Ux Landstill

[personalbackfire]

Yesterday I played UWr landstill at Bluebell. This was the list:

3 Wasteland
4 Mishra’s Factory
1 Strip Mine
3 Tundra
1 LOA
4 Flooded Strand
1 Misty Rainforest
3 Islands
1 Plains
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
 
4 Force of Will
3 Mana Drain
4 Standstill
4 Spell Pierce
2 Steel Sabatage
1 Misdirection
2 Vendillion Clique
1 Enginered Explosives
2 Sower
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Merchant Scroll
1 TimeWalk
4 Jace
4 Sword to Plowshares
2 Crucible of Worlds
 
3 Energy Flux
3 Red Elemental Blast
2 Trinket Mage
1 Tormods Crypt
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Echoing Truth
1 Hurkyls recalll
1 Vendalken Shackles
1 Volcanic Island

Finishing 4-2 was a bit disappointing but my two loses weren't really my decks fault. The first loss was due to a pretty embarrassing play error in which I had complete control of the game with Jace and standstill out. I drew recall and my temptations got the best of me as I failed to remember that standstill was out... Anyways the second round loss I would have lost with any deck, the guy drew nice cards.

I lost to Bob/Jace vault/key deck and a Turbo Tezz deck.

I beat a Turbo Tezz deck, shops, Ichorid, and BG dark depths/helmline.
That said, I think the deck has a ton of potential and if I were to play in a tournament tomorrow I would sleeve this bad boy up with a few changes.

Number one problem with this deck is lack of blue sources. I mulligan quite a bit in general, but I really might have only kept two or three 7 card hands in the tournament. Getting hands with 0 blue sources was an issue for me yesterday. The first change I would make is cutting the plains for an Island. The ability to fetch plains for STP in the shop matchup really isn't necessary. One might consider adding upping the land count in general to the deck. Perhaps finding room for the Volcanic Island to free up a sideboard slot is an option.

2 Sowers main were pretty underwhelming for me. My feeling was that Landstill only loses to Bob against blue decks, so I needed various ways to answer him. This proved to be irrelevant as only one person played Bob against me, once. I guess it is important to note that as a control deck, it is going to be meta dependent on what cards you run main and side. I pretty much only wanted to beat shops and tezzeret style decks. Fish decks can also be a problem for Landstill decks historically, which is why I included the EE and Shackles.

Anyways, I would safely cut at least one Sower from my main deck if I played it again, say tomorrow.

4 Jace, was awesome and maybe excessive. I didn't get to play test the deck before I took it to the tournament. I brewed up the list, ran it through some friends, played 3 games against Shops morning of, and went with it. That said Jace is awesome, you almost always want to play him. 4 Might be one too many. Testing would help in figuring out the exact number you want.

0 Null Rod. My Friend Jeff told me Null Rod seemed bad. He is better at magic by a lot, so I just went with it. (Interesting to note, he made another top 8 yesterday going 4-2, he gets all the breaks...)  I didn't really miss the Null Rods to be honest. It feels like if you can survive turn one while you are playing the deck you are in pretty good shape. I just never really want to be tapping 2 on my main phase unless its for Standstill, and I have a blue source still open.

V Clique was very good for me on the day, this could be because people like playing top deck tutors in vintage. Anyways, he also provided a fast clock that has to be dealt with or they lose. I'd consider going to three.

The sideboard was somewhat of a mess, and somewhat awesome.

I last minute, on the basis of talking to Rico Suave added Rebs to fight the gush style decks. I am glad I added them as they are always useful. My original plan was not to board against blue.

The Trinket Mage package was pretty cool I thought. I think you probably want one more tutorable gy hate target to make it relevant though. I got pretty lucky to beat Ichorid yesterday.

Shackles could be cut as it did literally nothing.

Hurk's can also be cut since everyone plays Blightsteel and you have multiple ways of dealing with that guy. It was also in for the shop matchup, but you don't really want to be casting Hurks in the matchup. Jeff suggested serenity, that seems good.

Echoing truth was a catch all that dealt with ETW tokens that I didn't face. It could be cut.

I hope some people continue to work on this style deck as it has potential. Long time UR Landstill enthusiast Josh P. took down the side tournament with UR landstill, which had Null Rod and stifle if I remember correctly.

If you have any questions or comments let me know, this deck is a blast to play.

[serracollector]

Interesting decklist, some suggestions:

-1 Sower +1 Ninja of Deep Hours.  It gets under Standstill, can be used on Clique, or Sower (if they killed their own critter or something like that), or a man-lands.  Provides a lil extra draw, and a lil more beats.

-1 Jace, -1 StP, +1 Tinker + 1 Tinker-Bot......tinker to tinker bot is too good to pass up, and yes I know u only run the 2 moxen and lotus (alongside EE, and 2 crucible) but you also run 4 mishra's factories that can be sacced.

Even saccing a Factory to get a Crucible into play does not seem "bad" to me at all.

Otherwise looks great i think.  Good job, nice deck.

[SadDubs]

did you find yourself missing that extra wasteland at all? As far as my knowledge of landstill goes, I was always under the impression that it needed a mana denial strategy to work well; ie stifle and null rod.

[personalbackfire]

did you find yourself missing that extra wasteland at all? As far as my knowledge of landstill goes, I was always under the impression that it needed a mana denial strategy to work well; ie stifle and null rod.

Simple answer, I did not find myself missing the 4th wasteland. Mana denial wasn't really a strategy I was going for. Sure waste is good against bazaar and shops, and randomly you can punish a greedy player, but I wouldn't say mana denial was a strong element of the deck. I would also be cautious of adding yet another colorless mana source to the deck.

Crucible was more or less in because crucible strip can end games and it is good against shop decks.

[Mr. Type 4]

You had 4 STPs in the maindeck? How did you feel about those?  It seems like soooo many.

[personalbackfire]

You had 4 STPs in the maindeck? How did you feel about those?  It seems like soooo many.

Yea I was pretty worried about Bob, and I figured STP was fine against Lodestone/Karn as well. I think over all the 4 STP, 2 Sower was a bit much. I think cutting a Sower makes sense before STP, since STP is so efficient.

Unfortunately Landstill has trouble with creatures, so I do think they are necessary.

[desolutionist]

What do you think about lightning bolt instead of stp- you're killing opposing jaces and using your own to off blightsteel. I just lost to a red version on cockatrice, I didn't see lightning bolt but he had gorilla shaman and grim lavamancer.  My friends have talked about the red being better

[oshkoshhaitsyosh]

What do you think about lightning bolt instead of stp- you're killing opposing jaces and using your own to off blightsteel. I just lost to a red version on cockatrice, I didn't see lightning bolt but he had gorilla shaman and grim lavamancer.  My friends have talked about the red being better

I like playing the red for bolts, rebs, and shamans obv. Steves list is different then alot of landstill lists in regards that his game plan isnt to attack mana sources. UR landstill generally runs, null rod, shamans, and even stifles, and the 4th wasteland. I think its awesome that Steve took a different approach to the deck and had good results with it. As I personally have success with UR variants. I like the mana denial plan way too much. Its harder for decks to luck sack key vault wins with null rod and red has bolts where I think in most cases are just as good as STP. The only reason I would ever consider running white is for serenity, but on that note I never have a problem beating shops with red. But if it works for you with 3c then go for it, I just like the consistency in the mana base of 2c.

The main thing i would miss from this build is null rod cool deck though

[Kiriyuu]

What about stoneforge mystic and batterskull? I guess that's much better in a list with all the artifact mana, as getting a turn 1 mystic then a turn 2 standstill seems powerful.

That said maybe batterskull just isn't enough of a threat for vintage? I could let you play some other techy equipment too I guess, but then it's a big investment taking up a lot of slots and probably a different deck.

Just curious for when that stupid mystic will start beating up in vintage too.