Quote Originally Posted by feline View Post
Is there anyone out there actively still pushing a Stax / Prison Stax archetype anymore?
I've been fooling around with a much more 'Shops based version of Stax - Spheres and Thorns and Wires oh my! - and it is as polarized to play/draw as the Vintage version. Games in which you play Sphere->3Sphere are bonkers, games in which your opponent just T1 Delvers you are awful.

I feel like many of the advantages of a 'traditional' white Stax build have been diminished in Legacy over the last decade. If you want the prison-y elements of the white cards, DnT is a serviceable mana denial strategy, and if you want to play Chalice and 3sphere, Blue/X Tezz shells and MUD represent better long games. The problem with Prison decks is that if your opponent can get under the lock, proactive elements have a hard time reacting (classic Standstill is probably one of the best examples of this) and the proliferation of Tempo strategies using hyper-efficient creatures like Delver has made it much more difficult.

There just isn't a lot of room in Legacy for decks that want to cast cards with an average CMC of 4.