stasis and kismet

[lilpinhead]

when your using those two in a deck together what do you use to kill your opponent...my friend pays for the stasis everyturn by using forsaken city...but once he establish's all of his lil pieces i basically just sit there while he does much of the same. any help you wanna give would be groovy.

 

[Ransac]

Well, one of the popular ways to pay for Stasis was to bounce it to your hand with Capsize, buying it back or not if necessary, and always untapping your lands while doing so. I suggest to have a few counterspells in hand while doing so, though.



Ransac, cpa trash man

 

[Gerode]

Zephyr Falcons work.

 

[krichaiushii]

Any nontapping to attack creatures work. As you are already running white and blue, you have the mana for it. Just ensure you have some artifact mana available to speed things up.

Archangel
Serra Angel
Zephyr and Bay Falcon
Yotian Soldier
Ardent Soldier
numerous other small white creatures

Or, you could go for a more obtuse route to victory and play Copper Tablets and Martyrs of Korlis.

Even more obtuse would be Worry Beads -- with Gaea's Blessings in your deck to ensure you have a library!

Just some thoughts.

 

[lilpinhead]

you could use that too

 

[rakso]

In my opinion, Kismet doesn't even necessarily go with Stasis.

Kismet is more than marginally useful only when Stasis is down and stays down.

When that happens, you're winning already, so Kismet is still marginally useful.

The difficult part for a Stasis deck is establishing control, or the part before playing Stasis.

I think that the most successful Stasis decks are the extended-type decks, the mono blue ones.

 

[Ephrils]

If I remember right, the conventional way the Stasis deck won was by decking the opponent. It had something like 4 Howling Mines in it, and Braingeysers if they were legal at the time. If it wasn't that it was nontapping attackers.

Kismet further completes the Stasis lock. I played a player who kept his untap phase rather constant using Boomerangs, Disempowers, and stuff that let him put it on top of his library instead of bouncing it. Capsize was a few years off btw. Trade Caravans work wonders in a Stasis deck, I had a new respect for them after the game, too bad they'll only ever attack once without an untap phase..

 

[rakso]

The "conventional" way with Howling Mines was good only because the main opposition was Necropotence. It was soon discovered that once you attack the Howling Mines (which classic Necrodecks could not do), you broke the lock.

And even in these "conventional" decks, Kismet was just icing on the cake. The thing with locks is that you don't always have to "complete" them.

Trade Caravans... were thought of when Homelands came out, but they were just too unwieldy, not to mention that their only possible use was in Stasis, and they didn't even function well enough there!

 

[Ephrils]

rakso, that makes sense. There were only 4 really dominant decks at the time and they were more or less creature based, so Stasis could be slowed down, but not really stopped since the rest of the decks slots were spread around the other deck types, including Stasis.

Trade Caravans... I don't think anyone thought them tournement worthy in the first place. I think it's kinda cool they managed to find themselves into a deck that could actually win with them The Caravans come out after the lock is about half done anyway, so that the chance of them being removed is less.

If I were to use Kismet, I'd use it in this deck type or a Storm Cauldron deck, because then it's just funny

 

[Istanbul]

One amusing trick I used many moons ago was to use Chronatog and a couple of Jester's Caps. You'd get a Cap out pre-lock, and remove the Gaea's Blessings that EVERYONE played. Then play Stasis/Kismet/Chronatog, and never pay upkeep, and watch your opponent deck.

Then my opponents got smart, and started using Serra Angel and her kin against me.

 

[lilpinhead]

he has a couple of chronotogs in there...he also uses serras blessing, that white enchantment that makes your creatures not tap to attack..that deck really makes me angry.

 

[rakso]

Originally posted by Ephrils
Trade Caravans... I don't think anyone thought them tournement worthy in the first place. I think it's kinda cool they managed to find themselves into a deck that could actually win with them The Caravans come out after the lock is about half done anyway, so that the chance of them being removed is less.

In any case, would Forsaken Cities do the same thing but be less unwieldy?

Not that I'm 100% sure the Cities are good, though.

 

[Spiderman]

I always thought the Howling Mines helped you get to your islands faster, enabling you to pay Stasis upkeep.

Also the use of Thawing Glaciers(?)...

 

[rakso]

That they do.

They also help the opponent get a lot of other things faster, too, though.

Plus, when a design relies on Howling Mine, neutralizing the Mine often makes it tough for the Stasis deck to come back.

I've tried it before and I agree.

 

[Mikeymike]

Thawing Glaciers comes into play tapped and fetches tapped lands, so its dead the second Stasis drops.

Rising Waters spells (Thwart, Daze, Gush) all support Stasis nicely, some better than others depending on the type of build/kill method.
--
If there is a stasis deck creating serious problems in your group, run lobotomizers like Scour, good old Lobotomy, Jester's Cap, and Rootwater Thief. Reverent Silence and Abolish are nice too b/c you can play them for free. In other words, make sure he gets the idea that your going to make his life a living hell until he stops playing Stasis .

Some people feel bad playing lobotomizers: when playing Stasis anything goes.

 

[xreemer]

Stasis works great with Temporal Adepts and an Icy and some counter spells. Think about it, with six mana every turn, you can keep all their permanents tapped while yours keep untapping, tap all of their lands as they come into play, and with a little extra mana counter any lucky spells as they come off. Then you just sit back with a Cronatog or a Millstone and just watch them deck themselves. It has to be the most amusing way to win.

 

[Ephrils]

Originally posted by rakso


In any case, would Forsaken Cities do the same thing but be less unwieldy?

Not that I'm 100% sure the Cities are good, though.

I guess that would be a preference call there. For the Trade Caravans yuo uptap land at a cost to time, in turns. Wait 2 or 3 turns, untap a land or 2. With the Forsaken Cities, it's a cost to card being removed from the game,so whatever is pitched, you won't see again. I like the Caravans though.

2 Undiscovered Paradises maintains the lock well enough anyway, but for getting extra land to do something else, give me the Caravans, Stasis is good in the "time" aspect of the game, easily being able to give up a few, if uneventful, turns to do what it wants.

 

[Spiderman]

Oh yeah, maybe it was Undiscovered Paradise I was thinking of...

First Stasis decks used Time Elemental also, but it was too unwieldy. Does Tradewind just bounce creatures or any permanent?