My landstill build

[q_Werty]

I haven't posted anything on TMD before, but I've been a frequent reader for years. Recently i've been doodling around with a landstill deck, and I would like some creative input. I know all you people hate landstill, but I don't. I saw a decklist at stardcitygames some time ago, and thought i'd try it out.

It sucked.

So I started tweaking and playtesting it, and I think I found out how to make it work. Read my decklist and some explaination below. If played right, this deck has as many as 8 draw3 for 1 or 2 mana ("ancestrals"), 16 counterspells, and a lot of universal powerful answers to bring any deck to it's knees.

Decklist, and then some explaination.

Lands
  5 Island
  4 Mishra's Factory
  4 Polluted Delta
  3 Volcanic Island
  1 Strip Mine
  4 Wasteland
  1 Library of Alexandria
  3 Faerie Conclave

Additional mana
  1 Mox Ruby
  1 Black Lotus
  1 Mox Sapphire

Counters
  3 Teferi's Response
  4 Mana Drain
  3 Stifle
  4 Force of Will
  2 Misdirection

Utility, card advantage.
  4 Nevinyrral's Disk
  3 Fire/Ice
  1 Ancestral Recall
  1 Time Walk
  3 Chain of Vapor
  4 Standstill


Sideboard (Not so sure about this)
 4 Red elemental blast
 1 Stifle
 1 Chain of vapor
 1 Fire\Ice
 4 Pithing needle
 4 Rack & Ruin


White was cut simply because what you gain is less than what you have to pay. I played with white until i met decks with blood moon and back to basics. This can't be stressed enough: In a deck so prone to nonbasic hate, you NEED lots of basics. I am doodling around with the thought of adding even more basic lands, but it seems just right now.

It seems noone plays Teferi's response anymore, because they play stifle instead. I play both, and it always works. Against any deck with wastelands and such, you get a 3 to 1 card advantage, which is basically 3 more ancestrals, to a total of 8. Response also works versus plows, artifact removal, fire\ice etc. This card is almost never dead. But when it is, you will always need a card to pitch to misdirection or Force, where in many other builds you had eternal dragon or Wrath, which made you pitch a mana drain or worse.

3 Stifles maindeck is essential when there is so much combo around. After sideboard you have a good shot at winning against both belcher-based and storm-based combo.

So far against aggro, i've won the game at 10 or so life. It's all about the fire\ice and chain of vapor here. Turn 1, drop island, end of turn, vapor their first threat. Turn 2, island standstill. If they play another threat, keep at it until you get a disk in play, and they will have problems with it both if they play lots of threats, and if they play it a little at a time. You have enough card advantage to counter most threats and burn\bounce\disk the others away. Faerie conclave is gold in this matchup.

25 lands and 3 mana artifacts seem a lot, but that ensures you always have a land drop, and you will never die to anti-land hate. 4 factories and 3 conclaves is the ideal ammount, because you will almost always have enough mana for turn 1 chain and then turn 2 standstill, and when you have several force in hand, it always seems you have just about enough lands in play to swing for 4 or 6 each turn.

Playing this deck is HARD. You have to be able to identify decks very fast, think very long ahead, and be able to play very aggressively when the time is right. The trick is establishing a fair card advantage, and then win fast before things turn around.

So far, in casual playtesting (versus tier 1 decks, lower tier decks and casual decks) i have gone about 40 wins and only one loss, which was against a deck packing blood moon before i switched to Ur from Uwr.

I want people to try and perhaps post their thoughts about this deck. Please don't flame it to hell before you're tried it at least a bit just because it's Landstill. Thanks.
 

[Gabethebabe]

40 to 1? Did you play against a senile?
No "real" matchup can put up these figures.

Anyway, my constructive comment: Don´t put permanents like Needle in your SB, they die to your own Disks.

[dskippy0]

I think White vs. Red is a meta game decision. I'm not talking about splashing both, that sounds like a bad idea. I think it comes down to Swords to Plowshares and Disenchant vs. Fire and Ice and Rack and Ruin. There are other small benefits to each color but I don't think any of them out weigh the differences in these two slots.

Swords to Plowshares does better against the bigger critters in Oath and Workshop Aggro decks where as Fire and Ice does better against the Fish decks and can hit Welder. Rack and Ruin is better for Workshop decks where as Disenchant hits Oath, Blood Moon, and Back to Basics.

As for little benefits each color gives the deck:

White:
  Decree of Justice: uncountable use of drain mana, runs through standstill, late game big hitters option
  Balance: Only a small benefit because it's not good in landstill but it's such a powerful card you might run it. You usually have more cards in hand and land than opponent but it is a onesided wrath of god.
  Eternal Dragon: Extra fetch, recurs for late game big hitter
  Flooded Stand: There's no blue fetch land to grab basic mountains.
  Karakas: If you face a lot of Oath it's pretty sweet.
 
Red:
  Red Elemental Blast: Let's face it you might as well main deck this card in type 1.
  Cunning Wish: red's got a lot of really nice cunning wish targets for free artifact distruction, recurable artifact destruction, free burn, etc.
  Extra burn in sideboard if you're facing loads of fish.

I still think Landstill might have a chance these days. The biggest problem it has is AEther Vial. Nothing destroys the Landstill game plan like a first turn AEther Vial. Granted non-basic land hate is also very prominant. I think running one Crucible is a good start since it can give you the lock and helps get back your mana lands. By the way I totally agree with you on Tefferi's Response. It's underestimated. I run 2 and 3 Stifle and it's never a dead card. Have draw two destroy Jitte looming over an opponent's head always makes him think twice before he Jitte's my Factory.

Hope that helps,

-mike

[Anusien]

Landstill won't work.  The first reason is that, Disk aside, you have an awful Stax matchup because you have so few permanants.  You can't even afford to run Moxen (or many) and without Crucible, Smokestacks just start eating away at your lands.  Also, you have trouble with faster combo because your only disruption is Force, Drain and Stifle on the back of a worse draw condition.  Gifts is going to tear you a new one because you have no real clock to race them with, and combo especially is going to make you suffer.

When trying to develop a new deck, you need to compare it to the benchmarks.  Why/when is this superior to something like CS or Gifts?

[RThomas]

Also, it may just be me, but why have you chosen to play Teferi's Response over Crucible of Worlds?  Crucible is something else to sink your Drain mana into, and it allows you to disregard what happens to your land, because you'll get them back next turn.

In my opinion, it'll generate just as much card advantage in the long run as Teferi's Response will. Granted, you can't pitch it to Misdirection or Force of Will, but it's a very minor drawback. You shouldn't need to worry about Jitte either, because you should be winning that matchup anyway.

Just a quick additive, I think the Red version is a good choice at this time. My teammate played Landstill at the last SCG (Blue-White) and mentioned how many times Red Elemental Blast would've made his gameplan much better.