Today I'll cover Stax, Chaos and Locks.
Stax: The Persistent Pain
Stax decks may also be known as Prison decks due to making it difficult to play cards by using the aforementioned sacrifice mechanic combined with taxing or other mana slowing effects to manipulate the field so that their controller has the upper hand.
While slowly grinding your opponents fields to nothing, Stax will turn against the user eventually. So tempo is key when defending against these players.
Below are a few huge Stax cards. Seeing as the package is 90% artifacts, befriending the red/green player can be beneficial. Especially if you play politics.
Braids, Cabal Minion - Smokestack, These are the Sacrifice packages, low CMC with a powerful ability.
Tangle Wire - Static Orb - Winter Orb, Keeping Lands and Permanents tapped
Torpor Orb - This is a new addition to these decklist package but it shuts down so many ETB effects that offer up 2-for-1 to destroy the artifacts.
When playing these decks it's important to know when you've gone to far, if your opponents like the uphill battle that may be in effect then keep trying to enhance the effect till its consistent. On the other end, if your playgroup consistently suffers while you pile on effects then toning down your package or finding out what your playgroup feels is challenging but not too overpowering may be needed.
Uncontrollable Chaos
As the topic name suggests, chaos decks are hard to control-- even harder once they set up. Like Stax, the key is to notice the common cards that make up the package.
Here are a few different packages and cards for Chaos decks.
"Wheels" - These include Wheel of Fortune, of Fate, and Deal. But usually any red or blue cards that include "each/target player Discard(s) his or her hand and draws X cards" making it difficult to set up a hand with tutors or keep hand advantage.
Confusion in the Ranks - AKA Norin's Token combo card, Norin has a great time leaving and entering play that he just trades himself for other creatures and always keeps coming back to it's owner.
Pandemonium, Warstorm Surge, Electropotence - These are great with Norin as well as red creatures seeing as they are additional damage that can be spread out making your creatures better by attaching a burn spell. A particularlly brutal mention to Norin for these in combination with confusion in the ranks due to you stealing creatures that you probably don't care if they die because they might not be yours.
"Coin Flipping" - This is Chaos, and whats better in theme than leaving it up to chance? With most of these decklists, there's a quarter in the dice bag.
If you are playing these kinds of decks it's important to have a plan with your chaos. It sounds a bit like an oxymoron but like Stax and Land Destruction, a practical endgame has to occur unless you're just being chaotic for the sake of it. While there is nothing wrong with that, other players may not think so haha.
"Lock"ed Out
The main idea of a lock is to cut off one or more resources that an opponent has access to. Again, it's all uphill battles once a board-state is achieved.
Here's what to look out for when playing vs a potential Lock deck, or package:
Maralen of the Mornsong, and Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir - Either in the deck or as the Commander these can be part of the lock combinations.
A) Maralen loves to be teamed up with Necropotence for extra draw, along with this making it difficult and/or impossible for others to search or draw cards can be just as brutal. Stranglehold and Possessed Portal are some examples.
B) Teferi shuts down the instant-speed and as such paired with Knowledge Pool, Omen Machine, or Eye of the Storm making instants hard to cast for your opponents.
"Permission" cards - Cards that limit amounts of spells per turn like Rule of Law/Arcane Laboratory, Angelic Aribiter, Mana Maze, a flipped Erayo, Soratami Ascendant, Fate Spinner, or Ethersworn Canonist to control how far your opponents net a gain over you.
Multiple, Possible Infinite Turns - A recent play-through versus a Jhoira deck brought this to mind. The mind-blowing amount of turns that were still to be had by the player were counting as I watched Time Stretch resolve, then copy, then pull from the graveyard, then play and copy.
If your planning to play this I'd say use caution. I'd say out of all the taboo's this one usually makes for the most ragequits. It all comes down to your playgroup, the level they are at power wise, and how they rate certain deck themes as enjoyable.
Another tip I'd like to bestow with these types of decks is aim for the soft lock when playing around in this meta. Leave a window of hope for your opponents to perhaps break through so that they can get a feel for what its like to be locked, then build onto harder locks from there.
Remember, the "Ban list" for EDH is more like a suggestion than rule, and it's up to each of us to make this casual game type ours. Perhaps House banning cards based on the power-level of your play group can help prevent some board states, but these should be temporary. Being open to challenges and new things helps develop us as players and as human beings.
Well that's it for me this week Zoners, Till next Thursday take a step on the wild side and try new things!
- Johnny C.
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