Turbo Stasis 2.0, a Magic Old School deck (93/94 format)

This is the last version of this Old School format deck that I'll be posting on KZbin, because this deck is definitely lethal and possibly Tier 1 now. I ditched white and went straight for mono-blue aggressive lockdown with Stasis and it worked!
Unlike previous Stasis builds this deck can aggressively drop a Stasis with only a few blue left on the table because it has enough tricks to maintain that Stasis. The kill is done via Black Vise which 93/94 format foolishly allows 4 copies of. That's why this deck can now exist and operate on a mana curve much faster than previous Stasis builds.
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Here is the (updated) deck list:
Turbo Stasis 2.0 (By Edwin)
(Spells)
4x Stasis
4x Black Vise
4x Winter Orb
4x Howling Mine
4x Boomerang
3x Power Sink
2x Reset
2x Twiddle
2x Relic Barrier
2x Copy Artifact
1x Time Vault
1x Chaos Orb
1x Timetwister
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Mana Drain
1x Icy Manipulator
(Mana Sources)
16 Island
1x Black Lotus
1x Sol Ring
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Jet
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Emerald
(Sideboard)
4x Unsummon
3x Blue Elemental Blast
3x Meekstone
2x Twiddle
1x Time Walk
1x Power Sink
1x Icy Manipulator

[@kitchentablemtgforums4048]

Thanks for breaking the deck down and how to pilot it, helps seeing all the cards in action

[@andreofawesome8848]

Love your oldschool deck breakdowns. Hoping for more!

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

Hello André, there will be more for sure. I might make some of my next videos more tech-nerd stuff, then circle back to MTG :) Do you enjoy any of the tech or finance stuff?

[@andreofawesome8848]

Sure, but I'm mostly here for the MTG, tbh :)

[@LastAirshipGames]

Very happy to come home to some old school content after slinging Ixalan all weekend.

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

Glad you are enjoying the Old School content. How did you Ixalan slinging go?

[@RA-jk9qd]

I like your videos on Old School 93-94. I think it could work as a budget deck too, will try it out with more land and some Fellwars instead of the Moxes.

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

Well it can certainly work with Fellwar Stone yes. But then it loses the "Turbo" part to some degree. In fact... if you are going to drop moxen you might just switch over to lands. Perhaps some Mishra's Factories to do some blocking until you have mana to drop Stasis? That could work under a budget. Still though... the Time Vault and Chaos orb are pretty huge in that deck. Transmute Artifact and Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale would also be huge. I don't own either of those at the time I made this video, but they would be really good for it.

[@TimmytheSorcerer]

Enjoy these series! Are you planning on doing some more? Maybe a deck with Timmies?

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

Yes I am doing more! It's the primary reason that my video production rate has slowed down again... I'm spending my free time refining some mid-range decks.

[@TimmytheSorcerer]

That's great! I just uploaded my first deck tech vid, kzbin.info/www/bejne/e3uZf4N9ebOBn6M It's my attempt to build an underpowered deck feat Pirate Ship (that card is so bad ass). Anyways, looking forward to see what you've cooked up.

[@mulder1979]

No Tabernacle At Pendrell Vale? That seems like a mistake... .

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

Super strong card yes. Partially because I didn't own one at the time, and partially because in the EC environment it makes me skip a land drop and just gets stripped. To be clear though.... it's a FANTASTIC card in the deck and it was indeed added to my sideboard in the 2.3 version. This is the 2.0 version. If your local meta for Old School is very heavy with creatures then it certainly justifies a main deck inclusion... but it seems like most of the time I don't run into really creature heavy decks. Check out the 2.3 version of Turbo Stasis, that's much closer to what I'm playing now. 2.4 main deck has been released... but not yet the sideboard.

[@BobbyxZx]

ah! so you came to the same conclusion as i did all those years ago. kismet isn't worth splashing white, even if you use land tax. my stasis deck was mono blu back in the day, too. i killed with millstone, tho. i had a number of people refuse to play that deck... now that i'm returning to mtg, i'm planning on rebuilding it for fun :) turbo stasis is a beast :) when buyback became a thing, and capsize was available, the deck became unstoppable. for the 93/94 format, i might suggest mana short, since your focus is locking down the land.

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

Did you ever end up rebuilding and playing it?

[@tgfmg007]

Hi Edwin! Do you think a budget stasis deck would be any good? I've got a deck list that is definitely budget but I'm curious if you've seen anyone with a budget deck of this kind. Obviously, the budget deck wouldn't hold power or time vault. Just curious if you've thought of a budget version.

[@Gorsh_esp]

I had the occassion to play against one variation of turbostasis and was really difficult (I have a red/blue with bolts, psionics etc.) Stasis knocked my serendibs and creatures. This version is great, congrats! PS: Have you thought to take the Chance having volcanics and add fork? It could be interesting once you play A recall or braingeyser and duplicates it against the opponent.

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

Hi Gorsh, Check out the updated video Turbo Stasis 2.3! I did in fact add Volcanics but Fork ended up not being as strong as the other cards which remain in the list with 2.3.

[@Gorsh_esp]

Edwin the Magic Engineer oh my bad i wanted to post it in the 2.3. I follow all your videos and I loved that 2.3. I would say that deck is one of the most creatives and powerful I saw. :-)

[@donnasprague767]

I agree, reset is a godsend for the stasis player. I used to run time elemental. Have you considered it?

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

This deck is VERY different from traditional Stasis decks. It's a tempo based aggressive lock deck now, not a slow and reactive control/lock deck. Time Elemental is way way too slow and expensive. Take the old viewpoint of Stasis and throw it out the window when you play this. This Stasis deck tries to lock by turn 3-5 and chew the opponents up by turn 8-10.

[@jimmybobsap3158]

Turbo Stasis was my all time favorite deck when I played paper

[@terri4340]

great job on greg manarino's channel! i totally understood what you were saying.. i need visuals so it helped alot!

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

Hi Terri, I'm really glad you liked that video, I'm very visual as well. When ever I'm learning about new concepts the first thing I do is start drawing pictures to make it real for me. After years of learning this stuff and refining the model it's easy to provide that to others. If you are mostly interested in finances you might like my videos about Bitcoin. I'm planning to make more finance videos but currently I've been focusing on more fun topics around my hobbies. This channel is only a few months old, but it's been fun to do :)

[@terri4340]

ok, thanks! i'll look into it and i hope greg has you back on...thanks again!

[@jorgedortaalvarez1390]

you should play city in a bottle in your sideboard, that don't allow the enemy player to play any arabian night cards so that are more cards in his hand for the black vise's damage

[@nkmason8284]

How does your deck do against quick white weenie decks? You might want to add some deserts to take out those quick white 1 drops if there is a problem with 1/1 swarming you.

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

NK Mason Its won almost every single game against white weenie. You know what deck is a bigger threat? Red/Blue bolt/chain/Psionic blast decks! Because instead of 2 damage creatures for 1-2 mana, you have mostly 3 damage spells for 1 mana. Weenie decks usually get one attack and then they lock down from Stasis. You just save your counter-magic and boomerangs for the last few damage spells. By that point your life is low but your hand is full, mana is locked, and you are likely in control.

[@Firevine]

DUDE! You played on Firiona!? NICE! We've probably bumped into each other sometime!

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

I started on Solusek Ro. That was merged with Bristlebane and most of my years were there. Engineer career + wife made it so I just could not swing the hours required for a raid guild, so I solo played most of my EQ career. Soloing meant that I missed out on all those sweet sweet raid drops. I could solo very impressive areas or NPCs... but I could not sell the rewards because of no drop. Then one day Sony opened up the Fironia Vie server for a free transfer. I JUMPED at the chance because that meant my play style could finally be validated. Eandori Raintree the mage is LITERALLY nearly the #1 player across all servers and classes up to his level. I stopped leveling at 86 so I could solo raid content that is fun and usually open. As an 86 Mage Eandori is rocking the best gear possible in nearly every slot and over 55k HP and 54k Mana, with 190 Health Regen and 123 Mana regen at level 86. See for yourself. eq.magelo.com/profile/1977161 My other claim to fame on EQ is a few very old, VERY RARE items I have. I have an original Mana Stone, An Earring of Living Slime (root for mages), and a Slimy Ooze Ejector (snare for mages). I was very very active on the Magician forums for a long time. The Mages Tower. I went by the handle... Eandori Raintree - the Blinding Root, Epic pet casting Gimp Mage of Solusek Ro! My goal was to solo the most challenging areas possible and the most difficult raid bosses possible. Eventually I started getting capped by health drain effects that could not be prevented... so I was forced to bring along the Cleric Merc to keep my health up since I could not heal myself and healing potions were expensive. Who was your toon?

[@Firevine]

Kundow Firevine I've been in KL for freaking years. I never did too much raiding for mostly the same reasons, but I did a bit back in the day when Anezkia and Vyrsin were running the Planar Campaign alliance, and a VERY little bit with AWNN that was a lot of Prophetic Alliance folks and whoever else. I can't even remember it's been so long. The one little stretch where I DID want to raid, I apped to Ancient Darkness, made it in, and then they imploded like a week later, haha. I started very shortly after the Luclin launch, and I've been on FV the entire time. I remember threads on the FV boards that were Resolution vs. Fire and Fury shit slinging fests about selling Plane of Hate/Fear loots. Craziness to think it's been this long.

[@Habeev07]

75 card deck? What is a good number for old school? Im new and have this idea to stick to 60.

[@nickfanzo]

I prefer wg prison with living plane, drop of honey, and lock artifacts. Oh and green mana battery 😊

[@donnasprague767]

As i understand, relic barrier doesn't function any more

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

It does indeed. It can tap down mana rocks to deny mana, it can tap down artifact creatures so they cannot attack, and it can also turn off artifacts like Winter Orb, Howling Mine and others. Because they have specific text that says they are shut off when tapped.

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

Check out my Instagram and look at a more recent version of this deck. I posted version 2.3 on Instagram, but I have not yet posted version 2.4.

[@donnasprague767]

Hmm. There was a time dci ruled tapped artifacts still produced continuous effects. 0n another note: I see a shop here in the D.C. area is about to hold an old school tourney. Do you think chains of mephistopheles/nethervoid/abys style deck would be too oppressive to bring?

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

Correct. At first tapped continuous effect artifacts were "turned off" as a rule. Then that rule was changed and at that time cards that were meant to be turned off were errated to clarify that usage. If you look at new versions of Winter Orb, Howling Mine, etc. they do indeed say "if this artifact is untapped..."

[@BobbyxZx]

i'm glad i dug this deep, i had no idea they revised the cards after the ruling. i'm recreating my old turbo stasis deck from back then (with all the cards i couldn't afford) and that little nugget is a highly welcome bit of knowledge. so cool to find the vid, btw, and thnx

[@thomasvontom]

I had a killer winter orb deck not as vintage as this. But I feel in could of beaten this deck. Dont know how often. I often would have orb ishocron septer with counter spell on it turn one. I also had daze. That little cheap counter spell. DAZE is a golden god to decks like this. Way way cheaper then this deck. But still played the same sort of game. If I would change anything with this deck. Add daze.

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

This deck is not Vintage format. It's Old School 93/94. Only sets Alpha through fallen Empires are allowed

[@soldierofmankind]

Hey Edwin, can you do a budget friendly turbo stasis deck tech? Cheers mate.

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

Not a bad idea... I might do that when I hit Blue/White for mid-level budget decks.

[@soldierofmankind]

@@EdwintheMagicEngineer thank you Edwin. I'll look forward to it. More power to you and your channel. Cheers mate.

[@DevilDocPlays]

100k deck. damn

[@avizueta]

If only I had the money for this deck

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

Proxy up and join the fun :)

[@jhernan84]

I believe g. Baxter published the stasis deck in late 90s in scrye. Good too see it here.

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

I seriously doubt it was a build like this one. It was probably blue/white, much more counterspells, plays defensively, no winter orbs, etc.

[@mikelong2756]

This deck costs more than your life probably lol. Definitely more than your car and years rent combined

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

More than my life? To whom?

[@nickfanzo]

Stealing this list for my casual games

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

Nicholas Fanzo Great! Please do and I would love to hear any feedback or changes you end up making. Note for playing it... mulligan until you have some good draw Mine/Recall/Twist or a lock piece like Orb/Stasis. If your hand is just mana and counter/boomerang/reset then mulligan it! Boomerang either resets your stasis or deals with what ever your opponent got into play.

[@nickfanzo]

Edwin the Magic Engineer I played stasis for years back in nineties type 1. Thanks for the feedback!

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

Hey by the way, a guy name Julian mentioned Transmute Artifact which I think was a huge oversight on my part. Great card for the deck. I'm looking at adding 2 copies in place of one of the Relic Barriers, and the Icy Manipulator.

[@nickfanzo]

Edwin the Magic Engineer that is a good idea and I have four of em!