GW Stompy (also known as European Stompy) has been mentio...

[SamuraiMike]

GW Stompy (also known as European Stompy) has been mentioned in several different discussions here on TMD.  I have been playing a more traditional mono-green Stompy in Type I for several months now and enjoying success in my metagame with it.  I haven't been able to find answers to the important questions about the deck.  The most important of these questions are: Why was this deck designed?  What does it do that mono-green Stompy doesn't do?

I found the following decklist in one of the budget gauntlet discussions and have posted it here for convenience.

European Stompy

Critters
4 Basking Rootwalla
3 Hidden Guerillas
3 Quirion Ranger
4 River Boa
4 Rogue Elephant
4 Savannah Lions
4 Skyshroud Elite

Pump
3 Giant Growth
4 Rancor

Mana
4 Land Grant
4 Elvish Spirit Guide

Utility
4 Wax/Wane
3 Swords to Plowshares

Mana
4 Land Grant
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Windswept Heath
4 Savannah
4 Forest

Sideboard
1 Absolute Grace
3 Absolute Law
2 Choke
1 COP: Black
1 Enlightened Tutor
2 Null Rod
2 Serenity
2 Swords to Plowshore
1 Tsabo's Web

The concerns I have with this deck relate to the mana base.  One of the strengths of mono-green Stompy is that it is only one color, and thus does not need non-basic lands.  This deck seems very susceptible to non-basic land hate, particularly Wasteland, since it only runs 4 white mana sources.

Maindeck, it seems like the only benefit of running white is being able to use Swords to Plowshares.  Wax/Wane doesn't strike me as particularly outstanding due to the fact that I don't see a particular metagame need for destroying enchantments.  Savannah Lions have a very similar role to Ghazban Ogre, so I'm not yet convinced that white is needed there.

Can anyone tell me about the strengths and weaknesses of this deck?  It seems like the sideboard is designed to beat red and black decks.  Isn't Stompy already very good at beating decks like Ankh Sligh and Suicide?  Serenity seems to be an answer to Stax and Welder MUD.  Is it enough?

[Gilberry]

In GW stompy white adds a little creature threat removal and the wax and wane card. At first glance this is nothing really great but the option of choosing to play either creature pump or enchantment removal is very impotant, if you have an opponent that can abuse Bargain, Nether Void or other similar echantments against you.

Unfortunately Stompy is a sub-tier deck and gets destroyed by cards like Chalice of the Void. At the moment Stompy (and even most versions of sligh) are obsolete. They can't deal with combo and they can't deal with workshop decks.

[BreathWeapon]

You don't see a Metagame reason for Wax/Wane? Ever heard of a deck called Dragon? Its some good I hear. Its also pretty bitchin vs Necro/Bargain/Future Sight. If TnT returns to the format, it will PWN Survival of the Fittest. It can even be used against Illusions of Grandeur, but I doubt you'll see much of Trix.

G/w Stompy has several things going for it, Wax/Wane is a bullet vs Dragon and so is STP. Having STP also helps vs nightmare match ups like Mask and Aggro Workshop. Splash > Mono.G.

I really don't like that sideboard at all. 4 Naturalize is pretty important and it needs more Null Rods for Scepter decks, IMO.

[SamuraiMike]

It seems from the above responses that white was added in order to improve the matchup against the following decks:

1.) Dragon
2.) Void
3.) RectorTrix

It seems like those decks make up the preponderance of the uses for the StP and Wax/Wane targets above (Worldgorger Dragon, reanimation enchantments, Necropotence, Yawgmoth's Bargain).  One notable exception is  Future Sight (which I believe can be handled sufficiently with Naturalize in a mono-green deck).

While I understand that Stompy is dead in the broader metagame, my interest in the deck is due to it's success in the metagame at my local cardstore tournaments.  Generally, the decks are substantially less competitive than the decks I saw when I used to play at C&J's in California.  Here, the decks that make frequent appearances are a 2002-style Keeper and Ankh Sligh, both rather good matchups for Stompy (especially considering that almost my entire sideboard can be Keeper-hate).  Because of the strange metagame, Stompy continues to be my weapon of choice.

[bebe]

Well, I've actually had some experience playing this deck at tournaments. It really is a very strong deck and played Madness ( probable defunct now), Dragon, Sligh and Fish very well. Some Workshop decks are beatable but Stacker and TnT are very tough. Strangely, I never got matched with control so i will not comment on that match up.
I used a sideboard very similar tothe one posted but my creature base was altered a bit ... I used both Gibbons and Guerillas main deck.
I was surprised at how smoothly the mana base worked and the Rangers were golden in the deck and the last creature I would remove.
Now the sideboard was a problem for me. I'm not sure that I would use Naturalize over  Seals though. I had two in my sideboard and should have had three. I also had two Soltari Visionary - very janky, I know. Two white was difficult too but I'm sure we can find answers for Chalice in g/w. Carpet of Flowers was in the side as well.  
BTW, I think it is great that you get to play with five StPs ... I made a deck with three main and four side ( edited it out in my last post) so I beat you to the punch.
I keep advocating aggro builds. I know Razor is working on one and i hear R/G beats * wasp has a good version* is some good too. G/w Stompy has great synergy and has access to a lot of answers so if r/g can do well so can g/w.

[g0dzillA]

The upshot is this: Stompy's greatest weakness (aside from Chalice of the Void) is its complete lack of board control in the form of targeted removal. Most notable is its lack of creature control. This means that the deck relies solely on winning as fast as possible, with complete disregard for what the guy on the opposite side of the table is doing. The problem with this paradigm is that Stompy is flat-out slower than modern combo, which comprises a large portion of the field.

That being the case, the white splash is simply superior. Aside from non-basic land hate, the deck loses nothing with the splash of white, and yet gains an ability to cope in the face of opposing threats. People have used Dragon, Void, and Trix as examples because they are prominent upper-tier decks, and illustrate the point well. Even in a scrub meta, however, your matchups are improved against any deck with creatures or enchantments in them. (Note: that's a lot of them.)

[centroles]

I honestly think G/R stompy might be the better option.

As the deck stands, it's extremely weak against Workshop variants, which WILL make up a significant portion of the top 8 in any competitive environment especially now that long is gone. Red sideboard cards like Blood Moon (huge in the post Jan meta), Artifact Mutation (a house against Workshop) and Rack and Ruin will greatly boost this matchup. And there are many other utility spells that red brings with it too... Bolts, Red Elemental Blasts, Shaman etc etc. Naturalize makes for sufficent enchantment hate, lightning bolt is great against most creatures. And sideboard solutions like Tormod's Crypt, Root Maze and other green graveyard hate will help against dragon. The deck will still be vulnerable to chalice, but that can be dealt with artifact hate. Besides, with long gone more and more decks are opting to remove chalice for null rod (except the ones you should have an easy time with like Sui Black).

While the following build doesn't seem properly tuned, Gilberry states that this won some prety significant tournaments. Maybe we should work on tuning this build.

[BreathWeapon]

I think its pretty obvious that G/w Stompy is a Metagame build to deal with a hoard of Dragon. Euro Stompy has 8 MD answers to Dragon, and thats definately some good I hear. They aren't even metaslots really, which is what makes the deck soo awesome. I wouldn't want to walk into a Workshop environment with it by any meens, but that doesn't make it necessarily inferior.

That said, G/R stompy is a thought where Workshops are expected.

Does anybody have any insight on Food Chain Goblins with Belcher? That deck looked REALLY good in extended. 4 MD Vandal and 4 MD Tinkerer bring the ruckus