[Deck] UW(x) Landstill

[i_need_the_extra_turns]

This. DoJ is one of the rare cards in the deck I cut in absolutely zero matchups. It's my late game bomb that digs and stalls at the same time, all at instant speed and uncounterable. Plus, it works with my draw engine. I'd never run more, or less, than two of these bad boys. Same with Elspeth.

Exactly. DoJ is the perfect win condition for this deck. I only board it out, when I won the first game and I want to board in a specific sidboard card for this certain matchup.

And I would also never go below 2 Humility. The whole metagame fears this card and it is like a combo finish for this deck. U cant loose the game while humility is in game. And in the case it gets destroyed, it has given u the turns to win the game.

CoW

I play one maindeck CoW. I think u can cut it as a metagame call and play additional draw (FoF) or shackles but in 80% of the games I play CoW it gives me at least one additional land drop. And this fits perfectly in our game plan.

And I WANT standstill#4. Badly. Probably over Jace, honestly.

In my opinion u have to play 4. I want to see this card in 100% of my games. The really rare situations where this card has no impact (it pitches to force...) are nothing when u compare it to the great influence in the others.

greetz

[rsaunder]

In my opinion u have to play 4. I want to see this card in 100% of my games. The really rare situations where this card has no impact (it pitches to force...) are nothing when u compare it to the great influence in the others.

It sucks against merfolk where Jace shines. I'd probably run jace#1 over standstill#4 in the same metagame where I'd run Shackles over crucible.

[dal9ll]

What about Preacher over Shackles? What meta would be better to run him over the ol' cuffs?

[konsultant]

What about Preacher over Shackles? What meta would be better to run him over the ol' cuffs?

Preacher is an alternative to Shackle's focusing on the Merfolk match up due to their inability to remove Preacher unlike Shackles whitch can get hit by Grip. I have tested both and find Preacher to be far superior and have been running Preacher for awhile and have beaten the last 5 Merfolk decks i've faced.

The inclusion of red and Ajani doesn't make the deck that other "Ultimate Walker". Or saying it the other way, being "Ultimate Walker" doesn't make it less Landstill. My deck is like 5 cards off UWb I used to run previously. Name it Ultimate Walker or Walkerstill, its still what this thread is about - UWx Landstill. Now that one with Ancestral Visions and Forbid is a different story.

I agree as long as it's a UWx control deck that runs Standstill you are in the right thread.

[Roelke]

So I've been playing landstill for two tournaments now. In the first list I played Cunning wish but I mostly used it to wish for PTE, so I decided to play the PTE's maindeck the second time. Playing 6 1cc removal spells was quite nice and I really didn't miss the wishes (well, maybe once when my opponent got a volrath stronghold+witness going). I lost 2 games due to bad desicions; but overall the games went well. Actually only losing one match to ichorid. I didn't really expect the deck so I only played 2 crypts side.

There was one thing that bothered me during these two tournaments; the speed of the deck. Even though I only lost 1 round I managed to have 5(!!) draws over the course of 12 games. Most of those round I had one quick game and one long (30+ minutes) game. Then it was really hard to actually finish or play the third game. Next to that, of the 6 rounds I won, two where won with 1-0-1. I don't consider myself a slow player, but when either I or my opponent got a SDT out (or worse, both of us). Things tended to get really slow. But next to that I had some games where my opponent got rid of my kills fast so I needed a lot of time to stick one; even though I was in control the entire game.

So my question is; are there any ways; either by playing-style or playing more kills to speed up the deck a bit?

Ps. I run the usual 4 factory's, 2 decree's, 2 elspeths and a crucible.

[Citrus-God]

So I've been playing landstill for two tournaments now. In the first list I played Cunning wish but I mostly used it to wish for PTE, so I decided to play the PTE's maindeck the second time. Playing 6 1cc removal spells was quite nice and I really didn't miss the wishes (well, maybe once when my opponent got a volrath stronghold+witness going). I lost 2 games due to bad desicions; but overall the games went well. Actually only losing one match to ichorid. I didn't really expect the deck so I only played 2 crypts side.

There was one thing that bothered me during these two tournaments; the speed of the deck. Even though I only lost 1 round I managed to have 5(!!) draws over the course of 12 games. Most of those round I had one quick game and one long (30+ minutes) game. Then it was really hard to actually finish or play the third game. Next to that, of the 6 rounds I won, two where won with 1-0-1. I don't consider myself a slow player, but when either I or my opponent got a SDT out (or worse, both of us). Things tended to get really slow. But next to that I had some games where my opponent got rid of my kills fast so I needed a lot of time to stick one; even though I was in control the entire game.

So my question is; are there any ways; either by playing-style or playing more kills to speed up the deck a bit?

Ps. I run the usual 4 factory's, 2 decree's, 2 elspeths and a crucible.

With those win conditions you really shouldn't be going to time often. I'd say practice more and learn to play aggressively. If you want, you could add on a 3rd copy of DoJ or Elspeth to speed games up.

[Tinefol]

From my experience Top speeds up your games by filtering out less useful cards and giving you win conditions when you want them. I've got only 4 draws in recent 34 matches, where as without it was roughly 1 out of 3 or 4 matches. The wincons are 3 Factory, 2 Elspeth and 2 Ajani, no DoJ, but DoJ is a very good win condition.

Just play your win-cons at the right time, when your opponents are either exhausted or cannot disrupt it and end the game quickly. Sometimes you're better of being agressive, sometimes you just hold your Factory beats.

Playing fast with top requires some practice, a couple of tournaments and you'll speed up.

[Roelke]

I guess you're right that top somewhat speeds up. But if both players have a top in play that means you lose about ten to twenty seconds "topping" every turn, which sums up quite fast.I'll try to play somewhat more agressive next time (which is something I didn't really do). That should speed up at least some games.

[NQN]

That is the one fact about the deck that has ONLY got to do with practice.
I play the deck for a period of 1 1/2+ years and actually, I rarely need more than 30-35 minutes for a match. I´d say maybe I enter the turns in 1/10 rounds or so. You just have to practice the "standard moves" so that you have more time to think about the difficult situations. Thats pretty much everything about the myth I hear rather othen when playing: "I´d never pick up landstill, It´s sooo slow and I never have some time to eat/smoke/whatever".
Just practice, the deck gets faster itself then.
Top doesnt really help since he may get you the wincons faster, but therefor he needs a lot of time for "eot, top" or "resp,top".

EDIT: I often see People playing Elspeth and then going for token, go, token, go token, go. I believe that it´s very important to apply pressure as fast as possible and so I always build one man, and then swing for 4 every turn. Obvious it´s not always possible, but it should be most of the time.

[Romanus]

EDIT: I often see People playing Elspeth and then going for token, go, token, go token, go. I believe that it´s very important to apply pressure as fast as possible and so I always build one man, and then swing for 4 every turn. Obvious it´s not always possible, but it should be most of the time.

I do the same with Elspeth. Unless I need chumps, those 1/1's and sometimes a Factory start taking flying steroids asap.

[mossivo1986]

I believe it depends on

Overall gameplan (If you think you could lose out against a removal spell etc.
If you have a specific protection plan (Disk+Elspeth's final)
If you've got tempo and a beater on your side (Eot vendillion + mainphase elspeth pump is huge in the control mirror.)

[Svenyboy]

Hello @ all,
Yesterday I made the first place with this Landstill mix build in Frankfurt:

2 Jace Beleren
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
3 Ajani Vengeant

2 Humility
2 Enlightened Tutor
1 Crucible of Worlds
2 Sensei's Divining Top

4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Counterspell
4 Cryptic Command
2 Spell Snare
4 Swords to Plowshares

4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
2 Wooded Foothills
4 Tundra
2 Volcanic Island
1 Plateau
1 Island
1 Plains
1 Academy Ruins
4 Mishra's Factory

Board:
4 Relic of Progenitus
2 Hydroblast
2 Red Elemental Blast
4 Circle of Protection: Red
3 Ajani Goldmane


Cardchoice:

Jace Beleren: Carddraw and very good in the Hardcontrolmirror with mill ability.
Elspeth: Finisher like Uwx Landstill.
Ajani Vengeant: Best card in my build. Removal against Aggro, Manascrew and Armaggedon ability. Very important! Best play, Humilty and Ajani in game. Damage on each Creature and Elspeth finish then.

Humility: Important with Elspeth. No explenation...
Tutor: I play a lot of Artifacts and Enchantments. We need it to have a clearly game.
Top: Card Draw and manipulation.
CoW: Important for Fetchlander and Mishra's Factory. 1 is enough with the Tutor.

Brainstorm: No explanation...
Force of Will: No explanation...
Counterspell: Best Counter in Hardcontrol.
Cryptic Command: Very flexibly. Bounce, draw, tap or counter. No problem with 24 Lands and CoW. Very important. Tap Creature and Tokenfinish.
Spell Snare: Good against Aggro and Aggro Control.
StoP: Spotremoval. No explenation.

Board:
Gravehate.
Worst MU against Burn/GoyfSligh with Circle and Ajani.


Matchups:
Canadian Threshold:
Good Game! Nimble Mongoose and Tarmogoyf aren't a problem, food for Ajani V. The fast CoW helps against Wastelander and Stifle. Postboard with 4 Relic of Progenitus for -2 Jace B. and -2 Cryptic Command the same.
2:0

Dragon Stompy:
I lost the first game with Chalice 1 and Trinisphere. I had a baaaaad draw with Muligan 5 :b Postboard no Problem with Circle of Protection. Easy game.
2:1

Rock:
Discard was a problem. Elspeth, Ajani and Humility were always the targets. Counterspell and Cryptic Command to slow to counter Thoughtseize, hymn to T. and Duress. But Elspeth and Humilty made a good job and took the win after a very very difficult game.
2:1

GoyfSligh:
Burn + Critter. I lost in Turn 5 in the Preboard. Then the board made the job with 4 Circle of Protection, 4 Hydroblast and 3 Ajani. I am not sure but i think Jace, Cryptic Command, Ajani V. and Spell Snare got out the build.
2:1

Second Canadian Thresh:
I won the first game easy with Ajani :D The second game was horrible. A early game with 3 Wastelands and 2 Stifles was the gamekill, Midgame 2 goyfs. Very lucky Threshplayer. Game 3 was very slow, Threshplayer did nothing, counter 1 Ajani and 1 Eslpeth but the second Ajani resolved and raced my oppenent.
2:1


Yeah, that was the tournament. Sorry for the bad english. What do you think about this build. I hate the board, it was random ^^
Any idea for improvements?

Greets.

[mossivo1986]

Hello @ all,
Yesterday I made the first place with this Landstill mix build in Frankfurt:

2 Jace Beleren
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
3 Ajani Vengeant

2 Humility
2 Enlightened Tutor
1 Crucible of Worlds
2 Sensei's Divining Top

4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Counterspell
4 Cryptic Command
2 Spell Snare
4 Swords to Plowshares

4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
2 Wooded Foothills
4 Tundra
2 Volcanic Island
1 Plateau
1 Island
1 Plains
1 Academy Ruins
4 Mishra's Factory

Board:
4 Relic of Progenitus
2 Hydroblast
2 Red Elemental Blast
4 Circle of Protection: Red
3 Ajani Goldmane


Cardchoice:

Jace Beleren: Carddraw and very good in the Hardcontrolmirror with mill ability.
Elspeth: Finisher like Uwx Landstill.
Ajani Vengeant: Best card in my build. Removal against Aggro, Manascrew and Armaggedon ability. Very important! Best play, Humilty and Ajani in game. Damage on each Creature and Elspeth finish then.

Humility: Important with Elspeth. No explenation...
Tutor: I play a lot of Artifacts and Enchantments. We need it to have a clearly game.
Top: Card Draw and manipulation.
CoW: Important for Fetchlander and Mishra's Factory. 1 is enough with the Tutor.

Brainstorm: No explanation...
Force of Will: No explanation...
Counterspell: Best Counter in Hardcontrol.
Cryptic Command: Very flexibly. Bounce, draw, tap or counter. No problem with 24 Lands and CoW. Very important. Tap Creature and Tokenfinish.
Spell Snare: Good against Aggro and Aggro Control.
StoP: Spotremoval. No explenation.

Board:
Gravehate.
Worst MU against Burn/GoyfSligh with Circle and Ajani.


Matchups:
Canadian Threshold:
Good Game! Nimble Mongoose and Tarmogoyf aren't a problem, food for Ajani V. The fast CoW helps against Wastelander and Stifle. Postboard with 4 Relic of Progenitus for -2 Jace B. and -2 Cryptic Command the same.
2:0

Dragon Stompy:
I lost the first game with Chalice 1 and Trinisphere. I had a baaaaad draw with Muligan 5 :b Postboard no Problem with Circle of Protection. Easy game.
2:1

Rock:
Discard was a problem. Elspeth, Ajani and Humility were always the targets. Counterspell and Cryptic Command to slow to counter Thoughtseize, hymn to T. and Duress. But Elspeth and Humilty made a good job and took the win after a very very difficult game.
2:1

GoyfSligh:
Burn + Critter. I lost in Turn 5 in the Preboard. Then the board made the job with 4 Circle of Protection, 4 Hydroblast and 3 Ajani. I am not sure but i think Jace, Cryptic Command, Ajani V. and Spell Snare got out the build.
2:1

Second Canadian Thresh:
I won the first game easy with Ajani :D The second game was horrible. A early game with 3 Wastelands and 2 Stifles was the gamekill, Midgame 2 goyfs. Very lucky Threshplayer. Game 3 was very slow, Threshplayer did nothing, counter 1 Ajani and 1 Eslpeth but the second Ajani resolved and raced my oppenent.
2:1


Yeah, that was the tournament. Sorry for the bad english. What do you think about this build. I hate the board, it was random ^^
Any idea for improvements?

Greets.

you have 15 4 drops. You might consider dropping your curve a bit to meet the meta.

SO lets take a look at what you played against:
2x canadian thresh
1x rock
1x goyf sligh
1x D Stompy

So every deck you played against - of course rock was a red tempo strategy. This means that all 9 (count them) pieces of your hate worked (Nice scouting? or just nice pairings?)

[rockout]

Your name is bitchtoken? That's how you want to be known by your peers? How does that not sadden you like it saddens me?

What also makes me sad about your post is 4x Cryptic Command. If you could explain to us all how 4 cryptic command was during the day I'd appreciate, I'm hoping you will say they were worthless and not needed so we don't spend the next 20 pages discussing why we would be running cryptic command.

[Svenyboy]

Your name is bitchtoken? That's how you want to be known by your peers? How does that not sadden you like it saddens me?

What also makes me sad about your post is 4x Cryptic Command. If you could explain to us all how 4 cryptic command was during the day I'd appreciate, I'm hoping you will say they were worthless and not needed so we don't spend the next 20 pages discussing why we would be running cryptic command.

Sure. :)
Cryptic Command the answer of all. You can bounce his goyf, draw a card or tap all creatures to race with your tokens :b 4 mana was easy to cast and it was very very funny to see the faces of the players when i played cryptic command. :D

I say always the same: You don't win the tournament with your build but with your brain!


@ mossivo:
I can't understand what do you mean. Yeah, my pairings was ok. Goyf Sligh and Rock were hard but i won it. Canadian Thresh was easy. Yeah, the curve is to high but i think that's why this build is called HARDCONTROL.

[Wasteland]

I would prefer to say that you won the tournament with this build that has nothing to do with Landstill anymore because all of the good players were playing in Milano...
Are there really no explosives in your build? -.-
Run against Goblins / Merfolk / Elves or any mana-disrupting Sui-build and you will not win a single game with ur cc4 spells...
Greetz,
Marius

[Svenyboy]

I would prefer to say that you won the tournament with this build that has nothing to do with Landstill anymore because all of the good players were playing in Milano...
Are there really no explosives in your build? -.-
Run against Goblins / Merfolk / Elves or any mana-disrupting Sui-build and you will not win a single game with ur cc4 spells...
Greetz,
Marius

Maybe :b
There was all Legacyplayers like every month ^^ Countertop, Canadian Thresh, GoyfSligh, Zoo, DragonStompy, Merfolk, Landstill, ...
Normal lists with normal players ^^
Yeah, EE was a good Cardchoice. But Ajani made a good job too. Furthermore I play 4 StoP and a lot of Counters with Cryptic Command to tap all creatures and Humility. That was enough. But ok, maybe EE in board for merfolk and goblins.

[Tinefol]

Well, a couple of months ago this has almost won a Mox, beating Caplan in the top4. Should Goblin players really discuss the awesomeness of card choices in that deck?

A bit sarcastic, but this is my feeling for the above decklist. No explosives? Cryptic Command? Seriously?

[mossivo1986]

BitchToken

@ mossivo:
I can't understand what do you mean. Yeah, my pairings was ok. Goyf Sligh and Rock were hard but i won it. Canadian Thresh was easy. Yeah, the curve is to high but i think that's why this build is called HARDCONTROL.

2 Jace Beleren
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
3 Ajani Vengeant

2 Humility
2 Enlightened Tutor
1 Crucible of Worlds
2 Sensei's Divining Top

4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Counterspell
4 Cryptic Command
2 Spell Snare
4 Swords to Plowshares

4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
2 Wooded Foothills
4 Tundra
2 Volcanic Island
1 Plateau
1 Island
1 Plains
1 Academy Ruins
4 Mishra's Factory

Board:
4 Relic of Progenitus
2 Hydroblast
2 Red Elemental Blast
4 Circle of Protection: Red
3 Ajani Goldmane

wow you conceivably have a 15 card sideboard against thrash. ROFLCOPTER!

Your pairings were not just ok. They were f****** fantastic! Especially with your 9 card anti-Red sideboard!

Just a rhetorical question to put out there:

Who in they're right mind plays 4 C.O.P: Red in any format other then perhaps standard?

Don't deny it . You had fantastic match-ups and a fantastic sideboard planned or unplanned against red which you faced 99.9% of the day.

Also to the Cryptic Command Comment. I hear R.E.B is the Tits in this format.

[mossivo1986]

Well, a couple of months ago this has almost won a Mox, beating Caplan in the top4. Should Goblin players really discuss the awesomeness of card choices in that deck?

A bit sarcastic, but this is my feeling for the above decklist. No explosives? Cryptic Command? Seriously?

Also Tinefol is 100% correct. (I just wanted you to know I can agree with you)

-Moss