Hello all and welcome to this weeks Budget Brews! Winning is nice, but it isn’t our main goal here at Budget Brews, instead we just try and have some fun! We tackle a few different ways to build here at Budget Brews, we either look at trying to make the more competitive decks cheaper on the wallet, or we just come up with something new that’s easy on the wallet!
This week with Budget Brews I wanted to take a look at another strategy that's going to make your opponent want to pull their hair out of their head, in Legacy.
Yup. Let's lock the opponent out and slow the game down while we grind out a win by slowly as humanly possible.
Stasis is a deck that got big during the dubbed “Black Summer” in 1996 when Necropotence decks were running wild and taking over the current meta games. It's a strategy that uses Stasis (and Kismet in a U/w Version) and soft permission spells making your opponent use every possible last drop of mana in order to do anything.
Using Howling Mine you're able to draw more lands so you can keep playing, and with cards like Boomerang you're able to weave the Stasis effect in and out when you need it so you're the only one actually playing Magic.
The deck can win a few different ways, Black Vise, Decking your Opponent, or Ebony Owl Netsuke.
… I can't wait to play it
All told the costs meets all of our rules, the most expensive card being Muddle the Mixture coming in around $4.50.
The deck run's around $80 US, which would be a little over $100 in Canada. Money well worth it to be able to play at your local shops Legacy events.
Winning the Game
Coming into this week, I knew I wanted to do something with Black Vise. Not really sure why I did, but it felt like it needed to be done. It's the opposite of the The Rack and actually wants your opponent to have cards in hand. This in itself can be a tricky thing to navigate, since, when they have more cards in hand they typically have more opportunity to answer what you're doing.
Ebony Owl Netsuke is a card I hadn't even ever heard of before starting to do some research on Black Vise decks. It's for optimal punishment, and your opponent has to have a full hand in order for it to do anything, so you're going to have to have the lock in full ON mode before you really play it. Dealing 4 damage though, is worth the 2 mana investment. This with Black Vise really gets the clock moving.
Howling Mine really isn't a win-condition in it's own right, and you're only going to win if the game goes very long. It's here though, because with this deck, it is possible to deck your opponent. Dictate of Kruphix might have a spot in the Sideboard of this deck, if you feel like Ebony Owl Netsuke isn't pulling it's weight.
The Lock
This, is relatively straight forward. Land a Stasis and skip all the untap steps, making it difficult for your opponent to do anything. This is the reason we're playing so many lands, Lotus Petal's and the neat land Forsaken City.
Frozen Aether is the new Kismet in this build, so that your opponent's stuff comes in tapped.
Counter Magic
Daze has long since been a Legacy all-star. It's a great early counter spell in any game, and with something like Stasis locking your opponent's mana down, it's a great counterspell late game too. It has the added benefit of “resetting” your tapped Island so you now have an untapped land.
Thwart is a hard counter spell, but instead of bouncing 1 island to your hand to pay for it, you bounce 3, so it's an instant include in a deck lick this.
Muddle the Mixture is a card that's pulling double duty. It's both counter magic if you need it to be, but it also makes a pretty decent tutor if you need to find a Stasis
Thanks for joining me while I try to Untap the Multiverse!
As another little thing, I'm going to start a Youtube Channel where I host video's of my brews and playing the decks over Xmage (and maybe Cockatrice depening on Xmage is acting).
Have an idea for something you'd like me to brew up? Give me a shout in the comments!
Or in the usual social media ways -
Twitter - @maibuddha
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCii1H4HLwrHDWT4JGVlVajQ
Personal Blog - Untapping the Multiverse (https://untapthemultiverse.wordpress.com/)
