[Deck] Dragon Stompy

I kinda stopped playing this deck for a while (ever since that pesky noble heirarch was printed). With Revoker though, I think this deck can be competitive again. I play revoker in DnT and it's nuts. Is Koth good enough to push it over the top? I am also planning to cut the seething songs and sloggers for more threats. Here's what I plan to try:

4 Bloodmoon
4 Magus
4 Challice
4 Revoker
3 Trini

4 SSG
4 RPD
4 Gathan Raiders
3 Koth
2 Lord of Shatterskull Pass

2 Jitte


4 Chrome
8 Double Lands
10 Mountains

I like Lord of Shatterskull Pass @ 4cc because he's huge. IMO, its either him or Mauler and I felt Lord of Shatterskull Pass is better. We're pretty clogged @ the 4, but since I don't play songs + slogger anymore, I wanted something bomby. Shatterskull is also an outlet for Koth Mana if you are facing a stalled board. I don't think you'd get to Level 6 very often but that seems like an awesome play.

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Originally Posted by NecroYawgmoth

Taco... please tell me.

Which artifact is so dangerous that we need to board Manic Vandals?

And MUCH more important: Against which decks you board Stingscourger??? The only MU I can really imagine to board them is Sneak & Tell.
Is that so? I assume you play in a huge Sneak & Tell-meta with 4 Scourgers AND 2 Arenas?:really:

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It's also a solid tempo play against tempo oriented decks, and decks that got down mana producers off of dual lands. Bouncing a tombstalker is pretty damn good. Bouncing a heirarch on like turn 2 or three after turn 1 blood moon or chalice is also pretty nice.

The fact that it also hits eldrazi is huge

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Originally Posted by NecroYawgmoth

Which artifact is so dangerous that we need to board Manic Vandals?

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Ensnaring Bridge. Single-handedly owns you. You can argue that Ratchet Bomb can address this but the deck that runs Ensnaring Bridge is UWx Thopters, which also run Pithing Needle and Enlightened Tutor to find it.

EDIT:

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Originally Posted by ivanpei

4 Bloodmoon
4 Magus
4 Challice
4 Revoker
3 Trini

4 SSG
4 RPD
4 Gathan Raiders
3 Koth
2 Lord of Shatterskull Pass

2 Jitte


4 Chrome
8 Double Lands
10 Mountains

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You shouldn't cut Seething Song just because you aren't running Arc-Slogger anymore. Seething Song has amazing synergy with RPD and helps you cast your 4cc bombs in the first place. If you don't want to run Seething Song, you need to replace it with another mana source. Most likely acceleration, of which I can think of Rite of Flame and Desperate Ritual as legitimate albeit not effective substitutes.

I've been unimpressed with the Trinis. I don't always have 3 mana on T1 and I am not always on the play. I think I'll ship them to the SB. I'll replace them with seething songs again. Thanks for the tip. BTW, I feel that this could be an equipment stompy deck again. We have + 4 weenies to carry equipment (revoker) and with Sword of Body and Mind IMO is the ideal equipment for this deck. Pro Green and bear making seems perfect when you are locking them out. The problem with equipment in this deck previously was insufficient dudes and terrible against control. With more bodies now and an equipment that makes bodies, it should be ok. Or is Slogger better than the Sword?

- 3 Trini, -3 Koth, + 4 Song + 2 Sword of body and mind/Slogger.

I'm not sure Koth is best for this deck. He can't really defend himself. He is only really bomby when I am winning. It's terrible when I am staring down a goyf and I can't defend koth. He dies to one swing from Goyf/Kotr or an exalted Necatl/warmonk.

Moving Trinis to the SB is a judgment call. Even when you're on the draw, it's still relatively useful if you can cast it turn 1 but I definitely know how sucky it is game 2 and you're on the draw. It feels really pointless to even cast it. But honestly, it's still relatively useful to stop the opponent from blowing you out even if they're not combo.

I run 1 Sword of Bowel Movement. Just one. It addresses the problem of the deck staring down Goyfs or Knights or Merfolk so that's why I run it, but I wouldn't add more than one or add any other equipment. Jitte is powerful but it doesn't actually address any problems.

Yeah, I'm starting to doubt the strength of Koth. It's great while you're ahead and it's great just to break a stalemate, but yeah it barely provides any defense and its acceleration is kinda moot if you have access to 2RR by then. I did win one sick game versus this Balancing Act deck where I sacced my Koth to give my Mountains the power to burn, the next turn my opponent casted Obliterate, I tap my four mountains to ping him down to 2 life, and all I have left is Blood Moon. My turn, I play a Tomb, which is now a Mountain, and then tap it twice over my turn and the next to kill him.

Tested a bit with an updated list today. Sword of body and mind and revoker are ridiculous. I cut shatterskull because slogger seems more bomby. Revoker really helps against pesky vials/lavamancers. I love how I can chalice first then drop a protected revoker. Sword of body and mind has the most relevant colours. It lets you break bant/folk/zoo stalemates. Koth is win more, I won't run it. Zoo is an excellent mu if you draw either moon or chalice. Magus is sucky but with chalice protection also means GG.

Goblins is really hard. I hate losing my revoker to gempalms. Stingscourger is also a pain. Gobbos removal is not 1cc and is hard to chalice out. Any advice on good board cards?

Pyrokinesis, Powder Keg/Ratchet Bomb, and luck. Sometimes they just flood the board with green men and there's nothing you can do about it. The flipside is, they run very little removal in general, and you too can sometimes just drop a couple giants on the board by turn 2 and win out from there.

I don't understand why people find Goblins hard.

I always have problems with Merfolk, but not that much problems with Goblins... Maybe Jitte helps against Goblins? Although Slogger & Jitte & Sideboardstuff should be enough against Goblins.

---> Don't forget Revoker on Gempalm, either ;)


Oh, and btw, I updated the OP-Post a few minutes ago with Revoker and stuff =) still need someone who helps me at the MU-Analysises, anyone there =P?

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Originally Posted by NecroYawgmoth

I don't understand why people find Goblins hard.

I always have problems with Merfolk, but not that much problems with Goblins... Maybe Jitte helps against Goblins? Although Slogger & Jitte & Sideboardstuff should be enough against Goblins.

---> Don't forget Revoker on Gempalm, either ;)


Oh, and btw, I updated the OP-Post a few minutes ago with Revoker and stuff =) still need someone who helps me at the MU-Analysises, anyone there =P?

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Hey, I agree with the goblins comment. It's really hard for them to win g2/3

As for MU, I've been maining DS for 3-4 yrs (i think lol) but I'm not constantly going out to tourneys every week, so I'm prob not the best source. Here's my approx. results for best out of 10 standards (Non-tourney and tourney versions)

Non-Tourney Testing, Tourney

Affinity...............................8/2, 9/1

Aggro Loam.........................3/7, 5/5

Belcher..............................8/2, 9/1

Bant Aggro/NO Bant...............6/4, 10/0

Burn..................................5/5, 4/6

CB/Top:
UBW.................................10/0, 9/1
UBGW...............................10/0, 9/1
UGW Thopter.......................6/4, N/A
UGRW...............................6/4, 6/4

Dredge..............................7/3, 7/3

Elves!................................7/3, 10/0

Goblins:
RB...................................5/5, 8/2
R/RG/RGB..........................7/3, 8/2

LandStill:
DreadStill............................5/5, 2/8
UGB..................................8/2, 10/0

Merfolk:
U....................................7/3, 6/4
UB...................................8/2, 8/2
UW..................................3/7, 0/10

MUD................................8/2, N/A

Rock/Junk..........................4/6, 1/9

Sneaky/NO/Show.................1/9, N/A

SprinG Tide........................7/3, 10/0

Stax................................5/5, N/A

Taxes:
W....................................5/5, N/A
GW..................................2/8, N/A
BW..................................7/3, N/A
GWB................................3/7, 0/10

Team America.....................6/4, 10/0

TES.................................8/2, 10/0

Zoo.................................6/4, 9/1

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Oh, and btw, I updated the OP-Post a few minutes ago with Revoker and stuff =) still need someone who helps me at the MU-Analysises, anyone there =P?

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Just read the OP for the first time. Bloodrock Cyclops. Can't believe that was ever run in an iteration of Dragon Stompy [/barf]. But good work on the primer.

I wrote an article on blackborder.com about this deck. I think some of you might consider this useful. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them right in the comment section or here =) It can also be used as an input for further discussion, for example about Lodestone Golem, Seething Song or mainboard Phyrexian Revoker!

enjoy: http://www.blackborder.com/q/node/10972

@ black lotus Hey, great article! It was a very interesting read and for the most part I agreed on your analysis of the deck although I think you're MU analysis could use some work. Enchantress, for example. As an Enchantress player I can honestly tell you pre/post board you have a rather good chance at winning the MU.

Chalice @ 1 shuts off our 8 accelerants (Utopia Sprawl/Wild Growth) which is actually relevant sometimes, particularly when we mulligan (as our deck is less forgiving than Stompy if we mulligan to 4/5). You also disable Enlightened Tutor.
Chalice @ 2 shuts off Sterling Grove, Runed Halo, and Argothian Enchantress. Shutting off 4/8 Enchantress effects AND a tutor is highly, if not more so, relevant than a Chalice @ 1.

In either case, if we have an Enchantress effect on the field we still get to cycle off the cast card, but you reduce our mana, tutoring ability, and esp. our Enchantment count for Serra Sanctum.

3sphere is incredibly as it will essentially slow us down from casting 5-8 spells in a single turn down to 2-4 based on the game state.

Moon effects are probably the weakest of Stompy hate, but they shut off Serra's Sanctum which can be enough late game.

Phyrexian Revoker hits Grove/Words of War. Shutting off a tutor/win con seems viable.

Yeah, Enchantress does run Halo to disable some of your beaters and O-Ring to remove lock pieces, but ultimately most builds will run 1-2 Halo and 2 O-Ring. It's not difficult to play around 4 cards. Remember that Enchantress stabilizes on average turns 4-6, and you have the ability to lock us down turns 1-3. Elephant Grass can be bothersome, but you run 8 2-lands, so paying to attack is not an issue. Also remember that every turn we pay for the cumulitive upkeep is mana we aren't spending to improve our game state. Similiary, Solitary Confinment is only ever played if either A) We're desperate to delay, or B) We have 2+ Enchantress effects. As for Moat, majority of Enchantress players don't have this card due to it's price, so in most scenario's you don't even have to worry about it. While you will be essentially screwed if we drop it since all Stompy has is RPD, you can still SB hate games 2/3.

In regards to SB Stompy typically has better selections than Enchantress for this MU:
Stompy: Ratchet Bomb/Powder Keg, Firespout/Pyroclasm/Volcanic Fallout, Pithing Needle/Phyrexian Revoker
Enchantress: Circle of Protection: Red, Runed Halo, Aura of Silence, Humility

Enchantress SB essentially boils down to 4 Leyline of Sanctity, 11 free slots. So there will be much variance and you might see more cards than the ones I listed, but those are really the only cards Enchantress would have that would be SB-worthy against you (beyond weirdos such as me who have various SB shennanigans like a Wishboard :P). The CoP:R is actually rather rare since most metas are running rampant with Combo, Rock, and varying degrees of CounterTop, so I very much doubt you'd even see that. Aura of Silence is meant more for the mirror MU, but I could see some Enchantress players SBing this in as extra outs to DS's lock pieces. Humility is a stupid card to run for Enchantress and I would never advocate ANY Enchantress run this as it wrecks our Argothians/Angels but I feel I should mention it for the sake of variety and the fact that there are still advocates of this card.

Bomb is excellent as a board clear against us for obvious reasons. You'll really only have to get up to 1/2 charge counters most of the time which is quite reasonable. Don't use the, "but they have 1-2 Replenish so why bother with board clear!" argument. Just because we have board-recovery cards doesn't make board clear any less useful, and honestly people like to believe we draw that card more than we actually do. We have no way to tutor it up so we can only draw into them via insane cantrip. And based on the current popular decks I don't think it's unreasonable to say most Enchantress players have bumped down to 1 Replenish MD. Keg, while not as amazing, does it's part. It can remove Argothians/Angel tokens. 'Nuff said.

'Spout/'Clasm/Fallout are not as amazing as Bomb/Keg, but they still kill Argothians which is relevant.

Needle/Revoker on Sterling Grove remove 4/6(7) of our possible tutors, and it can kill of 1/2(3) win-cons: Words of War.

Some Enchantress builds run Emrakul, the Aeons Torn but honestly don't worry about this card. Seriously, don't even consider it a threat. He's a win-more, throw-salt-in-the-still-festering-wound card for this deck. By the time we can ramp to 15 mana we have won the game and have the ability to kill you however we want. Playing Emrakul is just a way to show off. 99% of the time he's a dead card for us. The only times he's even useful are either A) Mirror match, or B) Painter-Grindstone, and in situation B we'll still lose as they've milled our entire deck and we'll lose next turn unless we can resolve a Replenish on the turn we draw Emrakul.

Iona, Shield of Emeria is being replaced for Emrakul by more and more Enchantress players (thankfully) and I've used her in my Wish board to varying degrees of success, but she's intended more for the mirror/control MU. You really shouldn't expect to see her too much, and even if your opponent runs her in the deck the most likely course of action (assuming they know how to play the deck) is they'll go for the Sigil and ramp out Angel tokens.

Granted I've oversimplified a few things but overall DS has a much higher success rate than Enchantress.

One tip I'd like you to keep in mind that I see so many people I play against not opt to do: play out the match even if you know the Enchantress player has that particular game (assuming time is not an issue). Yea, you may get bored just sitting there but most Enchantress players tend to play carelessly when they're trying to win the game and they'll just randomly throw whatever enchantments they can onto the field. This is a mistake that many players (including myself) make quite often. Get as much information as you can about their deck. How many #'s they're running of a single card, what they may have opted to SB in against you, etc. More information is never a bad thing and can significantly improve how you'll play games 2/3.

Forlorn Egoist

Anarchy is a good red-spell against Enchantress/Moat/Humility/Elspeth. It's a little narrow, but if you're thinking about improving a narrow matchup like Enchantress/Thopters, this is the card that you need.

Also, is 2 Equipment MD enough for Dragonstompy to hold its edge against other decks? I would imagine, moving 3spheres to the SB (they suck in this meta right now unless you can go first with 3 mana, i.e. win die roll, open with 5 cards to drop 3sphere, not too likely) and upping +2 more equipment to a total of 4, mabye 2 jitte/2 SofI is good in today's meta (tribal/Hierarch/vial)

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Originally Posted by Metalwalker

Anarchy is a good red-spell against Enchantress/Moat/Humility/Elspeth. It's a little narrow, but if you're thinking about improving a narrow matchup like Enchantress/Thopters, this is the card that you need.

Also, is 2 Equipment MD enough for Dragonstompy to hold its edge against other decks? I would imagine, moving 3spheres to the SB (they suck in this meta right now unless you can go first with 3 mana, i.e. win die roll, open with 5 cards to drop 3sphere, not too likely) and upping +2 more equipment to a total of 4, mabye 2 jitte/2 SofI is good in today's meta (tribal/Hierarch/vial)

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Yeah, Anarchy is hella needed. Good against Death & Taxes as well. And Progenitus.

2 Equipment is definitely fine. This is my personal opinion, but to me Sword of Fire and Ice is the most overrated sword (or equipment in general) in the cycle. It has its uses against tribal, but Sword of Body and Mind is the sword the deck actually NEEDS. SoFI might make your Gathan Raiders big enough to power through Tarmogoyf and Knight, but SoBM makes your Gathan Raiders ignore your opponent's big blockers and provide another blocker (2/2 Wolf). Furthermore, if your Gathan Raiders goes farming, you have a Wolf left behind to pick up the Sword and keep ignoring Goyfs.

Sword of Light and Shadow could also be argued for the slot as well. I don't think the pro-Goyf is a valid argument as the static +2/+2 typically bumps the creature above Goyf (assuming it's equippted to a beater like Slogger/Raider/RPD/Shatterskull) but with the rise of Rock/Deadguy and 4cCounterTop pro-White seems like it'd be better for us to have (anti-StP/PtE/Vindicate). Granted the token generated is useful however the mill effect is useless. Both effects from SoLS have uses for us.

Of course, either one is perfectly justified for it's use, I just prefer to give my guys protection from annoying spot removal (although I have seen a number of Rock players begin to run Go for the Throat as additional spot removal in the SB over PtE lately).

Forlorn Egoist

@Forlorn Egoist: Thx for the feedback and the insight on the Enchantress matchup. I consider Trinisphere completely useless when on the draw though. Most spells cost 2+ at which point Golem will do all the work by itself and Trinisphere gets redundant. Also, reaching 3 mana on turn 2 is so common that I wouldn't bother throwing down Trinisphere. It obviously is good on the play, but that goes for almost every matchup ;)
I don't even considered something like Emrakul because my safest bet is to stall the development of your gameplan. Once you reach that amount of mana / cards, it is lights out anyways. That is also the main reason why I don't think it's a good matchup for me because most cards don't do as much as they would in other matchups. Moon effects are almost worthless and boarded out, always, and Chalice of very useful, but not as deadly as against, lets say Threshhold where it shuts down most of their deck. Revoker is fine, Trinisphere is fine when on the play, Golem is actually good, Chalice is fine, but at the end of the day, I'm not sure if that is enough.

@Metalwalker: I stated in the comments of the article that I would cut Seething Song entirely as well as 1 Sphere to make room for two Revokers and two Jittes. If you don't run Arc Slogger, you need additional ways to deal with creatures and going up to five equipments seems like a good plan to me.
About the Sword discussion: I still think SoFaI is by far the best option against an unknown field or a Swarmaggro heavy meta. If there is A LOT of Bant and Junk around, consider the BW Sword but don't forget that your critters can be killed in response to equipping unless he is tapped out or you have Chalice @1 in play. So be careful about investing 5 mana in the early turns precombat if you could resolve another lockpiece instead. Protection from removal is less important to me than getting the full effect out of the Sword as soon as it connects as well as being able to walk by potential chumpblockers. An active SoFaI kills both Merfolk and Goblin all by itself while you might be forced to stay back to block with SoLaS in these matchups and you really want to attacking with your Swords.

@Shawon: Anarchy depends on your metagame. I happen to play far more often against tribaldecks, threshold, affinity, storm etc rather than staxx and enchantress and unless you expect either of them to T8 in every tournament you attend, I try to focus my sideboard on the common matchups and avoid narrow cards like Anarchy. Nonetheless, it IS a great card and I highly recommend playing it if you know you will be facing Humilities!

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Originally Posted by black lotus

If you don't run Arc Slogger, you need additional ways to deal with creatures and going up to five equipments seems like a good plan to me.

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Going up to five equipments is never a good plan. If you have space for five equipments, why not just cut 4 of them and add 4 SLogger? That seems like a way better plan against creatures.

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Originally Posted by Shawon

Going up to five equipments is never a good plan. If you have space for five equipments, why not just cut 4 of them and add 4 SLogger? That seems like a way better plan against creatures.

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In his list, he runs 4 lodestone and cuts song, so it'll be really hard for him to get slogs out.

I play 4 songs but just 2 sloggers. We aren't kidding anyone and this is not an attrition deck. We need to be as explosive as possible. I agree, 3sphere really sucks right now. I play 4 equipments, with 2 being Jitte and the other Sword of Body and Mind. The Pro Tarmogoyf is very relevant as it turns SSG, Magus and Revoker into instant threats. SOLS on a 2/2 is still smaller than Goyf most of the time and you will be in a staring match against a goyf. Also if a player has removal, he will cast it in response to the equip. If he draws it after you have equip SOLS and swung, great you have protection. It's the same for SOBM, if you have equipped and swung, and your opponent then topdecks removal, you still have a 2/2 bear to pick up the sword and continue swinging. So being Pro removal is not a good argument. I have been in way too many situations when I have a weenie weilding SOFI/SOLS staring at a Goyf, unable to swing. I much prefer SOBM due to this.

I also thought about why not 4 sloggers? The answer is: sloggers are notoriously hard to cast without Songs. Having multiple sloggers stuck in hand is just extremely annoying. If you have a moon on the table, sloggers are event harder to cast. With SOBM at least you can split up the mana cost and get in there with a plethora of weenies. Before revoker was printed, I would have stuck with just 2 equips and 4 sloggers. But with so many weenies that can carry equipment, I'm playing 4 equips now and 2 sloggers.

Have you tested Sword of Feast and Famine? It seems to me as being slightly better than SoBaM, for it does the same thing you need SoBaM for - it gives your guys protection from Goyfs - without accelerating Dredge/Loams/Lands/Tresholds/Reanimators (if anyone plays the last one still ;) ). Is the lone 2/2 wolf better than possibility to put more guys into play? (or even if we don't have more creatures in hand, we still can multiply our moons/chalices/trinis to reach hellbent faster...)
I haven't played DS for some time, but on paper SoFaF looks like the best equip choice (besides Jitte obviously) for this deck.