Atraxa, Praetors' Voice - STAX BEATDOWN - Artifacts Only

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RowanKeltizar
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Post by RowanKeltizar » 1 year ago

Something I like about this deck is that it has a lot of room to grow as new artifact sets come out. I feel like there is a critical mass of cards to make this deck viable, which wasn't true a couple of years ago, at least in my meta.

BROTHER'S WAR

Cityscape Leveler - i think this is pretty good. works well with Mycosynth Golem and other things that care about creatures.

Haywire Mite - this thing is so dang efficient and direct swap in for Dispeller's Capsule. Not only does it exile, but it's a creature so it triggers things like The Great Henge.

Liberator, Urza's Battlethopter - not sure how important flash really is in this deck. Haven't had a ton of success with Vedalken Orrery. Mostly i want card advantage or removal stuff.

Portal to Phyrexia - i think this has potential, however that's a steep mana cost.

Phyrexian Fleshgorger - this is a strong beatstick. has some major advantages over our old standby Wurmcoil Engine. Prototype means this is usable early and menance is arguable better than deathtouch in this deck.

Razorlash Transmogrant - i feel like there is combo potential here for sure. regardless a recurrable sac target is quite good.

Urza's Sylex - i think this is a very decent board wipe. bonus points in that you can use it the turn it enters the battlefield. unique in that it hits excess lands.

Clay Champion - I think this card is neat but this isn't really a +1/+1 counters deck and probably not any better than Steel Overseer although it can put counters on atraxa.

WARHAMMER

The mono black necron deck brought us a ton of new artifact toys, however I'm not sure if anything truly fits. Most things are very graveyard centric which this deck doesn't do a whole lot of. I could see a lot of this being decent in Glissa, the Traitor or similar.

Sicarian Infiltrator - gotta be some cool stuff you can do with this guy, if nothing else it's a way to make a bunch of artifact token creatures.

Imotekh the Stormlord - very strong effect but again, i don't consistently reanimate things.


OTHER STUFF

Perilous Vault - this flew under my radar until the reprint, but i think this is pretty fantastic as a panic button. exiling everything in colorless is great.

Aetherflux Reservoir i think this could be a fantastic finisher for the deck in combination with sensei's top and my top-of-library stuff. Even without the combo, i can still dome people just with Atraxa's lifegain.
WRBKaalia, Zenith Seeker - Certified Air Raid Material
WBElenda, the Dusk Rose - Drain and Gain
WRAurelia, the Warleader - Tokens/Equipment
URNiv-Mizzet, Parun - Controlled Burn primer
BRGHenzie, "Toolbox" Torre - Creature Feature
BRGSoul of Windgrace - Lands Matter
RGWGishath, Sun's Avatar - I'M YOUR DADDY
GWUBAtraxa, Praetors' Voice - Artifact Stax Beatdown
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samanater456
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Post by samanater456 » 1 year ago

Hello, big fan of the deck! Any cards that from ONE that jump out immediately as includes?

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RowanKeltizar
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Post by RowanKeltizar » 1 year ago

samanater456 wrote:
1 year ago
Hello, big fan of the deck! Any cards that from ONE that jump out immediately as includes?
Hey thanks! Not sure why i didn't get a notification, just happened to come by and update the thread with your exact question.

This deck has gone through a lot of growing pains to be sure, and Phyrexia, All is One is going to really stir things up again. It's getting hard to make cuts for sure, however once I get a chance to test out some of these new cards, I will likely be overhauling the deck.

There are a lot of ways to build the deck, even if you have the "all artifacts" restriction, especially with the more recent sets where we got a ton of solid artifacts, so build it the way it works best for you.

I tend to spar in a pretty competetive meta, so im in a spot of trying to keep up with the rest of the decks at the table. Streamlining my strategy has been challenging. Generally, I find it's important to have some solid bodies on the field. Leaning too much in durdly counters direction slows things down and that's why I haven't committed to that strategy so far.

That said, there are cards that have done quite well like Agent's Toolkit and I'm looking forward to focusing a bit more on counters that can really influence a game since our commander has that proliferate ability!

More draw, more mana, more damage, and more effective counter synergies are my goals right now. But generally, with this set I think I will be trying to go harder on counters since we have a couple of great new proliferation engines.

Phyrexia All is One set review
LIKELY AUTO-INCLUDES
Staff of Compleation - This is probably my favorite card in the set for this deck and the first card I'm going to try and find space for. For just 3 mana we have SO MUCH utility it feels broken. Because Atraxa gives us lifelink in the command zone, we often have a surplus of life which I am more than happy to trade for card advantage, mana, and more counters. The fact this untaps itself means we can use massive amounts of colorless mana to kill players with poison counters or draw a bunch of cards. Unwinding Clock again will love to pair with this too.

The Mycosynth Gardens Another land to add to our gold bordered collection. Yes, it's very good!

Ichormoon Gauntlet - even though I currently have no walkers, this is an amazing effect. My jaw literally dropped when I saw this card spoiled. That second ability alone I think is enough to push the deck more toward proliferation and counters. At that mana cost, there's really no reason not to include it.

Norn's Wellspring - The first ability gives some dig power when our creatures die, which I think is pretty powerful if you are digging for answers. The second ability of course I think is quite good. We've gotten a lot of Jalum Tome esque artifacts lately and this one is the best for this deck. This gives us another reason to keep Unwinding Clock in the deck, since most of the time I see us being able to stack a lot of counters on this.

Skrelv, Defector Mite - one drop creatures are great with The Great Henge. But this artifact version of Mother of Runes I think will be very welcome in the deck to help Atraxa push damage through and dodge a lot of removal. Getting poison counters on our opponents early is also a great thing.

WORTH TESTING
I'll probably pick up copies of all of these cards for testing. Even though I've owned this deck for a year, I still feel it has a lot of growing room. At this stage, I generally swap in a bunch of new cards at the same time so I can actually play with new stuff and see how the deck works with those cards. Trying to be more fluid with my decks.

Staff of the Storyteller , Tablet of Compleation - two more tap-draw effects and I think this one is pretty decent since it also gives us mana. The other is good but relies on proliferation to keep drawing.

Lux Artillery - This one is pretty cool, however this deck actually isn't a dedicated +1/+1 counters deck. Just making beatsticks can be good if they are big enough. Not sure how likely getting to 30 counters is, however it is a very cool win condition and I want to pull it off it at least once!

Glistening Sphere - probably not consistent poison to get to that last ability, however this is a decent mana rock.

Zenith Chronicler - we are probably gaurenteed to have far fewer multicolored spells than other decks, however we still be drawing people a few cards with Atraxa and others.

Tamiyo's Logbook - This is probably decent although when I need the draw early it wont do me a whole lot of good. Not sure how frequently I will control 5 other artifacts by turn 3 or 4.

Conduit of Worlds - I think this is fairly decent artifact based recursion which we definitely need. It's been hard to find consistent recursion pieces. This has no downside that I can see.

Vat of Rebirth - recursion options all need to be tested!

Transplant Theorist - Again, probably worth testing but the mana cost is a bit steep

The Filigree Sylex - right away we can tap this for zero to destroy tokens. That's pretty good alone. Building up to ten counters probably won't be that hard and at that point we can just laser cannon someone for 10. Not bad!
...MEH
Monument to Perfection - eehhhh, so I think that second ability is going to be too hard to pull off, and the first ability I think is too mana intensive. I'd rather have just raw card advantage for that mana.

Sword of Forge and Frontier - these effects aren't great outside of multiple combat phases I think. probaby not the right deck for this.

Argentum Masticore I really wanted to like this, but I think it's far too slow to be reliable removal. Costing 5 and having sit around a whole turn round just seems risky.

Mirran Safehouse - Has a high ceiling, however at the low end it's doing absolutely nothing. I wish it destroyed a land when it entered.
Last edited by RowanKeltizar 1 year ago, edited 1 time in total.
WRBKaalia, Zenith Seeker - Certified Air Raid Material
WBElenda, the Dusk Rose - Drain and Gain
WRAurelia, the Warleader - Tokens/Equipment
URNiv-Mizzet, Parun - Controlled Burn primer
BRGHenzie, "Toolbox" Torre - Creature Feature
BRGSoul of Windgrace - Lands Matter
RGWGishath, Sun's Avatar - I'M YOUR DADDY
GWUBAtraxa, Praetors' Voice - Artifact Stax Beatdown
Budget Starter Decks
UBSygg, River Cutthroat
WU Shorikai, Genesis Engine
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RowanKeltizar
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Post by RowanKeltizar » 1 year ago

Unctus Grand Metatect Is another potential auto include. 2/4 body is a decent early wall. This is a surprisingly affordable rare that I think has a ton of power and utility in one card.

Perhaps a compartive card would be Bident of Thassa. But, it felt a bit too narrow to be worth 4cmc, but still was decent in the deck. I think this creature pushes things toward more flexibility at a cheaper cost. As I've said before, bodies are really good in this deck obviously because they can block and attack. I don't have a ton of answers for other creature based threats or ways to push damage through. I can add counters and they trigger my creature based stuff like Great Henge.

Speaking of pushing damage through, I will be putting Hall of the Bandit Lord in here. Going into a lot of decks actually because it is uncommon for threats to survive a turn round in many games. I have to assume my creatures may not make it alive back to my turn, thats definitely a consideration I make in my selection criteria.

Right off the bat without any other investment, it gives Atraxa a looting effect on contact which isn't too bad.

The anthem effect I think will be great if I increase my creature density just a bit more, but it's a nice bonus.

But the last ability is the real deal because you can effectively pay life to draw cards as long as you have connecting bodies. Making Atraxa an artifact is actually something that the deck wanted but I was unwilling to dedicate a slot soley to that effect. That means that modualar creatures will give their counters to her when they bite the dust. It also means that she is indestructible with Darksteel Forge. I'm sure there are several other useful scenarios.

I may end up adding Alhammarret's Archive to this deck because the double lifegain is actually quite nice.
WRBKaalia, Zenith Seeker - Certified Air Raid Material
WBElenda, the Dusk Rose - Drain and Gain
WRAurelia, the Warleader - Tokens/Equipment
URNiv-Mizzet, Parun - Controlled Burn primer
BRGHenzie, "Toolbox" Torre - Creature Feature
BRGSoul of Windgrace - Lands Matter
RGWGishath, Sun's Avatar - I'M YOUR DADDY
GWUBAtraxa, Praetors' Voice - Artifact Stax Beatdown
Budget Starter Decks
UBSygg, River Cutthroat
WU Shorikai, Genesis Engine
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samanater456
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Post by samanater456 » 11 months ago

How goes with testing?

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RowanKeltizar
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Post by RowanKeltizar » 11 months ago

So, I haven't had a ton of opportunity to test the new stuff stuff yet, but so far so good. I would like to add another candidate to the list however. Ozolith, the Shattered Spire is certainly an autoinclude. I believe we can put 4 counters on atraxa the turn she enters which is really not bad for that cmc. I think if you are committed to getting +1/+1 counters on your artifact creatures, this is a fantastic pick up.

Most likely going to taking out the remaining stax cards for actual board wipes and removal. I find they are all too easily taken off the field.
WRBKaalia, Zenith Seeker - Certified Air Raid Material
WBElenda, the Dusk Rose - Drain and Gain
WRAurelia, the Warleader - Tokens/Equipment
URNiv-Mizzet, Parun - Controlled Burn primer
BRGHenzie, "Toolbox" Torre - Creature Feature
BRGSoul of Windgrace - Lands Matter
RGWGishath, Sun's Avatar - I'M YOUR DADDY
GWUBAtraxa, Praetors' Voice - Artifact Stax Beatdown
Budget Starter Decks
UBSygg, River Cutthroat
WU Shorikai, Genesis Engine
Image

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