diff --git a/spacy/tagger.pxd b/spacy/tagger.pxd
index 30626e775..51e465188 100644
--- a/spacy/tagger.pxd
+++ b/spacy/tagger.pxd
@@ -1,14 +1,13 @@
-from thinc.api cimport AveragedPerceptron
-from thinc.api cimport ExampleC
+from thinc.linear.avgtron cimport AveragedPerceptron
+from thinc.extra.eg cimport Example
+from thinc.structs cimport ExampleC
 
 from .structs cimport TokenC
 from .vocab cimport Vocab
 
 
 cdef class TaggerModel(AveragedPerceptron):
-    cdef void set_features(self, ExampleC* eg, const TokenC* tokens, int i) except *
-    cdef void set_costs(self, ExampleC* eg, int gold) except *
-    cdef void update(self, ExampleC* eg) except *
+    cdef void set_featuresC(self, ExampleC* eg, const TokenC* tokens, int i) except *
  
 
 cdef class Tagger:
diff --git a/spacy/tagger.pyx b/spacy/tagger.pyx
index 493cc4f99..81b9b2da0 100644
--- a/spacy/tagger.pyx
+++ b/spacy/tagger.pyx
@@ -5,8 +5,10 @@ from libc.string cimport memset
 
 from cymem.cymem cimport Pool
 from thinc.typedefs cimport atom_t, weight_t
-from thinc.api cimport Example, ExampleC
-from thinc.features cimport ConjunctionExtracter
+from thinc.extra.eg cimport Example
+from thinc.structs cimport ExampleC
+from thinc.linear.avgtron cimport AveragedPerceptron
+from thinc.linalg cimport VecVec
 
 from .typedefs cimport attr_t
 from .tokens.doc cimport Doc
@@ -69,7 +71,7 @@ cpdef enum:
 
 
 cdef class TaggerModel(AveragedPerceptron):
-    cdef void set_features(self, ExampleC* eg, const TokenC* tokens, int i) except *:
+    cdef void set_featuresC(self, ExampleC* eg, const TokenC* tokens, int i) except *:
         _fill_from_token(&eg.atoms[P2_orth], &tokens[i-2])
         _fill_from_token(&eg.atoms[P1_orth], &tokens[i-1])
         _fill_from_token(&eg.atoms[W_orth], &tokens[i])
@@ -78,9 +80,6 @@ cdef class TaggerModel(AveragedPerceptron):
 
         eg.nr_feat = self.extracter.set_features(eg.features, eg.atoms)
 
-    cdef void update(self, ExampleC* eg) except *:
-        self.updater.update(eg)
-   
 
 cdef inline void _fill_from_token(atom_t* context, const TokenC* t) nogil:
     context[0] = t.lex.lower
@@ -143,8 +142,7 @@ cdef class Tagger:
 
     @classmethod
     def blank(cls, vocab, templates):
-        model = TaggerModel(vocab.morphology.n_tags,
-            ConjunctionExtracter(N_CONTEXT_FIELDS, templates))
+        model = TaggerModel(N_CONTEXT_FIELDS, templates)
         return cls(vocab, model)
 
     @classmethod
@@ -159,13 +157,9 @@ cdef class Tagger:
         #     'pos', 'templates.json',
         #     default=cls.default_templates())
 
-        model = TaggerModel(vocab.morphology.n_tags,
-            ConjunctionExtracter(N_CONTEXT_FIELDS, templates))
-
-
-        if pkg.has_file('pos', 'model'):  # TODO: really optional?
+        model = TaggerModel(templates)
+        if pkg.has_file('pos', 'model'):
             model.load(pkg.file_path('pos', 'model'))
-
         return cls(vocab, model)
 
     def __init__(self, Vocab vocab, TaggerModel model):
@@ -202,15 +196,16 @@ cdef class Tagger:
             return 0
 
         cdef Pool mem = Pool()
-        cdef ExampleC eg 
 
         cdef int i, tag
+        cdef Example eg = Example(self.vocab.morphology.n_tags)
         for i in range(tokens.length):
             if tokens.c[i].pos == 0:
-                eg = self.model.allocate(mem)
-                self.model.set_features(&eg, tokens.c, i)
-                self.model.set_prediction(&eg)
-                self.vocab.morphology.assign_tag(&tokens.c[i], eg.guess)
+                self.model.set_featuresC(&eg.c, tokens.c, i)
+                self.model.set_scoresC(eg.c.scores,
+                    eg.c.features, eg.c.nr_feat)
+                guess = VecVec.arg_max_if_true(eg.c.scores, eg.c.is_valid, eg.c.nr_class)
+                self.vocab.morphology.assign_tag(&tokens.c[i], guess)
         tokens.is_tagged = True
         tokens._py_tokens = [None] * tokens.length
     
@@ -219,18 +214,20 @@ cdef class Tagger:
         golds = [self.tag_names.index(g) if g is not None else -1 for g in gold_tag_strs]
         cdef int correct = 0
         cdef Pool mem = Pool()
-        cdef ExampleC eg 
+        cdef Example eg = Example(self.vocab.morphology.n_tags)
         for i in range(tokens.length):
-            eg = self.model.allocate(mem)
-            self.model.set_features(&eg, tokens.c, i)
-            self.model.set_costs(&eg, golds[i])
-            self.model.set_prediction(&eg)
-            self.model.update(&eg)
+            self.model.set_featuresC(&eg.c, tokens.c, i)
+            eg.set_label(golds[i])
+            self.model.set_scoresC(eg.c.scores,
+                eg.c.features, eg.c.nr_feat)
+            
+            self.model.updateC(&eg.c)
 
             self.vocab.morphology.assign_tag(&tokens.c[i], eg.guess)
             
             correct += eg.cost == 0
             self.freqs[TAG][tokens.c[i].tag] += 1
+            eg.wipe(tuple())
         tokens.is_tagged = True
         tokens._py_tokens = [None] * tokens.length
         return correct