Stax

Stax is the opposite to Turbo in many ways. Its main goal is to slow the game down to a crawl using many different cards such as Rule of Law, Drannith Magistrate, Ethersworn Canonist, and many more to prevent the win attempts before they happen. After hampering their opponents ability to play the game, Stax decks shift to winning through combos or simply beating down with combat damage until victory is achieved. Stax decks also sometimes employ hard locks on the table as a win condition rather than one of the other two avenues, such as Linvala, Keeper of Silence + Living Plane + Collector Ouphe or Karn, the Great Creator + Mycosynth Lattice. Stax decks are the shield phalanx of the format, slow to muster but devastating to their opponents, and inexorable in winning the game if they can drag the table into playing their speed.

## Stax Decks

*This list is not exhaustive*

*See Also:* Stax (Category)

### Mono-Color

Heliod, Sun-Crowned: A traditional stax deck that can play some of the most backbreaking stax in the format. Has a one-card combo with Walking Ballista and Triskelion.

Urza, Lord High Arificer: A control-Stax hybrid deck that breaks parity on Winter Orb and other stax effects, and wins through Polymorphing into Hullbreaker Horror, or cast its entire deck after assembling infinite mana.

Yisan, the Wanderer Bard: A midrange-stax deck that uses its commander as a toolbox to tutor whatever it needs, whether that involves winning or slowing the table down.

### Dual Color

Shorikai, Genesis Engine: A control-stax deck that can play Humility. Usually wins through drawing its deck after infinite mana is achieved with Hullbreaker Horror or Isochron Scepter + Dramatic Reversal.

Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh + Tevesh, Szat Doom of Fool (Zero Game Actions): A Rakdos Stax deck that turns Rograkh into Void Winnower or Sire of Insanity, and rides the subsequent value those creatures generate along with other stax and its commanders innate synergy to beat down and win.

Winota, Joiner of Forces: An aggressive Boros deck that uses its commander and cheap creatures to cheat backbreaking stax into play.

### Tri-Color

Derevi, Empyrial Tactician: Commander-centric Bant deck that generates infinite mana while being able to break parity on mana denial stax like Stasis or Winter Orb.

Kamahl, Heart of Krosa + Tymna the Weaver: Abzan Stax that uses Tymna with hatebears to draw more cards and stax, before deploying Kamahl as a finisher to beat the table down.

Kodama of the East Tree + Tymna the Weaver: Abzan Stax that leverages Tymna and Kodama to break parity, with Tymna drawing cards and Kodama letting you get more value through Rule of Law.

Minsc, Beloved Ranger: A Naya Stax deck that also plays Hulk lines, using its commander as the sack outlet for Hulk. Can present fast wins while also being able to play a solid stax game.

Raffine, Scheming Seer: An Esper deck that uses hate bears with its commander to draw cards, make creatures big, and eventually reanimate a Razaketh, Necrotic Ooze, or other game-winning creature.

### 4+ Color

Kenrith, the Returned King: A 5-color deck that wins completely under Rule of Law and uses its commander as a beatdown kill condition.

Najeela, the Blade-Blossom: Uses stax to slow the game down while using its commander to accumulate lots of warriors or set up for its commander's one-card combo with Derevi.

Tana, the Bloodsower + Tymna the Weaver (Blood Pod): A Tymna-centric deck that uses Birthing Pod effects to assemble a win with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker.