Rector Trix critique for upcoming tourney

[spankweasel]

Hello,

I wanted to fire off what I'm thinking of running at an upcoming tourney.

First, the decklist:

Rector Trix:  (stolen from people who are far smarter than I am)

Disruption (11)
3 Duress
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Force of Will

Engine (13)
4 Academy Rector
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
3 Illusions of Grandeur
2 Donate
1 Rushing River
1 Form of the Dragon
1 Humility

Utility (9)
4 Brainstorm
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Yawgmoth's Will


Mana (27)
4 Dark Ritual
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
3 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
4 Underground Sea
2 Scrubland
3 Gemstone Mine
1 Tolarian Academy

2 things that will stand out.
 1) it's 61 cards

I don't know what I would cut to make it 60.

 2) there's no Necropotence main

With my meta (see below) I don't think running it main is a good idea.  Against control I will board it in, but with all the aggro, I don't think I want it taking up the spot of Humility.

The tourney that I'm going to attend will have 64 people in it.  Of these 64 people, perhaps a dozen of them will have powered decks.  I know for a fact, that there will be some of these decks there:  Keeper, Hulk, Dragon, Madness, and Landstill.  The other 50+ people all run some kind of scrubby aggro (Slivers, Angels, etc.) or scrubby combo (Palincron / High Tide, Statis - built incorrectly)

What I need help with is 2 things.

1)  I need sideboard help.  I know that I should add another Illusions to the board, and I know that Abeyance / Orim's Chant might help me to have a fighting chance against control, but other than that, I haven't got a clue as to what to add.

2)  I do NOT have access to a Pearl, a Ruby or the Lotus.  The rest of the power, I have.  I need suggestions for replacing them.  I was thinking of trying a Lotus Petal for one of them, but I need some ideas.

Thanks for helping!

[Moxlotus]

You do realize Humility effectively stops your own rectors also don't you?

[atog]

a very strong choice if there is alot of aggro. I really don't hitnk humility deserves a spot, vs aggro wouldn't you rather just get the form of dragon
and/or bargain? You should be playing lotus petal. I don't think you need another illusions as with bargain 3 is enough. You should keep necro in your sideboard as casting it on turn 1 is insane vs control (if it resolves of course). Overall other than the random humility it looks pretty strong.

[DavidHernandez]

The following 2 links should help a LOT.  They're in the Archive section.  A lot of work went into them, and they are as good as a primer when read completely.

I think they'll help you tremendously in figuring out what to do with your build.  The first one is Rector Trix, and the second one is Rector Tendrils.

http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4118

http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4167

--Dave.

[Wollblad]

Now, as I have understood the rules, when Academy Rector leavs play it triggers on the fact that it's destination is the graveyard. i.e. Humility will make Academy Rector useless since the Rector doesn't have the ability when the conditions for trigger are fulfilled. In general you don't need to bother about your opponents cratures as long as it isn't Voidmage Prodigy or Meddling Mage and if the truble is one of them, use Form of the Dragon which you actually have MD. If you want maindeck creature hate, use The Abyss which have synnergy with your deck.

I'm not sure that Rushing River is such a good choice. Personally I would play a single Seal of Clensing instead. Also, you cannot cut Necropotence, the deck lacks card economy for such a manuver. You desperatly need that card drawing possibility against any deck, including aggro decks. To find that space, you can cut one Illusions since you often find it with Rector anyhow.

Lastly, your mana base looks awfully unstable for todays meta game. There are much more Stifle and Wastelands now than when this deck was built. When I play this deck I use the following 28 mana sources:
7 SoLoMoxen
1 Mana Vault
1 Mana Crypt
1 Lotus Petal
4 Dark Ritual
5 fetch
4 Underground Sea
3 Scrublands
1 Island
1 Swamp
Basic lands you say??? Well it works very well. I don't know why you havn't included Mox Emerald in your list, but you should. Since you don't have Pearl, Lotus or Ruby and when you want 27 mana sources only, I would suggest cutting those 3 from my list above adding one land (NOT Tolarian Academy) and Mox Diamond. Mox Diamond works most of the time. I have tested Chrome Mox but was never found of it.

Good luck!

[Bram]

On the maindeck:

Most rectortrix builds ran only 4 moxen anyway. Ergo, you're basically missing 1 Mox and 1 Lotus. Mox Diamond is decent in this build (even if you really only wanna draw it while going off) and Lotus Petal isn't half bad either, so you're set, mana-wise. You might well wanna add Chrome Mox since you're missing 1 artifact mana source (and you want to be able to use your academy effectively). I like the land base you have.

I have always played with a Necro. It is infinitely inferior to Bargain, but it's good to have around since it means you can occasionally try to hardcast either on turn 1 without making that horrible decision 'if they FoW, I lose.'

I know that Form of the Dragon offers an alernate win condition, but it's unneeded in my opinion and adds to the randomness of the deck. Focus is the word, yo.

On the sideboard: This is what  I played:

1 Balance
1 Mind Twist
1 Abeyance
2 Seal of Cleansing
2 Blue Elemental Blast
2 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Timetwister
1 Duress
4 Phyrexian Negator

This was over half a year ago, though, so some choices may appear odd. I've always liked the Negator plan; it's quite good against control if you expect a lot of that. Just don't make the mistake of siding out your whole combo like I've seen some people do.

Right now, I'd use more seals (3 most likely) since they absolutely shine in the Dragon matchup.

[Nastaboi]

I played my Gay/R against a RectorTrix in a tourney a while ago, and nearly lost to his savage SB tech. He boarded in four Shared Fates:

Shared Fate

Enchantment 4U

If a player would draw a card, that player removes the top card of an opponent's library from the game face down instead.
Each player may look at and play cards he or she removed from the game with Shared Fate as though they were in his or her hand.

With this thing out, your opponent has no victory conditions left sans Rector beatdown, because he cannot use Rector's search ability to your library though he is playing out your deck. Just remember to side out main combo and Rushing River.

Fortynately, I had a REB in hand in that game and drew a city out of his library so that I could cast it.

[DEA]

i don't think you guys get the point of humility
check out the synergy with form of the dragon and see if you catch something
that doesn't work with things that grant flying, though

the abyss doesn't always stop creatures effectively
not only does stompy have many many creatures to beat your face in, they feature nice untargetables to laugh at abyss
same goes for 'phling and pro black critters

moat is a nice idea, but fish laughs in your face
i think humility with form is a nice lockdown, but slow and inconvenient
nice idea, still

[spankweasel]

Just some replies and some tuning:

@Wollblad:  I don't think my manabase is all that terrible.  I plan on coming down 1 fetchland (to 4) and increasing the number of Scrublandsby one.  I'm going to replace the Pearl and Ruby with Mox Diamond and Chrome Mox, and I'll replace the Lotus with a Lotus Petal.

@Bram:  There is a TON of bad aggro in my meta.  FotD is fantastic at holding them off.  It's also good with Madness (until they start flying ... it might buy me a turn or two).  FotD is also really good at allowing me to draw 4 cards / turn if I have Bargain or a Necro out.  At least it finds my Illusions quickly.

Humility:  I know you guys are down on Humility because the deck shouldn't fear aggo.  But as was pointed out in the Rector Trix thread from the old site, this deck seems to run hot and cold.  Either I get a Rector or I get a Therapy, but not both.  Humility is there to slow everything down so that I might be able to hard cast Illusions and Donate on the same turn.

Here's the sideboard that I'm currently working on:

1 Timetwister
1 Necropotence
3 Abeyance
3 Seal of Cleansing
1 Duress
3 Innocent Blood
2 BEB
1 Mind Twist

For a field of aggro and bad combo (at least in the first 2 rounds) and then a couple of control cards (Necro, Abeyance, and Mind Twist) what do you guys think of this board?  Innocent Blood is never a bad card for me and against aggro it helps out.

How does this look to everybody?

[Bram]

i don't think you guys get the point of humility
check out the synergy with form of the dragon and see if you catch something  

don't worry, I caught it. I just think it sucks

The SB looks OK, especially for an aggro meta. Lemme know how you did!

[graywolf]

The following 2 links should help a LOT.  They're in the Archive section.  A lot of work went into them, and they are as good as a primer when read completely.

I think they'll help you tremendously in figuring out what to do with your build.  The first one is Rector Trix, and the second one is Rector Tendrils.

http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4118

http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4167

--Dave.

Does anyone know where these are located now?  The links bring back nothing.

[DavidHernandez]

oops.  these are in the Archives.  i may have added a space at the ends when i copied them.  let me fix them, and i will let you know when i'm done.

hm.

try this:

http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=11889

http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=11513

http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=11452

sorry for the confusion.  These are by Rico Suave, Fever and MolotDET respectively. I tested these links and they work (of course, i tested the others too, so i dont know whats going on...)

dave.

[Sirena]

I enjoyed using Aura Fracture in the mirror match. (There were six Rector Trix decks in my area at once....). I do agree the Abyss is more useful that Humility. I don't know what to say about Form of the Dragon.

[spankweasel]

So, over the weekend, I playtested this version of Trix about 2 dozen times against Supergro, Ninja Mask, and Dragon.  I have come to realize that Humility is fantastic in these matchups, but -ONLY- if I get a Form down first.

What I realized about this version is that the deck is horribly inconsistant.  There were times that I would draw 10 cards and get 1 land, and other times, I would draw 10 cards and get no Rectors,  or Therapies, or anything else.  

Does anybody have any ideas to make this deck more consistant?  I think that Trix is a good deck for very aggro heavy meta, but if it's going to be this inconsistant, I'd rather run Supergro.

Also, I haven't once cast YawgWill and I'm thinking about dumping it to the SB.  

Thanks for your help!

[Cpkrug]

I would suggest trying the tendrils version as soon as you can.  Having cards like dark ritual really help when you are going off.  You can still play one illusions in the deck if you are worried about life, and rector tendrells is just a better deck.