Food for Thought: Tutoring for Tinker

[Dozer]

Tinker and Darksteel Colossus are accepted as the number one kill condition in many decks. The combination has superceded old-school ways of winning like the age-old Morphling, Decree of Justice and Psychatog, cards which used to finish the game for control decks.

Today, decks like TT Confidant Control have established Tinker as their only or main game plan. Many Gifts builds especially in aggro-heavy environments still rely on Tinker/Colossus as their primary road to victory, too, although they have a back-up kill in Tendrils of Agony.

Players have called for the ban of Tinker, or even Darksteel Colossus, before. That’s how good, or rather stupidly easy, the combo is. (In Germany, some call the two-card combination "Behindertenausweis", a “Handicapped ID”.) Unless you run headfirst into Swords to Plowshares, an early Darksteel Colossus spells good game. If Tinker is so strong that it has been called the second-best card in the format after Yawgmoth’s Will, why are we not devoting more time to finding it as fast as possible, tutoring it up at any chance?

Finding the Tinker

However, to play the Tinker you have to find the Tinker, and we all agree that we’d play with more than one if we just could. Dark Confidant, Gifts Ungiven, Thirst for Knowledge, all these take you closer to the sweet blue sorcery prized at 2U. So does the Tutor suite: Mystical Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor, Personal Tutor, the two unaffordables Grim Tutor and Imperial Seal, and the overcosted Cruel Tutor.

One reason we don’t tutor as much is that an early Tinker is often the wrong play, leaving you exposed to any kind of removal or bounce your opponent might have. You usually have time; using that time to set up a protection scheme for your Tinker or DSC through Duress, Drain and FoW promises more reliable success. Or just combo out with the classic Gifts-Ungiven-setup of Tinker, Will, Recoup and Time Walk, allowing you to play Tinker and hit with DSC once or twice in one big swing.

Among the ways to tutor up Tinker is also the overlooked mechanic from Ravnica, Dimir’s Transmute. At PT Honululu, T8-competitor Maximilian Bracht made excellent use of Drift of Phantasms in his Heartbeat Combo deck. Drift coincidentally transmutes for 1UU into any card with a converted mana cost of 3.

That includes Tinker, and Yawgmoth’s Will.

Why has Transmute not made its way into mainstream Vintage yet? My guess is mostly because it is expensive, and the number of Tutors has already reached a high point. We don’t really need more tutors to make our decks good. On the other hand, control decks who try to find their Tinker as soon as possible should not shy away from a tutor-heavy build. Especially in environments where creatures run rampant, Drift of Phantasms is a viable addition. As a 0/5 flying wall, it stops most common attacking creatures cold (not that there are much, anyway). And Drift tutors with blue mana.

Essentially, what you have is a blue 3-mana uncounterable tutor for Will, Tinker and other assorted goodies in the three mana slot. Necropotence, Rebuild, Engineered Plague, Back to Basics, Cunning Wish, Stroke of Genius, Crucible of Worlds, the list isn’t too shabby.

As a thought exercise, and not having access to Imperial Seal and Grim Tutor (in a non-proxy environment, those are hard to get), I thought of the following. Basically starting from TT Confidant Control with the walking draw engine that is all the rage these days, I simply added a couple of Drifts to find Tinker as soon as the deck reaches three mana.

Tinker
60 cards

//Blue (25)
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
4 Mana Leak
4 Brainstorm
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Personal Tutor
3 Drift of Phantasms
1 Tinker
1 Time Walk

// Black (6)
3 Dark Confidant
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will

//Artifacts (13)
1 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Vedalken Shackles
1 Platinum Angel
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Black Lotus

//Lands (16)
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Tolarian Academy
6 Island
1 Swamp
2 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
2 Underground Sea

I stayed away from most of the other three-mana cards besides Will and Tinker. As I said above, the deck was mostly a thinking exercise, and is clearly untuned. I have yet to take it through the paces, but don’t have the time at the moment. It goldfishes nicely, though, as you always have a way to find the Tinker. It is nearly mono-blue, and has the extra protection in the Mana Leaks to make the Tinker plan less vulnerable. The Leaks could probably be Duress, and what’s missing from the list is three-mana bounce (either Rushing River or Capsize) to be tutored up in case of need. Also, a Drift-able counterspell (Forbid or maybe even Muddle the Mixture) would do good. Those two are the additions I would make to the tutor toolbox, but mainly it's about finding Tinker (or Will) anyway.

Vedalken Shackles is an experimental inclusion which can be fetched via Drifts as primary creature removal. It has the inherent problem that most creature decks the Shackles are good against also run Null Rod, another reason why tutorable bounce needs to be in there. But when Shackles stick, they are strong.

The great thing about this deck is that it has the same advantage as TT Confidant Control, since it is the same shell: It can ignore the opponent and build up mana until it finds Tinker, which happens a lot with this deck. You accumulate protection (counters), then Drift or Tutor up a Tinker and go to town. The deck could even be run mono-blue and still have six tutor effects for Tinker (Personal and Mystical Tutor, 4 Drift).

What speaks against the Transmute mechanic? For example, this:

This is type one people. I'd much rather play with all good cards, rather than good cards and slow, awful, bad cards that tutor for good cards. Three Mana tutors for Yawgmoth's Will and Tinker hardly seem to be as good as many of the other options combo has available to it at the moment. For instance, Grim Tutor which gets ANYTHING. Plus, it counts for storm, whereas these tutors do not.

While Transmute has been dismissed in combo in favor of Grim Tutor, these arguments have to be rethought for Transmute in a controllish deck. An uncounterable, mono-blue way to find Tinker or Will can hardly be scoffed at, especially since your Tinker can deal with virtually anything your opponent throws on the table while you look for it.

Conclusion

As a closing thought, why not just use Thirst for Knowledge over Drift of Phantasms, like TT Confidant does? It’s an instant, it is card advantage or at least card selection, and it is not as narrow as Drift. To that I say: It’s a possibility, but I wasn’t looking for card draw. This deck is trying a tutor-based approach. If you want to play Thirsts, do so, maybe in a mono-blue variant instead of Confidants.

I am aware of the arguments against a tutor strategy. In a nutshell: It is too slow, it costs too much mana, you’d much rather have a “real” card in your hand, it’s not card advantage. However, when the result of your tutoring is so strong that it deals with anything (Tinker for Platinum Angel or Darksteel Colossus), and you are guaranteed that the Tinker comes early enough, trying to get to your power cards as soon as possible looks good to me.

There are two questions asked here: Is relying on Tinker alone to dangerous and too inflexible, or is the payoff worth the risk? And: Is Tutoring for Tinker a viable strategy? Are all the eggs safe in that basket, so to speak? (As you can guess, I’d answer yes both times.)

Dozer

P.S.: I realize the timing might not be optimal, what with Richmond back-to-back coming up and many new developments to talk about after this weekend, but it went through my head and I wanted to get this up before the Richmond excitement obscures everything else.


/edit: Now as I read the TT Confidant Control thread again, I realize I've built the exact same deck, only with Drifts instead of Thirsts. That's not really helpful, and looks like plagiarism, too. It wasn't, but it doesn't matter anyway, because the deck is just a starting point for the question: Is tutoring for Tinker as good as or better than drawing cards to find it? The important part of the decklist is the tutoring shell:

1 Mystical Tutor
1 Personal Tutor
1 Demonic
1 Vampiric
3 Drift
1 Will
1 Tinker

Too much space for too little action?

[Gabethebabe]

Why has Transmute not made its way into mainstream Vintage yet?

Because of its sorcery speed. That is a huge difference.

Nowadays everybody is prepared for Tinker-Colossus. You can not blindly tutor for tinker and get colossus in play and expect to win the game (although you will in a good percentage). Tinker for Colossus is good, but doesn´t win games. Tinker for Colossus followed by two Walks or protected by double counterbackup wins games. You first have to get in that position.

[dicemanx]

If Tinker is so strong that it has been called the second-best card in the format after Yawgmoth’s Will, why are we not devoting more time to finding it as fast as possible, tutoring it up at any chance?

The problem with Tinker is that it occasionally rewards players who make low percentage or sub-optimal plays - recklessly tutor ing for and/or casting tinker while perhaps being oblivious to their opponent's possible solutions, but ending up with a win anyways because their opponent might not see a solution in time. Mind you that this is fine when you have to make a desparation play, but players often pursue this route when an alternate, less risky route is available.

While the power of the card can mask suboptimal play, this obviously doesn't mean that we should exploit it by devoting a lot of slots to tutoring with the primary intention of finding Tinker more easily. Pursuing the DSC plan is like going all in on every hand, hoping that you come out ahead by the end of the day.

[Thug]

TT Confidant Control is about Tinker, but not all about early Tinkers.
I'm probably one of the few people who Brainstorms away early Tinker all the time.
I don't like gambling, when I can just play the control game and find that Tinker later when I need it.
A 3cc sorcery that finds Tinker does not really fit this strategy, and for that I don't think Transmute for Tinker is all that hot.

Koen

[sundering jerk]

If you're seriously trying this deck I recommend 4 misdirection instead of the mana leak. It can gain you an ancestral recall, you can swords your own confident if you have to, and will cost less which means you can get tinker off sooner with some protection. I only suggest this because it seems like the only point of this deck is to be wanton, I do understand the value of manaleak.

The problem with this deck is that everyone and their grandmothers are prepared for this all to common of win condishions.

Good luck fine tuning it.

[Jank Golem]

I once experimented with a deck that was just tutors and tinkers, not surprisingly it didn't work. Tinker is merely a win condition, albeit a good one but still just a win condition. There are just too many things that can deal with tinker DSC in T1, echoing truth, STP, welder and maze of ith. This makes tinkering blindly almost always a bad idea. Tinker is not what makes TT Confident good, it is everything else in the deck that makes it good. Otherwise any deck that ran tinker would be good.

[Metman]

There is one of three things that must be done when one resolves Tinker.  1) Win right now 2) Win in a couple turns and have some counter magic 3) Be able to cast Tinker at least one more time if the first fails.  I don't think speed is necessary when playing Tinker.  Like it has been said, you will win games because of it's speed simply for the reason that the opponent was caught with his pants down and no way to deal with a Darksteel or Platinum or whatever.  So what if they can deal with a turn 2-3 Tinker every game?  How will you win then?  If you want to depend on getting Tinker ASAP why not run a deck that continues to reuse that Tinker over and over again?  Play some more tutors but play more ways to get it back from the grave with stuff like Regrowth and Relearn.  If you play against somebody that can answer that early Darksteel can they answer one every turn?

[AmbivalentDuck]

I'm 99% sure that the Shackles should Darkblast instead.  Most of the time it'll fix any Mage/Welder problems that you have.  I'm guessing that that's why you maindecked it.

Whereas TT Control plays the control role most of the time, there's really no reason the build shouldn't be tweaked to take the beatdown role most of the time.  If I'm not misreading, that's what Dozer has done.  He's built a combo deck with control support, not control with combo support.  That said, I don't think the Transmute mechanic is really optimal for this.  You're forced to tap out during your main phase to tutor at a time when your opponent may simply have the option of winning first.  I, personally, would rather mull into a Tinker/Tutor than give my opponent that opening.

[Khahan]

About a year or so ago I actually built a Tinker deck. It was b/u and just relied on tutors to find tinker, a few nice artifacts to win with and the rest was control. Counter magic, extract, chalice, etc.

When you get right down to it...this method is simply Oath. Plain and simple. The problem is, Oath is a 4 of with tutors to find it.  Tinker is a 1 of with tutors to find it. Guess which one is more effective. 

I wanted this deck to work so badly, I play tested it to death. Brought it back to life. Then killed it again by playing with more than a drunken stripper with no bouncers in sight.

I even ran into the occassional game where I either shut down or completely neutered my opponent. Then I could win at my leisure. Unfortunately, those were only occassional. More often than not, this deck (at least my version which was very heavy control) forced a waste of all resources on both sides in the first turn or two. Then it came down to who could recover first. With a bunch of tutors and card draws, this could recover...but not consistently enough.

Thanks for making  me remember this. It kicked butt in non-tournament play as a pet deck. I might even get some results with it at local scrub tournys. But thats about it.

[Revvik]

One point that keeps getting brought up about Transmute - it's an "uncounterable tutor for Tinker or Yawgmoth's Will."  That amounts to nothing.

While sometimes you may want to counter Demonic Tutor because it can fetch Black Lotus (and you'd rather have two Drain mana) or the uncounterable land (Strip Mine, LoA for examples) Transmute cards can never do that, so you'd never want to counter them anyways - it's a moot point.

Your opponent always knows what you get, and due to Drift's cost and speed will usually have his next turn to plan his strategy around stopping yours.

In fact, due to their versatility you're probably better off running just DT, MT, two Cunning Wishes for VT, Seal and Personal Tutor.  Maybe even a couple of Merchant Scrolls.

[Liam-K]

Tinker is a HUGE tempo investment.  And since players are completely comfortable with dealing with it, that means you are set back a long way if your random tinker fails to end the game.

[Metman]

Tinker is a HUGE tempo investment.  And since players are completely comfortable with dealing with it, that means you are set back a long way if your random tinker fails to end the game.

I don't think everybody is completely comfortable dealing with a Tinker.  This is especially true early in the game a turn 1-3 Darksteel, Memory Jar, Sundering Titan, or Platinum Angel can easily spell doom.  Now, if the opponent has an answer for that artifact than they are going to bring in all the tricks to make sure it doesn't stay on the table if it resolves.  It is a tempo investment but you will get back that tempo lost even if they take care of your resolved Tinker.  They are going to try to bounce, swords, or weld it.  All those solutions should be expected and your deck should have answers to this kind of play.  I'm not trying to say that Tinker resolved is game over but it is in many cases and well worth tutoring for it.  If they take care of it and it doesn't seal the game than I see it as only a 1 to 1 investment if you have prepared yourself for fighting they solutions to your bombs.   

[CCClark]

I was playing around with a Tinker deck also.  It is quite fast and very consistent.  The main problem I had with it was my metagame has plenty of random kids with STP around so I didn't play it much.  I just ran 4 Forces and 4 Duress to tear into them early and drop the collossus.   Turn 2 or 3 Collossus is the norm.   If you needed it there's a Titan in there also.   

I won every tounament I played in with it, but that's not saying much as there's only 3 other people in my area with a full set of power, otherwise my testing is limited to Legacy decks with demonics and wills in them. 

Playing against the decks here only showed me that Parfait of all things does the best.  Silly I know, but it's that Swords you have to fear.   If they topdeck one, you have to echoing it up and start over, very annoying.  They could never win, but it took forever to do it.   I did play against a well built Oath deck quite a bit and Tinker usually came out on top.  Not to say it's easy.   The Engineered explosives made all the difference.   You can outrace doomsday oddly enough.  The deck has enough disruption and counters to slow them down just enough, though it's still close.   The basics are nice also since you can tutor under back to basics/ blood moon if need be.   The deck showed a lot of promise, but I didn't have the metagame to really go all out in tuning.    It's worth looking into further to be sure.

4   Polluted Delta
2   Flooded Strand
3   Underground Sea
1   Tolarian Academy
4   Island
1   Volcanic Island
1   Darksteel Colossus
1   Sundering Titan
1   Black Lotus
5   Moxen
1   Sol Ring
1   Mana Vault
2   Engineered Explosives
1   Yawgmoth's Will
4   Duress
1   Demonic Tutor
1   Vampiric Tutor
1   Imperial Seal
4   Force of Will
1   Echoing Truth
4   Mana Drain
4   Brainstorm
4   Thirst for Knowledge
2   Merchant Scroll
1   Ancestral Recall
1   Fact or Fiction
1   Time Walk
1   Mystical Tutor
1   Tinker
1   Personal Tutor

[hollowbody]

The Engineered explosives made all the difference. 

I completely agree with you regarding engineered explosives. My only problem with it is once it resolves and you fire it off, there are likely very few, if any artifacts left for you to sac to tinker. My meta is fairly creature heavy, with a lot of classic creatures such as Serendib and Juzam. If i have to engineer a solution for Juzam, I'm losing every artifact except Memory Jar (if I've already tinkered into it, in which case tinkering into DSC is going to be even more of a pain.) Long story short, as much as I like Engineered Explosives, sometimes there are as much a handicap as they are a solution. I've been considering adding a maindeck Icy, since I find I keep firing off Explosions for 3, but I'm concerned that will be a wasted spot and slow the deck down too much.

[Khahan]

If i have to engineer a solution for Juzam, I'm losing every artifact except Memory Jar

Sounds like you need to learn how to hold back resources some. That alone will solve your problem.

[Jacob Orlove]

If i have to engineer a solution for Juzam, I'm losing every artifact except Memory Jar

Sounds like you need to learn how to hold back resources some. That alone will solve your problem.

Actually, it sounds like he needs to read Engineered Explosives. It is NOT Pernicious Deed:

Engineered Explosives
X   
Artifact   
Sunburst (This comes into play with a charge counter on it for each color of mana used to pay its cost.)
2, Sacrifice Engineered Explosives: Destroy each nonland permanent with converted mana cost equal to the number of charge counters on Engineered Explosives. 

Cards with a lower CMC are not affected. It works the same way Powder Keg does, rather than being like Disk or Deed.

[zeus-online]

Getting it to 4 counters should be pretty hard though....but i cant see how you are loosing to juzam djinn? :/

/Zeus

[CCClark]

The explosives I seemed to use for Oath more than anything else.   Occationally Orchard tokens or warchief if someone powered it out.   Popping it at 2 or 3 doesn't do anything to this deck.   It's more there for a slowdown tool than a creature control card anyway.   If you're playing against Juzams, you shouldn't have to worry about a 4 turn clock.  That's easy to outrace.   As for blowing up your own artifacts, just hold a mox or use the rest of the deck, it is a monsterous tutor engine after after all.   Topdecking something that tutors isn't really hard.   

As I mentioned the main pain playing this is someone who has a good way to get rid of the collossus via STP or Edict.  Then you have to start over and re-tinker it up again.  I really need to add one more way to get the tinker back.  Will just doesn't cut the mustard if they run a ton of edicts and swords at the same time, they topdeck their way out.

[hollowbody]

If i have to engineer a solution for Juzam, I'm losing every artifact except Memory Jar

Sounds like you need to learn how to hold back resources some. That alone will solve your problem.

Actually, it sounds like he needs to read Engineered Explosives. It is NOT Pernicious Deed:

Engineered Explosives
X   
Artifact   
Sunburst (This comes into play with a charge counter on it for each color of mana used to pay its cost.)
2, Sacrifice Engineered Explosives: Destroy each nonland permanent with converted mana cost equal to the number of charge counters on Engineered Explosives. 

Cards with a lower CMC are not affected. It works the same way Powder Keg does, rather than being like Disk or Deed.

Haha. You know, I made the same mistake when Chalice of the Void first came out and I thought it was the greatest card ever printed. I'm glad someone pointed this out to me here rather than at a tourny or somewhere more embarassing (though I feel like quite the fool already, the April Fool, as it were).

As for why I need to get rid of Juzam: like I said, my particular meta is more creature-oriented. Suicide is still around, old school WW is still being played. Even the top-tier decks like Oath and Gifts are a little different. People just like to beatdown with big critters up here, I guess.

As I mentioned the main pain playing this is someone who has a good way to get rid of the collossus via STP or Edict.  Then you have to start over and re-tinker it up again.  I really need to add one more way to get the tinker back.  Will just doesn't cut the mustard if they run a ton of edicts and swords at the same time, they topdeck their way out.

Have we mentioned Recoup yet? It's cc is on par with any decent tutor and it allows you to replay Tinker and Timewalk. That alone is pretty nifty. The drawbacks are: 1) obviously, what you need has to be in your graveyard. 2) the card you replay is RFG. The first one isn't too much of a problem, especially is you are looking for an answer to early-Tinker disasters. The second one is problematic, because if you don't do it right this time, you're looking at having to hardcast DSC. It also makes for less Yawg Will goodies. I would run a Regrowth and a Recoup and be content with the graveyard recursion. Any more than that is wasted slots.