[Deck] RTS Combo

[Purple Hat]

kyle, if you want credit for rector top it's all yours.  I almost refused to lend mixing mike my rectors one saturday when I found out that's what he was thinking of playing.

I don't think you need to know what your opponent is playing to  know what to name with therapy in alot of situations.  you are almost always gonna be naming force of will with the first one, and sometimes they'll be playing stax and you'll have to play around a sphere you would have avoided with duress, but against most decks when you duress them you are looking for force of will.  I don't think it's a boardable strategy but it does make oath more interesting as a board option because you can board into oath-rector combo which is pretty good.  I think the real question with this strategy is how often do you look at therapy and wish it was duress, and how often do you cast duress and lose to the doubble force or double drain hand?  that's all that I think really matters.

I don't mind having two rhystic tutors.  unlike deathwish there's always something useful you can get with the tutor, my problem is really when people counter my tutor by paying two.  I'm probably gonna switch one to a mystical though.

Hale

EDIT: I played some games this morning and I have to say that the number of times I had a great opening hand that included rhystic tutor and my opponent was playing first and went land mox was insane.  I think the tutor gives this deck tons of problems against control decks.  the problem is that it effectively gives your opponent an extra counter or two that you can't duress away and isn't effected by defense grid.  I'm not sure there's a good way around this though.  the deck has the meandeck tendrils problem.  it goldfishes really well but it doesn't win against real opponents.

[Whatever Works]

Hale, Which version of the deck are you trying? I already am running mystical for example. Also the thing that is good about this deck is that it doesnt heavily rely on rhystic tutor all that much, and usually you can play around its drawbacks with counter bait, or by casting it before they have 2 open mana. In the cases in which they do I usually brainstorm away rhystic tutor, or often will intentionally have rhystic countered to be able to set up a more powerful play.

I have put alot of work into a sideboard and I have come up with this to great results. It is based around Oath and many people will say WTF? you already have a good matchup vs. aggro. Well its actually a pretty simple concept that appears to work. First off I have changed the deck (updated list again coming soon) to include 2 maindeck forbidden orcherds. Also running an oath board allows me to sideboard to a list that I would almost consider optimal with limited #'s of cards to change. The main reason for the board is that it catches people off guard when you can smile knowing there turn 1 chalice for 0 or 1 doesnt hurt you, or that it completely screws up opponents plans (ie they side out creature removal).

Sideboard:
4 Oath of Druid
1 Eternal Witness
1 DSC
2 Academy Rector
3 Cabal Therapy
1 Defence Grid
1 Rebuild
1 Rushing River
1 Hurkyl's Recall

Example boarding for oath plan:
+4 Oath
+1 Witness
+2 Rector
+3 Cabal Therapy
-3 Rhystic Tutor
-1 Hurkyl's Recall
-2 Duress
-2 ESG
-1 Windfall
-1 Tendrils

This is just an example of how smooth the boarding can be. It still can win turn 1, but that is not really the plan. Basically it gets around chalice for 1, because Therapy gets around chalice for 1. It is also likely that they didnt board in heavy gravehate for rector etc. This board option allows for a ton of disruption, and several ways to get orchard including all the tutors, crop rotation, draw 7's etc... If you oath up rector its likely that therapy will be in yard... If you oath up eternal witness you can either get yawg's will or therapy to sac witness destroys opponents hand and win the following turn with rector. The deck I cant say is better post board in any real way but it completely gets around most hate.

Another factor is that combo usually wins game 1, and the postboard oath plan is significantly better when your on the play. This is because your opponent will know your playing RTS and will likely do as purple hat described and go land/mox (to protect vs. rhystic tutor) go or a chalice at 1. This will to the opponents suprise me matched with a land/mox oath or perhaps an attempt to hardcast rector. Both cards very likely to be hated out. The board is primarily there to help control/stax matchups mainly by playing the suprise concept, and vs. stax you also run much more postboard bounce to give an edge.

The board is still a work in project and I really am suprised there hasnt been more work done overall in the T1 community in not exploring the RectorOath concept farther. I know that It has been ignored in favor of AuriOath which I feel is a mistake, and I expect a rector oath deck to have good sucess in the future somewhere. However, its the current dirrection I am heading with the sideboard though i am trying other things.

Any ideas, thoughts, etc. on board? Anyone try the deck see the control matchups to be incredibly difficult? I have found that the control matchups are not that bad at all, and in my testing are at least as good as TPS accept that TPS has a slightly better late game, but my conclussion is that the longer the game goes the larger advantage control has. Thus, RTS which is superior in the short game cancles out the late game advantage making similar overall results. RTS usually doesnt have a long game as well which is the whole purpose of the concept of running Rhystic Tutor.

[Purple Hat]

basically, I was playing my deathlong list but I cut the wishes from for rhystic tutor and yawg's will. 

I still think rhystic tutor is a problem.  the draw back makes it signifigantly worse than other threats vs a real opponent.  I think it sufferes from the meandeck tendrils problem: great in goldfishing, loses to decks that play land, mox on turn one.  for example, you can't topdeck it and get some good result in alot of cases, additionally I find that it makes you mull more because instead of having hands that go turn one threat, countered, turn two threat, countered, turn three threat if one of those threats is rhysitic tutor you give them a free counter.  it's a problem that's come up in more than half the game I've lost so far, where I could win the game if I could tutor, but I couldn't tutor, and that gave my opponent time to get the game under control.  finally I feel like it makes you really vulnerable to control because if they ever hit enough mana to have two open mana of any color you're now giving them free counters.

Hale

[Whatever Works]

Hale, Alot of the problems that you described I really havent had that many problems with in my testing. You continue to refer to the drawback of rhystic tutor, but from my experience in testing vs. all kinds of decks the card usually is cast before opponent has mana up, and if they do have mana up the deck is concentrated enough that it can usually play around it. You mention that it isnt the best card to topdeck, this is true, but if your winning in the first few turns you shouldnt have to rely on topdecks at all.

Also if your testing the deck as deathlong + Will I am not that suprised with your results. Try my exact list with the addition of chrome mox, and I am optimistic that your results will improve dramatically. Sinse you were running 4 Rhystic I can understand your concern on it being a dead card at times, but I personally would run it as a 2 of before a 4 of. I like the #3 because its not great in doubles, and its the kind of card you want to cast to win the game. Also if your running deathlong your deck is alot less concentrated because many broken cards are in the board, and you probably dont have the same ammount of disruption. Also reffering this deck to meandeck tendrils is a bit much, this deck actually runs disruption, and has the ability to win through FoW, and doesnt scoop to platinum angel, meddling mage, etc.

Overall I think it is important to not rely to heavily on rhystic tutor. It is a very good card in the deck, but 1 reason the deck is good is because of its threat density, and also nowhere on the card does rhystic tutor say its needed to be cast to win the game. However, When you cast rhystic tutor in the first 2 turns chances are well over 75% that they wont have 2 mana open (and even higher if your on the play). Also most decks in the current state of the format love to tap. You can mention that topdecking a rhystic tutor can be a dead play, but I still find it better then topdecking FoW with no blue source or less then 5 mana.

Rhystic Tutor is aggressive, explosive, and risky. Just like all combo decks, but RTS is based heavily on limiting the risk by increasing the deck speed to increase consistency. This concept is interesting in the pure fact that it is the only deck that probably becomes more consistent by increasing the decks speed.

Kyle Leith

(woot post 300)