Feedback is requested on this deck write-up. Please comment with your opinions.
Basically the Astaxa deck I have built is actually probably more accurately labeled as a moderate superfriends deck with a stax strategy. The stax pieces I currently run are stasis, tangle wire, overwhelming splendor, and static orb. Needless to say, the deck got hosed with the banning of enlightened tutor and winter orb, but I believe this strategy remains valid overall.
The game plan is to use multi-permanent spot removal (detailed later) in conjunction with several cost-effective sweepers to control the board enough to make room to drop a planeswalker or two, throw down atraxa (hopefully with counter backup, even if it's just a spell pierce) and grind out a win through your advanced boarstate. When there's an opening and you have a stax piece in your hand, drop it to lock down the boardstate as best you can and let your planeswalkers ultimate asap. Often times, with multiple planeswalkers in play, i've found it's actually better to focus on ultimating one while just getting as much value as possible from the rest, rather than attempting to ultimate all at once.
playing djeru to tutor for a tezzy is of vital importance in many games, because tezzy can himself tutor for a static orb and/or tangle wire to initiate a stax lock. then, using his + ability, he breaks parity with your mana rocks. if you don't have any, it's often acceptable to -2 him to go and get a fellwar stone, proliferate him to 3, and then - him back to 1 to get a static orb. if the game is slow paced and you're already ahead, you can actually djeru for a venser and blink the djeru to get a planeswalker tutor chain going. while essentially the definition of "greedy play," this actually works more often than you'd expect. or maybe I just play scrubs, i don't know.
i have several "packages" in the deck that help to define exactly what it is i'm trying to do.
first is the stax package, as i mentioned.
Secondly, i have a ramp package. Crystalline crawler, everflowing chalice, and astral cornucopia are auto includes in the deck, and have proven their worth many times over. thran dynamo and guilded lotus are on the expensive side, and as such don't totally qualify as RAMP, but i'm often happy to have them in play, especially when i manage to get a teferi or tezzy down. i'm not totally sure as to the full number of ramp cards the deck wants to run, although getting to 4 mana quickly to drop a board wipe, and getting to 5 mana to drop a midrange planeswalker are vital in a lot of matchups, so i usually want to draw at least one ramp. my current number is 14 ramp. this includes the 3 talismans, fellwar stone, three visits, natures lore, farseek, and simic/dimir signets.
next is the removal package. i try to let my planeswalkers double as removal as much as possible, but the instant/sorcery removal is
spot: anguished unmaking, vindicate, fractured identity, dismember, murderous cut, yawgmoth's vile offering (this card is a MONSTER in this deck!)
sweepers: toxic deluge, damnation, supreme verdict, wrath of god, urza's ruinous blast. (Let's talk about URB for a moment. I know that I'm running cards that get exiled by this card (my artifact ramp, doubling season, and my stax pieces, etc) but the planeswalkers themselves, along with thalia, oath of teferi, and search for azcanta, are all legendary, and thus duck the removal. Often times i've found that if i'm casting this spell, I either don't care about what i'm losing considering what i'm taking out on my opponent's side of the field, or i was about to die and couldn't afford to care about what I was losing in the first place. This card is very powerful, even if it IS on occasion hit or miss.) i'm not convinced that this number of removal is correct, however. this is one section I would really appreciate feedback on.
counters package: mana leak, evasive action, spell pierce, swan song, negate, esscence scatter, counterspell, force of will.
again. not sure if this is the correct number. sometimes I wish I had more counters, but at the same time increasing counters would make me want to increase the removal count and decrease the planeswalkers to make room. i could even consider nixing the negate and essence scatter to make room for other cards.
academy rector value package: academy rector is a one-of that can go and fetch the insanely powerful overwhelming splendor. or, if you'd rather, you can fetch a doubling season. these are easily the 2 most popular targets, but oath of teferi, search for azcanta, and as foretold are all perfectly valid as well. i don't understand why this card doesn't see more play. she wins games by herself often enough.
parity-breaking package: bear umbra, sword of feast and famine, as foretold, garruk wildspeaker, teferi 1.0, teferi 2.0, tezzy 1.0, freyalise, and nissa (the 5 mana one that untaps a land and makes it a 5/5 until your next turn, i forget her name). these are the cards that allow me to operate (relatively) freely in a resource-limited boardstate. special mention to bear umbra. that card is a HOUSE with a static orb in play. i've considered running the kiora that untaps a creature and a land, but that would be her only useful ability for the most part. her minus isn't relevant in this deck with how few creatures i run.
planeswalker package: the meat and potatoes of the deck. currently, it runs jtms, vraska the unseen, karn, ugin, liliana vess (that -2 is POWERFUL, especially in a resource locked environment.) ob nixilis, reignited, jace, architect of thought, jace, unraveler of secrets, dovin baan, narset transcendent, venser the sojourner (works well with djeru, eternal witness, oath of teferi, snapcaster, as well as planeswalkers who come down and immediately minus, such as vraska. a surprisingly relevant play is bouncing a permanant that would otherwise get exiled by an urza's ruinous blast, which returns at EoT.). surprisingly enough liliana of the veil hasn't performed particularly well in this deck, and has been emphatically cut.
utility package: eternal witness, oath of teferi, snapcaster mage, doubling season, search for azcanta, djeru with eyes open. i've occasionally run mirari's wake, which helps break parity, beefs up atraxa AND whatever tokens the deck may generate, and is tutorable with academy rector. it's not in my current build, but it wouldn't require twisting my arm very far to put it back, especially considering how i'm already running guilded lotus. i'm also considering running baleful strix. aside from being an aggro-speedbump cantrip, he protects planeswalkers fiercely and is bounceable with venser.
some of the ideas i've had are perhaps a tokens build and smokestack, along with the eternal-choice doubling season. (which, as mentioned, is tutorable with academy rector.) other cards i'm thinking about running are orb of dreams and uba mask, which would require some moderate reworking of the entire deck. the amount of tweaking required to fit these cards collectively is less than what i would consider an overhaul, but still significant, and the deck is tight enough as it is that i'd have trouble making the correct cuts. i'd also like to make room for torpor orb, and thalia, heretic cathar. at one point i ran grand arbiter augustin iv, but i cut him at one point and keep forgetting to reinclude him. he performed moderately well, including making dovin baan and narset 2 mana as well as negating the first atraxa commander tax.
i'm also considering running a crucible of worlds/ravages of war/armageddon package. but that may take some convincing.
i'm not convinced that karn liberated and garruk apex predator have a place in this deck, although i've really liked the karn in several situations. it's not an auto include. GAP is a bit harder to justify, as he seems to be a bit win-more to me, although i'd like to run him as a test. opinions on these two would be welcome.
Feedback is requested on this deck write-up. Please comment with your opinions.
Basically the Astaxa deck I have built is actually probably more accurately labeled as a moderate superfriends deck with a stax strategy. The stax pieces I currently run are stasis, tangle wire, overwhelming splendor, and static orb. Needless to say, the deck got hosed with the banning of enlightened tutor and winter orb, but I believe this strategy remains valid overall.
The game plan is to use multi-permanent spot removal (detailed later) in conjunction with several cost-effective sweepers to control the board enough to make room to drop a planeswalker or two, throw down atraxa (hopefully with counter backup, even if it's just a spell pierce) and grind out a win through your advanced boarstate. When there's an opening and you have a stax piece in your hand, drop it to lock down the boardstate as best you can and let your planeswalkers ultimate asap. Often times, with multiple planeswalkers in play, i've found it's actually better to focus on ultimating one while just getting as much value as possible from the rest, rather than attempting to ultimate all at once.
playing djeru to tutor for a tezzy is of vital importance in many games, because tezzy can himself tutor for a static orb and/or tangle wire to initiate a stax lock. then, using his + ability, he breaks parity with your mana rocks. if you don't have any, it's often acceptable to -2 him to go and get a fellwar stone, proliferate him to 3, and then - him back to 1 to get a static orb. if the game is slow paced and you're already ahead, you can actually djeru for a venser and blink the djeru to get a planeswalker tutor chain going. while essentially the definition of "greedy play," this actually works more often than you'd expect. or maybe I just play scrubs, i don't know.
i have several "packages" in the deck that help to define exactly what it is i'm trying to do.
first is the stax package, as i mentioned.
Secondly, i have a ramp package. Crystalline crawler, everflowing chalice, and astral cornucopia are auto includes in the deck, and have proven their worth many times over. thran dynamo and guilded lotus are on the expensive side, and as such don't totally qualify as RAMP, but i'm often happy to have them in play, especially when i manage to get a teferi or tezzy down. i'm not totally sure as to the full number of ramp cards the deck wants to run, although getting to 4 mana quickly to drop a board wipe, and getting to 5 mana to drop a midrange planeswalker are vital in a lot of matchups, so i usually want to draw at least one ramp. my current number is 14 ramp. this includes the 3 talismans, fellwar stone, three visits, natures lore, farseek, and simic/dimir signets.
next is the removal package. i try to let my planeswalkers double as removal as much as possible, but the instant/sorcery removal is
spot: anguished unmaking, vindicate, fractured identity, dismember, murderous cut, yawgmoth's vile offering (this card is a MONSTER in this deck!)
sweepers: toxic deluge, damnation, supreme verdict, wrath of god, urza's ruinous blast. (Let's talk about URB for a moment. I know that I'm running cards that get exiled by this card (my artifact ramp, doubling season, and my stax pieces, etc) but the planeswalkers themselves, along with thalia, oath of teferi, and search for azcanta, are all legendary, and thus duck the removal. Often times i've found that if i'm casting this spell, I either don't care about what i'm losing considering what i'm taking out on my opponent's side of the field, or i was about to die and couldn't afford to care about what I was losing in the first place. This card is very powerful, even if it IS on occasion hit or miss.) i'm not convinced that this number of removal is correct, however. this is one section I would really appreciate feedback on.
counters package: mana leak, evasive action, spell pierce, swan song, negate, esscence scatter, counterspell, force of will.
again. not sure if this is the correct number. sometimes I wish I had more counters, but at the same time increasing counters would make me want to increase the removal count and decrease the planeswalkers to make room. i could even consider nixing the negate and essence scatter to make room for other cards.
academy rector value package: academy rector is a one-of that can go and fetch the insanely powerful overwhelming splendor. or, if you'd rather, you can fetch a doubling season. these are easily the 2 most popular targets, but oath of teferi, search for azcanta, and as foretold are all perfectly valid as well. i don't understand why this card doesn't see more play. she wins games by herself often enough.
parity-breaking package: bear umbra, sword of feast and famine, as foretold, garruk wildspeaker, teferi 1.0, teferi 2.0, tezzy 1.0, freyalise, and nissa (the 5 mana one that untaps a land and makes it a 5/5 until your next turn, i forget her name). these are the cards that allow me to operate (relatively) freely in a resource-limited boardstate. special mention to bear umbra. that card is a HOUSE with a static orb in play. i've considered running the kiora that untaps a creature and a land, but that would be her only useful ability for the most part. her minus isn't relevant in this deck with how few creatures i run.
planeswalker package: the meat and potatoes of the deck. currently, it runs jtms, vraska the unseen, karn, ugin, liliana vess (that -2 is POWERFUL, especially in a resource locked environment.) ob nixilis, reignited, jace, architect of thought, jace, unraveler of secrets, dovin baan, narset transcendent, venser the sojourner (works well with djeru, eternal witness, oath of teferi, snapcaster, as well as planeswalkers who come down and immediately minus, such as vraska. a surprisingly relevant play is bouncing a permanant that would otherwise get exiled by an urza's ruinous blast, which returns at EoT.). surprisingly enough liliana of the veil hasn't performed particularly well in this deck, and has been emphatically cut.
utility package: eternal witness, oath of teferi, snapcaster mage, doubling season, search for azcanta, djeru with eyes open. i've occasionally run mirari's wake, which helps break parity, beefs up atraxa AND whatever tokens the deck may generate, and is tutorable with academy rector. it's not in my current build, but it wouldn't require twisting my arm very far to put it back, especially considering how i'm already running guilded lotus. i'm also considering running baleful strix. aside from being an aggro-speedbump cantrip, he protects planeswalkers fiercely and is bounceable with venser.
some of the ideas i've had are perhaps a tokens build and smokestack, along with the eternal-choice doubling season. (which, as mentioned, is tutorable with academy rector.) other cards i'm thinking about running are orb of dreams and uba mask, which would require some moderate reworking of the entire deck. the amount of tweaking required to fit these cards collectively is less than what i would consider an overhaul, but still significant, and the deck is tight enough as it is that i'd have trouble making the correct cuts. i'd also like to make room for torpor orb, and thalia, heretic cathar. at one point i ran grand arbiter augustin iv, but i cut him at one point and keep forgetting to reinclude him. he performed moderately well, including making dovin baan and narset 2 mana as well as negating the first atraxa commander tax.
i'm also considering running a crucible of worlds/ravages of war/armageddon package. but that may take some convincing.
i'm not convinced that karn liberated and garruk apex predator have a place in this deck, although i've really liked the karn in several situations. it's not an auto include. GAP is a bit harder to justify, as he seems to be a bit win-more to me, although i'd like to run him as a test. opinions on these two would be welcome.