I was asked to build a deck that was built around a Peer into the Abyss combo that we all know and love. However, in Billy Red fashion, I wanted to deliver something unique. Enter Tutelage of the Abyss.

The issue with the typical peer into the Abyss combo is the fact that it's core combo pieces, underworld dreams and peer into the Abyss both require three black mana to cast. Since peer into the Abyss cost seven total mana, it really isn't so difficult to run another color in your deck, to increase power level, and still be able to cast it on curve. Underworld dreams however, cost three hard black mana which can be extremely difficult to cast on curve outside of running mono-black. So the question is, what other cards can we use to combo peer into the Abyss to win the game the turn we cast it? To me, the answer was Teferi's Tutelage.

On turn one, we are going to use Thieves' guild enforcer and overwhemed apprentice. Both of these cards are important one drops for this deck. The apprentice not only mills our opponent for two, and gives us a 1/2 blocker, but most importantly it allows us to scry 2 which helps us fix our next draws in a big way. Simply put, all this love for just one blue mana is a great value and synergizes very well in this deck. The enforcer allows us to mill our opponent for 2 when she or another rogue enters the battlefield, but when it gains deathtouch and turns into a 3/2, as it most certainly will, it gives us a lethal blocker to keep us alive while we get our combo pieces, or a sweet beatstick to finish our opponent traditionally. Of our one drops, the apprentice is our favorite because the scry ability is just ridiculously powerful on turn one.

On turn two, we've got a couple copies of fae of wishes that, against aggro serves as a big flying body that will keep us alive, and against slower control decks helps us dig an answer out of our wish board. While we don't have any underworld dreams in the main deck, we keep one in the wishboard along with one copy of Peer into the Abyss in the weird situation that we don't naturally come across our combo in the main deck. We use three copies of mazemind tome because this card is straight gas; it helps us draw and scry through our deck to find our combo pieces or our mass removal should we be getting overrun by a low and aggressive deck. If you can hold up two mana to draw instead of scry, I highly suggest it, but dont be afraid to tap that sucker just to scry, because scrying will help fix the deck, and the incidental lifegain we get from putting four page counters on it is excellent. Mazemind tome also helps us mill our opponent if we have a teferi's Tutelage on the board. We also run two copies of drown in the loch, which due to our cool one drops, we can use as soon as turn two, but also works great later in the game as a ridiculously versatile card that we can use to destroy huge creatures or counter a spell we don't want to see hit the battlefield. Last but not least we run four copies of brazen borrower so we can bounce our opponent and ruin their tempo, and brazen borrower is a rogue, so it synergizes with thieves' guild enforcer to mill our opponent when we cast the 3/1 flying beatstick. It's not unheard of for this deck to cast a board wipe or two then flash in a couple of brazen borrowers when our opponent is out of gas to beat them down.

On turn three we want to cast Teferi's Tutelage as our main combo engine. Hopefully with the scrying and drawing we've done up to this point we have found it and can cast it on curve, if not don't worry, we should have time to find it before we are able to cast Peer into the Abyss, as we should still be drawing and fixing our deck by scrying. We run three copies of pestilent haze to punish low aggro decks like cavalcade or UW flyers that want to play a bunch of weenie creatures early (I have yet to be able to use the ability to take counters from planeswalkers, but hey, the -2/-2 side of the card works well in my experience).

On turn four we have three copies of extinction event in case those aggro/midrange decks are still bringing gas. Our other four drop is the almighty Solemn Simulacrum which we run four copies of. This guy does triple work for us; he's going to help us ramp into the mana required to cast Peer into the Abyss, he's going to give us a body that we are more than happy to block with, and he's going to allow us to draw a card when he dies.

... and of course we run three copies of Peer into the Abyss as a win condition with teferi's Tutelage on the battlefield. Instead of casting it on the opponent as we would if underworld dream was on the board, we cast it on ourselves because for every card we draw, the opponent mills two cards. I haven't even seen an 80 card yorion deck that can survive this onslaught of mill.

In our wishboard we have a few counters, a few target removal spells, a few board wipes, a little disruption, a little graveyard hate, and if course a few copies of some of the most powerful planeswalkers in standard right now.

I really hope y'all enjoy the brew as much as I enjoyed putting it together for y'all. If anyone has a request to see a deck built around a card, cards, or general deck theme, I'd love to brew it up for you. Please check out my other decks as I truly believe I have something for everyone. Thanks for all the continued support, with a special shoutout to my buddy Golo for making me exercise my mind. And, as always, good luck!