Vintage 101: Tezzeret's Claim
Howdy folks! It's time yet again for another edition of Vintage 101! I'm your host, Joe Dyer, and this week we're going to be looking at our first week of Vintage with Edge of Eternities having released, namely at decks featuring everyone's newest favorite Planeswalker, Tezzeret, Cruel Captain! In addition we've got some Challenges from last week to look at.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Is Tezzeret One of the Best Planeswalkers in a WHILE?!
Our first week of Edge of Eternities is here, and already Vintage gamers are going super deep on the flagship card of the set, Tezzeret, Cruel Captain.
I said already when I reviewed this card that I don't think there's ever been a clearer "THIS IS FOR VINTAGE" Planeswalker like this since Karn, the Great Creator and Narset, Parter of Veils. This card is just absolutely incredibly powerful and it does a supremely strong number of things. Being able to find a Sensei's Divining Top for Glaring Fleshraker loops to just being able to find Power or a Key is super good. Even further, just combo'ing by itself with Time Vault is good, but the best part of the card is just how STICKY it is.
Seriously, putting a Tezz on the battlefield and then playing a few artifacts? If you choose to untap one of those things? It's going to have at least 6-7 Loyalty and that is just massive for an opposing deck to actually take care of. Even -3'ing Tezz immediately usually means he's going back up to 2-3 Loyalty by whatever gets played next, possibly even right back up to 4. It's so incredibly easy to keep Tezzeret on the battlefield, but also playing out a second and getting the benefit of using its abilities again is very good.
So where are we seeing this primarily? Well, one of the biggest decks that wants this effect in general is indeed Raker Shops.
One of the big things Tezzeret does here that I've noticed while I was playing around with this deck myself was that it really smooths out hands and draws that may seem subpar. Just being able to tutor something up and work with reshuffling your deck can smooth things out insanely well, but also having it stick around to be able to do more of that? It's very good.
Not super surprisingly enough either is the fact that we've seen it in PO decks.
Tezz being a big reason to not play Lurrus in these PO builds is really a huge thing. This would have absolutely been a Lurrus deck without the Tinker package, but now Tinker not only finds Bolas's Citadel but it also finds your Time Vault for Tezzeret to repeatedly untap, and it also helps find Vexing Bauble so you can protect yourself when going off with Paradoxical Outcome (PO'ing back the Bauble is always key here).
So the big question is where do we go from here? I do believe Tezz to be more than just a flash in the pan from personal experience with playing the card in both Vintage and Legacy. It's an incredibly powerful tutor, combo piece, and swiss army knife that has so much potential... and also has a very firm potential to possibly end up restricted in Vintage long term. I think it's still too early and I'm nowhere near calling for that, because I want to see what the metagame does, but I love having a card that means you don't have to play Lurrus, and I think it's very strong and fun to play with.
Definitely looking forward to seeing where Tezzeret takes Vintage next, for sure!
Vintage Challenge 32 7/31/2025
The first Challenge event of the week was the Thursday event. This event had 47 players in it thanks to the MTGO Vintage Discord.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
The most popular deck by a lot was Esper Lurrus, and it's win rate was closer to 50%, largely I think because there was so much of it and that's what happens when you have a lot of mirrors. Dimir Lurrus did very well here too.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Dredge | 1st | Boucha |
| Dimir Lurrus | 2nd | Montolio |
| Esper Lurrus | 3rd | littledarwin |
| Esper Lurrus | 4th | 416FrowningTable |
| Esper Lurrus | 5th | luvadepedreiro |
| Dimir Lurrus | 6th | John1111 |
| Dimir Lurrus | 7th | 2plus2isfive |
| Esper Lurrus | 8th | RPSbonjwa |
Holy cow. 7/8 of the Top 8 was a fair Lurrus deck, either Dimir or Esper. Wild. The event was won by Dredge though.
Bridge from Below and Cabal Therapy back in the mix? I do like those cards. No Force of Will here is WILD.
In Second Place we had Dimir Lurrus.
Yep this is a Dimir Lurrus list! Not much to say here, this is pretty stock looking.
Vintage Challenge 32 8/1/2025
The second Challenge event of the week was the Friday event. This event had 45 players in it thanks to the MTGO Vintage Discord.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Dredge was the most popular deck here, but its win rate was poor despite having a Top 4 finish. Raker Shops looked great, as did Lurrus PO and Doomsday.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Lurrus Breach | 1st | desolutionist |
| Dredge | 2nd | Boucha |
| Doomsday | 3rd | sixmp |
| Raker Shops | 4th | crK |
| Raker Shops | 5th | IamActuallyLvl1 |
| Initiative | 6th | IpseVenenaBibas |
| Raker Shops | 7th | Univerce |
| Initiative | 8th | LasVegasChaos |
Quite a bit of Raker Shops here, especially with new Tezzeret. The end of the event however was won by Lurrus Breach.
Four Mana Drain Four Stock Up Breach is always something for sure.
In Second Place we had Dredge.
Pretty much the same list as the one that won the event the day before. Pretty interesting shift in Dredge tech.
Vintage Challenge 32 8/2/2025
The third Challenge event of the week was the Saturday event. This event had 54 players in it thanks to the MTGO Vintage Discord.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Raker Shops was the most popular deck and it did have one Top 8 but its overall win rate was less than 50%. The real standout here was non-Lurrus PO.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| PO | 1st | DethFrmAbove |
| Jewel Shops | 2nd | illao1 |
| Lurrus Breach | 3rd | desolutionist |
| Raker Shops | 4th | Dreddybajs |
| Initiative | 5th | VitorCarvalho01 |
| PO | 6th | aniba_lekoa |
| Initiative | 7th | Andy_Over |
| Esper Lurrus | 8th | thedoc96 |
Reasonably interesting Top 8 here. At the end of the event it was PO that won.
Tezzeret certainly does seem exceedingly powerful in a deck like this, where it can easily find one of the important pieces like Sol Ring/Mana Vault or Black Lotus. The card is certainly exceptionally powerful as we've seen in other lists this week.
In Second Place we had Jewel Shops.
This might arguably be one list where I think it will be somewhat hard to fit Tezz in comfortably, primarily because it is an exceptionally tight list overall. I suspect people will figure it out anyways though.
Vintage Challenge 32 8/3/2025
The final Challenge event of the week was the Sunday event. This event had 35 players in it thanks to the MTGO Vintage Discord.
You can find all of the decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Initiative was the most popular deck here, and its win rate was pretty good. Doomsday also looked good.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Initiative | 1st | ElfKid |
| Lurrus Breach | 2nd | desolutionist |
| Initiative | 3rd | _Shatun_ |
| Doomsday | 4th | discoverN |
| Jewel Shops | 5th | _Chamytinho_ |
| Lurrus PO | 6th | RespectTheCat |
| Raker Shops | 7th | musasabi |
| Dredge | 8th | Persona_Non_Grata |
Fairly interesting Top 8 here. At the end of the event it was Initiative that won.
I have a feeling with PO being a thing without Lurrus that the deck running four main deck flying Null Rod might be reasonable, but the PO deck also has Tinker so that adds an interesting conundrum to the mix.
In Second Place we had Lurrus Breach.
Main deck Ancient Grudge is pretty hype.
Around the Web
- Justin Gennari always has good stuff for us:
- Revenantkioku is going Cosmic in Doomsday. Check it out here.
- kindamtg is also going Cosmic in BUG Bazaar. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
Speaking of Tezzeret in Jewel....
Wrapping Up
That's all the time we have this week folks! Thanks for your continued support of the column and join me next week as we continue our journey into Vintage!
As always you can reach me at my Link Tree! In addition you can always reach me on the MTGGoldfish Discord Server and the Vintage Streamers Discord.
Until next time!
