Will They Blame Me If You Go Disappearing
Commander / EDH
SCORE: 28 | 10 COMMENTS | 3784 VIEWS | IN 3 FOLDERS
Strayed too far... —Dec. 12, 2020
On my quest to make the deck quicker, I've foolishly replaced a number of stax pieces over time. My mindset was that if I could make room for some additional fast pieces, I could leverage myself to enough of an advantageous point to where resources would have to be used to stop me rather than combo off, all while buying more time for Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools and Smokestack. In theory it works, but in practice, the out is always a tutored Dockside Extortionist, which then provides enough mana to win on the spot since I was kind enough to blow up all blue mana. I've ranted to myself enough about this card and how I dislike it's existence at 2 mana so I'll just say "it's really strong" and I have to play around it as best as I can. Perhaps I can thank the adversity for pushing me to build this list the best I can.
My most shameful removal has had to be Sphere of Resistance. I failed to properly play around it due to inexperience, and undervalued it as a potentially strong piece because of it. It hurts the list, but the important part is making it hurt less for me than everyone else. Importantly, it also stops a number of Storm loops, something which is somewhat rampant in my meta.
I've also introduced Planar Void, a Leyline of the Void-like card that's certainly "weaker", but for all intents and purposes, actually playable if drawn. Very few decks care about individual creatures dying a single time, so Planar Void gets the job done for stopping infinites or otherwise high-value plays.
And lastly, I introduced Chandra, the Firebrand, an MVP in ramp and anti-counterspell shenanigans. Her -2 is what's important, and then ping is great for clearing dorks for The Abyss. I do not expect to ever resolve the -6, but perhaps... who knows, it might happen some day. Originally I had her excluded so that I could 100% Reality Scramble Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools into Karn, the Great Creator but that... pretty much never happened. It also wasn't that great since even though the board would be locked down, I wouldn't be generating any sort of meaningful value from it, and Tevesh would cost a lot to re-cast after that.
Cards removed & reasoning:
- Abrade // This list is unaffected by a majority of sub-4 toughness threats, same for troublesome artifacts most of the time. Isochron Scepter can be handled in other ways.
- Seething Song // A ritual that I frequently wanted after drawing 3 off of Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools so that I could more easily play stax artifacts like Smokestack. Hardly ever came up, and with the shift to a Doomsday-centric gameplan it just doesn't provide the correct mana any more. Chandra, the Firebrand works for providing mana while also dishing out more utility.
- Praetor's Grasp // Was hard to cast this due to mana issues, and even when it resolved it felt a little too late most of the time. Casting multiple spells is something this list doesn't want to do whenever possible.
- Diabolic Intent // pretty weird to see this one go, especially along side the introduction of Chandra, the Firebrand who can duplicate it without a second creature sacrifice. Truthfully, I found this hard to cast, since Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh was usually being eaten for 3 cards or used in a ritual. I'll have to see, though, if I find myself lacking tutors.
Stax remains tricky to build. I will continue to work on this list until I feel it is "complete". It will be important to not lose sight of what makes this sort of gameplan viable to start with, and I'll do my best to keep a clear head moving forward.