Strangely enough, Teysa does help the whole Orzhov style of play of "clog the board, stall out the game, extort you to death, and let Obzedat take your opponent's cash" kind of thing. But for seven mana, even with cards like Crypt Ghast, I'd rather play Griselbrand. When he rotates out, I think Teysa will see some play, but until then, give me big Grizzle over Teysa.
By not blocking. If I'm getting attacked, it is likely going to be better for me to eat it and swing board advantage than block. Synergy is fun. This is why it is white and black, two huge life gain colors. I'll take your 35 saprolings, and send 35 spirits back at you.
Is your opponent an idiot? He probably is if he's throwing away 35 saprolings on a non-lethal attack that (a) will cause his saprolings to die and (b) cause you to gain 35 flying attackers.
If you want an actual good version of this, play Darien. (I do myself). You can do awesome things with reliable self-damage from pain-lands and things like Mana Vault. Ancient Tomb is already a fantastic card, now it comes with 2 tokens. And people actually sometimes attack you for damage, because they don't lose their creatures in the process, and they think can outrace the tokens. Whereas in Teysa's case, they are never going to attack you while she's on the board, unless it's going to do serious, crippling damage. Her No Mercy ability acts like a punisher card, and those are always much worse than they look. That's why No Mercy itself and Dread are not at all popular in EDH. The ability is under your opponent's control.
Yea, Darien doesn't have pro-creatures, but that turns out to be almost completely irrelevant. Instead, he's a very focused token engine.
In a nutshell, Teysa is awful at two things instead of being good at one.
Being two colors makes it better, as it's a legendary creature that exists pretty much solely for the EDH crowd. And if you actually think this is bad, you probably don't know what stax is.
The whole point of Stax is symmetrical strangling effects that your deck is supposed to be designed to deal with. Not, you know, a super high CMC commander that is harder to cast under your own mana denial effects. Before you try and pretend "you don't know what Stax is", I played Geddon Stax for years in Legacy, and have a Karn Stax deck in EDH.
A lot of people don't realize this, but 7 mana is not on turn 7. It's usually on turn 15. Add in Stax-style mana denial, and you're looking at turn 18+.
And both of the Ghost Council iterations are much better Stax commanders than Teysa. She dies far too easily and isn't easily accessible in the 7 cmc spot.
Especially Ghost Council 1.0, since he's a cheap sac outlet which is great for Stax.
A lot of people don't realize this, but 7 mana is not on turn 7. It's usually on turn 15. Add in Stax-style mana denial, and you're looking at turn 18+.
If you're 8 turns behind on mana in EDH you're probably boned no matter who your general is.
If you're 8 turns behind on mana in EDH you're probably boned no matter who your general is.
That's not how land drops work. Particularly since a BW deck won't have access to green acceleration, just some mana rocks and a handful of other effects like Tithe. It won't have access to seeing lots of cards, either.
Without that kind of dedicated green ramp, you do not on average have access to 7 mana on turn 7, period. With 40% lands, hitting the 7th land drop is on turn 15, on average. That's being on curve, not 8 turns behind. Plus some mana rocks, and you may be two or three turns ahead of that.
That's not how land drops work. Particularly since a BW deck won't have access to green acceleration, just some mana rocks and a handful of other effects like Tithe. It won't have access to seeing lots of cards, either.
Without that kind of dedicated green ramp, you do not on average have access to 7 mana on turn 7, period. With 40% lands, hitting the 7th land drop is on turn 15, on average. That's being on curve, not 8 turns behind. Plus some mana rocks, and you may be two or three turns ahead of that.
I really don't know what you're talking about. I actually play an aggressive RW deck with 38 lands and 5 mana rocks and hitting 7 mana on turn 15 is completely unheard of. Maybe turn 10. Maybe even turn 12. 15 is horrible. Your math is also very wrong. If you have 40% lands, then you should be drawing significantly more than 7 lands over the course of 22 draws. Actual statistics should put you on 7 lands on turn 10 or 11...exactly as I said.
A lot of people don't realize this, but 7 mana is not on turn 7. It's usually on turn 15. Add in Stax-style mana denial, and you're looking at turn 18+.
You play EDH in very different circles than I do, then. 7 mana is usually turn 4 or 5 what with Sol Rings, Mind Stones, and other assorted mana trinkets. To say nothing of what Green would be doing in that time frame.
Is your opponent an idiot? He probably is if he's throwing away 35 saprolings on a non-lethal attack that (a) will cause his saprolings to die and (b) cause you to gain 35 flying attackers.
If you want an actual good version of this, play Darien. (I do myself). You can do awesome things with reliable self-damage from pain-lands and things like Mana Vault. Ancient Tomb is already a fantastic card, now it comes with 2 tokens. And people actually sometimes attack you for damage, because they don't lose their creatures in the process, and they think can outrace the tokens. Whereas in Teysa's case, they are never going to attack you while she's on the board, unless it's going to do serious, crippling damage. Her No Mercy ability acts like a punisher card, and those are always much worse than they look. That's why No Mercy itself and Dread are not at all popular in EDH. The ability is under your opponent's control.
Yea, Darien doesn't have pro-creatures, but that turns out to be almost completely irrelevant. Instead, he's a very focused token engine.
In a nutshell, Teysa is awful at two things instead of being good at one.
The whole point of Stax is symmetrical strangling effects that your deck is supposed to be designed to deal with. Not, you know, a super high CMC commander that is harder to cast under your own mana denial effects. Before you try and pretend "you don't know what Stax is", I played Geddon Stax for years in Legacy, and have a Karn Stax deck in EDH.
A lot of people don't realize this, but 7 mana is not on turn 7. It's usually on turn 15. Add in Stax-style mana denial, and you're looking at turn 18+.
Especially Ghost Council 1.0, since he's a cheap sac outlet which is great for Stax.
0 Karn
W Darien
U Arcanis
B Geth
R Norin
G Yeva
UW Hanna
RB Olivia
WB Obzedat
UR Melek
BG Glissa
WR Aurelia
GU Kraj
BRU Nicol Bolas
RGB Prossh
BGW Ghave
GUB Mimeoplasm
WUBRG Sliver Overlord
GWU Treva, the Renewer
EDH Spike:
U Azami, Lady of Scrolls
Trades
If you're 8 turns behind on mana in EDH you're probably boned no matter who your general is.
Standard: W/R Aggro
That's not how land drops work. Particularly since a BW deck won't have access to green acceleration, just some mana rocks and a handful of other effects like Tithe. It won't have access to seeing lots of cards, either.
Without that kind of dedicated green ramp, you do not on average have access to 7 mana on turn 7, period. With 40% lands, hitting the 7th land drop is on turn 15, on average. That's being on curve, not 8 turns behind. Plus some mana rocks, and you may be two or three turns ahead of that.
0 Karn
W Darien
U Arcanis
B Geth
R Norin
G Yeva
UW Hanna
RB Olivia
WB Obzedat
UR Melek
BG Glissa
WR Aurelia
GU Kraj
BRU Nicol Bolas
RGB Prossh
BGW Ghave
GUB Mimeoplasm
WUBRG Sliver Overlord
GWU Treva, the Renewer
EDH Spike:
U Azami, Lady of Scrolls
Trades
I really don't know what you're talking about. I actually play an aggressive RW deck with 38 lands and 5 mana rocks and hitting 7 mana on turn 15 is completely unheard of. Maybe turn 10. Maybe even turn 12. 15 is horrible. Your math is also very wrong. If you have 40% lands, then you should be drawing significantly more than 7 lands over the course of 22 draws. Actual statistics should put you on 7 lands on turn 10 or 11...exactly as I said.
Standard: W/R Aggro
You play EDH in very different circles than I do, then. 7 mana is usually turn 4 or 5 what with Sol Rings, Mind Stones, and other assorted mana trinkets. To say nothing of what Green would be doing in that time frame.
Context - was reponse to this.
Because Every Set is Terrible!