U are dead to me until u put aura shards back in. Bad Pongo.

Djice77 :kek:

Aura Shards???????????????????????????????????????? GOT TAKEN OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?????????????????????????????//

Bc aura of silence is better against fast combo, but I still like aura shards better it makes our grind game ungodly.

Aura Shards is just too slow to impact the board state within a fast meta. I've had excellent results with Archon of Valor's Reach. If opponents don't find a non-instant speed answer for it, we win. Originally I threw him in to slow down opponents and act as another way to keep Stasis in play. But the Archon wins games on its own.

why don't you look for a 5cmc creature to use, so you can go for archon and else with survival and birthing

Hello. I know this sounds far-fetched at the late-game, have you considered putting Hushwing Gryff in the deck in order to completely lock the board with 2 Archons to prevent some ETB, i.e. opps' Gilded Drakes, ETB fight effects etc.?

Does this deck win through locking the board and then turning creatures sideways? You cut Kamahl, Fist of Krosa and Living Plane which were one of your winning locks. Am I missing some infinite combo?

I did not see anyone mention Gaddock Teeg.

Was Sterling Grove ever a consideration when Living Plane was in the deck?

Ignore the question concerning Gaddock Teeg. I saw where you answered the question.

Was Sunscape Familiar ever given consideration?

imo, it doesn't actually do anything for you. Sure it reduces the cost of around 50% of the spells, but that doesn't progress the game plan. It doesn't draw you cards, it doesn't slow down other people, it just helps you, and when it comes to 100% optimizing a deck there isn't really room for 'purely helpful' cards.

Pongo or Magnivore, what would you change if you were playing this deck in a non cedh environment?

Do you feel that this deck or stax would do well in a non cedh setting? As I know that edh and cedh are pretty much different worlds.

For the record I do not and have not spoken for, or on the behalf of, Pongo_Pygmaeu5; I'm just stating my own opinions.

@Frank_Glascock & @MordMetal: Personally nothing, but I like locking people out hella hard. If you want to change it, since casual games tend to be battlecruiser-style decks stax is almost worse because you as the stax player are trying to make the game go long and that's also where the battlecruisers are the best. If anything your playstyle should shift to getting a hard lock out earlier like making two copies of Archon of Valor's Reach or putting back in Living Plane-related locks and b-lining for them.

Thanks Magnivore

@Pongo_Pygmaeu5 A great deck and an awesome primer, thanks for writing all that!

In the "Card Choices" section you say: "Thalia, Guardian of Thraben's First Strike is not just a cute freebie: it can be used to tap down fetchlands--prompting their activation--before the rest of our Derevi triggers go on the stack in order to keep opponents locked under a Winter Orb."

Could you elaborate on what you are trying to accomplish here?

SurpriZe

It's not uncommon for people to hold on to their fetchlands while trying to build up enough mana to cast an important card when under a Derevi+Winter Orb lock. This is because any Derevi triggers aimed at fetches can be responded to by cracking said fetch to grab an untapped land (meanwhile, every other trigger has already hit the stack at this point and must already have a valid target on board).

Thalia gets around this by doing damage in the first strike phase of combat, triggering Derevi before any other triggers go on the stack. This lets you tap down the fetch (prompting an activation from your opponent) and then, once you've moved on from the first strike part of combat, use triggers from the rest of your non-first strike attackers to tap down the land that just entered play.

Any reason you don't run armageddon or ravages of war?

Sorry for the double post. Have you considered Rising Waters or Opposition?

Limejuice

I don't love the land destruction effects here since they tend to be best when you are running a relatively high land count (32+) to break parity on them. Furthermore, Derevi is waaayy happier to lock people out of lands with orbs rather than wiping the board of lands since we can actually take advantage of that board state through untap triggers. They are impactful enough that I don't consider their inclusion totally unjustifiable.

Rising Waters is just a little too inefficient. Static Orb is already somewhat awkward at 3 mana, for example. Also, Opposition is pretty lackluster when Derevi herself is already Opposition in the Command Zone.

Hey, you finally decided to run Archon of Valor's Reach. How's it working out? Choosing "Instant" with it while Gaddock Teeg is in play seems pretty clever.

Ok, so Aura Shards is an excellent addition to decks running permanent destruction such as Smokestack, which is ironically no longer the best card to use in competitive Stax decks. Those decks have synergy with cards such as Bitterblossom and Luminarch Ascension to allow your permanents to stay in play while locking down the board. It's not needed in a hatebear list.

This is the first example cEDH deck I have found giving credit to multiple other users, I want to make an analysis of different matchups against different cEDH decks, one of which is Derevi Stax, but I have so far only credited one player, is it okay with you, Pongo_Pygmaeu5, if I just link this deck and credit you?