Thalia Stompy

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THALIA STOMPY

Introduction

If you love the cards Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Phyrexian Revoker and Chalice of the Void, this deck is for you!

Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Phyrexian Revoker and Chalice of the Void are three of the strongest stompy cards in the format. Thalia Stompy is a deck that aims to disrupt the opponent's game plan using creatures and sphere effects while providing diverse and resilient forms of pressure to close the game quickly.

The cornerstones of the deck are the Thalias alongside Karakas and Cavern of Souls. In a predominantly spell and fetchland format, having either of these creatures in play early on is a must answer threat. The resiliency is found in the redundancy of having many copies, and the common scenario that casting them is uncounterable and removing them is difficult due to the protection from Karakas. The Thalias most frequently win you a match.

Chalice of the Void and Phyrexian Revoker are two of the best prison cards in the format and are perfect fits alongside the Thalias. Stoneforge Mystic is a great sidekick for Thalias. Batterskull beats many decks on its own and first strike creatures are the best at carrying equipment like Umezawa's Jitte.

The Manabase is built around the strategy of landing a turn one card that is very disruptive for your opponent. A possible configuration is to run 4 Ancient Tombs and 3 City of Traitors alongside 3 Mox Diamond.

Rounding out the rest of the deck are Thought-Knot Seer as it is one of the best creatures ever printed and Reality Smasher to provide some larger beats.

Sample Decklist

Lands: 26

6 Plains
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Eldrazi Temple
3 Karakas
3 City of Traitors
2 Wasteland

Spells: 10

3 Mox Diamond
1 Warping Wail
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Batterskull
4 Chalice of the Void

Creatures: 24

4 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Reality Smasher

SB: 15

4 Thorn of Amethyst
4 Rest in Peace
3 Dismember
2 Warping Wail
2 Winter Orb


Comparisons with Death and Taxes (DNT):

Let me first say that DNT is one of the best and most resilient decks in the format. Thalia Stompy borrows many of the creatures from that deck that make it great. However a choice has to be made between running Aether Vial and having explosive turn one plays such as Chalice of the Void, Thorn of Amethyst and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. Thalia Stompy is a deck that is trying to go in the other direction and focus on a turn one explosive play.

Match Ups and Sideboarding to come soon.


Rmosto

Oh, this looks similar to something I posted in the Conspiracy thread. My list takes advantage of the new card Sanctum Prelate to get turns like:

Turn 1: Land, Mox Diamond, chalice on 1
Turn 2: Land, Sanctum Prelate, "2"
Turn 3: Wasteland, Crucible of Worlds

Additionally, the Prelate can name 6 against Miracles. . . .

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4 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Sanctum Prelate
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Reality Smasher
4 Thalia, Heretic Cathar

4 Crucible
4 Mox Diamond
4 Chalice of the Void

4 Plains
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Wasteland
2 Karakas
2 City of Traitors

I think Sanctum Prelate may be even better than SFM that most people have been trying in that slot because you can truly lock people out of so much of their deck. Many answers for Chalice are 2CMC.

And if you limit the Eldrazi to just TKS and RS (and maybe Displacer), you can go a little heavier on white sources, too.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RobNC

I think Sanctum Prelate may be even better than SFM that most people have been trying in that slot because you can truly lock people out of so much of their deck. Many answers for Chalice are 2CMC.

And if you limit the Eldrazi to just TKS and RS (and maybe Displacer), you can go a little heavier on white sources, too.

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Yeah - Prelate on 1 against delver is basically chalice 5-8 on legs. Prelate on 2 is even cheaper than chalice - and wrecks some decks. Prelate on 6 stop terminus. . .

Cires list looks ridiculously powerful, I'll try and get some practice games in with friends this weekend and report back.

I think it needs a few more W sources though, Karsten recommends 17-18 iirc. Maybe -2 City -1 Eldrazi Temple -1 Crucible of Worlds + 4 Plains?

What is the difference between this and W Eldrazi? or the million eldrazi stompy lists/threads floating around? just the addition of the new thalia?

I have been optimizing this list for a month straight and just after I write up a primer, minutes later they spoil a new chalice hatebear....Now everything needs to be reevaluated. It is a bit funny actually.

Sanctum Prelate seems very strong and definitely needs consideration. I am very hesitant to remove SFM and the equipment package completely as it wins me countless games against dnt, delver, infect and shardless bug.

The question I find myself asking is: Against which matchups does it improve my win percentage?

Definitely not Miracles, DNT, Storm or Eldrazi. Miracles is defeated using Cavern, Karakas, Chalice, Winder Orb and Thorn of Amethyst (All non creatures). Chalice on 1 is best against DNT. Thalia, Thorn, Chalice and Revoker are all turn one plays in this build that virtually guarantee wins in games 2-3 against Storm. The SFM and Equipment Package is what beats Eldrazi. I think Sanctum Prelate is very good against lands, jund, delver, loam decks. While I love Crucible of World in Vintage, I think it is a bit too slow to be consistent in legacy. What do you guys think? Which matchups does Sanctum Prelate improve? What would you take out?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by owerbart

What is the difference between this and W Eldrazi? or the million eldrazi stompy lists/threads floating around? just the addition of the new thalia?

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Well to start, most of the time there is only 4 TKS in the deck...So that is 4 Eldrazi. When Playing this deck my hands almost never have an Eldrazi Spell. What I want to see in my hand is thalia, revoker, cavern, karakas, plains.

Let me list all of the cards in Eldrazi Stompy that this deck does not want to play

Eye of Ugin
Eldrazi Displacer
Eldrazi Mimic
Endless One
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Simian Spirit Guide
ect..

Roughly 30 cards from typical Eldrazi lists or 50 percent of a deck. I'd say that strategy and focus is a bit different.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dissection

Cires list looks ridiculously powerful, I'll try and get some practice games in with friends this weekend and report back.

I think it needs a few more W sources though, Karsten recommends 17-18 iirc. Maybe -2 City -1 Eldrazi Temple -1 Crucible of Worlds + 4 Plains?

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Another option is 4 Flagstones of Trokair, and then experiment with some number of Armageddon?

Also, Cires' list has only 1 card with activated abilities...Wasteland. Sounds like a nice deck to main or side some Suppresion Fields.
Edit: Karakas too I suppose.
Edit2: Think I could just seee both 'Geddon and S Field in the side. Flagstones still ok though.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by square_two

Another option is 4 Flagstones of Trokair, and then experiment with some number of Armageddon?

Also, Cires' list has only 1 card with activated abilities...Wasteland. Sounds like a nice deck to main or side some Suppresion Fields.
Edit: Karakas too I suppose.
Edit2: Think I could just seee both 'Geddon and S Field in the side. Flagstones still ok though.

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I don't think you want Armageddon in a deck with Thalia, better to focus on taxing them and aggroing out rather than something like mass LD.

Mm, Suppression Field is a good idea! Jeez, this deck is brutal...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by owerbart

What is the difference between this and W Eldrazi? or the million eldrazi stompy lists/threads floating around? just the addition of the new thalia?

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I think White Eldrazi plus New Thalia or Death and Taxes plus Eldrazi deserves a new thread instead of junking up both the Death and Taxes and Eldrazi Threads.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dissection

Cires list looks ridiculously powerful, I'll try and get some practice games in with friends this weekend and report back.

I think it needs a few more W sources though, Karsten recommends 17-18 iirc. Maybe -2 City -1 Eldrazi Temple -1 Crucible of Worlds + 4 Plains?

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Those changes sound good!

Edit: another thought - we can take out the Smashers and put in Metamorphs . . . copying Prelate or Thoughtseize turn 3 sounds . . . evil.

Something along the lines of this maybe? Without Crucibles Mox Ds are harder to support, but I agree that Crucible is probably too slow and doesn't do enough.

4 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Sanctum Prelate
3 Reality Smasher
4 Thalia, Heretic Cathar

4 Suppression Field
2 Mox Diamond
2 Lotus Petal
4 Chalice of the Void

8 Plains
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Ancient Tomb
3 Eldrazi Temple
2 Wasteland
2 Karakas
2 City of Traitors

Rather have Crucible Lock than Suppression Field, but that's just personal preference at that point :laugh:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cire

Rather have Crucible Lock than Suppression Field, but that's just personal preference at that point :laugh:

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I think the main idea is to land something that messes up the opponent from turn one, rather than get any lock down. The lock aspect then comes from playing additional hate pieces every turn after that. With access to Chalice, Field and Thalia 1.0, Thalia 2.0 turn one that's a lot of redundancy to get the ball rolling.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dissection

Something along the lines of this maybe? Without Crucibles Mox Ds are harder to support, but I agree that Crucible is probably too slow and doesn't do enough.

4 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Sanctum Prelate
3 Reality Smasher
4 Thalia, Heretic Cathar

4 Suppression Field
2 Mox Diamond
2 Lotus Petal
4 Chalice of the Void

8 Plains
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Ancient Tomb
3 Eldrazi Temple
2 Wasteland
2 Karakas
2 City of Traitors

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I like the decklist. My only comment is that suppression field is very risky as your turn one explosive play because it can get countered or dazed easily and then you are in trouble. I play tested it a lot with a similar idea of using lotus petals or moxen for acceleration. I find it a terrible topdeck later on as well. In my experience, it is best to avoid a turn one 1W play unless you use Cavern to power out a thalia. But even in this case I like to have Karakas ready to bounce it back to my hand in response to a removal spell. The problem with suppression field is that it gets MUCH worse after turn 2 while Thalia only gets a little worse. I like having Chalice, Revoker and Thorn as your turn one disruption. These two drop spells all cost 2 and can be cast easily in sequential turns after the opponent loses card advantage casting FOW or tempo with Daze.

My thoughts with Sanctum Prelate is that he is not going to be the ideal turn 2 lock piece that we are envisioning. I think he will however be very strong in the later stages of the game when we have traded resources with our opponent, a few thalias/revokers/THS killed and it is clear which types of cards the opponent needs to pull ahead. That is when you can cast the Sanctum Prelate uncounterable to seal the deal.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rmosto

I like the decklist. My only comment is that suppression field is very risky as your turn one explosive play because it can get countered or dazed easily and then you are in trouble. I play tested it a lot with a similar idea of using lotus petals or moxen for acceleration. I find it a terrible topdeck later on as well. In my experience, it is best to avoid a turn one 1W play unless you use Cavern to power out a thalia. But even in this case I like to have Karakas ready to bounce it back to my hand in response to a removal spell. The problem with suppression field is that it gets MUCH worse after turn 2 while Thalia only gets a little worse. I like having Chalice, Revoker and Thorn as your turn one disruption. These two drop spells all cost 2 and can be cast easily in sequential turns after the opponent loses card advantage casting FOW or tempo with Daze.

My thoughts with Sanctum Prelate is that he is not going to be the ideal turn 2 lock piece that we are envisioning. I think he will however be very strong in the later stages of the game when we have traded resources with our opponent, a few thalias/revokers/THS killed and it is clear which types of cards the opponent needs to pull ahead. That is when you can cast the Sanctum Prelate uncounterable to seal the deal.

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Fair points, Thorn could very well be better than Suppression Field here. I'll try both.

Agree on your assessment of Prelate too, it's not a T2 play usually but will be strong at all stages of the game.

Yeah, so I made some proxies and dealt myself some hands (running my deck list, plus Dissection's changes to it, plus -3 crucible and +3 metamorph) and holy. . . .

Examples:

Turn 1 - Ancient Tomb + Mox Diamond + Thalia, Cathar
Turn 2 - Cavern of Souls + Thought Knot

Turn 1 - (after mulligan) Plains + Mox Diamond + Thalia, Guardian
Turn 2 - Plains + Prelate
Turn 3 - Metamorph (copy prelate)

Turn 1 - Ancient Tomb + Chalice of the Void
Turn 2 - Eldrazi Temple + Revoker
Turn 3 - Plains + Smasher

Question is: How many Prelates do we need?

For the sake of consistency, couldn't we run a few Recruiter of the Guard, even if it costs a bit of tempo? It fetches Revoker, both Thalias, Prelate, SB hate bears like Containment Priest/Canonist, hell, even Metamorph for whatever unholy shenanigans you're going to do with that.

Displacer should be much better than Smasher. You gain a lot of Utility, lower cc and can abuse it with your own EtB Creatures (and protect them).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Barook

Question is: How many Prelates do we need?

For the sake of consistency, couldn't we run a few Recruiter of the Guard, even if it costs a bit of tempo? It fetches Revoker, both Thalias, Prelate, SB hate bears like Containment Priest/Canonist, hell, even Metamorph for whatever unholy shenanigans you're going to do with that.

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I think the consistency of the deck is its strength over what I assume D&T's tool box approach with Recruiter is going to be.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MD.Ghost

Displacer should be much better than Smasher. You gain a lot of Utility, lower cc and can abuse it with your own EtB Creatures (and protect them).

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From my Eldrazi exp, Smasher is just such a beating. I like Displacer, and that's why I was a White Eldrazi player, but smasher is just a brutal card.