Good point about the fetchlands - I'll play 4 Bloodstained Mire instead.

Okay, I'll test some with Chrome Mox out.

I heeded your advice Marton, and cut the Brainstorms.  Further, I took out 1 Thirst for Knowledge and 1 Chalice of the Void.  I then added 1 Strip Mine, 3 Wasteland, and 2 Cruicble of Worlds.  So that's -

- 4 Brainstomr
- 1 Thirst for K
- 1 Chalice

+ 1 Strip
+ 3 Wasteland
+ 2 CoW

I like this build better because A) I get lands more consistently B) the reccuring waste effect is a powerful lock component.  I don't feel the loss of Brainstorm, though I am considering perhaps adjusting my mana base, as right now, I draw 3 lands 27% of the time, 2 24%, and 4 an uncomfortably high 22%.

I really don't like Null Rod in here - it is pretty debilitating to me, though I may SB it.

I'll understand if this is moved to the Newbie forum.

I've been dabbling in a budget build of Stax lately, as I have seen various suggestions that this is possible to construct.  My metagame is scrubby, almost no Power, mostly aggro.

Here's the decklist, discussion follows.

//Mana
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Flooded Strand
4 Volcanic Island
2 Island
1 Mountain
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Sol Ring
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Vault
1 Grim Monolith
1 Mox Diamond
1 Chrome Mox
1 Mana Crypt

//Lock
4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Tangle Wire
4 Smokestack
3 Chalice of the Void
1 Trinisphere
4 Goblin Welder

//Draw-Search
4 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Brainstorm
2 Meditate
1 Tinker
1 Windfall
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Memory Jar

//Kill
1 Karn, Silver Golem
1 Triskelion
1 Duplicant

This build has done reasonably well in my testing.

The mana base works well enough, I rarely get color-screwed (mostly thanks to the simplicity of a U/R build), and the unpowered acceleration as effective as can be asked.  The Ancient Tombs are a self-explanatory substitute for Workshop (though obviously they aren't the same).  I retain the basic Islands to keep a blue-producing land count at 11, as well as for some degree of protection against Wastelands and B2B, the latter being a justification for the mountain as well.  Though I have seen builds that include some of the recent artifact-lands, that leaves me very vulnerable and frankly I don't think whatever degree of synergy they offer is worth it.

As for the lock, I lowered the Chalice count to 3 mostly because I am not totally convinced of it's disruptive power, though I am not closed to raising it back to 4.  One of my hesitations is that dropping a Chalice for 2 (which is basically what I would use it for) prevents me from playing Sphere - though hopefully I'd have sphere down before I play Chalice, and I can weld it out if need be.

I feel Thirst For Knowlege is my most synergetic and playable unrestricted drawer, and thus I run a full set to fill for my inability to include Timetwister and Ancestral Recall.  It's 3CC can be aggravating, though, especially with a sphere on the board.

Brainstorm is a choice I've taken a lot of flack about.  Stephen Menendian's and Matthieu Durand's older Stax primer advises against it's inclusion, as have many other sources I've looked at and people I've talked to.  I suppose that it may be a no-no in a fully-powered Stax deck, but I think it deserves a place here.  I keep mostly because of the low casting cost.  It smooths over my mana curve and leaves me the ability to accelerate my game first turn, if need be.  If used properly, it can drastically speed my lockdown.

As much as I like Meditate, it's really too situational to run 4.  It's virtually a dead card unless you have Smokestack in play, so I'd rather have a Thirst for K. in its stead.  Even so, when the time is right, it's powerful.

The Draw-7s I include are the ones I can afford - they need no explaning.

I suppose I'm one short on the general kill-card count of four, but I've had no trouble with that.  Karn is the archetypical kill choice in Stax, Duplicant sees a lot of use too, and is most effective, and Triskelion is a powerful weapon against aggro.

I've thought about my lack of active disruption and/or responses.  In a heavy-aggro metagame, I sometimes feel vulnerable with no answers...of course, in aggro the need to run counters or discard is reduced because they have no single deadly threat, rather a fairly homogenous selection of attackers.  I suppose that active response or disruption isn't really what Stax is all about, but even so, I'd like to hear some explanation of a choice regarding this issue.

Many thanks.

I just checked in today for the first time in a few days and noticed the blatant absence of the Budget Forum.  Did it just get blasted after so many threats of such an occurance, or is it down for a little while?  I'll guess the former, it was seriously succumbing to waves of crapdecks.  Mods, I have no objections to you locking this up after it's answered.

Yep, you guys are right.  Devious little bastards, anycraze.  I hate 'em.  Thanks for answering the question though.

I just looked at the price of Mana Drain on Anycraze (yes, it's outrageously overpriced but their prices do rise and fall with the real values), and it's risen by 50% in the last couple of weeks.  What the heck happened?  Why is it suddenly so much more expensive???

Note to mods: I'm sorry if I'm violating rules, I just know I can come to TMD to get answers I trust.  Lock this once it's been answered if you what?

This will start off-topic but please bear with me.

When it comes to PC games, there's a subset of the community that are the unsung heroes amongst PC gamers, the put back in what they take out.  These are the people who stoke the fires of the community, who fuel it and take n00bs under their wings...these are the people who spend hours developing detailed strategy guides to post for free somewhere on the web, these are the people who calculate the number of hitpoints per second a Hydralisk can drain...

Ephraim, you are MTG's equivalent.  It was great of you to put the effort into this decklist...it's the fun sort of thing to, as you say, take into a game shop or bookshop or cafe and play with...and it so doing you draw new players into the game in a way that will introduce them to something other than the n00b community of beatdown decks.  


Clap clap clap clap clap clap clap.

Very simple, but critical to my deck.  Would Helm of Awakening reduce the casting cost of Brainstorm, Spoils of the Vault, Vampiric Tutor, etc. to 0?  \

Thanks.

Thanks everyone.  That was very very useful.  I posted the decklist I was reffering to in the Budget Forum, so please go have a look.

One simple, I guess maybe noob, question.  Obviously, what makes a deck 'competitive' will vary from deck to deck...but consider this specific case.

A combo deck, with no disruptive ability at all, that goes off turn 3 on occasion but almost always on turn 4 (in 45 tests, only about 1-3 times has it taken longer than 4 turns), and has a 100% success rate after going off.

I don't think that this is competitive, especially against control, but it is decent.  Is a turn 4 kill competitive?

Hey.  I'm an American native, about to move to live in the Wake Forest University house in London.  Obviously, I play magic, especially T1, avidly, and was wondering who here would know how to get involved with the MTG community there.  What store(s) should I visits, who should I talk to to begin playing tourneys over there and such.  If it matters, I'll be there from Mid-August through December.  Thanks guys!

Mods: if this isn't in the proper place, please move it.

The name springs from the same routes as "Mana Drain."  While Drain allows you to drain the mana of a spell, envelope soul is allowing you to take a little energy of your opponent's mind (their hand)

So perhaps "Envelope Thoughts"

Yes, perhaps it should be a sorcery.  I upped the cost from Mana Drain jsut because I think it's a better card.  Active vs. Passive

Envelope Soul

1BB
Instant
Choose a Non-Creature, non-land card out of target opponent's hand.  That player discards that card.  At the beginning of your next upkeep, add that card's converted mana cost to your mana pool.

Too powerful?  What do you think?

You can actually make a decent budget academy.  Just look around, they're everywhere.  And if you don't pay attention to restrictions....hehehe.

The base combo cards in Academy decks aren't outlandishly expensive, and the artifacts that are can be replace for lesser ones that are restricted if your (mana vault, lotus petal, sol ring, etc...)

Perhaps think about including an Ivory Tower.  As a deck like this can wind up with more cards in its hand then it can play, Ivory Tower can pump your life total up considerably, and when playing aggro decks this can save you.

Hi, My name is Jesse Williams.

I'm from Winston-Salem, NC, USA.

I started playing magic fairly recently, the first set that came out after I learned to play was exodus.  I hate playing standard decks because at local games the only people I meet are noobs who think that the only good thing in magic is a giant creature.  So, after some years of deckbuilding and casual playing, I feel like taking a shot at a T1 tourney.  I've managed to get my hands on a good number of older cards through the time I've been playing, but haven't been able (and probably won't) to make the investment to get my hands on some P9 cards.

I play blue control and white weenie.

This deck is the end result of cumulative building.  My first ever deck was mono-blue control, a cheap, crappy one, and over the years I've modified it to this eventuality without ever actually sitting down and really working on it.  Now I want to do that and would like your suggestions on a way to modify this.  I'm on a budget, so anything above morphling pricewise is out.  In the decklist I have, I haven't deviated too far from the cards I've always been playing in it.  Part of this is because I would like to hear good suggestions before constructing something that's unfamiliar to me.  Here's the decklist as it stands:


Land
16 Island
3 Faerie Conclave

Counters
4 Counterspell
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Leak
4 Dissipate
2 Power Sink
2 Rebound

Draw/Search
4 Brainstorm
1 Windfall
1 Fact or Fiction
2 Merchant Scroll
1 Mystical Tutor

Kill
2 Palinchron
2 Morphling

Other
2 Ivory Tower
2 Powder Keg
2 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Feldon's Cane

I played around with starting hands to try and generate an optimum number of lands per starting hand, and here I normally get 2 lands per starting hand.  Should I knock off some islands to bring that to one?  Normally, I can make do with one land, as with an Island and Brainstorm in my hand I can almost guarantee getting another Island or two.

Would it be advisable to add a Strip mine and a Wasteland or two?  Any other lands?  For now, although Islands are boring, they work fine.

The conclaves are there as a source of damage.  While waiting for my kill creatures, I can make the job a lot easier with this card.  I think it has a place, although perhaps it should be reduced in numbers.

As I'm running a blue control, counterspells are a no-brainer.  Diddo Force of Will and Mana Leak.  20 Counterspells is a lot, but I've been dissapointed with smaller amounts, as my deck is built around using them, and I have few other means of neutralization.  After the twelve I mentioned above, I chose Dissipate because of its effectiveness against the decks that utilize graveyards.  Power Sink I chose because Rewind had bored me, and Rebound is useful and fun.

Brainstorm needs no explanation.  Windfall I added because I often find myself, think 5+ turns in, with and empty or useless hand, and this would give me a way out of that.  Mystical Tutor and Merchant Scroll are basically like drawing a counter or draw spell.  

Palinchron is in here because it's not bad and I have it on hand.  Also, I'm reluctant to spend for more than 2 Morphlings.  I hope I don't need to justify the morphlings.

Ivory Tower has saved me several times with this deck.  Because this deck doesn't aim to play lots and play it quickly, I often have high numbers of cards in my hand.  Laying Tower on turn 1-2 can give me 5-10 extra life, and that can make a big difference in the casual games I've played, as well as in the local tourneys.

The Keg and the Disk are my back-up mechanisms for counterspells.  If something gets through my counterspell screen, this is how I deal with it.

The cane is helpful for recycling disks, kegs, and just about everything.

---

This deck is strong once it gets set with some lands down, and maybe a couple of artifacts down.  It's problem (I think) lies in its early game.  Sure, I can Force of Will one, or if I'm really lucky, two spells early on, but that won't stop good decks from being at my throat by the time I'd normally be secure.  How can I speed up this deck?

Also, I have some Shivan Reefs and some City of Brass, so I could splash red or black.  Would that be worth it?  What kind of a reconstruction would it entail?

Thanks guys.

The first deck I ever had was a blue control deck, just nice and casual and crappy.  Over my years of playing,  along with getting other cards, I've just gradually built this into a deck which is actually viable in local tournaments.  Obviously, this deck wouldn't have a chance too far beyond that.  I don't have all the money in the world to spend on this, so no need to point out the fact that it could benefit from the addition of Moxes and Loti as well as recalls and time walks...etc.  I would like some tips to make this more viable in tourneys, though.  (Yes I know I need another FOW)

Land
20 Island
1 Faerie Conclave

Draw/Search
4 Brainstorm
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Mystical Tutor

Counters
4 Counterspell
3 Force of Will
4 Mana Leak
4 Dissipate
1 Rebound
2 Power Sink

Kill
2 Palinchron
3 Somnophore

Other
2 Ivory Tower
2 Nevinyrral's Disk
2 Powder Keg
2 Treachery
1 Feldon's Cane

SIDEBOARD
4 Propaganda
3 Arcane Lab
1 Annul
4 Chill
4 Hibernation

Would the addition of strip mines be good?  I should probably drop or sideboard rebound.....anyway.
[/b]

....no doubt this is your reaction.  Yeah, I know my deck doesn't conform to T1 restrictions, but it was never intended to.  Give me your reactions and suggestions...I've also had trouble getting it down to 60.

Lands

Tolarian Academy      2
Shivan Reef               4
City of Brass      4
Ancient Tomb      2
Island                     2

Utility

Frantic Search      1
Wheel of Fortune      1
Oath of Scholars      1
Tsabo's Web      1
Brainstorm               2
Careful Study      1
Meditate               4
Trade Secrets      1
Tinker               1
Memory Jar               1
Time Spiral               1
Windfall   2
Metalworker   1
Goblin Welder   3

Lock

Sphere of Resistance 4
Tangle Wire             4
Smokestack               4
Mana Web               1

Mana Source

Mana Crypt               3
Lotus Petal               4
Mana Vault               3
Grim Monolith      2
Sol Ring               2

Win

Karn, Silver Golem   1

Lands: 14, Spells: 44, Crt: 5   63