The decks to beat… and how to beat them

By Tom Vandevelde

In this article series, I take an in-depth look at what I consider the decks that shape the current League Standard metagame (Khans of Tarkir block, Magic Origins and Battle for Zendikar), the strategy they hope to deploy, and how one might dismantle that strategy. These articles should provide valuable information on how to build your deck and sideboard in function of these defining players in the metagame.

UR TUTELAGE

THE DECK & ITS STRATEGY

When Magic Origins first came out, people glancing over the new enchantment Sphinx’s Tutelage would usually take a second look at it before dismissing it as a casual card meant to inspire wacky deck builders. That is, everyone except American pro and deck builder extraordinaire Andrew Cuneo who decided to break the card in half by building his entire deck around it. Playing an entirely new archetype intent solely on milling his opponents out, he went 6-3 in the constructed rounds of Pro Tour Magic Origins, and the room was abuzz. The deck attacked the metagame from a completely different angle, and caught people unawares. Its gameplan was fundamentally different than that of the other decks. Was this truly a playable archetype? Or was it Cuneo’s mastery that lead it to its above average record? In the end, most people figured it was the latter.

Flash forward to Grand Prix San Diego, a mere week later. Michael Majors is counting on his friend to lend him an Abzan deck. Unfortunately, the deck does not come together, and Majors is left with this weird blue-red concoction Cuneo played at the Pro Tour. Feeling rather dejected, he sleeves up the deck – what else is he going to do!? – and, not having played a single game with it before the start of the tournament, proceeds to go 13-2 to reach the Top 8 of the tournament, before taking down the trophy. Turns out that wacky deck isn’t half bad.

UR Tutelage is built entirely around Sphinx’s Tutelage, its namesake card. In order to trigger the enchantment as much as possible, the deck plays an enormous amount of draw spells such as Tormenting Voice, Magmatic Insight and, most notably, Treasure Cruise. Once you are up to four or five mana, you can usually chain one draw spell into the next, setting up huge turns where you draw 5+ cards every turn, all the while milling your opponent with Sphinx’s Tutelage. The deck usually ‘kills’ around turn 6 to 9, depending on how many Tutelages are drawn and how soon they hit the board. Most decks kill faster than that with their creatures when unimpeded however, which is why the UR Tutelage deck is forced to play a number of interactive cards to keep their opponent’s board in check. Cards like Fiery Impulse, Roast, Send to Sleep and sweepers like Seismic Rupture do this at an efficient rare, allowing the Tutelage player to keep drawing cards while staying in control of the situation. That, in a nutshell, is the gameplan.

Have you noticed how many of the cards that were just named are commons and uncommons? That’s right, all of them. The UR Tutelage deck, therefore, is the deck that ports most easily from regular Standard to League Standard. Just look at how similar these two lists are, the first played by Andrew Cuneo at the Pro Tour, the second played by Laurens Brusselmans to a 3-0-1 record at the first post-Origins League Standard event:

UR Tutelage – Andrew Cuneo (Standard Pro Tour Magic Origins)

Creatures (4)

4 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy

Other (29)

4 Magmatic Insight

1 Roast

2 Send to Sleep

4 Tormenting Voice

4 Anger of the Gods

2 Dictate of Kruphix

4 Sphinx’s Tutelage

2 Whelming Wave

1 Alhammarret’s Archive

1 Dig Through Time

4 Treasure Cruise

Land (27)

1 Bloodstained Mire

1 Flooded Strand

4 Island

5 Mountain

4 Radiant Fountain

4 Shivan Reef

4 Swiftwater Cliffs

4 Temple of Epiphany

UR Tutelage (League Standard)Creatures (0)

(1 Jace is optimal, but due to price concerns, was not in Laurens’ version of the deck)

Other (33)

4 Magmatic Insight (U)

3 Roast (U)

2 Send to Sleep

4 Tormenting Voice

4 Seismic Rupture (U)

1 Anger of the Gods (R)

4 Sphinx’s Tutelage (U)

1 Monastery Siege (R)

1 Alhammarret’s Archive (R)

1 Dig Through Time (R)

4 Treasure Cruise

Land (27)

6 Island

9 Mountain

4 Radiant Fountain

4 Swiftwater Cliffs

4 Evolving Wilds

M15 and Theros block rotating out of the format barely changed anything at all, except for the Radiant Fountains and Anger of the Gods being replaced by regular basics and a new rare. (My own version plays a Pearl Lake Ancient in the sideboard for the control mirrors, but the optimal set of rares is probably Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy, Alhammarret’s Archive, Monastery Siege and Dig Through Time) Make no mistake about it, this is (still) one of the biggest players in the format.The deck preys mostly on slower creature strategies, which just cannot outrace the milling. The fact that it has such a different game plan to any other deck means that many decks have a lot of dead cards in the main deck (all removal for instance), and often no good sideboard cards. This gives the deck a big advantage, especially in game 1.

HOW TO BEAT IT

Contrary to the Aristocrats decks I discussed last week, the UR Tutelage deck does have a glaring weakness: it is nothing without its namesake card. Sometimes, the Tutelage player will be drawing a ton of cards without finding a Tutelage, and, therefore, have no clock. When this happens, or when the first Tutelage is countered or destroyed somehow, it becomes a lot harder for the Tutelage player to win. While the deck contains a ton of card draw, there are only 4 cards in the deck that can actually kill the opponent, and that is something we want to exploit if we want to beat the deck. So, how do we do this?

Try to have enchantment removal in the sideboard. Naturalize is a versatile option, Felidar Cub doubles as a creature that can pressure their life total. Cub is especially valuable after board, because it cannot be countered by the Negate s and Dispel s the Tutelage deck often brings in to fight off the hate-cards.

If you do not have enchantment removal, Duress and Negate can also take care of the Tutelage before it hits the battlefield. Negate , once again, is the better of these options, because it also stops topdecks.

The other way to beat the UR Tutelage deck is to kill them before they mill you. Slow, mid-rangey creature decks will find this difficult, but aggressive decks can usually pressure the Tutelage deck enough to outrace them. Monastery Swiftspear is a true menace for the deck. Just make sure not to run an onslaught of tokens right into a Seismic Rupture blowout. Note that creatures with 3 or more toughness and fliers are a lot more difficult for the Tutelage deck to deal with, because both Seismic Rupture and early Fiery Impulses (usually post-board) deal only 2 damage!

THE BEST CARDS AGAINST THEM

The best cards against the UR Tutelage decks are cards that pressure their life total early (creatures with flying or high enough toughness to evade Seismic Rupture are especially good here), and cards that mess with the Tutelage game plan, such as Negate or enchantment removal. Felidar Cub is especially potent for reasons explained above.

THE BEST DECKS AGAINST THEM

GR Landfall and other aggressive red and white strategies can usually outrace the UR Tutelage deck, making them a great choice, as long as you play around their removal correctly. Control decks with Duress and Negate are another reasonable choice, although this match-up might not be as easy as it would seem at first glance. Game 1, the control player is a huge favorite if they manage to counter the first Tutelage, but after sideboard, the Tutelage player has access to Negates and sometimes also Dispels of their own, which makes winning the counter war over Tutelage of paramount importance. I would guess it becomes a skill-matchup at this point. Another deck that is well set-up to deal with the Tutelage deck is the GB or Sultai Delve deck that was more popular before the rotation. The deck plays main deck Duress and Sultai Charm, has 3+ toughness creatures that can quickly pressure the opponent and has Negate and Naturalize after sideboard, making this match-up quite difficult for the UR Tutelage player.

Decks you do not want to play against UR Tutelage are slower creature decks such as Aristocrats and bigger creature strategies. You just cannot race the milling all that effectively. Monocolored strategies are also handicapped, because they will often see their cards milled at twice the pace of any two- or more colored deck.

TIPS AND TRICKS

Remember to play around Seismic Rupture if at all possible. It can really blow you out if you are not careful about how you deploy your creatures. Remember that prowess creatures like Monastery Swiftspear and Seeker of the Way can sometimes be saved from Seismic Rupture by keeping open mana and triggering prowess with a cheap spell in response to the opponent’s Seismic Rupture

If you are playing a control deck, making sure Tutelage does not resolve is the only thing you need to care about. Make sure to always have enough mana and counters to win the counter war over Tutelage as that is all that matters. I would therefore always bring in Dispels in this match-up.

If your deck is too slow to race them, but you have no solid game plan to disrupt them, just try to do your best to race anyway. Side out all of your dead cards for any creatures you can find, and just hope they have a slow draw without Tutelage. For this reason, I play a couple of Swarm Surge s in the sideboard of my Aristocrats decks.

Remember that Devoid cards are colorless, and will therefore not trigger the Tutelage. If, for instance, you reveal a Fiery Impulse and a Vile Aggregate to your opponent’s Tutelage trigger, you do not have to mill a second time. This is why I side in useless devoid spells like Complete Disregard for colored spells when I am playing UB Aristocrats. I have so many dead cards in the match-up that I would rather have dead cards that stop the milling than dead cards that don’t.

Next time, I tackle Bant Fliers, one of the more surprising top dogs in the format, and certainly not the easiest deck to play against.

Until then!

Tom

Profile:

Tom Vandevelde has been playing Magic since Tempest, and competitively since Time Spiral. Deckbuilding is his favorite part of the game, which has led to him taking an interest in less conventional formats like League Standard. Alongside his teammates on Team Wrecking Ball he is shooting for the Pro Tour, but you will just as often find him playing Pauper, Pack Wars or Mental Magic, or helping out newer players. You will often find Tom streaming on twitch.tv/wreckingballmtg, where you can actually challenge him to League Standard matches in between rounds! Be sure to come hang out and ask questions!