So, I've loved Hokori for a long time. Another person mentioned Stax and showed me a deck they played that had a small stax package, and it was kinda neat. I didn't look at it again for a couple of weeks, but then I built my Lady Evangela pillowfort/Stax (Before seeing Phil already had one, Phil's is so much better, so I will never post mine) and I put Hokori in. and it just seemed like Hokori was going in all of my cruel control decks that had white in them, so I thought "Why not make REAL Hokori Stax?" and this monstrosity was born.
You may be looking for some kind of goal in this deck, some kind of win condition, yes? Well, there isn't one. You wipe their boars, you make them hate everything, and start swinging for lethal commander, if you can. Otherwise, just keep their board clear and keep yours cycling.
Here is the decklist. It is based entirely around ramping into a crap ton of denial and protection.
So, you wanna play Hokori? Well, some things you should know about this commander, and this deck.
First off, your game is going to be a long one, your deck is about putting pressure on your opponents and keeping them from doing anything, and a lot of your cards affect you as well. The trick in this deck is not playing any kind of right card at the right time; this deck is a very self-sufficient engine in that regard, but knowing how to save you from yourself. The balancing act in this deck is difficult, and might take you a while to fully master. When do you use Trading Post, and what for? What is worth getting back with Crucible? Do you grab Tangle Wire or a fetchland with your Sun Titan (You grab the Tangle wire, for the record)?
Stax is a deck that most people hate playing against, but honestly it’s just because they don’t understand. The goal of the game is usually to do more things and have more things in play, but Stax does the exact opposite, the goal is to get the board to be as small as possible. In fact, if you’re doing it right, the only things on the field should be Tangle Wire, Sun titan, and some very unhappy opponents. This is a deck that is okay with sacrificing its own permanents, a deck that like to nuke the lands, a deck that is totally okay with losing a lot of lands and creatures.
Play this deck if:
- You want a long game.
- You like control and denial strategies.
- You are not concerned about casual play.
- You like Artifacts.
- You want to.
Don’t play this deck if:
- You like creature based strategies.
- You want your opponents to like you.
- You hate Artifacts.
- You like to be aggressive.
- You want the game to last less than 30 minutes.
- You don’t want to.
- You cannot play Magic.
- You are a tree (That’s silly, tree, you cannot play Magic, you are a tree).
I think Phil (Owner of the Lady Evangela Pillowfort/Stax Primer, found here!) put it best with the line “Things we lost in the fire”. This deck has a package for getting things back that we take away from ourselves, such as Crucible of Worlds and Trading Post. Instead, though, of simply naming a few of the combos that work in the deck, I will be going into detail on every single card in the deck.
Card Explanations
Amulet of Vigor
Amulet of Vigor is in the deck to work around things like Orb of Dreams and Kismet, some of your own effects that will cause you great harm. This will keep your permanents working while your opponents struggle to catch up as this will usually leave them a number of turns behind you.
Barbed Wire
Barbed Wire is in the deck to put a little bit of pressure on them with damage that it will cost them dearly to prevent. Most players will not consider this card worth removing or paying for, until their life is dropping to critical levels and they have no permanents left to stop you. It’s also retrievable with Sun Titan, so we love it.
Coalition Relic
One of two CMC 3 mana rocks in the deck, Coalition Relic can double up our mana on critical turns and gets around our commander’s ability. Don’t use this mana rock all willy-nilly, save it to use for an extra mana if you can. If you really need to play things, of course, then don’t worry too much about it, but it is often worth the extra mana to wait.
Crucible of Worlds
Remember that phrase “Things We Lost in the Fire”? Well, this is one of the resources we will miss dearly: Our lands. Our lands will get blown up a lot with cards like Armageddon and Ravages of War, and even by our old friend Smokestack. This will let you bring back at least one of them every turn, and is, once again, returnable with Sun Titan. Seeing a theme here?
Darksteel Ingot
A CMC 3 artifact that is indestructible and gives us mana. This deck gets wiped a lot, wipes a lot, and needs a lot of mana rocks. Moving on.
Ensnaring Bridge
A CMC 3 artifact that keeps people from attacking us. While we may keep our hands at 3-4 cards usually, our hands are never so large that things like Titans and Dragons can connect normally. This hoses most Voltron or Overrun-style decks, and if our hand is empty, makes it impossible to attack us unless they have something like Dragon Hatchling in the deck, at which point, kindly ask your opponent to put any better card in that slot, like maybe a Shatterstorm.
Expedition Map
This artifact is CMC 1, making it returnable with both Sun Titan and Salvaging Station, and we will need that power to come back. It helps keep our lands coming, while staying at a low cost, the same CMC as a rampant growth, but it lets us put any kind of land into our hand. While it may be to our hand, we get two of them, and they don’t have to be basics.
Fellwar Stone
It’s CMC 2, so Sun Titan grabs it, it’s cheap, and it comes into play untapped. It may not always get us colored mana, but we need all the mana we can get once our lands are dead, and it’s returnable with our main fetch-guy.
Gilded Lotus
I know, I know, a bit high on the CMC here at 5, but this card adds three colored mana to our mana pool, and is one of the best mana rocks in the format. I absolutely love this card, and I have always been glad to draw it. It allows you to run a lot of rocks that don’t add any color, choosing speed over anything else, and also allows us to play a lot of our larger spells, even if we do have very few spells over cmc 4.
Mana Crypt
It can hurt us, but is returnable with both Sun Titan and Salvaging Station, and it makes us a lot of mana very fast. This is the perfect kind of mana rock for this deck, and should always get a slot.
Mana Vault
It is in this deck for the exact same reason as Mana Crypt, it would literally be the exact same explanation word for word.
Mana Web
CMC 3, so returnable with (You guessed it) Sun Titan! It keeps our opponents from saving any mana up while tapping others, and keeps control mages from saving counterspell mana for us, unless they choose just to skip using that color on their turn. I love the card every time I draw it, it’s especially powerful against monocolored decks. Red and Blue hate this card, even though they deal with it rather easy. White and Green don’t care much about this card.
Marble Diamond
In the deck for most of the same reasons as Fellwar Stone. Differences? It gives us colored mana and, sadly, comes into play tapped (Unless you control an Amulet of Vigor!).
Mind Stone
This is a Fellwar Stone that can be sacrificed to draw a card, and then returned with Sun Titan to do it all over again!
Mishra’s Helix
When you play this card, look at your opponents. Watch their heads droop a little, maybe get a sigh, or some disapproving nods. Laugh as the blue mages at the table all start tapping their islands to counter it at the same time the green mage tries to Krosan Grip it in case they didn’t counter. Do it, you’ll get a kick out of it. Okay, done now? Great, now to use it in case they didn’t instantly kill it! Play this card only if Hokori, Dust Drinker and/or Winter Orb are/is in play. Then, tap it for a lot, and begin tapping down your least favorite opponents. If you have a way of untapping your lands despite your own cars (you do) then you’re all set! You will tap down your opponents’ boards, and sometimes grief people enough to make them concede. This is one of those cards that should make you realize this deck will not make you many friends, and may lose you one or two of them.
Mycosynth Lattice
This card is solely in this deck for its synergy with the card Unwinding Clock, to make your permanents all untap during each player’s untap step, making you immune to your own lockdown effects. This is one of the most powerful effects in your deck, and should be played only when you know it will stick around for at least one turn, and only after you already have Unwinding Clock on the table.
Orb of Dreams
A lot of things have Haste or get Haste somehow. This card says we don’t care, and that getting past our cards like Winter Orb is going to be a lot more difficult. It’s a lower cost, returnable with Sun Titan, Kismet. Easily, this is one of the most powerful cards in the deck.
Pearl Medallion
This is like a Fellwar Stone you don’t have to tap, but that only works for White spells. Enjoy the lower mana costs, folks. Efficiency, thy name is Stax.
Salvaging Station
We’re going to lose a lot of cards. Face it, we just are, and this guy grabs a lot of them for us, as you have already seen and will continue to see mentioned in this Primer.
Scepter of Dominance
I had an Icy Manipulator in this slot before, but I realized that this card is CMC 3 which makes it returnable with Sun Titan, unlike its predecessor, making it much more efficient in this deck, making it part of the well-tuned engine. Use this to tap down pesky threats and to keep lands tapped during Winter Orb locks.
Scrabbling Claws
I was actually shown this card for the first time in a game against Jivanmukta, our resident grumpy feline. It fights against reanimator and flashback decks, it works well against Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord and Dralnu, Lich Lord (Way to go with the names, Wizards!) decks. The second ability does this in a targeted fashion, draws you a card, and the loss is fine because this card can be returned with (Guess who?) both Sun Titan and Salvaging Station!
Scroll Rack
Let’s face another hard fact: White has very little ways of drawing cards, almost none really, and pretty much none that matter in any way. Oblation is kinda neat, but never works for us, and other than that? We got nothing. Scroll Rack can exchange a hand full of crap into a hand full of answers, and also has a synergy with Land Tax that can fill our hand up rather quickly.
Sculpting Steel
This is a card we can return with Sun Titan that can copy even higher costing Artifacts. It makes any artifact tech we have double up, which his always useful to us, in almost every situation. Save this card for things you really, really need to copy, not just to get an extra Marble Diamond. I happen to love it with cards like Salvaging Station, Trading Post and Barbed Wire.
Smokestack
Here it is, the ‘stack, the big guns. This card makes this deck sadistic, this card is over-the-top cruelty, this is Braids, Cabal Minion on steroids with a utility belt and a nuclear missile. Play this card, add a counter until either their boards are wiped, or you can’t take too much pressure. There is nothing shameful about sticking to 3 counters on this baby, that is 3 permanents a turn. By this point, your opponents should be hurting. If you have enough things on the field to be refilling your board regularly, feel free to add even more counters, but I have found I am most comfortable at 3 or 4 counters, and more has always screwed me. This is also returnable with Sun Titan. Be careful with this card, with great power, comes great danger of shooting yourself in the foot. It is very easy to go overboard and lose the game because of this, so keep it safe for you. Some risks aren’t always worth taking in a game you plan on winning or at least not looking bad in.
Sphere of Resistance
This is one of very few taxing effects I added in the deck. It’s cheap, easily returnable, and will either draw a bit of hate out, or make things very difficult or your opponents. It is never a bad time for a sphere or two.
Storage Matrix
This card says “Are you playing spells, or activating abilities, hmm?”. It makes your opponents choose one thing they are able to do that turn, and if they need land, this card makes our commander even more hilarious, as he will only let them untap one of the thing the matrix forces them to choose.
Sword of Feast and Famine
A little bit of tech to untap our lands, and has the added bonuses of protection and making them discard something. Honestly, this card should be in almost every deck you build, it is an absolute delight at all times.
Tangle Wire
Remember Mishra’s Helix? This is much like that card, only it does it to everyone, for free, but only goes up to 4. However, unlike the Helix, big brother Sun Titan can bring him back into action once it either gets nuked or runs out of counters!
Thran Dynamo
Oh look, another mana rock. At this point, if I need to explain these, you’re just not paying attention.
Tooth of Ramos
Okay, I never see these cards, but I love them. Not only does it come in untapped and tap for a colored mana, but it can be sacrificed for an extra one, and is like a one-shot Coalition Relic in this deck, and can be brought back from this sacrifice by our favorite Giant, Sun Titan.
Trading Post
This card can do a lot of things for us. The costs may seem a little steep, but look at what it does- It gets us back all of our goodies we threw away, in some way or another! Lost some life you needed to keep? It’s okay, just discard. Need a thing to sac? Have a Goat. Need an artifact back? That’s cool, get rid of said Goat. Oh, just need a card? Well, shoot, give us a trinket, and it’s all yours! You will have fun with this card, I guarantee it. It takes some practice, but soon, you will be applying gratuitously as necessary.
Trinisphere
This will keep your opponents from relying on low cost spells to get around all of your taxers and locks, instead making them pay just a little more for everything they would normally pay very little for. Chrome Mox doesn’t look so nice when it costs 3.
Tsabo’s Web
This card is beautiful. Sun Titan brings it back, it draws us a card, and it’s reminiscent of the incredibly powerful enchantment, Back to Basics. This card is incredibly potent against most decks in this format where non-basics are everywhere. It will do nothing for you against Azusa, Lost but Seeking decks, though.
Winter Orb
This is another classic card. It keeps opponents from untapping much, and is like a miniature version of our commander that we can fetch with Sun Titan. This is essential for our lockdowns, so I suggest dropping it the moment you can afford to (That does not mean when you can pay for it, but when you can stand only getting one untap a turn for your land).
Academy Rector
Some of the most powerful cards in our decks are our enchantments. Being able to put them directly into play is a great way to save time, and bonus is this gives us something to sacrifice to Smokestack and Trading Post.
Ethersworn Canonist
Most of the spells we’ll be casting this game are either Artifacts or too big for us to be casting much else that turn anyway, but our opponents will be frustrated. Now, not only is the loss of resources looming over them, but they can’t try more than one thing a turn to prevent it. And, if they’re busy dealing with our canonist, that leaves them open to our other opponents as well, if they happen to be a bigger threat than us at the time. This deck is about denial and efficiency, and this is denial incarnate.
Hokori, Dust Drinker
This is our Commander. He’s a 2/2 at a CMC 4 body, not very strong, I know, but look at his ability: He is a Winter Orb on a stick. He is usually our wincon, attacking for lethal commander damage through all of our denial effects. It’s fun to slap a Sword of Feast and Famine on him and just go to town, not only slowly winning the game, but keeping our lands untapped to lay down even more devastation.
Iona, Shield of Emeria
This is one of very few high cost cards in our deck. Most of our deck is CMC 4 or less, but this is too good of a safety net to pass up. If all else fails, when your denial plans are totally shot, drop a Sun Titan and/or Iona, Shield of Emeria to protect yourself, and get some damage in. What Iona has, though, is also a bit of built in denial: She stops a color from being played, entirely. Once again, this is not a fun card to play against, and is going to draw hate from some people.
Magus of the Disk
I wanted a way to wipe the board in creature form, and this guy just did it for me. Nevinyrral’s Disk is a very strong card, but we needed another creature to lay down in the way of fire in this deck, so I put him in. If your meta is less heavy on creatures and damage, I would suggest Nevinyrral’s Disk over the Magus.
Magus of the Tabernacle
This will keep people from playing too many threats in creature form, and if we’re keeping their lands tapped, can be a very one sided wrath, an effect that is never to be passed up on. Don’t drop him unless you can afford one or two creatures on your own turn as well.
Sun Titan
Big Brother himself, the main man, that guy. This card is a walking piece of synergy that should seriously be in every single White Stax deck that exists in Commander. He gets back almost all of our artifacts and enchantments, and is on a 6/6 Vigilance body? Yeah, no, that is so worth the CMC 6 we pay for him, and with a Sword of Feast and Famine equipped, he turns into a game winning beast. Don’t drop him until you need to bring something back, but when you do drop him, have fun. You are never losing a Tangle Wire again.
Aura of Silence
This is just a very strong effect in the deck, and can keep our opponents from playing their own protection. If they do get past it with something you do not like, it lets you blow it up.
Ghostly Prison
This is in the deck for much the same reason as Ensnaring Bridge, just to keep them from hitting us if they manage to get some creatures out. With all of our denial and being at CMC 3, this card keeps a lot of decks in check for a fairly long time.
Hanna’s Custody
Now, this is one of those questionable cards a lot of people probably won’t like seeing in my list. However, I hate having my artifacts broken, and will defend this card to the ends of the Earth. They have to kill it to lay a hand on our Artifacts, and you can return it with Sun Titan. If you really don’t like this card, a good slot filler is Journey to Nowhere.
Humility
This card is amazing. It hoses most kinds of aggressive decks, and can stop creature combos dead. Even if it only lasts for one or two turns, this card is absolutely wonderful. Play this down when you see that your opponents are amazing too many big things and abilities on the board, and watch them flail around for a turn or two. Never play this just to play it, it should be played when you need to stop a board from getting too powerful.
Kismet
In for much the same reason as Orb of Dreams, just not returnable in any conventional way.
Land Tax
On the rare occasion we are really behind on mana, this card thins our deck easily, and has a wonderful synergy with Scroll Rack, adding three cards to the number we get to exchange for a possibly much more deadly hand.
Martyr’s Bond
This is one of those cards I always go to take out, but then I just can’t, because I love it so much. I don’t see it often, but this card has done wonders for me, since most people are so scared to lose their own stuff, they don’t want to break our things when this card comes down, and even if they break it, well we just made them use up some removal. If you pull this card out, you could try to put in either Lightmine Field or Elixir of Immortality.
Moat
What is Moat? Only one of the most powerful effects against agro there is! Most agro and token decks don’t work with creatures that have Flying, so Moat stops them cold. The few fliers they have will be met with Ghostly Prison and maybe an exiling effect or two. I would never take this card out, it has done too much for me. I’ve never felt like it was wasted when I dropped this card on the board, it has always been helpful, every single time.
Oblivion Ring
Pretty basic removal that can also be returned with Sun Titan. Don’t use it on something too threatening if you have a more permanent answer ready, but go for it if you need a temporary stop at least.
[RETIRED]Rest in Peace
This is not a card to take lightly. Do not play this card unless you absolutely have to, because it can very easily hose you, too. Play this card only if you see like a dredge deck or reanimator deck that needs to be stopped cold, only if it is going to make you lose if you don’t play it, because by god if someone wipes your board after you play this, you are so screwed. If it isn’t worth the risk to you, try playing around with Relic of Progenitus or simply excluding it, as I have done recently..
Solitary Confinement
This is what I call my “Oh crap oh crap oh crap” card. We play this when we’ve been backed into a corner and need a few turns just being left alone to get moving again. This is not something you just play because you have it in your hand, unless you’re getting pretty consistent connects with Sun Titan. It can save us in some bad situations, but can screw us if we play it for no reason other than just to have it, as it stunts our rampage.
Sphere of Safety
This is like Ghostly Prison times a million. Well, actually, times five, if we have all of our enchantments in play at the same time, but still! So, in the deck for very similar reasons, but is not returnable with Sun Titan
Abolish
Sometimes, we just really need something to go away and can’t afford the mana cost of a Disenchant. With Land Tax in the deck, this situation will actually happen more often than you think, making Abolish just the better solution to the problem.
NEW!Enlightened Tutor
I received the suggestion to add this card back when I first posted this list, but mostly felt I did not need the extra speed, but boy the times, they are a-changin'. This helps us speed up our process too much to ignore, and honestly I feel silly for not using it before. Use this to grab emergency mana sources, or if things like Tangle Wire and Sphere of Safety aren't coming out soon enough. Also handy for an emergency Trading Post in desperate times.
Path to Exile
Exiling a creature for CMC 1 is a well-known, incredibly powerful effect. This card is an automatic in for any White deck I ever build, as is the next card.
Swords to Plowshares
Again, removal of this type for CMC 1 is incredibly powerful, so both should always be run, and need no real explanation other than to save them for real threats. An Oracle of Mul Daya is not worth one of these cards, but you bet your sweet butt a Blightsteel Collossus is!
Armageddon
Sometimes, there is nothing better than to just say “Screw it!” and drop an Armageddon. This card takes away every land on the board, from everyone, making it so everybody is now in a race to get their mana back up to par, while also having to deal with all of your lockdown effects. Make sure you can survive the fires when you play this, but if you can, you have most likely won this game.
Austere Command
This card is a wrath effect for whatever we feel needs to go away, but you will most likely just use it to kill all creatures more than anything else. Sometimes you may want to use the destroy all enchantments mode, but it is often more detrimental to you than anybody else. Be careful with this card, and don’t waste it to just use it.
[RETIRED]Day of Judgment
We. Don’t. Like. Creatures. This message should be clear by now, we don’t like other people having nice things, and we like to take those nice things away from them. This card keeps creatures from amassing too much if they manage to get around our other cards somehow.
NEW!Slaughter the Strong
I chose to include this over Day of Judgment, so that we can still keep some of our creatures if needed while still wiping out big threats in the same way. Both cards are good and this is really just up to preference.
Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Elspeth is beautiful, and she’s a pretty neat card, too. Her +1 gives us a token to sacrifice to our own cards, and her -8 makes it impossible to deal with us unless we want you to, or you use some serious cards against us, forcing our opponents into some weird corners. Be careful with her, just make sure she can live for a few turns when you play her.
Ancient Tomb
It may cost us some life, but extra mana is always worth it. We’ll probably only ever use this card once or twice anyway, and the ramp effect it gives us is good enough to make us not care. It makes things like Coalition Relic and Trading Post drop on turn one or two, so yeah, play it.
Arid Mesa
It essentially makes us pay 1 life to have one less card in our deck. Since there are four effects like this in the deck, that means we pay a possible 4 life to have a possible 4 less cards to sift through, which is very, very strong. It’s an automatic four-card advantage.
Flagstones of Trokair
It lets us fetch a Plains when we lose this card to one of our own cards, so it goes in. This should seriously be in most White decks, not even just stax or combo.
Maze of Ith
If they manage to actually get a threat through, this gives us a free, colorless way of dealing with it, which makes it also get around protections. This entirely removes the problem for at least one turn, and is especially useful against decks like Kaalia of the Vast.
Mistveil Plains
Can be grabbed with our fetchlands, and puts cards back into our deck. Sometimes, we just don’t have enough recursion, and this most definitely helps us with that.
Petrified Field
Comes in untapped and makes a colorless mana, and if we lose an important land, it gets it back for us, for free. This card does what it does in the best way, keeping us from losing any lands we really need.
Scrying Sheets
If we happen to have random mana to dump or know we have a [CARD[Snow-Covered Plains[/CARD] on top, this card grabs it for us, which is kind of nice sometimes.
Snow-Covered Plains
Well, we need something to make colored mana, yeah? Well, that, and these also work with Scrying Sheets nicely, and being a basic they get around cards like Back to Basics.
Strip Mine
This card takes care of one of their lands, while also being returnable with Crucible of Worlds, making it a powerful semi-lock, and easy to abuse.
Temple of the False God
This card is like an Ancient Tomb for the late game. In the late game it gets around the cost of paying 2 of your life, but requires five or more lands to be in play, including itself.
Finally making one of these since I have gotten around to adding my changes to this deck to the site, but to be honest with you? Not much has changed.
Anything marked with "[RETIRED]" has been cut, anything marked with "NEW!" has been added recently. These tags will be moved every time there is an update to the deck, unless I feel it is important to know why I swapped certain cards out.
Is Sphere of Safety really better than Norn's Annex?
I know they can pass the Annex by paying life, but I wonder if you can get much more enchantements in play to make it useful.
As for Enlightened Tutor, I don't what you could drop for it, maybe Gilded Lotus, it seems you have enough mana and you don't need the "all colors".
This deck is currently in testing for a 2018 update. I will, over the course of the next few days, be adding and removing cards from the list and editing the various sections of the post to explain those choices. I would greatly appreciate any suggestions from people, since I have a LOT of time to make up for with this one. Let's all help Hokori hate people <3
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Currently Getting Back into the swing of MTGS. Bear with me folks~
You may be looking for some kind of goal in this deck, some kind of win condition, yes? Well, there isn't one. You wipe their boars, you make them hate everything, and start swinging for lethal commander, if you can. Otherwise, just keep their board clear and keep yours cycling.
Here is the decklist. It is based entirely around ramping into a crap ton of denial and protection.
So, you wanna play Hokori? Well, some things you should know about this commander, and this deck.
First off, your game is going to be a long one, your deck is about putting pressure on your opponents and keeping them from doing anything, and a lot of your cards affect you as well. The trick in this deck is not playing any kind of right card at the right time; this deck is a very self-sufficient engine in that regard, but knowing how to save you from yourself. The balancing act in this deck is difficult, and might take you a while to fully master. When do you use Trading Post, and what for? What is worth getting back with Crucible? Do you grab Tangle Wire or a fetchland with your Sun Titan (You grab the Tangle wire, for the record)?
Stax is a deck that most people hate playing against, but honestly it’s just because they don’t understand. The goal of the game is usually to do more things and have more things in play, but Stax does the exact opposite, the goal is to get the board to be as small as possible. In fact, if you’re doing it right, the only things on the field should be Tangle Wire, Sun titan, and some very unhappy opponents. This is a deck that is okay with sacrificing its own permanents, a deck that like to nuke the lands, a deck that is totally okay with losing a lot of lands and creatures.
Play this deck if:
- You want a long game.
- You like control and denial strategies.
- You are not concerned about casual play.
- You like Artifacts.
- You want to.
Don’t play this deck if:
- You like creature based strategies.
- You want your opponents to like you.
- You hate Artifacts.
- You like to be aggressive.
- You want the game to last less than 30 minutes.
- You don’t want to.
- You cannot play Magic.
- You are a tree (That’s silly, tree, you cannot play Magic, you are a tree).
1x Hokori, Dust Drinker
Artifacts
1x Amulet of Vigor
1x Barbed Wire
1x Coalition Relic
1x Crucible of Worlds
1x Darksteel Ingot
1x Ensnaring Bridge
1x Expedition Map
1x Fellwar Stone
1x Gilded Lotus
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mana Vault
1x Mana Web
1x Marble Diamond
1x Mind Stone
1x Mishra's Helix
1x Mycosynth Lattice
1x Orb of Dreams
1x Pearl Medallion
1x Salvaging Station
1x Scepter of Dominance
1x Scrabbling Claws
1x Scroll Rack
1x Sculpting Steel
1x Smokestack
1x Sol Ring
1x Sphere of Resistance
1x Storage Matrix
1x Sword of Feast and Famine
1x Tangle Wire
1x Thran Dynamo
1x Tooth of Ramos
1x Trading Post
1x Trinisphere
1x Tsabo's Web
1x Unwinding Clock
1x Ur-Golem's Eye
1x Winter Orb
1x Worn Powerstone
1x Academy Rector
1x Ethersworn Canonist
1x Iona, Shield of Emeria
1x Magus of the Disk
1x Magus of the Tabernacle
1x Sun Titan
Enchantments
1x Aura of Silence
1x Ghostly Prison
1x Hanna's Custody
1x Humility
1x Kismet
1x Land Tax
1x Martyr's Bond
1x Moat
1x Oblivion Ring
1x Rest in Peace
1x Solitary Confinement
1x Sphere of Safety
Instants
1x Abolish
1x Path to Exile
1x Swords to Plowshares
Lands
1x Ancient Den
1x Ancient Tomb
1x Arid Mesa
1x Flagstones of Trokair
1x Flooded Strand
1x Marsh Flats
1x Maze of Ith
1x Mistveil Plains
1x Petrified Field
1x Scrying Sheets
19x Snow-Covered Plains
1x Strip Mine
1x Temple of the False God
1x The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
1x Wasteland
1x Windswept Heath
1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Sorceries
1x Armageddon
1x Austere Command
1x Day of Judgment
1x Ravages of War
1x Wrath of God
1x Hokori, Dust Drinker
Artifacts
1x Amulet of Vigor
1x Barbed Wire
1x Coalition Relic
1x Crucible of Worlds
1x Darksteel Ingot
1x Ensnaring Bridge
1x Expedition Map
1x Fellwar Stone
1x Gilded Lotus
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mana Vault
1x Mana Web
1x Marble Diamond
1x Mind Stone
1x Mishra's Helix
1x Mycosynth Lattice
1x Orb of Dreams
1x Pearl Medallion
1x Salvaging Station
1x Scepter of Dominance
1x Scrabbling Claws
1x Scroll Rack
1x Sculpting Steel
1x Smokestack
1x Sol Ring
1x Sphere of Resistance
1x Storage Matrix
1x Sword of Feast and Famine
1x Tangle Wire
1x Thran Dynamo
1x Tooth of Ramos
1x Trading Post
1x Trinisphere
1x Tsabo's Web
1x Unwinding Clock
1x Ur-Golem's Eye
1x Winter Orb
1x Worn Powerstone
1x Academy Rector
1x Ethersworn Canonist
1x Iona, Shield of Emeria
1x Magus of the Disk
1x Magus of the Tabernacle
1x Sun Titan
Enchantments
1x Aura of Silence
1x Ghostly Prison
1x Hanna's Custody
1x Humility
1x Kismet
1x Land Tax
1x Martyr's Bond
1x Moat
1x Oblivion Ring
1x Solitary Confinement
1x Sphere of Safety
Instants
1x Abolish
1x Enlightened Tutor
1x Path to Exile
1x Swords to Plowshares
Lands
1x Ancient Den
1x Ancient Tomb
1x Arid Mesa
1x Flagstones of Trokair
1x Flooded Strand
1x Marsh Flats
1x Maze of Ith
1x Mistveil Plains
1x Petrified Field
1x Scrying Sheets
19x Snow-Covered Plains
1x Strip Mine
1x Temple of the False God
1x The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
1x Wasteland
1x Windswept Heath
1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Sorceries
1x Armageddon
1x Austere Command
1x Ravages of War
1x Slaughter the Strong
1x Wrath of God
I think Phil (Owner of the Lady Evangela Pillowfort/Stax Primer, found here!) put it best with the line “Things we lost in the fire”. This deck has a package for getting things back that we take away from ourselves, such as Crucible of Worlds and Trading Post. Instead, though, of simply naming a few of the combos that work in the deck, I will be going into detail on every single card in the deck.
Amulet of Vigor
Amulet of Vigor is in the deck to work around things like Orb of Dreams and Kismet, some of your own effects that will cause you great harm. This will keep your permanents working while your opponents struggle to catch up as this will usually leave them a number of turns behind you.
Barbed Wire
Barbed Wire is in the deck to put a little bit of pressure on them with damage that it will cost them dearly to prevent. Most players will not consider this card worth removing or paying for, until their life is dropping to critical levels and they have no permanents left to stop you. It’s also retrievable with Sun Titan, so we love it.
Coalition Relic
One of two CMC 3 mana rocks in the deck, Coalition Relic can double up our mana on critical turns and gets around our commander’s ability. Don’t use this mana rock all willy-nilly, save it to use for an extra mana if you can. If you really need to play things, of course, then don’t worry too much about it, but it is often worth the extra mana to wait.
Crucible of Worlds
Remember that phrase “Things We Lost in the Fire”? Well, this is one of the resources we will miss dearly: Our lands. Our lands will get blown up a lot with cards like Armageddon and Ravages of War, and even by our old friend Smokestack. This will let you bring back at least one of them every turn, and is, once again, returnable with Sun Titan. Seeing a theme here?
Darksteel Ingot
A CMC 3 artifact that is indestructible and gives us mana. This deck gets wiped a lot, wipes a lot, and needs a lot of mana rocks. Moving on.
Ensnaring Bridge
A CMC 3 artifact that keeps people from attacking us. While we may keep our hands at 3-4 cards usually, our hands are never so large that things like Titans and Dragons can connect normally. This hoses most Voltron or Overrun-style decks, and if our hand is empty, makes it impossible to attack us unless they have something like Dragon Hatchling in the deck, at which point, kindly ask your opponent to put any better card in that slot, like maybe a Shatterstorm.
Expedition Map
This artifact is CMC 1, making it returnable with both Sun Titan and Salvaging Station, and we will need that power to come back. It helps keep our lands coming, while staying at a low cost, the same CMC as a rampant growth, but it lets us put any kind of land into our hand. While it may be to our hand, we get two of them, and they don’t have to be basics.
Fellwar Stone
It’s CMC 2, so Sun Titan grabs it, it’s cheap, and it comes into play untapped. It may not always get us colored mana, but we need all the mana we can get once our lands are dead, and it’s returnable with our main fetch-guy.
Gilded Lotus
I know, I know, a bit high on the CMC here at 5, but this card adds three colored mana to our mana pool, and is one of the best mana rocks in the format. I absolutely love this card, and I have always been glad to draw it. It allows you to run a lot of rocks that don’t add any color, choosing speed over anything else, and also allows us to play a lot of our larger spells, even if we do have very few spells over cmc 4.
Mana Crypt
It can hurt us, but is returnable with both Sun Titan and Salvaging Station, and it makes us a lot of mana very fast. This is the perfect kind of mana rock for this deck, and should always get a slot.
Mana Vault
It is in this deck for the exact same reason as Mana Crypt, it would literally be the exact same explanation word for word.
Mana Web
CMC 3, so returnable with (You guessed it) Sun Titan! It keeps our opponents from saving any mana up while tapping others, and keeps control mages from saving counterspell mana for us, unless they choose just to skip using that color on their turn. I love the card every time I draw it, it’s especially powerful against monocolored decks. Red and Blue hate this card, even though they deal with it rather easy. White and Green don’t care much about this card.
Marble Diamond
In the deck for most of the same reasons as Fellwar Stone. Differences? It gives us colored mana and, sadly, comes into play tapped (Unless you control an Amulet of Vigor!).
Mind Stone
This is a Fellwar Stone that can be sacrificed to draw a card, and then returned with Sun Titan to do it all over again!
Mishra’s Helix
When you play this card, look at your opponents. Watch their heads droop a little, maybe get a sigh, or some disapproving nods. Laugh as the blue mages at the table all start tapping their islands to counter it at the same time the green mage tries to Krosan Grip it in case they didn’t counter. Do it, you’ll get a kick out of it. Okay, done now? Great, now to use it in case they didn’t instantly kill it! Play this card only if Hokori, Dust Drinker and/or Winter Orb are/is in play. Then, tap it for a lot, and begin tapping down your least favorite opponents. If you have a way of untapping your lands despite your own cars (you do) then you’re all set! You will tap down your opponents’ boards, and sometimes grief people enough to make them concede. This is one of those cards that should make you realize this deck will not make you many friends, and may lose you one or two of them.
Mycosynth Lattice
This card is solely in this deck for its synergy with the card Unwinding Clock, to make your permanents all untap during each player’s untap step, making you immune to your own lockdown effects. This is one of the most powerful effects in your deck, and should be played only when you know it will stick around for at least one turn, and only after you already have Unwinding Clock on the table.
Orb of Dreams
A lot of things have Haste or get Haste somehow. This card says we don’t care, and that getting past our cards like Winter Orb is going to be a lot more difficult. It’s a lower cost, returnable with Sun Titan, Kismet. Easily, this is one of the most powerful cards in the deck.
Pearl Medallion
This is like a Fellwar Stone you don’t have to tap, but that only works for White spells. Enjoy the lower mana costs, folks. Efficiency, thy name is Stax.
Salvaging Station
We’re going to lose a lot of cards. Face it, we just are, and this guy grabs a lot of them for us, as you have already seen and will continue to see mentioned in this Primer.
Scepter of Dominance
I had an Icy Manipulator in this slot before, but I realized that this card is CMC 3 which makes it returnable with Sun Titan, unlike its predecessor, making it much more efficient in this deck, making it part of the well-tuned engine. Use this to tap down pesky threats and to keep lands tapped during Winter Orb locks.
Scrabbling Claws
I was actually shown this card for the first time in a game against Jivanmukta, our resident grumpy feline. It fights against reanimator and flashback decks, it works well against Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord and Dralnu, Lich Lord (Way to go with the names, Wizards!) decks. The second ability does this in a targeted fashion, draws you a card, and the loss is fine because this card can be returned with (Guess who?) both Sun Titan and Salvaging Station!
Scroll Rack
Let’s face another hard fact: White has very little ways of drawing cards, almost none really, and pretty much none that matter in any way. Oblation is kinda neat, but never works for us, and other than that? We got nothing. Scroll Rack can exchange a hand full of crap into a hand full of answers, and also has a synergy with Land Tax that can fill our hand up rather quickly.
Sculpting Steel
This is a card we can return with Sun Titan that can copy even higher costing Artifacts. It makes any artifact tech we have double up, which his always useful to us, in almost every situation. Save this card for things you really, really need to copy, not just to get an extra Marble Diamond. I happen to love it with cards like Salvaging Station, Trading Post and Barbed Wire.
Smokestack
Here it is, the ‘stack, the big guns. This card makes this deck sadistic, this card is over-the-top cruelty, this is Braids, Cabal Minion on steroids with a utility belt and a nuclear missile. Play this card, add a counter until either their boards are wiped, or you can’t take too much pressure. There is nothing shameful about sticking to 3 counters on this baby, that is 3 permanents a turn. By this point, your opponents should be hurting. If you have enough things on the field to be refilling your board regularly, feel free to add even more counters, but I have found I am most comfortable at 3 or 4 counters, and more has always screwed me. This is also returnable with Sun Titan. Be careful with this card, with great power, comes great danger of shooting yourself in the foot. It is very easy to go overboard and lose the game because of this, so keep it safe for you. Some risks aren’t always worth taking in a game you plan on winning or at least not looking bad in.
Sol Ring
Exact same reasons as Mana Crypt and Mana Vault. Moving on, then.
Sphere of Resistance
This is one of very few taxing effects I added in the deck. It’s cheap, easily returnable, and will either draw a bit of hate out, or make things very difficult or your opponents. It is never a bad time for a sphere or two.
Storage Matrix
This card says “Are you playing spells, or activating abilities, hmm?”. It makes your opponents choose one thing they are able to do that turn, and if they need land, this card makes our commander even more hilarious, as he will only let them untap one of the thing the matrix forces them to choose.
Sword of Feast and Famine
A little bit of tech to untap our lands, and has the added bonuses of protection and making them discard something. Honestly, this card should be in almost every deck you build, it is an absolute delight at all times.
Tangle Wire
Remember Mishra’s Helix? This is much like that card, only it does it to everyone, for free, but only goes up to 4. However, unlike the Helix, big brother Sun Titan can bring him back into action once it either gets nuked or runs out of counters!
Thran Dynamo
Oh look, another mana rock. At this point, if I need to explain these, you’re just not paying attention.
Tooth of Ramos
Okay, I never see these cards, but I love them. Not only does it come in untapped and tap for a colored mana, but it can be sacrificed for an extra one, and is like a one-shot Coalition Relic in this deck, and can be brought back from this sacrifice by our favorite Giant, Sun Titan.
Trading Post
This card can do a lot of things for us. The costs may seem a little steep, but look at what it does- It gets us back all of our goodies we threw away, in some way or another! Lost some life you needed to keep? It’s okay, just discard. Need a thing to sac? Have a Goat. Need an artifact back? That’s cool, get rid of said Goat. Oh, just need a card? Well, shoot, give us a trinket, and it’s all yours! You will have fun with this card, I guarantee it. It takes some practice, but soon, you will be applying gratuitously as necessary.
Trinisphere
This will keep your opponents from relying on low cost spells to get around all of your taxers and locks, instead making them pay just a little more for everything they would normally pay very little for. Chrome Mox doesn’t look so nice when it costs 3.
Tsabo’s Web
This card is beautiful. Sun Titan brings it back, it draws us a card, and it’s reminiscent of the incredibly powerful enchantment, Back to Basics. This card is incredibly potent against most decks in this format where non-basics are everywhere. It will do nothing for you against Azusa, Lost but Seeking decks, though.
Unwinding Clock
The explanation for this is under Mycosynth Lattice. It also has a synergy with Salvaging Station, explained in the section for that card.
Ur-Golem’s Eye
See Thran Dynamo for reasoning here.
Winter Orb
This is another classic card. It keeps opponents from untapping much, and is like a miniature version of our commander that we can fetch with Sun Titan. This is essential for our lockdowns, so I suggest dropping it the moment you can afford to (That does not mean when you can pay for it, but when you can stand only getting one untap a turn for your land).
Worn Powerstone
Please tell me you get this by now? Sun Titan. Mana Rock. Moving on.
Academy Rector
Some of the most powerful cards in our decks are our enchantments. Being able to put them directly into play is a great way to save time, and bonus is this gives us something to sacrifice to Smokestack and Trading Post.
Ethersworn Canonist
Most of the spells we’ll be casting this game are either Artifacts or too big for us to be casting much else that turn anyway, but our opponents will be frustrated. Now, not only is the loss of resources looming over them, but they can’t try more than one thing a turn to prevent it. And, if they’re busy dealing with our canonist, that leaves them open to our other opponents as well, if they happen to be a bigger threat than us at the time. This deck is about denial and efficiency, and this is denial incarnate.
Hokori, Dust Drinker
This is our Commander. He’s a 2/2 at a CMC 4 body, not very strong, I know, but look at his ability: He is a Winter Orb on a stick. He is usually our wincon, attacking for lethal commander damage through all of our denial effects. It’s fun to slap a Sword of Feast and Famine on him and just go to town, not only slowly winning the game, but keeping our lands untapped to lay down even more devastation.
Iona, Shield of Emeria
This is one of very few high cost cards in our deck. Most of our deck is CMC 4 or less, but this is too good of a safety net to pass up. If all else fails, when your denial plans are totally shot, drop a Sun Titan and/or Iona, Shield of Emeria to protect yourself, and get some damage in. What Iona has, though, is also a bit of built in denial: She stops a color from being played, entirely. Once again, this is not a fun card to play against, and is going to draw hate from some people.
Magus of the Disk
I wanted a way to wipe the board in creature form, and this guy just did it for me. Nevinyrral’s Disk is a very strong card, but we needed another creature to lay down in the way of fire in this deck, so I put him in. If your meta is less heavy on creatures and damage, I would suggest Nevinyrral’s Disk over the Magus.
Magus of the Tabernacle
This will keep people from playing too many threats in creature form, and if we’re keeping their lands tapped, can be a very one sided wrath, an effect that is never to be passed up on. Don’t drop him unless you can afford one or two creatures on your own turn as well.
Sun Titan
Big Brother himself, the main man, that guy. This card is a walking piece of synergy that should seriously be in every single White Stax deck that exists in Commander. He gets back almost all of our artifacts and enchantments, and is on a 6/6 Vigilance body? Yeah, no, that is so worth the CMC 6 we pay for him, and with a Sword of Feast and Famine equipped, he turns into a game winning beast. Don’t drop him until you need to bring something back, but when you do drop him, have fun. You are never losing a Tangle Wire again.
Aura of Silence
This is just a very strong effect in the deck, and can keep our opponents from playing their own protection. If they do get past it with something you do not like, it lets you blow it up.
Ghostly Prison
This is in the deck for much the same reason as Ensnaring Bridge, just to keep them from hitting us if they manage to get some creatures out. With all of our denial and being at CMC 3, this card keeps a lot of decks in check for a fairly long time.
Hanna’s Custody
Now, this is one of those questionable cards a lot of people probably won’t like seeing in my list. However, I hate having my artifacts broken, and will defend this card to the ends of the Earth. They have to kill it to lay a hand on our Artifacts, and you can return it with Sun Titan. If you really don’t like this card, a good slot filler is Journey to Nowhere.
Humility
This card is amazing. It hoses most kinds of aggressive decks, and can stop creature combos dead. Even if it only lasts for one or two turns, this card is absolutely wonderful. Play this down when you see that your opponents are amazing too many big things and abilities on the board, and watch them flail around for a turn or two. Never play this just to play it, it should be played when you need to stop a board from getting too powerful.
Kismet
In for much the same reason as Orb of Dreams, just not returnable in any conventional way.
Land Tax
On the rare occasion we are really behind on mana, this card thins our deck easily, and has a wonderful synergy with Scroll Rack, adding three cards to the number we get to exchange for a possibly much more deadly hand.
Martyr’s Bond
This is one of those cards I always go to take out, but then I just can’t, because I love it so much. I don’t see it often, but this card has done wonders for me, since most people are so scared to lose their own stuff, they don’t want to break our things when this card comes down, and even if they break it, well we just made them use up some removal. If you pull this card out, you could try to put in either Lightmine Field or Elixir of Immortality.
Moat
What is Moat? Only one of the most powerful effects against agro there is! Most agro and token decks don’t work with creatures that have Flying, so Moat stops them cold. The few fliers they have will be met with Ghostly Prison and maybe an exiling effect or two. I would never take this card out, it has done too much for me. I’ve never felt like it was wasted when I dropped this card on the board, it has always been helpful, every single time.
Oblivion Ring
Pretty basic removal that can also be returned with Sun Titan. Don’t use it on something too threatening if you have a more permanent answer ready, but go for it if you need a temporary stop at least.
[RETIRED] Rest in Peace
This is not a card to take lightly. Do not play this card unless you absolutely have to, because it can very easily hose you, too. Play this card only if you see like a dredge deck or reanimator deck that needs to be stopped cold, only if it is going to make you lose if you don’t play it, because by god if someone wipes your board after you play this, you are so screwed. If it isn’t worth the risk to you, try playing around with Relic of Progenitus or simply excluding it, as I have done recently..
Solitary Confinement
This is what I call my “Oh crap oh crap oh crap” card. We play this when we’ve been backed into a corner and need a few turns just being left alone to get moving again. This is not something you just play because you have it in your hand, unless you’re getting pretty consistent connects with Sun Titan. It can save us in some bad situations, but can screw us if we play it for no reason other than just to have it, as it stunts our rampage.
Sphere of Safety
This is like Ghostly Prison times a million. Well, actually, times five, if we have all of our enchantments in play at the same time, but still! So, in the deck for very similar reasons, but is not returnable with Sun Titan
Abolish
Sometimes, we just really need something to go away and can’t afford the mana cost of a Disenchant. With Land Tax in the deck, this situation will actually happen more often than you think, making Abolish just the better solution to the problem.
NEW! Enlightened Tutor
I received the suggestion to add this card back when I first posted this list, but mostly felt I did not need the extra speed, but boy the times, they are a-changin'. This helps us speed up our process too much to ignore, and honestly I feel silly for not using it before. Use this to grab emergency mana sources, or if things like Tangle Wire and Sphere of Safety aren't coming out soon enough. Also handy for an emergency Trading Post in desperate times.
Path to Exile
Exiling a creature for CMC 1 is a well-known, incredibly powerful effect. This card is an automatic in for any White deck I ever build, as is the next card.
Swords to Plowshares
Again, removal of this type for CMC 1 is incredibly powerful, so both should always be run, and need no real explanation other than to save them for real threats. An Oracle of Mul Daya is not worth one of these cards, but you bet your sweet butt a Blightsteel Collossus is!
Armageddon
Sometimes, there is nothing better than to just say “Screw it!” and drop an Armageddon. This card takes away every land on the board, from everyone, making it so everybody is now in a race to get their mana back up to par, while also having to deal with all of your lockdown effects. Make sure you can survive the fires when you play this, but if you can, you have most likely won this game.
Austere Command
This card is a wrath effect for whatever we feel needs to go away, but you will most likely just use it to kill all creatures more than anything else. Sometimes you may want to use the destroy all enchantments mode, but it is often more detrimental to you than anybody else. Be careful with this card, and don’t waste it to just use it.
[RETIRED] Day of Judgment
We. Don’t. Like. Creatures. This message should be clear by now, we don’t like other people having nice things, and we like to take those nice things away from them. This card keeps creatures from amassing too much if they manage to get around our other cards somehow.
Ravages of War
Is the exact same card as Armageddon. Moving on.
NEW! Slaughter the Strong
I chose to include this over Day of Judgment, so that we can still keep some of our creatures if needed while still wiping out big threats in the same way. Both cards are good and this is really just up to preference.
Wrath of God
Is the same card as Day of Judgment, only it doesn’t let creatures regenerate through it, so keep that in mind when they play a Thrun the Last Troll. Moving on.
Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Elspeth is beautiful, and she’s a pretty neat card, too. Her +1 gives us a token to sacrifice to our own cards, and her -8 makes it impossible to deal with us unless we want you to, or you use some serious cards against us, forcing our opponents into some weird corners. Be careful with her, just make sure she can live for a few turns when you play her.
Ancient Den
It’s a land that works well with Trading Post and Salvaging Station, which is pretty much the only reason it is in here.
Ancient Tomb
It may cost us some life, but extra mana is always worth it. We’ll probably only ever use this card once or twice anyway, and the ramp effect it gives us is good enough to make us not care. It makes things like Coalition Relic and Trading Post drop on turn one or two, so yeah, play it.
Arid Mesa
It essentially makes us pay 1 life to have one less card in our deck. Since there are four effects like this in the deck, that means we pay a possible 4 life to have a possible 4 less cards to sift through, which is very, very strong. It’s an automatic four-card advantage.
Flagstones of Trokair
It lets us fetch a Plains when we lose this card to one of our own cards, so it goes in. This should seriously be in most White decks, not even just stax or combo.
Flooded Strand
See Arid Mesa.
Marsh Flats
See Arid Mesa.
Maze of Ith
If they manage to actually get a threat through, this gives us a free, colorless way of dealing with it, which makes it also get around protections. This entirely removes the problem for at least one turn, and is especially useful against decks like Kaalia of the Vast.
Mistveil Plains
Can be grabbed with our fetchlands, and puts cards back into our deck. Sometimes, we just don’t have enough recursion, and this most definitely helps us with that.
Petrified Field
Comes in untapped and makes a colorless mana, and if we lose an important land, it gets it back for us, for free. This card does what it does in the best way, keeping us from losing any lands we really need.
Scrying Sheets
If we happen to have random mana to dump or know we have a [CARD[Snow-Covered Plains[/CARD] on top, this card grabs it for us, which is kind of nice sometimes.
Snow-Covered Plains
Well, we need something to make colored mana, yeah? Well, that, and these also work with Scrying Sheets nicely, and being a basic they get around cards like Back to Basics.
Strip Mine
This card takes care of one of their lands, while also being returnable with Crucible of Worlds, making it a powerful semi-lock, and easy to abuse.
Temple of the False God
This card is like an Ancient Tomb for the late game. In the late game it gets around the cost of paying 2 of your life, but requires five or more lands to be in play, including itself.
The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
This card may not make mana, but it gives us a land version of Magus of the Tabernacle, which means it is free, and easy to get back with Crucible of Worlds. Use at your own risk, as it is harder to get rid of than the Magus.
Wasteland
See Strip Mine.
Windswept Heath
See Arid Mesa.
Finally making one of these since I have gotten around to adding my changes to this deck to the site, but to be honest with you? Not much has changed.
Anything marked with "[RETIRED]" has been cut, anything marked with "NEW!" has been added recently. These tags will be moved every time there is an update to the deck, unless I feel it is important to know why I swapped certain cards out.
06/18/2018
Out:
Day of Judgment
Rest In Peace
In:
Slaughter the Strong
Enlightened Tutor
-----
Done by Rivenor of Miraculous Recovery signatures!
1 Hokori, Dust Drinker
Critters
1 Weathered Wayfarer
1 Peacekeeper
1 Grand Abolisher
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Leonin Arbiter
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Glowrider
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Marble Titan
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Loxodon Gatekeeper
1 Windborn Muse
1 Lodestone Golem
1 Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker
1 Angel of Jubilation
1 Blinding Angel
1 Fountain Watch
1 Spelltithe Enforcer
1 World Queller
1 Sun Titan
1 Crovax, Ascendant Hero
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Angelic Arbiter
1 Chancellor of the Annex
Nooooooo....
1 Mana Crypt
1 Skullclamp
1 Mana Vault
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Sol Ring
1 Torpor Orb
1 Marble Diamond
1 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Mind Stone
1 Sphere of Resistance
1 Grim Monolith
1 Winter Orb
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Mimic Vat
1 Coalition Relic
1 Tangle Wire
1 Storage Matrix
1 Mana Web
1 Worn Powerstone
1 Smokestack
1 Icy Manipulator
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Khalni Gem
1 Mind's Eye
22 Plains
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Blinkmoth Well
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Strip Mine
1 Dust Bowl
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
1 Buried Ruin
1 Wasteland
1 Lotus Vale
1 Flagstones of Trokair
Enchantments
1 Land Tax
1 Rest in Peace
1 Karmic Justice
1 Crackdown
1 Aura of Silence
1 Ghostly Prison
1 Rule of Law
The Walker
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Cards that go boom
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Path to Exile
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Abolish
1 Oblation
1 Idyllic Tutor
1 Armageddon
1 Wrath of God
1 Hallowed Burial
1 Catastrophe
Barbed wire and Salvaging station don't seem that good in your list, how useful have they been for you?
In search of a foil french Dromar, the Banisher, pm me if you have one you want to part with, also foil Stratadon's.
you could use Norn's Annex instead of Sphere of Safety, you don't have that much enchantments...
edit: Condemn to tuck their general, if they aren't angry enough...
And maybe Stoneforge Mystic to tutor the sword, and Enlightened Tutor for enchantments.
...Karmic Justic, Parallax Wave.
Kuldotha Forgemaster could help if you want to tutor an artifact and you have some artifacts to sac (like an artifact land).
If you can lock them completely, maybe you could play Howling Mine and Font of Mythos.
If you suggest cards for me, please suggest cards to take out, and why!
Done by Rivenor of Miraculous Recovery signatures!
In search of a foil french Dromar, the Banisher, pm me if you have one you want to part with, also foil Stratadon's.
Done by Rivenor of Miraculous Recovery signatures!
Is Sphere of Safety really better than Norn's Annex?
I know they can pass the Annex by paying life, but I wonder if you can get much more enchantements in play to make it useful.
As for Enlightened Tutor, I don't what you could drop for it, maybe Gilded Lotus, it seems you have enough mana and you don't need the "all colors".
Sphere of Safety is better than Annex. I'm running 11 enchantments, the Sphere is usually better and costs me less colored mana.
I'll consider for the tutor.
Done by Rivenor of Miraculous Recovery signatures!
Done by Rivenor of Miraculous Recovery signatures!