Out of all the cards you suggested, Intuition is the strongest. I found out early through playtesting that dumping win-conditions with this deck is the best way to lose quickly. Afterall, this deck can play a longer game if it needs to. While Long-term Plans is not the fastest card, it is more precise and doesn't dump cards. This is the reason why I feel that Fact or Fiction is a poor choice too. This isn't a multi-color combo deck that wins through just about any color combination.
As for Consecrated Sphinx vs. Recurring Insight, I playtested both very heavily. In short, Consecrated Sphinx is a bigger target and there's a lot of nukes out there, including creature hate. Recurring Insight doesn't suffer from the same cards that hit creatures and acts as a bomb that triggers twice, both of which are spell casts. In essence, it should net the same amount of cards over 2 full turns, but with less risk involved. I might try both and find something to cut, but I need to decide what I want to drop first.
On the subject of Artifacts, yes, I run a lot. You need to be able to explode and curve into something quick, hence why this deck is designed with that in mind.
There's no doubt that Teferi is an incredibly powerful commander, and it's refreshing to see an ACTUALLY competitive deck built around him. I would enjoy seeing the sparks fly if our decks clashed (fortunately, being in red, I have access to some of the best blue hate cards out there :P)
Um, there's not a whole lot I would suggest (your list is near perfect already IMO)
Maybe Intuition if you have $$ Combos with Snapcaster and Archaeomancer
Future Sight is quite a powerful card and will probably win you the game if you have the Top in play also.
Twincast might grant you some nice utility - it's good with Recurring Insight and extra turn effects - doubles as an anti counter.
You should be able to make use of Gush quite well - it has some crazy utility.
Foil and Mindbreak Trap are the other 2 "free" counters I would suggest - good for those turn 1-3 win attempts.
Hurkyl's Recall lets you reset Sculpting Steel and Metamorph as well as get rid of Mana Vault or Mana Crypt if you need to (or cast them again to profit mana) - it saves your stuff from removal and hoses other decks that rely on artifacts.
Turnabout should be amazing with High Tide and doubles as protection from creatures for a turn. I find it incredibly useful lategame to untap all my artifact ramp - enabling basically another turn.
Consider trying out Call to Mind. I've really enjoyed this simple effect.
I guess that's it.
Hi there!
Thanks for the suggestions, although I must say I did try a ton of these already.
Out of all of those, which would you say are the most important cards to consider? Which ones from my current list would you replace? Why?
I'm curious what you think about Timetwister? Is it not in here for limiting factors such as cost/access or because you just feel like you could be playing better cards for what you are doing? If it is a limiting factor and you could play the card, what would you replace it for? Thanks!
The reason why Timetwister is not in here is yes, due to availability and because of function as a secondary motive. If I need to recycle my wincons, I normally only have to do it once. It also doesn't net me any mana when I play with my mana-doublers either, unlike Time Spiral.
Even if I had the card, a ramp spell or counter would probably be stronger in a deck like this.
Is is possible to do a budget version of this deck, but say that my criteria was only cards equal or under $10 unless a card is core/must-have to the deck?
Sorry, been away for a bit. To say that work got busy is a vast understatement.
I'm not sure if a budget version of this deck is possible, unless you want to drastically reduce the amount of win conditions that you have. All the time-travel cards are used for infinites and for ramp, and the infinite mana stuff needs Palinchron at least. You will be pretty much stuck with Knowledge Pool and Omen Machine.
Not a true tutor but it's one of the few that blue has. With top, you'll be able to get the card that you want in a jiffy. I would say that any card that brings you that much closer to a combo piece is worth considering in the deck. Whether or not it's fast enough to justify deck space over another value card, I'm not sure. So far, I have used it to good effect.
I had a similar deck a while back. I've since disassembled it because it was too dickish.
Some cards you might like: Arcane Laboratory - On it's own, it'll screw with combo players and generally slow down the game a little. But it can also serve as a pseudo alternate for Teferi with Knowledge Pool. However, in that role, it also prevents you from playing spells. Omen Machine - Combined with Teferi, this will limit everyone else at the table to what they have in hand. Not quite a hard lock, but pretty close.
Omen Machine is a card that I've played with a good amount. It wasn't a hard enough lock for me to consider it a win condition, it was just annoying and players often had a thing or two in their hands that could still have interactions with their commander. Arcane Laboratory limits me too much for my liking since this deck also has the ability to combo hard.
Tidespout Tyrant - This card has the potential to be devastating, but I need to have the right cards in my hand to take maximum potential. Countering one card or casting one spell a turn is hardly enough to get a lot of of him. I would need Palinchron in my hand to make this truly worthwhile, but I can see him ending games immediately by himself if both are in my hand at the same time (due to Storm). Is that asking too much?
List looks good and I'm not sure if Tidespout is a good card for you or not but in monoblue I see him most often used to make infinite mana with mana rocks. You repeatedly bounce 2 of your permanents over and over, one that produces enough mana that you net at least 1 per cycle. Mana Vault and Mana Crypt are best for this but Sol Ring and Grim Monolith can be used as well though your options are more limited. Once you get something like Copy Artifact in the mix you have more options. He's fine with Palinchron of course but if you're interested in including the card I'd look at some of his other applications.
If you're aware of this already my apologies but I got the impression from this quote that you were looking at it as a Palinchron enabler when it's a much more versatile infinte mana enabler.
Thank for the post!
I agree that the initial quote resembles that I'm only seeing the value of Tidesprout Tyrant as a game-ender when it's more multi-function than that. The truth is: If I wanted infinite colorless, there are much better options. The biggest one is Power Artifact and that can be tutored with Muddle the Mixture. Rings of Brighthearth is another card that has much value for infinite colorless when combined with Basalt Monolith.
Power Artifact is definitely on that list of cards to try though.
I cut 4 lands and readjusted some permission cards to suit a faster metagame. You can see that in place of 4 lands, I have added some really powerful artifact cards such as Mana Crypt, Mana Vault and Gauntlet of Power. I even cut Lightning Greaves because I just didn't find the time to cast the spell and I felt like casting mana rocks to speed up my game is always better. For the same reason, I cut some of the slower land cards like Maze of Ith simply because it didn't give me any mana. Seat of the Synod didn't work with Gauntlet of Power so it was cut. Halimar Depths was kept because the ability to dig 3 deep in early game is game-changing. Dissipate and his brother Faerie Trickery was dropped for the faster Swan Song and Stifle, and Negate was added for extra protection. Hinder stayed in the deck because it can be re-used with Snapcaster Mage and Archaeomancer. Last, but certainly not least, I decided to break out my beautiful Capture of Jingzhou to aid in tempo creation and overall deck speed.
I think the only problem occurs when competitive and casual players mix. The playgroup needs to be on the same page for games to be fun and interactive. One competitive player with a well-geared deck destroying 3 casuals is no fun.
3/1/14
I made significant changes to the deck to improve mana efficiency, ramp potential and speed. In order to do this, I had to reduce most of the higher cost counterspells, cut down on the amount of permission in general, and add in more Time Warp cards. It was my personal decision to keep Caged Sun in the deck because it literally gives me another win condition should I have Memnarch available.
Crystal Shard I recently dropped for Fellwar Stone. I should probably update that.
As for Consecrated Sphinx vs. Recurring Insight, I playtested both very heavily. In short, Consecrated Sphinx is a bigger target and there's a lot of nukes out there, including creature hate. Recurring Insight doesn't suffer from the same cards that hit creatures and acts as a bomb that triggers twice, both of which are spell casts. In essence, it should net the same amount of cards over 2 full turns, but with less risk involved. I might try both and find something to cut, but I need to decide what I want to drop first.
Bribery hits more than just Consecrated Sphinx in my meta, as I would consider Iona, Shield of Emeria much quicker than another Sphinx.
On the subject of Artifacts, yes, I run a lot. You need to be able to explode and curve into something quick, hence why this deck is designed with that in mind.
EDH: Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
Hi there!
Thanks for the suggestions, although I must say I did try a ton of these already.
Out of all of those, which would you say are the most important cards to consider? Which ones from my current list would you replace? Why?
EDH: Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
The reason why Timetwister is not in here is yes, due to availability and because of function as a secondary motive. If I need to recycle my wincons, I normally only have to do it once. It also doesn't net me any mana when I play with my mana-doublers either, unlike Time Spiral.
Even if I had the card, a ramp spell or counter would probably be stronger in a deck like this.
EDH: Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
Sorry, been away for a bit. To say that work got busy is a vast understatement.
I'm not sure if a budget version of this deck is possible, unless you want to drastically reduce the amount of win conditions that you have. All the time-travel cards are used for infinites and for ramp, and the infinite mana stuff needs Palinchron at least. You will be pretty much stuck with Knowledge Pool and Omen Machine.
EDH: Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
No new changes thus far, deck has been running just as intended.
EDH: Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
Not a true tutor but it's one of the few that blue has. With top, you'll be able to get the card that you want in a jiffy. I would say that any card that brings you that much closer to a combo piece is worth considering in the deck. Whether or not it's fast enough to justify deck space over another value card, I'm not sure. So far, I have used it to good effect.
EDH: Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
Transmute Artifact is better in that regard, much faster and cheaper with the artifacts you already have.
EDH: Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
Omen Machine is a card that I've played with a good amount. It wasn't a hard enough lock for me to consider it a win condition, it was just annoying and players often had a thing or two in their hands that could still have interactions with their commander. Arcane Laboratory limits me too much for my liking since this deck also has the ability to combo hard.
EDH: Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
Minor changes to speed up deck efficiency.
Added:
Drift of Phantasms
Ethereal Usher
Recurring Insight
Removed:
Wash Out
Consecrated Sphinx
Mind Stone
The reason for these changes are simple: Added more Tutors to the deck. Drift of Phantasms finds game-ending cards like Capsize and Fabricate if I have infinite mana. Ethereal Usher is my one-stop shop for Knowledge Pool, although he can find Recurring Insight or Deadeye Navigator should I have the right board scenario. Recurring Insight over Consecrated Sphinx because it digs roughly the same amount on average but is harder to stop. I need that explosive card draw over the creature.
Possible swap: Mind Stone > Negate. I'll play with 1 less mana rock for now and see what happens.
EDH: Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
Thank for the post!
I agree that the initial quote resembles that I'm only seeing the value of Tidesprout Tyrant as a game-ender when it's more multi-function than that. The truth is: If I wanted infinite colorless, there are much better options. The biggest one is Power Artifact and that can be tutored with Muddle the Mixture. Rings of Brighthearth is another card that has much value for infinite colorless when combined with Basalt Monolith.
Power Artifact is definitely on that list of cards to try though.
EDH: Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
Some pretty big changes again, aimed at speeding up the pace of the deck in a cutthroat environment.
-Maze of Ith
-Seat of the Synod
-2x Snow-Covered Island
-Dissipate
-Faerie Trickery
-Spell Crumple
-Lightning Greaves
+Swan Song
+Stifle
+Capture of Jingzhou
+Negate
+Mind Stone
+Mana Crypt
+Mana Vault
+Gauntlet of Power
I cut 4 lands and readjusted some permission cards to suit a faster metagame. You can see that in place of 4 lands, I have added some really powerful artifact cards such as Mana Crypt, Mana Vault and Gauntlet of Power. I even cut Lightning Greaves because I just didn't find the time to cast the spell and I felt like casting mana rocks to speed up my game is always better. For the same reason, I cut some of the slower land cards like Maze of Ith simply because it didn't give me any mana. Seat of the Synod didn't work with Gauntlet of Power so it was cut. Halimar Depths was kept because the ability to dig 3 deep in early game is game-changing. Dissipate and his brother Faerie Trickery was dropped for the faster Swan Song and Stifle, and Negate was added for extra protection. Hinder stayed in the deck because it can be re-used with Snapcaster Mage and Archaeomancer. Last, but certainly not least, I decided to break out my beautiful Capture of Jingzhou to aid in tempo creation and overall deck speed.
EDH: Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
EDH: Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
EDH: Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
I made significant changes to the deck to improve mana efficiency, ramp potential and speed. In order to do this, I had to reduce most of the higher cost counterspells, cut down on the amount of permission in general, and add in more Time Warp cards. It was my personal decision to keep Caged Sun in the deck because it literally gives me another win condition should I have Memnarch available.
Here's what I removed:
Time Stop - Too expensive.
Cryptic Command - Same with the above.
Mindbreak Trap - Same with the above.
Rewind - Same with the above.
Sword of Feast and Famine - Trying for more consistent ramp.
Reins of Power - Removed for more artifact ramp.
Wipe Away - Cut more more Time Warp cards.
Here's what I added:
Counterspell - Cheaper CS
Delay - Same.
Basalt Monolith - Added for ramp.
Grim Monolith - Added for ramp.
Temporal Mastery - The blue ramp.
Temporal Manipulation - Same as the above.
Walk the Aeons - Same.
These changes should also give me a little more play consistency and allow me to ramp harder.
I also find it quite flavorful to add more time-related tricks like Temporal Manipulation and Delay in a deck all about Teferi
EDH: Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
I have made adjustments to my Teferi deck so it's no longer a 1v1 deck.
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/multiplayer-commander-decklists/206256-teferi-mage-of-zhalfir
EDH: Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir