D354PIG--You seem to not understand that this deck has more then triple the card draw of Teachings. When your opponent is outdrawing you 3 to 1 every turn it is NOT in your favor to be making 1 for 1 trades.
Teferi is NOT good, much less some sort of magical autowin if he hits play, and there is never going to be a situation in which the teachings player will be capable of being sure teferi will "stick", because they are incapable of matching the decks card draw ability. The deck is full of a creature that not only draws enormous numbers of cards if left alone, but can also kill off the teachings main man at any time... There are simply no advantageous situations for U/B against this build.
Two of the tournies were FNM's, not sure which of the other 4 were sanctioned or not.... but yeah they are all legitimate.
Why doesn't anyone ever just throw the thing together and play with it before saying silly things that would so quickly be clarified otherwise???
I am sorry to tell you, but all this CA you are bragging about is highly situational. Teachings is increasingly packing Deserts to combat the horde of 1/1 and faerie beaters in Standard, and it wrecks you, killing looter, Dryad, and Prodigy, in a fashion you cannot prevent. Your relevant spells against teachings cost 5 mana on average, and Cryptic command costs 4, so in all likelihood you will ram a few big spells into a command, and then scoop to the insane advantage it provides. the morphed shapeshifter will probably never resolve to kill Teferi, and if it does, need I remind you that Teferi is but a small part of any dedicated control deck's arsenal...
I also hate to say it, but those matchup %'s are very very shady, and most likely complete bunk.
I am really out on this one, I like the drum, but not here. The grotto is meh, our mana is not that trashy. Cenn's Heir could be a good choice here, since we have the pride, and those two combo very nicely together. Plus it gives us an incentive to grab more changelings, which are good anyways.
Sygg wins games on his own, not playing him removes a merfolk deck's ability to compete against any other agro deck. Splash white for your sideboard, sygg, and Oblivion ring.
Seems to me the pick is weed strangle, with an honorable mention to Skeletal changeling. Mostly since they are both solid black cards, but I value removal over the changeling right now.
Definitely Militia's Pride. It requires nothing but some white mana. We're still flexible here.
Khift's reasoning seems right, but I've not advanced enough in my understanding of theory to be able to consciously argue for or against it.
EDIT: Another thing to consider is that we will have passed Gaddock Teeg and, immediately afterward, Wizened Cenn.
If some team takes Teeg and still sees the Cenn I wouldn't be surprised if they took it.
Meanwhile, if someone doesn't take Teeg, they probably won't take the Cenn -- they will have hurt any potential Kithkin deck by enabling someone else to take Teeg, which is at least worth some consideration this early on.
But, fortunately for us, Militia's Pride just requires white mana to be good. So by taking it we won't be screwed -- we WILL be removing a perfect tool for some Kithkin deck.
It's quite possible H, G , or F (H get our packs 1 and 3, right?) will play a suboptimal Kithkin deck if/because we take this.
All that said, pack three we can be vicious and slash white like a savage if we are in that color, but have placed another team in it to our left. I do this all the time, especially if I find an O-Ring or a similar bomb and feel it is time to smell the coffee. We can put an opponent into White for pack 2, grab the black as we see fit, and slice them out of white for the majority of the cards they will see from us. Solid drafting.
I feel the pick here is militia's pride, partially for the reasons that Khift mentioned, and secondly because we are still searching for colors. We are obviously in black, for shriekmaw, but I am not sure that Seedguide Ash cements our green. If we take the pride, we can grab any great black, white or Green card which comes in the next few packs and let those choices dictate the final deck colors. Besides, if you can play pride you can activate it, and it does not need any theme to work, it simply makes dudes. Very strong card.
Good lord I cannot choose between this deck, which has my favorite creature in standard (lightning Angel) or My UWB Haakon Engine (less Teachings, more O-rings). Haakon beats this, but this beats basically everything else.
My Favorite card is Vedalken Shackles. Now I know what you are all thinking, "Oh good lord, Mirrodin artifact, tournament staple in extended and Legacy off and on, Blue.... EW" but bear with me:
Flashback to Mirrodin standard, my first really competitive FNM outings ever, with me fresh off the boat and in first year university. Affinity is the name of the game, but early in the format it was SkullclampAtog affinity, not Ravager, since Darksteel was not yet released. I played a mono-blue deck of my own design for months on end featuring the following win condition: Proteus Staff + 1 Darksteel Colossus (previous to Darksteel it had a white splash and staffed out exalted Angel), and usually won by shackling an opponent's creature and staffing it. And then Staffing my own Colossus after combat to untap it and stack my deck. It was original, it was my idea, and it worked. But the whole deck was really a shackles deck in essence. I won more games and stayed alive against more atogs then I care to count by using the Shackles to grab it before combat damage. I could and did win FNM with my deck, and I routinely recreate it to play around with casually.
Flash forward (pun intended) to GP: Columbus, the GP that wasn't. I played Landstill, but after a few matches I wandered over to the top tables, and lo and behold, I saw a Vedalken Shackles which had control of a Protean Hulk.
Where the heck is tarmogoyf in that list? It is insane not to be playing it in an agro-control deck.
Psionic blast gives you reach, re-consider it, and frankly, spectral force is not all that good anymore, I definitely agree with dropping it.
1) Garruk is not the best planeswalker. He's the one that will always be good, but in Standard, Liliana Vess is actually better. It has a home right off (TarmoRack uses it as a lock late game, because it forces your opponent to not hold cards) and it has a more powerful ability, tutoring up answers, or even just going and getting a second or third Rack to seal the deal. Garruk is good no doubt, but he's not overly powerful, where each of the other four have abilities that, in the right metagame, will be completely devastating. Jace is a Phyrexian Arena in some decks, without a serious drawback, Chandra is a win condition in mid-range red decks (and more closely resembles Arc Slogger than Wort does), Aganji (sp) will see heavy play in block, where the format is slower (no Goyf) and the Kithkin are just as powerful, allowing White Weenie to be a dominating deck. The final one, Vess, has a tutor attached to her, not to mention built in disruption. In the right deck, she can just power out a combo. Sure, the combo isn't going to go off til turn 5-6, but hey, who's counting anyway? In black you have Damnation and Thoughtseize, not to mention other disruption spells that allow you to take your time and "go off" later than normal. Whether that happens or not is yet to be seen, but its safe to say if it actually happens Liliana Vess will be a bomb in such a deck.
(Class is over, I'll edit this post and add more later.)
Actually, after going back and re-reading it, there isn't much else to say. Guile is good because its a 6/6 unblockable for 6... in blue, so its a win-condition, not a win-more. Oh, they tacked on a powerful ability too, one that you know, can just randomly win you the game if you're countering spells... something blue loves to do.
Remember, there are two opinoins on every planeswalker. I, personally, think they are ALL strong cards.
Normally my first pick here is the Seedguide Ash, but I think I would rather put Team B into Green with an incredibly strong signal by passing Teeg + Seedguide + Fertile. At that point, we can safely assume that a strong second color willl come to us pack 2.
So with that in mind: My vote goes to Moonglove extract, since it instantly trumps the witches one on one, and I can let go of a random 2/2 flier in this format without trouble, and I don't see the witches making someone switch color.
I admit right now that, for the third/fourth to about tenth picks, I'll just be along for the ride.
I can certainly tell what would be best for a deck that's already on its way, but deciding on the best course to take is still a challenge for me in drafts -- I've only done 10-15 of them.
First few picks usually pick themselves. Picks three to ten are where the fun begins. Pack one I almost never try to slot myself in for a tribe, seems to backfire too often.
I am sorry to tell you, but all this CA you are bragging about is highly situational. Teachings is increasingly packing Deserts to combat the horde of 1/1 and faerie beaters in Standard, and it wrecks you, killing looter, Dryad, and Prodigy, in a fashion you cannot prevent. Your relevant spells against teachings cost 5 mana on average, and Cryptic command costs 4, so in all likelihood you will ram a few big spells into a command, and then scoop to the insane advantage it provides. the morphed shapeshifter will probably never resolve to kill Teferi, and if it does, need I remind you that Teferi is but a small part of any dedicated control deck's arsenal...
I also hate to say it, but those matchup %'s are very very shady, and most likely complete bunk.
All that said, pack three we can be vicious and slash white like a savage if we are in that color, but have placed another team in it to our left. I do this all the time, especially if I find an O-Ring or a similar bomb and feel it is time to smell the coffee. We can put an opponent into White for pack 2, grab the black as we see fit, and slice them out of white for the majority of the cards they will see from us. Solid drafting.
Flashback to Mirrodin standard, my first really competitive FNM outings ever, with me fresh off the boat and in first year university. Affinity is the name of the game, but early in the format it was Skullclamp Atog affinity, not Ravager, since Darksteel was not yet released. I played a mono-blue deck of my own design for months on end featuring the following win condition: Proteus Staff + 1 Darksteel Colossus (previous to Darksteel it had a white splash and staffed out exalted Angel), and usually won by shackling an opponent's creature and staffing it. And then Staffing my own Colossus after combat to untap it and stack my deck. It was original, it was my idea, and it worked. But the whole deck was really a shackles deck in essence. I won more games and stayed alive against more atogs then I care to count by using the Shackles to grab it before combat damage. I could and did win FNM with my deck, and I routinely recreate it to play around with casually.
Flash forward (pun intended) to GP: Columbus, the GP that wasn't. I played Landstill, but after a few matches I wandered over to the top tables, and lo and behold, I saw a Vedalken Shackles which had control of a Protean Hulk.
That made my day.
Psionic blast gives you reach, re-consider it, and frankly, spectral force is not all that good anymore, I definitely agree with dropping it.
Remember, there are two opinoins on every planeswalker. I, personally, think they are ALL strong cards.
So with that in mind: My vote goes to Moonglove extract, since it instantly trumps the witches one on one, and I can let go of a random 2/2 flier in this format without trouble, and I don't see the witches making someone switch color.
HM Soulstoke, only because lords are good, and hasty changeling titans are raunchy.
First few picks usually pick themselves. Picks three to ten are where the fun begins. Pack one I almost never try to slot myself in for a tribe, seems to backfire too often.