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-------- MTG Fan Articles Featured
Writers Community |
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Odyssey's Effect on 12-Land Stompy 10.24.01 - Well,
it’s that time again folks. As the new sets come
in and shake everything up, someone like me has to set
things straight. I will be helping out around here
as the Extended Specialist and figured this would be a
great place to start: 12 Land Stompy. And don’t worry,
there will be enough time to evaluate everyone’s
favorites in due time. As
many people looked over the spoiler list for Odyssey,
they probably thought “Man, green is just huge in this
set!” The only problem with this is that many of
the big creature-makers such as Call of the Herd and
Beast Attack probably won’t be able to work in
something like Stompy. Let me explain: Cards in
most Stompy decks that have a casting cost (cc) of
greater than two have an alternate cost to putting them
into play. For example: Vine Dryad costs 3G but
has the alternate cost of removing a green card in your
hand from the game instead of paying its mana cost.
Hopefully you have seen that something such as Beast
Attack isn’t going to work. Before I get going,
let me show you a deck from this year’s Extended
portion of Worlds: 11 Forest Sideboard: 4 Crumble Now,
let’s take a look at why certain cards are in the
deck. Elvish Lyrists are pretty obvious-they
disrupt combo, stop Oath of Druids, and get rid of nasty
enchantments such as Circle of Protection and Story
Circle. Elvish Spirit Guide is rarely cast in a
game (remember the cc rule) but is there to accelerate
the deck. Ghazban Ogre is a great bargain against
most decks (a 2/2 for G is pretty good) and River Boa
can stop menacing fatties and is great with all of the
blue running around in Extended. Quirion Ranger
really makes the deck shine. You can use its
ability to cast multiple critters a turn or untap some
of your attacking creatures after they do their thing.
Rogue Elephant is just a beat stick being a 3/3 for G.
The sacrificing of the forest usually isn’t a big deal
since most of the cards cost G anyway. Skyshroud
Elite is usually pretty big in Extended since many
people use Wasteland and dual lands. Vine Dryad is
pretty good since you can cast it as an instant (and for
free) and gets a lot better after Rancor comes out.
Bounty of the Hunt is great as a creature-saver and as a
finisher. Briar Shield is pretty much a Seal of
Strength on steroids since it gives you more damage
while waiting to be used. Land Grant is a very
important part of the deck. Don’t be afraid to
use it on your first turn with its alternate cost.
Your hand will probably be empty in a few turns anyway.
Rancor is hands down the best pumper in the deck (and
maybe even the entire game) and is an automatic four of
in just about any deck with green creatures.
Winter Orb is another great card. It will all but
shut down blue control and slow down almost everything
else. Quirion Rangers really love these things.
The sideboard is pretty self-explanatory. Note:
Many of you may have heard these decks called 9-Land
Stompy before. The reason for running more forests
is for two reasons: 1)Paying the comes-into-play cost of
Rogue Elephant and 2)regenerating River Boa. Odyssey’s
Influence: Looking
over the green portion of the Odyssey spoiler, a few
cards jump out to be tried. A few (such as
Chatter of the Squirrel) are new ideas that just might
make it and others (such as Druid Lyrist) are just
rehashes of old cards that could still make it into the
deck. The first card that I wanted to try was
Muscle Burst. This thought was quickly diminished
as I looked at what other pump cards would have to be
removed. Another that looked interesting was
Bearscape, but that costs three mana (see above).
That’s not to say that it can’t be used,
though, so we’ll try and keep that one in mind
(although it might take adding more land to use).
Howling Gale looked as if it might make it into the
sideboard at least, but then again, I can’t think of
any 1-toughness fliers that get used in Extended very
heavily, if at all.
The last one that I wanted to try was Chatter of
the Squirrel. It gets us the card economy we’re
after (two creatures for one cards isn’t bad) and
won’t mess up the mana curve of the deck, which, for
some strange reason, seems to be weighted more towards
one and two. You
could swap them for Ghazban Ogres if you expect to see
Sligh all over the place (casting creatures for the
other guy never did sound good to me). Druid
Lyrist is just a metagame call. It’s something
to replace the Elvish Lyrist with if you fear running
into Priest of Titania in a match. Other
cards you might consider running are Diligent Farmhand
and Druid’s Call. The Farmhand’s are really
needed with the Land Grants in the deck. The other
card is Druid’s Call. I find it to be a neat
card, but it will probably remain on the sidelines
unless you expect a lot of Sligh (which really wants to
kill those Rogue Elephants). One other anti-Sligh
card is Squirrel Nest. The problem its 1GG cc and
using up one of our precious lands but it just might
work. So,
after a little bit of manipulation the deck would look
like this: 11 Forest Sideboard: 4 Crumble Notice
how the deck didn’t seem to change much as I went
along. That’s because I didn’t want to mess up
the mana curve of the deck too much. The only big
change is the possible addition of something that costs
three mana to the sideboard. This shouldn’t be
too bad, but you may want to change the number if it
gives you too many problems or add in another forest to
help out (possibly replacing a Winter Orb). Tips on playing
Don’t
be afraid to play out your hand quickly.
Usually, the only time this wouldn’t apply is
when you’re playing against blue control, since they
will usually be running Powder Keg. If you find
yourself in a tough match up such as Oath, White Weenie,
Draw-Go, or Illusions/Donate just try and hang on
through the first game and hope for the best after
sideboarding. Sometimes match-ups like these come
down to the luck of the draw, but I don’t think that
you want to rely on that too heavily. For a
beginner or someone on a budget, this a great deck to
play since they can usually be built almost entirely out
of the common bin and with a little trading (although
you may have to buy a couple of the singles). It
has pretty good match-ups, although it does lack the
staying power of other decks due to a lack of good card
drawing. This can be circumvented by using the
traditional plan of attack, attack, attack. Many
decks can’t stand up to this constant pressure and
will quickly fold under your onslaught. Until next time, keep
‘em legal
Robby |
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