Turbo Stasis Redux [Vintage]

[hippiechic]

Okay, so I don't know if anyone has posted a deck like this recently or not, but here it is anyways.

Stasis decks have always been a favourite of mine. Ever since the Time Elemental and Kismet, and the later Tradewind Rider/Boomerang decks, I have loved Stasis decks. As the years progressed, one specific Stasis deck performed fairly well in a tournament setting... Turbo Stasis. The concept was simple, just pay for the Stasis. No cheats, no bouncing, no crying (at least not for the Stasis player), just pay the each turn for as long as you can (of course, there's always a contingency).

The concept of this Stasis deck is very similar, while making some new card choices based on current day Vintage standards. This has only been run in casual games and online, this deck has yet to be tested in a real world tournament environment. The whole concept of how a Stasis deck wins is generally unfavourable in tournaments (ref. Shahrazad). I feel this is still a pretty competitive deck considering its target environment. So, here is the listing...

Turbo Stasis Redux [Vintage]
Mana Sources:
4x Tropical Island
4x Forsaken City
4x Island
3x Misty Rainforest
2x Scalding Tarn
1x Black Lotus
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mox Opal
4x Noble Hierarch

Bounce/Control:
4x Force of Will
4x Chain of Vapor
2x Nature's Claim
4x Regrowth

Draw/Dig:
4x Howling Mine
4x Gush
1x Fastbond
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Brainstorm
1x Ponder
1x Merchant Scroll

Lock/Kill:
4x Stasis
4x Black Vise


Sideboard:
2x Nature's Claim
2x Mindbreak Trap
4x Tormod's Crypt
3x Grafdigger's Cage



Mana Sources:
So, in light of Regrowth being unrestricted, I chose to go with a Gush package for drawing. This forces me to focus the mana base towards Islands. I have tried to mix non-Island, non-Land, mana in as well whilst still maintaining the focus on Islands. Forsaken City, in conjunction with Howling Mine, provides a permanent way of paying for the Stasis. A slim jewelry package was chosen due to the Island restriction. The power seems weak here actually, and I had considered stripping them in favour of Null Rod. The Noble Hierarchs simply provide an alternate source of and a little bit of damage to get you over the hump.


Bounce/Control:
Force of Will is an obvious choice, and Regrowth is such a strong utility. The Regrowth is for use with pretty much anything you need again like Chain of Vapor, Gush, Force of Will, Black Vise, etc. The Chain of Vapor and Nature's Claim are in the deck primarily to provide a method of 'resetting' your Stasis by destroying or bouncing it at the end of your opponent's turn. Part of the key here is the 0/1 cmc.


Draw/Dig:
Okay, so I know Howling Mine is like, 'You idiot, what are you doing?', but in this shell it actually becomes a Force of Will target. It does four main things all in one. It helps to add to your artifact count for Mox Opal, it permits you to find your critical cards faster, it also helps to keep your opponent's hand full while you have them tapped down and a Black Vise is on them, as well as providing a way for you to pay for the Stasis with Forsaken City. It really is a pretty critical card, however laughable it may be. The Gushbond, Recall, Scroll of BrainPonder, package is pretty standard.


Lock/Kill:
This particular Stasis deck revolves around Black Vise damage. There are numerous methods of killing an opponent, but in light of tournament time limits, a damage route was chosen. (...and what's more old school than Howling Mine + Black Vise)


Sideboard:
Uhm... well it's meta dependent. I have provided an example sideboard, but really the choices should essentially conform to the following rules:
- 0 or 1 Converted Mana Cost
- Blue, Green, or Artifact
- Answer

So you get there how you like...

[vaughnbros]

Stasis begs to be played with planeswalkers.  I don't think you would need howling mine or black vise if you added some of them in.  Garruk, ral zarek, and jace should all work well for you.

[hippiechic]

I do like both Garruk Wildspeaker and Jace Beleren in Stasis decks. For Garruk, I would take a more Quirion Dryad style route, with Root Maze. Mainly because of the heavier focus on green. I would consider dropping the Gush package. Jace can work as a better Howling Mine in most cases. The cost difference may be worth it, though he would be easier to cast if there were maybe some Lotus Cobras. The problem I had with Cobra though, was he typically produces mana tricks in my main phase, when ideally I would like it during my upkeep.

[MaximumCDawg]

I once put together a really fun casual deck around stasis.  The concept was less about trying to lock your opponent with stasis (for which you need Root Maze / Kismet / Blue Kismet / That one 1W ench from Garecrash) and instead to use Stasis for value by breaking its symmetry.  Maybe there is some tech in here that could assist you?

Dudes (17)
4 Akrasan Squire (exalted lets him contribute to damage even with Stasis on the field)
4 Birds of Paradise (great with exalted)
3 Wit Leaf Cavaliers (undercosted viligant dude)
3 Tempest Drake (fairly costed vigilant flier)
3 Stoic Angel (Another stasis effect)

Walkers (3)
3 Garruk Wildspeaker (allows stasis to go infinite)

Stasis Stuff (7)
4 Stasis
3 Savor the Moment (basically a cheap Aggravated Assault here)

Control (11)
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Seal of Cleansing
4 Memory Lapse

Mana (22)
Stuff.

If was going to take the "value stasis" idea to vintage land, I'd start somewhere like this:

Dudes (17)
4 Noble Hierarch (Again, Extaled is awesome with Stasis)
4 Quasali Pridmage
3 Stoneforge Mystic (Batterskull has Viligance.  Also grabs a Sword for Blademaster)
1 Batterskull
4 Kadunza Blademaster (Your primary beatstick)
1 Lightning Angel

Equipment (1)
1 Sword of Fire and Ice

Walkers (2)
2 Garruk Wildspeaker

Stasis Stuff (7)
4 Stasis
3 Savor the Moment

Control (14)
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Seal of Cleansing
4 Flusterstorm
2 Spell Pierce

Mana (22)
Stuff.

[mmcgeach]

I tried a build based on Ral Zarek + Stasis, but it's pretty hard to get that to work right.  

The problem was roughly that Ral Zarek + Stasis isn't by itself enough to win the game.  You probably have to tap out (or nearly) the turn you drop stasis + Ral Zarek, and then you're basically stuck on no mana while Ral untaps stasis mana and both you and the opponent draw cards.  At that point, you're both drawing a card a turn and trying to craft the perfect hand; I found that with the kind of spells I had in the deck (like more stasis, more Ral Zarek) that I was at a disadvantage vs. many other (non-fish) decks in crafting the most explosive hand under many turns of stasis. Ral Zarek by himself wasn't quite a win-con under stasis.  If your opponent is at 18 life, you'd have to use Ral Zarek's lightning bolt 6 times, and to do that you'd have use his ultimate twice, so you'd want 12 + 7 + 7 = 26 counters, which is too many.  Games will go to time.  The strongest interactions with Ral Zarek I found are (of course time vault) and then howling mine, which lets you get value out of his "tap a permanent" ability rather than just the "untap a permanent" ability.

Also, to make the stasis lock really good, you want Root Maze.  But that means you can't play Gush.  And it's hard to make your mana-base root-maze proof (ie, no fetches).  Although, man, let me say that additional root mazes and stasisses are bad draws later game.

I think Garruk is pretty strong here - It'd be great to have both him and Ral Zarek out - but maybe that makes the colors too weak.

I like the idea of the vigilance dudes to give you a strong win con.

What about Venser with the stoneforge mystic package?  You can blink an island to pay for stasis and you can blink stoneforge to get additional equipment, and blink batterskull to get additional germ tokens...  Also the Venser ultimate seems like a sure winner with the kinds of white spells that are in the deck.  Maybe also blink out root maze and then play a bunch of lands with gush/fastbond?

Also, why not sword of feast and famine?  Pro green/black seems like a good combo and untapping lands...

Or, if we're gonna attack with dudes, Hidden Strings enables infinite stasis.

[vaughnbros]

The problem was roughly that Ral Zarek + Stasis isn't by itself enough to win the game.  You probably have to tap out (or nearly) the turn you drop stasis + Ral Zarek, and then you're basically stuck on no mana while Ral untaps stasis mana and both you and the opponent draw cards.  At that point, you're both drawing a card a turn and trying to craft the perfect hand; I found that with the kind of spells I had in the deck (like more stasis, more Ral Zarek) that I was at a disadvantage vs. many other (non-fish) decks in crafting the most explosive hand under many turns of stasis. Ral Zarek by himself wasn't quite a win-con under stasis.  If your opponent is at 18 life, you'd have to use Ral Zarek's lightning bolt 6 times, and to do that you'd have use his ultimate twice, so you'd want 12 + 7 + 7 = 26 counters, which is too many.  Games will go to time.  The strongest interactions with Ral Zarek I found are (of course time vault) and then howling mine, which lets you get value out of his "tap a permanent" ability rather than just the "untap a permanent" ability.

I agree. You have certainly have to run other ways of winning the game than just Ral Zarek's -2 ability, but I'd have to say you've done something wrong if you lose after assembling Ral Zarek and stasis.

Also, to make the stasis lock really good, you want Root Maze.  But that means you can't play Gush.  And it's hard to make your mana-base root-maze proof (ie, no fetches).  Although, man, let me say that additional root mazes and stasisses are bad draws later game.

I think Garruk is pretty strong here - It'd be great to have both him and Ral Zarek out - but maybe that makes the colors too weak.

I was testing out a version doing just this.  Root maze and rav duals as my mana base.  Garruk+root maze+statis becomes an alternate win combo.  You get to slam for 3 every other turn by alternating Garruks +1 and -1 abilities.  The deck was awful when you couldn't resolve a stasis though.

There are certainly many different routes and directions to go with, building stasis.

[waffles]

Okay, so I don't know if anyone has posted a deck like this recently or not, but here it is anyways.

Stasis decks have always been a favourite of mine. Ever since the Time Elemental and Kismet, and the later Tradewind Rider/Boomerang decks, I have loved Stasis decks. As the years progressed, one specific Stasis deck performed fairly well in a tournament setting... Turbo Stasis. The concept was simple, just pay for the Stasis. No cheats, no bouncing, no crying (at least not for the Stasis player), just pay the each turn for as long as you can (of course, there's always a contingency).

The concept of this Stasis deck is very similar, while making some new card choices based on current day Vintage standards. This has only been run in casual games and online, this deck has yet to be tested in a real world tournament environment. The whole concept of how a Stasis deck wins is generally unfavourable in tournaments (ref. Shahrazad). I feel this is still a pretty competitive deck considering its target environment. So, here is the listing...

Turbo Stasis Redux [Vintage]
Mana Sources:
4x Tropical Island
4x Forsaken City
4x Island
3x Misty Rainforest
2x Scalding Tarn
1x Black Lotus
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mox Opal
4x Noble Hierarch

Bounce/Control:
4x Force of Will
4x Chain of Vapor
2x Nature's Claim
4x Regrowth

Draw/Dig:
4x Howling Mine
4x Gush
1x Fastbond
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Brainstorm
1x Ponder
1x Merchant Scroll

Lock/Kill:
4x Stasis
4x Black Vise


Sideboard:
2x Nature's Claim
2x Mindbreak Trap
4x Tormod's Crypt
3x Grafdigger's Cage



Mana Sources:
So, in light of Regrowth being unrestricted, I chose to go with a Gush package for drawing. This forces me to focus the mana base towards Islands. I have tried to mix non-Island, non-Land, mana in as well whilst still maintaining the focus on Islands. Forsaken City, in conjunction with Howling Mine, provides a permanent way of paying for the Stasis. A slim jewelry package was chosen due to the Island restriction. The power seems weak here actually, and I had considered stripping them in favour of Null Rod. The Noble Hierarchs simply provide an alternate source of and a little bit of damage to get you over the hump.


Bounce/Control:
Force of Will is an obvious choice, and Regrowth is such a strong utility. The Regrowth is for use with pretty much anything you need again like Chain of Vapor, Gush, Force of Will, Black Vise, etc. The Chain of Vapor and Nature's Claim are in the deck primarily to provide a method of 'resetting' your Stasis by destroying or bouncing it at the end of your opponent's turn. Part of the key here is the 0/1 cmc.


Draw/Dig:
Okay, so I know Howling Mine is like, 'You idiot, what are you doing?', but in this shell it actually becomes a Force of Will target. It does four main things all in one. It helps to add to your artifact count for Mox Opal, it permits you to find your critical cards faster, it also helps to keep your opponent's hand full while you have them tapped down and a Black Vise is on them, as well as providing a way for you to pay for the Stasis with Forsaken City. It really is a pretty critical card, however laughable it may be. The Gushbond, Recall, Scroll of BrainPonder, package is pretty standard.


Lock/Kill:
This particular Stasis deck revolves around Black Vise damage. There are numerous methods of killing an opponent, but in light of tournament time limits, a damage route was chosen. (...and what's more old school than Howling Mine + Black Vise)


Sideboard:
Uhm... well it's meta dependent. I have provided an example sideboard, but really the choices should essentially conform to the following rules:
- 0 or 1 Converted Mana Cost
- Blue, Green, or Artifact
- Answer

So you get there how you like...

I have tried a version of wildspeaker stasis, wildspeaker is quite the way to go in a  version. Forsaken city is a good option when you don't have wildspeaker or can’t resolve him. Yes the city fails the wasteland test it. However, it does give you the option to go off sooner, since you won’t have to wait for wildspeaker to show up.
Also, I have tried using anvil or bogarden and jace 1.0 with some success to speed up the draw out of my opponent. Though you might keep in mind the more you allow your opponent to draw the greater chance they may draw an answer to stasis. Additional choices since you are in white, could be blind obedience and imposing sovereign, these might be worth looking at.

[Hrishi]

Hello. I've been testing a slightly different of this deck which does not run green and just has a black splash instead. While it seems fairly encouraging on cockatrice testing, I'd love some advice on how to improve this!

Mana Sources:
4 Forsaken City
12 Island
2 Underground River
4 Underground Sea
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire

Draw/Dig:
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Demonic Tutor
3 Howling Mine
2 Lim-Dûl's Vault
1 Imperial Seal
1 Vampiric Tutor
4 Gush

Bounce/Control:
2 Spell Pierce
2 Daze
4 Force of Will
4 Chain of Vapor
1 Despotic Scepter

Lock/Kill:
4 Stasis
2 Frozen Aether
3 Black Vise

Sideboard:
3 Tormod's Crypt
1 Blue Elemental Blast
2 Pithing Needle
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Propaganda
3 Mindbreak Trap

I'm fairly new to the format, so I'd love some advice! I think I am a bit too light on the counters, and perhaps adding a few more Daze/Spell Pierce will serve me well. The sideboard is just taken from the legacy version of this deck that I run, I honestly have no idea on how to improve this sideboard. I am not convinced I want the Imperial Seal, it being sorcery speed is too slow sometimes. I almost feel like I'd prefer an extra vault in it's place. Thoughts on that? Frozen Aether is often a dead card, but it pitches to FoW at least, and the few times it actually manages to hit the board it's pretty good. Naturally it uses a Gush shell along with Forsaken City to pay for stasis. The heavy use of basics is pretty good for Wasteland hate, since Forsaken city draws enough of that already!

[MaximumCDawg]

I love Stasis, but with a list like that, I imagine you only win before they know what you are doing.  Otherwise they just stop Frozen Aether, and then slow roll until they can combo you to death.