*Primer* Night of the Living Stax

Commander / EDH Competitive Cruel Control Infinite Combo Pox Reanimator

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Artifact (22)

• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Basalt Monolith
• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Crucible of Worlds
• 1x Defense Grid
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Helm of Obedience
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Mana Web
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Rings of Brighthearth
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Smokestack
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Sphere of Resistance
• 1x Static Orb
• 1x Tangle Wire
• 1x Trading Post
• 1x Trinisphere
• 1x Winter Orb

Enchantment (11)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Bitterblossom
• 1x Contamination
• 1x Dance of the Dead
• 1x Desolation
• 1x Leyline of the Void
• 1x Necromancy
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Oppression
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Waste Not

Sorcery (15)

• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Collective Brutality
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Dark Petition
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Exhume
• 1x Exsanguinate
• 1x Imperial Seal
• 1x Pox
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Smallpox
• 1x Thoughtseize
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Yawgmoth's Will

Creature (13)

• 1x Bloodghast
• 1x Cryptbreaker
• 1x Faerie Macabre
• 1x Gravecrawler
• 1x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
• 1x Mindslicer
• 1x Necrotic Ooze
• 1x Ophiomancer
• 1x Phyrexian Devourer
• 1x Razaketh, the Foulblooded
• 1x Reassembling Skeleton
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Walking Ballista

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Liliana of the Veil

Commander (1)

Land (33)

• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Dark Depths
• 1x Lake of the Dead
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Strip Mine
• 20x Swamp
• 1x Thespian's Stage
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Wasteland
• 1x Westvale Abbey  ^Flip

Instant (4)

• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Dismember
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

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Maybeboard

Artifact (3)

• 1x Candelabra of Tawnos
• 1x Mirage Mirror
• 1x Trading Post

Creature (1)

• 1x Ophiomancer

Land (2)

• 1x Deserted Temple
• 1x Vesuva

Instant (1)

• 1x Imp's Mischief

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Introduction

"Competitive edh stax list with a strong reanimator engine. This deck is a gradual progression from my sidisi list, and I feel it answers a lot of the problems in that deck. This deck can combo,beat face battle cruiser style, and also flat lock down the opponents to rage quit stage 5. You will like this deck if: You like mono black. You like prison based (stax) strategies. You like Competitive edh, and broken combos. You will not like this deck if: You don't play combos.Your meta isn't friendly to prison players.You want to play anything other than mono B.

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The Primer

Overview

Reading this decklist

Mana curve sitting at 2.5, but the big drops, i.e. sheoldred and razaketh, are rarely hard cast. There are many, many synergistic cards in this deck, and I've done my best to keep any "non-bo's" out of the list. Feeding smokestack is the bread and butter of the deck. The recursive creatures, the crucible of worlds and the token gen are all in here primarily to feed that purpose. Smokestack along with Mana denial is the strongest lock in the deck.

Deck strengths

This deck loves to jam early stax pieces. Look for hands that turn 1-2 will drop a combo inhibitor like a static orb. Tutors grab more locks and entomb or discard a fatty and reanimate. Choose your win con based on the meta, or obviously on what you have available. This list functions strongly as a toolbox type strategy where you can tailor your answers based on what the table brings.

Deck weaknesses

You can be weak to permission heavy metas. Be mindful not to drop a critical stax piece or a win con into it. Decks with recursive artifact and enchantment removal can also put a hurting on you. You have alternate win cons and redundant locks, but be mindful of it.

Combos and synergies

Win con combos: Basalt monolith + rings of brighthearth +exanguinate and/or sensei's divining top. Primary win con of the deck. Make inf Mana with rings + monolith, cast exanguinate ftw.If you don't have exanguinate but have top on the field, inf mana + rings + top will draw your deck. Leyline of the void + helm of obedience. Secondary win con. An easy one slot inclusion for helm when leyline is just an amazingly strong stax piece. Inf mill combo.Works best with the board good and locked. Hits more than one player with rings in play. Fun synergies and combos: dark depths +thespians stage. Makes marit lage. Can win a game in the right circumstances, but more of just a fun beater. Gets better with crucible of worlds. Same with ormendahl. One of the most fun plays in the deck, sac marit lage to Gisa with Ashnod's altar in play. Sac zombies and cast exanguinate ftw. Crucible is a key card in this deck. It feeds the land destruction engines, i.e. strip locks and desolation. It's also there to recur fetches and make steady land drops. Contamination is also bonkers in this list. Bitterblossom puts it on auto feed. Reads "pay one life on your upkeep, your opponents lands are now basic swamps." Mindslicer + Gisa is a nasty play. Discard our hands and I make zombies. Gets brutal with Sheoldred 'cause u can do it every turn if you like. So much fun. Kalitas is a nasty fella in this list too. He makes insane value with board wipes. He gains life, and he can become a real threat on his own if you pump him a bit and he goes unchecked.

Conclusion

I hope you guys enjoy the primer! It's my first on tapped and I know, it's rough. I did copy the code in this from another source, so I'll cite it below. But, in the original coding I couldn't get the buttons working so I simplified it. Not the best presentation, but it serves the purpose. Feel free to leave any comments, questions, or suggestions below. They are more than welcome. Thanks for reading!

The coding for this primer was developed by Epochalyptik here.

Date added	6 years
Last updated	6 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	16 - 0 Mythic Rares 44 - 0 Rares 15 - 0 Uncommons 5 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.46
Tokens	Faerie Rogue 1/1 B, Goat 0/1 W, Human Cleric 1/1 BW, Marit Lage, Snake 1/1 B, Zombie 2/2 B