1st Starcity Boston Day one w/ 5cc Uba

[ElyasMachera]

Jeff Greene here.  Ill start off by saying thanks again to all my opponents, I had a blast playing all day.
As far as match by match you can thank my roommate for turning 21 on Friday and go look elsewhere, but I'll do my best to talk a bit about the deck.

My deck list and some card choices:
Mana / 25
4x City of Brass
4x Gemstone Mine
4x Workshop
3x Wasteland
1x Stripmine
1x Tolarian Academy

5x Moxen
1x Lotus
1x Sol ring
1x Mana Crypt

Creatures / 6
4x Welder
1x Duplicate
1x Sundering Titan

Disruption / 22
4x Smokestack
4x Crucible of Worlds
4x Chalice of the Void
3x Tangle Wire
3x Uba Mask
3x Null rod
1x Trinisphere

Broken / 7
1x Ancestral recall
1x Balance
1x Tinker
1x Demonic Tutor
3x Bazaar

SB / 15
1x Duplicate
1x Darkblast
2x Viashino Heretic
2x Rule of Law
2x Ray of Revelation
2x Triskelion
2x Ensnaring Bridge
3x Tormod's Crypt

Before this tournament I had been playing Intuition AK Gifts to a few of top 8's at stuff like Beanie Exchange and 1 piece of power, but after the meta shifted back towards fish I had been getting crushed.  At Waterbury I decided to play Stax as it was the deck I had the most experience with and got tooled on.  I didn’t play type 1 until about a week before this event and once again I decided to play stax.

I went with 5cc Uba because I love the welder bazaar engine esp. in tournaments around here where there are so many drains (although not as many as there used to be).  I played uba a while ago so I do have some experience with the deck, but it had been a while.

As far as 5cc these are the reasons:
1)Tinker
2)Balance
3)Recall
4)Tutor
5)The most busted card of all, Ray of Revelation

Playing 5cc just blows open the side board of this deck Rule of law and darkblast are great, and having an answer to energy flux is a MUST have for any stax deck IMHO.  The fact that its bomb against Oath and Dragon is just icing. 
As far as the deck itself I borrowed very heavily from Vroman's Gencon list.  I Fixed the mana base so i could support more colored cards, cut mana vault cause I think its  the worst mana source ever in stax, followed closely by lotus, and went from there.

I was not running null rod up until about 15 minutes before the tournament but was desperately trying to find room for it.  After talking with GI what ended up getting cut was Bazaar Uba and Wire #4.  This ended up working very well, but wire #4 would be nice to have.  I hate seeing those cards in multiples and null rod is just a bomb.  Playing 5cc with 25 mana sources and null rods is a bit on the edge, but obv it worked out for me this tournament.

I'm not going to insult my opponents by trying to remember what happened so:

My match ups were
1 Stax Mirror
1 Dragon (Got luckier in this match then pretty much any game of my life)
1 UR phid.... Ben, I got an opened pack of Cold Snap with your name written all over it
1 Bomberman
1 Slaver..  My loss in swiss and my top 8 opponent
1 Bomberman/Fish Deck that had me guessing even after game 3 was over
And a ton of fish

I never saw, oath, storm combo, gifts or hate.dec. 

So, feel free to ask me anything about the deck, but there’s nothing really groundbreaking here.

Oh and if is anyone wants a twister signed by mark poole instead of Mark Tedin, I got the hook up for you

[Evenpence]

Congrats on your win.

It's interesting that your list looks more like Ubastax than 5c Stax, which has not been the norm for Scubastax.

A few questions:

1)  How steady was the manabase?  The primary reason to play mono-red over 5c for me is the viability of the manabase.
*  Did Null Rod restrict your ability to play spells with moxen often?
*  Did spells like Balance ever sit in your hand while you lost the game?  If so, how often?
*  Did City of Brasses / Gemstone Mines provide any special disadvantage in your games (severe lifeloss, permanent loss)?

2)  Why did you include some bombs over others?
*  No Fastbond?
*  No Crop Rotation?
*  No Time Walk?

3)  How did the following cards work out for you?
*  Duplicant
*  Sundering Titan
*  Any card costing 3 or more non-workshop mana (Tinker, Viashino Heretic, Rule of Law)

4)  How did you win most games?  (A tournament report would be really helpful)

5)  Why did you cut a Bazaar as opposed to another lock piece to fit in a Null Rod?  (I can understand cutting a Tangle Wire and an Uba Mask for Null Rods, but imo, Bazaars are the third most important card in the deck behind Trinisphere and Mishra's Workshop, and should never be dropped below 4.  I practically had a heart attack when I saw that you cut a Bazaar, especially without Crop Rotation in the deck.)

6)  How did your sideboard do?  Would you change anything?

7)  How did you do Day 2?  Did you play the same thing?  If so, did you make any changes?

[yespuhyren]

Yeah, this deck is the closest to uba.  Usually we have been trying to fit in 6-10 of the "5c Spells" but this deck only utiliizes. 4.  That shows why it was so close.

[SMac]

1 Bomberman/Fish Deck that had me guessing even after game 3 was over

That was me. I'd like to congratulate you once again, those were some good games in the finals and your list is sweet. I hope we get to have a rematch some time.

For the questions, i'd like you to explain why mana vault is not included, and how well did only 3 Bazaars work for you? It seems that the Uba Masks kinda suck without Bazaar, and the sinergy with welder is obviously amazing.

Thanks,
- Simon MacRae

[Scott_Limoges]

Congrats Jeff!  You earned and deserve the lotus - no one could hold you down this time around.  Props to old-school vintage players!

[ElyasMachera]

@ Evenpence

1)The five color mana base of this deck really isn’t that much more unstable then the mono red version.  I run 8 sources compared to 6 and only have 8 colored cards compared to 4.  8 out of 60 means I should get one by my 8th card.  And the deck can easily run without one.  Also, 3 mountains with no fetches are just as scared of wasteland if you ignore color requirements.  I am only running 25 sources, but it worked so it’s either right or I got a little lucky.
As for null rod, I only play it when my mana base was developed enough to ignore it or it hurt my opponent more then me, so it never really screwed me out of my colors.


2) The 8 colored cards I included MD in my opinion are the most broken possible. Welders are self explanatory, but the other 4 are all cards I like to see no matter what.
Recall draws a ton of cards, tinker gets any card into play, balance wins games or is an amazing safety net and tutor gets everything.

Fastbond is broken if you have crucible and a strip effect.  Crop rotation is good if you have a crucible and can fix some hands, if you like 1-0 card disadvantage.  Both these cards can be very bad top decks and don’t win games by themselves.  Time walk goes both ways.  Sometimes it is going to win the game, and sometimes it will just do nothing.  I wanted to keep my colored cards at a minimum so it never made it in the deck, I don’t know if it’s the right choice or not.


3)Tinker and Titan are amazing.  I won a ton of games with this and welding titan in off bazaar is just mean.  Hardcasting it is not too hard either.  Of my 4 games that I won in the top 4, 3 of them were due to titan.  Of my wins all day It’s always titan or just a disruption lock.  The uba lock showed up maybe twice all day. 
Duplicate was a bit sub par, but I wasn’t playing against tinker colossus type decks.  Also at one point I was playing against dragon with a active bazaar and welder with dupe in my hand.  Its not my favorite card but I think its necessary.

4) See below, I think you are over valuing bazaar in the deck.  I love the card, I just don’t think you need 4 of them.


5)The sideboard worked very well for me all day

1x darkblast / Amazing against u/w fish and other people’s welders
1x duplicate / never got brought in
2x triskelion / brought in all day, sometimes with nullrod still in the deck (slaver)
2x rule of law / never really had a use for it as I didn’t play storm combo, but having something that cant be rebuilt is very key
2x ray of revelation / Every stax deck needs to have an answer to flux.  This is mine and it happens to be a bomb against oath and dragon
2x heretic / If this gets online in the mirror the game is over.  I also like to bring it in against slaver as it blows stuff up and fizzles welds
2x ensnaring bridge / Only saw play where it mattered once, but it kept two grunts away till they died in top 4.  Seems like a solid answer to fish but I need to test it more
3x Tromods crypt / This card is awesome, but two might be enough.
Room for a third heretic should be found.



@ SMac

Thanks a lot and congrats to you too on the Recall.  It was a really good last set of games.

The reason for 3 bazaars is simple.  Seeing one in my opening hand is only ok.  Seeing 2 is just awful.  Clearly having color land, welder, mox with turn 2 bazaar is awesome, but it doesn’t happen all that often.  I like seeing it later game after uba or welder has resolved.  Also, having bazaar in your opening hand is not like a mulligan in any way because it costs a turn.  For some people it is worse because they keep bad hands hoping to draw into what they need.  Uba without bazaar still has uses as it stops counters and stifle as well as being able to stop stuff like top decked Will with a welder out.

As for mana vault, I hate the card in stax.  Temporary mana in stax is awful, because 1 card is not going to win you the game.  The point of the deck is consistent threats.  I’m not saying the card is bad in stax, because it can do broken things; it just doesn’t fit how I view and play the deck.  Playing lotus is a stretch for me, but its way to good to not include.  Also, it’s just one more thing hit by my own null rods. 


@Scott_Limoges


Thanks a lot.  Its good to see your still playing, it really is some old school type 1.

[vroman]

Crop rotation is good if you have a crucible and can fix some hands, if you like 1-0 card disadvantage.

1 mana instant tutor for stripmine is worth it on its own.

2x ray of revelation / Every stax deck needs to have an answer to flux.  This is mine and it happens to be a bomb against oath and dragon

welder is the simplest answer to e-flux. In my life time Im about 66% win against resolved flux, w no REBs or any spot removal. if I have welder, or enough mono-lands to support even one lock piece, Im fine.

The reason for 3 bazaars is simple.  Seeing one in my opening hand is only ok.  Seeing 2 is just awful.  Clearly having color land, welder, mox with turn 2 bazaar is awesome, but it doesn’t happen all that often.  I like seeing it later game after uba or welder has resolved.  Also, having bazaar in your opening hand is not like a mulligan in any way because it costs a turn.  For some people it is worse because they keep bad hands hoping to draw into what they need.

theres nothing wrong w multiple bazaars in opening hand if you can still do something turn 1. among bazaars primary purpose is filtering dead cards, so being able to dump extra bazaar for 2/3s a new card is exactly what its suposed to do.

As for mana vault, I hate the card in stax.  Temporary mana in stax is awful, because 1 card is not going to win you the game.  The point of the deck is consistent threats.  I’m not saying the card is bad in stax, because it can do broken things; it just doesn’t fit how I view and play the deck.  Playing lotus is a stretch for me, but its way too good to not include.  Also, it’s just one more thing hit by my own null rods. 

I feel the same way, especially in situation such as hand of [workshop, vault, uba] w no other acceleration or alternative turn 1 plays. it feels like an incredible waste to use a 3 mana accelerant to gain one extra mana to make the turn one 4drop, and then be pinged 1/turn indefinitely. worse, is hand like [strip, vault, crucible] w no other mana in hand. if they counter crucible, this game is going to be stressful.
however, I wont cut vault bc making turn 1 4drops is massive, and I need to maximize their occurence, despite the drawback.

[EotGiftsGG?]

lolz. Congrats. After pairings went up for like round four, i told you, that for all the times ive pizowned of you, youre due. Like the time in philly with the chalice for three..sigh..

CONGRATS TO JEFF GREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENE!

[Gaagooch]

Great job Jeff, i was really suprised to see you playing Stax, as i normally see you playing a gifts variant or something along those lines, but you played it perefectly all day and deserved the win.  Great job.

[ElyasMachera]

Thanks a lot guys.

@vroman
How I ended up at 3 bazaars was I asked myself if the first card I drew was that or recall which would I rather see.  Do you think I should have cut one of the artifacts for the 4th?  It was a really hard choice because I don't like diluting the lock piece count, and I'm interested to hear what you would have done (besides played mono-red). 


Oh, and I didn't play day two cause I celebrated a little too much that night.

[yespuhyren]

Oh, and I didn't play day two cause I celebrated a little too much that night.

Just cause you went to a titty bar got drunk and chatted up a dancing girl then told her that you would get married and buy a house with her in Europe and also get her some better implants but her boyfriend found out and threatened to kill you and even though you changed your number moved and quit your job he still managed to find you on the street and chased you with a machete until you cried like a little girl doesn't mean you have a right to sit out on Day 2.  Man it up ya little biatch

JUST KIDDING!  Again congrats on your day 1 finish, very impressive!