Academy (1998) vs. Delver (2012) | Best Standard Deck Ever Top 64

Hello everyone, and welcome to the next match in the Best Standard Deck Ever Tournament! This week, we have the notorious Academy combo deck that caused Combo Winter in 1998 up against the UW Delver of Secrets tempo deck that dominated 2012 Standard! Which will move on? Let's find out!

Academy (1998) vs. Delver (2012)

Academy is one of the most notorious combo decks in Magic's history. The deck quickly took over Standard after Urza's Saga in 1998 released Tolarian Academy, Windfall, and Time Spiral, backed by fast mana from cards like Mox Diamond, Lotus Petal, and Ancient Tomb. The idea was to dump your hand of fast mana, use Windfall and Time Spiral to refuel, and eventually get a Mind Over Matter on the battlefield, which allows you to discard a card to untap Tolarian Academy and make an absurd amount of mana. Then, you Stroke of Genius yourself to draw most of your deck, discard a bunch of cards to make a hundred-ish mana with Mind Over Matter and Tolarian Academy, and then finish the game by casting another even bigger Stroke of Genius, forcing your opponent to draw more than their entire deck and lose on the spot. The deck typically kills by Turn 3. With a good draw, it can win on Turn 2, and it's even possible to win on Turn 1 if you get super lucky!

The deck's dominance led to the winter of 1998 being known as "Combo Winter," a nickname that has stuck to this day. As a one-deck meta emerged, Wizards banned Tolarian Academy and Windfall in Standard (and every other format) just 50 days after they were first released. And it took another round of bannings a few months later, hitting Lotus Petal and Time Spiral, among other cards, before spring came and Combo Winter finally ended. 

While the tournament seedings were mostly random, if I were to seed all of the decks based on my subjective power rankings, Academy would easily be a #1 seed and might even be the top overall seed in the field. The deck is that good. 

When original Innistrad was released in the fall of 2011, it brought a brand-new mechanic: double-faced cards! Today, double-faced cards are so common they aren't especially exciting. But back then, Magic players had never seen them before; as a result, they were super hyped. Oddly, the most impactful double-faced card was the lowly common Delver of Secrets, which quickly emerged as a Legacy staple and, backed by cheap tempo plays, as a Standard deck that would be at the top of the meta from late 2011 until rotation in the fall of 2012. 

While the deck's primary game plan was to flip a Delver of Secrets, defend the flier, and beat the opponent down, its overall power level was extremely high thanks to Phyrexian mana spells like Gitaxian Probe, Gut Shot, and Mutagenic Growth, and Snapcaster Mage to flash back Mana Leak. Outside of Delver itself, the deck's finisher was Geist of Saint Traft, a card that might not look that absurd today. But thanks to cards like Vapor Snag to clear a path, the three-drop and its 4/4 Angel friend could close out games extremely quickly. Hexproof made it so hard to kill that players resorted to playing Phantasmal Image to kill Geist of Saint Traft by taking advantage of the legend rule at the time, which said that if two legends with the same name were on the battlefield, both would immediately go to the graveyard. 

In many ways, Delver was a deck ahead of its time. While it didn't lead to any Standard bannings, cards like Gitaxian Probe and Ponder are currently banned in Modern (with Probe banned in older formats as well), while Delver of Secrets itself is still a four-of in one of the top decks in Legacy, nearly 15 years after it was first printed. 

Bracket Update

Each week, we'll update the bracket with the results of last week's match. (Today's matchup won't be included until next week, to avoid spoiling the results if you haven't watched the video yet.)

Next Week: Jund (2009) vs. Mono-Black Devotion (2013)

Next week, it's a midrange battle, with Bloodbraid Elf and friends from 2009 Jund up against Gray Merchant of Asphodel and Mono-Black Devotion from 2013!