I was thinking something like "Phyrexian Smog" what with Atraxa being Phyrexian and smog referencing Smokestacks, the namesake of the stax strategy. Plus Smog sounds more degenerate than smokestacks or smoke which is good cause we are going for a competitive deck. I will play with it though.
Would you consider playing the Quicksmith spoiled in Aether Revolt since it synergizes with the orbs so well?
I would consider it if it cost maybe one less and we had one more card that it synergized with (as is, only Winter Orb and Static Orb Synergize with it). Sadly that is not the case.
My suggestion after playing her is that she's really bonkers if you can add +1/+1 counters on creatures, especially herself. Honorable mention Opal Palace. Oh and you will be recasting her a lot, but thanks to Everflowing Chalice and Astral Cornucopia you will get a lot of mana - easily able to cast her 5-10 times per game. I would also like to stress that you include something that increases her strength and toughness to 5 or 6, as most fliers (and therefore blockers) tend to be 5/5's. Either that or first strike to make use of her death touch ability - or you can use that extra mana to recast her after she killed the blocker - very few decks have multiple flying blockers to sustain the flying onslaught Atraxa represents.
There really aren't any ways to add +1/+1 counters in this deck as they would dilute the overall strategy. If need be, Elspeth can make her a rather terrifying 7/7 while still pushing towards her ult. Keep in mind too that there are very few worthwhile creatures that are 4 or less mana that can stop Atraxa. In fact, if you are playing it right, your opponents shouldn't really have much to block with or any resources. I would also try and avoid needing to cast her too often due to us playing Winter Orb, Stasis, Static Orb, and Tangle Wire.
I built this deck and I get to take it for my first test run tonight. I'll let you know how it goes. My deck is 90% the same except for the mana base, sun titan over mox diamond (money), and flip garruk over elspeth. (Because I thought I had an elspeth but I dont). Any last minute tips for my first time piloting stax?
Try and get a feel for your group: if Atraxa is kill on sight, then make sure you can protect her the turn she comes into play. 4 Mana isn't a ton, but it does add up. Otherwise, if you feel comfortable with your hand, your opponent's board presence, and your mana base, generally any tutor should go to Tangle wire, stasis, or Doubling season.
So I had a few games last night and it reminded me about how much I hate planechase (at least in Commander). The variant too often comes down to one of two scenarios: either we land on a plane that no one cares about and people pretty much forget to try and roll the die (or do it just as a thing to do) or we land on a plane that benefits maybe 1-2 people and people start rolling frantically to get off of it. It cheapens wins and creates random frustrating losses.
Game 2 the Riku player left and was replaced by a Radha, Heir to Keld dragons deck, K&T was still around and then we got a fourth player playing The Gitrog Monster. I had my suspicions about the Git monster due to it being a foil Japanese card, him playing a foil Deathrite Shaman and a Lion's Eye Diamond, but no one seemed to listen because after rolling chaos on Skybreen and targeting the GM, Radha rolled a chaos and targeted me, then GM rolled a chaos and targeted me. So turn 3 I was at 25 life with 3 lands and a simic signet. Turn 4, GM combo'ed off with Dakmor Salvage... I don't enjoy saying this, but this game tilted the hell out of me. First, it was attack of both poor threat assessment and planechase. Second, and more importantly, the GM player pulled a really jerk move by playing the way he did. Mind you, GM comboing off turn 4 is not why I got annoyed (though it didn't help). In all honesty, I hope to get this deck to a decently competitive point, so that I might give that GM deck a good game. I got annoyed because, not only did he bring a gun to a knife fight, it turns out that this was his first game of Commander in Portland as he had recently moved. His old meta was super cutthroat (which is fine) and so he decided, for some ridiculous reason, that we were too. I seem to recall seeing a recent thread discussing acts like this: the appropriate thing to do when in a new place is to play something so so just to get the lay of the land. If you get annihilated then you move to your competitive deck, and if not then you haven't disrupted anyone's fun. By choosing to play that deck he made it obvious that he has no understanding of social etiquette, which in turn annoys me because he is feeding into the socially awkward stereotype that the magic community is trying to move away from. I'd like to say that I will be the bigger person and move on, but I don't know if he would learn anything if I did that if I saw him again, so I don't know.
Game 3, the only change is that GM switches to his Geist of Saint Traft 1v1 deck. Yea not much better. This game went on way too long-K&T had to leave in the middle of it. Things were pretty back and forth throughout the game with Geist buffing up his commander a ton (I was pretty close to death via commander damage), Radha getting both Xenagos and Atarka in play, and K&T pushing us all around with Edric and Gahiji. Despite Planechase screwing me over with a turn order switch right before my turn, I somehow managed to drop a Deepglow Skate with Elspeth, Knight-Errant at 6 counters and ult her. This put me in a very good position especially when we walked to Norn's Dominion and on my next turn I my first roll was to walk. This blew up everyone's board except for my own. We then walked to the myriad plane (can't remember the name). It was slow but I eventually managed to win despite Radha getting very close to killing both Geist and myself. Sadly, Radha was pretty unhappy with this game as Geist (being a 1v1 deck) spent most of his removal/counters on him (I got a little bit, but not nearly the same amount).
Overall a pretty crummy evening of magic. I will never play planechase again unless it is with precons/new players.
So now that the deck uses Zur to tutor for lock pieces, does druid's repository and/or mana bloom get a reconsideration? Having a fully Zur-tutorable stasis lock seems good.
Honestly, they really suck on their own. Plus, upon creating the lock, Zur will be tapped down as well.
@Wraith223: what is your meta like? Do you not have grave hate or land hate in it?
I'm still following and will continue doing so
I understand that Static Orb is disliked, but that's okay as long as people treat it as it is: just a good card!
Bad thread assessment can be frustrating. I think the people I play with, got better after a while...
Cool, just needed to make sure I wasn't too overly self-indulgent.
Yea Static Orb (and worse) will make a return once the deck can more easily abuse it. For right now though, I will play "fair."
Damn I didn't even know about imp's mischief, but I already noticed in my last games that hatred doesn't work out well Did anyone try the discard route? The only good thing only targets opponents seem's to be Honden of Night's Reach but five mana is too much in my oppinion. What could be an alternative? Maybe oppression? Discarding lands with a Crucible of Worlds seems tempting. Or is that just too cute?
You need a fair number of discard for it to be useful in EDH. Honestly I would just play a wheel effect to combo with Leovold (my list includes a Time Spiral).
So before I begin, I gotta ask, is anyone still following this? Is this at all entertaining for anyone? Cause if not I will just update the opening post without worrying about game recaps.
Anyhoo, game 1 was me versus a land heavy Boborygamos Enraged, Tymna the Weaver+Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist pillowfort/group hug, and Gonti, Lord of Luxury. The game was decently all over the place until Boborygamos decided to swing at me with Bobo himself as well as a 27/27 Centaur Vinecrasher. I responded with a Beast Within on the Vinecrasher to which Tymna/Ludevic decided to Grab the Reins with entwine the Vinecrasher and zing it at me. This left me at such a low life that I basically couldn't do anything as Bobo could just shoot me at any time (which he did after a turn or two). Other than the fact that my Atraxa was threatening Tymna/Ludevic with commander damage, there was really no reason for T/L to make that play as I had almost no board otherwise and would have preferred T/L had lived to deal with Bobo and Gonti (who were both getting out of hand). It didn't even win him the game as he was killed next and then Gonti was able to take things over (Bobo was out of cards). I really really hate losing to bimbo threat assessment.
Game 2 Bobo left and T/L continued while Gonti switched to Depala, Pilot Exemplar. This game had a ton of boardwipes (I felt bad for Depala as he really wasn't able to come back after a while). The turning point occurred when Depala swung at T/L with a Juggernaut and a Bomat Bazaar Barge which were pumped a bit. He then played Relentless Assault, and for some reason, instead of swinging at T/L to put some pressure on him (as he had the best board but was tapped out), he decided to swing at me and I chumped with an Elspeth token and some other small creature. Complete misplay. From there, T/L took over and won. Lost again due to bad threat assessment. I'm seeing a trend.
As you can see above, I was a bit salty from the previous two games, thus my inclusion of Static Orb... I would remove it after the night was over, but for this third game it made a strong appearance. T/L switched to Reaper King and Depala switched to Saskia the Unyielding. I started off really fast plopping an Elspeth, followed by Atraxa, followed by Static Orb. Atraxa was removed at some point, but I managed to get her out again. This was interesting because Saskia managed to prevent me from ulting Elspeth via swinging at RK with Saskia and redirecting the damage from me to Elspeth herself. Good job on them for figuring it out. Still Atraxa managed to eventually beat them down via the +3/+3 from Elspeth. Felt good until there was some grumbling about how disliked the Static Orb was...I have an opinion on that. Let me know if you would like to hear it.
Game 4 we got a fourth player, the Silas Renn/Vial Smasher from two weeks before playing the same deck, Reaper King stayed and Saskia switched to something I can't remember (this game is very much a blur because it was late and we had to rush due to the store closing). It was a really long game with too many board wipes (many were mine), but I did pretty well and had the game sewn up (killed off both Reaper King and whatever the Saskia player was playing). However, Renn/Vial wound up stalling (Evacuation followed by a Cyclonic Rift) til the store closed. She couldn't have won either. I would say I deserved it had she been involved in my Static Orb play, but she wasn't there for that so it was just kinda rude. Aw well.
My changes are primarily to protect Atraxa (greaves) and my board state (counterspells) as you can see above. Thanks!
Anyone thought about hatred? Can be used for a quick commander damage kill and the lifeloss is compensated by Atraxa self.
Honestly I would be afraid of it getting countered or shot which would most likely mean death. If I would to go that route, I would play Tainted Strike instead.
Anyone else looking at the spoiled card, Oath of Ajani? It seems right up our alley.
Well the +1/+1 counters are just kinda cute and unnecessary, and we don't run enough walkers for the cost reduction to be really good. Besides, I have no idea what could be removed for it.
Ok so I have no idea why I didn't think of this earlier (it is even in Phil's Stax thread) but any thoughts on adding Sun Titan? Yea it is a little expensive (could totally replace a walker-Dovin Ban maybe?), but it would fix a whole bunch of our recursion issues (it recurs most of the deck), allows us to recoup from an Armageddon more easily, and creates an infinite stasis lock. Yes it get hit by Torpor Orb, but only slightly.
I am still at a loss why we run contamination. How are we sacking a creature every turn when the decks has few creatures? It would only last one turn of lockdown. I would have to tutor Elspeth, Garruk, and Contamination to make the weak lock. Its a cool combo, and I like it, but how are we paying the upkeep? Sacking Atraxa every turn with Hasty boots on board?
Do you not run Bitterblossom? The idea was running zur to tutor for both. Contamination was more of a suggestion because we already had a few ways to keep it going. Not sure if it is optimal or not.
Another option to consider, though I think it is a little too passive/pillow forty, is Solitary Confinement.
I hate Torpor Orb. Everytime i draw it, I have Ewitness, Ichor rats, or something else I need to to play. Topor Orb just sits in my hand for ages doing nothing. I pulled it for Farseek. That I need.
Does Torpor Orb Stop Crystaline Crawler? My shop seems to think it does. "Enters the battlefield"....
No it does not stop Crawler, as that is not a triggered ability. It is just like how Torpor Orb does not stop Clone and cards of that ilk. If your store gives you trouble for that tell them to look it up.
Torpor orb is one of the reasons why I don't run either rats or witness.
Now about Confidant vs Arena, this is in fact a meta call since I see a lot more creature removal than enchantment removal (which is mostly spot and not mass) and there's no Uba Mask or Nekusar (at least not yet). Also since I'm going to try Zur that's another point to Arena. Maybe sometime I'll try Narset again but I too want to try Contamination in that slow, I used to run it in a mono black deck and it was always very strong.
About Many Crypt maybe it's not that good but I've find that I have plenty of uses for it and haven't find the colorless mana to be wasted, at least not yet.
I've been looking at the list and I'm making these changes to try the next time I play:
And a name for the deck maybe something like Angelic Prison?
Honestly, I prefer Rhystic Study to Phyrexian Arena. Arena is really really slow. Study plays into our lock really nicely if they pay the mana, and can allow you to draw like a mad man if they don't pay.
...lol
I am looking into something a little more clever.
I would consider it if it cost maybe one less and we had one more card that it synergized with (as is, only Winter Orb and Static Orb Synergize with it). Sadly that is not the case.
There really aren't any ways to add +1/+1 counters in this deck as they would dilute the overall strategy. If need be, Elspeth can make her a rather terrifying 7/7 while still pushing towards her ult. Keep in mind too that there are very few worthwhile creatures that are 4 or less mana that can stop Atraxa. In fact, if you are playing it right, your opponents shouldn't really have much to block with or any resources. I would also try and avoid needing to cast her too often due to us playing Winter Orb, Stasis, Static Orb, and Tangle Wire.
Try and get a feel for your group: if Atraxa is kill on sight, then make sure you can protect her the turn she comes into play. 4 Mana isn't a ton, but it does add up. Otherwise, if you feel comfortable with your hand, your opponent's board presence, and your mana base, generally any tutor should go to Tangle wire, stasis, or Doubling season.
Looking forward to hearing about your experience!
So game 1 was against Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis grouphug/pillowfort (getting really sick of grouphug) and Riku of Two Reflections. Things were pretty back and forth, the planes being important but not game winning until K&T and I had to deal with Riku's doubled Eldritch Evolution into Arcanis the Omnipotent and Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind. One of us boardwiped, but not after Riku drew a bunch of cards. Then we walked to Naar Isle. After K&T and myself trying to walk off of it and Riku not, Riku doubled an entwinted Tooth and Nail into Heartless Hidetsugu, Kiora's Follower, Kamahl, Pit Fighter, and something else (all had haste due to a Temur Ascendancy. After bringing us down pretty low, I unmorphed Bane of the Living and wiped his board. It didn't matter though cause the Isle killed both K&T and I before we could have our turns. God I hate Planechase...
Game 2 the Riku player left and was replaced by a Radha, Heir to Keld dragons deck, K&T was still around and then we got a fourth player playing The Gitrog Monster. I had my suspicions about the Git monster due to it being a foil Japanese card, him playing a foil Deathrite Shaman and a Lion's Eye Diamond, but no one seemed to listen because after rolling chaos on Skybreen and targeting the GM, Radha rolled a chaos and targeted me, then GM rolled a chaos and targeted me. So turn 3 I was at 25 life with 3 lands and a simic signet. Turn 4, GM combo'ed off with Dakmor Salvage... I don't enjoy saying this, but this game tilted the hell out of me. First, it was attack of both poor threat assessment and planechase. Second, and more importantly, the GM player pulled a really jerk move by playing the way he did. Mind you, GM comboing off turn 4 is not why I got annoyed (though it didn't help). In all honesty, I hope to get this deck to a decently competitive point, so that I might give that GM deck a good game. I got annoyed because, not only did he bring a gun to a knife fight, it turns out that this was his first game of Commander in Portland as he had recently moved. His old meta was super cutthroat (which is fine) and so he decided, for some ridiculous reason, that we were too. I seem to recall seeing a recent thread discussing acts like this: the appropriate thing to do when in a new place is to play something so so just to get the lay of the land. If you get annihilated then you move to your competitive deck, and if not then you haven't disrupted anyone's fun. By choosing to play that deck he made it obvious that he has no understanding of social etiquette, which in turn annoys me because he is feeding into the socially awkward stereotype that the magic community is trying to move away from. I'd like to say that I will be the bigger person and move on, but I don't know if he would learn anything if I did that if I saw him again, so I don't know.
Game 3, the only change is that GM switches to his Geist of Saint Traft 1v1 deck. Yea not much better. This game went on way too long-K&T had to leave in the middle of it. Things were pretty back and forth throughout the game with Geist buffing up his commander a ton (I was pretty close to death via commander damage), Radha getting both Xenagos and Atarka in play, and K&T pushing us all around with Edric and Gahiji. Despite Planechase screwing me over with a turn order switch right before my turn, I somehow managed to drop a Deepglow Skate with Elspeth, Knight-Errant at 6 counters and ult her. This put me in a very good position especially when we walked to Norn's Dominion and on my next turn I my first roll was to walk. This blew up everyone's board except for my own. We then walked to the myriad plane (can't remember the name). It was slow but I eventually managed to win despite Radha getting very close to killing both Geist and myself. Sadly, Radha was pretty unhappy with this game as Geist (being a 1v1 deck) spent most of his removal/counters on him (I got a little bit, but not nearly the same amount).
Overall a pretty crummy evening of magic. I will never play planechase again unless it is with precons/new players.
Honestly, they really suck on their own. Plus, upon creating the lock, Zur will be tapped down as well.
@Wraith223: what is your meta like? Do you not have grave hate or land hate in it?
Cool, just needed to make sure I wasn't too overly self-indulgent.
Yea Static Orb (and worse) will make a return once the deck can more easily abuse it. For right now though, I will play "fair."
I hope people get better. I really really do...
You need a fair number of discard for it to be useful in EDH. Honestly I would just play a wheel effect to combo with Leovold (my list includes a Time Spiral).
Anyhoo, game 1 was me versus a land heavy Boborygamos Enraged, Tymna the Weaver+Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist pillowfort/group hug, and Gonti, Lord of Luxury. The game was decently all over the place until Boborygamos decided to swing at me with Bobo himself as well as a 27/27 Centaur Vinecrasher. I responded with a Beast Within on the Vinecrasher to which Tymna/Ludevic decided to Grab the Reins with entwine the Vinecrasher and zing it at me. This left me at such a low life that I basically couldn't do anything as Bobo could just shoot me at any time (which he did after a turn or two). Other than the fact that my Atraxa was threatening Tymna/Ludevic with commander damage, there was really no reason for T/L to make that play as I had almost no board otherwise and would have preferred T/L had lived to deal with Bobo and Gonti (who were both getting out of hand). It didn't even win him the game as he was killed next and then Gonti was able to take things over (Bobo was out of cards). I really really hate losing to bimbo threat assessment.
Out: Plains, In: Windswept Heath
Game 2 Bobo left and T/L continued while Gonti switched to Depala, Pilot Exemplar. This game had a ton of boardwipes (I felt bad for Depala as he really wasn't able to come back after a while). The turning point occurred when Depala swung at T/L with a Juggernaut and a Bomat Bazaar Barge which were pumped a bit. He then played Relentless Assault, and for some reason, instead of swinging at T/L to put some pressure on him (as he had the best board but was tapped out), he decided to swing at me and I chumped with an Elspeth token and some other small creature. Complete misplay. From there, T/L took over and won. Lost again due to bad threat assessment. I'm seeing a trend.
Out: Mirrorweave, In: Static Orb
As you can see above, I was a bit salty from the previous two games, thus my inclusion of Static Orb... I would remove it after the night was over, but for this third game it made a strong appearance. T/L switched to Reaper King and Depala switched to Saskia the Unyielding. I started off really fast plopping an Elspeth, followed by Atraxa, followed by Static Orb. Atraxa was removed at some point, but I managed to get her out again. This was interesting because Saskia managed to prevent me from ulting Elspeth via swinging at RK with Saskia and redirecting the damage from me to Elspeth herself. Good job on them for figuring it out. Still Atraxa managed to eventually beat them down via the +3/+3 from Elspeth. Felt good until there was some grumbling about how disliked the Static Orb was...I have an opinion on that. Let me know if you would like to hear it.
Game 4 we got a fourth player, the Silas Renn/Vial Smasher from two weeks before playing the same deck, Reaper King stayed and Saskia switched to something I can't remember (this game is very much a blur because it was late and we had to rush due to the store closing). It was a really long game with too many board wipes (many were mine), but I did pretty well and had the game sewn up (killed off both Reaper King and whatever the Saskia player was playing). However, Renn/Vial wound up stalling (Evacuation followed by a Cyclonic Rift) til the store closed. She couldn't have won either. I would say I deserved it had she been involved in my Static Orb play, but she wasn't there for that so it was just kinda rude. Aw well.
My changes are primarily to protect Atraxa (greaves) and my board state (counterspells) as you can see above. Thanks!
Honestly I would be afraid of it getting countered or shot which would most likely mean death. If I would to go that route, I would play Tainted Strike instead.
Well the +1/+1 counters are just kinda cute and unnecessary, and we don't run enough walkers for the cost reduction to be really good. Besides, I have no idea what could be removed for it.
Do you not run Bitterblossom? The idea was running zur to tutor for both. Contamination was more of a suggestion because we already had a few ways to keep it going. Not sure if it is optimal or not.
Another option to consider, though I think it is a little too passive/pillow forty, is Solitary Confinement.
No it does not stop Crawler, as that is not a triggered ability. It is just like how Torpor Orb does not stop Clone and cards of that ilk. If your store gives you trouble for that tell them to look it up.
Torpor orb is one of the reasons why I don't run either rats or witness.
Honestly, I prefer Rhystic Study to Phyrexian Arena. Arena is really really slow. Study plays into our lock really nicely if they pay the mana, and can allow you to draw like a mad man if they don't pay.