Eternal Warrior #7: Better Call Sol

Magic was once dominated by fast mana. The first few years had us filling our decks with Moxen, Black Lotus, Sol Ring, and unrestricted Mana Crypts. Dark Ritual was a mainstay, an effect deemed integral to the identity of black, and reprinted in every full-size standalone expansion from Ice Age to Mercadian Masques. To be fair, once the restricted list and 60-card decks were established, there weren’t many supremely powerful things you could do with this mana. You could cast a Juzam Djinn or Juggernaut on Turn 1, but it died to Swords to Plowshares all the same. Fast mana in those decks wasn’t “broken” at all; it was just swingy and random.

There were a couple noteworthy decks that did something more powerful with this fast mana. One such deck dumped a huge number of mana-producing artifacts onto the board, tapped them all for mana, then returned them all to hand with Hurkyl’s Recall, replayed them, and eventually won with a huge Fireball. We might think of this as the proto-Storm deck. Another deck used fast mana to get down a quick Nether Void, and kept the opponent locked out of the game with a full playset of Strip Mines. We might consider this to be a distant ancestor of the deck we’ll be playing today.

By the time Tempest block hit the scene, Wizards had decided to reduce the power of fast artifact mana, but they clearly still believed that fast mana had a place in the game. Artifact mana was still represented, with Lotus Petal and Mox Diamond, powered-down versions of their Alpha forerunners. We also saw the introduction of two lands that continue to see play in modern Legacy: Ancient Tomb and City of Traitors.

These lands were the first printed which could produce 2 mana on the first turn of the game and remain in play. The Fallen Empires sac-lands came into play tapped. Both Alliances and Mirage featured lands that tapped for 2 mana, but all required another land already in play, with the exception of Crystal Vein which had to sacrifice itself immediately to produce 2 mana. Today, known as the “Sol lands” for their mana production, Ancient Tomb and City of Traitors remain the only two lands in the Legacy format that can do this unaided.

Over the years, there have typically been two kinds of deck that wanted this effect. The most common use is in combo decks that desire to power out one key spell a turn (or more) earlier than usual. Their willingness to use these lands may hinge primarily upon the colored-mana requirements of the key spell. Show and Tell is the perfect combo deck for these lands, as its 2U casting cost is perfect for playing off a Sol land plus one colored source. Playing a full complement of both Sol lands becomes much more cumbersome if you have multiple spells, or one key spell, that has a double-colored mana requirement.

The other kind of deck is what we are playing today. Often called “Stompy” decks, this archetype looks to take advantage of the Legacy format’s heavy concentration of spells in the 1- and 2-converted mana cost range. The goal is to quickly deploy either a Chalice of the Void set to 1, or a “taxing” effect (such as Sphere of Resistance or Thorn of Amethyst.) You lock your opponent out of casting cheap spells, and then tax the hell out of his expensive spells, making him fight through Wasteland along the way. With your lands producing extra mana, you drop a threat he can’t cheaply handle and bash him until he’s dead.

This strategy can be employed in any color, but the requirement to run so many colorless lands tends to prevent it from branching into a second color too heavily, if at all. The most common variants over the years have been mono-red, mono-blue, and mono-white.

In red, this deck is called Dragon Stompy, named for the finisher of choice: Rakdos Pit Dragon. The red variant is possibly the most powerful, getting the benefit of additional mana disruption in the form of Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon, and additional fast-mana with Simian Spirit Guide.

The blue variant, usually called Sea Stompy or Faerie Stompy, has the advantage of being able to run Force of Will, but has had a difficult time settling on a creature finisher. The usual choice is the obscure Portal card Sea Drake, a 4/3 flier for 2U that requires two target lands to be returned to your hand when it enters play – a drawback that actually fizzles if you control only one land when it hits the field, a common occurrence with this deck. Serendib Efreet also works in those lists, and if Chrome Mox is part of your arsenal, then you might try Illusory Angel. Other versions run a minor Faerie theme, combining Cloud of Faeries with AEther Vial to generate a ton of mana off the Sol lands, powering out bigger blue fliers and equipment such as Sword of Fire and Ice.

The white version, Angel Stompy, is what I chose to work with for this article. Historically, the angel doing the stomping was Exalted Angel. She’s a former powerhouse, and I like her a lot, but the reasons to choose her just don’t hold up these days. With perfect mana, you can play her face-down on Turn 1, then morph her on Turn 2 and attack with your 4/5 pseudo-lifelink flier. The problem is that this is a huge mana investment, and typically you would want to protect her from removal with a Chalice set to 1 before casting her.

Additionally, your opponent in a Legacy match may well be doing something much more powerful than attacking you with a 4-power flier, and it’s more important to put your lock pieces in play first to disrupt their plan.

So if the lock pieces are the key, how do we protect them? I got to thinking about an old favorite of mine, Guardian Beast. Now that would certainly protect my artifacts, but he doesn’t do much for me offensively. That’s when I remembered Indomitable Archangel. If I can design the deck to reliably hit metalcraft, she does everything I want in this deck. The 4/4 flying body dodges Bolt, and the casting costs keeps her safe from Abrupt Decay, so I have a very good chance to keep her alive. She protects my artifacts as they protect her.

Since I want to hit metalcraft, and am relying heavily on colorless lands, other artifact creatures are a solid fit – and unlike the ol’ Guardian Beast, Archangel can protect artifact creatures too. Phyrexian Revoker looks like a great choice, as he can come down Turn 1 and shut off a Deathrite Shaman. Deathrite Shaman is a card I have to be heavily aware of in constructing my deck, as an active DRS can quickly render my Wastelands and taxing effects irrelevant. I’m also adding a full set of Lodestone Golem, taking a page from the Classic Workshop decks I’ve been fighting against for the past several months. Finally, I want to try out a full set of Blade Splicers. I have to be wary of too many-heavy white color commitments, and at 2W, Splicer is perfect for my mana. The four total power is solid, and the 3/3 body having first strike is great in creature mirrors, especially against Nimble Mongoose. Plus, as an incidental bonus, she also gives the Lodestone Golem first strike, which makes it a match for even a moderately-big Tarmogoyf.

In addition to the Chalices, I decided on a full set of Trinisphere and Thorn of Amethyst. Trinisphere, or “3-ball” as I usually call it, is extremely powerful in a deck like this. With no 1-drops and only a few 2-drops, I can make sure it has minimal impact on me while making my opponent’s game miserable. I opted for Thorn of Amethyst over other taxing effects for two reasons. First, I mainly wanted to keep my opponent off spells, especially removal spells. But it also makes opposing library manipulation much less efficient, often inducing players to use up fetch lands and cast suboptimal Brainstorms. The second reason is that I have a heavy complement of creatures, so Thorn won’t interfere with me playing out my own threats. If I manage to stall a combo deck but am locked behind my own Sphere of Resistance and unable to put them on a clock, they will eventually draw out of it, and I’ll lose.

I added 4 Mox Diamond to give me additional ways to play a 2-drop on Turn 1. Unlike Chrome Mox, Mox Diamond requires the discard of a land, and therefore it cannot be counted as a mana source when you are deckbuilding. Always remember to include it in your spell slots. (Unfortunately for me, my deck has too many artifacts to consider using Chrome Mox, though it would be preferred in many other Stompy variants.)

The deck is very mana-hungry, and I want to make sure I can use those Mox Diamonds, so I went with 25 land. I decided to use only three City of Traitors, out of concern for some double-white mana requirements. I also wanted to avoid hands with 2 Cities, which can be very awkward if you are planning on running out a 3-ball or taxing effect, as your mana from Turn 3 onwards will be very tight.

I included 4 Ancient Den to help enable metalcraft for the Archangel. It does expose me to an early Wasteland, so I had to think carefully about land sequencing, when to play them, and sometimes when to just discard them to Mox Diamond.

After a week of playing in the Tournament Practice room, I made a few adjustments and arrived at the list I would take into the 2-man queues.

The sideboard is far from “tweaked” or polished – I still wanted to try a few things out. Elspeth, Knight-Errant was to bring in against control decks in place of Linvala, Keeper of Silence. If I’m a creature-heavy deck, I always like having a planeswalker threat somewhere in the 75 to use against control. Ghostly Prison is for the aggro matchups. It has a more convenient casting cost than Moat – I need to get it down fast in that match, and 2W will be much more reliable than 2WW. It synergizes well with my attack on their available mana, and it even slows some important attackers that Moat does not. O-Ring is primarily for Show and Tell, but also as a general failsafe button for those times when I see an opposing permanent that I don’t think I can possibly beat.

Iron Maiden is a card I never actually got to cast in all of my testing. The idea was for it to be a potential win condition against control decks that didn’t use combat. I would almost certainly play Black Vise against control, so if my deck can cast it early enough, why not Iron Maiden? But I never played against UW control. If anybody has tried it before, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

I’ll talk in the videos about playing the deck, but the most important thing to remember is to mulligan aggressively. If your seven-card hand lacks a lock piece, a good creature, and a Sol land, you should probably ship it most of the time. There are plenty of possible five-card hands that will have everything you want – and a five-card hand missing one of those pieces may often be every bit as good as a seven-card hand missing one piece, so why not gamble and try for the nut opener? There’s no reason to keep a six or seven that doesn’t really do anything. Also, games are very different on the play versus being on the draw, so factor that into both sideboarding and mulligan decisions. Your lock pieces are much worse on the draw, but you can still use Chalice to defend your threats from opposing removal and just win with big dumb guys. You have no card selection or cantrips, so don’t count on the top of your library to help much.

Check out the videos, then let me know what you think of the deck in the comments section!