MTG Salvation

Ben Scarsella 1st place IN


Thomas Bauer 1st place DE

Tezzeret Agent of Bolas - Let's be honest, we are handicapping ourselves by playing mostly artifacts. This is one the primary reasons that we do it. In a deck engineered to play him, Tezzeret Agent of Bolas is the most powerful planeswalker ever printed. A quick read of his abilities makes it clear that this guy is powerful. Play 2-4.

Tezzeret, the Seeker - Outside of niche builds Tezzeret, the Seeker rarely sees play due to his restrictive 5 mana cost. However since the playing him in addition to Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas is much more reasonable.

Liliana of the Veil - As if this queen needs any explanation. Many of the lists that are more control oriented play 2-3 copies of her for the same reason that GBx decks do. She is powerful and creates synergies. For us that means Sword of the Meek and Ensnaring Bridge. LotV usually comes at the cost of some utility lands due to her double black casting cost and it is difficult to run her alongside a Crucible of Worlds/Ghost Quarter package or alongside Whir of Invention. If you opt to play neither of these options, strongly consider playing LotV.

Ashiok Nightmare Weaver - Who?! Ashiok is rarely played anymore. However in the correct meta's it is another card that can win from behind an Ensnaring Bridge with a Stony Silence in play.

Jace, the Mind Sculptor - Wizards HQ finally unleashed the most fearsome planeswalker card ever printed into the modern card pool. The card is inherently very powerful and becomes near unbeatable when your opponent can't attack it with creatures (Ensnaring Bridge).

Fatal Push - I think black mages have waited long enough for their premium 1 mana removal. Since its printing it has become a staple of every black deck in Modern. If you are in the market for removal play this card over any of the other 2 mana options.

Go For the Throat/Doom Blade/Victim of Night/Smother/Dismember/Cast Down - These are your 2 cmc removal options. Typically played in addition to Fatal Push when you want to play a significant amount of removal.

Collective Brutality - This card is capable of much more than it reads. Sure, discarding your Sword of the Meek for value is great. But what about emptying your hand for that follow up Ensnaring Bridge while taking the opponents answer at the same time? It also acts as removal and discard that doesn't get hit by your Chalice of the Void. Sometimes the drain for 2 is enough to put your opponent into lethal range with a Tezzeret ultimate. An All-Star in most Tezzeret builds. Play 2-3.

Thoughtseize/Inquisition of Kozelik - Hand disruption can be powerful when followed by an Ensnaring Bridge or another powerful play like Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas. Stripping hate cards post board and clearing the path in game 1.

Damnation - Sometimes creatures just need to be dead. Many lists play very few to zero creatures to support Ensnaring Bridge, making Damnation 1 sided. It is a great catch up card but 4 mana is a lot. Damnation usually makes the 75 but it's quantity and position are determined by the meta.

Whir of Invention – IS the focal point of almost every build now. Although comparable to Chord of Calling there are some key differences. The improvise mechanic does not allow us to tap blue artifacts to pay for its cost. This is hardly an issue since the only blue artifact we have interest in playing is Thopter Foundry. Getting Whir of Invention to X=2 or higher can be daunting but thankfully efficient 0-1 cost artifacts makes it possible. Below is a list of tricks possible with a Whir of Invention

Thirst for Knowledge - This card was restricted in Vintage until 2015. Possibly the most efficient instant speed card advantage effect in the game. However this card has fallen out of favor in most decks because 3 mana and card advantage doesn't work well with an Ensnaring Bridge strategy.

Serum Vision - Serum Visions is the definition of what makes a card exceedingly medium. We play it for the same reason most other blue decks do. It finds the cards we need when we need them the most efficiently.

Ideas Unbound - Allows for extremely fast combo hands by digging 3 deep for the combo as early as turn 2 while looting away Sword of the Meek. It also ensures that you won't have a clogged hand while attempting to lock out combat with an Ensnaring Bridge.

Ancient Stirrings - Playing Ancient Stirrings requires a greater slant towards green in the main deck and less reliance on finding Thopter Foundry off the top of your deck. It also fails to find the decks most powerful plays in Whir of Invention and Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas. However if finding your toolbox artifacts seems more valuable to you than the power plays consider splashing for this card.

Ensnaring Bridge - This is our crutch. This is how we keep up in the fast paced world that is Modern. Many games revolve around a turn 3 Ensnaring Bridge. It defends our life total and our Planeswalkers. It allows us to play an unconventional game of magic by almost entirely locking out the combat step and gaining virtual card advantage by ignoring most creatures our opponents play. Playing the correct amount of Ensnaring Bridges can be tricky. Play 4 and risk having too many 3+ drops stuck in your hand when you cast the first one. Play too few and you don't find it when you need it. For this reason, lists play 2-3 and tutor/defend them with Whir of Invention.

Thopter Foundry/Sword of the Meek - Free wins are free. Sometimes we can just end the game by curving into the combo turns 2-3 and grinding our opponent out over the next few turns. Other times we can set up a lock and then win within a couple turns of assembling the combo. Whir of Invention allows you to find the combo consistently and at instant speed. Always run 4 copies of Thopter Foundry but you only need to see 1 Sword of the Meek over the course of the entire game since the combo can begin from the graveyard. Often times, once the combo is assembled your hand is irrelevant and you spend every turn gaining life and creating thopters.
The combo is weak to graveyard hate and Stony Silence. If you expect either try to have an alternate win condition in games 2-3 by trimming the number of combo pieces but never all of them.

Time Seive - Time Seive allows you to go nearly infinite with Thopter/Sword once you have 5 mana. Make 5 thopters, gain 5 life, take an extra turn. The only reason this isn't infinite is because you run out of cards in your deck. But if you play Academy Ruins you can sacrifice an extra artifact to Time Seive or Thopter Foundry that you can put on top of deck every turn with Academy Ruins being truly infinite. Thopter/Sword is typically enough to win the game on its own but there are niche situations where you may want to be playing this third piece.

Krark-Clan Ironworks - Similar to Time Sieve this also lets you go infinite. Sacrifice 1 thopter to get 2 mana, making 2 thopters, repeat. This allows you to make infinite thopters and gain infinite life immediately, but unlike Time Sieve you will not get the opportunity to attack before passing the turn. This is typically a better third combo piece for finishing the game but also has the highest liability of getting stuck in your hand.

Mox Opal - What can be said about this card that hasn't already been said? It is a Mox. We are not affinity throwing a hand full of artifacts on the table turn 1 so 4 copies is dangerous. However 1-2 are free and incredibly powerful. Play a minimum of 1. Typically you play at least 3 if you have Darksteel Citadels or Mishra's Baubles.

Pentad Prism - Pentad Prism Creates for some crazy powerful Whir of Invention improvise plays. The turn you play a Pentad Prism it is even +1 for Whir of Invention, the next turn it is +3. It also allows for T3 Tezzeret and accelerates your mana development long enough to empty your hand for Ensnaring Bridge. Pentad Prism also creates mana of any color making a sideboard splash easier and Engineered Explosives more powerful. However it comes with the terrible downside of doing actual nothing a large percentage of time. If you don’t plan to play the long game and can afford some air in your deck, this card will pay dividends for you, otherwise avoid it for other cheap artifacts.

Pithing Needle - A great catch all for cards that may be difficult to answer. Many lists play 1 in the main to bail them out of otherwise precarious situations. Playing a second copy in sideboard is often correct in metas where you expect to see cards you otherwise can’t beat. Such as Planeswalkers and Oblivion Stone.

Sorcerers Spyglass - See Pithing Needle ^. However this can get around your Chalice of the Void.

Relic of Progenitus/Nihil Spellbomb/Tormod's Crypt - Great ways to develop a quick artifact count and destroy enemy graveyards without sacrificing consistency. Play at least 1 in the main and play as many as 3 after sideboard if you expect graveyard strategies to be prevalent. Relic of Progenitus is typically better unless you need to play it and blow it up with exactly 1 mana. You can usually play around exiling your own Sword of the Meek easy enough.

Engineered Explosives - EE can be dangerous because it could destroy a fair number of our own permanents. However its raw power and flexibility can persuade some players to play it in their 75.

Ratchet Bomb - Similar to Engineered Explosives but it is less flexible and slower. However you can use Whir of Invention to fetch it unlike Engineered Explosives.

Trading Post - Costs 4 mana to do nothing in many matches, but the matches where it is good it can take over a game. In slower games you can cycle expired Pentad Prisms, additional Mox Opals, Sword of the Meek or redundant lock pieces for new cards. It is common to have Ensnaring Bridge in play and have Whir of Invention be the last card in your hand. When you have neither of the combo pieces you still need a way to generate value with your [card]Whir of Invention[card] and [card]Trading Post[card] is the best option under the cost of 4.

Executioner's Capsule - An artifact Doom Blade. It seems some play but black creatures are everywhere and are likely the ones you want to be killing.

Crucible of Worlds - Crucible of Worlds paired with Ghost Quarter is slow but can be an effective win condition against greedy or grindy opponents. Previously didn't see play due to inconsistency but Whir of Invention allows you to play only 1 Crucible of Worlds and find it in the games where you need it most.

Expedition Map - A solid artifact but increases in power based on the number of utility lands you play. Very synergistic with Crucible of Worlds builds.

Welding Jar - A great way to defend your artifacts from point removal. A zero mana way to enable improvise and defend our most vital artifacts is something we are happy to play.

Chalice of the Void - Playing 4 Chalice of the Void is a tempting offer in a format as fast and efficient as Modern but the deck needs other 1 mana cards for its game plan to function effectively. The best way to play Chalice of the Void is split it between the main deck and sideboard.

Mishra's Bauble - Checks all the boxes for being an effective card in a Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas deck. Enabling faster Whir of Inventions, and Mox Opals while cycling for a new card later in the game. Mishra's Bauble allows you to inflate your artifact count without having to pay sub optimal cards. It functions as an Opt when paired with fetch lands and allows you to get hell bent for Ensnaring Bridge faster.

Bottled Cloister - A value play at 4 cmc. However unlike Trading Post this card works very well behind an Ensnaring Bridge and against hand disruption.

Dampening Sphere - The latest hotness. Gives us game against our two most difficult matchups Storm and Tron. Plat at least 2 in the 75.

Most lists play as few creatures as possible to blank all the removal the opponents are likely to be playing. Creatures are usually a plan B sideboard or have a spell like effect attached to them. You can even sac the Sword of the Meek to Sai, play an artifact to get a thopter and bring back the sword. Every artifact you cast now reads: Kicker: 1U Draw a card if you want it to with a Sword of the Meek in play.

Sai, Master Thopterist – This card has the potential to be a very powerful play out of the sideboard. Allows the deck to go wide and create thopters very quickly even with a Stony Silence on the battlefield. You can even sac the Sword of the Meek to Sai, play an artifact to get a thopter and bring back the sword. Every artifact you cast now reads: Kicker: 1U Draw a card if you want it to with a Sword of the Meek in play.

Glint-Nest Crane - The 1/3 flying body can be surprisingly relevant against 2 power creatures, Affinity's flying army and Infect. However when it is not relevant it still digs 4 deep for artifacts. Glint-Nest Crane gets significantly better when playing Darksteel Citadels to help hit land drops. Spending 2 mana to find an artifact can be dangerous when trying to empty your hand for an Ensnaring Bridge however you can choose to find nothing.

Spellskite - Spellskite would be the easiest auto include in this deck if he wasn't a magnet for creature removal. Despite that many players play 1-2. Post board your opponent will take out a lot of spot removal and Spellskite gets much better.

Herald of Anguish - A good hand can play this monster on turn 3. Any Pentad Prism hand with 4 lands can play him on turn 4. Post board after an opponent has taken out some removal Herald of Anguish can destroy them by gutting their hand and picking off their creatures while smashing for 5 in the air.

Trinket Mage - Commonly seen in U-Tron lists as a value generating tutor. However since the introduction of Whir of Invention this card has been largely replaced.

Trophy Mage - Has interesting utility in versions that play multiple 3 cmc artifacts but it is ultimately worse than Whir of Invention most of the time.

Scrap Trawler - More commonly seen in KCI decks but could have use in a hybridized Tezzerator/KCI deck.

Darkslick Shores - Play 4 copies. Fastlands are very powerful and in our deck it provides all the colors we need painlessly on the turns we need the colors most. The only reason to not play 4x would be for 3+ color splashes.

Polluted Delta - Play 4 copies. Fetches are the best lands in the game for a reason. Wildly flexible and help us play around Blood Moon and trigger revolt.

Any blue fetch land - Sometimes you need more than 4 ways to fetch Island and Watery Grave.

Watery Grave - Play as many as expect to want to play against an opponent who is disrupting your mana base. For most Tezzeret builds that number is 3.

Island/Swamp - Play as few as possible without getting punished for it. Normally this is 2 Island and 1 Swamp. In Whir of Invention lists an argument can be made for the 3rd Island over the Swamp.

Creeping Tar Pit - 3 power unblockable on a land is very powerful for chipping at opponents or assassinating Planeswalkers. However running such few creatures leaves it very susceptible to being removed. Also can't get under an Ensnaring Bridge.

Academy Ruins - Extremely powerful at combating grindy decks and punishes decks that want to dismantle your deck 1 piece at a time. Gets better the slower the meta is and gets better when you play fewer graveyard hate pieces.

Inventor's Fair - The last land that could tutor cards in Modern got banned. Eye of Ugin. Clearly that is not why it got banned but that didn't help its case either. Gaining incremental life and turning a flooded mane base into an artifact of your choice is very powerful. Despite its legendary status some lists try to squeeze in 2 copies.

Darksteel Citadel - Before Whir of Invention was printed Tezzeret decks had the flexibility to play more colorless lands. Not playing 4 copies of Darksteel Citadel was objectively wrong. It allows Tezzeret to dig for lands and frees up non-artifact spell slots. Plus indestructible 5/5 lands can beat just about everything but a Path to Exile or a Dismember. However it has to compete for a limited number of spots now and you can't jam 4 without sacrificing power elsewhere.

Ghost Quarter - Ghost Quarter has a powerful interaction alongside Crucible of Worlds. Ghost Quarter can also be bounced off a Darksteel Citadel to turn it into a basic land. Ghost Quarter attempts to destroy the land and then search for a basic. The land doesn't get destroyed because of the indestructible clause but Ghost Quarter still completes the remainder of the text. Often one of our better tools for disrupting big mana decks but tends to be worse than the colorless lands it is competing with.

Field of Ruins - A side grade to Ghost Quarter. Useful when you need to maintain your lands but still interact with your opponent’s mana base. However it can't be bounced off your Darksteel Citadels because it needs to be an opponent’s land.

Glimmervoid/Spire of Industry - Playing upwards of 13 artifacts that can be cast on turn 1 makes these cards consistent enough to be played in decks that are splashing a 3rd color from the sideboard. Typically you don't want these cards as multiples in you opening hand but you would like to see 1 by turn 3.

Sunken Ruins - Helps cast sideboard Damnation while still fetching islands. The more BB cost cards you play the better this gets.

Negate - It protects you from most mass artifact destruction as well as countering cards you otherwise can't beat like Oblivion Stone, Karn Liberated, Scapeshift, Ad Nauseum etc. Also has applications against decks like Burn and Lantern. The points of life loss from Countersquall don't matter enough to warrant its use over negate.

Flaying Tendrils - The exile clause is more relevant against decks like Counters Company than the scry 1 from Drown in Sorrow. Being able to mop up tokens, affinity creatures, Kitchen Finks, Voice of Resurgence and even Geist of Saint Traft have earned this card 1-2 spots. This is the go to anti-affinity tech alongside Damnation since Hurkyl's Recall doesn't seem to pull its weight.

Damnation - Outstanding magic card, but it exists in our deck mostly to help out against midrange decks and Eldrazi. Damnation is excellent at catching up from behind when Ensnaring Bridge is unreliable. 1-2 copies in the 75

Collective Brutality - I like to refer to this card as blacks Cryptic Command. This card does everything at a reasonable cost. It is a significant liability when counter spell decks are in the meta, but otherwise you should be trying to squeeze this card into your list.

Grafdigger's Cage - When you want to beat Dredge/Counters Company/Reanimator/Storm and mean it. Unlike Relic of Progenitus and Nihil Spellbomb this is a permanent answer.

Ghost Quarter - Whether it be the 4th Ghost Quarter for your Crucible of Worlds lock or the 1st copy to beat up Affinty and stall Scapeshift playing 1 in the sideboard can be considered valuable.

Chalice of the Void - There are some games where playing a Chalice of the Void is just lights out for your opponent. That is when you bring it in. You could play only 1 or as many as 3. 2 seems to be the best sideboard configuration for finding it without diluting your own effective 1 drops.

Herald of Anguish - More details on this guy in the creatures section, but it can be unstoppable against grindy decks post board if they took out too much of their removal or the removal they have can't interact with him. 1-3 copies can be played if your sideboard strategy involves leaving in Pentad Prism.

Witchbane Orb - Hexproof is great when there is a lot of Scapeshift or Burn in your meta although it is a bit slow. 1 copy is often right in the sideboard because it can be a complete blow out.

Padeem, Consul of Innovation - Again, excellent for dismantling midrange decks or anything that wants to go long. It protects all of your artifacts while drawing you an additional card every turn.

Surgical Extraction - Surgical Extraction gets better as you play more hand disruption but is serviceable on its own with Ghost Quarter lock to further deny your opponent.

Spellskite - Mentioned in the creatures section. Whenever Spellskite doesn't make the main deck 1 or 2 copies are preferred in the sideboard to help fight through artifact point removal once they board out removal spells.

Echoing Truth - It is not great but it deals with pesky permanents for a turn. Works great to bounce a Stony Silence and combo out. Usually the turn and a half with the combo is enough to win. Also makes dead hand disruption live in the late game by bouncing a permanent and then stripping it from their hand.

Unmoored Ego – This card attacks most of the decks this archetype has problems with. It can attack Tron lands, fast linear combo, dredge and sideboard cards we fear such as Stony Silence. It is highly recommend you play some number of these out of the sideboard.

Sideboard Splashes:

Green
Abrupt Decay - General permanent destruction for hard to handle artifacts and enchantments. This has become a sideboard staple for the deck as a catch all answer to Stony Silence/Rest In Peace/Liliana of the Veil. Play at least 2.

Assassin’s Trophy – Allows us to catch more cards than Abrupt Decay such as Planeswalkers and Leylines. However the uncounterable clause and ramping your opponent are real downsides. If control is on the downswing, consider playing this card.

Red
Crumble to Dust - Tron and Valakut decks can be difficult to beat and this is a big step in the right direction if you expect a lot of either.

Ghirapur Aether Grid - Great for picking apart decks with lots of X/1's or shooting down Planeswalkers. It can also be alternate win condition against Stony Silence.

Blood Moon - Did someone say that want to reach maximum greediness? Play Blood Moon! Very difficult to get a 3 color mana base to function with Blood Moon in play but various mana rocks can alleviate that pressure.

Faithless Looting – Possibly the best enabler for a graveyard combo deck that plays Ensnaring Bridge but the optimal solution for its use in tezzerator is yet to be found.

White

Ethersworn Cantonist - Great hate against other Turbo Xerox decks like Grixis Death's Shadow and Storm.

Disenchant effects - Great for combating opposing Stony Silences or Rest In peace.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/gplv18-modern/day-2-highlights-2018-06-16

Round 1: Skred Red 0-2
Game 1: I ask him if he brought his fun deck and says that he brought the fun deck over his competetive deck. I joke that this will be enjoyable unless his idea of fun is turn 1 Blood Moons. Promises me no turn 1 Blood Moon. He is on the play and goes "Snow-Covered Mountain, pass" so no turn 1 blood moon but a turn 3 blood moon indeed. I had a needle in my opener so I proactively needled Koth of the Hammer. He had Chandra, Torch of Defiance in hand instead. I get an Ensnaring Bridge into play but fail to find any action flooding on lands and die to a chandra ultimate combined with his main deck abrade.
Game 2: I have a fast combo and am working through a Relic of Progenitus which I eventually hit with Pithing Needle. I take a turn off comboing to jam a tezzeret and he answers back with Koth killing my Tezzeret. The turn after that he abrades my combo, then Goblin Dark-Dwellers the abrade. The next turn he replicates a shattering spree to destroy all of my non thopter artifacts and Anger of the Gods all my tokens. I lose. I was a little salty I was beaten by an Anger of the Gods that shouldn't have been in his deck after sideboard but I shrugged it off and moved on to the next round.

Round 2: Naya Eldrazi 1-2
Game 1: Looks like I am playing against RG eldrazi so I prioritize getting a bridge down asap and do so on turn 2 on the play. He almost conceded but after drawing for his turn decided to play it out because he assembled the Eldrazi Displacer/Thought-Knot Seer lock. If you don't know how this works you essentially draw two cards during your draw step and he decides which one you get to keep. While the triggers were on the stack I Whired into the combo and he eventually died to thopters.
Game 2: I keep a turn 2 Ensnaring Bridge hand but he is on the play with turn 2 Thought-Knot Seer which strips my bridge. I have nothing and he follows up with Reality Smasher making quick work of me.
Game 3: I keep a hand with an Abrupt Decay, Damnation, and Ensnaring Bridge. I use my decay to kill a Stony Silence but lose both my Ensnaring Bridge and Damnation to Thought-Knot Seers. I proceed to draw back to back Tezzerets that are unable to find another Ensnaring Bridge and I die.

Round 3: RG Ponza 2-1
Game 1: I have the combo online before Blood moon hits the table and I use my mountains to make a thopter army which kills him reasonably fast.
Game 2: I have the combo pretty quickly again but he keeps me at zero to one land for over 10 turns until he finds Inferno Titan.
Game 3: I go to one at least 4 times in this game while trying to race an Inferno Titan with thopter tokens. Eventually I find an Ensnaring Bridge to stabilize and take over the game.

Round 4: Vialess Merfolk 1-2
Game 1: He concedes to a turn 3 Ensnaring Bridge.
Game 2: I got the combo into play through a spell pierce and a Deprive but by the time I did that he was attacking for way too much unblockable damage.
Game 3: I have the combo, 2 Ensnaring Bridges, a bunch of removal and he has answers for ALL of it. I felt terribly unlucky. After the games we are talking about sideboard decisions and he brought 13 cards in against me. Hurkyl's Recall, Echoing Truth, Negate, Deprive, Spell Pierce, Ceremonious Rejection etc. So maybe not unlucky, but found the guy with all the sideboard for me.

Round 5: Mono Blue Turns 0-2
I have a friend who plays this deck and this matchup is not winnable. I find Tron to be a more winnable match up. We have to kill them before turn 5 because none of cards interact with their game plan meaningfully and killing before Turn 5 is super hard.
Game 1: I get the combo going and attack him to 9 before he combos off and kills me with an Emrakul the Aeons Torn.
Game 2: I have T2 Dampening Sphere into T3 Dampening Sphere into T4 Tezzeret make a 5/5, T5 Make a 5/5. I know sphere wouldn't do much but it was better than other cards I had. I couldn't race fast enough and he combos off killing me with an awakened Island.

Round 6: Mardu Pyromancer 2-1
Finally a match up I was looking forward to.
Game 1: I get the combo together and he can't beat it.
Game 2: I am hellbent with 2 Ensnaring Bridge on the table plus 2 Welding Jars and I feel like I am in command of this game. He has 8 tokens in play but none of them can attack. I cycle a bauble on his turn which draws me into 2 lands on my turn. I play one land and then have to take a hit form his tokens. Draw another land the next turn and am forced to take a second hit from the tokens. Draw a fourth consecutive land and die to his token army. This lost felt terrible. Maybe I shouldn't have cycled the bauble at this point knowing that this is the ONLY way I lose from here but the odds of me drawing 4 lands in a row was less than 1.5%
Game 3: Game develops in such a way that I have lethal with a Tezzeret on the table and he misplays by attacking me instead of Tezzeret. He asked me what the ultimate did when I killed him with it. :/
Despite winning I didn't even feel good about this match knowing that I could have prevented a loss in game 2 and likely would have lost game 3 had the opponent read my cards.

Round 7: Tron 1-2
Game 1: I feel pretty good about my position having Pithing Needled Karn, combo online, Ensnaring Bridge in play and Tezzeret in play. He rips Oblvion Stone and wipes my board away. I play a second Foundry from my hand and use my Darksteel Citadel to begin the combo once again. He draws Ugin and exiles my Thopters and Thopter Foundry. I am able to end step a whir for a third foundry, combo, and have enough thopters to kill Ugin. He then has a World Breaker to destroy my Thopter Foundry. I draw Ensnaring Bridge for turn, He plays Ulamog to exile my bridge and I concede. EVERY time I get some hope against Tron they are able to cantrip through their deck to chain together ridiculous plays like these.
Game 2: I have the turn 2 Dampening Sphere while he does everything he can to stop Thopter combo. Eventually I am able to kill with a Tezzeret ultimate after he drew many lands in a row.
Game 3: He had the T3 Karn into T4 Ulamog on the play hand. I lost very quickly.

Round 8: Burn 1-2
My oppoenet was a few minutes late to the table but we weren't playing for anything of value so I decided not to call a judge and just play.
Game 1: I get the combo online T3 and make one thopter. He was on the play and was able to kill me on turn 4 with his Searing Blaze removing the blocker and burning me for 3 more.
Game 2: I have some removal plus the combo and he concedes while I was at 9 health starting to make thopters.
Game 3: I was at 3 life with one open mana after assembling the combo. He had an unknown card in hand plus a Swiftspear in play. I combo on my turn to play around a 3 damage burn spell on his turn but his last card in hand was a Searing Blaze which killed my thopter and let the Swiftspear get in for lethal. I don't know why he had Searing Blaze in after sideboard. We talked about board decisions after the match and he boarded out his Boros Charms for cards like Rest in Peace and Relic of Progentius. Which in my opinion is clearly wrong, Boros Charm is much better than Searing Blaze in the matchup and his Lava Spikes are better then RIP or Relic.

Round 9: My teamates were dead for top 8 so we headed for Subway and then back to Maine.