Mono White Stax

[Wise]

So here is the deck me and a few team mates have been working on recently, looking for some suggestions as it plays well it just seems to be lacking a je ne sais qua.

Lands

1 Strip mine
1 Tolarian Academy
3 Flagstones of Trokair              Excellent card against opponents wastelands, to sac to your own Smoke Stack, or to drop 2 of and help thin your deck.
4 Wasteland
4 Mishra's Workshop
4 Plains

Artifacts

2 Umezawa's Jitte   With the Mindcenors, and the Glowriders, this I have found works quite well as a way to help speed up the kill, also a good bait target against permission decks.
4 Thorn of Amethyst
4 Smokestack
4 crucible of worlds
4 sphere of resistance
1 trinisphere
5 Moxes
1 black lotus
1 sol ring
1 mana vault
1 mana crypt
1 lotus petal

Spells

1 balance
3 Argivian Find   Good EOT get my stack back, or Crucible or even Lotus for that extra 3 mana, instant speed, and puts it directly into your hand
1 enlightened tutor

Creatures

4 aven Mindcensor
4 Glowrider

The deck runs 13 sphere effects, which is crazy, but while the deck tends to to be very explosive it just stalls out, white draw engines are virtually non existent, and would prefer to keep it mono colored I have not come up with sideboard options as of yet. ^_^

Discuss!

[meadbert]

So is this for an unpowered meta?  In a powered meta Chalice of the Void is really good with Argivian Find.
The reason is that you can play Chalice@0 on turn 1 and if it is Forced then you can drop a Plains and Argivian Find it back out and replay it.

Tormod's Crypt is good for the same reason.

I sort of wonder if the Land Tax/Scroll Rack combo could work in this deck at all.  It is a good draw engine over a long game although it takes a while to get started.

Land Tax/Scroll Rack can generate an extra 3 cards a turn which really is insane.  It is better than top decking Ancestral Recall every turn.
Also Scroll Rack almost always Scrolls into Land Tax so assembling the combo is not hard at all.

If you do use the Land Tax/Scroll Rack combo then Zuran Orb or Nomad Stadium might be helpful to decrease the number of lands you have in play.

Finally, I know you want to run mono white, but Fastbond is very broken with Crucible and actually gains you infinite life and infinite mana if you have Nomad Stadium or Zuran Orb as well.  Sterling Grove costs GW and tutors for Fastbond.  That might be totally in the wrong direction, but I thought I would mention it.  The other advantage off green is that you can run something like 9 tutors to find Shop and an unpowered Stax deck REALLY wants to find Shop.  Those tutors are Living Wish, Sylvan Scrying and Crop Rotation.

The other guy who can tutor up Shop is Weathered Wayfarer.  He is white and would have synergy with Zuran Orb.

[Wise]

ahaha, no its for powered, I just gaped and forgot all the 0 mana acceleration, typed that up as soon as I woke up -_-; Editied

also, we have discussed the landtax/scroll rack "combo" and Wayfarer, the landtax combo does seem like a decent addition but there are only 4 basic lands which make things difficult,

[LordHomerCat]

Does it seem like a problem to you that you're running like 13 sphere effects along with Argivian Find?  Personally, Find seems terrible here since it will always cost a ton and rarely get back anything worth getting.

[meadbert]

Another guys worth testing is Solemn Simulacrum.  He is basicallly Stax's version of Ancestral Recall and finding that extra plains can really help you cast spells out from under your own Spheres.  The fact that he is unaffected by Thorn makes him even better.

[Wise]

yea I like the idea of solem, possibly running 3 and dropping the finds, I might test with that, and a solem with jitte seems like a good enough threat to try and get rid of

[oAFLORD]

So here is the deck me and a few team mates have been working on recently, looking for some suggestions as it plays well it just seems to be lacking a je ne sais qua.

Je ne sais quoi...   But i am splitting hairs... on to the deck.

I love dropping a second flagstone but do you not find the CIPT of the plains a bit of a downer?

Jitte is sexy, but SOFI for more card draw perhaps? 

oAFLORD

[Wise]

yea the sad part is the CIPT effect, which is the only downside we have discussed about the flagstones, I have not thought of SOFI yet but may be worth trying over the jittes, will play test the new -2 jitte +2 SOFI -3 Finds + 3 solem version tonight and give you my reports

[Moxlotus]

I had a deck similar to this before Lowryn came out (I had splashed blue for power and ITEOC).  I could never get it to work exactly how I wanted to, but I can give you some advice.

Suppression Field pretty much sucks.
I found that I needed more mana acceleration.  Coalition Relic is pretty good.  There might be better options for a monocolored deck, but I can't think of any.

Ancient Tomb is pretty hot.  I had some in the board because I had stuff like Ghost Prison and the White Arcane Lab and tomb can power them out

[Wise]

I like those SB options, I tested tonight with SOFI and Solem, The solem are the new MVP of the deck, and the SOFI seems to play really well, more testing is needed! but I like the new changes

[XdeckX]

Wouldn't the use of 13 spheres be more suitable in a more aggro oriented list?
It would let you put big beaters like Juggernaut on the board without too much problems from the Torn of Amethyst and the Glowrider while all the spheres would prevent your opponent from playing spells. And your beaters are usually bigger if you face an opponent with creatures.

[Wise]

my original list had juggs in it, it felt like I was putting all my eggs in one basket, while yes on occation dropping a first turn jugg was good it just wasent good enough. This deck is so tight as it is I dont now what would be appropriate to remove, the mindcensors decimate GAT and Flash, and the Glowriders Are sphere 10 - 13 and well Solem is the new MVP like I said before thins the deck and draws a card when he has become a big enough threat.

[XdeckX]

What I meant was a completely different approach by dropping most (or all) the stax pieces in favor of big artifact creatures.
By running 13 spheres your opponent has a hard time casting spells but the same happens for you because you run allot of non-creature spells. Say you get 3 spheres out; it would be difficult to cast your other lockpieces even with workshops.
If you lower to non-creature spells and add more creatures you bypass the effect from both the Thorn and the Glowrider. And the Thorn and Glowrider would still slow your opponent down because he's have a hard time to cast gamewinning spells or removal.

Just a little thought on the decklist. (I didnt test anything... just something I put together during other stuff @ work)

Mana - 27
1 Strip mine
1 Tolarian Academy
2 Flagstones of Trokair
4 Wasteland
4 Mishra's Workshop
4 Plains
2 Ancient Tomb
5 Moxes
1 black lotus
1 sol ring
1 mana vault
1 mana crypt

Spells - 14
4 Thorn of Amethyst
2 crucible of worlds
4 sphere of resistance
1 trinisphere
2 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Enlightened tutor

Creatures - 19
4 aven Mindcensor
4 Glowrider
4 Juggernaut
4 Solemn
3 Synod Centurion

[Wise]

Yes and No, my only lock piece here that would be overly affected is the smoke stack, all the creatures are not affected by the Thorns and the Glowriders, The deck is running really well since the last changes, I personaly find that I would much rather play the slow game, drop a sphere or two and a stack and wait them out, about your build I dont much like the fact that there is only 2 crucible I personaly think that a crucible waste/strip under even 1 sphere is extremely powerful

[XdeckX]

You're right about the power of waste/strip combined with crucible with a sphere effect in play. But the hard part might be getting the crucible in play in the first place

[Wise]

even with 3 sphere effects out its only going to be 6 to cast, 1 shop and 3 land, which wouldn't be that far fetched say 6th turn when you have 3 sphere effects out, thats why I am not playing with memory jar, and other high casting cost artifacts ( excluding smoke stack )

[Roat17]

I really like the premise, but IMO you need either swords, or welder in this deck because you need creature kill.  Welder allows you to reuse Trike, and Swords allows your creature with equipment on it to get through.  To me, it looks like you don't have enough umph against aggro.  Only 4 of your spheres hurt them, and if someone casts a Kataki your kinda hooped.  I would def add + 3-4 Welders and +2 Trikes, and maybe a 7/10 and take out the Synods and the Solems.  This also allows you to throw in a Bazaar or two and not get hooped.  You have 4 basic plains, and you are most likely saccing a trokair to a smokestack if you add them back in.  But playing a Solem to improve your mana base and provide a blocker, it basically buys you a turn maybe.  If you don't like the idea of Welder + Trike, then please add the Jittes over the SoFI as you can do more than 2 damage to a creature at one time.  Juggs are an artifact beat staple, I've lost many games to a turn 1 jugg.  It's all the glory of the ritual negator, but the drawback is much less severe. 

Overall, I think it's a really cool and good idea, but right now, the deck is too vulnerable to some popular cards (Viashino Heretic, Vandal, Magus of the Moon, Kataki).

[Wise]

While you are right about the creature kill but thats more of a SB option, Smoke Stack deals with creature decks fairly well forceing them to sack their perms, but it could get overwhelming, Welder is certainly a bad idea Mono White Stax has no room for red creatures, otherwise I would be playing 4cc stax or mono red.

[Roat17]

All I am saying is that Goblin Vandal, opposing Welders, and Viashino Heretic (all 3 are used, obviously some are more frequent) really need to be taken care of asap.  And although uncommon, a Trygon Predator also can make short work of you very quickly.  This is why I say run jitte, so that hopefully you can get a few swings in and get counters.  You can't always rely on having smokestack early.  That and the fact that Glowrider and Thorn don't affect the above creatures.  Stax is pretty prevalent in the meta right now, so IMO those creatures will be in the SB, and I just think you need to have a gameplan for them, other than hoping they sac them to smokestack.

[TopSecret]

What's the plan for the Stax mirror?
Is having creatures and Jitte enough?

Perhaps Aura of Silence or Ashes to Ashes?
Would the mass removal sideboard cards, like Kataki or Serenity,
be worth it, since you play non-artifact permanents?

[Duncan]

The top lists contains only 59 cards.. what is the missing one?

[shotbyspike]

Is this deck winnable without the workshop?  I play in a weak environment and this deck looks fun.

thanks

[Ulthrion]

I don't want to claim to know much about this deck, but I recently came across Hanna's Custody, which seems like a possible (probably sideboard) card if you expect a lot of artifact hate. It stops heretic, shaman, welder, shattering pulse etc. Even in a stax mirror it seems like a good card as they will inevitably have much more hate to sideboard in if they are red.

Also, Goldmeadow Harrier might be worth to look at since only 5 spheres affect creatures. It's not a sollution to utility creatures, but if you fear some big beaters, it can keep them down effortlessly and allow your equipped creatures to get through (or ride the equipment to victory on it's own). Not the best card, but worth remembering I think.

Finally, how would Orim's Chant work in this deck? It can be used to force through a crucible or other bomb, it can stall the game a turn to complete your lock, and prevent your opponent from getting new permanents into play under a smokestack (effectively forcing them to sacrifice more permanents). Also, with the chant, you have the option to run isochron scepter for another type of lock (or a recurring swords/disenchant/enlightened tutor). The risk of course is that the chant is card disadvantage (unless used with smokestack in play), and the scepter has the same risk.

Just some ideas. Hope they are useful.