Lets build ! U/W Standstill Controll/Midrange

[RiverCake]

Hey guys I have a deck that's in my head for some time now. I want to utilize the insane board present from standstill combined with just normal U/W control spells and the explosive power from Mentor and Myth Realized. This is just a list with cards that came in my mind while tinkering it is far far away for optimized.

4 Myth Realized
4 Standstill
4 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
2 Supreme Verdict
2 Counterspell
4 Force of Will
2 Spell Pierce
4 Island
2 Plains
3 Tundra
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
4 Mishra's Factory
1 Faerie Conclave
1 Spell Snare
1 Path to Exile

//Sideboard:
2 Disenchant
2 True-Name Nemesis
1 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Cursed Totem
1 Pithing Needle
1 Council's Judgment
2 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Meddling Mage
2 Rest in Peace

Here some reasoning behind the picks:
Monastery Mentor: This is a super powerful card that can win you a game on turn 5 out of nowhere.
Bs/Ponder/: Just insane with Mentor and Myth Realized.
Myth Realized: I am not sure about the card this is a swift spear that keep its counter and triggers from enchantments and artifacts. It can dodge your one Verdict's and can be played turn 1 and turn 2 standstill. After this you can make your land drops and pump it with the first ability. Cons can be killed by every nearly every spot removal(Swords, Quasaly, Decay and Bolt when you don't pay) attention). I think this card has some Potential.
Standstill: This card can lock down the board and buy you some time to make your land drops. Combined with a Supreme Verdict this card can just turn games form 0 to 100 for you."Take yourtime."
Sp/fow/Counterspell: I dont have to explain that. just
SFM: Just putting a the SFM on the field pressures some MU to have an answer in the next round.


To Splash Or Not To Splash? That, Is The Question
I decided to keep it in 2 colors you don't want to get wasted after playing the first land with such an low landcount . Splashing could give some good sb cards like REB and so on. I am not sure about it I am inserted in some feedback!

[TooOld4Magic]

Check out the extensive thread on this deck...
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?9280-Deck-UW(x)-Landstill

[Jon]

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/11/04/9a40c64373590d5a9ad681af6b139696.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/11/04/41b276903a3899a6bb4d4dcbe5270a4d.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/11/04/f066f73cf254cccef79d8eee747609a7.jpg

I did it!


I have fat fingers and I am posting from my iPhone.

[tarmogoat]

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/11/04/9a40c64373590d5a9ad681af6b139696.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/11/04/41b276903a3899a6bb4d4dcbe5270a4d.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/11/04/f066f73cf254cccef79d8eee747609a7.jpg

I did it!


I have fat fingers and I am posting from my iPhone.

A couple questions:

Why Mana Leak over more Counterspells?
Why 3rd Snpacaster Mage or Baby Jace instead of 4th Standstill?
Is Sphinx good?
When would you bring in Dack?

[RiverCake]

Check out the extensive thread on this deck...
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?9280-Deck-UW(x)-Landstill

Ahh there it is. I know there was an UW Standstill Thread but i couldn't find it tought it got delete/moved into old:eek:

[RiverCake]

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/11/04/9a40c64373590d5a9ad681af6b139696.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/11/04/41b276903a3899a6bb4d4dcbe5270a4d.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/11/04/f066f73cf254cccef79d8eee747609a7.jpg

I did it!


I have fat fingers and I am posting from my iPhone.

Thats sexy. Isnt it to much high cmc. I always got the feeling that the High cmc stucked in my hand.

[Piceli89]

A couple of off-the-bat considerations that may help you during the deckbuilding process:

- It is very likely that you need a third colour from the maindeck, as this format is very filled with very strong turn one creature plays (Delver, Deathrite Shaman, Elves, and so on), which prompts the inclusion of Lightning Bolt as removal #5-6. On the draw, you absolutely want to get rid of their start and resolve your own Standstill, so that you start leveraging your gameplan. You can't really afford to delay Standstill time too much.

- You also need a greater number of turn one proactive plays. I would recommend trying to squeeze in at least a couple of Sensei's Divining Top, which are great under a Standstill and even without, as they filter your draws in the long run.

- I would not be sure about Stoneforge Mystic in this deck. Sure, she is a powerhouse and arguably good under a Standstill, but which creatures are you playing to give her (or better, the equips) value? Regular Stoneblade builds pack evasive creatures in the form of Clique and Nemesis. Here, you have none, nor I suspect you can't afford neither. I would rather play the full set of Snapcasters, especially if you are playing Bolts as suggested above, given this way they would be able to finish games quicker. Two additional threats may be Mentors, which conveniently would "go off" with Tops (Myth Realized does too).

- Conveniently, revolving your deck around resolving an early Standstill in an early stage of the game implies that you are putting off shields from that short window of time. For example, if you happen to have the aforementioned turn 2 Standstill, your opponent may untap and slam a Counterbalance. You don't want that to resolve. As painful and counter-intuitive as that may sound, I would playtest and consider if some Dazes are worth the tempo disadvantage to protect you from early-game backbreaking plays.

- Counterspell is a card that is heavier than you'd think in the context of a manabase with four (or more) colorless lands. I would play between zero and one. It is obviously good but I would prioritize cheaper forms of permission. Even thinking about maindecking Flusterstorm isn't totally unreasonable, as your worst matchups are going to be spell-based combo decks and tempo-esque decks ala Team America and you want to power through those given how much they are defining Legacy.

- If you were to do so (but even if you don't), I would suggest taking the deck in a more aggressive route by giving up the Jaces and the Verdicts, which are kinda loose in the recent legacy metagame anyways (despites the Dig ban and the return of black-based archetypes, which you should face well with your draw3s). Standstill has always been conceived as a control card, but frankly there is no point in trying to play a half-assed control deck these days given Miracle would just be better. I believe that it is better to top your curve at three and try to play this fish-style "bite and run" game with cheap counters plus cheap threats. Having cheaper spells would also benefit Myth and Mentors as well, increasing their damage outputs.

---

In short, this is my take on Standstill in a rough sketch:

22-23 lands

4 Myth Realized
2 Sensei's Divining Top
0/1 Ponder
4 Stp
2 Lightning Bolt (/Pyroblast given certain metagames)

4 Brainstorm

4 Standstill

4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Monastery Mentor

4 Force of Will
2 Spell Pierce/Fstorm
2+ Daze
2 Spell Snare

In all likelihood you are going to have your manabase stretched thin with quite a liability to Wasteland, but this is the tradeoff for playing 3c with Factories.
---
Hope this can help. I would love to see Standstill builds doing well again, and I don't like Delver builds (which are nonexistant anyways).

[RogueMTG]

I've been trying to get a working list for this together for a while (Landstill is my one true love) but I haven't had a lot of success yet. They do all end up panning out to be very similar to the run down given by @Piceli89.

My sticking point is generally that I feel like you need a minimum of 5 colorless lands (3 Factory 2 Waste) in order to deal with things like Creeping Tar Pit or Inkmoth Nexus without being forced to crack your own Standstill.

But this makes hitting UUWW/r by turn 4 pretty difficult. Maybe it's correct to go full-greed and drop down to 2~ basics like BUG does, but that also feels dangerous...

[tarmogoat]

I always thought that UW standstill could be a home for a nasty Thopter combo.


Creatures (2)
2 Snapcaster Mage

Spells (35)
1 Enlightened Tutor
2 Spell Snare
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Sword of the Meek
2 Thopter Foundry
2 Counterspell
4 Standstill
1 Council's Judgment
1 Dismember
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Humility
1 Supreme Verdict
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Force of Will

Lands (23)
1 Academy Ruins
1 Karakas
2 Arid Mesa
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Plains
3 Tundra
4 Flooded Strand
4 Island
4 Mishra's Factory

Sideboard (15)
1 Engineered Explosives
3 Flusterstorm
3 Surgical Extraction
1 Serenity
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Abolish
1 Armageddon
1 Supreme Verdict
2 Misdirection

It's a slow developing gameplan though, so idk how much viability this has.

[RiverCake]

Today I went really well with the first list. I will test with it some more days but you are maybe right with the 3 color.
I played versus
SnT: 2-1 for me
Bug control 2-0
Esper blade 1-2
Miracles 1-1-1
Bug 2-1
Bant Mid range 2-1
Elfs 2-1
Jeskai Delver 1-2



A couple of off-the-bat considerations that may help you during the deckbuilding process:

- It is very likely that you need a third colour from the maindeck, as this format is very filled with very strong turn one creature plays (Delver, Deathrite Shaman, Elves, and so on), which prompts the inclusion of Lightning Bolt as removal #5-6. On the draw, you absolutely want to get rid of their start and resolve your own Standstill, so that you start leveraging your gameplan. You can't really afford to delay Standstill time too much.

- You also need a greater number of turn one proactive plays. I would recommend trying to squeeze in at least a couple of Sensei's Divining Top, which are great under a Standstill and even without, as they filter your draws in the long run.

- I would not be sure about Stoneforge Mystic in this deck. Sure, she is a powerhouse and arguably good under a Standstill, but which creatures are you playing to give her (or better, the equips) value? Regular Stoneblade builds pack evasive creatures in the form of Clique and Nemesis. Here, you have none, nor I suspect you can't afford neither. I would rather play the full set of Snapcasters, especially if you are playing Bolts as suggested above, given this way they would be able to finish games quicker. Two additional threats may be Mentors, which conveniently would "go off" with Tops (Myth Realized does too).

- Conveniently, revolving your deck around resolving an early Standstill in an early stage of the game implies that you are putting off shields from that short window of time. For example, if you happen to have the aforementioned turn 2 Standstill, your opponent may untap and slam a Counterbalance. You don't want that to resolve. As painful and counter-intuitive as that may sound, I would playtest and consider if some Dazes are worth the tempo disadvantage to protect you from early-game backbreaking plays.

- Counterspell is a card that is heavier than you'd think in the context of a manabase with four (or more) colorless lands. I would play between zero and one. It is obviously good but I would prioritize cheaper forms of permission. Even thinking about maindecking Flusterstorm isn't totally unreasonable, as your worst matchups are going to be spell-based combo decks and tempo-esque decks ala Team America and you want to power through those given how much they are defining Legacy.

- If you were to do so (but even if you don't), I would suggest taking the deck in a more aggressive route by giving up the Jaces and the Verdicts, which are kinda loose in the recent legacy metagame anyways (despites the Dig ban and the return of black-based archetypes, which you should face well with your draw3s). Standstill has always been conceived as a control card, but frankly there is no point in trying to play a half-assed control deck these days given Miracle would just be better. I believe that it is better to top your curve at three and try to play this fish-style "bite and run" game with cheap counters plus cheap threats. Having cheaper spells would also benefit Myth and Mentors as well, increasing their damage outputs.

---

In short, this is my take on Standstill in a rough sketch:

22-23 lands

4 Myth Realized
2 Sensei's Divining Top
0/1 Ponder
4 Stp
2 Lightning Bolt (/Pyroblast given certain metagames)

4 Brainstorm

4 Standstill

4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Monastery Mentor

4 Force of Will
2 Spell Pierce/Fstorm
2+ Daze
2 Spell Snare

In all likelihood you are going to have your manabase stretched thin with quite a liability to Wasteland, but this is the tradeoff for playing 3c with Factories.
---
Hope this can help. I would love to see Standstill builds doing well again, and I don't like Delver builds (which are nonexistant anyways).