Let's Break Rhystic Study

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Ephraim

Guest
Last week, The Ferrett created a list of the fifty best multiplayer enchantments in the game. Rhystic Study, an old favourite of mine, was on that list. Obviously, it is not a game-winner all by itself. Unlike the Greater Gargadon deck, I don't think that it will really qualify as the centerpiece of the deck. I want it to be part, however, of a web of effects that create tension for one's opponents.

Here the components with which I would like to work. They may not be the best, but I think this is a good start for creating tension. If anybody else has better ideas, please speak up.

4 Rhystic Study
4 Rites of Flourishing
3+ Viceling
3+ Soratami Savant

As a sub-theme to the deck, I can see several applications for 'cogs' (artifacts that cost 1 or less.) Spellbook, Sol Ring, and Black Vice would all be excellent, so it may be worth my while to include 3+ Trinket Mage and a couple more cogs. (Ivory Tower and Scrabbling Claws may be useful inclusions.)

Viceling and Black Vice are probably adequate win conditions, but there is always the probability that the presence of Rites of Flourishing won't be enough for people to leave me alone. Fortunately, Drift of Phantasms is an excellent defense that searches for Rhystic Study, Rites of Flourishing, and Trinket Mage. I also think that Assault Zeppelid would be a decent fit in this deck. Soratami Mirror-Mage would probably also serve me well. I couldn't use it all the time, but it's a good 'rattlesnake' card for keeping away the most dangerous creatures.
 
R

Ransac

CPA Trash Man
If you can continually bounce your opponent's permanents back to their hand, then you can repeatedly abuse the Study. So, something like Temporal Adept, Tradewind Rider, Heimar, or Capsize would do wonders for your card advantage.


Ransac, cpa trash man
 
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Ephraim

Guest
I'd say that I could abuse Blood Clock, but it has antisynergy with Rites of Flourishing. Temporal Adept has never suited my style. I could see myself playing with Tradewind Rider, though. Or, should I be a dirty, rotten fink and use Number Crunch?
 
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Ephraim

Guest
I need to think about an additional win condition because I don't think that Viceling is going to do the trick 100%. It's a blue/green deck, so Simic Sky Swallower is not out of the question. Between Rites of Flourishing and Rhystic Study, I will be drawing a ton of cards, so Aeon Chronicler and Maro are also possibilities. Meloku, the Clouded Mirror is probably on-theme and he's pretty darned good. In addition to 4 Viceling, I think that 2 Aeon Chronicler should be both sufficient and well-aligned with the deck's strategy.

Now that I think about it, I am going to include a Feldon's Cane in the deck as one of the cogs. With as much drawing as I intend to do, 60 cards may run out too quickly.

Here's what I am considering so far:

4 Rhystic Study
4 Rites of Flourishing
4 Viceling
2 Aeon Chronicler
3 Soratami Savant
3 Soratami Mirror-Mage
4 Number Crunch
3 Drift of Phantasms
3 Trinket Mage
1 Sol Ring
1 Spellbook
1 Feldon's Cane
1 Scrabbling Claws
1 Ivory Tower

That's 35 cards, most of which are blue or artifacts. I reckon I have 2 more slots available and I'd like to fill them with low-cost green cards. It might be fun to include a Mire Boa and a River Boa. They're good defense and they're very aggressively costed, which is important, because the rest of this deck features a rather steep mana curve. I could probably cut back to 2 Soratami Mirror-Mage and 3 Number Crunch so that I could use 4 Boas.
 
S

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
I've never really considered Rhystic Study to be "breakable", but I tend to throw it in an MP deck when I'm playing blue :)

Off the top of my head, since you want to be able to draw a card and not have your opponent pay the mana, I first think of mana denial. So Winter Orb would be my first choice. Since you have green, BoPs would be a natural fit.

Some artifact mana to help get around your Winter Orb, of course. Kind of hokey, but Psychic Venom might slow them down and make them decide whether you should draw a card or they take 2 points.

If you have a lot of artifacts, March of the Machines or Titania's Song could be an alternate/surprise win condition.
 
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Ephraim

Guest
You're right that it probably isn't breakable. It is neither powerful enough nor splashy enough. It's just a solid, utility enchantment. That said, I think it's possible to build a deck to use as much of that utility as possible.

I had considered the Winter Orb route. I could still take this deck in that direction but I am afraid that Winter Orb may be perceived as too antisocial for a casual, multiplayer deck. Of course, Rhystic Study and Viceling are already making me enemies, but I guess they don't feel like they're spoiling everybody else's fun. If I go with Winter Orb, I think I'll have to cut Number Crunch. ;-)

Birds of Paradise does seem like a remarkably good fit for the deck. The Soratami will hopefully provide me with an outlet for all of the land I'll have in the late game, so the Birds of Paradise should not go to waste, even then. Of course, I only own one of the things. I suppose it's time that I bite the bullet and get myself three more.
 
S

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
Yeah, I agree that Winter Orb will make your opponents incredibly annoyed. I forgot this was MP so forget the Venoms. It's just it seems to me that if you want to fully take advantage of the Study and be sure to draw cards when your opponents play spells, you gotta make sure that they can't pay the 1, which means some sort of mana denial or making it costly for them to pay the extra mana.

Otherwise, like you said, it's just a good utility card: it's nice to draw the cards when your opponents allow you to, but don't count on it and build a deck around it :)
 
E

Ephraim

Guest
As with some of the other "Let's Break..." decks, I had an opportunity to put this one together and play it this morning. I only played against one other deck, but I went 2/3 and I was very satisfied with the handling. I think that the deck would have performed about the same in a multiplayer game as it did in that duel, although that remains to be rigourously tested. Rites of Flourishing does have some anti-synergy with Soratami Savant, but I think that it helped me more than it hurt me, with Aeon Chronicler as my strong finisher. The Viselings and Black Vise didn't usually do excessive damage, but I do feel that they put pressure on my opponent to cast spells even when it may have been better for them to hold onto them.

I would probably benefit from a third Aeon Chronicler. I don't actually own three, but if I can get my hands on one, it would probably be worthwhile to cut a Drift of Phantasms to make room for it.

(For the record, I used Capsize in MWS testing instead of Number Crunch because gotcha cards are hard to moderate online.) This is the full deck list that I was using:

Creatures (20)
3 Viseling
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Drift of Phantasms
3 Trinket Mage
3 Soratami Mirror-Mage
2 Soratami Savant
2 Aeon Chronicler

Spells (18)
4 Rhystic Study
4 Rites of Flourishing
4 Captsize / Number Crunch
1 Black Vise
1 Ivory Tower
1 Scrabbling Claws
1 Feldon's Cane
1 Sol Ring
1 Spellbook

Land (22)
2 Ancient Tomb
14 Island
6 Forest
 
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