MTG Salvation

Thanks radouf. Mana base is new with the fairs but I'm open to any suggestions. Haven't noticed a ton of color issues but some is often.

Was running a 3/2 split but feel dumb now cuz we have the crane. I have a third foundry but can get a hold of a 4/3 split.

Completely forgot about spellbomb. Don't get much modern in lately and spaced that Relic takes out my yard as well.

Post was a Lifegain mainly card cuz my lgs is heavy on burn and zoo, which is also why the field wipes R there. The other half plays chord style decks where we can't afford them to keep their guys

And don't own discard spells. I know, weird. Figured collective brutality was a descent sub.

Own one spellskite that usually hangs in the board.

SIDEBOARD is usually similar to this:

2x Torpor Orb
1x Gemstone Cavern
3x Chalice of the Void
1x Welding Jar
1x Grafdigger's Cage
2x dismember
1x Spellskite
1x Damnation
1x Pithing needle
1x Flaying Tendrils
1x liliana of the veil

Any help is appreciated. The help is greatly going to help for this weekend.

Hey guys! Checking in. I have been off Modern Tezzeret for the last couple of weeks because I ported it to legacy. (The deck is absolutely degenerate in legacy, I love it). My local modern metagame has begun to shift to reflect the larger modern scene of much more aggro and dredge. We had multiple Dredge and infect players as well as an affinity player last Monday night. (I played 8rack for the lols, no regrets. 4-0. Ensnaring Bridge is still broken.) I have stepped back away from my list in an effort to capture the metagame and the speed of the format more accurately before tuning. I came to the conclusion that although we do have some unfair plays we are still playing a very "fair" game of magic compared to a lot of the top decks in the format. I am waiting on a few cards but I am going to try this list next week.



The idea is to accelerate into quick Chalice of the Void or Ensnaring Bridge locks. This deck even has a reasonable chance of getting turn 2 Tezzeret or LotV. Either of which can be backbreaking for an opponent. I am playing Welding Jar and Mishra's Bauble mostly to enable metalcraft for Mox Opal on turn 1 without spending mana. If you count EE and Chalice as zero cost artifacts (You would basically have to play it for no value to turn on the mox opal, but this makes the Mox Opal comparable to a chrome mox so that still is not that bad) than the deck has 19 "zero" casting cost artifacts to get Mox Opal on fast. A great hand can even turn 1 a LotV! Untaped black source, Mox Opal, SSG, 2 Zero cost artifacts, Lotv. Curious as to what you guys have to say, I am a little concerned the deck has too much "air" and could easily have a hand that doesn't function.

@Raystack I really like where you are going with your list, but I think we can do better. I crunched the numbers on your manabase and you are never casting that vendillion clique on turn 3. The chances are less than 30 percent given that you drew it. It also dies to everything making it your least "Jund-esque" threat. This is good though, because I think you need to playing more spaghetti monsters. You are not abusing the full potential of the Eldrazi Temple with only 4 Eldrazi in the deck. I actually don't hate Matter Reshaper. He can come down on turn 2 and wall an aggro deck and then flip a combo piece or another value card on the table when he dies. You have plenty of colorless sources to support it. I like -1 Smugglers Copter, -2 Vendillion Clique, -1 Collective Brutality, -1 Executioner's Capsule for +2 Glint-Nest Crane, +3 Matter Reshaper. This effectively trims the fat for a more cohesive and synergistic strategy.

I don't know how much you hate Dredge but 4 main deck Relic of Progenitus with cards like Eternal Scourge, Wastland Strangler, or even Ulamog's Nullifer could be an avenue worth exploring.

If only we had anicent artifacts from our spaghetti monster overlords... This deck would be awesome for sure.

VV

@Racing: sick list!!!! We can tell its been inspired by legacy Tezzerator haha.

On to the critique:
- Cant help but wonder what Batterskull brings to the table. I believe the last copy of Thopter-Sword is a better fit (keep that curve LOW);
- No room for second Inventors' fair? Isnt this card sick 95% of the time?
- MB Tormod's Crypt could probably save your ass a couple times. Metalcraft friendly AND Fair synergy;
- I kind of wish for at least one, if not two MB Collective Brutality (Disruption & bridge accel.);
- Fit in third Crane? To eat Robots.
- GOT to run SB Blood Moon.

I only play tezzeret in legacy and this list makes me happy as a ported modern version
I hope ur meta gets hurt by chalice on one cuz it didn't effect mine. But I loved the turn on chalice with guides. And I own Gemstone Cavern and it's such a cute card. Oddly enough I had good luck with it.
Would love to know how chalice and caverns is working for u? Same with the land count plus guides. I think u will find u want more cranes. I started at two and quickly jumped to 4 as it is a modern ish version of strix. Flyer for 2cmc that draws a card

@raystack Ah the good ol foundrazi! I love the deck. Honestly I'm also on board with removing the clique. I personally love the card but it does seem hard to play. I would definitely recommend matter reshaper. I obviously went way more hardcore with the inclusion of reality smasher. Honestly, smasher was almost always MVP. Some decks just literally can't deal with it. If they can, then they lose to tezz or combo. I also played talismans as they are pretty necessary. If I were going to run foundrazi today I think my list would be something around this (not perfect, there are things I would love to change around).

For the record, I'm not necessarily promoting this list but hopefully someone can draw some inspiration and make something awesome:



How do you play this deck? Well choose a path: stall if against aggro or go full on manmode and race. If you can't race, you stall till you can find the combo then ride that to victory and literally cast no other cards and just make thopters (depending, path and tezz are usually worth skipping making thopters). If they deal with it, then you should have a had a few turns to refill your hand and can just slam huge finishers to close it out.

-Batterskull is in the list because once you have enough mana to activate inventor's fair you are likely to hit more land drop and jam that batterskull you just tutored for. It has gotten me out of so many games that it would be difficult not to play it. If the casting cost becomes an issue it will turn into a crane.
-I realllly want the second inventor's fair, but we are already stretching the math on colored sources. I would have to go to 20 lands if I wanted another fair.
-Tormod's Crypt could be something, I am afraid it is too situational given that it doesn't cycle and there is no trinket package,
-I don't like collective brutality. When its good it is great, but often times it never lines up the way I need it to. This deck also needs a massive amount of artifacts for early metalcraft. I would run 4x crane before the first collective brutality.
-Crane is life.
-I only have 4 ways to cat the blood moon, 7 if you count SSG. I need to be closer to 12 to hit it reliably. If it turns out blood moon would be very good, than I may explore a slightly different mana base using glimmervoids to enable a blood moon.

The list I had looked something like this:

Thanks for the feedback guys - Strong is the Eldrazi, but how well does a Tentacled Titan play in the Sandbox with Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas? Well, how many octopi have you seen out of water, and how many 1-armed guys have you seen in swimming pools? I guess I should have answered that question before throwing this idea back up on the boards.

It seems like my approach is fully exploit Thought-Knot Seer and synergize his discard with similar effects. Akalah and Racing089 are going deep on bringing other 3-drop Eldrazi to the battle lines. Since, I'm just not properly utilizing Eldrazi Temple at a cost of also not being able to effectively cast Vendilion Clique...I'm not able to - in Radouf's words - out-midrange other decks. True. My hope was that by looking at Smuggler's Copter, Glint-Nest Crane, and Collective Brutality, I might be able to reassemble some juice. Mmmmmmmm....nope. Racing's right about the mana constraints, and I do like the changes when it comes to some eldrazi mid-range beef, but I am trying to keep the Crane count down, since it's soooo not aggressive.

I dig Akalah's and Racing's build which is similar, but added white....hmmmmm, instead of path and 2 tidehollow sculler, I'd probably recommend 3 Collective Brutality, Slaughter Pact, and some Discard as a diversified answers to creature threats and it keeps you in color - rough thought, as I just don't dig white. Ultimately, this path - no matter how it's negotiated - probably isn't going to end up in the Winner's Circle.

Oh, lastly, Radouf's spoiler tab in this post had me howling. Is there such a thing as Magic Stand-Up? Purttty funny dude!.

http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/developing-competitive-modern/558912-ub-tezzeret-agent-of-bolas-control?comment=5032

So I've been playing Tezzerator since Kaladesh dropped and I've had my list based on Radouf's one.

First things first, my current list:



So for the past month and a half I've only had a bad day at FNM (like 1-3) and most days have been 3-1, or 4-1s and a couple 2-2s. This coupled with today's 4-0 (TAKE THAT TITANSHIFT!) has me thinking that the deck in general has staying power and can combat the meta with its assortment of hate artifacts and reach.

I'm still a bit iffy on the match up with Infect since I haven't faced it much and as always Tron is conceded.
Until today the colored swords were just a good card, but today they won me games (including 2 with Titanshift), so based on their overall good performance I'll keep them in.

I had 2 Ensoul Artifact on my SB but swapped them since they weren't always relevant when I drew them and I'd rather have something else, like the 2 Surgical's that I swapped them for. I think radouf touched upon this a bit earlier. I love the split 1-1 on Liliana and Ashiok and I wouldn't want to tax my 3 mana slot more.

All in all, I'm in love with this deck (it was the deck that drew me to modern after all), and here's to hoping to a Baleful Strix and an awesome Tezz in Aether Revolt!

About Relic over Spellbomb, I personally prefer Relic because it fights Tarmogoyf way better. Dredge isn't a bad MU, and Griselbrand isn't represented enough so the T1 exile option from Spellbomb or Crypt feels needed.
About Brutality, if the plan is to make Bridge work, I don't understand how we can dismiss the card. Still today, I lose games because Bridge lets Swifspear or Inkmoth attack and I have no way to empty my hand. The card makes Bridge work and kills all the early creatures that kill us otherwise. I see no argument in "the card doesn't do what I need", because it actually turns all the fast MUs into good G1s. It also improves our combo MUs where we can discard their key spells.
Yes, it doesn't help against GR Tron at all, but that's basically the only downside of the card in the deck, and in the format.

Quote from MrTzoulis »

So for the past month and a half I've only had a bad day at FNM (like 1-3) and most days have been 3-1, or 4-1s and a couple 2-2s. This coupled with today's 4-0 (TAKE THAT TITANSHIFT!) has me thinking that the deck in general has staying power and can combat the meta with its assortment of hate artifacts and reach.

Yes!

Quote from headminerve »

About Relic over Spellbomb, I personally prefer Relic because it fights Tarmogoyf way better. Dredge isn't a bad MU, and Griselbrand isn't represented enough so the T1 exile option from Spellbomb or Crypt feels needed.
About Brutality, if the plan is to make Bridge work, I don't understand how we can dismiss the card. Still today, I lose games because Bridge lets Swifspear or Inkmoth attack and I have no way to empty my hand. The card makes Bridge work and kills all the early creatures that kill us otherwise. I see no argument in "the card doesn't do what I need", because it actually turns all the fast MUs into good G1s. It also improves our combo MUs where we can discard their key spells.
Yes, it doesn't help against GR Tron at all, but that's basically the only downside of the card in the deck, and in the format.

Indeed, either Relic or Spellbomb can both be fine depending on what you're struggling against.

Now, you wouldn't call Dredge a bad match-up? Can you tell us more about your experience against it? Genuinely curious as they almost always seem to have some sort of nut draw in my experience; faster than our Bridge and/or Conflagrate to dome us over after the lock. I know it's beatable (I have), but I it's been really tough. Postboard, Ancient Grudge and Nature's Claim keep me super weary.

Also, I missed the part where someone was arguing against Collective Brutality.

Lastly, am just back from Tuesday Night Magic @L'Expedition LGS. Got my face bashed-in by two nut draws from a Nacatl-Burn deck who clutch-topdecked Atarka's command in the 1 turn window I gave him before Bridge would shut the battlefield down, exactly from lethal. ***** happens. Kept playing for testing's sake and testing went 2-1 in my favor. Then stomped RW Prison 2-0, UR Prowess 2-0 and Mono-B Zombies 2-0. 3-1, eh.

/e: Ensnaring Bridge spiking on MTGO (thanks Lantern!). If some of you are still in the process of acquiring these, now is the time to get them! Source: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/price/Seventh Edition/Ensnaring Bridge#online

I would like to make an argument against Collective Brutality

-A worse version of Duress costs 1 mana more and hits significantly fewer cards.
-A worse version of Disfigure due to sorcery speed and costs 1 mana more.
-A worse version of Pharika's Cure easier to cast but sorcery speed and doesn't hit creatures.

I understand that there is an argument to be made for flexibility, an argument to be made for pitching dead cards, but each of these modes will always cost you a card. Best case scenario you 3 for 3 with an opponent. I would go as far as to argue that the third mode is unplayable. In most match ups it does nothing. Another popular argument is that it gets you hell bent for bridge. While that is great, I would rather not throw away cards and value to get my bridge lock on. If getting the bridge lock up in time is a common problem then we should examine lowering the curve instead of throwing away cards.

In summary I believe that the effects are far to underwhelming and the value the card generates is often psychological. It is likely one of our best tools against decks like burn, and therefore should find a home in most sideboards, but in general the card is far too low impact in game 1 against a lot of decks. Jund would laugh at you for resolving this, Tron, Valakut, Affinity, Dredge, Bant Eldrazi, Lantern etc. Of the current 10 tier one decks in the format http://modernnexus.com/ I would only want it against burn and infect. ~16.5% of the metagame.

So before you all go jamming Collective Brutality in our Tezz decks, remember that it comes at the cost of a slot and the card needs to be fundamentally better than anything else you could be playing.

Hi all, I took Tezzeret out for the first time tonight! Ended up 1-3, but my win was a crushing victory over Infect 2-0 (he ended up going 3-1!). First, deck:



Round 1: Infect 2-0
Ghost Quarter turn 1, Spellskite turn 2, ride that to victory. Gum up the board with nonsense, stick a Tezz, +1 finds something I didn't bother playing, and next turn ult to drain 16 and win. G2, more spellskites, got Chalice on 1, Bridge, the works. Drew into Thopter Sword and they took it home.

Round 2: Burn 0-2
T1 Swiftspear, T2 Swiftspear + spell both games crushed me. Collective Brutality needed to be here for this.

Round 3: Merfolk 1-2
Bridge all star game 1. This is also the closest the Hangarback Walkers came to impressing me, but Islandwalk was able to get there game 2. Game 3, opponent got stuck on land. I get a turn 3 Tezz and start beating with a 5/5 and my crane, but he's finally able to land a Reejerey and dump his hand on the critical turn. I assembled Thopter Sword and could have clawed back in if I drew a GQ to kill my own island, but that didn't happen.

Round 4: Cheerios 0-2
Game 1, I get lazy and don't mulligan my 5-lander plus Bridge and mana rock. 2-2 isn't worth shuffling an extra time Assemble a bunch of great artifacts, but he's able to Grapeshot for 30-some. Game 2 I do a great job keeping him off Grapeshot with hand control and GQing his red sources, but I fail to draw a bridge in time and Monastery Mentor monks overrun me with Thopter Sword assembled.

Conclusions

One thing I noticed was I was actually happy with the mana, despite the metric ton of colorless! Crucible & GQ package is definitely playable; it's a separate question whether it's worth it. Especially with the mana rocks, color wasn't a problem. GQing my own citadels was frequent though.

I didn't sideboard much at all. I think I always brought in 2x Thoughtseize, but I never touched Ashiok, Duress, Echoing Truth, Ensoul, Relic, Surgical, or Spy Network. Probably should add Damnation, Needle, more hand hate.

Ratchet Bomb is supposed to be EE, and just _needs_ to be. It officially lost me games by not being EE. Fingers crossed for MM17 I guess. I also want 2 Brutality in the main and 1 in the side. I'd try a LotV, but maybe not with the GQ package.

I am not a fan of relic in the main. It's mainly there cause it's 1 mana. I'm also not in love with Hangarback Walker. I gave it a shot in place of removal, but those are gonna be my first cuts for Brutalities.

thanks for the write up!

hangarback has been discussed to death here. It's always terrible. you could have saved yourself some pain ;P It seems great on paper but it's anything but.

Quote from racing089 »

I would like to make an argument against Collective Brutality

-A worse version of Duress costs 1 mana more and hits significantly fewer cards.
-A worse version of Disfigure due to sorcery speed and costs 1 mana more.
-A worse version of Pharika's Cure easier to cast but sorcery speed and doesn't hit creatures.

I understand that there is an argument to be made for flexibility, an argument to be made for pitching dead cards, but each of these modes will always cost you a card. Best case scenario you 3 for 3 with an opponent. I would go as far as to argue that the third mode is unplayable. In most match ups it does nothing. Another popular argument is that it gets you hell bent for bridge. While that is great, I would rather not throw away cards and value to get my bridge lock on. If getting the bridge lock up in time is a common problem then we should examine lowering the curve instead of throwing away cards.

In summary I believe that the effects are far to underwhelming and the value the card generates is often psychological. It is likely one of our best tools against decks like burn, and therefore should find a home in most sideboards, but in general the card is far too low impact in game 1 against a lot of decks. Jund would laugh at you for resolving this, Tron, Valakut, Affinity, Dredge, Bant Eldrazi, Lantern etc. Of the current 10 tier one decks in the format http://modernnexus.com/ I would only want it against burn and infect. ~16.5% of the metagame.

So before you all go jamming Collective Brutality in our Tezz decks, remember that it comes at the cost of a slot and the card needs to be fundamentally better than anything else you could be playing.

People have made this argument so many times about so many versatile cards. Kolaghan's Command is just a Shock and Raven's Crime for 3 mana if your opponent doesn't play artifacts! What a bad card. Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, bad 0/2 Merfolk Looter with -3 for flashback, can't even protect itself, bad card.

Versatility is always very underrated especially when you point out the worst case of each mode. Now I'm not saying jam 4 of them, I like 2 personally, against Jund the card still kills a turn 2 Scavenging Ooze, Dark Confidant, Grim Flayer, and sometimes (rarely) a Tarmogoyf. I also think it does belong in the main, since you are not throwing away cards, you are converting cards into other cards, that 2nd Mox Opal or extra land or redundant copy of Thopter / Sword or just your first Sword. Maybe you whiff, maybe you hit that Abrupt Decay that would have killed your Ensnaring Bridge.

You list off a lot of matchups, most of those the card isn't 100% dead, but really you need to look at the bad matchups. For example Affinity, sure its not great, 2 mana kill spell essentially, but with Crane the matchup feels in our favor, so I don't really mind if I have 2 mediocre cards in my main for it. Tron is whatever, the matchup is never going to be good.

Valakut a duress effect will usually hit, but this is one matchup where I think we need some help, what two other cards could we replace these for that would be so much better that it is worth taking a hit to our Infect matchup?

So I agree some people jamming 4 might be over-evaluating, but you might be under-evaluating the card.

Quote from racing089 »

I would like to make an argument against Collective Brutality...I understand that there is an argument to be made for flexibility, an argument to be made for pitching dead cards, but each of these modes will always cost you a card.

Not if you are pitching cards like Sword of the Meek or even in the list above Lingering Souls. I think Collective Brutality is one of the best cards to come out of the set and if used wisely can be very beneficial to this deck...esp when it comes to being hellbent for Ensnaring Bridge.

Don't forget cards like Academy Ruins and Crucible of Worlds that act as "recursion"...
And the life gain makes it never really a "dead" card..

Ugh Hangarback was the worst! I thought it could take the place of removal and kind of act like another clock, and I liked how it can help keep a Tezz alive & supercharge his ult, but the slot for sure needed to be some more control. I might try a package of Capsule/Disfigure/Dismember. I just really wish there were more spells that counted as both removal and something else, be it lifegain or board presence.

@Ladennifer: Yes, to be a control deck in modern right now, you really need HEAPS of control elements (so many angles to cover). Hence why I'm (very sadly) gone down to only 3x M.Tezz himself, even if we can agree that he is such a powerhouse!

On Brutality, one of the most under-rated part of this card is the tempo boost you get out of it. In some guy's words (forgot who): «Brutality lets you do way more stuff than you're supposed to, on turn 2». You get up to three effects for a mere two mana. We have to keep in mind that these sorcery speed Duress, Disfigure and Pharika's cure altogether have costed you a mere 1B mana. So on top of versatility, I think the tempo boost is what really makes the card shine. Real-life example: card wrecks Infect and Burn, that's telling something...

@Racing: have you tested it? It's not paper-impressive, but IRL modern play, it's been really great for me. And Drain 2 has even been a real mode sometimes. I like to think of myself as trigger happy on «suicide thopters» (non-combo situation thopter-rush to turn the corner). And on top of Crane chipping and suicide thopters, topdecked drain two has gotten me a couple of games where my life was really, really in danger, out of ressources, etc.

Rad, reporting back. Face to Face games Open Trial. Turnout: ~35 people.

Went 4-1 after 5 rounds and ID the sixth into TOP 8! Got dead'ed in the quarters in a real close 1-2 match against Affinity. Report!

R1 vs Tommy on WB Death'n Taxes, 2-1. G1 on the play, I lose to, quoting my notes: «100% flood». G2 on the play, kp a six-er, I quote again: «Crane T2 blocks Thalia and everything, MVP» into double Bridge. G3 I T1 IoK and am happy seeing no Stony Silence. Tommy topdecks like a boss and jams Kataki, #&?@! Eventually he gets a little bit too trigger happy and swings with the team into my open mana & online Thopter Foundry («yeah, t'was a trap» I tell him). M. Thopter and Kataki murder each other in duel and I untap into drop my hand and go on a trip to Bridge-town FTW.

R2 I get paired with my friend Thomas who's playing Bant Eldrazi, 2-1. G1 on the draw, I have the sweetest «Thought-Knot Seer ready» 7, featuring double Foundry, Sword and Bridge, GG. G2 his double Eldrazi Temple into T2 TKS followed up by double Smashers is too fast for me to stabilize. G3 I disrupt him T1 and see Skyspawner, Skyspawner, Displacer and fast mana. I take Displacer to stop any nonsense and ride an quick Thopter-Sword to victory.

R3 vs Vincent on Colorless TronDrazi, 2-0 (!). G1 on the draw, I T1 Thoughtseize away his Smasher of Reality to buy me some time to set up natural Thopter-Sword that I'm gripping on. Endbringer <<< Thopter-Sword. G2 is a Hate-heavy grind. On the draw, I keep a six-er, my T1 TS snatch his TKS away. I drop a Bridge. He drops an Endbringer, I drop a Needle on it. He drops a Ratchet Bomb, I assemble Thopter-Sword, stuff happens and a couple Thopters chip him down to 14 before Surgical Extraction removes all Swords from the game. I land a Tezz which a tick up, that allows a Tar Pit to slip through, which allows Tezz's ult to be lethal (12) on the very next turn.

Quick aside: so going 3-0 got me at the top table. I look around me, and see exactly: GR Tron, TronDrazi, TronDrazi, ValakutBreach, TitanShift, Prismatic Omen Scapeshift - DOH. Seriously lol, big mana decks all arounds! Super-scared, wont lie.

R4 vs Mathieu on Prismatic Omen Scapeshift, 0-2. Yeah. No, don't get the wrong idea. Games were actually (/e:somewhat) close, even though I died from a million damage when I did do. G1 I get the earliest combo into a crapload of thopters and life, play Tezz ticking up, setting up a big ultimate next turn... Until I get Omen-Shifted for like 80. G2 I have a slow-ish opener that, however, features a real gameplan: land drops into Torpor Orb into Witchbane Orb into Tezz. Eh, I go for it. A discard spell let me see that he's gripping on Scapeshift, Scapeshift, epic ramp and that'is it, woohoo! Tezz ticks up into whatever non-Spellskite card, he topdecks Nature's Claim and I'm superdead again.

R5 vs Sam on Bant Eldrazi, 2-1. G1 on the draw I keep a six, T1 I make him discard his Displacer and drop a Bridge. Fair tutors for the other half of Thopter-Sword. G2 stupid I keep a one-and-a-half mana six-er, on the draw. Yeah, it's: Grave, Opal, Capsule, Bridge, Lost Legacy and Tezz. I'm counting on my scry + draw to bail me out of here. Nope, doesn't happen. G3 on the play he's beating me up with critters and has a Rest in Peace in play. I cast a Crane, dig for four, into nothingness. He attacks me down to 7 and drops a friggin' Stony Silence. Smells like *****, mama. Then I figure I can cast Tezz, dig five more and it's either Bridge or brick. And chump with Crane so Tezz lives at one. It's Bridge. Tezz ults takes it eventually. Note: Crane not finding Bridge still dug me 4 toward it. Oh how I love you, Crane.

R6 I ID into top 8.

At last, top 8 is: Prismatic Omen Scapeshift, TitanShift, Titan-Breach, Affinity, Affinity, Tezzeret Control (that's us), Skred Red and Eldrazi Tron. A guy refuses to split. Let's play then!

Quarter-finals vs Francis on Affinity. G1 on the play, I strategically take a couple of small-robots hits to let him overextend into my Engineered explosives. He does just that. Then Crane into Bridge into Tezz into my deck is awesome and you're dead (people watching). G2 I mulligan to 5 on the draw. I topdeck like a boss and stabilize allright, removal into Bridge into Crane and Spellskite. Onto the grind: his Rest in Peace keeps me off infinite value this time. Still, I got Skite and Needle on Cranial Plating so I'm feeling pretty safe and make around 10 thopters off top-decked artifacts, just waiting on Tezz to show up. Then Nullmage Shepperd happens. WTF moment, crowd goes silent. I do Thopter-up anything he targets so I get to live another 6 or 7 turns, really really wishing for Tezz, but halas! It doesn't happen. G3 Brutality into early Bridge is giving me good mojo. His T3 play is Ghirapur Aether Grid though; Ok, no panic, we got plenty answers and ways around. Then our follow-up turns' topdecks are: Thopter Foundry, land, land, citadel, talisman, citadel, land, talisman, land, land, land, land and then we're dead. Oh, best part? Next card on top was PITHING NEEDLE. YES. No!

Looking back, deck was solid, our triple game-plan of Thopter-Sword, Ensnaring Bridge or ramp into Tezzeret is super sound. I did slow-roll my Bridges many times and people just fell into the trap of going all in dealing with Thopters, only to a get a Bridge dropped on their head. Ratios seems spot-on, too. Regarding the couple of times we flooded, variance happens I guess. A couple of slight misplays, one arguably wrong keep. Regarding the sideboard, I really didn't use Liliana of the Veil at all today. For the coming up Open next saturday, if the metagame is anything like today, I'm wondering if I should take her out completely. Blue is nowhere to be seen. Now cards I wish I had access to sometimes: a second Needle to name all the Ratchet Bombs and Engineered explosives and Displacers and Affinity bots and Tron nonsense I faced. A Welding Jar because it saves us from Claims but also Shatterstorms. And lastly, friendly chat after our games, the Omenshift player suggested something completely funky against Valakut in particular; the problem being that Lost Legacy is unable to nab lands (nor artifacts, to some extent a bugger vs O-Stone I guess). Well, Sadistic Sacrament can. Super greedy mana-cost. Can we manage it?

Oh, and if you were wondering, TronDrazi beat Skred Red in the finals.

Super exhausted, thanks for reading. Rad, signing off.