Oh, just wanted to let you guys know that bridgevine is all over MTGO these last few days. If you face them, don't really bother with the combo unless you disrupt them, (they can make a million 2/2's out of nowhere), just race to bridge and it's gg game one. Casting discard on yourself if you have a bridge in hand is often correct, as is dumping extra whirs to brutality, etc. Flaying Tendrils has been very good out of the board; I'm on 2 the last few leagues. Does work against humans and hollow one, too.
You are liking it against Humans? I kept finding that every time I wanted to cast it the humans were all bigger than 2/2's and it did nothing. Admittedly my sample size was low so maybe I will try it again.
@Deleno+Everyone?: I also don't run maelstrom pulse and you make a good case for the hate declining but given the rising popularity of the hollow one and bridge from below decks we might see a surge in Leyline of the Void. If that happens we will likely need to run 1 maelstrom pulse.
@HiltonMode: You don't need the misty's. It can be 4x Polluted Delta and then 4x of any blue fetchland plus the one breeding pool. If I HAD to run it Esper I would swamp all of your Fatal Pushes for Path to Exile. This deck doesn't care all that much about the tempo swing since it plans to setup an Ensnaring Bridge. I'd also swamp 1x Tezzeret for 1x Teferi. Card is busted and if you are in white having the out to draw one seems very strong.
Realistically, if I was dead set on playing Esper I would run it UWb and my only black would be for sideboard cards. Might even just be Tezzeret and brutality. Swap Time Seive for KCI, Push for Path, Brutality for Blessed Alliance. Make your planeswalkers JTMS and Teferi game 1.
@racing089 I saw you cut Revoker for Pithing Needle #3, as well as 2x Collective Brutality from the board for a Battle at the Bridge and an EE. Did you like the first Battle more than the 3rd copy of Collective Brutality? And was the EE worth playing or was it's a bit too clunky?
I'll admit I didn't get much of a chance to test revoker but it was mostly to combat KCI and my local meta had a sharp decline in KCI so I opted for the Pithing Needle over it.
I really liked the 1st battle over the collective brutality. In most games where you want more removal the creatures have very little toughness. It becomes a sorcery speed fatal push that gains you 1-5 life. If there is a creature worth killing it doesn't matter if I do it main phase or on their turn most of the time.
EE was mostly an availability situation. Most of my collection was tied up and I couldn't get to the cards I wanted, however I would have brought the 3rd collective brutality as a multi-purpose tool against aggro and combo.
Going forward I am going to make some changes with the deck. I have a friend who has been playing my list a lot to give me some outside perspective (I have been jamming his UW miracles) and these are the changes we decided on:
Main-
-1 Dampning Sphere
-1 Witchbane Orb
-1 Island
-2 Fatal Push
Side-
-1 Damnation
-1 EE
Main-
+2 Lotv
+2 Talisman of Dominance (Open to suggestions here but I needed to artifacts and the fixing seemed good with the addition of a BB card)
+1 Academy Ruins
Side-
+1 Dampning Sphere
+1 Witchbane Orb
@theobodys: Transmute Artifact is absurdly good. It is basically whir except always costs UUx Where x is less then or equal to 1. It was my favorite card when playing with the archetype. Baleful Strix is also absurd though. It likely won't shine in a deck where it is the only creature but if you play it alongside other bodies like Phyrexian Revoker or the SFM package it gets significantly stronger.
Also if you are already Esper and playing Transmute Artifact you should try out 1 Breya, Etherium Shaper. Especially if you have Mox Diamond or some other way of fixing the red when you draw it. The card is an absolute HOUSE against the grindy strategies.
I keep a 2 land hand, one of which was a swamp. I fail to find 3 blue sources for my whir of invention and die before I am able to assemble the combo. My hand was somewhat sketchy and I ended up doing very little this game while getting beat down by lingering souls tokens.
I boarded out my removal and irrelevant lock pieces for cards that I felt would do something. Common theme of the day was wanting to board out more cards then I boarded in.
Game 2 I assemble the combo by the end of turn 3 and he scoops to it shortly after.
Game 3 was a long and grindy game but eventually I used Abrupt Decay on his Stony Silence and made enough thopters for lethal the next turn.
Round 2: U-Tron
Game 1 he spell pierces my turn 2 and turn 3 thopter foundry’s before natural drawing into tron on turn 4 and casting Sundering Titan. I managed to get the combo together but not before he mindslavered me. I lose.
Again I board out all of my removal for cards that did more.
Game 2: I squeeze a Tezzeret into play and proceed to kill him with 5/5 creatures.
Game 3: More of game 2 but he used up all of his counter magic on the combo before Tezzeret slammed the door shut.
Round 3: Naya Scapeshift
Game 1: T3 BBE into T4 BBE into Primeval Titan. I died.
I’m not super well equipped for this deck but I bring in cards that can destroy a stony silence as well as more needles because he had a wide array of planeswalkers.
Game 2: I get the combo and he plays rest in peace immediately after. I lock the board up with Ensnaring Bridge, 2x Welding Jar, Witchbane Orb and needles. He draws Stony Silence into Abrade before I can find an Abrupt Decay and I am unable to protect my bridge with Welding Jars and lose.
Round 4: Dredge
I mulligan to 4 and he keeps 6. His hand does nothing expect cast dredge creatures and I assemble the combo by turn 5 to take the win.
Board out every card that does nothing for cards that have minimal but more impact.
T1 Nihil Spellbomb into T2 Whir for Grafdigger’s cage since I was already holding the combo. My hand was absurd and I take an easy 2-0 victory.
Round 5: Affinity
He has a slow hand I have a ton of removal. I buy enough time to set up the combo and he concedes.
KEEP my removal but board out most of the top of my curve. I cut 1 Tezzeret, 2 Whir of Invention in addition to the irrelevant pieces in this match.
I have some removal followed by Ensnaring Bridge into Tezzeret. He is unable to beat Tezzeret and eventually loses to Tezzeret ultimate.
Before round 6 I think I can draw into top 8 but players better than me explain that if I draw I have about a 1/3 chance of not making it in. My opponent overhears and learns that he will then have a 2/3 chance of not making it in if we draw. Eventually we decide on playing it out.
Round 6: Jeskai Control
I have played against this player before and know the matchup is incredibly favorable for me. However during game 1 see over 45 cards (he almost decked) and find zero Sword of the Meek and only one Whir of Invention which gets countered while I have all 4 Thopter Foundry in play. I lose game one with less than 20 minutes left in the round.
Board out all of my removal for cards that interact.
WE trade resources for a while before I find a Window to get Tezzeret onto the table. My opponent was able to deal with it but by then I had already found the combo and began killing him.
Game 3 starts with less than 8 minutes on the clock. Again I have turn 2 Thopter Foundry but I don’t find the Sword of the Meek until my last turn of turns. I ate my entire board with thopter foundry to stay alive and block long enough to get the draw.
The way things worked out I now have a 50/50 chance of making 8th seed instead of winning and getting 1st seed. Luckily the breakers fall my way and I make into top 8.
Quarterfinals: Ad Nausem
Game 1 I quickly assemble to the combo and strip my opponents Ad Nausem. I think I have won and he draws one off the top to kill me just in time.
Cut all the removal and bring in the extra Dampning Sphere as well as needles and abrupt decays.
I assemble the combo and tutor a Dampening Sphere into play. He can’t combo off through it in time and I win.
Game 3. Spoiler. I punted. We get into this position where I have made it so he can’t win through lightning storm and has to win with laboratory maniac. I have the combo online, Dampning Sphere in play and Tezzeret ready to ultimate. My opponent has Phyrexian Unlife in play and about 10 life. I consult with a Judge to ask how Tezzeret's ultimate interacts with Phyrexian Unlife and his response was “Your opponent will lose all of their life and be at zero life”. For whatever reason I took this as confirmation that Tezzeret ultimate would kill my opponent through Phyrexian Unlife so I attacked for 3 then -4 Tezzeret. Now I learn that he isn’t dead and I need to keep playing. Next turn I am able to attack for 7 poison damage but then he has just enough mana to kill me through the Dampning Sphere. Had I used Tezzeret's Ultimate, then attacked I would have gotten the 3 additional poison I needed to win the game. It feels bad but it was a valuable lesson. I know judges aren’t allowed to help in any way but I sure wish there was a way of answering the question you are asking while being less cryptic. Next time I’ll have to be more specific and double check everything before I proceed.
I know people here have been talking about cutting Tezzerets again and I just don't see it. Tezzeret put the game on his back carried me to victory multiple times throughout the tournament today and I will absolutely be keeping my configuration of 2+1.
@dustycrumbz: I feel like 2 main deck Tezzeret is exactly where I want to be but the main deck witchbane orb may not be good enough. I really like having it to slam the door shut against burn/valakut plus it is my primary route to victory against storm in game 1 but those are the ONLY matches where I am happy to see it. I think the key to evaluating Tezzeret is that you want to draw it ASAP once you get to 4+ lands but you don't want it until that point. I still want to play JTMS but I can't justify so many 4 cmc cards with limited acceleration and Tezzeret is far superior in this deck. In addition to that Tezzeret is one of our few outs in the combo matchups. If they stumble and you can start making 5/5 creatures you can end the game before they are able to get where they want to be. Typically a Whir for 1 lock piece + Tezzeret can beat combo but a lot of things need to go right in your opening 10 cards to make that work for you.
Against combo I still want the combo. This is really a thopter/sword deck above all else. Sure you prioritize the lock pieces against combo because you don't want to die but once you have decided you are not dying the combo is the threat that wins you the game. The combo can be assembled at instant speed which is HUGE against combo. Think about it, if you are safe enough to tap down for Tezzeret/Herald against Storm or KCI then you were in a winning position already. Typically you threaten the Whir of Invention until you can use it combo off instead of needing to use it as a lock piece. A good player will eventually force your hand but sometimes they can't and you get to combo kill them instead of locking them out.
The hardest part about playing this deck is deciding when you need to play to win instead of not to lose. Tezzeret and Whir let you do that. I have won games where I feel that I wouldn't have won maybe 6 months ago by trying to really identify my position in the game and decide if locking them out really gives me the best win percentage versus jamming a threat.
@Madmartig0n: Boomforest makes a good point. Talisman's and Mox Opals should really only be counted has half sources. In addition to that you can't count them as many sources until they would be functional. For example you can't count Talisman of Dominance as a source or as fixing for your 2 cmc cards. Mox Opal is a significantly more complex but I typically generalize it and guess it won't be active until the end of my turn 2.
You absolutely want to hit 4 lands on turn 4 so that you can cast Tezzeret and keep emptying your hand for the 3 ensnaring bridges. This means you need ~24 sources and right now you have ~20. In addition to that all but 2 of them should produce blue in order to cast Whir of Invention on time. My recommend mana configuration for you would look something like this:
2x Talisman of Dominance
2x Pentad Prism
2x Mox Opal
If you did away with JTMS you could cut the 5 off color fetches for an off color dual and 4x Spire of Industry to enable a sideboard splash but in order to get the most out of JTMS you need a critical mass of fetchlands.
@boomforest: I wouldn't say the artifact hate is what makes this deck incapable of tier 1. In my opinion it simply isn't powerful enough. All of the other tiered decks in modern do WAY more powerful things then we are doing. 5 thopters/5 life by the end of turn 4 is much worse then killing your opponent by the end of turn 4. Not to say artifact hate isn't a contributing factor but it certainly isn't the major limitation on the archetype currently.
@pasngr46n2: I found the 10 sources of green I am running to be adequate. You almost never need Abrupt Decay on turn 2. You can continue to deploy all of your cards into Stony Silence and Rest in Peace before removing the hate on a later turn. In addition to that I am not sure we even need the green splash anymore. The prominent white decks are not playing Stony Silence and only some are playing Rest in Peace. The only reason I am still running it is because the 1x Breeding Pool is very nearly free.
Blood Moon isn't much of an issue. You need one of each basic or a basic + Mox Opal to cast every card in the deck but Whir of Invention. If you fetch duals and get caught off guard in game one you can lose to it but once you are prepared post board it should be easy.
I am going to play with Sai in a standard build but I think playing a main deck creature in our list is not good. It will just be a magnet for every piece of removal they have and makes sideboarding into creatures worse because they will leave in more creature removal.
You can't replace Mox Opal with Mox Amber. They require two completely different things to activate them. Substitute them for any artifact that costs 0-1 and does something. Like Pithing Needle, Relic of Progenitus, Welding Jar, Nihil Spellbomb, Grafdigger's Cage, Tormod's Crypt.
@boomforest: We just talked about it on the page before this one actually. It can hit mana abilities and now that KCI is a popular deck it can shut off KCI where Pithing Needle can not. You can also name Noble Hierarch against Humans and stars/spheres against Tron.
@headminerve: You are not wrong, we don't know what wizards is going to do. I thought I'd share the list I played around with in case I wasn't the only one thinking about it. Consider a thought experiment more than anything. For example, maybe we could try using Etched Champion as something similar to a True-Name Nemesis. Maybe it is time to play more main deck creatures and ditch ensnaring bridge now that Phyrexian Revoker has more applications? I don't know, but they are ideas worth considering.
My play group got hyped over the potential unbanning of Stoneforge Mystic. They convinced me that it was likely to be getting unbanned and I started theory crafting an Esper Tezzerator list just in case. I ended up really liking the way the deck looked despite almost never casting white cards. I took a bunch of inspiration from legacy stoneblade lists and this was the result:
I found that attacking the hand with cards like Inquisition of Kozelik and Thoughtseize was not what I wanted to be doing. A lot of the format has been warped around the ability to beat decks that use these tools as disruption. For example of the top 12 decks of the formatI would only want the hand disruption against the two control decks and storm. They are okay in some other matchups like Humans or IOK against burn but the hand disruption loses most of it's value when it is no longer a universal piece of disruption. My local meta is particularly dense with Tron so I am running 3 needle effects and 2 Dampening Sphere in the 75 alongside the 4x Whir of Invention. I am also playing a Time Sieve to help race the various combo decks in my meta like Ad Nausem, Valakut and Counters Company.
I mentioned before that I was going to test [card]Tezzeret, Master Artificer[/card in modern. I did and I would not recommend that anyone else waste their time. The card itself was absurdly powerful but the shell you have to put him into was terrible. It is probably at its best in Legacy alongside sol lands and Baleful Strix.
You are liking it against Humans? I kept finding that every time I wanted to cast it the humans were all bigger than 2/2's and it did nothing. Admittedly my sample size was low so maybe I will try it again.
Realistically, if I was dead set on playing Esper I would run it UWb and my only black would be for sideboard cards. Might even just be Tezzeret and brutality. Swap Time Seive for KCI, Push for Path, Brutality for Blessed Alliance. Make your planeswalkers JTMS and Teferi game 1.
I'll admit I didn't get much of a chance to test revoker but it was mostly to combat KCI and my local meta had a sharp decline in KCI so I opted for the Pithing Needle over it.
I really liked the 1st battle over the collective brutality. In most games where you want more removal the creatures have very little toughness. It becomes a sorcery speed fatal push that gains you 1-5 life. If there is a creature worth killing it doesn't matter if I do it main phase or on their turn most of the time.
EE was mostly an availability situation. Most of my collection was tied up and I couldn't get to the cards I wanted, however I would have brought the 3rd collective brutality as a multi-purpose tool against aggro and combo.
Going forward I am going to make some changes with the deck. I have a friend who has been playing my list a lot to give me some outside perspective (I have been jamming his UW miracles) and these are the changes we decided on:
Main-
-1 Dampning Sphere
-1 Witchbane Orb
-1 Island
-2 Fatal Push
Side-
-1 Damnation
-1 EE
Main-
+2 Lotv
+2 Talisman of Dominance (Open to suggestions here but I needed to artifacts and the fixing seemed good with the addition of a BB card)
+1 Academy Ruins
Side-
+1 Dampning Sphere
+1 Witchbane Orb
Also if you are already Esper and playing Transmute Artifact you should try out 1 Breya, Etherium Shaper. Especially if you have Mox Diamond or some other way of fixing the red when you draw it. The card is an absolute HOUSE against the grindy strategies.
1 Breeding Pool
4 Darkslick Shores
1 Flooded Strand
1 Inventors' Fair
3 Island
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
3 Watery Grave
Spells:
2 Collective Brutality
4 Fatal Push
4 Serum Visions
2 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
4 Whir of Invention
1 Damping Sphere
3 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Mishra's Bauble
2 Mox Opal
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Pithing Needle
1 Relic of Progenitus
3 Sword of the Meek
4 Thopter Foundry
1 Time Sieve
1 Welding Jar
1 Witchbane Orb
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Battle at the Bridge
1 Bontu's Last Reckoning
2 Damnation
1 Damping Sphere
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Herald of Anguish
2 Pithing Needle
1 Spellskite
1 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
1 Welding Jar
Round 1: Esper Midrange
I keep a 2 land hand, one of which was a swamp. I fail to find 3 blue sources for my whir of invention and die before I am able to assemble the combo. My hand was somewhat sketchy and I ended up doing very little this game while getting beat down by lingering souls tokens.
I boarded out my removal and irrelevant lock pieces for cards that I felt would do something. Common theme of the day was wanting to board out more cards then I boarded in.
Game 2 I assemble the combo by the end of turn 3 and he scoops to it shortly after.
Game 3 was a long and grindy game but eventually I used Abrupt Decay on his Stony Silence and made enough thopters for lethal the next turn.
Round 2: U-Tron
Game 1 he spell pierces my turn 2 and turn 3 thopter foundry’s before natural drawing into tron on turn 4 and casting Sundering Titan. I managed to get the combo together but not before he mindslavered me. I lose.
Again I board out all of my removal for cards that did more.
Game 2: I squeeze a Tezzeret into play and proceed to kill him with 5/5 creatures.
Game 3: More of game 2 but he used up all of his counter magic on the combo before Tezzeret slammed the door shut.
Round 3: Naya Scapeshift
Game 1: T3 BBE into T4 BBE into Primeval Titan. I died.
I’m not super well equipped for this deck but I bring in cards that can destroy a stony silence as well as more needles because he had a wide array of planeswalkers.
Game 2: I get the combo and he plays rest in peace immediately after. I lock the board up with Ensnaring Bridge, 2x Welding Jar, Witchbane Orb and needles. He draws Stony Silence into Abrade before I can find an Abrupt Decay and I am unable to protect my bridge with Welding Jars and lose.
Round 4: Dredge
I mulligan to 4 and he keeps 6. His hand does nothing expect cast dredge creatures and I assemble the combo by turn 5 to take the win.
Board out every card that does nothing for cards that have minimal but more impact.
T1 Nihil Spellbomb into T2 Whir for Grafdigger’s cage since I was already holding the combo. My hand was absurd and I take an easy 2-0 victory.
Round 5: Affinity
He has a slow hand I have a ton of removal. I buy enough time to set up the combo and he concedes.
KEEP my removal but board out most of the top of my curve. I cut 1 Tezzeret, 2 Whir of Invention in addition to the irrelevant pieces in this match.
I have some removal followed by Ensnaring Bridge into Tezzeret. He is unable to beat Tezzeret and eventually loses to Tezzeret ultimate.
Before round 6 I think I can draw into top 8 but players better than me explain that if I draw I have about a 1/3 chance of not making it in. My opponent overhears and learns that he will then have a 2/3 chance of not making it in if we draw. Eventually we decide on playing it out.
Round 6: Jeskai Control
I have played against this player before and know the matchup is incredibly favorable for me. However during game 1 see over 45 cards (he almost decked) and find zero Sword of the Meek and only one Whir of Invention which gets countered while I have all 4 Thopter Foundry in play. I lose game one with less than 20 minutes left in the round.
Board out all of my removal for cards that interact.
WE trade resources for a while before I find a Window to get Tezzeret onto the table. My opponent was able to deal with it but by then I had already found the combo and began killing him.
Game 3 starts with less than 8 minutes on the clock. Again I have turn 2 Thopter Foundry but I don’t find the Sword of the Meek until my last turn of turns. I ate my entire board with thopter foundry to stay alive and block long enough to get the draw.
The way things worked out I now have a 50/50 chance of making 8th seed instead of winning and getting 1st seed. Luckily the breakers fall my way and I make into top 8.
Quarterfinals: Ad Nausem
Game 1 I quickly assemble to the combo and strip my opponents Ad Nausem. I think I have won and he draws one off the top to kill me just in time.
Cut all the removal and bring in the extra Dampning Sphere as well as needles and abrupt decays.
I assemble the combo and tutor a Dampening Sphere into play. He can’t combo off through it in time and I win.
Game 3. Spoiler. I punted. We get into this position where I have made it so he can’t win through lightning storm and has to win with laboratory maniac. I have the combo online, Dampning Sphere in play and Tezzeret ready to ultimate. My opponent has Phyrexian Unlife in play and about 10 life. I consult with a Judge to ask how Tezzeret's ultimate interacts with Phyrexian Unlife and his response was “Your opponent will lose all of their life and be at zero life”. For whatever reason I took this as confirmation that Tezzeret ultimate would kill my opponent through Phyrexian Unlife so I attacked for 3 then -4 Tezzeret. Now I learn that he isn’t dead and I need to keep playing. Next turn I am able to attack for 7 poison damage but then he has just enough mana to kill me through the Dampning Sphere. Had I used Tezzeret's Ultimate, then attacked I would have gotten the 3 additional poison I needed to win the game. It feels bad but it was a valuable lesson. I know judges aren’t allowed to help in any way but I sure wish there was a way of answering the question you are asking while being less cryptic. Next time I’ll have to be more specific and double check everything before I proceed.
I know people here have been talking about cutting Tezzerets again and I just don't see it. Tezzeret put the game on his back carried me to victory multiple times throughout the tournament today and I will absolutely be keeping my configuration of 2+1.
Against combo I still want the combo. This is really a thopter/sword deck above all else. Sure you prioritize the lock pieces against combo because you don't want to die but once you have decided you are not dying the combo is the threat that wins you the game. The combo can be assembled at instant speed which is HUGE against combo. Think about it, if you are safe enough to tap down for Tezzeret/Herald against Storm or KCI then you were in a winning position already. Typically you threaten the Whir of Invention until you can use it combo off instead of needing to use it as a lock piece. A good player will eventually force your hand but sometimes they can't and you get to combo kill them instead of locking them out.
The hardest part about playing this deck is deciding when you need to play to win instead of not to lose. Tezzeret and Whir let you do that. I have won games where I feel that I wouldn't have won maybe 6 months ago by trying to really identify my position in the game and decide if locking them out really gives me the best win percentage versus jamming a threat.
You absolutely want to hit 4 lands on turn 4 so that you can cast Tezzeret and keep emptying your hand for the 3 ensnaring bridges. This means you need ~24 sources and right now you have ~20. In addition to that all but 2 of them should produce blue in order to cast Whir of Invention on time. My recommend mana configuration for you would look something like this:
1x Swamp
1x Inventor's Fair
4x Polluted Delta
3x Watery Grave
4x Darkslick Shores
1x Sunken Ruins
2x Island
1x Swamp Fetchland
4x Island Fetchland
2x Talisman of Dominance
2x Pentad Prism
2x Mox Opal
If you did away with JTMS you could cut the 5 off color fetches for an off color dual and 4x Spire of Industry to enable a sideboard splash but in order to get the most out of JTMS you need a critical mass of fetchlands.
Blood Moon isn't much of an issue. You need one of each basic or a basic + Mox Opal to cast every card in the deck but Whir of Invention. If you fetch duals and get caught off guard in game one you can lose to it but once you are prepared post board it should be easy.
I am going to play with Sai in a standard build but I think playing a main deck creature in our list is not good. It will just be a magnet for every piece of removal they have and makes sideboarding into creatures worse because they will leave in more creature removal.
You can't replace Mox Opal with Mox Amber. They require two completely different things to activate them. Substitute them for any artifact that costs 0-1 and does something. Like Pithing Needle, Relic of Progenitus, Welding Jar, Nihil Spellbomb, Grafdigger's Cage, Tormod's Crypt.
1 Academy Ruins
4 Flooded Strand
2 Godless Shrine
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Island
4 Marsh Flats
2 Plains
1 Spire of Industry
1 Swamp
1 Watery Grave
Non-Artifacts:
2 Collective Brutality
1 Fatal Push
4 Lingering Souls
4 Path to Exile
4 Serum Visions
4 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
4 Darksteel Citadel
1 Batterskull
2 Etched Champion
1 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of the Meek
3 Thopter Foundry
4 Tidehollow Sculler
1 Anguished Unmaking
2 Collective Brutality
2 Damping Sphere
2 Disenchant
1 Dispel
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Spellskite
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Sword of War and Peace
1 Welding Jar
1 Wrath of God
Anyone else play with this idea?
1 Breeding Pool
4 Darkslick Shores
1 Inventors' Fair
3 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
3 Watery Grave
Spells:
2 Collective Brutality
4 Fatal Push
4 Serum Visions
2 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
4 Whir of Invention
1 Damping Sphere
3 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Mishra's Bauble
2 Mox Opal
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Pithing Needle
1 Relic of Progenitus
3 Sword of the Meek
4 Thopter Foundry
1 Time Seive
1 Welding Jar
1 Witchbane Orb
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Bontu's Last Reckoning
2 Collective Brutality
2 Damnation
1 Damping Sphere
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Herald of Anguish
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Pithing Needle
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Spellskite
1 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
I found that attacking the hand with cards like Inquisition of Kozelik and Thoughtseize was not what I wanted to be doing. A lot of the format has been warped around the ability to beat decks that use these tools as disruption. For example of the top 12 decks of the formatI would only want the hand disruption against the two control decks and storm. They are okay in some other matchups like Humans or IOK against burn but the hand disruption loses most of it's value when it is no longer a universal piece of disruption. My local meta is particularly dense with Tron so I am running 3 needle effects and 2 Dampening Sphere in the 75 alongside the 4x Whir of Invention. I am also playing a Time Sieve to help race the various combo decks in my meta like Ad Nausem, Valakut and Counters Company.
I mentioned before that I was going to test [card]Tezzeret, Master Artificer[/card in modern. I did and I would not recommend that anyone else waste their time. The card itself was absurdly powerful but the shell you have to put him into was terrible. It is probably at its best in Legacy alongside sol lands and Baleful Strix.
What has been working for everyone else lately?