MTG Salvation

I threw together a little list here for Tezzeret the Schemer, focused on combos. The deck seems like it might be a little light on card draw, but after having gold-fished it, it seems like it runs pretty well in a vacuum at least.

*Updated 4/29/18*



Maybe Board

• 1 Underhanded Designs
  
• 1 The Antiquities War

I didn't include Search for Azcanta because I strongly believe grave hate will be everywhere. I think graveyard hate is going to be a big deal in this format right now with embalm, eternalize and other such things running around. It would be silly not to be running at least 1 or 2 such cards in your deck. I don't have a Scarab God, nor the desire to drop that kind of cash for one. That being said, I don't think he's critical to u/b decks right now built with combo in mind.

I think this is a pretty good place to start testing! Seems to have a selection of quality answers and some clear win conditions.

I think you're missing Inspiring Statuary though. Going to be very, very good with torment to crank out huge spells and, if you're not opposed to it, that may make this a Paradox Engine deck as well. This whole line starts to pull in a direction. You'd want to add Whir of Invention to get it. With those additions, you'd also likely want to improve your draw sweet as well. Pull from Tomorrow makes the cut for sure and I think you'd even want to look at something like Secrets of the Golden City or Reverse Engineer.

If you opt not to go in this more, combo-y direction, I think Underhanded Designs makes for a good way to win through board stalls and is worth considering.

I considered paradox engine, but there really isn't much to abuse it with in here. Whir of Invention was in the original list, but I really looked at the list and there isnt much to fetch with it outside the hulks and maybe a missing module.

Like I said, adding Statuary makes Paradox Engine really good. Adding Engine makes Whir and Pull from Tomorrow way better and so on. Once you start sliding down the slope of building around Engine, it changes the value of certain cards. If you want to stay off the Engine plan, most of those cards stay pretty mediocre. Although Statuary is still good here. Makes all your treasure tap for mana instead of having to sac them.

Statuary was something I looked at, I might still do it. I still look at paradox engine as a piece that is out of place. There isn't a lot of card draw to abuse the untap on rocks (that and there are hardly any colored rocks). It just needs too many things to be useful here and despite being lackluster, will paint a huge target on me in multiplayer.

I hear yeah. As long as you have Statuary in place, the Treasure are pseudo-colored rocks. Tap them for colorless, or sac them for colored as needed to keep the train rolling. If you can get two colored producing rocks in play, you should be able to cast anything in your deck. It's certainly clunkier than it is in EDH, but I think it would work.

Again, the main issue is there isn't a card draw engine to abuse it with. I can have all the mana in the world... and be top decking. In normal commander, paradox engine is busted. In brawl, it really just kinda sits there, even with the mana from statuary and treasure/cells. I just feel like commander players lean towards paradox engine being an auto include everywhere and it just isn't good here. You are welcome to try it, but I'm finding this format is more fast-paced than typical commander and dropping a bullseye paperweight like paradox engine is a good way to get scrubbed off the table. There just isn't a turn where tapping out to play an engine is a good idea. I went through the planning with engine already, even going so far as to include Quicksmith Spy to get a card draw engine and there just isn't enough room in the deck for that kind of jank. That 60 card pool really makes it all about answers and wincons, and pradox engine here is neither, sadly.

That's all fair assessment. I'll let you know how it performs in the Grixis deck I've built specifically to try and break it. The decks are very similar, but I felt like red offered some powerful options and Bolas is a great back-up plan Commander.

Yeah, I looked at Bolas, I just feel the game is going to be pretty far along by the time you can cast him. I definitely like Tezzeret because he is going to help ramp to those 6+ drops as well as be a wincon (emblem) in the command zone. His removal is just a bonus really. Let me know how Bolas goes, I just think the format is going to be too fast for him with t3-4 fatties and heavy aggro due to limited control and lowered life.

First game with Bolas, I could have, probably, cast it 4 or 5 times during the game, but one of my OPs slammed The Immortal Sun and no one destroyed it. I believe the format is slow. Even with good decks.

Also played heads up and slammed Bolas on turn 5 after Spell Swindle. It was very, very good in that game.

Played a game against Locust God and Kambal today and eventually won with the following list:
https://deckstats.net/decks/43286/949983-treazzurett

Statuary was bonkers, I ended up casting Tezzeret 4 times throughout the match and I was able to use my aetherium cells and treasure to improvise away the additional cost each time and spin him out while just tapping a manalith and a land usually.

Pyramid of the pantheon was amazing as well, I spent most of the game with it tapping for 3 mana and cast a Bontu's last reckoning with it without tying up my lands.

The game lasted for about 90 minutes as we kept smashing each other's boards states, but I eventually ran away with a Torrential GearHulk with mechanized production copying it every turn and started recasting all my kill spells and then anthem'd Tezzeret and just crushed everyone with 5/5 and 5/6 artifacts.

Yeah this has basically been my view of how the deck runs. I've been messing with the statuary, and I do like it (it's always been decent in my commander decks, but having Tezz as commander makes it a lot more appealing). Glancing over your list...

Servo Schematic: I had this in my original line-up and it seems really good in that it provides early game improvise fuel... but after having tested it some, I decided I didn't really like it that much and ended up dropping it. I probably would be more on-board if we could abuse the grave trigger better.

Essence Scatter/Horns***gle: Horns***gle was in my original concept, but the more I thought about it, the more I just wanted removal that didn't rely on me keeping mana open. I ended up replacing it with Chupacabra in my list (I know you have it in yours already). I would definitely be running Disallow, as it solves a huge range of threats (my favorite being The Scarab God's death trigger), not even sure why you would consider running essence scatter over it.

Kumena's Awakening: I really want to make room for this card, but I just hate seeing it in opener. I don't want to play it until I get City's Blessing (I know it's not hard with Tezz, but still), which kind of makes it a dead card until you have a board state. That being said, I am still going to mess with it.

Battle at the Bridge: I love this card in standard treazzurett, as it gives a solid answer to a large number of threats. In Brawl though, it kept ending up in the pile of cards to potentially cut for others. I couldn't really understand why until I really started to look at it in this format. Like Kumena's, it will require a board state to really be a good value. It's definitely a decent card, but ultimately I replaced it with the more direct Never // Return, which can kill walkers and can remove problematic cards in graveyards while giving you a body later.

Padeem, Consul of Innovation: I want to like her, but, 4 mana for that body is pretty underwhelming. Board wipes are pretty common in this format it seems and artifact spot removal actually isn't that big of a deal for this deck beyond the mechanized production set up. Odds are good we will be drawing off of it most of the time, but other people will be running things like gearhulks and such because of card pools, so you can't even be assured of the card draw. I just don't think Padeem is where we want to be if we're running Kumena's Awakening already.

This reply definitely reminded me I had to update my list a bit.

Padeem ate it to spot removal relatively early in my game, but I think the effect is worthwhile. She shielded my statuary from being an abrade target and I drew a card off her twice before she bit it. It's also highest or tied for the draw effect, so if you're both playing Gearhulks you can still get the draw.

I had several turns with tons of mana and artifacts for improvise with not enough to spend them on, so I do think the repeating card draw between her and Kumena's Awakening is worth allocating a little space for.

Agreed on Servo Schematic, I got some value off of it, but it was my first sac target when the Kambal player resolved an 8-point Torment of Hailfire (We both ended up smacking each other with these! so much fun to see people actually getting to play this card.)

I want to live the dream of the big Hailfire off treasure/cells with a Marionette Master in play. Master was actually the primary wincon of my old treazzurett standard deck because it was a lot more reliable than revel (which I also ran a couple of), I'm surprised I don't see her more in these artifact lists.

Small update. tweaked some of the lands as well as adding a couple Dominaria cards. I removed Mastermind's Acquisition now that I have more card draw, I find myself frequently sitting with a tutor in hand waiting until I need something specific and I just don't need two of them. Also dropped Insidious Will as I wanted to make the mana base more consistent, and it was the card doing the least work ironically (disallow has been great and negate and spell swindle are basically mandatory).

-Mastermind's Acquisition
-Insidious Will
-1 Swamp
-Orazca Relic

+Desert of the Mindful
+Desert of the Glorified
+Gilded Lotus
+Memorial to Genius

I really want to fit Karn, Scion of Urza into the deck, but I'm really not sure what to cut for it at the moment.

Another small update as I made my mind up on Karn. Still looking at cutting something for The Antiquities War though. I haven't seen as much graveyard abuse as I was expecting so far, so i'm tentatively cutting crook for now.

-Crook of Condemnation

+Karn, Scion of Urza

Played this deck in some 4 player Brawl pods this weekend. Karn is definitely worth the slot, ended a game with a pair of 25/25 constructs (Tezz emblem boosted them from 0/0 to 5/5, and I spell swindled an 8 drop to go with my treasure cove tokens and pile of cells/mana rocks). Deck played nicely, though I did make one change just prior to the game and that was to swap Herald of Anguish with Vizier of Many Faces. Herald just wasn't cutting it for me, he was just not impressive enough of a control source as I would like and not quite the fatty I would expect him to be. Vizier rarely lacks for targets (even just copying the gearhulks or chupacabra is good).

I'm also looking to cut a card for Mirage Mirror at this point, thinking it might end up being Diabolic Tutor as I rarely end up needing to tutor anything.

-Herald of Anguish
+Vizier of Many Faces