menu

The Many Variations of Stompy

Are you a Quiet Speculation member?

If not, now is a perfect time to join up! Our powerful tools, breaking-news analysis, and exclusive Discord channel will make sure you stay up to date and ahead of the curve.

stompy spire tracer

Stompy, like Elves, is one of those archetypes that lends itself extremely well to variation. Sure, it's (mostly) just a dumb aggro deck, but with it you can go 1-2cmc only, go all in on counters, go all in on speed, and try many other things. Today I'll be exploring a few of the routes that can be taken.

To be clear, you might be lucky to do well with these decks in a real tournament. At least one of the ideas here has been implemented in a tournament setting and done well, but the primary goal is provide you with ways to play Stompy with your preferred twist, whether because the stock list doesn't interest you much, or because you want to mix it up for awhile. If any those ways happen to be competitive (and they do try to be, within their means), so be it. Onto it!

(Disclaimer: none of these lists have sideboards. Use the stock list sideboard as a starting point and go from there.)

[wp_ad_camp_1]

 

This version values evasive creatures above all else, and sports a low curve, the idea being to get the absolute maximum amount of damage in as quickly as possible -- no grinding or creature wars, here, just running a load of creatures at your opponent's face and pumping them up a ton.

Sheltering Ancient adds some risky but potentially very explosive fun -- his downside matters less since we're very quick and their guys won't be able to chump block basically ever. Turn 3 kills are possible with this version, although likely rare.

The major downside of this list is all of your dudes excepting Ancient are vulnerable to every red removal spell in the format, though this is offset some by the high amount of pump spells (one of which is "free"), and the cheap cost of the creatures, meaning you can just keep cranking out dudes quickly and not be hurt so much by removal.

stompy aether vial

This is similar to the Evasion list in that it sports a very low curve. The difference is it excludes 1-drops in favor of more double green creatures, which means Aspect of Hydra is much better here. Also, it drops a couple of Ancient (which is less good in this version) for a couple of Battalion (which is better in this version). Finally, we use Aether Vial for added speed turn 3 and beyond and improved game versus removal and counterspells.

stompy Slaughterhorn

This is the "balls to the wall" aggro approach in effect. If you like Burn or those Izzet Blitz decks, this operates quite similarly. It's basically the same as the Evasion list, except it values speed and raw damage a little more than evasion.

stompy phyrexian soulgorger

Persist Stompy aims to maximize resilience while exploiting Life's Legacy and Phyrexian Soulgorger as much as possible. Incidentally, we get some added game versus aggro decks (particularly Burn), by running a playset of Finks.

More Incarnations of Stompy

The fun doesn't stop there: you can try exploring counters, the graveyard, hexproof, and many more aspects of Magic to produce other Stompy lists. I believe the ones above are likely the most competitive out of what you can do, but who knows -- Modern is so large, there's always more ground to cover. Enjoy!

Posted in Brewing, ModernTagged ,

Have you joined the Quiet Speculation Discord?

If you haven't, you're leaving value on the table! Join our community of experts, enthusiasts, entertainers, and educators and enjoy exclusive podcasts, questions asked and answered, trades, sales, and everything else Discord has to offer.

Want to create content with Quiet Speculation?

All you need to succeed is a passion for Magic: The Gathering, and the ability to write coherently. Share your knowledge of MTG and how you leverage it to win games, get value from your cards – or even turn a profit.

9 thoughts on “The Many Variations of Stompy

      1. Not the same anon, but responses like this will keep me coming back. Not that the original name offended, but there’s something to be said for an author who is willing to fix issues.

    1. Agreed. Added 2 to the Evasion and Hyper lists. I’ve also swapped the Giant Growth in the Persist list for Predator’s Strike.

  1. Interesting article – it’s always nice to see people working on unique brews. I’m curious as to whether there’s enough out there to justify a “Counter Stompy” focused on +1/+1 counters. Avatar of the Resolute, Experiment One, Strangleroot Geist, and Young Wolf all seem like natural fits there, but beyond that I’m drawing a bit of a blank. Maybe Renegade Krasis?

    1. Glad you like it.

      Quite possibly! Krasis isn’t good enough I don’t think but there may be other strong cards. Predator Ooze is decent and Mutant’s Prey is nice. I may brew this separately in the future.

Join the conversation

Want Prices?

Browse thousands of prices with the first and most comprehensive MTG Finance tool around.


Trader Tools lists both buylist and retail prices for every MTG card, going back a decade.

Quiet Speculation