Subject: Cursed Stompy Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1998 09:47:50 -0400 (EDT) From: Carl Jarrell To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com [Deck] T2 I've always been a firm believer in fast creature smackdown, but the one reason I haven't played much with green lately is another thing I believe firmly in...creature kill. This deck remedies that to a point, and has done surprisingly well in tournaments (whether it's because of deck quality or sheer surprise value, who knows). Here's the goods: The Creatures: 4 Llanowar Elves (blasphemy if you don't use these in a heavy green deck) 4 Quirion Ranger (see above...plus, the forest bounce trick has an extra dimension when a Scroll hits the table) 2 Skyshroud Elite (worse comes to worse, they're a plain old 1/1 for G, but with all the rainbow madness anymore, they're as good as a reverse Kird Ape can get) 4 Rogue Elephant (with all the fuss about Carnophages and Sarco-Zombies, it's still the most efficient mana-to-power/toughness creature in T2 right now...well, not counting Cinder Wall :P...only play him first turn if you have mana to burn, though...Elves are almost always the better first turn play if you're short on land) 4 River Boa (one of the best weenie creatures of all time...decently hard to kill, and great against blue) 2 Harvest Wurm (an ideal turn goes first turn Lawnmower, second turn Rogue and Harvest...with all the landkilling creatures in the deck, very rarely is a dead card in hand) 2 Fallow Wurm (4/4 for 3 mana is great, and the Harvest Wurm cancels out the drawback) 4 Jolrael's Centaur (untargetability is great, and the flanking causes it to be decently hard to kill in combat) 2 Uktabi Orangutan (any card with monkeys doing it is cool...oh yeah, it nukes artifacts too) 2 Llurgoyf (I have five words for you, jerky...fear the late game Llurgoyf) The Accessories: 3 Giant Growth (good game ender, good surprise tactic, good way to save your creature from an Incinerate, good way to...) 2 Overrun (yeah, it's 5 mana, but the casting cost is more feasible than you think, with 8 mana elves to go along with a somewhat heavy mana base for a weenie deck...just too good to leave out of a heavy green) The Gadgets: 4 Cursed Scroll (this is what makes this deck hum...finally gives green a bit of creature control, plus another dimension to go to that green hasn't had before, as far as another path to victory besides creatures...and there's few creatures that can take damage from a Centaur or Elephant and survive a Scrolling...just make sure you don't Uktabi yourself :P) The Land: 17 Forest 4 Quicksand (which again, are there for some sorely needed creature-kill) Which brings this abomination to a grand total of 60 cards even (yay). The Sideboard (insert obligatory statement about tuning your sideboard to your local metagame here): 4 Spike Feeder (I'll give you three guesses what these guys get sided in against, and two of 'em ain't right) 2 Uktabi Orangutan (extra gadget-nukin' power, if need be...please, Mirage, don't rotate out...don't make me play with Verdigris...) 3 Tranquility (for any and all annoying enchantments you might run into) 1 Tranquil Domain (if you REALLY need some extra enchantment nuking power) 2 City of Solitude (see Spike Feeder :P) 3 Reap (yeah, Reap...black is so rampant...at least where I am, that if you're going to be brave enough to play Stompy, you need protection from Perish, which absolutely wrecks the deck...hence the Reaps) Strengths: Better Versatility for a Stompy deck: the Scrolls give the Stompy archetype just so many more options and modes to shift into...the deck is much weaker without any creature-kill/direct damage at all. Before, green's creature control was simply having bigger creatures. Now at least you have more choices. Quicksands help too. Weaknesses: Shadow creatures, in particular Armored/Strengthed ones: The Scrolls and Quicksands can take care of them when they're small, but if you can't get one quick before they saddle up a Maro on their back, you're in trouble. It's enough of a threat that I really wanted to put Reality Anchor in the sideboard to let my bigger creatures block and kill them, or maybe even Heartwood Dryad, although the Dryad is a speed bump against an Armored/Strengthed shadow...I just had bigger threats I had to deal with in the sideboard. Scrolls and Quicksands are sufficient 85-90% of the time though. Still, anemic creature kill: The Scrolls definitely help, but only to a point. Try to win before anything huge can hit the table that you can't deal with. Worse comes to worse, use creature damage or Quicksand along with the Scrolls to bring buffer creatures down. And of course, there's nothing much buffer than your two Llurgoyfs, if you have to resort to violence. *grin* Well, that's all for now. Drop any comments or suggestions my way. Carl (I need some people to play here at school) Jarrell jarrel19@marshall.edu