UR Landstill

[Sibib]

After years of playing UR Fish, I decided to come with a UR Landstill deck instead. More control, more angry opponent, that's what I really like !!

Terres Immobilisées
"UR Landstill"

Lands
4 Volcanic Island
1 Polluted Delta      ( I don't have 2 Delta sadly)
4 Flooded Strand
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
2 Island
4 Mishra's Factory
3 Faerie Conclave
1 Library of Alexandria

Artéfact
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
4 Null Rod
1 Crucible of Worlds

Instant
1 Ancestrall Recall
4 Force of Will
4 Stifle
4 Mana Drain
3 Misdirection
2 Echoing Truth
1 Chain of Vapor
4 Fire/Ice

Sorcery
1 Time Walk

Enchantment
4 Standstill

Sideboard
2 Pyroblast
3 Threads of Disloyalty
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Rack and Ruin
3 Red Elemental Blast


I wish to improve that list. It's surely possible.

Should I put a Brainstorm somewhere ?
Is 2 Echoing Truth and 1 Chain of Vapor maindeck good enough ?
Should I put a Steam Vent, a basic Mountain ?

For the sideboard... Is no graveyard hate a good idea ? 3 REB and 2 pyroblast, too many ?

My metagame is really strange and diversify in Québec City. In the last major tournament, the meta looks like that

3 Suicide Black
3 Painters
1 Mask-Dreadnought
2 Control SLaver
1 G-W-R aggro
1 Flash
1 Goblins
2 GAT
2 U-R Control
1 Parfait
6 Bomberman
3 others
1 Affinity
2 Briseur de rêve
1 Squirrels
1 TPS
2 B-G suicide
2 Oath
1 G-R Beatz
1 Workshop Aggro
1 Dredge
1 Le 5e Element

But it was BEFORE june 20th.

Thanks in advance for any advice you can possibly give me and sorry for my english, I'm from Québec and my first language is french.

[IthilanorStPete]

Mutavault over Faerie Conclave?

[korangar]

I've been playing Landstill variants since it's creations till now. I've playtested dozens of versions, UW, UB, UR, UBR, UBW and recently I'm playtesting a UB with good results.

Anyway, the more I play this deck, the less I like Conclaves. I've been reducing them until the last tournament where I played NO Conclaves (in my UB I play DT and VT to find the Factories). Brainstorming with friends we have come to play another win condition, so we came to Meloku the Clouded Mirror. It's awesome versus stax (bounce lands) or aggro (create chumpbloquers). It's a perfect sink for Mana Drain mana and it puts a flying clock to the deck. It's pitchable with FoW, too.

I'll never play 4 Null Rod. You NEVER want to see them in multiples.

I prefer Spell Snare instead to MisD because I can use it as a first turn play, as Stifle is.

I've always played with 26 mana sources, so I only play 4 fetches. I think that 26 is the optimum number, as you 'always' will open with 2-3 lands in the starting hand and you'll run into less mana floods (it sometimes happens).

And concerning to the side, in all my recent Landstill builds I've always played 1-2 copies of Razormane Masticore, another perfect sink target for Mana Drain and AWESOME vs any aggro deck (Fish, Goblins, Aggro MUD, Red Shop Aggro), witch are the decks that can pu fast pressure vs Landstill.

When playing  UR versions, I've been comfortable with only 3 REB effects. You can use this 2 slots for 1 Razormane and 1 open slot.

My 2 cents.

[Odd mutation]

Hi,

There are some very valuable thoughts on the deck here: http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=34788.0.

Recently, I have been thinking of picking this deck up too.

Robrecht.

[Shock Wave]

I'll never play 4 Null Rod. You NEVER want to see them in multiples.

I would go as far as to say that this is factually incorrect. Null Rod is the most powerful card in the deck. You always want to see one in the early game, and running three instead of fourth significantly lessens that probability. Also, certain decks don't care about anything in your deck other than this specific threat, so punching a second one through after a first has been stopped is often critical to winning.

[Sextiger]

Null Rod is basically the main reason for playing Landstill, your not dependent on fast acceleration but on lands, you want to slow the game down to a crawl. I never had a problem with multiple Null Rods, if a Null Rod is on the board, your probably winning. 

[Ichijouji]

... Meloku the Clouded Mirror ...

... I'll never play 4 Null Rod. You NEVER want to see them in multiples ...

... I prefer Spell Snare instead to MisD because I can use it as a first turn play, as Stifle is ...

... I've always played 1-2 copies of Razormane Masticore ...

I would go as far as to say that this is factually incorrect. Null Rod is the most powerful card in the deck. You always want to see one in the early game, and running three instead of fourth significantly lessens that probability. Also, certain decks don't care about anything in your deck other than this specific threat, so punching a second one through after a first has been stopped is often critical to winning.

EDIT: Ouch, I completely flubbed on Needle. My mistake.

Meloku is a unique suggestion, but I get the feeling that won't always work for everyone. It's worth playtesting, though. But.. Razormane Masticore? Why not just regular-old Masticore? He provides a much better way of nuking a team. Finally, Spell Snare? Pitch counters seem a lot better than situational ones. But then again, I'm sure this is more tailored to your meta.

korangar, could you PM your U/B list?

[zeus-online]

Pithing needle dosn't stop mana abilities.

I'd deffinetly play with 4 null rod's in landstill, it's essential to the game plan...Who cares if the second one is dead if the first one resolved?

/Zeus

[Dr. Digglesworth]

What are people's thoughts about maindecking Disks instead of Rod?

It's a nice sweeper against Workshops and takes care of random problem permanents in other decks.

Too slow?  Too bad against combo?

[Shock Wave]

What are people's thoughts about maindecking Disks instead of Rod?

It's a nice sweeper against Workshops and takes care of random problem permanents in other decks.

Too slow?  Too bad against combo?

Disk is hopelessly outclassed by Null Rod, in probably 90% of all matchups.

[credmond]

Null rod is a strong card these days. Playing 4 is definitely a strong strategy. And null rod should not be underestimated as a hoser. Make sure to test and play the deck with 4 null rods against other decks before you decide to trim any away so you have a good benchmark for how it performs with 4 null rods.

It is possible to tune a deck to play with 3 null rod rather than 4. Playing some chalices main deck and the rest of the full set in the board can allow you to play with cards that are not null rod but that can overlap with null rod in functionality. A chalice of the void in hand on the play is functionally a null rod when set at zero and can be reliably cast on turn 1 whereas a null rod in hand is not reliably cast turn 1. So putting a chalice or two main deck can act as null rods 4 and 5 but importantly they are not redundant when null rod is already in play and they can come out faster than null rod to attack the mana base of the opponent. Mixing chalices with null rod works since chalice at 1 and chalice at 3 are also strong plays for this deck to make. Ultimately whether or not mixing in some chalices to supplement your null rods works depends on your meta and how strong chalice at 1 is. In high-level metas where combo and control slaver will be well represented, chalice at 1 is very strong. Lots of fish and aggro? Maybe not so much.

[Dr. Digglesworth]

What are people's thoughts about maindecking Disks instead of Rod?

It's a nice sweeper against Workshops and takes care of random problem permanents in other decks.

Too slow?  Too bad against combo?

Disk is hopelessly outclassed by Null Rod, in probably 90% of all matchups.

Care to give your reasoning?

I saw a list not too long ago (tho pre-restrictions) which ran 3 disks main IIRC, that got 2nd behind Ichorid.

[credmond]

Disk is only really passable in the workshop matchup. It might seem good in the fish matchup where there are a lot of permanents on the board for disk to hit possibly but fish is playing stifle and null rod and you will likely be struggling to get that 4 mana artifact out there and keep it around for a turn.

And even in the workshop matchup 4 mana is way too much when they are playing 9 sphere. You would have to get really lucky with the mana drains.

So then where is disk good? It probably really shines in the ravager matchup or goblins or elves or enchantress or sui black or jank aggro, if you were to expect those matchups. And if you do expect a lot of those matchups then you are in a really low-level meta.

Rack and ruin is better for the shop matchup and pyroclasm is better for the goblins/elves/enchantress/sui-black/jank aggro matchup. If disk were cheaper and faster it might do the trick. But it is outclassed by better cards and better strategies. And its counter-synergistic with null rod which is a strong, very strong, strategy to take right now in the meta of full artifact acceleration and tops these days. You are simply better off attacking the mana base of your opponent on turn 2 or earlier rather than waiting to clear the board with disk on turn 5 or later. Vintage isn't legacy. You don't get the luxury of many turns of cards in your hand that don't force interaction with your opponent right then and there.

If you were looking for a board sweeper that would do the trick I would experiment with pernicious deed. At least its not counter-synergistic with null rod. Black, green, and blue might provide some interesting options for landstill. Seal of primordium (for shops and oath), crop rotation (for strip), darkblast (for welders and bobs), and vampiric tutor (for strip or null rod or crucible or ancestral or darkblast) are interesting cards to check out there along with pernicious. You might look in a legacy forum for a starting list and then swap in the appropriate power cards and vintage options and give it a whirl.