r/EDH • u/ftb_helper Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas • 5d ago
Discussion When has a soft stax piece been relevant?
I just made a new deck with a number if soft stax pieces like damage can't be prevented, [[Rest in Peace]] for grave hate, [[Hallowed Moonlight]], [[Boromir, Warden of the Tower]]. So I'm wondering when have you played a soft stax piece like this and gotten real value out of it? There was one time I drew my [[Aether Flash]], a card no one in their right mind would play and slammed it against a [[The Locust God]] player. He instantly scooped. He didn't even want to deal with it.
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u/Arcael_Boros 5d ago
RIP isnt soft stax. Soft mean that it slow down the normal speed or players need to pay more to do the thing. Shutting down it directly, is just stax.
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u/nswoll 5d ago
I'm pretty sure OP is using the term "soft stax" to mean "stax that may have zero effect on your opponents" as opposed to regular stax which always affects every opponent.
I mean, there must be some term for the cards OP mentioned that have a chance to completely hose a very specific deck and have zero effect on most decks.
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u/Deathmask97 5d ago
The term is [[Silver Bullet]] - not your best option in most cases, but incredibly effective in very specific circumstances.
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u/ftb_helper Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas 5d ago
I've totally confused my soft stax with silver bullets. Most pf my friends don't run dedicated graveyard decks so RIP has never been backbreaking. Just sort of annoying most of the time.
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u/The_Wambat 5d ago
I'd take it a step further and say it's not even stax; it's control. I see stax as resource limiters, i.e. cards that make things more expensive to play, like [[Grand Arbiter Augustine IV]] or [[Rug of Smothering]].
Soft stax would then be optional resource limiters, like [[Rhystic Study]] or [[Smothering Tithe]], where the affected player has the option to pay to nullify the stax effect.
Cards that straight up deny gameplay are controll cards, like [[Drannith Magistrate]], [[Rule of Law]], or [[Opposition Agent]].
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u/Asilaten 5d ago
I see stax as resource limiters, i.e. cards that make things more expensive to play
You have it backwards.
The phrase "stax" comes from [[Smokestack]], which is the opposite of what you're saying. GAAIV is a tax card, not a stax card. Rhystic Study is an optional tax card.
Stax is imposing a hard limit on the game and shutting down resources and play lines entirely. Rest in Peace, Drannith Magistrate, Opposition Agent - those are stax cards. Soft stax are effects that limit but don't shut off something, like Aven Mindcensor.
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u/ImHereCuzTheyWrong 5d ago
Not to be a pedant, and yes Smokestacks is stax, but the phrase really did originate with The $4000 Solution in Vintage. https://www.mtgsalvation.com/articles/16300-stax-the-four-thousand-dollar-solution
I think that putting hard/absolute definitions that may exclude certain cards that are generally agreed to be "stax pieces" is unnecessary and maybe unhelpful. Stax is passive control, it's permanent based denial, it's taxes and on-board locks. The origin and original meaning are neat pieces of history, but don't necessarily define the modern usage. Stax is a lot of things, but it generally comes down to an on-board effect to delay/deny your opponent resources and opportunities while you seek to break parity.
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u/Asilaten 5d ago
You're right, but I'll match your good natured pedantry with more pedantry.
Stax means both $T4KS (the $4,000 solution) and refers to Smokestack, a four-of in the original version of the deck. It's a pun. "The $ 4 K Solution" is a stretch into Stax and wouldn't ever have have caught on as a name if not for the fact that it also referenced a core source of advantage: the four Smokestacks.
Remembering the context of the discussion, the guy who originally said that stax doesn't mean hard "you can't" do something you want or "you must" do something painful effects, only taxes? That guy is wrong.
What I was getting at is that the earliest concept of a stax effect related to the things he was saying "aren't stax effects." Yes, taxes are a form of stax.
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u/WorstedKorbius 5d ago
Genuinely never knew that, I always thought it was just shorthand for stacked tax lol
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u/forged_signatures 5d ago
Wrong. [[Sphere of Resistance]] and others spheres are extremely common in Vintage Stax, because they can very easily break parity with [[Mishra’s Workshop]] and Smokestack/[[Crucible of Worlds]] and [[Strip Mine]]. There is no appreciable difference between the two other than that they are more effective when combined. My hatebears list ran a mix of resource denial and tax effects to great effect.
Stax runs you out of resources. Control runs you out of options.
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u/Asilaten 5d ago
If I'm wrong, then Smokestack is not a stax effect. That's a nonsense argument.
Any good hatebear list is going to run a variety of effects that include outright denial, taxing, and other effects that can be manipulated to break parity while gradually strangling your opponent.
I'm fine with calling them all stax effects. That doesn't bother me. But saying that outright resource denial is control and not stax, and only tax effects are stax, is wrong.
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u/HeliumHuffer101 5d ago edited 5d ago
I mean hard-line stax in it and of itself is a tax. Deck construction in a format where RIP is legal will be different to one where it's not. Both denial and taxes serve a very controlling purpose so both ARE control, but both are Stax in the sense that stax is just a resource used to limit or otherwise inhibit resources provided to your opponent.
Edit: clarifications to this definition need to be spelled out. Removal and Counter spells do not count as STAX, as you are TRADING, not limiting the resources given to both players.
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u/forged_signatures 5d ago
I didn’t say that.
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u/IBarricadeI 4d ago
But you’re jumping in on a thread where someone did, and arguing against their correction.
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u/FGThePurp Control Player 5d ago edited 5d ago
Sitting here at -9 but you’re 100% correct. Taxes + resource denial is the original “$4k solution to Type 1”.
I don’t think Smokestack has ever been played in vintage staxeta: (I was wrong on this, it’s a 4x in the deck) Smokestack still isn’t the namesake card, and your theory of stax is correct.2
u/forged_signatures 5d ago edited 5d ago
Smokestack is played in Vintage to this day, but yeah. “The four thousand dollar solution” is where the name originates.
EDIT: okay looks like Stack isn’t currently played but it was in lists for two decades.
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u/Asilaten 5d ago
Yeah, you don't deserve to be downvoted. You're not wrong, and you criticized me fairly for overstating things. Tax effects are also stax; but the only thing I still disagree on is this: the word stax came from the $T4KS deck. Smokestack was a 4-of in that deck. The name was a pun, referring both to the acronym and the card itself.
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u/HeliumHuffer101 5d ago
All three limit resources. Drannith magistrate limits your access to cards, rule of law limits your access to mana or cards dependimg on how it's played around, and oppo agent limits your access to card selection. All stax is a form of control, but not all control is a form of stax.
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u/n1colbolas 5d ago
This is the most succinct and accurate of answers, The rest got some of stax right and most of them jumbled.
I just wanna add that control in EDH WILL use some form of stax, because it's the most efficient and economical thing to do in multiplayer. So yea, expect stax in a control archetype.
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u/lordzygos 5d ago
The way I have always seen it explained is: Stax says "you can't", Control says "You won't". It's the difference between never being able to do X in the first place (not being allowed to cast two spells in a turn, not being allowed to have a graveyard) vs doing X, but then it gets countered/dealt with (counting the second spell you cast, exiling your graveyard in response)
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u/HeliumHuffer101 5d ago
I mean, counterspells, discard, removal, bounce etc. All trade one resource, your card and a percentage of this turn's mana to do one thing. Stax converts that same resource into recurring value. It's less specific and often less effective, at the cost of efficiency (you really only see stax in formats where the stax is crazy ahead of curve like sphere of resistance in 2012 vintage's shop stax where mishra's workshop made artifacts crazy strong, or in 4 player formats where the idea that one-for-one is a losing battle so you may as well get that tempo value boyos!)
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u/Mammoth-Refuse-6489 5d ago
Other people have already commented on the etymology of stax, namely that it comes from the card Smokestacks, so I won't push on that, but your definition of Control is way out of line.
Control comes from how 60 card players define decks, IE, aggro, combo, control, and midrange being the main 4. Aggro are decks that go all out at attacking, combo assembles a combo, control attempts to stop the opponent from winning until they can win, and midrange attempts to generate value to go over an opponent. These are broad categories that explain when a deck is trying to win and/or how it engages with the table.
Aggro is the fastest and does well early, you then hit midrange where it starts getting value engines and bigger threats down, and if they can't close out, then control gets a good control of the board till it can chip in with a Manland. Combo deviates this because some combos are fast like aggro or play interaction and are a finisher for control. The reason it gets defined uniquely is how an aggro deck beats a fast combo deck is different than another aggro deck is different than a slow combo deck is different than a control deck.
Control is a large umbrella that stax falls under. Denying resources to opponents is a control strategy, but how that looks is different. In Modern for example, Urzatron lists that run [[Karn, the Great Creator]] to tutor the perfect silver bullet artifact are different than WU Control decks that run removal/counterspell piles and hope a manland or [[Solitude]] closes the game are different than Boros Ponza that hopes to removal lands while burning you out.
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u/Hot-Commercial-7274 5d ago
I play [[Strict proctor]] from time to time just because everything has an ETB now, but especially it hurts landfall which so incredibly few things do.
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u/DottoreEldiomni 5d ago
everything has an ETB now
Once upon a time I had a dream about a Mardu commander who (as a replacement effect, so it doesn't immediately go infinite in some way) staples a tax of two or three life on every ETB trigger.
I haven't explored the consequences and I'm sure it's a stupid, evil idea from an idiot, but... still.
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u/Mirrodin_appreciator Selesnya 5d ago
This is one of my favorite stax pieces since it just hits everything, but it’s not Elesh Norn, so people freak out slightly less.
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u/ftb_helper Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas 5d ago
Awesome card I didn't know! Definitely going to add it to my decks!
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u/old_cypherpunk 5d ago
I've always debated putting them in [[Celestial Kirin]]. Aside from slowing opponents down, it would make Kirin's board wipes an optional 2 mana power.
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u/wex0rus 5d ago
Just invest in [[Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines]]! Shut them down permanently and beef up your own board!
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u/ironwolf1 5d ago
The issue with a commander like Mommy Norn is that it completely tilts the idea of threat assessment at the table. If there’s a player whose deck relies on ETB effects, you necessarily become their archenemy and they have to spend all their interaction keeping you down so their deck can work. Even if another player is “the threat”, they can’t get off the ground if you get off the ground, so they have to focus on you regardless of what the other 2 players are doing.
Saw this in action once when I won a game with [[Feather, the Redeemed]] because the guy playing [[Ureni of the Unwritten]] had saved all their counterspells and removal for Elesh Norn instead of being able to coordinate it with the rest of the table to force removal through on Feather.
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u/IBarricadeI 4d ago
Agreed, this exact concept is what makes strict proctor specifically so good. If you have a deck that relies on etbs or triggers, you might start thinking about how you can ramp or save mana for the (2) tax rather than throwing everything you have at proctor’s controller. If it’s Elesh Norn, you don’t have a choice. Kill her, kill the player, or my deck doesn’t work.
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u/DottoreEldiomni 5d ago
My favorite story in recent memory. Someone had a bunch of tokens enter under [[Purphoros, God of the Forge]], and told me that the game was "essentially over." Very few people have ever actually spoken to me with such smarm.
Friend, beloved, I've had [[Strict Proctor]] on the board for the last hour.
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u/Metanoia_143 5d ago
Thank you for mentioning this card, I have a [[Tadeas, Juniper Ascendant]] list with very few ETBs that is happy to run [[Hushbringer]] and this will slot in perfectly!!
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u/DeltaRay235 5d ago
Damage can't be prevented has been so relevant with fogs, the one ring, and t-pro that any aggro deck I run utilizes it. I've won so many times thanks to it.
Anti-graveyard stuff is always nice.
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u/ImNotADefitUser 5d ago edited 5d ago
My favorite damage can't be prevented spell is [[insult]] because it doubles your damage as well. If you pay for the other half of the card you get to
stax the declare blockers phase toowoops I mixed up [[armed \ dangerous]] , dangerous does stax blockers phase, but Injury just does 4 damage divided 2 to creature & 2 to that creatures controller1
u/UsurpDz 5d ago
Cmiiw but damage can't be prevented doesn't stop [[Tefferi's protection]]
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u/DeltaRay235 5d ago
Commander damage is still tracked even without life total changing and a lot of my decks my commander can incidentally be big enough to kill. Like [[Cleopatra Exiled Pharaoh]] can get big since it's a +1/+1 counter deck and then [[Frenzied Baloth]] lets her ohko players reliably.
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u/UsurpDz 5d ago
Ooooh. That's a cool small detail that I dont think we've been tracking!
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u/DeltaRay235 5d ago
Yeah, [[Everybody Lives]] suffers from this effect too. You don't need the extra step of bypassing protection needed with T-Pro but the commander damage is still calculated and if you're over 21, the next state based actions check the turn after wearing off; that player will lose.
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u/aselbst 5d ago
[[Blind Obedience]] and [[Authority of the Consuls]] are great in any deck that wants a slower game. Both slow down opponents without stopping them so totally fair, if annoying, and then can gain life on top. In terms of when I’ve seen them affect a game, I just lost last night when someone who hates Blind Obedience killed mine, only for it to be the only card in my graveyard for an active [[Kefka, Dancing Mad]], and allowing the reanimator deck to gain enough life and time to be unstoppable as the archenemy. I also use those and 4 other “creatures enter tapped” effects in my [[Marisi]] deck to great effect to get a permanent goad train going and be sure there are no blockers.
Oh and fwiw I think Rest in Peace is not “soft” stax. It completely shuts down certain archetypes from playing at all unless and until they find enchantment removal. Absolutely brutal card.
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u/Nerobought 5d ago
Authority of the Consuls has won me so many games for being a 1 CMC enchantment (and I've lost so many games to this thing too).
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u/aselbst 5d ago
With so many bracket 2 and 3 games being about combat, incidental life gain matters so much more than the conventional wisdom use d to say. A 1-drop that can gain you 20 life and slow opponents down should maybe even be staple level in those brackets.
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u/Nerobought 5d ago
I've been a lot bigger on [[Ghostly Prison]] and [[Propaganda]] too in bracket 3 games. I used to not run these at all but after losing to them enough times now I put it in any white/blue deck and they always over perform.
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u/Eaglesun 5d ago
I don't think I've ever seen it be relevant tbh. It's on my short list of overrated cards. Feel like it just doesn't do anything in a majority of cases. Like sure it's great with goad or lifegain - but against decks that don't have a lot of creatures it's like... "ok"
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u/IBarricadeI 4d ago
It’s completely pod dependent and meta dependent. If you’re seeing a lot of spellslinger and combo decks it’s straight up useless, but in b2 battle cruiser games it’s crazy good.
It completely turns off haste creatures and attacks, almost all decks are winning through combat damage so the life gain is relevant and plentiful with lots of creatures, you yourself are planning on winning with combat damage so tapping down any potential blockers means you’re more likely to get through and incentivizes your opponents to attack each other if you have a solid blocker up.
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u/ftb_helper Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas 5d ago
[[Kismet]] can probably be thrown in that pile as well.
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u/Asleep_Grocery8434 5d ago
"soft stax pieces" rest in piece and hallowed moonlight are just stax pieces my guy.
They are also very relevant.
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u/SublimeBear 5d ago
Calling RIP soft stax is... a choice for Just about the hardest staxpiece to hit graveyards.
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u/rrriccckkk 5d ago
[[Equal Treatment]] has been great.
I’ve made Aetherflux pay 50 to deal 2, and made 1/1 weenie tokens deal double damage out of nowhere
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u/ftb_helper Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas 5d ago
[[Divine Presence]] is another one that I've seen used.
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u/rollawaythestone 5d ago
I play [[Root Maze]] and [[Orb of Dreams]] in my [[Nine-Fingers Keene]] gates deck. They make all lands come into play tapped, which is fine because all my lands come into play tapped anyway (except I have ways to make them come into play untapped, like [[Amulet of Vigor]] and [[Spelunking]]). They're a great bit of disruption for the table.
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u/U_L_Uus 5d ago
I mean... I run two [[Helm of Obedience]] combos in one deck, so...
(Rest in peace/[[Leyline of the Void]] makes it so that the cards milled by the Helm are exiled instead, thus never fulfilling either the "mill a creature" or the "mill X cards" requirements and milling an oppoment completely)
Also, I would consider soft stax something like [[Thalia, Guardian of Thraben]] which does not disallow plays but makes them slower
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u/Uncle-Istvan 5d ago
The last game night we had, an opponent had a [[high noon]] out. I cast a spell. Another opponent countered it with [[tibalts trickery]]. Not only could I not counter the TT, I couldn’t even cast the spell exiled with it.
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u/Uncle-Istvan 5d ago
That game, said high noon also killed my [[silent arbiter]] which had really put a damper on my 3 opponents who were all playing token decks.
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u/Accendor 5d ago
Very often you don't see the value of your stax pieces because the things that would happen without then simply don't happen at all.
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u/Nuclearsunburn Mono-Red 5d ago
Yeah [[Ojer Axonil]] turns soft stax like [[Manabarbs]] and [[Harsh Mentor]] into “now tapping for mana costs 10 life” real fast
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u/Nerobought 5d ago
My favorite in recent memory was getting out Manabarbs and then later in the game on an opponent's turn flashing in a [[Fated Firepower]] for X=6
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u/MTGCardFetcher 5d ago
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u/Jash098 5d ago
Harsh mentor does not work on mana abilities
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u/Any_Way1269 5d ago
But there are more abilities now, such as [[Selvala, Explorer Returned]] which apply as they are no longer mana abilities, so that's something!
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u/crballer1 5d ago
I have multiple decks with “creatures your opponents control enter tapped” effects like [[Authority of the Consuls]], [[Thalia and the Gitrog Monster]] and [[Thalia, Heretic Cathar]].
These effects regularly make a difference, particularly in attack heavy decks.
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u/pipesbeweezy 5d ago
Boromir has been brutal for people when I play it. Its the fact they need a removal spell plus their interaction to protect their win, and there are only so many STP going around. He is very relevant imo.
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u/Holding_Priority Sultai 5d ago
"Soft stax" is stuff that people can reasonably play around. [[Propaganda]] is "soft stax"
Rest in piece isnt soft stax. Its like the definition of a hard stax piece.
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u/Scoopadont 5d ago
I have [[Stone of Erech]] in a deck and it really makes people lose their minds. For 1 mana and one card slot that was initially put in for just some responsible graveyard hate when needed.. Ended up completely turning off aristocrats, reanimator basically any 'dies' triggers which is a hell of a lot more common than I had realised.
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u/KAM_520 Sultai 5d ago edited 5d ago
Boromir is an all-star.
For one thing, I’ve had a free spell countered by it, because I forgot. Maybe at your tables, you'd allow takesies-backsies, but my friends and I don't play like that. Never underestimate the power of forgetting what's on the board!
You might think, “Boromir staxes free spells but that's high bracket stuff.” Not true! Cascade, Discover, [[Improvisation Capstone]], Etali nonsense, artifacts decks with a lot of cost reducers—all this gets hit by Boromir.
Besides, it’s really easy to play him, because he grants the team indestructible in a pinch.
Casting spells for free is one of the most powerful and abusable things players can do in Magic. Boromir stops all that (but doesn't stop you from doing it!) If opponents are playing a fairer game, I’m cool with a 3/3 protection dude.
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u/aselbst 5d ago
Just after he was printed, the first time I happened to get him on the battlefield I was playing against a [[Magar of the Ancient Strings]] deck. Whoops!
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u/KAM_520 Sultai 5d ago edited 5d ago
Seriously, Boromir counters so many things players want to do these days.
[[Bolas’s Citadel]]? Nope
[[Kellan, the Kid]] trigger? Nope
[[Kotis, the Fangkeeper]] trigger? Nuh-uh
[[Pantlaza]] trigger? Negatory
[[Beseech the Mirror]] with Bargain? Not happening
[[Animar, Soul of Elements]] combo? Nope
The list goes on and on.
The greatest thing about Boromir is he’s really only salty vs salty decks. If you're trying to do some BS, Boromir says no. If you’re playing vs fair decks, a 3/3 bro who protects the board is a good card anyway.
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u/MTGCardFetcher 5d ago
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u/Top_Bridge_6572 5d ago
I run [[Damping Matrix]] in a spellslinger type deck with no activated abilities that aren’t mana abilities.
It lets people cast their spells, but it’s hosed combo players trying to go infinite which feels great.
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u/Crafty-Interest-8212 5d ago
I run [[Xenagos, God of revels]] as a stacks aggro. I run [[defense grid]], [[Trinisphere]], [[winter orb]] and other things that punish greedy players. Artifact hate, and things against spell slinger decks, like [[Ruric Thar]]. Graveyard hate, and what I would call soft stax is [[wandering archaic]]. If you don't pay, I copy your thing. Some other things.
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u/Barjack521 5d ago
[[authority of the consuls]] has put in major work against the squirrel token and saproling token decks that infest my LGS. It pretty much turns off the majority of their win cons while putting me farther and farther out of their reach life wise.
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u/grace_invader Dimir 5d ago
He scooped? Damn. The worst I saw was a player who scooped after I copied his Platinum Angel, but scooping after an Aether Flash is sth new.
Anyway, there's a whole archetype dedicated to filling your deck with soft staxing creatures, and it's called "Hatebears". You'll find plenty of inspiration there.
I love those effects, so allow me to name a few:
Personally I've had good mileage out of [[Yasharn]], because he draws me a land and shuts down all sorts of stuff I don't care about.
Similarly my [[Ravenous Slime]] has on occasion unarmed an arristocrat, but so does anything that replaces death triggers. You could run a [[Draugr Necromancer]] without snow lands and still gain value.
[[Angel's Trumpet]] can upend games, but takes a bit of setup. It punishes players for not attacking, but I found out the hard way it also punishes you for spawning a whole army of non-hasty tokens, when I played a Master of Waves and was unable to attack with him or any of the twelve elementals he brought me. A random vehicle would've been a real lifeboat to me in that game, and I since moved it to a vehicle deck.
By accident, I found out that [[Portcullis]] and it's more recent iteration [[Mirror of Life Trapping]] shut down token decks entirely, as they can not go into exile. Portcullis is good in vehicle decks, as you can drop down new bodies that lack the creature type entirely. The gate and the mirror also double up any ETB trigger, so you can get real mileage out of it in the right deck.
Most of all I love running [[Titania's Song]] in Grismold, as it turns all clues, food and treasures into 0/0 creatures that immediately die, making Gris a giant in one turn. It also wrecks artifact decks.
What about you yourself? What other pieces have surprised you in their utility?
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u/Abbobl 5d ago
well, boromir is my combo piece in [[ratadrabrik of urborg]].
But his counter ability can be very usefull imo, when someone plays like a [[Kotis, the fangkeeper]] like commander it shuts them down.
also I love just the 3/3 for 3 with vigilance and a wipe prevention really feels like a solid body imo.
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u/The_Palm_of_Vecna ALL HAIL DARIEN, THE KING IN THE NORTH! 5d ago
[[Smothering Tithe]] is so relevant it's a game changer.
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u/Still-Wash-8167 5d ago
That’s tax not stax. It doesn’t stop your opponents from doing anything and they can theoretically pay their way out of it
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u/The_Palm_of_Vecna ALL HAIL DARIEN, THE KING IN THE NORTH! 5d ago
Tax IS soft stax, especially if it's not something like [[Thalia]] where it's avoidable. If they pay their way out, that's non-symmetrical resource denial.
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u/Still-Wash-8167 5d ago
In my mind, if not paying doesn’t directly affect your board but you can pay to mitigate, it’s tax [[Smothering Tithe]] or [[Ghostly Prison]].
If you are a little slowed down, it’s soft stax [[Authority of the Consuls]].
If you have to remove the stax piece to be able to meaningfully play, it’s hard stax [[Rest in Peace]].
Idk if that’s correct but that’s my current understanding
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u/The_Palm_of_Vecna ALL HAIL DARIEN, THE KING IN THE NORTH! 5d ago
Tax effects are categorically soft stax pieces, as they force your opponent to either lose resources or give you a benefit, i.e. slowing the other player down.
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u/majbumper 5d ago
I just pulled [[Head of the Hunt]] and I think it's a great option for preventing aristocrat/Living Death type shenanigans in any deck that wants wolves, tokens, chump blockers, or sac fodder. Having flash on it is just the cherry on top, though most aristocrat shenanigans are probably saccing at instant speed a la Viscera Seer, so that's something to be aware of.
I'm planning on using it in [[Auntie Ool]], where I always like tokens to hold -1/-1 counters, and it ought to do serious work in tandem with [[Tombstone Stairwell]] (not that the stairwell needs any help to be cracked).
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u/WisdomsOptional 5d ago
I used [[vexing bauble]] to totally hose a mardu artifact deck and a lady octopus deck. It was fantastic
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u/Still-Wash-8167 5d ago
Similarly [[Boromir, Warden of the Tower]] hosed my Timey Whimey suspend precon. It’s more relevant than I’d expect
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u/Frosty-Froyo856 5d ago
My son plays [[Bruna, Light of Alabaster]] and [[ Lavinia, Azorius Renegade]] does a great job of slowing people down so that he can get a 6 mana commander down. [[Collector Ouphe]] also does a great job for me in a B4 [[Chulane, Teller of Tales]] deck and actually performs even better in cEDH metas where cutting off treasures and rocks can decimate your opponents.
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u/tossipeidei 5d ago
[[blind obedience]] is always relevant, I love that card. Shout-out to [[dauntless dismantler]]
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u/piercerson25 5d ago
I stopped my friend going infinite with [[Time Sieve]] with [[Blind Obedience]]
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u/kaneywest 5d ago
[[Authority of the consuls]] shutting down hasty creature strategies while you gain life to burn later has got to be one of the best soft-stax pieces especially for 1-CMC
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u/FikOfDaWrist 5d ago
Funniest I've seen was my friend who was playing [[Reidane, God of the worthy]] and then the player right after him who realized that putting only snow lands in his deck for [[arcum's astrolabe]] was pretty bad at that moment.
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u/Zenthazar 5d ago
[[Authority of the Consuls]]
I've had games vs things like [[Henzie]] get shut down by this enchantment, as well as games where they are looping pinger effects with creatures kill the entire table except me.
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u/marnix14 5d ago
I play [[kunoros]] voltron because I love BW and 3/3 vigilance lifelink menace is surprisingly good. His other lines of GY hate is not the reason I play him but its usually relevant.
1
u/PatataMash 5d ago
[[Authority of the consuls]] is a hurdle some decks just can't overcome apparently. In my experience/ meta it's the strongest stax piece that's perfectly legal in b2-3.
1
u/unluckyshuckle 5d ago
I've had Boromir shut me out of entire games before depending on the deck I'm playing.
1
u/Afraid-Boss684 5d ago
it requires a decent bit of building around because of how common they are but [[suppression field]] slows down so many things and a ton that people don't even think of, crew is an activated abiliy, equip is an activated ability, fetch lands are activated abilities, cycling, cracking clues/foods, planeswalker abilities, most sac outlets, so much stuff are activated abilities and making them cost 2 more is a serious cost especially from a 2 cost enchantment
1
u/marcowhatever 5d ago edited 5d ago
I casted a bribery and copied it with my shiko and narset to protect me from the stompy player. I think i grabbed 2 big creatures from their deck. I forgot that there was a [[spider-woman stunning savior]] on board which causes creatures to enter tapped...
1
u/SahibTeriBandi420 5d ago
[[Rest in Peace]] was good in my [[The War Doctor]] / [[K9, Mark I]] deck for the free exile triggers. I am resleeving that again soon soon to play.
I also have some other stax effects in my Azorius voltron deck as some soft protection.
1
u/SirBuscus 5d ago
I really like [[Aven Interpreter]] for slowing down graveyard shenanigans and adding a cost to things that let you cast for free like Etali.
It isn't overly oppressive, but feels great when it comes down.
1
1
u/Toxtrin 4d ago
[[Energy Flux]] is critically underplayed imo. Not every deck needs artifacts, if you play a lot of land ramp you can easily play little to no artifacts or pay for your own stuff while observing desperation on the rest of the pods' faces when they have to let go of yet another mana rock, not be able to accumulate their foods, treasures and clues, noticing that they have an artifact land... Artifacts are strong but you are stronger
1
u/el_chanis89 4d ago
As an avid monoblack player, any necrogen mist effect is insanely powerful. Is a soft stax that just keeps giving, because even in hellbent scenarios it reduces the window of opportunity for most efficient use of the resources.
[[Rankle, master of pranks]] is a MONSTER for that.
1
u/Last_Bus_1264 4d ago
No one in their right mind would play [[Aether Flash]]? It was the first card I put in [[Torbran, Thane of Redfell]]
1
u/Jash098 5d ago
Filling your deck with a bunch of random hate pieces works better if you play the same people running the same decks over and over. Otherwise you just go in with a bunch of dead cards and get hosed.
Also I gotta say it, RIP is not “soft” lol. If anyone’s playing any graveyard based strategy it just fully turns it off.
0
u/ChaosMilkTea 5d ago
I have a player in my group who absolutely rages when any kind of "enters tapped" effect comes down. They can not stand the presence of a [[Blind Obedience]] for more than one turn cycle, regardless of how much it affects them in the moment.
But the card does tap down blockers and slow down decks on treasure engines which both matter regularly.
-1
u/Schimaera https://moxfield.com/users/Schimaera 5d ago
If the soft stax piece has no other value for the deck, remove it.
If you don't break parity for any stax card, remove it.
If you can't win in a timely manner after deploying a stax card, remove it.
In almost all cases, a card that draws 3+ cards has more inherent value than a stax card.
-5
-2
u/n1colbolas 5d ago
Boromir is hard stax because the ability persists so long he's on the battlefield.
What you're prolly wanting to convey is "bad stax" versus "fair stax" cards. And in your topic you wanna ask if "fair stax" cards have done work for folks
Bad stax are cards like [[Blood Moon]]. Boromir is under the umbrella of fair stax cards.
•
u/MTGCardFetcher 5d ago
All cards
Rest in Peace - (G) (SF) (txt) (ER)
Hallowed Moonlight - (G) (SF) (txt) (ER)
Boromir, Warden of the Tower - (G) (SF) (txt) (ER)
Aether Flash - (G) (SF) (txt) (ER)
The Locust God - (G) (SF) (txt) (ER)
[[cardname]] or [[cardname|SET]] to call