[Deck] Dreadstill - Enter the Fist

[Kevftw]

Hey Fox,

Wondering if you've had a chance to play UR Dreadstill again since the post above from July, and if so is there anything you reckon you'd change in the list?

Got a paper legacy event tomorrow for first time since lockdown and looking forward to having a bit of fun with dreadnought.

[Fox]

UR list is pretty set; the main question is what your local meta is up to. The more combo the meta has, the better DRC will be. The more slow/fair, the more Endings you'll see, and the less impressive DRC will be.

There isn't much space in UR for a card like TNN, so you'll mostly be looking at the 4th slot of Daze and 4th slot of DRC (both fairly bad cards vs the Uro midrange stuff). I've never liked losing SB space to multiple TNNs hiding out there. The other option in the 4th Daze slot is a Saga target that both interacts and can replace itself; I prefer Phyrexian Furnace over Soul-Guide since it is repeatable, and unlike Relic it doesn't mess up my own GY.

Probably the most middle of the road approach to TNN would be -1 DRC, +1 TNN, -1 Daze, +1 Furnace-type, and SB -1 Relic-type, +1 TNN. If you end up more TNN-heavy, Suspend will need to be shifted toward Mystic Reflection.

[FTW]

Watched Rood crush with UR at 58:00 (Match 4) in this vid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1qLqvg-N_8&t=11s

OP's deck otherwise has some strong things going on (Moons, 20/20s), good enough that the deck auto-wins through misplays, but Standstill shut it down well and OP didn't figure out how to play around it (e.g. boarding in 6 drops, then Wasting himself off mana to cast them).

I like Rood's tech of Subtlety.
Subtlety + Stifle: 1-mana 3/3 flyer + Memory Lapse
Subtlety + Dress Down: 2-mana 3/3 flyer
Or it can just be Evoked or hardcast normally. Many modes.

Does anyone have his current list somewhere? It looks quite different to the UR Dreadstill above (multiple Subtlety main, Factory instead of Saga, Delver instead of DRC, SB Price of Progress). Was that to adapt to fair matchups?

[Fox]

@Rood changes it league by league quite a bit.

The list you're probably talking about is:
4x Island
4x Factory
1x Mountain
3x Vista
4x Tarn
1x Volc
3x Waste

4x BS
4x FoW
4x Daze
4x Dress Down
4x Standstill
4x Bolt
3x Stifle
2x PoP

3x Nought
4x Delver
4x Subtlety

SB
2x Surgical
2x Soul-Guide
3x Blasts
2x PoP
2x Fury
2x Unholy Heat
2x EE

Before this he was experimenting more with Thing in the Ice....but b/c mtgo is a quality program, Stubborn Denial with ferocious active doesn't hard-counter a spell, which has impeded his testing on this front.

[Rood]

Watched Rood crush with UR at 58:00 (Match 4) in this vid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1qLqvg-N_8&t=11s

OP's deck otherwise has some strong things going on (Moons, 20/20s), good enough that the deck auto-wins through misplays, but Standstill shut it down well and OP didn't figure out how to play around it (e.g. boarding in 6 drops, then Wasting himself off mana to cast them).

I like Rood's tech of Subtlety.
Subtlety + Stifle: 1-mana 3/3 flyer + Memory Lapse
Subtlety + Dress Down: 2-mana 3/3 flyer
Or it can just be Evoked or hardcast normally. Many modes.

Does anyone have his current list somewhere? It looks quite different to the UR Dreadstill above (multiple Subtlety main, Factory instead of Saga, Delver instead of DRC, SB Price of Progress). Was that to adapt to fair matchups?

Ive been testing alot of different stuff out since im back on MTGO now. Subtlety is a nice card with Dress down and stifle to blink in for standstill. Price of progress is cause everyone is on 4c control and lands on mtgo. My list is the exact same Fox posted. My UW list is

4x Dreadnought
3x Timeless Dragon
1x Retrofitter Foundry
4x Brainstorm
4x Standstill
4x Daze
4x Stubby D
4x Dress Down
2x Scroll of Fate
4x Swords to Plowshares
2x Prismatic Ending
4x FOW

4x Flooded Strand
3x Prismatic Vista
4x Urzas Saga
3x Wasteland
3x Island
1x Plains
1x Tundra
1x Volcanic Island

1x Mountain
1 x Plateau
3x REB
3x PoP
2x Pyroclasm
2x Prismatic Ending
3x Soul Guide Lanternu

[FTW]

Interesting tech. Looking forward to seeing more of it online.

4x Dreadnought
3x Timeless Dragon
4x Stubby D

4-of Stubborn Denial without another (early) big creature? Is this often used in Force Spike mode? Do the Saga Constructs regularly enable Ferocious?

[Rood]

Sagas. Timeless/Thing in the Ice and dreadnought all enable them. Very good combo hoser card as well

[Fox]

New set coming out soon, pretty sure it's fully spoiled:
UW Dreadstill:
-March of Otherworldly Light - costs $3.50 apiece; get the playset. This is Prismatic Ending for strict 1-2c white decks, will be trialing a 3/3 split with Plow to start, but will likely settle on 4/2 split with Plow. Importantly this card exiles artifact and enchantment lands, and ofc March works with Liquimetal.
-Touch the Spirit Realm - technically a way to Show and Tell off Scroll of Fate under a Standstill. 50 cents a copy.
-Boseju, Who Endures - overpriced at $35, but don't expect a quick price crash until it gets Wrenn banned. Technically any UW deck can play nothing green but just have 4x Boseju (so no Wastelands) to get color #3 for Ending and then use 1st Boseju to channel the other 3.

For UR Dreadstill:
-Otawara, Floating City - $8 likely overpriced, but you only need one. Swap one Island to this or add in a spell slot. This card should be considered in every deck with Standstill.

For UWR/UWr Slandstill/Landstill:
-Lucky Offering - very close to SB playable lifegain for UWR/UWr Standstill.

For UBw Landstill:
-Takenuma, Abandoned Mire - heavily overpriced at $9.50. Rebuys cmcs that Sevinne's can't see. I'd rather play the blue channel land, but this black one has its place. Outside of the archtype there is technically the line of Living Wish for ability to rebuy a PW with Takenuma in SB.

For UG-based ideas, and also cube:
-Colossal Skyturtle - uncounterable Brazen Borrower, costs about 50 cents. Regrowth ability is sweet, seen in GY by Replenish.
-Kappa Tech-Wrecker - it's a ninja turtle, it costs <50 cents. It exiles Kaldra.
-Master's Rebuke - close to playable removal in green, unlike fight a deathtoucher can't send damage back. Cost <50 cents. If it cost 1 it could be looked at more seriously.
-Kami of Transience - technically a combo with Standstill and Shark'nado. Might buy once it's below 50 cents.
-Gloomshrieker - better Eternal Witness (has menace). costs 50 cents.

Karn wishing:
-Reito Sentinel - better Soldevi Digger effect for Karn wish. Costs 25 cents.
-Runaway Trash-Bot - pronounced "run away...[dramatic pause]...trash bot." Worth picking up for 25 cents to let opponents know what you think about them staying in games they've lost.
-Reckoner Bankbuster - costs 2, draws some cards, turns into a Bitterblossom. Technically you can crew 3 to whack with a 4/4, but why?

Random stuff:
Commune with Spirits - good cantrip. note that this finds Oath of Nissa, representing one of modern's best options for cantripping. Oath of Nissa currently around $2 (this is the card you'd want to pick up)
Mnemonic Sphere - consideration for Painter. Overpriced at $1. Reasonable card to pitch to FoW with a Karn deck.
Tempered in Solitude - under 50 cents. This card represents a reasonable spec with red channel land if standard has a burn/aggro deck. Turns topdeck land into 2 dudes that can effectively draw cards by attacking alone. Abbot of Keral Keep had spoil price of $8, but these two cards do the Abbot thing better.

[colo]

I just wanted to say thanks for posting these kinds of analyses whenever a new set comes out - I do not have much time for the game right now, but plan to re-enter Legacy "fully loaded" when I do, and posts like yours help me keep up with interesting cards. Appreciated! :)

[Piproberts]

New video uploaded where I play UW Dreadstill. Fox joins me halfway and we have some interesting discussions and situations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEs9oeckNUg

[BirdsOfParadise]

-Reckoner Bankbuster - costs 2, draws some cards, turns into a Bitterblossom. Technically you can crew 3 to whack with a 4/4, but why?

It only ever makes one 1/1 token, or am I missing something? Removing a charge counter is part of the activation cost of the ability, so you can't use the ability any more once you're out of charge counters.

If the colon were placed differently, it would be a Bitterblossom.

[Fox]

It only ever makes one 1/1 token, or am I missing something? Removing a charge counter is part of the activation cost of the ability, so you can't use the ability any more once you're out of charge counters.

If the colon were placed differently, it would be a Bitterblossom.

Ah nice catch, still it's mostly about wish for a draw 3. Would need Nesting Grounds to keep something like this going (with a charge counter maker like Vial). The better wish target is probably Mnemonic Sphere because it pitches to FoW and you just re-wish it for the draw 2.
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Played UW Dreadstill last night in paper. Went 4-0 vs DnT (2-0), Grixis (2-0), GW Depths(2-1), and mono-white Geddon (2-0).

Game 1 vs DnT they didn't have removal and lost to Nought off Scroll. Game 2 they introduced monarch with Court of Grace, I kept them off a token with Stifle, and they would go on get about 4 extra cards while I bounced Court with Teferi, countered it, and stole the crown with EoT shark. Had about 10 turns in a row of being monarch, and that's how that game went.

Game 1 vs Grixis they got Stifled off black, had to crack Standstill, and died to Storm Giants each time they tapped under 4 mana. Game 2 Stifle kept them off basic Mountain for a bit and their REBs were overwhelmed by Teferi, Ashiok, and Sevinne's. Of note in g2 they lost 1 Fow to Teferi cast and then discarded a second FoW the next turn to Sevinne's -> I FoW'd back -> they pitch casted their third FoW and never really recovered from discarding 6 cards in 2 turns.

Game 1 GW Depths had a pretty fast Lage and I didn't have a kill spell in hand for whole game. Game 2 they respond to Teferi with double Crop Rot to set up EoT 20/20 and luckily Teferi downtick hit a white source for March and they didn't recover from Rain of Salt-self. Game 3 was weird, and they ended up cut from green mana (Stage copy Plains + Maze + Field of the Dead) vs Ashiok and Teferi for too many turns.

Game 1 vs Geddon they couldn't assemble enough mana and died to a Timeless. Game 2 they played turn 2 Saga which got hit by March before gaining the ability to tap for mana; after that it was irrecoverable for them. I think they got to 4 mana one time, but never got to put a Geddon on the stack.

Unplanned Nought kills by opponents: 1
Planned Nought kills by opponents: 1
Games won by combat including Nought damage: 2
Games won by exclusive Nought damage: 1
Games won by exclusive non-Nought damage: 1
Concession to unwinnable position vs prison elements: 4

[DKK]

Have been off Dreadnought-based lists for a couple of years, cool to see this thread is still somewhat active. I'm intrigued by the UW Dreadstill list with 3Feri and Karn, nice work. What does the post-Neo list look like? For example from the tournament you just posted about Fox.

One thing I'm wondering: what do the 12/12s add to the 'regular Standstill shell'? How often are they just dead in hand and would be better off being something else to tighten the lock?

[Fox]

The list is largely unchanged. When they banned Oko, Sparkhunter was no longer needed in SB. When Ending was printed it replaced Spell Snare. When Dragon was printed it unfortunately meant the 2nd Tundra came back in the place of 4th Vista. When Saga came out, 3rd Standstill to 2nd Ending. Variance of second Tundra deleted by replacing 3x Mishra with 2x Storm Giants. When March came out, immediately dropped both Ending.

Main thing being looked at now is whether 4th Brainstorm can justify slot over 3rd Standstill. Standstill remains the best answer in the format to Plow/Ending users.

The format is waiting for Echo ban, and given that Timetwister and Mind Twist are both on the banlist, it is not unreasonable to expect a Day's Undoing ban piggybacked on principle. This will return the format to Uro vs Murkgoyf.

4x Strand
3x Vista
3x Island
2x Plains
2x Tundra
3x Waste
2x Storm Giants
1x Karakas

4x FoW
4x BS
4x Plow
3x Stifle
2x Standstill
2x March
2x FoN
2x Verdict
2x Shark'nado
2x Scroll of Fate
1x Sevinne's
1x Azcanta
1x Dress Down

3x Teferi
2x Karn

3x Nought
2x Timeless

SB kit unchanged for the last 2-3 years other than Sparkhunter to EE. Otherwise the legacy meta and FIRE design has failed to generate any need for different play patterns.
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In terms of why UW Dreadstill over UWr Standstill/Landstill, the only things offered by UWr is Spikefield Hazard, ability to support 1 more Dragon, Ending rather than March, Snapcaster, SB Blasts.

UWr can't fix primary deficits: no real lifegain, no access to non-Pyroblast'able onboard value engine.

UWr issues: Post, DDFT (nevermind that Dress Down is getting Daze'd, UWr can't use this as an enabler. SB Torpor Orb similarly looks bad for same reason), Saga (can only support 2 Wasteland, Ending doesn't kill Saga), Elves (fewer tools vs Elves, Ending is sorcery vs Dino dude), etc.

In general, UWr has much poorer early game and lacks prison elements granting inevitability. The trade-off is that UWr is comparatively low skill; pretty easy to play Plow/Ending + SCM, 6 Force, and SB Blasts. Before Ending was printed, UWr was able to play 2x Teferi 5cmc and board them out for 2x Nahiri, which at the time was the only way to kill Klothys while getting ahead. Nahiri is now redundant, and Endurance wiping GY makes it harder to cast her SB friend 13/13 Emmy.

The tldr is that UW Dreadstill runs higher win %...and as far as Standstill/Landstill goes, higher winrates with UBw than UWr. Skill required in ascending order: UWr < UBw < UR Dreadstill <<< UW.

[DKK]

Thanks for your reply, much appreciated. A couple of observations and some questions.

The format is waiting for Echo ban, and given that Timetwister and Mind Twist are both on the banlist, it is not unreasonable to expect a Day's Undoing ban piggybacked on principle. This will return the format to Uro vs Murkgoyf.

This is a new perspective for me. Why do you feel Echo will be banned? If anything would be banned it would probably be something from UR.

SB kit unchanged for the last 2-3 years other than Sparkhunter to EE. Otherwise the legacy meta and FIRE design has failed to generate any need for different play patterns.

Would you be willing to share the sideboard for the current metagame? The latest one I could find in this threat is from this list: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/4227548#paper
Also, if you could give an insight into what the basic SB-plans vs the top 5 decks (Delver, Bant, Storm, DnT, 8cast) is?

I'll be taking the deck for a spin on our FNM this Friday. Some other questions to get a feel for how the deck plays out:
- how often do you use Stifle to enable a Dreadnought vs. to counter fetchlands (or other abilities, for example Saga's 2nd one)?
- what is your most frequent Karn target?
- have you considered adding Standstill #3 as the 61st card? I know it's a blasphemy, but the deck does not feel overly reliant on specific cards and Standstill #3 could give some needed card advantage.
- how much of an annoyance is the rise in Urza's Saga? reason to add a 2nd Dress Down to the maindeck or do the addition of 2 March of Otherworldy Light feel sufficient?
- have you considered Back to Basics for the sideboard?

Thanks for your willingness to share!

[Fox]

That is the correct SB you've found, but Suspend has been changed to EE. While Suspend was fun with Teferi passive, it's just redundant. You run EE/Keg to pull in the better effect and keep the backup in the board for Karn wish. EE also gets points for being able to kill Choke b/c people who play that card like giving you black or green mana with Urborg/Yavimaya.

In terms of UR, the deck is a budget meme from the Khans era. The only reason it can see play is b/c WotC banned Probe (effectively banning Therapy, effectively banning Grixis Delver...followed by banning maindeck lifegain of DRS). After this the UR deck always disappears when a new card comes out, particularly when lifegain is on that card (Oko, Uro, Klothys, Lurrus), they also have no choice but to drop their deck when FIRE hits (saw this with Wrenn, Lurrus, Oko, and Klothys). Even now, the only reason the dominant deck isn't RUG Delver casting Klothys is that Klothys lost his unkillability once Ending was made legal - that's how close UR Delver is to being ejected from the meta at any given time. Right now UR Delver is coasting on fumes b/c they hit a little timing window where Uro can't interact with MurkGoyf in a head to head (no reach), and a 7/7 or 8/8 (or higher if 2x Murktides) stat line generates dead-to-Bolt range before "gain 3 life" attack triggers close the door.

Iteration is a meme without Ragavan/DRS cheating on mana while being valid protect the queen creatures (i.e. worthy of protecting with Daze). Murktide is a joke ban, b/c it's just a Goyf that got marginal power creep 15 years later; it's still a 2 mana, over-stat'd, summoning sick, non-trampler <- every deck construction in legacy begins at not dying to this cluster of 4 characteristics that define "Goyf." Anyone who says "ban Murktide" can't be taken seriously b/c it's going to get power crept to irrelevance over time (and even now every single color in magic has no issue killing it). The only card you can realistically ban is Daze; and while this is the correct ban, it's not likely to happen, nor is it particularly pressing since basically all FIRE cards it could protect have been banned.

On Echo there is a game structure problem. There's no point to having rules about keeping/mulling hands applying to players on the draw when player 1 can just go land -> LED -> crack LED, Echo. It is particularly problematic b/c player 1 can mull down to 2 exploiting the London mull to effortlessly deny player 2 from ever getting to have a keep or mull decision. Next just count the game objects: player 1 went from 7 things (7 cards in hand) to 8 things (1 land, 7 cards). Now ask yourself what the game's compensation mechanism for being on the draw is: that's right - getting an 8th thing (8th card to hand) to player 1's 7 things...only they have 8 things...and that's how you know Echo is living on borrowed time.

Let's take a moment to walk through why Probe actually got banned: Delver goes from 7 things in hand to Probe -> Sea -> Therapy down to 6 things (1 land, 5 cards). Their opponent on the draw goes from 7 things (on turn 0) to 5 b/c they happened to have a 2x in their opening hand. Now compensate player 2 with their extra card and....hmm somehow player 2 only has 6 things to player 1's 6 things...so where's player 2's compensation??? Game structure problem.

Day's is a less pressing ban b/c it doesn't have LED as Black Lotus creating game structure problems. It is however hard to look at Mind Twist and Timetwister on the banlist, but somehow people are getting MindTwistered right now in legacy thanks to particularly loose, non-symmetrical wording on cards like Narset/Breacher/Leovold + Day's. Again, living on borrowed time. The one and only redeeming thing about this brand of bullcrap is that it doesn't happen on turn 0 or turn 1, so it's harder for power creep [particularly power-crept fair cards, i.e. 1-card combos] to piggyback on this and win the game before the other player ever got to play the game.
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Anyways back to Dreadstill:
-almost never make StifleNoughts. Preferentially hit Fetches, Wastelands.
-you wish for what the opponent can't beat (you need to know their decklist, or at least how it operates). Sometimes they can't beat uptick, even if it's without a target.
-every card you add to Standstill decks hurts the card Standstill. I guess you could add Standstill and a land (either Otawara or a Vista) for a total of 62, but now you're hurting the odds of drawing cards that let you cast Standstill in atypical positions.*
-March, Wasteland, Stifle, and Dress Down are enough hate. All of my top end has play against Saga.
-One of the benefits to playing Storm Giants and Azcanta is that I can ignore Choke. In this setting B2B is self-defeating as it railroads me into having to Force every Choke.**

*You have to be aware of the meta. DnT is in full panic mode (lots and lots of Labyrinth Spirits), people are exploiting MindTwister to play otherwise unplayable combinations (hard to Stifle vs Teferi, hard to Brainstorm vs Narset), 8cast gets most of its wins by picking non-commital fights with Emry/Chalice x=1 (this gives them FoW superiority, which is ultimately their wincon), EchoCannon is cheesing Hullbreacher. My deck uses deck structure, rather than xerox cantrip theory, to hit land drops and fix mana. If I see Chalice, I'm boarding down on Bstorm so that I have the luxury of ignoring it. This isn't an option for xerox decks to pull out their Ponders & Brainstorms. Brainstorm is among my least valuable spells in the deck.
**B2B and Blood Moon are only good vs decks that basically all run: Boseju (otherwise you're trying to cheese a Daze deck). Blood Moon has been unplayable since FoV just means Moon cheats in your opponent's Lage. B2B had a little while where you could do some fun stuff with Teferi 5cmc's [+1], but that was only for UW/r Standstill/Landstill. Dreadstill incorporates more nonbasic mana use. We also have little issue naturally smashing the mana of decks a conventional control deck would need to dig for B2B/Moon-type cheese against.

8cast:
mainly looking to not let them pick a fight with Chalice
-1 Nought
-2 BS
+1 Humility
+1 Ashiok
+1 Keg
-1 Standstill (down to 1)
+1 Mastery
can consider -1 Stifle and -1 Plow to Nodes and EE.

Delver:
-1 Nought
-2 FoN
-1 BS (don't really care what I draw vs them, it's all good)
-1 Scroll
+1 Nodes
+1 EE
+1 Relic
+1 Ashiok
+1 Humility (might do Crucible on the draw)

Storm:
-1 Nought
-4 Plow
+1 Relic
+2 Ashiok
+1 Canonist
+1 EE

Bant:
-2 Nought
-2 BS (Breacher/Narset users)
-2 Plow
-1 Stifle
+2 Ashiok
+1 Relic
+1 EE
+1 Humility
+1 Nodes
+1 Mastery

DnT:
-2 FoN
-1 Nought
-2 BS (Labyrinth users)
-1 Standstill
+1 Humility
+1 Torpor
+1 Nodes
+1 EE
+1 Mastery
+1 Crucible

[FTW]

New video uploaded where I play UW Dreadstill. Fox joins me halfway and we have some interesting discussions and situations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEs9oeckNUg

@Fox: I notice quite a few games here are lost to mana screw on few lands. The very thing that Ponder fixes. I get that you don't want Ponder in Dreadstill, but it's also <20 colored sources with Xerox-ish manabase and colorless land topdecks. Is this a point where you either want another cantrip or more lands to compensate?

[Fox]

@Fox: I notice quite a few games here are lost to mana screw on few lands. The very thing that Ponder fixes. I get that you don't want Ponder in Dreadstill, but it's also <20 colored sources with Xerox-ish manabase and colorless land topdecks. Is this a point where you either want another cantrip or more lands to compensate? Multiple losses to not hitting 4 mana, with a bunch of 3-4 mana plays in hand or needing to draw into a 4-mana out.

Not sure which spot you're talking about. One game vs DnT we keep with 2 lands in opener and in like 20 cards saw 2 Wastelands which had to be used for mana rather than hitting Port. Rewatching the game, the main thing I saw was that both Wastelands should have been used for Port destruction rather than mana; but mana missing lands for that long isn't really something that can be overcome. Also in that game I was on 1x Island vs 2x Port so I never ever want to see Ponder anywhere near my hand. On a Stifle deck I would take Opt, Peek, or Clairvoyance before Ponder...and before all that I'd take a third copy of Timeless Dragon, but I don't have the plains numbers to support it...So I'd take an Otawara as the next best thing. I'd have to cut a card though.

^This is an important concept: once you have a critical mass of slots invested in lands (and the Timeless Dragons and the Azcanta and the ability to raw-draw for 2 mana with Shark'nado and Dress Down) you're not going to get more out of 4x slots of Ponder than you would by investing just 1 slot in another land (like Otawara). There's also strategy issues where I want nothing to do with having only 2 land in play -> casting Standstill -> and then drawing Ponders instead of Otawara or Timeless.

Against Slivers I'm comfortable with Crystalline randomly having a favorable lineup vs Teferi. It's more an issue that Crystalline stops Teferi from drawing closer to lands while also delaying their sideways plan. There was also the flanking vs Scroll interaction which was significant. I'm more concerned with combination of Flanking + Shroud + pump lords than my mana coming together. Ponder stealing slots might make fixing 4 mana and finding Verdict better vs Slivers' specific combination of keyword spam, but it will also cost me the ability to make Noughts, use Stifle profitably, use Standstill, and allow hostile Chalice to resolve. The only slots Ponder could occupy is Brainstorms, but Brainstorm occasionally fixes a hand or counters a discard spell.

[FTW]

I should rewatch. Maybe it was just bad luck and less often than I thought. On first watch, it felt like there were multiple spots where he kept needing to draw into 4 lands to enable your out (Verdict, Karn) and couldn't even hit 4 lands in time. Double Port + bad topdecks + Brainstorm lock sure doesn't help. Then drawing Wasteland and tapping for colorless (instead of killing Port for +1 colored mana each turn) didn't help either. There was also a moment where you needed to Sevinne for a 4th land, chose to Brainstorm instead, then Brainstorm locked yourself without land and were too slow to hit 4 mana. That Brainstorm was bad luck, but also seemed to highlight how much the deck struggled to consistently hit 4 mana vs mana denial decks, even though it runs important haymakers at 4 cmc.

Also in that game I was on 1x Island vs 2x Port so I never ever want to see Ponder anywhere near my hand. On a Stifle deck I would take Opt, Peek, or Clairvoyance before Ponder...and before all that I'd take a third copy of Timeless Dragon, but I don't have the plains numbers to support it...So I'd take an Otawara as the next best thing. I'd have to cut a card though.

I said "another cantrip or more lands". Was thinking some blue instant (Consider, Opt). As you've said, Ponder doesn't play well with Stifle or Standstill (or vs Port). Otawara and 3rd Timeless are better though. Why are you on so few lands though? Is 20 enough with Wastelands and multiple 4s? That looks like the land count for a Ponder-based deck with Xerox consistency engine. You would know this best.... but doesn't a non-Ponder deck need more land?

[Fox]

The problem with Sevinne's before Brainstorm [Sliver game] is that it's not able to manipulate the opponent. Based on their play patterns, pauses, and attack patterns you can basically know they have a FoW in hand, and they're about to go up to 3 cards.

In spots like this I always credit my opponents with a god hand and perfect topdeck, so the opponent must have FoW + blue card + they will topdeck either Fluster or Dispute or hardcast'able FoN. My only goal is to resolve Humility next turn without letting the opponent ever make another relevant decision for the rest of the game. My wincon is Teferi uptick -> Brainstorm into land and a random blue card, pass turn -> let them kill Teferi -> end step massacre their god hand with Sevinne's target Teferi -> untap, Humility with FoW to kill their second counterspell -> now they have wasted 6 damage on Teferi, are hellbent, and have nothing but vanilla 1/1s for the rest of the game (and those 3-4 precious Harmonic Slivers aren't going to save them anymore).

That's the line that removes the other player from the game and reduces their entire list to nothing. So when all I have to do is have Brainstorm hit untapped land (odds are 14 to 2 that a land isn't Storm Giants) to guarantee Sevinne's, and if the land isn't white (10 of last 16 land hits are white), then worst case I can necro the Fetch and cast a Humility that loses to double interaction. I am always going to take those odds of Brainstorm seeing a land in that spot, in this matchup.
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Non-Delver Ponder decks don't do anything meaningful on 2 mana (unless they're putting CB or Hymn on the stack). They're all on that Uro or Narset MindTwister or Grixis Jammy Jams plan; they might also be 4 colors. Not only can they not play spells on 2 mana, but they also have outrageously diffuse color requirements. If you hand those decks 2 random lands and say "play on just these lands for a few turns," they will lose often and they will lose badly.

By contrast Standstill-using decks are designed to operate on as low as two random mana, still being able to use that mana to drive the game plan forward (even if stuck on 2 for a while). Compared to Standstill/Landstill, Dreadstill has more outlets for 2 mana expenditures (Stifle + Dreadnought and EoT Dress Down into Nought). Unlike Standstill/Landstill, we can win very quickly with that 2 mana...and if our hand has no land #3, that card slot in hand might just be a Force effect to help win the fight we're picking with Nought. We also have the option to stall for draw steps if one of our lands is a Wasteland, and that plan is more potent if Stifle is added to the mix. Coming back to Dress Down, no other deck can go from Dress Down EoT just looking for my 3rd land -> untap, guess I missed, oh well....here's 12 to 24 power.

At some point you have to tally up the 2 mana plays, and look at the odds of not getting a 3rd land while still being able to make plays on that 2 mana (most of which help find the 3rd mana). I rarely have a stuck on 1 land game, and I'm just not that concerned about establishing 2 land then being able to make it to land 3 and 4. I'm more worried about flooding out b/c of land 21 at this point (even dropped the 4th Vista b/c of it).

Otawara is at least closer to Spikefield in terms of effect worth casting, but I don't think the extra land slot is needed at this time. The slot it would occupy is held by Brainstorm #4 (currently being tested as Standstill #3.