Written by Royalty on June 08, 2007
The Brand New: Teachings Tron
by RoyaltyWith Future Sight now playable and Regionals coming soon, we might see a few decks popping out from Flores or anyone from Japan because they have crazy ideas, or simply because they play too much. Though, one thing is for sure: you don’t have to be Asian to come up with a new build of a deck, I’m Canadian and proud of it, and this will probably be the deck I will use for Montreal regionals this Saturday. With the current metagame being around Dralnu-du-Louvre, Gruul , Dragonstorm , Project X and Turbo Dredge, I’ve decided to use something else, people would not expect, and also, make sure I don’t get mirror-matches.
A deck I’ve been working on for quite a while is Teachings Tron. Entirely made by myself, I got second in the first magic-league trial I did with it, losing in round seven against kby after drawing too many remands and myself mulling every game (thank you Magic Workstation eh). I’ve played Izzetron for a long time, then I played Dralnu, and I started to miss Urza’s lands, and then I went back to Izzetron and started to miss the damnation, mystical teachings and Teferi. So I looked at both deck and tried to make something as good as those two with my favorite cards in it.
Here’s an Izzetron decklist:
| UR Tron | ||
|---|---|---|
| Main Deck | Sideboard | |
|
1 Urza's Factory 3 Shivan Reef 3 Tolaria West 4 Steam Vents 4 Urza's Power Plant 4 Urza's Tower 4 Urza's Mine 2 Island 2 Aeon Chronicler 2 Bogardan Hellkite 4 Sulfur Elemental |
3 Repeal 1 Pact of Negation 2 Demonfire 4 Compulsive Research 4 Izzet Signet 4 Remand 4 Mana Leak 2 Spell Burst 2 Tidings 1 Dimir Signet |
4 Bottle Gnomes 3 Detritivore 2 Tormod's Crypt 4 Trickbind 2 Annex |
It consists of Urza’s lands to get a lot of mana and abuse it with tons of draw and soft counters, ending with a huge threat such as Hellkite or the usual Demonfire.
Now here’s a Dralnu-du-Louvre decklist:
| Dralnu-du-Louvre | ||
|---|---|---|
| Main Deck | Sideboard | |
|
4 Think Twice 3 Spell Burst 3 Mystical Teachings 4 Repeal 1 Seize the Soul 1 Sudden Death 4 Remand 3 Damnation 4 Rewind 1 Aeon Chronicler 1 Skeletal Vampire 2 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir |
2 Underground River 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 4 Desert 1 Dreadship Reef 4 Watery Grave 2 River of Tears 3 Dimir Aqueduct 6 Island 4 Spell Snare 1 Extirpate 1 Haunting Hymn |
4 Leyline of the Void 1 Draining Whelk 4 Bottle Gnomes 4 Riptide Pilferer 1 Damnation 1 Trickbind |
You can notice to numerous spells or creatures that are played only once. It is possible with Mystical Teachings because every single copy get you two cards you need for the present situation. That toolbox with hard counters, draw and a solid mana base makes Dralnu very consistent.
So good cards in UR tron :
Bogardan Hellkite
Urza’s lands
Compulsive research
Signets
Repeal
Tidings
Remand
Spellburst
Good cards in dralnu:
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
Aeon Chronicler (not everyone likes it, but I do, mostly with urza’s land)
Damnation
Repeal
Mystical Teachings
Remand
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Here’s what I came up with:
| UBr Tron | ||
|---|---|---|
| Main Deck | Sideboard | |
|
4 Remand 4 Compulsive Research 4 Repeal 2 Mystical Teachings 1 Clutch of the Undercity 3 Damnation 1 Darkblast 2 Tendrils of Corruption 2 Tidings 1 Spell Burst 1 Aeon Chronicler 1 Detritivore 3 Bogardan Hellkite |
4 Urza's Mine 4 Urza's Tower 4 Urza's Power Plant 4 Steam Vents 2 Tolaria West 2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 1 Urza's Factory 2 Watery Grave 1 Underground River 1 Shivan Reef 2 Izzet Signet 4 Dimir Signet |
2 Detritivore 1 Damnation 1 Tormod's Crypt 1 Sulfur Elemental 1 Sudden Death 1 Shadow of Doubt 1 Extirpate 3 Wildfire 4 Rewind |
I really like Teferi but when you have a deck consisting of 3colors and Urza’s lands, it’s totally unplayable.
Card Choices:
Lands:
Urza’s lands : When you have all three on the board you can abuse them and cast big spells very fast.
Urborg: Makes damnation and every black spell easier to cast, and allows me to play Tendrils of Corruption, a really good card against aggro.
Tolaria West: Gets you either the missing part of the Tron, Urborg, or the SB Tormod’s Crypt for dredge.
Spells:
Damnation : Cleans the board, good against aggro, and still not bad against anything. Fetchable with Clutch of the Undercity.
Remand : Slow your opponent down while you gather up your mana and gives you a card. Fetchable with Teachings
Compulsive Research and Tidings : Best draw spells for any deck using the tron because they don’t require so much blue and gets you to see many cards for their casting cost.
Repeal : With a lot of mana you can bounce about anything late game or simply slow down aggro decks or bounce signets to give you tempo in the early games, also allow you to see more cards. Fetchable with Teachings
Mystical Teachings : With the amount of mana I can get in this deck, and Teachings mostly need colorless mana, you can abuse this card. That’s why I use a lot of different instant cards.
Clutch of the Undercity : Fetchable with Mystical Teachings, or can be transmuted for Teachings / Detritivore / Damnation / Tendrils or Rewind post-sideboard. Clutch also is an “okay” bounce that can be useful in specific situations.
Tendrils of Corruption : With Urborg it’s really strong, gives you life while you destroy your opponent’s creatures, really good in the aggro matchup. Fetchable with Teachings and Clutch.
Spellburst : Requires only one blue to play and with Urza’s land during late game you can just counter everything with one single card. Fetchable with Teachings
Darkblast : Kills every fast creatures that give tempo, a few exemples are Birds of Paradise, Dark Confidant, Llanowar Elves, Elves of the Deep Shadow, Savanah Lions and many more. It also come back any time you want. Fetchable with Teachings.
Creatures:
Bogardan Hellkite : Best kill available in Tron, 5/5 Flyer that cleans the field or deal five damage straight to the face, it’s great asset is that he is Flash, it is also Fetchable with Teachings.
Detritivore : Very good against any control deck because all the decks use tons of non-basic lands and this one is not counterable, with urza’s lands, it takes away a lot of lands. Fetchable with Clutch.
Aeon Chronicler : Alternative kill in case of emergency situations, but it’s mostly an uncounterable draw against control decks.
Sideboard:
Detritivore : There is only one maindeck because you can transmute for it, but it’s very strong against a lot of decks, two more never hurts, that’s why they are in SB.
Rewind : This deck has no defence against Gigadrowse and I don’t want to scoop against Dragonstorm so 4 Rewind is a must. Also Fetchable with both Teachings and Clutch.
Damnation : The last damnation is in SB because you have already three main deck, with the other hate and transmute tool, most of the time three is more than enough.
Tormod’s Crypt : To slow down dredge or any graveyard abuser. I play only one because it is fetchable by Tolaria West.
Sudden Death : Kills Teferi and Ghost Council of Orzhova, two very annoying creatures for this deck. I play one because you can Teachings for it.
Sulfur Elemental : Good against boros, orzhov aggro and Martyr of Sands. It is also flash so you can teachings for it, and it explains the quantity in my sideboard.
Shadow of Doubt : Good against dragonstorm, not bad against UG Pickletron and Project X(chord), you can teachings for it.
Extirpate : Get rid of Martyr of Sands, any card Dredge or any deck really needs. You can also Teachings for it.
Wildfire : Not everyone agree with these three last slots, but in my personal experience Wildfire always been good, it wipes the board of most aggro player while you still have mana, also good against control without counter magics.
Sideboarding:
Dragonstorm:
Against dragonstorm you probably won’t win game one unless your opponent is unlucky.
+4 Rewind
+1 Shadow of Doubt
+1 Extirpate
-1 Aeon Chronicler
-1 Darkblast
-4 Repeal
Rewind their gigadrowse and shadow of doubt the Dragonstorm or manage to gain some life with tendrils then wipe the board with Damnation. But with the use of teachings try to get rewind + shadow of doubt and you should be okay.
Record : 2-2
Gruul:
Slow them down as much as you can then kill their creatures and take control over the game.
+3 Wildfire
+1 Damnation
-1 Aeon Chronicler
-1 Detritivore
-1 Darkblast
-1 Mystical Teachings
Same strategy as game one but if you can manage to play a Wildfire keeping more cards and mana than your opponent, it’s basically game.
Record: 5-1
Dralnu:
Do anything you can to get Detritivore and destroy all their important land to have the possibility of playing more spells than they do so they can't counter everything, or if the player is bad, resolve your dragon in response to his end of turn teachings when he taps out.
-1 Darkblast
-3 Damnation
-2 Tendrils of Corruption
-2 Tidings
+2 Detritivore
+1 Extirpate
+4 Rewind
+1 Sudden Death
+1 Shadow of Doubt
Kill Teferi, destroy their lands, draw more cards, don’t get your stuff countered and extirpate useful things then win.
Record: 3-1
Dredge:
Same thing as dragonstorm, unless you manage to kill all their dredge enabler early game with darkblast, tendrils, damnation or bounce them with repeal,you probably won’t win, you can also remand the right dread return at the right moment then clean the board with damnation the turn after.
-1 Aeon Chronicler
-2 Tidings
+1 Extirpate
+1 Tormod’s Crypt
+1 Damnation
Use crypt and extirpate to slow them a lot then manage to win any way you can using same strategy as game 1.
Record: 1-2
Project X:
Just kill their creatures and prevent them from combo’ing.
Depending of their build, side however you want but keep darkblast in.
This deck really is not a problem for Teachings Tron. Easy match-up.
Record: 5-0
This deck has cards against everything and is very solid even with three colors and urza’s lands. That’s why it’s a good choice for any tournament because you have no auto-loss, only auto-wins.
I hope to see more people playing this Tron archetype soon, I have only one thing to say about it, test it before saying it’s trash. I know this article was long, but I still hope you enjoyed it, and will enjoy the deck. Just test it a lot, don’t give up too fast on it and it will win you a lot of games.
-Royalty
Special Thanks to everyone from my local shop; they helped me tweaking the deck a little bit and now it works just fine. Thank you to any GOOD magic-league players who played against me, really helped in my testing. Hope to see you at Montreal regionals.
babyface on 2007-06-08 05:59 MDT I really like your deck as I said after the trial results, I remember some1 else doing well with it before you and I myslef have played it for a while months ago; neway I don't understand why so many hellkites in the deck and why no demonfire is in.... also u don't have horrible matchups but aggro is a problem for you... don't tell me u have time to grab urborg with tolaria and tendrils with teachings and still hope u are alive.... also detritivore and ghost quarters obv spell doom for you.. Overall a very nice deck maybe u run 1 land too many.. later
by
mufl0n on 2007-06-08 06:01 MDT You know,there was already a UBr tron,but with Teferi and Vampires and red only for Demonfires.
by
Ro on 2007-06-08 06:15 MDT Detrtivore gg? :p
It should be f-ing UBRw tron for pull from eternity xD
by
TugaChampion on 2007-06-08 06:59 MDT blood moon>3 colors decks
blood moon>tron
blood moon>>>>>>>>>>>3 colors tron
by
Royalty on 2007-06-08 08:05 MDT hm, everytime I played against bloodmoon I just bounced it back with repeal? or teachings for repeal then bounce?
by
BusDriver on 2007-06-08 08:13 MDT I dun c how this thing can not have mana troubles half of the time, or cast a bogardan hellkite. Not to mention vs gruul that runs tin street hooligan MD.
Then again, if u got decent results it prolley works, but seems crappy to me.
by
TylerTMK on 2007-06-08 08:32 MDT Theres no way that tron can go 5-1 vs gruul, I think u may have meant 1-5 :p
by
scwizard on 2007-06-08 09:09 MDT Link to the trial: http://www.magic-league.com/deck/33774/standard_t2.html
by
Linkman on 2007-06-08 10:23 MDT Detritivore vs Terramorphic expanse. Gg.
by
tg on 2007-06-08 10:37 MDT Blood Moon/Magus Of The Moon and GG... =/ its not a consistent deck and i see that decklist on another site ¬¬
by
Revik on 2007-06-08 11:06 MDT /agree with tugachamion and thomasG
by
Dapug on 2007-06-08 11:47 MDT Gruul 5-1?
That was a waste of my time.
by
Dynasty on 2007-06-08 13:15 MDT You people should really be less negative, makes you all sound like some 14 years old angsty teenager.
Play with the deck, it does have its problems, particularly mana-wise, but it doesnt "scoop" to blood moons or magus. Bounter kills it, and nobody, not even gruul last time I checked, runs blood moon and the magus of main. Side rewind for repeal + counter, be creative, or rather, be a better player if you keep on dying to blood moon.
Detritivore however is a huge problem, as I've been testing on mws and random people with the vore just seems to own me up pretty much, but then again, d-storm or dralnu nor dredge runs it, so it's not like you will run into it every match.
Good for you that you try to be innovative, good luck on your Montreal regionals.
by
yavin1 on 2007-06-08 13:29 MDT blood moon>3 colors decks
blood moon>tron
blood moon>>>>>>>>>>>3 colors tron
not praticularly, considering the signets grant him a blue mana, and then he teachings up a repeal and EOT repeal the blood moon. Then he just either a)has to counter it or b) with his now usably tron, cast a hellkite
My only problem with the deck is darkblast. I think it should be cut for a demon1 fire becuase it will flat out win you the game once you can get the hellbent (which isn't too hard with lots of mana). Also, i think there should be 1 extripate MD as it is fetchable by the teachings. Id up teachings to three, and also add a sudden death. good deck though
by
TugaChampion on 2007-06-08 15:21 MDT yavin, to do that they need an either island (oh but you have no islands there!) or a signet. It still makes you waste 2 turns dealing with it which is more than enough to deal lethal or almost letal damage. Also hooligan owns signets.
by
poopascoopa on 2007-06-08 19:27 MDT They're not reprinting the Urza lands in 10th edition, so it's kind of pointless to try and come up with new decks using cards which are rotating out in one month.
Not to mention, there's already a U/B Tron splashing red just for Demonfire that's 10 times better than this crap-heap.
by
Shagrath on 2007-06-09 02:09 MDT pile
by
gd1 on 2007-06-09 13:40 MDT What I thought of when u sed that for some strange reason
Gifts ungiven search for 3 tron pieces
2 go to gy
Play life from the loam, and now you have all 3 tron pieces in hand
by
scwizard on 2007-06-09 20:20 MDT It's like Flores except it uses tron to get mucho mana instead of signets.
Or is it???
by
MuSh on 2007-06-09 20:55 MDT Foresee way better than tidings in this deck... also looks at 4 cards... draw 2 that interests u... and only one blue wich is very important in this deck
by
Wiley on 2007-06-10 11:52 MDT Foresee isn't as good for chronicler though, so don't act like it's strictly better
I admit I haven't tested Foresee but sometimes you just want four cards, not two of the top four cards
by
kebe on 2007-06-10 17:58 MDT hmm looks like the deck i shipped to dboy which he t8ed regionals with...funny we came up with the same thign huh
and if the deck was correct magus of the moon isnt an issue cuz they run slaughter pact
by
Mitchile on 2007-06-12 11:41 MDT this deck cannot go 5-1 against gruul. unless you're playing against a freaking retarded person. i played my U/R tron with better mana consistancy against a player that was worse than me playing gruul and i went 3-7...this was with outplaying my opponent so badly. i could see the matchup around 40-60 before boards but you should be testing your matchups after boards. and when they board in X blood moons and the rest of their tin streets i dont see how you can win...
P.S. this deck isnt good.
by
LaughterPact on 2007-06-12 12:49 MDT I've played against the real version of the deck and Know the player quite well, as far as mana inconsistancies go the deck has almost no trouble. The deck also played quite well in Montreal this weekend, giving nervous sweats to many players, it would've also gotten better results if it's original designer had played it.
by
Royalty on 2007-06-13 19:35 MDT I couldnt go, so someone played it for me and got decent results, and wouldhave Top8'ed if he knew how to play the deck.
