The Past and Future of Teklovossen

My History with Teklo (Teklorigins, if you will)

The date is January 13, 2024, the event is the January AGE Open of the second season. Lexi has just entered Living Legend and Bright Lights is the most recent set, the meta is wide open. Having spent almost my entire competitive career playing Lexi, I decide to give Teklovossen a whirl. The first five rounds go almost as well as I could possibly hope. Aside from an auto loss to Eugene on Kano (because my list has zero AB and zero ability to kill him quickly), I get three ideal matchups in Bravo, Decimator Dori, and Arakni Huntsman and a close win over Dash IE. Going into the last round, I'm praying that I dodge the Fai and other Kano at the top tables and get one of the three Bravos that end up top 8'ing the event. Instead, I get Zayne on Azalea. I breathe a sigh of relief. What is Azalea other than a slightly more aggressive Bravo? Your Red in the Ledgers mean nothing to me. This is win and in for top 8, so naturally the game is chosen for the feature match on stream. I lose 40-0.

Teklovossen historically has been an anti-meta pick, requiring you to rely on GEM luck to carry you through tournaments as his matchups are very polarizing. Midrange and slow, defensive decks are what he preyed on, but in the days of the Bright Lights meta, anything that was hyper aggressive, relied on board states, or did any amount of arcane damage bullied him mercilessly. Over time, he slowly received small injections to his card pool to lessen the severity of certain matchups, but Compendium of Rathe has given him the biggest boost (pun not intended, don't boost) to his resources. Before we get to the present/future, let's talk about how control Teklo has historically been built.

Evos

Teklo's biggest draw is his Evos, equippable armor pieces for every slot that start in your deck and can be played from your hand or banish zone. Bright Lights started Teklo off with seven unique sets of Evos. They came in all colors, some were instant speed, some powered up your gun, they all blocked for different amounts, but every Evo set (besides two) had a glaring weakness: they weren't bases.

Evos work like this: you can equip them as long as you have a base in the matching slot (head, chest, arms, or legs). Back in the day, you started the game with four bases, but almost all of the equippable Evo sets did not say "base" on them, meaning once they were equipped, your duplicate copies were useless. Do you choose to run fewer copies so you have fewer useless cards later in the game? That will make it harder to find them so you can equip the full set. Of the seven sets on release, four of them either blocked zero or had blade break. It was not feasible to fill your deck with bad blocking cards and, since your weapon and your most powerful attacks in your deck were upgraded by the Evos you had equipped, you were unable to block with your equipped Evos without suffering a severe penalty, reducing their value to their (mostly) one-time-use buffs, none of which were all that impactful.

That left us with the "base" Evos, Steel Soul and Sentry. Steel Soul Evos have always been Teklo's bread and butter. They're blue and they block 3 with temper, meaning you'll likely get at least five value out of them once equipped and they block for 3 before they're equipped. Most importantly, they fueled your Singularity win condition. With all four Steel Soul Evos equipped, the Singularity activation bought you enough tempo to close out most games, you just had to get there. These 4-cost actions without go again did nothing but gain you life and upgrade future actions, and most decks won't allow you to spend your turns doing only that for long.

I was a fan of the Sentry Evos at the time. They were red, cost 2, and only blocked 2, but swapping between them and the Steel Soul evos let you activate the text on them throughout the game instead of just with Singularity, and they also increased the Evo density of the deck, which is a crucial component of Teklo's ability to win games (more on that later). Eventually the meta and other more impactful additions to the deck pushed the Sentry Evos out of favor, leaving Teklo with just 12 cards in the deck he had to find ASAP.

Not Evos

Singularity and the reverse Mechropotent side (below) is the win condition for control Teklo in most matchups, but he has other key components to help him get there. Most notable is Scrap Trader, the non-attack action that lets him Scrap two Evos for 4 resources. It doesn't have go again (purely because of Bright Lights limited considerations I'm sure), so you need to pair it with a blue in order to afford the Teklo activation so you can make use of the resources from Scrap Trader to equip the Steel Soul Evo in the same turn. Teklo's ability lets you draw a card when you do this, but since your turn is almost certainly over at this point, you have to pray that the card on top is something worth putting into your arsenal.

The flashier pieces are the Evo Upgrade attacks, specifically Terminator Tank, War Machine, and Pulsewave Protocol. With four Evos equipped, these two-card turns are back-breaking for most decks to deal with. The damage and disruption buy you a lot of space for your next turn.

Another important mention is Fabricate, the modal instant card that extracts more value out of your Evos, whether by increasing their block value, letting you cycle them to the banish zone, or putting them under your Evos for more late game Mechropotent swings. Both Fabricate and Scrap Trader are bad blocking cards and they don't help much if your Evos aren't positioned properly upon drawing them, so they aren't exactly silver bullets.

The rest of the deck historically has been defense reactions, blues to round out the curve, and whatever tech cards you need for specific matchups. Until Compendium, the boost variant has been even less successful than control. The four cost Evos are too expensive for an aggro deck to play out while maintaining tempo, and the other Evo sets have the problems listed above. Balancing boost attacks, Evos, and Evo Upgrade attacks has proven an impossible balancing act that gives the deck no reason to be played over DIO and Maxx.

Expansion Slots

The primary thing Teklo was lacking on arrival was the ability to run Arcane Barrier. Neither his starting bases nor his Evos included it, so running AB came at the detriment of one or more Evo slots. The fewer Evo slots you had, the less impactful your late game would be. Your Singularity win condition was gone, your Evo Upgrade attacks much easier to deal with. Despite getting 40-0'd by Azalea, my Kano matchup was the most one-sided game I played that day.

Part the Mistveil answered our prayers (somewhat) with blue instant Evos that had AB on them. At long last, we could equip AB as soon as we found it in our deck. They weren't bases, they blocked zero, they had some mostly useless text, and playing Singularity would bring us back down to AB zero, but it was something. One set later, Rosetta improved things even further with Adaptive Dissolver, allowing us to equip up to AB3 on bases at the beginning of the game. Now we could start and end the game with Arcane Barrier, provided we stuck to the PTM Evos.

The rest of the expansion slots have been less exciting. Adaptive Alpha Mold allowed us to start with 1-3 extra life in the form of Battleworn 1 bases, whereas the non-AB bases rarely ever had any relevant text. Evo Magneto offered some tech to punish item dependent decks, but it didn't move the needle much.

The card pool for Teklovossen to this point was missing true power cards. Hitting the Singularity button with all four Evo Steel Soul pieces equipped is unrivaled by any other single card in the game, but getting there could be a Herculean effort against most decks since Teklo was devoid of cards like Three of a Kind, Bloodrush Bellow, Codex of Frailty, Arc Light Sentinel; extremely powerful effects requiring minimal setup. If you could weather the storm long enough to get online you would get to reap the rewards, but most games ended with you seeing your Evos and Singularity hit the graveyard as you blocked with them in desperation just to stay alive.

After 18 months of legality, Teklovossen sits at 27 points on the LL leaderboard, winning nothing more noteworthy than a ProQuest.

Compendium of Rathe looks to change that.

PENning a new future for Teklovossen

Control Teklo

There are seven cards that I have deemed the most important inclusions to control Teklovossen (Boost Teklovossen has undoubtedly gotten some improvements as well which I will discuss further down): the Evo Beta Base set, Synapse Sparkcap, Ghost Protocol: Architect, and Ghost Protocol: Mainframe.

The Evo Beta Base set Evos are blue, zero cost bases with Battleworn 1 and text that makes matching slot Evos one resource cheaper when they're equipped. These are huge improvements to the deck for several reasons. Despite only blocking one while equipped and in hand, they massively speed up your ability to get four Evos equipped. Activating Teklo to equip these on defense replaces them at instant speed, allowing you to block with the card you draw from the Teklo activation if needed. The discount to the Steel Soul Evo that will go on top reduces its cost to 3, making it a two card play rather than three, plus you get the swap bonus. Swapping the head increases your Intellect for a turn, swapping the chest and legs gives you resources and action points in order to equip multiple Evos in a turn, and swapping the arms lets you recur your powerful Evo Upgrade attacks from the graveyard. While you probably don't want as many of these as you do Steel Soul Evos, PEN has increased Teklo's EVO density a good amount, upping his chances of drawing Evos early, which is critical to his success.

Synapse Sparkcap is a start of game base equipment that isn't flashy, but has a very useful effect. Banishing an Evo from hand for a Ponder token is essentially drawing you a card for free. You are no longer obligated to wait for Scrap Trader to retrieve your Evos from the graveyard if you don't have the resources to play them the turn you draw them, and the Battleworn 1 is undeniably helpful. Like using Teklo's ability on a Scrap Trader turn, you won't always draw the perfect card off the top to stick in your arsenal; Steel Soul Evos and Evo Upgrade attacks drawn too early can languish forever if put in arsenal too hastily. But even with some top deck misses, Synapse Sparkcap is an objective improvement on any other base that can be run in its place, and allows you to start the game with Battleworn 4 on the field if you choose to pair it with three Adaptive Alpha Molds.

Ghost Protocol: Architect did not impress me on announcement as its effect did nothing to assist with getting out Steel Soul Evos faster, so I reserved judgment until the full set was announced. The Beta Base set were the missing piece that make this card function in the deck. Long have I desired an Evo tutor and LSS delivered with GPA, essentially a Scrap Trader that retrieves the perfect Evo from the deck, requiring no setup at all. Scrap Trader requires you to keep a blue to make use of the resources gained from scrapping the Evos previously put in the graveyard, but GPA requires no such commitment. My only complaint is that it's an attack for one without go again instead of a non-attack action, meaning you can use it to find an Evo turn zero, but then you give your opponent the freedom to sculpt their hand as they please without fear of punishment.

Ghost Protocol: Mainframe is the least impactful inclusion as its function is primarily an offensive Steel Street Enforcement, but as it is more useful than SSE at most stages of the game, it's a definite upgrade to the deck. Mechanical Strength in blue is found in many control Teklo lists, and GPM costs three less for two fewer damage making it more on-rate. Both Ghost Protocol cards also get bonuses for being boosted away, so let's talk about that.

To Boost or Not to Boost

Here is the part of the show where I seriously consider the merits of Boost Teklo. The reason to play Boost Teklo over DIO or Maxx is the line of text on his card that reads "You may play Evos from your banished zone." Unfortunately, none of the Evos have ever been good enough to be worth taking time off from attacking to play (yes, even the vaunted Steel Soul set because of their prohibitive 4 resource cost). The AB Evo set came close to fitting because they were blue instants that cost zero, but the fact that they blocked zero and weren't bases meant redundant ones were useless.

The Beta Base set are improvements on the AB Evos for boost Teklo. They're also blue and cost zero, but you can stack multiple and blocking one is better than blocking none. You also don't have to worry about boosting away Singularity with the inclusion of a single Evo Recall.

GPA and GPM do have the ability to be played from banished zone the turn they're boosted, but Boost Teklo doesn't need to tutor Evos, they'll just come naturally through constant banishes. GPM is probably an upgrade on some blues, but you really want to keep the pressure up with boost Teklo and minimize your non-Boost cards.

In terms of specific Boost Teklo support, they also added Blast Rig and Heavy Metal Hardcore, just additional copies of conditional Zero to Sixty. The Cogwerx base equipment from Bright Lights hasn't been used in control Teklo since his release, but the one-time effects are actually helpful for the Boost variant.

My guess at the moment, since all of this is theoretical until CC PQ season, is that while Boost Teklo does get some decent upgrades, it won't be enough to push him into the higher tiers of competition and it's still the weaker variant of the deck. Teklo's ability, while nice in theory, does not synergize well enough with the Boost strategy to be able to forgo the potent Mechanologist equipment suite. Some games you'll Boost one of each Evo in quick succession and finish them off with Singularity. But it won't happen often enough to be worth playing over DIO or even Maxx (who also got some help this set). I hope I'm wrong, but Boost Teklovossen still feels like he needs more.

Is This Enough?

I agree with James White's claim that Teklo's viability has been noticeably increased as a result of Compendium of Rathe's additions, but will it be enough to make him worth bringing to your local PQ if you're trying to qualify for ProTour Las Vegas? I think he'll win some (which is a big jump from the zero RTNs he won this past cycle), but you will still be relying on some GEM luck to dodge your bad matchups.

Teklo's history of upgrades has been quite careful and incremental from LSS. I think they're afraid of giving him too much too fast and are avoiding giving him undisputed "power cards." Instead, they want to continue enabling what he's already doing, lowering the hoops he has to jump through in order for him to get online. Once the right balance has been found with the new cards, he'll be a force to be reckoned with.

Then, it'll just be up to your local meta. Kayo A/D is a popular pick and solid matchup for Teklo that will be gone one or two weeks into CC PQ season. Verdance has a very straightforward gameplan into decks that want to block a lot and play it slow. Fai got a lot of tools that might make him too fast to deal with, but at 821 points and 1.5x multiplier, he might not be around for that long. And until he gets 3+ Evos and gives his gun go again, Gravy's allies will give him a lot of trouble and probably require significant tech in the sideboard.

In summation, I think the upgrade package from Compendium of Rathe for Teklo is a 7.5/10. The early consistency is improved a lot, but the ceiling remains unchanged. If I had one thing on my wishlist for Teklo coming into spoiler season though, it was to get Evos out earlier and faster, which they delivered on. Now that I've finished yapping about the complete history of Teklovossen, the deck tech can begin.

The Deck Tech

Here is my first pass at Control Teklovossen, using my pre-PEN list as a starting point. Please note that this has only been tested on Talishar so far.

First or Second: As a defensive deck that takes time to set up, Control Teklo always wants to go first. Set up an Evo, ideally two if you're lucky, pitch away cards you don't want to see until end game to his ability and/or your Evo, and arsenal a defense reaction are the things he's trying to do turn zero. If you go second and draw a Beta Base Evo plus another blue, you almost always want to resolve it at instant speed because you'll still be left with three cards to defend with after the draw. Just be careful about how hard the deck you're facing is able to punish you.

The Equipment: Teklo only has one gun worth running and Synapse Sparkcap is the best Base Equipment he has access to. Beyond that, there are two options: Alpha Mold or no Alpha Mold. Against pure physical damage decks, starting the game three life higher is a tempting proposition, but I've decided to sacrifice that three life for deck space. Teklo, like Kano, has the rare ability to have his Arcane Barrier included on the equipment he starts every game with, meaning he can dedicate the majority of his sideboard to other tech cards. The only equipment in sideboard is Arcanite Skullcap, a bit of spice I learned about from another local Teklo enthusiast to assist in fatiguing Oscilio, an increasingly popular deck.

The Evos: Before we get into specifics, let's get into numbers. On turn zero, there are 18 Evos and 3 GPAs you can draw; 21 ways to equip an Evo turn zero. That gives you around an 83% chance of being able to equip an Evo turn zero, though that includes drawing a Steel Soul Evo and three reds. I'm currently on two of each Beta Base Evo, three Memory/Tower, and two Processor/Controller. The reason I'm on three of those particular Evos is because the swap ability is the most impactful. Memory draws you an extra card and Tower gives you an extra action point, which can result in multiple Evo equips. Two each of the Beta Base set because you don't want to have more than two in your hand at any point other than turn zero. You can pitch one to play the other on defense, but just remember that the only swap ability that will work on your opponent's turn is Controller.

The Not Evos: Three each of the best Evo Upgrade attacks in the game which are good against everybody, though situational if you're recurring through Controller. Three each of the best defense reactions in the game, but Shelter could come out if you've got no Cindra or Assassin in your meta. Scrap Trader is a two-of currently because you mainly need it to get one of each Steel Soul Evo into your banished zone once blocked with. Steel Street Enforcement is a great defensive blue, Mechanical Strength and GPM are strong late game attacks, and Scrap Compactor is good when your opponent gives you enough to space to play an Evo from graveyard.

The Sideboard: My current sideboard is teched for specific difficult matchups (Gravy and Oscilio) and generally good defensive tools. Midas Touch will help you deal with Gravy allies and Prism angels until you get online. Arcanite Skullcap and Amulet of Echoes will make it harder for Oscilio to combo you down. Firewall is another 4-block to play against aggro decks that help you get to Evos slightly quicker. Hold the Line will come in against anyone drawing multiple cards in a turn (Kayo, Fai, Prism, Gravy) and usually replaces a blue in the deck, most often Scrap Compactor. Lastly are the sideboard Evos. The AB ones come in against wizards to maintain your AB while improving your Evo Upgrade attacks and will replace one of each Beta Base Evos since you aren't swapping. Against Runeblades where you only need AB1, Heartdrive and Shortcircuit are the picks because the swap ability isn't as important in those matchups. Evo Magneto is for anyone with items worth stealing, primarily DIO.

The Matchup Guide: I'm going to give a brief gameplan for every hero (in LL points order) before going over general tips.

Kayo: Block efficiently, get online quickly, Singularity when able.

Verdance: They will potion combo you if you give them enough time. Find your AB Evos fast so you can start beating them down with damage, Singularity is useless in this matchup.

Prism: Block block block. Angels are very hard to clear early so keep them at bay as long as you can.

Fai: Probably a top tier aggro deck going forward, but he crumbles to disruption so just do the same thing you do against Kayo.

Cindra: See Fai.

Bravo Showstopper: They can't kill you so be wary of getting fatigued by playing Singularity too early. Equip as many Evos as possible and always choose to stick Fabricate under an Evo for extra swings in endgame.

Dorinthea: Decimator is free, just make sure you don't lose a Steel Soul Evo when blocking because of that specific interaction. Dawnblade is fine if they don't run away with counters, just remember that your Evo Upgrade attacks get less value into them because Overpower affects them less.

Katsu: Tricky to block effectively, but if you prevent them from many super wide turns, your late game should finish them easily.

Kassai: Block efficiently and deny gold, Sellswords are your worst nightmare in this deck. Aggressive Kassai's are problematic, but the more midrange they are, the better a time you'll have.

Victor Goldmane: Just Bravo that trades dominate for more damage. Don't die to Golden Son at the end because Overpower hurts Teklo a ton.

DIO: Fatigue them. Block with Singularity if you have to, they'll run out of cards when you still have half your deck left.

Uzuri: Don't block with equipped Steel Soul Evos if a Shred will kill them. Otherwise free.

Boltyn: PEN Boltyn might be a little scary, but he's probably not fast enough to beat you to Singularity if you block efficiently.

Gravy Bones: Very tough, Teklo is not good at dealing with allies. Take damage early if it helps you get online faster and kill every ally that you're able to.

Mario: Again, don't lose your Evos to shred and don't lose your Singularity to disruption. Tricky matchup since they're so evasive, but we have cards we're happy to have them banish, so that helps.

Rhinar: Intimidate hurts a little since we want to block a lot, but he deals less damage than Kayo so we can take it. Equip Evos defensively if you sense your whole hand is about to be banished.

Oscilio: Fatigue. Block everything, play Amulets when you draw them. Difficult, but not impossible.

Levia: See Kayo, add 20% likelihood of winning. If you don't attack them for the first half of the game, their graveyard will be in shambles.

Slippy: See Mario.

Vynnset: They'll expect a long grindy game and sideboard accordingly. Plan to block a lot and find one of your AB Evos in your deck fast, GPA helps with this. Disruption once your online will help you immensely.

Jarl: The hardest Guardian. This is the one matchup where you don't want to equip Evos ASAP due to Crumble to Eternity, Frozen to Death, and Mangle. Focus on getting lots of Evos in banish using Synapse Sparkcap and Scrap. If you get a -1 counter from CTE, replace the Evo immediately. Only block with Evos if you have a replacement ready in banish and never have multiple Evos with -1 counters at the same time. If he kills an Evo, you can't Singularity and you will be fatigued.

Fang: Deny Fealty as long as you can, but even when he's online if you never attack him and just equip Evos, those blues he wants to block with will be stuck in his hand and it won't matter that his daggers are free. Value blocking > overblocking unless the on hit is crazy.

Ira: Identify early if they're aggro or midrange and plan accordingly. Ira shouldn't be able to survive a full Singularity game, but be careful about casting it with the bare minimum equipped if they're high on life.

Riptide: Lol.

Maxx: New Maxx will definitely be spicier than before, but should be a much easier to deal with aggro deck than the rest.

Huntsman: DON'T LET YOUR EVOS GET SHREDDED. And run Evo Recall because Singularity will get banished at some point, there's no escaping it. But so will half your Evos, so that's nice.

THE MIRROR: This is a very weird mirror, but whoever gets online first usually wins because Teklo can't deal with Overpower.

Pleiades: Play every Evo, put every Fabricate on the bottom, shoot your gun a lot. They don't love decks that don't attack them early, but they will take a lot of Mechropotent swings to finish off. Upper limit is 13 activations, which strips 39 three-blocks from their deck.

Kayo, Underhanded Cheat: See Pleiades. Try to stay even/ahead in life if you can, but even with their Mocking Blows turned on this a freebie assuming you don't lose Singularity to Pummel.

Puffin: Worst Mech, the only thing you have to play around is Palantir Aeronought. If they can tap three Golden Cogs, they can destroy one of your Evos. Keep a matching Evo in banished for just such an occasion and when you have to block with that equipment, activate Teklo and swap it after they pop their Cogs to remove it from the chain. If they played a T-Bone before, unlucky.

Betsy: You will never play this matchup, but if you do, Overpower is obnoxious so be aware.

Olympia: If they flip Decimator, see Dorinthea. If they flip hatchets, see Kassai and add 75% likelihood of winning.

Marlynn: VERY HARD MATCHUP. Overpower destroys Teklo, your armor is powerless against their harpoons. Block as efficiently as you can, save a defense reaction for arsenal if the on hit isn't that bad, use Teklo activation to deprive them of Go Fish targets in your hand. Once online, your Evo Upgrade attacks will get you back in it.

Valda: Bravo without dominate, Victor without clashing. Avoid getting fatigued.

Lyath: Sideboard for aggro, shouldn't be an issue.

Tuffnut: Tell them you are playing Teklovossen, they will concede. Nice Rok, buddy.

General Tips and Conclusion: Control Teklo will reach second cycle unless one of you (usually your opponent) viciously high rolls the other. GPA will shuffle your deck and start your stack over again, just make sure when your Singularity goes to the bottom, it's surrounded by blues. Block with Evos (particularly Steel Soul) ASAP so your Scrap Trader gets full value as soon as you draw it. Defensive Teklo activations can be useful at the right time, just be careful about drawing Singularity when you need it to be any other card, especially against disruptive decks. You'll recur one or more Evo Upgrade attacks during each game, make sure to prioritize the right ones; get Pulsewave Protocol against aggro decks and don't get War Machine against defense reaction heavy decks. If Singularity goes to the bottom of your deck during the game and you know you won't survive until gets back, deploy the GPA Hail Mary.

Knowing when, how, and in what order you should be equipping your Evos is the most important skill. Your first three or four actions in the game will be to equip Evos. Getting a variety is key for turning on your other cards and fully utilizing the swap ability of Steel Soul Evos will gain you a lot in your games. Your gameplan for each matchup is very critical to this deck's success. Identify it and stick to it, and you too can become more than human.