Academy Ruins
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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Highlander Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Academy Ruins

Legendary Land

: Add .

, : Put target artifact card from your graveyard on top of your library.

hootsnag on Oloro White Blue Black Creatureless Control V2

1 week ago

I am moving away from counterspells that can't target creatures. I left in Dovin's Veto only because it can't be countered. If there were more counterspells that countered all spells and only cost 2 or less, I would add them. I own an original Legends Mana Drain and it's in my Oloro deck now. I had to make a choice with Rest in Peace. I decided to cut it because I wanted to be able to return cards out of my graveyard. I didn't like the graveyard exiling version of this deck so I reverted it and improved the win conditions. I don't currently run enough enchantments for Hall of Heliod's Generosity to be useful. As long as I am able to keep Soldevi Digger and Planar Portal in play, I can return ANY type of card from my graveyard back to my hand. Academy Ruins makes sure that can happen as often as needed. We will always disagree with Reflecting Pool. I cannot afford to draw it in my opening hand as my only land in this deck. It's an instant mulligan. I considered every single land currently printed in magic that can tap for any color. I decided against Glimmervoid and a few others a long time ago. I don't want artifact removal also destroying my land. It's not a good plan. Archway of Innovation is a great land for heavy artifact decks but not for this deck. Most of my artifacts tap for more mana than I would get from using it or have other abilities and need to be untapped to use. The only other card I'm still debating on adding is Isochron Scepter. I may still cut something for it. Run a few playtests with this so you can really see why I made the choices I did. You'll understand more then. Also, I'm preparing to make a different version of this deck with Sivitri, Dragon Master as the commander.

TheSurgeon on Bruvac's Millibuster

1 month ago

fluffyeel I appreciate all of your feedback!

Commandeer and Misdirection both fit the (rather unintentional) "free" theme I have in the deck, but exiling two blue cards in my deck seems a bit steep for my play style. I would simply use something like Redirect, or counter it altogether.

Teferi's Tutelage was in here, but i felt i was concentrating too much on the draw/mill mechanic, not to mention it's another 3 drop (I'm wierd about mana costs) that, as you stated, does less than its Sphinxy big brother. And Puzzlebox just doesn't feel like it has the impact it should for a 4 drop.

Capsize's cost and buyback is too expensive; especially with all of the other 1-2 cost bounces available; and Sunder would only hurt me as well.

Mystical Tutor will find a home in here. Of course I need more ways to find combo pieces! Not sure why I never picked this one up.. I guess I assumed it was beyond my budget without ever checking. LOL

I was't aware that Clever Impersonator existed. The versatility makes the extra cost almost bearable to my mana-frugal brain. This will need further study.

I only have one Oboro, Palace in the Clouds and it's in my Modern deck. I may have to pick this and Boseiju next pay.

Academy Ruins is awesome! I believe I never picked it up because it was expensive; and when I got the means to get it, forgot all about it. Buried Ruin was one I had, and didn't cost anything to activate at the time. Thanks for reminding me!!

Memory Jar's a bit expensive for my taste. I don't have a lot of luck with wheel-ish effects, as the cards I need to further my goals are often in the hand I'm discarding/phasing leaving me in a logistical pickle that robs me of the win, and where words cannot express my frustration.

Overall, I think you've helped quite a bit! A bit more visceral than "yOu nEeD gRaVeYaRd hate" that I always get!!

-TheSurgeon

fluffyeel on Bruvac's Millibuster

1 month ago

I just thought of a few other useful tools:

  • Commandeer is another good zero-mana... not counter, but disruptor. It's become more popular, I've noticed, but it's still not something a lot of people see coming. Similarly, Misdirection is another handy tool for disruption, but it's more limited than Commandeer (though it's one less card to exile...).
  • Teferi's Tutelage is another fun mill toy. It's a bit more limited than Sphinx's Tutelage, but why not double up the fun! Similarly, you can use Teferi's Puzzle Box to mill your opponents even faster while also disrupting their game play.
  • Capsize is another all-purpose bounce, and reusable as well. Sunder is another great way to lose friends at instant speed. You could also consider Mystical Tutor to help dig for things you need.
  • Clever Impersonator is more versatile than Copy Enchantment for one more mana, but it may not be extremely necessary.
  • There are some lands that might be handy for your strategy. Oboro, Palace in the Clouds gives you reusable landfall; Boseiju, Who Shelters All makes sure your essential Instant and Sorcery spells don't get countered (e.g. Cyclonic Rift); Field of Ruin kills troublesome lands and gives mandatory search (and landfall), which is relevant for Archive Trap; and Academy Ruins is a more reusable Buried Ruin.
  • Cyclonic Rift pairs very well with Memory Jar. Just saying. :P

wallisface on Azorius Aggro-Control deck

5 months ago

I'm not saying it has to be established-meta to work. But knowing what does work is helpful for making a deck function well.

As far as deck budget, very strong things can be built for cheap (but what you have at the moment isn't it) - if you have a budget for what you're wanting to spend on the deck, it's good to post that upfront, so that people can suggest cards within your price-range. I'm able to give lots of better card suggestions for whatever price range you're aiming for, but I can't do that if I don't know what your price-point is!

My criticisms of the current cards are as follows:

  • You need to cast 2 creatures from the top of your deck with Assemble the Players to actually gain any benefit from the card (the first creature is just "breaking even"). With only 17 creatures in the deck this could take a lot of time - you can assume 5ish turns - which is excessively long for a magic game, particularly if you're wanting to be aggressive. But even more noteworthy, is that casting this card early means leaving your shields-down (as you're then missing mana to control the board), so it can only ever be realistically cast late-game, which makes it even more useless for any deck trying to be proactive/aggressive.

  • You say Academy Ruins is useful for its ability if you need it - but under what board state are you ever needing it? Normally this card is used to ensure lock pieces stay on-board indefinitely, but you're only sudo-lock piece is Ethersworn Canonist, which is too low a density of cards to warrant running 3 copies of a legendary land (making your manabase troublesome). Added to this, most of your spells require only-coloured-pips, so the colourless mana this provides is close-to useless.

  • You mention that with Ethersworn Canonist your opponent can only play a spell a turn "which you can easily counter". While this is a valid strategy, you only have 11 counterspells, so spells are going to get through - I don't think you can assume this is an automatic game-lock by any means.

  • Oppressive Rays is bad because it doesn't get rid of the creature, and that creature can still pose a massive problem. Especially as it doesn't stop triggered abilities, many, many creatures will be completely happy even with this attached. And, if the opponent really wants to attack or use an activated ability of the creature, they still have the option to later in the game. This is why completely removing the creature is always the better option - and you have a massive selection of actually-good spells for doing that in white, so i'm not sure why you're using this card.

  • There's a good reason nobody runs Peek.

9-lives on Azorius Aggro-Control deck

5 months ago

Well, those cards aren't exactly budget. I don't plan on spending a ton on one card. my deck is comparable to the aggro-control deck you mentioned, but yet it is somewhat different. I plan on locking my opponent in with Ethersworn Canonist with one spell they can cast per turn, which I can easily counter. Academy Ruins is useful for its ability if I need it. Assemble the Players is amazing: it allows you to basically cast a level 2 card for only 2 mana at first, and each subsequent turn I can do so. I also need it and Peek to know in advance what I'm getting so that I can plan my turns based on whatever is going on with the opponent. Oppressive Rays is really good as well. It has never failed me. This is an aggro-control deck, so I'm not running any cards that are high in mana cost and also are budget. You and some other people always recommend the most expensive and over-used cards for the archetype.

wallisface on Azorius Aggro-Control deck

5 months ago

Some thoughts:

  • Last time you started a thread about a deck, it was described as you wanting to make a deck more competitive, but when those suggestions came through you decided you'd rather the deck be casual than strong. Is this the same scenario, or are you legitimately looking for advice on making a strong control deck.

  • Azorius Conrtol already exists as a well-defined meta archetype, consistently hovering between 1-5% of the meta. There is an established deck list here

  • The kind of deck your describing (being aggressive while also controlling the board state) is basically what the current Murktide Regent lists do - deck here. I think it is going to be very hard to justify playing white over red in such an archetype, because red brings most of the aggression, but it's probably still achievable with some concessions.

Some thoughts on your current list specifically:

  • For the deck to work, you need to be running the minimum amount of creatures possible - between 12-15. Running more than this makes it too hard to control the board, and running less than this puts you at risk of not being able to threaten damage.

  • All the creatures you run need to be able to quickly close-out the game on their own. If you check the Murktide list linked above, you'll notice all of those creatures are able to dish out extreme pressure. So far, NONE of your creatures are even remotely threatening. You want to be playing creatures that can end the game fast and can do everything they need to by-themselves. You should really be playing cards like Murktide Regent, Ledger Shredder, Tishana's Tidebinder and Solitude/Subtlety instead of these extremely weak creatures.

  • Any number of Academy Ruins is excessive when you have no real reason to want to recur any of these artifacts.

  • 3 mana countermagic is always bad - there's no reason to run Render Silent especially when you still have room to play another Counterspell instead.

  • Assemble the Players is a terrible card and shouldn't be here.

  • you need waay more wawys to powerfully interact with cards that the opponent resolves - Oppressive Rays is too weak for this. You need cards like Prismatic Ending and Leyline Binding.

  • You are severely lacking in efficient draw. I would expect Preordain instead of Peek at a bare minimum.

Nalgaeryn on EDH - Dralnu, Lord of Exile

5 months ago

Whoops, here are the most expensive cards in the deck and rough prices currently.

RCD2023 on I've got gadgets and gizmos a plenty

6 months ago

about the lands here some ideas:

Otawara, Soaring City -> get artifact frow grave Mirrorpool , Academy Ruins ,.... Tolaria West -> i use to get Inventors' Fair and get what i need in game The Mycosynth Gardens

Basics : Temple of Epiphany, cascade bluffs , scalding tarn , training center , steam vents , fabled passage ....... Izzet Boilerworks -> combos with Teferi temporal archmage + the chain veil + some other mana artifac

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