[Deck] UW(x) Landstill

Hi,

Why so many wishtargets? I tested the deck with the following Wishboard against most top-tier decks( Threshold, DreadStill, Aggro-Loam, TES, ITF, Stax and Goblins):

1 Extirpate
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Slaughter Pact( pre Path to Exile)
1 Return to Dust
1 Pulse of the Field
1 Enlightened Tutor

In about 10 games against each deck(pre-board) I tutored for:

1x Enlightened Tutor( for a Standstill)
0x Red Elemental Blast
1x Slaughter Pact

So I decided to cut those cards and leave the 3 most versatile wishtargets. This is my complete SB:

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1 Extirpate
1 Pulse of the Field
1 Return to Dust

4 Meddling Mage
3 Engineered Plague
3 Runed Halo
2 Ajani Goldmane

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I like to make room for one more Engineered Plague though.

BB

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Originally Posted by i_need_the_extra_turns

One card is also strong for the mirror: Extirpate.
An extirpate on FoW or Counterspell gives u a huge advantage in all control mirrors.

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A killer play post-board is a Wasteland -> Extirpate. Oh man, not only have your Standstills become draw engines, you just won the Standstill superiority war.

Extirpate in the Landstill Mirror is probably the best card you can run, unfortunatly it is not the best side board card for any of the other match-ups you want to make better.

How is landstill GOOD in the mirror?? Because both players have (nearly) the same cards it is just as likely that you have to break your standstill instead of him.. In fact because you play standstill whereas your opponent could be playing more useful cards the chance is even bigger that you have to break your own standstill. All these arguments about your decree working under your standstill are irrelevant as his decree works under it too...
Only if you know that standstill is definately in your favor it is useful to leave them in really, but since almost all builds run 4 factory 3 wasteland and 2-3 decree, 9 out of 10 times you will have trouble abusing it. With extirpate sb it becomes a different issue as the wasteland extirpate play on factory will allow you to abuse standstill. I hadn't thought of that before and it may be the best way to go for the mirror given that extirpate is useful in a decent amount of other matches too. It can for example force a shuffle against combo decks to screw up mystical tutor and has its uses against loam and ichorid.

Also citrusgod, what i ment by DoJ and elsepth being narrow is that running extra of them in the board would probably suck as they are only great in the mirror. They have some uses in other matches perhaps but not much.

I just don't get why most people assume that the player that plays standstill is nearly always the one benefitting from it. Offcourse you would probably not play it if you were behind on board already but plenty of times in the mirror you can play it just to notice a couple turns later that he drew more wasteland/factories/decree's. If you ever break your own it costed you 4 cards, that to me is just not worth the risk unless you have good additional cards to make sure standstill will benefit you more like extirpate.

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Originally Posted by Marke

How is landstill GOOD in the mirror?? Because both players have (nearly) the same cards it is just as likely that you have to break your standstill instead of him.. In fact because you play standstill whereas your opponent could be playing more useful cards the chance is even bigger that you have to break your own standstill. All these arguments about your decree working under your standstill are irrelevant as his decree works under it too...
Only if you know that standstill is definately in your favor it is useful to leave them in really, but since almost all builds run 4 factory 3 wasteland and 2-3 decree, 9 out of 10 times you will have trouble abusing it. With extirpate sb it becomes a different issue as the wasteland extirpate play on factory will allow you to abuse standstill. I hadn't thought of that before and it may be the best way to go for the mirror given that extirpate is useful in a decent amount of other matches too. It can for example force a shuffle against combo decks to screw up mystical tutor and has its uses against loam and ichorid.

Also citrusgod, what i ment by DoJ and elsepth being narrow is that running extra of them in the board would probably suck as they are only great in the mirror. They have some uses in other matches perhaps but not much.

I just don't get why most people assume that the player that plays standstill is nearly always the one benefitting from it. Offcourse you would probably not play it if you were behind on board already but plenty of times in the mirror you can play it just to notice a couple turns later that he drew more wasteland/factories/decree's. If you ever break your own it costed you 4 cards, that to me is just not worth the risk unless you have good additional cards to make sure standstill will benefit you more like extirpate.

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Certain builds of landstill perform better in the mirror than others. For instance, 4c landstill traditionally has more powerful cards like deed, but its manabase sucks and, more importantly, it can't apply as much pressure under a standstill than other builds. The versions with factory, decree, dragon, and either wasteland or tolaria west/dust bowl will perform much better and likely win the standoff.

Yes, extirpate is good in the mirror, very good really. But I've found that it fails in other matchups in comparison to more broad grave hate. Especially since alot of decks you would boarding this in against either run burning wish or will still go off in your face. Unless your meta is infested with slow control or you plan on running 7 or 8 grave hate slots, I'd always choose crypt or relic over extirpate, especially if you're playing academy ruins.

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Originally Posted by Marke

How is landstill GOOD in the mirror?? Because both players have (nearly) the same cards it is just as likely that you have to break your standstill instead of him.. In fact because you play standstill whereas your opponent could be playing more useful cards the chance is even bigger that you have to break your own standstill. All these arguments about your decree working under your standstill are irrelevant as his decree works under it too...
Only if you know that standstill is definately in your favor it is useful to leave them in really, but since almost all builds run 4 factory 3 wasteland and 2-3 decree, 9 out of 10 times you will have trouble abusing it. With extirpate sb it becomes a different issue as the wasteland extirpate play on factory will allow you to abuse standstill. I hadn't thought of that before and it may be the best way to go for the mirror given that extirpate is useful in a decent amount of other matches too. It can for example force a shuffle against combo decks to screw up mystical tutor and has its uses against loam and ichorid.

Also citrusgod, what i ment by DoJ and elsepth being narrow is that running extra of them in the board would probably suck as they are only great in the mirror. They have some uses in other matches perhaps but not much.

I just don't get why most people assume that the player that plays standstill is nearly always the one benefitting from it. Offcourse you would probably not play it if you were behind on board already but plenty of times in the mirror you can play it just to notice a couple turns later that he drew more wasteland/factories/decree's. If you ever break your own it costed you 4 cards, that to me is just not worth the risk unless you have good additional cards to make sure standstill will benefit you more like extirpate.

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My statement wasn't the first player to play Standstill it was the first player to draw off Standstill is typically the winner in the mirror. Boarding out Standstills for Meddling Mage is a realistic strategy it just isn't one that I endorse. It's very rare that you run into the exact same build of Landstill in a tournament, the exception being off course it's one of your teammates and you are helping them for the GP and they beat you with your own deck in the top 8 - Fuck You Bob for ending my 3 year winning streak in the mirror, normally speaking there are difference's. You kinda need to make judgement calls on what to do or not do based on what those differences are.

As a 3c wish still pilot heres how I would do it.

AGAINST:

4c landstill: keep standstills in
3c vindicate still: Keep standstills in
3c wish still: Side them out
2c landstill "basicly mono blue control splash swords and effective white control cards: keep them in.

So basicly all sides lead to keeping them in for the most part. I can't argue that siding them out could be alot better of a choice, but the person who conrols the standstill in hand should be able to harness the power of it or simply use it for force bait if necessary. Bottom line I would say its better if you run it versus not running it. Not running standstill means you take the risk of making your deck a slow control variant that cheeses off of its original 7. That to me doesn't sound very appealing.

As for extirpate being good in the mirror, its not just good it's game breaking. Removing an elspeth or a doj is awefull for an opponent, or even force.

Things to note about removing with extirpate if timed correctly.

If you loose the mirror you probobly lost because you

-a- got mana screwed
-b- got blown out by bombs "plainswalkers/ doj
-c- got slow rolled by control elements "extirpate, swords, ee."

All of these things are easy ways to lose the mirror.

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Originally Posted by mossivo1986

As a 3c wish still pilot heres how I would do it.

AGAINST:

4c landstill: keep standstills in
3c vindicate still: Keep standstills in
3c wish still: Side them out
2c landstill "basicly mono blue control splash swords and effective white control cards: keep them in.

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I'm a fan of semi-witty generalizations, not in this case though:
Every single archetype you mentioned can easily pack 3 DoJ and/or extra action lands (wastelands, Monasteries in the 4c version).
Manlands, Wastelands/Dustbowls and DoJs determine who's to break the Standstill in the mirror.
I'll simply board out all 4 standstills for Mages and get my CA via Jaces (he's the prime spell in the mirror anyway).
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Also, if you're still packing SB Pates, Factory should be your major target.
DoJs and Elses are usually 1-2offs - not much sense in going for these.

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Originally Posted by klaus

I'm a fan of semi-witty generalizations, not in this case though:
Every single archetype you mentioned can easily pack 3 DoJ and/or extra action lands (wastelands, Monasteries in the 4c version).
Manlands, Wastelands/Dustbowls and DoJs determine who's to break the Standstill in the mirror.

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Sure any version of landstill could pack any number of cycle effects/ manlands. The archtype prides itself on being very interchangable. That said it doesn't mean that 4 mishra 4 wasteland 3 doj is the best combination by any means.

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I'll simply board out all 4 standstills for Mages and get my CA via Jaces (he's the prime spell in the mirror anyway).

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Your one of the few people who runs jace that wouldn't trade it out for another card choice. Is jace great? Yes. Is Jace the better then fof? maybe. But its all situational. Jace is amazing in the normal landstill vs landstill mirror, but thats saying that your talking about traditional non vindicate non cunning wish builds "which are very out of date." I do understand that there are countertop versions and many individuals also take their own seperate approaches but the numbers are the facts, which are that vindicate still and wish still are the two most saught after models for 3c.

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Also, if you're still packing SB Pates, Factory should be your major target.
DoJs and Elses are usually 1-2offs - not much sense in going for these.

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Factory really isn't that big of an issue in the matchups ive played. If your siding standstills out for mm then your deffinately going to need to name STP against me because I personally keep swords in, in regards to siding in the mirror. I have come to like MM less lately and I won't be running it unless I see alot of control at chicago. Its simply not worth the risk of loosing more prominant matchups like merfolk/ ichorid "yes I know mage does come in against ichorid normally but so does EP."

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Originally Posted by mossivo1986

Factory really isn't that big of an issue in the matchups ive played. If your siding standstills out for mm then your deffinately going to need to name STP against me because I personally keep swords in, in regards to siding in the mirror. I have come to like MM less lately and I won't be running it unless I see alot of control at chicago. Its simply not worth the risk of loosing more prominant matchups like merfolk/ ichorid "yes I know mage does come in against ichorid normally but so does EP."

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Factory is the #1 reason for broken Standstills in the mirror.
If you're not boarding Mages you're even more dependent on Factory dominance, I don't get your logic.

So I ended up posting 4-1-3 drop round nine because I couldn't make day two after my loss in round 8.

r1 TA 2-0 "irrelivent from the source"
r2 R/B gobbos 1-1
r3 UGW thresh 1-0
r4 BGwr Goodstuff aggro 1-1
r5 vile horror 2-0 "isamaru from the source"
r6 urw dreadstill 2-0
r7 4c counter top 1-1
r8 Fae Stompy 0-2
r9 drop



I won all game 1's except for round 8 where 3 judges screwed calls and basicly forced me to logicly play one way, then wish I had played another after judge number three and judge number four came back and warned me that the rule from judge number 1-2 were wrong. I was forced to race with elspeth/ humility and a token in play and dodge repetitive pestermites equiping sword of light and shadow. I lost both games exactly like this. Its a bad matchup and judges didn't help things at all. Neither did my opponent by drawing nothing but creatures with no draw spells off of rediculous odds. Bad beats`:)

I tied:

b/r goblins on a mulli to 5. I lost in overtime on turn four after he resolves 2 ringleaders and a siege gang previously. I couldn't find EP to save my life with top and a fetch in play for two turns.

Second tie was to random BGwr aggro where he played such bombs as:
tarmogoyf, hymn of toroch, duress, thoughtseize, hymn, tombstalker, vindicate, bob, blood moon, and finally gaddock teeg. Needless to say I managed to hold out game 3. I was satisfied for holding off without counterspell.

third tie was to 4c countertop trinket intuition? In overtime I cast ee for 3 cc5 to remove 2 trinket mages which were lethal. He casts force, I cast force, he cast pyroblast, look for blue card to go with force#2 through 2 activations of top via a fetch and find 0 blue cards. He slow rolls me forcing me to win out the rest of my games. I end up playing fae stompy in the following round.


Props:

-Girlfriend gets me 6pack of stella artois after rough trial night.
-My buddy Joe for removing traveling skunk via rocks on the way to the trial. It was a two mile walk.
-Venders for having major foils and wanting my stuff in return. 0$ spent on cards.
-Gabriel Nassif, Patrick Chapin, LSV for signing foil unhinged island, plains, and a brainstorm on friday night "trial"

Maybe since they won I can sell them on ebay for some major cash??? haha
-Playing cop green in my sb. Thanx Dif.

-Ending up in the top 25% even after dropping round 9

Slops:
Activating SDT to decree for four when I didn't need to against 4c_counter_top. It wasn't neccesary, and I got rid of my top by doing so basicly.

Selling most of my trade stock do foil out my landstill deck part of the way. Damn this thing gets expensive!

Starcity for selling a foil foreign dustbowl for 50$. Had it been 25 I would have bought it with cash, but I had no idea they were that expensive.

Different venders for asking my buddy joe to sell him his time vault for under 50$ when he told them that another vendor had offered 130$.

To continue the discussion, here my actual Landstill-build. Cunning Wishs have been removed for being too slow...

UWb "Disruptive Lamestill" by Marius Hausmann

//Lands:
4x Tundra
4x Flooded Strand
2x Polluted Delta
1x Underground Sea
1x Scrubland
4x Island
2x Plains
4x Mishra's Factory
1x Dust Bowl

//Spells:
4x Brainstorm
3x Spell Snare
3x Counterspell
4x Force of Will
4x Standstill
4x Swords to Plowshares
2x Path to Exile (still testing, but seems they will proove well)
2x Wrath of God
2x Humility
2x Elspeth, Knight Errant
1x Decree of Justice
3x Engineered Explosives
1x Crucible of Worlds
2x Sensei's Divining Top (awesome Card maindeck, cause of drawing as good as a threshhold Deck, just better with an active Crucible :smile: )

//Sideboard:
3x Blue Elemental Blast
3x Counterbalance (better against Combo then single Meddling Mages)
3x Engineered Plague (since merfolk is "deck to beat"^^)
4x Relic of Progenitus
2x Ajani Goldmane

Greetz,
Marius Hausmann

I went 6-3-0 at Chicago with this list. It is Konsultant's list with Elspeths. Elspeth and Vindicate were best cards during the Grand Prix.

// Lands
3 [ON] Polluted Delta
3 [ON] Flooded Strand
3 [TE] Wasteland
2 [A] Island (1)
2 [B] Plains (2)
1 [A] Swamp (1)
3 [AQ] Mishra's Factory (4)
4 [A] Tundra
1 [B] Underground Sea
1 [B] Scrubland

// Creatures
1 [SC] Eternal Dragon
2 [ALA] Elspeth, Knight-Errant

// Spells
3 [FD] Engineered Explosives
2 [IN] Fact or Fiction
4 [OD] Standstill
4 [B] Swords to Plowshares
3 [A] Wrath of God
4 [AL] Force of Will
3 [AP] Vindicate
2 [SC] Decree of Justice
3 [DIS] Spell Snare
3 [A] Counterspell
3 [MM] Brainstorm

// Sideboard
SB: 2 [LRW] Ajani Goldmane
SB: 4 [UL] Engineered Plague
SB: 3 [PS] Meddling Mage
SB: 3 [SHM] Runed Halo
SB: 3 [ALA] Relic of Progenitus

The maindeck was amazing, I wouldn't have changed a single card.
I'm definately going to change the sideboard to this at the next tournament.

-1 Runed Halo
-3 Relic of Progenitus
+1 Meddling Mage
+1 Vindicate
+2 Extirpate/EE/Diabolic Edict

Round 1: ANT 1-2
Round 2: Aggro Loam 2-0
Round 3: Stax 2-0
Round 4: Dreadstill 0-2
Round 5: Goblins 2-1
Round 6: Goblins 0-2
Round 7: Prog Thresh 2-0
Round 8: Dragon Stompy 2-0
Round 9: Goyf Sligh 2-0

I played UWb Landstill at the GP and ended 8-1 day 1 but failed epically 3-3 day 2, ending in 39th place or so. I can write a detailed report at some point but for now here is the pile I played:

4 Force of Will
2 Negate
2 Spell Snare
4 Brainstorm
4 Standstill
1 Eternal Dragon
1 Sensei’s Divining Top
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Wrath of God
3 Humility
2 Propaganda
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Decree of Justice
1 Elspeth, Knight Errant
1 Ajani Goldmane
1 Stifle*
4 Flooded Strand
2 Tundra
2 Scrubland
4 Mishra’s Factory
4 Island
5 Plains
3 Wasteland

SB
2 Tormod’s Crypt
2 Relic of Progenitus
3 Vindicate
3 Perish
2 Stifle
1 Negate
1 Spell Snare
1 Ajani Goldmane

I decided last minute to add in a 3rd perish in my SB because of all the natural order fanboys (I expected CB thresh to be everywhere); combo elves is also outright scary. This required me to either cut a card from the board or play a 61* card deck. I’m a total scrub and have chosen poorly. The deck is great and is highly malleable depending on the metagame. Here is what I played against:

R1-3: bye (from gpt)
R4 (dragon stompy): 2-0
R5 (ugbw thresh): 2-0
R6 (dragon stompy, guy who t8’d): 2-0
R7 (rg goblins): 0-2
R8 (glimpse elves): 2-0
R9 (affinity): 2-0

R10 (gbr loam): 0-2
R11 (uwb ant): 1-2
R12 (ugr thresh): 2-0
R13 (rg goblins): 2-0
R14 (affinity): 2-1
R15 (goblins): 0-2

I didn’t face the mirror once but I played it 3 times at the gpt piloting a very close list.

I did some incorrect scouting and put my R7 opponent on thresh (not seeing a lot of goblins) and lost handily to t1 lackey g1. g2 I stabilized at too low of life.

I lost my first two matches on day 2 which was a bit disappointing although they were my bad matchups. Against my R10 loam opponent g1 I was almost able to race him because I have his board cleared but I failed to counter either e. witness or s. assault and got burned out. G2 he mulled to five and was land hosed. I wasted and stifled, and spell snared his loam while drawing off standstill and brainstorm and saw zero grave hate the entire game. He eventually resolved loam, played lands, and worm harvest went the distance. This was one of two times my deck crapped out on me; not too bad for 12 rounds of magic so I can’t complain.

I got blown out g3 vs my R11 ant opponent. I mulled into fetch, factory, brainstorm, stifle, standstill, spell snare, hoping to mess with his land and start drawing cards. He plays BASIC ISLAND, petal, rit, rit, AdN and my brainstorm revealed nothing of relevance.

Winning R15 would put me in the top 16 and I knew my opponent was playing goblins. Those of you who witnessed this game should know my pain. G1 I had double propaganda, humility, and top out but I was at 10 life. I then saw nothing but brainstorms, spell snares, fows, land, and standstill from top—my second crap shoot. I had a chance to stabilize g2 but he got hasty sharpshooter out the turn before could drop humilty and wiped my decree tokens and Elspeth in one swoop and I couldn’t recover from there.

Overall I had fun and all my opponents were classy. Hopefully with the large turnout they’ll have these things more often!

I played my "Toolkit-still" build in the Dual Land side event. 50+ players, and the event ran until 3am Sunday Morning, so there were lots of player errors on both sides of the table ;)

First game was 1-2 vs dreadstill. I generally have a positive MU, but not this time. 2nd round I went 2-1 (cant recall deck) and the guy dropped.
Then I beat 2 goblin decks (4-0), a belcher deck, and TES. At this point I was in 5th with horrible tie breakers. Last round I lost to team america (need more sword)

Ended up going 5-2. Placing 7th

My $10k card collection was stolen so admittedly, my decklist was a little off. I only owned 3 swords at the time of this event. lawl.

The sideboard and singleton dreadnought were the MVPs. The nought gives first game wins vs ichorid and sligh (generally difficult first game). Vs Burn: Dropping nought, swords in response to trigger, removes a dead swords for 12 life to me (also valuable vs ANT/TES). 30 life is much harder to storm to.

I ran this:

23Land:
4x tundra
4x flooded strand
2x polluted delta
1x underground sea
2x island
2x plains
3x mishra's factory
2x wasteland
1x academy ruins
1x tolaria west
1x city of traitors

2 moxen:
2x mox diamond

35 Spells:
4x force of will
4x standstill
3x stifle
2x counterspell
2x sensei's top
3x brainstorm
3x swords to plowshares
3x engineered explosives
2x trinket mage
1x phyrexian dreadnought
2x Elspeth
1x Fact or Fiction
2x Decree of justice
2x crucible of worlds

SB: THE TOOLKIT
3x enlightened tutor
2x Engineered Plague
1x COP RED
1x Humility
1x energy flux
1x pithing needlle
2x Counterbalance
2x relic of progenitus
1x tormod's crypt
1x Ghostly Prison

At this time, I wouldn't change the sideboard. It rocks. But I would adjust the main to look like this..

24 land:
4x tundra
4x flooded strand
2x polluted delta
2x underground sea
2x island
2x plains
4x mishra's factory
2x wasteland
1x academy ruins
1x tolaria west

2 mox:
2x mox diamond

34 spell:
4x force of will
4x stifle (+1)
2x counterspell
1x sensei's top (-1)
4x brainstorm (+1)
4x standstill
1x Fact or Fiction
1x crucible of worlds (-1)

4x swords to plowshares (+1)
2x Smother (+2)
2x engineered explosives (-1)

2x trinket mage
1x phyrexian dreadnought
1x Elspeth (-1)
1x Decree of justice (-1)

I played imperial painter in the main event, going 2-3 drop. I was scared to play LS due to the amount of ichorid. But in hindsight, wish I had just played what I'm comfortable with (LS). I'm sure it would've done better.

Oh, and if you stole my cards. Die a slow, painful death.... :mad:

Round 1: Jason Aron - Aggro Loam GRb 2-1 Nice guy
Game 1: I win the die roll and he mulls to 6. Turn 2 standstill broken by a confidant which gets swords into another standstill. Drop Elspeth and race his 3/3 terravore.
Game 2: I play non basic before basic and get wasted out of the game with a e. dragon in hand.
Game 3: His t1 is diamond, wasteland, chalice @ 1. turn 2 I ee his board away and proceed to waste lock him a few turns later.

Round 2: Steve Judd - Isamaru - Vial Horror 1-1-0
Game 1: We both open with island pass his turn 2 he takes a 3 minute turn to drop a scrubland go. I roll my finger at him to move it along. Apparently, this made him pissed at me, so he proceeded to play slower. "The man's got douche in his veins!"
Game 2: He double hymms turns 2 and 3 and I go into top deck mode for most of the game. He beats me with 1 turn left in time with a EOT Vial in Hunted Horror.

Round 3: Scott Muir - Mono-red Burn w/ Ensaring Bridge 0-2
Game 1: I lead with double factory beats and try to race. His turns go rift bolt, magma jet my guy, PoP, Chain Lightning, Bridge, Bridge, PoP, Fireblast. I eventually have to swords my dude and attempt an elspeth. He Shrapnel Blasts which is lethal with me at 2, I force and die to Fireblast. He was at 1 and I was at 1. :-(
Game 2: I mull into everything that is awful. He goes lava spike, lava spike, bolt, chain lightning, pop, fireblast. I die turn 4 or 5 without casting a spell. I rip double elspeth and land my first 4 turns.

At this point, I know I have to win out to make it. Eh, fuck it, I usually have to win out to make top 8s so I'm used to the pressure.

Round 4: Andrew Beckett Natural Order Thresh 2-0
Game 1: He doesn't see a force the entire game and I luck sack into force off standstill and cs off standstill twice to stop natural order. I win through no answer to e dragon.
Game 2: He has 5 mana and wall of roots on the board. Plays goyf and noble hierarch instead of playing the natural order I know he has in his hand. The following turn I kill goyf, noble hierarch, wall of roots, and dryad arbor with a perish. I ride elspeth to the win a few turns later.

Round 5: Dustin Buckingham Dreadstill Ugr 2-0 Nice guy
We both know what either person was playing.
Game 1: He has top & cb in play turn 2. I land go. He Dreadnaughts with trick bind. I cast EE @ 1 and he doesn't reveal for cb for some reason. I kill his naught. I had vindicate + swords. I land crucible and start chump a 6/7 goyf @ 7 life with a mishra's factory until I finally draw a vindicate 8 turns later. I win with e dragon at turn 25+.
Game 2: I 3 for 1 cb and double goyf with ee and he scoops to double factory.

Round 6: Eric Hendershott Rock 2-0 Funnest match of the tournament.
Game 1: We trade land destruction spells in the form of wasteland and vindicate on my part and vindicate, sinkhole, and waste land on his part for the first 8 turns. He plays a Urborg which allows me to cast a ee @ 2 to kill a goyf and I stabilize many turns later off a crucible. I luck sack into removal for all his tombstalkers.
Game 2: Lots of LD again from both sides. I cast ajani and get my 16/16 token swords. I win with recurring e. dragon.

Round 7: Jeremy Barbeau 41 Land.dec 1-2 Nice guy Fun match - He made day 2 - First time ever playing this MU :-(
Game 1: I force exploration like a nub and he resolves manabond and drops his hand. I swords his treetop and ee his mana bond and into top deck mode we go. At one point he has 4 maze of iths on the board. I some how cast a crucible through double port and waste lock him 10-12 turns later.
Game 2: I mulligan into hate but lose in savage fashion to double waste and seismic assault with active loam.
Game 3: I play mistake myself out of the tournament by letting my mage die to a tabernacle. I get all my relics killed by ancient grudge. I have no permanents and rip wasteland off the top and allow him to pick the land I waste. Also, he EOT ports my fetch land and then wastes it the following turn. I wish I took a picture, it was awesome.

I was out at this point, but decided to push forward.

Round 8: Pierre-Olivi (name truncated by WotC) Bastien-Dionne - Rock 0-2 Nice guy from Quebec, Canada
Game 1: We trade lots of answers and vindicates. I realize later on I lost this due to mis-management of resources, namely vindicates/wasteland. I should have saved a waste for volrath's stronghold. He starts to recur witness for his treetops and goyfs. I can't find crucible in time.
Game 2: I just gave up.
I told him after the match I appreciated the speed at which he played because his turn, literally, took less than 30 seconds, didn't matter what he was doing. He responded with, "It's a sign of respect." I really appreciated this match and my opponent.

Round 9: Deryck Rothenberger - Elf storm - 2-0 - He sat next to me the round before and he played "the rules nazi." "The rules nazi" wanted to know each time Deryck stacked essence warden and each time it resolved by a vocal reminder. Glad I didn't play that dude.
Game 1: I drop ee @ 1 and three for 1 him turn 3. I counter two glimpse.
Game 2: He starts with leyline of lifeforce in his opening hand. And proceeds to draw triple leyline of the lifeforce the following 3 turns. I set ee @ 1 with perish and e plague in my hand.

All in all, 5-3-1. I punted the 41 land.dec match, but o well. I need to rework my side board and give up on the burn match up because it's basically auto lose. I'm happy I made a good run and stayed in contention up until round 7. My deck was extremely consistent and resilient throughout the day against all kinds of match-ups.

Deck list

// Lands
3 [ON] Flooded Strand
2 [ON] Polluted Delta
2 [UNH] Plains
2 [UNH] Island
1 [UNH] Swamp
3 [B] Tundra
2 [B] Underground Sea
1 [B] Scrubland
3 [JGC] Mishra's Factory
3 [REW] Wasteland
1 [TSP] Academy Ruins

// Creatures
1 [PR] Eternal Dragon

// Spells
4 [MM] Brainstorm
4 [AL] Force of Will
4 [B] Swords to Plowshares
3 [JGC] Counterspell
3 [FD] Engineered Explosives
3 [DIS] Spell Snare
3 [OD] Standstill
3 [AP] Vindicate
2 [SC] Decree of Justice - I only ever want to see it past turn 6.
2 [ALA] Elspeth Knight-Errant
2 [IN] Fact or Fiction
2 [REW] Wrath of God - Finally proving it's worth
1 [FD] Crucible of Worlds - MVP without question

// Sideboard
SB: 3 [FNM] Engineered Plague Amazing with all the tribal going around.
SB: 3 [JGC] Meddling Mage
SB: 3 [SHM] Runed Halo - Fucking god awful
SB: 2 [LRW] Ajani Goldmane
SB: 2 [TE] Perish - Great "Meta" Amazing
SB: 2 [ALA] Relic of Progenitus

Slops:
FOFing into double FOF when my deck registration said I had 2 fofs. hmmmm
Isamaru being Isamaru
32 cab ride from O'Hare to Schaumburg, about 10 miles.
No orange juice saturday morning.
Not getting a chance to hook up with a chick I was suppose to meet up with because it would have been 100 dollar taxi ride round trip to down town chicago and back.
Scrubbing
Calling Ben names when he was sitting right behind me
Losing to the Rock
Punting Games
Pat stepping in a puddle that was probably a good foot deep
Louis and DJ for saying they were going to go at one point and not going

Props:
Big Bowl - Thai Restaurant for their ginger ale (tasted like ginger spiced seltzer mmm)
Seeing watchmen sunday night
Going to time once playing landstill for 9 rounds
Geoff for almost getting there
Getting Chinese, Japanese Standstill for 4 and 6 bucks.
Team Awesome for living the dream.
Gabriel Nassif for being my favorite pro player and winning the GP

@mossivo1986: Can you post your list?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TeKo

@mossivo1986: Can you post your list?

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4 [ON] Flooded Strand
4 [R] Tundra
1 [R] Underground Sea
1 [R] Scrubland
1 [FUT] Tolaria West
1 [MM] Dust Bowl
1 [TSP] Academy Ruins
3 [UNH] Plains
3 [UNH] Island
3 [JGC] Mishra's Factory

// Creatures
2 [MOR] Vendilion Clique
2 [ALA] Elspeth, Knight-Errant

// Spells
2 [SC] Decree of Justice
1 [LRW] Ponder
3 [OD] Standstill
2 [JU] Cunning Wish
1 [IN] Fact or Fiction
4 [AL] Force of Will
2 [10E] Wrath of God
1 [TE] Humility
3 [FD] Engineered Explosives
2 [ALA] Relic of Progenitus
3 [DIS] Spell Snare
4 [FNM] Brainstorm
4 [FNM] Swords to Plowshares
2 [CHK] Sensei's devining top

SB:
1 pulse of the fields
1 extirpate
1 enlightened tutor
1 return to dust
1 path to exile
1 hydroblast
1 blue elemental blast
1 circle of protection: green
1 runed halo
1 relic of progenitus
3 Engineered plague
2 ajani goldmane


full tourney rep.

http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13076

Hey here is the list I ended up running at the GP. I ended at 11-4 having 2 byes from my rating. I only had one loss where my deck failed me and drew practically no land. My other losses were to good players running good decks. I lost to Dreadstill (No land round sadly), Landstill Mirror (sort of but without Standstills not sure but moat kicked my ass, on a losing streak in the mirror lately), Affinity who drew the nuts and the Dragon Stompy guy who made top 4 (props for running Boil it kicked my ass and I didn't see it coming).

4x STP
3x Wrath of God
3x Decree of Justice
2x Eternal Dragon

3X Engineered Explosive's

3X Vindicate

3x Spellsnare
3x Counterspell
4x Force of Will
3x Brainstorm
4x Standstill
2x Fact or Fiction

Same land base as usual

SB
1x Counterspell
1x Wrath of God
1x Elspeth
1x Decree of Justice
4x Engineered Plague
4x Planar Void
3x Orim's Chant

Unfortunatly I don't have more time at the moment but i'll try to get a tournament report up in the near future.

Wow, what an interesting sideboard. You should tell everyone the story of how you beat mono-red burn. Congrats on the finish, when I heard you made day 2 I figured, "sweet, glad at least one landstill player will top 8."

I saw your affinity match from day 2 and the guy luck sacked game 1 drawing nothing but threats with a plating on the board.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by konsultant

Hey here is the list I ended up running at the GP. I ended at 11-4 having 2 byes from my rating. I only had one loss where my deck failed me and drew practically no land. My other losses were to good players running good decks. I lost to Dreadstill (No land round sadly), Landstill Mirror (sort of but without Standstills not sure but moat kicked my ass, on a losing streak in the mirror lately), Affinity who drew the nuts and the Dragon Stompy guy who made top 4 (props for running Boil it kicked my ass and I didn't see it coming).

4x STP
3x Wrath of God
3x Decree of Justice
2x Eternal Dragon

3X Engineered Explosive's

3X Vindicate

3x Spellsnare
3x Counterspell
4x Force of Will
3x Brainstorm
4x Standstill
2x Fact or Fiction

Same land base as usual

SB
1x Counterspell
1x Wrath of God
1x Elspeth
1x Decree of Justice
4x Engineered Plague
4x Planar Void
3x Orim's Chant

Unfortunatly I don't have more time at the moment but i'll try to get a tournament report up in the near future.

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I love this list I just hate the dragons and the third decree. I also do not like the approach you take with your sb, but lord knows as you told me in the pm you prefer redundancy above utility. Its funny I do actually like chant in this model, and I really think your going overboard with 4 plague 4void but thats just me speaking. Interesting build and I look forward to testing it.

I can not understand people not running Elspeth Maindeck. Since I once played her, I will never ever cut her again. Since I have Elspeth I rarely lose to time and it just wins sooo many games on its own. But since you are the godfather and such I´d like to her an explanation.

^ I agree. Elspeth is great. I like to run 2 elspeth. I can't understand not running at least one, and I especially dont understand decklists running 0 els and eternal dragon?! That card is completely dated. It often plays as a plainscycle and is never seen again for the duration of the game. If you do invest the mana to return it, it is way easier to remove than elspeth anyway. I'd run a 3rd decree over 1 dragon also.

In an environment with more evagreen and team america, I cut an elspeth and a decree in favor of 2x smother. Getting the mana for els or dec is difficult in those match ups. And spot removal wins those games. But the deck becomes substantially weaker to stax with those changes.

Smother? Why not Diabolic Edict/Path to Exile?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Viscosity

^ I agree. Elspeth is great. I like to run 2 elspeth. I can't understand not running at least one, and I especially dont understand decklists running 0 els and eternal dragon?! That card is completely dated. It often plays as a plainscycle and is never seen again for the duration of the game. If you do invest the mana to return it, it is way easier to remove than elspeth anyway. I'd run a 3rd decree over 1 dragon also.

In an environment with more evagreen and team america, I cut an elspeth and a decree in favor of 2x smother. Getting the mana for els or dec is difficult in those match ups. And spot removal wins those games. But the deck becomes substantially weaker to stax with those changes.

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Eternal dragon and Els are cards serving two completely different functions. Dragons are mana sources primarily. Cutting one for the other would completely throw the deck off.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rsaunder

Eternal dragon and Els are cards serving two completely different functions. Dragons are mana sources primarily. Cutting one for the other would completely throw the deck off.

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QFT. I run 23 lands and two dragons and I want to squeeze in another mana source. I don't get how some people's lists can stand up to mana disruption from decks like tempo thresh or team america, and even Wastelands+Ports from goblins. Some play Tops or Ponders to make up for the lack of Dragons, but even when my mana isn't attacked I've wanted more, so I could use my Wastelands and attack with Factories more liberally while still being able to cast other spells, such as EE, FoF, etc.

What I've found from my playtesting is that deck surprisingly had more mana problems than more heavier 4c lists, because it runs wasteland and utility lands. 23 is not enough if you run wastelands, 25 is probably the right number (with two dragons).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NQN

I can not understand people not running Elspeth Maindeck. Since I once played her, I will never ever cut her again. Since I have Elspeth I lose to time and it just wins sooo many games on its own. But since you are the godfather and such I´d like to her an explanation.

---

I think Elspeth is a win more card in landstill and does not need to be main decked. I can understand running a copy in the board for certain matchups, but not in the main deck.

There is not one person I know that playtests as much as Geoff. If he doesn't have a card in his list then there is probably a very good reason for it. If everyone put as much time into landstill as Geoff then we would see landstill winning a lot more tournaments.

I, too really want to fit in land#24. Not sure what to cut though, or what to add. I really want to fit in mishra's #4.

I also agree on Els being win more. I started out with 2 copies, then cut one. I was in the process of moving the last one to the board when I saw Geoff's list. I think part of the problem with her is that she's win more in a lot of situations, but my big problem with her is that she's a 4cc sorcery for all casting purposes. Landstill doesnt like to tap out on its own turn; WOG, vindicate, and the other sorceries are a necessary evil and ought to be kept to a minimum.

Elspeth comes down turn 4 and can race almost anything in the format. After that, all you have to do is pump your dude and keep mana open for counters. It doesn't die to powder keg, ee @ 0, and deed. It also allows for a hilarious face when someone blows deed and kills their entire board to try and kill elspeth and fails. Decree takes way too long to become a reasonable win condition and when I see it early on it just pisses me off. I'd love to see decree as the first card when I see my 13th mana. I will never cut decree or elspeth.

How is Elspeth win more? You technically aren't going to win the game on turn 4. Elspeth just enables the deck to push the game futher into the late game with reusable blockers kind of like humility used to for many of us. Decree makes a 1/1 turn 4 and cantrips, Elspeth makes a dude per turn and swings for 4 in the air the following turn and into infinity. Blocks a single goyf until your opponent gets annoyed and jumps across the table to smack you.

Tapping out to play your win condition doesn't sound awful to me. I tap out to play eternal dragon/decree fairly often.

The first tournament Elspeth was legal, I was running two and got laughed at all day. When I smashed for 4 a turn, I was the one laughing at them.

It's a whole different story if you are playing with or Humility or not. I play the Wish-build with 24 lands, Humility and as winconditions 4 Factories, 1 Dragon, 1 Elspeth, 2 Decree and. There is Elspeth insane, with an Humility out it's a win from the spot. I tried Konsutant's list with Elspeth( 1 Elspeth) but I liked Eternal Dragon in that list more.

BB

Problems start when they have more than a single goyf there. Or have burn. Most aggro and aggro-control decks either have burn, or a bunch of creatures. You tap out, they do whatever tricks they want.

Quote:

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Problems start when they have more than a single goyf there. Or have burn. Most aggro and aggro-control decks either have burn, or a bunch of creatures. You tap out, they do whatever tricks they want.

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Well, I played a game on a bigger tourney against an opp with about 1830 playing Goyfsligh.
First Game I won due to vindicating his lonely Taiga and then dropping a Standstill.

Second Game Elspeth won me the game. Just like that.
He tried to burn her instead of me (which is pretty good, since they dont have library manipulation and won't have much burn for yourself left) but failed since i had one BEB.
Elspeth made me a token and rushed for his face 4 times, focusing his burn spells on her but not being able to get rid of her. Dude, she's even better than Ajani here, serving same purposes AND being the faster clock.
So, obviously she works.
And i goddamn love to see though guys beaten up by my lil' female planeswalker.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tinefol

Problems start when they have more than a single goyf there. Or have burn. Most aggro and aggro-control decks either have burn, or a bunch of creatures. You tap out, they do whatever tricks they want.

---

If I'm tapping out for Elspeth, I'm baiting a 3 or 2 for 1 with a EE or a wrath of god. If you drop Elspeth and they drop more dudes to try and swing through the single token a turn, it makes your sweep effects that much better. Similar to Humility, but doesn't produce a 1/1 a turn.

I actually play 23 lands, 2 tops, zero Dragons and my mana works pretty well. The current record of the "new" list is 11-2-3 with 3 ID´s. When those perky tempodecks came out everywhere I cutted Decree and Wrath and added moar spotremoval and Elspeth (obv)(Well, Klaus did it, not me :>).
Elspeth is the_best_card_in_the_deck. It improves every matchup other than combo and even there it´s way faster than the other wincons.
And it´s so fuckin hard to remove when it once hit the table. If I think back I can only think of one game where she died and that was against sligh (3 for 1 trade which sounds fair to me). With ten spotremoval and three explosives she will likely never die.

EDIT: Whoever played those Vendlions some pages ago: Where they at least worth their slots? I´d like to play some myself but at first I wanted to hear some field reports ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by EaD

Elspeth made me a token and rushed for his face 4 times, focusing his burn spells on her but not being able to get rid of her. Dude, she's even better than Ajani here, serving same purposes AND being the faster clock.
So, obviously she works.
And i goddamn love to see though guys beaten up by my lil' female planeswalker.

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He misplayed. It sounds like if he had been shooting your face he would have won.

Well, i didn't actually get to know his hand, but i can say that i don't think of him making bigger mistakes since he is a pretty experienced player with a high rating.
I would say his hand wasn't optimal and the Elspeth clock to fast/ to get rid off due to my counterspell backup.
I believe without her, it wouldn't have been that easy.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rsaunder

Eternal dragon and Els are cards serving two completely different functions. Dragons are mana sources primarily. Cutting one for the other would completely throw the deck off.

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Yeah but removing a dragon can only make the deck better. :wink:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Viscosity

Yeah but removing a dragon can only make the deck better. :wink:

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I disagree. It shuffles, fetches a colored source, helps find that 3rd or 4th land, and can serve as a recurring beater later on in the game. If you were being sarcastic, my apologies.

I think he was kidding.