Vintage: Tainted Pact

[Miqu]

I've been playing MTG since 7th Edition, but I'm new to Vintage (and these forums). All constructive criticism and feedback is appreciated.
This deck isn't going to be built IRL or in MTGO, it's to be used in *free* online tournaments at www.magic-league.com, partly because I simply couldn't at the moment afford to purchase this deck.

I remember something like this winning a tournament in the 2008... But that deck was TPS, so this isn't really related to that deck in any other way than all Vintage decks running blue are related to each other.

The deck concept is to minimize the amount of copies of each card in the deck while still keeping it operational to maximize the utility gained from Tainted Pact. Naturally, Vintage is the format to choose for such a deck since it's the only format with such a wide repertoire of restricted cards  (Yes, I built this deck just to get to play Odyssey, my obsession in the game ) and I chose TezzeretVault.mwDeck because it's in many people's opinion the strongest deck around in the current format, maximizing my chance of actually creating something worth playing. Also, the stronger the combo the stronger the tutors become.

Due to some cards simply being too powerful to just play as a one-of, there are multiple cards with more than one instance of them in the deck. For example, with the Cunning Wish you're basically playing 4 FoWs with lesser chance to have your Tainted Pact fizzle (I also like the versatileness being able to tutor up a Mindbreak Trap, another tutor (), a Hurkyl's Recall or a Ravenous Trap). I have thought of reducing the FoWs to 2 mainboard, if only I could find a decent replacement for that one copy. Three Tainted Pacts means your library will have up to two of them during it's resolution. Should I remove one of them as well?

Most of the time you'll be finding Tezzeret with Pact, which is pretty convenient for a 2-drop instant. There are 3 Tezzerets to be able to fetch him with Intuition - another card that might need removing and the number of Tezzerets could be lowered to 2. Jace 2.0 I find to my liking, in a format with none of the pesky critters bashing his face he shines... I'm not removing him completely but I could consider making him a one-of if I could find a card to fill that slot.

Sphinx of the Steel wind or Inkwell Leviathan is mostly a vanity question, no-one plays Swords to Plowshares in Vintage. The protection gives him immunity to most kinds of artifact hate, and although he can be bounced more easily, the lifelink can prove useful especially if you're playing against Fish or Goblins.

The sideboard could propably be improved by taking out one Mindbreak Trap and all but one Ravenous Traps, if I had something more useful to put in there. With Merchant Scroll, Cunning Wish and Pacts you should have no problems finding them when you need them from either your deck after SB or the SB in game one.

Here's the current list (still very open to improvements):

// Lands (17)
    1  Misty Rainforest
    1  Flooded Strand
    1  Scalding Tarn
    1  Swamp
    1  Underground Sea
    1  Island
    1  Polluted Delta
    1  Underground River
    1  River of Tears
    1  Sunken Ruins
    1  Darkwater Catacombs
    1  Tolarian Academy
    1  Seat of the Synod
    1  Saprazzan Skerry
    1  Gemstone Mine
    1  Watery Grave
    1  City of Brass

// Creatures (1)
    1 [ARB] Sphinx of the Steel Wind

// Artifacts (12)
    1  Black Lotus
    1  Mana Crypt
    1  Mox Jet
    1  Mox Pearl
    1  Mox Ruby
    1  Mox Sapphire
    1  Mox Emerald
    1  Sensei's Divining Top
    1  Sol Ring
    1  Mana Vault
    1  Voltaic Key
    1  Time Vault

// Instants & Sorceries (25)
    1  Chain of Vapor
    1  Brainstorm
    1  Ancestral Recall
    1  Ponder
    1  Spell Pierce
    1  Demonic Tutor
    3  Tainted Pact
    1  Hurkyl's Recall
    1  Impulse
    1  Merchant Scroll
    1  Time Walk
    2  Mana Drain
    1  Counterspell
    1  Three Wishes
    1  Yawgmoth's Will
    1  Cunning Wish
    1  Intuition
    1  Tinker
    1  Fact or Fiction
    3  Force of Will

// Planeswalkers (5)
    2  Jace, the Mind Sculptor
    3  Tezzeret the Seeker


// Sideboard
SB: 2  Relic of Progenitus
SB: 1  Divert
SB: 1  Tainted Pact
SB: 1  Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 4  Energy Flux
SB: 2  Ravenous Trap
SB: 3  Mindbreak Trap
SB: 1  Force of Will


Before you get the flame wurs started, please remember this is the "Casual"-part of the forum.
Thanks for the answers and all suggestions in advance.  

EDIT: Fixed an awkward typo.

[AmbivalentDuck]

Casual or otherwise, it seems like "bad" mana washing and lands that come into play tapped are worse than running all of the blue duals and fetches.  I'd also include previously  "off-color" restricted cards like Balance, Regrowth, and Burning Wish, etc.

Also, I feel like you should take it in a combo direction since those decks usually look highlander anyways.  Run a bunch of one-of kills like Empty the Warrens and Tendrils.  Max out on the restricted artifact accel, maybe even Channel + Lich's Mirror (since you can choose to kill yourself with Pact if you run a highlander deck).

Cut a FoW for Pact of Negation and another for Misdirection.

An ideal Tainted Pact deck would be highlander except for two copies of Pact (since having cast one guarantees that at most one is left in your deck).

[Miqu]

Okay, thanks for the feedback .

I'm not going to include Tendrils or EtW because having those would either force you to run more than one dark rituals, cabal rituals etc or only go off from grave with Yawgmoth's Will, this would slow the deck down considerably because even with FoWing a card this deck can in it's current state win pretty early with Tezz to Time Vault.. That would also cost you to lose ability to control the game. Excuse my ignorance.. But with so many new hate cards like Ethersworn Canonist and Mindbreak Trap (No answer to that here apart from counters), it looks likely that the Tendril-based decks are going to eventually die off and be replaced by something (now) less fragile, if that hasn't started to happen already. Furthermore a single Leyline of the Void can ruin your picnic if you rely to go off from grave and include cards specifically for that purpose. To put it short, I just don't believe in going for an approach for a deck that causes the deck to be stomped by something built to beat it. All decks will lose most of the time to something hating it strongly, but potentially not to a deck that tries to hate everything in the format.

By the way, there was only one land that comes into play tapped and doesn't allow to pay life for coming into play untapped. That land was removed.

Another restricted card was added, Balance, along with minimal modification (I think changing just one land is enough) of the manabase. Burning Wish would do this deck absolutely nothing unless the SB is also changed to include some utility sorceries, if you have ideas about those feel free to bring them up. I'm already using all of the best artifact accelerators, the only one that isn't there is Lotus Petal, and that's a one-shot card, not imo that good unless you'll be bringing it back from grave with Yawgmoth's Will for a Tendril storm.

I however took the rest of your advice into consideration... This is what the list looks like now:

// Lands
    1  Tundra
    1  Gemstone Mine
    1  Seat of the Synod
    1  Tolarian Academy
    1  Sunken Ruins
    1  Watery Grave
    1  Darkwater Catacombs
    1  City of Brass
    1  Misty Rainforest
    1  Flooded Strand
    1  Underground River
    1  River of Tears
    1  Polluted Delta
    1  Island
    1  Swamp
    1  Scalding Tarn
    1  Underground Sea

// Creatures
    2  Tezzeret the Seeker
    1 [ARB] Sphinx of the Steel Wind

// Spells
    1  Mana Crypt
    1  Mox Emerald
    1  Pact of Negation
    1  Mox Sapphire
    1  Mox Jet
    1  Mox Pearl
    1  Black Lotus
    1  Mox Ruby
    1  Voltaic Key
    1  Sol Ring
    1  Mana Vault
    1  Sensei's Divining Top
    1  Vampiric Tutor
    1  Ancestral Recall
    1  Spell Pierce
    1  Brainstorm
    1  Chain of Vapor
    1  Mystic Remora
    2  Tainted Pact
    1  Demonic Tutor
    1  Impulse
    1  Hurkyl's Recall
    1  Time Walk
    1  Negate
    1  Merchant Scroll
    1  Balance
    1  Time Vault
    1  Lim-Dul's Vault
    1  Counterspell
    1  Transmute Artifact
    1  Mana Drain
    1  Three Wishes
    1  Yawgmoth's Will
    1  Cunning Wish
    1  Tinker
    1  Jace, the Mind Sculptor
    1  Fact or Fiction
    1  Force of Will
    1  Misdirection

// Sideboard
SB: 1  Relic of Progenitus
SB: 1  Annul
SB: 1  Dispel
SB: 1  Divert
SB: 1  Tainted Pact
SB: 1  Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 4  Energy Flux
SB: 2  Ravenous Trap
SB: 2  Mindbreak Trap
SB: 1  Force of Will

As you can see, it looks a lot more Highlander-ish now. Unless you're going for something else than a Tezzeret pre-SB it's impossible to have Tainted Pact "fizzle", in the worst case you'll reveal your time vault first and will have to stick with that. Post-SB the tech against that deck you're playing against (Relic of the Progenitus, Energy Flux) should be a pretty desirable gain from Tainted Pact in place of your win condition. I also removed intuition to be able to play just 2 Tezzerets.

I'm not entirely sure if changing those FoWs for Misdirection and Pact of Negation was a good move, FoW can be played to stop a turn one Belcher or a tutor to EtW, and these cards can't do that.

If anyone has further improvement suggestions other than throwing the concept away and picking up a "normal" Tezzeret deck, feel free to speak your mind.  

[AmbivalentDuck]

I think what you're missing is that combo doesn't have to run Dark Rit.   Please check out Steel City Vault.  Since you already have access to 5 colors, you should seriously consider Draw7s, Goblin Welder, etc.

Except for the mana base, it's almost highlander already: http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/17922_Feature_Article_The_Steel_City_Vault_Deck_Unleashed.html