MTG Salvation

Hello! I've been playing Devoted Druid for a while and want to try a new combo deck that's more interactive. This is a great primer.

One question: has anyone tried playing Reshape? If Whir is Chord of Calling, then Reshape is pretty close to Eldritch Evolution in this deck. It's one mana more expensive, but you don't risk the thing you searched up dying to bolt right when it hits the field. Would love to hear about anyone's experience testing Reshape.

Thanks!

I played 2 reshape for awhile. They work really well with pentad prisms. But the problem with prisms was they were always dead draws later on. And reshape would would sit in hand for awhile. Since it costs you 4 and an artifact to get a combo piece. Without prism ramp they aren't that good and u don't wanna run prisms. Having 4 Mana on turn 4 can sometimes be a problem in the deck with 19-20 lands & 3-4 opals.

Actually it wouldnt be terrible for mid/later game... sac a sword get a foundry. And early game to get a needle or opal from sacing a bauble or something. I just don't like them sitting in hand. But later on they're better than a visions, crane, cloister, fair or anything other than whir for finding what u need. Maybe they are worth another try

Every time I think about reshape, I wonder why it would be better than fabricate. Fabricate costs 1 colorless more, doesn't require an artifact to sac, and the mana can be spread over two turns. Then, every time I think about fabricate, I think about muddle the mixture, which can grab either half of the combo, plus cards like abrupt decay from the board, AND can counter relevant spells like scapeshift, cryptic, and K command, and I remember why I play 2.

The reason why I like it over fabricate is it costs 4 to put a combo piece directly on the field where fabricate costs 3 to put in hand then 2 cast or 3 with fabricate for a needle or 4 for fabricate. I do like muddle through. Having a dual purpose is very nice.im trying out not running decays or trophy's just sticking with other wincons that are good against certain decks. Like sai, tezz, and grid. I might be wrong on this but I watched a bunch of tolaia wests vids and it seemed good.

And a full set of egos.

Yeah, Ego has been quite good. Makes storm SO much more manageable. Amulet Titan, too.

I always lose to Amulet Titan after I ego them. I think it's because I name Primeval Titan, while I need to be naming Ruric Thar and hoping to get another ego for the titan, or keep titan at bay with a bridge

From what I've seen it's best to pithing needle tolaria west right away so they can't get EE or pact so there's only drawing the one of thar,or EE for that matter and ego their Titans. It definitely needs to be played more as a prison deck against bloomless titan. Lock them out then try and win.

I mean they still have 4 pacts they can go get Thar with, so my experience is I ego Titan, and then they pretty much play Thar the next turn and I lose, since I just can't beat a Thar in play really. Next time, I'll probably plan to hit Thar with my first Ego, and aim to deal with Titans in other ways

Wow, I have not had the same difficulty beating amulet titan post board. I name titan 100% of the time, and if that resolves, their 1-of Thar gets answered by thopter combo or battle at the bridge. When Thar resolves I'm typically around 18 life, so I get a few resolutions, which is usually just whir for the other combo piece. Sometimes Lili can minus to get him, too.

The last time I played amulet titan, I Ego'd titan in games two and three, which made my opponent bemoan how OP Ego was.

I've been playing with a straight UB list lately.
It's a little all over the place right now, but Antiquities War has been absolutely insane in the games that you don't die super fast.

Hey guys. Between health issues, work, other projects taking my time, being murdered by EU and the fact that I just don't like Modern that much, I haven't been around this forum lately. That said, I still love Tezzeret as a character and, since the very idea behind this deck is one of the rare cases in MtG where flavor meets competitive viability (because this deck wins by tinkering with all manners of artifacts, which is what Tez himself would do), if I'm ever going to invest heavily in Modern this is the deck I'm going to make, I cannot even consider going with something else.

So yeah, lately I've once again started putting a list together, testing a bit on the internet and in paper with proxies. Here is what I got: as you can see, it's a very straightforward list, I tried to keep it as reasonably budget as possible while still keeping it fully competitive. Right now the most common decks in my meta are mono-G Tron, RW Burn, UR Storm, various variants of Dredge, and Spirits: I can't remember ever facing a deck whose threats I couldn't answer with Push or by simply keeping them off the field/locking them down, so that's why Battle at the Bridge is not in the side. Of course, that might change as the meta changes.
So, how does my list look? Am I on the correct path?

@8bit9mm - I think your UB list looks good, specifically because it's trying to maximize antiquities war, which is an interesting take. The main deck Sai is nice, and I've always liked trinket mage a little more than I should. I think there are a couple changes I would make, because you're cutting down on copies of your best cards. I would suggest:

+1 Whir
+1 Foundry
+1 Damping Sphere (maindeck)
+1 Spellskite
+1 Spire of Industry

-1 Darksteel Citadel
-2 Trinket Mage
-2 Welding Jar

Damping Sphere is just incredibly relevant maindeck in today's modern. And while Trinket Mage can be nice to tutor up a needle or an EE, honestly how many times wouldn't you simply prefer a whir or a Sai? And I've played enough matches where Jar is completely dead in game one to know that at most you really want is one.

@Tears of Tomorrow - I like that you're deciding to stick with 4 fatal push, which will definitely help your burn and spirits matchups (I like battle more, but they each have their bonuses). What that means, however, is that you really don't need to rely on bridge as much. 4 copies with 4 push is way overkill on the creature defense front, and bridge in particular is nearly useless against burn. The truth is that Thopter + Sword is overall better than either one at defending against creatures turning sideways.

Which brings me to a point that I try to hammer home: All pilots should play 4 thopter foundries. If I could play 8-9 copies of foundry, plus whir in my deck, I would play 8-9. They're the card that ALWAYS gets taken by your opponent with a discard spell, they countered, they get removed. Why play welding jars over more foundries when their main purpose is to protect your resolved thopter foundry? Games are usually won once foundry + sword come online, so a 4-4 or 4-3 split between the two I believe is optimum. The other point that I like to make is that Pentad Prism is a bad card for our gameplan, and shouldn't be played. Want to play mana rocks? Go ahead, Mind Stone will ramp you to Tezz on turn 3, and it will cantrip later in the game when you're trying to topdeck, and unlike prism, it will continue to provide valuable mana turn after turn when you're making thopters.

The other card to include in your list, especially given your meta with Tron and Storm, is to play Damping Sphere maindeck. If Tron and Storm are as represented as you say, I would seriously play 2+ copies. Sphere alone, however, won't win against tron, which is why I'd also include an infinite token combo piece, like Krark-Clan Ironworks. Sphere buys you the time to assemble thopter, sword, and ironworks, especially if you needle oblivion stone. If you needle stone and play sphere, you basically have until turn 7 until they can do anything relevant.

Finaly, I would up the land count to 20, and I think that's as simple as turning the expedition maps into 2 more lands.

I know that's a lot of input, but I hope it helps, and good luck playing and enjoying Tezz!

I'd also like to second a lot of what The_Nobodys mentioned previously. I've put my shell through a TON of various tests and while there is plenty of room for innovation, some of the conclusions I've made for optimal results are as follows. These are the base rules I tend not to stray away from:

1) No less than 20x Lands (w/ at least 3x Mox Opal) - (21x Lands is probably best)

2) No more than 3x non-blue mana sources - I currently have only 2x non-blue sources myself (Swamp/Academy)

3) 4/3 Split of Foundry/Sword - You're playing this deck because of the strength of ThopterSword combo vs opposing G1 strategies, so build your deck to optimally assemble a linear path to victory as often as possible. Play all 4x Foundry, no less than 3x Sword (tried and true minimal combo split for grixis twin pilots from the past). I used to advocate a 3/2 split was fine for a loooong time. I've since firmly changed my stance on this.

4) Bridge + Hellbent is the alternative line to lock the game and is the other reason you're playing this deck. This is a point of controversy amongst the pilots, but I advocate exactly 3x Bridge (main).

5) Play a Cantrip of some kind - You should be playing at least 3x Cantrips (I prefer Serum Visions which put less stress on Turns 1-3 mana development leading to UUU for Whir)

6) Play at least 9-10 0-mana artifacts - Unless you have a hand with natural combo or a bridge + line to get Hellbent by turn 3-4, you're base gameplan in the dark should be to have 3x untapped lands that produce blue plus 3x artifacts on board to open you up to being able to whir for x=3, which unlocks the optimal setup for either line (Combo Vs Bridge plan) to help cross the finish line.

7) Play 1x copy of either KCI or Time Sieve - Sometimes you need an eject button out of combo/big mana matchups in Game 1. I've recently been re-testing KCI, but I think I still prefer Sieve.

8) Play at least 3-4 Alt-Wincons - Standalone threats in the postboard that ignore postboard hate is important. I also found that it's important to maintain a high enough amount of threats that clock Combo/Big Mana decks. Tez is the best, but his cmc has recently had me in favor of 2x Tez and 2x something cheaper (currently LOTV). I also consider Ego as a standalone threat, as often the first that resolves effects the opponent's GW% similarly to a threat. Each effects the game in a different way, but they're all effective nonetheless.


I think that other decisions are more personal preference but to me, this is the core checklist that I abide to in order to consistently produce the lines I feel give me the best overall win %. As far as additional preferences, I've considered first copy of Needle, Nihil Spellbomb, Damping Sphere, Grafdigger's Cage, and Bottled Cloister as maindeck non-flex slots, same goes for the first 2x Collective Brutality. It's also worth noting that toolbox decks are appealing on the surface because you feel like you "Can do anything", but while the flexibility is nice, the more linear approaches to your lines are often what gain consistent advantages in such a fast format. Sure the first redundant copy of something like Bridge/Foundry aren't needed, the reason you want to have more density of those spells rather than less is to increase the consistency of seeing them within the first 7-10x cards of your library, while also taking some stress off of whir (increase the consistency of having Foundry/Sword plus Whir within your first 10x cards). Again, I don't feel like you need say all 4x Bridge, but these are the sweet spots/minimums I abide by through the extensive testing I've done.

I know there are a lot of base cores amongst us (none of which are necessarily better than the other), but I wanted to provide an updated list for reference, especially if the core I've grown to like is pointed in the direction that anyone else is interested in pursuing. This is based off of the deck that qualified me for the PT (which I unfortunately last month I found out is Standard, not Modern):



Also just putting this out there, this deck has many names and some light controversy arises from time to time since a lot of us omit the namesake from the maindeck (I admit that I sometimes just call this ThopterSword, as I can't call it Whir for fear of confusing it with the non-combo prison deck). I usually refer to it as Tezzerator as he's been the "constant" in my 75 since my personal beginnings of piloting this deck from years ago, and is an ode to one of my deckbuilding heroes from the past - Kenny Öberg.

Also wanted to note that I may once again go silent for a while, as I'll be going pretty hard on new Limited ahead of GPNJ and the PT, plus I have a lot of catching up to do with standard once the new set releases lol. Got a lot of brews lined up, gotta weed out the duds (probably most of them). My posts are typically lengthy, but I just have so much to share about this archetype, love helping out the community here, and I figured I'd go out with a bang for the time being lol. I'll try to pop in from time to time in the near future, but good luck fellow Tez-pilots! Maybe I'll see you at SCG Regionals/Philadelphia in March!

@The Nobodys: Thanks for taking a look.

I can see cutting down on Jars, the most you ever need in any game is usually 2, but I have been seeing a decent amount of MD Abrades.
I think the most I'd ever cut Trinket Mage is down to 3. Trinket Mage is just such an underplayed tutor, IMO. He can help you stabilize on board and also grab a Needle, Cage, Jar, Opal to fix your mana or Aether Spellbomb (which is also underplayed, IMO).

I do realize that some of the numbers and choices in this deck are questionable. Mostly I was just trying to see if I could make Antiquities War work in modern and so far it's been insane. The entire list was an experiment to maximize Sai and The Antiquities War and so far it's been working quite well and is honestly a lot of fun to play.

Like I said, this whole list is an experiment. It initially started out splashing green and I quickly nixed that for the stability of UB and just being more streamlined in general.

I'll definitely try out your suggestions and see where I end up. The list is super fun to play. I think that AW is definitely something to consider in this deck. It lets us be the aggressor, instead of being on the backfoot for most of the game, which is how I've felt with other Tezz builds in the past. I've also found that 1 Bridge and no MD Witchbane to actually be fine, since we are more creature-centric of a build and Thopter/Sword allows us to stabilize against burn without the Orb.

Edit: and speaking of Aether Spellbomb, at the very worst it draws you a card and drawing cards is always good. At its very best, it completely blows out your opponent.

So far I've:
1. Bounced a Goryo's'd Griselbrand during combat and my opponent fizzled
2. Bounced a turn 2 Gurmag Angler, which didn't return to the board for 5 more turns
3. Bounced a Through the Breached Emrakul

Edit: Edit: Also, I've (sadly) been considering Karn, Scion of Urza in place of the Tezzerets. Once again, it's something I need to test, but it seems to be the way the Legacy Tezz list are leaning these days (why can't we have Strix in modern?).

Solid advice all around. Here, I made some changes: how does it look now? After making a couple tests on simulator it seems to be running quite well (but then again, the previous version felt nice too), but of course I'll need A LOT more tests before I can get a more precise feel. One thing I can say that I was quite skeptical about Mind Stone, but after trying it I was surprised, it performed better than I was expecting.

EDIT: compulsive editing likely in progress by the time you read this message.

I really really like the idea of trying to incorporate some Trinket Mages into the deck. As things stand I think we generally benefit from some form of card advantage that doesn't give a random card. Between EE/Tormods/Nihil/Pithing Needle/Welding Jar/Mishra's Bauble/Opal there are far too many subjectively good cards to tutor for Trinket Mage to not be considered. I'm going to try 2 and see how it pans out, I think more often than not it will be suicide blocking but that's very often all that's needed.

Hey everyone. Better late than never so this is what I brought to Oakland and felt really good going in. Unfortunately, after starting 4-0 (beat G tron! but he had a slow game 1 hand and mulled to 4 game 2, still almost winning jeez) I went to time against a GB rock deck (my friends insist I be more proactive in calling judge against people playing slow). I likely win game 3 if he untaps with confidant at 1 life or at worst on my next turn as I have thopters. It got ugly after that. I next drew against another G tron before being knocked out by Lantern Control and then got turn 3'd twice against KCI. I'm really considering conceding before taking the first draw...it's really bad for making top 8 yes, but I think we want to avoid the draw bracket more than any other deck. Any thoughts on this?

I definitely made some misplays along the way, MTGO is not a complete substitute to paper practice! I believe I could have won both drawn games if I change my lines as I was 1 untap step away on both.

I also got knocked out of both PTQs by UB Mill, Elves, Amulet Titan, and G Tron so I definitely need to get better at picking my matchups. Lantern, UB Mill, and G Tron are my worst matchups and Elves/Titan are probably in the next tier. I didn't face a single spirits, humans, phoenix, or dredge deck all weekend (19 rounds!)

As far as changes, Cloister is starting to feel like the weakest card in the 60. After that I'd only MAYBE touch the fatal push's, CBs, or the 2nd jar but love the list as is. I'd love the 3rd Tezz to be a 3 mana fast threat but nothing has proven itself to me. Revoker is good against KCI/Tron but I almost feel like it's Ego or bust. The rest of the S/B is pretty tight for me.

Love my mana base. I can basically keep any 1 land opener with only 1 non-blue source and 4 Visions. I can't stress enough how important this is over any 8 round+ tournament. Fair is too slow unless you run more lock pieces/disruption and every deck that ruins is good against now has many ways to kill it. I think Faithless Looting is slightly better than visions but making my mana bad is not worth it IMO.

A few different people came up to me at both Oakland and Portland recognizing me from Vegas which was super cool! Invited them to join here so hopefully we see them around.

Hopefully we don't lose opal or KCI on Monday (get out of here ancient stirrings!) but I think we can adjust without them.

Hi guys, new to this primer, but i ve been playing this deck for a while. My list is very similar to yours @Trav34 ! only difference atm i m trying -1 welding -1 bridge -2 pushes and 4 inquisition of kozilek! have you guys tried some discards? i m still testing them but they ve been ok until now, 4 cantrips and 4 discards enables many nice plays turn one.

Also i was looking at ancient stirrings but i kept the distance from it because of color issues(see faithless looting topic).. Andit can't even get you the foundry. Otherwise i guess it would be a nice card, have someone tested it yet?