I agree with the versatility being it's strongest point. I guess my experience is I ended up just holding on to it and not using it (in this deck only... in all my other blue decks it's a 4 of all star). Early game i go hand disruption and late game I have jace and tezz searching stuff up for me. Once I have enough mana to play my threats and preordain is the only time I often do it (usually t6 or later) at which point I'm thinking tezz gambit might be a better investment. He nets you two cards and proliferates.
It's cool if that's not what you have experienced with it and that's exactly why I'm trying to see how it's been working out for you. Either way thanks for the input though! It's always nice to hear from another perspective. I might have to give it another shot.
It seems that you almost always use your one mana Discard spells as soon as you have them available to you, is that a fair assumption? You would then attempt to stifle your opponents development early by using your discard to hinder them. Instead try waiting on your discards and using them to advance your board state. A simple exercise to help with this is to announce (to yourself so to not offend your opponent, unless your trying to get in their head) what card your opponent is going to play before they play it. This will help you prepare for your opponent's next move and allow you to use your discard as an offensive tool. Also in Goldfishing, play out all the interactions honestly and as if your opponent had the nuts hand. This will prepare you for the worst possible situations and you will be able to handle them better.
As for Tezzeret's Gambit, it is not a bad card at all. If I move away from the Forgemaster Package, I will test the heck out of it.
I'm thinking that before potential bans I want 4 Torpor Orb and 4 IoK in the main list as pre-emptive strikes against CawBlade, SplinterTwin and Valakut. After that I'm open to other ideas.
I'm pretty sure that anything that costs 5+ and does not win the game when it lands is bad at this point because it will never land in a winning context unless I tap out to do it and tapping out is death against SplinterTwin. So no Batterskull, no Precursor Golem, no Venser, the Sojourner, no Wurmcoil Engines, etc.
What has me worried is that tapping out for Tezzeret, which used to be a dynamic play on turn 3 or 4, is now extremely risky. I'm not sure that Tezzeret is even playable in the meta if SplinterTwin becomes a big part of it. He's certainly not playable if SplinterTwin ever approaches the level of play that CawBlade is seeing.
I'm pretty sure that the folks in R&D conceived of SplinterTwin as making Jace much less attractive. Tezzeret is collateral damage in that plan.
You can't wait on IoK in this meta. Having a Stoneforge Mystic or Squadron Hawk land opposite you is too much win for the opponent. You have to take those cards out of their hand before they land or you might as well not be playing IoK at all. Before Batterskull there was an argument for holding IoK and taking the sword after the SFM had landed. Now that argument is shattered.
It seems that you almost always use your one mana Discard spells as soon as you have them available to you, is that a fair assumption? You would then attempt to stifle your opponents development early by using your discard to hinder them. Instead try waiting on your discards and using them to advance your board state. A simple exercise to help with this is to announce (to yourself so to not offend your opponent, unless your trying to get in their head) what card your opponent is going to play before they play it. This will help you prepare for your opponent's next move and allow you to use your discard as an offensive tool. Also in Goldfishing, play out all the interactions honestly and as if your opponent had the nuts hand. This will prepare you for the worst possible situations and you will be able to handle them better.
As for Tezzeret's Gambit, it is not a bad card at all. If I move away from the Forgemaster Package, I will test the heck out of it.
I do indeed throw IoK or Despise as soon as possible to try and catch a SFM before it goes off. After that I tend to wait for t4 for Despise (if i have another) to try and catch their bomb. Duress I hold until I think they'll start playing their PW or the turn before I want to tap out for something to try and steal some removal/counters. IoK I tend to throw down whenever i have open mana since it is more likely to hit on earlier turns due to it's 3CC limit. Any suggestions on tweaking this logic/gameplan? If it matters I MB 3x IoK and 2x Despise but have 3x Duress in the SB that I bring in against control matchups.
In general the hand disruption has always been a stifling tactic for my deck to both buy me time and clear the way for my PW or forgemaster. If those stick I'm cruising to victory usually. If they're countered then it becomes a topdecking slug fest often. that's the one time I wish I had some preordains or tezzs gambits to throw around which is why I've been trying to find ways to sneak them back in.
late game I have jace and tezz searching stuff up for me.
Even if Jace is brainstorming for you, it is nice to take 2 cards you dont want (ex: excess copies of plainswalkers) put them on top of your library, then preordain them to the bottom. It sets up a nice new set of 4 cards for next turn (draw+brainstorm).
Even assuming that Surgical Extraction was a good card, which it isn't, there's very little room to fit it into a Tezzeret build.
Now throw in the fact that against SplinterTwin Surgical Extraction does nothing before you have cast IoK or Duress and it becomes a really bad option in the list.
I have to disagree with this line of thought. First off, hand disruption is not the only one way to get opponent cards in the grave (dismember? BSZ?, etc). Our decks personally have both hand disruption and a wealth of removal. After SB'ing, Flashfreezing a Titan in Valakut is amazing when you have a surgical in hand. killing a stoneforge or bird then removing the other 4 is back-breaking to Caw builds (especially if they just put 3 more birds in hand). Baiting a leak then removing the other 3 is also really good.
It also allows you to look at the opponent's hand to see if they are packing counters/removal before you cast something or activate/swing with a land.
I personally have been running 2-3 MD and love it. I am sure that you can make room for it at least on the SB. I have not run into the Twin build at the local meta as of yet, so I can not say how it may run vs them, but it is almost always a 4-1 and that being said, it is amazing!
You can't wait on IoK in this meta. Having a Stoneforge Mystic or Squadron Hawk land opposite you is too much win for the opponent. You have to take those cards out of their hand before they land or you might as well not be playing IoK at all. Before Batterskull there was an argument for holding IoK and taking the sword after the SFM had landed. Now that argument is shattered.
On the draw, I agree IoK is indeed better, but it is not always important to use it immediately on the play. Example: I open my hand with IoK, Preordain, Chalice, Jace, Forgemaster, and 2 lands. In this situation I expect them to play a Turn 2 Mystic. My series of plays would Preoradin to find a land and then chalice next turn. Now if they don't play SFM because they want to counter my Turn 3 Planeswalker with Mana Leak, I can use IoK here and rip a card from their hand, effectively wasting thier turn. If they do play SFM I can play Jace and either bounce it or start gaing card advantage. From here the series of plays becomes very open ended and IoK continues to gain value against a sand-bagged counter spell or removal.
Nowhere in that line of play that resulted in me having the advantage was I forced to play IoK. The strength of Tezz comes from its versitility. While there will be many times where Turn 1 IoK is the best play, there are others where it is not. Pidgeon-holing ourselves into robotic plays hurts the overall inherent strength of the deck.
@eflin: That seems very much like the way to do it, with just one minor tweak; anticipate what is in the opponents hand and deploy your discard the Turn before they would use it. The more familar you become with you opponents deck the more powerful that discard spells become.
@Everyone: Spellskite is one of the strongest answers to SplinterTwin as well.
I agree, a few of his card choices seem really crappy. I don't particularly like Etched Champion, first of all. I think it just isn't good enough at 3 mana.
I would try and make a more controlling deck with Vedalken Certarch, though. Winning with Wurmcoil Engines while preventing Batterskulls and Sworded creatures from bashing in seems pretty good.
It's definitely good food for thought.
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The problem with Etched Champion is that once you have Metalcraft Tezzeret can't target him to make him a 5/5. I do like the Steel Overseer interaction with EC however it looks kind of slow creature combinational and those have never done very well for me. EC does block Batterskull fairly well though, but once it's on a hawk it's all over.
Even if Jace is brainstorming for you, it is nice to take 2 cards you dont want (ex: excess copies of plainswalkers) put them on top of your library, then preordain them to the bottom. It sets up a nice new set of 4 cards for next turn (draw+brainstorm).
I have to disagree with this line of thought. First off, hand disruption is not the only one way to get opponent cards in the grave (dismember? BSZ?, etc). Our decks personally have both hand disruption and a wealth of removal. After SB'ing, Flashfreezing a Titan in Valakut is amazing when you have a surgical in hand. killing a stoneforge or bird then removing the other 4 is back-breaking to Caw builds (especially if they just put 3 more birds in hand). Baiting a leak then removing the other 3 is also really good.
It also allows you to look at the opponent's hand to see if they are packing counters/removal before you cast something or activate/swing with a land.
I personally have been running 2-3 MD and love it. I am sure that you can make room for it at least on the SB. I have not run into the Twin build at the local meta as of yet, so I can not say how it may run vs them, but it is almost always a 4-1 and that being said, it is amazing!
I too agree with this statement because you don't HAVE to use two cards to get rid of one card...what you're doing is using the ones you already play and then using this card to give you an advantage.
I personally have not played much with the card but when I have gotten to use it I was happy paying two life.
Being able to remove every Squadron Hawk, Jace, SFM etc gives you a lot better of a matchup.
I think that the trick is not to build around the card. For example, dont' run a bunch of discard just to get Extraction to have a target but instead just cut a spot or two and save it for the right time. Surgical Extration really gives you an edge against the mirror and such...
The problem with Etched Champion is that once you have Metalcraft Tezzeret can't target him to make him a 5/5. I do like the Steel Overseer interaction with EC however it looks kind of slow creature combinational and those have never done very well for me. EC does block Batterskull fairly well though, but once it's on a hawk it's all over.
i think the newest versions of that deck are running some number of flight spellbomb so flying isnt as much of an issue. it also provides early metalcraft, and isnt a huge target for artifact removal either.
The problem with Etched Champion is that once you have Metalcraft Tezzeret can't target him to make him a 5/5. I do like the Steel Overseer interaction with EC however it looks kind of slow creature combinational and those have never done very well for me. EC does block Batterskull fairly well though, but once it's on a hawk it's all over.
I don't particularly think that build is very strong - I do think that Etched Champion is strong. While animating it with Tezzeret is nice, the protection from all colors is nicer. He's an amazing blocker, he can block Gideon and can't be killed by him, can't be bounced by Jace, and can block Batterskull tokens, sword wielding mystics, etc.
In a more control-oriented Tezzeret deck, this guy is exceptionally strong, in my opinion. He can usually hold the lines and really help preserve the counters on your tumble magnets for equipment-wielding birds. He's also very, very good against any aggro deck - as he can usually block and kill what tumble magnet would just drag until it ran out of counters.
Hitting metalcraft with even a control-based Tezzeret deck should be very easy - and I've found Inkmoth Nexus can really force a lot of misplays as your opponent tries to hit it with something while you have two artifacts out, only to tap a mana to animate a nexus. I'm really happy with having added this card into my control tezz deck as my only offensive creature (replacing Wurmcoil Engine) - sticking a couple of artifact equipment on him makes him ridiculously potent - particularly a Batterskull.
It's a pretty solid build, I usually don't have a lot of trouble against many decks besides caw blade. I'll probably have to run Torpor Orbs against that. Just wondering what you guys think.
It's a pretty solid build, I usually don't have a lot of trouble against many decks besides caw blade. I'll probably have to run Torpor Orbs against that. Just wondering what you guys think.
your deck is trying to do WAYYYY too many things at once, and not doing any one thing very well. stick to 1 theme, and you will see better results.
if possible, i'd try to work in a 4th metamorph because he is INSANE in this type of deck (copy architect G_G).
one thing is for sure, the thrumming bird is TOTALLY underwhelming. not only can it be easily dealt with, its also terribly slow at what it does. i dont think its worth it to run these at all. if you need a 1/1 flying body, you might as well use vault scourge instead. yea, its not blue, but its a lot better overall. if you need another blue creature go with more Vedalken Certarch instead. hes faster, and hes more relevant.
the proliferate theme totally isnt worth it i'd say. i'd much rather use the mana to play things that are more relevant, like playing multiple copies of mindslaver mainboard since you can shoot them out faster with your blue dudes. i might even go as far as to say cutting the chalices would be worth it in your build. if they are good enough without the proliferation theme, keep them in, and add a fourth, but if they are only especially impactful WITH proliferation to help them along, i'd axe them straight away.
also, try to acquire that 4th tezz, especially before the new set comes out (before he jumps in price XD).
So I'm curious as to what you guys think will be the build to run come rotation whether it be grixis, forgemaster or blade I'm kind of curious what you'll choose as I do believe tezz will become a real deck by then just can't think for the life of me which build will have the advantage since it seems like we are going to shift to a lot slower meta then what we currently got.
So I'm curious as to what you guys think will be the build to run come rotation whether it be grixis, forgemaster or blade I'm kind of curious what you'll choose as I do believe tezz will become a real deck by then just can't think for the life of me which build will have the advantage since it seems like we are going to shift to a lot slower meta then what we currently got.
It really depends on what m2012 and INN bring. With just the scars block you can see the trends in the block format. I forget how those decks look but I know Tezz is one of the top block decks so I would not be surprised to see this deck become t1 post rotation but as I said you never know what cards wizard will print and how they mix things up. This deck doesn't loose a ton come rotation (biggest loss is chalice in my mind although preordain will also hurt some builds)
Just curious if anyone has been playing with a Koth-less grixis build? I really want to go straight UB, but I don't have the BSZ's I would need. However, the red splash gives me access to a solid burn/removal package overall.
What do you guys think? My meta is heavy with GWU caw blade and kuldotha red variants. I have done reasonably well with my Tezz/Koth grixis but I feel like I need to accept Tronists advice and stop playing Koth and the high mountain count he requires.
I've been reading this thread for awhile but this is my first post. I believe that next format will be a late game battle. I believe that the Tezzeret UB Control will be a very good choice for next format. With all those Artifacts out, Tezz's Ultimate could take it to the next game if tezz isn't countered. I will definately try out tezzblade and if that doesn't work out next format I will switch back to just regular control.
*I am a new Magic player so correct me if I said anything wrong.
This is what I'm trying at the moment. It's heavily influenced by Kibler's list although I can't seem to let go of Preordain and Mana Leak, which is probably a bad thing. It's doing ok, with weakness essentially against token heavy lists looking to leverage Stoneforge Mystic and Batterskull and against RDW, where it is slow to recover.
Lemme just start off by saying I've been tracking this threat since page 1. I play primarily online and just a little in paper. A couple weeks ago I took this list to a standard tournament at the local shop and went 4-0 for first place, beating boros, infect, valakut, and soul sisters 2.0.
Since I'm only just getting back into paper, my card collection isn't deep (beyond the tezzeret and friends singles I bought to get started), so my sideboard was honestly a bit of a last minute throw together. I play a lot on MTGO so I'm very accustomed to Tezzeret and have likely played everything under the sun to have shown up on here, plus a few of my own random concoctions.
So my deck itself is more based on NeoItem's NPH Tezzeret deck that he had been working on prior to whatever got him banned. I've had some pretty good success with it both online and in paper, rarely having games where I feel I'm not competing with whatever my opponent is running. I think my favorite thing about the deck is that it has so many methods of winning. In my standard tournament alone I had kills via tezz's ultimate, inkmoths with swords, inkmoths poking away for one, skirge with sword, 5/5 skirge, etc.
And yes, I'm not running mana leaks. I opted for more of a proactive, more blackish control. I have slightly updated the deck since this list, but will have to wait to get home from work to post my exact changes.
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:sympu::sympb: Tezzeret Control :sympb::sympu:
:symu::symr:Splinter Twin:symr::symu:
its not quite the usual in that I opted to incorperate a splash of red for main boarding galvanic blast. galvanic while initially starting as only a shock is versitile enough to work against several decks in the format by knocking off there small creatures. decks like vampires, boros, various caw blade designs. later game if metal craft is successful its effectiveness only goes up of course.
the red splash is also nice so I can run crush in my sideboard which can be helpful in the mirror or against other artifact control decks.
I can also run slagstorm or pyroclasm for additional tribal killing, thought such decks seem to be rare currently and I'm already running black sun's.
with the mana ramp the deck is capable of, black sun zenith caught my attention. the shuffling back into library effect is amazingly good. should anything survive (which is rare) I enjoy the interaction of tezzeret's gambit or contagion clasp finishing the job.
I put in treasure mage for tutoring and chump blocking.
thopter assembly is in there because I find the swarm of 1/1 flyers to be very handy and versitile. plus it can be the trick you need to boost the artifact count up high enough for tezzeret's last ability to be lethal or you can make 1 of the 1/1 thopters into a 5/5 flyer and ramp up there damage from 5 to 9.
the 3 doomblade I may inter change for go for the throat or other removal.
when I built the deck I had in mind that I wanted 2 mass removal and 8 spot removal. so to do this I went with the strange blend of galvanic and doomblade, contagion clasps seemed essential so I ate into original plans by 1. so 10 spot removal total if you can count contagion clasps -1/-1 ability as spot removal. so 2 mass removal in black sun and 7-10 spot in the end.
the metamorphs have been a strange inclusion for me in the testing i've done so far. certainly there versitile for a lot of situational plays but they haven't come down at any point to be an absolute game winner for me.
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It's a really heavy control-based deck, and Etched Champion is just amazing. He's house against aggro, and lets you really hold onto your tumble-magnets for late game - while doing a lot to diminish the necessity of BSZ in a control build - he's able to block sword-wielding-anything-that-doesn't-fly, Batterskull Tokens, Titans, Gideon, cannot be bounced by Jace, or hit with 99% of removal spells that people run (unless you can sweep Metalcraft out from under him, AND kill him - which typically involves your opponent blowing a removal spell on an artifact that's not very important).
I wasn't initially convinced that running SoBaM was worthwhile, but after winning quite a few games due to running my opponent out of cards with Etched Champion/Spellskite equipped with a Sword, I've really started to change my mind. It's -exceptionally- good against the Splinter Twin combo - because putting pressure on their card pool gives you a very short win condition for a deck that has very little it can do about it - and leaves you free to keep all of your mana open to focus on disruption of the combo. Putting pro Green/Blue on Spellskite is actually one of the better protections I've found, as the other two swords protecting from black/red/white leave it unable to redirect spells that you legitimately need to redirect, whereas blue spells targetting a Spellskite are almost always for the purposes of taking away Spellskite's ability to disrupt something else.
It can still direct spells that are more "get out of the way now because you hurt my long-term game play" cards like red/black removal, but is protected from Blue's "I need you get you out of the way this turn because I want to do something that you are specifically preventing" stuff like Jace-bouncing and Into the Roil. This puts it in a GREAT position to disrupt Splinter twin decks - it hits 6 toughness which is one-too-high for Dismember - making Doomblade and Shatter the only real removal spells that can take it out by themselves - but it can still take the Splinter Twin. I'm honestly trying to decide if I can put another Body and Mind in my deck because of the potency of milling your opponent out of cards and wolf tokens as alternate win cons and the benefits this deck really seems to gain from pro-blue - without the reliability of SF Mystic, it's very rare that I get Feast and Famine (even were I to run 2) early enough for the two effects to have a huge impact - but a mid-game Body and Mind on a protection-from-all-colors creature can really do a lot to disrupt an opponent's late game plans while still being a pretty big deal in early-game plans as well if gotten.
Getting Etched Champion equipped with a Batterskull (and, for added benefit, a sword) is positively beastly. The only relevant removal outs for him are board sweeps, period - and playing control as opposed to aggro, you can just sit on him to defend you while you wait for better cards, or for your mana-curve to develop. Opponents can't just throw 3 creatures at you without worry like they can with Tumble Magnet or Spellskite - they're typically going to lose one if they attack you with an etched champion out.
There are so few cards that are generally run that can remove Etched Champion - and if you have a Spellskite out, they're down to even fewer. With so many artifacts, I usually will sit on an opening Etched Champion until I can put him out with Metalcraft (Inkmoth Nexus is a godsend for this and causes a lot of misplays by animating it in response to your opponent casting removal on etched champion) - and he's never a dead draw due to how cheap and powerful he is.
The one "downside" to him is that you can't animate him with Tezzeret - I mean, you can - but, usually, only in early game - but in a control deck, I would suggest not doing it because his protection from all colors makes him much more useful as a defender and a late-game beater with equipment than an early game aggressive source.
What are your thoughts on Kibler's list? Yeah I know it looks like a block constructed list, but after some testing, it definately has potential barring some consistency issues.
I don't like Ichor Wellspring at all in the Tezzeret lists. It has to beat out Phyrexian Revoker, Spellskite and Torpor Orb to make it in the list and I'd rather have any of those in this meta instead. The card draw is really nice and it feeds Tezzeret but it's such a blank card to have in hand early when you better be tapping out for something that doesn't care if Stoneforge Mystic follows it.
In UBG it might be an interesting card with Beast Within in the mix.
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It seems that you almost always use your one mana Discard spells as soon as you have them available to you, is that a fair assumption? You would then attempt to stifle your opponents development early by using your discard to hinder them. Instead try waiting on your discards and using them to advance your board state. A simple exercise to help with this is to announce (to yourself so to not offend your opponent, unless your trying to get in their head) what card your opponent is going to play before they play it. This will help you prepare for your opponent's next move and allow you to use your discard as an offensive tool. Also in Goldfishing, play out all the interactions honestly and as if your opponent had the nuts hand. This will prepare you for the worst possible situations and you will be able to handle them better.
As for Tezzeret's Gambit, it is not a bad card at all. If I move away from the Forgemaster Package, I will test the heck out of it.
I'm pretty sure that anything that costs 5+ and does not win the game when it lands is bad at this point because it will never land in a winning context unless I tap out to do it and tapping out is death against SplinterTwin. So no Batterskull, no Precursor Golem, no Venser, the Sojourner, no Wurmcoil Engines, etc.
What has me worried is that tapping out for Tezzeret, which used to be a dynamic play on turn 3 or 4, is now extremely risky. I'm not sure that Tezzeret is even playable in the meta if SplinterTwin becomes a big part of it. He's certainly not playable if SplinterTwin ever approaches the level of play that CawBlade is seeing.
I'm pretty sure that the folks in R&D conceived of SplinterTwin as making Jace much less attractive. Tezzeret is collateral damage in that plan.
I do indeed throw IoK or Despise as soon as possible to try and catch a SFM before it goes off. After that I tend to wait for t4 for Despise (if i have another) to try and catch their bomb. Duress I hold until I think they'll start playing their PW or the turn before I want to tap out for something to try and steal some removal/counters. IoK I tend to throw down whenever i have open mana since it is more likely to hit on earlier turns due to it's 3CC limit. Any suggestions on tweaking this logic/gameplan? If it matters I MB 3x IoK and 2x Despise but have 3x Duress in the SB that I bring in against control matchups.
In general the hand disruption has always been a stifling tactic for my deck to both buy me time and clear the way for my PW or forgemaster. If those stick I'm cruising to victory usually. If they're countered then it becomes a topdecking slug fest often. that's the one time I wish I had some preordains or tezzs gambits to throw around which is why I've been trying to find ways to sneak them back in.
Even if Jace is brainstorming for you, it is nice to take 2 cards you dont want (ex: excess copies of plainswalkers) put them on top of your library, then preordain them to the bottom. It sets up a nice new set of 4 cards for next turn (draw+brainstorm).
I have to disagree with this line of thought. First off, hand disruption is not the only one way to get opponent cards in the grave (dismember? BSZ?, etc). Our decks personally have both hand disruption and a wealth of removal. After SB'ing, Flashfreezing a Titan in Valakut is amazing when you have a surgical in hand. killing a stoneforge or bird then removing the other 4 is back-breaking to Caw builds (especially if they just put 3 more birds in hand). Baiting a leak then removing the other 3 is also really good.
It also allows you to look at the opponent's hand to see if they are packing counters/removal before you cast something or activate/swing with a land.
I personally have been running 2-3 MD and love it. I am sure that you can make room for it at least on the SB. I have not run into the Twin build at the local meta as of yet, so I can not say how it may run vs them, but it is almost always a 4-1 and that being said, it is amazing!
EDH:▼
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Playing: Designing:
Retired:
On the draw, I agree IoK is indeed better, but it is not always important to use it immediately on the play. Example: I open my hand with IoK, Preordain, Chalice, Jace, Forgemaster, and 2 lands. In this situation I expect them to play a Turn 2 Mystic. My series of plays would Preoradin to find a land and then chalice next turn. Now if they don't play SFM because they want to counter my Turn 3 Planeswalker with Mana Leak, I can use IoK here and rip a card from their hand, effectively wasting thier turn. If they do play SFM I can play Jace and either bounce it or start gaing card advantage. From here the series of plays becomes very open ended and IoK continues to gain value against a sand-bagged counter spell or removal.
Nowhere in that line of play that resulted in me having the advantage was I forced to play IoK. The strength of Tezz comes from its versitility. While there will be many times where Turn 1 IoK is the best play, there are others where it is not. Pidgeon-holing ourselves into robotic plays hurts the overall inherent strength of the deck.
@eflin: That seems very much like the way to do it, with just one minor tweak; anticipate what is in the opponents hand and deploy your discard the Turn before they would use it. The more familar you become with you opponents deck the more powerful that discard spells become.
@Everyone: Spellskite is one of the strongest answers to SplinterTwin as well.
Kiebler played this deck in Sindapore...and he placed 61...
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I think this deck is pretty awful.
STANDARD:
UWDelverWU
LEGACY:
RGOBLINSR
RBURNR (Retired)
WWhite WeenieW (Work in Progress)
I agree, a few of his card choices seem really crappy. I don't particularly like Etched Champion, first of all. I think it just isn't good enough at 3 mana.
However, I do particularly like Vedalken Certarch. That card, in conjunction with Tumble Magnet and Phyrexian Metamorph, can hold off entire armies on their own.
I would try and make a more controlling deck with Vedalken Certarch, though. Winning with Wurmcoil Engines while preventing Batterskulls and Sworded creatures from bashing in seems pretty good.
It's definitely good food for thought.
EDH:
RWU Zedruu, the Greathearted
BUG Damia, Sage of Stone
I too agree with this statement because you don't HAVE to use two cards to get rid of one card...what you're doing is using the ones you already play and then using this card to give you an advantage.
I personally have not played much with the card but when I have gotten to use it I was happy paying two life.
Being able to remove every Squadron Hawk, Jace, SFM etc gives you a lot better of a matchup.
I think that the trick is not to build around the card. For example, dont' run a bunch of discard just to get Extraction to have a target but instead just cut a spot or two and save it for the right time. Surgical Extration really gives you an edge against the mirror and such...
Thanks to Dantcg for the Sig!
i think the newest versions of that deck are running some number of flight spellbomb so flying isnt as much of an issue. it also provides early metalcraft, and isnt a huge target for artifact removal either.
I don't particularly think that build is very strong - I do think that Etched Champion is strong. While animating it with Tezzeret is nice, the protection from all colors is nicer. He's an amazing blocker, he can block Gideon and can't be killed by him, can't be bounced by Jace, and can block Batterskull tokens, sword wielding mystics, etc.
In a more control-oriented Tezzeret deck, this guy is exceptionally strong, in my opinion. He can usually hold the lines and really help preserve the counters on your tumble magnets for equipment-wielding birds. He's also very, very good against any aggro deck - as he can usually block and kill what tumble magnet would just drag until it ran out of counters.
Hitting metalcraft with even a control-based Tezzeret deck should be very easy - and I've found Inkmoth Nexus can really force a lot of misplays as your opponent tries to hit it with something while you have two artifacts out, only to tap a mana to animate a nexus. I'm really happy with having added this card into my control tezz deck as my only offensive creature (replacing Wurmcoil Engine) - sticking a couple of artifact equipment on him makes him ridiculously potent - particularly a Batterskull.
4 Grand Architect
1 Myr Battlesphere
3 Phyrexian Metamorph
2 Spellskite
3 Thrummingbird
2 Treasure Mage
2 Vedalken Certarch
1 Wurmcoil Engine
Planeswalkers
3 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
Spells
1 Batterskull
1 Contagion Engine
2 Duress
3 Everflowing Chalice
2 Go for the Throat
1 Mindslaver
4 Preordain
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of War and Peace
2 Tumble Magnet
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Drowned Catacomb
4 Inkmoth Nexus
5 Island
2 Swamp
2 Tectonic Edge
2 Black Sun's Zenith
2 Despise
2 Doom Blade
2 Hex Parasite
2 Jace Beleren
1 Life's Finale
1 Spellskite
3 Surgical Extraction
It's a pretty solid build, I usually don't have a lot of trouble against many decks besides caw blade. I'll probably have to run Torpor Orbs against that. Just wondering what you guys think.
Current Decks:
Gifts Tron (Modern)
Merfolk (Modern and Legacy)
Mimeoplasm (EDH)
Rafiq (EDH)
your deck is trying to do WAYYYY too many things at once, and not doing any one thing very well. stick to 1 theme, and you will see better results.
if possible, i'd try to work in a 4th metamorph because he is INSANE in this type of deck (copy architect G_G).
one thing is for sure, the thrumming bird is TOTALLY underwhelming. not only can it be easily dealt with, its also terribly slow at what it does. i dont think its worth it to run these at all. if you need a 1/1 flying body, you might as well use vault scourge instead. yea, its not blue, but its a lot better overall. if you need another blue creature go with more Vedalken Certarch instead. hes faster, and hes more relevant.
the proliferate theme totally isnt worth it i'd say. i'd much rather use the mana to play things that are more relevant, like playing multiple copies of mindslaver mainboard since you can shoot them out faster with your blue dudes. i might even go as far as to say cutting the chalices would be worth it in your build. if they are good enough without the proliferation theme, keep them in, and add a fourth, but if they are only especially impactful WITH proliferation to help them along, i'd axe them straight away.
also, try to acquire that 4th tezz, especially before the new set comes out (before he jumps in price XD).
It really depends on what m2012 and INN bring. With just the scars block you can see the trends in the block format. I forget how those decks look but I know Tezz is one of the top block decks so I would not be surprised to see this deck become t1 post rotation but as I said you never know what cards wizard will print and how they mix things up. This deck doesn't loose a ton come rotation (biggest loss is chalice in my mind although preordain will also hurt some builds)
What do you guys think? My meta is heavy with GWU caw blade and kuldotha red variants. I have done reasonably well with my Tezz/Koth grixis but I feel like I need to accept Tronists advice and stop playing Koth and the high mountain count he requires.
Any thoughts?
*I am a new Magic player so correct me if I said anything wrong.
4 Steel Overseer
4 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Etched Champion
1 Myr Battlesphere
Artifacts
3 Torpor Orb
3 Sphere of the Sun
1 Shrine of Limitless Power
1 Shrine of Loyal Legions
Spells
4 Preordain
4 Mana Leak
4 Dismember
4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
Lands
4 Darkslick Shore
4 Drowned Catacombs
2 Creeping Tarpit
6 Island
3 Swamp
4 Tectonic Edge
4 Black Sun's Zenith
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Haunting Echoes
2 Spell Pierce
1 Sleep
2 Spellskite
1 Torpor Orb
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Drowned Catacomb
4 Inkmoth Nexus
3 Tectonic Edge
5 Island
4 Swamp
Creatures:
4 Vault Skirge
4 Spellskite
2 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
2 Gitaxian Probe
4 Preordain
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Despise
3 Dismember
4 Tumble Magnet
2 Sword of War and Peace
1 Batterskull
2 Black Sun's Zenith
1 Duress
1 Despise
1 Hex Parasite
2 Twisted Image
2 Ratchet Bomb
1 Black Sun's Zenith
2 Torpor Orb
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Dismember
Since I'm only just getting back into paper, my card collection isn't deep (beyond the tezzeret and friends singles I bought to get started), so my sideboard was honestly a bit of a last minute throw together. I play a lot on MTGO so I'm very accustomed to Tezzeret and have likely played everything under the sun to have shown up on here, plus a few of my own random concoctions.
So my deck itself is more based on NeoItem's NPH Tezzeret deck that he had been working on prior to whatever got him banned. I've had some pretty good success with it both online and in paper, rarely having games where I feel I'm not competing with whatever my opponent is running. I think my favorite thing about the deck is that it has so many methods of winning. In my standard tournament alone I had kills via tezz's ultimate, inkmoths with swords, inkmoths poking away for one, skirge with sword, 5/5 skirge, etc.
And yes, I'm not running mana leaks. I opted for more of a proactive, more blackish control. I have slightly updated the deck since this list, but will have to wait to get home from work to post my exact changes.
:symu::symr:Splinter Twin:symr::symu:
1 thopter assembly
2 wurmcoil engine
3 phyrexian metamorph
2 treasure mage
4 galvanic blast
3 doomblade
2 black sun's zenith
4 preordain
3 tezzeret's gambit
3 tezzeret, Agent of bolas
4 everflowing chalice
4 sphere of the suns
3 contagion clasp
3 inkmoth nexus
4 darkslick shore
4 blackcleave cliffs
4 skalding tarn
2 Jwar Isle Refuge
1 mountain
1 swamp
3 island
its not quite the usual in that I opted to incorperate a splash of red for main boarding galvanic blast. galvanic while initially starting as only a shock is versitile enough to work against several decks in the format by knocking off there small creatures. decks like vampires, boros, various caw blade designs. later game if metal craft is successful its effectiveness only goes up of course.
the red splash is also nice so I can run crush in my sideboard which can be helpful in the mirror or against other artifact control decks.
I can also run slagstorm or pyroclasm for additional tribal killing, thought such decks seem to be rare currently and I'm already running black sun's.
with the mana ramp the deck is capable of, black sun zenith caught my attention. the shuffling back into library effect is amazingly good. should anything survive (which is rare) I enjoy the interaction of tezzeret's gambit or contagion clasp finishing the job.
I put in treasure mage for tutoring and chump blocking.
thopter assembly is in there because I find the swarm of 1/1 flyers to be very handy and versitile. plus it can be the trick you need to boost the artifact count up high enough for tezzeret's last ability to be lethal or you can make 1 of the 1/1 thopters into a 5/5 flyer and ramp up there damage from 5 to 9.
the 3 doomblade I may inter change for go for the throat or other removal.
when I built the deck I had in mind that I wanted 2 mass removal and 8 spot removal. so to do this I went with the strange blend of galvanic and doomblade, contagion clasps seemed essential so I ate into original plans by 1. so 10 spot removal total if you can count contagion clasps -1/-1 ability as spot removal. so 2 mass removal in black sun and 7-10 spot in the end.
the metamorphs have been a strange inclusion for me in the testing i've done so far. certainly there versitile for a lot of situational plays but they haven't come down at any point to be an absolute game winner for me.
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Decks: "Name one! I probably got it built In one of these boxes."
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Merfolk! showing magic players what a shower is since Lorwyn!
1x Karn Liberated
4x Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
Sorceries:
4x Preordain
Instants:
4x Mana Leak
Creatures:
3x Phyrexian Metamorph
3x Spellskite
4x Etched Champion
Artifacts:
2x Batterskull
3x Contagion Clasp
3x Everflowing Chalice
1x Sword of Body and Mind
1x Sword of Feast and Famine
3x Tumble Magnet
4x Creeping Tar Pit
4x Darkslick Shores
3x Drowned Catacomb
3x Inkmoth Nexus
5x Island
2x Swamp
3x Tectonic Edge
2x Consume the Meek
2x Memoricide
3x Ratchet Bomb
1x Spellskite
3x Steel Sabotage
1x Sword of Body and Mind
3x Torpor Orb
It's a really heavy control-based deck, and Etched Champion is just amazing. He's house against aggro, and lets you really hold onto your tumble-magnets for late game - while doing a lot to diminish the necessity of BSZ in a control build - he's able to block sword-wielding-anything-that-doesn't-fly, Batterskull Tokens, Titans, Gideon, cannot be bounced by Jace, or hit with 99% of removal spells that people run (unless you can sweep Metalcraft out from under him, AND kill him - which typically involves your opponent blowing a removal spell on an artifact that's not very important).
I wasn't initially convinced that running SoBaM was worthwhile, but after winning quite a few games due to running my opponent out of cards with Etched Champion/Spellskite equipped with a Sword, I've really started to change my mind. It's -exceptionally- good against the Splinter Twin combo - because putting pressure on their card pool gives you a very short win condition for a deck that has very little it can do about it - and leaves you free to keep all of your mana open to focus on disruption of the combo. Putting pro Green/Blue on Spellskite is actually one of the better protections I've found, as the other two swords protecting from black/red/white leave it unable to redirect spells that you legitimately need to redirect, whereas blue spells targetting a Spellskite are almost always for the purposes of taking away Spellskite's ability to disrupt something else.
It can still direct spells that are more "get out of the way now because you hurt my long-term game play" cards like red/black removal, but is protected from Blue's "I need you get you out of the way this turn because I want to do something that you are specifically preventing" stuff like Jace-bouncing and Into the Roil. This puts it in a GREAT position to disrupt Splinter twin decks - it hits 6 toughness which is one-too-high for Dismember - making Doomblade and Shatter the only real removal spells that can take it out by themselves - but it can still take the Splinter Twin. I'm honestly trying to decide if I can put another Body and Mind in my deck because of the potency of milling your opponent out of cards and wolf tokens as alternate win cons and the benefits this deck really seems to gain from pro-blue - without the reliability of SF Mystic, it's very rare that I get Feast and Famine (even were I to run 2) early enough for the two effects to have a huge impact - but a mid-game Body and Mind on a protection-from-all-colors creature can really do a lot to disrupt an opponent's late game plans while still being a pretty big deal in early-game plans as well if gotten.
Getting Etched Champion equipped with a Batterskull (and, for added benefit, a sword) is positively beastly. The only relevant removal outs for him are board sweeps, period - and playing control as opposed to aggro, you can just sit on him to defend you while you wait for better cards, or for your mana-curve to develop. Opponents can't just throw 3 creatures at you without worry like they can with Tumble Magnet or Spellskite - they're typically going to lose one if they attack you with an etched champion out.
There are so few cards that are generally run that can remove Etched Champion - and if you have a Spellskite out, they're down to even fewer. With so many artifacts, I usually will sit on an opening Etched Champion until I can put him out with Metalcraft (Inkmoth Nexus is a godsend for this and causes a lot of misplays by animating it in response to your opponent casting removal on etched champion) - and he's never a dead draw due to how cheap and powerful he is.
The one "downside" to him is that you can't animate him with Tezzeret - I mean, you can - but, usually, only in early game - but in a control deck, I would suggest not doing it because his protection from all colors makes him much more useful as a defender and a late-game beater with equipment than an early game aggressive source.
-Ichor wellspring (really?)
-Hex parasite (vault skirge seems way better here)
-Certach (tech!)
-No JACE!
In UBG it might be an interesting card with Beast Within in the mix.