Stasis - Help me build the deck plz.

[RaDisku11]

Hi guys, i want to build a type 1 stasis deck.  mainly for use casually and in our local tournaments.  my main competition at these tournaments will be mainly red burn/ponza, WW, and oath o druids.  I've been looking around and managed to get hold of a list that was put forward in 2002 by Ray Mitchell.  It goes something like this:

3x   Forsaken City
21x Island

1x   Feldon's Cane
4x   Stasis
1x   Spellbook
4x   Powder Keg
4x   Howling Mine
4x   Counterspell
4x   Thwart
4x   Mana Leak
4x   Gush
4x   Daze
4x   Force of Will

I like the mono-blue version of the deck better than the U/W version or the U/G/W version.  I play mono-blue in standard so I'm familiar with it.  Also i don't have bucks to shell out for the power nine or anything.  Force of Will is about my limit.

Please help me out guys.

[Zomar]

Sorry but this is probably going to get locked or moved to Newbie soon. Threads in this forum are expected to have more content and be more informative. I'd delete this and repost it in Newbie where it "belongs."

 

[Sjoerd]

Hello,

How do you kill your opponent? I'd say, add a Serra Angel or some other Vigilance creature, that can withstand Stasis lockdown. I'd probably go for some mana sources that generate more than one mana (City of Traitors, Ancient Tomb or even Temple of the False God) so you can cast something without having to wait for 5 or 6 turns. And, if you toss in a Reset or Candelabra of Tawnos you can untap more than one for one, which is quite handy as well.

If you are playing casual, which I guess you do since it is in the casual forum now, you could even add crucible of worlds and something to sac your lands to (Zuran Orb) so you can sac tapped lands, and replay them to generate mana and have 2 life.

I might start building my own Stasis Deck, so I like some test results to read.

Succes with stalling and annoying your opponent with just one little enchantment! 

Sjoerd

[booclarke]

I had a Stasis deck idea when Betrayers came out, I never tested it or anything, and I'm not the best Deck designer:

5x Mox
1x Sol Ring
4x Mishra's Workshop
4x Tropical Island
4x Underground Sea
2x Island
4x Polluted Delta
4x Forsaken City

4x Duress
1x Trinisphere
4x Tangle Wire
4x Stasis
4x Crucible of Worlds
3x Root Maze
3x Orb of Dreams
3x Vedalken Mastermind
3x Chronatog
4x Squandered Resources

I stopped looking at the deck because it seemed like all lock, no win.

[LotusHead]

I had a Stasis deck idea when Betrayers came out, I never tested it or anything, and I'm not the best Deck designer:

4x Stasis
3x Root Maze
3x Orb of Dreams
3x Chronatog
I stopped looking at the deck because it seemed like all lock, no win.

Chronotog is the kill card once lock pieces are in play.

Just give your Chronotog that +3/+3 bonus, skip  your next turn and deck the opponent. You may miss like 40 turns, but eventually the loop will be clear.

[BigMac]

http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/index.php?topic=23264.0

Look at this threat as i posted a mono U list but it was far from budget. However it is a good place to start from as it is mono blue and a lot of the cards you can replace. Good luck and have fun. Really read the discussion as several improvements were made along the line.

[RaDisku11]

Sorry bout the wrong place thing, new to these forums.  The kill condition is decking your oponent.  Chronatog is not a kill condition, it is there in some decks so that u never have to pay the upkepp costs on stasis.  I just wanted advice on how to improve this list?  have there been any recent developments on stasis i should know about?  or should i just go buy this one?  Also i realise that gush is restricted so ill have to add a snap or something in its place. maybe take both out for intuitions?

[asmoranomardicodais]

Either run Ensare, or at least sideboard it.

[RaDisku11]

That is an awesome tip. thanks asmoranomardicodais
 

[rmn]

I used to like Stasis.  Then they restricted Gush, so I've taken a break from the deck indefinitely.

So yeah, Gush is restricted.  Take some out and put in Ensnare or something.

Also, while counters are tech, I'd take out the Mana Leaks and replace them with Impulse.  This sort of Stasis is basically a combo deck at heart and you need search.

I'm not sure how happy you are with Howling Mine, but all my experiences show that it's unnecessary and often helps your opponent more than you.

Lastly, I don't see how you could plan to keep the Stasis going forever, even if 4 Gush was available.  After all, Forsaken City can and will be Wastelanded, and you can't stop it.  In order to reset your Stasis and untap once in a while, you need something like Rescue or Boomerang. to play at end of their turn.  Claws of Gix is good too, since you can sac Stasis during their turn and play a new one on yours.  1 Claws and 3-4 bounce is probably good.

Oh and don't forget about Misdirection and Foil.

[booclarke]

After all, Forsaken City can and will be Wastelanded, and you can't stop it.

This is where cards like Root Maze or Orb of Dreams come in handy.

[BigMac]

Time Vault will help as well not having to pay for the stasis upkeep cost. Look at my build and you will have some really new insights into stasis and a seck build around it.

[RaDisku11]

Thanks BigMac,
Missed your post above, sry.  Is really informative. shot.

[BigMac]

Okay, two cards you absolutely need:

Root Maze
Chronotog

Time vault takes the place of chronotog making all your opponents anti creature cards dead. Next to that it is another card that is hard to find.

Orb of Dreams replaces root maze. As it is another artifact you will have multiple ways to find it through transmute artifact.

Both of these cards can be found with transmute artifact and both (time vault less so) are good on their own.

Legacy is a heavy creature environment. Making sure your opponent has dead cards and thus dead draws is a good thing. Leaving it mono blue gives you an advantage over wasteland decks. So mana is less of an issue. Having multiple ways to win actually gives you a much more flexible deck as you really do not need the one wincard.

So why give your opponent tools to win when it is not necessary.

[scutakicker]

First: win condition. Decking is NOT a win condition! Even with multiple howling mines an opponent can play slowly enough to force a draw. You must deal damage--either by creature (Mystic Penitent is best) or Black Vise style kill (Ebony Owl Netsuke is 2nd choice)

Second: Paying for Stasis. Usually there's some mix of "free" spells that bounce islands to your hand--Daze, Thwart, Gush and Ensare together give you a lot of islands to keep paying for Stasis. Many competitive builds included Howling Mines to draw additional islands and/or maintain a hand full of control while paying for Forsaken City, the other traditional option. (Check out this link that was on an old TMD thread giving a history of the deck http://www.iearnit.com/yule2002/StasisPrimer.txt ) A final major option is Archeological Dig/Crucible of the Worlds. This saves you from Wasteland problems and you can even run some recursion yourself. The downside is that since the land keeps coming back into play, you can't use Root Maze/Orb of Dreams. In order to cement a hard lock (a necessary precondition for Vise-style kill, although perhaps not for other kills) you have to go for Kismet, much more expensive.

The following is the list I've tried to optimize for a Legacy environment. Stasis isn't tier one anywhere, but it at least has a chance in Legacy. Some of the choices would need to be changed for a Vintage build (E Tutor, Gush etc) as well as generally rebuilding the deck to a much more broken meta. Basically I think its not worth trying to do anything in Vintage--in Legacy Stasis will T8 some local tournaments here and there at least. If the tourney meta is as you described it though, you might do ok.

 4 stasis
 2 ebony owl netsuke
 4 enlightened tutor

 control
 4 force of will
 4 daze
 4 swords
 4 mana leak
 4 stifle
 4 root maze
 4 chain of vapor

 mana
 4 tundra
 4 savannah
 2 tropical island
 4 forsaken city
 12 island

You can also try to import other major control pieces such as Tangle Wire, Propaganda & Trinisphere. Also, especially if you're running Crucible and are in a creature-heavy meta: Tabernacle @ the Pendrell Vale.