[Deck] Armageddon Stax

[Silverdragon]

Very very short version:
Rd1 UWR TrinketAngels win 2-0
Rd2 Rifter win 2-0
Rd3 Enchantress win 2-0
Rd4 Mirror lose 1-2 (killed by Duskrider Peregrine)
Rd5 GBw Survival win 2-1

List
4 Smokestack
4 Armageddon
4 Crucible
4 Chalice
4 Trini
4 Prison
4 Magus
4 Mox
2 Exalted Angel
4 Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Flagstones
8 Plains
3 Factory
2 Wasteland
1 Tabernacle
sb
4 Defense Grid
4 Suppression Field
2 Wasteland
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Silent Arbiter
1 Exalted Angel

MD was perfect but Tabernacle is not really needed. SB I'll cut EE, Arbiters and Angel for Peregrines and Kegs.

Gaddock is scary but basically he's just a Mage on Smokestack and Geddon. You almost don't care about Chalice after he hits. EE might have to be replaced with Kegs so you can remove him.
Maybe the deck needs to change its gameplan a bit going more into the Eternal Garden or 5/3 direction.
Oblivion Ring looks like it could be usable but I feel like it's just a cheaper Faith Fetters.

[Nihil Credo]

I like that list a lot, it's very much like mine (maindeck Angels, 2 Wastes, 3 Factories). Did you like having the full Smokestack playset? I prefer to run 3 almost everywhere... it's not really an essential card, especially with the Prison/Magus+Geddon lock also available.

[Bane of the Living]

Gaddock is scary but basically he's just a Mage on Smokestack and Geddon. You almost don't care about Chalice after he hits. EE might have to be replaced with Kegs so you can remove him.
Maybe the deck needs to change its gameplan a bit going more into the Eternal Garden or 5/3 direction.
Oblivion Ring looks like it could be usable but I feel like it's just a cheaper Faith Fetters.

He's chanting Magus, Smokestack, Armageddon, Exalted, Chalice, Explosives, and Wrath of God.. What the hell is your plan if he hits play!?!! Id really really like to know..

Oblivion Ring: 3cc > Faiths Fetters: 4cc. Do you want Gaddock to pour sugar in your gas tank while he anal rapes your mother??

[Nihil Credo]

He isn't really chanting Exalted Angel (morph), and Wrath has been dropped from the deck long ago. I agree with Silverdragon, just place Powder Kegs in the SB (it's debatable whether they were better than EE in the first place). His ability stops you from achieving a full lock via Geddon or Smokestack, but does not halt your prison game plan - you'll drop Chalice before he comes online, and Trini, Crucible, Ghostly all work just as well.

[Bane of the Living]

So the supposed solution to Gaddock is to chill out and play some Ghostly Prisons?? I dont like relying on Powder Keg and taking three turns to kill him. Then what if they drop another or do unfair things with Karakas?

I really think Oblivion Ring would be excellent here. It deals with Meddling Mage naming Armageddon, deals with Aether Vial, and stops Tarmagoyfs.

Also, playing O Ring on Gaddock or Jitte would be awsome since they would perhaps play another and you could sacrifice the ring to Smokestack and trigger the legend rule.

[Nihil Credo]

You have to remember that you live in the only area of the world where Death&Taxes is a major metagame presence.

The green splash will probably increase its power, but as much as I have enjoyed the deck I don't think it will become a serious concern anytime soon. Most people are more likely to face Gaddock when playing against Baseruption or other Fish-y decks, or from the sideboard of a multi-colour aggro deck.

[Silverdragon]

RTFC :)
Gaddock only affects NON-creature spells. And I never said I didn't like Oblivion Ring, I just said it looks like Faith Fetters in what it does and I wasn't impressed by Fetters so I don't think it is that good. Of course I agree it is almost always better than Fetters but it's just like saying Treetop Village is better than Forgotten Watchtower in Landstill.

[Silverdragon]

Sorry for doublepost but I think this one deserves it.

As promised here is my report of taking second at a monthly Legacy tourney in Speyer playing Stax. Not a lot of exciting stories just solid play by me and getting lucky that day.

The list I played was the same that my friend used at the german Legacy Championships to place 47th.

Maindeck

4 Smokestack
4 Armageddon
4 Magus of the Tabernacle
4 Ghostly Prion
4 Crucible of Worlds
4 Mox Diamond
4 Trinisphere
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Exalted Angel
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Flagstones of Trokair
8 Plains
3 Mishra's Factory
2 Wasteland
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale

Sideboard

4 Defense Grid
4 Supression Field
2 Silent Arbiter
2 Wasteland
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Exalted Angel

Maindeck Angels were once again amazing, winning games out of nowhere. The only changes I'd make are in the board. Arbiter, Explosives and Angel no.3 are not really worth it and will be replaced by some amount of Kegs, Seals (of Cleansing) and Duskrider Peregrines.

Round 1 against Tobias with Trinket Angels (Uwr Counterbalance)
He's a regular player and I recognize his face but I can't remember what decks he played in the past. He puts me on Solidarity while we shuffle but remembers that I played Stax the last time and I tell him that I'm in fact playing Stax today.
I win the die roll with a 20 on a D20.

Game 1 I don't encounter much resistance. My first turn I resolve Crucible and he goes Plateau, pass. Second turn I play Smokestack and that is gg. He takes one more drawstep, discards a Swords to Plowshares and scoops.

I don't have an idea what he could be playing so I only board 2 Wastelands for 2 Plains hoping to get lucky again. While drawing his cards Tobias flips over a Force of Will but I still have no idea what he is playing.

Game 2 I open a hand with Chalice and 2 Magus. He starts with land, go and I play land, Mox, Chalice at 1. He thinks about countering but decides not to. His second turn he plays a second land and a Meddling Mage naming Crucible of Worlds. After the match he asks me what I'd name with Meddling Mage and I agree that Crucible is the right card to name with Mage most of the time. Anyway I attempt a Magus shortly after and he immediately says no throwing Force onto the table. After some thinking he pitches Trinket Mage. During his turn Tobias plays a second Meddling Mage, naming Smokestack this time. I play the second Magus and it resolves. A Trinisphere also comes down and because my opponent is stuck on 4 lands he lets one Mage die (the one naming Smokestack) to be able to play more spells. A Counterbalance and a Blood Knight enter play but I topdeck Smokestack and he can't counter it so it's over shortly after.

After the match he tells me that he has played Stasis in previous events and we both joke about how the Stax on Stasis match has to be the most boring thing ever.

After a food break it was time for

Round 2 against Jörg with Rifter
I win the die roll with a six on a D6. I also know the deck he is playing because I was able to scout a lot after round one.

Game 1 my luck continues as I rip a third Smokestack off the top after my first two get destroyed by Seal of Cleansing. Armageddon puts him into the hardlock and it's off to game two.

I board in Suppression Fields, Explosives and a Wasteland. Out go all the Tabernacle effects and the Angels.

Before we begin with game 2 Jörg makes a comment about never finding his boarded cards.
Game 2 begins with my opponent taking a mulligan and I can hardly keep myself calm as I have 2 Suppression Fields and the mana to cast them in my opening hand. After thinking hard of going down to five Jörg opts to play with his six card hand and starts with Secluded Steppe. I see that as a sign that he is manascrewed and spend my first turn wasting his land. Indeed he makes no second landdrop and is manascrewed for pretty much the rest of the game. We play some more turns but after I realize that my triple Suppression Fields (yes I topdecked one more) stop his Tormod's Crypt and his Seal for perhaps 20 or more turns I start paying seven to activate Factory and attack for two. He almost instantly scoops.

The second game was a bit anti-climatic but the whole matchup is rather one-sided. Rifter has to try to go aggro on you while you just wait for Armageddon and win.

Round 3 against Matthias with Enchantress
Both of us know what the other is playing and I don't like my chances. This time I lose the die roll.

Game 1 he has an explosive start with Exploration and Sylvan Library. During the following turns he plays Sterling Grove, sacrifices it to find Seal of Primordium for my Crucible and plays Replenish to get back the Grove and the Seal. I'm sure I'll lose this game. However I hit all my landdrops and an Angel enters play early. He can't find a solution in time and I beat him down in five turns.

From the sideboard I bring in Explosives, Wastelands and Exalted Angel. I take out Ghostly Prisons and the Tabernacle. I think my only chance here, especially on the draw is to play a threat and remove his answers to swing for the win.

Game 2 I get the nuts with Trinisphere, Smokestack and Crucible but he is on the play and gets to 3 lands before Smokestack starts to work. Lucky for me he can't topdeck another land before I ramp the Smokestack to two counters and his board is gone. He thinks for a short time and concedes. I show him the Flagstones I had in hand to make clear that I could've supported Smokestack long enough to beat him down with my Factory.

Whew! Worst matchup won. Now I'm sure I'll go home with a dualland in my pocket. I find my friend Joachim who is 3-0 too and sadly this means we have to play each other in round 4. We discuss what to do and agree to play it out and split the price.

Round 4 against Joachim with Angelstax
As predicted the only two 3-0 players get to play each other. I lose the die roll and prepare to lose the match. We played three very intense games and I'm sure I'll mix up some parts here so I apologize.

Game 1 looking at my notes this is the first game I have to mulligan. Frown. Joachim makes a comment that he should mulligan too but he keeps his hand. He begins the game with Ancient Tomb, go. I draw and play Mox Diamond, Mox Diamond, Ancient Tomb, Smokestack, Chalice at 0. Joachim looks stunned and I write BÄM in capital letters next to our lifetotal on my notepad. Another amazing turn on the other side happens as Joachim plays Flagstones of Trokair and Morph. I point out that the morph is countered due to Chalice and the Exalted Angel goes to the graveyard. I'm thinking maybe I can win this game. During my turn I play Flagstones of Trokair and ramp Smokestack up to one counter. Joachim decides to sac his Flagstones to the Smokestack and searches his library for a Plains. At this point all hell breaks lose as a guy playing next to us points out that Flagstones is a legendary permanent. We try to sort it out and the end of the story is that both of us search our libraries for Plains and Joachim sacrifices his Plains to Smokestack. I'm not exactly sure what happened next but at some point I sacrifice Smokestack and start drawing crap while Joachim gets back into the game. We both have a lot of lands and about 5 Tabernacle-effects total on the table now and I have a Crucible too so I decide to set a Chalice at three to stop his Crucible. Sadly I can't draw an Armageddon or a Smokestack to capitalize on this and the second Angel he draws abruptly finishes this game. I'm annoyed because I didn't see any of my two Angels or an Armageddon during the twenty or so drawsteps while he had both of his Angels.

From the sideboard I bring in Wastelands, Explosives and Angel for Trinispheres and a Chalice.

Game 2 I have an okay start with Chalice at zero once again and I play an early Magus that goes all the way. At one point I almost get Wasteland recursion going but Joachim stops it with Faith Fetters and when he plays a Morph I once again point to the Chalice. He wants to take it back but I don't allow it. After he gets his Morph countered I show him how to do it and hardcast the Angel but he topdecks a Faith Fetters and stops the flier. In the end it doesn't matter as I have an Armageddon just in time to set him back long enough for the Magus to come over for the final points of damage.

After this game we ask how much time is left and we're told we have 15 minutes to finish the third game. Looks like we played really fast up to this point.

Game 3 I finally see Joachims "secret mirror tech" as he suspends a Duskrider Peregrine. He gets stuck on two lands but Peregrine plus Factory combined with my Ancient Tomb take me down to 3 life before Smokestack and Magus take care of them. In the perhaps deciding moment of the game I decide to sacifice Smokestack to its trigger instead of one of my three lands (Ancient Tomb, Plains used to pay for Magus, City of Traitors) or the Chalice at zero because I want to be able to play Crucible should I topdeck it and I want to keep the Chalice so Joachim can't use Mox Diamonds to get back into the game. At first my decision looked to be correct because I didn't draw castable stuff, only Armageddon and Mox Diamond but when Joachim played Wasteland and suspended a second Peregrine my Magus couldn't do anything and the flier finished me while I was holding two Plains that I didn't want to cast.
This situation was especially bad for me because if I wanted to cast Armageddon I'd have to tap Ancient Tomb and manaburn for one (remember I had City of Traitors) killing myself at 3 life. If I wanted to build up Armageddon without manaburn I'd have to play one of the two Plains, sacrifice my City of Traitors and then he'd Wasteland my Tomb leaving me with 2 Plains in play (one needed to support Magus) and a Plains in hand so I'd need a 2-mana-land or 2 Plains off the top.

We finished one minute before extra turns. Quite an accomplishment in the Stax mirror I'd say.

Thinking that my lucky streak was over I went into the last round not really confident especially after I knew who my opponent would be.

Round 5 against Lukas with Gbw Survival
He's playing with Deeds and a lot of stuff that has "I pwn Stax" written all over it so I think I'm in for a short round especially after he wins the die roll and wants to go first.

Game 1 I have to mulligan and keep a hand with five lands and a Magus. He plays first turn Cabal Therapy naming Chalice. I draw another land, play Flagstones and say go. He gets a Survival and Therapies some more seeing more lands but getting rid of the Magus. I play a topdecked Crucible and he has a Harmonic Sliver to destroy it. A Tarmogoyf starts beating me shortly after and all I can do is play a second Crucible and try to chumpblock with recurring Factories but he has Swords to Plowshares for both of them. He makes a big mistake when he gets a Sakura Tribe Elder and although he has seen the Tabernacle in my hand he eot sacrifices it for a land. Tarmogoyf and Harmonic Sliver take me down to six and I'm dead on the board but I miraculously topdeck Armageddon, play it and follow it up with The Tabernacle I've been holding from the beginning. Lukas loses all his lands, has to sacrifice all his creatures during his upkeep and Trinisphere locks him up. I didn't think I could win this game but Armageddon is just so good.

I don't know exactly how to board but in the end decide on taking out two Angels, two Trinisphere and two Smokestack for four Suppression Field and two Silent Arbiter.

Game 2 I start with City of Traitors, Mox, Trinisphere after Lukas went land, go. Second turn Lukas plays another basic land and passes back to me. Now here is where I lose the game. My hand has Mox Diamond, Mishra's Factory, Armageddon 2x and I think Suppression Field. I tap Mox and City to play the second Mox pitching Mishra's Factory, trying to set up Armageddon next turn. My faulty logic here was that I needed the two mana from the Moxen to get back into the game faster after the Geddon and that I'd rather hit three of his lands than two. What I didn't consider is that basically every card in his deck could wreck me there. If he has the third land he can just play a threat and kill me under my Trinisphere, or he can use the three mana to Therapy me naming Armageddon. What happened was that he used the three mana to cast Pernicious Deed. After thinking for a long time he decides to activate it for zero killing both of my Moxen and screwing me into oblivion. I don't draw land for like hudreds of turns and he is a bit flooded and can't find a creature to kill me. However he manages to Therapy me for my Geddons and Extirpates all the Factories and Geddons from my deck. I try to hang on hoping to at least get a draw against what I think is a really bad matchup but eventually Goyf comes down to kill me.

Game 3 I am finally on the play and I utterly annihilate him. First turn I play Chalice for 1. Second Turn Trinisphere, third turn Suppression Field. Smokestack and Magus are icing on the cake. Because he only draws fetchlands that don't work well under Suppression Field I can reduce him to zero permanents quite fast. Some spectators tell us that we only have three more minute before extra turns and I have to finish him quickly with a Magus and a Factory. These last minutes I think I played the fastest flawless Magic I ever played. See how fast you can go through your upkeep with a Smokestack, a Magus of the Tabernacle and a Flagstones of Trokair :)
Anyway I manage to get him down to twelve just before extraturns are called and after it is clear that I will get three more turns to deal exactly twelve he concedes.

Props
All the people who were there
Stax for being awesome
the car for not having a flat tire
prizes (Volcanic Island me likey)

Slops
my cousin Jens for having to work that day
Gaddock Teeg for hosing all the decks I like and making me play with him once he's out

[Aggro_zombies]

Bravo on the tournament report, and congratulations on your performance. Couple quick questions:

1) Have you ever found yourself wanting Tangle Wire?
2) When The Teegmeister comes out, would you consider running Oblivion Ring as an answer, or perhaps Powder Keg?
3) Speaking of those, have you ever found yourself wanting more removal (EE, Keg, etc.).

[Silverdragon]

1) No, I didn't want Tangle Wire a single time. Although I encountered some situations in testing where it would have been okay there simply is no card in the deck I'd want to cut for it.
2) Yes absolutely. I am currently thinking about readding Powder Kegs to the maindeck and even though I'm not impressed by Oblivion Ring I'll definitely test it.
3) The only matchup I wanted more creature removal so far was in the mirror. Aside from that I'm happy with the options I have to deal with creatures at the moment. Enchantment and Artifact removal is another story. Right now the sideboarded Explosives have once again left for Seal of Cleansing because it hits more expensive Artifacts and Enchantments too (opposing Crucibles, Nev Disks etc.)
In tournaments I didn't need the Explosives to deal with Goblin Tokens yet but being able to hit multiple 1cc to 2cc cards might be too good to pass up (especially against Sterling Grove).

[Nihil Credo]

About Duskrider Peregrine... I've found out that pretty much every Pikual player these days is splashing green for Tarmogoyf and Pernicious Deed. The latter makes the matchup even harder, but in particular the former makes Peregrine very bad.

I've been trying something else for that particular problem, and I've stumbled on Gift of Estates. While it's janky as hell, it's also saved my ass in three different games so far: in two of them it just got me out of manascrew, and in a third it let me fuel Smokestack@1 long enough to get even on board position.
I thought it would be a problem with Chalice@2 (which is by far the best setting in that matchup), but turns out that if I resolve Chalice@2 they just can't win, since it hits all of their creatures.

I suggest you give Gift a try if you're worried about Vindicate.dec, it's really nice; the only problem is that it's really narrow, whereas Peregrine is still a threat. I suppose Gift could also be nice in the mirror match, though...

[Silverdragon]

After tinkering quite a bit with the deck again I can tell you some things I've found out about Oblivion Ring and Gaddock Teeg. First, Oblivion Ring is nice but "only" on the same level as Seal of Cleansing or Powder Keg. The Ring may be replacing those cards in my builds, maybe not. It really depends on what cards you expect to play against (for example Ring is the best solution against Gaddock but Keg is better against Nimble Mongoose and Seal is best against Survival or Landstill).
I have tested about 30 games against Survival with Gaddock Teeg and tried a lot of different cards. One thing I realized pretty fast was that Gaddock is not the most dangerous 2-drop Survival has against you. Tarmogoyf is.
That may seem obvious to most of you and I was aware of Goyfs power before but it was shocking to find out just how powerful this guy is compared to other scary 2-drops.
Now that may sound horrible for the future of Stax but fear not I found a long forgotten tech that helps immensely especially against Gaddock and I will bring it to a tournament this Friday. I will try to write a report again and I hope my tech is as good in a tournament as it was in testing.

[Faluzure]

What do you do against MUC who sideboards in Hurkyll's Recall? I ran into that yesterday playtesting my deck. Even if you're on the go and you drop a first turn Trinisphere, it's a ticking timebomb. The only thing I've found to combat this is to try to pull off an Armageddon ASAP. That means having to mulligan down to a Trinisphere, Mox Diamond and Armageddon.

[ClearSkies]

What do you do against MUC who sideboards in Hurkyll's Recall? I ran into that yesterday playtesting my deck. Even if you're on the go and you drop a first turn Trinisphere, it's a ticking timebomb. The only thing I've found to combat this is to try to pull off an Armageddon ASAP. That means having to mulligan down to a Trinisphere, Mox Diamond and Armageddon.

Chalice of the Void for two? I suppose you can run stuff like Voidstone Gargoyle (or even some Tundra + Meddling Mage... or not)

If someone is putting in Hurkyll's recall in their sideboard just for you, then just accept the lost. (Or race that person with your factories?)

I havn't played anyone with that card in the sideboard in Legacy. If this was Vintage, that would be a different story.

[Faluzure]

Chalice of the Void for two? I suppose you can run stuff like Voidstone Gargoyle (or even some Tundra + Meddling Mage... or not)

If someone is putting in Hurkyll's recall in their sideboard just for you, then just accept the lost. (Or race that person with your factories?)

I havn't played anyone with that card in the sideboard in Legacy. If this was Vintage, that would be a different story.

Well, there's a small local tournament happening in a week. Everyone knows I play this version of Stax and I guess you can say they are metagaming particularly against me. So yeah, Hurkyll's Recall made an appearance.

But thanks for the suggestion. It's too early in the morning and I totally forgot about that card (even though 4 copies are in my deck). I never seem to draw them.

[Silverdragon]

MonoU is basically a worse Landstill. You have Defense Grid as additional Trinisphere effects, Manlands to put pressure on and Chalice@2 to stop most nonsense. Hurkyls Recall is far less scary than Pernicious Deed because you can often replay multiple cards at once. Magus is also not affected and a single Armageddon means game over. If you are really concerned about this matchup then you can play Winter Orbs or Uba Masks too. Glowrider works as a hard to bounce 2Sphere effect and True Believer stops Hurkyl's Recall but sadly not much else. Playing the aggro-control game with Angels might work too. I also tried a single Eternal Dragon during testing to help the Landstill matchup and although it was not great against them (Landstill has Swords) it might be a bomb against MonoU.

Oh btw best advise I can give: Surprise them with Stasis or Pox instead.

update on secret tech after testing: 1) Oblivion Ring is better 2) Mongoose > Tech
I made some heavy changes to the maindeck to fit in Culling Scales but after I found out that it targets I'll either try Porphyry Nodes tomorrow or keep my old list until Lorwyn adds Oblivion Ring.
Don't get me wrong Culling Scales is really good against the right decks in the right metagame (that means no combodecks and no Nimble Mongoose). To be more precise I put Chalice of the Void into the Sideboard and added Winter Orbs instead and then I cut the Explosives (remember no combodecks) for Scales. This improves the Survival matchup quite a bit and helps immensely against Baseruption. Although these are two of the three matchups I expect to face the most I just don't want the regular Threshold and Combo matchups to drop that much by playing cards that don't affect them at all.

[f|i[p]]

@Splashing

I have tried the green splash..I have tried library, and words. I really wouldnt know if they are good as some people think, it is a 2 card combo after all. Before we even get to make use of words, we have to wait for library.Although library is good on its own, at times when I draw it, I would usually rather have something else.. Like EE or wrath.(this is because I get to test it against goblins alot)THe deck is slow enough as it is. and the only reason I would really run green it is for krosan grip or maybe a good big green/white creature...as for p. deed is a headache as well as disk...ofcourse p. needle is also an option which makes us stay mono colored... but since krosan grip is uncounterable it makes my whole plan putting permanents down safer.


@blueI have never tried this splash... But Ive always liked ghostly prisons as even one stops goblins on its tracks. Since blue offers propaganda and other draw spells. I think it would be worth it.

But I dont know if splashing is really a good idea, since our mana base would be affected... Although goblins are in a decline and I dont see much homebrew and Land D. strategies, maybe it would be a good idea to test splashes..


I was wondering... Is there any other creature worth putting in the exalted angel slot, I know she is one of the best creatures...But we never really put her down that early anyway, we usually wait to gain control of the board using prison pieces before we put her down..and I almost never put her down morphed anyway(at least in my case).

I was thinking vigilance, as they can serve the blocking and offensive role at the same time.

I was searching for creatures in magic workstation and saw this, I have not tested her, but just wanted some thoughts on it as well..

Adarkar Valkyrie,
She has the same casting cost as exalted when hard casted
She has flying and vigilance which is good as she can serve both the aggro and defensive roles


Her ability is just a bonus i guess but it is useful,

T: When target creature other than Adarkar Valkyrie is put into a graveyard this turn, return that card to play under your control.

You can steal creatures that they sacrifice, or you kill via smokestack,magus or EE. You can use it to save your own creatures, from smokestack..or magus as well( the only creature you can save I guess).

She seems to have lots of uses, although she has no lifelink ability and is harder to cast..and a lot slower..but I very very rarely casted angel early...or morphed..If I wasn't putting early pressure via lock pieces to be able to delay the game and play Prison.. I usually found myself looking for answers...

Just a thought

[Nihil Credo]

Adarkar Valkyrie is terrible. The #1 reason to run Exalted Angel is that it kills quickly, but the #2 one is that it compensates for the damage from Ancient Tomb (and sometimes from manaburn).
Outracing your opponent's creatures, which Angel usually does, is better than Vigilance, not to mention Valkyrie loses a fight to Tarmogoyf anyway.
The third ability is terrible because you have to choose a target before they choose what to sac to Smokestack, so you'll give up 4 damage for very little benefit - unless they have to sac all their creatures, in which case you have practically won already.

[Faluzure]

Would you guys say Pithing Needle is the only thing vs Pernicious Deed? There's still a lot of Rock//Pernicious Deed decks in my Metagame.

My alternative that I'm using instead of Pithing Needle is Karmic Justice. Despite the additional cost, you get a 1-sided Obliterate & Tranquility. That will make your opponent think twice of using his Deed. Of course, you'd have to topdeck a win condition but at least you'd have land advantage.

[Nihil Credo]

Oblivion Ring handles Pernicious Deed nicely, assuming they don't have the mana to play Deed and pop it for 3+ in the same turn. You can even sack it to an aggressive Smokestack once they are low on land, since they won't be able to use it anyway. However, Oblivion Ring is vulnerable to other things they may bring in (Grip and the like).

Suppression Field is another option. If you're confident in your ability to keep them under about five mana, it will hose Deeds quite effectively.

But really, I'd say Exalted Angel is the best anti-Deed card in the deck ;)