Stasis primer: one untapped land must do all the work

Quick read

Stasis is mono-blue resource denial with a self-imposed puzzle: Stasis skips every untap step but demands blue mana at upkeep. Forsaken City can untap by exiling a hand card; Gush, Daze, and Thwart exchange Islands for cards or interaction; Black Vise turns a frozen hand into pressure.

• Plan: develop blue mana and selection, choose a window in which Stasis can be supported, preserve that window with permission and tempo, then let Black Vise or the opponent’s inability to act end the game.
• Games it creates: before Stasis, it selects and interacts; after it, every hand card, untapped City, and alternate cost is a resource.
• Strength: the deck attacks an opponent’s ability to use their mana and creatures rather than trying to outsize them in combat.
• Structural weakness: the lock is not automatic. The deck needs a way to pay Stasis’s upkeep, cards to fuel Forsaken City, and enough interaction to survive an opponent’s remaining board and spells. It can also lose when it assembles a lock that it cannot maintain.
• Good fit: choose it if you enjoy exact trigger ordering, planning several turns ahead, and winning through a constrained board state. Avoid it if you want flexible tap-out turns or a deck whose permanents naturally help each other without upkeep costs.

This primer covers one mono-blue Forsaken City–Gush–Thwart build, not every deck labeled Stasis. Root Maze, red splash, Oath, Powder Keg, and Stiflenought forks change the mana, win conditions, and sideboard plan enough to need their own audit.

Reference 75

Ricardo Santiago, July 5, 2026

Santiago’s list has four Stasis, three Forsaken City, twenty Island, and Island-returning spells—Gush, Daze, Thwart, and Ensnare. It has no creature finish: four Black Vise provide damage, while Impulse, Opt, Counterspell, and alternate-cost spells build and defend the lock.

The 2–3 finish in a 23-player event attributes this 75; it does not establish optimality or a matchup claim.

The recorded list totals 60 main-deck cards and 15 sideboard cards.

MAIN DECK — 60

Artifacts — 4
4 Black Vise

Instants — 29
2 Chain of Vapor
4 Counterspell
4 Daze
2 Ensnare
4 Gush
4 Impulse
1 Mana Short
4 Opt
4 Thwart

Enchantments — 4
4 Stasis

Lands — 23
3 Forsaken City
20 Island

SIDEBOARD — 15
3 Chill
1 Ensnare
2 Mana Short
3 Propaganda
3 Submerge
2 Teferi's Response
1 Zuran Orb

How the deck gets ahead

Stasis is a maintained lock, not a one-card finish

Stasis skips every player’s untap step and requires its controller to pay blue at upkeep or sacrifice it. It stops a developed opponent’s lands and creatures, but also your ordinary untap. The question is not “Can I cast Stasis?” but “Can I pay the next upkeep, hold the board, and eventually win or exit?”

The reference list has no mana artifact or creature that pays the upkeep. Its persistent answer is Forsaken City. At the beginning of its controller’s upkeep, City lets that player exile a card from hand; if they do, City untaps. Since both that ability and Stasis’s upkeep ability trigger at the same time under the same player’s control, the controller can order the triggers so that City untaps before the Stasis payment is made. Tap City for blue after it untaps, then pay for Stasis.

Each City upkeep exiles a hand card. Track fuel, City availability, and whether ending Stasis is safer than maintaining it. A judge must check any public shortcut for the trigger order.

Islands are mana, cards, and alternative costs

The list’s free spells do not mean mana has ceased to matter. They exchange access to Islands for tempo.

• Gush can return two Islands to its owner’s hand instead of paying its mana cost, then draws two cards. It can add cards to fuel Forsaken City and find an answer, but returning two Islands changes the mana available after Stasis leaves.
• Daze can return an Island instead of paying its cost. It protects a narrow early window particularly well, but an alert opponent can play around it once they know it is available.
• Thwart can return three Islands instead of paying its cost. Under Stasis, it can protect the lock when ordinary lands are tapped, but its cost is substantial and the returned Islands must later be replayed.
• Ensnare can return two Islands instead of paying its cost to tap creatures. It is a bridge against creatures that are already on the battlefield; it does not answer a noncombat plan or make a weak Stasis position permanently safe.

Returning an Island can create City fuel, but can also remove mana, land drops, or the Island needed for Daze. Before returning land, decide which upkeep and post-Stasis turn it buys.

Build the window before freezing it

Impulse looks at four cards and puts one into hand; Opt scries, then draws. In this list, selection is not merely a way to find Stasis. It helps establish the resource package around it: a blue source, Forsaken City, a card to exile, relevant interaction, a way to delay attackers, or Black Vise.

Counterspell is the conventional two-blue answer. Holding it can delay Stasis; tapping out can expose the lock. Identify the spell or permanent that breaks the position, then decide whether Daze, Thwart, Chain of Vapor, and the board actually cover it.

Mana Short taps all lands target player controls and makes that player lose unspent mana. It is a timing tool, not a standalone lock. Used before the opponent gets to act, it can narrow a counterspell or activation window; used after their lands are already tapped, it may do very little. Its target and timing must be recorded accurately in paper play.

Black Vise turns a frozen hand into a clock

Black Vise triggers at the beginning of the chosen opponent’s upkeep and deals damage equal to the number of cards in that player’s hand above four. Under Stasis, an opponent may be unable to spend a hand full of spells or untap the mana needed to do so. That makes Vise a plausible way to close a game without creatures.

Vise is not guaranteed damage: it reads the opponent’s hand at the trigger, and they may retain mana or alternate costs. Treat it as pressure for a supported lock, not proof that every Stasis board wins. Its value drops sharply against a low hand.

Bounce buys time and can reset the board

Chain of Vapor returns a target nonland permanent to its owner’s hand. It can remove an opposing threat, save one of your own permanents, or create a turn in which the opponent must spend mana replaying a permanent. Its copy option lets the controller of the bounced permanent sacrifice a land to copy Chain and choose a new target, so do not assume it is a clean one-for-one answer in every board state.

The deck can let Stasis go or use bounce where legal to reopen untaps. Plan the exit: if the opponent untaps first with a developed board, ending the lock may lose more than it saves. Exact reset sequences require reviewer and judge approval.

Mulligan model

An unknown-matchup opener should generally answer four questions:

1. Does it produce blue mana immediately and make the first land drops?
2. Does it contain selection or a credible route to Stasis, Forsaken City, or the interaction needed before a lock?
3. If it casts Stasis, is there a visible plan to pay the next upkeep and retain a card to exile to Forsaken City?
4. Does it have an answer or tempo bridge for the opponent’s likely first threat?

Stasis without City, pressure, or interaction is not automatically functional. Island, selection, Counterspell, and Gush can be a serviceable setup hand without Stasis. A castable early turn is worth more than an unsupported lock piece.

Example keeps

• Keep: Island, Island, Forsaken City, Stasis, Counterspell, Gush, Opt. This hand makes normal blue mana, has a City to sustain an eventual Stasis, selection, and two forms of interaction/card flow. The pilot still needs to decide whether holding Counterspell is more important than casting Stasis early.
• Keep with a sequencing plan: Island, Island, Black Vise, Impulse, Daze, Thwart, Ensnare. This hand lacks Stasis and City, but it begins with a land drop, selection, pressure, and several ways to buy time. The returned-Island costs need care; it is a setup hand, not a promise of a turn-two lock.

Example mulligans

• Mulligan: Forsaken City, Forsaken City, Stasis, Stasis, Thwart, Gush, Mana Short. City does not make blue mana without first untapping, there is no ordinary source to start the game, and the spells do not construct a working first turn.
• Mulligan: Island, Island, Island, Black Vise, Black Vise, Black Vise, Black Vise. The mana is functional, but the hand has no selection, lock piece, or meaningful way to prevent the opponent from executing their plan. Vise is pressure, not a substitute for the deck’s engine.

At six, prioritize castable blue mana and early action. Forsaken City needs a normal opening land and upkeep fuel. Bottom redundant Stasis or an expensive alternate-cost spell before the land that makes the hand work; pilot testing must set play/draw exceptions.

Sequencing and decision points

Before casting Stasis

• Count how many future upkeep payments are visible: Forsaken City, cards in hand that can be exiled, and any interaction that must be retained.
• Identify the opponent’s current mana, creatures, activated abilities, and noncombat plan. Stasis stops untap steps; it does not remove what is already in play.
• Ask whether a turn spent on Impulse or Opt produces a safer lock than tapping out now.
• Decide which of Counterspell, Daze, and Thwart is genuinely available after the spell resolves. Do not count a returned Island twice as both a future land drop and an already-paid cost.

During the upkeep lock

1. Put the Forsaken City and Stasis upkeep triggers on the stack in an order that allows City to untap first.
2. Decide whether to exile a card and tap City for blue before committing to the Stasis payment.
3. Recount the remaining hand, lands, and pressure. The goal is not merely to survive the upkeep; it is to know whether the next one is better or worse.
4. Preserve interaction for the permanent or spell that can actually break the position, rather than countering the first spell by habit.

Common errors

• Treating Stasis as one-sided. Its controller also skips their untap step and must pay its upkeep.
• Ignoring Forsaken City’s card cost. The City needs a card in hand each upkeep to untap; a locked opponent is not automatically a defeated opponent.
• Calling Daze, Thwart, Gush, and Ensnare “free.” Each returns Islands and changes future mana, land drops, and lock fuel.
• Assuming Black Vise always kills. It measures the opponent’s hand at their upkeep, not a fixed amount of damage.
• Casting Stasis into an existing board without a bridge. Untapped attackers, mana rocks, alternative costs, and active abilities can still matter.
• Using Chain of Vapor as though it cannot be copied. The opponent may sacrifice a land to copy it.
• Skipping trigger-order communication. State the order at upkeep rather than relying on an unspoken shortcut.

Matchups and sideboard roles

Sideboard roles

Fast creature decks

Creature decks ask whether Stasis can be supported before combat makes the hand irrelevant. Ensnare and Chain delay attackers; Propaganda and more Ensnare are cards to test. None replaces sustained blue mana, City, and hand fuel.

Testing question: test the play/draw split against Goblins, Sligh, and Elves. Record whether early Black Vise changes the race, how often Ensnare is a real bridge rather than a temporary tap effect, and whether Propaganda is cast in time.

Red spells and Burn

Chill is the explicit red-tax card; Counterspell, Daze, and Thwart can protect a narrow life-total window. This draft makes no favorable-matchup claim: City fuel can fail and damage spells can bypass creature combat.

Testing question: establish the exact number of Chill, Ensnare, Mana Short, and Black Vise cards to retain against red decks. Test whether the deck should race with Vise or prioritize delaying a Stasis turn, and distinguish play from draw.

Blue permission and control

Against blue, resolving Stasis is only the first task. An opponent may retain mana, alternate-cost interaction, cards already on the battlefield, and effects that function through a skipped untap step. Daze and Thwart are valuable here because they can operate when ordinary lands are committed, but their returned-Island costs can make the controller’s own position brittle.

Testing question: play post-board games against Landstill, Psychatog, and Stiflenought. Determine which spells are held to protect Stasis, which are used to force it through, and when Black Vise is worth deploying before the lock. Do not treat a generic counterspell timing rule without pilot evidence.

Land denial, artifacts, and noncombat plans

Stasis does not answer a mana artifact that is already untapped, an activated ability whose cost can be paid, or a permanent that wins without attacking. Chain of Vapor and Counterspell are the general tools in this 75, but they ask for distinct timing decisions. Teferi’s Response is particularly narrow and should not be described as universal land protection.

Testing question: identify the exact artifact, land-denial, graveyard, and enchantment interactions in the current field that matter to this list. Test whether any sideboard card needs a different slot before authoring specific instructions.

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