[Deck Discussion] GI's (Hadley) Control Tezzeret

[Eastman]

Since Grand Inquisitor won ELD 19 last Saturday with Tezzeret, and since finding a home for that guy is a big focus right now, I think we should have a discussion of his decklist.  There is already some discussion along those lines going on in his tournament report thread, here: http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=36699.0.  I'll try not to repeat what Steve said.  Rather I'll explain the key points about Tezzeret that my testing has shown, then lay out what I perceive to be the core of the deck, and finally point out the open questions about how to use the remaining slots.

A.  My thoughts on Tezzeret and control:

1.  Tezzeret sort of stinks as a combo.

The first route I went down with Tezzeret was trying to have a speedy, comboish build.  I just absolutely struck out with every iteration.  The 5 mana you need to cast tezzeret is just too expensive to get down really early.  Further, he's very vulnerable and requires protection.  Not only does all the current removal break the combo, but Dark Confidant does too.  Seriously, in the builds I came up with, Tezzeret was like turbo-land bad as a combo deck.

2.  Tezzeret is an excellent kill in traditional control.

Back in the day, it used to be generally thought that the kill didn't matter in Keeper, but people argued back and forth about what was best nonetheless.  Hulk Smash advanced the archetype by adding a speedy combo kill to traditional control elements.  Tezzeret is a very strong kill for control, probably stronger than anything that has been used previously.  It is a 1-card, 1-turn kill that is online as soon as it can be cast. 

3.  Control needed this kill.

It used to be that the kill didn't matter in control because you could eventually gain total control over the game (in much the same way that Stax does) and kill with anything that tapped.  Modern combo and aggro decks, however, are too resilient and tend to have too much inevitability for the control player to keep down throughout the game.  Good control elements can still frequently stabilize the game for a few turns or at least stretch it out into the late game.  With tezzeret the control player is able to actually win in this window - useful that.

B.  The core of the deck:

Like most traditional control decks, this Tezzeret approach combines strong draw elements with flexible and powerful answers and the best countermagic available.  Here are the elements that I believe comprise the core of the deck:

10 Draw Engine
4 Accumulated Knowledge
2 Intuition
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Sensei's Divining Top

5 Answer Package
2 Trinket Mage  [this guy also blocks to protect your Tezzeret, which is frequently useful]
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Pithing Needle
1 Tormod’s Crypt

8 Countermagic
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain

5 Broken Stuff
1 Time Walk
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor  [I would consider cutting this]
1 Yawgmoth’s Will

5 Kill Cards
2 Tezzeret
1 Time Vault
1 Sundering Titan [Some might choose 11/11]
1 Tinker

23 Mana
8 Solomoxcrypt
6 Fetchlands
2 Island
2 Underground Sea
3 Other Duals with blue in them
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Library of Alexandria

4 Open Slots
Steve used:
1 Fire/Ice
1 Cunning Wish
1 Echoing Truth
1 Ponder

C. There are a whopping 4 open slots, and many choices for how to use them:

It is almost unheard of that after devoting significant space to a draw engine, countermagic, a kill, and a fully flexible answer package, a control deck should have 4 open slots.  I consider this to be very exciting.  Further, because the deck kills with a blue man, and the answers are colorless, the color requirements from the deck itself are very low.  Any number of Red, Green, or White could be used to supplement the maindeck and beef up the sideboard.  In fact, I even consider it possible to go 5 color by fitting in a few city of brass.  YES this deck does look, and play, somewhat like keeper.  I also consider that pretty exciting.  I will be working on filling out the last few slots and a sideboard, and on making those decisions.  It may be that some card choices (the C. Wish for instance) are absolutely required in any build, but it may be that this powerful control deck with a combo kill has genuine meta-game flexibility.  I consider that an enormous asset, and I consider this to be a strong emergent control variant. 

[Mr. Type 4]

voltaic key is good if you have Trinket Mage.

[M.Solymossy]

I agree with paul about voltaic key... but disagree about trinket mage. It's good without trinket mage, because just like when Flame Vault Gifts was popular (and worked), In my testing and tournaments I only once cast a gifts to win, because you'd randomly be able to tutor up the parts of the combo.  I've also a couple tiems in testing Mana'd out a first turn vault + key, and even untap sometimes.  It's really good against aggro decks who focus on killing tezzeret, too

[bluemage55]

I really do have to ask . . . why the Intuition-AK draw package over Thirst for Knowledge?  Isn't TfK perfectly suited to a deck with plenty of artifacts?

[The Wolf]

I disagree with the idea that key is very good in this deck.  Besides comboing out with Vault, there almost no other applications in the deck.  Yes, it does work well with top to draw 2 cards a turn, but in every other situation it is dead. 

If vault is alreay out, tutoring up Tezz works just as well.  Key seems like a win more piece that could be replaced with an answer, or even more card draw.

[M.Solymossy]

I disagree with the idea that key is very good in this deck.  Besides comboing out with Vault, there almost no other applications in the deck.  Yes, it does work well with top to draw 2 cards a turn, but in every other situation it is dead. 

If vault is alreay out, tutoring up Tezz works just as well.  Key seems like a win more piece that could be replaced with an answer, or even more card draw.

You're playing a mana drain deck.  If vault is already out, it's DEFINITELY 10x better to tutor up voltaic key.  It's 2 mana to play/activate as opposed to 5.   I played a Tezzeret deck at the icbm open and won 2 matches without doing damage, and more than half the game with voltaic key going infinite.

It's like recoup in gifts ungiven.  It also gives you a ton of mana with Mana Vault, which actually allowed me to cast 2 TFK's... I've also used it to untap DSC when my opponent attacked for lethal when my DSC was tapped.

[Grand Inquisitor]

why the Intuition-AK draw package over Thirst for Knowledge?

I've always found Thirst For Knowledge highly overrated; this is especially true if it's not paired with Goblin Welder.  It helps if you compare the different scenarios for each set of cards.

TFK-
1) Filter - you draw three cards and spend TFK + 2 cards you discard
2) Advantage one card - you draw three, and spend TFK + an artifact
3) DSC enabler - you put DSC back in your library
4) Grave enabler - you discard something to welder, Yawgwill, or flashback spells

~vs~

Intuition-
1) Advantage two cards - you draw three cards
2) Advantage five cards - you're holding an AK with intuition
3) Tutor - get a three of (or functional three of like mystical, vamp, demonic)
4) Grave enabler - you tutor and enable welder, yawgwill or flashback spells

AK
1) Cycle
X) Advantage - After AK for 1 or with intuition

There's no doubt that spending 2 mana to cycle AK is not T1 worthy.  However, when I look at all of the other things that these cards do together, the lines of play offered by intuitoin/AK are much stronger.  The ability of intuition to tutor, and the ability for AK to function under lower mana requirements are probably the biggest advantages.

voltaic key

1) The real key here is that the good half of the combo (the piece that is really useful alone) is time vault, and you can only run one.
2) Voltaic key really doesn't work with anything else.  No, it doesn't 'combo' with mana crypt or sol ring and mana vault is bad.  Untapping a DSC is the definition of win more.
3) You really don't want 3 or 4 trinket mages in here, which means that you can't reliably use it to fetch the voltaic in the unlikley case that you have the time vault.

The idea of Voltaic Key isn't bad, there's just a number of choices for me that are ahead of it.

[Smmenen]

As you consider your options, both Josh and I canvassed a range of options and spelled out what we felt were the parameters of Tez design in SCG articles several weeks ago.   Mine, although premium, is available here: http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/16405.html

By my count, there are about 47 automatic inclusions in terms of function/role, with the meaningful variance in the remaining slots. 

[Grand Inquisitor]

47 automatic inclusions

Willingness to engage the topic is great, and everyone appreciates your (and Joshes articles), but unless you specify what these 47 slots are in this thread, the post isn't very useful.

Also, given the small space requirement for Tezzeret and the range of playstyles you can bring to 55-57 other cards, saying that there are 47 required slots sounds unimaginative, even for T1, without more context.  I'll try to reach here by laying out my thoughts on a multi-color control focused build's core slots:

1 Merchant Scroll
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Time Walk
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth’s Will

2 Tezzeret
1 Time Vault
1 Robot
1 Tinker

4 Force of Will

22 Mana

= 38

[Eastman]

As you consider your options, both Josh and I canvassed a range of options and spelled out what we felt were the parameters of Tez design in SCG articles several weeks ago.   Mine, although premium, is available here: http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/16405.html

By my count, there are about 47 automatic inclusions in terms of function/role, with the meaningful variance in the remaining slots. 

I consider my post to be premium. and it's free!

Anyways, any thoughts on this list, Steve?  Consider this to be one of the 'variants' you suggested. I haven't read the articles of course, but perhaps you have thought about control tezzeret? I would like this thread to be a forum for that variant in particular, as my testing and Steve's performance have convinced me that it is a promising one. 

[bluemage55]

TFK-
1) Filter - you draw three cards and spend TFK + 2 cards you discard
2) Advantage one card - you draw three, and spend TFK + an artifact
3) DSC enabler - you put DSC back in your library
4) Grave enabler - you discard something to welder, Yawgwill, or flashback spells

~vs~

Intuition-
1) Advantage two cards - you draw three cards
2) Advantage five cards - you're holding an AK with intuition
3) Tutor - get a three of (or functional three of like mystical, vamp, demonic)
4) Grave enabler - you tutor and enable welder, yawgwill or flashback spells

AK
1) Cycle
X) Advantage - After AK for 1 or with intuition

There's no doubt that spending 2 mana to cycle AK is not T1 worthy.  However, when I look at all of the other things that these cards do together, the lines of play offered by intuitoin/AK are much stronger.  The ability of intuition to tutor, and the ability for AK to function under lower mana requirements are probably the biggest advantages.

You didn't list the fact that Intuition->AK costs 3 mana for +2 CA, while TfK is +1 for 3 with an artifact in hand or the top 3.

I do agree that using Intuition to tutor is an advantage, but needing 5 mana over two turns to do it is a bit slow.  It's also full of bad under a Sphere, and generates virtual card disadvantage by taking 3 of the AKs out of your deck (extra terrible if the one AK you do cast is countered or Duressed because you cast Intuition off Mana Drain and couldn't follow up right away).

[RaleighNCTourneys]

TFK-
1) Filter - you draw three cards and spend TFK + 2 cards you discard
2) Advantage one card - you draw three, and spend TFK + an artifact
3) DSC enabler - you put DSC back in your library
4) Grave enabler - you discard something to welder, Yawgwill, or flashback spells

~vs~

Intuition-
1) Advantage two cards - you draw three cards
2) Advantage five cards - you're holding an AK with intuition
3) Tutor - get a three of (or functional three of like mystical, vamp, demonic)
4) Grave enabler - you tutor and enable welder, yawgwill or flashback spells

AK
1) Cycle
X) Advantage - After AK for 1 or with intuition

There's no doubt that spending 2 mana to cycle AK is not T1 worthy.  However, when I look at all of the other things that these cards do together, the lines of play offered by intuitoin/AK are much stronger.  The ability of intuition to tutor, and the ability for AK to function under lower mana requirements are probably the biggest advantages.

You didn't list the fact that Intuition->AK costs 3 mana for +2 CA, while TfK is +1 for 3 with an artifact in hand or the top 3.

I do agree that using Intuition to tutor is an advantage, but needing 5 mana over two turns to do it is a bit slow.  It's also full of bad under a Sphere, and generates virtual card disadvantage by taking 3 of the AKs out of your deck (extra terrible if the one AK you do cast is countered or Duressed because you cast Intuition off Mana Drain and couldn't follow up right away).

Huh? How is ripping 3 AKs out of your deck virtual card disadvantage?? That's called thinning your deck out, and, if anything, is virtual card advantage since the probabilities of hitting game-ending cards gets higher.

To me, the only disadvantage of running Intu/AK over TFK in non-Welder decks is opening yourself up to graveyard hate. There is nothing wrong with AK for one. As Meadbert puts it, your deck now has 3 cards in it that Wizards thinks is so powerful that they have never printed (instant speed draw 2 for 1U).

[bluemage55]

Huh? How is ripping 3 AKs out of your deck virtual card disadvantage?? That's called thinning your deck out, and, if anything, is virtual card advantage since the probabilities of hitting game-ending cards gets higher.

You're thinning out your primary sources of card advantage, not lands or other junk.

[Smmenen]

As you consider your options, both Josh and I canvassed a range of options and spelled out what we felt were the parameters of Tez design in SCG articles several weeks ago.   Mine, although premium, is available here: http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/16405.html

By my count, there are about 47 automatic inclusions in terms of function/role, with the meaningful variance in the remaining slots. 

I consider my post to be premium. and it's free!

Anyways, any thoughts on this list, Steve?  Consider this to be one of the 'variants' you suggested. I haven't read the articles of course, but perhaps you have thought about control tezzeret? I would like this thread to be a forum for that variant in particular, as my testing and Steve's performance have convinced me that it is a promising one. 

Here is the relevant excerpt from my article:

Designing Mana Drain Tez Decks

Here are the parameters of how I see Tezzeret design going:

1) At least 25 mana sources. This is standard for most Vintage three-color (or more) control decks. Usually the breakdown is 9-10 artifact accelerants and 15-16 lands.
2) At least 1 Tezzeret (probably more) and 1 Time Vault, and at least one other win condition, perhaps two. Possibly a Tendrils. However, if they run Tinker, a Darksteel Colossus may also be included.
3) At least 8 Blue countermagic: 4 Mana Drain and 4 Force of Will.
4) 10-11 restricted Blue and Black spells: Ancestral Recall, Time Walk, Brainstorm, Merchant Scroll, Mystical Tutor, Gifts Ungiven, Ponder, Vampiric Tutor, Yawgmoth’s Will, and Demonic Tutor are probably all auto-includes. The pilot may want to include Fact or Fiction.
5) 1-3 Bounce Spells.
6) 4-6 Draw Engine cards. This could be Thirst, Dark Confidant, Deep Analysis, Intuition, Accumulated Knowledge, Skeletal Scrying etc.

So, at a minimum, any control deck is going to look like this:

25 Mana Sources
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Time Vault
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Brainstorm
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Ponder
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
2 Bounce or removal Spells
4-6 Draw Engine Spells
7 other slots

Keep in mind that I was assuming two things:

1)  A multi-color list

2) A Mana Drain based deck.

With those two premises in place, the basic framework becomes evident, the difference is how you fill it out.

Coincidentally, Josh wrote a similar framework, although he included Key, which I view as non-essential, but an option. 

My Thoughts on This Particular List:

1) The mana base seems light based on historical Drain decks.   (No Mana Crypt?)

2) Nothing in the list struck me as stand out or particularly innovative.   AK + Intuition + Trinket Mage package.    It seems like just one of many possible permutations.  

3) I don't really agree with your conclusion that control (whatever you may mean by that) "needed" this kill.    Mana Drain based decks were performing quite well prior to Shards, esp with Painter and Slaver lists.

I think the Tezzeret idea I"m most curious about is to see if someone can successfully hybridize Painter and Tezzeret.  I'm surprised to see that no one has done it yet.  

[hitman]

I think the Tezzeret idea I"m most curious about is to see if someone can successfully hybridize Painter and Tezzeret.  I'm surprised to see that no one has done it yet.

Does Tezzeret and Painter need to be hybridized?  Couldn't you run a Painter combo deck with multiple Painter's Servants and Grindstones?  Adding Tezzeret seems clunky.  Many Painter decks run a playset of Servant so what advantage would you get by running Tezzeret instead of just running more Grindstones in the first place?  A five casting cost combo enabler doesn't seem very good to me because combo wants to win before resources have been developed.  If you have enough mana to cast Tezzeret and other combo pieces, your opponent is probably similarly mana developed and capable of stopping you more easily.  The more mana an opponent has at his disposal, the greater ability he has to disrupt your gameplan.

"Solutions, in general, are more efficient than threats, even in Vintage. Moreover, the depth and breadth of the card pool makes it possible to combine and recombine the available answers in an infinite array of permutations."

3.  Control needed this kill.

I think the reason he said this is because when a "control" deck uses as many slots as Control Slaver or Bomberman to actually win the game, it takes up more slots that you could be using to effectually control the game.  With Tezzeret, you only require one other card so you're able to fill your deck with more utility and/or control elements to successfully get to the point where you actually win the game.  In this way, you have a better chance of not having dead cards in hand early on and you can play the control role better. 

[Smmenen]

I think the Tezzeret idea I"m most curious about is to see if someone can successfully hybridize Painter and Tezzeret.  I'm surprised to see that no one has done it yet.

Does Tezzeret and Painter need to be hybridized?  Couldn't you run a Painter combo deck with multiple Painter's Servants and Grindstones?  Adding Tezzeret seems clunky.  Many Painter decks run a playset of Servant so what advantage would you get by running Tezzeret instead of just running more Grindstones in the first place?  A five casting cost combo enabler doesn't seem very good to me because combo wants to win before resources have been developed.  If you have enough mana to cast Tezzeret and other combo pieces, your opponent is probably similarly mana developed and capable of stopping you more easily.  The more mana an opponent has at his disposal, the greater ability he has to disrupt your gameplan.

I think the two reasons that I am intrigued by a hybrid Tez/Painter list would be this:

1) you get to run maindeck Red Blasts, which has to help in any Mana Drain mirror.

2) Tez can find both parts of the Painter combo.

"Solutions, in general, are more efficient than threats, even in Vintage. Moreover, the depth and breadth of the card pool makes it possible to combine and recombine the available answers in an infinite array of permutations."

Well put

[nineisnoone]

I think the two reasons that I am intrigued by a hybrid Tez/Painter list would be this:

1) You get to run maindeck Red Blasts, which has to help in any Mana Drain mirror.

2) Tez can find both parts of the Painter combo.

3) Painter can also block for Tezzert.

4) Tezzert --> Time Vault +  untap is just as slow as Tezzert --> Painter + untap --> Grindstone.  But you can actually run multiple Painter's and have them be useful.  The equivalent for Time Vault would be Voltaic Key, which is not a useful card to run and even if you did you would not run as many or get as much out if it as Painter's.  This means that Painter's + Grindstone is a turn faster since you can have a Painter's in play before you play Tezzeret, while that's not really a good idea with Voltaic Key.

5) Time Vault is restricted.  Meaning if it's in hand you can't tutor for it (but I guess you can just play it next turn so it won't make a difference), however if it gets hit by Duress, Hide/Seek, or just want to discard it to Thirst for Knowledge Tezzeret isn't that great. 

Tezzeret + Painter's seems like a big win.  The only downside is that Painter's can get hit by Swords to Plowshares, which is a frequently played card.

[Smmenen]

If you have either a Painter or a Grindstone in play when you cast Tez, you just find the other part and win.

If you have neither Grindstone or Painter in play, I would just find Time Vault. 

[nineisnoone]

Is it best to run both? 

Tutoring Painter and then Grindstone is 2 turns just like Time Vault is.  So turn-wise they are equivalent.

You do need 3 mana to activate Grindstone (which is relevant), but tutoring Painter's does have the upside of enabling your REBs which can save your Painter's from an Ignot Chewer whereas REB would not be able to save Time Vault from other non-blue spells.

The big thing that makes me think an additional Grindstone is better than a lone Time Vault is that Painter's + Time Vault != win.  Whereas if it was a Grindstone, you would have won the game.  Time Vault only combos with Tezzeret, whereas Painters and Grindstone combo with both Tezzeret and each other.

[Grand Inquisitor]

You didn't list the fact that Intuition->AK costs (more mana)

Right, this is significant.  For the 'basic' use, the engine is more expensive than TFK.  However, often times it's the many different uses that the six cards being featured in the deck bring together that make it worthwhile.  E.g., under a sphere, you may never get up to four mana for either Intuition or TFK, but AK you can manage until you cantrip into more mana.  I've always found the extra lines of play, in addition to the ability to tutor and the card advantage superiority to make it better provided you can afford the six slots.

opening yourself up to graveyard hate

Yes, but if opponents are bringing in stuff like extirpate or tormod's crypt against this, you should be in good shape.  The board changing cards and the entire rest of the deck, sans YWill, really have nothing to do with it.

Keep in mind that I was assuming two things:

...2) A Mana Drain based deck.

I was really assuming a mana drain deck as well, but, for example, with Painter the right number could be 2 or 3 mana drains, so I didn't include any to start.

1 Mystical Tutor
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Ponder
1 MysticalTutor

I know these are certainly top choices, but I don't see these as auto-includes in the same way as merchant scroll or vampiric tutor, care to explain?  Similarly, these:

2 Bounce or removal Spells
4-6 Draw Engine Spells
7 other slots

...are certainly typical of a list like this, but the allocations are arbitrary if we're trying to discuss a 'core' set of cards to start.

1) The mana base seems light based on historical Drain decks.   (No Mana Crypt?)

In the tourney report I explain the intention to have a light manabase.  Having played 4/5 swiss rounds against aggro, I'd say it's verified.  Crypt is in there.

2) Nothing in the list struck me as stand out or particularly innovative.   AK + Intuition + Trinket Mage package.    It seems like just one of many possible permutations. 

Right...except none of us have much tournament experience with Tezzeret.  And no one's presented a list like this.  And that discussing permutations is exactly what this thread is about.

Painter is interesting and I considered it.  The key advantage seems to be that:

tutoring Painter's does have the upside of enabling your REBs which can save your Painter's (Tez's and Vault) from other non-blue spells

The real question will be whether if a knowing opponent will be able to easily play around this either by attacking tez before it resolves or resolves its ability, or just plays different cards.

Additionally, I really wanted the deck to have a control ethos of having most of the cards stand on their own.  There's very few dead draws, and painter, grindstone, and stuff like voltaic key, tends to cost you lots of games when topdecked in a tough spot.  That being said, a Painter list would be quite different and I'd really want to look at a list as a whole before trying to evaluate it.

[Bongo]

I don't want to stray too far away from the original decklist, but since there's a discussion about including Painter in the deck, I thought I'd post my developments with the deck.
First, the decklist:


Tezzeret the Painter, by Bongo

Tutoring:
4 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Tinker

Broken:
1 Time Walk
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm

Solution-Package:
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Pithing Needle
1 Tormod's Crypt

Defense:
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
3 Red Elemental Blast

Win-Conditions:
2 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Time Vault
1 Sundering Titan
3 Painter's Servant
1 Grindstone

Mana:
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mana Crypt

3 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
2 Island
3 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Library of Alexandria


I'm using the Thirst engine because space is really tight and Intuition/AK costs too much mana (it also really hurts if your intuitioned-for AK gets countered). 18 Cards in the deck are artifacts, which should be enough to support Thirst.
The big advantages of this hybrid are:

1. REB maindeck, which is very good in this Drain-dominated metagame.

2. Three different win-conditions, who are synergistic with each other. You can protect Tezzeret with Painter and REB, or search up the missing part.

3. Strategic flexibility, you can sneak in the Painter combo in the early-game, force it through in the mid-game with REBs, or dominate the late-game with Tezzeret.

[zeus-online]

Dosn't voltaic key get stronger with the inclusion of intuition?
Intuitioning for key, vault and lotus followed by a will or tutor for will is a pretty inexpensive win (Mana-wise)

But key is still a dead card without vault.

My main problem with these tezz decks is that the combo part dosn't actually require less spots in the main then other decks...

The bonus would be if it allowed for additional disruption against combo or something. At least the way i see it.

/Zeus

[Wollblad]

I really like your deck Bongo. I would only like to see some way to retrieve artifacts from the graveyard (besides Yawgmoth's Will). How about an Accademy Ruins? It's a great way to retrieve Engineered Explosives (EE) as well.

Talking of EE, I would rather use a Trinket Mage than Merchant Scroll. As already pointed out earlier. Trinket Mage can protect Tezzeret. One can seem random, butter with one than none.

[Bongo]

Excellent suggestion! Of course Academy Ruins has to be in there, I would replace one USea with it.

I'm not entirely sure about a single Trinket Mage. Right now, I'm leaning towards Lotus Petal, as the deck is quite mana hungry.
I also replaced Sundering Titan with DSC, because it has better synergy with Thirst.

I'll start a new discussion about my version, since I don't want to derail this thread.

[M.Solymossy]

I can't even read this whole thread.  To me, GI is just an extremely good player who makes good decisions.  This deck however, seems inherently flawed.  I understand that Mana Drain is Tom Brady out east (Can't win without them), but this deck just folds to any sort of ritual deck.  I played Tezzeret in Wisconsin, and I only beat ad naseum on the back of duress.  Your forces and drains can't battle their speed and their pacts/duress/xantids...

I just have a huge problem with having a weakness to one of the strongest decks right now because one of these days, a lot of people WILL play it out east....

[Grand Inquisitor]

I can't even read this whole thread

Easy there, Soly.  Yours is a point well taken.  This deck was built in (accurate) expectation of a metagame full of artifacts and creatures.  It's not for everyone everywhere, and the extra slots and even some of the main components are widely up for debate.

That being said, mana drains are doing well everywhere, and while they don't roll over rituals, there's plenty of ways to hedge against combo.

I'll be testing some of these suggestions, including voltaic key again, so I should have better developed opinions after the weekend.

[Eastman]

I understand that Mana Drain is Tom Brady out east (Can't win without them), but this deck just folds to any sort of ritual deck.  I played Tezzeret in Wisconsin, and I only beat ad naseum on the back of duress.  Your forces and drains can't battle their speed and their pacts/duress/xantids...

I just have a huge problem with having a weakness to one of the strongest decks right now because one of these days, a lot of people WILL play it out east....

As an avid supporter of the East and a man from there myself, I have to say you're right.  There is a rough match right now against long.  But I don't think it's as bad as you claim, though less than 50%.  More importantly, fish is everywhere here on the east coast (perhaps due to our proximity to the ocean relative to Wisconsin), and I think most potential long players are just too scared of losing to canonist and null rod all day.  There were 4 different beats/fish decks in the top 8 at this tournament, I doubt tendrils could have stormed its way through.  (for reference - http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=36682.0)

Something of an aside - but isn't it fascinating that it is aggro with the stronger combo matchup in this meta, and combo with the good control matchup?

[M.Solymossy]

I must apologize as after reading my post, it did come off somewhat harsh, and that was not my intent.   

Personally, I've been in love with Engineered Explosives as my catch-all answer to fish.  That, coupled with them having to deal with your speed is enough to hedge game 1, and then game 2 if you're playing Green you have tarmogoyfs (which for me were subpar) , and in red gives you hot frechkissing Kavus.   I've never been a fan of trying to resolve  mana Sorcery speed threats in control decks that just don't curve the game drastically in your favor, and I don't feel that Trinket Mage does that.

As for your Long match up, I wouldn't really worry about it until it picks up out east.  I keep joking with Rich on AIM about how I need to move out to Connecticut because I wouldn't ever have to play without dark ritual from my deck, but there are only a select few that have done well with Rituals out there, so I wouldn't worry.
 
IF Ad Naseum picks up speed though, I would definitely have chalices, and maybe even trinisphere in your sideboard.

[the boogie man]

Would spell snare be a decent addition in the painter-less lists? They counter a lot of the good creatures running around, and some good gards from the combo match, too.

[Liam-K]

Dosn't voltaic key get stronger with the inclusion of intuition?
Intuitioning for key, vault and lotus followed by a will or tutor for will is a pretty inexpensive win (Mana-wise).

If you have Intuition and Will in your hand, you do not require Voltaic Key in the deck for you to win off the back of it.

Trinket Mage is actually pretty good against Fish.  Even trading him in combat is a 0-for-1, and whatever he grabs ignores Canonist.  Blocking for tezz is a not irrelevant either.  Jotun Grunt seems to be showing up again, and trinket->tcrypt is occasionally an unorthodox solution to that as well.  I just wish he could fetch Scroll Rack.

I prefer storm variants but I'm not sure I'd be comfortable bringing ad nauseam into a field infested with fish these days.  Bring your slaughter pacts.