Student-Teacher Feature

Posted on January 9, 2011

Hello, and welcome to the second installment of Under Preconstruction! Last time, we converted the Metalcraft precon into a resilient control deck with a surprise Phoenix finish. Then, because I'm a man who enjoys beating down, we morphed it into a white-red Tempered Steel deck with the Sparkmage-Collar combo to take care of pesky Titans.

This week, we'll jump in the way back machine and take a look at a precon I've grown to love: Leveler's Glory. It was the last precon I bought in real life. Normally, I would rather spend my money on booster packs, but I was coerced into the purchase at the prerelease by a sign-up sheet that read, "Precon Tournament - $15". All I had to do was buy a precon, compete against five people with other precons, and get a free pack. If I had the best record by the end, another couple of packs would come my way.

Of course, by the time I got there, all the Leveler's Glory decks were sold out. Everyone was excited about Student of Warfare, which was being hyped as the next Figure of Destiny. Pouting, I picked Eldrazi Arisen, and sat down to open it.

Things started looking up when I discovered Awakening Zone was in the deck, which I thought had a lot of potential. I was talking about my plans to a teenage kid across from me.

"Should be awesome with Polymorph. Or even just as an extra land drop every turn. I mean, what can a slow control deck do when you just keep amassing tokens? Eventually you slam an Emrakul and win! Or picture it with an Overrun..."

The kid seemed intrigued: "Man, now I'm wishing I got that one." He looked down at his deck, none other than Leveler's Glory, laid out on the table. "I only got this ‘cause everyone was fighting over it. I don't even like blue!" He looked at me hopefully. "You wouldn't want to swap, would you?"

Snap trade!

I went on to go 3-2 (losing to the kid I traded with, natch) and opened nothing of note in the free booster. Still, I had a blast with the deck, and I can't wait to see what I can do with this little-loved mechanic.

Interestingly enough, the MTGO version is bumped up to 60 cards (from 41) and has a number of changes to the list I played back at the prerelease. Here's what you get out of the digital box:

"Leveler's Glory"

Lands (25)
3 Evolving Wilds
12 Island
10 Plains

Angel's Mercy is no longer legal, so I cut it for another Venerated Teacher.

Hm… looks like a mess. Let's be all scientific about this and confirm our hypothesis with a few tests.

Game 1 – Red/Black Grindclock Control

I get off to a BLAZING start with Caravan Escort, Glory Seeker, and Lone Missionary. Unfortunately, my opponent has a Skinrender to kill my Seeker and a Bolt for the Missionary. He also has a Grindclock from turn two cranking up. I summon the pair of Kabira Vindicators in my hand for backup, and all he can manage is a Contagion Clasp to shrink one and speed up his clock.

My second Vindicator comes down with a case of Quag Sickness, but my opponent's three Swamps mean he gets to live on to spread morale. A Venerated Teacher puts both Vindicators up to Stage One, and I'm able to beat down past the Skinrender.

Now my opponent has two Clocks and a Contagion Clasp powering them up, so we're in a legitimate race. Luckily, he has less life than I have cards, so I'm able to Domesticate his Skinrender on my last turn to clear the way for lethal. Worth noting: two Makindi Griffin sat in my hand the whole game. This team doesn't need cheerleaders, ladies.

1-0

Game 2 – Mono-Black Discard

I mulligan Negate/Narcolepsy/land into Soulbound Guardians/Narcolepsy/land. Sweet aggro deck. I don't think I can manage much better and I keep.

My opponent plays foil Swamps and a foil Mind Rot, followed by two foil Guul Draz Specter. That's all fine, because I have plenty of land to pitch and two Narcolepsy (non-foil). Then he plays foil Guul Draz Assassin, which I have no answer to at all. A foil Doom Blade takes out my Guardian, and foil Liliana's Specter followed by foil Liliana Vess come down to seal the deal. I never really liked foils online, but I gotta say, having your whole deck pimped like that is pretty cool.

1-1

Game 3 – Bant Control

My opponent appears to be lost. He plays Birds of Paradise into Jace Beleren, Wall of Omens plus Mana Leak, Sea Gate Oracle plus another Mana Leak, and then Sun Titan to bring back Jace Beleren. Mmm, casual.

Still, I'm not dead yet. I play crappy guys like Caravan Escort and Lone Missionary, and finally get a Kabira Vindicator to resolve. My plan is to play the two Venerated Teachers in my hand and get enough power to Sleep for the win. He's bashing with Sun Titan every turn, but Luminous Wake is keeping me alive. I drop an Alluring Siren, and next turn I'll be able to max out my Vindicator and Sleep for lethal. Pass the turn, go down to one life, that's fine. You and your Tournament Practice deck are SO DEAD next turn!

Day of Judgment.

What?! You have two walls and two Sea Gate Oracles holding down the ground. You have a Sun Titan recurring fetch lands and smacking me around. There's no WAY you Day there! I guess he had the sick read on me. He finally draws another Sun Titan six turns later (I draw mostly land), and I lose a frustrating one.

1-2

Okay, that's enough. Time for some changes.

First things first: this is a Level Up deck, and I only have seven levelers! We're playing stuff like Glory Seeker over the strictly-better Knight of Cliffhaven. Out go all the off-theme junky creatures, in go all the on-theme junky creatures!

-2 Affa Guard Hound

-1 Alluring Siren

-2 Soulbound Guardians

+3 Student of Warfare

+1 Caravan Escort

+4 Knight of Cliffhaven

+4 Enclave Cryptologist

I simply stick to the cheapest, most efficient Level Up creatures I can find. Coralhelm Commander merits consideration, but I'm worried about supporting turn two double blue in a deck with Student of Warfare.

I often say that there's no reason to build a deck that does something another deck already does, but worse. You need a card or strategy powerful enough to justify deviating from the norm. For this deck, that card is Time of Heroes. We've seen how backbreaking a double-Crusade can be in Tempered Steel, so we definitely want to run a full complement of the cheaper enchantment in this deck. To make room, I'm clearing out the more obvious "skill testers," but I'll keep cards like Sleep and Negate to see how they do in future testing. Journey to Nowhere seems like a huge upgrade over Narcolepsy, and can actually take care of Guul Draz Assassin! (Note: I forgot about Domestication when I claimed I had no outs to that card.)

-1 Luminous Wake

-1 Unsummon

-1 Fleeting Distraction

-1 See Beyond

-3 Narcolepsy

+4 Time of Heroes

+3 Journey to Nowhere

Finally, I'll make the mana base a little more stable with some dual lands. Student of Warfare means we want to lean heavy on the white, but Sleep and Cryptologist are fairly mana intensive in their own right. I'm going with the full suite of 12 duals, and ditching the Evolving Wilds to limit our number of tapped lands. If you don't have the manland, feel free to keep the Wilds in instead. Here's where the list stands right now:

"Ding! v1.0"

Game 4 – Mono-White Life

My opponent is rocking a new-age Soul Sisters deck, that pumps up Ajani's Pridemate with the life gained from various lands, Survival Cache, and Soul's Attendant. I have a nice aggressive start, with two Student of Warfare and a Knight of Cliffhaven on the board by turn three. His Wall of Omens is saving him a few life of turn, and a Journey to Nowhere takes out my Student with two counters.

He drops an Emeria Angel, which would be trouble if I didn't have a Journey of my own. Of course, we has another Emeria Angel, and this one IS a problem. At this point, I've played two Caravan Escorts and a Time of Heroes, so all of my creatures are in the 4/4-5/5 range, and he has to chump block continuously to stay alive. Knight of Cliffhaven is forced to stay back to block his flying army of Emeria Angel, tokens, and Kor Skyfisher, and when he has the Journey for it, things look grim. It gets worse when he plays another Emeria Angel, and a fetch land for four blockers. I lose a close one.

It's worth noting that I was praying for a Sleep for about eight turns this game. I may want to increase the numbers, or put some in the sideboard for creature matchups.

0-1

Game 5 – Mono-White Life

This was a different opponent from last game, but the deck idea was the same – except that I didn't see any Journeys or Emeria Angels out of him. Instead, he had Brave the Elements and Pitfall Trap, which were good this game, but not game-breaking like the two former cards.

I have another Student-fuelled aggressive start, but I don't see a Time of Heroes at all, and only find a Venerated Teacher late into the game. Nevertheless, I have enough pressure to keep him in the low-twenties even through two Soul's Attendants and multiple Kabira Crossroads, so his Serra Ascendant stays small. I have a Sleep in my hand, so I just bide my time and build my forces. Surprisingly, Hedron-Field Purist is excellent this game, as my opponent can never attack or block profitably. Thought that card was an easy cut, but now I'm having Second Thoughts.

Everything goes according to plan, and I Sleep with eighteen damage on the board, more than enough.

1-1

Game 6 – Eldrazi Green/Black

I keep a borderline opener, featuring Time of Heroes, Venerated Teacher, Negate, and Journey to Nowhere. I'm rewarded for my bad play by peeling running Enclave Cryptologists, and then a Student of Warfare, so by turn three I get six counters out of Venerated Teacher. My opponent is up to some shenanigans, ramping up with three Growth Spasms. I continue building my board with Knight of Cliffhaven and Time of Heroes (which he has a Nature's Claim for), and he drops Primeval Titan for Eye of Ugin, Mystifying Maze. That card is quite good against level up dudes.

I Journey the Titan but he has another Nature's Claim, and he uses his mana to search up an Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. That could be bad. I play all the one-drops in my oversized hand (two Archivists will do that) in order to soak up Annihilator triggers, and he plays his spaghetti monster. On his extra turn, he attacks for 21 (Nature's Claim has me at 28, so I'm good), then tutors for and casts Kozilek with all of his mana. He has one of the most ridiculous boards I've seen in Standard:

[caption id="attachment_12933" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="So you lost that one, right?"]

[/caption]

Unfortunately for him, all of his giants were so tired from eating my tiny creatures, they decided to take a nap.

[caption id="attachment_12934" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Caravan Escorts are loaded with tryptophan."]

[/caption]

Did I mention I love that card?

2-1

Game 7 – Blue/White Levelers

It's a mirror match of sorts, except he plays Training Grounds. I've considered it – it just seems worse than Venerated Teacher in most situations. Most of my cards only cost one or two to level up, and a one mana discount doesn't seem worth a card to me. If I were to pursue a blue/black variation, where the level up costs are generally higher, I might consider it.

I only draw two levelers this game, and they can only get in a few attacks before they both go on a Journey. Still, with a Time of Heroes out, those few attacks put him in the single digits. He steals my tech and plays Hedron-Field Purist, but she couldn't resist going Nowhere with her two buddies. It seems we're both drawing blanks at this point, a game state that favors the guy playing manlands. Two hits by a Colonnade and I win.

3-1

Thus far, the deck is performing pretty well. The Students are fantastic, and the Cryptologists keep my hand full of gas. Time of Heroes and Venerated Teacher are doing their jobs just fine. The only card I've truly been disappointed in is Negate – you tend to use all your mana every turn in this deck, and leaving two open is as obvious as the Twitter scams I keep clicking on (Really, you bought me a gift?! I don't even know you, how kind!). Negate serves an important role, however. Removal is absolutely devastating to us because we invest so much mana into each creature. As such, I'm going to try the cheaper Negate option, Spell Pierce. I also want another Sleep. I haven't drawn Domestication at all, but I want those slots for something else, so they're out! Kabira Vindicator has proven to be too slow, often sitting in my hand, rooting on the team. As I've previously mentioned, I hate cheerleaders (this has nothing to do with any alleged rejection in high school by that floozy Tiffany).

The Hedron-Field Purist, while overachieving in the casual room, doesn't have what it takes to win against the big boys. She's slow and eats Lightning Bolts all day. Sorry pal. There's no denying that Caravan Escort and Knight of Cliffhaven are the worst cards in the deck, and I suffer a tiny humiliation every time I lead with the Escort on turn one. Still, I think they are necessary to reach critical mass for Venerated Teacher and Time of Heroes, so for now, they stay.

-2 Domestication

-2 Negate

-2 Kabira Vindicator

-1 Hedron-Field Purists

+1 Sleep

+4 Spell Pierce

+2 Contagion Engine

Now we're talking! I was planning on typing "Contagion Clasp" – a nice little removal spell that can level up the team in the late game. Then something came over me, and I started typing "Engine" while laughing maniacally. Since the list of changes is gospel, I guess we'll have to go with that for now.

I'm trying something drastic for the sideboard, because I don't think our maindeck ever beats control. Not ever. So we're bringing in a land destruction package suggested in the comments of my last article by Chaos_Noise, along with a set of Luminarch Ascensions. Often, a Black/Blue deck will only have manlands to harass your Ascension with during the midgame, and now we have eight ways to stop it. We'll see how it works out in testing – in the Tournament Practice room, of course.

"Ding! v1.5"

Games 8, 9, 10 – Kuldotha Red

After game one, I was ready to write, "Unwinnable matchup… need Firewalkers… can't beat burn spells…" That's because my opponent played Goblin Guide, then Teetering Peaks and another Goblin Guide, then a Panic Spellbomb and a Kuldotha Rebirth, and proceeded to Lightning Bolt and Arc Trail every creature I played. It wasn't pretty, and my sideboard offered no help.

The next game looked to be more of the same. Turn one Goblin Guide and Memnite, turn two Arc Trail both my levelers, turn three Bolt my creature and play another Goblin Guide. But then I played a Time of Heroes and a Student of Warfare, leveled. He didn't have a burn spell, and I block a creature and dropped to 5. He played Kuldotha Rebirth, emptying his hand, and I played a Caravan Escort (how embarrassing!) and leveled. He drew and played land, and attacked me down to three, losing two creatures in the process.

Now the board was three Goblin tokens staring down two huge blockers and a Celestial Collonade. Any burn spell would kill me… except the Arc Trail he drew. I went to one.

I drew a Time of Heroes and my Student became an 8/8 double-strike that threatened lethal every turn, so my opponent had to chump block. He drew land for two turns, and chumped with his last two tokens. There was a ten second wait during his next draw step, and I just knew it was a burn spell.

It wasn't.

Game three, he mulliganed on the play, and led with a Darksteel Axe plus Memnite. I kept a one-lander that looked like this: Seachrome Coast, Student of Warfare, Student of Warfare, Journey to Nowhere, Journey to Nowhere, Enclave Cryptologist, Time of Heroes. I figure his Goblin Guides would help me get there.

I of course ripped my second land, played the Student, and blocked after he equipped the Memnite. Then my opponent conceded. Such is life in the Tournament Practice room with a silly leveler deck. I mean, I can't blame my opponents for being angry – if they are actually practicing for a big tournament, I'm essentially wasting their time playing with a deck they're never going to see there. Then they get land screwed and mulligan into a crap hand and lose to my junky deck. I just laugh and move on to the next.

Some argue for a room in between casual decks and tournament practice, so that casual decks can be silly rarely-win concoctions, tournament practice can be finely-tuned net decks, and the middle room can be FNM-level, Tier 3-4 decks. I don't think this would work; most people piloting the FNM-level brews want to see how they fare against the best the format has to offer. If you're serious about only playing against the expected metagame, your best bet is to join a guild or find a friend who will test with you. The next best thing is to run the two- or eight-mans, which can be costly, but are similar in skill-level to the first few rounds of a PTQ.

2-1 (counting it!)

Game 11 – Blue/White ???

My opponent leads with Darksteel Axe, and follows it up with a Glint Hawk, replaying the Axe. Meanwhile, I've got an Enclave Cryptologist (level 1), a Time of Heroes, and a Caravan Escort (level 0), and the race is on. He plays a Grand Architect, I Journey it and level up the Escort. I play a Knight of Cliffhaven, and it's clear my opponent isn't going to win by attacking every turn, so he plays another Architect and hangs back. I have the fatal Sleep. Love that card.

3-1

Game 12 – Stompy

I can't call his deck Elves, despite running Arbor Elf and Archdruid, because it also had Birds of Paradise, Garruk's Companion, Leatherback Baloth, and Withstand Death. He misses his second land drop, but has two Birds and an Arbor Elf to make up for it. My opening is Student of Warfare, Enclave Cryptologist and level Student, Venerated Teacher, Time of Heroes and level Student once (with a blue open for Spell Pierce). We start trading punches, me with a 5/5 Student, him with a 4/5 Beast, and then he unloads his hand: two Archdruids and a Garruk's Companion. At this point, I'm content to hang back on my max-level Student of Warfare, and draw cards with Archivist (max level Cryptologist) until I find Sleep. I don't have to, because Sleep is my next card. How lucky! Student comes in for lethal.

4-1

Games 13, 14, 15 – Big Red

You know those awesome red cards you've always wanted to play with, but weren't quite good enough? Stuff like Cyclops Gladiator, Magma Phoenix, and Lord of Shatterskull Pass? Well, he was packin' ‘em, and they are some good against levelers.

The first game, I keep a hand with no level up dudes largely because there's a Contagion Engine in it. I just want to cast that card so badly. Anyways, I do draw a Knight of Cliffhaven, but it gets Searing Blaze‘d and all my Time of Heroes and Venerated Teachers are powerless to stop a max level Lord of Shatterskull Pass.

I board in the Mind Controls for the Engines. Fool me once, I board you out. In the second game, my opening hand is Student of Warfare, 2x Spell Pierce, Time of Heroes, and land. My plan is to dodge Bolts, so I leave blue open every turn and Spell Pierce both of his attempts to kill the Student. By then, it's a 5/5 with Time of Heroes out, and his deck doesn't seem to have an answer for it.

Game three, we both mulligan, and he gets out a quick Cunning Sparkmage that leaves my Cryptologist stranded in my hand. He Bolts a Knight of Cliffhaven and plays a Cyclops Gladiator, which utterly wrecks my deck. I take damage for a while, until I can block with a Celestial Colonnade and trade. Then he plays Wurmcoil Engine. Now, I need one of my two Mind Control; Journey wouldn't do it, because the Sparkmage has me dead in a few turns anyways. I draw a Gideon which delays the inevitable, but no Mind Control means no future.

5-3

Games 16, 17 – Green/Red Liquimetal Coating

He plays an Overgrown Battlement to stop my Student beats, followed by a Demolish on my Seachrome Coast. Luckily, I have plenty of land, and in fact draw fourteen land to eight spells this game. All of his land destruction efforts – aided by Liquimetal Coating and cards like Naturalize and Manic Vandal – are for naught, as my deck coughs up land after land. He also has burn spells, which kill most of my creatures, but I keep playing Enclave Cryptologists and getting ahead on cards. Eventually, one white mana at a time, I'm able to level up Student of Warfare to maximum and get past his wall of Acidic Slimes and Overgrown Battlements.

I bring in one Tectonic Edge and four Spreading Seas, to try to counteract his Edges and keep him off of red mana. He has a turn two Liquimetal Coating, followed by Naturalize, Shatter, and Manic Vandal, but he's entirely focused on my lands, not my creatures. Eventually I have only two lands in play, but an army of Levelers pumped up by Time of Heroes. He slams a Wurmcoil Engine, which makes me regret my decision to board out Journey to Nowhere, but the huge mechanical monster is forced to chump-block my 6/6 double-striker. It doesn't take long after that.

7-3

Seems the tournament practice room is full of like-minded budget brewers today. It doesn't give us accurate results – I feel like one Jace, the Mind Sculptor or Grave Titan would be game over for our little precon that could – but it does make for interesting matches. Contagion Engine hasn't helped much, even though it is really fun to play with. Instead, I'm switching over to his little brother, the Clasp. As good as Sleep has been, there's one card that is almost strictly better in Standard that I completely forgot about: Venser, the Sojourner. When we're alpha striking, his -1 ability is just as good as Sleep; and when we don't have lethal, he can flicker Contagion Clasps and Venerated Teachers to put us ahead. He also lets us tap out and flicker a land to Spell Pierce on the opponent's turn. He also gives us a card that's difficult for control to get rid of that threatens to win the game.

There are some other cards that interact well with the Planeswalker, like Stoneforge Mystic and Kor Hookmaster, but that's a different deck altogether. If we take out too many Level Up creatures or the cards that support them, the deck loses its focus. As such, I'm merely going to trim one of each bad leveler to make room for a third Venser and a third Clasp.

-1 Knight of Cliffhaven

-1 Caravan Escort

-2 Sleep

+2 Venser, the Sojourner

+2 Contagion Clasp

The sideboard also undergoes some radical changes. I'm keeping the Spreading Seas, which are good with Venser and can keep a control deck off black mana for Grave Titan. The Tectonic Edges are a bust, as we can't afford to compromise our mana-intensive deck with colorless lands. Four Wall of Omens come in against aggro decks (chosen over Kor Firewalker because of Venser interactions). Elpeth Tirel becomes our anti-control card of choice, as many Black/Blue decks will bring in Nighthawks which make the Luminarch Ascensions much worse. The idea is to put them on the back foot with an aggressive leveler rush, then when they are backpedaling, drop a Planeswalker to seal the deal.

Sunblast Angel is a cute one-of trick with Venser, and comes in for the creature decks like Elves. Against Ramp, our only chance is to win as fast as possible and use disruption to hinder their mana ramp – so Leonin Arbiter fits the bill nicely. Here's the rundown:

4 Wall of Omens – Red decks, Vampires

4 Spreading Seas – Ramp, control, Vampires

2 Elspeth Tirel – Control

1 Sunblast Angel – Creature-based decks

4 Leonin Arbiter – Ramp

And here's the final decklist:

"Ding! v2.0"

I played a few more games to see how the changes worked out:

Games 18, 19, 20 – Mono-green Poison

His deck was like Bennie Smith's, with Gigantiforms as finishers. In the first game, I was extremely happy to have Clasp, as I used them to kill off the first two Blight Mambas. Soon I had an active Enclave Cryptologist giving me a steady supply of blockers and Spell Pierces for his Gigantiforms. I had a max level Student of Warfare holding the fort, but once I was out of counters, I was dead to either Gigantiform or Putrefax plus pump spell, so I prayed for a Venser. Eventually I found him, made the team unblockable, and smashed for the win.

I boarded in the Wall of Omens, Elspeth Tirel (chump blockers are really good), and Sunblast Angel. I took out the Caravan Escorts and Knights of Cliffhaven, figuring I was the control deck in this matchup and didn't need do-nothing guys in the early turns.

Game two, my Contagion Clasps were subpar against his Cystbearers, and he played a Gigantiform when I didn't have a counter, which forced me to chump with a Wall. When I tried to Journey it next turn, he had the Vines, and I didn't have enough blockers to survive another turn.

Game three my deck fired on all cylinders. Early Student to block his guys with first strike, Spell Pierce for Gigantiform, Venser to flicker Venerated Teachers and get my team up to max level quickly, and then a little -1 action to attack for 16 unblockable damage. Best. Changes. Ever.

2-1

That's all I have time for this week. I feel like this is just about as good as you can make a Level Up deck, without taking out most of the levelers for Jace, the Mind Sculptors and Baneslayer Angels (remember that card?). As you can see, its aggro-control style makes it effective against other creature decks, while giving it a Fighting Chance against ramp and control. I don't think it'll win you a PTQ (it's extended season anyway!), but it's a fun way to take down an FNM with a deck nobody expects.

The first Under Preconstruction had a lot of positive comments, but the follow-up had none. If you're a fan of the series or have some ideas on how to make it better, let me know in the comments!

Thanks for reading,

Brad Wojceshonek

BradWoj at gmail dot com

BJWOJ on Twitter

TAGS articles, casual

Student-Teacher Feature

"Leveler's Glory"

"Ding! v1.0"

"Ding! v1.5"

"Ding! v2.0"

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