Warning: This is a very long read.
Since Sword of the Meek has been unbanned, I have been working on a write up covering the process I used to arrive at what I believe to be the optimal Thopter/Sword build using Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas. Included is some math, card choices and explanations, useful sources, and a wealth of information for anyone considering playing this deck. Enjoy!
Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas deck building and optimization
Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas This is the reason why you are playing the deck. The hierarchy of planeswalkers actually goes Jace the Mind Sculptor, Tezzeret Agent of Bolas, Liliana of the Veil. Tezzeret however needs an entire deck built around him where as the other two can standalone in a variety of decks as powerful engines. Tezzeret passes the bolt test and is immune to abrupt decay. The +1 effect draws cards with selection. That alone is very powerful. But Tezzeret can also spawn 5/5 creatures and immediately become the beat down deck. AND Tezzeret can threaten to -4 the next turn potentially winning the game outright. There are very few cards in the modern format as powerful as Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas but a lot goes into making the card and the deck viable.
Since we are building a deck around the powerful synergies of Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas we need to optimize his abilities without handicapping ourselves with a bunch or durdly, weak, situational artifacts. I decidedly too arbitrarily pick the starting point of Tezzeret +1 consistency and mana base consistency both at a 90% success rate. The likelihood of finding an artifact off of Tezzerets +1 can be calculated using a hypergeometric distribution. The minimum number of artifacts the deck must contain to get a %89.46 success rate is 21. Therefore I need to include 21 artifacts in the deck without compromising power level. Here is the link to an easy to use Hypergeometric Distribution Calculator.
I believe the best way to start adding artifact to our list should be by adding artifacts that will impact the fewest available slot in the deck. In other words, Darksteel Citadel is notably the first and most important include. Not only does it double as a land and an artifact, but being able to hit land drops off Tezzerets +1 and using his -1 to make indestructible 5/5 creatures is absurd. 4 copies. Artifact count at 4.
Continuing with sourcing artifacts from our mana and inversely our mana from artifacts I first need to demonstrate some of the math behind mana bases. This article Frank Analysis How Many Colored Mana Sources Do You Need to Consistently Cast Your Spells? Is a great read if you are unfamiliar with using math to determine your mana base. Having designed an excel spreadsheet that mimics the hypergeometric distribution technique that Karsten utilizes I was able to determine my minimum colored source requirements, counting mana rocks as sources similar to how Karsten did. The requirements for a 90% success rate are 14 untapped black sources on turn 1 for Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozelik. As well as 19 black sources on turn 3 for Liliana of the Veil and 12 blue sources for turn 3 Thirst for Knowledge and Thopter Foundry. The goal being to play as few lands as possible while still retaining consistency. Lets start with something basic to demonstrate what our current mana could look like.4 Darksteel Citadel4 Polluted Delta4 Watery Grave1 Island7 Swamp4 Darkslick Shores
Obviously, manabases dont look like this in modern, but hey, it fulfills all the requirements right? We would like to jam more utility lands, less basics, less lands overall, and still retain consistency however. This is where the mana rocks start to apply. Lets pretend we are only going to satisfy the requirements for Thoughtseize and use the mana rocks to meet the requirements for Lilliana of the Veil. Our mana base may look somethings like this.4 Darksteel Citadel4 Polluted Delta4 Watery Grave1 Island3 Swamp4 Darkslick Shores4 Dimir Signet4 Talisman of Dominance
At only 20 lands this is starting to look a lot more like a real manabase, however mana rocks are not great top decks and not absurdly powerful, we are only playing them to cheat on our mana and ramp out threats earlier. If we take into account utility lands like academy ruins, and creeping tar pit, as well as off color fetches we get to our optimal manabase/mana rocks combination.4 Darksteel Citadel4 Polluted Delta1 Bloodstained Mire1 Island3 Swamp3 Watery Grave3 Darkslick Shores2 Creeping Tar Pit1 Academy Ruins4 Talisman of Dominance2 Dimir Signet
Counting mana rocks as sources as previously mentioned past turn 2, and Creeping Tar Pit past turn 2 we can hit our target of 14 sources for Thoughtseize and 19 for Liliana of the Veil. Great! We have also increased our artifact count by 6 to a total of 10. Now, 28 slots dedicated to mana is a big amount but we have ways of managing and utilizing that as I will discuss later.
We need more artifacts, we are not even half way yet. However the next bunch of artifacts are an easy auto include. Thopter Foundry/Sword of the Meek combo is here and the second best reason to be playing this deck. Although the combo is a given, the number of slots dedicated to each slot is not as easy as jamming playsets of each. Sword of the Meek does actual nothing by itself in the deck and Thopter Foundry is only marginally better than that. Given that the combo can be initialized with Sword of the Meek in the graveyard, and the fact that is the least impactful piece individual I believe it is right to play one more copy of Thopter Foundry than Sword of the Meek. The makes our options a 1/2. 2/3, or 3/4 split. For this decision I simply used intuition. 1 copy of Sword of the Meek makes the combo too unreliable, and 4 copies of Thopter Foundry is clunky. Therefore the best spilt appears to be a 2/3 spilt. This adds 5 artifacts to our count, up to 15.
At this point I tried to find artifacts that were so powerful that they cannot be overlooked as includes for the deck. Mox Opal, Spellskite, Batterskull, and Wurmcoil Engine were the cards that I found to be off the highest impact individually.I feel as if Mox Opal needs no introduction, it mana fixes and ramps out big threats for the low, low cost of zero mana and a card. The reason I did not include it as a rock is because it can be inconsistent due to metalcraft. Mox Opal is also legendary therefore making the second copy an awful find off Tezzerets +1 or by simply drawing it off the top. These two reasons combined lead me to believe that only 1 copy should be played. The ability to ramp out a turn 3 Wurmcoil Engine or Batterskull once in a while makes the slot absolutely worth it however.Spellskite. Spellskite. Spellskite. That is the link to MTGTOP8.com where they list the most played sideboard cards for 2015. I used 2015 as a reference point because of Eldrazi winter but surely you get the point. Twin was in the metagame then, so Spellskite sideboard meta share will most likely decrease some, but it is the jack of all trades. It was played 30% more than any other sideboard card. Being able to play this card in the main deck protects our combo, our planeswalkers, and our life total all at the same time. Although 2 in play at the same time is weak, and in some match ups it may be less useful, I can still justify at least 2 copies in the main.Batterskull is the king of fair. I cant think of a card that is much better than Batterskull at stabilizing the board and then threatening to do so indefinitely. A turn 3 or 4 Batterskull can out right win the game against many of the formats aggro decks and can prove to be very difficult to beat in the long game for midrange decks. With the added bonus of equipping to 5/5 creatures for a 9/9 vigilance lifelink indestructible or a 5/5 vigilance lifelink flier, Batterskull earns a slot. However it is 5 mana and terrible in multiples so 1 copy is correct.Wurmspiralmaschine is a German monster. It is six mana, but nothing is harder for a deck that plains to win the ground to get past than a wurmcoil engine. Most Tron lists are playing 4 copies now because of how powerful and resilient it is. 1 copy is worth the chance of it getting stuck in your hand or countered, but more than that would be very greedy. 1 copy.
Artifact count. 21 Artifacts. Lets take inventory of where our list is now.4 Darksteel Citadel4 Polluted Delta1 Bloodstained Mire1 Island3 Swamp3 Watery Grave3 Darkslick Shores2 Creeping Tar Pit1 Academy Ruins4 Talisman of Dominance2 Dimir Signet2 Sword of the Meek3 Thopter Foundry1 Mox Opal2 Spellsktie1 Batterskull1 Wurmcoil EngineWe are up to 38 of our 60 cards now. Wait, we forgot to add Tezzeret himself, so 42 of 60. Now we can add other relevant cards to the deck that are not artifacts and lands. We currently have the shell for a UBC tap out midrange/control/combo hybrid. Realistically a slow midrange deck that happens to play a combo. So what cards play well with an artifact based slow midrange deck that happens to play a combo? Thirst for Knowledge.Thirst for Knowledge is arguably one the best instant speed draw effects in modern. Any blue deck with artifacts in it has been seen running multiple copies of Thirst for Knowledge in modern and this deck is no different. It allows us to dig deep for the combo, discard unwanted mana rocks, and can even discard Sword of the Meek against decks that we know have limited graveyard interaction for absurd value. Allows the deck to really pull ahead in the mid to late game. It can allow you to hold mana for any number of reasons on your opponents turn, and if they do nothing warranting action from you, you can still advance your game at the end of their turn. 4 CopiesDid someone mention slow midrange deck? Allow me to get my veil and assert myself as the mayor of midrange town. Liliana of the Veil is a staple in every modern midrange deck. Sultai, Jund, Junk, Mardu, Rock decks. Any deck that wants to fight 1 for 1 for your resources until nothing is left wants Liliana of the Veil. Most lists play 3, some of the more greedy lists with 7+ hand disruptions spells play 4. Given that we are a blue deck and occasionally need to hold on to cards, I believe 3 to be the correct number.Another set of core cards to these decks are hand disruption and removal. All 4 copies of inquisition of Kozelik allow us to punch our way through counter spells to stick our planeswalkers or Thopter/Sword Combo. It also allows us to slow down fast decks until we can catch up with our slower more impactful cards. Thoughtseize serves as hand disruption copies 5-6. I would like to play 7 of these effects but we are running out of available slots. We only have 5 slots remaining and all of those will be dedicated to removal. 1 of which is going to be damnation. Damnation is great insurance when we fall behind. Stabilizing the board against agro and then dropping one of our payoff cards is almost always a recipe for success. The 4 targeted removal cards will be 2 Dismember, 1 Go for the Throat, 1 Murderous Cut. I have chosen removal this way because they kill the most things, the most efficiently, the quickest, with a low cost. They all have their negatives, but splitting them up prevents their downside from being too relevant.42+4+3+4+2+1+4=60! We have the complete sixty cards for our main deck now.1 Academy Ruins1 Bloodstained Mire2 Creeping Tar Pit3 Darkslick Shores4 Darksteel Citadel1 Ghost Quarter1 Island4 Polluted Delta3 Swamp2 Watery Grave1 Batterskull1 Damnation2 Dimir Signet2 Dismember1 Go for the Throat4 Inquisition of Kozilek3 Liliana of the Veil1 Mox Opal1 Murderous Cut2 Spellskite2 Sword of the Meek4 Talisman of Dominance4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas4 Thirst for Knowledge3 Thopter Foundry2 Thoughtseize1 Wurmcoil Engine
Commonly questioned omissions
Chalice of the Void This card can be absolutely devastating in some match ups, but the deckbuilding restraints this card imposes are far too great of an opportunity cost. Being unable to play 1 drops hurts the deck in more ways than many initially understand. The hand disruption does an excellent job balancing out the deck, steering through hate games 2-3, poking holes in enemy defenses for planeswalkers, and buying time to assemble thopter/sword. Think of this deck as a midrange deck that wants to play 1-2 turns slower than traditional midrange decks like Jund and Junk. Those players will tell you never to leave home without 6+ copies of hand disruption. Chalice of the Void also doesnt play well with Liliana of the Veil, one of the most powerful cards in a midrange/control shell that can play her. You are netting negative value every time you +1 Liliana and your opponent discards a useless card from their hand.
Ensnaring Bridge Another very powerful artifact that has found its niche in the modern scene. Popping up in decks such as lantern control, affinity sideboards, and 8rack. However all of those decks naturally want to be hellbent. Although the card checks most of the boxes to make the cut for a Tezzeret deck, it has 2 points of anti-synergy that prevent it from being played. One is that it does not play well with removal, thirst for knowledge, and Tezzerets +1. You may need to hold on to a combo piece until you have whittled away your opponents resources, or wish to cast thirst for knowledge on their end step to bait counter magic and represent removal as well as your own counters. Sometimes you are holding multiple 3+ cmc cards and die due to not being able to empty your hand fast enough. Sometimes you wont want to +1 Tezzeret but you cant get too many cards in hand. The second and more relevant point is that this deck often makes a rapid transition to the beat down role once your opponent is out of resources or stumbling. Turning your lands or other unused artifacts can often times be a 2 turn clock. Wurmcoil Engine stabilizes games better than most any card in magic connecting with it once usually puts your opponent so far behind they cant recover. You may able to ultimate Tezzeret to get your opponent close to lethal and then finish them with creeping tar pit. There are simply too many scenarios where no bridge is better than a bridge.
Engineered Explosives Great card, and would be great in an artifact based deck if we were not only two colors and dedicating a lot of 2 cmc permanents to the table. Limiting EE to only x=1 drastically reduces its impact and for that reason it is excluded.
Serum Visions There is not enough room in the 75 for more durdle effects like serum visions. We all know that the card is not very good, it is just the best of the rest for this effect. Although it would be great to scry into lands or scry away mana rocks in the late game, and dig for thopter/sword the card doesnt represent a high enough impact to justify the slots. One of the most powerful uses of serum visions is being able to reduce your land count for more relevant spells and deck manipulation. However the mana rocks already reduce our land count to 22 lands with hopes of casting a 6cmc spell.
Ancestral Visions I didnt want to include this card here, but given all the hype I felt as if I must or I will be doing it in the comments. It would be great to cast it on turn one or even two, but any time after that is too late. Like any good midrange deck, you need threats coming off the top, or cards that can immediately out value your opponent. There is nothing immediate about AV. It also struggles for reasons similar to that of serum visions. The land count cannot be reduced much further for draw spells and still retain consistency. Although I may not agree with everything sourced from this website Michael does a great job explaining why too much card advantage is a bad thing and between Tezzeret, and thirst for knowledge, we already have plenty.
Sideboard ConstructionSideboard strategy is going to shift as modern fixes itself after Eldrazi winter and the twin ban. However there are many directions we can take the sideboard in. People have different methods for how they believe a sideboard should be built. However I think the best strategy is follow the math. Which cards will give us the most percentage points against most of the field? Again, referencing the mtgtop8.com metagame for 2015. I have decidedly too arbitrarily pick all decks that had a 3% or greater meta share to focus the sideboard tech on. This includes Aggro: 9% Affinity, 8% Burn, 8% Junk, 5% Jund, 5% UR Delver, 4% Merfolk, and 3% Zoo. Control: 6% GR Tron, 5% UWx. Combo: 5% Infect, 3% CoCo/Chord, 3% Scapeshift. That is a lot of decks, but we also need to consider the fact that Ux decks will be better with Sword of the Meek and Ancestral Visons off the ban list. Sweepers appear to be great against a lot of these decks. Affinity, Merfolk, Zoo, CoCo/Chord can all lose to a well-timed sweeper. The best options in our colors are Damnation and Flaying Tendrils. I find it to be most reasonable to expect to cast the powerful sideboard cards on curve 50% of the time. In general, this requires that you dedicate three slots to every deck that you believe you can greatly increase your games 2 and 3 percentage points against by giving them sideboard slots. Therefore I will play 3 sweepers, but 4 damnation in the 75 could get really awkward if we stumble on mana, and become mana inefficient if we only need to trade 1 for 1 with our opponent. This allowed me to decide on playing 2 and 2. The exile clause can be occasionally relevant and being able to cast it turn faster is excellent in some match-ups. However Damnation guarantees that everything is dead.Grindy fair decks makeup a reasonable portion of the meta as well. Junk, Jund, UWx etc. The three cards I found most suitable in our colors for these matchups are 2 copies of Ashiok, the Nightmare Weaver and 1 copy of Thopter Spy Network. Both of these cards can run away with the game when left unchecked. In general you are increasing your resilient threat density to play a better game off the top of your deck. Threats like these also allow us to leverage one of our big advantages, and that is blanking our opponents creature removal, or at least making it very unfavorable for them to use it.Cheap, efficient spot removal is also great against a large number of these decks. Affinity, Burn, UR Delver, Zoo, Infect, CoCo/Chord. Although some of these decks already benefit from the sweepers, overlap is a good thing until it becomes rather excessive. We already have a reasonable removal suite in the main deck, so I find it fair to only dedicate to slots to this section. Both of those slots will be disfigure. It is not Path to Exile or Lightning Bolt, but we will do the best with what we are given. There are very few creatures in the modern format with 3 toughness anyway because they all die to bolt the same.Combo and Control decks are weak to similar cards. Decks like Scapeshift, GR Tron, and UWx etc. dont interact favorably with cheap counter magic. However, stopping one play doesnt win you the game without added pressure. This is why Glen Elendra Archmage is an excellent sideboard card. The card can proactively represent 2 copies of negate for 1 mana each, while being a flying threat. Given that in some matchups you need to find the counter spell early, I dedicate 4 slots to this section. 2 Copies of Glen Elendra Archmage and 2 copies of Negate. Glen is very powerful, but 4 mana can be a lot in some matches. A 2/2 spilt provides the speed and redundancy.Between Affinity and the Thopter/Sword decks, I anticipate artifacts being a common sight. The best card in UB colors for artifact hate is Hurkyls Recall. Timing the cast of this card well can time walk, or even double time walk your opponent. However it requires that you wait it out a few turns, and it targets deck that we already have some tools for. For this reason I play 2 copies.Sometimes, you just need an efficient catch all answer to a variety of otherwise difficult to interact with cards. We dont get to play Maelstrom Pulse, or Cryptic Command, but we can play Pithing Needle. The lonely copy of pithing needle acts as a proactive counter spell against the card of your choosing, or as a tempo play on your opponents fetch lands. It earns its slot through versatility, not by power. Complete Deck list:1 Academy Ruins1 Bloodstained Mire2 Creeping Tar Pit3 Darkslick Shores4 Darksteel Citadel1 Ghost Quarter1 Island4 Polluted Delta3 Swamp2 Watery Grave1 Batterskull1 Damnation2 Dimir Signet2 Dismember1 Go for the Throat4 Inquisition of Kozilek3 Liliana of the Veil1 Mox Opal1 Murderous Cut2 Spellskite2 Sword of the Meek4 Talisman of Dominance4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas4 Thirst for Knowledge3 Thopter Foundry2 Thoughtseize1 Wurmcoil EngineSideboard:
2 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver1 Damnation2 Disfigure2 Flaying Tendrils2 Glen Elendra Archmage2 Hurkyl's Recall2 Negate1 Pithing Needle1 Thopter Spy Network
Thank you for taking the time to read through my deck construction process. If you would like to discuss and of my methods or decisions in greater detail either send me a message drop it somewhere in the comments section. Also, if you disagree or agree with something I did or didnt do, Id like to hear that as well.To truly know something, you must become it. The trick is to not lose yourself in the process.
