This is my shot at a BUG stax deck, any advice would be appreciated.
A few concerns I had:
I have no countermagic in the deck. I don't think it's necessary to run coutnermagic just because you have blue. Does this seem reasonable? How useful is countermagic in stax?
Counterspells are very good, because you have about 10-14 high-threat Stax permanents, some of which do very specific things that aren't replaceable. People will be pointing their guns at your stuff, and one or two removal spells can take you totally off your game plan. The struggle is to fit them in and to have enough mana for the ones you choose. I swear by Rewind, and Thwart also looks good in your list. A substitute for them would be artifact/enchantment recursion. Green has plenty of Eternal Witness effects available, but I don't see any in your list either.
One thing that I think Stax decks need very badly are hard resets for the game state. If you rely on just getting mana disruption out early, you're extremely prone to bad draws. If you can reset the board, you have a little more time to tighten down the screws. Outside of Red and White you are hurting for it, but Death Cloud and Sunder seem like they would fit right into your deck. Maybe take out some of the lower impact Stax pieces for them, like Overburden. In fact the Mana Breach type cards don't play that well with Stasis to begin with. Since you are asking about tax effects, I'm sure you're aware of Nether Void, but if that's not realistic I think you should be fine with Tangle Wire and tutors for it.
Also, killing off other people's mana rocks is pretty critical, and you're in the colors of Trygon Predator.
Another important thing is just some get me there, other than attacking with Tasigur. A few more creatures like Lodestone Golem or a War and Peace might not hurt, I don't know. I can't imagine going without War and Peace in a deck like this, because it's such a terrific beating.
counters are for a different strategy. they are good in spelldecks - those you want to hurt. stax is a permanent based straegy/ best played with loads of them. of course spells can be a good support, but the ones that do what is your gameplan anyway. i think brainstorm and frantic search are not good here.( i cut them in my stax decks that also contain blue because they weren't good enough unlike they are in other decks)
i also don't know if entomb is right fitting in here. i see lftl and bloodghast, but a tutor like card should be flexible and entomb feels not so.
all in all this deck looks fun. i always look for stax decks with different color combinations than typical or i allready built.
I've run entomb in my Karador hatebears deck and I find that 9 times out of 10 I went for LftL. I was just thinking that LftL is such a powerful engine that a secondary way to get it would be nice. Although I suppose Intuition and my other tutors can get it as well. I'll probably cut that for some of the suggestions in the later posts.
Regarding Brainstorm and my cantrips, one thing I was considering was cutting those in favor of more potent draw power like Thirst for Knowledge and Artificer's Epiphany. Do you have any experience with similar cards?
Counterspells are very good, because you have about 10-14 high-threat Stax permanents, some of which do very specific things that aren't replaceable. People will be pointing their guns at your stuff, and one or two removal spells can take you totally off your game plan. The struggle is to fit them in and to have enough mana for the ones you choose. I swear by Rewind, and Thwart also looks good in your list. A substitute for them would be artifact/enchantment recursion. Green has plenty of Eternal Witness effects available, but I don't see any in your list either.
One thing that I think Stax decks need very badly are hard resets for the game state. If you rely on just getting mana disruption out early, you're extremely prone to bad draws. If you can reset the board, you have a little more time to tighten down the screws. Outside of Red and White you are hurting for it, but Death Cloud and Sunder seem like they would fit right into your deck. Maybe take out some of the lower impact Stax pieces for them, like Overburden. In fact the Mana Breach type cards don't play that well with Stasis to begin with. Since you are asking about tax effects, I'm sure you're aware of Nether Void, but if that's not realistic I think you should be fine with Tangle Wire and tutors for it.
Also, killing off other people's mana rocks is pretty critical, and you're in the colors of Trygon Predator.
Another important thing is just some get me there, other than attacking with Tasigur. A few more creatures like Lodestone Golem or a War and Peace might not hurt, I don't know. I can't imagine going without War and Peace in a deck like this, because it's such a terrific beating.
I was thinking about Yawgmoth's Will and Eternal Witness. I will try to fit those in (with a few free counterspells). Maybe Argivian Restoration, as well. I'm worried about my ability to cast Death Cloud or Pox. Having 3 colored symbols seems difficult. I have a comparable dual/shock suite in my Karador deck and I find that I have Necropotence stuck in my hand sometimes. It is, however, an amazing card, so I will probably try it out.
I was thinking my alternate win condition would be the planeswalkrs. Garruk and Tezzeret both help me with my locks and give me some end game, while Jace just kills someone. That said, Lodestone is a decent tax effect. How useful will the man-lands be at this? I was thinking they would be the Mishra's Factory analog, but entering tapped and costing 3-4 mana per attack is beginning to give me second thoughts.
I mostly left Oveburden and Mana Breach in there because my deck started out as a lands deck. To be honest, I was not completely sold on them, so I think you're right about removing them.
As for Nethervoid, unfortunately I do not own one. I do have The Abyss, but that's a bit less useful.
Torpor Orb is a good call. All those pesky Reclamation Sages can make my life hard. I've never played a land-denial stax deck in EDH (my previous one is mostly anti-creature) how likely am I to be able to cast 7- and 8-drops like Karn or Ugin?
Torpor Orb is a good call. All those pesky Reclamation Sages can make my life hard. I've never played a land-denial stax deck in EDH (my previous one is mostly anti-creature) how likely am I to be able to cast 7- and 8-drops like Karn or Ugin?
If necessary, I'm able to cast Gisela, Blade of Goldnight a few times in my Judgment Day deck, and there I don't even have access to G's land ramp or U's Teferi, Temporal Archmage, nor am I running Clock of Omens in that deck. I understand the logic of a low-curve, especially in Stax, but I have experience to back up the power of a significant ramp package to cast big-mana spells.
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Counterspells are very good, because you have about 10-14 high-threat Stax permanents, some of which do very specific things that aren't replaceable. People will be pointing their guns at your stuff, and one or two removal spells can take you totally off your game plan. The struggle is to fit them in and to have enough mana for the ones you choose. I swear by Rewind, and Thwart also looks good in your list. A substitute for them would be artifact/enchantment recursion. Green has plenty of Eternal Witness effects available, but I don't see any in your list either.
One thing that I think Stax decks need very badly are hard resets for the game state. If you rely on just getting mana disruption out early, you're extremely prone to bad draws. If you can reset the board, you have a little more time to tighten down the screws. Outside of Red and White you are hurting for it, but Death Cloud and Sunder seem like they would fit right into your deck. Maybe take out some of the lower impact Stax pieces for them, like Overburden. In fact the Mana Breach type cards don't play that well with Stasis to begin with. Since you are asking about tax effects, I'm sure you're aware of Nether Void, but if that's not realistic I think you should be fine with Tangle Wire and tutors for it.
Also, killing off other people's mana rocks is pretty critical, and you're in the colors of Trygon Predator.
Another important thing is just some get me there, other than attacking with Tasigur. A few more creatures like Lodestone Golem or a War and Peace might not hurt, I don't know. I can't imagine going without War and Peace in a deck like this, because it's such a terrific beating.
I was thinking about Yawgmoth's Will and Eternal Witness. I will try to fit those in (with a few free counterspells). Maybe Argivian Restoration, as well. I'm worried about my ability to cast Death Cloud or Pox. Having 3 colored symbols seems difficult. I have a comparable dual/shock suite in my Karador deck and I find that I have Necropotence stuck in my hand sometimes. It is, however, an amazing card, so I will probably try it out.
I was thinking my alternate win condition would be the planeswalkrs. Garruk and Tezzeret both help me with my locks and give me some end game, while Jace just kills someone. That said, Lodestone is a decent tax effect. How useful will the man-lands be at this? I was thinking they would be the Mishra's Factory analog, but entering tapped and costing 3-4 mana per attack is beginning to give me second thoughts.
I mostly left Oveburden and Mana Breach in there because my deck started out as a lands deck. To be honest, I was not completely sold on them, so I think you're right about removing them.
As for Nethervoid, unfortunately I do not own one. I do have The Abyss, but that's a bit less useful.
Man lands are very unreliable to actually kill someone, unless they're named Inkmoth Nexus and the deck is running pump. I don't think that changes with Stax, and if anything gets worse with Winter Orb stuff. I think it's a common frame of mind for stax players to overestimate the effect of their mana denial and consequently underestimate the importance of win conditions. I mean strictly speaking, if you absolutely rely on winning via something like Stasis - Frozen Aether, or Armageddon - Land Equilibrium, then you are basically combo at that point. Those wins are possible, but I think better use of mana denial most of the time is to faciliate and buy a bunch of time.
The planeswalker win condition can be a good fit for stax, but the ult's on the ones in your list aren't really that decisive. Maybe Nissa, Worldwaker would fit the theme and give you some beatdown? I do like pounding with Garruk tokens. Vraska the Unseen also seems to do a ton of work to stabilize a board state, and I have seen her assassin tokens come out often from Stax decks.
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1 Academy Ruins
1 Bayou
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Breeding Pool
1 Command Tower
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Faerie Conclave
1 Flooded Strand
4 Forest
4 Island
1 Marsh Flats
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Polluted Delta
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Strip Mine
5 Swamp
1 Treetop Village
1 Tropical Island
1 Underground Sea
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Wasteland
1 Watery Grave
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
MANA ROCKS (13)
1 Charcoal Diamond
1 Coldsteel Heart
1 Commander's Sphere
1 Dimir Signet
1 Golgari Signet
1 Grim Monolith
1 Mind Stone
1 Moss Diamond
1 Mox Diamond
1 Simic Signet
1 Sky Diamond
1 Sol Ring
1 Talisman of Dominance
1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
1 Burgeoning
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Exploration
1 Life from the Loam
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
MANA DENIAL (10)
1 Desolation
1 Mana Breach
1 Mana Vortex
1 Overburden
1 Rising Waters
1 Stasis
1 Static Orb
1 Tainted AEther
1 Tangle Wire
1 Winter Orb
OTHER STAX (4)
1 Pendrell Mists
1 Smallpox
1 Smokestack
1 The Abyss
REMOVAL (5)
1 Ashes to Ashes
1 Executioner's Capsule
1 Go for the Throat
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Snap
BOARD WIPE (3)
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Damnation
1 Toxic Deluge
CARD DRAW (5)
1 Brainstorm
1 Frantic Search
1 Ponder
1 Preordain
1 Sylvan Library
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Entomb
1 Intuition
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Trinket Mage
1 Vampiric Tutor
UTILITY (5)
1 Bitterblossom
1 Bloodghast
1 Glissa, the Traitor
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Trading Post
PLANESWALKERS (4)
1 Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
This is my shot at a BUG stax deck, any advice would be appreciated.
A few concerns I had:
One thing that I think Stax decks need very badly are hard resets for the game state. If you rely on just getting mana disruption out early, you're extremely prone to bad draws. If you can reset the board, you have a little more time to tighten down the screws. Outside of Red and White you are hurting for it, but Death Cloud and Sunder seem like they would fit right into your deck. Maybe take out some of the lower impact Stax pieces for them, like Overburden. In fact the Mana Breach type cards don't play that well with Stasis to begin with. Since you are asking about tax effects, I'm sure you're aware of Nether Void, but if that's not realistic I think you should be fine with Tangle Wire and tutors for it.
Also, killing off other people's mana rocks is pretty critical, and you're in the colors of Trygon Predator.
Another important thing is just some get me there, other than attacking with Tasigur. A few more creatures like Lodestone Golem or a War and Peace might not hurt, I don't know. I can't imagine going without War and Peace in a deck like this, because it's such a terrific beating.
Torpor Orb
Karn Liberated
Pox
Death Cloud
Sunder
Frozen Æther
Mana Web
Teferi, Temporal Archmage
Clock of Omens
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
As for your concerns, I'm quite fond of Forbid, especially in Tasigur with Life from the Loam.
I've run entomb in my Karador hatebears deck and I find that 9 times out of 10 I went for LftL. I was just thinking that LftL is such a powerful engine that a secondary way to get it would be nice. Although I suppose Intuition and my other tutors can get it as well. I'll probably cut that for some of the suggestions in the later posts.
Regarding Brainstorm and my cantrips, one thing I was considering was cutting those in favor of more potent draw power like Thirst for Knowledge and Artificer's Epiphany. Do you have any experience with similar cards?
I was thinking about Yawgmoth's Will and Eternal Witness. I will try to fit those in (with a few free counterspells). Maybe Argivian Restoration, as well. I'm worried about my ability to cast Death Cloud or Pox. Having 3 colored symbols seems difficult. I have a comparable dual/shock suite in my Karador deck and I find that I have Necropotence stuck in my hand sometimes. It is, however, an amazing card, so I will probably try it out.
I was thinking my alternate win condition would be the planeswalkrs. Garruk and Tezzeret both help me with my locks and give me some end game, while Jace just kills someone. That said, Lodestone is a decent tax effect. How useful will the man-lands be at this? I was thinking they would be the Mishra's Factory analog, but entering tapped and costing 3-4 mana per attack is beginning to give me second thoughts.
I mostly left Oveburden and Mana Breach in there because my deck started out as a lands deck. To be honest, I was not completely sold on them, so I think you're right about removing them.
As for Nethervoid, unfortunately I do not own one. I do have The Abyss, but that's a bit less useful.
Torpor Orb is a good call. All those pesky Reclamation Sages can make my life hard. I've never played a land-denial stax deck in EDH (my previous one is mostly anti-creature) how likely am I to be able to cast 7- and 8-drops like Karn or Ugin?
Man lands are very unreliable to actually kill someone, unless they're named Inkmoth Nexus and the deck is running pump. I don't think that changes with Stax, and if anything gets worse with Winter Orb stuff. I think it's a common frame of mind for stax players to overestimate the effect of their mana denial and consequently underestimate the importance of win conditions. I mean strictly speaking, if you absolutely rely on winning via something like Stasis - Frozen Aether, or Armageddon - Land Equilibrium, then you are basically combo at that point. Those wins are possible, but I think better use of mana denial most of the time is to faciliate and buy a bunch of time.
The planeswalker win condition can be a good fit for stax, but the ult's on the ones in your list aren't really that decisive. Maybe Nissa, Worldwaker would fit the theme and give you some beatdown? I do like pounding with Garruk tokens. Vraska the Unseen also seems to do a ton of work to stabilize a board state, and I have seen her assassin tokens come out often from Stax decks.