Hi,

Deadeye Navigator + Rishadan Cutpurse + Rishadan Brigand + Rishadan Footpad = opStandstill more taxesBack to basic strong whit so many mana Stones and the mana deny plan anyway.Counterbalance + Sensei's Divining Top a lot of controll for free. Baisicley a block on 3 mana Slots.

Hi,

• Deadeye Navigator + Rishadan Cutpurse + Rishadan Brigand + Rishadan Footpad = op
• Standstill more taxes
• Back to basic strong whit so many mana Stones and the mana deny plan anyway.
• Counterbalance + Sensei's Divining Top a lot of controll for free. Baisicley a block on 3 mana Slots.

Thank you Alpenkeks for the suggestions!

Deadeye Navigator looks great with the cards you mentioned but I haven't understood yet how pairing a creature with soulbond works, if they share abilities such as vigilance or flying too and how they act in combat...I've not played for the past 8 years or so and I need to catch up with the exact ruling for some keywords that don't appear on many cards.

I'm not sure if I want to play Standstill in a game with more than 2 Players, because it lets ALL opponents draw 3 cards.

Back to Basics is awesome but we don't have many people relying much on nonbasic lands. Some Players have not yet stuffed more nonbasics in their decks and other, more experienced players, build the decks with less nonbasics on purpose because they want to avoid such cards, that completely shut them down. Unfortunately, stuff like Blood Moon or Price of Progress often don't have a huge impact, while getting rid of single annoying nonbasics with Wasteland is still a valid option. Maybe in the future, if nonbasics happen to be played in masses, this has to be considered.

I had Counterbalance in the deck at the very beginning. Wasn't really able to cast it early enough because back then I played Land Tax and Solemn Simulacrum and quite a lot of Basic lands to feed them. Didn't get UU fast enough to justify it. Now it really makes sense, I had almost forgotten about this great Card! thanks!

Hi Winterblast,

Deadeye Navigator it does not share any abiletys besides Phase out. Thats the Point. It makes Creactures Super hardt to hit whit Removal and you can Phase a creature as many times as you like to if you Spend the mana == super Hardcore whit Rishadan Footpad and so on. You use the abilety 1 to X times and he Need to pay 1 to X times or Need to sec. This means you can destroy several Permaments for 2 mana @ instant Speed.

You can paar Deadeye Navigator + Palinchron infinte mana and so on a lot of cool things to do whit Deadeye Navigator.

Mulldrifter works good too or Spell Queller or what ever. Endless Options whit this guy !

I see, so giving the creatures this one ability is the only thing they share...nothing like banding or so. That's a good trick for the creatures with comes into play effects. It would be the only activated ability of a creature in the whole deck though, because I avoided using such to be able to play Cursed Totem at any time without canceling parts of my own deck.

I should probably try if that's a reason to not play Deadeye Navigator or if it's too strong to drop it...blinking stuff for 2 is really a good trick, even if the other creature has no useful effect when it comes into play again.

Hi ,

me again.

• Maybe add Mindslaver for Academy Ruins + Mindslaver combo.
• Maybe add Dust Bowl for more impact whit Crucible of Worlds.
• Maybe add Maze of Ith in the main deck it is a good card.

Thanks for the suggestions!

I have already added Maze of Ith in my real deck, I think I need to update this list again.

I've also made some cuts compared to the original idea:
Magus of the Tabernacle is out - not able to tutor him, can't bring him back when destroyed, taxes himself

Paradox Haze is out - not enough upkeep effects in the deck anymore to justify giving an opponent another upkeep. I've won a game with a double upkeep and Smokestack last week but I think the double upkeep was not the essential part of this situation.

Teferi, Temporal Archmage is out - too expensive for his first ability, untap ability not needed anymore when I have enough mana to cast him, ultimate is useless in this deck.

Rishadan Brigand is out - too expensive, the other two Rishadan guys are easier to cast and pay 3 more is an overkill with all the other taxing effects in the deck

Copy Artifact is out - as said in the deck description it has not enough useful targets in my own deck. Maybe still relevant against some people but I might rather go for Transmute Artifact to have another tutor in the deck...




I've put these cards in the deck instead:
Basalt Monolith + Rings of Brighthearth for possible infinite mana.

Power Artifact for infinite mana with either Grim Monolith or Basalt Monolith

Staff of Domination to be able to use colorless infinite mana and for additional tricks.

Maze of Ith because it's good, as you have already said.

...This leaves one slot of which I'm unsure what to put there. At the moment I have Jace Beleren there, because it's only 3 mana (I wanted to go cheaper in general, because speed is essential), it draws cards, it profits from Rings of Brighthearth and Brago, King Eternal as well as Venser, the Sojourner and it can be resurrected with Sun Titan. Another option could be Sword of Fire and Ice because it also draws cards and it makes the few and small creatures I have quite powerful. Umezawa's Jitte also came to my mind, but it doesn't draw cards...

Mindslaver is great and I've already had it on my watchlist. The recurring combo with Academy Ruins is definitely a winner, although it can't knock out 3 opponents at once. One aspect has to be considered though: how much can I do with an opponent's turn, when the plan of the deck is to keep my opponents from playing? There will surely be a lot of situations in which I know that using Mindslaver will just get me a look at the opponent's hand with nothing to play and no choices to make because the board position doesn't allow anything at all. I might try it in this unsure slot though and see how often it is useless compared to how often it can be used for bad stuff.

One great aspect of commander is that at the moment I have such a large card pool that I will probably have at least one copy of the cards we are talking about, if they weren't printed after Time Spiral block. And it's all quite cheap stuff I'm exchanging at the moment, not the cards for which I would need to save money :)

Hi,

i think Thalia, Heretic Cathar is nice for you too. maybe whit a Stasis lock.

ahhhh

btw. i am glad if you check my Highlander too maybe you have some advises for me.

My Deck

Too few nonbasic lands in use here that she would really have an impact. The experienced players often play mono coloured decks here. Here and then someone will play stuff like Back to Basics and Blood Moon and it usually shuts down the players, whose power level is not as dangerous anyway but who happen to use a lot of low quality two-colour-lands. The people you really want to get into a lock are most likely the ones you don't get with that kind of stuff.

From the last games I can tell you the worst lock card in this deck is Land Equilibrium. From what I've seen so far, I can't imagine any more desperate situation - you have to notice, that it also works for lands that are put into play by spells and abilities. No need for an additional tapping lock anymore, also because the two decks in our playgroup that are probably the worst to play against are Teferi, Temporal Archmage and Braids, Conjurer Adept and they both avoid most of the taxing and tapping stuff. Especially the Braids deck is something I fear with my deck because it helps the whole table in dropping their big stuff for free as soon as she is on the board - which can happen on turn 2. If everyone else at the table then has an Eldrazi or Blightsteel Colossus or other fattie on turn 3 or 4 it's game over, unless I could drop Ensnaring Bridge or Moat soon enough. I have only played against Braids once with this deck and then the play had very bad luck...but I've seen it in action often enough.

I'll have a look at your deck! I think I have already seen it once...

Alpenkeks what do you think about Karn Liberated?
The possibility of restarting the game with some Stax elements already on the board seems to be tough. Not sure if it is a win more card or if it helps in situations when I'm already going down.

Hi,

i play Khan and i never used his ult. For me the ult is Usless his two other abiletys are super broken ;)

I just thought it only takes 2 times his +4 ability and you can restart the game...you can target yourself, which means you could exile useless stuff in late game, such as Sphere of Resistance, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben or anything else that won't help in winning anymore but would be a killer at the beginning of a new game.

Have you ever managed to get him up at 14 counters so you could possibly restart the game? I've only seen Karn in action once and then it had a huge lot of counters but the player didn't want to restart because he was not in such a bad situation that he would have wanted to change for an empty board. I have to say that he only targeted other players and they all gave him useless stuff and only one or 2 exiled permanents were among the cards he had eaten...

Hi,

i had the Option to restart the game Several time. But i never did it. Normaly you dont get him to ult if you really like to Restart the game. And if you have so many counters on him you normaly dont need to restart because you are close to winning anyway.

That was atleats my experiance whit him.

We had a game last week, where this deck locked everything up so that no one could find a way to win but it was stuck for a long time. That would have been a good situation for a quick reset with one or two useful pieces to start a new game with...the 7 mana are probably too expensive in here anyway, I already removed Teferi for being too expensive for his abilities.

I don't really know why, but I'd use some more defensive cards. I could see some value with Wall of Denial and Windborn Muse

More defense against creatures attacking the player isn't really needed - I'm currently even playing without propaganda and maze of ith (see first update). There are some cards in the deck, which absolutely ruin aggro plans (Tabernacle, Ensnaring Bridge, Moat, Forcefield, Portcullis, Overburden...) so a creature that only serves as a flying blocker is pretty much a wasted slot.

Just to give you an example of how the deck may start with a decent hand (this was in a game with 5 players last week):I started as second player, the one before me played a land, go...

Me: seachrome coast, mana crypt, chrome mox (imprint mana breach), cast Augustin.

Other players have to pay 1 more for all, can't even play their planned sol rings and whatever one drops they might have had...

Me again: Land, Jitte + equip, attack, play divining top.One of the other players is able to cast a sol ring, the others are stuck at 2 lands.

Me (turn 3): crystal shard, sol ring, go...sun titan on hand, diving top shows me armageddon in the top 3 cards.

The player with the sol ring brings some 5/5 beater, can't pay for crystal shard though,...a last attempt of playing a threat. Someone else manages to get a 4/4 creature on the board (which is immediately killed by jitte), and after I played sun titan and armageddon in my next turn everyone conceded.

Sure, this was a good start, being able to play Augistin on turn one, but he frequently comes out on turn 2 and turn 3 the latest (unless there's something more important to play) AND the other players had good starts too (but weren't able to play them as fast as planned. My deck draws all of the aggression on the table but it's about people trying to remove my stuff rather than attacking, because they won't have too much stuff to attack anyway. Unfortunately there's no situation in the game when I would like to draw windborn muse or wall of denial over something else. They simply have too little impact.

I can see and respect your thoughts. Those are cards I use in almost all azorius control I play, but I dont play the commander format at all so I'm not that familiar with the game progression or the decks used in it. Thanks for your response :)

I'm sure they are great in some sort of pillow fort decks but Stax is a proactive control strategy that wants to prevent the opponents from playing at all instead of reacting to threats.

I LOVE this kind of trategy. Sundial of the Infinite goes great with Mana Vortex and Smokestack, just for consideration. Also, I find that Muddle the Mixture is a great card as it tutors for those important 2-drop combo pieces, and is a counter spell that hits a good chunk of spells in the format. My 2 cents, rad deck.

Thanks for your comment OnlyOnTuesdays!

Sundial of the Infinite does pretty much the same as Chronatog, it let's you skip your turn so you won't have to sacrifice for your own upkeep effects. With Sundial you get to untap, Chronatog lets you use the ability in any other player's turn to make him a solid blocker and he can go attacking with Jitte or Elspeth...

I'd like to keep Chronatog, also because I've made a shirt design with him: http://www.redbubble.com/de/people/gardenofgrief/works/22906440-stax-player

I don't know if a second card with that function is needed, because I haven't found another use for it, except with Mana Vortex and Smokestack.

I'm already cutting cards that aren't strong if drawn individually, for example I have recently removed Mana Web in favour of Mana Drain, because it's only useful with cards that make you pay mana in the upkeep and maybe with Winter Orb or Crystal Shard, but actually my strategy aims less at tapping out the opponent but rather to create a lock with Land Equilibrium or Ward of Bones. It's too often a dead card, and the "combos" with it don't necessarily have a huge enough impact. With Chronatog it's the same, but I keep it in the deck as a fun way to win and because it's so weird that it will be ignored by most players until it's too late.

Muddle the Mixture is great, I just don't know what to cut for it...any suggestions? And if I want another tutor, isn't Transmute Artifact a better option? I don't really need the extra counter, because I usually don't have time to leave mana open for a counter...Mana Drain is an exception because it speeds me up in the next turn.

I'm trying out Sundial of the Infinite instead of Chronatog now...it might have some impact against EOT actions that other players want to pull off. Fetching EOT - nope. Brainstorm EOT - nope.

DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMN!!!!!!!!!! this list is mean AF!! now, I'm primarily an om-wrath player. my list is fairly competitive, but I feel like the first 5 turns are THE most crucial in a 4 player FFA.

with a modified version of this list ( http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/om_rath/#c2835281 ) (I'm missing the most expensive land, and the newest updates) how often would you say you'd have total board control (nominally and on average) that could lead to a lock-out/stall in this kind of match-up

feyn_do_alduin thanks for your comment :)

My deck is usually really fast in the early game, because I run many cheap and fast mana artifacts (since the last update I have even removed Thran Dynamo for being too slow and expensive) and it's possible to cast Augustin on turn ONE. You don't even need to have an impossibly lucky draw - Mana Crypt, any Mox or Lotus Petal and one coloured land will be enough. Augustin on turn TWO happens frequently.

I've played some first turns with your deck using the playtest here and I think it depends much on how quickly something else can be played on my side after the first slowing actions. What gives me more time against your deck is that you play basically no disruption that could really shut down my play. Recurring artifact/enchantment destruction is something that can bring me down quickly, unless I am able to stop these actions. Aura Shards + Marath, Will of the Wild would be such an afwul situation for example. As you can't establish similar situations in your deck I would say it's a good matchup for me in general. Cheap cards (for example Kaalia of the Vast) that bring huge creatures directly into play are also a problem for me (unless I can disable them with Moat or Ensnaring Bridge.

I have many cards against land based ramp (Land Equilibrium, Ward of Bones, Mana Breach, Armagedon, Winter Orb,...) and as you don't run any mana artifacts besides Sol Ring it's pretty much over if one of these hits the board in combination with tax or sac cards. Especially Land Equilibrium is a game winner, as it also prevents you from putting land into play by spells and abilities. Landfall would still trigger, but you won't easily be able to cast your commander in the first place...

Have you tried some playtests with my deck here? I have tried some with both our decks opened in two windows and I feel yours is just a bit too slow in comparison, without all the 0 mana artifacts and 2 mana lands. If you replace the worst/most expensive land searching spells with Moxes and stuff you might win this speed race - not sure if this makes your landfall plan too insecure then, I haven't seen your deck in action, you know...

Winterblast the FASTEST omnath can be played is T3 with a perfect hand, T2 with donations from other players (target player land search).

The fastest win I've ever had was T4. Amulet of Vigor, Titania, Protector of Argoth, Scapeshift, followed by Blasphemous Act with omnath in play