Lock Components & Win Condition:
First is the very card this deck is built around. It runs 4 copies, and it's a 1 blue + 1 colorless enchantment that says at every upkeep, you have to pay 1 blue to keep it on the field, or Stasis gets destroyed. Essentially, nobody gets to have an untap step. Because you have to pay that blue every turn to maintain it, it can get kinda difficult. However, there are ways to work around this, and I will go over them in the meantime.
Another one of the main lock components of the deck, and a card that can really put the brakes on your opponent. The Winter Orb is meant to slow the pace of the game down by only allowing players to untap 1 land at the beginning of their turn. A turn 1 or 2 Winter Orb is fantastic, and I suggest running 3-4 copies of this card, because it's so critical to get it onto the field as early as possible.
Kismet ends up being a really excellent pairing with Stasis. On one hand, Stasis punishes your opponent for tapping their lands, while Kismet punishes your opponent by tapping everything that comes onto the board. This has been a staple of the deck for years, because once you get the Kismet into play, the tempo of your opponent slows down immensely. With everything they play coming into play tapped, they have to wait that whole extra turn before they can use it, and it gives you a lot more opportunity to dig down to get the Stasis, and get enough mana to establish a hard lock.
Moat is a strong contender for halting your opponent's attacks. Unless their deck is built around creatures that have flying, they can't attack you. It's the kind of card that fits well into the Stasis shell.
This is the deck's main win-condition. Black Vise is a 1-mana artifact that deals damage to your opponent for every card they have in excess of 4. Say if your opponent had 7 cards in hand, then Black Vise at the beginning of their upkeep, would deal them 3 damage. Also, if the deck is functioning as it should, your opponent will have a hard time casting spells, or if they're locked down completely, won't be able to cast any at all. If that is the case, then your opponent will have a large hand size and very few ways to consistently empty out their hand as to avoid taking damage. The deck should be running 3-4 copies of this card, because it mostly relies on the Vises to deal damage, and if you're only running 1 or 2 and they get knocked out, then you're left without a win condition. Not to mention if you're digging down for the card, then you're a little worried about getting decked, and you're also worried if you could keep the lock long enough to get to it.
A very key card in this deck, and definitely a card you'd want to see in your starting hand or get down onto the board early. Yeah, your opponent is gonna get cards too, but Howling Mine allows you to dig deeper into your deck to help you get to those other lock components. Also, this card works in conjunction with Black Vise by increasing your opponent's hand size, and with your lock components slowing your opponent down, it's going to put them in a tough spot, because if they're constantly in a position where they're gonna have more than 4 cards, then Black Vise is going to be hounding them for damage each turn. Also, in the event that your opponent doesn't get to play anything due to his or her lands being tapped out, if their hand has more than 7 cards at the end of their turn, then they are forced to discard in order to get back down to the maximum hand size. Most importantly though, it can help keep your lock going because when you get that Stasis out and you really want to keep it running, it can increase your chances of hitting your blue land drops for the Stasis upkeep.
Relic Barrier is a card that can tap down an artifact, but where this card truly shines in this deck is when you use it on your Winter Orb on your opponent's end step. The way it works is, when an artifact is tapped, then its effect is turned off. Now you might see where this is going. Pretty dirty, isn't it? So, what you do is, at the end of their turn, you take your Relic Barrier and tap down your Winter Orb. Then you get to untap all of your lands while they only get to untap 1. Savage, just absolute savage! You get to play all of your stuff while your opponent doesn't get to play anything. This card is also useful when used on Howling Mine. Let's say it was early in the game and you didn't want your opponent to draw the extra card yet. Well, what you can do is use Relic Barrier to tap down Howling Mine on their upkeep so that they don't get the extra card. Another thing is, if they happen to play an artifact creature, then you could use Relic Barrier to lock it down.
This card functions in a similar fashion as Relic Barrier, except that Icy Manipulator can tap any land, creature, or artifact on the board, and that it costs 1 mana to use it each time. I only run with 2 in my build, and that's because of its intensive mana cost, and for the deck's mana curve, 2 of these along with a Relic Barrier is enough to suffice.
Now, you're probably thinking "You mean to tell me I've got to skip my turn before I'm allowed to activate Time Vault?". While yes, this is true, there are a couple of amazing interactions you can actually do with this card. For now, I'll go over one because the card for the second interaction, Twiddle, happens to be in the sideboard and not in the main deck.
The first interaction is with Stasis. When you play Time Vault of course, it's tapped, and you have to skip a turn before you can use it. But because Stasis requires you to pay its upkeep cost to keep it going, what you can do is untap your Time Vault while the Stasis is in play, and in the meantime, your opponent isn't getting an untap step either, so at that point, skipping your turn isn't such a big deal then because chances are they're not going to be able play anything, and they're also going to get chewed up by the Vises too. Also, when you let Stasis go, keep in mind that your lands don't immediately untap after Stasis is destroyed, but because you now have Time Vault available, you can tap it, get your turn back, and untap your lands before your opponent. A very neat trick.
One of the counter spells in the deck. It runs one copy, and when you counter a spell, its total converted mana cost gets added to your mana pool during your next turn on your main phase.
The other counter-magic in the deck. Power Sink is a really good counter spell which has a mechanic that forces your opponent to tap their lands. Unlike some counter spells that are designed to counter spells unless an opponent pays x-amount of mana, Power Sink is different in such that they have to try to tap their lands to pay the cost. They can't just let the spell resolve in an attempt to keep their lands untapped, because if the spell resolves, then it's going to tap all their lands whether they want it to or not.
The 3 Boomerangs are in there. Now, you definitely want to run 3-4 of these because there are many situations where this card is going to be useful. Not only are you going to be able to pull back one of your of own lock components in the event someone tries to blow them up, but if anything comes out that you're not expecting, like a creature with vigilance (means that attacking doesn't cause the creature to tap), or something that's very threatening on the board, then you're gonna want to bounce it back into your opponent's hand. Another thing is, if you have a Stasis out there and you have a Boomerang in your hand, you can use your Boomerang at the end of your opponent's turn to bounce the Stasis back in your hand rather than let it go (remember, after the Stasis is destroyed, your lands don't untap until your next turn), then play the Stasis again on your next turn, maintaining that lock. That was the work-around I spoke about earlier btw.
One copy of Ancestral Recall is in this deck because it's restricted. This card can either be used for you to draw 3 cards, or alternatively, it can be used as a win condition by making your opponent draw 3 cards during your turn, and depending on how many cards they have in their hand by their turn, Black Vise will chew them for damage for every card they have in excess of 4.
Now, this card is more important than people realize. A lot of times when battling back and forth with people, chances are they've successfully blown up a few of my lock components. At that point in the game, a lot of my interaction and such are sitting in the graveyard and I also may be low on cards if there's no Howling Mine on the field. In this instance, using Timetwister to draw a new hand of 7 cards is really nice, but the graveyard recursion often times is more important. So, you've got the graveyard recursion and the card draw from it, but also, if I've got Vises and I'm locking them down, sometimes I'll Timetwist and they'll take damage from the Vises, maybe even win the game because of it. So yeah, the Timetwister is really, really important in this deck. In fact, if this card happens to get discarded from my hand or gets countered, honestly, I'm really worried about being able to win that match because I know I don't have the ability to keep the tempo going as much.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Will be continuing the rundown of the deck in the meantime. Just posted it to get things started.
