MTG Salvation

Nezahal, Primal Tide

This guy is packed with powerful raw abilities that a well-built deck can take advantage of.

I had in mind a control/stax build with a few voltron elements using our commander as the finisher. Due to his discard-protection, the deck should feature blue's best graveyard/discard strategies; abilities like Madness, Flashback, and Delve. Blue is also good at recurring instants/sorceries and artifacts, which we should utilize as well.

This is my first iteration of what I imagine to be the deck's core:



Inspiring Statuary appears to be an all star in the deck. It has great synergy with Winter Orb, Static Orb, Howling Mine, equipment, and many other artifacts.

Future Sight / Magus of the Future are good because they allow us to cast spells from our library and allow our hand to remain stocked with cards in case we need to protect Nezahal.

Release to the Wind is an interesting new card i look forward to testing, and can usefully protect Nezahal if we want to keep what's in our hand.

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From here, I see two possibilities. The deck could go almost full artifact theme, with cards like:

• Etherium Sculptor
  
• Foundry Inspector
  
• Vedalken Engineer
  
• Master Transmuter
  
• Scrap Trawler
  
• Arcum Dagsson
  
• Vedalken Archmage
  
• Lodestone Golem
  
• All is Dust

Or, it could maintain a control theme with cards like:

• Baral, Chief of Compliance
  
• Jace's Sanctum
  
• Lunar Mystic
  
• Call to Mind

With more counterspells and such.

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(Disclaimer: I don't usually play stax or artifact-based decks, so I may have left out some no-brainers)

Other potential inclusions could be Talrand, Sky Summoner, Dictate of Kruphix, Kami of the Crescent Moon, Kefnet the Mindful, Elite Arcanist, Isochron Scepter, Empyrial Plate, Argentum Armor, Sword of Vengeance, Alhammarret's Archive, Champion of Wits... lots of possibilities.

What do you all think- is this the way to go? What other cards can take advantage of Nezahal's abilities?

Missing STAX Staples: Torpor Orb (even though it shuts down a few of your cards, it hurts them WAY more than it hurts you), Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, Tangle Wire, Mana Vortex, Overburden, Sunken Hope, Pendrell Mists, Mystic Remora, Dust Bowl and Strip Mine (to combo with your Crucible of Worlds). Smokestack is the namesake card, but seems bad in your deck.

I'd definitely run more countermagic, and more ways to help Nezahl connect for lethal. Running all five swords seems like overkill.

You are running several cards that feel a bit casual for a STAX deck, like Arcanis the Omnipotent, so I'd consider some other nastier stuff in its place.

Quote from Hawk7915 »

Missing STAX Staples: Torpor Orb (even though it shuts down a few of your cards, it hurts them WAY more than it hurts you), Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, Tangle Wire, Mana Vortex, Overburden, Sunken Hope, Pendrell Mists, Mystic Remora, Dust Bowl and Strip Mine (to combo with your Crucible of Worlds). Smokestack is the namesake card, but seems bad in your deck.

Definitely like Torpor Orb, Teferi, Overburden, and Tanglewire, can't believe I missed Mystic Remora, Dust Bowl, and Strip Mine.

I'd definitely run more countermagic, and more ways to help Nezahl connect for lethal. Running all five swords seems like overkill.

Also agreed. If the deck can reliably generate spell discounts, I want to use higher cost and quality counters like Insidious Will and Rewind. Thinking Artful Dodge, Defy Gravity, and Distortion Strike for the latter. Fair enough, its F&F, F&I, and L&S that have the most synergy with the deck.

You are running several cards that feel a bit casual for a STAX deck, like Arcanis the Omnipotent, so I'd consider some other nastier stuff in its place.

That is kind of my intention due to my playgroup's power level. Arcanis is expensive but works so well with Nezahal's discard hard to avoid being intrigued. I'd have to test to see how often I'd be able to play him.

Also, Disciple of the Ring seems busted in this deck and with a big enough graveyard and voltron support seems like it could win on its own.

I like Glyph Keeper and Drake Haven to get value from discarding with Nezahal.

The only version of Mono-Blue Stax I ran was Patron of the Moon. It might be 7cmc, but it can be cheated out with Offering (you don't need to run all the Moonfolk to benefit from that, just a couple of decent ones). Its ability combined with Mana Breach and Overburden really hurt opponents while I could be ahead of the rest of the table in land drops. Even though it's not the focus of the deck, Patron is worth considering adding to your deck because if nothing else you can cheat out more lands from your hand that you draw with Primal Tide. Also, Muddle the Mixture and Drift of Phantasms can tutor up some of your pieces.

Sunder is also a powerhouse when you have a lot of mana rocks, and with Patron, you float mana right before casting it to then cheat back your lands into play. Sunder and Patron can make tables scoop with the sheer mana advantage you have over the rest of the table.

I'm really liking your thought process on this one. Artifacts will make the deck faster but stax/control will help you win with commander damage for when you finally cast Nezahal. It seems like both kinds of builds has lots of potential. You could even add a slight storm theme with the spellslinging stax/control version. So bonus points if you fit Crow Storm in there!

Quote from KissMyAssassin »

The only version of Mono-Blue Stax I ran was Patron of the Moon. It might be 7cmc, but it can be cheated out with Offering (you don't need to run all the Moonfolk to benefit from that, just a couple of decent ones). Its ability combined with Mana Breach and Overburden really hurt opponents while I could be ahead of the rest of the table in land drops. Even though it's not the focus of the deck, Patron is worth considering adding to your deck because if nothing else you can cheat out more lands from your hand that you draw with Primal Tide. Also, Muddle the Mixture and Drift of Phantasms can tutor up some of your pieces.

Sunder is also a powerhouse when you have a lot of mana rocks, and with Patron, you float mana right before casting it to then cheat back your lands into play. Sunder and Patron can make tables scoop with the sheer mana advantage you have over the rest of the table.

Yeah ill have to find room for Muddle the Mixture. Sunder is also great if I want to be that oppressive hahah.

Quote from DementedKirby »

I'm really liking your thought process on this one. Artifacts will make the deck faster but stax/control will help you win with commander damage for when you finally cast Nezahal. It seems like both kinds of builds has lots of potential. You could even add a slight storm theme with the spellslinging stax/control version. So bonus points if you fit Crow Storm in there!

Thanks- after some testing the control element has definitely proven vital, and makes me want to maintain the artifact / spell balance rather than go full artifacts.

Speaking of testing, here’s the list i’ve been running with quite some success:


I want to lower the artifact count, throw in some more counterspells. Might replace Voidmage Husher with Lunar Mystic.

Not to stray too much from the original stax ideas, but I was thinking of another artifact centric strategy with Nezahal, Primal Tide, maybe coinciding with stax elements:

Keep an artifact heavy theme with lots of mana rocks to get Nezahal out as soon as possible. Then, use Nezahal's discard ability to pitch infect creatures (like Blighted Agent, Viral Drake, or other infect creature that can be given evasion by other means) or other creatures with powerful abilities. Then "reanimate" those creatures via God-Pharaoh's Gift (or Back from the Brink as an alternate way of just pulling pitched creatures back out) searched up via Fabricate, Treasure Mage, Whir of Invention, or Tezzeret the Seeker. Get the infect through and proliferate for profit via Contagion Clasp, Contagion Engine, or Inexorable Tide with a bunch of low-CMC artifacts to cast.

EDIT: GPG makes the Blighted Agent a hasty unblockable 4/4 with infect. Even without proliferation, I don't see games lasting that long if he's left on the field with the right protection (counterspells for board wipes, creature bounce for retaliation attacks (i.e. Aetherize).

Now that I type this out, it seems like a lot to accomplish. But, then I've seen crazier and wilder in games before.