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Standard is ridiculous right now. There are so many people playing Five-Color Control, and I believe the deck is completely awful. It simply plays all the best cards framed in a gorgeous control blend and looks to exhaust the opponent with Esper Charm, Volcanic Fallout, and countermagic until a kill condition shows up. Walls are a complete joke and give the opponent a fighting chance. Broodmate Dragon isn't the most efficient kill condition; however, it ties in with the greedy nature of the deck. Obelisk of Alara and Wydwen from the board are steps in the right direction, but I feel like the deck can do so much more.

BW Tokens is a legitimate deck. It’s well designed, and it makes very good use of all the tricky Black/White cards. Its huge failing is that it’s fighting through an environment that is well prepared for it. Tokens are best suited in an environment where there are lots of one-for-one removal spells being played (*cough* PATH *cough* TERMINATE *cough*), and it can provide a sturdy resilient answer to the format-defining removal. Right now, there is too much mass removal, making it extremely vulnerable to the numerous quality sweepers that could be on top of the opposing library. It has great proactive disruption for those cards, with Ajani Goldmane, Glorious Anthem, Tidehollow Sculler, and Head Games post board, but the deck seems to always putter out if the opponent Wraths a couple of times and casts a better threat.

Boat Brew is almost nothing more than a slightly more resilient version of BW Tokens. Instead of Sculler, Head Games, Terror, and Cloudgoat Ranger it has Figure of Destiny, Fulminator Mage, Ajani Vengeant, and Reveillark. If you clear the battlefield a couple of times and keep them off Reveillark, the games are easy, especially since they don't have the staying power that Bitterblossom provides for BW Tokens.

Faeries is the hands-down best deck. It has so many tools to fight whatever hate you throw at it, and it makes the best use of Cryptic Command right now. It's the kind of deck you really have to start attacking early or else you'll fall victim to their enormous wave of answers and will be too far behind to make up any ground. The games where Faeries lose are those in which it doesn't draw enough spells, which is hard to do considering they typically get good use out of their nonbasic lands.

The Red decks prey on the silly Fae. It has an extremely aggressive and explosive curve, with stud creatures coupled with burn worse than Wilmer Valderrama's hit MTV show Yo Mama! This deck loses its potency when the opponents have any kind of respectable life gain. The games tend to go much longer than you'd think, and all it takes is a Kitchen Finks, Cruel Ultimatum, Rhox War Monk, Ajani Vengeant, or Loxodon Warhammer to turn the tide.

Bant, Dark Bant, Doran are your typical 1-3 decks. They generally look to skip the two-drop slot to take advantage of getting bigger threats in quicker. Doran, War Monk, Finks, all the same creature. Birds, Hierarch, Elves, all the same creature. Liege, Rafiq, Colossus, all the same creature. Back them with some removal, salted with a bit of hand disruption, and wrap it up in a spicy manabase. These decks are extremely vulnerable to decks that can take the punches and keep fighting. They often lack any real card advantage, and are just bad versions of the Red decks.

So that’s all we have to beat? Aside from the Red decks, all of the above play a lot of nonbasic lands... I think it’s time for Land Destruction to make a comeback. I'm gonna wait until we have our All Gold set to work on a remake of the old Elementals deck, but I think it has a real chance at dominating Seattle.

We need a deck that can keep up on the long game card advantage front for the Five-Color Control matchup. A deck that can Wrath multiple times to beat Boat Brew and BW Tokens. A deck that has a quick proactive plan to get the jump-start on Faeries. A deck that can take some hits then stabilize opposite Bant, Dark Bant, Doran, and Red decks.

LD Tezzy Featured by Kyle Sanchez on 2009-04-19 (Standard) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/standard/17349_Down_And_Dirty_Testing_With_Tezzeret.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Artifacts 2 Courier's Capsule 4 Mind Stone 1 Obelisk of Alara 1 Pithing Needle 2 Rings of Brighthearth 4 Scepter of Dominance Creatures 4 Fulminator Mage Instants 3 Volcanic Fallout	Planeswalkers 4 Ajani Vengeant 1 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker 3 Tezzeret the Seeker Sorceries 2 Austere Command 3 Incendiary Command 2 Wrath of God Basic Lands 2 Plains Lands 2 Cascade Bluffs 1 Mistveil Plains 2 Mystic Gate 4 Reflecting Pool 3 Rugged Prairie 1 Springjack Pasture 3 Vivid Crag 2 Vivid Creek 4 Vivid Meadow	Sideboard: 1 Executioner's Capsule 2 Pithing Needle 1 Relic of Progenitus 4 Condemn 1 Volcanic Fallout 3 Vendilion Clique 1 Austere Command 2 Mind Shatter
Download this deck in Apprentice format!		Download this deck in Magic Online Text format!

Fulminator Mage and Incendiary Command slapped onto a light Tezzy frame. The unique feature about this LD deck is that, unlike some that go the 1-3 route like Bird into Stone Rain, this one doesn't need to be that quick since it can sit back and play the Wrath game. The Tezzy plan compliments the LD, since Scepter of Dominance is the best mana denial card out there right now as it doubles as creature removal and shuts down their Cryptic Commands.

It keeps the mana denial pressure on by using Rings in the mid to late game to create a soft lock which will often lead to a one-sided Ajani Armageddon. The kill conditions are extremely slow, Nicol Bolas and Obelisk, but since the games drag out due to them being severely restricted, they always get the job done. And copying Fulminator's ability with Rings is much more fun than casting stupid do-nothing walls, or making a horde of flying tokens.

I took it over to MTGO to do some testing...

BW Tokens

Game 1

I get out a couple quick Fulminator Mages, and his Knight of Meadowgrain and Kitchen Finks die to an Incendiary Command before Ajani shows up to build up to an ultimate under Scepter protection.

I board in another Austere and Fallout for a Scepter and a Courier's Capsule. I find myself boarding Scepter out a lot to dodge any potential Pithing Needle/Artifact hate.

Game 2

He Scullers away my Ajani, so Fulminator holds the fort for a minute while Scepter and Rings come down. Austere Command takes care of his Bitterblossom and tokens, but then he uses Head Games to give me a hand full of Vivid lands. I rip Courier's Capsule on my next draw, which draws me into Incendiary Command, which I use to discard my hand of land to draw five cards from my land-light deck. He mulliganed this game so he didn't have many cards or options to combat my grip, and I eventually killed him with an Obelisk for six damage a turn.

I got a little lucky with the Capsule draw after Head Games, but he was still in trouble that game, and I had a lot of time and life to draw out of it eventually.

Five-Color Control

Game 1

Scepter keeps him off Cryptic Command and a profitable Broken Ambitions and clears the path for Rings and Ajani to resolve. From there I kept his lands locked down for the rest of the game, and he scooped.

I took out my Fallouts and Wraths for Cliques and Mind Shatter.

Game 2

He got a turn 1 Telepathy out, but Fulminator, Scepter, and Ajani kept him off four mana and Ajani destroyed all his lands.

This is my main reason for playing this deck. It just can't lose to Five-Color Control, and that’s a nice warm feeling. [Five-Color Control with Telepathy? – Craig, amused.]

Red

Game 1

I land an early Rings, while he’s throwing crap at my head. Scepter gets him to overextend with 2 Figures and Boggart Ram-Gang, and I Capsule into a Wrath. From there I play a pair of Ajani, shoot him for 12 and gain 12 thanks to Rings, and he runs out of gas to do anything.

My main deck didn't show up when I was sideboarding, so I got completely screwed out of getting the necessary Condemns in my 60. I later found out that it’s a common bug and can be fixed by using cost sort, but it really pissed me off at the time.

Game 2

Complete. Blowout. Figure, Ram Gangs, Demigod of Revenge... wish I had some Condemn.

My sideboard works this time, so I bring in Comdemns, Cliques, and Executioner's Capsule for Nicol Bolas, Fulminator Mage, and Incendiary Command. He was playing Mono Red with a bunch of Mountains, so they didn't seem too useful.

Game 3

I mulliganed until I found a land... unfortunately, it was when I was trying out Exotic Orchard, and the only other card in my hand was a Mind Stone. He asked me why I was even going to waste his time playing a two-card hand, so I disconnected on him.

This matchup is a little shaky, despite being screwed by a bug and mulligans. I might need to add some Feudkiller's Verdict or Kitchen Finks to the sideboard.

Faeries

Game 1

I mulligan on the play and get stuck on three lands. It's still a pretty eventful game, as he gets a couple of Scions of Oona out, along with a Spellstutter to set my Volcanic Fallout up perfectly. He counters a couple of Fulminator with Remove Soul, counters Ajani with Cryptic, and my Scepter with a Spellstutter Sprite and two Mutavault, and eventually gets another Scion to destroy me with his Mutavaults. I went through three Mind Stones with Rings copies trying to find a Fallout, but just drew into a bunch of lands.

I brought in the Cliques and an extra Fallout for Wrath of God, Pithing Needle, Nicol Bolas. I probably should have brought Mind Shatter in, but I didn't feel the match would go that long. I either jump on their mana or they overrun me with small creatures and counters.

Game 2

I land a Vendilion Clique to see Glen Elendra Archmage, 2 Negate, and Mind Shatter. I took the Glen Elendra thinking I could actually get in there for enough damage from Clique to make Ajani and my Red Commands lethal, but his next draws were Spellstutter Sprite, Cryptic Command, Glen Elendra, which put me in a really awkward position. He Mind Shattered for three, leaving me with Ajani and Tezzeret with a Rings out. He had Glen Elendra out, so I wanted to wait for less important spells, but he topdecked another Mind Shatter to blow me out.

This was a pretty good example of how they just start drawing spells and everything goes in their favor. I thought I was lined up to win that game easily. Playing around the Negates wasn't going to be too hard, and I just had to hope he didn't draw into an answer for Clique within his top three or four cards.

Boat Brew

Game 1

This guy took forever to start playing. I got rid of his Figure and Fanatic with Fallout in response to him making it a 4/4. From there it was pretty easy to gain control. He got a Ranger of Eos to fetch a couple more copies of Figure, but my Tezzeret fetched up a Pithing Needle while Scepter took care of the Ranger. Reveillark came out on his side, but it never untapped thanks to Ajani, and I was able to continually wipe his board away with a pair of Incendiary Command.

I was ready to bring in my Cliques for Nicol Bolas, Capsule, and an Austere Command, but he conceded against me while we were sideboarding.

GW

Game 1

He got an early Teeg out, but Fallout took care of him and the Safehold Elite. Fulminator came down and blocked a Finks before blowing up a Village, and a Wilt Leaf Liege plopped down. Ajani kept him tapped for a couple turns while Scepter took care of his Finks. He landed a Gaddock Teeg, and I realized I didn't have a very good answer to a 4/4 Gaddock Teeg.

I started attacking with a Fulminator while leaving one back to defend the fort. Ajani was almost at his Ultimate, so I thought I was gonna be alright… I'd just blow up his lands, land a Rings, then double shoot the Teeg to cast the Obelisk in my hand. When I was attacking with Fulminator he blocked with Teeg, which I wasn't expecting since I didn't even have a Fallout, so I sacrificed it to destroy a land. I didn't realize it, but it skipped a couple of steps in combat, which threw me off, and I didn't get to use Ajani during my second main phase because I was using F2.

These are the kinds of situations that drive me crazy, and I lost because of a misclick.

In comes Capsule, Cliques, and another Fallout. I boarded out Nicol Bolas, Pithing Needle, and the Incendiary Commands, because most of his dudes were big enough to survive the two damage.

Game 2

Scepter into Rings into Fulminator-blow-up-two-lands into Ajani-keep-two-lands-tapped.

Game 3

He has another turn 2 Teeg, but this time I trade with a Vendilion Clique, leaving his creature-filled hand alone. I had a Wrath and Austere Command which I couldn't play because he topdecked another Teeg on the following turn. Luckily I drew into another Fallout, but waited for him to attack with his Safehold Elite and Teeg to Pyroclasm.

He cast Sigil Blessing, and I took ten damage.

Mono Blue Mill

Game 1

This guy was playing a Mono Blue Memory Erosion, Sanity's Grinding, Traumatize deck featuring Jace, Dream Fracture, Broken Ambitions, Cryptic Command, Shelldock Isle, Plumeveil... Needless to say, the games went frustratingly long.

I won the first on the back of a Tezzeret ultimate with one card left in my library.

Game 2

He mills me to zero when I have Mistveil Plains out, forces a draw with Jace, then counters my end of turn Clique with Dream Fracture.

Game 3

Another real long game. I went for a Tezzy kill late in the game, and he had an Evacuation as his last card to return two Scepter, a Rings, a Needle, and two Mind Stone to my hand. I didn't notice but I was running out of time on the clock, so I raw dogged a Nicol Bolas. He milled my library on the next turn, so I was stuck in Mistveil Plains mode, which didn't hurt so much because I had a Rings in play.

I got Nicol Bolas up to 11 counters, drew into my other Rings, played it, then clicked on Nicol Bolas to make him sacrifice 21 permanents, discard 21 cards, and take 21 damage, when suddenly it announced that he had won the game because I had timed out.

Man, I hate MTGO... It has the potential to be such a positive and inspiring resource, but it takes all the fun out of Magic. Even the winning!

As for the deck, I can only expect the idea of a creature-less land destruction deck to be extremely viable once Alara Reborn comes out. An entire set of Gold cards can't exactly help manabases, y'know.

Thanks for reading!

Kyle