[Budget] U/B/w Academy Rector-Tendrils

[zouwi]

Hi.

This is my first post to TMD, so sorry if I do something wrong. (I use Finnish guidelines for punctuation, so I might do a few errors.)

Anyway, to the point. I give first the decklist and then tell about local metagame and my choices.


--Mana--

4x Bloodstained Mire
4x Polluted Delta
4x Scrubland
3x Underground Sea
4x Cabal Ritual
4x Dark Ritual
1x Mana Vault
1x Sol Ring
1x Lotus Petal

--Kills--

4x Academy Rector
1x Yawgmoth's Bargain
3x Tendrils of Agony

(Secondary)
1x Tinker
1x Darksteel Colossus

--Disruption--

4x Cabal Therapy
4x Duress
2x Shadow of Doubt
2x Stifle

--Draw and stuff--

4x Brainstorm
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Yawgmoth's Will
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Demonic Tutor
2x Promise of Power

--SB--

4x Tormod's Crypt
1x Seal of Cleansing
4x Disenchant
4x Donate
2x Illusions of Grandeur



The idea is to get Rector, sac it for Therapy, get Bargain, draw cards and kill with Tendrils. If things get bad, Tinker for DSC usually gives some more options.


Cards to include:

Shadow of Doubt:
Nice, because of the hybrid cost. Replaces itself and kicks Intuition, fetchlands, Tutors, Rectors etc. No one really expects this one, so it is also a nice surprise.

Promise of Power:
Can be a big creature or give 5 cards, which is usually enough to get away from any position. (5 cards for 5 life and 5 mana is better than, for example, 3 cards for 4 mana)

Stifle:
Hits fetchlands, Worldgorger and storm effect.

Illusions + Donate on sb:
If opponent hates Tendrils too much, deck can be something else. Also good against too aggressive Goblins or other weenies. Usually gives a nice surprise.


Cards not to include:

Necropotence:
I don't need it. If i have mana for it, I usually have mana for Rector too, and with Rector I can get Bargain, which is better. I also need more than 7 cards for win, so I would be forced to keep either Will or Demonic Tutor.

P9:
This is a budget deck and around here no proxies are allowed.


Local metagame:
Lots of Worldgorgers around, about three of five players in tournaments have at least some P9 cards. Also some mono-blue controls, some aggros etc. Not much really tweaked decks. Only dectype that is almost certain to come cross is Worldgorger.

What to do for some decktypes:

Aggro:
Just get away with speed or kill with DSC or Promise of Power.

Control:
Discard + speed usually does it.

Dragon:
Stifle, other disruption. Tormod's Crypt, + Disenchants from SB.

Other:
Speed is quite good solution to almost everything. Some decks (like Bazaar of Wonders) goes down with DSC or Promise of Power.


What I'd like to include in deck:
More food for Tinker. 5 Artifacts is a bit too little, 7 would be fine. Deck also sometimes gets stuck when drawing only mana and discard, it would be nice to fix.

[Metman]

Once you get the Bargain out how easy is it to go off for the Tendrils win?  It seems that you don't have much in the way of feeding the storm count.  LED, Chrome Mox, Mox Diamond, Land Grant, Darkwater Egg, and Chromatic Sphere may help since they're all free or cantrip. Night's Whisper may be worth testing too since you don't have much draw power until you've already got the Bargain out.  Tolarian Academy would be a nice inlcusion if you can up the artifact count.  Memory Jar seems like a great Tinker target in addition to DSC.  I would also add in the Necropotence.  It's the second best thing to use the Rector for in case your Bargain gets Extracted or the likes; plus an opening hand of Land, Ritual, Necro will most likely win you the game. 

To sum it up I would find room for artifacts/cantrips that will make the deck not only quicker but more consistant. 

4x Academy Rector
1x Yawgmoth's Bargain
1x Necrpotence
2x Tendrils of Agony

4x Brainstorm
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Yawgmoth's Will
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Demonic Tutor
3x Night's Whisper

4x Cabal Therapy
4x Duress

1x Tinker
1x Darksteel Colossus
1x Memory Jar   

4x Cabal Ritual
4x Dark Ritual             38

4x Chromatic Sphere
3x Darkwater Egg
1x Sol Ring
1x Lotus Petal
1x Lion's Eye Diamond
1x Tolarian Academy
4x Polluted Delta
2x Bloodstained Mire
2x Scrubland
3x Underground Sea

This is just a really rough list I came up with.  I think this will go off easier plus make it easier to cast the Bargain and Necro without relying on the Rector/Therapy route.  It may not be enough land though, but if you can fetch, ritual, sphere/egg, ritual, rector, therapy...win.  Something like that may work.  Using free or nearly free cantrips that help get the colored mana you need is the key to a budget combo deck.  Good luck and keep us updated.

[zouwi]

Once with Bargain, it is almost too easy to win, I have never lost at that point. Just play couple of rituals, tutors, whatever and then cast Tendrils. If it doesn't kill, draw 10 cards more and it should do it.

I have played this deck with LED and Mox Diamond, and they seem to do very little in helping the deck to go off and when I have the Bargain, they aren't so useful, because all I need is one ritual and Tendrils to get more life and cards. Also, 12 lands is not enough. My current 17 lands are giving me difficulties already, so when I need to tutor for Rector, it is not going to be enough. I will do some playtesting on following:

4x Academy Rector
1x Yawgmoth's Bargain
1x Necrpotence
3x Tendrils of Agony

4x Brainstorm
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Yawgmoth's Will
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Demonic Tutor
3x Night's Whisper

4x Cabal Therapy
4x Duress

1x Tinker
1x Darksteel Colossus
1x Memory Jar   

4x Cabal Ritual
4x Dark Ritual

1x Sol Ring
1x Lotus Petal
4x Polluted Delta
4x Bloodstained Mire
4x Scrubland
3x Underground Sea
4x Seat of Synod


The deck is probably easier to go off, but it is easier do get hit by opponent disruption. I'll be back to tell what happens in semi-casual play.

The Illusions+Donate is probably going to fall from SB, any suggestions for replacements?

[chrissss]

I dont know, I have played trix a lot, and I tried verious of versions, and grim long or IT are just superior in every way. especially in budget decks, where you draw mana, instead of moxen wich are spells for tendrils.

on budget, I would play fish or something

[rmn]

Don't forget about Mana Vault.  It's always helped me out in this sort of deck.  If you can get your hands on a Mana Crypt that'd be cool too, but I understand it's not really budget anymore.

[Purple Hat]

on a budget illusions+donate is probably easier to pull off than a tendrils kill, asside from that this deck virtually requires power to work correctly in my experience.  Mox diamond isn't great for getting yourself to go off but it's awesome when you draw it off bargain and need the extra spell count or mana.  in the board 4x donate is too many, 2 is probably the right number cus it literally does nothing without illusions.  Form of the dragon is insane vs aggro decks.  you can rector it out and it stops them dead basically

[parallax]

Form of the Dragon is dangerous against any red deck, though. Goblins will just kill you with Siege-Gang or Sharpshooter. Of couse, Moat isn't exactly budget.

[chrissss]

Dont forget that a lot of decks sideboard Stifle against tendrils, and then when you side in donate illusions, the Stifles are still going to kill you. Stifling the ''when illusions leaves play ability'' or the rector ability is very annoying.

on a budget Trix or tendrils just isnt good. I tried a few months ago, and you really need the moxen. Without the moxen, you just draw land, which arent giving you spells for tendrils, and they cant be played out of your graveyard.

[Illissius]

How about adding an Illusions maindeck? Not for Donating, just so you have something productive to do (fetch lifegain) with extra Rectors while going off.

Also, is 4 Cabal Therapies enough sacrifice outlets for you? It doesn't seem like very much. You could add Phyrexian Tower, Perilous Research, Read the Runes, Intuition to fetch a Therapy, or something.

[never]

Why not add Diabolic Intent? You get to kill rector, get bargain, AND tutor for another card.

You could probably run gemstone mines and add a few tropical islands to play xantids, which would up your creature count, give you more disruption, as well as targets for diabolic intent.

[ErkBek]

I tried a dark confidant based rector tendrils deck some time ago when working with IT. I really love the synergy between dark confidant, cabal therapy, and tendrils. Bob gets in damage, while drawing cards to fuel a mini tendrils, meanwhile therapy slows your opponent down or get your spells to resolve, plus its a storm count of 2. I'd recommend a list like this

Men 7
4 Bob
3 Rector

Disruption 8
4 Duress
4 Therapy

Accel 15
8 Sol-lo-moxen cyrpt
1 Vault
1 petal
1 Diamond
4 Ritual

Land 15

Draw/Combo 15
4 BS
1 Will
1 DT
1 VT
1 MT
1 Iseal
1 Ancestral
1 Necro
1 Bargain
3 Tendrils

[TheAlpha]

Necropotence:
I don't need it. If i have mana for it, I usually have mana for Rector too, and with Rector I can get Bargain, which is better. I also need more than 7 cards for win, so I would be forced to keep either Will or Demonic Tutor.

I think this is a mistake. You should play Necro because you can drop it turn 1 off a ritual, draw a boatload of cards, Tendrils your opponent out or semi-out and Necro again for the same trick. You can play necro on turn 1 quite often, this can't be said for Rector. Besides, you need a therapy to kill your rector.

Also, where's mana crypt?

If you really want to play budget combo, maybe some kind of oath-based combo deck is a good solution. Oath + Eternal Witness for Yawgmoth's will and Tendrils off. This also gives you a good strategie vs. random aggro decks if you play a MD DSC with 4 oaths and a tinker.

[zouwi]

Thanks for all comments!

I got to play against good control-slaver and it did as I expected. Out of 7 games, I won 2, either wasn't sideboarding, which could have given me more chances. While playing I made following:

-1 Rector
-1 Seat of Synod

+1 Chrome Mox
+1 LED

It lowered my chances of getting Rector, but gave better results on about everything else.

Mana Crypt comes in as soon as I get enough money for it.

Also, I got an idea of Dream Halls deck, that gets Halls with Rector, then plays tons of big draw spells and kills with Tendrils. If anyone has any suggestions for it, I'd appreciate.

Illusions in main is bad idea, because playing 4 Tendrils is just better in every way. Better colour, no problems if I don't win on same turn.

Reason I play combo is very simple: I like it. And I also happen to have quite a lot of cards for combo. In my opinion, Tendrils is the best combo when on budget, because it is possible to play 4 tendrils and a few tutors, so if first Tendrils hits only for 14, the next one is still easy to get and it has to have storm count only in 2 when casted. With 8 Rituals and a few other goodys they are really bound to come.

I don't wanto to play Mox Diamond, because it is a 'win more' card in this deck. If I have drawn about 15 cards, I don't need one mana more. Been tested playing it and in over 20 games it never really helped me to win.

If I need more outlets for Rector, I add Innocent Blood. It is good in killing Rector and it is good in killing just about everything that moves. It doesn't target and it doesn't destroy, so DSC, welder and some other toys = dead.

[never]

If I need more outlets for Rector, I add Innocent Blood. It is good in killing Rector and it is good in killing just about everything that moves. It doesn't target and it doesn't destroy, so DSC, welder and some other toys = dead.

Seriously.

Diabolic Intent only costs one more mana than innocent blood and you get to tutor for a card on top of getting bargain. And it is definitely a budget card, you can get it from star city for $2.50

[zouwi]

Seriously.

Diabolic Intent only costs one more mana than innocent blood and you get to tutor for a card on top of getting bargain. And it is definitely a budget card, you can get it from star city for $2.50

I know that. Only thing is, that if I get my Bargain to game, I don't need any tutors. Just draw 15, Play 3 or more rituals, other mana, Duress and Tendrils and draw 15 more. With Bargain it is actually really easy even to cast BFM without breaking a sweat and then hit for 50 with Tendrils. It is just insane getting so many cards and so much mana, Y-win and Duresses.  I am also worried about situations when I need to give fast answers for threats and Diabolic Intent definetly is not an answer by itself. With Rector the Bargain is answer, which leads again to where I started. For now, the therapys are enough, because of the tutors and brainstorms. If I really need more outlets I will ask for help. For now, my main focus is how to go off fast enough with still some protection.