UB Landstill

[Kobal]

In this thread I would like to talk a bit about the UB Landstill list Caleb Durward introduced in his latest article (http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/legacy-weapon-define-stagnant/). For reference, his 75 look like this:

1 Darkslick Shores
4 Polluted Delta
4 Underground Sea
2 Mishra's Factory
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Marsh Flats
2 Island
1 Swamp
1 Chrome Mox
4 Wasteland
2 Ponder
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Liliana of the Veil
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Damnation
2 Crucible of Worlds
4 Innocent Blood
2 Standstill
4 Thoughtseize
1 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Spell Pierce

Sideboard
2 Misdirection
2 Pithing Needle
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Dread of Night
3 Nihil Spellbomb
3 Flusterstorm
2 Engineered Plague

I liked the way the list looked so I gave it a bit of a try. So far I have only gotten in limited testing, but I am planning to continue. The Chrome Mox has already been replaced by another basic Island, it felt awful every time I drew it. Some of my impressions:

- Dredge is a nightmare matchup.
- Merfolk is a nightmare matchup. Maybe this can be improved a bit by adding more Damnations/Toxic Deluges to the board.
- Delver of all sorts seems beatable. My gut feeling even tells me we are slightly favored against them, but my gut might be wrong. TNN is their worst creature against us with all our removal being edict based. :)
- Most combo is easy. The notable exception are elves, unless you manage to draw the sideboarded Engineered Plague.
- U/Wx Miracles I have not tested yet, but this can likely go both ways, depending on whether they manage to stick a Counterbalance. We can't play the hellbent game against them, their topdecks (Entreat, Jace, Counterbalance) are too strong for that and they play 4 Top.

At times I had wished for some instant speed creature removal. Splash green for Abrupt Decay maybe? Top also is great, especiallly once we are hellbent to keep counter magic up. Maybe add a second?

Oh, and the most frequent win condition is concession out of frustration. :)

[kiblast]

I think you want to splash green for Pernicious Deed and Decay. UB doesn't offer the flexibility of UWB or UBx as it lacks Red or white as support colors. I'm pretty sure that if you want to play unconventional control decks (i.e. blue based decks lacking white as secondary color) in Legacy your only option is Decay.

[Purgatory]

Without having even tested the list or even read the article above my initial thoughts are:

1. Only 2 Factories seems wrong. I play 4 when I play BUGstill and they're just awesome. You really, really need the extra oompf just to close two out of three games in 50 minutes.

2. Chrome Mox with only 2 Standstills and no other way barring Jace to recover the card disadvantage also feels wrong.

3. What are the mertis of playing this over BUGstill? You lose Pernicious Deed and Abrupt Decay along with Life from the Loam (slightly less important than the two others), for Liliana of the Veil (albeit awesome) and a single extra Basic Land. Most BUGlists play at least an Island and a Swamp, so I don't see the point in dropping an entire colour from the deck.

[Kobal]

Keep in mind that I basically just copied the list from Caleb's article - trusting the fact that he knows what he is writing about for the most part - and gave it a whirl.

So what are the advantages over regular BUG Landstill? Maybe the reverse question should be what you gain by adding green.

- Life from the Loam. This list plays Crucible instead. Not an exact replacement, but not strictly worse either. In particular Crucible functions better under a Standstill.
- Pernicious Deed. A good card for sure, but also very expensive. Unless you can activate it the turn you play it you run the risk of it getting destroyed - ironically by Abrupt decay among other cards. Even before this list other BUG lists I have seen online have started to cut down on the copies.
- Abrupt Decay. Clearly the biggest loss, especially for the enormous flexibility that card offers since it can off other things than creatures. Still, Innocent Blood also has its upsides, but it does pale in comparison.

The big win, even if the number of basics is not that much higher, is a more stable manabase. I have tried BUG a few years ago, and there it felt rather easy for the opponent to cut off one of your colors, especially green.

Mostly still only speculation, admittedly.

[evanmartyr]

You can shift your reliance on green down to a more reasonable, less hate-able, amount with deck construction, though.

Crucible functions better under Standstill...yes. The list runs two Standstills. It's not exactly a hallmark card of the deck. And LftL is better much of the time, since it's not subject to removal, is resilient to disruption, and a hilarious counter to counters. Crucible is none of those things.

How does this list play only two Factories and no Tar Pits? Tar Pits will win you planeswalker wars, and only having two factories, frankly, will not.

I do like that the deck seems more condensed, but it's certainly at the expense of being flexible and having answers to common problems control decks face. No Abrupt Decay, a single Engineered Explosives, no Golgari Charm out of the sideboard, no real disenchant effects available at all...it's relying very, very heavily on Thoughtseize filling in those gaps, and that's a horrendous gameplan for a deck with no real clock.

[Apollo]

I agree, another Factory and a Tar Pit sounds sweet with a third standstill to go with it.