First Picking Tolarian Academy And Swinging For The Fences | Vintage Cube Draft

[@Cthuski]

"It's nice to have a construct in play so I can see how many artifacts I have"😂😂😂

[@tommasomagnoli2830]

Find someone that looks at you like LSV looks at Urza.

[@linjohn6159]

12:00

[@NeoSamurai13]

Scholars have long debated what the most beautiful sentence in the English language is. I am of the opinion that it was uttered at 1:10:05 "End of turn, tap Academy for 19 mana."

[@mattwecrazy3236]

Lol yes but I'm going with "Turn 3 attack for 34!"

[@gaivscaesar]

This is an all time great deck. The phrase kid in a candy shop was invented for LSV this draft

[@dark_rit]

Academy has the highest ceiling for a reason, it's a marvel to watch it pop off like it's 1998.

[@cowboybob5301]

he passed a fire reanimate deck, which is higher ceiling (way more turn 1/turn 2 wins). but thats vintage cube. there's always a few busted decks you could have gotten

[@jairomy]

@@cowboybob5301 Wasn't anywhere close to being as powerful as what he ended up with.

[@cowboybob5301]

@@jairomy the draft would have played out differently if he cut reanimate early pack 1, but thats not what vintage cube is about so it doesnt matter

[@lasselindkvist2051]

The most lsv vintage cube deck ecer. I was here. I witness perfection. His unbridled joy is so life afirming

[@el6487]

That was the best showing of Academy I've ever seen.

[@SoyoyoS]

I just built your Vintage Cube list with my playgroup, of course power 9 and such are proxies, but can't wait to play it next week! Thanks for the daily content Lucho!

[@EmperorNapoleon1815]

This is why we draft Vintage Cube. Really taught the other team a Tolarian lesson with this one, Luis!

[@RyanSandorRichards]

That first game: wow. It was simultaneously horrifying and a thing of beauty. Sitting down across from LSV when he drafts like this has got to be nerve wracking 😂

[@Cephalopocalypse]

30 seconds in and I can tell this will be an all-timer

[@latitude990]

I can't wait to watch this draft 3 more times during your end of year top 5 extravaganza

[@yu-djinn]

I was getting nervous

[@andyony2]

Me, too!

[@JackD1615]

I was getting ready for bed and getting ready to do my stretches and was like what the heck!

[@Catalyst2812]

Same. Thought something might’ve happened

[@g.n.s.]

Had to eat an orange real quick 😊

[@Mrweltan]

😂 I was warring about

[@danl9030]

At 1:17:20, there was actually still one more chance to find Cryptic Command, since Urza's ability can be activated at instant speed.

[@sethp705]

great furnace would be amazing in the cube, I already find myself playing seat in UR decks with gut and/or bombadiers just to have an extra artifact to sacrifice

[@cyruslyday9112]

I just have to think that the untapped artifact lands are better than the tapped ones. They all make blue off academy and urza anyway lol

[@Pcervelli11]

Not LSV laughing like a YuGiOh villain when he saw that opening hand

[@paulallison3974]

I can't believe there was no mention of the flavor of drafting might and weakstone with the urza hehe ;)

[@michelenocci30]

The drafts like this one when LSV gets to pick not only a strong card but a strong build around card are just the best!🎉

[@nickk6556]

All time draft. What a showing :). You made those decks that had moxen and ancestral look like pauper decks.

[@Mlepklaynos]

What a draft, what an all time academy deck! This really is the reason to play Vintage Cube. Thanks for the content LSV!

[@billbaldridge6903]

LSV drafting the nut Academy deck is why we are here. Chef's kiss.

[@Seven_Leaf]

Tolarian just puts a smile on your face when it comes together.

[@RussianBot1998]

What a fantastic video. Reminded me how fun a good cube draft can be.

[@valdemarjrgensen8072]

I think the one card to that would improve the deck the most (besides power) would have been urza's saga. Besides that workshops, kappa cannoneer and better fixing for third path, but really close to being completely perfect.

[@TheAcidBrn]

⚙️💧 Tolarian Academy is my most favorite magic card of all time, and this brings joy to my heart seeing it go broke like the Stroke days of old.

[@brettshears2121]

This was absolute perfection. Last game was the cherry on top.

[@bricelory9534]

R1 G3, Trinket Maging for Ballista could have gotten rid of the Hexdrinker. It doesn't leave you with much gas afterward, but it does remove the potentially gamebreaking card. EDIT: That being said... yikes, what an end to the game.

[@Mindscape6]

I've been getting about 90 fewer minutes of sleep every night since you started uploading these drafts. My wife is starting to get jealous of the amount of time I spend with you.

[@jewpcabra666]

God dang that first match game 3 was insaneee I love tolarian decks so much. wish mtgo cube hadnt gotten rid of artifact this time around edit: this deck was absolutely wild. Every game freaking crazy. That last turn i thought u were going to copy the candelabra and keep going off like wild just for show

[@fjordojustice]

So fun to see a busted academy deck. Also, Sol Ring seems pretty good when it starts in your opening hand every game.

[@lasselindkvist2051]

Yeah really. It might something to pick when bothing much else is in the pack

[@bricelory9534]

Absolutely insane.

[@Noragar469]

Finally. Lsv picking academy

[@rv907]

HE CAN’T KEEP GETTING AWAY WITH THIS!!!!!!!!

[@tizzleforrizzle]

Finnally the LSV has come pack to tolarian

[@jrjamesson]

incredible. Attacking with a 35/35 ballista on turn 3 is honestly so much more impressive than winning with a turn 1/2/3 infinite combo. Just wild.

[@cesarpiedra9165]

Holy crap, that last game was insane. Academy is absolutely nuts

[@kill3stdayz910]

Luis, Goblin Engineer + Ichor Wellspring + Mycosynth Wellspring = Draw a card and fetch a basic for just tapping?! Sign me up!

[@brianh5844]

My one concern with these decks is they're built so much around academy but if you're not playing ways to search up academy, it really makes you dependent on drawing your 1-of. I have the same concern with a lot of fastbond builds. They're amazing when they draw the 1-of and pretty underwhelming when they don't. That being said, at least this deck has sol ring and Urza as other ways to get some busted mana generation going. Note that I'm writing this before watching the games. Will be interesting to see how it does when academy isn't drawn. Post-view wrap-up: Well, academy and sol ring were drawn early and often, leading to some pretty busted stuff, but also making it difficult to answer how the deck performs if it doesn't draw those things. It was fun to see a 3-0 with academy again. I do think this was one of the stronger versions he's had because of having Urza, Sol Ring, and Academy as busted mana generation. I suppose I've learned to be more skeptical of academy decks because there's been a lot of vids on this channel where LSV is excited but then doesn't draw academy very often and goes 1-2.

[@LizEllwood]

Unfortunately without ways to search the 1-of, your success comes down to: "Did you draw the busted card", which sucks when you don't draw it, but realistically the only way you can search the broken cards was splashing green (which usually hurts more than helps) or just drawing it early. When it gets going, the engine roars and when it doesn't, well, we all saw that one game where he got controlled out Source: I play Yugioh, "draw the busted card" is what you're supposed to do

[@mattie3875]

It's not just a broken 1-of, the whole deck is built around it. We have Academy, Urza, Karn, Sol Ring, Nettle, Mystic Forge, Top, Retro, Gadgeteer, Skull Clamp, Saheeli, Ballista, Iconaclast-- if you don't get Academy you get things that synergize with artifacts or draw to the other things that synergize. He got it so often because of clamp/forge/top and mulligans. He was even able to side in another color to answer decks. Think you're just justifying your pregame comment, but his entire deck was good, not just academy. Academy is like Lurris, it can make your deck just overall more efficient and better without drawing it

[@brianh5844]

@@mattie3875 I understand the synergies. It's just the artifact synergies are generally not powerful enough without busted mana generation. He did have Urza, Sol Ring, and Academy for that which I acknowledged. In retrospect though, that is 3 different busted mana engines that make this deck more consistent than some of his other academy decks. Still, it does feel like academy and sol ring were drawn a bit above expectation for how early they were often drawn.

[@LizEllwood]

@@mattie3875 I mean yeah, if you look at the plays being made before academy is played, the deck still went off in a few cases, but once academy hit the field, it was usually locked up. Now I think that was also due to the fact that approximately 60% of the deck was busted, you said it yourself, he sided in another color. That's not exactly easy for most cube decks to do, and a big part of that was because the card quality in the artifacts theme is, imo, really good, Setessian Infiltrator, skullclamp, trinket mage, the deck runs.

[@LucianDevine]

@@brianh5844 That's one of the advantages of playing mono blue. He didn't have to splash another color that wasn't also generating artifact tokens, and thus burn picks mana fixing that additional color while looking for very specific cards to search for Academy. He could invest in the niche cards that basically nobody else was looking for packs 1 and 3.

[@jawda6262]

Love the cube content as always. Was looking at building your cube in paper and found an article with the link to your 548 card cube on cube cobra, I was wondering if you have a smaller list like 180 cards for a smaller group, we usually only have 4 people and the larger cube is a lot to carry around to game nights.

[@austindenny7094]

At 1:17:00 could you take a gamble and spin urza on opponent's turn and pray for cryptic?

[@OwenWai]

already a contender for the 'best Academy deck' playlist for 2024

[@dudders4969]

When you guys tie in a 4v4 you should play the 4th person you haven't played against yet so it's an overtime match winner takes all!

[@anthonyjs8048]

55:55 retrofitter is so good against ub control because it's so hard to interact with. Opponent immediately interacts with it.

[@drokhalis3338]

In match 3 why didn’t the opponent have to discard down to 7 after turn 1 recall?

[@josedelavega4706]

Opp played it on LSV's upkeep

[@drokhalis3338]

@@josedelavega4706 thanks I knew I must’ve been an idiot.

[@Krothu]

that last game looked ok

[@MatthewForsytheHi]

17:45 BRUHHHHHHHHH

[@MatthewForsytheHi]

¡¡¡IT GOT EVEN MORE INSANE!!!

[@davidhickey8613]

The thing about LSV drafting Academy decks, He always opens on Academy!

[@SupaCracka44]

Oh this about to be a banger of a draft!

[@MatthewForsytheHi]

Ah, I love to see the first pick Academy, no matter what!

[@Mediners]

This has to be the most insane Academy deck LSV has drafted..

[@brittenstaskywicz2436]

Oh baby strap in kids, we’re going fast.

[@ultimateo621]

Here you can already draw your entire deck and make that many tapped soldiers. Seems pretty good.

[@bigwig8657]

Lsv letting us know this is a scripted show when everytime he says "I just need to draw some spells to make this a good keep" 8 of the top 10 cards are lands.

[@stinkyhero7144]

worth considering Trickster Mage for cube? Discard Echo, untap academy seems awesome

[@traycarrot]

I'm surprised how skeptical LSV is of Mightstone and Weakstone during deck building. It seems like a second Coveted Jewel with optional removal.

[@anosmianAcrimony]

I've seen lethal Walking Ballistas before but I've never seen a Walking Ballista that's lethal because it has two Nettlecysts equipped (and no +1/+1 counters!)

[@totalegal27]

I bet the video was a bit late because you rescheduled other videos and waited for this video to process so you could get it out as soon as possible :) This was awesome thanks for the daily content.

[@Nvwick]

Sick deck. Very nice.

[@nathanshapiro9460]

Better late than never!!

[@Cabose407]

Always a good day for Academy.

[@Frostweaver42]

I've been working on my own vintage cube, would it be possible to get your list?

[@thatoneguy74349]

What English word in a card name across all the cards it appears on is the winningest lifetime for lsv? I think it might be “nettle.”

[@javonjohnson3878]

loving the content. reminds me of my urza edh deck

[@greenlentils_]

does galvanic blast make it into the cube at this point?

[@bricelory9534]

Mind Stone is the reciprocal of Sol Ring, hahaha - Cost 2, Make 1 / Cost 1 Make 2

[@ReiHost]

Someone once asked me why Academy was banned but Cradle is legal in that one format. Much laughter.

[@Wolfstanable]

With as much mana as the deck can generate, I don't understand the UR dual over Colossus 40th pick.

[@andrewwatts6974]

It's just not a good enough payoff when you can cast it to balance out it being a dead card 95% of the time

[@wpease7]

Take a shot every time he calls the initiative the monarch

[@r2dezki]

I have never seen such an acadamy deck and I have never sweat so much from the games.

[@GustavoBatista-j1h]

I felt like taking another shower after that academy draw on m1g1

[@mattdespard6576]

TNN seems like it would have been a pretty good SB card against your first opp, a ton of low toughness creatures that can also get clamped for value if req'd

[@neldar1075]

LSV: "I'm not going to play coveted jewel here it costs too much" Coveted jewel: costs 6, generates 5

[@mauriciorossi8477]

cost becomes relative when instead of -1 the other option is +2. that's a 133% decrease.

[@thedoh.]

Now THIS is cubing.

[@coreyburkhart7768]

Falkoneye using echo against the academy deck, I said out loud, queue yakety Sax.

[@starmanda88]

“We are in the karn zone” 😂😂😂

[@CullingCrimson.]

Gadgeteer has earned its spot

[@mtgpackrat7945]

Attack for 35. That made me laugh hard.

[@johnporter9833]

Banger!

[@Slimcognito2012]

3 picks in and this is looking like a sick academy deck

[@bsgrannydied]

Missed infinite card draw + infinite tapped 1/1 tokens, with forensic gadgeteer, third past iconoclast, sensei’s divining top, and urza

[@zecaveira1]

Academy was an all-star, but, man, Sol Ring is something else

[@andrewwatts6974]

What the (Sandy) dog doin? 🐕

[@garagavia]

I wanted Fiery Islet over Savannah, and the way the packs broke that pick would have been nice, so I'll pat myself on the back for that one

[@SessionalSalmon]

Great, it’ll be another 2 years before I see an Academy in vintage cube.

[@KK-pm7ud]

1:22:20 What was that?

[@travelingtango]

this title bodes well

[@travelingtango]

yep - that was a homerun indeed

[@kithkindeck]

well if you keep forcing workshop\academy decks, eventually you'll spike one. This one was sweet. GGs big guy.

[@andrewwatts6974]

Welder and recurring nightmare feel like theyre facing similar issues of their recursion value being a little too slow, while also being the more difficult way of cheating game pieces into play

[@awestrich2172]

R2G1 interaction sheeeeeesh

[@timluo6120]

what a banger

[@brettblackman]

Still had all of these

[@SessionalSalmon]

This draft was awesome and all but you lost a lot of complaint equity with those draws.

[@ultimateo621]

I’m visiting family in Spain and it’s messing with my routine

[@apd5084]

fuck LSV is so good at magic

[@marcogoncalves3207]

Insane deck

[@hermodnitter3902]

Disgusting deck. Totally sick. Love it 😂

[@Americanfury1]

i feel for this specific deck mana crypt is better than sol ring

[@jughead_jones]

day one of asking LSV to add tireless provisioner to the cube

[@martinarnold4999]

ty for draft

[@KibblesAndBitties]

Still in the draft and I just yelled “Urza!!” out loud when he showed up