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Jenni
08-21-2012, 04:10 AM
So this is a casual deck I was toying around with, It's pretty fun to play (for me, anyway, but I should mention I love prison decks that drag the game on forever.)
Basically, the heart of the deck is Chronatog and Stasis , which eventually mills your opponent. How it works, for those who don't know, is that by skipping your draw and upkeep steps (along with everything else) via feeding the chronatog, you never have to pay Stasis' upkeep cost, and you never draw for your turn, but your opponent keeps getting turns, and keeps drawing one card per turn. The end result - assuming you can keep Statis and the Atog around that long - Is your opponent losing due to drawing off an empty library.

Anyway, the full list is -
Combo Pieces: (12)
4 Chronatog
4 Stasis
2 Frozen Aether
2 Kismet
Support, dig, control, removal, etc: (22)
4 Ponder
4 Condemn
4 Mana Leak
4 Rescue
4 Mana Short
2 Gigadrowse
Alternate win condition:(2)
2 Serra Angel
Land: (24)
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Tectonic Edge
8 Plains
8 Island

Obviously, the mana base could do with some fetches, dual lands, and of course wastelands over tec edges, but I don't have any of those that aren't in real decks right now.
Basically, though, you want to play Kismet or Frozen Aether so all your opponent's land come into play tapped, then use mana short or gigadrowse to tap-down your opponent's land that aren't already tapped. Once their land is tapped down, Stasis keeps them from having mana.

Ideally, you want to get the Atog out, and skip all your turns while you have stasis out, and a tapped-down opponent, milling them slowly.
If that doesn't work out, though, you can use Rescue on their end step to allow yourself to untap, and replay stasis on your 2nd main phase to keep your opponent tapped down. doing this means you can get in for damage with the Serra angels pretty reliably. since Serra angel has vigilance, you don't need to worry about bouncing stasis every turn - keep it out until you can't afford the upkeep anymore, then bounce it to untap, buying you more time to either get the rest of the combo, or ride your angels to victory.

Mana Leak is to protect your Stasis lock from those who would try to ruin your plans, and condemn is just to keep you alive while you look for missing pieces you need to win.
Rescue is so you can reuse your Stasis/kismet-effects, and to protect your enchantments from disenchant and erase effects that are potentially game-winning.
Mana Short and Gigadrowse tap down lands, and gigadrowse taps down vigil attackers and really. any pesky things your opponent would like to have untapped.

Having so many copies of combo pieces adds redundancy, and gives you the ability to restore the lock if it gets broken. It also means you can use Stasis to buy time and stabilize, rather than saving it in your hand the entire game for the eventual win.
I was going to play enlightened tutors, but the only ones I've got are in a deck already, but going down to 3 Stasis, 2 Kismet effects and replacing them with 3 Tutors would reduce mulligans, and make finding individual missing parts of the combo a bit easier. It would also open the option of more one-of enchantments to help stabalize while you set up.
Mana Leak could probably be replaced with a hard counter of some sort, or better yet Remand for the cantrip effect, since you only need it to buy time anyway, and the extra card helps quite a bit.

I would not reccomend trying to make this a competative deck at all... it might be fun to force every game to time out though.
If you feel the need to throw money at it the deck, Fetches, Brainstorm, Swords to plow shares, maybe Force of Will could all improve the deck quite a bit.

As for competative Stasis locks.. I am actually thinking the Stasis + Serra angel (or any other vigilant beater) route, with Sword of Feast and famine (to get the land untaps) might have some potential, though. I'm working on a list that uses that because of how much fun I've had with this.

AndyTron
08-21-2012, 01:52 PM
A few suggestions:

1) Repeal instead of rescue
You don't lose a card and it's much more versatile, so you can use it to set your opponent back on tempo when you don't need to reset your stasis. The downside is that it costs two more to do that, so it will be harder to pull off sometimes, but since this is a prison deck that usually just means waiting until you draw more lands. All in all it seems like a good trade.

2) Serra avenger instead of serra angel
It's more efficient so it's easier to cast under stasis and in this deck the drawback seems negligible.

3) Power sink instead of either mana short or mana leak (maybe a split)
No real explanation, just seems synergistic.

4) Forsaken city
See above.

Jenni
08-21-2012, 04:26 PM
A few suggestions:

1) Repeal instead of rescue
You don't lose a card and it's much more versatile, so you can use it to set your opponent back on tempo when you don't need to reset your stasis. The downside is that it costs two more to do that, so it will be harder to pull off sometimes, but since this is a prison deck that usually just means waiting until you draw more lands. All in all it seems like a good trade.

2) Serra avenger instead of serra angel
It's more efficient so it's easier to cast under stasis and in this deck the drawback seems negligible.

3) Power sink instead of either mana short or mana leak (maybe a split)
No real explanation, just seems synergistic.

4) Forsaken city
See above.

Repeal is probably an upgrade, I kept rescue jsut because it's cheap and easy to cast, which comes up fairly often, since you can keep stasis out until you only have one blue-source left, then bounce it to untap.

Avenger is a better creature overall, but a 7 turn clock, vs a 5 turn clock is a pretty big loss in cases where you can't keep resetting stasis to untap on your own turn. She's probably a good replacement though, I'll try it with her instead of my serra angels.

Power sink definitely seams better than mana leak, here, in retrospect, since it's another way to tap-down an opponent. The only real issue is that sometimes it can be a bit pricey to cast. maybe +2 sink -2 leak. I want to keep the mana shorts, since it makes setting up so much easier. opponents end step play mana short, then play stasis after you untap is usually how I get the lock going, lol.

City might be good since it lets you pay for stasis at the cost of a card every turn.. which, if you have the opponent locked out of playing magic, is a negligable loss.

evanmartyr
08-21-2012, 06:39 PM
I always thought Force Spike and Daze seemed pretty good in Stasis, given that you can recycle tapped lands with Daze, Force Spike protects you early on, and they're both cheap and easily active under Stasis.

kwis
08-21-2012, 08:30 PM
Why not soft lock with forsaken city?

Ensnare is also quite nice.

mistercakes
08-21-2012, 10:01 PM
just for the sake of saying it, i think you could consider equipoise and sands of time combo for more casual fun. it was really fun when mirage block was the format, and in a casual game still has a lot of power.

rufus
08-24-2012, 01:53 PM
After reading the thread title, I was sort of hoping to see a list with Auratog/Phantatog and Ancestral Vision/Hatching Plans/Standstill/Stasis.

dameus
08-26-2012, 12:15 AM
AndyTron had some good ideas.

Forsaken City is definitely the best win con (you can keep 1 Tog for good measure, but no more!)

I wouldn't bother with any creature alt win con

Propaganda is a good card

Daze fits perfectly

Did you consider Idyllic Tutor?

If you can stand a green splash, Root Maze and Crop Rotation have a chance

Not much of a need for fetch if you aren't running Brainstorm

StP over Condemn for sure!

Meekstone maybe?

Jenni
08-26-2012, 02:13 AM
AndyTron had some good ideas.

Forsaken City is definitely the best win con (you can keep 1 Tog for good measure, but no more!)

I wouldn't bother with any creature alt win con


I don't think the mill plan is actually viable for a less casual verion, though, which is why I have the creature backup.
If my opponent has, say, a single emrakul or blightsteel colossus in their deck, I can't mill them without some way to remove their graveyard.

Forsaken City is definitely going in, though. Swords over condemn and small upgrades ( like Daze/force over leak) are pretty easy, and if I do make it a non-casual deck those are definite changes, but I only have 4 each of those, and I have some actual decks using all of them.

For changes to the casual list, so far I have gone with:

-1x Serra angel
1x Serra Avenger

-4x Rescue
2x Repeal

-4x mana leak
4x daze
2x counterspell

-2x tectonic edge
-1x gigadrowse
3x Forsaken City

(Not spaced very well I guess, but totals to -12 cards, and +12 cards, leaving the total still at 60)
The angel/Avenger split is one I'm not sure about, avenger is probably better, but I really like Serra angel, so you might just want to replace both angels with avengers.
I'm keeping the Atogs in the casual version of the deck just because I think it's fun to win the game by not taking my turns.

Anyway, A bit unrelated but, As for a more serious Stasis deck, so far this is what I have:

"Sword of Stasis"

"Core" spells:
3x Stasis
4x Serra Avenger
2x Sword of Feast and Famine
3x Stoneforge Mystic
2x Frozen Aether
1x Kismet

Supporting cast:
4x Brainstorm
4x Ponder
4x Swords to plow shares
4x Daze
4x Force of Will
2x Mana Short

Land:
4x Flooded Strand
4x Scalding Tarn
3x Tundra
2x Forsaken City
5x Island
5x Plains

Maybe:
2-3x Enlightened tutor
-1-2x Mana short
-1x Frozen Aether


So, obviously, the Atogs had to go, because as I said, the mill plan doesn't actually work vs some decks. The Forsaken Cities are in, though, because in the cases where it will work, then the city is just better than the Atog anyway normally. In cases where it wont work to mill, it gives me a way to keep stasis up while the avengers beat down, if I can't get a sword into their hands.
Brainstorm, Ponder, and fetches to help find pieces, of course.
down to 3 stasis, because with the 8 digging effects, it's too easy to stumble across more of them than you actually want. The 4 Avengers will be the way it normally wins, give them a sword and suddenly stasis is a very one-sided spell. The 3 Kismet effects for the same reason, why 2/1 I don't really know, I wanted a split of both though.
Stoneforge Mystic + Sword package, I'm not sure about the numbers here. I want the mystics for the tutor effect, and the extra body, but maybe playing more swords is better. Either way, though, give the sword to a vigilant creature and locking your opponent out of the game becomes pretty easy.
Mana short is just to force an opponent to tap-down when you're ready to lock them out of the game. Could probably get by without it, though.
The permission and removal is just to keep you in the game long enough to set up your lock. Nice thing about this type of deck is that even if you stabalize at 1 life, as long as you get set up you're in a good position to win.

dameus
08-29-2012, 01:12 AM
Always 4 Stasis - it's your whole theme! Diggers sometime turn up empty and you have no tutors. Also having a 2nd one in hand isn't bad either for surviving Duress, counter magic and all that and it pitches to FoW, too.

Standstill would still be useful. Grim Monolith can get your Kismet effect down faster. Consider an Ancient Tomb or 2, too.

Chain of Vapor (flexible - can be used on yourself or your oppent's annoying permanents - or both!)

What about Ebony Owl Netsuke as a vice-like win con?

Oh, and Mana Short has never been a good enough card to play - even in a Stasis deck.

Jenni
09-09-2012, 01:08 AM
So I've been working on the list a bit, here is what I have at the moment:


"core":(16)
4x Stasis
2x Frozen Aether
2x Kismet
4x Serra Avenger
2x Sword of Feast and Famine
2x Viseling

Support: (20)
4x Brainstorm
4x Ponder
4x Swords to Plow Shares
4x Daze
4x Force of Will

Land: (24)
3x Forsaken City
4x Flooded Strand
4x Scalding Tarn
3x Tundra
4x Plains
3x Island
3x Ancient Tomb


Ancient tombs help get to 4 faster for Kismets and the viselings. Thanks to dameus' recommendation. Haven't had a chance to test the monoliths (I don't actually own any, anymore, lol).
Forsaken cities went up from 2 to 3 to help keep stasis going, and to allow me to use spells while stasis is up if I need to (which has come up in testing a few times). Having 2 of them on board is almost never a bad thing anyway, especially once stasis hits.
4 Kismet effects now, instead of just 3, and 4 stasis instead of just 3, since they form the actual lock and I wanted to hit them both more often. Still have the kismet effects split, though, helps avoid some problems (like surgical if they make me discard one)

Viseling was thanks to the recommendation of Ebony Owl Netsuke. I tried the owl a bit, but viseling having a body was actually rather relevant, especially if I could give it a sword. Plus, I was in situations where my opponent kept getting land drops and stayed at below 7 cards for a long time, and I dont want to give them extra time to find an out really, or more time for me to do somehting stupid like miss stasis' upkeep payment.
Got rid of the stone forge mystics, because with the stasis lock and a forsaken city, I have plenty of time to just draw into a sword w/ brainstorm and ponder, and stasis + kismet + forsaken city allows me to just win off of an unarmed Serra Avenger anyway. When I can get a sword, though, it's very powerful since the lock becomes completely one-sided and I can replace threats, swords their attempts, and force/daze their attempted plays etc.

Still 4 avengers. I'm not sure is going down to 2 avengers and up to 4 viselings is correct, the viselings are better when everything goes as planned, but I've had games end up with only part of my lock resolving and in those cases a 3/3 flyer works better normally.

Mana short went away, I still love the card, but it's mostly unnecessary.