Years ago I embarrassed myself as a deck builder all because I misread a card. I was looking at a STAX deck with Kentaro the Smiling Cat. I thought he had an activated ability that let me get around paying any extra mana if I made spells cost more to cast. This was pre Neon Dynasty, so there were even fewer Samurai in the world, and they needed as much help as they can get. I queried a judge forum, got told I was wrong, then queried again because I thought that guy was wrong. I got told I was wrong again because I was wrong. After this second correction, I realized why I was wrong. The judges didn't really explain why I was wrong, just that I was wrong.
I was embarrassed and I let the deck go. I saved the deck list as a cautionary tale for myself. But was I as wrong as I made myself out to be? It turns out, not as wrong. If I can reduce the cost of creature spells the X would be less. What do I mean? If I had something like Pearl Medalion out any Samurai that cost 2W would now cost 1W. With Kentaro out I only have to pay 2 colorless mana to cast that creature. That seems like small potatoes. Not if I push it. With that first example, what if I change it from a 2W cost creature to one that only costs W. With Pearl Medalion my white spells cost 1 less. Cue Kentaro that makes it W into 1 which is now 0. Did you see it coming? I'm in the world of free casting.
Free casting is a powerful thing in Magic. More so if you abuse it, and I certainly abuse it. One drops are fine, but I have more expensive stuff than that to play. I threw in cards like Urza's Incubator and Herald's Horn to push it even further. I can cast some heavy hitters with all those artifacts out. Do I really need to though? Well, yeah. Why? I'm going to make everything cost more. There are some expensive Samurai out there. Takeno, Samurai General is a 6 drop that gives some of my stuff a power bump. That's ok, but low impact. I'm not looking to play the General, Alabaster Host or even Konda, Lord of Enganjo. I'm focusing more on 2, 3, and 4 drop creatures. With that extra mana I'm saving, I'm not going to let it go to waste. I'm going to go back to my original STAX idea.
I'm including cards like Feroz's Ban and Thorn of Amethyst in the deck. The trick here is to not play more of the spells that make stuff cost more and overtake the stuff that reduces the cost of my creatures. STAX only works if you can break parity. Luckily I also have God-Pharoh's Statue that only hits opponents. Overall, this is one of the trickier parts of the deck. Managing present and future costs and expecting removal while setting up for the big turn. I like to play more cards that increase costs early. The cost reducers work better with what comes next.
I'm building up to something here. Stopping opponents from interrupting me is very powerful. Free casting is powerful. If I don't maintain cards to play though, the free casting gets shut down. What if I don't need new cards though? What if I just recast the same ones over and over? Cloudstone Curio is the piece I needed to make the whole thing work. Curio returns a permanent to my hand when another permanent of the same type comes into play. So when I play a creature I get to return a creature. If those happen to be Samurai and I reduce the cost of creatures to 0 with Kentaro's ability I get infinite casts. Hooray.
Infinite cast triggers immediately make you think about 1 mechanic: Storm. I've done some storm stuff in the past, notably Green Storm with Oozes. If you thought that was stretching it just do a search for white cards with Storm. Astral Steel and Wing Shard are the only 2 pure options. Pumping a creature repeatedly is ok, but not game ending. Wing Shard needs to be played on an opponent's turn, so casting creatures to pump the storm count isn't possible without Flash. I would not be deterred! There are plenty of ways to storm off.
For starters, the aforementioned Astral Steel plays a role. I push damage over the top on the back of creatures like Araba Mothrider and Sky-Blessed Samurai. I needed to get clever (weird) to find Storm analogs. A quick search for cards that care about “whenever you cast” turned up gold. There were some great set up cards and some game winners. D'Avenant Trapper lets me tap opposing creatures. Not having to worry about blockers is great in a creature heavy deck. When I cast Cemetery Protector I'm sure to exile an opponent's creature so every time I cast a creature I get a 1/1. This also works as decent graveyard hate. Defiler of Faith works 2 ways for me. Trading life for cost reduction of white mana has been relevant when I play too many STAX effects at once. Getting a free creature every time I cast a creature doubles up my value. Door of Destinies sits around and gives my relevant tokens a significant bump in power. That has been game winning on its own. Regardless, when I make all those tokens, I protect them for a turn with Make a Stand so I can attack en masse the following turn. That or have Crashing Drawbridge out to give all my tokens Haste.
Set up is nice, but sometimes you just need to win. Infinite casts with Aetherflux Reservoir out means my life total gets out of control and I can activate that death ray as many times as I need to. Reservoir always takes a lot of heat and tends to eat removal. The funnier way to close out a game is with Altar of the Brood. Milling someone out in White is very funny. Doing it to the whole table all at once is even better.
This next series of cards plays great in the deck, regardless of which one I happen to have out. It's the monument cycle from Amonkhet. Only Oketra's Monument offers me a cost reduction on my creatures. That's great and plays into my strategy with Kentaro. Making token creatures is still as powerful as it was 2 paragraphs ago. The real All-Star is Bontu's Monument. I use it to machine gun down life totals with each creature I cast. That's game over for opponents. The other monuments all play great with those infinite casts triggers too. Rhonas's Monument takes my creatures and turns them into lethal tramplers. Hazoret's Monument lets me dump dead cards and draw better options. This has been key in drawing into my combo pieces. This is a powerful effect even if it's not infinite at any given moment. Kefnet's Monument is the weakest. Keeping creatures tapped was ok. But if they weren't already tapped the effect was not advancing my attack plan. It was the first one on the chopping block from early builds of the deck.
All of this has been built on Cloudstone Curio. How do I make sure I find it when I need it and what do I do if it gets removed? The most reliable way to get ahold of the Curio has been Enlightened Tutor. It just finds the artifact and brings it to the top. If I happen to have Cloudstone Curio already it can find one of my game enders like Aetherflux Reservoir or Bontu's Monument. Kuldotha Forgemaster is a good tutor if I have enough artifacts available. This pairs well with Bygone Bishop and its clue tokens. Oswald Fiddlebender lets me go up the chain, all the way to 3 for my combo piece. I'm reluctant to sacrifice lands, but Inventor's Fair is always reliable in finding the piece I need.
If Curio gets removed I can either recur it or struggle along with slower alternatives. Elixir of Immortality will shuffle the destroyed Curio to my library. I just have to draw/tutor it a second time. Buried Ruin is another land that ensures I have access to Cloudstone Curio. It's like Inventor's Fair in a way. As long as the card I need is in the graveyard. Ironsoul Enforcer, which is a Samurai, can get it back if it attacks alone. Mine Excavation has been a solid addition. With enough creatures running around, I have used it on more than one occasion to get back Curio and another finisher.
The problem with combo decks is that once the combo is stopped the deck tends to fall apart. This is true. I have a couple of ways to reliably return creatures to my hand that I've used to some effect. Erratic Portal gets me a creature back to my hand every turn for a single mana. Meticulous Excavation is cheap to get out but expensive to activate. It's like the inverse of Erratic Portal. I've gotten 2 or 3 instances per turn in the past since my creatures were free to recast. Umbilicus is as slow as the art implies. A free return is a free return to get the ball rolling. Hitting opponents for 2 or removing a token is a slight upside but has bitten me in the past, enabling an opponent to replay a creature for an ETB.
I found another way to make this infinite casting happen without Cloudstone Curio. I need another artifact in its place. That artifact happens to be Maskwood Nexus. In a Samurai deck that doesn't seem necessary. It means all my creatures in hand can benefit from Kentaro's ability. I have been holding back a series of creatures that make Nexus viable. All these creatures happen to return creatures to hand. Kor Skyfisher and Aviary Mechanic are cheap options that do the job. Even better, Whitemane Lion and Rescuer Chwinga both have Flash so I can do it right on an opponent's turn. It made Wing Shards viable and a great surprise way to clear attackers from the board. Those Flash options also mean my token makers can pump out tons of creatures just before my turn so they're ready to go right away.
What does this crazy thing look like? Like this
Araba Mothrider | Pearl Medalion | Thorn of Amethyst |
The Wandering Rescuer | Urza's Incubator | Feroz's Ban |
Sky-Blessed Samurai | Herald of War | Charitable Levy |
Hand of Honor | Semblance Anvil | Sphere of Resistance |
Kitsune Blade Master | Herald's Horn | God-Pharoh's Statue |
Norika Yamazaki, The Poet | Sculpting Steel | Defense Grid |
Selfless Samurai | Mirage Mirror | Glowrider |
Mothrider Samurai | Cloudstone Key | Kor Skyfisher |
Sensei Goldentail | Astral Steel | Aviary Mechanic |
Enlightened Tutor | Wing Shard | Rescuer Chingwa |
Maskwood Nexus | Aetherflux Reservoir | Emancipation Angel |
Deafening Silence | Bontu's Monument | Kuldrotha Forgemaster |
Elixir of Immortality | Bygone Bishop | Oswald Fiddlebender |
Folk Hero | D'Avenant Trapper | Noetic Scales |
God-Eternal Oketra | Requisition Raid | Mine Excavation |
Hazoret's Monument | Cemetary Protector | Cloudstone Curio |
Oketra's Monument | Defiler of Faith | Erratic Portal |
Rhonas's Monument | Door of Destinies | Essence Reliquary |
Meticulous Excavation | Umbilicus | Stone Cloaker |
Leering Emblem | Oltec Matterweaer | Whitemane Lion |
Veilstone Amulet | Altar of the Brood | Crashing Drawbridge |
Eye of Vecna | ||
Inventor's Fair | Ash Barrens | Secluded Steppe |
Blast Zone | Drifting Meadow | Desert of the True |
Scavenger Grounds | Buried Ruin | Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx |
Plains x23 | ||
Witch Enchanter/Blessed Meadow | Sejiri Shelter/Glacier | Ondu Inversion/Skyruins |
I'm not a huge infinite combo fan. This was something outside my norm. With so much redundancy it feels a little more stable. Assembling the right pieces can be tricky to get rolling, but that's OK. Opponents, as usual, don't know what to make of the deck early on. Explaining the STAX part in conjunction with Kentaro's ability can be delicate depending on your opponents. Most people are good sports about it. I just tend not to play too many games in a row with the deck.
Do you think the deck could stay competitive without the STAX pieces? Or is it the great equalizer for a deck like this to keep up?
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