Hello everyone! My name is Jerry Mee and I have a confession to make. I am addicted to Spice. I eat, breath, sleep, and live Spice. I love Spice so much Frank Herbert would not put me in Dune because I would be too unbelievable. Spice more or less is the reason why I play Magic in the first place.
Maybe I am getting ahead of myself though. Some of you might be scratching your head wondering “What is Spice?” Well I am happy you asked! Spice is what takes a boring stock deck list and gives it some PIZZAZZ! It is what causes you, while reading through top 8 decklists, to stop and exclaim “Well what do we have here!” In short, Spice is the reason why the brewers of the world get out of bed in the morning.
Instead of trying to tell you what Spice is perhaps I should just show you instead.
UWR Enlightened Tutor control combo
What Makes it Tick?
What we have here is a hodgepodge of win conditions that all have one thing in common, the ability to be powered out ridiculously fast with the “Sol” lands. You can get some insane starts thanks to our Sol Ring-inspired friends here. If you want to play fair you can start things off with an Ancient Tomb turn one, trade two points of life for a Sensei’s Divining Top and an activation to stack your next three draws. Follow that up with a turn two Monastery Mentor, curving into a turn three Jace, the Mind Sculptor. That my friends is a deliciously evil thing to do in Legacy and most opponents will struggle just to keep up.
But who wants to win fair and square chunking your opponents life totals with monk tokens? “NOT I” says the disheveled man in the back with a crazy look in his eyes! Instead we should call on the power of not two, not three, not four, but five spectacular two card combos to get the job done. How on earth do we pack all of these spicy nuggets into one list? Why with our venerable purveyor of Spice Enlightened Tutor, that’s how!
Let’s Spice It Up!
Since every single combo piece is either an artifact or enchantment, all we have to do is wait until we naturally draw one half before using the tutor to dig up the other half. Sensei’s Divining Top pulls double duty in this function. Not only does it help us find the needed pieces, but it also allows us immediate access by drawing the card we place on top of our deck with Enlightened Tutor.
The thing I love most about the Enlightened Tutor package is the fact that you have a win condition for almost any situation. Facing a Delver deck packed with one, two and three drops? Tutor up the Counterbalance to shut them out of the game with Sensei’s Divining Top. Need to win quick before your opponent takes you out? Grab Sneak Attack and Blightsteel Colossus for some hasty eleven infect damage. Grinding out the long game against Miracles packing tons of removal to reset the board? Thopter Foundry and Sword of the Meek will get the job done no matter how long it takes. Painter’s Servant and Grindstone tends to be the catch all answer for most on board hate that keeps you from winning through the attack phase (i.e. Ensnaring Bridge, Moat, etc). As an added bonus, game two against graveyard based decks you get Rest in Peace and Helm of Obedience as a one-two punch of hate card and win condition.
While not necessarily an Enlightened Tutor target, Academy Ruins when paired with Engineered Explosives allow you to continually wipe the board of any problematic permanents. Wurmcoil Engine is the jack of all trades in this list. He can either be the curve topper, easily coming out on turn four or five following a Monastery Mentor and Jace, or he can be cheated into play with Sneak Attack. When he dies end of turn he also leaves behind his two little buddies. But fear not he can always come back again for another round with an Academy Ruins throwing him back on top of your deck.
Final Notes
The deck is incredibly fun to play, mostly due to the reactions my opponents had on being blown out by every combo under the sun. One Miracles opponent of mine was able to fend off four different win conditions before finally succumbing to a sneaky Blightsteel Colossus. He could barely get out “good game” in between fits and bursts of uncontrollable laughter. Honestly I was surprised at how competitive the deck is. Over the last two FNM-sized Legacy events the deck has a solid 5-2 record against a wide range of competitive decks from Jund to Reanimator to BUG Delver. While I won’t be sleeving this baby up for GP Columbus, it certainly packs more than enough punch to take down your local legacy FNM or MODO league.
One last note on the deck. You may have noticed that this list features 61 cards in the main deck. This should be considered the rule rather than the exception when it comes to my brews. The reason for this is simple. The 61st slot is the home of the Spice. The 61st card is often the one that is not quite good enough to make it into the final 60, but its Spice factor is so strong it breaks the boundaries of conventional deck building and finds its way into the list all the same. So for this reason we choose to celebrate the 61st slot and recognize the spiciness that it holds!
Jerry Mee is a Boston Native who has been playing Magic since Onslaught Block. Primarily a Legacy player, he cohosts the weekly Leaving a Legacy Podcast found on Mtgcast.com. He can be reached on Twitter at @Jmee3rd