chalice and trinkets, the new hotness

1x spoils? the hell?

also, get an urborg in here

getting better, no?

counterspells have the same problem as discard, in that they are not particularly symergistic with what else the deck is doing. you only have room for so many non-artifact cards before Tez starts whiffing, invalidating the entire point of playing the deck.

1cc discard at least comes at points on the curve you weren't already full up on - turn one, or using a t2 talisman's untapped mana.

i also wonder how good LOTV is in this deck

yeah, early pressure is a big big problem.  I had Ratchet Bomb at first, but cant remember why i edited it out.   the options are (as you said) narrow and not particularly amazing.   the discard spells are nice, but they dont really go with the rest of the deck.  maybe counterspells would be better?   i added Ashiok as another (albeit very slow) wincon simply because the deck does a good job of stalling opponent midgame (chalice, bridge, spellskite).

Like, we need more cards like these:

Pyrite Spellbomb

Executioner's Capsule

Contagion Clasp

Perilous Myr

All of these are close to good enough, we just need to get paid a little more somehow. Perhaps by making Salvaging Station our endgame?

the issue here is that UB has any number of excellent late-game plans, but is hard pressed to deal with early pressure. there are options for any problem, but they tend to be narrow; when they're bad, they're REALLY bad. Discard helps but...

...they also tend to have little or no synergy with anything else. Cramming a bunch of Disfigures, Doom Blade, discard spells, or whatever in here feels like adding Lightning Bolt to Kiki-Chord decks.

What Tez really needs is a cheap artifact that interacts with a broad range of permanents in a timely fashion. Ratchet Bomb is -almost- good enough...

(or fast mana a la Ancient Tomb, but that's asking too much I think)

Couldn't you slot in a Trading Post to add value to redundant lock pieces and to give an additional discard outlet for E Bridge that Tezz can dig for?

In fact, I think you could fit a Thopter and Sword in here for a back up win condition. 

Having a soft spot for Ashiok, I'm on board with his inclusion, but I don't think this is the shell. Personally, I still like S/him as an enabler for Eldrazi processing. U/B value shells still focused on Blight Herder/Wasteland Strangler can easily fit 2-3 Ashiok, and running maindeck Relic/Nihil Spellbomb is desired in those decks, which makes running 1-2 Tezz pretty legit in that deck too. 

I really like what's going on here though. And Hargis is right: add Slaver-Ruins (and maybe 1 Treasure Mage? you could even have a sideboard package for the mage of conditionally good endgame cards like Wurmcoil). 

seems like an easy one to add slaver-ruins to

I like where this is going but I'm not sure I'm feeling the Ashioks.