work in progress

HELLBENT STAX

Daretti cEDH Primer
Feel free to comment. I really appreciate your thoughts and ideas. There is always room for improvement and opportunities to learn something. 

Also feel free to join Daretti's Scrap Heap Discord.

> Intro

This is my concept for a competitive Daretti stax deck. It combines disruptive stax pieces with aggressive but disadvantageous ramp like City of Traitors, Sandstone Needle and Treasonous Ogre and a lot of card filter effects like Bazaar of Baghdad, Thrill of Possibility or Faithless Looting. The idea is to profit from having no cards in hand (Hellbent). Going Hellbent quickly means you can take advantage of cards like Anje's Ravager, Lion's Eye Diamond or Sandstone Oracle. 

Unlike other stax builds that aim to denie resources by tax effects and by attacking lands and other mana sources to grind the game to a halt, this build tries to hinder spell casting with tax effects and spell hate, for example Chalice of the Void, Nullstone Gargoyle and Possibility Storm. In addition it tries to disrupt common winning lines in my meta.

Being able to perform under the circumstances you have created, the plan is to dig into your library with Daretti, Anje's Ravager, Memory Jar and other cards to assemble a wincon while everyone else is struggling. 

What makes this build unique
You can find many Daretti Stax builds online. Compared to other lists, the following cards usually don't see much play and characterize my Hellbent Stax build:

• Chalice of the Void 
• Nullstone Gargoyle 
• Possibility Storm
• Anje's Ravager
• Semblance Anvil
• Mesmeric Orb
• Treasonous Ogre 

Powerlevel of Daretti as Commander
Playing mono red means playing with restrictions. Red has almost no access to tutors for artifacts. And Daretti is a great value engine but does fix the problem with the missing tutors. Unlike Godo, Daretti is not a combo piece accessible in the command zone. Smart guys with lots of experience who know more about cEDH than me currently list Daretti as a High Power Commander, but not as fringe competitive. From my personal experience with Daretti in cEDH I'd say that the deck is fringe competitive. It can compete in cEDH pods and win games.

Daretti Hellbent Stax - to play or not to play?
Not everyone likes to play heavy control or mono red. The build (and Daretti as a Commander) will suit your playstyle if you 

• like disruptive control and stax
• like nonlinear play patterns 
• want to draw a lot of cards 
• take risks by discarding cards or your entire hand 
• want to play a graveyard centric strategy 
• want to play mono red in cEDH but not Godo, Bandit Warlord

This build (and Daretti) is probably nothing for you if 

• want to play a top tier cEDH control deck
• can't decide what card to discard 
• have trouble discarding your entire hand 
• want a combo piece in the command zone
• Null Rod, Collector Ouphe and Stony Silence see much play in your playgroup

Budget & proxies
The deck is meant to be played in competitive pods. If a mono red deck shall keep up with UBGx lists, there can be no mercy and no budget limitation. If you - like me - can't afford to buy cards like Lion's Eye Diamond or Bazaar of Baghdad, use a proxy. No one with a truly competitive mindset will judge you for doing so. It's about the skill of the pilot and not the amount of money they are able or willing to spend on Magic cards.

Modified casting costs
The casting costs of some cards are changed to their effective cost, like Chalice of the Void from cmc0 to (at least) cmc2. And the costs of cards that aren't meant to be cast but welded in, like Possessed Portal, are reduced to zero (technically it's zero like Lotus Petal but none like lands so they don't appear in the stats). This reveals the effective mana curve and lets me calculate the amount of lands more precisely.

List of modified casting costs 

• Chalice of the Void set to cc2 
• Rolling Earthquake set to cc2
• Walking Ballista set to cc2
• Anje's Ravager set to cc2
• God-Pharaoh's Statue set to zero
• Nullstone Gargoyle set to zero
• Possessed Portal set to zero
• Alhammarret's Archive set to zero 
• Memory Jar set to zero 
• Sandstone Oracle set to zero
• Chromatic Orrery set to zero
• Deflecting Swat set to zero
• Simian Spirit Guide set to zero

Sideboard and Maybeboard
Sideboard used as maybeboard for this build. Maybeboard used to gather all cards that are (remotely) playable in a Daretti deck, no matter what gameplan, competitive or casual.

> Gameplan 

This is a competitive deck. We play to win - by any means necessary. The deck does what mono red stax decks can do best - slow down the game to prevent faster decks from winning, grind and finally win the game. The game plan can be broken down in three stages: staxing, grinding and winning the game. Those often correspond to the commonly used differentiation of game stages: stax early game, grind mid game and win late game.

In comparison to other competitive Daretti builds this one tries to ramp and grind more aggressively. It uses more disadvantageous cards to produce fast mana to get out a stax piece quickly and to dig deeper into the library. The list is a stax deck for sure, but in the Daretti spectrum between combo and control it's more combo oriented than others. 

Ramp - fast mana and big mana
There are currently 19 cards in the list that allow you to cast Daretti on T3 or earlier. I do not count Workshop (even though it sometimes pays for Basalt Monolith or Grim Monolith) and Lion's Eye Diamond (which has a heavy drawback). But I do count Dockside which can easily be a ritual that produces 4 mana. I also could also count Expedition Map which finds a land that you can drop on T3 that taps for two mana like Ancient Tomb. That is a lot of slots for fast mana. But 19 cards sum up to a chance of about 85% to cast Daretti on T3 and that is exactly what we want to do in the majority of games. And once Daretti resolves you can start to discard redundant cards.

Big mana can either be slower cards like Metalworker, Thran Dynamo, Gilded Lotus or Chromatic Orrery that generate lots of mana during the next turns or faster cards similar to rituals like Dockside or Treasonous Ogre. I opted for a mix. Metalworker and Basalt Monolith are set because they are combo pieces. Chromatic Orrery is a combo piece too, produces the most mana and can be welded in easily on turn two which makes it pretty fast. But it's a weld-in only most of the time. The other slots are for the faster ritual like effects, Dockside and Treasonous Ogre. I feel like Thran Dynamo and Gilded Lotus are too slow for my meta, maybe for cEDH in general, and more than five slots for big mana is presumably too much. Before Chromatic Orrery was spoilered, I was happy with four slots for big mana, but I had to make room for the card.

You find in depth analysis for stax, grinding and winning in the corresponding sections. The following subsections cover starting hards and give a short overview for the early, mid and late stages of the game.

> Starting hands

...

> Early game  (T1 - T4) 

Hellbent Stax plays like almost all cEDH decks. You build up a board state during the first two or three turns. The goal is to cast Daretti on turn two or three, but there is a decent chance to do it on turn one. You should take a mulligan if you don't see a chance to cast Daretti or something with impact on turn three when looking at your starting hand. 

With all the cards that provide fast mana there is a notable chance to produce two or even three mana on turn one. This can be used for stax pieces like Chalice of the Void (X=1), Cursed Totem or Blood Moon, Magus of the Moon or Trinisphere. Few things are more satisfying than a turn one Blood Moon. People often aren't aware of the fact that a Daretti deck can win on turn one by resolving a Moon-effect.

Another common play pattern is to discard a cmc-wise expensive card like God-Pharaoh's Statue, Nullstone Gargoyle or Alhammaret's Archive or Chromatic Orrery with Faithless Looting, Tormenting Voice or Thrill of Possibility to weld it back in the next turn with Daretti.

Lion's Eye Diamond offers ridiculous but risky turn-one plays. It gives you the mana to cast Daretti and it lets you discard your hand. If you manage to cast another artifact or your T1 land drop is an artifact land you can trade your hand for T1 Daretti and an impactful artifact. The following artifacts are often worth the risk: Alhammaret's Archive, God-Pharaoh's Statue, Nullstone Gargoyle, Sandstone Oracle and Trinisphere (if you go first so that no one gets to cast spells until T3).

The first stax pieces should be played as soon as possible. Depending on your position in turn order and the amount of tutors that have been played it should be on T2, T3 or latest T4.

Mesmeric Orb mills and generates virtual card advantage (I'll explain that later). If you have nothing better to do during the early game, cast Mesmeric Orb. The cards you accumulate over the next turns can be valuable.

The later early game when Daretti is online and everyone else has cast his mana dorks, hatebears and low cost Commander is often the sweet spot for a board wipe.

> Mid game (T5 - T8) 

Once your stax pieces are online and your opponents winning lines are (temporarily) interrupted you start to dig into your library to find more stax pieces and to assemble your own combo.

During the mid game you want to draw a lot of cards. With the Hellbent Stax build you often will have only a few cards or none left in hand when the early game ends. T4 or T5 is the perfect time to refill your hand with a wheel effect. Wheel of Fortune has the benefit of having each player discard their hand which means you can force your opponents to discard the cards they have tutored for during the early game. Sandstone Oracle will refill your hand too. Memory Jar is quite expensive with cc5. If you cast it you won't have much mana to spend for the cards you draw, especially when you played tax effects before. Therefore I like to discard Memory Jar early on and weld it in when I have enough mana. But sometimes you have to cast it and wait for the next turn to activate it.

Another card that draws a decent amount of cards is Anje's Ravager. I'd say it is our TymnaDorks in one card. Draw three cards with a creature that has to attack. Being a 3/3 makes it even more safe to attack. In fact you have no choice. Unlike TymnaDorks Ravager doesn't have to get through because it triggers on being declared as an attacker. I often discard Ravager the turn after Daretti entered the battlefield when I have the mana to pay for the Madness cost. With that turn and the precombat main phase of the next turn you should have cast all cards possible from your hand.

Alhammaret's Archive will double your draw. I prefer to weld it in but sometimes it's worth the five mana to cast it before you activate Daretti to get those two extra cards.

Mystic Forge will help to grind during the mid game. It's effect is rather slow in comparison to wheel effects. But when you have enough top deck manipulation (Daretti, Shredder, Bazaar, Faithless Looting, fetchlands) and enough mana things get out of hand pretty quickly. With all the mana positive rocks you can easily cast and the low amount of lands you often dig 5+ cards per turn deep into your library. Experimental Frenzy (currently not in the list) does basically the same thing. It lets you also play lands but you lose access to the cards in your hand.

Mid game (sometimes late early game) is the time when you should have mana available for instant-based interaction if you have drawn any. Both Blasts allow you to participate in a counterwar (same is true for Deflecting Swat)or to remove a combo piece if it's blue. Abrade, Barbarian Ring and Walking Ballista can get rid of creatures like Dockside Extortionist, Barrin, Kiki-Jiki, Godo and many more. Abrade also hits artifacts like Isochron Scepter. Our best but more expensive piece of interaction is Chaos Warp. Depending on what kind of combo you anticipate it's probably not worth it to save three mana. Nobody expects a mono red deck to interact anyway. Just bluff and let your opponents deal with the threat. That's what you have to do often because both the amount and the quality of cards mono red has for instant speed interaction is pretty low.

The Hellbent Stax build is designed to go Hellbent. Therefore you shouldn't be too cautious with those few cards for instant-based interaction. If you for example have Anje's Ravager and Pyroblast in your starting hand, there is a high chance that you have to discard the Blast by T4 or T5 if you don't use it. So don't hesitate to get rid of that Mystic Remora or Rhystic Study. Even though Mystic Remora will be sacrificed anyway. Hellbent Stax wants to fire out a salve of noncreature spells early on. Blasting the Remora will is often better than complying to the Fish-Pact, because we can't develop our board with mana dorks, hatebears or a Dark Confidant.

Sometimes it's possible to make the first winning attempt. Hands that offer this possible are very rare and it's often not possible to protect your combo if it involves casting a spell. Even if your opponents tap out it's most likely that at least one of them has a (free) counterspell in his or her hand. Therefore it's better to wait until an opponent has failed his attempt to win the game, the counterwar is over and everyone else is tapped out. If the missing combo piece can be welded in and you can win on the spot without casting a spell (or if the combo lets you draw your deck first so that one or more counterspells won't stop you from winning) you should go for it and try to win that game.

> Late game (T9+)

It's hard to predict what's going on late game. Games often don't last that long. But when they do, it can get very tough. Depending on how many stax pieces resolved the game is all about attrition and card advantage, especially if there is another stax deck in your Pod. Creatures and other permanents become more relevant. Commanders will be played for the second or third time and beatdown becomes a threat to those who have been greedy with their life points. But that's how it is playing a stax deck.

People will notice when you are performing well while they cannot advance their gameplan. Daretti will draw hate because people are willing to attack you or Daretti. And because you prevent them from comboing off. Politics can be relevant now. Try to redirect combat damage at other players, who need their life as a resource. Mono red is definitely not on Ad Nauseam. Explain your opponents that your stax pieces are preventing a third opponent from winning. There will be situations in which a counterwar happens because one of your opponents tries to remove a stax piece EOT before his turn so he can perform his combo.

Many potential combo pieces will lay in your graveyard or on the battlefield, visible for everyone. Be aware of that.

> Stax

The classic stax strategy is to win through resource denial, card advantage and attrition. Even though it's possible to grind an EDH game to a halt by denying your opponents all their resources and win by drawing more and losing less cards than your opponents do, that strategy is in my opinion not strong enough to compete in the current meta - at least not with mono red. The game is too fast. When fast combo decks can constantly attempt to win on turn three, there is often no time to find another card that breaks parity on a symmetrical stax effect like a card that produces tokens for Smokestack. Therefore I try to play only stax effects, that are asymmetrical on their own. This is true for cards like God-Pharaoh's Statue or Stranglehold but also for Moon effects or Lodestone Golem because of the way the deck is built.

Resource denial is difficult too. It's often not possible to effectively attack all three major mana sources (lands, artifacts and creatures) at the same time or in the time window fast combo decks offer. Not to mention enchantments like Carpet of Flowers, Utopia Sprawl or Smothering Tithe. Therefore this build's main goal is to attack spell casting and interrupt winning lines. Spell hate and the graveyard-centric strategy that is implied by Daretti work well with a mono red deck, because red can't keep up in card quality when it comes to instants and sorceries. Having ability-based access to the graveyards allows us to attack spellcasting aggressively with cards like Chalice of the Void or Possibility Storm.

Tempo advantage
Everyone has an idea of what tempo or tempo advantages means. A common definition is that Tempo is the pace at which one plays threats. This can be achieved with mana efficient “on curve” plays. If tempo is related to a single commander tempo often stands for a build that can win faster. Najeela Tempo vs Najeela Stax. But you could also relate deck archetypes to others. A fast combo deck like Selvala Brostorm or Turbo AdNaus then has a natural tempo advantage over Niv-Mizzet Parun (when goldfishing). 

I prefer to use the term tempo advantage to describe the current state of the game:

The player who has progressed his own game plan the most in relation to their opponents, in other words who is closest to victory, has a tempo advantage.

According to this understanding of the term if a player gains tempo advantage and keeps it throughout the entire game, that inevitably leads to victory. The problem with my definition is that the information you need to determine who has a tempo advantage is hidden if you are participating in the game. And since cEDH is not about winning through combat or burn, you can't tell from someone's boardstate or their life points how far they have advanced their game plan. You simply can't see whether your opponents have their combo pieces in hand or struggle with their draws.

But you can state that the first player in turn order has a natural tempo advantage. Playing on curve and using slot efficient combos of only one or two cmc-wise cheap cards (including a commander if possible) helps a lot to (start with or) gain and keep the tempo advantage. Most cEDH decks play on curve and have more speed in assembling their combos because each other color has better tutor effects.

Tempo advantage seems to be a volatile thing if you don't have all the information. One lucky draw can change everything. Someone can be totally shut down by a stax piece even though he has all combo pieces in hand. But when he (or she) draws that removal spell, he is back in the game. This seems like a huge tempo gain but you could also state that he already had advanced his gameplan.

Stax pieces kill your opponent's tempo because they are meant to disrupt their game plan. Many effects are symmetrical which makes it necessary to break the parity. I try to avoid those but some cards are just too strong to not play them. Grafdigger’s Cage, Torpor Orb or Cursed Totem for example. Losing engines Goblin Engineer and Goblin Welder, rituals like Treasonous Ogre or Dockside Extortionist and combo pieces like Walking Ballista or Underworld Breach hurts. But those stax pieces cards are necessary because most decks will find their combos faster than a Daretti deck does. But when you find them, you can use Daretti to sacrifice the disruptive artifact and combo off.

Although the wording of many cards implies a symmetrical effect, many effects aren’t symmetrical due to the way the deck is built. Blood Moon turns everyone’s nonbasic lands into Mountains but a mono red won’t be disrupted by that. Lodestone Golem hits only nonartifact spells of which we don’t play much. Trinisphere hits everyone but the average cmc of a Daretti deck (2+) is higher than the average cmc of most other decks. For the same reason Chalice of the Void on X=1 hits other decks harder. Even Possibility Storm and Nullstone Gargoyle can be asymmetrical. You don’t necessarily have to cast a spell to assemble an artifacts-only combo. Daretti can play around by discarding and welding-in artifacts. And Possibility Storm can turn fast mana and stax pieces that aren't useful when you draw them into missing combo pieces.

Other stax pieces are one-sided on their own. Tangle Wire taps 12 of your opponents but only 3 (other) cards you control. Close to Time Walk, isn’t it. And God-Pharaoh’s Statue or Stranglehold affect opponents only. 

Disruption and removal
The cards meant to control the game can roughly be divided in two categories: cards that disrupt or prevent your opponents from casting spells and activating or triggering abilities on one side and cards that deal with what is coming through on the other. Nonbasic land hate, taxation and abilities that counter spells fall in the first category. Mass and spot removal and spells that counter spells belong in the second category. A card of its own kind is Possessed Portal. The card is disruptive as hell and has a devastating impact on the game. But it's more of a one-card wincon and therefore it is discussed in the corresponding section.

Anti tutor side effects
In addition to those cards listed above there are some cards that can by chance be used to control the game. Codex Shredder and Mesmeric Orb mill and therefore can be used to control what the top card of your opponent's library is when they draw. Both cards shut down sorcery-speed Imperial Seal and Codes Shredder also shuts down instant-speed top-deck tutors like Vampiric Tutor unless a card like Brainstorm is used to draw the tutored card before the mill-ability resolves. Geier Reach Sanitarium can be used against top-deck tutors too if your opponent has an empty hand after the resolution of their top-deck tutor. Burning Inquiry can also be used to mess up your opponent's hand (and maybe your own hand too) when they pass their turn after they've cast a to-hand tutor. Same is true for Wheel of Fortune. And Memory Jar can be used to prevent an opponent from winning on their turn when activated before their main phase, for example to answer your opponent's Ad Nauseam on the end-step before their turn. 

Anti-meta card choices
What cards you need to successfully pilot a stax deck strongly depends on the decks you play against. Playing stax requires you - probably more than other archetypes - to build accordingly to our meta. To a certain degree stax is anti meta magic. 

The most frequently used wincons are probably Consultation, Ad Nauseam & Underworld Breach Storm, Food Chain, DramaticScepter and Dockside Loops. You might also play against Time Twister Loops, Worldgorger/Relic-Warder, Kiki-JikiPod, DualTwin, EarthcraftNest, Sensei's Loops, Cephalid Breakfast/Hermit, Aluren, Bomberman, FreedTender, Razaketh, ThiefWheels, Najeela or Godo. 

When playing stax you need to know how your opponents engines and wincons work to interrupt them effectively. There are only a few tutors in mono red and you often need those to find the missing piece for your combo. Even though it’s often smart to use your first tutor for the most effective stax piece. Therefore you need to know if the stax pieces you have drawn are sufficient or what card will be the most effective for the current match-up if you have to tutor for one. 

Spell-based loops and Storm
The majority of the commonly used wincons include a spell-based loop. This is true for Food Chain, DramaticScepter, BreachLED, SDT or Dockside loops. From the stax player's perspective spell loops are similar to spell chains created by Storm decks. A very effective way to attack spell-based loops and Storm are tax effects like Lodestone Golem or Trinisphere. Storm turns of an Ad Nauseam often start with free mana and rituals in the cc1 slot like Dark Ritual, High Tide or Rain of Filth. Those can be attacked with Chalice of the Void on X=1. 

Ability-based loops
Many spell-based loops are also ability-based. Isochron Scepter has to be activated and Dockside's ability must trigger when entering. Same is true for mana abilities like Food Chain or Lion's Eye Diamond. A pure ability based loop is Worldgorger Dragon with Animate Dead. Birthing Pod lines into Kiki-Jiki and the good old combo of Earthcraft and Squirrel Nest are ability-based too. In addition to that infinite outlet commanders like Thrasios, Triton Hero, Yisan, the Wandering Bard, Urza, High Lord Artificer, Najeela, the Blade-Blossom and many more have activated abilities. Commanders like The First Sliver, Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger or Naru Meha, Master Wizard have triggered abilities. All activated abilities can be interrupted by Phyrexian Revoker. Even mana abilities and abilities of lands. Cursed Totem deals with creatures that have activated abilities and Torpor Orb deals with ETB triggers like Birthing Pod lines into Kiki-Jiki. Some triggered abilities are too specific. There is no answer for The First Sliver which triggers on cast. HelmGodo triggers during combat, but before that Godo’s ETB effect has to trigger and Helm to be attached. Equip is an activated ability. Or Gitrog, if you - like me - have no idea how that shit works exactly.

Non-loop wincons
Consultation is presumably the most played non-loop wincon. Thassa’s Oracle, Jace, Wielder of Mysteries and Laboratory Maniac win the game when you draw from an empty library or resolve Oracle’s trigger. Tainted Pact and Demonic Consultation get you there by exiling all cards from your library. CephalidBreakfast and Hermit Druid lines use mill instead and return Thassa’s Oracle from the graveyard. Cursed Totem stops Hermit Druid. And Torpor Orb helps against Oracle. Same is true for Geier Reach Sanitarium, even though it won't stop Jace or Labman. Pyroblast and Red Elemental Blast can hit Jace or Labman in response to the draw effect or during the upkeep before the draw step. The Blasts can also destroy Thassa’s Oracle in response to its ETB trigger if it's controller left cards in his library to avoid losing to instant draw. When you destroy Oracle before its ability resolves, its controller's devotion to blue may be lower than the number of cards left in his library. The combo fails then and there is a high chance that the player won't be able to make another winning attempt. But Thassa’s Oracle can be reanimated or returned easily. Would be a shame if someone already has a Grafdigger's Cage in play.

Lavinia Omen Pool wins via hard lock by passive abilities. Spot removal helps here. Blood Pod has Kiki-Jiki lines which can be stopped by Cursed Totem and Torpor Orb but can win by disruption and beat down too. Board wipes help here.

My personal anti meta choices
The selection of stax pieces in the list is optimized to perform well in my personal meta. I need wipes that deal three damage. I need tax against Storm decks and Food Chain. And I need Torpor Orb against ConsultationOracle. Sometimes I need combat control, but I don't face go wide strategies. Therefore I don't need Silent Arbiter or The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale. I don't face Tymna or Najeela at the moment. And I don't need graveyard hate atm.

> Grind

The idea behind the Hellbent game plan is to dig faster and deeper into your library to find what you need and discard everything you don't need. The ongoing process of drawing and discarding (or vice versa) works better when you play many permanents - most of them artifacts - and less cards that depend on the circumstances (like spells that need a target). Discarding artifacts is no substantial downside, because the deck has easy access to the graveyard with Daretti, Scrap Savant, Goblin Welder and the other recursion effects. With the graveyard being an active zone for artifacts, you generate card advantage by discard artifacts in exchange for card draw. 

This build is designed to grind. Nothing is more frustrating than finding the right stax pieces and then being out valued by your opponents. Most cEDH decks can generate a lot of value, which means card advantage. The word "draw" is written on most of the strongest Commanders like Tymna, Thrasios, Kenrith and Kraum. It's written on Daretti too, but in combination with the word "discard". Nevertheless being the Elder, Daretti is our primary way to generate card advantage. 

Card advantage and ways to generate it
Card advantage means more than just drawing cards, even though raw draw is often the easiest and strongest way of getting card advantage because most cards are active in your hand. For clarification or the concept and the terms card advantage, card disadvantage or quality advantage, I can recommend the following article written by Leo Bartolome. He defines the term as follows:

Card Advantage is the action of acquiring more active cards than your opponent. When your opponent gains card advantage, you generate Card Disadvantage.
Quality Advantage is the action of improving the quality of your active cards without changing the number of active cards relative to your opponent.

(Grave)Yard advantage
For us the magic word in the definition is "active". With the graveyards being an easy accessible zone, filling it with cards, in particular with artifacts, generates card advantage. Therefore Mesmeric Orb and Codex Shredder can produce card advantage by milling cards. Daretti and other filter effects provide not only quality advantage but also card advantage when an artifact is discarded. Similar to a Legacy Reanimator deck, you don't plan to cast the cmc-wise expensive artifacts like Nullstone Gargoyle, Sandstone Oracle or God-Pharaoh's Statue. Discarding those means sending a card that's inactive in your hand to the graveyard where it's now active.

Dumping dead cards
In general you try to avoid nonbos. But mono red stax doesn't have the luxury of avoiding all negative side effects. Cursed Totem stops mana dorks and some of the strongest commanders like Thrasios or Urza. But it also stops some of the deck's strongest creatures: Goblin Welder and Walking Ballista. Even though Daretti can get rid of stax pieces that are artifacts, drawing an Imperial Recruiter with Torpor Orb on the battlefield makes Recruiter an inactive card if you need Torpor Orb to keep your opponents in check. Unless you get another dead card you technically have generated card advantage when you discard the inactive Recruiter with Daretti to draw a new card. 

Negative and virtual card advantage
On the other hand you can generate card advantage in a negative way for example with a board wipe that destroys more "cards" from your opponents than from yourself. Removing commander creatures is a special case because those cards are active or will eventually become active in the Command Zone.

Good news is that stax pieces will often generate - some say "virtual" - card advantage. By definition it's card advantage when you deactivate more cards from your opponents with a stax piece than from yourself. You often can't see the impact of a stax piece because it prevents your opponents from casting spells they have in their hand. Sometimes the effect is quite obvious when you hit a multicolored deck without basic lands with Blood Moon because you can see their land base. From a card advantage perspective you can trade 100 for 1, which in other words is a lockdown. There will often be a Mox Diamond or something else in your opponent's deck that could help. But a 97 for 1 trade is still ridiculously good. When you look at the mana curve of cEDH decks you can see that Chalice of the Void on X=1 will shut down between 20 and 30 nonland cards from your opponents. Most competitive Daretti lists have between 10 and 15 cards in the cc1 slot, but Daretti can turn those inactive cards into active ones. 

Protect Daretti, protect your card advantage
Those observations show clearly how important it is to have Daretti, Scrap Savant or Goblin Welder on the battlefield. The virtual card advantage vanishes when you lose access to the graveyard. Protecting Daretti means preserving your virtual card advantage. 

The biggest threat for Daretti are creatures, often commander creatures. People are often not willing to spend a counterspell of spot removal to get rid of Daretti. This might be different when you are close to the Emblem. Mass removal like Anger of the Gods and Rolling Earthquake deal with smaller creatures. Ensnaring Bridge deals with big boys like The Gitrog Monster, Kraum, Ludevic's Opus or Kenrith, the Returned King. 

> Win

There are different ways to win the game. Most combos are rather engines that once assembled will find the card(s) to actually finish the game with. A combo that lets you draw your deck will lead more often to victory than a combo that just produces infinite mana. With all cards in hand you get access to countermagic and one or more backup plans. A common pattern for a winning line of three steps would be to assemble a combo that lets you draw your library, which allows you to assemble a second combo, that generates enough mana to play a spell that burns all your opponent's life. 

Some stax pieces are meant to stop combos. Therefore it's important to be aware of what stax pieces you need against your opponents decks and which of your own combos can be executed with those pieces in play. 

Another way to win the game is to lock down all your opponents indefinitely. This is a different form of combo. Instead of maximizing your chance of winning the game, a lockdown minimizes your opponents chances of winning. Technically you don't win on the spot, but over the course of the game you will. If you aim for a lockdown, beatdown is a viable wincon. For example turning Mycosynth Lattice into a creature with Karn, the Great Creator.

> Combos 

This subsection lists the main combos and gives a short description of how to execute them. 

Sensei's Loops (draw deck) 

• Sensei's Divining Top 
• Mystic Forge
• Semblance Anvil

With all three pieces in play you can tap Sensei's Divining Top to draw a card and put it on top of your library. Mystic Forge or Experimental Frenzy (currently not in the list) let you cast Sensei's Divining Top from there for free because of the cost reduction by Semblance Anvil. You can now draw all cards from your library. 

Metal Domination (infinite mana, life & draw deck) 

• Staff of Domination 
• Metalworker
• Three or more artifacts in hand 

Metalworker can produce large amounts of colorless mana. Staff of Domination can untap a creature and itself for 4 generic mana. With three (or more) artifacts in hand Metalworker taps for 6 (or more) mana. You are now infinite and can use the mana to draw your library or gain life. The lifegain isn't very useful unless you have to use Rolling Earthquake to finish the game.

 
Wheel Loops ("draw" deck) 

• Underworld Breach
• Lion's Eye Diamond
• Wheel of Fortune

With Underworld Breach on the battlefield and the LED plus Wheel in your hand and/or graveyard you can start to cast Wheel over and over again to fill your graveyard with the cards you need to finish the game. Wheel lets you discard the six cards you need to escape LED and Wheel plus an additional one card that fills the graveyard. LED produces three red mana which pay for Wheel's mana cost. A typical winning line would be resolving Breach midgame or late game with a decent amount of cards on your graveyard. Depending on the amount of cards in your graveyard and library you should be able to resolve at least one spell like Scrap Mastery to return an artifact only wincon like Basalt, Rings, Key and Codex Shredder to the battlefield.

Technically Wheel of Fortune can also be looped with Lotus Petal and the cost reduction of Semblance Anvil if you can imprint a sorcery card.

Mesmeric Monolith ("draw" deck) 

• Mesmeric Orb
• Basalt Monolith
• Recursion

Basalt Monolith can be tapped for three colorless mana and be untapped for three generic mana. With Mesmeric Orb triggering during that process you can mill any number of cards for free. You can do this until you find what you need and weld it in. Mill all cards from your library can be very powerful with Underworld Breach or Scrap Mastery. Both can be returned with Codex Shredder. A winning line could be to mill yourself, weld in Shredder, sac it to return Breach, cast Breach, get free rocks like Mana Crypt and Lotus Petal, then mana positive rocks like Sol Ring and Mana Vault, Dockside (and Treasonous Ogre if necessary), then Rings of Brighthearth to go infinite, cast Ballista and burn face. Free mill can also be used for top deck manipulation which is useful with Mystic Forge or Experimental Frenzy. 

Basalt Rings (infinite mana, draw deck) 

• Rings of Brighthearth 
• Basalt Monolith 
• Two generic mana

with either

• Sensei's Divining Top

or

• Codex Shredder
• Mind Stone / Memory Jar / ...

or

• Mystic Forge
• Voltaic Key

This is actually another way to loop Sensei's Divining Top (or other cards that let you draw), but the combo of Rings and Basalt also generates infinite mana. Unlike the combo with Metalworker and Staff it is not affected by summoning sickness. This is very important if you want to win during your combo turn. Let's start with Rings and Basalt before we get to the Sensei's loop and other possible loops.

With Basalt Monolith and Rings of Brighthearth cards in play and two mana to start the process you can generate infinite colorless mana. The idea is to copy the activated ability to untap Basalt Monolith, which costs three generic mana, with Rings of Brighthearth for only two generic mana. Being untapped twice for a total of five mana, Basalt Monolith can produce six colorless mana. But you need to invest some mana before you net mana. With Basalt Monolith untapped you can tap it to produce three colorless. You can use that mana to activate the untap ability of Basalt. You now need to invest two mana from other sources to pay for Rings triggered ability to copy the untap ability of Basalt while it's on the stack. After the resolution of the first untap ability (the copied one) but before resolution of the second (the original one) you must tap Basalt for three colorless. After the resolution of the second untap ability you are back to the starting point, but with additional three colorless mana in your mana pool. You can use that mana to pay for Ring's triggered ability during the next cycle.

Infinite mana allows you to use Sensei's Divining Top and Rings of Brighthearth to draw your deck. Activate and copy the draw ability of Sensei's. The original Sensei's ability will resolve even though Sensei's can't be put on top (because the copy which resolved first already put it there). 

Instead of Sensei's Divining Top you can also loop Codex Shredder and cards that either draw, filter or tutor. With Rings you can copy the recursion ability of Codex Shredder. You can target Codex Shredder with the copy because it is a legal target at this time. With the original ability you can return one of the following cards to start a loop: Mind Stone, Memory Jar, Soul-Guide Lantern (currently not in the list), Gamble, Faithless Looting, Tormenting Voice, Thrill of Possibility, Chaos Warp and Wheel of Fortune. Red mana can be produced by looping Shredder and Lotus Petal or Lion's Eye Diamond. A shout-out to MrPonzi with whom together I realized that this draw-deck combo lines exist besides the Sensei's loop.

Sensei's can also be replaced with Voltaic Key and Mystic Forge. Cast cards from the top until you hit a card that can't be cast. Exile it with Forge and use Rings and Key to untap Forge. Due to the fact that the activated ability of Forge costs life you shouldn't exile cards that can be cast from the top of your library. Watch out for a different card like Staff of Domination to continue with if you are on low life.

Voltaic Orrery (infinite mana, draw deck) 

• Chromatic Orrery
• Voltaic Key
• Rings of Brighthearth

Tap Chromatic Orrery for five mana, untap it with Voltaic Key for one mana, copy the ability with Rings of Brighthearth for two mana targeting Key itself. This nets you 2 colorless mana (which can be spent as if they were red mana if necessary). Use the mana produced to draw a card with Chromatic Orrery. Then use Key and Rings to untap Orrery and draw your deck.

> Finisher 

The combos in the subsection above need one of the following cards or combinations of cards to win the game. 

Burn

• Walking Ballista
• Rolling Earthquake
• infinite mana 

This is self-explanatory. 

Mill

• Codex Shredder 
• Voltaic Key
• Rings of Brighthearth 
• infinite mana

Tap Codex Shredder to kill your opponent. Then activate Voltaic Key targeting Codex Shredder. Use Rings of Brighthearth to copy the untap effect and choose Voltaic Key as new target. Let the both untap effects resolve and do it again until all opponents are milled out. If you haven't milled out yourself and there are seven or more cards in your library and if you have access to Wheel of Fortune, cast it and win on the spot. Otherwise pass the turn and win unless someone can do something at instant speed during their upkeep. Angel's Grace will save an opponent for one turn. This can be critical if you milled yourself too.

• Staff of Domination 
• Mesmeric Orb 
• infinite mana 
• each opponent controls a creature 

With Staff and infinite mana you can tap and untap a creature your opponent controls. Mesmeric Orb will trigger when the creature (and when Staff) gets untapped. This mills everyone including yourself. Pass the turn and win the game.

> Lockdown

This subsection explains who you can lock down your opponents indefinitely.

The Portal Grind

• Possessed Portal 
• Daretti, Scrap Savant Emblem 

Possessed Portal is an insane card. No card draw and it triggers at the beginning of each end step, not only your own end step. Breaking parity on Possessed Portal is really hard. But  actually you don't have to in the first place. All we want is to delay the game with Daretti on the battlefield to get the Emblem, because it's able break parity on Possessed Portal. 

Before you start the Portal Grind you have to do some math. You need to count everyone's cards in hand and their permanents on the battlefield. If someone else is far ahead, for example because he resolved a Dockside Extortionist and created a huge amount of Treasure tokens, this player will profit the most because you will have to sacrifice Possessed Portal to its own trigger before that player runs out of cards. 
Take in account cards like Squee, Drownyard Temple or Crucible of Worlds, which reduce the number of cards you lose during the Portal Grind. 

For a successful Portal Grind you should be able to protect Daretti. Since the cards in your opponents are hidden, you should count the damage done by the creatures on the battlefield and by Commanders, which could enter the battlefield and attack before your opponents run out of resources. 

If you play it right, Daretti, Scrap Savant is the only card left on the battlefield and nobody has cards in their hands when you sacrifice Possessed Portal for its own trigger. During the next turns you should be able to get the emblem without losing Daretti and draw an artifact to weld Possessed Portal in. At the beginning of your end step, Emblem and Portal will trigger. You can stack the trigger so that the emblem will bring back the artifact first. You can sac the returned artifact for Possessed Portal. In the end step before your turn, you can sacrifice Possessed Portal to its own trigger. This allows you to draw a card in your draw step and use Daretti to dig. The Emblem will return Possessed Portal at the beginning of your end step denying your opponents to draw. 

The Portal Grind can be perform in other ways. With Goblin Welder you can sacrifice Possessed Portal eot before your turn so you can draw. You can weld Portal back in during your turn to deny your opponents their draws. This needs two activations of Welder over a turncycle. Therefore you can't perform it only every second turncycle (you could turn Welder into an artifact with Lattice and untap it with Voltaic or something else, but that's convoluted). With enough loyalty counter on Daretti you can substitute the second weld-in. A sac outlet like Krark-Clan Ironworks can substitute a weld-in too if you constantly draw and cast artifacts. A draw engine like Anje's Ravager can break parity on Portal without the Emblem if you manage to sac Portal eot before your turn and get it back online after Anje's Ravager attacked.

Karn Lattice (currently not played)

• Mycosynth Lattice
• Karn, the Great Creator 

You presumably have heard about this one. It recently got banned in Modern. Mycosynth Lattice turns all permanents into artifacts and Karn, the Great Creator acts as a one-sided Null Rod preventing your opponents from activating activated abilities of artifacts including mana abilities. On top of that Karn, the Great Creator can turn Mycosynth Lattice into a 6/6 creature that can block for Karn or attack for the win. 

Mycosynth Lattice is also great with Vandalblast and Gorilla Shaman. Since both cards and Karn, the Great Creator attack artifacts, the Mycosynth lockdown is in general better in a meta with many non green decks that rely on artifact ramp. 

> Notably strong synergies

There are card interactions that I don't always end up being a game winning combo. But those strong synergies can be very useful to advance the game plan by creating a reasonable advantage. 

Possibility Sphere

• Possibility Storm
• Trinisphere / God-Pharaoh's Gift / ...

Tax effects will affect each spell that is cast. This means both spells will cost more, the first one exiled with Possibility Storm and the other one that is revealed and can be cast without paying its mana cost. This really locks down the game.

Shredder Mastery

• Codex Shredder
• Scrap Mastery

Both cards can return the other one from your graveyard. This can generate lots of value if sequenced over two turns or create an infinite loop if you can generate ten mana including two red mana from artifact sources including artifact lands. Half of that mana can be produced with Chromatic Orrery. Krark-Clan Ironworks (currently not in the list) is great in this set-up too. But if you can produce more than ten mana you can use the infinite mana to draw of Mind Stone or Chromatic Orrery or mill yourself with Mesmeric Orb to find everything you need or just stop the loop and use Codex Shredder to return Walking Ballista or Rolling Earthquake to your hand to finish the game. In the end there are too many pieces that need to be assembled. But you should keep this line in mind, especially with new Chromatic Orrery.

Underworld Gamble

• Gamble
• Underworld Breach

Underworld Breach let's you escape gamble from your graveyard over and over again. Doing this two or three times can be very powerful. But the combination of cards can also lead to the perfect storm with enough fuel in your graveyard. Cards to start TPS with can be Dockside Extortionist (Abrade could kill Dockside so you can escape it again) or Treasonous Ogre for mana. Next step could be Basalt Monolith and Mesmeric Orb to mill yourself and win the game. If you start with Gamble to search for Underworld Breach the whole thing becomes a one-card combo. The perfect setup for TPS would be 18 cards to exile for escape (a minimum of 9 cards is necessary if you do not discard a single one of the cards you Gamble for). And you need 2RRRR to cast Dockside Extortionist or additional two generic to cast Treasonous Ogre.

> Single cards

This section is for explanation on single cards.

> Currently testing

The following cards are in the list for testing purposes:

• Nullstone Gargoyle (good results so far) 
• Possibility Storm 
• Mesmeric Orb
• Sandstone Oracle 
• Burning Inquiry
• Dire Fleet Daredevil
• Semblance Anvil 
• Chromatic Orrery

The next cards in line for testing are:

• Fork / Reverberate (more interaction)
• Surly Badgersaur (high cmc, no artifact, but value from discard, can trigger more than once)
• Slagstorm (trying more wipes) 
• Devastating Dreams (more wipes, very risky but interesting, hits lands and dorks) 

> Y u play? 

This section is for explanations on single cards that are currently in the list. Cards with similar effects are grouped.

Blood Moon / Magus of the Moon
Blood Moon wins games since 1994. Staple in many formats. Incredibly powerful. And we can play a second copy of the effect with Magus. There are people who scoop if a Moon effect resolves. If there is a chance to play a Moon effect on turn one or two when the counter shields are down, go for it. 

Chalice of the Void
Stops so many powerful spells the other four colors have access to. Very powerful turn one play for X=1. If drawn later you it depends on what combo you expect from your opponents. Even X=0 can be useful if you expect a combo that includes cc0 spells like Lion's Eye Diamond. In response to a main phase Ad Nauseam you could weld in Chalice from the graveyard in response to counter cc0 rocks. 

Cursed Totem
Powerful stax piece and combo breaker. Turns off all those mana dorks and commanders with activated abilities. 

Ensnaring Bridge
Protects Daretti and synergizes well with the overall Hellbent game plan. The card wasn't part of the deck for a while, but due to a meta shift it has made its comeback.

God-Pharaoh's Statue / Lodestone Golem / Sphere of Resistance / Trinisphere
Tax effects are very strong. They slow down the game and stop combos that include spell loops. Depending on your meta it's smart to play even more tax effects. Thorn of Amethyst or Damping Sphere are your best options.

Grafdigger's Cage
A meta dependent card. Stops many combos and like Breach, Hermit, Reanimator. It also stops Commanders like Kess or Yisan and into-play tutors like Eldritch Evolution or Neoform.

Nullstone Gargoyle
This card is currently being tested. The first impressions have been very promising. A symmetrical effect that hits the first noncreature spell cast each turn. Instants can be played around which will maybe become a loophole other decks can make better use of. The flying 4/5 body protects Daretti well though. 

Phyrexian Revoker
Single target stax effect. Unlike Pithing Needle and Sorcerer's Spyglass Revoker stops mana abilities which makes it very useful against combos including Food Chain, Selvala or Lion's Eye Diamond. Revoker can be found with Imperial Recruiter and it kills Tymna in combat.

Possessed Portal
Insane card. Can win games on its own. More about this in section_win, subsection_lockdown.

Possibility Storm
This card is currently being tested. Crazy effect that fundamentally changes the way the game is played. We can play around by discarding Wen welding artifacts in. And we can use the effect to dig into our library. It won't affect spells that are cast from other zones than the hand. So spells can be cast from the graveyard or the command zone. So Daretti can be cast safely and spells can be cast of Breach, when PS turns another Enchantment into Underworld Breach.

Stranglehold
Stops tutors, fetchlands and commanders like Yisan. Many cEDH decks run 10 fetchlands and 10+ tutor effects. It won't affect tutors like Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact or Lim-Dul's Vault. And it stops extra turns. 

Tangle Wire
Asymmetrical stax piece that kills the tempo. Tangle Wire taps 10 permanents of each opponent over four turns, but only 3 other permanents you control. Why? Because you can stack Tangle Wire's triggers so that you remove a counter first before you tap. When cast on T3 or T4 after Daretti has resolved, you often get two turns in which your opponents won't be able to make relevant plays. Those turns (T4 - T6) would otherwise have been turns in which at least one opponent were able to attempt to win. Digging with Daretti while Tangle Wire kills the tempo allows you to find the stax piece you need.

Torpor Orb
Meta dependant stax piece. Stops Thassa’s Oracle, Dockside loops, Kiki-Jiki lines or Worldgorger Dragon. Also stops Godo or Yisan and Urza won't create a Construct Token.

Anger of the Gods / Rolling Earthquake
Kills dorks and hatebears, especially Collector's Ouphe. Rolling Earthquake functions as a backup wincon for Walking Ballista. You will often have the most life because Daretti absorbs damage and the mono red player is never on AdNaus. If you don't have the most life, Staff of Domination offers lifegain.

Blast Zone / Barbarian Ring
Mass and spot removal on mana producing lands is slot efficient. Both effects allow you to get rid of Ouphe. Zone can also destroys Null Rod, Rest in Peace or Drannith Magistrate.

Abrade / Chaos Warp
There is no Abrupt Decay and no Assassin's Trophy for mono red, but both cards allow us to get rid of many threats. Chaos Warp hits everything including enchantments and basic lands.

Deflecting Swat
Sweet card. Acts most of the time as a pseudo counterspell. You either can redirect the target of a removal to another target or you change the target of a counterspell to Swat. It also affects abilities. It's possible to redirect the activated ability of Aetherflux Reservoir to kill its controller.

Pyroblast / Red Elemental Blast
Both cards are cEDH Staples and mono red has access to them. Can be used to get rid of Rhystic Study, Mystic Remora or other blue permanents. But most of the time a Blast will be a defensive counterspell.

Walking Ballista
Our primary way to win the game with infinite mana. But Ballista is also a mana sink, spot removal and a blocker. Don't wait to cast Ballista until you have produced infinite mana. Ballista can not be welded in. But there are enough ways to return it from your graveyard to your hand.

Alhammarret's Archive
An artifact that doubles draw is too good to not play it, imo. This list contains many looting effects and a bunch of huge draw effects.

Anje's Ravager
Raw draw power on a stick. Empty your hand early game, grind with Ravager mid game. Can be cast with Madness for only cc2 when being discarded.

Mystic Forge
The closest thing to future sight we have access to and a combo piece. No drawback like Experimental Frenzy and an artifact. It lets you cast and play less cards than Frenzy but it's exile ability can be used more than once with untap effects. Use shuffle effects from fetchlands when you can't cast the top card.

Memory Jar
The card was banned from tournament play before it had seen play in tournaments. That was in 1999 but the card is still broken. With enough recursion you can rush through your deck to find what you need.

Mesmeric Orb
The card is currently being tested. A combo piece that mills huge amounts of cards which generates virtual card advantage. Can accidentally mill your opponent's combo pieces and stops top-deck tutors like Imperial.

Sandstone Oracle
This card is currently being tested. I have been running this Sandstone Oracle in a casual version of Daretti. It synergizes well with the Hellbent game plan and often draws up to seven cards. But even if it draws less than seven cards it's maybe worth the slot. The flying 4/4 body can block many threats like Kess or Kraum or an Aven Mindcensor. 

Wheel of Fortune
Red Staple. Refills your hand and forces your opponents to discard what they already have tutored for with Demonic Tutor or with a top-deck tutors like Imperial Seal (make sure to cast Wheel after they have drawn the card they used the top-deck tutor for). Watch out for those situations in which you can make dual use of a wheel effect. Even a T1 Wheel can mess up with your opponents starting hands. If you see a chance for a T1 Wheel of Fortune observe your opponents' reactions to their cards closely. If the majority of them seem to be fine with their hand and no one mulligans down to very few cards, go for it.

Bazaar of Baghdad
Disadvantageous card filter on a land that doesn't produce mana. Few Daretti decks play the card because you will eventually run out of cards after two or three activations. But that doesn't necessarily mean you should stop activating the ability. Every artifact that goes to the graveyard is virtual card advantage. In combination with wheel effects, constant draw from Anje's Ravager or Alhammaret's Archive things can escalate pretty quickly. In addition to that good old Squee, Goblin Nabob can compensate for the third card being discarded.

Faithless Looting / Thrill of Possibility / Tormenting Voice
Card filter or looting effects can smoothen your draws and plays. You can discard cmc-wise expensive artifacts or excessive lands. I like those cards a lot and they are important if you run a decent amount of weld-in only artifacts like Nullstone Gargoyle or God-Pharaoh's Statue.

Sensei's Divining Top
Card filter and combo piece. Staple. Because of cards like this the list has fetchlands in it.

Expedition Map
Finds utility lands or a land to be dropped on T3 which can be tapped for two mana, most likely Ancient Tomb. Map is currently a card that I consider to cut.

Gamble
One of the few tutors mono red has access to. It's either a Demonic Tutor for cc1 or red's version of Entomb. Gamble can be used in each game stage. T1 to find Mana Crypt. Later in the early game to find the perfect stax piece. Mid game for Alhammaret's Archive, Memory Jar, Possessed Portal or a missing combo piece. Make sure that you cast Gamble before you activate Daretti. Gamble can be a one-card wincon if you search for Underworld Breach and perform the perfect storm.

Goblin Engineer
Entomb and mini Goblin Welder combined in one card. The tutor effect is very valuable for the deck that leaks tutors. The restriction of the activated ability makes the card fair, but there are enough powerful artifacts to be welded-in that costs 3 or less mana. Being unable to get those cmc-wise expensive cards Engineer is perfect for either stax or combo pieces.

Imperial Recruiter
Tutor for Walking Ballista is what most people think first. But going straight for Ballista is often not the safest attempt to win a game. It's often better to use a draw-deck combo. Therefore Recruiter should also be considered as a tutor for another tutor. Goblin Engineer or Dire Fleet Daredevil (with an unconditional tutor) are useful targets if there is enough time. The most interesting stax pieces to tutor for are Magus of the Moon and Phyrexian Revoker. Engineer will find stax pieces too.

Inventors' Fair
A tutor effect on a land has to be overpriced. But those five mana doesn't matter because Fair will find almost everything that you want. And even the life gain can be relevant if you have to use Rolling Earthquake as a finisher.

Buried Ruin
Recursion on a land saves slots. Buried Ruin is a very valuable card that your opponent will often miss.

Codex Shredder
Combo piece, unconditional recursion and mill for a little bit of extra value or to counter top-deck tutors. Activate Shredder EOT before your turn if possible to be able to react to Mystical Tutor or Vampiric Tutor. Even if those are cast during your opponent's upkeep before their draw step you will be able to mill the card they searched for because you will receive priority after the tutor has resolved.

Goblin Welder
Signature card of the deck. Amazing T1 play if followed by a looting effect on T2. Welder is of incredible value throughout the whole game. Welder can be activated at instant speed. This can be used to interact, especially interrupt a combo. Welder can generate mana early on by welding artifacts that don't untap out and back in. The card generates card advantage with Memory Jar or Sandstone Oracle. And Welder can return destroyed stax or combo pieces or just reanimate a cmc-wise expensive card.

Scrap Mastery
What looks like a casual EDH allstar can often win games because you get all of your combo pieces into play at once. Can be looped with Codex Shredder.

Trash for Treasure
An additional weld-in effect can be very useful with many cmc-wise expensive artifacts.

Underworld Breach
What an incredible card. Who would guess that red would get a pseudo Yawgmoth's Will. But it's probably a necessary printing because red seems to get all the good cards for Storm and graveyard-centric spellslinger strategies. This card is just ridiculously powerful for graveyard recursion even for mono red. The combo with Lion's Eye Diamond and Wheel of Fortune is probably not the best we got. It's getting disrupted by many of our own stax pieces. But all cards are useful on their own and the combo only need us to cast Underworld Breach from our hand. The other two cards can then be cast from the graveyard. Underworld Breach can also be used for endless value. Gamble will find what you need and it can be cast whether you keep the card or discard it. Recast Blood Moon. Mess up everyone's hand with Burning Inquiry which can be cast three times in a row. Or just to cast Abrade again because your opponents are playing the stax game too with Collector's Ouphe and Phyrexian Revoker.

Burning Inquiry
Randomness or chaos is not for everyone. The card is more of a discard control tool than a looting effect. The idea is to play it after your opponents have played their lands and after they have developed their board. After they have started to develop their hand with tutors it's time to play Burning Inquiry. With many cards and most wincons being artifacts the random discard should hit your opponents harder. Or it doesn't. Who knows. One red mana might be worth the gamble.

Dire Fleet Daredevil
The card is currently being tested (Fork/Reverberate would be the alternative). Would you play Imperial Seal for 2R? Probably not when newly reprintes Grim Tutor could put the card in your hand for the same cmc. Would you pay 3R for a Demonic Tutor which is the same as playing Diabolic Tutor? The answer is no unless you are playing a mono red deck. But Dire Fleet Daredevil can be removal or a wheel or whatever your opponent already played. In addition to that Daredevil is a decent defender and blocks TymnaDorks all day long.

Geier Reach Sanitarium
This card is anti ConsultationOracle. Force your opponent to draw a card from their empty library before the triggered ability of Thassa’s Oracle resolves.

Rings of Brighthearth
Combopiece and value engine. Copies many abilities including the loyalty abilities of Daretti.

Semblance Anvil
The cards currently being tested in the slot of Cloud Key. Combopiece and symmetry breaker for tax effects. Unlike Cloud Key or other cost reduction for one mana, Anvil works around our own or an opponent's Sphere of Resistance or Thorn of Amethyst (currently not in the list).

Staff of Domination
Combopiece, utility card and mana sink. Taps attackers like Kenrith or Kraum, untaps Goblin Welder or Metalworker and draws a card.

Voltaic Key
Combo piece and pseudo ramp. Nets mana when you untap artifacts that tap for two or more mana. Can untap Great Furnace or Moxen to filter colorless into red mana.

Ancient Tomb
No pain, no gain. Staple. Play it. 'Nuff said.

Chrome Mox / Gemstone Caverns / Mox Diamond
Fast mana with drawback. Almost always worth the card disadvantage. There are currently 28 red cards in the deck of which I wouldn't exile six (Wheel, Magus, Moon, Gamble, Engineer, Welder). The other 22 cards sum up to a chance of 87+% to have a red card in your first main phase (starting hand plus draw). I'm fine with that chance.

City of Traitors / Sandstone Needle / Crystal Vein
Lands that tap for two are useful to ramp out stax pieces like Blood Moon and Daretti as early as possible.

Jeweled Amulet / Mox Opal
Conditional fast mana. Amulet is a mana battery that needs to be charged first. It can produce the third mana on T2 which can pay for Blood Moon.

Fellwar Stone / Mind Stone
This is fair Magic. Cc2 rocks that tap for one mana. Rock solid.

Mana Vault / Grim Monolith
Fast mana on artifacts which can be welded out because they won't untap unless you pay 4 mana. Nice for shenanigans with Goblin Welder if you can one of those (or Basalt Monolith) out for the other.

Lion's Eye Diamond
Combo piece and ritual. It's very risky to discard your hand because a counterspell will trade 2 for 1 or better if you discard many cards with LED. Can pay for Daretti when the command tax gets too high. LED can be used with Rings/Basalt/Shredder to filter infinite colorless into infinite red mana.

Lotus Petal / Simian Spirit Guide
Mini rituals for fast mana. Useful in the early and mid game. Should be discarded later on. Lotus Petal counts for Mox Opal and can be fodder for weld-in effects later on. Petal can be used with Rings/Basalt/Shredder to filter infinite colorless into infinite red mana.

Mishra's Workshop
Vintage powerhouse. Allows ridiculous T1 plays like Trinisphere but is sometimes a dead card. It won't pay for Daretti unless you can filter Workshops mana with Basalt Monolith or other cards.

Mana Crypt / Sol Ring
Ridiculous cards that wouldn't be legal if we weren't playing a format with a banned list that addresses casual gameplay (except for Flash, thanks a lot Rules Committee for banning the card).

Basalt Monolith
Combopiece and a mana battery which boosts you next turn. But Basalt is also mana neutral which allows you to cast it, tap it and use its mana for Daretti and then sac it to weld-in something else with Daretti.

Chromatic Orrery
Again a mana producing combo piece. Orrery can be a huge boost when welded in early, for example with Goblin Welder or Trash for Treasure. It can tap for five which allows you to cast Daretti right away. And you still have one mana left. But you can also cast cards from the mana Orrery produces that would have been otherwise weld-in only cards. This means you either get a pseudo counter shield because you can weld in the card if it gets countered or you generate tempo advantage because you can use the weld-in effect on another card if the spell resolves. In the mid or later stages of the game it can draw a card.

Metalworker
The third mana producing combo piece. This can easily produce 6 to 10 mana on T2 (if cast with Workshop on T1) or T3. Make sure you hold on artifact lands if possible. Won't produce much mana by the end of mid game or later because you won't have many hand cards unless a wheel effect resolved.

Dockside Extortionist / Treasonous Ogre
Both cards are rituals that allow explosive (combo) turns. Dockside also creates Treasure tokens which can be used later or to weld-in an artifact or with Possessed Portal. Treasonous Ogre is not as good in a Daretti deck as it is in a Godo deck. But it's still a 13-for-4 ritual and it's red mana.

Darksteel Citadel / Great Furnace
Artifact lands are useful with Mox Opal or with Metalworker. And they can be used to weld-in an artifact. Make sure you tap them for mana before you sacrifice them. But artifact lands can also be welded in for a Monolith or Mana Vault if you don't plan to untap those during the next turns.

Arid Mesa / Bloodstained Mire / Prismatic Vista / Scalding Tarn / Wooded Foothills
Shuffle effects can be useful with Mystic Forge or Experimental Frenzy. Their activated ability can be copied with Rings of Brighthearth for little advantage in the mid or later stages of a game. And they synergise well with Crucible of Worlds (currently not in the list) because they will go back to the graveyard from where you played them which ensures the land drop each turn.

> Y u no play?

This section is to explain why certain cards, combos and interactions that are currently not in the list.

Mycosynth Lattice / Karn, the Great Creator
Karn, the Great Creator is presumably the best planeswalker to be included in the 99 cards of the deck. The most interesting passive ability is a one-sided Null Rod that cuts all your opponents off their artifacts. This includes ramp (yes, mana abilities are affected) and combo pieces like Lion's Eye Diamond or Isochron Scepter. This creates a lockdown with Mycosynth Lattice which turns all permanents into artifacts. Both activated abilities are useful. But it's hard to protect Karn without Lattice on the field and even with an animated Lattice that can block there are attackers with evasion or high P/T like Gitrog or Kenrith that can't be stopped. Karn is also not an artifact which means it's hard to get the card back once it's in the graveyard. Another reason why the lockdown combo is currently not on the list is that Karn (and the cards discussed in the next paragraph, those are also nonartifacts) are strong in a meta with much artifact-based ramp. That's currently not the case for me my meta.

Vandalblast / Gorilla Shaman / Shenanigans
Meta-dependent artifact hate that becomes even better with Mycosynth Lattice, especially Mox Monkey and Vandalblast.

Winter Orb / Static Orb
...

Damping Sphere / Thorn of Amethyst
Meta-dependent tax effects. Damping Sphere limits many if the two mana producing lands and Workshop. Therefore I don't play the card atm. I'm on the fence with Thorn of Amethyst. The card's effect is a good one but not one of the best among tax effects. It doesn't hit Food Chain or Dockside Loops (doesn't hit BarrinLoops and taxes DrakkisLoops for only one mana). And it stops our own spell-based loops like SDT or Breach. And most of the time Thorn will tax only our own Commander because they play creatures. I wouldn't play it unless there are a lot of non-loop storm decks around (AdNaus or Necropotence).

The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
Tax for creature-heavy metas. Hard to get rid of. Nullifies mana dorks and slows down TymnaDorks archetypes and go-wide strategies like Tana in Blood Pod or Najeela.

Silent Arbiter
Meta-dependent control and protection for Daretti. See above (The Tabernacle). Doesn't nullify dorks but stops Kiki-Jiki lines.

Trading Post / Kher Keep
I'm not a fan of Trading Post. The card has many abilities but I find none of them good enough to play the card. Life gain doesn't matter. The 0/1 token can block or be sacced to Possessed Portal, but it will never trade with the attacking creature. Same is true for Kher Keep. Sacrificing an artifact to draw a card or a creature to return an artifact can be useful but those abilities aren't worth the investment of four mana plus the activation cost.

Crucible of Worlds / Squee, Goblin Nabob
Both cards function as a pseudo Phyrexian Arena with discard effects. While Squee is free and often useless without a discard effect, Crucible costs three mana (like Phyrexian Arena) and secures your land drops, especially in combination with a fetchland, but that's not as important in cEDH as it is in casual. And the trick doesn't work with a Moon effect on the battlefield. Three mana for almost no impact is much. There are a bunch of useful utility lands that can be played again. But in the end both cards, Crucible and Squee, are too slow in comparison to cards like Anje's Ravager which technically also costs three mana (most of the time it is cast for its Madness cost).

Experimental Frenzy
Basically a second but worse copy of Mystic Forge. Very powerful effect when your curve is low to the ground and/or you play a lot of cost reduction. This build currently contains too many cmc-wise expensive cards to make good use of Experimental Frenzy.

Ugin, the Ineffable / Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
Both Ugin planeswalker are cmc-wise very expensive spells. Little Ugin is a combo piece due to the cost reduction and a value engine. Big Ugin is a one-sided wipe and a value engine too. Both aren't artifacts though which makes both cards quite bad in this build.

Krark-Clan Ironworks / Scrap Trawler / Myr Retriever
...

Engineered Explosives / Ratchet Bomb
Limited board wipes that hit only cards with a specific converter mana cost. Engineered Explosives can be used at cc0, 1 or 2. Three different colors are difficult to produce. Ratchet Bomb is quite slow in comparison to EE. Both hit Moxen, tokens or mana dorks most of the time. I don't like that they affect my own board.

Command Beacon
Often not necessary. A red mana from a basic Mountain is often more useful early game than casting Daretti without the command tax later. When the tax becomes too high the reason is often that you can't protect Daretti. Losing a land for only one activation can sometimes be worth losing a land. I prefer to have another Mountain in my list that produces red mana.

Fork / Reverberate
Very promising cards. I'm looking forward to test those. Like Dire Fleet Daredevil those can be anything your opponents cast that and instant or sorcery. Ofte a counterspell, but also a tutor or Ad Nauseam or something else. Dire Fleet Daredevil has the upside that you don't have to target the spell while it is on the stack and the downside of being a telegraphed counterspell.

Reality Scramble
Reality Scramble is an into-play for a specific permanent type. With Daretti being a planeswalker you can Scramble it away to find big Ugin for value, little Ugin which can be a combo piece with Sensei's Divining Top and Mystic Forge or Karn TGC for stax and lockdown with Mycosynth Lattice. Also works well with Enchantments because you can find Underworld Breach or Blood Moon. But currently Karn and Lattice aren't in the deck and there are too many enchantments so you can't rely on that line.

Salvaging Station / Flayer Husk
Salvaging Station is a value engine that demands a lot of devotion in terms of slots. Even the better cards Mishra's Bauble, Urza's Bauble and other cc0-1 artifacts stand alone are not good enough.

[[Grinding Station]]
...

Oblivion Stone / Nevinyrral's Disk / Darksteel Forge
O-Stone is quite expensive and Disk is quite slow. Darksteel Forge has almost no impact in cEDH because it doesn't help against exile, bounce or counterspells and there are only a handful of artifact creatures that will profit because they don't have the stats to survive combat on their own.

Ruination / Wildfire / Jokulhaups
Mass landdestruction is not a viable strategy in cEDH, imo. MLD is slow because you want to hit opponents when they played their last land which is often the third or better the fourth landdrop. The cmc-wise most interesting card is Ruination which ignores mana dorks. Wildfire is pretty expensive, but it doesn't affect our artifacts. Jokulhaups doesn't leave anything relevant behind except for Carpet of Flowers, which will be inactive for a while, and Smothering Tithe. Another issue is that the Emblem itself won't win you the game.

Pithing Needle / Sorcerer's Spyglass
Precise but meta-dependent tools. When you face Commander like Thrasios, Urza or Yisan and/or Isochron Scepter and Kiki-Jiki. Unlike Phyrexian Revoker both cards can't stop mana abilities.

[[Aether Flash]]
Meta-dependent hate piece against creatures. Four mana of which two are red is quite expensive so mana dorks and a T2 Tymna won't be affected.

[[Cloud Key]] / [[Foundry Inspector]]
Combo pieces with Sensei's Divining Top and Mystic Forge (or Experimental Frenzy). Currently testing Semblance Anvil which enables the combo if a tax effect like Sphere of Resistance is in the battlefield.

[[Ghirapur Aether Grid]]
Hate piece for a creature-heavyweight meta which can also be a combo piece with infinite mana and both Monoliths or Rings/Key.

[[Soul-Guide Lantern]] / [[Tormod's Crypt]]
Meta-dependent cards that exile cards from graveyards. Lantern can replace itself and be a combo piece with Codex Shredder and Basalt/Rings.

[[By Force]] / [[Shenanigans]] / [[Shattering Spree]]
Meta-dependent artifact removal. Useful with Mycosynth Lattice.

[[Thran Dynamo]] / [[Gilded Lotus]]
Big mana. Casual staples that are too slow for cEDH, imo.

[[Goblin Matrone]]
A budget option for Imperial Recruiter or an additional Tutor for Goblin Welder or Goblin Engineer.

[[Harsh Mentor]]
Meta-dependent hatebear that can be useful against grindy Thrasios and Kenrith midrange decks. If DramaticScepter nets one mana and you need four mana to activate Thrasios Mentor will deal 10 damage per card drawn.

[[Jester's Cap]]
...

[[Juntu Stakes]]
Meta-dependent control against mana dorks, Najeela and maybe Tana or Kykar.

[[Painter's Servant]] / [[Grindstone]]
Artifacts only two-card combo that can only kill one opponent and cards are quite useless on their own.

[[Pyrite Spellbomb]]
Shock on an artifact. Can replace itself when not needed. Finisher and be a combo piece with Codex Shredder and Basalt/Rings for draw and burn. Very flexible card. If it only were three damage.

[[Pyroclasm]] / [[Whipflare]] / [[Volcanic Fallout]]
Meta-dependent board wipes. Often two damage is sufficient, but not in my current meta.

[[Smokestack]]
The card that gave the archetype its name. Nowadays it is still strong but too slow.

[[Welding Jar]]
Protects artifacts from destroy effects like Nature's Claim, Assassin's Trophy or even Abrupt Decay. Can be useful, but doesn't help against bounce or exile.

> Change log

In this section I keep track of changes and give a short explanation why cards are added or cut. Most changes are adaptations to my meta or cards I run for testing purposes. Latest changes come first.

20.06.2020

Out:

• Experimental Frenzy

In:

• Simian Spirit Guide

There have been many cmc-wise expensive inclusions lately. Chromatic Orrery, Nullstone Gargoyle, Sandstone Oracle and others which are weld-in only cards. Even though I don't count their cmc when I calculate the mana curve, this can't be done with Experimental Frenzy. There are shuffle effects and cards for top deck manipulation. But in the end the raw number of cards with cc4 or more matters. And I feel like there are too many on the list at the moment.

Simian Spirit Guide will speed up the list even more. I also considered Surly Badgersaur (same cmc as Frenzy), Soul-Guide Lantern (there is no graveyard hate in the list atm) and Thorn of Amethyst (with Frenzy out, there is less nonbo potential for another tax effect). Simian Spirit Guide made it for now because it's the most unconditional card.

10.06.2020 spoiler alert

Out:

• Sweltering Suns
• Squee, Goblin Nabob

In:

• Chromatic Orrery
• Trash for Treasure

The spoilered card from M21 Chromatic Orrery is an interesting one. Colorfixing, huge ramp, and card draw. Adding four or more mana makes a card a combo piece to generate infinite mana with Rings of Brighthearth and Voltaic Key. And on top of that Chromatic lets you draw a card when you tap it. With Rings and Key and infinite mana you get infinite untap so you can draw your deck. Chromatic Orrery ramp can be pure gas when welded-in early. And drawing a card is always nice even though five mana is overpriced.
Trash for Treasure comes back because there are a lot of targets now and having an additional weld-in-effect that costs less than Daretti is hopefully paying off.

Something had to be cut. Squee and Sweltering Suns are our for now.

02.06.2020

Out:

• Null Brooch

In:

• Sphere of Resistance

Food Chain and Blue Farm in my meta need to be answered. Brooch is too slow and Sphere hurts both combo decks. I may also add Thorn of Amethyst in the future.

29.05.2020

Out:

• Welding Jar

In:

• Ensnaring Bridge

More protection for Daretti. I have trouble protecting Daretti against commanders like Kraum and Ukki. Both have evasion and hit hard.

Something had to go and I've chosen Welding Jar. It hasn't been very useful lately due to a meta shift towards fast combo.

09.05.2020

Out:

• Shenanigans

In:

• Deflecting Swat

I'm not sure whether this is the correct cut, but I want to make room for Deflecting Swat. I don't see Null Rod very often in my current meta and there aren't a lot of other problematic artifacts too.

30.04.2020

Out:

• Ghirapur Orrery

In:

• Mesmeric Orb

It has turned out that it's too hard to trigger Ghirapur Orrery's ability constantly.

Mesmeric Orb costs less and mills huge amounts of cards. Since the deck has easy access to the graveyard, milling can provide card advantage. Mesmeric Orb and Basalt Monolith let you mill cards until you find what you need. Mesmeric Orb stops top-deck tutors like Imperial Seal and it can by chance mill your opponent's wincon.

> Final words

This is currently the #1 most viewed and #1 most likes Daretti, Scrap Savant EDH decklists on deckstats.net. Thank you. I'm going to keep this list up to date and I will continue to work on it.

If you want to dive deeper into Daretti, get more inspiration and read about other people's ideas and thoughts, take a look at the following decks and Primers:

• Guerte's Degenerate Artifacts [Primer]

• discord collaboration cEDH optimized list [Primer] by Guerte

• Keska's Daretti Spaghetti [Primer]

• PeaceandMusic's Daretti [Primer]

• wspedroo's Daretti Trashmaster

• Ecch1's Daretti Blueprint

• Yugaminaena's Daretti

• twoandablue's MUDdy Stax

• Gate88's Daretti with Forge

• alwayssleepy's Dumpster Fire