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1.24.2011

Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

That was quite a weekend for Mirrodin Besieged spoilers. If you missed it, you can find that post HERE. We are now at 111/155 and players are chomping at the bit to sling these cards in games at Pre-Release events this weekend. You can keep up to date with us on Twitter (user - CopySix) as we provide fairly up to date news on rumors and confirmations of new cards under the '#mtgmbs' hashtag and suggest you also keep an eye on our spoiler page.

Today we wanted to yatter a bit about some cool things one can do with the new Mirrodin Besieged Planeswalker, Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas as well as some rules 'n' news. Some players are worried that with the faction packs at the pre-release Tezzeret will be restricted to one or another faction or will not be present at all. Wizards did confirm that Tezz will be present and since there is no watermark, he may show up in either faction.

Now - onto his abilities.

Certainly his first ability (+1: Look at the top five cards of your library. You may reveal an artifact card from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.) is very cool to float out an artifact near the top of your library BUT we already have a card for this type of thing - Ancient Stirrings but this of course is limited in green where as the new Tezz offers the same ability in blue / black decks.

The third ability is alright as well but nothing epic (-4: Target player loses X life and you gain X life, where X is twice the number of artifacts you control.). Unless you are artifact heavy as in a metalcraft deck, this really does not promise much of a bang for your mana bucks.

It is Tezzeret's second ability (-1: Target artifact becomes a 5/5 artifact creature.) which has players all aflutter. Most will immediately think of using this ability on a 1/1 Memnite or a 0/2 Ornithopter - a very solid choice indeed - having a zero cost artifact become a huge threat is an effecient and excellent method of producing threats on the table but there has been several questions from MTG fans regarding this ability. We do not claim to be a rules guru or even decent players, but this is what we took away from forums to pass along to you. If you can contribute to clarifications, please drop a comment.

Anywhoos - let's talk about that very hot new land - Iinkmoth Nexus. This land allows a normal tap for one (colourless mana) but also provides the ability to pay one to make Inkmoth Nexus becomes a 1/1artifact creature with flying and infect until end of turn while still retaining it's land type. If one were to activate Tezzeret's second ability, this land would become a 5/5 artifact creature with flying and infect - not too shabby. The worry is what happens to Inkmoth at the end of the turn. Since Tezzeret's ability does not say 'until end of turn' or 'for this turn' they are never cleaned up in the cleanup step and since the ability is never cleaned up, and Tezzeret maintains Inkmoth as a 5/5 creature but will loose it's flying and infect ability at turn's end. Tezz will change artifacts into a dangerous 5/5 but his ability will not change any previous types or abilities. We suggest using that much maligned and disliked card Vector Asp - a cheap one drop who could prove very deadly with a big pump that Tezz could give.

Now if you turn an equipment into a creature with Tezz, it does not gain any of the effects it could grant an equipped creature. Additionally, if the equipment is attached to a critter, it will simply fall off. Ensure you carefully read the equipment and decide if you would want to use Tezz's second as most equipment provides an effect to the creature it is attached to. Turning a wonderful piece of equipment like Argentum Armor or Sword of Body and Mind would be horrific as you would not get any of those cool effects BUT if you were to turn Darksteel Axe into a 5/5 artifact creature, it would maintain an idestructible quality - not bad.

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Finally, don't forget to plan your purchases - We are definitely looking to get the following ->
Mythic Rares : Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas, Thrun, the Last Troll, Sword of Feast and Famine, and Blightsteel Colossus
Rares : Inkmoth Nexus, Black Sun's Zenith, Phyrexian Revoker, Green Sun's Zenith, Phyrexian Crusader
Uncommons : Go for the Throat, Signal Pest
we suggest you start planning your new decks with a good on-line retailer like MTG Mint Card whom you can put in your Mirrodin Besieged pre-orders.

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5 comments:

Mondryn said...

The problem with using Tezz's -1 ability on Inkmoth Nexus is that the Nexus will be reset to a 1/1 when its ability resolves again. You'll have to Tezz it again to turn it back into a 5/5.

Unknown said...

... you always take it at text value. It says 5 /5 artifact creature. It says nothing about till end of turn, thus its a 5/5 flying infect for the rest of game. GG

Unknown said...

No, at end of turn it becomes a 5/5 creature that is still a land. Next turn you can do something like this: Attack with 5/5, upon no blockers declared, pay 1 to activate infect + flying. Or if there are blockers, pay 1 to fly over them and infect the opponent. The Nexus is 5/5 for the rest of the game people. Its just the Infect+Fly ability that wears off and needs to be reactivated every turn.

Anonymous said...

No, the nexus will be a 5/5 without infect or flying but if u activate the nexus again the ability to turn it into a 1/1 infect flying over rides tezzeets ability and turns it back into a 1/1. its a matter of timestamps and the inkmoth ability has the latest timestamp.

Unknown said...

Yeah my bad. Anonymous is right. But its true that when the Nexus ability wears off at the end of turn, it's back to a 5/5 artifact creature land.