QFT!!
He deserves it.

I should check with the misses but I really would like to go!

Well one could instead attend the Bazaar of Moxen weekend as it happens to be on the same date. Either way I will be present @breda this time

Excellent report Duncan and again congrats on the big finish. You sure are on fire for the last year.

First... it was great seeing you again Marius. I always enjoy hanging out with you (and all the other Dutch regulars)
I've seen that monster you played in action and it looks really solid. Too bad your result didnt reflect that more. After swiss I took the opportunity to play against it and got hosed pretty bad (both by you and by Bart)
The Minus6 deck I piloted didnt perform as I hoped it would (3-2, drop). I was really looking forward to playing Dragon again (because its one of my all-time favorite decks) but it didnt work out due to reasons better suited for the Minus6 deck topic.

I'm not really a great combo player (at least Tendrils combo) so I cant really comment on the whole Brain Freeze - Tendrils discussion.
But if I were to pick up Tendrils combo this would be the best deck suited for my playstyle. It just looks awesome.

-minor sidenote-
The match against Goswin ended at 2-1 in Goswins favor... you resolved TV+key in game 2.

In my experience Oath is one of the worst matchups you could have playing Stax (in any form)
Your gameplan is slowing down and locking your opponent out. Oath doesnt care about mana in play as long as it can resolve Oath.
The same goes from Ichorid (or dredge or whatever you want to call it). It just laughs at your lockpieces because they really dont have to resolve any spell if they can Bazaar a couple of time to get the dredge engine going.
If your meta is infested with Oath and Ichorid you might want to reconsider your deckchoice as Stax isnt really fit to battle those decks.

If you still want to play some workshop deck with Leylines you might want to try something like Obeyline or a Gilded Claw variant using Leyline of the Void + Helm of Obeydience. I've been messing about with a Gilded Claw deck using Leyline, Helm and Entomb...
Just for fun here's the list... no tournament data available because I havent played it in a tournament yet.

4x shop
4x cob
3x gmine
1x tolarian
1x strip
1x bazaar
1x urborg
3x wasteland

5x mox
1x lotus
1x sol ring
1x mcrypt

4x welder
1x gshaman
1x sharuum
2x trike
1x titan
1x karn

3x entomb
1x crop rotation

4x leyline
1x helm of obey
4x sphere
1x trini
1x mjar
1x glotus
1x crelic
1x balance
1x cow
1x demonic
1x vampiric
1x tinker
1x arecall
4x chalice

/sb
2x reb
1x pyro
2x platz
1x dupe
3x neelde
3x ray of rev
3x acient grudge

Marske... It was hardly a wrecking... I just dinged the reardoor... just a minor dent+paintscraping
But thinking back to the fun times we had in Annecy I can imagine how crazy the Milan trip must have been
Too bad you guys sucked and didnt make it to the top of the field either days (although winning a sideevent is also a nice accomplishment)

Good to hear you guys had such a great time. I feel really bad for not going although there was no way for me to attend. Maybe we should roadtrip to Annecy again in the near future ;P
I'm even more curious about the decklists and the meta...

Marske
Of course you're in for a tough ride if you opponent has a Wasteland.
Thats why opening with Unmask is the best play with that hand if you ask me (but we already establised this)

If your opponent does indeed have a Wasteland my example will show you 12 cards by turn 3 (with no extra dredgers found)
On the other hand your plays will lead to a maximum of 8 cards by turn 3 (again no extra dredgers)

I know I'm playing a worst case scenario here but isnt that something we should discuss anyway?

Seeing as many cards as possible is the best course of action is you ask me. But I'll admit that I'm no Ichorid played so if anyone feels I'm incorrect please feel free to share your views.

Just for reference for the rest of the readers the example I gave BB-G.

With the given hand (Bazaar of Baghdad, Gemstone Mine, Golgari Thug, Unmask, Cabal Therapy, Stinkweed Imp, Chalice of the Void) you should always start with Unmask no matter what. Even before playing a land. This gives you valuable information on the plays to follow.

Example 1 (Marskes variation)
Turn 1
Play Unmask (pitch Thug) and remove something. You see a Wasteland in your opponents hand
Play Chalice@0
Play Bazaar, draw 2, discard Imp, C.Therapy + 1 of the drawn cards (lets say for sake of argument it's not a dredge-card)
End the turn

Opponent plays Wasteland and destroys your Bazaar.

Turn 2 all you can do is dredge the Imp during your Drawstep. You have no way to discard the Imp again. If you hit a dredger while dredging the Imp you can continue dredging on turn 3 but you will end up with dredgers in hand and no way to get rid of them. (you could have saved the C.Therapy when discarding on turn 1 so you can play it on yourself on turn 2 to get the Imp in de grave again)

Example 2 (XdeckX variation)
Play Unmask (pitch Thug) and remove something. You see a Wasteland in your opponents hand
Play Chalice@0
Play G.Mine
Play C.Therapy targetting yourself and discard Imp.
End the turn

Opponent plays Wasteland

Turn 2
Drawstep dredge Imp.
Play Bazaar and activate. If you hit a dredger while dredging the Imp you could replace the draw and continue dredging. If not you draw 2. Discard Imp + other cards.

You will have at least 1 dredger in your grave by turn 3 so you can continue dredging regardless if you found a dredger with Imp or bazaar.

Excellent and insightfull article. It gave me some good info on why some cards were excluded (perhaps it was even more informative than my article;)) And it was really fun to read as well.
And yes Thorn of Amethyst is metagame dependant. Luckily in Holland we also get away with it most of the time.

QFT
Losing lockpieces to make room for Rod just seems bad.
I still believe Rod is better played in a monocolored or a 2-colored Stax list. Mostly due to the absense of expensive colored spells.

@MaddMaxx
When playing Stax you try to make the board asymmetrical but I've found that when you achieve this asymmetrical boardposition (due to locking and wasting and smoking and what not) you're already ahead and you don't really need to play GU anyway (win more) If you have welders and spheres down you shouldnt be needing a card like GU to win the game.
In my opinion GU is best when trying to get back into the game by fetching stuff that helps you regain board control. And for that role GU is (especially with Sphere effects) too mana intensive. If I were to play a card like that I'd rather take Intuition. That serves the same role and is cheaper to cast.

Don't get me wrong, I applaud the idea but I don't think the idea works for this deck. If it does work for you that's great but win more is not really helpfull in my book.

@Sean Ryan
You do raise a good point.
When playing with Shops you should start with decide what you're gameplan is. Control of Aggro. Both are more than capable of getting to the finishline. Maybe there's a personal aspect involved when making this choice.
WS Control : Slow the game down long enough to establish a hardlock and win
WS Aggro: Slow the game long enough to kill your opponent with beats.
Allot of cards played will be same for both lists with the difference being cards played to suit the gameplan.

Let's get back to Stax for a minute.
Eventhough I wrote an article about 5C Stax (just a personal preference) it might be wise to discuss what version of Stax is best suited for a specific meta and what cards should be played.
And maybe we do need to compare WS Control and WS Aggro but it might be better to start a new thread on that (since this thread is about Stax after all)

Lol. Thanks for translating Zeus. Its really accurate

@prospero
since this is an international forum I'll keep my reply in English. Thank yo for your post. Its really funny seeing a non-Dutch writing in Dutch. Your post was really accurate. But lets get back on topic. Im happy to hear you like the list and I won't let some of the critical comments get to me After all... all we're all trying to do is get the best list of a deck together. A healthy discussion on decks and cards is always a good thing in my book.

@Sean Ryan
In the end my article turned out to be more general primer than anything else.
But I disagree with your statement that the 5C versions of Stax are the most inconstent and the players need to reexamine their lists. When examining the Morphling.de recent T8 data the most Stax decks that make T8 are indeed 5C. This leads me to believe that's 5C Stax is hardly inconsistent and still outperform other Stax lists.
Of course there are other lists and people are more than welcome to try out new things. That's the beauty of Stax. You have a better possibility to try out different things than you have with any other deck. E.g I've been tinkering with a list playing multiple crop rotations, enlightened tutors and entombs.

As with any deck you play with the list you feel most comfortable with.

@MaxxMatt
I feel the CMC of Gifts is a bit too high to support it in 5C Stax. You're really stretching your non-workshop manabase to the max when playing Gifts, especially if you have one or more Spheres out. I sometimes even struggle to get the mana needed to play Tinker. On the other hand it won't hurt to test it (which I didn't due to the CMC) Maybe Intuition could also fit the same role. Sure it lets you search for one card less and you can't choose to just put 2 cards in your grave, but you can on the other hand find find multiples of the same card. And the CMC is a bit easier on the manabase.

Both StP and Pkeg are what I consider to be free slots. You could play any combination of cards you feel deserve a place. I've tested all sorts of different cards in these slots. I'm not asking you to agree with my choice of StP and PKeg I've played these cards with some succes (more than any other) thats why I included them.

The sideboard is something that's highly meta dependant. The Dutch meta is totally different from the US meta, it's also different from the other countries around Europe to be honest. And as with any meta it's always shifting.
You can face several bad matchups (feel free to add any if you feel it's a bad list)
-Oath of Druids
-Fast aggro
-Ichorid
-WS aggro (with Welders)
-BUG Fish

@Lotus
Right now I'm running Chalice in the sideboard. It's a card I'd like to have maindeck but right now I feel Sphere and Tangle Wire are both a bit stronger so I play those instead (and chalice gets cut because I dont have room for it)
Luckily we're not seeing too many Misdirections over here I'd hate to see someone steal my Recall and draw the 3 cards.

Seeing these replies makes me want to get back to writing once more. Maybe a follow-up article might be in order.
Anyway lets get back into some card choices.

-Swords to Plowshares
As stated in the article StP is one of the free slots. I didn't want to play another robot (I usually play Duplicant out of the board) maindeck. When creating the list I've been fiddling with that one slot. I ran a 2nd Powder Keg, Memory Jar, Imperial Seal, In The Eye of Chaos, Uba Mask and the StP. During some testing I kinda stuck with StP because whenever I drew it, it helped with the matchup. I'm not advocating it's inclusion but for me it's been working. If you feel it's suboptimal by all means change it for something else.

-Karn vs Inkwell
I must admit I didnt think of this when I wrote the piece. Karn does indeed block Inkwell Leviathan. Eventhough I have some experience I'm no pro

-Null rod
It is a strong card in the current meta for sure. But with the limited deckspace I think the cards I listed are better suited for the deck. Again this is just my personal opinion. It shuts down the main winconditions: Karn and Trike (although this can be handled by using some other robots) And with the higher number of non-artifact cards I need all the mana to cast those spells (even more mana is needed when a Sphere is in play) Shutting down my own Moxen might hinder me in doing so even if it helps slowing down the opponent.

-In the Eye of Chaos
I've tested the card and in the past I've played it maindeck. It is a strong card. But I felt the Spheres did the same thing.

-Imperial Seal
It does the same thing as Vampiric tutor but at sorcery speed. Perhaps it needs inclusion, perhaps it doesn't. Allot of 5C play it, allot don't. I don't play it because I don't like it all that much. I've owned one from some years and just recently sold it just because I never play it in any deck. It just feels slow. Maybe it's just a feeling I'm having with it

-Chalice of the Void
Again it's a matter of deckspace I guess. Cutting the lesser card. I think especially the combination of Sphere and Tangle Wire makes the inclusion of these to cards worthwhile. Slowing down the opponent to get a hard lock going just works better with the overall gameplan. Tangle Wire also helps with slowing down aggro decks which can give you the time needed to stabilize. Chalice doesnt nessesarily slow down the opponent but just locks out certain cards.

-Weakness
Of course Stax is hurt by global artifact bounce, and targeted destruction but then again all decks play cards that do that nowadays. As far as matchup go I've had allot of bad experience with Oath of Druids, Ichorid and general fast aggro decks. Oath trumps the gameplan because once Oath is in play the Oathplayer doesn't have to cast any spells if all goes well. Ichorid and aggro in general are usually too fast for Stax to handle maindeck. Ususally you're facing lethal damage before you get some sort of grip on the game.


And yes the list is really vanilla. Lots of cards in the list are just auto-includes if you want to make the strongest list. On the other hand you do have the option of playing lots of non-standard cards.
In any case I'm planning on writing more on Stax in the future since there is so much ground I haven't covered. MUD, Matchup analysis, possible sideboard cards, controversial lists.

When I started with the article my first thought was that I wanted to write about 5CStax and MUD since I regard both to be the best Stax lists for the current meta. But as the article grew I thought it would be to big. I wanted to provide as much information about card choises as possible. So in the end I just removed the MUD sections and elaborated a bit more on some details. The big part of the article (especially the section on how to play the deck) can be used for most Stax decks. Perhaps, if I have enough inspiration and time, I will write an article on other Stax (or workshop) decks.

I've seen lists with less than 4 Welders too but every time I play Stax I'm really happy when I draw a Welder. It's never dead due to his unique ability; he can help you get countered lock pieces back into play, you can switch opponents artifacts for e.g Moxen that you can kill with Gorilla Shaman or Karn. Maybe other people feel confidant enough to play less  then 4 but I'm more than happy with that number.
I've never tested Regrowth to be honest. Although the effect is quite appealing I'm always struggling for deckspace (that's why I sometimes play 61 cards) and than I think it would get cut to make room for better cards. You want to play cards that affect the game or let's you search for cards that affect the game. In that view a card like Gifts Ungiven might be a good card. But I think the manacost of Gifts is a bit too much. You're really stretching your non-workshop manasources to play Gifts. The best moment to play Gifts is usally at the end of your opponents turn but that would mean you keep 4 mana open during your turn which in my oppinion could be better used by casting lock pieces.
5CStax and UbaStax (which is the deck Arjen was playing) are completly different. If you want to run more than one Uba Mask you also want to run more than one Bazaar to make the most out of that drawengine. That would mean you probably have cut some lands to make room for Bazaar or cut spells for Bazaar (since Bazaar doesn't tap for mana) Then you will have to make room for Uba Masks as well. That would mean you're going to cut into the colored spells to make room which results in removal of colors and thus the need for rainbow lands. I've built 5CUba Stax lists in the past but I've never found that to be solid enough to take to a tournament.It often comes down to gut feeling for me. Sometimes I play a spell only because I want my opponent to waste his counter on that. That gives me the opportunity to drop a permanent which is far more devastating. Don't let the fact that your opponent plays FoW's get to you. You opponent _will_ counter some spells (if he's playing counterspells that is) You just know which spells you want resolved and which spells are nice to have but will not impact the game too much.
Well you can only decide to order of the triggers of permanents you control.
It's possible to stack a Smokestack with 0 counters so you have to sac a permantent the same turn you put a counter on it.
==TOP==
Add counter to Smokestack
Sac permanents equal to the number of counters on Smokestack
==BOTTOM==
This way when the stack resolves you first put a counter on Smokestack and then you will have to sac a permanent to the Smokestack. So bye bye Spirit token.
Smokestacks sacrificte part triggers no matter how many counters are on it. It only checks for counters when the trigger resolves. This is totally different to e.g. Oath of Druids which checks if the conditions of the card are met before a trigger is put on the stack. Thats why it's impossible to get Oath to trigger when you give your opponent a token during that same upkeep. (Oath checks the conditions at the beginning of the upkeep)
Glad you liked it.

Thanks allot for posting my article Marske. I just hope people like it.

I just wanna clarify something. I was the round 5 opponent.... but my list did not play any welders (AggroMud). Also twice in the game you played a Draw7 which ended up winning you the game because I did have a really descent hand against combo. My hand in the 3rd game was something like shop, waste, trinisphere, 1sphere, chalice and something else. Afther the twister I kinda ended up with a hand poorly equiped for handling combo. But thats how the game works. We had some great fun and regarding how bad I played throughout the day you deserved to win 

Eventhough I suck at Magic I still had a blast

I agree with Sloth on this. Eventhough its not cardadvantage its still a strong cardquality card. Depending on the deck Impulse is stronger then Strategic Planning in most cases (instant and digs deeper) But then again it's hardly an engine as you call it.
But all in all its another fine piece of writing. Keep up the good work

In my opinion Impulse is better than Strategic Planning in Tez. You only use the yard after playing Y.Will. The dumping of cards in the yard was usefull in CS when using a Welder but most Tez builds are without that friendly goblin So the added bonus is gone.
Impulse digs deeper and is instant. And because both cards only provide card quality (instead of quantity) my guess you're better off with Impulse (or Telling Time for that matter)
And both Impulse and Telling Time are already covered in the starting post.

I must agree with you on this. Most of the times I leave a tournament with a splitting headache. The headache thing is (in my opinion) caused by 2 things. 1) concentrating for an extensive period of time tends to wear you down and is really tiring. Apart from having a good nights rest there isnt much you can do about this. 2) It's also caused by dehydration. Thats why its so important to keep yourself hydrated during a tournament. I've personally noticed the difference between having drunk enough fluids and not having done that. I still end up with a headache but it's much less severe when I drank enough.

So maken sure you drink enough!

Excellent article. I guess for the regular tournament attenders it's (for the biggest part) a second nature already but it's nice that someone actually took the time to write the preparations and so on down. I enjoyed reading it.

Might be me but with Chalice @ 0 Lotus never comes into or leaves play. It just goes straight to the graveyard from the stack. It will not trigger the Strider that way.

I guess having my Duress Misdirected back at me and forgetting that Duress only targets oppontents counts for a stupid play as well.

The only deck I would even consider playing Pyrite spellbomb against would be Oath (the P.spellbomb would come in from the board when they bring in the Empyrial Archangel)

I might have been confused by the wording of Animate Dead. It doesn't state a target in the text. But I forgot the Aura part of the card actually means it's targetted due to being an Aura.
So you might actually be right and it doesnt work. Lesson learned

It actually does work.
Animate is on the stack when Tormod's Crypt is added.
In responce you play the necromancy on the dragon milling your library using the Bazaar. When you hit the Eternal Witness you stop and target the Witness with the necromancy.
With CIP trigger you return the dragon to your hand.
You let the stack resolve until Tormod's Crypt is done. The Animate is still on the stack. In responce you activate Bazaar again to discard the dragon. And then you let the Animate resolve. Although I'm unsure what's left in the library which will win the game on the spot.

Could you share the list you played? By reading the little report I get the impression that the list is really different from the more traditional ones. I'm curious how it looks