Is there any other format as wacky as Vintage? What other format could turn cards like Notion Thief and Trygon Predator into multi-archetype all-stars? Some will argue that the core of many decks is a somewhat homogenous hodgepodge of restricted cards. They aren’t entirely wrong, but just one card can make an enormous difference in the way that an archetype plays out. Standstill is one of those cards, and it may be back in a big way:

Sultai Standstill ? Vintage | Kinny, 3-1 Vintage Daily Event

• Creatures (6)
• 3 Deathrite Shaman
• 3 Pack Rat

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

• Spells (32)
• 1 Ancestral Recall
• 1 Black Lotus
• 1 Brainstorm
• 1 Crucible of Worlds
• 1 Deep Analysis
• 1 Demonic Tutor
• 1 Dig Through Time
• 1 Dismember
• 1 Mox Emerald
• 1 Mox Jet
• 1 Mox Sapphire
• 1 Ponder
• 1 Sensei's Divining Top
• 1 Time Walk
• 1 Treasure Cruise
• 1 Vampiric Tutor
• 2 Flusterstorm
• 3 Abrupt Decay
• 3 Mental Misstep
• 4 Force of Will
• 4 Standstill

• Lands (20)
• 1 Island
• 1 Swamp
• 1 Bayou
• 1 Ghost Quarter
• 1 Strip Mine
• 2 Tropical Island
• 3 Mutavault
• 3 Underground Sea
• 3 Wasteland
• 4 Polluted Delta

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Arcane Laboratory
• 2 Dread of Night
• 1 Energy Flux
• 3 Grafdigger's Cage
• 2 Leyline of the Void
• 2 Nature's Claim
• 1 Plague Spitter
• 2 Tireless Tracker

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Standstill strategies haven’t really changed since they were first implemented in eternal formats. It’s all about using a combination of counterspells and removal to contain your opponent early on, and then follow up with a Standstill. From there you can hide behind a Standstill and hit your land drops, preferably while using spell lands like Mishra's Factory and Wasteland to apply pressure on your opponent to do something.

This deck is a little different. Sure, you’ve still got Mutavault and Strip Mine to pressure your opponent under a Standstill, but that’s not the primary game plan anymore. Instead, you’d rather have a Pack Rat in play. Activating Pack Rat gives you a proactive way to advance your board under Standstill in a way that threatens to get your opponents dead very quickly. This can force them to break your Standstill, which gives you a chance to find a Force of Will or just gives you more fuel to feed to your Pack Rat. This is important because Vintage is a format with lots of spot removal and very few sweepers. Even the ones that are played, such as Massacre, Electrickery, and Sulfur Elemental, are more focused on the likes of Monastery Mentor, Young Pyromancer, and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben.

Even if you can’t stick an early Pack Rat, Deathrite Shaman can do a reasonable approximation, allowing you to pressure opposing graveyards and life totals without breaking your own Standstill.

Beyond that, your plan is to just keep the cards flowing with the likes of Ancestral Recall and Dig Through Time and prevent your opponent from resolving any key spells. Standstill will let you easily find more card drawing like Deep Analysis and additional Standstills, which can let you set up a key turn where you resolve Pack Rat, Time Walk, and set up a lethal attack with subsequent Pack Rat activations.

This may not have the same explosive combo potential as other Vintage decks, but it certainly has enough interaction to prevent blowouts against the likes of Tendrils of Agony and Time Vault, and Standstill gives the deck an enormous strategic edge against the slower decks in the format. If you’re expecting a format full of Monastery Mentor, this seems like a fantastic place to be.