Oloro, Ageless Ascetic: is an Esper colored Stax deck. It creates a resource denial board state and grinds to an attrition war where you can win any number of ways. This deck drew most of it's inspiration from StyxOfTolaria's Dromar list. Since it was abandoned almost 2 years ago, I felt as though some people would like to see it come back. I kept as much as I could the same, and upgraded some things as new sets came out. I've always been a fan of the Stax archtype. Many may call it unfair, or unfun to play against; I always disagreed. Stax creates challenging and thoughtful board states, where even tiny improvements in the war against Stax decks prove to be more rewarding than say - mulligan into Force of Will to stop a fast combo deck. That is just my two cents.
My list is virtually creatureless, and does not have any counter spells. I wanted the deck to be more threat dense than just simply protect combos. The deck doesn't have enough open spots to devote a counter spell to every possible card that every opponent could have that would beat us. By reading on we're going to learn a bunch about what tempo is and why it is important for us to restrict. We're going to get a view of Commander and Magic: the Gathering as a battle for scarce resources, one in which the winner is usually always going to be the one that denies access to them. We're going to show that while big flashy finishers are fun, a 1/1 soldier creature token can win given enough time. Efficiency is a quality that is rarely punished by other decks, we're making "optimized" lists as uncomfortable as possible.
This deck did begin it's life as a Dromar, the Banisher Esper blink deck. It used a crazy combination of cards until it eventually it used some weird Null Profusion/Omniscience combo to cast Tendrils of Agony for a billion. It was fun because I basically jammed all of my favorite cards into 1 deck (an abundance of which were Black and Blue, because my collection is mostly blue or black cards). I stumbled upon StyxOfTolaria's Dromar list which had just become Oloro (due to his spoiling). I too switched my deck janky Dromar deck, looking for something more consistent, nearly card for card. It was amazing that I had all of these cards in my collection already, but have never figured to put them into the order he had come up with. As of 2/2/2015 everything that can be foiled is foiled. The whole reason I foiled the list out was that it was so effective, and Mass land destruction isn't a thing anymore (less likely Wizards prints anti-LD hate), that I knew I would get mileage out of it. There is not enough card turn over in this deck to justify my usual set reviews, but I occasionally drop a comment about new potential targets.
[Primer] status achieved 10/27/15! It has been a long time dream of mine to one day create a Primer for MTGSalvation. It has been such a source of inspiration and an outstanding collection of thoughtful players and creativity. I am honored and will continue to work hard to make this a resource for so many, as other Primers have been a resource to me.
Oloro, Ageless Ascetic is a forceful stax leader. Some of the great value cards in all of Magic: the Gathering require the cost of life as an additional cost. Some say life gain is not essential in Commander, and in most instances they're correct, but when you can get the colors you want and the bonus of life gain without even playing your commander - it's icing on the cake. With the removal of the commander tuck rule, Oloro has been elevated to win condition.
You prefer more traditional permission lists. This deck does not play counter spells, it does play reactive removal spells however.
You enjoy playing elaborate combo decks. This is not one of those.
Your playgroup frowns upon mass land destruction and taxing effects.
Other options for commanders:
Dromar the Banisher: Repeatable Wash Out is pretty impressive. An evasive 6/6 is good too. If anything ever happens to Oloro, like a banning, I could picture bringing back Dromar to command the Stax legion once again to helm the Stax deck.
Zur the Enchanter: Good way to get focused on. Zur is a very persuasive option as a repeatable tutor, and it would be easy to bend the deck around having him as the general. I didn't want a Zur deck though, that deck tends to build itself and is its own archtype. Zur is a powerful commander but not the type of thing I'm looking for.
Sen Triplets: Thematically a great general for the deck. It basically just silences one player and controls their hand. That is fun to do. It does paint a big target on your head and tends to get old quickly. Not knocking them, they are compelling, but it's not exactly what I'm going for.
Zurgo Helmsmasher: For almost a year I've fantasized about switching over to Zurgo Helmsmasher. The mardu colors allow for some of those sick R Stax cards and land destruction. I don't play for the counter spells, and besides a few good stax cards - isn't a deal breaker. If it wouldn't cost so much money to foil out the deck I'd consider it. I do tend to enjoy Oloro's life gain ability. With removal of the tuck rule - Zurgo is even more appealing as a way to win with Commander damage.
Aura of Silence: The card is pretty self-explanatory. It's a powerhouse in the Tax department. It is reusable artifact/enchantment removal with Sun Titan, it makes Sol Ring and opponent mana rocks much less useful. Artifacts and Enchantments are staples of the format, taxing them early and often is completely required
Cursed Totem: What is there not to enjoy about this? It locks out any creature based combos, like the ones employed by Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker or Deadeye Navigator. Aggressively cost and pretty much stays relevant throughout the game.
Oh how I hate the Reserve List.
Humility: Humility really does what few cards in the game is capable of, completely shutting down creature based strategies. Enter the battlefield triggers don't work, big beaters are reduced to nothing. I know there is a synergy with Night of Soul's Betrayal, but I don't think it's good enough to be in the deck by itself. The Tabernacle of Pendrell Vale has a similar effect, it taxes the crap out of really weak creatures - so they're more likely to sacrifice them. Mana is important, more important than life in this format.
In the Eye of Chaos: Whenever a player casts an instant spell, counter it unless that player pays X, where X is its converted mana cost. Basically you've gotta pay twice if you want that counterspell to connect. The amount of Instants in this deck is pretty low (7), and of those spells they don't cost all much anyway, and runs no counters itself. The only drawback is it will be destroyed by Nether Void (World Enchantment rule). If you ask me - that's a good problem to have.
Land Equilibrium: With enough Mana Rocks on the battlefield, and no lands of your own, this is another soft lock. Opponents are basically just holding onto cards they can't play.
Mana Breach: This tends to slow the game down, way down, and allow us to find more pieces. It is so obviously a target, but so many of our cards in this deck are targets. Tempo plays like this put the game into a sort of stasis from which we benefit highly. The slower we make things the more we push into the mid-to-late rounds of the game where we prosper and benefit from controlling the resources available to our opponents.
A Truly back breaking card
Mana Vortex: Aggressive cost land destroyer. Its usefulness is evident, its frustration is unparalleled, its the perfect kind of card for this deck. It comes in early, sets opponents back greatly, and works with Sun Titan. Like many of the other cards in this section, tempo plays are just as good for us as splashy creatures.
Nether Void: The most devastating card in the entire deck probably is Nether Void. Whenever a simple Naturalize costs 5 mana, removing Nether Void can be a daunting challenge. Its essentially game over if you manage to Armageddon. It even slows down Planeswalkers, traditionally a weakness of Stax decks. The card is very expensive (monetarily}, but if you truly enjoy playing with supremely dominant cards, and are looking for an investment that is unlikely to EVER lose any value (it is on the reserve list, never to be reprinted in paper again). It is a backbreaking card to hit the field, and it changes the dynamics pretty much instantly.
The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale: Mana is a huge tax in Commander. It is a larger tax than life (which you have 40), or creatures (which you can have none of or 100's of). Paying upkeep costs is a nightmare, and this deck runs 1 creature and some Token Generator. It is very difficult to justify spending What else is difficult to justify is the price of this card, it is EXTREMELY expensive. Pendrell Mists is a suitable alternative, and what this deck was running until I purchased this card. The land is uncounterable however.
Tainted Æther: Extremely good in a creatureless build and naturally works with Mana Breach. I really like this card, not thrilled by the double Black cost, sometimes you cannot have it all.
Torpor Orb: The worst card to see hit the battlefield for a creature/creature combo heavy deck. Over the past few years, Wizards has unleashed a torrent of potent Enter the Battlefield creatures. Hell, I even built a whole deck around the concept! One stop answer to anything that can effect you under certain boardstates. Recommended tutor target if you're not too sure who you'll be facing.
Uba Mask:Super Secret Tech against permission decks, discouraging players from drawing more cards than they can use in a turn. It forces players to commit their cards to the board the turn they are drawn. Countermagic goes away forever. Hoarding situational removal and waiting for the right target is out of the question. Holding an expensive spell until you draw the land you need? Fantasy. It's intended to cripple unfair strategies, while we play our cards. Also, for disciples of LSV have seen his version of Uba Stax. Using our mana rocks and Mishra's Workshop we can power this out early and try to win big. We also included Geier Reach Sanitarium to very slowly grind our opponents, maintain parity and prevent them from putting cards on top. Suggested by baconoftheark23
Dispensing harsh justice for the littlest of things
Forcefield: I consider this the absolute best 3-drop in all of Magic. Forcefield does not require that you target anything, getting around Protection, Hexproof, Shroud and any other sort of evasion. It is cheap to activate and really puts a damper on anything trying to kill us with Commander damage. This card is very expensive monetarily. I would advise against picking up a copy unless you enjoy collecting. While a reliable replacement does not exist, it does not break the deck.
Ghostly Prison and Propaganda: Identical cards that become even better when together. The peanut butter and jelly of the deck. Both get recursion with Sun Titan and Replenish. The main goal in a pillowfort deck is to get people to stop attacking you, or slow them down, allowing you to get your stax effects out and keep the game in total stasis.
Greater Auramancy: Protecting my Enchantments from targeted removal is important to me. It does get recursion with Sun Titan. What it does not do is prevent mass enchantment removal, but not much worth playing does. Karmic Justice greatly discourages mass enchantment removal, and Replenish returns them to me.
Karmic Justice: The Magic equivalent of bringing a gun to a knife fight. You destroy my artifact? I destroy your planeswalker/land/ect. Makes people really think twice about destroying any non-creatures of yours huh? It wants to punish Aura Shards.
Moat: I have one from years ago, so I threw it into this build. Probably not nearly worth buying one unless you've already got it, or enjoy collecting. Magus of the Moat is a more suitable budget alternative. It is a very wicked card, but not worth $400+
Sphere of Safety: I'm running 22 total Enchantments. Odds are pretty good that I'll have a few in play when this drops. It's an evolving Propaganda/Ghostly Prison that protects my Planeswalkers also. The problem is the mana cost, but it may make it's return eventually.
Erebos, God of the Dead: A cheap, indestructible draw engine who's activation cost is offset by Oloro in the command zone. He can even swing in for some damage and has a little bonus of shutting off other life gain decks.
Jace, the Mind Sculptor: The most authoritative Planeswalker ever still manages to find his way into any deck playing blue. You'd be silly not to include him, unless of course you cannot afford it. Part of the subtle beauty of this format is you only need 1.
Step 1: Look at the top five cards of your library. Step 2: If you like them, proceed to step 3a. If you don't like them, proceed to step 3b. Step 3a: Shuffle the rest of your library, then put those five cards back on top of your library in the order you want. The spell has finished resolving. Step 3b: Put those five cards on the bottom of your library in the order you want. Pay 1 life. Return to step 1
How would you like to sculpt your next 5 turns, or look through your whole deck for 2 mana and a couple of life? Cards like Oloro make running Lim-Dûl's Vault a no brainer. I'm pretty surprised how few decks run this.
Looting for days.
Monastery Siege: I have been playtesting Monastery Siege an awful lot in the place of Thassa, God of the Sea. I like the card conceptually, as modal cards are often my favorite. Both modes on Siege is useful, and I think it does have a place in the build. Khans - At the beginning of your draw step, draw an additional card, then discard a card. This is card selection like Thassa's upkeep trigger at a slightly steeper cost. Thassa lets you look at the card and Scry, this lets you draw the card. It does accelerate our gameplan, costs the same, cannot be turned into a creature as some later point and cannot make our few creatures unblockable. Looting cards can be ever so slightly a drawback at times, especially if we can't actually control the effect and keep it from decking us, remember that we're drawing our 1 card per turn AND an additional 1 card. Dragons - Spells your opponents cast that target you or a permanent you control cost 2 more to cast. This does make for a nice pseudo-Nether Void, only it is restricted to targeting. There is some real strength to taxing targets - as long as it is attached to something else we want too. Targeted removal is slightly more uncommon in the format, but not unheard of by any means. It really is a coin toss for which is better this or Thassa, and why.
Mystic Remora: Quick way to draw a few cards. Cumulative upkeep does suck, but you only really need to make it around the table 2 or 3 times before letting it die. It's super cheap at 1 CMC, so it's worth it. tax is HUGE for opponents, even late in the game. It's impossible to justify paying for it early, which makes this card perhaps better then Rhystic Study, I'd even be so bold as suggesting its "strictly" better, but it doesn't pop on creatures.
Phyrexian Arena: Arguably better then Dark Confidant in this deck. It's in mostly every single deck running black. It's fun drawing cards, and this does it. The life lost if offset by the fact you're gaining 2 every upkeep.
Rhystic Study: Adds insult to injury most often. With high powered resource denial strategies like Stax, it's difficult to justify spending mana to stop you from drawing a card. It's a great enchantment and never outlives its usefulness.
Sensei's Divining Top: Top has been discussed ad nauseam. It's a beneficial card and worth including into almost any deck. It's likely the single most dynamic draw engine for any color. Just be cautious of how much time you spend in the tank, it can be annoying.
How much better can one token generator get?
Elspeth, Knight-Errant: Every single one of Elspeth's abilities are useful. Every single one. It cannot be overstated how AWESOME she is for this or any deck. She can make blockers, make those tokens stronger and her ultimate? It might as well just say "this is for stax decks". Get one ASAP. I have not included Elspeth, Sun's Champion because of her high converted mana cost, the 3 tokens would make sense if I were running Smokestack, the -1 ability is super cool and worth a look, but overall isn't as useful.
Luminarch Ascension: This beautiful token generator shines through this deck. The amount of pillow forting and other means to keep opponents out of the red zone and facing me down allows this to get the quest counters it needs to succeed. I don't think Ascension is good in every deck, just particularly useful in this one. Since it triggers at the end of opponents end step, that allows you to keep losing life during upkeep.
Among my most favorite pieces of Artwork in Magic.
Anguished Unmaking: One of the best cards against this deck is Aura Shards, which must be dealt with accordingly. As stated previously, Exiling is super potent and important in this format, since recursion is such a common theme. This deck also runs few Planeswalker answers, since it runs so few creatures. A great way to deal with indestructible non-land permanents and planeswalkers is exile.
Armageddon: No deck can truly call themselves Stax without copious amounts of land destruction. Land destruction is one of the most frustrating parts of playing Magic the Gathering. Since mana is a resource, having that all taken away from you results in plenty of hurt butts. This deck sets up a ton of Mana Rocks to survive Armageddon and continue to play spells. A bit of strategy to employ is using it as early as turn 4. The reason is, most opponents keep and sculpt their hands around curving, so they're more apt to take a 3-lander while holding some high CMC cards in hopes of hitting their land drops until they can play them. Destroying all of those lands before they can curve out is a gigantic tempo play, the kind some decks may never recover from.
Cataclysm: This is a more symmetrical Armageddon that certainly has it's advantages are some of the following
1.) It asks you to sacrifice those permanents. Which gets around indestructibility.
2.) You do not keep your precious planeswalker. Which is invaluable for a deck that is weak against Planeswalkers.
3.) My enchantments are better than yours.
4.) Tempo. Another Armageddon.
Catastrophe: Hybrid of the two original sweepers from Alpha: Wrath of God and Armageddon. Modal spells are impressive in Commander because they provide options. Creatures destroyed this way can't be regenerated is relevant sometimes also. It is a worthy inclusion.
Liliana of the Veil: Lilly is pushed hard toward Stax players because she acts as a resource denial machine. The +1 is symmetrical, the -2 is deadly because they sacrifice (getting around Hexproof and Indestrucible) and the -6 is quite achievable. The ultimate is dynamic, because you can separate the creatures into lands/permanents and creatures. Based on which pile they take you can cast Armageddon for their lands keep or Supreme Verdict for the creature keep. Pretty dirty move.
Ravages of War: A noticeable lack of white mass land destruction makes Ravages of War an appealing option. I'm really looking to up the amount of mass land destruction and mana rocks going forward. They're such powerful tools for what we're doing we could stand another Armageddon in case our loan copy meets an unfortunate demise.
Merciless Eviction: Modal spell that takes care of mostly every permanent type (sans Lands). Exiling them is even better, which is likely where the high cost comes from.
Path to Exile: Exiling is strong in this format. Cheap efficient removal is strong in every format. Path gives up a slight bit of tempo, but it gains you some back if you want to use it on your own tokens to get a land. Exiling an opponents General is especially strong since they now have to pay the tax on it.
Mastering the art of saying "no".
Supreme Verdict: Building your resource denial monolith begins with clearing the board. Being uncounterable helps stop the more controlling decks like Azami or Narset.
Swords to Plowshares: Probably the best creature removal spell available, at least the most efficient. It exiles, it's cheap, it's instant speed and you can use it on your own token if you fall behind.
Toxic Deluge: The ability to destroy Indestructible creatures, no matter how large or numerous, for cmc is very above the curve. It's better than mostly all of its contemporaries in the mana cost department.
Vindicate: Quite possible one of the best cards printed for this format that isn't banned (yet). For a mere 3 mana you get to hit ANYTHING (creature, enchantment, artifact, land, or planeswalker). Worth splashing black in your white deck and vice versa just to access this one card. The Sorcery speed is hardly a drawback considering you get a Hero's Downfall that can blow up Gaea's Cradle if you haven't hit your Strip Mine yet. This deck is weak to planeswalkers because it runs so few creatures, Vindicate lets you deal with them without having to go deep. Also, Planeswalkers are opponents problems too, don't let them fool you!
The original tutor also ended up being one of the greatest.
Demonic Tutor: The original tutor is a supremely versatile say to sift through our 99 to find that gem we need to get to the next level. The 1B cost is low enough to enable same turn plays, but the sorcery speed restricts it from allowing us to totally let loose the turn it is played. Every card in the deck is a tutor target, including mana rocks.
Enlightened Tutor / Vampiric Tutor: The instant speed 1 mana tutors puts the card on the top of our library, but doing it on our opponents endstep gives us that card at the beginning of our upkeep. This ability makes them among the fastest tutor available. We can turn 1 find Sol Ring then turn 2 Sol Ring, land, Propaganda/Ghostly Prison. We're way ahead at this point. I generally advise against valuing these card too highly when selecting our opening 7, but it is better if we've got to mulligan to 6 or less.
Land Tax: This serves the purpose of thinning our deck of Basic Lands, having some Jace, the Mind Sculptor cards to put back on top, and also be able to rebound land destruction quicker than our enemies. Land Tax early also can get us hitting all of our land drops each turn to give us more access to the colored mana needed to start drawing cards.
Tezzeret the Seeker: Tezzeret pulls double duty as both a mana accelerator and an artifact tutor. His ability to tutor for artifacts, uncounterable, and find what we need for our specific situation. He can generate massive amounts of mana by allowing us to untap Sol Ring and Mana Vault in the same turn, generating a massive 5 from which to cast some combination of Chromatic Lantern / Coalition Relic / Dimir Keyrune and Azorius Signet / Orzhov Signet / Talisman of Progress. While it sounds like magical christmas land, it stands as an example of what he is capable of.
Our sneaky friend here is one of our most reliable
ways to deal with Planeswalkers
Azorius Signet / Dimir Signet / Orzhov Signet: The signets act sort of as a bad Odyssey Filter Lands, only more than 1 can be played per turn. Since they only cost 2 we want to load up on these. They might not always produce the exact mana configurations we want, they serve a purpose by allowing us to convert unusable colored mana into something more reasonable.
Chromatic Lantern: The greatest mana fixing ever printed for Commander (at the Zenith of Commander placation: Return to Ravnica block). Chromatic Lantern turns all your lands into painless City of Brass while it is in play. It renders what color we tap out lands for irrelevant. I love getting this card with one of our Tutors only because it allows my brain to focus on other aspects of the game.
Dimir Keyrune: At first Dimir Keyrune appears to be a suboptimal include. You might even be asking "Why include keyrunes at all?". The answer my friends is Dimir Keyrunecannot be blocked. This allows us to attack Planeswalkers unopposed! Damage is basically the primary way in which Planeswalkers are destroyed. We play a creatureless deck so our ability to answer these Planeswalkers is limited to a few spot removal cards, Dimir Keyrune and Creeping Tar Pit. Also the effects of Humility do not alter its Power and Toughness.
Mana Crypt: Is paying 1 for Sol Ring too much? Enter Mana Crypt. Luckily with Oloro in the command zone we can expect to lose 1.5 life per turn with Mana Crypt on the battlefield. It's super fast mana that is playable after a Ravages of War/Armageddon.
Mox Diamond: Again, 0 mana rocks are great. Really, the Signets tap for a virtual 1 colored mana, as it takes 1 mana to activate them. So the card disadvantage is fine when we get a colored mana rock, and since we're planning on holding up lands in our hand anyway, or losing them. Crucible of Worlds lets us get it back.
Sol Ring: Banned in multiple formats but distinctly legal in Commander, Sol Ring is good in just about every single deck it has also become rather ubiquitous and cause Commander to be perceived a 98 card singleton format. It is fairly obvious why it is included, as very few cards are better.
Talisman of Dominance / Talisman of Progress: They may be considered slightly better than Signets they're rockstars among the 2 mana rock options. The life lose is returned to us each and every upkeep thanks to Oloro, they come in untapped and generate 1 for free.
Stax Enabler, Stax Finisher.
Crucible of Worlds: It doesn't take all that much to make Crucible of Worlds very good that most decks would benefit from including it. Being able to repeat Strip Mines, discard lands to Liliana of the Veil only to play them again, replay The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale in the event of mass land destruction. Crucible isn't just for decks that play Cataclysm, just a few Fetchlands is enough to make this worthy of inclusion. Really any deck that wants to destroy their lands should have a way to access those lands again in the event we need them (like Bojuka Bog).
Replenish: Here we have reached one of my favorite cards in all of Magic, Replenish. It only cares about our enchantments, it only costs 3W, and it is a blow-out all rolled into one beautiful, beautiful piece of artwork. If it were not on the reserve list I would love to see it reprinted using the newer foiling process. Replenish does everything we want our deck to be able to do in the event we lose our grip on the board.
Graveyard hate that also does something when
you aren't against Graveyard strategy
Bojuka Bog: Practically uncounterable (Stifle, Voidslime and Trickbind do exist) and once it has used it's effect it basically is just a Swamp. Once they can do something about it, it is already too late. It may be narrow in it's approach, it does enter the battlefield tapped, and it does only tap for B. The effect outweighs perhaps the loss of another Swamp for Land Tax. The flexibility allows it to function as a mana source for those occasions we aren't facing Graveyard based strategies.
Leyline of the Void: Graveyards in Commander are a heavily used resource and give second life to a milled, discarded or spent card. It is an enchantment that could start the game on the battlefield, does not have an activation cost and only effects our opponents is preferred in my opinion to Rest in Peace. The downside being of course, Sun Titan will not return Leyline of the Void. We're also going to overlook the slightly higher than comfortable 2BB mana cost in favor of winning the "its in my opening hand lottery". Dredge, Flashback, Delve, Persist, Undying, it hurts them all.
Nihil Spellbomb: I routinely bounce between Nihil Spellbomb and Tormod's Crypt. Crypt has the advantage of being able to be tutored by Tolaria West, but Spellbomb has the luxury of drawing us 1 card in the event no one is playing Reanimator or serious graveyard recursion strategy. Tolaria West can find Bojuka Bog instead, and both get recursion with Sun Titan. To be serious I have run Nihil Spellbomb and within seconds of finishing a game swapped it for Tormod's Crypt. It really is entirely dependent on how often you expect to run into Graveyard strategies.
To learn how to play Stax for the first time player it is important to understand what this deck is trying to do. What may appear as a random mess of cards are actually the pieces of an oppressive, resource denial, taxation and disruptive machine. Superficially what we're trying to do is play enough alternative mana sources so that things like Mana Vortex and Armageddon do not effect us, but it is more than that. In order to show how the Stax deck works we must identify and define "Tempo" and what to do to swing Tempo in our favor. Tempo is a term used to indicate the advantage gained when a player is able to play more or stronger cards in a shorter period of time. Those who control tempo control the foundation of Magic: the Gathering.
For the uninitiated Efficiency is a form of tempo. Efficiency means that some cards have stronger effects than other cards costing the same amount of mana. For example, Swords to Plowshares exiles ANY targeted creature for W, while lets say: Condemn heavily restricts when you can use it and makes it inefficient when compared to the much more flexible Swords to Plowshares. Since we only have 99 cards in our deck, to spend 1 card on a narrow effect such as Condemn when we could get more out of Swords to Plowshares is being inefficient. Now that does not mean that certain cards will always be efficient in all builds, and it is only due to the changes to the Tuck rule that Condemn becomes an inferior option. Sometimes we want a redundant but lesser copy, sometimes budgetary reasons are considered, "strictly better" and "strictly worse", some cards will do something similar but different at perhaps a similar cost (Unmake vs. Mortify: both instant speed, similar but different mana cost, one exiles only creatures, the other has added flexibility in destroying enchantments). Sometimes we may desire inefficient cards due to their interaction with other cards in our deck. But why do we care about Efficiency as a Stax deck? For starters we can make cards inefficient. Aura of Silence makes cheap, powerful auras inefficient. Rancor suddenly costs 2G when for 2G you're supposed to get Vow of Wildness. Torpor Orb for instance makes an opposing Mulldrifter draw no cards for 2U when they could have been playing Divination. As just a creature it is a 2/2 flier, Nimbus of the Isles is a 3/3 flier for the same cost. Essentially we created a situation where Mulldrifter is inefficient compared to a vanilla 3/3. Taxing effects create Tempo loss in our opponents effects, ultimately causing them to pay MORE for LESS.
Mana acceleration is another piece of Tempo that creates an advantage. Players generally develop their mana rate of one per turn by playing lands; accelerators allow players to speed up this process and have quicker access to more mana. This may come in the form of additional lands, other cards that tap to generate mana, or cards that generate a one-time boost in mana. Sometimes, cards can have a reduced casting cost pending certain conditions are met. We attack those seeking to achieve mana acceleration through a combination of making things inefficient or not do anything. Cursed Totem renders popular mana dorks completely useless. Cursed Totem can prevent mana abilities from being activated making it extremely effective. Land Equilibrium make putting more lands into play a punishment. Our mana acceleration comes in the form of Mana rocks. By causing a ramp deck to play with reduced resources we're causing them a Tempo loss when they either cannot play their expensive cards OR when they play those cards the turn they could be played (a 5 drop turn 5, assuming they made all land drops) thus losing all tempo.
Parity is a board state that all players are in a virtual stalemate. No player, despite playing most of the cards in hand, has yet established a dominating board position. When parity is happening players only available resource is the top of their deck. With an inability to break parity and advance the board we can begin to grind away using Geier Reach Sanitarium + Uba Mask or Liliana of the Veil and our mana rocks to play around mass land destruction.
Lastly the topic of Mana Curve. Decks are fundamentally built around having a curve. A deck with a lower mana curve can generally take advantage of tempo by filling the board faster. However in Commander a player playing a deck with way too many cards costing 1 or 2 mana could often find his or her army outclassed when the opponent starts to drop 3-, 4-, and 5-costed creatures. Since we all start with 40 life, and we are playing multiplayer - a 1 mana cost creature is not going to get it done alone. What we do to prevent curving is again, taxing and forced sacrifice. Ghostly Prison and Propaganda make attacking very unprofitable. Instead of attacking, dealing damage, then casting the next spell on their mana curve - instead they're attacking, paying 2 then unable to cast the next effect in their deck. Humility is taking their colossal beater into the equivalent of a soldier creature token. In conjunction they're spending 2 per 1 damage, i.e worse than Shock which is a card that is rarely played because of it's inefficiency. Nether Void is sickening as far as tempo swings are concerned. It takes ANYTHING we cast and pushes it out a virtual 3 turns, severely warping the way any deck plays.
By looking at Magic: the Gathering as a system built around gaining tempo in order to achieve victory; we see why the cards we've selected for the purpose of stripping that tempo are important. What once appeared as a loosely assembled mess of cards suddenly looks like the way in which we beat our opponents. How do we win after all of this? Well the win condition is less important the more our opponents cannot actually do anything. We can kill them with Dimir Keyrune for all we care, if they have no lands from Armageddon, cannot attack through Ghostly Prison and cannot destroy our Enchantments because of Nether Void we can kill em with Jace, the Mind Sculptor for whatever it is worth. Playing this deck is about playing the pieces of this deck correctly and understanding WHY they are important.
Lots of choices. For those that enjoy decks that require a lot of critical thinking will enjoy piloting this deck. Normally I'd list the difficulty of piloting the deck as a negative, but if you've made it this far you should be viewing this as a positive. We want to play a control deck that does not lean on 30 counters. We don't want to play a deck that does some wacky infinite combo to achieve victory on turn 2. If we wanted those things we wouldn't be reading a Stax primer or an Oloro deck tech. We crave this style of play that only Stax can give to us
Self-reliance. Even though I will demonstrate why this could potentially be a negative in the next section; players who don't care about politics are going to enjoy running this deck. We do not need any one else to win, in fact, there is rarely anything we could actually need them to help us with. We're building a cocoon around ourselves making us unprofitable to be attacked. We're tutoring for win conditions and we're locking the board down and removing all of their lands. A political ally at the table isn't really needed, it is almost discouraged from the standpoint of us even being able to offer them anything.
The main disadvantages of the deck are:
Political unfriendliness Politics is part of the game. Many people swear it shouldn't be, others love it. When it comes to playing the game of Politics in Commander we are rarely viewed as an ally for blowing up everyone's lands. At no point are we thanked for our timely Azorius Signet. We're very much playing against the whole table and have very little to offer our playgroup in terms of stability. Sure, we can kill the guy/girl running Avacyn, Angel of Hope by hitting them with a Toxic Deluge, but we kinda had to do that anyway. We've placed ourselves in a position where we must win or lose horribly with no amount of fancy talk being able to let us back into the mix.
We lack a serious haymaker. If we're running bad, we're running real bad. A grip full of Liliana of the Veil, Mana Breach, Karmic Justice and Talisman of Dominance isn't going to get it done by the late game. Our draws become live as soon as we're able to put up some decent protection and start drawing more and more gas. Using Jace, the Mind Sculptor for card selection is great - as long as you're not spending 2UU for a common Brainstorm. A turn 7 Propaganda without a Cataclysm follow-up? Well we're just asking to be picked on.
Taxation. The problem with taxing effects (i.e Ghostly Prison, Pay x to do ____) is...our opponents can just pay the tax. A gigantic Rafiq of the Many will be happy to pay 4 to 1 shot us. Taxation is powerful when it is redundant and plentiful, but we also have to reduce their lands and ability to mount a comeback. If our opponents are paying their taxes then we aren't doing a good job of denying them resources and it is an easy position to lose from.
The hands we're looking to keep here all involve some kind of Pillowfort effect and some kind of mana acceleration. We want to get out early and try to get in front of any hate that other decks will most definitely try to inflict. A Taxing effect serves a similar purpose here, it slows the tempo down is the same as ramping. We are looking to ship anything over 4 mana as general rule. The ideal hand is something along the lines of Island, Flooded Strand, Azorius Signet, Propaganda, Mystic Remora, and Land Equilibrium. This is obviously a uncommon draw, but serves as an example of what we're interested in keeping.
We value Fetch Lands highly. They're going to grab our original dual lands and make color fixing happen early.
Our mana rocks are something we're looking to draw here as well. Whenever possible try not to make yourself a target by dumping 3 mana rocks on the battlefield with nothing to back them up.
Be careful not to over estimate Sol Ring. It is great, but do not take sketchy hands with that in there. Surviving the early game while incrementally building a board is the key to success, do not lose sight of that.
Early game is around turns 1-6. Survival is crucial here. We want to keep grabbing Pillowfort effects and trying to get our Card Drawing cards into play. This deck wins by using Artifact Ramp, Taxing enchantments and board clearing sorceries to establish board control. We make it unprofitable/impossible to be attacked and eventually by destroying all lands and preventing any sort of comeback. The Early game is when we first set out on our journey. We need to get ahead on resources during this portion of the game, or shield ourselves from abuse. Use this as an opportunity to find those early low-mana cards we didn't get in our initial hand. This early game is going to make or break this deck for you. Being able to repel attacking creatures or tax combos is imperative. If you can survive, you will find greener pastures in the mid-to-late game.
A well timed Armageddon is an option in this spot. Most players keep 3+ landers in hopes to curve into their mid-range drops. Preventing this from happening can be a huge windfall for you.
Don't be afraid to unload Removal. Survival is key, and if the game starts to slip away from you this early it is difficult to rebound.
Be careful not to over estimate Vampiric Tutor. The game is still developing at this point, and it is a long journey to the finish. There aren't many ways to get out ahead and stay ahead this early.
This constitutes turns 6-11. This deck is going for the long haul, and establishing a board lock is the goal of this potion of the game. Humility, Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale and Land Equilibrium should all be seeing play or be tutor targets. We want to start getting some planeswalkers like Elspeth, Knight-Errant or Tezzeret the Seeker on line and advancing our board state. Being careful not to over commit is still as important here as it always is. If you can survive a bit of mass land destruction go for it! We're crawling ever close to the finish line. Your opponents should already be suffering the toll of our tax effects.
Liliana of the Veil and Jace, the Mind Sculptor are really helping us here. We're pitching lands into the graveyard, we're "sculpting" our hand. Jace can become a win condition, protecting him becomes more important.
If you have a lot of life gained over the course of the game, Lim-Dûl's Vault for as long as you need to get to the finish line. If you're in a good board position still do it anyway to gather win conditions.
You're less likely to be blown out in this portion of the game if Nether Void is in play. Few cards on the opponents side can stand up to you. Back to Nature is still a bad beat, but in this phase discarding to Liliana of the Veil is more common.
Be careful not to over estimate Jace, the Mind Sculptor during this portion. He is a 4 mana Brainstorm that can't protect himself this early. With no real board locks in place he is an inefficient use of mana.
By getting to this phase of the game you should be reaching a board stasis where you're beating with Man Lands, Activating Planeswalker Ultimates and just biding your time until opponents concede due to inability to get back into the mix. Congratulations and enjoy the victory. The more you play this deck in a mature playgroup the more your friends will warp their decks around beating yours. Meta gaming becomes crucial going forward. Finding, adapting and cutting cards to fill your needs is a skill you should acquire the longer and longer you play. A more cutthroat playgroup may not give you the ability to pilot the deck in this form. Decks built around consistent turn 3-4 kills can be eaten alive using Stax, sometimes they'll walk all over you. If you ever find yourself at odds with your playgroup you may want to consider playing counter magic.
No list is perfect, some cards are bad draws at this point. Hopefully we've got enough card selection available to finish strong.
A lot has been made of Titania, Protector of Argoth. But Titania tokens die easily to Tainted Æther or Humility. The card is an ineffective hoser because well...if you destroy their lands they still have to pay for Ghostly Prison/Propaganda. They can have all the tokens they want, if they have no lands they can't pay the tax.
Some of the greatest fun playing this deck comes from going up against another Stax deck. A finely tuned Derevi, Empyrial Tactician is a worthy adversary!
Some tips and tricks to look for when playing the deck include:
Activated abilities contain a colon. They're generally written "[Cost]: [Effect]." Some keywords are activated abilities and will have colons in their reminder texts. Cursed Totem cares about Activated abilities. It is important to know the difference.
Torpor Orb stops a creature's own enters-the-battlefield triggered abilities as well as other triggered abilities that would trigger when a creature enters the battlefield.
Creeping Tar Pit and Dimir Keyrune are all going to attack through Humility and have the power and toughness granted to them by the ability that made it that, plus any abilities granted by the effect that makes it a creature.
Humility has a static ability that effects all creatures that are currently on the battlefield from the instant it hits the battlefield till the instant Humility leaves. Since it is a static ability it will also effect any new creatures that arrive on the battlefield. Books can be written about how Humility interacts with other cards, if you're playing just to have fun than a simple understanding will suffice. If you're a stickler for the rules then start learning about Layers.
Land Equilibrium applies no matter how the land would enter the battlefield: because an opponent plays it, or because a spell or ability allows that opponent to put it onto the battlefield. Note: that it doesn't matter whose control the land enters the battlefield under. If the opponent would put the land onto the battlefield under someone else's control (as a result of Yavimaya Dryad's ability, for example), that opponent will still have to sacrifice a land. If an opponent puts a land onto the battlefield under his or her own control, he or she may sacrifice that same land. The player won't be able to tap that land for mana before sacrificing it.
With Propaganda and Ghostly Prison unless some effect explicitly says otherwise, a creature that can't attack you can still attack a planeswalker you control.
Karmic Justice will not trigger if an opponent's spell or ability causes your permanent to be destroyed indirectly. For example, if the spell caused an ability you control to trigger, and thereby destroy your permanent.
Forcefield has undergone a great deal of errata over the various rules iterations. As it stands right now, it does not target. " : The next time an unblocked creature of your choice would deal combat damage to you this turn, prevent all but 1 of that damage." Anything that is unblocked is a legal choice.
You can’t play cards you exiled with Uba Mask on previous turns. Any cards you don’t play just remain exiled when the turn ends.
Some of these may be really obvious for the more experienced players, but if you have any good tips I missed give me a shout and I'll add it in.
A quick search on the internet will reveal everything you need to know, Oloro is by far the most popular Commander according to EDHREC. But with so much internet coverage of Oloro, which is the best budget version? I would never consider myself a good budget builder. If I were I probably would have far more Commander decks instead of a few super expensive ones. I have no problem with budget builds, but it hasn't been more forte. So I spun my wheels a little bit, put together some combinations. This deck all together is in the neighborhood of $128 (as of 9/20/15). This is built around a more controlling, permission and an infinite combo. It's actually pretty good in my opinion, the only real differences are an inferior tutor selection, a sketchy land base and overall a different style of play. What's most important is that price tag. This is a capable Commander deck that can GROW OVER TIME to become what you need it to be. Commander is a personal format.
Play Stasis on your turn, be sure to have 6 lands untapped to buybackCapsize. During their discard phase return Stasis back to your hand. This will prevent it from hurting you and making sure it soft locks your opponents.
Some much harsher lock cards are in this deck because it is more turned toward bouncing those cards back to your hand so they only effect our opponents.
My very first EDH deck was an Illusion Tribal, Magic 2012 had just came out when I first heard about this format. Logically I enjoyed it so much that I moved onto building more and more decks, but 3-color versions. This was my second deck I ever built. Admittedly I got drunk with power and created an extremely unwieldy Goodstuff/Blink deck that didn't do much of anything. As I played more and gained more valuable lessons on how to play I would build Roon of the Hidden Realm and Sedris vs. Nekusar.
Even as my first multi-colored deck, it actually was already playing a ton of StyxOfTolaria's Oloro Stax cards but not others. Reading that list subsequently it dawned on me that I wasn't doing enough of one thing compared to the others. I wanted to be a blink deck, but not play all of the good blink cards. I wanted to be a control deck, but somehow play a horrible version of CounterTop. I had a Pillowfort, which pieces we've retained to this very day, but no other Stax effects.
I also had the problem of having friends that just weren't keeping up anymore and not following the new cards and new decks. So that's when the idea hit me: build my own meta, use my own cards and design my own "fun". It isn't easy, there are some balancing issues of course, but it is a great way to loan decks to my buddies to use while we drink and enjoy the game without any of the unnecessary expense on behalf of people who aren't into it as much as I am.
After I finished assembling the pieces to build this deck properly, with some slight revisions, I tested it against my Mono-U deck and it stomped. I starting playing it at my LGS, and it did great, when it didn't the Mass Land Destruction was enough to piss everyone off. It was becoming apparent that something had to be done to tone it down or I'd basically never be invited to play anymore.
Below is the only surviving list of my Dromar, the Banisher prior to changing over to StyxOfTolaria's Oloro Stax. It can only be described as Goodstuff, but it was truly bad. I was just so excited to be playing my favorite cards, in my favorite colors that making a playable deck hadn't occurred to me.
I want to start by saying each and every card on the chopping block is a hard choice. When it comes down to it, most of the time it is mana cost that is the true reason. I just feel uncomfortable including anything over 4 in the list. It might seem irrational, but I just feel like there are so many good stax cards why bother running something you cannot reliably cast? Even moreso, eliminating colored mana costs is another reason to cut some things. The list has been a painstaking process to find and eliminate things. It took nearly a year to finally include Heliod, God of the Sun and it STILL wasn't the right decision.
Catastrophe: Being modal is something we always look for when selecting competing cards, and with the added flexibility it is also implied that it will generally cost more mana. Enter Catastrophe. With a relative lack of Mass land destruction available to anyone else but R, we've got slim pickings as far as options are concerned. Sure, we have this, Armageddon, Cataclysm, Global Ruin and...Ravages of War? That really is it. Which opens the floor to perhaps including Ravages of War in place of Catastrophe, since Wrath of God clones are much more plentiful and varied.
Merciless Eviction: Eviction is 6 mana. No getting around that. Is it modal? Check. Exiles? Check. Deals with planeswalkers? Check. Of all the cards on the chopping block I'd be most happy never replacing this one. It rarely gets cast when the game is going our way, but I have utilized it enough in my games that I don't see a reason to cut it just yet.
Sun Titan: The theme has surely been beat to death. I look at 6 CMC anything and cringe. I love the IDEA of Sun Titan. I love that since I keep my deck so low curve it would stand to reason that S-Tizzle would have plenty to play around with. But I can't help but see 4WW whenever I draw that card. My mindset is that while trying to create a board state with little to no lands on it this is a tough one to consider drawing. I'd need as many as 3-4 different mana rocks to even cast this.
Each time I play this deck I generally try to put in 2 or so of these cards on this list, to give em a spin. Depending on what I am testing depends on what comes out of the deck generally. Many of these have had a good chance to prove their worth, others keep checking in and out. I do not play this deck nearly as much as I did once upon a time, but when I do get to take it out I am always working on improving it. Playing, keeping up with the latest spoilers, reading Commander theory, watching videos and having conversations here helps influence these decisions. Just like fashion, a deck is never finished. I would like to mention that although it appears as if I've come to my conclusions, I haven't. I am merely pointing out my reservations and what I think about while I am testing. The main deck list is very much tuned to what I need it to be and makes it that much more difficult to crack into the big leagues. I consider every suggestion thrown at me because I appreciate the time and effort people take to give me feedback. My prose is just awkward and sometimes appears dismissive.
Ad Nauseam: This is a great draw cards, even in non-storm decks. We can draw the majority of our deck safely (that is, without dying) and the more we start cutting expensive cards the sooner this becomes more viable. I think Ad Nauseam gets a bad reputation for being in so many evil Sickening Dreams combos. Part of me does feel so stereotypical including all of the major villains in Commander into 1 deck, but that Instant speed is just so attractive.
Æther Barrier: This is really good. Taxing mana and forcing sacrifice. It has been pushed down the short list because it deals with such a narrow card type: creatures. For those in a more creature heavy meta should look to this card as a target. The 1 tax is easy enough to pay for, the penalty is for not doing it is even more harsh. I've been moving more away from dealing with creatures only since that is just 1 card type. Plenty of other cards can beat us.
Bitterblossom: The penultimate cut I believe I made, if I'm not mistaken, is Bitterblossom for Luminarch Ascension. It just made so much sense. But do not discount Bitterblossom and Contamination interaction. Even Bitterblossom + Smokestack. The tokens produced by Blossom are of the highest caliber. They are evasive beaters that can overwhelm opponents. But what we need to understand is that Bitterblossom is such a powerful card because of the way you can support it. We don't run Contamination because it only works with Bitterblossom in play, and does nothing without it. We don't run Smokestack. We don't run any Swords so we can't make them grow. It would be a disservice to include Bitterblossom in a deck that doesn't take advantage of it, and only runs like 1 or 2 interactions.
Copy Enchantment: Clone effects are good in multiplayer formats. Clones allow flexibility to go outside of our deck and gain effects that we didn't have access too previously and allow us redundant copies of cards we may want. But what do clones do on their own? Well, nothing. They're kind of uniquely defined as having no characteristics besides being copies of things already on the battlefield. Does this make them bad? Not exactly. What it does is make clone effects reactionary. We either are winning and want an extra copy, or we are losing and need something other than a clone effect. Copy Enchantment only cares about Enchantments, and Clever Impersonator is a creature that costs too much.
Crawlspace: This is useful only against the most aggressive creature heavy decks ever. Preferably ones with small creature tokens. Crawlspace isn't cracking the main deck any time. It isn't quite good enough to be a Pillowfort and doesn't restrict our opponents enough to be worth including.
Embargo: I'll say flat out that this card hurts our plan pretty effectively. It makes our Mana Rocks bad until we have Tezzeret to toggle them, even then he can only hit 2 at a time. The 2 life lost is as always, a non-issue. There is a type of stax deck that can be built around these effects, like some Deveri prison decks that play Stasis and other prison effects. This Oloro build cannot play around those types of cards and would look entirely different if it could.
Gideon Jura: This is removal and a finisher rolled into one. Gideon helps push attackers away from us, and can finish the game as a 6/6. For those in search of a legitimate finisher and good control card would be interested in this for sure. One thing to point out, it probably doesn't work like you think it does: If you use the {+2} Lure and have Propaganda on the battlefield they DO NOT have to pay the cost to attack, they simply won't. Gideon was in my deck for awhile, I just never liked it all that much.
Glacial Chasm: We've got a bunch of things going for us here: Creatures you control can't attack. Simple enough, we don't have many creatures to worry about. We can let it die to cumulative upkeep if we want to attack on our turn and bring it back to the battlefield afterward with Sun Titan or Crucible of Worlds. Prevent all damage that would be dealt to you. Outstanding. All types of damage are prevented to us (not our Planeswalkers though). What is the downside? When Glacial Chasm enters the battlefield, sacrifice a land. Yeesh. That isn't terrible, but it does slightly ruin our Sun Titan or Crucible of Worlds plan, it forces us to 2 for 1 our land drop. Cumulative upkeep—Pay 2 life.. Oloro pays for one of these, after that it does take an enormous amount of life from us each turn. I do like how we get maximum benefit from it going around the table before getting to us again. That in essence saves us an enormous amount of life. It does not tap for mana - which is slightly OK considering just how many lands we run that do not tap for mana.
Global Ruin: Our opponents can only save five lands, if they're lucky enough to have a land of each basic type. Most 3 color decks can save a dual land or shock land. This is hurts mono-colored decks as well. With the amount of non-basics in the format this is an easy hit. White is lacking in mass land destruction, this compares to R land destruction in that it aims to destroy non-basics.
Heliod, God of the Sun: A strong mana sink that also gives our lil token army vigilance. Heliod's tokens make Serra's Sanctum and Sphere of Safety better by increasing our Enchantment count. 3W casting cost and 2WW activation cost is problematic. I often wonder if another taxing card or land destruction is better here. Heliod is worse finisher than Gideon Jura. Gideon has a pseudo-pillow fort thing going on but vigilance is so much effectual in this format. Since you have to go around the table 3+ times before your next turn, a lack of vigilance makes attacking with creatures risky, as they'll be tapped and not on defense. It also helps contribute to Serra's Sanctum and Sphere of Safety.
Invoke Prejudice:UUUU is among the most dubious of mana costs, but this effect is just soooo good when it comes to hosing creatures. My focus has shifted slightly over the years to get away from taxing 1 card type whenever possible. Sure, creatures are awesome, but I can't put this card down reliably, and it is only 1 card type. If my opponents can't tap their mana, they can't play their creatures, pure and simple. Focusing on restricting mana is more important than restricting creature cards.
Necropotence: This is a strong tool for a combo deck to draw their way to total victory. We don't have a clear path for total victory. We could draw our entire deck and nothing would happen in a single turn that would allow us to win. That doesn't mean this is bad, oh no no no no, it is VERY good. Perhaps the best draw cards permanent ever invented. Paying life is nothing, skipping our draw step is whatever, having to wait is a bit of a nuisance but that is just being a nitpicker. BBB is difficult and is mostly why it has yet to be included.
Overburden: One of the great early pressure. If it comes down it causes creature decks to calculate more carefully. If it comes down late it sort of whiffs. Being that it only cares about creatures hurts it severely. Restricting one card type is something I aim not to do anymore. The importance of this deck going forward is to future proof it against power creep and whatever fancy new things Wizard's devises. By assuring we deal with multiple types of cards and restrict mana, we lock in some pieces for the foreseeable future.
Pendrell Mists: Ran this for a long time before I purchased The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale. It works great and has the more powerful sacrifice clause in place of destroy. Hell, it might even be worth running anyway in conjunction with Tabernacle as a dual punch.
Sorin, Lord of Innistrad: If Elspeth was the #1 Planeswalker for Stax decks, Sorin is #1b. The tokens are better then Elspeth, because the lifelink is relevant to regain some lost life from various sources. The emblem? Bonkers. It makes you creatures sturdy enough to attack through Humility. Only thing keeping him from a perfect score is his ultimate, doesn't do all that much.
Spreading Plague: Plague destroys all OTHER creatures. Which means a 8-drop beater will live. 5 mana is a lot. How much better is this than Tainted Æther? Do we need 2 of these effects? Spreading plague is now to being cut for those reasons. I am not convinced I need a 5 mana version of this effect. Certainly not one that only punishes creatures and not their source, our opponents.
Thassa, God of the Sea: The gods are especially difficult to get rid of, and Thassa Scry trigger does not cost any mana. I am a fan of the low casting cost. The ability to make our very few creatures unblockable for 1U was keeping Thassa alive and in the list. The ability to not only help us attack Planeswalkers unopposed but also force damage through when the time is right. I just don't know how important the Scry trigger really is when confronted with what Monastery Siege can do, or even Necropotence
Vile Consumption: This is a bit of a cop out. I have already tested Vile Consumption and found it to be poor. I kept it on the list just to share some of my results. Each player has 40 life. It is too abundant a resource to be a real punishing tax. During the times before I owned The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale I played this card pretty extensively. I eventually switched over to Pendrell Mists because it was instantly better. You're going to have a real hard time killing anyone but the newest players with this card (because newer players tend to value life highly).
I'd like to speak briefly about the concepts of taxing life and why it is a dubious proposition. Players start with 40 life. They do not start with 40 lands in play. Because of this we can guarantee we'll see a total of 160 life points between 4 players. 200 between 5. This is a fixed amount. What are the chances we see 200 creatures combined? Low, but not unlikely. What are the chances we see 200 lands in play? Virtually impossible. So since Land is far more scarce a resource, taxing it becomes far more powerful. To use Vile Consumption we presume that not only do they have sooooo many creatures that they cannot even pay for them, but they'll actually have so many of them that they'd die from it. Triggering on upkeep does nothing to stop and overwhelming horde of hastey tokens trying to alpha strike us. Propaganda makes that less likely to happen because they're not going to have the mana to pay the tax. Vile Consumption? Does practically nothing.
Winter Orb:Slots into Tezzeret the Seeker, Enlightened Tutor and yes, even Sun Titan. My version of the deck needs more mana restriction and less creature restriction, because just restricting creatures does not restrict their source.
Zur's Weirding: I find this card to be much better in 1v1. Sure we negate the life lost by keeping ol' Oloro around, but we have use it quite a bit, and our opponents reserve the right to gang up on us to keep us from drawing cards too. It is certainly interesting, and can add a bit of fun to the game, but it is too unwieldy for multiplayer.
Blossom is great for decks that run Smokestack as you'll always have sacrifice fodder, and negate the life lost with Oloro. Neither of our decks run Smokestack so this was just a strange hold over. Ascension is stronger and we're able to turn it on pretty easily in multiplayer, since it triggers during an opponents endstep.
I believe that while Bob was a remnant from when StyxOfTolaria's list ran an equipment package, it is a good draw-card's creature. I think Necropotence MIGHT be slightly better, all things considered, but this spot was changed to Toxic Deluge because it is a brutally efficient spell that kills basically any creature.
While Dimir Signet is just more fixing for a clean board after an Armageddon, Overburden is an early tempo play. While it COULD potentially backfire I think it is worth running.
The Filter Lands are fantastic, but I prefer at times to have fetchable targets in my deck. The ABUR lands are wonderful fixing with no draw backs. Missing the WW from the Filter Land is disappointing.
For a very long time I ran Ill-Gotten Gains because I believed it didn't even matter what my opponents chose to bring back - my cards were better. It also helped that it was a one-sided affair with Leyline of the Void on the battlefield. That interaction was far too uncommon and more often then not, letting my opponents bring back cards wasn't extremely wise. Spreading Plague on the other hand, while it has a high CMC, does a lot against creature based decks.
Celestial Colonnade can attack at full power through Humility, it is strong enough to attack planeswalkers and even win the game when the conditions are right. 3WU is an awful lot to spend, but you get a 4/4 with flying AND vigilance, so after you're done attacking with it - it can also be tapped to produce mana. The Filter Lands are fantastic, they're even likely to return one day, but until then we're rollin' with the Colonnade.
I don't believe Night of Soul's Betrayal is good enough on its own to be included. Yes, the interaction with Humility exists, but it what happens when it's not assembled? The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale taxes creatures all of the time, while it does nothing to stop a haste creature cast during the first main phase, it does just about means you can't pay for all of those infinite tokens, or pay to keep all of your 1/1's under Humility from dying, but Lands being the scarce resource we made them, it is not advisable.
Flagstones of Trokair nets us a Tundra after a boardwipe. It doesn't come into play tapped. It does not have a Plains subtype however, so we are reducing our Land Tax targets.
I prefer the 2WB exile any non-land thing to the 2WW get rid of an Artifact/Enchantment. Both being instant speed is helpful, and Dust being able to exile 2 such things when used as a sorcery is value, I prefer the flexibility of Utter End
I believe at one point the deck was also far more reliant on Sun Titan resolving and making Seal of Cleansing are repeatable Artifact/Enchantment hate. I don't think it does enough, and besides the fact that Greater Auramancy is indeed recurable with Sun Titan, we make the switch for the long term gameplan implications of Auramancy.
I was surprised Polluted Delta was not in StyxOfTolaria's list. Fetchlands besides ABUR lands are in my opinion the most powerful lands. Being able to get the color of mana you want when you want it is arguably more powerful than having that same land be flexible later. Circumstances aren't as dire as other formats, but the preference still remains.
I wanted the little interaction between Tainted Æther and Overburden, by cutting a Swamp and adding Bojuka Bog we shifted our need for an additional Graveyard hoser.
I love Trading Post, I really do. It is just such a cute and fun card that is actually good in the format. On the flip side, I own a Moat and found it to be more useful for us in terms of being a Pillowfort and the sick brags.
Supreme Verdict being uncounterable is a boon for us, while StyxOfTolaria selected Wrath of God for it's ability to shut off Regeneration. This does not appear to be much of a problem for me so far, but as I imagine it may be for others.
The siege costs the same, it is easier to get rid of, it does generate card selection. Thassa, God of the Sea does force creature damage, but we're running so few creatures it does not make sense. The other mode on Monastery Siege plays a role in defense as well.
Every time a new set comes out we face the certain possibility to have some of our strategy nullified. The problem with Spreading Plague are numerous. From it's casting cost, to it not dealing with the creature just cast, not getting around indestructibility, ect. But no matter how hard Wizard's pushes creatures one thing will never change - you need mana to cast them. By restricting mana we're restricting our opponents, our opponents are the ones casting creatures. Simple. This way we hedge the future of our Commander deck on the fact that mana will always need to be spent to cast scary things. This is future proofing: Mostly all of the new Commander 2015 cards cost 6 or more! We worry less about those cards now that we can be sure our opponents mana sources are less than optimal.
Another cut that seems extremely superficial, but the card costs 4WW. I know I can manipulate it with Lim-Dûl's Vault, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Sensei's Divining Top or even Vampiric Tutor. With an ever growing list of cards I want to try in the main deck I slowly lost my love for this. It is only creatures after all, Ravages of War hitting all of their lands is great. Terminus does get around mostly every other type of evasion which makes it particularly good when it comes to removal, changes to the tuck rule have made it become less desirable.
A powerhouse of wallet punching proportions, Mishra's Workshop is a great fit in a deck that counts on so many mana rocks as part of its strategy. It usually has a good chance of being something, and who doesn't want to tap 1 land and put out this many trinkets?
This is just a simple case of 1 being 1 too much. Oloro cushions the blow and really we're getting the exact same effect. If Vindicate didn't hit lands it'd be gone due to being sorcery speed.
This one kinda hurts. I love Sorin, Lord of Innistrad. His tokens and ability to boost creatures through Humility, but he's another luxury at this point when I should be punishing my opponents with Uba Mask.
It's a strain on the color requirements of the deck but invoke prejudice is a bomb. Getting it out keeps the board clear for a really long time. Especially good, since you don't need your commander in play to get value from it. Depending on how easy it is for you to get the blue requirements, the card is great for stax. I run it in mono-U so its a no brainer. Never tried it with a multicolored deck, but if you have an early chromatic lantern it may be good. Just a suggestion.
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EDH:ShatterStax, Only The Strong Survive
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir Mono-U Control
Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath
Sen Triplets
Mizzix of the Izmagnus
Derevi Stax
VolThrun
Marchesa, The Black Rose
Olivia Voldaren, Vampire Tribal
What does everyone think about Global Ruin? I like the idea of making them sacrifice like Cataclysm, while it does not completely destroy all of the lands - it leaves them with very few. It seems like I may be better than Catastrophe
How about Tragic Arrogance in place of Terminus? With the removal of Commander tucking is it really worth running anymore?
My YouTube Channel: The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
Tragic Arrogance is sacrifice, so it gets around indestructibility and sacrifice, but good point on getting to choose to just keep the Avacyn, Angel of Hope and still being behind. I do like Windfall in order to draw 7+ for 2U. I wouldn't even have to build around wheel effects, 7+ cards could be a lot. Like anything else it could wiff too.
Nooooooooooooo! Such a beautiful primer wasted in a STAX deck! The murderer of friendships, the bane of fun...
Anyways well done on the primer. It really is both pretty and informative. Well done, chap!
Thank you so much. I really do hope it serves the function intended. I have a strange writing style that I'm not always sure gets across what I'm trying to convey.
Total transparency, I submitted this for primer approval and got rejected because I didn't explain sufficiently what Stax actually does - only paragraph after paragraph about how awesome it is. I am glad they did have me go back and write those portions. A lot of players probably have no concept of tempo, or those that do don't care about it in their Commander games, ect. Overall I'm happy with the way it came out and look forward to helping out future and current Commander enthusiasts.
Edit 10/17/15: I'd also be lying if I didn't mention I would be thrilled to be able to achieve [Primer] status after several years of writing for smaller sites and also reading MTGSalvation for the better part of my Commander playing. It is indeed the site that produced the writers and literature necessary to build this deck in the first place.
Hey Action_Mane, thanks for putting together this thread! I was searching for my first EDH deck and decided on this. I don't have the bankroll for some of the pricer cards in the list but I'm still pretty stoked on what I could afford. Please keep us up to date as you continue to tinker with it.
Hey Action_Mane, thanks for putting together this thread! I was searching for my first EDH deck and decided on this. I don't have the bankroll for some of the pricer cards in the list but I'm still pretty stoked on what I could afford. Please keep us up to date as you continue to tinker with it.
That is the highest compliment one can receive. I am honored and will do everything in my power to keep the list up to date and modern, as well as keep more budgetary options available as they come to my attention. I'm even more interested in hearing from you and and everyone else about how their deck performs. I'm sure you might already know - Wizards of the Coast isn't into the whole "resource denial" stuff anymore. That doesn't mean they don't print new and exciting stuff, and I am extremely pumped about Commander 2015. This list doesn't go through too many revisions but I am always on the look out for great options and understand Magic is becoming exponentially more expensive as time goes on.
Hey, great thread and I'm amazed I haven't seen it. Is there a reason for the lack of Zur's Weirding?
The thread kinda flew under the radar. Lack of self-promotion, Oloro burn out and Modern Master 2015 hype likely aided in the disappearance. I like Zur's Weirding, it isn't really a great multiplayer card exactly, but isn't unusable. It's in some ways probably better than other cards in the deck, worse than others. In baseball terms it might just be a AAAA player, not fit for the Majors but too good for the minors. Æther Barrier, Global Ruin, Mana Breach, Monastery Siege, Zur's Weirding and Winter's Orb are some of the cards on the short list. I will update the deck tech soon with the cards I've been testing, along with what is on the chopping block. I am certainly open to any suggestions, I am always open to improvements.
Thank you so much for revamping this tread i already proxied up your list and i am planing on bringing it to my LGS on friday. I can't wait to see the tears on everyone's faces. (and mine when i get kicked out) lol
i love your deck so much i have been reading it and testing all day against my other decks like reaper king and a combo oona list
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[center][color=Blue]
U/R Delver
Edric Spy and die
Azami the lady of the draw
Naya Zoo
Past decks
Orloro
sharuum the hegemond
Mono black control
splinter twin
Thank you so much for revamping this tread i already proxied up your list and i am planing on bringing it to my LGS on friday. I can't wait to see the tears on everyone's faces. (and mine when i get kicked out) lol
i love your deck so much i have been reading it and testing all day against my other decks like reaper king and a combo oona list
Outstanding. Keep me updated on how it goes! How'd the playtesting against Combo work out?
ahh the only times i lost was due to abilitys of artifacts because it infinite combos for mana so you would draw your whole deck. the deck shut down every combo but one which was the rings or brighthearth and basalt monolith. i did the wrong tutor i should have vindicated the rings on turn 4 i would have won if i did that i just don't know the deck well enough. but i will soon
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():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
[center][color=Blue]
U/R Delver
Edric Spy and die
Azami the lady of the draw
Naya Zoo
Past decks
Orloro
sharuum the hegemond
Mono black control
splinter twin
ahh the only times i lost was due to abilitys of artifacts because it infinite combos for mana so you would draw your whole deck. the deck shut down every combo but one which was the rings or brighthearth and basalt monolith. i did the wrong tutor i should have vindicated the rings on turn 4 i would have won if i did that i just don't know the deck well enough. but i will soon
Outstanding. Do feel free to meta game a bit more if you're faced with multiple combo decks. Any list is good to a certain point. For example: I've found myself wasting Utter End on a Food Chain only to get blown out by a Purphoros, God of the Forge which could have been avoided if I had access to Return to Dust.
Partially my fault, some onus has to be placed on the other players too. They're equally dead if they don't have answers either. But ya catch my drift. 99 cards is too few to really have an answer to everything.
So, I finally got to pilot a slightly modified list this week and it did a pretty great job! I squared up against a Prosh deck, a simic creature based aggro deck, and a blue control deck. Unfortunately none of the games had a damage based victory as the stax deck created quite a few stalemates. All games ended in scooping.
I'm thinking about making some small changes to up the finishers and help dish out some damage so my friends don't end up hating me. haha
All in all though it created some really interesting board states and I believe humility may be the most hated card I played all night. I never found myself short on answers.
So, I finally got to pilot a slightly modified list this week and it did a pretty great job! I squared up against a Prosh deck, a simic creature based aggro deck, and a blue control deck. Unfortunately none of the games had a damage based victory as the stax deck created quite a few stalemates. All games ended in scooping.
I'm thinking about making some small changes to up the finishers and help dish out some damage so my friends don't end up hating me. haha
All in all though it created some really interesting board states and I believe humility may be the most hated card I played all night. I never found myself short on answers.
Keep me up to date! I am actually working on some changes myself, just waiting for Commander 2015 spoilers first. Humility, Nether Void and Land Equilibrium are the Allstars
In honor of achieving [Primer] status and the impending Commander 2015: The Testing section is completed and I've made 3 changes to the main deck! Writing that section really allowed me to identify weak cards and replace them with some things I've been meaning to find room for.
What a beautiful and exceptionally detailed post, absolutely worthy of primer status. It takes a great deal of thought to build a good stax deck and play it well. You give great insight into doing both. This should be read by anyone new to stax play. Bravo!
Reading this post actually gave me some great ideas for a deck I just put together and will test in my meta this weekend. I'll be sure to post it up when it has seen enough play to get proof of concept against non AI players.
Don't really expect you would add this next part as it is more combo than stax, but I figured I'd toss it out there for newer players reading the primer as food for thought.
As far as land destruction goes, there is a nice trick I use to destroy all opponents lands and lock them out of playing them in most cases while leaving mine intact. It is a combo that is sort of staxish and uses 3 enchantments available in these colors. Enchanted Evening + ( Angelic Shield or Glorious Anthem ) + Opalescence. Does not work with Humility in play, but it locks their creatures down when Sphere of Safety is on the field. I chose these two buffs as options since they work with your Sun Titan strategy.
It can be risky of course as you are making your lands creatures and enchantments, but if they have no creature toughness buffs or color mana rocks in play when Opalescence hits the field, you win.
Thanks for your contributions to the EDH community and congratulations on achieving primer status!
What a beautiful and exceptionally detailed post, absolutely worthy of primer status. It takes a great deal of thought to build a good stax deck and play it well. You give great insight into doing both. This should be read by anyone new to stax play. Bravo!
Reading this post actually gave me some great ideas for a deck I just put together and will test in my meta this weekend. I'll be sure to post it up when it has seen enough play to get proof of concept against non AI players.
Don't really expect you would add this next part as it is more combo than stax, but I figured I'd toss it out there for newer players reading the primer as food for thought.
As far as land destruction goes, there is a nice trick I use to destroy all opponents lands and lock them out of playing them in most cases while leaving mine intact. It is a combo that is sort of staxish and uses 3 enchantments available in these colors. Enchanted Evening + ( Angelic Shield or Glorious Anthem ) + Opalescence. Does not work with Humility in play, but it locks their creatures down when Sphere of Safety is on the field. I chose these two buffs as options since they work with your Sun Titan strategy.
It can be risky of course as you are making your lands creatures and enchantments, but if they have no creature toughness buffs or color mana rocks in play when Opalescence hits the field, you win.
Thanks for your contributions to the EDH community and congratulations on achieving primer status!
I would love to see your list, and I am not as opposed to your propositions as it may appear. My problem as usual is what those pieces would do when separated from each other. Opalescence is a wonderful finisher, and as heresy0 mentioned in an earlier post that he was looking for a finisher. It accomplishes that. I'd be interested in Gideon, Ally of Zendikar as the anthem effect because it kinda does more in ideal conditions, and emblems can't be removed. As for Enchanted Evening, ehh, maybe. I think that 2 Enchantment matters cards does not a theme make: Serra's Sanctum and Sphere of Safety wouldn't constitute to me a good enough reason to include a 3rd enchantment matters booster, and my resistance is augmented. Really I wouldn't be that opposed to including Opalescence AND Gideon, Ally of Zendikar to accomplish almost the same thing with a higher degree of control, but it is not as good as the Enchanted Evening version, which is a pretty hard lock if my opponents have no anthems.
And as always, thank you for the kind words. I enjoy writing about things I enjoy and look forward to continuing to grow the deck and help others out.
Glad to see one of my favorite decks on the website become a primer
gratz
i will SHRECK FNM tomorrow if i bring this and i will ruin kid's hopes and dreams right after they buy their new precons.
MUHHHHAHAHAAA
Jim-this is my first game go easy on me
Me-Nether void
Jim- i did not know that card existed
Me- turn 6-8 armageddon
Jim-leaves table
Then i proceed to pull out a fun casual deck to play against my friends.
lol
i am so evil
You'll certainly accomplish your goals against the new Pre-cons. Some of the joy in playing Stax is playing against other mature, powerful, fleshed out Commander decks. Stax, and particularity this deck, can easily beat most casuals not anticipating it. If you've got a dedicated playgroup like I had once upon a time, now I've got a dedicated semi-irregular play group, when decks start to warp around shutting me down is when all of the fun begins. Stomping the lights out of unwitting victims does get old after awhile, and I say that as someone who thought I'd never say that. But some things will never change in Magic, it's just how the game is designed (luckily) is that Mana is needed to do things. We're in a unique position to eventually spurn the very permanents (lands) which manifest the crutch of the game. If anything has made me fall in love with Stax it's that this game is so large, and so nuanced that there is actually a deck that doesn't care about Lands. I will always share my love of this game in part with the very idea of Stax, it is very clever.
I've considered going the Salvaging Station route, but it requires the death of a creature to untap it. I didn't think it was worth the large overhaul necessary to accommodate it. 6 is a dreadful number too, which is why Sun Titan will always be on the chopping block. To include Salvaging Station I'd need to include some of it's better role players, like Lotus Bloom, Seat of the Synod, probably Thopter Foundry. The amount of card I'd need to add would outweigh the amount of cards that turn off Sun Titan to begin with. I personally am not all that interested in going in on a Salvaging Station version of the build, but I would love to write about one and perhaps post about it in a new section highlighting alternative builds (or an expanded "Budget" section). If that is something you'd be interested in helping me do, please post your list, I'll maintain your authorship and it'll help keep this [Primer] active between the relatively long period of time it takes to approve changes.
As always, thank you for the kind words. Without having spoken to StyxOfTolaria (been inactive for as long as I can remember) hopefully he feels the same way.
I would love to see your list, and I am not as opposed to your propositions as it may appear. My problem as usual is what those pieces would do when separated from each other. Opalescence is a wonderful finisher, and as heresy0 mentioned in an earlier post that he was looking for a finisher. It accomplishes that. I'd be interested in Gideon, Ally of Zendikar as the anthem effect because it kinda does more in ideal conditions, and emblems can't be removed. As for Enchanted Evening, ehh, maybe. I think that 2 Enchantment matters cards does not a theme make: Serra's Sanctum and Sphere of Safety wouldn't constitute to me a good enough reason to include a 3rd enchantment matters booster, and my resistance is augmented. Really I wouldn't be that opposed to including Opalescence AND Gideon, Ally of Zendikar to accomplish almost the same thing with a higher degree of control, but it is not as good as the Enchanted Evening version, which is a pretty hard lock if my opponents have no anthems.
And as always, thank you for the kind words. I enjoy writing about things I enjoy and look forward to continuing to grow the deck and help others out.
I totally forgot about that Gideon! A superior choice certainly and I will be replacing anthems in any deck containing white where I run a +1 whatever and already have it in the Oloro deck I put together. Thanks to you, I added Gideon and it allowed me to pull off one of my land lock out combos on the first test run in my meta!
My version is a bit different than what you are running, mainly because I face a heavy control Sen Triplets regularly that contains annoying creatures like Notion Thief, Azorius Guildmage, Sun Titan and Stonecloaker, combined with knowing I would be targeted almost exclusively when Sen was in play encouraged me to build around those aspects.
I am actually going to run your build in my meta (since I have all the expensive cards in your list already) as well and see how it runs. I like having more than one version of a commander build just to keep my opponents on their toes and yours looks like it will be a great deal of fun to play. I'll let you know how it does for me once I get some experience piloting it.
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Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir Mono-U Control
Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath
Sen Triplets
Mizzix of the Izmagnus
Derevi Stax
VolThrun
Marchesa, The Black Rose
Olivia Voldaren, Vampire Tribal
Modern: Fish, JUND/Junk
--------
RIP Twin
How about Tragic Arrogance in place of Terminus? With the removal of Commander tucking is it really worth running anymore?
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
Thank you so much. I really do hope it serves the function intended. I have a strange writing style that I'm not always sure gets across what I'm trying to convey.
Total transparency, I submitted this for primer approval and got rejected because I didn't explain sufficiently what Stax actually does - only paragraph after paragraph about how awesome it is. I am glad they did have me go back and write those portions. A lot of players probably have no concept of tempo, or those that do don't care about it in their Commander games, ect. Overall I'm happy with the way it came out and look forward to helping out future and current Commander enthusiasts.
Edit 10/17/15: I'd also be lying if I didn't mention I would be thrilled to be able to achieve [Primer] status after several years of writing for smaller sites and also reading MTGSalvation for the better part of my Commander playing. It is indeed the site that produced the writers and literature necessary to build this deck in the first place.
That is the highest compliment one can receive. I am honored and will do everything in my power to keep the list up to date and modern, as well as keep more budgetary options available as they come to my attention. I'm even more interested in hearing from you and and everyone else about how their deck performs. I'm sure you might already know - Wizards of the Coast isn't into the whole "resource denial" stuff anymore. That doesn't mean they don't print new and exciting stuff, and I am extremely pumped about Commander 2015. This list doesn't go through too many revisions but I am always on the look out for great options and understand Magic is becoming exponentially more expensive as time goes on.
The thread kinda flew under the radar. Lack of self-promotion, Oloro burn out and Modern Master 2015 hype likely aided in the disappearance. I like Zur's Weirding, it isn't really a great multiplayer card exactly, but isn't unusable. It's in some ways probably better than other cards in the deck, worse than others. In baseball terms it might just be a AAAA player, not fit for the Majors but too good for the minors. Æther Barrier, Global Ruin, Mana Breach, Monastery Siege, Zur's Weirding and Winter's Orb are some of the cards on the short list. I will update the deck tech soon with the cards I've been testing, along with what is on the chopping block. I am certainly open to any suggestions, I am always open to improvements.
i love your deck so much i have been reading it and testing all day against my other decks like reaper king and a combo oona list
[center][color=Blue]
Edric Spy and die
Azami the lady of the draw
Naya Zoo
Past decks
Orloro
sharuum the hegemond
Mono black control
splinter twin
Outstanding. Keep me updated on how it goes! How'd the playtesting against Combo work out?
[center][color=Blue]
Edric Spy and die
Azami the lady of the draw
Naya Zoo
Past decks
Orloro
sharuum the hegemond
Mono black control
splinter twin
Outstanding. Do feel free to meta game a bit more if you're faced with multiple combo decks. Any list is good to a certain point. For example: I've found myself wasting Utter End on a Food Chain only to get blown out by a Purphoros, God of the Forge which could have been avoided if I had access to Return to Dust.
Partially my fault, some onus has to be placed on the other players too. They're equally dead if they don't have answers either. But ya catch my drift. 99 cards is too few to really have an answer to everything.
I'm thinking about making some small changes to up the finishers and help dish out some damage so my friends don't end up hating me. haha
All in all though it created some really interesting board states and I believe humility may be the most hated card I played all night. I never found myself short on answers.
Keep me up to date! I am actually working on some changes myself, just waiting for Commander 2015 spoilers first. Humility, Nether Void and Land Equilibrium are the Allstars
Reading this post actually gave me some great ideas for a deck I just put together and will test in my meta this weekend. I'll be sure to post it up when it has seen enough play to get proof of concept against non AI players.
Don't really expect you would add this next part as it is more combo than stax, but I figured I'd toss it out there for newer players reading the primer as food for thought.
As far as land destruction goes, there is a nice trick I use to destroy all opponents lands and lock them out of playing them in most cases while leaving mine intact. It is a combo that is sort of staxish and uses 3 enchantments available in these colors. Enchanted Evening + ( Angelic Shield or Glorious Anthem ) + Opalescence. Does not work with Humility in play, but it locks their creatures down when Sphere of Safety is on the field. I chose these two buffs as options since they work with your Sun Titan strategy.
It can be risky of course as you are making your lands creatures and enchantments, but if they have no creature toughness buffs or color mana rocks in play when Opalescence hits the field, you win.
Thanks for your contributions to the EDH community and congratulations on achieving primer status!
I would love to see your list, and I am not as opposed to your propositions as it may appear. My problem as usual is what those pieces would do when separated from each other. Opalescence is a wonderful finisher, and as heresy0 mentioned in an earlier post that he was looking for a finisher. It accomplishes that. I'd be interested in Gideon, Ally of Zendikar as the anthem effect because it kinda does more in ideal conditions, and emblems can't be removed. As for Enchanted Evening, ehh, maybe. I think that 2 Enchantment matters cards does not a theme make: Serra's Sanctum and Sphere of Safety wouldn't constitute to me a good enough reason to include a 3rd enchantment matters booster, and my resistance is augmented. Really I wouldn't be that opposed to including Opalescence AND Gideon, Ally of Zendikar to accomplish almost the same thing with a higher degree of control, but it is not as good as the Enchanted Evening version, which is a pretty hard lock if my opponents have no anthems.
And as always, thank you for the kind words. I enjoy writing about things I enjoy and look forward to continuing to grow the deck and help others out.
gratz
i will SHRECK FNM tomorrow if i bring this and i will ruin kid's hopes and dreams right after they buy their new precons.
MUHHHHAHAHAAA
Jim-this is my first game go easy on me
Me-Nether void
Jim- i did not know that card existed
Me- turn 6-8 armageddon
Jim-leaves table
Then i proceed to pull out a fun casual deck to play against my friends.
lol
i am so evil
[center][color=Blue]
Edric Spy and die
Azami the lady of the draw
Naya Zoo
Past decks
Orloro
sharuum the hegemond
Mono black control
splinter twin
You'll certainly accomplish your goals against the new Pre-cons. Some of the joy in playing Stax is playing against other mature, powerful, fleshed out Commander decks. Stax, and particularity this deck, can easily beat most casuals not anticipating it. If you've got a dedicated playgroup like I had once upon a time, now I've got a dedicated semi-irregular play group, when decks start to warp around shutting me down is when all of the fun begins. Stomping the lights out of unwitting victims does get old after awhile, and I say that as someone who thought I'd never say that. But some things will never change in Magic, it's just how the game is designed (luckily) is that Mana is needed to do things. We're in a unique position to eventually spurn the very permanents (lands) which manifest the crutch of the game. If anything has made me fall in love with Stax it's that this game is so large, and so nuanced that there is actually a deck that doesn't care about Lands. I will always share my love of this game in part with the very idea of Stax, it is very clever.
Misc. EDH Stuff: Commander Cube | Zombies (Horde)
Resources:Commander Rulings FAQ | Commander Deckbuilding Guide
Follow me on Twitter! @cryogen_mtg
As always, thank you for the kind words. Without having spoken to StyxOfTolaria (been inactive for as long as I can remember) hopefully he feels the same way.
I totally forgot about that Gideon! A superior choice certainly and I will be replacing anthems in any deck containing white where I run a +1 whatever and already have it in the Oloro deck I put together. Thanks to you, I added Gideon and it allowed me to pull off one of my land lock out combos on the first test run in my meta!
My version is a bit different than what you are running, mainly because I face a heavy control Sen Triplets regularly that contains annoying creatures like Notion Thief, Azorius Guildmage, Sun Titan and Stonecloaker, combined with knowing I would be targeted almost exclusively when Sen was in play encouraged me to build around those aspects.
I am actually going to run your build in my meta (since I have all the expensive cards in your list already) as well and see how it runs. I like having more than one version of a commander build just to keep my opponents on their toes and yours looks like it will be a great deal of fun to play. I'll let you know how it does for me once I get some experience piloting it.