A variation on the UR Tutelage decks of last standard. The loss of Treasure Cruise hurts our draw plan, but in its stead we have Madness to pair with our many loot/discard effects. No Jace, VP for budget reasons - additionally, keeping the deck creatureless helps blank many decks pre-board.
Why Tutelage?
Pros
- It's fun - milling people with ridiculous Tutelage triggers feels great, and sometimes you kill people out of nowhere just like a combo deck.
- It attacks from an unusual angle - no creatures, no damage makes other decks poorly suited to dealing with it.
- It's fairly cheap.
Cons
- Inconsistent - can lose by simply drawing the wrong half of the deck (even with a lot of draw)
- Reliant on Sphinx's Tutelage - we have very few ways to win without sticking one (sooner rather than later).
Card Choices
Revision: The deck has proved too slow to utilise strong tempo plays like tapping and bouncing. As a result, an increase in red removal (Lightning Axe) + Madness cards is how I am attempting to keep the board clear while digging or after resolving a tutelage.
Sphinx's Tutelage - The namesake and win-con. No explanation needed.
Oath of Jace - Fantastic, even without Planeswalkers. 3 Tutelage triggers are great, digging for Tutelage is great, enabling madness is great, incidental protection from Dromoka's Command is great.
Tormenting Voice = Low cost draw that digs/draws/enables madness.
Magmatic Insight - Very similar to Tormenting Voice, doesn't enable madness but does everything else at a lower cost.
Pore Over the Pages - Expensive, but effectively a build-your-own divination that triggers Tutelage 3 times.
Pyromancer's Goggles - Another expensive 5 drop, but it carries serious punch. Drawing 4 off Insight/Voice, double Fiery Impulse/Fiery Temper/Lightning Axe is worth the investment.
Fiery Impulse - Picks off most creatures CMC < 4. Shock is good, bolt is better, and the deck fuels Spell Mastery very quickly.
Fiery Temper - Turning discard into Lightning Bolt is big game and 3 damage takes care of a large portion of the early game. Can also be used to pick off low-loyalty Planeswalkers. Split with Fiery impulse since you never want to have a Temper stuck in hand that you have to cast for 3 - UR Tutelage is all about spell velocity.
Just the Wind - With the speed that the deck can kill, bouncing moderately large creatures can be a big tempo swing that buys you enough time to win. Competes with Fiery Temper - the split depends on how many creatures Temper can kill.
Lightning Axe - Instant speed madness enabler plus a kill almost anything for .
Send to Sleep - A deceptively powerful card that can fog an opponent for two turns. Meh early, good later - numbers will depend on how go-wide/go-tall the format shapes up (weak to the former, better against the latter).
Radiant Flames - A 3 mana Pyroclasm isn't fantastic but it's all we have available right now. Excellent against the token producing Hangarbacks, P&K and the new Westvale Abbey
decks being proposed. Mainboard numbers will be heavily shaped by the metagame - large numbers of x/3s spell bad news. Interacts poorly with Pyromancer's Goggles. Note - probably should be Kozilek's Return except 1) budget and 2) the deck operates primarily at sorcery speed, so the change is fairly irrelevant.
Lands
Fairly self explanatory. Wandering Fumarole helps defensively if turtling and ostensibly provides a secondary win-con. We play ~27 lands to allow discarding and to fuel Magmatic Insight. The deck is quite colour-heavy, so playing too many colourless lands can be a problem. Sea Gate Wreckage or Drownyard Temple may be worth testing.
Sideboard
Currently a generic mash of useful cards. Will be tuned as metagame stabilises.
Other Options
Chandra, Flamecaller - Slow but powerful. Definitely a viable addition, none run due to budget reasons.
Avacyn's Judgment - A testing 1-of. Solid against go-wide under madness, and 2 mana Forked Bolt is still a decent rate. Need to experiment how viable it is casting it for a decent madness cost, since we have no free discard outlets like Jace. Currently replaced by another Radiant Flames.
Manic Scribe - Blocks well and fuels our win condition (since Delirium is fairly easy to achieve) but does little by itself and turns on removal.
Forgotten Creation - Strong effect but dies to a stiff breeze. Possibly sideboard?
Catalog - Instant speed is not that noteworthy here and it doesn't dig as deep as Oath of Jace.
Engulf the Shore - Insufficient number of islands to properly turn this on.
Matchups
Largely untested as of yet. I expect the deck to function similarly to those of yesteryear - strong against midrange/control when a timely Tutelage arrives, potentially weak to very fast aggro (especially without Anger of the Gods/Whelming Wave). The deck could be too slow in spite of the cheap interactive spells, and often it may turn into a race. Ramp decks seem difficult to interact with or race, so more testing is required to determine how to shore up the matchups.
Danger Cards
I hope this deck proves of interest. Please drop suggestions/testing results!
