Thrasios and Ravos are all the friends you need

Commander / EDH Control Four Color Infinite Combo Stax

HyperionMI6

Creature (15)

• 1x Brago, King Eternal
• 1x Derevi, Empyrial Tactician
• 1x Fatespinner
• 1x Grand Abolisher
• 1x Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
• 1x Kaho, Minamo Historian
• 1x Kiora's Follower
• 1x Massacre Wurm
• 1x Quirion Ranger
• 1x Silent Arbiter
• 1x Sylvan Caryatid
• 1x Trophy Mage
• 1x Vedalken Mastermind
• 1x Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
• 1x Yisan, the Wanderer Bard

Planeswalker (5)

• 1x Dovin Baan
• 1x Garruk Wildspeaker
• 1x Tamiyo, Field Researcher
• 1x Tezzeret the Seeker
• 1x Venser, the Sojourner

Land (38)

• 1x Arcane Sanctum
• 1x Azorius Chancery
• 1x Bayou
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Buried Ruin
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dromar's Cavern
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 2x Forest
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Golgari Rot Farm
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Island
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
• 1x Opulent Palace
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Plains
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Sandsteppe Citadel
• 1x Savannah
• 1x Scrubland
• 1x Seaside Citadel
• 1x Selesnya Sanctuary
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Tectonic Edge
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
• 1x Tropical Island
• 1x Tundra
• 1x Underground Sea
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Windswept Heath

Enchantment (9)

• 1x Bear Umbra
• 1x Defense of the Heart
• 1x Ghostly Prison
• 1x Luminarch Ascension
• 1x Propaganda
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Root Maze
• 1x Stasis
• 1x Words of Waste

Artifact (20)

• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Crystal Chimes
• 1x Cursed Totem
• 1x Defense Grid
• 1x Ensnaring Bridge
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Mana Web
• 1x Meekstone
• 1x Smokestack
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Static Orb
• 1x Sword of Feast and Famine
• 1x Tangle Wire
• 1x Thran Dynamo
• 1x Torpor Orb
• 1x Trading Post
• 1x Trinisphere
• 1x Whispersilk Cloak
• 1x Winter Orb

Instant (5)

• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Blue Sun's Zenith
• 1x Dramatic Reversal
• 1x Muddle the Mixture
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Sorcery (6)

• 1x Day of Judgment
• 1x Decree of Pain
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Hidden Strings
• 1x Merciless Eviction
• 1x Ponder

Commanders (2)

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Sideboard

Creature (2)

• 1x Kataki, War's Wage
• 1x Silas Renn, Seeker Adept

Artifact (5)

• 1x Aether Spellbomb
• 1x Nevinyrral's Disk
• 1x Sunbeam Spellbomb
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Talisman of Unity

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Maybeboard

Creature (4)

• 1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
• 1x Elite Arcanist
• 1x Iona, Shield of Emeria
• 1x Rune-Scarred Demon

Land (1)

• 1x Treva's Ruins

Enchantment (4)

• 1x Abundance
• 1x Chains of Mephistopheles
• 1x Contamination
• 1x Zur's Weirding

Artifact (4)

• 1x Damping Matrix
• 1x Grafdigger's Cage
• 1x Sphere of Resistance
• 1x Storage Matrix

Instant (1)

• 1x Benefactor's Draught

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Cataclysm *list*

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Are you tired of having WAY too many friends?

Having friends that think you will always be content to play cute group hug decks at the kitchen table?

If you answered yes to both of these questions, then stax is the deck for you!

Main combo in this stax brew is a "stasis lock", that is, a combo that prevents you from having to sacrifice Stasis as your untapped lands begin to dwindle. This permanently erases the untap step for your opponents (and sometimes yourself).

Optimal combo is Stasis + Vedalken Mastermind . The mastermind's ability is used at the end of the last opponent's turn before yours, allowing you to have your untap step back. It does require your to recast Stasis on each of your turns, but with lands and mana rocks untapping, this will not be a problem.

Other locks include Brago, King Eternal + Gilded Lotus or Chromatic Lantern. When brago attacks, he can exile himself and the mana rock to return them untapped to pay the cost of Stasis later on.

Brago, King Eternal + Sword of Feast and Famine also produces a better version of this effect. This combo works with Derevi, Empyrial Tactician as well, as he can untap himself and the sword can untap the lands.

Kiora, Master of the Depths or Garruk Wildspeaker can create a lock as well. Tezzeret the Seeker can do the same with colored mana-producing artifacts such as Gilded Lotus.Once the lock is in place, there are many fun things that can be added on.

• Root Maze to ensure your opponents' slim chance of escaping the lock becomes no chance of escaping (this stops them from dropping a couple lands into a Naturalize, for example).

• The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale to start killing off their creatures.

• Derevi, Empyrial Tactician, Hidden Strings, and Tamiyo, Field Researcher can all begin tapping down any leftover blockers or artifacts.

Besides stasis locks, this deck runs other common stax pieces like Smokestack (the card for which this archetype is named), Winter Orb, Mana Web and others.

Kaho, Minamo Historian can go infinite with a Dramatic Reversal exiled with her and a Gilded Lotus or a Thran Dynamo. Once you have infinite mana, cast Thrasios, Triton Hero and use his ability to get your deck in hand, and play Blue Sun's Zenith to kill off each opponent. Welcome to the dark side.

Also note: The recommended three card search with Kaho, Minamo Historian is Vampiric Tutor, Dramatic Reversal, and Muddle the Mixture.

Ensnaring Bridge is always useful, and throw in a Words of Waste to make sure your hand size stays small.

Defense of the Heart into the two praetors, Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur and Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger. Vorinclex is especially fun with cards like Winter Orb.

It is worth noting that many cards in this deck affect you as well as your opponents, so these interactions are important to steer clear of:

• Kaho, Minamo Historian can be nullified by either Torpor Orb or Cursed Totem.

• Massacre Wurm is also nullified by Torpor Orb.

• Yisan, the Wanderer Bard, Vedalken Mastermind , and Quirion Ranger, as well as any mana dorks, are all nullified by Cursed Totem.

• If your hand size drops too low, Ensnaring Bridge will start to affect the capabilities of cards like Derevi, Empyrial Tactician and Brago, King Eternal .

Commander choices

Thrasios, Triton Hero

This guy is excellent and one of my favorite partner commanders printed so far. He is very easy to play, and as a 2-drop he can cover you for a turn or two while you start assembling pieces or locking down the field. Plus, his activated ability has no limit and takes infinite mana (even colorless) and gives you your deck.

Ravos, Soultender

For a while I was unsure about which partner to pick for a stax with Thrasios, but I knew I wanted to do a WUBG deck (I considered Atraxa, Praetors' Voice, but did not want to go on the path of superfriends with the deck. On that note, however, there are many great Atraxa superfriends stax decks on tapped out, and I suggest you check them out if that's more your thing).

Anyway, I actually tested and planned to build this deck with Tymna the Weaver as my other partner, because up until recently I hadn't even READ ravos and dismissed him offhand. Now, while I am sure Tymna has a place in many other great EDH decks, she just does not fit in a stax brew like this one. Once I did consider the other BW partner, Ravos, I realized that he was an obvious include simply because of how useful and relevant his recursion ability was. (Man, I don't get it; it's like they don't want you to have a Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur out!)

Thanks for looking! Feel free to upvote if you support the cruel chaotic control that is stax!

Date added	7 years
Last updated	7 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	16 - 1 Mythic Rares 50 - 2 Rares 23 - 2 Uncommons 6 - 2 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.24
Tokens	Angel 4/4 W, Beast 3/3 G, Emblem Dovin Baan, Emblem Tamiyo, Field Researcher, Emblem Venser, the Sojourner, Goat 0/1 W
Folders	Redless partners