Atraxa Stasis (based on UR Stasis)

Atraxa Stasis

A couple a month ago I posted another deck here with Stasis and now im gonna try again.
The deck wasn't that bad it just had to much going on.
Now I have played the deck for a few weeks at a local weekly legacy event and change alot along the way. Now I have more experince and more
understanding of the deck and how I it should be played.

https://i.imgur.com/YQFymnj.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/S6qLQsr.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/O6h5A7M.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/D5lzQIh.jpg

The Deck
Land (20)
2x City of Traitors
2x Crystal Vein
2x Forsaken City
4x Island
1x Mountain
2x Polluted Delta
4x Scalding Tarn
1x Swamp
1x Underground Sea
1x Volcanic Island

Planeswalker (6)
1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3x Ral Zarek
2x Tezzeret the Schemer

Instant (13)
3x Brainstorm
2x Counterspell
3x Daze
4x Force of Will
1x Intuition

Sorcery (10)
4x Ancestral Vision
3x Duress
1x Ponder
2x Pyroclasm

Enchantment (9)
4x As Foretold
1x Blood Moon
4x Stasis

Artifact (1)
1x Chrome Mox

Creature (1)
1x Atraxa, Praetors' Voice

Sideboard (15)
1x Blood Moon
2x Chalice of the Void
2x Diabolic Edict
1x Engineered Plague
1x Flusterstorm
1x Kozilek's Return
1x Mindbreak Trap
2x Pithing Needle
2x Smash to Smithereens
2x Surgical Extraction

I'll take it from the beginning.
The Stasis Part.

Stasis, Ral Zarek, Tezzeret the schemer and Forsaken City, these are the core of the deck.

Stasis & Forsaken City: This is an old version of getting Stasis going but it works.
And with all card draws and multiple copies of some cards, exiling one from your hand is not that bad.
Forsaken City also helps getting Atraxa in to play if needed.

Stasis & Ral Zarek: Ral Zarek was made for Stasis someone said. I don't know if it is true but he plays
excellent with Stasis and people have played Ral Zarek and Stasis before and some still do.
I have read lots of articles and posts about them and I think the problem with a typical UR Stasis is that it is easy to interrupt.
A Pithing Needle or facing to many creatures can be hard to handle.

Stasis & Tezzeret the schemer: Many people think this Tezzeret is bad. And he is compared to the older Tezzerets.
But is he that bad? Produce mana, can kill creatures or boost your creatures and have a win con, kind of.
Well he isn't great but I think he fits perfectly in this deck. His Cells are a good way to feed Stasis and add mana for other spells.
Some thought he would be bad in this deck but he proven himself more then once!

With 2 Forsaken City, 3 Ral Zarek and 2 Tezzeret it gives you a total of 7 ways to keep Stasis going.
Both Planeswalkers have high loyalty from the start and can't be bolted or destroyed by smaller creatures easily and
Pithing Needle or Sourcerus Spyglass ain't that scary becuse one hitting the battlefield don't always interrupt with your plan.

Supporting roles

Duress
I tried to play Thoughtseize but it cost to much life. And more than often it is the noncreature spells i want, like Abrupt Decay or FoW.
I got sweepers or counterspells for creatures.
3 is enough because i don't need it in turn 1 like a combo deck, i need it when i want information before playing Stasis or As Foretold.

FoW
Daze
Counterspell
Played 4 of Daze and FoW in the beginning but change it. Daze are often dead in my hand even with Stasis so added
Counterspell but only 2 for now. I got mixed feeling for Daze, i get to much behind on mana but it so nice to have when it is needed.
Remember you can cast Counterspell with As Foretold so it also works like a "free" spell if you are tapped out.

Pyroclasm
It is always the small creatures thats the most annoying. Delver, thalia, deathrite etc. so cheap sweepers is a must.
Just 2 Pyroclasm in mainboard but thinking of adding another one, but i got Kozilek's return and Engineered Plague in side so this is
depending on meta I think. I don't have Toxic deluge for the same reasons i don't use thoughtseize, i need the life!

Blood Moon
I have had Blood Moon in Sideboard for a while but i took it in almost every game. And i felt like i needed another lock piece other than 4 Stasis.
So now I have one in main and one in Sideboard. And I will try it in main for a while, the local meta uses lot of basics but it slows them down
and shuts of wasteland and some colours which can be enough.

Atraxa, Praetors' Voice
She is perfect in many ways, 4/4 for 4 mana, And with Flying, Vigilance, Deathtouch and Lifelink, she fits so good in this deck!
Gives lifes, dosent tap, kills almost anything and beautiful art! What not to love?
But the most important part is her proliferate ability. It ticks up the counters on all the planeswalkers and As foretold. This speeds up the game more than i
realised. Getting to use my planewalkers ultimate ability faster.
But I only play one of her at the moment becuse you don't want her in your hand the first couple of turns and my mana base is not ideal for her.
I get her in to play with help of Forsaken City or Tezzeret Cells but most often with As Foretold.

As Foretold
A key card in the deck. Its not the key to winning but it helps alot. Get As Foretold in play T2 or T3 is a nice play but you really need playing Stasis, Blood Moon
or a planeswalker the following turn just to get the attention away from As Foretold. There are a few cards that can destroy As Foretold but the most common are Abrupt Decay and Krosan Grip
and non of them can be counterd so be sure there are no green mana available or you have played Duress so you know whats in there hand.
If you play Stasis before As Foretold it can be hard to get it in play and have a good tempo but ALWAYS PLAY STASIS IF YOU CONTROL THE OTHER LOCK PIECES.

Jace, the mindsculptor
I'm not actually sure if he fits in this deck.
Haven't got him in to play enough to have any real thoughts but i keep him in the deck for now.

Sideboard
Some might think that Chalice does not fit but I need it against decks like UR Delver or Combo decks.


Other thoughts
I know there are other Planeswalkers that work with Stasis and some creatures too. But when making this deck i wanted no creatures or maybe 1-2.
And I wanted it to be 2-3 colours. Keep it simple. I was torn between white and black but Tezzeret feel like the best choice as another Stasis "feeder". I looked at the new Teferi but I think 5 mana is to much.
White whould had open up alot of good cards but nothing that black could not.. maybe better sweepers or tutors.
Green have alot that works with Stasis and I haven't thrown away the idea of adding green in some way but not needed at this point.
Bounce Stasis is not in my plan. I think that it is a better play to keep Stasis on the battlefield all the time and keep the control
than bounce Stasis and risk it to be counterd. Because I'm not sure why i want to tap up like 6-7 Lands to play something and the play Stasis again.

Good match up
Other prison decks or decks that need some turns to set up a lock or a real threat are good match ups because it gives you time to set up Stasis and it is probably
better than your opponents Blood Moon or Chalice of the void because you can play around those. So dragon stompy and decks like MUD or Tezzeret control haven't been a big problem.
Decks like 12 post, Lands and Nic fit always feels like a good chance because they really need to untap and hit landdrops, but be aware of the Abrupt Decay and Krosan grip.

Bad match up
Delver decks (grixis, BUG, canadian etc), UW or UB control, Death and Taxes have been hard. But It would have been strange if these where the good match ups...
No real plan how to beat those decks yet.

Side note: Remember that I haven't played this for very long so i can't really say which really are good or bad match ups.. and i haven't played a lot of combo
decks like storm or show and tell but i think those games should be in my favour because I have access to both counterspells and hand disruption and chalice in the sideboard.

So what are your experience with Stasis?

Why can't Stasis be a top tier Prison Deck? What does it need?