[Deck] UW(x) Landstill

[rockout]

I've run 3 FoFs 3 BS in 2 tournaments now and I top 8ed the first one and went 1-4 in the second one. It just seems like it doesn't matter if you run 3 or 4 BS, what matters is how the rest of your build is set up. If you can hit your land drops you shouldn't lose to anything.

[klaus]

I've run 3 FoFs 3 BS in 2 tournaments now and I top 8ed the first one and went 1-4 in the second one.It just seems like it doesn't matter if you run 3 or 4 BS

Running 3 instead of 4 copies of a card (or vice versa) may not make THE difference regarding those 2 tournament results - there's a large number of aspects involved, afterall. In the end it's all about logic, reason and experience when it comes to determining the correct number of cards.

If you can hit your land drops you shouldn't lose to anything.

Thanks for hyping BS's importance . Making that 3rd and 4th land drop (and FoF doesn't assist you here) is WAY more vital than any other land drop after that.

[rockout]

Thanks for hyping BS's importance . Making that 3rd and 4th land drop (and FoF doesn't assist you here) is WAY more vital than any other land drop after that.

I do agree you need the 4th BS to consistently hit land drops in the early game (along with e. dragon) but I'd rather run a 3rd spell snare instead of a 4th BS.

[mossivo1986]

So for all of you that normally follow the build I pilot, here are the changes:

Land:22
4x Flooded
4x Tundra
3x Island
3x Plains
3x Mishra
1x Tolaria West
1x Dust Bowl
1x Academy Ruins
1x Scrubland
1x Underground Sea

Permission:10
4x Force of Will
4x Spell Snare
2x Vendillion Clique

Draw:10
4x Brainstorm
3x Standstill
2x Top
1x Fof

Removal:10
4x Swords
3x EE
2x Wrath
1x Humility

Utility:4
2x Relic
2x Wish

Win:9
3x Mishra
2x Decree
2x Vendillion
2x Elspeth

Sb:
1x Return 2 Dust
1x Extirpate
1x Pulse of the Fields
1x Enlightened tutor
1x Path to Exile
1x Hydroblast
1x Blue Elemental Blast
1x Runed Halo
1x COP: Green
1x Relic of progenitus
2x Ajani Goldmane
3x Engineered plague

* Blue is For cards have multiple angle uses. They are in blue to be not counted again.

* Pink is for wish targets for cunning wish.
*Green is for utility slots in the sb: These slots fill in for MM to make your other more aggresive matchups easier for now. All testing has led to this being the correct placement, but I could very well be wrong.

Overall:
-1 Ponder
+1 Spell Snare

* Counter top is getting out of control. It's being played en-force at every even I play in.

There are other various reasons, but when it comes down to it Spell Snare fits the slot better then brainstorm number 8

[Viscosity]

I think I just threw up a little. Post your list.

Since you asked nicely...

4 Tundra
1 Academy Ruins
2 Wasteland
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
1 Underground Sea
1 Tolaria West
1 Tropical Island
1 Island
1 Plains
1 City of Traitors
2 Mox Diamond

2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
2 Decree of Justice
1 Phyrexian Dreadnought
2 Trinket Mage

4 Standstill
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Jace Beleren
2 Crucible of Worlds
3 Brainstorm
1 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Engineered Explosives
4 Force of Will
2 Counterspell
4 Stifle

SB:
2 Krosan Grip
3 Enlightened Tutor
2 Engineered Plague
1 Counterbalance
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Circle of Protection: Red
1 Ghostly Prison
1 Energy Flux
1 Pithing Needle
1 Humility

(a common sideboard adjustment is -1 Tutor, +1 COP: Green)


it has been hard to dispute the power of the diamonds. After playing against my deck repeatedly, a fellow 1800+ legacy player adopted 2x mox into his LS deck as well, but he didn't add the city. The city is pretty much a love/hate thing. Sometimes I take it out for a 3rd waste. Also, I sometimes cut one mishra and the city for another basic plains and island. It depends on the meta.. and sometimes I add smothers (-1 els, -1 jace); again, a meta choice. I tried dropping green for a while, but I felt forced back to the grips on the side. They make the counterbalance match that much easier...

One thing I'm likely to change is going back to 3ee. I thought the addition of 2x trinket mage would make 2 EE OK.. But with no mass removal other than EE, I like to see them more often. Jace is the only slot I'd pull for it though, and I've been having fun with Jace.

[Henrik]

Is there an optimal list for straight UW landstill?
I will be testing this in the next local tournament:

4 standstill
3 humility
2 crucible of worlds

4 brainstorm
4 force of will
4 counterspell
4 spell snare
1 fact or fiction

3 wrath of god
2 engineered explosives

1 elspeth, knight-errant
2 decree of justice
1 eternal dragon
1 jace beleren

4 mishra's factory
4 wasteland
4 flooded strand
3 tundra
4 plains
4 island
1 faerie conclave

Any advice that do not say "splash another colour" is appreciated.

[Omega]

Because you have no access to Vindicate, Oblivion Ring might be useful to fight against opposing permanents that can be problematic, such as planeswalker

2 humility should be enough

Robert

[Smog]

This is my strictly UW build, take from it what you will.


// Lands
4 [U] Tundra
4 [ON] Flooded Strand
2 [ON] Polluted Delta
3 [TE] Wasteland
3 [MR] Plains (4)
3 [5E] Island (3)
4 [4E] Mishra's Factory

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

// Spells
3 [FD] Engineered Explosives
3 [8E] Wrath of God
4 [OV] Swords to Plowshares
3 [SC] Decree of Justice
3 [DIS] Spell Snare
3 [IA] Counterspell
4 [OD] Standstill
4 [CST] Brainstorm
2 [FNM] Fact or Fiction
4 [AL] Force of Will
2 [TE] Humility

[Henrik]

Thank you both
It seems to me that I am on the right track. Testing will provide the final tweaking.

[klaus]

Thank you both
It seems to me that I am on the right track. Testing will provide the final tweaking.

Here's what I'd throw together without black duals:

4 Standstill
4 Brainstorm

4 Force of Will
2 Counterspell
3 Spell Snare

4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Path to Exile
1 Wrath of God ----------swapped for Humility

1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Sensei's Divining Top
2 Engineered Explosives (Edit: 3-1 = 2)
1 Oblivion Ring (Edit: 0+1 = 1)
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Vedalken Shackles

1 Decree of Justice
2 Elspeth
2 Jace Beleren

4 Mishra's Factory
4 Flooded strand
1 Pollted Delta
4 Island
3 Plains
4 Tundra
1 Other Blue Dual Land for EE @ 3 ("breeding pool"... if you dont have any)
1 Dustbowl
1 Tolaria West
1 Academy Ruins

SB:
4 Meddling Mage
1 Wrath of God
3 Relic of Progenitus
2 Aura of Silence (CB, and all those Stompy, Stax, Enchantress and even Combo decks)
1 Runed Halo -----------could be Wrath#2/Ethersworn Canonist (via E.T.)...meta slot
4 Kitchen Finks: (NQN's input)
- Burn
- Sligh
- Rock
- non-stp-control
- straight aggro (affinity etc..)
- combo-> not brilliant but better than that MD creature hate
- general surprise tech (people will generally side out some creature hate against LS)
- Mirror
- Aggro Loam
- some more archetypes


-

Edit: The more I look at it, the more like it!

[rockout]

@Klaus: Hmm, Do you ever feel like you have too many 1 mana answers for creatures? Your list looks like it gets hosed by counter-top more than most Landstill builds I've seen.

I like your MD Crucible and MD Shackles. I've been fiddling with running md shackles and already run md crucible to replace a dragon. I'm a big fan of your finks out of the board. I'm going to have to try that because I'm to the point where I just say screw the burn/sligh MU and try to make my others better, but finks might get me there.

[FredMaster]

Your list looks like it gets hosed by counter-top more than most Landstill builds I've seen.

I feel like he doesn't care about this since Speedstill :)

[rockout]

I feel like he doesn't care about this since Speedstill :)

Still doesn't tell me how he kills a goyf through CB + Top with 7 1 cc removal spells.

[FredMaster]

Still doesn't tell me how he kills a goyf through CB + Top with 7 1 cc removal spells.

That was the point. You loose to Counterbalance/Chalice with that list, which means that it is bad and it should run other cards.

[rockout]

Oh ok, my bad, I just needed you to spell that out for me because I wasn't able to get that from your "cuz it's spellstill" post.

[Wargoos]

Ya, using irony kinda sucks.

[klaus]

That was the point. You loose to Counterbalance/Chalice with that list, which means that it is bad and it should run other cards.

Lol. That ain't SpeedStill.
One of SpeedStill's trademarks is the heavy black splash (incl. 3 Vindicates, %% Chalice, CB).

I threw that pile above together in like 6 minutes for that guy not owning Seas.
And it does not fold to CB/Chalice whatsoever.
3 Spell Snare
2 Counterspell
4 Fow
and..
all tutorable:
2 EE
1 O. Ring
2 Aura's of Silence
is nothing to sneeze at, though I admit that the 3rd EE might be worthwhile.

[Raider Bob]

Since then I have playtested further and came up with the following deck.
Konsultant's list:

- 3 Wrath of God
- 1 Eternal dragon

+ 2 humility
+ 1 elspeth
+ 1 ajani

Allow me to explain.

Wrath of God: I don't like it MD. For too many an occasion it's just a 1 for 1. This is very much a metagame call of my part and I intend to keep at least 2 in my sideboard. It would take the place of humility more often then not post board. On other occasions it was useless because my opponent was playing manlands as well

Eternal dragon: instinctively my weakest choice. But I can't find an alternative to cut. I am already at 3 brainstorm which I don't like that much. My first idea was to cut 1 DoJ but I was very mistaken in this card. Although last time I tested my manabase was left untouched, so this may have warped my results.

On cutting Wrath of God, I agree 90% of the time this is a One for One exchange however with the Mass Tribal decks that have been showing up as late and the Thresh/Progenitus decks that are around you Punt game 1 by moving them to the board. Humility main deck game one solves this sort of but more time than not when Humility is on the table the same decks you want Wrath for are the same decks that humility is good for. All in all I feel that Wrath is the better call in the Landstill deck. (Side note: I do think that being able to STP a Nimble Mongoose is one of the best feelings a person can get in a magic game however)

On cutting an Eternal Dragon, I hate this card and love this card and as much as I hate it more times than not he just wins games. After playing about a billion Landstill games you see that you get card parity and the Eternal Dragon is the only card you need to put you over the top. Going more than two is not smart but going to one is not smart either.

On three Brainstorms, Past turn 1,2,3 when have you ever been happy to see this card? Even on turn 1,2 or 3 if you have good land drops and do not need to search for any other land drop you would rather have something better in your hand. This list of landstill is Redundant this is something that landstill really hasn't had before. It being redundant makes Brainstorm a subpar card in the list, if there was a better blue spell in the one slot this deck would run it but as for three is the best call for this card.

[rockout]

(Side note: I do think that being able to STP a Nimble Mongoose is one of the best feelings a person can get in a magic game)

I agree. Hopefully I'll be lucky enough to swords a Progenitus. That is my next goal as a Landstill player.

[mossivo1986]

I agree. Hopefully I'll be lucky enough to swords a Progenitus. That is my next goal as a Landstill player.

Atleast do that before you stop playing landstill :)