From landstill to 3cc

[Seth_55]

Hello, I have always been a big control player...And I was a huge fan on Landstill when it was being played. So I started to play a 3 colour control deck here in Quebec at the *CVQ*( vintage qualifier championship)*. It did top 8 quite a few times so I thought to share my list.
Here it is :

Artifacts :
1x Mox jet
1x Mot Pearl
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Black Lotus
2x Crucible of worlds

Draw :
1x Time Walk
1x Ancestral Recall
3x Standstill
1x Fact or Fiction
4x Brainstorm

Creatures :
2x Exalted Angel
4x Meddling Mage
2x Old man of the sea

Counters:
4x Force of Will
4x Mana Drain

Other:
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Yawgmoths will
1x Echoing truth
3x Swords to plowshares
1x Diabolic Edict

Lands :
4x Mishras Factory
4x Tundra
4x Flooded Strand
2x Underground Sea
3x Island
2x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine

Okay, Well i am sure the list seems a little strange but it is of course metagamed...
I build this 3cc a little more aggressive than the other decks, because where I play , the decks that are more played are Bomberman and Control slaver and I want to keep up to their tempo.

4x Meddling mages : 4 may sound a little too much but all the players play the same deck over and over, so naming with it is not a problem. Plus it is a good early beater to put a standstill over it. Also good against gifts and bomberman of course.

3x Standstill : Well I dont know if you saw but I based my deck on landstill so I took its main draw engine. Its always good because fish is not a *big* deck here so I dont have any problems with it backfiring on me.

2x Old man of the sea : Good against all the little creatures like welders, auriok salvagers...Its almost game against fish if it does not get killed. I played shackles before but switched them because I have null rod as a Sb card...

Cards that i do not know if they have their place in the deck :

Skeletal scrying - Is it better than standstill , is it really a must in a 3cc, 4cc list if so then...

Cunning wish- I really dont know much about this card, I find it a little too slow, only good thing I like is its synergy with scrying which I do not play...

Tinker//Collossus : Am I not running enough artifacts to play it , so many decks are running this as a kill condition nowadays that I though of the possibility.

Sideboard :

Well here is my sideboard it is not still quite finished...but what i am sure of is :
3x Chalice of the void
3x Null rod
3x Duress
........
Really dont know what to put except that...

There is a Lotus Tourney coming up and any help here would be highly appreciated!
Thanks

[Mantis]

Standstill seems bad in this deck considering you only have 4 manlands, no aether vials and only 2 wastes and 1 strip...
You also lack 1 cc creatures making a second turn standstill + creature virtually impossible. In my opinion you have to break your own standstill too often, or the standstill is a dead card in your hand too often in this build. Landstill runs factories and Faerie Concleaves in addition. Considering Fish decks will probably be having a better start then you do by dropping an Aether Vial or a first turn beatstick, I would cut the Standstill for a more reliable draw engine like Skeletal Scrying or AK/Intuition.

I would probably also run a copy of Engineered Explosives instead of an Old Man, to improve your matchup against decks with small critters like fish and goblins.

Good luck with your deck,

Mantis

[forests failed you]

I would be very hesitant to play with Standstill in a Keeper style control deck.  Also, your draw engine is essentially Recall, Standstill, Brainstorm and FOF.  That just doesn't seem like enough to win games against decks like CS that can draw a lot of cards and play a lot of threats in the first four or five turns of the game.

[Seth_55]

Okay, thanx, but the reason why I play standstill is because fish is not played around here, maybe one person plays it thats all.  But if I do replace standstill, what should I replace it with? Skeletal crying? or another thing?

Also, your draw engine is essentially Recall, Standstill, Brainstorm and FOF.  That just doesn't seem like enough to win games against decks like CS that can draw a lot of cards and play a lot of threats in the first four or five turns of the game.

Presently Cs does not have that many more draw spells than me, and a meddling mage naming thirst for knowledge makes it even harder for them to outdraw me.

If not, what should my draw engine look like instead?

[silvernail]

look up the deck eon blue apocalypse, its basically what your trying to do. just an fyi.

[forests failed you]

I would advise you to go -1 Vamp, -1 edict, -1 Swords, and play +2 Skeletal Scrying and +1 Isochron's Scepter.  Also, Decree of Justice seems like it might have better synergy with Standstill than Exalted Angel.  I wrote an thread on WUB 3cc in the Vintage forumn, you might want to take a look at it.  It is a different type of deck, however you might find some tech that would work really nicely in your deck.  Firstly, Sensei's Diving Top would be insane in your deck.  The combo of Top, COW, and Fetch lets you see 6-12 more cards than your opponent per game.  Good luck!