well ive been a stax player for a little over 2 years now, it is by far one
of the best decks i have ever played. for those not in the know, stax is based
on resource denial for your opponent and slowing them down with a series of small
locks. using cards like trinisphere, chalice of the void, and out
of the board sphere of resistance early to basically time walk your
opponent and deny them spells and majorly screwing with their tempo. stax decks
slow the game to a near grinding halt for your opponent powering out the cards
mentioned above.
well i got bored playing AngelStax, GeddonStax, BlackStax, Demon Stompy, and
Dragon Stompy. mainly because i beat most decks but it got to the point where
the only realy problem i had was aether vial decks and reanimator with Iona naming
my base color. each color has a variant on stax, but blue... i havent seen one,
in legacy atleast. the first challenge i ran into was finding a few good alts to
some cards in other stax decks. such as ghostly prison i have propaganda, for those not aware of this cards power, it slows zoo decks and
their ilk down to a crawl. GeddonStax runs armageddon i run mana vortex
this is the card im not 100% about but from testing so far can pretty much knock an
opponent out of their mana, plus if i have crucible up i dont suffer a huge drawback.
lets discuss the cards in the deck:
Hunted Phantasm : my finisher for a few reasons, he hits for 4, he
is unblockable, and he is harder to remove with burn spells.
Bottle Gnomes : helps negate the life lose from tombs.
Mox Diamond : allows for turn 1 chalices, trinispheres and crucibles.
Chalice of the Void : set at 1 and 2 allows you to lock out most decks from
playing all together.
Mana Vortex : this is kind of an armageddon for my opponent, because with a
crucible out ill never run out of lands to sac.
Propaganda : powerful against aggro decks. helps with the draw back of
hunted phantasm tokens.
Trinisphere : helps shut off so many deck, and if you drop this turn 1 you can
time walk for 2-3 turns basically sealing the game in your favor. also this card
single handedly beats ANT.
Tangle Wire : locks your opponent out of there resources and you can hear them
groan when you use ruins to put in on top of your deck to play again.
Smokestack : this is the name card for this deck, this card will come down
and most of the time your opponent will say "next game?"
Crucible of Worlds : this card helps you negate the draw back of Mox Diamond,
Smokestack, Mana Vortex, Fact or Fiction, and recover from enemy Wastelands. also
reccuring wastelands is the leading cause of defeat for threashold decks.
Fact or Fiction : i have found that the main issue with stax decks is the lack
of card draw, so to fix it i use the best one out there.
Now for the sideboard:
Tormod's Crypt : grave hate. (could be replaced with a number of cards)
Hydroblast : general hate against red spells that hurt you: pyroblast, red
elemental blast, pyrostatic pillar, shatter(storm, spree, pulse), ancient grudge,
boil, and so much more.
I like Thirst for Knowledge in blue Stax, because it lets you dump the redundant lock pieces that inevitably clog up your hand. Hunted Phantasm is unbelievably anti-synergistic with Smokestack.
not too long ago i started this thread, and with the aid of others and alot EnemyWithin thread turned into a blue stax, with tezzerets , not alot alike your build, but you might want to look into it (everything has been discussed)
I cant ell you that, mana vortex generally is not too good, surely land removal is excellend, but when you cast is you sacrifice a land, you either eat a counterspell or a disenchant and you hurt yourself
K
Hey, what's up, Kwuailee? I've been thinking about restarting the old blue stax thread, but I've had a crapload of schoolwork to do and haven't been able to do much testing beyond the odd goldfishing.
@muodoka: f you're running blue stax, Tezzeret better be in there. He's just too freaking perfect for the deck. If you run him, run 2-4 Seat of the Synod, he can fetch them without losing loyalty and he can untap them with the first ability. You can search out pretty much any stax piece you want. Also, although my testing has been limited, Jace, the Mind Sculptor appears to be a house in this deck. I run him as a two of. He's a lock piece (first ability, don't underestimate it. Being able to put their sideboard hate and other good stuff on the bottom every turn is good), removal engine (well, bounce anyway), draw engine (Brainstorm's good, even at sorcery speed), and win con (ultimate). Every single ability he has, all four of them, are relevant most of the time. Jace also provides a way to win without the need to attack with creatures. One of my biggest fears playing blue stax is running into a deck that can produce more tokens or other permanents than I can make them sacrifice. With Jace, I can sit behind my Propagandas and Ensnaring Bridges and power him up to his ultimate.
As far as manlands go, I personally like Dread Statuary better than Factory or Mutavault (which is usually worse than Factory unless your meta is tribal-heavy). There are pros and cons to both, but my vote goes to the Statuary. Some other card choices you should consider are Bottled Cloister and Ensnaring Bridge. Tangle Wire is a good card, but it works better in brown stax and I've moved it to the sideboard in my build. Ensnaring Bridge is a permanent answer that the opponent must deal with or find a way to win without attacking. Tangle Wire expires. That's all I've got to say for now, other that I envy you for owning a Tabernacle, if I had one I'd run it, but I stupidly sold mine when they were only worth about $80 :-/.
I'm curious as to how the Lodestone Golems perform, please do report your experiences with them. I chose to make my Stax deck creatureless excepting manlands. My prediction is that the golems won't come down fast enough to make a difference, but I have no evidence or testing to back that up, so I'm keeping an open mind.
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Currently playing:
In Modern:
:symu::symw::symr: Holy Rollers (Geist Tempo)
well after testing a wee bit tongiht i already like lodestone golem, he allowed me to take sphere out of the sideboard for additional hate against popular metagames.
any advice against dream halls? its on par with me since its a slower deck that needs 5 mana to win.
tanlge wire is good, against zoo... soo im prob moving it to the board and putting a tezz in its place along with 3 copies of thirst. ive been told to drop the FoF in favor of another thirst but i reallly enoy watching my opponent sweat.
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currently playing:
legacy: Doomsday, Dredge, BUG (shard less and still)
modern: storm, woo dredge, U-tron
EDH: maelstrom wanderer, Gisela, krenko, lazav, sharrum, sheoldred/xiahou dun, norin the wary, Thrax, Mimeoplasm, GW legends
Have you considered Parallax Tide instead of Mana Vortex? It doesn't stick around as long but it can really extend the mileage you get from Trinisphere. Also, how about Sphinx of Jwar Isle as a finisher? Sure, it's expensive, but it's near impossible for your opponent to remove and ends the game in a few swings. Oh, and a singleton Gods' Eye, Gate to the Reikai would be smart, as it keeps Smokestack at 2 going forever.
it might but in current testing i unfortunately have only played against 2 aggro decks, and the first one had a nuts opening had and the other quit after i wasteland his turn 1 taiga
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currently playing:
legacy: Doomsday, Dredge, BUG (shard less and still)
modern: storm, woo dredge, U-tron
EDH: maelstrom wanderer, Gisela, krenko, lazav, sharrum, sheoldred/xiahou dun, norin the wary, Thrax, Mimeoplasm, GW legends
mana vortex i feel is the sole reason to play bluestax. its basically smokestax that comes online straight away without you having to wait a whole turn to put a soot counter on it, and realistically you want your opponent to be sacrificing lands anyway.
well here is the new deck and let me say its much more "prison" esque right now but im stil lacking a solid win for those die hard players who play to the bitter end. ive won with a couple of god's eye tokens, they take a while to make a difference. ive only gotten tezzeret a few times but he usually ends the match really fast. ive been thinking about adding some "tap" artifacts to to help me win, thoughts? or should i drop out a thirst for Karn or sphinx?
I say drop a thirst for a sphinx. Also, since you're playing thirst already, have you thought about switching out some islands for seat of the synod? Or are you worried about moon effects?
im testing a few creatures for finishers, and i might drop an island or two seats. im not to worried about moon effects too much, i can usually play thru them. dragon stompy is a tricky match up, so tricky that im thinking about running blue elemental blasts over spheres in the side.
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currently playing:
legacy: Doomsday, Dredge, BUG (shard less and still)
modern: storm, woo dredge, U-tron
EDH: maelstrom wanderer, Gisela, krenko, lazav, sharrum, sheoldred/xiahou dun, norin the wary, Thrax, Mimeoplasm, GW legends
as fun as that card is, it makes thirst unplayable its nice but also 25$ a pop is a bit much for a sideboard card. if it effected sorceries as well id play it in a heartbeat.
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currently playing:
legacy: Doomsday, Dredge, BUG (shard less and still)
modern: storm, woo dredge, U-tron
EDH: maelstrom wanderer, Gisela, krenko, lazav, sharrum, sheoldred/xiahou dun, norin the wary, Thrax, Mimeoplasm, GW legends
Board control// 22
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Trinisphere
4 Tangle wire
4 Propaganda
4 Smokestack
2 Crucible of Worlds
Draw//4
4 Thirst for Knowledge
Mana// 26
4 Mox Diamond
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Ancient Tomb
3 City of Traitors
8 Island
3 Wasteland
Esperzoa interactions:
Esperzoa + Tanglewire: Keep your opponent's permanents tapped down
Esperzoa + Trinisphere: Return it to your hand, drop those Mox Diamonds, replay 3sphere
Esperzoa + Duplicant: Imprint your opponents creatures each turn (like Mangara in DNT)
Esperzoa + Chalice: Bounce it to your hand once you have enough mana to play it at a more optimal number
I think Esperzoa is the reason to play U-Stax, if at all. It has immense potential for keeping Tangle wire in play to essentially stall the game so that you can get more lock pieces down.
Duplicant + Esperzoa might SEEM slow, but anyone who has ever played DnT will tell you that Mangara + Karakas is nuts. Its essentially the same thing except you can't save Duplicant at instant speed like you can Mangara. The plus side though is that Duplicant, unless Stifled, benefits you immediately via your imprinting your opponents creature, unlike Mangara which has summoning sickness. Duplicant also an artifact so it conveniently gets around Mom and its really not bad on its own. Stealing a Goyf for 6 isn't THAT bad. Its suboptimal when you can play something like Control Magic but it doesn't have nuts interactions with Esperzoa.
U-stax will always be compared to Armageddon stax. U gets propaganda. W gets ghostly prison. Both get tangle wire. Only U gets Esperzoa. Sure it eats a bolt, but if you aren't casting it under chalice @ 1 or 3sphere then you are doing something wrong anyway.
I think this list has potential but its fairly rough and deserves some attention.
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esperzoa is one of the finishers i tried but again he is kinda lack luster and is nice, very power, and can end the game quickly. im just sold on lodestone golem as such a power house. i will try esperzoa and i might just have both lists and test them extensively each and post each results.
the other finishers i tested were sphinx and he just took to long to get online, sea drake just didnt WOW me as much as i thought, metalworker+staff of domination and that was poweful but got boring, i wanted something new and exciting.
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currently playing:
legacy: Doomsday, Dredge, BUG (shard less and still)
modern: storm, woo dredge, U-tron
EDH: maelstrom wanderer, Gisela, krenko, lazav, sharrum, sheoldred/xiahou dun, norin the wary, Thrax, Mimeoplasm, GW legends
Have you tried Jace, the Mind Sculptor? He's a lock piece, draw engine, bouncer (literally), and win con all rolled into one. I run 2, and I haven't had any cause to regret it.
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Currently playing:
In Modern:
:symu::symw::symr: Holy Rollers (Geist Tempo)
jace is more win more then anything else and is kinda a waste. he doesnt lock anything, and can only bounce a creature. he is only sub par in my mind... in standard he is ok outside of that he is just a fan card.
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currently playing:
legacy: Doomsday, Dredge, BUG (shard less and still)
modern: storm, woo dredge, U-tron
EDH: maelstrom wanderer, Gisela, krenko, lazav, sharrum, sheoldred/xiahou dun, norin the wary, Thrax, Mimeoplasm, GW legends
jace is more win more then anything else and is kinda a waste. he doesnt lock anything, and can only bounce a creature. he is only sub par in my mind... in standard he is ok outside of that he is just a fan card.
I disagree. His first ability is the lock part. Think about it. Once you've established a board position, you can put anything that threatens that board position on the bottom of your opponent's deck. For example, you can put Krosan Grip, Pernicious Deed (probably the most dangerous card against you if they have sufficient lands), Vindicate, Engineered Explosives, etc. Jace is also a win condition that you will be able to use because you have sufficient time to build up to it with this deck. It's certainly no slower than using the spirit tokens from God's Eye, and this way you don't even need to attack. The Unsummon and Brainstorm abilities are also quite useful, but those should be used only when absolutely necessary, as once you build up to the ultimate it is game over.
Also, being able to bounce a creature is actually very good in this deck, because you can destroy their manabase with Wasteland, and may even force them to sacrifice lands with Smokestack. Bouncing a creature that the opponent can no longer play is closely akin to removing it from the game. And the Brainstorm ability, despite the lack of fetchlands in this deck, is also valuable. Being able to dig for specific cards is good when you usually only get to draw one card a turn. But as I said, the bounce ability and the brainstorm ability are only to be used if necessary, but my point in this is that they are relevant. All of Jace2's abilities are relevant in this deck. Run him as a 2-of, he won't take up that much space, and you really don't need more than 2. Actually try him out, and see how he works. Personally, I would cut the Fact or Fiction and the Bottle Gnomes (I dislike random 1-ofs), but it's up to you.
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Currently playing:
In Modern:
:symu::symw::symr: Holy Rollers (Geist Tempo)
Fact or fiction might be able to go but it is such a powerhouse. the lone bottle gnomes is there to offset the life that i lose to tombs. jace's first ability can also hurt me because i can help them dig into other cards they need,and if they have top (which most decks do) im just helping them dig into their deck. the only relevant abilities are the brainstorm each turn and the bounce but he is jsut such a chase rare taht id end up trading duals to get him and to make use of him id have to run more then one and then since i lock out creatures and attacking the others become dead cards until i bounce 3-4 creatures.
so im testing esperzoa and i like the faster clock but the lighter lock makes some decks able to get around it, such as dream halls.
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currently playing:
legacy: Doomsday, Dredge, BUG (shard less and still)
modern: storm, woo dredge, U-tron
EDH: maelstrom wanderer, Gisela, krenko, lazav, sharrum, sheoldred/xiahou dun, norin the wary, Thrax, Mimeoplasm, GW legends
4 City of Traitors
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
3 Wasteland
1 Academy Ruins
4 Ancient Tomb
11 Island
Creatures
3 Hunted Phantasm
1 Bottle Gnomes
4 Mox Diamond
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Mana Vortex
4 Propaganda
4 Trinisphere
3 Tangle Wire
4 Smokestack
4 Crucible of Worlds
2 Fact or Fiction
3 Tormod's Crypt
3 Hydroblast
3 Sphere of Resistance
2 Pithing Needle
1 Bottle Gnomes
3 Arcane Laboratory
well ive been a stax player for a little over 2 years now, it is by far one
of the best decks i have ever played. for those not in the know, stax is based
on resource denial for your opponent and slowing them down with a series of small
locks. using cards like trinisphere, chalice of the void, and out
of the board sphere of resistance early to basically time walk your
opponent and deny them spells and majorly screwing with their tempo. stax decks
slow the game to a near grinding halt for your opponent powering out the cards
mentioned above.
well i got bored playing AngelStax, GeddonStax, BlackStax, Demon Stompy, and
Dragon Stompy. mainly because i beat most decks but it got to the point where
the only realy problem i had was aether vial decks and reanimator with Iona naming
my base color. each color has a variant on stax, but blue... i havent seen one,
in legacy atleast. the first challenge i ran into was finding a few good alts to
some cards in other stax decks. such as ghostly prison i have
propaganda, for those not aware of this cards power, it slows zoo decks and
their ilk down to a crawl. GeddonStax runs armageddon i run mana vortex
this is the card im not 100% about but from testing so far can pretty much knock an
opponent out of their mana, plus if i have crucible up i dont suffer a huge drawback.
lets discuss the cards in the deck:
Hunted Phantasm : my finisher for a few reasons, he hits for 4, he
is unblockable, and he is harder to remove with burn spells.
Bottle Gnomes : helps negate the life lose from tombs.
Mox Diamond : allows for turn 1 chalices, trinispheres and crucibles.
Chalice of the Void : set at 1 and 2 allows you to lock out most decks from
playing all together.
Mana Vortex : this is kind of an armageddon for my opponent, because with a
crucible out ill never run out of lands to sac.
Propaganda : powerful against aggro decks. helps with the draw back of
hunted phantasm tokens.
Trinisphere : helps shut off so many deck, and if you drop this turn 1 you can
time walk for 2-3 turns basically sealing the game in your favor. also this card
single handedly beats ANT.
Tangle Wire : locks your opponent out of there resources and you can hear them
groan when you use ruins to put in on top of your deck to play again.
Smokestack : this is the name card for this deck, this card will come down
and most of the time your opponent will say "next game?"
Crucible of Worlds : this card helps you negate the draw back of Mox Diamond,
Smokestack, Mana Vortex, Fact or Fiction, and recover from enemy Wastelands. also
reccuring wastelands is the leading cause of defeat for threashold decks.
Fact or Fiction : i have found that the main issue with stax decks is the lack
of card draw, so to fix it i use the best one out there.
Now for the sideboard:
Tormod's Crypt : grave hate. (could be replaced with a number of cards)
Hydroblast : general hate against red spells that hurt you: pyroblast, red
elemental blast, pyrostatic pillar, shatter(storm, spree, pulse), ancient grudge,
boil, and so much more.
Sphere of Resistance : this messes up math for everydeck, so its a powerhouse.
Pithing Needle : helps deal with aether vial, the only real problem card out there.
Bottle Gnomes : another in the board to help against RDW and tribal zoo.
Arcane Laboratory : again beating combo into the ground, and enchantress.
any suggestions will be great. thank you for taking the time to read this and offering your help.
legacy: Doomsday, Dredge, BUG (shard less and still)
modern: storm, woo dredge, U-tron
EDH: maelstrom wanderer, Gisela, krenko, lazav, sharrum, sheoldred/xiahou dun, norin the wary, Thrax, Mimeoplasm, GW legends
legacy: Doomsday, Dredge, BUG (shard less and still)
modern: storm, woo dredge, U-tron
EDH: maelstrom wanderer, Gisela, krenko, lazav, sharrum, sheoldred/xiahou dun, norin the wary, Thrax, Mimeoplasm, GW legends
im thinking of adding thirst for knowledge but not sure what to cut.
legacy: Doomsday, Dredge, BUG (shard less and still)
modern: storm, woo dredge, U-tron
EDH: maelstrom wanderer, Gisela, krenko, lazav, sharrum, sheoldred/xiahou dun, norin the wary, Thrax, Mimeoplasm, GW legends
Hey, what's up, Kwuailee? I've been thinking about restarting the old blue stax thread, but I've had a crapload of schoolwork to do and haven't been able to do much testing beyond the odd goldfishing.
@muodoka: f you're running blue stax, Tezzeret better be in there. He's just too freaking perfect for the deck. If you run him, run 2-4 Seat of the Synod, he can fetch them without losing loyalty and he can untap them with the first ability. You can search out pretty much any stax piece you want. Also, although my testing has been limited, Jace, the Mind Sculptor appears to be a house in this deck. I run him as a two of. He's a lock piece (first ability, don't underestimate it. Being able to put their sideboard hate and other good stuff on the bottom every turn is good), removal engine (well, bounce anyway), draw engine (Brainstorm's good, even at sorcery speed), and win con (ultimate). Every single ability he has, all four of them, are relevant most of the time. Jace also provides a way to win without the need to attack with creatures. One of my biggest fears playing blue stax is running into a deck that can produce more tokens or other permanents than I can make them sacrifice. With Jace, I can sit behind my Propagandas and Ensnaring Bridges and power him up to his ultimate.
As far as manlands go, I personally like Dread Statuary better than Factory or Mutavault (which is usually worse than Factory unless your meta is tribal-heavy). There are pros and cons to both, but my vote goes to the Statuary. Some other card choices you should consider are Bottled Cloister and Ensnaring Bridge. Tangle Wire is a good card, but it works better in brown stax and I've moved it to the sideboard in my build. Ensnaring Bridge is a permanent answer that the opponent must deal with or find a way to win without attacking. Tangle Wire expires. That's all I've got to say for now, other that I envy you for owning a Tabernacle, if I had one I'd run it, but I stupidly sold mine when they were only worth about $80 :-/.
I'm curious as to how the Lodestone Golems perform, please do report your experiences with them. I chose to make my Stax deck creatureless excepting manlands. My prediction is that the golems won't come down fast enough to make a difference, but I have no evidence or testing to back that up, so I'm keeping an open mind.
In Modern:
:symu::symw::symr: Holy Rollers (Geist Tempo)
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any advice against dream halls? its on par with me since its a slower deck that needs 5 mana to win.
tanlge wire is good, against zoo... soo im prob moving it to the board and putting a tezz in its place along with 3 copies of thirst. ive been told to drop the FoF in favor of another thirst but i reallly enoy watching my opponent sweat.
legacy: Doomsday, Dredge, BUG (shard less and still)
modern: storm, woo dredge, U-tron
EDH: maelstrom wanderer, Gisela, krenko, lazav, sharrum, sheoldred/xiahou dun, norin the wary, Thrax, Mimeoplasm, GW legends
legacy: Doomsday, Dredge, BUG (shard less and still)
modern: storm, woo dredge, U-tron
EDH: maelstrom wanderer, Gisela, krenko, lazav, sharrum, sheoldred/xiahou dun, norin the wary, Thrax, Mimeoplasm, GW legends
She at the very least gives you a token for basically free every turn
I always thought Meloku was a dude...
and mana vortex is out now in favor of thirst for knowledge
i cut one island for tolaria west, as it can tutor for a great number of cards in this deck.
tomorrow ill post an updated deck list and my test results.
legacy: Doomsday, Dredge, BUG (shard less and still)
modern: storm, woo dredge, U-tron
EDH: maelstrom wanderer, Gisela, krenko, lazav, sharrum, sheoldred/xiahou dun, norin the wary, Thrax, Mimeoplasm, GW legends
legacy: Doomsday, Dredge, BUG (shard less and still)
modern: storm, woo dredge, U-tron
EDH: maelstrom wanderer, Gisela, krenko, lazav, sharrum, sheoldred/xiahou dun, norin the wary, Thrax, Mimeoplasm, GW legends
4 City of Traitors
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
3 Wasteland
1 Academy Ruins
4 Ancient Tomb
9 Island
1 Tolaria West
1 God's Eye, Gate the the Reikai
Creatures
1 Bottle Gnomes
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Mox Diamond
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Thirst for knowledge
4 Propaganda
4 Trinisphere
2 Tangle Wire
3 Smokestack
4 Crucible of Worlds
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
3 Tormod's Crypt
3 Hydroblast
3 Sphere of Resistance
2 Pithing Needle
1 Bottle Gnomes
3 Arcane Laboratory
well here is the new deck and let me say its much more "prison" esque right now but im stil lacking a solid win for those die hard players who play to the bitter end. ive won with a couple of god's eye tokens, they take a while to make a difference. ive only gotten tezzeret a few times but he usually ends the match really fast. ive been thinking about adding some "tap" artifacts to to help me win, thoughts? or should i drop out a thirst for Karn or sphinx?
legacy: Doomsday, Dredge, BUG (shard less and still)
modern: storm, woo dredge, U-tron
EDH: maelstrom wanderer, Gisela, krenko, lazav, sharrum, sheoldred/xiahou dun, norin the wary, Thrax, Mimeoplasm, GW legends
legacy: Doomsday, Dredge, BUG (shard less and still)
modern: storm, woo dredge, U-tron
EDH: maelstrom wanderer, Gisela, krenko, lazav, sharrum, sheoldred/xiahou dun, norin the wary, Thrax, Mimeoplasm, GW legends
legacy: Doomsday, Dredge, BUG (shard less and still)
modern: storm, woo dredge, U-tron
EDH: maelstrom wanderer, Gisela, krenko, lazav, sharrum, sheoldred/xiahou dun, norin the wary, Thrax, Mimeoplasm, GW legends
U-Stax:
Creatures// 8
4 Esperzoa
2 Lodestone Golem
2 Duplicant
Board control// 22
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Trinisphere
4 Tangle wire
4 Propaganda
4 Smokestack
2 Crucible of Worlds
Draw//4
4 Thirst for Knowledge
Mana// 26
4 Mox Diamond
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Ancient Tomb
3 City of Traitors
8 Island
3 Wasteland
Esperzoa interactions:
Esperzoa + Tanglewire: Keep your opponent's permanents tapped down
Esperzoa + Trinisphere: Return it to your hand, drop those Mox Diamonds, replay 3sphere
Esperzoa + Duplicant: Imprint your opponents creatures each turn (like Mangara in DNT)
Esperzoa + Chalice: Bounce it to your hand once you have enough mana to play it at a more optimal number
I think Esperzoa is the reason to play U-Stax, if at all. It has immense potential for keeping Tangle wire in play to essentially stall the game so that you can get more lock pieces down.
Duplicant + Esperzoa might SEEM slow, but anyone who has ever played DnT will tell you that Mangara + Karakas is nuts. Its essentially the same thing except you can't save Duplicant at instant speed like you can Mangara. The plus side though is that Duplicant, unless Stifled, benefits you immediately via your imprinting your opponents creature, unlike Mangara which has summoning sickness. Duplicant also an artifact so it conveniently gets around Mom and its really not bad on its own. Stealing a Goyf for 6 isn't THAT bad. Its suboptimal when you can play something like Control Magic but it doesn't have nuts interactions with Esperzoa.
U-stax will always be compared to Armageddon stax. U gets propaganda. W gets ghostly prison. Both get tangle wire. Only U gets Esperzoa. Sure it eats a bolt, but if you aren't casting it under chalice @ 1 or 3sphere then you are doing something wrong anyway.
I think this list has potential but its fairly rough and deserves some attention.
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the other finishers i tested were sphinx and he just took to long to get online, sea drake just didnt WOW me as much as i thought, metalworker+staff of domination and that was poweful but got boring, i wanted something new and exciting.
legacy: Doomsday, Dredge, BUG (shard less and still)
modern: storm, woo dredge, U-tron
EDH: maelstrom wanderer, Gisela, krenko, lazav, sharrum, sheoldred/xiahou dun, norin the wary, Thrax, Mimeoplasm, GW legends
In Modern:
:symu::symw::symr: Holy Rollers (Geist Tempo)
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legacy: Doomsday, Dredge, BUG (shard less and still)
modern: storm, woo dredge, U-tron
EDH: maelstrom wanderer, Gisela, krenko, lazav, sharrum, sheoldred/xiahou dun, norin the wary, Thrax, Mimeoplasm, GW legends
I disagree. His first ability is the lock part. Think about it. Once you've established a board position, you can put anything that threatens that board position on the bottom of your opponent's deck. For example, you can put Krosan Grip, Pernicious Deed (probably the most dangerous card against you if they have sufficient lands), Vindicate, Engineered Explosives, etc. Jace is also a win condition that you will be able to use because you have sufficient time to build up to it with this deck. It's certainly no slower than using the spirit tokens from God's Eye, and this way you don't even need to attack. The Unsummon and Brainstorm abilities are also quite useful, but those should be used only when absolutely necessary, as once you build up to the ultimate it is game over.
Also, being able to bounce a creature is actually very good in this deck, because you can destroy their manabase with Wasteland, and may even force them to sacrifice lands with Smokestack. Bouncing a creature that the opponent can no longer play is closely akin to removing it from the game. And the Brainstorm ability, despite the lack of fetchlands in this deck, is also valuable. Being able to dig for specific cards is good when you usually only get to draw one card a turn. But as I said, the bounce ability and the brainstorm ability are only to be used if necessary, but my point in this is that they are relevant. All of Jace2's abilities are relevant in this deck. Run him as a 2-of, he won't take up that much space, and you really don't need more than 2. Actually try him out, and see how he works. Personally, I would cut the Fact or Fiction and the Bottle Gnomes (I dislike random 1-ofs), but it's up to you.
In Modern:
:symu::symw::symr: Holy Rollers (Geist Tempo)
My NovelJoy author profile: http://www.noveljoy.com/userInfo?wid=189
I write mainly horror/scifi/fantasy type short stories. Please read and feel free to send me feedback.
so im testing esperzoa and i like the faster clock but the lighter lock makes some decks able to get around it, such as dream halls.
legacy: Doomsday, Dredge, BUG (shard less and still)
modern: storm, woo dredge, U-tron
EDH: maelstrom wanderer, Gisela, krenko, lazav, sharrum, sheoldred/xiahou dun, norin the wary, Thrax, Mimeoplasm, GW legends