Angel Stompy splashed blue (Trinket Mangel Stompy)

[tivadar]

Since the AS thread seems to keep demanding a splash list, I figured I'd throw the one I've been using recently up here. I'd been debating doing this to begin with, as the deck is fairly different from anything I've made before in this context (and we've all know I've made a lot). Here's the list:

// Mana (22)
2 Chrome Mox
2 Windswept Heath
2 Island
3 Plains
3 Ancient Tomb
4 Flooded Strand
4 Tundra
2 Flagstones of Trokair
// Creatures (18)
4 Exalted Angel
2 Maelstrom Djinn
2 Serendib Efreet
2 Trinket Mage
4 Meddling Mage
4 Silver Knight
// Denial/Tempo/Removal (10)
4 Force of Will
3 Stifle
3 Swords to Plowshares
// Card Advantage/Selection (10)
2 Momentary Blink
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Sensei's Divining Top
2 Sword of Fire and Ice
2 Umezawa's Jitte

Card Explanation (for the non-obvious stuff)

Maelstrom Djinn - The deck needed another powerhouse and multiple Serendibs can just be bad. This guy does amazing things to win games quickly. Also, combined with Stifle or Momentary Blink, he hangs around permanently.

Trinket Mage - Came in when I was testing a Faerie Stompyish version of the deck and never left. He's card advantage on a stick. He fetches key artifacts (top and explosives, plus 1-ofs in the board), and is well costed for his power/toughness. I've tried Hussar in his place, and he's nowhere near as good.

Force of Will - You want to be able to go all out aggro and this does it for you. In a meta with belcher/TES/Faerie Stompy, it's a maindeck include with 17 blue cards total to support it.

Momentary Blink - Just amazing, can play combat tricks, has amazing synergy with Maelstrom and Trinket Mage, and decent synergy with Exalted and Meddling. On top of that, it's a 2 for 1.

Sensei's Divining Top - I dropped Brainstorm for this after adding Trinket Mage and have never looked back. Its ability to provide continuous card quality throughout the game is just amazing. It's definitely something regular AS should check out.

Engineered Explosives - While this may be dead in Solidarity and somewhat in TES/belcher, it handles goblins, slivers, and fish quite well. Obviously good with trinket mage and not something I'd drop any time soon. Can also get rid of opposing chalices and needles on many occasions.

Cards left out:

Cataclysm - I was playing with this for a while but I ran into two issues, it was too slow in many cases, and it was too conditional. In a sense, it was almost a win-more playing with this deck. It may be right for AS, but I don't think it's the right choice here.

Brainstorm - As noted above, top was just found to be better in conjunction with Trinket Mage. Also, given certain artifacts in the board which may have double X in their cost and may discourage 1 casting cost spells, this was not the right choice.

+1 Swords to Plowshares - Yes, it's an amazing card, and it's meant to beat balls-to-the wall aggro. But the fact is you've got Engineered Explosives as another slow answer, and Force of Will as another quick answer. To make room for the important cards, I had to cut Swords down to 3.

Counterbalance - For some reason, everyone thinks this card should be an include, and states the fact that I'm running Top. The issues are that I only have two tops, I have no brainstorms, and the largest blue casting cost in the deck is mono-blue. While double blue isn't impossible, these reasons, combined with the fact that this is, in the end, an aggro deck, combine to make Counterbalance a no-go.

Current Generic Board (since it seems to be relevant to card choices):

4x Chalice of the Void
3x Armageddon
3x Parallax Wave
3x Disenchant
1x Tormod's Crypt
1x Pithing Needle

Additional Information:

To come! Give me a bit, will post analysis and whatnot.

[tivadar]

And this will be where match results go.

[Maverick676]

Quick suggestion -1 Stifle +1 Swords, I mean come on it is freaking swords to plowshares I think it deserves a maindeck slot over a stifle.

[Cavius The Great]

I have to vouch that this deck is really strong. I've tested against it so I know. I also think that Maelstrom Djinn is probably the strongest, most techy card in the deck. It's just so good. I think Tividar might be starting a trend in the near future with Maelstrom Djinn. :wink:

[tivadar]

Quick suggestion -1 Stifle +1 Swords, I mean come on it is freaking swords to plowshares I think it deserves a maindeck slot over a stifle.

Ok, so I'll put my arguments forward against this without falling back to the "17 blues for FOW", as that seems to be a rather bad reason. Not to mention, in that case, there'd always be pongify...

The fact is that while aggro's supposed to be dominating legacy, it's not. Combo, aggro control, and goblins seem to be on top. This deck has 3 answers exclusively for aggro (the swords), 4 quick generic answers (force of will), plus 2 slower answers in most cases (explosives). Not to mention 4 equipment answers (sofi and jitte). That's just plain a LOT of creature hate.

This deck is designed to beat aggro. It does that, it doesn't need to do any more aggro beating. What it does need is a good answer to quick combo. With stifle, I essentially get 7 answers (force of will plus stifle). While, depending on your meta, dropping down to 6 may make sense. I really don't think it does given the overall meta.

[Cavius The Great]

Eric, I don't see the Windswept Heaths in your list that we discussed the other day. Did you cut them or failed to include them in?

[cianty]

Hm, regarding Stifle vs StP: at least it can handle a first turn lackey pretty well (stifling the Lackey's trigger then dropping a creature next turn to block the Lackey from there).

How does the Momentary Blink work for you? I can imagine it being too expensive at 1W as I probably don't want to leave the mana open..

Also, how is your Goblins matchup in general? I found that the inclusion of Cataclysm boosts the matchup a lot in the original AS list - as well as owning decks like Landstill and stuff. However, the comparison between AS and this deck is probably not adequate anyway.

EDIT:
One more question: Why the flagstones? Without either Armageddon or Cataclysm I don't see any use in them. Especially as a 2-of.

[Cavius The Great]

Eric, have you thought of running Trickbind in place of Momentary Blink? They basically serve the same purpose but Trickbind is alot more versatile. Now that I think about it, Momentary Blink is just bad jank.

[tivadar]

Eric, I don't see the Windswept Heaths in your list that we discussed the other day. Did you cut them or failed to include them in?

Yep, just forgot them in the list, made the modifications. The land count said 22 but only 20 were listed. The missing two were the Heaths. They're amazing with Top obviously. Thanks Cavius.


Eric, have you thought of running Trickbind in place of Momentary Blink? They basically serve the same purpose but Trickbind is alot more versatile. Now that I think about it, Momentary Blink is just bad jank.

Trickbind is terrible. The generic purposes of Stifle are twofold, to stop a turn 1 fetchland and to prevent Djinn from going poof. That second reason is actually somewhat bad, because then you're wasting two cards for one creature. Stifle is also meant to serve against Storm-based combo.

While Trickbind is better against Solidarity when they're going off, as it can't be countered, they can always remand. In addition, Stifle is better against solidarity's fetchlands, which is what you really want to hit,and can't hit as well with trickbind. Against TES and the like, Trickbind is slower, which makes it pretty much strictly worse.

Now for things that blink does that trickbind doesn't:
2-1, as it has flashback
Plays combat tricks (blocking with previously tapped creature, remove your creature with lethal on stack)
Unmorphs angel and Djinn
Allows Meddling Mage renames
Saves creatures from targetted removal
Draws an extra card (twice) with Trinket Mage

Stifle serves its purpose in the deck, as does blink. Trickbind really doesn't hold a place post-flash in the mainboard. That being said, one could make an argument for removing Blink for either Cataclysm or Wave, both of which have merits. Really, I think the power-levels are similar here.

[tivadar]

Hm, regarding Stifle vs StP: at least it can handle a first turn lackey pretty well (stifling the Lackey's trigger then dropping a creature next turn to block the Lackey from there).

Actually, I rarely Stifle Lackey trigger, it's card disadvantage. The things they'll try to drop generally are (in this order): Siege Gang, Matron, Warchief, Piledriver. If it's the first two, you just stifle their CIP trigger and make their handsize smaller. If it's the second two, it's a bit of a pain, but you should probably be dropping a creature T2 (hopefully a silver) anyways.


How does the Momentary Blink work for you? I can imagine it being too expensive at 1W as I probably don't want to leave the mana open..

If you have blink and a reason to use it, you leave it open generally, especially if you have a morph in play. Don't play defensive with it, you've got REASONS to cast it. Against Control, you'll want to slowplay anyways, so having mana open doesn't hurt. It's no worse than (and a lot better) than paying to morph and angel/djinn anyways. I don't know, it's really worked well for me. It has a lot of subtle synergies with other cards in the deck.


Also, how is your Goblins matchup in general? I found that the inclusion of Cataclysm boosts the matchup a lot in the original AS list - as well as owning decks like Landstill and stuff. However, the comparison between AS and this deck is probably not adequate anyway.

Actually, this is something I haven't tested since taking out 2x Cataclysm, 1x stp, and 1x stifle in favor of 4x FoW. Honestly, yes, Cataclysm can be good against goblins IF they don't have an active vial, but it's also rather slow. I honestly think that Explosives takes the place of cataclysm reasonably well, and it's less conditional in my opinion (almost always casting it at 1 or 0). It is something to test though. Previously, my goblins losses came when they swarmed me early, but I had a better late game against them. I would think FoW would shore up some of that. However, it may lead to the opposite problem, late game issues. In conclusion, needs testing, but with 2x Cataclysm and no force, the matchup was very favorable (60% or so, both pre and post draw).


EDIT:
One more question: Why the flagstones? Without either Armageddon or Cataclysm I don't see any use in them. Especially as a 2-of.

Primarily because there's no reason NOT to play them. I've got plenty of basics (5, which is the peak of my curve if I want to play and equip sofi in the same turn). The whole 2-of issue comes up so rarely it hardly matters. And when you do get two, there are enough cases where Flagstones gives you landthinning without impacting your mana (-1 mana for 1 turn). If you have enough other lands, just play it so you use it the turn you have the extra mana available. I see more land destruction (pox, cataclysm, confidant) than I do non-basic hate (price of progress, back to basics). Even if this changed, I don't think I'd EVER see a reason not to run at least 1 Flagstones.

Also, I do run Geddon in the board, obviously, so in the control matchups, it can help as well.