Ur Landstill

[islanderboi10]

I am, by no means, amazing with this deck or anything.  I don't know much about it, but I have read the primer and tested a little bit.

So, Richard Mattiuzzo and Mike Antonarakis top 8ed at the Untouchables tournament (i think?).

I read the Primer on Ur Landstill.  I have been intrested in the deck, since I seen it. 

You can find the primer Here.  It is kind of out dated, but it offered me a lot of information on the deck.

Anyways, I asked Richard for his Landstill list, but he didn't give it to me, as he said he doesn't give out lists anymore.

So this list is based on the lists in the Primer and some other things that I thought might be good for the deck.  Also, this is based off other lists I have seen, such as the Uw Lanstill list and other Ur Landstill lists.

Ur Landstill 2K7

Mana-28

4 Island
4 Volcanic Island
2 Faerie Conclave
4 Wasteland
4 Mishra's Factory
3 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Mountain
1 Strip Mine
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Black Lotus

Card Draw/Utility-10

4 Standstill
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
4 Chalice of the Void

Removal-8

4 Fire/Ice
4 Nevinyrral's Disk

Permission-14

4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
3 Misdirection
3 Stifle

Sideboard:

4 Red Elemental Blast
3 Energy Flux/Rack and Ruin
3 Pithing Needle/Tormod's Crypt
2 Null Rod
3 Flametongue Kavu


This is a rough list that I have drawn up.  I know that this is not the optimal list or anything. 

Some card choices:

Mana Base-

Island, Volcanic Island, Moxen, Lotus- Obvious

Factory- This is good in the deck.

Conclave- I am not sold on running these, but I do feel that two might be the correct number.

Library of Alexandria- I am not sold on Library either, but only time and testing will tell.  Any opinions?

Wasteland/Strip Mind- The Mana denial part of the deck.

Card Draw/Utility-

Standstill- The deck namesake.  This is what brings you so much card advantage.  It is also the closest thing to recall that's around.

Ancestral Recall- Card Advantage.

Time Walk-  It is good when they are at low life, other than that it is a two mana cantrip.  It is also good when you have man lands in play.

Chalice of the Void- I feel that you must be running chalice maindeck as a form of disruption and utility.  It is soo versitile against soo many decks.

Removal-

Fire/Ice- Replaced Lightning Bolt as removal.  Most creatures that you worry about dont have a butt bigger than 2.  You hit Confidant, welder, the list goes on.

Nevinyrral's Disk- Mass removal spell.  This card wrecks Stax, and other such decks.  It clears the board.

Permission-

Mana Drain- To drain into things such as Disk, Standstill.  You can always just feed all of your drain mana into the factory.

Force of Will- Obvious.  It stops turn 1 threats, as well as other threats.  It is the glue that holds this format together.

Misdirection- I am not sure that 3 is a good number, but it is like force of will.  It is also amazing when you Misdirect a recall to yourself.

Stifle- Mana denial.  It is also good  against other things, such as storm.  Could be trickbind, though.

SIDEBOARD-

Red Elemental Blast- More countermagic against blue decks, destroys blue permanents, all around good card to bring in against blue based decks.

Energy Flux/Rack and Ruin-  Your call.  Anti-Stax card, and also stops random artifact things.  Rack and Ruin hits things such as slavers, moxen, etc.

Pithing Needle/Tormod's Crypt- Again, your call.  I figured that this deck needs something against Ichorid.  I feel that Crypt could be a stronger choice, but needle is just as good.  Needle stops things such as bazaar or salvagers.

Null Rod- Not sold on these either.  I am pretty sure that Null Rod is a good choice as it hoses decks such as Stax and holds its own agaisnt combo.  But i am not sold on it.  Could be someting else.

Flametongue Kavu- Amazing against Fish.  This guy owns the combat phase.  He is a beast as a 4/2 and he shoots things when he CIP.  He is a beating against any deck that runs creatures.




This is just a draft for the deck, but I do have some questions for you.  Do you feel that this deck can compete?  What changes should be made? Is a U/w list better?




Thanks a lot.

P.S. Mods, feel free to move this to wherever you feel is necessary.

[NeoTemplar]

Looks like a contemporary build. With mine, I've relegated nevs to the 'board and use Sensei's Divining Top + Counterbalance for optimum utility/permission. And also, to speed things up a bit (though I know it's kinda cheesy), I also use Tinker/Darksteel Colossus since the deck has ample artifact fodder. This also brings me to suggest adding a Crucible of Worlds or two -- the softlock with Stripmine and/or Wasteland in the graveyard really hurts.

My two cents...

[islanderboi10]

Looks like a contemporary build. With mine, I've relegated nevs to the 'board and use Sensei's Divining Top + Counterbalance for optimum utility/permission. And also, to speed things up a bit (though I know it's kinda cheesy), I also use Tinker/Darksteel Colossus since the deck has ample artifact fodder. This also brings me to suggest adding a Crucible of Worlds or two -- the softlock with Stripmine and/or Wasteland in the graveyard really hurts.

My two cents...

Thanks.

Crucible of worlds does seem good.  i am not sure about moving the Nev Disks to the board, atleast in my meta.  But Top+Counterbalance seems like a good replacement.


What would be cut for the crucibles?

[Dante]

I think UR is better than UW because Fire/Ice is pitchable to FOW/MisD and can cycle if need be, white removal is just white removal.

PS - basic mountain is awful, I would take that out.

This is the build I would start testing/tuning right now:

4 Force of Will
3 Misdirection
4 Mana Drain
4 Stifle
2 REB
3 Null Rod

2 Crucible
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Echoing Truth
3 Fire/Ice
2 Other - depends on Metagame - control magic/threads of disloyalty, 4th fire/ice, mystical + artifact destruction, etc

1 Ancestral Recall
4 Standstill
1 Time Walk

1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire

2 Faerie Conclave
2 Flooded Strand
2 Island
1 Library of Alexandria
4 Mishra's Factory
3 Polluted Delta
1 Strip Mine
3 Volcanic Island
4 Wasteland

The REBs maindeck and the 2 other are your meta slots, but the rest is fairly standard.  Crucible lets you NOT have to worry about big creatures that don't have trample - just keep playing that Factory over and over again while you beat with the Cloud or find some bounce.

This is where I'd start testing and tuning.  If stax is big in your area, you'd probably want some changes, but Disks aren't it.

[Sextiger]

As much as I like landstill I think it is a terrible time to play it due to the the large increase in use of Blood Moon/Magus of the Moon, that one card destroys the deck. 

[Dante]

As much as I like landstill I think it is a terrible time to play it due to the the large increase in use of Blood Moon/Magus of the Moon, that one card destroys the deck. 

You have a couple bounce to deal with Blood Moon along with 3-4 more Fire/Ice to kill Magus

[EKM_Ichorid]

Has anyone considered Manstill, with it's own set of Magus of the Moon. It seems like bad synergy at first, but it's more like playing the deck in phases. Use the Standstill to stall and start swinging with lands, then when it breaks throw down the Magus and screw stuff up.

[Dante]

Has anyone considered Manstill, with it's own set of Magus of the Moon. It seems like bad synergy at first, but it's more like playing the deck in phases. Use the Standstill to stall and start swinging with lands, then when it breaks throw down the Magus and screw stuff up.

If you've already setup your deck to operate under Standstill and swing with lands, if it gets broken, why not either sit behind a counter wall OR just drop another Standstill instead of trying to switch gears to a different slow beatdown.

[squeegee]

Has anyone considered Manstill, with it's own set of Magus of the Moon. It seems like bad synergy at first, but it's more like playing the deck in phases. Use the Standstill to stall and start swinging with lands, then when it breaks throw down the Magus and screw stuff up.

Umm, if you are playing a deck expecting it to break down, you should probably not be playing that deck.  If you want to play "Manstill", just play fish with standstill in it.  It isn't that good, but fish overextends so much anyway, sometimes it can get away with playing standstill. But that's just my opinion, what do I know, I play Bomberman.

[islanderboi10]

So the disks are out?


thank you Dante for your reply.  I have a few questions for you, though.  Why Null Rod over Chalice maindeck?  It seems like chalice might work better. 
Also, My meta has some combo in it, what would you consider for in the sideboard?

thanks a lot!

[Dante]

Memory Jar
Tormod's crypt
Sol Ring
Mana Vault
Sensei's Top
Bomberman artifacts - Spellbombs
EE/Powder Keg
Belcher
the odd Jitte
it takes 5 mana to eat it with a monkey

[islanderboi10]

Seems good.

What would you suggest be in the sideboard?

[Adan]

Ah, this also interesting for me since UR landstill could be played unpowered, maybe even without drains when not playing Disks.

I thought about Counterbalance Engine...

And my build looks something like this:

// Lands
    2  Polluted Delta
    3  Island
    3  Faerie Conclave
    4  Mishra's Factory
    4  Volcanic Island
    3  Flooded Strand
    3  Wasteland

// Spells
    4  Lightning Bolt
    4  Fire/Ice
    3  Stifle
    2  Crucible of Worlds
    4  Standstill
    4  Brainstorm
    4  Force of Will
    3  Sensei's Divining Top
    3  Counterbalance
    3  Disrupting Shoal
    2  Engineered Explosives
    2  Thirst for Knowledge

// Sideboard
SB: 3  Annul
SB: 3  Red Elemental Blast
SB: 2  Tormod's Crypt
SB: 3  Threads of Disloyalty
SB: 4  Chalice of the Void

Shoal is shaky. i wanted something between Counterspell and Misdirection. Shoal Matches it more than anything I looked for since the average CC of the format is seldom bigger than 2 and that's also the reason why I try CB-Engine.

Any thoughts?

[islanderboi10]

The shoal should be either Mana Leaks, or Misdirection, or a combination of the two.

I do like the CB engine, it seems worth a try.
I would cut the 4 lightning bolts for something else. Since you are running the CB engine, I would not suggest Null Rod. I would probably run the fourth stifle, and maybe bounce?

Also, you need strip mine.
Strip Mine + Crucible is WAY better than Wasteland + Crucible.

[Adan]

The shoal should be either Mana Leaks, or Misdirection, or a combination of the two.

I do like the CB engine, it seems worth a try.
I would cut the 4 lightning bolts for something else. Since you are running the CB engine, I would not suggest Null Rod. I would probably run the fourth stifle, and maybe bounce?

Also, you need strip mine.
Strip Mine + Crucible is WAY better than Wasteland + Crucible.

Ah, I overslept that xD Actually it's my Legacy build converted to Legacy.

I saw a UR landstill build at the same location on morphling.de

It ran Spell Snares and Null Rods. I like it, but I still thing there should be something against Oath...
And yeah, I'll run Quad-Stifle.

[Mindriders]

Landstill is a powerful archetype, but it i agree that this is not the best time to play it. It's particularly strong against creature based decks like fishes or TMWA. I personally didint' find much trouble in handling moon decks. I usually got beaten by gush based decks though...

@ Adan: I still think a couple of mox and a lotus helps a great deal. but dont use the off-colored ones. I use manaleaks and spellsnares. I find the moxen helps defend against early drops. Makes you less dependent on FoW. Just my two cents though...
and please tell me ho CB works after you tested it. I'm really curious...

[snotball007]

Adan: Have you considered Impulse over Brainstorm? I'm not sure if it would be better or not, but I would assume so since you would be digging deeper with the impulse for quicker answers/lockdown.

[Adan]

@ Adan: I still think a couple of mox and a lotus helps a great deal. but dont use the off-colored ones. I use manaleaks and spellsnares. I find the moxen helps defend against early drops. Makes you less dependent on FoW. Just my two cents though...
and please tell me ho CB works after you tested it. I'm really curious...

Counterbalance sucks.

And thank you for the tip, I didn#t knew adding Power Nine to the Deck would improve it's speed +cough+
No really, I think I already mentioned that i'm normally a unpowered player, focusing more on Legacy. I'm playing UWb Fish for about 1000 years and now I simply want to try something else.

And yeah, Counterbalance sucks, mutiple Tops also suck. Running Top prevents you to run Null Rods. That also sucks.
Null Rod is great since you can also SCREW your opponent with Crucible-Waste/Strip.

I'll try Spell Snares, they look great against mutiple things...they annihilate Fish, they are superb against Oath, Flash...
And yeah, you can counter something on the play without any Moxen, OMG!!!

That's what's on my mind...

by the way, UR landstill T8ed at the same location before, did you noticed it?

Maybe we can use it as a basic for further discussions:

http://www.morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=581

[Mindriders]

@ Adan: Sorry, I'm allowed proxies so I kinda forgot... My bad...
Pity that counterbalance didn't work the way we expected.

Wow, a champ ur landstill! A rather radical build, too...
No mass removal like disk and engineered explosives, no mana drain... It sports 4 stifles and 2 trickbinds? Kinda harsh... But it does give massive headaches to heavy fetch users... Worth a shot.

I'm not sure about the Misdirections... What do you think? I'm thinking Manaleaks.
If we're quite sure we can successfully distrub the manaflow,we should also consider Divert.

I gotta give those null rods a try. I usually fear them. That's why I couldnt think outside the box I guess...

[Adan]

I tested it with Mana Leaks. It's pretty smooth, but killing someone with Manlands takes a veeeery long time. And I can#t understand how someone can build up such a huge toolbox just because of 1 single tutor °_°

And, as i said before, I don't have power9s. So playing without Anc/Walk makes Mystical tutor suck like hell.

[Stormanimagus]

I am currently working on a Ur Landstill list for the upcoming Waterbury in February, and I like some of the lists that have been tossed around. I especially like Nevinyral's Disk. I'll have to consider that card if I'm gonna up the MD count to 4. For now, I do not run the card. Here's the current list I'm working from:

U/R Landstill

Land (24):
3 Faerie Conclave
4 Mishra’s Factory
2 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
4 Volcanic Island (Proxy 3x)
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Library Of Alexandria (Proxy)
3 Island

Artifacts (8):
1 Black Lotus (Proxy)
1 Mox Sapphire (Proxy)
1 Mox Ruby (Proxy)
4 Chalice Of The Void
1 Crucible Of Worlds

Instants (27):
1 Ancestral Recall (Proxy)
4 Force Of Will
3 Misdirection
3 Mana Drain (Proxy 3x)
4 Standstill
4 Stifle
3 Echoing Truth
4 Fire // Ice
1 Rebuild

Sorceries (1):
1 Time Walk (Proxy)

SB
4 Red Elemental Blast
3 Rack And Ruin
3 Pyroclasm
4 Threads Of Disloyalty
1 Crucible Of Worlds