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By: SpikeBoyM, Alex Ullman
Feb 24 2009 1:08am
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Teachings control is a pretty darn good deck, but you probably knew that already. For reference, here is the second place list from the recent Premier Event:

 

 

Teachings has supplanted Mono-Blue control as the deck of choice. While Teachings has been around since the card was released, it only caught on with the rise of Slivers. MUC has a hard time dealing with decks that can present large threats during the early turns before it can establish a defense of multiple counterspells. Teachings mitigates this fact by splashing into removal. Having the ability to say no and to say goodbye gives Teachings a versatility of attack that was absent to Mono-Blue (except for the one I ran into during the PE running Erratic Mutation main). When Shaper Parasite was not enough, those dirty Blue mages turned to Ghastly Demise.

Of course, there are other options, namely Red. Red provides the same removal as Black, often in a more reliable early game form- Lightning Bolt can often nail a Sinew Sliver just as well as a Terror, but has the added bonus of dodging the sideboard prevalent Obsidian Acolyte. Red is also the color of the Snow Plow, Skred, and provides some nice endgame options including Izzet Chronarch and Rolling Thunder.

The Rakdos split definitely provides Teachings control with some interesting options. However, when you go full Grixis, you get access to a hidden gem for Pauper- Nightscape Familiar. These card takes the already superior mana advantage of the control deck and sends it into overdrive, allowing for some sick plays including Spellstutter Sprite at Force Spike mana. With the Familiar in play, Teachings costs three on the front side and only five on the rebuy. This is incredibly important. Teachings decks build their advantage by casting the namesake spell for an answer and then again for another Teachings. This effectively turns one card into four answers. The best part is, unlike other decks, these answers can be silver bullets. Instead of having to pack four of an answer to make sure you draw it, you can pack only as many as you think you will need in a given match, and use your tutor to fetch them up, provided they are Instants or have Flash (and let's face it, they all will).

These answers are usually backed up with a few threats that tend to be well protected. Stillirise used Errant Ephemeron, which he was able to protect with his countermagic, but many of the newer Grixis lists have been sporting upwards of twelve creatures, none of which are as intimidating as the dragon, of course.

Using the PE list as a model, it is time for a dissection.

Still's deck ran 23 land as well as three Prismatic Lens. Lens serves an important role, allowing for some easy splashes out of the board but also accelerating towards Teachings, much like Familiar. If I were running a simple two color version, I would advocate a mana base much like this one (perhaps with a Swamp or two if you went with the Izzet version). However, I would also advocate some of the Ravica block Karoos, as they just help in the late game by providing an even greater mana advantage.

Moving into the three color build. I would almost always go with Familiar, as they are incredibly useful in helping you cast a bevy of spells and catching opponents off guard- getting a full fledged Mulldrifter at the discount price is pretty savage if you ask me. This version also benefits from Grixis Panorama, as it helps to find all of your colors while also not being totally useless in the first few turns. Since you want to optimize the effects of Familiar, you end up running quite a few cards that require generic mana, making the Panoramas a better choice than Terramorphic Expanse. This will allow for a smoother mana development while allowing for the varied mana base.

I believe that four Mystical Teachings are required. I know some people have advocated a three Teachings build to allow for more answers or an additional threat. I feel four is the right number for the deck as it provides you with the ability to access all your answers, rather than hoping to draw into one.

The deck above devotes 16 slots to countermagic, which seems to be at the upper limit. Depending on what you expect to face, I could easily see dropping down to a twelve counter main build. Which spells you choose to run are again, wholly meta dependent, but I would highly recommend some split of Exclude and Negate, as they handle all comers. A true Counterspell never hurts either. As the meta shifts more towards big mana control, however, I find Rune Snag losing some punch, so you may want to avoid it.

As far as removal, Still ran a main compliment of five spells. This a hair low for my taste. Lacking a true sweeper in a format largely defined by creatures, but I understand why Still settled on this number: there are simply too many other cards to try and fit into the deck to make any more than five work main. This is somewhat mitigated by the fact that you can tutor for the spells, and I am more used to play lists where you need to run the optimal number in order to maximize your chance of pulling the card.

For game enders, Still ran for Ephemeron, which I do not like. It is not because they end games, but more because he has no real back up plan. In this version, I would have really tried to squeeze in a Grim Harvest to make the most of the long game mana advantage. In the Grixis versions, I would run Big Drifts since he plays so nicely with Familiar.

With this in mind, here is my current Teachings list, up to date with some neato Conflux cards:

 

 

The choices:

The mana: it is not perfect, but it is a work in progress. It is a holdover from an older version which ran a Muddle the Mixture and Rolling Thunder engine. I could probably stand to drop a mountain or two, but I have not tested enough yet.

As for the (Dimir Aqueducts), I think two is the right number, as you rarely want them early or late, but rather right in that Flores Stage II sweet spot.

Mystical Teachings: Four, for obvious reasons.

Nightscape Familiar: The other half of the engine.

Mulldrifter: Even better in this deck thanks to low low prices.

Pestermite: I loved this for a long while, but am slowly losing faith as it dies to just about everything. I am seriously considering replacing a few of these with Spire Golem.

The counter suite: I went with three Exclude only because sometimes you will only have an Island open with one Familiar out, and you really need to be able to use your final counter, and Remove Soul fits there nicely. Two Negate as a nice catch all along side the three Trickery. I made Trickery my main counter of choice because I fully expect to face off against other Teachings decks, and Trickery just stops their engine. The last two singletons are rotating slots. I am trying out Traumatic Visions as it seems like a high velocity card that really suits the deck, being able to say no late or help smooth mana early; I know I am higher on this card than most. Condescend is just a good spell.

Three Skred, two Terminate: It is just removal, but these do the best job of all the choices. If Galina's Knight or Vedalken Outlander make a splash, you can fully expect some Terrors to make an appearance.

Grim Harvest: I like having a long game option.

Sideboard choices: The Spellstutters are incredibly important in some pairings, and utterly dead in others. The Sandstorms are fantastic against aggro, if a tad slow. The rest are spells that have their place in specialty pairings.

This is by no means a polished deck I would take into the queues, but rather my starting point for the new format.

A quick note: there has been talk on the PDCMagic.com boards of graveyard hate (a la (Relic of the Progenitus) as a way to shut down graveyard based decks, such as this one. I disagree. While this deck, MBC, and others, make use of the graveyard, they are perfectly able to function at a high level without access to their flashback options. A single Teachings will still fetch an answer, and any solid player will wait as long as they can to cast the eponymous spell in response to the blown Relic to start the chain over again.

The next Premier Event should be very interesting. With Teachings rising, it could present an opportunity for more traditional aggro to reemerge. Slivers is all well and good, except when people are prepared for the combo. Do not get me wrong, Slivers is still a contender, but I just feel that other decks are primed for time in the spot light again.

Keep slingin' commons-

-Alex

 

BONUS DECKLIST:

Here is my first attempt at a post-Conflux aggro list. This deck really has some great tools for aggro and tempo decks alike.

Tithe Weenie
 
Creatures
4 Shade of Trokair
4 Order of Leitbur
2 Aven Riftwatcher
4 Soltari Trooper
2 Icatian Javelineers
2 Razor Golem
18 cards

Other Spells
4 Lapse of Certainty
3 Bone Saw
4 Mana Tithe
4 Unmake
1 Renewed Faith
4 Court Homunculus
1 Remove Soul
2 Negate
3 Think Twice
15 cards
Lands
2 Secluded Steppe
4 Ancient Den
16 Plains
22 cards

Mana Tithe

 

5 Comments

Ok... you got me. How does by tumultuoustempus (not verified) at Tue, 02/24/2009 - 13:37
tumultuoustempus's picture

Ok... you got me. How does Tithe Weenie cast the Remove Soul, Negate and Think Twice?

yeah definitey something by Steelphoenix at Tue, 02/24/2009 - 14:02
Steelphoenix's picture

yeah definitey something wrong. The "other spells" section contains 26 cards, not 15. The whole deck is 66 cards (without SB). I guess adding those 6 last cards was a mistake :]. Oh and the homonculi are creatures :p

Mess up by kehm (not verified) at Tue, 02/24/2009 - 14:03
kehm's picture

He just messed up the decklist. If you count, he has 66 cards. Minus the remove soul, negate and TT, it's 60.

Oops by SpikeBoyM at Tue, 02/24/2009 - 15:13
SpikeBoyM's picture
3

Yeah, I must've missed deleting the cards fro mthe previous list. My mistake.

KichBeemhieta by TypeFoedTwesy (not verified) at Fri, 08/07/2009 - 01:52
TypeFoedTwesy's picture

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