Academy Blue (Standard)

The original Academy deck that started the 1998 combo winter. The idea was to cast a bunch of artifacts and then use Tolarian Academy to generate enough mana to cast Mind over Matter. Then you could use Mind over Matter to repeatedly untap the Academy, turning each card in hand into a bunch of mana. Then you would use that mana cast a draw spell to get even more artifacts in play and more cards in hand to untap Academy with and cast even more draw spells, chaining together draw spells and generating ever more mana until you can cast a lethal Stroke of Genius.

Widely considered to be one of the most powerful Type 2 (that’s Standard for you kids) decks of all time, it was the first taste of what the Urza Block would bring, and it got Academy banned almost iimmediately. It is the deck that made me fall in love with magic 25 years ago after getting whooped by it with a turn 2 kill at my LGS. The idea that you could draw your entire deck and generate 60+ mana for a lethal Stroke of Genius by turn 2 was eye-opening for me. I've been a combo lover ever since. And I still keep the deck sleeved up out of pure nostalgia.