CommanderDeck BuildingMagic: The Gathering

Building a Tezzeret Artifacts Deck in Commander

Every Tezzeret planeswalker shares the same basic ask: fill your deck with artifacts, and each card rewards you differently for doing it.

Because none of the nine Tezzerets are legal as a Commander general, building around them means picking a blue-black or three-color legendary creature to lead the deck while the Tezzerets themselves live in the 99 as powerful support pieces.

This guide covers which Tezzerets to prioritize, how to structure the artifact package itself, and the mana base choices that make a deck like this actually function.

The result is one of the more flexible archetypes in Commander, since almost any artifact-friendly commander can support it.

Picking Your Commander

A blue-black commander with a light artifact synergy theme, such as an artifact-cost-reducer or an artifact-recursion effect, gives the deck a stronger identity than simply jamming Tezzerets into a generic control shell.

Three-color commanders that splash green or red for additional artifact ramp and removal are also common, since the core Tezzeret package only strictly needs blue and black to function.

Which Tezzerets to Include

Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge and Tezzeret, the Seeker are the strongest anchors, offering an affinity cost reduction and a free artifact tutor respectively, both of which scale directly with how wide your artifact base gets.

Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas and Tezzeret, Artifice Master are efficient additions on top of those two, offering card selection and card draw that keep the deck from running out of resources in a long game.

Structuring the Artifact Package

Mana rocks like Sol Ring and Arcane Signet form the backbone of any artifact count, since they are functional even before you draw a payoff and they immediately count toward every Tezzeret's scaling abilities.

Layer in a handful of genuinely impactful artifact creatures and utility artifacts, aiming for a real density rather than a scattered handful, since several of these planeswalkers do very little in a deck with fewer than a dozen artifacts.

Card Draw and Selection Redundancy

Because several Tezzerets ask you to find artifacts specifically, run more artifact-tutoring and artifact-selection effects than a typical Commander deck would need, so a removed or countered Tezzeret does not strand your whole plan.

Generic blue card draw also helps smooth out the games where you are stuck without a Tezzeret in hand at all.

Mana Base Considerations

A blue-black artifact shell wants a heavier mana rock count than a typical two-color deck, both because those rocks double as payoff fodder and because several Tezzerets want you casting a lot of spells in one turn.

Prioritize dual lands and fixing that enters untapped whenever possible, since this deck often wants to play multiple pieces in a single turn to build loyalty quickly.

Protecting Your Planeswalkers

A board of small artifact creatures doubles as blockers for whichever Tezzeret is currently on the battlefield, so do not neglect a few defensive bodies purely in the name of raw artifact count.

Removal and interaction aimed at your opponents' biggest threats indirectly protects your Tezzerets too, since a cleared board gives them time to actually generate value.

Upgrading the Deck Over Time

Start with the cheapest, most efficient mana rocks and the two or three strongest Tezzerets, then layer in higher-impact artifact creatures and additional tutoring as your budget allows.

This archetype scales unusually well from a modest budget build up to a fully optimized version, since the core game plan barely changes even as individual card quality improves.

Playtesting Before You Commit

Run a few games with a rough first draft before locking in your full 99, since the actual artifact density you end up wanting often differs from what looks right on paper.

Adjusting the ratio of mana rocks to genuine payoffs after a handful of real games is normal and worth doing before finalizing the list.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

  • Running too few artifacts to make any Tezzeret's abilities meaningful.
  • Including every Tezzeret regardless of power level instead of prioritizing the strongest few.
  • Forgetting Tezzerets are not legal Commander generals, they need a separate legendary creature to lead the deck.
  • Underinvesting in card draw, leaving the deck stranded if your first Tezzeret gets removed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a Tezzeret planeswalker be my Commander?

No, none of the nine are legendary creatures, so they must go in the 99 under a separate commander.

How many artifacts does a deck like this need?

Aim for at least 15 to 20 to make most Tezzeret abilities consistently meaningful.

Which two colors are required?

Blue and black, since every Tezzeret except the colorless Cruel Captain needs both.

Is this archetype budget-friendly?

Yes, most of the core artifact package is inexpensive, with cost concentrated mainly in a few key Tezzerets and mana rocks.

Getting Your Build on the Table

A deck this reliant on a wide, specific artifact base benefits from staying organized between games so nothing gets left in a different box by accident. An EVORETRO magnetic deck box keeps a full 100-card artifact shell ready to shuffle up at a moment's notice.

If you enjoy this kind of deep, single-theme deckbuilding around a classic card rather than a flashy new release, a competitive build around Maralen of the Mornsong scratches a similar itch from the black side of the color pie.

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