Standard Brewing – U/B Tezzeret Control

As Standard is about to change slightly and evolve into a new format, I wanted to do something different for a local FNM one night.  I decided to go Old School and give props to a good friend of mine, Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas.  He and I go back to when I opened less than a box of Mirrodin Besieged at a prerelease (18 packs from 1 box and 14 packs from another) and he graced me with his presence…4 times.  I knew then he would be by my side to bring out the Phyrexian in me.  Here is our story…

I needed to fly the Esper Resistance Flag

As it was Thursday, I was pondering what I wanted to play for Friday Night Magic.  I typically do not have a ton of time on my hands to take apart decks and rebuild new ones all the time so I usually play about the same deck or two.  Lately it has been Esper Solar Flare, which I did a deck tech on a week or two ago.  I have always loved playing Esper  (Blue, Black, and White) and with the cool things like Forbidden Alchemy and Unburial Rites, who wouldn’t?  It has been doing great but on this day, I awoke with a different perspective.  Before I went to work, I looked through my binder and the decks I had prebuilt to see what I could come up with.  I wanted to brew something that was currently different in the meta, had a theme, and most importantly, unexpected.  I sort my binder by colors and when I got to the near end of it…my answer had arrived.  It was Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas and he was starring at me with his lifeless eyes…black eyes…like a dolls eyes (Jaws reference).  It was then, I knew what I had to do…

I have played Tezzeret a few times before and its a super fun deck.  He is the closest thing to Jace we have in the format and he cost only 4 mana!  My 2 previous lists were a custom brew and Shouta Yasooka list from Worlds.  Since we had some new cards I wanted to try and incorporate some even though the Innistrad block isn’t really an artifact block.  After some deliberating I chose the list below.  Keep in mind this was built on the fly with no testing and kind of geared toward my local FNM meta game (Delver, Infect, Wolf Run, and Zombies).

U/B Tezzeret Control by Adam Arndt

---

2 Spellskite 1 Phyrexian Metamorph 2 Wurmcoil Engine 3 Solemn Simulacrum 3 Ratchet Bomb 2 Tumble Magnet 1 Contagion Clasp 1 Grafdigger’s Cage 1 Batterskull 2 Pristine Talisman 1 Curse of Death’s Hold 2 Black Sun’s Zenith 1 Grave Titan 4 Go For the Throat 4 Mana Leak 1 Consecrated Sphinx 1 Frost Titan 4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas   2 Cavern of Souls 3 Island 5 Swamp 4 Drowned Catacomb 4 Darkslick Shores 4 Inkmoth Nexus 2 Ghost Quarter   -Sideboard- 1 Tumble Magnet 2 Torpor Orb 1 Grafdigger’s Cage 1 Black Sun’s Zenith 4 Phyrexian Crusader 2 Doom Blade 2 Dismember 1 Spellskite 1 Phyrexian Revoker

What I love most about this list is, no matter what, no card is never dead with a Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas out on board.  Playing infect and draw a Grafdigger’s Cage?  No problem.  Tezzeret will bless him with the power of the Phyrexians and let your 5/5 Cage do some work.  I also like having Cavern of Souls in this list…a lot.  It lets you resolve key finishers in the middle to late game after you have controlled the board.  It also helps you get to 5 or 6 mana by slamming down a Solemn Simulacrum for lots of card advantage.

The main deck Grafdigger’s Cage is a meta call, but honestly in this type of deck its a given.  I might even go as far as running two since Delver is a tough matchup and having one cage in play lets you fight against a now fair deck.  Tumble Magnets lets you stop sworded up creatures or Titan’s.  A great card that goes hand in hand with Magnet and Tezzeret is Contagion Clasp.  This card is SO good in that you can get to Tezzeret ultimate one turn earlier and keep your magnet charged up for playing the lock down game.  Besides the obvious Wurmcoil Engine, I added some spice by throwing in Grave Titan and Frost Titan.  Like all Titan’s, they are great at putting an end to any nonsense your opponent is trying to do.  Vapor Snag?  Sure, but I still have two 2/2 zombies in play.  You fetched up Kessig Wolf Run?   Easy game.  I’ll keep your Titan tapped with Frosty the Snowman (Frost Titan) and redirect your land fireball with my Spellskite.

The old lists played Sphere of the Suns, which I do like, but chose to go with Pristine Talismans.  The reason being is I am running 4 Go for the Throats and 4 Mana Leaks and I want to establish myself as the Control Player.  I need to leave 2 mana up on turn 2 even if I don’t have anything.  This is to make my opponent potentially play around my counter magic or removal (or my bluff).  GFTT is better than Doom Blade main currently because of Zombies coming in and out depending on where you play.  I can bring in Doom Blade‘s from the board if needed.  I am not too concerned with Inkmoth Nexus as Curse and Magnet keep them from coming over and Spellskite stops them from being top heavy.

I dont have my exact notes from the FNM that I used this list in, but I did make it to top 4 after the Swiss rounds.  My other competitors who made top 4 with me decided it was late so we all chopped, which I was happy with as I had work the next day.  I took only 1 loss in the tournament to a friend of mine, Tylor Groover, who was playing my Delver deck.  Im not hatin though as he was just another Average Joe like myself…

As a side note: Out of all the times I have played Tezzeret, this tournament was the first time I never missed on finding an artifact from Tezzeret’s +1 ability. I played 18 artifacts, it might just be the best number for the deck.

Adam Arndt
MTGO: AdamRA4