Imagine if half the cards you draw are laughably undercosted creatures that also make all of your creatures now, and for the rest of the game, bigger when you play it.

In this video, I take the Sultai Stompy archetype for another spin. This deck was beginning to bloom when Urborg Lhurgoyf was first released, but there weren't enough ways to reliably fill the graveyard. And frankly, there weren't enough payoffs. With the release of Lost Caverns of Ixalan, we now have a critical mass of one-drops that mill cards. As well as an absolute truckload of 'goyf-tier payoffs.

First, let's talk about Souls of the Lost
I need to let you in on a little secret: People think Urborg Lhurgoyf and Cruel Somnophage are cool Tarmogoyf clones that get scary fast. And they're right. But Souls of the Lost counts -every single card in your graveyard.- This creature is almost TWICE the Tarmogoyf these other two cards pretend to be.

That said, this card is powerful, but it's tricky to figure out what it requires to not simply be a tempo black hole. Souls of the Lost can only thrive in a deck that has the right one-drops to curve in from. Contrary to popular belief, It DOES NOT want you to load up on New Capenna fetchlands. Nor does it want you to feed it a Hopeless Nightmare. The problem with both of these approaches is that it's still a 2/3 for 1B. Which is a garbage rate. Toughness-crept Bears aren't going to get you far in this format. Especially when you've sacrificed something for it.

Good lord.

Thankfully, we have a critical mass of 1-drops that let this baby come in as big as a 4/5 on turn two. Do you know what kind of decks have trouble contesting a creature that big on turn two? All of them. You've seen how badly Sheoldred can mess up someone's tempo. You can have up to FOUR of these walls by the time your mono black player is dropping their first Sheoldred. Unopposed, you could swing with p/t as high as 9/10 on your third turn. While also leaving you in a position where now all of your scaling creatures are entering as towering monstrosities. Absolute titans the size of an Eldrazi for the cost of a bear.

But I digress.

There is a lot of strategy in using this card. It says you have two options, but you really have a decision between three: There is a right time to discard, there is a right time to sacrifice a nonland permanent, and there is a right time to sacrifice a land.

By the way, this deck functions surprisingly well on only three lands.

It's probably better to discard a land than it is to sacrifice a land. But there are times when you can trade the stability of your mana to speed up a clock. It can make the difference between pushing through huge amounts of damage and being just barely walled off for a turn.

This deck provides you with a good number of "safe" things to sacrifice. Gnawing Vermin mills two cards when it enters and tags something with -1/-1 for a turn when it dies. To say nothing of its ability to contest two-toughness creatures. This means you easily get three cards in your graveyard just from the Vermin. Waterlogged Hulk // Watertight Gondola is a solid backup choice. At minimum, curving the Hulk into Souls still gets you to mill two cards at minimum. Which is the same rate of mill as the rat.

Waterlogged Hulk is another upgrade to this archetype that Standard has been missing. You may not be able to chump block with the Hulk, but it isn't very interactable. If you recall: What made Luminarch Aspirant good was how it pumped every turn it was on the battlefield. And if you recall: What makes Selesnya Enchantments so good, is that it has at least THREE PLAYSETS of creatures that effectively pump themselves every turn they are on the battlefield.

The Waterlogged Hulk says "I cost one blue mana and I turn all of your scaling creatures into Luminarch Aspirants." And it's also a free card to sacrifice to your Souls. This effect is so good that we don't even run an Island to craft it with. though you could probably swap the Swamp or Otawara for one. The Hulk's mill ability being instant also opens up mind games where your opponent will hesitate to attack into one of your scaling creatures on the off-chance you respond by tapping the Hulk, seeing that you've RNG'd a creature into your graveyard, and get a free kill on the block.

Deathbonnet Sprout // Deathbonnet Hulk is another one-drop deck faucet. When you're on turn three, you can drop a monstrous two-drop alongside with this little guy. And because your library is being firehosed into your graveyard, there's a good chance it'll turn into a 3/3 straight away. This is concerning for your opponent since they already need to do something about these 8/8s you've been casually throwing down. Try to avoid eating creatures out of your graveyard unless it makes sense to. Most of the scaling creatures rely on them. Your opponent's chump blockers make for a nice supply of bodies, however.

Deathcap Marionette
Underrated. Why this instead of the Butler? You want to let your sleeping dogs lie. Pulling creatures out of the graveyard just makes your side of the battlefield lose another anthem. The difference between a 3/4 and a 4/5 is pretty stark. Especially when there's two of them.

Second, deathtouch is a nasty thing. Either your opponent removes it, or they lose precious time having to hold back from trading with this. When it does trade, you get another graveyard anthem that your opponent had to pay for. Hooray!

Cruel Somnophage
This is the second most recent pseudo-tarmogoyf printed. This lets you mill four for 1U and/or create a creature for 1B that has p/t equal to the number of creatures in ALL graveyards. This is an important distinction compared to the other two, as all of your opponent's chump blocks only make it bigger. Remember that now the Sorcery side is an investment to nearly all of your creatures. I often find myself using the Adventure first. Just like the Souls, this can enter as a 4/4 for 1B pretty easily, but you can often grow it further by the time it actually attacks

Urborg Lhurgoyf, as I recall it, was the original Tarmo-clone that everyone lost their minds about. Certainly for good reason. Though Souls of the Lost grows the fastest out of the three, it's very limited in its ability to fill your graveyard. Cruel Somnophage sits in the middle. Growing at a good pace, and packing an ability to fill the graveyard as well.

Urborg Lhurgoyf sits on the opposite end. As the slowest growing of the three, but the most capable of filling the graveyard. It's capable of filling in the rest of your curve the turn it comes down. Giving you three cards per pip to Cruel Somnophage's two cards per pip. The difference being that only Somnophage can mill on turn two, but the Lhurgoyf Kicker is much more flexible than a Cruel Somnophage that's still in your hand on turn three. By itself, the 'goyf can mill up to six cards, pumping many of your creatures by +3/+3 or higher. While itself being a large monster.

The Ancient One I like this card. I haven't drawn a Vilespawn Spider, but I'm tempted to cut some Spiders for more. This creature is a Cruel Somnophage without its ability to mill, but also if it were to grow like Souls of the Lost do. With the drawback that its power and toughness doesn't go past eight. In this deck, it isn't difficult to have it activated the turn it comes down, or at least the turn it attacks. Possibly not so affected by the legendary rule as sacrificing a copy could be worth it. The same goes for the other legendaries in this deck. However, one would think that it's often better to be playing a whole other creature than to get one more card into your graveyard.

Its ability to cycle a card isn't terrible, but we aren't utilizing many high-cost cards here. However, that isn't to say that it's useless. It's an instant-speed ability that can still be used to suddenly pump everything by 2-3 stages. It doesn't require a tap, either. You may even be able to catch a non-observant opponent if they swing into an inactive Ancient One only for you to cycle and power it on.

Vilespawn Spider. I haven't gotten a chance to play this card yet, but it works like the Urborg Lhurgoyf, but horizontally. It's a 2/3 for GU, reach, and mills a card on upkeep. But it has an ability for 2GU that allows you to sacrifice it (+1 creature) to create an army of 1/1 green insects equal to the number of creatures in your graveyard. This can understandably create a problem when your opponent is holding off 10/10s and now suddenly has to stop the eight other insects from getting through. This means they have to hold back and keep losing creatures to your titans or swing in and risk potentially deadly crackback. Best of all, it doesn't exile your graveyard as a cost!

The Mycotyrant Possibly the most difficult card to work with in this deck. He does nothing on his own the turn he comes down. If you have Hulls, Deathbonnets, and Spiders, you could have a 3/3 and three 1/1 fungus tokens that can't block the turn it comes down. That certainly is more than Lord Skitter can say. But if you don't, it's a 1/1 do-nothing. Needless to say, your opponent may still need to remove it, as it can just sit back while you dump 4-6 more cards into your graveyard each turn. But, as far as value goes going forward, it creates a deadly situation fast. Particularly because this one also has trample.

Akawalli, the Seething Tower is a particularly good consolation prize. This one also has trample, but is similar to The Ancient One. When you have four cards in the graveyard, it's a 5/5 trampler for 3. When you have eight, it's a 7/7 that also can't be blocked by more than one creature. This means your opponent has to trade their biggest creature with this every turn. Like the others, this gets big in no time flat. And like the others, it's very possible to grow this one a second time the turn it attacks.

Urborg Scavengers
Last, but definitely not least. These guys have a trick that the Graveyard Trespasser doesn't have: They can swing in as a 4/4 without waiting a turn. While the deck isn't centered around maximizing the keywords these guys pick up, you can snag Reach, Deathtouch, and Trample from your own grave. However, you will mostly be picking apart your opponent's graveyard. There are a surprising amount of good keywords roaming around as well. God help your opponent if these guys pick up Flying because they just grow every turn. When you aren't doing that, you should prioritize lands from your own graveyard so as to not disrupt the 'goyf or Nightmare's power. Sometimes it's fine powering down another creature if it's merely redistributing power and toughness more evenly

Wait. What about Fight Rigging?
There's even the combo with The Ancient One!

You're welcome to try it. Maybe in place of the Mycotyrant. But above all else, I really believe it's much better to actually play out any of your actual 2 or 3 drops. Even if you pull a big creature from Fight Rigging, most of them are two-drops. You're still overpaying. You're paying for a +1/+1 counter and a big creature. But if your last creature got taken out with a Go for the Throat, you won't actually be swinging with the creature you've pulled until the turn after next. Better to just play a threat that doesn't have conditions of its arrival.

What about Picklock Prankster?
It's a consideration for sure. But again, you don't want to be putting milled cards back into your hand. However, note that you would only be able to grab more Picklock Pranksters. Flying and Vigilance are drop-dead powerful abilities for Urborg Scavengers to pick up. Though I wouldn't know where to put it. The Vilespawn Spiders are my only guess but the spiders grant you a graveyard payoff and the Faeries don't.