Standstill is a great deck. Standstill is a terrible deck.
These two statements are always accurate. Standstill as a card and a deck is always either incredibly potent at making opponents groan when it comes down or is a bad deck that you’ll play because it’s rather fun despite its weaknesses. Standstill is the kind of card that tickles a lot of my boxes, as it’s powerful yet requires some strange deck building choices to maximize that power.
Right now, Standstill is on the rise in Legacy. But today, I thought I’d take a look at it in another format. One that’s more casual, but still with great competition: Middle School. For a closer look at the format, check out either my Middle School Primer or Eternal Central’s website.
This is my personal starting place for any Middle School Standstill deck. Let’s break it down, bit by bit.
Lands
The landbase is pretty straightforward. Flooded Strand serve as our most flexible, yet relatively painless, lands. Adarkar Wastes serve as our other very flexible land, though at a mild price. Later on we use it for mostly colorless mana, but early on we need to be able to hit heavy color requirements such as T1 Swords to Plowshares into T2 Counterspell into T3 Absorb. Faerie Conclave and Mishra’s Factory serve as our creatures underneath a resolved Standstill, as their activations will not cause Standstill to be sacrificed. Factory can also serve as a very threatening blocker for most creatures in the format, due to its ability to become a 3/3 while on defense. Finally, Plains and Islands as basics, which are fetchable off Flooded Strand.
Counter Suite
The counter suite for this deck relies on the assumption that you have 16 total counter slots. Twelve of these are set in stone: Force of Will is an “OH CRAP” button you’ll need to lean on in matchups like Reanimator and Hermit Druid, Counterspell is the workhorse of the deck, which you’ll use to stop stuff that you don’t want to hit the field, and Absorb acts as a slightly more expensive Counterspell that gains you life. This life is most relevant against cards like Fireblast or Fling out of decks like Sligh. Finally, your first four flex slots are here: Mana Leak when facing decks still operating strongly from T3 onwards, Force Spike when facing a lot of Reanimator or Hermit Druid and needing extra panic buttons, or Memory Lapse when you want to flex into Predict for card advantage.
Removal
The removal suite is relatively simple, since we run so much countermagic: 4 Swords to Plowshares and 3 Wrath of God. Swords is mainly used in two positions. The first is against important creatures such as Hermit Druid, Mother of Runes, or any big creature people cheat out like Penumbra Wurm, and the second is used as early removal to stave off some pressure. Against a deck like Sligh, it can also hit problematic big creatures such as Ball Lightning, but it’s important to watch for Fling shenanigans. Wrath of God serves as a way to clean up four or more creatures, but can do against less in a pinch.
Utility and Flex
Decree of Justice is the most common way you’ll be ending games. It’s important to not be afraid to cycle this for only three or four tokens, as this is likely enough pressure to finish a game after drawing three cards off a cracked Standstill (which cycling doesn’t trigger), especially when combined with a Mishra’s Factory or Faerie Conclave. Fact or Fiction is the best card advantage spell in the format and one you should definitely abuse. Holding it up is a relatively low cost due to the abundance of instant speed interaction, and it allows you to refill after pitching to a Force of Will.
My current recommendations for flex slots are 4 Portent, 4 Mana Leak, and 2 Impulse. Portent is effectively our version of Ponder. While we don’t get additional value from the delayed draw like Miracles would, we also don’t have many options for cheap card filtering. Impulse fills that slot as well, as a two mana instant to dig four cards is quite good for finding Wrath of God at the right time. Mana Leak serves as a great early catch all, and pitches to Force of Will when a free counter is needed.
There are plenty of other flex slots to consider. Accumulated Knowledge can help add a lot of velocity to the deck, but be aware that it also adds a lot of air. Dust Bowl can replace a land if you need to deal with opposing problematic lands, such as manlands. Replenish can buy back multiple Standstill and potentially Seal of Removal, if you want to lean into it. Meddling Mage is a great option if you know the meta and can read a deck’s gameplan off of a few plays. A singleton Akroma’s Vengeance can be cycled when it’s not needed or hard clears the board in a pinch. Bosium Strip does an alright Snapcaster Mage impression, though I’ve found it to be overkill. If you want access to more creatures but don’t want to run creatures themselves, replacing a Plains with Kjeldorn Outpost can help with that. Stifle is another option you can deploy into certain metas, especially if the mirror will be prevalent. Stifleing a Decree of Justice often ends the game on the spot.
Standstill
This card absolutely deserves its own section. While it’s the namesake of the deck and serves as its game-ender in most scenarios, it has a lot more nuance than people realize.
Most games you do not want to draw Standstill in your opening hand. This may seem a bit counterintuitive to people who’ve never played the deck. Why name a deck after a card and call that card your lynchpin or game-winner but not want to have it in your hand? The answer is simple: our plan is to play a basic UW control game through the early and early-mid game. We want to draw an opening hand with answers, lands, and maybe a piece of card selection or advantage.
The timing on when to land a Standstill depends on the matchup in question. Against other control decks, we want to use it as early as possible to get in with Factory or Conclave. Against proactive decks, the best time is right after a Wrath of God to really seal the card advantage we accrued. The main trick is that you very rarely should play a Standstill into a board state you’re behind on, as you will be forced to crack it and lose. The next-level play is when you can answer the board by cycling a Decree of Justice you have in hand, as in these situations playing a Standstill may be correct.
Once you have deployed your Standstill, you will want to turn from the control to the beatdown as quickly as possible. When considering playing a Standstill you need to ask yourself: Can I win the game from this position? Can I threaten to? A value Standstill is not the worst, but you do want the pressure to back it up 9 times out of 10. A pair of Mishra’s Factorys or Faerie Conclaves will end the game in 5 turns or less, and a Decree of Justice can threaten lethal even faster.
The other consideration is when you need to board out the namesake. Against a deck like Sligh, you really need every card in the 60 to be pulling work, so cutting out Standstill makes sense. Against a deck like Counter Rebels, you need more answers than usual since any one of their creatures represents all of them, given enough time. A Standstill in that matchup is much, much harder to land and as such makes sense to trim down for additional answers. Against midrange or control decks, I’d never trim a copy.
The Matchups
Standstill is at its best against decks that aren’t trying to cheese you early on. If Standstill is allowed its early turns to develop and then deploy its counters and sweepers before locking down the game, it’s a near-guaranteed good matchup. This includes plenty of the most common decks in the format, such as Counter-Rebels, Elfball, Survival, RecSur, ErhnamGeddon, Aluren, and Trix. These are all decks that will take a minute to set up, giving you time to set up as well.
Sligh is a tricky but generally favored matchup. Game 1 will be the toughest, as they will get on the board quickly and put the pressure on you. You want to find Absorb here desperately, and use it on targets like Ball Lightning or Fling. Additionally, remember to take advantage of tricks like animating a Mishra’s Factory, blocking with it, activating it on itself, then Swords to Plowsharesing it with damage on the stack. I always pack Circle of Protection: Red and Chill in my board, as they make the post-board games much easier.
The most difficult matchups are ones that play both disruption quickly and then end the game soon after. Hermit Druid as a card and deck falls into this category, with mainboard acceleration in Mox Diamond and discard in Duress that make executing the combo of playing a Hermit Druid easy to accomplish. Postboard they have access to Defense Grid to stretch your Force of Wills even further.
Similarly, beware Reanimator. Mainboard Duress and Cabal Therapy into threats like Iridescent Angel mean you must lean on Wrath of God as your answer. Postboard they can bring in Hymn to Tourach or Defense Grid, similarly stretching your counters even further. Once they have a threat in the graveyard it’s just a matter of them finding the right order of discard into a reanimation spell to really end you. While this matchup is more winnable than Hermit Druid, it remains very difficult.
Another tough matchup is present in Suicide Black. Duress and Hymn to Tourach main shred your hand, Sphere of Resistance slows you down after and disables free-cast Force of Will, and threats like Dauthi Slayer beat you down. Slayer also gets around your otherwise stellar blocker in Mishra’s Factory, furthering the pressure. They can start pressuring early with Sarcomancy in some games and remove your Factories with Vendetta or Spinning Darkness.Their top end of Cursed Scroll and Forsaken Wastes is hard to interact with and shut down most of your stabilizers and win conditions.
Why Play Standstill?
I’d recommend this deck for several reasons. The first is simple: the deck is powerful. Locally, this is one of the top decks in the meta, with our last state-wide event coming down to a Standstill Mirror. The second is that there is a certain fun that comes with playing classic Draw-Go Control. Sculpting the hand, finding the right moment to fire off certain spells, and finding the right answers at the right times can all lead to very interesting decisions and games. The third is that the deck makes use of some sweet interactions around its namesake. Manlands are fun to play, and Mishra’s Factory is among the best of them. Decree of Justice is an icon from a bygone age, but is also a blast to play.
The last reason is that this format is super freaking sick. There’s a huge variety of decks and options, tons of powerful stuff going on, and an overall very balanced metagame. Additionally, this deck is extremely cheap to pick up (especially if you already have or are willing to trim Force of Wills), costing only ~$300 for black or white-bordered cards and getting you staples for many formats in the process. You can also use World Championship printings for official tournaments, dropping the cost down to less than $100 for the deck without Force of Wills or ~$200-250 with them.
If you like older cards, a meta that rewards deck knowledge and innovation, gameplay that rewards interaction, and playing a control deck that makes you consider every turn, then I’d recommend both this deck and this format.
