So Many Insane Plays - Designing Tezzeret Control For the Future

Perhaps the biggest question for Vintage this summer will be this: what is the best way to design the Mana Drain Time Vault deck? Any attempt to answer this question is necessarily speculative, but it is one that will shape deck construction, color every conversation about Vintage, and animate the entire format.

Since I cannot answer that question with any degree of certainty, this article is going to be primarily exploratory. I will examine the constraints on Tezzeret Control design by identifying those cards that will likely see play in any Tezzeret list. Then I will explore those possibilities that lie beyond the automatic inclusions, weighing their advantages and disadvantages.

For reference, in December and February I created a “composite” Tezzeret deck by reviewing Top 8s and seeing which cards most frequently appeared in Tezzeret lists in Vintage Top 8s. The December list drew from October and November tournament data. The February list drew primarily from December and January data, and then had a super-composite that showed the composite lists from all four months. I never updated the deck because Tezzeret lists changed little since the February composite. I mention these articles because I will refer to both:

â€¢ The December Composite Tezzeret

â€¢ The February Composite Tezzeret

Unanimous Choices:

What are the cards that appear in every Tezzeret Control list? These:

4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
1 Time Vault
1 Voltaic Key
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Tinker
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Brainstorm
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Inkwell Leviathan or Darksteel Colossus
14 additional lands

I doubt anyone would question any of these 25 spells and 15 lands. These cards appear in virtually every pre-restriction Tezzeret list you can find, as my composite articles reveal. Some Tezzeret lists run 16 lands, but virtually all run at least 15.

Virtually Unanimous Choices

Experience suggests that there are a few more auto-includes, obvious cards, like Mystical Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, a Thirst For Knowledge, and Mana Crypt. So far we have 44 cards in our deck and 16 open slots.

Obvious Inclusions

Cards that also appear in the vast majority of Tezzeret Control decks are: Fact or Fiction, Gifts Ungiven, Merchant Scroll, a Sensei’s Divining Top, and Mana Vault.

All but one of these cards are restricted, and that alone is proof of their value and their power.

The mystery (to me) is Sensei’s Divining Top. I can’t explain why so many lists run Sensei’s Top. In the “TezCast” variants (see below), it’s obvious. Top interacts nicely with Keys and allows you to power out early Thoughtcast. One question is whether the restriction of Thirst will reduce the use of Top. That’s a question which can only be answered in time. For now, I will simply rely on the fact that Top has been used in the vast majority of lists and continue to include it.

Finally, the vast majority of Tezzeret lists run a single bounce spell. It’s a matter of controversy as to what the spell should be, whether it should be Echoing Truth (the most popular), Rebuild, or Hurkyl’s Recall, among others. We need not resolve this debate right now, except to acknowledge that we can expect that any Tezzeret Control list will devote one slot to a bounce spell.

We can safely assume that all Drain Tezzeret decks will run these cards as well, with a high degree of confidence. That brings us to about 50 cards, with 10 open slots.

I think we can safely say that these 10 open slots will define the future of Tezzeret Control. There are many cards that can be run in these slots, and that will be the focus of the remainder of the article.

Cards that Should Be Included, But Sometimes Aren’t

In both my December and February review of Vintage Top 8s, Ponder made the composite list both times, but only because it appeared in a strong plurality of decklists. In my view, Ponder is an auto-include. It simply sees too many cards at such a cheap price. The only argument for its omission is that you have better cards to run, and that argument is harder to advance now that Thirst is restricted.

More controversially, I strongly believe that all Tezzeret lists should be running Imperial Seal as well.

With the best sources of card advantage now restricted, Vintage is more and more about card selection instead. Having maximum card selection capacity translates both into tempo and card advantage. It is now possible to win in Vintage by tutoring up Ancestral Recall first, getting it to resolve, and then simply staying ahead until you can Yawgmoth’s Will or Tinker for the win. Also, just tutoring up and forcing through cards like Tinker on turn 2, or Time Vault when you have Voltaic Key in hand, can produce unearned victories.

In short, card selection leads to card advantage and tempo, both of which lead to game victories. Because of the power disparity between cards, having the highest degree of card selection is paramount.

That’s the difference between cards like Imperial Seal and Personal Tutor. Imperial Seal finds any card, and most importantly:

Ancestral Recall
Tinker
Yawgmoth’s Will
Time Vault

Personal Tutor only finds half of those cards.

The fact that Imperial Seal requires you to wait a turn is not a serious concern. Turn 2 Tinker or Time Vault is powerful enough.

The Tezzeret deck, like The Perfect Storm, is now a deck of and about restricted spells. The best cards in Vintage are sorceries, instants, and artifacts, and Imperial Seal finds all three. Imperial Seal is most powerful in a deck like this. I cannot comprehend its omission. It reminds me of the days in which Drain pilots didn’t run Mana Crypt. It was just wrong.

To recap, all Tezzeret lists look as follows:

15 lands
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Voltaic Key
1 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Robot
24 restricted spells
1 Bounce Spell
=
52 cards

That leaves us with 8 open slots. Keep in mind that most Tez pilots do not run Imperial Seal, and they tend to omit a few of the cards listed, so there will often be up to 11 cards different between lists.

Here is a comprehensive list of strong possibilities for the remaining slots:

Accumulated Knowledge
Ancient Grudge
Commandeer
Dark Confidant
Deep Analysis
Duress
Glen Elendra Archmage
Goblin Welder
Engineered Explosives
Intuition
Impulse
Library of Alexandria
Lorescale Coatl
Lotus Petal
Meditate
Mind Twist
Misdirection
Mystic Remora
Negate
Night’s Whisper
Pithing Needle
Psychatog
Pyroblast
Red Elemental Blast
Repeal
Regrowth
Relic of Progenitus
Sensei’s Divining Top
Skeletal Scrying
Strategic Planning
Tezzeret
Thoughtcast
Thoughtseize
Tormod’s Crypt
Transmute Artifact
Voltaic Key

Classifying Your Options

These cards fall into one of three categories:

Disruption
Draw
Utility

For example, in the â€˜standard’ Tez list, like the one popularized by Meandecker Jimmy McCarthy, the remaining cards were:

2 Duress
2 Thoughtseize
1 Misdirection
3 more Thirst For Knowledge
1 Pithing Needle
1 Regrowth

Note that Jimmy didn’t run Ponder or Imperial Seal.

The February Composite list ran this:

1 Duress
1 Misdirection
1 Tormod’s Crypt
3 more Thirst For Knowledge
2nd Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Regrowth
1 additional land, Library of Alexandria

The March Waterbury victor, Matt Mcnally, ran:

2 Duress
2 Thoughtseize
1 Misdirection
3 more Thirst For Knowledge
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Regrowth
1 Trinket Mage

He didn’t run Imperial Seal or Ponder either.

Finally, Cesar Fernandez “TezCast” ran this:

1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyroblast
1 Misdirection
4 Thoughtcast
3 more Thirst For Knowledge
2nd Tezzeret the Seeker
2nd Sensei’s Divining Top
2nd Voltaic Key

Not only did Cesar not run Imperial Seal or Ponder, he didn’t run Scroll or Gifts Ungiven, and often didn’t run a bounce spell either.

However, the issue of immediate interest is the draw engine.

The Draw Engine

Possible replacements can be described in six broad categories:

1) Night’s Whisper
2) Dark Confidant
3) Mystic Remora
4) Intuition “Plus”
5) Thoughtcast
6) â€˜Highlander’

These are engines that would be run in multiples. I’ll explain what they look like in moment.

There are two key complexities in analyzing them. The first layer of complexity comes because these cards could be combined in various ways. The second layer of complexity comes because these cards can be combined with various singletons, such as Trinket Mage, Repeal or Skeletal Scrying as sources of card advantage.

The first layer of complexity is easier to address, since although these engines can be combined, some cannot or likely would not. The second layer is much more difficult as there is so much possible variety. However, it is not as important. It’s more important to identify the advantages and disadvantages of the six broad categories.

Night’s Whisper

Night’s Whisper is the most obvious replacement for American-style Tezzeret lists, like those that Jimmy McCarthy and others have run with heavy Thoughtseize/Duress. As a draw engine, Night’s Whisper is closest replacement to Thirst. It sees fewer cards, but it nets the same amount of card advantage. It’s simply the most efficient for the cost. It’s also a great turn 1 play off a Mox and land. The life loss is mostly insignificant, especially in the early game.

If I were a betting man, I would expect many Tezzeret players in the future to run at least two Night’s Whisper to fill the gap and loss of four Thirsts.

Thus, future Tez lists might run:

2 Night’s Whisper
1 Regrowth
2 Duress
2 Thoughtseize
1 Misdirection

If I were to play a Tezzeret list tomorrow, it would probably look like that.

Dark Confidant

Dark Confidant is also a great choice. Dark Confidant is now one of the best unrestricted draw engines in Vintage. The advantage of Dark Confidant is that it will win the game if it is unaddressed within a few turns. It is also a source of damage and therefore an additional win condition. It will shorten the amount of time needed to win through other means. The primary disadvantage to Dark Confidant is that it’s just much worse early on than Night’s Whisper in this deck. It takes three turns with Dark Confidant to see the amount of cards that Night’s Whisper sees on turn 1. That fact means that you are vulnerable to counter-strategies until Dark Confidant’s card draw power starts to take hold.

Mystic Remora

Mystic Remora has already become a powerful metagame player. It runs interference in the mid-game, and can generate enormous card advantage. Mystic Remora naturally synergizes with a number of other options. It was originally developed by Team Reflection in conjunction with Meditate (and Commandeer). Later, Jeremy Seroogy borrowed a twist Dave Williams put on those earlier lists to run Lorecale Coatl:

Remora Control with Coatl

Jeremy Seroogy

Test deck on 07-26-2009

Vintage

Creatures (5)

Planeswalkers (1)

1 Tezzeret the Seeker

Lands (17)

Spells (37)

Sideboard

This list never ran Thirst, so it can be directly ported into the current metagame. That’s a huge advantage.

Paul Mastriano developed a list with Mystic Remora with Dark Confidant, a natural complement since Mystic Remora buys time for Dark Confidant to do its job. Mystic Remora also works nicely with Repeal.

Rich Shay recently piloted a list with 2 Mystic Remora, 3 Dark Confidant, 2 Repeal and 3 Duress, although he didn’t run Gifts Ungiven or Imperial Seal.

One of the advantages of Mystic Remora is that it synergizes with so many other options. It can be played with almost anything else. The disadvantage is that it’s often a metagame choice and will be weaker in certain environments. Many of the Remora lists lose nothing from the restriction of Thirst, and that is an obvious advantage. I am sure we will see more of this in the near future.

Intuition “Plus”

I use the term Intuition “Plus” to describe lists that use Intuition plus either some other spell, whether it’s Accumulated Knowledge, Deep Analysis, or something else entirely.

Intuition Plus is probably the most robust unrestricted Blue draw engine left in Vintage. It was the primary Blue draw engine before Thirst saw print. For 5 mana you can draw 3 cards with Intuition + AK, and with the 4th AK you draw 4 more, for 7 mana for 7 cards. Deep Analysis, while more painful, actually takes up less space and draws about as many cards. It’s trickier to use in some ways, however. Here is a recent example of an Intuition list. Martin used 2 Intuition, 2 Deep Analysis, 2 Repeal, and a 2nd Tezzeret.

The primary problem with Intuition is that it takes up so much mainboard space that you lose flexibility and agility. It also means that you have less disruption. It’s also optimal in the control matchup and weaker in all other matchups, particularly Workshop and Fish matchups.

I expect Intuition versions of Tezzeret to see play, I just don’t expect to see them that much.

Thoughtcast

This refers to the TezCast version of Tezzeret. Take a look:

TezCast

Cesar Fernandez

Test deck on 07-26-2009

Vintage

Creatures (1)

1 Inkwell Leviathan

Planeswalkers (2)

2 Tezzeret the Seeker

Lands (15)

Spells (42)

Sideboard

This decklist was probably the most aggressive of the Tezzeret variants. It’s hyper-fast and often combos as early as turn 2. It had a reputation for dying to Null Rod decks, and therefore never saw much play in the U.S. This was an error on our part. This deck is actually very impressive, and can pack tools like Ingot Chewer to combat Null Rod.

Cesar’s decklist does not have Merchant Scroll or Gifts Ungiven, egregious omissions in my view. Nor does it even have Ponder, let alone Imperial Seal. I would immediately add all four cards by cutting the Red Elemental Blast and three illegal Thirsts.

TezCast

Stephen Menendian

Test deck on 07-26-2009

Vintage

Creatures (1)

1 Inkwell Leviathan

Planeswalkers (2)

2 Tezzeret the Seeker

Lands (15)

Spells (42)

Sideboard

This deck has plenty of gas, even post-restriction. Ironically, it could be more powerful now, since it has the most consistent draw engine of the remaining Tezzeret variants, and the draw engine is Blue. Its weaknesses remain the same: Null Rod, etc.

Highlander

By â€˜highlander,’ I am referring to models that acknowledge the fact that the best draw engines are restricted and supplement that spell pool with singletons on the order of Skeletal Scrying.

For example, a â€˜highlander’ version might use the 8 spots to run:

1 Misdirection
1 Skeletal Scrying
1 Regrowth
1 Night’s Whisper
2 Duress
2 Thoughtseize

So, by highlander I don’t mean literally so, just that it is full of a bunch of singleton options. I suppose it could look something like this:

1 Misdirection
1 Skeletal Scrying
1 Repeal
1 Night’s Whisper
1 Regrowth
1 Duress
1 Thoughtseize
1 Relic of Progenitus

1 Misdirection
1 Skeletal Scrying
1 Impulse
1 Regrowth
1 Duress
1 Thoughtseize
1 Trinket Mage
1 Engineered Explosives

Etc.

I don’t see this as an obviously superior option, or an inferior one — it’s merely another avenue to explore. There are many good cards one could run, and a highlander model simply prefers flexibility from many options.

Conclusion

I’ve examined all of the cards that show up in virtually all Tezzeret lists, and suggested that these cards will likely remain in Tez lists of the future. I’ve looked at some more controversial cards that I believe should go in all Tezzeret lists, like Ponder, Imperial Seal and Gifts Ungiven. Then, I took a look at the cards that are likely to replace Thirst for Knowledge, or to be run in Tezzeret lists of the future. I suggested that there are probably 6 general approaches that are likely to be explored and combined. I analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of each approach. It’s too early to tell if any one of these approaches will be most successful, although I suspect that Night’s Whisper will be the leading contender. I hope that you found this article helpful as you explore your options and configure your weapon of choice for your metagame.

Until next time…

Stephen Menendian

Thanks to Sean Ryan for his insights and help.