When I began my testing for states, I knew I wanted to play a control deck. At first, I experimented with UZI, but found something severely lacking with the deck as a whole: It failed to play enough removal and control cards to prevent aggressive decks from mowing it over before it came close to seven mana. This became apparent very quickly, and I went looking for other deck options. The first deck I started toying with was an updated version of Walamies' Punisher deck from OBC. The deck tested quite well, but only when it drew Opposition.

I was happy with the list for a little while, but it wasn't putting up the consistent win percentages I wanted. Even worse, I knew Naturalize would be everywhere, so it would win even less after sideboarding.

One week, I threw together a quick monogreen beatdown list - and to my surprise, it was winning consistently over decks like U/G, Sligh, and Wake. I was only able to get in limited testing with it, but it seemed to have a very strong game against all decks in the field, with a good opportunity to bring in quality hate cards against popular decks.

Here is my list:

Tours 732
4x Llanowar Elves
4x Elvish Lyrist
4x Basking Rootwalla
4x Sylvan Safekeeper
4x Wild Mongrel
4x Elvish Warrior
4x Elvish Archers
4x Giant Growth
4x Muscle Burst
4x Elephant Guide
2x Primal Boost
18x Forest

Sideboard:
4x Naturalize
4x Broodhatch Nantuko
3x Elvish Champion
2x Phantom Centaur
2x Tranquility

The only Sideboard card I feel the need to explain is Broodhatch Nantuko. The Broodhatch can destroy Sligh almost on its own. The match-up against Sligh is very dependent on tempo, and he maintains tempo by providing blockers when they burn him. Also, he makes it very hard to attack with Piledriver or cast Reckless Charge while he is untapped.

I will admit, I had doubts about Stompy, and I was thinking about changing to wake in the final days before states. In the end, Wake is a very shaky and thought-intensive deck, and I felt I needed more practice with it to play it effectively. Regardless, my friend Tim Gruneich played Wake at States, and ended with a solid 5-2 record.

Anyways, on to the tournament report.

Iowa States was held at Four Points Sheraton Hotel in Des Moines. 104 people were in attendance.

Round 1: Raymond Schmit, playing Psychatog.
Game 1 I win the roll and lead off with an Elvish Lyrist. On his turn, he Chain of Vapors it; my turn rolls around, and I play out a Safekeeper and Lyrist. He does nothing on his turn, while I beat down for two and play some more green men. On his third turn, he lays Psychatog; I continue attacking, chipping away at his life total, and playing out a couple more creatures. Eventually he is forced to fight growth spells with tog pumps, and he has no way to keep up with the pressure I'm applying.

He plays first and leads with a Polluted Delta. I play a Llanowar Elves on my turn, and follow it up by playing a Mongrel and missing a land drop. On his turn, he tries Swatting the Mongrel, but I discard a Basking Rootwalla in response to save it. I attack him for three on my turn, and I play out an Elvish Warrior, missing another land drop, while staring at the two Elephant Guides stuck in my hand. On his turn 4 he plays another Swat, this time targeting my Elvish Warrior; I hit him for four unopposed, and drop a Lyrist. On his turn, he plays a Psychatog. I attack with the Lyrist, Mongrel, and Rootwalla, missing another land drop. He blocks the Rootwalla, and I pump it up, making him discard two cards to save his tog. On his turn, he casts Deep Analysis on himself, leaving a blue open. I attack with the Mongrel and Elvish Lyrist, and attempt to Giant Growth the Mongrel when he blocks with Tog. He counters with Logic - so I Giant Growth again, making him remove his graveyard from the game and making him discard down to two cards.

He does nothing on his turn, and finally! I draw a third land on my turn, playing an Elephant Guide on my Elvish Lyrist. I attack with the Lyrist, and he discards and removes two cards to kill it, giving me an elephant token. I draw a land and Elephant Guide my elf, attacking with it and the elephant. He chump blocks the elf, going down to five life. On his turns, he Chainer's Edicts, and I sacrifice my elf to it, getting an elephant... And a concession from him.

2-0 in games, 1-0 in matches.

Round 2: Wyatt Ungs, U/G madness
Game 1: He wins the roll and plays first, getting the ever-great"Careful Study, pitch two lands" draw. I play out an elf and say go. He plays a turn 2 Mongrel, and I play out a Safekeeper and Elvish Archer on my turn. He plays a Looter on his turn 3, and attacks with his Mongrel. On my turn I Elephant Guide the Archer and I attack for six... Then I play an Elvish Lyrist.

On his turn, he plays a Roar of the Wurm and passes the turn. I attack all out; he blocks the Archer with the Wurm token and the Rootwalla with his Mongrel. I Giant Growth the Archer and Muscle Burst the Rootwalla, forcing him to discard most of his hand to the Mongrel to trade with the Rootwalla. On his turn he Loots and gets nothing of value, discarding a land. I attack for seven, and Muscle Burst the Safekeeper to send him to the low total of six. On his turn, he loots and turns up nothing of value, dies to a Primal Boost on my turn.

Game 2: He opts to play first, and leads with forest, go. I drop an Elf on my first turn and pass. On his second turn he plays Wild Mongrel and says go. I drop a Mongrel of my own and also drop a Llanowar Elf. He attacks me with the Mongrel for two, drops a Looter and Careful Studies, discarding a Roar of the Wurm and a land. On my turn, I Elephant Guide the Mongrel - and when he declines to block, I toss out a Rootwalla to put him down to fourteen. I then cast a Sylvan Safekeeper and say go.

On his turn, he attacks with the Mongrel for two, and then flashes back a Roar of the Wurm. On my turn, I attack with the Rootwalla, Safekeeper, Mongrel, and one of the Llanowar Elves, leaving two forests and a green open for mana. After thinking for a minute, he decides to block the Safekeeper with the Roar token. I pump up my Rootwalla, Giant Growth the Mongrel, and discard two cards into the Mongrel, doing a perfect fourteen on turn 4.

After this game, I realize the deck is much more powerful than I originally gave it credit for. Granted, his draws were not-so-stellar, but a turn 4 kill outside of Sligh is still quite impressive in current Type 2.

2-0 4-0

Round 3: David Krenz, U/G/b Opposition.
Of all my swiss matches, I would consider this one by far the most difficult. Aside from mana acceleration, he had Braids, Opposition, Ravenous Baloth, Phantom Centaur , and Smother - all of which present large problems for stompy.

Game 1: He wins the roll and leads with a llanowar elf. I match his elf on my turn. He follows up his elf with another elf and a bird of paradise. I play out an Elvish Warrior and Elvish Lyrist. Then he plays a Baloth. My hand so far has no pump at all, so I play two Elvish Archers and pass him the turn.

Then he plays another Baloth. Ouch.

Regardless, I begin attacking with all of my creatures every turn for the next few turns, getting him down to four and killing one of his Baloths with one of my growth spells during combat. However, I soon start running out of threats after he puts down an Opposition and Phantom Centaur . After drawing five lands in a row, I finally get a growth spell, and attack with my three remaining Elvish Archers and Llanowar Elf. He blocks all my creatures but one of the archers - and I growth it before first strike goes on the stack. However, he Smothers it in response - and with my army decimated, I concede at seventeen life to save time.

Game 2: I lead with a Lyrist, and he leads with an elf. I attack him to nineteen, drop an Elvish Warrior and say go. One his turn, he drops a Birds of Paradise and a Merfolk Looter and says go. I attack for 3, drop an archer and a Safekeeper, and say go. He plays a Phantom Centaur out, but on my turn I block "my bomb": Elvish Champion. He immediately calls over a judge to make sure it's in 7th edition. After this is verified by the judge, he shakes his head as forestwalking elves smash him for eight. On his turn, he plays out another Merfolk Looter and attacks me for two with his Llanowar Elf. On my turn, I send all my elves, and attempt a Giant Growth on my Lyrist. He Circular Logics it, but I gladly pay the 1 mana to let my growth resolve.

Game 3: He plays first, and opens with a Birds of Paradise. I lead with an elf. He misses his second land drop, but plays out a Bird and Elf to make up for it. I attack for one and then play out a Mongrel, passing the turn. He plays a land and smothers the Mongrel, and I throw out a Rootwalla in response. He attacks with the savage elf and passes the turn. I attack with my Rootwalla, then play out an Elvish Archer and warrior. On his turn, he plays out a Merfolk Looter and passes the turn. Once again, Elvish Champion comes out to spell his doom, but this time he gets smothered before combat damage. He still gets knocked down to 13 though. On his turn, he tosses out a Phantom Centaur , but it is futile as I drop another Champion and swing through. On his turn, he Upheavals in desperation, floating a green and replaying the Birds and his land. I put out the elf again, and pass the turn. He plays out a Bird and a Looter on his turn. I play out an Archer and the Rootwalla. With a decent lead in mana and tempo, he puts out Braids: I sacrifice the Rootwalla and play Champion. I hit him down to five as he chumps with the Looter. He does nothing of relevance on his turn besides sacking his only forest into braids. I get a minor procedural error on my upkeep for forgetting to sacrifice to Braids before I drew... But I draw a growth spell, and get through a creature for the final five points.

3-0 and 6-1

Round 4: Joe Martin, U/G Opposition.
Game 1: I win the role and lead with a Safekeeper. He does nothing on his turn, while I put out a Mongrel and attack for 1. On my turn I attack with keeper and Mongrel, and our Mongrels get into a fight. I throw out a Rootwalla, while he pitches a Roar. Then I Giant Growth my Mongrel, and he takes a short period of time reading Giant Growth before shaking his head and losing his Mongrel. I then cast an Elvish Warrior and pass the turn. He puts out a Squirrel Nest - but I attack for eight on my turn, and I put out a Lyrist. He flashes back Roar, but it doesn't matter as I have out enough to kill him when he blocks Mongrel, thanks to Primal Boost.

Game 2: This game was decided by several mistakes that Joe made. I get out a first-turn Lyrist, while he sets up by playing a Looter. I cast an Elvish Warrior, getting in a point. He plays a Mongrel with a blue open to Circular Logic my Elvish Archer. He gets out Squirrel Nest and Opposition soon, and the Lyrist blows up the Opposition in response to several taps. He flashes a Roar and Loots while I play out several elves and hold back 'til I draw a Champion.

He forgets to make squirrels on several occasions... Which made the second Opposition he drew much less valuable.

When I get out a Champion, I attack all out with my elves, and he casts Moment's Peace. If he attacked me after this, I would have been in a very bad position - but instead, he passes the turn, and I get in six points with my two Elvish Warriors. He then plays out the second Opposition and taps all my land on my upkeep, but he loses Opposition in response thanks to the Elvish Lyrist. I get to attack him for six, putting him down to six... But I left back an Archer and a Warrior to block with. He attacks with the Wurm and Mongrel, putting me down to ten.

On my turn, I attack with both warriors, and he casts the Peace to save himself for the turn. He draws nothing to stop the forestwalkers, and attacks me all-out - but I manage to stay alive at two, keeping the Champion and two Warriors alive to kill him with.

Had he either tapped my creatures instead of lands with Opposition #2, remembered to make all the squirrels, or attacked after his Moment's Peace, he would have won. Live and learn, though.

4-0 8-1

Round 5: Derek Monk, G/W madness
Game 1: I win the roll and make a turn 1 Elf to his nothing. I then put out a Wild Mongrel and Safekeeper; he plays a Wild Mongrel and passes the turn. I attack with my creatures - and after some thought, he decides not to block. He takes four and I cast a Elvish Archer.

On his turn, he plays and sacrifices a Windswept Heath, Elephant Guides the Mongrel, and attacks for five. I attack all-out on my turn, and I Muscle Burst a creature and put a Rootwalla into play off of the Mongrel. He goes down five life, and the next turn I swarm and Giant Growth for the win.

Game 2: I get out some early beats, but he stabilizes with a Mongrel and several Call of the Herd tokens, and of course the G/W staple, Glory. A ground stall ensues where he cannot attack or will face the risk of being swarmed, and I cannot attack and do enough damage to justify losing my ground force. Eventually, he hard-casts a Gory and starts attacking for three in the air every turn.

My plan at this point is to hold out till I can draw an Elvish Champion and forestwalk for ten. In order to do this, I Elephant Guide my Elvish Archers and attempt to Elephant Guide it again. The archer meets a Reprisal in response to the second guide, and I now have nowhere near enough elf damage to race Glory if I draw the Champion. I never do draw the Champion, though, and he eventually gives his creatures pro-green and begins attacking with a Brushhopper as well.

I could have lost several turns earlier had he attacked all-out, but I think he was fearing Moment's Peace the entire time.

Game 3: In the deciding game, I get a savage hand, and I lead with elf and Mongrel, then guide the Mongrel and toss out a Rootwalla turn 3. I continue playing out small creatures and swarming. I Muscle Burst and Giant Growth unblocked attackers on some of my attack phases, getting him down to one life before he stabilizes. He gets out an equal amount of creatures and Glory - but he if he ever falls behind on creatures, he will lose right there. After I draw two forests in a row, I topdeck the game-winning Elvish Champion, and forestwalk in for two mighty points of damage.

5-0 10-2

At this point, I am very happy to be ranked in the top four and am at a comfortable position to draw in. I get lunch at Burger King and talk to some of my friends between the rounds: Tim is 4-1 at this point, and is in a good position to make top 8 if he wins the next round. I look around the top tables and see a couple of Astroglide and Cleric decks, along with the usual array of U/G madness and one or two Sligh decks.

I find out at this point that the clerics deck is quite popular, and several people playing it are still in the running. I knew just from the thought of Beloved Chaplain and Master Apothecary that it would be a horrible, horrible matchup if I had to play against it. I secretly hope that I don't have to play one over the course of the tourney...

Round 6 starts and I am paired up against Brian Isbell, a friend from Iowa City. We discuss it a bit and I.D.

I walk around and watch a couple interesting matches this round: I watched Tim play the ever boring Wake vs. U/G matchup with a guy named Nick I used to test with on Magic Online when it was still free. Tim ends up winning with a Peace lock after falling to two life, then climbing to fourteen after a Forked Renewed Faith from the sideboard. Nick wins game 2 with a quick 'Walla/Mongrel/Wurm start in about 8 minutes. In game 3, Tim manages to win shortly before time runs out with the double Wish/Mirari soft-lock we all have come to know and hate (or love depending on who you are).

 

Round 7 starts, and I get paired with another 5-0-1, Jeremy Fischells, so we I.D. to guarantee our top 8 spots.

I watch some more matches to see what made the top 8. Brian gets paired down and has to play it out against Tim Berkley and his Sligh deck. Game 1 is a savage beating, as Berkley leads with Goblin Sledder, Goblin Piledriver, and then Piledriver, Reckless Charge. Turn 4, it was all over......

Brian wins game 2 after burning several goblins with Violent Eruption and establishing threshold before casting a 5/5 Fledgling Dragon to seal the game.

Unfortunately I never got to see game 3, but Berkley ended up winning the match, so they both made the top 8.

Tim ended up getting paired down vs. Gabe Stoffa with clerics, and losing it in three games. This not only knocked out Tim, but put a cleric deck in the top 8 - both of which bode very badly for me.

The top 8 consisted of:

• Me, with stompy
• Tim Berkley, with sligh
• Brian Isbell, with R/g beatdown
• Shawn, with U/G threshold/speculation
• Gabe Stoffa, with clerics
• Jeremy Fischells, with U/G madness
• Derek Monk, G/W madness
• And a guy whose name I didn't catch, playing UGB Opposition.

I Sit down for my match against Gabe, knowing very well that I should get crushed, but there is no reason not to try. They pass out our states top 8 mats... Which are very neat in design, but are pretty cheap and very thin.. Nevertheless, it feels good to have one again after a friend lost my other mat at GenCon.

Game 1 I lose the roll, and he starts the game off with a Benevolent Bodyguard while I lead with a Safekeeper. On his turn 2 he puts out a Shared Triumph, pumping up all his creatures for the remainder of the game, and putting me at eight. Then I put out a Mongrel and attack for one, at which point he exclaims, "Oh yeah - you're the Stompy guy, aren't you?"

He puts out a Beloved Chaplain and follows it up with a Master Apothecary. As soon as the Apothecary hits the board, I attack suicidally with the creatures I have, hoping that he might slip up and make a mistake. But alas, he blocks correctly, and I lose my Growth spells doing a single point of damage to him. My hand is already exhausted, and I can never hope to break through the Apothecary this game. He plays out another Shared Triumph and another Chaplain, before I concede to save us both some time.

Game 2 I play first, but it really matters little, as he opens with Weathered Wayfarer, Benevolent Bodyguard, and Rotlung Reanimator. I get him to about fifteen before I throw out all my creatures to attempt to swarm him so I don't lose to card disadvantage...

... And in doing so walk right into a Wrath of God, which pulverizes my side of the board, and I am left with nothing to defend myself with against the onslaught of zombies. I draw and then concede, wishing him good luck in the top 8.

After the match, I state that the matchup wasn't winnable for me, and it was over the second he played a plains. He agreed with that statement. I will give Gabe and his team credit for coming up with a competitive clerics deck, although I still marvel at how a two-color, seventeen-land deck manages to function at all. Gabe goes on to win the tournament, but I leave too early to watch the finals, as I was tired and hungry.

I picked up three-quarters of a box and a mat for my troubles, and I had lots of fun beating people with the "obsolete" and "unviable" Stompy deck. I would like to give major props to Jason Imperiale, who also played the Stompy deck, but with Seton's Scout over Primal Boost, and went 5-0 in the Swiss rounds before getting paired down and losing to two U/G madness decks in a row to knock him from making top 8 in New York.

I consider stompy to have been a great success, as only me and Jason played this particular version, and we got 5th and 10th respectively - although I think 10th in New York is more important than 5th in Iowa. If I could play the deck again, I would make minor sideboard adjustments, like adding in the fourth Elvish Champion over one of the Tranquilities. If you decide to play stompy, I recommend you do not remove the Champions, Naturalizes, or Broodhatch Nantukos for any reason. The Nantuko never came in from my sideboard during the day - but Sligh is out there, and the Nantuko goes a long way towards winning you the matchup.

I would like to believe Stompy was overlooked, and unless something changes a lot in the next couple months, I intend to keep playing it and improving the decklist. Stompy is a lot stronger when you play it than it looks on a sheet of paper, and if you want to smash face with small green men and get confused looks from people at the same time, I recommend you give it a try.

If you have questions, comments, or feedback, e-mail me at A.J.Schmidt@worldnet.att.net.

Thanks for reading; good luck and God bless.