Esupanitix If you think its bad now, Trust me I got some more tweaks to the optimization to this beast up my sleeve. Its gonna be a lot more efficient.

This looks awesome! Might save it in a folder...

I've played Stax in every format and I have to say in Commander it's probably most fun because you can pull of the most ridiculous tricks and most people can't cope with that kind of strategy AT ALL. My own deck is Augustin's $t4ks (4000$ Solution/Stax) and when putting it together I came across some cards you play here. In all the years playing magic I have never seen phasing in practice. I know the basics of the mechanic but I have absolutely no idea how I could profit from it - at least in my own Stax build - so I discarded the idea of including phasing cards again.

Maybe you can explain how exactly Teferi's Realm works and how you can exploit this card? As I understand it, it makes a certain permanent type of the active player's choice disappear until the untap step of their owners. Isn't that an enabler for your opponents to remove your own lock pieces so they can play freely in their own turns? I have thought a lot if I could profit from this card but I wasn't able to work it out...

Shimmer is great, that might even work in my own deck...especially when people focus much on a certain colour or play mono coloured decks. Makes timing of land destruction spells harder though, not sure if I could really use it that much.

What I've noticed is that you have misunderstood Dream Tides. It DOES protect you from green, more than from any other colour! It says creatures don't untap. And you can pay 2 for a non-green creature to be untapped...green creatures don't get this option, so they will stay tapped no matter what. This card is a relic of the typical colour hate that has gone completely in the past years and it is supposed to hurt green most of all.

Winterblast As far as Teferi's Realm is concerned you understand it fairly well. It does exactly what you wrote and I fully understand the risks associated with giving my opponent that kind of choice considering the type of deck this is. I tend not to play it when I have a stable board. It is more or less, the card I rely on to stall until I find my pieces if I am dealt a pretty shitty hand. It is an all in one stax card but also very political if talking into giving your opponents their creatures for the turn is an option. By itself, it can act as an enabler for Taniwha shenanigans with Sunder and Evacuation if you can stack the triggers correctly. It is probably the only card that can be considered a dead card if you either have a stable board state or if you don't play it on curve at turn 3. The only other time I would cast it is to add it to the Knowledge Pool to get a expensive bomb for the cheap. But until someone destroys it (which is extremely difficult depending on how many people you are playing with), it will no doubt annoy everyone if it is the only stax card at your disposal. Also something that I find easily exploitable more so than the card itself is that more or less people do tend to forget about the triggers in larger pods of Commander. So when they do, it becomes both a bargaining chip and/ or straight up blackmail. Haha.

And You are correct. I seem to have misread Dream Tides. I'll update that in the deck's description.

On another note, looking over your deck list, your list seems pretty solid. The more I look at it I begin to see how insidious your 100 is more so than my mono Blue list. The inclusion of White definitely smooths over the edges of hedging into mono color. For a time as I was constructing my list, I was debating on making it Blue/White as well but decided against it in favor for the Phasing trickery and the lesser known commander that would get people's head scratching until they realize whats going on. As much as white would have made the list more resistant and have more stax effects, I would feel more of an asshole if I ran more than 8 wraths in what is pretty much a creatureless strategy. If I ever decide to ascend to a high plain of scum, I'll consider it.

Although I am heavily considering AEther Barrier now. That card is disgusting in both ability and price point. I feel it would be an absolute terror to deal with after blowing up the board a couple of times. Haha

I see, it definitely has potential in larger groups and losing certain permanent types during opponents's turns surely gives other control decks a hard time. I'd like to see that mechanic in practice because it's really hard to imagine how a game with more phasing triggers works (or doesn't work, lol).

My deck has a good chance of establishing a hardlock in the early game and often games are over quickly because of that, no matter how many players there are. If this isn't possible, games can last for an eternity...while slowing down the pace of the game is usually no problem, getting back in control in the mid or late game can be very hard or outright impossible. That's why I have Sunder (as you do), Armageddon, Ravages of War (finally found a cheap one in English) and Cataclysm to reset the lands (and maybe the creatures too with Tabernacle and Pendrell Mists). You might have noticed that I don't have any creature mass removal such as Wrath of God, Planar Collapse, Terminus because I rely completely on disabling creature based abilities (except for comes into play abilities) and attacking - destroying them is not too cool because I want to keep my own creatures.

I've considered a different build without most creatures so that I could include Humility (maybe with Caltrops haha) and Torpor Orb too. Removing all creatures would result in a completely static build that can most likely only win with planeswalkers or a hardlock. That's also fun to play but having some aggressive options surely gives you more flexibility in a multiplayer game. I've also got this Augustin's $t4ks (tournament version) tuned for 2 player games and it is stripped of all the "fun" cards (which aren't fun for most people with a normal sense of humour either). The great aspect of Stax is that it usually makes people laugh a lot...if they are only spectators and not involved in the game haha

AEther Barrier is definitely one of the better taxing cards in blue. There's only In the Eye of Chaos and Squeeze, but they probably hurt yourself more, at least in this deck. Sphere of Resistance, Thorn of Amethyst and Trinisphere...not sure if you can use them here. What might be interesting though is Words of Wind. With a lot of stuff constantly phasing in and out on your opponents' side, you can force them to bounce important stuff, thus removing the randomness of this card a bit. Tangle Wire also works well with phasing because you can stack the triggers so that your opponents have to tap remaining permanents while you tap first and then let the tapped stuff phase out...Academy Ruins would be cool to have then. I also think you could probably include more planeswalkers but blue is so packed with Jaces that it's hard to play a good number of planeswalkers without having 3 or 4 different Jace in a deck. At least Jace, Unraveler of Secrets should be considered, because his ultimate is a game winner and shouldn't be too hard to pull off in your deck...

I'd consider removing some random stuff like Chimeric Egg and Darksteel Reactor in favour of some more mana artifacts, especially Mana Vault, Chrome Mox, Mox Diamond, Mox Opal and Voltaic Key because you can get them all with trinket mage. Messing around with the lands always requires some alternative mana sources...The trick with playing everything with flash when your lands pahse out is nice but you need to get the cards for it. Being able to play without any lands at all is gold.

Winterblast I just might have to look into the mana rock front. I can always use more. Although I am hesitant to include more since I find that I would be cutting down on the basic land count to justify their inclusion. Mana Crypt was the exception as it was a 0 mana artifact with 2 mana.

As for Chimeric Egg and its inclusion in the 100 is to build up to the future inclusion and use of Proteus Staff. With my current creatures I have 9 and using the Staff to get my bombs out faster rather than casting for them through Knowledge Pool which is running the risk that an opponent will steal my win-con or at worse casting it for retail. The Egg is both a creature and an artifact without it upping the creature out increasing the odd of hitting Blightsteel Colossus or Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur at best or hit a tutor either in Kuldotha Forgemaster or Noble Benefactor or a Stax Ability in Fatespinner or Silent Arbiter. Or at worse I end up hitting a one time use ETB tutor like Treasure Mage or a ramp spell in Walking Atlas and try again with even better odds.

Darksteel Reactor I am more to inclined to agree with you since it is pretty much a do nothing card until I can figure out a more stable or quicker win con.

As for some of your suggestions, Tangle Wire is definitely one I forgot about and one that I will have to find more room for once I find the cards to facilitate the upgrades I mentioned in my update post. Perhaps after some testing, after said upgrades I can ditch the Reactor in favor for this.

Jace, Unraveler of Secrets is one that I never stopped to consider. His ultimate which I agree is game breaking, his other modes are not that appealing. There might be a case for an inclusion later on but as of now, I see him as underwhelming compared to the other cards I have at the 5 drop slot.

If you have enough 0-2 mana artifacts you can indeed cut lands because you don't want to see that many lands in the game then. Especially with Mana Breach and Overburden you will be playing the same few lands over and over again anyway. I usually have a maximum of 4 different lands in play and the rest is artifacts. Also Lands that produce more than one mana are a must...unfortunately there are not too many of these: Mishra's Workshop, Ancient Tomb, City of Traitors, Crystal Vein. The rest is not really worth playing or colour specific (Gaea's Cradle, Serra's Sanctum) or banned in commander (Tolarian Academy).

Walking Atlas is a bit weak imo. Sure, you can play additional lands but does that justify a slot in this deck? It's also a creature, easily removable, doesn't have haste...as you only have one other creature with an activated ability, what about Cursed Totem instead? That fucks up a whole lot of decks, better than casting a pithing needle or phyrexian revoker on ONE target (and you could save a needle for a noncreature permanent).

You are right about Jace, I haven't put him in the deck again, neither in the multiplayer version nor in the 2 player list. I've played the deck again a few times yesterday (against a pretty good and equally expensive mono black deck) and I would not have needed an extra Jace there...If I needed to bounce creatures, the Mind Sculptor would be better and in general Venser, the Sojourner is much better to have in most cases (even managed to pull off his ultimate once). The constant card draw and scry could be important in multiplayer games though because in the late game you might find yourself digging for solutions. Depending on the situation he could also be just Scry 1 draw a card for 3UU before he is destroyed again...that's no gain then. With something to prevent attacks completely any planeswalkers can be a game winner. Unfortunately blue doesn't provide anything that protects planeswalkers from being attacked, only Ensnaring Bridge helps. I wonder why you don't play Tezzeret the Seeker , because he's the best blue walker right after JTMS...His tutor ability usually brings a card that protects himself for at least one turn and both other abilities are great too. The ultimate doesn't automatically win in commander but it can knock one player out of the game, one turn after you cast him (if you have enough artifacts of course)

Winterblast

It's kinda hard to justify cutting out the lands even if the value proposition is high as the deck can get very clunky draws in its current form. Once I get the upgrades I can perhaps make room for more mana rocks cutting down on the lands and moving in on the artifact mana plan.

As far as 2+ mana lands go, I would love to run Mishra's Workshop and City of Traitors in the deck but I neither have the resources nor funds to get one for the deck. If I find someone to proxy them for me I would do it in a heartbeat.

I kinda agree with Walking Atlas, it's kinda a do nothing card in the deck even with the future Proteus Staff plan. Cursed Totem is pretty solid but my play group usually goes for value ETB based effects more so than activated variety so I'd think Torpor Orb might be the better inclusion here. Both cards are good but I guess if i can get my hands on both of them I can side them out depending on the playgroup.

Tezzeret the Seeker is another one I have had on the back of my mind for a while. I dunno whether or not I'd run him over a stax card, his tutor ability is great even by itself pretty much fetching up Unwinding Clock the turn he comes down. It's very tempting. I do need more tutors in the deck. I might consider cutting out the Rewind in favor for this card. I think it would speak to the value to tutor up the value mana rocks. Although I dunno how tutoring Mana Crypt would work with his ability. Would it just be announcing X=0?

Ensnaring Bridge is an awesome card but I find that more often than not with this deck once the lands start to bounce with Storm Cauldron and the card draw gets real with Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur / Blue Sun's Zenith my hand is chalk full of cards that I would rather keep rather than discard. Not to deny or discredit is power level because it is in some of my constructed decks but because of the inclusion of Storm Cauldron and friends, it actively negates the power the Bridge otherwise would have had in the game.

Tezzeret can Tutor any 0 mana or X mana artifact without losing any loyalty counters, that's right. Just like trinket mage he's perfect for all the nasty 1 mana disruption stuff, from Pithing Needle to Grafdigger's Cage...

I had that thought concerning Ensnaring Bridge too but I found out that it usually happens in different stages of the game. Bridge holds of aggro in the early game after I blasted out my whole hand and have nothing left by turn 3 or 4...then I can reliably cast everything I draw while aggro has to wait. At the point when my land bouncing results in having no lands at all on the table, I surely have another way of stopping the small creatures - even if my hand is full I still don't want some 7+ power creature to attack. Nothing worse than having someone get an Eldrazi Titan with Anihilator into play if you cast Show and Tell. I mean I don't Play Show and Tell, but you do...and there will be times when one or more opponents have good stuff on their hands too.

Winterblast That is true. I am more or less trying to out value my opponents with my Show and Tell target. I dunno how well this can work out for me considering I am allowing my opponents a freebie but either I can set up a Wrath Effect or potentially die to my opponents bombs.

I understand the risks but I do have insurance to prevent the attacks. I guess in the situation where I am put into a corner by an opponents big fatty then Ensnaring Bridge would definitely be a contender for that ride.

Something interesting I heard at my LGS, apparently some unfortunate soul was in a game where everyone was hardlocked with Mycosynth Lattice and Stony Silence. I dunno what kind of deck that was but it definitely sounded like STAX or some kind of Prison deck.

The lock with mycosynth lattice and stony silence (even better with Null Rod to keep it colorless) is a great way of shutting all mana based play down. You can only rely on already existing static and triggeted abilities and attacking then, everything else is disabled. It would be awesome to build a deck around that combo but if you don't want to get that lock by chance but actually want to win with it it takes some time to figure out what effects have to be included in the deck...even planeswakers won't work then!

Hey there, I haven't looked through this deck properly yet, don't really have the time right now. Just thought I'd pop in to say that I saw you said you hadn't the funds for City of Traitors, and wanted to make you aware that there are tournament-illegal copies available for ~E1.50, in case that's something from which you might benefit.

https://www.magiccardmarket.eu/Products/Singles/WCD+1999%3A+Kai+Budde/City+of+Traitors

Have a nice day!

Yesterday that's a good idea actually...I liked these gold bordered cards when I was in school. Today I would rather use a well made proxy than going for gold bordered

Yesterday Winterblast This is legit. I'll have to get this asap for my commander decks. Now to find a proxy for Workshop.

I play taniwha myself and i really love your build i will probably include some of the cards in here to my own