Archetypes - Stax

James - Dibs on Stax. I'd like to do this one from start to finish as I rebuild Shattergang Brothers into a more competitive shell.

Archetype Explanation
The term "stax" comes from the iconic card that defines the archetype - Smokestack. Originally printed in Urza's Saga, Smokestack is an incredibly powerful resource denial tool that plays an important role in any deck that is looking to prevent its opponents from developing a solid boardstate. Like most major archetypes, a stax deck is looking to warp the game so non-stax decks cannot accomplish their primary objectives. This is often done by utilizing devastating symmetrical effects, and building your deck so it thrives in the resultant environment.

Board locks are often employed to deny opponents access to resources such as mana and card advantage.

Stax decks will often value cards that cause opponents to sacrifice permanents, and may include elements of graveyard recursion and aggro. Low-cost, efficient permanents really shine in this environment.

Core Cards
The best list I've seen of core cards for the stax archetype comes from Phil at MTGSalvation. I'm not going to reinvent the wheel, so here's the link to his primer. This is pretty well the premier stax primer and it is a must-read as far as I'm concerned.

Archetype Strengths
Stax decks do extremely well in metas that rely heavily on moderate board presence. Stax decks often have a significant advantage over Voltron strategies and combos that rely on one or two specific cards being on the battlefield as part of a wincon.

Archetype Weaknesses
Some deck archetypes that you encounter do not rely on a board presence to accomplish their goals. Certain combo decklists will watch happily as you force the other players in your 4-man pod to sacrifice their permanents, then laugh as you sit and watch them manipulate the stack.

I have found graveyard recursion decks to be a particularly tough matchup, as many of them love it when you stack their graveyard with creatures and artifacts that they can reanimate later on in the game for maximum benefit and minimum cost.

Decks that go extremely wide quickly, such as Krenko, Mob Boss and Rhys, the Redeemed can sometimes outpace your ability to force permanent sacrifices.

Hoser cards such as Anafenza the Foremost, Rest in Peace, and Leyline of the Void can make for difficult matchups as they prevent abilities from triggering on creature death.

Derevi, Empyrial Tactician - Banned in French
Derevi, Empyrial Tactician has the potential to be one of the most devastating stax commanders in the format. Stax as an archetype often involves effects that tap opponents' permanents. Cards such as Winter Orb and Tangle Wire do this symmetrically, and having a reliable way to untap your own permanents allows you to break the symmetry and end up in a favourable boardstate.

Derevi, Empyrial Tactician is the only card in the format that allows you to completely circumvent commander tax. By paying 1GWU, you can put her directly onto the field at instant speed. This effect cannot be countered by standard counterspells as you are not actually casting her from the command zone. This makes Derevi, Empyrial Tactician extremely resilient to removal and control strategies.

Derevi's untapping ability allows the deck's pilot to abuse artifacts that require tapping as part of their activation costs. This allows you to tap out in your pre-combat main phase, untap during combat, and leave mana open for control strategies on other players' turns.

Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
Grand Arbiter Augustin IV fits in quite nicely to a resource denial strategy like stax, increasing the converted mana cost of your opponents' spells, as well as offering you ways to cast your own spells for less.

Being in Azorius colour identity provides access to other tax effects such as Ghostly Prison, Propaganda, and Rhystic Study.

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Hokori, Dust Drinker
What could be better than the iconic stax card Winter Orb?

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Having consistent access to Winter Orb throughout the entire game without having to burn a tutor to dig for it.

The obvious downside here is you are pigeonholed into a narrow colour identity, but there are a ton of excellent stax and tax cards available in monowhite, as well as several artifacts that slot right into any stax strategy.

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Nath of the Gilt Leaf
Nath of the Gilt Leaf provides a ton of fodder for sacrifice effects such as Smokestack, and fits right in with hand hate strategies and the Waste Not combo.

The fact that Nath is an Elf provides the deck with access to tribal synergies like ramp (Elvish Archdruid / Heritage Druid) and anthem / overrun effects (Joraga Warcaller / Ezuri, Renegade Leader). Heavy reliance on creature mana allows the deck to play around Winter Orb quite effectively.

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Shattergang Brothers
Shattergang Brothers is a commander that I highly recommend for a Jund stax deck. Its three abilities are incredibly disruptive for opponents, and they scale very well to multiplayer. These abilities do not target, and as a result they get around protection from colours, hexproof/shroud, and indestructible.

A Jund colour identity provides access to some excellent cards that break the symmetry of stax cards, as well as small, efficient creatures with utility on ETB and LTB. It also doesn't hurt that Jund has access to some of the best targeted removal in the format, making the deck incredibly responsive to a wide variety of archetypes.

Being able to sacrifice your own permanents on demand is also an incredibly powerful effect. Many stax decks focus first on locking down the board, assembling their wincon, and then breaking the symmetrical lock to close out the game. If at any point during the game you realize that your stax effect(s) are affecting you more than your opponents, you can simply sacrifice them to Shattergang Brothers for value.

Deck Spotlight - Shattergang Brothers Stax
After misplacing my original Shattergang Brothers soft stax deck, I decided that I was going to go all-out. I am currently in the process of overhauling the decklist and making it as competitive as possible.