Vial Smasher Stax?
Commander Deck Help forum
Posted on Feb. 16, 2017, 8:29 a.m. by Podma101
I recently got the inspiration to brew around Vial Smasher the Fierce, and I thought it would be awesome if I could slow the game down so much and only I could cast spells to slowly blast people with Smasher, that way no one can retaliate since Smasher is a tad slow to kill others. To that end I thought a stax route would be cool....
However, now I am faced with the issue of not understanding stax very well. I've read plenty of stax decks, but I've never really understood how to get out from underneath your own effects. On top of that, choosing the right partner is cruxial. Most likely they'll just be there for colors, but if they could be useful that'd be even better. I will say that if Thrasios is chosen, I'm not making it a Thrasios deck. I get he's bonkers but I really don't find infinite combo interesting or very creative, and my meta doesn't need it.
Hmm, okay, makes sense.
And yes I do want a partner. The difficulty is picking the right one. I guess having access to the colors that give me the most access to good stax effects is preferable over a partner who will play an active roll in the deck, though both is obviously the best lol.
Right now I'm probably between Kydele and Thrasios since they give access to blue (the green is less important), and have useful effects. I wanted to try and think of a less used combo, but in all honesty they are the best to go with Vial Smasher.
February 16, 2017 8:47 a.m.
The best stax effects are in white, blue, red and black. Green tends to be more stopping stax or stopping blue
My suggestion would be the WU Commander for access to blue and white lock effects, as well as a slowly growing commander who punishes them for trying to break the locks.
February 16, 2017 9:09 a.m.
MagicalHacker says... #5
Actually, I dont know that Vial Smasher makes that much sense for Stax, as she does best when you have nothing prohibiting you from casting spells. Especially since she seems to want you to cast one spell each turn! An instant/flash themed deck would be freaking sweet. Or taking lots of extra turns! (Or both...)
As for Kydele, I see her commonly used with Vial Smasher for the colors to tap for boatloads of mana with the black and red wheels. Presumably until you find a Staff of Domination effect to get infinite mana.
I don't really see any partners that would help stax, and i think that may be on purpose actually, since the RC/WotC might feel that stax, along with MLD and prison, are against the spirit of the format.
February 16, 2017 9:46 a.m.
RazortoothMtg says... #6
When building stax, remember that a lot of stax cards effects go away when the artifact is tapped (e.g Winter Orb, Storage Matrix). These can be turned off by cards like Icy Manipulator and Clock of Omens
When playing Smokestack/Descent into Madness, the easiest way to get out from under it is tokens (specifically Assemble the Legion because it makes an extra token each turn for the extra counter on the stax piece).
February 16, 2017 9:51 a.m.
LeaPlath and RazortoothMtg, thank you both for more clarification on how to properly do stax!
MagicalHacker See, that's what I was afraid of when venturing into this topic, that Vial Smasher would be hindered too greatly by the stax effects. My poor understanding of stax let me think it wouldn't be too bad. I'm still going to brew Smasher and go for the more typical route of just cast crap, maybe with a ore griefing flavor like Oloro. I know wheels are great with him and Kydele, but I've got a Nekusar deck that draws so much hate, i think any more wheels and I'll be shunned lol. Actually..... Nekusar would be great in the 99 for this.......
Welp, looks like that's my direction, I'm a sucker for Skelator. Thank you all for the help!
February 16, 2017 10:41 a.m.
MagicalHacker says... #8
Yeah I think transitioning a Nekusar deck to a Kydele Vial deck seems solid.
MollyMab says... #2
Generally you get out from your effects by playing cards not effected by lock pieces, a way that means you don't need to sac your important perms, or by tricks like tapping your own Tangle Wire and stacking triggers so you tap 2 things and wire, they tap 3.
Now, you can have a partner to go with Vial, do you want that?
February 16, 2017 8:33 a.m.