Quote Originally Posted by mistercakes View Post
really cool idea w/ the academy rector. do you think manamorphose has a place in this list over dark ritual? is it really necessary to ritual out the rector?
I don't know really, it does lead to t1/t2 kills when i ritual out an rector, an also it can lead to quick tendrils kills after a EoE. It's also just 1 mana vs 2, so it's easier to use it to get song going (and continues going by casting additional discard spells). But i'm really not sure. It feels like speed is important in the current meta, a lot of t2 Karn, t2 Arcanist in addition to the regular combo decks. I do think you have to change other things as well if you run MM over dark ritual.

@FTW
I'm not really sure if i gain anything with 5c rector :) Not played enough, and variance has been a big part of the games i played, both in my favor and not. I also have not tried your version, and only played 1 league with samuraifunns version so it's hard to say. But if i compare it to my 'classic' riddlesmith deck, i feel like this has a better delver and control matchup but probably worse combo matchup. In leagues i'm 4-1 vs delver even with the shaky manabase. The main reason for that is that rector dodges force of negation, spell pierce, spell snare and pyroblasts. I also would say that i probably had a lot of brewers advantage and opponents mistaking me for TES and not boarding in surgicals etc.

I liked that i could hardcast songs, and ignore gravehate that way but there are probably a lot better rector builds to be found, maybe with Ancient Tomb or cutting colors. I'm going on a (probably) short MTG break for some weeks, will see if i continue with this build then :)