This is a list I have been brewing on for a while as I am very new to playing vintage. I don't currently own any moxen so this is the list that I have come up with to play in a few upcoming events. I have only played in a handful of events (before having owned any power) and I am admittedly not as knowledgable about the format as I am about Legacy. I'm hoping some of you can shed some light on some of my decisions that were good/bad citing examples within the metagame.

Thanks in advance.

The only thing that's glaring is spell snare. Most people just play flusterstorm in that spot because of how much better it is when your opponent has misstep. That being said, I know there's some upside where it can counter things fluster can't, but you really need to think about why the card's in the deck. one of the main reason you run counterspells, especially more mana efficient ones, is combo and spell snare just doesn't stop your opponent from going off on its own. That ends up being too bad to justify the other upsides.

As a finer point, I'd think critically about energy flux in your board. 3 mana ends up being a lot vs shops, so if you're trying to use it to end the game, sure, but it needs help getting there which means it's not exactly working as an anti-shops card as much as you want it to. I'll also say that energy flux tends to do nothing vs other decks with artifacts, if you figured there'll be more flexibility.

@structuremole Thanks for the insights. My thought process behind spell snare was against shops since they do have a lot of 2 drops (also against oath which is not really in the metagame from what I can tell). I wasn't sure if running more than 1 flusterstorm would be good in the shops matchup considering my sideboard options. I wasn't sure about energy flux vs kataki in the sideboard and my worry was that kataki just gets mowed down by the various shops creatures (ballista in particular). I thought energy flux would be a good finisher for that matchup and stony silence was what I thought would be better vs other decks with artifacts with one mainboard and one sideboard. Should I run third stony silence instead of one of the energy flux? Am I correct that combo now is usually using the paradoxical outcome engine?

There's a lot of glaring issues

Archangel Avacyn - truthfully, you don't need a big beater, and most Landstill lists eschew the big beater becuase you are a grindy deck.

Engineered Explosives - this is one of my favorite cards, but you're playing 2 colors, and you're also playing Stony Silence. In a deck with dack or such, this is fine because the crd isn't really deck, but you only have Brainstorm and Jace to put it back. I'd be more a fan of a 2nd Stony Silence, or maybe even nowadays a Maindeck Energy Flux in that spot.

Someone already mentioned spell snare, but you're extremely light on counters already. I'd cut the Verdict for sure as you have 3 plows and moat to handle ground pounders. Bare Minimum Counterspells for me in a landstill deck are 4 Force of Will, 3 Mana Drain, 3 Mental Mistep, 2 Mindbreak Trap, 1 Flusterstorm

You're on 22 mana sources as well. Landstill NEEDS at least 25, because you want to actually hit land drops up to and sometimes past turn 4. I'd actually be running 26 - 27

Echoing Truth has no reason to be in a landstill deck. Your deck is slow, and you don't want to be putting things back into their hand, you want to be destroying their stuff. Bouncing it is basically just a time walk - which isn't very good.

If you like angels, I always liked an LSV favorite surprise for the archetype: Decree of Justice.

@MSolymossy Thanks for pointing these things out. I really appreciate the input.
So without a flying beater am I assuming I rely on JTMS to win if I land a moat? Without a flying beater I don't have any other real win condition. I have seen lists that run Emrakul, the Promised End and Morphling. I don't like the idea of Emrakul because I don't think I can reliably cast it without mana drain mana (realistically going to cost me 9 at best). I'm just curious what your idea is for a win condition if moat hits the table.
As far as explosives I would think it would be good against tokens, moxen, and spheres even only having access to 2 mana. I know that I'm also playing stony silence but it seems like a lot of decks are running stony silence and moxen. Is the possibility of hitting stony silence after playing EE a huge downside or is it mostly having stony silence in play and then drawing EE. I guess I'm unsure what the downside is if I hit it before stony silence?
Is spell snare just really bad against shops? I know it is limited in other matchups as it only hits DT and some other very specific cards.
Yeah after looking at it I'm very light on counter magic. I'll have to see where to put in more. I thought echoing truth into standstill would be a good play but is it just that situational?
Sorry for the questions and I'm not trying to be argumentative I am genuinely just trying to learn from more experienced players. I don't really have access to events in my area and I can only travel once or twice a year to play so I'm eager to learn from more experienced players.

@jaeastep said in Standstill List-Need Help:

So without a flying beater am I assuming I rely on JTMS to win if I land a moat?

Correct. I'd also, when increasing lands, play a couple Faeirie Conclaves. Jace is a very viable win-con though, especially when your opponent can't realistically attack it. You also have Clique (A card I actually LOVE, for the record).

As far as explosives I would think it would be good against tokens, moxen, and spheres even only having access to 2 mana. I know that I'm also playing stony silence but it seems like a lot of decks are running stony silence and moxen. Is the possibility of hitting stony silence after playing EE a huge downside or is it mostly having stony silence in play and then drawing EE. I guess I'm unsure what the downside is if I hit it before stony silence?

Explosives is very good against spheres and tokens, which is why I am playing it in my Mentor list AND my outcome list. But you're a much different breed of animal on Landstill - You actually have a very viable gameplan of playing through it. You have Crucible, which actually is great at building mana/denying mana under spheres.

Is spell snare just really bad against shops? I know it is limited in other matchups as it only hits DT and some other very specific cards.

The problem is Spell Snare is marginal (I'd say 3 on a scale of 1 to 10) against Shops, and isn't good against anything else other than Oath. You might be able to get Jace Vryn's Prodigy or Snapcaster Mage, and the occasional Time Vault, Merchant Scroll, or Demonic Tutor, but those decks play more misteps than you play anyway. You don't really want to fight their missteps.

Yeah after looking at it I'm very light on counter magic. I'll have to see where to put in more. I thought echoing truth into standstill would be a good play but is it just that situational?

Echoing Truth is very situational - I don't like having to rely on Standstill to resolve in order to slow the game down. IF your opponent resolves some cards that are problematic, I think you need to adjust on the fly to get rid of those cards before you land a standstill. Jaces (-1) Ability is very potent, as well as Moat.

Sorry for the questions and I'm not trying to be argumentative I am genuinely just trying to learn from more experienced players. I don't really have access to events in my area and I can only travel once or twice a year to play so I'm eager to learn from more experienced players.

Yeah, I didn't take it as argumentative at all. Don't worry about it! It's all about approach - your thread read more like someone that did his research and understands at least the basics of the format, and was asking a legitimate question.

Appart from what has been said by guest i would only say that i dont really like the balance in a landstill deck.
Balance is for sure a VERY powerful card but i think you need a deck with all the moxen and fast artifact mana to make it worth. Also standstill is a control deck. You not only are holding the cards in your hand but you are drawing alot and will be most of the time ahead in CA making balance even worse. If you have it as a 2 mana sweaper id recomend to change it for verdict instead. I actually think is not that bad , even if i rather just add the forth plow or another snapy instead. Cheers.

Thanks for all of the help and for breaking down your explanations for me. I have very little experience in the format and try to read as much as I can and look over deck lists and watch matches. The help is very much appreciated! I was thinking of balance as a reset button like the supreme verdict in case things get out of hand and I need to "pull the chute" so to speak. I know that sometimes having that backup can really help and having it at a lower mana cost against a shops deck seems appealing as opposed to the 4 mana spell which gets expensive with spheres in play. I'll go back to the drawing board a bit with it and try to play test some. Thanks again for all the insights! This format is so fascinating and complex from a construction point of view.