This might be a dumb question but just checking, are you using the oracle text? The card functions VERY differently from the text written on the card.
Sacrifice an artifact. If you do, search your library for an artifact card. If that card's converted mana cost is less than or equal to the sacrificed artifact's converted mana cost, put it onto the battlefield. If it's greater, you may pay {X}, where X is the difference. If you do, put it onto the battlefield. If you don't, put it into its owner's graveyard. Then shuffle your library.
If that's not the issue. What do you not like about it? You never can cast it? It never does anything powerful? Etc.?
I have had the opposite experience with the deck. Transmute being insane, thirst being bad. I have 3 transmute artifacts, 1 Tezz the Seeker and 0 thirst in my list these days. Having basically +4 of any of the artifacts in my deck is what gives it some much power. It means in the MD you have basically 6 Thopter foundrys, 5 Sword of the meek, 6 Ensnaring bridges. In the SB you can have basically 5 trinsophere/lodestone against storm, 5 Cages against elves, etc. Whenever I have transmute artifact, there is almost always something I can search for with it that will be incredibly powerful.
I also have been using 4 Leyline of the Void, 1 Helm of Obidence in the SB lately. This really ups the power of transmute/tezz. Against GY based combo, or GBx decks, I bring in the combo and then you effectively have 5 helms so the combo is super easy to assemble.
Yeah I totally understand how it works. I just feel like the artifacts I play main aren't inherently that power sly except bridge. I basically only ever want to transmute for a bridge so I'm just feeling like it's just an okay card. I can definitely see it being much better post bored.
Yeah I totally understand how it works. I just feel like the artifacts I play main aren't inherently that power sly except bridge. I basically only ever want to transmute for a bridge so I'm just feeling like it's just an okay card. I can definitely see it being much better post bored.
I usually only transmute for bridge in emergency stations. Most often I use transmute after I find half of the thop/sword combo (or another way to find it like a 2nd transmute or big Tezz). A lot of decks cannot beat that, especially game 1. Against a deck like RUG or BUG, that can't deal with you getting too much card advantage, transmuting a talisman into a strix is not bad. Against grindy deck like Jund, D&T or Miracles, I aim to transmute into Staff of Nin if I dont have half the thopter combo. I know there is some variation in that slot, but I think every list should have some big game winning artifact to transmute for. Staff of Nin, trading post, wurmcoil, something like that. I think staff is the best choice.
Here's the list I have been using btw. I have played TONS of test games with the deck, but only actually played it in two small tournaments with it. That said, I haven't actually lost a round yet with it and plan on playing it at some larger events pretty soon
I usually only transmute for bridge in emergency stations. Most often I use transmute after I find half of the thop/sword combo (or another way to find it like a 2nd transmute or big Tezz). A lot of decks cannot beat that, especially game 1. Against a deck like RUG or BUG, that can't deal with you getting too much card advantage, transmuting a talisman into a strix is not bad. Against grindy deck like Jund, D&T or Miracles, I aim to transmute into Staff of Nin if I dont have half the thopter combo. I know there is some variation in that slot, but I think every list should have some big game winning artifact to transmute for. Staff of Nin, trading post, wurmcoil, something like that. I think staff is the best choice.
Here's the list I have been using btw. I have played TONS of test games with the deck, but only actually played it in two small tournaments with it. That said, I haven't actually lost a round yet with it and plan on playing it at some larger events pretty soon
Deluge has been awesome. I've been considering adding a 3rd to the maindeck, however I think The Abyss or Damnation might be better. Against Goyf decks, you usually can't cast deluge twice in a game.
I decided to run phyrexian revoker in the slot that I normally run 3 lodestone golem. I was never a fan of the mana curve of the lists that run 4 jace 4 tezzeret, just because I found it a bit awkward. Sometimes you get your turn 1 chalice for 1, sometimes you get your turn 1 mana rock into turn 2 walker, but the times where neither of that happen are just brutal. I tried revokers today because I wanted a disruptive, lower curve. I would much rather them be pithing needle, but cmc 1 just isn't acceptable. Rest of the list is relatively stock. Trinisphere comes in and out of the deck, but it was an all star this tournament.
The sideboard was ok. I always had something to bring in. I like the helmline plan for decks where I want grave hate anyway. Deluge and explosives are good enough to be in the main, but I opted for revokers. cursed totem is great against a variety of threats: deathrite shaman, various elves, griselbrand, mother of runes etc. tsabo's web is a kind of a pet card for me which I keep in the side since I know there are a reasonable amount of dark depths/lands decks and its also someitmes a beating against death and taxes.
Round 1 - Versus Goblins
Game 1I won the die roll and keep a reasonable hand. Its got a force, blue cards I dont care about, a revoker, lands and a tezzeret. He mulls to 6. I play a land and pass, and he plays a turn 1 goblin lackey which I force. I play another land and pass, he plays a vial, I follow it up with a phyrexian revoker. Good work there little buddy, I'm glad you joined the main deck. The revoker kept him off of doing anything for a while. By the time he had a sparksmith and kiki-jiki, mirror breaker, I was popping off a huge tezzeret ult.
Game 2 We both mull to 6. My 6 involves sword of the meek, thopter foundry, and colors to cast it. I start making thopters pretty early. He finds a goblin matron which finds a tuktuk scrapper to take care of my foundry. I topdeck another foundry next turn, play it and keep cranking out thopters. He used grenzo, dungeon warden but never found anything particularly relevant and succumbed to thopter beatdown.
Round 2 - Versus Elves
Game 1 He wins the die roll, we both keep our 7. I have a super weak hand with 4 lands 2 mana rocks and a thirst for knowledge. I figure its game 1, Im on the draw, i have a thirst. I can draw into something to significantly improve this hand. He plays a turn 1 quirion ranger. I draw another land, play it and pass. Turn 2 he dumps approximately 6 elves and elf-like creatures on the table. Turn 2, I thirst for knowledge, drawing 3 more lands and cry a little on the inside. Turn 3 involves a craterhoof behemoth bringing the pain.
Sideboard out: Phyrexian revoker x 3, jace the mind sculptor x2, thirst for knowledge x1. Sideboard in: Cursed totem x2 engineered plague x2, toxic deluge x2
Game 2 I keep my hand, he mulls to 5. My hand isn't great, but it has a force, strix and tezzeret. I decided to get aggressive and force his turn 1 heritage druid, thinking its one of the few ways he'll dig out of a mull to 5. It pays off. I get to dimir charm his glimpse of nature. Hes stuck on one land for the majority of the game, playing the beatdown game of topdeck, then play a 1/1 each turn and attack with it. Turn 5 or so I land an engineered plague, leaving his board as a tapped nettle sentinel, one forest and a gaea's cradle. Thopters come down shortly and he scoops it up.
Sideboard: no further changes
Game 3 We both keep our 7. My hand has a toxic deluge and an ensnaring bridge. I figure they can dig me out of whatever hole he puts me into. He plays a turn 1 nettle sentinel, I play a land and pass. He does his elves thing on turn 2. He invested every card in his hand but one to put approximately 6 elves and a natural ordered progenitus into play. My turn 2 is a toxic deluge for 10, clearing his board and leaving him 2 lands and one card in hand. We both take a few turns of stabilizing and he casts another natural order for worldspine wurm (I feel that 3 different NO targets are too much). I drop an ensnaring bridge and he looks at his 15/15 with disgust. I close the game out with a 5/5 baleful strix.
Round 3 - Versus BUG Midrange (I think)
Game 1: He wins the die roll and we both keep our 7s. He leads with sea, pass. I lead with chalice on 1. He hymn to tourachs me on turn 2. At this point my hand is underground sea, tezzerett, agent of bolas, baleful strix, force of will and talisman of dominance. He hits the 2 cards I actually care about - the land and the strix. I die before I can get enough colored sources to do anything. I just hate the thought of pitching either the strix or tezz to force in that scenario. I rolled the dice and lost. Maybe if I was in a different mood I would have forced it.
Game 2: I lead with a turn 1 rock, he turn 1 deathrites. I turn 2 revoker on deathrite and chalice on 1. After a couple turns I get a revoker on liliana of the veil and a tezzeret into play and start 5/5 beatdowns. He gets 2 goyfs into play and threatens to kill tezzeret, so Im forced to block with my 5/5 revoker on drs and my 2/1 revoker on lili. He kills the lili revoker, plays a liliana and forces me to sac the other. He could have turned the corner there, but he over extended and fetched again to put another card in the GY to delve a tombstalker. This lowered his life too low for his deathrite to get him out of tezz ult range.
Sideboard out: Chalice x4, Dimir Charm x1. Sideboard in: Helmline x 5. (I don't like chalice on the draw against a deck with solid 1 drops AND access to abrupt decay)
Game 3I believe he mulliganed to 6 this game. I keep a somewhat risky hand with Sea, academy ruins, dimir signet, force x2, tezzerett, thopter foundry. He plays a turn 1 drs which I force pitching force. He wastelands my sea on turn 2. I topdeck a sol land and play dimir signet. He stumbles on land drops and is stuck going for the deathrite shaman beatdown plan with only 1 land in play while I assemble tezzeret making 5/5's forcing chump blocks, and overall ruining his day. 5/5 sword of the meek did the majority of the damage that game, but a strix went the distance.
Round 4: Versus UWr Delver
This round wasnt even a competition. Both games he got a delver out before I could do anything and it just dismantled me. In game 1 I had a revoker on stoneforge and another on jitte. Didnt stop the batterskull from being hard cast or the delvers flying in. Game 2 has my turn 1 chalice forced, then the best bros of delver and stoneforge did their thing.
This was the most interesting round of magic i've played in a long time.
Game 1: He wins the die roll and starts with forest, wild growth. The cats out of the bag already buddy! I turn 1 chalice for 1. He plays an argothian enchantress turn 2 and cycles a cmc1. As neither of our decks are blisteringly fast, we both took our time to develop. I got a tezzeret online early and started beating down with chalices and swords of the meek until I was one turn away from winning and he finds a solitary confinement. Prevent all damage. You have shroud. Well I'm in a strong enough position to wait it out. Tezzeret keeps ticking up, thopters keep coming down. He gets words of war on the table and pings me for 6 that turn. I had a phyrexian revoker ready and waiting in my hand for his win con, and now I knew what it was, so I stopped those shenanigans while still padding my life with thopters. He resolves a Detention Sphere, eating my revoker and bombing my life again. Tezzeret (on like 15 loyalty by now) finds another, and I drop it naming words again. I then get a chalice on 3 to prevent any further o-rings, a chalice on 4 to stop any replenishes. Both of our boards are a complete mess. We look like we're deckbuilding for a draft. He asks me "do you have a way to win through solitary confinement?" probably prompting me to concede. I told him something to the extent of "you've drawn way more cards than I have. Eventually you'll run out of cards in your deck. Solitary confinement lets you skip your draw, but you have to discard a card to keep it in play. Once you have no cards in library, no cards in hand and no solitary confinement, I have a way to win." He surveys the boardstate and comes to the same conclusion. He scoops it up and we go to game 2 with 15 minutes in the round.
Game 2: This game was very similar to the previous game. I played an early tezzeret and started the beatdown plan. A turn before I can kill him he gets solitary down. I start the thopter plan, he starts the sigil of the empty throne plan. I have enough thopters to survive his chance to tie the game in turns, so he concedes and gives me the 2-0.
Round 6: ID into top 8
Top 8 Versus Esper Stoneblade
Game 1: My notes are very hazy from this game, so this is entirely from memory. I was really focused on playing tight and less diligent about writing stuff down. He is higher seeded, so he is on the play and starts with blue dual pass. I play a fetch and pass as well. Turn 2 he ponders and plays a fetch. My turn 2 is a chalice for 1, which I believe was FoWed pitching a brainstorm to me that signified he had a somewhat weak hand with a lot of cantrips and not much action.
His third turn was uneventful and my turn 3 was a trinisphere which resolved. His next turn he casts a ponder, tapping all his lands and remarking how poor of a value ponder is when you have to pay 3 for it. He shuffles the top away and I tell him "you spent 3 mana to stop yourself from drawing 3 dead cards for the next 3 turns. thats still pretty good value", and he agreed with the logic there. I play a chalice on 1 for 3 mana next turn and he begrudgingly let it resolve. I feel he had to have a daze or another force, but trisphere locked it out. He hardcasts a batterskull next turn, which gets one attack in before I get a tezzeret and turn chalice into a 5/5 to block it. Unfortunately for me, he supreme verdicts killing the germ and my chalice. He bounces and replays batterskull, but I have the force, and he cant afford to pay the trinisphere tax to counter back.
After both of our resources are pretty well exhausted we get into a spot where he is attacking into Tezzeret with SFM with a jitte attached. Tezzeret finds a thopter foundry and I transmute artifact for sword of the meek. He asks for a brief pause so he could ask a judge about an interaction. He asked if sword of the meek checks on resolution if the creature is still a 1/1. The judge ruling was that no it does not. Sword triggers when a 1/1 thopter comes into play, then even if the thopter is killed by jitte, the sword of the meek still resolves as much as it can. It returns to play, but has nothing to equip itself to. A few turns of thopters defending against jitte counters and ticking up tezzeret to ultimate win me game 1.
sideboarding out: Dimir charm x2 Thirst for Knowledge x2. Sideboarding in: Engineered Plague x 2, Toxic Deluge x2.
Game 2 My opening hand was weak, but he was playing a slower version of stoneblade, so I kept it. Jace, the Mind Sculptor, chalice of the void, engineered plague and 4 lands. Would you keep that hand on the draw after being up one game and not seeing any duress effects? Well his turn 1 was duress for chalice. Turn 2 was thoughtseize for jace. Then I did what any person in my position would do: I topdeck a trinisphere while he groans. He plays a meddling mage naming thopter foundry. I play a Revoker naming Umezawa's Jitte. I get a Tezz down eventually and tick him up looking for something relevant. He zealous persecution to kill my blocker and attacks tezz to 1.
At some point he asks for another judge break to ask another question, telling me my deck has too many complicated interactions. I tell him that's how the deck wins, by confusing the opponent! The question involved phyrexian mana and trinisphere. The ruling was yes you may pay 2 life and 2 colorless to cast surgical extraction which he did, on jace. I dont put much stock in Jace personally, so that was a relief. He pulls one more jace from my deck and writes down everything he felt was relevant in my deck to play around. He eventually thoughtseized the engineered plague from my opener Which I was fine with. That suggested to me that he was struggling to find a way to win and he was going to have to lean on either snapcaster or true name beats.
I close out the game with a transmute artifact, cashing in trinisphere for a thopter foundry. Thopters and tezz ult win next turn.
Top 4 Versus RUG delver
Game 1: He is on the play, we both keep our openers. He leads with delver. I try to turn 1 chalice on 1, but he has the daze. He drops more 1 drop beaters which quickly change from 1/1s to 3/2 fliers and 3/3s. All I can do is drop revokers to chump block. They dont even turn anything in his deck off! I was naming grim lavamancer .I cant be mad at RUG delver doing exactly what its designed to do. He just got out ahead of me and I couldnt catch up.
Sideboard out: Dimir Charm x2, Jace TMS x2, Revoker x 3 sideboard in: helmline x5 and Toxic Deluge x2
Game 2 We both keep our openers and I try for a chalice on 1 which is forced. He gets a delver and a mongoose onto the field before I resolve a trinisphere. More 3/3 mongeese hit the field but cant attack through an ensnaring bridge. I get a tezzeret down and start digging. In 2 turns I find my thopter combo. He gets a sulfuric vortex down a little too late and tezzeret bombs him for 24 next turn.
sideboarding: no additional changes
Game 3: Game 3 was another very close game that I feel I could have won if I had been on the play. But being on the draw against RUG is such an uphill battle. I died in about 6 turns to a flipped delver, threshed mongoose and a large goyf. Over the course of the game he pierced my chalice on 1, forced my toxic deluge for 1 which would have killed the 2 little guys, and wastelanded me enough to keep too many cards in hand for my ensnaring bridge to matter. Once again, cant be mad at RUG delver doing what its designed to do.
Can the deck work without the cities and Transmute Artifact?
I'd like to give it a go but those cards are really hard to get unless you want to pay Starcity's crazy prices plus international shipping.
Can the deck work without the cities and Transmute Artifact?
I'd like to give it a go but those cards are really hard to get unless you want to pay Starcity's crazy prices plus international shipping.
Transmute I'd say no. Simply because it allows you to go get a silver bullet for the situation.
The cities... I think you can get away without them, you could use Crystal Vein as a replacement potentially. It's considerably cheaper and can get you the 2 mana once at least.
I do believe the deck can physically function with crystal vein in lieu of city of traitors. It does limit your options quite a bit though. Theres no way to play crystal vein + dimir signet turn 1 and a 4cmc walker turn 2, while that is a possibility if city was the land of choice.
I believe that reshape can work if you're desperate for that effect, but its obviously a huge step down. It net loses 2 mana, it sacrifices as a cost to cast, and it telegraphs your intent by forcing you to pay the mana before the opponent decides if its worth countering. By no means do I think this is a good idea, just thought you might want to hear it.
I'd agree that the cities are far more replaceable than the transmutes, but you'll take a big hit in power in either case.
Has anyone ever tried out a list with the Painter's Servant/Grindstone combo? I've had the idea for a while now, but haven't had the time to really flesh it out. It seems like the deck could benefit from a faster win condition, and Transmute Artifact ought to be an upgrade over the mono-red deck's tutoring ability.
Yeah, I understand not wanting to draw dead cards, but having played the deck for a while (not so much lately but I played it for a year or so) I feel like the Thopter/Sword pieces are very often just as bad on their own as a Servant/Grindstone would be. A Foundry alone is only slightly more useful than any of the other pieces, but all the others are trash draws in almost any situation. To balance that out, a Servant/Grindstone wins immediately while Foundry/Sword gives them a few turns to kill you.
Granted, with Tezzeret being a control deck at heart, the defensive combo might be the better option. But I think if I play the straight UB version again (I've been playing something closer to the Esper list I posted a while back), I'm probably going to try out the instant-win combo and see how it works out. I know that I have had a non-zero number of games where getting the Thopter/Sword combo online is just not fast enough, and with UR Burn/Delver decks becoming a big thing lately I'm thinking that "only a matter of turns" gives the opponent too much time to break out and win.
I'm looking to bring a version of Tezzerator control to grand prix NJ next week, and I'd appreciate any input you guys might have. I'm new to the format, and while I did have some staples kicking around forever, I still don't have access to some of the more expensive pieces (namely underground sea and city of traitors), so my list isn't totally optimal. Any suggestions or input would be great.
A little explanation about some of the choice:
-No City of Traitors - I'm playing Wasteland instead. That makes for fewer explosive turn 1/2 plays of course, but is a powerful land in its own right that plays nicely with either Tangle Wire or Winter Orb when you need it to. Also, using Mox Opal instead of more 2 cmc mana rocks, as I can't as reliably hit the 2 mana on turn 1. Opal isn't as powerful as it is in Affinity, but it lets you get to 3 mana on turn 2 some of the time, and 4 on turn 3 reliably.
-Tangle Wire - I love this card and its ability to stall the game while giving you a slight edge. Plus, it seems great against Delver decks which I expect to see in large number. With both it and Orb in play, things usually slow to a halt for opponents, and thanks to the errata'd text on orb, it still functions while tapped.
-Esperzoa - It is an evasive, cheap beater. But it also does the following: Bounces Baleful Strix, artifact lands (to get around winter orb and tangle wire), and can reset Wire and Chalice of the Void.
The SB I'm not quite sure about, but after reading all the lists in the thread, it feels all right.
I'm back from GP New Jersey - Wow, what a lot of fun! I ran a slightly beefed up version of my list, thanks to some loaner cards, and finished 10-4-1 for a 201st place finish (among 4003 players). Tezz control seemed quite good in the meta; there were no matchups that I felt totally overpowered in. (Never played burn, thank god). I kept a games log and plan to do a write up soon.
A quick breakdown would look like this:
Against delver decks, 1-3
Against everything else, 10-1-1
I played U/B Tezz at the GP as well. I played a ton of U/R delver to start the day and it seemed like they all boarded in 3 Smash To Smithereens and managed to draw at least two post board. That card is such a tempo swing for us it's brutal. Plus those sneaky swiftspears kept running over my ensnaring bridges. If it had to do it all over again I'd probably run a couple Echoing Truth in the board and go from 1 Engineered Plague to 2 since that is much harder for them to answer. Congrats on the finish, 10-4-1 is very good!
I absolutely agree about Engineered Plague. I had two in my board, but often wish I could have had 3-4. It is the second best card against Delver after Chalice, IMO. Once I got home from NJ, I ordered the other two online so I could have a playset.
Just wanted to post that I finished 2nd in a 12-man small legacy tournament. Mostly a Lands player, so I definitely made some mistakes here and there but yeah - this deck is pretty adorable. A few mulligan decisions were probably incorrect too. I played a similar list as Roxi:
//LANDS (21)
x4 Ancient Tomb
x4 Polluted Delta
x4 Underground Sea
x3 City of Traitors
x2 Darkslick Shores
x2 Island
x1 Academy Ruins
x1 Swamp
Any one think this deck is good right now? Trying to find a deck to play?
I have the feeling that this deck is very weak to UR Delver decks, which unfortunatly will make up 30 % of any competitive meta. So if you like winning a few games, I'd advice not to choose this deck.
More seriously, if you just want a "good" deck to play, play UR Delver
Chalice of the Void on 1, turn one wrecks UR Delver.
If you can empty your hand quick enough and land an Ensnaring Bridge, you're also in a good spot since they usually don't pack artifact hate Game 1.
I normally play mono blue back to basics just didn't think it would be good enough right now. I want to start practicing for SCG Indy it will be my first legacy event.
I would like have fun and win. I have played mono blue back to basics for a year against causal legacy nothing to crazy though.
Looking forward to building this for Legacy. I'm currently playing it for Modern and building it into Legacy over time. The deck looks sweet, especially turn 1 Chalice of the Voids, which I think is a huge reason to play this in Legacy. The above list by Dobbin is sweet and tackles a lot of the meta problems right now.
@streetMage:
While I agree with all of your post, we must sadly acknowledge that Stompy decks don't dominate the format at all. Chalice decks have few chances to make the fearsome "T1 CHALICE @1" play.
Many have tried to design a viable Chalice deck, the last one being Lejay's Green Plug. But they are far from the stability of any Brainstorm deck.
That's why I advice you, wrestler, to play any Brainstorm deck if you simply want to win.
If you want to have fun, take any deck This one is terrific.
As the number of decks that lose to chalice on one goes up, the number of free wins you get by landing a chalice on 1 also goes up.
This deck actually plays a lot of cards that are difficult for delver to beat. Turn 1 chalice sometimes just wins the game. Turn 2 baleful strix sometimes just wins the game. Turn 2 tezzeret or jace sometimes just wins the game. Ensnaring bridge is very hard for them to beat. Thopter foundry is very hard for them to beat. Is that to say you dont lose sometimes to a turn 1 delver that flips on the first upkeep? No, but any deck can fold to that sometimes.
This deck plays a lot of variable threats, all of which need different answers. Thopter sword? Needs disenchant effects and possibly wasteland for the academy ruins. Tezzeret? Needs to be attacked, (typically) double bolted, or red elemental blasted. Where do you send your attacks, bolts and red blasts if theres a baleful strix in the way? Where do you send your attacks bolts and red blasts if theres a jace on the table too? If you play the maindeck helmline win condition, thats another angle that has to be defended against.
Ive played hundreds of games with this deck, and I can count the number of unwinnable games I've played on one hand.
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Vela | Kaervek | Ruric Thar | Saffi | Ephara
Savra | Athreos | Jor Kadeen | Melek | Zegana
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If that's not the issue. What do you not like about it? You never can cast it? It never does anything powerful? Etc.?
I have had the opposite experience with the deck. Transmute being insane, thirst being bad. I have 3 transmute artifacts, 1 Tezz the Seeker and 0 thirst in my list these days. Having basically +4 of any of the artifacts in my deck is what gives it some much power. It means in the MD you have basically 6 Thopter foundrys, 5 Sword of the meek, 6 Ensnaring bridges. In the SB you can have basically 5 trinsophere/lodestone against storm, 5 Cages against elves, etc. Whenever I have transmute artifact, there is almost always something I can search for with it that will be incredibly powerful.
I also have been using 4 Leyline of the Void, 1 Helm of Obidence in the SB lately. This really ups the power of transmute/tezz. Against GY based combo, or GBx decks, I bring in the combo and then you effectively have 5 helms so the combo is super easy to assemble.
Here's the list I have been using btw. I have played TONS of test games with the deck, but only actually played it in two small tournaments with it. That said, I haven't actually lost a round yet with it and plan on playing it at some larger events pretty soon
4 Ancient Tomb
3 City of Traitors
1 Darkwater Catacombs
1 Flooded Strand
2 Island
4 Polluted Delta
1 Seat of the Synod
1 Swamp
3 Underground Sea
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Baleful Strix
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Talisman of Dominance
1 Ratchet Bomb
2 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Sword of the Meek
2 Thopter Foundry
1 Staff of Nin
3 Transmute Artifact
2 Toxic Deluge
4 Force of Will
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
2 Flusterstorm
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Pithing Needle
1 Trinisphere
2 Vendilion Clique
1 Helm of Obedience
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Lodestone Golem
1 Massacre
1 Notion Thief
Yeah that's pretty close to my list. I like the deluge a lot.
4 Baleful Strix
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Force of Will
4 Talisman of Dominance
3 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Thirst for Knowledge
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Dimir Signet
2 Dimir Charm
2 Sword of the Meek
2 Thopter Foundry
2 Transmute Artifact
1 Trinisphere
1 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Island
1 Swamp
4 Ancient Tomb
3 City of Traitors
3 Darkslick Shores
4 Polluted Delta
3 Underground Sea
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Helm of Obedience
2 Dread of Night
2 Toxic Deluge
2 Cursed Totem
2 Engineered Plague
1 Tsabo's Web
1 Engineered Explosives
I decided to run phyrexian revoker in the slot that I normally run 3 lodestone golem. I was never a fan of the mana curve of the lists that run 4 jace 4 tezzeret, just because I found it a bit awkward. Sometimes you get your turn 1 chalice for 1, sometimes you get your turn 1 mana rock into turn 2 walker, but the times where neither of that happen are just brutal. I tried revokers today because I wanted a disruptive, lower curve. I would much rather them be pithing needle, but cmc 1 just isn't acceptable. Rest of the list is relatively stock. Trinisphere comes in and out of the deck, but it was an all star this tournament.
The sideboard was ok. I always had something to bring in. I like the helmline plan for decks where I want grave hate anyway. Deluge and explosives are good enough to be in the main, but I opted for revokers. cursed totem is great against a variety of threats: deathrite shaman, various elves, griselbrand, mother of runes etc. tsabo's web is a kind of a pet card for me which I keep in the side since I know there are a reasonable amount of dark depths/lands decks and its also someitmes a beating against death and taxes.
Round 1 - Versus Goblins
Game 1I won the die roll and keep a reasonable hand. Its got a force, blue cards I dont care about, a revoker, lands and a tezzeret. He mulls to 6. I play a land and pass, and he plays a turn 1 goblin lackey which I force. I play another land and pass, he plays a vial, I follow it up with a phyrexian revoker. Good work there little buddy, I'm glad you joined the main deck. The revoker kept him off of doing anything for a while. By the time he had a sparksmith and kiki-jiki, mirror breaker, I was popping off a huge tezzeret ult.
Sideboard out: chalice of the void x4, dimir charm x2. Sideboard in: Cursed totem x2 engineered plague x2, toxic deluge x2
Game 2 We both mull to 6. My 6 involves sword of the meek, thopter foundry, and colors to cast it. I start making thopters pretty early. He finds a goblin matron which finds a tuktuk scrapper to take care of my foundry. I topdeck another foundry next turn, play it and keep cranking out thopters. He used grenzo, dungeon warden but never found anything particularly relevant and succumbed to thopter beatdown.
Round 2 - Versus Elves
Game 1 He wins the die roll, we both keep our 7. I have a super weak hand with 4 lands 2 mana rocks and a thirst for knowledge. I figure its game 1, Im on the draw, i have a thirst. I can draw into something to significantly improve this hand. He plays a turn 1 quirion ranger. I draw another land, play it and pass. Turn 2 he dumps approximately 6 elves and elf-like creatures on the table. Turn 2, I thirst for knowledge, drawing 3 more lands and cry a little on the inside. Turn 3 involves a craterhoof behemoth bringing the pain.
Sideboard out: Phyrexian revoker x 3, jace the mind sculptor x2, thirst for knowledge x1. Sideboard in: Cursed totem x2 engineered plague x2, toxic deluge x2
Game 2 I keep my hand, he mulls to 5. My hand isn't great, but it has a force, strix and tezzeret. I decided to get aggressive and force his turn 1 heritage druid, thinking its one of the few ways he'll dig out of a mull to 5. It pays off. I get to dimir charm his glimpse of nature. Hes stuck on one land for the majority of the game, playing the beatdown game of topdeck, then play a 1/1 each turn and attack with it. Turn 5 or so I land an engineered plague, leaving his board as a tapped nettle sentinel, one forest and a gaea's cradle. Thopters come down shortly and he scoops it up.
Sideboard: no further changes
Game 3 We both keep our 7. My hand has a toxic deluge and an ensnaring bridge. I figure they can dig me out of whatever hole he puts me into. He plays a turn 1 nettle sentinel, I play a land and pass. He does his elves thing on turn 2. He invested every card in his hand but one to put approximately 6 elves and a natural ordered progenitus into play. My turn 2 is a toxic deluge for 10, clearing his board and leaving him 2 lands and one card in hand. We both take a few turns of stabilizing and he casts another natural order for worldspine wurm (I feel that 3 different NO targets are too much). I drop an ensnaring bridge and he looks at his 15/15 with disgust. I close the game out with a 5/5 baleful strix.
Round 3 - Versus BUG Midrange (I think)
Game 1: He wins the die roll and we both keep our 7s. He leads with sea, pass. I lead with chalice on 1. He hymn to tourachs me on turn 2. At this point my hand is underground sea, tezzerett, agent of bolas, baleful strix, force of will and talisman of dominance. He hits the 2 cards I actually care about - the land and the strix. I die before I can get enough colored sources to do anything. I just hate the thought of pitching either the strix or tezz to force in that scenario. I rolled the dice and lost. Maybe if I was in a different mood I would have forced it.
Sideboard out: Thirst for Knowledge x2. Sideboard in: Cursed Totem x2
Game 2: I lead with a turn 1 rock, he turn 1 deathrites. I turn 2 revoker on deathrite and chalice on 1. After a couple turns I get a revoker on liliana of the veil and a tezzeret into play and start 5/5 beatdowns. He gets 2 goyfs into play and threatens to kill tezzeret, so Im forced to block with my 5/5 revoker on drs and my 2/1 revoker on lili. He kills the lili revoker, plays a liliana and forces me to sac the other. He could have turned the corner there, but he over extended and fetched again to put another card in the GY to delve a tombstalker. This lowered his life too low for his deathrite to get him out of tezz ult range.
Sideboard out: Chalice x4, Dimir Charm x1. Sideboard in: Helmline x 5. (I don't like chalice on the draw against a deck with solid 1 drops AND access to abrupt decay)
Game 3I believe he mulliganed to 6 this game. I keep a somewhat risky hand with Sea, academy ruins, dimir signet, force x2, tezzerett, thopter foundry. He plays a turn 1 drs which I force pitching force. He wastelands my sea on turn 2. I topdeck a sol land and play dimir signet. He stumbles on land drops and is stuck going for the deathrite shaman beatdown plan with only 1 land in play while I assemble tezzeret making 5/5's forcing chump blocks, and overall ruining his day. 5/5 sword of the meek did the majority of the damage that game, but a strix went the distance.
Round 4: Versus UWr Delver
This round wasnt even a competition. Both games he got a delver out before I could do anything and it just dismantled me. In game 1 I had a revoker on stoneforge and another on jitte. Didnt stop the batterskull from being hard cast or the delvers flying in. Game 2 has my turn 1 chalice forced, then the best bros of delver and stoneforge did their thing.
For the sake of completion:
Sideboard out: thirst for knowledge x2, dimir charm x2. Sideboard in: Cursed totem x2, toxic deluge x2
Round 5: Versus Enchantress
This was the most interesting round of magic i've played in a long time.
Game 1: He wins the die roll and starts with forest, wild growth. The cats out of the bag already buddy! I turn 1 chalice for 1. He plays an argothian enchantress turn 2 and cycles a cmc1. As neither of our decks are blisteringly fast, we both took our time to develop. I got a tezzeret online early and started beating down with chalices and swords of the meek until I was one turn away from winning and he finds a solitary confinement. Prevent all damage. You have shroud. Well I'm in a strong enough position to wait it out. Tezzeret keeps ticking up, thopters keep coming down. He gets words of war on the table and pings me for 6 that turn. I had a phyrexian revoker ready and waiting in my hand for his win con, and now I knew what it was, so I stopped those shenanigans while still padding my life with thopters. He resolves a Detention Sphere, eating my revoker and bombing my life again. Tezzeret (on like 15 loyalty by now) finds another, and I drop it naming words again. I then get a chalice on 3 to prevent any further o-rings, a chalice on 4 to stop any replenishes. Both of our boards are a complete mess. We look like we're deckbuilding for a draft. He asks me "do you have a way to win through solitary confinement?" probably prompting me to concede. I told him something to the extent of "you've drawn way more cards than I have. Eventually you'll run out of cards in your deck. Solitary confinement lets you skip your draw, but you have to discard a card to keep it in play. Once you have no cards in library, no cards in hand and no solitary confinement, I have a way to win." He surveys the boardstate and comes to the same conclusion. He scoops it up and we go to game 2 with 15 minutes in the round.
Sideboard out: Thirst for Knowledge x2, Dimir Charm x2, Jace TMS x2, Sideboard in: Helmline x5, Engineered Plague x1
Game 2: This game was very similar to the previous game. I played an early tezzeret and started the beatdown plan. A turn before I can kill him he gets solitary down. I start the thopter plan, he starts the sigil of the empty throne plan. I have enough thopters to survive his chance to tie the game in turns, so he concedes and gives me the 2-0.
Round 6: ID into top 8
Top 8 Versus Esper Stoneblade
Game 1: My notes are very hazy from this game, so this is entirely from memory. I was really focused on playing tight and less diligent about writing stuff down. He is higher seeded, so he is on the play and starts with blue dual pass. I play a fetch and pass as well. Turn 2 he ponders and plays a fetch. My turn 2 is a chalice for 1, which I believe was FoWed pitching a brainstorm to me that signified he had a somewhat weak hand with a lot of cantrips and not much action.
His third turn was uneventful and my turn 3 was a trinisphere which resolved. His next turn he casts a ponder, tapping all his lands and remarking how poor of a value ponder is when you have to pay 3 for it. He shuffles the top away and I tell him "you spent 3 mana to stop yourself from drawing 3 dead cards for the next 3 turns. thats still pretty good value", and he agreed with the logic there. I play a chalice on 1 for 3 mana next turn and he begrudgingly let it resolve. I feel he had to have a daze or another force, but trisphere locked it out. He hardcasts a batterskull next turn, which gets one attack in before I get a tezzeret and turn chalice into a 5/5 to block it. Unfortunately for me, he supreme verdicts killing the germ and my chalice. He bounces and replays batterskull, but I have the force, and he cant afford to pay the trinisphere tax to counter back.
After both of our resources are pretty well exhausted we get into a spot where he is attacking into Tezzeret with SFM with a jitte attached. Tezzeret finds a thopter foundry and I transmute artifact for sword of the meek. He asks for a brief pause so he could ask a judge about an interaction. He asked if sword of the meek checks on resolution if the creature is still a 1/1. The judge ruling was that no it does not. Sword triggers when a 1/1 thopter comes into play, then even if the thopter is killed by jitte, the sword of the meek still resolves as much as it can. It returns to play, but has nothing to equip itself to. A few turns of thopters defending against jitte counters and ticking up tezzeret to ultimate win me game 1.
sideboarding out: Dimir charm x2 Thirst for Knowledge x2. Sideboarding in: Engineered Plague x 2, Toxic Deluge x2.
Game 2 My opening hand was weak, but he was playing a slower version of stoneblade, so I kept it. Jace, the Mind Sculptor, chalice of the void, engineered plague and 4 lands. Would you keep that hand on the draw after being up one game and not seeing any duress effects? Well his turn 1 was duress for chalice. Turn 2 was thoughtseize for jace. Then I did what any person in my position would do: I topdeck a trinisphere while he groans. He plays a meddling mage naming thopter foundry. I play a Revoker naming Umezawa's Jitte. I get a Tezz down eventually and tick him up looking for something relevant. He zealous persecution to kill my blocker and attacks tezz to 1.
At some point he asks for another judge break to ask another question, telling me my deck has too many complicated interactions. I tell him that's how the deck wins, by confusing the opponent! The question involved phyrexian mana and trinisphere. The ruling was yes you may pay 2 life and 2 colorless to cast surgical extraction which he did, on jace. I dont put much stock in Jace personally, so that was a relief. He pulls one more jace from my deck and writes down everything he felt was relevant in my deck to play around. He eventually thoughtseized the engineered plague from my opener Which I was fine with. That suggested to me that he was struggling to find a way to win and he was going to have to lean on either snapcaster or true name beats.
I close out the game with a transmute artifact, cashing in trinisphere for a thopter foundry. Thopters and tezz ult win next turn.
Top 4 Versus RUG delver
Game 1: He is on the play, we both keep our openers. He leads with delver. I try to turn 1 chalice on 1, but he has the daze. He drops more 1 drop beaters which quickly change from 1/1s to 3/2 fliers and 3/3s. All I can do is drop revokers to chump block. They dont even turn anything in his deck off! I was naming grim lavamancer .I cant be mad at RUG delver doing exactly what its designed to do. He just got out ahead of me and I couldnt catch up.
Sideboard out: Dimir Charm x2, Jace TMS x2, Revoker x 3 sideboard in: helmline x5 and Toxic Deluge x2
Game 2 We both keep our openers and I try for a chalice on 1 which is forced. He gets a delver and a mongoose onto the field before I resolve a trinisphere. More 3/3 mongeese hit the field but cant attack through an ensnaring bridge. I get a tezzeret down and start digging. In 2 turns I find my thopter combo. He gets a sulfuric vortex down a little too late and tezzeret bombs him for 24 next turn.
sideboarding: no additional changes
Game 3: Game 3 was another very close game that I feel I could have won if I had been on the play. But being on the draw against RUG is such an uphill battle. I died in about 6 turns to a flipped delver, threshed mongoose and a large goyf. Over the course of the game he pierced my chalice on 1, forced my toxic deluge for 1 which would have killed the 2 little guys, and wastelanded me enough to keep too many cards in hand for my ensnaring bridge to matter. Once again, cant be mad at RUG delver doing what its designed to do.
WGURBLands!WGURB
WGUInfectWGU
Legacy Lands Primer
Top 8 SCG Oakland 2014
Helpdesk
My Cube on CubeTutor
I'd like to give it a go but those cards are really hard to get unless you want to pay Starcity's crazy prices plus international shipping.
Transmute I'd say no. Simply because it allows you to go get a silver bullet for the situation.
The cities... I think you can get away without them, you could use Crystal Vein as a replacement potentially. It's considerably cheaper and can get you the 2 mana once at least.
UWR MiraclesUWR
Veteran WalkerBUG
Lands RUG
Karn
I believe that reshape can work if you're desperate for that effect, but its obviously a huge step down. It net loses 2 mana, it sacrifices as a cost to cast, and it telegraphs your intent by forcing you to pay the mana before the opponent decides if its worth countering. By no means do I think this is a good idea, just thought you might want to hear it.
I'd agree that the cities are far more replaceable than the transmutes, but you'll take a big hit in power in either case.
Granted, with Tezzeret being a control deck at heart, the defensive combo might be the better option. But I think if I play the straight UB version again (I've been playing something closer to the Esper list I posted a while back), I'm probably going to try out the instant-win combo and see how it works out. I know that I have had a non-zero number of games where getting the Thopter/Sword combo online is just not fast enough, and with UR Burn/Delver decks becoming a big thing lately I'm thinking that "only a matter of turns" gives the opponent too much time to break out and win.
3 Darkslick Shores
3 Glimmervoid
4 Seat of the Synod
2 Vault of Whispers
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Wasteland
3 Mox Opal
3 Talisman of Dominance
Creatures: 6
4 Baleful Strix
2 Esperzoa
Other Permanents: 22
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Winter Orb
2 Sword of the Meek
2 Thopter Foundry
4 Tangle Wire
1 Trinisphere
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 The Abyss
4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Transmute Artifact
4 Force of Will
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Helm of Obedience
2 Engineered Plague
1 Cursed Totem
1 Spellskite
1 Misdirection
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Batterskull
3 Phyrexian Revoker
A little explanation about some of the choice:
-No City of Traitors - I'm playing Wasteland instead. That makes for fewer explosive turn 1/2 plays of course, but is a powerful land in its own right that plays nicely with either Tangle Wire or Winter Orb when you need it to. Also, using Mox Opal instead of more 2 cmc mana rocks, as I can't as reliably hit the 2 mana on turn 1. Opal isn't as powerful as it is in Affinity, but it lets you get to 3 mana on turn 2 some of the time, and 4 on turn 3 reliably.
-Tangle Wire - I love this card and its ability to stall the game while giving you a slight edge. Plus, it seems great against Delver decks which I expect to see in large number. With both it and Orb in play, things usually slow to a halt for opponents, and thanks to the errata'd text on orb, it still functions while tapped.
-Esperzoa - It is an evasive, cheap beater. But it also does the following: Bounces Baleful Strix, artifact lands (to get around winter orb and tangle wire), and can reset Wire and Chalice of the Void.
The SB I'm not quite sure about, but after reading all the lists in the thread, it feels all right.
A quick breakdown would look like this:
Against delver decks, 1-3
Against everything else, 10-1-1
Here was the slightly altered list that I ran:
4 Darkslick Shores
1 Underground Sea
1 Island
1 Vault of Whispers
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Wasteland
4 Ancient Tomb
1 City of Traitors
3 Mox Opal
3 Dimir Signet
Creatures: 6
4 Baleful Strix
2 Esperzoa
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Winter Orb
1 Sword of the Meek
1 Thopter Foundry
4 Tangle Wire
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 The Abyss
4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Instants/Sorceries: 7
3 Transmute Artifact
4 Force of Will
2 Spellskite
1 Batterskull
2 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Cursed Totem
1 Helm of Obedience
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Engineered Plague
1 Misdirection
//LANDS (21)
x4 Ancient Tomb
x4 Polluted Delta
x4 Underground Sea
x3 City of Traitors
x2 Darkslick Shores
x2 Island
x1 Academy Ruins
x1 Swamp
//CREATURES (7)
x4 Baleful Strix
x3 Phyrexian Revoker
//SPELLS (9)
x4 Force of Will
x2 Thirst for Knowledge
x2 Transmute Aritfact
x1 Toxic Deluge
//OTHER SPELLS (22)
x4 Chalice of the Void
x4 Talisman of Dominance
x4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
x2 Dimir Signet
x2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
x2 Sword of the Meek
x2 Thopter Foundry
x1 Ensnaring Bridge
x1 Tangle Wire
x1 Trinisphere
//SIDEBOARD (15)
x4 Leyline of the Void
x2 Cursed Totem
x2 Engineered Explosives
x2 Engineered Plague
x2 Toxic Deluge
x1 Helm of Obedience
x1 Spellskite
x1 The Abyss
Matchups were:
2-1 vs Maverick
2-0 vs Miracles
2-1 vs RUG Delver
1-2 vs UR Delver
Super fun and challenging deck though. The Tangle Wire was pretty good. Buys a bunch of turns early on.
Legacy:
RUG(B)Lands
UWRMiracles
The grind, the durdle, the control!
Chalice of the Void on 1, turn one wrecks UR Delver.
If you can empty your hand quick enough and land an Ensnaring Bridge, you're also in a good spot since they usually don't pack artifact hate Game 1.
This list, http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=8384&d=248183&f=LE did quite well, attacking the Treasure Cruise filled meta with Helm of Obedience and Leyline of the Void mainboard.
Deck is still relevant.
Twitch: gamerchamp
Modern: UGrand Architect, UBTezzeret Control, UBWRG Bridge From Below (Dredge)
Legacy: UWGTrue-Name Bant
I would like have fun and win. I have played mono blue back to basics for a year against causal legacy nothing to crazy though.
As the number of decks that lose to chalice on one goes up, the number of free wins you get by landing a chalice on 1 also goes up.
This deck actually plays a lot of cards that are difficult for delver to beat. Turn 1 chalice sometimes just wins the game. Turn 2 baleful strix sometimes just wins the game. Turn 2 tezzeret or jace sometimes just wins the game. Ensnaring bridge is very hard for them to beat. Thopter foundry is very hard for them to beat. Is that to say you dont lose sometimes to a turn 1 delver that flips on the first upkeep? No, but any deck can fold to that sometimes.
This deck plays a lot of variable threats, all of which need different answers. Thopter sword? Needs disenchant effects and possibly wasteland for the academy ruins. Tezzeret? Needs to be attacked, (typically) double bolted, or red elemental blasted. Where do you send your attacks, bolts and red blasts if theres a baleful strix in the way? Where do you send your attacks bolts and red blasts if theres a jace on the table too? If you play the maindeck helmline win condition, thats another angle that has to be defended against.
Ive played hundreds of games with this deck, and I can count the number of unwinnable games I've played on one hand.