Initial Technology – Dueling for Duals

December 6, 2009 |

Dueling for Duals

It feels way too early to start complaining about the lull between Worlds and the beginning of next season (and the inevitable dearth of article topics), but there you go. Instead, how about I justify another article on Tezzeret on the grounds that playing it is the most fun I've had playing Magic in quite a while? Plus, Extended is the next format I have to play, what with GP Oakland kicking off the next season and all. If it's anything like GP: LA, I will test a sweet Blue deck (Faeries, earlier this year), even foil it out, then audible at the last minute to some less-sweet combo deck. Yes, I just complained about "having" to play TEPS instead of Faeries, even though I won the tournament. That's how much I want to play a sweet deck!

This weekend I had to opportunity to battle for 40 Ravnica duals, and I had such a good time that I wanted to write a tournament report on it. I fully realize that a local tournament isn't exactly the harshest testing ground, but the level of competition in this one was actually surprisingly high, with multiple people who have played on the Pro Tour and whatnot. Plus, small tournaments are often more difficult than big ones, at least locally. The same 10 or 20 good players are showing up at most events, so a 30-man tournament with 15 good players is actually harder than a 60-man tournament with those 15 good players in attendance. My opponents played well, and I think I came across a pretty awesome sideboard plan, so a tournament report it is! The new sideboard plan I used was the real impetus for this article, since it provides a good example of how the perception of a deck can greatly affect how people try and deal with that deck.

I started with the same list as in my last article:

I made the deck online, but sadly found very few opportunities to battle other people. The Extended Daily Events never fired, and 8-Man Queus never filled either. The 2-Man Queus paid out a pack of Alara Reborn, so playing in them was pretty bad, but better than the practice room, since most of the decks there weren't even remotely real. I did manage to get enough play in to realize that I wanted to cut the Aether Spellbomb for a Pithing Needle, since time and time again I wanted to Trinket Mage or Tezzeret for the Needle. That left a sideboard slot, which I filled with the 4th Meddling Mage, although that would soon change.

I showed up for the tournament with the aforementioned changes, but a little last-minute recon made me rethink the list. Being adaptable is definitely a good thing, and when I saw that a very significant portion of the field was probably going to be playing my exact list from my previous article, I decided to make some changes.

New Metagame

A lot of Tezzeret, some Zoo, some All-In Red, some Dredge. Not much combo, Affinity, or Dark Depths.

This was not all that different from the previous metagame, except that Tezzeret was much more popular and there were less "random" decks. I assumed there to be no Hypergenesis, and adjusted the deck accordingly.

I cut the Chalice of the Void for a second Muddle the Mixture, which is better in every matchup except Hypergenesis. I also cut one of the Chrome Moxes for another Mystic Gate, since Mox is abysmal in the mirror. Those were the only maindeck changes I made.

The sideboard is where I really diverged. On the assumption that combo wasn't a factor, I decided to axe all the Meddling Mages. I also cut the lone Path to Exile, since I was planning on adding Sower of Temptation, which is also removal.

This sideboard might look a little wild, but I actually had reasons for what I was doing:

3 Baneslayer Angel
2 Glen Elendra Archmage
2 Sower of Temptation
2 Vendilion Clique
2 Negate
1 Jace Beleren
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Tormod's Crypt

I decided on this configuration for two reasons. One, it seemed like it would be awesome in the mirror. Boarding in a ton of creatures (plus Jace and Negate) should give me a huge advantage. They would be boarding in 2 Glen Elendra Archmage, 2 Negate, 1 Crucible, and possibly 2-3 Baneslayers. Sower trumps Archmage and Baneslayer, Vendilion Clique is only counterable by Cryptic Command or Mana Leak, and Jace is just sweet. I didn't anticipate losing to the "standard" list with this setup.

The second reason I liked this board was that it gave me an actual transformational sideboard. Since the Tezzeret deck usually wins with Thopter Foundry plus Sword of the Meek, people always think it is a "Thopter deck". That couldn't be further from the truth, and this sideboard really reinforces that. It reminds me of playing UW Mind’s Desire, and having all my opponents Cabal Therapy, Meddling Mage, and Cranial Extraction my Mind’s Desires, even when naming something else would have been better. I wanted a good way to take advantage of the times when people sided in Extirpate, Ancient Grudge, Qasali Pridemage, Gaddock Teeg, Krosan Grip, Pithing Needle, and other such cards. By taking out the Tezzerets, Foundries, Sword, and even Gifts (on occasion), I neatly sidestepped many of the cards my opponents would bring in. The new plan of Baneslayer, Archmage, Vendilion Clique, and Sower of Temptation fit quite well with the rest of the cards in the deck (removal, card draw, and counterspells), and all of a sudden I was just U/W Control. I was very pleased with this transformation sideboard, and will talk more about it later. For now, let's get to the games!

There were only 23 people in attendance, which was surprising, since Extended is awesome and the prizes were pretty good. I was hoping for six rounds of Swiss, but five would have to do. I had a few very interesting games, and I decided to cover those in much more depth, which I don't normally do.

Round 1 vs. Jeff Harms, mirror

After the obligatory jokes about Harm's Way, we got down to business. Jeff said he was playing Tezzeret even before we sat down, which made me consider choosing to draw if I won the die roll. I didn't, so I got to draw either way. Game 1 in the mirror is pretty long, since the deck is filled with dead removal spells, and our game was no exception. I started missing land drops around turn six, which led me to burn a Cryptic Command on one of his lands at the end of his turn. I figured that it would make him discard, set him back a turn, and hopefully draw me into land. It did all of those things, but it was still a pretty bad play. There are so few cards that matter game 1, and burning one of the best ones for what amounts to a very small advantage was just terrible. Even if I kept missing land drops, the cards I was discarding would be pretty much dead anyway. Sure enough, the game went really long, and I eventually ran out of relevant cards before he did.

Sideboarding: +1 Baneslayer, +2 Archmage, +2 Vendilion Clique, +2 Sower, +2 Negate, +1 Jace, +1 Crucible

-3 Path, -1 Wrath, -1 Day of Judgment, -2 Engineered Explosives, -2 Chrome Mox, -1 Tormod's Crypt, -1 Thopter Foundry

After board, I definitely like playing first. Now that your deck is full of awesome cards, drawing isn't even remotely an option, especially since the matchup is much faster post-board. My hand was pretty sweet, and I kicked things off with a Vendilion Clique at the end of Jeff's third turn. He let it resolve, which was expected, since only the two Mana Leaks can stop Vendilion Clique before they hit Cryptic mana. I targeted him and saw the following:

Thirst for Knowledge
Ancient Den
Baneslayer Angel
Gifts Ungiven
Glen Elendra Archmage
Glen Elendra Archmage
Hallowed Fountain

I was surprised that he didn't Thirst in response, especially since he had an artifact to discard. My hand contained two Mana Leaks and my own Glen Elendra, so I wasn't too concerned with his expensive sorcery-speed spells. I took the Thirst, and he passed the turn. After bashing with Vendilion Clique, I passed, since tapping out for my own Archmage seemed pretty bad. He played his fourth land, and shipped back, obviously planning on casting Gifts Ungiven. My complete hand at this point was Leak, Leak, Archmage, Gifts, and Thirst, so I decided to cast Gifts. I knew that would give him a window to resolve his own Gifts, but if I did nothing that turn I was wasting four mana, and that seemed much worse. Plus, with 2 Leaks and an Archmage in my hand, Gifts might still just be too slow.

I didn't have any White sources in play, so I figured I could exploit that. I Gifted for Hallowed Fountain, Mystic Gate, Seat of the Synod, and Plains. I really wanted to hit my fifth land drop, and my hand was so full of gas that getting spells was just greedy. I wanted to end up with an artifact land in my hand to discard to Thirst, and I figured this would probably net me that. By getting three White sources and a Seat, I thought Jeff would give me a non-Mystic Gate White source plus the Seat to try and deny me double White, which was exactly what he did. He also chose not to cast Gifts while I was tapped out, possibly signifying Cryptic Command or Mana Leak.

I just played a land and bashed on my turn, and he cast Gifts end of turn. I let it happen, since his bottleneck was going to be mana, not spells. He pulled out Baneslayer, Trinket Mage, Engineered Explosives, and Thirst for Knowledge, of which he ended up with Explosives and Thirst. I certainly wasn't going to give him Angel, and if he wanted to try and use EE to kill my Clique, I wasn't overly concerned. He had the Steam Vents to make EE on 3, but instead he dropped an Archmage. I Leaked it, then Thirsted EOT.

On my turn I was able to drop my own Archmage and still have Mana Leak up.

The next turn, he went for another Archmage. Here I had to make a decision. I could Leak the Archmage, but then he would probably resolve Baneslayer next turn, and I had no answer to it. I had Pithing Needle in hand, so I could try and Needle the Archmage, even though that would shut off my own Archmage. I let his Archmage resolve, then bashed in with my guys, trading Vendilion for the first of his Archmage's lives. I then attempted a Needle, which he countered with his Archmage.

That left the way clear for me to Leak his Baneslayer, and things looked good. I even peeled a Sower the next turn, which I hoped not to have to show him. Unfortunately, he drew another Archmage, so I had to Sower it in order to win. I figured now that he had seen Sowers and Vendilions, he would probably board in some Paths, but that wasn't too big a deal.

Game three was much less interesting, as I just rolled him with Jace into Archmage into Sower on his Baneslayer. I don't know if he did end up boarding in Path, not that it would have saved him in that situation. Once all the creatures come in I felt like I was a heavy favorite, since my cards matched up so well against theirs, as well as forcing them to bring in the often-suboptimal Path to Exiles. I even was winning on the land front, with 24 actual lands against their 23 + Moxes, which are very bad after sideboarding.

1-0

Round 2 vs. John, 4c Saito Zoo with Bant Charms

Game 1 was over in a flash, as John was apparently hiding a Baneslayer in his sideboard (one of his maindeck Baneslayers, that is) when the judge checked his deck. Oops!

I kept a slow hand game 2, with Thirst being my first play. His turn one and turn two Nacatls promptly ate me, since by the time I started casting spells I was at like 5 life. He finished me by using Bant Charm to counter my Cryptic Command, which was useful information to have later.

Sideboarding: +3 Baneslayer Angel, +2 Glen Elendra Archmage

-1 Tormod's Crypt, -3 Cryptic Command, -1 Pithing Needle

Since he had Bolts, Paths, Helices, and Bant Charms, I figured Sower was a little too vulnerable. Game two was a much more lopsided affair. He didn't have the turn 1 Nacatl, which made things much easier. His Noble Hierarch did lead to a Knight of the Reliquary, but I had Day of Judgment on turn three thanks to a Mox. A string of Thirsts supplied me with Spell Snares and Path to Exiles a-plenty. I killed him with Baneslayer Angel, but not before finding out that he had Gaddock Teeg and Qasali Pridemage in addition to the rest of the cards I had seen.

After the match, I figured out a much better sideboard plan: +3 Baneslayer, +2 Glen Elendra Archmage, +2 Vendilion Clique, +2 Sower of Temptation, +2 Negate

-2 Tezzeret, -2 Muddle the Mixture, -2 Thopter Foundry, -1 Sword of the Meek, -2 Gifts Ungiven, -1 Tormod's Crypt, -1 Cryptic Command

This is the other strength of this sideboard. By cutting the whole combo (and its attendant tutors), I reduced my vulnerability to artifact destruction and Gaddock Teeg greatly. The parts I'm siding in even work quite well together. Vendilion Clique, Negate, and Archmage all work to protect Baneslayer and Sower of Temptation, since either unanswered should just win the game.

2-0

Round Three vs. Charles, mirror

Charles is a friend of mine, and he had even battled the mirror against Cheon online a few days earlier. Knowing it was the mirror, I again wanted to draw first, but lost the roll and got to draw first and still keep my tech secret.

Knowing what I was playing against was pretty valuable, since I kept a land-heavy hand that would be borderline in the dark: Mox, Path, Cryptic, 4 lands. Charles mulls to six, and we get started. On turn three, he plays an untapped Hallowed Fountain, which signifies a Thirst. I have Island and Arid Mesa in play, and pretend like I'm going to crack the Mesa before deciding not to. I hoped to bluff a Mana Leak, and dissuade him from casting his Thirst. On my turn, I imprinted Path on my Mox and played a fourth land, which would let me Cryptic his Thirst. He thought at the end of my turn, but didn't Thirst.

The game continued for another five turns without a single spell being cast, as we both were playing a land each turn. I had drawn my own Thirst, a Day of Judgment, and a bunch of dead Engineered Explosives. I didn't want to cast Thirst into his hand full of cards, since all I had to protect it was a Cryptic Command, and I figured he had at least a few counters in his hand. He broke the standstill first by casting a Trinket Mage, and that gave me the opportunity to go for the Thirst while he was a little lower on mana. I drew into a Tezzeret and some more blanks (there are so many game 1!), and let Trinket Mage resolve. It fetched a land, much like it normally does in the mirror.

I wasn't sure what Charles was up to, but I figured I should start testing the waters. I cast a Thopter Foundry, and it resolved, indicating he didn't have Spell Snare at the very least. Thopter Foundry is pretty dangerous once in play, since the Sword is essentially uncounterable as long as you have a random artifact to sacrifice. I passed with Tezzeret, Cryptic, and blanks in my grip. On his turn, Charles played an Explosives on 2, with x = 3 to get around Spell Snare. Since Tezzeret would get me there by myself, I didn't waste my only counter on it.

I finally began to get wind of what Charles had when my Tezzeret resolved: nothing! If he didn't fight over Thopter Foundry or Tezzeret, or even try to play any of his own spells, his hand had to be full of blanks. As it turned out, he didn't even have the Thirst he telegraphed on turn three. His untapped Fountain bluff and my Arid Mesa bluff were both pointless, but the right plays nonetheless. His nothing quickly succumbed to my Tezzeret plus Cryptic Command.

Sb'ing was the same as round 1.

Charles had an interesting start in game 2: Ghost Quarter, Mox, Luminarch Ascension! Apparently I wasn't the only one with tech for the mirror today.

I had a plan though, and it started with Vendilion Clique at the end of his third turn. He Mana Leaked it, but that let me Trinket Mage for Pithing Needle to stop the Ascension right before it hit four counters. Charles was a bit invested at this point, and I quickly locked up the game with an Archmage the turn after.

3-0

Charles ended up not being very happy with Ascension, since even a random Trinket Mage stops it, and drawing it midgame is the actual worst. Still, local tournaments are a good place to try out speculative cards.

Rounds 4 and 5: ID

One thing I observed at this tournament was the inordinate number of (unintentional) draws. Mostly in the Tezzeret mirror, but all had the common thread of involving at least one Tezzeret deck. I remember Gadiel Szleifer recommending people not play Gifts in Champions block because they wouldn't finish on time (and weren't good enough). I wouldn't go that far, but I would recommend a large amount of practice. This isn't the kind of deck that you should pick up cold, both due to its complexity and slowness. Unsurprisingly, people decided to run this tournament as a test event, and that led to a ton of draws.

The Top 8 was 3 Tezzeret, 2 Dredge, Zoo, Scapeshift, and Doran, and two of my opponents made it (Charles and John).

Top 8 vs. Zach Preston, mirror

Zach had the unenviable distinction of getting all his cards stolen from his car a few days prior, including a number of borrowed decks, which was really rough. Theft really sucks, and especially when you lose stuff that isn't even your own.

I actually won the roll, and chose to draw finally. It seemed really good, since nothing really happens game 1 due to both decks being so full of deads. So full in fact that I did 19 damage to Zach with a lone Trinket Mage. Both of us were pretty light on spells, and neither of us ended up comboing, but in the meantime I had the Blue Civic Wayfinder plugging away. The Mage finished the job with the help of a couple random Thopter tokens, since Zach managed to not only draw useless cards but also not draw any of the White removal spells.

I led with a Seat of the Synod game 2, and almost fell out of my seat when Zach slammed down a turn two Kataki. Kataki, really? I guess Zach was so bitter about his cards getting stolen that he was out to try and steal anything he could, including games. The reason I led with Seat was that the only other land I had was Ghost Quarter, so Kataki was ridiculously good that game. I ended up losing the Seat so I could Thirst on my upkeep, and I was still short on lands!

The only saving grace was that Zach wasn't doing much, even after he resolved Gifts. He got Baneslayer, Thirst, land, land, and I gave him the two lands. He then followed it up with Crucible, so he was set on mana, but still light on action. I managed to claw my way back with Sower on Kataki into second Sower on Baneslayer, neither of which Zach had an answer to. Some cards are just too tempting for me not to play in any format (I have Sowered in every Constructed format, including Vintage and Legacy)!

4-0-2

Top 4 vs. Tim, Dredge (like every tournament for the past 2 years)

Tim had just beaten Charles, which didn't bode well for me. I led off with a punt, since I forgot he had Greenseeker in his deck and just blind Needled Drowned Rusalka on turn 1. I should have waited to see which 1-drop he had, but I just spaced. He had the Greenseeker, and things looked a little rough. He didn't have a dredger immediately, but he drew one on turn 2 and started to go nuts. Luckily, I drew Tormod's Crypt on turn 3, and my subsequent Thirst found me a Thopter Foundry and a Muddle, so I could combo off relatively soon. The Crypt bought me at least four turns, which was ample time to start cranking out Thopters. Given my six mana, Tim realized he couldn't beat that many Thopters, even if he went nuts (which he wasn't even able to do).

Sideboarding: +1 Tormod's Crypt, +1 Relic of Progenitus, +1 Negate

-1 Path to Exile, -1 Cryptic Command, -1 Vedalken Shackles

Path is good, but drawing multiples kind of sucks. The counterspells are all decent, even if Cryptic is a little expensive. I thought about bringing in Baneslayers, but I would only recommend that if you know they board in a bunch of transformational cards like Tombstalker or Tarmogoyf. Five mana is a lot, and the game is often decided by then.

I got Thoughtseized on turn 1, but he only started with five cards, so that seemed acceptable. His second Thoughtseize was targeting himself, and dumped a Stinkweed Imp into the bin. His slow dredging wasn't nearly fast enough, since I had a turn four Gifts with Academy Ruins already in play, which got Tormod's Crypt, Relic, and the Thopter combo. Tim saw the writing on the wall and conceded, much to the joy of his tired friends who apparently wanted to leave. Way to support your friend, guys"¦

5-0-2

Finals vs John (again)

We had both drawn our opening hands before discussing a split, and my hand was pretty sweet, so I decided just to play for it. I was fine just playing for it to begin with, and my hand of Mox, Thirst, Explosives, Gifts, Tezzeret, Mana Leak, Ghost Quarter (on the draw) seemed perfectly reasonable. If I missed on lands it would be awkward, but t1 Leak into t2 Thirst or Explosives was about as much as you can ask for against Zoo. I immediately drew two lands, so the hand played out perfectly.

He had turn one Hierarch into a second turn Knight of the Reliquary, which I promptly Leaked. I Thirsted into Mystic Gate + Wrath, but never even had to cast it. After Exploding a Tarmogoyf, I actually got hit by the lone Hierarch for seven turns, by which point I had assembled the combo. All he drew were lands, Paths, and Bolts, apparently.

I sideboarded the way I described after round 2, bringing in all the men and Negates for all the combo pieces.

I again had a Mox in my opener, which was pretty sweet, especially since I only had 2 in the deck. He had no turn one play except a Treetop Village, but his turn two Teeg was a potential problem. I had a turn 2 Vedalken Shackles, which would dominate the game if he didn't have Pridemage or Bant Charm. He dropped a Knight, and bashed with Teeg. I just played another Island and shipped the turn back. When he went to attack with Treetop, Knight, and Teeg, I tried to take his Teeg. He Bolted it and bashed me for seven. My fourth Island let me take Knight, and I was hoping to get a chance to use it to fetch out Academy Ruins by sacrificing Hallowed Fountain, but he peeled Bant Charm and killed the Shackles. That forced me to Path the Knight in response, so at least I would get the land. I had another Path for the Treetop, and the board was clear.

I played an Archmage and passed the turn back.

His next threat was a Wild Nacatl, and after some deliberation I Sowered it. I was only at 9, so I couldn't really take too much damage, and he obviously had nothing in hand (since he passed the previous turn with no play), so as long as he didn't peel Baneslayer I was probably good. He did have three Bolts to try and kill the Sower, but Negate + Negate + Archmage took care of those. Another turn without Baneslayer later, and the duals were mine!

6-0-2

Ok, so maybe winning an 8-round local tournament isn't too big a deal, but I was really happy that my sideboard plan worked out so well. After the scarcity of good opponents on MTGO, playing against competent people at this tournament reassured me that I was on the right track, especially with the last-minute changes.

Sadly, I don't think that you can devote quite as many slots in the sideboard to the mirror as I did during this tournament. I had pretty detailed information about the metagame in this case (seeing as it was a local event), so I was able to pretty much discount Hypergenesis (that also means that the Chalice needs to go back maindeck in place of the second Muddle).That is a luxury I wouldn't have at a Grand Prix, and as such I think you still need Meddling Mage. I was quite impressed with Sower, so I would keep those.

Realistic Sideboard:

Jace might be sweet, but he is definitely unnecessary, and I think going down to 1 Negate is fine. I would like to fit the second Muddle main, since it is good both as a combo enabler and a counterspell. This sideboard retains the transformation aspect that I was so impressed with, and even has Meddling Mages for additional beats.

Forgive me if I write so much about this deck, but I do like playing it, and the discovery of this transformational sideboard was quite exciting. Speaking of which, the longer game descriptions were more time-consuming than I realized, and feedback is welcome, since I can definitely try and do them more often if people like them. Now excuse me, I have to build a giant pyramid out of all of my awesome dual lands"¦

LSV

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About This Author

Luis Scott-Vargas

LSV is the current record holder for most wins in the Swiss portion of a Pro Tour after his perfect 16-0 run at Pro Tour San Diego 2010, although Conley Woods came close to matching that during Worlds 2011. Luis' other accomplishments include a win at Pro Tour Berlin 2008,...