Here is my Néo-Academy deck list feel fre to make comments but please don't flame me. Academy is the only T1 deck I play since 3-4 years so I guess I'm not that much stupid.
Néo academy
Black Lotus
Mox Jet
Mox Emerald
Mox Pearl
Mox Saphire
Mox Ruby
Mox Diamond
Lotus Petal
Mana Crypt
Mana Vault
Sol Ring
2 Candelabra of Tawnos
2 Defense Grid
2 Helm of Awakening
Memory Jar
Ancestral Recall
Mystical Tutor
Time Walk
4 Impulse
Timetwiste
Windfall
Tinker
Frantic Search
4 Meditate
Capsize
Time Spiral
Mind over Matter
Braingeyser
Stroke of Genius
Demonic Turor
Vampiric Tutor
Yawgmoth's Will
Regrowth
Crop Rotation
Fastbound
Wheel of Fortune
Kaervek's Torch
Tolarian Academy
4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
2 Umdiscovered Paradise
2 Underground Sea
Tropical Island
Sideboard: (REALLY DEPEND ON YOUR METAGAME!!!)
4 Phyrexian Negator
2 Defense Grid
Misdirection
Interdict
2 Compost
Balance
2 Seal of Cleansing
Extract
Tranquil Domain
Somes cards choices
Helm of Awakening: 2 is enought you would almost never need more than 2 on the board and don't want to waste slots, plus it's a bad combo as I chose to play defense grid.
Grim Monolith: it give you 1 colorless and after that you almost never want to untap it.
Defense grid over Abeyance: 1-It's an artefact, so it power the academy and cost no W, 2-It's a permanent and if it hit the board you can feel free to go with your combo, you don't have to try to cast it each time you think you are ready to get the combo started.
Yawgmoth's will: This won me unwinable games, all the cards that were once contered are back and many mores.
Meditate: I won't argue that much on these as I played the deck for a while without them, academy is all about early game and this card is a big guess, pass the early game it's a good cards but if you try to get your combo started and draw 3 lands out of 4 cards it mean you die. Of course when things get started it's a Ucc for 4 cards.
Kaerverk's torch: 2 more to conter is a lot plus you often have to do one of 18-17 to win not about 50 as do stroke. It can be blasted and can take care of some annoying creatures in some cases.
I'll be pleased to argue with you on any cards choice.
BTW matt if you read this please e-mail me as I also tried to e-mail you more than once and the bd adress don't work
Thanks
Tatanka
b***n@t***h.com
By Freddie Williams II (Freddie) on Monday, April 15, 2002 - 09:50 am: I played Academy in this last Friday's Non sanctioned tournament at 1million comix in Kansas City.
I played the decklist that Razor posted, except for orim's chant instead of abayence, as Aggro is really popular in the metagame @1million comix, and it could save me from an attack step from them.
It was really fun to just ignore my opponent and NOT just win by stroking them for X, but to capsize each permanent they had before a draw 7... sweet.
I screwed up once were I had to use my geyser and stroke on myself to keep me from stalling, and although i had the infinite mana loop, i had no kill, so i floated a trillion blue, and then time spiralled, (this was because i was just tired of actually keeping track of the dice, for blue mana and just said a trillion)
I drew 6 mana sources and a fastbond! what ass was that.
with no grim monolith on the board, i could not sink the mana and burned for 1 trillion minus 4...
As most of you who have played this deck in real life know, it developes quite a crowd, so when I drew only mana and the little green wonder, the crowd all began laughing as I looked at disbelief at the ass pounding about to befall me. My opponent just sank, as he thought that i drew eveything that i needed, as I thought i would have as well.
"I'll burn for a trillion minus 4"
My opponent, bored, after sitting there for 20 minutes as i "went off" was like, "uhh... did i win?" and threw his hands up in triumph.
it was sooo funny.
I was playing my semi finals opponent and the judge (Brian Pierce) walked over and was watching me playing solitare, and commented that watching an academy deck go off is like watching a monkey jack off... he's right, all we do is play with our cards, and our dice, and ourselves, and announce spells, eventually the opponent, especially if they have lost track of what is going on, they just hear an inaudiable chirping and grunting noise as you repeatedly draw 7 and do it again.
I'm a monkey 
I drew in the finals with kevin Greene, as we both just wanted to leave, it was hot, and a long night, plus it was not sanctioned, we each had $35.00.
On a side note, I had just last week bought some of the new blue metallic backed ultra-Pro sleeves that come in the little clear bags, cause they look cool.
Well since I was shuffeling so much with this deck, and because my hands were seating (as it was hotter then a bugger in the store) the blue from the sleves started to COME OFF ON MY HANDS!!!
After the tournament I bought some black backed sleeves as I did not trust my billion dollar deck to sleeves that could possibly stain the cards!
Thats a heads up for all of you that play with the blue metallic sleeves, I have no idea if it happends with any of the other color sleeves though.
Thanks everyone for helping me track down this list.
-Freddie
By Mako Satou, Rose among the thorns (Mako) on Monday, April 15, 2002 - 09:58 am: How does Academy do against Control. If you don't have an Abeyance or a bunch of counters your draw 7 would get countered and you would stall?
By The Usual Stompist (Fbi) on Monday, April 15, 2002 - 09:59 am:
Quote:before poeple that only have experience playing suboptimal Stompy
decks criticize what they need to understand is WHY is that card slot there?
Don't be so hard on yourself, Matt. Your stompy deck doesn't suck THAT hard
By Matt D'Avanzo, the Sylvan Librarian (Matt) on Monday, April 15, 2002 - 10:07 am: FBI, thanks for allowing me the chance to thank you for giving Azhrei and myself so much material to use as examples for our humor post. If you posted like an intelligent human being that actually knew something about magic, well, shoot, we'd have been at a total loss for a lot of those examples.
Freddie, using Orim's Chant over Abeyance because chant is better against aggro is kind of silly because aggro is a bye with this deck. Also Abeyance's cantrip ability is very important (combo with tutors, last ditch way to get one more card to not fizzle) as is it's ability to stop activated abilities (which chant does not do). Also Abeyance against mono-black is a true timewalk (since their damage is irrelevant usually). Sorry about the fizzling and burning for 3 trillion minus 4 mana. The deck tends to treat you better once it knows you.
By Freddie Williams II (Freddie) on Monday, April 15, 2002 - 10:13 am: Mako,
not that I am an athourity on Academy, but I will try to answer.
Academy VS control is a tough matchup pre SB.
Punching an early chant/ abayence threw with FOW backup, is about the only way it has to win w/out doing foolish crap.
after SB, its chances drasticly increase, playing 1st and 2nd turn 5/5 trampeling beatsticks with REB, FOW, mis, and chant/ abeyance backup + the draw 7's still intact.
if it goes to game 3, and they're SB in their creature control, you could always SB back out the negators and go for a combo w/ lots of counter magic instead... pretty versitile.
Against permission is the only time I regret playing Academy, cause the first game they need to do verry little, just build up counters & mana and wait.
But it is very satifying if you get that early chant / abayence off and just go crazy!
-Freddie
By Azhrei (Azhrei) on Monday, April 15, 2002 - 10:19 am: I've had some experience with the blue sleeves peeling off too! Some sleeves are really fine, but other ones fall apart all over the place.
By Razor (Razor) on Monday, April 15, 2002 - 10:14 pm: Freddie, I am glad to hear that you took Matt's deck all the way to the finals! Good idea on mana sinking with Grim Monolith! Abeyance is better in Academy for the reasons Matt has reviewed. (Generally however, I have revised most of my white decklists to use Orim's Chants over Abeyances because I find them better versus both Aggro and Control.)
Tatanka: Defense Grids do not go with Helms of Awakening at all! You wound me by posting that! Why K.Torch? Annoying creatures like what praytell? It doesn't help you pre-going-off so it doesn't deserve a slot - nuf said - two wins is plenty in there.
Y.Will is good, but not as good in there as Timetwistering a dozen times with Regrowth in a game if need be. I need to sometimes after setting aside several partially used Memory Jar hands.
Meditates are GOD if you use more Helms because they'd play as well in the early game as they do in what you call the late game.
Why Extract SB? Capsize not good enough for you? *sheesh*
Your deck is about 8-10 cards away from Matt's or mine. Why, I don't know? I actually tuned Academy to within a single card of Matt's for the reasons that Matt and I keep espousing.
{Matt,need we bang our heads some more? Tatanka, notice that Matt didn't even deign to respond to you.}
Razor
By Magimaster (Magimaster) on Tuesday, April 16, 2002 - 01:14 am: Can someone give me a legible reason why Defense Grids don't belong in Academy? As of now I'm 50/50 for going with either Grids or Fow, but I haven't really got a set conclusion as to why Forces should be run over grids. I just started playing academy, so bear with me!!!
Please don't burn me!!!!!
*casts a defense grid in response*
By Tatanka (Tatanka) on Tuesday, April 16, 2002 - 12:10 pm: Razor: First thanks, finally someone is answering me. My academy is designed to face a shit load of mono-blue but a very few control, that's why I play the grids you can just cast it on your first turn then if it pass you are ok for about 1 or 2 turns, that's more than enought. The fact is that grid have to hit the board once and during any turn abeyance have to be cast on the turn you go off with a white mana and don't power the academy. I agree abeyance is better against any other decks but the grid is a must vs BBS. I agree with you for the torch and removed it from the deck. The will perhaps will always stay there that cards win me many many many games. It allow you to draw lot of cards and help you to recover against powder keg(Kegs are a major problem here). The extract is against other academy decks.
Anyway please try defense grid a litle then tell me if it's that bad, you'll see that even with a bad synergy with helms it is a real pain in the ass for BBS wich if the only deck I really fear.
Thanks
Tatanka
By Razor (Razor) on Tuesday, April 16, 2002 - 06:41 pm: Tatanka, I won't try Def.Grids because Abeyance simply is better with Helms and Helms are a must since they give Academy so much more mana-advantage than my opponents get. BTW, white mana for Abeyance is almost as common in Academy as any other coloured mana so why worry about it? Def.Grids aren't a must Tatanka; rather, they are a maybe.
Y.Will wrecks the possibility of Twistering ad infinitum for broken stuff so I won't use it in here. But, I am enjoying your success with it vicariously.
You seem to be defending your decklist even while no one is attacking it. I am but humbly sharing my perspective on some of your card choices at your request.
Magimaster, Defense Grids have negative synergy with Helms of Awakening. Do you understand why?
Razor
By Matt D'Avanzo, the Sylvan Librarian (Matt) on Tuesday, April 16, 2002 - 06:54 pm: Okay, if your area is chock full of mono-U this is NOT the deck to play. Defense Grids, furthermore, aren't even THAT great against them, BUT if you want to run them then ditch your helms for Sapphire Medallions. They aren't quites as good as mana producers (don't help out with artifacts), but the deck will still run well enough to go off.
All Academy decks do not need Helms (or Medallions). Mine uses Helms. Most do not.
By The Usual Stompist (Fbi) on Tuesday, April 16, 2002 - 06:57 pm: Don't tell Rakso, but didn't you get the idea for Helms from...GULP...InQuest?
By Matt D'Avanzo, the Sylvan Librarian (Matt) on Tuesday, April 16, 2002 - 10:29 pm: Actually, the Inquest deck turned me off using Helms for a long time, firstly because Inquest decks are notorious for sucking and secondly because some guy around my parts used to play the deck and, well, it just died to a single counterspell.
Most of the games would involve him laying out his whole deck in 2-3 turns, Kaervec's Torch you for 20...FoW....damn, or something similarly embarassing. Helms were maligned by every control player at the Ground from Mikey P, down to myself as being entirely too helpful to your opponent to possibly be played in anything but a goldfish deck.
So actually, had Inquest not posted their crappy deck with Helms, I probably would have come to my current version a hell of a lot faster.
Oh, and you're still behaving like a prick.
By Dandan (Dandan) on Wednesday, April 17, 2002 - 02:50 am: I run YawgWill since it wins games that I would otherwise lose. MonoBlack blows up your land, destroys your hand and YawgWill gives you it all back. It returns Academy to play if you are careless enough to lose it and how many times do you need to Ancestral, Time Walk anyway?
I agree that it will occasionally be worse than the Impulse that I have replaced but I view it as another draw 7 card.
Against control you can often win by going off early before they get enough mana to counter enough to matter. After that it is hard work. I have found that a Defence Grid helps a lot vs control but I usually only cast one Helm anyway.
I see that a Grid (no room for more) has bad synergy with Helms but unless I have 3 Helms out it still works (you are only trying to stop counters and possibly a little burn anyway). However it has good synergy with Academy which IMHO cancels out the Helm downside. Medallions don't work well enough so even if you run Grid you have to run Helms.
I am currently running 3 Abeyance, 1 Defence Grid, 4 FoW with 2 Helms which gives me more chance of getting the ball rolling vs control, albeit at the expense of a greater chance of stalling. Stalling is relatively rare.
Just a quick rules question:
I have always assumed that if I Meditate I will skip the next turn that I am scheduled to have at that point in the game. In my example lets be flash and say turn 1 Meditate.
Turn 1 me, Turn 2 opponent Turn 3 Skipped by me, Turn 4 opponent.
If I then Time Walk I gain a turn after this one so I gain Turn 1a and go next. The fact that I will skip turn 3 is not relevant.
Matt said "You can't just reset things by Timewalking either due to Meditate." (talking about YawgWill). Doesn't Timewalking after Meditating work?
Has anyone tried the Green Wish yet? It looks fun but I can't see what I can cut to squeeze it in.
By Magimaster (Magimaster) on Wednesday, April 17, 2002 - 03:04 am: Maybe the Red Wish would suit better....for the deck
and about helms cancelling out d grids, it takes 3 helms to negate a grid, 2 grids totally nullfies this, and it's not like you want all 4 helms out anyways, 2 is good enough.
just me
PS. Am I the only one who doesn't like removing his braingesyer to use force?
By Matt D'Avanzo, the Sylvan Librarian (Matt) on Wednesday, April 17, 2002 - 06:27 am: >>Just a quick rules question: [snip] The fact that I will skip turn 3 is not relevant.
*sigh*
NO. It doesn't work that way. If you have a turn skipped by Meditate coming up you don't take an extra turn before it.
By Matt D'Avanzo, the Sylvan Librarian (Matt) on Wednesday, April 17, 2002 - 06:33 am: @Mako: Academy vs. Keeper is about 60-40 in favor of Keeper. Really, the matchup isn't all that bad for combo, it's just that it's much easier to play Keeper well than the Academy deck so this matchup seldom will see players of equal skill with their decks facing off. They do not have nearly enough counters to stop you--just stall you awhile. In reality it's more utility spells like Mindtwist and Shaman that can end your game.
Mono-U is very difficult. They pack enough counters to stall you for MUCH longer and more Morphlings which means you're on a shorter clock.
Still, I maintain Academy is a perfectly viable tournament deck. Every aggro matchup (including discard) is nearly a bye, it has one awful matchup in mono-U, and one hard, but toally winnable mtchup with Keeper.
By Matt D'Avanzo, the Sylvan Librarian (Matt) on Wednesday, April 17, 2002 - 06:42 am: And lastly,
Anyone that puts Defense Grids in my deck shall be cursed forever more. You will draw 7 mana sources each and every time you Wheel/Twister/etc.
If, IF, you feel the need to run Defense Grid over markedly better cards, at least ditch Helms for Sapphire Medallions. The deck will still run pretty well, and you won't be working at cross purposes with yourself.
Secondly, the red wish is a piece of crap for this deck.
A) We already have enough tutors to find them.
B) Windfall and the rest are significantly less broken (almost balanced in fact) when they cost an additional R1. Timespiral is almost not worth playing at UUR5. The fact that you are automatically tacking on an extra turn to yor kill is bad. That means each turn 3 kill would be a turn 4 (allowing stompy and sometimes sligh to race you) and gives your opponent another chance to disrpt you with discard, drawing counters, killing lands, monkeying artifacts, etc.
C) Getting back Spiral with the red wish doesn't work and even if it did it falls into that "Win More" category. Who loses after casting a TimeSpiral?
By Dandan (Dandan) on Wednesday, April 17, 2002 - 07:26 am: Matt, you are right about Meditate and Time Walk, S'Angelo ruled on 31/8/01 that Time Vault can skip next turn then if used it will create an extra turn which will be 'skipped'. I guess the same applies to Meditate and Time Walk.
I can't see why people are talking about the red wish. The green one is interesting, fetch a Wasteland (assuming you are running Strip maindeck) or a Negator/Morphling. Can't see where I can fit it in, but interesting nonetheless.
By Matt D'Avanzo, the Sylvan Librarian (Matt) on Wednesday, April 17, 2002 - 07:37 am: I think the exitement over the green wish is the idea of SBing Academy and having an unrestrcited way of fetching it in the deck. I really, realy dn't think it's going to work all that well, but I will certainly try it out.
The fetching of Negator or Morphling seems, well, iffy because they either one for GB3 or GUU4 seems a little slow, but still, worth a try.
By Jacob Orlove (Orlove) on Wednesday, April 17, 2002 - 10:09 am: Matt, it only _seems_ slow-the cost is spread over 2 turns, so you can wish turn 1 w/a mox and then drop the creature turn 2
Also-don't you run helms for a reason?
By The Usual Stompist (Fbi) on Wednesday, April 17, 2002 - 11:13 am:
Quote:Oh, and you're still behaving like a prick.
better to be one than suck one in prison?
By Matt D'Avanzo, the Sylvan Librarian (Matt) on Wednesday, April 17, 2002 - 11:25 am: Hey, let's not bring my family into this.
By Dandan (Dandan) on Wednesday, April 17, 2002 - 05:16 pm: SBing Academy means not running it maindeck. This seems like a bad way to go if you want to see Academy. It is however creative but I would guess that an Academy in the deck is way better than in the SB even assuming you could fit in 4 green wishes which I doubt in the tighest deck in type I.
I think we'll all try then discard the wishes for academy.
I still believe Defence Grid works OK even if you run Helms (which you should), Medallions are so much worse than Helms it is vindictive to even suggest them and YawgWill is so broken it has a place in Academy. Mark one of your Impulses and see if you would prefer it to be a broken Will next time you draw it. Of course I have a history of being wrong (except about Ridgebacks - those guys work themselves to an early grave for you)
P.S. The Stompist guy seems to have become a bit testy after the long Stompy debate.
By Razor (Razor) on Wednesday, April 17, 2002 - 05:24 pm: The green wish is a very interesting idea if you want to abuse it to fetch a SBed Academy; but, it seems oh sooo wrong! While I won't try SBing it I can't wait to hear the results. I am guessing that Crop Rotation, and D.Tutor, and all the drawing Academy does are probably sufficient to dig it out as fast and with better tempo. I mean, if we maindeck 4 Green Wish and SB the Academy then the last 3 Wishes are dead slots killing tempo.
Also, Wishing/fetching a Negator from your SB against control would probably be too slow even with a Helm out. He is a four turn clock *after* he hits play. Wishing for him on Turn 2 might lead to casting him turn 3 which is a proposed win for turn 7. But, since you'd still be topdecking combo (ie.non-controlling) cards your Negator would be largely unsupported during his reign. They'd probably be able to find an answer in: Keg, Disk, Morphling, Masticore, Capsize, etc.