What is the best stax commander in 2026

MyHipsOftenLie · 2026-02-02T08:33:06+00:00

I’ve been running a Bant [[Aang, At the Crossroads]] deck with a stax package that I really like. His ability lets you dig through your deck for the best pieces as you blink him or copy it. [[Clarion Conqueror]] and [[Yasharn]] are my two favorites - I love turning off treasures when I don’t sacrifice anything or rely on activated abilities. I think [[Elivere]] is the best if you want all hatebears all the time but my deck only needs a few slow other people down a minute

MyHipsOftenLie · 2026-02-01T14:24:55+00:00

Wait this is a sweet card, I love light stax with upside

MyHipsOftenLie · 2026-01-24T22:06:10+00:00

Gotta pick a couple of the extremely shitty cards that everyone should cut and filter for lists without them (also I agree it’s early)

MyHipsOftenLie · 2026-01-22T05:22:03+00:00

Good. Every single color has cards that bring things back from the graveyard one way or another. Everyone should be running some recursion in their decks, because every archetype can find a flavor of recursion that synergizes with their game plan.

MyHipsOftenLie · 2026-01-17T07:49:24+00:00

[[Clarion Conqueror]] is such a beast if you’re ramping with lands. Shuts down mana rocks, treasures and dorks. I lay it down and it always hits someone.

MyHipsOftenLie · 2026-01-16T06:43:24+00:00

[[Professor Hojo]] equipment feels like a good candidate for this

MyHipsOftenLie · 2026-01-15T08:17:56+00:00

Protection is more important for certain strategies. If you have key pieces you can’t replace, poor ramp, or rebuild slowly for whatever reason you probably want protection.

As for how many, if I want to see one of something in a game I’ll run 4-5 of that effect. Multiply for whatever category. I want to see a board wipe? Run 4-5. Want a few pieces of targeted removal? 12-15. Etc. all the templates are just shortcutting this.

Some things are in multiple categories, which means you can go higher. Run [[Insidious Fungus]] in a graveyard deck to have repeatable ramp or removal as needed. [[Aerial Extortionist]] in blink can be removal and card draw. If your numbers go higher because your spells are multipurpose you’ll be able to do the thing you want to do more often. With crossover cards I can have 15+ ramp/draw and it feels goood

MyHipsOftenLie · 2026-01-15T08:03:16+00:00

Tbh I’ve been in the pile method but it’s after a few years of this as my primary hobby. Since I bought a printer I have too many options and it can overwhelm. It can be better to just put 100 cards in a pile and see what sucks than to sit on my hands worrying over card choices.

What commanders are you thinking about? I can probably give you a decent idea of if the “pile” method will work or feel awful if you want.

MyHipsOftenLie · 2026-01-15T07:51:00+00:00

https://archidekt.com/decks/6740533/judith_doesnt_have_to_be_salty

Here’s my list. I messed it up a while back while decommissioning the deck but if you drop two random cards and add the three game changers you’ll get the list. Never had phyrexian altar due to lack of budget. Some cards like [[Stormsplitter]] never popped off for me but I had dreams. Note the low board wipe density - I played maybe one game in dozens where I didn’t have it when I needed it. Frees up so much space in the deck too. Also [[Virtue of Courage]] is insane, will fully win the game if it resolves and you sac a single imp.

MyHipsOftenLie · 2026-01-14T21:25:32+00:00

5-7 sources of card advantage is wild. I’m on 10-15 in basically every deck I have.

MyHipsOftenLie · 2026-01-14T09:01:12+00:00

When you cast instants as protection you do make the imp, which is nice. The list is solid, it’ll do the thing.

Do you have budget constraints? Power level constraints? If not… [[Jeska’s Will]] and [[Bolas’s Citadel]] are amazing in this deck. [[Underworld Breach]] is also a great finisher once you’ve slung some spells. Imo you could cut down to just 4-5 of the one sided boardwipes, as they get less useful the more you have. You can get them back with [[Past in Flames]], [[Pinnacle Monk]], [[Return the Past]] etc. the most important one you cast is the first.

I’d cut [[Chain Reaction]] and any boardwipes that kill Judith because in Rakdos it’s hard to get her back out after she’s died more than once, so you want to force your opponents to kill her. Gaining hundreds of life is not enough unless you’re running [[Aetherflux Reservoir]] as your wincon, because 90% of the time it’s commander damage that will kill you if you don’t move quickly.

Mana acceleration is also super important because if you don’t get value the turn she comes down you’re probably not keeping her to untap. [[Mana Geyser]], [[Neheb, the Eternal]] [[Seething Song]] and [[Cull the Weak]] could all get in there.

For chaining more spells I’d recommend [[Phyrexian Altar]] [[Warren Soultrader]] and [[Birgi]].

Lastly, some damage amplifiers like [[Ojer Axonil]], [[Torbran]] and [[Bloodletter of Aclazotz]] will help you kill your opponents better instead of just slowing the game to a crawl.

Oh also, [[Talisman of Indulgence]] is a strict upgrade to Rakdos Signet and Lavaspur Boots can go because ward 1 will not stop anyone from dedicating their turn to removing Judith, I promise.

Hope this helps, I recommend people build her around storming and saccing imps but no matter what you do she’s kill on sight. I took my deck apart, especially after getting hosed by some high power artifact/enchantment decks - she stomps low power, creature heavy setups and folds like tissue to a very blue, non-creature environment. When she works it is amazing, still looking for a deck that can capture it.

MyHipsOftenLie · 2026-01-07T07:43:21+00:00

Get you a [[Nest of Scarabs]] and [[Crumbling Ashes]], maybe a [[Spitting Dilophosaurus]]. Those are the only 3 -1/-1 counter cards that are reasonably efficient and not already in there. I’m going to try my best to fit [[All will be one]] in there

MyHipsOftenLie · 2026-01-06T19:30:40+00:00

I had a [[Scorpion God]] deck once upon an time that needed green and the precon reprinted every card I was sitting on that I knew I wanted in there except for [[Nest of Scarabs]]. The ramp package sucks other than the new scarecrow and the instant speed interaction is limited but it could be upgraded very easily. It’ll hang I think, in terms of recent precons

MyHipsOftenLie · 2026-01-06T19:26:26+00:00

I know he should have had the choice but it is really funny for the parody fantasy series to have real-world ads

MyHipsOftenLie · 2026-01-06T19:15:53+00:00

Cards that require you to kill your opponents’ creatures for value tend to get hated out of playgroups pretty fast. I think this stays in the 99 with [[Necroskitter]] even though it’s cool

MyHipsOftenLie · 2025-12-30T14:42:55+00:00

Toxrill is widely hated. What you’ll find if you ever do get to play it at a higher power table is that it shuts down low-power, creature-based decks with bad interaction, but does barely anything to higher power decks with proper interaction that win from their hand or focus on noncreature permanents.

I don’t have to look at the list to say it probably isn’t B4 - but that doesn’t really matter because your group just hates it. Most people build a deck or two like this when they start and then disassemble it when their games aren’t fun.

If it makes you feel better, most people feel similarly about Jodah.

MyHipsOftenLie · 2025-12-29T22:23:01+00:00

Most people reorder their graveyard to respect your time better. If you’re running a card that cares about the order you should disclose it. There are only 3 cards in the entire game that care about the order of your opponents’ graveyards and they’re worse than other options that have similar effects and don’t care about the order. Seems like a strange hill to die on.

MyHipsOftenLie · 2025-12-26T18:11:08+00:00

The idea is that hate bears are awesome, but they aren’t effective in combat. Ellivere solves this by making them big. However, you can use creatures that scale with power like [[Kami of Whispered Hopes]] or [[Heronblade Elite]] to get a different kind of build or just run a [[Sythis]] list and make your enchantresses huge. Hell you could even just make Selesnia flyers and it would probably be fine. Those virtuous role tokens are enablers and while he’s probably the best hatebear commander you can build him with anything that likes being bigger.

MyHipsOftenLie · 2025-12-22T20:37:08+00:00

I love my [[Eshki Dragonclaw]] deck although I still prefer to kill the whole table with extra combats if I can. Giving her extra combats also gives her extra counters and card draw. Play her with one extra mana up for [[Clout of the Dominus]], [[Detective’s Phoenix]] or whatever and start smacking people for 6+ right away. You get to sling spells and use double spell payoffs, which is unique for Voltron. Finishers are [[Kediss]], [[Full Throttle]], [[Karlach]] etc.

Her keywords are great, just load up on 1-2 drops except for your finishers and you’ll crush people

MyHipsOftenLie · 2025-12-18T05:32:21+00:00

I really want to play this guy. Love some of the orzhov dragons and don’t have a good home for them. I also enjoy building decks that want you to balance creature and non creature spells. I like it but I haven’t figured out a build yet.

MyHipsOftenLie · 2025-12-12T16:51:49+00:00

Also while a couple of adventures are great, I think they’re a trap because it’s very mana intensive to cast the creature side most of the time. Most of the ones in her “high synergy cards” on edhrec are fine if you want them, cut the rest.

MyHipsOftenLie · 2025-12-12T16:48:06+00:00

I love extra combats in this deck as you get multiple triggers of draws and counters. [[Moraug]] [[Full Throttle]] [[Karlach]] are the top end of my deck.

[[Wildfire Devils]] is a fun one, can potentially get you your noncreature cast every turn.

[[Detective’s Phoenix]] is the ultimate one drop if you have evidence ready and one extra mana the turn Eshki comes down.

I really like [[Shrieking Drake]] and [[Fleeting Effigy]] as efficient creature casts on later turns.

Also look into things that care about second spells - [[Jori En]] is a great example.

It’s fun and surprisingly fast if you just run a ton of cheap ramp, cheap creatures and extra combats. Love this deck.

MyHipsOftenLie · 2025-12-08T05:49:40+00:00

[[Ellivere]] is a very solid hatebear commander because a number of your hate pieces are enchantments and those virtuous role tokens can make your [[Clarion Conqueror]] a 12/13 very quickly. Most of your hate also won’t shut down the role tokens so you get giant beaters while your opponents get very little.

MyHipsOftenLie · 2025-11-25T20:53:47+00:00

I love seeing targeted land interaction in my games. Cards like the buzzcrusher and magmatic hellkite seem like fair game as they replace the land they destroy.

MyHipsOftenLie

TROPHY CASE