A tale of Heartache and Despair. Landstill 0-3 Drop TMLO3

[The Chosen One]

Well, as I always say, I love magic as a game. I go into the tournaments I rarely get to play at expecting to play my best and to take losses that occur from bad luck with a grain of salt.

I get my list geared up and get some testing in for a week or so with some minor changes I made from the last tournament I played in. Here is what I ran:

BHWW Landstill:

4 Flooded Strand
4 Mishra's Factory
3 Nantuko Monastery
3 Wasteland
3 Tundra
3 Underground Sea
3 Tropical Island
1 Island

4 Standstill
4 Force of Will
4 Counterspell
4 Pernicious Deed
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Stifle
4 Brainstorm
2 Crucible of Worlds
2 Echoing Truth
1 Meloku, The Clouded Mirror
3 Fact or Fiction

The Board:
4 Hydroblast(really good decision although they only helped me in one game when I actually drew them)
4 Duress
4 Meddling Mage
3 Engineered Plague

I get to the tourney, sell some bulk cards and some other stuff like I always do so when I leave I still have more money than when I got there  ...... I trade with some folks and meet some nice people I didnt know and a few I do again, we bullshit and pass the time till the fun starts...

Round 1: Scott Hughes with U/r Landstill
Just lovely, the "mirror" that runs burn! Should be fun!
The best part was right before the pairings went up Scott and I talked about our decks so we both knew this match was going to be LONG!

Game 1: I lose the die roll. He leads with Faerie Conclave and passes,( its the landstill matchup so I will just breifly highlight points in these 3 games). I end up having to pop my own standstill to attempt to get deed to resolve to save me from getting beaten to death by his manlands. It ends up getting through with no problems, he attacks and attempts to stifle my deed activation when I have double force and counterspell in my hand. He loses his factories and the game procedes with him trying to burn me to death with fire/ice and lightning bolts. When I am at 3 life, he tries to bolt me, I force(go to 2), next turn he casts fire, I force(at 1). He runs out of gas and he gets beaten with monastery several times until I get another manland on the board and he scoops( I WAS AT 1 LIFE!!!!!!!)

Game 2(SB:out 4 standstill, out 2 echoing truth, out 1 fact or fiction, +4 Hyrdroblast, +3 Duress)
He elects to play(duh). He leads AGAIN with a conclave. I scoop after turn 4 of him getting crucible wastelock on my(since I boarded out my e truths I had no hope)

Game 3(no changes from last game): I am on the play. I play land pass. He leads YET AGAIN with conclave(I briefly ask if he is only running 4 ) This game goes the same as last, he ends up getting ahead and resolves crucible(damn you pyroblast!!!!) Note: I did not see any of my hydroblasts in the games where I brought them in!

Sigh, Lost round 1.....

Next!

Round 2. Jon with Empty the Slogger(wtf?)
Ok, I have heard minor things about the deck, it was not really prepared for it, but I had the chance to win, just read on...

Game 1. He steamrolls me with uncontested trinisphere, then a dragon of some kind and a sword of fire and ice. I scoop.

Game 2 (Hyrdoblast obivously come in. -4 standstill,-4 deed(his stuff is too big for this to be effective),+4 Hydroblast,+4 Duress) I am on the play, I get a hand with 3 hydroblasts in it. I keep and counter his good stuff and get a factory on the board and start wailing into him. He scoops after I keep his mana off balance with a few wastelands.

Game 3(I take out my stifles for some meddling mages)I get an opening hand that had no force and no blasts so I really need to toss that back. I end up mulling to 4 with no colored sources and hoping to topdeck a miracle. I dont, he gets off to a slow start but ends up over powering me and getting slogger with a sword of fire/ice on it.

Grumble loss round 2.... But like I say, Im having fun, not much I could do in either of these games.

Round 3. John with I have absolutely no freaking Idea black aggro whatever.
Game 1. He gets early negator which I end up stp'ing. He then puts a morph creature in play, which I later try to deed(its morph cost is discard a card, I think it's something raiders(?) a red creature with hellbent) he morphs it to deny my deed activation and proceeds to get way ahead on my. My life goes down quick....

Game 2. I drop an early standstill, he drops 2 factories and a wasteland, I cant draw anything to help me, I get beaten quickly by 2/2 lands 

I drop

Well, there it is..... I said in my thread for my decklist I would write a report even if I did poorly... If I was to play today (which I am not) I would run a different deck that I picked up some cards for yesterday. I will open a thread for that soon enough I believe. I still think Landstill is an amazing deck. I just ran into some tough luck a bit yesterday, I think I did the best I could with what me deck offered me off the top.

Thanks for reading! And thanks to Ray for another great tournament!

[JACO]

No offense, but I think your decklist is mediocre at best. If you can get to a point in the game where you have enough mana where Meloku will be effective, then you've probably already won that game and shouldn't need Meloku. Echoing Truth does little or nothing to provide permanent solutions or card advantage that Landstill needs. You also have no solution in main or side to Pithing Needle. Finally, you need to be playing Spell Snare. Try this to start:
-2 Echoing Truth
-1 Meloku the massive boner
-1 Stifle
-1 Pernicious Deed or Landstill
+3 Spell Snare
+2 Engineered Explosives

This will help you deal with threats earlier and make the deck operate more smoothly. Spell Snare is one of the best cards in the format at the moment.

Also, sideboarding out Fact or Fiction in any kind of mirror is totally incorrect. Fact or Fiction is much more important than Hydroblast in a mirror.

[The Chosen One]

No offense, but I think your decklist is mediocre at best. If you can get to a point in the game where you have enough mana where Meloku will be effective, then you've probably already won that game and shouldn't need Meloku. Echoing Truth does little or nothing to provide permanent solutions or card advantage that Landstill needs. You also have no solution in main or side to Pithing Needle. Finally, you need to be playing Spell Snare. Try this to start:
-2 Echoing Truth
-1 Meloku the massive boner
-1 Stifle
-1 Pernicious Deed or Landstill
+3 Spell Snare
+2 Engineered Explosives

This will help you deal with threats earlier and make the deck operate more smoothly. Spell Snare is one of the best cards in the format at the moment.

Also, sideboarding out Fact or Fiction in any kind of mirror is totally incorrect. Fact or Fiction is much more important than Hydroblast in a mirror.

Well, echong truth is flexible enough to bounce a magus if the moon, blood moon, or pithing needles, etw tokens for only 2 mana. the replacements you suggest would not have aided me in the matches I lost. Fact is not more important against the RED mirror that burned me to death and has reb to stop my counterspells. Meloku saves my land from late game destruction such as armageddon, Im not saying she is perfect, but she would have been useful if I had the opportunity to cast it.

[Matt]

Thanks for the report! I always like your reports.

I really don't understand the desire to play Meloku. The guy seems awful to me in a format with STP. I'd rather have Morphling, and I'd rather Decree of Justice than either, and just not playing slow expensive cards would be the best of all.

[Shock Wave]

Also, sideboarding out Fact or Fiction in any kind of mirror is totally incorrect. Fact or Fiction is much more important than Hydroblast in a mirror.

Fact is not more important against the RED mirror that burned me to death and has reb to stop my counterspells.

Your reasoning for not running Fact or Fiction is not sound. Control mirrors aren't decided by who resolves the most burn spells, but by who draws the most cards. UR Landstill has a very slow clock, even with the added burn (which is awful in the mirror). Here's what your SB should've looked like:

- 4 Standstill
- Meloku
- 2 ET

+ 4 Duress
+ 3 Blast

[JACO]

Well, echong truth is flexible enough to bounce a magus if the moon, blood moon, or pithing needles, etw tokens for only 2 mana. the replacements you suggest would not have aided me in the matches I lost.

Echoing Truth is a great card, just not here. The more you play with the list I suggested you'll realize this. The problem is it doesn't answer cards permanently like Engineered Explosives, Spell Snare, Diabolic Edict, or a host of other cards you could have played in its stead.

Meloku saves my land from late game destruction such as armageddon, Im not saying she is perfect, but she would have been useful if I had the opportunity to cast it.

Envelop also saves you from Armageddon, but that doesn't mean you should run it. Planar Portal would also be useful if you had the opportunity to cast it. The point is, if you can comfortably make it to that stage in the game where you could cast and protect Meloku, as a Landstill player, you probably don't need Meloku because you've probably won that game already. Playing spells to get you to that point in the game is more important. If you're really worried about Extirpate and really think you need an alternate kill or something, I would probably run Eternal Dragon or Decree of Justice in its place.

Fact is not more important against the RED mirror that burned me to death and has reb to stop my counterspells.

In my experience playing Landstill mirrors (that's quite a bit) the most important card to resolve is Crucible, then Fact or Fiction. Blue Elemental Blast is very limited in scope in a control mirror.

[Nocuras]

I can only agree, the list is mediocre at best. I mean you run 10 (!) lands (with 24 total) that don't produce colored mana in a 4-color control deck. In round 2 you lose game 3 because of manascrew that could've been avoided by playing 25 land and/or more than 14 colored manasources total.
Standstill looks like it didn't help you at all. You boarded it out in round 1 and 2 and in round 3 when you cast it your opponent gained an advantage... Any thoughts on this or was this also just bad luck?

[The Chosen One]

I can only agree, the list is mediocre at best. I mean you run 10 (!) lands (with 24 total) that don't produce colored mana in a 4-color control deck. In round 2 you lose game 3 because of manascrew that could've been avoided by playing 25 land and/or more than 14 colored manasources total.
Standstill looks like it didn't help you at all. You boarded it out in round 1 and 2 and in round 3 when you cast it your opponent gained an advantage... Any thoughts on this or was this also just bad luck?

Actually, the manabase is very very good. I did not have a problem with mana screw at all(barring the hands I had to toss back that had NO land in my second round). The mana structure is good if you know how to protect it and play it welll, I am good at that. Standtill got boarded out in the matchups I had since they were horrible in those matches. Against slogger I needed as many turn 1 possibilities to yank/counter his early threats. Against landstill, they are obviously dead.

[GUnit]

Actually, the manabase is very very good. I did not have a problem with mana screw at all(barring the hands I had to toss back that had NO land in my second round). The mana structure is good if you know how to protect it and play it welll, I am good at that. Standtill got boarded out in the matchups I had since they were horrible in those matches. Against slogger I needed as many turn 1 possibilities to yank/counter his early threats. Against landstill, they are obviously dead.

I think that "very very good" is hyperbolic, considering that some alternative builds of landstill run only 8 colorless sources, run a handful of basics and find crucible faster- but maybe those decks just have very very very very good manabases. The manabase in this deck works, but it is extremely fragile and no matter how well you know how to protect it, if your opponent gets a very disruptive draw and you don't topdeck a few lands you can be buried pretty quickly. I find there are also occasions in which you have to decide which of two cards in your hand to make dead by fetching in 4C. It doesn't happen too often, but it does happen. In my opinion, In a format full of wastes and stifles that deck list is too greedy.

I agree, though, about sideboarding out standstills. They're poop in the mirror and are very often dead against decks that drop must-answer non-creature threats very early in the game (ie. vial, zombie infestation, manlands).

[ketchupgun]

Man 0-3 sucks.. so sorry about the horrible day at the tourney.

I must echo GUnit though...and what I've found trying to play 4c Landstill the last couple of weeks...it's wa-ay too many colours for my feedle mind to wrap around. I find I'm getting killed by Wastes and off colour screw.

I'm an advocate of two, maybe three colour Landstill...I'm working on the BUG Landstill for legacy right now...pernicous deed being the only reason why, because that card is killer...but all in all, 4 colours is way too delicate (for my play style) (I guess)

take it easy.
-ketch