INTRO:
I've been working on an update to Zilla Stompy for several weeks now. With Landstill out of the picture, and combo making up a small percentage of the metagame, the deck's greatest problems are currently of little concern. The printing of Guildpact also provided some new goodies, and testing showed that they work quite well indeed.
The main changes to the original Zilla Stompy include a lower focus on the 1 casting cost slot, an increase in mana production and stability, and a curve ending at 4 instead of the original 3. These changes allow for greater resilience to Chalice of the Void, to mana disruption from Wasteland and Port, and provide for much bigger threats, meaning a solid game against decks like Goblins, Thresh and Deadguy, and better lategame reach against control. Furthermore, it allows for the inclusion of Jitte, which when combined with Troll Ascetic, is an overwhelming threat which many decks simply cannot handle.
In any case, I'll get right to the decklist, with thorough explanation of card choices, sideboard options, and matchup analyses to follow:
//NAME: Zilla Stompy 2k6
// Mana
7 Forest
5 Mountain
4 Taiga
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
// Creatures
4 Kird Ape
4 Burning-Tree Shaman
4 Troll Ascetic
4 Iwamori of the Open Fist*
// Spells
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Magma Jet
4 Rancor
4 Umezawa's Jitte
*Can be Rumbling Slum in some metagames.
CARD CHOICES:
7 Forests / 5 Mountains:
Pretty self-explanatory. One of your strengths against decks like Goblins and Stax is your highly resilient manabase. With 12 basics, you can effectively dodge Wasteland all day long, and you'll still produce the colors you need very consistently. There's a relatively even split here despite the heavier green count in the deck because you have Elves and ESG's to provide you with the extra green when you need it.
4 Taiga:
Pretty obvious stuff. You could almost get away with running no non-basics at all, except you really want Taiga available to you for a first turn 2/3 Kird Ape.
4 Fetches:
You're only running 4 Fetches because that's all you need for consistency, and because they generally have pretty poor synergy with Burning-Tree Shaman. With only 4 Fetches, you're likely to have used all of them in your opening draw before you cast BTS, so it's all good.
4 Llanowar Elves:
Mana critters to smooth out your curve, and power out early Slums and Jittes. Can be equipped with Rancor or Jitte in a pinch. Incidentally, that's why this deck runs Elves over Birds of Paradise; an Elf equipped with Jitte will get counters, where Birds won't. You don't really need the color-fixing from Birds at all.
4 Elvish Spirit Guide:
Good in so many ways. Like Elves, they power out early beats n' Jittes. They also help you play entertaining mind games with Thresh players. There's nothing quite so satisfying as paying for Daze with a pitched ESG. Now that's tempo. ESG also helps you work around Stax's lock pieces, by giving you free mana that doesn't require tappage. In the late game, they become a 2/2 beater that you can attach a Rancor or a Jitte to, making it into a real threat.
4 Kird Ape:
Best 1cc beatstick in the game? Sure, I'll take 4.
4 Burning-Tree Shaman:
Because of the mana accellerants you're running, you can afford to skip the 2cc slot and go right to 3. Even without his special abilty, the BTS is a solid beatstick in his own right. With 4 toughness, he dodges Bolts, and survives combat with Goblins, Mongooseses, and most threats in 3-Color Aggro. His special ability is tasty, too. It helps put real pressure on decks like Flame-Vault, Rifter, Wombat, Tog, and CAL. An all-around solid inclusion.
4 Troll Ascetic:
Just like the original Zilla Stompy, Troll is your MVP. If you thought he was awesome with Rancor, just wait till you slap a Jitte on his ass and go to town. This combo alone gives you insane advantage over many of the other aggro decks in the field.
4 Iwamori of the Open Fist / Rumbling Slum:
I know what some of you are thinking: "Rumbling Slum? Really? There must be something better." There isn't, really. Laugh all you want. This guy is very very good. I'm not kidding. Try him. 5/5 beaters for 4 mana are extremely hard to come by, particularly when they're dealing an extra damage per turn on top of that.
At first glance, Blastoderm might seem like a better choice, but it isn't. First, Blastoderm won't win you any wars of attrition; Fading's a bitch. More important by far, though, is that you can't slap Rancor or Jitte on a Blastoderm. Slum is absolutely perfect in this regard. He'll trade with most creatures in the format even unequipped, he's well out of Bolt or even Bolt + Fanatic range, and his supposed drawback is actually an advantage to you in every matchup but Burn. This guy is awesome.
That said, Slum can be a real liability in the Burn matchup, as that extra point of damage helps your opponent more than it hurts them. Slum is also far worse against Silver Knight. If you expect these in your metagame, then Iwamori is a suitable replacement. His drawback is negligible against the vast majority of decks in this format, he's not red, and the fact that he's Legendary isn't that relevant, because you tend to slow-play your biggest threats against most decks anyway. The trample is also a real boon. I'm torn between Slum and Iwamori. Slum is better against combo and control because of the extra damage per turn, but Iwamori is better against your bad non-combo matchups. In the end, this slot should be dictated by your metagame. A 2/2 split between the two is an option as well.
4 Rancor:
A signature card of the original Zilla Stompy. Nothing's changed. Thorough testing has shown it hasn't gotten any less awesome.
4 Umezawa's Jitte:
4 of them? Seriously? Yes, 4 of them. Seriously. These things just win games. The fact that you can't play multiples is irrellevant. You want to see them often and early. They flat-out steal games against other aggro. Jitte is one of the major reasons why Goblins is such a strong matchup for you. Same goes for Zoo. It's also your saving grace in the Burn matchup thanks to lifegain. I recommend them over Sword of Fire and Ice for a few reasons: First, the extra cost on SoFI is relevant. Your curve is pretty solid at 4, but it gets a little shaky after that. You want to cast and equip a creature on the same turn, preferably by turn 4. Further, the virtual card advantage against other aggro decks in terms of sheer removal outweighs the actual card advantage provided by SoFI, particularly because it gets tokens even if it's blocked. Jitte's lifegain, supplementary creature removal, lower cost and overall efficiency make it better than SoFI.
4 Lightning Bolt:
Best direct damage in the game? Check. I'll take 4.
4 Magma Jet:
Soooooooo good. So very, very good. I know, a lot of people might be wondering why Jet over Chain Lightning. Now I will say something that will blow your mind: I would run Magma Jet over Lightning Bolt if I had to choose between the two. It is that good. Understand that this deck's burn contingent is more for removing pesky blockers and opposing threats than it is for going to the dome. Against the majority of creatures in the format, the difference between 2 and 3 damage is irrelevant. Most creatures either have a toughness of 2 or less, or more than 3. The main exceptions are Kird Ape and Watchwolf, which get run in a deck that happens to be a fantastic matchup for you. How lucky.
As for Chain Lightning versus Magma Jet: First, you have no cards in the 2cc range besides Jet. The extra cost is almost never relevant because it fits your curve perfectly. Second, It is an instant, which is very important against Goblins for killing off Warchief before the attack phase, killing a Ringleader or Matron in response to its being targeted by Kiki-Jiki, removing a threat in response to a cycled Gempalm Incinerator to protect your dude, etc. Instant speed matters. Third, it can't be sent back at you, and there are plenty of red decks in the format that can do it. Last, and most importantly, SCRYE. Goddamn is it good. It helps you dig for the threats you need, gets you mana when you're short, and lets you dig past it when you've got enough. It's a virtual Timewalk in many scenarios, and the closest thing you're likely to see to real draw in an R/G Beats deck.
CARDS NOT INCLUDED
Skyshroud Elite:
The deck's manacurve obviates Elites, in that you already have 8 1cc permanents, and by turn 2, you're going to be casting your 3cc threats in most cases. In almost all circumstances, Kird Ape is just better.
Chain Lightning/Incinerate:
Because of the the 8 creature enhancements (Rancor and Jitte), the deck can't really afford to dedicate more than 8 slots to spot removal. As stated previously, Lightning Bolt and Magma Jet are simply the best options.
Cursed Scroll:
See Chain Lightning. Most of your deck needs to be beaters that you can attach equipment to. This ain't it. Furthermore, you want the ability to slowplay without overcommitting to the board. This allows you to dodge mass removal like Wrath of God, and is a valid tactic, because a single threat equipped with Rancor and/or Jitte can often be enough to keep the pressure on. Cursed Scroll is useless in this scenario. The only reason I might consider it at all is its ability to answer Silver Knight, which is otherwise a real problem for this deck.
Grim Lavamancer:
While reusable damage is nice, you actually send very few cards to the graveyard, which limits his usefulness a lot. Additionally, his inclusion makes you more succeptible to removal like Pyroclasm, Magma Jet, and Fire/Ice. Finally, he has terrible synergy with Burning-Tree Shaman. You want efficently costed beaters that you can attach Rancor and Jitte to, and this guy ain't it.
Nimble Mongoose/Werebear:
Thresh creatures are obviously very popular right now, but they don't belong here. This deck takes forever to build Threshiold. If you have a lot of cards in your yard early on, you're probably losing. On top of that, Mongoose has awful synergy with Rancor and Jitte.
Wild Mongrel:
One of the best green beaters ever printed, but he doesn't really have a place here. There's not much he could replace, except perhaps Burning-Tree Shaman, but in most cases, a 3/4 for 3 is going to serve this deck better than a 2/2 for 2 that forces you to pitch cards to keep him alive in ground battles.
Burning Wish:
Added utility is nice, but it's simply too slow to matter in most cases. In theory, in a combo-heavy metagame they're a good choice, but only against High Tide combo, really. And in a metagame with a lot of High Tide combo (if such a thing exists), I don't think I'd be playing this deck. And if there were and I was, a combination of Pyrostatic Pillar and REB is probably the better way to go anyway, because as I said, Wish is typically too slow to matter.
Sword of Fire and Ice:
Seems like a natural inclusion, I know. It has better synergy with BTS than Jitte does, and it's less easily shut down by Needle as well. The bottom line is that it simply does not fit the deck's curve. Your optimal play should look like: Turn 1: Elf, Turn 2: 3cc Beatstick, Turn 3: Cast Jitte, equip, attack. In testing SoFI was nearly always a full turn slower than Jitte, and that loss of tempo is just unacceptable in a pure aggro deck. In theory, you could run a 2/2 split between SoFI and Jitte, since it dodges Needle hate better, but my experience in testing was that most times I drew SoFI, I wished it was a Jitte instead. Test it yourself and you'll see what I mean.
Ravenous Baloth:
In certain select metagames, he might be worth running in the Slum slot. He's less aggressive than Slum, but he's much much better against straight Burn, Boros Deck Wins, and Angel Stompy. The fact that he's mono-green means that Silver Knight isn't a significant problem for him, where it's a real roadblock for Slum. Obviously the lifegain is a boon in the Burn matchup as well. On the other hand, you might consider running him in the sideboard for these matchups, because Slum is better overall. You'd bring him in over Troll Ascetic for these matchups, because Troll is bad against Silver Knight's First Strike, and dies to Burn's Flamebreaks.
Blastoderm:
He's worse than Slum here by a longshot. A lot of decks can afford to wait Blastoderm out, chump blocking him just long enough to let his Fading counters run out. Most importantly, you can't slap a Rancor or a Jitte on him, and this is extremely relevant. Lastly, Slum's damage during upkeep does add up, and it can often force through the last couple points of damage in situations where the board is locked up in a prolonged ground war.
Phantom Centaur:
A decent option, and comparable to Slum and Iwamori, because he's a resilient threat and has a power of 5 for 4 mana. That said, in most metagames, I prefer the extra damage from Slum or the Trample from Iwamori here.
Treetop Village:
This deck's mana curve is very tight. It tends to spend most or all of its mana every turn, at least until the late game. Drawing one of these in the early game will grievously affect your tempo, and you simply can't afford that. Further, it makes you more succeptible to mana disruption, which is contrary to the deck's overall strategy.
Wasteland:
No go. This deck is straight aggro. Wasteland isn't going to significantly improve any of your problem matchups, but it will hurt some of your good ones, Goblins in particular. You are the aggro in every matchup besides combo; Wasteland doesn't fit this role at all. Further, the color requirements of cards like Slum, Ascetic, and BTS mean that Wasteland will significantly destabilize proper color production.
SIDEBOARDING:
Given the wide variance in the metagame right now, and that the deck has a positive game against the two top decks without one, I'm not going to propose a standard sideboard, but I'll mention a few of the better options, and explain what role they fill in shoring up particularly problematic matchups:
Tormod's Crypt/Phyrexian Furnace:
Both cards fulfull the same role, obviously. Personally, I prefer Crypt over Furnace in this deck, because it's running on a very tight curve, and it wants to be dedicating its resources to casting cards which deal damage. Also, you typically only need one mass graveyard clearing effect to stall long enough to go lethal. That said, occasionally it makes sense to go for an even split between Crypts and Furnaces to dodge Pithing Needle.
Matchups where you might want them: Primarily Thresh, of course. In most cases, this is really all you need against them. Also good against Salvager Game, Dredge-a-Tog, Ichorid, and anything with Life from the Loam in it. Because of its versatility in the modern meta, this is a pretty common inclusion.
Pithing Needle:
Obviously an excellent all-around answer to the modern metagame. Its primary role is as an anti-combo measure, but is so comprehensive that it's typically a solid inclusion, particularly going into an unknown metagame.
Matchups where you might want them: A lot of them, really. Particularly against anything with Psychatog in it, Survival, Vedalken Shackles, Salvager Game, and FlameVault.
Winter Orb:
A solid anti-control measure, and one you can abuse fairly easily thanks to Elves and ESG.
Matchups where you might want them: Rifter/Wombat/Slide, first and foremost. Their biggest weakness is their manabase. You can exploit this with Orb to good effect. Also solid against Blue-Based Control like Landstill.
Null Rod:
Good against anything with a lot of artifacts, obviously. In most metagames it's not worth running, but it's a consideration in some.
Matchups where you might want them: Tendrils Combo, Belcher, and especially Affinity.
Defense Grid:
A decent choice against Blue-Based Control and also against Wing Shards. Also good against Solidarity. Given the near total absence of Blue-Based Control, and its general narrowness overall, it's not worth running in most metagames.
Matchups where you might want them: Blue-Based Control, Solidarity.
Red Elemental Blast/Pyroblast:
The best red sideboard cards ever printed. Good against anything with blue, obviously.
Matchups where you might want them: You don't really need them against Gro, and their inclusion here would only thin your threat density, which is key against them. A good answer to Psychatog, High Tide combo and Blue-Based Control.
Pyrostatic Pillar:
A solid answer to Storm-Based Combo, other Combo, Thresh, and any other matchup where your opponent will play lots of cheap spells.
Matchups where you might want them: Golden in the Nausea, Solidarity, Spring Tide, IGGy Pop Matchups. Very good in the Thresh matchup as well, because they cast a lot more spells than you do, and it helps you win the damage race.
Price of Progress:
A good answer for any decks with lots of non-basics, obviously. Probably not worth running in most metagames, as your most problematic matchups don't tend to run a lot of non-basics, and you're not exactly short on damage dealers as it is.
Matchups where you might want them: Thresh maybe, but you're already fairly solid there. It's a decent finisher against Stax if you see a lot of it in your metagame. Also excellent against Landstill, but it's not particularly popular right now.
Caller of the Claw:
A decent option for mass removal. The main problem with it is that it is a highly reactive card in a highly aggressive deck. You don't typically want to be leaving mana untapped for this kind of thing. Then again, against control decks like Rifter and Wombat, you tend to slow-play anyway, so it might not be a terrible option.
Matchups where you might want them: Wombat/Rifter/Slide. Also decent against anything with Silver Knight, as well as other decks with mass removal, like Landstill and Stax.
Sulfuric Vortex:
Good against lifegain, obviously. Pulse of the Fields, Renewed Faith, and Exalted Angel can be a pain, and this provides an answer. Winter Orb, Flashfires, and Anarchy are probably better answers for these matchups, though.
Matchups where you might want them: Wombat/Rifter/Slide, Angel Stompy, U/W Angel Control. In all likelihood you're not going to need them. Unlike straight Burn, lifegain strategies aren't particularly crippling against you.
Flashfires:
Excellent against Wombat specifically, and also Rifter. It's a rather narrow card, however, and can be answered with Sacred Ground. Winter Orb is likely the better choice in most metagames.
Matchups where you might want them: Rabid Wombat, mainly. I'd likely run Winter Orb in all but the most Wombat-heavy metagames.
Anarchy:
A seemingly narrow sideboard option, but it actually helps against a lot of the deck's biggest problems. Silver Knight in particular is very very bad for you. Other problems like Astral Slide, Worship, Solitary Confinement, Humility, Moat, Eternal Dragon, Exalted Angel, and Mystic Enforcer are also significant, and Anarchy answers them all. At 4cc, it's well within the deck's curve, and can be cast as early as turn 2 or 3 if absolutely necessary.
Matchups where you might want them: Angel Stompy first and foremost, but also solid aginst Wombat, CAL, Boros Deck Wins, and even UGw Thresh.
Boil/Tsunami:
Great against anything with Islands, but only in games where you're likely to go to the long game. REB and Pillar are probably better chocies against High Tide Combo.
Matchups where you might want them: Blue-Based Control. High Tide Combo maybe, but you have better options available.
Compost:
An excellent card against discard strategies, but probably not necessary in most cases. The deck has the ability to simply topdeck into game-ending threats like Rumbling Slum, Troll Ascetic, and Umezawa's Jitte, even in the face of an early barrage of hand destruction.
Matchups where you might want them: Deadguy Ale, Mono-Black Aggro-Control. In the end, probably not necessary.
Naturalize/Tranquil Domain:
Yet another generally versatile sideboard option. As it turns out, a good number of your real problems are enchantments as opposed to artifacts, so Tranquil domain may be the better call in certain metagames, though it does lack Naturalize's versatility.
Matchups where you might want them: UGw Gro's Worships can pose a problem, so they're decent here. They're a good option in the Wombat/Rifter/Slide matchups for thinkgs like Lightning Rift, Astral Slide, and Humility. Also a nice option against Solitary Confinement in the CAL matchup.
Ravenous Baloth:
Burn is a particularly unpleasant matchup for you. Baloth can turn this around if there's a lot of Burn in your meta. Baloth can also be good in getting around Silver Knight, which can effectively nullify the rest of the threats in your deck. Not for all sideboards, but a good option in the right ones.
Matchups where you might want them: Burn primarily, but also anything with Silver Knight.
Artifact Mutation:
A narrower answer than Naturalize or Tranquil Domain, but a decent choice in certain areas.
Matchups where you might want them: Stax, mainly. Not bad against Ravager either.
General Sideboard Construction Tips:
Overall, your biggest problems are combo, cycling-based Control, anything with Silver Knight, and Burn. When constructing your sideboard, you should consider which of these, if any, are most prevalent in your metagame, and build your sideboard accordingly.
When approaching an unknown metagame, I'd recommend focusing most on generalized hate cards, especially ones which are good against combo. Secondarily, I'd concern myself with control, especially white-based control.
A sample sideboard for an unknown meta might look something like so:
3 Tormod's Crypt
3 Pithing Needle
2 Naturalize
4 Pyrostatic Pillar
3 Anarchy
This provides you with Crypt, Needle, Pillar, and Naturalize as anti-combo options, which is fairly all-inclusive. Next, against Rifter/Wombat you have Anarchy, Naturalize, and even Pithing Needle and Crypt to answer Dragon recursion. If I knew I would be facing a lot of Rifter, I'd make room for 3 or more Winter Orbs, but they're narrow enough that I'd likely leave them out in an unknown meta. Lastly, you have Anarchy to answer Silver Knight and other problems like Exalted Angel, Worship, and Mystic Enforcer. Overall, you're pretty well covered with this board when you don't know what you'll be facing.
MATCHUPS:
Before I begin, a disclaimer: A lot of my testing was haphazard. It was done against competent players with solid decklists, but it wasn't strictly 2-out-of-3 matches, and only about half the games were with sideboard. The numbers included in this section are a point of reference, but they are not totally conclusive. There are certain matchups I'm sure about, and in those cases I will be explicit. Likewise, in the matchups I'm not totally sure about, I will say so, and explain why. You've been warned.
Vial Goblins:
Preliminary Results: 11-3
This is one of the matchups I'm sure of. Goblins is distinctly favorable for you. You have 8-12 turn 1 answers for Lackey, and all your threats are bigger than all of theirs. Their removal is well-equipped to deal with weenies, but quite insufficient in the face of fat, which is pretty much all you've got. Rancor keeps you from getting bogged down in a stalemate, and an active Jitte just utterly wrecks their forces. A Troll Ascetic equipped with Rancor or Jitte is almost an automatic win. Your manabase is extremely robust, so Wasteland and Port are typically irrellevant here. As always, Gobbos can just steal wins in some games, but it happens very rarely here.
Sideboard Strategy: None. You don't need one to win this. If they bring in Pithing Needle for Jitte, you might consider bringing in a couple Naturalizes, since they also hit Vials, but it's not totally necessary, because you don't absolutely need Jitte to win.
3-Color Thresh (Gro):
Preliminary Results: (UGw): 6-3, (UGr): 9-3, (UGb): 3-1
This is another matchup I'm confident about. It's difficult to explain the dynamics of this matchup precisely, because decklists and playstyles vary quite a bit. In a very general sense, you win by drawing out early counters and removal with your smaller threats, then play out your bombs (BTS, Slum, Ascetic, Jitte) once you've run them out of juice. By and large, your threats are bigger than theirs, and you have more of them. Elvish Spirit Guide is especially useful here, in that it forces your opponent to second-guess their own Dazes.
The black splash is the easiest for you, because they don't have lategame bombs like Enforcer to deal with, and because Confidants give you somewhere to point your burn.
The white splash is slightly easier than the red splash, but not by a lot. They have StP for your big threats, but you have enough of them for this to be a temporary setback. The potentially troublesome threat is Worship from the board, but this isn't as bad as it might seem. You have Anarchy to answer both Enforcer and Worship, and it often comes at a time when they're tapped out or their counters are depleted. Furthermore, it's not out of the question to simply win the game by decking them. You can hold off their ground forces all day, so the only real threat to you is Mystic Enforcer. An active Jitte and/or well-placed Burn can nullify these threats fairly easily. Because they'll inevitably be drawing more cards than you, they'll deck themselves first. It's not particularly elegant, but it can work.
The red splash has 8-12 removal spells maindeck, which can slow your progression and hinder your beats. It also makes it easier for them to race pre-board. Post board, they get Pyroclasm for your Trolls, and Flame-Tongue Kavu as general removal and added aggressiveness. This can make for a tougher game, but with Pillar in from the board and Crypt to slow Threshold, you can typically race quite easily.
Sideboard Strategy: Again, it's difficult to be precise about this, because of the wide variance in decklists and strategies. Pyrostatic Pillar and Tormod's Crypt are usually no-brainers. What to take out is more difficult to say. If your opponent is bringing in Pithing Needles against you, it's not a bad idea to side out 3 Trolls and 4 Jittes for 3 Crypt and 4 Pillar. They'll typically name Jitte with their Needle first, Crypt second, and Troll last. If they don't know you've removed your Jittes, this can be a very effective strategy for you, by drastically lowering Needle's effectiveness against you. Against the white splash, Anarchy can be a real boon, because it removes Enforcers and Worships. Some combination of Anarchy, Crypt, and possibly Pillar is a good way to go here. I need to do more testing to know exactly which is the best configuration, but that's it in a nutshell.
3-Color Aggro:
Preliminary Results: 9-1
This matchup is a very tough one to call with any degree of accuracy, because the lists change a whole bunch, right down to what colors they run. I tested against both GRW and GRB. In a general sense, they have real trouble against you simply because your beaters are bigger than theirs. Almost every trade they make with you is a 2-for-1 in your favor, and that wins you games. Troll is obviously a house in this matchup, as is Rancor. The MVP is Jitte, of course, as it just wrecks their entire board. Even if they're running Jittes of their own, you're almost certainly running more, which means you can use the first as a virtual Disenchant and then follow up with another later on. Again, this matchup depends very much on the specific build, but by and large, it is very positive for you.
Sideboard Strategy: In most cases, none. Like the Goblins matchup, you don't really need one to win. If they bring in Pithing Needle for your Jittes, you might consider siding them out and bringing in Baloth in their place, if you're running them. It's yet another beatstick that's bigger than theirs, and the lifegain can help you win damage races.
R/W Rifter / Wombat / Slide:
Preliminary Results: 5-6
This is one matchup where I feel the preliminary numbers are misleading. While it would appear to be about 50/50, I think Rifter has the advantage here. It's not an overwhelming one, but their barrage of early removal followed by difficult-to-answer threats can be quite difficult.
A few observations about this match: First, a lot depends on the die roll. Going first is huge here, because a lot of the real bombs (WoG, hardcast Dragon, hardcast Slice and Dice, hardcast Akroma's Vengeance) don't come online until turns 4-7, and they're critical against you. Of the 5 games I won, the majority of them were done by putting on extreme pressure early on. Of the games my opponent won, every single one of them was due to successfully stalling into the lategame, removing a threat at a time, and then recurring Eternal Dragon (sometimes in multiples) for the win. This typically occurred the turn before I would be dealing lethal damage, which is why the die roll is so meaningful here.
In terms of actual play, you want to play aggressively, but you also don't want to overcommit into Wrath of God. Ideally, you want to drop a solid beatstick, then equip it with Rancor or Jitte and force your opponent to answer it. Then play another and do the same. And then another, and so on. An active Jitte wins games here, so that should be your goal. Note also that Jitte and Rancor make Humility a whole lot less effective against you, and in fact you'd rather see Humility than a full-fledged Eternal Dragon sitting accross the table from you in most cases. When possible, save your burn for lategame reach or Dragon removal, but don't hesitate to use Jet in the early game to smooth your draws.
Sideboard Strategy: This is highly dependent on what you're running in your board, and what your opponent's decklist looks like. Against Mono-White Wombat, Flashfires is an excellent choice, if you have the room. Against all iterations of this deck, Winter Orb is an extremely effective choice as well. It dodges Sacred Ground, and, while it can be removed with Disenchant or Vengeance, it prevents your opponent from digging for these answers aggressively. In most cases, a resolved Orb with a significant threat on the table is enough to win the game. If you're not running Orb or Flashfires, other options here include Pithing Needle and Anarchy. In testing, the biggest problem by far was recurring, hardcast Eternal Dragons. Pithing Needle is decent here because it can shut off early mana fetching, and can prevent it being brought back from the yard in the late game. Anarchy is decent as temporary removal for Dragon, Decree tokens, Humility, Moat, and Slide. Quite frankly, I haven't had enough testing yet against all iterations of this archetype to say what is exactly the best combination of sideboard cards here. I'll say that Winter Orb is the best catch-all answer, however.
Solidarity:
Preliminary Results: None yet.
I haven't had an opportunity to test this yet. Most of my testing partners don't play the deck, and it's essentially non-existent in my metagame. Once I've done some testing, I'll post results and comments. In the meanwhile, I'll say that it's almost certainly an unfavorable matchup for you. You can beat it with the sideboard the same way Goblins does, by running some combination of REB and Pillar, but this eats up a lot of sideboard space, and as I said, the deck's not seeing much play right now. I'd offer the following advice when facing Solidarity:
1. Play as aggressively as possible. Bring in Pyrostatic Pillar and, if you have it, REB from the board, and continue to play as aggressively as possible.
2. Don't play David Gearhart.
3. If all efforts at number 2 fail, try to spill a beverage on his cards while he's pile shuffling.
Sideboard Strategy: Bring in Pyrostatic Pillar. If you have it, bring in REB. If you believe in a god, pray to him.
Salvager Game:
Preliminary Results: None yet.
Haven't tested against this yet either, for the same reason as Solidarity. I can't find anyone that plays it. Having played against it with other aggro, I would guess that it's likely to be one of your more positive combo matchups, particularly after sideboard.
Sideboard Strategy: Bring in 4 Pillar, 3 Needles, and 3 Crypts. With this combination of hate, the Salvagers combo should be rendered completely ineffective. They still have the Colossus plan to fall back on, but that's something you can actually race.
Mono-Black Aggro / B/W Aggro-Control:
Preliminary Results: 6-1
I lump these two together because they play very similarly against you. You have a definite advantage here. Your manabase is very stable, which makes their land destruction quite easy to play around. They don't tend to have a lot of removal, so your mana elves have a longer average lifespan in this matchup, which means your fat comes out quicker, which is horribly problematic for them. You have 8 burn spells for early threats like Hyppie and Confidant, and Jitte will effectively control every threat in their deck. The biggest problem you have to worry about is Perish from the sideboard, as it hits most creatures in your deck. As long as you prepare for it and play around it, however, you'll do just fine. Simply slow play your threats. They're not putting enough pressure on you to force you to be overly aggressive. Resolve one threat, get a Rancor or a Jitte on it, and go to town. Once they remove that one, cast another and repeat the process.
Sideboard Strategy: None. You don't need it.
Nausea:
Preliminary Results: 4-2
Yeah, I know, wtf. All my testing for this matchup was done against Roop himself, so we know the decklist is good and the player is competent. Obviously six games isn't enough to come to any real determinations about the matchup, but it is winnable for you. Interestingly, of the two games Roop won, they were both turn 1 kills. Of the games he lost, one was due to a Spoils which put him into lethal burn range, and the other two were due to turn 2 Pillars, which are a total house in this matchup. Just getting to a Wish, casting it, getting removal, and casting that costs your opponent a metric fuckpile of life. Add Spoils and burn into the mix and it's often too much to overcome.
Sideboard Strategy: Bring in 4 Pillars and whatever artifact hate you happen to be running. Mull aggressively for Pillar. Dig aggressively for Pillar with Magma Jet. Kill Helms on sight. That's all there is to it, really. If you live to turn 2 or 3 you're usually in good shape.
Flame-Vault Stax:
Preliminary Results: 3-0
Only preliminary testing here, so I wouldn't call it definitive by any means. Your main advantage here is that you play a lot of permanents and accleration, which gives you some flexibility in working around lock pieces like Smokestack and Propaganda. You also have an advantage in that they're not running a lot of removal aside from Smokestack besides Pyroclasm, which isn't very good against you at all. Propaganda isn't particularly effective against you because you often only need a single threat to win. Smokestack is less effective against you because you can recycle Rancor. All in all, if you play aggressively and get as many permanents on the table as possible, you're in good shape.
Sideboard Strategy: Bring in Pithing Needle for Vault. The extra time it takes them to Wish for an answer is often all the time you need. If you have it, bring in artifact hate as well.
5/3:
Preliminary Results: 3-2
This matchup appears to be about even, though slightly favorable for you. Both decks have the same basic strategy: accellerate fat, undercosted beats, make them bigger with equipment, and smash face. Where they have disruption in the form of Chalice and Tangle Wire, you have removal. You break about even in this regard. A first turn Chalice for 1 is a real pain in the ass, but it's not a game-breaker on its own. Your real threats are all at 2cc and above. The fact that your opponent is dealing damage to himself with Tombs is a real advantage to your ability to win the damage race. This is one of the biggest factors in giving you an advantage here. Overall, the most important factor in this matchup is the die roll, however. Going first is absolutely huge here.
Sideboard Strategy: Whatever artifact hate you happen to be running. Artifact Mutation is a total house, but Naturalize works just as well. Added removal can push you over the top here.
Angel Stompy:
Preliminary Results: 3-9
This is a fantastically bad matchup. I originally created Angel Stompy to beat Zilla Stompy, and it still does. Silver Knight is just a total house against you. This is one archetype where Iwamori is most definitely a better call than Rumbling Slum. Silver Knight alone can hold off nearly every threat in your deck. Soltari Priest is hard to remove and is a nightmare when equipped. They have their own Jittes to act as removal against yours. Sword of Fire and Ice is quite bad for you. A hardcast Angel is almost certainly game over. Swords to Plowshares keeps your bigger threats at bay and stalls your mana production in the early game. Parallax Wave removes all your threats and protects their own from Anarchy.
Your only hope in this matchup is to simply play as aggressively as possible. Try to get a Jitte active as quickly as you can, preferably before they find Silver Knight.
Sideboard Strategy: Bring in 3 Anarchy and 2 Naturalize. Pray that they play badly and overcommit to the board. Dig aggressively for Anarchy. Save your Naturalizes for SoFI and Parallax Wave.
Boros Deck Wins:
Preliminary Results: 5-3
Like Angel Stompy, but better for you. As always, Silver Knight is a royal pain in the ass for you. However, their threats are much smaller, their removal is far less effective against your threats, and they don't have Jittes to counter yours. Your main goal here is to resolve a threat and get a Jitte on it asap. If they've got a Silver Knight active, you're going to have to get a Jitte and a Rancor on a threat, so that damage spills over and you get Jitte counters to remove Knight. This sounds hard, but it's a viable tactic.
Sideboard Strategy: Anarchy is actually effective here because they don't have Parallax Wave. Bring in all 3. They get rid of pesky Isamarus and Lions as well.
Burn:
Preliminary Results: 5/7
A decidedly bad matchup, but not impossible. Their average goldfish is a turn or two faster than you in most cases, and they can just ignore your creatures completely. Jitte, however, is a total house in this matchup. If you get one online the game is essentially over, sicne Burn can't cope with lifegain. When considering mulligans, be looking for hands with Jitte - particularly ones with a resilient beater to attach it to.
Sideboard Strategy: If you have Ravenous Baloth, run them. It vastly improves your game here. If not, bring in 2-3 Naturalize for either Pithing Needle or Sulfuric Vortex, which they will almost certainly board against you.
CONCLUSION:
This deck smashes Goblins. It's strong against Thresh. It crushes black-based aggro-control, and it has a strong game against 3c Aggro and Zoo. It has decent game against Rifter, and has the sideboard options it needs to do well in this matchup.
The deck has significant problems against Burn, anything with Silver Knight, and combo. Angel Stompy is terrible for it. These archetypes are not particularly popular right now in most metagames.
The deck has distinctly positive matchups against the most prevalent decks in the format excepting Rifter. It has poor matchups against some of the least prevalent archetypes in the current metagame. It does very well against randomness. In most metagames, it is a very solid choice.
Last edited by Zilla; 03-09-2006 at 08:50 PM.
Well no one can knock you for not testing.
I just want to bring this up, because you said in another thread that I suggested Magam Jet in and you didn't seem that thrilled about it. I to have tested this in Aggro decks and it can be really good at keeping the threats coming. Especially when the deck has really no extra card draw.4 Magma Jet:
Soooooooo good. So very, very good. I know, a lot of people might be wondering why Jet over Chain Lightning. Now I will say something that will blow your mind: I would run Magma Jet over Lightning Bolt if I had to choose between the two. It is that good. Understand that this deck's burn contingent is more for removing pesky blockers and opposing threats than it is for going to the dome. Against the majority of creatures in the format, the difference between 2 and 3 damage is irrelevant. Most creatures either have a toughness of 2 or less, or more than 3. The main exceptions are Kird Ape and Watchwolf, which get run in a deck that happens to be a fantastic matchup for you. How lucky.
Last edited by Brushwagg; 02-18-2006 at 11:24 AM.
Quote Scrumdogg @ Amrod's:
"Didn't you know that Mike Glow invented this format?? We are all just renting it."
The EPIC Syndicate - Grindermen
Team Disquailified Poster Duey Cheatem & Howe.
It says a lot about the strength of Jitte when it gets played in decks with Burning Tree Shaman. Sure it kills you, but it's damn good.
Unbelievably awesome. (And accurate. Don't forget that.) One more thing, is you should respect the other people who play Solidarity well. Just because their name isn't David Gearhart doesn't mean that you can treat it as some idiot running the deck. Seriously though, kick ass.Originally Posted by Godzilla
For the foreseeable future, expect to see less of me. I've lost my internet connection, and so I'll only be able to get on by siphoning free Wi-Fi from the surrounding areas. Which isn't always consistent.
Plus, the guy that I used to leech off of has now instituted password protection. This means that I effectively do not have internet at home. :(
I certainly hope not. My testing partners were frogboy, wastedlife, Evil Roopey, Artowis, IBA, braves54321, and Corrupted Angel. I trust their lists and their playskills.
I'm not sure where I said this, but it's possible that I did. It really depends quite heavily on the role that your burn is playing. If you're using it primarily as reach in the late game, then Chain Lightning may sometimes be the better choice. If its primary role is as blocker removal, and the curve supports it, then Jet can be truly awesome. It also depends quite heavily on the metagame... right now, there are very few creatures with 3 toughness. Most have 2 or less or 4 or more, so the difference between Jet and Chain Lightning is minimal in this regard. All I know for certain is that I wouldn't drop it unless I were dropping red altogether, in which case I'd run white for StP, Hierarch, Watchwolf, and Brushhopper. This gives you a much better game against Angel Stompy and Burn, but a worse game against everything else.I just want to bring this yup, because you said in another thread that I suggested Magam Jet in and you didn't seem that thrilled about it. I to have tested this in Aggro decks and it can be really good at keeping the threats coming. Especially when the deck has really no extra card draw.
Yeah. I recognize how bad the synergy is between Jittes and BTS looks on paper, but in games it almost never matters. A resolved, active Jitte typically spells game over. Out of all my testing I don't think I've ever taken more than 4 or 5 damage from BTS because of Jitte. Either they don't survive long enough for it to matter, or I play a different threat (like Troll) before the Shaman, or I've already won the game. Looks bad on paper, works fine in testing.
I hear ya. I do respect the deck, and even when it's not played to its fullest potential it's very fast and consistent. I just feel far more comfortable about my odds playing against the average Solidarity player as opposed to, say... you.
Nice update to one of my favorites Zilla, your new list looks very solid. I like all the 4-ofs, it really focuses what you want to do with the deck to a point.
That being said, I feel that at least 2 Naturalizes belong in the maindeck. I'm not sure about your meta, but in Rochester there are plenty of hosing enchantments and artifacts flying around that can completely shut this down. Moat, Solitary Confinement, first turn Scepter/Chant, and Burning Bridges are just a few that come to mind. I realize none of these with the exception of Moat are played in any tier 1 decks, but losing to jank which just happens to have the perfect artifact or enchantment that makes 90% of your deck dead is an exercise in frustration. Post board the matchups with these decks get much better I realize, but It almost seems like game 1 against such decks is an autoloss if they can find their relevant hoser. Naturalize is also quite good against any iteration of Angel Stompy as well, a deck this has serious problems with. It hits plenty of targets against them; it will never be a dead card.
The question is what cards can be removed without crucially slowing down what this deck wants to do? Playing early beef, putting the best creature pump in the game on said beef, and crushing face is what we want to do, not hold instants and respond to other players. I really dont know what to remove, but I feel that it should either be to dump 2 Lighting Bolts, or a combination of 1 ESG and something else, maybe a Rancor or a Bolt. The high creature count that can carry rancor or Jitte is something that seems very important, so I'd be very hesitant to remove beaters, even relatively small ones like Kird Ape.
The Rifter matchup numbers are slightly misleading, because I was still tweaking the list I was playing for the first few games, and I lost a couple of those. However, I cut Humility for Astral Slide, so it's gonna be different from more stock builds. It felt like Rifter was way ahead in most games unless RG just came out with all guns blazing and I didn't have Wrath.
I also wanted to mention that a 2/2 Slum/Iwamori split seems awful; play whichever one fits your metagame, and if you're not sure, play Slum and hope that you're not gonna run into infinite Angel Stompy players. It's probably fair to say that if your metagame is severely infested with Angel Stompy that you should play something else. As Zilla said, Angel Stompy was literally built to maul RG aggro.
When in doubt, mumble.
When in trouble, delegate.
What's your Stax matchup like? Wrath of God is bad times for R/G.
I just want to point out that all of the games Zilla played against Nausea were PostBoard, I'm pretty sure that it is almost unwinnable game one.
In most metagames I wouldn't bother with the MD Naturalize, but I understand it can be correct in some metas. If I were going to, I'd probably drop 2 Shamans, or 1 Shaman and 1 Troll for it. Your 3cc slot is mildly clogged, so you could stand to lose a couple of these threats if it were absolutely necessary. The reason that I don't typically mind the number of threats at 3cc is because you end up slow playing a lot anyway, and in those scenarios you want to be holding back major threats.
Note that the numbers listed here don't only include my testing with you, which was 4/4 straight up, half games with board, half without. There's also a 3 game match included in those numbers that I played against IBA's WG Wombat.
But I agree with the sentiment - it's not a favorable or 50/50 matchup. Of course, I said that a few times in my original post. From my perspective, though, Wrath wasn't what was winning you games. 3 out of 4 of the games you won, you won because you were able to hardcast a Dragon when I'd have been attacking for lethal damage the following turn. Wrath of God obviously helped slow me down in these games, but without Dragon you'd have lost them. This leads me to wonder where the best SB strategy lies against Rifter. I know for a fact that Winter Orb is savage beats against it... but it might be worth backing WOrb with Pithing Needle on Dragon, as it further stunts mana development and prevents lategame threats. We'll have to test that some more.
I don't know. We can test it, if you like. I've tested the Flame-Vault Stax matchup, so I know kind of how the Stax dynamic will go, but obviously that doesn't have Wrath of God, so it's going to be different. I will say this, though: Wrath of God isn't nearly as bad for this build as it would seem. The deck has 12 primary beatsticks, 12 secondary, smaller beatsticks, and 8 creature enchancements which turn any one of them into a very real threat. Slow playing against Wrath is really very easy because the deck's threat density is very very high.
Note that in my testing against Flame-Vault Stax, I face Propaganda in 2 of those games. I answered that by only attacking with one threat every turn. That one threat was dealing anywhere from 5-9 damage per turn, however. In short, aside from wiping out a few mana elves and costing some tempo, Wrath of God is typically a one-for-one trade against this deck. Like I said though, I'd like to test it if you want.
This is mostly true, except that one of the games you lost, I didn't draw any SB hate against you at all. You lost to Spoils followed by direct damage. In that sense, RG can beat you game 1. It would be wrong to suggest that Nausea isn't heavily favored in game 1, though. Pre-board, the faster Nausea tries to go off, the better for you, because they're more likely to fizzle or kill themselves with Spoils than if they wait an extra turn or 2.I just want to point out that all of the games Zilla played against Nausea were PostBoard, I'm pretty sure that it is almost unwinnable game one.
I actually think the matchup would be in favor of Angel Stax. R/G is basically the kind of deck it was designed to beat. You don't have to test though. It would be hard to get good data unless you were playing me anyway : )
That's what I was suggesting, actually. If you have the time to test it on Apprentice or MWS, let me know and we can. You're probably right that it's somewhat favorable to Angel Stax, but there's no reason not to find out for sure.
Re: Angel Stompy. Doesn't seem like it should be such a bummer, your guys are fatter than theirs and your burn should make difficult an Exalted or active Mom. Would shitty tech like Drop of Honey work here? On a mana-per-power ratio the only guys tinier than theirs are Llanowar, but Jitte aids in altering p/t pretty handily.
What it seems like and what it is are two totally different things. Angel Stompy is far and away this deck's worst matchup, including combo. Silver Knight alone will hold off your forces in most cases. Double Silver Knight is a total nightmare. Parallax Wave and StP deal with a lot of your threats. SoFI is absolutely devastating. Your clock isn't fast enough to race hardcast Angels. They have Jittes to nullify yours. Even when they don't, Jitte can't get counters when there's a Silver Knight on the opposite side of the board. Anarchy is really your only chance in this matchup, and if they have Parallax Wave, even that won't be enough.
It wouldn't be that hard to tweak the maindeck to fix this problem, but Angel Stompy isn't prevalent enough to bother, I don't think. This deck is designed to have extremely consistent game against Goblins, Thresh, and Zoo, and it does. It's purely a metagame deck, designed to beat the most prevalent decks, with weaknesses against the least prevalent. I think it's a mistake to try to tweak the deck to beat its truly abysmal matchups. If your metagame has a lot of Silver Knights or Burn in it, you should run a different deck.
Congratulations for creating yet another amazing deck!
Not only very strong in the right metagame, but also a fucking blast to play.
Concerning the Slum/Iwamori slot:
This is just theorizing, but I would run Iwamori over Rumbling Slum.
This is because of two reasons:
One, the trample damage is absolutely huge in a deck like this. Say your opponent blocks your Slum, he's saved himself 5 damage, 4 if you count the ping. Now, if your opponent blocks Iwamori, he still takes somewhere between 1-4 damage in one attack (probably 3, because most creatures have two toughness). Slum does deal more damage from a goldfish standpoint, but in a creature-filled metagame as the one right now, the spillover damage from trample is a lot better. While you have Rancor, you don't draw them all the time.
Two, Rumbling Slum is red, and red is one of the most popular colors right now. There is a good chance you will suffer from splash damage.
Great work, great deck!
Have you ran into any problems with perish (it kills everything but kird apes)? You write off black matchups as easy but with a lot of decks that run black (splash or base) run perish SBed now because of thres/gro' + various other green decks (R/G beats, madness, stompy ect..). Just curious mainly, I don't have a problem with them at all with my build, but it's more "traditional" with quick beats over bigger ones with lots of accel.
The nature of this deck makes it very easy to slow-roll your opponent, particularly when they're not putting a lot of pressure on you. All you really need to do is resolve a single fat threat, equip it with Jitte or Rancor, and beat their face in. When they play Perish, cast another one. Even if they're attacking you with Hymns, you topdeck faaaar more consistently than they do. An active Jitte makes it nearly impossbile for them to win. Even with Perish in the mix, this matchup has been positive.
That makes sense, the only problem I could see is actually with hombrew because they may perish killing your current fatty along with mana producers (assuming they've also taken down a land or two via wasteland/sink/vindicate). But I suppose with 20 lands that doesn't happen fairly often.
Have you considered Culling Scales for the Angel Stompy matchup? Sure, it doesn't answer Exalted Angel, but pretty much all of their other beats.
With Rancor, the Scales can be kept online for as long as you want.
I have a feeling this might be gold
Another thing to be considered might be Viridian Zealot maindeck. They make you not scoop against maindeck Worship, help win the Jitte war, clear Standstill (if the deck is still played in your meta, didn't see it in your matchup analysis), and may knock out a random Helm or two. With Rancor / Jitte, he is a decent beater (though what creature isn't?).
Yeah, it doesn't. The main thing is that they simply aren't ever putting a lot of pressure on you. Even after a concentrated attack on the hand and land, you typically have the time you need to just topdeck into land and threats. Perish ends up being a 1 for 1 trade in most circumstances, and that's just terrible for them.
Hm. Culling Scales is definitely an option for the AS matchup... I'll have to test it out to see if it works. One potential drawback to that strategy is that you have 12 permanents in the 1cc range, which could get in the way of removing Silver Knight, which is one of your biggest obstacles here. I'll test it out and see how it works. In the end though, Cursed Scroll is probably going to be a better option for this particular task. The synergy with Rancor is interesting, though. I'll try it out.
Shaman is also an option, but I'm not exactly sure what you want to cut for it. Kird Ape is probably the weakest slot in the deck, but more threats in the 3cc slot will stretch the curve pretty severely. It's a tough call. I guess it deserves some testing... I'll give it a try. On a side note, I'd go with Uktabi Orangutan over Zealot on the off chance your opponent has Plague naming Elves.
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