SCG Richmond Deck Lists

[Komatteru]

Decklists freshly typed by yours truly from last weekend's P9 tournament can be found here.

[vroman]

as pleased as I am to see another entry in the 'bazaar stax' category, Im pretty shocked to see this:

3 Chalice of the Void
1 Darksteel Colossus
3 Goblin Welder

chalice is one of those cards you absolutely want to see in the opening hand, 4 is the right number. welder is way too potent in this deck to cut any and dsteel is bad synergy w bazaar, plus is a dead card sans tinker.
I did like OBrian's 4 crucibles, which is a key combo w bazaar.

[Lunar]

dsteel is bad synergy w bazaar

it makes getting it out of your hand and back into your library super easy though, it should almost never be dead in your hand and makes for a super easy to toss discard...I think it has worse synergy with uba mask really, not bazaar...

Id also like to point out that chad halstead is the man for giving cerebral assasin a shot (and my list too -1 thirst for knowledge +1 animate dead, heh, badass)

[TimeWizzle]

@vroman
That was my stax list you mentioned.  I agree that chalice is a bomb card in this deck, but i ran the thoretically suboptimal 3 of them for a couple reasons:  1) I was expecting a ton of mirror matches, in which chalice sucks.  And if Knut publishes my report, you will see that it was almost nothing but mirror matches.  2) they really aren't that good on the draw.  Yes, they can still be great in some matchups, but chalice/zero is only good playing first, and chalice/two was about the only thing i set it for otherwise.  I do give you props in my report as being an innovator for the list, so you would probably know more about the chalice number than i would.
As for the welders, I agree that they can be busted good, but a lot of the time i feel like they are "win-more".  If i am crucible-smoky locking someone out, then i really don't need a welder.  Not to mention the amount of maindeck welder hate these days.  They aren't amazing in multiples really, and to me, part of their synergy with Bazaar is using the bazaars to dig and find a welder, while stocking up the yard. 
All that being said, I don't claim that it is the optimal build, but is definitely strong.  Hopefully my article will be up this week. 
-Adam

Edit: I hardcast darksteel colossus in one game and had mana to do so a second game but didn't (overextension)

[vroman]

good job on taking the deck in a new direction w 5c. that seems to be winning as much or more as my R version. one thing Id definitely run in a rainbow build is fastbond, esp w 4 crucibles. bazaar becomes ridiculous in that situation. as for chalice, Id either run 4 or 0. I happily board them out on the draw, and its worth it for the 50% of the time you go first in a match to get the chance at building turn 1 chalice walls off a workshop, which can only happen frequently if you run 4. welder is a card I am never unhappy to draw. after a long smokestack battle or suffering a hail of rack and ruins, slow rolling the lone welder can bounce you right back on top of the game. Id always want to maximize the chance of having a welder in reserve, hence the full set.
I look forward to your report.

[nataz]

the 5cuba stax report went up in the SCG forums last night,

here's the link
http://www.starcitygames.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=462499#462499

[TimeWizzle]

@vroman: i definitely playtested Fastbond, and it was pretty strong.  I replaced it with Jester's cap at the last minute, and it is hard for me to say if that was right or wrong (check out the report http://www.starcitygames.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=282393).  I will definitely try to fit the 4th chalice and 4th welder in there, but i really have no idea what i would cut. 

I encourage everyone to read my article, then direct all comments/flames to either forum.  Thanks all!

[vroman]

my advice on changes would be:

-1 dsteel
-1 jimmy cap
-1 s-titan

+1 chalice
+1 welder
+1 fastbond

as for the sideboard:
did you ever acomplish anything w orb of dreams? I played dream ball for awhile and ultimately found it inferior to other solutions. theoreticaly you want to bring it in against matchups w either lots of haste creatures or fetchlands. in the former category is oath and goblins. dream ball only buys you 1 turn against oath and its another counterable artifact. maze of ith stops their creatures indefinitely and is uncounterable, and duplicant is great to set up w welder and bazaar for an instant speed trap. against goblins I found playing orb meant I lost a lot when my mazes and blockers came into play tapped. orb bought me no time at all in this match up. the fetchland advantage is dubious compared to the potency of other locks, since your not actually hurting their permanent count, just slowing them down. but the delay is not as long term as sphere of resistance or possibly the new supresion field.

sacred ground is made obsolete by fastbond. these 4 slots should probably be another redblast, welder/artifact kill and jester cap.

seal of cleansing should probably be ray of revelation for card advantage against enchantment problems, since there are rarely decks that have both must-kill enchantments and artifacts.

the debate over rack and ruin vs vishnu heretic has strong points on both sides. I prefer heretic bc putting that card in play effectively turns off workshop decks until they can deal w him. no other archetype necesarily needs that much dedicated artifact hate.

pyroclasm seems like a logical metagame choice. Id recomend the new darkblast for long term creature removal, esp welders.

[TimeWizzle]

I don't think i can drop s-titan, its just too damn good.  the other MD changes i will make immediately and test them out(jimmy cap was a metagame call, like i said).  I am also wondering how much I would need to change to fit maybe 2 sup fields in here.   
Orb of dreams was added at the last minute because of Kowal's article the day before talking about how strong Dragon would be in the stax infested meta.  As far as i can tell, with wrinkly dream balls in play, they can't "go infinite", they can at best force a draw. 
As for the SB - I am not good at Magic, nor at Metagaming.  I pretty much grabbed some cards that may or may not hose a few of the popular decks.  I definitely won't be dropping REB, except maybe making one a pyroblast.  I think i will stick w/ 2 RnR, and maybe add a Heretic also.  I do however disagree with your sacred ground assessment, While you are correct that fastbond can break the symmetry of a mirror match, with only one in the deck i can't reliably draw it.  And sacred ground pretty much shuts down Stax entire gameplan in the mirror.  You can recur wastes to eat their lands, but they can't do anything to yours, and their smokestacks are completely useless.  I agree with dropping Seal of cleansing, Rays seem like a good choice there.  I also noticed that Darkblast looks like Some Good. 
As an aside, what are your feelings on Imperial Seal after the 20th?  Is that an auto-include in this deck, or is it unnecessary?  I feel like it would be pretty strong, providing a 4th tutor for strip mine (my most commonly tutored up card, since most people save the counter for what is tutored for, not the tutor).  Could be wrong though. 

[Juggernaut GO]

I think fasbond belongs in every stax deck that runs 5 color.  Just for the reason it can give you a giant permanent advantage when it comes into play.  If your opponent has an assload of lands, buh bye they are gone with crucible + waste/strip. 

Vroman is right about this being an auto include in 5 coloer uba stax, you will draw into it every game with bazaars. 

However, sacred ground is gonna start getting big with all the stax domination everywhere.  Seal of cleansing is gonna be a requirement also.

[Moxlotus]

However, sacred ground is gonna start getting big with all the stax domination everywhere.  Seal of cleansing is gonna be a requirement also.

Ray is much better at enchantment destruction than Seal is.

[vroman]

re: dream ball. I forgot about dragon. still graveyard hate is just as effective and much cheaper ie tormods or ph-furnace and precludes their intentional draw out. also jesters neuter their deck.

my problem w s-titan is that realisticaly 8 mana is a lot to ask for even in a shop deck. the most common way to get him in play is welder + bazaar. however w uba mask, titan cant be discarded, so hes frequently a dead draw. atleast in my version of the deck, I try to absolutely minimize the number of potential dead uba draws.

imperial seal is worth playing.