[Free Article] Rebuilding Drain Tezzeret Without 4 Thirsts

[Smmenen]

http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/17772_So_Many_Insane_Plays_Designing_Tezzeret_Control_For_the_Future.html

Editor's Blurb:

Monday, July 20th - Perhaps the biggest question for Vintage this summer will be this: what is the best way to design the Mana Drain Time Vault deck? Stephen Menendian, examines a plethora of exciting options for the deck, and suggests builds which he believes will be the stronger contenders in the emerging Vintage metagame

In this article I comprehensively examine all of the possible options in lieu of 4 Thirsts.    I break down the six major approaches likely post-restriction, compile a list of all of the likely auto-includes, and provide a huge list of cards that could fill those final Tez slots.  

Enjoy!

Keep in mind this article was written over a week ago, so any tournament results since then are purely coincidental.

[Marske]

@Steve,
Very interesting article and I'm pretty surprised about the fact that we came to the same conclusion regarding the shift between card quantity and card quality in blue based control decks (Tezz, Painter) with the loss of TFK (as I talk about in my own free article posted today).

I must say Confidant looks to be more solid overall compared to Night's whisper because of the added body, your statement regarding Confidant giving you the same amount of cards NW does but just 3 turns later seems to be contradicting the statement that it's shifting from quantity to quality. Confidant is just a very different draw engine compared to cards like NW or Thoughtcast imo.

[CHaPuZaS]

Very interesting article!!! Its nice to hear someone telling goods about Tezzcast!
So far I'm not sure if GU, Ponder and Imperial fit the deck. The last of them is the only card that i'm not testing still, but ill try it. Sure also REB are worth speaking of, but their appearance in a deck's main depends on the pilot's opinion. I just feel good about playing them as they arr worth the slot against everything but shop, elves and goblins decks.

I'm also looking forward to find a "cure" to TFK restriction.

[Smmenen]

Gifts Ungiven is a game winner.  Ponder is amazing.  What is your reasoning for not including them, especially since thirst is restricted?

[CHaPuZaS]

I'm in Las Islas Canarias on holiday, that's the reason... Because I want to test them before theoryzing. Ponder is good to me, but I am not sure if I prefer it over things like. Night whisper. About GU... Maybe another Tezzeret is moré explosive, but anyway, ill post results as soon as  I start testing.

I will like(and have to say) more, but writing in an iPhone is really slow...

[voltron00x]

I've played a lot of Tezz without Ponder and can't say I've missed it that much, but Gifts?  Resolving a Gifts and still losing is actually hard to do... that card is amazing.  Of the three (Imperial Seal, Ponder, Gifts Ungiven), Gifts seems like far and away the best (given that Seal is redundant, otherwise it might be different).

[Sean Ryan]

Nicley done.  The ICBM cup results seem to verify most of our predictions. 

Your speculation that card selection is becoming increasignly important in relation to card advantage may be the most significant and lasting contribution from this article.

With the increased amount of black spells from either Bob or Night Whispers/Scyring, (possibly Imperial Seal as well), and the increased presence of Stax/Fish, do you beleive a basic swamp is warranted?
 
I recently settled on a version that was 3 cards off Jimmey McCarthy's 2nd place list.  I also opted to run Whisper and Scrying and switched from green to red for Reb/Fire Ice.  Although I must say I didn't think there would be enough Fish to justify Sphinx - I was wrong about that. 

What do you think of the singelton Jace?  I would love to hear how that turned out.

As far as Gifts, Ponder, Seal - the only one that is an open question for me is Seal, which I'm leaning more and mroe toward supporting.  What tipped the hat on Seal was that I was running Trinket Mage with a Needle, but would more often get KEy and Lotus than the Needle.  Seal costs 2 less gets anything, but you have to wait a turn generally. 

The next article I would like to see is a matchup analysis between Tezz (Whispers and red) vs. R/G Stax.  It's also worth noticing that every deck besides Storm ran either Time Vault or Null Rod

Vintage = Time Vault vs Null Rod

Thanks for the shout out!

[LordHomerCat]

Jace is an unknown for me, Sphinx was trash and would have been better as DSC every time (and would have won me at least one game that I lost for sure and made a half dozen other games much less close than they were), Fire/Ice was unreal but that is because I played against 100 welders, I Seal is amazing and I would definitely play it again but I just ran out of slots and wanted to test out the Jace so I tried the switch.  I don't like Trinket Mage so I would never play him.  I also don't know how to beat BUG Fish; this was my second straight tourney finals loss in the matchup without even taking a game from them.

[Sean Ryan]

Lordhommercat,

With this much black against a field of fish and stax, did you ever want a basic swamp?

[LordHomerCat]

I never have wanted a basic swamp and I never will.  Considering that the best card in my deck against all those shops decks was Mana Drain, not being able to cast it is pretty loose.  I won multiple games with stuff like Island, Mox into a fetchland and then a drain on a Tangle Wire or whatever other thing they cast and then just casting TV and a tutor and going infinite.  Fetching out basic swamp is like turning my land drop into an off-color mox.  Why would I want that?

[Kiriyuu]

I've been playing 17 land for a while, interesting that this is more than most.

I've been using:

4 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
2 Island
1 Snow covered island
1 swamp
1 Tolarian academy
1 Library of Alexandria

Would you drop a fetch or the basic swamp maybe?

Imperial Seal seems really good, I'm going to have to try that out!

Stephen, back in a previous article composite tezzert article you mentioned that a MD tormod's crypt was normal, I tried it and found it lacking, but now with the potential for lots of strip mine and crucible use, what would you make of this now.

I found myself sideboarding in pithing needle a lot, so I'd also be very tempted by that MD.

Thanks for the article, very interesting reading

[Smmenen]

17 is far more lands than anyone else runs.  I would cut the Swamp, at a minimum.

Even if you don't find 'answers,' I hope that this article crystallizes the important issues, identifies the correct options, and then leaves it to you to sort out how you wish to decide among them. 

[Smmenen]

This article is now free.   FYI, and enjoy!

[Metman]

Thank you Steve for bumping this thread.  Although I think that the format has found a draw engine for neo Tezz lists, I also believe that we Vintage players get complacent and need a reminder of what else is available out there.  With the recent shift in my metegame to move away from Null Rod I can see a Thoughtcast version making an impact.  Also with the shift to play more creature removal in the likes of Fire//Ice and Darkblast I see Dark Confidant as a weaker card.  Nothing is better than casting Duress and seeing one of those two cards in their mainboard and knowing that they will be absolutely dead since you don't play Confidants. 

Just a few thoughts.

I know that those of us that don't have premium accounts with SCG appreciate you bringing your free articles to our attentions. 

Keep up the good work. 

[Smmenen]

I'm glad you enjoyed it.    You make some good points.   the composition of the Tez deck is one of the most important questions in Vintage, and one of the lessons of the Gifts deck is that the early lists were eventually superseded by a very different approach.  I don't know if that will be the case here, but it's easy to be complacent.