Teneb, the Harvester is a very versatile commander. He is in a set of three of the best colors in this format as well as being able to helm multiple strategies. This thread will mention those strategies but will outline a detailed guide for my personal deck, which is at its core is a toolbox build with control elements. This deck is strong and resilient, but takes some time to understand fully how to pilot. Because of that, I try to make my guide as general as possible. The card selection won't be that specific, simply because I believe other people's deck should be as versatile as Teneb himself. My deck will be kind of a starting point and I will also feature different builds for people to use in case my build is too expensive or simply not for their tastes. This primer should be a very broad experience in the sense that there is something here for everyone. We got decks for aggro, control, and combo players alike. With that being said, I hope you enjoy this primer.
There isn't much lore about Teneb, or the other Primeval Dragons from Planar Chaos. If you want to learn more or join the community discussion, look here.
Let us break down Teneb piece by piece and figure out why we would pick him to lead our army:
Awesome alter by Galspanic
3BGW: Well, 6 is an interesting number for a Commander. Its not too expensive, but its not that cheap either. You will only get to play him a couple of times until he starts become super expensive. This is means we need to build around not relying on our Commander to be out frequently, however being able to utilize him with our build when we need to. Thankfully he isn't too mana intensive, the 3 helps give us some wiggle room in casting him. Now, to analyze his colors. He belongs to three of the five colors of magic: Black, Green, and White. This is often referred to as the Necra, Junk, or more recently the Abzan colors.
Black offers us the best tutors in the game. Also is the second best color to generate card advantage... for a price, of course. In addition, black has some of the best removal in the game. Lastly, black is the main color that interacts with our graveyard, which you will see is very important in this build.
Green has the best mana acceleration in the game, hands down. Not only this, green houses some of the fattest creatures in the game. Green is a color that supports monsters, which this deck craves.
White has the next best removal in the game, as well as one of the best colors in controlling and locking down the board, which is helpful against opponents who begin to gain the upper hand in games. White also offers the best creature protection.
Abzan color combination gives us a build that has the best creatures, tutors, recursion, and removal in the game. All of these together make a powerful weapon that can eliminate any opponent. This is why one would pick the Abzan colors. So, why Teneb? Let’s continue.
Legendary Creature-Dragon: For this build, not relevant tribal type. But, he's a flippin’ dragon. You can't argue with that.
Flying: Evasion is so important in Commander. Evasion gets your creatures across the board and connect to our opponents. Which is important for the next point.
“Whenever Teneb, the Harvester deals combat damage to a player, you may pay 2B. If you do, put target creature card from a graveyard onto the battlefield under your control.”: Wow... So, if I hit an opponent and pay the dragon tribute, I can get ANY creature from ANY graveyard? This is why we run Teneb. His ability can be used to rescue our own fallen creatures, or take our opponents best creatures. Many abilities in EDH are based around ETB triggers, so Teneb could possibly get a creature that could turn the tides of war to our favor.
6/6: That will make a dent in any creature or life total.
Overall, Teneb seems very powerful. But there are other Commanders for this color combination. We can briefly look over them. However is generally a boring topic, since a dark dragon that can raise the dead overshadows all. But if it would please the reader, here is a list of comparison.
Ghave, Guru of Spores: Ghave lends himself to a build that revolves around Tokens and Counters, as well as becoming an uprising combo general. Teneb does utilize tokens and the occasional counter here and there, but this build has little to no combos. We are focused more on big creatures and utility spells. Ghave is simply another strategy all together from Teneb.
Doran, the Siege Tower: Doran was one of the first Commanders I played with. He is an interesting commander since he can be piloted as a defensive commander that can easily turn aggressive. Doran is a very defensive and controlling build. Teneb is, on the other hand, an aggressive build that still uses a little of control.
Anafenza the Foremost: The most recent addition to our series of commanders, Anafenza offers some interesting hate for other graveyard based commanders. Interesting enough, she falls in more of a deck that doesn’t utilize reanimation that much. I honestly don’t like her because she doesn’t seem like a good fit in these colors. I suppose she belongs in any sort of deck that can utilize +1/+1 counters and needs to hate out opposing graveyard strategies.
The competition... which is giving this
card more credit than it deserves.
Daghatar the Adamant: I love this guy flavor wise and I am super happy Junk is getting a bigger pool of generals. Problem with this guy is I look at him and I think he is a weaker Ghave, Guru of Spores. I don’t think he is a better control general than Teneb, and he would require a little more build around to be… well, adamant.
Karador, Ghost Chieftan: Ah, yes. Karador. Teneb and Karador have been butting heads for some time now, since both Commanders revolve their builds around the same strategy: Reanimation. Karador is very focused on the graveyard and relies on it to be filled to bring him into play efficiently. In addition, he helps reanimate creatures himself. Teneb, however, doesn't rely on the graveyard to be full. In fact, you could win with Teneb because you don't need your graveyard to be filled in order to make the most use of him. All you need is your opponent's graveyards to be packed with fatties. And that is quite easy, given that we have the best removal in the format. So, when it comes down to which of the titans will run the show, its a matter of opinion. Karador is the better choice for Reanimation strategies, while Teneb is simply better for Toolbox strategies. This is a guide for the Toolbox strategy, which is why we picked Teneb, since Karador simply cannot utilize it as efficiently as a graveyard deck. DeadManSeven made a great point about the difference between Karador and Teneb:
Quote from DeadManSeven »
On the subject of efficient reanimation, I was thinking the difference between Teneb and Karador, and the thing I've noticed about Karador decks that I don't want to do with my build of Teneb is that they have more creatures that require their general to function properly. Cards like Kami of False Hope, Spike Weaver, Doomed Necromancer, Necrotic Sliver, and so on - self-sacrificing creatures that need to be brought back repeatedly to get full value. With Teneb, the creatures you play tend to be already strong on their own and just get better in combination with cards they have synergy with. That I think is the big difference between Karador and Teneb - you can cripple Karador by taking away either the graveyard or the general, but Teneb is still a 6/6 flier for 6.
No matter how you put it, in the end, we are the ones with the 6/6 Dragon for six. Your argument is invalid.
Let us wrap up what we learned from our dissection of the great dragon, as well as analyzing him next to his competitors.
It's no lie that a 6/6 dragon with no haste is quite clunky. I mean, you could ramp into him turn 6. But you would get no value out of your big fat fatty. Teneb relies on having graveyards packed with goodies. Ramping into him as early as you can be pointless since probably nothing worth reanimating is in the graveyard. That is another point.
"Give him the ass-kickin boots!"
Teneb is an investment.
Teneb isn't a commander you can afford to play, simply because you can. Teneb needs a lot of set up and a lot of planning. First, you need to have mana open. Ideally have 9+ mana available. If he isn't countered, he is open for removal. You need a way to protect him somehow or make use of him right away. Hall of the Bandit Lord is your best friend. Giving Teneb haste makes him that much better. Being able to connect right away is so potent and powerful. The final factor in Teneb's usage is a couple of well-stocked graveyards. Whether its yours that you've been filling with Survival of the Fittest and company, or an opponents that is filled for any number of reasons. A healthy meta with numerous boardwipes will drop some goodies in the yards for Teneb to dig up.
So, we have mana, we have utility, and stocked graveyards. How do we fully use Teneb? Play him when you know you can grind advantage off of him as well as gain presence on the board. A flying 6/6 is nothing to sneeze at. Once he's out, start swinging. I don't think you can try to be diplomatic with a huge dragon running around the board. My suggestion: go for the control player. They are the ones who pose the most threat to us. And, they're control. Midrange and Control has been dishing it out since 1993, while Aggro just runs around smashing everyone. But anyway, go for players. Focusing on one player is a good healthy choice. Keep in mind that when Teneb connects to a player, he can reach into ANY graveyard. Not just the player you hit. So as long as you make contact, you can get your value. I briefly mentioned the Hall as a good piece of Teneb utility. Brawn is another awesome option. Trample punches through chump blockers. Dauntless Escort can save him from a surprise attack from an opponent. Usually if Teneb connects once, you gained value from him. If he sticks around, you will win.
Deck Objectives:
So what is this deck really about? How does it play? To be honest, there are many ways this build can play out. The deck has been built to adapt to the current board state and evolve your game plan to the surrounding environment. If there are prominent aggro decks, you can go defensive. If there are grinding control decks, you can begin dropping the early threats and swinging. Basically, the game plan is to drop big creatures and swing while stabilizing the board via removal spells and this strategy can be altered due to whatever is on the board.
Early Game: Drop as many lands as you can. Ramp up with your land fetchers. These will give you land as well as a body to chump block in case someone is planning some early game shenanigans. Also, try to get a draw engine up and running if you can. An early Sylvan Library can help push down things you don't want right away and things you need. Prioritizing is a key tool for your succession in the early game.
Mid Game: After about 5-6 lands, you want to start setting up. Put up defensive enchantments likeGhostly Prison. Begin to start answering the threats on the board. This can go from removing creatures to taxing artifacts to establishing blockers. You usually don't want to attract too much attention, as the board can quickly turn on you. Make your moves diplomatic and use your resources and removal sparingly. If you wish to thrive in the mid game, keep your threat perception down and build your defenses up.
Late Game: At this point, graveyards are stocked, tensions are high, and players are beginning to struggle. Now is the time to move in. Drop huge threats and creatures that lock down the board. Reanimate monsters and draw cards. Begin to hit players hard and removal all of their creatures. Bring in Teneb to finish a player or any other big monster in your deck. In other words, to finish the game, play big creatures paired with utility and support to push for victory.
Opening Hands:
You can really stretch around what is in your opening hand. Your opening hand important, due to the fact that it can determine what game you have. If you have a lot of creatures, you may consider going aggressive. Sometimes you have a hand full of control and decide to take the grinding route. Either way, these are some things you want in you're opening hand.
"You got the goods?"
Lands: Lands are uber important. You kinda need them to play Magic. 3-4 lands is where I get comfortable. 5 seems to be too much, and 2 seems WAY too little. Make sure you have, at the least, two of your three colors. All three is ideal however. Utility lands in the early hand aren't ideal, but having one is okay.
Ramp: Your early game should be built off this. Creatures usually get you either basic lands or Forests, so your beginning mana base will be very green oriented, which is fine. Also, there a number of artifacts to help you roll ahead a little faster. You should always have one of these guys in an opening hand. You will roll out very slow if you don't.
Removal: I always like to have at least one piece of removal. Whether creature or other permanent, I feel safer knowing I can answer something right away, just in case. I’m never upset seeing a Path to Exile in my opening hand.
These are other cards I tend to want to see in my opening hand. While they are not prioritized as the last three options, they're still good.
Draw: Drawing cards is something I'm going to need later int he game when I begin blowing out my hand and need more fuel. Blue has the luxury of having a fully stocked hand. We come close with our draw effects. To see one in my opening hand, I know I won't run out of steam anytime during the game.
Reanimation: I don't have many ways of getting a early stock pile in my yard, but reanimating early is quite aggressive. I don't mind seeing a reanimation spell, but I would prefer to draw it later.
Fatties: Usually, you don't want a fatty in your starting hand. Drawing one three or four turns in is good, but usually it just takes a slot for something that can be more useful in the late game.
Themes in the Deck:
Toolbox: This deck has a number of themes going. The main one is toolbox. The way the deck is built, you should be able to answer any issue at hand. You are bleeding into the color black, so expect the best tutors in the game. Followed by green and white, your creature package is unparalleled to other builds. You have creatures that grab other creatures, spells that can get you something on a moment's notice. Need a fatty? Any creature tutor will do. Got a creature problem? Grab Big Game Hunter. Tokens coming for you? Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite. Someone locking down the board with a creature? Linvala, Keeper of Silence is your lady! Need to protect your creatures? Lets go get a Dauntless Escort for that final push. Any situation, our creature toolbox is ready to help.
Creatures aren't our only answers however. Putrefy and Mortify are very versatile creature answers, followed by Swords to Plowshares and Path of Exile. And sometimes there are just too many creatures to deal with. So we got a couple of tricks to take care of everyone in one swoop. Akroma unleashes her Vengeance upon the board and eliminates all threats. Keep in mind the synergy of board wipes and Dauntless Escort.
But sometimes responding to the field isn't really what we need. Maybe we need help setting up our own side of the field. Ramp is an important one. You have numerous creatures like Farhaven Elf to grab lands, or Wood Elves for more specific duals. Life from the Loam can get back fetches or discarded lands (via Jarad) and also fill our graveyard. And sometimes we need some draw to stock our hand. Sylvan Library and Phyrexian Arena to the rescue!
"I don't wanna play Commander anymore!"
Reanimator: Another theme is our graveyard. Most Teneb lists you see are based on reanimation. Filling your yard, then leaning on it for advantage. Well there is a reason we aren't Karador. The graveyard is much too fragile to depend on. If someone exiles it, and trust me Hyrdas hate graveyards, then you are SOL. Seriously. You have a hand full of reanimation that is useless and your field is empty. All of your answers and win cons were sitting in your graveyard. This is where Karador fails, and Teneb rises. Teneb doesn't need your graveyard to be full. We rely more on our library, which is MUCH harder to remove (bring it Laz). That said, we still use our graveyard. The graveyard is a wonderful resource, given that thats where all of our dead creatures go and milled cards. We can grab back any monster or spell. Just because we used it, doesn't mean we are done with it. Animate Dead is an all star in this deck, followed by Sheoldred, Whispering One. Mass reanimation is something people never expect, so Living Death is a monster. Wipe the field and bring back all creatures? Keep in mind our graveyard is much more stocked than other players, via Fauna Shaman, Life from the Loam, and company. If used right, your graveyard can be a fantastic resource. Just don't depend on it. Plan B's are always awesome.
Voltron: Don’t forget that your commander is a dragon. He can very well kill people on his own. There is a problem. You keen minded fellows may note that six is a number that does not evenly divide into 21 commander damage. Because of this, Teneb alone needs FOUR turns to kill a player solely with commander damage (6x4=24). Voltron strategies are all about math. The perfect equation for a Voltron commander is (3x7=21). This gives one less turn to hit an opponents and is in itself more efficient. If you want to kill people with Teneb, you need to put in a little work to meet the second equation.
First of all, Teneb doesn’t protect itself. It he doesn’t get countered or tucked, he will get removed in a couple of turns. Shroud and pro abilities help here. Lightning Greaves not only offers protection, but haste, which Hall of the Bandit Lord also offers. Haste means that he can start hitting when he drops. Flying is his evasion, but sometimes that isn’t enough. Shizo, Death’s Storehouse offers some extra evasion to get him through. But getting him through and keeping him alive is only part of the struggle. The second part is making him hit for 7+ per turn. This can be achieved with various artifacts, Planeswalkers, and enchantments. Note that you have pump spells throughout the list I am offering. If you decide that you need to voltron it out in order to win, the deck is naturally built to defend and pump Teneb.
Superfriends: Superfriends is one way to play Junk colors. Superfriends is a term loosely used to describe a deck that grinds most of its advantages off of Planeswalkers. Usually, Superfriend decks bleed into all 5 colors of Magic. This gives them access to the best Planeswalkers available, but does require lots of investment (spiritually and financially). When you limit yourself to three colors, your pool of 'Walkers become smaller, but you also get move consistent. Being in Abzan colors we lose blue, a highly crucial control element to most Superfriends build. But with swapping blue with black, we can gain some removal and the best tutors to find our Planeswalkers. Most builds feature The Chain Veil and Doubling Season as our main Planeswalker engines.
Anti-Artifacts: Another theme I used to include in the deck, although not as much anymore. Thi is certainly an option you can take advantage of with Teneb. Most tuned commander decks rely so much on their rocks and artifacts, that removing them end up crippling their decks as well as most game plans. Forcing other decks to perform at your speed is such a strong ability in Commander. In most formats, you either swing viciously or control the board till you can swing with a big stick while gaining insane amounts of advantage. Commander is a format where you gain power via your game plan, while simultaneously bringing other players to your speed. This ensures you can launch your play before another player can.
Artifact denial is how we personally gain power in the game. Stony Silence stops early rocks. Aura Shards is a funny card, since when you play it, everyone scrambles to get rid of it. If you drop a Shards, followed by a dork, you already gained value. If it sticks for a turn, no artifacts or enchantments will be around for you to worry about. Qasali Pridemage is a easy fetch for artifact hates. Kataki, War's Wage punishes decks that really need artifacts to thrive. Play one game where you destroy all artifacts and see how slowly decks perform.
My net name is Rhakee, and I have been playing for about nine years now, but only started to play competitively and seriously in the past couple of years. I started this thread as a way to keep track of my Teneb build and its progress, as well as get any feedback. I built this deck originally as just whatever I could cram in that was black, green, or white that was in my budget. My playgroup was very lax and simple, so I never really evolved in terms of serious Magic. I had fun and enjoyed playing with my friends.
If you have followed this thread for sometime or visited sometime in the past, you may have seen how many kinds of builds Teneb has gone through. It was first a big stuff reanimator, then turned into a Superfriends deck, and now a solid control deck. The reason for this is because I built Teneb when I was naïve and didn’t have an understanding of competitive Commander. When I moved to go to college and visited other cities to check out their campuses, the Magic scenes there blew me away. I was not prepared for their level of play and my deck was not tuned at all. All of the changes I made were to accompany the different metas I visited. By the time I settled with a certain build, I had to move on to a different meta for whatever reason.
I am now situated in the Albuquerque area in New Mexico. I realized that if I wanted to thrive in this meta, I needed to adapt as well as my decks. I think that is why I am very good with Teneb, because I have played him every which way as well as grown with him as a commander. Control was the style of play that suited the meta I am currently in.
The point I am getting across here is that this Primer didn’t start out optimal. I now have made the Primer very open and very general so other players can share their ideas and put in their input, as well as be adapt to any sudden changes I may have to make. This guide will be very broad, but will get any player on the right track for building their very own Teneb build.
To simplify deck building for the reader, I decided to build a core structure; a list of cards that rarely change and are crucial for any Teneb build, whether you're playing control, aggro, or even combo. Many of these are staples of the format but I would like to go over each on specifically. I tried my best to optimize the core for every player's personal tastes and preferences. You don't need to have all of these cards, but this is a good place to start for building Teneb. Add what you can of the core first, then fill in the rest with your personal choices, based on how you decide to pilot Teneb.
"Your first lesson is of power. Know
that you can never have enough power."
Liliana Vess: Planeswalkers are great sources of fuel of card advantage, being that they are hard to remove and are resilient in their own way. Liliana is probably the most versitile and useful Planeswalker you'll find in these colors. Her +1 can ditch cards from your hand for Teneb to grab, or wither your opponent's hand if you know something good is hiding in there. Her -2 is where she truly shines. Repeatable Demonic Tutor is very powerful and can gain you advantage with one or two uses. If you ever set off her ultimate, you win the game.
Garruk Wilspeaker: His plus one nets you two (or more) mana, his minus one protects himself and gives you fodder where needed, and his final is a potential win condition to alpha strike.
Eternal Witness: Get back whatever non-creature spell you need is a powerful effect.
Wood Elves: It seems like a odd one to single out, but it is a really solid creature for fetching lands. Being a Forest, that means we can grab pretty much any color we need for fixing. Crucial early game, fodder late game.
Linvala, Keeper of Silence: Magic is kind of like chess, in the sense that the point of the game is to control the board. Have the most presence. Linvala does exactly that. Shutting down all creatures your opponents control. They will scramble to find a way to remove her. Use this to your advantage and push for a victory. She can be tutored with Sisay. The reason she is considered protection is because she can disrupt Glen Alandra Archmage which is a very real card in my meta, but also just make sure none of your opponent’s creatures mess with our own. A personal call, but a very powerful card.
Oracle of Mul Daya: More land cards means they don't sit in our hand and we can accelerate. Good card for getting into the fast lane with other decks.
Sun Titan: This Titan acts as recursion on a stick and can self sustain himself. A great card post-board wipes.
Survival of the Fittest: Survival is easily one of the best cards in Magic. You can repeatedly fill your yard while searching for any creature you need at INSTANT speed. Any Teneb player needs this to become truly terrifying, but also to really make your deck a well oiled machine.
Sylvan Library: While testing Teneb I realized that I need card draw. I needed a way to generate cards and keep my hand full. Being a red player by the core, I often blow out my hand, then sit for a couple of turns stunned. Nothing is wrong with blowing out since we can recycle creatures and spells. But without a source to keep juicing your hand you're, as my mom says, SOL. Sylvan Library allows us to not only choose from three cards to draw, we can stack our deck. If you feel risky or need that second card, you can pay the steep price. All around a card that can generate an enormous amount of card advantage.
Necromancy: Creature recursion from any yard is good for a reanimation deck. Flash is awesome also!
Phyrexian Arena: More draw for us. Two cards a turn makes that much difference and can really give us the upper hand that usually blue solely has access to. Keep an eye on that life loss.
Greater Good: I'll let DeadManSeven sum up how great this card is:
Greater Good is downright disgusting in decks with lots of creatures; whoever said it's hit or miss is almost objectively wrong, it's far and away the best sac outlet Green has, and it only gets stronger when you have ready access to graveyard recursion.
Demonic Tutor: Search for what you need, when you need it. Pretty self explanatory.
Regrowth: Like E-Wit, you sometimes just need something back really bad that can't be recurred with Teneb.
Yawgmoth's Will: As a very wise man once told me, this is the best card in Magic. And he wasn’t exaggerating. For one turn, your hand is your graveyard. Think of all the spells you could run? It basically digs for your pieces that have been destroyed or dumped. A very powerful card and its power should not be underestimated.
Damnation, Wrath of God: Two sides of the same coin, both cards are vital board wipes for removing critters and filling yards.
"Here's a counter for you, and a counter for you..."
Harmonize: Solid card draw usually only exists in blue. However, Harmonize gives us that extra reach into our library we need.
Enlightened Tutor: Fetch a mana rock or a crucial enchantment? Enlightened Tutor is a great early game card and a even better late game contender.
Vampiric Tutor: Hard to beat a one mana Demonic Tutor. Good early game card, better late game card.
Abzan Charm: I think this card should deserve its own little section. Versitality is something I really like when I select cards for my decks. I want a card that is overall awesome,e but can adapt to certain situations. I hate spells that just sit in my hand. Abzan Charm isn’t one of those cards. It’s card draw is why it is featured in this build, because Sign in Blood is a great ability, but staple that on two other abilities, and we got a card. Its removal is very relevant because many troublesome creatures are 3 power or over. His final ability many people take for granted, but realize that in this deck it is super relevant. It makes Teneb a three turn clock, which you’ll see is very important since you’ll be attacking with him for the majority of the time. This card has applications to every situation.
Lightning Greaves: Haste and protection to get a creature out there and hitting faces once it deals damage. This is a vital card for Teneb since giving him instant haste means you can start generating value off him immediately, and put a dent in life totals.
Chromatic Lantern: Mana fixing is crucial for a three color deck. Sometimes, nailing the ramp spells just won't work, so this is the next best thing.
Sword of Feast and Famine: This is a super important card with Teneb, because it does a number of things. One: it makes him a three turn clock. Two: it makes your opponent ditch cards from his hand. This means he could toss a creature you can recur when you hit him. Three: You can stack the triggers so you untap your lands first, and then pay Teneb's cost.
The Mana Base: I won't spend too much time on this, but these 21 lands should be in your deck, no matter what you run. I realize that dual lands are out of many people's budgets (trust me, it took me a long time to get all three of mine). The fetches help with fixing and deck thinning, while the tri-color lands fix all three colors for you. Besides these basics, there are some I want to discuss briefly.
Kor Haven: One way to stop troublesome creatures from dealing a lot of damage.
Rogue's Passage: Evasion for Teneb when you need that connection to reanimate. In the late game, we'll have plenty of mana running around to sink into this land.
Stirring Wildwood: Control decks sometime need a creature to come in for a surprise attack or block when your board is empty, and this guy does the trick.
Volrath's Stronghold: Reanimation on a land. This card is really good. Try to run it, even if you have a budget build. This is a card that can make any deck’s strength soar through the roof.
This is the list I am currently running at the moment. The way I can describe it is a solid control deck. It has relative ramp to get you in the fast lane of the game, good amounts of card draw and draw fixing, and plenty of removal. The mana base is a little intensive here, but Scry Lands so far have been a great asset in my deck and have saved me from some dead draws. I'll go over a few card choices here, but most of the deck explains itself. More explanations will be up in a bit.
Deathrite Shaman: A swiss army knife for our deck that is relevant in all points of the game. Serves as ramp, life gain, critical damage, and graveyard hate.
Viscera Seer: A sac outlet designed to stack our library and help filter through our draws.
Gaddock Teeg: A meta call for the control builds that decided to get too greedy with their power cards. It stops 9 cards in this build, but he hinders other decks more. With the amount of creatures we run, we can fly under the radar with the lockdown. Still testing.
Grand Abolisher: One way to get the pesky blue mages off our backs. I would try to protect this guy when he comes down cause he is a removal magnet.
Lotus Cobra: A solid ramp card all around. It draws more value out of your fetch lands and allows ramp spells to almost pay for themselves. A strong creature that at the end of the day can carry a sword... somehow... like, by wrapping its tail around it...
Qasali Pridemage: Hard to counter removal is hard to counter. Besides Stifle effects, nothing is stopping this guy. Also, exalted.
Saffi Eriksdotter: Recursion and a possible combo piece, she can be synergized with many other creatures and used to her fullest extent.
Sakura-Tribe Elder: Ramp is important for this deck, because we need mana to get the wheels going. This guy can come down and aggressively ramp you, or be a late game landfall trigger for Avenger.
Aven Mindcensor: A efficient way to stop our opponents from getting an edge on us. Many combo players depend on tutoring in order to get their pieces quickly and win the game. This is how we say, no.
Dauntless Escort: Protecting from board wipes and abusable with Sun Titan this card goes a long way with the reanimation we have at hand.
Fiend Hunter: Removal with a possible combo side. Still testing this guy out.
Reclamation Sage: Artifact or enchantment removal that can be recurred.
Disciple of Bolas: More like, Disciple of Teneb (I would pay good money for that card). Card draw and life gain wrapped in a neat little bow. Can't really ask for more.
Erebos, God of the Dead: A solid draw engine that can swing for damage in the late game. Indestructible means it will be hard to get rid of and can survive board wipes. He can also be tutored for by various engines (since he is an enchantment) and can be toolboxed against life gain strategies.
Acidic Slime: A generally destructive creature full of total value.
Karmic Guide: Reanimation on one of the best white creatures in Magic. Guide has a lot of things going for her. Being able to bring back any creature form our yard is a plus, and being able to recur her to recur another creature is just the icing on the cake.
Grave Titan: Titan gives you ten power for six mana and can get out of control as the game goes on.
Dragonlord Dromoka: More insurance against other control decks, this guy makes sure you can cast your spells with ease, as well as swing with a 5/7 lifelink.
Elseh Norn, Grand Cenobite: A card that serves as both a board wipe and a creature pump. super disruptive for other players, highly advantageous for us.
Craterhoof Behomoth: Main win-condition. Have a couple of dudes out, bring out this guy for the big beats. Not many players can survive a well timed strike from this monster.
Constant Mists: Another control card, some aggro decks just can't handle a repeatable fog. A little meh against other control decks, but this makes some decks fold.
Eldarami's Call: Need a creature? We got you covered! Not sure what creature? See what you're opponent's play, then go look at the end of their turn.
Beast Within: Vindicate with the draw back of a 3/3 beast? Please, that is nothing. Vindicate is a Vindicate.
Krosan Grip: Combo stopper, anti blue removal, a really powerful removal spell. Recently, there has been more need for this card in the recent meta shift. Honestly, most people will agree that all green decks need to run this.
Utter End: Would you pay one more mana for a instant speed Vindicate and make it exile rather than destroy? The answer is yes. Yes you would.
Reanimate: Just solid reanimation to bring a dude back or take an opponent's dude.
Read the Bones: Raw card draw. Scrying makes it more accurate in helping you draw into the answer or bomb you need.
Toxic Deluge: The life loss is rough, but it is a board wipe that gets around Gaddock Teeg and indestructible creatures. That in itself should be enough to warrant a slot.
Triumph of the Hordes: Currently testing this out, but an alternative win condition that can come out of no where.
Living Death: One way to get rid of indestructible creatures or hexproof dudes, as well as drawing out some profit in the mean time.
Tragic Arrogance: The ultimate control board wipe. Imagine wrecking your opponent's developed board states, then saving your dragon and a Sword of Feast and Famine. An insane value board wipe that was a welcomed addition from Origins.
Mirari's Wake: Doubling our mana can give us the fuel we need to win, and making Teneb a three turn clock seals the deal.
Here is a log of cards that have gone in and out. Here you'll find the reasons why cards have gone out, and cards have gone in. As of 12/15/2014, the change log was reset for a number of reasons, listed in the last sections of the primer.
01/25/2015
Courser of Kruphixc -> Sakura-Tribe Elder
I felt like I needed a much more solid ramp card. The life gain was wroth a merit, but with the Archangel, the small life gain here and there isn’t that good.
Dimir House Guard -> Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
The skeleton was a good tutoring tool, but after a while it was a dead weight in my hand. I felt like I needed a much more solid card advantage machine, so I threw in Kozilek. A huge monster that can prevent myself from decking and graveyard hate, but also net me four cards.
Unexpected Absence -> Merciless Eviction
Unexpected Absence in my games was, well, unexpectedly absent. It was clucnky and I never had the mana open to make it extremely useful. I also have had a problem with indestructible permanents and trying to get rid of troublesome non-creature permanents. I was going to run Austere Command , but I want to try this for now.
Promise of Power -> Dark Deal
Better mass draw with less life loss and mana cost. It is a better draw spell overall and can give reanimation fuel.
Sterling Grove -> Umezawa's Jitte
The enchantment package was beginning to be a little lack luster. When I did end up setting it up, it was strong, but did not have much synergy with the rest of the deck. I decided to switch out the enchantment matter cards with just more solid control cards. Jitte is jitte, and it was a solid way of ticking Teneb up, removing creatures, and gaining life if need be.
Privileged Position -> Seedborn Muse
Muse will give me more reach in turns and allow me to tap out for my turn emptying my hand, then casting instants and responding to opponents play. Overall, being a better control player.
Sphere of Safety -> Resolute Archangel
Archangel will help with the amount of life loss this deck nets, and will be a strong card with the general reanimation effects. I am very excited about this card and we shall see how it runs in the future.
2/21/15
Sakura-Tribe Elder -> Lotus Cobra
Cobra will provide ramp that is more solid than the elder. A one shot use isn't as great as conditional but better color fixing ramp.
There are a lot of changes. Once I have time I will go over each on specifically. Basically, there was another shift in my meta. Before, a flurry of control decks became prominent in my meta. This shifted the deck to become much more focused inwardly. I used a Stoneforge package to help Teneb swing through with damage while I used removal to control the board and clear the way. I had a number of enchantments helping me with the long run. Spells were being counters heavily, but not so much permanents getting destroyed. Because of this, cheating enchantments and creatures into play was a much strong play, as they would stay on the field longer.
Now, the number of control decks vanished a new surge in aggro and midrange decks have arisen. I wanted to seize this opportunity in tuning Teneb in the deck he should be in: Midrange Creature Tempo. I took out the prison effects and stationary artifacts for more bombs to reanimate, more reanimation, and a LOT more removal. This means I can easily cast creature spells, have the better control package than other aggro decks, and be able to win with creatures other than my commander. These changes reflect a lower and not as intense mana base to accompany big creatures and quicker removal spells. I don't forsee another shift coming soon, so we won't see a big update for a while.
4/19/15
-Big Game Hunter
-Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
-Skyshroud Claim
My meta has had a surge in control decks recently, and I have been looking for more ways to stop them. Dromoka has been a huge help in testing. It makes sure no one can do things during your turn, which is always nice. Decay is a niche removal spell that was just better in all cases against Big Game Hunter. Garruk got in simply because he does essentially the same as Skyshroud (Up you two mana) but can do so much more than Skyshroud. Making a dude to sac or block (even attack) and his final is very plausible. Overall, the change was designed for more flexibility and efficiency.
4/25/15
-Puppeteer Clique
-Resolute Archangel
-Ashen Rider
-Farseek
-Altar of Dementia
-Sensei’s Divining Top
+Gaddock Teeg
+Saffi Eriksdotter
+Viscera Seer
+Deathrite Shaman
+Life from the Loam
+Read the Bones
The changes were designed to lower the curve, bring in more ramp and card draw, in addition to making the list accompanied for Gaddock Teeg. Testing is risky, due to the fact that the list needs to be built around him more. I'm going to try with nine total conflicts with his ability.
7/4/15
-Winding Canyons
-Life from the Loam
+Rogue's Passage
+Krosan Grip
More changes coming soon. Canyons never really gave me reach as much as it made for cute plays. Rogue's Passage is a much better sink and is needed to get Teneb through. I just wish we had something like Kessig Wolf Run in Abzan colors. Life from the Loam was a serious under performer, and I always hated what I ended up milling and often just wasted two mana per turn. K Grip will help with eliminating combo decks.
This is an area where I discuss what I am interested in testing in the future, or what I am exclusively not testing. Changes here won't be documented in the change log, but most likely they will be added onto the existing list. See something or don't see something you'd like to discuss? Shout out below. Enjoy!
Notable Exclusions
Tooth and Nail: This is quite a controversial card. All levels of Commander players have different opinions on this. Some love it. Others hate it. I'm on the edge on this one. Players usually use this to fetch combo creatures. I usually grab a token maker and something to defend everyone. Sometimes I'll grab a Sun Titan and Saffi for good measure. I usually play this when I need to establish immediate presence on the board. The choice is really yours about running this. You may want to use this if you tweek the build for combos. Others may cut it if you're sticking near the original build. I'm running it as a personal preference. The choice is yours.
Idyllic Tutor: I'm on the fence about this one. On one hand, it profits being in a Enchantment heavy deck. But someone brought up the point of why don't I just run another Demonic Tutor effect in it's spot? This is a good point. If I want a specific tutor to be in here, I want it to hit what I need, when I need it. For now, Eladamri's Call is in it's slot until further testing.
Notable Considerations
Austere Command: I am curious about this card, I will test it once I find a copy...
"Hey guys, I got an idea,
what if we put Demonic Tutor on a creature?"
This is a little guide on how to run a Toolbox build, specificity Teneb, but this guide can help as an introduction to the strategy. To attach a definition to the term, Toolbox is a strategy that refers to a build with the acute advantage of being able to tutor for a variety of cards in a deck. Tutor is a term derived from cards such as Demonic Tutor and Worldly Tutor. It represented the flavor of learning a new spell from a mysterious teacher that the Planeswalker (you) can use in your conquest against your opponent by searching your library for a card appropriate to the type of tutor you conjured to your aid. Toolbox consists of a number of these types of cards in all different shapes and forms, whether it be spells, creatures, or even artifacts that can get a selected card from your library. The term 'toolbox' is used since it alludes to your library as a kit of various tools and weapons for any situation. Toolbox has a bit of an interesting history. It has never been an archetype of its own, but rather compliments different strategies. For example, a combo deck uses tutors and other toolbox cards to dig for the different pieces to assemble their combo as fast as possible. For reference, a great example of an archetype that heavily relies on toolboxing is Modern Melira Pod.
Moving on from terminology and history, Toolbox builds usually work like this: the player will spend the early game being very defensive with cards such as Wall of Omens and building their mana base. These decks are usually not aggressive in the early game. Once the tempo of the game speeds up, the player will begin to search for answers to a given situation. For example, if there is an indestructible creature that is beginning to attack players for large amounts of damage, the player will look for a way to exile the creature to get past his indestructibility. If an opponent is beginning to assemble an infinite combo, the toolboxer may get a counterspell or some sort of disruption (if the combo is artifact based, Stony Silence may be grabbed for example) to stop the combo. Another thing a toolbox player may do is assemble a combo for himself, perhaps setting up a Karmic Guide and Reveillark infinite loop. Sometimes the only option is to aggro out on the board. Avenger of Zendikar followed by a Craterhoof Behemoth usually ends games for most defenseless players. Obviously, there are many different options to take advantage of in the toolbox build. And thats where the highlight of the build comes into play: versatility. You as the deck builder and player get to build and shape what kind of toolbox you want. Maybe you're a player who loves big monsters, or a combo player, or a player who locks down the board and destabilizes other decks, whatever your play preference is you can incorporate it within your deck however you please. My build featured on this thread tries to sample a little bit of everything. I got big monsters, control cards, I even have some combos hidden away that can be fetched if needed.
So you may ask, that sounds fantastic! A strategy that can be altered to my personal tastes. This is perfect! But how exactly do I play a toolbox build? Let me level with you: I don't even know how... seriously though, I am not fully trained in the art of searching for answers But every time I play this deck, I find new synergies with the cards I am looking for. It takes time and practice to know exactly what you need when you need it. It is a skill that thankfully, any player can develop with practice. From glancing over the list and card selection, perhaps even the play guide, I realize you still may not know exactly what can tutor for what. So here is a layout of all the optimal tutors available in my build and some that I may not have or chose not to run. I'll try to include as many great tutors and packages as I can. If you have a suggestion, please shout it out in the comments below. I'm considering anything and everything!
Universal Tutors- A Whole New World:
What is a universal tutor? These are cards that can search for ANYTHING! Yup, thats right, anything. Any spell, creature, planeswalker, it is yours... for a price. Most universal tutors are black. This makes sense, since the dark can offer you anything and everything you could ever want with a slight drawback (yeah, your soul is only a slight drawback. Who needs a soul when you have a colossal cow turtle as a pet? C'mon! Personally as a player, I tend to save these universal tutors for grabbing things like Planeswalkers, instants, and sorceries. Just because I already feature plenty of creature tutors, I'd like to save these on cards I would otherwise have a hard time fetching. Here is a list of universal tutors that could be used in our deck:
Creatures are the back bone of Teneb. There are almost as many creatures in this build as there are land cards. That means the majority of your firepower is attached to a body with fangs and claws. How cool is that? That player just needs to go. Come here Tiny! Good boy! But in all seriousness, your creature tutors are about the next most important types of tutors in this deck. Knowing your creature tutors is one thing. Knowing what to tutor for is something else entirely. A skilled player needs to know every creature in his deck, its ability, and color in order to apply it to a certain situation. For example, lets say we have a Phyrexian Delver out and our opponent just dropped a huge monster. We look to our left and see our Birthing Pod. You need to know what you can Pod into in order to remove that huge fatty. Dark Hatchling would be the answer in this case. Or perhaps there is a Crucible of the Worlds wreaking havoc on the board. Go get a Acidic Slime. Its that simple. Refer to the packages below for creatures to fetch for the appropriate subject. We are featuring a number of creature tutors in our deck but honestly there are so many more to pick from. It really comes down to personal preference when choosing tutors for your builds. Here are some creature tutors that you can feature in your build:
Enchantments have always been a personal favorite of mine. Just the idea of playing a spell that enchants your field to protect your creatures just tingles the Vorthos inside of me. Our enchantment package is very small and we don't have many tutors to fetch them. The deck runs a total of 9 enchantments (including Erebos). These enchantments give support for what our creatures can't. Many of our enchantments draw us cards and tax our opponent's permanents.
That's it for our Toolboxing for Dummies. Good luck building your Teneb list and I hope this helps you, as well as the rest of the primer. Always remember that Teneb is a versatile general. You can build him anyway you want. This primer isn't a list of instructions on how to get from point A to B. This is a guide that you can refer to for ideas and inspiration for building your own list. Of course you could just build my list if you love me that much, I wouldn't mind at all Happy Brewing everyone!
Here we will discuss the specific choices for this deck. You must realize that this list is not only optimal, it also holds a couple of personal choices that some may not agree with or believe are practical. That is fine though. This thread is made to compare other Teneb lists and as a community analyze the different ways to build on him and learn from one another. I included lists of premier spells of the subject at hand. If you are looking to use this guide as a means to begin your Teneb deck, this is the best place to start and this list is simply a push (or a shove. Not sure which one is more appropriate) into the right direction. The list is in a spoiler to help with the heavy scrolling.
Ramp: These are cards that increase your land count so you have more mana to play more things. Ramping is a very simple concept. You usually want these cards in your opening hand and don't want to spend too many tutors searching for these. 37 lands in the build means you're going to curve in very well. Usually, you don't want to search for these in the late games, but they are crucial for your early success:
Draw: Blue is the color for drawing en mass amounts of cards. Our colors offer some draw, but not much. If your hand begins to empty or you need to dig for a certain card, these can help. In a aggro deck, this isn't as important, but for a control deck, you need the extra fuel.
Soft Lock: These are cards that tax your opponents. Whether it be punishing them from tutoring too much or combing out with creatures, these are your best friends against degenerate decks. Use these in sparing amounts, since they often draw the table to target you. Make sure you can defend them and do some damage.
Tokens: We don't have that much of a token theme going on, but these are what we refer to as “armies in a can”. The term refers to a card that brings a large amount of creatures with it to the battle field. These are cards that shift the board state in your favor. Use these if you need immediate control over the board.
Recursion: Sometimes Teneb just isn't enough to grab creatures out of our graveyard. These are creatures and spells that start to reuse our graveyard and turn it into a second library in some senses. What make these extremely powerful is that the creatures can be fetch very easily, which gives you more reach into your graveyard.
Mass Removal: Board wipes are a natural part of the Commander meta game. Healthy metas have many board wipes. Sometimes you're going to have to be the one that cleans the field. These are very powerful spells that wipe the field from creatures to other permenants.
Removal: Removal is a pillar of the EDH format. Being able to remove your opponent's treats and make way for your own is a very strong ability. Luckily, there are many removal cards in this deck, so you'll never be short of an answer in your hand.
This deck is not for the faint of heart. This is a pure control deck designed to win as soon as possible (turn two or three wins are possible). This would be the main deck in the primer, however I don't like how "unfun" it is. This isn't intended to play against friends or your playgroup. The deck was designed to be as cut throat as possible for tournament play at Grand Prix events or something of the same caliber.
The idea is to assemble your combo as soon as possible and win. Grab Karmic Guide, Reveillark, and Saffi Eriskdotter as your main pieces and use the various sac outlets to sacrifice any combination infinitely. Use Blood Artist to drain the life from your opponents, or Altar of Dementia to deny them their library. If you can't combo for whatever reason, revert to Plan B, which locks down the board with control and removal spells and use Teneb as your win condition as you swing in for the win.
This deck focuses on throwing big dudes in the yard and cheating them into play. This is a very traditional and classic way of playing Teneb. You main game plan is to draw the majority of advantage off your creatures in the early stages. Start filling up your yard with fat and bring them pack again and again. Or fill up your yard then cast a Living Death and blow everyone away. I think my current issue with this build is ways to fill the yard faster.
Shadowborn March
Coming Soon!
Budget Brew
Coming Soon!
Game Reports
Here is a section of nights where I play two or more rounds to do reports on how the build I am currently playing is working and to discover more ways to evolve Teneb as a Commander.
Round 1
Adversaries: Progenitus Allies (I'm not kidding. It was a five color deck of Allies and Achievement whoring), Asuza, Lost but Seeking Ramp, and 5 Color Slivers.
First of all, never keep a hand that doesn't have a Green Mana Source. Seriously. I didn't draw a single forest. I DT'd on turn two looking for some color fixing and played it on turn 3, only to be promptly removed by the 5 color Ally player. Screw that guy. I didn't draw a green land for five turns. I even drew into a Sensei's Divining Top and tried stacking my library but NO GREEN LANDS! I finally topdecked a Yawgmoth's Will, decided screw it and played it, playing DT to get me a Murmuring Bosk. I was in a dark place.
Meanwhile, Slivers guy is racking up Door of Destinies to an insane 6 counters. His slivers had Flying, +8/+8, and a Sliver Overlord. Asuza somehow racked up 15 lands along with a Gaea's Cradle and 7 dudes. The Allies player, ah forget him. he was doing some durdly ally stuff. By the way, how did this guy top deck all five colors by turn 5? I call BS.
Once I stabilized my board, I quickly slapped down a Linvala, Keeper of Silence and a Ghostly Prison and prayed for the best. What followed was a nightmare. Azusa player somehow ramped to 47 mana and decided to cast Genesis Wave. He started durdling with triggers and drawing and triggers and it was just a mess. I don't remember everything but I do remember a Blightsteel Colossus and a Craterhoof Behemoth for +17/+17. The Sliver Player was bored and decided to scoop while Azusa was sorting out his goods. Funny thing was, Azusa flipped into a Regal Force, drew 15+ cards and ended up decking himself. It was pretty hilarious since he spent 20 minutes sorting his triggers, then lost to himself. Then, it was just me and 5 color Allies.
This guy didn't stand a chance. He was a player that relied more on his tongued politics rather than his ability to play the game. I dropped Teneb in and started smashing his face with 6 damage per turn (ha ha, allies don't grant flying). At one point he generated a large sum of mana and set up a alpha strike with his own Craterhoof and netted just about 86 damage. Unfortunately, he tapped out and forgot I still had a Ghostly Prison in play. I killed him the next turn with a fully strapped Teneb with a Skullclamp and a Sword of Feast and Famine. Onto Round 2!
Round 1 Observations:
Mind the hand you keep.
Use DT more responsibly next time.
Use Yawgmoth's Will responsibly next time.
Yawgmoth's Will is fricken awesome.
So far, tax effects like Prison have been useful. Not sure if this is a one time situation, but Prison has earned its place in this meta.
Linvala is super solid.
Political players lose when Politics are not applicable.
Kill the political player.
Teneb can win through Commander Damage.
Teneb with Skullclamp equals three turn kill. Holy smokes.
Master my Teneb voltron math a little better.
Never pull out of a game if someone just starts playing with themselves (this rule is circumstantial).
I forgot what my hand consisted of, but it was epic. In terms of threat perceptions, here was my mentality.
Sharuum dies first. Hands down. I saw that deck win on turn five last round. Narset would probably be next, although I have never seen a decent Narest deck but hey, blue, kill it with fire! Oh wait... and Shattergang was a total bro. We teamed up for the game.
I started by aggressively ramping and drawing out with Phyrexian Arena and Sylvan Library. I was able to get Lightning Greaves and Sword of Fire and Ice on Teneb and wrecked Sharuum's face. I also was able to discard a turn 4 Ashen Rider, then abused it with recurring and sacrificing to Phyrexian Tower. With the amount of removal I laid on his ramp and set up, he couldn't recover properly and died quickly. By the time he died, the only other control player on the field died, leaving me to go out of control. Teneb was now a 10/10 and I was going for Narset's house. However, at 20 commander damage, Narset comboed out with a Omniscience and Enter the Infinite. I looked at Shattergang and we both scooped to each other and called it a night. We weren't about to deal with that jazz.
Round 2 Observations:
Going for the combo player first is a good idea.
This deck can hold its own against two blue decks jammed with counter magic.
If there is more than one control player with blue, any aggro players are bros.
Ashen Rider is disgusting.
I could very well deck myself.
Again, Teneb is really gross with Commander damage.
Wait a minute... You thought I was the only one playing Teneb? How silly! You know there are others who are at service, erm, I mean command the dark dragon. There are some similarities in their lists and mine but you can see between us that there are very different ways to build Teneb. If you feel as if you need to branch out or need a different kind of build, here are their lists:
There are a couple of people who need to be in the spotlight for helping me with this thread. First of all, thanks to my playgroup, friends, and family for making me enjoy and love magic so much. Thank you to ISBPathfinder who supported and helped me create the thread to what it is today. Thank you DeadManSeven for mentoring me on how to command the dark dragon in all of its mysterious and amazing ways. And thank you, the MTGS Community for your help and input.
My only concern: does it go fast enough? No ramp until turn 3, and no tutor until turn 4? Since the deck is tagged competitive, I'll suggest dropping Diabolic Tutor in favor of Demonic Tutor. Probably also need some mana rocks, Far Wanderings (you'll always have threshold), Yavimaya Dryad (go get your Overgrown Tomb), Yavimaya Elder, etc.
- Removal. GWB has all the best removal. There's little need to play mana pigs like Karn and Vraska and cards with awkward drawbacks like Oblations when you're not running Vindicate, Mortify, Maelstrom Pulse, Path to Exile, Pernicious Deed, etc.. I personally think Go for the Throat is a better alternative to Doom Blade, and there's an argument to be made for Dismember or Sudden Death as well in the cheap creature removal spot.
- Not sure what you're using Ajani for, since you don't have much in the way of other anthems. He seems a little out of place. Marshal's Anthem seems like it would do more work, if you wanted a way to pump your tokens up.
- Asceticism has been a constant disappointment to me and everyone I've asked about it; it protects against too little and costs too much. For serious coverage, Privileged Position and Sterling Grove are where it's at.
- Altar of Bone is good, Diabolic Intent is better. Straight-out replace one for the other is you only want one sacrifice-and-search card, switch out Diabolic Tutor if you want both.
- Sheoldred, Whispering One. She's better than pretty much every creature of equivalent casting cost that you can run, so pick whichever fatty you like the least and add her in.
- Hornet Queen and Skeletal Vampire make tokens, if you want more guys that make tokens. Skeletal Vampire is also really good with Butcher of Malakir.
- Find a Murmuring Bosk, a Forest that fixes you on all three colours is invaluable.
I'm curious as to why you run rise from the grave as oppposed to Unburial rites. That, and no Lord of Extinction as Jarad+Lord=OUCH (for your opponents at least)
That and, Living death instead of Twilight's Call?
I'm curious as to why you run rise from the grave as oppposed to Unburial rites. That, and no Lord of Extinction as Jarad+Lord=OUCH (for your opponents at least)
That and, Living death instead of Twilight's Call?
Because I'm dumb I didn't even realize Unburial Rites existed
Lord of Extinction is badass, I simply need to find one
Well, Living Death is nice, but Twilight call does it at instant speed. I mean, its sucks when you reanimate your entire graveyard, then someone is like, oh, wrath So I like to resolve a Twilight's Call at the end of everyone's turn so it is less likely to go to waste. In addition, the creatures will be able to attack on my next turn, so even if someone wraths the board, I would have still gotten some damage in.
I've revamped my Teneb deck, and its better than ever!!! Just did a quick update cause I'm tired, jetlag, and its my birthday so, hahaha, I'm not gonna do a big update. Tomorrow or sometime soon I'll fix the format. Till then I'll do a quick review of M14.
Just off the bat, I don't see many new cards for Teneb. M14 has been a, lets say, questionable set. I can look into it in more detail, but here is the one card that stood out to me:
Shadowborn Demon: Removal when it hits the field, and the drawback is negotiable. We usually have six or more creature cards in our graveyard. And if you don't, you can always fill it. You can even send Shadowborn back to the graveyard to get recurred. An awesome engine, I highly approve. Overshadows Shriekmaw.
WOOO HOO!! We did it! We shall begin making this thread a Primer. Any help that you can offer me to make this better is greatly appreciated. Other Teneb players, if you would like me to feature your list, I would love to! But remember this is a very rough thread. It needs more work and smoothing before I can apply. So please, help out with making this an optimal thread.
Wow, this is a great guide and definitely deserves primer status. I'm not much of a BGWplayer, but if I did make a Necra deck and chose Teneb this would definitely be my place to start. Great job dude!
edit: please use a font other than Comic Sans. I beg of you.
Wow, this is a great guide and definitely deserves primer status. I'm not much of a BGWplayer, but if I did make a Necra deck and chose Teneb this would definitely be my place to start. Great job dude!
edit: please use a font other than Comic Sans. I beg of you.
Thank you for the compliment! It means so much!
Why a different font? I'm just curious, I will try to switch it though.
Looks solid. Only glaring omission I see is Birthing Pod. Also, I noticed you chose to exclude Karmic Guide. Any reason besides fearing a combo situation? You don't need to combo with her to get amazing value. But if its a personal preference, more power to ya.
Edit:
Have the CiPT lands hurt you at all? (vivids, Karoos, hideaways.) Or does your playgroup not run much LD. Have you thought of the cycling lands to go with life from the loam? (Tranquil Thicket, Secluded Steppe, Barren Moor)
Looks solid. Only glaring omission I see is Birthing Pod. Also, I noticed you chose to exclude Karmic Guide. Any reason besides fearing a combo situation? You don't need to combo with her to get amazing value. But if its a personal preference, more power to ya.
Edit:
Have the CiPT lands hurt you at all? (vivids, Karoos, hideaways.) Or does your playgroup not run much LD. Have you thought of the cycling lands to go with life from the loam? (Tranquil Thicket, Secluded Steppe, Barren Moor)
Thank you! Well if you look at my change log, I ran Birthing Pod for the longest time. I had a couple of problems with it:
-I didn't like altering my curve around it. It felt like the entire deck was built around it, rather than having synergy with it.
-It was problematic with my anti-artifact theme.
Karmic Guide: While it is a personal choice, I could easily change my mind. You make a valid point. Perhaps the deck will evolve to the point where some combos are necessary to race other decks. But so far, there are no decks that are that fast in my meta.
LD isn't an issue in my current meta. The real problem is blue players and counter/control magic. So Karoos haven't been problematic yet. I like the idea of the cyclers though, I may take out one cycle for another. Either the Karoos or the Vivids. Hmmm...
Btw, it looks like there are cards that are awesome in this deck that I don't specifically run, but others do. So perhaps I should make a section for Notable Exclusions. This would contain cards that I haven't put in on purpose or am on the fence about, but give readers the option to decide for themselves. What do you think? Thank you for your advice!
Updated list!! I found a new Meta and so far my experiences with them have been... unpleasant to put it lightly. Grand Arbiter shall die!!!
Many new changes to the list and I will briefly cover a few here:
Vivids and Hideaways, out: I really cannot afford to lose tempo with these decks. They're way too fast. I added more basic lands as well as some better tempo friendly utility. I also got a Tower of Magistrate and wondering if it had a place. But with more basics, the deck is slightly faster.
More creatures: The more the merrier.
New Sleeves :grin3:: I got the Dragon Shield Green Sleeves. They're beautiful.
Anti-Artifact Theme, Broken: I broke my anti-artifact theme for Birthing Pod. I just need that advantage.
This weekend I will continue working on the Primer format. Please give your input and feedback! Anything will help! Enjoy and have a wonderful weekend everyone!
I will preview cards that are appropriate for this build. I will go over in much detail as I can. I will put card links, but they may not be able to be accessed until the set is officially released. If you want to see the cards, please view the Theros gallery here. So enjoy!
==Theros Preview==
Elspeth, Sun's Champion: I am currently comparing her to our own Elspeth. She makes more bodies than 1.0 and her mini wrath is simply amazing! Our own Elspeth can only poop out one body, but she can also give a pump to any ground critter. She makes titans so deadly. Also, 1.0 is much cheaper. 6 mana is a wee bit steep for my taste. Her ultimate isn't too exciting, compared to 1.0. So basically, you got a 4 mana pumper that can provide a body if needed and makes you wrath proof if you can protect her. On the other hand, you got a steep 6 mana that is a army in a can, along with an AMAZING wrath ability and a meh ultimate. Considering planeswalkers don't stick around that long to go off atomically, 3.0 is looking promising. Will be testing.
Heliod, God of the Sun: I am a little disappointed with the white God. 4 mana for global vigilance? We make value of our creatures when they hit. Banking on the fact their gonna sick around isn't a good strategy for this deck. Our fatties will get removed frequently. His token making ability isn't that great since it requires a down payment. Could be a nice mana sink. But devotion won't get set off. So probably not.
Hundred-Handed One A hilarious reanimation target if I say so myself. And... thats about it. Just cute.
Agent of the Fates I really like this card. A stax ability on a assassin is just too cool. But heroic will never trigger. Sorry, not making the cut.
Erebros, God of the Dead While devotion will rarely trigger, his Necropotence like ability could be usefull! Being a creature, he could be recurred easier than, say an altar. 4 mana pushed him out of Sun Titan's range however. Pretty mixed on this guy. We shall see.
Hythonia the Cruel: Oh how I love me some legendary creatures. She's a big fatty with an expensive ability. But imagine her becoming a 7/9, wiping the board, then coming for someone's throat. If I need more creature based wipes, I may consider her.
Mogis’s Marauder: A black haste outlet... He will give at least one creature haste. An added mana commitment if your planning to speed play Teneb. But he is recurable with Sun Titan. I am seriously considering him.
Rescue from the Underworld: I try my best to stay away from creature recur that isn't creature based. That said, the flavor on this is so tight. You can reuse a triggered ability as well as get a fatty back. The only issue is that it is dependent on you having a creature to syphon value from. That being said, I'm considering this guy.
Arbor Colossus: I like the removal on this guy. But that mana sink... I'm not sure if I'll make room.
Nylea, God of the Hunt: I think I'm biased toward her because I'm completely smitten by her Her trample may outclass Brawn. She outclasses graveyard hate that Brawn is vulnerable to. Her pump can be used to make any Titan or dork massive. And with Teneb, good lawwd. Yeah I have a stupid God crush on her. She's replacing Brawn for sure.
Polukranos, World Eater: I was at first very pumped about this guy. A recurable hydra? YES! His monstrosity is QUITE the investment. But he can take a couple creatures out at once, and be resurrected for another round. A wonderful late game sink. A pretty meh early game drop. We shall see.
Ashen Rider: Dude, Angel of Despair, scoot over. This girl is amazing. Double exile as she bounces back and forth from the yard? For sure! It may raise the CMC of the deck, but hey, we love our fatties.
Reaper of the Wilds : Ufff card advantage on a gorgeous body. Or should I say GORGON BODY! Nevermind, she is awesome. May consider her.
Triad of Fates: Seems like fun. Not for our deck though.
Colossus of Akros: Remember what I said about us loving fatties? Yeah this guy is too fat.
Temple of Silence: That tempo loss... If I end up adding the cycle, the karoos are going out, which will end early game resurrections. We shall see.
Did I miss something? Just mention it! Want to help improve the thread or the list? Keep the suggestions flowing. Have fun if you're heading over to Theros prerelease. Grab a Rescue from the Underworld. Those are gonna make the list for sure... I think... just get one. Trust me! All the best everyone, have a wonderful rest of your week
Act of Authority: This card seems interesting. Very powerful removal and can be a bit of a political card. We only run 7-8 enchantments and one artifact, but we REALY depend on their power levels. I'm not sure about this card making this list.
Mystic Barrier: I find this card quite hilarious. Perhaps it will be good in other builds, but not in ours.
Unexpectedly Absent: It seems like a great tuck card. But I don't know what I would cut for it and I'd rather exile and tax commanders than tuck them (for this build at least).
Baleful Force: I'll pass. No evasion and brings nothing to the table besides over-priced card advantage.
Fallen Keeper: This actually caught my attention. Returning creatures to your HAND is a little weird for us, but we could make it work. The sac outlet on the guy is pretty awesome, I'm not going to lie. And seven mana? He could maybe see play... we shall see.
Tempt with Immortality: Five mana to return one creature is definitely not worth a slot. I'm not sure if I like the tempt mechanic in this sense, because then they could recur their monster or removal and get rid of what we just brought back. I don't believe it is worth a slot.
Toxic Deluge: I actually am considering this card. This was the first card to catch my eyes. It is a board wipe that can go under Gaddock Teeg's radar. Very powerful and we can always regain the life loss.
Bane of Progress: I'm really looking forward to this card. It is exactly on theme with our anti-artifacts. It does kill enchantments but its okay. We get a huge beast instead! Did I mention this card can be Larked?
Tempt with Discovery Tempting... but we don't have an elaborate land package like other decks, so in reality players can profit off this card more than we can. I'm not sure if I'm digging that mana cost either.
Overall, the white cards in this set offer little to nothing for Teneb. There are some cute cards here and there but nothing is worth making cuts. Black also doesn't offer much, but that board wipe may make it in a slot somewhere. We shall see. Green also isn't that exciting. Overall, these new Commander products aren't giving Teneb much to work with. Many of these cards are grasping at straws in order to make them work. My suggestion is grab a Bane of Progress and Toxic Deluge right away. These guys will have a place in the deck. Besides that and a couple of awesome reprints (Karmic Guide, looking at you! ;)) there isn't much to invest into this set, for Teneb at least.
Did I miss something? Just mention it! Want to help improve the thread or the list? Keep the suggestions flowing. All the best everyone, have a wonderful rest of your week
Academy Rector is now in the list the list has a little more reach into digging for enchantments. This is very useful and will allow for some strong plays.
Last night I was playing Scion of the Ur-Dragon and Rafiq of the Many. I ended up playing the deck very grindingly, locking Scion out with Aven Mindsensor and dismissing Rafiq with Gaddock Teeg. I also got a Kor Haven out very early and protected myself from both players. I never played a game where I took the aggressive control stance. It was pretty awesome and the game was very long and interactive. Scion began to start some Hermit Druid shenanigans so he got taken down. Then it was me and Rafiq. Rafiq dropped a Avacyn, Angel of Hope. I responded by Podding into a Fiend Hunter. Then he killed my Fiend Hunter. I in turn recurred it with Animate Dead, exiling his angel again. He then played Clone, copying my hunter and exiling my hunter, to get back his angel. I then Swords to Plowshares his Clone, got back my hunter, and exiled his Angel again. He looked at his one card in hand and began to laugh. After a couple turns of this, I finally locked down Avacyn, followed by a hasty Teneb that swung in for the win. He gained life to get back up there. I top decked Kokusho, the Evening Star and played her, sacing her to High Market. We both shook hands and agreed that was one of the best games either of us has ever player
I really liked this primer. I'll have to say, I was expecting a little more story/flavor after the introduction, and I'd like to see more when you write some. Makes me want to make a thread for my commander decks. Maybe I could flesh out another Planar Chaos dragon, Intet (actually, the idea of making an Intet thread written by Intet herself really tickles my fancy)
I really liked this primer. I'll have to say, I was expecting a little more story/flavor after the introduction, and I'd like to see more when you write some. Makes me want to make a thread for my commander decks. Maybe I could flesh out another Planar Chaos dragon, Intet (actually, the idea of making an Intet thread written by Intet herself really tickles my fancy)
Thank you for the feedback! Well I didn't write anymore long stories because I didn't know what the general consensus on them were. But sure, I can add more stories and flavor! I have all of them in my head, I just need to type them out. This thread is actually going through the primer application right now (cross fingers ) so if we get the status, I will totally add a flavor section!
You really should. I loved Intet. My story with her is that she chose Riku as her rider, and together they helped Jace save Ravnica. It was pretty legit, me and her and a nice run. I'd love to rebuild her one of these days. If you do end up posting a thread, let me know!
Also, I acquired a copy of Land Tax. Should I test it? Do you think it has a place? I have little to no experience with it.
"She displays the same enigmatic wisdom of a sphinx, yet her heart beats with the fire of a true dragon."- Jace Beleren
There are five of us, siblings. Oros is the most vengeful, Numot the most destructive, Vorosh the most brutal, Teneb the most balanced. I am Intet, the wisest of my siblings, and my roar brings the wrath of a thousand planes.
Yup, I'm definitely going to write this eventually.
Would love to see this as a Primer! Would love to see flavorful Primers for all five Planar Chaos dragons.
"She displays the same enigmatic wisdom of a sphinx, yet her heart beats with the fire of a true dragon."- Jace Beleren
There are five of us, siblings. Oros is the most vengeful, Numot the most destructive, Vorosh the most brutal, Teneb the most balanced. I am Intet, the wisest of my siblings, and my roar brings the wrath of a thousand planes.
Yup, I'm definitely going to write this eventually.
Would love to see this as a Primer! Would love to see flavorful Primers for all five Planar Chaos dragons.
Congrats everyone!!! WE ARE OFFICIALLY A PRIMER!!! My oh my
Thank you, all the moderators and the Primer Committee for making this happen. You guys are the best. Thank you ISB for helping me make this Primer what it is, and thank you DeadManSeven. Without you, I wouldn't be able to even pilot Teneb. Now, time for some fun!!
Haven't been here for a while, so my overhall today was pretty huge. Look at the change log for the recent card changes. Just need a Bane of Progress, then we'll be good!
Also, YOU! The community. What are some top tier sac outlets? This deck needs a couple more.
With sac outlets, Gaddock Teeg is blocking a pair of incredibly flexible ones: Greater Good and Dimir House Guard. Greater Good does literally everything you want in a deck with a creature-based graveyard combo, but it does share a niche in this deck with Birthing Pod; DHG doesn't do much without a range of CMC4 targets. You have to ask what you want the sac outlets for - if it's just to protect against theft and get things into the graveyard, then I think you're alright as Birthing Pod + sac outlets with costs + one-off cards like Diabolic Intent go a long way (could include Phyrexian Tower and/or Victimize, which are both very good at what they do), but if you wanted more focus on the Reveillark combo, you probably want a backup to Mirror Entity. So, some suggestions, with their pros and cons:
Viscera Seer: Scry 1 is surprisingly powerful filtering - every little death adds up. Viscera Seer comes with a very insignificant body, though, and you have no Ranger of Eos to just find him as an afterthought.
Martyr's Cause: It goes under Gaddock Teeg and is a big stop-sign to any Voltron deck, as well as random damage-based combo things like Green Wort or Kaervek. As an enchantment it's easier to defend, but harder to recover if it gets destroyed.
Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter: A combo piece that actually does something on its own (kill all creatures and get huge). Vish Kal's a good guy, but he's fat and competes fairly unfavourably with the rest of your top end.
Maw of the Obzedat, Flesh-Eater Imp, Varolz, the Scar-Striped: A couple of outside-the-box suggestions. These three are often only slightly underwhelming bodies that can eat your other creatures, but sometimes randomly will let you steal games via combat damage (or general damage, if Varolz suddenly doubles Teneb's power).
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BGW Teneb, the Harvester [Primer]
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{Writing and Rants}
WUBRG The Primeval Dragon's influence on EDH
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Proud member of the Spirit of EDH
BGW Teneb, the Harvester [Primer]
R Márton Stromgald
WUB Dakkon Blackblade
GR Atarka, World Render
{Writing and Rants}
WUBRG The Primeval Dragon's influence on EDH
My only concern: does it go fast enough? No ramp until turn 3, and no tutor until turn 4? Since the deck is tagged competitive, I'll suggest dropping Diabolic Tutor in favor of Demonic Tutor. Probably also need some mana rocks, Far Wanderings (you'll always have threshold), Yavimaya Dryad (go get your Overgrown Tomb), Yavimaya Elder, etc.
I like Privileged Position as another card like Asceticism.
Reanimate works nicely early game with Fauna Shaman.
- Removal. GWB has all the best removal. There's little need to play mana pigs like Karn and Vraska and cards with awkward drawbacks like Oblations when you're not running Vindicate, Mortify, Maelstrom Pulse, Path to Exile, Pernicious Deed, etc.. I personally think Go for the Throat is a better alternative to Doom Blade, and there's an argument to be made for Dismember or Sudden Death as well in the cheap creature removal spot.
- Not sure what you're using Ajani for, since you don't have much in the way of other anthems. He seems a little out of place. Marshal's Anthem seems like it would do more work, if you wanted a way to pump your tokens up.
- Asceticism has been a constant disappointment to me and everyone I've asked about it; it protects against too little and costs too much. For serious coverage, Privileged Position and Sterling Grove are where it's at.
- Altar of Bone is good, Diabolic Intent is better. Straight-out replace one for the other is you only want one sacrifice-and-search card, switch out Diabolic Tutor if you want both.
- Birthing Pod works a lot better when you have a range of cheap creatures as well as large ones - not only can you start Pod chains sooner, but you can Pod out of a token. I haven't really found a lot of decent CMC1 guys, though... Heap Doll? Serra Ascendant? Scute Mob? Sakura-Tribe Elder, Wall of Blossoms/Wall of Omens, and Golgari Thug/Reassembling Skeleton are solid guys at 2, Wood Elves/Yavimaya Dryad and Yavimaya Elder are fine at 3 and generally superior to Cultivate/Kodama's Reach by virtue of being creatures.
- Sheoldred, Whispering One. She's better than pretty much every creature of equivalent casting cost that you can run, so pick whichever fatty you like the least and add her in.
- Hornet Queen and Skeletal Vampire make tokens, if you want more guys that make tokens. Skeletal Vampire is also really good with Butcher of Malakir.
- Find a Murmuring Bosk, a Forest that fixes you on all three colours is invaluable.
Erebos B | Ghost Council WB | Grimgrin UB | Jhoira UR
Jor Kadeen RW | Melek UR | Mimeoplasm GUB | Rasputin WU
Savra BG | Sisay GW | Teneb BGW | Thada Adel U | Wort BR
I draft and play EDH. If a Standard player can't understand who a card is for, it's probably for me.
I also write things about good films.
That and, Living death instead of Twilight's Call?
Because I'm dumb I didn't even realize Unburial Rites existed
Lord of Extinction is badass, I simply need to find one
Well, Living Death is nice, but Twilight call does it at instant speed. I mean, its sucks when you reanimate your entire graveyard, then someone is like, oh, wrath So I like to resolve a Twilight's Call at the end of everyone's turn so it is less likely to go to waste. In addition, the creatures will be able to attack on my next turn, so even if someone wraths the board, I would have still gotten some damage in.
P.S. HUGE UPDATE!
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{Writing and Rants}
WUBRG The Primeval Dragon's influence on EDH
Just off the bat, I don't see many new cards for Teneb. M14 has been a, lets say, questionable set. I can look into it in more detail, but here is the one card that stood out to me:
Shadowborn Demon: Removal when it hits the field, and the drawback is negotiable. We usually have six or more creature cards in our graveyard. And if you don't, you can always fill it. You can even send Shadowborn back to the graveyard to get recurred. An awesome engine, I highly approve. Overshadows Shriekmaw.
Better update coming soon. Help is appreciated
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{Writing and Rants}
WUBRG The Primeval Dragon's influence on EDH
WOOO HOO!! We did it! We shall begin making this thread a Primer. Any help that you can offer me to make this better is greatly appreciated. Other Teneb players, if you would like me to feature your list, I would love to! But remember this is a very rough thread. It needs more work and smoothing before I can apply. So please, help out with making this an optimal thread.
Cheers and have an amazing Labor Day Weekend!!
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{Writing and Rants}
WUBRG The Primeval Dragon's influence on EDH
edit: please use a font other than Comic Sans. I beg of you.
Username: Cabz
Thank you for the compliment! It means so much!
Why a different font? I'm just curious, I will try to switch it though.
Epic Signature by the one and only Ace in Ace of Spades Studio
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BGW Teneb, the Harvester [Primer]
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{Writing and Rants}
WUBRG The Primeval Dragon's influence on EDH
It just looks really childish, cartoony, and unprofessional, lol. There's a pretty wide consensus about Comic Sans being the worst font ever made.
Username: Cabz
Iiiiii did not know that Changed to Arial. Is that better?
I'd love to see your list! Would you like me to post it on the reference list?
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Edit:
Have the CiPT lands hurt you at all? (vivids, Karoos, hideaways.) Or does your playgroup not run much LD. Have you thought of the cycling lands to go with life from the loam? (Tranquil Thicket, Secluded Steppe, Barren Moor)
Thank you! Well if you look at my change log, I ran Birthing Pod for the longest time. I had a couple of problems with it:
-I didn't like altering my curve around it. It felt like the entire deck was built around it, rather than having synergy with it.
-It was problematic with my anti-artifact theme.
Karmic Guide: While it is a personal choice, I could easily change my mind. You make a valid point. Perhaps the deck will evolve to the point where some combos are necessary to race other decks. But so far, there are no decks that are that fast in my meta.
LD isn't an issue in my current meta. The real problem is blue players and counter/control magic. So Karoos haven't been problematic yet. I like the idea of the cyclers though, I may take out one cycle for another. Either the Karoos or the Vivids. Hmmm...
Btw, it looks like there are cards that are awesome in this deck that I don't specifically run, but others do. So perhaps I should make a section for Notable Exclusions. This would contain cards that I haven't put in on purpose or am on the fence about, but give readers the option to decide for themselves. What do you think? Thank you for your advice!
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Many new changes to the list and I will briefly cover a few here:
This weekend I will continue working on the Primer format. Please give your input and feedback! Anything will help! Enjoy and have a wonderful weekend everyone!
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Elspeth, Sun's Champion: I am currently comparing her to our own Elspeth. She makes more bodies than 1.0 and her mini wrath is simply amazing! Our own Elspeth can only poop out one body, but she can also give a pump to any ground critter. She makes titans so deadly. Also, 1.0 is much cheaper. 6 mana is a wee bit steep for my taste. Her ultimate isn't too exciting, compared to 1.0. So basically, you got a 4 mana pumper that can provide a body if needed and makes you wrath proof if you can protect her. On the other hand, you got a steep 6 mana that is a army in a can, along with an AMAZING wrath ability and a meh ultimate. Considering planeswalkers don't stick around that long to go off atomically, 3.0 is looking promising. Will be testing.
Heliod, God of the Sun: I am a little disappointed with the white God. 4 mana for global vigilance? We make value of our creatures when they hit. Banking on the fact their gonna sick around isn't a good strategy for this deck. Our fatties will get removed frequently. His token making ability isn't that great since it requires a down payment. Could be a nice mana sink. But devotion won't get set off. So probably not.
Hundred-Handed One A hilarious reanimation target if I say so myself. And... thats about it. Just cute.
Agent of the Fates I really like this card. A stax ability on a assassin is just too cool. But heroic will never trigger. Sorry, not making the cut.
Erebros, God of the Dead While devotion will rarely trigger, his Necropotence like ability could be usefull! Being a creature, he could be recurred easier than, say an altar. 4 mana pushed him out of Sun Titan's range however. Pretty mixed on this guy. We shall see.
Hythonia the Cruel: Oh how I love me some legendary creatures. She's a big fatty with an expensive ability. But imagine her becoming a 7/9, wiping the board, then coming for someone's throat. If I need more creature based wipes, I may consider her.
Mogis’s Marauder: A black haste outlet... He will give at least one creature haste. An added mana commitment if your planning to speed play Teneb. But he is recurable with Sun Titan. I am seriously considering him.
Rescue from the Underworld: I try my best to stay away from creature recur that isn't creature based. That said, the flavor on this is so tight. You can reuse a triggered ability as well as get a fatty back. The only issue is that it is dependent on you having a creature to syphon value from. That being said, I'm considering this guy.
Arbor Colossus: I like the removal on this guy. But that mana sink... I'm not sure if I'll make room.
Nylea, God of the Hunt: I think I'm biased toward her because I'm completely smitten by her Her trample may outclass Brawn. She outclasses graveyard hate that Brawn is vulnerable to. Her pump can be used to make any Titan or dork massive. And with Teneb, good lawwd. Yeah I have a stupid God crush on her. She's replacing Brawn for sure.
Polukranos, World Eater: I was at first very pumped about this guy. A recurable hydra? YES! His monstrosity is QUITE the investment. But he can take a couple creatures out at once, and be resurrected for another round. A wonderful late game sink. A pretty meh early game drop. We shall see.
Ashen Rider: Dude, Angel of Despair, scoot over. This girl is amazing. Double exile as she bounces back and forth from the yard? For sure! It may raise the CMC of the deck, but hey, we love our fatties.
Pharika’s Mender: I prefer bringing it to the field. Pass.
Reaper of the Wilds : Ufff card advantage on a gorgeous body. Or should I say GORGON BODY! Nevermind, she is awesome. May consider her.
Triad of Fates: Seems like fun. Not for our deck though.
Colossus of Akros: Remember what I said about us loving fatties? Yeah this guy is too fat.
Temple of Silence: That tempo loss... If I end up adding the cycle, the karoos are going out, which will end early game resurrections. We shall see.
Did I miss something? Just mention it! Want to help improve the thread or the list? Keep the suggestions flowing. Have fun if you're heading over to Theros prerelease. Grab a Rescue from the Underworld. Those are gonna make the list for sure... I think... just get one. Trust me! All the best everyone, have a wonderful rest of your week
Epic Signature by the one and only Ace in Ace of Spades Studio
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BGW Teneb, the Harvester [Primer]
R Márton Stromgald
WUB Dakkon Blackblade
GR Atarka, World Render
{Writing and Rants}
WUBRG The Primeval Dragon's influence on EDH
Act of Authority: This card seems interesting. Very powerful removal and can be a bit of a political card. We only run 7-8 enchantments and one artifact, but we REALY depend on their power levels. I'm not sure about this card making this list.
Angel of Finality: We don't have any use for her.
Mystic Barrier: I find this card quite hilarious. Perhaps it will be good in other builds, but not in ours.
Unexpectedly Absent: It seems like a great tuck card. But I don't know what I would cut for it and I'd rather exile and tax commanders than tuck them (for this build at least).
Baleful Force: I'll pass. No evasion and brings nothing to the table besides over-priced card advantage.
Fallen Keeper: This actually caught my attention. Returning creatures to your HAND is a little weird for us, but we could make it work. The sac outlet on the guy is pretty awesome, I'm not going to lie. And seven mana? He could maybe see play... we shall see.
Tempt with Immortality: Five mana to return one creature is definitely not worth a slot. I'm not sure if I like the tempt mechanic in this sense, because then they could recur their monster or removal and get rid of what we just brought back. I don't believe it is worth a slot.
Toxic Deluge: I actually am considering this card. This was the first card to catch my eyes. It is a board wipe that can go under Gaddock Teeg's radar. Very powerful and we can always regain the life loss.
Bane of Progress: I'm really looking forward to this card. It is exactly on theme with our anti-artifacts. It does kill enchantments but its okay. We get a huge beast instead! Did I mention this card can be Larked?
Tempt with Discovery Tempting... but we don't have an elaborate land package like other decks, so in reality players can profit off this card more than we can. I'm not sure if I'm digging that mana cost either.
Overall, the white cards in this set offer little to nothing for Teneb. There are some cute cards here and there but nothing is worth making cuts. Black also doesn't offer much, but that board wipe may make it in a slot somewhere. We shall see. Green also isn't that exciting. Overall, these new Commander products aren't giving Teneb much to work with. Many of these cards are grasping at straws in order to make them work. My suggestion is grab a Bane of Progress and Toxic Deluge right away. These guys will have a place in the deck. Besides that and a couple of awesome reprints (Karmic Guide, looking at you! ;)) there isn't much to invest into this set, for Teneb at least.
Did I miss something? Just mention it! Want to help improve the thread or the list? Keep the suggestions flowing. All the best everyone, have a wonderful rest of your week
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{Writing and Rants}
WUBRG The Primeval Dragon's influence on EDH
Academy Rector is now in the list the list has a little more reach into digging for enchantments. This is very useful and will allow for some strong plays.
Last night I was playing Scion of the Ur-Dragon and Rafiq of the Many. I ended up playing the deck very grindingly, locking Scion out with Aven Mindsensor and dismissing Rafiq with Gaddock Teeg. I also got a Kor Haven out very early and protected myself from both players. I never played a game where I took the aggressive control stance. It was pretty awesome and the game was very long and interactive. Scion began to start some Hermit Druid shenanigans so he got taken down. Then it was me and Rafiq. Rafiq dropped a Avacyn, Angel of Hope. I responded by Podding into a Fiend Hunter. Then he killed my Fiend Hunter. I in turn recurred it with Animate Dead, exiling his angel again. He then played Clone, copying my hunter and exiling my hunter, to get back his angel. I then Swords to Plowshares his Clone, got back my hunter, and exiled his Angel again. He looked at his one card in hand and began to laugh. After a couple turns of this, I finally locked down Avacyn, followed by a hasty Teneb that swung in for the win. He gained life to get back up there. I top decked Kokusho, the Evening Star and played her, sacing her to High Market. We both shook hands and agreed that was one of the best games either of us has ever player
Epic Signature by the one and only Ace in Ace of Spades Studio
Proud member of the Spirit of EDH
BGW Teneb, the Harvester [Primer]
R Márton Stromgald
WUB Dakkon Blackblade
GR Atarka, World Render
{Writing and Rants}
WUBRG The Primeval Dragon's influence on EDH
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Sig Credit: Pegasus Bishop
Thank you for the feedback! Well I didn't write anymore long stories because I didn't know what the general consensus on them were. But sure, I can add more stories and flavor! I have all of them in my head, I just need to type them out. This thread is actually going through the primer application right now (cross fingers ) so if we get the status, I will totally add a flavor section!
You really should. I loved Intet. My story with her is that she chose Riku as her rider, and together they helped Jace save Ravnica. It was pretty legit, me and her and a nice run. I'd love to rebuild her one of these days. If you do end up posting a thread, let me know!
Also, I acquired a copy of Land Tax. Should I test it? Do you think it has a place? I have little to no experience with it.
Epic Signature by the one and only Ace in Ace of Spades Studio
Proud member of the Spirit of EDH
BGW Teneb, the Harvester [Primer]
R Márton Stromgald
WUB Dakkon Blackblade
GR Atarka, World Render
{Writing and Rants}
WUBRG The Primeval Dragon's influence on EDH
"She displays the same enigmatic wisdom of a sphinx, yet her heart beats with the fire of a true dragon."- Jace Beleren
There are five of us, siblings. Oros is the most vengeful, Numot the most destructive, Vorosh the most brutal, Teneb the most balanced. I am Intet, the wisest of my siblings, and my roar brings the wrath of a thousand planes.
Yup, I'm definitely going to write this eventually.
Would love to see this as a Primer! Would love to see flavorful Primers for all five Planar Chaos dragons.
WUBRGCommander Decklists - PaperWUBRG
CCCCCommander Decklists - TheorycraftCCCC
Sig Credit: Pegasus Bishop
Ooo la la, I like it already!
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=467109 I haven't worked on it in a VERY long time. I could revise it again however.
Epic Signature by the one and only Ace in Ace of Spades Studio
Proud member of the Spirit of EDH
BGW Teneb, the Harvester [Primer]
R Márton Stromgald
WUB Dakkon Blackblade
GR Atarka, World Render
{Writing and Rants}
WUBRG The Primeval Dragon's influence on EDH
:toot::toot::toot: :cheers::hug::dance::ria::jam: :toot::toot::toot:
:toot::toot::toot: :cheers::hug::dance::ria::jam: :toot::toot::toot:
Congrats everyone!!! WE ARE OFFICIALLY A PRIMER!!! My oh my
Thank you, all the moderators and the Primer Committee for making this happen. You guys are the best. Thank you ISB for helping me make this Primer what it is, and thank you DeadManSeven. Without you, I wouldn't be able to even pilot Teneb. Now, time for some fun!!
Haven't been here for a while, so my overhall today was pretty huge. Look at the change log for the recent card changes. Just need a Bane of Progress, then we'll be good!
Also, YOU! The community. What are some top tier sac outlets? This deck needs a couple more.
Epic Signature by the one and only Ace in Ace of Spades Studio
Proud member of the Spirit of EDH
BGW Teneb, the Harvester [Primer]
R Márton Stromgald
WUB Dakkon Blackblade
GR Atarka, World Render
{Writing and Rants}
WUBRG The Primeval Dragon's influence on EDH
With sac outlets, Gaddock Teeg is blocking a pair of incredibly flexible ones: Greater Good and Dimir House Guard. Greater Good does literally everything you want in a deck with a creature-based graveyard combo, but it does share a niche in this deck with Birthing Pod; DHG doesn't do much without a range of CMC4 targets. You have to ask what you want the sac outlets for - if it's just to protect against theft and get things into the graveyard, then I think you're alright as Birthing Pod + sac outlets with costs + one-off cards like Diabolic Intent go a long way (could include Phyrexian Tower and/or Victimize, which are both very good at what they do), but if you wanted more focus on the Reveillark combo, you probably want a backup to Mirror Entity. So, some suggestions, with their pros and cons:
Viscera Seer: Scry 1 is surprisingly powerful filtering - every little death adds up. Viscera Seer comes with a very insignificant body, though, and you have no Ranger of Eos to just find him as an afterthought.
Martyr's Cause: It goes under Gaddock Teeg and is a big stop-sign to any Voltron deck, as well as random damage-based combo things like Green Wort or Kaervek. As an enchantment it's easier to defend, but harder to recover if it gets destroyed.
Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter: A combo piece that actually does something on its own (kill all creatures and get huge). Vish Kal's a good guy, but he's fat and competes fairly unfavourably with the rest of your top end.
Maw of the Obzedat, Flesh-Eater Imp, Varolz, the Scar-Striped: A couple of outside-the-box suggestions. These three are often only slightly underwhelming bodies that can eat your other creatures, but sometimes randomly will let you steal games via combat damage (or general damage, if Varolz suddenly doubles Teneb's power).
Erebos B | Ghost Council WB | Grimgrin UB | Jhoira UR
Jor Kadeen RW | Melek UR | Mimeoplasm GUB | Rasputin WU
Savra BG | Sisay GW | Teneb BGW | Thada Adel U | Wort BR
I draft and play EDH. If a Standard player can't understand who a card is for, it's probably for me.
I also write things about good films.