Traxos was excellent at the helm of my Workshop Aggro Stax list. I did proxy up the workshop though... anyway. Traxos is a beast in 1 vs 1. Hitting your opponent for 7 each turn while keeping him down with Static Orb/Trinisphere/ challice etc is really, really strong.
But why run stax 1v1? It needs to be able to handle an entire table, not just one player.
Yes, the deck is fun, and I imagine it will be more fun when I actually have more of the control elements in place. This was at the same store, but only one of the other regulars was there last night, and he's not a bad guy. I guess the bad news is that the guy with the Phage deck also plays Mairsil, that makes two Mairsil decks in the meta... I've come to hate Mairsil, because he makes the game a lot less casual.
Like I said, I'll keep experimenting with the deck. I've only played one game with it so far, so it's hard to tell much. I just like the fact that I didn't get instantly targeted and people were complimenting me on creativity, which is in large part due to the feedback I've gotten here. I'll look for Tiana, but I think I'd have to put more equipment and auras in the deck for her to really be worth a slot. We'll see. I'll also think about Lyra, but I don't want to water down the deck any. For now I'll see how the deck shapes up and if I continue to have good experiences. I've come down with something, so I won't be going to the other store today, but I do plan on going soon. Also, I'll be picking up a few cheaper cards online that the game store didn't have.
You don't have to water the deck down for Tiana if you have enough decent equipments and auras since she's not the focus of the deck, only an enhancer. She does plenty with a lot of what you got. Suppression Field and Darksteel Mutation are both great choices for shutting off problems and should be sought for when you can. You aren't running Burnished Hart which I love for its interactions with Emeria Shepherd in W/X decks but Kor Cartographer isn't bad either (I used to run that in Brago before chopping the deck apart).
The Mairsil player who plays Phage is gutsy enough to make a Phage deck which deserves props too. Just seeing his general choice shows that he at least loves a variety of strategies, some more competitive than others, and that sort of player who is willing to play with a general that says "you lose" without jumping through a bunch of hoops is worth playing with more (assuming he wasn't a dick during your game). Personally, I love people willing to do stranger things like Starke and Phage and other uncommon generals, and people who do such things can be worth learning from too even if it is just learning from them as an adversary.
This is one of those cards like Wall of Roots or Garruk Wildspeaker that start paying you back the turn you cast them. "Each of you main phases" is a nice phrase. I'm sure fight mode is alright, but I've never done it.
Even in Dragons.dec I'd go with Khans mode since those flying beasties cost so much cmc that every bit you can get to make them cheaper adds up.
One card combos usually are what annoy me the most, like Tooth and Nail combos. They're extremely uncreative and demand you always hold open an answer. It doesn't take much deckbuilding prowess or much work to get off a Tooth and Nail combo.
I typically have between 10-20 tokens of whatever creature type I'll need, but that can make for a very cluttered battlefield.
What token decks are you running that you only make 10-20 at a time? Goblins and zombies can churn out tens to hundreds at a time and even smaller token swarms like Soldiers can add up with doublers, and that's not going into Golems.
I know the sphinx is awesome, I have played her a lot in other blue decks and I kow her value, the thing is that she is the primary target for removal, stealing effects and even reanimator effects from my opponents.
This is the primary reason I don't run Sphinx: it's an enormous detriment when there's a lot of Bribery and Reanimate effects running about. Cheap burst draw like Painful Truths might not be a bad idea since you don't need to tap out, nor do you need to wait multiple turns to get value out of it. It is a lot less innocuous than something like Phyrexian Arena while also not being removal-prone. For larger levels of draw, instants like Blue Sun's Zenith mean you don't need to tap out to draw a lot so you're free to hold open counters and removal, and unlike the others, USZ can be reused without relying on gy recursion so you can cast it earlier for some advantage and then use it later for game-winning draw power. For some of the most cards per mana in sorcery-speed draw, Recurring Insight can give you a huge amount although it is a lot slower speed than I prefer for my large draws.
Cackling Counterpart is probably the best individual copy spell for Precursor Golem because it casts twice. For reference, a kicked Rite of Replication with 1 Precursor Golem and friends leaves you with 6 Precursors and 22 vanillas, cast and flashback Cackling Counterpart gets you to 8 precursors and 40 vanillas. Iteration is stronger than increased power.
Sorry for being dumb, but how does two copies of Cackling Counterpart net you 8 PC and 40 vanillas? First spell would target the 3 golems, one which make another 2 vanillas. Thats 2 PC's and 6 vanillas, right? In my mind, the flashback would get you to 4 PC's and 24 vanillas...
It does seem like a bit of contradiction to have a set of rules to 'make gameplay more casual'. If you get points for doing things in-game, of course people are going to try and find ways to abuse that, like the above wheel example. Or...
That said, hitting those scores I thought of Nath of the Gilt-Leaf built around making the most of the his ability set. You'll be both making creatures and making people discard left, right and center - and with enough grave exile, making them nigh-unable to actually play a darn thing. (Sadistic Hypnotist says hello...)
Don't forget goodies like Death Cloud, Smallpox, Mindslicer, Waste Not, and more. Pox/Death Cloud effects will help keep the board clear while you gain more tokens.
Absolutely. Not only does forger give you a variety of spells you can cast, you can also use it to buff Avacyn so she only needs 3 hits to kill a person while equipped. Another great card with Sunforger is Master Warcraft so you can set up some combat however you wish.
It would, but it also works when the commander is not on the battlefield, and since they are a 6 cmc commander with a build-around ability that tells your opponents exactly what they do and that they should be killed before they benefit from it, that can happen pretty often.
Don't forget Price of Progress (cheap and does a decent amount of damage), and Personal Sanctuary which works well with all the Earthquake effects. Sword of War and Peace and Fire and Ice give the general protection from Earthquakes as well.
But why run stax 1v1? It needs to be able to handle an entire table, not just one player.
You don't have to water the deck down for Tiana if you have enough decent equipments and auras since she's not the focus of the deck, only an enhancer. She does plenty with a lot of what you got. Suppression Field and Darksteel Mutation are both great choices for shutting off problems and should be sought for when you can. You aren't running Burnished Hart which I love for its interactions with Emeria Shepherd in W/X decks but Kor Cartographer isn't bad either (I used to run that in Brago before chopping the deck apart).
The Mairsil player who plays Phage is gutsy enough to make a Phage deck which deserves props too. Just seeing his general choice shows that he at least loves a variety of strategies, some more competitive than others, and that sort of player who is willing to play with a general that says "you lose" without jumping through a bunch of hoops is worth playing with more (assuming he wasn't a dick during your game). Personally, I love people willing to do stranger things like Starke and Phage and other uncommon generals, and people who do such things can be worth learning from too even if it is just learning from them as an adversary.
Even in Dragons.dec I'd go with Khans mode since those flying beasties cost so much cmc that every bit you can get to make them cheaper adds up.
What token decks are you running that you only make 10-20 at a time? Goblins and zombies can churn out tens to hundreds at a time and even smaller token swarms like Soldiers can add up with doublers, and that's not going into Golems.
This is the primary reason I don't run Sphinx: it's an enormous detriment when there's a lot of Bribery and Reanimate effects running about. Cheap burst draw like Painful Truths might not be a bad idea since you don't need to tap out, nor do you need to wait multiple turns to get value out of it. It is a lot less innocuous than something like Phyrexian Arena while also not being removal-prone. For larger levels of draw, instants like Blue Sun's Zenith mean you don't need to tap out to draw a lot so you're free to hold open counters and removal, and unlike the others, USZ can be reused without relying on gy recursion so you can cast it earlier for some advantage and then use it later for game-winning draw power. For some of the most cards per mana in sorcery-speed draw, Recurring Insight can give you a huge amount although it is a lot slower speed than I prefer for my large draws.
Anointed Procession might be involved in the math too.
Don't forget goodies like Death Cloud, Smallpox, Mindslicer, Waste Not, and more. Pox/Death Cloud effects will help keep the board clear while you gain more tokens.
Redundancy is important.