Legendary Tales (B/W Stax)

[Admiral_Arzar]

This is a pet deck of mine that I've been tweaking and playing on and off lately. I've shelved it temporarily because I have to practice with real decks for a while, but I figured I'd leave the list here in case anybody wants to mess around with it. It's a blast to play and is surprisingly good against stuff that isn't BGx. To give credit where credit is due, the genesis of this idea came from Nedleeds' Moat Stompy list as well as the old Dutch Stax deck.

This is the old list which I will leave here for reference.

4 Chalice of the Void
3 Chains of Mephistopheles
2 Trinisphere
3 Crucible of Worlds
4 Moat
4 Humility

4 Lingering Souls
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
3 Armageddon
2 Smokestack

4 Orzhov Signet

4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Karakas
3 Flagstones of Trokair
2 Plains
4 Scrubland
3 Marsh Flats
3 Inkmoth Nexus

Sideboard
4 Rest in Peace
4 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Chains of Mephistopheles
1 Smokestack
1 Armageddon
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Toxic Deluge

I decided to build this deck when I completed playsets of the two relevant Legends cards (thus the name, which also happens to be a great power metal album). It's designed to hate out the format's popular strategies by attacking both cantrips (Chalice, Chains, Sphere) and creature strategies (Moat, Humility, a horde of tokens). It does this with varying degrees of success, having a solid matchup against RUG, UWR, Blade variants, and Miracles, to name a few decks. It struggles heavily against anything with Hymn + Abrupt Decay, even Leyline really doesn't do enough. There are also a number of Tier 2 strategies that fold horribly to bombs like Armageddon (see Lands, Nic Fit, 12-Post, etc.). The matchup against engine combo decks like Storm and Elves is pretty good, but fast A+B combo like ReAnimator or Sneak can be rough. Aggro decks with low disruption are relatively easy due to all the lock pieces.

Some other thoughts. No, the deck is not playable without Moat. If you want to cut Chains, I would cut black entirely and dig up the Dutch Stax thread. Yes, there should be at least one Ravages of War in here in place of a Geddon, but I currently do not own any. I have tested both Mox Diamond and Chrome Mox in the Signet slot, and found both to be lackluster. You really don't want card disadvantage, and this deck is very mana-hungry so discarding lands is a no-no without a Crucible. Earlier versions lacked Humility and had things like maindeck Vindicates, a split of Wrath of God/Damnation, and sideboard Baneslayer Angels. While the Angels were hilarious, Humility is infinitely better than all of those cards. Note that Inkmoth Nexus interacts favorably with Humility, and is a FAST clock with Elspeth. I have considered Liliana of the Veil but double black early on is an issue without more Urborgs. Early versions had 3 each Urborg and Karakas, but damn that manabase was balls. I will try and post this deck in the pimp thread at some point, as I've just about finished Japanese-ing it out.

The current list looks like this:

4 Chalice of the Void
3 Chains of Mephistopheles
2 Trinisphere
4 Crucible of Worlds
4 Humility
4 Moat

4 Lingering Souls
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
2 Smokestack

3 Armageddon

4 Mox Diamond
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Wasteland
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Karakas
3 Marsh Flats
3 Scrubland
3 Plains
3 Flagstones of Trokair

Sideboard

4 Rest in Peace
4 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Toxic Deluge
1 Smokestack
1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
1 Trinisphere

[Admiral_Arzar]

Reserved.

[Lord_Mcdonalds]

Does this deck need moat to work?

[Michael Keller]

How are you playing a Stax list without Wasteland? And with three Crucibles?

[Admiral_Arzar]

Does this deck need moat to work?

I hate you.

How are you playing a Stax list without Wasteland? And with three Crucibles?

I have considered Wasteland but the deck is incredibly mana-hungry. It is probably worth testing though, although it is unlikely you will want to use it early. The 4th Crucible was omitted due to the smaller numbers of Smokestack and Geddon.

[Weapon X]

How bad had moat been these last few years? Delver and Emrakul continue to be cards for example.

[Admiral_Arzar]

How bad had moat been these last few years? Delver and Emrakul continue to be cards for example.

Delver is a problem, but like with any Chalice deck the matchup itself is winnable assuming you can resolve lock pieces. Lingering Souls is also pretty good against Delver.

[Weapon X]

The question is why 4 moats when one is most likely enough? They are bad in multiples. The decks that lose to it generally can't deal with it. It seems like that minimally frees up slots for other cards.

That is just one glaring card choice to me.

[apple713]

chains seems like a poor reason to try and include black.

i love the card but its just not fitting well.

ensnaring bridge is better than moat. stax decks typically empty their hands very fast. I would also consider tangle wire

[Admiral_Arzar]

The question is why 4 moats when one is most likely enough? They are bad in multiples. The decks that lose to it generally can't deal with it. It seems like that minimally frees up slots for other cards.

That is just one glaring card choice to me.

The whole point of the deck (and the basis that I started from) was 4 Moat 4 Chains. I almost always want to draw Moat, with the exception of certain matchups where they all get boarded out anyway.

chains seems like a poor reason to try and include black.

i love the card but its just not fitting well.

ensnaring bridge is better than moat. stax decks typically empty their hands very fast. I would also consider tangle wire

Because this deck plays a lot of 4-mana spells and no Mox Diamond, it actually doesn't empty its hand very quickly unless you're getting Hymn'd. Ensnaring Bridge also dies to Abrupt Decay, Moat and Humility do not. The win conditions break the symmetry of the Moat/Humility lock, that is much more difficult with Bridge. The point of Chains is an ancillary lock piece - it stops opponents from digging their way out of locks and buys you time. Considering all the Delve draw spells around post-Khans, it probably gets quite a bit better.

[Weapon X]

I'll reiterate my previous point, why 4 moats when the most common cards are likely to be delver, emrakul, and DRS?
It only gets more ridiculous with the 4 humility you are running which nonbos with moat in your deck. I can at least understand wanting to draw humility, but it seems like you will be siding out 4 moat every game. That's a sign to reduce the quantity of them or the card entirely. Desire to play a card is one thing, that doesn't make it a good decision.

[Mystical_Jackass]

I'm surprised... You run white and black and use no tutors. I thought inconsistency was a problem for staxx.

[Mystical_Jackass]

Btw Land Tax would be sweet too.

[Lord_Mcdonalds]

I'm surprised... You run white and black and use no tutors. I thought inconsistency was a problem for staxx.

It's a problem that e tutor doesn't fix, moreso in a deck with chalice and 3sphere


How does this deck fare against mono-w birds?

[Admiral_Arzar]

I'll reiterate my previous point, why 4 moats when the most common cards are likely to be delver, emrakul, and DRS?
It only gets more ridiculous with the 4 humility you are running which nonbos with moat in your deck. I can at least understand wanting to draw humility, but it seems like you will be siding out 4 moat every game. That's a sign to reduce the quantity of them or the card entirely. Desire to play a card is one thing, that doesn't make it a good decision.

Moat and Humility are fine as a combo because both Elspeth and flying manlands get around the lock. The first couple versions of the deck lacked Humility - it got a lot better when I added it partially because it dealt with the creatures you listed above. The biggest issue I have is the inability to run STP due to Chalice - I've even considered boarding stuff like Go for the Throat and Wing Shards to help deal with early Delvers.

I'm surprised... You run white and black and use no tutors. I thought inconsistency was a problem for staxx.

It is, but you can't run Enlightened Tutor because Chalice, and you can't afford to spend a whole turn casting 3 or 4 mana tutors because the deck is already slow enough.

Btw Land Tax would be sweet too.

I'd love to play it in here, but I play Chalice at 1. I've considered trying to build a Chains deck with Land Tax, but that would be an entirely different list.

It's a problem that e tutor doesn't fix, moreso in a deck with chalice and 3sphere


How does this deck fare against mono-w birds?

I'm assuming poorly, at least until Moat and Humility hit the table, in which case that deck actually does nothing.

[DarkJester]

Rhapsody flashed me during my Teenage-Years! ;)

[Weapon X]

I'm not sure if you're missing something so I'll say this:

With a humility out your "flying manland" will be a 1/1 non-flyer requiring you to have elspeth to make it fly. You are effectively making your deck worse by playing moat, humility, and elspeth when you could just play a humility and 2 elspeth for example.

[H]

I'm not sure if you're missing something so I'll say this:

With a humility out your "flying manland" will be a 1/1 non-flyer requiring you to have elspeth to make it fly. You are effectively making your deck worse by playing moat, humility, and elspeth when you could just play a humility and 2 elspeth for example.

Inkmoth still has Flying and Infect under Humility, just like a Factory is still a 2/2.

[Dark Ritual]

Seems pretty bad to run crucible and no wasteland. Crucible has always been a 2 card combo or 1 card combo against opposing wastelands but wastelock is one of the biggest reasons to run crucible in legacy by far. I like mox diamond if you include crucible as that is the oldest combo in the book to go chalice on 1 next turn mox pitch land crucible replay it. It seems way better with chalice as well because otherwise the odds of chalice at 1 on turn 1 are far less likely with just 8 sol lands.

The odd thing is that sorin seems just worse than elspeth #3. I like sorin as a card but in this deck you're playing black white dutch stax/you still just want to assemble the trifecta of humility, moat, elspeth to win the game.

Interesting deck though. Wish I could afford this but I'm short 4 moat and 4 chains as well as 4 city of traitors but the main problems are no one around here has moats and chains to lend because they just don't own them because they are obscure. It is pretty funny how they are less than some dual lands but dual lands are just insane as it stands.

[Weapon X]

Inkmoth still has Flying and Infect under Humility, just like a Factory is still a 2/2.

Actually you would have a 2/2 factory with no abilities and a 1/1 inkmoth with no abilities.