[Deck] 8Tezz.dec - UB Tezzeret

[Lavamane]

I agree with the idea grixis probably isn't great at wastelanding people out of the game right now with all the DRS. I'm off it completely. Once youre off it though, you can easily make a reasonable manabase out of grixis. EX

24x lands

4x Polluted Delta
4x Scalding Tarn
3x Island
2x Swamp
2x Underground Sea
2x Volcanic Island
1x Badlands
4x Ancient Tomb
1x Inventors' Fair
1x Academy Ruins


No Wastelands and 8 fetchlands gives you the option of going extremely greedy on duals, or extremely conservative on duals to play around wasteland/blood moon. I skew conservative so I can comfortably add the bigger sources of card advantage like the abyss and Keranos in the board. My biggest gripe with straight U/B is it cant leverage its manabase to run Engineered Explosives as effectively. True name/Leovold are both nuisances and EE deals with them.


Love the Grip of Phyresis

I mean, so does Toxic Deluge. It's just a shame it isn't an artifact

[Lavamane]

So I've been testing Walking Ballista and it's been performing really well.

Helps out a lot in some of our unfavorable matchups like Delver/DnT

Sick with Tezz minus

Good late game threat.

It's obviously not great in unfair matchups. Do people think this is better in the sb? I have mine mb as I'm not playing thopter sword and having more win cons is nice

Also intrigued if ppl have any words on the white splash / Breya for grindy matchups. I've been dreaming of adding stoneforges to the deck but can't get around the greedy mana base. We're so greedy already !

Any thoughts ? Thanks!



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They aren't at their strongest in the unfair matchups, but if anything, they provide a clock. In those preboard matchups, your Chalices and FoW should be enough to carry you.

I think you are way more likely to get paired against a fair deck where Ballista is a beast, lately.

[gibsonjunkie]

I love Walking Ballista, personally. I'm also currently working on testing a one-of Mirage Mirror in my sideboard, especially against lands/turbo depths matchups which there's a decent amount of in my area.

How do people feel about playing 2 Spire of Industry over Darkslick Shores?

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[CptHaddock]

So for those of you still playing this deck now how are you faring against 4c Control? It feels like with the number of decays/goyfs going down this deck is slightly more viable.

[gibsonjunkie]

The one time I played against it I struggled, but it was more due to my unfamiliarity with the matchup than anything they did.

I agree on your point of this deck being better with fewer decays running around. That card is a real beating.

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[gigasturtz]

How does the new planeswalker rule effect this deck? Do you think you are more likely to run Tezzeret, the Seeker in addition to AOB now?

[erevans444]

Hey guys. I have been testing a bit. Just updated my deckles. I have none of these cards yet, but this is the list I've been play testing with friends. I just wanted some opinions. It is a more budgeted list running a lot of basics to work better with the main deck Blood Moons. I have not tested the Tezzeret, the Seeker but with the changes to the planeswalker rule, I feel like a 1 of of it is miles better than the 1 of Whir of Invention that I was playing.

4 Baleful Strix
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Dimir Signet
2 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Mox Diamond
2 Mox Opal
2 Sword of the Meek
3 Thopter Foundry
2 Blood Moon
1 Tezzeret, the Seeker
1 Toxic Deluge
2 Transmute Artifact
3 Dack Fayden
3 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
1 Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast

1 Great Furnace
2 Seat of the Synod
1 Vault of Whispers
1 Academy Ruins
4 Ancient Tomb
2 Bloodstained Mire
1 City of Traitors
1 Inventors’ Fair
3 Island
4 Polluted Delta
2 Swamp
1 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island

SB:
2 Pithing Needle
1 Cursed Totem
1 Dread of Night
1 Toxic Deluge
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Helm of Obedience
1 Trinisphere
3 Force of Will
1 Witchbane Orb

[Ephemeron]

How does the new planeswalker rule effect this deck? Do you think you are more likely to run Tezzeret, the Seeker in addition to AOB now?

I always liked Tezz the Seeker as a 1-of in the straight UB version. The Grixis version is a bit tighter and Dack's looting effect kinda takes the place of Tezz searching up artifacts. But I probably would be more likely to try big Tezz as a 1-of in Grixis with this rule change. It's an undeniably powerful card, especially in post-board games where you have LotV and Helm in your deck.

[gigasturtz]

Trying this tonight, I'll report back. first day with the deck.


Academy Ruins 1
Ancient Tomb 3
City of Traitors 1
Inventors Fair 1
Island 2
Polluted Delta 4
Seat of the Synod 3
Swamp 1
Underground Sea 3
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 1
Vault of Whispers 1

Chalice of the Void 4
Dimir Signet 1
Ensnaring Bridge 2
Mox Diamond 2
Mox Opal 2
Sword of the Meek 2
Talisman of Dominance 2
Thopter Foundry 2
Umezawa's Jitte 1
Thopter Spy Network 1
Baleful Strix 4
Walking Ballista 3

Transmute Artifact 2
Supreme Will 2
Force of Will 4

Jace, the Mind Sculptor 1
Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas 3
Tezzeret the Seeker 1

SB:
Toxic Deluge 2
Notion Thief 1
Flusterstorm 2
The Abyss 1
Invasive Surgery 1
Sphere of Resistance 3
Grafdigger's Cage 3
Pithing Needle 1
Trinisphere 1

[keys]

I'd try Basilisk Collar instead of Jitte, and maybe add a Trinket Mage to go find it, since it combos really nicely with Ballista.

[Undomian]

This thread is already 6 feet under the front page of the forum, but I’ll post this here regardless. I attended a local Win-A-Tabernacle tournament yesterday to a 4-1-1 swiss finish and a T8 loss to my loss in the swiss. I played this, but I’m not going to recommend that anyone actually take this to a serious event unless you’re feeling lucky:

Dack in Black

4 Baleful Strix
3 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
4 Dack Fayden
2 Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast
2 Transmute Artifact
4 Thopter Foundry
3 Sword of the Meek
4 Chalice of the Void
1 Trinisphere
2 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Engineered Explosives
4 Mox Diamond
2 Dimir Signet
3 Underground Sea
3 Volcanic Island
2 Island
1 Swamp
4 Polluted Delta
2 Bloodstained Mire
4 Ancient Tomb
1 City of Traitors
1 Dust Bowl
1 Inventors’ Fair
1 Academy Ruins

SB:
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Helm of Obedience
3 Lodestone Golem
1 Chains of Mephistopheles
1 Sorcerous Spyglass
1 Padeem, Consul of Innovation
2 Blood Moon
2 Toxic Deluge

You’ll notice that I opted to not play force, and that was a metagame choice for this particular store where there are generally very few combo players and a lot of X delver and D&T. I really don’t think that that’s right for the long term direction of the deck, but it felt right for this event. It’s worth noting that this probably bit me in the ass in my losses, but whether or not I’ve been able to get there without this configuration is a different question entirely.

R1: Dredge (2-1)
And to think, I almost took Helm/Line out of my sideboard for this tournament. Game 1, he’s on the play, and Dredges me before I can find a Bridge and get hellbent. Game 2 effectively ends when I mulligan to a Leyline that he has no answers to. Game 3 is a little more interesting in that I don’t have a Leyline, but T1 Trinisphere into Chalice into Bridge is pretty effective too.

R2: Bant Stoneblade (1-1-0)
I sit down, and we make some conversation where I find out that he remembers me from some tournament 3 years ago where I was playing this deck. Whoops. I wish my memory was that good! In G1 he leads on DRS, which relieves me; I built my deck to beat that card today, and I was excited to try it. A few turns of Magic reveals that he’s on Bant Stoneblade with no SoFaI, and the Terrible Trifecta is eventually assembled behind their Bridge to grind out a win. Game 2 is another grindy affair that ends up going to time, and when we end up going to turns I’d already switched my play patterns from “how can I grind out a win” to “how can I not lose.”

R3: Grixis Delver (2-1)
Round 3 sees me paired against a very strong Grixis Delver pilot from the area, but thankfully I have some confidence in my list for today with regards to this matchup. Game 1 ends when I eventually assemble Thopter/Sword, which is essentially unbeatable preboard for them. I land a Blood Moon on turn 2 in Game 2, but actually end up losing when his Pyromancer into double Grudge on my artifact mana goes the distance over a few turns. Game 3 sees him mulligan to 6, and is a grindy game where he’s able to remove some of my hate, but eventually a Moon goes uncontested and other lockpieces follow. EE was incredible in this matchup, killing multiple permanents every time I cast it.

R4: Infect (1-2)
Having just played him at FNM two days ago, we were both pretty familiar with each other’s lists (and had even talked about sideboard plans against each other for some time!). I win the die roll, and keep a hand full of Baleful Strixes to hopefully eat his creatures. Unfortunately, his hand was T1 Elf into T2 2x Invigorate + Berserk to bash me for a lot of poison. G2 ends shortly after Blood Moon arrives to destroy his manabase. G3 comes down to a critical turn where he controls 2 Trop, Inkmoth, 2 Noble, and an Elf. My hand has Blood Moon and Deluge, and I choose to shut off the Nexus and some of his mana with Moon and Deluge the turn after. This ends up being too greedy, as his Nobles and a pump spell finish the job.

R5:Landstill (ID)
I get paired against the guy I drove with, and since we had agreed to a car split, we decided to just draw this round rather than make for a feel-bad moment.

R6: Burn (2-1)
His perspective of the matchup here is a bit more detailed than my recollections, so you can read that if you want.

T8R1: Infect (0-2)
I’m mildly salty about getting paired against this again given that I don’t think I had a single other bad matchup in the top 8, but what can you do. G1 his hand unfortunately very similar R4G1, and my lone thopter token is unable to stop his 20/10 trampling Infect creature from killing me. In G2 I keep a promising hand with some Blood Moons and a Daretti, but he remembers to fetch his basic forest, has a Grip for my Moon, and an Inkmoth Nexus to get around my Daretti.

I win a judge Karakas, and my Landstill friend loses in the finals to win an Underground Sea. I drew Trinisphere a lot, and it was awesome every time that I did. EE + Daretti was also a potent combination for removing my opponent's stuff, something that I'm not really used to doing in my normal maindeck configuration.

All in all, not a bad day. In other news, I found my other copies of City of Traitors, so I'm looking forward to trying a straight UB version of this deck for the first time in awhile next week at FNM now that the planeswalker rule is changed.

[a tribe called trest]

How was the sorcerous spyglass for you?

[Undomian]

Drew it once, it didn't really matter when I did. Theoretically it was good against Infect, but I never drew it either time I played that. Probably will keep trying it given the opinion some of the red stompy players have of the card.

[Sisyphos]

Drew it once, it didn't really matter when I did. Theoretically it was good against Infect, but I never drew it either time I played that. Probably will keep trying it given the opinion some of the red stompy players have of the card.

I haven't gotten much testing in with Spyglass in a Tezzeret shell, but have been playing it in various Stompy shells. It can lead to total blowouts ("Oh you kept a hand with two Flooded Strands as your only lands. Guess you are not casting any spells this game...") and is never dead as all common decks include some form of activated ability. Even if the card you name does not come up in the game at all, the value of the information provided is immense. My estimate so far is that it isn't as strong in Tezzeret as it is in other shells, as Tezzeret (apart from some of the UBR-lists) does not complement it with additional mana denial but if you had a Needle or a Revoker in your list, Spyglass is a significant upgrade and I'd try to fit it into the deck, probably 1-2 main.

[MrFrowny_]

Hey guys, I've decided on building a Grixis Tezzerator list with a light-white splash. Here is the list:

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/652214#paper

I know it's kinda greedy but I like decks like that. Anyways, what do you all think?

[DaBase]

I am interested to join the Tezz-Club. Always loved the style of the deck. Allready tried the deck in Cockatrice goldfish-style. Since still need some cards, mainly the Duals and Mox Diamond, I wonder if and how this can be substituted. The duals land can be substituted by shock- and basiclands. Of course the win percentage may decrease a bit but long term those cards are on my shopping list.
Due to the price spike of Mox Diamond I am not sure, if I will buy those cards.
I would prefere the Grixis variant of the deck, which would cause an increased need of Mox Diamond. Now I need the opinion of the Tezz-Gang :)
Would Grixis Tezzeret be playable without Mox Diamond? Is UB Tezzeret more recommended without Mox Diamond and how is UB Tezzeret compared to Grixis Tezz in a delver and D&T heavy meta?

Regards
DaBase

[Undomian]

Hey guys, I've decided on building a Grixis Tezzerator list with a light-white splash. Here is the list:

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/652214#paper

I know it's kinda greedy but I like decks like that. Anyways, what do you all think?

I personally dislike Breya, but to each their own I guess. I'm also not 100% sure how good Detention Sphere actually is. That guy does put up pretty consistent results despite his worse-than-usual manabase, though, so if that list is your style I'd say go for it .

I am interested to join the Tezz-Club. Always loved the style of the deck. Allready tried the deck in Cockatrice goldfish-style. Since still need some cards, mainly the Duals and Mox Diamond, I wonder if and how this can be substituted. The duals land can be substituted by shock- and basiclands. Of course the win percentage may decrease a bit but long term those cards are on my shopping list.
Due to the price spike of Mox Diamond I am not sure, if I will buy those cards.
I would prefere the Grixis variant of the deck, which would cause an increased need of Mox Diamond. Now I need the opinion of the Tezz-Gang :)
Would Grixis Tezzeret be playable without Mox Diamond? Is UB Tezzeret more recommended without Mox Diamond and how is UB Tezzeret compared to Grixis Tezz in a delver and D&T heavy meta?

Regards
DaBase

You're going to have a hard time playing UBr without Mox Diamond, as that card is pretty vitally important to the deck's strategy and manabase. Luckily, UB doesn't need that, and that build recently received a pretty huge buff with the change to the Planeswalker rules. I haven't done a lot of testing with the UB variant recently, so I don't have a list, but the ones in the primer could probably be a reasonable starting point with some number of Tezzeret the Seeker over Jaces.

[Sisyphos]

In addition to what Undomian said, I have found the printing of Walking Ballista to significantly improve the matchups against DnT and/or Delver for UB Tezzeret. Against DnT the card is downright filthy. If your meta is heavy with those decks, I would play a playset main.

[a tribe called trest]

I am interested to join the Tezz-Club. Always loved the style of the deck. Allready tried the deck in Cockatrice goldfish-style. Since still need some cards, mainly the Duals and Mox Diamond, I wonder if and how this can be substituted. The duals land can be substituted by shock- and basiclands. Of course the win percentage may decrease a bit but long term those cards are on my shopping list.
Due to the price spike of Mox Diamond I am not sure, if I will buy those cards.
I would prefere the Grixis variant of the deck, which would cause an increased need of Mox Diamond. Now I need the opinion of the Tezz-Gang :)
Would Grixis Tezzeret be playable without Mox Diamond? Is UB Tezzeret more recommended without Mox Diamond and how is UB Tezzeret compared to Grixis Tezz in a delver and D&T heavy meta?

Regards
DaBase

To be blunt, grixis is not worth playing without mox diamond. It fix the mana, provides additional ways to cast turn 1 chalice without the need to run multiple city of traitors, and makes it easier to get under bridge in tight spots than added signets would.

You can however make some adjustments to the mana base for budgetary constraints. 1 of each volc, sea, and badlands with 8 fetches and more basics is fine. You can run blood moons in the side to make it less of a budgetary concession and more of an active gameplan.

[DaBase]

Thank you, guys. So the best plan would be to go with UB first and maybe going Grixis later.

I have planned to go with following starting decklist:
// 17 Artifact
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Dimir Signet
2 Talisman of Dominance
2 Ensnaring Bridge
3 Thopter Foundry
2 Sword of the Meek

// 8 Creature
3 Walking Ballista
4 Baleful Strix
1 Padeem, Consul of Innovation

// 1 Enchantment
1 Thopter Spy Network

// 4 Instant
4 Force of Will

// 22 Land
4 Polluted Delta
1 Underground Sea
2 Watery Grave (budget replacement for Underground Sea)
4 Ancient Tomb
2 Island
2 Inventors' Fair
2 Seat of the Synod
1 Vault of Whispers
1 Academy Ruins
1 Swamp
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Crystal Vein (budget replacement for City of Traitor)

// 6 Planeswalker
4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
2 Tezzeret the Seeker

// 2 Sorcery
2 Reshape (Budget replacement for transmute artifact)


// 15 Sideboard
SB: 2 Trinisphere
SB: 1 Helm of Obedience
SB: 2 Sorcerous Spyglass
SB: 1 Witchbane Orb
SB: 2 Lodestone Golem
SB: 1 Notion Thief
SB: 1 Dread of Night
SB: 4 Leyline of the Void
SB: 1 Toxic Deluge

Due to some budget replacements the deck contains couple of game plans:
- thopter/sword combo
- Tezz making artifacts
- beatdown of walking ballista / Tezz ultimate