A Fresh Perspective: Stasis - Part One. - by Dazboot

[Streetz]

This thread is reserved for the dicussion of the following article:

http://www.magicdeckvortex.com/mdvarticle0366.htm

Please read it, enjoy it and discuss it here.

What did you like about the article? Was it inspiring, informational, ingenius? Was it inappropriate? Was there anything you really liked or didn't like about it?

Let the author know here!

Thanks!

**NOTE: This thread is posted before the article goes live. If the article isn't up yet, please check back later.

[Tynion]

HA! Whats up Ryu!

I enjoyed this article as it showed the research behind the madness that is creating an article. Sometimes it takes the effort and doesn't just flow. I am interested in where you guys go with this

[Zaknifa]

Not bad, but my self personally you should have went white to get hoof prints so you can make creatures with the card draw. (not mana intensive to)

[Death_By_Beebles]

I'm glad to see that this finally got published. Good work Daz!

[Cashew]

My brother played Stasis back in the day when the key combo was Kismet + Stasis using Time Elemental for what not. This was before turbo-stasis though. I've been thinking, what would be powerful with Stasis? My answer: Owling Mine.

You already got Howling Mine + Jace Beleren. Add in Kami of the Crescent Moon + Mikoro, Center of the Sea and you almost don't need to worry about cards like Skyscribing. I'm sure you could pull off a mono-blue Owling Mine - Stasis variant, although Owling Mine works so well people will blast you out of hatred. Using this variant you can easily go death by Owl (which is 2 damage for recurring damage) or death by mill thru stasis + jace + mass card draw.

[Barachem]

Great article and very explanatory about Stasis decks.
But i don't like Stasis itself.

[DazBoot]

Thank you to everyone for the feedback. As this is my first real article (and the first major piece of non-editorial writing for this site) I was rather nervous as to the responses! (I'm probably not supposed to say that, but it was true and I'm glad people liked it)

A few points I can address:

Originally Posted by Zaknifa

Not bad, but my self personally you should have went white to get hoof prints so you can make creatures with the card draw. (not mana intensive to)

I thought long and hard about this card before I ended up not placing it on my list of cards to review. (One thing I should note here is that as this article developed, I ended up shaving some of the cards off the list to keep it from getting too long. There may have been more cards that I looked at but decided not to add to keep it from getting too repetitive) The reasons I did not add were:

1. It required mana to activate. As you said, it's not much, but it was enough that the only way I could solidly play it was to go for a bounce/lock combination. I figured if I had that, the card draw was probably irrelevant.
2. The tokens do not have vigilance. That means that I would essentially pay 3 for 4 damage. While that's not bad, it does mean that I would need to somehow free up 15 mana over the course of the game. Considering that unless you bounce/lock you are only planning on using each land once (actually more then that with effects like boomerang, but the mana is usually tight) I thought paying WW for 3 a turn without a continuous cost seemed a little better.

However, I plan on collecting suggestions and ideas this week which I will review in the second half of this piece. I will probably look into this card further.

Originally Posted by Cashew

You already got Howling Mine + Jace Beleren. Add in Kami of the Crescent Moon + Mikoro, Center of the Sea and you almost don't need to worry about cards like Skyscribing. I'm sure you could pull off a mono-blue Owling Mine - Stasis variant, although Owling Mine works so well people will blast you out of hatred. Using this variant you can easily go death by Owl (which is 2 damage for recurring damage) or death by mill thru stasis + jace + mass card draw.

It's funny that you say this, because when I first started thinking about this project, the Owl was one of the first win conditions that popped into my head. I got all excited about it and started brainstorming ideas. Unfortunately, when you open up the card pool to extended, that also meant that it wasn't much of a challenge to build the deck. As I mentioned in the article (you can find it just before the Setup) when you add extended this essentially becomes a card for card copy of turbo stasis. All the cards have different names, but they really do the same things. That being said, if you have any ideas for an extended non-turbo-stasis build. Feel free to send it to me and I'll explore/test it in Pt. 2

Originally Posted by Barachem

But i don't like Stasis itself.

Unfortunately, I think that's why most of us stasis players do. I can only speak for myself (and well... Tynion, as he has made his opinion clear) but it's that level of a lockout that some of us just enjoy. I appreciate you reading the article even if you didn't really like the subject.

Originally Posted by Tynion

I am not a spike anymore. I have evolved. I am now a Captain Control. Spike is for someone who just wants to win tournaments. Jonny is for people who like to goof around. I want to torture you to the point of you liking it. *slight grin*

[Luthervamplord]

Hey Daz; love the article and I thought I'd let you know that I'm playing around with a UG combination; Luther is Crazy enough to try the Root Maze angle!

[Barachem]

Originally Posted by Dazboot

Unfortunately, I think that's why most of us stasis players do. I can only speak for myself (and well... Tynion, as he has made his opinion clear) but it's that level of a lockout that some of us just enjoy. I appreciate you reading the article even if you didn't really like the subject.

I enjoy a different kind of lockout, active and destructive lockout.
Works best in multiplayer for me, you should hear the sighs and groans when i use Duplicant to remove creatures or Cranial Extraction to remove potentially nasty stuff and i really love it when they moan and whine about such kinds of cards.
And my massive amount of normal removal and recursion make the from game removers more effective.

[DazBoot]

Originally Posted by Luthervamplord

Hey Daz; love the article and I thought I'd let you know that I'm playing around with a UG combination; Luther is Crazy enough to try the Root Maze angle!

I was hoping someone would give me a shot. Keep my updated if you get any working (or non-working I guess) lists! Would you be up for some playtesting at some point in the next week?

[Luthervamplord]

You bet your bottom dollar I will/should be - PM's and posts will follow. I'm presently working around with a Simic Growth Chamber + Stone-Seeder Hierophant engine

[DazBoot]

Now that's just evil... =P

[Zaknifa]

I despise control deck. For RG Beatdown or Arggo will never die!
Also question, I might have missed this in the article but how does the deck control token generator deck? Such as Thalids, elves, and soldiers?

[DazBoot]

If the token generators have a cost that requires the tapping of anything (mana, creatures, etc.) then it is easy. You just let it happen once. Thallids are a little trickier as they don't require the tapping. To solve this you have to get a Root Maze/Frozen Aether into play to keep everything in a hard lock. The alternative is to set up a blocker and just wait them out. The deck functions on the premise that if they have 20 lands in their deck they essentially have 20 mana to win the entire game. If you can get the hard lock that's great, but in most situations (non-thallid and the like) you can just weather the storm.

[SKEITH]

What about bounce cards to return stasis to your hand untap than cast again. I'm a big stasis player by the way. also if you want to have some fun cards that have alternate Untap costs/Phases e.i. Leviathan or Jokulmorder can create some big beasties that are effectivly immune to stasis