Probably, what happened w/the Hope of Ghirapur is that the effect checks during the untap step. So, when Stasis skips untap steps, MTGO effectively makes the Hope of Ghirapur ability last for the rest of the game, b/c the place at which the ability is checked & exhausted is skipped.
Ruling from 2/9/2017: "The affected player won’t be able to cast any noncreature spells until after the time that your 'beginning of upkeep' triggered abilities are put onto the stack on your next turn." MTGO checking during the uptap phase instead of beginning of upkeep is clearly incorrect if that's the case. The way the attack and sac happened so quickly makes it almost seem like the WotC employee knew about the bug and played into it.
I was a big Stasis player. My build was mono blue and used Stroke as it's kill. I made top eight at a ptq with it. Very annoying for my opponents especially for the green players who thought Choke was the answer only to find it getting Hacked to Forest... 😋 I was teaching my eight year old son how to play and showed him Stasis. After two turns, he pointed at it and said, "That card sucks." Good times.
I can't believe you're out here playing Root Maze, Stasis, Howling Mine, and Black Vise in this post-Prismatic Ending world. Absolutely fantastic league, it was a real treat to watch this old prison cards still pull their weight.
Honestly it just makes me want to see Root Maze and Blizzard Specter/Cephalid Constable paired together in Modern. I've got a jank brew for it (paired with boomerangs, the witness cryptic lock, and Isochron Scepters), the problem is Ragavan is still in Modern and absolutely destroys the archetype if it ever sticks. I think it could be improved with more focused brewing.
Those instant concedes from Storm were some of the absolute best I've seen. that had to be some kind of rage quit. I'd be pissed to get hit with a Force out of a D Grid deck, then G3 get hit with the Ouphe.
Oh man, Chronatog Stasis was my first competitive foray back in the day. Love to see Howling Mine in the build! (As an aside: My second competitive foray was with mono-red land destruction. I am not a nice person.)
Thanks again for fixing up the deck and putting it through some paces! The snap concessions and drawn out "what can we each draw here?" games were exactly what I love about prison decks like this. I'm so pleasantly surprised by how well it performed. This one might be worth bringing back around for another revision.
I have spent the last 20 years with Stasis on my desk. The first thing I do when a new set or card is spoiled is to ask myself how/if this card gets me what I want in stasis. I have so much advice about this deck that I just can’t do it here. So I’ll say this, the changes you made were so ON POINT! I’ve played every combination of colours and possibilities and the Forsaken City, Howling Mine/Black Vice version is the best version. That being said, I’ve found that using green here is completely avoidable, while still achieving the same end game. My biggest pet peeve in life are people who run Red and use Ral Zarek. Even back in the day when there were no other choices, his abilities could be duplicated in colourless without paying 4cmc for a PW just to be interacted with… Anyways great content, and would love to maybe show you my list and break down why my choices are what they are. For anyone else looking for an explanation here’s the short version. Everything you need to accomplish with this deck can be done with U/W mana base. The real problem we’ve had since the beginning was having good bounce spells, at cost effective mana costs. Because a bounce spell in this deck is basically a Time Walk most of the time. The rest of the time it’s a defensive spell, used to bounce threats and fill your enemy’s hand for MORE Black Vice damage. So a bounce spell for 1cmc is gold! Chain of Vapour was our only good option at 1cmc since the last year or so. Well that’s not strictly true because of the Delve ability with Rite of Undoing 5cmc. These days there are 2 more that could fill these requirements, but in my opinion they aren’t as good as Chain and Rite. Point being, at the end of your opponent’s turn you bounce your Stasis and untap everything. This is by far the most potent action this deck can do. It’s crippling. Vigilance creatures are my next tip. Sara Avenger was my go-to for a bit, then was joined by Brimaz, King of Oreskos as a one of. Later on I moved them to the Sideboard so my opponents would SB out their creature removal cause I didn’t run any. But surprise game three… a creature that doesn’t tap to attack. Now a days, I run one copy of Kaheera as a Companion, and just pull him out when it suits me, or not. Next tip, did you know that cards that Phase out come back in during your Untap Step? So if I don’t have an Untap Step…? Right. It won’t come back. There’s only one card worth using with this in mind. Equipoise! It Phases out all creatures, cause you don’t run any, it phases out your opponents problematic Artifacts and Lands also! All this for a 3cmc Enchantment? Yep. Also one copy of Seat of the Synod mean you can use Tutor to be guaranteed a land draw in case you’re at risk of not affording Upkeep costs. That same Tutor means you can run super greasy silver-bullets and be sure you’ll draw them in time. Like Warmth turn two against Red, Tormod’s Crypt for pesky GYs, Equipoise, Pithing Needle, Authority of the Consuls are all crippling spells in the right game, for low or no cost at all. My next tip is, if you go to your LGS to make friends don’t play this. People at my LGS’s even know my car now! “Stasis guy is here!” Like a public service announcement.. Misdirection is a great way to deal with uncounterable things like Abrupt Decay. Free spells are Gold, but free spells that also fill your Prime your GY for Delving R spells to keep costs to a minimum. Think Abolish and Foil, NOT Thwart. Your Foresaken Cities exile cards so they won’t help here. Keep in mind that EVERYTHING is a resource, not just Mana. Life, cards in hand, Permanents, Graveyard are all potential resources to help you pay, or avoid paying costs. Only recently there has been a Planeswalker worth playing in this deck. You guessed it, it’s Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset. Every single thing about this card was built to fit this deck like a glove. The only way it would be better is if it was also a target for Enlightened Tutor.. In the last year, cards have been printed that make a possible 75 comparable to Second Sunrise in power, and only slightly faster… jk.
By the way, thought I would say that for the first time I played at an in person constructed format night (my first one) and I played your titanshift deck. Went 2-2 but had a damn good time and wanted to thank you for helping me get better at magic!
I really like this deck... I've always wanted to make a good stasis deck but never quite figured it out. Root Maze is awesome, also the thing with Cronatog is really good. So many ideas to work off of here. Thank you for an amazing video and deck!
Crumbling vestiage seems good with root maze to prevent that tempo loss you had, and the deck is operating at sorcery speed anyway. A card I really liked in my old stasis build was Rite of Undoing. Boucing your stasis and a permanent they spent mana on during their end step allows you to skip a payment on stasis and untap, then simply cast it again.
I know you felt amulet was not doing anything, but this is because saga is always wanting to get vise, which means you need to play amulet the regular way. I would up it to 3-4 - it interacts really well with root maze, and if you have some bouncelands, it really helps you turn a crop rotation into a ritual that can cast chronatog right after and end the game. The howling mine + forsaken mine is cute, but without a way to break stasis simetry, you often lock yourself out of the game and keep hoping you draw saga before opp finds a way out.
I used to play the Chronostasis (and also turbo stasis) when the cards were new. I remember cracking my chronatog in my first pack of visions and thinking it was a perfect fit for stasis. I used to use glacial chasm as one of the win cons as there were plenty of decks at the time that couldn't remove the chronatog. Then you just skip your turn during their turn until they die. Glacial Chasm is probably not great in today's legacy with so many wastelands out there, but it was great in 1998. :)
Here is my homework! Cut Lotus Petal because it's particularly bad with Root Maze and cantrips, Defense Grid because it's too much of a nonbo with our sideboard plan, and Kiora because she doesn't do enough without Stasis in play, in addition to your suggested cuts. Put in more Sagas and Saga targets, seven cantrips, Veil of Summer, and Garruk Wildspeaker. -4 Lotus Petal -3 Howling Mine -3 Defense Grid -2 Enlightened Tutor -2 Kiora -1 Amulet of Vigor -1 Chronatog -1 Crop Rotation -2 Tundra -7 Fetches +4 Preordain +3 Ponder +4 Veil of Summer +2 Garruk Wildspeaker +1 Black Vise +1 Retrofitter Foundry +1 Barkchannel Pathway//Tidechannel Pathway +4 Botanical Sanctum +4 Breeding Pool +2 Urza's Saga
At 51:03, I think the better play was to hold the island until you can get Amulet into play. Cool deck, cool video. I loved playing Kismet/Stasis/Serra Sphinx back in the day. Root Maze + Amulet of Vigor is an interesting alternative to Kismet. 2 cards, 2 mana: protect against lands, artifacts 1 card, 4 mana: protect against lands, artifacts, AND creatures. Did you consider using Rescue/Chain of Vapor also? In that case, if you can get just 1 blue source untapped, you can bounce Stasis. Since you can then tap other lands instead of pitching to City, it's kind of like Rescue reading "U: Draw a card for each island you control" which is, obviously, *nuts*
Cool deck! You said to take a stab at fixing it. My thoughts: 1. The white splash isn't worth it, especially if you consider cutting fetches for better Root Maze action. 2. Chronatog seems bad. 3. I've been looking for a deck that could use Suspicious Stowaway, which seems like it might work here in Chronatog's spot. Root Maze makes it more likely to transform, and Kiora can untap it when we are going off, and it is unblockable on stalled boards. 4. We are usually Crop Rotating for Urza's Saga. Let's just play 4 Urza's Saga. 5. Even though I cut fetches, I threw in a couple Uro. It's ideal to untap with Kiora (which can mill if we need), it is a solid B plan, Stowaway can loot to feed it, it pitches to all our stuff in the SB, etc. And so.... (36) 1 Black Vise 1 Pithing Needle 1 Soul Guide Lantern 4 Lotus Petal 3 Crop Rotation 4 Root Maze 3 Howling Mine 4 Stasis 2 Defense Grid 3 Kiora, Master of the Depths 4 Elvish Spirit Guide 2 Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath 4 Suspicious Stowaway Lands (24) 4 Urza's Saga 1 Ancient Tomb 4 Forsaken City 4 Tropical Island 4 Barkchannel Pathway 1 Karakas 2 Forest 4 Island Sideboard: 1 Bojuka Bog 1 Tabernacle 1 Faerie Macabre 4 Force of Will 2 Flusterstorm 1 Spell Pierce 2 Collector Ouphe 3 Force of Vigor
As a couple others have said, I think taking a page out of Titan decks and actually playing more Amulet might be a thing since having two Amulets actually puts you ahead on mana generation and it helps fix your fetch problems. I also really like the notion of Wishclaw Talisman; just seems like an upgrade to Enlightened Tutor for the most part. A black splash might open up some other opportunities as well. I remember in olden times some Stasis decks would play Despotic Scepter to get out from under their own Stasis at the end of the opponent's turn, then untap and deploy a new copy of Stasis. This idea kind of runs face first into Root Maze since you have to tap it to activate, but it's interesting that it's another 1 mana artifact.
Remember when artifacts used to turn off when tapped, even continuous effects? That would have wrecked LED guy haha and also your black vise with root maze. I used to love Stasis. Many-a-player quit magic over that card. Maybe Chain of Vapor / Ensnare for some interaction would be fun for old times sake
i built a paper version of the deck and ended up cutting howling mine, grid, lotus petal, and chronotog for preordain, gush, monastery mentor, meddling mage, and meditate. The gush help in the situations where you needed 2 forsaken cities, and gets more tempo back in your favor. The meditate and mentor replace both aspects of the chronotog, while being more potent at what they both do. I hope to see more wierd gimmicky stasis decks in the future.
Back in the day I won a local store tournament with a brew like this that had mana vortex in the side board. At the time black vise was banned so the matches tended to take for ever. Abrupt decay basically put stasis out of business though.
Not mentioned in the deck tech, and likely not actually relevant, but Chronatog actually lets you skip all your turns forever - you just activate it once on each opponent turn. If you can't pay for stasis but you have root maze out, you can use this to deck your opponent (or kill with Vise) presuming they can't do anything about that under root-stasis. But maybe it is relevant, and even comes up in the matches.
1:18:04 "Pithing Needle doesn't have text" against ANT the deck that literally just killed you with Wishclaw. It may have been the cut with everything you were brining in anyway, but turning off the tutor definitely counts as text.
Archon of Emeria seems really interesting to me. It's often an asymmetric Root Maze and with 8 mana accelerants you should reliably be able to cast it early against fast combo decks.
1:17:34 I love that idea of making BUG or Dimir stasis. I'm curious what black cards would fit in that shell... would Squandered Resources be more viable than Forsaken City?
(final thoughts) the amulet of vigor is to "un-nombo" de Root Maze effect... so, don't know if is always right to cut it out O= but, any way... this was the easiest and fast "smash like button" of the year so far hahaha every blue player must looooove Stasis =D
01:02:58 Can't you crop rotate the Forsaken city into a regular land? I know its card disadvantage but its the same as having a hand with 6 cards in hand but one of them is any land instead of forsaken city.
What a deck! No idea if this is right, but maybe the Forces in the sideboard aren’t what the deck wants? You could run Veil of Summers / Endurances in that spot instead maybe
