UG Stompy - Battle Box Part 1
Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2020 9:00 am
So, I used to have what I called a Battle Box. What this was was 2 piles of 120 cards, each. One pile was BR, one pile was GU. Each pile had a core of cards that I recommended using in each deck, and 4-5 different archetypes (Elemental aggro, Biovisionary clones, etc.) from it that you could build. In the interest of consolidating what I had, and partially because they weren't the most evenly matched dependent upon what was built/some cards and archetypes just weren't getting used, I decided to pare these piles down to 2 Casual-60 decks, each, based on which I thought were the strongest/most fun to play of the archetypes. Each deck has been periodically touched up since they've been built, and I'm pretty satisfied with where they currently are, based on performance with friends. I'll probably post the BR list in a separate post, but for now, here's what became of the UG pile:
Simic Sky Swallower is one of my pet cards - it was the first rare I ever pulled from a Magic booster, thus holding a special place in my heart, so I wanted one of the archetypes to be centered around efficiently bringing it out and controlling the game with it. Its counterpart in this deck, for a while, was Sagu Mauler - but I found Sagu Mauler to be fairly underwhelming. It just didn't evoke the same feelings in me that SSS did. So I thought, "Is there anything that I can replace this with?" I thought about Inkwell Leviathan, but with a much higher mana cost, it was an extremely unappealing option - I was already struggling to stabilize with SSS at 7 mana, so I knew I needed another 5 or 6-drop to make it work. I considered Kodama of the North Tree, but it was Legendary, which is not optimal for a beatstick. I didn't want to ruin the almost-symmetry I had with most of my stuff being UG spells, but Explore was already in, and I wasn't gonna run Wistful Selkie, instead. What was a Diz to do?
Well, having played Legacy for a while, I grew to like combo/cheaty strategies, and came to realize that Carnage Tyrant was an excellent replacement as a card I used to enjoy running in Legacy in Nic Fit-type strategies. I weighed the pros and cons of Mauler vs. Tyrant, and whether or not the Morph cast was worth the loss of uncounterability and 1 power. Then, I realized something else:
Bounty of the Luxa, another pet card of mine in this deck, was not carrying its weight.
Sure, it was nice to draw an extra card every turn and have extra mana every turn when I had two of them out, but I often found that I would rather play something immediately relevant to the board state rather than something that could potentially get me what I needed a few turns down the road - and playing just one never felt great.
Then, Theros Beyond Death came out.
I realized that I could rectify both of my issues if I swapped Bounty for Uro, and Mauler for Tyrant.
Removing Bounty opens up a 3/4 mana slot for another, far more relevant spell - that being Uro. If I'm not dedicating my 3-drop cast to a morphed Mauler, and then my 5-drop "cast" to flipping Mauler, I can potentially ramp, instead, and power out one of my fatties by using either Uro or a Growth Spiral/Explore. Uro is an additional Explore effect, which the deck loves. Uro is lifegain, which helps stabilize from early on, even if the deck has a slow start. Uro is a UG fatty. With the extra umph from Tyrant added, could the choice be any easier?
Anyway, this deck has gone through a lot of consideration for a Casual-60 deck, but it's one of the ones I always enjoy playing - it's just putting out lands rapidly, bringing out big dudes, and turning them sideways. Who doesn't love a good Timmy deck?
Decklist
Approximate Total Cost:
Simic Sky Swallower is one of my pet cards - it was the first rare I ever pulled from a Magic booster, thus holding a special place in my heart, so I wanted one of the archetypes to be centered around efficiently bringing it out and controlling the game with it. Its counterpart in this deck, for a while, was Sagu Mauler - but I found Sagu Mauler to be fairly underwhelming. It just didn't evoke the same feelings in me that SSS did. So I thought, "Is there anything that I can replace this with?" I thought about Inkwell Leviathan, but with a much higher mana cost, it was an extremely unappealing option - I was already struggling to stabilize with SSS at 7 mana, so I knew I needed another 5 or 6-drop to make it work. I considered Kodama of the North Tree, but it was Legendary, which is not optimal for a beatstick. I didn't want to ruin the almost-symmetry I had with most of my stuff being UG spells, but Explore was already in, and I wasn't gonna run Wistful Selkie, instead. What was a Diz to do?
Well, having played Legacy for a while, I grew to like combo/cheaty strategies, and came to realize that Carnage Tyrant was an excellent replacement as a card I used to enjoy running in Legacy in Nic Fit-type strategies. I weighed the pros and cons of Mauler vs. Tyrant, and whether or not the Morph cast was worth the loss of uncounterability and 1 power. Then, I realized something else:
Bounty of the Luxa, another pet card of mine in this deck, was not carrying its weight.
Sure, it was nice to draw an extra card every turn and have extra mana every turn when I had two of them out, but I often found that I would rather play something immediately relevant to the board state rather than something that could potentially get me what I needed a few turns down the road - and playing just one never felt great.
Then, Theros Beyond Death came out.
I realized that I could rectify both of my issues if I swapped Bounty for Uro, and Mauler for Tyrant.
Removing Bounty opens up a 3/4 mana slot for another, far more relevant spell - that being Uro. If I'm not dedicating my 3-drop cast to a morphed Mauler, and then my 5-drop "cast" to flipping Mauler, I can potentially ramp, instead, and power out one of my fatties by using either Uro or a Growth Spiral/Explore. Uro is an additional Explore effect, which the deck loves. Uro is lifegain, which helps stabilize from early on, even if the deck has a slow start. Uro is a UG fatty. With the extra umph from Tyrant added, could the choice be any easier?
Anyway, this deck has gone through a lot of consideration for a Casual-60 deck, but it's one of the ones I always enjoy playing - it's just putting out lands rapidly, bringing out big dudes, and turning them sideways. Who doesn't love a good Timmy deck?