Powerless landstill: Preparing for scantioned vintage
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I'm new to vintage however I've been grinding landstill as the first deck I ever piloted and im getting better at learning the meta game. I've been excited to finally able to create my first deck with the cards I own. It's really nice to be able to create a deck without proxies.
I know the deck is hot garbage and skewed towards the control matchup. I posted the working list any praise and all criticism is welcome!
Powerless landstill:
-Counters
4 force of will
4 mentel mistep
2 mana drain
1 remand
1 flusterstorm
1 spell perce
2 mind break trap-Removal
1 echoing truth
2 swords to plowshares
1 balance-Engine
4 standstill
1 brainstorm
1 gush
1 dig through time
1 treasure Cruse
1 ancestral recall
2 jace the mind sculptor
1 journey to askanta-Disruption
1 stony silence
1 crucible of worlds-Mana sources
1 mox pearl
1 sol ring
1 lotus peta
1 library of Alexandria
3 wastelands
1 strip mine
2 Mishras factory
3 tundra
3 islands
1 Plains
4 flooded strand
2 polluted delta-Creatures
3 snapcaster Mage
1 monistary mentor -
Sanctioned vintage where? Do you have a lot of power by you? That will help us.
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@13nova my goal like every other vintage player is to go to vintage Champs, I wasn't able to get to this year however I went to the NYSE V (Sorry Calvin that their isn't another one) and recently I'm getting ready for the SCG Con power 9 thing.
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@guanno1249 Okay, that helps.
You will play a lot of powered decks. I've played in 10 of the last 12 Vintage Championships, and in total I think I've played 2 unpowered decks (that weren't deliberately unpowered).
With that said, I highly suggest NOT playing Sol Ring or Lotus Petal. The bumps they give you are not worth the tempo loss or fighting over Misstep with Sol Ring.
You want bare Minimum 3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor.
I would highly suggest trying to borrow/buy a Moat.
Cut remand immediately. I would suggest adding in a 2nd Flusterstorm, or actually in the current Meta, Spell Snare may not be awful.
Echoing Truth should be cut as well. There isn't anything your opponent plays against you that you actively need to Echo, that you can't otherwise remove with Swords. I'd make that either Disenchant or a 3rd Swords to Plowshares.
Gush is Anti-Synergy with what your deck is trying to accomplish. I actually also feel like Brainstorm could be cut, as well. It's a great card, but it's never felt great to me in Landstill.
You want the 3rd Mishra's Factory over the 3rd Island. Mishra's Factory is how you will grind out a lot of your games.
3 Snapcasters is 1 too many in Landstill. Ben Carp had a lot of success running Vendilion Clique years ago, and it's a card that I happen to really like. Another option could be Secure the Wastes.
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I'm not sure if Landstill has moved away from this, but if you have a slot free after making those changes you could try a singleton Emrakul, the Promised End or Dragonlord Ojutai.
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With that said, I highly suggest NOT playing Sol Ring or Lotus Petal. The bumps they give you are not worth the tempo loss or fighting over Misstep with Sol Ring.
(I feel having the ability to have turn one drain/standstill is too important.)You want bare Minimum 3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor. (Fair)
I would highly suggest trying to borrow/buy a Moat. (Their is one in the Sideboard)
Cut remand immediately. I would suggest adding in a 2nd Flusterstorm, or actually in the current Meta, Spell Snare may not be awful.
(No, remand is to powerful as a hard counterspell with (X)(U) open, your pretty much a three color deck and having a counterspell for anything for 1U is very important, will try spell snare good idea)Echoing Truth should be cut as well. There isn't anything your opponent plays against you that you actively need to Echo, that you can't otherwise remove with Swords. I'd make that either Disenchant or a 3rd Swords to Plowshares. (Gives a desperate answer to resolved threats like Plainswalkers/enchantments and deals with tokens)
Gush is Anti-Synergy with what your deck is trying to accomplish. I actually also feel like Brainstorm could be cut, as well. It's a great card, but it's never felt great to me in Landstill. (It's restricted gata play it right :p)
You want the 3rd Mishra's Factory over the 3rd Island. Mishra's Factory is how you will grind out a lot of your games. (No, you need blue, alot of it)
3 Snapcasters is 1 too many in Landstill. Ben Carp had a lot of success running Vendilion Clique years ago, and it's a card that I happen to really like. Another option could be Secure the Wastes. (I tried clique, it's fine but I can never figure out how to play it correctly)
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Sure. if you're going to shoot down my feedback that's okay. It's not like I have any resuls in this format over the last 15 years.
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@13nova
All your points are spot on, I know many landstill players that have differing opinions with the same background as you. Sorry if I came as snappy -
@guanno1249 It's fine. And while I understand the desire for blue mana and mana drains, your deck functions completely fine without turn 1 double blue. You also need ways to end the game which mishra's factory provides, ontop of ways to protect jace from attacks and also because Workshops play 4 factories if you only play 2, you're asking for trouble when you cast a standstill.
remand isn't very good because the only cards you care about countering you want in the Graveyard, not back in the hand. You're not a tempo deck, and if you don't want something to resolve this turn, you really don't want it to resolve next turn either. If you're using it to Time Walk, you're not taking advantage of the turn usually because your deck can't turn the corner in 1 turn.
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I definitely don't think I'm a Landstill expert, but I feel like you're REALLY short on animating lands/cards that work under a [[Standstill]].
Consider, a stock Workshop list runs 5 strip effects and 4 [[Mishra's Factory]], where you're running 4 and 2. That means if you play [[Standstill]] into an empty board, most of the time, they're going to be able to put more pressure on you without playing spells than you can return. That means most of the time, they're going to draw cards off of your [[Standstill]] ... and that's only if they don't already have creatures in play, which they usually will. Basically this means that casting [[Standstill]] in this list is, on average, a bad play in that matchup.
I've seen Landstill lists running upwards of 7 animating lands maindeck in addition to the full 5 strip effects. I can't conjecture what the optimal number is, but if you're running fewer than your opponent, the card [[Standstill]] gets a lot worse for you.
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I have played similar lists without having power and found that 2 snap, 1 clique is a great split. Sol ring is bad generally. Running 4 wasteland, 1 strip is a must and I run 3 factory 1 faerie conclave for manlands. I agree with the use of moat if you can get/borrow one. Balance has always been bad for me...like every time I cast it. I run a maindeck fragmentize and a disenchant. Spell snare is better than 2 mindbreak trap. Shops is a tough matchup and I would run a stony silence and a maindeck energy flux as a hoser. 3 swords is a must. Overall I think you’ve got the right game plan just a few small tweaks. Test against shops and oath a lot as they can be really tough matchups and require tight play to navigate. Hope this helps. Just my opinion and you can take it with a grain of salt
