Having put together four possible stax lists from this card pool, 1 mono blue stax, 1 mono red stax, 1 blax, 1 colorless stax, I'm at a loss what list I'm going to play at a tourney on sunday. What list would you play?

Card pool is here: http://xerent.lokalen.org/incoming/cardpool.jpg

A potential Blax card was spoiled the other day:

Heartless Summoning  
Enchantment
Creature spells you cast cost   less to cast.
Creatures you control get -1/-1.

There has to be some way a black workshop deck can utilize this card.

Here's a draft:

1   Black Lotus            
1   Mox Jet            
4   Mishra's Workshop            
1   Sol Ring            
1   Mana Crypt            
2   Chrome Mox            
4   Wasteland            
1   Strip Mine            
4   Cabal Pit            
2   Swamp            
2   Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth            
               
            23    mana sources
               
1   Trinisphere            
3   Smokestack            
4   Chalice of the Void            
4   Thorn of Amethyst            
3   Tangle Wire            
3   Crucible of Worlds            
            18    stax cards
2   Braids, Cabal Minion            
3   Nether Void            
3   Bloodghast            
3   Bitterblossom            
3   Chains of Mephistopheles            
1   Yawgmoth's Will            
1   Demonic Tutor            
1   Vampiric Tutor            
1   Gate to Phyrexia            
1   Damnation            
            19    blax cards
               
            60    in total
SB:               
4   Leyline of the Void            
1   Helm of Obedience            
1   Innocent Blood            
1   Damnation            
1   Skeletal Scrying            
4   Yixlid Jailer            
2   Gate to Phyrexia            
1   Mind Twist            
            15    sideboard cards

What's wrong with this? I like to believe I'm good at building decks, but ... 

This is an idea in the making. I had some initial list suggestions, but I don't want to spoil the great brainstorming session we have going here. I'd love to see some kind of list grow out of it.

Here are my thoughts regarding the cards I'm now considering.

Blax cards:

• Braids, Cabal Minion is a smokestack on legs but is legendary, so probably not a four-of. Plays well with Thorn of Amethyst. She costs four and receives no love from workshops.
• Bloodghast is a creature so plays well with Thorn of Amethyst. With crucible of worlds, you can sacrifice this guy over and over (also to Gate to Phyrexia). On its own just a meaningless creature.
• Bitterblossom gives you a new permanent each turn, so works with Smokestack/Braids as-is and can help get the lock in place quickly. Pretty cheap. Can be sacrificed when you have other lock pieces, because you're taking the one damage every turn.
• Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth – of course we want this one. Probably 2 or 3. It is, however, legendary.
• Cabal Pit I'm not so sure about. It kills small creatures sometimes, but mostly it'll just be worse than Underground River? I don't feel it'll ever be as good as Barbarian Ring in a monored build with Bazaars.
• Gate to Phyrexia works with Bloodghast and Bitterblossom, but costs double black and only targets artifacts. It doesn't do anything on its own so feels like a dead card.
• Dark Ritual is black mana fast but is probably a dead card unless you find it in your opening hand.
• Soul Net could be a singleton card. With Bitterblossoms and Cabal Pits (and possibly Dark Confidant), you'll be taking lots of damage.
• Dark Confidant is good, but I don't think he makes the cut.
• Chrome Mox could be a source of black mana if you run enough of black cards. With so few lands, you don't want to run Mox Diamond, that's for sure.
• Innocent Blood is a good sideboard card, and so is Sinkhole
• Thoughtseize or Cabal Therapy I'm unsure about. I'd like to run them, but maybe the slots just aren't there.
• The Abyss would probably work better in a legacy build.
• Nether Void is brutal, but costs four and isn't an artifact. I'd say try two of them, possibly three.
• Chains of Mephistopheles probably works better in another deck?

Classic stax cards in a Blax setting:

• Sphere of Resistance is probably not a good idea in this deck. Thorn of Amethyst is probably much better, because we'll be casting some creatures.
• Bazaar of Baghdad could work with Bloodghast, Wastelands and what not. With the Tomb it is also a swamp, but I think we need more black mana in these slots.
• Chalice of the Void with X=0 or X=1. The only black card with CMC 1 is Dark Ritual. Auto-include 4x.
• Mana Vault, Mana Crypt are broken but perhaps Chrome Mox is the better choice.
• Crucible of Worlds - centerpieces. Three or four, no less.
• Wasteland - four, obviously.
• Strip Mine - yes.
• Trinisphere, why not.

Everything can't fit into the small 60-slot container. Probably I would run two-three Bitterblossoms and two Bloodghasts. Opinions?   [/list]

Greetings.

I've been pondering a possibly (mono-)black variant of stax. To me, it seems like the synergy between Smokestack, Bitterblossom and Bloodghast is too good to pass up. Braids is a smokestack on legs and with Wastelands/Crucible, you'd be cleaning the board very fast. However, Bitterblossom and Bloodghast hardly do anything on their own. Should I just forget about this whole thing, or move it to legacy, where cards like Dark Ritual, Phyrexian Obliterator and The Abyss might actually be useful?

best regards, xerent

I still think that "Mox Opal  , When Mox Opal enters the battlefield, exile an artifact. : Add to your mana pool." is a pretty good bet: If you have no artifacts, you'll have to exile your own Mox. If you have played an artifact, you'll have to exile that instead. You could run a playset of Ornithopters though. That'd be the day. The artifact is exiled to prevent Goblin Welder combo. This doesn't explain the colors in the opal art, though.