Stasis

[CaptainTwiddle]

So, there's a Mox Tournament coming in my area soon and I'd like to compete.  There aren't that many Vintage players in my area, so I don't expect a lot of tier 1 decks.  I thought that Stasis might be an OK choice, as I used to do well in Legacy with it, and with Gush fully legal, it seemed like it might be viable.  Below is a preliminary list.  I'm open to any suggestions.

Stasis
1 Morphling   
4 Black Vise

4 Chain of Vapor
4 Daze
4 Stasis
4 Gush
4 Thwart
4 Force of Will
2 Remand
1 Claws of Gix
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Rescue
1 Timewalk   
1 Frozen Æther
1 Misdirection

17 Island
4 Forsaken City
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Saphire

Sideboard
? Pithing Needle (randomly good, shuts off Grindstone)
? Snapback (bounces Tog and Painter's Servant)
? Arcane Laborartory (anti-storm)
? Stifle (stops Grinstone activation and then Stasis leaves it tapped)
? Blue Elemental Blast (stops Welder and anything Red)


I think that maybe 4 Black Vise is a bit excessive.  I've considered Chronatog and Glacial Chasm, as well as Howling Mine, for a kill by milling the opponent.

Is there anything obvious that I'm missing?

[extarbags]

Chronatog is probably the best win condition for this.

[Skadrian]

reset is a nice way to keep paying for stasis, it might get difficult with only 22 blue sources (not counting lotus). It also make morphling a better kill. A single frozen aether wont do much.
I dont know if chronatog will be good enough, vintage decks can do a lot with very little mana, so without a frozen aether on the board I dont think you will be able to keep them down.

[akfox]

4x Black Vise may be too much, but whatever number you settle on is still a better/faster win condition than Chronatog. 

You'd probably be better off playing U/G and using Root Maze to bring your opponents lands and artifacts into play tapped.  I don't think you'll ever get Frozen Aether into play on time.

[Jacques1984]

Why hasn't anyone tried using Eon Hub for a competitive Stasis deck? I know it costs 5, but with the P9 or Workshop, now you dont have to worry about paying for stasis, negative effects of Mana Crypt, or your opponent drawing cards from Arcane Denials.

[Blueforever]

i think that because you are new that you must have missed the recent restriction of brainstorm, ponder, flash, merchant scroll, and gush. of which you are playing 4 gush so your deck is not legal.

[arctic79]

Has anyone used Tel-Jilad Stylus; t: put target permanent on the bottom of your library.
I've tried it along time ago, and as long as you can dig for a stasis you can bury one at the end of your opponent's turn. Of course timing is everything and if you can't find another stasis you're boned.

[elmarfud]

A few things I would like to add as a moderate stasis player:

* when playing root maze (which you definitely have to in vintage nowadays), then forget morphling. Black vise will do the trick for a lot less mana and a lot less messing around. (it even works when tapped because of root maze)

* Reset is indeed a nice idea, but I think it's better to use the chain of vapor trick or rescue. Personally, I choose chain over rescue because it can also remove a colossus from the board.

* I haven't tried Eon Hub yet, but to me it looks rather complex. The idea is of course great and indeed it will work with stasis, but you'd have to play at least 3 workshops main and workshop is useless with any other card in this deck.

* Frozen Aether: it's simply too slow. Vintage nowadays is very fast. Even fish is fast nowadays, so with a stasis deck, you basically have three turns. No more. After that, you're either dead or your lock isn't strong enough to hold off the enemy. So you should try to find your cards ASAP.

*Cards I play in my deck:

- vampiric tutor / demonic tutor: simply to find stasis or any other card. If you're simply looking for stasis you might want to change this in enlightened tutor.
- null rod: very good card nowadays and it doesn't bother you that much.
- crop rotation: the most important card in your deck is (next to stasis of course) forsaken city. This card really helps.

Elmar fud

[c dizzle]

I can't believe I'm responding to a Stasis discussion. 

How about Vedalken Mastermind?

Seems to be the best reusable answer in my view (i.e. the Rescue that keeps giving).

And you may want to try this guy, too...

Why hasn't anyone tried using Eon Hub for a competitive Stasis deck?

First of all, isn't "competitive Stasis deck" an oxymoron?  It isn't used because it costs too much and doesn't provide enough benefit (i.e. it's a "win-more" card). If you get it in your hand early, you have a dead card. If you get it in your hand when you would want it, you already have the game locked-up.

Here's what I would start my testing with, if I decided to go the Stasis route:

Stasis (aka kitchentable.dec)

3 Black Vise
2 Echoing Truth
4 Daze
4 Stasis
1 Gush
4 Thwart
4 Force of Will
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk   
4 Vedalken Mastermind
4 Orb of Dreams
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Tinker
2 Extirpate


3 Flooded Strand
9 Island
4 Underground Sea
4 Forsaken City
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Saphire

[Cavius The Great]

The deck looks solid. Have you considered Trinket Mage to fetch Black Vise and Maybe even Tormod's Crypt, Pithing Needle and Chalice in the SB? You can also bounce back Trinket Mage with mastermind giving him another target besides Stasis. Also consider a singleton Brainstorm and Sensei's Divining Top (as a Trinket Mage target).

[Prodigal_Sorceress]

I played Stasis a while ago, and I have found that the UG version is by far one of the fastest. You use Garruk Wildspeaker to untap your lands every other turn, trading off with making a 3/3 and smashing face. Also, cards like Rescue, Boomerang, and Chain of Vapor are useful for bouncing your Stasis at EOT, and then replaying it that turn. While Dispotic Scepter may not be the most attractive way of getting rid of Stasis when you need to untap, it does give you the option to untap before your opponent if you don't have a bounce spell, or the mana to play one. Then, either tutor up another Stasis or kill your opponent with Garruk's Overrun ability.

[c dizzle]

The deck looks solid. Have you considered Trinket Mage to fetch Black Vise and Maybe even Tormod's Crypt, Pithing Needle and Chalice in the SB? You can also bounce back Trinket Mage with mastermind giving him another target besides Stasis. Also consider a singleton Brainstorm and Sensei's Divining Top (as a Trinket Mage target).

All of those are great suggestions and I would definitely test them. That list would simply be my jumping off point. I think Trinket Mage makes a lot of sense.

[Harlequin]

This is the deck I would play if someone gave me $20 to play a statis deck:

4 Root Maze
4 Stasis
4 Vedalken Mastermind
3 Paralax Tide

4 Daze
4 Force of Will
2 Misdirrect / Thwart

1 Gush
2 Echoing Truth / Snapback
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
3 Jace Beleren
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
2 Black Vise

3 Flooded Strand
5 Island
4 Tropical Island
2 Simic Growth Chamber
4 Forsaken City
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Saphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Lotus Petal
----------------------------

Parallax Tide is insane in this deck.  Alone, tide can help reset lands for stasis.  But the real reason to run it is: Paralax Tide + Mastermind is amazing!  It allows you to simultaniously RFG opponent's lands AND untap your own lands.  The Parallax enchants now work as printed, so they can be abused much in the same way you would screw over WGD.  It allows you to stack RFG's and then bounce the Tide which puts the "return to play" -before- the removal.  If you then respond to the "return to play" by removing your own lands, they will be returned untapped.

Garruk is your main win condition, with Vice there to edge out some extra damage.  Adding Green also gives you root maze over Orb or AEther. 

Jace is Howling Mine 2.0, If things are going well for you, you can pump him up and make your opponent draw cards. If things are more even or you are behind, you can use him to draw cards. 

[Cavius The Great]

I don't think I'd run Gush and Thwart without Fastbond.

[Prodigal_Sorceress]

haha, this is crazy funny. Although I would like to say that the Parallax Tide thing works, it doesn't. This is the current errata for Tide:

Fading 5 (This enchantment comes into play with five fade counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a fade counter from it. If you can't, sacrifice it.)
Remove a fade counter from Parallax Tide: Remove target land from the game if Parallax Tide is in play.
When Parallax Tide leaves play, each player returns to play all cards he or she owns removed from the game with Parallax Tide.

And the judge ruling:

10/4/2004 If this card is not in play on resolution of its ability, the effect does nothing.

Sorry to ruin your fun, but I'm afraid that does not work.

[Harlequin]

I thought they removed that errata.... my bad.