I'm pretty sure Meddling Mage is correct.  That guy was also Tugboat, Typhoon, and other bad gimmicks.

Thanks for the bad pro wrestling reference, FEINSTEIN!

Dammit!  Now I have to play that album again, excellent stuff for sure.

right now:  Okkervil River - Song of Our So-Called Friend

Phil's Twister was severly creased.

The Time Walk has some distinct curved white wear marks on the back.

This is all stuff Endress told me, I have not actually seen these cards. 

As bad as it sounds, this would be a lot easier to take if no one had turned the deck in.  The fact that it was given to the judges booth and then went missing is absurd.

Hello insurance fraud!

Regarding the Japanese foil stuff, I think the higher prices in the guide are about the only way you'd ever make up the difference on the rare/pimp stuff.  If you're getting overpaid on normal, english cards, then taking a hit value-wise on the foreign foils are something you'd have to live with.  I'm sure it balances out.

According to my State Farm agent, you can get a "Personal Items" insurance.  They will insure your cards based on their value from an acceptable price guide (Scrye, I'd assume).  Six months ago, I was 1 meeting away from getting this done, and never followed through.  After hearing about Roland and Jacob with GenCon right around the corner you can assure I'm locating a copy of Scrye tonight and I'll be in there tomorrow getting my T1 stuff insured.  Seems worth it right now.

Thanks Ryan!  I play pretty much the same way you do, which is all business once I present the deck.  I can joke around with people all the way up through the die roll, then as 13nova was saying this weekend, I "become a card playing statue".  I agree with Vroman also about not communicating so much because of tells, etc.

Come to think of it I love my matches vs Vroman, because it's just two serious Stax players, furrowed brows and all, grinding away at each other.  He usually gets the better of me, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy the silent, methodic, game play.

The 60th card in my Workshop Aggro list is Mana Crypt.

That got me a game loss in top 8.  I shoud crush Fish all day w/ my deck, but Owen got the first game and that was it. 

And maybe it does look like a pile, but LARGEMEN are just fun to cast sometimes.

Any Stax build.  Sorry if that wasn't clear, but I never specifically said.  I would say about half the games I win with the deck are from concession to a lock.  I've seen Stax decks that could only kill with a Welder, because unless you're running out of time in the round it normally doesn't matter.

In my opinion the full-on lockout is what you want to be doing with the deck.  I did play some tempo-oriented cards in some of my latest lists, but this was because of my local meta.  Your Crucible of Worlds and Wasteland aren't that good against decks like Gifts, TPS, and Oath, because they're going to kill you before you spending 3 mana and multiple land drops (Wastelands) means anything.  It was my intention to grab the earliest amount of tempo I could, and use that to develop a degenerate board position, rather than resolve a bomb.  Honestly, I couldn't care less what card I kill them with in my Stax deck, as the "kill condition" is the last card I usually add to the decklist.  If that kill condition isn't putting me further ahead in some fashion, then I'm probably not running it.  For me, doing 20 or so damage in an afterthought.


~Matt Morrison

So far it's the only other castable counterspell early on.  I haven't had it stranded in my hand that often.  

Drain doesn't seem that realistic because of Bazaar taking up an early land drop.  I tried Misdirection, but often times I would toss my whole hand away and have not much to show for it.  I have not tested Mana Leak, but without a Mox it's still not castable until turn 3.  

The roster is quite big.  Its something like:
**The Original Gangstas***
Endress - lost.in.admiration
Phil - moxlotus
Brian Fisher - IntoTheSilence
Eric Becker - kobefan (probably an original?)
***The Recruits***
Matt Morrison - dogleg969
Manuel Fernandez - Hspecter
Aaron Jarvis - ? (I don't know if he posts on here)
Ryan Mayrand - Nether__Void
John Donovan - Vincent
Ryan Spindler -  Rhyno
Gregg Seaverson - moxblingbling
Eddie Esparza - (doesn't post on TMD)

I'm sure I'm forgetting at least one person.  At least these are the people that post frequently on our site.


Pretty much.  


LOU WINS!  I want to make a motion right now to get our name changed to this.  Best one so far Fuckin' Lou!

Initially in my 5c Stax build I opted for a 2x Tendo 3x Gemstone and 0 Lotus Petal configuration. I think for the way the deck runs you really don't want that many one-shot colored sources.  Which basically echoes what JD and others said above.

However, my initial logic behind cutting a Gemstone for a Tendo was that I wanted to be able to pay for all my cost modifiers without having to rely on a random Mox, since Cities and Gemstones were hurting me one way or another.  I had long since gone back to 4x Gemstone 1x Tendo.


With no draw engine, I think you'd take about every castable one you can get.  The D-Con in Vroman's list can easily become Imperial Seal.  I have run Consultation in Stax before, and most of the time it's worth the risk.  We aren't playing Storm combo here, so you really never *need* to consult for a restricted card.

To start with I am Mr. Morrison, for those who don't know. (because I never post, EVER)

I guess I can echo what some others said about Tendo in that it's a better Lotus Petal.  I even tried 2, replacing a Gemstone Mine for the other one, but in the end one seemed correct.

I ran the Welders and Sculpting Steel as defense against DSC.  This deck still loses to an early Tinker, and I just wanted a few outs to try and fix that situation.  Most of the bounce being ran lately is Echoing Truth or Rebuild, which makes Sculpting Steel work fine.

There are a few neat tricks you can do with S.Steel besides cloning a large man.  I sometimes ramp Smoky up to two, copy it and then sack the one at two and the usual land coming back on my turn.  That lets me set the Sculpted-Smokestack back to one and snag a few more of my opponents perms on the way. 

Other than that the Welders weren't *stellar* and they were usually boarded out for Ground Seals vs. opposing Welders.

We played once where someone had Planar Portal/Beacon of Tomorrows.

My favorite has to be Thicket Elemental w/kicker ---> Phage ---> LOSE

I think Chalice tech is what its all about.  Thanks for getting the gears turning on this one...  

Why is Coretapper in Belcher's SB?  Is it solely a Goblin Welder thing (wish for it to weld..?) or is there some underlying genius to the whole thing?  Thanx.

The Crucible combo deck had me puzzled for a while, then once I realized what he was going to do I was a little worried.  Game one I smokestacked his board away and he scooped.  Game two he was putting the pieces of the puzzle with an ETutor, having Fastbond and Zuran Orb in play and tutoring up the Crucible.  He passes turn, and I EOT weld a Mox for a Stack in my graveyard, put a counter on each and hope he sacs out his artifact lands instead of his duals.  He does and in response to Crucible being played I weld ZOrb for Seat of Synod...-whew-:!:

Belcher is still bad.  Any random FoW/Null Rod/D Matrix/whatever owns that deck.  I know it is quick, but I was suprised to see it do so well.

You took out the sacred Future Sight!  It obviously worked out pretty well for you.  You'll see me at the next one for sure.
It was somewhat suprising to me how many arguments occured over card rulings that people did not understand.  Misdirecting Time Walk and Duress is ridiculous.  

My play of the day against GAT was turn one Lotus, Trinisphere.. he Forces.  I drop Workshop and Trinisphere no. 2  :lol:

Playing Stax in a metagame full of arty hate wasn't the greatest plan I had, in Chicago that deck would have done a lot better.  How the crap does Belcher win games consistently?! It boggles the mind.

With this event being my first T1 event since like '95 when I was playing badmoon.dec (yikes!) I'd say I showed up quite well...

So I am playing Dragon for some silly reason... I should be playing Hulk but I hate the mirror

Round 1 - GAT
Game 1 gets a turn 1 Ophid and Dryad, draws a ton of cards, beats me down in a hurry.  Play of the game:  Holding FoW and one other random non blue card he casts Berserk for the win, I activate Bazaar thinking, "I'll find a blue card to pitch and buy myself a turn"  Oops.... It's going to be a long day.  Game 2  I Necromancy (one of my 10 proxies, I know, HOT) EOT, he has a counter but doesn't know how the deck works.  Game 3 he has double Dryad 9/9 and 3/3, after like 20 opts/brainstorms/ancestralls, etc.  He's got me at 6 life, passes turn I rip Dance of the Dead like a savage cheater, play it with no backup out of desperation and he has no counter.  Savage.

Round 2 - UR Fish
This sucked because it was my buddy that I rode up with.  In retrospect we should have ID'ed, I dunno, they were close ones, but I took it to him 2-1

Round 3 - 7/10 Split
Knowing this was the deck to beat I figured I had my work cut out for me.  Game one was nuts, Xantid Swarm is a house, I go off turn 2.  Game 2 he has me locked down with double Chalice and Crypt and Plats, I Intuition to see if I have some random answer and I don't, maybe I should have played it out instead of scooping then, but I don't want to be a toolbox and win/draw due to time.  Game 3 he has savage Beb rips and stops me from comboing out 2x.  You're a lucksack Brian  

Round 4 - Keeper
I mulligan to 6 game one, Mind Twist owns me
I mulligan to 5 game two, Mind Twist OWNS me, plus he has Aura Fracture SB tech.  yup

Round 5 - Keeper
Game One, I'm sure you read his post above, maybe that will convince you to take Future Sight out of your deck Matt.   No really, I am a big time sack when I pull a card like that.  After that games 2 and 3 were putrid opening hands and trip to the snack machine.

Overall an enjoyable experience.  Maybe I will slog my way up to Milwaukee and give you guys some ownage.  Someone has to dethrone you Morrison punks  

With this event being my first T1 event since like '95 when I was playing badmoon.dec (yikes!) I'd say I showed up quite well...

So I am playing Dragon for some silly reason... I should be playing Hulk but I hate the mirror

Round 1 - GAT
Game 1 gets a turn 1 Ophid and Dryad, draws a ton of cards, beats me down in a hurry.  Play of the game:  Holding FoW and one other random non blue card he casts Berserk for the win, I activate Bazaar thinking, "I'll find a blue card to pitch and buy myself a turn"  Oops.... It's going to be a long day.  Game 2  I Necromancy (one of my 10 proxies, I know, HOT) EOT, he has a counter but doesn't know how the deck works.  Game 3 he has double Dryad 9/9 and 3/3, after like 20 opts/brainstorms/ancestralls, etc.  He's got me at 6 life, passes turn I rip Dance of the Dead like a savage cheater, play it with no backup out of desperation and he has no counter.  Savage.

Round 2 - UR Fish
This sucked because it was my buddy that I rode up with.  In retrospect we should have ID'ed, I dunno, they were close ones, but I took it to him 2-1

Round 3 - 7/10 Split
Knowing this was the deck to beat I figured I had my work cut out for me.  Game one was nuts, Xantid Swarm is a house, I go off turn 2.  Game 2 he has me locked down with double Chalice and Crypt and Plats, I Intuition to see if I have some random answer and I don't, maybe I should have played it out instead of scooping then, but I don't want to be a toolbox and win/draw due to time.  Game 3 he has savage Beb rips and stops me from comboing out 2x.  You're a lucksack Brian  

Round 4 - Keeper
I mulligan to 6 game one, Mind Twist owns me
I mulligan to 5 game two, Mind Twist OWNS me, plus he has Aura Fracture SB tech.  yup

Round 5 - Keeper
Game One, I'm sure you read his post above, maybe that will convince you to take Future Sight out of your deck Matt.   No really, I am a big time sack when I pull a card like that.  After that games 2 and 3 were putrid opening hands and trip to the snack machine.

Overall an enjoyable experience.  Maybe I will slog my way up to Milwaukee and give you guys some ownage.  Someone has to dethrone you Morrison punks