Subject: The Academy at State today! Date: Sat, 07 Nov 1998 21:39:01 -0700 From: Michael Bahr Newsgroups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy Well, I'm still fresh off State and here are a few quick thoughts. 1. Suicide Black makes the game a coin toss against the Academy. Any Academy deck packing Windfalls suffers to it; those same decks do better against the field, though. If you see a Priest of Gix, then black has a chance. Otherwise, Academy will win too fast. Even if you first turn Persecute. Duress doesn't even faze it. 2. Burning Bridge does well against the Academy because of one card: Seismic Assault!!! The Academy player will typically not have the Capsize yet when he does his first Spiral... and you do have counters. (This is a red/blue deck with Oath of Scholars as well). They Spiral, you huck land at them and put them in deep life trouble, then you get 7 more cards... most of which you can probably huck at them (land) and put them even closer to death. Add that this deck supports all of the best Academy hosers (see #3) and it's a good metagame choice. Caveat: Living Death, and anything with Tradewinds, crushes this. 3. The sideboard cards of choice against the Academy are: Planar Void, ENERGY FLUX, and Lobotomy (well duh). Every other sideboard option people tried against me and the others who had Academy decks, we shrugged off. Those three, however, caused problems. I never realized how much I appreciated my Scroll Rack until I had to pay for it... every turn. 4. Abundant Vineyard Wurm was theoretically good, and theoretically got its ass kicked by every Academy player smart enough to pack Capsize. 5. In the main Academy deck, two Voltaic Keys and two Lotus Petals supplant the four Fellwars now. In playtesting before the tournament we realized that the key's effect is just gravy... it's the fact that it's 1 mana to cast and is a (potential) minor mana sink, that makes it good. And it's oh so good with Scroll Racks. The Petals bring the complement in the deck to four, and seem a little "wasteful", but they allow you to Spiral a bit more often and faster than we were used to, and you get them back. Our first look at the Voltaic Keys were before Scroll Racks made their appearance in the deck... so they didn't look as good at the time as they do now. 6. The Academy should pack four Counterspells and two Power Sinks. It's just worth it. Seriously. I packed 3 C's and 2 S's and was pleased, and often thought "man, one more vanilla Counterspell and I'm sitting pretty here." 7. Yes, I did decent, but I'm not as good a player as I am a deckbuilder. I make dumb errors and forget important things. When I left, of the six Academy decks at the tourney (four of them Bahr/Powers type), the other five were at the first few tables. :) At least I won when I should have won, and lost only some close ones (and one on a ruling, which was kinda sketchy, but what are ya gonna do). It was so solid for the most part. The last time I approached each match with absolutely no fear, was during Necro Summer. -- - Mike Bahr - Wizard's Tower Gaming Center in Mesa, AZ (602-962-0151) - http://www.goodnet.com/~emerald/ - Magic, AD&D, SWCCG/STCCG and more! - Magic: the Gathering "Duelists' Convocation Level 2 Certified Judge" - d u r n i k@g o o d n e t.c o m - If it's nae Scottish,it's CRAP!