MTG Salvation

Haha, well, I'm playing a High Tide Storm deck with ninjas, so I'm definitely a fan of jank.

I think between Wonder and Archetype, I would give Wonder a try. Archetype is a little expensive at 6 CMC and only gives flying while it's on the field. With Wonder, with a discard method you don't have to spend any mana to get it online, and the only way to stop it is with graveyard hate. Also, my issue with Waterfront Bouncer over Crystal Shard is it's slower, since I can't activate it right away, and have to discard something to activate it. Though, I suppose it has the advantage of always bouncing an opponent's creature and not giving them the option of paying 1.

As for Top + Future Sight + Helm, I actually do run that combo already. It's not as fun as trying to stitch together a bunch of different spells together to get the storm count up, but it's definitely got me out of some tough spots already.

I have an Ertai, the Corrupted build that I really like and I love seeing other people build him. I agree with James that you should add some haste. Lightning Greaves and/or Swiftfoot Boots are good because they double as haste and protection. Lullmage Mentor works wonders in my Ertai build. It basically gives you free tokens for counters, as you sac a token, counter something, and get a token back. That recursion is really important. I see you have the skeleton, and it might be worth adding another recursive creature. I run the skeleton and Nether Traitor. I also like Spirit Bonds because it works as both a token generator and as protection.

This might be more cruel control than you're going with this build, but with all of the creatures you're saccing, Grave Pact effects can be really good for clearing your opponents' boards. Martyrs' Bond lets you get the effect off enchantments, as well.

As far as cuts go, I understand that Sailmonger can be a political card, but to me it doesn't really feel like it does much, especially compared to your other political effects. Also, you're running black, the color with the best tutors, so Long-term Plans feels lackluster. I've never really been a fan of Triad of Fates, either. It's a cool effect, but when I've tried to run it in the past, it's always been too slow for my taste.

I think most of these changes make sense, with a few exceptions: I understand cutting more efficient mana dorks for better late-game mana dorks, and I think that's ok to an extent, but I'd avoid cutting too many efficient, early game dorks. Those first few turns are just so important in a stax deck, you really want those early dorks to help you get online quick. Also, I don't know why you would think about cutting Crucible of Worlds. That card is a stax all-star, and I would urge you to reconsider.

As for the mana enchantments/enchantress subtheme, I think that's going to dilute your plan too much, so I would avoid doing that.

Crystal Shard is definitely worth testing. I'm a little worried that it doesn't do much aside from reload my ETB creatures, as the 1 mana is often negligible, but I'll give it a try soon. And it's funny, you mentioned Venser, Shaper Savant and he isn't even on the list, but that's a total oversight. He's definitely an objectively better Man O' War. I'll have to hunt down a copy and throw him in the deck. I also might give Wonder a try, but I'm even more concerned about finding something to cut for that. I just don't know if it would be worth it.

Yes, I did consider Palinchron though, like you said, I felt like he was a bit too "win more" for the deck. Because I don't want to give up the core gimmick of ninjas and using the combat step, there are going to be some more competitive considerations that won't make the cut, like Palinchron.

Congrats on your Azami primer, by the way!

Made a fairly big change in the form of removing the Amoeboid Changeling plus Blightsteel Colossus win-con. As I explain in the first post, the primary angle of playing this like a High Tide deck just got too efficient and I needed the space in the list.

Have you tested Avacyn's Judgment at all? I run a list that was heavily inspired by yours and I recently added the card to test, though I haven't actually drawn it enough to know how well it works.

That's a fair point. Though, given how budget Wizards tends to keep the pre-con mana bases, I wouldn't be surprised if there is a good number of basics in each deck.

My decks that get the most compliments are probably my Higure, the Still Wind deck, because people like seeing a deck that looks like ninja tribal win through storm combos, and my Rubinia Soulsinger deck because it's a 'Ladies of Magic' legendary-theme deck that sticks very strongly to its theme: 36 creatures and 4 planeswalkers, only 4 non-legendary (two of which don't depict ladies) and all legendary creatures and PW are ladies.

On the other hand, I have to limit how much I play my Nath of the Gilt-Leaf, as it's a well-tuned stax deck. For some reason, not everyone loves playing against stax all the time...

One thought/hope I had about these, is maybe this is an opportunity for Wizards to finish the tango-land cycle from Battle for Zendikar (i.e. reprint the ally-color dual lands, and print new enemy-color tango lands). They would help with the mana base without impacting the price too much, since those lands are fairly cheap.

Thought I'd jump into this thread with my fully-foreign Nath of the Gilt-Leaf deck. One card is English, because I wanted to have each language Magic sets have been printed in. Now I'm trying to get it to be fully foreign and "best version." For me, best version does not always mean foil. I prefer the oldest printings, and promos if they exist, so that takes precedence over foil. (i.e. I consider the Korean Urza's Sage Priest of Titania to be the "best version.")

You might consider cutting a land. I run 34 lands in my stax deck, and while I might have a little bit of a lower curve than yours, it looks like you have a lot more other mana producers. Plus, you have ramp in your command zone.

Quote from Greatest Gargadon »

In regards to your comments on counters, what is your opinion on Forbid? In theory, it could be cool.

I really like Forbid. Trading 2 cards for one is a bit steep, but when you load your hand with a lot of cards, the buyback is usually negligible, and having a repeatable counter can be really nice. Especially if it's a meta call, 8 counters probably isn't too much.

Stax is my bread and butter. It's a fun archetype that's really hard to pilot - but that's what I love about it. As long as you play with a group who is tolerant of stax (understandably, not everyone is), I think everyone should give it a try. I run a Nath of the Gilt-Leaf stax list, and there's a ton of stax value in the addition of black, but I really like that you tried something different.

Taking a closer look at your list, I think you're right that the deck still has the ability to produce a lot of mana, so GWave might be worth keeping. That being said, one thing you might think about running, regardless of whether or not you keep GWave, is Hall of Gemstone. It's a nice way to hold off control decks who want to be playing things on your turn, and your instant count is low, so it won't really hurt you. Sword of Feast and Famine can help you untap your own lands while everyone else is locked under the Orb. Finally, Ritual of Subdual is a mean card you might consider running.

Cool deck idea! I've never seen mono-green stax before. Have you tested it yet, or is this just a theory?

Also, I assume Personal Tutor should be Worldly Tutor, or something? You can't run a blue card in mono-green.

Edit: Also, why Genesis Wave? I understand that it can be a win-con, but I usually don't expect to get enough mana to make it worth it when I'm playing stax.