[Deck] UBGx Landstill

[honestabe]

Game two: I really wish I didn't let my teammate talk me out of running the miser's Back to nature in the board, so i just bring out innocent bloods, for 2 grips and darkblast (for his enchantress). He has a turn 2 enchantress, which i triumphently swords at the end of his turn :facepalm:. Like I said, I'm really unfamiliar with that deck.
Any questions??

Yeah, the swords thing was meant to tell you that I messed up, and didn't know she had shroud, just through lack of familiarity with the deck. Sorry if I wasn't clearer

[galeng]

I'm having a LOT of problems with Team America. Bubbled another top 8 due to running losses to the deck. Generally they're running the wasteland, stifle, sinkhole, vindicate package with spell pierce in the board. The deck seems to hard counter us and it's growing in popularity. Thoughts?

[Tinefol]

If they also happen to run Extirpate, you are doomed. The match up sucks, really.
If you want to beat TA you need at least 6 basics and 7 spot removal. If you don't have enough basics, there's almost no chance. I've crushed that deck with UWx shell (6 basics, 4 stp, 3 path). I've lost horribly with 4cc. I guess mid variant is UBG with 3-4 basics, 2 Loams and 4 Blood/3 Smother, so you'd have fighting chance here.

[JonBarber]

Why does no one seem to be playing the list from the GP?

[honestabe]

Why does no one seem to be playing the list from the GP?

Most lists here are pretty simaler, but without the wishes. I found them too slow, and clunky. I run spell snare in it's place and have never looked back

[nodahero]

So I have been testing the Freakaccidents list for a few days now and I keep comming to the same conclusion.... Factory is simply not good enough in that shell.

All to often I found myself needed an additional colored source in my opener (typically an island).
I also noted that the deck seems really weak to Wasteland and especially when backed by Stifle due to a lack of basic lands (1 island).
Given these notes are there any suggestions besides adding at LEAST 1 more island?

Other than that I have been VERY happy with the list Freak created.

ATM I am actually going to try testing 2 Mana Leaks in place of a counterspell and spell pierce and thus leave the Factorys alone.

[nodahero]

Sorry for Double post. Just curious if anyone would like me to post my tourney report? I went 4-0 against a wide range of decks. 8-1 in games.

[jamied1981]

I'd like to see it

[Ajsmirnov]

@ivanpei Your decklist is very good, thanks you for tons of info about this deck. I used a very close version and finished 3rd at my city's Legacy Championship(28 players), loosing in1/2 to affinity because i played 2 edict but not 2 pte - i could not kill myr enforcer with memnite also on board... I want to ask, maybe I missed something - why don't you play sensei's top? It was so good every time I had it in play. My list:

4 Sea
3 Tropical
2 Tundra
1 Scrubland
1 Wasteland
4 Mishra
9 Fetches for blue

4 FoW
3 Snare
2 Pierce
2 Counter
4 Brainstorm
4 StP
2 Diabolic Edict

3 Jace

4 Deed
1 Pulse(a lot of Tombstalkers here)
2 Loam
2 Sensei Top
4 Standstill

Now i changed 1 sea for 1 tundra and wasteland for basic island, 2 edicts for 2 pte

[kiblast]

Today I had a small tournament (8 people) and finished 1st. This is the build.

3 Sea
3 Tropical
1 Island
1 Swamp
1 Forest
4 Wasteland
4 Mishra
4 Polluted delta
3 Misty Rainforest

4 FoW
3 Spell Snare
3 Spell Pierce
3 Counterspell
4 Brainstorm
4 Innocent Blood
1 Ghastly Demise

4 Jace

4 Deed
2 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Standstill

SB:

2 Hydroblast
2 BeB
3 Extirpate
3 E Plague
2 Perish
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Life from the Loam



1st round: 2-0 vs Imperial Painter
1st game I menage to keep him in mana denial using Wasteland, Spell Snare on Magma Jet and then Jace. He doesn't do anything impressive. G2 I side in 2 Hydro and 2 Beb (-1 Standstil, -2 Pulse and -1 Innocent Blood) and I menage to survive early game by countering or removing all his threats ( Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon in particular). Then I go for the control route and Jace wins. I feared particularly moon effects in this MU so I sided out the pulses because they require too many specifical mana.

2nd round 2-0 vs BR sligh (basically a Bob Sligh with Sinkholes and Tourach + various Burn, maybe Red Death?)
1st game I counter early threats but a Lavamancer and a couple of Magma Jets reach the table and do 10+ damages. I eventually find multiple Innocent Bloods (he dropped an Ashenmoor Gouger, too) and prevent to have him topdeck burn spells through Jace. Jace wins again.
G2 I do the same sideplan of the first round (I even saw some maindeck Moons and Maguses so I choose to drop Pulses). I see my hate and win easily, I even menage to find 1 each of all my basics so i let him resolve all his Moon effects and then I blow a Deed destroying 1 Moon 1 Magus and a Confidant. Next turn land Jace with Beb backup, I win.

3rd round ID versus The Damn Awesome Deck
We smoke some cigarettes.

4th round 1-1 vs Eva Green
Opponent needs to win to reach top4. He wins the roll and goes turn 1 Thoughtseize (picking Spell Snare), into turn 2 Sinkhole and turn 3 Wasteland. He steamrolls me with 4/5 Goyf and Stalker. I concede because I can't find any land. G2 ( -2 Standstill + 2 Perish and -1 Ghastly + 1 LftL) I counter turn 1 Thoughtseize (didn't want to have Deed or Jace discarded, I had Spell Pierce to counter his Seize), turn 2 Tourach meets my Snare, then he drops a couple of Goyfs , I land my Deed and win with Jace. We don't go for G3 because meanwhile the results of other matches cut my opponent from Top4 independently from the result of this match. He concedes.

Semifinals 2-0 against The Damn Awesome Deck
G1 I menage to keep him off green mana sources through 4 Wasteland on all of his Bayous, multiple Spell Snare and Spell Pierces on Explores, Living Wishes and Tops, then eventually land Jace to win.
G2 I don't side and replay G1, he eventually finds a basic forest but my full set of Wastelands (AGAIN!) destroy his mana ramp plans ( I take 3 Bayous and a Cabal Coffer) I counter all his tentatives of manipulating library/ wishing/ drawing, and kill all the Confidants he drops. I had multiple Brainstorms in both games and always Jace on my 4th turn, so a lot of deckthinning (that's how I found all my Wastelands in both games, with a bit of luck too ^^)

Final 2-1 against BR Sligh (2nd round one)
1st game I counter or destroy all his threats, land Jace and win (really I don't remember much from this game). 2nd game I side in 2 Hydro and 2 Beb, but I am mana screwed due to his Wasteland and turn 3 Blood Moon (no Pierce in hand). I concede when he drops his beaters.G3 we have a pretty long game (and the most difficult in the tournament for me) in wich I keep this hand: Polluted Delta, Brainstorm, Hydroblast, Hydroblast, Jace, Spell Pierce and Spell Snare. He goes turn 1 Thoughtseize picking Snare (I respond with Brainstorm finding an Usea and hiding double Hydro, here probably I misplayed because I should have played Spell Pierce, but I was in a hurry to find my second land drop, and I thought that if I had Brain in my turn and could not find a land, I didn't have mana open for Hydroblast or Spell Pierce in his turn), then he drops 2nd turn Confidant and start drawing and beating. I can't find my lands and I'm low @life, but 2 hydro save me countering Ashenmoor Gouger and Blood Moon. I start drawing some lands, and stabilize with all the mana I need +2 Mishra's factory. He drops Pithing Needle naming Factory and continue his beatdown. Then in late game, I stick a Jace, have a +0 Brainstorm, find Pernicious and a Beb, weep the board, then drop Standstill. He goes for Magus and I Beb, then he drops Needle (naming Jace I think) but I Fow. Game ends when he has got no cards left in hand while I topdeck Standstill and continue fatesealing him with Jace.

I played this deck for the first time today and I'm pretty satisfied with it. I need to check the sideboard again though I'll stick with 4 Beb effects for sure. In the last 6-8 months I played UWb Landstill but I feel this deck is superior in finding answers and controls better (Pernicious is so good). I need to check my manabase too as sometimes I screwed due to opponent's Wasteland. Overall a powerful deck.

[U.deck]

I've been having great success with this list:

lands//24
4 mishra's factory
1 island
3 grove of the burnwillows
4 underground sea
3 volcanic island
3 tropical island
3 flooded strand
3 polluted delta

board control//12
4 innocent blood
4 punishing fires
4 pernicious deed

draw//11
4 brainstorm
4 standstill
3 jace, the mind sculpter

permission//12
4 force of will
4 counterspell
4 spell pierce

life from the loam//1

sideboard//
3 krosan grip
3 firespout
4 extirpate
3 blue elemental blast
2 red elemental blast


The deck has a lot of removal, as well as threats, permission, and draw. Punishing fires really changes a lot of difficult MUs, and makes the deck's midrange aggro MU incredible.

This list does not lose to merfolk. After boarding it gets even worse for them with the addition of firespout, which dramatically effects their ability to deny mass removal with wasteland.

Vengevival has at least 20 creatures that die to punishing fires, and most of their critters usually die to two punishing fires. If they allow you to go to the mid-late game you can keep them on a clear board forever. Spell pierce usually eats up early survivals game one and forces them to either slow roll them or go for the much slower, much more vulnerable fauna shaman in games 2 and 3.

Spell pierce also slows down counterbalances by enough turns to let you land standstill or deed under them, dramatically decreasing it's impact on the game.

I play extirpate in the board to help in the survival and ichorid MUs... People seem to disagree with this for some reason, but I find that if I remove bridge from below I can usually beat ichorid with landstill of any color combination. The addition of punishing fires can really slow down a bloodghast/ichorid beat down plan, and can clean up any left over zombies.


I am in dire need of a good goblins player and a good combo player to test against on MWS, so if anyone would be willing to test with me that would be awesome.


The deck has been struggling with knight of the reliquary in the midgame, as a bunch of 1cmc guys deprive innocent blood, and they are usually far to big to punishing fires, which opens zoo variants up to a nice timing attack around the turn 4-6 mark for a massive amount of damage sometimes. Firespout comes in postboard, but I think the deck needs a bit more than that, does anyone have any ideas to solve that problem?

* What about running E.E. and squeezing in a singleton Academy Ruins?

[U.deck]

A list that I have been tinkering around with... let me know what you all think.

4 Deed
4 Innocent Blood
3 E.E.
2 Ghastly Demise
1 Life from the loam

4 FOW
4 Counterspell
3 Brainstorm
3 Standstill
2 Cunning Wish
2 Spell Pierce
2 Jace, the mind sculptor
1 Spell Snare

1 Academy Ruins
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Polluted Delta
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Wasteland
3 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
1 Island
1 Forest
1 Swamp


SB:
1 Standstill
1 Diabolic Edict
3 Hydroblast
1 Spell Pierce
1 Spell Snare
3 Extirpate
3 Krosan Grip
1 Fact or fiction
1 Echoing Truth


Reasoning:

I went with 25 land over the stock 24 so that I could run 4 of each fetch. I wanted to make the mana base as stable as possible. It's no mono u merfolk list but I don't think it is too bad. In doing this I trimmed a few cards down. Namely Standstill(in the main) and Brainstorm. In testing I didn't always want to see standstill in my opener. I'd much rather clean up the board and then drop it. And 1 less Brainstorm I haven't found much of an impact in testing.

SB: Needless to say this is still a work in progress but I like most of it so far.

Card selection:

Standstill: To side in vs. combo for that bit of extra draw.
Diabolic edict: Wishable target to deal with a random emrakul or progenitus and with 5 mana with a wish...it isn't too bad. Also could help with zoo.
Hydroblast: Zoo and Gobbos
Spell Pierce and Spell Snare: Just wishable targets that are additional counter magic also come in vs. combo/counterbalance.deck
Extirpate: Dredge/Loam decks... also good to get rid of misc threats. Extirpate their jace etc...
K. Grip: Counterbalance and other deck who abuse enchantments/artifacts
FOF: Additional card draw if needed. I generally side it in if vs. another landstill deck card advantage is huge in this matchup.
Echoing Truth... empty the warrens tokens... pithing needle etc.

Please let me know what you all think. Thanks.

[honestabe]

No offense, but if your only running 3 Brainstorms, you're not casting it correctly. I often joke that this is actually UBG Brainstorm, because I often found that resolving a Brainstorm was more game breaking than resolving a Standstill. It's interaction with Loam is just insane, and it's invaluable against hand destruction. Play 4.

In the words of Patrick Chapin,

"It's Brainstorm!!! You've cast it before right???? AND IT RESOLVED???"

[The Treefolk Master]

No offense, but if your only running 3 Brainstorms, you're not casting it correctly. I often joke that this is actually UBG Brainstorm, because I often found that resolving a Brainstorm was more game breaking than resolving a Standstill. It's interaction with Loam is just insane, and it's invaluable against hand destruction. Play 4.

In the words of Patrick Chapin,

"It's Brainstorm!!! You've cast it before right???? AND IT RESOLVED???"

True, run 4.

Why only 2 Jace? Run 4, 3 isn't completely out of the question, but I think 4 is the right number.

[U.deck]

Running 4 brainstorm wouldn't be too much of a problem, I suppose I could just cut down the number of fetches to 7 vs. 8. I was just trying to make the manabase as stable as possible(i.e. no mana screw, and resilient to wasteland) But I suppose cutting one fetch won't have effect that are too adverse in relation to the gain of benefits from the 4th brainstorm.

I decided to only run two jace because I want to make sure when jace hit the table that I would have complete board control. I considered running 4 Jace and cutting either wishes/1x E.E. but decided that the board control was more important to me. I didn't want to run a jace out there and be used a a maze of for a turn, brainstorming, and then dying.

Comments?

[sdematt]

I'm trying the following list:

4 Wasteland
4 Factory
7 Fetches
4 Sea
3 Trop
2 Volc
1 Island
1 Swamp

3 Jace
3 Spell Pierce
3 Spell Snare
3 Deed
2 Ghastly Demise
2 Top
4 Force
3 Counterspell
2 EE
4 Brainstorm
3 Standstill
1 Life from the Loam
2 Open (firespout most likely)

2/3 Firespout (board)
3 Duress
Mostly undecided, yet.


I found the white build to be good, but I'm trying red again.

I'll post more later.

-Matt

[Shimi]

@sdmatt: When I was playing this deck there was only one thing that make me lose...manabase issues, like not having G for deed or no B source after getting wastelanded because I needed to use UU at T2.
Even with this manabase:
3 Wasteland
4 Mishra's
4 Sea
2 Tropicals
2 Island
1 Forest
1 Swamp
4 Delta
3 Misty

I was also playing with 4 innocent blood and 3 ghastily demise so removals were never a problem but let me know if your 4c manabase is solid and the advantages of firespout.
Also did you think the land count should be 26?Aren't you flooding lands?

[honestabe]

Running 4 brainstorm wouldn't be too much of a problem, I suppose I could just cut down the number of fetches to 7 vs. 8. I was just trying to make the manabase as stable as possible(i.e. no mana screw, and resilient to wasteland) But I suppose cutting one fetch won't have effect that are too adverse in relation to the gain of benefits from the 4th brainstorm.

I decided to only run two jace because I want to make sure when jace hit the table that I would have complete board control. I considered running 4 Jace and cutting either wishes/1x E.E. but decided that the board control was more important to me. I didn't want to run a jace out there and be used a a maze of for a turn, brainstorming, and then dying.

Comments?

Personally, I'd cut the wishes. I tested them so much, and wanted to be good sooo badly, but in the end, the deck was better off without. I definitely understand just 3 Standstills, though I prefer all 4 maindeck, I definitely get where you're coming from. I'd also run the 3rd Jace. So often, you can use the first one to help you stabilize (ie, they use up precious resources to kill the first one), then run out a second to seal the deal. They're also invalueable in the control matchup.

I definitely like the FoF in the board, I tried running one maindeck, but in the end, couldn't justify it, but one in the board is definitely neat.






On another note, shouldn't Go for the Throat be replacing Ghastly Demise in the deck? I made the switch, and have been killing Bobs with ease ever since. Not to mention a resolved Tombstalker, which is pretty much the last creature I want to see across the table.

[Shimi]

On another note, shouldn't Go for the Throat be replacing Ghastly Demise in the deck? I made the switch, and have been killing Bobs with ease ever since. Not to mention a resolved Tombstalker, which is pretty much the last creature I want to see across the table.

I did not tested GftT but I'm afraid it can't answer an T1 lackey , also I don't know if it can make you more vunerable to daze/pierces.Let me just know your results.Thx.

[U.deck]

Thanks for the thoughts on the wishes. With that information I would imagine the board would take on a slightly different form. So I suppose the MD would look like -2 Wish +Standstill +Jace...? A part of me wants to run more countermagic though.

Probably my favorite card... aside from counterspell is fact or fiction... just so good.(drool)

I have been thinking about Go for the Throat and Ghastly and I think running the two ghastly is ok.. more testing might be needed though. It is mostly there because of the turn one lackey, EOT fetch and ghastly followed up by standstill. What about diabolic edicts vs. Go for the throat? A resolved natural order or a show and tell is a bit scary... and edict could be a nice out. Thoughts?

P.S. Thanks for the input.