klaus
10-27-2008, 09:02 AM
The list below is based on Roodmistah's UR version with the addition of white for STP, ET, O. Ring (MD) & Meddling Mage, Disenchant and Serenity (SB).
As one of the former critics of the Dreadstill archetype I have to admit piloting this deck to an undefeated finish at a 40 people tournament made me...well, a convert, so to speak. The experiences I drew from playing the deck pretty much mirror those of Roodmistah's: Even if I drew not so optimally or made minor mistakes, I was winning almost too comfortably..
"Cut to the chase, Charly!"
- kk. Here's the list:
Uwr Dreadstill aka. Stars&Stripes
[the core]
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
4 Brainstorm
4 Stifle
2 Trickbind
3 Swords to Plowshares
4 Standstill
3 Counterbalance
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Sensei's Divining Top
[/the core]
2 Trinket Mage.................the split between 2 TM and 1 ET felt just right
4 Phyrexian Dreadnought.......even though they clogged my hand sometimes, I'd never go back to 3. Turn2 Nought is a beast, a mean mean beast.
1 Enlightened Tutor..........replacing Trinket Mage#3 actually speeds up the deck, making turn2 Noughts a more frequent sight. It also allows to tutor for Standstill turn 1, assemble CB-Top more often plus it finds me Oblivion Ring and my beloved Serenity:smile:
1 Oblivion Ring...............sexy MD out to almost everything.
(40)
4 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
2 Volcanic Island
1 Tundra
1 Plains.................with no BEBs in the side, 1 basic Plains was the way to go
3 Island...............................I never felt I need more basic Islands
4 Mishra's Factory
3 Wasteland.
(20)
Overall I had to mull too often due to 1land hands and no cantrips...I dunno, it still worked out, so...
SB:
2 Firespout
3 REB
2 Needle
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Relic of Progenitus
2 Disenchant............I love this guy! Disenchant fell off everyone's radars in the face of CB. BUT: CB.decs are susceptable to REBs and we still have tutorable EEs plus 1 O. Ring MD to fight them. Against everything else (Stax, Enchantress, Landstill, Dragon Stompy...) it is simply MVP, which is why I'll take those over additional O. Rings any day of the week. To me Disenchant VS O. Ring is almost like Threads of Disloyalty VS STP. And you see, destroying stuff is much manlier than enchanting stuff.
1 Serenity............I was expecting Affinity, DS and Stax
2 Meddling Mage......I'm aware Dreadstill's combo MU is positive. I was expecting tons of ANT.dec though. Also as you'll see, I boarded them in quite often as he's soo versatile.
--
Round I
VS Heiner playing Geddon Stax
G1: He can't stick Chalice@1 so an early Nought eats his face.
In: 2 Meddling Magi (Geddon, Crucible) 1 Serenity (tutorable), 2 Disenchant
Out: 3 Counterbalance, 2 S. Top
G2: I keep a hand with land, land Serenity, and 4 cards "I dont care about".
...The unexpectable happens: Serenity* wipes his board ftw!
*I held it back long enough to have him empty his hand. Meddling Mage chanting Armageddon bought me the time I needed to wait that long.
Round II
VS Frank playing Goyf Sligh
G1: Turn 2 Nought wins me the game.
In: 2 Firespout, 1 Mage (Grip)
Out: 1 Standstill, 1 O. Ring, 1 Daze
G2: Lots of burn spells sizzle me to the single digits. And he has a 2 Lavamancers online (1's got summoning sickness) and no cards in hand. I cast a Nought, get him in once and waste one of his 2 red sources, hoping he doesn't draw another - I'm at 4 life. He draws Barbarian ring ftw.
G3: Both of us mull to six. Frank frankly should have mulled to 5 cause I waste his only land leaving him with a mighty 1/1 Kirdape as his only permanent for the rest of the game. He scoops to a Nought holding 2 Grips, I think.
Round 3
Michael Heiduk playing Aggro Loam
G1: Turn 2 Nought ftw!
In: 2 Crypt, 1 Relic, 1 Meddling Mage (Grip)
Out: 4 Daze (facing his mana denial, I figured I'd need all the land I could get)
G2: I can't handle his Bob who draws him 6ish cards, costing him 3 life. I die a painful death.
G3: I almost felt bad for Michael having to watch me chain 3 Standstills. The final moves were something along the lines of: Draw Enlightened Tutor cast her fetching Standstill, cast BS, cast Standstill. Have him break Standstill again and counter all his stuff, leaving him with no cards in hand.
In my turn I nuke his Chalice@1, EE@1 and 2 Moxen, leaving him with Forest, Mountain. He scoops when I drop CB-Top, Meddling Mage on Grip and Trinket Mage (I think I was holding Stifle, too).
Round IV
VS Michael Heinrichs playing Uwb Cunning-Still.
D20: He rolls a 1, I roll a 1, he rolls a 1, I roll a 10.
G1: We have a counterwar over Crucible (A. Ruins in play), which he wins. I scoop to him EEing my Ring on Humility.
In: 3 REB, 2 Meddling Mage (mainly STP), 1 Disenchant (should have boarded in #2, too)
Out: 4 Standstill, 2 STP
G2: CB-Top wins me the game. If you think a single Top can dominate the control mirror, you're still underestimating it.
G3: I resolve a Mage chanting STP, waste his factories and win via Factory and Mage beats.
The organizers announce the cancellation of the 6th Round due to 50% of the participants having to leave soon (extra turns took forever in the prior rounds).
Round V
VS Fredmaster playing Sudmann-Still
We can ID, being glad round#6 was cancelled cause we're the only undefeated players then.
We decide to play anyway to figure out the first picker of the split.
G1: Humility+Ruins+Crucible+Academy Ruins win him the game. I might have played a little bit "too relaxed", causing minor mistakes.
In: 3 REB, 2 Meddling Mage, 2 Disenchant
Out: 4 Standstill, 3 STP
G2: This game was ridiculous! He manages to stick a Humility allowing me to drop 3-4 1/1 Noughts:tongue: those and 1/1 Magi grind him down bit by bit despite the EE lock he managed to establish. He uses all his resources getting rid of dem bugs. I think I STP and Waste his manlands and finally win on the back of factory workers.
Due to the lack of time we don't begin G3. So we discuss our boarding plans a little bit. When he shows me what he boarded out, my jaw dropped - 3 Decrees of Justice ?!? the card I was fearing the entire 25 minutes of game 2?!? :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
Props:
- Our crew from the Berlin area dominating the field.
- Lukas for going 1-0-4 with truffleshuffle
- The trainstation bakery for equipping us with free cake
- M. Ringwald for lending me cards
- MKM for donnating prizes
- Dreadstill for winning even when crapping out on me
Slops:
- Lukas for going 1-0-4 with Truffleshuffle
- other stuff
---
Closing thoughts:
There's nothing that I'd currently change. Neither in the MD nor in the SB. I played against 2 decks featuring Grips and faced the alleged unfavorable landstill MU twice and lived to tell the tale.
I'll take the deck to the "Protour Berlin" legacy sideevent next week and let you folks know how it went.
As one of the former critics of the Dreadstill archetype I have to admit piloting this deck to an undefeated finish at a 40 people tournament made me...well, a convert, so to speak. The experiences I drew from playing the deck pretty much mirror those of Roodmistah's: Even if I drew not so optimally or made minor mistakes, I was winning almost too comfortably..
"Cut to the chase, Charly!"
- kk. Here's the list:
Uwr Dreadstill aka. Stars&Stripes
[the core]
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
4 Brainstorm
4 Stifle
2 Trickbind
3 Swords to Plowshares
4 Standstill
3 Counterbalance
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Sensei's Divining Top
[/the core]
2 Trinket Mage.................the split between 2 TM and 1 ET felt just right
4 Phyrexian Dreadnought.......even though they clogged my hand sometimes, I'd never go back to 3. Turn2 Nought is a beast, a mean mean beast.
1 Enlightened Tutor..........replacing Trinket Mage#3 actually speeds up the deck, making turn2 Noughts a more frequent sight. It also allows to tutor for Standstill turn 1, assemble CB-Top more often plus it finds me Oblivion Ring and my beloved Serenity:smile:
1 Oblivion Ring...............sexy MD out to almost everything.
(40)
4 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
2 Volcanic Island
1 Tundra
1 Plains.................with no BEBs in the side, 1 basic Plains was the way to go
3 Island...............................I never felt I need more basic Islands
4 Mishra's Factory
3 Wasteland.
(20)
Overall I had to mull too often due to 1land hands and no cantrips...I dunno, it still worked out, so...
SB:
2 Firespout
3 REB
2 Needle
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Relic of Progenitus
2 Disenchant............I love this guy! Disenchant fell off everyone's radars in the face of CB. BUT: CB.decs are susceptable to REBs and we still have tutorable EEs plus 1 O. Ring MD to fight them. Against everything else (Stax, Enchantress, Landstill, Dragon Stompy...) it is simply MVP, which is why I'll take those over additional O. Rings any day of the week. To me Disenchant VS O. Ring is almost like Threads of Disloyalty VS STP. And you see, destroying stuff is much manlier than enchanting stuff.
1 Serenity............I was expecting Affinity, DS and Stax
2 Meddling Mage......I'm aware Dreadstill's combo MU is positive. I was expecting tons of ANT.dec though. Also as you'll see, I boarded them in quite often as he's soo versatile.
--
Round I
VS Heiner playing Geddon Stax
G1: He can't stick Chalice@1 so an early Nought eats his face.
In: 2 Meddling Magi (Geddon, Crucible) 1 Serenity (tutorable), 2 Disenchant
Out: 3 Counterbalance, 2 S. Top
G2: I keep a hand with land, land Serenity, and 4 cards "I dont care about".
...The unexpectable happens: Serenity* wipes his board ftw!
*I held it back long enough to have him empty his hand. Meddling Mage chanting Armageddon bought me the time I needed to wait that long.
Round II
VS Frank playing Goyf Sligh
G1: Turn 2 Nought wins me the game.
In: 2 Firespout, 1 Mage (Grip)
Out: 1 Standstill, 1 O. Ring, 1 Daze
G2: Lots of burn spells sizzle me to the single digits. And he has a 2 Lavamancers online (1's got summoning sickness) and no cards in hand. I cast a Nought, get him in once and waste one of his 2 red sources, hoping he doesn't draw another - I'm at 4 life. He draws Barbarian ring ftw.
G3: Both of us mull to six. Frank frankly should have mulled to 5 cause I waste his only land leaving him with a mighty 1/1 Kirdape as his only permanent for the rest of the game. He scoops to a Nought holding 2 Grips, I think.
Round 3
Michael Heiduk playing Aggro Loam
G1: Turn 2 Nought ftw!
In: 2 Crypt, 1 Relic, 1 Meddling Mage (Grip)
Out: 4 Daze (facing his mana denial, I figured I'd need all the land I could get)
G2: I can't handle his Bob who draws him 6ish cards, costing him 3 life. I die a painful death.
G3: I almost felt bad for Michael having to watch me chain 3 Standstills. The final moves were something along the lines of: Draw Enlightened Tutor cast her fetching Standstill, cast BS, cast Standstill. Have him break Standstill again and counter all his stuff, leaving him with no cards in hand.
In my turn I nuke his Chalice@1, EE@1 and 2 Moxen, leaving him with Forest, Mountain. He scoops when I drop CB-Top, Meddling Mage on Grip and Trinket Mage (I think I was holding Stifle, too).
Round IV
VS Michael Heinrichs playing Uwb Cunning-Still.
D20: He rolls a 1, I roll a 1, he rolls a 1, I roll a 10.
G1: We have a counterwar over Crucible (A. Ruins in play), which he wins. I scoop to him EEing my Ring on Humility.
In: 3 REB, 2 Meddling Mage (mainly STP), 1 Disenchant (should have boarded in #2, too)
Out: 4 Standstill, 2 STP
G2: CB-Top wins me the game. If you think a single Top can dominate the control mirror, you're still underestimating it.
G3: I resolve a Mage chanting STP, waste his factories and win via Factory and Mage beats.
The organizers announce the cancellation of the 6th Round due to 50% of the participants having to leave soon (extra turns took forever in the prior rounds).
Round V
VS Fredmaster playing Sudmann-Still
We can ID, being glad round#6 was cancelled cause we're the only undefeated players then.
We decide to play anyway to figure out the first picker of the split.
G1: Humility+Ruins+Crucible+Academy Ruins win him the game. I might have played a little bit "too relaxed", causing minor mistakes.
In: 3 REB, 2 Meddling Mage, 2 Disenchant
Out: 4 Standstill, 3 STP
G2: This game was ridiculous! He manages to stick a Humility allowing me to drop 3-4 1/1 Noughts:tongue: those and 1/1 Magi grind him down bit by bit despite the EE lock he managed to establish. He uses all his resources getting rid of dem bugs. I think I STP and Waste his manlands and finally win on the back of factory workers.
Due to the lack of time we don't begin G3. So we discuss our boarding plans a little bit. When he shows me what he boarded out, my jaw dropped - 3 Decrees of Justice ?!? the card I was fearing the entire 25 minutes of game 2?!? :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
Props:
- Our crew from the Berlin area dominating the field.
- Lukas for going 1-0-4 with truffleshuffle
- The trainstation bakery for equipping us with free cake
- M. Ringwald for lending me cards
- MKM for donnating prizes
- Dreadstill for winning even when crapping out on me
Slops:
- Lukas for going 1-0-4 with Truffleshuffle
- other stuff
---
Closing thoughts:
There's nothing that I'd currently change. Neither in the MD nor in the SB. I played against 2 decks featuring Grips and faced the alleged unfavorable landstill MU twice and lived to tell the tale.
I'll take the deck to the "Protour Berlin" legacy sideevent next week and let you folks know how it went.