[MtG] 12/19 Aether Revolt Spoiler

[Delibirb]

 

 

Tezzeret, (The Conspirator?)

 

2UB

 

Planeswalker - Tezzeret

 

[+1]: Create a colorless artifact token named Etherium Stone which has T: Sacrifice this and add one mana of any color to your mana pool. 

 

[-2]: Target creature get +X/-X until end of turn which X is the number of artifacts you control. 

 

[-7]: You get an emblem with "At the beginning of your combat phase, target artifact you control becomes a 5/5 artifact creature."

Starting Loyalty: 5

 

He's not fantastic, but he's also not garbage. 4 mana for 5 loyalty, and a mana ramping plus ability in UB is pretty cool.

[bury the year]

We also got:

 

[spoiler=Big image.]

 

 

Quicksmith Spy 3U

Creature - Human Artificer

When Quicksmith Spy enters the battlefield, target artifact you control gains "T: Draw a card" for as long as you control Quicksmith Spy.

"Let's just broaden its surveillance lens."

2/3

 

Probably hot garbage in Standard (Key to the City? Panharmonicon?), but is definitely a fun tool for artifact decks in EDH. Pili-Pala or Staff of Domination read "1: Draw a card" with this out.

[Delibirb]

It would appear then, that we're getting a cycle of rare "Quicksmiths," each granting an activated ability to an artifact as long as they are in play. It will be interesting to see, perhaps a 3 to 5 color deck, running a number of these quicksmiths and general goodstuff artifacts, stuffing them with abilities to create semi-customized Staff of Domination clones.

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

He's not fantastic

This is where we disagree. His -2 is removal. It can be used twice before he is ever plussed, which is more than can be said for something like Ob Nixilis, who costs 1 more mana. Plus it can be used with something like Metalwork Colossus to push for game.

 

Not to mention that his plus is not only ramp, but ramp in the form of artifact tokens. This synergizes with the new improvise mechanic, as well as cards like era of innovation or his own -2.

 

His ultimate is trash but literally who gives a sheet.

 

This card is very, very good.

[Delibirb]

This is where we disagree. His -2 is removal. It can be used twice before he is ever plussed, which is more than can be said for something like Ob Nixilis, who costs 1 more mana. Plus it can be used with something like Metalwork Colossus to push for game.

 

Not to mention that his plus is not only ramp, but ramp in the form of artifact tokens. This synergizes with the new improvise mechanic, as well as cards like era of innovation or his own -2.

 

His ultimate is trash but literally who gives a s***.

 

This card is very, very good.

I was going to mention all of that, but figured someone else would if I phrased my post right, and that that would be better for discussion. You're correct, his plus making artifact ramp specifically is very good news for a number of reasons, and being able to minus two turns in a row and survive is good, if it comes to that.

 

But "very, very good" I think is giving him a bit too much credit. As I said, he's not fantastic. He's good, I expect he will see standard play, maybe modern in very niche rogue decks as he isn't garbage, but I think the fantastic descriptor is, for me, more or less reserved for format definers.

[Flame Dragon]

I really don't like the new Tezz. Generating mana isn't a super impressive ability for standard and his creature removal can actually miss which is pretty terrible. The plus does feed into the minus, but does so very slowly and isn't enough without support in the deck itself. He does have things working in his favor, he starts at a high loyalty and the artifacts he makes can have utility beyond just his minus, but in a vacuum he seems weak. That being said, I'm still going to play him in Sharuum (mana is mana) and where he'll fall in standard will ultimately depend heavily on the set. O, speaking of ultimates, his is one of the weakest. At best it makes a 5/5 haste every turn, but 5/5 isn't SUPER big and he can actually just stop if you run out of things to turn. I get what they were going for with it and it is cool, but conditional nature of it makes it read as being pretty unimpressive.

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

Generally speaking, planeswalker ultimates aren't terribly relevant anyway.

 

His plus does more than provide mana, it creates an artifact. In an artifact block. His minus is a fairly reliable kill, considering the deck you would use him in will have plenty of artifacts anyway.

 

I think he is best suited to a control deck that makes use of Metallurgic Summonings, sweetly because he is a powerful source of removal that can also push for damage with the same ability. Being able to ramp a bit on turns you don't need to use the -2 is just icing on the cake.

[Medivh]

Tezzeret doesn't do terribly well on first impression -- he seems to me, just reading him, like a flaming piece of hot garbage. He's fine in EDH, a format where card evaluation doesn't really matter for the majority of players, but I'm more interested in taking a step back and looking at him in the wider context of standard, the only format where he might see some competitive play.

 

Let's analyze the positives, first.

• He's four mana for a planeswalker with five loyalty.

This is a fantastic loyalty-to-mana-investment ratio, and the color combination isn't even that restrictive -- splashing is easier than ever, at least when you compare this format to the hellscape of Dragons-Battle-Shadows standard.

 

• He provides UB with an effect their color combination doesn't typically have access to. 

​The plus one in and of itself seems to have a lot of positives on the surface; it provides UB with ramp, and it also provides an artifact. Once you stop to think about it, though, the advantages of this card start to fall apart. 

 

You know what other card in standard is four mana, is an artifact, provides ramp regardless of color identity, and can even draw you cards? Freakn' Hedron Archive, and not only does it provide more consistent ramp, it also gives you more of it per activation and is less restrictive in terms of mana cost! Obviously Tezzeret can give you colored mana, which definitely isn't nothing, but this isn't the kind of format where people are dying for color fixing.

 

Hedron Archive can't kill dudes, though, and this leads us to the rest of the card. 

 

• His minus two is removal.

​Yes. Well -- no, not exactly. How many artifacts do you need in play before you can kill a relevant threat like an active Grim Flayer or a Spell Queller? The answer is three our four, and while that might not seem like a tall order on the surface, there aren't really any great artifacts in this format. Decent ones, sure, there's plenty of those, but they're only decent if you have payoffs, and enabling a situational removal ability for a planeswalker isn't really what I'd consider a great one.

Maybe you're running them anyway, to enable your Metalwork Colossus, but in that case, what would you cut for Tezzeret from the pre-existing Colossus decks? I have a difficult time believing it'd preform any better than anything you could take out for it -- and you certainly can't cut any artifacts, because those are there to enable your Colossus, and doing so would also make your Glint-Nest Cranes weaker.

So no, you can't really look at his minus two as removal, because it's dependent on you having other cards in play, and it functionally kills very little. WRBx Vehicles has plenty of small guys crewing their vehicles that would be easy to pick off with this ability, sure, but you want to kill their heavy hitters (the vehicles), not the small fries, and this ability simply can't do that. And, by extension, it can't stop their vehicles from killing him when you pass the turn, either.

 

Tezzeret just brings nothing to the table. He's one half of a removal+card advantage planeswalker in a format where that type of card isn't very good. He gives you worse ramp than an uncommon would, can't reliably kill threats you care about, and, as people have been so quick to point out, not only his is ultimate underwhelming, it really doesn't matter.

 

D minus. The intro pack Tezzeret is better than this one.