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Thread: Planeswalker Stax

  1. #21
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    Re: Planeswalker Stax

    Congrats on the tourney and thanks for the short update.

    In what matchups do you plan to use the Tarmagoyfs? How useful is the Sylvan Libary?

    What cards in your maindeck or sideboard were your MVPs? Any cards that you felt underperformed?

    I had completely forgotten about Engineered Plague, but that seems like a powerful 4x sideboard card. Do you feel that all of the extra creature control in the sideboard is necessary, what with maindeck Ensnaring Bridge, Jace, The Abyss, Tabernacle, Engineered Explosives, etc maindeck?

  2. #22
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    Re: Planeswalker Stax

    played in a daily mtgo with deck. sb isn't the same as irl, can't afford this entire deck twice over.

    http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Digital.../tourn/2152372

  3. #23
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    Re: Planeswalker Stax

    played in an mtgo daily. sb isn't the same as irl. too much money.

    http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Digital.../tourn/2152372

  4. #24
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    Re: Planeswalker Stax

    won a tournament in blue bell, PA yesterday with my deck. 38 players i think. 6 rounds swiss. ran smoothly and everyone seemed really nice.


    Pretty sure this was the list:

    //Stax (19)

    4 Trinisphere
    2 The Abyss
    3 Smokestack
    2 Tangle Wire
    4 Chalice of the Void
    4 Crucible of Worlds

    //Planeswalkers (8)

    4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
    4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas

    //Mana Sources (5)

    4 Mox Diamond
    1 Mox Opal

    //Lands (28)

    2 Seat of the Synod
    2 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
    2 Island
    3 Ancient Tomb
    4 Maze of Ith
    1 Academy Ruins
    4 Wasteland
    2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
    3 City of Traitors
    1 Polluted Delta
    1 Flooded Strand
    1 Misty Rainforest
    2 Underground Sea

    //Sideboard

    1 Tangle Wire
    4 Engineered Plague
    1 Karn, Silver Golem
    2 Cursed Totem
    2 Engineered Explosives
    4 Ensnaring Bridge
    1 Smokestack

    Short Report

    Round 1. U/B tendrils (win)
    Game 1: I stuck a chalice for 1 on the draw, after seeing him ponder. It pretty much crippled him and he was unable to interact. I'm pretty sure smokestack finished him off this game.
    Game 2: He combo'd me.
    Game 3: Pretty sure I had drawn some tangle wires, and trinisphere got there.

    Round 2. Burning wish storm (win)
    Game 1: he tried to combo, but got unlucky and hit his tendrils off of ad nauseam at 4 life.
    Game 2: Pretty sure I played a chalice for zero, then got trinisphere.

    Round 3. Affinity (new tezz variant) (loss)
    Game 1: I played a chalice for 0. He was unable to really play any cards out.
    Game 2: He played out his hand on turn 1 and promptly wiped the floor with me.
    Game 3: I had turn 1 trinisphere, then crucible of worlds, had drawn a maze of ith. I needed to draw another maze, a wasteland, a smokestack, or any of the 8 planeswalkers, or an ensnaring bridge, I had about 10 lands out, and still non of those came up, so I lost to a etched champion, and a master of etherium. Eventually I had to crack an engineered explosives for 3 and then he played out his hand and tezz the following turn.

    Round 4. Zoo (win)
    Game 1: I turn 1 chalice for 1. He probably had lots of 1 drops because he didn't do a whole lot that game, it was a long game though b/c I couldn't draw a threat even though he was trinisphere/stack locked.
    Game 2: The game went on for a pretty long time, and I was low on life. I had been letting him slide on a few misplays, but when time was really low and I was low on life, I called judge on a missed tabernacle trigger. (He had drawn 3 off of his sylvan library with 5 lands out + trinisphere being active with 3 creatures out) he was playing PoP and I didn't want to get killed by that. That being said if he's going to look at his cards before tabernacle, I'd prefer they just died and i risk the burn kill. (I had 2 maze of ith and a 5/5 out so i'm not sure if it was really relevant. Again, want to mention sorry about this but I think it was warranted. Tezzeret came to save the day after that.

    Round 5. Bant NO with 4 gsz
    Game 1: I don't remember it too well, I'm pretty sure beat me pretty fast with a bunch of quick guys, no progenitus.
    Game 2: He stuck down a gaddock teeg. I luckily hit a maze of ith, and he took me down to 4 with teeg/clique. I eventually drew an ensnaring bridge, and he was unable to clear it away. Over about 20 minutes I stax/trinisphere locked him out. Very tough game.
    Game 3: We both didn't want to draw, and I think that caused him to make several misplays. He got really aggressive with 3 tarmogoyfs. I played an ensnaring bridge and then developed my board.

    Round 6: Draw with Storm

    Top 8 R1: Enchantress
    Game 1: I played 3 cards, one being a trinisphere. He combod off on me and I scooped when he played his blue words enchantment.
    Game 2: His hand was probably not bad, but I think i had turn 1 chalice. He never drew an enchantress either, so that helped. Jace hit the table and +2'd him while tezzeret made a 5/5 mox diamond. He never drew an out as his deck just didn't help him out and jace left several cards on top of his deck.
    Game 3: This game was probably the most difficult game I had of the day. Lots of tangle wires, smokestacks, planeswalkers, chalices. Somehow I was able to trinisphere/stax lock down the enchantress player and kill him with a 5/5. I never had crucible that game so it was really a strange game.

    Top 8 R2: Excalibur
    Game 1: I played a chalice for 1, he FoW'd it. Some tangle wire resolved, and I then played some other spells, baited out more counters, then landed the planeswalkers. (I'm sure there was more going on with this game, and pretty sure his report will have more details.)
    Game 2: I baited out some counterspells, and landed the abyss. He didn't draw a pridemage or a krosan grip, and was unable to deal with it for the majority of the game. He was unable to interact due to trinisphere being active and when tabernacle hit the board, as well as my lucksack wasteland draws.

    Finals: Affinity (Same as round 3)
    Game 1: I won the die roll and even though a chalice for 0 beats his deck, I got excited and thought I had a turn 1 jace/tezz. I did not and was too stupid to see it. 2 lands, (1 being an ancient tomb) 2 mox. Was a stupid keep, and I got rolled
    Game 2: I played turn 1 chalice for 0 and I don’t remember him actually doing much that game.
    Game 3: he went turn 1 memnite, ornithopter, mox, springleaf drum, frogmite. I went turn 1 explosives for 0, ancient tomb, crack. He started to play a few spells later on, but ensnaring bridge trapped him and I made sure that I kept 0 cards in hand most of the turns. Several turns later I had out both planeswalkers and he was unable to do anything. I drew my karn silver golem and nuked his lands, played a tabernacle and wiped the board out of his other affinity creatures. The bridge really won the match there, as I don’t think he had any outs other than tezz and mine was already on the board.
    That was it, sorry for lack of details. I did find it extremely interesting that I played vs ZERO wastelands the entire day. I also avoided playing rock decks, which made things a lot easier.
    Last edited by mistercakes; 03-27-2011 at 10:35 AM.

  5. #25
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    Re: Planeswalker Stax

    played again this weekend at vestal. will update list later.

    5-2 on saturday (missed top 8 by losing round 6)
    4-0-2 on sunday, then lost quarterfinals.

    between last sunday and this weekend, i'm 17-4-3 with the deck.

  6. #26

    Re: Planeswalker Stax

    I think you should call this "Mr. Moneybags Stax"
    Bless your heart, we must consider Blue/White Tempo's strategy and win percentages in an entirely different deck thread. -4eak

  7. #27
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    Re: Planeswalker Stax

    I am very happy to see the abyss in use in such a powerful way, it's a great card. Are you happy with 2 rather than 3? You have limited draw and no tutor options for it. Though I suppose being overrun with creatures will never be a problem for such a deck.
    I will make use of every tool that fate presents.

  8. #28
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    Re: Planeswalker Stax

    2 abyss is enough, mostly b/c it's legendary. when you have out ensnaring bridges game 2/3 and you draw a 2nd abyss you can't do anything with it. the deck has a lot of legendary status going on. planeswalkers, tabernacles, urborg.

    anyway, check this game out!

    http://tinypic.com/r/2upr82e/7

  9. #29
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    Re: Planeswalker Stax

    Well done. I still haven't had any time to test or go to a tournament, sadly. I'm curious to read about what cards are your all-stars and which ones you just hate seeing. How are the Seat of Synods and the Academy Ruins working out for you?

  10. #30
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    Re: Planeswalker Stax

    I think you should rename the deck to Planeswalker $Tax
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  11. #31
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    Re: Planeswalker Stax


    1 academy ruins
    4 ancient tomb
    3 city of traitors
    1 flooded strand
    1 ghost quarter
    2 island
    4 maze of ith
    1 misty rainforest
    1 polluted delta
    2 the tabernacle at pendrell vale
    2 underground sea
    4 wasteland

    4 chalice of the void
    4 crucible of worlds
    4 mox diamond
    3 smokestack
    3 tangle wire
    4 jace, the mind sculptor
    4 tezzeret, agent of bolas
    2 the abyss
    4 trinisphere

    //sb (i think it was)

    4 ensnaring bridge
    2 powder keg
    4 engineered plague
    2 contagion clasp
    2 llawan, cephalid empress
    1 tangle wire


    cards i hate seeing are multiples of trinisphere, multiples of crucible, the 2nd urborg, the 2nd tabernacle, and the 2nd abyss. but unfortunately they just need to get drawn. the jaces+fetches and tezzes help shuffle them back.

    academy ruins has been very good.

    the seats and the mox opal just weren't as good as i wanted them to be, so i cut the last seat and mox opal that i played with on saturday for another tomb and another tangle wire.

    my lists were more or less the same both days except that change and the sb was slightly different.

    i'm not sure what i would do with the maindeck right now. i wonder if the new karn planeswalker is any good. i hope so. :D

    btw i've been calling this deck "super stax" but "$uper $tax" is kind of hot.

  12. #32
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    Re: Planeswalker Stax

    Cash Stax also seems appropriate.

    Any reason for Powder Keg in the board over Ratchet Bomb?
    Red Wizard needs food badly!

  13. #33
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    Re: Planeswalker Stax

    Stax is just a derviative of the old Vintage Deck, "The Four Thousand Dollar Sollution", which turned into "$T4KS" (and eventually just Stax). Also, this deck is about as expensive as Dutch Stax (4x Moat = 4x Jace, 4x Tezz and 2x The Abyss, and they both run 2x Tabernacle).... and still a far cry from $4k, so I think that Planeswalker Stax is just fine.

    I kinda guessed that Mox Opal and Seat of the Synod would be underpowered (and the Seat is kinda disynergistic with Powder Keg). What do you find you most often use Academy Ruins for?

    Crucible of Worlds seems more like a mide-late game card, so maybe you can move one of them to the sideboard for a maindeck Powder Keg?

    How successful have the Contagion Clasps been? They seem super hot for dealing with Goblin Lackeys, Curse Catchers, Faeries of all kinds, Steppe Lynx, Noble Heirarch, Bobs, etc.... But do you use the Proliferate to good effect the the Smokestacks, planeswalkers and Tangle Wires when you board them in?

    Oh, and Zork, the Kegs deal with artifact lands and man-lands, unlike Ratchet Bomb (think that was stated somewhere in this thread). mistercakes, how have the Kegs been? I'm guessing that this combo-oriented meta is going to prompt a resurrgence in CounterTop, so Engineered Explosives may be better the next tournament you play in.

  14. #34
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    Re: Planeswalker Stax

    i might want to run an explosives again. my list on sat had 2 keg, 2 explosives in the sb.

    academy ruins is very important for when the smokestack is set to 2 and you want to make sure you draw a nonland every turn. it also can turn the game around if you have a keg/ee etc.

    the keg is mostly b/c it doesn't kill my planeswalkers, it rapes affinity, and it doesn't kill my abyss as well if i ever need to get it to 4 (which i shouldn't anyway)

    clasps i only drew once vs a lands player that boarded in bobs. the engineered plagues were probably enough, but it worked just as well.

    the problem with crucible is that you always want it...sometimes as early as turn 1. you can sometimes mox city/tomb pitch fetch cast crucible. turn 2 play fetch from grave and play a planeswalker. most decks if that resolves you will win.

    i'm not sure if i would keep the 4th tangle wire in the board, it's very good but it felt like overkill.

    and if countertop comes backs i'll prob just switch the kegs back to ratchet bombs. there are a lot of matchups where i feel like i have enough creature control already, the only matchups where i feel a little weak game 1 are maybe merfolk and goblins. and game 1 if i win the die roll can easily favor me with trinisphere or chalice for 1.

  15. #35
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    Re: Planeswalker Stax

    Gonna try again this weekend. Will update again then. Any suggestions on list?

  16. #36
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    Re: Planeswalker Stax

    tournament didn't happen! anyway. was playtesting a bit an beating dark confidant is very difficult. need some suggestions. anything other than engineered explosives, powder keg, or ratchet bomb for the maindeck as maybe a 2 of?

  17. #37
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    Re: Planeswalker Stax

    Elias talked about the deck some here: http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/l...And_Decks.html

    Changes were a more explosive artifact suite and a stronger mana production out of the lands.
    -3 maze of iths, -1 tabernacle, -1 ghost quarter vs. + 2 grims, and mana lands.

  18. #38
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    Re: Planeswalker Stax

    The only issue with him taking out the creature hating lands for more explosive draws is that the deck falls flat if they have a counterspell.

  19. #39
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    Re: Planeswalker Stax

    been testing list more. getting lots of help from someone on mtgo. not sure if he has a source account yet. deck is definitely evolving. will post a list after i play it next tuesday.

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    Re: Planeswalker Stax

    Any more insight regarding acceleration, mana lands, utility lands, sideboard, etc?! I am looking forward to an update.
    I think I am going to bring the deck to a little 10ish person local tourny in early May. I felt like a dick playing ANT last time. Need moar trinisphere.

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