Tutelage

I started this blog with a writeup of bUg Control Oath, that you’ll probably see in some format later on, but I got distracted and did this instead, so, um, deal with it.

I’m not very good at Magic, but I write a good game. Not!

Moving on.

I really like looking at the tutor plan for various decks. I was talking with Anthony about it last night at about 2am while watching Lost on DVD. I’ve gotta admit that I keep forgetting about Transmute, even though I’m putting it to good use in UB Fish with Dimir Infiltrator for, well, everything but Chalice of the Void or Aether Vial pretty much.

Transmute seems pretty good. It gives mono-blue tutoring power, for one, which is probably underrated right now, and it’s uncounterable, which is awesome. The problem is that, like even the best Tutor—Demonic Tutor—Transmute happens at sorcery speed. Plus, it usually costs a mana more, and two of those mana are colored.

I’m willing to take that, though, because it means my deck has five copies of my game-winning, non-restricted card by turn two, six by turn three, and eight by turn four. I just feel bad that I don’t have room for more.

Control likes card drawing much more than card selection, which is really more of a combo thing, which is why combo decks are so often named after their tutor engine—GrimLong, Intuition Tendrils, DracoExplosion, etc. Control likes card drawing because it gives it more choices for countering and removing threats. If you’ve got it and the mana (which also comes from lots of drawing), for example, you can use a narrower, cheaper answer like Envelop on a game-breaking Yawgmoth’s Will rather than losing card advantage to use a more emergency spell like Force of Will.

What this means for me is that, even though I’m really playing a control deck, I can mulligan and play like I’m playing combo. I’ll take some chances regarding the protection of my creatures and my Oath in order to win faster.

Tutoring is good because it gets you what you need when you need it, or in the case of limited tutors like Merchant Scroll, Imperial Seal, or Muddle the Mixture, about what you need sort of when you need it.

There are lots of viable tutors in Vintage and all of them have their uses. (This is not counting the transmute cards because, well, you should really be able to use the base spell before you even consider running a card for transmute.) So I’ll start with a High Fidelity-style list and go from there.

1. Demonic Tutor is the best of the lot because, with two extra mana, it really does get you what you need when you need it. It’s the perfect setup for Yawgmoth’s Will since you can tutor for Will, play Will, then tutor for your win condition all in the same step. Most decks that run a sufficient amount of black mana without a really good draw engine or redundancy will run this. Best of all, it’s like having two of every restricted card in your deck.

2. Tinker gets overshadowed by Grim Tutor only in decks that use lots and lots of tutors. Otherwise, almost any deck that runs any kind of artifact win will run Tinker to go get what it needs into play for three mana. Not only does this cheat probability, it also cheats mana costs. It may not find Yawgmoth’s Will, but Mindslaver costs seven mana instead of ten, and Darksteel Colossus costs only three. Broken.

3. Grim Tutor is probably next on the list. Sure, it costs one black more than Demonic Tutor, but who cares when you’re going to win the game after casting it. The double-edged sword that comes with Grim Tutor is that it’s unrestricted, making it at once more reliable in the deck and more wallet-resource intensive before its in the deck. I expect it to be restricted at some point, but I just proxied three of them on Scavenging Ghoul nonetheless.

4. Vampiric Tutor takes a lot of flack for being “card disadvantage,” but you’re giving up that disadvantage for the exact card you want next time you draw. It’s instant speed, meaning you can play it at the end of your opponent’s turn to conserve mana or the beginning of your turn to increase your storm count, and it only costs one black.

5. Imperial Seal gets the same criticisms as Vampiric Tutor but gets one more because it’s sorcery speed. In a storm deck, when you’re going off, it’s basically a redundant Vampiric Tutor, which is nice, but it does have some shortcomings before that turn. I think most people will agree that this card rounds out the top-five of tutors, though.

After those five, things get debatable. You end up with more specific, situational tutors and those that require a bit more effort to put into a deck.

6. Mystical Tutor is limited enough in both finding what you need and getting it when you need it that most people leave it out of their builds. I still like it, though, and play it in combo decks, especially since I leave room for it by not putting in any disruption. It gets Dark Ritual, Yawgmoth’s Will, Mind’s Desire, and Tendrils of Agony, and that’s what really matters.

7. Merchant Scroll gets you almost what you need when you need it, and that’s good enough to be included in most blue-heavy control-combo decks like Gifts. The problem is that it can’t get Yawgmoth’s Will or any win condition other than Tinker, really. Popularity waxes and wanes on this, though it seems that every time someone tries something else, they always come back to it. Also, it was originally printed in Homelands, which gives it an ill-fated look.

8. Burning Wish is a nice card that got restricted really, really quickly by one deck because it allowed for four copies of Yawgmoth’s Will that couldn’t be touched by Jester’s Cap, Extract, or Rootwater Thief. Now, being restricted, it’s harder to use, but it still picks up Tendrils FTW and other various actors out of the graveyard.

9. Demonic Consultation is sometimes like getting on a roller coaster knowing that the track may or may not be completely built. You might get what you need when you need it at instant speed for one mana, or you might lose, straight up. It can be really good in a deck with a lot of four-ofs or a thrill ride when you start looking for restrix0red cards. I say, don’t fear the Reaper; I will not pass up a necessary opportunity to Consult for Yawgmoth’s Will. Demonic Consultation is underplayed.

10. Cunning Wish shows up almost exclusively in Tog, which shows up now almost exclusively in second-tier tournament ranks. It’s good there because it gets back cards that get removed to Tog. I think it’s still got some uses as a one- or two-of in more decks, though, since it allows for so many specific answers. It loses out, however, to more general answers that don’t cost three mana to find.

Those are the one-for-one (and in some cases one-for-zero) tutors that show up regularly or semi-regularly in tournaments. After them, things get a little more deck specific as you often have to end up sort of building around them.

11. Gifts Ungiven is possible restriction list fodder in my opinion too, but because it’s so hard to use it might never get there. It gets you the worst two of the best four cards for you right now (unless your opponent is bad at judging, like me, in which case you might get the best two of the best four cards) and drops some goodies into the graveyard for you to possibly use later. The limit of getting four unique cards doesn’t work in Vintage when three of those cards will probably be restricted, and the other will be Recoup. Probably the one thing holding Gifts back is the relatively high casting cost.

12. Intuition was falling by the wayside after Gifts showed up, but it’s near restrictable as well because it puts tutoring into a better color for Vintage. Then Intuition Tendrils showed up and put it back on everyone’s mind. Its own limitations are keeping it down, however, as you have to tutor for three things that will have the same basic effect, whether it’s two Dark Rituals and a Lotus for the acceleration into Yawgmoth’s Will or three Oaths or a Yawgmoth’s Will, Tinker, and Time Walk. Plus, it also fuels Welder and Will. Expect to see more of this card in the coming months.

Of course, there are lots of strategies that go into knowing how to tutor and how to react to tutors, and I’m not experienced enough to even recognize all of them, but I will try to relate the little bit I know.

First, there is that oft quoted truthery that you don’t counter the tutor, you counter the spell they’re tutoring for. However, that might not be true. If you’re playing Dragon and have a Bazaar of Baghdad in play, you might want to counter that Demonic Tutor figuring that they might tutor up the Strip Mine that puts you on the ropes. Similarly if your opponent is digging for mana or spells, especially with Brainstorm, you might want to counter the tutor that allows them to shuffle. Sometimes that’s a psychological solution only, but against a deck where cards often get clumped, you might want to think about how well they shuffled the first time around.

Also, countering a card-advantage tutor like Gifts Ungiven isn’t a bad idea, especially if there’s the possibility of subsequent graveyard hijinks. This goes for Intuition too.

If you need to win, there’s no shame in playing Mystical Tutor for Demonic Tutor for a game-winning non-instant or non-sorcery. Sometimes you have to work around your limitations, and tutors allow you to do that at (usually) the cost of only mana. Likewise, if you really need to shuffle after using a Brainstorm or other draw-hindering spell, don’t be afraid to Vampiric Tutor for Demonic Tutor just to shuffle.

Lastly, if you can avoid it at all, don’t use tutors when you don’t know what you’re tutoring for.

That is all.

Except Infernal Tutor is insane.