Berserk Stompy
The Green Aggro - grow Based deck!
About the deck
Berserk Stompy is a variation of the old Stompy decks, that ran several green creatures along with a lot of Giant Growth-like effects (usually reffered to as pumps or growths) to try to win as fast as possible.
This variation of the deck focus on the double-damage card "Berserk" combined with pumps to deal a large amount of damage in no time.
Historical
Monogreen aggro decks were the first ones to be referenced as "Stompy", long ago, at T2 games. It have involved lots of creatures and growth effects to try and hit the opponent in severeal different variations. Though most of the variations had medium to little success, stompy is always trying to reach a good point in the top.
A long known version of Stompy is the N-land Stompy, which uses Quirion Ranger together with other techs to try to abuse a lowland build, drawing more business cards. However, this version never had much success, specially because of low land count and use of accelerations.
Berserk Stompy as it is today was first developed by César Fernández, and made it to a Top 1 finish in "Legacy Open PT Valencia", 2007:
Berserk Stompy by César Fernández (PT-valencia report):
//Lands
3 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
10 Forest
//Creatures
4 Jungle Lion
4 Skarrgan Pit-Skulk
4 Silhana Ledgewalker
4 Kavu Predator
4 Skyshroud Elite
2 Scryb Sprites
2 Tarmogoyf
//Spells
3 Seal of Strength
4 Invigorate
4 Rancor
4 Berserk
4 Might of Old Krosa
//Sideboard
SB: 4 Seeds of Innocence
SB: 3 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 1 Gaea's Blessing
SB: 3 Viridian Zealot
SB: 4 Rushwood Legate
There's also another version of the deck, a 3-color deck featuring a way different view. It's also called Berserk Stompy, but since only Etienne develops it and play, I thought it was worthy the Honorable mention, but let's focus on the green version.
Berserk Stompy by Etienne Villani:
//Lands
4 Savannah
2 Taiga
2 Forest
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Windswept Heath
//Accelerators
4 Lotus Petal
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
//Creatures
4 Kavu Predator
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Wild Nacatl
3 Qasali Pridemage
3 Skyshroud Cutter
//Spells
4 Berserk
4 Invigorate
4 Rancor
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Fling
//Sideboard
SB: 4 Vexing Shusher
SB: 1 Qasali Pridemage
SB: 3 Gaddock Teeg
SB: 3 Compost
SB: 2 Reverent Silence
SB: 2 Seeds of Innocence
Updated version
as of 2015-02-25
Here's a more up-to-date version I've recently tested:
//Maindeck
16 Forest
4 Dryad Militant
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Jungle Lion
3 Skarrgan pit-skulk
4 Silhana Ledgewalker
4 Berserk
4 Rancor
4 Invigorate
3 Giant Growth
4 Seal of Strength
4 Gitaxian Probe
2 Sylvan Library
//Sideboard
4 Faerie Macabre
3 Gleeful Sabotage
2 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sylvan Library
1 Choke
1 Compost
1 Slippery Bogle
1 Viridian Zealot
1 Might of Old Krosa
Card choice explanations
Creatures
Basic choices here - Skarrgan, Neetle and Lion are the 3 best creatures for 1cc, with a close cut for Tattermunge Maniac. They are fast, put pressure, and deal the early damage you need. They are the core of the deck.
Silhana Ledgewalker is the solution to a "safe combo". She can win the game via Rancor+Evasion+Hexproof, but at best she will receive a lot of pumps and just win. It's the "lategame" creature (like, turn 2-3 =P)
Viridan Zealot is here taking the recently cut place of Kavu Predator. Predator can be great against some decks not packing removal, but this is something rarer over time. Zealot can take you out of nasty situations for a win, against a lot of random Enchant/Artifact, and the 2/1 body can still put pressure. The close cuts here are many, and it won the spot for it's versatility. You can still use Kavu Predator since, in the end, the guys that win most games are going to be the 1cmc 2/x guys and Silhana.
Pumps
Berserk is the deck namesake, and the card that will be most related to your wins than any other.
Invigorate has four functions, going from just a +1 damage to a strong high damage for free under a Berserk, and is worth it even without Kavu around. It can also be hardcasted, and the last function is protecting from burn for free.
Rancor increases the early damage, and can win the game by itself, on the back of a silhana of a first turn guy. It also helps "mana smoothing", since you can cast it a turn prior Berserk to stack.
Seal of Strength is an underrated card in this deck. Its function is to smooth mana at the same time it can be a sorcery Giant Growth. Its synergy with Berserk got the spot for it, and is really solid.
Giant Growth got the last spot fighting against Might of Old Krosa. The former is better on a little more complex combat situations, and can help you go through blockers or kill a big threat easier. The second is better under the utopic "open field". It's really worth the versatility GG gives over MoOK, but MoOK is a fair option as well.
Business
Sylvan Library - This card is unbelievable strong. I used dismiss it, and now I regreat -- It fetches for fuel and is a must counter for control decks. Play this card.
Usual sideboard Options
Gleeful Sabotage - The best "Disenchant" effect for this deck. Unlike Krosan Grip, it has 2cmc, fitting our manabase, and its copy isn't countered by Chalice of the Void and doesn't triggerCounterbalance. Also, it can be used against Stax/Enchantress/Affinity as a 2-for-1.
Seeds of Innocence - One of the most common sideboard options, it breaks many artifact-dependant decks, and also brings a giant kavu to the win. Easy add against Dragon Stompy and Stax-like decks. Also great against Affinity
Naturalize - Fast and versatile, it solves the problem, and since it's instant speed, you can wait to cast it with the right timing. Can be used against uncountable decks.
Vexing Shusher - Your protection against Combo breakers, this card is awesome against many decks, like Thresh, CB top, decks that involve Chalice of the void, and many others.
Krosan Grip - This boosted naturalize can deal with more extreme situations, but the extrarequired to cast it makes it slow sometimes. Besides that, a Shusher with a Naturalize can deal it's job most of the time (only thing they can't is destroing a Top)
Reverent Silence - Breaks decks with many enchantments. The bad part is that usualy decks run more artifacts than enchantments, but it's a good call against Enchantress and anything else. Plus, it grow your Kavu.
Tormod's Crypt - Simple drop it against LftL and see how afraid they get. This thing is supposed to get you enough time to combo against those decks that GY abuse to combo before you. Besides, it helps a lot against other decks as well.
Gaea's Blessing - A single copy of this in your sideboard, and you may get even a draw or a win against some random Painter and High Tide decks. Almost weigthless
Thorn of Amethyst - Against storm combos that can blow you up before you can do anything, this may help you out. Too bad it's a 2cc card, so, you may have no time to play them. It also slows you down a bit, but they'll be crushed.
Pithing Needle - Awesome overall card, it's hatefull effect can nerf pretty much almost every deck in the format. It may break Sensei's divining top, LED, Vial, Jitte, Mishra & Mutavault, and so many other cards in the format. This is almost an auto-include to a sideboard that lacks options.
Scryb Sprites (!) - This can be add in if you fell like there are too many creature-aggro decks in your meta, and want to fly over them to combo. It's an avarage card, but should be kept as a meta call.
Chalice of the Void - To be used @ 0 against combos - Don't be surprised, this really owns storm combos!
Rushwood Legate - Free creature against the hole bunch of decks that play blue, a good addition, and helps a lot against Landstill.
Hidden Herd - Considered a Sideboard against non-basic, but so should Skyshroud Elite be, in legacy this card is almost a3/3 creature. Too bad it can be delayed forever when the opponent already have his lands.
Mindbreak Trap - Recently added against Tendrils of Agony combos, it breaks them apart, but are most likely to be discarded or disabled by Orim's Chant. Might help anyway, since it takes them a little time/mana to use their defenses, enabling you to rush them.
Faerie Macabre - Like tormods, less effective but harder to counter (stifle counters it). Seems great against reanimator.
Relic of Progenitus - Like Tormods, a lot more effective, but easier to counter (when fighting daze or chalice @1).
Compost - Helps against B decks, like The Gate, Rock, Deadguy, Junk, Pox. And is strong against dredge.
Umezawa's Jitte - Against aggro decks, held by a Silhana, can be devastating.
Close Cuts - Close cuts almost made into maindeck, but due to some lackluster were cut, can still see play.
Kavu Predator - this one is not really a close cut, it can go maindeck instead of Viridian if no artifacts/enchantments are expect. I still prefer the useful Viridian, tho.
Slippery Bogle
Tattermunge Maniac
Nettle Sentinel
Tarmogoyf
Elvish Spirit Guide
Scryb Sprites
Might of Old Krosa
Vines of Vastwood
Gameplay
Zerk is a basic deck, but I've seen people doing several gamebreaker mistakes all the years I've been playing with it. Some of them are easier to figure, some harder, but here is my experience playing the deck. Feel free to discuss.
Mulligan right
You should mulligan your bad hands. Some of them are obvious (6 forests, 6 pumps) but some of them are less obvious, and these are the ones you should look at.
First, 1-forest hand is not always keepable, and as you will find out, it is more often than not a mulligan. If the hand is not a godly hand, you should try a 2 lander, because then you can stack pumps and cast 2cc dudes, and library, properly.
A godly 1cc hand depend on the matchup. For example, against Ad Nauseam, a good 1cc hand has a 2/x guy for
A generally good hand with 1-lander must be able to do strong things and give you play. A land with several Invigorates and a Berserk, or Seal and Zerk, or a hand with 1cc guys and Rancor are good electable hands for 1-land.
If it has silhanas, libraries, and low pump count, forget it, it's too slow.
On the other side, most 2 and 3 land hands are good enough to go, unless clogged with boring slow resources, like a 3 forest 4 Silhanas hand. Sure, you might draw a rancor and win on the back of it, but you could face a tarmogoyf clock and lose without even trying.
17 is the magic number of lands here exactly because of this - it's the best number to get 2 or 3 land hands without drawing too much of them later, and it mulls fine.
Hold your pumps
This is a rule with exceptions, but grosso modo, don't use your pumps. Any +3 power you spend now could have been +6 or +12 later. You can use your pumps as a way to kill a tempo deck with light threat density, but usually it's not worthy not to hold your pumps.
Play Sylvan Library
Sylvan Library is too good not to be played. Analising when it was good when it came into play, it was always good. Against Control decks, it's gamebreaker, and against Aggro it fetches for your combo-win. Against combo, it isn't that great because it costs 2, but if you T1 nettle and T2 Sylvan, T3 is much more likely a kill than without the sylvan.
Do not overextend
Sometimes it surprises me that people don't know what this is. Don't play all of your creatures, and sandbag Forests in hand if you don't need them. Wrath of God, Armaggedon, Engineered Explosives, Pernicious Deed, and so on... Also, holding lands sometimes baits a stupid Duress and then you draw some pump and can hold it.
Decide your role fast
It's common to have a lot of 2/x creatures in hand, and elect to play one and make it stand alone. If you want to berserk the opponent, playing a Sylvan Library, a Silhana, or a Rancor or Seal can be more gamebreaking than playing a lot of weennies.
Against a pileofcounters.dec, don't keep a hand with only 1 creature, they will handle it, and you will lose. This is simple when you know what you are doing, either going "combo" (strong vs aggro) or "aggro" (strong vs control)
Do your math
Seriously, you are playing magic. You should be able to sum natural numbers and then multiply them for 2, and in the end subtract some other natural numbers. Don't ever lose a game due to bad math - Only zerk when you are 100% sure you will win. Don't forget to count multiple blockers, don't forget to count invigorate +3 life, don't forget to double the power from the creature too.
Play a lot of 2/x creatures for
It's a mistake to play Slippery Bogle instead of Nettle Sentinel and the likes. Nettle will stack crucial early damage for us, while bogle will sit. Bogle can be better midgame, but silhana is the best girl there, and Sylvan is a house there too. If you are already playing 12~14 2/x creatures for
Play all 4 Invigorate (even without Kavu) and all 4 Seal of Strength
Cheap pumps are what make hands with one land good, and are what makes Berserk better. Also, cheap pumps are good in most game situations, and Invigorate can be hardcasted (I do this a lot, how can people forget?). Leaving home without all 16 fixed pumps is a mistake: Berserk, Rancor, Seal, Invigorate
Don't forget pseudo-evasion, and Giant Growth is good
If you can sustain 2 creatures against one even if one of them die and get replaced, you have a "pseudo-evasion".
Example: 2x Nettle vs Tarmogoyf -> One nettle hits.
This is enough to break some games some times.
If you pseudo-evade, Giant Growth is better than Might of Old Krosa. If you decide to kill the blocker, GG is better as well. MoOK is only better if you have a Silhana or "the open field".
That's all I got, hope it helps. GL & HAVE LOTS OF FUN =)
Last edited by Gui; 02-25-2015 at 12:46 PM. Reason: keeping up-to-date
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