Stax vs Prison vs Pillowfort
General forum
Posted on June 24, 2020, 11:08 a.m. by DarkMagician
Can someone explain the differences between the three decks? Pillowfort could probably be added to the discussion as well although I know a bit more about it than the others.
Omniscience_is_life says... #3
Can’t say I’ve heard the term “prison” in a while, maybe I’m playing too much EDH!
June 24, 2020 12:12 p.m.
JANKYARD_DOG says... #4
Stax: the action of Stacking Taxation effects to make cards nigh unplayable. "Spells cost X more to play" and/or adding restrictions such as "only on your turn"
Prison: Just how it sounds, locking down permanents/players with 'can't' restrictions. 'Can't untap' or 'one spell per turn' sort of cards.
Pillowfort: using cushions to build a fort... wait... ok, using cards that say "pay X for each attacking creature" tying up resources basically.
That's pretty basic explanation I guess. You could add Hatebears into the mix too, which are small creatures with similar effects stapled to them.
June 24, 2020 12:17 p.m.
TriusMalarky says... #5
The difference is mostly in focus. Stax really doesn't want anyone to be doing anything, as they throw their entire gameplan into it. Think Stasis -- you have to invest everything, but nobody can do anything. As a result, you can effectively win using weird alt win cons over quite a lot of time.
Prison is a little more 'lock you down until I can punch you'. Red prison decks are a thing, but red stax and pillowfort aren't. Look up the RW Modern prison lists from a year or two ago.
Pillowfort is more janky, and all about 'lololol you can't touch me'.
Generally, Pillowfort is what you build for fun, stax is what you build when you purposely want to suck the soul out of your playgroup, and Prison is what you build when you want to win.
June 24, 2020 12:45 p.m.
a few extra seasonings...
Stax: The name comes from Smokestack, the first "grand-daddy" of this style of 'hard' permissions/control play. But prison was sort of its predecessor. The first "prison" I'm aware of was probably the monowhite (from somewhere in the memory vault Chris Cade comes to mind) from the mid/late 90s, or white/red artifact and removal heavy brews that played stuff like Ankh of Mishra + Winter Orb + Icy Manipulator and the like combined with Armageddon, 4x Strip Mine and some tax effects and other ways to make sure your opponent had a bad time. It was brutal but effective. Sometimes with a beater like Serra Angel to actually end the game in less than an hour...
Pillow-fort was a newer one to me but stuff like Island Sanctuary and Moat have been around for a long time. It's a soft lock more or less against many common strategies/deck types and gets more so in combination with other 'stax' pieces.
June 24, 2020 12:47 p.m.
Nerdytimesorwhatever says... #8
The goal of Stax is to generate an extreme resource imbalance by playing something that universally impacts everyone very negatively (Static Orb, Winter Orb) and has a method of breaking parity (or suffering a little less under the effects of intentional full table duress). Its ethos is win by whatever method necessary.
Prison is Stax, but with a focus on one specific type of annoying disruption. Lantern Control in Modern was an example of a true Prison deck. Its goal was to get both players hands to nothing in hand to facilitate a very long game with Ensnaring Bridge, use Lantern of Insight to look at the top of both decks, and Codex Shredder to mill relevent draws until you fully mill your opponent out.
Pillowfort is like really gentle stax/prison. You tend to do mutually beneficial things like Howling Mine with effects like propoganda to deter attacking you. Its not very effective.
shadow63 says... #2
Stax is prison just in commander pillow fort is making so you cant be attacked with stuff like Propaganda but normally doesn't use stuff like Winter Orb that stax would use
June 24, 2020 11:31 a.m.