MTG Salvation

Hello, and thank you for taking the time to look at my deck. I began this quest when I wandered into my LGS and found a foil Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts in the unsorted rares box. Since I had agonized over buying an intro pack just for the card alone, I snapped it up in a heartbeat. When I got home I wasn't really sure what sort of deck she should go in and realized that I had a bit of an adventure before me.
I've never really put forth a decklist for public scrutiny before, but I have had a blast playing this deck even when losing. Given how few decklists of her have been put forward I feel almost compelled to share my list. Again, I thank you for indulging me.

Now, since this is already going a bit long, I'm going to give you twice the sex with half the foreplay. (Thanks Spy Game!)



I wanted to create a deck that was true to Teysa's rattlesnake nature, was able to wipe the board clean of the most relevant threats, able to benefit from the after effects of removal, and finally present a fast clock when appropriate. It spends much of the early game using mana rocks to ramp as the average cost in the deck is high. To offset this issue, nearly half of the deck is comprised of mana sources of various types.

After that things get a bit dicey...
I have a general weakness wherein all my semi-competitive EDH decks tend to feature at least one game ending combo in the interest of preventing a one hour game from turning into a three hour game. With this in mind, I actively chose to maintain a strict rule of no combos. So now we have to play a very patient game of grinding out advantages and striking when best.

Fortunately Teysa does that by herself, and there are lots of other cards that help her. Protection from creatures and Vigilance amounts to a brilliant offensive and defensive force. If you can get her power to 7 she's a three turn clock-- two turns with Grafted Exoskeleton.

So let's fire off a tried and true 'why you should or should play this deck.'
Aye:
A control deck that's not blue.
A deck that's comfortable in being a nobody for the first few turns, but soon feels confident riding the line between first and second most threatening at the table.
A deck that can check back after being messed with.
A deck that doesn't like to combo out.
Lots of graveyard interaction for value, but not out of necessity.
Lots of paths that reward macrolevel planning.

Nay:
Looking for an aggressive deck.
Looking for a combo deck.
Looking for something that is simple to play.
It's kind of pricey for something that's not top-tier-competitive.

So that's it for today. I'll be sprucing this up a bit as we go. I should be explaining major cards that aren't quite obvious (Karmic Justice is the most underrated card in EDH.) Please feel free to address me with any questions.

Reserved (who am I kidding?)

Nice to see someone trying his hand and ideas at the new Teysa. I love the artwork, but have yet not been able to devise a deck around her - especially with Obzedat and the older B/W-legends being more compelling and lending themselves better to certain strategies.
Your list looks pretty much B/W good stuff, which is probably a good place to start and then streamline. How often have you played the list? What are it's strengths and weaknesses.
It seems a bit top heavy, especially in the creature department. And I wonder how good Attrition is in this respect. Usually you don't want to sac your big creatures, to get rid of your opponents', do you? And if they die anyways, it's probably due to a Wrath effect, that won't leave anything alive anyways. Also, Teysa's token production seems rather unreliable.

Some suggestions off the top of my head when looking at your list:
- Miraculous Recovery + Beacon of Unrest, which is more flexible
- Attrition + Martyr's Bond, which covers Enchantments and Artifacts, too.
- Army of the Damned + Debtor's Knell, Army is random goodstuff, whereas Knell is longtime profit.
- Ink-Eyes + Moonlight Bargain, you need some more card draw, which in this case can also fill your graveyard for some resurrection purposes. Also, do you really plan to ninja in the rat?

Some rather unsorted adds (protection, removal, tutors, win cons):
Land Tax, Phyrexian Arena, Academy Rector, Stoneforge Mystic, Sword of War & Peace, Sword of Feast and Famine, Sword of Fire & Ice, Lumiarch Ascension, Ghostly Prison, Batterskull, Mortify, Worn PowerstoneThings to possibly take out for those:
1 Land, Tawno's Coffin, Argentum Armor, Celestial Mantle, Kiku, Geth, Orzhov Cluestone, Oversold Cemetery

Hope this helps!
Ardeyn

Thanks for the feedback. I've made a few adjustments to the deck given more time spent playing it. In relation to your question, the deck has seen about 20 or so games. I'd venture the win percentage is greater than average in my group. I also took a few of your ideas. I'll address a few card choices as well.


As for Miraculous Recovery, it's a pet card and it's instant speed recursion which is nice for a number of reasons.

Army of the Damned was a hold over from when the deck ran about 6-7 token creation spells.

Geth has over performed every time he hit the table.

Ink-eyes was just a random creature, and I have never used the Ninjitsu effect. -- Debtors Knell will replace her once I bother to pick one up.

Attrition went away, it too was a hold out from the token days.


There were a few other cuts as well. I'm looking for useful, resilient creatures that don't cost over 5 mana at the moment. Stoneforge seems to fit that bill.
I'll update the OP with the changes once I get a few more sessions in with the adjusted deck.

Thanks again for your advice, and I apologize for the delay in replying.

I have a Teysa 2.0 deck, but mine is more of a pillowfort deck that uses Teysa as the wincon. It plays a lot of things like Kismet, Ghostly Prison, and Blind Obedience to help protect me until I can drop Teysa, then a bunch of auras and equipment to get her to the magic 7 power like Edge of the Divinity and Butcher's Cleaver. There are also a couple of tricks to help keep Teysa alive, like Faith's Reward and Undying Evil.

It's a pretty fun deck and it's always a threat to win because unblockable general damage is pretty good.

i love your inclusion of Tawnos's Coffin not seen in too many decks

Butcher's Cleaver is kind of a sweet idea, but it totally reminded me that Loxodon Warhammer exists. Thanks, Impossible. I'll give that a try.

Thanks, Schondetta. I think everyone sleeps on Coffin. Any time I play it against someone who hasn't seen it before they read it... scratch their head... I explain it... they kind of shrug... and then two turns later they're complaining about how someone has to get that thing off the table. The downside is that it costs so much. Fortunately, this deck tends to end up grinding out to the point that 3 mana a turn isn't a big deal.

I still haven't gotten another chance to play with my adjustments so I'm not comfortable posting them yet, but please be assured that they're coming. I appreciate everyone who has taken the time to check this list out and I'll continue to keep you guys updated with its progress. I'm especially interested in experiences of people with similar decks.

Quote from Sans

Butcher's Cleaver is kind of a sweet idea, but it totally reminded me that Loxodon Warhammer exists. Thanks, Impossible. I'll give that a try.

No problem. The warhammer is good, but trample is kind of irrelevant on Teysa because of the protection, so I went with the cheaper knock-off. I just found it amusing that she's a human, so she can use all those "human-only" equipments from Innistrad block. The Silver-Inlaid Dagger also gets her to 7 power at a pretty cheap cost. Human power!

If you're interested I can go find my deck and post a full list, although the deck was recently cannibalized to make an Esper deck, so it's missing a bunch of things like Path of Exile and Wrath of God because I only have one copy and they got moved to the new deck.

A fair assessment, my thought process was that it latches onto another of the beastly creatures in the event that Teysa is tucked or simply uncastable. As for your decklist, I certainly am no averse to browsing someone else's work. If you find the time, even just a few stand outs from your experience would be cool. I'm sure there are tons of cards that I'm neglecting.

Well, here it is, ordered by type and CMC:
Obviously this isn't a very tuned list, and it won't stand up to high powered decks very well, although it can steal a win against any deck with a good draw. Regardless, it's pretty fun to play in my opinion, and it has some cute interactions that I enjoy, like putting Darksteel Plate on a High Priest of Penance, or being able to replay Stonecloaker over and over again with an extort card in play. Unfortunately my deck has been raided for cards to make an enchantment themed Esper deck, as I previously mentioned, and you can still see some of the remnants, like Auramancer with only a few enchantments. When I can find extra copies of cards like Kismet and Ghostly Prison they'll go right back in.