"Death doesn't release you from your obligations to me. You are a plaything for my amusement, a tool for my use in any way I wish, and you will continue to serve me in this life and the next." - Teysa, Orzhov Scion
Thanks to Nakamura for the Great Banner
Vorthos - Under the facade of an organized religion, the Orzhov hold the economic reins of Ravnica. No matter how poor a person is, the Orzhov will benevolently offer whatever that person needs to survive. They remember who owes them, however, and every person who makes a deal with a member of this guild will have to repay that debt someday, even after death. Like some form of magical Mafia, the Orzhov use the resources taken from their debtors to finance whatever interests the Guild requires, though making sure that none of their "cattle" come to be free from their grip.
All my decks try to adhere to these guidelines:
1) Be able to win.
2) Be mostly true to a flavor and a theme.
3) Be fun to pilot or to play against and interactive.
4) Have multiple paths to victory.
5) Have lots of cool interactions and synergy.
6) Play out differently every game to keep it fun over a long time.
7) Be streamlined and fast to play without excessive upkeep, time-consuming play or overcomplicated boardstates.
8) Integrate the Commanders abilities into the strategy at least a little, but be able to win without ever playing the commander.
How does it play:
The deck plays as a hybrid Stax, Control and Token deck, generating lots of sac fodder to be used in whichever way pleases Teysa at the moment (card advantage, removal, pumped attackers, whatever). It wins by being very resilient with lots of recursion and abuse of etb/ltb abilities to win long attrition wars with beatdown or by Lark/Guide combo to kill the table with Blasting Station. They could alternately go infinite mana with Ashnod's Altar and finish off players with Exsanguinate.
I've kept the utility land count kind of low in order to keep the Plains count high and use Emeria, the Sky Ruin.
I know I'm in the minority, but even in multiplayer edh I usually prefer heavy spot removal over sweepers, especially when I'm using lots of tokens. I always include a couple sweepers though.
Mindslicer:
There's a trick to getting value out of Mindslicer. Play him just before playing a stax effect like Sheoldred, Whispering One or Braids, Cabal Minion. With the stax card on the stack, sacrifice Mindslicer causing everyone to discard, this way, your opponents will have a hard time removing/dealing with the stax effect, and you will have a stocked graveyard to rebuild your resources.
Corpse Dance Craziness:
Amazing recursion if you use it correctly. You need a sac outlet in play so the creature it recurs can be sacced off and go to the graveyard instead of being removed from the game. Always have enough mana for the buyback cost unless it's an emergency.
Mangara Trick:
Mangara of Corondor is great re-useable removal in this deck. Just make sure you have a sac outlet in play. Put her ability on the stack, then sac her off so she goes to the gy instead of being removed from play. Now you can do it again, and again.
Lark/Guide Combo:
Reveillark plus Karmic Guide plus any repeatable sac outlet make for some great stuff.
Blasting Station - Gives you infinite damage to kill the table with
Ashnod's Altar - Gives you infinite mana for a Profane Command, Exsanguinate, or Death Grasp
Altar of Dementia - Mill the table
Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter - Sweep all opposing creatures, swing for fatal.
Add Suture Priest to any of the above for infinite lifegain.
Su-Chi + Ashnod's Altar + Corpse Dance = a ton of Grave Pact or Suture Priest triggers.
Su-Chi + Vish Kal + Corpse Dance = lots of removal and a big vamp.
lots of possibilities here.
Nim Deathmantle Shenanigans:
Nim Deathmantle plus Ashnod's Altar plus any creature that brings at least two tokens into play with it = Infinite Tokens and Mana. The creature could be Grave Titan, Skeletal Vampire, Knight-Captain of Eos, Cloudgoat Ranger, Marsh Flitter, or Wurmcoil Engine (though I chose not to run wurmcoil),
Deathmantle plus Karmic Guide = KG kills itself every upkeep, pay 4, get KG and another creature back every upkeep.
Deathmantle/Altar Quad Combo:
Expanding on the Triangle, if your recursion is Deathmantle and your sac outlet is Ashnods, add in Karmic Guide plus:
Archon of Justice or Angel of Despair = Destroy every permanent on the board that you don't own.
Yosei, the Morning Star = Lock out the entire table
The Slow Grind:
A big part of the deck is slowly grinding down your opponents resources. On our side, we minimize the effect with recursion and lots of tokens/sac fodder, then we amplify the effect to our opponents with cards like Grave Pact and Martyr's Bond, and profit from the sacrifice with cards like Skullclamp. A well-timed sacrifice of Mindslicer can be the nail in everyone's coffin.
Herald of Leshrac = Interesting option that takes advantage of World Queller or Claws of Gix plus Martyr's Bond to quickly wear away at the opponents land base. And he recurs with Reveillark
I've been playing combo teysa for a while now and there are a few cards I consider to be staples.
-Entomb and buried alive - these cards will speed up your deck tremendously. Entomb is especially bonkers in a deck with so much recursion.
-Stoneforge Mystic - This is like skullclamp number 2. And Skullclamp is the best card in the deck.
I've been playing combo teysa for a while now and there are a few cards I consider to be staples.
-Entomb and buried alive - these cards will speed up your deck tremendously. Entomb is especially bonkers in a deck with so much recursion.
-Stoneforge Mystic - This is like skullclamp number 2. And Skullclamp is the best card in the deck.
I agree on skullclamp being so good. I'll definitely give Stoneforge a test run if I can get a copy. She could always fetch Deathmantle too if I already have the clamp.
I used to run a dedicated 1v1 build of Teysa that used Buried Alive and Entomb (along with more recursion) and heavier combo, but I'm just a bit iffy on using them with this particular multiplayer build. There's a lot of grave hate at my shop. I'll still keep them in mind though.
Thanks for this great build. I'm putting this Dominatrix Deck together now. (love the name:-)) I used to run a Teysa deck that was much more controllish - ran 6 or 7 sweepers, Ensnaring Bridge, and Moat. What do you think of Land Tax instead of Weathered Wayfarer?
Thanks for this great build. I'm putting this Dominatrix Deck together now. (love the name:-)) I used to run a Teysa deck that was much more controllish - ran 6 or 7 sweepers, Ensnaring Bridge, and Moat. What do you think of Land Tax instead of Weathered Wayfarer?
Glad you like it.
I like Land Tax, it's great for multiplayer and I'd include it, but Wayfarer lets you get any land, not just basics. It can get you:
Kor Haven or Maze of Ith - if you need the defense
Reliquary Tower - if you're drawing a lot
Strip Mine - if you need to kill a land
Emeria, the Sky Ruin - Which is a BOMB in this deck.
Emeria is the whole reason I'm not running more non-plains utility lands, it's that good.
Land Tax is great for insuring your plains drops, but I'd take out darksteel ingot before I'd take out Wayfarer.
Corpse Dance is amazing as long as you've got a sac outlet so you don't have to rfg the creature.
Mangara is the same. You can put her ability on the stack and sac her so she goes to the gy and you can re-use her next turn. Especially good with a buyback Corpse dance every turn as it gives her haste.
First I wanna thank you blackjack68 for all the work you have put into your lists. I really have found them useful as I'm very fond of orzhov as well.
I'm going to get a deck together for sure and am probably gonna use your lists as a skeleton for mine. What I would like to know is what the biggest differences of your Teysa and your GCO deck are as well as if there are any differences in competetiveness. From my untrained eyes it looks to me that Teysa has more diversity while GCO is more refined.
Glad you like the decks, it's always nice to hear.
The difference between my GCO and Teysa isn't a lot, only about 12 non-land cards.
1) The land bases take a different approach: GCOs land tries to add as much utility as possible, where Teysa keeps the utility lands somewhat low to maintain a high Plains count for using Emeria, the Sky Ruin. But honestly, either style goes very well in either deck, they aren't specific to the build, I just wanted to take a different approach between the two.
2) The other difference is that Teyas focuses more on token generation to maximize the benefits of both her abilities when she is in play. And since she makes a lot of tokens, pump is more useful with cards like Elesh Norn.
Competitiveness - Tough to say, but I've had more luck with GCO.
Playstyle - Teysa is more a working part of her deck than GCO is. GCO is just a dependable sac outlet most of the time. She could pilot GCOs deck just fine as well. I personally don't enjoy keeping track of a lot of tokens though, so that swings it in GCOs favor for me a little.
Drawing Hate - Teysa draws a lot more fire from other players than GCO does. Players generally do not want her to stick around long because of her ability to directly kill one of their creatures, where they don't see GCO as much of a threat, just a minor annoyance. GCO can be really hard to kill too, so a lot of the time they just won't try.
With Teysa, I like to try and keep her in play most of the time so that dying tokens make more tokens, but I'll leave GCO in the command zone unless he's really needed. There are lots of games that end with him never seeing play.
I should add that the one card you really want with Teysa is Tombstone Stairwell. It's insane. Everyone gets to put in tokens that die, but you get replacements when they do from Teysa who can then use them for removal. You can clamp them for draw, or use them to pump the bejeesus out of Vish Kal.
Yet again, amazing deck list BlackJack. Your deck building skills are quite amazing and it's always fun to see the combos and reasoning behind your lists. Job well done.
I'm still pretty new to Magic, but I really like the Orzhov synergies, plus they just have a lot of cool cards from a flavor/art standpoint. One question, its a pretty expensive card, but have you thought about putting in Karakas, for its combo with Mangara of Corondor?
I'm still pretty new to Magic, but I really like the Orzhov synergies, plus they just have a lot of cool cards from a flavor/art standpoint. One question, its a pretty expensive card, but have you thought about putting in Karakas, for its combo with Mangara of Corondor?
It would be good, but it's banned. The official list is here under deck construction.
It would be good, but it's banned. The official list is here under deck construction.
People follow different list, that response is common, I forgive you. Don't play generals who need to be on the board and land destruction for defense. Problem solved, also it's really smart strategy.
The combo potential looks pretty good. Looks like he could be doing a lot of harm with pact effects, a sac outlet and Corpse Dance too. You could re-cast/sac him several times in a turn easily.
It's worth a try I think. He may be even better in my Vish Kal deck as well.
Vish + Su + Corpse Dance = Good times
Vish + Su + Deathmantle = Infi good times
plus that deck uses Suture Priest to further profit from the shenanigans (this deck probably should too).
You defintiely got me thinkin'. Nice find.
p.s. - I chuckled on "hear me out". That's almost always followed by a horrible suggestion, but this one has merit. I just added the combo to the tips/tricks/combos section and credited you.
Did you find any cards from the new set that you put in or have potential? I feel like there's so much, I can't even make choices
Well, Army of the Damned is a given! I haven't had time to do any testing, I'm still busy trying out all the new stuff in my other (cardboard) decks. Sadly, Teysa is always the last of my decks to get updated.
Is there a particular reason you push so strongly for Emeria, the Sky Ruin in this deck and not in your GCO build? Obviously the card is nuts in any kind of sac/recur deck, but is it more nuts here than with GCO? The mana base is really getting stretched to accommodate all those extra Plains.
Is there a particular reason you push so strongly for Emeria, the Sky Ruin in this deck and not in your GCO build? Obviously the card is nuts in any kind of sac/recur deck, but is it more nuts here than with GCO? The mana base is really getting stretched to accommodate all those extra Plains.
I just wanted the two decks to take different approaches to give me some variety is all. Ghost Council is my primary deck, and though Emeria is amazing, I feel that it's stronger/more versatile to go without it and just pack a ton of good utility lands. I think either approach is worthwhile though, I've had luck with both.
I'm thinking great on both counts, in fact, I'll add them both to the "to be auditioned" list. I wish Geist put in black creatures instead of white, but I'll still take it. She combos with Ashnods/Deathmantle for infinite mana and infinite tokens at the same time.
I just wanted the two decks to take different approaches to give me some variety is all. Ghost Council is my primary deck, and though Emeria is amazing, I feel that it's stronger/more versatile to go without it and just pack a ton of good utility lands. I think either approach is worthwhile though, I've had luck with both.
I'm thinking great on both counts, in fact, I'll add them both to the "to be auditioned" list. I wish Geist put in black creatures instead of white, but I'll still take it. She combos with Ashnods/Deathmantle for infinite mana and infinite tokens at the same time.
Monk also works with Revilark which is why i am including her in my Teysa list on top of her token synergy. Just thought id get your opinion as im just now investing in making my own Teysa pile.
I've recently found one card to be extremely useful in a Teysa deck - I'm talking about Thoughtpicker Witch. If you haven't tried or considered it yet, I strongly recommend this creature. It can put a beautiful lock on the board if you just leave lands or harmless spells for them to draw and in the worst case she can remove a few really pesky cards from their libraries.
Hmmm i forgot all about her, i think she could be useful as a fate seal type card, tho i think shes much better for duals it has its uses in multiplayer as well. ill have to see about using her.
'Please, Lady, destroy the world for us', they pleaded. All but one agreed that things had gotten gravely out of hand. Lord Rafiq put his forth his viewpoint eloquently, as well. 'If you refrain from this hideous act, I can grant you life everlasting, Lady. I beg you, do not do this.'
'Don't worry', Teysa whispered almost lovingly, 'You won't feel a thing, and, I'm sure you'll grow to appreciate my point of view.'
I love your decklist Blackjack68! Both this and your Ghost Council list!
I will probably end up making my own versions of both (using Teysa as the core, and then buying a list of cards so I can easily 'swap' between the two versions).
I have some questions for you however! I'd like to make my version of Teysa more focused on tokens - both saccing them for utility and going into the red zone. That way Teysa and Ghost Council would differ even more in play-styles (though it would probably also make Ghost Council even more strong that Teysa). So I'd like your opinions on some cards that I would implement into your Teysa to achieve this
What do you think of these cards to change the focus of Teysa more to tokens:
Also, have you considered any other cards if you were to make this "transition" into tokens?
Thanks a bunch for making your Orzhov decks, they're really awesome! I hope you'll find time to take a look at my questions and later my deck when it's developed
Sorin, Lord of Innistrad (seems extremely good) Very excited to see an Orzhov Planeswalker! Makes tokens, pumps everything permanently without raising tokens/ghast/etc toughness so they can still be skullclamped, and has a great "ultimate".
Need to test it out, see how he stacks up against Elspeth.
Archdemon of Unx (I dunno... I guess all he'll do is potentially making your 1/1's into 2/2's?) Weve got better options
Alliance of Arms (seems pretty darn awesome, since you have bigger tokens that can be used for lots of stuff). Potentially great, potentially very underwhelming. Worth testing.
Army of the Damned (seems good to say the least) Auto Include now! I just haven't had time to update the decklist.
Bloodline Keeper (steady token gen? how important is that?) Breeding Pit (again, is slow but steady good enough?)
Both of those I think are ok but we've got better.
Conqueror's Pledge (it seems to be at least good as army of the damned, doesn't it?) Absolutely!
Hero of Bladehold (to vulnerable to attack with maybe?) Conditionally good, just probably not enough to make the cut imo.
Hour of Reckoning (an auto-include if I want to swing, right?)
I don't know about this one. I've never tried it, but it seems like it could end up being just a bad sweeper.
Luminarch Ascension (seems good for everything except it paints a gigantic target on your forehead) Agree completely.
White Sun's Zenith (again, are these insta-make a bunch of token cards good enough?) In some cases yes, you just don't want too many of them. I really want my token creators to have added value.
Hmm, OK. Thanks a bunch for your answers. I only have the possibility to check out the various options in duel for now. I'll do that in the coming week probably and tell you how it went.
I don't have the possibility to check out the DA cards yet of course, but it's no trouble grabbing a couple of them when the set comes out.
Twilight Drover - Definitely worth a try.
It might just be me, but it seems that 2 tokens for three mana every time we sac a token is a pretty sweet deal! And with a mana-loop it's a infinity/infinity guy + infinity tokens!
Great deck btw - am putting it together irl to try it for myself
Just a quick question....
Have you ever considered Su-Chi for the deck?...
Hear me out.. at the worst, its a 4/4 for 4 vanilla creature that when it dies, nets you 4 colourless mana..(searchable by Enlightened Tutor)
Vorthos - Under the facade of an organized religion, the Orzhov hold the economic reins of Ravnica. No matter how poor a person is, the Orzhov will benevolently offer whatever that person needs to survive. They remember who owes them, however, and every person who makes a deal with a member of this guild will have to repay that debt someday, even after death. Like some form of magical Mafia, the Orzhov use the resources taken from their debtors to finance whatever interests the Guild requires, though making sure that none of their "cattle" come to be free from their grip.
All my decks try to adhere to these guidelines:
1) Be able to win.
2) Be mostly true to a flavor and a theme.
3) Be fun to pilot or to play against and interactive.
4) Have multiple paths to victory.
5) Have lots of cool interactions and synergy.
6) Play out differently every game to keep it fun over a long time.
7) Be streamlined and fast to play without excessive upkeep, time-consuming play or overcomplicated boardstates.
8) Integrate the Commanders abilities into the strategy at least a little, but be able to win without ever playing the commander.
How does it play:
The deck plays as a hybrid Stax, Control and Token deck, generating lots of sac fodder to be used in whichever way pleases Teysa at the moment (card advantage, removal, pumped attackers, whatever). It wins by being very resilient with lots of recursion and abuse of etb/ltb abilities to win long attrition wars with beatdown or by Lark/Guide combo to kill the table with Blasting Station. They could alternately go infinite mana with Ashnod's Altar and finish off players with Exsanguinate.
Deckstats:
Avg CMC = 3.68
Approx Value = $227
1 Teysa, Orzhov Scion
Mana Lands:
15 Plains
11 Swamp
1 Caves of Koilos
1 Command Tower
1 Fetid Heath
1 Godless Shrine
1 Orzhov Guildgate
1 Marsh Flats
Utility Lands:
1 High Market (sac outlet)
1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin (recursion)
1 Mistveil Plains
1 Petrified Field (recur Emeria)
1 Phyrexian Tower (sac outlet)
1 Reliquary Tower
Mana Help:
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Expedition Map (tutor)
1 Fellwar Stone
1 Kor Cartographer
1 Orzhov Keyrune
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Solemn Simulacrum (+draw)
1 Sol Ring
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
1 Weathered Wayfarer (tutor)
1 Elspeth Tirel (tokens)
1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad (tokens & pump)
Token Makers & Sac Fodder:
1 Belfry Spirit
1 Bitterblossom
1 Bloodghast
1 Grave Titan
1 Knight-Captain of Eos (plus defense)
1 Nether Traitor
1 Skeletal Vampire
1 Trading Post (recursion, draw, lifegain)
Removal:
1 Abyssal Gatekeeper
1 Angel of Despair
1 Austere Command
1 Barter in Blood
1 Braids, Cabal Minion
1 Butcher of Malakir
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Grave Pact
1 Herald of Leshrac (land grind mini combo)
1 Mangara of Corondor
1 Martial Coup (plus tokens)
1 Martyr's Bond
1 Sheoldred, Whispering One (plus recursion)
1 Smokestack
1 Vindicate
1 World Queller
1 Academy Rector
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Buried Alive
Card Draw/Smoothing:
1 Mentor of the Meek
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Skullclamp
Other Sac Outlets:
1 Ashnod's Altar (Sac Outlet, Lark/Guide Combo, Deathmantle Combo)
1 Blasting Station (Sac Outlet, Lark/Guide Combo)
1 Claws of Gix (sac outlet)
1 Viscera Seer (scry)
1 Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter (lifegain, removal, beater)
Recursion:
1 Beacon of Unrest
1 Corpse Dance
1 Grim Discovery
1 Karmic Guide
1 Nim Deathmantle
1 Reveillark
1 Sun Titan
Misc:
1 Eldrazi Monument (win)
1 Blood Artist
1 Darkest Hour
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite (removal and pump, beater)
1 Mindslicer
1 Kokusho, the Evening Star (lifegain/drain)
.
.
Other Considerations:
- Angelic Renewal
- Descent into Madness
- Tombstone Stairwell
- Marshal's Anthem
- Abyssal Persecutor
..
Notes, and some good/interesting plays/synergies:
I've kept the utility land count kind of low in order to keep the Plains count high and use Emeria, the Sky Ruin.
I know I'm in the minority, but even in multiplayer edh I usually prefer heavy spot removal over sweepers, especially when I'm using lots of tokens. I always include a couple sweepers though.
Mindslicer:
There's a trick to getting value out of Mindslicer. Play him just before playing a stax effect like Sheoldred, Whispering One or Braids, Cabal Minion. With the stax card on the stack, sacrifice Mindslicer causing everyone to discard, this way, your opponents will have a hard time removing/dealing with the stax effect, and you will have a stocked graveyard to rebuild your resources.
Corpse Dance Craziness:
Amazing recursion if you use it correctly. You need a sac outlet in play so the creature it recurs can be sacced off and go to the graveyard instead of being removed from the game. Always have enough mana for the buyback cost unless it's an emergency.
Corpse Dance + Sac Outlet +:
Angel of Despair or Archon of Justice or Mangara of Corondor = Kill any permanent every turn. If your sac outlet adds mana like Phyrexian Tower or Ashnod's Altar, you might be able to get it off twice in a turn.
Karmic Guide or Reveillark = Lots and lots of recursion.
Yosei, the Morning Star = Lock one player out of the game. Lock out two if you've got the mana.
Kokusho, the Evening Star = Continuous direct life loss/gain.
Lots of options available here.
Mangara Trick:
Mangara of Corondor is great re-useable removal in this deck. Just make sure you have a sac outlet in play. Put her ability on the stack, then sac her off so she goes to the gy instead of being removed from play. Now you can do it again, and again.
Lark/Guide Combo:
Reveillark plus Karmic Guide plus any repeatable sac outlet make for some great stuff.
Blasting Station - Gives you infinite damage to kill the table with
Ashnod's Altar - Gives you infinite mana for a Profane Command, Exsanguinate, or Death Grasp
Altar of Dementia - Mill the table
Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter - Sweep all opposing creatures, swing for fatal.
Su-Chi Combo: (thanks to Byrningangel)
Su-Chi + Blasting Station + Nim Deathmantle = Kill the table
Su-Chi + Ashnod's Altar + Nim Deathmantle = Infi Mana
Su-Chi + Vish Kal + Nim Deathmantle = Infinite Removal and Huge Lifelinking Vamp
Add Suture Priest to any of the above for infinite lifegain.
Su-Chi + Ashnod's Altar + Corpse Dance = a ton of Grave Pact or Suture Priest triggers.
Su-Chi + Vish Kal + Corpse Dance = lots of removal and a big vamp.
lots of possibilities here.
Nim Deathmantle Shenanigans:
Nim Deathmantle plus Ashnod's Altar plus any creature that brings at least two tokens into play with it = Infinite Tokens and Mana. The creature could be Grave Titan, Skeletal Vampire, Knight-Captain of Eos, Cloudgoat Ranger, Marsh Flitter, or Wurmcoil Engine (though I chose not to run wurmcoil),
Deathmantle plus Karmic Guide = KG kills itself every upkeep, pay 4, get KG and another creature back every upkeep.
The Triangle Choke:
You need 3 pieces:
1) A sac outlet
2) An ongoing recursion piece (Sheoldred, Whispering One, Debtors' Knell, Nim Deathmantle, Corpse Dance, Emeria, the Sky Ruin)
3) An etb/ltb baddie:
Archon of Justice or Angel of Despair = Vindicate every turn.
Yosei, the Morning Star can be sacrificed every turn and recurred to lock out a single player, or multiple players if you have enough mana available. Using Ashnod's Altar as a sac outlet can stretch this quite a way.
Deathmantle/Altar Quad Combo:
Expanding on the Triangle, if your recursion is Deathmantle and your sac outlet is Ashnods, add in Karmic Guide plus:
Archon of Justice or Angel of Despair = Destroy every permanent on the board that you don't own.
Yosei, the Morning Star = Lock out the entire table
The Slow Grind:
A big part of the deck is slowly grinding down your opponents resources. On our side, we minimize the effect with recursion and lots of tokens/sac fodder, then we amplify the effect to our opponents with cards like Grave Pact and Martyr's Bond, and profit from the sacrifice with cards like Skullclamp. A well-timed sacrifice of Mindslicer can be the nail in everyone's coffin.
The "grind" cards:
- Braids, Cabal Minion
- World Queller
- Smokestack
- Descent into Madness
- Call to the Grave
Herald of Leshrac = Interesting option that takes advantage of World Queller or Claws of Gix plus Martyr's Bond to quickly wear away at the opponents land base. And he recurs with ReveillarkBanner by Nakamura, Thanks!
EDH Math
EDH Decks:
Ghost Council: The Magic Mafia of Orzhova
BB Drana: Down with the Sickness
Rasputin: Reality is Broken
Vish Kal Bleeder: Bloody Kisses
Teysa, Orzhov Dominatrix
Stonebrow: Breaking Things
BWR Kaalia Punisher: Heaven's on Fire
Grimgrin: Dead Reckoning
-Entomb and buried alive - these cards will speed up your deck tremendously. Entomb is especially bonkers in a deck with so much recursion.
-Stoneforge Mystic - This is like skullclamp number 2. And Skullclamp is the best card in the deck.
I agree on skullclamp being so good. I'll definitely give Stoneforge a test run if I can get a copy. She could always fetch Deathmantle too if I already have the clamp.
I used to run a dedicated 1v1 build of Teysa that used Buried Alive and Entomb (along with more recursion) and heavier combo, but I'm just a bit iffy on using them with this particular multiplayer build. There's a lot of grave hate at my shop. I'll still keep them in mind though.
Banner by Nakamura, Thanks!
EDH Math
EDH Decks:
Ghost Council: The Magic Mafia of Orzhova
BB Drana: Down with the Sickness
Rasputin: Reality is Broken
Vish Kal Bleeder: Bloody Kisses
Teysa, Orzhov Dominatrix
Stonebrow: Breaking Things
BWR Kaalia Punisher: Heaven's on Fire
Grimgrin: Dead Reckoning
If so, ill have a funny title in <400 posts
Nice deck as well, DarkKnave60+8
540 Peasant cube- Gold EditionSomething SpicyWB Ayli, Eternal Recursion WB - GUPir and Toothy GU - WBR Mathas, Fiend SeekerWBR
Glad you like it.
I like Land Tax, it's great for multiplayer and I'd include it, but Wayfarer lets you get any land, not just basics. It can get you:
Kor Haven or Maze of Ith - if you need the defense
Reliquary Tower - if you're drawing a lot
Strip Mine - if you need to kill a land
Emeria, the Sky Ruin - Which is a BOMB in this deck.
Emeria is the whole reason I'm not running more non-plains utility lands, it's that good.
Land Tax is great for insuring your plains drops, but I'd take out darksteel ingot before I'd take out Wayfarer.
I just updated the list swapping out Crystal Ball, Rend Flesh, and Beacon of Unrest for Solemn Simulacrum, Mangara of Corondor and Corpse Dance.
Corpse Dance is amazing as long as you've got a sac outlet so you don't have to rfg the creature.
Mangara is the same. You can put her ability on the stack and sac her so she goes to the gy and you can re-use her next turn. Especially good with a buyback Corpse dance every turn as it gives her haste.
Banner by Nakamura, Thanks!
EDH Math
EDH Decks:
Ghost Council: The Magic Mafia of Orzhova
BB Drana: Down with the Sickness
Rasputin: Reality is Broken
Vish Kal Bleeder: Bloody Kisses
Teysa, Orzhov Dominatrix
Stonebrow: Breaking Things
BWR Kaalia Punisher: Heaven's on Fire
Grimgrin: Dead Reckoning
Glad you like the decks, it's always nice to hear.
The difference between my GCO and Teysa isn't a lot, only about 12 non-land cards.
1) The land bases take a different approach: GCOs land tries to add as much utility as possible, where Teysa keeps the utility lands somewhat low to maintain a high Plains count for using Emeria, the Sky Ruin. But honestly, either style goes very well in either deck, they aren't specific to the build, I just wanted to take a different approach between the two.
2) The other difference is that Teyas focuses more on token generation to maximize the benefits of both her abilities when she is in play. And since she makes a lot of tokens, pump is more useful with cards like Elesh Norn.
Competitiveness - Tough to say, but I've had more luck with GCO.
Playstyle - Teysa is more a working part of her deck than GCO is. GCO is just a dependable sac outlet most of the time. She could pilot GCOs deck just fine as well. I personally don't enjoy keeping track of a lot of tokens though, so that swings it in GCOs favor for me a little.
Drawing Hate - Teysa draws a lot more fire from other players than GCO does. Players generally do not want her to stick around long because of her ability to directly kill one of their creatures, where they don't see GCO as much of a threat, just a minor annoyance. GCO can be really hard to kill too, so a lot of the time they just won't try.
With Teysa, I like to try and keep her in play most of the time so that dying tokens make more tokens, but I'll leave GCO in the command zone unless he's really needed. There are lots of games that end with him never seeing play.
I should add that the one card you really want with Teysa is Tombstone Stairwell. It's insane. Everyone gets to put in tokens that die, but you get replacements when they do from Teysa who can then use them for removal. You can clamp them for draw, or use them to pump the bejeesus out of Vish Kal.
Hope that helps.
- Cheers
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EDH Math
EDH Decks:
Ghost Council: The Magic Mafia of Orzhova
BB Drana: Down with the Sickness
Rasputin: Reality is Broken
Vish Kal Bleeder: Bloody Kisses
Teysa, Orzhov Dominatrix
Stonebrow: Breaking Things
BWR Kaalia Punisher: Heaven's on Fire
Grimgrin: Dead Reckoning
EDH
WB Teysa, Orzhov Scion
It would be good, but it's banned. The official list is here under deck construction.
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EDH Math
EDH Decks:
Ghost Council: The Magic Mafia of Orzhova
BB Drana: Down with the Sickness
Rasputin: Reality is Broken
Vish Kal Bleeder: Bloody Kisses
Teysa, Orzhov Dominatrix
Stonebrow: Breaking Things
BWR Kaalia Punisher: Heaven's on Fire
Grimgrin: Dead Reckoning
People follow different list, that response is common, I forgive you. Don't play generals who need to be on the board and land destruction for defense. Problem solved, also it's really smart strategy.
EDH
BWG Doran Suicide Tempo BWG
BUW Sharuum Midrange Control BUW
The combo potential looks pretty good. Looks like he could be doing a lot of harm with pact effects, a sac outlet and Corpse Dance too. You could re-cast/sac him several times in a turn easily.
It's worth a try I think. He may be even better in my Vish Kal deck as well.
Vish + Su + Corpse Dance = Good times
Vish + Su + Deathmantle = Infi good times
plus that deck uses Suture Priest to further profit from the shenanigans (this deck probably should too).
You defintiely got me thinkin'. Nice find.
p.s. - I chuckled on "hear me out". That's almost always followed by a horrible suggestion, but this one has merit. I just added the combo to the tips/tricks/combos section and credited you.
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EDH Math
EDH Decks:
Ghost Council: The Magic Mafia of Orzhova
BB Drana: Down with the Sickness
Rasputin: Reality is Broken
Vish Kal Bleeder: Bloody Kisses
Teysa, Orzhov Dominatrix
Stonebrow: Breaking Things
BWR Kaalia Punisher: Heaven's on Fire
Grimgrin: Dead Reckoning
EDH
WB Teysa, Orzhov Scion
Well, Army of the Damned is a given! I haven't had time to do any testing, I'm still busy trying out all the new stuff in my other (cardboard) decks. Sadly, Teysa is always the last of my decks to get updated.
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EDH Math
EDH Decks:
Ghost Council: The Magic Mafia of Orzhova
BB Drana: Down with the Sickness
Rasputin: Reality is Broken
Vish Kal Bleeder: Bloody Kisses
Teysa, Orzhov Dominatrix
Stonebrow: Breaking Things
BWR Kaalia Punisher: Heaven's on Fire
Grimgrin: Dead Reckoning
I just wanted the two decks to take different approaches to give me some variety is all. Ghost Council is my primary deck, and though Emeria is amazing, I feel that it's stronger/more versatile to go without it and just pack a ton of good utility lands. I think either approach is worthwhile though, I've had luck with both.
I'm thinking great on both counts, in fact, I'll add them both to the "to be auditioned" list. I wish Geist put in black creatures instead of white, but I'll still take it. She combos with Ashnods/Deathmantle for infinite mana and infinite tokens at the same time.
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EDH Math
EDH Decks:
Ghost Council: The Magic Mafia of Orzhova
BB Drana: Down with the Sickness
Rasputin: Reality is Broken
Vish Kal Bleeder: Bloody Kisses
Teysa, Orzhov Dominatrix
Stonebrow: Breaking Things
BWR Kaalia Punisher: Heaven's on Fire
Grimgrin: Dead Reckoning
Monk also works with Revilark which is why i am including her in my Teysa list on top of her token synergy. Just thought id get your opinion as im just now investing in making my own Teysa pile.
Hmmm i forgot all about her, i think she could be useful as a fate seal type card, tho i think shes much better for duals it has its uses in multiplayer as well. ill have to see about using her.
'Don't worry', Teysa whispered almost lovingly, 'You won't feel a thing, and, I'm sure you'll grow to appreciate my point of view.'
WB Ayli, Eternal Recursion WB - GUPir and Toothy GU - WBR Mathas, Fiend SeekerWBR
WB Ayli, Eternal Recursion WB - GUPir and Toothy GU - WBR Mathas, Fiend SeekerWBR
I will probably end up making my own versions of both (using Teysa as the core, and then buying a list of cards so I can easily 'swap' between the two versions).
I have some questions for you however! I'd like to make my version of Teysa more focused on tokens - both saccing them for utility and going into the red zone. That way Teysa and Ghost Council would differ even more in play-styles (though it would probably also make Ghost Council even more strong that Teysa). So I'd like your opinions on some cards that I would implement into your Teysa to achieve this
What do you think of these cards to change the focus of Teysa more to tokens:
Ajani Goldmane (seems... OK?)
Elspeth Tirel (seems really good)
Sorin, Lord of Innistrad (seems extremely good)
Archdemon of Unx (I dunno... I guess all he'll do is potentially making your 1/1's into 2/2's?)
Alliance of Arms (seems pretty darn awesome, since you have bigger tokens that can be used for lots of stuff)
Army of the Damned (seems good to say the least)
Bloodline Keeper (steady token gen? how important is that?)
Breeding Pit (again, is slow but steady good enough?)
Conqueror's Pledge (it seems to be at least good as army of the damned, doesn't it?)
Hero of Bladehold (to vulnerable to attack with maybe?)
Hour of Reckoning (an auto-include if I want to swing, right?)
Luminarch Ascension (seems good for everything except it paints a gigantic target on your forehead)
Twilight Drover (THE GOLDMINE? :D)
White Sun's Zenith (again, are these insta-make a bunch of token cards good enough?)
Increasing Devotion (newly spoiled, seems pretty good!
Also, have you considered any other cards if you were to make this "transition" into tokens?
Thanks a bunch for making your Orzhov decks, they're really awesome! I hope you'll find time to take a look at my questions and later my deck when it's developed
PS. Why no Identity Crisis in your decks?
Cool, thanks. I hope they're as enjoyable for you as they have been for me.
Ajani Goldmane (seems... OK?) I'd put him at "ok/decent" Definitely doable.
Elspeth Tirel (seems really good) Agreed
Sorin, Lord of Innistrad (seems extremely good) Very excited to see an Orzhov Planeswalker! Makes tokens, pumps everything permanently without raising tokens/ghast/etc toughness so they can still be skullclamped, and has a great "ultimate".
Need to test it out, see how he stacks up against Elspeth.
Archdemon of Unx (I dunno... I guess all he'll do is potentially making your 1/1's into 2/2's?) Weve got better options
Alliance of Arms (seems pretty darn awesome, since you have bigger tokens that can be used for lots of stuff). Potentially great, potentially very underwhelming. Worth testing.
Army of the Damned (seems good to say the least) Auto Include now! I just haven't had time to update the decklist.
Bloodline Keeper (steady token gen? how important is that?)
Breeding Pit (again, is slow but steady good enough?)
Both of those I think are ok but we've got better.
Conqueror's Pledge (it seems to be at least good as army of the damned, doesn't it?) Absolutely!
Hero of Bladehold (to vulnerable to attack with maybe?) Conditionally good, just probably not enough to make the cut imo.
Hour of Reckoning (an auto-include if I want to swing, right?)
I don't know about this one. I've never tried it, but it seems like it could end up being just a bad sweeper.
Luminarch Ascension (seems good for everything except it paints a gigantic target on your forehead) Agree completely.
Twilight Drover (THE GOLDMINE? :D) Definitely worth a try.
White Sun's Zenith (again, are these insta-make a bunch of token cards good enough?) In some cases yes, you just don't want too many of them. I really want my token creators to have added value.
Increasing Devotion (newly spoiled, seems pretty good! Interesting. Probably worth a slot.
PS. Why no Identity Crisis in your decks?[/quote] I've run it, it just usually ended up getting cut. I like Necromancer's Covenant better for tokens.
Plenty of good possibilities out there. Good luck!
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EDH Math
EDH Decks:
Ghost Council: The Magic Mafia of Orzhova
BB Drana: Down with the Sickness
Rasputin: Reality is Broken
Vish Kal Bleeder: Bloody Kisses
Teysa, Orzhov Dominatrix
Stonebrow: Breaking Things
BWR Kaalia Punisher: Heaven's on Fire
Grimgrin: Dead Reckoning
I don't have the possibility to check out the DA cards yet of course, but it's no trouble grabbing a couple of them when the set comes out.
It might just be me, but it seems that 2 tokens for three mana every time we sac a token is a pretty sweet deal! And with a mana-loop it's a infinity/infinity guy + infinity tokens!
Here is an idea to go with the infinate Su-Chi - Ashnod's Altar - Nim Deathmantle combo.
Mill your opponents Bitter Ordeal