You're Probably Wrong about Stax in EDH

0:00 Armageddon vs Wrath of God
3:06 Stax
11:39 Control
17:59 It's all resource denial
24:35 Answering the stax question

[YourPalJamieEllis]

Comparing some Commander games to fidget toy parallel play was the comparison I didn't know I needed.

[Randomperson-pkce]

I think i may have made this comment before, but I would just like to praise your videos for a sec. You consistently make topics approachable, yet deep, push against common assumptions, and communicate so much in such a simple style. While Rhystic Studies might be my favorite mtg YouTuber for the quality of his production, you are my favorite for the simple originality of your products.

[johanandersson]

Destroy all lands. They can’t be regenerated.

[thomaspetrucka]

I have found a dozen off-brand channels that give thoughtful analysis on mtg...but nothing compares to the real thing.

[ring-tailedlemurs]

Commander is supposed to be a format were everyone’s favorite strategy has the room to work, and that worked when it was a niche format with not necessarily every type of player, but now that commander is the primary format it has to face the fact that some people’s favorite strategy is stopping people from playing the game.

[catz_ee]

Mass land-wipes in particular are in sort of a strange place. The players they're best against (land heavy decks) are also the players most likely to actually recover from the land-wipe due to the quantity of lands in their decks and the amount of land ramp they run, while everyone else, including yourself, might just get stuck on no lands. As far as I know, they've yet to print a targeted mass land destruction card (like a River's Rebuke but for lands), even though theoretically that would be the best answer to greedy land ramp decks.

[finstryel]

I think a big part of why "hard" stax is shunned upon is not just player agency, but also playtime. Nobody wants to sit through a Winter orb game, even if their deck was decently equipped to deal with it. Same goes for a turn 10 Armageddon. I reckon almost everybody would rather scoop, give the stax player the win and go to another game, instead of slugging it out for the next 45mins. This is even more important in low power formats and for people, that only have limited time to play.

[jordangreen]

I personally switched from having a soft spot for stax to absolutely loving control. It allows me to keep my strength in hand instead of on board and it gives my opponent the illusion that they are allowed to play too. In reality, they're only allowed to play things that don't affect my win.

[bartoffer]

One of the big issues with stax is that it's often played not to win the game, but to sit there and do nothing. Armageddon is an insanely powerful card if you use it to lock the board down - that was the old combo with Kaalia. Shutdown cards can be good to armlock opponents, if you're able to win with that leverage point.

Blood Moon in a genuine mono-red hyper-aggro deck gives you enough leverage for that uncommon strategy to really compete, if you happen to draw it. Ruination also becomes a coup de grâce if you actually use it as a finisher.

[ryandavidson]

My main issue with MLD specifically, is that it is wayyy too easy to stop someone’s “grand plan” with it most of the time. Like idk maybe it’s just me but I don’t think beating in with zurgo over 5+ turns after a land wipe is a very effective wincon.

Basically, when someone kills your threat in response to the mld, or has protection for their own board, the caster basically just ruined the game for probably at least 2 people, if not for the entire table. I don’t really know anyone that wants to essentially restart a game after 8 turns like that.

[Minty_MH]

I think soft stax is great for casual edh. I have been running more in my aggressive decks, and would suggest other people do the same!

[slimeproject]

Watching your videos has made my decks so much better over the course of time. Adding cards with more versatility and removal/interaction has made my decks more fun to play since I rarely get to do "nothing" in a game. The same can be said for what you described as stax cards.

[PoeticMistakes]

I like to denote the difference between Stax and Control as "You can try to do that but i will stop you" and "No, you are not allowed to do that". And i find stopping people engaging, while i find denying people the ability to play to be boring. But thats just me.

Also, to be clear: Obviously Leyline of the void is a stax piece. what else would it be?

[PrzemkoZ]

I feel like one of the issues is that stax stuff can feel arbitrary in its restrictions.
When the zombie player pops off and gets a ton of 1/1s you can't beat, you've just been outplayed. Even if you lose, you can still try whatever you have in your toolbox.
When the stax players casts "spells in your deck no longer have effects" as an enchantment, suddenly your toolbox just stops working *at all*.

[sverrekubban]

Actually i was scrolling through the salt list just a few hours ago, and wondering "why on earth is teferis protection on here" (Score: 2.02). So thank you, you managed to answer my question with remarkable speed!

A lot of your examples of pseudo-stax that isnt socially excluded seem to be pretty hated: The one ring (2.70) is the 8th most salty card legal in the format. Blood moon (2.20) is on the list as well. And of course so is cyclonic rift (2.40). Farewell (2.20) too.

[brendan-kfp.mmminigun]

I recently slotted Fall of the Thran into my Megatron, Tyrant deck to punish the two guys at the table who seem addicted to getting 12 lands on the table in the first 4 turns. It brings parity to the table, I can get most of the mana to cast it from Megatron slapping around the ramp player who doesn't have an effective blocker, and gives everyone back some lands over some turns. Of course, Megatron himself is still slapping people around and generating mana in the meantime. And since I get the first returned lands I'll be the first one with 3 colored pips available, which is pretty sweet.

[lucyarisato]

While I might watch Maldhound most as my MtG creator of choice, there’s a reason I have on notifications for the both of you. You’re an absolutely awesome wealth of knowledge, and I’m super thankful to have found you. <3

[Sestze]

Razia's Purification is "everyone chooses 3 permanents and sacrifices the rest", if you're looking for more effects that attack manabases but are limited in scope.

[ubermenschen]

I think there's a flaw in your logic regarding cards that add additional mana costs to spells. I don't think it's as clear cut as "these punish players who are ahead", b/c they also punish players who are behind, possibly even more so than players who are ahead.

To put another way: +1 mana cost is not much for a player with 6 available mana, but certainly is for a player with 3.

[docopoper]

I think what is important for most cards is for problems they create to feel solvable. Either that or they should win the game in a way that feels solvable in the next game. Sometimes solving a problem will involve some deck tweaking, but if the solution would involve too much tweaking then the decks weren't properly matched to begin with.