I'm a big fan of Ruination in mono-red decks.

I personally prefer Chandra, Flamecaller to Chandra, Torch of Defiance. Being able to discard your hand and draw more cards than you had before is extremely nice.

I've found Starstorm to be useful as an instant-speed boardwipe, even if it's not particularly efficient. All Is Dust is another helpful boardwipe.

Duplicant and Sandstone Oracle are cards that I've found to be fairly handy with Daretti.

Drownyard Temple is fun with Daretti, and also fun with MLD.

Blinkmoth Well shuts off Winter Orb and Static Orb.

I had completely forgotten about Nullstone Gargoyle! I'm definitely picking it up ASAP.

How has Gonti's Aether Heart faired for you?

I'm not a huge fan of Anvil of Bogardan or Blinkmoth Urn, since your opponents benefit before you do. I've had way too many games where multiple opponents gained 2-4 mana from the Urn, only for one of them to blow it up before I could use it.

ibstudent2200:

Ruination is a great suggestion; holy shit, I can't believe I forgot to add that!

Chandra, Flamecaller is nice, but she does cost 6. I might end up running her as well. It's a good suggestion.

Starstorm is a great suggestion against more aggressive decks, particularly elfball. Conversely, All Is Dust is almost never a card I'm happy to draw. It spares my artifacts, sure, but it kills Daretti which is counter intuitive to our plan. If I'm going to kill my general, I'd rather it be to Ugin, the Spirit Dragon -- at least he has multiple modes and can stick around generating additional value.

Duplicant and Sandstone Oracle aren't bad cards per se, but in a more competitive meta decks can't really afford to be stuffed with high CMC cards that don't generate tremendous value short of instantly winning the game upon cast. Duplicant is a 1 for 1 and often doesn't end up with a devastating power and toughness ("I'll Duplicant your Jin-Gitaxias... My Duplicant is now a 5/4" -- not very scary). I used to have Sandstone Oracle in the deck, and while occasionally he'd draw me 5 cards, drawing him felt so awful when I had more cards in hand than my opponents, or he'd end up drawing me only one or two cards.

Drownyard Temple is some solid tech with all my MLD and as you noted, it synergizes with Daretti's -2; I like that suggestion.

HOLY SHIT at Blinkmoth Well! What a suggestion! Loving that one!

Yeah buddy, Nullstone Gargoyle does work! Outside of Meren / Karador decks that ETB triggers or Caustic Caterpillar and the like, some decks have real trouble dealing with the Gargoyle!

I'm still testing Gonti's Aether Heart. Currently, my thought process is that if this thing is imprinted on Prototype Portal you can really start going nuts with value Time Warps off it every couple turns. Alternately, copying the Heart with Mirrorworks as it comes into play then letting the real one die to the Legend rule could create some useful situations, as you could then activate and exile the token version, then use Daretti to recur the real one and so on. Finally, exiling the Heart and copying the extra turn effect with Rings of Brighthearth is solid value. Again, all of these scenarios are a little clunky, but it's Daretti -- we're working with what we've got, lol.

Anvil of Bogardan is a bit iffy. It comes down early and while it does feed our opponents, remember that it's not a Howling Mine -- it's not straight card draw, it's filtering. I believe that in most cases this will help us more than our opponents, as Daretti is happy to pitch the high CMC artifacts into the yard so he can recur them. Anvil does help our opponents who run reanimator decks, but they're not tremendously common in CEDH. Blinkmoth Urn I'm not sure about; I haven't tested it extensively enough. I just added it.

I really loved your suggestions though. Some of these are going in immediately! Haha

Have you thought about adding Ward of Bones

MadHatter23 that's an interesting idea. It seems really powerful after resolving something like Thoughts of Ruin and using Daretti's -2 to cheat it into play. I'll have to give it a try!

Hey, I'd like to throw out a couple suggestions:

I think Hedron Archive is better than Thran Dynamo here because of the potential for draw.

I'm not sure if Blightsteel Colossus is great here honestly. I think he is competitive in blue where he is easily cheated into play but he has no synergy with daretti. Myr Battlesphere could go too and I'd go with Combustible Gearhulk and Solemn Simulacrum since both are generally great with daretti.

Decree of Annihilation could be Boom/Bust.

Thought Vessel could come out for Key to the City since you really want to discard generally.

Chain Reaction isn't as good as Blasphemous Act imo.

Outpost Siege is great card advantage, honestly I'd probably cut something like Gonti's Aether Heart for it.

Wheel of Fate kind of sucks unless you have a way to cheat it out I'm missing? I would go with Chandra Ablaze instead since she does 2 mini wheels bavk to back and I havery never been sad about drawing her.

Anyways that's all I have atm, I will say one last thing about Ward of Bones I tried it and it's not great since it basically allows them to play one more of everything named. If you want really evil stax look at Possessed Portal, it is a lock in itself. Hope the suggestions help, good luck!

dlamars:

Hedron Archive is good because of potential draw, but it's worse than Thran Dynamo in the cases of Unwinding Clock and Paradox Engine!

I totally agree that Blightsteel should come out. It doesn't synergize with Daretti at all. This is a good point; I don't know how I've overlooked this for so long.

Myr Battlesphere is awfully strong in that it provides tons of defense for Daretti as well as sac fodder for him. Not sure about this one.

Combustible Gearhulk is awesome, I had it in a previous build. But almost no one ever let me draw 3, and many times the damage it dealt was totally inconsequential. So it fed Daretti a bit, but that's it. It's definitely not bad.

Solemn is slow, but I agree he's great Daretti sac fodder and also an okay blocker. I agree with this, he should probably go back in.

Decree of Annihilation straight ends the game if it resolves with Daretti in play as it removes everything else from the game, including hands. That said, it does cost a lot more than Boom/Bust. This is a good suggestion.

Key to the City seems pretty bad. Way too mana intensive to slowly feed the yard, and 9 times out of 10 the unblockable effect is going to be useless to me.

I like both Chain and Act. I could toss Act back in. They're both situationally good in different scenarios.

Outpost Siege is awesome. This is a great idea. I was avoiding it for fear of exiling a combo piece I can't cast that turn, but I think it's worth it. I agree Gonti's Aether Heart is total jank, but I want to test it a bit more before I cut it.

I agree about Wheel of Fate. Do you think Chandra Ablaze is better than Chandra Flamecaller?

Possessed Portal sounds great!

Thank you for these awesome suggestions!!!

Okay, call me a newb, but how is Cloud key + Top infinite storm on it's own? I get that calling Arty on key makes it free, but tapping it causes it to go back on top of the deck though, so am I missing something?

LOL oops. I run this with Future Sight in another deck -- forgot Future Sight was required! Sorry lol

Hmm well I would still say cut Thought Vessel, Mana Geyser is always amazing in my experience.

Chandra Ablaze is better in my experience, the guaranteed 3 cards is just more consistently good. Also most of the time it hurts opponents who are holding more cards generally.

Good to know. I'll have to get myself another Chandra Ablaze and test it!

If you want land destruction I would suggest Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth plus Kormus Bell and Goblin Sharpshooter

Also Altar of Dementia + Nim Deathmantle + Su-Chi is infinite mill also Ashnod's Altar + Nim Deathmantle + Myr Battlesphere equals infinite Myr tokens same with Beetleback Chief with goblin tokens instead of myr.

Another great artifact is Krark-Clan Ironworks

Urborg + Bell + Sharpshooter is bad, but man it's hysterical lol. I could throw in an Imperial Recruiter and an Expedition Map to help tutor the pieces, but I'm not sure it's worth it when I'd also need a haste effect and to pray no one interacts with the board at instant speed

Those Ashnod's Altar combos look pretty tasty though...

Storm Cauldron and Storage Matrix are mean as well as Smokestack

You could always pitch Anger with Daretti

Storage Matrix was always underwhelming for me, despite running it alongside Blinkmoth Well, Ghirapur AEther Grid, and Clock of Omens.

When you are running only 5 creatures with activated abilities that require tapping and only about 3 others that you would want to attack with, Anger seems underwhelming. Goblin Sharpshooter might be playable (though I think it falls below that threshold), but the other combo pieces are just bad.

At the risk of suggesting too many nonbasic lands, Phyrexia's Core has a fair amount of utility.

Scarecrone is a card that might be worth playing.

How has Mox Opal performed for you? I've been testing it for a while, and it hasn't been quite as good as I'd hoped.

From my experience with Daretti, I would recommend keeping an eye on The Chain Veil. I kept encountering boardstates where I just wanted to discard it and never bother bringing it back.

If you have Mycosynth Lattice try running Hellkite TyrantAlso The disk and Darksteel Forge

If you go infinite tokens might I suggest Burn at the Stake

dlamars, I took your advice and added Chandra Ablaze!

ibstudent2200, I like Scarecrone but I'm not sure he's worth a slot with the low volume of creatures I'm running. Copper Gnomes may be better, but even that card seems awfully clunky and slow. I'm generally happy to draw Mox Opal -- while it usually doesn't help turn 1 like Mox Diamond and Chrome Mox can, at least it isn't card disadvantage.

MadHatter23, I like Hellkite Tyrant but it seems too risky; if it gets stolen via Bribery or Treachery I just lose. Your other suggestions are good combos but they're often comprised of cards that "do nothing" by themselves and are only strong when the combo is assembled. That can work in a black deck when you have access to tutors for consistency, but it does not work in mono red unfortunately. I need every slot to be useful and have a purpose.

Have you thought about using snow covered Mountains to gain maximum value with Extraplanar Lens or using Caged Sun also the Molten Pinnacle land is useful in mono red as well as Goblin Charbelcher

MadHatter23, great ideas! I tried Extraplanar but when it dies quickly it generally sets me back so far I'm knocked out of the game. Caged Sun is a great idea since it prevents my opponents from benefiting. Valakut is going in! Charbelcher is already in!!

Hey,

Really cool deck! You have a good mass of the most important stax and LD pieces but I think the biggest think you can do now to up the competitiveness of the deck is to really drop you mean CMC. At the moment it is quite high, dropping it would allow you play more stuff in a single turn getting to your lock pieces quicker and reducing the number of dead draws in the early game.

Trimming your curve is pretty time consuming, it's something I have been working on over a long time with my decks - but it's really worth it! Looking at your list briefly I have a few suggestions (caveat: I don't play Daretti personally so these won't be the most informed).

Things i would consider cutting:Nullstone Gargoyle - this is very expensive for a fairly mediocre effect. Would swap this out for Myr Retriever.Magus of the Wheel - not sure you need any more wheel effects than you already have.Chandra Ablaze - I think Chandra, Torch of Defiance is just much better.Outpost Siege - I appreciate the pseudo card advantage but I think you are better served playing a few more card selection spells like Cathartic Reunion, Tormenting Voice, Faithless Looting.Stranglehold - This might be a meta call, if you are playing against Narset turns or something it seems good but in most situations i think it's a bit too specific. Stopping players from searching libraries is good but if you achieve a faster lock they won't be casting anything anyway...Crucible of Worlds - don't think you get enough value out of this to be worthy of the include. Goblin Charbelcher - I think there are definitely more synergistic things you can be doing at this slot. Mirrorworks - I think instead of copying what you already have these slots are better dedicated to getting to the things you need quicker. Prototype Portal - I think this is just a bit slow, also same thing as for Mirrorworks.

In terms of what to put in i think Paradox Engine is an auto include. It makesThe Chain Veil even better besides allowing you to generate absurd amounts of mana - particularly good after you have wiped the board of lands leaving your mana artifacts behind. I would also definitely try and squeeze in Possessed Portal this is a super hard lock if you can keep it around. As I said, more card selection so I would think about the suite of Faithless, Tormenting and Cathartic. Ruination is noticeably absent, this card is great here. I didn't notice and graveyard hate? Maybe Grafdigger's Cage is worth a shot?

Anyway I am not sure if my suggestions are of any use but I stand by the lowering the mean CMC argument. It may just take a lot of play testing and time to figure out!

Happy staxing!

Grafdigger's Cage shuts off Daretti's -2 ability on creatures.

You don't cast Nullstone Gargoyle in a Daretti list. You just cheat it into play using Daretti's -2 ability.

ibstudent2200 - Yeah, I thought about Grafdigger's Cage for a little while. I thought that the most likely target for his -2 would be to reanimate a stax piece rather than a creature. Currently there are only 6 creature targets in this deck - perhaps I misread here though. If this is the case though, the upside of neutering opposing reanimator strategies seems high.

Is Nullstone Gargoyle that good even when cheated in? I guess in early turns it can be quite disabling. In my meta there are usually many spells cast each turn so I am probably underestimating.