Braids Stax

[Admiral_Arzar]

I am loving this deck. I've played it in 3 local tournaments now, and pretty much gone 50/50 in matches. However, I really think the matches I lost were due more to sequencing mistakes and poor sideboarding strategy rather than the deck itself.

I haven't actually had any good testing against Miracles, BUG Delver, or Show & Tell decks, which I'd need to do before making any real conclusions about the viability of the deck, of course.

The one note I'd have is that against faster, creature-based decks, Ensnaring Bridge really ended up getting stuck in my hand rather than being useful. I lost a game against Goblins with 2 in my hand, and lost a long, grindy game against UR Delver with 3 in my hand. If those had been almost anything else, I could have pulled the win. Once I get some good testing against the higher-tier decks, I think the sideboard will get a makeover, and I might drop 1 or 2 Ensnaring Bridges from the main for either Bottled Cloisters or mainboard creature hate (Toxic Deluge? The Abyss? Batterskull?). Also, depending on how the Tier 1 blue matchups are going, it might be necessary to bring in some Chains of Mephistopheles.

I've actually been underwhelmed with Tabernacle as well, but need more experience with it before dropping it.

The solution (I discovered) to your Ensnaring Bridge problem is to play Liliana of the Veil and Bottled Cloister alongside it. Also, Tangle Wire is actively bad with Bridge as it taps mana sources and slows your ability to play out your hand. In fact, I would argue that Tangle Wire is bad period, and the only reason I can think of to play that card is if my deck had a lot of Welders. Tangle Wire is great in Vintage because Vintage Shops decks vomit out lots of cheap artifacts starting on the first turn. We don't, and we need Mox Diamond mana to help play our expensive spells anyways. Tabernacle is anti-synergistic with our deck because we actually win with creatures (as well as not tapping for mana). I wouldn't play it at all unless your meta is infested with swarm aggro decks, and even then I doubt it's necessary. My advice for your maindeck is:

-4 Tangle Wire
-1 Trinisphere
-1 Smokestack

+1 Crucible of Worlds
+3 Liliana of the Veil
+2 Bottled Cloister

As for the sideboard, cut the Tabernacles and random one-ofs for 2-3 Chains and a playset of Ratchet Bomb (IMO this is the card every Stax sideboard should start with now). I don't much like the Abyss here because it kills our creatures and they are important to our strategy. A couple copies of Deluge in the board is fine if you feel the need for additional sweepers (Massacre is good if there's a lot of DnT and Stoneblade decks also). Bitterblossom is pretty good in slower matchups and also spits out blockers against Delver.

Matchup wise, you should crush Miracles. Pre-board the matchup is a joke, post-board they actually have a few outs so it's not quite as easy, but still pretty favored especially if you run Chains and/or Bitterblossom in the board. BUG Delver is favored if you win the die roll, can be iffy on the draw though. Abrupt Decay is rough, although you have so many targets for it they will likely be overwhelmed anyways (plus it can't target Braids which is very relevant). Show and Tell is an iffy matchup, really depends on whether you have Bridge and how quickly you can lock them out of permanents (I've done it as early as turn 2 before but it can be difficult).

[Kunfuzed]

The solution (I discovered) to your Ensnaring Bridge problem is to play Liliana of the Veil and Bottled Cloister alongside it. Also, Tangle Wire is actively bad with Bridge as it taps mana sources and slows your ability to play out your hand. In fact, I would argue that Tangle Wire is bad period, and the only reason I can think of to play that card is if my deck had a lot of Welders. Tangle Wire is great in Vintage because Vintage Shops decks vomit out lots of cheap artifacts starting on the first turn. We don't, and we need Mox Diamond mana to help play our expensive spells anyways. Tabernacle is anti-synergistic with our deck because we actually win with creatures (as well as not tapping for mana). I wouldn't play it at all unless your meta is infested with swarm aggro decks, and even then I doubt it's necessary. My advice for your maindeck is:

-4 Tangle Wire
-1 Trinisphere
-1 Smokestack

+1 Crucible of Worlds
+3 Liliana of the Veil
+2 Bottled Cloister

As for the sideboard, cut the Tabernacles and random one-ofs for 2-3 Chains and a playset of Ratchet Bomb (IMO this is the card every Stax sideboard should start with now). I don't much like the Abyss here because it kills our creatures and they are important to our strategy. A couple copies of Deluge in the board is fine if you feel the need for additional sweepers (Massacre is good if there's a lot of DnT and Stoneblade decks also). Bitterblossom is pretty good in slower matchups and also spits out blockers against Delver.

Matchup wise, you should crush Miracles. Pre-board the matchup is a joke, post-board they actually have a few outs so it's not quite as easy, but still pretty favored especially if you run Chains and/or Bitterblossom in the board. BUG Delver is favored if you win the die roll, can be iffy on the draw though. Abrupt Decay is rough, although you have so many targets for it they will likely be overwhelmed anyways (plus it can't target Braids which is very relevant). Show and Tell is an iffy matchup, really depends on whether you have Bridge and how quickly you can lock them out of permanents (I've done it as early as turn 2 before but it can be difficult).

I think you're right on the Tangle Wires. They would probably be better in a colorless Stax/MUD variant since you could develop your 12-post manabase while the game is paused for 2 turns, and come out well ahead of your opponent. Dropping at least 2 of those for 2 Cloisters seems right.

Has Liliana ever been tough given the double black requirement since you can't use Caverns like you can for Braids? I might up the Urborg count if I were trying to do that (as it seems you have in your list).

I actually love Abyssal Persecutor against nonwhite Delver as it can't be Spell Pierced, they can't attack through it, and they've probably already Forced/Dazed an earlier lock piece. Would Chains actually be better? At some point, I wonder whether Chains has a place.

Is Ratchet Bomb just a catch-all for problem permanents? Or are you using it specifically for Pyromancer tokens and flipped Delvers? I used to play it in Legacy MUD but it rarely did anything.

A big issue I tend to have is what to sideboard out without ruining the gameplan

RUG Delver: Smokestack (though, maybe Braids since 4x Lightning Bolt > 2x Spell Pierce), Bottled Cloister(?)
BUG Delver: Smokestack/Braids (depending on Disfigure/Liliana), Bottled Cloister(?)
Patriot Delver: 1 or 2x Crucible
Miracles: Ensnaring Bridge, then some combination of Crucible/Ophiomancer?
Shardless BUG: Chalice on the Draw(?) Otherwise, no idea
Stoneblade: No idea. Trinispheres?
Omni-Tell: 4x Ensnaring Bridge, then maybe a Wasteland/Ophiomancer/Smokestack?
Elves: Liliana
Sneak & Show: Not much to side in (unless you're running Revoker for Sneak Attack), so make Smokestacks because they're slow? Bottled Cloister?
Storm: Ensnaring Bridge
Death & Taxes/Maverick: Braids (if they're running Karakas)
Burn: 2x Crucible? Not much comes in.

[Admiral_Arzar]

I think you're right on the Tangle Wires. They would probably be better in a colorless Stax/MUD variant since you could develop your 12-post manabase while the game is paused for 2 turns, and come out well ahead of your opponent. Dropping at least 2 of those for 2 Cloisters seems right.

Has Liliana ever been tough given the double black requirement since you can't use Caverns like you can for Braids? I might up the Urborg count if I were trying to do that (as it seems you have in your list).

I actually love Abyssal Persecutor against nonwhite Delver as it can't be Spell Pierced, they can't attack through it, and they've probably already Forced/Dazed an earlier lock piece. Would Chains actually be better? At some point, I wonder whether Chains has a place.

Is Ratchet Bomb just a catch-all for problem permanents? Or are you using it specifically for Pyromancer tokens and flipped Delvers? I used to play it in Legacy MUD but it rarely did anything.

I upped the Urborg count (as you noticed) and haven't really had issues casting Lili. Persecutor is interesting, although I feel like the role he is playing for you can easily be played by Ratchet Bomb considering it is our most efficient answer to Delver. That card is also a Swiss army knife that allows you to answer all sorts of problematic permanents. Stax slows the game down, so you generally have time to tick up bombs in order to kill Goyfs or TNN for example. Sometimes you just need to get rid of enchantments or even planeswalkers as well and there aren't many better answers in mono-black. Chains isn't really for the Delver matchup, it is for Miracles, Blue Combo, and Ancestral Visions. It doesn't do enough against Delver as they tend to just kill you with dudes.

[Admiral_Arzar]

I played this deck to a first place finish at my weekly local.

4 Ophiomancer
4 Braids, Cabal Minion

4 Mox Diamond
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Crucible of Worlds
4 Ensnaring Bridge
3 Trinisphere
3 Smokestack
2 Bottled Cloister

3 Liliana of the Veil

4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Wasteland
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
6 Snow-Covered Swamp

Sideboard

2 Bitterblossom
2 Chains of Mephistopheles
3 Ratchet Bomb
1 Trinisphere
4 Leyline of the Void
3 Spine of Ish Sah

I beat Storm in a very ugly three (I drew like crap but my opponent made a key play mistake in game one). I got wrecked by mulligans + discard game 2, and then managed to stall an army of 14 goblins with Braids + Ophiomancer game 3. Round 2 I beat Lands in 3. I found it difficult to beat Sphere + multiple Ports postboard but got there eventually. The final round I wrecked RUG Delver in 2 as my opponent drew countermagic-heavy hands that didn't have a lot of early pressure. Ophiomancer is pretty good against Tarmogoyf.

My overall impression of this deck is that it seems really bad while playing it, but it wins anyways despite the mulligans and terrible clunky draws. I'm considering going up to 61 cards to add an additional basic land, as I mulled for lands a ton. The Leylines might actually be cutable for something else as aside of one Lands player there is very little graveyard in my meta.

[owerbart]

Nice to see people still toying around with Braids Stax :) makes me really happy to actually read people piloting this deck and their stories.

My current list is:

4 Braids, Cabal Minion
4 Ophiomancer

3 Crucible of Worlds
4 Smokestack
4 Trinisphere
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Mox Diamond
3 Bottled Cloister

4 Cavern of Souls
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
2 Peat Bog
4 Swamp
1 God's Eye, Gate to the Reikai
4 Wasteland
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

3 Toxic Deluge

SB:
4 Leyline of the Void
4 Helm of Obedience
7 Flex Slots

Has any of you friends tried peat bog? I know it looks kind of clunky but if it goes unchecked it can lead to degenerate turn twos.
I haven't tested Liliana yet. Bottled Cloister is amazing because sometimes you put a lockpiece but you need to find a Braids or Smokestack for them to start sacking stuff so they are kept locked, also the synergy with Bridge is fantastic.

Two days ago I defeated a board which had a T2 Emrakul + Omniscience + Griselbrand + Elesh Norn + Blood Moon. He SNT for Omniscience and I jammed Ensnaring Bridge, he didn't have an answer mainboard. Then a Trini resolved which crippled his Omni, and from then I started to do land drop after land drop after land drop and then managed to jam a smokestack and a crucible. From then, I had to tick the Smokey to 4, and eventually I grinded his board because he sacked 4 permanents per turn but the asymetry crucible made was devastating. It was awesome to see even so many big monsters and an omniscience dissapear into oblivion, and then a triumphant Braids hitting 10 times :)


Trini is the nightmare of Omni Tell

God's Eye gate to the Reikai is also an amazing card. It feeds your stax effects twice without any help, and is great when you have the tax effect but not a constant feeder. Also I've won many matches against Miracles where after he terminused my braids and ophiomancers, I wastelanded my own God's Eye (I had crucible) and I slowly built an uncounterable army of spirit tokens that Miracles couldn't answer

BUG might look like a better matchup than RUG because neither Braids nor Smokey get hit by Abrupt Decay. But if you don't apply a quick clock deathrite shaman can drain you pretty easily when you are taking so much Ancient Tomb damage. RUG on the other side, can't win if you land a chalice on 1, while BUG can still make you pay with Liliana of the Veil. Pithing Needle should be a 4 of in the sideboard, as it answers way too many threats you can't immediately tax. The 4 Leylines in the sideboard help a lot and because you play so much mana it's possible to also cast them. They help a lot against Delver decks and they never expect the Helm Kill. NEVER.

Witchbane Orb I hadn't tried it but it looks pretty good :)

Also if you want to literally kill elves, Plaguespitter is amazing.

[bruizar]

i really like this list, although I haven't had the chance to play it myself, I did experiment with black variants and played espresso stax in vintage.

Peat Bog and Mox Diamond look subpar. What are the best replacements for it in your opinion? Chrome Mox at least allows you to play it without imprinting so you can feed it to Braids, but the artifact density makes it a bad choice. As a stax/mud player, I know that Spell Pierce on Mox Diamond can mana screw you out of the game even if you have crucibles. Any alternatives that allow you to ramp into BB?

If you play with Engineered Plague or Plaguespitter, I would seriously consider Kormus Bell (yes, really) and extra Urborg's either as a way to quickly close out the game or to eliminate lands all together.

Also, I would consider sideboarding Goryo's Vengeance if you expect TinFins and Reanimate in your meta. Those decks are normally too fast to beat without quick lock components like Chalice followed with Lodestone Golem.

[Raystar]

I like the deck a lot and I'm thinking to give it a try. I have a question for you, though: wouldn't Coercive Portal be better than Bottled Cloister?

[jhhdk]

Bottled Cloister is there to break Ensnaring Bridge symmetry i think.

[Raystar]

Bottled Cloister is there to break Ensnaring Bridge symmetry i think.

Got it, thank you.

[bruizar]

This deck needs some Sundial of the infinite

[owerbart]

This deck needs some Sundial of the infinite

Sundial of the Infinite isn't that great in Braids Stax as we are not afraid of sacking permanents. Sundial would just bypass the Smokestack but won't develop your board. Both Ophiomancer and Crucible let you feed your Braids/Smokestack also let you develop you board by deploying more hate cards.

Played a very interesting game against Miracles last night. G1 I went T1 Ophiomancer followed by a trinisphere who got the best of him. Because Braids Stax mana costs are so high + caverns, even though he thought he had the board stabilized with a top+balance, the fact that he had to get a Jace as his only option to counter the smokey, i was able to continue the pressure. Even when he managed to play through so many hate and generate a lethal ammount of Angel Tokens, I already had a toxic deluge that didn't have a way to counter. I think the key card against Miracles is by far Bottled Cloister, as it's a great way to generate a card advantage that miracles won't be able to handle. G2 I had a quick chalice and again a bottled cloister, which led to a Smokestack getting resolved. Eventually he had to entreat for 1, but i was able to tick smokey to 2 without even having a feeding effect, as the cloister provided extra permanents that i played just to feed smokey until his board was nuked.

I had another interesting game against Omni-Tell where Trinispheres were amazing, and one lone Braids was able to secure the kill as he had no lands and braids assured he will never have more than one. G2 he made a T1 omniscience and I held a Trinisphere. Because he went Petal+Tomb, a T1 Wasteland on the tomb meant I had 2 turns at least to build enough hate to contain him. he played land go, and I played Peat Bog. He played another land and i jammed our favorite girl next turn. once again even though i didn't have a way to feed Braids, we went both sacking lands until braids killed herself. once again we had a clear board except I had a trinisphere staring his omniscience. he stumbled to find a second land (no cantrips, he also probably sandbagged one till i had to sac braids to itself) while the fact that i play 24 lands made the impact. i collected land after land until i managed to put a smokey into play which ate his omniscience and forced a concession.

back into retrospective, maybe I rushed a little bit with jamming the braids, as I could've taken the gamble and try to develop a little bit and gave him a window to cast some spells, because trini would've still managed to slow him down. I thought at the time that playing braids implied me not taking any guesses, but it ended up being me outdrawing my opponent when neither of us had lands.

Another g3 against Reanimator, a deck I play a lot IRL too, I've found that mulliganing aggresively for the leylines was pretty helpful, because they slowed him down enough to the point where once they solved the leyline issue they already have other lockpieces making their life miserable.

The point i'm trying to make is that comparing it to other Stax variants in the format where smokestack was useless unless you could feed it, this deck can actually hurt himself with smokey and braids, because both your opponent will suffer, but he will suffer more and die first.

[MGB]

Could you play the new Demonic Pact card in this deck?

It clearly has ways to remove it before the "you lose the game" trigger, and it can provide a ton of value until it comes to that.

[TLK]

Can someone please explain the Bottled Cloister/Smokestack interaction that the poster above was talking about in his matchup against Miracles? I think I'm missing something.

[ESG]

I'm considering going up to 61 cards to add an additional basic land, as I mulled for lands a ton. The Leylines might actually be cutable for something else as aside of one Lands player there is very little graveyard in my meta.

This is because two-thirds of your lands don't make black. I think 4 Cavern of Souls is excessive. How often do you need to see multiples? If they Wasteland it, you'll often have Crucible to grab it right back. I would recommend turning one Cavern into another Urborg so that double black is easier to achieve. I would also consider a one-of Cabal Pit as an additional, recurrable source of removal that also makes black mana. Have you considered some number of fetchlands? They would combo with your Crucibles, but I don't know if the life loss would be worth it vs. tempo decks. Seems attractive vs. control decks. The Leylines are one aspect I like because you can hard-cast them pretty easily even if you don't find them in your opening hand, but if you don't face graveyard decks, then maybe sub them for something else. Marsh Casualties could be a consideration if you up your black mana sources slightly. Other options could be Toxic Deluge or Engineered Plague. I don't really like Deluge due to losing Ophiomancer, but if you're OK with that, Deluge is definitely the stronger removal spell. I'm a big fan of Gods' Eye, Gate to the Reikai, too. I probably would cut a Cavern or a spell for it. Peat Bog is a high-risk, high-reward card. It's great if your opponent isn't playing tempo. I also like the Helm kill and the Ratchet Bombs.

[Admiral_Arzar]

Can someone please explain the Bottled Cloister/Smokestack interaction that the poster above was talking about in his matchup against Miracles? I think I'm missing something.

Cloister draws you extra cards which allow you to play more permanents to sacrifice to Smokestack. That's it.

[owerbart]

This is because two-thirds of your lands don't make black. I think 4 Cavern of Souls is excessive. How often do you need to see multiples? If they Wasteland it, you'll often have Crucible to grab it right back. I would recommend turning one Cavern into another Urborg so that double black is easier to achieve. I would also consider a one-of Cabal Pit as an additional, recurrable source of removal that also makes black mana. Have you considered some number of fetchlands? They would combo with your Crucibles, but I don't know if the life loss would be worth it vs. tempo decks. Seems attractive vs. control decks. The Leylines are one aspect I like because you can hard-cast them pretty easily even if you don't find them in your opening hand, but if you don't face graveyard decks, then maybe sub them for something else. Marsh Casualties could be a consideration if you up your black mana sources slightly. Other options could be Toxic Deluge or Engineered Plague. I don't really like Deluge due to losing Ophiomancer, but if you're OK with that, Deluge is definitely the stronger removal spell. I'm a big fan of Gods' Eye, Gate to the Reikai, too. I probably would cut a Cavern or a spell for it. Peat Bog is a high-risk, high-reward card. It's great if your opponent isn't playing tempo. I also like the Helm kill and the Ratchet Bombs.

I tried a couple of fetchlands in the developmental stages of the deck, not only the lifeloss hurts you, but transforms stifle, which is usually a dead card against you, into something your opponent can trade it for. The other problem is that fetches would still not be able to grab tons of swamps since you are packing tons of non swamp lands. But by far, the biggest issue I had with fetches in this deck is that it's free mana for opposing deathrite shamans, who can use it to breakthrough the trinisphere jail sooner than what you would like. I haven't tried cutting caverns, but for me the reason to play a full playset is the fact that when they matter, they make a backbreaking difference. Sometimes you REALLY need to land an ophiomancer, or you really need to start to tax with Braids, and one counterspell in one of the creatures could make the whole difference. Miracles suffers big time against them too, which is quite a popular choice nowadays. To be honest, most of my mulligans with this deck weren't because i didn't have a way to produce black mana, but due to the fact that I couldn't put any pressure until T3. Cabal Pit is a nice option that can of course function as a mini-snipe engine, the problem for me is that to be fair this deck isn't the best at achieving threshold, all the sacking effects might give the idea you could, but I played very very grindy games where I ended with 5 cards at best in my graveyard. Against quick decks I could see Cabal Pit taxing damage having a much more protagonical role that it's utility. But this brings me to a point that popped into my head while revisiting Pox Stax: Maybe we can run a Dakmor Savage, which itself functions as a constant feeding, but the constant dredging might flip cards you aren't supposed to mill into your graveyard, while also not providing any card advantage.


About other boardsweepers, I've been running 3 copies of Toxic Deluge (see my decklist a few posts before) and I love them, because how well they fit into our mana-curve. Most of the times you cast it you will only be paying 2-3 life, and if you have to cast your Toxic Deluge, probably is because Ophiomancer was useless in that position. I like a ton the idea of upping the count on Wrath effects, maybe some damnations in our sideboard? God's Eye, Gate to the Reikai functions spectacularly in this deck, I wish I could run multiple copies, but having two in your opening hand could probably give this deck too much of clunky draws and also create embarassing positions. Still I love it as a one of, as it can be wastelanded by yourself if you have a crucible to create an uncounterable supply of creatures, but also the fact that it replaces itself with a stax effect online gives you so much value, as even if you don't have a feeding effect you are basically trading a land for 3 permanents of them. Peat Bog is quite a great card that if dropped T1 puts too much pressure in your opponent, as either they wasteland it or they play with the fear that you will untap with BB + whatever mana you drop, which can prove to be devastating, like a T2 Braids or a T2 smokestack, without losing life. I'll agree with you and say that peat bog is at it's best in the Miracles matchup too.

Demonic Pact indeed looks sweet. It could be amazing if Braids could let you sac enchantments, so I can imagine a situation of having a Pact stuck in hand and you don't cast it because you don't have a clear way of getting rid of it. Still I find the card amazing and I'm 100% enthusiastic in giving it a try. Ratchet bomb hasn't been in my radar but I know that people here play it with notable success. I would like to know specially in which matchups you bring it in? Finally, yes, the Helm Kill is amazing coming out of the sideboard. They NEVER, EVER, EVER see it coming. And the beauty of it is that if your opponent plays against you sometimes and kind of knows that avenue of attack, you can easily cut the Helms from your sideboard entirely and Leyline will still be a potent card on it's own to sideboard in, so maybe your opponent sees the leyline and plays the whole game afraid of a Helm Kill which isn't there at all.

Overall what I like about the deck is that it has tons of sweet synergies together, but every card can be very potent on it's own. @Admiral_Arzar @ESG do you guys want to share your decklists?

I'm really confident on where this deck is going

[Admiral_Arzar]

Ratchet bomb hasn't been in my radar but I know that people here play it with notable success. I would like to know specially in which matchups you bring it in? Finally, yes, the Helm Kill is amazing coming out of the sideboard. They NEVER, EVER, EVER see it coming. And the beauty of it is that if your opponent plays against you sometimes and kind of knows that avenue of attack, you can easily cut the Helms from your sideboard entirely and Leyline will still be a potent card on it's own to sideboard in, so maybe your opponent sees the leyline and plays the whole game afraid of a Helm Kill which isn't there at all.

Overall what I like about the deck is that it has tons of sweet synergies together, but every card can be very potent on it's own. @Admiral_Arzar @ESG do you guys want to share your decklists?

I'm really confident on where this deck is going

My decklist hasn't changed from the post on 6/03 as I haven't been playing the deck in the last few weeks. As for Ratchet Bomb, I board it in against decks that have Delver, Token hoards (ETW primarily), and random noncreature permanents that cause blowouts like Rest in Peace. It's a Delver killer that happens to be a Swiss army knife against low-cost permanents. I've even killed Planeswalkers with it in the past. I've never played Helm simply because of space issues in the sideboard, although I might try it out at a later date.

[Qweerios]

What do you guys think of this deck?


4 Noble Hierarch
4 Mardu Strike Leader
4 Ophiomancer
4 Braids, Cabal Minion
4 Master of the Wild Hunt

4 Abrupt Decay

4 Chalice of the Void
4 Trinisphere
2 Choke
4 Nether Void

2 City of Traitors
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Marsh Flats
4 Bayou
1 Swamp
1 Forest


The idea is to lock the opponent out with Nether Void + any combination of Trini/Choke/Chalice. For example, Trini and Nether Void makes sure that every spell your opponent plays costs him a minimum of 6 mana. Chalice + Nether Void makes sure that every spell your opponent can cast cost at least 4 mana. The beauty of this deck lies in its ability to cast spells through these lock pieces via Cavern of Souls because it allows us to ignore Nether Void altogether. The same goes for Abrupt Decay regardless of Cavern.

[lilevo]

@Qweerios: I think you are trying to play Sylvan Plug

[Blastoderm]

What do you guys think of this deck?


4 Noble Hierarch
4 Mardu Strike Leader
4 Ophiomancer
4 Braids, Cabal Minion
4 Master of the Wild Hunt

4 Abrupt Decay

4 Chalice of the Void
4 Trinisphere
2 Choke
4 Nether Void

2 City of Traitors
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Marsh Flats
4 Bayou
1 Swamp
1 Forest


The idea is to lock the opponent out with Nether Void + any combination of Trini/Choke/Chalice. For example, Trini and Nether Void makes sure that every spell your opponent plays costs him a minimum of 6 mana. Chalice + Nether Void makes sure that every spell your opponent can cast cost at least 4 mana. The beauty of this deck lies in its ability to cast spells through these lock pieces via Cavern of Souls because it allows us to ignore Nether Void altogether. The same goes for Abrupt Decay regardless of Cavern.

With that many token producers why not Contamination? Or Bitterblossom?