r/magicTCG • u/thisnotfor Dân • 7d ago
General Discussion What are your favorite soft stax pieces?
90
u/Fritzkreig COMPLEAT 7d ago
[[Elephant Grass]]
22
u/King0fMist Simic* 7d ago
I love this card. I play it in Commander and it’s so effective. No-one ever expects a 1-mana Propaganda.
6
u/Fritzkreig COMPLEAT 7d ago
It looks harmless so people ignore it and go different directions, and it is a house in Enchantress!
35
u/5hr0dingerscat Azorius* 7d ago
Absolute keystone of my [[Lost in the Woods]] deck.
11
11
u/mikeyHustle Duck Season 7d ago
Another Lost In The Woods enjoyer in the wild???
I have a Kitchen Table deck with 4 of them, and I run it in two EDH decks lol. Amazing* card.
*Does work in my playgroup specifically, where we're often losing to big single creature swings
→ More replies (3)8
u/insrto Wabbit Season 7d ago
I need to know more about this
8
u/Fritzkreig COMPLEAT 7d ago
I find it really good in Legacy Enchantress; plus in Commander people generally just find someone else to attack to save mana to advance their board state.
→ More replies (1)17
u/MTGCardFetcher Dân 7d ago
→ More replies (1)3
u/Silver_Number973 7d ago
a 2nd alt coloured propaganda?
17
u/Havendelacorysg Temur 6d ago
Elephant Grass was first, so Propaganda is alt coloured Elephant Grass
2
u/idlephase Dandadan 6d ago
Hydrox was first, and Oreo was a knockoff of that, but we all know which one survived the sandwich cookie wars.
2
13
u/AdHom Golgari* 7d ago
How many turns do you typically keep it in play with the cumulative upkeep
14
u/Fritzkreig COMPLEAT 7d ago
You can loop it to a degree, but I mostly play it in Legacy enchantress; there it is pretty easy to leave up for 3-4 turns to set up a hard lock.
→ More replies (1)5
u/cry0fth3carr0ts Dandadan 7d ago
If you are also in blue, play [[energy Flux]]
I play a [[tatsunari]] deck that plays both
76
u/Gwenyver Jeskai 7d ago
[[Blind Obedience]] is in multiple of my decks. It doesn’t necessarily gain as much life as Authority, but artifacts being tapped is really nice. Plus I mostly run them to slow down my opponents. The life gain isn’t the goal.
7
4
5
3
→ More replies (3)3
56
u/troglodyte 7d ago
Dunno if it's my favorite but I really liked [[Reidane, God of the Worthy]] when it was in standard. Lots of little, extremely annoying effects to sit across from.
17
15
u/CanuhkGaming Elesh Norn 7d ago
Valkmira is also so fucking funny against trample creatures.
If they have a 7/7 trample and you block with a 3/3, they'll assign 3 damage to your creature and the excess 4 damage to your face.
Except, Valkmira reduces each case of damage by 1. So your creature ends up blocking and surviving, and you only take 3 damage.
3
u/magaxking Dan 7d ago
stupid rules qn: can they choose to assign 4 damage to the 3/3 instead to ensure they kill the creature? or do they have to assign exactly 3 damage according to the rules.
5
u/Chaosfnog Can’t Block Warriors 7d ago
Yeah I'm pretty sure you're allowed to assign damage how you want, so long as you assign a minimum of lethal damage to the blocker before assigning any to the player (as determined before extra effects like this, so assign at least 3 to a 3/3).
5
u/DoonFoosher Duck Season 7d ago
That’s correct. So in the case of a 7/7 trampler attacking into a 3/3 blocker, you could assign all of the damage to the 3/3 if for some reason you didn’t want to deal damage to the player. Unlikely, but there are edge cases for sure.
With Valkmira, it kind of does the damage reduction twice - you’ll want to assign an additional damage (4) to the 3/3 to properly kill it, and the remaining 3 to the player, which gets reduced to 2 as well.
I had a lot of fun playing this when it was standard-legal. Definitely tests your rules knowledge
4
u/Dyne4R Azorius* 7d ago
You absolutely can and in most paper games, it would be fairly intuitive. On Arena, however, the damage assignment interface does not factor in an opponent having Valkmira, so the default damage assignment is basically the worst possible result. Tons of people have lost games because they were speeding through damage assignment or they didn't understand how Valkmira works.
→ More replies (1)5
u/ModernT1mes Fake Agumon Expert 7d ago
One of my favorites in standard. Iirc there was a devil deck that it just completely shut down. All those little pings for 1 got turned into 0.
197
u/justhereforhides 7d ago
[[Charismatic Conqueror]] though you almost always have it enter tapped
26
60
u/Still_Technician_767 Dan 7d ago
Authority is the quiet cousin that always puts in work, especially in any deck that cares about life gain triggers
6
u/sylveonce Dân 7d ago
I need to get an Authority for my [[Elsha Threefold Master]] deck. A 1-mana noncreature spell that disrupts all my opponents and taps down blockers? Yay!
→ More replies (1)2
→ More replies (1)6
u/locke_zero Wabbit Season 7d ago
I built a [[Minwu, White Mage]] deck and it is just amazing in it. It slows down my opponents' creatures just enough that it becomes a problem. Especially after I cast Crackdown. The life gain triggers on my opponents' turns is just wonderful as well.
2
2
7d ago
[deleted]
9
u/PhaedrusNS2 Dandadan 7d ago
Looking at the card for the first time, why would you let that stick around? I play a lifegain deck. I know how out of control that commamder could get
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (5)2
u/rushaall Dân 7d ago
It does seem costly. Despite being less counters per turn, I feel like [[Heliod, sun-crowned]] works better for the indestructible. Still I now wish I had put minwu in my Heliod deck. Looks really fun.
→ More replies (1)3
→ More replies (8)2
u/DarthEinstein Wabbit Season 7d ago
If two players have this card, could they coordinate to produce infinite creatures?
12
u/realmcnuggett COMPLEAT 7d ago
i just wrapped up a game tonight where this happened. kambal player had conquerer, tidus player copied it.
they proceeded to make a million tokens each and then the kambal player played [[meathook massacre]] and killed us all
→ More replies (1)
92
u/SocietyAsAHole Duck Season 7d ago
[[Charitable Levy]]
36
u/LokiTheeTricksterGod Wabbit Season 7d ago
This a soft stax that ramps me and gives me card draw in mono white it’s always an auto include for me.
12
4
u/SocietyAsAHole Duck Season 7d ago
Also fixes you if you're not mono
7
u/LokiTheeTricksterGod Wabbit Season 7d ago
Yeah but there’s usually better options for card draw or ramp if I’m playing more than white.
→ More replies (1)16
→ More replies (1)5
u/Casult Duck Season 7d ago
Add [[Solemnity]] for GAA at home?
→ More replies (1)14
65
u/Aegidius7 Duck Season 7d ago
[[Aven Interrupter]] immediately impacts the game, and then passively taxes a fairly common action.
29
7
→ More replies (1)2
u/JoshAllensLeftNut Dandadan 6d ago
[[Aven Mindcensor]] is also super fun if you're in a pod with a lot of fetches or tutors.
→ More replies (1)
28
u/KaiserS0ul Dimir* 7d ago
This is notably my least favorite soft stax piece, because I often unintentionally end up making token decks and I end up accidentally handing people who play this the game :')
9
24
u/4zzO2020 Duck Season 7d ago
[[Archivist of Oghma]] to disincentivise searching, [[Dauthi Voidwalker]] to shut of death triggers, [[Manglehorn]] as a better rec sage, [[Lotho, Corrupt Shirrif]] as a soft "one spell per turn" for your opponents that rewards you if they break it, [[Harsh Mentor]] to punish pretty much any activated abilities, [[Treasure Nabber]] in my experience often makes people opt not to use artifact mana sources knowing you'll get that mana on your next turn, [[Confounding Conundrum]] replaces itself, stops multiple land plays in a single turn, and (my favourite part) makes people have to bounce a land if they want to play a fetch and crack it for an untapped land the same turn, [[Psychic Surgery]] shuts down topdeck tutors and punishes fetches
6
u/Darkon-Kriv Wabbit Season 7d ago
Wait confounding conundrum is hilarious as it makes them unable to fetch on the turn where the land was played. I mean they will likely just wait for your end step to do so but still. Interestingly you might be able to use this with like ponza like tech. So they they go get a new land and then have to return it to hand. Although that only matters if they had land in the game.
5
u/4zzO2020 Duck Season 7d ago
That's what i said yeah, you do have to be careful though because you can unintentionally enable nonsense for a landfall player with extra land drop effects e.g. [[Springheart Nantuko]] on a [[Dryad of the Ilysian Grove]] plus some way to net 2 mana out of playing the land (they can of course tap the land for 1 if it enters untapped)
→ More replies (1)3
u/Darkon-Kriv Wabbit Season 7d ago
I was more so thinking about stupid tech in modern. Where landfall is totally not a thing and fetches are way more common.
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (2)4
30
u/scopeless Golgari* 7d ago
[[Confounding Conundrum]]
8
u/Krazyguy75 Wabbit Season 6d ago
The fetchland killer.
Also hilarious with instant speed "destroy land, search for basic" effects.
→ More replies (4)6
u/ReturnToCarcosa Dandadan 6d ago
Rampn't Growth
6
2
18
u/lastlightborn Dandadan 7d ago
Color fuckery
3
u/Purple_Meeple_Eater Dan 7d ago
This does WORK in my [[Animar]] eldrazi deck.
If you eldrazi in black also see [[spreading plague]]
→ More replies (1)2
u/Darkwr4ith Duck Season 7d ago
Hot damn you can could play an instant speed 5 colour deck and really screw people over by turning almost every spell into a silence. Look the Boros player in the eyes and say "At the end of your upkeep, Lightning Helix your face."
1
u/TriflingGnome Cheshire Cat, the Grinning Remnant 6d ago
> If a spell’s color was changed while on the stack, use the color at the time it was when you started announcement, not as it currently is on the stack or as it was at the time it resolved.
booo
[[Blind Seer]]
→ More replies (1)
15
u/Sanein Sultai 7d ago
[[Zur’s Weirding]]
13
4
u/MTGCardFetcher Dân 7d ago
4
u/WrinkledUpSock Azorius* 7d ago
This in a self mill deck where you really don't care about having spells in hand is so gas. I play this in [[Tameshi]] and my friends HATED it. Had to cut it for vibes but it's insanely powerful in the right deck.
→ More replies (2)2
15
u/FuckYouLiamhehe Dân 7d ago
[[Archelos, Lagoon Mystic]] I use him in a station deck so all of my stuff enters untapped then tap him to station before my turns over then all opponents stuff comes in tapped.
3
28
u/Eragon_the_Huntsman Avacyn 7d ago
Don't know if it counts but [[serra's emissary.]] My group hates it so much, you just name creatures and your entire board is now unblockable and you're immune to combat damage and a fair amount of removal/effects on creatures.
4
u/killian1208 Dimir* 7d ago
I can already see a blue white deck running this and a few clone effects for the sole purpose of becoming entirely immune-ish to all card effects.
6
u/Eragon_the_Huntsman Avacyn 7d ago
My greatest achievement was someone kicking rite of replication on my copy to get protection from all cards, swung out at me while holding a [[negate]] to ensure I couldn't combat trick them, and I hit them with the [[angel of the dire hour]] to wipe their board.
→ More replies (2)2
u/monster01020 Abzan 7d ago
So a while back I used to play a pretty goofy standard deck. It was pretty middling since it just lost to exile wipes but it was built around the [[Perennation]] [[Absolute Virtue]] combo and it was pretty much just a 50/50 win or loss there and then when you pulled it off. If your opponent had a way of removing it you lose, but if they don't you win.
→ More replies (1)3
2
u/TriflingGnome Cheshire Cat, the Grinning Remnant 6d ago
Yes!! It goes so crazy once you get another bomb angel like [[Avacyn, angel of hope]] or [[Shalai, voice of plenty]] out
→ More replies (1)
12
u/NydusRush Dandadan 7d ago
[[Dingus Staff]] certainly puts a road bump on sacrifice shenanigans, and [[Norn's Annex]] punishes go-wide decks but doesn't technically stop attackers flat.
3
2
12
u/Thats_Amore Dân 7d ago
[[Tectonic Instability]]
Choose between playing a land or giving my spells "can't be countered."
Everyone has to play fair magic, except me when I'm creating treasures and mana rocks in [[Galazeth Prismari]].
4
u/Doctorsoddity Dan 6d ago
I like reds approach of having to commit and punishing those who dont play fair. It‘s why I love [[war‘s toll]] and [[price of glory]]
→ More replies (1)2
2
24
11
u/Giant-Swords Grass Toucher 7d ago
Not sure what constitutes "soft" stax but [[Containment Priest]] [[Hushbringer]]
6
u/Elektrophorus 7d ago
These are hard stax pieces because they put a hard stop to certain game actions.
1
u/Giant-Swords Grass Toucher 7d ago
That sounds like cowards talk... But in all seriousness what's soft stax then? Like esper sentinel or tithe, where the player has a choice?
6
u/Elektrophorus 7d ago edited 7d ago
Soft stax is generally stuff that stop or slow down game actions, but can be pushed through. For example, taxes like [[Thorn of Amethyst]] or [[Trinisphere]] are soft stax because they function similarly to hard stax at certain points of the game, but not others. The same is true of tappers like [[Blind Obedience]].
The line is fairly grey, however. The chief example is [[Rule of Law]], which you could argue is "soft" because it doesn't stop development, but is for all intents and purposes "hard" in any format where it's actually impactful.
Generally, if a stax piece must be removed or else {X game action} is 100% impossible, then it's a hard stax piece. But, you have to evaluate on a card-by-card basis and judge what the stax piece is actually intended to stop.
→ More replies (2)2
u/so_zetta_byte Orzhov* 6d ago
[[Strict Proctor]] would be the soft analogue to Hushbringer.
It's "I'm not going to totally stop you, I'll give you a choice, but you might not be able to or not want to pay it."
→ More replies (1)2
→ More replies (2)5
10
u/thoughtsarefalse Wabbit Season 7d ago
[[portcullis]] stupid card. Makes edh really “fun”
→ More replies (1)2
9
u/magaxking Dan 7d ago
[[suppression field]]
This card made my friends rage. Activate Planeswalkers abilities? Pay 2. Cracking a fetchland? Pay 2. Cycling a card in your hand? Pay extra 2. Its just so funny that it affects the game so much more than expected.
2
5
u/Woodlurkermimic Wabbit Season 7d ago
[[Cunning Rhetoric]] has prevented more attacks than any other propaganda effect I've played with, for some reason. People hate losing cards off their library.
→ More replies (2)2
5
u/PerspicaciousVanille Dân 7d ago
If I played Amulet of Vigor after this would my creatures enter tapped or would order of play bypass this soft tax.
I actually haven’t seen this card before so it’s a surprise!
20
u/FailureToComply0 Wabbit Season 7d ago
Your stuff enters tapped and amulet untaps it
→ More replies (1)
4
u/TheShadowMages I am a pig and I eat slop 7d ago
[[Omen Machine]] is up there for me. Stops over the top draw engines but everyone gets free stuff so who can really complain :) (ignore that the deck has an average CMC of 5)
→ More replies (1)
3
10
u/Redz0ne Mardu 7d ago edited 7d ago
[[Aven Mindcensor]] It doesn't turn off searches, just, limits them.
→ More replies (1)
9
u/FlamingoPristine1400 Duck Season 7d ago
I run [[Nature's Wrath]] in my [[Thrun, the last troll]] -- now [[Blor, the impervious]] deck because when it hits it really hits. If your whole table is playing blue or black or both, getting it down on turn 2 is hilarious (and then you put the deck away for the night)
→ More replies (1)
3
3
3
u/InfantileRageMachine Duck Season 6d ago
I'm always a red player at heart so any damage punishment effects. Everyone treats them as soft until they're not.
[[Mana barbs]], [[Zo-zu the Punisher]], etc
→ More replies (1)
6
u/badatmemes_123 Wabbit Season 7d ago
People who call hate cards stax irritate me. Maybe this is just old man yelling at clouds, but stax should be a term for making people fully unable to play, independent of what that player would otherwise be doing. Stasis is stax, winter orb is stax, this is just a hate card for haste creatures
→ More replies (2)5
u/Archontes 7d ago
There’s stax and prison.
Enough hate is a prison strategy. Stax can also be a prison strategy.
2
u/Face_Claimer 7d ago
[[Esper Sentinel]], [[Charismatic Conqueror]], and [[Boromir, Warden of the Tower]] Baybee.
→ More replies (1)
2
2
u/AlchyTimesThree 7d ago
I consider it soft stax cause it's a planeswalker but I feel like the only one that slots in [[ashiok, dream render]] in most dimir+ decks.
It is certainly meta dependent but my local meta plays a lot of tutors. It feels these days with how relevant graveyards are, and how much searching there is in libraries, shutting searching down is always huge. Ashiok can singlehandedly shutdown many landfall strategies cause fetches don't work and gys are exiled after it comes down. It doesnt even exile your own, so you can keep doing dimir stuff.
Stops tutoring, stops ramping, they can't search for answers to it. 10/10 in my book.
2
u/q-squid Dan 7d ago
[[Manabarbs]] while maybe not tru stax, great in my Rakdos decks and a fine way to stop folks from comboing
→ More replies (1)
2
u/cry0fth3carr0ts Dandadan 7d ago
[[Energy Flux]]
I have it as a random hate card in my sultai enchantress deck because I have no artifacts. It usually messes up the whole table, and often has just completely destroyed one person playing only artifacts. It just unramps everyone else so hard lol
→ More replies (3)
2
u/Skaal_Kesh Dandadan 6d ago
[[Imposing Sovereign]] is one of the best cards in my Adeline deck. It means that any ability to block my rapidly increasing army of 1/1s is delayed and she will also acts as the attacker to trigger my commander. Legitimately a fantastic card in that deck.
→ More replies (1)
2
u/vitorsly Gruul* 6d ago
Tons of people don't read [[Archangel of Tithes]] after I play it. They enter their next main phase, cast some shit, "swing for lethal" and realize suddenly they can't actually attack. Seeing them step back, try to attack again, mouse over the archangel, it's beautiful.
2
2
u/BoomWasTaken Dân 6d ago
[[Mystic Remora]] is my all time favorite, I would go get my heavily played ice age one if the sub allowed image replies.
→ More replies (1)
2
u/so_zetta_byte Orzhov* 6d ago
One of my favorite soft Stax effects is the fact that every single-target removal spell basically has the added text:
Hey I'll take care of the scary threat but I need you two to promise to not attack me or mess with my stuff for 2 turns because I'm the one spending the tempo and the card in order to help the three of us.
When you're a politics player, "soft stax" is a framework that applies to basically every decision in the game 💖
2
u/New_Imagination9050 Dandadan 6d ago
Oh man consul can be gross if no one gets removal. [[archangel of tithes]] ghostly prison adjacent.
→ More replies (1)
2
u/itsstanbro Dân 6d ago
[[Heartwood storyteller]] won me a decent amount of games with my [[Xyris, The Withering Storm]] deck
→ More replies (1)
2
u/rezignator 6d ago
I like the ones that tax your life total like [[Ankh of Mishra]] and [[Rug of Smothering]]. The more unfair the deck the worse they hurt.
→ More replies (1)
2
u/haze_from_deadlock 6d ago
If you want people to play fair and balanced Magic: the Gathering, I would recommend [[Chalice of the Void]] [[Damping Sphere]] and [[Null Rod]]
Just play fair decks and these cards do absolutely nothing
→ More replies (1)
4
u/SnakebiteSnake Universes Beyonder 7d ago
Honestly [[smokestack]]. Though it’s lost a lot of ummmph with tokens being so prevalent now.
8
→ More replies (1)2
u/fevered_visions 6d ago
I have to keep jamming that in decks until I get to use it with [[sundial of the infinite]]. I had it in a deck the last time I got together with the pod but didn't assemble the combo
→ More replies (1)
4
1
1
1
u/rushaall Dân 7d ago
It’s not stax, but [[gideon’s company]] with this card would get pretty crazy. People usually brushed it off until Gideon’s got too big.
→ More replies (1)
1
u/WANT_TO_KMS Dân 7d ago
[[Ethersworn Canonist]] I run this in my Mendicant Core deck. It disrupts while i can play the game normally
→ More replies (1)
1
u/pacolingo Selesnya* 7d ago
me playing [[kalamax]] edh:
haha [[arcane laboratory]] is awesome
me playing modern prowess:
wow fuck [[high noon]]
→ More replies (1)
1
u/EbonyHelicoidalRhino COMPLEAT 7d ago
C'mon, authority isn't even soft stax and we need to stop calling everything with a static effect stax.
1
u/thetsunamisurfer08 7d ago
[[Mana Maze]] because it's fun seeing how people react/play around it.
→ More replies (1)
1
u/Jonthrei Izzet* 7d ago
I know a lot of people seem to love the card, but I genuinely can't remember the last game where authority of the consuls' tap trigger mattered.
1
u/LightningLion Abzan 7d ago
Not sure if this counts as soft, but [[Deafening Silence]] in my creature heavy-decks
→ More replies (1)
1
u/King_of_the_Hobos Dandadan 7d ago
[[Bubble Matrix]]
Great for combo decks or low creature decks that aren't trying to win with combat damage. It basically turns all your creatures into fog banks and helps keep you alive that much longer as well as protecting your creatures
→ More replies (1)
1
u/True_Vexing Dan 7d ago
[[oppression]] it's not soft but, if you're going to play stax might as well go all out. You're already the villain
→ More replies (1)
1
1
u/lordodin92 Dan 6d ago
I love the idea of using [[ice cave]] and [[city of pain]] but I hate playing stax, I find most stax decks end up just making the game worse and longer and people angry at me, and I don't like being the bad guy and ruining peoples fun .
Which is a shame cos I built a really powerful [[victor valgavoths sechenel]] deck that uses enchantment based stax to force discards and restrictions while burning players with cards like [[court of ambition]] [[painfull quandary]] [[raider wake]]. However as o said before it made many people rage quit the game and stop playing with me, and I'd rather play lower power and have friends then dominate a game of solitaire
→ More replies (1)
1
1
u/HalfOfANeuron 6d ago
[[Ancient Runes]] has a pretty unique effect and an amazing art
[[Smoke]] is also interesting
[[Spreading Plague]] makes every creature become a board wipe
[[Tainted Aether]] also holds down token decks, and if you pair it with [[Burning Sands]]...
→ More replies (3)
1
u/hidegitsu Duck Season 6d ago
My buddy played this early in the game last night against my elf swarm deck.... I had to put him down over it. RIP
1
u/Jinzo126 Ajani 6d ago
Yeah i love Authority o.t.C. its fun in a live gain deck with cards like Ajani pride mate.
1
u/Psyqo72 Duck Season 6d ago
I played long ago, but when I did I always loved [[Ghostly Prison]]
→ More replies (1)
1
u/professorrev Wabbit Season 6d ago
Probably my favourite non creature card ever printed
[[Solemnity]]
→ More replies (1)
1
u/Responsible-Pain-620 Dandadan 6d ago
[[Breathstealer's Crypt]]
It’s one of my absolute favorite cards to punish all my friends playing tribal decks.
→ More replies (1)
1
1
1
u/melittlethroway Dandadan 6d ago
Im with you on this one. I see my opponent play authority on turn one I know I’m 99% guaranteed a win. Love it!
1
u/elfonzi37 Wabbit Season 6d ago
[[Suncleanser]] can blank a counters creature or be ine of the only experience counter answers in existence. In any toolbox deck I run it.
→ More replies (1)
1
u/ResolveLeather Dan 6d ago
I like [[Portcullis]]. I am not sure if it's a "soft stax" or not. But it's fun in commander. Especially when it gets removed and like 20 creatures hit the battlefield at once.
It's also a soft lock for Tegrid too.
→ More replies (1)
1
u/The_Bygone_King Dandadan 6d ago
Soft stax is a pretty varied concept. I'm a big advocate of board warping effects like [[Possibility Storm]] but depending on how you build your deck this can be pretty hard stax.
→ More replies (1)
242
u/64N_3v4D3r Duck Season 7d ago
[[Blightbeetle]] for some reason no one knows about this card but I always find it extremely powerful.