Deck Tech: Developing MeekWalker for Extended

Hi there.

For those that don't know me my name is Rui Gomes, you can call me Gomes since it’s easier to spell.

As Miranda did, I also went to PTQ San Juan at Oporto. I did 4 – 2 – 1 winning against 2 Dark Depths, 1 Vampires and a Zoo deck; lost against a zoo deck and a Dark Depths and got a drawn with a Bant Deck. I did better than I though despite doing some mistakes, my bad draws (I suck at top decking) and since we made the deck at 2 am on the tourney day.

As about what I was running, it was an attempt of creating a Planeswalker control deck featuring the new Jace. Sincerely, I just decided to go with planeswalker on that day when Miranda just tossed something like “Why don’t you use the new Jace in there” and I went like “Well, there are some people that tried to do a planeswalker list, but I don’t have them anyway” and he just followed with “I will have two tomorrow I can borrow you” and then I said “Ok, let’s change the list then. Getting a little back, I was going to take a Tezzerator list to the PTQ and we were discussing some of my choices when the planeswalkers where tossed into the mix.

After we both had that little discussion we just started brainstorming ideas and throwing out cons and pros of some cards, while doing some changes to the tezzerator list since it already supported the colors for the walkers we wanted to add, namely Jace, Ajani Vengeant, Elspeth and Tezzeret. So will explain how we did it beginning with my Tezzerator list:

Creatures [3]
3 Trinket Mage

Instants [14]

3 Path to Exile

4 Mana Leak

3 Spell Snare

4 Thirst for Knowledge

Sorcerys [6]

4 Ancestral Vision

1 Day of Judgment

1 Wrath of God

Artifacts [11]

3 Chrome Mox

3 Engineered Explosives

2 Sword of the Meek

3 Thopter Foundry

Planeswalkers [3]

3 Tezzeret, The Seeker

Lands [23]

1 Academy Ruins

4 Scalding Tarn

2 Misty Rainforest

1 Ghost Quarter

2 Hallowed Fountain

4 Island

3 Mystic Gate

1 Sacred Foundry

1 Plains

1 Seat of the Synod

1 Steam Vents

1 Watery Grave

1 Tolaria West

The first thing that did got out was 2 Tezzeret and 4 Ancestral Vision for 2 Jace, 1 Elspeth, 2 Ajani Vengeant and 1 Spell Snare. Then Miranda pointed out that 2 trinket mages should be enough since they were mostly explosives 4 to 6, so one got cut down for a wrath, then he said he would be playing a path to exile instead of the third explosives, at that moment I did the change but later I took it back since I always felt confortable playing with only 3 paths for the random gaddock teeg. I also changed 1 ajani for another Tezzeret, I’m not a big fan of the vengeant and I also wanted to have two tutors for my combo.

So the final list was pretty much this:

Creatures [2]
2 Trinket Mage

Instants [15]

3 Path to Exile

4 Mana Leak

4 Spell Snare

4 Thirst for Knowledge

Sorcerys [3]

1 Day of Judgment

2 Wrath of God

Artifacts [11]

3 Chrome Mox

3 Engineered Explosives

2 Sword of the Meek

3 Thopter Foundry

Planeswalkers [6]

2 Tezzeret, The Seeker

2 Jace

1 Elspeth

1 Ajani

Lands [23]

1 Academy Ruins

4 Scalding Tarn

2 Misty Rainforest

1 Ghost Quarter

2 Hallowed Fountain

4 Island

3 Mystic Gate

1 Sacred Foundry

1 Plains

1 Seat of the Synod

1 Steam Vents

1 Watery Grave

1 Tolaria West

Then we discussed the Sideboard and I ended up with this one

4 Bitterblossom - Good against dark depths, faeries and teachings also an alternate win condition.

4 Meddling Mage – Good against combo decks.

3 Extirpate – Against dark depths, Teachings, Tezzerator, Cascade, Martyr and so on…

1 Smother – Against anything agro like.

1 Path to Exile – Same as Smother.

1 Chalice of The Void – Excellent against cascade and good against faeries.

1 Relic of Progenitus – Mostly against Dredge.

1 Tormod’s Crypt – The same propose as Relic.

As I already said, I did better than I expected also a lot of people freaked out seeing me playing walkers, especially when I had 2 or 3 in play which in some cases was hilarious.

So after a night sleep I spended my morning capitalizing in the experience I had with the deck the day before. Tezzeret proved to be a bad card in the deck, since the only relevant thing he could fetch was the combo and we would only getting half of it since I always draw 1 of the pieces, it also proved to be slow and irrelevant in most cases because against agro I couldn’t get an activation from thopter when I droped it at turn 4 or 5, which in some cases was relevant, and I don’t have enough artifacts to capitalize on his last ability. So It was the first thing I cut for 2 Muddle The Mixture, it provides you a piece 2 turns earlier and it can always counter after you have the combo out which should be a lot better than having a tezzeret sitting at your hand. 
Then I added 1 Jace and 1 Elspeth, both proved to be beasts every time I dropped them while also being 1 of the main targets of my opponents discard, having multiples sitting at your hand should be irrelevant since jace replaces that disadvantage and if a Elspeth is sitting in your hand is probably because you have the board controlled. I still kept the vengeant although I wasn’t always happy to draw it but he also didn’t go so bad and I didn’t play against control were he should be best, so in 1 Jace and 1 Elspeth out 1 Tolaria west (I was floded several times and the search option never was relevant) and 1 Spell Snare (they proved to be not that good on this environment) but they are a beating against faeries and dark depths while also making possible to sneak a planeswalker in through counter magic. 
After this I took out the trinket mages, they weren’t bad but beside fetching a explosives they didn’t do anything else since agro players would just kill him and proceed with the beatings. I also wanted something that could put pressure on control and combo players while still being good against agro and when I saw Calcite Snapper I had to try it. It can do both jobs, it slows down agro players by blocking any 1 drops while being immune to any spot removable and it should make them commit more to the board providing 2 for 1 or even 3 for 1 trades with explosives and a wrath should be at least a equal trade off; so out came 2 Trinket Mage and 1 Wrath of God (It kills the turtle). 
Finaly I wanted to add the third Muddle The mixture so I just cut 1 Mana Leak for it and later took out the other 3 for 3 Cryptic Command since my plan against agro resolves around getting at least 2 for 1 with wrath and explosives. and because they are very bad in late game and there isn’t much in the early game that I want to counter that muddle can’t, also Cryptic Command is an excellent top deck in late game.

So now the list looks like this:

Creatures [3]
3 Calcite Snapper

Instants [16]

3 Cryptic Command

3 Path to Exile

3 Muddle The Mixture

3 Spell Snare

4 Thirst for Knowledge

Sorcerys [2]

1 Day of Judgment

1 Wrath of God

Artifacts [11]

3 Chrome Mox

3 Engineered Explosives

2 Sword of the Meek

3 Thopter Foundry

Planeswalkers [6]

3 Jace, The Mind Sculptor

2 Elspeth, Knight Errant

1 Ajani Vengeant

Lands [22]

1 Academy Ruins

4 Scalding Tarn

2 Misty Rainforest

1 Ghost Quarter

2 Hallowed Fountain

4 Island

3 Mystic Gate

1 Sacred Foundry

1 Plains

1 Seat of the Synod

1 Steam Vents

1 Watery Grave

Sideboard:               

4 Meddling Mage

3 Hide/Seek

2 Extirpate

2 Mystical Teachings

1 MindBreak Trap

1 Ravenous Trap

1 Echoing Truth

1 Pulse of the Fields

About the sideboard, the MM are pretty much staples when combo is running around; hide/seek are there against any problematic artifact and when you put them in against zoo they aren’t so bad as an classic ench/art destroyer since it can always net you some life, it also serves other proposes against other decks by taking wincons out of their plans; Extirpate, just go see my previous explanation; Mystical Teachings, a friend of mine was running it on his side in the PTQ and it’s just pure awesomeness letting you have a little toolbox on your sideboard while still giving you card advantage and something for control/combo players to play around;

Mindbreak Trap is an extra counter that should prove to be nice in counter wars and against some combos still I’m not sure if this is the right choice; Ravenous Trap is for dredge decks, one is enough because you still have extirpates, explosives, counters and MM to mess around with them, besides that Mystical Teachings can search for it; Echoing Truth is good against tokens of any kind and is searchable by Mystical Teachings; Pulse of the fields, gives you life when needed and is also searchable by Mystical Teaching so 1 is enough.

And that’s pretty much I have for today, if you happen to test it tell me how it went since I don’t have much time/people to test it with.

Until next time, Rui Gomes.