The $400 Solution Part II – Angel Stax: Matchup Analysis
(Part I discusses the development and construction of the deck. I will be calling it Angel Stax to distinguish it from Red Stax lists.)
Development Summary
In my previous article on this deck, I explained the maindeck choices and gave some general sideboard options. I focused on the strategy of the deck and the explanation of why particular cards were included, or excluded. However, I did not spend much time talking about sideboarding, but instead gave some possible options and a general sideboard. Here is the decklist from my last article:
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Wrath of God
3 Exalted Angel
4 Smokestack
3 Trinisphere
4 Tangle Wire
3 Crucible of Worlds
3 Sphere of Resistance
4 Powder Keg
4 Wasteland
4 Rishadan Port
5 Plains
4 Mox Diamond
4 White Fetchland (2 Windswept Heath, 2 Flooded Strand)
4 Ancient Tomb
3 City of Traitors
In this article, I am going to talk about the sideboard. I will discuss how to construct it and how to use it against specific decks. I omitted discussion of two particularly relevant cards in the last article, and I will discuss their usefulness here. However, in order to explain all of this, I will need to say more about how to play this deck properly.
The Game Plan of Angel Stax
The name “Angel Stax” is appropriate because it defines two things about the deck. The first is that it defines the commitment of the deck to White. The second is the way that Exalted Angel fits into this decks plan for winning. Exalted Angel distinguishes this Stax list from others that rely on creatures such as Goblin Welder, because it indicates a much different overall strategy.
What is this deck’s overall strategy? I will examine this question in detail. In understanding the deck’s plan for winning the game, we can understand how to correctly play the deck and construct a sideboard.
Without getting into too much Magic theory, consider the relevant resources available to this deck:
1.
a) Seven cards in hand
b) One card draw per turn
2.
a) One land drop per turn
b) One untap phase per turn.
3.
a) Twenty life points
How does this deck want to utilize these resources to win the game? In short, this deck needs to abuse 1b and 2b as much as possible without depleting resource 3. By playing lock parts, removal, and mana denial, the deck seeks to remove all of the opponent’s relevant permanents, at which point it can deploy a win condition. (Exalted Angel serves not only as this win condition, but also as great card for stalling out the game and gaining control over the board). A more detailed explanation of this process follows.
This deck is immediately going to break rule 2a by playing Ancient Tomb, City of Traitors, and Mox Diamond, which will enable the deck to start its curve at two mana. The deck abuses cards that violate rule 2a to play lock components that decrease the value of the opponents land drops. In doing so, the deck slows down the game significantly; thereby drawing more cards and receiving more untap steps.
By drawing more lock parts and having more relevant mana production, the deck will make it harder still for the opponent to do anything. The important thing to remember is that this process starts on turn one. This deck must begin putting pressure on the opponent immediately – otherwise, the opponent will gain enough of a “tempo” advantage to make Stax’s permanents irrelevant. This disadvantage is ultimately measured by the life total of the Stax player. Stax implicitly defends its life total by stalling the opponent and preventing them from playing threats. Stax cannot prevent the opponent from casting any threats at all, so it also has an explicit defense in the form of maindeck removal. However, this removal also happens to fit in well with the larger strategy of board dominance. Stax’s ultimate goal is to have a Crucible of Worlds–Smokestack lock on the board, in addition to a Trinisphere, Tangle Wire, Sphere of Resistance, Exalted Angel, and/or Chalice of the Void. By slowing the opponent down and removing their threats (with Powder Keg and Wrath of God), Stax both protects its life total and increases the power of active Smokestacks.
Stax is a deck that attacks the opponent’s “tempo.” The most recent attempt to define this term was detailed by Jacob Orlove in his article “Putting it all Together.” In this article, Jacob describes “tempo” as fundamentally about the future value of your resources (relative to your opponent). What Stax aims to do is significantly reduce the value of all of your opponent’s resources to “lock” them out of the game.
What does this mean, exactly? How does Stax deny the opponent of “tempo?” If played correctly, the deck will deprive the opponent of the opportunity to generate “tempo” – not necessarily of the tempo it already has. In fact, a weakness of this deck is that whatever tempo the opponent has already generated makes it harder for Stax to deploy its strategy, by making it defend its life total instead of disrupting the opponent. Stax wants to play its lock parts out as soon as possible, making it harder and harder for the opponent to play spells, while at the same time giving them less and less mana to do so. If Stax has to spend its resources playing Wrath of God instead of Smokestack, the long-term value of the opponent’s resources stays constant, and the opponent will have more time to develop a stronger board position (equivalent to more land drops and more permanents being cast).
This conflict basically makes Stax a “control” deck, but instead of controlling which spells resolve, Stax wants to control the opponent’s ability to play spells in the first place. This is the game plan of Angel Stax. At the core of this strategy is the synergy between Crucible of Worlds and Smokestack. By playing these two cards in addition to some combination of Sphere of Resistance, Trinisphere, Tangle Wire, Chalice of the Void, Wasteland, and Rishadan Port, Stax will slowly remove all of the opponents permanents while drawing a card every turn, and either strengthening its lock or attacking. The Crucible-Smokestack interaction is vital to this deck, which suggests some surprising conclusions about the viability of a Ravnica card in Angel Stax.
Suppression Field
This is one of the relevant cards I mentioned in the introduction. Suppression Field is a strong card, and appears to be a natural choice for Angel Stax. However, after the lengthy explanation of the deck’s core strategy, it should be apparent that there are some problems with playing this card in the maindeck. The first and most important one is that this deck has 12 lands with nonmana activated abilities. Eight of these deprive the opponent of mana directly, through either tapping or destroying their lands. If Stax uses its mana to pay for Suppression Field in order to use these abilities, the opponent can just play spells and win. Here is a very short list of some relevant Legacy cards that Suppression Field attacks:
Flooded Strand, Wooded Foothills, Bloodstained Mire, Polluted Delta, Windswept Heath
Umezawa’s Jitte, Sword of Fire and Ice
Aether Vial
Powder Keg
Survival of the Fittest
Time Vault
Cursed Scroll
Wild Mongrel
Rishadan Port
Wasteland
One problem with this card, as with Winter Orb, is that it is best against decks that are already good matchups for Stax. Combo and Control are naturally easier for Stax to attack with the lock components it already uses. Aggro-Control decks can sometimes be a problem, and while Suppression Field is good against them, it is not good against Goblins. For any competitive Legacy player, that should be enough information. Suppression Field is a bad card against Goblins because it does not stop the opponent from playing spells and killing you. Another problem, as is obvious from the above list, is that Suppression Field has terrible synergy with some important maindeck cards in Angel Stax. Suppression Field actually makes the Goblins matchup worse by making it much harder to use cards that are needed to survive. Powder Keg is awful if you have to pay two mana to activate it. There is a slot for four-mana removal in the deck, and it is already taken by Wrath of God. Rishadan Port and Wasteland are terrible when their mana denial costs two more to use. The fetchlands are key to generating double white with Crucible of Worlds. All of these are necessary cards, and their effect on the board is invaluable.
Constructing a Sideboard
Most articles that talk about sideboarding touch on the importance of tailoring it to a specific environment. There are many options that this deck has when building a sideboard, and which ones increase the strength of the deck the most depend on what decks it will be playing against. I will outline the plan against several popular decks and discuss what sideboarding strategies are most effective, and provide suggestions for specific sideboarding plans.
Goblins
No matter what Legacy deck you are playing, this your most important matchup. Having a good game against Goblins is roughly equivalent to having a good game against any competitive field. It is only roughly equivalent because some people will still play other decks, like Landstill. Goblins is probably the toughest matchup for Angel Stax. Therefore, as it is for almost every other deck, beating Goblins is very important.
Sphere of Law is the other relevant card omitted in the last article. My general sideboard included three copies of Circle of Protection: Red, due to its strength against decks besides Goblins, such as Sligh and Burn. However, the additional protection is not necessary in a competitive metagame, in which Goblins is likely to be the only serious threat from red decks. Sphere of Law basically makes all of Goblins threats irrelevant except one card, Goblin Piledriver. Powder Keg and Wrath of God both deal with Goblin Piledriver very well, so Sphere of Law is extremely effective as a sideboard card in this matchup.
The best Goblins decks will be splashing another color, for sideboard support. White, green and black provide various sideboard options to the Goblins deck. The relevant cards from red, white, and green in this matchup are Disenchant, Naturalize, Oxidize, Shattering Pulse, Rack and Ruin, and other targeted removal. If you think these cards are coming in, Hanna’s Custody can usually keep your artifacts on the board long enough to matter. At the very least, it will soak up the first targeted removal spell. Cards like Meltdown are bigger problems for Angel Stax, since it must already have some control over the board in order to prevent these spells from resolving. The relevant sideboard cards from Goblin decks splashing black are Living Death and Patriarch’s Bidding. Tormod’s Crypt answers these spells very well, and can basically act as a Wrath of God for Goblin decks relying on the reanimation. Tormod’s Crypt can also prevent the flashback on Cabal Therapy, but that is not likely to be an issue for Angel Stax.
Depending on the build, Angel Stax could be sideboarding in three to six cards in this matchup. To maximize ΔP, the weakest cards need to come out. On the draw, Chalice of the Void is somewhat weaker b
ecause it cannot stop Goblin Lackey from going nuts. Goblins runs around twelve one-casting cost spells, so Chalice of the Void is still a strong card in this matchup, but one or two copies could be sideboarded out. Chalice of the Void for two also counters the most common artifact removal spells, an important piece of information to consider when sideboarding. Sphere of Resistance is probably the weakest card in this matchup, since Goblin Lackey and AEther Vial completely bypass actually casting spells. This is an issue for Trinisphere also, but if Chalice of the Void for one is on the board, or Powder Keg has destroyed the AEther Vial and/or Goblin Lackey, then Trinisphere can be very effective at slowing the game down. Do not be afraid to mulligan aggressively into strong hands that contain a fast lock or lots of removal.Out
3 Sphere of Resistance
0-2 Chalice of the Void
0-1 Trinisphere
In
3-4 Sphere of Law
0-2 Hanna’s Custody
Survival
ATS has dramatically declined in popularity over the last year, while RGSA has proved to be more resilient and consistent in its results. RGSA is much more likely to appear in a competitive tournament, and is an easier matchup for Angel Stax than ATS.
In order to execute its strategy, the RGSA needs some time to set up. Survival decks will typically open with mana acceleration, such as Llanowar Elf, Birds of Paradise, Wall of Roots, or Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary. Then the deck will attack with efficient creatures and deploy the Survival of the Fittest engine. Once the Survival deck has enough mana to tutor for, cast, and recast its strongest cards, it is difficult to get back into the game. However, Stax is very good at mana denial, which is an effective way of shutting down the Survival engine.
If the RGSA player does not resolve enough mana acceleration, the Survival engine will be ineffective, as he or she cannot tutor for and cast threats quickly enough. All of the lock parts are very good at disrupting this mana development. Chalice of the Void, Sphere of Resistance, Trinisphere, and Tangle Wire prevent the opponent from casting creatures. Powder Keg and Wrath of God destroy the mana accelerants and threats that do resolve. RGSA does not usually create a lot of pressure in the early game, preferring instead to deploy its card advantage engine, so Stax has a moderate amount of time to take control of the game, even before sideboarding.
Seal of Cleansing and Tormod’s Crypt are very strong cards to sideboard in this matchup. Both of these can shut down the Survival engine, and prevent the RGSA player from drawing more threats. Seal of Cleansing is primarily there to destroy Survival of the Fittest, but it is also strong against anti-Stax sideboard cards. Null Rod, which is not a common card but is still played, can shut down Powder Keg and Mox Diamond (which in turn can prevent the Stax player from casting Wrath of God or Exalted Angel) and allow RGSA’s creatures to dominate the board. Blood Moon, another uncommon but worrisome card, decreases Stax’s mana production and turns off Wasteland and Rishadan Port, giving the opponent more turns to make land drops and draw answers. Tormod’s Crypt gets rid of Genesis and Squee, Goblin Nabob, both of which can provide the Survival deck with endless creatures. Removing RGSA’s recursion with Tormod’s Crypt can prevent the RGSA player from recurring threats or removal like Viridian Zealot and Uktabi Orangutan.
The weakest card in this matchup is probably Trinisphere, as RGSA has many threats that cost three or more mana, such as Eternal Witness, Flametongue Kavu, Ravenous Baloth, and Troll Ascetic. Going first, the RGSA player will likely play a one-mana mana accelerant before passing the turn. Therefore, Chalice of the Void is not as good in the early game, and can be replaced by more relevant cards. However, Chalice of the Void for three is still a strong play in this matchup, depending on the RGSA build. It sounds obvious, but the Stax player needs to consider what is in the opponent’s deck before sideboarding.
Out
3 Trinisphere
0-1 Chalice of the Void
0-2 Mox Diamond
In
3-4 Seal of Cleansing
0-2 Tormod’s Crypt
Landstill
Landstill is widely criticized as being slow and cumbersome, and is losing popularity. However, it is still a popular deck, and U/W control variants are likely to appear in many tournaments. As discussed in the previous article, against Landstill, Stax can focus exclusively on mana denial and lock components in the early game. This is therefore a very favorable matchup. Control decks for the most part are good matchups for Angel Stax.
The best way to play against control is to deny the opponent mana very aggressively. Use Wastelands and Rishadan Ports as often as possible. Tap their lands during their upkeep, and perhaps again during your first main phase, in order to resolve as many lock components as possible. An early Smokestack, Chalice of the Void for 2, and Crucible of Worlds are all very strong plays that can quickly dominate the game. A Sphere of Resistance or Trinisphere combined with one Rishadan Port can prevent the opponent from countering spells for several turns. Make the control deck use their Force of Wills as soon as possible, and try to cast more than one lock component per turn. With enough early pressure, the control deck either will not have enough permission – or will not be able to use the permission they do have – to stop a Smokestack from eating their lands. The control matchup is not too complicated, but an early mistake can allow them to raise the counter-wall and keep it up.
Defense Grid is invaluable here, as it can come down starting on turn 1, and in combination with the other mana disruption, will keep them from countering anything important. Seal of Cleansing is also a nice addition, as it can destroy Crucible of Worlds, Nevinyrral’s Disk, and rarer sideboard cards like Energy Flux (or Mishra’s Factory if they decide to activate it). Hanna’s Custody could be useful, but it depends entirely on the build of the control deck. Try to get as much information about the deck as you can, and consider what is in their sideboard before boarding it in, as it may be a dead card.
Out
4 Wrath of God
2-4 Powder Keg
0-1 Mox Diamond
In
3 Defense Grid
3-4 Seal of Cleansing
0-2 Hanna’s Custody
Solidarity
What applies to Solidarity also applies to the Tendrils of Agony combo decks, such as those built around Helm of Awakening or Ill-Gotten Gains. Solidarity happens to be faster and more consistent than those decks, and hence more popular, which means it will probably show up at a competitive tournament.
However, it should not matter what particular combo deck you are facing, as they are all very easy matchups for Angel Stax. Sphere of Resistance, Trinisphere, and Chalice of the Void are very strong against combo, and will slow them down significantly. Tangle Wire and Smokestack are also good here, and will allow the Stax deck to remove all of the opponent’s mana production. The only thing that the Stax player should worry about is Cunning Wish, which can fetch some kind of bounce spell. Chain of Vapor, Echoing Truth, Hurkyl’s Recall, Rushing River, and Rebuild will all give the combo player more room to breathe, and perhaps take control of the game. Chalice of the Void set at two and three are therefore very strong plays. Chalice of the Void set at one is already a strong play, as is shuts down the one-mana cantrips, and the deck’s mana generator, High Tide.
Sideboarding against this deck is easy. In fact, there are not enough cards to bring in, so you might be left with dead cards in the maindeck in games two and three (which is not a problem, since almost every lock part is huge against combo). Defense Grid shuts down Reset, and Hanna’s Custody negates all of the targeted bounce spells. Tormod’s Crypt counters only one card in their deck, Flash of Insight, but since it is better than having dead cards in the maindeck, it comes in. Against other combo decks, Seal of Cleansing could perhaps be a better choice, depending on their sideboard.
Out
4 Wrath of God
3-4 Powder Keg
In
3 Defense Grid
2 Hanna’s Custody
0-2 Tormod’s Crypt
0-3 Seal of Cleansing
Less Popular Decks
So far, there have only been two large Legacy tournaments. One of these was the Legacy Championships at Gen Con, and the other was the Star City Duel for Duels tournament. Both of these were won by Vial Goblins. The Top 8s of these tournaments contained Goblins, Landstill, and RGSA, among others. Many other decks have performed well, but in the absence of a coherent metagame, it is difficult to tell which decks are the best. So I will discuss a few more archetypes that I feel have some potential in Legacy, despite the lack of consistently high finishes from them.
Fish, Madness, Gro
These three decks have a lot in common. They run efficient creatures, draw spells, countermagic, and mana disruption. These elements can give Angel Stax a hard time if played well. If any of these decks can resolve an early threat, such as an Aether Vial or Wild Mongrel, and back it up with cards like Force of Will and Wasteland, the Stax deck could have difficulty achieving control over the board. If the Aggro-Control deck can generate and maintain its tempo for the first few turns, the Stax deck probably will not be able to get back in the game.
Suppression Field is probably better against these deck types than it is against Control. However, Stax’s matchup against Aggro-Control is not bad enough that it warrants a modification of the sideboard. Hanna’s Custody is very good here, as these decks are almost certainly sideboarding four Naturalize or four Disenchant. Defense Grid is also a strong card for getting Wrath of God and Powder Keg to resolve.
Coffers
In addition to having access to an abundance of efficient creature removal to combat Aggro and Aggro-Control decks, Mono-Black Control also has hand disruption to use against Control and Combo. Innocent Blood, Smother, Diabolic Edict, Infest, Duress, Hymn to Tourach, Powder Keg, and Nevinyrral’s Disk are all very strong cards in this environment. Nantuko Shade and Consume Spirit are able to take advantage of Cabal Coffers to create powerful threats. Coffers decks vary widely, but they are a viable choice in a creature-oriented format such as Legacy. However, the deck has not yet made a significant performance. The deck needs a lot more development in a competitive metagame.
Stax has a pretty good matchup against Coffers, but the matchup is much different from Blue-based Control. The Black creature removal is mostly useless, and each Coffers will likely only get to be used once. The hand disruption is the most threatening part of the deck, but the only answers Coffers has to resolved lock parts are Nevinyrral’s Disk or Oblivion Stone. Both of these cards give Stax at least a turn to respond, because Nevinyrral’s Disk comes into play tapped, and Coffers probably will not have eight mana in one turn to spend on Oblivion Stone. Seal of Cleansing is a great answer to these two cards, and is probably the only relevant sideboard card, depending on the build.
Affinity, Burn
I group these decks together because to the Stax deck, they are very similar. Both decks seek to win quickly. Both decks try to cast many cheap spells in a single turn. Both decks have very little disruption, if any, and both are very susceptible to hate cards. With all that in mind, if the Angel Stax player is not careful, they may find themselves at zero life very early on in the game.
Angel Stax still has a very good game against both of these decks. Powder Keg is savage against Affinity’s manabase and creatures, and the lock parts can negate any advantage that the Affinity mechanic affords the deck. An early Chalice of the Void for one, Sphere of Resistance, or Trinisphere is a huge obstacle for a Burn deck. Flipping an early Exalted Angel is also a very strong play against either deck. With some mild early pressure, Stax can easily take control of the board against both decks.
Stax
I consider Angel Stax to be a highly competitive deck in Legacy. However, it has only achieved moderate success so far, winning a small GPT and placing highly in some other tournaments. Red Stax lists are still prevalent, but Angel Stax has become more popular since my previous article was published. Against the red Stax lists, destroying Goblin Welder is a high priority, as it can totally disrupt the game plan of any artifact-based deck. Wrath of God is a good answer to Welder and other common red Stax creatures like Karn and Triskelion. Wasteland is another very important card in this matchup, along with Crucible of Worlds. Achieving mana superiority is the only way to effectively use Smokestacks, and Wasteland is key to this. After sideboarding, the matchup gets a lot better. Seal of Cleansing can destroy almost any card in their deck, and Hanna’s Custody shuts off Goblin Welder.
In the Angel Stax mirror, Wasteland and Crucible of Worlds are the most important cards. Depending on the skill of your opponent, certain cards can be sideboarded out due to their symmetric effect, and more disruptive cards can be sided in. Seal of Cleansing is again very important, but Hanna’s Custody should be left in the sideboard if the Seals come in. If activated at the right time, Tormod’s Crypt can be used to negate opposing Crucible of Worlds’ without having to destroy them.
Looking Ahead
These two articles together contain a comprehensive analysis of the synergies and strategy of Angel Stax. I have tried to present a detailed explanation of how to play it and how to go about constructing and using the proper sideboard for a given environment. The philosophy of the Stax deck is the most important aspect of doing well with it. The role of Stax in Legacy is complicated, as is the deck itself. Playing Stax well is nothing like playing the other decks in the format. The best way to gain an understanding of this deck is to practice. If you want to understand this deck, you must play it against Goblins, Landstill, and other successful decks, and then play against it with those same decks.
Right now, Legacy is one of the most diverse formats ever, which is why it is generating so much attention. Angel Stax is an example of one of the more interesting decks in the format, and one that I think is going to become a successful and respected archetype as the format develops.
Good luck to everyone at Philadelphia.
Christopher Coppola
Machinus on The Mana Drain, The Source, and @gmail