Today I have a bonus article for all of you just in time for Aether Revolt Standard season and the banning of Smuggler’s Copter, Reflector Mage and Emrakul, the Promised End. This may be an obvious direction to try and go with the new set, but we have a new version of Tezzeret and I want to do crazy things with it.
I must admit I stumbled at first, but luckily I was able to collaborate a bit with my good friend Zac Turgeon. We made our own lists, compared notes, and discussed a few points to decide on a few cards that needed to make it into the main deck. After much discussion—and deciding that I had interrupted him long enough from making the delicious ice cream treats we would partake in a couple days later—we came to this list.
UB Tezzeret
Going into this weekend the metagame will be like the Wild West. I expect to see a lot of Aetherworks Marvel with the full four copies of Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger and Ishkanah, Grafwidow. GB aggro could potentially still be a thing but I doubt it. Boros or Mardu vehicles have a chance to come back thanks to Heart of Kiran. Anyway, let’s talk Tezz.
Creatures
This is a very simple section in a control deck. Your creatures either buy you time or they do something controllyish. Yes, controllyish. Filigree Familiar is here as a bit of life padding, chump blocking, and card draw.
Herald of Anguish fills the other role of being controllyish. Due to the many artifacts in this deck, the demon will never cost seven mana. The best part is, we can then use those artifacts as repeatable instant speed removal. If your opponent wants to keep cards in hand for some foolish reason, the end of turn discard trigger crushes that plan too. And it also happens to be a 5/5 flier, which is pretty good in combat.
Artifacts
While not an artifact itself, Mechanized Production is the mos timportant card to discuss here. This is a card I really didn’t even think twice about, but Zac pointed out that putting this on a Prophetic Prism means you draw an extra card every turn. Also worth noting is that it eventually becomes a win condition when left unchecked. If six turns of making more prisms and drawing extra cards doesn’t end the game already, that is.
Prophetic Prism fixes our mana, taps of improvise, and makes Tezzeret happy. The card draw attached to it is a nice bonus.
Metalspinner’s Puzzleknot is basically the same card as prism, but with less mana fixing and more life loss.
Panharmonicon doubles up our trigger shenanigans and is a lot of fun. You just get to have a blast when you put Mechanized Production on your Prism with Panharmonicon in play!
Removal
Fatal Push shouldn’t surprise anyone. It is the hot new topic of Modern and Legacy discussion from Aether Revolt, inventions aside, and it looks to be possibly replacing Path to Exile as a premier removal spell in Modern deck running Black and White. Nice little touch for this is that on turn four we can tap out for Tezzeret and use his Etherium Cell to not only trigger revolt, but cast Fatal Push as well. This allows us to interact with the Saheeli Rai/Felidar Guardian combo while being able to tap out for Tezzeret.
Grasp of Darkness and Ruinous Path should surprise no one as well. Lost Legacy is a way to interact with the potential combo decks that are going to be leaking out of the Aetherworks or flickering out of Felidar. Why wait to respond when you can just say “No!”
I am fairly convinced that Boros or Mardu Vehicle decks will be hitting the speedways and trying to run us down, so I have included a pair of Yahenni’s Expertise to fight aggressive starts and allow us to easily commit more artifacts to the board on turn four after we sweep it.
Planeswalkers
Tezzeret the Schemer is a shifty, etherium-infused guy. He has torn apart homes and families for the good of Nicol Bolas but thinks he is actually in charge. I still like him, though.
Making a Lotus Petal every turn is fine with me, even if Etherium Cell is a stupid name. He can help a Herald hit for more damage and eventually when you get his emblem, he makes a new 5/5 every turn before combat. That clock adds up right quick. This Standard is really getting tempting.
Liliana, the Last Hope rounds out the planeswalker suite. Her ability to rebuy a Familiar or a Herald is perfectly fine. Her +1 ability kills little things, makes crewing vehicles harder, and saves a few damage per turn. Liliana’s ultimate is far and away one of the quickest clocks a control deck could present. Another nice thing about her is that she can be cast off Yahenni’s Expertise, which means you can easily sweep most of the board and then get that little extra in to kill larger threats.
Sideboard
There is no sideboard currently but I would assume some number of Battle at the Bridge, additional Lost Legacy and Yahenni’s Expertise, plus three or four Transgress the Mind. Zac and I went back and forth on Metallic Rebuke, but if you don’t play in main your probably want it in the side. Negate is also a prime contender.
Initial Thoughts
I really feel like early into the new meta we should anticipate Aetherworks Marvel and RWx Vehicles and I feel that this deck answers both quite well. If I had the funds readily available, this is definitely what I would be taking out to my local game store for an FNM event.
Happy brewing to each and every one of you. If anyone has an idea for a brew that they would like to see, I will gladly take requests and challenges on Twitter. 🙂
Aaron Gazzaniga works part time at a game store and in his off time has been an avid magic player/brewer since 2003. Having begun in Odyssey Standard Block and always favoring control and prison style decks, we come to this moment in time where Aaron finally gets to talk about and share his ideas. If you want to contact Aaron tweet @aarongazzaniga