[Deck] Cavius Stompy - The $1700 Dollar Solution

[Cavius The Great]

I'm not known to post my decklists like some of ya'll and I remain very secretive. believe it or not I have around a dozen viable decklists that haven't seen the light of day on these forums. I'm really bored right now and feel like posting something. This is a deck that I designed that totally disregards your bank account and goes strait for the jugular financially. I First got the idea and was like, 'hey, why don't I build a deck and put as many expensive cards as possible so it'll be awesome?' So I did and I came up with something very viable and consistent believe it or not. My latest invention and innovation is titled "Cavius Stompy". It's obviously an Ancient Tomb/City of Traitors style deck and abuses both cards. However, unlike many stompy builds, it consists of three colors and runs all nonbasic land. I know what you're thinking, that can't be close to being viable, but suprisingly it is. I'll start out with the decklist then explain some of the card choices. Here it is.

Cavius Stompy.DEC

// Lands
4 [ON] Wooded Foothills
2 [EX] City of Traitors
4 [TE] Ancient Tomb
2 Tropical Island
3 [R] Bayou
3 [A] Underground Sea
1 [OD] Cabal Pit
3 [TE] Wasteland
4 [ON] Polluted Delta

// Creatures
4 [P2] Sea Drake
2 [PT] Thundering Wurm
4 [AN] Juzam Djinn

// Spells
4 [US] Duress
4 [5E] Brainstorm
3 [SH] Mox Diamond
4 [TE] Diabolic Edict
3 [OD] Ghastly Demise
3 [BOK] Umezawa's Jitte
1 [UL] Crop Rotation
2 [OD] Call of the Herd

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [OD] Ghastly Demise
SB: 4 [8E] Nekrataal
SB: 4 [TSP] Krosan Grip
SB: 2 [AP] Pernicious Deed
SB: 4 [B] Blue Elemental Blast

This deck is basically fast fatty beats with control elements such as Duress and creature control in the form of Diabolic Edict and Ghastly Demise. There's not alot to this deck and it's fun as hell to play. I find the mana curve very satisfying and I'm able to spend just about all of my mana every single turn. That's one of the main things I love about this deck besides it being so consistent. Now I will take the time to explain some card choices. By the way, I haven't really tested this deck versus anything and all matchups this deck has is pretty much conceived through logic and speculation. My damn MWS crashes every time I try to connect to an opponent. I apologize for not posting matchup results. Now for the card choice explanations.

[B]Maindecked Card Choices:

Juzam Djinn - the Playset is around half the price of the deck. I like it better than Grinning Demon becuase it does half the damage Demon does and takes longer to kill you. Argue all you want Juzam Djinn is a slightly better creature card. I chose not to run Phyrexian Negator because of prevalent burn and aggro in this format, so I instead went with the money card.

Sea Drake - Sea Drakes are so good, flat out. They become even better with Thundering Wurm.

Thundering Wurm - A very overlooked creature card. Very synergistic with Sea Drake. first turn Drake followed by a second turn Wurm is very common. I used to run four but it's drawback made me cut it down to 2. I instead do a 2/2 split between Wurm and Call of the Herd.

Call of the Herd - I added two in to compensate for the Wurm. A really nice card for the mana curve.

Duress - Flat out the best discard card ever printed. Should be ran in any deck playing black. Need I say more?

Ancient Tomb/City of Traitor - Accelerates all my fat. What else can I say?

Wooded Foothills/Polluted Delta - Great mana fixers. Helps fuel Ghastly Demise. Helps with Cabal Pit.

Wasteland - Land destruction. Great tempo card. I love playing Wasteland when my opponent gets mana screwed. It's basically a kick in the nuts, I love it. I only chose to run 3 because of the heavy color requirements.

Diabolic Edict/Cabal Pit/Ghastly Demise - Creature control, all efficient and at instant speed. Fits mana curve.

Brainstorm - One word. Amazing. Helps me with card quality and draw into the cards I need. Probably one of the best cards in the deck.

Mox Diamond - Better than Chrome Mox in a heavy land deck. Helps fuel Threshold for Cabal Pit and cards in yard for Ghastly Demise. Helps with first turn plays usually consisting of some fat.

Crop Rotation - I didn't want to rely on this card too much and only chose to run one. It not only fuels Ghastly Demise but can also find you Cabal Pit when cast.

Umezawa's Jitte - Do I really have to explain this card choice? I didn't think so.

Sideboard Card Choices:

Nekrataal - Awesome versus Angel Stompy and Goblins. A very underlooked card and amazing with Tombs and Cities.

Krosan Grip - Gets rid of pesky Humility's. Can also get rid of Back to Basics without fear of counterspells and most anything else. It's great against so many things that I don't have time to list them all. Awesome with Tombs and Cities.

Blue Elemental Blast - goblins and burn. Nuff said.

Pernicious Deed - My only real answer to Affinity. Also really important in any other aggro matchup. My Juzams survive most the times which is another plus.

All in all, this deck uses accelerants and consists of fat along with disruption to overwhelm you're opponent and set them on a quick clock. I love playing this deck and if you have the funds I recommend playing it. It's a blast to play and there's nothing like casting Sea Drakes and Juzam Djinns one after another.

Well, I think I covered it all. That's my latest and greatest innovation, folks. Let me know what you guys think. And if you have that extra 2000 bucks to spend on a Legacy deck, don't hesitate to build this one, my friend, you won't regret it. I hope you guys like the deck, comments are welcomed. Peace!

[bladewing019]

Is there any reason to run Juzaam over Plague Sliver? Plague Sliver costs a lot less, and how often do you have multiples of them in play? Or if you are worried about having multiple slivers would Phyrexian Scuta work in its place because of the fact that it doesn't have to cost you any life, and only needs one black mana? I also like Cabal Therapy over duress, since it isn't dead versus goblins and it will be able to destroy your black fatty of choice if its hurting too much.
The singleton crop rotation and cabal pit also look out of place. How often do you reliably get them, and is crop rotation even worth it as a one of without tutors?
This deck also seems really unfocused, trying to go an aggro control route, but 8 of your 12 creatures don't have any form of evasion and are just dumb fat, and if your opponent can remove, chump block just a few of them you most likely won't be drawing into that many other threats. Unless you draw into a Sea Drake goblins will just be able to put out creatures repeatedly and chump block your creatures all day, and you depend on drawing Jitte. Since your already in blue would Serendib Efreet work better than call of the herd or the wurm since it has evasion?
In the side board why do you have a single ghastly demise? Wouldnt it be better either md or out entirely since the decks you want it against you really want it and the rest of the time its going to be boarded out right away, i think it would be better as a 3rd pernicious deed. Also are Nekraatals really needed in the SB since you already MD 10 creature removal cards, though with fast mana in the deck i really like it vs goblins since it will almost always at least 2 for 1 them.

[Ninj4]

your just packing a bunch of cards that are pretty good on their own but have almost no synergy with each other. This does not equate to a good deck. There is no focus to the deck. it just goes blearg! and hopes that the opponent doesn't have answers when most of hte time they will if they're playing something decent.

For your reasons for card selections you only really state the obvious - kinda like "forests produce green, you need it to cast punks! durrr". they don't really work well together.

your goal is to put out fatties and disruption is what you stated. your only disruption maindeck is 4 duress and 3 wasteland. and deck worth its salt can easily play through that no problem. There's a deck like that already, its called red death and it runs 4 wastelands, 4 sinkholes, 4 duress, 4 hymms, and 4 spectres. thats disruption. it also runs the beats - 3/3's for 2 and 5/5's for 3. Its also is nearly mono colored so its resistant to land disruption and can run acceleration in the form of dark ritual.

Your matchups seem really weak as well - Threshold seems like it would run all over you because your playing 8 creatures and no form of protection for them. Daze seems like it would ruin half your early plays. Swords? Daze? Force? they run more answers than you have threats. Thresh runs as much but they have untargetability in mongoose and pro-black in enforcer.

Goblins eats your mana base alive and chump blocks your dudes all day until they get in their dudes late game. Also, you have no answer to turn 1 lackey unless your on the play.

4 duress does little to solidarity unless you draw 3 of them and have a beatstick on the table. it also looks like they're gunna have all day to go off on you.

I kno this sounds like a complete slam on your deck and I really wish I could put some positive comments on how to build the deck better but its really hard to when i can't see a definite focus to it. Juzam seems like your favorite card in the deck but 5/5 for 4 doesn't really amount to anything esp since it deoesn't have trample. Sea Drake is good but only furing the early game for tempo reasons. late game its huge tempo loss especially if they have a kill spell in hand.

You really should playtest this deck, even a little before pot it up and suggest that people build it and not regret it. I'm really not trying to be mean, but that which we call a pile by any other word would play just as bad.

[Bane of the Living]

I agree. If you have an extensive base of playable decks you should've chosen a different one to post. I dont understand how you can coin a deck playable if you havent played with it either...

[Radley]

I guess he just wanted to post something because he wants to leech, not sharing anything but he gets what he wants. You can use city of traitors and ancient tomb for something better.

[insertnamehere]

Hey Carlos! Wake up, it's time to post a real deck that does something besides take up space on the source.

[vigilante]

Thundering Wurm - A very overlooked creature card. Very synergistic with Sea Drake. first turn Drake followed by a second turn Wurm is very common. I used to run four but it's drawback made me cut it down to 2. I instead do a 2/2 split between Wurm and Call of the Herd.With only 2 City of Traitors, 4 Ancient Tomb (and a Crop Rotation technically fetches one of these, I guess), 3 Mox Diamonds, and 2 Thundering Wurms in the deck, I refuse to believe that the "First turn Sea Drake, second turn Thundering Wurm" play happens very commonly.

For a deck with "Stompy" in it's name, this 12-creature (if you include Call of the Herd) creation seems pretty creature-light, especially considering your only card drawing is Brainstorm. Is green even necessary? A U/B Faerie Stompy/Black Stompy hybrid would probably be better than this deck.

[Cavius The Great]

You guys obviously never played the deck. I bet you $100 bucks that if you played this deck on MWS that you would change your mind. This isn't a deck I put together for the hell of it, it's quite good.

And to the people that say this deck has no synergy, you don't need synergy when you have a mana curve tighter than Al Gore's ass and you're able to drop bomb after bomb.

Now to address dem hatas.


Is green even necessary?

Krosan Grip and Pernicious Deed are very necessary.


This deck also seems really unfocused, trying to go an aggro control route, but 8 of your 12 creatures don't have any form of evasion and are just dumb fat, and if your opponent can remove, chump block just a few of them you most likely won't be drawing into that many other threats.

That's what creature destruction is for.


your just packing a bunch of cards that are pretty good on their own but have almost no synergy with each other.

Check Al Gore comment above.


Hey Carlos! Wake up, it's time to post a real deck that does something besides take up space on the source.

Bill, go exercise!

Ok, I think I'm done.

[Ninj4]

So wait, your telling us to test this deck on MWS and you assure us that its good.... even though you haven't?

isn't this logic a little flawed?

You also failed to address any of hte relevent matchups that I provided (which I might add, are as thoroughly tested as your results may have been).

Bombs after bombs with a good curve? nearly vanilla 4/4's and 5/5s for 4 are hardly bombs. maybe in draft. not in constructed. especially legacy where there is abundant creature removal.

Anyway, im done posting in this thread until you post something significant about the deck other than hollow claims.

[outsideangel]

Hey, maybe if you compare yourself to Jesus again, people will take you seriously!

For real, this deck looks like a pile. There's a reason noone runs Juzam Djinn anymore... 5/5s for 4 just aren't good. (Also, Phyrexian Scuta is usually better) Thundering Wurm is a terrible topdeck, even more situational than Arrogant Wurm, and as we know from Madness, situational 4/4s for 3 do not win this format.

I'd love to play this deck with combo. You've got all of 4x Duress for that matchup, and don't even really have a massive clock, either. Maybe, just maybe, your Goblins matchup is okay...but I'd go play an Elgin deck if I wanted to whup Goblins and fold to combo.

But hey, at least you got the Affinity matchup covered...

[MattH]

Save some money and use Fallow Wurm instead of Thundering Wurm. It' snot overlooked, it's just crap.

[clavio]

I bet you $100 bucks that if you played this deck on MWS that you would change your mind.

By that logic, fluctuator is playable. People play really bad decks on mws. Testing a deck on mws is not reliable.

How can you say this is a good deck when you can't beat any combo decks at all?

[vigilante]

You guys obviously never played the deck. I bet you $100 bucks that if you played this deck on MWS that you would change your mind. This isn't a deck I put together for the hell of it, it's quite good.
We don't need to go and test this deck to find out whether or not it's good -- logic, intelligence and past experience allow us to identify what decks have potential....and which don't.


Krosan Grip and Pernicious Deed are very necessary.If green is so irreplaceable in this deck, why are the only green cards you mention SB only, and why only 2 Deeds? Before you even mention Call of the Herd, Thundering Wurm and Crop Rotation as being green as well, remember that Serendib Efreet could replace Call and Wurm in a UB version of this deck (and Crop Rotation seems utterly out of place in this deck altogether).

Overall though, I doubt any suggestions made so far will be able to salvage this deck....Train Wreck is just better if you want a control deck, and Faerie Stompy is better as an aggro-control deck. "Cavius Stompy" is just trying to be both at the same time, and I don't think it can be done.

[edgewalker]

You guys obviously never played the deck. I bet you $100 bucks that if you played this deck on MWS that you would change your mind. This isn't a deck I put together for the hell of it, it's quite good.


It's not our job to to test the deck, it's not our job to bring proof to you that this deck is good or not, it's the deck maker's job for that. Oddly enough the deck maker is you, so basicly you just threw a deck together and where to lazy to see if it was good or not.(I'm seeing a trend with all your decks) Hell, if I walked into my job and asked someone else to do my shift for me, I'd be fired on the spot. Own up and do you're work, don't sit back and work from theories and other bull shit.

Now, to stay on topic, I have to agree that a U/b version would be better, you should just drop green all together. If you're going to splash anything try red. It gives you FTK and pyroclasm, which are awsome since all of your men live through clasm.

[MattH]

Well, if he splashed FTK not all his men would live through Clasm.

This ought to run Negators!

[Elfrago]

Well I usually like Cavius decks, but this one really looks unfocused and wih a lot of strange choices. WTF is Juzam doing here? Phyrexian Scuta and Iwamori are simply better. A single crop rotation? :confused:

[kirdape3]

If you cut the green, this deck reminds me of Random_Miser's ICT.

That's not a compliment at all.

[cdr]

Depending on what he's going for, it could be.

Random_Miser is probably insulted though.

[Zork]

This feels like random_cards.dec with the only synergy I see being sea drake and thundering wurm... but the whole reason to use sea drake with 2 mana lands is to avoid having to pay its drawback.

Mox diamond is bad without a way to get lands out of the gy. It also has terrible synergy with Wurm, as both are terrible topdecks unless you run Life from the Loam.

I don't see how crop rotation can be considered "tech" or even countable as a one of. How often does 1x crop rotation swing the game in your favor? The only real rotation target I see is Wasteland.

Then the creature base feels off. Sea Drake is good, but Juzam is not nearly as good as he was, say, when Arabian Nights came out, and Thundering Wurm is basically a vanilla 4/4 for 3 if you can pay his drawback. Seems worse than Werebear 80% of the time. Plus the creature base is too light to support Jitte IMO. I would recommend running a creature in its place.

[Alfred]

One Juzam Djinn should definately be Juzam Sliver, because then you eliminate the downside to running it.

Oh, and :9

[Aggro_zombies]

I love how Cavius posts bad decks and then says they're the bestest things evar, even better than sliced bread. And then he gets insulted when people point that his decks may, in fact, not be the bestest things evar. Just an interesting observation there.

Anyway, the deck. Your creatures are too few in number and too easily chump blocked (except for Sea Drake, which make up only 6% of your deck). As just about everyone else has said, you need more guys and probably Rancor or something so they can trample over.

[Cavius The Great]

I love how Cavius posts bad decks and then says they're the bestest things evar, even better than sliced bread. And then he gets insulted when people point that his decks may, in fact, not be the bestest things evar. Just an interesting observation there.

Anyway, the deck. Your creatures are too few in number and too easily chump blocked (except for Sea Drake, which make up only 6% of your deck). As just about everyone else has said, you need more guys and probably Rancor or something so they can trample over.

I guess I got a little bit of a reputation. Hopefully I can redeem myself with the next decklist I post.

[Master Shake]

I guess I got a little bit of a reputation. Hopefully I can redeem myself with the next decklist I post.

A truly classic response. And you know what? He did. Right?

[Tinefol]

Finally some real deck in DTB for a change! Ever since Thunder Bluff warped the meta.

[HdH_Cthulhu]

I wish all a happy CtG day!
Why $1700 Dollar Solution?

[Nemcon]

I'm surprised there's no Goyfs in this list, they're more expensivte than say, Jittes.

[Fons]

The first post needs to be updated

+ 4 Goyfs
+ 4 Thoughtseize

[Phoenix Ignition]

The first post needs to be updated


That would require the unbanning of Cavius...

[Fons]

That would require the unbanning of Cavius...

I was kidding, but I'm sure a Mod could edit the post.

While unbanning Cavius for a day would be hilarious

[sauce]

this is proof that god exists!

[Atwa]

The first post needs to be updated

+ 4 Goyfs
+ 4 Thoughtseize

I am very sure Cavius would never play these kind of mainstream cards ever.

[sauce]

i think we have a cavius in our store...

[gamegeek2]

Why is this in the Decks to Beat section? What happened?

[KillemallCFH]

Why is this in the Decks to Beat section? What happened?I suggest reading the DTBF Philosophy & Deck Selection (http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5460) thread if you wish to know how decks are chosen for the Deck to Beat Forum.

[Pinder]

I suggest reading the DTBF Philosophy & Deck Selection (http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5460) thread if you wish to know how decks are chosen for the Deck to Beat Forum.

For those of you too lazy to follow a link, I think the most relevant part is this:


Ideally, the DTBF should provide a reasonably accurate model for creation of a testing gauntlet when preparing for an unknown metagame at a large, competitive tournament.

I think that part really explains itself. I mean, how can you go into a tournament and not at least have some kind of plan for this deck? Especially if you play in Germany where it's been clogging the top tables for a while now.

You might not see this deck in your meta, but Lagacy metagames can differ greatly based on location. Plus, card availability is an issue, with this being the $1700 solution and all.

Also, I want to set the record straight on why Cavius was banned. It wasn't because we were jealous of his deckbuilding abilities, we're not children. He had rights to several of the best decks in the format, and with it came a significant amount of arrogance. I mean, there's pride in your work, but there's a limit, you know? A lot of people who weren't there think the mods were just being vindictive, but let me tell you that with all the flames, there just wasn't enough room for his ego and proper etiquette to coexist anymore.

[Korsakow]

:laugh: @KillemallCFH

[klaus]

He [Cavius] had rights to several of the best decks in the format

Like what?

[Pinder]

Like what?

See for yourself (http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/search.php?searchid=298799).

Now, I know that not all of those were powerhouses, but nobody has a 100% track record with deckbuilding (I certainly don't). But I think the standout ones really speak for themselves.

[Mordel]

That'd be fucking hilarious if you unbanned him for a day...but also let him know, so he could go crazy and post it up, so I get some "modern day" Cavius lulz.

[keys]

Wow, who massacred the DTB Forum?

[n00bas4urus_r3x]

Wow, who massacred the DTB Forum?

Cavius. With all of his greatness.

[Happy Gilmore]

masturbates furiously

[Kyachi]

Whatever. This deck is just Junk Pile with waaaaay dumber cards. Needs more Ernham Djinn and Drooling Ogre. Then we'll talk.