Azusa Stax is one of my favorite decks, I've gotten a decent amount of mileage out of her over the past few years. (I'm slowly building up store credit to one day get The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale - someday, she will be mine.)
I'm not a fan of Plow Under effects in this deck. You draw enough hatred in multiplayer without these cards, and attacking one player's resources does little in the long run if others are tilting at you. It's best to hit everyone or hit no one.
I'm not really a fan of Greater Good or Momentous Fall. You rarely want to get rid of your board presence. I'm also not a fan of Fierce Empath or the Eldrazi cards. Keep your curve low - well, lower than this.
I don't think you need to run more than 47 lands. I was getting flood issues before I cut it to 46-47. Also, I would add more utility lands and the cycling lands, which play nicely with Loam.
Dirty Filter makes alot of good points, but I disagree with a few things. Three people in my play group either have played Azusa or is currently playing her, so I have a fiar amount of experience with her. Momentous Fall is AMAZING in Azusa. Oh your gonna Swords my Ulamog? Nope go to hell I'll draw like 10 cards AND get him back into your deck. The people I play(ed) with didnt run her Stax style, but your running alot of the cards I have seen in the past. I agree with Dirty Filter that stuff like Plow under isn't that good. You may slow down one person, but i a multiplayer format, its effect is watered down imo.
Momentous Fall is AMAZING in Azusa. Oh your gonna Swords my Ulamog?
It's just too situational for my tastes. It seems like a dead card half the time. I don't like reactionary advantage cards like that, like Fresh Meat. Good in theory, sometimes good in practice, oftentimes better being something else.
Azusa Stax is one of my favorite decks, I've gotten a decent amount of mileage out of her over the past few years. (I'm slowly building up store credit to one day get The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale - someday, she will be mine.)
I'm not a fan of Plow Under effects in this deck. You draw enough hatred in multiplayer without these cards, and attacking one player's resources does little in the long run if others are tilting at you. It's best to hit everyone or hit no one.
I'm not really a fan of Greater Good or Momentous Fall. You rarely want to get rid of your board presence. I'm also not a fan of Fierce Empath or the Eldrazi cards. Keep your curve low - well, lower than this.
I don't think you need to run more than 47 lands. I was getting flood issues before I cut it to 46-47. Also, I would add more utility lands and the cycling lands, which play nicely with Loam.
Can't believe I forgot Gwave :embarrass:...
I like a lot of your suggestions, and I'll take a look at how to work them in. I guess I just have a hard time running Azusa without 53 lands; that's how I always ran my standard build, and liked it. But I'm sure this plays out much differently.
Couple quick questions:
1) Why don't you like Fierce Empath? Tutor on a stick that you can either sacrifice to Smokestack or Skullclamp for profit seems good to me.
2) How do you play around Orb of Dreams, Winter Orb, and Static Orb? I don't want all the lands that I'm dropping with Azusa, and all my creatures that are better than their creatures being tapped all the time. Are Seedborn Muse and the Patron the only ways around this?
1) Why don't you like Fierce Empath? Tutor on a stick that you can either sacrifice to Smokestack or Skullclamp for profit seems good to me.
I guess I'm just turned off from it because of its restriction to big creatures. There's just too many stax pieces you need to hit critical mass that it never makes the cut in my deck.
2) How do you play around Orb of Dreams, Winter Orb, and Static Orb? I don't want all the lands that I'm dropping with Azusa, and all my creatures that are better than their creatures being tapped all the time. Are Seedborn Muse and the Patron the only ways around this?
Green stax plays a little different than black or white stax where you can tutor up the specific pieces you need to make a lock. Because you're drawing into your pieces more haphazardly, holding back a tutor for your Muse (or slapping some Boots on her ASAP) is your best course of action. Garruk Wildspeaker can help too.
With stax, though, you have to face the possibility that you're not going to have beat people to death with an Acidic Slime pumped up by Ursapine. These things happen.
I guess I'm just turned off from it because of its restriction to big creatures. There's just too many stax pieces you need to hit critical mass that it never makes the cut in my deck.
Fair enough. I like the fact that it can go get me Avenger of Zendikar if I need to make some tokens to sac to Smokestack, Terastodon or Woodfall Primus if I need to take care of some pesky permanent, Patron of Orochi if I have Winter Orb or Static Orb in play, or one of the Eldrazi if I happen to be in a position to play them. The fact that it is sac'able, recurable, and clampable makes it more appealing to me.
Green stax plays a little different than black or white stax where you can tutor up the specific pieces you need to make a lock. Because you're drawing into your pieces more haphazardly, holding back a tutor for your Muse (or slapping some Boots on her ASAP) is your best course of action. Garruk Wildspeaker can help too.
With stax, though, you have to face the possibility that you're not going to have beat people to death with an Acidic Slime pumped up by Ursapine. These things happen.
Yeah, I've played Esper and Grixis stax before, and I'm looking forward to trying this one out. I imagine I will be powering through the stax effects more so than in other builds, but we shall see.
Fair enough. I like the fact that it can go get me Avenger of Zendikar if I need to make some tokens to sac to Smokestack, Terastodon or Woodfall Primus if I need to take care of some pesky permanent, Patron of Orochi if I have Winter Orb or Static Orb in play, or one of the Eldrazi if I happen to be in a position to play them. The fact that it is sac'able, recurable, and clampable makes it more appealing to me.
To be quite honest, I had forgotten that it only costs 3. It might be worth testing in my build.
Yeah, I've played Esper and Grixis stax before, and I'm looking forward to trying this one out. I imagine I will be powering through the stax effects more so than in other builds, but we shall see.
It has its advantages and disadvantages. You will likely win resource races, but you don't have the amount of support for your stax pieces that other decks have. It's more rough around the edges, but it's also more unexpected (although, as I'm sure you know, Azusa already draws a good deal of hate without the added horror of her helming a stax build).
To be quite honest, I had forgotten that it only costs 3. It might be worth testing in my build.
It has its advantages and disadvantages. You will likely win resource races, but you don't have the amount of support for your stax pieces that other decks have. It's more rough around the edges, but it's also more unexpected (although, as I'm sure you know, Azusa already draws a good deal of hate without the added horror of her helming a stax build).
Here's something I've been wanting to ask you: do you think an Azusa stax list or your stereotypical Azusa ramp deck is more competitive (by which I mean capable of winning games). I'm a little mored with Azusa ramp.dec, but I'd also have to go shell out $100 some odd bucks to pick up all the pieces I'd need to convert her to stax, and if I don't really feel like being disappointed piloting her stax variant. What's your opinion on the relative capability of the two types?
Here's something I've been wanting to ask you: do you think an Azusa stax list or your stereotypical Azusa ramp deck is more competitive (by which I mean capable of winning games). I'm a little mored with Azusa ramp.dec, but I'd also have to go shell out $100 some odd bucks to pick up all the pieces I'd need to convert her to stax, and if I don't really feel like being disappointed piloting her stax variant. What's your opinion on the relative capability of the two types?
Very good question, and I'm going to give you a bad answer: It's meta dependent. Someone expecting Azusa ramp might be ill-prepared for the stax variant.
In a vacuum? Hard to judge, but Azusa ramp is more geared to victory at all costs. If you don't view any sort of resistance from your opponents (it is a vacuum, after all), I'd say this is the best bet. If your opponents are hating out Azusa ramp already, stax is the curveball. And in a meta not tuned to facing stax, stax is the better bet. (At Galspanic's house, lord only knows.)
So TL,DR answer: Ramp has more raw power, stax has more potential, and stax is less expected. Take from that what you will.
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101 cards currently in list by my count. Needs all kinds of tweaking, I'm sure...
1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
//Creatures (17)
1 Eternal Witness
1 Fierce Empath
1 Lodestone Golem
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Wolfbriar Elemental
1 Acidic Slime
1 Ant Queen
1 Genesis
1 Seedborn Muse
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Avenger of Zendikar
1 Patron of the Orochi
1 Terastodon
1 Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
1 Woodfall Primus
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
//Instants (4)
1 Crop Rotation
1 Worldly Tutor
1 Beast Within
1 Chord of Calling
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Genesis Wave
1 Life from the Loam
1 Tooth and Nail
//Enchantments (5)
1 Mirri's Guile
1 Root Maze
1 Sylvan Library
1 Hall of Gemstone
1 Greater Good
//Artifacts (15)
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Skullclamp
1 Null Rod
1 Sphere of Resistance
1 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Winter Orb
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Horn of Greed
1 Orb of Dreams
1 Static Orb
1 Tangle Wire
1 Trinisphere
1 Seer's Sundial
1 Smokestack
1 Mind's Eye
1 Mishra's Helix
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
//Lands (53)
1 Buried Ruin
1 Eldrazi Temple
1 Eye of Ugin
39 Forest
1 Hall of the Bandit Lord
1 High Market
1 Miren, the Moaning Well
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Mystifying Maze
1 Phyrexia's Core
1 Strip Mine
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Wasteland
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
R.I.P. Sundering Titan (6/20/12) and Braids, Cabal Minion (9/12/14)
Hall of Gemstones is pretty brutal against multicolored decks and non-green decks that want to play stuff on your turn.
Omnath, Locus of Mana is Azusa's BFF
Mishra's Helix is stupid with your Muse
Phyrexia's Core helps you get out of jams if you wind up screwing yourself
Elephant Grass can stall the game in your favor
Sylvan Safekeeper really deters removal
Seer's Sundial is Horn of Greed #2
Mana Web is more artifact headache
Ursapine makes combat math incredibly difficult for your opponents
Genesis Wave?
I'm not a fan of Plow Under effects in this deck. You draw enough hatred in multiplayer without these cards, and attacking one player's resources does little in the long run if others are tilting at you. It's best to hit everyone or hit no one.
I'm not really a fan of Greater Good or Momentous Fall. You rarely want to get rid of your board presence. I'm also not a fan of Fierce Empath or the Eldrazi cards. Keep your curve low - well, lower than this.
I don't think you need to run more than 47 lands. I was getting flood issues before I cut it to 46-47. Also, I would add more utility lands and the cycling lands, which play nicely with Loam.
If you can get one, Maze of Ith is very powerful.
Also, Krosan Grip should be a staple in any green deck.
It's just too situational for my tastes. It seems like a dead card half the time. I don't like reactionary advantage cards like that, like Fresh Meat. Good in theory, sometimes good in practice, oftentimes better being something else.
Can't believe I forgot Gwave :embarrass:...
I like a lot of your suggestions, and I'll take a look at how to work them in. I guess I just have a hard time running Azusa without 53 lands; that's how I always ran my standard build, and liked it. But I'm sure this plays out much differently.
Couple quick questions:
1) Why don't you like Fierce Empath? Tutor on a stick that you can either sacrifice to Smokestack or Skullclamp for profit seems good to me.
2) How do you play around Orb of Dreams, Winter Orb, and Static Orb? I don't want all the lands that I'm dropping with Azusa, and all my creatures that are better than their creatures being tapped all the time. Are Seedborn Muse and the Patron the only ways around this?
R.I.P. Sundering Titan (6/20/12) and Braids, Cabal Minion (9/12/14)
I guess I'm just turned off from it because of its restriction to big creatures. There's just too many stax pieces you need to hit critical mass that it never makes the cut in my deck.
Green stax plays a little different than black or white stax where you can tutor up the specific pieces you need to make a lock. Because you're drawing into your pieces more haphazardly, holding back a tutor for your Muse (or slapping some Boots on her ASAP) is your best course of action. Garruk Wildspeaker can help too.
With stax, though, you have to face the possibility that you're not going to have beat people to death with an Acidic Slime pumped up by Ursapine. These things happen.
Fair enough. I like the fact that it can go get me Avenger of Zendikar if I need to make some tokens to sac to Smokestack, Terastodon or Woodfall Primus if I need to take care of some pesky permanent, Patron of Orochi if I have Winter Orb or Static Orb in play, or one of the Eldrazi if I happen to be in a position to play them. The fact that it is sac'able, recurable, and clampable makes it more appealing to me.
Yeah, I've played Esper and Grixis stax before, and I'm looking forward to trying this one out. I imagine I will be powering through the stax effects more so than in other builds, but we shall see.
R.I.P. Sundering Titan (6/20/12) and Braids, Cabal Minion (9/12/14)
To be quite honest, I had forgotten that it only costs 3. It might be worth testing in my build.
It has its advantages and disadvantages. You will likely win resource races, but you don't have the amount of support for your stax pieces that other decks have. It's more rough around the edges, but it's also more unexpected (although, as I'm sure you know, Azusa already draws a good deal of hate without the added horror of her helming a stax build).
Here's something I've been wanting to ask you: do you think an Azusa stax list or your stereotypical Azusa ramp deck is more competitive (by which I mean capable of winning games). I'm a little mored with Azusa ramp.dec, but I'd also have to go shell out $100 some odd bucks to pick up all the pieces I'd need to convert her to stax, and if I don't really feel like being disappointed piloting her stax variant. What's your opinion on the relative capability of the two types?
R.I.P. Sundering Titan (6/20/12) and Braids, Cabal Minion (9/12/14)
Very good question, and I'm going to give you a bad answer: It's meta dependent. Someone expecting Azusa ramp might be ill-prepared for the stax variant.
In a vacuum? Hard to judge, but Azusa ramp is more geared to victory at all costs. If you don't view any sort of resistance from your opponents (it is a vacuum, after all), I'd say this is the best bet. If your opponents are hating out Azusa ramp already, stax is the curveball. And in a meta not tuned to facing stax, stax is the better bet. (At Galspanic's house, lord only knows.)
So TL,DR answer: Ramp has more raw power, stax has more potential, and stax is less expected. Take from that what you will.