Standard

Ancestral Memories: The Long Goodbye

How does the world go on?

You may have guessed it but this week’s column is about Standard. I won’t get in depth about the swinging of any ban hammers or making any puns but suffice it to say, Caw anything is dead. Well that’s not entirely true as [Card]Squadron Hawk[/Card] is still around but the iterations with everything else is pretty much washed away.

So where does Standard go from here?

Left?

It doesn’t really matter. We’ll get a general idea soon enough but in the meantime every single durdle who could not imagine a day without Caw Blade and who complained that “I quit brewing because standard wasn’t fun” will rush back in droves, or so Wizards hopes, and jump on the internet to find out what the best deck is and then net deck it.

It probably won’t happen that way but at the same time there won’t be some new amazing deck arriving on the scene to blow everything away. Decks are an evolutionary process that requires a build up to reach where they currently reside. Just like U/W isn’t done. Initially it may not show up the first couple of tournaments but it will be present because there has never been a format where blue mages threw away their [Card]Island[/Card]s in order to play with [Card]Forest[/Card]s.

I’m leaving the U/W analysis to someone better suited with such a deck, though rest assured there is a combination of those colors that can be the basis of a really good deck. Instead let’s turn our attention to what the experts are predicting for the current metagame; a return of Valakut and the evolution of a new Exarch Twin Combo.

Now I can’t disagree with such comments but there will certainly be an acclimatization phase to be had as people learn how to play their decks correctly while also learning how to play the field. Know how to play Eldrazi or Sly? Good you’re set. If not, time for a new deck that can have a good matchup against the two decks I named. I have yet to test, this “new” format so instead I’ll go through the evolution of a deck some people want to see make a comeback: [Card]Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas[/Card].

The Beginning

Tezzeret was released in Mirrodin Besieged, which happened to come out the week before Pro Tour Paris. The first iteration of the Tezzeret deck was successfully piloted by Patrick Chapin at Pro Tour Paris to a top 8 finish with the following deck:

[Deck Title=Patrick Chapin – Grixis Tezzeret]
[Lands]
1 Blackcleave Cliffs
4 Creeping Tar Pit
3 Darkslick Shores
2 Inkmoth Nexus
3 Island
2 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Tectonic Edge
[/Lands][Creatures]
1 Treasure Mage
1 Wurmcoil Engine
[/Creatures][Spells]
4 Everflowing Chalice
2 Galvanic Blast
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Mindslaver
2 Mox Opal
4 Preordain
4 Prophetic Prism
2 Pyroclasm
2 Slagstorm
3 Sphere of the Suns
2 Stoic Rebuttal
4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
3 Tumble Magnet
[/Spells][Sideboard]
3 Duress
1 Flashfreeze
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Kuldotha Rebirth
2 Pyroclasm
1 Ratchet Bomb
4 Spreading Seas
2 Stoic Rebuttal
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

This version of the deck can most likely be called a flash in the pane deck. Not sure if that was ever a phrase for describing decks but the deck was able to capture lightning in a bottle and Top 8 a Pro Tour. As far as I know Chapin only piloted Tezzeret at this event and people immediately jumped on them in hopes they would lead to the next great deck. As proof, the week before Pro Tour Paris you could buy Tezzeret for 25 to 30 dollars but following the Pro Tour, his price jumped to 60.

I was lucky enough to pick them up when they were low and immediately built this version of the deck which I piloted to moderate results. The problem with the deck is many times it would be waiting on its back foot in hopes of getting to something useful. In the meantime your opponent was littering the board with hawks that made short work out of the Planeswalkers you cast. The next iteration of the deck was similar to Martin Juza’s build in Paris as it cut red to just be a U/B Tezzeret list as seen here:

[Deck Title=Martin Juza – U/B Tezzeret]
[Lands]
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Drowned Catacomb
4 Inkmoth Nexus
5 Island
7 Swamp
[/Lands][Creatures]
1 Blightsteel Colossus
4 Kuldotha Forgemaster
1 Myr Battlesphere
[/Creatures][Spells]
1 Duress
4 Everflowing Chalice
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Mindslaver
2 Preordain
3 Ratchet Bomb
4 Sphere of the Suns
4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
3 Tumble Magnet
[/Spells][Sideboard]
3 Black Suns Zenith
2 Duress
3 Flashfreeze
2 Go For The Throat
1 Memoricide
1 Negate
1 Platinum Emperion
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Spell Pierce
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

This version of the deck features the Forgemaster combo which allows you to search up either a Blightsteel Colossus or a Myr Battlesphere at end of turn in hopes of destroying your opponent the next turn, plus your Battlesphere tokens could be sacked to fetch up another artifact. Honorable mentioned to Smitty’s deck which is less of a Tezzeret deck but still contains the guy and has had some mild success as well as Kibler’s Tezzeret Infect.

While that is all well and good, we need to find out where this leaves us. Obviously Jace was one of the key cards in the deck, as along with Tezzeret, the deck was able to create a decent amount of card advantage to swarm your opponent but now, that Jace is no more, where can we go.

So on to my new conception of Tezzeret, it requires a decent amount of work but here is where I stand:

[Deck Title=William Blondon – Tezzeret, Agent of Torpor]
[Lands]
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Inkmoth Nexus
6 Island
3 Misty Rainforest
6 Swamp
1 Verdant Catacombs
[/Lands]
[Spells]
3 Duress
4 Everflowing Chalice
3 Jace Beleren
1 Karn Liberated
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Mindslaver
2 Norns Annex
4 Preordain
4 Sphere of the Suns
1 Surge Node
4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
3 Torpor Orb
3 Tumble Magnet
[/Spells][Sideboard]
3 Dismember
2 Duress
3 Flashfreeze
2 Go For The Throat
2 Phyrexian Obliterator
3 Unsummon
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

The mana base is just a straight up blue black mana base where the only dual land I play is [Card]Darkslick Shores[/Card]. The reason is playing this deck previously there was too much lost momentum on the first turns if I played tapped lands. The fetch lands are there to thin the deck so that in the late game you don’t run the risk of drawing too many lands. The advantage with Caw gone is that there is no longer an immediate pressure up front and games will most likely have time to develop.

The deck plays no creatures, almost similar to Chapin’s original list, as they just felt like excess weight and the deck’s goal is to win with Tezzeret, so creatures distract from that goal. An important thing to note about Tezzeret is that while you can make 5/5s out of your artifacts, try using this only when you have the game in hand. Otherwise stick with using his [Card]Peer Through Depths[/Card] or +1 ability as it will generate a greater card advantage, which this deck can use but it will also create a situation where winning with Tezzeret’s ultimate is easier than winning with creature beats.

As for the spells, let us begin with Planeswalkers. [Card]Karn Liberated[/Card] is simply present because I wanted to try him out for a game though I’m sure cutting him is the best option. [Card]Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas[/Card] is there for the obvious reasons of he is the central card in the deck and does not need much explanation. [Card]Jace Beleren[/Card] has replaced [Card]Jace, the Mind Sculptor[/Card] as he creates a card advantage similar to Tezzeret and this deck is looking to have as many cards in hand as possible and power out as many cards as possible otherwise it will not win as the deck is not good at coming from behind.

[Card]Everflowing Chalice[/Card] and [Card]Sphere of the Suns[/Card] are present for the mana acceleration which will allow for powering out a turn 3 Tezzeret to jump to an early lead. [Card]Tumble Magnet[/Card] is present to allow you to stabilize in the early game against some more aggressive decks, though with testing I will be interested to see whether the Magnet should be sticking around or with the decease of Caw will it prove to be more of a liability than an asset.

The one way the U/B deck has a way of gaining an advantage in the early game is through discard, which is why I chose to play almost the full suite of both discard spells. They allow for ripping out your opponent’s threats in the early game, which in turn buys you a few turns to set up your own game and I know I sound like a broken record but this deck needs to get ahead early or it will be very difficult to win and it needs to gain card advantage any way possible and the two discard spells accomplish that.

[Card]Preordain[/Card] is the standard blue draw spell currently in standard and is an auto include in almost any deck that chooses to play blue. [Card]Mindslaver[/Card] is present as a one of as it allows for the possibility of wrecking your opponent’s board or setting it up favourably for your next turn and at worse it performs the role of a [Card]Time Walk[/Card], which I hear is good.

Now we come to the cards that most likely drew your eye initially; [Card]Torpor Orb[/Card] and [Card]Norns Annex[/Card]. The Orb is to combat pretty much any strategy that will be immediately viable. It shuts off the Exarch Twin combo completely and it nullifies the enter the battlefield effects of both [Card]Primeval Titan[/Card] as well as [Card]Avenger of Zendikar[/Card] though you still need a way to deal with them once they’ve hit the board. It also happens to deal with a decent amount of the creatures featured in the [Card]Birthing Pod[/Card] decks.

The Annex is present against aggro strategies. Admittedly it probably should be out of the board if anywhere but the goal is to use it as a combination with Tumble Magnet to slow down the bleeding of the deck and allow you to search for the answer you may be looking for. It is most likely another obvious cut but if there is a way to maximize its potential I’ll definitely look for it.

As for the sideboard it answers both Valakut and Exarch combo for the time being but without seeing what the metagame or even the popular decks will look like, I have no idea as to what the appropriate cards should be. The one exception to this is the [Card]Phyrexian Obliterator[/Card] which I believe has value against Valakut as well as decks like mono red, which have no way of interacting with him. Further the deck is capable of hitting four black mana fairly consistently around turn five which means dropping him after a Tezzeret provides a great defense for Tezzeret.

Is this the final version of the deck? Of course not but as we move towards the end of Zendikar standard there is definitely the potential for Tezzeret to find himself a home. The deck list itself needs what I would say is a lot of work and many of the cards I put in as pet cards can probably be shipped out for something better. The one thing in this list I do agree with is the lack of creatures. Tezzeret offers two distinct possibilities, either to go the aggro route similar to Affinity in Legacy where he acts as a late game compliment to the deck to help finish off your opponent or he is the guy that will finish off your opponent as he is an enabler for the rest of your deck. With the “new” season for standard about to take place it will be of great interest to everyone to sit back and watch what unfolds and with the current “24 hour Magic news cycle” we should have a good idea of how the environment should be approached. Instead, for the time being, we need to endure the Mystical Jace farewell tour before getting back to real magic so the only thing we can do is fire shots into the dark as to what decks will be good, bad and anywhere in between.

Let me know what you think about the deck and the article in the comments, I’ll read every one and until next time: Have Fun Playing Magic!

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