Been working on a competitive version of landstill (i.e., cast standstill and beat with man-lands)
After some playtesting, I have tentatively come up with this draft:
Landstill
2 Gaea's Blessing
4 Powder Keg
4 Force of Will
2 Forbid
4 Counterspell
4 Force Spike
1 Morphling
4 Standstill
2 Trade Routes - good card drawing
4 Accumulated Knowledge - maybe should be impulse
3 Brainstorm
10 Island
3 Thawing Glaciers
2 Dust Bowl
4 Wasteland
2 Forest
3 Faerie Conclave
3 Treetop Village
SB: 1 Capsize
SB: 3 Masticore
SB: 2 Teferi's Response
SB: 3 Annul
SB: 2 Misdirection
SB: 4 Hydroblast
Any one think this is viable? Other versions I tested ran white for 'chants, STPs, and Outpost. However, the land base was shaky.
Thoughts?
I don't see much point, though, in using Standstill over Oath of Druids here.
Might Stalking Stones help in lieu of Mishra?
Basically, the standstill serves to stall while you establish control or nets you two cards. Either way, not a bad deal.
The stones are good but treetop is simply better (can't be wrathed away, etc.).
Oath of druids could be an idea, which would essentially turn the deck into blessing-go with oath. Maybe worth trying out.
The deck is very viable, but your choices may not be.
Surely Scroll Rack is very strong in this deck, especially with Glaciers going. Trade Routes looks unecessarily awkward.
Defence wise, you could die to a first turn critter before a Keg can kill it. If you want to play 4x Standstill, its your business to play enough bounce to ensure that you aren't stuck with threats on the other side of the board. Given your search ability, you can play Aether Burst, Withdraw, Submerge etc.
Take a hint from Trick and play Merchant Scroll.
Your big problem is that creature decks are far more common in 1.x than in type 1, and don't lose that much creature quality, and you lose your most efficient man-land in mishra's factory. You also have no removal so you are counting on either blocking with a village (slow and risky) or being able to force (spike or will) first and second turn threats. This is unrealistic.
The plan seems more likely to work if you use nether spirits (and perhaps foil as both early defense and a way to get it into the graveyard, either that or entomb). This will let you hold off many aggro decks, although the presence of swords to plowshares and phyrexian furnace does make this approach risky).
Also dont hurt your mana base too much with wastelands and dust bowls. They do not protect your man lands all that effectively in many cases anyway.
Trade Routes is an excellent call, giving you card drawing and a defense against wasteland. i just think the idea is a bit too flimsy in it's current configuration. Landstill is just much better in a control environment.
I guess Trade Routes does give your Villages and Conclaves cheap bounce, which makes the deck a bit more solid.
a Nether spirit to be discarded is a nice win condision
disk is better than keg in landstill since you want to be able to clear the hole board
cantrips such as Accumulated Knowledge, impulse,
Brainstorm are bad in landstill since you could well end up holding them in your hand and when your opponent plays a spell you need as many usefull counters and as much free mana as posable to contain them.
Force spike is a great pick.
other counters should be solid (no mana leak)
phrohibit/disapate/forbid are good you need 18+ counters to make it work well. (you need more)
This is my t1 version (currently posted on t1 mill), hopefuly it should give you some Idears, I cannot make an extended version becasue I dont realy know the meta game or what cards are in extended.
Protection 6
2 Nether Spirit
4 Nevinyrral's Disk
Draw 7
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Time Walk
4 Standstill
1 Ancestral Recall
Counters 20
4 Force of Will
4 Foil - testing
4 Mana Drain
4 Counterspell
4 Force Spike
Mana 27
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Library of Alexandria
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Petrified Field - testing
16 Island
(I recon you could splash white for the extra mana lands insted of green it would be better defencivly and you could play rout (instant wrath of god) and a few other u/w control cards which should make the deck better in a more creature baced enviroment.)
You want to make use of the ability to respond to any spell under Standstill by picking up three cards and then countering. You want to be able to continue searching and countering while tapped out, as Lava suggests.
This suggests the obvious advantage of Foil, Daze and FoW. But brainstorm and Impulse allow you to continue digging on little mana. Gush is dubious in this deck.
I think you want to be able to play Standstill on turn two. If they then play CoH, you have the chance of drawing into the free counterspells, or just drawing a solution. But for the rest of the game, leaving one mana open allows Brainstorm to operate on a further three cards. Digging six deep on 1 mana is strong. (In this way, Daze and Brainstorm are a little stronger than Force Spike )
The best play by far would be to sac and draw, counter, then play another Standstill.
I think maybe the addition of some early bounce would be good. E.g., the cast first turn critter and you cast boomerang at end of their next turn and drop your standstill.
Perhaps simple bounce would be better at making the deck more effective.
As is, i think my deck would get wrecked by aggro decks (mgrow, sligh etc.) but would beat control. Gush is a possible addition as are explorations. Bah, too many choices. Also, every choice seems to turn the deck into another deck (oath, turbo land, blessing go).
Don't really know if it is viable without further playtesting.
Thanks to all for their input and criticism!!