[Deck Idea] Find the Key, mono blue tezz

[serracollector]

I have looked several places online, and I am sorry if this deck is already out and about, but I have yet to find it.

This is my idea for a mono blue time vault/voltaic key "combo" deck.


Mana: (29)
4 x Ancient Tomb
2 x Polluted Delta
2 x Misty Rainforest
1 x Tolarian Academy
7 x Island
10 x moxen/sol/lotus/petal/crypt/vault
3 x Grim Monolith

Counters: (6)
4 x Force of Will
2 x Spell Pierce

Draw (7)
1 x Fact or Fiction
1 x Brainstorm
1 x Ancestral Recall
1 x Thirst for Knowledge
1 x Memory Jar
1 x Timetwister
1 x Ponder

Win Conditions/Tech: (4)
1 x Time Vault
1 x Tezz
1 x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 x Inkwell Leviathan

Tutors: (7)
1 x Mystical Tutor
1 x Merchant Scroll
1 x Gifts Ungiven
1 x Tinker
3 x Transmute Artifact

Other Stuff: (7)
1 x Hurkyll's Recall
1 x Rebuild
1 x Time Walk
1 x Reconstruction
3 x Voltaic Key

Sideboard: (15)
3 x Tormod's Crypt
4 x Cursed Totem
3 x Hurkyll's Recall
2 x Hibernation
3 x Threads of Disloyalty



The idea is rather simple, get a key get vault, or tinker in early Inkwell.

Why mono blue?  
1. No wasteland issues.
2. Need UU for Transmute artifact, thus why including the lotus petal.
3. Has answers to almost every threat either thru Counters or Bounce or just dropping bomb after bomb til something gets thru.
4. Very consistent mana base.

Card Choices

Grim Monolith/Voltaic Key - both unrestricted.  Amazes me personally.  Grim + Transmute = Vault, or tap Grim + transmute = Jar.  Also nice for dropping turn 2 tezz, jace, fact or fiction, or gifts, even hard casting a inkwell.

Transmute Artifact - 4 tinkers is good right?  And with 3 Grims + restricted mana list, it is almost the same as 4 tinkers, kinda hard to get the leviathan into play tho lol.

Jace - at first tested with 2 divining tops, key + top just too good to pass up, but jace adds in the creature bounce mechanic, and another  win condition.  He has saved me many times in testing, and he is not hard to get out on turn 2.

Daze - acts as FoW 5-6 against stax, IF I go first. Even with all the tutors and 2 bounce stax is a beast.

Reconstruction - Its the blue "yawgmoth's will" under gifts or Fact.  Lotus(or if u get the mana, other bomb), Reconstruct, TimeVault, (random bomb here) is a great grab with Gifts.  Reconstruction also saves u from the first turn duress/thoughtseize for vault.

The rest I think are self explanatory.

The deck plays simple, try to get the key/vault combo into play asap.

Drop bomb after bomb. Repeat til one gets thru.

Against combo and dredge, you just have to try to race them.  I Honestly have thought about running 4 archive trap,  as an attempt to deck a dredge player.  Don't know if it would work as often as I wanted tho.



I am not sure if I really need advice, the deck has been working amazingly well, I just wanted to see if other people have tried this already, or if there is a different take on it?  
If not, enjoy it, its fun to play and rather consistent.

[mistervader]

First, I don't see where the Voltaic Key is in your list.

Second, I find that 4 FOW + 4 non-hard counters isn't quite the best protection suite, and you'd have fits dealing with TPS or something similar.

I'd rather run Drains than non-hard counters if I'm mono-U. And Fact or Fiction/Impulse seems great in this deck.

[Oath of Happy]

Wow, nice list!  You might want to test out a Voltaic Key.  It's a great combo with Time Vault and with 3 Transmute Artifact its pretty easy to tutor for.

[serracollector]

Sorry, can't believe I forgot keys.  I didn't count the cards after I posted the deck sorry.... its corrected now. 

Deck has FoF as well, forgot it as well.  Sorry was in a hurry when I typed it up earlier today.

[Phele]

Wow, nice list!  You might want to test out a Voltaic Key.  It's a great combo with Time Vault and with 3 Transmute Artifact its pretty easy to tutor for.

Didn't the poster before you advice him to integrate Key already? No need to repeat it or make jokes about the poster imo.

@ topic:

In Spain different almos mono blue Tez lists have quite some success. They usually play several Tezzerets. You might find some inspiration out of these lists:

Here is one coming in third:

http://www.morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1208

Here is another one coming in second playing Vedalken Archmages:

http://www.morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1128&highlight=Vedalken_Archmage

[Valorale]

-Think the Ancient Tombs are a liability through the damage plus they dont produce the critical blue mana. In addition cut memory jar.
-No Sensei's Divining Top? Seems like a no brainer with 3 Voltaic Keys.
-I feel like your counter magic is too light, id find a way to run 4 Mana Drains in there and use that mana to drain into playing a Grim Monolith or Key etc.
-Time Vault is not a win condition

[the boogie man]

29 mana seems like a lot. I agree that the tombs also look out of place. drain accellerates and protects. 3 monolith seems like 1 too many. you already have vault as well.

intuition looks great in your list, and you already run reconstruction, which is awesome. I think intuition would be better straight up in the jar and twister slots. Also, have you tried back to basics against stax? if you can get to 3 mana, you should be pretty far ahead anyway, but you can run a lot of basics.

[Charly_sama]

Like one of the first Turbotezz players in Spain... i'm agree with your game plan, but in my opinion the 3 black sisters, aren't a bad idea for your game plan...
probably i will change 1 transmute, 1 ponder, 1 voltaic key 1 jace  for... (Vampiric, YWill, Demonic, tezzereth) 1 island 1 ancient (2 underground) the rest is ok. (sorry for my poor english xDxD)

[yukizora]

Had I to play such a deck right now, I'd go for this:

1 Tolarian Academy
1 Library of Alexandria
6 Blue Fetches
10 Islands
8 Solomoxencrypt

4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Jace Mind Sculptor
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Brainstorm
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Gifts Ungiven
4 Repeal
1 Rebuild
2 Transmute Artifact
1 Tinker
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Ponder
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Mystical Tutor

3 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Voltaic Key
1 Time Vault

Strong draw engines: Repeal / Top or Key / Top. Which get pretty insane quickly. Strong counters support and 2 Transmute Artifacts to find Vault whenever you need it. It draws quicker than Dark Confidant decks and doesn't care about Darkblast, too. Repeal also bounces whatever you want, so it's never useless.
I really consider getting into testing it more seriously, as I prefer Repeal over Dark Confidant.

[scifiantihero]

1 Sphinx of Lost Truths

Is that supposed to be another sphinxy tinker target?

[The Wolf]

Serracollector,
Great looking list.  I was working on a list that was very similar for a while.  I splashed black for the tutors and duress.  I like the idea of jace a lot for this deck.  I found the deck to be very explosive, but it has a huge weakness to null rod.  At the time I think tezz was just better, this was by no means a bad deck.  Here is what I would try today:

26//
1 Tolarian Academy
6 Blue Fetches
5 Islands
4 UG Sea
5 mox
1 lotus
1 crypt
1 mana vault
2 Grim mono

12//
3 Spell Pierce
3 Duress
4 Force of Will
1 Echoing Truth
1 Rebuild

10//
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vamp Tutor
1 Yawg Will
1 Brainstorm
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Tinker
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Merchant Scroll

4//
2 Transmute Artifact
1 Jace Mind Sculptor
1 Tezzeret the Seeker

8//
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
3 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Voltaic Key
1 Time Vault

[oshkoshhaitsyosh]

or something like this

1 Tolarian Academy
1 Library of Alexandria
6 Blue Fetches
6 Islands
5 mox
1 lotus
1 vault
1 sol ring
1 crypt

4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
2 Misdirection
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Brainstorm
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Gifts Ungiven
4 Repeal
1 Rebuild
2 Transmute Artifact
1 Tinker
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Ponder
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Mystical Tutor

3 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Voltaic Key
1 Time Vault

SB
3 remora
3 spell pierce
2 hurkyls
7 dredge hate

I was also considering playing red in the main deck for maybe bloodmoon and/or magus of the moon, I think that would be interesting. Or maybe even empty the warrens....just random ideas, then you could play rebs sb maybe

[Mr. Fantastic]

1. Am I alone in thinking Thoughtcast isn't that bad here, even without Seat of the Synod (which I also kinda like here)? If fear of Wasteland is an issue, I think I'd rather have the synergy of Seat + Thoughtcast + Drain over Ancient Tomb + Grim Monolith. You're getting mouth raped by Null Rod in any case, so I don't know if ~2 Seat are going to make it that much worse.

2. Is a second copy of Tez all that trashy?