[Developmental] Grixis Walkers

[nevilshute]

This is a deck very much in development. Its foundation lies with the UB Tezzeret deck that Caleb Durward piloted to an SCG Open first place a while back (http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?24801-UB-Tezzeret).

The point of departure is hence a deck that plays on the power of planeswalkers - especially Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas - in conjunction with powerful artifacts.

The difference between this deck and the aforementioned UB Tezzeret is the inclusion of red for mainly two reasons: Goblin Welder and Ral Zarek

The welder always seemed like an obvious spoiler for an artifact-centric deck and Ral Zarek lets you get two activations per turn from your welder as well as having great synergy with artifacts such as Winter Orb and the like.

The Linchpin Cards:

http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=195297&type=card http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=214065&type=card http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=13001&type=card

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fdA1hp0OWMk/UXW4LM_P0xI/AAAAAAAAAKY/h9s2RUSPHg4/s1600/pwnx7gvean_EN.jpg

Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas: His power level rivals that of Jace in this deck. Getting 5/5 hasted artifact dudes out of your 1 and 2 mana utility artifacts is great.

Ral Zarek: His -2 gives you flexibility and reach, but his main job is +1'ing. Tapping down opposition ressources and getting extra activations of the Goblin Welder. But there are other times where his +1 will let you do nifty little things such as letting your Wurmcoil Engine attack through a Maze of Ith or tapping an opponent's creature into a Meekstone.

Jace, the Mind Sculptor: Not much needs to be said about Jace... his power is well documented. Running 4x Baleful Strix helps protect him and with the artifact mana and Sol-lands the possibilities of a turn two Jace are high.

Goblin Welder: Very vulnerable but extremely powerful little guy. The challenge is to find welder targets that are worthy of his time. He also means you get a lot more mileage out of Thirst for Knowledge letting you dump expensive artifacts in your graveyard for later welding.

Possible Welder Targets:

Ichor Wellspring: Running two of these have been good in testing. They swing for 5 with Tezzeret and will at least cycle when played. With a welder in play things get interesting. With two of these in play and a welder things get crazy. Throw a Ral Zarek into the mix and you are drawing four extra cards per turn.

Wurmcoil Engine: Running one seems almost mandatory. It "only" ticks the welder box when it goes to the yard, but it's too powerful to not include as a one-of with type of mana ramp the deck is sporting.

Myr Battlesphere: Probably one more mana than we'd like our spells to cost, but it has heaps of potential being welded in and out of the yard.

Utility Artifacts:

Winter Orb: This card has great synergy with Ral Zarek. It creates a soft lock that opponents can have a very hard time getting out from under. I started testing with just one but it was so effective that I'm currently running two.

Meekstone: same principle as with the Winterorb this is less oppressive if only for the fact that every deck (well nearly) runs lands whereas not every deck runs creatures with power greater than two. That said, it keeps Goyfs, KotR's Bloodbraids etc tapped which is very good. Been running it as a one of in testing and I like having it.

Here's the list I'm running atm:

4x Force of Will
4x Thirst for Knowledge
4x Goblin Welder
4x Baleful Strix
3x Izzet Signet
3x Dimir Signet
3x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3x Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
2x Ral Zarek
2x Winter Orb
2x Ichor Wellspring
1x Lightning Bolt
1x Damnation
1x Wurmcoil Engine
1x Spine of Ish Sha
1x Meekstone

2x Underground Sea
2x Volcanic Island
1x Badlands
2x Polluted Delta
2x Scalding Tarn
1x Swamp
2x Island
1x Mountain
3x Ancient Tomb
2x City of Traitors
1x Great Furnace
1x Vault of Whispers
1x Seat of the Synod

So far it's been a lot of fun and quite effective. The welders are very vulnerable and often act as lightning rods, but the deck's propensity for landing one of its 4CMC planeswalkers is very high and they usually can win the game on their own without a welder.

I very much hope to get some feedback and a lot of suggestions!

[nevilshute]

Reserved for future content

[guybrush3]

i really like it since it has goblin welder in it. ...ill remove force of will and jace instead of more artifacts and sense's top spells,since u play deck thoughtseize will be better than force ill say for first turn

[SirTylerGalt]

This recent thread might be of interest, since it has a very similar gameplan: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?25901-UR-Slaver

[alphastryk]

I tried something along these lines about a year ago but I could never get it to work consistently. Here's that thread in case anything there helps you with this - http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?24101-Goblin-Welder-Baleful-Strix-Thopter-Foundry-Sword-of-the-Meek&highlight=goblin+welder+thopter

[TraxDaMax]

Meekstone looks good in the deck. Together with Ral Zarek, it creates profitable boardstates.

[Ellomdian]

I don't know how to feel about Ral in a Legacy Walker shell right now. I like the idea of splashing R in the UB Tezz lists to experiment with welder, but I don't like game plans that are very heavily dependent on a dude that dies to every piece of removal in the format, and who is a magnet for it to boot. The more evolved versions of UB Tezz are far more color-constrained because their power is casting a AB2 or AA2 walker T2. Also, Welder makes Chalice on 1 a much worse play. I feel like the more traditional MUD lists are the best shell to abuse Welder, and that you might try going UR off of them instead. You still get Jace if you want!

I am a little down on Ral in Legacy because he fails to pass the "Should just be casting JTMS" test. Also, his +1 is only good if you already have something cool to do. I can see RUG messing around with him at the top of their curve, but they are VERY efficient already and going Big doesn't seem to be the best Idea.

[Aggro_zombies]

I don't know how to feel about Ral in a Legacy Walker shell right now. I like the idea of splashing R in the UB Tezz lists to experiment with welder, but I don't like game plans that are very heavily dependent on a dude that dies to every piece of removal in the format, and who is a magnet for it to boot. The more evolved versions of UB Tezz are far more color-constrained because their power is casting a AB2 or AA2 walker T2. Also, Welder makes Chalice on 1 a much worse play. I feel like the more traditional MUD lists are the best shell to abuse Welder, and that you might try going UR off of them instead. You still get Jace if you want!

I am a little down on Ral in Legacy because he fails to pass the "Should just be casting JTMS" test. Also, his +1 is only good if you already have something cool to do. I can see RUG messing around with him at the top of their curve, but they are VERY efficient already and going Big doesn't seem to be the best Idea.
I'll echo these sentiments. You don't have a lot of uses for the "tap" half of his +1, and his -2 is not really that hot. Taking a bunch of extra turns is sexy, but you're a control deck - do you really need two to three extra turns to lock down the board? I guess you can hit a bunch with Wurmcoil Engine in those turns, but eh.

I mean, with the amount of mana you have, why not Nicol Bolas?

[Ellomdian]

I mean, with the amount of mana you have, why not Nicol Bolas?

I was disappointed to open a "Grixis Walkers" thread and not see at least a Mascot Nichol Bolas in the list :p

[dillonkbase]

The more I think about the card allocation for this deck, the less I want FOW and Jace... Instead of having a number of half backed strategies, I would want to commit more fully to powering up these planeswalkers. Maybe Something like...

8 mana stone
2x Izzet Signet
2x Dimir Signet
2x Mox Diamond
2x Grim Monlith

30 spells
4X Faithless Looting
4X tangle wire
4x Goblin Welder
4x Baleful Strix
4x Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
4x Ral Zarek
1X Winter Orb
2x Wurmcoil Engine
2X Meekstone
1X Batterskull

22 land
4x Ancient Tomb
4x City of Traitors
2X Underground Sea
2x Volcanic Island
1x Swamp
2x Island
1x Mountain
4Xblue fetch
1x Vault of Whispers
1x Seat of the Synod

SB maybe something like...
4 Lodestone golem
4 chalice
3 ratchet bomb
4 phrexian revoker

[Aggro_zombies]

But the problem is, Ral doesn't do anything in particular for this deck. What else does he do besides untap Goblin Welders? Give you +1 mana every turn? I mean, that's not terrible, but it's not great either when you consider that you're spending four mana to get there. The -2 is okay, but you can only use that so often. I would actually rather run Jace: the Brainstorms are always great, the bounce is welcome when you're trying to lock down the board, and Jace's ultimate actually wins while Ral's...does so sometimes.

[lost_ronin_soul]

Stasis +ral= win?
grim monolith +ral= why do i have all this mana?
howling mine+ ral= thats cute?
goblin welder+ ral= potentially bad things

[dillonkbase]

But the problem is, Ral doesn't do anything in particular for this deck. What else does he do besides untap Goblin Welders? Give you +1 mana every turn? I mean, that's not terrible, but it's not great either when you consider that you're spending four mana to get there. The -2 is okay, but you can only use that so often. I would actually rather run Jace: the Brainstorms are always great, the bounce is welcome when you're trying to lock down the board, and Jace's ultimate actually wins while Ral's...does so sometimes.

I completely disagree, Jace has no specific synergies with the card in the deck, and in case you have not noticed... brainstorm is not the greatest in these decks... or they would be playing it. The problem with Jace is that he works best when your opponent has finished unloading their hand and are trying to close out the game, but with a turn two Jace, this is almost never the case... you just cannot fateseal them to get to the win and without sweepers like terminus or supreme verdict, you aren't going to be resetting the board to a place where jace is left unmolested. On the other hand both Tezzert and Ral are offensive planeswalkers allowing you to go on the attack. They also both compliment the cards you would want to be playing with one or the other... specifically they both encourage you to play artifacts either directly or indirectly.

There are plenty of great decks to play jace in, however, I think in this deck its not the most optimal card, just like in UB Tezz where Jace is the support piece and Tezz is the planewalker you really want to land..

[Ellomdian]

The problem with Jace is that he works best when your opponent has finished unloading their hand and are trying to close out the game, but with a turn two Jace, this is almost never the case...

...There are plenty of great decks to play jace in, however, I think in this deck its not the most optimal card, just like in UB Tezz where Jace is the support piece and Tezz is the planewalker you really want to land..

I feel that your premise is flawed - JTMS is pretty good at fighting attrition wars when both players still have cards by giving you raw advantage and selection.

And while I am the first to stand up for the value of Tezz in UB, voluntarily not playing one of the most powerful cards printed in the last decade in a deck that is engineered to drop it faster than any other in the format is silly. Jace will single-handedly win games, and every turn it is not removed from the game generates neigh insurmountable advantage.