Proliferate Stax

I'm intrigued with the proliferate mechanic and wanted to build a deck with tangle wire/smokestack/proliferate. I've been tweaking this deck for the past few days and this is what I've got so far. I feel like there is some promise here but i don't think i'm there yet.

// Lands
4 [MBS] Inkmoth Nexus
4 [EX] City of Traitors
4 [TE] Ancient Tomb
4 [MR] Seat of the Synod
1 [TSP] Academy Ruins
4 [LRW] Island

// Spells
3 [SOM] Tumble Magnet
3 [SH] Mox Diamond
2 [WWK] Everflowing Chalice
3 [SOM] Contagion Clasp
2 [10E] Crucible of Worlds
4 [SOM] Throne of Geth
2 [SOM] Mox Opal
1 [US] Voltaic Key
3 [US] Smokestack
4 [NE] Tangle Wire
3 [ALA] Tezzeret the Seeker
3 [DS] Trinisphere
3 [7E] Ensnaring Bridge
2 [WWK] Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 [NE] Parallax Tide

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [DS] Trinisphere
SB: 4 [MR] Chalice of the Void
SB: 4 [TSB] Tormod's Crypt
SB: 3 [SOM] Ratchet Bomb
SB: 3 [10E] Pithing Needle

I'm sure a Mod will jump in here shortly, but try to avoid posting decklists with little other content. How are the matchups? What does this deck beat? Ideas for improving it?

Jace & Ensnaring Bridge is pretty much all I see... okay, I guess I'll take a closer look:

I'm just sorta confused, for accelleration I see 3x Mox Dmd, 2x Overflowing Chalice (?), and 2x Mox Opal. I'm just really confused by this, because you're probably gonna want to run at least 25 land to run 4x Mox Diamond... in this case I'd cut out the :0: Artifacts, they don't work here--Opal, specifically, only works effectively in affinity.

Chalice of the Void needs to be in.

Voltaic Key just doesn't do enough, whatever cute interactions it might have with Magnet or mana artifacts isn't needed. It was only good with Tinker.

Ensnaring Bridge, Trinisphere, and Smokestack should be 4's. Thrummingbird seems like it'd be good here. But honestly, I just don't think these cute lil' -1/-1 prolliferate tricks do enough when you have big 4/5, 3/3, 5/5 creatures for free in this format, you need big answers like Engineered Explosives or just Damnation... what's the point unless you have some sort of interaction that could continually Massacre the board? It looks too much like a cute interaction you're trying to make work, versus an interaction that's actually gonna be effective.

I play geddon stax atm and use 4 tangle wires, they are porn early game but aint that good later when board is developed.

What i wanna test is what Winter Orb could do together with Tangle Wire.
Together with Rishadan Port, Wasteland and Ghost Quarters pared with Mox Opal or Mox Diamond it sounds broken on paper atleast to me

Why not use Tezz 2? Black mana?

Everflowing Chalice is bad. It is best used as an accelerant, but takes at least 4 mana to be decent at doing so... which means you have 4 mana and could have played Thran Dynamo. It may combo with proliferate, but by the time you are proliferating enough for that to matter, you shouldn't really need that much mana.

Wasteland should also be in the deck.

I guess my other concern is that it falls prey to the same issues that many stax decks face: lack of win conditions. A couple manlands and planeswalkers seems really, really slow.

Fortunately, stax is one of the few decks that can afford to be very slow. This is why I recommend tezz 2 though, because he actually has an extremely viable wincon that works considerably faster than jace. Tezz 1 is a good card, but is slower to cast, slower to build and has basically worse abilities. THe only problem is that tezz 2 has black mana. Thrummingbird also seems to have a home here, and I agree, everflowing chalice is terrible. If you need mana accel for stax it has to come down quick and actually do something.

Also, very left-field possibility: does anyone thing darksteel reactor may have a home here as an alternate wincon?

I actually think that everflowing chalice is what truly has potential in this deck. once youve porliferated it twice it already pays for free proliferation rest of the game while adding mana to itself. It should be a 4 of !

I have to disagree on stax being slow - I think it can be slower than most decks, but that it should aim to win as quickly as possible. I can't count how many times I have lost with Stax because I established effective early disruption and then failed to draw a finisher before my opponent got out. I do like Tezz 2, but I'm not sure if the manabase here could support it. Maybe if the Everflowing Chalices became mana sources.

As for Everflowing Chalice - sure its awesome after you proliferate twice, but by that point in time you drop one and have proliferated twice you just spent several turns and a boatload of mana to get a Thran Dynamo.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by perm

Also, very left-field possibility: does anyone thing darksteel reactor may have a home here as an alternate wincon?

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20 is just too much. Beating people with Tezz2/Jace seems faster to me, or even poison.