[Deck] Armageddon Stax

[Slayer001]

I don't know if its mentioned yet but seismic assault and life from the loam do pretty much damage also

[largebrandon]

I don't know if its mentioned yet but seismic assault and life from the loam do pretty much damage also

That's THREE RED MANA!! That is significant in a mostly artifact deck. Plus, if you add LftL, that would be a four colour stax - stax don't play dat way.

[Joon]

Do you really think that splashing blue is the right move? And I'd like to know what you're cutting for blue...? Angel? And after that (The cutting of Angel gives you 1-3 slots)? Interesting idea, though.

[Nihil Credo]

I'm not a big fan of that deck, because without Chalice it suffers when facing Tendrils or burn spells. However, I love how he plans to win by scoopage in G1 and by Angel beats postboard.

[The Wes]

Yeah, the lack of Chalice seems to really hurt against thresh also. I like being able to shut down +20 cards in their deck with one spell. If you were going to splash a color to white, seems like there might be better colors to do it with.

[tpnp]

Maybe this thought deserves a new thread entirely...but what about a heavy blue commitment with a splash for Armageddon/Magus? Propaganda can replace Ghostly Prison easily, and now you have access to FoF, Thirst, Academy Ruins (technically, we already had access to this via mana from Mox Diamonds), etc...

Thoughts?

[Filipinho]

I was considering a light blue splash, not the other way around. Playing only 4x blue cards with 8x blue sources.
Here's the list I'll begin testing when I get the blue cards, on Wednesday probably:

1x Academy Ruins
2x Mishra's Factory
4x Wasteland
4x Ancient Tomb
4x City of Traitors
4x Flagstones of Trokair
4x Tundra
2x Plains
4x Mox Diamond
4x Crucible of Worlds
2x Pendrell Mists
4x Magus of the Tabernacle
2x Propaganda
4x Ghostly Prison
4x Chalice of the Void
4x Trinisphere
3x Smokestack
4x Armageddon

[Slayer001]

That's THREE RED MANA!! That is significant in a mostly artifact deck. Plus, if you add LftL, that would be a four colour stax - stax don't play dat way.

I don't know what or how its played, that you can decide yourself. But I only saw it and it did hurt alot. 3 red mana is not that hard. you use fetch and doublelands and mox diamond. and he also played terravore and armageddon. it hurts alot if you ask me. I think it didn't ran blue. so that makes WRG only three colours. but I played aggro I like to mention that also without counters. but it was fun how it played

[largebrandon]

What about Planeswalkers in the deck? Like the White one? Doesn't get hurt by your creature control and can gain you life and get you a serra avatar!

[Nihil Credo]

Unless you run Wrath of God, Exalted Angel does Ajani's job so much better.

[Sanguine Voyeur]

Exalted Angel; Comes down [attacking] on turn two, can trade with 'goyf, helps when you're winning, helps when you're losing, breaks stalemates.

Goldmane; Comes down on turn two [barring double Mox], stalls a little worse then Angel, can pump Factories, potentially faster win, only dies to Vindicate, helps when you're winning, iffy when you're losing, breaks stalemates.

The key difference is when you are losing, and this is when it's most important. Although if Goldmane hits, it will probably stay, as opposed to a creatures in a meta made to deal with Tarmogoyf.

[kabal]

What matches do you typically board in Suppression Field?

[Windux]

Loam-Engine, CephFast, maybe even NQG if they play much Fetchlands and 3+ colors (if you need to ;) )

[pantos]

I played Armageddon Stax at the GP Stuttgart Legacy side event, made 6th place out of 72 with it.

Here's the list i played:

// Lands
6 [PT] Plains (3)
4 [TE] Wasteland
4 [TSP] Flagstones of Trokair
4 [TE] Ancient Tomb
4 [EX] City of Traitors
3 [AQ] Mishra's Factory (1)

// Creatures
4 [PLC] Magus of the Tabernacle

// Spells
4 [DS] Trinisphere
4 [SH] Mox Diamond
4 [FD] Crucible of Worlds
3 [CHK] Ghostly Prison
4 [MR] Chalice of the Void
4 [PT] Armageddon
3 [US] Smokestack
3 [LRW] Oblivion Ring
2 [UD] Powder Keg

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [CHK] Ghostly Prison
SB: 4 [RAV] Suppression Field
SB: 4 [WL] Aura of Silence
SB: 4 [LE] Glowrider
SB: 2 [9E] Defense Grid


I don't remember every detail, so here's just a short description of my matchups:

1st round: Fish 0:2
No luck with this one... I don't remember much, but in one game i've drawn too much lands, in the other one he played Meddling Mage naming Armageddon, sadly this was my topdeck the next two rounds.

2nd round: Iggy Pop 2:0
No problems here. First round Trinisphere, followed by some other stuff, then Armageddon, second turn two Glowriders brought him quickly to 0 life.

3rd round: Pikula 2:1
That was a hard one. First game I had to mulligan to 5 cards, was manascrewed in the beginning, and lost pretty fast. In the second game, I had a good start and locked him. The third one was close, he beated me to 2 life with his Grunt, Confidant and Cursed Scroll, until I drew Ghostly Prison, Oblivion Ring and Armageddon.

4th round: Rb Goblins 2:0
In both games, he had a bad start, the first one was pretty close, though. He managed to beat me to 1 until i finally locked him.

5th round: Landstill 0:2
I don't like Deed It was winnable, but I didn't draw the right cards at the right time. Oblivion Ring, Aura of Silence, or even Armageddon would have helped.

6th round: Life Combo 2:0
I don't know why, but in the first game, he had his Combo in turn 3 and was able to activate it, but he didn't. After he sacced parts of his combo to my Smokestack, I thought he just didn't realize it. Perhaps a blackout or something. Game two I played turn one Supression Field, which he wasn't able to handle.

7th round: Gay/r 2:1
First game: Trinisphere + Crucible + Wasteland = Win
Second game, I got a Magus out, but he had Cloud of Faeries und Looter Il-Kor. Then I got totally mana flooded and lost the damage race.
Third Game was fun to play. It was not easy, but after I resolved a Trinisphere, things went good for me.

8th round: TES 2:0
He startet two times, and played only a land in his first turns. I had a first turn Chalice for 0 and Trinisphere in the first game, and a turn two Glowrider in the second one.


I took a lot of mulligans, but I guess that is normal for this deck.
Another white Stax deck made 5th, but I don't know anything about it.

And here's a list of the top 8, as far as i know it's correct:

Top8 out of 72 players after 8 rounds:
1. Belcher
2. Ichorid
3. 4c Landstill
4. unknown to me
5. White Stax
6. White Stax
7. Affinity
8. NQG/w

[ImAChampion]

I understand that this isn't a typical STAX list because...well it lacks Smokestack but this was the list that interested me most out of Worlds. I wanted to get your opinions on the deck. I have it proxied up and have tested it quite a bit and it is really good.

Lands: 27
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Flagstones of Trokair
4 Mishra's Factory
5 Plains
2 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
4 Wasteland

Creatures: 7
3 Magus of the Tabernacle
4 Exaulted Angel

Spells: 26
4 Mox Diamond
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Crucible of Worlds
4 Trinisphere
4 Ghostly Prison
2 Armageddon
2 Ravages of War
2 Moat

Sideboard: 15
4 Tormod's Crypt
4 Pithing Needle
3 Disenchant
4 Suppression Field

[f|i[p]]

Lands: 27
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Flagstones of Trokair
4 Mishra's Factory
5 Plains
2 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
4 Wasteland

Creatures: 7
3 Magus of the Tabernacle
4 Exaulted Angel

Spells: 26
4 Mox Diamond
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Crucible of Worlds
4 Trinisphere
4 Ghostly Prison
2 Armageddon
2 Ravages of War
2 Moat

Sideboard: 15
4 Tormod's Crypt
4 Pithing Needle
3 Disenchant
4 Suppression Field

I was actually curious about this build as well. But I think this deck is more aggressive than the regular stax list. It uses the lock pieces as early disruption, cast an angel, then seal it with armageddon. This deck plays something like the white 5/3 version that just opts for more lock pieces. I was actually thinking that he could have at least, left the smokestacks on the sideboard.

Its interesting and I'm curious how it fared against other decks at worlds.

[meanee]

Actually this deck went 5-0 in the legacy part of worlds. It was piloted by my teammate Anton Lunau, and he conceede his last round after going 4-0, because his opponent still had a chance to win some dough, while Anton did not.

It is a very good deck, and f|i[p] says it is more aggressive than many other builds. I think it all comes down to which kill-condition you want - Exalted Angel or Smokestack.

Also, moat is incredibly good...

- meanee

[Nihil Credo]

While playing Moat over Smokestack seems a very viable idea to me (and I've always loved Angel and could never see cutting it anyway), I find it weird to see it paired with 4 Wastelands and 2 Tabernacles. Such an intensive denial/taxing package has much more synergy with the 'Stax than with the Moat.

[ImAChampion]

My favorite plays are:

Against Aggro
Turn 1: Mox Diamond + Ancient Tomb + Trinisphere
Turn 2: Tabernacle + Ghostly Prison

Against Everything else
Turn 1; Mox Diamond + Ancient Tomb + Trinisphere
Turn 2: Wasteland + Crucible of Worlds

This deck is awesome. I am undecided whether I like Moat or Smokestacks. I have never really had a need for Moat yet. Usually I can lock someone out with multiple Ghostly Prisons and taxing them with Tabernacle or Magus. Tangle Wire would probably be more effective in this deck than Moat or Smokestacks in the current environment...thoughts? If you are on the play with a turn 1 Trinisphere and you drop Tangle Wire on turn 3 you pretty much get 5 turns of an empty board from your opponent.

[Madmaniac21]

Has anyone considered adding Sensei's Top to their list?

Ray has found a lot of success with it in his T1 Staxless stax list.

Same as with Uba Stax, the prison archetype really shines when it has any form of draw, so that it can find the lock pieces it needs.

Fitting in some form of draw is what will help push this deck up a notch.