What do you guys play in the main deck with black or green?

Even though I do have over 100 hours experience with the deck, I still do not think it gives me the right to talk to you like you are a scrub, and I am sorry if that is what you got from my post.

All I was trying to say is that your statement saying that you removed a misdirection and put it back in after one hour of playtest is not relevent in the discussion as the difference between the two decks cannot be seen in a one hour period.  My comments would hold for FoW and Standstill as well, if you tell me that you played with 3 for an hour and realized it was bad, it would still not mean anything.  However, I am very much able to see that testing is not required to reach the decision to run 4, maybe you think the same of misdirection and I have no problem with that, but don't tell me I know nothing of the deck because I run 2.



Good for you, I have not found CoV to be that much better than bolt, but I did play 3 bolts and 2 CoV as I believe I have said earlier, if I were to cut the 3 bolts, I would add the 2 missing 2 CoV and whatever card not a misdirection and 2 teferi's response.  You need 1 cc removal.



I do not really like the Response when facing aggro, I prefer my bolts, but it's true it provides a surprise factor... I still prefer stiffle.


That being said, last time I played the deck I tried a Uwr version which I really liked as white allowed me to win a few matches I would have lost otherwise (I swapped 3 bolt for 3 StP and 2 CoV for 2 Decree).  However, I would not even consider that version if you expect to see BtB or Blood Moon... have you tested that version MarkPharaoh?

Hum... you better go back to your math class my friend, do you have any idea of the probability of having a misdirection in your hand when you need it when you run 3 vs when you run 2 during a one hour period (about 4 games...), no need to make the calculation, I know it's not significant enough to justify your comments... If I were you, I would not insult one's play experience without being able to back your comments by meaningful arguments.  Also, did I ever say landstill is not about control? I said the deck was not all about counters which is true, the deck cannot run on counters without board control so misdirection are not that useful, that being said, running 3 is still very good, but there are better cards in my opinion.



Well, it's true that if you play no bolt you will have problem against this deck, I really don't get it when people cut the bolts, you need 1cc removal to kill first turns creatures in order to play your second turn standstill...



Teferi's response no longer make the cut, stiffle is way more versatile, something the deck needs, a dead card can cost you the game, this often is dead.  Basically, you weaken your aggro match-up to add 2 responses which are good against your better matchup... In my opinion, 3 bolts are a must too.

Well whatever you choose to play, I still gave you what I thought was the optimal version... I personally do not like your sideboard, but it depends on your metagame... however, from my experience, I found Energy Flux to be really good against most artifacts decks which are found everywhere these days (even though most people prefer rack and ruin).  I personally like to have tools against the decks that you are likely to find in top 8, so some side vs slaver is pretty good, not that you should worry that much about that matchup, but still...

One thing though, fire/ice is just twice as good as lightning bolt, do not cut one.

Bad matchup vs food chain goblin?  The combo will never work vs landstill (stiffle, CoV, disk and counters), you got plenty of tools to deal with their creatures which are a little slower than in a normal aggro deck, so the matchup is highly in your favor.  Do not include anything for that matchup. As for control, it should actually be a little more than 60/40 if you play well...

However, I would cut a misdirection as they are not that useful these days and the deck does not need counters that much.  I would also cut 2 CoV for 3 lightning bolt.  With 4 CoV, you will have problems vs some good aggro, also the deck does not like dead cards and CoV can often be dead while bolts are really powerful... a control deck with so much damage potential is too much for many decks.

As for the mana base, I found the mox ruby to be useless most of the time, but this is really debatable, as for library, it is not good in the deck, it is great, you want to play on and you want to play at least 28 mana, that is the minimum I would consider.  However, I prefer to cut an island for a dust bowl which is really good.  I would also include lotus if you have one (I would swap it with mox ruby if I were you).

Finally for the sideboard I usually play:
2 Teferi's response
3 Tormod's crypt
2 Energy Flux
3 Maze of Ith
3 Red Elemental blast
2 Chalice of the void

This provides great tools for most decks you will encounter.

Blue blast are not needed unless you play your 4 CoV, in wihch case I don't know what I would remove from the sideboard.

Actually MarkPharaoh, target opponent can be misdirectionned too... just not the way we usually want to

Right now, my favorite anti-artifact is Energy Flux which I believe to be an underused card.  Any deck packing 5 strips should seriously consider this card.  The biggest advantage of it being that it locks your opponent mana (pop moxen and require mana to keep other artifact) as well as it destroys artifacts, combined with wastelands, it can slow any deck down often giving you victory.

I am stunned by your article jpmeyer, mostly regarding your comments on the usefulness and efficiency of standstill as well as the deck that uses it the most landstill.  I do not know if you've played the deck a few times, but from my experience you do not understand it at all.

I agree with you that standstill in itself is a pretty bad card and that it gives no card advantage when your opponent casts a spell at the end of your turn when you have a full hand, it fact, in this case it is card disadvantageous.  However, should your opponent opt for that option, he will lose, why? It's pretty simple.  Basically if you cast it with 3 cards in hand, your opponent will usually have to wait around 7 turns for you to get a hand with 7 cards (assuming you get 1 land every 2 card which is not unlikely in a deck running about half it's cards as lands), a control deck actually beg you to wait 7 turns to get good board position, if you do that you lose.  Even if you were not to lose to tempo advantage of the deck, you would lose to card quality, discarting cards means you got better quality in your hand which leads to victory.  Seriously, I have rarely lost a game in which my opponent waited more than 3-4 turns to break the standstill... this is what the deck wants. If there was a card "1U: Your opponent will not play any spells until you have 7 cards in hand", I would cut the standstill for that at anytime.

Then you comment on the landstill deck itself, even though it is not clear, I read it that you say the deck is bad because it has synergy but no power, you can corect me if I am wrong about that.  However, right now from what I see, it is one of the best deck right now... personally, I define one of the best deck as one that wins against most "bad decks" as well as against the top decks. To me the bad matchups are : aggro-ctrl (fish, grow, tog) and oshawa stompy which are fought with a good sideboard.  I have been playing the deck for 8 tournaments so far (not that many, but I only count those with 40+ players) and have yet to fail to make top 8, I did not even win so much in the time I played grow-atog w/ 4 gush, a deck I considered to always win.  To deck is not explosive, but it prevents others from being explosive, it stalls them and can react to anything.  To me the most important characteristic of a deck is not explosiveness and power, but stability which landstill has plenty of.

Before commenting on a deck, you should really test it and make sure you fully understand it otherwise your comments will be inapropriate.

I have been playing standstill for a few months now with very good results and from my experience, I found it very obvious that the draw engine should be modified in the following order of preference (ie: 1 is the best choice, 2 less efficient and so on):

1- Do not change anything
2- Trade route (without the disk, this would make the cut)
3- Mystic remora (in a scrubby metagame it can move to 1 as if it can stall your opponent and make him hold his spells it will be very efficient)
4- Impulse
5- Brainstorm

However, no change is really the way to go, the deck always allow you to keep a hand full with so many card advantage and a lot of ineficient cards from the opponent deck.  Why are you guys looking for draw or search cards, do you ever need it or is it simply because these are cards you play in "good" control decks so they should be in this one?