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A horrible thing happened one day about eleven years ago. Someone figured out how to make a successful Stasis deck. The deck lasted for quite a few years before Block rotation finally put the long-awaited dagger in its heart and made many a player cheer in unison. More than a decade later, as I peruse the MDV Forums, I am disturbed to find so many younger players attempting to make their own Stasis decks. Thankfully, those people either don’t know where to look, or who to ask in order to find out exactly why or how it worked. However, since I am the local Old School teacher in these parts, I guess it is my job to get you guys on the right path… … to getting drilled in the face by your best friends.
Don’t get me wrong. Nothing is funnier to me in the world than watching someone else get hit in the head with something. I guess I just don’t understand why you would lean forward so you can be hit from a shorter distance, and get maximum impact on your cheek. Anyway, since I see the deck re-emerging over and over again in the Forums, and the builds are usually sub-par, I thought I would help you guys out with your goal. I mean, why would your friend blast you if you never lock him down completely? If he can squeeze out, then he just makes fun of you and tells you not to play the deck anymore. You need to know all you can know about Stasis if you really want to get DDT’ed after the game and watch as your brain slowly pours out of your head and leaks onto your Mom’s white carpet.
There, now that all of that is out of the way, we can get down to business; getting your lip bleeding. Stasis Theory
The reason that Stasis worked so well is that at the time of its reign, there was not much direct damage, and the creatures were relatively small. Decks mainly won because they could stabilize the board with a few efficient, small to medium size creatures, and control the opponent’s board with sweeps like Nevinyrral’s Disk and Wrath of God. The creatures of choice in those days were Pump Knights and weenies like Tundra Wolf and Savannah Lions. The problem with them that was exploited by Stasis was that you needed to hit me ten times with a two-power creature in order to kill me. If you only get two swings with your first couple creatures, and then one each time after that, you cannot deal 20 damage to me. Note that in addition to the creatures not untapping and therefore not attacking a second time, once a land was used, it was effectively dead. It would never untap, so you might as well sacrifice it to the Zuran Orb, as it was more useful being eaten. The key thing to understand that most young players don’t seem to grasp is that Stasis is based on one simply mathematical fact. If I am playing at least 20 lands in my deck, which is at least 33% of my deck, and if I draw three cards a turn, then mathematically I should draw a land during each draw phase, and therefore can pay my upkeep next turn. Most people think that they need Boomerang and all kinds of other ways to bounce the Stasis, and that simply is not the case. You never need to bounce your Stasis. It is a luxury to be able to do so. I can remember piloting Stasis in the day, and people who had played me the previous week and lost would still sit there, holding their breath and hoping that I didn’t play a land, as I had just tapped my last Island to pay the upkeep. “MORON! I am drawing 5 cards this turn! Of course I am going to draw and play an Island!” The win condition of Stasis is that simple thing called the Draw Phase. Remember that when you play a Howling Mine or Anvil of Bogardan, your opponent draws first. This means that for every Mine and/or Anvil that you play, your opponent is that many cards closer to running out of cards before you do. Saying this is to say, you don’t need to force Black Vice and Serra Sphinx (Angel) into your decks. Those are wasted card slots. You are playing Stasis to be a (bleep), not win a game. So get those cards out. I will now walk you through a quick scenario of a Stasis deck lock. Note: I have four Islands and two Howling Mines in play.
…and you guys really want to do this? It was boring as hell typing that and reliving it again. Seriously, stop reading and go to the forums and tell me that I was right, you were wrong and that you are abandoning your quest of locking down your friends. ….
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Still with me?
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You really are an a… aren’t you?
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Persistent… I’ll give you that. ….
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Persistence pays off. Now I will teach you how to lock your friends up in different ways that are Stasis-like. The original build of Stasis was called Turbo Stasis. It relied on getting multiple Howling Mines in to play and running your opponent out of cards. It also highlighted some of the more famous cards of Magic: Force of Will, Arcane Denial, and Counterspell. The following version was close to the original build. I will follow that build up with the more optimal build, which came about due to help from Mirage block.
In this build, Matt Place utilized Despotic Scepter to ‘whack’ or destroy his own Stasis at the end of your turn in order to reset his lands. It was an interesting concept, and people tried it quite often, but the common consensus was that it was not necessary. You drew into a Boomerang or more Islands so often, why bother playing around with the Scepter?
If you don’t know why Winter Orb wrecks your day, think about why you Boomerang the Stasis in the first place… to reset your lands. Winter Orb only allowed for one land to be untapped, which forced Stasis to need to Boomerang the Orb and their Stasis in order to untap all their lands. That was a tough job for only four Boomerangs, which is why Stasis began playing eight sources of White mana and Disenchants in the sideboard. My personal build included Disempower, as I could put your Orb on top of your library and force you to recast it, squandering your mana… …Did someone say squander? What a great way to lead into the next Stasis build: Squandered Stasis.
You also should note the addition of Equipoise, from Visions. This was the “Fixed Balance” as we called it back then. It worked really well at keeping creatures off of the board… unless they were Black Pump Knights and had Protection from White…. However, Equipose does give me a nice lead into my next Stasis deck, and it is the first non-Stasis, Stasis deck. I was on the bandwagon hard for this deck. Stupid Stupid Stupid Sligh!!
The good news is that I could pretty much have my way with any other deck of the time, but practically 3/4 of the tournament players were playing Sligh, so is was not even worth trying to play it. Here is how the deck worked: You start the deck out of the gates like any other control deck, aiming to get to a turn four Wrath of God. However, if you are not pressured, you scrap that plan entirely and go for the fifth turn lock instead. Where is the lock? Sands of Time says, “Each player skips his or her untap step. At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player simultaneously untaps each tapped artifact, creature, and land he or she controls and taps each untapped artifact, creature, and land he or she controls.” Annoying at best. It gets stronger when you have Equipoise in play, which says, “At the beginning of your upkeep, for each artifact target player controls in excess of the number you control, choose an artifact he or she controls. Repeat this process for creatures and lands. The chosen permanents phase out.” So if I had two creatures, and you have four, Equipoise would balance the board during my Upkeep by making two of your creatures phase out. You then repeat this process with lands and artifacts. It gets particularly nasty, however, when paired with Sands of Time, and remembering that Phasing takes place naturally during the Untap Phase, you begin to realize that the things that get phased out never return. Equipoise continues to make your opponent’s threats go away every turn, and Sands of Time seals them there. Since you are only playing Taniwha as a creature, you never have to worry about having a creature stick to the board (unless they have Protection from White or Shroud), and the extra lands and artifacts that they play slip out of existence as well. The game ends slightly different than Stasis, though.
The opponent will get three draws to get a Plains and a Swords to Plowshares and hope that you are not holding a Force of Will, or else there’s nothing that they can do at that point, remembering that Taniwha is a 7/7 trampler.
That’s right; Stasis is viable in today’s Standard environment. Dubious, are you? Take a look at the card… Brine Elemental. ---> (Right there!) Sure, you’d think that you couldn’t just keep flipping him over, but Vesuvan Shapeshifter can! A quirky rule says that each time the Shapeshifter flips up, if it copies a creature with morph, it triggers that creature’s ability. Which means that each time the ‘shifter flips up, it ‘Brines’ the opponent. Let’s take a look at a typical deck build.
The deck takes advantage of what the ‘shifter does, by flipping up and copying Fathom Seer and drawing cards until you run into Teferi. Remembering that Teferi makes all creatures of yours have Flash, you can now use Mystical Teachings to find your lone copy of Brine Elemental. Once he is in play, simply wait for the opportune time to flip him up, lock your opponent down, and continue flipping up your ‘shifter. Your opponent cannot respond to the morph ability, so they must only deal with the Stasis ability on the stack, making this a really tough lock to break. Well friends, I must conclude here so that you do not become a permanent seat cushion, and then try to sue me for damages, as if you’d get anything from my broke… In closing, please don't play Stasis. It is not good for your health, nor a healthy friendship. Following my three-piece series, I hope to have heightened your awareness of the Casual environment, or perhaps even shown you that there is an environment. Remember, play Stasis at your own risk. You just might die if you do. cpn
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I
don’t understand you guys. I really don’t. You could play weenie decks, control
decks, combo decks, discard decks, theme decks, stompy decks, or even an all
land deck. Yet there is a good amount of people fascinated with
self-destruction. People still want to tinker with Stasis.
Stasis
was originally designed for one purpose: Defeating Necropotence decks. It was
not played in Casual, but only in tournaments for the sole purpose of torturing
those a-holes who would not stop playing Necro. Those people quickly became easy
wins for Stasis, and Stasis went on a roll itself.
Turbo
Stasis 1996. 
This
build, which I quickly built from memory as I couldn’t find a fast deck on
MTG.com, is essentially what Stasis evolved into. It could search out the
Stasis, Kismet, and Mines with an Enlightened Tutor. It could also quick-fetch a
Force of Will with a Mystical Tutor. The Anvil of Bogardan was a blessing to
Stasis, as its second ability does not allow Necro to get the cards it pays for,
since players are forced to skip their Discard Phase. Finally, by this time
people had discovered the power of Winter Orb and were sideboarding it minimally
against Stasis.
You
will probably notice that this build does not include Boomerang. That is because
you don’t ever reset your lands. An Island is worth two Blue mana to this deck,
so drawing one Island will pay your upkeep for two turns. This deck did not do
as well as previous decks, though, because of Sligh. Sligh was too fast and too
brutal for this deck to lock them down.
This
deck is probably one of my all-time favorites, except that it couldn’t beat the
most popular deck of the time: Sligh. Sligh killed on average around turn four
to six, and my deck would not synch in its lock until around six or seven. Even
on good draws when I could get a soft lock on turn five, stupid Sligh would draw
into Fireblast and ruin my day. 
As
I mentioned, you are playing one creature, Taniwha. Taniwha reads, “Phasing,
trample, At the beginning of your upkeep, all lands you control phase out.”
Again, by itself this card is pretty bad, but with the combo of Sands of Time
and Equipoise, you are ready to stop playing Stasis and begin playing Ernie-geddon.
Since you are skipping your Untap Phase, Taniwha never phases out. You then
enter your Upkeep, and add three abilities to the stack. Since you control them
all, you decide the order in which they enter the stack. The best method would
be to stack Sands of Time, Equipose, then Taniwha, so that Taniwha phases out
all of your lands, then Equipose phases out all of the opponent’s lands, then
you tap/untap everything. True, Taniwha taps for a turn, but the board now sits
nearly empty… Taniwha is tapped, but all the other permanents are locked outside
of the game.
Stasis
of today…