kicks_422
01-04-2008, 09:01 AM
First off, although colorless Stax builds exist, they are either in Vintage or do not abuse the concepts that I am trying to do with this submission. However, if the judges think it's not original enough, please move it to the N&D section.
I. Brief History
It started with Lorwyn's Thorn of Amethyst, which gave Stax players a total of 12 "Spheres," along with Trinisphere and Sphere of Resistance. Then Mutavault is spoiled for Morningtide, giving 12 colorless manlands along with Mishra's Factory and Blinkmoth Nexus.
I've always been intrigued with the ability of Stax to just SHUT YOU OUT. I guess I just like winning seeing there's absolutely nothing on the opponent's board. It also helps that as I browse through decklists, the only artifact removal present are 2-3 Tin-Street Hooligans and 2-3 Krosan Grips in the whole 75 cards.
II. Decklist - January 6 (V1.1)
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Mutavault
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Wasteland
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
2 Crystal Vein
4 Mox Diamond
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Trinisphere
3 Tangle Wire
3 Grafted Skullcap
4 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Smokestack
4 Crucible of Worlds
SB
4 Thorn of Amethyst
4 Defense Grid
3 Sun Droplet
4 Tormod's Crypt
For your reference, as spoiled in MtgSal:
Mutavault
Land - Rare
{T}: Add 1 to your mana pool.
1: Mutavault becomes a 2/2 creature with all creature types until end of turn. It's still a land.
Some changelings born at Velis Vel never return, but their essence never leaves.
Illus. Fred Fields
III. Card Choices
Main Deck
8 2-mana lands and 4 Mox Diamond - The mana acceleration required to power out those lock pieces.
4 Wasteland - In a meta where basics are near non-existent in the upper tier decks, a full set is golden. Waste-Crucible might not work all the time, but when it does, it winds games by itself, especially in conjunction with the Spheres.
12 Manlands (Mishra's Factory, Blinkmoth Nexus, Mutavault) - The concept that I'm trying to abuse with this Stax build. Cast lock pieces to stop your opponent from playing spells, while you beat down with the lands that you used to cast those lock pieces. Simple right?
8 Spheres (Sphere of Resistance, Trinisphere) - Used to run all 12 in the MD, but the Thorns were dropped in favor of more mana, and they weren't good enough MD material in this format (as I painfully found out in testing). Trinisphere for low-curve decks, Spheres for higher-curved ones, basically.
4 Chalice of the Void - Chalice for 1 first-turn is still a great first-turn play, no matter what the meta looks like. Along with the Spheres, wrecks both aggro-control and combo.
4 Crucible of Worlds - It's logical to run a full 4 when the deck's win conditions are lands, along with the presence of City of Traitors. Also does wonders in conjunction with...
4 Smokestack - It might be slow to start working, but when it does, it stomps hard. Works great with this build because every single card is Smokestack food.
4 Ensnaring Bridge - Moved to the MD, since I love God. I thought the deck would be able to hold its own against aggro without it in the MD, but I was wrong. So there.
3 Grafted Skullcap - The draw engine. Not janky as it looks, since with all the mana the deck has, I can drop whatever I draw anyway. Also synergistic with Bridges. (Thanks edgewalker, though you said it was junk :tongue: )
3 Tangle Wire - Generic artifact disruption. Everything's tappable anyway, so this goes back in over the mistake of Uba Mask.
Sideboard - Most of these choices are pretty sketchy, sideboarding has never been one of my stronger points.
4 Thorn of Amethyst - Bumped to the SB since it's not much good in a format rife with creatures (I thought it would be). Comes in and helps lots against combo and control though.
4 Defense Grid - The perfect countermagic hoser, especially in a deck with the 12 Spheres.
3 Sun Droplet - For burn, basically. I don't think the deck really needs it, but meh.
4 Tormod's Crypt - Generic graveyard hate - Ichorid, Loam, Breakfast, Reanimator, whatever.
IV. Match-up Analysis
I don't have much yet to go into detailed analysis, but I'm working on it. As a general idea, the deck stomps aggro-control because of all the must-counter threats. It wrecks combo because you have 16 headache cards against them (unless they go off on you Turn 1-2, which happens at times). It's so-so against aggro, depending on the opening hand (helped a lot by the Bridges though!). It kind of sucks against blue-based board control though, where the long game is in their favor because of superior card draw.
V. Strengths and Weaknesses / Reasons to Play Twisted Metal
Strengths
- So many bombs in the deck that can be churned out turn after turn, even with a mediocre hand.
- Near impossible to kill win conditions.
- When I say it's a lock, it's a LOCK.
- Never get color-screwed!!!
Weaknesses
- Boy, when you get crappy hands, you get steamrolled. On a bed of nails. Rusty, crooked nails.
- Near to none card draw.
- No way to splash a color with this concept.
Why play this deck over other Stax variations (Angel Stax, Stompy builds, etc?).
- Angel Stax now focuses on mana denial with Geddons. Twisted Metal takes the flipside with spell denial. Some decks in the format run on 0-2 lands, and barring the awesomeness of Chalice/Trinisphere which the two decks share, it's much easier to break out of mana denial than spell denial.
- Aggro Stax/Stompy's gameplan of dropping a lock piece and then a beater and hopefully riding it to victory is now circumvented by a huge wall in the 1G Tarmogoyf. Since Twisted Metal is the most controllish of all the Stax builds, it has lots of ways to get out of situations in case Plan A doesn't work well. Aggro Stax/Stompy builds don't have as much resilience and flexibility as Twisted Metal does.
VI. Final Words
Well, there you go. I know it's a simple concept, but it's proven to be very effective thus far. Thanks for reading through all this, and hopefully I can get some constructive comments.
I. Brief History
It started with Lorwyn's Thorn of Amethyst, which gave Stax players a total of 12 "Spheres," along with Trinisphere and Sphere of Resistance. Then Mutavault is spoiled for Morningtide, giving 12 colorless manlands along with Mishra's Factory and Blinkmoth Nexus.
I've always been intrigued with the ability of Stax to just SHUT YOU OUT. I guess I just like winning seeing there's absolutely nothing on the opponent's board. It also helps that as I browse through decklists, the only artifact removal present are 2-3 Tin-Street Hooligans and 2-3 Krosan Grips in the whole 75 cards.
II. Decklist - January 6 (V1.1)
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Mutavault
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Wasteland
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
2 Crystal Vein
4 Mox Diamond
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Trinisphere
3 Tangle Wire
3 Grafted Skullcap
4 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Smokestack
4 Crucible of Worlds
SB
4 Thorn of Amethyst
4 Defense Grid
3 Sun Droplet
4 Tormod's Crypt
For your reference, as spoiled in MtgSal:
Mutavault
Land - Rare
{T}: Add 1 to your mana pool.
1: Mutavault becomes a 2/2 creature with all creature types until end of turn. It's still a land.
Some changelings born at Velis Vel never return, but their essence never leaves.
Illus. Fred Fields
III. Card Choices
Main Deck
8 2-mana lands and 4 Mox Diamond - The mana acceleration required to power out those lock pieces.
4 Wasteland - In a meta where basics are near non-existent in the upper tier decks, a full set is golden. Waste-Crucible might not work all the time, but when it does, it winds games by itself, especially in conjunction with the Spheres.
12 Manlands (Mishra's Factory, Blinkmoth Nexus, Mutavault) - The concept that I'm trying to abuse with this Stax build. Cast lock pieces to stop your opponent from playing spells, while you beat down with the lands that you used to cast those lock pieces. Simple right?
8 Spheres (Sphere of Resistance, Trinisphere) - Used to run all 12 in the MD, but the Thorns were dropped in favor of more mana, and they weren't good enough MD material in this format (as I painfully found out in testing). Trinisphere for low-curve decks, Spheres for higher-curved ones, basically.
4 Chalice of the Void - Chalice for 1 first-turn is still a great first-turn play, no matter what the meta looks like. Along with the Spheres, wrecks both aggro-control and combo.
4 Crucible of Worlds - It's logical to run a full 4 when the deck's win conditions are lands, along with the presence of City of Traitors. Also does wonders in conjunction with...
4 Smokestack - It might be slow to start working, but when it does, it stomps hard. Works great with this build because every single card is Smokestack food.
4 Ensnaring Bridge - Moved to the MD, since I love God. I thought the deck would be able to hold its own against aggro without it in the MD, but I was wrong. So there.
3 Grafted Skullcap - The draw engine. Not janky as it looks, since with all the mana the deck has, I can drop whatever I draw anyway. Also synergistic with Bridges. (Thanks edgewalker, though you said it was junk :tongue: )
3 Tangle Wire - Generic artifact disruption. Everything's tappable anyway, so this goes back in over the mistake of Uba Mask.
Sideboard - Most of these choices are pretty sketchy, sideboarding has never been one of my stronger points.
4 Thorn of Amethyst - Bumped to the SB since it's not much good in a format rife with creatures (I thought it would be). Comes in and helps lots against combo and control though.
4 Defense Grid - The perfect countermagic hoser, especially in a deck with the 12 Spheres.
3 Sun Droplet - For burn, basically. I don't think the deck really needs it, but meh.
4 Tormod's Crypt - Generic graveyard hate - Ichorid, Loam, Breakfast, Reanimator, whatever.
IV. Match-up Analysis
I don't have much yet to go into detailed analysis, but I'm working on it. As a general idea, the deck stomps aggro-control because of all the must-counter threats. It wrecks combo because you have 16 headache cards against them (unless they go off on you Turn 1-2, which happens at times). It's so-so against aggro, depending on the opening hand (helped a lot by the Bridges though!). It kind of sucks against blue-based board control though, where the long game is in their favor because of superior card draw.
V. Strengths and Weaknesses / Reasons to Play Twisted Metal
Strengths
- So many bombs in the deck that can be churned out turn after turn, even with a mediocre hand.
- Near impossible to kill win conditions.
- When I say it's a lock, it's a LOCK.
- Never get color-screwed!!!
Weaknesses
- Boy, when you get crappy hands, you get steamrolled. On a bed of nails. Rusty, crooked nails.
- Near to none card draw.
- No way to splash a color with this concept.
Why play this deck over other Stax variations (Angel Stax, Stompy builds, etc?).
- Angel Stax now focuses on mana denial with Geddons. Twisted Metal takes the flipside with spell denial. Some decks in the format run on 0-2 lands, and barring the awesomeness of Chalice/Trinisphere which the two decks share, it's much easier to break out of mana denial than spell denial.
- Aggro Stax/Stompy's gameplan of dropping a lock piece and then a beater and hopefully riding it to victory is now circumvented by a huge wall in the 1G Tarmogoyf. Since Twisted Metal is the most controllish of all the Stax builds, it has lots of ways to get out of situations in case Plan A doesn't work well. Aggro Stax/Stompy builds don't have as much resilience and flexibility as Twisted Metal does.
VI. Final Words
Well, there you go. I know it's a simple concept, but it's proven to be very effective thus far. Thanks for reading through all this, and hopefully I can get some constructive comments.