Exava actually doesn't do a thing for the deck. She doesn't give +1/+1 counters herself, and by the time they hae counters from Marchesa, they are already attacking so haste is irrelevant. She is good with unleash, but urabrask and anger are straight up better here. Thrumming bird may have potential.
It is true that Marton doesn't buff himself, and is a bit fragile; honestly he is a bit of a glass cannon. But that is why he is good in Marchesa: because it doesn't matter. He can be fragile. He still gets a +1/+1 counter for attacking (this triggering his ability). If they block and kill him so what? He has not only done his job, but he is coming back at eot. And of course @ 4 comic he is tutor able via fleshwrither.
Things I would seriously think about adding: Survival of the Fittest. it's an enchantment, and its a reusable tutor. It's also "on-theme" if you think about it... Genesis is another card that deserves consideration, for playing nice with your atogs, and survival both. I hear tell that recursion is "good".
I would add either Enlighted tutor, or Idyllic tutor or both.
If you want a version of Eidolon of Blossoms that plays better with Aluren just run Verderan Enchantress...speaking of enchantresses you might consider the somewhat obscure and much overlooked Femerif Enchantress..afterall, if you are sacing enchantments to your atogs anyway, you might as well get some card advantage out of them...
Yeah, Spine and Possessed Portal are definitely mid to late game plays. the advantage of them, especially of portal, is that it IS a good late-game play. By shutting down draw and forcing either discard or sacrifice on EVERY players turn it does a really good job of screwing control or combo decks that have been building up and hand-sculpting and are ready to win. They have to either have an answer for the portal IN HAND, or a tutor for one, plus the mana to cast it. Without that they are, essentially, at your mercy. In that sense the portal gives you a late-game reach that Stax decks just don't have otherwise. And since the portal is yours, you can always sac it too itself when its cost becomes too much for you; it is a VERY strategy intensive card. The main reason that I like spine is its positive synergy with Smokestack but I will freely admit that at 7 mana its cost can seem prohibitive, and it isn't necessarily best in every stax strategy. Glad you had good experience with Crucible of Worlds.
Well, the idea with Glissa is that she has synergy with the Stax Strategy: you can sac other artifacts to your smokestack and when your opponents inevitably sack a creature you can start returning your artifacts. I actually forgot about it in my last post, but Spine of Ish-Sah is actually amazing with Smokestack. I know, I know, its 7 mana. But its also a vindicate on a stick that you can sack to your stack, get back, and replay. having a Crucible + Spine means you can support a Smokestack set to 2 without any net loss of cards...which reminds me: so Crucible of Worlds is awesome. I think if you are running Smokestack its pretty much a must-include card...but if you are already running crucible, and fetchable lands, like Shocks, bosk, and basics, then running fetches is just a logical synergy. They are, however, expensive so I definitely understand that.
So...have you considered Possessed Portal? The card is absolutely and completely evil, and does NASTY things in my Karn, Silver Golem deck. especially if you have 3 + errant tokens just sitting around it can be an incredibly effective way to sweep the board. It won't win you any friends mind, but then neither does the smokestack itself.
Edit: On the "general utility cards I think you should consider running" front, I would add Austere Command (modal cards are awesome), Return to Dust (exiling and 2 for 1ing is good), and Merciless Eviction (mass exiling is awesome too).
Insidious Dreams is pretty damn sweet, I use it in my Scion of the Ur-Dragon reanimator deck and it is an all-star tutor. Especially given that you can pitch enchantments to it and then tutor for replenish...Ooze also seems like it will be good in the deck.
I haven't really been able to test my Mind Over Matter + Temple Bell additions. If I do like that hardcore combo build should I take it even further and add the Helm of Obedience combos? (I know Leyline of the Void does it but I also remember reading about another card...).
I have to admit that I am still on the fence on both cards. On the one hand Well of Lost Dreams has legitimately drawn me a bunch of cards, and unlike cards like Necropotence/ Greed/ or Erebos, no one seems to see it as threatening, despite that I typically draw at least 2 cards a turn off of it for 2 mana (which is a better deal than Greed). Oddly enough, I actually think that adding Omniscience is almost an argument in FAVOR or keeping Unfulfilled Desires in the deck. Afterall, its way cheaper to Desire away Omniscience and then Replenish it into play than actually cast the damn thing for 10 mana. I don't know though. I am definitely finding more and more cards that I want in the deck, and less and less that I want to cut. I will grant though that so far Unfulfilled desires has been lackluster. Not bad.I have never been exactly disappointed to see it, but I am usually not excited to see it either. My thoughts are usually more "Oh, well I can use that to cycle through some of my deck to get some better draw". And that's not exactly a good thing.
I think I also need to add Crucible of Worlds and redo my mana base with fetches, duals and shocks. Crucible is just too good with Glacial Chasm and once you have crucible (and Sun Titan to recur it) you have several great reasons to redo the mana.
Personally I have to admit the hardcore combo build doesn't appeal to me as much. Leyline/ helm is a great combo. But honestly though neither card is bad on their own, you will find yourself either instinctively tutoring for the other half once one shows up, or just wishing you didn't have the half you do have. Leyline is fine on its own, but really all it does is force the other players to tutor for enchantment hate as soon as it hits the board. I also don't really see how it fits a "life as a resource" theme as much as a "heh, these 2 cards win the game together".
Whelming Wave is in direct competition with Wrath of God and Damnation and both aren't worth a spot in my opinion. Whelming Wave hits indestructible targets though and might be worth a spot in a meta full of Sigarda, Uriel etc.
The potentially devastating disadvantage of Whelming Wave is that it recycles everyone's etb creatures and most decks will run (far) more of those than Oloro. Given that those creatures are typically primarily played for their etb effect most opponents will gladly invest the mana again to get a second effect. Don't get me wrong, it's a neat card - but i can't really see it in Oloro, it seems so much better in blink decks or discard decks etc
That's very true. It's also worth noting that we are already running cyclonic rift. If one wants to combine bounce and discard, such as via the words of waste/ geth's grimoire combo, this would be the card to do it with.
On a related note I got a few 6 player games in with Oloro last night. The first of them I got traumatized for 38 cards, my replenish was countered, and then much later I had Necro/ journal with about 20 cards in hand, and 11 cards in my library. I get sadistic sacramented for the rest of my library, my journal gets exiled, and I STILL combo killed the table on my turn. This deck is just stupidly powerful.
On that note I am LOVING glacial chasm, and am looking for something to cut for omniscience.
While playing my version of this deck, I got Mindslavered while I had Necropotence....booo. Anything I could have done with about that other than counter it?
With this deck, once you land necropotence you should be drawing double digit numbers if cards every turn for the small SINGLE DIGIT number of turns the game continues until you have won. Any other game state pretty well indicates you have done it wrong. But given that, countering the slaver, or destroying your own necro in response would be the only plays that save you. I know that this makes Necro seem risky. The payoff for necro, however, is simply too good to pass up, especially given that mindslaver is ONE card.
or every black deck around starts to run Erebos..... and the ability to tutor for him lol
Meh. I have played against erebos DECKS. He is not hard to get rid of. They can tutor for Erebos, and we can tutor for return to dust, or tuck, or bounce, or ashen rider, or...And that is assuming that they DONT have devotion. If they do have devotion we can also path or sword him. Honestly I would generally be more worried about a sudden impact the turn that I necro myself down to 20 life in order to grab 20+ cards.
There is always The drowned, but they are pretty terrible...scratch that. thought they were a dork, they aren't they just regenerate...Genesis is another card that deserves consideration, for playing nice with your atogs, and survival both. I hear tell that recursion is "good".
I would add either Enlighted tutor, or Idyllic tutor or both.
If you want a version of Eidolon of Blossoms that plays better with Aluren just run Verderan Enchantress...speaking of enchantresses you might consider the somewhat obscure and much overlooked Femerif Enchantress..afterall, if you are sacing enchantments to your atogs anyway, you might as well get some card advantage out of them...
On that front I would definitely second adding in Sheoldred, and Braids. You should also consider Crucible of Worlds for its synergy with Smokestack (and fetchlands if you get them). Speaking of which you might consider Glissa, the Traitor as easy artifact recursion, along with Executioner's Capsule and Dispeller's Capsule.
I feel like Genesis should absolutely be in this deck along with Survival of the Fittest.
other than that I would recommend:
Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, and Enlightened Tutor.
Edit: On the "general utility cards I think you should consider running" front, I would add Austere Command (modal cards are awesome), Return to Dust (exiling and 2 for 1ing is good), and Merciless Eviction (mass exiling is awesome too).
I have to admit that I am still on the fence on both cards. On the one hand Well of Lost Dreams has legitimately drawn me a bunch of cards, and unlike cards like Necropotence/ Greed/ or Erebos, no one seems to see it as threatening, despite that I typically draw at least 2 cards a turn off of it for 2 mana (which is a better deal than Greed). Oddly enough, I actually think that adding Omniscience is almost an argument in FAVOR or keeping Unfulfilled Desires in the deck. Afterall, its way cheaper to Desire away Omniscience and then Replenish it into play than actually cast the damn thing for 10 mana. I don't know though. I am definitely finding more and more cards that I want in the deck, and less and less that I want to cut. I will grant though that so far Unfulfilled desires has been lackluster. Not bad.I have never been exactly disappointed to see it, but I am usually not excited to see it either. My thoughts are usually more "Oh, well I can use that to cycle through some of my deck to get some better draw". And that's not exactly a good thing.
I think I also need to add Crucible of Worlds and redo my mana base with fetches, duals and shocks. Crucible is just too good with Glacial Chasm and once you have crucible (and Sun Titan to recur it) you have several great reasons to redo the mana.
Personally I have to admit the hardcore combo build doesn't appeal to me as much. Leyline/ helm is a great combo. But honestly though neither card is bad on their own, you will find yourself either instinctively tutoring for the other half once one shows up, or just wishing you didn't have the half you do have. Leyline is fine on its own, but really all it does is force the other players to tutor for enchantment hate as soon as it hits the board. I also don't really see how it fits a "life as a resource" theme as much as a "heh, these 2 cards win the game together".
That's very true. It's also worth noting that we are already running cyclonic rift. If one wants to combine bounce and discard, such as via the words of waste/ geth's grimoire combo, this would be the card to do it with.
On a related note I got a few 6 player games in with Oloro last night. The first of them I got traumatized for 38 cards, my replenish was countered, and then much later I had Necro/ journal with about 20 cards in hand, and 11 cards in my library. I get sadistic sacramented for the rest of my library, my journal gets exiled, and I STILL combo killed the table on my turn. This deck is just stupidly powerful.
On that note I am LOVING glacial chasm, and am looking for something to cut for omniscience.
With this deck, once you land necropotence you should be drawing double digit numbers if cards every turn for the small SINGLE DIGIT number of turns the game continues until you have won. Any other game state pretty well indicates you have done it wrong. But given that, countering the slaver, or destroying your own necro in response would be the only plays that save you. I know that this makes Necro seem risky. The payoff for necro, however, is simply too good to pass up, especially given that mindslaver is ONE card.
And hell, Phyrexian Processor tokens make a damn good win condition too.
Meh. I have played against erebos DECKS. He is not hard to get rid of. They can tutor for Erebos, and we can tutor for return to dust, or tuck, or bounce, or ashen rider, or...And that is assuming that they DONT have devotion. If they do have devotion we can also path or sword him. Honestly I would generally be more worried about a sudden impact the turn that I necro myself down to 20 life in order to grab 20+ cards.