Why Commander Players Hate Stax | Magic: The Gathering

do you like to play Magic the Gathering do you like it when your opponents don't play Magic the Gathering then you will love playing Stacks in Commander Stacks is a strategy and play style that operates differently than traditional magic decks resource denial is key making it so your opponents are unable to play their cards today we'll be covering where Stacks comes from critical cards when brewing a deck how to play it how to play against it and hopefully how to beat it and you know we got those secret Commander Decks that can take out a sta player sta has been an established archetype since the early 2000s it started in thep one format now known as vintage and still sees play in both competitive and non-competitive settings Stacks is often frowned upon in casual play of Commander but that doesn't stop players from bringing their taboo decks to Friday Night Magic the stigma around Stacks with casual players is often related to the idea of I just want to play my cards because Stacks is trying to stop just that it's when you move into competitive settings both inside and outside of Commander where Stacks becomes somewhat more socially acceptable just like in Legacy and vintage competitive EDH decks can win turn one or turn too it doesn't mean they will but they are able to so at a setting like that sta makes much more sense with that type of power on board sta honestly feels a bit more fair than cheating out Bonkers combos at somebody's upkeep in casual Commander players just want to play their cards and in a pod where deck's power levels are at a seven Stacks usually means lengthening the games to a point where it just feels stale now infinite combos are a bit more socially acceptable because the players can at least Shuffle up and play another game after probably telling that winning player to switch their damn deck speaking of salt I want to clarify that that Stacks is a bit Taboo in most casual settings I don't advise bringing a Stacks deck to your pod unless you've had a conversation beforehand however if you do that's your business go off King this video is broken down into three parts the history of stacks how to play stacks and actually win and lastly how to play against stacks and hopefully stop them you'll learn the very interesting history of stacks and why became a viable strategy to begin with then we'll look at some signpost cards that help showcase the mindset on how to play a Stacks deck this video is perfect for the Casual player wanting to lean into more competitive play or perhaps you don't want to play competitively at all and you're just Stacks curious or maybe you want to show up to random LGS tables and make Little Children Cry you freak we'll also look at how Stacks actually wins lastly we'll look at how to play against Stacks because we all know that person at the LGs who brings Stacks decks to the Casual pods we'll break down how to proactively deal with these players and hopefully get rid of them buckle up and let's get them Stacks so what the hell is Stacks Stacks was originally called Stacks written like this which stood for the $4,000 solution this was in the format type 1 now known as vintage the name was a double anandra for the key card Smoke Stack the $4,000 part was in reference to the price given it was running almost all the power 9 nowadays that's closer to 400,000 and not 4,000 perhaps 4 million depending on the condition you're buying them in the solution this deck was providing was one that slowed down the fast combo decks and the very popular aggro contr control deck grow talk one mechanic it was specifically trying to deal with was the storm mechanic from The Scourge set this is where we see Bonkers combos around tendrils of Agony that Leverage The Classic card burning wish other famous Commander Stacks decks include the now banned Commander braids cabal minion and more recently in competitive EDH woda featuring obviously woda jordo forces Stacks decks and Commander are optimized to restrict our opponent's resources and the ability to play their cards and even though most of the cards that do this also affect us our decks are optimized to play through them without much of any Interruption a very important call out is that Stacks is defined differently in various magic spaces originally in Legacy and vintage formats Stacks was considered a prison style deck not the other way around Stacks focusing on Mana denial where prison was about locking out players altogether but today the term stacks and Commander has evolved to be a bit of a catchall for General prison effects land destruction Mana denial OG stacks and hate bears and we'll talk about some of those terms soon but in its simplest form Stacks is a control deck but not the blue white control deck that most players think about Stacks is an aggressive control strategy meaning it's proactive and not reactive the classic blue white control decks use cards like force of will or swords to plow shares that type of control deck is okay with you playing your cards while Stacks would probably prefer you don't play them at all and when you do it's probably too late to make a difference anyway for example let's pretend I play after my opponent it's turn one and I play a ragavan if my opponent is playing a classic blue white control deck they can decide if they want to use force of will to counter my strong turn one ragavan or perhaps they wait to use the swords of plow shares to deal with it at a later time this allows the reactive control player to access threat levels and perhaps use the force of will on a card that isn't a creature plenty of time to react and make calculated decisions now Stacks being proactive ideally played out a chalice of the Void with one charge counter on it my stacks opponent is being proactive and knowing I likely need to play a card with one Mana value on my turn one and this just locked out my deck from playing any critical one Mana cards that I need it to function and since my opponent's threats all start at three Mana they're about to introduce me to their beatdown while I attempt to get a plan together to get my deck back on track speaking of before we get too deep let's talk about the original terms of stacks prison in pillow for and remember that most of these were dated before Commander started to lump them together and in this video to simplify I am also going to lump a lot of these terms together but will highlight appropriate cards for the right themes stack is often referring to a strategy or a card that looks to slow down tax or restrain a player and the resources especially Mana Stacks was originally seen as a prison style deck not vice versa with Stacks players often think of the color white or blue a key Stacks card is the creature Thalia Garden of thraen a two1 creature for one generic and one white the important ability here being non-creature spells costs one more to cast you want to play your spells well it will cost you more and while you're setback a turn I'll keep hitting you with Thalia classic Stacks prison often refers to a strategy that wants to completely lock out their opponents players often think of the color red or colorless or what they used to call Mono Brown given the color of the artifact cards a key prison card here is cursed totem a three drop colorless artifact it reads activated abilities of creatures can't be activated have fun with all your expensive vanilla creatures and lastly pillowfort refers to a strategy that stops opponents from hitting you in a four-person game this often removes you from being hit by other players while you assemble your windc cons some may even call them silly windc cons this strategy is seen as more fun in casual play because you're not stopping your opponents from playing their cards sometimes pillow fort does use group hug and even give players more resources resources that will eventually be used against them but it's not stopping those players playing their cards that's unless they're combining Stacks into the mix a key pillow for card here is propaganda an enchantment for two generic and one blue it reads creatures can't attack you unless their controller pays two generic for each creature they control that's attacking you in casual Commander usually people don't want to waste their resources to hit you so this is often the first pillow that you want when making your fort pillow fort is not remotely good in competitive settings and I would know because I've played a lot of it though I'm sure somebody somewhere has won a tournament while playing pillow fort in this Wide World of Magic it's absolutely possible now speaking of winning if you want to win my heart please like And subscribe now let's talk about how to play Stacks in Commander the cards we're about to review are all used as examples of playing stacks and Commander yet not required for every single deck these cards present a good overall primer on playing Stacks but again are not mandatory the best cards for your deck all depend on many variables including your commander synergies colors and Deb goals now as a reminder Stacks is control aggressive control being proactive not reactive and we're doing this mainly with our permanence artifacts enchantments and creatures when Stacks is mentioned a few cards come to mind usually artifacts our artifacts are one of the most critical card types in our Stacks deck first there's the obvious namesake artifact Smoke Stack a four drop artifact that reads at the beginning of your upkeep you may put a soot counter on Smoke Stack at the beginning of each player's upkeep that player sacrifices a permanent for each so counter on Smoke Stack this card will hurt you unless you set it up accordingly having permanence that want to go to your graveyard like dredge cards having an engine that generates tokens or being able to Loop lands with cards like Crucible of Worlds remember that the so counters are May so you can tick this up as you see fit but once that decision is made everyone including yourself has to live with the consequences until the card is removed next up is Thorn of amethyst it works great for us but not likely for our three opponents a two drop artifact that reads non-creature spells cost one generic more cast this makes it harder for most decks to play to their curve it especially hurts Spell slinger decks and makes it more expensive for our opponents to cast their artifact removal targeting our cards another great artifact is God Pharaoh statue a six drop that read spells your opponent's cast costs two more to cast and at the beginning of your endep each opponent loses one life this is great because it slows down our opponents without messing up our plans then there's ins snaring Bridge a three drob artifact that reads creatures with power greater than the number of cards in your hand cannot attack this is helpful when our creatures are small and our opponent's creatures are big and dumb or if our wi con does not utilize combat damage given you'll see more than a few big dumb creatures at any given Friday Night Magic this can be perfect to slow down the big Stompy decks another deck type you might see which is my personal favorite is Graveyard and reanimator decks that's where a card like graph taker's cage comes in handy a one drop artifact that reads creature cards in graveyards and libraries can't enter the battlefield players can't cast spells from graveyards or libraries this can also be helpful against the card natural order if you're running targeted like this it's probably important that you also have the L urza Saga in your deck an amazing utility enchantment land that can tutor a zero or one drop artifact for free on its last chapter what's amazing about this card is that if you have it in your opening hand you have until turn three to assess what card in your toolbox will likely be most beneficial given the board State now more in the pillow for camp but still amazing in Stacks are cards like nord's Annex and crawl space given you'll likely be the target of your opponents these cards help slow down their ability to hit you next up is old reli winter orb a two drop artifact that reads as long as winter orb is untapped players cannot untap more than one land during their untapped steps the way we make this work in our favor is to not rely as much on lands and instead have more emphasis on artifact Mana like Mana rocks or treasure tokens or have ways to untap lands next we have the important card type enchantment in Commander this is perhaps where most of the key Stacks components of your deck will arise first let's talk about everyone's favorite enchantment to hate blood moon unless your opponents are are running a monocolored deck they'll likely grown when seeing this card hit the battlefield an enchantment for two generic and one red it simply reads non-basic lands are mountains if you're playing against this card and you have fetches out it's critical to respond with it on the stack and go fetch yourself some basic lands or else those fetches don't fetch anymore and are just tapping for red Mana slowing down your opponent's Mana production is critical when playing stacks and Commander but our decks are still optimized to perform through these harsh environments that we set up like with the nasty card price of Glory an enchantment for two generic and one red whenever a player Taps a land for Mana if it's not that player's turn destroy that land this card doesn't affect us as much given we're not looking to play many spells on our opponent's turns or again if we're running artifact Mana or indestructible lands arguably this does fall into the land destruction theme but Commander Stacks often dips into that theme as well and for all you blue players out there there's Back to Basics which sounds like the name of some crappy generic pop song an enchantment for two generic at one blue that reads non-basic lands don't unta during their controller's untap steps this hurts so many decks that require dual lands and utility lands to function it's important that you don't play this unless your deck is optimized to perform with Basics such as with a monocolored deck or a Duo deck that runs plenty of Basics and I mean plenty Stacks often takes popular trends like multicolored commanders and hates against them Stacks can rely on most opponents to play a bunch of non-basic lands at least to the point where it hurts them more than it hurts us then we have deafening silence an enchantment for one white it reads each player can't cast more than one non-creature spell each turn now this is perfect for a heavy creature deck but also won't slow down other heavy creature decks similar enchantments are rule of law and H noon great if you're playing against a deck that cheats things into play rather than cast them now what would a Stacks video be without stasis perhaps one of the most dreaded cards in all the game stasis is an enchantment for one generic and one blue players skip their untapped steps at the beginning of your upkeep sacrifice stasis unless you pay one blue you best know what you're doing with this card or you'll potentially lock out everybody including yourself creating a stalemate and if you're wondering which decks would this actually be good in great question with a commander that offers the ability to untap permanence or blink them like brego King Eternal or Jor God of winter some extra hate pieces are cimity for slowing down decks relying on counters being put on permanent which can also lock out the game when you pair it with a card decree of Silence noting that it locks out the game in your favor rest in piece and lay light on the void for shutting down graveyard and recursion decks and some extra pill for pieces that can pair well in a sta deck like with ghostly prison and propaganda tax your opponents when they want to attack you with their creatures now speaking of creatures let's take a look at the stacks All Stars D and linvala great Stacks Commander but is also amazing as a creature in any deck that it can be in it's a three4 creature for one generic two white and one black it has flying vigilance it states activated abilities of creatures your opponents control cannot be activated and it has all activated abilities of All Creatures your opponents control you may spend Mana as though it were Mana of any color to activate those abilities in the right pod this card is outright nasty truly an oppressive card then there's Grand abolisher just saying the name brings back trauma a tutu creature for two white it reads during your turn your opponents can't cast spells or activate abilities of artifacts creatures or enchantments this allows you to get away with murder on your turns there will be no stopping you well at least on your turn fate spinner is a onew creature for one generic and two blue it reads at the beginning of each opponent's upkeep that player chooses draw step main phase or combat phase the player skips each instance of the chosen step or phase this turn this card greatly slows down your opponents gooked also a great Stacks Commander is a two two creature for one green and one white non-creature spells with Mana value for a greater cannot be cast non-c creature spells with X and their Mana cost can't be cast a pain in the ass for your opponents if they are not prepared since your deck is optimized with creatures all will be fine once tister here hits the battlefield megus of the moon is essentially blood moon on a stick given it's a 2 two creature it's much more susceptible to removal though Thalia heretic cathar is a 3-2 creature for two generic and one white she has first strike and creatures and non-basic lands your opponent's control enter the battlefield tapped let's just keep our opponents one turn behind forever then there's Grand Arbiter Augustine IV another great Stacks Commander and is another taxing creature a two three creature for two generic one white and one blue it reads white spells you cast cost one less to cast blue spells you cast cost one less generic to cast spells your opponent's cast cost one more to cast there are only two things certain when playing against stacks and Commander death and taxes now lands and Commander stack decks are not as critical as they are in say Legacy or vintage and that's mainly due to the fact that Commander is a Singleton format with three opponents instead of one using a card like Rashad and port to tap down one opponent's land doesn't really become helpful when you have three opponents but depending on the deck you can still make use of utility lands and Commander Stacks like I stated before urza Saga is a great way to tutor up a zero or one drop artifact for targeted hate like graveyard Maze of ith can also help slow down problematic attackers but in Commander we only get one of these lands each which means lands don't become as critical and definitely not as consistent as in formats that can have four copies however green do have access to land tutors so that can help in a pinch a helpful strategy can be to Loop targeted land destruction cards like Wasteland or strip mine this is possible by artifacts like Crucible of Worlds or sorceries like light from the lone but the outcome better be good or we better be able to play an extra land per turn because we are restricting our own resources when we use cards like Wasteland or strip mine now this is all great but how does Stacks actually win in Commander this boils down to you building a strategic wincon that still performs well under the brutal conditions that you've now created I saw this hilarious Reddit post that defined it as this think of piloting a Stacks deck like a tractor it is slower than cars but since all your deck does is throw rocks and pitfalls you move slowly and steadily through the obstacles While others have to stop and remove them and that is exactly correct build a strategy that hurts a high percentage of decks but allows us to navigate with ease for example if tister here is your commander you are going all in on creatures to win if Loro is your commander and you're gaining a ton of life it will likely be aetherflux Reservoir while you take out players one by one with your huge life total or like we said with brego King Eternal lock your opponents out with stasis and you'll more or less have infinite combat turns depending on the board state so regardless if you are playing Stacks or not how do you win against it in casual Commander most decks are not set up to deal with Stacks which in that case you'll likely need to do what feels natural politic your group to remove the problem and if you're the one playing Stacks in this situation be prepared to deal with just that a ton of politics against you but if you're looking for decks that perform well against Stacks you'll need to be specific on who you're up against but generally K of the vast is a great option against Stacks due to the ability to not need Mana to play outter creatures whenever K of the vast attacks an opponent you may put an angel demon or Dragon creature card from your hand into the battlefield tapped in attacking that opponent no Mana no worries or another good option is Jory of the getu pay to generic Exile a nonland card from your hand put four time counters on the exiled card if it doesn't have suspend it gains suspend stack is slowing down the game four turns will go by plenty fast once Stacks locks out the board just make sure to use your Mana wisely here Marie can be good given it has a ton of ways to untap creatures but if you're not wanting to change your commander then just find some specific cards that will hopefully stop your opponents when playing Stacks finding combo artifact and enchantment hate will likely be your best bet here because that's what Stacks relies on spot removal pieces like crosen grip naturalize wasio who endures or force of vigor all of these can take out both artifacts and enchantments green is clearly the best color to do this a card like a braid or destroy evil is spot removal for artifacts while Vandal Blast has overload and can destroy all artifacts that are not yours feed the Swarm is the best mono enchantment removal by far now farewell will pretty much Exile any nonland permanent you need it to deal with plus it's dealer's choice on this one as you get to decide how many any of these car types you are exiling and yes it can be all of them a fun one is also Serenity because it's a ticking Time Bomb however even though it is fun to watch your opponent sweat it is subject to being removed by that Stacks player now you're all ready to play Stacks or now that you've studied the enemy you're ready to play against stxs I hope that you found all of this information helpful in your journey to locking down your opponent's board States is there a Stacks Commander that you enjoy playing the most or perhaps one that you're most excited to build and most most importantly let me know in the comments which theme typle or color you want me to focus on next I'm Nick please thank you for joining me

Channel: nicplz

Views: 6,670

Keywords: magic the gathering, mtg, commander, magic, trading card game, edh, mtg decklist, mtg commander, commander masters, mtg commander masters, magic the gathering commander, mtg deck tech, mtg deck tech commander, mtg proxy, mtg professor, magic the gathering arena, mtg art, magic artists, mtg vintage, mtg legacy, mtg modern, mtg standard

Id: grIukbSg9tM

Length: 19min 36sec (1176 seconds)

Published: Wed May 01 2024