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Thread: UWx Stonestill

  1. #1

    UWx Stonestill

    Hey guys,

    This is a new deck I have brewed up with help from a friend tuning/tweaking the list so far. I will cover specific decision of key cards to explain the reasoning behind them. Without going further, here’s the current list:

    UWx Stonestill

    3 Standstill

    4 Brainstorm
    4 Force of Will
    4 Swords to Plowshares
    2 Enlightened Tutor
    3 Mental Misstep

    3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

    3 Stoneforge Mystic
    1 Batterskull

    3 Thopter Foundry
    1 Sword of the Meek

    1 Pithing Needle
    1 Engineered Explosives
    1 Humility
    3 Sensei's Divining Top

    1 Seat of the Synod
    1 Marsh Flats
    4 Flooded Strand
    1 Polluted Delta
    1 Scrubland
    3 Tundra
    2 Underground Sea
    4 Mishra's Factory
    1 Academy Ruins
    3 Island
    2 Plains

    Sideboard

    2 Peacekeeper
    3 Counterbalance
    2 Spell Pierce
    1 Nihil Spellbomb
    1 Tormod's Crypt
    3 Engineered Plague
    2 Perish
    1 Mental Misstep


    If you notice, this is basically a Landstill deck with new improvements to its game plan. As a players, I have always admired a deck like Landstill for its classic feel and approach to magic of counter some spells, kill some creatures, and drop a threat to take over the game.

    My friends and I have been discussing control, especially Landstill as being outdated in its current form to deal with fast threats in the format since the key card – Standstill is just bad facing a format filled with consistent and disruptive Aether Vial decks (Goblin and Merfolk come to mind). It was not until the spoiler of Mental Misstep that we felt help shore up the deck’s inability to interact profitably against Aether Vial decks leading to its new viability and relevance in Legacy. Below is a mention of each card and reasoning behind them. It is not meant to be comprehensive as there are too many interaction to cover all in one writing without boring readers. Plus it’s more fun to play the deck yourself.



    Standstill – namesake card of the deck and key to forcing your opponent into a bad position. With either Stoneforge Mystic or Thopter Foundry on board, casting Standstill will simply net you 3 more cards because opponents will have a hard time battling through Mishra Factory, Batterskull (vialed by Mystic), or Sword of the Meek (vialed by Mystic or casted earlier). I think most players understand the power of this card when played correctly and with the Stoneforge Mystic setup along with the powerful Thopter Foundry engine makes it a powerful card to keep the game in your favor.

    Stoneforge Mystic – The key card that will power the deck by finding win conditions like Batterskull or Sword of the Meek (to power up Thopter Foundry) while being able to save mana by vialing in the Batterskull and bypassing the Standstill trigger at the same time. In this deck, this is the glue.

    Enlightened Tutor – finds targets to deal with creatures (Humility), flexibility (Pithing Needle), removal (Engineered Explosives). It also helps you piece together your Thopter combo, find the Batterskull, Seat of the Synod mana, or Standstill when you need it for the low low retail price of one white mana.

    Thopter Foundry/Sword of the Meek – win games by itself and goes great with Humility. Also tutorable by Mystic (Sword of the Meek) and Enlightened Tutor (for both). Plus Thopter Foundry helps keep the blue count to a manageable level.

    Humility – I chose this over Moat because of a couple reasons. First, it’s much cheaper and works much better with Batterskull. Second, once Humility is in play, I can easily race with Thopter Foundry tokens and/or Batterskull since Humility will have a positive effect on the 0/0 germ token pumping it into a 1/1 making the living equipment into a 5/5 instead of 4/4 lifelink vigilance creature.

    Mental Misstep - there has been much said about this card already so I only speak about its impact in Landstill. As stated earlier, MM help shores up Landstill problematic weakness against Aether Vial decks to allow a strong sequence of board development without having to return a land to Daze (losing tempo), holding counterspell mana, or lose card advantage to Force of Will. Out of the box, the deck has 3 MM and 1 Pithing Needle to deal with Aether Vial. After more testing, I might be inclined to run a full playset of Misstep but 3 feels good for now.

    Jace, the Mind Sculptor – If you play magic in any shape, way, or form then you should know the power and impact this card has had on the game. Allows the deck to have alternate win condition while providing massive card advantage, and allowing the deck to play the long game.

    I would love to hear feedbacks, discussions, and refinements to the deck for those interested in playing control in Legacy. I think extensive testing will show Landstill is a viable archetype with many hidden innovation still available for those who seek it. There is no sideboard yet but I will post one once kinks are ironed out with the maindeck. Thanks for the read

  2. #2
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    Lord_Cyrus's Avatar
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    Re: UWx Stonestill

    My 2 cents...

    Standstill is an atrocious card in this metagame, and especially for this deck. You don't have enough ways to put early pressure on them. Given your bullet artifacts I think you'd do much better to play Trinket Mage.

    Mental Misstep: Great card, play 4 in the mainboard. You free up a sideboard spot and improve the deck.

    Otherwise I like the plan, I may try it on MWS.

    tl;dr: -3 Standstill, +2 trinket mage, +1 Mental Misstep

  3. #3
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    Barook's Avatar
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    Re: UWx Stonestill

    Wouldn't Puresteel Paladin be a way better draw engine with the Foundry/Sword combo online?

  4. #4
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    Drac's Avatar
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    Re: UWx Stonestill

    With you being so light on creatures, stoneforge will get almost always get a removal trown at it, making batterskull less effective.
    I think Batterskull-Stoneforge works best in a list with more creatures, for the rest nice deck tho
    Member of Legacy Team "de keizer" based in Gorinchem, The Netherlands

  5. #5

    Re: UWx Stonestill

    My 2 cents...

    Standstill is an atrocious card in this metagame, and especially for this deck. You don't have enough ways to put early pressure on them. Given your bullet artifacts I think you'd do much better to play Trinket Mage.

    Mental Misstep: Great card, play 4 in the mainboard. You free up a sideboard spot and improve the deck.

    Otherwise I like the plan, I may try it on MWS.

    tl;dr: -3 Standstill, +2 trinket mage, +1 Mental Misstep
    I think there are some truths to Standstill being atrocious in this meta but I think there are room to make it work even in a deck like this with threat-light setup. I do agree that Trinket Mage is great and were in the early drafts of the deck but were removed to make room for the framework of the deck. After some recent testing, I felt that 3 Thopter Foundry were a bit much and will cut it down to 2 (+1 space), 3 Jace 2.0 were not necessary, cutting down to 2 as well (+ 1 space), 4 Swords to Plowshares are good but with 2 Trinket Mage to find more removal 3 might be sufficient to make room for more Misstep (+1 space)

    With those changes moving down to 2 Thopter Foundry, 2 Jace 2.0, 3 Swords to Plowshares allows me to add 2 Trinket Mage and 1 Mental Misstep. Those are the changes I am going to move forward to test and see how it goes. Might even add 1 more Explosive if the testing shows more removal is needed. Been thinking about adding 1-2 Wrath of God or Firespout (red splash) into the 75 bc testing shown that Humility is not enough during some games to save me.

    Wouldn't Puresteel Paladin be a way better draw engine with the Foundry/Sword combo online?
    Though I like the draw power of this, there are too many pieces to change to make this workable on a consistent basis and the Paladin is just a bad creature by itself vs. something like Mystic that can acts as a finisher (finding Batterskull) or fetching combo pieces (finding Sword of the Meek). Plus WW is such a prohibited cost.

    With you being so light on creatures, stoneforge will get almost always get a removal trown at it, making batterskull less effective.
    I think Batterskull-Stoneforge works best in a list with more creatures, for the rest nice deck tho
    I agree as games were won with Mystic on board for a turn or two while turned bad when it got killed. It's still a great card for the deck bc it grabs Sword of the Meek to win me games many times. To remedy this, I had increased the Mental Misstep from 3 to 4 to help protect it from the format's popular removal like Swords to Plowshares, Ghastly Demise, Path to Exile...etc. Otherwise thanks for the compliment :)

  6. #6
    bruizar
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    Re: UWx Stonestill

    Quote Originally Posted by Barook View Post
    Wouldn't Puresteel Paladin be a way better draw engine with the Foundry/Sword combo online?
    Not just with Foundry Sword, also with Batterskull / Stoneforge Mystic

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