[Deck] Elephant Stompy (formerly Elf Stompy)

[Phantom]

Kuma (or anyone running a similar list), can you give me a feel of how the deck is playing now, with NO and Tangle Wire? Specifically, can you tell me what it's struggling against that you'd like to improve?

I ask because I'd like to help (and get a better feel) but I have no testing time these days.

Edi: Do any of the Green suspend cards intrigue anyone?

[eq.firemind]

After more games it semms that I need some more things to bye time to stomp/order/whatever. And I want some GY hate. AND I NEED 4 Trinisphere in deck when playing G2/G3 against storm/belcher. So I'll try this changes:

// Mana
4 Ancient Tomb
10 Forest
4 City of Traitors
4 Chrome Mox
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
// Creatures
4 Spawnwrithe
1 Progenitus
2 Hungry Spriggan
4 Call of the Herd
1 Loaming Shaman
1 Wickerbough Elder
// Multi-purpose
4 Briarhorn
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Natural Order
// Utility
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Tangle Wire
2 Trinisphere - still hurts many Tier decks, even after turn 1-2 'cause we run Tangle Wire, also upgrades our G1 vs combos.

// Sideboard
SB: 4 Choke
SB: 3 Krosan Grip
SB: 3 Pithing Needle
SB: 2 Trinisphere
SB: 1 Empyrial Archangel
SB: 2 Tormod's Crypt - Will help against Ichorid, Loam, Breakfast and some random crappy reanimators

The main problem is that we have almost no way to affect opponent's gameplan. We just hope to stomp 'em in earth while they're slowed with our Chalice/Wire/Trini. Our brother Dragon Stompy has backbreaker (Moon) AND Toasters (Arc-Slogger or jumping dragon), our sister Faerie Stompy has the answer-to-all (Force of Will) AND Bombers (equipped flyers). We have ONLY Stompers (NO-genitus, Spawnwrithe). That's the shit. And I can't find a way to solve it for now...

Hey, Suspend sucks hard and so do Morph!

[zabuza]

Well, several things i´ve been thinking about.

We haven´t anything to deal with creatures so if we play against faerie stompy we can only rely on genitus(if we can play and is not countered) because our creatures don´t fly and because we can´t deal with a sower of temptation that steals our writhes, .......

The same from threads of disloyatie and similar ones.

The only way i can find to solve that is playing masticore (wich is bad but can kill sower) and can make us to discard a genitus we have on hand. This is not a good solution but what can we do?? Playing hurricane is a worst of everything so....

Beside of that they have ancient tombs and cities so in second game choke is not as powerful as other times uses to be. At the end faerire stompie is a bad match-up i suppose but need more testing.

The reality is that we can´t affect opponent's gameplan so we need to end the game as fast as possible.

i´ve been testing gilded biar (wich in one game was awesome ;) ) and cold eyed selkie but the 1gg casting cost is prohibitive. It´s a pity because troll ascetic is good in landstill, zur,... matchups but it cost 1gg. AWFUL.
I´ve thought on playing mox diamond (a couple at least) so we can reach the 1gg cos fastly and improve the situations in wich you have a city on play and others in hand. What do you think about it??

What do you think about playing Thornweald Archer to kill tombstalkers, sowers,........

i´ll be waiting for your answers.

[Kuma]

Kuma (or anyone running a similar list), can you give me a feel of how the deck is playing now, with NO and Tangle Wire? Specifically, can you tell me what it's struggling against that you'd like to improve?

Well, the deck's a lot faster since adding Natural Order, that's for sure. We've also got a stronger late game because of it.

One of the nice things about Tangle Wire is that you can pretend to be Stax, especially post board. Tangle Wire almost never slows us down and is almost always a pain in the ass for our opponents. It also makes Spawnwrithe a lot scarier.

So far I haven't had many struggles. Survival lists have been a bit of a pain, but I'm not really set up to board against them. I can tell you that the TEES matchup almost always comes down to who casts Natural Order first, and they've got a slight edge.

I haven't had the chance to test this against Landstill/ITF to see how much the Natural Orders help. I'd also like to get in more testing agaist Thresh. If we can't at least 50/50 with Thresh and Landstill, we'll never be more than a niche deck.

Do any of the Green suspend cards intrigue anyone?

Eh, not really. They're mostly late game cards in an early game deck (Durkwood Baloth and Giant Dustwasp) or an effect we don't need (Search for Tomorrow and Hypergenesis). Nantuko Shaman seems like our best bet, but it's weak and unexciting.

[evilfred]

eq.firemind: The main problem is that we have almost no way to affect opponent's gameplan. We just hope to stomp 'em in earth while they're slowed with our Chalice/Wire/Trini. Our brother Dragon Stompy has backbreaker (Moon) AND Toasters (Arc-Slogger or jumping dragon), our sister Faerie Stompy has the answer-to-all (Force of Will) AND Bombers (equipped flyers). We have ONLY Stompers (NO-genitus, Spawnwrithe). That's the shit. And I can't find a way to solve it for now...

Then if ours only plan is to stump, we should consider adding Jittes/SoFI/SoLS. At least in the sideboard.

Here's an exemple:
// Sideboard
SB: 4 Choke
SB: 3 Krosan Grip
SB: 3 Pithing Needle
SB: 2 Trinisphere
SB: 1 Empyrial Archangel
SB: 2 Umezawa's Jitte

zabuza: What do you think about playing Thornweald Archer to kill tombstalkers, sowers,........

This I think it's purely a meta call but not that bad of an idea.

[Kuma]

What do you think about playing Thornweald Archer to kill tombstalkers, sowers?

I think Thornweald Archer would be a defensive card in an offensive deck.

Then if ours only plan is to stump, we should consider adding Jittes/SoFI/SoLS. At least in the sideboard.

Equipment isn't a terrible idea for the last slots. It's good with Tangle Wire, and could potentially solve some of our problems with fliers and certain decktypes.

But at the same time Swords aren't very good without evasion. And we already eat aggro decks for breakfast. Natural Order --> Progenitus solves most of the problems that equipment would too.

I think the last slots should belong to pump (pseudo removal plus fast damage), or a control effect (Trinisphere or Choke depending on the meta). When Wizards prints another excellent 2G beater, the debate over the final slot will probably end.

[evilfred]

Kuma: I think the last slots should belong to pump (pseudo removal plus fast damage), or a control effect (Trinisphere or Choke depending on the meta). When Wizards prints another excellent 2G beater, the debate over the final slot will probably end.

Alara Reborn is gonna be all gold card........

Anyway I went to a tournament today (27 peoples) and I finished 3rd!
Here's the Top 8
Players: 27

Rounds: 3

Top8

1. UW Landstill, Ugo R. (9)
2. Next Level Control, Pierre-Marc D. (9)
3. Nature Stompy, Frederic L. (9)
4. UWb/g Landstill, Yan L/ (7)
5. BUG Thrash, Francis D. (6)
6. Death and Taxes, Steve G. (6)
7. 4c Dreadstill, Luc P. (6)
8. Imperial Painter, Jonathan V. (6)

2-1 Scepter/Chant: First game was a breeze. Second got a little complicated when he played a Magus of the moat. With no creature removal this was lost. The 3rd game progenitus turn 3 ended the deal.

2-0 Planar Chaos Pre-constructed: Ok................ (he played that as a joke) nothing to add, OWN the guy all the way (Progenitus turn 3 second game hehehe)

2-0 UGB Thresh: First game chalice at 1 and and tangle wire set the game and the guy scoop (I had 4 Spawnwrithe on the board). Second game same thing.


Here's the list I played:
Mana (26)
1x Dryad Arbor
9x Forest
4x City of Traitors
4x Ancient Tomb
4x Chrome Mox
4x ESG

Combo (4)
1x Progenitus
3x Natural Order (My 4th one is coming soon! :D)

Creatures (18)
4x Spawnwrithe
4x Briarhorn (That card shined!)
1x Loaming Shaman
1x Wickerbough Elder
2x Hungry Spriggan
2x Wearbear (Fixed my mana sometimes, never got threshold)
4x Call of the Herd

Lock (12)
4x Trinisphere (I love it MD)
4x Tangle Wire
4x Chalice of the Void

Sideboard:
2x Pithing Needle
2x Umezawa's Jitte
3x Krosan Grip
3x Choke (Only got three and nobody wanted to trade them)
3x Thornweald Archer
2x Tormod's Crypt

[evilfred]

Hey guys somebody just suggested a card that could be nice in the sideboard.

Seedtime:
Card type: Instant
Casting cost: 1G
Card text: Play Seedtime only during your turn.
Take an extra turn after this one if an opponent played a blue spell this turn.

That could be a way to draw their attention after they countered something. We could totally bait them with this and play bigger spell the next turn. Anyway again it's just a suggestion.

[Phantom]

I would never run seedtime over City of Solitude, which I would never run over the things we already run to screw blue (Chalice, Trini, Choke).

Also, why run a Dryad Arbor and no fetches?

@ pump: I always wanted to try Stonewood Invocation in a deck due to its insanity. I wish it cost . Wildsize is probably better as it cantrips, but split second cards that give shroud are amazing. I just can't shake the idea of invocating a Spawnwrithe.

Also, with Natural Order in now, it seems like Indrik Stomphowler would be better in the Wickerbough Elder slot as Elder requires to hit something the turn NO is cast.

[evilfred]

Phantom: I would never run seedtime over City of Solitude, which I would never run over the things we already run to screw blue (Chalice, Trini, Choke).

Also, why run a Dryad Arbor and no fetches?

1. I would even add Tangle Wire to the Chalice, Trini, Choke lock. Then I guess you're right.

2. I figured that a singleton dryad arbor would not change much.

3. And I don't know if running fetch would be that good in this deck...

4. Indrik Stomphowler is not a bad idea. But with the Wickerbough you can wait to trigger his ability.

[eq.firemind]

Also, with Natural Order it seems like Indrik Stomphowler would be better in the Wickerbough Elder slot as Elder requires to hit something the turn NO is cast.

Wickerbought Elder is cool by himself. I want to play more than 1 MD (3 is perfect in my meta with Enchantress and Moat controls/StaX), but 4cc slots are full. Indrik is better as Order target, so yes, I'll run beast instead of Elder. But if I could free 1 more 4cc slot, it'll be 2 Elders for their ability to kill Mishra's Factory and put opponent on nerves(the best part of theese guys, one match opponent landed 3 moats g2 just to die to NO=>Empyrial Archangel ).

[Kuma]

I played Elephant Stompy again on Friday. I decided not to write a report since the metagame was really weird. There were three White Weenie decks, one Elves!, one Aggro Elf, one Burn, one Enchantress, one Belcher, one It's the Fear, one Merfolk, and myself playing Elephant Stompy.

I split for first place. And I beat ITF. Twice. In a row.

They were some seriously epic games. I lost both game ones since there's nothing in the main deck that can deal with Vedalken Shackles, Pernicious Deed, and Engineered Explosives.

Our first game three might be the most epic game of Magic I've ever played.

Things that happened:

- My opponent killed Progenitus twice. The second time he blew a Pernicious Deed for 10.

- I burned through three Garruks making beast after beast. I drew the fourth.

- Every Engineered Explosives and Pernicous Deed in his deck ended up in his graveyard. One of the Deeds was used twice thanks to Eternal Witness.

- We were both at one life for at least six turns.

- I killed him on turn three after time was called. He had two 7/8 goyfs and an Eternal Witness. I had an Elvish Spirit Guide and three beast tokens. Even that was nerve-wracking since if I swung with everything and he had a Diabolic Edict or a Swords to Plowshares I would lose. Still, a draw would have kept me out of top four, and making another beast and passing the turn would have given him another chance to hit a creature, removal, or Academy Ruins.

So I swung with everything.

He laid his hand of two Fetchlands and Force of Will on the table and we shook hands after an epic battle.

The next card in his deck was Etched Oracle.

And I had to play him again in the first round of the playoffs.

Thoughts on the matchup:

- Even though I won twice, I'm not ready to call this a decent matchup. ITF has Vedalken Shackles, Counterbalance and enough three drops to make it relevant, Pernicious Deed, Engineered Explosives, and the ability to recur its board sweepers. Fortunately, we have Krosan Grip, Pithing Needle, and Choke in the board.

- Our game one is terrible. Things get much better games two and three.

- I boarded -4 Chalice, -3 Invigorate, -1 Tangle Wire, -1 Briarhorn, -1 Call of the Herd, +4 Krosan Grip, +4 Choke, +2 Pithing Needle.

- Garruk is fantastic. He sits on the board and is a pain in their ass over and over again.

- Natural Order really helps, but it isn't always enough. I think "Jenny" died four times in the six games we played.

Other thoughts:

I tried out three Invigorate in the open slots, and most of the time I sided them out or wished they were creatures. I'm starting to wonder if pump is a good idea. We really need a new 2G beater.

Running one Wicker-Bough Elder or Indrik Stomphowler as a Natural Order target is a bad idea. When I cast Natural Order, I want Jenny the 10/10 hydra with protection from everything, not a 4/4 beast or treefolk. If you really have problems with artifacts and enchantments in at least half your game ones, run three Krosan Grip in the main.

[GGoober]

@Kuma, depends on the meta, 1 Stomphowler is crucial if your meta has a ton of Painter, and besides, there has been recent inclusions of Grips/Trygon in MD for many decks due to a safety against G1 matchups. For Elephant stompy, Elder and Stomphowler are solid beaters, so it's not that it's bad to run them as a run-off.

Here's my tournament report for today (10 players)

I placed 2nd with 3-1-1 record



Tournament 3 at Asgardgames, Houston: 03/28/09
1st place: Jeff - NO Elf Survival
2nd place: Chris Z - Natural Stompy (evolution of Elephant Stompy)

Participants:
Will - UR Painter
Eugene - Mono-red Goblins
Chris - Natural Stompy
Drew - Imperial Painter
Brian - UBw(r) ANT
Jeff - NO Elf Stompy
Becky - UGw Thresh
Joey - UGw Thresh
Lil' Chris - White Weenie
Nick - Faerie Stompy


Here's my report. Sorry for bad notes, but it's my 3rd ever tournament and 1st ever serious report.

Decklist:
Natural Stompy
Lands:
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
10 Forest

Creatures:
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Spawnwrithe
3 Call of the Herd (didn't see any in play today. WTH.)
3 Briarhorn (needed 4 copies. He's so amazingly good)
3 Hystrodon (he'll be cut, but I love him when he is unmorphed)
4 Garruk, Wildspeaker
4 Natural Order
1 Wickerbough Elder
1 Indrik Stomphowler
1 Progenitus

Artifacts
4 Chrome Mox
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Sword of Fire and Ice
2 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Tangle Wire (needs to be 4 copies for sure but no one has these for trade)

Sideboard:
3 Wickerbough Elder
1 Krosan Grip (would need 3, and cut down on Elder, but I don't have Grips with me)
4 Trinisphere (would probably drop to 3)
4 Choke (would probably drop to 3)
2 Pithing Needle
1 Hystrodon


MATCH ONE: Nick with Faerie Stompy
Easily the hardest matchup I can imagine for today.
Game 1: Flyers + Sowers is no good news for me. I won the die roll and opened with hystrodon, Jitte, Wickerbough Elder, Swords. He played EOT Pestermite and equipped with SoFI and swung me down to 8 in 2 turns. I resolved a Wickerbough Elder and had no free mana open. He proceeded to topdeck Needle and the game was over when I could not blow up SoFI. I would have recovered well with Jitte.

Game 2: Sideboard: +2 Wickerbough Elder, +2 Pithing Needle
The game opened with turn 2 Spawnwrithe. He played a Serendib Efreet and held back. I drop Wickerbough Elder and he sowers Wickerbough. I dropped another Elder and Jitte. He had Needle and decided to name Elder obviously. I proceed to beat with Spawnwrithe and Briarhorn pumped Spawnwrithe through Efreet's 4 Toughness adding some Jitte counters. Game ended shortly after Jitte ate the Sower.

Game 3: Sideboard: no changes although Needle on my Elder has almost screwed me up 2 turns.
I breathed a sigh of relief as he mulligans to 4 due to stompy pooping on itself. He leads with Turn 1 Island, Turn 2 Efreet. He FOWs my T2 Spawnwrithe. Amazing 4-card hand! I then drop another Spawnwrithe. He holds back to block with 1 card in hand. I drop Garruk next turn and untap, leaving 2 Forest and a Briarhorn. I swing my 2/2 trampler into his 3/4 Flyer. He blocks, and I Briarhorn. I told him he made a mistake to block even though it was a bad choice regardless (me untapping 2 lands was a hint I had Briarhorn). But I told him it would have been a lie anyway.
1-0-0

MATCH 2: Will with UR Painter
I thought it was an easy MU due to Natural Stompy's amazing Chalice + 3Sphere + Choke :P Turned out to be a close battle, much to Will's blind CB flips that countered 3 of my 3cc spells. He flipped CB 4 times in 2 games, and countered 3 spells, each of which are 3cc. WTH -_-

Game 1: He countered most of my relevant stuff that was affecting his strategy. He sneaks Painter Servant, and I try to bait his Red Blasts with Jitte, telling him Jitte is a threat to his deck. He keeps the blast and blasts my Elder. Drops Grindstone next turn and win. I told him it was the right decision since he already has Grindstone in his hand.

Game 2: I boarded in 2 Chokes, 3 Trinispheres and 2 Wickerbough Elders and boarded out 3 Call of the Herd and 1 Natural Order, 1 Garruk and 2 Hystrodon. He countered some relevant spells including a Trinisphere and Chalice. The game lasted till 5 turns, and I was afraid he would play out his combo in one turn. I played Tangle Wire, to buy some turn while beating with Spawnwrithe. He double dazed and I was glad that the plan paid off. I was expecting him to:
1. Double Daze: He won't be able to win in 2 turns, and I would kill him
2. FOW: That would give me hidden information he did not have the combo
3. Tanglewire resolves: I get 2 turns, and I'll win.
He eventually lands Jaya and Painter to block and possibly stall with Jaya blasts, but I hardcast Indrik Stomphowler, and eats his Painter ftw.

Game 3: I baited with Jitte and it resolves. I play 3spehre with 1 green open against Daze. In respond, he blindly CB and suceeds revealing Jaya. I play Garruk, who resolves. He resolves an EE @2 to blow up my Jitte while I follow with a SoFI, which he CB with Top revealing Fabricate. I ended up clocking him with 2 Beast tokens off Garruk and a Briarhorn
2-0-0

MATCH 3: Drawed into T4 with Becky with UGw Thresh
2-0-1

MATCH 4: Got to play Becky with UGw Thresh
Honestly, I was praying for this MU or Goblins instead of Imperial Painter. I'm scared of playing against opposing Stompy. Thresh should be a cakewalk, and it turned out to be so.

Game 1: Kept a hand of Chalice and Spawnwrithe. I opened with Chalice off a tomb. She dazes but I was prepared and ESG. She Forces. At least I got a bunch of goodies off her hand. She ponders for the next 2 turns, and drops a Top. I play EOT Spawnwrithe so as to equip Jitte the next turn. She gets Enlightened Tutors for Needle on Jitte. I drop a couple of Spawnwrithe and it ends shortly. She drew no creatures but StPed a Spawnwrithe during the game.

Game 2: I feel evil so: +3 Choke +3 Trinisphere, -2 Briahorn, -1 Wickerbough Elder, -1 Natural Order, -1 Garruk, -1 Hystrodon

I kept an insane hate hand of 1 Chrome Mox, 1 Tomb, 1 City, 1 Choke, 1 Trinisphere, 2 Spawnwrithe. I Chrome Mox and tombed into Choke while he Strand is in play. She obviously dazes, but I was baiting so I can resolve 3Sphere safely against her, at least daze-safe. She fetches for a plains, and I drop 3Sphere which resolves. This gives a sign to me that she is FOWless, and I drop Spawnwrithe which gets out of control again. Becky eventually realizes that she could have fetch for green sources to play Trygon but inexperience costed her some important gameplay. However, she couldn't have swung with the Predator since my Spawnwrithe would be free to breed happily. Overall, it is not an easy MU for Thresh. They have to counter: 3Sphere, Choke, Chalice@1, Spawnwrithe, Jitte and a lot more.
3-0-1


MATCH 5: Jeff with NO-Elf Survival
I joked to Jeff who today is Green's and Progenitus' day. If he Natural Orders, I can survive by Natural Ordering and letting Prog kill himself :P There's a way to deal with Prog after all! And we mused about how Green had no removal but to aggro out. I was fairly confident with my deck against his since playing first or having Jitte gives me some upper hand. I was wrong, and I should have mulliganed more aggressively.

Game 1: He gets 1st turn Llanowar Elves, and I play Forest go. He drops Quirion Ranger, and I play Spawnwrithe go. He drops Perfect, and from then on the game gets ugly. My tanglewires do nothing against him, and I drew a Jitte too late, while he beats me down with 2 Perfects, 1 Champion and a bunch of forest walking elves.

Game 2: He gets 1st turn Ranger, 2nd turn Priest. I got a Prog online on Turn 3, but he went: Savannah, Quirion, Tap Priest for 4, Survival, get Symbiote, play Symbiote, Untap/Tap Priest, play Entity. He could have forest walked me by grabbing Champion but made a play mistake. Regardless, he was at 8 when I swung in with Prog, and we shook hands and Jeff wins the match!
3-1-1

Comments with the deck:
- Briarhorn: Such an amazing card. He pushes Spawnwrithe through and is a 3/3 beater that ends game fast. He also blocks a 5/6 Goyf and kills it.
- Spawnwrithe: Won me 80% of the games today.
- Garruk: Dragon Stompy has Seething Song, Natural Stompy has Garruk acceleration and a good distraction against opponents. I usually don't worship the +1 untap ability even though it's his most useful ability in the deck. The fact that he poops 3/3 Beasts is a great ability since this deck just SWINGS with 3/3 bodies ftw.
- Wickerbough Elder: He's great, and I love the fact that he can activate in response, mI aking him useful against Factories, CB, Dreadnoughts. However, Pithing Needle is a problem. That's the reason why I run a 1-1 split of Stomphowler and Elder in the MD for possible NO targets.
- Hystrodon: I <3 you but you might be the first to go. 2 turns with GG for morphing is not a good curve for this deck. However, when he gets online, it's insanely good with 4 toughness and card-drawing power. SoFI makes him a house. I will continue running him simply due to his body and trample effect and card-drawing ability. I'll probably replace him with Goyfs when I get a set of Goyfs.
- Natural Order Progenitus: Only got him twice in the tourney. Haven't been too pleased, but I understand the random oops I win. If Jeff hadn't gotten that aggressive, I might have had that 2nd game.

I love this deck, and it definitely needs 4 Tangle Wires MD. I simply can't find 2 more.

[zabuza]

Fisrst of all congratulations to all of you that plays elephant/nature stompy and are making top with the deck. I´m not have been able to use this deck in a tournament because i´m still witing my tangle wires to arrive but i´m still testing by MWS and with proxies in my habitual shop.

Tangle wire is a house in this deck. I don´t like Histrodones because thy are tooo slow and nowdays it´s body is not enough to survive in combat.

I´m testing again with hungry spriggan(instead of tarmogoyf, you know i don´t like goyf at all). They are not bad and if not answered thy are a fast clock to win. I´m thinking on playing in the 2 open slots maindeck a couple of loaming shaman because in my meta team america is usual and if you can clean the grave they can cast tombstalker and their goyfs are little to figh with our theats. But Still i´m not sure about it.

Because in my meta there is some team america and zurs i´ve decided to remove the cloaks from the deck and now i´m playing 2 krosan grips maindeck, but i don´t like them in main because in certain match ups they are dead. Perhaps i will use 2 elders in that place but still i´m testing.

I´ve increased the number of progenitus in 2 maindeck because we haven´t any form to manipulate our hand and i usually have not any luck because draw prog in the opening hand or very soon so i need to have another order target (and none is as good as hydra).

Any other reports or ideas about the deck.

[evilfred]

I was thinking of running a singleton Thornling. Ok I admit Thornling is probably the worst of all the "ling's". First, let's look at it:



Haste for G: Might be useful if he's comming out with NO. But even then...
Trample for G: Not that bad! With his ability to pump for 1 it could be used as a finisher of some sorts.
Indestructible for G: That can be a real pain sometimes!
*********************************************************
There's a Tournament for a Beta Time-Walk comming soon in Montréal. I intend to run Elephant Stompy! I still got plenty of time to think about it but here's the list I will be testing with my team.

Mana
4 x Ancient Tomb
4 x City of Traitors
1 x Dryad Arbor
9 x Forest
4 x Chrome Mox
4 x Elvish Spirit Guide

Lock
4 x Chalice of the Void
4 x Tangle Wire
2 x Trinisphere

Combo
1 x Progenitus
4 x Natural Order

"Removal"
3 x Gilt-Leaf Ambush

Beasties
1 x Wickerbough Elder
1 x Thornling
3 x Briarhorn
3 x Garruk Wildspeaker
4 x Spawnwrithe
4 x Call of the Herd

Sideboard
2 x Pithing Needle
2 x Trinisphere
1 x Empyrial Archangel
3 x Choke
3 x Thornweald Archer
4 x Krosan Grip

There's still time to make a lot of change! Any suggestion?

*EDIT*

God, why do none of you run Loaming Shaman? When I ran Green Chalice Aggro, he was the MVP of everything ever. Shrinks Tarmogoyf, Removes Threshold, steamrolls Ichorid, Pre-emptively shuts off Tombstalker. Etc. Etc.

I guess you're right Tacosnape. Loaming Shaman is a kind of "removal" if you think about it. Then the question is where should it go. Here's the options for now (In my opinion):
-1 Thornling or,
-1 Wickerbough Elder or,
-1 Call of the Herd.
We could even remove all three of the above and run 3x Loaming Shaman MD...
Or put him in the sideboard.

[Tacosnape]

God, why do none of you run Loaming Shaman? When I ran Green Chalice Aggro, he was the MVP of everything ever. Shrinks Tarmogoyf, Removes Threshold, steamrolls Ichorid, Pre-emptively shuts off Tombstalker. Etc. Etc.

[Kuma]

God, why do none of you run Loaming Shaman? When I ran Green Chalice Aggro, he was the MVP of everything ever.

Hyperbole much?

Shrinks Tarmogoyf

We run Tarmogoyf. Granted, there will be moments when we don't have goyf, our opponent has goyf, and we have a Loaming Shaman.

Removes Threshold

A 3/3 Mongoose isn't at all scary for Elephant Stompy. And Mystical Enforcer is seeing less play than ever.

steamrolls Ichorid

It certainly can. If there were more Ichorid in my metagame, I'd probably run a few. One problem with running Loaming Shaman against Ichorid is that we'll rarely be able to race Ichorid. This means we have to have something in our hand to slow them down. Which means we may be taking lots of mulligans. Tormod's Crypt can always be played right away no matter what the rest of our hand looks like. Loaming Shaman requires 2G.

In Loaming Shaman's defense, there is the possibility that Crypt gets Chaliced or Needled.

If I wanted an anti-Ichorid package I'd run the fourth Briarhorn and 3 Crypt 1 Loaming Shaman in the board.

Pre-emptively shuts off Tombstalker.

Fair enough.

I may give it a shot in the open slots to see how it does. It's not like I've loved anything else I've put in there.

[zabuza]

I don´t see tornling in the deck. Is very mana-intensive and doesn´t provide as anything. If you haven´t chalice at 1 it will be sworded or pathed and requires lot of green to start working.

Loaming shaman is not bad. To outrace ichorid is not enough because they can fill the grave again fastly.

The reality is that now (after alara reborn and probably after that due the entire set is multicolor) there isn´t anything better than what are we playing to fill the open slots in the deck.

Another problem is that 1GG is harder to obtain very often so cards like cold eyed selkie Gilded bairn, troll ascetic, Ohran viper and so are not playable in the deck (it´s a pity for sure) because all this cards are good enough to be played. The only solution I can think about is playing overgrowth to obtain GGG very easy or playing mox diamond in the deck too (but this option is very bad because the card disadvantage in the deck would be awesome).

thougths?

[Soldar]

Local Tournament Report, 2-0-2 and then loss in the Top 8 with whatever we're calling this thing.

List:

4 Call of the Herd
4 Garruk Wildspeaker
3 Briarhorn
4 Wickerbough Elder
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Spawnwrithe

3 Harmonize
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Trinisphere
3 Sword of Fire and Ice
2 Sword of Light and Shadow
4 Chrome Mox

10 Forest
4 City of Traitors
4 Ancient Tomb

Board:
3 Tsunami
4 Primal Order
4 Krosan Grip
4 Loaming Shaman

Report:

Round 1: 2-0 vs Aggro-Loam
Game 1: I get down a Spawnwrithe, and he plays a turn 2 Countryside Crusher. I equip the Spawnwrithe with a Sword of Fire and Ice, and he loses in short order.

Boarding:
-3 Chalice of the Void -1 don’t remember
+4 Loaming Shaman

Game 2: Pretty much the same as the first, Sword of Fire and Ice is so good.

Round 2: 2-1 vs Death and Taxes
Game 1: He plows and removes Spawnwrithe, and kills off Elephant tokens with Flickerwisp, it seems like a nightmare. After he gets Mangara online with Karakas, I concede to losing a relevant permanent a turn.

Boarding:
-3 Trinisphere
+3 Krosan Grip
Game 2: He mulligans, and keeps a hand relying on Aether Vial, so I Wickerbough it when it’s at 1 counter, saying “Back where I’m from, we pay mana for spells!” He’s relatively manascrewed from here, and can’t get enough threats online for fighting against elephants.

Game 3: He mulligans, and keeps another hand based on Vial – so again, I Krosan Grip it. He doesn’t get back in the game from there.

It’s a 4 round tournament and a top 8, so I can ID from here, but we play for fun anyway.

Round 3: ID with Merfolk, but when we play the match for fun (2-0)
Game 1: He’s on the play, and mulligans to 6, and then I mulligan to 5.

He opens with a Silvergill Adept, revealing Adept, and I play a Call of the Herd token. He plays another Adept, revealing Lord of Atlantis, and he’s trying to find a second blue source – then I play Chalice of Void at 2, and then he shows me his hand and concedes – the hand was 100% 2 drops, that he couldn’t play while keeping value (Something like 2x Lord of Atlantis, 2x Standstill)

Boarding:
-3 (Don’t remember exactly what I took out) +3 Tsunami

Game 2: I have a Sword of Fire and Ice, and I get to equip it. The game ends soon after that. Didn’t need to Tsunami.

Round 4: ID with Eva Green, we play the match out for fun though (2-2)
Game 1: He gets to see how ridiculous Garruk is in Legacy, and I make a bunch of beasts and Elephants, while he tries to control my mana, after I’m in topdeck mode. Then I overrun for the win.

Game 2: He keeps a hand based on Thoughtseize, so he can get rid of Garruk. This is where the ridiculousness starts, where every time he got Garruk discarded, I would rip another Garruk off the top. This happened about 4 more times across all the games we played.

-3 Trinisphere
+3 Loaming Shaman

Top 8: 0-2 vs Counter-Top Control (Sort of like Thresh, but not quite)
Game 1: I open with Chalice of the Void at 1, before I know exactly what he’s playing. However, I proceed to draw all of my Swords, and have to equip it to a Spirit Guide. I misplay by not playing a Trinisphere when he would have been only able to play 1 spell a turn, but he Plows my Spirit Guide, and attacks a lot with Sower of Temptation and a Mishra’s Factory.

-3 Sword of Fire and Ice -2 Sword of Light and Shadow -2 Briarhorn
+4 Primal Order
+3 Tsunami

Game 2: I keep a bad hand based on having Primal Order, excited to play it in the tournament. And then, for some bad reason, I play an early Primal Order – basically the entire game is misplayed from me. Don’t even want to talk about it. But I happened to not draw any business spells, so he attacked with Tarmogoyf a bunch of times, and that was that.

Thoughts on the deck:
I like Primal Order in the board, and Choke would complement it hardily… not Tsunami. If I swap out for Natural Order -> Progenitus, it would pretty much take the place of SoFI and SoLaS in the deck. Trinisphere in the mainboard is okay, not amazing – I couldn’t find Tangle Wires before the tournament, so they would probably be better suited as that.

[Kuma]

You've got the right idea, Soldar. Natural Order -> Progenitus does for Elephant Stompy what equipment does for the other stompys. If you're going to run Natural Order (which I highly recommend) cut equipment.

Primal Order seems like an inferior card. We're not always going to have 2GG, and with Ancient Tomb damage I can see Primal Order being bad for us even when we do. Then again, Primal Order could be a decent Rock/Landstill hoser. I think Choke is better against our bad matchups.

I still don't get the Wickerbough Elder love. He costs four mana to play, one mana to use, and unless you have five mana when you cast him, your opponent can kill him before you can use him. What's wrong with maindecking Krosan Grip when you want artifact/enchantment removal?