Life, Liberty, and Control for all: Augustin Stax

Commander / EDH* Competitive Control Multiplayer Stax WU (Azorius)

baea1996

Instant (24)

• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Dig Through Time
• 1x Dovin's Veto
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Fierce Guardianship
• 1x Flusterstorm
• 1x Force of Negation
• 1x Force of Will
• 1x Impulse
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Mana Leak
• 1x Mental Misstep
• 1x Muddle the Mixture
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Negate
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Silence
• 1x Spell Pierce
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Thirst for Knowledge

Creature (10)

• 1x Archmage Emeritus
• 1x Aven Mindcensor
• 1x Drannith Magistrate
• 1x Esper Sentinel
• 1x Grand Abolisher
• 1x Laboratory Maniac
• 1x Malevolent Hermit  ^Flip
• 1x Painter's Servant
• 1x Thassa's Oracle
• 1x The Reality Chip

Land (29)

• 1x Adarkar Wastes
• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 7x Island
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Mystic Gate
• 1x Mystic Sanctuary
• 4x Plains
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Sea of Clouds
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Tundra
• 1x Wasteland
• 1x Windswept Heath

Sorcery (11)

• 1x Fabricate
• 1x Gitaxian Probe
• 1x Idyllic Tutor
• 1x Merchant Scroll
• 1x Paradigm Shift
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Sea Gate Restoration  ^Flip
• 1x Solve the Equation
• 1x Step Through
• 1x Transmute Artifact

Planeswalker (3)

• 1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
• 1x Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
• 1x Tezzeret the Seeker

Commander (1)

Artifact (14)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Azorius Signet
• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Cursed Totem
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Jeweled Lotus
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Mox Opal
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Silent Gravestone
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Progress

Enchantment (8)

• 1x Aura of Silence
• 1x Counterbalance
• 1x Future Sight
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Rest in Peace
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Smothering Tithe
• 1x Thought Lash

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Overview

Welcome to the Lockdown Town! Population: your opponents. Augustin is my favorite EDH general of all time, and is currently one of few cEDH decks. He is extremely oppressive, and has a ton of potential in the cEDH meta. He's not at the top of cEDH play, as Zur, Yisan, and Thrasios/Tymna still reign supreme. With that being said, GAA4 can still compete with them and put of a good fight.

TLDR Stats

Tier: 2 (http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/list-multiplayer-edh-generals-by-tier/)

Archetype: Control

Theme: Stax/Draw-Go

Win Cons: Helm of Obedience + Rest in Peace; Isochron Scepter + Dramatic Reversal

Theme

Slow play is the name of the game. GAA4 is centered around control and locking the board down with the taxing effects, while being a value engine for us, making all of our stuff cheaper to play. Since he is far from a fast combo deck, GAA4 does a great job at slowing everyone else down so we can catch up. The deck focusses on one main combo with a ton of protection and stalling effects to ensure the combo goes through.

Deck Tech

Stax

At its heart, this is a control/stax deck, meaning we're looking to lock the board down as quickly as possible. Luckily, a lot of our cards are designed to lock stuff down ASAP.

Ethersworn Canonist stops storm decks by limiting what spells can be played each turn. Fortunately, the effect doesn't hinder us too much since we have a decent amount of artifacts.

Silent Gravestone, Rest in Peace and Grafdigger's Cage are all included to slow down graveyard decks, which are incredibly powerful and popular in EDH. Straight up shuts graveyard decks down.

As explained earlier, in addition to Grand Arbiter Augustin IV, we have additional taxing effects to slow the tempo of our opponents. Cards such as Sphere of Resistance, Rhystic Study, and Aura of Silence all add on additional taxes on our opponents, while affecting us minimally.

Humility and Cursed Totem stop any and all creature decks.

Aven Mindcensor and Jace, the Mind Sculptor's '+2' controls people's ability to tutor/control what cards they draw.

And, of course, we run a ton of counterspells to prevent any problematic spells from resolving.

Last, but not least, we also run a few wraths so keep the board clear of any threats that do make it onto the board.

Card Draw

This is the fun part about this deck! Well, fun for us at least. Card draw is essential for a control/stax deck to perform well. Keeping a hand refilled while we cast our answers to threats allows us to get to the late game. In this deck, there are two types of card draw in this deck: Cantrips and Big Draw. Cantrips is the draw that keeps our hand with cards while Big Draw allows us to make big plays and potentially close out games. The best part about our cantrips is that Augustin allows us to play 2 and 3 mana draw spells that will become 1 and 2 mana!

Cantrips

Brainstorm: The best cantrip ever! Drawing 3 and putting 2 back on top of your library is fantastic.

Ponder: Another great cantrip that allows you to shuffle your library.

Impulse: With Augustin, becomes a 1 mana spell that allows you to look at the top 4 cards! Really good value

Preordain: Another great cantrip. Nothing more really needs to be said.

Mystic Remora: One of the most explosive cards in the game! It also locks down the opponent if they choose to pay the 4 mana.

Rhystic Study: Similar to Mystic Remora, but lasts for the entire game. One of the best blue cards in cEDH, Rhystic Study draws you so many cards and, at the very least, slows your opponents down. However, it works exceptionally here since Augustin is already taxing people for 1.

Thirst for Knowledge: We have a lot of artifacts, so drawing 3 and discarding 1 is really really powerful.

Big Draw

Blue Sun's Zenith: Potential combo finisher.

Dig Through Time: We don't care about our graveyard, so Dig Through Time allows us to use our graveyard to look at 7 cards.

Fact or Fiction: Just a great card, especially when it costs 3 mana with Augustin!

Pull from Tomorrow: Another combo finisher.

Land Tax + Scroll Rack: Really good combination. Draw the three lands from Land Tax, and then pay 1 to exchange them for three new cards.

Tutors

As with any combo deck, we run a ton of tutors to find what we need.

Mystical Tutor grabs Pull from Tomorrow, Dramatic Reversal and all instant and sorceries.

Enlightened Tutor gets any artifact and enchantment you need. I would write out a list of what you should get, but it's all dependent on the board state and what's in your hand.

Idyllic Tutor grabs any enchantment, though you'll typically be looking for Smothering Tithe, Rest in Peace, Back to Basics, or something else entirely.

Fabricate gets any artifact, ranging from a simple mana rock to Isochron Scepter

Muddle the Mixture gets any 2 drop.

Transmute Artifact for literally any artifact that you can afford. A fantastic way to close out games.

Tezzeret the Seeker's minus grabs Helm right off the bat, making him a viable alternative to win (or at the very least, deck someone).

Merchant Scroll any counterspell or reversal

Win Cons

Infinite Draw

There is a multitude of ways to draw your entire deck or generate infinite mana.

1. Paradox Engine, two mana rocks of any kind, Voltaic Key, and Sensei's Divining Top

2. Isochron Scepter, Dramatic Reversal and mana rocks that generate at least 3 mana. Draw with Blue Sun's Zenith or Pull from Tomorrow

3. Future Sight, Paradox Engine, Sensei's Divining Top and 1 mana rock

4. Paradox Engine, Isochron Scepter, Brainstorm, and 2 mana generated from mana rocks.

Helm-Rip

This is the main way you will win with this deck. It's a pretty common win condition, but it's very prevalent and efficient, allowing us to infinitely mill our opponents to victory.

1. Play Rest in Peace and Helm of Obedience (preferably on the same turn).

2. Spend one mana to activate helm to infinitely mill someone (explanation for the combo is plastered all over the internet so check it out if you do not understand)

3. Isochron Scepter and Dramatic Reversal allow the helm to be untapped so that you have the opportunity to mill everyone in the game.

Pros and Cons

Positives

• It's Strong!: I make no secrets of my bias towards Augustin, but this deck is extremely powerful. If you are looking to win games, no matter what cost, Augustin is a fantastic commander for that as he's very efficient in slowing the game and reaching late game with win cons.

• Playing at Instant Speed: Augustin has a plethora of interaction, such is the nature of a control deck. If you like playing cards on other people's turns, there is a ton of that in here.

• Hard counters: The matchup spread for decks is debatable, but GAA4 hard counters almost all decks in Tier 3 and below, and a good portion of Tier 2. Animar is slowed to a crawl, while Jodah doesn't have an opportunity to get anything going. The list goes on, but you get the idea. Some commanders and strategies really struggle against Augustin.

Negatives

• Fun police: As the nature of stax and control, a lot of people hate Augustin as he just prolongs games. While people are allowed to like and dislike whatever they want, it isn't uncommon to draw a lot of hate for playing GAA4. People don't like having their engines disrupted, and Augustin fills that role perfectly. It shouldn't be a problem as cEDH decks are supposed to win no matter how mad it makes your opponents. Just know not to play this at any level below cEDH or people will not like you.

• Difficult to play: Control decks are arguably some of the more difficult decks to play, as it requires not only knowledge of your deck, but also of your opponents and predictions. Countering one spell may save yourself from elimination, or just opened you up for a combo. Augustin is not intuitive, and will require experience to be played effectively. You won't master this deck's line of play within a day or two (I haven't even mastered the lines of play yet).

• He's not top tier: While viable in cEDH, a number of other commanders outclass Augustin either in stax and or combo speed. I play him because I like his playstyle and colors the most (PLAY WHAT YOU LIKE). He definitely can compete well in cEDH, just know he isn't the absolute strongest.

Notable Inclusions

Staff of Domination: A lot of Augustin players argue whether staff is good. While a dead draw if you don't have infinite mana, It is easily tutorable and doesn't require colored mana to use as an outlet for draw.

Silent Gravestone: Really good against graveyard recursion decks.

Date added	7 years
Last updated	1 year
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	16 - 0 Mythic Rares 41 - 0 Rares 16 - 0 Uncommons 16 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.21
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Emblem Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, Treasure
Folders	The counselor, not mine, GAA4 Casual + CEDH