Quote from mistahARK »Haha, I was your round 6 opponent. The CES community sure is small! I ended up getting knocked out of Day 2 by the same margin. You have me seriously considering buying into CES though...either that or RG Eldrazi, hard to choose between them right now.
Either way it was a pleasure meeting you and seeing the deck in action, in person.
It's a pleasure to have met you. I feel like in our game three you successfully kept me one land off each turn I was able to do anything to make progress on the board. I had TKS for Baloth, but I was down a land. I had Smasher to tear through for damage, but I was down a land. I had a removal spell for Finks and it's backend, but I didn't have Pure Colorless. It was well-played on your end identifying the game plan and keeping me off of it.
Also, the deck is fun to play and super enjoyable, I (and likely most the others in here) would suggest it.
And, since I didn't put up the finished image, here's my baby. Now I'm going to start walking back editions on the reprints, so I can have original release versions of all the ones I can get my hands on.
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http://www.starcitygames.com/decks/121389
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I'm currently running 1, as much as I like the card, 2 might be a bit too much, drawing multiples of it would feel pretty bad.
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Ok so your only point remains that Stompy isn't 5c Humans. Ever think that some of us might have fetches lying around from our other "actually good" decks? Your elitism is incredible.
You're in a Stompy thread. We like Stompy here. If you don't, then go find another thread to ***** on.
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Note: I am not the creator of this deck, and all credit goes to Neilson for brewing this up.
The Reddit thread
The Instant Deck Tech (outdated build)
Neilson's most updated list
Current running build:
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Arbor Elf
2 Llanowar Elves
4 Acidic Slime
1 Stampeding Wildebeests
3 Eternal Witness
Planeswalker
1 Nissa, Vital Force
Artifact
2 Trinisphere
Enchantment
4 Utopia Sprawl
Sorcery
3 Plow Under
4 Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
2 Bramblecrush
2 Creeping Mold
4 Primal Command
1 Pendelhaven
19 Forest
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Carnage Tyrant
1 Cloudthresher
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Trinisphere
1 Hornet Queen
1 Thragtusk
1 Fracturing Gust
3 Ratchet Bomb
2 Scavenging Ooze
Essentially this is an old-style Prison deck in Mono-Green, using land destruction to lock the opponent out of the game, with an additional "1-card prison loop" as the creator calls it, otherwise known as the Eternal Command. The deck also just so happens to run for less than 200$ as of right now.
We have a massive focus on mana ramping into early LD spells, then Primal Command gives the ability to tutor for our threats while bouncing permanents from the opponents battlefield back onto the top of their deck. Then we use eternal witness to loop the effect, pulling more Eternal witnesses out of the deck to softloop until we run out, then we tutor for Sabertooth to bounce eternal witness, play her to pull Primal command, and continue to gain life and topdeck the opponents land ad-infinitum, locking their hand for as long as we decide, while our threats swing in for the finish. We can also use Serow/Slime to smash across an artifact/enchantment heavy board. Bramblecrush even gives us the ability to kill planeswalkers. And any card we need back we can pull with strategic use of eternal witness/serow.
Walking Ballista gives us much needed removal/blocking utility, and can be brought back with Ewit. Thragtusk gives us Lifegain on a big body with pseudo Persistence that is very resilient against any type of removal. Hornet Queen tends to end games as 5 flying deathtouchers is bad news for any board state.
A single Pendalhaven lends some legitimacy to blocking with all the 1/1 mana dorks we run, though in testing I have found it to be a tad underwhelming. I discuss additional nonbasic strategies at the botton of this post.
Don't forget, Sakura-Tribe Elder is not to be immediately sacrificed on playing it. Don't let it sit on the battlefield for another turn, but at least wait to see if you can get a block out of him, or bait for a lightning bolt before you sac.
In the sideboard
Trinispheree is probably the most notable and useful piece, especially against aggro decks, as most of our spells cost 4 or more. I am also experimenting with Root Maze in this slot, and the more I do, the more I think one or the other belongs in the mainboard as at least a 2x. This is a prison deck after all, and while ensnaring bridge doesn't really fit well, Root Maze has amazing synergy with the topdeck loop, and Trinisphere stops pure aggro and burn decks dead in their tracks, and eases our lockout strategy, as we only need to keep them below 3 lands, and even if they have 3, they can only cast one spell per turn.
Cloudthresher is the original threat the creator ran in the deck, boasting the ability to flash in on an opponents turn after they cast+activate Jace/Liliana and finish him on our turn before Jace has a chance to bounce. Also happens to perform well against Affinity and Lingering souls, and at its least helpful its a flash-in blocker. I only run one of because I find the other threats to be too useful in all other matchups. However, As long as you're ahead 3 or more in life, a looped Cloudthresher becomes another win condition: Primal, Tutor for this/topdeck land, bounce it up and down with Serow for 2 life each turn, looped until opponent catches your drift and concedes.
Chameleon Colossus is one I'm hesistant on, and its why I only run one. It's a great card, but without another way to boost his power, its just a bit underwhelming, but it does pound black decks.
Obstinate Baloth is discard hate, especially against 8rack and Jund. Decent against Burn but Thragtusk is better for that matchup.
Scavenging Ooze is our graveyard hate and what a deck to run scoozy in. Having nearly always open mana, scooze can be incredibly core to the punishing of decks that play from their graveyard.
Thrun has been an anti-control staple for a while. Boseiju does much better than Pendelhaven in this matchup. Tyrant is our finisher.
Dungrove Elder - probably deserves 2 slots for the sheer amount of forests we're able to drop by turn 3. Maybe even a mainboard slot.
Fracturing Gust - this replaces Creeping Corrosion for me, and what a good card it is against Bogles, Mono-White Prison, Free Win Red, Lantern Control, Affinity, Tron, you name it.
There are many intricacies to this deck that are further explored in the links above and I'm excited to see how many others you all are able to discover, and to work with you all as we begin to develop and optimize towards getting a solid Primer in place.
Potentials for the threat slots
Primeval Titan - This card has quickly become the ramp target for the deck. not only do we swing with a 6/6 next turn, he can pull two Treetop Villages if we run them, and he takes us to 8 lands as soon as he comes down, which is where we can start playing eternal witness as well as any spell in our graveyard in one turn.
Woodland Bellower - Summons an Ewit, (free, same-turn graveyard to hand recursion), Scooze, or Dungrove Elder for free. Great if you prefer to have the graveyard recursion over the land summons, but no trample.
Deus of Calamity - 6/6 for 5 with pseudo-"Annihilator 1" - One of my favorite cards to really nail down the coffin
Engulfing Slagwurm - 7/7 with pseudo-deathtouch/lifelink. Whether this is worth running over the others is questionable but it does punish attacking us, and makes the decision to block it even more painful.
Primeval Titan - As good as this card is on its own, using it to pull out a Boseiju, Who Shelters All against a control deck would turn the tide, as it gives us free reign to chip away at their land or just Eternal Command while we swing for 6 trample every turn.
Carnage Tyrant
Something I am just not sold on yet, is 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx in place of Pendelhaven. I feel that, especially with Courser of Kruphix and Primeval Titan on mainboard, Nykthos could do a lot of work mid game, and could especially make Walking ballista an easy wincon. Its not optimal to see in an opening hand with Utopia Sprawl, but the advantage it could give is huge. We could even throw a Treetop Village in alongside it to get the most value out of Primeval Titan's tutor, or side in Boseiju against control decks. These cards get even better with a Garruk Wildspeaker or even Nissa, Worldwaker on mainboard.
Overall though, with the current mana ramp package, this deck does not like nonbasic lands, I would not run more than 2 nonbasics and that is 100% only if Primeval Titan is mainboard.
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Found a really dirty black hoser, Spreading Algae. Keep in mind this works with any shocklands as well, even decks that don't actually run black spells and just use...say Overgrown Tomb as an extra green source.
As to Early Harvest, I think maybe the slot could be better filled with a permanent like Wildspeaker or Worldwaker for a similar effect. Vernal Bloom seems better but again I have to ask which slot it would go in, and I don't know that I'd be willing to take out planeswalkers for it.
Something else I think we can borrow from Green Devo, which functions similar to Hornet Queen, but scales like Ballista/Polukranos: Wolfbriar Elemental. Pretty simple, comes out as wide as we have the mana for. Doesn't have quite the potential that Polukranos does as a manasink, but its more useful in the early game, and can be bounced to be kicked again for more tokens.
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Welcome back to magic!
1. This is an option I have not considered at all, and is actually a really viable one, and might be one of our best new ideas yet. All of our 1 drops (aside from root maze) have cards at a higher CMC that do the same thing but better. and I have been looking for a really good reason to turn Arbor Elf into Voyaging Satyr or the Mystics for Druid of the Cowl. We can replace Utopia Sprawl with Fertile Ground as well, and even look at Overgrowth. Or, this could justify an idea that I've had which also touches on #4.
4. Have you thought about replacing the entire ramp package with the wall ramp? Cards like Overgrown Battlement, Sylvan Caryatid, Wall of Roots, Vine Trellis and finally Axebane Guardian could all help us immensely in the first couple of turns while we ramp into our business end. There's a version of Green Devotion that uses this, and its had me curious.
5. I've been trying really, really hard to stay away from this idea, but the longer I do, the more I'm curious about it. We would probably have to trade out Bramblecrush/Reclaiming and/or a Plow Under or two, the Acidmosses really can't go anywhere. We can still topdeck planeswalkers with Primal, and we could go even further and add in some lightning bolts for the removal that we desperately need sometimes.
6. I'm testing with two garruk's in my 75 as well, and I've been thinking about Nissa World Waker or Voice of Zendikar, but hadn't considered Vital Force. How has she worked for you?
7. I think Dungrove Elder is definitely our best bet in this vein. I do have Thrun in the side for boardwipes and against counters in general, as well as Carnage Tyrant because we can. Though I hadn't yet thought about making room for 4x Dungrove just to make sure we can get something out that continues to grow and is hard to remove. Again, so many things I want this deck to do...not enough slots
Damping Sphere might be a good enough reason to take Nykthos out of the running, but I'm currently running a Treetop anyways.
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I played two games where my opponent lost the game with zero permanents on the battlefield. There is no better feeling.
And honestly, I didn't miss the Mystics. At all. There were a couple of slower hands, and they might have cost me the game, but I really don't think getting out a dork would have helped in those matchups, and the oppression of Root Maze far outperformed what a boltable dork could have done. My ability to ramp around Root Maze with Sprawl, Sakura, and Arbor made an incredible difference.
One other thing I've been doing a lot now is using Ewit to recur LD rather than primal if my opponent is already struggling. I'm perfectly happy to keep his head below water while I continue to ramp up to that magic 8 mana, and chip away for 2 per turn. Maybe even use my first Primal to pull a slime for another LD effect and more chip. Sure, bolt my slime, but he's coming back for another one of your lands.
Using this strategy, by the time I run out of LD/Ewits and feel like its time to finish the game, when primeval hits the board, the opponent scoops on sight. Sometimes I even feel like taking my time and I'll pull out wildebeests first just to bounce the ewit/slime for some LD one more time.
I crave that look of grim hopelessness on my opponents face.
I think my next experiment is using the slots I freed up for Trinisphere to try out Garruk for even more ramping around Root Maze. Although the Bestiaries I've been using in their slot for now have also been doing absolutely amazing work...decisions decisions.