“Tezzeret Foundry” is a mono / mostly blue combo-control deck, which relies on the Thoper Foundry / Sword of the Meek combination to win the game. The gameplan is to disrupt the opponent with Chalice and Bridge long enough to either win with the combo or just use small creature beatdown (Sower, Trinket and Mishras).
First the list:
Previous Versions:Code:Mana (28):
4 [SH] Mox Diamond
2 [TSP] Academy Ruins
3 [AQ] Mishra's Factory (4)
4 [TE] Ancient Tomb
3 [EX] City of Traitors
1 [MR] Seat of the Synod
5 [CS] Snow-Covered Island
1 [B] Tundra
4 [ON] Polluted Delta
1 [B] Underground Sea
Draw / Tutor (9):
4 [MR] Thirst for Knowledge
3 [FD] Trinket Mage
2 [ALA] Tezzeret the Seeker
Disruption (8):
4 [AL] Force of Will
4 [MR] Chalice of the Void
Removal (5):
3 [LRW] Sower of Temptation
2 [FD] Engineered Explosives
Win / Misc (10):
4 [ARB] Thopter Foundry
4 [FUT] Sword of the Meek
2 [SH] Ensnaring Bridge
// Sideboard
SB: 1 [SH] Ensnaring Bridge
SB: 1 [TSB] Tormod's Crypt
SB: 1 [FD] Crucible of Worlds
SB: 1 [10E] Pithing Needle
SB: 4 [TE] Propaganda
SB: 3 [MOR] Vendilion Clique
Flexible Slot:
SB: 4 [DIS] Spell Snare
- First FoW build
Can be found here: http://mtgthesource.com/forums/showp...7&postcount=26- Version with Oblivion Ring
Can be added if of interest, the basic differences were Oblivion Ring in place of Sower and 3 Trinisphere and one Bridge in place of FoW.
Card Choices:
- General
The deck is build more towards consistency than utility. Both tutors (Mage and Tezzeret) are a tool to increase this, not to fetch out singleton answers – at least preboard.
- Thopter Foundry / Sword of the Meek
The combo works like that: You sacrifce the Sword or any other artifact with Sword in the yard to Foundry. This creates a 1/1 token and gives you one life, the process can be repeatet as long as you can spend mana.
It’s quite comparable to Painter Servant / Grinstone, there some differences though:
Its good versus aggro, by creating chump blockers and gaining life.
It doesnt involve a creature so its harder to disrupt.
Foundry is blue and enables Force of Will by increasing the blue count.Being pitchable to both FoW and Thirst is also nice.
Sword can easily be pitched to Thirst as it requires any artifact to sacrifice, which triggers Sword from the yard.
As strange as its sounds, Sword can sometimes be equipped to one of your creatures and is not completly dead therefore.
The deck runs a very high mana to spell ratio and the Foundry combo takes advantage of this.
Both have the advantage that they are artifacts, which can be tutored by Tezzeret and returned by Academy Ruins.
- Thirst for Knowledge
To run a blue deck with a lot of mana and artifacts has the advantage to run cards like Thirst over other similar decks ‘manabasewise’. It increases much needed consistency and acts similar to Brainstorm in other blue decks. Running that many artifacts gives you most of the time a pitch target which doesn’t hurt you at all. To pitch Sword is a stronger play than to play it, as you can just play a redundant Chalice or something, sacrifice it and return Swords.
- Sower of Temptation
Was Oblivion Ring before and was mainly included because I wanted to run FoW again and needed more blue. Most of the time you want to deal with creatures anyway and with Chalice in the picture, Sower is quite difficult to remove for decks which rely on STP / Path. It shines in the blue aggro-control matchup and is decent against something like Dragon Stompy.
- Force of Will
The previous version run Trinisphere in FoW’s slot, but it proved to be a weak choice because the biggest problem was face threats which really needed to be answered and Trini isn’t really that good without mana denial. FoW is much more flexible and helps you to surive the early game.
- Trinket Mage
Obvious why he is good in here, most of the time he will search for Chalice. The single Seat of the Synod is also quite relevant sometimes by giving you an additional blue for both Tezzeret and Sower or in general tight mana situations. Also opens sideboard options.
- Ensnaring Bridge
Most of the time you can spit your hand on the board quite fast if necessary - Bridge comes handy here. Often Bridge buys you the necessary time to find the combo. Its one of the most tutored cards by Tezzeret as it protects walker and player (who is also some kind of walker).. Comparable cards are Tangle Wire and Propaganda, both tax mana from the opponent, which can be good sometimes - but also irrelevant in other cases. I dont want to depend on the number of permanents my oppoennt have (Tangle) nor do i want to rely on my opponents mana and creature count (Propaganda). Often you will face 3/3+ were Bridge shines.
- Manabase
I considered quite some different manabases and shells, but liked the Mox Diamond based manabse most. It provided much needed colour fixing (Thopter Foundry!) and let me stuff in all these lands I want.
It also runs better with Ancient Tomb / City of Traitors than something that relies on Chrome Mox.
The deck abuses the high mana count as you can see. It may be most beneficial to the Thopter combo though, as it allows one to quickly generate some tokens, which can be lethal even if Foundry is removed a couple of turns later. Academy Ruins should be mentioned, as its really powerful in here. The first version even run three Ruins, but I cut one in favor of consistency. Most of the time you don’t need the Ruins in the early game, as it works best if fueled with quite some mana.
Sideboard
- Spell Snare
Currently testing this card. The idea is to have a replacement for Chalice in the matchups were it is bad. This is foremost the Merfolk matchup. It counters there most threating spells: Echoing Truth, Standstill and Lord of Atlantis. Against Goblins it can stop Piledriver, Goblin Tinkerer, Tin Street and Instigator, though not as reliable, as they have tons of ‘into-play’ cheater cards. I can see it being useful against Aggro Loam and decks playing Gaddock Teeg.
- Propaganda
A necessary evil I guess, its buys you time against tribal and can be brought in against Ichorid too. It’s decent even without mana denial.
- Vendilion Clique
Initially considered for the Storm and control matchup, Clique also proved to be good against Bant-style decks. Its good to before casting a key spell and provides a clock in the air / blocks Trygon Predator.
- Pithing Needle
Again mainly against decks were Chalice is bad or which run very central activated abilities like Survival, Belcher or sometimes some kind of Plainswalker.
- Tormod’s Crypt
Simply there to make Trinket Mage useful in the Ichorid matchup. I can’t deny that I need some kind of graveyard hate though.
- Crucible of Worlds
Unsure about this slot, don’t know if its feasible to run it as a one-of. I thought I need another tool against control to keep up with them in the late game. Also I can be useful against recurring land destruction. May get cut.
Considerd Cards:
- Oblivion Ring
Was included in the previous build as a catch all card (maindeck). It requires a creater commitment to white and being not blue disables FoW. Was cut for that reason, as FoW is much more flexible. I still consider it as a board card sometimes, but i dont see how i could cut an additional blue source for a basic Plains.
- Sigil of Distinction
Also included some time ago, the idea was to give Trinket Mage a tutor target which creates a formidable blocker. This inclusion also suggest to include 4 Mage, but i practice it wasnt that good. The current tutor targets are good enough.
- Trinisphere
- Phyrexian Ironfoot
His first inclusion was a result of having Tezzeret in play, but no way to protect him. I had too many cards for Bridge and my opponent had Mishras Factory(s). The idea was that he is a good defensive creature, which surives a Bolt. The “drawback” can sometimes turn into an advantage as you can use him as he had vigilance. Also he is another body were you can attach an otherwise useless Sword.
- Painterstone combo
Was tested foremost against Merfolk and Goblins in the flexible slot. With three Painter and 1 Grinsdstone I had the chance to kill him quite fast, having the chance on drawing two different two-cards combos. With the thought in mind that I cant hold of both decks forever, as I am either overrun after an Echoing Truth or a Siege Gang pings me to death. Note that the combo can come handy in matchups were it is good to have a way to win that doesn’t involve the combat step. At least as both pieces as a one of – is a nice Tezzeret target, it doesn’t involve the graveyard too.
I did cut it for now because I wanted a card in the slot, which is good on its own and doesn’t need a second to become active. Also hands with one piece of each combo sucked.
- Jace the Mind Sculptor
I will definitely test Jace when he comes available, most likely in the slot of two Sower (moving them to the board). The deck still screams for more consistency and Jace may offer that. As a result the creature count will be lower and it becomes likely that the opponent will side out his spot removal, making Sower a good SB card.
- Misdirection
- Both Masticores
- Glen something Mage
Matchups:
I will start to present matchup analysis for the decks which I consider to be a negative matchup. Please be patient as my time is limited. The boarding plans are either based on my current test results / theory or are of experimental nature in the cases were a previous plan has failed.
- Merfolk
Let’s start with the perhaps worst matchup this deck has. There biggest threats are LoA, Standstill and Echoing Truth. So keep your FoWs for these preferably, especially Standstill and Echoing Truth. LoA and lots of other creatures can still be slowed / stopped by Propaganda and Ensnaring Bridge.
I really tested a lot against them and still looking for ways to solve this matchup. After testing Painter and being satisfied, I currently test this strategy + SB cards:
-4 Chalice
-1 EE
-3 Sower
-2 Tezzeret
+4 Spell Snare
+4 Propaganda
+1 Bridge
+1 Needle
Chalice doesn’t help much against them, if they get Vial online its basically useless. Sower isn’t that great and is cut together with Tezzeret, because of their manacost. I anticipate to be mana disrupted therefore I want to reduce my curve.
- Storm Combo
- Zoo
- Bant Countertop
- Landstill
Not really sure depends really on the pilot. I had games were I was completely outnumbered with answers / card advantage from his side. While I consider siding out combo pieces here, a quick combo can sometimes bring you the victory. Definitely a hard matchup, but you won’t face it that often hopefully.
+3 Clique
+1 Needle
+1 Crucible
-2 Ensnaring Bridge
-3 Sower
-1 Chalice if you want to bring something other.- Goblins
Another very hard matchup – again is Chalice quite bad and both the combo and Ensnaring Bridge can be (completely) negated by Goblin Piledriver.
Same boarding plan as Merfolk. If you play against a monored version, which relies on Goblin Tinkerer as artifact removal, using Needle on him can be a strong play. While Bridge isn’t quite good against them, it eventually stalls them. If they have 4 Waste as mana disruption, you might keep Tezzeret.- Ichorid
- Bant Survival
In order to avoid Bilbo i side in the following way:
-2 Chalice
-1 EE
-2 Tezz
-4 FoW
+4 Spell Snare
+3 Clique
+1 Bridge
+1 Needle
I got raped by an early Bilbo before, so I will try this plan to avoid him. Needle helps against Survival and Pridemage. I may keep the 4 Spell Snare out and put 4 FoW back in, haven’t decided yet.
Play Tips:
Using the combo
In general, most decks cant beat if you get it online fast so play accordingly.
Somewhat obvious, if you get the combo online with a bunch of other cards in hand you might be tempted to play those to further increase your advantage you might think. Often its better to stop casting at all and just produce tokens each turn.
Think about which card your enemy could play a produce tokens accordingly in either your turn or their turn.
Why play Tezzeret
Deck Name
While I am open to suggestions for a better deck name, please don’t call it “Tezzerator”, this would suggest that it is a Extended port, which it isn’t, also this name is fugly.
Also don’t call it Tezzeret Stax, besides the manabase there is no similiarity to Stax decks as there is no mana / permanent denial involved here.
Again the missing pieces will be added when I have time or if there is new insight. Thanks for reading.
Linkt to a small tournament report: http://mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15891
