So much has happened right here on these forums. The website has changed so much over the years, constantly adapting to the interests of its users, old and new. It helped shape and reinforce what it means to play and love Magic for thousands of people.
I've been here just two months short of seven years. Salvation has really shaped who I am as a player. I started in the Legacy forums talking about Stax, Burn and Reanimator, but thanks to the open nature of these forums and its users I slowly transformed into a Pauper and Commander player. If I look back at my first posts, I'm a completely different person.
Thank you.
Here's to the end of something great and the beginning of something new and interesting, created by the backbone of MtgSalvation.
You can't gain life from it unless you splash green, but still, I think you're absolutely right. He could really rake in some damage.
I'm loving the Searing Blaze. I had never considered it before. It's quite strong, provided you have a land drop that is. He eschews the graveyard hate in favor of the proactive route of Ensnaring Bridge, which also works well against other decks. I don't quite understand how necessary the Vexing Shusher is though.
Those are good sideboard strategies. I especially like the engineered plague, but is it really more useful than Flamebreak? I would never, ever run negator or bob in burn. I think that has been thoroughly discussed.
I use blood crypts because I already have them, and I don't have any other badlands. They are there strictly for budget reasons. If I could, I would run 4 badlands. the singleton swamp is there for fighting blood moon/back to basics/wasteland. it's a good card to have as your third land. I usually always fetch the badlands first (obviously), so running more fetches instead of Blood Crypts is a great idea, thank you!
I wanted to increase the consistency of the deck by adding more 3 for 1 damage spells (Shard Volley wasn't interesting, as I would have to up my land count), therefore increasing my chance at an early kill. Price of Progress is really good against some matches, but really bad against others, so I reduced the number, although I could easily -2 marauders and +2 PoP, if it came down to it (I hate drawing marauders, but I can't find anything better)
What kind of sideboard tech would you run, Kirbysdl?
I recently switched to BR straight burn, and I was wondering if there was anything else to be gained in black besides Bump in the Night. I'm thinking mostly of sideboard strategy here, as I think the main deck is pretty straightforward. What black cards are you using?
Here is my deck, for reference
4 Goblin Guide
4 Vexing Devil
2 Keldon Marauders
Instants (10)
4 Fireblast
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Price of Progress
Sorceries (20)
4 Chain Lightning
4 Rift Bolt
4 Bump in the Night
4 Lava Spike
4 Flame Rift
2 Sulfuric Vortex
Lands (18)
9 Mountain
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Badlands
3 Blood Crypt
1 Swamp
2 Tormod's Crypt
3 Red Elemental Blast
4 Smash to Smithereens
4 Anarchy
2 Flamebreak
I've had a hard time with Aura of silence because of it's WW cost, and I've preferred using Patrician's Scorn or Seal of Cleansing. Affinity is not something I consider in SB slots, because the matchup is so good.
I had quite an interesting match versus a RG aggro deck last night. He used Rancor to circumvent my Smokestack. I was very impressed by this counter-strategy, as it forced me to bring my Stack to two counters to kill any of his permanents. Luckily I could do it thanks to Gods' Eye, Gate to the Reikai, I also o-ringed the Rancor and then won the game.
That made me think that I could try out a green aggro-control deck with a Stax shell, using lots of creatures and rancor, plus the Stax artifacts. Could be cool.
ALSO, I've been playing with two Trading Posts, and I must say I was very impressed with the results. It would net me lots of life, create a lineup of Smokestack fodder, and draw me a card when I don't need the smokestack anymore or when I draw Crucible to replace Post. All in all, great addition!
I think that you should at the very least TRY Mox Diamond. I can almost guarantee that once you've included it, you'll realize that it's far better than ESG.
Also, adding 2-3 City of Traitors will increase your likelihood of getting a 1st turn chalice or trinisphere, without hampering your coloured sources.
You could definitely use something like Eternal Witness. I would replace the Borderland Rangers with them (although you need to think about being able to play these cards 1st or 2d turn, which is near impossible for witness).
In my mono-green LD deck, I use Engineered Explosives to deal with threats (I have Utopia Sprawl and BoP for additional colours, although I usually keep it at 0-1). Similarly, you could use Ratchet Bomb to gain advantage. That or Beast Within are possible solutions (and fun with Witness).
From personal experience with Stax, I would suggest taking out 1 Trinisphere and adding a land. Trinispheres are horrible top decks, and particularly detrimental in a deck where you're not drawing cards. They also suck in multiples. Send one to the SB.
I would suggest taking out Silverheart and 1-2 Grazing Gladeharts in favor of more Acidic Slime. You need creatures that have an immediate impact on the game, are versatile and are stand-alone threats.
I also just want to say that you should not be worried about losing life. When you're playing control, you need to remember that you don't lose until you reach 0 life.
I hope the deck works out for you!
I'm not currently testing it, but my impression is that it would not be run as a 4-of, but rather take up one flex slot and replace 1 Crucible, as they have similar applications. Trading Post would give more versatility to the deck, which is really awesome, actually. All four of it's abilities are relevant in Stax, which is extraordinary.
Enlightened Tutor is not super, it slows down the deck by not putting the card into your hand and it can be shut down by Chalice. Haven't you been having those problems? You could instead be replacing the Tutor slots with additional copies of your pieces to make your draws more consistent (+1 Crucible, +1 Prison, +1 Chalice, +1 land?)
Crystal Ball seems pretty cool, although I never thought it to be so necessary. I find Stax topdecks like a champ compared to other decks without draw, because there are so few dead cards.
I think running anything less than all 8 two-mana lands is a mistake. Consistency again.
Only 22 mana-producing lands is very rough! I used to run 24 and found it difficult.
Try running this against Aggro-Control and see how you do, you'll get to see just how resistant your deck is.
Well with that combo, why don't you just go all out and play MUD? that's already a core strategy in the deck, with a more fine-tuned list for it.
My results on Crackdown are a negative. Ensnaring Bridge definitely had the upper hand in almost every matchup. Crackdown was only good at letting my Baneslayer Angel through from time to time while everything else was tapped out. With a bridge, they were completely locked out, while with Crackdown, they could still swing once (This is where Merfolk Reejerey really made me boil) and eventually kill. So much for new tech! I think Crackdown could be useful in Angel Stompy builds, though.
I thought I would share a game of Stax vs. Affinity for you, because it was so hilarious.
He goes first and lays down: 2 X Memnite, Ornithotper, Darksteel Citadel, Springleaf Drum and 2 X Frogmite. Passes the turn.
Me: City of Traitors, Mox (discard), mox (discard), pay for Magus (I have Crucible in hand). Needless to say I won that game. I love how crazy Legacy can be!
I suppose it could be done, but the deck also has limited space, because a certain percentage of it needs to be ''Eggs''. And besides, The eggs themselves allow you to dig so deep into your deck to find pieces, it's not card advantage, but that isn't necessarily what we want, either. With Riddlesmith in play, going through the deck and shaping your hand into what you want it to be is easy. Don't underestimate the power of looting.
Also on the note of Vedalken Archmage, it is a good card in different egg builds. I made another deck that used Explore, Crop Rotation, Exploration and more lands to create massive mana as I'm filtering. It was decent, but a tad slower.
Edit: ALSO, would it be appropriate to have a more in-depth analysis of Eggs in a more elaborate primer? I could possibly take care of that.
Vedalken Archmage < Riddlesmith, because he costs so much to play, are you aren't doing anything with surplus combo pieces and lands anyways, so discarding isn't a problem.
My deck is extremely similar to yours, but with more money and redundant pieces added to make it more consistent. I've been doing extremely well locally, as I'm fighting predominantly through Aggro and Aggro-Control.
4 Riddlesmith
3 Etherium Sculptor
2 Disciple of the Vault
Eggs (36):
4 Conjurer's Bauble
4 Chromatic Sphere
4 Chromatic Star
4 Skycloud Egg
4 Darkwater Egg
3 Mossfire Egg
4 Shadowblood Egg
4 Sungrass Egg
4 Manamorphose
1 Gitaxian Probe
4 Helm of Awakening
Lands (11)
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
2 City of Brass
1 Cephalid Colliseum
1 Glaze Fiend
1 Lightning Greaves
2 Snap
1 City of Brass
2 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Abeyance
1 Golem's Heart
4 Krosan Grip
1 Gaea's Blessing
I have a lot of experience with the deck, as I've been playing variations of it since Odyssey block was released (using as a win con Nantuko Shrine, lol!). I've been tweaking and improving ever since. I've never seen another deck with more consistent turn 2 and 3 kills in Legacy. Unfortunately, this deck is extremely weak to FoW and Wasteland (the most common cards in Legacy. oops!).
The point of this deck is to pump Glaze Fiend to ridiculous proportions or abuse Disciple of the Vault using artifacts that are free to play with Helm of Awakening or Etherium Sculptor, which will are also cantrips. Ancient Tomb and City of Traitors allow for turn 1 helms as well as the mana required to pop your eggs. Use the mana produced with eggs for coloured costs. City of Brass helps support the 3-colour base (or 4-colour after board). Riddlesmith is a looting machine, and is one of the reasons why this deck draws so many cards. Once you've assembled the combo, you use him to discard any lands, helms or further smiths you draw in exchange for more eggs. Manamorphose is a key card in the deck, since with a Helm of Awakening, it generates an extra mana, which you use to cast Riddlesmiths, Glaze Fiends or Lightning Greaves (which allow you to attack with the Fiends as soon as they come out, as well as protecting pieces of your combo). Conjurer's Bauble is another important card because if you always return a previous Conjurer's Bauble to the bottom of your library, you'll end up at the end of your deck with an infinite combo, continuously drawing the same baubles. This makes sure you don't deck yourself without enough damage to kill. Gitaxian Probe gives you information to go off.
SB: Snap is for removing bothersome creatures. It also creates mana by untapping lands that already produce 2 mana. Abeyance is to protect the combo, on top of netting a card. Gaea's Blessing gets key cards back into your library to be drawn. Nihil Spellbomb for graveyard tech + cantrip. Krosan Grip fights very nasty cards against this deck, eg. Chalice of the Void, etc. I use Glaze fiend in matchups where I won't run into lots of removal or flying creatures (Narcomoeba, Delver of Secrets and Blazing Archon come to mind). Disciple of the Vault I use in matchups that either need really two win conditions or for decks that run creatures with flying that actually block the Glaze Fiend. Fiend is in the Sideboard because he requires half the eggs as the Disciple in order to kill, and he also doesn't need a graveyard trigger, for which there is a lot of hate. Golem's Heart is useful against aggro decks of all stripes. I might consider adding it to the main, as it's an artifact drop at the same time.
This deck is good for metagames that are underdeveloped. Like many Legacy decks, the manabase is frail (this one especially so). When you cross decks like Thresh, the games are very difficult. However, a deck that can't interact early on is completely dead against this.
I have a very similar metagame; mostly aggro and aggro-control. Combo really isn't popular for some reason. If enchantress is in your meta, you have very good grounds to play Aura of Silence. Ever try Patrician's Scorn? I hear it can help out as well for that matchup, if it's common. If you're running it to fight Affinity mainly, I wouldn't bother. The matchup is favorable already, especially with 4 MD trinispheres. I don't even bother with a sideboard plan, aside from the extra Trini and O-ring. If you're not fighting Combo and are facing Burn and Zoo, Sphere of Law is a better pick, because it stops creatures as well as spells from dealing damage. I'm switching my leylines for those soon.
I always liked my 4 Flagstones. I usually never minded drawing multiples, because they thinned my deck. But if I were to replace one, it would be with a plains, not a nonbasic. I'm borderline on white sources, and I really want 13.
Also, I was doing some heavy brainstorming last night on Stax, thinking about Peacekeeper. I wanted to include Meekstone in the deck to fight Merfolk in the place of Bridge. However the card had it's problems (taps down my angel(s), costs 1 mana). I did a quick search for similar effects and found Crackdown. It takes down Goyfs, pumped Merfolk and Goblins, Delver of secrets(!!!) and reanimated monsters. It even leaves my side of the board unaffected. The only two problems I see are that the opponent can still attack once, and it doesn't affect Knight of the Reliquary. I think it's very debatable whether it's better than Ensnaring Bridge, and I will be testing very soon to find out. Any comments on this find? Has anyone tried this?
I did not test against dredge, but I would imagine so! Against Merfolk it's great, but Ensnaring Bridge is also very strong and easier to play. Against Maverick, it's a game where I'm scrambling so much that the results are very shaky. Maverick is very good at the waiting game. A Stax-savvy player will not side out all of his removal, and Zenith up answers to whatever Stax plays in the meantime. That 2 mana upkeep slows down the deck considerably, mostly because of the white mana. Game two with Peacekeeper is favorable, but in game three, you can be sure most of his removal is back in. Maverick has some pretty sick top decks.
I really dislike Defense Grid. Trinisphere accomplishes everything that Grid does (and more) for only 1 more mana. I feel like it's unnecessary to have 8 cards that do just about the same thing. What deck are you looking to fight with Aura of Silence? It must be a hassle because of the double white. Don't count on playing it before turn 4. What is your metagame like?