The great Stasis thread!
Legacy forum
Posted on June 8, 2014, 4 p.m. by smackjack
Stasis is a card that just begs to be built around. There is some fun stuff you can do. This is not a tier 1 deck, its just for casual fun. Basically you win by playing Stasis + Frozen AEther + Chronatog . You can now skip all your turns by activating Chronatog on your opponents turn every turn and your opponent cant do anything with their tapped stuff.
Paying upkeep cost
The tricky part is to pay one blue every turn when you cant untap your lands. There are ways to deal with this. Forsaken City
basically lets you discard a card to pay for stasis upkeep cost. Howling Mine
and similar cards helps you fill your hand so discarding isnt a problem. Rescue
and Chain of Vapor
lets you bounce stasis at the end of your opponents turn to untap all your lands. Vedalken Mastermind
does this on legs, but are easy to kill. Eon Hub
lets you skip your upkeep and therefore also Stasis
upkeep cost, but 5 mana is a few to much.
Another good idea are to bounce your tapped lands so you can play them again. Use Daze
, Thwart
and Ensnare
for this. Lotus Petal
also helps alot.
Splashing a color
The 2 colors worth splashing are green and white. Forsaken City
and Lotus Petal
taps for any color, so adding 2x Enlightened Tutor
doesn't really require Tundra
.
Green
Garruk Wildspeaker
- helps you pay for Stasis
every upkeep, and gives you an additional untapped land.
Crop Rotation
- Helps you find Forsaken City
Root Maze
- One mana forzen aether that affects you as well. Not a problem if you have Garruk or Forsaken City
.
White
Enlightened Tutor
- finds 2 of your combo peaces. Probably the best card to splash for.
Equipoise
- cards phases in during untap steps, and with Stasis
there are none :).
So.. What do you think of this kind of deck? Again, its meant to be a fun (for you at least) casual deck. Lets discuss! How can you make it more fun, faster and more consistent?
I just play the waiting game. Eventually they draw the last card in their library ;)
June 8, 2014 6:15 p.m.
I dont want this to become a discussion about my deck, just a discussion about the archetype, but here are my decklist to get a bigger picture of how this kind of deck looks like: Spoiled brats takes untap phase for granted.
One other thing you could do is to play Tangle Wire . With Stasis and Chronatog on the battlefield you could just skip your turns and therefore never remove a counter from Tangle Wire . The problem is that your opponent will be able to have one untapped mana (the land he plays that turn) to play a potential Nature's Claim . Smokestack works with the same principle. Is there any way to make these cards more effective?
June 8, 2014 6:21 p.m.
I remember when this deck was type 2 (standard). We used Kismet though, and Force of Will to protect it if you were afraid of Disenchant s.
June 8, 2014 6:53 p.m.
Force of Will would be awesome in this deck if you got the cash :)
June 8, 2014 6:55 p.m.
I love the concept behind this thread, TO needs more stuff like this that takes the emphasis off of a single deck owner, and instead orients itself on perfecting a deck for the community.
On a side note, I wonder if this could be ported into EDH (or if it even should be).
June 8, 2014 8:09 p.m.
Blakkhand agreed! I think the site would benefit from a "primer" forum ("primer" is when you discuss an idea and all possibilities of a possible deck, right?).
yeaGO how about a new forum for this kind of threads?
June 8, 2014 8:13 p.m.
GoldGhost012 says... #10
I once played Archenemy against a Stasis deck. There were 8 of us against one Archenemy, and he nearly stalled to victory.
June 8, 2014 8:13 p.m.
It would be very interesting to see a stasis EDH. You are really dependant on Stasis so you would need a ton of tutors. I think it would be really hard to pull of.
Btw, Stasis ... just look at the card. Oh my god, its not only the most fun card to play, its also the most artsy fartsy art ever printed on a magic card. The card is... perfect :)
June 8, 2014 8:17 p.m.
GoldGhost012 "and he nearly stalled to victory". The fun in playing stasis is to keep it alive. If you cant pay the upkeep cost after 20 turns you are pretty fucked. This is common and its what makes the deck fun to play. When you have set up you combo you need to keep it going. Its a blast :D
June 8, 2014 8:19 p.m.
GoldGhost012 says... #13
We tried to kill Stasis so many times but he just had counterspells and Boomerang effects to keep it alive... eventually I blew it up with a Necrotic Sliver . :)
June 8, 2014 8:23 p.m.
GoldGhost012 The combo is pretty weak against removal. Thats why i run 4x Rescue and 4x Chain of Vapor . Well those cards are also great for bouncing stasis at the end of your opponents turn to get your untapstep before you play your stasis again. But they are used as much to dodge removal :). Krosan Grip can be a problem :)
June 8, 2014 8:29 p.m.
I can't even describe how awesome it would be to have a primer forum. Though it would be functionally awkward without the ability to edit the original forum post.
June 8, 2014 10:21 p.m.
How about Ral Zarek ? You get to tap their stuff and untap a land to pay for stasis. You can use Forsaken City to pay the red and untap it without discarding.. If you draw Rescue or Chain of Vapor you can untap your lands and dont have to untap more lands with Ral, therefore you can use his -2 until you are out of untapped lands. Could it work? Would it be better than any other card in the deck?
Spoiled brats takes their untap phase for granted Playtest
Legacy
SCORE: 6 | 5 COMMENTS | 531 VIEWSJune 9, 2014 5:45 p.m.
I think we have talked before about stasis decks in the actual deck thread. Anywho my two cents as I own a vintage stasis deck that runs the chronotog combo.
The deck generally takes a second to get going so if guys play fast decks at your casual meet ups you are screwed when they catch on to what you are doing.
They almost never play the game out once you get the lock. Everyone scoops. You will almost never get to see them deck themselves.
You stand a very high risk of getting the deck banned by the play group (that is what happened to mine and it goes off about turn 3ish).
Dont get me wrong I love my vintage stasis deck and spent a lot of cash on it but I now have to go to other play groups to play with it. Its very much like mill where everyone will hate you. Also side note my mill deck I had listed here is also no longer mill for many of the same reasons. Its now just a B/U more of less CAW Blade / Swoards etc. deck with Vampire Nighthawks. They will also hate you if you play group land destruction (even if you cant win the game) and the awesomeness that is the Donate deck.
This was all just an FYI. I hope your play group is more... I dont know... forgiving (I guess) to the stasis lockout.
June 13, 2014 10:25 a.m.
I still like Stasis with Vigilance. I use Disenchant on myself to untap and reset the stasis lock. Otherwise Disenchant is really great against a lot of popular decks out there and combos in general. I also have tons of counter spells. Silence is much more useful when you are pretty sure the opponent will only get one turn between stasis enchants to do anything.
I am not saying that it is as nifty or Johnny-like or good as the kind you are really talking about, but with Serra Angel and other creatures like that, it can end the game without making someone mill out.
If you play against a fast deck and get lucky to have the right Counterspell s in hand and/or a few well timed Detention Sphere s, you could survive some games.
What I have right now is extremely inconsistent, though - and definitely not fast itself. I'm questioning whether or not its is worth committing to - especially since other players might hate it (and I know what that was like for Talrand, Sky Summoner counterspell EdH). It is in obvious need of non-basic lands, but I was trying to keep the budget reasonable on it. I should also swap out Blue Sun's Zenith for Sphinx's Revelation but it is so expensive.
I really love playing Stasis . My favorite things about it are:
- Slapping it down after they completely tap out and aren't on to you yet
- Psychying them out because they are afraid you might play it
June 15, 2014 5:09 p.m.
PreZchoICE1 says... #19
there was a question posed of this being ported into EDH. I've attempted this with my deck
it's just casual right now but I can see a few things suggested here that would allow for me to actually run stasis viably. Nice thread.
July 9, 2014 11:22 p.m.
I agree that this card is begging to be used effectively, which is why I made my Stay Still deck that uses Stasis as a tempo tool instead of the actual theme of the deck.
It's mainly a Draw-Go deck using Standstill and Mystic Remora as efficient card drawing engines. The counterspells help tap out and reduce the opponent's tempo, while bounce cards are used to clear the board of permanents that get through and to soft lock with Stasis. The win condition is by using Hidden Strings on a creature like Snapcaster Mage or by beat down with Faerie Conclave .
Monoblue + Permission + Stasis = Great control
Let me know what you think.
July 15, 2014 12:01 a.m.
Sorry, had to add that with Hidden Strings and a 1cmc creature like Delver of Secrets Flip , Judge's Familiar or Nivmagus Elemental you can get the Hidden Strings + Stasis lock as early as turn 2!
Turn 1 cast creature.
Turn 2, cast Hidden Strings untap two islands and cipher. Cast Stasis attack then untap the creature and an island for the ultimate surprise! Rinse and repeat.
July 15, 2014 6 a.m.
Adding Reset to the pool of great cards for this deck :)
July 15, 2014 6:22 a.m.
Im considering adding Rhystic Study . Its such a fun card. Tapping an additional land can be very dangerous against a stasis deck, and card advantage is always good. What do you guys think? What could be removed in favour for Rhystic Study ?
Ral Stasis Playtest
Legacy*
SCORE: 44 | 30 COMMENTS | 3831 VIEWSJuly 15, 2014 12:59 p.m.
I would switch it with 2x Impulse . It seems like it would fill a slightly similar role - slightly, but expanded and spread out over time.
July 15, 2014 1:37 p.m.
Personally, I feel that Rhystic Study is too slow compared to Mystic Remora . Though counterproductive by the second upkeep, I feel that the low cmc will help get you the card faster for the lock. If you are still paying for the upkeep cost, then that means that you either ran out of control spells or you've only been drawing lands. Eitherway, the card will get you out of that pinch quick enough.
The same goes for Standstill because the quick draw three mechanism can prove to be much more useful in getting the main pieces as soon as possible. If you are planning to run multiple Rhystic Study , why not run Standstill ? They're both useless anyway when you've got the opponent locked down.
For me, I think Rhystic Study will pay off tremendously only if your other control cards can make up for the reduced tempo. Remember, using up three mana sources all at once can also cripple a control deck.
My two cents.
July 16, 2014 3:11 p.m.
Mystic Remora cant be in play with stasis in play because of its upkeep cost. Ive been focusing more on untapping my lands lately, adding Reset for example. Reset and play Rhystic Study and your opponent are in a real pickle. Give me a draw or permanently tap down an additional land. Sure Mystic Remora is better before the lock, but when the lock is assembled Rhystic Study are better. I run it as a one of, so if i will see it in a game it will probably be later in the game..
July 16, 2014 3:20 p.m.
I guess Reset does do good in the long run. But unless you have a soft lock in place, that setup would require a minimum of four untapped lands (with at least three islands) to be properly used because you cast Stasis first, then Reset on the opponent's turn. Add Rhystic Study to the equation and that leaves you in a mana pickle.
Don't get me wrong, there's potential in the card. But for a lockdown/control deck like Stasis , it feels like an afterthought because the card draw engines are supposed to enhance the lock instead of rely on it. If you plan on using it primarily post lock, you might be better off with something like Howling Mine since you can just control the board and draw as you please. And it's colorless too, making other non-Island drops useful.
July 16, 2014 4:02 p.m.
For discussion's sake, do you think having a creature version of Stasis would be too overpowered? Similar to Future Sight + Magus of the Future
That would make cards like Curfew really broken for the Stasis creature.
July 16, 2014 4:44 p.m.
Isochron Scepter + Boomerang is the way to go with bouncing it back to your hand
July 28, 2014 5:36 p.m.
Or just a Vedalken Mastermind which is also transmutable by Muddle the Mixture .
Thinking of going the Countertop way by adding Counterbalance + Sensei's Divining Top
It could easily add more power to Brainstorm or Scroll Rack
July 29, 2014 1:15 p.m.
PreZchoICE1 says... #31
transmute should really be a part of any stasis deck tbh. Muddle will also fetch Counterbalance and Scroll Rack throw in an Archaeomancer and you're laughing. Im thinking about a new stasis EDH with the new teferi planeswalker as the Commander.
July 30, 2014 11:06 a.m.
I was actually thinking of a Black Splash before using Lim-Dul's Vault for tutoring and Disciple of Deceit + Hidden Strings for combo with Stasis
I'm just not convinced enough that the splash can properly and consistently maintain the lock since I'm opting for the disruption and removal route against counter and bounce.
Here's my concept: BUST- B/U Stasis Trap
July 31, 2014 11:17 a.m.
u cannot play Stasis without Chronatog . i love playng Serra Sphinx .
my fav combo is Stasis +Ivory Tower +Library of Leng .
when u have like 150 lifepoints u can do anything u want.Gush is a must. Traumatize and or Feldon's Cane may help.the definitive troll card in this deck is The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale . i bought it years ago for a few dollars.
August 12, 2014 4:33 a.m.
i forgot to mention Claws of Gix . anytime u draw it, u can drop on field, pay 1 and destroy Stasis in opponents turn. Zuran Orb let u have one or 1 extra turn before die, if the lock is on late to come
August 12, 2014 6:13 a.m.
you sure can play stasis without Chronatog . I use Ral Zarek instead. Chronatog requires Frozen AEther to work, so its a 3 card combo, while ral zarek + stasis is a 2 card combo (sure its no hard lock, but its a pretty solid lock anyways).
Claws of Gix are not needed if you play Ral Zarek because the upkeep is no problem anymore. Gush would be insane, but its banned.
August 12, 2014 7:05 a.m.
Its legal in vintage. Its banned in legacy probably because its a free draw 2 cards spell :)
August 12, 2014 7:45 a.m.
i control on wizard site, Gush is legal in vintage. I had to remove 3 Brainstorm becouse it is restricted in vintage. is "free" in legacy, but in legasi is banned Black Vise that i use regularry. i will never understand why some cards are banned. they are usefoul, but i dont see the need of a ban. if Gush and Brainstorm are banned, you should ban almost everything.
August 12, 2014 7:47 a.m.
Since this is primarily about building a Stasis deck in general, I'm quite curious about other splashes in a Stasis deck. Seems like they aren't heavily discussed yet.
White: The blink ability of Venser, the Sojourner can be quite useful for untapping tapped lands and it works especially well if paired with Cloud of Faeries or other ETB permanents. Best part with this splash is you can run enchantment fetches and have access to Swords to Plowshares for removal. I can even imagine a Meddling Mage + Venser, the Sojourner control combo.
Green: The Birds of Paradise + Horn of Greed + Quirion Ranger allows for an absolutely quick drawing ability especially with Exploration in play. Seriously, with the right Green fetches, this deck is really quick! You can use Garruk Wildspeaker as an extra means of untapping lands and beat down. To be honest, had Stasis been green, you would have no need for a Blue splash.
Black: Other than Lim-Dul's Vault and Disciple of Deceit for free transmuting, I can't really find the best method to splash this color in. Maybe Blistercoil Weird and Black Disruptions? Talk about a slow and agonizing death.
Red: Seems like you can do a counter/aggro or counter/control with this splash. Blistercoil Weird and Dominus of Fealty go really well with an active Stasis while a Snapcaster Mage can add more utility to your graveyard spells. Ral Zarek is a given but Red Elemental Blast is an added bonus, since you can cheaply counter blue spells or destroy Stasis if problematic.
Is there anything I've missed?
August 12, 2014 1:44 p.m.
White is pretty good with Enlightened Tutor , Swords to Plowshares , Serra Avenger , Stoneforge Mystic + Batterskull / Sword of Feast and Famine :).
August 12, 2014 6:14 p.m.
I also like the idea of a white splash. Even fetching for an Isochron Scepter to pair up with White removals, Orim's Chant or even Blue counter and bounce spells can be a pain. Meddling Mage can be a hassle on game 2 or can hold off Abrupt Decay and the like.
It's just that I can't seem to find a proper lock for white other that using Venser, the Sojourner which seems to be a costly yet effective method (especially with the ultimate).
Boomerang + Isochron Scepter maybe?
August 12, 2014 9:57 p.m.
Equipoise is a fun white card. Things phase in during the untap step :)
August 13, 2014 5:50 a.m.
About Chain of Vapor and Reset . I cant decide which one is best.
The good thing with Chain of Vapor is that its 1 mana, so much easier to cast. Altho, you need to cast Stasis again the next turn risking it to be counterspelled, and you will end up with 2 less untapped lands. If you don't have a planeswalker out (because they will probably copy CoV and bounce it), you can use Chain of Vapor to bounce one of their stuff instead.
Reset cost one more, but you don't have to pay to cast Stasis the next turn, and your opponent will not be able to Counterspell Stasis , making it safer, but less versatile. Because you don't have to recast Stasis , you will have all your lands untapped.
What do you guys think? Chain of Vapor vs Reset ?
August 13, 2014 6:54 a.m.
If your deck relies on a 4cmc combo piece to lock down the game, then Reset might be the way to go.
With Reset + Stasis you require 5 mana on the turn you cast Ral Zarek because you pay for Stasis during your upkeep. Reset gets better the more lands you have in play as long as you have the 2 blue mana open to cast it, making it ideal to get the combo piece out.
With Chain of Vapor + Stasis you have a great stalling mechanism early to mid game, but it requires 6 mana to work: 2 recast Stasis and 4 to cast Ral Zarek for the lock/untap.
It really depends on how you build your deck because Reset is a one-trick pony with Stasis whereas Chain of Vapor can be used for many occasions.
Chubbub says... #2
How do you win by keeping everything tapped down, and skipping your turn? A 4/5 Chronatog on their turn doesn't seem very useful.
June 8, 2014 6:13 p.m.