Hey guys,
Here's my first list! This deck was built in reaction to a combo heavy meta. Nothing too competitive, but games end by turn ten at the latest and usually much sooner. This deck is a reaction to that in hopes that I can create a much slower, grindier game and ultimately deny my opponents so many resources that they can't get their combos online.
I have two main concerns with this deck:
1. Is using Thada to grab my opponent's artifact ramp an efficient/effective way of breaking parody (i.e. allowing me to stay ahead of my own stax pieces)?
2. Is the deck going to work quickly enough to be able to keep my opponents locked down?
Let's take a look at the deck and see what you guys think.
The Idea
This deck is designed to restrict other players strategies, gain incremental advantage, and finally take the win. What better way to do that through stax? I chose Thada because I thought that her ability to fetch artifacts would allow me to steal my opponent's rocks and gain a large mana advantage. Once it has a couple rocks, the deck wants start messing with lands and permanents to disrupt the opponents' plays. I realize that this is a strategy that is often frowned upon, but I feel that it is a viable strategy that should be a healthy challenge for more experienced players, and I wouldn't dream of playing this deck with newer players, cause that's just mean.
How to Win
There are a few strategies which can bag us the win:
-
The first is to cast a bunch of spells with
Aetherflux Reservoir
on the battlefield and zap everyone. This one is fairly bleh and predictable, but it's probably the most viable option. I've tried to keep the average converted mana cost in this deck as low as possible, so that should help it cast spells quickly enough. By the point Aetherflux Reservoir hits the field, we should be the only ones casting spells anyway.
-
The second way to win is to cast
It That Betrays
and get out something that makes opponents sac permanents like
Smokestack
or
Damping Engine
. The goal is to steal all of our opponents' stuff, allowing us to not only be able to pay for our stax pieces but actually come out ahead as long as other players still have permanents to sac. After that, it's just a matter of beating face with
It That Betrays
and our commander. This is an instance where our "skip our own turn" spells are excellent. Get a few counters on our Smokestack, then cast
Eater of Days
and we're likely to take all of our opponents' remaining permanents without losing any of our own. After that, we can sac the Smokestack and run over a defenseless board.
Other Considerations
I feel the deck is somewhat fragile; it has almost no creatures and few ways of preventing players from swinging at it. It will likely be a poor match-up against fast-moving decks, so speeding the stax engine up is goal number one, while protecting it is number two.
I've included a suite of taxes and counters to soften and deflect any of my opponents' answers. There are also a couple of spells that deal specifically with creatures, although I tried to stay wide and stick to cards that said "permanent" on them like
Words of Wind
, Smokestack,
AEther Barrier
, etc.
I've also got a few really powerful land disruption spells like
Overburden
,
Back to Basics
,
Mana Vortex
and
Sunder
. The hope is to be completely dependent on artifacts for mana by turn four or five shut off or slow down everyone's lands.
Anyways, I would really appreciate any advise you guys have. Thanks, and PEACE!!!
