From: "Paul W. Gallagher" Newsgroups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy Subject: The History of Senor Stompy!! Date: Thu, 4 Sep 1997 16:12:47 -0500 Howdy Folks, As one of the originators of the deck popularized as Senor Stompy, I thought I'd let people in on how the deck has evolved through time and how it is continuing to evolve with tourney reports coming in from all over :). The original stompy differs from the one popularized on the net by quite a few cards as you can imagine. The deck began as a test deck for Nationals designed by Bill Macey that incorporated alot of what he felt were good metagame creatures, large creatures resistant to serrated arrow tokens by virtue of their Fatness. Now before Nats he thought that with the reintroduction of plow and icy that prison might make a big comeback so the deck had 4 starting monkeys and to beat control even more the deck had 8 LD to keep that wrath away a little longer. The initial stompy did reasonably well as a test deck but definitely had some weaknesses. Here is pretty much the original stompy: 4 elves 4 ghazban ogre 4 rogue elephants 4 quirion rangers 4 giant growths 4 spectral bears 4 harvest worms 4 uktabi orangutang 4 fallow earth 4 thermokarst 2 llurgoyf 16 forests 2 heart of yavimaya This was the deck that I took to Origins with me and with a few changes played in the opens twice, only going 6-4 or something like that, fairly disappointing. I noticed while I was there though that the environment was riddled with counterpost, buried alive, monored and whatnot and that I always seemed to take out my LD for winter orbs anyway so the weekend after origins I took my new stompy which is very nearly its current form to a local t2 tourney in Arlington, TX with like 30 or so players. I was totally amazed by how it did. The deck went 7-0/14-0 games on the day. I've never seen a deck do that. It beat a Garyesque U/R, two buried alive deck, a finkelpost, a WW, and 2 marogeddon decks run for the most part by the best people from the metroplex. Most of the changes were conceived from the sideboarding changes I was making at the opens and by talking to a guy at Nats who played a monogreen deck to an 11-0-1 record at his regionals. He gave me the idea for the bounties of the hunt and a few other ideas as well. At this time I was running 2 nature's resurgence and only 1 goyf which isn't the ideal number but it was still pretty good. After this tourney I put stompy on the net since they're weren't going to be any significant t2 tournaments for some time and it was a really a blast to play and we hoped that other people would enjoy it too. The deck was taken to the Texas state t2 championships where it took both the masters and junior titles and has gone on to win lots of local tournies around here despite everybody knowing about it. Here is my current stompy: 5 elves 4 quirion rangers 4 ghazban ogres 4 rogue elephants 4 giant growths 21 4 spectral bears 2 harvest worms 3 boas or dervishes 4 winter orbs 13 2 llurgoyf 2 bounty of the hunt 2 centaurs 1 hurricane 1 natures resurgence 8 Land: 2 hearts of yavimaya 16 forests Sideboard(currently under reconstruction): One of the reasons I'm posting this is to both show how the deck has evolved as well as solicit commentary from those who have played the deck about what they think is important to the board as well as how theyre main decks differ from my own. Personally, I swear by 5 elves and the resurgence, and you won't get me to take any of them out, but the DD is also really good. I think maybe 2 hurricanes for the main deck as a finisher, but I can't decide what to take out. Here is my tentative sideboard: 2 serrated arrows 3 uktabi orangutang 2 emerald charm 2 tranquil grove 2 blossoming wreath(Price's monored gives this deck trouble) 1 llurgoyf 4 dervishes between deck/board The number of decks that flat out beat this deck are few in number I think. Personally, I haven't tested enough to figure out if it loses to something common in the environment, but it sure doesn't seem to. Lots of Battleford players mention that the decks are very similar and I agree that the creature bases are but the addition of the winter orbs to the main deck is what makes stompy so much better in this environment than the old battleford. The winter orbs are the most key card in the whole deck, take them away and you lose all control over your oppoenent, and devalue the importance of the low casting cost nature of the deck. I still am puzzled as to why the deck can lose to the price monored because that deck hates winter orbs and its creature's don't match up well, but fireblast is pretty rough. If anyone has figured out how to beat that as well as other stompy decks I'd like to know. Hope this was semi-useful: Paul Gallagher Team AustiKnights