Budget Stax HELP please! A Newbie...

[rhettro]

Hi guys! I badly need help on my budget Stax. I hope you would help me out to prepare for a weekly small time Vintage tournament. Please help... THANKS IN ADVANCE!

4 Chalice of the Void
3 Crucible of Worlds
1 Grim Monolith
1 Karn, Silver Golem
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Memory Jar
4 Metalworker
3 Powder Keg
4 Smokestack
1 Sol Ring
4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Tangle Wire
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Trinisphere
2 Triskelion
2 Winter Orb

4 Goblin Welder

4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Great Furnace
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Wasteland

Sideboards
4 REB
4 Tormod's Crypt
4 Leyline of the Void

[Prospero]

Is this a 0 proxy tournament? 

If you're already running Metalworkers I suppose there's nothing wrong with running the Staff of Domination combo. 

I'd also advise you to consider the interaction between Powder Keg and Chalice.  If you're using your Kegs as Mox control you're killing your Chalices to do it - not something that I'd recommend. 

You might want to consider a complete re-evaluation of the deck that ends with you running an aggressive build with Null Rods main.

[BruiZar]

Remove great furnace and metal worker. Add gorilla shaman and welder

throw out powder kegs, add null rod, remove memory jar, thran dynamo and grim monolith, kill winter orbs too. Add thorn of amethyst. Add either razormane masticore, duplicant or something else that is scary

[BruiZar]

also add magus of the moon, and some mountains instead of those great furnaces. its a great way to play out multiple city of traitors while screwing your opponent.

[Harlequin]

Yeah I would suggest the same, Focus your deck on Moon Effects.  The problem you're having right now is that you really can't be sucessful with a traditional "stax" deck without shops.  Full mox go along way too.

If Lots of people have Moxen, And you need to catch up, something like this would be good:

4 Chalice of the Void
4 Sphere of Resistance
2 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Trinisphere
4 Null Rod
3 Tangle Wire
2 Blood Moon

4 Goblin Welder
4 Magus of The Moon
3 Solemn Simulacrum
3 Duplicant

4 Simian Spirit Guide
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
4 Ancient Tomb
3 City of Traitors
6 Mountains
3 Wasteland
1 Stripmine
1 Tolarian Academy


--------------------------------

However if this are sort of underpowered, the you cold run with a more aggro focused deck that doesn't care about Moxen:
This list not really "stax" at all... but it uses alot of the same cards.  The main idea is that you can win more quickly, so you don't need as much lock peices.  Things like Tangle and Stax arn't great in the face of Forest -> Birds of Paradice type metagames.  

4 Goblin Welder
4 Magus of the Moon
2 Gorilla Shaman
3 Solemn Simulacrum
2 Triskellion
1 Grim Poppet
1 Duplicant

4 Thorn of Amethyst / Sphere of Resistance (I think thorn would be the goto card here for a standard Tezz infested meta, but If its more underpowered then Sphere is probably best)
3 Sword of fire and Ice
2 Sensie's Divining Top
1 Memory Jar
1 Trinisphere
2 Blood Moon

1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Jester's Cap <- or anything really... This is the "Wild card" slot.  Karn is solid here, An extra removal peice like Keg could do well.   Even Mindslaver can be fun ^_^

4 Simian Spirit Guids
4 Ancient Tomb
2 City of Traitors
1 Tolarian
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Grim Monolith
4 Wasteland
1 Stripmine

[Bill Copes]

EDIT:  This was very much written before the suggestions above (sticking with a more red build).  It all depends on what direction you want to go and what cards you have.

Before we can give you any real suggestions, can you give us some details about your local metagame?  Below I have some ideas, but they may not be the right choices for what decks you expect to face.

Are you concerned about facing null rod at all?  If not, I'd up the Grim Monolith count to 4 and add some voltaic keys to the list.  Voltaic key has nice synergy with metalworker, as well.     The key + monolith combo also allows you to more efficiently abuse winter orb.  I suggest you go mono-brown and cut the welders -- this opens up some more acceleration slots and allows for more consistency.  4x Great furnace is probably not enough to reliably cast welder.

As for the sideboard, what kind of meta are you in?

Maybe something in this direction?

// Locks
4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Smokestack
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Crucible of Worlds
3 Winter Orb
1 Trinisphere

// Beats
3 Karn, Silver Golem
2 Triskelion

// Combo
4 Metalworker
3 Staff of Domination

// Utility
1 Memory Jar
3 Voltaic Key

// Mana
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Wasteland
4 Crystal Vein
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Grim Monolith
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault


// Sideboard:
4 Relic of Prognitus
4 Powder Keg
4 Tangle Wire
3 Razormane Masticore


Voltaic Key also has amazing synergy with Sensei's Divining Top, if you can find room for them  (not to mention Time Vault, but that's not exactly a budget card).

[Red Irish]

You need more red mana sources for the welders and the REB's in your SB:

include 6 mountains and 4 Solemn Simulacrums.

You should also consider including 2 Gorilla Shamans.

Leyline and Tormod's seems like overkill, why not 3 Tormod's and 3 Relic of Progenitus? I assume you are expecting a lot of dredge decks.

Including Welder and Metalworker has been done in the past, with some success, but you may be better going one route or the other (i.e. MUD or mono-red Stax). Abdullah's list above seems good, but you have not provided information on your metagame and if you are expecting a lot of Fish with Null Rod, you may want to reconsider playing mono-brown. I would include Masticore rather than Triskelion for this reason alone (unless you want to go the Ravager/Triskelion combo route).

I'm currently playing a variation of the deck Harlequin posted above, although without the Magus or Moon effects - in my humble opinion, given the rise of Tezz/Drain decks, Null Rod is an obligatory inclusion.

Red

[Harlequin]

in my humble opinion, given the rise of Tezz/Drain decks, Null Rod is an obligatory inclusion.

My main point was that there is a big difference between trying to enter into a fully developed meta, and trying to gain rank in a developing meta.  So where this person plays, they might not have anyone playing Tezz, and only a handful of people playing moxen.  Like I was eluding to, if you are facing against Birds of Paradise Zoo 2 rounds out of 5 - you might want to consider other options.  If this are really new, and most decks are mono-color running mostly basics - then Moon is awful.  But I think its a good card to take advantage of a "Competative Meta without too many Moxen" where fetches and duals are going to be the backbone of most decks... and decks running full mox are few and farbetween.

[Red Irish]

in my humble opinion, given the rise of Tezz/Drain decks, Null Rod is an obligatory inclusion.

My main point was that there is a big difference between trying to enter into a fully developed meta, and trying to gain rank in a developing meta.  So where this person plays, they might not have anyone playing Tezz, and only a handful of people playing moxen.  Like I was eluding to, if you are facing against Birds of Paradise Zoo 2 rounds out of 5 - you might want to consider other options.  If this are really new, and most decks are mono-color running mostly basics - then Moon is awful.  But I think its a good card to take advantage of a "Competative Meta without too many Moxen" where fetches and duals are going to be the backbone of most decks... and decks running full mox are few and farbetween.

I agree with you, but without further information from the OP with regards to metagame, we are flying in the dark when offering advice. I think that if he decides to go with your Moon based build or Abdullah's Mud build, he won't go far wrong.

[BruiZar]

4 Chalice of the Void
4 Sphere of Resistance
2 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Trinisphere
4 Null Rod
3 Tangle Wire
2 Blood Moon

4 Goblin Welder
4 Magus of The Moon
3 Solemn Simulacrum
3 Duplicant

4 Simian Spirit Guide
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
4 Ancient Tomb
3 City of Traitors
6 Mountains
3 Wasteland
1 Stripmine
1 Tolarian Academy
--------------------------------

I would replace 1 duplicant and 1 welder for 2 gorilla shamans. Gorilla shaman enables your Welders to interfere with their trinkets as well as being able to shoot down bigger artifacts. It helps when you dont draw Null Rods and your mana can support shooting down multipile moxen. I would remove the Solemn Simulacrums. Plain and simple, they suck. 4 mana is alot when you dont have workshops, and even then they suck because all it does is grab you a mountain. Simian Spirit Guide is much better. Instead of Solemn I would play Juggernauts, because you need a clock. Also add 1 Razormane Masticore.

[rhettro]

Wow! Thank you so much guys! Yes, it is a 0 proxy tourney. I really find it hard to get those power and workshops here in the Philippines... Moons are great ideas! I really appreciate the help that you guys are throwing! Thanks a lot!

[rhettro]

Hi AbdullahTheButcher! I'll send you a link of a kind of meta that we play here in the Philippines. Thanks for your time!

http://www.morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1130

[rhettro]

Hi guys! It's me again. are you guys saying that i have to remove Smokestack completely?