Commander Deck Tech - Tetzin, Gnome Champion

The Lost Caverns of Ixalan - Commander brought a few interesting new cards for the format. Among them, we had new legendaries that are quite interesting, such as the commander we chose today - Tetzin, Gnome Champion.

This deck will be entirely focused on double-faced artifacts, which is somewhat unusual, once there is no direct connection between these cards. But we'll show you what is possible to build with this idea in this article!

Tetzin, Gnome Champion was released in the Jeskai color combination, which isn't that bad for this artifact theme. Its Craft ability demands 6 artifacts for him to become The Golden-Gear Colossus and start wreaking havoc on the board with countless Gnome tokens.

So, we'll use, obviously, double-faced artifacts, artifacts that create tokens and other interactions with artifacts.

This initial list has no budget, but we'll show you a budget list without the more expensive answers and fancier lands later on. Because Tetzin only works with double-faced artifacts, this deck's theme will remain the same, and we'll try to keep as many cards from the original list as possible. Speaking of which, let's see it.

Accelerators

We chose to use more mana rocks than usual, as they can be used for Tetzin's Craft. So, besides Sol Ring and the 4 signets (Arcane Signet, Azorius Signet, Boros Signet and Izzet Signet), we also use the 3 talismans: Talisman of Conviction, Talisman of Creativity and Talisman of Progress.

Apart from these mana rocks, we use Liquimetal Torque to transform a permanent into an artifact and use it as fuel for Craft.

As discounters, we use Etherium Sculptor and Enthusiastic Mechanaut - both have a low mana cost and will work most of the time, considering we have dozens of artifacts in this deck.

Finally, we have Smothering Tithe, a card that is good in general and will help us by providing mana and artifacts to use with Craft.

Interacting with Artifacts

We have all the cards that interact with or create artifacts in some way. So, we'll start with the artifact token creators. As creatures, we use Chrome Host Seedshark, Sai, Master Thopterist and Illustrious Wanderglyph.

Chrome Host Seedshark and Sai can build a good board thanks to how many artifacts/non-creature spells we use in each cast. Illustrious Wanderglyph, Tendershoot Dryad's lost cousin, is one of, if not the best, token creators in this deck, and can buff our creatures as well.

Now, we move on to the cards that draw us other cards: Padeem, Consul of Innovation, Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain, Market Gnome, Thoughtcast and Thought Monitor.

Padeem can protect artifacts well, also provides card draw, and can be protected if transformed into an artifact with the aforementioned Liquimetal Torque. Jhoira offers a lot of value for our casts, and both Thoughtcast and Thought Monitor can be played for their colored cost, drawing 2 cards for just one mana.

Tetzin mills our cards, so, to not lose these resources forever, we'll use some Reanimate cards: Emry, Lurker of the Loch, Daretti, Scrap Savant, Elixir of Immortality, Wake the Past and Dance of the Manse.

I'll highlight Emry, which can be cast straight from the graveyard, and Daretti, which offers card draw through one of its abilities, and a Reanimate effect through another. We also use Elixir of Immortality as an escape route.

Dance of the Manse can Return basically everything to the battlefield as 4/4 creatures on top of it all, so it is a card that can potentially swing the game in your favor. Wake the Past might not bring that many interesting targets to finish the game, but Returning all artifacts from the graveyard can give you a certain advantage in the game.

Finally, we have buffers and other utility cards in this part. As buffers, we have Tempered Steel and Urza, Prince of Kroog, which, besides being buffers, can copy any artifact - in the next part, we'll show you possible targets for this ability.

Mirrodin Besieged is useful both as a good token generator and as a way to finish opponents one by one. So, it is important to know which option you'll choose when you cast it.

Storm the Vault can be a Vault of Catlacan, giving us a good mana advantage. We have Organic Extinction to clear the board and Fabricate to search for an artifact that is relevant to the match when you play it. After all, that's what tutors are for.

Double-Faced Artifacts

These are this deck's main engines: the double-faced artifacts. Our idea is centered around them, so almost all of them are very important.

We'll start with the most unusual one, which isn't an artifact: Elesh Norn. We only included her because Liquimetal Torque enables this interaction, and also because it isn't difficult to transform it. This card, by itself, can be a win condition.

Combing back to the real artifacts, we'll start with the ones from old Ixalan - Dowsing Dagger, Azor's Gateway, Treasure Map, Conqueror's Galleon, Thaumatic Compass and Golden Guardian.

The cards that stand out are Azor's Gateway, which becomes a Sanctum of the Sun, like so giving you an absurd advantage in the game, and Conqueror's Galleon, which becomes Conqueror's Foothold, which has several useful abilities - loot, drawing a card or returning one card from the graveyard to your hand.

Chalice of Life isn't from Ixalan, but we also use it, considering its Chalice of Death side can really annoy your opponents.

Now, moving to the cards from new Ixalan: we use Clay-Fired Bricks, Braided Net, Dowsing Device, Master's Guide-Mural, Thousand Moons Smithy, Brass's Tunnel-Grinder, Matzalantli, the Great Door, Unstable Glyphbridge, Spring-Loaded Sawblades and Eye of Ojer Taq.

The cards that stand out are Braided Net, Thousand Moons Smithy, Dowsing Device, Brass's Tunnel-Grinder and Matzalantli, the Great Door. With their other sides, respectively, we have Braided Quipu, which can draw several cards; Barracks of the Thousand, which creates a Gnome token that can get quite big as it has power and resistance equal to the number of artifacts and creatures; Geode Grotto, which can significantly buff one creature (this creature can be the commander, and like so you'll try to finish the game with the 21 points of commander damage); Tecutlan, The Searing Rift, to add Discover to the spells cast; and finally The Core, which is similar to the aforementioned Sanctum of the Sun and has a similar utility, considering we mill numerous cards.

Answers and Other Interactions

Of course, we couldn't forget what goes in almost every Jeskai deck: a good number of answers.

As removal, we have access to Dispatch, which will work with Metalcraft most times, and Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares to deal with creatures. For other types of permanents, we use Generous Gift and Chaos Warp.

As counters, we have Counterspell, Dovin's Veto, Arcane Denial and An Offer You Can't Refuse. We have just a few of them, but they are the only ones we need to protect our game strategy. And speaking of protecting, we have a few other defensive resources, such as Boros Charm, which can also finish someone, be it with Double Strike or by dealing 4 damage directly, Teferi's Protection and Cyclonic Rift.

Finally, as a global removal, we have Blasphemous Act to deal with creatures and Austere Command for the other card types that might become problematic. And we also use Sevinne's Reclamation to Return resources from the graveyard to the board.

In this list, we chose to keep the most essential cards for this deck, changing just a bit here and there. Some more powerful interactions were lost, but we didn't lose anything that will prevent you from playing with the original idea and essence in this deck's initial goal.

This is a deck that definitely isn't the strongest, but it is quite fun when you get it going in a game. After all, Commander's essence is based on this - having fun with what you're playing. It was quite an interesting build to work on, and quite unusual, to be honest.

Did you like this list? Would you go for another theme? Maybe a Gnome Typal? Share your thoughts!