Schoolteacher OTK Pilot's Guide

Overview

The Schoolteacher Combo magic deck is an aggressive combo deck that aims to One-Turn-Kill the opponent on turn 5 using Spellslinging Schoolteacher, 1hp creatures, and burn. The deck uses Warp Engineer and Clone to get multiple copies of discounted Spellslinging Schoolteacher and uses Lost in the Depths (LITD) to obliterate the non-combo cards from the deck.

God Power

In most cases, Clear Mind should be used to find combo pieces quickly. However, Magebolt can be helpful in slower matchups, as a redundant combo piece for burn to clear the board or to chip the opponent's HP. It can also be useful against counter cards like Lightning Talisman and Odessa.

Mulligan

The priority is to find the combo pieces, Warp Engineer, Spellslinging Schoolteacher, Clone, and Lost in the Depths.

Key Cards

Warp Engineer: It reduces the cost of Spellslinging Schoolteacher to 0, allowing you to clone them.

Spellslinging Schoolteacher: The core of the deck, dealing 2 damage to the opponent's god when you summon a 1hp creature.

Clone: It makes copies of discounted Spellslinging Schoolteacher.

Tokens:

Cardshark, Dead Body Guard, Nimble Pixie, Parthene Guardian: These are creatures that summon 2 1/1 tokens.

Draw:

Dimension Door, Levitate, Reject Dogma (also burn), Seeing Stone, Lootable Corpse, Lost in the Depths: These are 1-mana draw cards, and Lootable Corpse is a LITD target too. LITD removes most of the deck's cards, leaving only the combo cards and backup burn/token.

Burn:

Ancient Texts, Surpassing Blast, Vow of Champions: You need to burn for the last 2 points of damage with the 4 Teacher line or clear a token for the 3 Teacher line. Vow of Champions and Parthene Guardian are backups after playing LITD. Since they are 2-mana cards, they don't get obliterated by LITD but slow down the combo by being more expensive.

Surpassing Blast can't target face, but it can clear your board for the 3 Teacher line or clear your Warp Engineer.

Reject Dogma can be used as burn in the 4 Teacher line, it just must be the last card used so you don't obliterate a combo card.

Strategy

The deck relies on Lost in the Depths and card draw to find your combo as quickly as possible. The combo is to use Warp Engineer to discount a Spellslinging Schoolteacher, Clone one or two Spellslinging Schoolteacher, and on the OTK turn play multiple Spellslinging Schoolteacher with other 1hp creatures to deal tons of damage. The deck has multiple lethal lines depending on what you draw and if the opponent damages themselves.

The key to the deck is knowing what remaining cards you need for the combo and finding them as quickly as possible. For example, if you have Ancient Texts in hand, you don’t need to use Vow of Champions anymore and can foresee it to the bottom of the deck.

Using Lost in the Depths makes finding your key combo pieces easier by obliterating most of your deck. But using LITD forces you into the 4 Teacher line with Parthene Guardian as the token and Vow of Champions as the burn unless you have redundant pieces in hand already.

Combo

The main OTK lines are with 4 or 3 Teachers. All the combo lines use the same cards and work similarly. The combo has a lot of redundant cards making it easier to assemble.

Main Lines:

4 Teacher Combo:

4 Teachers, 1 Token, 1 Burn spell to face=30.

Without burn, it is 28 damage.

This is the usual lethal line after using LITD, with 3 0-cost Teachers, 1 2-cost Teacher, Parthene Guardian, and Vow of Champions, for 6 mana total, aka turn 5 with a pip. A 1-mana token or 1-mana burn spell means you can skip Parthene Guardian or Vow of Champions and use less mana. If your opponent misplays and damages themselves with a card like Woodcutter Imp or Brimstone and goes to 28 or less health, then you can combo a turn sooner by skipping the face burn.

3 Teacher Combo:

3 Teachers, 1 token, burn a token, another 1 token = 30 damage

Without burn, it deals 24 damage.

The other main line is to substitute one of the Teachers with another token creature and use burn to make board space.

Other Lines:

If the opponent has more than 30 hp or has protection/ward on their guard, you can still OTK them.

4 Teachers, 2 tokens, 1 burn:

Play 4 teachers, 1 token, burn 1 token, play the other token = 36 damage.

Kills through Safeguard Incantation at full health.

4 Teachers, 2 tokens, 2 burn spells:

Play 4 teachers, 1 token, burn both tokens, play the other token = 44 damage.

Can come up against Winter's Bounty.

Counters

The biggest counter to the Schoolteacher combo is the reliance on board space since all six board spots are needed to do 30 damage. Warp Engineer being stuck on the board without anything to crash into or a burn spell to clear it can lose you the game. If the opponent doesn't play a creature and there's no way to clear the Engineer, you could die of fatigue if you played LITD. A frontline with less than 3 strength, like Pyramid Warden, can keep your Engineer from dying and buy your opponent one more turn to kill you. In the same vein, Surprise Delivery slows your combo by two turns and is an instant loss against Deception.

Fast aggro decks like Aggro War and Hidden Rush Deception can kill you before you combo since you have very little interruption.

Hand disruption like Cutthroat Insight or Dearly Departed can slow down or stop the combo completely. Losing one Spellslinging Schoolteacher can be survived by going for the 3 Teacher line, but losing two Spellslinging Schoolteacher means you can't kill anymore. LITD shouldn't be used early in these matchups since the redundant combo cards are needed.

Odessa stops the combo by taking away your mana. Taking Magebolt and saving a Surpassing Blast can kill Odessa with an empowered Surpassing Blast and ping the turn before you combo.

Lightning Talisman kills the Spellslinging Schoolteacher. Pings and some burn spells are needed to get rid of the Talisman charges before the combo.

Aegis of the Innocent heals the opponent every time they're damaged, making it impossible to kill them.

The combo has interchangeable cards, but you can lose if you overdraw the wrong cards.

Place in the meta

This deck thrives when the meta is slow. The OTK potential of this deck allows you to punish decks that do not put out any pressure. The main weakness of this deck is fast aggro decks that can kill you before you can draw all your combo pieces, and cards that disrupt your combo.

Decklist

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Conclusion

The Schoolteacher Combo Magic deck is a highly enjoyable and strong deck to play. Every game presents different lines to explore as you manage your combo pieces. This allows the player to make numerous decisions on how to navigate their combo lines. The deck has a high learning curve, but it becomes straightforward to play once you learn the different combos. Overall, the player will have a great time playing this deck as they laugh and smile menacingly when they eliminate their opponent in one turn from 30 health. Enjoy playing this wonderful deck!