You guys are silly. You are arguing that the knight can compete with a geist and tarmogoyf. It can't. The reason being that Geist and Goyf are perfectly good top decks all alone. The knight needs a buddy. So it will only be good in extremely heavy creature based decks. Even then I only see it being the nuts when you are playing two creature decks against each other because otherwise they just kill your threat.
What makes me laugh is that my match-up with tron is 50/50 usually leaning to the side of the better player. But then again. I play red instead of white. I think esper teachings is dead honestly. Either W/U/R/b or Grixis are the way to go.
My current Build of Grixis Teachings. I'm currently 50/50 Vs Tron. That's all I've really played against lately. The red makes the match up way easier because the bolts and snapcaster actually puts them on a clock.
What I find hilarious is that volcanic fallout is uber good against everything creature based except for zoo and if you look at those dailies...there is no zoo.
Anyway quick update. This list is pretty old and probably outdated, but nobody has posted any sort of deck to give people rough ideas.
I feel like one of the biggest sleepers in this format is detritivore. If you think about killing 2 or 3 lands and then having a 4 to 6 power creature come into play with mana open for back-up, that's really powerful. I have even been hardcasting it against zoo happily in testing, where it's usually out of bolt range just from fetches.
I will always view cruel ultimatum as a pile of garbage. You have to wreck your manabase in order to cast it, and when you finally do...it's little more effective than a solid gifts pile.
Problem I have with detrivore is that it doesn't beat knight of the reliquary.
Cruel Ultimatum is okay and you don't have to wreck your manabase to use it. This is modern remember? Besides you need somekind of life gain. Actually someone find me a better life gain card so that I don't have to waste space on cruel ultimatum.
Also if you propose some delicious gifts package that insta-kills people then I'll be really happy to try it.
I think that ravings outclasses all of the other draw spells in the entire format by a mile. If it requires some recursion, meet the demand. The only major downside is pitching a key bullet; any day of the week, I'll take that over higher mana costs, counterability, and manabase stretching.
Ravings is good stuff once you get used to using it plus it improves the jund match up(**** Blighting).
To me the teachings deck has become an "abuse snapcaster as much as possible deck", which is why I only play 1 creature other than snapcaster.
This is what I've been fooling around with lately.
The problem I've found with this kind of deck is that 5 colors is within reach if you aren't playing specific cards like helix and esper charm and instead trade them out for less perfect mana dependent cards like desperate ravings or mystical teachings. If you are going to make if 5 colors you can't play just anything unless you are playing a bunch of cards in similar colors. And what happens when you get stuck on mana? You just lose. I am all for a 4 color deck, but 5 is just too much.
I feel like there should be a grixis teachings thread so that people can discuss this variation of the deck and not distract the esper thread from having random cards proposed in it like word of seizing, which isn't in the esper colors.
Please Discuss. If you guys need example lists I have a few.
The real problem with teachings is that it doesn't have any inevitability as a control deck. I've noticed this several times because I don't have any gas late game a lot of times. I think that the way to solve the inevitability problem is to play some number of planeswalkers. I'm thinking elspeth shows the most promise.
Well I feel like if zoo can be 4 colors then a control deck can definitely be 4 colors. I just haven't figured out what 4 colors to use. I really like bant charm, but I also think that esper charm is too good to pass up, but honestly I think the biggest mistake is to not play lighting helix. Card is just too broken.
1 Vendilion Clique
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Mana Leak
4 Desperate Ravings
3 Spell Snare
3 Mystical Teachings
3 Cryptic Command
2 Terminate
1 Geth's Verdict
1 Tribute to Hunger
1 Repeal
1 Cruel Ultimatum
1 Pact of Negation
1 Consume the Meek
1 Go for the throat
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Marsh Flats
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Cascade Bluffs
1 Sunken Ruins
1 Swamp
1 Mountain
1 Island
1 Lavaclaw Reaches
1 Dreadship Reef
2 Steam Vents
2 Watery Grave
1 Breeding Pool
1 Blood Crypt
Anyway quick update. This list is pretty old and probably outdated, but nobody has posted any sort of deck to give people rough ideas.
4 Spell snare/Mana Leak (I changed this depending on what I thought the meta would be)
4 Desperate Ravings
4 Snapcaster Mage
3 Cryptic Command
3 Mystical Teachings
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Geth's Verdict
1 Consume the meek
1 Negate
1 Pact of negation
1 Tribute to hunger
1 Go for the throat
1 Repeal
1 Firespout
2 Terminate
2 Cruel Ultimatum
2 Marsh Flats
4 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Steam Vents
2 Watery Grave
1 Blood Crypt
1 Sunken Ruins
1 Cascade Bluffs
2 Island
2 Swamp
1 Mountain
1 Dreadship Reef
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Breeding Pool
Breeding Pool is obviously for grudge and nature's claim out of the board.
Problem I have with detrivore is that it doesn't beat knight of the reliquary.
Cruel Ultimatum is okay and you don't have to wreck your manabase to use it. This is modern remember? Besides you need somekind of life gain. Actually someone find me a better life gain card so that I don't have to waste space on cruel ultimatum.
Also if you propose some delicious gifts package that insta-kills people then I'll be really happy to try it.
Ravings is good stuff once you get used to using it plus it improves the jund match up(**** Blighting).
To me the teachings deck has become an "abuse snapcaster as much as possible deck", which is why I only play 1 creature other than snapcaster.
This is what I've been fooling around with lately.
4 Spell Snare
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Snapcaster Mage
3 Cryptic Command
3 Mystical Teachings
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Geth's Verdict (So good)
1 Consume the meek
1 Negate
1 Pact of negation
1 Tribute to hunger
1 Go for the throat
1 Repeal
1 Swerve
2 Terminate
2 Cruel Ultimatum
I splashed 1 Breeding Pool and 3 Nature's claim and 1 ancient grudge in the sideboard because Nature's claim is just that good.
Please Discuss. If you guys need example lists I have a few.
You are all welcome.
This guy just made the most accurate argument ever. Plus I don't think we play enough creatures to make it legit.