[Deck] Elephant Stompy (formerly Elf Stompy)

I think the deck's potential lies in the White Landstill and general aggro matchups. The former gives fits to Dragon Stompy because it can often ignore Blood Moon and comfortably nullify the red zone; the latter because DS hates, hates, hates ground stalls, and Pit Dragon dies to both Bolts and black removal.

Garruk, CotH and Harmonize give Elf Stompy the ability to not run out of gas and keep churning out threats after each one is killed or traded with, whereas Dragon Stompy lives for Hellbent and Faerie Stompy has only Mulldrifter. Is this enough to compensate for the lack of evasion and bombs like Force of Will or Blood Moon? I don't know, but we're here to find out.

So, here's the list I took to my local tournament yesterday:

10x Forest
4x Ancient Tomb
4x City of Traitors

4x Elvish Spirit Guide
3x Garruk Wildspeaker
4x Chrome Mox

4x Tarmogoyf
4x Spawnwrithe
4x Call of the Herd
3x Briarhorn
3x Chameleon Colossus

4x Chalice of the Void
3x Sword of Fire and Ice
3x Umezawa's Jitte
3x Harmonize

Sideboard:
4x Hail Storm
4x Choke
4x Pithing Needle
3x Krosan Grip

I went 3-2 and finished 8th, losing to It's the Fear in the first round of the playoffs. My three wins were Aggro Loam, White Weenie, and Triton's Minions. My two losses were UW Aggro/Control and It's the Fear (I lost to ITF twice.)

Sword of Fire and Ice was amazing. I wouldn't have beat Aggro Loam and White Weenie without it.

This deck absolutely folds to board control. I sided in ten cards vs ITF, and I still got stomped, losing both matches 0-2. EE and Deed are huge against this deck due to the large number of token generators we have. I honestly don't think that this deck is capable of beating ITF/VoroshStill/Landstill/Rock/Insert board control deck here. Vedalken Shackles just kills this deck pre-board, as we have no answer to it. Another potential problem is Tarmogoyf, as most decks that run him have cantrips/card draw to find their copies and can just counter/StP ours. A 3/4 goyf is bigger than every creature in this deck except Colossus, and this was a problem.

The only way we're going to have any kind of matchup against board control is to run some sort of artifact/enchantment removal in the maindeck. Indrik Stomphowler could fill this role, as could Krosan Grip. Still, improving that matchup sort of seems like a lost cause. This deck is very strong against most aggro strategies, including aggro/control, and that is probably the best reason to play this.

I think we should stop using "this deck" and refer to it as Elemental Stompy, since that is the most prevalent creature type in the deck.

In my brief fling with this deck, I found Genesis to help greatly against problematic decks with removal and oppressive card advantage. Recurring a Tarmogoyf every turn helped post Deed and Wrath.

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I think we should stop using "this deck" and refer to it as Elemental Stompy, since that is the most prevalent creature type in the deck.

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Faeries aren't the most common creature type in Faerie Stompy, nor Dragons in Dragon Stompy, and Demon Stompy very often doesn't even have any.

But Green doesn't seem to have any iconic creature type which really "feels" right. Jungle Stompy and Elephant Stompy are the only two I can think of which aren't completely horrible. I mean, what else? Wurm Stompy? Beast Stompy? Lhurgoyf Stompy? Centaur Stompy?

Maybe we should just go the classic Legacy route of confusing people, and call it just Stompy, or Senor Stompy, or 18-land Stompy.

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Originally Posted by Sanguine Voyeur

In my brief fling with this deck, I found Genesis to help greatly against problematic decks with removal and oppressive card advantage. Recurring a Tarmogoyf every turn helped post Deed and Wrath.

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I think you may be on to something...

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Originally Posted by Illissius

Faeries aren't the most common creature type in Faerie Stompy, nor Dragons in Dragon Stompy, and Demon Stompy very often doesn't even have any.

But Green doesn't seem to have any iconic creature type which really "feels" right. Jungle Stompy and Elephant Stompy are the only two I can think of which aren't completely horrible. I mean, what else? Wurm Stompy? Beast Stompy? Lhurgoyf Stompy? Centaur Stompy?

Maybe we should just go the classic Legacy route of confusing people, and call it just Stompy, or Senor Stompy, or 18-land Stompy.

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Jungle Stompy has a nice ring to it, and was what I originally called the deck, but it bucks the trend of naming the decks after creature types. Elephant Stompy works too, but if we're going to go that route, I'd rather just do Elemental Stompy for the simple fact that they are the most prevelant and (argueably) the most iconic creature type in the deck.

I prefer Elemental and Jungle in that order.

EDIT: Screw it, the more I think about it, the more I like Lhurgoyf Stompy. I mean, Tarmogoyf is only the best creature in Legacy.

I would never guess from "Elemental Stompy" that the deck is green. The prevalence of the creature type in the deck has fuck all to do with it; what matters is how iconic it is for the color, and how cool the resulting name sounds.

Therefore: Squirrel Stompy!

I'm voting for Elephant Stompy. There is one non-Changeling Elephant in the deck, just like Dragon Stompy has one Dragon and Faerie Stompy has one Faerie (and Demon Stompy often has Grinning Demon).

Lhurgoyf is witty, but a pain to type and speak. Elemental and Beast aren't green iconics (neither is Lhurgoyf, now that I think about it). Elf and Squirrel don't mesh well with "Stompy"

Or, instead of Lhurgoyf Stompy, we just call it Goyf Stompy.

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Originally Posted by Zork

Or, instead of Lhurgoyf Stompy, we just call it Goyf Stompy.

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I'm vetoing this idea.

And while I agree that Elf Stompy sounds stupid, I also think Squirrel Stompy sounds awesome. Shrug.

(So I'm at 1. Squirrel Stompy, 2. Elephant Stompy.)

Elephant Stompy all the way.

Come on. "Squirrel Stompy?" I could buy it if there was even a single squirrel in the deck. And don't say Chameleon Colossus. Changlings ruin everything.

I'm not a big fan of ironic names either. If it ends this, I vote Elephant Stompy.

I like Garruk Stompy, just because he's cool. After that, I'd go for Elephant stompy, just to keep with the creature namesakes.

He-he or Wooden Stompy. Just because Pinokio is a wooden child :laugh:

I like Elephant Stompy:laugh:

Wicker-bough Elder :3: :g:
Creature - Treefolk Shaman
Wicker-Bough Elder comes into play with a -1/-1 counter on it.
:g: , Remove a -1/-1 counter from Wicker-bough Elder : Destroy target artifact or enchantment.
4/4

The elder seems to be designed for Elephant Stompy: It comes into play a turn earlier than Indrik Stomphowler, and doesn't destroy your own artifact which happens to the Stomphowler nearly half of the time!

to Kuma: How does Harmonize work for you? Is it worth the inclusion with SoFI?

Elephant Stompy is the best deck name ever.

I think we're agreed, then.

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Originally Posted by Jaiminho

Elephant Stompy is the best deck name ever.

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It justs sounds right.

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Originally Posted by insertnamehere

It justs sounds right.

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I wish I was called Elephant Stompy. Damn, so awsome.

No votes for Green Stompy??

How has Spawnwrithe been like? I'm thinking of approaching the deck with something like this:

4 ESG
4 Chameleon Colossus
4 Spawnwrithe
3 Garruk
4 Might of Oaks/Stonewood Invocation

Plus the regular stompy disruption/equipment package with Plow Unders.

I see huge potential in Spawnwrithe, but it is easily hated with all the relevant creature removal in format or fast 2/3 goyf. First turn Spawnwrithe with second turn Might of Oaks/Invocation seems massive, though, and the latter also saves the monsters from most removal.

No testing done yet so it might just suck, but I'm really into this aggro build and it could fit quite well for my local meta.

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Originally Posted by Hopo

I see huge potential in Spawnwrithe, but it is easily hated with all the relevant creature removal in format or fast 2/3 goyf. First turn Spawnwrithe with second turn Might of Oaks/Invocation seems massive, though, and the latter also saves the monsters from most removal.

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Ja, Spawnwrithe is the card that could make Elephant Stompy competitive, and now you must know why we opt for Briarhorn.

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Originally Posted by tsabo_tavoc

Ja, Spawnwrithe is the card that could make Elephant Stompy competitive, and now you must know why we opt for Briarhorn.

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Totally forgot about the Briarhorn. That is sweet indeed. Might of oaks is more brutal, though and I try to make a few copies work out.

Tarmogoyfs seems like an auto-include, but it clashes with the best chalice setting, two. I'm propably not willing to play 2cc cards besides jitte as with spirit guides, chalice for 2 is most likely going to happen on turns 1 or 2.

HAve you already tried Gathan Raiders here?

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HAve you already tried Gathan Raiders here?

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No. Why should we? It would be the only card in the deck opting for hellbent and that's rather counterproductive with Harmonize and SoFaI. It doesn't even produce green mana when imprinted in a mox...

Here's my list as I'm testing it now:

// Lands
4 [EX] City of Traitors
4 [TE] Ancient Tomb
10 [UNH] Forest

// Creatures
4 [AL] Elvish Spirit Guide
3 [MOR] Chameleon Colossus
4 [SHM] Spawnwrithe
3 [FS] Tarmogoyf
3 [LRW] Briarhorn

// Spells
4 [MR] Chalice of the Void
2 [DS] Sword of Fire and Ice
4 [MR] Chrome Mox
4 [OD] Call of the Herd
3 [DS] Trinisphere
3 [LRW] Garruk Wildspeaker
3 [BOK] Umezawa's Jitte
2 [PC] Harmonize

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [DS] Trinisphere
SB: 3 [DK] Tormod's Crypt
SB: 4 [TS] Krosan Grip
SB: 4 [TE] Choke
SB: 3 [SOK] Pithing Needle

I don't think I'll ever cut Trinisphere from the mainboard. It's so good against everything relying on cheap threats like Goyf Sligh, B/x, and NQG and it's always at least a Rule of Law.
I have to admit that Spawnwrithe is indeed too good not to play it and I'm a fool ;)
Briarhorn has also done very well for me, and is definitely bette then any Might of Oaks-shenenigans, because it brings a 3/3 body with it.

For the name thing: I'll just go on calling this DBFA-Stompy =D

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Originally Posted by Spectör

I don't think I'll ever cut Trinisphere from the mainboard. It's so good against everything relying on cheap threats like Goyf Sligh, B/x, and NQG and it's always at least a Rule of Law.

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The issue about 3sphere is its poor interaction with Chrome Mox. The same argument applies to SoFI and I like the 2/2 split with Harmonize.

Besides, I would like to try 4*Garruk: One can hardly find one in hand as redundancy and it can Grandeur on a Mox. I could see it at least replace a CotH.

Might of Oaks and Stonewood Invocation are bad. When you're surprise blocking a 4/5 'goyf, does it usually matter whether you're a 6/6 or a 10/10? Briarhorn sticks around to beat the opponent, while Might of Oaks sits in the graveyard and requires you to already have a creature to be good. Same deal with Stonewood Invocation.

Tarmogoyf is amazing, even in Elephant Stompy where we don't make much use of the graveyard. Who cares if it clashes with the odd Chalice at two if it's nuts every other time. Don't run less than four.

Gathan Raiders doesn't work so well with Harmonize and SoFI, and like Spector said, it doesn't make green mana on a Chrome Mox. I almost never get Hellbent with this deck, making Gathan Raiders undesirable.

Trinisphere is a sideboard card unless your metagame is made up of Thresh, Storm Combo, Dreadstill, Affinity, and Enchantress. Otherwise, it's usually only good turn one on the play. Topdecking a Trinisphere is almost always bad.

I think -1 CotH, +1 Garruk could be good. I've toyed with the idea of four Garruk before.

I think I'd rather go -1 Colossus (if you have 4) or -1 "open slot" for +1 Garruk in that case. CotH is one of your best cards, there's no reason to cut one of your best cards for more of another of your best cards when you can cut from a more arguable slot instead.

Is there a particular reason why I see everyone running only 3 Briarhorn?

In my experience, multiple copies of CotH are often redundant due to not having enough mana to take full advantage of them. That's why cutting one seems fine. As for Briarhorn, I dunno, I never really thought about what to cut for a fourth one. There's a guy I don't mind showing up in multiples.

That new Treefolk that tsabo_tavoc suggested a few posts back looks like it could really help with all the Deeds, Shackles, etc. that give Elephant Stompy fits. I could definitely see running 2-3 in the maindeck depending on your meta.

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Originally Posted by tsabo_tavoc

to Kuma: How does Harmonize work for you? Is it worth the inclusion with SoFI?

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I'm kind of on the fence about Harmonize right now. Drawing extra cards vs. board control isn't very good if you don't have something to draw into that deals with their problem permanents.

SoFI is amazing and shouldn't be cut. It wins so many games, and I rarely wish it was a creature when I draw it.

Any suggestions for replacements for Tarmogoyf? Also, I was looking to find spots for Troll Ascetic and Ohran Viper, and suggestions for that?

1:g::g: is a horrible casting cost for this deck, we've already lamented the inability to play these two dudes.

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Originally Posted by Illissius

Is there a particular reason why I see everyone running only 3 Briarhorn?

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I personally run 3 for 2 main reasons.
1. I surprise blocks Goyf and usually survives
2. I run 2 Sword of Light and Shadow

I'm actually debating about dropping Jitte in favor or more Swords (I currently run 2 of each Jitte, SoLaS and SoFaI)

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Originally Posted by Kuma

Might of Oaks and Stonewood Invocation are bad. When you're surprise blocking a 4/5 'goyf, does it usually matter whether you're a 6/6 or a 10/10? Briarhorn sticks around to beat the opponent, while Might of Oaks sits in the graveyard and requires you to already have a creature to be good. Same deal with Stonewood Invocation.

Tarmogoyf is amazing, even in Elephant Stompy where we don't make much use of the graveyard. Who cares if it clashes with the odd Chalice at two if it's nuts every other time. Don't run less than four.

Gathan Raiders doesn't work so well with Harmonize and SoFI, and like Spector said, it doesn't make green mana on a Chrome Mox. I almost never get Hellbent with this deck, making Gathan Raiders undesirable.

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True, hellbent doesn't matter for this deck at all so it propably just sucks.
After testing, I also agree to the Tarmogoyf matter. It's just too good of a win condition.

I was thinking of Might of Oaks/Stonewood invocation more as an offensive tool with the tramplers or colossus to fasten the clock than a trick for blocking goyfs but Briarhorn still pretty much obsoletes them. Good reasons given.

So I tested Genesis and to be blunt, it sucks. It's basically an overcosted beater since you have no way to get it into the graveyard. Granted, I didn't test it against anything with Pernicious Deed in it, but Genesis seems to suck versus just about anything else. Maybe if we could fit two or three in the sideboard for the board control matches. Maybe SoLS is just better...

What about running Tsunami over Choke? Lots of decks are prepared to deal with Choke (at least in my metagame) by running a few non-island lands. A Krosan Grip or a Deed will stop a Choke, but both are powerless against Tsunami. It's not like 3G is hard for Elephant Stompy to make. What do you guys think?

I really want Wicker-bough Elder; he seems good enough to maindeck and he should really help with Landstill/ITF.

Hey; hopefully this doesn't count as a (complete) Necro, because I have something to add. Longtime format-watcher; recent change in financial situation means I'm turning into a participant.

I recently acquired my first two Berserks, *and* a City of Traitors, so I figured I'd give this beast a whirl. I've had a lot of success in testing; I find I really enjoy the deck, and it can get pretty explosive. Spawnwrithe is just disgusting.

But I had a creature suggestion - I've had fantastic success with Avenging Druid (go ahead, look it up - Exodus common, you haven't used him in years). He gets you land, fills the 'yard for Goyf, and if equipped with a Sword of Light and Shadow, gets those creatures back from the yard to beat again. Just like Spawnwrithe is "deal with this - fast - or die", so is the Avenging Druid (well, in this deck, at least).

I dunno, dude. He's a 1/3 without equipment and you can't rely on having equipment to make your creatures good. He does cute things with SoLS, but that just what this is -- the proverbial Danger of Cute Things®. A one power creature isn't "deal with this - fast - or die". Even with equipment on him, he's only got three power.

If you want to post some testing results or game logs in which he was awesome, maybe it would help your case.

Hunting Cheetah could be better. I mean, the ability isn't as good, but the power isn't drastically below the curve.

These would be decent suggestions if we at all needed a bunch of forests. However, we need 1-2 forests to pull off our gameplan, so let's refocus on beatdown and not worry about slightly thinning our deck.

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Originally Posted by Phantom

These would be decent suggestions if we at all needed a bunch of forests. However, we need 1-2 forests to pull off our gameplan, so let's refocus on beatdown and not worry about slightly thinning our deck.

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I mean, it lets you hit a land drop every turn it connects. That lets you play your hand out more quickly. It's also not drastically undersized for a turn 1/2 threat.

For those of you who want Avenging Druid in the deck, name a card we currently run that it is better than.

First of all, I didn't say anything about including Avenging Druid. I actually brought up Hunting Cheetah in response to you mentioning that Avenging Druid's power wasn't up to snuff. It has a similar effect, and packs more of a punch.

As for your list, if you were asking me what I would cut in order to test this card, perhaps you could start by trimming some of the equipment/collossi. Or you could proxy them into the spots occupied by Spawnwrithe to see if they are worth it.

Two cards to throw into the mix here: Talara's Battalion an Wren's Run Vanquisher. They are both :1::g: to cast and at 4/3 and 3/3 aren't bad. If you run Manamorphose you could drop a turn 1 Battalion. Also with the low mana cost of all of the cards in this deck, have you ever thought of running Llanowar Elves over Chrome mox? They both come down turn 1 and while the elves can't tap for a :g: on the first turn, they are another dude and a good source of green mana...

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Originally Posted by Wallace

Two cards to throw into the mix here: Talara's Battalion an Wren's Run Vanquisher. They are both :1::g: to cast and at 4/3 and 3/3 aren't bad. If you run Manamorphose you could drop a turn 1 Battalion. Also with the low mana cost of all of the cards in this deck, have you ever thought of running Llanowar Elves over Chrome mox? They both come down turn 1 and while the elves can't tap for a :g: on the first turn, they are another dude and a good source of green mana...

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Vanquisher has been something I've considered alot for this deck, but the chances of having another elf in hand with this deck is so poor. And officially I hate Battalion cause it requires you to run a cantrip in a deck that WANTS TO PLAY TRINI OR CHALICE FOR 2 in the first few turns.