URW Landstill - are 3 colors viable?

[firebird365]

After messing around with a couple T1 decks, I found Landstill to be an awesome deck to play, and after acquiring the majority of the cards, I played in some local tournaments. I won most of them, but when playing UR I always felt rushed to finish the game before my opponent could recover, and that I didn't have sufficient mana sinks to use Drains with confidence. While playing UW, I had the Decrees as a quicker win, but the 4 Swords to Plowshares didn't seem like they were enough to slow creature decks down. I wanted to combine the two, but it basically rolls down to this question: are the mana constraints too much for 3 color Landstill?

Here's the build that I would run:

UWr Landstill, by firebird365

// Mana Sources (28)
4 Volcanic Island
4 Tundra
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
3 Faerie Conclave
3 Flooded Strand
2 Island
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus
1 Library of Alexandria

// Card Drawing (5)
4 Standstill
1 Ancestral Recall

// Removal (10)
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Fire/Ice
3 Nevinyrral's Disk

// Countermagic (11)
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
3 Misdirection

// Utility (6)
3 Decree of Justice
3 Stifle

// Sideboard (15)
4 Red Elemental Blast
3 Maze of Ith
2 Teferi's Response
2 Chain of Vapor
4 Tormod's Crypt

(recent changes in Bold)

The red adds the very important removal aspects, as well as the strong additions (REB, and R&R if necessary) in the Sideboard, while white adds DoJ and Swords to Plowshares. This deck is performing very well right now, and has been able to stand up to some pretty heavy disruption (against several Sui decks) well.

Some things to consider:

• I've been wanting to add 2-3 Impulse MD for extra filtering. Opinions? Possible change would be -1 MisD, -1 DoJ, +2 Impulse.
• Should I bring the # of Disks to 4?
• Should I bring the # of Fire/Ice to 4?
• Would Dust Bowl have a place MD for the mirror match?[/list:u]Thanks for your time.

[Raven Fire]

Is having red in the deck worth while for only a few bolts (and some sideboard REBs)?  If it is, wouldn't Fire/Ice be a better choice as it can generate card advantage and be pitched to FoW or MisD?

[Moxlotus]

I would also think F/I would be better than Lightning bolt since the purpose is to take out weenies.  Pitching to FoW is an added bonus.

[firebird365]

In my opinion, yes, the red is worth it; the added removal is helpful for the tougher matchups, and REB is incredible. Also, it allows for more SB flexibility for cards like R&R.

As for Fire/Ice, that's a very good point, I'll make the switch.

[type1playa]

it's hard with landstill b/c of just this problem deciding between the red or white.  the white landstill player lacks the versatility of fire/ice and rebs while the red landstill player misses out on stp, balance and some nice sideboard.  in a perfect world we could all run bwr landstill and things would be great.  but for me, a landstill's mana base is already shaky enough, with around 10 colorless producers it's hard to squeeze in three colors unless you want to go the total non-basic route. not to mention more colors means more sac lands which are already bad synergy and are kept to a minimum.  if anyone resolves a blood moon, b2b or just has a lot of land hate themselves you're screwed.  but if you don't see a lot of that sort of thing then go for it, a landstill deck with swords, fire/ice and balance could be rough for a lot of people.

i notice you don't run balance in your list.  balance is the reason i run red instead of white.  if balance wasn't so non-synergetic with landstill, i usually have more cards and lands than my opponent, i'd be all about white.  but for those that do run white it's incredibly potential power packed into 1W is almost impossible not to include.

dust bowl is a house period.  i haven't had a mirror yet but it doesn't matter.  it's just that good against any deck running lots of non-basics and it's just won me games.  try it out and you won't go back.

nev's disk is the essence of landstill.  if you think of the two most important cards that define a landstill deck minus any counters you'd probably think of standstill and nev's disk.  i don't know how anyone could run without 4 but i've seen lists that are claimed successful.  i guess it's all meta-based so anything's possible.

maybe try cutting a decree for another fire/ice and i'm trying to think of a way to squeeze in another conclave and dust bowl but your mana base is already complex enough.  has anyone ever tried a gemstone mine in here? i'd imagine not but since you're running three colors why not?  you run 25 lands so it's not like you can't afford to give up a land after 3 uses from it.  it's also synergetic w/ dust bowl.  maybe you could cut a duel or sac land?

personally i think landstill isn't capable of running 3 colors efficiently and consistently do what it's supposed to do.  it's just not broke enough.  it's basically a blue draw-go deck with a splash of colored tech.  3 colors is just asking too much from a simple, basic little deck like landstill.

[mtgmooner]

I think you have a solid three-color build.  however, i think i might be hashing up an old argument, but I wonder if you are losing a little bit of efficiency in the deck by running the Library...

I will never argue that dropping a Library first turn can turn into some seriously broken card advantage, but its one card of 60.  The math dictates this will happen only about 11% of the time.  I know that there is card-drawing in this deck where the card could become useful as the game progresses, but without the UR fish type draw engines of Curiousity, Cloud of Faeries, etc., Im not sure that the percentage of times the Library isnt a dead card in your hand in the mid or late game is in your favour...

In terms of a suggestion to replace it, I havent put as much though out.  The 4th Strand might be the best option for you, as a first turn fetch is almost always a strong drop.  It definetly provides stability to your mana-base, and even strenghtens it in this case because of the 3 color build...your thoughts??