MTG Salvation

So I have Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir sitting in my folder, burning a hole wanting to be used. Problem is, I don't want to built a savage griefy deck that no one wants to play against. Is there a nice way to build him? ETB and blink styles for value? My wife is in my playgroup and I'd like to maintain my marriage.

Or is he better used in the 99? I don't currently have any decks that he'd fit too well in, so I'd potentially be building again.

Feel free to weigh in, all opinions welcome. I just feel like such a splendid card deserves to be used. He's one of my favourite characters, as he was prominent when I first started playing around Mirage era.

Thanks in advance.

It's kinda like Ruric Thar, the unbowed, in that people will change decks when they see Teferi. People can't play Jhoira of the Ghitu, Maelstrom Wanderer, Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder, etc.

It will also draw a lot of hate, since nobody will want you to have turns free of interruption.

You don't have to play a control deck that tries to combo off, but that's probably the best. Your stuff has flash, so you might as well play a lot of counterspells and play value creatures when there is nothing worth countering.

You could play a more aggressive deck. Flashing in Master of Waves EoT is probably pretty good.

Yeah, for reasons outlined above, Teferi as commander is usually not a good idea.
If you have a deck with creatures with blue as one of the colours though, Teferi is a great creature. He's best in UG where Seedborn Muse helps him do a great Prophet of Kruphix impression, but really, as long as you have creatures and you're in Blue, you'd be good.

Quote from LouCypher »

Yeah, for reasons outlined above, Teferi as commander is usually not a good idea.
If you have a deck with creatures with blue as one of the colours though, Teferi is a great creature. He's best in UG where Seedborn Muse helps him do a great Prophet of Kruphix impression, but really, as long as you have creatures and you're in Blue, you'd be good.

Yeah I just feel like he doesn't really add to Braids, Conjurer Adept, and none of the other decks I run seem like a good place for him. I've thought of maybe slipping him into Thraximundar or Sydri, Galvanic Genius but I'm not sure he's an ideal fit in either.

I have ranted on this before, but playing Teferi as your commander noncompetitively is one of the scarce few ways to objectively be wrong while playing commander. He's so unfun that the only way to win is to go full-bore, otherwise you'll just get hated out every game or end up accidentally playing kingmaker by screwing over the other mono-U player while the green deck beats his/her face in.

Play Teferi, Temporal Archmage instead! Throw in the creature Teferi as one of the 99.

He's definitely better as one of the 99. Avoiding all of the "oh, I think I'll play a different deck..." kind of pseudo-cheaty drama that could happen at the average casual table...
He's much more effective as a surprise as well.
He's best at protecting your own combos and there are a lot of other Commanders, even in mono-U, that work better at the helm of a combo deck.

I like him in the 99. Shutting down opposing blue decks has been great.

Creature Teferi really only lends himself to doing griefy things. You're either going to be playing a suboptimal deck that has to deal with the fact that people will make decisions with the expectation that you will grief them, or you're going to play a griefy deck. Neither of those seem ideal.

Seems pretty unanimous. He's no good or fun at the helm. I'll find a deck he can 99 in.

I have a question with Teferi as my commander. if I play piracy, seeing that I’m tapping opponents mana can they tap in response and let the mana disappear before I can use it? Second question is if I play quicken then I play piracy during an opponents turn, would the optimal time would be right after they untapped?

if you already have Teferi out they can tap th he mana but as long as you don't pass priority back to them they won't be able to empty the pool by advancing to the next phase.