Funky Brewster: Resurrecting Tutelage

If you’ve been following my exploits on this blog you’d know that one of my favorite things in Magic is to brew and tinker with decks. It can be either trying to bring back old archetypes like Draw-Go style Control decks (stay tuned for that article), or taking existing decks and retooling them for specific metagames. In this case, I made an attempt to resurrect that old UR Sphinx Tutelage deck from pre-Battle for Zendikar Standard (you can find the list here). For the most part, I believe the deck may hold an interesting place in the metagame. Here’s what we’re working with:

Chandra’s Tutelage

4 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy
Creatures - 4

1 Alhammarret’s Archive
2 Murderous Cut
2 Chandra, Flamecaller
2 Oath of Jace
3 Send to Sleep
4 Magmatic Insight
4 Tormenting Voice
4 Sphinx’s Tutelage
4 Radiant Flames
4 Treasure Cruise

Spells - 30

1 Swamp
2 Wandering Fumarole
2 Smoldering Marsh
3 Sunken Hollow
3 Island
3 Mountain
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Polluted Delta
4 Swiftwater Cliffs

Lands -26

Not much is different from the original list except for the card that might push this deck to, well, at least, Tier 1.5 status. Chandra, Flamecaller does absolutely everything this deck wants. She can be an alternate win-condition with her plus one. She can speed up the milling process with her zero ability, and she can clean up the board if things get a little hectic. In fact, she’s so good in this deck, that I might as well take out the Alhammarret’s Archive and play a third copy of Chandra. You know what?

-1 Alhammarret’s Archive
+1 Chandra, Flamecaller

There! Done! Three Chandras. Many of my wins came from slamming down the pyromancer. While the Archive did make the deck much more explosive, without a decent source of lifegain (ex. Radiant Fountain), however, it is only half as good.

At a glance, it may seem weird that I have Black just for two Murderous Cuts, yet Black gives me a wide variety of tools for specific match ups and one of the best draw spells in the format: Painful Truths. Originally, I had the converge draw spell instead of the Oath of Jace and briefly switched to the Oath because it gives me the same three cards for the same price, without the hurt, and helps fill up the graveyard with goodies for the Delve spells. Oath of Jace also has the added bonus of being able to draw away a Dromoka’s Command from the Sphinx’s Tutelage. 

My main gripe with Oath is that it doesn’t particularly help if you are way behind without cards in hand, and drawing might mean having to discard two relevant cards. But then, what are the odds that you draw three relevant cards in a row? Not to mention that you save three lives in the process. So, maybe Oath is indeed better. Only testing will tell.

Going forward I would also test Crux of Fate in place of the Murderous Cuts. In this deck, I believe

the Cuts are better off in the sideboard along with triple Fiery Impulse for the match ups where sweepers are too cumbersome and unnecessary. Maybe just the Impulses will do for those pesky Red decks. Regardless, we need a Whelming Wave stand-in and Crux would do just fine. Most decks are built to swarm with Goblin Tokens, Soldier Tokens, Plant Tokens, Roc Tokens, Thopters, Eldrazi, or by curving out with Wardens, Anafenzas, and Rhinos. Radiant Flames will keep the heat off you from the weenies, and Crux of Fate takes care of the latter, bigger threats. Plus, Chandra, Flamecaller as a post-Crux threat is a powerful follow up that’s guaranteed to finish the game in short order… or she can also join the list of viable sweepers. Certain decks don’t care much about the Wrath-effects, thus for them we can bring the spot-removal to take care of individual creatures more effectively. Moreover, they interact much better with creature-lands, which will prove to be troublesome. There isn’t a lot of room for everything, therefore we have to make do with cards like Send to Sleep.

Send to Sleep has been surprisingly useful and always glad to have in hand in case things get hairy. It provides certain protection from Collected Companies, animated Gideons, creature-lands, and much more. I would even consider playing a full set of them, but we’ll see. Don’t want to get too carried away now, do we? Still, Send to Sleep grants you quite a bit of room to maneuver the deck into a winning position or gives you the breathing space to get yourself sorted out.

Having said that, here is how the new list should look like:

Flamecaller Tutelage

4 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy
Creatures - 4

2 Oath of Jace
2 Crux of Fate
3 Send to Sleep
3 Chandra, Flamecaller
4 Magmatic Insight
4 Tormenting Voice
4 Treasure Cruise
4 Radiant Flames
4 Sphinx’s Tutelage

Spells - 30

1 Swamp
2 Smoldering Marsh
2 Wandering Fumarole
3 Sunken Hollow
3 Island
3 Mountain
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Polluted Delta
4 Swiftwater Cliffs
Lands - 26

Now we’re talking. Definitely feels like we are headed somewhere with this list. I think it is missing something… How about a sideboard, eh? As a disclaimer, without a substantial amount of testing, I can’t say for sure which cards would be better than others. We can still hazard a guess here until I can get in some more games with the deck.

For starters, World Breaker (and the rest of its Eldrazi comrades) is a problem. Infinite Obliteration is a must. If they don’t have the Breaker, then Ulamog is also a suitable target. Fortunately, with so much card draw, the deck is capable of getting one or two copies of Obliteration relatively quickly. You’ll be able to snatch whatever you dislike without a hitch. Furthermore, Obliterations help keep the Rally decks in check by exiling their Nantuko Husks and Zulaport Cutthroats. By the same token, Disdainful Strokes would be useful to have for the Eldrazi Menace and, generally, against decks with high mana-costs like Abzan. Nailing a Thought-Knot Seer, Rally the Ancestors, or a Gideon, Ally of Zendikar will undoubtedly make things easier for you in the long-run. Not sure you want Stroke for the Rally match, but if there’s nothing else… 

Against the Red decks, or those that like to play cheap threats fast such as the new Prowess decks, stabilizing is the name of the game. For that reason, Fiery Impulse is far and away your best tool. Impulse makes sure you can Radiant Flames at a reasonably high life total--establishing control of the game in the process. 

All right, this is how our sideboard is shaping up:

3 Fiery Impulse
3 Disdainful Stroke
3 Infinite Obliteration

Dispels were also there, yet I don’t think they are where we want to be. Dispel is narrow and really

needs to be in your hand at the exact moment when your opponents try to go for the Rally or the Dromoka’s Command. Maybe keeping two is fine, but I believe there is merit to having a more proactive game plan versus those problem cards. Perhaps Duress is better suited for the task. If they don’t have a Command you may be able to take care of a Gideon, Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, ramp spell, counter, draw spells, or their own discard spell. That’s without mentioning the leverage you get from knowing the specifics of their hand. Even Despise is in my radar for being able to take out Thought-Knot Seers, Siege Rhino, and so on. Keeping mana up for counterspells just doesn’t feel like the correct way to go.


Let’s see:

1 Crumble to Dust

2 Dispel
3 Duress
3 Disdainful Stroke
3 Fiery Impulse
3 Infinite Obliteration

I added a Crumble to Dust because it is another answer for creature-lands and it is another way to keep Ramp decks from getting fully online with their Shrines of the False Gods. To be fair, this sideboard looks supremely loose. Let this be a lesson in sideboarding:

One of the best ways to find out what your sideboard needs is by identifying what your deck doesn’t need in any given match up.

Here’s an extreme example: Say you are playing a UB Control deck full of Grasp of Darkness and Foul-Tongue Invocations and Turbo Fog (inexplicably) is the deck to beat. Turbo Fog has no creatures whatsoever, so your removal is completely dead. You need to replace them for something that will do, well, anything at all. As a result, you take that removal out and bring in Negates and Duresses. Even if they end up being marginal, you can rest assured they’ll be more valuable than creature removal.

Well, that’s it for now! Not too long, but straight and to the point. Maybe I should write shorter articles from now on. Anyway, see you next time!

Yours truly,
Chris

MTGO: Hamngs
Twitter: Hamngs
XMage: Hamngs
Twitch: Hamnggs