[Deck] Arrrrr, pirate-stax

[mmatney]

Ok so I was thinking about building a stax deck and I used to love the pirates from MM and I thought, hey these have decent synergy b/t them. So here's my current, rough decklist.

Creatures
4x rishadan cutpurse
3x rishadan footpad

spells
4x chalice of the void
4x smokestack
4x trinisphere
4x mox diamond
4x rhystic study (just added over impulse, seems strong with the deck)
3x crucible of the worlds
3x engineered explosives

land
4x rishadan port
4x wasteland
4x ancient tomb
4x city of traitors
4x mishra's factory
7x island

sideboard
3x pithing needle
3x tormod's crypt
3x blue elemental blast
3x arcane laboratory
3x propoganda

I just made it yesterday and have only played a few games, the sideboard is basically for goblins, and a lil for combo (laboratory and crpyt) because I some combo hate maindecked (chalice trinisphere).

I haven't tested out the deck vs any aggro yet and I haven't tested the study's but they seem like they could give stax a nice draw engine, or at least be a one sided sphere of resistence, either way its good. The pirates not only can kill an opponents permanent, but they can also be sacced to smokestack if needed.

I feel from initial testing that the deck could be pretty decent though, just seeing if anyone has any suggestions right off the bat that they think would help this deck survive in legacy. I was thinking maybe I needed more draw or something.

[vigilante]

I haven't tested out the deck vs any aggro yet

I think this is where you're going to run into problems...aside from chump-blocking with your Pirates and Mishra's Factories, you've got no way to stop aggro overrunning you. Your lock pieces don't have a hope of coming online in time to stop a lethal dose of efficient, undercosted opposing creatures slipping through and killing you before you stabilise, and while Engineered Explosives will buy you some time in some situations (ie. staring down opposing 1CC creatures, or when you happen to draw into Explosives + Mox Diamond), it's hardly enough.

Most white-based Stax builds commits 8 maindeck slots to answering aggro (4 Ghostly Prison, 4 Magus of the Tabernacle), and combine those with Armageddon to ensure aggro strategies will take even longer to recover. I guess what I'm saying is that you'll definately need to move those Propagandas from the SB to the main, and come up with some other mechanism for delaying opposing creatures (Pendrell Mists or The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale come to mind, although neither are as good as white's Magus of the Tabernacle).

[Maveric78f]

Rhystic study is banned in legacy.

Anyway, your best drawer seems to be thirst for knowledge.
About the deck, I think that mishras are useless and making your land count too high.

[Xandercoon]

Rhystic study is banned in legacy.

Its really not you know. Mainly because it's jank.
Anyway, Mystic Remora is much better.

[Maveric78f]

oh my bad, I don't know why I messed up with frantic search.

I keep thinking that TfK is better.

[mmatney]

the factories are nice, esp with crucible. they are usually how i win games

also rhystic study usually is pretty janky but if you actually read it, it goes along really well with this deck, it either lets you draw cards, or acts as a one sided sphere of resistence, both of which are good for the deck, I may change my mind after testing them though.

[Nihil Credo]

Can't get into the specifics of the deck without testing, but from my experience with Stax variants, Crucible should ALWAYS be a 4-of.

Also, at a glance Engineered Explosives are just worse than maindeck Propaganda. With only one colour, Explosives only serve to blow up Goblin tokens and to prevent Vial from working as a single-card mana base; Propaganda does the same thing and much more.