Red's Best Stax? - Plargg and Nassari [[PRIMER]]

Commander / EDH Land Destruction Mono-Red Stax

PinnedPhoenix

Mana Ramp (17)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Desperate Ritual
• 1x Extraplanar Lens
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Liquimetal Torque
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Pyretic Ritual
• 1x Rite of Flame
• 1x Rousing Refrain
• 1x Ruby Medallion
• 1x Seething Song
• 1x Simian Spirit Guide
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Strike it Rich
• 1x Throne of Eldraine

Counterplay and Removal (7)

• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Delayed Blast Fireball
• 1x Fiery Confluence
• 1x Impending Flux
• 1x Shattering Spree
• 1x Tibalt's Trickery
• 1x Vandalblast

Protection (3)

• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Mithril Coat
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots

Stax (14)

• 1x Ensnaring Bridge
• 1x God-Pharaoh's Statue
• 1x Karn's Sylex
• 1x Meekstone
• 1x Omen Machine
• 1x Smoke
• 1x Static Orb
• 1x Stranglehold
• 1x Sunspine Lynx
• 1x Tectonic Instability
• 1x Uba Mask
• 1x War's Toll
• 1x Winter Moon
• 1x Winter Orb

Win Cons (8)

• 1x City on Fire
• 1x Fiendish Duo
• 1x Fiery Emancipation
• 1x Iraxxa, Empress of Mars
• 1x Passionate Archaeologist
• 1x Roaming Throne
• 1x Strionic Resonator
• 1x Wild-Magic Sorcerer

Lands (34)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Command Beacon
• 1x Scavenger Grounds
• 31x Snow-Covered Mountain

Commander (1)

Card Draw and Tutor (10)

• 1x Bonehoard Dracosaur
• 1x Dragonhawk, Fate's Tempest
• 1x Gamble
• 1x Jeska's Will
• 1x Magus of the Wheel
• 1x Molten Psyche
• 1x Reckless Handling
• 1x Reforge the Soul
• 1x Wheel of Fortune
• 1x Wheel of Misfortune

Land Destruction (6)

• 1x Boom / Bust
• 1x Impending Disaster
• 1x Keldon Firebombers
• 1x Ruination
• 1x Stoneshaker Shaman
• 1x Thoughts of Ruin

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This is a knock-down, drag-out, no-holds-barred type Stax deck, using a commander no one's done it with. I decided to write a primer after seeing that no one's done a dedicated Plargg and Nassari Stax decklist that I could find, aside from this one anonymous list on mtggoldfish, though that list isn't very good imo, or very Staxxy.

Stax is the best way to play Plargg and Nassari. The converse is arguably also true; Plargg and Nassari are the best Stax commander in Mono Red. I'm going to explain why, how this decklist works, and what to expect while playing it.

Why Plargg and Nassari?

First off, let's take a look at our commander. Plargg and Nassari:

• have a decent 5/4 bod
• guarantee us up to two free spells each upkeep
• source these free spells from the tops of opponents' decks as well as our own
• allow an opponent to have a say in which spells we're allowed to cast

Basically, Plargg and Nassari are a value engine. Our goal is to maximize the value they deliver until we have a winning strategy.

Our strengths look like this:

• Mono red lets us ramp into our pricey and powerful commander on turn 2-4; follow up with a Static Orb to take control of things, fast
• As long as our commander's on the board, we have a powerful tempo advantage in the form of two free spells a turn
• That tempo advantage gets all the more potent once our gameplan takes off
• Lots of great pieces for hating out 3+ color builds; judging by the most popular commanders in EDH, this is usually a good thing
• The element of surprise, big time
• If there's a Stax deck your playgroup might not hate, this is it; the mini-game at the beginning of our upkeep keeps the vibe light and lets others feel included in the action, and our win cons are robust, so games shouldn't take hours

Whereas our weaknesses include:

• Not a competitive build; we might be able to squeak out a game or two at competitive tables with a turn 1 Sol Ring and a lucky cast of a Stax piece, but that's a big might. cEDH decks are too lean and mean for our 5 CMC commander to effectively leech value from them, especially since we only get to start doing so a whole turn after Plargg and Nassari hit the board. I'd put our winrate in cEDH at <5%
• We can have a harder time against mono and 2-color decks
• Certain commander builds, like Magus Lucea Kane and Blim, Comedic Genius, don't generate much value for us, when we topdeck from them, and some cards, like Boromir, Warden of the Tower, hose us completely
• We might come to regret casting that Boom / Bust when Plargg and Nassari get spot removed
• It's hard to shut down the whole table, and we're vulnerable to counterplay. Whoever ducks our Impending Disaster with a Heroic Intervention or Teferi's Protection might run away with the game
• Basically no instant-speed play
• While this is a relatively likeable Stax build, it's still Stax, and might be unpalatably salty for your play group

State of the Meta

Before diving into the build, let's take a look ar how Plargg and Nassari are currently played. Here's a list of different builds as they appear on EDHRec:

Chaos. "Playing random spells is neat! Let's do a lot of that. Scrambleverse seems fun...."

• Scrambleverse is not fun
• Chaos builds are inherently bad. This claim might be a touch controversial, especially if we can get decisive card advantage via a chaos mechanic. But chaos for chaos' sake is terrible, like discard for discard's sake, or life loss just because. Choice is a resource--why else are tutors so powerful? Chaos is the loss of that resource. An effect which lets us choose the outcome, as opposed to one which doesn't, is better by definition
• It's not that Chaos builds can't be fun. It's that fun is all they can be, and most are too annoying to be fun

Exile. "Plenty of cards reward us for casting from exile. Let's run those."

• Much better, but one exile trigger and two exile casts a turn, on a 5-CMC commander, isn't great
• Why not just run Plargg and Nassari in the 99 of a more focused Exile deck? Prosper, Tome-Bound, Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald, Rocco, Street Chef, and Pia Nalaar, Consul of Revival are all commanders who reward exile triggers, rather than simply being an exile trigger. They also all have lower CMCs and more colors in their identities
• Unlike Chaos, Exile-based Plargg and Nassari builds have an actual gameplan, one I'm borrowing some pieces from. It's just not the best gameplan, or the best commander for it

Treasures. "Treasures are fun and good!"

• Treasures are fun and good!
• Aside from a little bonus value from casting spells like Unexpected Windfall for free, Plargg and Nassari have no actual synergy with Treasure builds.
• Feels like people ran with a popular build archetype for no actual reason, and judging by the card selection on EDHRec, they didn't really go anywhere with it

Big Mana. "Plargg and Nassari cast spells for free. Casting big spells for free sounds satisfying!"

• We're onto something here; not for the reason a lot of players might think
• This is a good build idea, not for the spells we get to cast for free, but because big spells can force players to burn their veto on our spells and let us cast theirs, e.g. "choose: my Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre or your Smothering Tithe"
• The problem is that Big mana spells are, well, big. Unless we manage the right set up, manawise, we end up with a lot of spells we can't cast in hand, and a slow game. Players also tend to go overboard when they commit to this theme, throwing in spells because they're expensive, which is similar to playing Chaos spells because they're chaotic
• A compelling idea in certain respects, ultimately too slow

Spell Copy and Theft. "I'll copy my opponent's spells / steal my opponent's creatures, both the ones I get for free and the ones they cast."

• both fun ideas, not good ideas
• really depend on opponents either playing big instants and sorceries or big creatures, respectively
• easily countered, narrow strategies

Some of these builds are alright, but none of them are optimal. Stax is the best way to build Plargg and Nassari. Here's why.

Why Stax?

Here's why:

1. Because, as opponents' ability to cast spells approaches 0, the value of two free spells per turn approaches ∞
2. Because Mono Red Stax is badly underrated, so hardly anyone will see it coming
3. Because Static Orb can force a veto just as easily as Soulfire Eruption
4. ... and you might get your buddy's Avenger of Zendikar as a result
5. So we're maximizing our commander's value, while keeping our mana curve at a relatively lean 3.15 avg CMC, unlike Big Mana builds
6. All while operating an actual, and actually good strategy, by treating Plargg and Nassari unsentimentally as a value engine, rather than thinking of them as a zany slot machine

This last point is crucial. Stax builds maximize the value of two free spells by making it hard for our opponents to cast their own. We do this by taking a uniquely stark and objective attitude toward our commander. Where many players look at Plargg and Nassari and see a Chaos effect, an Exile trigger, or a way to cast big spells for cheap if only your opponents just let you, we look at it and see raw value. It's two free spells a turn. If we can assure that our opponents get 0-1 spells a turn, that's a huge advantage.

The Gameplan

It looks like this:

1. Get Plargg and Nassari on the board
2. Suit em up in some armor
3. Ice the board
4. Beat the table with their own spells, as well as a few spells of our own

Ideally, we want to do these in order. This won't always be possible, since there are only so many protection pieces we can cram in here before it interferes with the deck's operability. Really, 1-3 of our gameplan is nice and simple. Just learn the best ways to ice the board (detailed in "Notable Spells and Interactions") and make it happen.

Point 4 is where this deck gets just plain weird. Trying to win the game with your enemy's pieces is hard when you're actively choosing which ones you're stealing. We're not doing that here. If it weren't for the fact that we're icing the board out, this win con would be very unviable.

As it is, it's decently viable, but highly variable. How well we play against decks is contingent on both how well we can shut them down and how much value we can steal from them. One thing to remember: when you remove a player, they take their cards with them. So maybe keep the player you've stolen the best pieces from around!

If no good pieces materialize from opponents' decks, we have a small number of threatening creatures (Bonehoard Dracosaur, Dragonhawk, Fate's Tempest, Iraxxa, Empress of Mars, Sunspine Lynx), burn pieces (Delayed Blast Fireball, Fiery Confluence, Impending Flux, Passionate Archaeologist), and damage multipliers (City on Fire, Fiendish Duo, Fiery Emancipation). The damage multipliers are particularly good win cons, here, since they work with any pieces we steal from our opponents. Something's definitely going right for you if you can swing out with your enemy's Reclamation Sage for 6 damage!

Notable Spells and Interactions

Before wrapping up, some key cards and how they get along with others:

Chaos Warp

• Red's one fix-it-all (aside from the notoriously unreliable Wild Magic Surge
• Here, we'll often be using it on ourselves. Sometimes, we'll have to get rid of one of our own Stax pieces to get the game rolling again. Chaos Warp lets us do that, and rewards us with a possible free cast

Omen Machine / Uba Mask + Wheel of Fortune / Wheel of Misfortune / Reforge the Soul / Magus of the Wheel / Molten Psyche

• The funniest thing that can be done in MTG
• Look Ma, no hands
• No hands means it'll be hard to get ahold of removal, so you should be able to coast to victory
• Salt level: off the charts, over 20,000
• Pair with Ensnaring Bridge with caution, since this can lead to a completely stalled-out game

Tibalt's Trickery

• Alongside being our one little bit of counterplay, creates a fun little minigame with Plargg and Nassari
• If in hand, can be used to counter one of the spells exiled by P&N to roll the dice on a free spell from our own deck
• Ditto for when it's exiled by P&N in this case, you can trade it and another spell for one, single spell from our own deck
• Considering how spiky this deck is, this will probably work out for us!

Winter Orb / Static Orb / Winter Moon + Tectonic Instability / War's Toll / Stoneshaker Shaman

• Big oof
• Ice ice baby
• Maybe don't set this up w Tectonic Instability or Stoneshaker Shaman before Plargg and Nassari hit the board

Plargg and Nassari: Red's Best Stax?

In short: arguably.

Zo-Zu the Punisher's been king of Mono Red Stax for two decades now, and for good reason. A hate piece of that caliber in the command zone is hard to pass up. Still, let's do a side by side comparison.

Zo-Zu:

• Costs two less mana
• A perrennial cEDH troll pick who hasn't been meta for 10+ years
• Is incredibly annoying, yet hard to justify spot removing
• Thrives on land destruction and a low mana curve
• Doesn't generate value beyond that omnipresent Shock
• Is instantly recognizable and loathed, v salty

Plargg and Nassari:

• Cost two more mana
• Totally anomalous in cEDH settings
• Likely to draw spot removal, exacerbating the problem of its high cost
• Also thrives on land destruction, but isn't wedded to a low mana curve
• Generates free value by the kilo
• Low perceived salt for now, at least

Basically: Zo-Zu is probably the better commander, pound for pound, but Plargg and Nassari are likely to catch tables by surprise. I'm running this deck over the average Zo-Zu build.

So that's it! Mono Red Stax is hardly a thing, but to the extent it is a thing, this deck does it with the best of em. give it a +1 if you like it!

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(Background Image: Landscape with Angel in a Maze, Vasily Kafanov)

Top Ranked	Achieved #3 position overall 2 months ago Achieved #2 position in Commander / EDH Stax 2 months ago
Date added	2 months
Last updated	2 months
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	7 - 0 Mythic Rares 41 - 0 Rares 15 - 0 Uncommons 6 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.15
Tokens	Alien Warrior 2/2 R, Dinosaur 3/1 R, Treasure
Folders	aaa, commander decks, Other People's deck