Lands
9 x Island
7 x Swamp
1 x Foundry of the Consuls

Blockers
1 x Shambling Ghoul
1 x Maritime Guard
1 x Runed Servitor

1 x Mizzium Meddler
1 x Guardians of Meletis

1 x Guardian Automaton
1 x Separatist Voidmage
2 x Blightcaster

1 x Catacomb Slug

Nonblockers
1 x Turn to Frog
1 x Clash of Wills

3 x Claustrophobia
1 x Calculated Dismissal
2 x Hydrolash
2 x Read the Bones

1 x Bone to Ash

1 x Sphinx's Tutelage
1 x Dark Petition


Round 1: My opponent was RB with Cobblebrute in both games. Guardians of Meletis and Catacomb Slug are pretty good against 5/2s and random small creatures. He had a Ghirapur Gearcrafter in both games as well, but I answered the thopter once with Separatist Voidmage and the other time by outracing it. I won both games quickly, thanks to lucky early Sphinx's Tutelage draws letting me win before his Macabre Waltzes ate me. Multiple thopters would have been a nuisance in a long game.

Round 2: My opponent is playing UW. He has at least a Thunderclap Wyvern, a Stalwart Aven, a Ringwarden Owl, and an Aspiring Aeronaut that I see, which is tough to defend against. His dudes are small and flying, so I board out the Runed Servitor for a Brawler's Plate so I might be able to just win with my mediocre creatures. I forgot to deboard later, so it just stayed in my deck. Oops. I mill him one game, but lose the other with an unfortunate draw with five islands and a bunch of black spells that let his flyers get out of hand. I start game three behind, struggling to deal with his flyers and going down low, but I play a Blightcaster into Claustrophobia followed by another Blightcaster into another Claustrophobia the next turn to pretty much wipe his board. The Brawler's Plate pays off later when I get to hold off a Stalwart Aven with a 3/3 Thopter token, stabilizing at 4 life, but we go to time. I never found Sphinx's Tutelage, I had to hold some guys back to not die on the swing back, and I kind of misplayed a few times, so I didn't win before extra turns ran out. The LGS pays out based on wins, so I was a nice guy and scooped because I was pretty sure my deck was awful.

Round 3: My opponent is on G/W. Her deck is pretty good, with a ton of Rhox Maulers and a Valeron Wardens, but it didn't really match up well: except for a terrible double block I had to make to deal with a Pharika's Disciple, the 4/4s and 3/5 are good Claustrophobia targets and bad at attacking into Catacomb Slug and crew. Her Rogue's Passage got milled one game and was unfortunately absent until late in the other, so I stabilized and milled her out twice.

Round 4: My opponent has a U/G tempo deck. Game one I panic when he Negates my late Sphinx's Tutelage, but he was really flooded and I got to just kill all his dudes with double Blightcaster + triple Claustrophobia (seriously) and beat him down with a bunch of two-power guys. Boo, a damage win. The second game I draw Sphinx's Tutelage early and cast it on turn three while he's tapped out instead of playing a creature like a normal human being. He has an Orchard Spirit, though, which I can't block, and a Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen off a Leaf Gilder. I bounce the four-drop with Separatist Voidmage, and next turn double-block it with that and a Blightcaster to get rid of it. I took a lot of damage, though, and not having good blockers, I have to Turn to Frog the 3/4 after he Reclaims it, leaving me without an answer for the Orchard Spirit that's getting dangerously close to lethal. In the end, I was at 2 life, but my opponent found himself without a library after I fogged the 2/2 with Hydrolashes two turns in a row. Sphinx's Tutelage is really good.

So 3-1, the loss being a draw where I scooped. Seven game wins, six with mill and one with damage. I'm pretty sure a lot of it was luck, because this deck kind of has some problems.

1) Sphinx's Tutelage is insane, and even Six Mana Tutelage is great if that's what you need.
2) Hydrolash is really amazing if you're interested in blocking. The worst case is you gain some life and dig for answers, but usually you get to fog your opponent and eat a creature or two for free. Eating a Pharika's Disciple or getting to double-block a Rhox Maulers is fantastic and game-winning. Even if they have a trick, you don't care because you didn't spend a card and you don't take much damage.
3) Catacomb Slug blocks a lot of creatures in this format.

Well, that'll teach me to underestimate Hydrolash. Thanks for sharing, Shazzeh!

Sphinx's Tutelage is good, but I wouldn't draft around it necessarily. Except that I would draft a blue based control deck in this format since blue is so criminally underdrafted at times. Nice performance. The deck looks like it has the right tools to take advantage of the Tutelage. How early did you take Tutelage?

Sidenote: I tried drafting a Dreadwaters deck since that card always tables as far as possible. It was sketchy. Obviously not the same scenario; just reminded me.

Pack one, pick one. Committing to a specific deck that early is pretty bad, of course, but barring a good rare I think it's worth speculating on in the same way you'd first pick an Ugin or a Siege Rhino.

It was a weak pack, since I remember the other card I was considering was a Relic Seeker. I decided that was really replaceable.