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Unrestricted: Stax

Unknown Stax

NiveousPlays


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This is part 1 of a 4-part introduction to the format known as Unrestricted Vintage (Unrestricted, or UV). This format is exactly what it sounds like: Magic in its purest form. You can play 4 copies of anything you want - not held down by Wizards' meddling in our great game for the purpose of "format health." You can play the maximum number of copies of any card on the Vintage restricted list (link) and whatever other card you want. Banned cards are still not allowed, though - no antes, conspiracies, or Lurruses. Proxies are... encouraged. It's a Wild West of moxen, tutors, wheels, and the best card in the format - Leyline of Anticipation. This part of the series will serve as an introduction to what is in my experience the best deck in the format - stax.

Stax, mono-MUD, or 60 Shades of Grey is a prison-style deck that attempts to stop your opponent from playing a single spell by jamming multiple copies of Trinisphere, Chalice of the Void, Thorn of Amethyst, Sphere of Resistance, and Lodestone Golem before their first main phase. Moxen and Black Lotus are some of the most commonly played cards in the format, and decks are incentivised to use them to form the majority of their manabase in order to produce the most explosive starts possible. Against decks like these, any one of the artifacts mentioned above will turn that explosion into an implosion, often halting mana production altogether. Stax can then win at its leisure, sometimes 20 turns later, with anything that has power and toughness.

Without further ado, lets examine the three types of cards in this deck.

Leyline of Anticipation: As mentioned before, this is the best card in the deck, and possibly the most broken card in the format. I know what you just said: How is a fun Commander card better than Black Lotus, Ancestral Recall, Bazaar of Baghdad and Chimney Imp? Well, as you can imagine, winning the coin flip is key when so many broken cards are running around, and this card essentially allows you to play first even on the draw, with the only difference being access to lands. An active Leyline allows you to play hate pieces on your opponent's upkeep, where only countermagic can stop you. The only issue here is that you aren't able to use your powerful lands to power out hate pieces. However, the elegance of Leyline here is amazing: Between Black Lotus and Chalice of the Void, you will always be able to play something that stops Moxen in the upkeep. If these resolve, it may as well be game over. If they don't - if the opponent counters your artifacts in their upkeep - then they were most likely never going to win on the first turn anyway, and so you didn't need a hate piece on the first turn. There are so many hate pieces in your deck that you will eventually slip one through, and every Sphere you play makes the next one easier. Without Leyline of Anticipation, this deck would be a coin flip - win on the play, lose on the draw. With Leyline, the odds are massively in your favor.

Serum Powder: These rocks are in this section because they are used typically to find Leylines easier when you're on the draw. Consider this: A 2-card hand of Leyline and Chalice of the Void is enough to win against some decks. Aided massively by the London Mulligan rule, Serum Powder allows you to draw ten hands of seven cards each in order to find these 2 cards together. It's also generally useful in finding hands with better mixes of mana and hate when on the play. Playing this as a 3 mana land isn't great, but it will be surprisingly relevant.

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