I saw Teysa spoiled and I immediately looked at whether she would be good in any of my existing decks. The answer was a resounding "no". My current decks just do not have enough permanents that would actually work with her to make her a viable inclusion. But, I like creatures, I like creatures dying, and I like value, so I decided to put together a deck around her.
Note that this deck, for now, is in its very early stages. I have chosen to put cards in that I think I want to see how everything plays together with regards to Teysa abilities. This means that, for now, I am missing some key elements such as spot removal. Notably, I have skipped Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares for now. They will make it in eventually (probably) but I wanted to run through all the good things I found that could work with her first and see how they actually work in a game.
Also, since I am doing this before all the cards are spoiled, there will likely be some Afterlife cards or possibly other cards from RNA that I will try to slot in. So, here is my initial list:
After playing this for a few weeks, I think I have come up with a (more or less) final list. The deck is low on spot removal but it seems to work out. I will still update this post anytime I make a change to the deck, but for the most part I have gotten it to a good place. Here is the current list:
The main idea behind the deck is to just get useful/powerful "dies" triggers. As you can see, there are a number of things that affect opponents when my stuff dies. Grave Pact, Dictate of Erebos, and Butcher of Malakir are the main ones. Yahenni is a sac outlet and gets extra counters when Teysa is around.
Cartel Aristocrat, Yahenni, Phyrexian Plaguelord, and Ayli are my repeatable sac effects. Teysa, Orzhov Scion is too kind of, but it isn't always reliable. Diamond Valley, Phyrexian Tower, High Market and Miren are my land based ones. With all of these, I am hoping I will be able to often get my stuff to die when I want/need it to.
Skullclamp is in here because it draws cards off some of the tokens I create and, with Teysa, actually draws me 4 cards each time something dies. And with the sac outlets, it is easy to equip it to anything and ensure it dies. Read the Bones, Erebos, and Arguel's Blood Fast, Midnight Reaper, and Dark Prophecy are the other draw effects. The latter two work well with Teysa as well.
Strionic Resonator was added because I am already dealing with a lot of triggers so being able to copy basically anything the deck does regarding triggers seems pretty good.
I have a number of wraths to ensure my opponents don't get out of hand. Thrilling Encore is here to get everything back after a wrath including my opponents' stuff.
Deathrender is questionable but it is another that seems to work well with Teysa to get 2 free creatures. Ogre Slumlord is here mostly because the tokens work well with Teysa's second ability as well as Teysa, Orzhov Scion as a way to remove creatures if needed (once the rats die and create white tokens of course).
I think the rest of the cards speak for themselves and this gives a brief rundown as to what I am trying to do with the deck. I know it isn't exactly groundbreaking, but it does seem pretty fun to just get a bunch of value out of my stuff dying. I do think I will likely add in Living Death or possibly Rally the Ancestors. Wake the Dead seems like it could be pretty good too since I want everything to die anyway. Rally is much better though since it is much more efficient to get an army out.
I am going to try this out tomorrow hopefully and possibly again on Monday so I should have some good game summaries and reps with the deck to determine what is working and what isn't. Since this is early, I am obviously open to suggestions as well (things to add or cut). I already see some cards that I don't think will make the cut in the end, but I wanted to give a few a try to be sure.
I plan on giving Teysa a shot too. I love the fact that you can build a deck around her so many different ways. You can make her pretty competitive too by only adding a couple of cards (Looking at you Ashnod's Altar and Nim Deathmantle.) I'm more of a 75% person as well so I've been thinking of how I want to build around her. I think the new Seraph of the Scales would fit well. Requiem Angel is another one I thought of right away. Pawn of Ulamog could provide some pretty good ramp. Shadows of the Past turns into a scry 2 anytime something dies, which is cool.
Requiem Angel is one of the final cuts I made. It might work out pretty well, but it was not one that I wanted to include due to the mana cost mostly. I looked at the others but ultimately decided they were not better than the cards I included. Time may suggest that they are better than they look so it is good to call them out as options.
I played this deck tonight and came up with a few good take-aways.
Mikaeus + Chainer + Ashen Rider + Teysa + sac outlet is the main reason I won the last game I played with her. I was able to exile 3 things each time and kept the Karador player in check. Of the synergies I had, this was my favorite (though I realize 5 cards is hard to expect to be together consistently).
The 3 Fleshbag Marauder effects were awesome and then when combined with the 3 Grave Pact effects I was able to ensure the board was pretty clear on my opponents' side of the board. The one game against Animar I was able to win almost entirely on these effects since I had very little else that could get rid of Animar due to his Protections.
The dies triggers I do have, and the preference towards them, means that Blood Artist, Falkenrath Noble, and Zulaport Cutthroat are all basically "fluff". That is, they impact the game on such a small scale as to not even be relevant. These are easily cards that can be cut.
Akroma's Vengeance is a bit too costly for the effect. I am not sure if I want it or not, but the games I played where it was in my hand, I never cast it. I am not sure I would need to.
Deathrender seemed cool, but it takes too much effort to make work. I need a creature, 6 mana (over a couple turns) and a sac outlet to get a free creature from my hand which then requires I actually have something worthwhile in my hand.
Elenda is another I am on the fence about. She seems like she can generate a lot of value but I never got her to work in the games I played. Specifically, when I had her in my hand, there were better things to play.
Harvester of Souls is expensive and I have better options for this. Skullclamp, Dark Prophecy, and Midnight Reaper are much better for this effect since they are much cheaper. Getting them down earlier allowed me to keep my hand full and hit my land drops which I can't really do with Harvester since it takes so long to get down.
Overseer of the Damned is another that has a great effect but it high in cost so it is rarely something I want to be spending too much mana on.
Strionic Resonator seemed like it would fit due to the immense amount of triggers I am dealing with but I rarely actually wanted to spend the mana for it and, more importantly, I rarely needed to. It felt a bit win-more so I think I would rather add some more answers.
Sangromancer and Revillark just don't do enough. I had a few times where they were just stuck in my hand. Sun Titan can replace Revillark and much more work. I am going to keep 'Lark for now due to the changes below but it is possible it gets cut later.
With all of these, and the removal I mentioned above in my "maybeboard", I have a few good things to add in. However, I realized I am also really short on sac outlets. I currently have 8-9 (OG Teysa is still tough to make work) but that sometimes isn't enough. For this type of deck, since it relies almost entirely on things dying, I need to up the number of sac outlets. I am going to add in Carrion Feeder and Viscera Seer. I am thinking of Bloodflow Connoisseur as well. I know I am going to include Pitiless Pontiff as well when it releases.
Beyond those, I am going to find room for Sword of the Animist and Liliana of the Dark Realms because I am often finding myself struggling to hit my land drops and these help ensure I have mana as the game progresses.
Cool concepts but I think you need lower the curve a bit. There is just too many high-end things without that mana accelerates to support being able to deploy them in the manner that you want.
It looks like it's way too heavy on the mass creature removal, but not on other card types removal. I'd get some removal like; Anguished Unmaking, Oblation.
It's not a dies trigger but it's so efficient and it protects teysa pretty well - i'd consider Spirit Bonds.
Following this one with interest
Helm of Possession is a house for these kinds of decks at handling problem commanders also, might be worth looking at.
Those are both interesting cards. I will look into finding room for them to see how well they play. I like the Spirit Bonds since it helps turn on original Teysa so I can reliably use her as removal.
Cool concepts but I think you need lower the curve a bit. There is just too many high-end things without that mana accelerates to support being able to deploy them in the manner that you want.
I agree on the curve issue. I am just trying to find the creatures that work and the ones that don't for now but there will likely be ones higher on the curve that I want to cut. For example, I am not entirely positive that Demon of Dark Schemes makes the cut based mostly on being 6 CMC (and he kills my stuff).
I am not a fan of the Altars but I agree they make sense. I don't think I would ever suggest that someone cut them in any case. They are not overpowered (outside of infinite combos which I want to avoid anyway) but I generally prefer creature based sac outlets as they are easier to get back if needed. I like the Aristocrat and Plaguelord since they cost 0 mana to activate (obviously the Altars do too). The Plaguelord is higher on the curve than most, but it is a pet card of mine that I can never find the right build for. I think Teysa is finally that build even if the Plaguelord is a bit sub-optimal compared to other options.
I like Krav too. I play it in a few other decks and there is basically no reason I should have missed it. I have never played it with Regna due to her high cost and somewhat underwhelming ability. But, this might be a good deck for the pair. I will give her a shot. And I do agree on the Patron. It has done very little for me since the rest of the cards have been working so well. I will likely just swap the Patron for Regna and see what happens. Regna also gets me tokens for OG Teysa which is also a nice benefit.
It looks like it's way too heavy on the mass creature removal, but not on other card types removal. I'd get some removal like; Anguished Unmaking, Oblation.
I agree on the spot removal. I was more focused about getting a deck put together to try out the creature components so I decided to forgo some other elements for the time being. I know I want Utter End and Anguished Unmaking. I am not sure on Oblation because of the other two but it is a card I run in a few other decks so I might add it in. I did slot in Path to Exile. Swords to Plowshares will be making it in soon too.
I know I want Living Death at some point. I am not sure if Wrath is the right cut, but it seems like it. I am also contemplating cutting Akroma's Vengeance. It is possible that if I really want this effect, Austere Command might be reasonable. For the most part, once the deck gets going, it actually does well to keep players without creatures so I can see going down a sweeper or even two. I am looking Vengeance being a cut because of the higher CMC. I am not sure how much not being able to sweep away artifacts and enchantments might be (though I still have Cleansing Nova for that if necessary).
Deathrender rarely triggered and, if it did, I didn't always have good creatures in hand anyway.
Akroma's Vengeance is high on cost and, will everything else to keep the board clear of creatures and spot removal I added, it doesn't seem as necessary
Overseer of the Damned is too high and its effect too minimal. Even making tokens isn't really that beneficial at 7 mana
Demon of Dark Schemes kills my stuff and has a high cost for its effect. The three black is also not insignificant.
Patron of the Vein was mentioned above and it just doesn't do enough in this deck
Wrath of God isn't as needed since the deck is built pretty well to handle the board as is and the rest of my wraths can hopefully cover me when I need them
Read the Bones is questionable but I have been finding that my permanent based card draw has been working pretty well so I feel comfortable cutting this
Wurmcoil Engine is just high for CMC even though it works well with Teysa. I may revisit this as I have never been unhappy to see Wurmcoil but I also don't think it does enough
Harvester of Souls is 6 mana and I have plenty other cards to draw me cards. In the 3 or 4 games I have played, I never wanted to cast this
Sangromancer always seems good on paper but I never care to have it in a game. Gaining life is nice, but it doesn't do a lot to actually impact the game. And, since I am already killing my opponent's stuff anyway, the life gain becomes less relevant.
Strionic Resonator is just fluff in that I am already getting an extra trigger for free; I don't feel like spending the mana to try to get yet another trigger. I think it is actually a good card for the deck in terms of what it does; I just don't think it is really needed
Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat, and Falkenrath Noble are really low impact. I wanted these to be here with the expectation of sacrificing my board to a sac outlet to make everyone lose life. But, I am finding I don't really want to do that. I prefer to play the deck in a more measured way where I gain incremental value over the course of the game rather than trying for a board state where being able to win by sacrificing all my stuff is possible.
Anguished Unmaking, Utter End, Swords to Plowshares, and Path to Exile were added to give me cheaper answers to creatures and more general, single-use answers for other troublesome permanents.
Rally the Ancestors and Wake the Dead give me ways to get my stuff back. Both only work for 1 turn and I can't actually attack with the creatures, but I think both are worth a shot to see if any ETB effects are relevant at the point in the game when I cast them. Because I got rid of the 3 Blood Artist type cards above, I don't know if this will work as well as it could, but I like the idea of it.
Living Death is a wrath and recursion in one.
Spirit Bonds and Regna are token generators that work with both Teysas
Sword of the Animist is ramp
Krav, Viscera Seer, and Carrion Feeder are additional Sac outlets that also provide some utility
Sun Titan is recursion for anything cheap that dies. I mostly want to use it for my Fleshbag Marauder, Plaguecrafter, and Merciless Executioner to recur them every turn.
Also, jamming a few of the 2 mana rocks is probably a good idea so you can drop your commander on curve.
I'm not sure how big you are on tutors, but Recruiter of the Guard will almost surely overperform in this deck. Not a lot of ways to find Viscera seer in these colors especially on a body.
Knight of the White Orchid and Kor Cartographer should probably be in the deck. Once I find something else to cut, I might try adding them. I do dislike Knight because it is only best really early. In other decks, it is common for it to be turned off making it a bit of a dead card but I think for a deck like this, it might be worth trying out.
I thought about Coffers (and Map to go with it). I shied away from it for now. I may rethink it later if I feel it is necessary. Nykthos on the other hand is one that I should have in here. The main difference to me is that Nykthos always taps for mana so it isn't too bad to see in the early game whereas Coffers without Urborg in a deck that is not mono-black can sometimes backfire (especially early).
I like the suggestion of the Medallion you had made for my Niv-Mizzet deck and it has been working well enough there. I can see adding Jet Medallion here. I might add an Orzhov Signet just to try it out. Every time I add rocks, I end up in situations where I draw them and I don't want them. I prefer to have my ramp land based if possible but adding the Medallion and Signet gives me a small change regarding rocks to test with to see if I really need/want them. Combined with the Knight and Cartographer, that might be enough for my early mana issues.
Recruiter is a good suggestion too. I don't mind conditional tutors like this. It gets me a lot of stuff actually. And not just sac outlets (though those would be the big ones) but spot removal, wrath (False Prophet), recursion, or even ramp if I need it. I will find a spot for this.
The other thing I am looking at doing is modifying my mana base a bit more. It sucks to start a game with 3-4 lands and have only one color. I know Command Tower should be here. I am not sure if City of Brass and Mana Confluence are worth it. I have thought about adding Shambling Vent and the WB Temple. I don't like too many tap lands, but the Temples are not too bad and Vent might be alright as a creature to sac if needed or even some quick life gain later in the game for Regna.
I am not sure what kinda mana restrictions you have, but I would definitely play fetid heath in this deck. Also, running 3 fetches (marsh flats, a white and a black) will fix your mana a lot.
I also think you would benefit from running the WB fastland (the name is escaping me but the kaladesh one), since your deck is pretty low to the ground and wants to get going early.
It's a regular source of frustration to me that 2 color enemy decks have worse mana than 3 color decks because of Wizards printing so many duals in ally only (odyssey filter, showlands and tangos).
Oh, Ash Barrens is probably worthwhile. And Oreskos Explorer is usually good in white decks that aren't green. Might even be better than Knight.
re: Jet Medallion
The thing I like about medallions in this deck especially are that you have tons of cheap creatures with high generic mana costs, so you'll get some explosive turns out of it. But more to the point it lets you get Teysa out a turn early which not of ramp does in this color combo.
I just used the eye test to think jet was the right one but you may want to double check that. It might be pearl.
It looks like you're looking to do what my Ayli deck has been doing with the new Teysa I'm definitely planning on trying Teysa out in the deck for sure. Here's my primer for Ayli if you feel inclined to check it out
For the record, although Regna, the Redeemer can help find Krav, the Unredeemed with her Partners With trigger, I do not find Regna worth running and tend to run Krav solo in most of my decks.
I am not sure what kinda mana restrictions you have, but I would definitely play fetid heath in this deck. Also, running 3 fetches (marsh flats, a white and a black) will fix your mana a lot.
I also think you would benefit from running the WB fastland (the name is escaping me but the kaladesh one), since your deck is pretty low to the ground and wants to get going early.
It's a regular source of frustration to me that 2 color enemy decks have worse mana than 3 color decks because of Wizards printing so many duals in ally only (odyssey filter, showlands and tangos).
Thanks for reminding me on Fetid Heath. I was thinking of it the other day and neglected to put it above. And I thought of the fast land too but I wasn't sure about it. I am willing to give it a try. I do have a personal rule about running off-color fetches in my decks so I only have Marsh Flats available. As such, I tend to find them not worth running in my 2 color decks.
Regarding land cycles: I agree; I hate looking at my enemy colored decks and realizing there are at least 4 cycles that are Allied only. 2 of which are fetchable.
Oh, Ash Barrens is probably worthwhile. And Oreskos Explorer is usually good in white decks that aren't green. Might even be better than Knight.
I don't like Oreskos because it isn't actually ramp. It is color fixing (as is Ash Barrens) and does help ensure I make my land drops, but if I can get the lands figured out, I don't think I need it much.
re: Jet Medallion
The thing I like about medallions in this deck especially are that you have tons of cheap creatures with high generic mana costs, so you'll get some explosive turns out of it. But more to the point it lets you get Teysa out a turn early which not of ramp does in this color combo.
I just used the eye test to think jet was the right one but you may want to double check that. It might be pearl.
I am pretty sure Jet is the one to go with. I have more black spells I care about than white spells. I don't think Pearl is quite as useful.
For the record, although Regna, the Redeemer can help find Krav, the Unredeemed with her Partners With trigger, I do not find Regna worth running and tend to run Krav solo in most of my decks.
I agree for the most part. It is why I have never run Regna. However, this deck seems like she can be of use and tutoring out Krav can be useful. 6 mana is a lot so I will be keeping an eye on her to see if that is too much.
Eh, Regna is likely worse than Thalia's Lancers being a turn faster and more flexible. But I think either is too slow probably. Lancers can get Nykthos and Kokusho and other similar nonsense as well. In general though I find it to be too slow most of the time. Just such a big giant tempo hit to spend 5 mana to tutor.
Elenda has thus far struck me as a card that generally is not worth casting. Even though both of her abilities work well with Teysa, I haven't gotten to a scenario where I felt the right play was to cast her.
Wake the Dead ended up being cut before I even did anything with it. Depending on how well Rally the Ancestors works (or if I feel I need a similar effect) it might make its way back in but I wanted to get some other cards added so this was cut to make room.
Vindictive Lich was one of the harder cuts. I am pretty sure the deck still wants the card, but I couldn't think of anything else I wanted to cut to make room for the new cards. As I playtest, I will likely try to fit this back in.
The Swamps and Plains were cut to make room for the new lands below.
Cartographer, Knight, Signet, and Medallion are all added as forms of Ramp. I am typically not a fan of the Signets (or, really, to much artifact ramp in general) so I will see if these put me over the line regarding too much artifact mana.
Recruiter is a way to get to basically anything I may need in a given instance. Since a lot of my utility is on creatures, this gives me a good way to search up the ones I need.
The rest are just lands to help smooth out my mana. I don't typically bother with City of Brass and Mana Confluence in 2 color decks, but this one has a low enough curve that I am finding I want to be as sure as I can be that I get both colors of mana early on.
Gift of Immortality could be interesting since you'd potentially be able to double up a death trigger every turn
You know, I built Sygg for a League deck and I had found Tainted Isle was actually really good. Being able to produce 2 colors and just requiring a swamp to do so actually worked out really well. So well in fact that I told myself I would pick up foils of the other 3 immediately so if I ever built 2 color decks with black, I would have them. Then, I built a 2 color deck with black and completely forgot about that card. I am definitely adding it and I will just cut a Plains for it.
Gift of Immortality is a bit tougher for me. Being an Aura means it is somewhat easy to disrupt. But then, if it resolves, it creates situations where the entire game is warped around trying to get rid of the aura/creature so it stops coming back. I do agree that this deck could make good use of Gifts; but it is not a card I really like using. It can sometimes create a boardstate where it is just "sac my creature; get value; get it back; get Gift back; repeat every turn" which means I would ultimately need to do nothing except sacrifice that creature every turn.
I played a few games tonight with the deck and everything worked out well except one glaring "problem" with Yosei (which I will get into below).
In one game, I was able to get things going pretty fast and was drawing a lot of cards off Midnight Reaper. I was able to get enough cards in hand at one point due to a board wipe that I discarded a lot of creature cards. Also as part of that wipe, I got 20 tokens (2 triggers because of Teysa) when Hallowed Spiritkeeper (which I had gotten off of Recruiter of the Guard) died. I swung in for 20 with Teysa on the field so I gained 20 life and then the board was wiped again. I had Return to the Ranks in hand and Mikaeus the Unhallowed in the graveyard. I cast Return for X = 5 to get everything but Mikaeus back. This got me back a Phyrexian Delver to get Mikaeus along with Krav as a sac outlet which allowed me to sac everything instead of them getting exiled and then swinging with the team on my turn. A few creatures didn't come back obviously but it was enough to win the game.
A quick note is that I had Krav in the graveyard because I tutored for him off Regna. This is the only thing she did as I equipped her up to Skullclamp and let her die so I could draw 4 cards. It was pretty unimpressive as that could have been any other creature to do the same thing.
In another game a bunch of creatures died and I just cast Thrilling Encore to steal them all which ended the game as well. Encore seems like a great card for this type of build.
In two other games, I ended up winning off of a Yosei, the Morning Star lock. I was able to keep getting it back in each game in a different way but it was massively unfun and, at least in the second game this happened in, may not have been entirely necessary since Dictate of Erebos, Teysa, and a sac outlet were preventing my opponents from keeping creatures on the board. Yosei might be a little more oppressive than I would like. The only thing keeping it in the deck for now is that my games were 3 players so Yosei was able to lock out both opponents. In a 4 player game, it might not be as good, but I have a strong feeling that even in a 4 player game, locking out 2 players is going to turn games into nothing and make them really unfun. Yosei is dangerously close to being cut because of it.
Overall, the multiple death triggers from Teysa along with the inherent synergies with most things makes the deck fun to play, powerful, and challenging as you can't just run out all your creatures and expect everything to work out. In the one game where I ended with a Yosei lock, I had to play very slowly to start with to make sure I could keep control and stay in the game. I had to flash in Dictate when blocking with a creature to keep my opponent's boards somewhat clear as well as trying to sequence plays to take advantage of Dictate without getting blown out by tapping out. Teysa didn't come down until turn 8 or 9 that game.
The main cards I feel underperformed were Regna and Jet Medallion. In fairness, Jet Medallion may have just been a victim of circumstance in one of the games I got it out in. I only have 12 mono-white spells that would benefit from a Medallion and I ended up getting to 6 or 7 of them in that game which felt bad with a Medallion sitting there not doing anything. Also, Teysa and Midnight Reaper were the first two black spells I cast and neither benefited since I had to use Sol Ring to cast them so I just ended up with 1 colorless mana floating. The Medallion helped cast a couple early instants like Anguished Unmaking but that was it. I don't really think this is necessarily indicative of the way this will normally play out, but it is interesting to observe nonetheless.
Cards that thus far have solidified their spot in the deck in big ways are Midnight Reaper, the 3 Fleshbag Marauder cards, and Thrilling Encore. There are a number of other cards that I have no plans on cutting as I think they do exactly what I want them to do, but these 5 cards have been instrumental in keeping me in the game in a variety of different ways. Plaguecrafter in particular has been able to deal with a Nissa, Steward of Elements and an Ugin when I needed them gone and it was kind of a "gotcha" for both players as the board did not allow for anything else to deal with them before it got to their turn again.
I played a game with this deck yesterday and ended up winning. I was playing against a Daxos of Meletis deck and a budget Sen Triplets deck. Both were decks that are for leagues that we hold and the Sen Triplets still had $100 for the budget so it isn't as tuned as it could be (yet).
The game actually started off kind of rocky for me. I started with Swamp, Nykthos, Winding Canyons, Midnight Reaper, and Sword of the Animist in hand. I had 2 other cards but I don't remember what they were. I got down the Reaper and then Sword but missed a couple land drops. Luckily the Sword was there to ensure I didn't fall too far behind.
I got Teysa down around turn 7 or 8. I also got a Dictate of Erebos down a turn or two after that. I finally got to a Phyrexian Tower as a sac outlet with Carrion Feeder coming in just a little later. I ended up needing to wrath the board though which I did, but then cast Thrilling Encore right after it. Nykthos allowed me to have the additional mana I needed at the time to make it possible to do this.
I got a couple ETB effects but, unfortunately, Rift was cast so everyone got their stuff back. It still worked out for me though as I had quite a few good things. I recast some creatures, recast Dictate, and ended up casting Grave Pact. Carrion Feeder and Phyrexian Reclamation let me continue making use of dies triggers. Archon of Justice allowed me to exile a couple problematic permanents when I needed. I did end up misplaying and I let Sen Triplets untap before getting rid of their general. This meant they got to cast my hand. I flashed in a couple things to give them fewer cards to take, but they still took my Ashen Rider after the bounced it to my hand. I forgot Sen Triplets also prevents me from activating abilities or I could have stopped that. All in all, it was just sloppy playing on my part. In the end it didn't really hurt me though.
I got back to my turn and both opponents had a lot of creatures. I was able to sac a creature to make them each sac 4 creatures. I did this a couple of times to "wrath" their boards. Daxos tried to cast Teferi's Protection to save his stuff, but I just sacrificed more creatures in response.
From the board state I had, they were able to do very little about it. In the end, I was able to outvalue them and use my board to prevent them from gaining a foothold and it was pretty easy to win the game once they ran out of resources. I have been finding that I am constantly getting plenty of cards in hand. For example, one turn I drew 8 cards and another I drew 11 and I think I missed an extra trigger from Solemn there. And my opponents are needing to spend a lot of resources to keep me in check. Since I have a lot of things that need answers and a lot of recursion and card advantage, it makes it tough for them to get ahead of me once I get going. As mentioned, the game above actually started off slow because of a few missed land drops, but I was able to recover from that nicely (with a big help from the Sword obviously).
I don't remember when it happened above, but I did get Hallowed Spiritkeeper on the field and it died to give me 22 tokens. With Teysa, Orzhov Scion, I was able to exile a few problematic creatures with this as well (I think at that time, Daxos was finally able to get rid of my enchantments).
At one point in the game, I decided to discard Yosei to hand size rather than go for the Yosei lock. Again, I only had two opponents so the power is better here than against three opponents. But also, it is not a fun way to win or to play so I wanted to see if I could win without it. While winning with Grave Pact/Dictate to keep the board clear might be toeing the line of "fun" at least it offers the possibility of interaction. More so than Yosei does anyway.
Also, I am starting to think False Prophet is a mistake in this deck. I like the effect and it is here has a sort of nuclear option if I need it. But the corner case of potentially exiling my own things, even with the sac outlets I have, may be a big issue as I don't want my stuff exiled. Unfortunately, I don't really have a good alternative since I want a creature that can act as mass removal and the only other ones that would potentially work have a high cost associated with them. I haven't really found the need to wrath the board usually anyway so maybe I am trying to account for a problem that won't come up a lot.
Maybe Academy Rector (which doesn't work with Teysa) or Lost Auramancers (which does work with Teysa) might be worth including. The 2 big enchantments I care about are Grave Pact and Dictate, but there are others as well. Even though the Auramancers is slower and less reliable, getting two triggers off Teysa and being able to recur it might make it worth it. I think I will try to give that a try.
As of now, I really only have Lost Auramancers as a possible inclusion. Going back to a suggestion by Pokken, I might add in Oreskos Explorer for now. I am willing to see how it plays, it fixes mana, and ensures I hit land drops. With the issue I had with missing land drops in the game above, it might be worth running it even though it is not ramp. In any case, I think it is probably better than the 4 cards above and can smooth out the game a little for me.
Yeh, I find that the "get a crapload of lands" effects are usually pretty good in Orzhov decks. Boreas charger may be better actually given your sac effects focus.
I do think if you cut academy rector it'd probably be ok to run Enlightened Tutor - the pacts are pretty important to your gameplan
I as actually just thinking of the Charger and am in the middle of proxying it up to test out. I am going to try both that and the Explorer.
Enlightened Tutor is probably obvious. I am going to put that in as well. I am going to cut Arguel's Blood Fast for it. I don't think it is as helpful in this deck as it is in others since I have so much other card draw.
After reviewing a bit more, I may have too many wraths, but I don't think Living Death is right to cut. I am thinking that it is likely Damnation but I am going to keep them all for now with a focus on whether I ever feel I am getting wraths as dead cards.
So, with the cuts mentioned above and the new inclusions, here is what I am going to change:
Well, I hesitated to suggest the e-tutor because I know from reading your decks you tend to not jam all the tutors But I do think E-tutor+auramancers+recruiter is a great balance in your deck of enabling you to prosecute your gameplan with a little more consistency, but not going over the top with V/Dtutor for the same game every time.
I suspect you will find Auramancers a bit slow. Getting rid of the counters takes forever. But it does seem like your playgroup plays a little on the slower side so maybe it'll play.
Yeah, I try not to go too far into the tutor aspect and, as shown with Yosei, if something is making the game unfun or makes it linear I will typically change it. If that happens here where every game plays the same because of it, I am willing to cut it, but E. Tutor is less likely to create the same game states every game due to the number of tutor targets and the fact that none of them actually win the game on their own.
Also, there is certainly that concern with the Auramancers. We tend to have a lot of wraths so it may not survive the 3 upkeeps it needs to survive due to the number of wraths and/or spot removal. So I will see if it ever actually goes off.
Yes, that was why I always wound up cutting auramancers. It'd never survive for 3 turns. If I have a critter survive 3 turns I'm winning mostly in every meta I've been in.
Note that this deck, for now, is in its very early stages. I have chosen to put cards in that I think I want to see how everything plays together with regards to Teysa abilities. This means that, for now, I am missing some key elements such as spot removal. Notably, I have skipped Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares for now. They will make it in eventually (probably) but I wanted to run through all the good things I found that could work with her first and see how they actually work in a game.
Also, since I am doing this before all the cards are spoiled, there will likely be some Afterlife cards or possibly other cards from RNA that I will try to slot in. So, here is my initial list:
After playing this for a few weeks, I think I have come up with a (more or less) final list. The deck is low on spot removal but it seems to work out. I will still update this post anytime I make a change to the deck, but for the most part I have gotten it to a good place. Here is the current list:
1 Teysa Karlov
Lands
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Caves of Koilos
1 City of Brass
1 Command Tower
1 Concealed Courtyard
1 Diamond Valley
1 Fetid Heath
1 Godless Shrine
1 High Market
1 Isolated Chapel
1 Mana Confluence
1 Miren, the Moaning Well
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Phyrexian Tower
8 Plains
1 Scrubland
11 Swamp
1 Tainted Field
1 Temple of Silence
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Winding Canyons
Instants
1 Anguished Unmaking
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Path to Exile
1 Rally the Ancestors
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Thrilling Encore
1 Tithe
1 Utter End
1 White Sun's Zenith
1 Archon of Justice
1 Ashen Rider
1 Athreos, God of Passage
1 Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
1 Boreas Charger
1 Burnished Hart
1 Butcher of Malakir
1 Carrion Feeder
1 Cartel Aristocrat
1 Chainer, Dementia Master
1 Corpse Augur
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
1 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Grim Haruspex
1 Hallowed Spiritkeeper
1 Karmic Guide
1 Knight of the White Orchid
1 Kokusho, the Evening Star
1 Kor Cartographer
1 Krav, the Unredeemed
1 Merciless Executioner
1 Midnight Reaper
1 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
1 Noxious Gearhulk
1 Phyrexian Delver
1 Phyrexian Plaguelord
1 Plaguecrafter
1 Ravenous Chupacabra
1 Recruiter of the Guard
1 Reliquary Monk
1 Resolute Archangel
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Sun Titan
1 Teysa, Orzhov Scion
1 Viscera Seer
1 Yahenni, Undying Partisan
1 Jet Medallion
1 Mana Crypt
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Skullclamp
1 Sol Ring
1 Sword of the Animist
Enchantments
1 Dark Prophecy
1 Dictate of Erebos
1 Grave Pact
1 Phyrexian Reclamation
Sorceries
1 Cleansing Nova
1 Damnation
1 Living Death
1 Toxic Deluge
Planeswalkers
1 Kaya, Orzhov Usurper
The main idea behind the deck is to just get useful/powerful "dies" triggers. As you can see, there are a number of things that affect opponents when my stuff dies. Grave Pact, Dictate of Erebos, and Butcher of Malakir are the main ones. Yahenni is a sac outlet and gets extra counters when Teysa is around.
Cartel Aristocrat, Yahenni, Phyrexian Plaguelord, and Ayli are my repeatable sac effects. Teysa, Orzhov Scion is too kind of, but it isn't always reliable. Diamond Valley, Phyrexian Tower, High Market and Miren are my land based ones. With all of these, I am hoping I will be able to often get my stuff to die when I want/need it to.
Skullclamp is in here because it draws cards off some of the tokens I create and, with Teysa, actually draws me 4 cards each time something dies. And with the sac outlets, it is easy to equip it to anything and ensure it dies. Read the Bones, Erebos, and Arguel's Blood Fast, Midnight Reaper, and Dark Prophecy are the other draw effects. The latter two work well with Teysa as well.
Strionic Resonator was added because I am already dealing with a lot of triggers so being able to copy basically anything the deck does regarding triggers seems pretty good.
I have a number of wraths to ensure my opponents don't get out of hand. Thrilling Encore is here to get everything back after a wrath including my opponents' stuff.
Deathrender is questionable but it is another that seems to work well with Teysa to get 2 free creatures. Ogre Slumlord is here mostly because the tokens work well with Teysa's second ability as well as Teysa, Orzhov Scion as a way to remove creatures if needed (once the rats die and create white tokens of course).
I think the rest of the cards speak for themselves and this gives a brief rundown as to what I am trying to do with the deck. I know it isn't exactly groundbreaking, but it does seem pretty fun to just get a bunch of value out of my stuff dying. I do think I will likely add in Living Death or possibly Rally the Ancestors. Wake the Dead seems like it could be pretty good too since I want everything to die anyway. Rally is much better though since it is much more efficient to get an army out.
I am going to try this out tomorrow hopefully and possibly again on Monday so I should have some good game summaries and reps with the deck to determine what is working and what isn't. Since this is early, I am obviously open to suggestions as well (things to add or cut). I already see some cards that I don't think will make the cut in the end, but I wanted to give a few a try to be sure.
1 Deathrender
1 Akroma's Vengeance
1 Overseer of the Damned
1 Demon of Dark Schemes
1 Patron of the Vein
1 Wrath of God
1 Read the Bones
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Harvester of Souls
1 Blood Artist
1 Zulaport Cutthroat
1 Falkenrath Noble
1 Sangromancer
1 Strionic Resonator
1 Anguished Unmaking
1 Utter End
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Living Death
1 Rally the Ancestors
1 Spirit Bonds
1 Wake the Dead
1 Sword of the Animist
1 Path to Exile
1 Krav, the Unredeemed
1 Regna, the Redeemer
1 Sun Titan
1 Viscera Seer
1 Carrion Feeder
The basics here are listed weird so the deck tags will create 2 columns
1 Elenda, the Dusk Rose
1 Wake the Dead
1 Vindictive Lich
3 Plains
2 Plains
3 Swamp
1 Command Tower
1 Tainted Field
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Fetid Heath
1 Mana Confluence
1 City of Brass
1 Concealed Courtyard
1 Temple of Silence
1 Kor Cartographer
1 Jet Medallion
1 Recruiter of the Guard
1 Knight of the White Orchid
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Regna, the Redeemer
1 False Prophet
1 Yosei, the Morning Star
1 Arguel's Blood Fast
1 Oreskos Explorer
1 Boreas Charger
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Lost Auramancers
1 Oreskos Explorer
1 Tithe
1 Disciple of Bolas
1 Lost Auramancers
1 Kaya, Orzhov Usurper
1 Reliquary Monk
Mikaeus + Chainer + Ashen Rider + Teysa + sac outlet is the main reason I won the last game I played with her. I was able to exile 3 things each time and kept the Karador player in check. Of the synergies I had, this was my favorite (though I realize 5 cards is hard to expect to be together consistently).
The 3 Fleshbag Marauder effects were awesome and then when combined with the 3 Grave Pact effects I was able to ensure the board was pretty clear on my opponents' side of the board. The one game against Animar I was able to win almost entirely on these effects since I had very little else that could get rid of Animar due to his Protections.
The dies triggers I do have, and the preference towards them, means that Blood Artist, Falkenrath Noble, and Zulaport Cutthroat are all basically "fluff". That is, they impact the game on such a small scale as to not even be relevant. These are easily cards that can be cut.
Other cards that were less than stellar were:
Akroma's Vengeance is a bit too costly for the effect. I am not sure if I want it or not, but the games I played where it was in my hand, I never cast it. I am not sure I would need to.
Deathrender seemed cool, but it takes too much effort to make work. I need a creature, 6 mana (over a couple turns) and a sac outlet to get a free creature from my hand which then requires I actually have something worthwhile in my hand.
Elenda is another I am on the fence about. She seems like she can generate a lot of value but I never got her to work in the games I played. Specifically, when I had her in my hand, there were better things to play.
Harvester of Souls is expensive and I have better options for this. Skullclamp, Dark Prophecy, and Midnight Reaper are much better for this effect since they are much cheaper. Getting them down earlier allowed me to keep my hand full and hit my land drops which I can't really do with Harvester since it takes so long to get down.
Overseer of the Damned is another that has a great effect but it high in cost so it is rarely something I want to be spending too much mana on.
Strionic Resonator seemed like it would fit due to the immense amount of triggers I am dealing with but I rarely actually wanted to spend the mana for it and, more importantly, I rarely needed to. It felt a bit win-more so I think I would rather add some more answers.
Sangromancer and Revillark just don't do enough. I had a few times where they were just stuck in my hand. Sun Titan can replace Revillark and much more work. I am going to keep 'Lark for now due to the changes below but it is possible it gets cut later.
With all of these, and the removal I mentioned above in my "maybeboard", I have a few good things to add in. However, I realized I am also really short on sac outlets. I currently have 8-9 (OG Teysa is still tough to make work) but that sometimes isn't enough. For this type of deck, since it relies almost entirely on things dying, I need to up the number of sac outlets. I am going to add in Carrion Feeder and Viscera Seer. I am thinking of Bloodflow Connoisseur as well. I know I am going to include Pitiless Pontiff as well when it releases.
Beyond those, I am going to find room for Sword of the Animist and Liliana of the Dark Realms because I am often finding myself struggling to hit my land drops and these help ensure I have mana as the game progresses.
Following this one with interest
Helm of Possession is a house for these kinds of decks at handling problem commanders also, might be worth looking at.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
You can replace some of the sacrifice effects, with ones that provide mana. So personally I'd play Phyrexian Altar and Ashnod's Altar over Cartel Aristocrat and Phyrexian Plaguelord.
I'm not sure if this is how Teysa Karlov interacts with Phyrexian Altar in that sacrficing a creature will provide double mana?
If so then you can get BB with sacrificing a creature so Bloodsoaked Champion, Gravecrawler, Oathsworn Vampire, Reassembling Skeleton can provide infinite die triggers.
Let me know if this is a thing?
I like Krav, the Unredeemed and Regna, the Redeemer in this deck.
Patron of the Vein looks like an easy cut.
It looks like it's way too heavy on the mass creature removal, but not on other card types removal. I'd get some removal like; Anguished Unmaking, Oblation.
I'd also play Living Death over Wrath of God.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Those are both interesting cards. I will look into finding room for them to see how well they play. I like the Spirit Bonds since it helps turn on original Teysa so I can reliably use her as removal.
I agree on the curve issue. I am just trying to find the creatures that work and the ones that don't for now but there will likely be ones higher on the curve that I want to cut. For example, I am not entirely positive that Demon of Dark Schemes makes the cut based mostly on being 6 CMC (and he kills my stuff).
I am not a fan of the Altars but I agree they make sense. I don't think I would ever suggest that someone cut them in any case. They are not overpowered (outside of infinite combos which I want to avoid anyway) but I generally prefer creature based sac outlets as they are easier to get back if needed. I like the Aristocrat and Plaguelord since they cost 0 mana to activate (obviously the Altars do too). The Plaguelord is higher on the curve than most, but it is a pet card of mine that I can never find the right build for. I think Teysa is finally that build even if the Plaguelord is a bit sub-optimal compared to other options.
It does not. Those are activated abilities; not triggered. Which means Teysa will ignore them.
I like Krav too. I play it in a few other decks and there is basically no reason I should have missed it. I have never played it with Regna due to her high cost and somewhat underwhelming ability. But, this might be a good deck for the pair. I will give her a shot. And I do agree on the Patron. It has done very little for me since the rest of the cards have been working so well. I will likely just swap the Patron for Regna and see what happens. Regna also gets me tokens for OG Teysa which is also a nice benefit.
I agree on the spot removal. I was more focused about getting a deck put together to try out the creature components so I decided to forgo some other elements for the time being. I know I want Utter End and Anguished Unmaking. I am not sure on Oblation because of the other two but it is a card I run in a few other decks so I might add it in. I did slot in Path to Exile. Swords to Plowshares will be making it in soon too.
I know I want Living Death at some point. I am not sure if Wrath is the right cut, but it seems like it. I am also contemplating cutting Akroma's Vengeance. It is possible that if I really want this effect, Austere Command might be reasonable. For the most part, once the deck gets going, it actually does well to keep players without creatures so I can see going down a sweeper or even two. I am looking Vengeance being a cut because of the higher CMC. I am not sure how much not being able to sweep away artifacts and enchantments might be (though I still have Cleansing Nova for that if necessary).
CUTS
And, here are the cards I added:
ADDS
Also, jamming a few of the 2 mana rocks is probably a good idea so you can drop your commander on curve.
I'm not sure how big you are on tutors, but Recruiter of the Guard will almost surely overperform in this deck. Not a lot of ways to find Viscera seer in these colors especially on a body.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
I thought about Coffers (and Map to go with it). I shied away from it for now. I may rethink it later if I feel it is necessary. Nykthos on the other hand is one that I should have in here. The main difference to me is that Nykthos always taps for mana so it isn't too bad to see in the early game whereas Coffers without Urborg in a deck that is not mono-black can sometimes backfire (especially early).
I like the suggestion of the Medallion you had made for my Niv-Mizzet deck and it has been working well enough there. I can see adding Jet Medallion here. I might add an Orzhov Signet just to try it out. Every time I add rocks, I end up in situations where I draw them and I don't want them. I prefer to have my ramp land based if possible but adding the Medallion and Signet gives me a small change regarding rocks to test with to see if I really need/want them. Combined with the Knight and Cartographer, that might be enough for my early mana issues.
Recruiter is a good suggestion too. I don't mind conditional tutors like this. It gets me a lot of stuff actually. And not just sac outlets (though those would be the big ones) but spot removal, wrath (False Prophet), recursion, or even ramp if I need it. I will find a spot for this.
The other thing I am looking at doing is modifying my mana base a bit more. It sucks to start a game with 3-4 lands and have only one color. I know Command Tower should be here. I am not sure if City of Brass and Mana Confluence are worth it. I have thought about adding Shambling Vent and the WB Temple. I don't like too many tap lands, but the Temples are not too bad and Vent might be alright as a creature to sac if needed or even some quick life gain later in the game for Regna.
I also think you would benefit from running the WB fastland (the name is escaping me but the kaladesh one), since your deck is pretty low to the ground and wants to get going early.
It's a regular source of frustration to me that 2 color enemy decks have worse mana than 3 color decks because of Wizards printing so many duals in ally only (odyssey filter, showlands and tangos).
Oh, Ash Barrens is probably worthwhile. And Oreskos Explorer is usually good in white decks that aren't green. Might even be better than Knight.
re: Jet Medallion
The thing I like about medallions in this deck especially are that you have tons of cheap creatures with high generic mana costs, so you'll get some explosive turns out of it. But more to the point it lets you get Teysa out a turn early which not of ramp does in this color combo.
I just used the eye test to think jet was the right one but you may want to double check that. It might be pearl.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
For the record, although Regna, the Redeemer can help find Krav, the Unredeemed with her Partners With trigger, I do not find Regna worth running and tend to run Krav solo in most of my decks.
(Also known as Xenphire)
Regarding land cycles: I agree; I hate looking at my enemy colored decks and realizing there are at least 4 cycles that are Allied only. 2 of which are fetchable.
I don't like Oreskos because it isn't actually ramp. It is color fixing (as is Ash Barrens) and does help ensure I make my land drops, but if I can get the lands figured out, I don't think I need it much.
I am pretty sure Jet is the one to go with. I have more black spells I care about than white spells. I don't think Pearl is quite as useful.
I agree for the most part. It is why I have never run Regna. However, this deck seems like she can be of use and tutoring out Krav can be useful. 6 mana is a lot so I will be keeping an eye on her to see if that is too much.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
Gift of Immortality could be interesting since you'd potentially be able to double up a death trigger every turn
CUTS
Elenda has thus far struck me as a card that generally is not worth casting. Even though both of her abilities work well with Teysa, I haven't gotten to a scenario where I felt the right play was to cast her.
Wake the Dead ended up being cut before I even did anything with it. Depending on how well Rally the Ancestors works (or if I feel I need a similar effect) it might make its way back in but I wanted to get some other cards added so this was cut to make room.
Vindictive Lich was one of the harder cuts. I am pretty sure the deck still wants the card, but I couldn't think of anything else I wanted to cut to make room for the new cards. As I playtest, I will likely try to fit this back in.
The Swamps and Plains were cut to make room for the new lands below.
ADDS
Cartographer, Knight, Signet, and Medallion are all added as forms of Ramp. I am typically not a fan of the Signets (or, really, to much artifact ramp in general) so I will see if these put me over the line regarding too much artifact mana.
Recruiter is a way to get to basically anything I may need in a given instance. Since a lot of my utility is on creatures, this gives me a good way to search up the ones I need.
The rest are just lands to help smooth out my mana. I don't typically bother with City of Brass and Mana Confluence in 2 color decks, but this one has a low enough curve that I am finding I want to be as sure as I can be that I get both colors of mana early on.
Gift of Immortality is a bit tougher for me. Being an Aura means it is somewhat easy to disrupt. But then, if it resolves, it creates situations where the entire game is warped around trying to get rid of the aura/creature so it stops coming back. I do agree that this deck could make good use of Gifts; but it is not a card I really like using. It can sometimes create a boardstate where it is just "sac my creature; get value; get it back; get Gift back; repeat every turn" which means I would ultimately need to do nothing except sacrifice that creature every turn.
In one game, I was able to get things going pretty fast and was drawing a lot of cards off Midnight Reaper. I was able to get enough cards in hand at one point due to a board wipe that I discarded a lot of creature cards. Also as part of that wipe, I got 20 tokens (2 triggers because of Teysa) when Hallowed Spiritkeeper (which I had gotten off of Recruiter of the Guard) died. I swung in for 20 with Teysa on the field so I gained 20 life and then the board was wiped again. I had Return to the Ranks in hand and Mikaeus the Unhallowed in the graveyard. I cast Return for X = 5 to get everything but Mikaeus back. This got me back a Phyrexian Delver to get Mikaeus along with Krav as a sac outlet which allowed me to sac everything instead of them getting exiled and then swinging with the team on my turn. A few creatures didn't come back obviously but it was enough to win the game.
A quick note is that I had Krav in the graveyard because I tutored for him off Regna. This is the only thing she did as I equipped her up to Skullclamp and let her die so I could draw 4 cards. It was pretty unimpressive as that could have been any other creature to do the same thing.
In another game a bunch of creatures died and I just cast Thrilling Encore to steal them all which ended the game as well. Encore seems like a great card for this type of build.
In two other games, I ended up winning off of a Yosei, the Morning Star lock. I was able to keep getting it back in each game in a different way but it was massively unfun and, at least in the second game this happened in, may not have been entirely necessary since Dictate of Erebos, Teysa, and a sac outlet were preventing my opponents from keeping creatures on the board. Yosei might be a little more oppressive than I would like. The only thing keeping it in the deck for now is that my games were 3 players so Yosei was able to lock out both opponents. In a 4 player game, it might not be as good, but I have a strong feeling that even in a 4 player game, locking out 2 players is going to turn games into nothing and make them really unfun. Yosei is dangerously close to being cut because of it.
Overall, the multiple death triggers from Teysa along with the inherent synergies with most things makes the deck fun to play, powerful, and challenging as you can't just run out all your creatures and expect everything to work out. In the one game where I ended with a Yosei lock, I had to play very slowly to start with to make sure I could keep control and stay in the game. I had to flash in Dictate when blocking with a creature to keep my opponent's boards somewhat clear as well as trying to sequence plays to take advantage of Dictate without getting blown out by tapping out. Teysa didn't come down until turn 8 or 9 that game.
The main cards I feel underperformed were Regna and Jet Medallion. In fairness, Jet Medallion may have just been a victim of circumstance in one of the games I got it out in. I only have 12 mono-white spells that would benefit from a Medallion and I ended up getting to 6 or 7 of them in that game which felt bad with a Medallion sitting there not doing anything. Also, Teysa and Midnight Reaper were the first two black spells I cast and neither benefited since I had to use Sol Ring to cast them so I just ended up with 1 colorless mana floating. The Medallion helped cast a couple early instants like Anguished Unmaking but that was it. I don't really think this is necessarily indicative of the way this will normally play out, but it is interesting to observe nonetheless.
Cards that thus far have solidified their spot in the deck in big ways are Midnight Reaper, the 3 Fleshbag Marauder cards, and Thrilling Encore. There are a number of other cards that I have no plans on cutting as I think they do exactly what I want them to do, but these 5 cards have been instrumental in keeping me in the game in a variety of different ways. Plaguecrafter in particular has been able to deal with a Nissa, Steward of Elements and an Ugin when I needed them gone and it was kind of a "gotcha" for both players as the board did not allow for anything else to deal with them before it got to their turn again.
The game actually started off kind of rocky for me. I started with Swamp, Nykthos, Winding Canyons, Midnight Reaper, and Sword of the Animist in hand. I had 2 other cards but I don't remember what they were. I got down the Reaper and then Sword but missed a couple land drops. Luckily the Sword was there to ensure I didn't fall too far behind.
I got Teysa down around turn 7 or 8. I also got a Dictate of Erebos down a turn or two after that. I finally got to a Phyrexian Tower as a sac outlet with Carrion Feeder coming in just a little later. I ended up needing to wrath the board though which I did, but then cast Thrilling Encore right after it. Nykthos allowed me to have the additional mana I needed at the time to make it possible to do this.
I got a couple ETB effects but, unfortunately, Rift was cast so everyone got their stuff back. It still worked out for me though as I had quite a few good things. I recast some creatures, recast Dictate, and ended up casting Grave Pact. Carrion Feeder and Phyrexian Reclamation let me continue making use of dies triggers. Archon of Justice allowed me to exile a couple problematic permanents when I needed. I did end up misplaying and I let Sen Triplets untap before getting rid of their general. This meant they got to cast my hand. I flashed in a couple things to give them fewer cards to take, but they still took my Ashen Rider after the bounced it to my hand. I forgot Sen Triplets also prevents me from activating abilities or I could have stopped that. All in all, it was just sloppy playing on my part. In the end it didn't really hurt me though.
I got back to my turn and both opponents had a lot of creatures. I was able to sac a creature to make them each sac 4 creatures. I did this a couple of times to "wrath" their boards. Daxos tried to cast Teferi's Protection to save his stuff, but I just sacrificed more creatures in response.
From the board state I had, they were able to do very little about it. In the end, I was able to outvalue them and use my board to prevent them from gaining a foothold and it was pretty easy to win the game once they ran out of resources. I have been finding that I am constantly getting plenty of cards in hand. For example, one turn I drew 8 cards and another I drew 11 and I think I missed an extra trigger from Solemn there. And my opponents are needing to spend a lot of resources to keep me in check. Since I have a lot of things that need answers and a lot of recursion and card advantage, it makes it tough for them to get ahead of me once I get going. As mentioned, the game above actually started off slow because of a few missed land drops, but I was able to recover from that nicely (with a big help from the Sword obviously).
I don't remember when it happened above, but I did get Hallowed Spiritkeeper on the field and it died to give me 22 tokens. With Teysa, Orzhov Scion, I was able to exile a few problematic creatures with this as well (I think at that time, Daxos was finally able to get rid of my enchantments).
At one point in the game, I decided to discard Yosei to hand size rather than go for the Yosei lock. Again, I only had two opponents so the power is better here than against three opponents. But also, it is not a fun way to win or to play so I wanted to see if I could win without it. While winning with Grave Pact/Dictate to keep the board clear might be toeing the line of "fun" at least it offers the possibility of interaction. More so than Yosei does anyway.
Also, I am starting to think False Prophet is a mistake in this deck. I like the effect and it is here has a sort of nuclear option if I need it. But the corner case of potentially exiling my own things, even with the sac outlets I have, may be a big issue as I don't want my stuff exiled. Unfortunately, I don't really have a good alternative since I want a creature that can act as mass removal and the only other ones that would potentially work have a high cost associated with them. I haven't really found the need to wrath the board usually anyway so maybe I am trying to account for a problem that won't come up a lot.
Maybe Academy Rector (which doesn't work with Teysa) or Lost Auramancers (which does work with Teysa) might be worth including. The 2 big enchantments I care about are Grave Pact and Dictate, but there are others as well. Even though the Auramancers is slower and less reliable, getting two triggers off Teysa and being able to recur it might make it worth it. I think I will try to give that a try.
As of now, my possible cuts are:
As of now, I really only have Lost Auramancers as a possible inclusion. Going back to a suggestion by Pokken, I might add in Oreskos Explorer for now. I am willing to see how it plays, it fixes mana, and ensures I hit land drops. With the issue I had with missing land drops in the game above, it might be worth running it even though it is not ramp. In any case, I think it is probably better than the 4 cards above and can smooth out the game a little for me.
I do think if you cut academy rector it'd probably be ok to run Enlightened Tutor - the pacts are pretty important to your gameplan
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
Enlightened Tutor is probably obvious. I am going to put that in as well. I am going to cut Arguel's Blood Fast for it. I don't think it is as helpful in this deck as it is in others since I have so much other card draw.
After reviewing a bit more, I may have too many wraths, but I don't think Living Death is right to cut. I am thinking that it is likely Damnation but I am going to keep them all for now with a focus on whether I ever feel I am getting wraths as dead cards.
So, with the cuts mentioned above and the new inclusions, here is what I am going to change:
CUTS
Regna, the Redeemer
False Prophet
Yosei, the Morning Star
Arguel's Blood Fast
ADDS
Oreskos Explorer
Boreas Charger
Enlightened Tutor
Lost Auramancers
I suspect you will find Auramancers a bit slow. Getting rid of the counters takes forever. But it does seem like your playgroup plays a little on the slower side so maybe it'll play.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
Also, there is certainly that concern with the Auramancers. We tend to have a lot of wraths so it may not survive the 3 upkeeps it needs to survive due to the number of wraths and/or spot removal. So I will see if it ever actually goes off.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
Adarkar Valkyrie & Thornbite Staff & Blood Artist & Sac Outlet