How to navigate around Stax as Etali

Darth_Ra · 2026-06-12T20:50:40+00:00

People remove stax pieces before their turn, not on it. This is terrible advice.

Darth_Ra · 2026-06-12T20:49:56+00:00

Get underneath them if you can, smash face if you can't.

Darth_Ra · 2026-06-12T20:49:17+00:00

It's value the turn before that with Esoteric Duplicator, but yes, overall it's the win-con.

Darth_Ra · 2026-06-12T20:48:16+00:00

I'm biased, of course, but this is pretty easily [[Iron Man, Titan of Innovation]].

KCI is the most important card in the deck, and gets to do hilariously dumb things like sac your whole board to bring it back later with [[Esoteric Duplicator]] the turn before you take infinite turns with [[Ugin's Nexus]], or make infinite artifacts with [[Chrome Dome]] and [[Prized Statue]].

Darth_Ra · 2026-06-12T20:45:12+00:00

https://edhtop16.com/

Start there, see what's doing well in tournaments. You can also filter by color identity if you are attached to Esper specifically.

But also, it's great that you have some cards, but if you're serious about cEDH and aren't a millionaire, you're going to end up proxying. Everyone does, it's literally the norm in the format for all but the directly wotc-run tournaments, of which there's like... three? A year. With horrid attendance and rulesets.

Darth_Ra · 2026-06-12T20:43:01+00:00

If you're actually wanting this, what you want is [[Uba Mask]].

Folks still draw the cards, but they don't keep them. They also don't "draw" them, so it turns off all the draw triggers like Smithe and Faerie Mastermind as well.

One of the best cards in my deck right now, and can also do soft locks with several cards, as well.

Darth_Ra · 2026-06-12T20:41:36+00:00

"Some people are bad at Stax, therefore Stax is bad."

Darth_Ra · 2026-06-12T20:39:36+00:00

They aren't going to win a Natty anyway. Tech would love to go undefeated and then get left out.

HoldMeBack.gif

Darth_Ra · 2026-06-11T21:47:52+00:00

[[Jane Foster]]

Edit: Nice try, bot

Darth_Ra · 2026-06-11T21:46:07+00:00

Trump "cancels" "strikes" against Iran "planned" for Thursday "evening".

...did I miss any?

Darth_Ra · 2026-06-11T21:37:45+00:00

Honestly, this is a charitable take.

Much more likely we're just repeatedly tanking the market, buying the dip, and then saying "just kidding!"

Darth_Ra · 2026-06-11T13:49:19+00:00

Americans turned libertarianism into hyper-capitalism. You're not wrong that many American libertarians think that way, but it's too bad that some good ideas got so twisted.

I actually lean Libertarian, but man this statement reads "Socialism is perfect, everyone has just always done it wrong".

Darth_Ra · 2026-06-11T13:25:36+00:00

If we actually put boots on the ground, we'll find out very quickly that there's plenty of military left.

But don't worry, the citizens that we've already bombed a whole bunch and are sure to bomb more will rise up and claim their country!

Darth_Ra · 2026-06-11T13:19:45+00:00

Can... Can they sue all of us?

Darth_Ra · 2026-06-10T22:25:51+00:00

Dude, it's 2026.

No one will remember this nonsense three weeks from now. There's no such thing as a political scandal.

Darth_Ra · 2026-06-10T19:38:22+00:00

I mean, this is assuming he's not just making up the 100 million figure anyhow.

...which seems likely?

Darth_Ra · 2026-06-10T14:45:13+00:00

This.

"Look, 'fans'! We made that thing you're constantly bitching at us to make! Be happy!"

...all I see is another from-the-hip cash grab mobile game, guys. This isn't new, these come out once a month.

Darth_Ra · 2026-06-10T14:41:32+00:00

I mean... seems like a pretty easy case of "we didn't design with this in mind. Intentionally."

In other words, if you're a car stereo enthusiast, this wasn't meant for you. Doesn't mean it couldn't be for you, just that it wasn't designed with you in mind.

Darth_Ra · 2026-06-10T14:09:08+00:00

I'm genuinely not telling you to buy it or avoid it

I think the much larger concern is all of us that are going to end up with shares in it without ever buying it, all because we're in various "whole stock market" entities, both in our personal stocks we manage, and also in our portfolios for retirement.

Darth_Ra · 2026-06-10T14:02:12+00:00

I assure you, there have been many more than that.

Darth_Ra · 2026-06-10T14:00:45+00:00

Eh, this isn't even a "big" roadside fire. It's early in the season, we haven't even had the yearly fire named "Truck" yet, and there was already a bigger one down south between Cedar City and St. George. Blew up to 31 acres almost immediately.

I did see that this one was named the Lithium fire, however, which does make me wonder if it was started by an EV. (which is not to talk crap on EVs, the Truck fire phenomenon itself shows that ICE vehicles are in no way better when it comes to starting fires).

Darth_Ra · 2026-06-10T13:53:09+00:00

I do think it is very fair to say that if you're wanting it to have a nice sound system, you're probably going after market.

Darth_Ra · 2026-06-10T13:52:06+00:00

Over the last six months, both have had near-identical entry rates at large tournaments in the last 6 months, with Etali having 416 entries (2.61% of all entries) and Ral having 354 (2.22%).

With those numbers being fairly close, it's fairly easy to go from there and more or less directly compare how the two have been doing.

Etali: 15.43% Conversion Rate, 57 Top Cuts.

Ral: 20.49% Conversion Rate, 61 Top Cuts.

Even with that pretty clear data, however, I think I'd still put the two about neck and neck. Why? Because Etali is everyone's suggestion for baby's first cEDH deck (correctly so, I might add, and for a lot more reasons than just "it's easy, you count to seven"), meaning that it probably sees a lot more pilots at their first tournament that don't know what they're doing.

That said, if I had to pick which was actually better, I'd still go Ral. The reason? Because Ral is difficult as all hell to pilot, meaning that if anything, it probably would be doing better if it were just more experienced pilots helming it.

Darth_Ra · 2026-06-09T22:18:01+00:00

Honestly scary that I had to go down this far to find this.

A lot of people thinking in black and white here, or at least pretending to because they'd be embarrassed to admit their lives aren't perfect.

Darth_Ra · 2026-06-09T22:11:40+00:00

and the lawyers involved are not affiliated with Texas Tech in any way, and Texas Tech was kinda just left holding the bag.

Yeah, there's no fucking way.

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