Hi everyone, this is my Oloro, Ageless Ascetic deck. This deck is designed to employ the best stax cards found in the Esper shard of colors. Beginning in 2003, my meta and I played Standard as our primary form of Magic, only occasionally trying Extended here and there over the years. By May of 2011, my meta made the switch to EDH. Under EDH, we were offered a chance to play with all the old cards that had rotated from Standard, as well as a chance to use nostalgia-induced cards. At this time we played primarily only goodstuff decks. By the end of 2011, my meta had grown to include reanimator, control, voltron, and token decks. While these decks were a lot of fun for myself and the meta, I eventually became increasingly interested in the stax archetype after following decklists created here. In May of 2012, I finally decided to dive into the archetype, picking up all the necessary starting pieces for a BW deck, that eventually came to include all of Esper's colors. Since that time, this deck has grown and changed, providing a fun and challenging experience to play, and play against.
This list was inspired by the Esper stax lists made by Phil and BaconoftheArk. Great lists guys!
For reference here are Phil and BaconoftheArk's decks:
And for those interested in getting into the stax archetype, Phil created the Stax Primer, found here
WHY PLAY OLORO, AGELESS ASCETIC?
Why Oloro might be for you:
Oloro allows you access to the Esper shard of colors which provide a great balance of control, removal, and stax effects. This deck is built upon all three of these effects to create board states that have few creatures, and even fewer lands. Planeswalkers will provide additional support under this board state, and having access to Esper means having access to some of the best planeswalkers ever printed.
Oloro provides access to consistent, steady life gain. Because of this, he will usually be viewed as a problem by the table once your Stax engines are online. Even still, because you never actually have to cast Oloro for the effect, you can comfortably leave him in the command zone and enjoy countering many of the subtle life loss effects run throughout the deck.
Oloro allows for the enjoyment of playing a general that can provide a steady flow of card draw. Whenever you cast Oloro, not only will you reap a life gain, but you can turn that into a great source of card draw, and a small bleeder effect. While I do not always aim to cast Oloro in a game, he nevertheless has been very successful once he is out. Do not underestimate the bleeder effect under a lock-out either, as it provides additional means to win a long attrition battle.
Why Oloro might not be for you:
6 mana can be a lot for a general depending on the meta, while I usually don't aim to cast Oloro more than once a game, if you did cast him more than once after his initial casting, you would end up with quite an expensive general. This can prove problematic if you are out most of your win conditions and a 6+ CMC general with no haste may not be good enough for you to finish out the game if his cost has risen above 8, or 10 at the maximum.
This deck is based around the stax archetype, not something that everyone will enjoy. Stax can be summed up as a resource denial strategy, with this deck employing both land destruction, creature denial, and lock-out tactics to help control the table until a victory. Most playgroups will probably frown upon this strategy given the usual widespread distaste for land destruction however, some metas might take to the strategy and even develop stax decks themselves.
Esper leads itself to playing control, and as an extension, stax, very well. If you are an aggro, combo, or voltron lover, this deck isn't for you. There are little to no actual creatures and wins usually come from a sporadic token slipping in for some damage. While incredibly fun for me, this doesn't relate to everyone. Playing defensive is enjoyable, but most might prefer something more offensive.
Other options for Esper Stax:
Dakkon Blackblade - Dakkon Blackblade can be a pretty good voltron general, or even used around a thematic "lands matter" deck. The problem Dakkon has with the type of stax employed by this deck is found in his reliance in lands to fuel his power/toughness. Be it through Mana Vortex, Smokestack, or Armageddon, lands do not stick around for long. Perhaps in a stax/voltron hybrid deck utilizing effects such as Winter Orb or Static Orb without sacrificing lands, Dakkon could excel at keeping lands while maintaining lock-down stax effects. While Dakkon is not bad by any means in the right deck, in playing this type of stax, I would not recommend him before some of the other choices.
Dromar, the Banisher - Dromar makes for an excellent general for Esper Stax in part due to his Evacuation ability, and the nice 6/6 Flying beatstick that he provides. Unfortunately, outside of these applications Dromar has no synergy with any of the actual Stax pieces for this deck. He tends to be almost a goodstuff-Stax general. Despite this, the deck was headed by him for many months and still ran great.
Ertai, the Corrupted - Ertai is one of the better options for Esper stax, particularly if the deck wants to add more token production. Instead of focusing on some of the aspects of land destruction and pillowfort, Ertai can fuse together the best of traditional blue-based control, with lock-out effects. Board states with Trinisphere, Nether Void, or Sphere of Resistance and an active Ertai can make even the lowest mana spells suddenly uncastable. Ertai is even fueled by some of the best pieces used already with stax decks, enchantments and tokens. While I have not personally tried out Ertai at the head of this deck, I could see his potential as a general in Esper stax.
Lady Evangela - My original choice of general for this deck, she works decently for what she does. In terms of pillowforting, her ability is useful and cheap, so it was never a problem for leaving mana open to use. When in need for closing out a game however, Lady Evangela offered nothing offensively. If you don't mind a somewhat "durdly" general, she might be the choice for you, as she is solid in cost, ability, and provides the low-key approach to a general.
Sen Triplets - The Triplets are certainly interesting and work nicely for stopping one of your opponents from doing anything on your turns, but they draw attention towards you as soon as they hit the field, not something every stax deck wants to be doing. Some players will see her in the Command Zone and immediately view you as the go-to player for all their attacks until you are out of the game. I don't see much benefit from their second ability for my deck beyond perhaps getting mana rocks from other players.
Zur the Enchanter - It goes without saying that Zur is one of the strongest generals you could ever run for Esper and in EDH in general. While he certainly has a pleathora of cards he could fetch out in a deck like this, he will draw more hate than just about any general I could pick otherwise. If your meta is particularly cut-throat with fast paced combo, Zur would offer you a quicker way to set up locks and would be ideal in that setting.
DECK HISTORY
Originally this deck started out in May 2012 as a Teysa, Orzhov ScionBW stax deck with a heavy token and tax theme, supported by a few planeswalkers and removal spells. When I started I threw in cards like Hero of Bladehold and Desolation Angel. Playing a BW stax list offered a great way into the archetype. White allowed for incredibly cheap land destruction, board wipes, and Elspeth, Knight-Errant. Black on the other hand, offered oppressive lock-out enchantments like Nether Void, Desolation, and the great planeswalker that is Liliana of the Veil. While these were solid cards, I began to want more land destruction to increase the power of cards like Nether Void and so I moved to playing Tariel, Reckoner of Souls.
Under Tariel, my list gained several new land destruction spells and great token producers like Kher Keep and Goblin Assault. This version of the list also began to introduce pillowfort cards into it to further support the power of taxing effects. Cards like No Mercy and Koskun Falls were great at deflecting attacks long enough to establish the stax effects. Having access to the BWR color scheme also allowed access to the best that red had to offer in the Planeswalker category: Ajani Vengeant, Sarkhan the Mad, and Chandra, the Firebrand. While Tariel and her colors were great, the lack of true card draw and dedicated tax cards outside of white left me ultimately looking at making the switch to Esper stax.
In late Summer 2012, the deck made the switch into the current form as an Esper stax build with Lady Evangela as the general. With Lady Evangela heading the deck, I decided to expand the pillowforting cards to become a major aspect of the deck. Adding blue allowed for Propaganda, Frozen Aether, and Jace, Architect of Thought. By adding these in beside Sphere of Safety, Ghostly Prison, and others, the deck gained a dedicated pillowfort subtheme. These cards worked great with the land destruction packages of the deck, forcing opponents to tap mana they didn't have to attack you.
By January of 2013, after months of using Lady Evangela, the deck finally made a general switch to using Dromar, the Banisher. With Dromar, the deck that was built under Lady Evangela largely remained the same, but with the addition of the general functioning as a win condition.
In November of 2013 the decklist once again made a general change, this time to Oloro, Ageless Ascetic. While Dromar performed relatively great over the months he was used, Oloro provides excellent support through life gain, as well as card draw. Currently the deck has been preforming great in my meta, and is a great deck to play if you enjoy really planning and thinking out a gameplan that challenges your opponents and yourself every game you play.
A great starting hand in Oloro would consist of something including between 2-3 lands, a mana rock, pillowfort effect, one tutor or draw effect, and a stax effect. An example of this type of hand might include: a Plains, Marsh Flats, Azorius Signet, Propaganda, Mystic Remora, and Land Equilibrium. In this example, you have access to all three colors of the deck, usually starting with the Plains being played before popping the Marsh Flats to grab Watery Grave in this case. By doing so, together with the Azorius Signet, you have access to four the three mana needed to play Propaganda to help by some time. Hopefully you will have a land by turn 3 or 4, allowing you to immediately drop Land Equilibrium to slow down any opposing ramp, or halt future land plays without some penalty. I would consider playing Mystic Remora in this environment as every non-creature spell will result in card draw. Example hands, such as the one given, do not always occur. Usually you will have at least 2-3 lands and a mana rock, but the combinations of pillowfort, tutor, draw, and stax effects will vary. Because of this variation, utilizing the Partial Paris mulligan will allow for certain hands to be tweaked. Dropping anything above 4 mana is encouraged, as well as cards that might be more specific for the current board state. As an example, I personally do not like Crucible of Worlds early game unless I have a fetch land in hand, or one of the decks land destruction spells, so such a card would be added towards the Partial Paris mulligan. The first draw and mulligan are important to how the early portion of the game will be played, but there will be occasions where you will probably encounter Land Tax and a one white mana producing hand that will you wish to keep. Timing is the key thing in this deck, so making sure you know when to play cards will be vital in knowing exactly when to keep that Sun Titan or Catastrophe, and when to pitch them down depending on the mana ramp and stax effects in hand.
The Early Game:
I would consider the first 4-5 turns to be the early game for this deck, as it seeks to create a protracted game that could go for nearly 20+ turns before ending. The key to surviving until those crucial late game turns will be in how you are able to remove threats and utilize pillowfort effects early game. Aggro and combo opponents will seek to neutralize this deck's attempts to hold them back, but applying disruption through Aura of Silence, Ghostly Prison, Nether Void, or Wrath of God should slow down their game plan. If at any point an opening occurs, and usually it will in a table of at least 4 players, then proceed to play any mana rocks in hand to help set the deck up for later on in the game. If any tutor is in hand, I usually advise holding onto it until the mid game, once the board state has stabilized slightly. The key for the early game is as simple as survival. This deck functions much like a shield, repelling attackers over and over. If you can survive, then you can ultimately ready for the mid and late game where this deck thrives.
The Mid Game:
The mid game, usually from around turns 6-11 or so, are where the stax effects can slowly begin to be deployed. Establishing lock-out pieces usually occurs in this part of the game, as cards such as Humility, Night of Souls' Betrayal, or Land Equilibrium are played in an effort to bring the game towards a more comfortable pace for this deck. Because mana rocks provide fuel to power around tax effects and low mana board states, dropping some land destruction is a solid idea. Together with any taxing pillowfort effect, pulling lands should bring anyone seeking to beat down through combat out of the game until they draw removal of some kind. As an additional goal in this portion of the game, dropping man lands and swords into play can slowly become a priority if it appears your opponents are in a problematic board state. Additionally, or instead of the man lands/Swords route, you can consider dropping any planeswalker onto the field to help gum up the board, or advance your cause towards winning the game. A well timed Elspeth, Knight-Errant, Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, or Tezzeret the Seeker should quickly help accelerate your board state if your opponents are still reeling from the stax effects.
The Late Game:
Finishing out a game is actually fairly simple thanks in large part to the amount of ways to win in this deck. Man lands, tokens, planeswalkers, and Oloro, Ageless Ascestic himself are all ways that can quickly win under the final turns of a game. In these stages, any amount of resources your opponents have should be severely limited if play correctly during the middle of the game. Sword of Feast and Famine can be useful in fueling additional effects late game, but attacking with Sword of War and Peace or Sword of Fire and Ice should help speed the process of winning up. The additional damage dealt via the latter two Swords will usually win the game after a few swings by the late game. Any attempts for your opponents to rebuild should be handled accordingly with any spot removal or wrath effect as needed, but focusing on finishing the game is usually the best call. Additionally, if a heavier lock-out effect was pushed, such as a board state with no lands, mana rocks, a planeswalker, and Land Equilibrium, your opponents may simply choose to cede. While I am not a huge fan of ceding, there are simply some board states where your opponents may find themselves with literally no way to break the lock-out, such as in the case above where they are not allowed to play more than one land at any point again so long as you never drop another land. Ultimately, victory will be hard won against good metas that have adapted to stax effects and deck such as this one. Winning will not always come, but through practice and more time with the deck, the issues of timing and handling will resolve themselves.
As part of a pair of Keyrunes run in this deck, the Azorius Keyrune provides an invaluable way to carry swords, provide sac fodder, or tap for mana. I like the Keyrunes over other mana rocks costing three mana for all of the above reasons. Primarily early on during the game the Keyrunes provide slight ramping, but once you stick a sword they can be a win condition all on their own. The Azorius Keyrune even provides build-in evasion via flying to usually ensure that your sword triggers and nets you some form of card advantage as well. While the Azorius Keyrune may not have Dimir Keyrune's powerful unblockable ability, it has still proven to be capable mana rock and win condition with just flying.
The Signets are one of the more self-explanatory mana rocks included in this deck, but I will provide a brief reason why they are included. Since the Signets are still some of the cheapest mana rocks, and provide ramp, they are still included in this deck, despite the abundance of mana rocks now available for EDH. At a mere two mana, the signets still are solid at nearly every point of the game, enabling both ramping and post-land wipe recovery.
Chromatic Lantern is simply put, one of the best mana rocks ever printed. For three mana, you get both the ability to color fix any of your decks colors and that same ability for all lands you control. The ability to change any of my colorless lands, or even lands such as Maze of Ith, into any land can be incredible for recovering post-land wipe or helping cast double-colored spells early on. Overall, a great addition to the deck, and one of the best from the entire Return to Ravinca block.
Crucible of Worlds is just the right card to abuse in stax decks. Allowing for quick recoveries from Smokestack, Mana Vortex, Desolation, or any of the decks many ways to destroy lands, Crucible of Worlds is seemingly an auto-include. There are points in the game that it may not be incredible, but rarely has it been a dead card at any point in the game. As more fetch lands are added to the deck, Crucible gains the ability to provide a steady stream of shuffle effects, which can be extremely useful with Sensei's Divining Top, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, or Scroll Rack, provided your deck is equipped with any, or all, of those cards.
Dimir Keyrune is easily the best Keyrune available for this deck, providing all the ramp of a traditional mana rock with the ability to ensure that any of the Swords included are guaranteed to trigger. There have been several games in the past where just Dimir Keyrune and one Sword have together won me the game, making this one of the better choices for mana rocks within this deck.
Perhaps one of the more underused mana rocks in EDH, Fellwar Stone has always been one of my favorite mana rocks. If you are at a table of at least three, or more, you are usually going to have access to at least two of the three colors for this deck. At two mana, Fellwar Stone comes down cheap and fixes early. I choose to run this card over a third Signet because of the lack of mana investment and quickness provided by Fellwar Stone overall. A great recommendation for anyone looking for one additional mana rock in the two CMC slot over other choices like Mind Stone or Charcoal Diamond, and company.
Since this deck does not currently have access to Mana Crypt, the next best early game ramping mana rock to Sol Ring is Mana Vault. There are times when this card may drain you more than five life a game, but the ability to speed up recovery post-land wipe or simply land a turn-two Smokestack are too good to pass up on. Mana Vault usually ramps once or twice in a game and then simply is sac'ed away via Smokestack or potentially eventually eats artifact removal, drawing the fire away from any other potential artifact I wish to play. Ultimately, Mana Vault is a great budget replacement to Mana Crypt, or could be used beside it over another mana rock.
Nihil Spellbomb is all value. At one mana, this self-replacing Tormod's Crypt is one of the better cards to hose an opponents graveyard that can be utilized by this deck. Usually this is simple used to hold off an opponent from abusing their graveyard, but there could be rare case where you may need to remove your own graveyard from the game, as I have when faced against an Oona, Queen of the Fae deck's Keening Stone. Not the best choice of actions, but it did save me from losing the game. Overall though, Nihil Spellbomb is a must-have for any deck in black to help stand up against the pesky graveyard based decks out there.
Orzhov Signet is included, like the other Signets, for the ability to ramp and provide early access to colors. Not much explanation is needed beyond what has been said under Azorius Signet, but rest assured the Signets are solid in the deck and unless you have access to something such as Mana Crypt, are a great include.
The more shuffle effects the better Sensei's Diving Top gets. No matter if Top is drawn early or late, it usually always provides some form of card advantage and can ultimately allow you to run away with a game. Because Top is incredibly hard for your opponents to remove, it also usually sticks around for most of the game, unless someone can quickly mill your Top, or an opponents breaks out a Krosan Grip against it. Even without a lot of shuffle effects, Sensei's Divining Top will provide at least some card advantage and ultimately helps smooth over draws or even set up miracle spells. A great card and staple in the format.
Sol Ring is a staple card for a reason in this format. At one mana, Sol Ring replaces itself instantly, allowing for even more spells to be used even the turn it comes down. There is not really a lot about Sol Ring that has not already been said over and over, so I will simply state that if you have access to Sol Ring, run it and enjoy all the benefits it provides for this deck with ramp power.
As one of three Swords in this deck, Feast and Famine is actually third overall. Of course, being third when ranked against the other Swords is still a great title to have, as Feast and Famine provides both card advantage through untapping your lands, as well as stripping your opponent's hands of resources. When using Feast and Famine, be careful not to over extend with the untapping lands ability, as simply laying more and more cards out will ultimately result in a potentially vicious board wipe for you.
Probably the second best Sword used by this deck, Fire and Ice provides both card draw and removal, two things critical to helping maintain a solid board state. Using the Shock ability of Fire and Ice allows for extra damage to finish out a game, or to remove pesky utility creatures that might be helping your opponents gain steady advantage. Drawing a card is not to be underestimated either, and is a great plus added onto an already useful card.
My personal favorite, and most useful Sword of the three I run, War and Peace provides even more finishing power than Fire and Ice's Shock trigger by allowing you a free Sudden Impact on the opponent being damaged. The ability to gain life has saved me countless times as well, allowing for a quick recovery from life draining effects such as Phyrexian Arena and Mana Vault. If I had to pick one Sword to run out of the three, I believe I would still stand by War and Peace as the best for this deck overall.
Not enough good things can be said about the Talisman cycle from the original Mirrodin block. Coming in at two mana, Talisman of Dominance provides both the ability to color fix for a simple one life, or provide colorless mana for free. This deck loves mana rocks to recover from the many forms of land destruction utlitized by the deck, and cards such as Talisman of Dominance are much needed for simple, cheap, and effective mana.
Like Talisman of Dominance, the Azorius colored Talisman is incredible at being a simple and effective way to produce mana for this deck's many needs. I only wish that one day Wizards may eventually complete this great cycle of mana rocks from Mirrodin and provide them in enemy colors as well.
Tormod's Crypt is an incredibly useful card for holding off recursion and reanimator strategies. Tormod's can also prove itself useful in cases where you are faced against Persist/Undying combo decks, or against any sort of Flashback-based deck. While Tormod's does not replace itself in the same way that Nihil Spellbomb does, it is still a great way to handle graveyards cheaply and for a great free mana cost.
One of my favorite cards in this deck, it has also proven to be one of the best cards for it. As Wizards continues it's seemingly never ending, Enter-the-Battlefield attack, Torpor Orb will continue to be useful. Hosing both Titan and Primordial alike, Torpor Orb even protects itself against pesky Woodfall Primus' and Acidic Slimes. Because this deck employs only one creature, Sun Titan, I never have to worry about Torpor Orb effected me, making it even more useful than in a more creature-heavy stax deck. Torpor Orb is pretty much a locked-in, must-have for this deck.
The Swiss Army Knife of Magic is usually great at any point for this deck. The first ability, discard a card: gain four life has saved me more times than I can remember, always allowing me to come back into a game even when it seems like I am down for the count. The other abilities that are notable include the ability: pay one life, make an 0/1 goat token. Since tokens fuel stax engines and carry the game-winning Swords, nothing beats the ability to make tokens on command for a simple one life. My opponents in my meta have now begun to fear and hate Trading Post almost as much as something more dreaded such as Nether Void, which should reveal just how possible it is to run away with a game via the simple Trading Post.
Dark Confidant is one of the best utility creatures in all of Magic. Providing draw power, as well as being a great Sword carrier, has been great so far. With the amount of top deck manipulation currently in the deck, Dark Confidant rarely causes too much life loss, thus providing additional card draw cheaply. Even without ways to manipulation the library however, Dark Confidant benefits greatly from the mana curve of this deck, with little potential to cause more damage past 3 life. Overall, a great source of utility for the deck.
I often have considered taking this deck fully creatureless, but then remember all that Sun Titan has done to help the deck. He can recover most of my stax permanents, retrieve land, and draw removal spells better than just about anything printed in Magic. His general focus is on recursion, but having vigilance has proven useful when swinging with swords and providing some much needed defense in some games. While the move to creatureless would be fun, and free up some space, Sun Titan is one of the best cards in Magic and for aiding this decks strategy.
Aura of Silence is like a mini-Nether Void for your opponents, while also providing Sun Titan with a recurrable Disenchant. I personally value this card high in my deck, and am never afraid of drawing it or tutoring it in a game. The slowdown for your opponents is amazing as you gain valuable time to establish your board state. In a board state post land destruction, your opponents will be struggling to regain any ground with their mana rocks costing far too much to play. Even a simple Sol Ring becomes too much to cast early game. Aura of Silence is must-have for this deck overall.
As one of this decks best ways to upkeep stax effects, Bitterblossom also provides a win condition through the tokens that it makes. At 2 CMC, Bitterblossom comes down early and usually is able to stick several turns if timed correctly. If I have Smokestack in hand, plus Enlightened Tutor or Vampiric Tutor, I will usually go grab Bitterblossom to follow up and establish a nice stax board state early game. From equipping swords, to blocking opponents creatures, to upkeeping Smokestack, Bitterblossom is a near essential compliment to any stax deck.
At first, Blind Obedience seemed like a sub-par version of Kismet. Quickly I was proven wrong however, with Blind Obedience providing this deck with a slow, but steady way to offset some of the lifeloss cards such as Phyrexian Arena or Bitterblossom cause, as well as slowing down opponents creatures with haste, or mana rocks. Adding to the dual purpose of lifegain and stax effect, Blind Obedience is also recurrable with Sun Titan and Replenish, making it hard to keep off the field for too long. Overall, a great card with many functions that all aid this deck.
Desolation is a cheap, small effect that scales surprisingly well for most of the game. Early on, Desolation can slow down players just enough to allow this deck to lay mana rocks or land recursion through Crucible of Worlds to help keep the game plan moving forward. Unlike Mana Vortex, Desolation occurs at the end of turn, which can be less useful, but when used against counterspells, instant spell removal, or even creatures such as Seedborn Muse, Desolation provides a nice stax effect to keep opponents from advancing forward too much. At a cheap 3 CMC, Desolation preforms a nice, especially when aided by other stax cards in the deck.
As one of the pillowfort cards in Dromar, Ghostly Prison preforms a great job of keeping opponents from attacking me early game, or late game depending on the amount of land destruction having seen play. While Ghostly Prison does not protect planeswalkers, never underestimate how useful it is at keeping early game aggro and swarm off your life total. Adding Propaganda or Sphere of Safety only increases the effectiveness of Ghostly Prison even more. As an additional plus, Ghostly Prison is also recurrable with Sun Titan and Replenish, two cards which usually see play most games given their usefulness.
This might be the single best card in the deck overall. Humility does everything right: stopping enter the battlefield effects, leaving the battlefield effects, and completely shutting down creatures with any sort of abilities. By adding Humility with Night of Souls' Betrayal, you get the ability of locking creatures out of the game permanently until your opponents can dig their way out of the lock. Even without Night of Souls' Betrayal, Humility still provides incredible function for the mana cost.
Initially I was hesitant to add Land Equilibrium to the deck due to being unsure on the timing of the card and how it would ultimately hinder my opponents. This unsure feeling quickly eroded however, as I played more games with Land Equilibrium, as I discovered not only could it be powered out early with mana rocks, but would essentially lock a game up late game, post land wipe. After months of testing the card, I think it has fully earned it's place for lockout potential or stalling a game long enough to establish other key stax or pillowfort pieces.
Land Tax is a great card for recovering from land wipes, as opponents attempt to rebuild quickly or can provide a shuffling function. Additionally, Land Tax also allows for keeping a one mana hand, a dangerous play that is only possible with at least one source of white mana, but can potentially allow for an incredible hand to be kept. Besides the functions described, there is not much to Land Tax other than the great complimentary role it plays with the deck as a whole.
The blue version of Desolation preforms it's job with great effect. Acting together with other stax cards like Smokestack, Mana Vortex can seriously hurt your opponents resources if their deck is not built to handle having such few lands at a time. At 3 CMC, Mana Vortex comes down cheap, and usually sticks around a turn or two providing some solid board advantage up front. Late game Mana Vortex does lose some of it's shine, but still works well enough for most of the game, and given the synergy it has to ampilfy other cards in the deck, Mana Vortex is rarely a terrible card to have in hand during the course of a game.
As part of this deck's card advantage suite, Mystic Remora is an interesting, but cheap way to draw lots of cards depending on the timing it is on the battlefield. As a card that involves a cumulative upkeep cost, timing when to play Mystic Remora and how long to keep it around involves having a pretty good knowledge of decks within your meta. At times it might be more beneifical to wait and cast Mystic Remora once a few turns have passed and opponents have enough mana to play a card or two. Usually I only keep Mystic Remora around for 1-2 turns depending on the card draw. Since it can be recurred through Sun Titan and Replenish, letting Mystic Remora go is not a terribly big deal. Since Mystic Remora requires such little mana investment, it works out great for providing Dromar some additional draw power.
Potentially the most backbreaking card in the entire deck is Nether Void. Combined with any number of cards in this deck, or even just a simple Armageddon usually locks your opponents out of the game. Whenever a simple Naturalize or Return to Dust becomes five and seven mana respectively, even removing Nether Void can be problematic for opponents. Yes, Nether Void is an expensive card, and by no means is it completely necessary, but if you do have the chance to pick one up, I recommend it. The raw taxing power of the card alone is just too good to not use if you already have one in your collection or are looking to pick up one of the more powerful stax cards out there. Because the taxing effect is so expensive, even if Nether Void is removed before any lock out can be fully established, it provides a great slowdown card to help allow planeswalker or already existing stax pieces time to flourish with little interference.
Night of Souls' Betrayal is a great card that falls into a few categories of use for this deck. On one hand, Night is a small pillowfort effect in that it lessens the amount of damage taken overall, sometimes enough to deter attackers. On the other hand, Night is a part of locking creatures out of the game. Combined with Humility, you no longer have to worry about losing life through combat damage. Even without Humility, the effect that Night grants, a universal -1/-1 to all creatures, can pick off utility and small token creatures all game long. Since Dromar runs just enough token production to help the stax pieces, or to help wield a sword, Night of Souls' Betrayal actually rarely effects the deck's progress at all. Dromar himself is still a more than capable win condition as a flying 5/5 under Night, allowing you to hold down others while swinging in for some damage. Great card overall with a strong effect for cheap.
In terms of incredible pillowfort cards, few are better than No Mercy at providing solid defense against opponents aggro plans. Without indestructibility, voltron decks will be forced to wait until one-shotting you with general damage, often providing just enough time to allow for you to stabilize the board through any number of spot or mass removal. I would rank No Mercy right behind the cheaper, three mana pillowfort effects overall, but if you have to be on the receiving end of a hit, No Mercy provides removal built-in to ensure no further attacks.
Card draw is needed in almost every kind of deck, perhaps even more so in EDH. Coming in at a reasonable three mana, Phyrexian Arena provides nice, incremental card advantage for a mere one life per turn. There is not much that can be said about this already staple enchantment, but if you are running black there is little reason not to run it. In this deck in particular there are even reasonable ways to recur it through Sun Titan and Replenish.
Like Ghostly Prison, but in Blue, Propaganda is a perfectly cheap and solid pillowfort effect. While this and many of the older pillowfort effects do not provide protection for planeswalkers, for the mana cost Propaganda performs well. Since this deck requires some time to set up stax effects and other long-term value cards, holding off aggro is a necessary function for this deck. Overall, Propaganda, like Ghostly Prison and Sphere of Safety, are auto-includes for pillowfort/stax decks.
In my meta recursion strategies appear on the regular, from decks in testing to established ones. As an enchantment, and a potentially free one at that, Leyline of the Void has proven itself time after time in helping hold off plays my opponents would normally make. Another great function of Leyline is found in the ability to hose opponents Sacred Ground and Crucible of Worlds cards, two potentially highly annoying problems for this deck. Leyline of the Void is ultimately one of the best ways to hose graveyards and with the potential ability to be played for free, is an incredible card all around.
Rhystic Study, like Phyrexian Arena, provides great card draw on a low-cost enchantment. Rhystic Study goes one step further however, by providing a small tax effect against opponents who enjoying tapping out. Usually even within one rotation you can easily draw between 2-3 cards, but potentially 7+ if the enchantment is not dealt with. Opponents will eventually get tired of you drawing, but since the small tax effect aids up, it still provides advantage in stalling opponent's turns.
Serra's Sanctum, Sun Titan, Replenish, and Sphere of Safety all enjoy Seal of Cleansing to be on the field at any given point. Because of the additional functions and advantage Seal of Cleansing provides beyond being a simple Disenchant, I have opted to use it over spell-based removal. I have yet to be disappointed with Seal, and would strongly recommend it if any of the above mentioned cards are being run beside it within the deck. Cheap, recurable, and easily abused within the deck makes this card an easy choice for inclusion.
Rounding out the triangle of taxing pillowfort effects for this deck, Sphere of Safety goes one step further than the similar Ghostly Prison and Propaganda effects by protecting the deck's various planeswalkers. Additionally, Sphere of Safety's tax effect increases with each and every enchantment played in this deck, of which there are plenty that could be on the field at any given point with the Sphere. While Sphere of Safety costs an additional two mana over the older taxing pillowfort effects, the cost has proven to be well worth it time and time again.
Elspeth is one of the best planeswalkers ever printed, especially for stax. Her abilities are all relevant to the game plan. Her +1 token making provides cheap blockers, sword-wields, and sac fodder for Smokestack. Her second +1 ability functions primarily as a win condition buff to help my tokens close out a game. As far as emblems go in Magic, I can think of few better than Elspeths. Combining with Armageddon for devastating results, or just simply provides for a way to close out a game by sending tokens out without worry.
There is little that can be said about Jace, the Mind Sculptor that has not already been said. When left unchecked, or protected with Sphere of Safety, Jace will simply win games. His incredible amount of card advantage is unparralled by other planeswalkers, both in the deck or otherwise. His ability to Brainstorm has been incredibly useful with both Terminus and Dark Confidant as well. Jace even provides removal in the form of Unsummon, which can be extremely useful against most opponents. Usually I just focus on sculpting the perfect hand with Jace, but that alone has easily proven to me that Jace is worth a card slot.
Not enough good things can be said about this version of Liliana. She aids the stax strategy on a variety of levels, including hurting the cards in hand, creatures on the field, or permanents through her ultimate. Her +1 ability is usually relevant 90% of the time, with the except of players abusing the graveyard. Denying the opponents access to cards in hand is no laughing matter as they slowly lose other resources, such as lands, simultaneously. Her -2 ability has proven useful against most strategies, especially hurting the voltron decks that use to rum rampant in my meta. Her ultimate has actually been achieved a few times and usually results in the game ending shortly after.
The Lord of Innistrad might be the best card planeswalker printed for this deck overall. I can't say enough about how many times his emblems have aided me in winning a game. His +1 token making ability is surperior to Elspeth's and provides a nice lifelinking feature to help offset some of the lifeloss this deck can take. The -2 emblems are one of the best abilities I can think of for this deck, which, when combined with Humility, can still make my creatures a nice damage-dealing force. His ultimate isn't really as useful for me as some, with most of the creatures in my meta being utility ones, or not seeing many planeswalkers. Abusing his emblems is probably the main reason for never seeing his ultimate though.
Tamiyo is a nice toolbox of effects that help support my deck. As a +1 ability, her permi-tapping ability has proven useful a lot in keeping key opponents' win conditions tied down or stalling out a game by tapping mana rocks. Her -2 card drawing ability is useful against most strategies in this format. There are times when simply playing Tamiyo and drawing 5-6 cards can ultimately find the removal spell needed to clear up the table, as well as keep your hand full. Tamiyo's emblem is similar to Elspeths, in that, when combined with wrath effects, can usually mean the game is effectively over. If you added counterspells to Dromar, you could easily lock a player out of the game with this emblem.
Tezzeret is just the kind of toolbox planeswalker a deck like this needs. He can fetch Smokestack, mana rocks, or swords directly to the field with his -X ability, which, as one can guess, is usually the best call to make with his abilities. His +1 is nothing to complain over however, as it can provide vital mana under untapping any of the decks mana rocks. His ultimate has never been used, but has the option to completely overrun a table with all the decks artifacts. I primarily consider Tezzeret good for one or two tutors and then is removed from the table.
The best land destruction spell ever printed, hands down. As a stax deck, denying opponents resources is a key part of the game plan, so having one of the cheapest land wraths is amazing. This card alone pairs up with so many cards in the deck, namely Land Equilibrium, Nether Void, and Cyclonic Rift to create some of the most devastating locks for your opponents that the deck can create.
There are very few cards that allow for such a complete reset that Cataclysm offers. Red has access to the ever powerful Jokulhaups, but for Esper that answer is found in Cataclysm. I love the fact that Cataclysm punishes the greedier players who feel obligated to vomit their hands onto the table at any given point. This card has also proven highly useful versus massive token armies that can occur at my table. Overall I highly recommend Cataclysm in addition to the board wipes and land destruction already employed by this deck.
The more expensive, yet versatile, version of Armageddon, Catastrophe is a card that shouldn't be overlooked just for being on the top of the curve for this deck. There are games where you will not see Armageddon, or will have already used it, when Catastrophe is still needed. By adding the dual functionality of Day of Judgment to Armageddon for just two mana more, the deck gains some extra flexibility that usually means Catastrophe is never ideally sitting in hand. Like all cards, timing is what is needed, but I have never been sad to see Catastrophe in a game.
Sometimes this card truly feels cheap, I'll admit. For seven mana, you get one of the strongest wraths ever printed with the added benefit of only effecting opponents and occurring at instant speed. Like Armageddon, this card combines with several others to create some rough situations for your opponent. Cyclonic Rift has versatility as well, such as using in response to a Wheel of Fortune-like effect to add further resource denial to your opponents plans.
The most simple, efficient tutor ever printed for Magic has a place in nearly every deck that has access to it, with Dromar being no different. While I prefer raw card draw to tutor most of the time, I can't argue with the effectiveness of Demonic Tutor for getting the perfect card for any given situation. For this deck in general, timing is the key thing with it. If you have Smokestack online, grab Bitterblossom. If you have Armageddon, consider Cyclonic Rift or Crucible of Worlds. Whatever the game state looks like, this is the card to help your game plan the best at any given point.
One of the best tutors for the deck, Enlightened Tutor allows for any stax piece to be tutored at instant speed. This has several uses when combined with Sword of Fire and Ice, Rhystic Study, Sensei's Divining Top, or even Mystic Remora. If you really need to establish the board quickly, keeping this in hand with Bitterblossom or Smokestack, only means tutoring for the next piece the turn after, or before if you are certain you want to put a lock on the table. If it is late game, using Enlightened Tutor usually means grabbing a sword to help Dromar or a token swing and finish out the game. Enlightened Tutor is ultimately a card that is never bad at any point in the game usually.
Ill-Gotten Gains serves a similar purpose to Replenish, recovering my board state while hopefully causing my opponents problems with theirs. Unlike Replenish, Ill-Gotten Gains returns cards to my hand, but forces a table-wide discard effect which can easily cause massive problems with Leyline of the Void or against control players. Now, my opponents still have the same opportunity to recover three cards, like me, but is a necessary evil of sorts, in allowing me crucial access to fallen planeswalkers, board wipes, or even cards like Replenish to set up a massive recovery.
This modified Austere Command has been excellent in my deck and meta. Providing exile over classic destroy effects is usually much better, especially in a meta littered with recursion. While Austere is able to choose two targets, the exile clause, plus the ability to exile planeswalkers, puts Merciless Eviction over it in deserving a card slot. If your meta is lacking in recursion, you could potentially run Austere over this, but for all the little ways many decks can recur, I ultimately think Merciless Eviction is better.
Like most of the Visions tutors, Lim-Dûl's Vault is a top of the library tutor, of sorts. What Lim-Dûl's Vault adds is the addition of setting up your next five turns worth of draws, or, when combined with draw effects, perhaps your grabbing two pieces you need immediately. What I enjoy most about Lim-Dûl's Vault is the versatility of it overall. No matter if I just need one particular card, or would like to get a shuffle, the card is always there to help aid the deck. Another interesting and positive of the Vault is the ability to tutor around Stranglehold, Aven Mindcensor, or other effects that do appear in my meta. Because of the possibilities the card allows for, it only costing 2 CMC, and being instant speed, it is hard to ignore the usefulness of Lim-Dûl's Vault.
Perhaps only rivaled by Swords to Plowshares as the best spot removal for creatures ever printed, Path to Exile is verstile, cheap removal that can handle anything without Shroud or Hexproof. Typically I prefer to use Swords to Plowshares post land wipe, and Path before, but if the board state requires answering immediately, I'll use Path anyways. Holding these back until someone attacks me directly is usually the best path, unless the creature is threatening the board without ever attacking, such as Seedborn Muse. The drawback of giving an opponent a land actually can sometimes be a problem, particularily after a land wipe, but for such a small drawback 90% of the time, Path to Exile remains one of the best removal spells for this deck.
Four mana to return everything useful in my deck back to the battlefield? Check. Replenish is a great card most of the time, with the exception of pesky exile spells like Return to Dust. Against decks that run Aura Shards, Nature's Claim, or Acidic Slime, Replenish basically serves as returning my pillowfort cards, stax effects, or card drawing enchantments back to the battlefield. As I brought up earlier with exile effects, sometimes Replenish can feel like a dead card, but I consider this positive as it usually means my good enchantments have somehow stuck on the battlefield or are still waiting to be drawn into. Overall, Replenish is a great backup plan for this deck if the game drags on incredibly long and has gone through a lot of enchantment removal effects.
Powerful enchantments and must answer artifacts are common in most games in my meta. From Doubling Season to Vicious Shadows, Return to Dust permanently handles the problem, and allows for a nice 2-for-1 if used on your main phase. Because of this, I usually hold Return to Dust until my turn, but if the board develops quickly or combo pieces start assembling, I will occasionally use it unless I wait and see if anyone else at the table can help. While a simple Disenchant would not be a bad replacement, I have found that the exile effect, plus being able to 2-for-1 enchantments and artifacts makes Return to Dust a great card regardless of when it is drawn.
The original spot removal for creatures still shines twenty years later, and in EDH it is relevant every single time I've had it in my hand. In a game where life totals are already double that of the standard Magic game, the life gain for opponents can rarely even be considered a negative. Swords to Plowshares even gets better post land wipe, or with stax effects online when compared to Path to Exile. There have been times when giving an opponent land has proven problematic, but with Swords to Plowshares you simply remove the problem from the game. If you had to add only one or the other, I would say Swords to Plowshares, but running both is usually best for the deck.
While Terminus costs an additional two mana over the Wrath of God variants, the cost is usually worth it to deal with pesky recursion. As my meta increasingly added more and more recursion and even graveyard combo, Terminus has become more necessary. Overall, the ability to Miracle proved itself worthy over cheaper variants, such as Hallowed Burial. Being able to tuck pesky generals, or annoying creatures, as well as potential Miracle casting, made me ultimately go with Terminus.
The instant speed version of Demonic Tutor is an incredibly useful card. As one of just a handful of tutors for the deck, Vampiric Tutor provides any single card at any given time. While Mystical Tutor offers the same opinion of stacking miracles, Vampiric Tutor can help set up a potentially game saving Devastation Tide. In fact, there are many games in the history of this deck where that has been used. Unlike Mystical Tutor however, Vampiric Tutor is not limited to just instants and sorceries, therefore getting the nod towards being included in the deck. No matter if it is turn one or turn twenty, Vampiric Tutor is usually useful for getting the card for the given situation.
One of my favorite cards ever printed for the flavor of the Weatherlight story, Vindicate also might be the best removal spell ever printed if not for the sorcery speed casting, which is hardly a drawback given all the possible applications of "Destroy target permanent". From planewalkers to annoying lands, Vindicate can answer literally everything without Indestructibility, Hexproof, or Shroud. Usually, I use Vindicate to answer planeswalkers since it is one of only few ways that can accomplish that task. If I have no land destruction, Strip Mine, or someone has no way to handle a Gaea's Cradle, I have used Vindicate in those particular situations. Overall, Vindicate is pretty much the perfect removal spell and should be included in any deck if budget is not an issue towards the card.
The original board wipe, Wrath of God is still a great way of cleaning the board of creatures. The regeneration clause may not be as relevant today as it once was, but I still enjoy having the option given the occasional possibility of running into a Thrun player or something of that nature. Like Supreme Verdict, Wrath of God provides a cheap way to allow me to continue to build my board state around my stax effects, while helping keep some of the heat off me if I am lacking in pillowfort effects. If your meta does not face a lot of regeneration, I think Day of Judgment is another possibility and could replace Wrath of God for budget reasons.
Besides having amazing flavor for the original Weatherlight storyline, Academy Ruins is a great version of Volrath's Stronghold for artifacts that this deck is happy to have. While it does not get probably as much use as other utility lands in this deck, Academy Ruins provides a strong recursion effect for 20+ cards in this deck, which I think ultimately warrants the inclusion of the Academy even if it does not get to activate every single game. If budget was an issue, I could see potentially removing this card, as the use of it will vary depending on land destruction, graveyard hate, and how much artifact removal you see, but if you have the card or have been looking to pick one up for a deck, it can function well here.
Ancient Tomb is one of my personal favorite utility lands. Sure, you will be taking a Shock's worth of damage every time it is activated, but the potential to accelerate early or post-land wipe is incredible for this deck. With this in hand, you can easily drop most of this decks mana rocks into play on turn one, or even accelerate into an early Smokestack. The potential applications for Ancient Tomb are seemingly limitless, and if Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth or Chromatic Lantern are in play, you can even substitute the mana ramp for a traditional land. One of the few must-have lands for this deck I feel because of all the potential the card has.
Together with Faerie Conclave and Mishra's Factory, Creeping Tar-Pit makes up some of my main win conditions for this deck. Because Tar-Pit has the unblockable ability, Swords are extremely ideal to have with it on the field. Tar-Pit also is used to get around blockers when attacking planeswalkers, something that can sometimes be a problem, depending on the meta. In addition to being such a great man land, Tar-Pit is also a dual land for, that while a come-into-play-tapped land, still provides a cheap way to mana fix early game if needed. Usually I save Creeping Tar-Pit until I have enough mana to activate it however, unless the mana fixing is somehow desperate.
Between Kor Haven and Maze of Ith, this deck runs two additional pillowfort effects in land slots. Kor Haven provides not only pillowforting, but mana production as well. Similar to that of Maze of Ith, the mere presence of open mana and Kor Haven usually will deter attackers. Overall, a great land that is also a mini-budget Maze of Ith, of sorts.
Maze of Ith is an amazing pillowfort effect that simply laughs off any attacker with no protection from being targeted. What I love about Maze is the sheer sight of it will often discourage attackers, or at the very least cause aggro players to rethink how they are going to steer their forces during the combat phase. Once you establish even one of the the deck's taxing pillowfort enchantments, it can become even more frustrating for opponents attempting to attack through your defenses. Ultimately Maze only has a small drawback in not producing mana, which even that drawback can be overcome through Chromatic Lantern or Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth.
Mishra's Factory has been beaten out in abilities many times since the original printing of it, but that has not stopped it from pulling off wins for this deck. Mishra's Factory makes up for the lack of abilities with a super cheap activation cost for a great power/toughness ratio. For a simple three mana, the Factory activates and swings with Swords. Even without Swords, the Factory can attack for decent damage, plus be an effective blocker. While many man lands have come along since the first days of Mishra's Factory, like Faerie Conclave, the Factory can still hang with the best of them and provide excellent support on a land.
Since this deck does not have access to Tolarian Academy due to it's banning, the next best thing for powerful mana acceleration is found on Serra's Sanctum. This deck has a total of 19 enchantments, with usually at least two on the field at any given time, making Serra's Sanctum another Ancient Tomb at the very least. Dropping this post-land wipe with any sort of enchantment support usually puts the deck well ahead of other opponents. This deck has been tweaked to help make good use of Serra's Sanctum as well, by adding in additional removal methods such as Seal of Cleansing and Aura of Silence that effectively ramp with Sanctum and double as tax/removal. With Tolarian Academy probably never being unbanned for rightful reasons, Serra's Sanctum will continue to be highly relevant for this deck.
Sometimes this deck only needs targeted land removal for those pesky Gaea's Cradles or Volrath's Strongholds over mass land destruction. Because of this need, Strip Mine serves a needed purpose, which if combined with Wasteland would offer a great spot removal suite for other lands. Currently I do not run Wasteland, but if you do not see the need in one of the three man lands, then perhaps swapping one of those out for Wasteland would work. Either way, running the classic Strip Mine is a great call that is needed in many metas, regardless of if a full suite of targeted land removal is employed. After all, this deck still has many ways to removal lands.
Fighting Combo can sometimes feel like a daunting task, luckily this deck thrives against greedy players aiming to play a quick game. If combo plans to excel between turns 4-7, this deck can greatly slow down their capacity to do so through Aura of Silence, Nether Void, Humility, and Torpor Orb. By utilizing Aura of Silence and Nether Void, taxing your opponents combo pieces can greatly reduce their ability to essentially vomit their combo pieces onto the board state. In the case of Aura of Silence, you will also have removal ready at any given point to help disrupt their combo before it can fully assemble. Humility and Torpor Orb become your best friend against creature based combos, and together with Leyline of the Void should hold off any potential Persist or Undying combos. I have a fair amount of experience with this deck agaisnt combo players in my meta found in Sedris, the Traitor King and Ghave, Guru of Spores, so this deck has plenty of disruption against such things.
How to fight Punisher:
Punisher is an archtype that first appeared in my meta in late 2012 with a Rakdos theme deck that eventually morphed into a full punisher deck with Mana Barbs and Havoc Festival ensuring plenty of pain as they were accompanied by a variety of cards such as Sorin Markov and Exquisite Blood. Against decks such as this, the key cards you will need will be Aura of Silence, Seal of Cleansing, Return to Dust, or any combination of spells dealing with enchantment and artifact removal. Preferably Aura of Silence and Seal of Cleansing will provide incredible slow down for the punisher player, with Aura of Silence almost ensuring they never fully establish a board prescense without some enchantment removal via Oblivion Stone or Chaos Warp. Rakdos and Grixis colored decks struggle against this deck's ability to put stax enchantments into play, with little removal to handle them, so pushing that strategy has proven useful in the past. Since punisher pieces are often usually within the four or five mana range, utilizing tax effects with land destruction can tremendously slow them down. As an added bonus, usually the table often will notice a punisher players pieces and aim to aid in taking them down fearing a quick match, playing perfectly into the stax plan of excelling in the mid-to-late game.
How to fight Stax:
Fighting fellow stax players can actually make for a very enjoyable and strategic game. Since both decks will be designed with low mana curves, plenty of sacrifice fodder, and plenty of removal, the game can become a chess match as each player seemingly baits and races to establish locks while dodging removal and taxing effects. The best course of action against such decks is to utilize the removal found in Seal of Cleansing, Return to Dust, and Aura of Silence to hold off their own stax pieces, hopefully providing enough time to strap a token or man land with a Sword and swing. If the opponent's stax deck is not equipped with any pillowfort effects, and is not a hate-bear stax deck, then your Swords should get through relatively unharmed. Alternatively stax sometimes cannot thrive against a relentless aggro assault, so attempting to get in as much damage as quickly as possible is one route, ultimately however, fighting a fellow stax deck will involve identifying what type of stax it is, knowing the cards that play of each other, and knowing how to anticipate your opponent's next move carefully as you play around similar amounts of removal or counterspells.
How to fight Swarm/Tokens/Aggro:
Swarm, tokens, and aggro are all separate strategies that still usually all function similarly: using creatures to try and win the game. Luckily for this deck, but not for our aggro-loving opponents, we have pillowfort effects found in Ghostly Prison, No Mercy, and Maze of Ith to name a few. Any of these cards will usually work wonders against an opponents who aims to race against our stax effects. If your opponent does stick quite an army of creatures, and you find yourself without any sort of defensive measures, then the best bet is to focus everything on seeking out some wrath effect. Again, this deck also employs quite a few cards in that category. If you are fighting voltron aggro, then usually something like Hallowed Burial will set that opponent out of the game for a while. Against tokens or swarm strategies, try and establish Night of Souls' Betrayal, later attempting to grab Humility to lock creatures out for good. Just resolving Night of Souls' Betrayal will hold off most aggro strategies initially. Usually I have found that this deck does pretty well versus these particular strategies, despite a token decks ability to fight Smokestack and small stax effects. Like most non-stax decks, simply pulling the lands out from under your opponent will hold off their bigger plans as you continue to function due to low mana curve and the abundance of mana rocks in this deck.
How to fight Reanimator:
Reanimator stategies are something this deck has to fight pretty regularily as the meta's Sedris, the Traitor King deck loves to push combo/reanimation to achieve victory. The Adun Oakenshield deck, while not all-in reanimator, does attempt to abuse the graveyard as well. Together, these two decks are my main ways on knowing how to handle reanimator. First and foremost, if you see Leyline of the Void in your hand, attempt to get it into play fast and early on. For Grixis and Rakdos reanimator especially, the use of Leyline of the Void simply locks up any attempt to push a graveyard until the opponent can find one of the very few ways to deal with enchantments in those color schemes. Golgari, Jund, Necra, and Ana reanimator decks are totally different beasts than any other, with enough removal options at their disposal that simply sticking a Leyline of the Void or even Nihil Spellbomb will not do usually. Luckily for us, we have tuck effects easily accessible in the Esper shard. Hallowed Burial, which this deck runs, as well as Merciless Eviction, Final Judgment, and/or Terminus are all possible options to combat extreme reanimator strategies. The game against reanimator can be fast like in my meta's case of Sedris combo/reanimator, in which well timed graveyard removal is needed. In more attrition-based reanimator decks, your opponents will probably attempt to bait the table's graveyard removal throughout the course of the game, making for a much more interaction game, though more problematic as this deck runs out of graveyard removal. Overall, reanimator decks can be very fun to fight, but a challenging balance is needed when deciding which board wipes to run for your deck. In a meta where Wrath of God may shine, another may need all the tuck wrath spells available to help combat graveyard-abusing strategies.
Disenchant was always solid, being both instant speed and versitile in removing two types of cards however, I have seen a rise in artifacts in my meta to even higher levels than before leaving me wanting more removal against it. I went with Dust to Dust largely due to the ability to exile, and while it is sorcery speed, it still usually preforms well. Trinket Mage came out as I began to remove more and more creatures from the initial build. With Torpor Orb in, Trinket Mage became even more useless, as well in a decrease in what could actually be fetched via it. Cyclonic Rift is pretty much a win condition by itself. Bouncing everything, then following up with Armageddon pretty much ends a game right there.
Isperia just never seemed to help more than a small number of occasions. Six mana to drop for a creature that only draws 1-2 cards max is too much, plus Humility absolutely hosed it. Isperia had been in as a pillowfort effect, so in keeping to that ability, I added in Sphere of Safety. The Sphere has been great so far, and allowed for me to marginally shrink my Mana Curve. Rest in Peace was traded for an asymmetrical effect against Graveyards courtsey of Leyline of the Void, which has proven to be a great asset against most of the decks I've faced.
Academy Rector is a great card, but with a minimum amount of sacrifice outlets outside of Smokestack, I had trouble getting the tutor off. This change also comes a continued move away from creatures and into more static effects. Elspeth had been on my watch list for a while, so I finally picked one up and added it to this list. Aside from her incredibly powerful ultimate, she helps upkeep Smokestack and Braids, along with providing a great way to buff my tokens.
As part of a move to increase the number of basics, as well as add in an alternative win condition, I removed the Pain Lands in favor of Inkmoth Nexus and a couple basics. Removing Braids was a tough call, but ultimately arose out of how I usually only drew into her late game at a point that often meant she was useless. Land Equilibrium has been pretty solid throughout the run it has had within the deck. If it comes down early the game pretty much can begin to stall for opponents. Land Tax had been a decent card in my list, but I either never had it online before a land wipe to maximize use of it. Sensei's Divining Top works great within the deck, helping smooth over draws and land drops. Combined with a couple shuffle effects via tutor or fetch lands helps Top out even more. The switch to Sword of Fire and Ice is largely due to the lack of mill support to run alongside Sword of Body and Mind. If this list ran Jace, Memory Adept to help mill then it Sword of Body and Mind might make it back into the list. Sword of Fire and Ice provides more draw power and removal that helps aid more overall to the gameplan of this deck.
After playing with Inkmoth Nexus more I found the want to add in another Man Land to help attack later in the game. Creeping Tar Pit is one of the best ever printed, providing both a way to get Sword triggers, as well as a way to effectively take out opponents Planeswalkers. The loss of Wrath of God means a slightly greater ability to hurt Commander-specific decks via Hallowed Burial's ability to tuck. This change could eventually be reversed, but for now it is what I feel the deck needs a little more.
After getting in some more games with Hallowed Burial, I realized I was lacking a good board wipe at the 4 CMC range. Wrath is able to be played for one less, and with the amount of Graveyard removal this deck currently uses, I didn't find the ability to tuck all that useful overall.
No Mercy was usually 50/50 on usefulness for me. If I had nothing for the Voltron deck player in our meta, he would just take destroying his creature if it meant lethal damage to knock me out of the game. The Graveyard decks would swing without worry, while those lacking recursion would be deterred. I had been wanting to add Braids back to the list after wanting to have another Smokestack effect for the early game.
Removed a lot of the deck over the past month or more, making the following changes. The main one being a general swap from Lady Evangela to Dromar, the Banisher. Dromar provides a win condition on a stalled out board, as well as serving as a board wipe of sorts. Dromar easily helps the deck out when compared to what Lady Evangela was doing for it. The other changes include switching to the Keyrunes to additional sword carriers as the number of creatures continues to drop in my list. Adding in two of the original dual lands should help smooth over mana even more than before. The remaining changes are mostly to see how I like Mishra's Factory and Faerie Conclave as Man Lands, as well as a couple additional tutors, wraths, etc.
Maybe it was just the timing every match, but I never actually got to use Soltari more than once. Every time he was on the field, he never lasted a rotation, either drawing spot removal, someone else played something to warrant a wrath, etc. He might still be worth playing, but for now I'm just going to run spell based removal to perform a similar role. Also had the problem of him only dealing with Enchantments, which while powerful, I also wanted to remove Artifacts as well. Seal has some great synergy with Sun Titan, Serra's Sanctum, and Sphere of Safety as well.
Exquisite Blood was just drawing too much attention from the table whenever it was played. Instead of attacking each other, it became an all out attack to attack me to have me not benefit from it. Adding Replenish helps to recur my destroyed enchantments, which overall will help more than Exquisite Blood. I pulled Mystical Tutor in an effort to drop back down the number of tutors, plus adding in Night of Souls' Betrayal gives me some added defense in my meta infested with tokens and utility creatures, with the added bonus of locking out creatures with Humility. Dropping Kismet might be just temporary, but I needed Pendrell Mists back in to combat the times where a couple players in my meta can go infinite tokens, or amass a token army. This helps slow down aggro early game as well. Removing Stoneforge Mystic is mostly due to her acting negatively with Torpor Orb, as well as only previously having two Equipments to actually search for. Sword of Feast and Famine is great for helping hurt an opponents hand as a resource, as well as providing some mana fuel by untapping my lands.
No Mercy replaces Braids due to wanting to bring in a greater amount of pillowfort effects, and has been in and out of the deck in the past, but has proven itself over Braids more so. Braids was useful when she landed early, and while she carried a Sword like a champ, she was often terrible late game. Devastation Tide had the problem of resetting my own board state, something that caused me more problems than my opponents often times, even though it had the option to Miracle. I often wished that Devastation Tide was a more traditional creature wipe, so adding Hallowed Burial works great at providing a way to handle the increase in recursion and graveyard based combo strategies of the past few months and is the exact same mana cost as Tide. Ill-Gotten Gains was brought in to give the deck more recursion strageties of it's own, and recurs a lot of the deck that Crucible of Worlds and Replenish were not able to.
Pendrell Mists unfortunately did not work out well for this deck in the long-run. At first, it served as excellent taxing on my opponents, but as the meta added more removal, specifically the combo Ghave player that Pendrell Mists effected the most, the usefulness of Pendrell Mists ultimately diminished. By adding Jace, the Mind Sculptor the deck gained some additional draw power and card advantage engine, with the ability to function as a win condition as well. Sculpting Steel was nice ultility, but Dark Confidant provides solid card draw and functions as a Sword carrier as well. Terminus is a strict upgrade over Hallowed Burial with the addition of Jace, leading to even easier Miracle rigging if need be. Merciless Eviction was excellent in testing, providing the increasingly needed ability to exile, as well as deal with planeswalkers.
I removed the two non-basic lands in an effort to up my basic land count to play around the increasing non-basic land hate in the form of Blood Moon and Ruination that is in my meta. I enjoyed both of the lands for the most part, but this is mostly a meta gaming change. If your meta has little non-basic land hate, then these are still two very solid options. Smokestack has gotten progressively worse for me as my meta has adapted to stax strategies over the past year. Land destruction however, has still been effective for me. Since Ravages of War is out of budget currently, Cataclysm was brought in to help me have a better "reset button" for games that get out of control. The card is especially effective against greedier players who love to play their hands out.
Forcefield has proven to be far superior pillowforting than Blind Obedience ever could. The extort mechanic was rarely utilized, leaving this as little more than a bad Kismet effect. I dropped Desolation for Cursed Totem due to a massive rise in non-ETB creatures in my meta with a large variety of abilities that this can help lock-out. Tamiyo slowly became little more than a five mana tap-down effect for one turn, or perhaps draw a few cards. The emblem was great, but makes you an even bigger target than just playing a stax deck does already. Thassa is a recent addition, but I like the subtle card advantage she gives, especially when digging for an answer. Her ability to help generate Sword triggers, or damage in general, is a great bonus.
Well, this update came after around 2 months or so of testing both Oloro and the removal of the Sword package. Overall, I feel that these changes are more in line with what I am feeling for taking the deck by adding a great control planeswalker, good card draw and possible win con with Erebos, and Karmic Justice for additional protection for my deck. With the removal of the Swords also came the loss of Mishra's Factory. It's just not as good without a way to push through damage.
CARDS UNDER CONSIDERATION / CURRENTLY TESTING:
Black Sun's Zenith - When combined with Humility this is a three mana board wipe, even getting around indestructibility. Without Humility, Black Sun is still a cheap, recurring board wipe that could be useful versus the utility and token creatures that are found within my meta.
Collective Restraint - A true supplement to Ghostly Prison, Propaganda, and Sphere of Safety is found through Collective Restraint, making it even harder to hit me with creatures. Collective Restraint also scales nicely with the original dual lands and shock lands. It may eventually make it into this deck, but I am wary of it not being useful with land destruction.
Future Sight - The triple blue in this card's mana could be a slight problem, and is probably my primary reason it is not currently in the deck. It would help smooth my draws, which is something I would like to increase as well.
Oblation - Path to Exile is an incredibly cheap way to remove creatures, but at the cost of providing my opponents land. In this deck, that trade-off can sometimes back fire against some of my stax effects. Oblation still provides some benefit for my opponent, but two cards against Nether Void or zero lands rarely would be a problem. Oblation also provides the ability to tuck generals, something that is pretty revelant in my meta.
Overburden - Considering I run such a small amount of nontoken creatures, I think this could be a solid inclusion here. Bouncing land is a pretty nice effect for a two mana enchantment.
Umezawa's Jitte - This was recommended to me for this list, and I could potentially see it being useful. All three of the Jitte's abilities are fairly relevant. Buffing can help my tokens out, the lifegain is certainly helpful between a couple of the bleeder effects, and the removal option could help take out utility creatures similar to that of Sword of Fire and Ice.
Don't run Rest in Peace, it will kill you because your deck recurs more than you've planned.
Trust me, Leyline of the Void is much better than Rest in Peace. I just read the comment about your meta, so maybe you should try to run both if it's too graveyard oriented.
I'd up your basic count if your meta is non-basic land hate and/or Back to Basics.
I need to lower my non-basics for sure. Currently almost every deck with red in it contains ruination which just wrecks the current mana base, on top of already facing land destruction in general. If i dropped my non-basics down, I would consider running Back to Basics. Out of the lands that I currently run what's your recommendation on ones to remove?
Leyline of the Void was in the first build I had of the deck and would like to work it back in, perhaps you're right on Rest in Peace, but it has proven useful the times it has been played. Without a salvaging station package tormod's crypt and nihil spellbomb could possibly be replaced with Leyline?
Don't run Rest in Peace, it will kill you because your deck recurs more than you've planned.
Trust me, Leyline of the Void is much better than Rest in Peace. I just read the comment about your meta, so maybe you should try to run both if it's too graveyard oriented.
I'd up your basic count if your meta is non-basic land hate and/or Back to Basics.
I didn't pay him to say that, by the way. I just look like different strategies of magic differently. After playing differently strategies throughout the years, I got really, really bored of aggro and combo.
Honestly, I'm surprised people in my playgroup tolerate my terrible Stax decks I've created in the past two and half years. I was extremely surprised that Dan, Patrick, Andy and a few others decided to meta game against me. Most EDH players feel like meta gaming is bad for the format, but that's all bologna.
The entirely of magic's competitive field is one big meta game. (This doesn't only applies to tournaments)
What is the remainder of the meta? If you tell me what general, colour scheme, casual/competitive, I can help sculpt what cards will fit the deck the best.
I didn't pay him to say that, by the way. I just look like different strategies of magic differently. After playing differently strategies throughout the years, I got really, really bored of aggro and combo.
Honestly, I'm surprised people in my playgroup tolerate my terrible Stax decks I've created in the past two and half years. I was extremely surprised that Dan, Patrick, Andy and a few others decided to meta game against me. Most EDH players feel like meta gaming is bad for the format, but that's all bologna.
The entirely of magic's competitive field is one big meta game. (This doesn't only applies to tournaments)
What is the remainder of the meta? If you tell me what general, colour scheme, casual/competitive, I can help sculpt what cards will fit the deck the best.
You actually meta gamed against norin when I could play Saturdays. It was awesome.
Also, cyclonic rift. Play it, love it, worship it. It's a huge win con here. I you even have the slightest board presence, it's near impossible for the table to recover. Especially with tax and stax effects down.
This card is an auto include.
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The EDH stax primer When you absolutely, positively got to kill every permanent in the room, accept no substitutes.
@Bacon, I play in a meta with a varation of casual and competitive. My usual meta consists of ghave combo, jor kadeen.landdestruction, bruna volton/control, sedris reanimator, oona combo/control, olivia aggro, a norin list similar to gaka's and recently one dude has decided to try and build skeleton ship in a similar way to Galspanic's list. I would say ghave is probably the overall strongest as the deck is loaded with so much synergy that it combos with easy, but can be disrupted if hit early. The bruna player typically tries to control most of the game, with bruna serving as a classic control finisher however, complete with land destruction. Sedris and Olivia are easy for the most part due to their "all-in" approach the players took with them.
@Philonous, I agree on cyclonic rift, it should be added. Actually have a copy in the mail that I ordered, but what to take out? Recently I'd say land tax isn't really worth it, but on the occassion that I do get an activation from it, it can be useful.
Got in a lot of good testing on friday with this list. I can easily say that for right now, Dust to Dust is going to replace Disenchant. While Disenchant is instant speed and hits enchantments, there are too many artifacts and recursion for them to not include Dust to Dust atm. For reference, I was playing against Norin, Jor Kadeen, Olivia, and Sedris mostly. In one of the longer games, I landed Rest in Peace early on and completely locked recursion strategies for most of the game as Sedris, Norin, and Olivia all lacked many options to deal with enchantments beyond things like Chaos Warp, Oblivion Stone, etc. For now, I still like Rest in Peace, and while it did hurt me some, I felt like it was hurting my opponents far more.
Also, my Cyclonic Rift came in the mail this weekend, as well as a Sphere of Safety, so I am looking to work them into the list this week.
EDIT: Forgot to add that I ended up swapping out Trinket Mage for Cyclonic Rift. Still looking at possibly working in Sphere of Safety.
I prefer the Arbiter over Crawlspace, but am running Crawlspace in Bruna over him just because of the difference in mana cost of the two. Sphere works for you though; you usually have anywhere between 4-6 enchantments on field or more late game.
I prefer the Arbiter over Crawlspace, but am running Crawlspace in Bruna over him just because of the difference in mana cost of the two. Sphere works for you though; you usually have anywhere between 4-6 enchantments on field or more late game.
I agree Crawlspace is good, drops for 1 less, and provides a similar effect on an artifact. However, the arbiter provides greater protection with a more expensive mana cost and easier to remove body. Sphere of Safety needs to be added to the list, with all my enchantments it could be great. I think it will take Isperia's spot.
In other news, got to really test Cyclonic Rift some more, absolutely incredible when followed up with land destruction. Also can safely say that Jace, Architect of Thought is here to stay, his draw has been extremely useful, the pillowfort-like ability is always relevant with all the tokens in my meta, and the ultimate is game ending. I'm looking at removing Isperia, Surpreme Judge, hasn't proven to be all that useful lately and Sphere of Safety looks great for this list.
have you tried portcullis? Only allows 2 creatures in play at a time. Combined with Torpor orb it's brutal.
I think I've showed you this card before, but I would agree thats a nasty combo with Torpor Orb. Definitely second this; prolly should happen. And I've already got one you could get to playtest it.
I think I've showed you this card before, but I would agree thats a nasty combo with Torpor Orb. Definitely second this; prolly should happen. And I've already got one you could get to playtest it.
I think I will try test playing it. I recently pulled out Isperia so this could take her place for testing. Also trying to test out Sphere of Safety so deciding between the two might be hard.
What do either of you recommend taking out for Portcullis and Sphere of Safety?
I really like Meishin, the Mind Cage more than Bridge. But I try and keep full grips of cards.
Meishin has the triple blue that I'm always worried about hitting with constantly wrathed lands in my meta and in this deck. It's the same problem I have with Future Sight. I would have no problem in a dual color deck, but with the triple mana base, it makes me iffy. I think that the bridge and Meishin are both great, just not sure if they would be worth it? I know I usually keep a solid amount of cards in hand, so I don't see either being terrible.
Between these, Portcullis and Sphere of Safety though, what would be worth pulling out for them to be tested?
Updated the list to include Sphere of Safety in place of Isperia, Supreme Judge. Isperia never seemed to really work well, and was useless in a Humility creature-lock. Sphere of Safety allows me to protect my planeswalkers better, and provides more support for the pillowfort subtheme to my deck.
Between these, Portcullis and Sphere of Safety though, what would be worth pulling out for them to be tested?
The defensive cards do different things. Crawlspace protects YOU from tokens/creature masses. Silent arbiter protects EVERYONE from creature masses. Portcullis throttles creatures coming into play, (very effectively) protecting EVERYONE. Sphere of Safety is (usually) like a better Propaganda, protecting YOU from everything when opponents don't have mana.
Furthermore, Propaganda and Crawlspace seem to have a bit of anti synergy. The less creatures attacking, the less bothersome the mana cost of doing so is. I am not saying to cut Crawlspace, just pointing out the interaction - they both can save your hide in different ways.
How likely are your opponents to attack you vs attacking someone else when given the choice? If the choice is for an opponents creature to attack a different opponent, or stay at home brooding about your cards, you want it attacking your opponent. Land destruction being in your deck as well as Jor Kadeen and Bruna, plus your tax effects, make the sphere look awfully inviting as the first priority of what to add.
I really like portcullis as a control card, but would be wary of opponents using it to deny you your tokens while you have an active smokestack/braids.
Thanks for the reply Mojo Rhino. Currently Crawlspace is not in the decklist and overall, I agree with much of what you said about it and Silent Arbiter. Both are still pretty good pillowfort-style cards, however, they are inferior in many ways to the options available like Sphere of Safety.
Portcullis is still a card I am unsure on. I get that it can help lock a game creature wise, but it also does nothing for my tokens if I am reading it correct? Plus without torpor orb, they still get their ETB abilities. Overall, not really sold on it's inclusion.
Great comments though, keep them coming! Always looking to improve this list.
Portcullis is still a card I am unsure on. I get that it can help lock a game creature wise, but it also does nothing for my tokens if I am reading it correct? Plus without torpor orb, they still get their ETB abilities. Overall, not really sold on it's inclusion.
Yes, I am pretty sure with Portcullis they come into play and then are exiled. Your tokens are gone forever and CiP triggers hit the stack. Someone else will have to help advice for your deck... probably is meta dependent on how how potent the CiP triggers you face. I kind of want to try it in a blink deck now though.
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Yes, I am pretty sure with Portcullis they come into play and then are exiled. Your tokens are gone forever and CiP triggers hit the stack. Someone else will have to help advice for your deck... probably is meta dependent on how how potent the CiP triggers you face. I kind of want to try it in a blink deck now though.
Yeah, overall I just am not sold on Portcullis, so for now it stays out of the list. I think it could be fun in a blink deck though, maybe a more controlling build of ISBPathfinder's Jenara list.
The only thing that I can see you pulling out for Elspeth is Braids. Which is still a solid card in your deck list. Although every time I've seen you get it recently you have pitched it; not sure if she was a dead draw or just wrong timing for her, but that's my suggestion.
The only thing that I can see you pulling out for Elspeth is Braids. Which is still a solid card in your deck list. Although every time I've seen you get it recently you have pitched it; not sure if she was a dead draw or just wrong timing for her, but that's my suggestion.
I still like Braids, but haven't been able to really draw into her early on lately, and usually spend the tutors fetching up something other than her when I get them. I'm actually debating pulling out Academy Rector for Elspeth, Knight-Errant instead. My build doesn't run enough sac outlets that I can control Rector with, so unless I cast him under smokestack/Braids, he usually just either sits there hoping for a chum block or gets in small damage. I think for now I will test Elspeth and see if I miss Academy Rector any.
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Originally this deck started out in May 2012 as a Teysa, Orzhov Scion BW stax deck with a heavy token and tax theme, supported by a few planeswalkers and removal spells. When I started I threw in cards like Hero of Bladehold and Desolation Angel. Playing a BW stax list offered a great way into the archetype. White allowed for incredibly cheap land destruction, board wipes, and Elspeth, Knight-Errant. Black on the other hand, offered oppressive lock-out enchantments like Nether Void, Desolation, and the great planeswalker that is Liliana of the Veil. While these were solid cards, I began to want more land destruction to increase the power of cards like Nether Void and so I moved to playing Tariel, Reckoner of Souls.
Under Tariel, my list gained several new land destruction spells and great token producers like Kher Keep and Goblin Assault. This version of the list also began to introduce pillowfort cards into it to further support the power of taxing effects. Cards like No Mercy and Koskun Falls were great at deflecting attacks long enough to establish the stax effects. Having access to the BWR color scheme also allowed access to the best that red had to offer in the Planeswalker category: Ajani Vengeant, Sarkhan the Mad, and Chandra, the Firebrand. While Tariel and her colors were great, the lack of true card draw and dedicated tax cards outside of white left me ultimately looking at making the switch to Esper stax.
In late Summer 2012, the deck made the switch into the current form as an Esper stax build with Lady Evangela as the general. With Lady Evangela heading the deck, I decided to expand the pillowforting cards to become a major aspect of the deck. Adding blue allowed for Propaganda, Frozen Aether, and Jace, Architect of Thought. By adding these in beside Sphere of Safety, Ghostly Prison, and others, the deck gained a dedicated pillowfort subtheme. These cards worked great with the land destruction packages of the deck, forcing opponents to tap mana they didn't have to attack you.
By January of 2013, after months of using Lady Evangela, the deck finally made a general switch to using Dromar, the Banisher. With Dromar, the deck that was built under Lady Evangela largely remained the same, but with the addition of the general functioning as a win condition.
In November of 2013 the decklist once again made a general change, this time to Oloro, Ageless Ascetic. While Dromar performed relatively great over the months he was used, Oloro provides excellent support through life gain, as well as card draw. Currently the deck has been preforming great in my meta, and is a great deck to play if you enjoy really planning and thinking out a gameplan that challenges your opponents and yourself every game you play.
1 Oloro, Ageless Ascetic
Artifacts - 18
1 Azorius Signet
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Cursed Totem
1 Dimir Keyrune
1 Dimir Signet
1 Fellwar Stone
1 Forcefield
1 Mana Vault
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
1 Talisman of Dominance
1 Talisman of Progress
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Torpor Orb
1 Trading Post
Creatures - 4
1 Dark Confidant
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
1 Sun Titan
1 Thassa, God of the Sea
Enchantments - 18
1 Aura of Silence
1 Bitterblossom
1 Ghostly Prison
1 Humility
1 Karmic Justice
1 Land Equilibrium
1 Land Tax
1 Leyline of the Void
1 Mana Vortex
1 Mystic Remora
1 Nether Void
1 Night of Souls' Betrayal
1 No Mercy
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Propaganda
1 Rhystic Study
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Sphere of Safety
1 Gideon Jura
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
Spells - 17
1 Armageddon
1 Cataclysm
1 Catastrophe
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Lim-Dûl's Vault
1 Merciless Eviction
1 Path to Exile
1 Replenish
1 Return to Dust
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Terminus
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Vindicate
1 Wrath of God
Lands - 36
1 Academy Ruins
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Command Tower
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Fetid Heath
1 Flooded Strand
1 Godless Shrine
1 Hallowed Fountain
6 Island
1 Kor Haven
1 Marsh Flats
1 Maze of Ith
1 Mystic Gate
6 Plains
1 Scrubland
1 Serra's Sanctum
1 Strip Mine
1 Sunken Ruins
5 Swamp
1 Tundra
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Watery Grave
1 Oloro, Ageless Ascetic
Pillowfort
1 Forcefield
1 Ghostly Prison
1 Gideon Jura
1 Karmic Justice
1 No Mercy
1 Propaganda
1 Sphere of Safety
Stax/Tax/Lock-Out
1 Aura of Silence
1 Cursed Totem
1 Humility
1 Land Equilibrium
1 Mana Vortex
1 Nether Void
1 Night of Souls' Betrayal
1 Torpor Orb
Draw/Filtering
1 Dark Confidant
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Lim-Dûl's Vault
1 Mystic Remora
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Rhystic Study
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Thassa, God of the Sea
Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Replenish
1 Sun Titan
Token Producers
1 Bitterblossom
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
1 Trading Post
Mana Rocks
1 Azorius Signet
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Dimir Keyrune
1 Dimir Signet
1 Fellwar Stone
1 Mana Vault
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Sol Ring
1 Talisman of Dominance
1 Talisman of Progress
Anti-Graveyard
1 Leyline of the Void
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Tormod's Crypt
Spot/Mass Removal
1 Armageddon
1 Cataclysm
1 Catastrophe
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Merciless Eviction
1 Path to Exile
1 Return to Dust
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Terminus
1 Vindicate
1 Wrath of God
1 Land Tax
Utility Lands
1 Academy Ruins
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Kor Haven
1 Maze of Ith
1 Strip Mine
Non-Basic Lands
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Command Tower
1 Fetid Heath
1 Flooded Strand
1 Godless Shrine
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Marsh Flats
1 Mystic Gate
1 Scrubland
1 Serra's Sanctum
1 Sunken Ruins
1 Tundra
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Watery Grave
Basic Lands
6 Island
6 Plains
5 Swamp
ARTIFACTS:
CREATURES:
ENCHANTMENTS:
PLANESWALKERS:
SPELLS:
LANDS:
[Primer] WUB Dromar, the Banisher Stax [SOON TO BE OLORO]
How to fight Combo:
How to fight Punisher:
How to fight Stax:
How to fight Swarm/Tokens/Aggro:
How to fight Reanimator:
As you can see, the meta has a mix of aggro/control within it, which creates a nice balance between every deck for the most part.
10/14/12:
-Disenchant, +Dust to Dust
-Trinket Mage, +Cyclonic Rift
10/29/12:
-Isperia, Supreme Judge, +Sphere of Safety
-Rest in Peace, +Leyline of the Void
11/9/12:
-Academy Rector, +Elspeth, Knight-Errant
11/23/12:
-Caves of Koilos, Underground River, Adarkar Wastes, +Inkmoth Nexus, Swamp, Plains
-Braids, Cabal Minion, +Land Equilibrium
-Land Tax, +Sensei's Divining Top
-Sword of Body and Mind, +Sword of Fire and Ice
12/1/12:
-Drowned Catacomb, +Creeping Tar Pit
-Wrath of God, +Hallowed Burial
12/13/12:
-Hallowed Burial, +Wrath of God
12/18/12:
-No Mercy, +Braids, Cabal Minion
1/23/13:
+Dimir Keyrune
+Mystical Tutor
+Exquisite Blood
+Azorius Keyrune
+Strip Mine
+Fairie Conclave
+Supreme Verdict
+Stoneforge Mystic
+Dromar, the Banisher
+Mishra's Factory
+Scrubland
+Tundra
+Blind Obedience
+Land Tax
+Soltari Visionary
2/1/13:
-Soltari Visionary, +Seal of Cleansing
3/7/13:
-Kismet, +Pendrell Mists
-Mystical Tutor, +Night of Souls' Betrayal
-Exquisite Blood, +Replenish
-Stoneforge Mystic, +Sword of Feast and Famine
5/30/13:
-Jace, Architect of Thought, +Ill-Gotten Gains
-Braids, Cabal Minion, +No Mercy
-Devastation Tide, +Hallowed Burial
7/9/13:
-Pendrell Mists, +Jace, the Mind Sculptor
-Sculpting Steel, +Dark Confidant
-Hallowed Burial, +Terminus
-Surpreme Verdict, +Merciless Eviction
8/18/13:
-Faerie Conclave, +Island
-Flagstones of Trokair, +Plains
-Smokestack, +Cataclysm
9/26/13:
-Blind Obedience, +Forcefield
-Desolation, +Cursed Totem
-Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, +Thassa, God of the Sea
11/11/13:
-Dromar, the Banisher, +Oloro, Ageless Ascetic
-Sword of War and Peace, +Karmic Justice
-Sword of Fire and Ice, +Gideon Jura
-Sword of Feast and Famine, +Erebos, God of the Dead
-Mishra's Factory, +Swamp
-Azorius Keyrune, +Dimir Signet
Black Sun's Zenith - When combined with Humility this is a three mana board wipe, even getting around indestructibility. Without Humility, Black Sun is still a cheap, recurring board wipe that could be useful versus the utility and token creatures that are found within my meta.
Collective Restraint - A true supplement to Ghostly Prison, Propaganda, and Sphere of Safety is found through Collective Restraint, making it even harder to hit me with creatures. Collective Restraint also scales nicely with the original dual lands and shock lands. It may eventually make it into this deck, but I am wary of it not being useful with land destruction.
Future Sight - The triple blue in this card's mana could be a slight problem, and is probably my primary reason it is not currently in the deck. It would help smooth my draws, which is something I would like to increase as well.
Oblation - Path to Exile is an incredibly cheap way to remove creatures, but at the cost of providing my opponents land. In this deck, that trade-off can sometimes back fire against some of my stax effects. Oblation still provides some benefit for my opponent, but two cards against Nether Void or zero lands rarely would be a problem. Oblation also provides the ability to tuck generals, something that is pretty revelant in my meta.
Overburden - Considering I run such a small amount of nontoken creatures, I think this could be a solid inclusion here. Bouncing land is a pretty nice effect for a two mana enchantment.
Umezawa's Jitte - This was recommended to me for this list, and I could potentially see it being useful. All three of the Jitte's abilities are fairly relevant. Buffing can help my tokens out, the lifegain is certainly helpful between a couple of the bleeder effects, and the removal option could help take out utility creatures similar to that of Sword of Fire and Ice.
[Primer] WUB Dromar, the Banisher Stax [SOON TO BE OLORO]
Don't run Rest in Peace, it will kill you because your deck recurs more than you've planned.
Trust me, Leyline of the Void is much better than Rest in Peace. I just read the comment about your meta, so maybe you should try to run both if it's too graveyard oriented.
I'd up your basic count if your meta is non-basic land hate and/or Back to Basics.
EDH
BWG Doran Suicide Tempo BWG
BUW Sharuum Midrange Control BUW
Leyline of the Void was in the first build I had of the deck and would like to work it back in, perhaps you're right on Rest in Peace, but it has proven useful the times it has been played. Without a salvaging station package tormod's crypt and nihil spellbomb could possibly be replaced with Leyline?
[Primer] WUB Dromar, the Banisher Stax [SOON TO BE OLORO]
Listen to everything this man says.
I didn't pay him to say that, by the way. I just look like different strategies of magic differently. After playing differently strategies throughout the years, I got really, really bored of aggro and combo.
Honestly, I'm surprised people in my playgroup tolerate my terrible Stax decks I've created in the past two and half years. I was extremely surprised that Dan, Patrick, Andy and a few others decided to meta game against me. Most EDH players feel like meta gaming is bad for the format, but that's all bologna.
The entirely of magic's competitive field is one big meta game. (This doesn't only applies to tournaments)
What is the remainder of the meta? If you tell me what general, colour scheme, casual/competitive, I can help sculpt what cards will fit the deck the best.
EDH
BWG Doran Suicide Tempo BWG
BUW Sharuum Midrange Control BUW
You actually meta gamed against norin when I could play Saturdays. It was awesome.
Also, cyclonic rift. Play it, love it, worship it. It's a huge win con here. I you even have the slightest board presence, it's near impossible for the table to recover. Especially with tax and stax effects down.
This card is an auto include.
The EDH stax primer
When you absolutely, positively got to kill every permanent in the room, accept no substitutes.
@Philonous, I agree on cyclonic rift, it should be added. Actually have a copy in the mail that I ordered, but what to take out? Recently I'd say land tax isn't really worth it, but on the occassion that I do get an activation from it, it can be useful.
[Primer] WUB Dromar, the Banisher Stax [SOON TO BE OLORO]
Also, humility can burn in the fiery pits of mount doom for all I care..
[Primer] - Jor Kadeen, Boros Legionnaire
WUBRGSliver Legion, Slynergistic Slivertastic BeatdownWUBRG
Here are some of the EDH decks I have to deal with...
[Primer] WUBDromar, the Banisher Esper StaxWUB
Also, my Cyclonic Rift came in the mail this weekend, as well as a Sphere of Safety, so I am looking to work them into the list this week.
EDIT: Forgot to add that I ended up swapping out Trinket Mage for Cyclonic Rift. Still looking at possibly working in Sphere of Safety.
[Primer] WUB Dromar, the Banisher Stax [SOON TO BE OLORO]
I prefer the Arbiter over Crawlspace, but am running Crawlspace in Bruna over him just because of the difference in mana cost of the two. Sphere works for you though; you usually have anywhere between 4-6 enchantments on field or more late game.
Signature made by Rivenor at Miraculous Recovery Signatures
EDH
[Primer] - BRG Adun Oakenshield: Jund Stax/Recycle Bin GRB
BRG Shatterbros Shenanigans GRB
I agree Crawlspace is good, drops for 1 less, and provides a similar effect on an artifact. However, the arbiter provides greater protection with a more expensive mana cost and easier to remove body. Sphere of Safety needs to be added to the list, with all my enchantments it could be great. I think it will take Isperia's spot.
In other news, got to really test Cyclonic Rift some more, absolutely incredible when followed up with land destruction. Also can safely say that Jace, Architect of Thought is here to stay, his draw has been extremely useful, the pillowfort-like ability is always relevant with all the tokens in my meta, and the ultimate is game ending. I'm looking at removing Isperia, Surpreme Judge, hasn't proven to be all that useful lately and Sphere of Safety looks great for this list.
[Primer] WUB Dromar, the Banisher Stax [SOON TO BE OLORO]
I think I've showed you this card before, but I would agree thats a nasty combo with Torpor Orb. Definitely second this; prolly should happen. And I've already got one you could get to playtest it.
Signature made by Rivenor at Miraculous Recovery Signatures
EDH
[Primer] - BRG Adun Oakenshield: Jund Stax/Recycle Bin GRB
BRG Shatterbros Shenanigans GRB
I think I will try test playing it. I recently pulled out Isperia so this could take her place for testing. Also trying to test out Sphere of Safety so deciding between the two might be hard.
What do either of you recommend taking out for Portcullis and Sphere of Safety?
[Primer] WUB Dromar, the Banisher Stax [SOON TO BE OLORO]
Another card to consider going in this slot is Ensnaring Bridge.
Signature made by Rivenor at Miraculous Recovery Signatures
EDH
[Primer] - BRG Adun Oakenshield: Jund Stax/Recycle Bin GRB
BRG Shatterbros Shenanigans GRB
I really like Meishin, the Mind Cage more than Bridge. But I try and keep full grips of cards.
Meishin has the triple blue that I'm always worried about hitting with constantly wrathed lands in my meta and in this deck. It's the same problem I have with Future Sight. I would have no problem in a dual color deck, but with the triple mana base, it makes me iffy. I think that the bridge and Meishin are both great, just not sure if they would be worth it? I know I usually keep a solid amount of cards in hand, so I don't see either being terrible.
Between these, Portcullis and Sphere of Safety though, what would be worth pulling out for them to be tested?
[Primer] WUB Dromar, the Banisher Stax [SOON TO BE OLORO]
EDIT: Also pulled Rest In Peace for Leyline of the Void
[Primer] WUB Dromar, the Banisher Stax [SOON TO BE OLORO]
The defensive cards do different things. Crawlspace protects YOU from tokens/creature masses. Silent arbiter protects EVERYONE from creature masses. Portcullis throttles creatures coming into play, (very effectively) protecting EVERYONE. Sphere of Safety is (usually) like a better Propaganda, protecting YOU from everything when opponents don't have mana.
Furthermore, Propaganda and Crawlspace seem to have a bit of anti synergy. The less creatures attacking, the less bothersome the mana cost of doing so is. I am not saying to cut Crawlspace, just pointing out the interaction - they both can save your hide in different ways.
How likely are your opponents to attack you vs attacking someone else when given the choice? If the choice is for an opponents creature to attack a different opponent, or stay at home brooding about your cards, you want it attacking your opponent. Land destruction being in your deck as well as Jor Kadeen and Bruna, plus your tax effects, make the sphere look awfully inviting as the first priority of what to add.
I really like portcullis as a control card, but would be wary of opponents using it to deny you your tokens while you have an active smokestack/braids.
Also with Sun titan being the only CiP effect, Torpor orb looks effective with and without Portcullis.
Gitrog Lands
Merieke Ri Berit Flicker
Ramos, Dragon Engine Storm
Portcullis is still a card I am unsure on. I get that it can help lock a game creature wise, but it also does nothing for my tokens if I am reading it correct? Plus without torpor orb, they still get their ETB abilities. Overall, not really sold on it's inclusion.
Great comments though, keep them coming! Always looking to improve this list.
[Primer] WUB Dromar, the Banisher Stax [SOON TO BE OLORO]
Yes, I am pretty sure with Portcullis they come into play and then are exiled. Your tokens are gone forever and CiP triggers hit the stack. Someone else will have to help advice for your deck... probably is meta dependent on how how potent the CiP triggers you face. I kind of want to try it in a blink deck now though.
Gitrog Lands
Merieke Ri Berit Flicker
Ramos, Dragon Engine Storm
Yeah, overall I just am not sold on Portcullis, so for now it stays out of the list. I think it could be fun in a blink deck though, maybe a more controlling build of ISBPathfinder's Jenara list.
EDIT: Finally got an Elspeth, Knight-Errant so looking at adding her to the list. Also, counter-magic is on the rise within my playgroup, so Supreme Verdict may replace Wrath of God soon.
[Primer] WUB Dromar, the Banisher Stax [SOON TO BE OLORO]
Signature made by Rivenor at Miraculous Recovery Signatures
EDH
[Primer] - BRG Adun Oakenshield: Jund Stax/Recycle Bin GRB
BRG Shatterbros Shenanigans GRB
I still like Braids, but haven't been able to really draw into her early on lately, and usually spend the tutors fetching up something other than her when I get them. I'm actually debating pulling out Academy Rector for Elspeth, Knight-Errant instead. My build doesn't run enough sac outlets that I can control Rector with, so unless I cast him under smokestack/Braids, he usually just either sits there hoping for a chum block or gets in small damage. I think for now I will test Elspeth and see if I miss Academy Rector any.
[Primer] WUB Dromar, the Banisher Stax [SOON TO BE OLORO]