Stampede (Casual)

In case you've been in hiding for the last year, the Mirrodin block focuses very heavily on artifacts. Since your opponent is likely to throw all sorts of annoying artifacts at you, any deck you play in this environment needs to be able to handle them. One very good strategy is to pound your opponents into the ground before they're able to bring their artifacts out and use them, and the "Stampede" deck can help you achieve this goal.
The deck plays in a fairly straightforward manner and has a nice progression of creatures and spells. In the early game, play a few of your small creatures and get in some early hits. Between the direct-damage spells and the artifact destruction, you should be able to keep the board reasonably clear early on, allowing your small, unobstructed creatures to deal plenty of damage. Once you get up to four or five mana, start laying down the big monsters and attempt to win with size.

If the game stalls and you find yourself unable to break through for damage, you still have a few options. One of the "tricks" of this deck involves the combination of Rite of Passage with "pingers" like Spikeshot Goblin and Vulshok Sorcerer. By slowly inflicting damage on your own creatures, you can grow them to smash through the stalemate. If all else fails, you can fall back on Grab the Reins and Goblin Cannon to deal the last few points of damage. Other decks may have more late-game options, though, so try to keep the pressure on early to give yourself the best chance of a quick win.

The "Stampede" deck has a number of ways to destroy artifacts, but consider adding more if you play against a lot of decks using Mirrodin block cards. The best anti-artifact cards to add are those that are also useful against decks that play with almost no artifacts (such as this one), so that they are never "dead" cards. The Mirrodin set's Molder Slug, Creeping Mold, and Viridian Shaman are good examples.[3]