Stax is the best way to maximize quantity of time with your friends.
@SLJB84 ай бұрын
While simultaneously minimizing your friend count
@simonboucher51704 ай бұрын
No it's not. You could simply do another game.
@Queuexdodge4 ай бұрын
@@simonboucher5170 sharp as a tack, cant get anything by you.
@aklepatzky4 ай бұрын
@@SLJB8thats when ur ego doesnt allow you to scoop 😮
@brandonherrington70804 ай бұрын
Agreed
@tylercraig56334 ай бұрын
cEDH player here. If you are playing stax please have an efficient way to win the game! Also if you’re playing against stax, DO NOT remove a stax piece unless you are positive you can win the game on that turn
@TheLimedew4 ай бұрын
Lmao very true! Keep the stax player at arms length. Don’t let them help too much lol.
@FRAAANKYSUUUPER13 күн бұрын
Stax wants to slow the game down in their sticky web, just don't move and tangle yourself more. Respect the Rhystic Study, pay the 1, don't tap your creatures, get the spot removal ready, ready?, strike for lethal. It's okay to slow down your beat down commander games and solve puzzles as you do.
@manKeGamesАй бұрын
The biggest problem I had with my Stax deck with Lavinia was that I would lock the game without having a way to win. This made people unhappy because they were stuck in a locked game, just drawing cards. So, I worked on adding a win condition to my deck for when I lock the game, allowing us to move on to the next game. Most of the time, I still end up losing, but it's like a little game with my deck to find the pieces.
@CasevacDevilDoc10 күн бұрын
Stax just wants friends to stay at the table together for longer. Its the original group hug
@thecrimsonfkr281810 күн бұрын
Factual statement.
@WorldofSoupS5 ай бұрын
Im literally making a stax deck for the first time, thank you for this information
@nicplz5 ай бұрын
What are you building???
@WorldofSoupS5 ай бұрын
@@nicplzI'm starting with a budget grand arbiter augustin deck to see how my pod reacts to stax, but I hope to play winota one day
@TLWHDX4 ай бұрын
@@WorldofSoupS try tvesh ishai partner pairing
@Rishkar-Peema-Pants4 ай бұрын
I quite like stax and i wish people would play it more. The most fun commander game i've ever played was a game where on turn 3 two different people had dropped a thalia, guardian of thraben and a 3rd person had a magus of the tabernacle. I was mana screwed and drew my 4th land on turn 8 but it was such a great experience having to think differently and managing the few resources i had
@tehrik00203 ай бұрын
You can also think differently and have fun with proper resource management with a deck that is not, you know, for degenerates that don't deserve the company of the few brave LGS players that had mercy upon your wretched soul and allowed you at their pod, only for them to realize what a disgusting unfun player you are and never call you ever again. Quit stax buddy, life will get better.
@laricus36474 ай бұрын
This is a great video! For some reason, I thought Gaddock Teeg was banned in EDH. Maybe I'm thinking of something years ago or maybe I just made it up? I love Stax! I find that running certain crucial Stax pieces can not only even out a game in an environment where you may play against decks at various different power levels, but if you have a Commander that accelerates the game it feels a lot less bad for your opponent's. My most recent Stax deck is Nelly Borca from the Karlov Manor precon. I run certain pieces like Strangehold, Trouble in Pairs, Rest in Peace, Aven Mindcensor, a good amount of stuff. However, since my Commander naturally accelerates the game with all of its goad shenanigans, I haven't ever really had issues with someone at the table feeling like they couldn't play. Rather, they've often focused on trying to figure out how to play around what my deck is forcing the rest of the table to do instead of what it's keeping them from doing. It helps that I have a bit of an Archenemy reputation anyway, and that Nelly Borca draws my opponent's cards, but overall Stax can encourage a table to work together and create a really fun environment if done correctly. Don't get me wrong, just slamming down a Grand Arbiter and Winter Orb can be fun, but Stax has been much more enjoyable for me when it's used in a much more specific and interactive way.
@nicplz4 ай бұрын
Yeah, I agree with that last bit for sure! It's sooo much better if you have a strategy in mind. That's hilarious about Teeg. I wonder if you were thinking of someone else!
@dimitriid4 ай бұрын
I went for Oswald Fiddlebender as my commander of choice for this type of deck: Being a 2 CMC is hard for most casual decks to actually stop him before I can tutor whatever I might need but a solid plan is to tutor Conqueror's Flail (A more expensive but almost always tutor-able version of grand abolisher since it's an artifact Oswad can tutor for) and Ethersworn Canonist or even Winter Orb on the 2 CMC pieces, then if I can I also immediately drop Orb of Dreams or Ensaring Bridge on the 3 part but if nobody has a quick answer I usually go for the win-con pieces like Basalt Monolith + Rings of Brightheart + Walking Ballista although I have space for other combos as well usually around blasting station or even just endless tokens.
@nicplz4 ай бұрын
This sounds busted fun. You brewing anything new atm?
@theoneandonlycrackedegg42125 ай бұрын
This video is great. The card recommendations for going agaist stax are really good. Stax is a fun archetype and deserves a bit more love than it gets.
@nicplz5 ай бұрын
It’s an important deck type in the history of Magic. Thanks for watching!
@gioguarnero50784 ай бұрын
Great video again man! Loving the change of pace with some long form content. Absolutely LOVED the Infect video last week and this stax video is great too! I had no idea where the term STAX came from and that’s super interesting! The break down of everything from Playstyle to staple cards for the strategy at hand are a great help! I’d be curious to see some more “Hidden Gem cards” to give a deck more flavor or uniqueness from your run of the mill stax or infect or whatever strategy. But this is exactly the kind of video I need in deep diving a strategy I might not have tried on my own but now my interest is peaked😏
@gioguarnero50784 ай бұрын
I’ve gathered from a few of your comments in your videos that you’ve played a bit of competitive or maybe even still do. I’m kind of on the cusp of playing high powered EDH and maybe dipping my toes into CEDH. But while I know the power level of things are drastically different going from a casual pod to a Comp pod, I also know that it’s almost a completely different game at that level. So I’m curious if you have any pointers on where to get started. Staple cards to have on hand, places to print proxies (if need be), what kind of learning curve you could expect when first starting the format, ways to find CEDH pod (via LFG discords or other communities or Reddit pages or your own discord), etc. not sure if that’s entirely your realm or something you’re interested in making but just an idea! Either way keep killin it broski and I’m looking forward to the next video!
@nicplz4 ай бұрын
Hey thanks so much for all of the kind words! I'd honestly suggest checking out the Play To Win podcast and KZbin channel. They're great when starting with cEDH. That's the first stop without a doubt! My discord does have some cEDH games if you ask the LFG channel for it specifically!
@JohnnyYeTaecanUktena3 ай бұрын
Funny thing is in Competitive EDH Stax is Nigh useless as a lot of the times you are just handing the win to someone else by accident as you really need to play the Right Cards in the Right Sequencing and the Right Time otherwise you might as well be throwing, so pretty much you have to know how the game works to play Stax in Competitive EDH. Like it is harder than playing control in competitive since it is a 4 player free for all format. One of my favorite stax combos are Maralen of the Mornsong and Opposition Agent as you shut off their ability to draw and you lock them out from searching while Maralen damages them as you can always say the search fails or if you know their deck exile their win con. But i would say play Opposition Agent first as if they let Maralen resolve they will not let the Agent resolve as if they did they are locked out but now they can use Maralen to win faster whereas if you play the Agent first they are not even going to bother with a counter spell but use removal While there is no universal stax card to put in any Stax deck Karn the Great Creator comes close to it as he shuts down your opponents artifacts activated abilities while you can still use yours meaning a great mana advantage in higher levels of play. Remember no one card fits all when it comes to Stax it is all situational which makes it even harder to do Imagine you are playing against a Phage the Untouchable deck and suddenly you realize "Oh shit i get why she is called untouchable now" as it is a Mono Black Stax. Now normally a Phage deck would have some form of Stax such as a Torpor Orb so you can play her from the command zone as if you play her not from your hand her ETB kills ya so you kinda need to shut ETB's down at times so it's not unusual to see some stax like cards in the deck just to get it to function, but then you notice they cast a Conqueror's Flail meaning you can't cast spells during their turn if they equip it to a creature I swear when a deck is running what seems like nothing but high priority targets to be counter spelled you might wanna ask that person "Is that a Stax Storm Deck?" like you know a mix between both but is more on the Stax side just to get it to work in competitive because the commander is not competitively viable. Turning something into a Stax Deck is one way to make something competitively viable such as for example turning artifacts into lands then using Numot's land destruction ability to destroy the newly made lands, help i think i maybe insane as i am even entertaining the idea of Mono White Door to Nothingness as a competitive deck and of course Kenrith returned king would be the commander as the way color identity works i need the pips, but other than that white has great artifact search enchantment search and artifact recursion
@LembarHeals4 ай бұрын
One of my friends gets salty at almost anything. Mill, Counterspells, Infinite combos, 2 or 3 card combos, Extra turns, extra combats/upkeeps, and more! I cant wait to use this new stax deck against him. . I always ask, hey is it okay if I play x? he always says yes but the look on his face when I actually do the thing I said I was going to do is priceless and I cant wait to lock him out of the game then spend 80 turns decking him out since he refuses to concede. Am I the problem here? oh yeah for sure but he always has the option to say no :3
@Ninja_TudeАй бұрын
I'm just looking and getting back into magic a little bit, and I will admit that I've been looking at some hybrid stax... I've always been drawn to playing blue white, maybe after my introduction to Magic where I did nothing but get steamrolled by Turn 3 aggro token creators... But weird tutor combo wincons seemed niche. I like the hybrid control/stax/flier route where i tax Juuust enough to catch up on tempo with my flying beatsticks😅 Grand Arbiter may be the Commander, but tempo-ing my less efficient fliers is the wincon 😅
@crimsonleg42374 ай бұрын
I love stax, prison, hatebears, etc. Aggro, stompy, combat decks and combo decks don't do much for me. I'm a control player at heart. Unfortunately, though, this doesn't translate to finding too many compatible EDH games.
@brendanleuthner48513 ай бұрын
Im building a very nice stax deck right now 😅. It's Liesa, Shroud of Dusk, which is pretty nasty by herself! She basically just taxes spells with 2 life. Not bad that she's a 5/5 flying lifelink either. Theres lots of other cards that do similar things like painful quandry, blood chief ascension, creeping bloodsucker, rug of smothering, and syr konrad, the grim as well. It also has a good amount of other flyers, life gain, and pillow fort style cards because it gets a lot of hate at the table jusy draining people for playing the game!
@thesaurusakasickakatheomc76882 ай бұрын
I recently built a deck I'm calling the Landlord deck. It's kinda more tax than stax. I deliberately stayed away from some of the stronger hard stax pieces, both because you don't get to keep your Phyrexian Altar, and because I wanted my opponents to always be able to do their thing if they're willing to pay the price. I get far fewer complaints than when I was running Zur as hard stax. Might be the first decklist I'll decide to post.
@joshua_lee7324 ай бұрын
Someone once told me targetted land destruction was banned. They then played a gaeas cradle. I brought my Kamahl Fist of Krosa all in Forrest ramp deck next time. He showed up the next week with a deck that plays Armageddon.
@nicplz4 ай бұрын
haha I love this.
@Th3_Raven2 ай бұрын
Watching this just makes me want to use Cursed Totem in my Atraxa ETB deck since most ETBs are triggered and not activated and most of the bounce/blink cards I have in that deck are also triggered abilities
@islarf50954 ай бұрын
Did you forget to turn your camera off after 60 seconds?
@marcoriley91164 ай бұрын
I brewed a Yasharn stax/tokens deck because I want to bring ruin to blue/treasure decks
@codyeastwood34385 ай бұрын
That would explain why my Ranar deck made last game go for a while lol
@nicplz5 ай бұрын
When did you build it??
@lucasdeconninck12324 ай бұрын
Would Will of the Consuls and Blind Obedience be considered stax as well? I only just realised that my Queen Marchesa deck is considered stax because it's pillow fort...
@nicplz4 ай бұрын
Blind Obedience is for sure a nice lil stax piece.
@HereToSuffer2474 ай бұрын
Would a deck with 15 types of blasphemous act boardwipes in edh be considered a control/ stax deck that wins through burning players using earthquake spells? I play what I consider stax pieces like repercussion and burning sands that makes playing creatures problematic.
@UnholyWrath3277Ай бұрын
Most of them dont have a win other yhen 1 tapping everyone 40 times. If im playing the wrong color or bad draws i just dont got an anwser to enchantments or enough anwsers for artifacts. I dont want to play a 6 hour game where nobody did anything
@sashajelten5 ай бұрын
❤🔥🔥☠
@Modesty1154 ай бұрын
Or play urza for winter Orb 😅
@Red_Mag34 ай бұрын
My type of stax is Omen Machine, it turns off turbo card draw, nerfs future counterspells, and sets me up to cast big expensive haymakers. (Also people rarely hate on it unless they're playing control) Omen Machine {6} Artifact Players can’t draw cards. At the beginning of each player’s draw step, that player exiles the top card of their library. If it’s a land card, the player puts it onto the battlefield. Otherwise, the player casts it without paying its mana cost if able.
@Red_Mag34 ай бұрын
@@RJP1910 yeah probably
@DanielHorn-u8i4 ай бұрын
players need to play more removal, so they can deal with stax end of story
@nicplz4 ай бұрын
This makes for a nice short poem about stax.
@supremecourt41313 ай бұрын
What is the srongest staxdeck in your oppinion? My top 3 would be Urza Winota Narset Enlightened LightPaws can also be good And Derevi seems also viable GrandArbiter is mostly lacking a wincon
@jvikingj10065 ай бұрын
That shirt goes hard af. 🤌🏻🔥💯
@nicplz5 ай бұрын
Thank ya! You gotta check out their IG Isolation Man!
@andrewpeli90193 ай бұрын
EDH is a social format. If you aren’t taking the table’s enjoyment into consideration when brewing, you aren’t welcome at my pod. Play stax, get told to gtfo
@timothye.29022 ай бұрын
right back at you. I enjoy playing control/stax, and yet get social-contracted into not being able to enjoy the cards I enjoy. The main difference is that my enjoyment comes from what I bring, while your enjoyment relies on what your opponents bring. Go play a Eurogame if you don't want opponents interacting with you.
@PACR664 ай бұрын
Why do I watch this video? To destroy that stax deck.
@nicola4584 ай бұрын
The archetype has been around since the very beginning. it just had yet to be clearly defined until $t4ks came around. U/W Has always had pieces for this style of play, stasis, winter orb, land tax, balance, moat ect.
@MrCenturion134 ай бұрын
There's a reason they don't like it. Pimping it for clickz won't change that.
@nicplz4 ай бұрын
I totally understand why people don't like it. And I respect that. But it's not just for clicks. Stax is a truly important theme in the history of Magic. It's critical in balance out any competitive format.
@MrCenturion134 ай бұрын
@nicplz : and it's done to death with the same eye-rolling cards, over and over. Or you could do a series where you dissect a deck that's high in synergy, and explain to us what each piece does in isolation, and how they synergise, and why it matters and what the actual record of play is like after ten games? Does synergy count as much as oppressive bombs? If not, why not?
@MrCenturion134 ай бұрын
Riffing on this, how about a Surestrike Trident? Costs 2 to cast, 4 to attach. Activate by tapping the equipped creature and unattaching the Trident. Big creature, maybe 7-10 damage to an opponent's face. Now drop it into a deck which goes tall. Really, really tall. Like, +40/+40 is a start. Suddenly that equip cost isn't very much...
@jean-paulbascelli10783 ай бұрын
Staxx is hated because it's a lame, slow, boring play style that wastes everyone's time and kills a good time. But, go ahead and be the guys that farts and stinks at the club to cast away the beautiful women.
@joshmc58824 ай бұрын
Connoisseur's of the finest archetype in magic found their way here.
@DeadlyDustBunni3 күн бұрын
Would Stasis be good in a Muldrotha control deck? I feel like the 1B cost or cumulative B can be offset by having Bear Umbra or similar to help untap your lands, or not paying the upkeep cost to let it go to the graveyard and then recast it on your second main phase so that it remains in play for your opponents?
@ricardoaguilar97904 ай бұрын
just out of curiosity if you repeat the vid does that count as view for the youtuber i know its one out of thousands but anything counts to help
@NSixtyFour7 күн бұрын
love beating down all my friends $500+ decks with my cheapie stax commander deck😅
@atomwyrm541Ай бұрын
I play in a 6 player pod and can not stay alive long enough to compete. I turned to stax and now I’m consistently 2nd place. It’s hard to finish it off but I’m really good at making myself an unpleasant target. Propaganda, Grand Arbiter Augustine, Grand Abolisher etc.
@SarenDraculАй бұрын
one of my friends played a Stax Deck in our 5 Person Commander game Monday NIgh he was quickly Eliminated thanks to another friend playing Koma and targeting only him lol he tossed out a Spawning Kraken and Koma Coils and hit him for like 21 damage in one turn at one point
@Sweetguy182126 күн бұрын
I play a soft stax deck. Its main focus is combat win while slowing the game enough to not let storm/combo decks win on the spot.
@bonk35 ай бұрын
still need the niv review😔😔great video tho stax is wonderful
@nicplz5 ай бұрын
All Niv all the time?
@thane2404 ай бұрын
Now let's see how we deal with proactive decks chalk full of removal
@yoshitheonly4 ай бұрын
So you want to build a Stax deck?! Don't. Just. Don't.
@nicplz4 ай бұрын
LOL
@FedoraB0realis7354 ай бұрын
Stax just feels like one of the only ways to actually get to play my funny little guys. Maybe its just my scene but everyone I play with is blue blasting counter spells constantly which seems to be fine and fun for others? But then Stax gets a ton of hate. At least with Stax they are intractable pieces instead of hearing "just play around counters" in a 4 way format
@nicplz4 ай бұрын
Stax can totally find a nice balance in the right casual pod. I'm glad you posted this. Which decks??
@Modesty1154 ай бұрын
Stax mono blue urza 😎
@PALIGames4 ай бұрын
I ran pillow fort for a long time, Grand Arbitor and the deck won with Azors Elecutors or a horde of angels lol
@nicplz4 ай бұрын
Niicccee. What you running these days??
@PALIGames4 ай бұрын
@nicplz mostly aggro,go wide,or go tall decks now or do something silly like Yurlock. My main deck is a colorless deck that is built around omarthis which I have to tell players at the start of the game has no Eldrazi creatures. I just want to turn my whole deck into 2/2's and swing to win.
@0rcd0c2 ай бұрын
Would be interesting to see an in-depth video on Stax commanders and wincons 16:20 I've realized that the commander is oftentimes very important for Stax win-cons because a huge portion of the deck is already dedicated to stax pieces and it leaves very little room for tutors/protection/combo pieces (and all of that has to work through certain stax). From personal experience, the simplest win con to include is a commander that sets a clock through beatdown e.g. Slicer, Ellivere of the Wild Court, Breena, Winota, Gut + Veteran Soldier etc.
@tovarvonbrandt71574 ай бұрын
I love my liesa stax, it runs all the good stax stuff plus discard and usually kills with bloodchief and cataclysm
@IneptCardCollector5 ай бұрын
So happy this showed up right at the top of my feed! Been loving your IG content.
@nicplz4 ай бұрын
Thanks so much! What you been brewing up recently?
@IneptCardCollector4 ай бұрын
@@nicplz a lil Dina, Soul Steeper deck
@niconiconut4 ай бұрын
this is a kick ass video, thank you for this.
@nicplz4 ай бұрын
Thanks so much! Which theme would you like to see me cover next?
@niconiconut4 ай бұрын
@@nicplz shit ion know. Your content is good tho
@TheAsagrim4 ай бұрын
A card i like to use against stax is enchanter's bane