More Rainbow Stairwell

Rainbow Stairwell requires that you play exactly six cards of each of the five colors, plus artifacts, and that each color has to have cards with converted mana costs of one through six. That means that you have to have one white card with a converted mana cost of W, one white card with a CMC of 2 (either WW or 1W), and so on. Deck size is 60 cards, no sideboard.

Gold cards, split cards and cards with split mana are banned. So are X spells and Wishes.

After playing several dozen games, I think I have a pretty good handle on the metagame. Basically, although decks vary, a large number play a very controlling game. They generally do not run very many creatures, and the few they do run do double duty (think Shriekmaw.) 

These decks run planeswalkers, especially Garruk Wildspeaker, Ajani Goldmane and Liliana Vess. Actually, many of the control decks run all five planeswalkers.

Even some cards that I would consider locks do vary. For example, I have seen at least one player run Clearwater Goblet over Mind'sEye.   Yes, Clearwater Goblet can gain a ton of life, but cards >> life.

Some of these are close to givens, but even they vary. I have faced at least one opponent who swore by Rude Awakening, which is a very powerful finisher, but I don’t know that I would play it over All Suns’ Dawn.   ASD is such a beating when it returns five potent cards.

Others slots are really varied. The last half dozen control builds I played against had a half dozen different cards in the blue five slot. In 2005, I played Meloku, but changed to Allied Strategies for a while, having found a good deal on one at MTGOTraders.com. I recently followed AbyssSoul’s lead and changed to Acquire.   Acquire is like Bribery, but it gets good stuff, like Mind's Eye or Sensei's Divining Top. I have also seen people running Aeon Chronicler and Persuasion in that slot in control decks. Really old school players have run Morphling, but I don’t see it. The format has far too many non-targeted means of removing or stealing creatures. 

Card drawing and mana fixing are the keys to making this archetype work, and in the vast majority of the games I have lost, I can remember my opponent playing either Thawing Glaciers or Top on turn one.   Mind’s Eye is broken card drawing – and Ancient Grudge is solid because it kills three of the other four (if you are tricky with the timng on the Top) and because it is usually a two-for-one. 

Speed can win in this format, provided it does not get mana hosed or flooded. The trick is to never fail to apply pressure. That means that you have to be able to hit your early drops, and that means managing your mana. Anything that costs generic mana is good, and colored mana is bad. Anything with double colored mana is terrible. For example, Dauthi Slayer is a great beatdown creature, but you have almost no chance of casting it on turn two in this format. Skinthinner, on the other hand, also beats for two, and you have a much better chance of casting it on turn two. You have an excellent chance of casting it on turn three, because it has Morph. 

Morph creatures are quite good in an aggro build. 

Last article, I built a budget deck. I went a bit further and built an all-commons Stairwell deck. It is quite aggro, and I have often beat control decks with the build. When it works, it works well. When it floods, you lose. If you are dropping Morphs and they are casting Evangelize with buyback, you don’t win. 

In this format, Guardian of the Guildpact is immune to everything, except non-targetted removal like Chainer’s Edict and Wrath of God. It’s nuts. 

The lands are pretty simple – common non-basics is a pretty small subset. The Grotto and Expanse are both fine, but after that you need to be looking at Ravnica bounce lands. The exact mix can vary, but it is probably a good idea to run green ones, since the best common mana fixers are all green. 

The toughest decisions I have had have been between good removal and good Morph creatures. For example, the white three slot could be either Wingbeat Warrior or Oblivion Ring. The black five slot could be either Sootfeather Flock or Agonizing Demise.   In both cases, I have chosen the fast aggressive beater over the removal. With the attackers, you will never be left without a threat when you both are ripping lands. Equally importantly, both threats fly. On the other hand, O-Ring can remove broken stuff, like Mind’s Eye, while Agonizing Demise can both kill a blocker and deal damage. I can see going either way, but I think you need to go for the creatures in this format. Remember, beating the good control builds is all about racing them. If you start trying to play control, too, you play into their hands.

(late edit: I have yet another option for the white three slot: Orim’s Thunder. It can often two-for-one an opponent, it can remove critical blockers, and it kills the most annoying artifacts. That said, I’m still probably running Wingbeat Warrior.)

Here’s another questionable call: Ascending Aven. It is a 3/2 flier with a reasonable Morph cost. It is tough to hardcast. I could also run Phantom Monster in that slot – a 3/3 flier that does not have Morph. Phantom Monster is not coming down on turn three (okay, unless turn two involved mana acceleration), and Phantom Monster can easily be stuck in your hand. I’m pretty sure Ascending Aven is the right call over PM, but that slot could also hold Deep Analysis. That is a harder call.

I have probably won 40-50% of my games with this build – games against full-powered Stairwell decks, that is. I have also found a few players with pauper / all common Stairwell decks, which are generally mirror matches.  I am winning about 60% of those. 

Let’s look at a build that does not work as well.   After having good luck with all commons, I decided to try abusing the Lorwyn block tribal theme. I needed a five color tribe, and elementals seemed like the best option. 

I remember finishing a game – on the losing side – and commenting to my opponent that this “felt like a bad draft deck.”   It’s true – the mana curve sux, the thing is five colors and it really doesn’t have any broken things to do. It just beats with fair to middling creatures. Swinging for five with a non-evasive Changeling Berserker is nice, but nothing special when you consider that you can draw from the entire classic card pool.

I really like this build. When it works, it can be amazing. 

The deck has three amazing combos, and if Enchantress is out, it usually draws into one of them.

Sylvan / Abundance is just so good.  In part, this combo won Pro Tour Chicago for Bob Maher, Jr., back late last century.  It is one of the more borken things my old enchantress decks could do (along with swinging for 50+ damage on turn three.)  It feel sooo good to have it back.

Words of Wind protects you from decking yourself. It can also partner with Mind’s Eye and enchantments like Seal of Fire to make your opponent bounce a lot of permanents.