[Brainstorming] Post Scars of Mirrodin Artifact Stompy

By Bryan
This article is courtesy of Bryan (DL.PIGGY on sgcardgames.com). Having piloted Dragon Stompy to a top 4 finish in the Library of Alexandria tournament, he's created a new deck by incorporating cards from Scars of Mirrodin to form what he named Artifact Stompy. Enjoy!

Artifact Stompy – Bryan (Game Haven 10th October 2010 Legacy Tournament)

Mana (23 + 7)
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Mishra’s Factory
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Darksteel Citadel
3 Island
4 Mox Diamond
3 Simian Spirit Guide

Threats (18)
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Etched Champion
4 Master of Etherium
3 Esperzoa
3 Rusted Relic

Disruption (12)
4 Trinisphere
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Tangle Wire

Sideboard (15)
4 Tormod’s Crypt
3 Ratchet Bomb
3 Powder Keg
3 Pithing Needle
2 Chill

Hmmm, you could say I drew inspiration from Dragon Stompy. Hence, I’d personally name it Artifact Stompy XD. I built the deck around the premise that nothings screws the Legacy format more than a first turn Trinisphere/Chalice of the Void/Lodestone Golem. Like Dragon Stompy, the idea of the deck is to resolve these cards as early as possible and beat the opponents down before they can do anything.

The huge amount of mana boosters: Ancient Tomb, City of Traitors, Mox Diamond and the 3 Simian Spirit Guide definitely allows me to pull off a first turn threat fairly easily. You might even say I managed to do it pretty well during the tourney. However, to say the least, everything dies to Force of Will. Especially so when I lose the dice roll and other counterspells such as Daze and Spell Pierce become active. By the way, I lost the dice roll in like 4 of my games :(.

Here's a brief run-down of my matches:

Round 1 vs Madness Survival (Eugene)

I kept a hand that would give me a turn 2 Lodestone for the first game, but I lost the dice roll and it got countered, didn’t last much longer.

Second game, I kept another turn 2 Lodestone, but it again died to a counter. Can't say I lasted too long after that.

W-L-D
0-1-0

Cant say I stood much of a chance against his pretty good opening hands. Counters wins once again.

Round 2 vs Lands.dec

He won the first game with a first turn Exploration that lead to the Life from the Loam/Glacial Chasm lock. Couldn’t do much after.

I started the 2nd game with, I think, a Trinisphere and a Chalice at 2, followed up by a pretty big Master of Etherium beatdown. He couldn’t answer in time and lost.

For the 3rd game, he got a Manabond into play but a Chalice at 2 didn’t allow him to do much. A Master beat him down to 5 before he came out with Worm Harvest. A lucky top-decked Esperzoa sealed the game with a Pithing Needle stopping his Maze of Ith.

W-L-D
1-1-0

While I won the 2nd game convincingly, I dare say the 3rd round was really lucky with a top-decked Esperzoa to fly over his lil' worms. I’d say this was a pretty fair match-up that would be decided by the sideboard cards for both sides. Chasm/Loam really screws me while Chalice at 2 really screws him.

Round 3 vs Reanimator

I lost the dice roll again and his 2nd turn Iona, Shield of Emeria beat me down for the 1st game. While Iona for blue didn’t really affect me much, it stopped me from casting Esperzoa which might have won me the game if I could block his Iona for one turn because I had managed to cast a Lodestone Golem previously. My lack of a turn 1 disruption most probably sealed my fate.

2nd game, I started with a first turn Chalice of the Void at 1, which was countered, but allowed me to drop a Tormod's Crypt unhindered. He didn’t/couldn't do much because of the Crypt and a second turn Trinisphere followed by a Lodestone/Master sealed the game for me.

3rd game, he casted Thoughtseize … on himself! It was his only discard outlet. I was pretty thankful considering I had a Trinisphere in hand. On my turn, I top-decked a Tormod's Crypt as my first draw (wow) and a first turn Trinisphere sealed the game.

W-L-D
2-1-0

A pretty lucky game considering that he didn’t have too many counterspells to answer my artifacts. A series of lucky Crypts saved me greatly. Reanimator is a deck that would die to Chalice at 1, but that’s if it comes out. Though I didn't manage to resolve a Chalice at 1, Trinisphere is equally hurting.

Match 4 vs UBG control

1st game. He won the dice roll (huge surprise), dropped an island and passed. I came out with a first turn Trini with Mox and a 2-mana land. He Brainstorms a Daze but I remove a SSG and it resolved. Should have been a game in hand but my Rusted Relic got destroyed and he Hymned away my Esperzoa. A lone Etched Champion coudln't race his 2 Tarmogoyf and I lost by 1 life.

2nd game, a first turn Trinisphere, second turn Lodestone and 3rd turn Tangle Wire sealed the game.

3rd game, I can't remember much actually but I suspect I died to a counter and a Hymn to Tourach.

W-L-D
2-2-0

Another deck with FoW in it, I felt that I should have won this game if I had cast Esperzoa over Etched Champion. But I chose Champion because I thought that he might have removals. But at the same time Trini's protection might have been enough to safely send my Esperzoa through. A pitiful game where a first turn Trini lost =( . A pretty decent matchup.

Match 5 Vs Madness Survival (Kaiser)

Oh boy. Another blue deck.

1st game I won the dice roll but my first turn Lodestone Golem died to a FoW. Woohoo. We then went on to spamming creatures on the board. His 2 Goyfs and a Basking Rootwalla unable to get past my 2 Etched Champion and a Rusted Relic. But a Vengevine, Vengevine, Wonder in graveyard sealed the game for him.

2nd game, I forgot to sideboard but he graciously didn’t as well. He kept a dangerous hand or so he was saying and he couldn’t answer any of my threats. A Master/Lodestone beatdown won the game.

3rd game. This time we sideboarded. I think he countered my Chalice for 1 but had no answer to my Lodestone and 2 Masters who beat him for lethal damage.

W-L-D
3-2-0

Once again I was lucky enough that I didn’t face more than 1 counter and my creatures were bigger than his for the last 2 games. But once again, it just goes to show that this deck can only play strongly against non-FoW/Dazes.

Afterthoughts

Well I dare say I was pretty lucky to get 3 wins having fought 4 decks with FoW/Dazes. Quite a bad series of matchups I dare say.

The deck is surprisingly fast enough to constantly land turn 1/2 3 or 4 mana drops. I would like to attribute this to the Moxes and the 3 SSG. The idea of SSGs was taken from Dragon Stompy and it had definitely proved useful.

While speed isn’t the real issue, I found the 2 most glaring problems to be having a matchup against blue (which is like the majority of the metagame) as well as the inability to beat fast enough.

This brings me to my creatures. MoE and Lodestones are definitely both 4 ofs. Master reached an average of 7/7 in most games. Etched Champion, while protected from pretty much everything, is a mere 2/2 which in my opinion just doesn’t make the cut. Esperzoa is good with Tangle Wire and artifact lands but having 4 may be too much due to its ability becoming more of a drawback so I’d say that 3 is just right. Rusted Relic is definitely huge. 4 for a 5/5 is definitely good, but 4 CMC might come on steep once in a while and it lacks evasion.


I’d say that the only problem the decklist faces is the choice of creatures. But this might not be much of an issue considering that we are now in an artifact block, and a good one might come about pretty soon. Zhi Ming (Blu3^Ming) encouraged me to use equipments like Sword of Fire and Ice to help boost the creatures as well. I guess I'll take all this into consideration.

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