Tezzeret
1: Filigree barrier - cost: 6
1 - Give all your supports +1 shield.
2 - Give all your supports +2 shield.
3 - Give all your supports +3 shield.
4 - Give all your supports +4 shield.
2: Transmute - cost: 12
1 - Fetch the next support from your library. It gains 6 mana.
2 - Fetch the next support from your library. It gains 9 mana.
3 - Fetch the next support from your library. It gains 12 mana.
4 - Fetch the next support from your library and put it on the battlefield.
3: Artificers Skill - cost: 24
1 - Gives +X/+X to a creature, where X is the amount of Supports you control times 3 until the end of your turn.
2 - Gives +X/+X to a creature, where X is the amount of Supports you control times 5 until the end of your turn.
3 - Gives +X/+X to a creature, where X is the amount of Supports you control times 7 until the end of your turn.
4 - Gives +X/+X to a creature, where X is the amount of Supports you control times 10 until the end of your turn.
This PW is so bad, I wish I could convert it to runes…
There are fundamental flaws in abilities design which makes it so horrible.
Ability 1 is useless, getting more shields is only ever useful for claustrophobia and is very situational where that particular support must survive at all costs. It never happens
Ability 2 is where the paradox kicks in. Either you want a large number of supports and Ability 2 gives you very random results or you build a deck with few supports and get them all the time. For example having a single support which would be Pyromancer’s Goggles. That would be fine, except that if you don’t have many supports, Ability 3 becomes useless
Ability 3 is great. It really allows to win before dying. I mean that blue doesn’t have anything to kill or block so you’re pretty much guaranteed to take a serious beating. If you went the “ton of supports” road, then this is your ticket out of the Tezzeret pain.
Ability 2 should be much better than it is right now. Spending 12 loyalty to get a Prism Crystal is… bad. Or worse, getting a support which is already on the field. Blue’s highest casting cost for support is 13, above that there is a bunch of junk commons/uncommons and the Goggles far away at the top with 25.
Blue draws cards. That’s what this color does best. Getting the supports in my hand is not a problem, but casting them is a pain. The whole PW mechanic revolves around “Draw a random support / Play it for free”, which dumbs down the awesome drawing capabilities of Blue and adds at the very most 13 mana.
In original MtG, PW mechanics usually revolve around casting Ability 1 repeatedly, then choosing to either cast Ability 2 for medium effect or Ability 3 for Win. With Tezzeret here, Ability 1 doesn’t give anything to boost other abilities, Ability 2 is very expensive and prevents me from casting Ability 3 unless the game gets very long and Ability 3 is useless unless Ability 2 has been cast repeatedly.
Finally, the last problem of this is that Blue only has a single “game winning support”, the Thopter Spy Network, which is pretty great, but takes at least 8 turns to kill anyone once it is out. So I’m pretty cool with the “getting supports out” and stuff, but I can’t kill much more once they’re out. Unless you had a “Mage-Ring Network” power play in mind when you designed this, getting Blue / Colorless supports out is not super useful at winning.
I would add that the other problem is in supports Blue has access to.
Very few have/can have direct impact in the game.
Claustrophobia, prism array. Winter veil too can, if you manage to match 5.
Spy network of course.
Other stuff do no impact the game directly(or strongly enough) unless you have a creature out.
If tezzeret was blue/white we would have been one of the most interesting and also strong planeswalkers.
Anyways I would not advise to never buy it.
If you play/like to play blue, have no access to kiora and usually find Jace’s skill not good enough tezzeret is better just because he can use clausteophobia better and has better mana gains.
He’s the only planeswalker I haven’t bought. Before I buy one, I always see if I can build a deck with my existing cards. Not here. Without any of the blue power supports (Thopter Spy Network, Prism Array, Part the Waterveil, yadda), I literally can’t build a viable deck. I mean, the best I have would be some Sanctum/Tutelage stuff, but I might as well just do that in Jace or Kiora if I want to.
I also don’t have Spy network, Veil, Mirrorpool or Goggles, making him currently usless to me. I love his concept, but blue suffers from a strange affliction, which is Duel Color planeswalkers. Until they give a decient advantage to playing mono blue, all the good decks will be with Duel Color. Black is a prime example of good balance. Liliana, who can only play black, has very powerful abilities, to make up for lack of mana gain and lack of card selection. Run her with Eldrazi and she can ingest, discard, and destroy, creating a crazy control deck. Tezzeret does not have this… yet.
I think Tezzeret will become more powerful as the game goes on, since his available supports are going to grow, and a free support is a great ability, especially when blue starts getting more cards that allow him to sort his deck (only Talent of the Telepath currently). OGW has given Mirrorpool (that Mythic also eludes me) which gives good options for a deck that can’t make big creatures easily.
Unfortunatly, Tezzeret relies heavily on having one of 4 mythics, which are very hard to get in this game, and really only can become decient if you have at least two of them. Kiora also relies heavily on specific cards, but they are rare cards, which are easier to obtain then Mythic. Kiora becomes a beast with mythic cards, but they are not required.
I recently discovered that there is a game breaking combo with the Spy Network and the Drowner of Hopes. The Drowner of Hopes activates whenever a colorless creature enters the battlefield and disables every opponent’s creatures until your next turn. If you have a Spy Network and another support, this means that your opponent’s creatures are disabled forever.
I wanted to clarify before all this, yes Tezzeret is SLOW, but remember blue is in for the long game that is how it is designed if you want speed go red, seriously don’t complain about how slow blue is we already know that.
I very much like Tezzeret in most aspects, but I will admit Jace and Kiora both just have better cards working together with their abilities. Tezzeret on the otherhand just isn’t being given the supports he needs, his abilities are actually very good with certain supports (Claustrophobia TSN and any gem converters.) His abilities all function in a way to bring about his end goal a big flier. Now I personally believe his third ability needs to be lower in cost maybe 21 instead of 24. This would help and his second ability should either allow you to search for a support or get two random at a discount. I personally feel his first ability is just fine it does what it needs to do for a reasonable price. I very much prefer Tezzeret to the other walkers for just how unique he is, sure Kiora can do this and that, and Jace too, but I have lost one QB with him against Koth that’s it while Jace I have lost seven; and I use Tezzeret the most.
In short Tezz isn’t that bad he just needs a little help, look at Koth now; he’s a tad OP in my book. All the tier 2 monocolors should be on the same level as Ob and Gideon 2.
Once Kaladesh releases it should solve this problem though.
Oh its not good for gem converters, the first ability is also if you would read what I said about modifying his second ability it would be better, but yes as it is you’re right it is not great, but it does move towards his end goal
Alhammarret’s Archive
Shrine of the Forsaken Gods
Talent of the Telepath
Prism Array
Thopter Spy Network
Harbinger of the Tides
Turn to Frog
Prairie Stream
Sunken Hollow
Desolation Twin
I’ve been experimenting a lot, but I can’t find a reliable set that can win versus everyone.
How do you win with this PW? How do you deal enough damage to kill your enemy?
My deck is:
Turn to frog or crush of tentacles depending on opponent
Thopter spy network
Sunken hollow
Prairie stream
Caves of koilos
Sphinxes tuteledge
Jhessian thief
Retreat to coralhelm
Claustrophobia
Prism array
This set up works very well unless you get an abysmal draw, because it restricts their mana, draws you cards, provides you with tons of mana; and disables their creatures. The key is patience as you need to draw cards and to speed it up get out thopters. The most important card in this deck is Sphinxes tuteledge in my opinion because it keeps them from casting almost ever, some would think TSN is more important but it really just speeds up an already lengthy game. Its going to be slow and you will get hit now and again but it really is effective once you can engage a lockdown.
While I was trying to raise my blue mastery level I noticed that with cheap creatures ongoing investigation can generate quite a lot of supports, just fyi not sure that it is worth it.
This thread helped me finally beat Brood Monitor with a blue character! I cobbled together the following deck based on suggestions here:
Part the Waterveil
Harbinger of the Tides
Caves of Koilos
Claustrophobia
Retreat to Coralhelm
Sphinx’s Tutelage
Jhessian Thief
Turn to Frog
Sunken Hollow
Mage-Ring Network
For months I have floundered in assembling a Tezzeret deck that was successful and enjoyable. The release of Shadows of Innistrad may have saved the PW with investigate. Clues and Artificer’s provide synergy that results in incredible burst damage. (50+/50+ regularly at level 58 Tezzeret).
My current build is below:
Creatures:
Harbinger of Tides
Reflector Mage
Mizzium Meddler
The cycles quickly with Oath, Journal and Ongoing Investigation providing a stream of cards. Creatures are selected to stall in the short game while you guild you mana supports and toward Artificers Skill.
It is a heavy lock down deck. Nearly every card works together to drain mana, add cost, or bounce creatures. The card draw adds damage and cost through sphinx’s tutelage. I have considered Claustrophobia, Crush of Tentacles, Engulf the Shore, and Dreadwaters, but I don’t think they’re necessary. Once I get sphinx’s, or Mizzium, or Jace’s Sanctum out, the opponent hasn’t been able to play a card most games (and when they have, I’ve bounced or stolen it).
The only real worry is hexproofed creatures (runaway carriage with gideon 1 would likely be an insta-loss, since I couldn’t deal with a flying vigilant RC other than the Fevered Visions 4 damage per turn in a race). I will likely add something like Haunted Cloak just to play around RC in an event, but it isn’t necessary for QB.
It is much stronger than I expected, but it is still slower than Koth/Kiora. It’s fun watching the opponent not be able to play a card at all, and I suspect it would be annoying to play against in an event.
Lol my tez is only second to kiora just run… Claustrophobia, artificers epiphony, sphinx’s tutalage, prism array, shrine of forsaken gods, helm og the gods, crush of tenticles, , and engulf the shores, void winnowed, and thopter spy network… You never lose with this lineup. I make top 10 all the time often first place.
