[Article] Eternal Central: Team Eternal Presents: Pernicious StrixStill – A Primer

[Chimera87]

Michel and I have written our first article (ever) for Eternal Central. The focus is on presenting the deck that we have been working on for a long time now, BUG Landstill. Comments are of course always welcome, as we'd love to improve our writing. Have fun reading!

Team Eternal Presents: Pernicious StrixStill – A Primer

[Arianrhod]

Good read. I still say that Disfigure is the best black spot removal that nobody is playing, though =)

How many times do you miss not having a basic Forest?

IMO, your next article should focus on the Snapcaster debate. As you mention, that tends to be a pretty hotly contested issue, and it's interesting that you fall on the Snapcaster side of things. I can understand how it's good post-sideboard, but at that point, why not move like 2 Snaps to the board in favor of a 2nd Clique and then your choice of Loam/Pulse as depending on the meta?

[alphastryk]

IMO, your next article should focus on the Snapcaster debate. As you mention, that tends to be a pretty hotly contested issue, and it's interesting that you fall on the Snapcaster side of things. I can understand how it's good post-sideboard, but at that point, why not move like 2 Snaps to the board in favor of a 2nd Clique and then your choice of Loam/Pulse as depending on the meta?

I agree. That's almost my exact thought regarding clique and snapcaster given the article. :)

[alderon666]

Knee jerk question. Don't you run few spells and not a great variety of those to justify Snapcaster?
I mean, Abrupt basically answers all cards in Legacy not name Jace and Batterskul. 1UU for a 2/1 that Brainstorm when ETB is always good. And so is Mystic Snake, but couldn't you improve its quality by running different cards? More spells over stuff like Deed/Planeswalker/Creatures...
Just a thought.

[Arianrhod]

Knee jerk question. Don't you run few spells and not a great variety of those to justify Snapcaster?
I mean, Abrupt basically answers all cards in Legacy not name Jace and Batterskul. 1UU for a 2/1 that Brainstorm when ETB is always good. And so is Mystic Snake, but couldn't you improve its quality by running different cards? More spells over stuff like Deed/Planeswalker/Creatures...
Just a thought.

There's 11 cards maindeck that can realistic Snapped (15 with Force of Will). That's still a pretty significant number, and, as the article mentions, that number only increases post-board.

I was going to save this for Viridia or Chimera's response, but I guess I'll put it forward now. To me, the main difference to "this" BUGStill is the Strix. The presence of Strix completely changes the paradigm for this deck. I don't especially like the presence of creatures in BUGStill personally -- my list runs 0 creatures (though it runs some in the sideboard). But, I'm willing to acknowledge the power of Strix.

So, to me, the question is not "Why Snapcaster?" -- but rather, "Why not Tezzeret?" If Strix is the main innovation, why not go deep down the rabbit hole? Add in some Tops, Explosives to back up Deed, maybe a Crucible...etc. The immediate problem with Tezzeret (Note, Agent of Bolas, not Big Tezz) is that in order for his impulse to be effective, you must run no fewer than 13 artifacts, with 15-18 being the preferred number....and that just isn't possible. Even if you manage to add in the good controlly artifacts, you're going to hit like 9 artifacts, which just isn't enough. However, in the absence of other creatures, Tezz represents a legitimate clock by making Strixes perma-5/5s, Top a 5/5, and, temporarily, Mishra's Factory a 5/5. Additionally, if Tezz comes later when their life is low, you can suit up your manlands and then ult Tezz for the kill.

In the list as posted, Strix is a value 2-drop dude who represents a probable 2-for-1. But, I question whether or not the innovation of Strix is being misused. I'm not sure that Strix-on-defense is as good here as Strix-on-offense. It seems to me that the proposed list is taking something that is capable of a true paradigm shift and shoehorning it into a preexisting paradigm.

Note: I say all of this with nothing but respect, as always...just in case my language accidentally offends anyone.

[GGoober]

I'm mad. Just kidding, nice list and article. When do you see yourself boarding out Strix against? I am inclined to say they are amazing against RUG but I can see them being removed against combo/Sneak/Show matchups?

[Viridia]

Interesting take on the Strix' Kevin, however i think you'll be hurting the shell too much by adding all those artifacts. We've ran Top before, but we feel that it's not needed and better used as other things. Deed >>> EE ;)

Going deeper on Snapcaster and it's targets is a very good idea for a further article, some quick things about him tho:

You don't want to run loads of Counterspells/Spell Pierces/Removal, because some of those just will be dead in a certain part of the match or matchup. Snapcaster gives a sort of middle way between all this to have alot of different options during the middle/late-game. With the decks design in mind, you will be hitting the late game very often :)


In our newest list we allready have a 2nd Clique mainboard aswell, instead of the 1 of Liliana. The thing with playing more creatures is that the slower matchups (control mirrors etc) tend to get alot easier, because rather then stuffing away all removal and finding business/counterspells only, they now need to answer the "threats" aswell, which will basically always be a 2 for 1 (or 1 for 0 rather).
Added benefit is being able to play much, much more aggressives, which in turn makes you able to hardly ever or never go into round time ;)



And we will probably never run a basic Forest, the basic Swamp is bad enough as it is, especially when doing mulligans, but atleast you can cast stuff on a basic Island + Swamp (Strix ;)) but for properly casting things with a Forest you also need Swamp, but the first target will always be a Island, because the deck does run around 28 blue cards :P

[Viridia]

I'm mad. Just kidding, nice list and article. When do you see yourself boarding out Strix against? I am inclined to say they are amazing against RUG but I can see them being removed against combo/Sneak/Show matchups?

Sorry for the doublepost.

You basically keep them in vs most decks that want to kill you with a couple of creatures or attack with loads.
I usually board them out vs combo and some of them vs decks with Lingering Souls.

[Chimera87]

Thanks so far for the replies! Some good suggestions for future articles. We'll probably talk about sideboarding and some more in-depth analysis of the deck's card choices... Snapcaster and Strix are definitely contested choices and we strongly belief it's the current way to go.

Thanks again for the suggestions!

[Dessyreqt]

One of the things I've found about Landstill is that it runs some of the most powerful cards, then makes them even more powerful by breaking the symmetry through clever and synergistic deck design. I think that running creatures main destroys some of the advantage of cards like Pernicious Deed, or Standstill itself (I can play my threats since they are all lands. You can't play yours without giving me a huge card advantage boost.)

As someone who plays the creatureless version, why would I want to play a version with Strixes and Snapcasters over what I feel is a more internally consistent, and synergistic build?

[TraxDaMax]

One of the things I've found about Landstill is that it runs some of the most powerful cards, then makes them even more powerful by breaking the symmetry through clever and synergistic deck design. I think that running creatures main destroys some of the advantage of cards like Pernicious Deed, or Standstill itself (I can play my threats since they are all lands. You can't play yours without giving me a huge card advantage boost.)

As someone who plays the creatureless version, why would I want to play a version with Strixes and Snapcasters over what I feel is a more internally consistent, and synergistic build?

I'd say probably because even if you run 4 Standstill, that doesn't mean you'll see them every game. Snapcaster and the Strix also gain a cardadvantage. It's not as good as Standstill, but I believe it to be decent enough to include on first sight.

Back to the article, it surely was a good read, and I remember playing against it piloted by Jeroen a couple of times. It's cool to see the evolution of the deck and the dedication to make it work.

[kiblast]

What's exactly stopping you from cutting the 4th Factory in favor of the 2nd Tar Pit? Considering that you are playing so many BG UU BB and UB cards? Tar Pit is awesome. Just play 2, I was never unhappy in seeing multiples. Also in my testing I never really wanted more than 4 manlands. My split was 2 Tar Pits 2 Factories.

Secondly, no Loam md seems a poor choice. I don't really care about Deathrite because getting back 3 lands for 2 mana is still good enough at various stages of the game, you know how great Loam is in early mid and late game. Also various times I bs'ed with JTMS, put crap on top, played Loam while opp. had an active D.Rite, and when he targeted Loam with his D.Rite I brainstormed in response saving Loam with the first draw, either through a BS cast from hand or by Snapping a Bs back. Loam is gamebreaking in various situations, breaks Lili simmetry and if you really need it you just play around D.Rite so you can Loam a couple of times at least. Also is one of your few outs to Punishing Fire + Grove, if you don't play Loam Md you are basically drawing dead to Punishing decks. Considering the amount of midrange decks is obvious that in wider fields everybody will be playing P.Fire versions of Jund and Maverick to get a small edge in the mirror.So why not LftL md? That miser Wasteland you recyled might save your ass.

I'm not a fan of losing my own permanents to Deed but I see how strong is Baleful. Might have to try it out.

Edit: Tezzeret is useless in this deck. Even if you switch 4 Deeds to 4 EE. It will still suck, and as it has been said already, Deed is far better.

Also, is anyone still testing that wonderful abomination that is the 4c version splashing white for Lingering Souls and Swords to Plowshares? I remember Marc Tobiasch doing well with it last year. I used to play it as well and was super fun. The main change were 3 Tundras to support StP, L. Souls, and E. Tutor board including C.o.P. : Red.

[Shawon]

Tezz represents a legitimate clock by making Strixes perma-5/5s, Top a 5/5, and, temporarily, Mishra's Factory a 5/5.

Nitpick: Factory stays as a 5/5 land-artifact-creature forever, but it does lose its Assembly Worker creature type and pump ability after the turn passes.

[Arianrhod]

Nitpick: Factory stays as a 5/5 land-artifact-creature forever, but it does lose its Assembly Worker creature type and pump ability after the turn passes.

Why wouldn't it work the same way as Inkmoth? Ie, you activate it, make it a 5/5 with Tezz, then end of turn it fades back into a land and when you activate it again, the Tezz-layer gets overwritten by the manland's trigger, so it becomes a 1/1 again.

@Kiblast -- I think that no Loam maindeck is one of the big problems of the creature-heavy nature of this version. Because they have so many creatures, they're light on spot removal. Like, the list I run has ample ways of solving a Deathrite Shaman before he becomes a problem, which makes Loam fine. This version substitutes a lot of spot removal for a lot of dudes. I mean, Strix basically is cantripping removal for their beaters....but Strix's drawback compared to traditional removal is that you can't use it to kill utility dorks.

[Shawon]

Why wouldn't it work the same way as Inkmoth? Ie, you activate it, make it a 5/5 with Tezz, then end of turn it fades back into a land and when you activate it again, the Tezz-layer gets overwritten by the manland's trigger, so it becomes a 1/1 again.

Yes it does that work that way. The manland ability overlaps the Tezz ability for the turn, and then the manland becomes a 5/5 artifact-land-creature at end of turn. I thought you were saying that Inkmoth/Factory goes back to being an ordinary land at the end of turn, which doesn't happen.

This is where I found my answers on Tezz-> manlands: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...235#post689235

[Arianrhod]

Yes it does that work that way. The manland ability overlaps the Tezz ability for the turn, and then the manland becomes a 5/5 artifact-land-creature at end of turn. I thought you were saying that Inkmoth/Factory goes back to being an ordinary land at the end of turn, which doesn't happen.

This is where I found my answers on Tezz-> manlands: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...235#post689235

Ohhhh no. I meant as far as should you activate the manland again.

[Octopusman]

I liked the article a lot. Thanks.
Always glad to see standstill in action again.


Kind regards,

[theBloody]

Thanks for article guys. Keep it up.