Much Abrew: Bant Tezzertor (Standard)
Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of Much Abrew About Nothing! Tezzeret, Cruel Captain is one of the most hyped cards from Edge of Eternities. So today, we're heading to Standard to figure out just how good the new planeswalker really is! Our deck is overloaded with cheap artifacts to tutor up with Tezzeret (and its friend Brightglass Gearhulk), ranging from Dusk Rose Reliquary for removal to Ghost Vacuum for graveyard hate. Plus, we have Nutrient Block to turn into an indestructible creature with Tezzeret's ultimate! How strong is new Tezzeret if you go all in on building around it? Let's get to the video and find out!
Much Abrew: Bant Tezzerator
Wrap-Up
When Tezzeret, Cruel Captain was first previewed, I assumed it would be a powerful card in formats like Legacy, Vintage, and Commander, but I wasn't sure how good the planeswalker would be in Standard. Well, now that I've played this deck a bunch, I'm sold! We went 8-2 with the deck for an 80% win rate, which is about as good as it gets!
While most decks can't take advantage of Tezzeret because you need to not only play a bunch of artifacts but also have at least some zero- or one-mana artifacts for Tezzeret to tutor up, Tezzeret, Cruel Captain is great if you actually build around it! The planeswalker's floor is basically as a Trinket Mage, which isn't super exciting but is fine. Being able to play a single Ghost Vacuum, for example, and find it when we need it, thanks to having four copies of Tezzeret and four copies of Brightglass Gearhulk to tutor it up, is actually super powerful.
The part of Tezzeret I underestimated the most was just how quickly it can ultimate thanks to gaining loyalty whenever an artifact enters. Against control and grindy midrange decks, trying to stick a fast Tezzeret and rush the ultimate is actually a viable strategy. And the ultimate is pretty much unbeatable, assuming you aren't super far behind on board when you get there. Being able to turn a random artifact into a 3/3 creature each turn (or add three +1/+1 counters to an artifact creature) might not win the game fast, but it is incredibly inevitable.
The other big hitter in the deck is Brightglass Gearhulk, which does a pretty good Tezzeret impression but tutors up two things with mana value one or less. While Brightglass can and does find artifacts, just like Tezzeret does, it can also snag other things like Mockingbird to copy Brightglass Gearhulk for even more tutoring, which is quite strong. While playing Brightglass in a three-color deck probably sounds risky because of its GGWW mana cost, every land in our deck makes green or white mana, so we should always be able to cast Brightglass Gearhulk on time, assuming we hit our land drops.
A couple of quick notes on the rest of the deck. Nutrient Block was pretty janky. It seems fun to turn into a creature with Tezzeret, Cruel Captain, but in reality, this almost never happened. On the other hand, Phoenix Down is great with Brightglass Gearhulk since we can use Gearhulk to tutor it up and then, if the Gearhulk dies, use Phoenix Down to reanimate it on the cheap. (It can also randomly snipe Screaming Nemesis since it's a Spirit, which is pretty funny.)
As far as winning the game, it's mostly just janky beats from our random artifacts. Between Tezzeret, Zoetic Glyph, Tough Cookie, and Synthesizer Labship, we have a ton of ways to turn our noncreature artifacts into creatures, which lets us get off to some pretty aggro starts. Plus, who doesn't love winning by beating down for five a turn with a Nutrient Block or Ghost Vacuum?
If you are looking for something different to play in Standard, give the deck a shot! Our record was great, our endless tutoring offers a ton of flexibility and resilience, and both Tezzeret, Cruel Captain and Brightglass Gearhulk are way stronger than most people realize!
Conclusion
Anyway, that's all for today. As always, leave your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and suggestions in the comments, and you can reach me on Twitter @SaffronOlive or at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.
