A topic you have probably never read about in Magic deck construction is that of dependencies. Dependencies will be intuitive for many of
you… But people just don’t talk about them very much. Cards with direct dependencies include Arid Mesa, Ranger of Eos, and Nissa Revane. See
where this is going?
Arid Mesa is an extremely compelling card… But you need to play with a certain number of Plains and / or Mountains in your deck in order for Arid
Mesa to have any value at all. Arid Mesa gets more compelling in larger formats like Legacy (and previously Extended), not just because it can obtain a
higher quality of cards than in Standard (Stomping Ground is better, generally speaking, than basic Mountain)… But because the dependencies loosen
up. For example, in Standard, if you’re going to play with four Arid Mesas and four Marsh Flats, you probably have to play at least eight copies of
Plains and / or Mountains and / or Swamps… and even then, you might run out of basics before you run out of fetchlands; however in [old] Extended,
even when you have a similar — or lower — number of “target” lands, your fetches tend to retain value more consistently… For
example, Arid Mesa can find Blood Crypt, which in Standard might have been a Swamp; that is, a card that Arid Mesa can’t find.
Ranger of Eos is awesome… But again, you have to devote a certain number of one-drops; otherwise Rangers will quickly lose value. If you play four
copies of Ranger of Eos, you really can’t go to war with fewer than eight one-drops. At eight one-drops, your last Ranger of Eos (should you draw
it) will be unlikely to mise full value (if any value), given the fact that you probably drew some one-drops naturally… and hopefully played one on
turn 1.
So playing with Arid Mesa comes with a “tax” of having to play with 4-8 relevant targets before you even think about anything else; and
playing four copies of Ranger of Eos is like committing 12/60 slots from the get-go. There is nothing “bad” about this reality, but it can
certainly be complicated. Despite having a full sweep of Zendikar fetches available, few decks with lots of colors relied or rely on those in Standard.
Just having an Arid Mesa in your deck is very expensive, slots-wise, and can complicate your ability to utilize other awesome multicolor lands.
Contrast that with Legacy, where fetches suffer no such prejudice.
The worst of our examples is Nissa Revane. Playing any non-zero number of copies of Nissa Revane requires us to play a bare minimum of two copies of
Nissa’s Chosen and probably three. The “correct” number of copies of Nissa’s Chosen for a deck playing three copies of Nissa
Revane is probably four. Depressing, no? There’s a reason why Nissa Revane is one of the only four-mana planeswalkers to have never really been
considered one of the best cards in its Standard format.
Dependencies.
Just before the 2009 World Championships, I was working very hard on a Naya / Nissa Revane deck, with the long-game plan of going ultimate with Nissa
and exploding out all the Elvish Archdruids and Bloodbraid Elves for a lethal attack. The deck was not bad, and it could run with Jund’s card
advantage at least somewhat… But I was so frustrated with all the bad cards I was playing in order to gain any value out of Nissa that I basically
gave up… and made a different Naya deck :)
To me, one of the compelling things about Naya Lightsaber was that I was able to play most of the cards I liked in my Nissa deck (Ajani Vengeant,
Bloodbraid Elf, Baneslayer Angel)… But without the frustrating number of slot dependencies.
If you think a moment, you can probably identify a fair number of very good cards that have slot dependencies. I think of dependencies as a
“tax” you have to pay in card choice flexibility in order to gain any value at all out of a seemingly compelling card (even if it
isn’t necessarily a centerpiece).
By contrast, there are cards that might fit into a linear that don’t actually have dependencies. Example: There were decks in the 1990s that used
Lord of Atlantis as “a blue Ironclaw Orcs” (or as a beatdown-transformative sideboard card), playing no other Merfolk.
The reason I started with dependencies is that there’s a new four-mana planeswalker who looks to be interesting… and looks to have some dependencies
attached.
Why is Tezzeret interesting?
Tezzeret is a four-mana planeswalker. Briefly, let’s look at all the other four-mana planeswalkers, ever:
Ajani Goldmane
Ajani Vengeant
Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Garruk Wildspeaker
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Koth of the Hammer
Nissa Revane
Sarkhan Vol
Of these, Ajani Goldmane was the best planeswalker in Standard — and a brutal topdeck — during the period when Windbrisk Heights was the
best card in the format (specifically Windbrisk Heights + Spectral Procession in B/W and G/W Tokens). Amazingly, there were R/W Boat Brew decks that
played Ajani Goldmane over Ajani Vengeant during this period because of the additional synergies with Kitchen Finks and Murderous Redcap persist.
Ajani Vengeant was the best planeswalker in Standard more than once, a Pro Tour winner, and a Top 10 card in the format. Ajani Vengeant has contributed
to Extended PTQ wins and a variety of different control, beatdown, and sideboard strategies.
Elspeth, Knight-Errant is a Pro Tour winner… in Extended. At one point, Brian Kibler called Elspeth the best planeswalker in Standard… with Jace,
the Mind Sculptor in his deck.
Though he has fallen in popularity in recent years, Garruk Wildspeaker was the first-best planeswalker, at the dawn of planeswalker time; again, a Pro
Tour winner and in fact pivotal to the win (Garruk Overrun allowing Elves to race Reveillark).
Jace, the Mind Sculptor is… Jace, the Mind Sculptor.
Each of the first five (alphabetical) four-mana planeswalkers has been the best planeswalker in Standard, or at least been suggested as such by
credible players. Some of these cards (especially Ajani V and Jace 2) have been Top 10 cards in Standard, and Jace remains a Top 10 card in Extended.
News flash – Four-mana planeswalkers have a tendency to be very good.
Of the remaining three, Koth and Nissa are at least playable; and I know that I’m just waiting for Koth in particular to prove himself the best of the
breed (though he obviously hasn’t yet). Don’t know what to say about Sarkhan Vol… It was pretty obvious from the outset that he wasn’t going to
be very good in Standard.
But what about Tezzeret 2?
Four-mana planeswalker? Check.
Worth a conversation? Double-check.
Dependencies… Now we’re talking.
Tezzeret requires artifacts in order to do anything. I would argue that the bare minimum number of artifacts you have to play in order to make
Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas playable is twelve. I’m not talking about playing four copies of Tezzeret (though that would be my starting point); I’m
talking about playing any non-zero number at all. I think that with even one copy of Tezzeret in your deck, you want at least twelve artifacts.
Where does the number “twelve” come from?
Pretty obvious — Tezzeret looks at five cards at a time. In order for him to gain value (beyond a loyalty counter), you need at least one of
those cards to be an artifact. Constructed decks are 60 cards; 60/5 = 12… Hence a minimum of 12.
There are many different ways you can go with a Tezzeret deck. My bias is to “not get too fancy” with it. You can play specialized
artifacts and crack a lot of fetchlands while defending Tezzeret, look at cards five at a time like a Lim-Dul’s Vault, find what you want, etc.
That’s not really how I would do it. My idea would be to play a combination of highly functional artifacts and cheap cantrips to keep things
flowing. By “highly functional,” I mean artifacts you would play even if you weren’t playing Tezzeret, for example Ratchet Bomb,
Everflowing Chalice, Wurmcoil Engine, and Elixir of Immortality.
I would almost certainly play at least one Elixir of Immortality in my first draft of a Tezzeret deck because leeching artifacts out of your deck at a
rate of [at least] one per turn is going to affect your ability to keep them flowing. That way, you can re-buy your cheap cantrips (think Nihil
Spellbomb) or otherwise exhausted artifacts (think Ratchet Bomb) while shuffling your deck for a fresh five on top (especially valuable when you
absolutely, positively know that 3-4 of your top five cards are not artifacts).
As with many cards, everything gets better with Jace.
I think “the dream” is to set yourself up so that — presumably in addition to a “B/U Control” game plan a la “the
Guillaumes” in the Worlds finals — you want to be able to set up a multiple-planeswalker battlefield, a la Superfriends or certain versions
of U/W Tap Out last summer. Jace, the Mind Sculptor + Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas, both in play at the same time, is a dynamic duo made in heaven.
The most obvious reason why is that Jace can put artifacts you’ve already drawn back on top of your deck… so that Tezzeret can go and put them
back in hand. Between the two of them, they just grind out extra cards (the way Jace used to do by his lonesome)… But this time, one of your
planeswalkers is actually accumulating loyalty counters towards his ultimate.
I think that it might be reasonable to go white with Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas for more of an Esper deck than a Standard B/U Control. One of the big
reasons is that there is a great deal of natural synergy between Contagion Clasp and Luminarch Ascension (which is white); and Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
and the relentless card quality delta represented by Contagion Clasp. You’re already inevitably going to play with Everflowing Chalice, which is like
besties with Contagion Clasp already… Contagion Clasp gets along with planeswalkers, etc., &c.
I don’t want to hazard any decklists yet, seeing as the whole of Mirrodin Besieged has yet to be revealed, but I do know the kinds of cards, and
card combinations, I want to try out:
Treasure Mage
+ Wurmcoil Engine… Basically a replacement squad for Sea Gate Oracle + Grave Titan from the Worlds B/U deck. Tezzeret reinforces the desire to play
Wurmcoil Engine as your finisher over M11 Titans.
Wurmcoil Engine but no Treasure Mage: Wurmcoil Engine might just be good enough with Tezzeret that we’ll accept the ostensible [Standard] downgrade
from Grave Titan in order to make room for the other 8+ artifacts we have to play.
Cheap cantrip artifacts (theme) — Nihil Spellbomb, Prismatic Lens, Elixir of Immortality: Elixir of Immortality is of particular value here,
shuffling your Spellbombs (and probably a Mindslaver) back into your deck for future Tezzeret reference. Prismatic Lens is especially valuable if we go
white for more planeswalkers or to enhance our Contagion Clasp value via Luminarch Ascension. Imagine the violence! Play Day of Judgment, Tezzeret aims
at Ichor Wellspring, activate Gideon Jura, hustle in for eleven? Must.
Mimic Vat, with whatever — Early on, Mimic Vat proved a fine option in B/U Control… Seems like it might be even finer with Tezzeret in the mix.
I’ve been focused primarily on making Tezzeret’s [+1] ability good, but the ability to just play him and crack for five makes Tezzeret a bit
Koth-like as well as Jace-like. It’s entirely possible that Tezzeret can be successful just playing thug.
His ultimate is super easy to get online via loyalty counters and not that hard to make good. For example, you can play Tezzeret on turn 3 via
Everflowing Chalice, mise into Contagion Clasp (which puts him on four), untap, find another random artifact (say another Chalice), play them both, and
easily nug for six on the fifth turn, without actually exhausting Tezzeret’s loyalty. That might seem overly exciting, but it’s not hard to get
online, not expensive, doesn’t necessarily bin Tezzeret himself, and doesn’t cost any incremental mana. I’m skeptical of
Tezzeret consistently going for twenty outside of formats with artifact lands, but I also expect that it will happen the first weekend he’s legal to
play.
This seems like a pretty good card; I don’t see him usurping Jace’s position as the #1 planeswalker in Standard any time soon, but it’s
pretty obvious Tezzeret will find a couple of different kinds of decks where he can profitably kick butt.
Standard is about to get interesting again.
LOVE
MIKE