I’ve always wondered if MUD or Stax or whatever you want to call it was viable in Legacy. There are no Mishra’s Workshops or true Moxen, but there are some suitable Legacy replacements like Mox Diamond and Ancient Tomb.
This deck’s goal, oddly enough, is to play as little Magic as possible. All it wants to do is establish a soft lock with various taxing effects, such as Sphere of Resistance and Lodestone Golem, all while establishing a clock. There is no need for colored mana here, as everything the deck wants to be doing can be found with artifacts (or with Phyrexian mana if you want to go the Dismember route).
Tangle Wire, Chalice of the Void, and Ensnaring Bridge establish their own sort of locks, contributing to the overall goal. Crucible of Worlds plus Wasteland punishes unprepared manabases, but Crucible can also help bring back some manlands that have fallen victim to Lightning Bolts. If there’s ever anything that slips through the cracks, Ratchet Bomb can clean it up.
The true lock comes from Smokestack. Generally you’ll keep your Smokestack set at one while you slowly chip away at their permanents. If you have a Crucible of Worlds in play, you can satisfy the Smokestack’s requirements easily. Sometimes your opponent’s board will be getting out of control, but you should be able handle that easily considering this deck is entirely permanents.
Remember that you can sacrifice zero permanents to Smokestack on your first upkeep and then add a counter, or sacrifice one permanent and then add a second counter. You can also sacrifice a Tangle Wire that’s about to die. You also get to stack the triggers of your abilities during your opponent’s upkeep, which allows you to make them sacrifice to Smokestack before they have to tap down permanents for Tangle Wire. These little tricks help you outlast your opponent when you’re both under the grind.
This deck might be a flash in the pan, but it looks close to as powerful as MUD is in Vintage, at least when you compare the power level of Vintage to Legacy. Charlie-In-The-Mox has gone 4-0 and 3-1 so far, so this deck might actually be a contender.
Creatures (4)
Lands (26)
Spells (30)
- 3 Ensnaring Bridge
- 4 Sphere of Resistance
- 4 Crucible of Worlds
- 4 Smokestack
- 4 Tangle Wire
- 3 Mox Diamond
- 4 Chalice of the Void
- 4 Ratchet Bomb
Sideboard
