I started working on this deck a year ago and recently picked it back up. It is a control lock deck with three lock functions and a slew of disruption and synergies. It combines the disruptive nature of archetypes Pox with the lock down mechanics of Stax.
HOW IT WORKS:
You start by going with the traditional Pox route. Neuter your opponent with mana denial and removal such as Sinkhole, Smallpox and Wasteland. Once you have established board control it is finally time to lock them down. There are three basic lock mechanisms. Crucible of Worlds combined with Wasteland is a soft lock. Crucible combined with Wasteland and either Sphere of Resistance or Trinisphere is nearly a total lock. The one you are shooting for is Braids, Cabal Minion combined with Trinisphere or Sphere of Resistance and any of the many permanents that give you something to sac to your Braids every turn.
DISRUPTION AND LOCK:
Sinkhole and Wasteland need no explanation. These are what you want to drop turn two while you are still establishing your mana base. Essential for neutering your opponent and preventing them from casting spells.
Smallpox. Also needs no explanation. It serves three main disruptive purposes. It wrecks your opponent's mana base and hand and takes out any creatures that may have let slip through the cracks. Most importantly it can take out two permanents which is crucial for your Braids strategy.
Trinisphere, Sphere of Resistance and Crucible are your lock down mechanisms all of which combo nicely with Wasteland and Braids. Trinisphere and Crucible have no cumulative benefit for having more than one on the table. Two of each rather than four of any single choice is important as dropping two Crucibles or two Trinispheres is moot while dropping one Crucible and one Trinisphere is ideal. If you draw two of either simply discard one to Smallpox and cast the other.
KILL:
Briads, Cabal Minion. While this card needs no explanation note that it doubles as kill and lock. Although the deck is built around Braids, it certainly doesn't need the card to win. Braids has nice synergy with Bloodghast, Crucible of Worlds and Dakmor Salvage as these cards recur a permanent almost every turn to feed your sacrificing needs. Notable mention is Dark Confidant who draws you two cards per turn giving you valuable permanents to sac such as lands more Bloodghasts etc...
Bloodghast. Originally I tested Bitterblossom but opted for Bloodghast in the end. While Bloodghast may not provide a hard lock with Braids it's synergies with Smallpox make it a considerably better choice. Casting Smallpox while Bloodghast is in your hand is better than casting Smallpox with Bitterblossom in your hand as you can pitch Bloodghast to the graveyard and follow up by utilizing his landfall ability. Plus he doesn't kill you along the way.
Dark Confidant. This dude also needs no explanation. He draws you into combo pieces and fuels your Braids with permanents for sacking. With a 2/1 body to boot he is also an efficient beat stick. If he ends up dealing you too much damage sac him to Braids or Smallpox.
MANA BASE:
Wasteland. No need to explain.
Ancient Tomb. Although Ritual is faster mana accel and adds Black mana it is not a permanent and can't be sacked to Smallpox and Braids. It also cannot be recurred with Crucible. While Ancient Tomb might do these things it is limited to colorless mana and can only be used for 16 of the spells in the deck and it pings you for two each time you use it. Dark Ritual is also worthless under Sphere of Resistance and Trinisphere.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. Stabilizes your mana base. No explanation needed.
Cabal Pit. Serves as a Black mana producer and removal. It also combos nicely with Crucible of Worlds for recurring creature kill.
Dakmor Salvage. It is a slow mana producer however it does produce Black mana. It also recurs on it's own thus feeding Braids and Smallpox. It also shovels cards into your graveyard from the top of your deck like Bloodghast while fueling Cabal Pit's threshold and pitches nicely to Mox Diamond. I might up the count of this card to 2.
I'm currently working on a black red build with Goblin Welder and Tangle Wire and a black green build Life from the Loam and Entomb. This deck is already a beast but I would love some comments and advice. Give it a test spin here.
I built a very similar deck Except it had dark ritual for some added explosive plays chrome mox and diamond, plus 4 the abyss, liliana and pox. personally I think you are creature heavy without enough actual lock out pieces. Night of Souls betrayal, liliana come to mind. Big pox is probably a potential all star in this deck As well.
The reason I don't run Dark Ritual, Liliana or The Abyss is because they don't sac to Braids. I try to keep none sackable permanents to a minimum. Night of Souls Betrayal would be decent on the side. Token decks are bad news for Pox Stax.
EDIT: If you give it test play you will see that there are plenty of lockdown pieces. It locks up really fast.
looks like this list has trouble getting to sphere and crucible without bob, and im guessing life is really tight especially with smallpox and tomb AND bob.
Have you considered a 2/2 or 1/3 split with city of traitors? That might give you more breathing room in case you NEED that sphere out now but casting it with tomb would kill you.
It is not necessary to get to Trinisphere or Crucible. If you do draw into them it is nice but not necessary. I look at the 2 Trinisphere slots as Sphere of Resistance and Chalice of the Void slots number 9 and 10. Basically once Braids hits the table you only need any one of the three cards in play to lock down. Crucible is not totally necessary for the lock as you still get Bloodghast, Dakmor Salvage for locking up and Confidant plays a similar role as it draws you extra permanents to play for sacking. You do not want to draw into more than one of either Trinisphere or Crucible as their effects are not cumulative. Both are 3 cc so you don't want too many in the deck as you will take more damage from Confidant when drawing into them and sometimes they can be difficult to cast if you already have a Sphere in play. It play tests nicely with the numbers provided.
You are right about life loss. I might need to do a City of Traitors split. My main gripe with City of Traitors is that I run 24 land maindeck and they will die fast. I might cut an Ancient Tomb though for one main. Dark Confidant is a pain in my arse, fortunately you can sac him to Braids or Smallpox after he's drawn you a few cards. I actually considered running Zuran Orb which combos nicely with Crucible for life gain but I'm not sure it's benefit out weighs the loss of cutting a card for it. I even thought about Ivory Tower.
Honestly, bob really seems bad here. That should be an early priority to drop from your list. Between the ancient tombs, 4 Braids, 2 trinisphere, and 2 crucible of worlds, you're asking for the big hurt. You should probably be playing more crucible, and personally I never go below 3 trinisphere in a stax build but since you have the spheres you are probably fine there.
How has your testing gone with this though? It really hurts me to think of using bob in a deck that has multiple 3 and 4 drops and no library manipulation
I think you are right about Bob. He's probably the biggest thorn in my side. If it weren't for the life loss. He does give me fuel for Braids which is the main reason I put him in there. I thought about cutting him for Mishra's Factory. I haven't tested it in a tournament setting yet but in play tests nicely, it can often lock up on turn two but always heavily disrupts by turn two. The loss of life doesn't hurt so bad once the lock is place you can sac him, and it does lock up fast. I have a mono green build that is nuts running Root Maze which is a house on it's own against any deck running fetch lands. It also runs Winter Orb which combos nicely with Root Maze, Wild Growth and Garruk Wildspeaker.
I like your build. Fundamentally the two decks operate in a different way but I like yours.
Your list certainly has a more aggressive part to it whereas mine was more interested in making my opponent miserable while I had fun. I do recall at one point that I had switched 1 batterskull and 1 abyss for 2 wurmcoil engine main board since life gain can be necessary. It also doesn't get hit by the abyss and if I pox it leaves behind 2 tokens.
I see the main difference between our builds is that mine goes strictly after the opponents mana source looking for a lock with Braids. Counting Braids there are 24 spells going after the opponents mana source. I do not run discard disruption because after I tie up their mana sources I do not care how many cards are in their hand.
It's really a Stax deck that runs Braids instead of Smokestack. IMO, Braids is better than Smokestack. With Smokestack you have to wait a turn for it to get a counter before it can start munching permanents. Braids begins munching permanents the turn after it is cast. Smallpox is killer for setting you up for your Braids lock because it munches two permanents.
I do feel I need to either axe Ancient Tomb or Bob though. I did originally consider cutting Ancient Tomb for Dark Ritual. The problem with Dark Ritual is that after I drop a Sphere, Chalice or Trinisphere they become worthless.
EDIT: Lodestone Golem is the creature I'm looking for. Not sure why nobody recommended him to me. I knew there was was something I was missing.
I completely forgot about the golem as well. out of curiosity how is the development of your deck going and do you have any updates to your list, testing data, etc.
I'm going to test it against UR Delver later and see how it holds up. I've been goldfish testing with Lodestone Golem and I really do not like him. He's too expensive to get on the table especially when you are under Sphere. I even cut him down to a 2 count and added 2 Mishra's Factory providing more land and he just sucks bad. I really like Bob better. I was wishing Golem was Bob every time I drew him. You sometimes really need to draw into locking pieces or more land so that you can cast your more expensive spells when you are under Sphere. I think I'm going to put Bob back in. He always draws you into more land and Smallpox or Braids in which to kill him if your life levels get too low.
I will say that this deck goldfishes like a SOB. Mana denial up the arse. It's really good.
EDIT: Also, more than half the deck (32 cards) are 0 casting cost so often you don't take a hit from Bob at all.
I think I would borrow some from both the decklists in this thread when making my version. I don't own any Abyss and Mox Diamond makes more sense to me than Chrome Mox if you are playing w/Crucible of Worlds. I like Batterskull but Feast and Famine gets an extra card from their hand and lets you untap your land, so your Factory can be back on defense. My only worry is against faster decks that get a couple of creatures down. I guess Pox and Lili have to cover all of that, plus any early Factories.
The problem with your build is that you are not running the key piece of the deck: Braids. In order for it to be a Braids deck you need Braids. Also, you are not running any creatures in which to equip your Sword of Feast and Famine. Another note, discard spells such as Hymn to Tourach and Liliana are not necessary in Pox Stax because the deck focuses on locking down your opponent's mana with Braids making it impossible for your opponent to cast spells. In this situation it matters not whether you opponent's hand is empty because they wouldn't be able to cast spells anyway.
Are you guys actually not seeing that this is a "STAX" deck that uses Braids instead of Smokestack?? I keep getting people's mono black control lists. This isn't a mono black control thread, it is a Pox Stax thread. The deck focuses on LOCKING down your opponent with Braids + Sphere of Resistance + Crucible of Worlds. You sac a land to Braids every turn and recur it with Crucible your opponent sacs away all of his permanents and can't cast spells because of Sphere of Resistance. I don't think that most people who are commenting on this thread are getting how the deck operates and why the card choices are there. Let's keep it relevant.
I love the Bitterblossom + Contamination lock. It's such a lovely little engine. Ophiomancer seems strong in a list with equipment. I wonder how much worth there is between Bloodghast and Genesis Chamber. I know it can trigger for the opponent, but if the idea is to prevent them from casting anything than it has significantly less downside. Otherwise, I really love Blossom + some number of Jittes. Blossom can win games by itself, without any sort of engine.
An additional note: has anyone considered Sundial of the Infinite? It's already used to combo with Smokestack, so it can also be used to combo with Braids. An additional note, some number of swamps should be replaced by fetchlands. Having instant speed ways to return Bloodghasts is very important against graveyard hate.
White Stax lists run some number of 4cmc Elspeths. I wonder if there's value in playing some number of 4cmc Lilianas. Liliana of the Dark Realms thins the deck, can kill opposing creatures or pump our own, and then turns all our swamps into additional double Sol Lands. I'd actually be more interested in the 5cmc Lili: Liliana Vess everything she does is awesome. Her -2 in a Stax deck is particularly powerful as it allows us to find every silver bullet we could ever want to run. She fills a similar role to Big Tezz in blue stax lists.
Not sure what the Gloom is in there for (the post kind of forgets some of the deck and shows the sideboard--typical Stax things like Null Rod and Toxic Deluge)
Could be a very interesting start.
The Pox and Stax strategies are one in the same. It seems like adding Stax to Pox, however, make sure that you actually win without your opponent getting so frustrated and stubborn that they just scoop to time or being pissed off.
Sundial and Smokestack itself are much fun. It's basically a way to just one side everything after layering your triggers right. This will seriously win you after like 2 activations, but it's very weak to Abrupt Decay. Which can lead to horrible disasters, like soot counters at 7 and you no longer have a Sundial. But, it's a great tutor piece somewhere. Maybe this deck can make sure of something like Increasing Ambition or some other legal tutor to get it.
Obviously, Gloom is a sideboard card at best. I also don't love Leylines main either. 4 Urborgs is at least 2 too many. While Abrupt Decay does interact with Smokestack/Sundial it's worth noting that you probably never add more than 2 soot counters, and once the engine is going, there's almost no way they can actually cast a Decay. It's also worth noting that with Braids it's never an issue anyway since her Stax ability is only 1 per turn. Also, Lilli sucks in a stax list. You need your cards to stay in your hand. I'm not so sure that Pox+Stax is the right move. They're fairly divergent strategies for all intents and purposes.
I like Netherspirit as fuel for Contamination. It would require reworking the list to include solely 2-3 copies of it. Problematically, Entomb doesn't work well with the Stax pairing of Chalice of the Void and Trinisphere. Awakening Zone is fun but an atrocious card by itself.
@ Ridkid, FlaviusBelisaurius and ddevil: Thank you guys for actually getting this deck. Mostly I was getting irrelevant mono black control deck lists.
With Bitterblossom and/or Dark Confidant you take a hit with life loss. It's really the only thorn in my side. I've been trying to figure out a way to gain life to keep the lock going. Since almost every card in the deck is permanent Dark Confidant works nice here as it can draw you into your recur-able combo pieces such as Crucible or Dakmoor Salvage to get your lock going. You can later sac him to Braids. He is really nice. Ophiomancer might need some testing. As it is the deck is house. It locks down really fast. If you can get a Sphere out early it's game over.
I'm not a gigantic fan of Dark Confidant in a list filled with 4cmc spells. I'd really prefer to see something like Phyrexian Arena in that slot, even if it's a worse card in general. It might be worth to play something like Spinning Darkness as both removal and lifegain in one free package. I also wouldn't hate something like Exsanguinate if you're really looking for hefty black lifegain. Syphon Life seems testable perhaps, being able to make use of the extra lands Stax decks draw seems good.
I'm with you concerning Confidant but Sadly Phyrexian Arena doesn't sac to Braids. One thing with this deck is that you want almost every card to be a sackable permanent. It gives decks like Delver hell that are mostly instants and sorceries. I'm very interested in testing Ophiomancer.
A couple of thoughts and additional angles: Stinkweed Imp seems pretty good. It blocks a ton of nonsense, can be sacked to Braids and can be dredged back to hand. That dredge enables our Bloodghasts and Crucible of Worlds as well. I like it a bit better than Confidant as it essentially draws us a ton of additional cards. I would love a Volrath's Stronghold to return countered/milled Braids. Cabal Pit also gets much better when you can dredge to find it and *also* turn it on. Buried Ruins to return spent/countered combo pieces to sack to Braids might be good as well.
Hi. I've been running a similar version of this build for a long time now, and would love to know your input. There's also a dedicated thread in TheSource
Braids Stax:
4 Braids, Cabal Minion
4 Ophiomancer
3 Crucible of Worlds
4 Smokestack
4 Trinisphere
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Mox Diamond
3 Bottled Cloister
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
2 Peat Bog
4 Swamp
1 God's Eye, Gate to the Reikai
4 Wasteland
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3 Toxic Deluge
SB:
4 Leyline of the Void
4 Helm of Obedience
7 Flex Slots
Mogis, God of Slaughter being the same cmc as The Abyss but being one sided and a shock bonus seems fine. I don't own City of Traitors so I'm not play-testing with it. I am looking for a way to get Mogis a creature for a 7pt swing but not sure what.
edit
after 12~ games:
-1 mountain
+1 swamp
need to find room for at least 2 Liliana of the Veil.
POX STAX
I started working on this deck a year ago and recently picked it back up. It is a control lock deck with three lock functions and a slew of disruption and synergies. It combines the disruptive nature of archetypes Pox with the lock down mechanics of Stax.
HOW IT WORKS:
You start by going with the traditional Pox route. Neuter your opponent with mana denial and removal such as Sinkhole, Smallpox and Wasteland. Once you have established board control it is finally time to lock them down. There are three basic lock mechanisms. Crucible of Worlds combined with Wasteland is a soft lock. Crucible combined with Wasteland and either Sphere of Resistance or Trinisphere is nearly a total lock. The one you are shooting for is Braids, Cabal Minion combined with Trinisphere or Sphere of Resistance and any of the many permanents that give you something to sac to your Braids every turn.
DISRUPTION AND LOCK:
Sinkhole and Wasteland need no explanation. These are what you want to drop turn two while you are still establishing your mana base. Essential for neutering your opponent and preventing them from casting spells.
Smallpox. Also needs no explanation. It serves three main disruptive purposes. It wrecks your opponent's mana base and hand and takes out any creatures that may have let slip through the cracks. Most importantly it can take out two permanents which is crucial for your Braids strategy.
Trinisphere, Sphere of Resistance and Crucible are your lock down mechanisms all of which combo nicely with Wasteland and Braids. Trinisphere and Crucible have no cumulative benefit for having more than one on the table. Two of each rather than four of any single choice is important as dropping two Crucibles or two Trinispheres is moot while dropping one Crucible and one Trinisphere is ideal. If you draw two of either simply discard one to Smallpox and cast the other.
KILL:
Briads, Cabal Minion. While this card needs no explanation note that it doubles as kill and lock. Although the deck is built around Braids, it certainly doesn't need the card to win. Braids has nice synergy with Bloodghast, Crucible of Worlds and Dakmor Salvage as these cards recur a permanent almost every turn to feed your sacrificing needs. Notable mention is Dark Confidant who draws you two cards per turn giving you valuable permanents to sac such as lands more Bloodghasts etc...
Bloodghast. Originally I tested Bitterblossom but opted for Bloodghast in the end. While Bloodghast may not provide a hard lock with Braids it's synergies with Smallpox make it a considerably better choice. Casting Smallpox while Bloodghast is in your hand is better than casting Smallpox with Bitterblossom in your hand as you can pitch Bloodghast to the graveyard and follow up by utilizing his landfall ability. Plus he doesn't kill you along the way.
Dark Confidant. This dude also needs no explanation. He draws you into combo pieces and fuels your Braids with permanents for sacking. With a 2/1 body to boot he is also an efficient beat stick. If he ends up dealing you too much damage sac him to Braids or Smallpox.
MANA BASE:
Wasteland. No need to explain.
Ancient Tomb. Although Ritual is faster mana accel and adds Black mana it is not a permanent and can't be sacked to Smallpox and Braids. It also cannot be recurred with Crucible. While Ancient Tomb might do these things it is limited to colorless mana and can only be used for 16 of the spells in the deck and it pings you for two each time you use it. Dark Ritual is also worthless under Sphere of Resistance and Trinisphere.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. Stabilizes your mana base. No explanation needed.
Cabal Pit. Serves as a Black mana producer and removal. It also combos nicely with Crucible of Worlds for recurring creature kill.
Dakmor Salvage. It is a slow mana producer however it does produce Black mana. It also recurs on it's own thus feeding Braids and Smallpox. It also shovels cards into your graveyard from the top of your deck like Bloodghast while fueling Cabal Pit's threshold and pitches nicely to Mox Diamond. I might up the count of this card to 2.
I'm currently working on a black red build with Goblin Welder and Tangle Wire and a black green build Life from the Loam and Entomb. This deck is already a beast but I would love some comments and advice. Give it a test spin here.
POX STAX: 60 cards
4x Bloodghast
4x Braids, Cabal Minion
4x Dark Confidant
Disruption: 8
4x Sinkhole
4x Smallpox
Lockdown: 12
4x Chalice of the Void
2x Crucible of Worlds
4x Sphere of Resistance
2x Trinisphere
4x Mox Diamond
4x Ancient Tomb
1x Cabal Pit
1x Dakmor Salvage
10x Swamp
2x Marsh Flats
2x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4x Wasteland
2x Massacre
3x Ratchet Bomb
3x Surgical Extraction
2x Chains of Mephistopheles
3x Innocent Blood
2x Duress
Currently Playing:
Burning Reanimator
Eldrazi and Taxes
Bug Threshold
Enchantress
Dead Guy Ale
Combo Zombies
Pyromancer Pox
EDIT: If you give it test play you will see that there are plenty of lockdown pieces. It locks up really fast.
Currently Playing:
Burning Reanimator
Eldrazi and Taxes
Bug Threshold
Enchantress
Dead Guy Ale
Combo Zombies
Pyromancer Pox
Have you considered a 2/2 or 1/3 split with city of traitors? That might give you more breathing room in case you NEED that sphere out now but casting it with tomb would kill you.
You are right about life loss. I might need to do a City of Traitors split. My main gripe with City of Traitors is that I run 24 land maindeck and they will die fast. I might cut an Ancient Tomb though for one main. Dark Confidant is a pain in my arse, fortunately you can sac him to Braids or Smallpox after he's drawn you a few cards. I actually considered running Zuran Orb which combos nicely with Crucible for life gain but I'm not sure it's benefit out weighs the loss of cutting a card for it. I even thought about Ivory Tower.
Currently Playing:
Burning Reanimator
Eldrazi and Taxes
Bug Threshold
Enchantress
Dead Guy Ale
Combo Zombies
Pyromancer Pox
How has your testing gone with this though? It really hurts me to think of using bob in a deck that has multiple 3 and 4 drops and no library manipulation
This was an earlier list of mine for reference.
4 Ancient Tomb
3 Bloodstained Mire
1 Buried Ruin
4 Mishra's Factory
6 Swamp
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Wasteland
Spells
3 Batterskull
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Chrome Mox
2 Crucible of Worlds
4 Dark Ritual
3 Hymn to Tourach
4 Liliana of the Veil
4 Pox
4 The Abyss
4 Trinisphere
3 Cranial Extraction
2 Damnation
4 Decree of Pain
3 Spinning Darkness
3 Wurmcoil Engine
I like your build. Fundamentally the two decks operate in a different way but I like yours.
Currently Playing:
Burning Reanimator
Eldrazi and Taxes
Bug Threshold
Enchantress
Dead Guy Ale
Combo Zombies
Pyromancer Pox
It's really a Stax deck that runs Braids instead of Smokestack. IMO, Braids is better than Smokestack. With Smokestack you have to wait a turn for it to get a counter before it can start munching permanents. Braids begins munching permanents the turn after it is cast. Smallpox is killer for setting you up for your Braids lock because it munches two permanents.
I do feel I need to either axe Ancient Tomb or Bob though. I did originally consider cutting Ancient Tomb for Dark Ritual. The problem with Dark Ritual is that after I drop a Sphere, Chalice or Trinisphere they become worthless.
EDIT: Lodestone Golem is the creature I'm looking for. Not sure why nobody recommended him to me. I knew there was was something I was missing.
Currently Playing:
Burning Reanimator
Eldrazi and Taxes
Bug Threshold
Enchantress
Dead Guy Ale
Combo Zombies
Pyromancer Pox
I will say that this deck goldfishes like a SOB. Mana denial up the arse. It's really good.
EDIT: Also, more than half the deck (32 cards) are 0 casting cost so often you don't take a hit from Bob at all.
Currently Playing:
Burning Reanimator
Eldrazi and Taxes
Bug Threshold
Enchantress
Dead Guy Ale
Combo Zombies
Pyromancer Pox
4 Sinkhole
4 Pox
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Crucible of Worlds
4 Sphere of Resistance
2 Trinisphere
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Liliana of the Veil
1 Underworld Dreams
4 Mox Diamond
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
4 Ancient Tomb
1 Buried Ruin
4 Mishras Factory
9 Swamp
2 Urborg Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Wasteland
1 Dakmor Salvage
Are you guys actually not seeing that this is a "STAX" deck that uses Braids instead of Smokestack?? I keep getting people's mono black control lists. This isn't a mono black control thread, it is a Pox Stax thread. The deck focuses on LOCKING down your opponent with Braids + Sphere of Resistance + Crucible of Worlds. You sac a land to Braids every turn and recur it with Crucible your opponent sacs away all of his permanents and can't cast spells because of Sphere of Resistance. I don't think that most people who are commenting on this thread are getting how the deck operates and why the card choices are there. Let's keep it relevant.
Currently Playing:
Burning Reanimator
Eldrazi and Taxes
Bug Threshold
Enchantress
Dead Guy Ale
Combo Zombies
Pyromancer Pox
Also, Bitterblossom, and Contamination
"There are no two words in the English language more harmful than 'good job'." -Terrance Fletcher, Whiplash (2014)
An additional note: has anyone considered Sundial of the Infinite? It's already used to combo with Smokestack, so it can also be used to combo with Braids. An additional note, some number of swamps should be replaced by fetchlands. Having instant speed ways to return Bloodghasts is very important against graveyard hate.
White Stax lists run some number of 4cmc Elspeths. I wonder if there's value in playing some number of 4cmc Lilianas. Liliana of the Dark Realms thins the deck, can kill opposing creatures or pump our own, and then turns all our swamps into additional double Sol Lands. I'd actually be more interested in the 5cmc Lili: Liliana Vess everything she does is awesome. Her -2 in a Stax deck is particularly powerful as it allows us to find every silver bullet we could ever want to run. She fills a similar role to Big Tezz in blue stax lists.
Anyhoo, those are my thoughts on this archetype.
Side note, the user who posted this had this deck completely in Korean. What he didn't have was in Russian or German. Incredible....
4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Bojuka Bog
4 Wasteland
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Mox Diamond
2 Dismember
4 Contamination
4 Braids, Cabal Minon
4 Liliana of the Veil
4 Ophiomancer
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Bitterblossom
4 Leyline of the Void
4 Crucible of Worlds
Not sure what the Gloom is in there for (the post kind of forgets some of the deck and shows the sideboard--typical Stax things like Null Rod and Toxic Deluge)
Could be a very interesting start.
The Pox and Stax strategies are one in the same. It seems like adding Stax to Pox, however, make sure that you actually win without your opponent getting so frustrated and stubborn that they just scoop to time or being pissed off.
Sundial and Smokestack itself are much fun. It's basically a way to just one side everything after layering your triggers right. This will seriously win you after like 2 activations, but it's very weak to Abrupt Decay. Which can lead to horrible disasters, like soot counters at 7 and you no longer have a Sundial. But, it's a great tutor piece somewhere. Maybe this deck can make sure of something like Increasing Ambition or some other legal tutor to get it.
"There are no two words in the English language more harmful than 'good job'." -Terrance Fletcher, Whiplash (2014)
With Bitterblossom and/or Dark Confidant you take a hit with life loss. It's really the only thorn in my side. I've been trying to figure out a way to gain life to keep the lock going. Since almost every card in the deck is permanent Dark Confidant works nice here as it can draw you into your recur-able combo pieces such as Crucible or Dakmoor Salvage to get your lock going. You can later sac him to Braids. He is really nice. Ophiomancer might need some testing. As it is the deck is house. It locks down really fast. If you can get a Sphere out early it's game over.
Currently Playing:
Burning Reanimator
Eldrazi and Taxes
Bug Threshold
Enchantress
Dead Guy Ale
Combo Zombies
Pyromancer Pox
Currently Playing:
Burning Reanimator
Eldrazi and Taxes
Bug Threshold
Enchantress
Dead Guy Ale
Combo Zombies
Pyromancer Pox
Currently Playing:
Burning Reanimator
Eldrazi and Taxes
Bug Threshold
Enchantress
Dead Guy Ale
Combo Zombies
Pyromancer Pox
Braids Stax:
4 Braids, Cabal Minion
4 Ophiomancer
3 Crucible of Worlds
4 Smokestack
4 Trinisphere
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Mox Diamond
3 Bottled Cloister
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
2 Peat Bog
4 Swamp
1 God's Eye, Gate to the Reikai
4 Wasteland
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3 Toxic Deluge
SB:
4 Leyline of the Void
4 Helm of Obedience
7 Flex Slots
4 Bloodghast
3 Braids, Cabal Minion
2 Mogis, God of Slaughter
Lands
3 Badlands
4 Swamp
4 Wasteland
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
3 Mishra's Factory
4 Ancient Tomb
1 Mountain
1 Rishadan Port
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Trinisphere
2 Crucible of Worlds
1 Smokestack
4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Mox Diamond
Enchantment
1 Nether Void
Sorcery
4 Smallpox
4 Sinkhole
Mogis, God of Slaughter being the same cmc as The Abyss but being one sided and a shock bonus seems fine. I don't own City of Traitors so I'm not play-testing with it. I am looking for a way to get Mogis a creature for a 7pt swing but not sure what.
edit
after 12~ games:
-1 mountain
+1 swamp
need to find room for at least 2 Liliana of the Veil.
-1 Smallpox
-1 Trinisphere
+2 Liliana of the veil
B Pox
WG(R/B) Enchantress
WRU Star Spangled Failure
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BWR Oros
GWU Jenara
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B (small)Pox
GWUBR Enchantress
RW Stax(less) Records