I must say Cube Drafting is Fun. Since its mostly the only drafting i do.
Attack step ok, oh wait i would like to cryptic command. im sorry its too late to do that.
Do me a huge favor and explain to everyone why you chose these cards...lists without any explanation are like ice cream without caramel- decent, but definitely not satisfying.
I prefer my ice cream plain... and i thought each card was self-explanatory... but here ya go anyway:
4 stasis - keeps everything tapped 4 Frozen Æther - makes opponent's stuff come into play tapped 4 quirion ranger - return a forest (possibly even a forest that makes blue) to my hand, in order to replay that forest untapped which allows me to use the land for mana again, even though stasis says i don't get to untap. Also, while bouncing said forest, i can untap a blue-mana-making creature (birds of paradise and/or urborg elf come to mind), which also gives me a way to maintain stasis' upkeep. Oh yeah... one more thing, this cute lil' elf becomes a beat-stick late game, to widdle your opponent's life away... (aka: kill) 3 instill energy - throw this on a blue-mana-making creature to enable it to untap on following turns. 4 birds of paradise - provides a way to maintain stasis' upkeep when used in conjunction with quirion ranger or instill energy. Also provides speed in the early game to facilitate getting the stasis/aether lock quicker. 3 urborg elf - "birds of paradise" part 2. Also, late-game beat stick (aka: kill). 4 brainstorm - seek out the cards i need... i hear these work pretty well with fetches too... 1 impulse - "brainstorm" part 2. 4 dark ritual - speed... pure speed. helps overcome the 4 casting cost of Frozen Æther. 3 force of will - counters things i don't like for zero mana... pretty neat effect... 3 daze - "force of will" part 2, with limitations, but has deck synergy built in... 2 exploration - allows me to play more of my lands on my turn, comes in handy with all the potential land-bouncing (see quirion ranger) going on. 1 iron maiden - thou shalt kill thy opponent(s)! 4 forsaken city - self-contained, alternate method for maintaining stasis' upkeep. 3 polluted delta - fetches any islands or swamps i want, also shuffles away icky cards that i dumped on top of my library via brainstorm. Also works good for avoiding nasty cards like wasteland. 3 wooded foothills - fetches any forest i want, also shuffles away icky cards that i dumped on top of my library via brainstorm. Also works good for avoiding nasty cards like wasteland. 3 windswepth heath - fetches any forest i want, also shuffles away icky cards that i dumped on top of my library via brainstorm. Also works good for avoiding nasty cards like wasteland. 3 tropical island - gives me green or blue mana, used to cast green or blue spells. Also, the blue mana it can produce is needed to maintain stasis' upkeep. Also, it's a forest, which can be handilly used in conjunction with quirion rangers. 1 bayou - gives me green or black mana, used to cast green or black spells. Also is a forest, which can be handilly used in conjunction with quirion rangers. 1 underground sea - gives me blue or black mana, used to cast blue or black spells. Also, the blue mana it can produce is needed to maintain stasis' upkeep. 1 forest - gives me green mana, used to cast green spells. Also, being that it is a forest, it can be handilly used in conjunction with quirion rangers. 'Tis also my only basic-land way of producing green, which i hear it can be benifical to have a way to avoid getting "non-basic-hated" out of a game. 1 island - gives me blue mana, used to cast blue spells. Also, the blue mana it can produce is needed to maintain stasis' upkeep. 'Tis also my only basic-land way of producing blue mana, which i hear it can be benifical to have a way to avoid getting "non-basic-hated" out of a game.
The anvil is intresting, i would concider putting it in my deck. The kami are no good imo, i try not to have any creatures in stasis, thats one of its powers: people dont expect to play against a creatureless deck. frozen AEther costs too much mana, i try to keep it too spells that cost 0, 1, or 2 mana or that have alt costs such as pitch spells (FoW) or the return islands to your hand spells (daze, thwart).
in all drawing decks i feel that kami is a must because he is another howling mine and potential blocker. sure they might waste an stp or bolt on him, but consider that to be tapping down their lands.
they cant afford to tap down much. and yes i think frozen aether costs quite a bit and that's why i put it as a 1 of. maybe an orb of dreams maybe better, but in any case it is only a one of in both situations, but coming into play tapped is such a strong play.
I have two things too mention. I don't like Frozen Aether in this deck. I like to play mono-blue stasis. My personal solution is Gigadrowse. At the end of turn tap two or three permanents, then drop Stasis next turn. Helps locking down the game.
The other thing I like too use is 2-3 copies of Perilous Research it disposes of Stasis nicely while drawing you more cards. I also use Chain of Vapor to reset my lockdown.
It seems sort of silly to ridicule a company for marketing efforts. Of course they are going to hype upcoming products, every company on the face of the planet does it, and it works, thats why they do it. There isn't really any sense complaining about it. If you don't like the marketing, ignore it.
This is not a casual thread, it is a legacy thread with a legacy deck... you should check the legacy legality of the cards you post in your lists before you do so (i.e. stripmine and tinker are not legal)...
what about running horn of greed instead of howing mine. if your going to be bouncing your lands i think that you would beable to take advantage of the draw and your opponents wouldent
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Playing with Horn of Greed is winning a turn later. Playing with Howling Mine is making sure you'll draw extra card each of your turn. And your list is by far the best Stasis.dec i've tested.
Good job Release the Dogs.
i try to keep it too spells that cost 0, 1, or 2 mana or that have alt costs such as pitch spells (FoW) or the return islands to your hand spells (daze, thwart).
Whoever said Stasis brings out the old schoolers was right. Haven't played since Urza's block, but in cleaning out some of my things, I found all my old cards. TurboStasis was the first Standard (at the time) deck that I could play and not get embarressed 0-2 at local tourney's. So if it's cool, I'd like to add my 0.02.
Back in the day, I followed a similar rule, if not similar build to what's being discussed by releasethedogs here; that no spell in the deck would be cast for more than 2 mana. I basically ran monoblue, 4 Stasis, 4 Howling Mine, 4 Boomerang, 24 Islands and the rest counter magic it seemed (I had a Feldon's Cane, a Zuran Orb, and a Prosperity as a kill card if the opportunity presented itself, but the rest was every counter spell I could find for 2 mana or less, not counting FoW which I considered "free").
With mandating Forsaken City, any sort of decking mechanism is a little harder because you're losing cards to the "out of the game" pile, and not to your graveyard. Which is fine: from what I've been reading of modern Stasis decks, they have to have teeth or some form of kill condition as opposing players will just stall in game 2 onwards and hope a judge will rule in the opposing player's favor once the match goes over time (however, in my experience, I've never not had a judge rule in my favor when time was called and I had a soft lock along with a hand full of counter magic, but then again, I haven't played in 10 years).
If you don't play Root Maze, Orb of Dreams, Kismet or Frozen Aether, and you shouldn't because of the bounce counters, that really reminds me of my non-lock, monoblue Stasis deck of old: crank out the two-card combo of Stasis and Howling Mine, and then brace yourself for countering everything your opponent tries to cast. That's oversimplifying things, and of course the deck is more complex than that.
I like the addition of both Anvil of Bogardan as well as Kami of the Crescent Moon, but I've never been a fan of Chronatog as I always felt Time Vault was the way to go if you're into the "skipping turns to pay for Stasis" method. Also, both Chronatog and Time Vault seem dependent on indeed having a locking card like the above mentioned cards, as if you're continually skipping your turns and not making everything coming into play tapped for your opponent, you're asking for trouble.
If you're going to use Boomerangs as your only bounce, I would use Chain of Vapor instead as it's cheaper and does pretty much the exact same thing, with a drawback I would consider minor if used to bounce something annoying on your opponent's side.
I've read the whole thread, and although it was mentioned once, I've thought about it and I'm a believer in Gigadrowse. It's a cheap, fast card that can solve a lot of problems if things get a little hairy, and is a great setup pre-Stasis. Also mentioned is Perilous Research which reminds me of a better Despotic Scepter back when I played. I would try to roll with at least two of them, as well stuff as many Muddle the Mixture I could as well; it seems tailor-made for a monoblue, 0-1-2 Stasis build. Ebony Owl Netsuke is a really strong play when combined with Anvil of Bogardan, considering players skip the discard phase once the Anvil resolves.
I really enjoyed reading this thread, and hope I could contribute to it. One thing that I've come across in my reading up of Stasis strategies, is this one deck from starcitygames.com. Here's the link. Now, I've been out of the game for quite a long time. I don't exactly see what this version of the Stasis archetype does, precisely. It's called "Stasis Flamevault", so the namesake cards are Stasis, Flame Fusillade, and Time Vault. I understand that due to the Flame Fusillade, the opponent gets pinged to death, but the discussion in the thread goes over my head. Could anyone explain? Thank you.
Well, for one thing, I'm pretty sure they have re-errataed Time Vault since that thread was made, so the combo doesn't work anymore. Actually, after rereading time vault, I'm sure it doesn't work that way.
The way the combo used to work:
You could put some sort of counter on the vault to untap it, but you skipped your next turn to do so, but since you could use it as many times as you wanted to in one turn, you could untap it 3,009999999999999999999999999999999 times in one turn to do that much damage to the opponent.
Oooooh. The article is from '05, so yeah, it must have been before the errata changed how Time Vault works. I didn't even consider that. I knew they changed Time Vault to work how it works now, and it makes sense that it works this way now, so again, I didn't even think that's how Flamevault functioned. Thanks!
All that being said, Time Vault in a Stasis lock deck works exactly how you would want it to work: skipping a turn to untap it and not having to pay Stasis' upkeep, then tapping it to take an extra turn, let the Stasis die or bounce it somehow, take your extra turn, get a fresh untap, and lay down the Stasis again.
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I must say Cube Drafting is Fun. Since its mostly the only drafting i do.
Attack step ok, oh wait i would like to cryptic command. im sorry its too late to do that.
Thanks to DarkNightCavalier
4 Frozen Æther
4 quirion ranger
3 instill energy
4 birds of paradise
3 urborg elf
4 brainstorm
1 impulse
4 dark ritual
3 force of will
3 daze
2 exploration
1 iron maiden
4 forsaken city
3 polluted delta
3 wooded foothills
3 windswepth heath
3 tropical island
1 bayou
1 underground sea
1 forest
1 island
Do me a huge favor and explain to everyone why you chose these cards...lists without any explanation are like ice cream without caramel- decent, but definitely not satisfying.
I prefer my ice cream plain... and i thought each card was self-explanatory... but here ya go anyway:
4 Frozen Æther - makes opponent's stuff come into play tapped
4 quirion ranger - return a forest (possibly even a forest that makes blue) to my hand, in order to replay that forest untapped which allows me to use the land for mana again, even though stasis says i don't get to untap. Also, while bouncing said forest, i can untap a blue-mana-making creature (birds of paradise and/or urborg elf come to mind), which also gives me a way to maintain stasis' upkeep. Oh yeah... one more thing, this cute lil' elf becomes a beat-stick late game, to widdle your opponent's life away... (aka: kill)
3 instill energy - throw this on a blue-mana-making creature to enable it to untap on following turns.
4 birds of paradise - provides a way to maintain stasis' upkeep when used in conjunction with quirion ranger or instill energy. Also provides speed in the early game to facilitate getting the stasis/aether lock quicker.
3 urborg elf - "birds of paradise" part 2. Also, late-game beat stick (aka: kill).
4 brainstorm - seek out the cards i need... i hear these work pretty well with fetches too...
1 impulse - "brainstorm" part 2.
4 dark ritual - speed... pure speed. helps overcome the 4 casting cost of Frozen Æther.
3 force of will - counters things i don't like for zero mana... pretty neat effect...
3 daze - "force of will" part 2, with limitations, but has deck synergy built in...
2 exploration - allows me to play more of my lands on my turn, comes in handy with all the potential land-bouncing (see quirion ranger) going on.
1 iron maiden - thou shalt kill thy opponent(s)!
4 forsaken city - self-contained, alternate method for maintaining stasis' upkeep.
3 polluted delta - fetches any islands or swamps i want, also shuffles away icky cards that i dumped on top of my library via brainstorm. Also works good for avoiding nasty cards like wasteland.
3 wooded foothills - fetches any forest i want, also shuffles away icky cards that i dumped on top of my library via brainstorm. Also works good for avoiding nasty cards like wasteland.
3 windswepth heath - fetches any forest i want, also shuffles away icky cards that i dumped on top of my library via brainstorm. Also works good for avoiding nasty cards like wasteland.
3 tropical island - gives me green or blue mana, used to cast green or blue spells. Also, the blue mana it can produce is needed to maintain stasis' upkeep. Also, it's a forest, which can be handilly used in conjunction with quirion rangers.
1 bayou - gives me green or black mana, used to cast green or black spells. Also is a forest, which can be handilly used in conjunction with quirion rangers.
1 underground sea - gives me blue or black mana, used to cast blue or black spells. Also, the blue mana it can produce is needed to maintain stasis' upkeep.
1 forest - gives me green mana, used to cast green spells. Also, being that it is a forest, it can be handilly used in conjunction with quirion rangers. 'Tis also my only basic-land way of producing green, which i hear it can be benifical to have a way to avoid getting "non-basic-hated" out of a game.
1 island - gives me blue mana, used to cast blue spells. Also, the blue mana it can produce is needed to maintain stasis' upkeep. 'Tis also my only basic-land way of producing blue mana, which i hear it can be benifical to have a way to avoid getting "non-basic-hated" out of a game.
Is that better, Kokusho?
in all drawing decks i feel that kami is a must because he is another howling mine and potential blocker. sure they might waste an stp or bolt on him, but consider that to be tapping down their lands.
they cant afford to tap down much. and yes i think frozen aether costs quite a bit and that's why i put it as a 1 of. maybe an orb of dreams maybe better, but in any case it is only a one of in both situations, but coming into play tapped is such a strong play.
The other thing I like too use is 2-3 copies of Perilous Research it disposes of Stasis nicely while drawing you more cards. I also use Chain of Vapor to reset my lockdown.
Thats just my testing and two cents.
4 Energy Vortex
4 Reset
4 Counterspell
4 Boomerang
4 Orim's Chant
4 Propaganda
1 Time Spiral
1 Tinker
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Fact of Fiction
2 Winter Orb
2 Icy Manipulator
4 Isochron Scepter
1 Strip Mine
1 Lotus Vale
1 Serra's Sanctum
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Adarkar Wastes
4 Tundra
8 Island
--------------
Any suggestions? I'm thinking about the Candelabra of Tawnos. This is a casual deck.
ARE YOU GAY?
Good job Release the Dogs.
Whoever said Stasis brings out the old schoolers was right. Haven't played since Urza's block, but in cleaning out some of my things, I found all my old cards. TurboStasis was the first Standard (at the time) deck that I could play and not get embarressed 0-2 at local tourney's. So if it's cool, I'd like to add my 0.02.
Back in the day, I followed a similar rule, if not similar build to what's being discussed by releasethedogs here; that no spell in the deck would be cast for more than 2 mana. I basically ran monoblue, 4 Stasis, 4 Howling Mine, 4 Boomerang, 24 Islands and the rest counter magic it seemed (I had a Feldon's Cane, a Zuran Orb, and a Prosperity as a kill card if the opportunity presented itself, but the rest was every counter spell I could find for 2 mana or less, not counting FoW which I considered "free").
With mandating Forsaken City, any sort of decking mechanism is a little harder because you're losing cards to the "out of the game" pile, and not to your graveyard. Which is fine: from what I've been reading of modern Stasis decks, they have to have teeth or some form of kill condition as opposing players will just stall in game 2 onwards and hope a judge will rule in the opposing player's favor once the match goes over time (however, in my experience, I've never not had a judge rule in my favor when time was called and I had a soft lock along with a hand full of counter magic, but then again, I haven't played in 10 years).
If you don't play Root Maze, Orb of Dreams, Kismet or Frozen Aether, and you shouldn't because of the bounce counters, that really reminds me of my non-lock, monoblue Stasis deck of old: crank out the two-card combo of Stasis and Howling Mine, and then brace yourself for countering everything your opponent tries to cast. That's oversimplifying things, and of course the deck is more complex than that.
I like the addition of both Anvil of Bogardan as well as Kami of the Crescent Moon, but I've never been a fan of Chronatog as I always felt Time Vault was the way to go if you're into the "skipping turns to pay for Stasis" method. Also, both Chronatog and Time Vault seem dependent on indeed having a locking card like the above mentioned cards, as if you're continually skipping your turns and not making everything coming into play tapped for your opponent, you're asking for trouble.
If you're going to use Boomerangs as your only bounce, I would use Chain of Vapor instead as it's cheaper and does pretty much the exact same thing, with a drawback I would consider minor if used to bounce something annoying on your opponent's side.
I've read the whole thread, and although it was mentioned once, I've thought about it and I'm a believer in Gigadrowse. It's a cheap, fast card that can solve a lot of problems if things get a little hairy, and is a great setup pre-Stasis. Also mentioned is Perilous Research which reminds me of a better Despotic Scepter back when I played. I would try to roll with at least two of them, as well stuff as many Muddle the Mixture I could as well; it seems tailor-made for a monoblue, 0-1-2 Stasis build. Ebony Owl Netsuke is a really strong play when combined with Anvil of Bogardan, considering players skip the discard phase once the Anvil resolves.
I really enjoyed reading this thread, and hope I could contribute to it. One thing that I've come across in my reading up of Stasis strategies, is this one deck from starcitygames.com. Here's the link. Now, I've been out of the game for quite a long time. I don't exactly see what this version of the Stasis archetype does, precisely. It's called "Stasis Flamevault", so the namesake cards are Stasis, Flame Fusillade, and Time Vault. I understand that due to the Flame Fusillade, the opponent gets pinged to death, but the discussion in the thread goes over my head. Could anyone explain? Thank you.
The way the combo used to work:
You could put some sort of counter on the vault to untap it, but you skipped your next turn to do so, but since you could use it as many times as you wanted to in one turn, you could untap it 3,009999999999999999999999999999999 times in one turn to do that much damage to the opponent.
All that being said, Time Vault in a Stasis lock deck works exactly how you would want it to work: skipping a turn to untap it and not having to pay Stasis' upkeep, then tapping it to take an extra turn, let the Stasis die or bounce it somehow, take your extra turn, get a fresh untap, and lay down the Stasis again.
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=102284
this is not true, seedborn muse only lets you untap durring thier untap step, and when they dont have and untap step, it doesnt work
I found that out today, when i made the same mistake