50% fast combo. Right now, Vial still shines amazingly well, and you should always play Vials above Chalice against control matchups.

Today, I also lived the dream of having a Batterskull with Jitte+SoFI+SoFF attached on it on around turn 5 :D I had all my SFM answered by Snapcaster+StP, but I drew 3 Sol-lands so I just hard-cast all the equipments on one Batterskull lol.

I've been having problems with Spiral Tide. They are very good at making land-drops, when they hit Scroll/Wish, they really don't care about the thorn-effects in play. You need Lodestone Golem to win this because just stacking spheres does nothing since you have no threat on board. Lodestone changes that entirely. I'm not sure if I can fit Nevermores in the SB. It would be great but I haven't tried WW-spells in the deck yet. I don't think the manabase consistently casts it.

[tsabo_tavoc]

@tsabo_tavoc: wow Belcher player drew the nuts :P You are exactly right about decks like Nic Fit beating Steel Stompy. Similar decks include MBC/MUC, BW/Deadguy, GB-loam, Pox etc. Edict effects hurt the deck the most. However, the older list I was running with 4 Inkmoths and 2 Crucible does help against these matchups significantly. In general, if Steel Stompy cannot slow-down an opponent it no longer becomes good because this deck functions a little like Maverick/DnT in the way that your cards interact with an opponent to stop them from interacting with you (e.g. Sword of X/Y, Champion, Revoker, Vial, Lodestone etc) but against such decks, you can't really achieve that. You mentioned Clique is an issue. I don't disagree with you. The matchups that I lost in the past were to Clique/Coralhem/Serra Avenger. The deck doesn't fend off flyers well because your strategy is based on Batterskull/Champion being hate-cards to ground attackers so you can't use that advantage in the air. Granted that you can easily beat those decks with SoFI/Jitte on a dude, but those decks are going to try their best to stop you from doing so (counter-magic) so to be fair, it's not really that the deck folds to clique, but rather the archetype of blue that protects the Clique and continues to slow you down with countermagic/removal (i.e. Ux decks with flyers) that become the real problem.

Totally agree with your underlined analysis. As for Clique, being a 3/1 flier is not the real problem, as we have Equipments, Orings, Metamorphs, and I have Inkmoth and Aven against it. The real problem is the quasi discard. In G3, it put my Champion away, which left me in a rather tough position.


What about Cataclysm in the SB? It can be pretty devastating to a lot of decks, and I guess the Sol Lands will help in allowing you to play it as well. It's only really bad against KoTR and to a certain extent Goyf, but I'm sure we can come out on top with the ability to choose an artifact creature as creature, and another artifact creature as an artifact effectively giving us 2 bodies against their 1. Is there any way to solve the discard.deck matchups both the U and the W versions of the deck?

Discard is very wicked against us. Chalice @ 1 helps. I considered Leyline of Sanctity, but one won't really mull into it (and hardcasting it is almost always too late). True Believer is close, but costs WW. For the U version, your best friend is Brainstorm (No, I am not being sarcastic.).

As for Cataclysm, there is a reason D+T does not play it now. Cataclysm is far more synergistic in D+T than Steel Stompy.


Today, I also lived the dream of having a Batterskull with Jitte+SoFI+SoFF attached on it on around turn 5 :D I had all my SFM answered by Snapcaster+StP, but I drew 3 Sol-lands so I just hard-cast all the equipments on one Batterskull lol.

I've been having problems with Spiral Tide. They are very good at making land-drops, when they hit Scroll/Wish, they really don't care about the thorn-effects in play. You need Lodestone Golem to win this because just stacking spheres does nothing since you have no threat on board. Lodestone changes that entirely. I'm not sure if I can fit Nevermores in the SB. It would be great but I haven't tried WW-spells in the deck yet. I don't think the manabase consistently casts it.

This reminds me of the good old days when Bryant was killed by Forest. Ja, Storm used to be the byes of Stompy decks. However, Steel Stompy does not have the Spirit Guide or Chrome Mox to speed up the Trinisphere. But dedicating ~10 SB slots to non-GY Combo hates just sounds too many to attract players playing Stompy. High Tide MU is harder as they have only 4 Rituals, but plenty of Basic Lands. Lodestone Golem is good, but not enough, as 5 dmg per turn still gives them 4 turns. Cunning Wish / Scroll into a Rebuild wipes away whatever hates you have. This was the reason I tried to diversify my Sphere effects and add Glowrider (clock attached as well). I also considered Rule of Law, a better card than Nevermore. It is functionally similar to Canonist, but it is not an Artifact.

NecroYawgmoth and Jona suggested me running SoFF, and it "unexpectedly" won me several games. I am totally sold on it, and it is nice to know you like it too. As for Oblivion Ring, it is a reactive card, but we already have 4 Metamorphs (which are Artifacts!). As a reactive card, the Sorcery speed really hurts. I am curious why you cut StP (I don't run it because of the MD Chalice, AND the attraction of playing a 75 permanents.dec).

I played Inkmoth over Wasteland because this deck feels more Control than Tempo to me after we cut Steel Overseer and Master of Etherium. In other words, the tempo generated by Wasteland was rarely enough for me to close a game. Still, I have not convinced myself, as there really should be a very solid argument against Wasteland in a deck that NOT play it. It would be really nice to hear your experiences on it.

The Seat of Synod was put there to alleviate life loss (as NecroYawgmoth mentioned), and confuse my opponents (wrong Wasteland target). Engineered Explosives is another benefit. This slot can be Vault of Whispers, Darksteel Citadel, Wasteland, or Blinkmoth Nexus. I notice you have 20 cc<=2 Artifacts for Metalcraft and wonder if that is enough. There are 23 in my GP list, with 3 being the Seat of Synod.

[Zilla]

You can't really escape the combo matchup with not playing Chalice because it's still the best card against them but for Team America/Tempo decks, you actually don't want to board in the chalice on the DRAW. I rather have Vial against these decks (and best with playing Vial turn 1 on off a sol-land so their only outs are FoW which I'm fine with or Pierce).
Out of curiosity, have you tried keeping Vials and siding in Chalice against decks like Thresh and Team America? I'm fully aware of the lack of synergy between the two cards, but it might not be as bad as it seems. A turn 1 Vial followed up by a turn 2 Chalice set at one, both of which being Daze-proof, seems like a pretty solid line of play. If they let either one of them resolve, they're in a very very tough position.

I don't claim to know how it plays out in practice... I'm just curious if you'd tried it.

[mrjumbo03]

^ Maybe if you're on the play, but I'm guessing that the 4 thorns would do wonders against such creature light lists too, specially against thresh wherein they try to live on 2 lands. So what to board out now? Oh and do you put in thorns against traditional control? I'm just curious if it's the right thing to do but I'm leaning towards no because of their abundance of lands.

Regarding the discard decks, isn't SoLaS better in the board as it grants protection from the primary color of discard which is black, and it also allows you to get creatures from your yard which you've discarded.

[Zilla]

^ Maybe if you're on the play
I meant specifically if you're on the draw, because both your turn 1 play and your turn 2 plays are protected from Daze, assuming you have at least 1 sol land. I'm suggesting that the dissynergy between Vial and Chalice aren't as bad when you want to wait until turn 2 to play your Chalice anyway.

[GGoober]

@zilla:

From actual playtesting, I've rarely done it. I only once kept both Vials and Chalice in against control. My reason was: If I land either Vial/Chalice, then the game will be slightly in my favor so the higher chances with 8 game-winning card was appealing. It is true that I will have a dead card later on when I draw them but the chances of drawing them is similar to the chances of drawing the 2nd Mox Diamond/Opal (both which are also dead in most games played). When I did keep both Vial/Chalice in, I boarded out the 2nd Opal and 3rd Diamond, just so that I don't run into situations where all I draw is a combination of dead cards.

Outside of heavy-control, I never found myself in the situation to play both Vial and Chalice together. In fact against pure/heavy control, it is better to keep Vials and Thorns and not board in Chalice because a heavy control deck has more outs to Chalice and less outs to Thorn (especially stacking Thorn). Chalice@1 is easier to deal with EE etc but Thorn demands them to make the land-drop and dig into answers at a slower pace, all the time with you casting threats.

I haven't had the chance to play against Tempo Thresh and TA much. But playing against similar decks, I would say that if I'm on the play against Tempo Thresh, I would side in Chalice and side-out Vials. If I'm on the draw, I would not play Chalice (they have Snare/Pierce/Daze/FoW as outs) but rather would play Vial (as you mentioned being at least Daze-proof and Snare-proof).

One will argue that if you played both Chalice/Vial, then you have higher chances to land either piece to win the game if they answered the other piece but in general, I feel that the matchups against Tempo deck isn't about locking them out (this is the strategy against controllish and combo decks), but the better strategy against tempo is to reduce their ability to tempo you, and try to focus on the mid-game if they did tempo you in the early game. I realize that boarding in a ton of equipment and enough body is sufficient (pending a Deed/Hymn blowing you out). With a bunch of equipment, all you need is to resolve just 1 creature to beat the tempo decks after the initial attrition. The issue with playing all 8 Vials/Chalice against tempo decks is if you do lose the tempo war, then drawing a dead card is going to hurt much more than drawing a dead card against slower control decks. I find that playing 8 removal spells shines a lot against decks playing only 6-12 creatures.

Against TA, Chalice is just not good whether you're on the play or draw. Their business spells are all 2cmc focused (Hymn/Snapcaster/Library/removal) etc. TA is one of those bad matchups, unless you're lucky and have your key spells resolving (e.g. Vial) and slap on a bunch of Wastelands.

Against Merfolk, do not ever bring in Chalice, that's pretty obvious. If you land a Vial, they will have a harder time than you will unless they chain into Coralhelms, other than that your Vial into SFM/Champion will beat their Vial into lords.

I'm still a little inexperienced against tempo decks, but I think the balance between maximizing cards that win attrition battles (SFM/Vial/Equipments) and minimizing card disadvantage is key. I only recently put a little more thought into the importance on what cards you are boarding in/out on the draw/play by analyzing the potential speed of the deck with its sol lands and weighing whether the Opals/Diamond/Vial helps depending on what cards you board in. I used to just board cards that are good against the matchup without considering the speed on the play and +1 card you get on the draw etc.

Kinda ranting on, but don't really know how to explain it :/

[GGoober]

@tsabo_tavoc on Wasteland/inkmoth:

I understand where you're coming from with Wasteland. I think in your list, Wasteland is just slightly weaker because you play 3 Golems and no vials.

In the Vial MD version I'm playing, Wasteland becomes really powerful and you can open with the sick plays that Merfolk does with Vial + Wasteland. I do love Crucibles and would probably see when is a good time/meta to include 2 Crucibles again (which make Wasteland a game-winning strategy in the past).

I think the deck has shifted gears quite a bit since it went monoW with SFM. I agree with you it's no longer the playstyle as the monoU, UB version where you are really stomping it out. The monoW versions are a little like GW and DnT, playing some annoying spells and gaining advantage. GW/DnT are more consistent due to the inconsistency of stompy's manabase, but stompy's manabase allows for more broken starts so it's a trade-off. For me, Vial has greatly increased the consistency of the deck, which is why I find it hard to shake off. I feel that I only ever want Chalice on the play (much less on the draw these days).

Another reason to play Wasteland is the fact that it's +4 cards against combo/control and doesn't take the non-land slots so you can increase your hate against these matchups significantly in game 1, but I see you played Mindcensors MD (which I'm a huge fan of). Also, nice find on Rule of Law. I think this solves my Spiral Tide issue much better than the thought on wanting to run Nevermore.

Do you guys think Leyline of Sanctity is worth it? For a mull against Hymn decks? I don't think so but Leyline isn't too terrible against combo either.

[Zilla]

Kinda ranting on, but don't really know how to explain it :/
You explained it fine. My suggestion was really addressing the Thresh matchup specifically, because if you resolve a Chalice against them you will win. Even if you have to wait until second turn to play it, I'm almost certain it's correct to keep it in. The reason I suggested Vials in conjunction with them in that matchup is because it lessens the impact of having to wait until second turn to play Chalice by giving you a bomb to drop on first turn. A bomb which, incidentally, may bait a FoW that could be aimed at Chalice.

It was just a thought, and it could be totally off base. Just thought I'd bring it up, since Thresh seems to be a rising star at the moment.

[bruizar]

I would consider esperzoa in steele stompy. It can help you reset revoker, bounce a mox opal or elsewhere flask, has evasion and a big body, and help you utilize cards like tanglewire better. I would also consider moving to only 1 nonbatterskull equipment.

Esperzoa looks like a powerful card for the archetype. It can even bounce batterskull without a germ for free, or allow you to momentarily bkunce chalice to sneak in aether vial or other drops.

Elsewhere flask, or better yet, the draw-a-card artifacts from new phyrexia will allow you to have a very strong balance between mana development and card draw.

Elsewhere flask helps against wastelands but also allows you to have more than 1 city of traitors in play at the same time, it allows you to play a land without sacrificing the city.

It also protects against pernicious deed i think? But im not sure about thAt. Lastly, it eases your color requirments.

[tsabo_tavoc]

played this deck in a local tournament (32 people) and finished 4-1 (3rd).

The list was my GP list -2 Seat of the Synod, +2 Wasteland; SB -2 Glowrider, +1 Aven Mindcensor, +1 Engineered Explosives.

Round 1: Mana Dredge 0-2
G1 was a massacre. SB in 4 Leyline, 2 Thorn, 2 Explosives, 1 Jitte, out 4 Champion, 2 Aven, 2 Oring, 1 BG Sword.
G2 I mulled to 6 and led with turn 1 Thorn, turn 2 Chalice@1, turn 3 SFM into Jitte, Revoker naming Putrid Imp, turn 4 Chalice@2, he in response Grudged my Revoker. His turn 4, he had 4 lands, and Breakthrough with X = 2. My SFM committed suicide (by Jitte counters) to remove 2 Bridges, but he had another Breakthrough X=2 and dredged another 2 Bridges.

Round 2: Canadian Threshold 2-1
G1 I won the dice roll, both mulled to 6 and I won the game. SB in 4 Aether Vial, 1 Crucible of Worlds, out 2 Mox Diamond, 1 Seat of the Synod, 2 Aven.
G2 Both kept. My turn 1 Chalice was Dazed, and my Tomb blown by Wasteland. My turn 2 Spellskite was Dazed, and was land screwed for 1 or 2 turns (Mox Opal did not get Metalcraft). He cliqued away my Champion to get my really needed Ancient Tomb. I proceeded to Metamorph but got FOW, and a 4/5 Tarmogoyf joined his rank. I Metamorphed again, copying Clique, and took Fire/Ice (his other card was Krosan Grip). However, he drew another Daze, and a FOW from the Clique draw and the next draw step, which answered my chump blockers in the following turns. I died to Tarmogoyf.
G3 We both mulled to 6 and I started with turn 1 Vial (resolved), turn 2 Chalice (resolved) and he had a full grip of 1cc cards. My hand was slow however and most of the times I was beating down with a Phyrexian Revoker (on Lavamancer). I once vialed in a Metamorph copying the Vial (fearing Fire if I would copy Revoker). I topdecked a Stoneforge and had a Wasteland for his only green source (he played Krosan Grip, and no Ancient Grudge I guess).

Round 3: Past in Flames/ANT 2-1
G1 I won the dice roll and went turn 1 Stonforge into Jitte. He mulled to 6 and went turn 1 Duress seeing my Golem and took Jitte, then Petal, Thoughtseize away the Golem (as I have a Sol-land to cast it turn 2). I did not have more hates and laid down creatures to race. He also needed time to recover. I landed an Aven at some point and rode my army to victory against his slow hand. SB in 2 Thorn, 2 Explosives, 1 Aven, 1 Jitte, out 4 Champion, 2 Oring.
G2 He had the turn 1 kill.
G3 I mulled to 5 to find a turn 1 Revoker on LED. Although he kept his 7, there were too many lands to allow him comboing out early. I then topdecked a Golem and won from there.

Round 4: Cat Sligh 2-1
G1 we kept and he went turn 1 Lynx. I had the turn 1 Spellskite, protecting my turn 2 Stoneforge into Batterskull. Long life 1-of Spellskite! SB in 2 Explosvies, 1 Crucible, out 2 Aven, 1 Plating.
G2 I mulled to 6 and I had a turn 1 Explosives@1. To my surprise, he did not have any early beats, except a Pridemage blowing out an Artifact land. He then landed a turn 3 Knight. Too bad I did not have the Metamorph or Oring, but a Champion with 3 Artifacts should still do the job. Unfortunately, he had the Grip for the Mox Diamond and Bolt my Champion. I could not recover and died from 2 swings.
G3 I mulled to 6, but it was a god hand against Sligh: Ancient Tomb, City of Traitors, City of Traitlors, Chalice of the Void, Phyrexian Revoker, Phyrexian Revoker. Without doubt, turn 1 Chalice, turn 2 double Revokers, both naming Qasali Pridemage (he still has the Lightning Helix as the answer). Even worse for him, he missed the land drop and I topdecked Lodestone Golem.

Round 5: Spiral Tide 2-1
G1 I lost the dice roll and mulled to 5 with a Golem. I never found 4 mana to cast it before he comboed off turn 4. He did FOW my turn 2 Stoneforge which was quite weird. SB in 4 Leyline, 2 Thorn, 1 Aven, out 4 Champion, 2 Oring, 1 BG Sword.
G2 I got an early Thorn and Golem and went to town.
G3 I got an early Golem equipped with Plating and went to town.


@tsabo_tavoc on Wasteland/inkmoth:

I understand where you're coming from with Wasteland. I think in your list, Wasteland is just slightly weaker because you play 3 Golems and no vials.

In the Vial MD version I'm playing, Wasteland becomes really powerful and you can open with the sick plays that Merfolk does with Vial + Wasteland. I do love Crucibles and would probably see when is a good time/meta to include 2 Crucibles again (which make Wasteland a game-winning strategy in the past).

I think the deck has shifted gears quite a bit since it went monoW with SFM. I agree with you it's no longer the playstyle as the monoU, UB version where you are really stomping it out. The monoW versions are a little like GW and DnT, playing some annoying spells and gaining advantage. GW/DnT are more consistent due to the inconsistency of stompy's manabase, but stompy's manabase allows for more broken starts so it's a trade-off. For me, Vial has greatly increased the consistency of the deck, which is why I find it hard to shake off. I feel that I only ever want Chalice on the play (much less on the draw these days).

Another reason to play Wasteland is the fact that it's +4 cards against combo/control and doesn't take the non-land slots so you can increase your hate against these matchups significantly in game 1, but I see you played Mindcensors MD (which I'm a huge fan of). Also, nice find on Rule of Law. I think this solves my Spiral Tide issue much better than the thought on wanting to run Nevermore.

Do you guys think Leyline of Sanctity is worth it? For a mull against Hymn decks? I don't think so but Leyline isn't too terrible against combo either.

Many thanks for your thoughts. I liked Wasteland from this tournament, and am cutting the final Seat of the Synod for it. The slot for a MD Crucible could be BG Sword or Oring.

The problem with white Leyline is it does little against combo. TES/ANT/Belcher will go the Empty the Warrens route, or draw the bounce from Ad Nauseaum. High Tide deck just BSZ itself to find any numbers of bounces. The other hates we play hate the engine and demand a bounce before they can go off.

Any thoughts on StP, do you like Oring over it so far?


You explained it fine. My suggestion was really addressing the Thresh matchup specifically, because if you resolve a Chalice against them you will win. Even if you have to wait until second turn to play it, I'm almost certain it's correct to keep it in. The reason I suggested Vials in conjunction with them in that matchup is because it lessens the impact of having to wait until second turn to play Chalice by giving you a bomb to drop on first turn. A bomb which, incidentally, may bait a FoW that could be aimed at Chalice.

It was just a thought, and it could be totally off base. Just thought I'd bring it up, since Thresh seems to be a rising star at the moment.

This is my exact plan against Tempo Threshold. In short, 8 bombs > 4 bombs. You can win with any of them and Thresh players will rarely allow you resolving both.

[Parax]

Did you guys give up on this?

[Hanni]

Necropotence!

Anyway, due to the current state of the format, most likely due to Mental Misstep being banned, the format has shifted back to a high concentration of 1cc spells. Chalice and Trini are positioned very well right now. Since blue artifact stompy has been my favorite shell for Chalice/Trini, and since I can't find my old Blue 53 thread... I've decided to necro this one.

U/B Steel Stompy

Lands (24)
4 Seat of Synod
4 Vault of Whispers
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Crystal Vein
4 Wasteland
4 Mishra's Factory

Creatures (16)
4 Metalworker
4 Etched Champion
4 Master of Etherium
4 Lodestone Golem

Spells (22)
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Trinisphere
3 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
4 Mox Diamond
2 Mox Opal

Sideboard (15)
4 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Thorn of Amethyst
4 Ratchet Bomb
3 Tormod's Crypt

The list is pretty run of the mill. If any additional info about the list is needed, I'll be happy to answer.

[GGoober]

I gave up on the deck because it wasn't as good post-misstep. Also I needed a break from playing Stompy and to try to play tier 2 decks so I would stop doing as bad as I was at locals :P

The reason why the deck was silly good misstep-period was because everyone and their moms were playing Stoneforge decks, and this deck just dodged 1cmc spells like a champ. When you play against SFM decks, you have 4 SFM, 4 Metamorphs (copying their SFM), 2 Batterskull, Stompy-mana base to hard cast Batterskull as early as turn 2, and a deck that killed 4 cards (mental misstep) in every deck your opponents played against you.

I personally think having played both monoU, monoW, UB version, the monoW version is the strongest, followed by the UB version.

Hanni, how has the list worked out for you? Has much playtesting been done? I've cut Chalice and 3Sphere a long time ago playing stompy.decks because if you cannot land them turn 1 (especially against opposing FoWs/Thoughtseize/Daze) on the play, the cards become dead weight towards the end. The 3Sphere strategy is also very susceptible to popularly played cards like GSZ/Noble Hierarch if they are on the play. If you are not playing Dragon Stompy or Green Stompy, it becomes even harder to pull off turn 1 generating 3 mana since you don't have access to spirit guides.

I think my focus in the past was consistently getting 2cmc on turn 1, hence shifting all my plays towards 2cmc spells instead of 3. Metalworker/Trinisphere are examples of decks that want to land a 3cmc spell on turn 1 (in the case of Meandeck MUD, you have Mox Diamonds AND Monoliths to increase the odds of that happening).

But I haven't tested your list so I can't really say much :P Seems like if you're going the metalworker route with huge colorless mana generation you would be better playing better bombs like Wurmcoil or Myr Battlesphere. I played a UB list in the past and dropping turn 1 bobs, turn 2 Abyss/Tezzeret was sick, but the deck still kinda folded to not having the accelerants and enough gas in hand, that's why I ended up liking the consistent plan of the monoW build where SFM not just generates card advantage, but it tutors up the entire winning plan by herself (since equipment on Champion is GG if it connects).

[Hanni]

Honestly, Chalice and Trinisphere are the only incentive I have to play a Stompy deck like this. Going mono white without either... I'd much rather play Puresteel Affinity.

The thing is, the format is actually way more susceptible to Chalice/Trini now than during the Mental Misstep era. SFM decks are still everywhere, like you mentioned, but the entire format has shifted back to 1cc spells.

I mean, in the DTB, you have RUG Tempo, Dredge, Reanimator, ANT, and Blade Control, which are all decks that get hit pretty hard by Chalice/Trini. Let's not forget U/R Delver, which should belong in the DTB thread based on all of its recent tournament results, and Burn has made a couple of suprise Top 8's too. Trinisphere hoses Snapcaster Mage pretty hard, which is seeing tons of play all over the place. I think a well-built Stompy deck with Chalice/Trini has enough of a niche right now to be playable.

I agree with most of your criticisms regarding Trinisphere, and the mana ramp, but I still think they are valuable gameplans.

Trinisphere is still useful past turn 1. It's not the lock it is when dropped on turn 1, but it steals all sorts of tempo against decks planning on using free countermagic and 1cc spells. If nothing else, it's Force of Will bait so that I can resolve my other spells like Tezzeret.

As far as the manaramp goes, I know that I have nothing truly abusive to take advantage of the mana, like Sundering Titan, but Metalworker can be inconsistent without Chalice @ 1 on the board. Building the deck around intending to use Metalworker means that when it doesn't work, you're stuck with bombs in hand that you can't cast. On the flip side, this deck still has a ton of medium costed spells that a Metalworker can enable the deck to empty it's hand in a turn or two, which basically makes it like a Goblin Lackey for this deck (as opposed to a relied upon enabler).

Also, Metalworker is a creature, which means its valuable as more than just a mana ramp. Once it does it's thing, it can beat like a Kird Ape with a Master on the board, and it can wear a Jitte like a champ.

Also, Tezzeret is just a really good card for Stompy decks. Consistency can sometimes be an issue, but Tezzeret fixes all of those issues. Digging 5 deep for an artifact, making 5/5 artifacts out of excess Trinisphere's and such, or simply winning the game once you have enough artifacts in play. Plus the lifegain really helps compensate for Ancient Tomb.

Overall, I'm pleased with the deck as a Chalice/Trini Stompy deck. It may not be the best shell for Chalice/Trini, and it may not be the best shell for Stompy, but it feels pretty solid in the handful of games I've tested it, and again... Chalice/Trini seems positioned really well in the metagame right now.

EDIT: The only concern I have at the moment is the amount of blue mana sources. I'm goin to test some more with the current configuration, but I may find a way to fit in some more blue sources if I find myself needing them.

[Infinitium]

And here we go again. I'm currently trying out Cavern of the Soul in a Artifact Tribal shell and I must say I do like it thus far, being a blue source for MoE and making your initial fatty uncounterable (which is gigantic baller versus decks using FoW as a tempo stepping stone in the early game, which is all of them). It also seem pretty well positioned in the meta for the time being what with actual MD answers to Sneak and Tell and chalice decks having fallen off the radar.

Now, I'm not entirely sure about Overseer and Revoker MD since both are suboptimal versus URx Aggro, but having another Lord for the manlands makes them a very much viable plan B (and it is the best Lord in the game versus midrange) and there are too many targets for Revoker not to play it imo. I also play some equipment to shore up their measly PT ratio and frankly the alternatives suck worse so.. yeah.

Not sure about the SB, crypt is underwhelming and might as well be FM for the surprise factor (not to mention it'd get hated anyhow). Shame there isn't a viable Ooze variant for brown as repeatable GY hate is nice versus Snappy and KotR, but then again that might be Elves spoiling me. Thorn of Amethyst might be better than Trini since it comes in versus the same decks, is half a turn faster and have better synergy with the lock creatures but eeeh. Smokestack is mainly for control decks, could be Arbiter for goblins instead. Anyhow:

// Lands
4 [HOP] Seat of the Synod
4 [AVR] Cavern of Souls
4 [TE] Ancient Tomb
4 [EX] City of Traitors
4 [TE] Wasteland
4 [DS] Blinkmoth Nexus
2 [DDF] Mishra's Factory

// Creatures
4 [ALA] Master of Etherium
4 [WWK] Lodestone Golem
4 [REL] Phyrexian Metamorph
4 [MBS] Phyrexian Revoker
4 [M11] Steel Overseer

// Spells
4 [SH] Mox Diamond
2 [FD] Crucible of Worlds
4 [MR] Chalice of the Void
2 [BOK] Umezawa's Jitte
2 [MBS] Sword of Feast and Famine

// Sideboard
SB: 4 [CH] Tormod's Crypt
SB: 4 [DS] Trinisphere
SB: 4 [SOM] Ratchet Bomb
SB: 3 [US] Smokestack

[ThoSha]

Necro'd.

This deck is the nuts right now. Discuss.

[MGB]

Necro'd.

This deck is the nuts right now. Discuss.

Why is this deck nuts right now?

Or even the best home for CotV?

[ThoSha]

Why is this deck nuts right now?

Or even the best home for CotV?

Simply because its soo aggressive.
You can treat your opponent with a lodestone golem as early as Turn 1, and thats not even unlikely with additional Mox diamonds in the deck.
Every treat is as good as a must answer, even Steel Overseer as it can outgrow regular creatures easliy. It even has strong alternate Win Conditions like Tezzeret or Inkmoth Nexus to attack from a different angle.
Sleeved it up again a few weeks ago and rolled over pretty much everything. Its so insane, its not even funny.

[theillest]

Simply because its soo aggressive.
You can treat your opponent with a lodestone golem as early as Turn 1, and thats not even unlikely with additional Mox diamonds in the deck.
Every treat is as good as a must answer, even Steel Overseer as it can outgrow regular creatures easliy. It even has strong alternate Win Conditions like Tezzeret or Inkmoth Nexus to attack from a different angle.
Sleeved it up again a few weeks ago and rolled over pretty much everything. Its so insane, its not even funny.

What's your list? The last one posted was from 2012.

[ThoSha]

What's your list? The last one posted was from 2012.

Yeah sorry, I forgot:

MB:
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Vault of Whispers
4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Inkmoth Nexus

4 Mox Opal
4 Mox Diamond

4 Chalice of the Void
4 Cranial Plating

4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas

4 Etched Champion
4 Master of Etherium
4 Steel Overseer
4 Lodestone Golem

SB(still narrow):
4 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Thorn of Amethyst
4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 Pithing Needle


Even tough its by far not optimized, especially the sideboard as you can see, it works out just fine so far.

[Zirath]

Yeah sorry, I forgot:

MB:
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Vault of Whispers
4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Inkmoth Nexus

4 Mox Opal
4 Mox Diamond

4 Chalice of the Void
4 Cranial Plating

4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas

4 Etched Champion
4 Master of Etherium
4 Steel Overseer
4 Lodestone Golem

SB(still narrow):
4 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Thorn of Amethyst
4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 Pithing Needle


Even tough its by far not optimized, especially the sideboard as you can see, it works out just fine so far.

IMO, you have too much mana. 24 Lands and 4 Diamonds in a deck where you are trying to play 4s is going to result in a lot of games where you have all mana and no action. Here's a list I was working on:

4 Ancient Tomb
3 City of Traitors
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Vault of Whispers
4 Wasteland

4 Baleful Strix
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Master of Etherium

4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

4 Force of Will
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Dimir Signet
4 Mox Opal
2 Talisman of Dominance

This works pretty well for me but has some slight problems with hands that have no gas.

Perhaps we should synthesize these lists a little bit.

[mrjumbo03]

I think that the 2 lists above try to do totally different things, with ThoSha's leaning towards being aggro while Zirath's looks to be more controlling.

I do agree with Zirath's assessment though of having too much mana, and not having enough creatures. I would personally do, -1 Darksteel Citadel, -1 Mox Opal, -1 Mox Diamond, +3 Porcelain Legionnaire. This is all theory though because it just might be a case of too much life loss already but I find Legionnaire to be an excellent aggressive creature that can be dropped on the first turn, and can just about beat anything, moreso with a plating on. Problem is, splash hate from all the -1/-1 effects but with 8 lord effects, I wouldn't be as concerned.

[Zirath]

I think that the 2 lists above try to do totally different things, with ThoSha's leaning towards being aggro while Zirath's looks to be more controlling.

I do agree with Zirath's assessment though of having too much mana, and not having enough creatures. I would personally do, -1 Darksteel Citadel, -1 Mox Opal, -1 Mox Diamond, +3 Porcelain Legionnaire. This is all theory though because it just might be a case of too much life loss already but I find Legionnaire to be an excellent aggressive creature that can be dropped on the first turn, and can just about beat anything, moreso with a plating on. Problem is, splash hate from all the -1/-1 effects but with 8 lord effects, I wouldn't be as concerned.

I'm not a huge fan of Steel Overseer personally. I think that he is too slow most of the time. But he might be reasonable in reality.

I also think that Revoker is very good in this deck. It gives us more disruption as well as more bodies.

[Michael Keller]

IMO, you have too much mana. 24 Lands and 4 Diamonds in a deck where you are trying to play 4s is going to result in a lot of games where you have all mana and no action. Here's a list I was working on:

4 Ancient Tomb
3 City of Traitors
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Vault of Whispers
4 Wasteland

4 Baleful Strix
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Master of Etherium

4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

4 Force of Will
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Dimir Signet
4 Mox Opal
2 Talisman of Dominance

This works pretty well for me but has some slight problems with hands that have no gas.

Perhaps we should synthesize these lists a little bit.

That list has 29 cards that produce mana - seems a bit steep, as well.

This was a list I was working on that's really fast:

// Lands
4 [MR] Vault of Whispers
4 [MR] Great Furnace
3 [US] Gaea's Cradle
3 [MR] Glimmervoid
2 [MR] Seat of the Synod
1 [TSP] Kher Keep

// Creatures
4 [AQ] Ornithopter
4 [M11] Steel Overseer
4 [JGC] Dark Confidant
4 [SOM] Memnite
4 [VI] Phyrexian Walker
3 [NPH] Vault Skirge

// Spells
4 [SOM] Mox Opal
4 [LRW] Thoughtseize
4 [SOM] Galvanic Blast
4 [DS] Sword of Fire and Ice
2 [MBS] Sword of Feast and Famine
2 [SOM] Sword of Body and Mind

// Sideboard
SB: 4 [DKA] Grafdigger's Cage
SB: 4 [LRW] Thorn of Amethyst
SB: 3 [U] Red Elemental Blast
SB: 2 [TE] Dread of Night
SB: 2 [JGC] Flusterstorm

[Zirath]

That list has 29 cards that produce mana - seems a bit steep, as well.

This was a list I was working on that's really fast:

// Lands
4 [MR] Vault of Whispers
4 [MR] Great Furnace
3 [US] Gaea's Cradle
3 [MR] Glimmervoid
2 [MR] Seat of the Synod
1 [TSP] Kher Keep

// Creatures
4 [AQ] Ornithopter
4 [M11] Steel Overseer
4 [JGC] Dark Confidant
4 [SOM] Memnite
4 [VI] Phyrexian Walker
3 [NPH] Vault Skirge

// Spells
4 [SOM] Mox Opal
4 [LRW] Thoughtseize
4 [SOM] Galvanic Blast
4 [DS] Sword of Fire and Ice
2 [MBS] Sword of Feast and Famine
2 [SOM] Sword of Body and Mind

// Sideboard
SB: 4 [DKA] Grafdigger's Cage
SB: 4 [LRW] Thorn of Amethyst
SB: 3 [U] Red Elemental Blast
SB: 2 [TE] Dread of Night
SB: 2 [JGC] Flusterstorm

That was my main problem. All that mana gives you a lot of do-nothing hands.

Interesting. Any reason you don't have War and Peace? It seems ideal with the aggressive plan.

[Michael Keller]

Whatever floats your boat. Jamming more damage in with War and Peace is good, although white and red seem like the weakest and least relevant color combinations for popular creature-based decks right now.

W&P could definitely fit in the board, though...

[ThoSha]

Thanks for your replies and also thanks for bringing up Porcelain Legionnaire.
I played him in the past and remember that he was awesome, especially with Plating/Jitte.
Might have some problems with the recent TNN hype tough(he is a blank to both TNN AND TNN hate most of the time).

Revoker is also decent, but i like him more in the sideboard tbh.

Master of Etherium seemed lackluster in the meantime, even tough he can be huge sometimes. But given the fact that every creature in this deck is pretty special, this one does nearly nothing impressive.

About Baleful Strix.. Tried that, but got stuck on UB quite a lot when i wished i could cast him T1/2. Also too defensive for this kind of deck.
I always wanted to have a bomb rather than a defensive, self-replacing removal on a stick.

The lands and the Mox diamonds seem fine so far. Remember Inkmoth Nexus is a treat that wins out of nowhere, and Darksteel Citadel is a nice -1 target for Tezzeret.
On the occasional lack of gas i am with you, so Thirst for Knowledge makes quite some sense to squeeze in somewhere. Need to tinker for a new list, I will share it soon.

@Hollywood

Thanks for sharing that list! Seems like a lot of fun to me.
Especially the Kher Keep looks magnificent with so many equipments. :D

[Michael Keller]

Think about it logically for a second: if an opponent is willing to let an equipment resolve, playing a Kher Keep turns harmless 0/1 creatures into legitimate threats, which can be used as repeated blockers or to gum up the board. That's the beauty of it all, in that most of your innocuous dudes get pumped and turn into threats via equipment or Steel Overseer.

I just don't see a use for Wasteland here, because the deck is lightning fast, although I suppose you could jam some in there if you wanted to. Gaea's Cradle can give you a turn-one Sword, which, if resolved, can be a huge problem for most decks to deal with.

Especially with that kind of mana at your disposal.

[MGB]

What exactly are the reasons to play this over traditional Affinity?

Does it avoid the blow-outs caused by artifact hate or board sweepers that Affinity was always weak to?

[ThoSha]

The main difference between this deck and Affinity is the disruption it causes.
It has Chalice and Lodestone Golem to keep opponents from casting important spells and rams them down in a similar speed.
The upside is also the Card Quality in straight comparison. Almost every card in Steel Stompy is a potential win condition, where affinity relies on synergy too hard.
Drawing a Lodestone Golem can be game compared to drawing Ornithopter or Memnite in the midgame.

In terms of artifact hate, of course you have a point that it wrecks this deck also.
But compared to affinity, its not like this deck can't come back from it.
If we take Deed for example, thats a card that wrecks affinity completely. This deck still has a chance to recover from it, as your Tombs/Citys/Manlands/Citadels are still live.

[etylowy]

Hi, just joined to post my recent build and elaborate some comments concerning the result on Bazaar of Moxen #9.
I decided to play with the deck as follows:

4x Steel Overseer
4x Phyrexian Revoker
4x Master of Etherium
4x Etched Champion
4x Lodestone Golem

4x Chalice of the Void
3x Cranial Plating
2x Crucible of Worlds
2x Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
3x Mox Opal
3x Mox Diamond

4x Ancient Tomb
4x City of Traitors
4x Seat of the Synod
4x Inkmoth Nexus
4x Rishadan Port
4x Wasteland

Sideboard:
1x Sphere of Resistance
3x Thorn of Amethyst
2x Perish
2x Engineered Plague
2x Umezawa's Jitte
2x Winter Orb
3x Ratchet Bomb

I went 7-3 without any byes. After whole day of playing (and 2 years of modifying Chalice Affinity into Steel Stompy) I can rate my best friends in the deck:

+
Steel Overseer - absolute magnet for any removal, has to be there.
Phyrexian Revoker - proactively name your worst fears. Is just like playing Cabal Therapy on your opponent.
Ratchet Bomb - great!

-
Etched Champion - I am not sure whether run 4-of. It is really good with painter, bug and jund; however this deck is not an affinity and sometimes it's hard to reach metalcraft.
Cranial Plating - once again: it is not an affinity - equip with vanilla +4/+0 was a lot worse than having SoFI or SoFF. I would leave 1 Cranial for next tournament.
Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas - I did swap with Jitte almost every game
Ancient Tomb - very painful, lost 2 matches due to AT heavy use.
Rishadan Port - not so sure about them. Maybe Mutavaults?
Perish, Engineered Plague - sometimes I missed black mana to cast them.

To be edited - I will add some info about matches played.

[frogger42]

Hi, just joined to post my recent build and elaborate some comments concerning the result on Bazaar of Moxen #9.
I decided to play with the deck as follows:

4x Steel Overseer
4x Phyrexian Revoker
4x Master of Etherium
4x Etched Champion
4x Lodestone Golem

4x Chalice of the Void
3x Cranial Plating
2x Crucible of Worlds
2x Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
3x Mox Opal
3x Mox Diamond

4x Ancient Tomb
4x City of Traitors
4x Seat of the Synod
4x Inkmoth Nexus
4x Rishadan Port
4x Wasteland

Sideboard:
1x Sphere of Resistance
3x Thorn of Amethyst
2x Perish
2x Engineered Plague
2x Umezawa's Jitte
2x Winter Orb
3x Ratchet Bomb


And they laughed at me when I played Chalice in Affinity. The fools!

I like the list. I do have a couple Qs: no Thoughtcast? It's not a "stompy" card, but it's vital in refreshing your hand and making sure you can survive blowouts, like if your opponent uses a TNN-style WoG on a couple Revokers and Steel Overseer. It's gas that works in both control and aggro at a low price, and ignores your Thorn/Lodestone/Sphere effects.
And no fourth Mopal? How often does Opal come online? I run 28 CMC 0 artifacts in my deck, and every now and then it still doesn't turn on T2.

Here's my control list: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?26930-Goodfinity-split-thread

Different playstyles, but kind of a similar outcome - early Chalice to protect your dudes, and then get into beating face.
I think I like SFM a lot better than Tezz, AoB. I've been switching out the TNNs on my list for Tezz and some # of Darksteel Citadels, which I can do (because I don't run Lodestone), but I feel like your own Tezz's get in the way of your Golems. SFM is easy to resolve under a Golem, and also helps fight opposing SFM + TNN decks. Plus, you're mostly a Stompy deck, and searching out equip for your 20 doods (24 with SFM) seems more syngeristic than tapping out to +1 or even -1 on a Tezz.
And I'm not a huge fan of E Champ. One Jitte-hit around him leaves you in a super-bad spot. MoE is so much better to fight against Jitte.

-4 Overseer
-2 Tezz
-2 Crucible
-2 Etch Champ

+4 SFM
+4 Thoughtcast
+1 SoFI
+1 Jitte

[zulander]

The list I've thrown together is a similar take on Hollywood's list:

//mana 22
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Vault of Whispers
4 Great Furnace
4 Glimmervoid
3 Ancient Tomb
3 Mox Opal

//creatures 24
4 Ornithopter
4 Memnite
4 Phyrexian Walker
4 Vault Skirge
4 Steel Overseer
4 Dark Confidant

//busted 14
2 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
3 Cranial Plating
1 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Thoughtcast
4 Galvanic Blast


Hollywood how do you sideboard? Any advice on how to deal with TNN decks?

Also... the mana for this deck seems to be just awful.

[Plm]

holy necro batman !

A similar deck made the final of mkm frankfurt after being undefeated in the swiss :

http://series.magiccardmarket.eu/2018/01/07/amadeus-grun-men-steel/

[menph]

holy necro batman !

A similar deck made the final of mkm frankfurt after being undefeated in the swiss :

http://series.magiccardmarket.eu/2018/01/07/amadeus-grun-men-steel/Hero

Inviato dal mio SM-A320F utilizzando Tapatalk

[Admiral_Arzar]

I built a more current version of this deck a month ago, and posted about it here: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?32181-Steel-Stompy-2-0-Ravager-Shops