Artifact (32)
- 1x Aetherflux Reservoir
- 1x Astral Cornucopia
- 1x Basalt Monolith
- 1x Chromatic Sphere
- 1x Chromatic Star
- 1x Crucible of Worlds
- 1x Cursed Totem
- 1x Engineered Explosives
- 1x Everflowing Chalice
- 1x Expedition Map
- 1x Grim Monolith
- 1x Lotus Petal
- 1x Mana Crypt
- 1x Mana Vault
- 1x Manifold Key
- 1x Mishra's Bauble
- 1x Mox Diamond
- 1x Mox Opal
- 1x Mystic Forge
- 1x Retrofitter Foundry
- 1x Rings of Brighthearth
- 1x Sensei's Divining Top
- 1x Smokestack
- 1x Sol Ring
- 1x Sphere of Resistance
- 1x Staff of Domination
- 1x Surge Node
- 1x Tangle Wire
- 1x Thorn of Amethyst
- 1x Trinisphere
- 1x Urza's Bauble
- 1x Voltaic Key
Enchantment (4)
Land (30)
- 1x Ancient Tomb
- 1x Barren Moor
- 1x Bayou
- 1x Blast Zone
- 1x Bloodstained Mire
- 1x Buried Ruin
- 1x Castle Locthwain
- 1x Command Tower
- 1x Forbidden Orchard
- 2x Forest
- 1x Inventors' Fair
- 1x Marsh Flats
- 1x Mishra's Workshop
- 1x Misty Rainforest
- 1x Overgrown Tomb
- 1x Phyrexian Tower
- 1x Polluted Delta
- 1x Prismatic Vista
- 1x Snow-Covered Forest
- 1x Snow-Covered Swamp
- 1x Strip Mine
- 2x Swamp
- 1x Tranquil Thicket
- 1x Urza's Saga
- 1x Verdant Catacombs
- 1x Wasteland
- 1x Windswept Heath
- 1x Wooded Foothills
Sorcery (5)
Planeswalker (2)
Commander (1)
Creature (13)
- 1x Ancient Stirrings
- 1x Arcbound Ravager
-
1x
Birds of Paradise
- 1x Coretapper
- 1x Dark Confidant
- 1x Deathrite Shaman
- 1x Hangarback Walker
- 1x Lodestone Golem
- 1x Metalworker
- 1x Myr Retriever
- 1x Scrap Trawler
- 1x Ulvenwald Tracker
- 1x Walking Ballista
Instant (13)
Maybeboard
Artifact (8)
Creature (4)
Land (2)
Instant (1)
Sorcery (3)
Planeswalker (1)
Enchantment (1)
Weakness is a plague...and we are its cure
Welcome to Glissa, the Traitor. This primer outlines a STAX build that combines its signature oppressive game of attrition with Glissa's built-in artifact recursion to create an unholy death machine guaranteed to make her the super-villain of multiplayer pods she deigns to grace with her presence.
STAX. Boogeyman to Timmys and Spikes alike. A namesake taken from the Urza block all-star Smokestack, STAX is a blanket term used to describe prison strategies that heavily employ resource denial, taxing effects, hand disruption, and/or permanent control in an attempt to make it extremely difficult for players to cast spells or keep permanents in play. Any combination of the aforementioned effects hitting an opponent from multiple angles will slowly turn any game into a deadly war of attrition that many decks are simply not equipped to overcome.
The goal of the STAX deck (aside from making opponents rue the day they thought they would ever have fun playing this game) is to assemble its devious little machine of denial as quickly and efficiently as possible, forcing opponents to play at its speed until it assembles its win cons...usually unopposed. A typical STAX shell will turn cards that normally hinder everyone, including itself, into cards that instead work to its advantage by employing alternative methods of advancement. A decent example specific to this list is counteracting the effect of Smokestack by playing cards such as Life from the Loam, Crucible of Worlds & Exploration to stay ahead while others fall behind. Another example is playing static permanents that do their job simply by existing such as Sphere of Resistance & Thorn of Amethyst that can be tapped to Tangle Wire without losing board presence.
Glissa, the Traitor acts both as a viable artifact recursion engine with her primary ability and a deterrence to would-be attackers as a first strike deathtoucher. The latter being very useful when defending on a stalled board state. Additionally, being at such a low CMC allows for quick and easy access to her, even if resources are slim.
Other commanders in golgari colors such as Meren of Clan Nel Toth, Nath of the Gilt-Leaf, Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord & Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest are viable choices for STAX in their own way. However, most of them lead into a more creature oriented STAX approach and lack the synergy Glissa has with previously mentioned artifact bombs such as Smokestack & Tangle Wire.
Additionally, Glissa was lucky enough to be printed with the rare keyword combo of first strike & deathtouch. Never underestimate the power of her ability to make opponents think twice about attacking you, especially while playing a deck that practically breeds spite attacks.
However, this leads us into our second weakness. Graveyard hate. Cards like Scavenging Ooze, Deathrite Shaman, Rest in Peace & Relic of Progenitus are not rare includes for opposing decks and should always be accounted for when managing our graveyard.
Another very important factor to take into account, especially in more casual pods, is politics. As STAX players, we usually don't get to enjoy the novelty advantages politics provide. Our deck doesn't play nice and doesn't like to make friends. As such, we will commonly see ourselves become the focus of the table's collective nerd rage as we try to slowly drain the life out of our opponents. We must fully expect to become the arch nemesis of every table. Thankfully, this list excels at keeping everyone down so attacks from multiple angles usually shouldn't be a problem.
These are our win conditions aside from STAXing opponents to death. If we're not actively using our turns to disrupt opponents, we should be working to safely set up for a win.
Rings of Brighthearth facilitates through a few cards in the list. Basalt Monolith is the obvious route. Everflowing Chalice or Astral Cornucopia (more than three counters) used with Voltaic Key or Manifold Key in play will also get the job done.
Example sequence as follows:
(1) Tap Monolith for .
(2) Activate monolith's second ability using the we just made.
(3) With the previous step's activation on the stack, use an external to copy monolith's untap ability with rings.
(4) As monolith untaps and with the second untap ability still on the stack, tap it again for . We now have in our mana pool and an untapped monolith.
(5) Continue this loop indefinitely and generate as desired.
Staff of Domination
Staff of Domination & Metalworker, with three additional artifacts in hand, can also be used to generate .
Example sequence as follows:
(1) Make with worker by revealing three artifacts from your hand
(2) Use to untap worker with staff
(3) Use to untap the staff itself.
(4) This loop will net with each iteration.
With , Walking Ballista can be cast for an arbitrary amount and activated enough times to kill the table while Hangarback Walker can be made into an arbitrarily large threat that creates an arbitrary amount of flying tokens when it dies. What is interesting about these cards, is that they are not only awesome low CMC finishers, but useful tools at any point in the game that can be easily recurred with Scrap Trawler, Myr Retriever, or with Glissa's ability.
Staff of Domination
Any of Staff of Domination's abilities may be activated as many times as desired with . We can gain an arbitrary amount of life or draw our entire deck to win by other means. This is one combo that never seems to pan out the same way twice. I once killed a table by activating and untapping Deathrite Shaman a bunch of times. Sometimes it's about sending a message.
Retrofitter Foundry
This one is pretty self explanatory. Retrofitter Foundry creates an army of servos, thopters, & constructs with .
Mystic Forge
Mystic Forge allows us to play all artifacts off the top of our library with . Ideally, we will have a Sensei's Divining Top on the field to clear non-artifacts from the top of the library without use of the forge's secondary ability. Voltaic Key & Manifold Key may also be used to untap the forge for another activation if need be.
Don't forget that we can also use Strip Mine & Wasteland when ahead as a denial engine to take out key lands, peg ramp decks down a notch, or finish off stragglers. This strategy becomes particularly effective when used with The Gitrog Monster, Exploration, or Azusa, Lost but Seeking.
Basic sequence as follows:
(1) Have Krark-Clan Ironworks, Scrap Trawler, & Myr Retriever on the field.
(2) Have a 0 drop, 1 drop, & 3 drop artifact in the graveyard.
(3) Sac the retriever to KCI, adding . Retriever & trawler will trigger.
(4) Resolve retriever trigger to return a 3 drop artifact from the graveyard to hand.
(5) Resolve trawler trigger to return a 1 drop artifact to hand.
(6) Play the 1 drop artifact and sac it to KCI to trigger trawler once more, returning a zero drop artifact to hand. You should now have available in your mana pool.
(7) Play the 3 drop artifact and sac it to KCI adding . Trawler trigger will return retriever to hand.
(8) Replay retriever. You may now also play and sacrifice the 0 drop artifact for an additional .
(9) Note, if your 0 drop artifact is Mox Opal or Mana Crypt you have the option of tapping them for additional mana before sacrificing them to KCI each loop, gaining infinite colored or colorless mana in the process. Additionally, if your 1 drop artifact is Chromatic Star you may draw a card as it hits the graveyard each loop, gaining the ability to draw your entire library.
Alternate sequence as follows (draw entire library with Chromatic Sphere):
(1) Have Krark-Clan Ironworks, Scrap Trawler, Myr Retriever, Chromatic Sphere & Mox Opal on the field.
(2) Tap and sacrifice opal to KCI to get , one of which can be any color.
(3) Sac retriever & KCI to KCI for an additional . You should now have available, one of which can be any color.
(4) Retriever will trigger once and trawler will trigger twice.
(5) Activate sphere's ability, sacrificing it to draw a card and generate one mana of any color. Trawler will trigger once more. You should now once more have total mana once the sphere ability cost is payed, one of which can be any color.
(5) Retriever, KCI, sphere, & opal all return to hand with stacked triggers. You should have exactly enough mana to replay everything and start another loop.
Glissa, the Traitor + Forbidden Orchard + Mindslaver = Mindslaver lock
Buried Ruin + Crucible of Worlds + Mindslaver = Mindslaver lock
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Triskelion = Infinite Ping Damage
If you have any suggestions or criticisms I'd love to hear them. Don't forget to +1 if you like the list. Thank you for viewing!
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Casual
97% Competitive
| Top Ranked |
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| Date added | 7 years |
| Last updated | 2 years |
| Legality | This deck is not Commander / EDH legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 7 - 0 Mythic Rares 55 - 0 Rares 22 - 0 Uncommons 10 - 0 Commons |
| Cards | 100 |
| Avg. CMC | 1.70 |
| Tokens | Construct 0/0 C, Construct 4/4 C, Servo 1/1 C, Spirit 1/1 C, Thopter 1/1 C |
| Folders | Personal, expesive black/green, Excellent Primer, Glissa, Commander, Me possible decks, Glissa, EDH, EDH Decks |
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