Swiftspear Stampede
Modern
SCORE: 298 | 242 COMMENTS | 68354 VIEWS | IN 108 FOLDERS
GP Indy 5-4 —Sept. 5, 2016
What to say about Indianapolis? The deck performed spectacularly.
Round 1 I started off beating Merfolk in three very uninteractive games. 1-0
Round 2 I followed up with heartbreaking loss to Ad Naseum in game three, on the draw, when he comboed off on turn three as I held a Slaughter Games in hand. 1-1
Round 3 I saw how very real Grim Flayer is and got stomped by Junk.
1-2
Round 4 was a lucky break as I am paired against Abzan humans. I beat face with three Guides game one, and decimated his board with a well timed Kozilek's Return game two.
2-2
Round 5 I sit down to a pimped out UWR Nahiri and win in two. Second game he keeps a six of four lands, Serum Visions, and Mana Leak. Inquisition rips away the second Visions he finds off the first. Tarmogoyf beats from there. 3-2
Round 6 I get a very Jund vibe from the kid across from me and prepare for the worst. Surprisingly, I face Suicide Zoo and stomp him in two. 4-2
Round 7 the wheels begin to fall off. I'm paired against Channel Fireball pro Matt Nass and his Amulet Titan deck. We trade game one and two. Game three, I have a line of play for lethal even taking the Primetime he is about to drop. That is until he lays down the Radiant Fountain and the game slips away. 4-3
Round 8 and my back is against the wall. My nerves are on edge as I sit down to the match and feel the lack of any real food since last night's dinner for the first time. I am ready for the most important match of the day as I settle into the match up I've been dreading: Bant Eldrazi. He takes game one, and I come back with game two. Game three, he's at 9, I'm at 12. I have a Kitchen Finks in play and he has a Birds of Paradise and three lands in play. I have a Swiftspear and a Terminate in hand. I know his hand and the only thing that can come down is Thought-knot. My line is play Swiftspear, Terminate the Bird, swing in for 5, and rumble for lethal the next turn. I play the Swiftspear, go for the Terminate... and the mana isn't there. Anticipating a race, I had planned my fetches to edge him out. But I'm staring at 2 Blood Crypts and 2 Forests and a Swiftspear that is on the battlefield, already cast. The Terminate never gets cast and my mistake from many turns earlier snowballs to take me out of the tournament. My Realities were smashed and I lost the match.
4-4
Round 9 is nothing to write home about. Grixis Delver player who didn't care anymore. I beat him game one and he shoves his whole board in and offers cuts. I keep a bad hand but he durdles so long that I come back to beat him in two. Over the course of game two, he cast Tasigur no few than six times. I finish the tournament 5-4.
I think that that is all for this deck. I'm going to put it aside for now. It's performed beyond what I ever expected from it. I really think it has tier-2 potential with a little more tuning and high level practice. I really couldn't have foreseen that ever happening.
So what does that mean for this deck? It will remain public and on my mind. Please feel free to comment and help me improve it. I want to see it become the best that it can be and I will never give up on it. Thank you for checking it out.
Jimmy_Chinchila says... #2
Lol went to +1 only to discover I already had. How's the deck fairing against the main archetypes?
August 28, 2015 6:49 p.m.
Delver is, unfortunately one of the deck's toughest match ups. Because its tendency to rely on sticking one creature and pumping it, facing a suite of removal and disruption is tough. Post board bringing in Great Sable Stag and Feed the Clan at best guarantees a Tasigur, the Golden Fang blocker and at worst draws out a bolt, and the life gain hopefully buys a turn or 2 for lethal.
Infect is a toss up match. Gitaxian Probe is kind of awkward for me and a hand full of combat tricks. The Vines of Vastwood mirror can make it hard for either side to land their pump spells. Post board is just as tricky, as Melira, Sylvok Outcast doubles my life total, but their Spellskites will stall me until I draw into hard removal.
Burn has always been a race for this deck. Best case scenario is getting them low enough that they stall out on their own Eidolon, otherwise taking 2 to remove it is necessary. Post board, hopefully life gain in the form of Feed the Clan provides the extra time needed for lethal.
I've never played against Tron, so not much to say there.
August 29, 2015 11:55 a.m.
jcaseys34323 says... #5
Copperline Gorge and Blackcleave Cliffs sound like they would work great in your deck. They're great for aggro and early game and I doubt you'll be playing any long games anytime soon with this.
September 6, 2015 9:36 p.m.
I've thought about fastlands instead of checklands, but have decided to stick with checklands because they're good every turn after turn one, whereas the fastlands turn into normal taplands after turn 3. I'm looking into trying some filterlands to try have more color intensive reach for things like Vines of Vastwood.
September 6, 2015 10:08 p.m.
AndWelcomeToTheJam says... #7
It may be a little slower than Skarrgan Pit-Skulk, but its utility may be worth it. What about Den Protector? Also, you may like Surgical Extraction fir the side.
September 8, 2015 11:23 a.m.
Den Protector is what Skarrgan Pit-Skulk used to be. However, I never needed the morph effect, and it sat at an awkward place in my curve. The evasion ability is great, but if I ever had two mana open, I never cast it over Tarmogoyf. Pit-skulk feels a lot smoother, and has given the deck a solid green one drop. As for Surgical Extraction I also had that for a while, but its utility is limited in the current meta compared to other graveyard interactions like Jund Charm.
September 8, 2015 11:30 a.m.
AndWelcomeToTheJam says... #9
Fair enough on Protector. But if you want graveyard interaction, why not run more mana-friendly options like Rakdos Charm or Relic of Progenitus? I understand Jund Charm can buff a dude if it needs to, but 3 mana of all different colors just for 2 +1/+1 counters seems a bit unnecessary.
September 8, 2015 11:34 a.m.
The thing that makes Jund Charm more appealing to me in the sideboard isn't the +1/+1 counter mode. It's the fact that the charm can either have a Relic of Progenitus effect or a Pyroclasm effect, and both at instant speed.
September 8, 2015 3:06 p.m.
wisegreenbean says... #11
Tasigur, the Golden Fang seems to have a pretty good place here. Between your 5 fetches, 20 instants, and 2 of a creature who you have primarily to discard, he has plenty of fuel to be dropped quickly, and he's excellent late game when you've burned through your hand.
September 12, 2015 11:08 p.m.
afroskeleton says... #12
Mmmmm I see no point in play Jund Charm in the sb cause you don't need deal 2 damage to every creature and if you want eat the whole graveyard just use Rakdos Charm wich by the way kill twin, Melira, Sylvok Outcast it's not relevant in your sb since you already have enought removal you shouldn't have problems vs infect maybe you could add instead some sacrifice stuff like Tribute to Hunger or Geth's Verdict to improve your matchups vs boogle and infect at the same time.
September 13, 2015 10:18 p.m.
afroskeleton says... #13
Oh! and Spellskite works too vs infect, boogles, twin and sometimes vs burn. Consider to run one or more copys in the sb.
September 13, 2015 10:20 p.m.
Used to run it, but Kolaghan's Command took its place. The ability to use it as removal along with more useful secondary modes just proved better.
October 10, 2015 3:37 p.m.
Skulblakasven says... #18
In a Gruul Powerhouse deck of mine, I found that running a couple copies of Gruul Charm helps my deck to be more aggressive, while also helping me against a popular control build that I commonly found running around my school's MTG community. Maybe you could find a couple spaces for them in your sideboard?
October 13, 2015 11:58 p.m.
What are your thoughts on Become Immense? Pretty good with Temur Battle Rage.
November 17, 2015 6:34 p.m.
While it is a very good card, it is a definite nonbo with Tarmogoyf. I've considered putting it back in, but keeping the goyfs swole is more important in the long run.
November 26, 2015 7:15 p.m.
I would suggest removing one or two stomping ground for a couple more fetches. They should preferably be catacombs since it can still fetch black and green is your main color but bloodstained mires or windswept heaths should work fine. This should help smooth out your mana curve easier and still boost goyf a little bit.
November 26, 2015 7:57 p.m.
You know I want a Verdant Catacombs bro. I'm brewing up a change that is gonna be huge for the deck. You'll love it when you see it tomorrow.
November 26, 2015 8:04 p.m.
Yeah man! Looking forward to it! Are you gonna proxy these changes or do you already have them?
November 26, 2015 8:08 p.m.
That's awesome man! Looking forward to it! Are you gonna proxy these changes or do you already have them?
Stein_ says... #1
My team mate runs a jeskai version of Taylor swiftspear, use to use mutagenic growth. Isn't it awesome? Turn 1 swing 4! I like thus jund version!
August 17, 2015 11:06 a.m.