Help with a casual Sea Stompy build

[dad]

I don't get to play much Legacy, but I thought I would like to put together a casual deck built around the old Sea Stompy archetype. For reference a sample decklist looks like this:

Lands
4 Stomping ground
4 Steam Vents
4 Briding Pool
4 Shivan Reef
4 Forest
2 Yavimaya Coast

Creatures
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Llanowar Elves
4 Kird Ape
4 Ninja of Deep Hours
3 Rumbling Slum
3 Oprahn Viper
4 Plaxmanta

Spells

4 Remand
4 Mana Leak
3 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Seal Of Fire

This list was not an optimal Type 2 list (I made room for 2 Electrolyze and 2 Repeal because cantrips are good).

I am wondering how this deck could be improved. I am not looking for other decks in lieu of this and appreciate any suggestions.

[burkey_boy]

well ot start the land base would be

4 tropical island
4 tiaga
4 wooded foothills
2 windswept heath
4 wasteland
2 forest
1 island
1 mountain

are you sure you want to play legacy, as this is standard and extended legal, and legacy is an entirely different game.

[Sengaija]

When i look at this deck I see a great standard deck, and a not so good legacy deck. I dont know how much money you want to spend on legacy but be sure to check out "Fairy stompy" this deck has roughly the same gameplan as your deck but is just so much stronger, be sure to check it for insperation.

another thing i would suggest is to look over your colors, the legacy cardpool is big enough to get everything you want for this deck and still skip one of the three colors

you have plenty of draw, but Im not sure if you need all that draw. Is this what wins games for you with this deck?

lastly i would recomend trying to play with Daze, this is a great card for keeping the momentum.

[KillemallCFH]

Creatures
4 Ninja of Deep Hours

Spells
3 Umezawa's Jitte
The deck isn't standard legal; Kamigawa rotated out. It is however, still extended legal, and could easily be tweaked to be Standard legal.

[dad]

First, thanks for the suggestions.

@Burkeyboy, this is just a pet project deck of mine. I already have VialGoblins available. I could build a Gro deck as well. This is just fun to play, certainly rogue for legacy, and solid if not 'tier 1'.


@Sengaija, the deck wins in the classic aggro control mode. Two active Jitte beats is huge. The deck isn't legacy ready yet though, and thats where I am looking to make adjustments.

@KillemallCFH, You are correct, it is not standard legal. I do disagree that it could be easily tweaked- Ninja and Jitte have no adequate replacements in the current Standard and they are central to the deck.

[Soto]

[QUOTE=dad;137213]

@Sengaija, the deck wins in the classic aggro control mode. Two active Jitte beats is huge. The deck isn't legacy ready yet though, and thats where I am looking to make adjustments.

QUOTE]

You can't have two jittes online as they are legendary.

[Tinefol]

You can't have two jittes online as they are legendary.

If you read carefully, he states about two jitte beats, not two jittes

[kirdape3]

For casual play, it's fine, although your creatures aren't so good at actually fighting. That's Karsten's list if I remember correctly from Dutch Nationals.

There are lots of cards that could be used in a Legacy-legal state such as Serendib Efreet that would fit just fine in such a deck.

[Horror Business]

Seems like you should just go the UGR Thresh(Legacy Metagame Forum) route if you are wanting to play a similar deck in Legacy.

Some ideas since coming up with a list with numbers was becoming too much of a pain:

Quirion Dryad
Tarmagoyf
Burning Tree Shaman
Serendib Efreet

Serum Visions
Brainstorm
Daze
Force Of Will
Lightning Bolt
Rancor

Fetchlands would be a good addition for consistency and a first turn 2/3 Ape. Cutting some of those Ravinca duals for some originals and/or basics would be a good idea to salvage as much of your life total during the game.

[Cait_Sith]

Don't go the Thresh route! Thresh works in a specific fashion, totally different from this deck.

Shaman + Jitte = suicide.

I would use Goyf, Serendib, Rumbling Slum, and a few other creatures in the same vein (high p/t to cost ratio).

[thefreakaccident]

could eventually leed into a URG zoo deck, but at that popint wouldn't you just play San Diego zoo?

I think that you should just look into UGR thresh and pick that up, it is rediculously strong for the most part... it is teir 1 for a reason. Sith if he wants to be a conformist, let him be one... we'll just have that many more wins to decks we already know how to play against!

[264505]

I loved playing this deck when it was type 2 but in order to make a "legacy version" your going to take a lot out of it, running stuff like Ninja of Deep Hours i see doing more bad than good, birds is no good in aggro.

Daze and forces could replace the counters, bolts for burn. Goyf and Dryad would be good choices for creatures, almost turning it into a pseudo gro style deck. Play it like URG fish or something. It could work

[dad]

Seems like you should just go the UGR Thresh(Legacy Metagame Forum) route if you are wanting to play a similar deck in Legacy.

Some ideas since coming up with a list with numbers was becoming too much of a pain:

Quirion Dryad
Tarmagoyf
Burning Tree Shaman
Serendib Efreet

Serum Visions
Brainstorm
Daze
Force Of Will
Lightning Bolt
Rancor

Fetchlands would be a good addition for consistency and a first turn 2/3 Ape. Cutting some of those Ravinca duals for some originals and/or basics would be a good idea to salvage as much of your life total during the game.


These were the cards I was was strongly looking at. Thresh is a different deck in the way it is played. Freakaccidents Zoo suggestion if closer to how the deck plays.

@264505 I am not sure how you come to the conclusion the Ninja is more bad then good. BoP is more then a mana fixer/accelerant, not saying I would include it, but in Type 2 these were examples of strong openings.

Turn 1 BoP
Turn 2 Swing with BoP (not blocked), bring in Ninja, hit for 2 and draw a card.

or

Turn 1 BoP
Turn 2 Burning Tree (which I ran in my original decklist, but did not post here)

[Cait_Sith]

@264505 I am not sure how you come to the conclusion the Ninja is more bad then good. BoP is more then a mana fixer/accelerant, not saying I would include it, but in Type 2 these were examples of strong openings.

Turn 1 BoP
Turn 2 Swing with BoP (not blocked), bring in Ninja, hit for 2 and draw a card.

or

Turn 1 BoP
Turn 2 Burning Tree (which I ran in my original decklist, but did not post here)

BoP in Legacy screams KILL ME! KILL ME NOW OR ELSE! Players happily oblige. Legacy has 2 commonly played cards that are incredibly high quality removal (Swords to Plowshares and Lightning Bolt) as well as piles of less commonly played removal. Any cards that both accels and fixes mana becomes a big target since the decks that tend to run Bolt and Swords don't like facing off against the decks that normally run Birds.

[264505]

Turn 1 BoP
Turn 2 Swing with BoP (not blocked), bring in Ninja, hit for 2 and draw a card.


And when they swords/bolt your ninja, you now have 0 creatures in play and are tapped out. It seems like it would be a reasonable inclusion, but any deck with more than 4 instant speed removal spells is going to take advantage of this and leave you with a virtual 2 for 1.

[dad]

BoP in Legacy screams KILL ME! KILL ME NOW OR ELSE! Players happily oblige. Legacy has 2 commonly played cards that are incredibly high quality removal (Swords to Plowshares and Lightning Bolt) as well as piles of less commonly played removal. Any cards that both accels and fixes mana becomes a big target since the decks that tend to run Bolt and Swords don't like facing off against the decks that normally run Birds.

The same could be said for standard. However, the point remains valid and forces me to consider quality turn 2 two-drops. Q. Dryad is obvious and perhaps Mongrel or River Boa. I am stuck here. I really like Plaxmanta, but not so much as a finisher. If I was going the Gro/thresh route Werebear would be obvious, but it doesn't seem right for this deck. UGR Zoo is similar to this deck.

You guys have been really helpful, and have been mostly well thought input. I think for a solid casual deck, this is beginning to shape up nicely.

Lands
4 Taiga
4 Volcanic Island
4 Tropical Island
4 R/G Fetchland
2 Forest
2 Shivan Reef
1 Yavamaya Coast

Creatures
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Kird Ape
4 Ninja of Deep Hours
4 Serendib Efreet
4 Plaxmanta
4 Burning Tree Shaman

Spells

4 Remand
4 Force of Will
3 Rancor
4 Lightning Bolt

Cast costs
0 = 4 *FoW
1 = 15
2 = 12 *includes Ninja
3 = 8
land 21

The curve looks decent, the creatures are efficient and there aren't too many duds to draw. Would really like Brainstorm though. I might put this together and play some games for giggles and see how it does.

[dad]

And when they swords/bolt your ninja, you now have 0 creatures in play and are tapped out. It seems like it would be a reasonable inclusion, but any deck with more than 4 instant speed removal spells is going to take advantage of this and leave you with a virtual 2 for 1.

That is absolutely valid and a risk. I had to deal with Seal/Shock or Congregate in Standard. I don't think it is enough by itself to invalidate things here. That said, Legacy gives me much better aggro options, but I think I need 4 more cantrips. The reason this deck was so good in Standard was that so many of the cards replaced themselves when played (Repeal/Electrolyze/Ninja/Remand).

[264505]

No one played shock and seal was in play before ninjitsu (plus they would most likely use it on the bird). I would use Tarmogoyf in your build and maybe try to fit in a cantrip spell like serum visions to fix your draws and allow you to cut a land or 2.

[Hummingbird TG]

Daze > Remand. Free > pay mana.

Don't run painlands. If you need more colorfix, run Shocklands. But I don't reccommend those highly in a format filled with Wastelands. You may want to run more fetches, then cut a land or two for Brainstorm. You currently have 21 land, I think you can afford to do so.

Also, you could cut one more 3 drop, and perhaps another beater, to get 4 slots for Brainstorm.