[Article] Unlocking Legacy - The $400 Solution Part IV: Angel Stax in the New Legacy

[Silverdragon]

http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/15168.html

Angel Stax returns to Legacy! New cards and changes in the metagame have created an opportunity for this Control strategy to succeed. Christopher Coppola discusses some recent performances and provides an up to date decklist.

Feels exciting to be mentioned in an article by Chris Coppola. As for the decklist, I think 5 Armageddon effects are the right number but I'd try to fit in the 4th City of Traitors.
Oh and btw just yesterday my friend Joachim finished 5th out of 72 in the Legacy sideevent at GP Stuttgart only losing to Landstill and the luckiest Belcher player ever.

So, discuss!

edit: link added

[Pinder]

I'm far to lazy to look this up. You should link it.

[etrigan]

I was looking forward to Black Thresh, part 2. Oh well.

Good article.

[Zach Tartell]

Was he referring to the two Ravages of War as the $400 part, or the rest of the deck?

I did like how he actually came out and said that, since Stax is a control deck, it will always have an uphill battle. It might seem kind of accepted for all of you tool faces who have been playing magic for their whole lives, but I'm different. I didn't buy my first packs when Umlimited was printed, or even wait until Ice Age hit the scene - rather, I started at Dissension.

Seriously.

Consequentily, I've been reading every article of any importance that I can get my hands on (allow me to give a silent nod to Mike Edinger and anyone else who contributed to the "required reading" thread). I don't even care about the relitively poor writing skill that some authors demonstrate, or how antiquated or terrible their decks or stratedgies are - axioms like the one I mentioned earlier make the terribleness of the rest of these articles from making me take my life.

In short, I enjoyed this article; it gave several relatively compotent looking lists, gave an in-depth description of them, and then shut the hell up. No ridiculous quotes, or analogies that I didn't get (although, I did just type "anal"), or bogus, self-serving banter about how many girlfriends the author has.

Two thumbs. Or, rather, one and a half. Only because it didn't get me married to Kristen Bell in a princess Leia suit.

[Nihil Credo]

Can I gloat a bit?


Maindeck Angels equip your deck with a credible creature threat that wins the game on its own; all too often have I won Game 2 by swinging with a hot flying chick on turn 3 (or 2), while my opponent stared helplessy at his Shattering Sprees.

Most Stax versions IMO focus too much on the opening play. I see lists made almost entirely of 4-ofs; but there are only a few cards that really deserve this status. Separate between the cards that set up your game (Crucible, Trinisphere, Propaganda effects) and the ones that mop up the game (Smokestack, creatures or manlands, Wasteland recursion). The latter you can afford to wait to draw into, and the extra room will get you Angels to win otherwise unwinnable games.

Right now, the following list is my favourite deck to play in the format:

// Lands
4 [EX] City of Traitors
3 [4E] Mishra's Factory
4 [TE] Ancient Tomb
4 [TSP] Flagstones of Trokair
8 [UNH] Plains
2 [TE] Wasteland

// Creatures
3 [PLC] Magus of the Tabernacle
3 [ON] Exalted Angel

// Spells
4 [SH] Mox Diamond
4 [MR] Chalice of the Void
4 [CHK] Ghostly Prison
4 [DS] Trinisphere
4 [FD] Crucible of Worlds
3 [P3] Ravages of War
3 [REW] Armageddon
3 [US] Smokestack
I cut an Armageddon for the fourth Angel about a month later, btw.

Also, Chris? Do I have to poke you again about that small issue?

[ClearSkies]

Finally, an article on one of my favorite type of decks. (Decks that lock down people with Stax/Crucible/Trinisphere)

I really like the way he listed out the different list to compared. It was interesting to see what kind of sideboards people had. Coming to think of it, Sphere of resistance is pretty good against combo with Ghostly Prison stopping Goblin Tokens. However, I thought Stax has a really good combo matchup already?

Anyways, really good article.

[AnwarA101]

I was quite suprised to get blown out by Angel Stax in a local tournament. I was playing Goblins and for some reason I was under the impression that this was a good matchup. Wasteland recursion was vicious against me as I was playing a black and green splash.

Is cutting the 4th Magus right? He seems like a bomb with all the other taxing effects.

[Nihil Credo]

Is cutting the 4th Magus right? He seems like a bomb with all the other taxing effects.
The annoyance is that Magus #2 is a heavy burden, since you have to pay :4: every turn to keep them both, and these days you're more likely to be staring down a single Tarmogoyf than five Goblins. You are also cutting yourself off from Angel, so basically the only reason to play the second copy would be as a one-time sweeper (sacrificing it on the following upkeep).

There are certainly metagames in which one would want four Tabernacle effects, but to this end I'm fairly confident the better choice is to maindeck an actual Tabernacle (cutting a spell slot for it, obv).

[AnwarA101]

The annoyance is that Magus #2 is a heavy burden, since you have to pay :4: every turn to keep them both, and these days you're more likely to be staring down a single Tarmogoyf than five Goblins. You are also cutting yourself off from Angel, so basically the only reason to play the second copy would be as a one-time sweeper (sacrificing it on the following upkeep).

There are certainly metagames in which one would want four Tabernacle effects, but to this end I'm fairly confident the better choice is to maindeck an actual Tabernacle (cutting a spell slot for it, obv).

The version I played against ran Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale and it seemed pretty effective. It can get hit by opposing Wastelands, but if they don't have the Wasteland its basically Magus for a land drop instead of :3::w:. The only thing is that you lose is a win condition which is what seems better about running Angel and Magus is that you get more win conditions and thus you are likely to win sooner rather than later.

The article was informative especially about Angel Stax's recent success.

[freakish777]

The version I played against ran Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale and it seemed pretty effective. It can get hit by opposing Wastelands, but if they don't have the Wasteland its basically Magus for a land drop instead of :3::w:. The only thing is that you lose is a win condition which is what seems better about running Angel and Magus is that you get more win conditions and thus you are likely to win sooner rather than later.

The article was informative especially about Angel Stax's recent success.

Magus also gives you a blocker capable of holding off all but the most enormous of Goyfs, meaning they can't just ride a single dude and a basic to victory while you sit looking for Geddon (it happens occassionally, even with 6 in the deck).

[SpatulaOfTheAges]

God, I enjoyed that article. This sort of thing really makes me wish Chris would stick to articles(which he's really good at) and shy away from forum posting(where Mr. Hyde comes out).

[Bovinious]

Straight from Alix Hatfield himself, a Legacy pro-tip: Stax sucks. Also see my sig about prison in general :tongue:

But even for an article about what i think is a bad deck it was well-written and had good content, propz.

[Jaynel]

Would Oblivion Ring be better than Seal of Cleansing in the board? Or is actually destroying the target relevant?

[Peter_Rotten]

From what I seen about White Stax, O-Ring is a fucking BEAST. So far, this has been one of those decks that I thought was crappy until it smacked me around in tourney play. However, keep in mind its godly game against Goyf Sligh.