|
Chris
Gerhardt
*
game store owner in CA,
ShuffleAndCut |
As I started to
write this review, I realized one thing... I was
writing the same thing everyone else was on
Academy. So instead of saying the same thing
the rest of the crew is, let me give you the key
words:
- Broken
- Abuse
- Crazy
- Game breaking
- Banned
- Mana Engine
- Dumb
- Absurd
- Wicked
- Sick
- Wrong
Now take this puppy
and Combo it with any X spell (the classic is
Stroke of Genius, though about any X-spell
will do). Throw it in your casual Affinity Ravager
deck. Beat the holy crap outta something.
'Nuff said...read my
crewmate's reviews for the meat of it.
Constructed:
5
Casual: 5
Limited: 2.5
Current Price:
Tolarian
Academy -
Urza's Saga - $19.17
Combos
Well With:
Stroke of
Genius -
Urza's Saga - $11.18
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|
Judge
Bill
*Level 2
MTG Judge
*game store employee
|
I know Wiards is
hesitant to ban a card in type 1, for the simple
fact that many casual groups follow the type 1
banned/restricted lists when building their
decks. However, if you ban this card, you could
probably take a look at the following cards for
unrestriction:
Braingeyser
Crop Rotation
Frantic Search
Grim Monolith
Lotus Petal
Mana Crypt
Mana Vault
Mind Over Matter (though not if you unrestrict
the fast mana)
Stroke of Genius
Windfall
Plus, it's eating
into valuable design space. A definite highest
rating.
In casual and
limited, you usually don't have as many ways to
abuse this card, and so, it gets a lower rating.
Constructed - 5
Casual - 3.5
Limited - 2
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|
DeQuan
Watson
* game store owner (The Game Closet - Waco,TX)
* pro tour player
* Scrye writer since 2002 |
This is one of the
most obviously broken cards of all time. If
this card were available with Mirrodin block
around, it could have been even more crazy.
Imagine what ravager could do with this.
Casual players love
making lots of free mana. It's funny though
because they don't use the mana in the same game
breaking way. I'm still not sure if that is
good or bad. Either way, I know that in
limited, this card just gets skipped over a lot.
Constructed: 4.5
Casual: 3.5
Limited: 2
|
|
Jeff Zandi
5 Time Pro Tour
Veteran
Level 2 Judge |
Tolarian Academy
At Tolarian Academy, the dress code is strictly
blue. This card was the
primary mana engine of an incredible combo deck
back during the spring and
summer after Urza's Saga was released. Eventually
banned, it's fun to think
about how sick this powerful land would be if it
had been reprinted in the
Mirrodin block.
CONSTRUCTED: 4.0
CASUAL: 4.0
LIMITED: 2.5 |
|
Andy
Van Zandt |
Tolarian Academy
I'm glad this isn't still around. If it hadn't
gotten banned, it probably
would have fallen to the wayside with some of the
other bannings anyways,
but with this new block... and affinity... and so
many extra free
artifacts...
constructed 4
casual 4
limited 2 |
Ray
"Monk"
Powers
* Level 3 DCI Judge
*DCI Tournament Organizer
*Game Store Owner (Gamer's Edge) |
Tolarian Academy
Boy is this card
broken. One of the things we joked about a lot on
this card is how, in play testing, the card only
made colorless mana, and it was broken then! So
what happens to it, they make it better! Urza’s
Saga was one funny set, let me tell ya.
Constructed:
5
Casual:
1
Limited:
1
|
Jason
Matthews
* Level 1 DCI
Judge
*game store employee
* gaming for over 15 years |
Tolarian Academy
BROKEN. That about says it all. This is a card
that should have never been printed. The amazing
thing about the card is that a whole group of
Research and Development people didn’t figure out
that this card was too good. If you reprinted this
card today it would still be broken. There just
isn’t a way to balance this card. Make it come
into play tapped and you would most likely loose
on the next turn. Make it cause you to lose life
when you tap it and you would laugh as you kill
your opponent. Its just a dumb card to have every
made. The flavor text should say “I am broken
abuse me” as if we didn’t know that. Here is my
tip for playing it in casual. Play it with lots of
artifacts and fireball, blaze, stroke of genius or
some thing that has X in the cost and does lots of
damage.
Constructed 5
Limited 4
Casual 5 |
Jonathan
Pechon
2 Grand
Prix Top 8's
Multiple Pro Tour
appearances |
Tolarian Academy
Dumbest. Card. Ever.
Combined with the free
mechanic, this was absolutely absurd. Even
without it, the number of painfully ridiculous
things you could do makes this card do boggles the
mind.
I don’t see this
making a lot of sense for casual players, but
anything this powerful makes an impact on people.
Good for Mental, group games, whatever else you
can think of, there’s a place for this.
About the only format
where this isn’t good is limited, simply because
there are not enough solid artifacts in Saga-block
to capitalize on the brokenness. Print this in
Mirrodin and the world as we know it ends.
Constructed: 5.0
Casual: 5.0
Limited: 1.5
|
Jason
Chapman |
Tolarian Academy
is/was wicked. Even back in the day there was
always potential to whip out a bunch of cheap
artifacts, half of which produced mana, and then
gain a ton of colored mana to play with. In
today's environment it would be sick and wrong and
I am so glad that it has been banned in every
format. Having said that, if you play casual and
don't need any friends consider some of the things
you could do by introducing this card to Affinity
and Arcbound.
Constructed - Well you can't use it anymore so -
1.0Limited -
If you are drafting and get one of these guys hope
the other packs are all Darksteel or Mirrodin. The
more artifacts in the draft set the better this
card gets - 1.5+
Casual - Just sick
and wrong but you could go and build some sick
Affinity based decks with this card. Don't forget
the X spells and cheap artifact mana too (totally
out of flavor for casual though) - 4.0 |
|
Chase
Secret Squirrel
on the
Pojo.com
Message
Boards |
Tolarian Academy
What is there to say
about Academy that hasn’t been said already?
Gets lots of mana then win with whatever you
want. Obviously capable with killing turn 1.
Banned/restricted in every format it would be
legal in. Was supposed to be colorless mana, but
was changed to blue so it would “fit into a
cycle”. More like putting it in the universe of
broken cards.
So, broken in
constructed. Not too sure about limited.
Probably bad cause US didn’t have too many good
artifacts. But I’d pick it anyway.
In Casual, if you
want. Obviously broken in Type 1, (the only
format it’s legal in). I guess you could get
lots of mana if you want, but there are other
ways.
Constructed: 5
Casual: 3
Limited: 2?
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