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Have you ever wished you could play Stasis in Magic Online?
You can stop wishing and start playing it. I play it all the time, and have posted a pretty good record with it. It's a casual deck, and it's definitely not going to win any tournaments, but it poses problems that the typical casual Online Extended deck does not expect, and cannot meet.
And really, doesn't it tickle you to think that your opponent will never, ever untap, cast spells, or have any chance of winning? Don't answer that - discretion is what keeps us sadists from being ostracized like we deserve. But if the thought of playing Stasis twenty-four hours a day against unsuspecting victims from all over the world touches you somewhere naughty, read on.
Let me relate a bit of my experience with Stasis, as it will explain how this insane idea came to me. As a bonus, I'll give you my very first decklist using this strategy, though it'll baffle us both how I managed to win with it.
I had a friend who always had the money to buy new cards, old cards, power, whatever he needed - and he was rather fond of making annoying control and combo decks. This friend decided that with the resurgence of local interest in Magic, he ought to build an invincible Stasis deck just to annoy everyone else. (It fit his personality rather well, by the way.) He tried a few different builds, always using Chronatog to skip his own turn and avoid Stasis's drawback, and he did very well against all of us. The only times he lost were due to his own complacency - I once did nothing but play lands for a while, and he kept skipping his turn with Chronatog, and I eventually got the mana available to burn his Chronatog twice (once as counter bait, of course). He took his turn, had no mana to pay for Stasis, and had to sacrifice it, while I untapped and aimed a Fireball at his head for lethal damage.
(Of course, if he had only one counter banked, the guy wasn't that good - The Ferrett)
The idea of Stasis intrigued me... And then Judgment came out. And there it was: Mist of Stagnation. Mist of Stagnation eliminates two drawbacks of Stasis. You never have to "pay" for Mist of Stagnation - there's no upkeep cost! There's nothing that prevents you from maintaining it in play indefinitely. The other great advantage Mist of Stagnation has is that, with proper graveyard manipulation, it's a one-sided Stasis. You always untap; your opponent never untaps. Forget having to have control of the board before you play your broken enchantment - you can use the enchantment to control that board and play your win condition afterwards, or play more lock elements afterwards.
Mist of Stagnation. Was. Broken.
I can't remember what my first online build of the deck was like, but I do recall that it had severe problems with a lot of things - mostly Wild Mongrel. Wild Mongrel was popular even in casual decks at the time, and it really wrecked Mist of Stagnation. Not only would the Wild Mongrel beat me down, it'd make my graveyard manipulation a nearly impossible task. I added two things to the deck to deal with Wild Mongrel - Lost in Thought and Rats' Feast. The idea was that Lost in Thought would make the Wild Mongrel pretty much a one-shot deal, and Rats' Feast was available when there were just too many cards for a Steamclaw (my repeatable graveyard removal) to remove in time.
It sounds janky? It was beyond janky. Here's the list I had back then, sometime right around August 2002:
Lands
3 Underground River
1 Salt Marsh
18 Island
1 Darkwater Catacombs
Creatures
1 Scalpelexis
3 Puppeteer
Artifacts
4 Steamclaw
Spells
2 Mana Short
4 Counterspell
4 Opt
2 Fact or Fiction
2 Rats' Feast
4 Grip of Amnesia
4 Lost in Thought
3 Mist of Stagnation
4 Web of Inertia
Yeah, I splashed black just for Rats' Feast! The Puppeteers were also pretty bad, but I needed something to tap creatures. Icy Manipulator would have been nice, but it wasn't available online at the time.
It's obvious what the deck does: Stall with Web of Inertia/Steamclaw. Multiple Web of Inertiae are very nice, as they force the opponent to remove multiple cards to attack, and usually he won't be able to do that. If he tries to build up cards in his graveyard, a Steamclaw activation every turn will make that impossible. Opt and Fact or Fiction - especially Fact or Fiction - fill my graveyard so that I can untap when the Mist of Stagnation finally comes into play. Grip of Amnesia is another thing that can often be brutal - with a Web in play, I can give you the choice of having your spell countered, or not attacking.... and it draws me a card for all that. Mana Short taps someone out so that mana won't be open under the Mist of Stagnation, though the opponent can always play lands and build mana that was. Good thing I had Counterspell handy for the dangerous stuff.
I won't try to justify this build - it was bad. The funny thing is, normal, sane people playing online couldn't handle the bizarre combo. Naturalize wasn't running rampant (since it hadn't even been printed yet), and no one was going to run Disenchant, so the Web of Inertia, Mist of Stagnation, and Steamclaw were difficult to harass. I can't remember how many games I won, but I think my win percentage with the above build was over 65%. There are lots of funny stories with it, including a game where I simply could not find my Scalpelexis (notice that I only ran one!) and had to beat down with Puppeteer for twenty turns. Another game, the guy played an early Smoldering Tar, and I had to race his damage with Puppeteers. I eventually got two in play and dealt the final point of damage when I was at one.
Yeah, that was fun.
The deck existed at a pretty bad time. People desperately trying to fill their graveyards to get threshold could overpower my graveyard removal, and Steamclaw wasn't exactly the hardest thing to outrun. What the deck needed was... Scrabbling Claws.
And eventually, after I took a two-year break from Magic Online, I rebuilt Mist of Stagnation. I got tired of telling people about the good old days, about how Mist of Stagnation used to win. I wanted to annoy people, get blocked, and get told my deck was lame all over again.
Just within the past month, I wrote up a quick decklist and set about trying to collect the cards for my new Mist of Stagnation deck. Instead of having to rely on Steamclaw, I could add four Scrabbling Claws before even needing to consider sub-par repeatable removal. The deck is really very cheap to assemble, since much of what you want is crap that no one cares about, even if it is old. People will be glad to take your ticket to get rid of their Mist of Stagnation. The only thing that might pose a problem is Mana Short, but all told the deck has to be under thirty tickets. Without further ado, here's the list I'm using now:
| Mist of Stagnation Featured by Robert Carroll on 2005-09-11 | ||
Artifacts 2 Aether Spellbomb 2 Icy Manipulator 2 Orb of Dreams 2 Reito Lantern 4 Scrabbling Claws Creatures 2 Scalpelexis Enchantments 3 Mist of Stagnation 4 Web of Inertia |
Instants 1 Condescend 3 Counterspell 3 Mana Short 3 Memory Lapse 2 Opt 2 Thirst For Knowledge Sorceries 4 Serum Visions Artifact Lands 4 Seat of the Synod Basic Lands 17 Island | Stats: Average mana: 1.58 Average creature mana cost: 5.00 Average creature power: 1.00 Average creature toughness: 5.00 Deck Composition: Basic Lands: 28.33% Instants: 23.33% Artifacts: 20.00% Sorceries: 6.67% Creatures: 3.33% Enchantments: 11.67% Artifact Lands: 6.67% |
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| Download this deck in Apprentice format! |
Download this deck in Magic Online Text format! | |
I think it's actually worth doing a card-by-card analysis, in order to explain the deck as fully as possible and to highlight exactly what role each card fills; this will also make it easier to understand what's expendable and might need to be cut for something more efficient, and what really needs to be in the deck.
17 Island, 4 Seat of the Synod:
21 lands in a control deck seems odd, until you realize that once I get to 3UU I can play my win condition, get a lockdown, and then play "land, go" until I get Scalpelexis, also five mana. The deck doesn't need much land to function, and I do try to get the pieces into place as early as possible. The cantrips and scry spells justify this low land count, and it's not fatal to miss a land drop or two on your way to five mana. If you can keep your opponent stalled with something, you can afford the wait. The Seats of the Synod are obviously in the deck for synergy with Thirst for Knowledge, which I'll get to shortly.
Scalpelexis:
This guy's always been a perfect match for the Mist of Stagnation deck. It fits into the standard strategy of milling a person to death in a Stasis-type deck, but naturally I had to find a milling method that would not actually put cards into the graveyard. Mist of Stagnation kinda sucks when you both untap. Scalpelexis removes them entirely, and it takes at least four cards each attack, sometimes taking many, many more. Scalpelexis can wreck mono-color decks with high basic land counts. My current record with Scalpelexis trigger is twenty-eight cards, ripped from a fellow mono-blue player. I've hit twenty-four two separate times as well. Maybe we could make a game out of beating the record.
Incidentally, once the lock is down, you don't need more than one Scalpelexis, and the deck is so tuned to getting its lock that I don't feel the need for more than one. I've cast it before playing Mist of Stagnation, certainly, but it's hardly necessary.
Aether Spellbomb:
The Spellbombs serve as potential protection of your Scalpelexises, as stall to keep an opponent's creature from attacking for a turn, and as graveyard filler and library digging. It's cheap to cast and can get you to land or to whatever you need, while staying on the table in case you need its first ability.
Icy Manipulator:
Mana Short can tap all the opponent's lands, but creature and artifact mana won't be affected. That's where Icy Manipulator comes in handy. It can also tap creatures to prevent attacks if I need, and if I have Mist of Stagnation in play without Mana Short, I can gradually tap the other player out with Icy Manipulator. It's expensive to cast and might just tap me out when I really want mana open for a counter, but it fills a hole by giving me a way to tap stuff I can't otherwise tap (barring a very cooperative opponent). Two are enough.
Orb of Dreams:
Orb of Dreams makes sure that when you have someone under the lock, they can't just play lands, build up mana, and Naturalize, or worse, Obliterate. It's not absolutely necessary, just makes sure the combo has no out for the opponent, but I love having this particular piece in play, just so the opponent has no hope of ever playing anything again. Multiples are useless, so I only run two - enough to get me one during the game, but not so many that I get flooded with them.
Scrabbling Claws:
Scrabbling Claws is what makes Mist of Stagnation and Web of Inertia work. One Scrabbling Claws and one Web of Inertia in play can often defeat a deck all on their own, because if the opponent can only win during the combat phase, and can't get more than one card into the 'yard at a time, he'll never attack, and never win. I've had concessions on turn 3 simply because I played a Web of Inertia and already had the Scrabbling Claws in play. Scrabbling Claws are never useless in multiples, either, because you can keep them around as insurance if the opponent dumps many cards at once, or you can use the second ability and get a card for it.
Reito Lantern:
The Reito Lantern are pretty much extra Scrabbling Claws, and if there's a lot of mana on the table, they can turn a large graveyard into an empty one very well. I used to have Steamclaw in this slot, even recently, but the Reito Lantern has the added bonus of keeping you from decking yourself. If you've had your Scalpelexises Extracted or something ridiculous, and it's turn 37 (been there, by the way), you'll be glad to have Reito Lantern. Winning in fifty turns via decking isn't pretty, but this is available for that insurance.
Web of Inertia:
Web of Inertia is your Propaganda - and put together with the graveyard removal, can become a total lock on attacks. Multiples are great, and I have actually had four in play once. Scrabbling Claws is Web's best friend, keeping the graveyard empty and letting this three-mana enchantment stall until you find...
Mist of Stagnation:
Playing a Mist of Stagnation when everything's in place is a feeling that has to be experienced to be believed. You simply must build a Mist of Stagnation deck and get to that point, then lean back contentedly knowing that your opponent is never going to untap. The ideal setup is to have your opponent tapped out (end-of-turn Mana Short helps), have at least one Scrabbling Claws in play, have Orb of Dreams in play, and play Mist of Stagnation. Your opponent will only be able to play alternate-cost spells, and even then you can remove those with Scrabbling Claws. Once he gets to eight cards in hand, he'll discard, but then you tap Scrabbling Claws in response to your Mist of Stagnation trigger on your own upkeep, and then untap Scrabbling Claws and everything else. An opponent who has no untapped permanents and who will never have any untapped permanents is a dead opponent. He'll usually realize it and concede, and then call into question your sexual orientation.
Counters:
Counterspell is there just to deal with threats. Memory Lapse can stall the opponent and prevents your having to use Scrabbling Claws to remove the countered spell. In a deck that simply has to stall for a few turns before winning, Memory Lapse is golden. Condescend was something I stuck in before I had all the cards for the build I wanted, but I've found it works great. Scrying is very, very nice, and I often Condescend a spell I really don't care about, or set X = 0, just to scry. Save the counters for the stuff that really matters if you're light on them, like Naturalize.
Mana Short:
Mana Short can be used to set up a Mist of Stagnation next turn or just during your opponent's upkeep to stall him. I've done both, and it works well. Pretty self-explanatory.
Opt, Serum Visions:
These two cards fill the graveyard for one mana and let you look ahead into your library, finding business spells if you're land-flooded and finding land if you're mana-screwed. Since you don't normally care terribly much about having mana open to counter in the early game, Serum Visions is superior to Opt, allowing you to stack your deck and to dig at the same time.
Thirst for Knowledge:
Card drawing that's doesn't simply replace itself. Considering that Reito Lantern, Scrabbling Claws, Orb of Dreams, or that extra Seat of the Synod you have in hand are often dead cards, it's very easy to make this "draw three, discard one," and filling your graveyard is never bad in this deck. If I were to add something to the deck, the first thing I'd look at would be adding more Thirst for Knowledge.
I've tested the deck extensively in the Casual Decks room on Magic Online, and my results are encouraging. Using my latest build, I've posted an 14-3 record.
My losses, however, are pretty telling and reveal weaknesses in the deck. I usually lose due to manascrew. I've got all the cards I need in hand, or the stall I need to survive, and I simply can't get the third land for a Web of Inertia, or the fifth land for a Mist of Stagnation. My low land count isn't helping, but I think the problem could be solved by adding more card drawing. (Or more lands - The Ferrett, noting that "adding more card drawing and praying" is a time-honored technique among decks that don't win as much as they should)
Fact or Fiction would be a welcome addition to the deck.... if I could afford any. I sold my Facts when I quit three years ago, and they've about doubled in value, so it'll be difficult to get them. Going to four Thirst for Knowledge would help with the card-drawing, though I'm not sure what to drop - Icy Manipulator, despite its role filling a hole, has only rarely been useful, and it's expensive, so it may leave.
I welcome suggestions to help improve the deck, and the first suggestion must be Withered Wretch. I didn't forget about him; I simply wanted to get a working decklist out and play with it before I started adding colors and potentially adding color-screw to my woes. Withered Wretch isn't easy to cast in a deck that likes UU on the second turn, after all. Black's core of graveyard depletion spells is too great to ignore, and as soon as I put the thought and energy into improving the deck, I'll almost certainly add a black splash. Black also has the advantage of giving me more creature control.
The other option for a splash is white. Ghostly Prison can effectively add to the Web of Inertia count, and help with stall... But beyond adding Ghostly Prison and noting that U/W is a classic color combo, I'm unsure what else I'd do with a white splash.
Finally, I'd like to thank my clan members, all of whom helped with testing and suggestions for the newest build of the deck, and all of whom enjoy watching as I completely lock up the board. SuPo took a screenshot of a game where a guy had tapped everything, lands and creatures, to attack me, brought me down to one life, and I untapped and played Mist of Stagnation, already having had Scrabbling Claws and Orb of Dreams in play.
"3UU - You win the game" on turn 7 is nice.
Siegfried1027 on Magic Online and AIM
herrkant at gmail dot com
