I think either Mazirek or Nath might be the choice for me. Shattergang is cool but very mana hungry in a deck that wants to eat lands. Thanks for the suggestions.
Either way, perhaps Nath or Mazirek could be in the same deck.
What about Git-rog? Does it work this kind of strategy?
Hello there! I've been away from magic for about three years now, and I'm looking to build a deck that uses one of my favorite cards, Pox.
I used to play a 60 card multiplayer deck that used back-breaking things like Pox, Ensnaring Bridge, Bloodghast, Ankh of Mishra, and Bloodchief Ascension to great effect but that's a different format so I get that it won't necessarily port over perfectly.
I guess G/B/x would be a start. But mono black could also work. I like 'weird' commanders like Reki and Phage, so bonus points for that sort of stuff too.
I did a search for pox and the last thread was from 2015, so I hope its okay!
"The most terrible of all the ministers of death..."
I get that Damia has the potential to be a very strong hand-refill, but with the land denial strategy I want to shoot for, I have a feeling I would rarely hit 7 mana. Even when I did, when I played Damia, it would be unlikey that she would last until my next turn, considering that my meta has strong removal. BUG does have brilliant colours for what I'm wanting however, so that's certainly something to consider.
Quote from Edward Mass »
Avacyn, Angel of Hope.
I'm actually building something along the lines of Stax Avacyn myself. Fair warning, the deck won't work unless you're willing to go all the way (including MLD). But if you do, it can be astoundingly powerful and fast.
Is she fast? I mean mono-white is pretty limiting when it comes to mana, I would think. I've seen alot of Avacyn strategies that use things like Worldslayer, but like Damia, she's so expensive! How do you maintain land drops?
And the new bant general Derevi, Empyrial Tactician could also run an orb stax/prison deck as easily as Vorel could.
Vorell can work as stax huh? That I did not expect. Does feel like Derevi would be better though, and getting access to white is pretty sweet.
Quote from Cornebus »
For Simic, I know Edric prospers under a Winter Orb, so that might be a good one.
A bizarre choice, can you reason why Edric would be a good STAX general?
Thanks so far for the replies people!
So far I'm still leaning towards Derevi, though I did have a minor gripe about Derevi's art until I leaned in and realized what exactly I was looking at. Maybe its the perspective, I don't know, just confused the heck out of me at first haha.
How do people feel about 5 colour stax? Is it worth it? I would probably look at Big Babby and Sliver Queen in particular, but I'm toying with the idea of getting to run each colour's best land-orientated stax cards all in one deck.
Hello, I'm currently looking at making a new stax general, after having dismantled my Zur deck for being incredibly boring. What I'm interested in doing now is playing a stax general that involves green and blue, as I love blue Stax effects, and I'd really like to leverage green's ramping/token creation abilities.
I play in a moderately competitive meta, Rafiq voltron, Kahlia goodstuffs, Sharuum Combo and sometimes a Ghave token deck. I now have a friend building Nekusar, so there is a need for efficiency versing such good generals. I should mention we have a mutual agreement that no one uses another general that is already in use. With that in mind, I'm looking for either a u/g/x or a u/g general or maybe even five colour, that is capable of shutting the board down. More specifically, land denial. I love eating people's lands. It makes the tears my body craves.
I should also mention I have read the incredible Stax primer by Phil.
Current Thoughts:
BUG seems incredibly limited, and RUG seems better suited to combo. I'm sure people will challenge me on this however.
TLDR; Good multiplayer stax general that is either :symgu::?mana:, :simic:, or :symw::symu::symb::symr::symg:
Yeah, I know I included for a reason. Idk, I could be wrong, but I feel like 5 color stax has the inherent problem of needing to be greedy with mana to be online.
While its true that he mana base is inherently difficult , it makes me excited just thinking of being able to pick the 'greatest hits' of stax from each colour and craft an evil deck. That guy definitely blinged out his deck though, unreal.
I've seen 5 Color Stax before on this board. It plays Sliver Queen as a means to break the symmetry of Smokestack and the only other sliver in the deck is Necrotic Sliver. I'd have to root around the search function to dig it up, but someone's done it.
I like weird decks, but I don't see how this can be consistent. There are only 2 ways to cast Phage and if the Orb is destroyed in response or the Sundial if destroyed with Krosan Grip... well, gg
...What? There are five ways in this deck. Seven if you wanted to add Thrull Wizard . Any card you can use to counter Phage is usable (in combination with graveyard recursion), such as Nether Void.
I will concede the obvious fragility of the deck to things like Krosan Grip, but that's why we run Guardian Beast.
I initially did the deck for a laugh, and have found it quite powerful.
You're right on the rings interaction with fetches, unfortunately I only have access to bloodstained mire, marsh flats & verdant catacombs. What is a good number of fetches to run?
EDIT: I'll take the plunge for now, see how I go. Adding those five, and I've taken out Magus of the Coffers for Rings of Brighthearth as well as Ashes to Ashes as the non-black requirement is actually horrible in my meta! Testing Druidic Satchel again, as I've had great success in my Dakkon deck.
i still love the interaction with endless whispers. Give an opponent abyssal persecutor. It's a more susceptible to removal way to cast phage, but with whispers, you can sacrifice phage and remove target player.
Endless Whispers & Abyssal Persecutor is certainly a cute interaction, but one that requires far too much setup, and is too interruptable. I get that whispers can be used as a way to give Phage, but I think its too slow and doesn't really have many other useful interactions. It's neat if you like it however.
I never liked withering boon in my phage list because you have better ways to deal with opposing creatures than counterspells, and it only interacts with phage, and then is only good with a return from GY to hand spell.
I do run Xiahou Dun to possibly recur it, but for the most part, this is one of the few semi-efficient way to get Phage out. Failing that, this has been a great card to surprise enemy commanders with. No one ever expects the black mage to have a counter-spell!
i notice you are lacking the onslaught fetches; there are some budget ones from mirage that enter the battlefield tapped that you may consider running; forget the names... i think rocky tar pit is one (it's a 5 card fetch cycle)
It's not that I can't afford the fetches, as I do have them, its more the life loss I'm worried about. I don't really run many ways of seeing the top of my deck aside from sensei's anyway, so the shuffling usage isn't that great either.
Do you think you could elaborate on how the deck plays? I'm curious to hear what the aim of the deck is on a turn-by-turn basis, or on a earlygame, midgame and lategame structure.
Hey Throst, yeah sorry those were old questions! I took the plunge with Karn and never looked back, dude's a powerhouse.
I never updated my thread which was lazy, but basically now I'm looking at fixing some of things I mentioned in the update of the first post.
Looking for good black single target exile/destruction spells in EDH, I know white seems to monopolize the exile part, but I'm hoping there's some good alternatives for black. Also are there any simple (doesn't need 4 card) combos I've overlooked for monoblack?
Either way, perhaps Nath or Mazirek could be in the same deck.
What about Git-rog? Does it work this kind of strategy?
I used to play a 60 card multiplayer deck that used back-breaking things like Pox, Ensnaring Bridge, Bloodghast, Ankh of Mishra, and Bloodchief Ascension to great effect but that's a different format so I get that it won't necessarily port over perfectly.
I guess G/B/x would be a start. But mono black could also work. I like 'weird' commanders like Reki and Phage, so bonus points for that sort of stuff too.
I did a search for pox and the last thread was from 2015, so I hope its okay!
"The most terrible of all the ministers of death..."
I get that Damia has the potential to be a very strong hand-refill, but with the land denial strategy I want to shoot for, I have a feeling I would rarely hit 7 mana. Even when I did, when I played Damia, it would be unlikey that she would last until my next turn, considering that my meta has strong removal. BUG does have brilliant colours for what I'm wanting however, so that's certainly something to consider.
Is she fast? I mean mono-white is pretty limiting when it comes to mana, I would think. I've seen alot of Avacyn strategies that use things like Worldslayer, but like Damia, she's so expensive! How do you maintain land drops?
Vorell can work as stax huh? That I did not expect. Does feel like Derevi would be better though, and getting access to white is pretty sweet.
A bizarre choice, can you reason why Edric would be a good STAX general?
Thanks so far for the replies people!
So far I'm still leaning towards Derevi, though I did have a minor gripe about Derevi's art until I leaned in and realized what exactly I was looking at. Maybe its the perspective, I don't know, just confused the heck out of me at first haha.
How do people feel about 5 colour stax? Is it worth it? I would probably look at Big Babby and Sliver Queen in particular, but I'm toying with the idea of getting to run each colour's best land-orientated stax cards all in one deck.
I hadn't considered that interaction when I saw her. Seems interesting, I'll put her on my consideration list.
Yes they do. It's a pity they are Jund coloured however.
Do people consider Angus Mackenzie stax worthy? Keep the commander suggestions coming
I play in a moderately competitive meta, Rafiq voltron, Kahlia goodstuffs, Sharuum Combo and sometimes a Ghave token deck. I now have a friend building Nekusar, so there is a need for efficiency versing such good generals. I should mention we have a mutual agreement that no one uses another general that is already in use. With that in mind, I'm looking for either a u/g/x or a u/g general or maybe even five colour, that is capable of shutting the board down. More specifically, land denial. I love eating people's lands.
I should also mention I have read the incredible Stax primer by Phil.
Current Thoughts:
BUG seems incredibly limited, and RUG seems better suited to combo. I'm sure people will challenge me on this however.
TLDR; Good multiplayer stax general that is either :symgu::?mana:, :simic:, or :symw::symu::symb::symr::symg:
While its true that he mana base is inherently difficult , it makes me excited just thinking of being able to pick the 'greatest hits' of stax from each colour and craft an evil deck. That guy definitely blinged out his deck though, unreal.
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=384157
This one perchance? Looks a little mana-hungry.
...What? There are five ways in this deck. Seven if you wanted to add Thrull Wizard . Any card you can use to counter Phage is usable (in combination with graveyard recursion), such as Nether Void.
I will concede the obvious fragility of the deck to things like Krosan Grip, but that's why we run Guardian Beast.
I initially did the deck for a laugh, and have found it quite powerful.
Alright with those three plus the two mirage fetches, Rocky Tar Pit & Bad River that's five. Can't really afford Polluted Delta
EDIT: I'll take the plunge for now, see how I go. Adding those five, and I've taken out Magus of the Coffers for Rings of Brighthearth as well as Ashes to Ashes as the non-black requirement is actually horrible in my meta! Testing Druidic Satchel again, as I've had great success in my Dakkon deck.
Endless Whispers & Abyssal Persecutor is certainly a cute interaction, but one that requires far too much setup, and is too interruptable. I get that whispers can be used as a way to give Phage, but I think its too slow and doesn't really have many other useful interactions. It's neat if you like it however.
I do run Xiahou Dun to possibly recur it, but for the most part, this is one of the few semi-efficient way to get Phage out. Failing that, this has been a great card to surprise enemy commanders with. No one ever expects the black mage to have a counter-spell!
It's not that I can't afford the fetches, as I do have them, its more the life loss I'm worried about. I don't really run many ways of seeing the top of my deck aside from sensei's anyway, so the shuffling usage isn't that great either.
Currently eyeing Magus of the coffers, might swap for rings of brighthearth instead.
I love your take on this unique general, is all.
1 Cannibalize
1 Consume Spirit
1 Kokusho, the Evening Star
1 Necropotence (why did I take this out)
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Oubliette
1 Haunted Crossroads
1 Shriekmaw
1 Sculpting Steel
1 Infernal Tribute
1 Planar Portal
1 Gate to Phyrexia
1 Druidic Satchel
1 Eldrazi Monument
1 Rune-Scarred Demon
1 Blood Artist
1 Geth, Lord of the Vault
Numbers don't make sense, must have made a typo with list. Meh...
Thoughts?
I never updated my thread which was lazy, but basically now I'm looking at fixing some of things I mentioned in the update of the first post.
Looking for good black single target exile/destruction spells in EDH, I know white seems to monopolize the exile part, but I'm hoping there's some good alternatives for black. Also are there any simple (doesn't need 4 card) combos I've overlooked for monoblack?
I'll add Sculpting Steel in the meantime.
Cheers.