MTGNexus

Is this the best death trigger ever?

The rares for the first two Urza's Destiny packs I cracked were this and Yawgmoth's Bargain. I still missed that Urza block was an enchantment theme, but I did get that it was a "development doesn't exist" theme.

I love Academy Rector a lot, but I love eating it with Scavenging Ooze and then having to explain that rule more than I love rector. It was a really beautifully designed trigger and card, managing to be basically the best part of all powerful triggers; it has a ton of attack surface, it's powerful, it's fairly costed.

There is a lot of tension with this effect; it wants enough enchantments to have options, but it struggles with an enchantment deck to find enough sac outlets since there aren't very many good ones in enchantments (only a handful). So you wind up having to sweep it or something, but then that catches up your enchantresses potentially.

You can't just bank on someone attacking you with a non-evasive creature, but sometimes that helps too, so that's another fun angle--if you attack me, I'm tutoring up a sweet enchantment.

My favorite thing about rector honestly is the intricacies of building a deck to use it. It's not an incredibly easy card to use, and its mana cost kinda pushes the bounds of how good it is. It's too intricate to be a CEDH card unless your commander is a sac outlet somehow, so that's also nice.

And the things you can get with enchantments are *usually* just very strong, not game ending (even Omniscience is not guaranteed W)

All in all, a really elegant card.

Screw you Reserve List

I think this only really became silly when Omniscience was printed. If you look at what's available in the pool of silly stuff you can tutor into play before M13, it's actually not that deep and arguably not worth it.

pokken wrote: ↑

1 year ago

There is a lot of tension with this effect; it wants enough enchantments to have options, but it struggles with an enchantment deck to find enough sac outlets since there aren't very many good ones in enchantments (only a handful). So you wind up having to sweep it or something, but then that catches up your enchantresses potentially.

I feel like this card doesn't necessarily want to be in an enchantress deck. I think I'd be fine to play it in any deck that was playing Omniscience, even if Omniscience is the only enchantment in the deck. The dearth of enchantment sac outlets is hardly a barrier, IMO.

I love Academy Rector for my Tymna the Weaver//Ravos, Soultender cleric tribal deck.

The best enchantments for me to grab are True Conviction, Black Market Connections, Smothering Tithe, Grave Pact, and Legion Loyalty.

For sacrifice outlets I have Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim, Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, Shadow-Rite Priest, Diabolic Intent, Pyre of Heroes, Starlit Sanctum, and Phyrexian Tower.

For Pyre of Heroes I'm grabbing Battletide Alchemist and for Shadow-Rite Priest I'm grabbing Skemfar Shadowsage.

I also run Arena Rector, and the best planeswalker to get is Sorin Markov.

Cards like Rotlung Reanimator and Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim go well with the sacrifice subtheme, and most creatures(not the rectors), I can get back with Ravos, Soultender.

I also ran Academy Rector in a Ghen, Arcanum Weaver deck, but that deck didn't have as many creature sacrifice outlets, and it could already cheat enchantments into play with Ghen. For the Ghen deck the best cards to grab were Captive Audience or Overwhelming Splendor.

Academy Rector is also great with Thalia and The Gitrog Monster and can be used to get an Eldrazi Conscription to have a 14/14 first strike, death touch, trample Human Frog Eldrazi Horror with Annihilator 2 commander.

Sinis wrote: ↑

1 year ago

I feel like this card doesn't necessarily want to be in an enchantress deck. I think I'd be fine to play it in any deck that was playing Omniscience, even if Omniscience is the only enchantment in the deck. The dearth of enchantment sac outlets is hardly a barrier, IMO.

Yeah I agree it often doesn't want to be in an enchantress deck, but if you *can* it's really nice to fetch Opalescence / Parallax Wave or Enchanted Evening or whatever combo/powerhouse card. Sometimes you can get there with stuff like Fallen Ideal and Evolutionary Leap Attrition Circle of Despair or Martyr's Cause.

That said I think playing it without explicit support is a common mistake that people make. I don't think just jamming it with 1-2 powerhouse targets is a great play, especially if you can't have a high likelihood of sac'ing it.

It's at its best getting The Meathook Massacre in an aristocrats deck (or Bastion of Remembrance) -- where you are always going to have a sac outlet.

It's super good in Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim.

If you're running a ton of destroy sweepers it's fine, but the tension with Farewell is real

pokken wrote: ↑

1 year ago

Sinis wrote: ↑

1 year ago

I feel like this card doesn't necessarily want to be in an enchantress deck. I think I'd be fine to play it in any deck that was playing Omniscience, even if Omniscience is the only enchantment in the deck. The dearth of enchantment sac outlets is hardly a barrier, IMO.

Yeah I agree it often doesn't want to be in an enchantress deck, but if you *can* it's really nice to fetch Opalescence / Parallax Wave or Enchanted Evening or whatever combo/powerhouse card. Sometimes you can get there with stuff like Fallen Ideal and Evolutionary Leap Attrition Circle of Despair or Martyr's Cause.

That said I think playing it without explicit support is a common mistake that people make. I don't think just jamming it with 1-2 powerhouse targets is a great play, especially if you can't have a high likelihood of sac'ing it.

It's at its best getting The Meathook Massacre in an aristocrats deck (or Bastion of Remembrance) -- where you are always going to have a sac outlet.

It's super good in Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim.

If you're running a ton of destroy sweepers it's fine, but the tension with Farewell is real

That's why I don't run Farewell, which is really bad with Ravos, Soultender. I'll take Damn, Winds of Abandon, Cleansing Nova, and Austere Command.

For graveyard hate I've got Bojuka Bog, Dauthi Voidwalker, Remorseful Cleric, and now Jirina, Dauntless General.

And if I need to exile something I've got Path to Exile, Swords to Plowshares, Despark, Anguished Unmaking, Deadly Rollick, Leonin Relic-Warder, Fiend Hunter, Banisher Priest, and Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim.

The last time I saw Academy Rector played was in a Golos, Tireless Pilgrim deck whose entire gameplan was to use Golos to fetch up Phyrexian Tower as a sac outlet, then Rector into Omniscience. So.... yeah, yet another reason I'm not sad to see Golos banned.

Beyond that, Academy Rector is a pretty broken card - tutoring stuff into play for free is very abusable. I could see myself considering it for most white decks if not for the price tag / reserved list. The death trigger is a significant limitation, so I probably wouldn't run it without sac outlets or some other plan to kill it. However, if you can make it die consistently, then I think most decks will already have at least one or two good targets for it (and can easily add another if necessary). Omniscience is the card that pushes it over the edge most of the time, but fetching up Smothering Tithe / Grave Pact / Doubling Season / some other key enchantment depending on the board state is still quite strong.

As for alternatives... not many I can think of - tutoring stuff into play for free is a pretty rare effect. Enlightened Tutor or Idyllic Tutor are worth consideration, but they have very different play patterns. If you really want to cheat enchantments into play, you'll probably need to run Ghen, Arcanum Weaver or another reanimation effect.

I used to have a really fun but slow and casual Athreos, Shroud-Veiled deck that played all the Animate Dead effects and did various stupid loops with them, some self mill and looting and some hardcasting.

It used Archon of Falling Stars to cheat huge enchantments into play (and also infinite combo with Animate Dead and a sac outlet. It was hilarious watching people scoop to getting infinite fogged with Martyr's Cause lol

In there I used Academy Rector to fetch up stuff like Doomwake Giant and Skybind or Animate Dead for reanimating stupid orzhov beaters like Angel of Despair.

Man that was a fun deck! --> https://deckbox.org/sets/2704665

Probably my favorite rector deck ever since it really synergized while not being absurdly strong

Academy Rector is an absolute boss of a card. Its only real issue is that white's access to sac sucks REALLL bad. It often relies on secondary colors of black / red to introduce sac based effects so while its a mono white card the decks that can run it tend to be more multicolored decks with a lot of synergy to sac. I for one (being a ridiculous min maxer) would not play rector without a heavy sac theme to my deck. I don't want to just cast it out and see if it dies naturally I want to make sure I can control its effect.

Side note, I feel REAL awkward needing to point out that this card can be grave hated to stop its effect. I had a real awkward situation where someone could use Geth, Lord of the Vault in response and I gave a real long pause as I stared him in the eyes asking for responses but proceeded anyways. I did inform him after the game about it but mid game I feel real weird pointing out when someone else should interact but doesn't.

I got a play set of these way back when and I jam them in a ton of decks. It does a fantastic Moat impression without owning that card.. I usually am only doing "fair" toolbox things with it. In Chromium I usually find Ephara, God of the Polis or True Conviction. I have one in Gishath that finds Gratuitous Violence. I have great experiences even using it as a tame toolbox without sac outlets.

It feels like it would be super fun in Zacama, Primal Calamity to find Nyxbloom Ancient

ISBPathfinder wrote: ↑

1 year ago

Side note, I feel REAL awkward needing to point out that this card can be grave hated to stop its effect. I had a real awkward situation where someone could use Geth, Lord of the Vault in response and I gave a real long pause as I stared him in the eyes asking for responses but proceeded anyways. I did inform him after the game about it but mid game I feel real weird pointing out when someone else should interact but doesn't.

This is a pretty amusing way to handle that situation. I wonder what the Geth player thought as you stared into his soul while waiting to collect your trigger.

"Oh god, he's looking at me again. Why doesn't he just go get the enchantment already? Does he think I can stifle it? No, that can't be, I'm not in blue... Is there something on my face? There must be something on my face. Oh thank heavens, he's finally searching. Whew, close one."

TheAmericanSpirit wrote: ↑

1 year ago

ISBPathfinder wrote: ↑

1 year ago

Side note, I feel REAL awkward needing to point out that this card can be grave hated to stop its effect. I had a real awkward situation where someone could use Geth, Lord of the Vault in response and I gave a real long pause as I stared him in the eyes asking for responses but proceeded anyways. I did inform him after the game about it but mid game I feel real weird pointing out when someone else should interact but doesn't.

This is a pretty amusing way to handle that situation. I wonder what the Geth player thought as you stared into his soul while waiting to collect your trigger.

"Oh god, he's looking at me again. Why doesn't he just go get the enchantment already? Does he think I can stifle it? No, that can't be, I'm not in blue... Is there something on my face? There must be something on my face. Oh thank heavens, he's finally searching. Whew, close one."

I am very tempted to pull the trigger on a gold bordered one, along with a gold bordered Replenish

My favorite use for Academy Rector (which I only pulled off a handful of times) was deploying her (attack or block) with Sneak Attack. Usually searched for Debtors' Knell, True Conviction or Cathars' Crusade (to be followed by Rise of the Hobgoblins).

Mardu Aggro Enchantments FTW.

Edit: I should have noted, these shenanigans are on MTGO (cause cheap. . . Rector is < $4)

Seems super strong, but I wouldn't know. I'd love a copy, but if I ever get one it'll likely be a proxy. It's just out of reach.

One of those cards whose potential fun is ruined by the existence of something miserable and broken. Bleh.

Hermes_ wrote: ↑

1 year ago

Ha, that's such a good CC.

I see I bought my Rector in 2017 for 33$ (Canadian).
I have it in Karador, Ghost Chieftain where it gets Martyr's Bond, Gift of Immortality or Pattern of Rebirth. Deck plays a ton of sac outlets.
Busted card though.

Thursday, May 25th, 2023; Transcendent Message

All-star in Prodigal Sorcerer Spiny Starfish tribal.

I don't now what to think about that card, it's fine I guess.

pokken wrote: ↑

1 year ago

I don't now what to think about that card, it's fine I guess.

Token deck go brrr. Less downside than Slate of Ancestry to do the thing.

If you are tribal, this is Distant Melody and Kindred Discovery with extra steps and thus not very good.

If you are in the market for an X-spell for a midrangey deck, chances are you'd rather use your creatures for attacking and blocking and Pull from Tomorrow. Blue Sun's Zenith, and Stroke of Genius are better. (Zenith and Stroke are also better for infinite mana builds since you can kill people with them).

So you specifically need to be in a Ux tokens deck to make this good, and even there it seems good not great. But I keep getting the niggling feeling I am underrating this spell a lot?