EDIT: This deck underwent a fair bit of testing at my local FNM and it's finally time to make some small edits to the formula. The most noticeable change would be the dropping of the format's most popular blue card in Search for Azcanta. While I think the card is extremely powerful, it just isn't what this deck wanted to do on turn 2. Most of the time I'm looking to be proactive with a small creature or a map on turn 2 and playing Azcanta was often too passive and could put me behind. One of the newest editions to the deck is a suite of 1-drop cards in Renegade Map and Duress in the main. I needed something to do on turn 1 and Renegade Map was the perfect choice. Often capable of triggering some Improvise or just fetching a land, the second map in the deck is an excellent early game play, and in late game, Marionette Master just sees it as another treasure. Tezzeret's easy to get out emblem is also more than happy to turn it into a 5/5 creature for us. Control is prevelant in the meta, but I've found that Marionette Master is more than capable of stealing a win from them game 1 before sideboarding. This, coupled with x2 Duress in game 1, is enough to get us through to game 2 where I can pull in the anti-control sideboard. Game 1 against Rammunap Red or Red/Green Energy isn't quite as easy, so by pushing lots of control aspects of this deck out to the sideboard or from the build entirely gave me a much better matchup against those decks and made it more likely to pull wins in game 1 across the board. The only other main changes is moving The Scarab God into the main deck and adding a single Inspiring Statuary. The Scarab God is the best card in standard and I was being a bit ambitious to play without him. He's back. Inspiring Statuary is untested, but I wanted to give it a shot because it has the potential to set up some crazy plays. Scarab God on turn 4 is only one of the crazy things I can do with this silly artifact (including surprise Spell Swindles) The Statuary gets really stupid once we have some treasures in play, as I can now use them for colorless mana without sacrificing them.
Please let me know what you think in the comments below! All criticism is welcome!
Original Description below:
Originally this list was a Sultai deck, using just a small amount of green to fuel Vraska as a late game win condition. Please feel free to check out that list here: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/tezzs-treasure-quest-bug/
This style of deck is seeing a lot of hype lately. I've seen all kinds of builds online. Working with a few friends, I have been working on my own rendition and at the moment, I'm testing using white in the mana base to play Vona, Butcher of Magan. I don't feel confident that she will be more powerful than The Scarab God in the 5-drop slot, but I wanted more spot removal, and she fits the bill perfectly.
The basic combos expected in this style of deck are still prevalent. Marionette Master + Spell Swindle
can steal games from out of nowhere and Contraband Kingpin + Treasure Map
can spit out an absurd number of Scry 1 triggers to help you dig for the next Spell Swindle or the Marionette to close out the game. Kingpin also pulls double duty against any red deck as they have trouble removing any creature with 4 toughness.
This deck originally had a lot of difficulty with Red Deck Wins (Ramuvamp or something? It's still just Red Deck Wins to me) Battle at the Bridge is extremely helpful in the matchup and since most of my creatures are also Lifelink, I can usually stabilize and win that matchup. The other thing I am worried about in the format is Carnage Tyrant and other dinosaurs in general. Bontu's Last Reckoning is the complete solution to this issue and I main two copies for this matchup. Bontu's is also incredibly valuable against Vampire Tokens and anything abusing Hidden Stockpile and/or Anointed Procession. I am currently sideboarding the third copy, but I will most likely try to find space for the fourth. Seriously, in all testing Bontu's has been one of the most powerful cards in the deck.
The majority of the rest of the cards in the deck are staple style cards and value cards. Walking Ballista and Herald of Anguish are game winning cards on their own and pressure an opponent extremely well, especially in a top-deck situation, which is what I typically aim to force upon my opponent when playing this deck.
I am always open to suggestions and will be playing this list or variants of it until Tezzeret the Schemer rotates out of standard. Please let me know what you think!
Thanks for reading!
~Moist Steakplant
