MTG Salvation

Academy Ruins



Any thoughts on this card? I know a lot of cube players include it and I was wondering what kind of play make it worth a spot in a so tight colored section. My playgroup and I have already give a try but it never showed up to be that good or at least was misplayed. However, my cube wasn't power at this moment and now that it is, I would like some examples that can argue if it need to be in again or not?

It has more to do with supporting an artifact themed deck. If you support it with Welder/Deretti/Tezz/Tezz2 and others, decks come together with such a high saturation of artifacts that this card becomes a great utility card for topdecking a variety of different effects.

If you're powered, this seems like something you'd definitely want. We find it very good for supporting any artifact-heavy deck that's at least partially blue. I run one land of each "color" and this is the blue one (it probably helps that I don't own a Tolarian Academy, though I'd find room for both if I did).

Thanks for the advices!

At the moment, I'm already running Tolarian Academy and Faerie Conclave. If my cube is at 600, am I going to have a «too much land» feeling in my blue section if I do include Academy Ruins? Or does it worth it nevertheless?

I think it's probably worth it. Not all blue players are going to want the card, so I don't think it would feel like a lot. The best thing to do would be sleeve it up and try it in a few drafts.

3 lands is not too many at 600. I'd get Ruins in there.

Are 3 blue lands too many at 450? I'm unpowered currently but am going powered. I can probably find cuts for blue power elsewhere, and I support the artifact deck pretty bigly.

Academy Ruins is a nice support card for the artifacts deck. I'm assuming you already have Tolarian Academy (or aren't running it for power/cost reasons)? Tolarian is utterly busted and better than Ruins so if power is the goal, IMO you should prioritize it higher.

As far as lands go, I believe in running a higher percentage than most cube managers. I run nearly 20%. So to me 3 blue lands at 450 seems completely fine. My reasoning for having more lands is based on what an average ideal cube deck looks like. How many non-basics do you ideally want to run in the average cube deck assuming you were passed what you needed? Say 23 non-lands and 6 non-basics is what I figure. 6/29 is 20% - hence why that is my target for non-basic land density in the cube. If you run less non-basics, lands will be in short supply and the importance of drafting them early will go up. This is a fine design parameter of course, but for my lists I'd prefer to find middle ground on everything so that nothing is artificially in short supply. Ideally, the choice between a non-land and a spell IMO should be relatively a neutral choice at the start of a draft.

3 blue lands is fine, and if you're supporting the artifact.dec, play both the Tolarian and Ruins Academies.

I like Ruins a lot, but I'm not running it at 450 anymore. I'd like to find room, but as we all know blue is tight as frack.

Cheers,
rant

What are people generally recurring with the Ruins? I've had it in and out over the years and it never seems to do much. Maybe my artifacts don't die often enough?

Artifact creatures, Keg/Bomb, Engineered Explosives or some artifact that's key to my strategy the opponent has removed, like a Shard/Portal, or Crucible or Smokestack or something. Also anything that got pitched over the course of the game, like to Thirst or something, or just returning a Sword that the opponent finally managed to remove. There always seems to be something floating around, and in a deck with a high enough concentration of artifacts, it can be quite the toolbox card. Color-centric ones too, like Shackles.

Live the dream of mono blue burn with both Academies & Walking Ballista...

Quote from SirPicaro »

Live the dream of mono blue burn with both Academies & Walking Ballista...

This guy gets it.

Thanks guys, so just what I was expecting, kinda an insurance policy. I guess it might do a bit more this time round now I have hangarback, ballista and a few vehicles.

I think it's gained a bit more value since Daretti (and Feldon) has been printed. Daretti made Goblin Welder that much more viable giving red that package, and now UR (or Grixis) artifacts is a real deck. If they deal with one or both of those, you'll at least have Academy Ruins as an option too. Even with Daretti, Ingenuous Iconoclast you can re-buy certain artifacts to kill creatures on sequential turns if you only have that one. Academy has only seemed to get better.

I have induced a concession by using Academy Ruins to recur Ashnod's Coupon. Felt great.

Quote from Gabrosin »

I have induced a concession by using Academy Ruins to recur Ashnod's Coupon. Felt great.

That's when your opponent should be telling you it's field trip time to the top shelf of the local packy lol