[Deck] Berserk Stompy

[Siiig]

Sup Stompy thread! Kich867 mentioned his friend was building a stompy deck up, and now that I have it with a bit of experience I wanted to get involved in here.

My List:

Creatures:
2x Xantid Swarm
3x Skarrgan Pit-Skulk
4x Jungle Lion
4x Nettle Sentinel
4x Silhana Ledgewalker
4x Kavu Predator

Buffs:
4x Giant Growth
4x Seal of Strength
4x Invigorate
4x Berserk
4x Rancor

Other:
3x Sylvan Library

As you can see it's like, a very slightly modified version of the front page deck. As for experience I've played in two legacy 4 round FNMs (will be headed to one tonight as well)...

Week 1:
1/2 vs Esper Blade, 2/0 (jank), 2/0 (jank), 2/0 Glimpse Elves (Piloted by Kich867).

Week 2:
1/2 vs G/W Maverick, 2/1 vs U/R Delver (Piloted by Kich867), 2/1 vs Jank Sword of the Meek Combo, 2/1 vs Reanimator (semi-jank).

I can chalk up my loses to Esper Blade and G/W Maverick partially to inexperience. Both matches I sided out Ledgewalker and lost to removal.

Current Sideboard:
2x Relic of Progenitus
2x Tormod's Crypt
2x Rushwood Legate
2x Winter Orb
2x Choke
4x Nature's Claim
1x Compost

The board is an attempt to tailor towards my personal meta. There isn't a huge number of serious players where myself and Kich867 play. MUC, Esper Blade, U/R Delver, U/B Delver, are a short handful I can think of off the top of my head.The 4x Nature's Claims are to help deal with Batterskull / Jitte. Tormod's Crypt / Relic are aimed at Reanimator and Dredge (there is a dredge deck that is sometimes played). Then Rushwood / Choke are there to help play against anything that uses Blue.

I'm going to be running a GSZ version of this deck tonight (I would use hierarch, but sadly don't have a set so it's birds instead) and I'll report back with the list and how it goes.

*edit* typo xD

[Siiig]

Browsing Dark Ascension, I really liked Young Wolf. I see him as really playable; he dies, but then comes back. That is always something worth looking into and even testing.

I also saw Predator Ooze and fell in love with it. I just wish he was 2 green instead of 3

As Boneclub mentioned originally, Young Wolf is still vulnerable to exile, which makes him quite a bit less potent when compared to say... Slippery Boggle. Your pitching out a 2/X slot for a 1/1 that MIGHT become a 2/2 if he gets bolted. I feel like the 1 mana slots should be occupied by either hexproof (Boggle/Gladecover) or a 1 drop 2/x still (Nettle Sentinel is my choice here).

For me, the deck does not need krosan grip in the SB because its 3casting cost. If I am going to use a defensive card to combat decks such as combo, dredge and control, I opt for cards with low casting cost.

Chalice of the Void? Again as i see it, yes it kills, if it is set on ZERO, lotus petals, chrome moxen, LEDs, but it does not kill the combo itself because they still have a lot of outs like mana accels, cantrips, tutors and wishes which are are one and two casting cost. Now, if you will try to lock them by setting COTV at one or two, uhmmm... i guess you will be affected as well for your power is at one casting cost vs. combo decks. And besides, TES and ANT are not the only form of combo. Reanimator, PiF base combo, culling the weak combo, cep. breakfast, leyline of the void-helm combo, painter-grindstone combo, alluren, etc are just to name a few. So, again, just me, COTV should not be included.


As i see it, the deck's bad MUs are: combo, stax, those decks that has a ton of spot removals (thanks to you snappy), and non U control decks.

I haven't had to go up against many combo decks so far, your choice of MBT seems legit, but I don't think you need 4 of in the side. 2 at max and then just mull down to it. Belcher is in my meta, and (unless I'm mistaken) that should counter it's win con.

I feel like Nature's Claim is a card that we can make up for on it's down side. I've spent many games swinging for a couple of turns with a 2/1 or 4/1 Xantid Swarm (double rancor) building cards and abusing Library. And of coarse it fits into our super duper low mana curve, and god forbid you stick a kavu? GG.

[lyracian]

I haven't had to go up against many combo decks so far, your choice of MBT seems legit, but I don't think you need 4 of in the side. 2 at max and then just mull down to it. Belcher is in my meta, and (unless I'm mistaken) that should counter it's win con.

I would not want to have less than 3. You can mull to find it but you still need to have enough cards to win once you do so. Also Belcher can go off several times if they have a lot of mana and you may not be able to stop all of them.

[Gui]

@Siiig

Congratz on the results, they are not bad at all ^^

I see you used 2 swarm maindeck, how did it go for you?

Also, my opening post has Viridian Zealot as maindeck instead of Kavu Predator, which I consider to be a unusual choice of my part, but I really grown to like the utility of MD Viridian. Did you miss it at all, and, was Kavu gamebreaker in any match?

[Siiig]

@Gui

Thanks so much man!

In regards to 2 MD swarms, I've at times run 3. I feel they come up just enough to be useful at those numbers, and given that they fly they are surprisingly imposing.

The only match up I've found Kavu to be game breaking was actually against U/R Delver. Invigorate put's him to 9/9 for the turn, so you can drop it in response to a bolt, and ask them how much they really want to kill him. Beyond that, I feel he underperforms, and VZ is probably a better option. His main strength comes from how incredibly well he interacts with invigorate and berserk (2 card 18/18 wut?). I would argue Zelot probably offers a better spot than Kavu in the long run.

I didn't come back raving about my GSZ modification because I didn't really like it. It under performed IMO but at least won against NicFit.

At this current moment I moved into what I dubbed "Hexproof Berserk". That looks like...


2x Xantid Swarm
4x Gladecover Scout
4x Slippery Boggle
4x Silhana Ledgewalker
4x Kavu Predator

4x Rancor
4x Invigorate
4x Giant Growth
4x Groundswell
4x Seal of Strength
4x Berserk

3x Sylvan Library

4x Misty Rainforest
3x Pendlehaven
9/10x Forest


That list is going to have some problems, I'll update it when I have the deck in front of me =X

The deck feels good, I feel very strong against any deck that's relying on controlling the board (through targeting). Last week I went against...

Fatdeck (2/0)

Sneaky Show (0/2): Lost round 1 to a turn 5ish Emrakul that ate my board off sneaky show (got him to 1 off of a berserk swing, trying to stunt him with his pain mana, but it didn't work), boarded in Rushwood / Choke.
Game 2 I got the choke down in time, but 2 top deck islands got show and tell out. Saw a progenitus, went down 3 cards with Sylvan, and punted by not just taking them off the top. If I had dug out and seen a berserk on the next library pull, I may have been able to swing back.

On a side note, I actually felt really good in this matchup spite getting 0/2'ed. It really felt like both losses were one card away from being wins. (which in comparison to the next match, feels pretty good).

Stoneblade: I really have no idea how to beat this deck. I feel very locked out by it. G1 I got taken down slowly but surely, even without him being able to snatch up my creatures with path/swords. But a force of will to force of will on my berserk sealed the game.
G2 boarded in 4x natures claims just to try and go in on his skull/jitte/sword of feast and famine, but never saw one to try and take advantage.

Anyone have any suggestions for dealing with Esperblade? I might try switching to Zealot just to try and combat blades.

[paeng4983]

:-)
Finally, its good to see that our thread began to move again.
Well as for me, i haven't sleeved the deck since X number of days/ weeks or even months. But im planning to sleeve it for this weekend's legacy tournament.
But going to use the list that i posted several pages back (with some modification)
I plan to use 4 GSZ and 2 infect dudes, blight mamba and the G 1/1 elf infect guy.

will post after the tourney
^_^


=
On the other hand, Im currently working on with this

20 Forest
1 Arbor Dryad

4 Green Sun Zenith
3 Rampant Growh

4 Noble Heirarch
2 Virridian Corrupter
3 Tarmogoyf
3 Sakura Tribe Elder
2 Predator Ooze
4 Dungrove Elder
2 Thrun the Last Troll

4 Berserk
4 Vines of Vastwoods
4 Groundswell

Its a little slower than what we're all acustomed to,
but as i see it, it can really punish opponents midgame to late game.
What can you say guys?

[Siiig]

:-)
Finally, its good to see that our thread began to move again.
Well as for me, i haven't sleeved the deck since X number of days/ weeks or even months. But im planning to sleeve it for this weekend's legacy tournament.
But going to use the list that i posted several pages back (with some modification)
I plan to use 4 GSZ and 2 infect dudes, blight mamba and the G 1/1 elf infect guy.

will post after the tourney
^_^


=
On the other hand, Im currently working on with this

20 Forest
1 Arbor Dryad

4 Green Sun Zenith
3 Rampant Growh

4 Noble Heirarch
2 Virridian Corrupter
3 Tarmogoyf
3 Sakura Tribe Elder
2 Predator Ooze
4 Dungrove Elder
2 Thrun the Last Troll

4 Berserk
4 Vines of Vastwoods
4 Groundswell

Its a little slower than what we're all acustomed to,
but as i see it, it can really punish opponents midgame to late game.
What can you say guys?

Yeah! Need some people to bounce these ideas off of =P

I've considered sleeving up an infect version of mine, using the same build ideologically but replacing the creature base with the "good" infect creatures.
Blight Mamba
Glistener Elf
Ichorclaw Myr
Inkmoth Nexus

On that concept I would run the Inkmoth's as creatures, instead of considering them lands, and keep a 18-20 buff layout... Hmm, maybe I'll try that this friday. Oh, and I would definitely add Vines of Vastwood to the buff set.

Predator Ooze is a very interesting choice. I would probably go with a singleton Thrun. I tried a list that was somewhat similar to that, just with the idea of bringing turn 3-4 to turns 2-3. I didn't have Noble Hierarch, which did a number on my aggression, plus my Birds of Paradise got target fired like a boss. (I also had no Dryad Arbor).

Just for fun I would run Misty Rainforest, the idea of EOT fetch -> arbor swing win is kinda fun.

*edit because I can*

Dunegrove Elder looks really fun. I question Goyf. I think running Invigorate + Kavu would be a better option. Viridian Corrupter is an odd choice to me, I feel like Pridemate or Zealot would be better suited (but obviously Pridemate is dangerous when your only running hiearch for the white). Predator Ooze also looks really fun, if you can drop him quick enough and you don't have much worry in regards to Hexproof.

[boneclub24]

Berserk Infect got a top at a pretty big tourney:
http://www.thecouncil.es/tcdecks/dec...5&iddeck=57346

[Siiig]

If I can make it to FNM tonight, I'm going to try out a jank mono-green version of infect stompy. I still need to get my hands on a set of Noble Hierarchs, since they really make a big difference in our game play (That's essentially +2/+2 for an infect deck!).

I really like the idea of running Gitaxian Probe. I might get my hands on a set and try that even in Mono G. Having a free cantrip that lets me know if they're holding 2 Force of Wills is pretty damn good.

Also, for my Stompy Infect, I chose Mutagenic Growth over Giant Growth / MOOK for the faster win con. Invigorate + Mutagenic puts our free cast buff number to 8, which is pretty damn significant.

I'll tell you guys how it goes.

[Gui]

I still think Giant Growth is the way to go there.

Some people say that Might of Old Krosa is better because it wins when you Berserk with it against the open field. Some other say that Mutagenic Growth is better because it's easier to cast.

I think the conisderations for Berserk against the open field are nonsense, because in all honesty, whenever berserk is cast, the chance of winning the game rises a lot already. The problem is when we don't cast Berserk. This is the reason why my lists feature so many Sylvan Library -> bringing me moaarr Zerks.

When you have no Berserk, in a Infect deck, your problem becomes "how do I evade opposing creatures". When you attack with MOoK or Mutagenic, you either get a +2/+2 during combat step, or a +4/+4 prior it. In the first case, your creature is less likely to survive than if it was a GG, because GG gives +3/+3. In the second case, the opponent will minimize your MOoK, blocking your creature, if he needs to. Giving your opponent the choice usually end up with the best choice for him.

With GG, you can attack without casting, and YOU decide whether you want to damage him, his creature, or cast GG in your creature to protect it. It's more versatile, give you better decision trees. Also, you get to maximize your damage when you have 2 creatures and he has 1 blocker. Last, it saves creatures from Lightning Bolt.

Just my opinion, tho...

[lyracian]

I still think Giant Growth is the way to go there.
Just my opinion, tho...

I have been doing some playtesting and have come to the same conclusion, mostly because of Lightning Bolt killing my critters which GG would save them from.

[Siiig]

Hey Guys,

I actually got to run Infect Stompy (somewhat ghetto version) yesterday. I figured I would give you guys a report (I did it via twitter while I was playing so I wouldn't forget everything).

List -- JANK Mono-Green Stompy Infect
Creatures:
4x Glistener Elf
3x Blight Mamba
1x Necropede
2x Viridian Corrupter
2x Ichorclaw Myr
2x Xantid Swarm
3x Birds of Paradise
1x Putrefax
4x Inkmoth Nexus (Not sure where to put him! Creature or land?)

Buffs:
4x Mutagenic Growth
4x Vines of Vastwood
4x Groundswell
4x Invigorate
4x Berserk

Tech:
4x Gitaxian Probe

Land:

7x Forest
4x Misty Rainforest
3x Pendlehaven

R1 mono black pox, took g1 quick, g2 awkward shut down into tomb stalker plus the rack. G3 my singleton compost in open, do work.

R2: sneaky show, g1 super quick infect win, g2 death from emrakul, g3 he mulled 5, miss pitch on a creature into a win with mutagenic + ink.

R3 G/w maverick. Take g1 easy, g2 no side from me, epic terrible miss play against jitte, g3 maze plus jitte easy stompy loss.

Missplay I was referring to here--I popped Inkmoth for a 1 infect swing when jitte had 2 counters on it. Minuses from Jitte, and then I lost the game.

R4 0/2 to u/b/w spirits. Jitte and one mana white removal beats stompy.

Basically what I learned from this tournament, a 4 of in the board to replace Vines of Vastwood when you don't need the hexproof would be super solid (bounty of the hunt or MoOk?). I can't figure out what to do to handle Jitte though. The Viridian Corrupter did me well, as most of the artifacts you really need to deal with are 1 of, but it's still hard.

Gitaxian Probe here served me really well, but I found most of the time I dropped it I looked at their hand with something like "Yup... That's a force, something to pitch, and a 1w removal". Even playing hard in to try and get things out of their hand (and stick a swing) didn't really get there (specifically against the white decks).

1of Putrefax -- This actually got me a game against Maverick. He swung out against my empty board, I had 5 mana down, GG.

I still think Giant Growth is the way to go there.

I dropped GG from my list in favor of Groundswell. While running misty it's not hard to force a landfall drop for the turn. I really didn't have many instances of being like "Crap, I wish this wasn't groundswell". Much more often it was "thank god this is +4/+4".

During my matches, I would definitely say infect feels super strong. It's biggest loss is the general lack of hexproof. Splashing a color (namely blue or black) clearly gives the deck a big push over the edge. Having a daze in hand would really throw the ability to deal with 1w exiles super well.

Oh, and since I was running Birds over Noble Hierarch, this deck will be substantially better next week. Exhalted + Infect =

*edit*

Just wanted to add in here, after looking at the G/U infect list, I'm probably going to drop pendlehaven to 1of in the deck. It's a nice pull, and when you see it for the first time in the game it's like aww cool! but if you ever see a second one your face kind of hits the desk--if you know what I mean. I'm also going to try the singleton rancor, just to see how it feels.

[card]Noxious Revival[/card] also came to mind as a super solid piece. It could really help in delaying opponents when we want to keep them off of business, and at the same time it can recover berserks / creatures / and more importantly Vines of Vastwood. I'd love some feedback on the idea ^^;

[paeng4983]

I have the chance to play this deck last Saturday in a sanctioned legacy tournament again since June of 2011, but I opt for reanimator instead and ended with a 3-2 landing 5th.

Then Sunday came, my brother asked me if I would like to join them for a playtest in preparation for April 22 legacy tournament here wherein the top prizes are set of force of will and set of tarmogoyf. Of course I said yes to him since I wont be doing anything on that day. Me (5peso), my brother (burn), an officemate of him (affinity) and two of his college friends were present (dredge and shockland powered GW mavs). I suggested to them that to make this playtesting more competitive, why not we all buy one pack each of whatever booster pack you want and whoever ends on top of the single round robin wins all 5packs. they all agreed. We all bought DKA booster packs and we started our single round robin.

The list that i used was:
4 kavu, 4 silhana, 2 scryb ranger, 2 srcyb sprites, 4 skarggan, 4 nettle, 4 jungle
4 berserk, 4 invigorate, 4 rancor, 3 seal of strength, 4 might of old krosa
14 forest, 3 fetch.

SB was:
1 gaea's blessing (high tide is again getting popular here), 3 mind breaktrap, 1 tormod's, 2 fae macabre, 2 fog, 3 seeds of innocence, 3 rushwood legate

My 1st assignment was dredge. Ouch.. His dredge was so explosive. Turn one gem plus LED plus breakthrough in response crack LED - OMG this is going to be one hell of a ride. If im not mistaken, it was on his 3rd turn wherein he brought elesh norn from his GY into the field and from there I never recovered. Game two, from experience, LED base dredge decks, they usually take the LEDS out and go with a much more slower dredge. So I decided him going 1st. I drew seven, and i have a fog for my opening hand, and pondered a little if its enough. I decided to keep it. My hand then was, fog, forest, berserk, berserk, nettle sentinel, invigorate, invigorate. He went 1st. Just like what happened in game one, but this time it was city of brass that he dropped. LED - breakthrough - then a bunch of dredgers and DR showed but no nacros or ichorid where there. Then my turn, I drew kavu. dropped forest into nettle.
He dredged for 6 binning a nacro and an ichorid. Then pass the turn. in my draw phase I drew wooded foothills. Dropped it and the next thing he saw was a hulked nettle sentinel going into him (40/10 trample). Game three, my opening hand was: a forest, 1 tormod's, 1 fae macabre, 1 skarggan, 2 jungle lion, 1 rancor. He went 1st then dropped cephalid, cast careful study binning two dredgers, *sigh* I thought he'll go into other LED combo thingy. My turn I dropped tormod's and jungle then pass. He dredged for 6 and revealed 2 nacros and 1 bridge and some dredgers and land. I decided to activate my tormod's right at that moment where nacros' ability are in the stack, from there he played slow dredge while my 2 jungle lion and skarggan with rancor managed chipped-off his life pts into down to 6 or 7 it was before berserk (to skarggan) took over.

For my next opponent, burn. Game one, I waited for him to tapp-out his lands.
We've been playing with each other since we live then in the same house and pretty much we knew our playing style. And when he did, tapping out all his mountains casting 2 bolt killing my nettle and skarggan leaving jungle lion alive (he was down to 9) and when he said take, I immediately revealed in this order: berserk on the stack, invigorate... good? he then revealed gut shot, while mimicing a meme smile at me. DAFAQ!! We then head on to game two. Game two, this time I'll control the stack. Turn two kill via skarggan. Hehe sweet revenge. Game three, he killed my lone creature (nettle). Then I kept on drewing pump spells and lands. ALAS I lose.

3rd opponent, affinity. Game one, he went 1st. He mulled to 6. Then dropped the following: Memnite, ornithopter, artifact land, mox opal, plating, and frog. -_- very nice. I eventually lose to his battalion lead by that protection from colors (champion) and plating. Game two, fog saved my ass twice. Scryb sprites with two rancor on her saved me. Game three, he lacked one mana because he cannot cast some something (which he told me in the end that it was his champion) :-) skarggan with rancor (4/2) on him took advantage.

And for my last opponent, shockland powered GW mavs. Game one, too many spot removals where there waiting for my nettle, scryb and kavu. Game two, mindcensor was able to hold me for awhile but good thing silhana was there to save me from losing that game. Pumped everything I've got into ledgewalker and we're off to game three. G3, i mulled to 5, and my opening hand was: berserk, invigorate, forest, fetch, invigorate. i decided to keep. I 1st drew silhana. And for my 2nd draw, I drew berserk. I cracked my fetch but he responded with mindcensor, praying that I'll get screwed. As I look into my top cards off my library, I reveal to him all forest. hehe. His evil plan did not work on me. And was able to cast silhana and in my next turn, I went for the kill.

At the end of the day, i landed with a 3-1 win-loss card. it was my brother who opened all the packs and was able to get huntmaster and a couple of good uncommon cards.

:-)

I know its an unsanctioned one but i just wanted to share it with you guys.
Will post again this after this wednesday's legacy session.
This time it will be a sanction one.

:-)

*cheers


I'll just add it here.
After like months of not using the deck, I decided to use it again last Weds' legacy tournament.
We only had it 4rds because we started 930pm and we do not want to go home past two in the morning.
Anyway, here's what i can still remember:

RD1 burn
During our last game, he drew a very good hand. All his burn spells were bolt like spells and a fireblast. So at turn three he was able to seal the round in favor for him.

RD2 UW control
Good thing that i was able to resolve a silhana against this match. Silhana with rancors and later pumped with berserk gave me the win needed to tie my standing at 1-1.

RD3 UW control
Unfortunately, his FOWs were always there to halt my attempts of pumping a creature for lethal damage. Thus I lose.

RD4 RUG
In our final game, I almost have it, but his JITTE was there to save him. Jitte kept on throwing -x/-x at my creatures. Thus I lose.

[boneclub24]

I've shifted to liking GG a lot more as well.

[paeng4983]

Seriously, anyone here, aside from me, would like to include strangleroot geist in the list?

[boneclub24]

Seriously, anyone here, aside from me, would like to include strangleroot geist in the list?

I'd like to, but he competes with Kavu Predator and Silhana, who are too essential honestly.

[koten]

Seriously, anyone here, aside from me, would like to include strangleroot geist in the list?

I would like to! Thinking about replacing Kavu with him. No finalized results yet...

[boneclub24]

But Kavu is just so good with Invigorate! D:

[Gui]

Kavu is not essential. It's an alternative kill that happens to work amazingly with Invigorate or when the opponent intend on gaining life in some way. But outside of these scenarios, he's a 2/2 trample for .
There are other options of good cards to place in the deck instead of him, even Bogle can compete for the slot.

Problem with Strangleroot Geist is that it's main advantage is null against our natural enemy - Swords to Plowshares. I believe I'd much rather have a 2/2 trample that works better in some situations instead.

[paeng4983]

Same issue here that I am having with strangleroot.
Anyways, here's what I currently have for this deck:

8 Forest
8 G_fetches
2 inkmoth nexus

4 Green Sun Zenith
2 Sylvan Library
4 Crop Rotation

4 Berserk
4 Seal of Strength
4 Groundswell
4 Invigorate
4 Ranger's Guile

4 Xantid Swarm
4 Glistener Elf
4 Blight Mamba

Well, frankly, its a bit ugly. But Im working on it :-)