[DECK] Steel Stompy

[GGoober]

==STEEL STOMPY==

Steel Stompy is an artifact Stompy (chalice-aggro) deck that is focused primarily on maximizing tempo advantage in games, achieved by three channels:

1. Speed: Explosiveness from the Stompy shell.
2. Tempo: Disrupting an opponent’s tempo development.
3. Redundancy: Synergy and consistency.

Keeping the thread as concise as possible, I'll walk through the contents and key components of Steel Stompy:

1. DECKLIST
2. INTRO AND HISTORY
3. CORE STRATEGIES
4. CARD CHOICES
5. MATCHUP AND STRATEGIES
6. CONCLUSIONS & CREDITS

1. DECKLIST

Decklist as of 04/11/2011

Lands: 23
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Wasteland
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Vault of Whispers
3 Inkmoth Nexus

Creatures: 19
4 Steel Overseer
3 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Master of Etherium
4 Etched Champion
4 Lodestone Golem

Non-creatures: 19
3 Mox Diamond
3 Mox Opal
2 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
3 Cranial Plating
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Crucible of Worlds

Sideboard: 15
3 Ratchet Bomb
4 Thorn of Amethyst
3 Tangle Wire
1 Winter Orb
1 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Perish

Original Decklist since 02/20/2011

Lands: 24
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Wasteland
4 Seat of Synod
1 Island
3 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Inkmoth Nexus

Creatures: 20
4 Steel Overseer
4 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Master of Etherium
4 Etched Champion
4 Lodestone Golem

Non-creatures: 17
3 Mox Diamond
2 Mox Opal
2 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Cranial Plating
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Crucible of Worlds

Sideboard: 15
4 Ratchet Bomb
2 Winter Orb
4 Thorn of Amethyst
2 Razormane Masticore
3 Tormod's Crypt or 3Tangle Wire

2. INTRO AND HISTORY

The development of Steel Stompy began with the motivation of playing Stompy decks built completely out of artifacts for two key reasons:

1. Increased consistency with the Stompy manabase without overly worrying about color-requirements on playing colored spells.
2. Improved synergy within the creature base, accelerants, and prison+aggro strategies.

This motivation was initiated from experiences based on piloting traditional Stompy decks in Legacy (Dragon Stompy, Green Stompy, Faerie Stompy, Demon Stompy) to successes and failures.


The success of traditional Stompy decks fall primarily on resolving game-winning lockpieces such as Trinisphere and Blood Moon before being able to push its creatures through safely for the win. There were inherent issues with such strategies:

1. Sequence: If one resolves the lockpieces and beaters in the wrong order, then the deck faces a string of problems from opponents.
2. Consistency: Inconsistencies with drawing multiple lockpieces or having the wrong cards at the wrong time (aka the Stompy syndrome).
3. Relevance: Lockpieces that do not matter in various matchups.
4. Sustainability: Locks in traditional Stompy are never sustained, therefore traditional Stompy has to win within the tempo created by temporal locks in order to secure wins. (e.g. Trinisphere and Blood Moon are temporary locks until an opponent hits 3 mana or draws a basic).

For a more detailed coverage on the nature of traditional Stompy and developments towards Steel Stompy, I refer the readers to partake on a mini-article that I had written on developing this ‘new kind’ of Stompy. The article and decklist may seem somewhat outdated in relation to the current decklist and philosophy, but it serves as an important stepping stone to approaching Stompy from a different philosophy/playstyle. Despite being the deck’s primary engineer and having written an extensive analysis on the ‘new kind’ of Stompy, I am still constantly learning the ins and outs of the deck/archetype, discovering strategies that make the deck more resilient and successful in Legacy.


WHY PLAY STEEL STOMPY OVER DECK X?

Here's a list on why someone might want to take on Steel Stompy. Comparisons against other decks are by no means comparisons between the strengths/weaknesses of these decks, but rather, they are comparisons on playstyle, implementation and philosophy.

1. You play Steel Stompy because you enjoy the explosiveness of Stompy decks over non-Stompy decks first and foremost.
2. You play Steel Stompy over other Stompy variants because you don't enjoy card disadvantage (Simian Spirit Guide, Chrome Mox pitching business spells, Elvish Spirit Guide), i.e. I claim Steel Stompy to be one of the more consistent and synergistic Stompy variant out there in Legacy.
3. You play Steel Stompy over other Stompy variants because you prefer to win by applying constant pressure rather than playing bombs e.g. Meandeck MUD
4. You play Steel Stompy over MUD-Stax/Prison because you want to be the aggressor in games instead on being the control deck.
5. You play Steel Stompy over Affinity because you don't want to autolose to combo and possibly control decks.
6. You play Steel Stompy because you are fearless in metagames with little artifact/affinity hate.

3. CORE STRATEGIES

IDENTIFYING STEEL STOMPY’S ROLE IN LEGACY

The biggest catalyst for the recent iterations of Steel Stompy, was the recognition that Steel Stompy, despite its classification under the Stompy family, was fundamentally a deck that should be played as a tempo-beatdown deck. A prime example of a tempo-beatdown deck is Merfolks. I would recommend readers to not think of tempo in terms of the selection of cards that define a tempo deck e.g. playing with Stifles, Tarmogoyf, Daze etc. I am using the term 'tempo' in its very sense i.e. how fast you are developing your game state and board position in relation to your opponent’s. It so happens that there are many decks not running tempo cards (Stifle, Daze) that ultimately base their primary strategies around gaining tempo advantage e.g. Merfolks, Goblins.

Consider Merfolks, we all know by now that the true success of Merfolks lies in its ability to quickly develop a board with Aether Vial and dropping Lords which increases the board position with minimal resource expenditure. Merfolks not only develops with Vial and Lords, but it also disrupts an opponent's development with free spells such as Daze and Force of Will, making it a very powerful deck in tempo development. They spend their mana building their board while disrupting an opponent’s board position with free counterspells. For many people who still don't understand how Merfolk is truly successful, and continue to attribute its success primarily to Lord of Atlantis' islandwalking ability, I think that they have missed the point on the true synergies and beauty the deck is built upon.

Similarly, Goblins develop the same way by cheating creatures with Goblin Lackey, Aether Vial, Goblin Warchief while disrupting opponents with Wasteland and Rishadan Port. Although on paper Goblins seems to run less disruption than Merfolk, the huge tempo generated from a connected Lackey offsets the limited number of disruption they play. In addition, the lack of disruption is also compensated by a much faster clock with Goblin Piledriver and superior card advantage with Goblin Ringleader, which ensures that Goblin can maintain the game state and tempo advantage all the way up to the late game.

One last example to observe is Zoo. Zoo plays quality creatures that are tremendously undercosted in the format e.g. Wild Nacatl, Tarmogoyf and burn. Despite the fact that Zoo does not play any form of disruption, it still strongly maintains superior tempo development in most games simply because they play creatures that are the best in every turn of the game. If an opponent cannot match a Wild Nacatl on turn 1, they will be taking 3 damage a turn until they can answer it. When an opponent does play a creature that matches Zoo, Zoo's burn/removal takes it out, forcing an opponent yet to find another answer while Zoo continues to develop and push through. This is Zoo's strategy of generating tempo.

These three aggro-decks are commonly played in today's meta and we are well-familiar with how these decks perform. The challenge is to observe whether any fruitful lessons learned from playing these decks can be used to improving Steel Stompy. The bigger challenge, however, is to avoid falling into the danger of "lying to oneself thinking that Steel Stompy can be played as Merfolk/Goblins/Zoo". I would like to stress that when designing Steel Stompy, the greatest challenge was to enforce humility and to not lie to myself that the list was capable of becoming a carbon-copy of Merfolks. However, an understanding on how various decks fundamentally work can provide insights on how one should or should not be playing selections of cards in a deck.


STEEL STOMPY AND THE MERFOLKS MODEL i.e. TEMPO-BEATDOWN

A few recaps on why Merfolks is a successful deck

1. Ability to develop fast with minimal resources utilizing Vials, manlands, lords.
2. Multiple Lords are a key component to Merfolk's success because playing a single creature whose power level is on-the-curve ends up increasing the overall power level of all creatures in play for very little mana investment.
3. Disruption in the form of Wasteland, Force, Daze, keep opponents behind the game state and tempo development while Merfolks continues to build up.
4. Merfolks forces an opponent to deal with their threats but makes it hard for them to do so with disruption.

There are many strategies in Steel Stompy that already capture these features in Merfolks. Previous attempts at working out a controllish/prison shell failed simply because Steel Stompy was naturally fitting in the aggression role more than the prison-role. Tying this back to the observations in Merfolk, we see that Steel Stompy finds a lot of similarities (some weaker, some stronger):

1. Steel Stompy can develop very fast with minimal resource utilizing Sol-Lands (i.e. Ancient Tomb, City of Traitors). This is a well-known fact that a Stompy deck can typically out-develop any other deck in Legacy given its explosive manabase. Steel Stompy also develops very fast by simply dropping manlands that scale in size with its lords.
2. Steel Overseer and Master of Etherium are the Lords for Steel Stompy, and end up increasing the overall force on the board for little mana investment. The advantage Steel Stompy Lords have over Merfolks lords is with Steel Overseer, who will persistently grow guys, and Master of Etherium who conveniently happens to be a huge beatstick.
3. Disruption in the form of Wasteland, Chalice of the Void, Phyrexian Revoker, Lodestone Golem keep opponents’ board development under control while Steel Stompy continues to build up.
4. Steel Stompy forces an opponent to deal with its threats but makes it hard for them to do so under disruption.

We see how similarly Steel Stompy functions in relation with Merfolk. The method it employs is different (running Chalice/Lodestone/Revoker instead of Force/Daze), but the core-strategy is the same: Keep developing a board while making it hard for opponents to develop theirs. Utilize lords and synergies to improve board position with minimal resource-expenditure and from there try to incrementally gain tempo advantage.


STEEL STOMPY V.S. AFFINITY V.S. MUD-PRISON

Many times, people have asked me, and this includes myself, what is the main difference between Steel Stompy, MUD, and Affinity. There is a key difference in all three decks. To draw a useful analogy, imagine the comparison for: Merfolks, the Rock, and Goyf Sligh. I would say that Steel Stompy follows the playstyle and philosophy of Merfolks, to build a force while disrupting. MUD follows the playstyle of the Rock, to establish control in the mid-game, and Affinity follows the playstyle of Goyf Sligh, to kill an opponent as fast as possible.

This is a simple analogy (not a good one), but the important point is to demonstrate that even though some selection in card choices may tend towards classifying Steel Stompy as a MUD Prison or Affinity deck, the truth is, the same selection of cards are utilized different based on the deck’s functions. For example, Chalice is used in MUD Prison as an early game defense to continue to lock an opponent while they bring other lockpieces out, whereas Chalice in Steel Stompy is primarily used as a tempo advantage against other decks, and to protect its own creatures from opposing removal. As a result, changes in the decklist usually will face heavy scrutiny simply because suggested cards have to be analyzed based on what the core strategy of the deck is seeking to employ. Would a card like Brainstorm be amazing in Merfolks? It definitely would be, but the goals of Merfolks as a tempo beatdown deck demands a higher threat density than card selection. Similarly, cards like Metalworker and Trinisphere (popular suggestion for Steel Stompy) simply do not work with the deck’s goal on being the tempo beatdown deck. As I had mentioned before, when the deck was leaning towards a more control-prison deck, it tended to fail, this is because aggressive cards like Master of Etherium, Cranial Plating do not pair up strongly with slower prison cards like Trinisphere and Metalworker. More details will be provided in the later sections.

4. CARD CHOICES

In this section, I will group the selection of cards into multiple engines/blocks that synergize strongly with each other. In this way, I hope the readers will understand the role of each card and how they function within the deck rather than individually. This allows us to avoid obvious yet vague statements like "Turn 1 Trinisphere is brutal in Legacy so you need to play it". I hope criticism will be based on analyzing how a card fits or does not fit in a deck and its strategy, rather than analyzing the functions of the individual card.

I am also working on spreadsheets that give exact statistical implications on running certain cards. These will be uploaded over time as the deck evolves on Google docs, so stay tuned in the future! I will first run through the core cards and card-choices for Steel Stompy, followed by a short section on other less-frequently played cards that are viable within Steel Stompy depending on metagames.


THE STOMPY MANABASE

4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
3 Mox Diamond
3 Mox Opal

The infamous Stompy manabase that power out fast board development is the main reason one should ever consider playing the Stompy archetype in the first place. 8 Sol-lands are a must in the deck despite how crappy drawing multiple Tombs/Cities can get. Unlike other Stompy deck, Steel Stompy utilizes Mox Diamond over Chrome Mox. The drawback is to play a higher land count. This issue is, however, resolved with the deck design itself where the manlands (Inkmoth Nexus) function with Overseer/Master/Plating/Tezz 2.0, 4 Wastelands pair up synergistically with Lodestone Golems (giving you two turns of tempo advantage) and Crucible of Worlds. By avoiding running Chrome Mox, Steel Stompy can always ensure that it has enough business spell to keep the pressure on. Mox Opal has been a gift from Scars of Mirrodin, being the only Mox in Legacy without any drawback (it's essentially a Power 9 Mox in the deck!).

Core of the deck is colorless (50+ non-colored permanents), and this gives huge consistency with the Stompy manabase and you rarely have to worry about color issues where other Stompy decks may complain. Even Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas is easily castable with the manabase, requiring you to draw 1 of 8 artifact lands and 1 of 6 Moxes to resolve a game-winning Planeswalker (maths will be worked out eventually)

*RESERVED FOR CALCULATION*

Without Simian/Elvish Spirit Guide, you may lose some explosiveness, but recall that the deck is primarily designed to minimize its dependence on turn one 3cmc spells. As such, there are no risks to drawing multiple accelerants late game that become dead cards (exceptions are the 3 Mox Opal, but when you consider the power level of Mox Opal in this deck to Spirit Guides in its role as being a permanent accelerant, metalcraft enabler, pumping boosts to Plating/Master, you’ll see why the overall choice to go artifact Stompy already eliminates a ton of inconsistency problems experienced in traditional Stompy).


THE COLORS OF STEEL STOMPY

4 Seat of Synod
4 Vault of Whispers
3 Mox Diamond
3 Mox Opal

BLUE-SOURCES
10-sources producing blue to consistently cast Master of Etherium. Sometimes you may not be able to cast Masters, but there are very few games ~5% (*RESERVED FOR CALCULATION*) where you are holding onto dead Masters since you still have plenty of other spells to play out while having an uncastable Master.

BLACK-SOURCES
10-sources producing black to consistently support 3-4 Perish in the sideboard, and the less frequent ability to equip Cranial Plating for BB at instant speed. The Vault of Whispers was the latest improvement for the deck. After realizing that the deck can support UB as easily as supporting just U (since you have the same amount of colored-sources producing U or B), the Vault of Whispers have been a huge asset in improving turn 2 Metalcraft, and boosting Cranial Plating and Master of Etherium, and also being able to support Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas (since all you need is to draw either artifact land and a Mox to cast Tezz 2.0).

MOX DIAMOND/OPAL RATIOS
Regarding the 3/3 Mox Diamond/Opal split, I have done extensive testing for 4/2 and 3/3 split. The 3/3 split is in every way superior to the 4/2 split. Steel Stompy’s design was primarily developed to avoid the dependence on turn one 3cmc spells such as Trinisphere and Blood Moon, as a way to improve tempo development when hands that do not support turn one 3cmc spells are drawn (Steel Stompy can still easily generate three mana on turn one, but the deck’s design is trying to limit its dependence on such plays). As a result, Mox Diamond one turn one is usually not required if you have a Sol-land out. Mox Diamond is still critical since it greatly improves getting two mana on turn one in situations where you do not draw a Sol-land.

Mox Opal is in every way superior to Mox Diamond in this deck since fast mana on turn one is not a primary objective in Steel Stompy. Steel Stompy does not need three mana on turn one, but it very well needs the extra mana on turns two and later, and this is where Mox Opal provides the same benefit as Mox Diamond without the card disadvantage. When drawing the second Opal may seem as a bad dead card, remember that the second Diamond drawn is worse since resolving the second Diamond would have meant that you have invested a total of four cards to the second Diamond (first Diamond, second Diamond, two pitched lands, not counting the other lands in hand dedicated to land drops). The second Diamond drawn is in every way worse than the second Opal drawn. Opal is one of the best cards in the deck, and in my opinion, is a much underused card in the format (I think that decks that can support Opal should play Opals due to its sheer power).

*RESERVED FOR CALCULATION*

There’s recent interests in testing a 2/4 or a 2/3 Diamond/Opal split which could prove to be a solution to the deck’s desire to maintain land drops consistently. I am working on spreadsheets to work out the final best ratios and will be documenting these here when they are completed. Recent testing of 2/4 Diamond/Opal has shown great promise in increasing the occurences of early Mox Opal, but the main problem was not drawing double Mox Opal in the 2/4 configuration, rather, it was the lack of opening 2 mana hands when you don't open with a Sol-land where the 3rd Mox Diamond would have benefited more than the 4th Opal.

*RESERVED FOR CALCULATION*



THE TEMPO-BEATDOWN STRATEGY

3 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Etched Champion
4 Steel Overseer
4 Master of Etherium
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Inkmoth Nexus
3 Cranial Plating
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas

The ratio of 19 creatures to 5 equipments proves the deck tends towards an beatdown-aggro deck. On top of that, there are 3 flying Inkmoth Nexus manlands, which receive the same pumping benefits (actually x2 effect due to infect) from Lords. Associating this with the Merfolk model, Merfolk runs about 20 creatures with 4 manlands and usually zero-equipment. If Aether Vial is outside of the picture, the tempo/board development of this deck should be on par or exceed Merfolk's development.

However, we don't play Vial, but we do get flying manlands, equipments, unblockable Champions and huge Masters. Drawing some similar functions to Merfolks:
- Phyrexian Revoker ~ Silvergill Adept (2/1 body that nets +1 advantage when played)
- Steel Overseer/Master of Etherium ~ Lord of Atlantis/Merrow Reejery (Lords that pump your army, Merfolk has more tempo/evasive lords while Steel Stompy has bigger bodied-lords that continually grow your army)
- Etched Champion ~ Coralhelm Commander (Merfolk gets yet another Lord and evasive beater and Champion is the deck's commando just like Coralhelm is Merfolk's Commando that can get games just by himself)

With such a dense creaturebase which receives synergistic pumps from 8 lords, the strategy of beat-down is similar to Merfolks. You either curve out with Lords and overrun your opponents with 3/2 or 4/3 Phyrexian Revokers, 6/4 or 7/5 Lodestone Golems and a bunch of 2/2, 3/3 flying manlands or you can sit back and defend while Etched Champion and flying manlands get in there the way Coralhelm Commander does.

MASTER OF ETHERIUM, ETCHED CHAMPION
Master Etherium and Etched Champion are the main win-conditions in the deck. When resolved, very few decks can handle the P/T of these dudes. Master is a little more fragile to removal (Grip/Pridemage/Ancient Grudge), but for 3-mana, he is well capable of matching the big beaters of Legacy (Knights, Goyfs). Etched Champion is by far the spell you need to resolve against any deck playing aggro or control. Once in play and with metalcraft on, only a few number of spells can deal with him. Etched Champion is unconditionally your best win-condition against most decks due to his inbuilt protection from colors (think of him as a mini 2/2 progenitus in the format). When paired up with Overseer/Plating/Jitte/SoFI, he becomes a very dangerous threat that an opponent can only hope to race you in 1-3 turns.

STEEL OVERSEER
Steel Overseer is perhaps the weakest card in the deck, but his importance is crucial to the deck’s core strategy. Steel Overseer, for just 2 mana, is capable of providing much more than a 2 mana investment could ever provide in the deck. It’s a repeating lord effect that permanently grows everything. It is this reason that a turn one Overseer that doesn’t bite a removal is going to create huge headaches in the next two turns for many aggro decks. Overseer’s biggest strength is applying its effects on Etched Champion, Inkmoth Nexus and Lodestone Golem (putting it out of the x/3 P/T bracket). A turn one Overseer is going to gain the deck a lot of value. The philosophy behind Overseer is: It looks weak on paper, but when playing the deck out, you are constantly growing your guys where other decks are playing creatures with fairly static/preset power/toughness. If you can grow your guys outside of that bracket, they are no longer in a position to attack/defend and are set back in tempo. Pairing this philosophy together with a disruptive lockpiece strategy with Wastelands/Lodestones/Chalice, you can see how Overseer gains even more value when an opponent is being slowed down. It is for this reason that Overseer is the key card to winning a Lord-heavy Merfolks matchup. They have to invest more than 1 card to ever match 1 Overseer, who does all the lord effects you will ever need in just 1 card.

PHYREXIAN REVOKER
Phyrexian Revoker, despite feeling underwhelming in many situations on having a frail 2/1 body, is still quite a central piece to the deck. Notice that many artifact-based decks usually are forced to run Revokers maindeck/sideboard as an out to a devastating Pernicious Deed/EE. Affinity tends to run a number of Pithing Needles in the SB against decks that target artifacts. Revoker is basically a redundant slot that freed up four sideboard slots, while still being able to focus on the overall strategy of the deck to disrupt and beatdown. When you draw a hand of Overseer + Revoker and that resolves, your Revoker could get into a good position to start swinging. Even then, many creatures in Legacy are better than Revoker, and many opponents find it not worthy enough to trade with a 2/1 Revoker (e.g. Bob/Pridemage). The main philosophy on playing Revoker is: your opponents are going to play cards like Aether Vial and Top. When their Vial and Tops no longer work, you are essentially shutting down the most important cards in their deck. When they do remove Revoker, that’s one less removal for your Golem and Champion and Master, and these guys are the ones bringing you home the wins, not the Revoker.

LODESTONE GOLEM
Lodestone Golem is the bread and butter for this build. In the past, I felt that 4cmc was hard to achieve even with the Stompy manabase and had to enforce playing the Golems strictly with Metalworkers. It was until heavy playtesting that I realized the flaw to that logic. Drawing a turn one Metalworker hand accelerating into Lodestone Golem on turn two is far more situational than playing Lodestone Golem naturally with Steel Stompy’s manabase. *RESERVED FOR CALCULATION*. I will present the maths if interested, but it takes a lot of testing, and logical thinking to notice such flawed beliefs that I once found hard to shake off. Lodestone’s main strength is the immediate pressure he presents. When you have a good board position, your opponent is forced to spend a removal on him (usually costing a turn especially if they only left one mana open on your turn when you cast the Golem). This is good enough even at the worst case scenario when Golem is removed. If Golem is not removed, chances are you will be pulling ahead in the game very soon. You have another 3 Golems and 4 Wastelands to further push their development back. Being able to finally convince myself from MUD Prison strategies and focus on the beatdown aspect for Steel Stompy is the main reason I started appreciating Golem’s role in the deck. When you pair up Wasteland with Golem, your opponents will usually find themselves more than two turns away from your (unfair Stompy-based) board development. In addition, receiving just +1/+1 from any lord in this deck puts Lodestone in a terrifying 6/4 beater, dodging a lot of creatures and removal. Some of the best line of plays for this deck include: Turn 1 Chalice/Overseer, Turn 2 Lodestone, Turn 3 Wasteland + Master/Champion/Plating etc. In such a situation (especially with Chalice), they are set back two turns with the synergy of Wasteland + Lodestone Golem.

INKMOTH NEXUS
Inkmoth Nexus has been the solidified replacement for Blinkmoth Nexus/Mishra’s Factory. Many people are concerned with the breakdown of damage v.s. Poison, potentially leading to winning issues where damage would had been much appreciated. The analysis done in finally deciding on Inkmoth Nexus was quite extensive, and Inkmoth won the margin by far. I’m quite convinced that future Affinity lists will be converting to Inkmoth Nexues as well in the future:

1. In situations where you have no pumps/Platings, Inkmoth wins much faster than Blinkmoth. The only exception is if your opponents are already down to 10 life, and it is at this point where Inkmoth breaks even with Blinkmoth. If they are more than 10 life, Inkmoth in every situation without a pump is going to win faster than Inkmoth. If you have a single Lord effect out, Inkmoth is pulling ahead of Blinkmoth.
2. Against decks that have a form on gaining life (Pulse of the Fields, Cephalid Breakfast etc, random crap), Inkmoth can entirely neglect life totals when it comes to winning.
3. With a Cranial Plating, Inkmoth can win games in just one swing (very common)
4. The synergy of Inkmoth + Crucible is not just unfair on the defensive, but rather a scary offensive that keeps coming back.
5. Inkmoth is much stronger in this deck compared to Blinkmoth because Steel Stompy is fundamentally two turns slower than Affinity. Therefore the desire to go all out on damage is not a big one. A big advantage of Inkmoth in a less aggressive deck (compared to Affinity) is forcing your opponents to have answers for two modes of attack, where in the Affinity case, the opponent only has to worry about life totals.

CRANIAL PLATING
Cranial Plating is unargubly the best equipment in the format, yes even better than Jitte and SoFI. The only drawback to Plating is to play an artifact deck. The reason why Plating is in every way the best equipment in an artifact deck is its ability to close games MUCH faster. There is no real reason to get Jitte counters and slowly win inevitably when you could have closed games 2-3 turns faster. Cranial Plating can easily turn a losing game into a winning game, and as many Legacy players have played against Affinity, one of the most feared cards in the deck is specifically Plating. Cranial Plating works great with Inkmoth Nexus (usually providing 1-hit wins out of nowhere) and pairs very strongly with Etched Champion for 2-3 hit wins. At worst, on the defense, you can slap a Plating on a 2/1 Revoker and prevent an opponent from attacking unless he's wililng to trade his Goyf with a Revoker.

TEZZERET, AGENT OF BOLAS
Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas' inclusion in Steel Stompy was not a natural move. The 2UB manacost 'looked' very prohibitive in a deck primarily playing 72 colorless permanents. However, the suggestion came from multiple suggestions on the thread, but was primarily initiated from my personal annoyance at the yet-still unfavorable matchups against GWx decks. Back in SCG Dallas, I knew that Steel Stompy could beat Bant and Zoo comfortably but there were still situations where the deck simply lost to Knight of the Reliquary and Pridemage. Witnessing the sheer power of Perish against GWx decks from watching AJ Sacher being set back by Team America's Perish, and having played Perish myself in my Landstill lists, I mused about playing 4 Perish in the SB for Steel Stompy. Surprisingly, it was then when I realized that playing 4 Perish in the sideboard is just as easily castable as 4 Master of Etherium in the MD as long as I ran another 4 Vault of Whispers. After that enlightment, I re-explored Tezz 2.0's contributions for the deck, and comparing against the winning Tezzeret Affinity list in SCG Dallas, I realized that I could cast Tezz 2.0 just as easily as Tezzeret Affinity. In truth, Tezz 2.0 is just a little more difficult to cast than Master of Etherium/Perish, however, with the configured colored manabase of 8 artifact lands and 6 Moxes, you are very likely to see at least 1 artifact land and 1 Moxen in the course of the game, which casts Tezz 2.0 as long as you have any artifact land and a mox in play.

*RESERVED FOR CALCULATION*

Now, before Tezz 2.0 made it to the list, Steel Stompy was inherently a fair deck i.e. there were no 'broken' cards unless you consider Cranial Plating to be a broken card. Steel Stompy had some pretty broken starts (Turn 1 Chalice/Overseer, Turn 2 Golem, Turn 3 Wasteland + 3cmc dude), but there was inherently no unfairness to the deck when compared to other Legacy decks. However, with the dawn of Tezz 2.0, the deck finally had some unfair plays. Casting Tezz 2.0 on turn 2 is as feasible as casting Lodestone Golem outside of double Sol-lands i.e. Turn 1 Ancient Tomb + 2cmc artiact, Turn 2 Artifact land + Mox (Diamond or Opal doesn't matter) = Turn 2 Tezzeret. A Turn 2 Tezzeret is most likely going to win you the game right there if uncountered. Even a turn 3-4 Tezzeret is still unfair, considering that your defense for Tezzeret includes Etched Champion, huge Masters of Etherium, chump blockers. Once you get Tezzeret out, you want to immediately use the following abilities:

+1: Dig 5 cards and put an artifact in your hand. There is NO card in the existence of the format that grants Stompy deck to dig this much. Tezzeret's +1 is what truly breaks this deck. Over 1-2 turns, you will be seeing 5-10 cards deep, grabbing Platings for the win, more Lodestones for sustained locks, multiple Masters of Etherium for beatdown, or more Etched Champions on the defense.
-1: This is his least used ability. I typically only use this ability if Tezz is helpless with no creatures on the board, or if I am swinging for the win with lethal damage by animating an artifact land or mox. The reason why this ability isn't used is because of his next ability:
-4: Tendrils of Agony your opponents equal to the number of artifacts you control. Similar to Affinity, Steel Stompy is very capable on having at least 6-8 artifacts by turn 4-5. Once you hit his ultimate, you should have the game, if not, set your aggro opponents so far behind that they can no longer race you. Note that this ability has tremendous synergy with Etched Champion even if you can't Tendrils for lethal. Etched Champion will just sneak in the remaining damage for the win while you have a buffer of life to accomplish this. Most of the time, his ultimate is fetching a 12-16 point lifeswing with just a single turn passed from using his +1 ability.



THE PRISON STRATEGY

4 Chalice of the Void
2 Crucible of Worlds
3 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Wasteland

This is the core-prison collection maindeck. The selection was mainly designed to have applications flexible for either control/combo/aggro. The prison-strategy is enhanced from the sideboard with 4 Thorn of Amethyst and 2-3 Winter Orbs against control/combo decks. Since the goal of the deck is to fundamentally win tempo/board development, the prison-strategy is a supplement strategy to slow opponents down while you develop your position. Note the importance on minimizing cards that are bad when drawn in multiples e.g. Trinisphere and Blood Moon. Crucible is the only card that is bad in the deck when drawn in multiples. Wasteland is powerful enough to win some games by itself, and becomes unfair when paired up with Lodestone Golem and/or Crucible of Worlds. It is important to note that 8 of the prison-strategy are creatures, which all benefit from the lords the deck run. In particular, Lodestone Golem being a 6/4 after pumped by Overseer/Master becomes a terrifying threat for most decks to deal with.

The prison-strategy is a very important one, despite not being the main-focus of the deck. It synergizes very strongly with Overseer. In scenarios where you are on equal footing on board development, the prison-strategy will slow your opponents down, allowing you to take turns growing your guys with Overseers until they exceed your opponent's board development. What I mean by this is: If your opponent has a board of 2/x's, then growing your guys to x/3's are sufficient to win the board development because they will have to start doing 2-1 trades to answer your board. If your opponent has a board of 3/x's, then growing your guys to x/4's trump the board once again. Without the prison-strategy, you will not be able to have time to develop that board position, and will be forced to play a fair game (or unfair game because your opponent plays better creatures than you).

Postboard, against combo/control, note the importance of the deck switching its roles. Instead on taking the primary role of utilizing aggressive aggro beatdown by tempo advantage, the prison-strategy will be your main strategy with the aggro-strategy backing that up. It is important to identify what roles you are playing and the sideboard is the selection of cards that improves that strategy. It is this very fact that Goblins have finally trumped its problematic Zoo matchup when historically the matchup was a terrible one for Goblins. By switching roles from being the aggressor and finally learning to board out Lackeys and Piledrivers against Zoo, goblins are enjoying tremendous success against a once impossible matchup. In the same light, understanding what Steel Stompy is achieving in games, and what it is capable of achieving in games is the key component to securing wins.


OTHER CARDS WORTH CONSIDERATION IN VARIOUS METAGAMES

SUPPORT CARDS:
Umezawa's Jitte
Sword of Fire and Ice
Sword of Body and Mind

In metagames where there's a ton of tribal, 2 maindeck Jitte is very strong. If it's more Merfolks than Goblins, SoFI is stronger. In metagames where decks are primarily GWx, SoBM is a strong addition (allows you to swing in unblocked, get a 2/2 blocker and repeat-rinse)

LANDS:
Blinkmoth Nexus
Mishra's Factory
Rishadan Port

For lists that desire to be a little more resilient against Pernicious Deed, Null Rod, Serenit, Energy Flux etc, I would opt to cut black and Tezz 2.0 to run more manlands. Factories and Ports aren't too spetacular as possible cards for the deck, but against control-heavier metagames, ports are great.

CREATURES:
Ornithopter

Ornithopter is a great creature for the deck, the same way Affinity utilizes Ornithopters. However, make sure to play enough Cranial Platings (at least 3-4) if you opt to play 2-3 Ornithopters in the deck. Ornithopter also enables metalcraft nicely for the deck, but for most parts, there are just better creatures that you play over Ornithopter in Steel Stompy

LOCKPIECES:
Tangle Wire
Sphere of Resistance
Trinisphere

Depending on your metagame, if it's heavy combo/control, you can use more Sphere of Resistance and/or Trinispheres in the SB. Tangle Wire is a great card in Steel Stompy since Steel Stompy can play very well under Wires. The only problem is Tangle Wire doesn't really solve any matchup at a significant level. It's good as a tempo advantage over decks that need the multiple turns (e.g. Enchantress, combo, Show and Tell), but cutting cards for Tangle Wire usually translates for a loss of tempo on your side as well when deciding what to card. Tangle Wire was mainly played in the past to delay Show and Tell/NO decks, and to slow Pernicious Deed down. With the printing of Phyrexian Metamorph, you now have a decent NO/Show matchup, and it's not worth playing Wires to try to salvage the Pernicious Deed.dec matchup.

OTHER COLOR OPTIONS:
Ethersworn Canonist
Oblivion Ring
Stoneforge Mystic

The white splash is an interesting splash. However the main reason why I tend to avoid it is because I value Perish much more in positively increasing the more problematic GWx matchups than Ethersworn Canonist, who only helps beat the matchups you are already good at (control/combo). Oblivion Ring should be the main reason for playing white (against Deeds/Emrakul) but once again, the printing of Phyrexian Metamorph has solved the NO/Show matchup to a large extent the white splash isn't needed.

4. MATCHUPS AND STRATEGIES

TOURNAMENT RESULTS

For the following matchup, I'll post the strengths/weaknesses of the deck against deck X in boxes and make comments on why/how the matchup is favored and the relevant strategies against such decks.


ZOO
60-40 (favorable)

STRENGTHS

• Chalice at 1 will win you games most of the time, with Revoker backing up Chalice naming Qasali Pridemage
• Drawing Etched Champion blanks their Tarmogoyf and Knight of the Reliquary.
• Drawing a Master of Etherium matches Tarmogoyf and Knight (Master is usually still bigger).
• Wasteland/Crucible/Lodestone combination hinders their development.
• Cranial Plating is used on the defensive to make trades with Zoo's big creatures (since your creatures are usually smaller) or on the offensive with Inkmoth/Champion to usually win in 1-2 turns while your other forces chump/block.
• Steel Overseer is not too stellar in this matchup due to removal, but if he gets past the 3/3 body and put your other creatures outside the x/3 range, you can start winning the attrition war and doing favorable trades.
• Phyrexian Revoker pro-actively names Qasali Pridemage, and can reactively name Grim Lavamancer and Knight of the Reliquary. For most parts, if my hand is prone to getting out-tempo'd by Pridemage (e.g. a hand that relies on Jitte), then I will name Pridemage, otherwise naming Knight is almost always better since KotR is one of the few cards that really beats Steel Stompy (incredibly large creature and a mini-wastelock on Steel Stompy's manabase).
• Perish in the SB beats GWx decks.

WEAKNESS

• Turn 1 Wild Nacatl most often gets there if they are on the play. If you are on the play, you can still survive Nacatls with either Chalice in opening or fast Etched Champions. Regardless Etched Champion/Master of Etheriums are required to solidfy your defenses.
• Not drawing Chalice does weaken the matchup but only if they draw a heavy Nacatl/burn hand. If they are drawing tons of Knights and Goyfs, they are relatively slow in their board development and you have many answers to a slow Zoo deck e.g. Recurring Inkmoth Nexus, growing dudes bigger than their board, Etched Champion/Master of Etherium, or just racing in the air or with Champion using Cranial Plating.
• Postboard, the extra hate they bring in the form of Krosan Grips isn't too relevant but since they are most likely cutting some 1cmc spells, your Chalice plan is weaker while they bring in more hate. Grip is ultimately still 1-1 at 3cmc, so it is not ideal against you. Problems I encountered was Vexing Shusher as a solution to Chalice.

The Zoo matchup isn't unfavorable and for most part is favorable for Steel Stompy due to Steel Stompy's fast board development while slowing down an opponent's development. However, it is one of the harder matchups to play correctly despite being a favorable one. You need to always be aware on what Zoo can burn/remove your plays and this can create huge tempo losses. Sometimes you cannot prevent your creatures from getting burned, but you will have to bait the burn in the correct order. For instance, Steel Overseer is generally bad against Zoo since he is too slow to be safe outside of the x/3 P/T range. However, scenarios are different if you led with a Chalice@1, or a Wasteland screwing them out of mana. Overseer is still critical to winning the game because you need him to grow your 2/1 and 5/3 guys out of the bolt-toughness range, but do not keep hands where Overseers are too slow to do anything against their aggressive gameplan.

For most parts, Lodestone Golem is extremely powerful against Zoo, yet extremely fragile. Depending on your hands, you want to throw out Overseers/Revokers to bait removal to allow Golem to survive. More importantly, you need to keep every Master/Champion alive to avoid losing to their big creature. With the printing of Phyrexian Metamorph, you not only get more copies of Master/Champion, but you can also now take on their Goyf and Knights, which are stronger on your end because they receive pumps from 8 lords in your deck.

Good hands to keep against Zoo are hands with a few of the cards listed below:

• Etched Champion + anything
• Chalice + anything
• Master of Etherium + Revoker naming Pridemage
• Master of Etherium/Steel Overseer + Lodestone Golem (putting him outside of 5/3 into 6/4 immediately)
• Crucible + Wasteland/Inkmoth/Lodestone + fast-mana

I am still learning how to board correctly against Zoo. Ratchet Bombs may come in to deal with the potential 1cmc creatures that are problematic (Grim Lavamancer and Wild Nacatl). What I have observed is that Ratchet Bombs are weak on the play against Zoo and decent on the draw against Zoo. This is because on the play, you should be leading off with aggressive starts into Chalice/Crucible/Overseer/Champion/Master and force them to answer your threats. If they choose to play Nacatl, the value of the cards mentioned earlier increases and you will match their board development shortly. On the draw, they will definitely lead off usually with Nacatl/lavamancer which blanks out Chalice's effectiveness (you still keep 4 Chalice in). Ratchet Bomb here will catch the eary culprits that will put your life low.


MERFOLKS
(65-35 favorable)

STRENGTHS

• Etched Champion is once again very solid on the defense and offense.
• Jitte/SoFI presents a big threat.
• Overseer is the best card in this matchup, matching their board development of Lords. Merfolks need more than one lord to match Overseer, who provides an ongoing pump effect that forces Merfolks to draw and draw lords i.e. one Overseer in Steel Stompy requires Merfolks to draw more than one card to match him.
• Phyrexian Revoker is important naming Vials/Coralhelm.
• Master of Etherium and Lodestone Golem are safe beaters (5/3 is a good body against Merfolks).
• Standstill is a dead card in their deck unless they lead with an active Vial.

WEAKNESS

• Merfolks can out-tempo you with Daze/Wasteland/Vial so always keep that in mind, i.e. do NOT keep hands that lose to Wastelands.
• Coralhelm Commander is their trump card so Revoker is critical against him unless you can race the clock.
• Merfolk can curve out better than this deck.
• Quite a number of dead cards: Crucible of Worlds, Chalice of the Void (only use is to stop Vial, usually not worth it and should be boarded out).

I truly enjoy this matchup despite my hate for Merfolks. The matchup for most parts is in your favor. If they draw a combination of Vial/Force/creatures, it's in their favor. If they draw either of Vial/Force + creatures, the matchup is 50-50. If they draw no Vial/Force and just creatures, I am very favored. Both decks are aggressive, with Steel Stompy usually being more aggressive due to bigger-sized creatures. However, when lords are involved, combat gets very different. The key thing here is to realize that Lord-math really influences the matchup. If they draw more Lords than you do, then you are forced to do unfavorable trades or take some free damage. Similarly, if Overseer comes online faster, Merfolk simply has trouble keeping up with Steel Stompy's army size.

Steel Stompy gets more options with Cranial Plating and Jitte to win the stalemates, and the flying manlands are key when board position is under stalemate. Postboard, boarding out Crucibles and a number of Lodestones (and Chalice if I'm on the draw) is ideal when bringing in 3 Ratchet Bombs and 2 Jittes to improve the matchup. I will not board out Cranial Plating against Merfolks. It's the only unfair trump card you have to break the symmetry between the two decks (the two decks have very similar tempo and board development). Ratchet Bomb is not just effective in answering Vial, but it is critical in sweeping their 2-drops/3-drops.

The goal here is to abuse the fact that Merfolk plays FoW. You want Merfolk to use FoW whenever they can because this means one less creature against you, which from testing has proved to be highly critical to break the symmetry of board position. The best you can hope for against this matchup that makes it a cakewalk is if they draw a creature-light hand, then you will simply beat them down (the same goes against you, so it's best to mull to aggressive hands with enough threats to match theirs, this is why forcing them to pitch a creature to FoW is very worth it).


BLUE-CONTROL (Landstill, Countertop, Jace-control)

STRENGTHS

• Wasteland/Crucible/Rishadan Port/manlands is a big problem for control.
• Phyrexian Revoker names Top/Jace/EE which forces them to spend an StP or another removal on Revoker while your bigger threats get in.
• Etched Champion is immune to everything sans Mishra's Factory, Maze of Ith and EE.
• Master of Etherium functions as a Merfolk Lord creating a big force and beating hard by himself
• Lodestone Golem is MVP in the matchup when resolved and shines when Wastelands are paired together.
• Chalice@1 rocks hard.
• Steel Overseer is the greatest threat (with/without flying manlands).
• They can sweep your board but you will still end up with flying manlands (possibly with Overseer counters) that get past Humility/Moat.
• A resolved Tezzeret means that they will lose the turn after Tezzeret comes online.

WEAKNESSES

• Really none, but sometimes control can get in there with Planeswalkers after countering a ton of stuff and having multiple sweepers.
• You need to watch out for Firespout and if they do recur EE, it's time to scoop it up unless you have enough manlands.

This matchup is very very favored for Steel Stompy. The key reason why Steel Stompy enjoys a much stronger control matchup is due to its philosophy. Unlike other Stompy decks e.g. Dragonstompy, Steel Stompy is not focused on powering out huge threats with a ton of resources (cards/mana). Steel Stompy is focused on minimizing resources yet maximizing its board position. Against control, you have over 20 creatures (Revoker and Lodestone being disruptive, Master and Overseers being must-answers, Champion being immune to most removal) to pressure control. On top of that, you are creating even more pressure from Chalice and Crucible and Wastelands. Contrast this to decks like Dragonstompy where they spend 3-4 cards powering out 1 lockpiece and 1 threat. When these are handled, the deck starts to fold and lose its position. Steel Stompy plays out similarly to Merfolks against control: keeping the pressure up while disrupting. The backup plan when they do finally gain control is to rely on flying manlands to finish the job.

Postboard, it becomes very unfavorable for Control if they do not pack relevant hate-cards. You will have a new suite of 4 Thorn of Amethyst and 2-3 Winter Orbs (boarding out Equipments) against them. If they are playing Thopter Foundry/Decree/Elspeth, Ratchet Bombs are always helpful. Always FoW-bait whenever possible to tax their resources/cards or to make them play FoW incorrectly. Tezzeret 2.0 now also provides an additional win-condition outside of the combat phase if the control players ever play too many Moat/Humility/Ensnaring Bridges.



TOURNAMENT HISTORIES

Top 4 split: 3-1 (14 man)
Round 1: Merfolks (2-0)
Round 2: Bant (2-0)
Round 3: Zoo (1-2)
Top 4: ???

1st place: 4-1 (9 man)
Round 1: UB Merfolks (2-1)
Round 2: Zoo (1-2)
Round 3: Junk and Taxes (2-0)
Top 4: Zoo (2-1)
Top 2: UB Merfolks (2-1)

2-2 (8 man)
Round 1: Countertop (2-1)
Round 2: CABJace (1-2)
Round 3: ???
Round 4: UB Merfolks (1-2)

Top 4: 3-1 (10 man)
Round 1: UB Merfolks (2-1)
Round 2: Big Zoo (1-2)
Round 3: Enchantress (2-0)
Round 4: Lands (2-0)
Top 4: Big Zoo (1-2)

SCG Legacy Opens DFW - 27th Place 5-3: (~150-200 man)
Round 1: Belcher (2-0)
Round 2: Death and Taxes (2-1)
Round 3: GW NOrder (1-2)
Round 4: Team America (0-2)
Round 5: Bye
Round 6: Merfolks (2-0)
Round 7: Goblins (2-0)
Round 8: Imperial Painter (0-2)

GP Providence Trial: Top 4: 4-1 (17 man)
Round 1: Merfolk (2-0)
Round 2: Junk (1-2)
Round 3: RB Goblins (2-1)
Round 4: Pox (2-1)
Round 5: TES (2-0)
Top 4: Drop since I'm not going to the GP and don't want to compete for byes from my buddies

Top 4: 4-0 (13 man)
Round 1: Spiral Tide (2-1)
Round 2: Imperial Painter (2-0)
Round 3: NO Bant (2-1)
Round 4: Enchantress (2-0)
split top 4

CREDITS AND CONCLUSIONS

Many thanks to:

Friends at Asgard Games who help me test the deck.
Drew (drewliusmaximus) who has ordered pieces for the deck :P
Jeff (Esper3k) and Thomas (admiral_arzar) for providing feedback on the deck.

Plm: suggested Playing Inkmoth Nexus over Factories/Blinkmoths, and emphasizing the power level of Cranial Plating.
bruizzar: randomnly introducing the idea of Tezz 2.0 which I dismissed, although he was opting entirely to play a different deck, but the idea to play Tezz 2.0 was still provided from him :P
rukcus: Suggesting the 2/4 Diamond/Opal split, and testing the deck.
knightelite: Testing lists, and pointing out Tezz 2.0 + Inkmoth Interactions don't work the way I wanted it to be (i.e. keep a 5/5 flying infect :P)
alterego: making me explore more evasive creatures, which led to inclusion of Ornithopter, which led to the realization of the importance on turn 2 Metalcraft, which led to further iterations down the road.
spooks: advocating for Tezz 2.0
mayckol and many others for reading, and having an interest in the deck!