[Deck] Berserk Stompy

[NihilObstat]

We can use both Sylvan Library and Soulgorger, but we would have to think about our deck in a different way, really different, than what Berserk Stompy is like. Which is tinny creatures, lands, and pumps, that's it! ^^
No drawing spells, or anything else.

Sylvan Library would probably increase our winning chances against control, tempo, and maybe aggro, but not Combo, which is our only really sucky matchup. And we really don't need any extra help against tempo and most of control, other than decks Like enchantress and Stax, which don't control, but stop the game, and against those, they are so slow finishing the game, that we usually just sit down, and wait for our Reverent Silence or our Seeds of Innocence to pop up by themselves and win us the game most of the time. Anyway, I wouldn't completely discard Sylvan.

Soulgorger on the other side, would be our only cc3 creature, and sure he's big by himself, and we would only need to Berserk him for the win most games, but there will be many situation wen you play it and then they destroy your other, or your other 2 creatures easily, and you'll loose the card to its own ability. I could consider it sideboard against some matchups but then there's not usually room for something like this in our side.
Nice idea anyway, and I would run it for fun, indeed, but not for competitive.

To JohnnyCage, the problem with troll is its 3cc which is just horrible for our deck, it means not attacking with that creature until turn 4 and again as I believe, our only terrible pairing is pure combo which means turn 1 or 2, maybe 3 kill, and we have to be as fast as them. That's only my point of view, and maybe that's because in my close metagame there is so much combo :S :( hehe oh well ! ^^

[JohnnyCage]

The list that otter was working on I think they are on page 10 or 11 used ranger and were equally as fast his numbers showed. He also ran esg. But the list looked more promising against zoo however he had to mulligan more aggressively. I think library in a list with esg ran as a two of in the "open" slots could be very strong depending on the meta. I have been toying with an older style list running vine dryad and library.

[KBH]

I don't get to play Legacy very much. Can someone tell me how they play the various matchups? I played a few games and simply couldn't beat Merfolk

EDIT: against Reanimator I am pretty sure Faerie Macabre is NOT the answer because they play Thoughtseize. Plus you basically need to have it in hand turn 1 or 2 anyway so it is no more or less conditional than Leyline of the Void. Sure, Leyline can be bounced, but it will likely cost them a turn which is all you can ask for. Faerie DOES work though, just so vulnerable to hand disruption.

One thing of note is that they tend to go for Sphinx instead of Blazing Archon (who, unless I'm mistaken is an autoloss) and you can occasionally race Sphinx since he doesn't stop (Berserked) trample damage past 6.

Secondly, if you don't run some number of Gleeful Sabotages main deck then you autolose to Moat. Also, if you do run some Gleeful Sabotages main deck it helps alot vs Karmic Justice, because if you Reverent Silence that thing, you wipe your board. I've been playing online the past few days and Reverent Silence is not available but Tranquility is about the same. I think there is a 2 cc sweeper but it doesn't hit Auras so not as good.

I'm starting to see the power of Invigorate -- if you get a two Invig hand you keep and pray for Berserk lol

PS if you play vs someone using the Shocklands its really hard to lose because they are probably at 12 from their own mana base counting fetchlands

[paeng4983]

ok. here's my two cents for this thread.

ANT/ belcher/ and other combo decks
one of the worst deck/s to face if you're playing berserk stompy.
your only hope in winning against a combo deck iis to kill him fast before
they go-off. solidarity would be the easiest. just bring in Gaea's Blessing.

affinity
game one, expect that it will be a race between his metal peers
against your pets. you'll have to watch-out cranial plating, A.raveger,
MOE and ethersworn canonnist in their MD. E. canonist will hurt you
a lot because it will halt most of your pump spells.
seed of innocence, naturalize, Seal of Primordium, viridian zealot will
help your campaign against them. hmm if you want to go more aggresive,
use hidden guerrilla. null rod will totally shut this down.

counterTOP (whether w/ N.O or none)
if he manage to set this up, then your chance of winning is very slim.
rushwood legate can sometimes help you in delivering early life damge.
krosan grip will help you alot in destroying his counterbalance. choke
can be a big help in keeping his islands at bay. if incase your opponent
has that 3/4 lifelink rihino (i forgot the name) make sure that his best
friend (kavu predator) is on your table. NO-prog is a head ache. i normally
use fog to surprise his 10/10 beast. i suddenly remembered, his progenitus just
watched my 18/9 Skarrgan Pit-Skulk who then delivered the final blow for the win!

rock (bg, bgw, bw)
this type of deck has a ton of disrupt (duress, thoughtseize, hymn)
and removals (stp, smother, vindicate, deeds, etc). creatures with
shroud (silhana and boggle) with rancor on them or those creatures
with flying will be your key players. wrap in vigor is a good card if
you're playing in a pernicious deeds or Eng. Explosives or nev's disk
or any mass removal meta in which you can regenerate your creatures.
fog also helps me in avoiding lethal combat damage.

sliver
equipped with a bunch of +1/+1 and shroud and flying effects, your pets must be
that fast in order for you to win game one. of course the road to victory will not be
that easy for your team because sliver deck has: FOW, daze, counterTOP and STP.
fog and rushwood legate are the cards i normally use when im facing such.

dark depths
a very brutal combination from a land and a creature cards. if you're not running any wasteland or
any land destroyer card in your MD, for sure you'll be praying hard that he wont pull his
combo on you. pithing needle will stop that vampire from removing the counters off depths.
compost can be used to help you draw cards. personally i'll just use fog, and pray that my pump
spells are present when i do my thing.

reanimator
iona and steel sphinx and Emperyal archangel will be your worst opponent on the opposite table.
reanimator's strength is from their yard. so yard removals will be your key cards in winning against this
deck. tormod's crypt, relic of progenitus, and wheel of sun and moon are some of the cards that you can
use.

angel stax, dragon stompy, chalice aggro.
(and other decks that utilize trinisphere and chalice of the void)
COTV at one will pretty much lock you out. trinisphere will keep your
spells at bay. among these decks, angel stax (or Armageddon stax)
is the worst match up among them all. ghostly prison, Armageddon
with tabernacle pendrel vale or simply the magus of tabernacle, working
together will definitely be a menace to your berserk stompy.
seed of innocence will help you bury those artifacts. regarding about the
enchantments, well - if you forgot to put some reverent or any enchantment
removal in your SB, chances of winning is again a slim one.

enchantress
reverent silence or tranquility will save you ass.
if you dont have any of these two, then it will be
just a walk in the park win for the enchantress.

burn/ tarmo sligh
it's going to be a good race in game one. game two, expect pyroclasm,
fire sprout and volcanic fallout from his side ready to sweep your entire
army. wrap in vigor will keep your pets alive from his inferno. hidden gibbons
can be use against this ton of instant burn spells.

merfolks
the blue team will be depending on the +1/+1 effect from the 12 lords that it gives.
and just like with sligh, it will be a good race to watch. game two, expect propaganda,
submerge and other creature control spell. and as for your side, bring in rushwood legate
and fog. expect Skarrgan Pit-Skulk, silhana and scryb sprites to deliver the goods for you.
scryb ranger will be a big factor for you troops if you're facing this type of deck.

fish
watch-out for the spellstutter sprite, STP, and his counter wall. other fish build has trinket mage
fishing out Eng. explosives, thus wiping your entire board of 1cc pets. rushwood legate is what
i normally bring-in. seedtime can also be of help.

dredge
if, on your game one, you manage to bring out a bunch of pump spells plus berserk, then good for you.
or else be prepared for his battalion of zombies. tormod's, relic of progenitus are some of the common
cards that can be of help. wheel of sun and moon, fog and Spore Frog were some of the cards that im using.

MBC
its' main game plan is to disrupt your entire hand in 3 or 4 turns. then his creatures
will finish the job( nyx, bob, hypy). compost will be a big factor in refilling your
hands. smother, edict, doom blade are just some of his creature removals. silhana
(because of its shroud and only creatures w/ flying can block him) can save you
from his spot removals. hmmm creatures such as Whirling Dervish and other
pro-black green creatures can be use in reinforcing your decks.

rgw zoo
its going to be a showdown between his team (kird ape, tarmo, kotr, bolt, helix)
against your team (kavu, invigorate, berserk). spot removals are the only problems
in his deck. PTE, bolt and helix. helix and bolt sometimes can be use to finish you off.
in my experience, im just using fog and wrap in vigor. silhana and skulk most of the time delivers
the W for me.


:P

[KBH]

Thanks paeng that was awesome! I do feel like you're telling me that my best bet is to play with a 30 card sideboard though!

[thorin_the_king]

hi there, i just have something i want to share with all of you, berserkers :)

yesterday i played against someone who was running a landfall berserk deck that abused crop rotation, and it did very well. just sharing his list with you to see if it can be any useful.

Spells (16)

4x Adventuring gear
4x Berserk
4x Path to Exile
4x Crop Rotation

Creatures (24)

2x Gaddock Teeg
3x Kird Ape
3x Loam Lion
4x Noble Hierarch
4x Plated Geopede
4x Steppe Lynx
4x Wild Nacatl

Lands (19)

4x Flagstones of Trokair
1x Arid Mesa
2x Plateau
3x Savannah
2x Taiga
4x Windswept Heath
4x Wooded Foothills

[Gui]

I'm quite certain that against reanimator, Faerie is the best bet. They run Thoughtseize, sure, but it's the only disruption against it they get. They can't counter it, and a counter or duress in hand is what they consider good enough to go against us. And some don't even use 4-of thoughseize...

2-of Gleeful MD or Krosan MD is more often good than it's a waste; almost every deck got something you'd like to kill with it. I suggest using them, or at least zealot, but I preffer straight Krosan. Even @ the 15 forest list. The Gw list of course uses 4-of pridemage.

[KBH]

I'm quite certain that against reanimator, Faerie is the best bet. They run Thoughtseize, sure, but it's the only disruption against it they get. They can't counter it, and a counter or duress in hand is what they consider good enough to go against us. And some don't even use 4-of thoughseize...

2-of Gleeful MD or Krosan MD is more often good than it's a waste; almost every deck got something you'd like to kill with it. I suggest using them, or at least zealot, but I preffer straight Krosan. Even @ the 15 forest list. The Gw list of course uses 4-of pridemage.

Against Dream Halls combo its Grip or nothing since they can Force Naturalize or make any counter a Force with Dream Halls. And you are guaranteed to be able to cast Grip thanks to Dream Halls.

And Dream Halls combo seems kinda popular at least on MTGO

If they just drop Progenitus instead, you can race him some of the time.

[Combo Winter]

This is my landfall list its desinged to be as fast as possible and abuses the interaction between landfall and ranger.

4 berserk
2 double cleave
4 stp
4 might of old krosa
4 rancor
4 invigorate

1 isumaru
4 loam lion
4 steppe lynx
3 quirion ranger
4 kavu
3 goyf
4 ledgewalker

10 green fetch
3 savannah
3 forest

side
4 teag
4 quasli pridemage
4 ravenous trap
3 jitte

Stp supporting kavu is also a sick reason to splash white. And the fact that you the raw power of the deck goes up a fair amount because you can run guys who are much bigger than the mono green version can which speeds up the deck. Also i try to play no cards in the board that slow down the kill. Also 6 berserks is nice.

[KBH]

Are you guys sure ANT is a bad matchup? I wouldn't say its favorable but..

If you get Berserk, all they really do is sit there turn 1 and 2 so you can get them down to 4-5 pretty easily. At the point what are they going to do?

The biggest problem I had was not knowing they were ANT game 1 and therefore not going all out because I was building a lethal Berserk the next turn.

Granted, sans Berserk its a little hopeless but you can still do a good deal of damage and put a crimp on their draw plan.

[thorin_the_king]

what do you rhink of this new card?

Kiln Fiend
1R
Creature — Elemental Beast
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, Kiln Fiend gets +3/+0 until end of turn.
1 / 2

berserk+berserk in response to 1st one results in a 28/2 trampler :)

it goes very well with pump spells, what do you think?

[KBH]

Yeah it kills me that that guy isn't green, although I guess he is more in flavor for red

[eq.firemind]

Kiln Fiend +any pump + Berserk = 20/X with trample. Also, Land Grant and/or Manamorphose is free pump for Fiend. Seems to be VERY good. And red already has a good pump spell: Reckless Charge (Haste gives a nice tempo boost and flashback has acceptable cost).
Fiend shares one very important aspect with Kavu Predator: it can be pumped for free when you're building lethal Berserk attack. Another creature with build-in pump is Steppe Lynx. And white already have StP to freepump Predator.
I'll try to mix all that juicy interactions into a deck later. Something like this:

2 Taiga
2 Savannah
1 Plateau
1 Forest
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Arid Mesa
4 Land Grant

4 Manamorphose

4 Steppe Lynx
4 Wild Nacatl
3 Skarrgan Pit-Skulk
4 Kavu Predator
4 Kiln Fiend

4 Reckless Charge
4 Berserk
2 Might of Old Krosa
4 Invigorate
3 Swords to Plowshares

Maybe even throw Crop Rotation+Flagstones of Trokair in 'cause it pumps both Lynx and Fiend.

[DrJones]

Kiln Fiend + [cards]Giant Growth[cards] + Berserk = 20/X with trample. Also, Land Grant and/or Manamorphose is free pump for Fiend. Seems to be VERY good. And red already has a good pump spell: Reckless Charge (Haste gives a nice tempo boost and flashback has acceptable cost).
Fiend shares one very important aspect with Kavu Predator: it can be pumped for free when you're building lethal Berserk attack. Another creature with build-in pump is Steppe Lynx. And white already have StP to freepump Predator.
I'll try to mix all that juicy interactions into a deck later. Something like this:

2 Taiga
2 Savannah
1 Plateau
1 Forest
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Arid Mesa
4 Land Grant

4 Manamorphose

4 Steppe Lynx
4 Wild Nacatl
3 Skarrgan Pit-Skulk
4 Kavu Predator
4 Kiln Fiend

4 Reckless Charge
4 Berserk
2 Might of Old Krosa
4 Invigorate
3 Swords to Plowshares

Maybe even throw Crop Rotation+Flagstones of Trokair in 'cause it pumps both Lynx and Fiend.

Dryad Arbor, you need Dryad Arbor in that list.

[eq.firemind]

Dryad Arbor, you need Dryad Arbor in that list.

Too bad it's not a spell...

[NihilObstat]

Really fun build, it looks great, but you have no Shroud creatures :S

I would at least cut down Skarrgan and Nacatl to play some enemy shroud creatures, to use depending on the pairing. If there's no problem then go for it. The build looks really fast ;)

[NecroYawgmoth]

...maybe Double Cleave for the red version of the deck?

[KBH]

Against ANT I can tell you that Predator and (presumably) Kiln Fiend won't help. You need to try for a Berserk for double digit damage on turn 2. Otherwise its lay dorks and hope he gives you a turn 3 in which case he can rarely win since you should just fire everything you have at him down to low life

I could see Fiend helping to race a Progenitus though, because in that matchup the problem is Berserk itself getting Forced

EDIT: and Brute Force might be better than Reckless Charge

[Vacrix]

solidarity would be the easiest. just bring in Gaea's Blessing.

Lol.. Fail.. You do realize that we Solidarity players can respond to the trigger right?

I do feel like you're telling me that my best bet is to play with a 30 card sideboard though!

That pretty much sums it up.

Brute Force might be better than Reckless Charge

Agreed.
The red splash looks good. Why doesn't it see that much play? Wasteland?

[eq.firemind]

@ NihilObstat
Skulk was indeed a little weak so I'll try something else in that slot.
@ Yawgmoth'sWill
Double Cleave is only Berserk No. 5-8 for 2 important reasons:
1) 1 mana difference is HUGE.
2) Trample is a big plus 'cause not being able to combo through Noble Hierarch/Cursecatcher/Nimble Mongoose/insert-your-1-drop-here is bad.
And I don't feel the need of Zerks 5-8.
@ KBH
Reckless Charge >>> Brute Force.
If you have two 1-drops and Charge in your opening 7, you can deal some boombastic amount of damage on turn 2 thanks to haste.
Like, Land, 1-drop, pass, Lynx, fetch, crack it, Charge, swing for about 10 damage.
Also, this deck, like Sligh, throws it's hand in opp's face very fast, so reusable pump comes is handy.

Land Grant shows worse results than I expected. It needs to be changed to something else. I tried Crop Rotation approach and it looks very promissing. Steppe Lynx becomes a real monster with it and it still feeds Kiln Fiend for 0 mana. Also, it enables some nice 1-ofs like Barbarian Ring or Centaur Garden (with all that fetches/Manamorphoses/Rotations threshold is not a problem).
Sometimes I felt that Street Wraith would be just better than some of my cards: Might of Old Krosa, Skarrgan Pit-Skulk and sometimes Wild Nacatl. With the deck's blistering speed 2 life lost is almost unnoticable and there are already 4 Manamorphose, so just cantripping into the strongest combinations of cards may be a way to go.
Also, Predator+Invigorate thing starts to bug me a little 'cause without Predator Invigorate is just bad and Predator without Invigorate is even worse. And StP without Predator is worse than other possible removal/burn. The deck wants to generally faster than average Berserk Stompy, so it must be consistent to do its thing on daily basis. For example, you have 10 fetches and 4 Crop Rotations (anon-fetches are worse, but still do a thing) to pump Lynx for free. You have 4 Manamorphose and 4 Crop Rotations to pump Fiend for 0 mana and about 10 other spells that help your gameplan (i.e. deal damage/help to deal damage) AND pump Fiend. But all that "opp gains life" thing is only works with 4 cards in the deck. Otherwise, it just works against you.
Land, Lynx, go, fetch, crack, Crop Rotation=>fetch, crack, pump/another Rotation, Berserk and you done it on turn 2.
Kiln Fiend, 2 spells/single pump, Berserk and you done it on turn 3.
Both Lynx and Fiend can consistently deal 8 damage from only a single Berserk - the thing Predator will never do.
This all leads me to the conclusion that Predator+opp.gain.life theme should be replaced with something more consistent, something that works to advance your gameplan in any circumbstances.
Maybe Sligh approach for reach/removal would play out better. Or maybe even a mix. Berserk Sligh sounds cool!

Ancient Grudge is great sideboard option for this deck - it deals with every pesky artifact we fear, 2-for-1 and pumps Fiend 2 times! Maybe Ray of Revelation is an option if your meta have some Stax and Enchantress.