Teaching Arena Zoomers About STAX | Against the Odds | Historic Magic: the Gathering (MTG)

The Brothers' War unleashed several iconic Stax pieces on Magic Arena. Let's see how many we can stax up and teach some Arena zoomers what it's like to NOT be able to play Magic!
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[@augustusbrown4441]

Seth: "Emoting when your opponent is roping makes you looks bad" Crim: "I crowdsurf the Karn the moment I see the timer come up"

[@MTGGoldfish]

We have very different emote philosophies, lol

[@starmanda88]

C R O W D S U R F T H E K A R N

[@gabrielcondon6895]

People who rope don't deserve rights anyway 😂

[@Tawnos_]

@@MTGGoldfish I turned off emotes in beta and never looked back. It certainly makes the game less frustrating :)

[@jcft1408]

@@Tawnos_ skill issue

[@joeyc6381]

you were right, the reason Heliod came back is because their devotion was only 4 without him on the board so he turns into a creature after he enters

[@kingnapikkingoficeland7856]

so, cause he's an enchantment before being a creature?

[@OsvaldoChannel1]

@@kingnapikkingoficeland7856 yes. He enters as not a creature, then as he enters he sees that devotion is 5 and then becomes a creature

[@OGNoNameNobody]

This Answer is Correct.

[@dementievatz]

It’s weird, because Containment Priest is a replacement ability “if a creature would enter the battlefield.” Heliod looks ahead and sees that it won’t be a creature because there isn’t enough devotion on the board, so it enters, but it enters as a creature because of its own devotion. I read about this interaction when planning to use Containment Priest as a sideboard card against Xenagos/Worldspine Wurm/Indomitable Creativity decks. It’s weird and unintuitive, but it’s how it works.

[@jaxsonbateman]

@@kingnapikkingoficeland7856 That's not quite it. It's because he has an ability that 'shuts off' him being a creature if the devotion isn't high enough - which is the case while he's not on the battlefield. Because it's a replacement effect that affects how the card enters the battlefield, it needs to be a creature as its entering (which it isn't, because of the lack of devotion). If it were, instead, a triggered ability that triggered when a creature entered the battlefield that wasn't cast, it would work, as triggered abilities look at permanents as they exist when they enter (so, for example, in this case Heliod would trigger a card like Soul Warden because her triggered ability sees that a creature entered the battlefield). Basically, replacement effects can be confusing. :P

[@kaydenbarney2941]

I absolutely love Seth clicking the smiley face on the did you have fun screen

[@runescapewarrior66]

"I would click it twice if I could" Is my favorite part

[@bryantan4228]

New sub series of Against the Odds called "Teaching Arena Zoomers"? This is a sequel to Teaching Arena Zoomers About Hard Locks and Chalice

[@ciaran.downey]

Yes please, these are some of my fave videos

[@brighty-go6nn]

Are there actually that many people who started mtg with arena, I know I am one of those but sometimes it feels that I’m alone in that

[@TheDylls]

Having started with Naya Burn in modern back in the day, I saw Naya Zoo has been doing well recently and I'm kinda stoked lol

[@ConManAU]

I first played Magic a long time ago (back when mana burn was still a thing) but I quit for many years and only came back recently via Arena. So I’m not technically a Zoomer but I did miss a lot of these classic(?) deck archetypes.

[@spumy_plughole1191]

@@brighty-go6nn I'm an arena zoomer lol

[@VRanger100]

Seth: Today we're going to prevent our opponents from playing Magic on Arena. MTGA Economy: Hey that's my job.

[@Linky609]

This would be more funny if it weren't so damn accurate haha.

[@ashdog9235]

Funnily enough I want to build stax but is like over 50 rares 😬

[@alejandrorivas4585]

​@@ashdog9235that'll be 50 dollars k thx

[@recusantvessel]

@@alejandrorivas4585try $125 :))))

[@fudawg45]

What? I’ve been playing gobs of Magic for free for years on Arena.

[@Volttikoira]

Mtggoldfish might be my favourite educational channel. Teaching new players all the important life lessons.

[@Collisto2435]

“You know crim would be crowd surfing karn” God yes I know he would

[@LadyMapi]

When I first saw the video length, I legitimately thought you only played 2-3 games. Turns out that I underestimated Arena players. The match vs. Elves was one of the most beautiful things I've seen in a while.

[@Modest7787]

I love Seth educating arena zoomers about early magic.

[@arken2903]

Watching Seth play, joke and give his opinion is magical, it's like having a Dumbledore showing you how Magic works

[@50mm_]

Favorite moment: Following the one land, one keep defeat, Seth shrugs and says, "It's just one of those things. There's nothing we could have done. Nothing we could have done differently at all. The Magic Gods just didn't want us to win."

[@jaredwonnacott9732]

Especially as he looks over to the side and shrugs.

[@abe_5536]

Containment priest/displacer loops against elves was so gross, I love it 😂

[@harune8476]

Yeap. Totally thought game 1 was a fluke, then they got wrecked worse in game 2 by the same setup.

[@TheDylls]

"How does your deck win?" You decide to concede. "No, I mean what's the wincon?" Destroying your will to continue

[@DonovanPresents]

I love how the one deck to beat old school magic was an old school magic deck itself 😂 Also, the last game with lifegain: Drannith Magistrate shuts down Disturb creatures as well!

[@kevinwonnacott5150]

"I would click this twice if I could" was gold.

[@Henzoid]

Seth, I was 100% sure you were correct about that Heliod re-entry being an arena bug so I did some digging. And it turns out, nope. “As a God enters the battlefield, your devotion to its color will determine whether any replacement effects that affect creatures entering the battlefield apply to that God. Because replacement effects are considered before the God is on the battlefield, the mana symbols in its mana cost won’t be counted when determining this.”

[@jamespeckham4089]

all those devotion requirements are static , in play, ABILITIES. its still a CREATURE CARD. anywhere but on the battlefield they are still technically creatures. if you remove all abilities from a god card the devotion thing no longer applies

[@williambosma8726]

This warms my heart seeing all the stax ❤️

[@panko2848]

36:03 so i looked this up, apparently because Heliod only becomes a creature due to its OWN white pip giving enough devotion it avoids the Containment Priests effect, since upon entering it is considered an enchantment, and then immediately afterwards checks devotion count and becomes a creature. if the opponent had one more white pip on the board Heliod would have been exiled since it would have entered as a creature i believe. EDIT: should have watched a bit further, you immediately assumed the correct reason lol

[@Lemony711]

Seeing Stax work on arena makes me immeasurably happy.

[@angrybellsprout]

Not sure what this has to do with smokestack. Feels more like taxes...

[@MTGFaded]

Stax is a term referring to cards that restrict the ability to play the game. Smokestack was the first one. Tax cards are stax pieces.

[@chasebethersonton5169]

Smokestack made people sac permanents, so I consider that to be stax. Maybe we need a "Stax and Tax"

[@SpinAroundU]

As I explained stax (even thought without the actual stax I'd argue it's more like D&T) once to a newbie friend : "Stax is breaking your legs in order to break your opponent's, except *you* can actually win with broken legs."

[@MTGGoldfish]

Haha, this is a perfect description.

[@wesleywyndam-pryce5305]

I like to use doom foretold as a stand in for smoke stax.

[@nathanielreichley4640]

​@@wesleywyndam-pryce5305Nice that's a good point!

[@coleboggan8950]

This video was actually a riot and i absolutely loved it. I like your regular commander content as well, but would love to see more episodes like this every few weeks!

[@kristeenlivesay2664]

I love these ones, learning about these kinds of decks is almost a right of passage for MTG players.

[@XxKyle318xX]

Strict proctor was incredible in this. It’s a card I’ve seriously overlooked because I felt like everytime it hit the field it was doing work

[@redstonepro5412]

i am very glad that you do such educational content also for your opponents

[@japanime313]

I'm glad I can rely on you to teach the ways of old to these zoomers🤣

[@bobklaasen5358]

That was some insanely lucky draws against that elves deck. And containment priest + displacer is not a combo I would have thought of but its really fun to see.

[@WushuTaz]

Gotta love that evil stax laugh that only a fun game of stax can provide.

[@adamtobiasz8793]

Another great video brother Set. I really enjoyed seeing people scoop up to you.

[@Majdjejsneei4]

I cant believe how many salty ropes and instant scoops you got, that was filthy

[@HeruCSGO]

I got the mutavault + book of exalted deeds combo off right before I was gonna lose, so the dude played it out until my only permanent left in play was mutavault from an ultimate, then when he had no cards left they used all their timeouts. Truely the best game of magic I’ve played.

[@theetiologist9539]

This has to be one of the best intros ever. I fricking love it.

[@theyonlycomeoutwhenitsquiet]

This deck gives me such Teferi/Knowledge Pool vibes... so happy!!!

[@fish_in_distress]

I got into MTG by playing Legacy basically by accident because I didn't know any better, so these videos really take me back lmao

[@izzyv830]

as an arena zoomer i gotta say this deck looks incredibly sweeeet. plus anything that dunks on control has my approval

[@ben_clifford]

4:10 That intro got me PUMPED UP. I can't wait to see how things turn out.

[@stonerainproductions]

I wish we had a Smoke Stack so we could complete the experience! Great video!

[@MTGGoldfish]

Me too :(

[@47Mortuus]

@@MTGGoldfish would be a completely different deck

[@SpellingBeeWiner]

Keeping a 1 lander lol. That was so painful to watch. Everything else was amazing, totally love the deck. I need to try this!

[@matiasc003]

"We stax away their will to play magic, we got them" LOVED IT!

[@Soulus101]

I've been trying to build this deck for ages! Thanks for this!

[@colinrobinson4464]

Super interesting to watch you play Stax in historic after only ever heard of Stax as a commander boogeyman. With certain strategies like this, I do think it would be interesting to hear you talk about how to counter some of the strategies that you play in ATO. I know the answer might be "Opponent just needs to play magic" haha but would still be interested to hear. And not what deck I should play to counter it, more like "if you're playing tempo and encounter this in the wild, what should you do?"

[@wesleywyndam-pryce5305]

I'm a stax player, its very dependent on what deck you are. its all about the long game though unless you're aggro and can go under.

[@KunouNoHana]

So the Heliod thing is, as you guessed, because they had exact devotion. By removing it you lowered their devotion so it wasn't a creature, then when it came back it's mana symbol gave them devotion again so it became a creature AFTER containment priest had already checked it.

[@SeleenShadowpaw]

If you are already doing arena exhibitions, i'd like to ask that you include the wildcard costs of the deck in the cost preview maybe? Knowing how much the deck costs in paper or tix kinda does jack in this instance. And it at least gives you a feeling of what you'd need to craft it yourself.

[@toolittletoolate]

Ah fantastic, I thought you might have done this already but I look forward to this

[@alexleblanc6364]

Can we get a full stream of this Seth?! It was so much fun to watch

[@Netro1992]

Making zoomer squirm with old archetypes is always fun.

[@TheLunaLockhart]

that elves deck had war flashbacks in game 2, a mixture of deja vu and shellshock

[@apocpon1944]

"Did you have fun in that match?" God, what a perfect time for Arena to ask lmao

[@jjanderson12001]

Makes me giddy when you’re “teaching Zoomers” videos come out nothing sweeter!! Thanks Seth you’re the best

[@YepNah]

Genuinely seems like a pretty sweet deck. Loved this episode.

[@harune8476]

Amazing seth! love the Arena zoomers videos. I only hope that we one day get the cards to teach Arena zoomers about lantern control.

[@seanclark4071]

When you played prison, I commented on the fact that that style of deck really preys on the historic meta. It seems this remains true

[@davidmorales-dm7xm]

First time showing us the survey, this was a monumental moment in Against the Odds.

[@jjjbowen221]

"Stax" comes from the card "smokestack" from Urza's Saga, one of the original pieces.

[@bryankopkin6869]

“Opponent is on brand. I wonder if they are actually an elf.” - Seth, probably better known as “Saffron Olive”

[@Jackson666fan]

loving the historic content!

[@MesivYT]

36:20 Heliod is the 5th devotion, so it’s not a creature until Heliod enters

[@mrsnufflegums]

Arena zoomers really need to understand the hell that is a lock-out stax list. They just don't get how brutal it can be to play against.

[@HiggzWasHere]

Opponent: gets mana starved Seth: Yeah that was a good one!

[@mymusic2403]

"I wonder if they're actually an elf" that part actually killed me LOL

[@ngbrother]

This deck was legit. Very cohesive. In terms of game play, there were a couple times when you cast combat tricks at sorcery speed. 😅

[@Atmapalazzo]

31:32 HE FINALLY FIGURED IT OUT! ITS A MIRACLE!

[@Qub3rs]

Stax... my mortal enemy... My hatred for Stax is infinite... Only entertaining when I'm not the opponent...

[@Gitah92]

Damn, just looking at the deck tech RN. But wow, this is a masterpiece.

[@nathanwrennmn]

Some wholesome content. The world needs more of this.

[@justinwhite9353]

This video was extremely satisfying to sit through 😂

[@TheAndyDish]

People hate on stax, then they can't do anything about it. Funny how that happens!

[@Awesomesausages]

I could watch a couple videos of Seth playing stax every day and be happy.

[@souocesar]

This reminds me the good ol days of locking fool with pool and teferi. Oh please revisit the good old lock decks. :)

[@agrape2887]

Watching elfball scoop to a displacer is great

[@Miluric]

With all the value packed into creatures nowadays, ETB hate cards really saved the match-up. I recognized it even back in Ixalan with Tocatli Honor Guard. Way to show it to the Arena Zoomers!

[@moox100]

that elves matchup was brutal it was like you kicked a puppy

[@dakodastevens8972]

I honestly don't think keeping that 1 lander was a mistake. Risky, but when you are in a bad match up, you often have to take risks or gets a little lucky to win. You needed 1 land out of your top 2 maybe 3 cards, that's a pretty high chance, your chances of getting an above average draw if you mulled to 6 was probably lower than that. In general I am more willing to either keep risky hands or mulligan hands that are a little below average in bad match ups.

[@anthonycastaneda1331]

I'd really love a tshirt with "Sweet, Sweet" as part of it!

[@AndrewSlee9]

that elf matchup went perfectly lmao insane

[@mth4456]

I grew up playing against Balance, Land Tax, fast mana, Serra Angel. Is the millennial Nerd equivalent of "I walked to school uphill both ways!"

[@claycook-mowery1416]

My first 10 games with this deck, my opponents apparently had about 4 non-creature cards in their deck. Ninjas, goblins, red-green stompy, elves. Literally the only 2 games I won were against artifact-only decks.

[@matthewnesgoda2498]

I ran UW control in Strixhaven standard and Strict Proctor won me almost every game it landed. It killed lands, life gain, elves, and a lot more. Nobody expected it since nobody played it and it was a total bomb.

[@brycerathsack7885]

This is the wholesome content I subbed for.

[@matthewbell4897]

That elves match was brutal. Absolute massacre

[@davidcrawford5324]

Granted I'm a year late to the party, but I thought I'd put in my 2 cents on this deck. I think it's great, and I have a suggestion on something to add if you can avoid using instants unless it's your turn. Defense Grid makes all spells cost a whopping 3 more when it's not your turn, thus making control and burn decks MUCH harder to play if you can keep it on the table, and tbh control decks are most likely one of the few that can shut this one down if they manage to get the lands out on every turn and have the right color mana to cast the spells needed to do so. In addition there are a couple of enchantments that can be used as well. Aura of Silence and if you are willing to splash a bit of blue in, Monastery Siege. The first one makes all Artifact and Enchantment spells cost 2 more for your opponents, and you can sacrifice it to get rid of a really nasty Artifact or Enchantment causing you problems that is already in play. The second one lets you either draw an extra card every turn but then discard a card...OR, you can make all spells that target you or a permanent you control cost 2 more. There's also a white enchantment called Ghostly Prison that makes your opponent pay 2 mana for each creature they want to attack you with. There's a blue enchantment that does the exact same thing called Propaganda so you can have one of each in Commander decks thus getting around the 1x only rule. There's also a blue Planeswalker that makes opponents' spells that target your creatures or Planeswalkers cost an additional 2 mana as well. This deck can greatly benefit by going from a mono white deck to a UW deck due to the blue cards I mentioned that have good synergy with the theme, as well as having the added benefit of being able to run counter-spells if desired to keep your combo pieces around long enough to get them all in place and lock your opponent down.

[@XanosKnyghtshade]

I didn't know the Lotus Field combo, that's goin in my Stax deck

[@jccusell]

I love how Seth explains where the name comes from and shows the card it was named after.

[@chrisschweitzer5558]

Pretty sure Stax is named after Smokestack.

[@Axelf83]

I loved this educational video so much!

[@IanWeaver]

Oh my god I love Stax. I have to build this deck now.

[@alecolson1501]

Yeah man, Strict Proctor is an extremely good card. I remember pulling one right when STX came out and it was such a fun card to see people experience for the first time lol

[@timwu15]

I can physically feel the pain of your opponent and that makes me happy in a very sadistic way.

[@mobmango4]

They're definitely gathering data on Karn/Nykthos and Rakdos decks. I'm getting those surveys almost exclusively in those matches. When I added Karn to my deck they pop up every couple matches now

[@jordanhanson6611]

I love how vastly different opinions you and Crim have on the emotes. "They're there for a reason" vs "they're BM regardless of the situation" LOL

[@Spotifist]

Exciting deck, thanks for the video!

[@franciscoalonso108]

I guess the Displacer-Priest thing didn't work with the Heliod because when it´s exiled it's not a creature, it becomes a creature as soon as it ETBs

[@senken12]

Strict Procter has a good amount of relevant text on it in... all formats? It just takes some build-around to make sure you're not treading on your own toes

[@OGNoNameNobody]

Emoting is how I acknowedge my oppoments Saltiness. Two timeouts spent = 1 "Your Go". On the last time out, the pattern is "Nice!", "Good Game", Nice!, Good Game, Nice!, Good Game, Good Game, Good Game, Good Game. If entered early & promptly, they Salter exploded as the last "Good Game" pops up.

[@Sean-bq9bm]

I don’t see a single doom foretold which follows more with the smokestack theme which is where the term stax came from

[@47Mortuus]

That moment when you brew a new deck, are in the first match ever and see a well established card that actually fits your deck perfectly, more so than the opponents well established deck (Esper Sentinel)

[@nonsuperimposable]

I could watch this deck for hours 😍

[@gaijin8014]

I honestly believe this guy would make a great super villain.

[@weirddan455]

28:00 The correct response there was "Good lord"

[@Linky609]

"Back in my day no one played magic, we just passed the turn. And we liked it that way" Zoomer: "OK grandpa, I'm gonna go play turn 3 greasefang."

[@MrMcPezza]

Historic seems like a cool format, just a shame it’s affected by all the “arena cards” and digital edits.

[@Zaqzorn]

The Heliod thing would work if off his devotion was greater than 5 when Heliod re enters. when it was removed it became drops 4 and it becomes a regular enchantment meaning containment priest doesn’t effect it