[Deck] Dragon Stompy

[Zork]

That card is:

- A bad topdeck.
- Not as good as any of the equipment that people run.
- Forcing you to run subpar creatures (not slogger) to get the full effect.

I am not impressed.

[Tacosnape]

How often would you rather have Crucible of Fire instead of, say, a second Dragon? Virtually never is pretty much what I come up with. Maybe if you were facing Ghostly Prisons or Elephant Grass, but you lose to decks with Elephant Grass anyway.

[Illissius]

So this came up in the other thread: Goblin Assault?

Goblin Assault

Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a 1/1 red Goblin creature token with haste into play.
Goblin creatures attack each turn if able.

Taurean Mauler seems like the obvious comparison. Both of them suck as late game topdecks. In the early game, Mauler is faster, but Assault is harder to deal with. Assault is great with equipment, but can't stop a Lackey like Mauler can. (Both are good times against Warren Weirding). And note that the last ability doesn't only apply to your own Goblins.

"Hit you fast with some big creatures" seems much more in the Dragon Stompy spirit than "grow an army of tokens", but it seems worth considering.

[Tacosnape]

So this came up in the other thread: Goblin Assault?

Goblin Assault

Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a 1/1 red Goblin creature token with haste into play.
Goblin creatures attack each turn if able.

Taurean Mauler seems like the obvious comparison. Both of them suck as late game topdecks. In the early game, Mauler is faster, but Assault is much harder to deal with. Assault is great with equipment, but can't stop a Lackey like Mauler can. (Both are good times against Warren Weirding). And note that the last ability doesn't only apply to your own Goblins.

6 lesbian points for a logical suggestion.

I've been testing this, actually. For the same reasons you like it. It fits right into our curve. It's a fantastic early drop, and the ability to force Goblins to swing into you is pretty awesome (Though I'm not sure it's better than Mauler giving you Warren Weirding protection). It's also mayhem against certain control decks. It's also nuts with Jitte. It gives you a Jitte carrier every turn. This can suck up your mana, though.

That said, don't let the amazing Airdrop Condor synergy fool you (Edit: Yes, this is a joke, people.) I'm still semi underwhelmed by it. You obviously can't run it alongside Mauler (Both due to space and that Mauler has to swing), so it's it or Mauler, and while neither one exactly fills me with the prospect of joy, Mauler's been a little more consistent. And because the little dudes have to swing every turn, they can sit there with a Tarmogoyf and eat them all day.

And while you can make the argument that it's one less Tarmogoyf they're swinging at you with, the Goblin Assault is also one less threat you're swinging at them with.

I'm going to keep playing around with it, though.

[Mordel]

Goblin assault seems pretty cool in theory, but I don't like the fact that if I am playing against aggro and I have pretty much nothing else to play as far as creatures are concerned, I flop assault and then my opponent plays some dork, I basically ended up playing a 1/1 for three...or more specifically a weird sort of creature control card because my opponent is less likely to swing with the dork.

I suppose that isn't bad, but I'd rather have something like a mauler or raiders that just sort of punches through dorks and connects for a decent amount.

I guess it comes down to if you are expecting a bunch of control or not.
Assault seems like a good possible sideboard card for sure though.

[Tacosnape]

It's also worth noting that some of Mauler's slots may be fighting with Trinisphere for awhile until everybody and his dog stops playing with Ad Nauseum storm decks.

[Mordel]

That's very, very true. I have been toying around with maulers in the spot of a combination of 3spheres and raiders, though the trade is going to have to be more concrete now, rather than a half-assed blend of the two.

Has anyone been testing the match with ad nauseum decks at all? I haven't played against any yet, but it strikes me as something that could be disrupted by a decent damage spike early in the game.

With minor adjustments one could throw some shrapnel blasts in their sideboard for the match. Mid combo you could catch them with their pants down with five to the dome. Another card I thought about was fireblast, but two mountains being sacced is not necessarily easy to support. Pyrokenesis came to mind too, but that presents the problem of having to hold two cards in your hand. With the ease of adding a set of furnaces and already existent chromos a shrapnel would be the easiest to pull off probably.

Then again, if an ad nauseum deck actually gets around to going off, you're probably fucked anyway.

edit: I just looked at a few ad naus lists...spell shock might have a place in the sideboard now? The problem I see with that though is that it would be competing with 3sphere, moon(not a great play against a lot of the lists I have seen after the first game) and CotV. I don't really think ad naus matches will be terribly different from other storm deck matches though. At least not from looking at the decks. Reach seems like the better of the solutions for such a deck.

Just ramblings I guess.

[Joe_C]

That's very, very true. I have been toying around with maulers in the spot of a combination of 3spheres and raiders, though the trade is going to have to be more concrete now, rather than a half-assed blend of the two.

Has anyone been testing the match with ad nauseum decks at all? I haven't played against any yet, but it strikes me as something that could be disrupted by a decent damage spike early in the game.

With minor adjustments one could throw some shrapnel blasts in their sideboard for the match. Mid combo you could catch them with their pants down with five to the dome. Another card I thought about was fireblast, but two mountains being sacced is not necessarily easy to support. Pyrokenesis came to mind too, but that presents the problem of having to hold two cards in your hand. With the ease of adding a set of furnaces and already existent chromos a shrapnel would be the easiest to pull off probably.

Then again, if an ad nauseum deck actually gets around to going off, you're probably fucked anyway.

Just ramblings I guess.

pyrokinesis cannot target opponents, so thats no good. 4 Triniphere and maybe sphere of resistance would be in abundance if the world goes combo all of a sudden

[Tacosnape]

That's very, very true. I have been toying around with maulers in the spot of a combination of 3spheres and raiders, though the trade is going to have to be more concrete now, rather than a half-assed blend of the two.

Has anyone been testing the match with ad nauseum decks at all? I haven't played against any yet, but it strikes me as something that could be disrupted by a decent damage spike early in the game.

With minor adjustments one could throw some shrapnel blasts in their sideboard for the match. Mid combo you could catch them with their pants down with five to the dome. Another card I thought about was fireblast, but two mountains being sacced is not necessarily easy to support. Pyrokenesis came to mind too, but that presents the problem of having to hold two cards in your hand. With the ease of adding a set of furnaces and already existent chromos a shrapnel would be the easiest to pull off probably.

Then again, if an ad nauseum deck actually gets around to going off, you're probably fucked anyway.

Just ramblings I guess.

Shrapnel Blast is an awful idea. Not only do we not run Covetous Dragon based on the concept that we don't always have an artifact, we also don't EVER leave mana open.

Trinisphere is going to keep most of those decks from easily resolving Ad Nauseum, and even if they do, they still probably won't be able to go off until the next turn. While I have yet to test it more than a couple games just messing around, the match should still be as good/bad as it was. Chalice for 1 becomes more appropriate more often than it used to be versus Chal 2 or Chal-0, as Dark Ritual is the surest path to a fast Ad Nauseum and Chal-2 will no longer shut off all the deck's avenues to a kill (Ad Nauseum, lots of acceleration, Tendrils).

Chalice, Trinisphere, and fast large creatures are the path to victory here.

[Joe_C]

has anyone tried my suggestion of null brooch at all? I havent had the opportunity to play against any decks I would want to use it against. I am running it in my board as a "two of" in instead of jittes. Using the same list I took 4th with this past weekend

[Fuzzy]

has anyone tried my suggestion of null brooch at all? I havent had the opportunity to play against any decks I would want to use it against. I am running it in my board as a "two of" in instead of jittes. Using the same list I took 4th with this past weekend

BtW, anyone tried Citadel of Pain on SB?

[Captain Hammer]

edit: I just looked at a few ad naus lists...spell shock might have a place in the sideboard now?

Is there any reason to play Spellshock over Pyrostatic Pillar?

Pyrostatic Pillar can be played off of a Mox or SSG and Mountain turn one even if you don't have a two mana land in hand. That's very relevent against fast combo.

Also, it can be sided in versus decks like Threshold where Spellshock wouldn't be worth brining in (since it hurts you too and you already lose enough life to Ancient Tombs and such as is).

[Zork]

@Null Brooch: I love this card, but I'm not sure it fits into an aggro deck, even if it gets you Hellbent automatically. Where would you board it in?

@Citadel of Pain: This seems terrible, as most control decks have mana sinks. 99% of the time, I would rather just have a threat, probably an uncounterable one like Sulfur Elemental.

[Joe_C]

[QUOTE=Zork;278261]@Null Brooch: I love this card, but I'm not sure it fits into an aggro deck, even if it gets you Hellbent automatically. Where would you board it in?QUOTE]


I would really like brooch against landstill. In that matchup I would take out my 3 maindecked trinispheres and put in the 2 brooch and my 4th blood moon.

[deviant]

[QUOTE=bruenor;278271]

@Null Brooch: I love this card, but I'm not sure it fits into an aggro deck, even if it gets you Hellbent automatically. Where would you board it in?QUOTE]


I would really like brooch against landstill. In that matchup I would take out my 3 maindecked trinispheres and put in the 2 brooch and my 4th blood moon.

I really like Null Brooch as a card, and to me this does not cry out "major suckage", so why don't you test this and report back to us like a champ?
If you come back saying "this new sb shit I have improved my landstill mu", you sure as hell get my full attention. (now, you asking if anyone likes null brooch, took me like three mentioning of the card to even bother checking it out, yes I know I'm incredibly lazy)

For the record, I still do not think I'd sb this over all the other shit I can't fit in there :/

And as far as the "goblin-blossom" goes, "me no likey" is where I'm at atm.
I've also dropped the Jittes and a mauler for Trinispheres because just like Taco said, people ARE going to try to "storm the format" now. Oh, I'm mentioning this because I think I've said "I hate trini" in almost every post I've made here for the previous six months. So yes, I think it's correct to re-md it for the moment :(

[DevilishEyes]

I found another card that actually gave me some kind of thrill for fitting it into this deck. It's called Elkin Lair, a World Enchantment Rare from Visions

Elkin Lair
World Enchantment
At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player removes a card at random in his or her hand from the game. The player may play that card this turn. At end of turn, if the player hasn't played the card, he or she puts it into his or her graveyard.

It COULD be highly disruptive for the opponent, forcing him to play keycards without actual use, and may force him to discard cards he would have put to good use if he had the mana. For us, it can be used to achieve Hellbent faster, that Slogger in your hand won't clog it up with this one in play.

The manacost isn't that nasty either, isn't that hard and can be played at turn two, if necesary. The only real problem is, that it doesn't do anything later in the game, perhaps killing of some counterspells. Oh, and this one CAN be pitched to Pyrokinesis ánd Chrome Mox ^^. Maybe, if there's some space left in the mainboard, this card could be used quite well!

Let me know what you think.

[surly]

I haven't played DS for about half a year, so i wanted to get some help before picking it up again ... i played a similar list like the one bruenor posted on page 78.

1.) Why is nobody playing SoFaI anymore? Is Jitte stictly better or are there MU's where Sword would be the better deal? I'm thinking about a 1-2 Jitte / 1 Sword Split MD without any Jittes in the board - should i cut the Sword?

2.) Although I'm quite sure that DS would be a good Metachoice, here's the breakdown of our latest tournament:

Top 8:

1. Gwb Survival
2. MUC
3. RG-Aggro-Loam
4. Ugr Threshold
5. Uwb Landstill
6. Ugr Threshold
7. Hierarch-Control
8. Solidarity

Deckbreakdown:

Survival: 1
Loam: 1
MUC: 1
Landstill: 1
Threshold: 2
Goblins: 2
Pox: 2
Staxx: 1
Counter-Nought: 2
Affinity: 1
Belcher: 1
TES: 2
Eternal Garden: 1
Dredge: 1
Solidarity: 1
Rogue: 3

.... am I wrong? Sure, there are two Pox Decks around, but except those i think DS should have a 50:50 or better MU against the field...

thx, surly

[Zork]

MUC, Pox, Loam, and Survival are all not easy matchups as well.

I don't know about Eternal Garden, but Rogue decks also often do well against us.

[Tacosnape]

MUC, Pox, Loam, and Survival are all not easy matchups as well.

I don't know about Eternal Garden, but Rogue decks also often do well against us.

Loam and Survival actually aren't all that bad depending on the builds. Loam depends on who gets the more explosive start (And in your case, if you get a Dragon, because evasion is the best way to win this matchup and keep them from stabilizing). Survival depends largely on their manabase and what colors they run. Chalice for 1 shuts down a -lot- of Survival's better prospects against some builds, and Pithing Needle from the board helps.

I've always made the point that MUC isn't that bad either. It's really not. MUC isn't even close to being one of Dragon Stompy's worst matchups. If you can stop Vedalken Shackles you'll win, and it's not uncommon to just go Threat, Threat/Swing, Threat/Swing/Swing, Pay the 2 to swing through Propaganda, Kill you. I'm not saying MUC is favorable or anything, I'm just making the point that it's quite winnable. It's nowhere near like facing Enchantress.

Pox, on the other hand, is really tough. Your best hope is to get enough guys down to mess with their math, and hopefully keep a Hellbent guy or a Slogger going. A lot of Pox depends on the skill of the player and how well you know the deck. Years of playing both as and against Pox has taught me to pretty much always know what a Pox player is holding, and what I should play when to minimize my losses. And minimizing your losses is your key. Sometimes Pox will just steamroll you, but a lot of times a couple subtle plays can let you hang on to games you could easily lose, or win games you shouldn't.

[Mordel]

@Capt Hammer:

Good call, I actually forgot about pyrostatic pillar almost entirely.