[Deck] Elephant Stompy (formerly Elf Stompy)

[Kuma]

Well, I was going to test this a little more before posting it, but since MWS was down last night, here it is:

Elemental Stompy

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

3x Garruk Wildspeaker
3x Briarhorn
4x Tarmogoyf
1x Iwamori of the Open Fist
4x Spawnwrithe
4x Chameleon Colossus
4x Elvish Spirit Guide
4x Call of the Herd

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

Sideboard:
4x Choke
3x Loaming Shaman
4x Trinisphere
4x Krosan Grip

Briarhorn is absolutely nuts, especially with Spawnwrithe. Briarhorn can come out of nowhere, kill opposing goyfs and stick around to swing for three. He's great at getting your Spawnwrithes to hit your opponents early on too.

Based on what little testing I did, goyf wasn't all that great. Elemental Stompy doesn't put a lot of cards in the graveyard, so you've got to rely on your opponent a little there.

I think my equipment count might be a little high, but like I said, I need to test more.

EDIT: Upon further review, Briarhorn is absolutely freaking nuts. He's like a green Nekrataal, only better.

[Swing4Five]

I like this idea a lot. Here's a stab at it from me.

10 Forest
4 City of Traitors
4 Ancient Tomb

4 Elvish Spirit guide
4 Wood Elves
4 Spawnwrithe
2 Chameleon Colosuss
3 Briarhorn / Hystrodon

4 Call of the Herd
3 Garruk Wildspeaker

4 Chrome Mox
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Trinisphere
4 Sword of Fire and Ice
2 Umezawa's Jitte

Sideboard
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Loaming Shaman
4 Krosan Grip
4 Choke

additional Sideboard considerations
Stomphowlers, Glissa, or V. Shaman
crypts/leylines additional GY hate in appropriate meta

The Trinis' seem nessecary as you do not have the Magus' of DS or the FoWs of FS.

You get your card advantage from Spawnwrithe triggers, Equipment and the Briarhorn tricks or Hystrodon attacks.

The goyf's are boarded in agianst decks that Chalice @ 2 isn't good agianst, and still have a healthy 'yard for him (Survival?).

I really wanted the full set of Colosuss' in there... but didn't know where else to cut and he was the only thing outside Garruk with GG still in the cost. Maybe switch one for a Call?

The other slot I'm wondering about is the Wood Elves, how needed is that extra land? Could some or all four of these slots be better used?

Looking forward to throwing this around.

Some sort of forgotten/new mid-fat green utility creature could make this a Tier 2 contender.

[Jaynel]

Chameleon Colossus is BATSHIT INSANE. It's pretty much Rakdos Pit Dragon.

[Swing4Five]

Ok then, maybe...
+2 Colosuss
-1 Call
-1 Wood Elves

I dunno... and if it ends up the Wood Elves aren't that good, maybe they could make room for some Gathan Raiders or something else fat.

[Versus]

Some sort of forgotten/new mid-fat green utility creature could make this a Tier 2 contender.

I hate how Orhan Viper gets no love in Legacy. If he were fucking 2G he would be so great in here.

[Sims]

I'm kinda sketchy one wood elves here..... Yeah, turn 1 wood elves goes into turn 2 pretty much anything in your hand... but a 3 mana fraile ass 1/1 that once you get 2-3 lands in play really starts making less and less of a difference (say past the first 2-3 turns) seems rather weak.. I'd almost want a Vetran Explorer there if it didn't give lands to your opponents... chump off early for mana boost, then every one after drops to chrome or carries jittes and swords.... but setting your opponent up with deed mana or something just seems silly in this kind of deck.

Could that slot be Piggy if you are looking for lands, maybe? Or if it's deemed that the extra land boost isn't needed then we can replace him with almost anything... Hell, if the land boost isn't required then Isao is a much better card than wood elves.

[Jaynel]

Wood Elves has pretty hot synergy with City of Traitors; I think that's a large part of its inclusion.

[Valtrix]

THe mana-acceleration on the elves is kind of iffy, however, they can help you with city of traitors too. Say you play a first turn wood elves off of city and mox, then you get a forest into play without having played it from your hand. Next turn you can cast your 4cc cards without destroying the city =)
I definitely think it's one of those cards that will need some testing. I don't know if it's worth using the first turn just to accelerate out a land and get a 1/1 creature.

You know, spawnwrithe + sword of fire and ice is ridiculous xD

EDIT: Yeah, I typed this up and let it sit here for about 20 minutes.

[Versus]

Aren't 2cc lands, Mox, ESG, and Garruk enough mana acell already? I mean all Stompy's have a third ace up their sleeve. Faerie has CoF and Dragon has SSG and Seething Song. It would seem Garruk would be this decks. I don't know why another slot should be taken up by it.

Having 9 mana on turn two is amazing. Having nothing to cast with it, not so much.

[idraleo]

did u find right with only 18 stable mana sources? The deck is just filled of double green cmc, and its insane to loose on a right timed Wasteland. I felt right whit 22 mana sources, cause the deck seems to have a different approach and gameplan compared to dragon and faeries stompy...

[Ozymandias]

Anybody consider Loaming Shaman? Since this deck puts absolutely no cards in the grave, it's a much better answer for Goyf than Briarhorns, especially since it's cheaper and has a better power-to-mana ratio and does better versus graveyard-dependant decks like Ichorid or the like.

[Illissius]

So gathering up what everyone else has written, what about something like this?

4 Elvish Spirit Guide
2 Wood Elves
4 Spawnwrithe
4 Loaming Shaman
4 Call of the Herd
4 Briarhorn
4 Chameleon Colossus
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Trinisphere
4 Chrome Mox
4 City of Traitors
4 Ancient Tomb
10 Forest
SB: 4 Choke
SB: 4 Pithing Needle
SB: 3 Krosan Grip
SH: 2 Hail Storm
SB: 2 Trinisphere

Wood Elves: I'm concerned with all the costs in the deck, and this is probably better than just adding more Forests. If it turns out not to be necessary, it could become the last two Spheres or some Swords or something.

Loaming Shaman: I used to have this as an ideal sideboard candidate, but Ozymandias makes a good point, and with all the decks around playing Tarmogoyf, you'd probably be siding it in more often than not (and randomly hosing all the graveyard dependant decks from the maindeck never hurts, either) -- and even in the worst case, it's a 3/2 for . So it seems solid. There've been conflicting reports about how good Tarmogoyf itself is in the deck, either awesome or mediocre; if it's actually the former, these could move to back to the board and have the Tarmogoyfs take their place.

Jitte: I think I'd rather have more threats than more equipment, and I went with these over Swords because they give you something productive to do if you only have two mana on the first turn and no Chalice. And they help against Burn and the like.

Pithing Needle: Tacosnape swears by them in Dragon Stompy; I'm not sure if any of the rationale for them changes with this deck.

Hail Storm: Do we need anything against Goblins? Does there exist anything else we could use?

[Kuma]

In my limited testing, Goyf was usually a 3/4 or 4/5, but was frequently a 2/3. The only things I played that pumped him were City of Traitors and Call of the Herd. He's a much better late draw than an early one, and I'm still torn on his usefulness.

As for Loaming Shaman vs Briarhorn as anti-goyf tech, I'd rather kill goyf than simply shrink him. Besides Briarhorn does so much in this deck, whereas Loaming Shaman is much narrower. That's why I keep the Shamans in the board for Ichorid, Survival, and other graveyard dependent decks.

@Illisius: I like that list a lot, but I'm not sure about Loaming Shaman in the main and I'm not sold on Wood Elves at all.

[Ozymandias]

I'm pretty sure that Briarhorns shouldn't be there, since it's just an Hill Giant that'll occasionally get to surprise-block. I'd much rather play something that doesn't die to as much removal like Masticore. Also, I think this deck needs equipment more than other Stompy variants, since it's not as disruptive.

[Kuma]

I'm pretty sure that Briarhorns shouldn't be there, since it's just an Hill Giant that'll occasionally get to surprise-block. I'd much rather play something that doesn't die to as much removal like Masticore. Also, I think this deck needs equipment more than other Stompy variants, since it's not as disruptive.

Have you played with Briarhorns?

Briarhorn:
- Almost always kills an attacking creature, sometimes two
- Lets you play around board sweepers by casting him at the end of your opponent's turn
- Can be used offensively to kill blockers
- Is nuts with Chameleon Colossus late game
- Makes combat math impossible for your opponent
- Gets a creature in the yard to pump Goyf
- Helps Spawnwrithe hit the opponent

And that's just on the turn you play him. After that, he's only a Hill Giant.

[Illissius]

Yeah, I had Briarhorn in my way-fucking-long-list-of-every-creature-possibly-worth-considering, but passed over it at first because for some reason you (or at least I) tend to think of the Evoke creatures as split cards, where it's either for Giant Growth or for Hill Giant -- when the latter is actually for Hill Giant with Flash plus Giant Growth, which is, actually, pretty good. Hardcasting Briarhorn targetting Spawnwrithe when your opponent blocks it seems like it could be a... strong play.

As for Loaming Shaman vs Briarhorn as anti-goyf tech, I'd rather kill goyf than simply shrink him. Besides Briarhorn does so much in this deck, whereas Loaming Shaman is much narrower. That's why I keep the Shamans in the board for Ichorid, Survival, and other graveyard dependent decks.

My list has both. The question isn't Loaming Shaman vs Briarhorn, it's Loaming Shaman vs Tarmogoyf.


People who don't use Wood Elves or anything of the sort: Do you have any trouble with the in Garruk's and Chameleon Colossus's cost, and the latter's ability? The Elves are purely a question of "are they necessary or are they not necessary", and if they're not necessary then they're out faster than you can blink.

[Phantom]

People who don't use Wood Elves or anything of the sort: Do you have any trouble with the in Garruk's and Chameleon Colossus's cost, and the latter's ability? The Elves are purely a question of "are they necessary or are they not necessary", and if they're not necessary then they're out faster than you can blink.

No, you don't need them. 14 Green sources plus 4 ESGs coupled with 7ish spells that require is just fine. Even if i needed more (and I don't) I'd rather play with that forest cycler so at least it's decent late game.

As for the creature base, I can't believe anyone is discounting Goyf. I played a ton of test games against Thresh and Landstill last night, and he was his usual awesomness. I think I swung with him once as a 2/3 and a few times as a 3/4 (amazingly I swung with him as a 7/8 a couple times against 'Still as they like to counter Garruk and blow Deeds). HE NEEDS TO BE IN THIS DECK. I will yell at those who say otherwise for sheer incompetence.

I will admit that I haven't tested Briarhorn, but I can really only see him replacing equipment slots as there is no way he's better than our top 5 beater slots. Basically, i think the deck should start with the following creatures (not including ESG):

4 Goyf
4 Chameleon Colossus
3-4 Garruk
4 Call of the Herd
4 Spawnwrithe

After that, I'm not sure if equipment is better than Briarthorn, if River Boa deserves a spot, if Grip is maindeck material, and how many Trini's need to be main in order to keep the deck competitive in an open meta.

...more to come.

[idraleo]

Noone has consider Caller of the Claw as a possible candidate for sideboard? It did well in mainboard too, helping a lot against sweepers as Pernicious and Wrath, adding another istant blocker and replacing 1 or 2 creatures vanishing opponents threats.

[Phantom]

Noone has consider Caller of the Claw as a possible candidate for sideboard? It did well in mainboard too, helping a lot against sweepers as Pernicious and Wrath, adding another istant blocker and replacing 1 or 2 creatures vanishing opponents threats.

Caller is awful here as about half of our creatures are tokens and we don't want to keep our mana open. I'd rather have Needle/Grip for Deed and simple play around Wrath.

[iOWN]

'Goyf isn't good in this deck at all. 2G is usually equivalent to a 1-drop, meaning his CC to P/T ratio isn't even far above average (many times, the 1G forces me to mana burn). Before TSP Block, I played this deck testing Plant Elementals, which have the same casting cost (plus a forest :/), usually the same P/T, and are equally terrible.