[Deck Primer] TRS - Academy

[Lemnear]

So, fellas ... welcome to funky Ibiza!

...

…ohm … except that „funky“ means boring and silent … and when I say „Ibiza“ I mean a lil' sleepy bavarian (it's near Germany … lol) village instead *cough*

…

Anyway … time to recap the latest innovations and changes to the archetype and believe me ... it's worth the wait.


Part 1: A Saga continues ... Pardon? ... Urza's!


I announed a small conclusion to our teams weekend testing but I have the feeling we have to differ between 2 completely different routes to achieve the main goal of the deck: Make masses of mana via Academy and untap-effects. Both evolved out of the famous Urza's Saga centric deck played 1998-1999. Look at this list:

Lands
4 Ancient Tomb
3 City of Brass
4 Tolarian Academy
4 Tundra
4 Volcanic Island

Artifacts
4 Lotus Petal
4 Mana Vault
4 Mox Diamond
2 Scroll Rack
3 Voltaic Key

Enchantments
3 Mind Over Matter

Instant
3 Abeyance
3 Intuition
3 Power Sink
4 Stroke of Genius

Sorceries
4 Time Spiral
4 Windfall

The plan is/was to play an early Academy, lay down your low-cost artifact and generate a bunch of mana by untaping the Academy via Mind over Matter or Time Spiral. In the end you fire a gigantic Stroke of Genius on your opponent so he dies being unable to draw any more cards. Enough history pals, I know you know ;D


Part 2: Time Spiral to the present or stuck in the past?


Now a question: Is this deck a Time Spiral or a Mind over Matter Deck? In the given meta back then, with no Force of Will around, Academy, Vault, Petal, Windfall etc. unrestricted this is a Spiral Deck. But now we talk in 2011 with a different format, a restricted list and many other problems … and I believe modern Academy might be better a Mind over Matter Deck.

Unlike other players, we look at Stroke's descendent Blue Sun's Zenith, Time Spiral and Mind over Matter and indentify Spiral as the weakest card. Zenith is the main win-condition of the Deck and as soon as Academy enters the battlefield you want to have that one instantly. Mind over Matter has some insane synergies with the whole deck I explain later in the cardchoices. And Spiral? It costs 6-x-Academy (x=other Lands), untaps Academy a single time, both player get a fresh grip. In a world of 2 card-combos and cheap disruption in every opponents deck this cards is junk. With Zenith and MoM you already have high-cost-power in the deck which could be a problem vs. Spell Pierce, Wasteland, Spheres and the like; We don't want another dead cards in critical matchup's and even in good matchups I tend to prefer other cards.

I could continue to argue about the exclusion of Time Spirals but I stop at this point. We've tested enough games to realize that Spirals was more of a crutch in the deck. If you strictly disagree at this point, believing that Academy and Sprial are siamese twins, don't bother continue reading...

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Still there? Niiiiiice! So …


Part 3: A new bat bats the best!


What new additions push this deck from unplayable to compeditive? The first and most outstanding addition is Expedition Map. Since the restriction of Academy people tried several ways of tutoring for the remaining copy, even at high cost. Crop Rotation as the most serious compeditor for this duty needed access to green mana and eat's up a land; a critical early game action and backbreaking if countered. Map improved the slot in three ways: It's colorless, doesn't require a sacced land and is a cheap artifact that boosts Academy's mana-making.

The second card is Mox Opal. I have to admit that I completely underestimate this tailor-made card until Stephen mentioned it to be an auto-include. Thanks again, pal! Mox Opal is a cheap colorfixing (topic: Sideboard) accelerator with no … I repeat … no drawback in this deck.

The unholy triangle is completed by Sensei's Divining Top. Even this card sticks around longer than the others mentioned SDT need lots of shuffle effects to be brilliant. Our incarnation doesn't lack those. Moreover many people seem to overlook it's synergy with Mind over Matter, to cycle through your deck.

Blue Sun's Zenith's reshuffle effect is a nice upgrade to Stroke because unlike Stroke it doesn't punish you burning it early. To play Zenith into Zenith with this deck is pretty nice and a thing Stroke can't. The early 2011 incaration had only 2 maindeck  in favor of Frantic Search but the later underperformed in digging for Zenith and MoM so I increased them instead. Now I present you the final list and follow up with further explanation of the cards and interactions:


Part 4: A Wedding? No! Just shut up, and gimme your blue Zenith's, your old Power and borrow me your damn skill!  (...and with skill I obviously mean luck ;D )



TRS - UB Academy Draw – Summer Edition 2011

1x Tolarian Academy
1x Petrified Field
3x Underground Sea
3x Polluted Delta
3x Misty Rainforest
2x Island

1x Black Lotus
1x Sol Ring
1x Mana Vault
5x Beta Moxen
1x Mana Crypt
3x Mox Opal

4x Exploration Map
4x Sensei Divining Top
4x Mind over Matter
4x Blue Sun's Zenith
4x Force of Will
1x Cunning Wish
1x Tinker
1x Blightsteel Colossus
4x Spell Pierce
1x Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Merchant Scroll
1x Time Walk
1x Memory Jar

Emrakul? WTF?! No, seriously! I had Timetwister in this slot and it was ok in recurring a wasted Academy and the like but this guy is not only a willing sacrifice for Mind over Matter to reshuffle but a hardcastable, permament eat'n, wife beat'n, time walk'n, bone-shredd'n, widdow making, earth shaking hell (no offense, Japan … I'm with you …  -_-)  piece of paper! The Cunning Wish formaly was a Wipe Away but I switched it ... more later on.


Part 5: Why Mind Matter...


Speaking of Mind over Matter. I feel the full set is ok even it reads clunky, but you are able to pitch the following copies into FoW or into the MoM so it's no big deal. What does this card to except from the obvious mana-making with Academy?

Fact 1:   MoM + SDT  = draw cards

Tap SDT to draw a card, in response, discard a card for MoM to untap SDT, repeat multiple times, draw a card and place SDT on top of your library, then draw a card for each card discarded in the process, pay 1 colorless and replay the SDT to restart the whole loop as long as you have mana or until you hit the card you dig for.

Fact 2:   MoM can stall versus aggro

And suddenly Blightsteel Colossus isn't a threat anymore. I stalled a Blightsteel twice in saturdays testing and tapped it for a third time to give my own BCS a highway to opponents face XD

Fact 3:   MoM can screw opponents mana

Afraid of Mana Drain? Tap his blue sources, change phases and play freely. Makes your own Spell Pierces even better!

Three important notes why it's the swiss knife compared to the Spiral. A lil' sidenote: I tested Mind Twists in the Spell Pierce slots and wreck some decks in testing with 1st and 2nd turn, hand-blanking twists. 2 reasons led me to re-replace them (physically forced by a teammate): First, I don't want another mana-heavy card against Shop or Spell Pierce, Second, I dislike the deck only having 18 blue cards, especially if the possible sideboard might eat up a few blue MD cards in game 2 and 3.


Part 6: Playing with yourself (not the perverted way XD ): MWS


So I know some of you people are interested in matchup-analysis and I will add more detailed information next weekend but I give you the impressions we had in the last few days solo- AND teamtesting. I won't suggest a certain sideboard because this is very meta depending and we tend to develop the sideboard for our decks during the tests and I adjust and balance the sideboard after every post-board game to look for an acceptable performance in critical matchups.

Lets begin with a deck that eats up mana-intense decks: MUD. This is the most threatening Deck you might face. In my solo testing I played intensly versus the Metalworker shops with Hellkite and if I had a chance to drop a few early artifacts I could dig for the academy with very little problems for the rest of the game. Back then and later in teamtesting I ran the following trans-sideboard:

2x Forbidden Orchanrd
4x Oath of Druids
1x Tropical Island
2x Nihil Spellbomb
2x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine
3x Hurkyl's Recall

The credits for the Strip/Waste in the Sb goes to Tobi. I always loved the idea to not only run more lands vs spheres but be able to get rid of Shop itself and Bazaar too. The Oath-tech was no big deal to switch into with Emrakul and BSC main, swapping the package for artifact-mana or a mix of MoM and Zenith depending if the opponents plays nullrod etc. Then my pal Jo sleeved up Michael Bolmholt's winning list from Columbus 20.02.2011. For the audience:

Maindeck (60):
Spells (42):
1 Black Lotus
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Crucible of Worlds
4 Lodestone Golem
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
4 Null Rod
4 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Precursor Golem
1 Sol Ring
3 Sphere of Resistance
4 Tangle Wire
4 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Trinisphere

Lands (18):
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Mishra's Workshop
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Wasteland


Sideboard (15):
4 City in a Bottle
2 Duplicant
4 Leyline of Sanctity
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Sphere of Resistance

This, my fellow friends, is a 2'5 inch tall, fast, brutal, dumb, brown pest pile! As a german I can judge that … The basic sphere package is nothing that bothers me more than in the tested matchups but Nullrod and Revoker are stone-cold nuts! This was the moment the Oath-package could shine but they remain dull. With most of my spells blocked by his gameplan this resulted in a unsatisfying mulligan orgy into Oath all the games which may win game 2 but in game 3 the shit continues. So the Oath-pack wasn't the way to go here and I included Cunning Wish in the main and switched the former spotowner Wipe Away to the SB with a little toolbox like Darkblast, Extirpate, etc. I've still not finished on the SB but this special list make me rethink the matchup.





… to be continued with the much better matchups: Tezz, Oath, Ichorid, etc. analysis and sideboards






Thanks for your time, fellas. Thanks to TMD for giving me a platform for crazy ideas and serious discussion. If you have issues with any of my expressions, don't bother me

So far...
Peter

[serracollector]

I still personally believe that Myr Battlepshere is better in this deck that Collosus.  It doesnt get stopped by jace (pls bounce it so i can get 4 more artifacts on board), it literally doubles your mana from academy, and it helps you go off with your goal of Zenith.  Emrakul is enough of a 1 turn fatty IMO.  With 4 MOM, I supposes Fratnci Search, Time Spiral, and Candelabros are not needed, but not having twister and Windfall I think is a mistake.  Once u get MOM, twister or windfall read "discard your hand, make a million mana, then draw 7"  If you can't win from there, something is horribly wrong.  I personally would drop 1 zenith, 1 MoM, and Blightsteel for Myr, Twister, and Windfall.  Yea windfall can be dead if your going 2nd, but what hand would you keep going 2nd, that would include windfall?  Sounds like it should be a mulligan to me personally.

Also noticed that your SB nor Maindeck has any bounce besides Cunning wish for hurks.  What do you do against a first turn Leyline of the Void, followed by strip/waste?  If they nail your academy your more than likely done.
Also Leyline of Sanctity.  This stops your hurk's, your Zenith, and your transitional Oath SB, and you have no way to counter it first turn, or bounce it, main or SB.  I think the 2 leylines require you to run at least echoing truth or Wipe away main, or at least SB.  This isn't true if you play Myr Battlesphere instead.  With mana Vault, or Lotus and the like,  hard casting a turn 2-4 Myr is very good.  I know I been testing it in my new tezz build.  Its almost the same as yours except my goal is to use the mass artifacts for Academy and New Tezz's Ultimate ftw.  But I have found the need for 1 echoing truth main (or wipe away).  There are a lot of things in MTG other than artifacts that need bounced sometimes for you to be able to do what you want.  Also echoing truth 2-4 qasali/Relic Warders eot = win.

My 2 cents, hope it helps.

[Lemnear]

Sideboard has Wipe Away, Darkblast, H.Recall, Extirpate etc. as I wrote. The transboard was an early incarnation for the testing and nothing I suggest for the field.

The moment I'm able to cast B.Sphere to "double my mana" the game is already in my favor, so I don't think it add much in terms of mana.

Leyline of Sanctity is not a problem if you are able to drop emrakul or BSC after drawing and reshuffling your deck as long as you want.

The Leyline of the Void and Crypt topic is not an argument. It's like convincing players to stop running oath because of L. o. sanctity or stop playing magic because someone yould kill you with a lotus, ritual, ritual, demonic, will, blah blah start. If the opponent has the start-up leyline you have to play with brain .... you can play the whole combo instant-speed with a wasteland on the stack.