Grixis Tezzeret

[Phoenix Ignition]

I think the forum is eating threads or the mods are cleaning up old Modern deck threads (which is probably good) so I'll start another Tezzeret deck thread here.

My interest in magic has been increasing a bit lately and I've dusted off some of my old decklists. One I really think could get somewhere is Grixis Tezzeret with all sorts of disruption. It was almost worth playing before they unbanned thopter foundry but since then seems much better.

List:

4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
3 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Serum Visions
3 Fatal Push
1 Repeal
2 Reshape


2 Spellskite

2 Engineered Explosives
2 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Vedalken Shackles
4 Dimir Signet
1 Talisman of Dominance
2 Thopter Foundry
1 Sword of the Meek
1 Crucible of Worlds

3 Blood Moon

22 Land
2 Watery Grave
2 Steam Vents
4 Polluted Delta
3 Scalding Tarn
1 Swamp
4 Island
4 Darksteel Citadel
1 Tolaria West
1 Academy Ruins

I'm interested in if anyone else has been trying out UB tezz with thopters lately. I didn't used to have a red splash but I really enjoy the Blood Moon and with Dimir Signet you can not worry at all about it. I used to have a Trinket Mage package to grab the 0 drops and a Nihil Spellbomb + Executioner's Capsule but ended up cutting them for more resilient cantrips (Serum Visions + Thirst)

[CaptainTwiddle]

I'm a huge fan of Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas and have brewed with him in the past. I typically went with either straight Dimir or Esper builds. For a while, I was a fan of the Esper version, as it gave access to Path to Exile and Lingering Souls, the latter of which made the inclusion of Liliana of the Veil more appealing. More recently, however, I moved back to a Dimir build. The deck is super fun and it's an ideal home for the Thopter + Sword combo. The issue that I've had with it though is that after more testing, I realized just how good Ensnaring Bridge was and the deck became more and more focused on Bridge. At that point, I realized I could just be playing Lantern Control, which seemed like a better overall choice given the meta. That said, I have seen some Lantern lists that run Tezzeret. He certainly speeds up the clock and provides added utility, but I don't know if adding something with that high of a CMC is really worth it. The clock consideration shouldn't be that big of deal IRL, though online could be different. I certainly hope to be able to play Tezz to good effect at some point, but for now, he just seems like a fun, but unneeded, option for existing archetypes.

[Phoenix Ignition]

At that point, I realized I could just be playing Lantern Control, which seemed like a better overall choice given the meta. I certainly hope to be able to play Tezz to good effect at some point, but for now, he just seems like a fun, but unneeded, option for existing archetypes.

Fair perhaps, but I'll be dead before I ever play lantern control.

I'm really liking using Blood Moon maindeck and having a Dimir Signet give me access to every win condition, which I don't think Lantern does. Ensnaring bridge is amazing in some matchups like you said, but I don't like focusing on it completely since in the other half of matchups you effectively have 4 dead cards. Having a variety of artifacts to lock people out is key if you are going into an unknown meta, and Reshape fixes some of the issues of "half of the cards I have do nothing in any given matchup."

Using E Bridge + Shackles + Blood Moon + thopter/foundry really seems to give me a viable strategy against almost every deck, which I don't think is true of Lanterns. Also last I checked that deck just straight up lost to sideboards that were prepaired, whereas Tezz allows us 5/5 indestructible lands against those sideboards, though I'm not at all up to date on current lantern decks.