W/U/g Stax (w/ Gifts)

I just want to say that I originally came up with this idea when I was drunk. This idea may or may not be a step forward for Stax but I think it's a very interesting concept.

W/U/g Stax Ungiven

Lands (22)
2 Flooded Strand
2 Windswept Heath
3 Tundra
1 Savannah
1 Plains
4 Flagstones of Trokair
3 Ancient Tomb
2 City of Traitors
1 Academy Ruins
1 Wasteland
1 Mishra's Factory
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale

Creatures (7)
4 Magus of the Tabernacle
3 Windborn Muse

Spells (31)
3 Ghostly Prison
2 Ravages of War
2 Armageddon
4 Gifts Ungiven
1 Life from the Loam
3 Crucible of Worlds
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Trinisphere
4 Smokestack
1 Engineered Explosives
3 Mox Diamond

Sideboard (15)
4 Glowrider
4 Defense Grid
1 Powder Keg
1 Ensaring Bridge
1 Tangle Wire
1 Pithing Needle
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Jester's Cap
1 Maze of Ith

I started with the base framework of Armageddon Stax, splashed blue (and green to a lesser extent), tossed in Gifts Ungiven, and tuned accordingly.

The manabase may be way too vulnerable now but I find the consistency of the deck itself (manabase aside) is amazing... which was always my biggest issue with the archtype in the first place (consistency issues). I'm only running 8 mana acceleration pieces and only 22 Lands total, which might also be a problem, and my fetchland count is a little lower than I'd like it to be.

Gifts makes the deck incredibly consistent. I think it's the absolute nuts. Gifts sets up the decks engine.

The deck is plentiful in white mana sources. You need white mana. Blue is less necessary, especially if you don't draw Gifts or Ruins, but you typically want blue mana. The deck so far has been adequate at obtaining blue mana.

Once you cast Gifts, you'll want a green source of mana via Savannah (with fetchlands to grab it) or Mox Diamond.

The first Gifts stack includes Loam, Academy Ruins, and then 2 other land/artifact cards you want to be able to use.

If you don't have a green source of mana in play, you can grab 1 Savannah and 1 Crucible of Worlds to ensure a green source (or if Crucible goes to hand, the necessity for the green source becomes irrelevant anyway). Attaining a green source can also be accomplished by grabbing 2 Mox Diamonds. Anyway that they split either pile still results in the Academy Ruins/Loam (or potentially Crucible) coming online. Again, if you already have a green source in play, you get to tutor for any 2 artifact/land cards with the first Gifts.

The whole purpose of Loam is simply make sure you get Academy Ruins back to your hand so you can put it into play... beyond that, this deck doesn't utilize the Loam engine (i.e no cycle lands, etc) because it doesn't need to.

The deck should have enough mana acceleration and blue sources to support casting Gifts.

The deck doesn't rely on Gifts, as it still has its core Stax component's. Gift's just adds an incredible amount of consistency. However, the deck does run quite a bit of toolbox MD and SB because of Gifts (which essentially allows the deck to tutor and use and reuse any artifact or land).

At it's core, the deck is still basically Armageddon Stax... the deck utilizes the creature tax effects with Magus of the Tabernacle, The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, Windborn Muse, and Ghostly Prison. The deck still utilizes Armageddon and retains most of the synergies the deck has with it. The deck still utilizes the same Stax locks with Chalice, Trinisphere, and Smokestack.

As far as individual card choices go...

I need the fetches to grab my duals. I need the duals to cast Gifts/Loam, and they also allow me to cast EE for a wider range. The Flagstones of Trokair have obvious synergy with Armageddon and allow me to Armageddon even when I don't have Crucible or Loam active (and they can also grab me my duals when they get destroyed). I split Ancient Tomb and City of Traitors 3/2... this could be 4/1, but I thought 3/2 was a solid split. With Mox Diamond, this gives me 8 mana acceleration pieces. 8 is the bare minimum I can go and I probably need more for more explosive openings, but whatever.

Academy Ruins is an engine piece. Wasteland gives me Wasteland lock. Factory gives me recurable beats as well as a recurable blocker vs things like Mongoose or Goyf. The Tabernacle gives me additional taxing effects. Loam is an engine piece. EE gives me recurable, versatile removal. All of these are tutorable with Gifts.

Magus, Tabernacle, Windborn, and Ghostly Prison create a mass of taxing effects and should be more than enough to handle opposing aggro, at least MD (and I also have 1 MD EE). I run additional creature control SB. I like the 3/3 split on Windborn and Prison because, although Windborn is alot more vulnerable, it gives me an evasive beater incase the opponent has blockers. Including Mishra's Factory, the deck has 8 win conditions, which should be enough (I have another win condition in the SB too).

I split up the Armageddon and Ravages as 2/2 as an attempt to avoid Meddling Mage. 4 Armageddon effects should be plenty.

4 Gifts Ungiven.

Only 3 Crucible because, aside from being dead in multiples, I also have 1 Loam. And again, Gifts sets it all up so that the odds greatly increase that I get the recur engine online (4 Gifts, 3 Crucible, 1 Loam = 1/7.5).

The sideboard is mostly just speculation right now, as there are just so many possibilities when the deck can run a toolbox board. Very briefly though, I run 4 Glowrider to improve combo matchups, 4 Defense Grid to improve matchups with countermagic, 1 Powder Keg to diversify my removal options in the face of Pithing Needle, and my own 1-of Needle to answer potentially problematic cards. I also have 1 Maze of Ith as additional creature control and 1 Ensaring Bridge as additional creature control (each individual creature control option is strong in certain respective matchups). Tormod's Crypt is recurable and reusable yard hate to wreck graveyard based strategies, while Tangle Wire can come in against some decks too I guess (lol, I dunno). Jester's Cap is my alternate non creature win condition that I can bring in if necessary. Again, the SB is mostly just speculation right now and alot of these slots could be other things.

Thoughts, comments, suggestions? Thanks, kupo.

I'm really new to the format, and have been trying to pick up a variant of 5c Eternal Garden (http://mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3668), and I've come up with something incredibly similar to this.

Lands
2 Flooded Strand
3 Windswept Heath
3 Tropical Island
2 Savannah
1 Tundra
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Wasteland
2 Nantuko Monastery
1 Cephalid Coliseum
1 Riftstone Portal
1 Academy Ruins
1 Horizon Canopy
1 The Tabernacle At Pendrell Vale
1 Glacial Chasm
1 Petrified Field

Tutoring
3 Gifts Ungiven
4 Intuition
3 Crop Rotation

Artifacts
3 Crucible of Worlds
3 Smokestack
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Pithing Needle
1 Zuran Orb

Spells
4 Mox Diamond
4 Exploration
1 Life from the Loam
4 Swords to Plowshares

As of now, the only set slots in my sideboard are:

4 Chalice of the Void
1 Null Rod
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Nomad Stadium
1 Gods' Eye, Gate to the Reikai


I see a really remarkable similarity between the two lists, and I wonder if there isn't any way to hybridize the two, or build a transformational sideboard of sorts.

My build destroys aggro and aggro control. However, it rolls over and dies to any kind of combo deck. Yours seems to have a more solid combo matchup, while giving up a little bit of the aggro and aggro-control matchup (forgive me if this analysis is completely off. I started playing this format last week).

The thing that I really like about your deck is the redundancy of lock pieces. Every card contributes something, and must be dealt with quickly. The major difference that I see between the two builds is that my build has to resolve a Gifts Ungiven or an Intuition. Crucible is an incredibly important engine, and you're going to struggle until you get one to resolve. However, after that, each Gifts and Intuition gets you every card that you want, and every card in your deck will resolve eventually.

I guess the key question that I see is:

Is it better to run redundant, general answers to the metagame at large? Or is it better to run silver-bullet singleton answers? Or maybe even a combination of both?

Either way, somethings I think you should consider:

Glacial Chasm as a potential lock piece. It's incredibly strong against a lot of decks, and buys you tons of time. I can see how it's not as good in your deck because you don't have Exploration + Crucible + Chasm lock, but it still seems like a good anti-creature tool.

Petrified Field makes gifts piles easier to manage, though it's kinda redundant with LftL already in the deck.

Horizon Canopy is an incredible draw engine. It's better in a deck with explorations, but it's still pretty strong in a deck like yours. drawing a card at the cost of your draw is pretty good when you're digging for a Gifts or a lock piece.

Nantuko Monastery over Mishra's Factory. Really, why not? You're going to be building up a huge graveyard, and by the time you manage to find and play your singleton factory, Monastery would have a bigger impact on the game.

All in all, it looks like a nice deck.