MTG Salvation

So Top 8'd a GPT today lost to Esper Gifts in the QFs.

Fast Thopter/Swords and chalice/bridge/tezz in Game 1s have continued to be excellent, I'm still making horrendous mistakes when boarding. I feel like Game 1 being as uninteractive as possible is very advantageous and is stealing more games than I remember (seriously feels like Affinity level or better Game 1), but my postboard games are leaving a lot to be desired. I've been cutting chalice against decks I shouldn't be (turn 1 discard decks) and not boarding in enough or too much interaction. I picked up another Gemstone Cavern today (got a Russian one for $7 quite the steal) so I'm gonna make some changes to the board and go -1 Leyline of the Void -1 Negate +1 Gemstone Cavern +1 Tezzeret, the Seeker. The plan of boarding down to a 2/1 or 2/2 thopter/sword split has remained the correct decision, the mistakes I've been making has been cutting Chalice more than I should or not cutting some of the explosiveness (spirit guides/Mox/0drop artifacts) when I should be boarding into more spells. The deck is consistent in doing what it does but I feel like I'm just ramming my head against the wall with Stony Silence and Hurkyll's Recall. Probably going to play Jund at tomorrows GPT since the room looked super soft to it (and no Burn or Infect in sight really really odd) but am gonna run back Tezz and the modern weekly events. I feel like if I can figure out my board and proper plans more readily I'll start putting up better results, but it's started to get a bit frustrating. But I had a similar experience when I first dived into Legacy Tezz so I just need to make some play adjustments and not just the list.

On a side note it still feels like I'm getting land flooded in games (again still haven't gotten my last 2 baubles in so this might help with that) despite running an egregiously low land count for a deck that's casting 4 mana spells.

So I had a disappointing 0-2 drop tonight again tonight, but it definitely wasn't the decks fault nor any major misplays just horrendously bad luck on my part and exceedingly great luck on my opponents part. I had 9 (9!) Hurkyll's Recalls cast against me in 4 games, and had lethal or near lethal board states by the time the second (and third) Recall was cast, and the opponent was able to close out the game in that window.

Round 1 I played against the same U-Tron player (god is he lucky, kind of salty about it not going to lie) lost 1-2.
Game 1 I had turn 1 Foundry into turn 2 sword make a dude into turn 3 Tezz plus turn 4 make some dudes ult for lethal.
Game 2 I have turn 1 Foundry into turn 2 bridge into Tezz on turn 3 plus find sword. He plays recall EoT and I lose my glimmer voids. He untaps plays wurmcoil engine and passes. I replay out my hand. He plays another recall EoT untaps kills tezz, counters my bridge on the way back down plays Treasure mage finds slaver and passes and then drops ruins so he has slaver lock GG.
Game 3 I have a fairly explosive hand again with turn 2 bridge into a thopter foundry on turn 3. I drop a Tezz turn 4 but gets countered. Drop a tezz on turn 5 and plus, he drops slaver, ults tezz on myself, sacs my board to thopter foundry recalls me a couple of turns later. I find thopter swords against but he once again slavers me and then sacs the board into a recall and he drops wurmcoil and I die a couple of turns later. Seriously this guy has to be the luckiest cheon I've ever seen tron.

Round 2 Kiki-Chord with Thune/Feeder combo as well
Game 1 was explosive as explosive could be turn 2 had thopter/swords on lock down turn 4 found me a bridge with a skite in play turn 5 found me tezz, turn 6 tezz ult wins.
Game 2 was an interesting experience, I get an early ashiok into a bridge but had a couple of cards in hand so he was able to get some damage onto my ashiok then had hurkyll's into Mom and Pop Thopter Shop clean up the old nightmare weaver. But it's fine I get into a position with Bridge, Skite, multiple welding jars and an academy ruins. He eventually finds a resto angel and Kiki-Jiki and we play a little game of chicken of throwing thopters and me redirecting to skite and regenerating (him copying resto to blink parents everyturn was pretty frightening honestly). Eventually he finds enough ways to kill my skite in a single turn to burn all my Jars so I start to buy them back with Ruins. In this time he finds his own spellskite into a hurkylls recall and just Kiki-Resto's me out of the game (probably should have just tried digging for something relevant like Tezz, Torpor Orb, or Thopter/Swords but it's hard to say).
Game 3 I drop a turn 1 skite into turn 2 bridge. He casts stony on his turn 3 after I drop a foundry (oh well, happens). I sit behind bridge while drawing lands for 3 turns (deck only plays like 19 WTF?) and he EoT recalls me and hits me for 5 with his board. Next turn he plays ewitness get back recall, I play out my hand to force the recall and he does then hits me for 7. Then on my EoT he restos witness for Recall and recalls me one more time to close out the game. Took 3x Recall and Stony and me blanking for 3 turns to lose that game. If I ever saw spell snare, torpor orb, or aether grid I win that game 100% but such is the life of the artifact deck.


I feel like I need to re approach my sideboard strategy a little bit more. I think in most postboard games (especially ones where chalice is less good) I want to sideboard out some of the explosiveness for some more interaction and resiliency (hate for the hate), as well as high impact cards (Leyline of the Void, Grafcage, Torpor Orb), and an alt win con (I think I've brought Ashiok in almost every time except against Burn and Infect). I think I might toy around with the idea of putting a Tezzeret the Seeker in the board as well so I can play Chalice for 2 and still unlock Thopter/Swords in a pinch if need be (he also +1's into ult for lethal pretty often as well if Legacy and Vintage has ever taught me anything). I tried a MD aethergrid tonight as a 61st card for funzies but never really saw it so it's hard to say how good it is, but it definitely would have helped me win at least one of my sideboarded games by giving my just the last little bit of reach to close out the game (and it's been overperforming in Legacy lately). Trying to figure out what to cut to keep it main board, might swap a damnation to the side and keep a 1/1 grid/damn split and see how I feel about it.

Got some more testing in after the tournament in postboard games against the Kiki-Chord player and ended up winning 4/6 so I think it was literally chalked up to him seeing all the hate (I also majorly adjusted down to 2/2 thopter/sword split postboard, boarding out 3 spirit guides, 3 combo peices, 2 Baubles, and a jar (knowing he was running recall and stony instead of say more pridemages and grudge or Kataki) and was able to win a slightly longer games. Gonna run Tezz tomorrow at a GPT and see how it goes. My LGS has been really odd for the meta lately (still have multiple tron players, Fae has showed up, a lot of company/chord Kiki, Abzan Combo, Abzan Value, Allies, Slivers, and some Visions control, but everywhere else in the state it's Burn, Infect, and Abzan Combo). So hopefully I get to just chalice lock out some linear decks.

Some tough beats tonight, but I think I would have preferred playing Tezz tonight over Jund anyways (two tron players, 2 burn players, seems awful for Jund, but winnable for Tezz). I might consider moving to Fulminators or Rain of Tears in the board if people continue to spam Tron in the meta.

So I've been having some unfortunate luck with the deck (couple of 2-2 finishes) but I managed to find a copy of Gemstone Cavern and I've seen it a few times on the draw and it's absolutely been a house (hello turn 1 Tezz on the Draw). The explosive deck has been doing what it needs to do pretty often, but I've been making a few mistakes here or there with sequencing.

I lost to Mono U tron and Kiki-Chord on Monday by failing to close out the game fast enough. Mono U tron stabilized at 3 Life game 1 with Mindslaver Combo, and then again in Game 2 at 3 cards left in library, once again with Mindslaver Combo (he answered 3 Leyline of the Voids, and drew mindslaver as 1 outer with 4 cards in library and an active Ashiok). Then Kiki-chord was able to game 1 Arlin Kord me out of the game after I damnationed his board away and ulted Arlin when I got to lethal with Tezz ult the next turn. Then Game 2 he was able to kiki-resto combo but I had double bridge out but he drew Chord to make infinite dudes, chord of pridemage, and kiki copy pridemage to hit both bridges. I had lethal Tezz ult on board as well with thopter swords the next turn.

Was always a turn away from beating both decks, probably just variance but still frustrating. I was consistently getting thopter/swords or a fast tezz every game, not really durdling too much. There were a couple of game where I just couldn't find another mana source to play out everything early enough but usually as soon as I did I went from durdle to full throttle in a single turn. Overall the deck is a blast to play, just wish there was slightly more room for everything, might cut down to 3 or 2 SSG as awful as that sounds to me just to fit in 4 Bauble and a third thirst. There's some GPTs this weekend for LA and since I already won my byes I'll just bring tezz for fun.

I went 3-1 with the list I posted early at FNM this week.

Round 1 Abzan Blink, Lost 1-2:
Game 1 I got thopter swords online turn 3 and just crushed him.
Game 2 he had turn 2 Kataki and stonecloaker to eat my sword of the meek when I got thopter/sword online.
Game 3 he had an aggressive start and Companied into Kataki and a Flickerwisp on my end step and vialed in a strangler to eat my ensnaring bridge. Sad day.

Round 2 Lantern Control, Won 2-1:
Game 1 He won the die roll and had an explosive start with turn 1 lantern welding jar mox opal ghoulcallers bell. I got a tezz out on turn 3 but he found the pithing needle and found enough mill effects to lock me out some time after.
Game 2 Turn 1 Chalice for 1 with welding jar back up followed by turn 2 spellskite. He scoops after I regenerate a chalice and then redirect another abrupt decay to spellskite and put it back ontop of the library with academy.
Game 3 he gets turn 1 lantern but I have turn 1 Chalice for 1 into turn 2 tezzeret and just chuck 5/5s till he dies. This matchup is kind of a joke honestly.

Round 3 Naya Zoo won 2-0
Game 1 won the die roll turn 1 chalice for 1 and he kind of does nothing for the first three turns. I drop tezz on turn 3 and find thopter/swords the next turn and he scoops.
Game 2 I have turn 1 spellskite into turn 2 tezzeret and he scoops when I find thopter/swords by turn 4 GG.

Round 4 BG Tron 2-1:
Game 1 I chalice for 1 and his hand is Map Map Stirrings Stirrings. I drop tezz turn 4 and he scoops a couple of turns later to 5/5s
Game 2 He has turn 3 tron and I scoop to Karn -3, -3, Karn -3. Ouch.
Game 3 I have turn 2 Tezz and make a 5/5, turn 3 swing for 10 turn 4 swing for 15 GGs

Decks needs a little bit of work. Everything is so tight in the list. Games are fast and decided super quickly. I played a few more practice games against all my opponents because of how quickly the matches where over and I really want the full set of Mishra's Baubles, they help so much with consistency and explosiveness. I often found myself powering out Thirst turn 2 with SSG or Opal and it would usually help get me into gas after I stopped needing the Chaff. Welding Jar was a workhorse. With 2 in play and a spellskite I had a little artifact pillowfort and it was amazing. I wish the list wasn't so dang tight though. To maximize on the early turns you need to be playing all the acceleration otherwise you just fall behind or chalice doesn't matter. Gonna try and grab a couple of Gemstone Caverns to put 1 main and 1 side so that I have additional chances at the broken starts, moreso on the draw in postboard games where you really need to catchup or accelerate ahead of whatever your opponent did on turn 1.

Overall Chalice is hilarious against so many decks right now. Turn 2 Tezzeret is the sweetest thing I've done in modern in a while. I wish I could fit in signets and more acceleration but there's just not enough room and it's a bit frustrating. Deck's a tad bit all in on the artifacts and I dodged stony silence but Kataki reared it's ugly head. Might just have to give up the white matchup with this deck if they have the dedicated hate. But targeted artifact hate is irrelevant.

Gonna be tuning the list and changing SB around at weekly events until I feel comfortable enough to take it to something bigger, but so far it's been a blast to Jam Tezz in Modern.

So I put together my attempt at an explosive list and oh man is it greedy but some of the opening hands are just ridiculous.



Just messing around with the deck and it has some consistency issues and wish I either had my last 2 baubles or could fit in another thirst or two. The deck is incredibly explosive and can just drop everything on the field by turn 2 and be empty handed with bridge and tezz on board by turn 3 with welding jar up to protect the bridge. Tezz never misses and with so many 0 drops its easy to +1/-4 win the game.

I have to mull like a mad man. I wish there was room for signets because I really wish I could power out some permanent mana acceleration turn 1 into turn 2 tezz or have full combo online by turn 3 with an activation available.

Gonna run it at fnm tonight with low expectations because of how hard it is to fit everything in. But I feel like I will win almost every game I chalice some one turn 1. If nothing else it's a blast to play.

I would implore you to play about 5+ games against infect, burn, company, and affinity both preboard and postboard to see how you fair. I have a near 100% winrate on the play so far (at least from what my lifepads have kept track of might be missing a few games), but less than a 50% winrate on the draw. The difference is staggering, and it's not just because of bad hands or flooding or poor top decking, I could keep similarly powerful hands on the draw and get completely crushed, whereas on the play I can comfortably curve out without much pressure and trade blow for blow more efficiently. I keep pretty meticulous notes usually keeping track of land drops, mulligans, play/draw, what turn the game ended (before turn 6) and the trend is very disturbing. I should probably also start keeping track of what kind of opening turns I have compared to my opponents with things like T1 Discard, turn 2 spellskite, etc... to see if there's more trends in how the games evolve.

It's the idea that turn 1 discard is much stronger on the play when you can turn off an opponents strong start, whereas on the draw we're trying to stabilize with removal and playing a discard spell when they've already committed to the board is much less appealing. I could make countless parallels to a bunch of games I recorded against boggles with Jund where on the play I'm heavily favored, on the draw I'm desperately trying to stabilize before things get too out of hand. Play/Draw is insanely important in modern as I'm starting to find out. More so than I originally realized before playing Tezz where it feels like a night and day difference.

The thing that Welding Jar, Mox Opal, and Mishra's Bauble have going for them is that they aren't simply do nothing in the deck. They accelerate us, protect our important artifacts, or replace themselves. They also have inherent synergy with both Tezz and Thirst, as well as give us more fodder for Thopter Foundry to get back a sword that was previously chucked or simply generate a clock without having to find a sword after we see a foundry. Dropping a turn 2 or turn 3 tezz with a random bauble or Jar out let's us start chucking 5/5s at an incredibly fast rate and forces people to use removal on what is conceivably an otherwise useless card. The cards themselves may seem underwhelming by themselves, but with what you said about affinity about flooding the board early all they need is a pay off card to make it worth playing bad creatures (you know the entire concept that makes affinity a deck, play bad things that make your few pay off cards incredible).

I will admit late game drawing an Opal with one already on board or a Jar when we're hellbent has it's feel bad moments (bauble at least replaces itself, even if it's actually one of the better cards in the deck, at this point we're effectively running a 56 card deck ala xerox theory). But you just need to make sure the deck is playing enough pay off spells or ways to dig into your pay off spells fast enough that it becomes irrelevant. Tezz, Foundry, Thirst, and at least one more pay off card makes the deck playable (still a fan of aether grid because pew pew) with such lackluster cards. Playing 1-2 turns a head of the opponent is really where we need to be in modern. Turn 1 signet sets up for turn 2 Tezz, Damnation, Thirst, or Bridge (while blowing our load faster than normal). Turn 1 chalice is back breaking for anything that isn't BGx, and after we play an accelerated pay off spell we just have to protect it our close out the game.

If any of you have experience with the Legacy Tezz deck that's exactly the playstyle that allows the deck to be successful. It accelerates ahead of the rest of the format to play turn 1 chalice or mana rocks into a fast walker and then seeks to close out the game from there or drop a bridge and set up shop to find thopter/swords. Granted in Legacy we get Sol lands and Mox Diamonds (and Chalice is good against 90% of the format instead of ~50% of the format), we just have to make do with Opals and Spirit Guides. The problem I continually seem to find is that thopter/swords is a rather slow combo to set up in modern, it doesn't have the turn 4 iWin button that twin had, even if we're able to set it up on turn 3, there's still a realistic chance that we'll die before we untap. So instead of trying to play the control game early (where we can easily get outpaced) I think it's imperative we try and play at the same pace or faster. Even if that means we have to mull some clunky hands (I mull to 5 a lot in legacy but it's what you have to do in a deck that doesn't get the luxury to play brainstorm) the sheer power of our first 2 turns should make up for the loss of cards. Our grindy game is predicated on having planeswalkers that can take over the game and a two card combo that can quickly finish out the game while the opponent is still trying to figure out how to press their own plan further while simultaneously answering and keeping up with what we're doing.

After playing a bunch of games with the discard plan and a bunch of targeted removal I just feel like I'm constantly struggling to keep up against every non control deck while I'm on the draw, and that's an awful place to be. Even against scapeshift and tron, I feel like I can win the games where I'm on the play, but it almost feels impossible on the draw. I have baubles in the mail and I found my welding jars so I'm gonna start the testing next week with the hyperexplosive version and see how it goes. I know it's pretty weak to stony silence (null rod is my nemesis in Legacy) but that's what sideboard games are for. As has been previously talked about we can change out our win con and diversify our threats and game plan so that we can catch people off guard when they board in their 2-6 hate cards. The power of the explosive mana also let's us sneak under their hate cards as well so that when they timewalk themselves to triumphantly play a stony silence on turn 2 or 3 we can already be ahead on board and move on with our lives.

I feel like at the point you guys want to go deep on a white splash that the deck is just better served moving into more of a traditional esper shell with thopter swords instead of a tezzeretor shell splashing white. The more you add to the deck the more diluted it gets the worse the manabases become and the more reliant the deck becomes on white mana. I wouldn't even be surprised that the uw or esper shells end up being more inherently powerful and flexible because they don't have the deck building restrictions of maximizing artifact count and eventually come to the realization that tezz slowly becomes one of the weaker cards in the deck because of this.

I feel like of the splashes the only ones that make any real amount of sense are red and green for literally a handful of cards at most (grid, blast, decay) with maybe a single copy of some spicy sideboard tech in the board (slaughter games, golgari charm, maelstrom pulse, natures claim) so that the entire splash package is at most less than 6 cards of your 75 and that the impact on the manabases is minimal. I feel like this is the inherent problem with white in modern as well. It's a color that by itself is fairly weak, but has so many powerful effects that it can pair with pretty much every color. But then once you start playing white you get access to the best sideboard cards in the format and you end up with a lopsided white looking board.

There is a difference between splashing a color for a couple of powerful effects outside our normal range and then there is building a three color deck that pulls from all 3 colors. Honestly I like the glimmervoid mox Opal build the best in my head because it understands it's purpose of being a dedicated tezz artifact deck first, but gives you the rainbow board option so long as you don't go overboard on it. Yes there is strong hate against artifacts in the format but that doesn't mean we need to play a third full color and get greedy with the board because we can "splash".

I still really think a light splash might be worthwhile (still leaning towards red aether grid is secretly more op Than I think most people realize) but I feel we should be trying to figure out the best Tezzeretor deck that now happens to play thopter swords over a thopter swords control deck that happens to be playing some copies of tezzeret.

I like the concept of gifts in the deck if you could do a light white splash to throw in a small unburial rites package. The problem is trying to find room. Because I think you'd at most want two gifts 1 rites and 1-2 creatures between norn brand and Iona alongside 2 academy ruins and a crucible of worlds. This give you the ability to gifts for something like rites + fatty or academy + crucible + sword + foundry and no matter what in a couple of turns you'll have thopter swords online. Of course there is also the ability to do random value gifts, especially if you already have an academy online. But that's another 5+ slots you are jamming into a deck that's already tight on space and I feel like I'd rather play a dedicated esper gifts deck at that point instead of a tezzeretor deck.

Also one last note on Ashiok, he is an alt win con first and foremost. He just happens to have some additional utility beyond that and doesn't get hit by artifact hate which is why she's so good post board. Anything beyond that is just added value if you steal something awesome or ultimate against a control deck. Most of the time I just jam him and sit behind a bridge while +Ing. People have to out so many resources into dealing with it and the window is kind of small, especially when playing 3-4 skites and 3-4 bridges. Often times people have to answer the rest of our board before they can finally deal with her, and by then Ashiok can realistically ultimate or be at 15+ counters. Ashiok is an annoying card to deal with and can run away with games we'd have no other business winning. It also has the random upside of beating infinite life (not like we'd realistically deck before our opponent does cause academy is OP).

So I adjusted my list to be the following for tonight (was unfortunately to find Mishra's Baubles and can't find 2 of my SSGs to save my life) so I ran:



Round 1 against Naya Zoo (same guy I lost to last night) 2-1
Won the die roll, won game 1 off of turn one IoK take Eidolon turn 2 foundry turn 3 sword make a token to block his Nacatl. He can't deal with me gaining 3 life a turn with infinite blockers.
Game 2 he's on the play and just goes turn 1 Guide turn 2 double swiftspear turn 3 Atarka's Command + Bolt I'm dead (the hell is with those kinds of hands you literally can't beat that on the draw without pyroclasm turn 2).
Game 3 I'm on the play again and go IoK take revelry turn 2 skite block his swiftspear turn 3 leave up dismember/thirst thirst his EoT, turn 4 drop bridge with U available, turn 5 drop Lili and IoK him, he boros charms in response, turn 6 he kills my skite in combat with a searing blaze (why he left those in I have no idea) but I put it on top with ruins, a couple of turns later I assemble thopter sword and he is unable to deal with my board and can't beat ruins + skite lock in addition to Lili + Bridge lock.

Round 2 RG shamans 2-0
Game 1 I got a perfect curve of turn 1 discard turn 2 talisman into discard turn 3 Tezz with only a 2/2 on the board and plus to find a foundry. I untap plus Tezz again to find a citadel and play bridge and foundry next turn I find sword of tezz and play out the rest of my hand with no a card left. He scoops a couple of turns later to Thopter/Swords
Game 2 he has a slightly more explosive start while I'm slightly slower out of the gates but I get turn 2 mana rock turn 3 Languish untap and jam Lili to edict his last creature, untap bridge toss a sword in the yard and I thirst into foundry a couple of turns later while he's recovering from losing his board + Lili cleaning up.

Round 3 Mono U Tron 1-2
Game 1 was kind of close but I'm able to steal it. He had natural tron with map, solemn, and dismember in hand. I IoK take his map (felt bad because I know no eye but was fearing mindslaver lock with his own ruins). I jam a turn 2 mana rock into turn 3 spellskite + mana rock (that he condescends lol?) I thoughtseize him take another condescend jam tezz and start chuckin 5/5s. He tries to dismember a 5/5 but skite redirects. He eventually desperation mindslavers me twice (he was playing 3? but hadn't found an academy yet) he finds a wurmcoil in this time but I have 2 5/5 citadels and I just -1 tezz on his wurm to make it a 5/5 so it dies when getting in combat with a citadel and he dies a couple of turns later.
Game 2 I have an awkward start and he just has answers every step of the way because condescend on the play is infinitely better than on the draw (countered my first two spells with cond for 1) and then drops an ostone followed by a stream of wurms. I'm able to maneuver into a situation where I can bounce his Ostone EoT and untap and discard it away but when I looked at his hand it was obvious lights out for me with double remand and double repeal and my best attempt was to get a bridge out and try to protect it.
Game 3 I'm on the play but mull down to 5 but kept a Leyline hand that almost got there. I started having mana issues around turn 3 and didn't see another mana source until turn 7 when I was able to finally resolve a signet (he snared and leaked two other mana rocks) and he eventually gets a strong board position and I finally damnation double wurm away for him to just untap and treasure mage to find another. I drop a bridge but the next turn he repeals the bridge and swings for lethal. I feel like I had this match 100% if I could have cast tezz or damnation slightly earlier. Also rough having 0 relevant sideboard cards against tron.

Round 4 2-0 BW Martyr Proc or some soulsister variant
Game 1 was long and miserable, mostly because he refused to concede. He had two sisters out which made Thopter/Swords kind of mediocre. Eventually I built up enough thopters to swing twice and tezz ult to finish him off while I hid behind a bridge while he played draw go for like 7 turns (he had anguished unmaking I guess as answer to thopter/swords but I had multiple foundries by this point in addition to academy ruins).
Game 2 was a quite a bit closer I turn 1 IoK to nab a stony before it comes down and get a foundry out and a bridge out and play my hand out as much as possible. Except I get stuck with a land in my hand and draw a lands for 4 turns in a row. I have to sac citadels and mana rocks to make tokens to stabilize a little bit. I eventually hit an academy ruins which lets me put a mana rock on top and play it and play my last land to have bridge do it's thing. I top deck an ashiok immediately after and start going to town. He gets triple sister out and I eventually get thopter swords out while sitting behind a bridge, so I'm giving him a million life while keeping myself and a nice healthy life total in case something happens (like stony into anguished unmaking) but he never finds anything relevant (he does Zealous persecution my thopter army twice when I was getting to the point where I could make a couple of swings could win the game) and I at some point use ashiok to steal a couple of sisters myself so that life totals were irrelevant and eventually just deck him with the Ashiok.

Overall a much better performance of the deck against some more annoying decks, I kind of want to figure out how we can attack the tron matchup better, perhaps a second needle in the board? I feel like RG tron is either much better or infinitely worse because of Karn Father + Ostone + Ugin + Newlamog is too many ways to deal with our permanents and a few discard spells doesn't seem like enough when they get to run the best cantrip in modern and they turn through their deck faster than most blue decks in the format are able to. I guess fulminator mages or rain of tears is a valid option or possibly GQ + extraction but I think it might be better to not worry about it because it feels winnable as is, just tough.

Aggro decks are still scary and I feel like I'm playing a completely different deck when I'm on the play compared to on the draw. Still gonna try and see if I can't find the cards for the explosive version of the deck because it seems more suited to a fast meta, where the discard and more planeswalker based build seem like they are able to deal with a slower more midrange meta. I did enjoy having access to more spellskites and I enjoyed having varied removal. I think 1 of disfigure isn't the worst, but I could see cutting it for another sweeper or dismember (I'll try two damnation 1 languish when it gets here, languish is oddly relevant with tezz 5/5s), and I want to play Explosives over ratchet bomb because it's a fine turn 1 play against aggro decks but have no idea where my copies went (I might have traded them towards foil goyfs ) But bomb has been aight. It's a fine turn 2 play against a lot of decks and you can pop it for 0 against tokens. I enjoyed having the two Lili's. I saw her often enough but she was never crowding the hand and was still vital in getting me under bridge especially when I boarded in snares and negates. I liked having her later in the game instead of jamming her on turn 3 because it was my only valid play.

Decks starting to feel better and I'm starting to see better lines of play with it and when to chuck 5/5s at people instead of hide behind bridge and hope for thopter/swords. There's an IQ this Sunday but I don't think I'm comfortable enough with the deck to bring it yet so I'll probably just adjust Jund and take that, but if I see in tezz players at the IQ I'll definitely talk to them and get their insights (that and I got the last foil fulm for the board so it's 75/75 foiled out, I'm working on foiling Tezz out next but got some GPs to pay for before I can drop ~2 grand between cash and trade, thanks price spikes) but I really hope people show up with it, deck feels good and has a lot of power to it.

Oh I guess I did make some changes to the list beforehand with -1 tarpit -1 Liliana +1 languish (damnations in the mail) +1 bridge for 2 sweepers and 3 total bridges. The list still felt a little clunky. I feel like you guys are right with speeding the deck up at the expensive of cards with ssg and opals. It will play a little more like the legacy version which is powering out early and fast threats or chalice and then when we are ahead we just win. I'm also not opposed to moving in a more controlling direction I was kind of hoping that lili could help fill that role but without something like goyfs or spot removal it's hard to protect her and by turn 3 she's almost always on edict duty. I still feel like she belongs in the deck because she is insane under bridge.

I think I'm going to make the following changes to my list for tonight pending card availability:
-2 Lili down to 1
-2 tarpit down to 21 lands 0 cipt lands
-2 disfigure
-6 discard
-2 2 mana mana rocks
-1 Murderous cut
-1 Languish

+2 dismember
+4 Mox Opal
+4 Chalice of the Void
+4 welding jar
+2 Spellskite (3 total)

Sideboard:
-1 murderous cut
-1 negate
+2 thoughtseize

I know I'm not running the critical mass of 0 drops for turn 1 metal craft (no baubles) but I feel like between chalice and skite it turns it into a pseudo mana rock on turn 2-3 that can accelerate out a tezz or thirst or something while having a high ceiling of turn 1 chalice for 1. Gonna see how it feels if it works I'll keep trucking at this variation if not it might be time to get some mana monkeys in there. I know keeping 2 2cmc mana rocks looks a bit weird but it adds to the high ceiling of opal for turn 2 tezz as well as helps keep mana flowing with such a low mana count (26 sources is a tad bit high but we need to hit land drops to drop tezz) and we can pitch sources to thirst or simply get them out faster under bridge. It also keeps effective artifact count higher for tezz thirst and metalcraft in the later turns. I wish dack fayden was modern legal more and more.

As for the Ashioks in the side we need something in postboard games that attacks from a different angle and isn't an artifact and Ashiok fits the bill. Against any deck play white I'm 100% siding out at least one copy of thopter/swords if not down to a 2/2 split so we need another wincon. Ashiok tends to fit the bill well enough and enjoys the breathing room under a bridge he also can provide incremental advantage and the ult just wins the Grindy matchups. It also has the side value of beating infinite life while under a bridge. While I will say it's not an overtly powerful card it does a fine job of diverting attention and stabilizing against aggressive decks well enough. For a 3 mana investment ashiok can dig for 2-4 turns and let you build to something else or give you time to drop a bridge, if they ignore it you can nab a creature to block and trade and force the game to go just a couple of more turns. I understand people who don't like ashiok though it's a card that has no immediate impact and by itself is vulnerable. It might be possible that I want to play lilis in the board over the ashioks since I'm cutting down on her main.

So I went 1-3 tonight with the list I posted a couple of pages back, I feel like the three I lost were just horrendously lopsided matchups that I didn't really prepare for in my 75, but also felt like I was keeping poor hands and missequencing my plays.

Round 1: B/W Hate Bears 1-2
Game 1 we both had kind of slow starts but I was eventually able to stabilize at 6 life with Thopter/Swords and he conceded a couple of turns later.
Game 2 he goes turn 1 thoughtseize takes my thirst for knowledge, turn 2 stony silence, turn 3 Finks, Turn 4 leonin arbiter + stony silence, turn 5 I drop damnation to try and stabilize a little and he just EoT's resto to reset finks and I can't find a bridge to save my life.
Game 3 I had a bit of a slow start but so did he and I jammed a Ashiok on turn 3 when he had a single bob on board, Ashiok hits Flickerwisp and Thalia. He untaps hits a stony silence and jams stony swings at Ashiok for 3. For some reason I decided to not put a 2/1 first strike blocker into play and plus Ashiok again. On his turn he gets a second bob into play and knocks Ashiok down to 3 again, I plus instead of put Thalia into play (again huge mistake) he untaps and drops Ashiok to 1 and plays a Leonin Arbiter. I plus Ashiok to fog for one last turn but am flooding out badly and can't come back from his double bobs. He gets a couple of lucky lands off bob and just races me down to 0. I feel like I should have won game 3 but just player terribly. The deck feels really bad against low to the ground aggro decks, I feel like I'm not doing enough in the early turns to keep up with an opponent whose play a threat every turn.

Round 2: Abzan Blink, the same deck I tested against the other day. 0-2
Game 1: Really close game I get thopter sword online but he finds a mangara to answer the combo in addition to sword of fire and ice to swing through thopters (both one of's, really annoying) and I die while he's at one life, I feel I could have maneuvered myself into a winning board but wasn't able to do so.
Game 2: He sees turn 1 Vial into Turn 2 Vial + Noble into turn 3 CoCo into fulminator mage + ewitness getting back CoCo, fulminators a land, vials in another ewitness to get back fulminator, untaps casts fulminator and fulminators another land, then CoCos into double flicker to get back CoCo and fulminator and I'm just too far behind to do anything, my hand is full of blue cards that I can't cast and I have a bridge in play. Really frustrating.

Round 3: Naya Zoo 1-2
Game 1: He wins the die roll and goes turn 1 Nacatl, Turn 2 Guide Lava Spike swing 5 go to 12. Turn 3 Swing 5 down to 7 he passes. I play a Lili and - he sacs guide and Boros Charms me down to 3 untaps and has a bolt.
Game 2: Turn 1 IoK takes his Swiftspear, he top decks nacatl and passes. I play a tapped tarpit and IoK take his Eidolon. He swings for 3 and passes. I play a signet and a thopter foundry and pass. He helixes me EoT. I untap play land and play sword of the meek. I get the engine going and he scoopes, he did try to atarka once but I was able to sac a citadel to gain 4 more life to stop from being burned out.
Game 3 He's on the play and I keep a slow hand. He goes Turn 1 Nacatl turn 2 Guide + Nacatl swing 5 down to 15 Turn 3 Swing 8 down to 7 Bolt Charm and I'm dead with casting a relevant spell before dying.

Round 4: Bye but played against some Grixis Control for testing
Game 1: Turn 3 thopter swords after IoK'ing his Kommand turn 1 and he scoops a couple of turns later.
Game 2: I land a turn 3 Ashiok and am able to protect it until it takes over the game. He invests so many resources in trying to deal with it that my mid game bridges just take over the game and he doesn't have enough answers before I'm way too far ahead.
Game 3: Turn 1 IoK take his spellsnare, Turn 2 Talisman into TS take his Snapcaster, Turn 3 Lili + Turn 4 Tezz - on a Citadel swing 5, turn 5 -1 on talisman swing 10, he untaps Kommands my talisman and shock tezz but is still dead to the 5/5 indestructible land and Lili is eating his hand away.

I feel like any deck that isn't pressuring me super early or doesn't have an overload of hate postboard are fairly easy matchups, but I need to figure out how to deal with fast Linear decks because that's the name of the game in modern. I feel like I might try some of the faster low to the ground builds that are running around with Mox Opals and such. I feel like, especially in game 1 we need to be as explosive as possible, while in game 2 we have the ability to calm down and be a little bit slower since other decks are slowing themselves down as well by bringing in SB hate. I definitely feel like I want to be doing more in the early turns of the game, also disfigure is awful in this format, really should have brought dismembers or better 2 CMC removal. Liliana is kind of lackluster but can still take over games, will probably drop her down to a 1 or 2 of in the main with another in the board for the control matchups. Not sure what I need to do against the aggro decks, perhaps the 4 spellskites MD is actually necessary, it feels really bad when damnation on turn 4 is irrelevant and we are close to dying anyways. I think I'm just too used to Legacy Tezz where we're playing 2-3 turns ahead of our opponents with Sol Lands and turn 1 chalices, turn 2 Tezz's and FoW stops anything crazy from happening before we set up shop. I also feel like I want more card velocity, definitely gonna jam a 4th Thirst in the deck (3 currently) and am considering Visions or Thought Scour. I feel like thought scour can be a fine card between Academy Ruins or getting a sword into the bin as well as let us play cards like Murderous Cut to be able to ease some early pressure while Visions can help dig us into relevant cards.

Anyways back to tuning the deck I guess, have another modern event tomorrow that I'll be able to jam to hopefully better results.

So long time Legacy Tezzerator player, looking to port the deck back into Modern because why not play the best 4 Drop Walker ever printed in multiple formats. I built this to take to FNM tonight but it didn't end up firing (smh) but I got some testing in and came to a couple of conclusions and was looking for some insight.

List:


I played some games against an Abzan CoCo blink deck which I found to be an awful matchup. Bridge didn't do anything because he has unlimited access to flickerwisp triggers and could process it away in addition to playing 3 maindeck stonecloakers to shut down sword of the meek. Postboard was better because Grafcage was usually just GG and Pithing Needle naming Aether Vial hampers his ability to mess with triggers in a meaningful way. Really felt like I wanted more sweepers in the 75.

After that I played some AV decks that just kind of durdled until I thopter/swords the game away. Which is the complete opposite of what happens when I play against AV decks in legacy... AV is the reason I had Notion Thief in the board, and he did his best Dack impression with stealing some games. I boarded in Ashioks against the UW control and it completely dominated. They would triumphantly tap out on turn 2 or 3 for stony silence or rest in peace and then couldn't deal with Ashiok before it could ult and just run away with the game.

Then I played against some big Zoo and it was the easiest thing in the world to beat. Despite maindeck Qsali Pridemage's he had difficulty trying to answer bridges and thopter/swords combo along with Tezz -1 on Citadel's to block for days. I feel like most aggro matchups should be fine so long as we don't die on turn 3. This matchup also made me want to play more sweepers or single target removal, possibly more bridges.

Overall the deck feels all right and rather smooth, I really liked having 4/3 split of thopter/sword main deck because it was relatively easy to cut copies of it in postboard games where you can expect people to bring in hate. Liliana was hit or miss. Sometimes she stole games by herself, often times she would edict and fog for a turn. I feel like I want slightly more protection for her, I really wish baleful strix was legal in modern.

I think I'm going to cut the ratchet bomb and a land (probably a tarpit) for a second damnation and third bridge. I'm also considering dropping disfigures for dismember, murderous cut was fine most of the time. It's relatively easy to fill the yard between discard, thirsts, and Lili. But disfigure just doesn't kill enough in this format. It was cool to kill maybe a mana dork turn 1 for B. But it was very apparent that I needed more answers to 3+ toughness creatures. Not being able to kill a Nacatl after turn 2 felt awful. I might move disfigures to the board for match ups where it's relevant though. But then again I might be judging it too harshly without enough testing.

I'm also not sure how relevant Leyline of the Void is currently, I just thought it would be good against Abzan Combo Company, Grixis Control, the mirror, living end, etc but I feel the fact you need to play 3 to make it viable was too much. I was thinking about just going down to 1 Nihil Spellbomb to open up some slots for things like hurkyll's recall and another spellskite. I feel like most of the time we aren't in the position to be trying to shutdown or counter other decks engines so much as we are protecting or changing our own (which is an odd change of pace compared to playing Chalice.dec in Legacy) and the fact that modern is such a creature based format means bridge does so much heavy lifting already.



Also I was trying to tinker around with a grixis tezz splash but am having a terrible time with the manabase. I felt like having access to bolt and ghirapur aether grid would be a sweet alternative win condition sitting under a bridge (ala lantern) because with thopter sword it turns 1 mana into 1 life 1 token 1 activation of grid, and can close out games faster and help shoot down problematic creatures or planeswalkers. But modern just lacks the tools that allow it to work in Legacy as a light splash (Mox Diamond is one hell of a fixer) and I don't want to over commit on red duals because the obvious choice is just more fetches and shocks, but part of the appeal of the current manabases is how painfree they are, which makes me question whether the upside of having better removal (bolt, terminate, Kcommand, Grid) is worth making the mana base more painful. Also the lack of a good red planeswalker to play (no Dack Fayden) also takes a bit of the allure away.

Is there any chance or scare of a buyout for Ricochet Trap? I feel like if vision decks and blue decks in general become a strong force in the meta game that this card is incredibly undervalued and is a complete blow out of a sideboard card. I know there are other strong options like Choke, Boil, Thrun, etc... for midrange decks but the card has so much fringe blowout capabilities beyond just Misdirection Ancestral. I'd like to try and trade or find some locally, especially foils, but I'm kind of afraid that foils might spike to like $20+ (like crumble did briefly when tron hype was real) but unlike crumble it's an uncommon printed in a small set 5 years ago and is a tricky card to reprint because of it's subtype. Should I just bite the bullet and get them off TCG or do you think this is going to be more of an undiscovered gem for a while and that until big events pop up where it sees play I won't have to worry? It just feels like every single card that might possibly see more play because of the unbannings is spiking everywhere.

I could see wanting to play Living End against Eldrazi, game 1 seems like an easy thing to win. Game 2 and 3 when they board in relics and RIPs however makes it way less appealing.