Welcome back to The Jank Bank. No, this isn’t some crooked lending institution. It’s a Magic: the Gathering column dedicated to the creation of budget decks.
Today we are continuing our discussion of Splinterfright Stompy, which is a graveyard based combo deck. My first article provides a primer of sorts, examining the roles of each card in the deck. Be sure to check it out. I won’t be going into as much detail about that sort of thing today.
Here is an updated list. Will commented on my previous article, suggesting Life from the Loam as a possible card we could use. I thought we could give that a try, so I took out the two copies of Mulch and put in one Life from the Loam and one Tracker’s Instinct in their place. I also switched a Forest for an Island, which we can fetch with Arbor Elf that I am testing in place of 2 Simian Sprit Guides.
Modern Splinterfright Stompy
| Creatures (34) 4 Splinterfright 4 Boneyard Wurm 4 Nemesis of Mortals 2 Ghoultree 4 Wild Cantor 4 Sakura Tribe-Elder 2 Simian Spirit Guide 2 Arbor Elf 4 Satyr Wayfinder 4 Street Wraith Spells (8) 4 Commune with the Gods 2 Rancor 1 Tracker's Instinct 1 Life from the Loam Lands (18) (18) 16 Forest 1 Island 1 Mosswort Bridge | Sideboard (15) (15) 3 Faerie Macabre 3 Nature's Claim 3 Gnaw to the bone 2 Phyrexian Devourer 3 Dismember 1 Bone Horde |
It should be less than 6 tickets to build the main deck. You can build it for around 3 tickets by playing Mulch instead of Life from the Loam. The three Dismembers in the sideboard will run about 8 or 9 tickets, but rest of the cards there total 1 ticket or less. All together, we’re looking at about 15 tickets for everything you see here today. Not bad for a Modern deck that can definitely win you some matches.
The goal is simple: fill the graveyard with creatures and cast some rally cheap fatties. Our ideal opening hand will have three things: mana, a graveyard enabler, and a fatty (or at least a spell that digs for them). I will most likely mulligan if my starting seven does not have each of these. It is also acceptable to mulligan a seven card hand that is really slow. Here are some example starting hands:
This hand is fine. We can play Commune with the Gods on our first turn, which will help us cast our Bonyard Burm or Nemesis of Mortals on the following turn. We have work to do before casting Ghoultree, but this could still be a good start. I would normally keep this hand, but let’s mulligan just for fun and see what happens.
This 6 card hand is decent too. We get to play Forest and Wild Cantor first turn, and then hopefully draw a mana source to cast Splinterfright turn two. Even if our next draw step doesn’t yield a land or Simian Spirit Guide, we can still play Sakura Tribe-Elder turn two and Splinterfright on turn three.
This hand is pretty slow. Most likely we’d play turn one Mosswort Bridge, turn two Commune with the Gods, and turn 3 Boneyard Wurm or Nemesis of Mortals. I’d probably mulligan this against faster decks. Let’s ship it and see what we get in return.
This six card hand is faster, but risky because we’re “all in” on our turn two Splinterfright. Hopefully we draw the mana to cast Commune with the Gods on turn three. This would make Splinterfatty happy.
This hand is way too slow. It is definitely a mulligan.
This hand is way better. I doubt we will draw the Wild Cantor or Street Wraith we need to cast Splinterfright on turn two, but at least we have plays before turn 3 (unlike the previous 7).
Don’t be afraid to mulligan if starting seven doesn’t give you what you need. This deck is slightly prone to mulliganing, but I have won a ton of games with five and six card hands. Also note that Ghoultree and Life from the Loam are our slowest cards, which should be taken into account when considering your hand.
There are many different decks in the Modern format. We have a decent matchup against some, and others we do not. Understanding the dynamics of a particular matchup helps create a plan of attack.
Combo decks are our biggest weakness. They tend to go off uninhibited, often killing us the turn before we’d win. Game one, all we can really do is try to race them and hope for the best. Sideboarding at least gives us a chance to interact with them a little bit.
Aggressive decks can be scary, but we should be able to outclass them if we survive long enough. Our army of 1/1 chump blockers can help out with some early defense. Sometimes the Boom Booms have to stay back and block too. It’s okay; once the board is stabilized they’ll get to go out and smash things again.
Control Decks are a mixed bag. On one hand, they have a ton of cards that deal with our dudes. This means they usually kill our first couple of fatties, often 2-for-1-ing us in the process. The good news is that our deck is packed with must answer threats. This gives us a decent chance of top decking our way back into the game.
Most people are going to side in some form of graveyard hate against us. Rest in Peace is by far the worst; it has to be destroyed before we can move on with our game plan. However, the artifact based graveyard hate not quite as devastating. People often play their Relic of Progenitus early, but wait a few turns to actually blow it. Boneyard Wurn and Splinterfright die when our graveyard is exiled, so don’t play them unless you’re trying to bait them into using their hate. Play Nemesis of Mortals or Ghouldtree instead. This will make their Relic of Progenitus look a little silly. Also, it is a good idea to hold cards like Commune with the Gods and Satyr Wayfinder if they have graveyard hate on board. That way you can begin restocking after they have exiled your graveyard.
Matches
I played an interesting match versus RUG Delver the other day. I was on the play, but fell behind to an early Delver of Secrets and Tarmogoyf. My opponent was stuck on two lands which gave me a chance to race. I took over the ground but his Insectial Aberration was doing tons of damage in the air. Luckily, I noticed a pretty sweet play that saved my bacon.
As you can see from the picture, I am attacking with Ghoul Tree and Nemesis of Mortals. My opponent has just chump blocked Ghoul Tree with his Delver of Secrets. He is about to get a nice surprise from the Rancor that is under MosswortBridge.
The key here is waiting to activate Mosswort Bridge until after my opponent has declared blockers. This let me cast Rancor at instant speed, targeting the creature he blocked. The result is that we get in tons of trample damage and win the game! If I cast Rancor before blockers, my opponent probably would have chosen to block whichever creature didn’t have trample. I needed the trample damage in order to win this turn.
Sideboard:
OUT:
- 4 Street Wraiths: the 2 life is just too painful here
- 1 Life from the Loam: it’s one of our slower cards
- 1 Trackers Instinct: it’s pretty slow too
IN:
- 3 Gnaw to the Bone: life buys us time to race Delver
- 3 Dismember: kills Delver dead
As you can see, our game plan against RUG is “don’t die to Delver.” If we can survive an early Delver, we should be able to muscle our way to victory.
My opponent began game 2 with a first turn Delver of Secrets. Good thing my opening 7 included mono green’s best answers for the pesky flier; Dismember. Unfortunately, I punted by not casting it turn one when he was tapped out. Doh!
Sure enough, he flipped Delver (revealing Cryptic Command) and attacked for a couple turns while leaving counter mana open. I resolved some creatures but was still losing the race. Finally he taps out, casting Cryptic Command to counter Nemesis of Mortals and bounce Boneyard Wurm. This would have been a sweet tempo play for him, had I not Dismembered his Delver in response.
The rest of the game was uneventful. Our opponent flooded out and we drew some gas. Resolving Dismember is what really won it for us though.
Later on, I played against a G/W Aura deck. I noticed that their strategy is similar to ours in that we both invest several cards into making a ginormous fatty. Unfortunately for us, their creature is often superior in combat – being either larger or having first strike. Our only advantage is that we often have multiple fatties on board, while they can usually only make one.
I felt like I was behind for the entire first game versus G/W Auras. I had to chump with my early Boom Booms just to keep from dying. In the picture below, my opponent is attacking again and probably expects me to chump block with my 5/5 Nemesis of Mortals.
He might not have attacked with his 9/7 Slippery Bogle, had he known that I had could transform Nemesis of Mortals in to a monsterous 10/10. From his perspective, I was one mana short of paying for monstrosity. He didn’t know about the Simian Spirit Guide in my hand, which I used it to pay that one mana. The surprise 10/10 blocker ate the Bogle, but it regenerated thanks to the totem armor ability of Hyena Umbra. I still felt like I was decent shape, considering I had two more Boom Booms to play.
The next turn, my opponent puts a Sprit Mantle on the Slippery Bogle and attacks. Unable to block, I watch helplessly as my life points descend to 0.
Sideboard:
OUT:
IN:
I took out 3 of our slower cards and brought in Nature’s Claim to blow up some auras. Not a great strategy, but at least it gives me a chance to interact with my opponent a bit. Nature’s Claim also hits Rest in Peace, should he bring that in against me.
Game 2 was worse than the first. Our opponent’s fatty outclassed everything I played and we lost rather quickly. It seems like G/W Auras is going to be a tough matchup going forward. As I explained before, they do what we do – only better. Our deck is WAAAAAY CHEAPER though. Ha-ha!
There is so much more that could be said about the Modern Splinterfright Stompy deck, but I promised you a Legacy list too. Here it is:
Legacy Splinterfright Stompy
| Creatures (39) 4 Splinterfright 4 Boneyard Wurm 3 Nemesis of Mortals 4 Ghoultree 4 Wild Cantor 4 Tinder Wall 4 Simian Spirit Guide 4 Elvish Spirit Guide 4 Satyr Wayfinder 4 Street Wraith Spells (7) 4 Commune with the Gods 3 Berserk Lands (15) 15 Forest | Sideboard (15) 3 Faerie Macabre 3 Nature's Claim 2 Gnaw to the bone 3 Vines of Vastwood 3 Dismember 1 Berserk |
This version costs a bit more due to the Elvish Spirit Guides and Berserks. Keep in mind that you can build other Legacy decks with some of these cards too. The total price is little steep sitting around 28 tickets. It is about 40 tickets counting the sideboard.
The Legacy version of Splinterfright Stompy is easily two turns faster than the Modern version. This format gives us better mana acceleration and possibly the best budget card I have found on Magic Online so far – Berserk. In real life Berserk would cost you a pretty penny, but on Modo they are only $3.75 a piece. Not bad, considering that card alone wins us tons of games. Also note that we play more creatures in this deck (38 instead of 34). The higher creature count improves the odds of milling them into our graveyard. Whoo hoo!
Legacy is a harsh format though. Our opponents’ removal and counters are better, people pack more graveyard hate, and we have to face ridiculous combo decks. I think Modern is a better environment for this sort of strategy at the moment. With that being said, this deck is incredibly fun and I think you should try it out.
General Strategy
Our goal is the same as before: fill the graveyard with creatures and cast fatties for cheap. This hand is all-in on turn one Splinterfright. If he survives, he’ll grow very quickly and make the rest our deck better in the process. It will suck he is countered or killed right away, but that’s life. This is Legacy my friend; go big or go home.
Here is another seven card hand with turn one Splinterfright, and we get Berserk too! I would rock this hand, but let’s ship it to see a six card hand.
This hand is bland but I would probably keep it. We could easily play Ghoultree on turn three if we draw another enabler before then.
This hand represents turn two Ghoultree. Our opponent will probably think they are getting Goblin Charbelchered, considering that we are ramping with Tinder Wall and Spirit Guides. However, they probably won’t be too relieved when they see a green 10/10 sitting across from them either. This would be a good start, but I am going to mulligan to so we can see another 6 card hand.
This hand is pretty slow. However, drawing a Tinder Wall lets us play a Nemesis of Mortals on turn 2. That is kind of a long shot. Let’s mull to 5.
This hand is probably worse than the last, but all we need is a second land and we’re off to the races. Hopefully we will draw another land, a Satyr Wayfinder, or another Spirit Guide by turn two. I would go ahead and use the Elvish Spirit Guide to cast Commune with the Gods if we don’t draw one of those by our second turn.
It is essential to get a quick start when playing against other Legacy caliber decks. That is why I play fairly recklessly in this environment. I’d prefer losing because opponent was able to answer my early threats, rather than playing it safe and losing because of my slow start. I think that is the general strategy with any ‘glass cannon’ deck though.
Here is a prime example of keeping a risky hand that leads to an aggressive start:
I cast Splinterfright first turn off 2 Elvish Spirit Guide">Sakura-Tribe Elder to flashback Tracker’s Instinct. This list also shows the 2 copies of Arbor Elf that I am testing in place of 2 Simian Sprit Guides.
Modern Splinterfright Stompy
| Creatures (34) 4 Splinterfright 4 Boneyard Wurm 4 Nemesis of Mortals 2 Ghoultree 4 Wild Cantor 4 Sakura Tribe-Elder 2 Simian Spirit Guide 2 Arbor Elf 4 Satyr Wayfinder 4 Street Wraith Spells (8) 4 Commune with the Gods 2 Rancor 1 Tracker's Instinct 1 Life from the Loam Lands (18) (18) 16 Forest 1 Island 1 Mosswort Bridge | Sideboard (15) (15) 3 Faerie Macabre 3 Nature's Claim 3 Gnaw to the bone 2 Phyrexian Devourer 3 Dismember 1 Bone Horde |
It should be less than 6 tickets to build the main deck. You can build it for around 3 tickets by playing Mulch instead of Life from the Loam. The three Dismembers in the sideboard will run about 8 or 9 tickets, but rest of the cards there total 1 ticket or less. All together, we’re looking at about 15 tickets for everything you see here today. Not bad for a Modern deck that can definitely win you some matches.
The goal is simple: fill the graveyard with creatures and cast some rally cheap fatties. Our ideal opening hand will have three things: mana, a graveyard enabler, and a fatty (or at least a spell that digs for them). I will most likely mulligan if my starting seven does not have each of these. It is also acceptable to mulligan a seven card hand that is really slow. Here are some example starting hands:
This hand is fine. We can play Commune with the Gods on our first turn, which will help us cast our Bonyard Burm or Nemesis of Mortals on the following turn. We have work to do before casting Ghoultree, but this could still be a good start. I would normally keep this hand, but let’s mulligan just for fun and see what happens.
This 6 card hand is decent too. We get to play Forest and Wild Cantor first turn, and then hopefully draw a mana source to cast Splinterfright turn two. Even if our next draw step doesn’t yield a land or Simian Spirit Guide, we can still play Sakura Tribe-Elder turn two and Splinterfright on turn three.
This hand is pretty slow. Most likely we’d play turn one Mosswort Bridge, turn two Commune with the Gods, and turn 3 Boneyard Wurm or Nemesis of Mortals. I’d probably mulligan this against faster decks. Let’s ship it and see what we get in return.
This six card hand is faster, but risky because we’re “all in” on our turn two Splinterfright. Hopefully we draw the mana to cast Commune with the Gods on turn three. This would make Splinterfatty happy.
This hand is way too slow. It is definitely a mulligan.
This hand is way better. I doubt we will draw the Wild Cantor or Street Wraith we need to cast Splinterfright on turn two, but at least we have plays before turn 3 (unlike the previous 7).
Don’t be afraid to mulligan if starting seven doesn’t give you what you need. This deck is slightly prone to mulliganing, but I have won a ton of games with five and six card hands. Also note that Ghoultree and Life from the Loam are our slowest cards, which should be taken into account when considering your hand.
There are many different decks in the Modern format. We have a decent matchup against some, and others we do not. Understanding the dynamics of a particular matchup helps create a plan of attack.
Combo decks are our biggest weakness. They tend to go off uninhibited, often killing us the turn before we’d win. Game one, all we can really do is try to race them and hope for the best. Sideboarding at least gives us a chance to interact with them a little bit.
Aggressive decks can be scary, but we should be able to outclass them if we survive long enough. Our army of 1/1 chump blockers can help out with some early defense. Sometimes the Boom Booms have to stay back and block too. It’s okay; once the board is stabilized they’ll get to go out and smash things again.
Control Decks are a mixed bag. On one hand, they have a ton of cards that deal with our dudes. This means they usually kill our first couple of fatties, often 2-for-1-ing us in the process. The good news is that our deck is packed with must answer threats. This gives us a decent chance of top decking our way back into the game.
Most people are going to side in some form of graveyard hate against us. Rest in Peace is by far the worst; it has to be destroyed before we can move on with our game plan. However, the artifact based graveyard hate not quite as devastating. People often play their Relic of Progenitus early, but wait a few turns to actually blow it. Boneyard Wurn and Splinterfright die when our graveyard is exiled, so don’t play them unless you’re trying to bait them into using their hate. Play Nemesis of Mortals or Ghouldtree instead. This will make their Relic of Progenitus look a little silly. Also, it is a good idea to hold cards like Commune with the Gods and Satyr Wayfinder if they have graveyard hate on board. That way you can begin restocking after they have exiled your graveyard.
Matches
I played an interesting match versus RUG Delver the other day. I was on the play, but fell behind to an early Delver of Secrets and Tarmogoyf. My opponent was stuck on two lands which gave me a chance to race. I took over the ground but his Insectial Aberration was doing tons of damage in the air. Luckily, I noticed a pretty sweet play that saved my bacon.
As you can see from the picture, I am attacking with Ghoul Tree and Nemesis of Mortals. My opponent has just chump blocked Ghoul Tree with his Delver of Secrets. He is about to get a nice surprise from the Rancor that is under MosswortBridge.
The key here is waiting to activate Mosswort Bridge until after my opponent has declared blockers. This let me cast Rancor at instant speed, targeting the creature he blocked. The result is that we get in tons of trample damage and win the game! If I cast Rancor before blockers, my opponent probably would have chosen to block whichever creature didn’t have trample. I needed the trample damage in order to win this turn.
Sideboard:
OUT:
- 4 Street Wraiths: the 2 life is just too painful here
- 1 Life from the Loam: it’s one of our slower cards
- 1 Trackers Instinct: it’s pretty slow too
IN:
- 3 Gnaw to the Bone: life buys us time to race Delver
- 3 Dismember: kills Delver dead
As you can see, our game plan against RUG is “don’t die to Delver.” If we can survive an early Delver, we should be able to muscle our way to victory.
My opponent began game 2 with a first turn Delver of Secrets. Good thing my opening 7 included mono green’s best answers for the pesky flier; Dismember. Unfortunately, I punted by not casting it turn one when he was tapped out. Doh!
Sure enough, he flipped Delver (revealing Cryptic Command) and attacked for a couple turns while leaving counter mana open. I resolved some creatures but was still losing the race. Finally he taps out, casting Cryptic Command to counter Nemesis of Mortals and bounce Boneyard Wurm. This would have been a sweet tempo play for him, had I not Dismembered his Delver in response.
The rest of the game was uneventful. Our opponent flooded out and we drew some gas. Resolving Dismember is what really won it for us though.
Later on, I played against a G/W Aura deck. I noticed that their strategy is similar to ours in that we both invest several cards into making a ginormous fatty. Unfortunately for us, their creature is often superior in combat – being either larger or having first strike. Our only advantage is that we often have multiple fatties on board, while they can usually only make one.
I felt like I was behind for the entire first game versus G/W Auras. I had to chump with my early Boom Booms just to keep from dying. In the picture below, my opponent is attacking again and probably expects me to chump block with my 5/5 Nemesis of Mortals.
He might not have attacked with his 9/7 Slippery Bogle, had he known that I had could transform Nemesis of Mortals in to a monsterous 10/10. From his perspective, I was one mana short of paying for monstrosity. He didn’t know about the Simian Spirit Guide in my hand, which I used it to pay that one mana. The surprise 10/10 blocker ate the Bogle, but it regenerated thanks to the totem armor ability of Hyena Umbra. I still felt like I was decent shape, considering I had two more Boom Booms to play.
The next turn, my opponent puts a Sprit Mantle on the Slippery Bogle and attacks. Unable to block, I watch helplessly as my life points descend to 0.
Sideboard:
OUT:
IN:
I took out 3 of our slower cards and brought in Nature’s Claim to blow up some auras. Not a great strategy, but at least it gives me a chance to interact with my opponent a bit. Nature’s Claim also hits Rest in Peace, should he bring that in against me.
Game 2 was worse than the first. Our opponent’s fatty outclassed everything I played and we lost rather quickly. It seems like G/W Auras is going to be a tough matchup going forward. As I explained before, they do what we do – only better. Our deck is WAAAAAY CHEAPER though. Ha-ha!
There is so much more that could be said about the Modern Splinterfright Stompy deck, but I promised you a Legacy list too. Here it is:
Legacy Splinterfright Stompy
| Creatures (39) 4 Splinterfright 4 Boneyard Wurm 3 Nemesis of Mortals 4 Ghoultree 4 Wild Cantor 4 Tinder Wall 4 Simian Spirit Guide 4 Elvish Spirit Guide 4 Satyr Wayfinder 4 Street Wraith Spells (7) 4 Commune with the Gods 3 Berserk Lands (15) 15 Forest | Sideboard (15) 3 Faerie Macabre 3 Nature's Claim 2 Gnaw to the bone 3 Vines of Vastwood 3 Dismember 1 Berserk |
This version costs a bit more due to the Elvish Spirit Guides and Berserks. Keep in mind that you can build other Legacy decks with some of these cards too. The total price is little steep sitting around 28 tickets. It is about 40 tickets counting the sideboard.
The Legacy version of Splinterfright Stompy is easily two turns faster than the Modern version. This format gives us better mana acceleration and possibly the best budget card I have found on Magic Online so far – Berserk. In real life Berserk would cost you a pretty penny, but on Modo they are only $3.75 a piece. Not bad, considering that card alone wins us tons of games. Also note that we play more creatures in this deck (38 instead of 34). The higher creature count improves the odds of milling them into our graveyard. Whoo hoo!
Legacy is a harsh format though. Our opponents’ removal and counters are better, people pack more graveyard hate, and we have to face ridiculous combo decks. I think Modern is a better environment for this sort of strategy at the moment. With that being said, this deck is incredibly fun and I think you should try it out.
General Strategy
Our goal is the same as before: fill the graveyard with creatures and cast fatties for cheap. This hand is all-in on turn one Splinterfright. If he survives, he’ll grow very quickly and make the rest our deck better in the process. It will suck he is countered or killed right away, but that’s life. This is Legacy my friend; go big or go home.
Here is another seven card hand with turn one Splinterfright, and we get Berserk too! I would rock this hand, but let’s ship it to see a six card hand.
This hand is bland but I would probably keep it. We could easily play Ghoultree on turn three if we draw another enabler before then.
This hand represents turn two Ghoultree. Our opponent will probably think they are getting Goblin Charbelchered, considering that we are ramping with Tinder Wall and Spirit Guides. However, they probably won’t be too relieved when they see a green 10/10 sitting across from them either. This would be a good start, but I am going to mulligan to so we can see another 6 card hand.
This hand is pretty slow. However, drawing a Tinder Wall lets us play a Nemesis of Mortals on turn 2. That is kind of a long shot. Let’s mull to 5.
This hand is probably worse than the last, but all we need is a second land and we’re off to the races. Hopefully we will draw another land, a Satyr Wayfinder, or another Spirit Guide by turn two. I would go ahead and use the Elvish Spirit Guide to cast Commune with the Gods if we don’t draw one of those by our second turn.
It is essential to get a quick start when playing against other Legacy caliber decks. That is why I play fairly recklessly in this environment. I’d prefer losing because opponent was able to answer my early threats, rather than playing it safe and losing because of my slow start. I think that is the general strategy with any ‘glass cannon’ deck though.
Here is a prime example of keeping a risky hand that leads to an aggressive start:
I cast Splinterfright first turn off 2 Elvish Spirit Guides and a Tinder Wall. Who needs lands?
Not only did my first turn Splinterfright survive the whole game, it was even joined by a couple friends. The game was close, but in the end my opponent was victorious. Kuldatha Forgemaster + Spine of Ish Shah shenanigans wiped our board. That was all she wrote.
I’d love to tell you more of the great tales about playing this deck in Legacy, however this is probably enough Boom Booms for one day. Next week, we will be going back to Modern with a mono blue combo deck that can win as soon as turn 3. Until then, I leave you with this montage of Legacy scenes featuring Splinterfright Stompy. Thanks for reading!
