Hello, I would like to drop by and recommend a couple of things. First thing, is there a reason Hexdrinker is no included? Second, I recommend Pithing Needle in the sideboard instead of Shapers' Sanctuary because your creature output is never going to stop usually and a planeswalker, artifact, Urza, etc. are hit hard with a pithing in this meta. Also, the inclusion of a Force of Vigor could be the difference of life and death in the tron match up so I recommend that too. Another is the graveyard hate, mono-green aggro wants to make their ccontrol elements as painless as possible so I recommend Relic of Progenitus over Wheel of Sun and Moon because of the card draw attached. Thank you for listening to my recommends.

Hi neolions.

Thanks for the comments and recommendations. I'll try and address all of your points one by one.

Let's start with Hexdrinker . He's nice as a mana sink but otherwise is a Dryad Militant with no text. I understand once you pay to level up a couple times it becomes "good", but my problem is I dont want to have to pay more mana just to make it playable. This is assuming it's not killed in response to the last level up attempt before pro instant (which I understand is just worst case but still something to think about). In addition once you do get it to pro instant you can no longer use pump spells on it if it's the only lethal unblocked creature which is also a problem. All this in addition to the power of Dryad Militant itself. I say this because it's the most likely slot for Hexdrinker . Dryad Militant exiles random key cards from certain matchups that just makes things so much easier. Ex: Creeping Chill , Conflagrate , Past in Flames , Lava Dart ...

Next up Pithing Needle is a generally useful card as it can be brought in against many different decks. I've definitely played it in other iterations of this deck. I like Shapers' Sanctuary as it provides card advantage against removal heavy decks like jund and control so that you can keep producing threats.

I very much dislike Force of Vigor as you have to lose out on a card to even use it. Stompy cannot overcome losing out on an extra card that could be another threat or finisher spell. I understand that the loss of the card is ment to be used in a do-or-die situation. If you need it to simply slow down your opponent and it's not do-or-die and just on the spot removal then you lost out on an extra card.

Finally, Relic of Progenitus . I actually quite like your recommendation here. The incidental card draw does seem super relevant from graveyard hate. I like Wheel of Sun and Moon as it's a permanent that provides decent devotion in addition to the graveyard hate. It is almost a joke, but it can also be helpful against mill. I'll probably test out Relic of Progenitus once I'm done testing with Once Upon a Time and Syr Faren, the Hengehammer (dont want to be testing too much at the same time otherwise it's hard to attribute successful tests properly).

Hope this answers your questions. I appreciate you commenting and choosing this primer to discuss Stompy.

jerleg

I'm curious why you find the need for 3 dedicated lifegain cards in the side? Is it just to have a better matchup vs Burn (and maybe storm) when you're on the draw post-board? Life Goes On is my preferred dedicated lifegain card in stompy if I feel it's ever necessary, but in general I always liked cards like Kitchen Finks or Obstinate Baloth, as they are also threats and also help out in other situations (finks vs sweepers, baloth vs liliana, etc.). I haven't played much modern since just before the FL ban, so maybe there's something I'm not taking into consideration.

Oh yea, also wanted to ask about the Wheels in the board. I used to use 2 of those for a bit, but I ended up putting Crypts or Cages back in due to the fact that Wheel doesn't really help you vs the decks you most want it against unless you play it right away. Is Wheel something you're testing or have you found that it actually does work well for you?

Btw, I like the idea of the legendary land to work with Syr Faren. I've built a Pioneer port of modern stompy (Mono-Green Stompy (Pioneer)) and used him as a Geist replacement and I've found him quite good. He can do crazy damage very early. I'll definitely have to get one of those lands to use for if I decide to play him in modern. Right now I just have Hashep Oasis as my non-basic land in Pioneer.

Dragaan I actually don't have a physical copy of Okina yet and am also running Hashep Oasis haha. As for the life gain. I'm not a huge fan of Baloth as you can't reliably hard cast it. Kitchen Finks is good, and I've definitely played it before. I just like the one mana investment for Life Goes On . I might try out Finks again in the future once I'm done all the current testing I'm doing.

I like wheel a lot for the devotion, and to answer your question I have been playing it pretty successfully and not just testing. But neolions reminded of the draw power of Relic of Progenitus and I might try that out again soon.

I'm loving Faren right now. I'm currently testing a second version of this list focusing on anusing Farens trigger. This test list is significantly different to this one so I'm keeping it to myself for now until my testing is done.

Hope that helps.

Enjoy the stomping!

Ah, a fellow mono-green stompy player! I've been testing a version of this deck for a while, and would love to compare lists! I agree with so many of the points you brought up in your deck description, so I think we're pretty much on the same wavelength here. However, there are still a few noticeable differences between our lists that I would like to discuss:

Here's my list: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/curving-my-way-to-saturday/?cb=1580259272

For our 1-drops: I prefer value Experiment One to Pelt Collector, but they are so close it's not much of a talking point. I do only run six of those total, as in testing I have found hands with multiple of them to be sub-optimal (since I would rather have something that evolves the first one rather than the second). Probably the largest difference between our lists is that I run three copies of Hexdrinker. I have indeed found it to be a useful mana-sink, with little opportunity cost. I do love Dryad Militant, but went down to three copies since their ability doesn't stack. As for 2-drops: I have yet to test Syr Faren, the Hengehammer thoroughly, but you may have convinced me to add a copy or two. If you indeed end up running three I would finish the playset of Rancor. My 2-drop count is a bit lower than yours, but that's just me. Lands: I run 20 lands and it has felt good, so I was a bit surprised to see only 18. Traditional burn runs 20, and if anything I think this deck does a better job utilizing more mana. Also I missed Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers until I saw your list (thanks!!) but would also suggest Pendelhaven. Hitting for one extra damage with Experiment One after a sweeper has won me the game before. Spells: I'm not a fan of Once Upon a Time in this deck I think, but lmk how it's been playing. Just seems too bad to draw into. Sideboard: I run Feed the Clan and the new Setessan Petitioner instead of Life Goes On, but have agonized over it for a while and can see both sides. I also think the raw power of Veil of Summer may just make it better than Shapers' Sanctuary. It is nice that Wheel of Sun and Moon gives devotion, but I think its a tad too expensive for a deck that wants to be jamming creatures? For that reason I have a lower-costed, more reactive graveyard-hate package.

Tell me where you think I'm wrong and how I should change my list! The optimal list is probably some combination of ours :)

Howdy CheeseE,

I want to start this off by saying, that my local Modern scene has died down over the past couple months. Unfortunately I've been long for a game of modern ever sense, so take any of this with less severity then possibly conveyed.

You say their is little difference between our lists as we are close in numbers, but I would argue that it is indeed a major difference considering the tightness that is Mono Green Stompy. I think one of the strategies' strengths is in its redundancy.

First up 1-drops: I understand the lowering of the "evovle" creature numbers in favor of creatures that can trigger them. However I find Pelt Collector's Trample AND death trigger to be super relevant in the late game. Especially against control who has the difficult choice of killing your big things that grow pelt collector OR the collector itself which is normally a positive mana investment.

Hexdrinker / Dryad Militant: I dislike the level-up kill at the attempted 3rd activation of Hexdrinker. It is a fine mana sink but I would rather have creatures that impact the board on rate over having to rely on post-cast mana investments to make them good. If in some strange world the level counters worked with Avatar of the Resolute's trigger I would jump ship on the topic immediately! You do have a good point about Dryad Militant not stacking. I found it super useful in a couple match-ups but that is very meta dependent (in which I am not in touch with currently). I could probably be convinced that cutting one Dryad Militant for a single Hexdrinker might be correct.

***WARNING: The next section will be biased by my falling in love with Syr Faren in stompy!!

Syr Faren is the center of a lot of deck choices for my current build here. The use of Once Upon a Time is solely to set up T2 Faren. If the deck can go T1 duder, T2 Faren, untap T3 with both creatures still alive its normally a win. So I tried to set that up as much as possible.

The inclusion of Once Upon a Time to facilitate the Faren interactions is also why I run less lands. You're right that casting an actual Once Upon a Time SUCKS! So having it be a land in a land-light opener in return for less land top-decks is worth it!

Accordingly my sideboard choices are done with a similar mindset. They are permanents in order to boost the effect of Aspect of Hydra (being the best pump spell to use on Faren - or any other creature for that matter). I understand that some of these are "weaker" versions of other cards - your Veil of Summer / Shapers' Sanctuary example describes this well - but I find the devotion value outweighs the slightly lesser power level. That being said the permanents suffice in their roles very well.

Hope this answers most of your questions. Apologies for not being in touch with the format as much as I would like. If I where, I could provide better meta relevant info and reasoning (heck I might feel differently about many a topic).

I greatly appreciate your comment! Hope Stompy is treating you well!

-jerleg

Thanks for the well thought-out response! Yeah, it's too bad that modern isn't being played quite as much since the introduction of Pioneer :(

You may have convinced me to cut a Hexdrinker, I'll have to think about it some more.

I totally am starting to see where you're coming from with the more Syr Faren, the Hengehammer-based build. I think that's a bit of a different route to go down, but seems like a strong variant. Syr Faren is basically as explosive as it gets when things go right, but I having to cast combat tricks on it pre-combat (for this reason I would argue that Rancor is actually the strongest combo with Sry Faren), as well as it being very weak as the only creature on the battlefield are both significant downsides. Don't get me wrong though, Syr Faren, the Hengehammer is a fantastic card and I don't criticize you for running more than me.

I forgot that Once Upon a Time lets you cut lands! Makes sense!

I can also see where you're coming from with the sideboard choices, but my philosophy is as follows: Take the example of Wheel of Sun and Moon vs. Tormod's Crypt. Let's says you side them in against Dredge, and draw one of them turn two. It is true that taking a turn to cast Wheel of Sun and Moon would leave you with two devotion. If you had Tormod's Crypt, however, you could play it AND slam a Strangleroot Geist- in this scenario you also end up with two devotion but don't miss out on valuable tempo (which could be crucial if they have a answer to your hate piece). Yes, the equation changes if you run out of other things to be doing, but at that point in the game I think you're probably dead anyways, or will have at least already used your Aspect of Hydra. What do you think of this logic? I could be way off.

Anytime! I LOVE discussing Stompy.

I've honestly considered porting the list over to Pioneer but the ban of Once Upon a Time due to a completely different deck, and the loss of Rancor definitely killed my fervor. Maybe we could work together on porting the deck to Pioneer? Thoughts?

On the topic of Rancor - I completely agree with you on its strength, especially with Syr Faren. My issue with Rancor is that multiples are often weaker then a single recurring copy. Also I have no single card I am interesting in cutting in favor of another Rancor. I did admit that cutting a Dryad Militant might be possible, but I would rather replace it with another creature for consistencies' sake. Hope that makes sense.

VERY good argument on the same devotion count by player a 2-drop and a Tormod's Crypt as playing a single Wheel of Sun and Moon. I believe my bias on the issue is graveyard deck resiliency. I would rather have a permanent in play that they HAVE to answer, over a one time effect that they can just recover from. But I definitely see your point and don't fault that choice at all.

Keep in touch.

-jerleg

Yeah, it' true Rancor doesn't stack great, especially in a list with more copies of Pelt Collector.

Yep, Wheel of Sun and Moon is overall a stronger hate piece once on the battlefield than Tormod's Crypt. I still think it's close enough to make the cheaper option worth it, personally. Tormod's Crypt is actually stronger in some ways- it's much more difficult for the Dredge player to answer, even if it doesn't do quite as much to stop their game plan. And that's not even to mention the possibility of Grafdigger's Cage. Lots of close options!

I would happily work on a Pioneer list! I've actually been considering it myself for a while. There's a couple different paths we can go down here. There's the version with Llanowar Elves and Elvish Mystic that optimizes Lovestruck Beast and some higher CMC things. Personally a version closer to this deck might interest me more, what do you think?

Agreed,

I don't think mana dorks is the way I'd want to run Stompy.