1st place Blue Bell 17 with...LANDSTILL 2k11

[oshkoshhaitsyosh]

So for blue bell game day 17 I decided to play landstill 15 minutes before the tournament started. I had nights whisper tezz sleaved up which I piloted with success in the past but opted for blue red landstill at the last minute which I also have had some success with in the past. I enjoy playing the deck bc it is very consistant at having the same consistant game plan every game, rather then trying to hit lucky draws or lucky 1 drops. There were 33 players, so heres the list below and what went down for me to win it all!

4 standstill
4 force of will
4 mana drain
2 crucible of worlds
2 jace the mind sculptor
4 null rod
2 steel sabotage
2 spell pierce
2 misdirection
3 lightning bolt
1 hurkyls recall
1 echoing truth
1 mystical tutor
1 time walk
1 ancestral recall
2 stifle
1 black lotus
1 mox sapphire
1 mox ruby
1 polluted delta
1 scalding tarn
1 misty rainforest
1 flooded strand
4 volcanic island
3 island
1 library of Alexandria
1 strip mine
4 wasteland
4 mishras factory

Sideboard
3 energy flux
1 hurkyls recall
2 pyroclasm
2 clique
1 threads of disloyalty
1 pyroblast
2 red elemental blast
2 mindbreak trap
1 ingot chewer

So that’s the deck. Strategy is pretty simple control the game shut down artifact mana and beat face with little man lands. You have to play the deck very tight and make no mistakes bc a deck like this doesn’t have many powerful cards like a lot of t1 decks that can just hide misplays through the raw power of the cards. Below is a round by round report. ENJOY!

Round 1 ~ (forget name) Gush storm (2-1 win)
G1-I mana denial a lot, stick a null rod while he has key, 2 mox, top out and just outdraw and out control him for the win
G2-He has a really good hand and goes broken with fast bond
G3-Similar to game 1 I play a bunch of standstills and deny his mana with rod and wastelands and win

Round 2 ~ Obert with Emakrul/Show and tell/Oath (2-0 win)
G1-He plays imperial seal like turn 2 or so then next turn he plays channel with 3 mana open, paying 15 life and casts emakrul, and he is at 3 life. He takes an extra turn attacks me, then on my next turn I play volc, then LIGHTNING BOLT for the win! If he would have just tapped a few extra land and not payed 15 life I would have lost, I thought he had another play with the 3 mana or something. But he just got excited to use channel I suppose.
G2-I win via standstill and countering a bunch of threats and denying mana. No doubt that null rod was insane first two rounds

Round 3 ~ Mr. Noble with Noble fish (0-2 loss)
G1-I have an ok hand with 2 wastelands and a factory but no way to answer a mid-game goyf followed by a 2nd one so I lost
G2-My 7 card hand had 1 land, 6 card hand had no land, 5 card hand had no land, and my 4 card hand was jace, mystical, sapphire, island. I Mystical for recall but he has force so I just lose in a lame fashion getting mana screw playing landstill oh well

Round 4 ~ Joseph Brown with painter (2-0 win)
G1-Control + Null rod = win…This is a terrible matchup for painter and he knows it
G2-Wasn’t even close again

Round 5 ~ Shawn Anthony with gush storm (1-2 loss)
G1-I have turn 1 jace double force back, so I win
G2- I kind of forget but I believe I lost to a early/midgame tinker
G3-This was a longer game and he has a pretty good turn emptying for 16 I trap it, cut he has force. Then next turn I mystical for truth on my upkeep and bounce all the gobos. Keeping in min that I have only seen 1 null rod and I only have about half my deck left so of course the only way I lose happens and he gets key vault after flashbacking grudge to kill my rod. If I see a 2nd rod at all that game I most likely win. In testing he even said its not a good matchup for him.

Round 6 ~ Paul Mastriano with "Suicide" Jace Vault (2-1 win)
G1-I have library but he puts too much pressure on it so I can get adv out of it. He lands double bob pretty early, and had demonic, will, tinker, etc…This game was a blowout terrible. So at this point my stomach is in my throat bc I know I need to win this match to make t8 possibly bc at this point I have the best breakers
G2-I win this game with some nice mana denial through rod, strip, waste I believe and outdraw him
G3-This game was insane. My opening grip is something like reb, bolt, pierce, misdirection, library, island, steel sabotage….He plays turn 1 jace opening with lotus, he always seems good at getting lotus. I sit on library for like 3 or 4 turns and never see a red source, then finally I draw lotus for the turn. I reb his jace, bolt his bob, and stick a null rod with misdirection back for something. I know he probably still has a strong hand, and he did. Null rod put him down to 3 available mana and on his next turn he casts tinker! His exact words were “you have the pierce”? and I was like “you have the force”? I had the pierce and he doesn’t have force. He lands a bob a turn or 2 later, Im sitting on factory swinging, he is at 8 life then flips blightsteel to his bob. At that point I had pyroblast and drain in hand so he probably would have lost anyways but you never know. Paul was a great sport though.

T8 ~ Shawn Griffiths with Demars Control
G1-I have turn 1 jace on the play and he doesn’t have force so I end up winning with mana denial and a lot of control. Plus his mana base is very weak vs wastelands
G2-He gets off gifts and tinker and has 2x force so this was lame
G3-I have a hand of like strip, waste, standstill, force, reb, fetch, island. I control his mana and draw null rod and just out draw and out control him

T4 ~ Joseph Brown with Painter again
G1 and G2 weren’t even close I out control him pretty bad and null rod destroys him

FINALS vs Dom with jace vault empty the warrens
G1-I Out control him pretty bad and stick a null rod mid game and start locking it down and just out control and out draw him
G2-This is kind of a strange game. I have a pretty good hand and end up feeling like I was in complete control of the game, but then he plays tinker force back, and I have a factory out so I can atleast stall one turn. I stall that turn by chumping the BSC then draw hurkyls I had a lot of outs I was hoping for so it was lucky but I had 5 outs. So I bounce his guy and then procede to draw counters and a standstill and just continue to get ahead from there on and he loses.

Conclusion: If many of the matches sound like I am doing the same thing by out controlling and out drawing my opponents or destroying my opponents mana its because they are all very similar. This deck is very VERY good at executing the same game plan every game and that’s the main reason I like it. It has pretty good consistency at what it does. This is easily one of my favorite decks to play. I have had many t8’s and t4’s with this deck in the past and winning side events so I figure I would bring it out again. As far as the deck is concerned I loved the list wouldn’t change a thing except for the sideboard is very sketchy bc I threw it together right as tournament was starting. I would cut the cliques from the board definitely they were marginal and vs control I prefer to have a counter and not clique.The superstar of the day was null rod without a doubt I was destroying ppl left and right bc all the mana denial I was packing.  With this deck you either chose to waste the sb slots to fight dredge or you can just beat everything else and side no dredge. I have done both but this time went with 0. Like I said the report is fairly boring bc theres no sacking random cards at random times. My deck performs very similar every game.

PROPS: Props to everyone that hates my deck, just adds fuel to my fire to prove you wrong (there are a lot of haters), Nick for holding a sweet tournament, and all my cool opponents and friends to hang with.
SLOPS: Nothing comes to mind. It was a good day

[The Atog Lord]

Congratulations on your victory. And congratulations for winning with such an awesome deck. Seeing maindeck Lightning Bolts in Vintage makes me smile.

[voltron00x]

Nice job Josh!  Next time I'm going to actually play the top 8, so be ready!   

[oshkoshhaitsyosh]

Thanks Rich and Matt! Haha yeah Matt its ashamed you had to leave but I'm sure I will face you soon again if not in vintage it will be legacy

[psyburat]

Maybe the pre-Top 8 drinks were a bad idea after all.  Dammit.

Happy to play you again Josh.  I only wish we had a real game during our match.

[oshkoshhaitsyosh]

Maybe the pre-Top 8 drinks were a bad idea after all.  Dammit.

Happy to play you again Josh.  I only wish we had a real game during our match.

Yeah I had a good time playing too. And like usual I get smoked by your monsters when I play landstill LOL. And when I play a broken deck we rarely play

[Mr. Type 4]

Once again the person who knocks me out of contention wins it all - not surprised.

This list defies conventional wisdom, but its no joke.  If I could have found one of my Ancient grudges instead of Bobbing Blightsteel, I could have got there, but I don't call my deck "Suicide" Jace Vault for nothing - Bob is always a risk.  "Greatness at any cost" can be quite costly indeed.

Nice work finishing it out, Josh.  It's one thing to win at Bloomsburg when a bunch of good players are at the GP, but winning Blue Bell proves its not a fluke - It's always a straight run of ringers after round 2/3 when you play there.

[KingSquee]

Congrats on the win Sally. Fortunately for you I could not play the main event, as I am wont to dreamcrush you whenever you are on Landstill, no matter what the format!

[Rico Suave]

Awesome.  It's good to see you did well with your audible.  To me, there's always been something amiss about Night's Whisper Tezz, though I can't quite put my finger on it.

[oshkoshhaitsyosh]

Once again the person who knocks me out of contention wins it all - not surprised.

This list defies conventional wisdom, but its no joke.  If I could have found one of my Ancient grudges instead of Bobbing Blightsteel, I could have got there, but I don't call my deck "Suicide" Jace Vault for nothing - Bob is always a risk.  "Greatness at any cost" can be quite costly indeed.

Nice work finishing it out, Josh.  It's one thing to win at Bloomsburg when a bunch of good players are at the GP, but winning Blue Bell proves its not a fluke - It's always a straight run of ringers after round 2/3 when you play there.

Thanks Paul, good playing you again. Most ppl take this deck as a joke or its not that good or whatever but thats why i enjoy tweaking the deck and continually trying to make it better to prove all the haters wrong its just fuel for my fire...and trust me there are ALOT of haters...ALOT!

[potato]

Neat deck. Did you consider Gorilla Shaman possibly?

[Purple Hat]

congrats on the win.  I was your round 1 opponent, game 1 wasn't the game with the null rod.  it was the one where I lost 5 mana crypt rolls and couldn't find any business, you killed me with a factory.  It couldn't have been the mana denial game because I remember hard casting force of will 3 times in that game.

Game 3 you had the null rod and mana denial I think.

[oshkoshhaitsyosh]

Neat deck. Did you consider Gorilla Shaman possibly?

I used to run him in my older builds but null rod does exactly what shaman does but once it hits the field you dont have to activate anything like you do with shaman. But yeah I used to run the mox monkey. I used to run 3 rod, 2 monkey

[TD]

Congrats Josh! Glad to see this deck still has some life in it! Might need to run it on 8/13.

[Shax]

In the instances you had Lightning Bolt would you have replaced them with a well timed Fire//Ice? This card seems to be better in most situations except for the Jace--->Brainstorm, and Lodestone Golem. Otherwise it is fun to pitch it to FoW, and tap down Mishra's Workshops and psuedo timewalk them, or tap down something like a Tolarian Academy/Mishra's Factory or even a opposing Library of Alexandria to stop draw. This is not even counting if you tap down a big creature like Blightsteel Collossus that would otherwise kill you dead.

No Brainstorm.. this card is pretty clutch at finding answers and is 1 mana. This card is one of the best in Vintage so it's inclusion even in Landstill should almost be auto include. This goes for a card missing from the list like Merchant Scroll as well. Being able to tutor for Ancestral Recall, a bounce spell, or a answer to whatever threat is very potent as you test a deck. Since you auto ignore the Dredge matchup anyways it would be safe to say that having a better blue matchup sometimes revolving around drawing more cards.. with luck that follows.

[oshkoshhaitsyosh]

In the instances you had Lightning Bolt would you have replaced them with a well timed Fire//Ice? This card seems to be better in most situations except for the Jace--->Brainstorm, and Lodestone Golem. Otherwise it is fun to pitch it to FoW, and tap down Mishra's Workshops and psuedo timewalk them, or tap down something like a Tolarian Academy/Mishra's Factory or even a opposing Library of Alexandria to stop draw. This is not even counting if you tap down a big creature like Blightsteel Collossus that would otherwise kill you dead.

Maybe run 1 over 1 bolt...But in most cases I want bolt for jace, and stone as you mentioned. Only time I wished I had fire/ice was vs paul when he dropped double bob off lotus and i was holding mystical. Thats the only time. But 1 fire/ice would probably be pretty good...I used to run fire/ice....before lodestone was printed lol

Congrats Josh! Glad to see this deck still has some life in it! Might need to run it on 8/13.

HAHA I was actually going to text you I knew you would love it. I like it a lot still one of my all time favorite decks obv as I play it atleast 1/3 to 1/4 of the time

[Shax]

I started testing the list and swapped 1 Fire/Ice into the maindeck and took out 1 Lightning Bolt before you had the chance to ninja me, but thanks.  

What would you swap Vendillion Clique with?

I swapped for two Ingot Chewer and a Pyroblast.

[oshkoshhaitsyosh]

I started testing the list and swapped 1 Fire/Ice into the maindeck and took out 1 Lightning Bolt before you had the chance to ninja me, but thanks.  

What would you swap Vendillion Clique with?

I swapped for two Ingot Chewer and a Pyroblast.

3 energy flux
1 hurkyls recall
2 pyroclasm
2 clique
1 threads of disloyalty
1 pyroblast
2 red elemental blast
2 mindbreak trap
1 ingot chewer

Thats the sb I won with...I feel 1 chewer is fine, and 3 reb effects are fine also. I always beat shops with this deck pretty consistantly. I would cut the 2 clique for 2nd threads, and maybe 3rd, or a fire/ice, or 2 annul...I would probably feel pretty good adding the 2nd and 3rd threads to deal with goyf more for random fishy decks OR 2 annul if I feel oath is a threat.

On the other hand this deck can pretty much adapt to any given environment or meta so the sb can change as needed. EVERY time I play this deck my side is different but for sure clique is junk IMO

[Shax]

Yeah Clique is good in those Remora decks that can afford to play trash maindeck.  

What about the card Mental Misstep? It seems really good period.. if Turbo Tezz can play it in the Side, I don't know why we can't as well.

[oshkoshhaitsyosh]

Yeah Clique is good in those Remora decks that can afford to play trash maindeck.  

What about the card Mental Misstep? It seems really good period.. if Turbo Tezz can play it in the Side, I don't know why we can't as well.

Seems ok not really exciting honestly. Im already boarding in 3 reb vs blue and alot of times 1 trap. And if gush 2 trap...So siding misstep would be over the top and honestly not enough cards to bring out so seems weak in here IMO. Snare on the other hand is good vs fish and oath which can be a pain...

[Pittsburgh Trader]

I'm not really a vintage player so excuse me if I'm wrong but how does this deck ever beat Oath?

[voltron00x]

Landstill is a nightmare matchup for Oath. No creatures, tons of counters, stifle, and wastelands.

[oshkoshhaitsyosh]

Landstill is a nightmare matchup for Oath. No creatures, tons of counters, stifle, and wastelands.

On the same token, if the oath deck sticks an early oath through my counters I lose. I have lost matchups in blowout fashion vs oath, and there are times where I can survive the first 3 turns and just control from then on. I need to survive the first couple turns vs oath then I have the upper hand. But if the oath player has early oath with 2 counters back what can I do? Draw key vault or tinker??? HAHA

I'm not really a vintage player so excuse me if I'm wrong but how does this deck ever beat Oath?

So by what I just explained, thats how landstill loses to oath. You make it seem completely unwinnable for landstill and its not

[Ravager Sam]

Jace-Bounce!

[voltron00x]

Landstill is a nightmare matchup for Oath. No creatures, tons of counters, stifle, and wastelands.

On the same token, if the oath deck sticks an early oath through my counters I lose. I have lost matchups in blowout fashion vs oath, and there are times where I can survive the first 3 turns and just control from then on. I need to survive the first couple turns vs oath then I have the upper hand. But if the oath player has early oath with 2 counters back what can I do? Draw key vault or tinker??? HAHA

I'm not really a vintage player so excuse me if I'm wrong but how does this deck ever beat Oath?

So by what I just explained, thats how landstill loses to oath. You make it seem completely unwinnable for landstill and its not

The ability of Oath to get blowout wins like that is one of its major strengths, but generally I've found that it's a rough matchup for Oath, b/c of the lack of draw engine in Oath.  Similarly, Remora decks are a bitch for Oath.

EDIT:  To be fair, a lot of my Oath vs Landstill came against AJ Grasso and that SOB played stuff like Daze and Stifle and generally made my life hell 

[Shock Wave]

The real genius of this build is the sideboard. I tried the Leyline tech but it never worked well for me. It looks like you have tuned it to work. Excellent job! I have some questions about the maindeck, specifically:

How have the maindeck Steel Sabotages been for you? They seem quite weak.
Do you find that Stifle, as a 2x, does not show up during the times where it is most useful (i.e. the early game)?
How have the Misdirections been? I cut this card long ago and have not missed it. Are you still hitting AR a lot?

[oshkoshhaitsyosh]

The real genius of this build is the sideboard. I tried the Leyline tech but it never worked well for me. It looks like you have tuned it to work. Excellent job! I have some questions about the maindeck, specifically:

How have the maindeck Steel Sabotages been for you? They seem quite weak.
Do you find that Stifle, as a 2x, does not show up during the times where it is most useful (i.e. the early game)?
How have the Misdirections been? I cut this card long ago and have not missed it. Are you still hitting AR a lot?

Sabotage is nice...if u look at my list from my most recent win I only run it as a 1 of in the main. If I didn't run that it would be chain of vapor...in most cases sabotage is better unless it's vs oath or a creature. You need an array of 1 drop bounce spells an 2 drops to dodge chalice sometimes. Also u need outs to tinker...bc on occasion I lose to the big guy. So I like the card.

I don't run stifle anymore. Ever since the gush popularity they were cut for 2 traps which have been a million times better. And as far as misdirection, the card is one of my fav in the deck it's insane! Always protects early standstill, helps counter wars and steals recalls. I would not even think of running less. And I'm not sure what your asking when you say AR...

My most recent list winning BBGD 18 is my favorite...the list in question here is from months ago

[Shock Wave]

Sabotage is nice...if u look at my list from my most recent win I only run it as a 1 of in the main. If I didn't run that it would be chain of vapor...in most cases sabotage is better unless it's vs oath or a creature. You need an array of 1 drop bounce spells an 2 drops to dodge chalice sometimes. Also u need outs to tinker...bc on occasion I lose to the big guy. So I like the card.

My suggestion would have been to run Chain instead of Sabotage, but it seems you have already considered it. That being said, I'm still not quite clear on what you are using Sabotage for that Chain does not address. For example, if a bot shows up, Chain is great. It costs less, it is blue, and it is more flexible. I am interested to hear about scenarios where Sabotage saved you and Chain would not have been useful.

[oshkoshhaitsyosh]

Sabotage is nice...if u look at my list from my most recent win I only run it as a 1 of in the main. If I didn't run that it would be chain of vapor...in most cases sabotage is better unless it's vs oath or a creature. You need an array of 1 drop bounce spells an 2 drops to dodge chalice sometimes. Also u need outs to tinker...bc on occasion I lose to the big guy. So I like the card.

My suggestion would have been to run Chain instead of Sabotage, but it seems you have already considered it. That being said, I'm still not quite clear on what you are using Sabotage for that Chain does not address. For example, if a bot shows up, Chain is great. It costs less, it is blue, and it is more flexible. I am interested to hear about scenarios where Sabotage saved you and Chain would not have been useful.

Chain costs 1 mana so does sabotage so chain doesn't cost less. Sabotage is also blue. Yes chain is more flexible but I would rather not have my opponent sack a land and bounce my jace for example. I ran chain all the time before sabotage was printed. And most of the time chain was bouncing a shops card. And that was it. And with a huge tic in shops sabotage is just better. Either card is fine. Chain is cute at stalling a bob for a turn. But I perfer having a bounce or a artifact counter in the same card.

And not to mention I have countered a blue players turn 1 lotus with sabotage a few times, or even when they try to broken you and you dont have a rod in play it can counter vault or key. As I have already stated either card is fine. I guess its a preference thing. I have found sabotage to have a slight edge in pros/cons

[JuzamDjinn]

What is you gameplan against Noble Fish and GW Hatebears? If you where to designate 5+ SB slots to these matchups, what would it be?