Smokestack

Artifact

At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a soot counter on Smokestack.

At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player sacrifices a permanent for each soot counter on Smokestack.

Discussion (50)

DadHumanPraetor on Meren decks are outdated

4 weeks ago

I cut the aristocrats cards like Zulaport Cutthroat and Poison-Tip Archer Falkenrath Noble etc. they just werent doing enough to win. Average cmc is a little on the high side at 3.5, but the idea is to reanimate the 5 cmc spells, not cast them. Considering some discard outlets. Strongly considering Smokestack. This deck has won numerous games, but in ways that are slow and grindy and uninteresting for others players who basically dont get to have any nice things. Does anyone have an idea how to speed her up?

Epicurus on Click here if I can have your name.

1 month ago

I have not read the previous comments, so bear with me here...

Ok, so card suggestions:

• Divine Visitation

• Panharmonicon

• Mudslide

• Zur the Enchanter

Now, I see that you have Sphere of Safety and Static Orb in your maybe board, and I would strongly suggest both of them. They are both mainstays for stax. I'd add to that Smokestack and Tangle Wire for the same reason.

As for the possibility of combos, I have no input, because I personally refuse to use them. In my experience with my meta, decks that incorporate combos compromise the theme of the deck for the purpose of facilitating the combos (adding tutors and draw to increase the likelihood of the combos, and/or extra spells that protect the components of the combos, leaving less room for cards that work with the overall thematic structure of the deck).

Hope this helps at all. Cheers!

king-saproling on Because I hate when cEDH is the ONLY meta

2 months ago

You might like these: Storage Matrix, Ward of Bones, God-Pharaoh's Statue, Destructive Urge, Possessed Portal, Smokestack, Uba Mask, Conquer, Vandalblast, Curse of Opulence, Angel's Trumpet, Silent Arbiter, Bloodthirsty Blade, Rite of Flame, Gratuitous Violence, Eidolon of the Great Revel

bomb_arie on Braids hates everything | EDH

2 months ago

And Smokestack fits your sac theme also.

dingusdingo on Alesha: A Slug is Faster Than A Corpse

3 months ago

enpc

Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast is a repeat value engine that has the benefit of being able to protect itself and can deal with problematic permanents on the board.

+1: Plop a 1/1 construct with defender onto the field. This ability works well by itself, as it guarantees bodies to block for Daretti. We have a number of ways to utilize the 1/1 tokens too. We can use them alongside Smokestack to pay for the sacrifices. We can use it with Rankle, Master of Pranks to pay for the sacrifices as well. The +1 also means you are getting extra mileage from Skullclamp and draw a lot of cards. It also has strong synergy with Goblin Welder, so you can keep recurring your lock pieces. The tokens will also protect you from sac effects like Diabolic Edict or Smallpox or anything that forces you to sacrifice permanents.

-1: Sac an artifact to destroy a creature/artifact. This is the biggest reason to play Daretti. Repeatable removal of the two most common non-land permanent types is extremely helpful when your goal is to control the board. You can use the 1/1 constructs from the +1 to pay the cost, or you can use one of the two artifact critters in the deck. The sacrifice shouldn't be under rated, as you can reset Phyrexian Revoker to another permanent when your attack with Alesha, or you can jam spells when Ethersworn Canonist leaves before bringing her back with Alesha. This also allows you to remove your own artifact stax pieces if you wish to combo off or need to cast multiple spells in a turn. You can even choose to use this ability the first turn you play Daretti due to the large number of artifact rocks and stax pieces in the deck. This ability is the strongest reason to run Daretti in a stax package, you can move from strong board position to locking out the board if Daretti is left unchecked for a couple turns.

-6: Make three copies of target artifact in play/graveyard. You won't usually use this in an average game, but this can be back breaking in games that go long. We have some juicy targets in our own deck, with Sphere of Resistance (extra per spell), Thorn of Amethyst (extra for non-creature spells), Memory Jar (21 temporary cards drawn and go to your GY), Smokestack (after one or two rotations of 4x smokestack, the game is 100% over), Phyrexian Revoker (hose out most likely every active ability on the table), or even just a mana rock to get ahead. Choosing from an opponent's artifacts is also very nice in a 4 player game, because you can usually find something nice. Copying anyone's "Sword of X and Y" 3 times can be a game winning move, but honestly most equipment is a great choice to copy. I used to run Cranial Plating in this deck specifically for the 3x copies, which allow Alesha to get commander damage kills. Just note that copying legendary artifacts isn't wise, so trying to 3x someone's Umezawa's Jitte is a no-go. In more casual/high powered games, you'll sometimes be able to 3x copy a Wurmcoil Engine or Myr Battlesphere or similar big artifact doinks, which let you get kills on stalled out boards.

The last thing about Daretti that makes him worthwhile in my mind is the CMC. 3 CMC means he can come back from Sun Titan, which is pretty massive. Being a tiny constantly chugging threat engine for 3 mana also means he demands answers, or begins to punish games when he survives. I can recommend him in stax shells, where games are intended to go longer and you get more uses from him. In fast combo decks or midrange decks, someone like Dack Fayden will perform better due to draw filtering, and directly stealing an artifact as opposed to 1:1 trading artifacts like Daretti does. If you're interested in running this guy, consider him mostly for the +1 and the -1. The ult is a very nice cherry on top, but from personal experience I'm getting that ult about 1 of every 3 games he hits the table (in cEDH).

a7thson on Stax vs Prison vs Pillowfort

3 months ago

a few extra seasonings...

Stax: The name comes from Smokestack, the first "grand-daddy" of this style of 'hard' permissions/control play. But prison was sort of its predecessor. The first "prison" I'm aware of was probably the monowhite (from somewhere in the memory vault Chris Cade comes to mind) from the mid/late 90s, or white/red artifact and removal heavy brews that played stuff like Ankh of Mishra + Winter Orb + Icy Manipulator and the like combined with Armageddon, 4x Strip Mine and some tax effects and other ways to make sure your opponent had a bad time. It was brutal but effective. Sometimes with a beater like Serra Angel to actually end the game in less than an hour...

Pillow-fort was a newer one to me but stuff like Island Sanctuary and Moat have been around for a long time. It's a soft lock more or less against many common strategies/deck types and gets more so in combination with other 'stax' pieces.

RNR_Gaming on Tinybones - Ultimate Discard

4 months ago

abby315 I'm always happy to get free advertisements for my decks :)

Though Smokestack is an excellent card the current version of this deck doesn't have enough recursion to break parity. Also, those cards aren't good in every circumstance; they only shine while you're ahead and don't do much of anything if you're behind.

abby315 on Tinybones - Ultimate Discard

4 months ago

I like the idea! Tinybones seems pretty versatile so far. I've linked to this deck in the Stax section of my deck here, if that's OK: I've got a very tiny bone to pick with you

I especially love the interactions between the Stax effects and Gibbering Descent's Hellbent effect. I'm sure the tricky part is getting the balance between Stax and discard effects.

I'm surprised to see no eponymous Smokestack. Too much mana? Also, are you not getting empty hands enough to make use of Blood Scrivener and Asylum Visitor?