t1 academy deck

[Eric Taylor]

I think by now everyone who plays t1 has their own version of the
academy deck. Anyway, here's a sample t1 academy deck. A t1 academy
deck should get more than 50% 1st turn kill, but I haven't yet tested
this one. If it doesn't get at least 50% turn 1 kills then it needs
more tinkering.

4@tolarian windfall spiral force lotuspetal vault crypt hurkyls candelabra
1@meditate ancestral wheel twist balance stroke pearl sapphire emerald jet
ruby lotus solring demtutor walk 2@abeyance barbedsextant lionseye 3@scrollrack

Some notes: the single stroke is merely convenience. You can also
kill by hurkyls yourself, windfall, scroll rack for 30 or so, rack 30
cards back onto your deck and windfall again. If you get stuck and
need to draw cards, you can always hurkyl yourself and scroll rack back
some artifacts. You might want to keep a lotus petal in play if you do
this so you can make any color. You can mulligan down to 3 cards and
still get an easy turn 1 win, so how fast the deck plays depends a lot
on how hard you want to mulligan.

The single balance is not really for creature control, even though it
is a pleasant way to kill the gorilla. It's for land destruction.
There are 4 lands in the deck. If your opponent plays a turn 1
tolarian or wasteland you can play balance and then lay your tolarian.
The meditate is in there because the normal way a t1 deck runs is to
impulse or mystic or merchant scroll for your ancestral. This deck
can't afford the time or mana to do this because it tries to win on
turn 1. Thus the meditate is a crappy ancestral/windfall replacement.
Likewise with only 2 lionseyes and barbedsextants. If you could play
with more moxes, mana crypts or tolarians you would. The lion's eye
diamonds and barbed sextants are 2nd rate cards merely to increase the
colored mana count.

In normal deck play it's not necessary to make more than 16 mana at any
time unless you are ready to stroke your opponent. If you make too
much mana and get a really awful time spiral, it's possible to burn to
death, so you may not want to make excessive mana.

See the Rome top 8 for ideas on how to sideboard. I might also play a
sideboarded torch in case someone plays turn 1 chains of
mephistopheles. Note this is only if you play 2nd. If you go first,
you probably should not play sideboarded so you have the most efficient
turn 1 kill.

--- edt