Asylum Visitor is pretty narrow, I'd run Deathreap Ritual or Phyrexian Arena first.

Cryptolith Rite could be pretty sweet for when the stax gets a little out of control.

Its on my radar since it would be an earthcraft that can produce green mana to play around contamination, the problem being it's not great early/midgame. Come Friday I'll get a copy and test it out.

Have you noticed any matchups that give this deck trouble EndStepTop? Also I'm thinking of updating my stax deck again and lowering even more of the cmc on some of the spells. I was also wondering how you like Sylvan Library? I don't own one right now but is it really that good? I just want someone's opinion first before I get it because it just looks like a repeatable Brainstorm to me.

Decks that vomit creatures , krenko or purphoros being notable. In 1v1 (the deck isn't built for it, so that may be a more dominant reason) midrange decks do too, since every threat needs and answer and they simply topdeck better than this deck. Library is nuts. If it's a repeatable brainstorm that's fine, I have enough shuffle effects to abuse just that aspect. However in the early game you can pay 8 and just dig through an obnoxious amount of cards. Its 100% worth it.

sweet, I'll try it out. In my glissa deck how I deal with creature swarms is with Oblivion Stone. I can just keep getting it back and it just wrecks face normally so they never really get to set up without me threatening to nuke them. It might be an odd suggestion since this isn't a burn deck but Pestilence effects are great against those creature decks, especially if you run indestructibility. I run those in my rakdos deck and the little guys never survive. Tainted AEther is good too since it stops etb infinites and most creature decks. For 1v1 I've always wanted to make a pocket french edh deck so I can finally use Griselbrand or Iona, Shield of Emeria + Painter's Servant in a Teysa, Orzhov Scion deck. This deck is definitely tailored for multiplayer so making one specifically to end the existence of 1 person might be fun. You could always carry some cards with you that are op in 1v1 like Mind Twist and maybe replace some of the cards with more spot removal (personally not a fan in stax).

When I play actual French I play braids stax or GAAIV control. This deck is built for multiplayer and has suboptimal choices for 1v1.

I miss braids ... play with your 1v1 deck if you are in 1v1 and this deck when you want to make multiple people sad :)

We already run Null Rod... Thinking about testing Damping Matrix to help shutdown problems like Krenko, Mob Boss

Dampening matrix doesn't shut off man's, so I have dismissed it. Its a great card but it's meta specific. It stops hermit druid activations, viscera seer, Saffi combos krenko like you said. The card is great, it just needs to be metagame to be put into the deck.

I think the only nonbo with it in my build is Sadistic Hypnotist. And dude Torpor Orb stops Bane of Progress with an evil smile. I have ghave and krenko players around so it's worth a shot.

How exactly does Faerie Macabre work in this deck, is it just a body that can hate on reanimator deck or are you using the discard for anything

There's a degenerate amount of graveyard BS in my meta atm. Macabre is just the most efficient Gravehate. It's instant and uncounterable.

Braids is banned just so you know

That's why she's in the SB, if a playgroup lets me play her then she goes in.

Thanks for this list man, it's been a real help in refining my Mono Black Pox for competitive play. Because of Mono B's limitations I've been thinking of making the switch over to Nath lately, but Gaea's Cradle is out of my price range. Do you feel like the deck would suffer significantly without it?

Check out my list if you feel like it, I'd love to hear your input.

Love the deck. It seems like it plays very consistant

Love the deck. It seems like it plays very consistent

@dehart68 Thanks for the praise!

@triplexr8d Glad you've liked my list enough to consider adapting yours to mine! Cradle is an insane card that can enable really broken things and can play around winter orb effects by itself, but it's not a necessity for the deck. If you can't afford one, I"d just run a basic forest and cut Sylvan Scrying and maybe Crop Rotation since 9/10 times they tutor Cradle.

Have you ever thought of using Dark Deal in a huge game to spawn an army? It seems like a neat combo with Nath of the Gilt-Leaf

For one, I like how your primer is set up. It explains far more about the game and playing the deck than the deck itself, which is a godsend to someone like me that started magic 2 years ago and is still kinda noob.

Secondly, I actually get what people are talking about when I hear "stax" plays now because of your read (meaning maybe I'll understand how to play my Mogis deck now too), but would this style truly be effective against an Elf-ball deck? The one in my playgroup is super competitive compared to the rest of us and goes as far as getting infinite turns out of Emrakul on nearly turn 3. Do you think a stax deck like this might be effective at slowing them down or would maybe raw control be better?

Lastly, and this is completely irrelevant to MTG but I feel I have to ask, is your deck title a reference to Dragonball Z Abridged?

@TheRedGoat

Stax is all about playing well under pressure.

You can stop elf ball easily with the following cards -- before turn 3:

Toxic Deluge, Cursed Totem (or Linvala, Keeper of Silence in White), Torpor Orb (stop finishers) -- or even Smokestack might do the job -- since elfball generally doesn't ramp lands very hard.

Perfect_Phyrexia I try it from time to time mostly because it's super cute with chains and waste not. Right now I like the natural order package more than those cards for those 3 slots.

TheRedGoat decks that swarm creatures such as Yisan or Krenko are matched up very well against stax as a whole. My usual plan is to board wipe and play contamination in the same turn, playing a more traditional control role prior to that pivot turn. As mentioned before The deck has a few silver bullets (cursed totem being The most obvious) to deal with these archetypes, since I can't play humility. The deck's name comes from Anchorman (although I heard the quote parodied in the game Guild Wars first).

Hey EndStepTop, have you checked out my Nath list? Mine is a little different but has the same happy ending. Here is a link. Shen-nath-igans

TheRedGoat: Isn't Emrakul banned in this format?