The New Tez

As I said in a previous post, the new Tez build would be decided just before GenCon. It turns out, that indeed it was. Here is the Tez list that won the World Champs:

1st – Itou Hiromichi Tezzeret Control

1 Ancestral Recall
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Tinker
1 Time Vault
1 Time Walk
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Brainstorm
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Inkwell Leviathan
4 Dark Confidant
1 Fire // Ice
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
1 Magus of the Unseen
1 Misdirection
1 Voltaic Key
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Rack and Ruin
2 Island
2 Volcanic Island
4 Underground Sea
1 Swamp
2 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
2 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Darkblast

Sideboard
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyroblast
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Trinisphere
2 Pyroclasm
1 Rack and Ruin
2 Arcane Laboratory
1 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Darkblast

I suspect this will become the base list people start working with from here-on in. There are certain Main Deck slots I think he devoted specifically to the GenCon meta. For instance, Magus of the Unseen and Rack & Ruin were there to stop the top contenders. You could even make the case for Fire//Ice and Darkblast as metagame calls. Though, I think Darkblast will become a staple for Tez decks in the Rod vs. Vault vs. Welder matchup going forward.

Here are the “innovations” I want to focus on for a now: 4 Dark Confidant, 2 Sensei’s Divining Top, 1 Swamp.

Dark Confidant is the natural go-to draw engine people will gravitate towards following the restriction of Thirst For Knowledge- even though Night’s Whisper is more explosive, more immediate, and less life intensive. However, this deck has an average CMC of around 1.6 pre-board and only nine cards in the Main with a CMC of 4 or more. The life loss will only matter in longer games and only really against agro decks like BUG Fish, Meandeck Beatz, GW Beatz, Shop Agro, and Christmas Beatings.

So what does this mean for building in the future. The 2-4 open slots may best be filled by Duress in a generic meta. The slow life attrition from Fetch Lands, FoW, Vamp Tutor, and Bob mean that Thoughseize and maybe Imperial Seal are probably out as options. Duress can trade your one drop for your opponent’s best card and buy you a couple turns to set up. Seal is slow, costs life, and interrupts tempo.

Moving on to SDT. The 2 Tops Itou included can help smooth out any massive loss of life and make up for the restrictions of Ponder and Brainstorm. Where Bob goes, Top is sure to follow it seems. One top used to be fairly standard in Tez builds, as Menendian’s Composite Tez lists have shown. But now with 2, Itou is making it a feature of his deck. Counting the Tops, Itou has build at deck that has 9 cards that either manipulate the top of his library or tutor cards into play/his hand: Ponder, Merchant Scroll, Brainstorm, Tinker, Mystical Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor, and 2 Sensei’s Divining Tops. While Bob, Time Walk, FoF and Ancestral, still gain him card advantage, it’s beginning to become clear that there’s a shift in Vintage priorities from straight card advantage to card selection. This is why I think Dark Confidant will remain the draw engine of choice until someone finds a way to exploit the life attrition it causes. Confidant makes the Card Selection priority even better.

The last thing I want to highlight is the inclusion of a basic swamp. None of Menendian’s composite lists have one. This is something new. With Bob in the mix and so important to the deck running smoothly, I’m guessing that Itou wanted to avoid the complications caused by Wasteland and Magus of the Moon. With his basic Swamp, he is assured that he will be able to cast all eight of his black spells almost regardless of his opponent’s board position (although obviously Strip Mine w/ Crucible would shut it down). I see this as an insurance policy for the deck. I doubt he fetched it out too often during the tournament, but he perceived the threat to non-basics to be high enough that it warranted playing a basic of his secondary color. In the Null Rod/Wasteland infested metagame we are likely to see in the next few months, I don’t believe it’s a bad idea at all. Two XG Beatz decks made the top 8 at World’s. There’s no doubt that green-based agro/disruption decks are going to be a force at least until Zendikar comes out, and perhaps even after then.

Meta-specific decisions for Tez Control builders are becoming harder and harder to implement. They are basically left with 4 open slots to hone their deck to their individual environment. While that may sometimes be a weakness, Tez Control has shown that is resilient to both new printings and card restrictions. It will be fun to see how it evolves over the next few months and just how much influence Itou has on the world-wide meta.

Peace,

-Troy