I have been playing Commander/EDH for about 4 years now. Just as long as I have been playing regular magic. I have been through and played all archetypes with all different generals and through the years I am proud to say that after all these decks. Teysa is my one and only. I cant ever seem to stop playing her. Teysa is a very unique general and when properly built around can drive an opponent to madness. I initially built the deck like most other Teysa decks on the forums. Spamming huge token cards such as "Decree of Justice". "Storm Herd". or "Nomads' Assembly". But that was not were I wanted to go with this deck. I wanted a more unique and flavorful synergistic approach that could bounce off of both of Teysa's abilities and every card played well with the others. After much fine tuning and play testing I think it is time to announce a new breed of Teysa, Orzhov Scion. But what makes this deck so much different from all the other lists? some few key points.
Combo is present but is only secondary to the fact that those cards are powerful even without using them to combo.
Only needs very few tokens to "go off" which adds to the low curve atmosphere.
I am a big fan of flavorful and thematic decks.
Deck prefers to use creatures for removal etc. instead of sorceries/instants. Example: Necrotic Sliver over Vindicate. The difference is that one is more abusable in this deck then the other.
HOW THE DECK EVOLVED:
I quickly realized early on that the token swarm strategy was much more difficult and less effective without green mana present #Doubling Season. So I leave those strategies to the Ghave players and such. I am not saying that swarm/aggro lists are wrong or anything but I would rather take the deck in a more effective and unique direction that feeds off of both flavor and power in spirit of EDH lists everywhere. The deck started out this way in the early days of testing. eventually after cutting the higher cost spells and tightening the synergy.I started working at the tutors and resurrection spells. I did not want this deck to be Tutor.dec or Reanimate.dec, so I limited the amount of tutors it was running . If I were to make the deck more combo oriented I would add in Beseech the Queen or Diabolic Tutor but like I said, I didn't want to have a boring 1000 tutor deck. So I stuck with a few good ones. Same train of thought went to board wipes and spot removal. yes Swords to Plowshares is amazing in EDH I know, but with multiplayer in mind. It just was very lackluster I was better off running Grave Pact effects for multiplayer. cards like Return to Dust kept the spot because they filled a very key niche (sansHumility)and are very efficient 2 for 1's necessary for shenanigans like Darksteel Forge.The next step was I didn't want to rely on the Graveyard so much. I will leave THOSE decks to the Jarad players as I hate playing -entirely- from the graveyard and hate being blown out by a Tormod's Crypt. I finally got the deck to a point where I am comfortable to share it with the world. Their is always tuning to be done and more cards will be coming out and I can only hope to build on the foundation that is already set.
Some quick notes about the primer :
1) Although i post the exact list I am running at any given time i want other players to realize that their are plenty of options on how to put the deck together while the core of the deck remains the same.
2) I whole-heartily discourage cut-throat spiky playing therefore i can not believe that one particular set of cards is the best choice. This goes hand in hand with the fact i have purposely neutered certain facets of my own deck but still choose to mention other dimensions of game play (e.g. darkest hour)
3) I hated seeing other primers but not really having a good idea of what the deck was about with only 99 cards being mentioned. i feel including every magic card that could be reasonable for Teysa in one primer breeds more creativity and paints a better picture of the deck. Players may pick and choose what pieces to run and post a comment about the cards they are running for further advice.
Player Testimonies:
Fire_emblem_88:
I just really likes how complicated the board may get, and god it feels so good sometimes when you just win out of the blues, like the other day, I had so many token producer + phyrexian altar and vizkopa guildmage, I played the blood artist and I drained like, 70 life to all my opponents it was awesome!
AllenM8:
Played with a group today 2 v 2.
I had Teysa, Pawn of Ulamog, Sadistic Hypnotist, and Bloodghast out.
My partner was playing with his general Sheoldred, but had Braids out making our opponenets and us sac one. Which was great synergy and appreciated since I don't have a Braids yet
We were playing Bruna and Geist and they withdrew by the 6th turn due to I was able to keep playing lands making Bloodghast come back, making an Eldrazi token and spirit, and able to discard both players hands constantly. VERY nasty way of dealing with opponents.
Devildanger:
Had an awesome win last night. I played Servitude to clean my grave, so I had Mikaeus and Blood artist out and like 20 other creatures. Opponent didn't see the blood artist, I forgot it too. He plays chain reaction so almost everything comes back with undying. Than he play oblivion stone. And I wanted to scoop untill someon else noticed the Blood artist. 5 player game that lasted 2,5 hours with apoximitly 20 board wipes.
Just to share with you guys , I did a sensational move yesterday with Teysa EDH. I was facing an Sliver Queen EHD. I had a Sengir Aristocrat in hand , an altar of Ashnod a Blood Artist and three tokens Spirit . He had four Slivers, all with 6 attack with Trample and the Queen on the table . The Queen made all indestructible and I had only one life point . Spirits sacrificed the Altar to generate enough mana and cast the Aristocrat and Teysa . Sacrificed Tokens of Aristocrat and other creatures to the Altar , then exiled Queen , used a Retribution of the Meek to kill all the other creatures of it and used the 1000 colorless mana to do a massive Immortal Servitude to bring more than 10 creatures to battlefield. Once again sacrificed all , generating life and tokens and made a Faith 's Reward for return everything again. Finally , the opponent give up ! = D
- You like low curve decks
- You like very messy board states
- You enjoy attempting to resolve multiple triggers on the stack
- Decks that revolve around the General are cool
- Fair 3+ card combos as a back door to winning
- You like to punish other players for trying to get rid of your board
- You like to slowly watch your opponent lose
- You like playing big splashy Tooth and Nail type cards
- Getting into the red zone is what EDH is all about
- You hate complicated board states and messy stacks
- You combo out too much
- You would rather kill your opponents swiftly
- Your super competitive
Below is a library of potentially useful cards that the viewer might want to use for there own deck. I decided to list any useful card as a resource for players rather than JUST the cards I am running at any particular moment, as I find that to be more useful.
These are the cards that provide very powerful burst effects of bringing certain creatures back to the battlefield to continue feeding your sac outlets and/or causing chaos. Some can even do this multiple times a game. Use these cards to give you a little stay power and resilience. Remember not to overextend into graveyard hate if its abundant in your meta. This deck does not need to.
Reanimate: The cheapest resurrection spell in the game has its own archetype built around it. This makes the deck because its cost is very low and your usually targeting small mana cost creatures. Usually only takes one time to put you ahead.
Unburial Rites: Very efficient card. Having 2 resurrections on one card makes this card very playable in EDH with tight lists.
Unearth: This is Reanimate part 2. In this deck it hits most the creatures and ALL the important ones. Worst case cycle it.
Immortal Servitude: This card does not see much play in other EDH decks and that is understandable. But with a low centralized mana curve this card is essentially a one sided Living Death. Plus I pulled a foil one and it looks cool.
Marshal's Anthem: Dont really care about the anthem part just the marshal part lol. Even bringing back 2 creatures is enough for this deck to pull ahead. Very powerful card and cheap for its performance.
Phyrexian Reclamation: Perhaps the least mana intensive card of the pack. Because we can yet again take advantage of such a decent mana curve, This card becomes more powerful then in most decks. We don't mind recasting our Marsh Flitter and Karmic Guide.
Nim Deathmantle: This thing combos with like everything lol. AND turns the creature its equipped to black which makes it play well with Teysa's second ability. Just imagine a Karmic Guide equipped with this thing. It has echo anyways so why not pay 4?
Karmic Guide: Highly abusive card. Putting reanimate on a creature means its easier to abuse the effect.
Reveillark: In this deck it reads " bring back any two creatures from your graveyard to play".
Faith's Reward: Sac all my things to drain you for 23 damage. Do it again. Or the classic. Nice wrath of god opponent. You got me! /sarcasm.
Obzedat's Aid: A Resurrection for 1 more mana to bring back any permanent. Not only is that powerful, but it is also versatile. I consider this a powerhouse card. As in, any deck that can support the colors could benefit from running this card. Very important for getting back those much loved artifacts. (Skullclamp, Ashnod's Altar etc.)
Sun Titan: At the higher end of the curve but has a very abusable effect that brings back most permanents from the graveyard to play.
Hell's Caretaker: Sac outlet that also brings back a creature essentially for free every turn. Think Debtors' Knell, but cheaper.
Combo and Synergy
Teysa + Reveillark + Karmic Guide = Infinite Teysa first ability and infinite creatures leaving/entering the battlefield triggers. (blood artist etc)
Teysa + Reveillark + Karmic Guide + any black creature power 2 or less + sac outlet = infinite sac outlet and infinite spirit tokens
2 creatures power 2 or less + Reveillark + Nim Deathmantle + Ashnod's Altar = sac creatures for 4 mana to altar , sac Reveillark for 2 mana to altar, bring back Lark with deathmantle and the other two creatures with reveillark, this makes infinite cololess mana and infnite enter/leave play triggers. with teysa out it makes infinite spirit tokens Because the deathmantle turns the equiped black. of course this works when the other two creatures are black. if you have necrotic sliver you can use that to blow up the board
Phyrexian Reclamation + Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder = recast creatures from your hand to trigger Endrek multiple times
Nim Deathmantle + Teysa + Ashnod's Altar = infinitely recur and creature abusing there ETB/LTB effect. requires an initial 4 if the creature is white. then the mantle will make the creature black upon equipping. sac the creature to the altar. then sac the token you get from teysa for 4colorless mana. use that mana to bring the creature back equipped to the mantle. try on a marsh flitterwith blood artist out
The back bone of the deck. Like I said earlier. You only need a few tokens from each spell for this deck to start going. Since most of the token producing cards are creatures, that means they are easily more abused and recurred. Which is right up the decks alley. Making black tokens is much more powerful with Teysa's second ability and eventually all the black creatures will turn into white ones. Enabling Teysa's first ability. Most the tokens come from other creatures because it synergizes with the deck better.You usually do'nt want the tokens staying around too long and they should mostly be used to feed altars and other sac outlets. However don't be shy to get in a few couple swings if the board permits it.
Bitterblossom: Cheap, constant source of furious flying Faeries. Eat your heart out good.
Anointed Procession: This card doubles the throughput of most the cards in this deck. Weather it is played on turn 1 or turn 20 it will always be good.
Spawning Pit: Cheap sac outlet + gives you more guys. The two things you want in the deck.
Springjack Pasture: Backup token producer. It can save you in those dire situations where you cant get a board together.
Martial Coup: Plays well into this deck. Make tokens with the option to wipe the board. Which you are ok with when Teysa is out.
Ophiomancer: Low mana cost token maker at each upkeep. there are plenty of instant speed sac outlets to net the token each upkeep. With Teysa of course netting you those spirits.
Zombie Infestation: Very cheap card for getting black tokens. Its great to have a discard outlet to set up an reanimation especially when your hand is all gummed up from lands or skullclamp
Skullclamp. Has great synergy with the Altar's letting you cycle through a lot of cards for that one card you need almost for free.
Skirsdag High Priest: Does a lot of work for 2 mana. Is easily turned into a Bitterblossom in the mid game since tapping creatures does not really bother this deck.
Marsh Flitter: 3 black bodies off one card. Still nice.
Increasing Devotion: The tokens are not black I know. But, sometimes you just need a good head start on the boards and this is a great card for coming back from a wipe or feeding a sac outlet etc.
Cloudgoat Ranger: 4 white bodies off one card. Wish it was black tokens but black is running thin of solid token making cards and its important that they are creatures. Still a really good card though.
Requiem Angel: On the high end of the curve. But provides a very powerful 2x token output.
Pawn of Ulamog: Provides more advantage from your non-token creatures dying.
Elspeth, Sun's Champion: Both abilities are solid in this deck. Feel free to run this to top your curve off.
Ogre Slumlord: Essentially the same as the above two but deathtouch rats. And despite all there rage, i pulled a foil one and its cool looking.
Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder: Comes only second to Teysa in sheer power. This card is stone nuts and you can always keep him around by sacing the thrulls. Recast creatures with
Teysa, Orzhov Scion: The main focus of the deck. She is one crazy girl that doubles the value of most the cards in the deck which pushes this deck to powerful limits. Probably going to see a new version of her in Dragon's Maze. I hope wizards does a good job. They have big shoes to fill.
Combo and Synergy
Marsh Flitter + Nim Deathmantle + Ashnod's Altar = infinite colorless mana and infinite creature enter/leave play triggers. With Teysa/Ogre Slumlord/Pawn of Ulamog/Requim Angel out it adds Infinite tokens.
Twilight Drover + Ashnod's Altar = sac a token to the altar put a counter on drover. pay Wto put two more in play. repeat for W. add in Phyrexian Altar to sac the other token for infinite enter/leave play triggers adn to make drover a 100000/100000. add in Blasting station for infinite damage
Zombie Infestation + Carnival of Souls + Suture Priest + Skullclamp + any free sac outlet = the crown jewel of convoluted combo's cycle thorugh your deck netting the effect of whatever free sac outlet you choose up to the amount of cards in the deck.ill explain
Discard two cards to Zombie infestation
2/2 black zombie comes into play
gain 1 Black mana from carnival
suture priest cancels out carnival of souls life loss
use mana to equip clamp to zombie
use free sac outlet to kill zombie
draw two cards
repeat process
This gets a whole lot more crazy when you Add Teysa. since the zombies are black. each death will net you another creature and another black mana. win from there
The cards that keep the cogs greased and the deck firing on all cylinders. I feel that card advantage outside of Skullclamp, is one of the major lackluster's of this deck and will be where i am focusing more of my optimization in the future.
Phyrexian Arena: Solid card draw. This deck doesnt need to draw 100000 cards to win. its the small cheap things in life.
Dark Prophecy: A recent addition to the family. This card has been nothing short of amazing. The life loss while unavoidable is easily mitigated and carries its weight in card advantage. This card is better than Necropotence in this deck. FACT
Grave Pact: You will be sacing creatures all day. So should your opponents. Except your usually left with more creatures at the end of all of it. Breaking the symmetry.
Martyr's Bond: Grave Pact on steriods. Im still investigating finding ways to sac my own non-creature permanents to make this thing so much more broken. Haven't found a effective way yet. Outside of a trading post or something.
Necrotic Sliver: He is black and white which is good and easily recurred from the graveyard, repeatable Vindicate.
Grim Haruspex: Solid card draw on a black body. Although non-token, testing has confirmed that your still drawing tons from your non-token creatures dying. Thats why you have cards like Return to the Ranks and Yawgmoth's Will.
Cathars' Crusade: I know I made an point not to run swarm strategies but this card is so powerful on its own you don't NEED anything else. Your creatures will get dumb-big quickly. Providing that extra dimension of winning.
Trading Post: Makes a guy. Sac a guy to get that much needed Ashnod's Altar back or sac that useless signet for some cards. Very clutch.
Vulturous Aven: Black creature + card draw + sac outlet . A lot of value for 4 mana
Smokestack: I have wanted to run this card for years and i have never been able to get a hold of one until now when i saw it waiting for me at my LGS. You can easily break the symmetry with this card especially in the early game when most decks can't handle it. Essentially this stops the bigger decks from going too far into the late game which is out of this decks jurisdiction of power. Much like Braids, Cabal Minion. You can drop something simple and easy like a Bloodghast or Nether Traitor on turn 2. Turn 3 play Teysa. Turn 4 play Smokestack. If if sticks it is pretty much good game. You can survive the early destruction far easier than most decks and weasel your way to the top of board position. Much like the deck as a whole. This card requires HEAVY amounts of skill and foresight and that is why i love the card.
Aura of Silence: This is still in testing. There is a lot of high powered artifacts and enchantmentments in my meta and this is a solid card to slow them down and a political removal spell.
Buried Alive: Usually gets the Grave bros. But getting a Karmic Guide, or a Sun Titan, or even a sac outlet to reanimate is powerful. This card is almost never dead.
Utter End: Solid removal. I am usually a stickler when it comes to single target removal in multiplayer but this compliments the removal suit very well. The fact that it is instant means you can use your mana effectively on other players turns when you cant/dont need to on yours.
Suture Priest: A small value card that also punishes/stops infinite creature combos also ( looking at you earthcraft/squirrel's nest)
Plunge into Darkness: Mainly here for the first ability but the fact it can soft tutor is a big bonus. this plays well with Blood Artist and Vizkopa Guildmage and is super cheap for all it does.having instant speed sac outlet that's not an permanent can leave opponents stunned.
Dimir Machinations: Just here for the transmute. 3 and 4 cost spells are the most potent and abundant in the deck. Or cast it to get those pesky Tops.
Smothering Abomination: This card was made for decks like this. When it was spoiled i asked if wizards read my primer. His last ability lets you draw free cards just by simply playing the deck.
Blood Artist: Him and Falkenrath Noble are the primary win cons. They fly under the radar until its too late and you win.
Zulaport Cutthroat: Arguably better version of blood artist. mostly the creatures dying will be yours so this kills quicker in multiplayer games. A must have.
Nether Traitor: My favorite of the three. this guy usually gets sent to the grave more times then anyone.
Pious Evangel: This card is either Soul Warden or Blood Artist depending on what you need at the time. The fact that you can choose makes it that much better.
Bloodghast: Usually only gets to come back once a turn. but that is still very powerful in this deck.
Reassembling Skeleton: perhaps only second to the Traitor. You don't care about this guy coming in tapped. Very powerful.
Stoneforge Mystic: Usually Skullclamp number 2. But sometimes getting Nim Deathmantle is what you need to do too. Then use her for sac fodder later.
Dimir House Guard: Very important transmute that also doubles as a free sac outlet when needed. Utility much?
Rotlung Reanimator: Cheap black creature that leaves a black body when it dies. With Teysa out his death nets a total of 3 tokens down the line which is awesome.
Xathrid Necromancer: Similar to Rotlung but actually a little better since we play a good majority of humans as well. Worth running both.
Mentor of the Meek: I love i can play this card effectively. MOST creatures in this deck will net you card draw for 1 mana.
Anguished Unmaking: Solid removal in colors. Every commander deck needs solid removal.
Combo and Synergy
Blood Artist + Vizkopa Guildmage + Falkenrath Noble = lightning bolt a single opponent and shock everyone else when creatures die (activate guildmages 2nd ability multiple times for increased magnitude.
Vizkopa Guildmage + Soul Warden = Each player loses a life when a creature enters your field. this is much easier to duplicate multiple times for the win then with blood artist. although the effect doubles when artist is out.
Nether Traitor + Phyrexian Altar + Teysa = Infinite mana
Reassembling Skeleton + Phyrexian Altar + Teysa = creates enough mana to infinitely sacrifice and reassemble the Skeleton (feeding etb/ltb triggers)
Reassembling Skeleton + Mentor of the Meek + Ashnod's Altar = Repeatable card draw for B (add Teysa to gain +1 Spirit ETB everytime)
Reassembling Skeleton + Mentor of the Meek + Phyrexian Altar = Repeatable card draw for B1 (add Teysa to gain +1 Spirit ETB everytime)
Any of the above 3 + Cathars' Crusade = grow the rest of your creatures bigger ( add Teysa to the field for 2x effect)
Any of the above 3 + Pawn of Ulamog/Requim Angel/Ogre Slumlord/Teysa = nets 1 token each time they die.play multiple token producers for more tokens
Carnival of Souls + Suture Priest = free black mana everytime a creature enters your field. helps negate life loss
Carnival of Souls + Zombie Infestation + Skullclamp + Teysa + free sac outlet = this can almost infinitely go through your deck triggering any etb/ltb effects and w/e the sac outlet is up to how many cards you have left . if you need life better have suture priest, blood artist etc out
Vizkopia Guildmage + Plunge into Darkness = amass a medicore amount of tokens and sac them all for 3 life each while bolting your opponents while you tutor. you lose life from plunge's second ability if you so choose to entwine but gain 3 fold back from Guildmage. stack Guildmage ability multiple times for cheap damage.
Vizkopia Guildmage + Extort Ability's = massively amplify drain damage the more players there are
Without these cards this deck is just a do nothing turn small creatures sideways deck. Its important to always have an sac outlet present even if it costs mana to activate. Without one, your just a sitting duck. I think another weak spot in the deck.
Cartel Aristocrat: B/W cards in this deck are amazing. They feed both of Teysa's abilities in one shot just by themselves. And this one serves as a cheap sac outlet while your at it. BONUS: Flavor (card discontinued but still a solid choice nontheless)
Maw of the Obzedat: Sacrifice outlet AND an anthem. Can not ask for much more out of a card for 5 mana. Being both colors is also a plus for Teysa.
Sadistic Hypnotist: Sorcery speed? So what. Just drop him and go to town on your opponents hands. Mind Rot per creature is amazing. Warning: may cause premature rage quits.
Ashnod's Altar: Perhaps the most powerful sac outlet ever in magic. Makes a ridiculous amount of mana. This card "combos" with pretty much everything in the deck.
Blasting Station: Another win con and sac outlet. I like tapping and untapping cards a lot .
Phyrexian Altar: Another powerful altar . Sometimes you will need colored mana. And its good to have two of these when your tight on mana.
Meekstone: Virtually none of your creatures will be affected by this or even live long enough to care. This is perhaps the best card in terms of defense you can run for the mana cost to protect against huge swings from the opposition. If that is a problem in your meta, I would suggest this.
Viscera Seer: The cheapest sac outlet there is. Scrying is good too for getting through those land packets etc.
Pontiff of Blight: Very powerful finisher that you can sink your mana into with a lot of stay power later in the game. You can just sink mana in the spells you cast weather the spell itself is relevant or not and just finsih off your opponents. Also goes well with Vizkopa Guildmage.
Combo and Synergy
Sun Titan + Fleshbag Marauder = use titan to bring back Marauder to make everyone sac a creature every turn.
Fleshbag Marauder + Sun Titan + Teysa/Pawn of Ulamog/Requiem Angel/Ogre Slumlord = Net a token in addition to everyone sacing a creature every turn. stack token makers for additional tokens
Spawning pit + Teysa = sacing a black creature then the white spirit you get from it will make spawning pit say " pay 1 put a 2/2 token into play. add in requiem angel for an additional spirit
The most important concept to keep in mind here is the player. This is not a pick up and play deck. It requires a somewhat advance understanding of game play and because of an over abundance of different card interactions within the deck, it requires a lot of playing to get comfortable with. I myself, am still discovering new interactions every day. I do not recommend such a deck to new players. But this comes down to the player itself. I have found myself in many situations where all i had to do to win was play Darkest Hour and then win. But i simply WOULD NOT play it. I wanted the game to play out more and i wanted my opponents to lose to a Falkenrath Noble. This deck plays with knives, much like The Joker. You want to savor the moment. This is perhaps the most fairest deck i can put together that manages to be powerful at the same time. A feat i am very proud of. Sorry guys, No janky Triskelion combos here #Yawn. Even the combos imo are fair (most require >3 cards to setup). This is a deck that abuses tokens and creatures dying. Creature death brings player life.
PILOTING THE DECK:
OK! we get it . So how do I pilot this beast?
This deck's engine is based off of sacrificing effects. Whatever you need from your deck to win, you can achieve from some permanent at the cost of sacrificing something (usually creatures). Early value cards like Bloodghast, Bitterblossom, Viscera Seer, and Teysa can accelerate your board very early in the game. Having Teysa out is the key to acquiring a critical mass of tokens and creatures on the board. Use her second ability to essentially double the output of your sacrifice outlets. You have Ashnods's Altar and Phyrexian Altar for extra mana on your turns, Viscera Seer for digging, Skullclamp for drawing cards, Trading Post is all around utility that can get you your destroyed artifacts back from the graveyard, and hand disruption from Sadistic Hypnotist. In addition to having Teysa out, to further garnish huge buckets of tokens/sac effects, play creature spells such as Ogre Slumlord, Marsh Flitter, Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder,and Requiem Angel. To further feed off of your sac engines. You can abuse these cards with repeatable graveyard recursion in the form of Nim Deathmantle, Karmic Guide, Hell's Caretaker, Sun Titan, etc. Use these cards to accelerate those leave/enter the battlefield triggers that win you the game from cards such as Blood Artist, Cathars' Crusade, Kokusho, the Evening Star, Mentor of the Meek,Falkenrath Noble, Reveillark etc. One of the great things about these plays is the minimum amount of mana needed to play them. You can be tapped out most the time while doing the above and not be remotely bothered by it. Do not be afraid to over extend with this deck too. You can set up your field to gain advantage from board wipes. consider the following.
You get where this is going! This is not a Christmas land scenario this is what the deck does and this is what Teysa enables. You usually don't want to be worried about your creatures (even Teysa) going to the graveyard all the time. Cards like Immortal Servitude and Unearth are cheap and very potent in a deck with such a tightly woven creature curve. Teysa is VERY critical to this decks game plan. without her, you are not gaining much value off your creatures dying. The loss of life racked up from creatures like Blood Artist or Vizkopa Guildmage add up Quickly. Even with 3 other players. You can usually finish off the opponents in the late game with some of the heavy hitters like Sun Titan or Requiem Angel or even a mass of tokens if plan A burns out. The deck is very weak to dedicated combo decks and generally decks that play much more unfair strategies. (Elves, Zur, Teffari etc) . It can also put a big target on your head if you need to push more permanents through the board and people start realizing that your winning off those creatures being sac'd to a Cartel Aristocrat. Typically a game of 3-4 players is optimal. More players usually means your better off setting up a combo to win.This brings me to my next point. And that is politics. I will lightly tread on this topic as it is heavily subjective and varies from playgroup to playgroup but you can use Teysa as insurance in a mulitplayer set up. Lets see scenario 2.
EXAMPLE:
opponent 1- has an Ulamog, the infinite gyre out
opponent 2- has an empty board because hes playing mono U like a wuss (jk ;))
yourself - has 3 white tokens and Teysa out.
usually you would just use Teysa's first ability and eliminate the Ulamog in the most effective way possible. BUT, if your smart, you can enact the following.
lets say the turn is on opp 2 and he is digging for an answer for that Ulamog. You dont really care about it because you have an answer. but o wait! you have no cards in hand and your in topdeck mode. This sucks . Your opponent reveals a Blue Sun's Zenith off the top of his library from lets say a Future sight. What could you do? You can use Teysa as a bribe to force Opp 2 to make the BSZ target you to refill your hand. and in return you will remove the lethal Ulamog from the game. BOOM! That is how you get stuff done the political way.
What about protection and our disruption and all that good stuff?
This deck has plenty of ways to both disrupt and protect your game while simultaneously pushing you forward in your plan. Faith's Reward is wrath insurance as well as leaves/enters play abuse. Aura of Silence helps to bog down your opponents ridiculous permanents like Doubling Season, Humility, Omniscience, Swords etc. Necrotic Sliver for anything you might of missed. Vault of the Archangel for favorable combat swings. Braids, Cabal Minion and World Quellar are good against ramp decks and keeping your opponents out of the late game where your deck is weakest.
This deck has a hard time dealing with artifact and enchantment based control cards. Humility for instance as i mentioned earlier is a real killer. Save your removal if you expect this card coming up. The deck also seems to have a big weakness towards artifact/enchantment removal itself. Usually you require to play all your juicy power cards like Ashnods Altar and Skullclamp all at once and their is very minimal ways to get them back once gone. This deck will just durdle around if all you have are creatures. So the best thing to do is apply an even amount of pressure in the mid game. You want to strike with the big blow out Blood Artist kill in one turn. even if its not for lethal. you can wrap up the rest with a well timed Exsanguinate or Good Ol' beats with Requiem Angel or Sun Titan etc. Not all hope is lost. Because your cards are not as threatening by themselves as much as the average EDH deck, you can use this advantage to bargain with the threatening player at the board who will waste there permission to answer more prominent spells on someone else. I call this flying under the radar. What is more threatening? a Mono Black player with a Caged Sun out? or a Token deck with a Trading Post? most the time it will be the former.
EARLY GAME:
Trying to find a hand with low cost spells is ideal. nothing over 4 or 5 mana needs to be in your hand. In fact all the powerful spells and win conditions cost 3 or less. Developing your land base is of course important but being stuck at even 2 lands with a skullclamp and bloodghast is winning in this deck. The land base is not as important in this deck as most other decks you are used too. I usually end up with ~10 at the end of the game. Aggro usually is not a problem because creating a board presence is easy for you while other good stuff decks do not dedicate squat early on and get picked on for it. (Ramp decks more so)
MID GAME:
This is really where the deck functions best. If the board is clogged up at this time, casting a wrath here is real good. Even when you have a board too. You can usually swing that to your advantage. Unless you had mana acceleration hand you will usually be casting 1-2 spells a turn here. But that is ok. This is where the power play comes in. Drop your Altar and make plenty of mana. Throw out a Ogre Slumlord and cast Teysa. Your opponents typically will need to answer your deck because you are about to win or they cant because it is still relatively early in the game. This is where the so called "engine" needs to set up. the deck uses creatures to generate all resources the game needs. (mana, card draw, life). you need to find a balance of these in order to get it running. Once you can generate mana to supplement card draw than your practically unstoppable.
LATE GAME:
The deck become less powerful at this point but can still win. The problem here is that by now most EDH decks are playing there really big flashy EDH cards (Genesis Wave, Omniscience, Generals) and this deck can not out power these plays card for card. You must compensate by playing extra cards each of your turns. If your unfortunate enough to not have a draw source and are out of cards and falling behind...well.. welcome to magic. The game is 50% luck and this happens. Adjusting card slots to overcome this is one thing you can do. I usually don't because at this point in the game if I am not winning i am ready for game 2. I know my fate.
Well i kind of am. I actually have the card tucked behind one of my swamps. But why? Simply because the card is TOO powerful with Teysa, Orzhov Scion. It is too easy to win and any tutor in your hand just simply means you go get the card and win. Now i DO play it sometimes. Usually in a more competitive 1v1 duel where the power is needed. It really depends on who i am playing and how many. I was just tired of being the "combo" guy. That is not what i wanted out of this deck. For those of you who do not now the combo;
Darkest Hour + Teysa, Orzhov Scion's second ability: means that whenever ANY creature you control other then Teysa dies put a 1/1 white spirit into play. the white spirit becomes black, thus allowing you to keep doing it. this makes pretty much every other card in the deck. Super Saiyens of their former selves
Essentially a combo card. I have always despised this card being played against me so i do not run it for that reason. But it can easily be added in the deck.
02/23/13 no changes
03/01/13 - wasteland + Yawgmoth's Will . wanted to cut down land size even more and wanted to receast some sorcery spells and Will is powerful in its own right
03/22/13 - salt flats, cartel aristocrat + kokusho, the evening star, Braids, cabal minion. Salt Flats is just horrible. cartel was a pretty easy to cut as it was just a filler card .Kokusho comes in because him dying is very bad for the opponent. Braids works with this deck because you can afford to play around her effect. lots of decks can't. Particularly control decks.
05/05/13 - Marty's Bond, + Obzedat's Aid .Martyr's Bon was a little redundant with Grave Pact already in the deck and its "other" part of the ability that Gravepact doesn't have rarely did anything. Obzedat's Aid is a very versatile power house care. The card is almost never dead and pulls more then its weight in mana.
07/21/13 - created a sub deck based off my original list with a Human/Cleric subtheme.(retired)
08/20/13 updated deck to post M14 list
02/07/14 - born of the gods deck update see thread for changes
08/09/14 - M15 updated
10/03/14 - Khans updated did some stuff but forgot
07/26/15 - DTK Updated -
12/04/15 - BFZ updated -
08/10/16 - SOI block updated. no changes
09/29/16 - Kaladesh - see page 30
09/14/17 - Hour of Devastation updated
Game Plays
~03/09/13~ Played some Commander last night during FNM so i will share some games
VS Doran, the Siege Tower
his deck was a semi competitive Voltron Equipster deck with a Big Butt tribal Theme.
i had a nice hand i played Stoneforge Mystic turn 2 . mana rock next turna and played the Skullclamp i got with SFM. i Drew a Buried alive soon after to get Blood Ghast, Nether Traitor, and Reveillark. he played doran on turn 3 per usual doran decks and an Unstoppable Ashchampioning Treefolk Harbinger . the trample kind sucked while i was setting up my board. eventually i got teysa out and went crazy with Sclamp and Bloodghast/Traitor. i drew a vampiric tutor to get Blood Artist and then drew Reanimatetargeting Reveillark 2 turns later. i had an early Soul Warden out to help against his trampling guys who had Sword of Feast and famine and Greaves on him. ( i kept removing doran from the game with Teysa's first ability before he could equip him). for some reason he played a go for the throat on my blood artist when i played it. i wasnt worried because i had an reanimate on the Lark in my GY in hand. so i casted Reanimate on lark. sklamped into a Phyrexian Altar. he attempted to bog my GY next turn so i had to lark in respone to get my blood artist and an PAwn of Ulamog that was put in there earlier. and lost the lark and nether traitor to the Bojuka Bog. Finally i drew Ogre Slumlord so my board was
Teysa + Pawn of Ulamog + Blood Artist + Bloodghast + Phyrexian Altar + Ogre SLumlord + Soul Warden
from their i just proceeded to grind him out over the next few turns with blood artist ( he gained lots a life from a Batterskull) eventually i drew nim deathmantle and just kept replaying the Pawn of Ulamog for doing 4 damage to him per trip to the Graveyard. he was playing Sun Titan on the other side at the time getting back Bog and what not. Luckily its not instant speed lol. i Won
~03/23/13~
did some more playtesting the past 2 days with the new additions above^
cant remember what happened much as it was the other day but i do remember having both of them at 15~ life and i top decked Kokusho and played him. Sacd him to Ashnod's Altar draining them for 5 each then i Faith's Rewarded him back into play and then sacd him again with all my tokens ( i had a falkenrath noble out) and that finished them off. it was epic. the game was pretty grindy like the deck is supposed to play out geting there with a couple duders and tokens , forcing the rakdos player to attach the Mimeoplasm (as i held up Teysa's first ability) that story goes hand in hand with how the deck can be politically like i wrote about in the OP. i pretty much said "attack me and i remove him. attack him and maybe i wont".
the second game i just got done playing a couple hours ago its pretty fresh in my head
its was a 4 player game vs-
Progenitus- a tuned combo deck with all the ridiculous 2 and 3 card combos in it
Trostani, Selesnya's Voice - way less competitive token/big stuff deck. player isnt a "hardcore" magic player but isnt horrible either-type-deal.
i was playing against two other combo decks so i knew the game wasnt going to last very long so i knew i had to start out fast with disruption. and i ended up keeping just the right hand. i forgot what it was but pretty much what happend during the game is Braids provided enough disruption to slow them down while i beat everyone with duders. i played a first turn soul warden. G/W does nothing relevant really plays some crappy enchantment or something. Ghave player tutors for a tutor and tutors some more throughout the game. setting up his hand ( he had earthcraft/squirrel nest combo setting up). Progenitus was getting land screwed pretty hard. he came out fast with a Grim Monolith and Nim Deathmantle but got stuck on 3 lands which didnt help that Braids was out.
anyways. so i play braids around turn 3-4 with the help of sol ring i pop out an Twilight Drover as well. G/w player has like no board so he sacs land. ghave player sacs land also since he has no board. and then so does progenitus .im keeping myself afloat with spirit tokens from the drover and later on Reassembling Skeleton. the turn after i drop Braids i drop World Queller ( Just added him before the game) . i Lol to myself in my head. the G/W player actually provided some disruption his next turn by casting Naturalize on GhavesEarthcraft ( had he not, ghave would of won) and Oblivion Ring on my braids. ghave continues to tutor and regrowth while the progenitus player gets to do nothing due to land screw. i get my braids back 2 turns later naming enchanment on the World Queller ( g/w player had 2 enchantments out). the turn after i played queller i drew Sadistic Hypnotist and went to town on ghaves hand.
The game ended 2 turns after Braids came back from under the O-ring and i droppedCathars Crusade to "wrap it up". Neither combo deck or g/w player played enough non-land permanents to keep up, they had like nothing out lol thus they all scooped after i ate Ghaves hand and prog was getting mana screwed and g/w was saccing lands all day. it was awesome. <3 Braids
Progenitus player made a motion that i should run Smokestack in my deck
i rebuttal with the fact that im broke and no one in the world has a Smokestack for trade . also i was just trying out this attrition angle in my deck to give myself some early disruption and keep unfair decks fair (which it did as in the above example without braids combo players would've won turn 3) so ill be looking to try Smokestack out now. and maybe Balancing Act
Thanks for reading
Credits
Thanks to the other dedicated Teysa players on the forum (mostly Blackjack68) for the inspiration to make this thread.
Thanks to closetvictorian here on the forums for the Altered Art Teysa. You did an wonderful job
the artists web page. HERE
Thanks to all the EDH/Commander players here on the forums for keeping the game alive and also visiting my thread.
Thanks to Coffee for existing and keeping me on it.
Thanks to the Primer Committee for being there to help me out with the overall direction of the thread format
Closing Statements, Guides, and other sources
12/01/14 - I wanted to make a quick note regarding the layout of this primer . I have received a lot of comments asking why i mention certain cards in parts of the primer but do not run them. There are a couple reason for this.
1) although i post the exact list i am running at any given time i want other players to realize that their are plenty of options on how to put the deck together while the core of the deck remains the same.
2) i whole-heartily discourage cut-throat spiky playing therefore i can not believe that one particular set of cards is the best choice. This goes hand in hand with the fact i have purposely neutered certain facets of my own deck but still choose to mention other dimensions of game play (e.g. darkest hour)
3) i hated seeing other primers but not really having a good idea of what the deck was about with only 99 cards being mentioned. i feel including every magic card that could be reasonable for Teysa in one primer breeds more creativity and paints a better picture of the deck.
4) yolo
Why don't you play Victimize? It's a sac outlet + reanimate.
Very nice Primer to be (maybe)
hey there we go! didnt even notice that one. i will add it to the wish list. i know there are cards out there i am just straight up forgetting about that should be in here lol. Thanks!
Love the post! A quick not on the primer before I get to commenting. I am runnin 1920 x 1080 and it still doesn't fit my monitor's width, its a WIDE post maybe there is a way to make it scale better on other people monitors.
In you post you said you didn't want to be the "combo guy" but your running blasting station... The moment I see blasting station I think oh great here comes the combo.
How has hell's caretaker been doing for you? I used to run it in a deck and it would always get removed.
Love the post! A quick not on the primer before I get to commenting. I am runnin 1920 x 1080 and it still doesn't fit my monitor's width, its a WIDE post maybe there is a way to make it scale better on other people monitors.
In you post you said you didn't want to be the "combo guy" but your running blasting station... The moment I see blasting station I think oh great here comes the combo.
How has hell's caretaker been doing for you? I used to run it in a deck and it would always get removed.
hey thanks man. yeah i dont know why it is doing that. i have the same set up and resolution. so il be working on fixing that.
Blasting station is powerful even without running Darkest hour so i kept it in. as for Hell's Caretaker. I will admit hes a bit slow having to wait a full turn lol but people usually wont try to go after him when your graveyard is just Marsh flitters and other par jank . sometimes you can be sneaky and sac a dude on your board during your upkeep and bring them back that turn. most the time though dropping a Hells caretaker is outshined by my opponents Sheoldred or other big dudes on the bored. so no one really cares for him.
- might of fixed the screen problem anyone else let me know if its causing trouble
Very nice deck.I am working on a similar build which works without the fat token producers and makes more use of cmc2 creatures.
The only suggestions i would have is to add Harvester of Souls,Field of Souls and Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
Very nice deck.I am working on a similar build which works without the fat token producers and makes more use of cmc2 creatures.
The only suggestions i would have is to add Harvester of Souls,Field of Souls and Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
see! didnt even know cards like Field of Souls existed. im discovering new cards every day .even when ive searched through all the sets . i tried Harvester but the nontoken clause really blows. i didnt like him in here. also ran sorin and i can see a reason for most people playing him i just cut all the planeswalkers because for some reason players in my group go bat crazy and eliminate them before you get to do anything. its weird. great suggestions though. good luck with your build! let me know if i can be of some help/
Mind slash is brutal and i have one just in case. Im just not too worried about peoples hands too much. if lots of combo and mono blue decks were present it will be the first one in
Market is another good card. it just cost too much and i dont need an insane amount of mana outside of the two altars. Attrition i dont run because i have plenty of creature removal and its even on Teysa too. these are all really good enchantments. but i dont want to make this an enchantment.dec lol id rather have all those abilities on creatures.
Butcher cost too much and i have the 2 pacts already. 3 is not needed
braids is a little too slow for me . trying to cut down on the upkeep effects also.
Sacred Mesa is obscenely good and can be recurred with Sun Titan. One of the cards I tutor fore asap.
Stairwell isn't as good as Sacred Mesa from the perspective of not being recur-able with Sun Titan and giving your opponents creatures as well. But it does give you two for everyone one they get if Teysa is out when they all die.
Jar of Eyeballs has good synergy with our deck and will dig harder than anything else you could run.
Crypt Rats is a recurring wrath (albeit one that protection from black/indestructibility prevents)
Also was Grave Titan just to mana intensive? Its only one more mana than Cloudgoat Ranger and produces black tokens.
Teysa is also my favourite EDH generals and I'm glad to see someone who has come up with a decklist so similar to mine! My version runs a few higher cost token creatures, like Captain of the Watch and Grave Titan and I can see why you would want to cut the CMC down. Anyway here are my suggestions.
In terms of including cards
Martyr's Cause is a very good sac outlet, not only is it an enchantment making it a pain to get rid of in EDH, it also lets you play politics by saving other people's creatures or stopping them from dying while keeping yourself almost immune from damage.
Mimic Vat steal big dudes or more importantly in this deck, lets you replay guys who bring their token friends with them each turn.
Knight-Captain of Eos token generator, limited sac engine and repeatable fog, I like him quite a lot and am rarely sad to play this guy. He is up at 5CMC though so may be too high on your curve. On the other hand he also gets recurred by Revallark
Lifeline Super strong artifact that lets you flood the board each turn with your token producing creatures. This also works on your opponents but you should be able to out token them and with a Blood Artist out you should win or be close to winning after one turn cycle.
Minion Reflector another high cost-ish artifact but is very good late game letting you double token production, personally I am on the fence about including this card but it might work better with your lower mana curve
Cards I am not a fan of
Immortal Servitude Just personal preference, I've found one shot sorceries need to be very good in order to run them and I think this one falls just short. From your list it seems that in a real game its going to be hitting 2, or maybe 3 creatures at once.
[CARD]
Pawn of Ulamog[/CARD] + Spawning Pit I think the fact that the tokens are colourless really hurts these cards. Spawning Pit's tokens are too big the clamp for cards so they are just fodder for sac engines, but dont work with Teysa. You have altars for sac-mana which also leads me away from the Pawn.
Cartel Aristocrat There are two things I really dislike about this card. It cannot sacrifice itself and its sacrifice effect does not do a whole lot. The fact that it is black and white is helpful but I don't think that's enough to settle for half the cake. You want the creatures dead but also for the sac effect to do something. I suspect that most of the time you play this card you would be just as happy playing something like Bloodthrone Vampire, the latter however also gives you the option to swing at your opponent for a million.
Just my opinion, would be interested in what you think.
I will definitely be adding Phyrexian Reclamation to my deck, had no idea this card even existed. I was on the fence about Vizkopa Guildmage but you've convinced me to give it a whirl
Sacred Mesa is obscenely good and can be recurred with Sun Titan. One of the cards I tutor fore asap.
Stairwell isn't as good as Sacred Mesa from the perspective of not being recur-able with Sun Titan and giving your opponents creatures as well. But it does give you two for everyone one they get if Teysa is out when they all die.
Jar of Eyeballs has good synergy with our deck and will dig harder than anything else you could run.
Crypt Rats is a recurring wrath (albeit one that protection from black/indestructibility prevents)
Also was Grave Titan just to mana intensive? Its only one more mana than Cloudgoat Ranger and produces black tokens.
i have tested stairwell and and sacred mesa. i could never get them to work right for me. maybe it was bad luck at the time or something. couldnt hurt to revisit some of these
grave titan is really good actually he has been on my watch list im just afraid he might cause too much attention when i play him. il look into it.
Teysa is also my favourite EDH generals and I'm glad to see someone who has come up with a decklist so similar to mine! My version runs a few higher cost token creatures, like Captain of the Watch and Grave Titan and I can see why you would want to cut the CMC down. Anyway here are my suggestions.
In terms of including cards
Martyr's Cause is a very good sac outlet, not only is it an enchantment making it a pain to get rid of in EDH, it also lets you play politics by saving other people's creatures or stopping them from dying while keeping yourself almost immune from damage.
Mimic Vat steal big dudes or more importantly in this deck, lets you replay guys who bring their token friends with them each turn.
Knight-Captain of Eos token generator, limited sac engine and repeatable fog, I like him quite a lot and am rarely sad to play this guy. He is up at 5CMC though so may be too high on your curve. On the other hand he also gets recurred by Revallark
Lifeline Super strong artifact that lets you flood the board each turn with your token producing creatures. This also works on your opponents but you should be able to out token them and with a Blood Artist out you should win or be close to winning after one turn cycle.
Minion Reflector another high cost-ish artifact but is very good late game letting you double token production, personally I am on the fence about including this card but it might work better with your lower mana curve
Cards I am not a fan of
Immortal Servitude Just personal preference, I've found one shot sorceries need to be very good in order to run them and I think this one falls just short. From your list it seems that in a real game its going to be hitting 2, or maybe 3 creatures at once.
[CARD]
Pawn of Ulamog[/CARD] + Spawning Pit I think the fact that the tokens are colourless really hurts these cards. Spawning Pit's tokens are too big the clamp for cards so they are just fodder for sac engines, but dont work with Teysa. You have altars for sac-mana which also leads me away from the Pawn.
Cartel Aristocrat There are two things I really dislike about this card. It cannot sacrifice itself and its sacrifice effect does not do a whole lot. The fact that it is black and white is helpful but I don't think that's enough to settle for half the cake. You want the creatures dead but also for the sac effect to do something. I suspect that most of the time you play this card you would be just as happy playing something like Bloodthrone Vampire, the latter however also gives you the option to swing at your opponent for a million.
Just my opinion, would be interested in what you think.
I will definitely be adding Phyrexian Reclamation to my deck, had no idea this card even existed. I was on the fence about Vizkopa Guildmage but you've convinced me to give it a whirl
glad to hear i can help others out!
those are all very strong choices. especially the vat. i think i tried some of those out before i cant remember lol but they all warrant testing.
your mostly right about immortal servitude. being one of the newer cards in the deck im giving it more time to try out. i cant really complain though. the card has been treating me well. every time i drew it . it was getting me 2-4. even only getting back 2 guys . thats still incredible seeing how most the times i only need that one last guildmage or blood artist to get going.
pawn of ulamog has been amazing for me. im going to go in depth on this card when i finish the combo and synergy sections.
cartel aristocrat . this could probably be cut for one of the cards mentioned here so far on the forum.
thanks for the replies and card advice everyone ! let me know if i can be of further assistance also.
Academy Rector is extremely punishing for your opponents kill for you. I understand you want to keep your curve pretty low, but if you added the Rector you could add Debtors' Knell, although that makes you target number one usually.
You should really run Doomed Necromancer, there is no reason he shouldn't be in your deck. He fits every possible theme you have. He's black, kills himself, is cheap, and brings back other creatures. The only downside I would give him is he has to sit there for a turn unless you have boots of some kind. If you do have something like Lightning Greaves, then you get to do silly things. Cast Necro, equip, Sac for Sun Titan, bring back necro, Equip, bring back something else, equip to Titan, swing, bring back Necro, equip, bring back something else. That's 5 death triggers from a black creature, and 5 creatures brought back. That's not even an uncommon situation to find yourself in, either. I've done it on many many occasions without tutoring for it.
You should really run Doomed Necromancer, there is no reason he shouldn't be in your deck. He fits every possible theme you have. He's black, kills himself, is cheap, and brings back other creatures. The only downside I would give him is he has to sit there for a turn unless you have boots of some kind. If you do have something like Lightning Greaves, then you get to do silly things. Cast Necro, equip, Sac for Sun Titan, bring back necro, Equip, bring back something else, equip to Titan, swing, bring back Necro, equip, bring back something else. That's 5 death triggers from a black creature, and 5 creatures brought back. That's not even an uncommon situation to find yourself in, either. I've done it on many many occasions without tutoring for it.
that sounds amazing. im going to add him to the wish list. I have Hells caretaker in there already and he pretty much does the same thing but repeatable. ill test both of them at the same time though.
- i will be doing some playtesting this weekend. and finishing up the combo and synergy sections of the Thread
Thought I would post mine for comparison... My land isn't balanced right now so I need to take out some plains and add in some swamps. Working on getting the other non-abu lands for it as well.
Thought I would post mine for comparison... My land isn't balanced right now so I need to take out some plains and add in some swamps. Working on getting the other non-abu lands for it as well.
thats a very solid list! i like the Argivian Find too. wish they had that on a 1 mana dude lol. i see you got the angelic renewal "combo" in there also. very nice
yeah making bi-enemy colored edh decks with solid mana bases is always been a challenge. there just isnt enough lands to make them as solid as ally colored mana bases .even with all the b/w lands ever printed the mana base is still shaky sometimes. ESPECIALLY when your curve is so low. cant win them all though.
how does yours run? what decks to play against? what cards annoy you? (i hate sigarda, shuts down pretty much the whole deck). etc?
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1. Deck Introduction:
I quickly realized early on that the token swarm strategy was much more difficult and less effective without green mana present #Doubling Season. So I leave those strategies to the Ghave players and such. I am not saying that swarm/aggro lists are wrong or anything but I would rather take the deck in a more effective and unique direction that feeds off of both flavor and power in spirit of EDH lists everywhere. The deck started out this way in the early days of testing. eventually after cutting the higher cost spells and tightening the synergy.I started working at the tutors and resurrection spells. I did not want this deck to be Tutor.dec or Reanimate.dec, so I limited the amount of tutors it was running . If I were to make the deck more combo oriented I would add in Beseech the Queen or Diabolic Tutor but like I said, I didn't want to have a boring 1000 tutor deck. So I stuck with a few good ones. Same train of thought went to board wipes and spot removal. yes Swords to Plowshares is amazing in EDH I know, but with multiplayer in mind. It just was very lackluster I was better off running Grave Pact effects for multiplayer. cards like Return to Dust kept the spot because they filled a very key niche (sans Humility)and are very efficient 2 for 1's necessary for shenanigans like Darksteel Forge.The next step was I didn't want to rely on the Graveyard so much. I will leave THOSE decks to the Jarad players as I hate playing -entirely- from the graveyard and hate being blown out by a Tormod's Crypt. I finally got the deck to a point where I am comfortable to share it with the world. Their is always tuning to be done and more cards will be coming out and I can only hope to build on the foundation that is already set.
Some quick notes about the primer :
1) Although i post the exact list I am running at any given time i want other players to realize that their are plenty of options on how to put the deck together while the core of the deck remains the same.
2) I whole-heartily discourage cut-throat spiky playing therefore i can not believe that one particular set of cards is the best choice. This goes hand in hand with the fact i have purposely neutered certain facets of my own deck but still choose to mention other dimensions of game play (e.g. darkest hour)
3) I hated seeing other primers but not really having a good idea of what the deck was about with only 99 cards being mentioned. i feel including every magic card that could be reasonable for Teysa in one primer breeds more creativity and paints a better picture of the deck. Players may pick and choose what pieces to run and post a comment about the cards they are running for further advice.
Player Testimonies:
- You like very messy board states
- You enjoy attempting to resolve multiple triggers on the stack
- Decks that revolve around the General are cool
- Fair 3+ card combos as a back door to winning
- You like to punish other players for trying to get rid of your board
- You like to slowly watch your opponent lose
- Getting into the red zone is what EDH is all about
- You hate complicated board states and messy stacks
- You combo out too much
- You would rather kill your opponents swiftly
- Your super competitive
1 Blood Artist
1 Bloodghast
1 Cartel Aristocrat
1 Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder
1 Grim Haruspex
1 Karmic Guide
1 Marsh Flitter
1 Mirror Entity
1 Necrotic Sliver
1 Nether Traitor
1 Ogre Slumlord
1 Ophiomancer
1 Pawn of Ulamog
1 Pious Evangel
1 Reassembling Skeleton
1 Recruiter of the Guard
1 Reveillark
1 Rotlung Reanimator
1 Sadistic Hypnotist
1 Sengir Autocrat
1 Skirsdag High Priest
1 Smothering Abomination
1 Soul Warden
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Suture Priest
1 Teysa, Orzhov Scion
1 Viscera Seer
1 Vizkopa Guildmage
1 Vulturous Aven
1 Xathrid Necromancer
1 Zulaport Cutthroat
1 Buried Alive
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Martial Coup
1 Reanimate
1 Retribution of the Meek
1 Return to the Ranks
1 Unearth
1 Yawgmoth's Will
Enchantment (7)
1 Anointed Procession
1 Bitterblossom
1 Carnival of Souls
1 Dark Prophecy
1 Grave Pact
1 Martyr's Bond
1 Zombie Infestation
Planeswalker (1)
1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
Land (36)
1 Barren Moor
1 Buried Ruin
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Caves of Koilos
1 City of Brass
1 Command Tower
1 Concealed Courtyard
1 Drownyard Temple
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Fetid Heath
1 Flagstones of Trokair
1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
1 Godless Shrine
1 Isolated Chapel
1 Marsh Flats
1 Phyrexian Tower
5 Plains
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Scrubland
1 Secluded Steppe
1 Springjack Pasture
5 Swamp
1 Tainted Field
1 Temple of Silence
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Vault of the Archangel
1 Westvale Abbey
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Blasting Station
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Mana Vault
1 Nim Deathmantle
1 Orzhov Keyrune
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Phyrexian Altar
1 Skullclamp
1 Smokestack
1 Sol Ring
Instant (6)
1 Anguished Unmaking
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Faith's Reward
1 Plunge into Darkness
1 Return to Dust
1 Vampiric Tutor
4.1 Bring back from the grave..again:
These are the cards that provide very powerful burst effects of bringing certain creatures back to the battlefield to continue feeding your sac outlets and/or causing chaos. Some can even do this multiple times a game. Use these cards to give you a little stay power and resilience. Remember not to overextend into graveyard hate if its abundant in your meta. This deck does not need to.
Reanimate: The cheapest resurrection spell in the game has its own archetype built around it. This makes the deck because its cost is very low and your usually targeting small mana cost creatures. Usually only takes one time to put you ahead.
Unburial Rites: Very efficient card. Having 2 resurrections on one card makes this card very playable in EDH with tight lists.
Unearth: This is Reanimate part 2. In this deck it hits most the creatures and ALL the important ones. Worst case cycle it.
Immortal Servitude: This card does not see much play in other EDH decks and that is understandable. But with a low centralized mana curve this card is essentially a one sided Living Death. Plus I pulled a foil one and it looks cool.
Marshal's Anthem: Dont really care about the anthem part just the marshal part lol. Even bringing back 2 creatures is enough for this deck to pull ahead. Very powerful card and cheap for its performance.
Phyrexian Reclamation: Perhaps the least mana intensive card of the pack. Because we can yet again take advantage of such a decent mana curve, This card becomes more powerful then in most decks. We don't mind recasting our Marsh Flitter and Karmic Guide.
Nim Deathmantle: This thing combos with like everything lol. AND turns the creature its equipped to black which makes it play well with Teysa's second ability. Just imagine a Karmic Guide equipped with this thing. It has echo anyways so why not pay 4?
Karmic Guide: Highly abusive card. Putting reanimate on a creature means its easier to abuse the effect.
Reveillark: In this deck it reads " bring back any two creatures from your graveyard to play".
Faith's Reward: Sac all my things to drain you for 23 damage. Do it again. Or the classic. Nice wrath of god opponent. You got me! /sarcasm.
Obzedat's Aid: A Resurrection for 1 more mana to bring back any permanent. Not only is that powerful, but it is also versatile. I consider this a powerhouse card. As in, any deck that can support the colors could benefit from running this card. Very important for getting back those much loved artifacts. (Skullclamp, Ashnod's Altar etc.)
Sun Titan: At the higher end of the curve but has a very abusable effect that brings back most permanents from the graveyard to play.
Hell's Caretaker: Sac outlet that also brings back a creature essentially for free every turn. Think Debtors' Knell, but cheaper.
Combo and Synergy
Teysa + Reveillark + Karmic Guide = Infinite Teysa first ability and infinite creatures leaving/entering the battlefield triggers. (blood artist etc)
Teysa + Reveillark + Karmic Guide + any black creature power 2 or less + sac outlet = infinite sac outlet and infinite spirit tokens
2 creatures power 2 or less + Reveillark + Nim Deathmantle + Ashnod's Altar = sac creatures for 4 mana to altar , sac Reveillark for 2 mana to altar, bring back Lark with deathmantle and the other two creatures with reveillark, this makes infinite cololess mana and infnite enter/leave play triggers. with teysa out it makes infinite spirit tokens Because the deathmantle turns the equiped black. of course this works when the other two creatures are black. if you have necrotic sliver you can use that to blow up the board
Phyrexian Reclamation + Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder = recast creatures from your hand to trigger Endrek multiple times
Nim Deathmantle + Teysa + Ashnod's Altar = infinitely recur and creature abusing there ETB/LTB effect. requires an initial 4 if the creature is white. then the mantle will make the creature black upon equipping. sac the creature to the altar. then sac the token you get from teysa for 4colorless mana. use that mana to bring the creature back equipped to the mantle. try on a marsh flitterwith blood artist out
4.2 And this is how
babiestokens are made:The back bone of the deck. Like I said earlier. You only need a few tokens from each spell for this deck to start going. Since most of the token producing cards are creatures, that means they are easily more abused and recurred. Which is right up the decks alley. Making black tokens is much more powerful with Teysa's second ability and eventually all the black creatures will turn into white ones. Enabling Teysa's first ability. Most the tokens come from other creatures because it synergizes with the deck better.You usually do'nt want the tokens staying around too long and they should mostly be used to feed altars and other sac outlets. However don't be shy to get in a few couple swings if the board permits it.
Bitterblossom: Cheap, constant source of furious flying Faeries. Eat your heart out good.
Anointed Procession: This card doubles the throughput of most the cards in this deck. Weather it is played on turn 1 or turn 20 it will always be good.
Spawning Pit: Cheap sac outlet + gives you more guys. The two things you want in the deck.
Springjack Pasture: Backup token producer. It can save you in those dire situations where you cant get a board together.
Martial Coup: Plays well into this deck. Make tokens with the option to wipe the board. Which you are ok with when Teysa is out.
Twilight Drover: A power house lingering souls on a dude.
Sengir Autocrat: 4 black bodies off one card . Very nice.
Ophiomancer: Low mana cost token maker at each upkeep. there are plenty of instant speed sac outlets to net the token each upkeep. With Teysa of course netting you those spirits.
Zombie Infestation: Very cheap card for getting black tokens. Its great to have a discard outlet to set up an reanimation especially when your hand is all gummed up from lands or skullclamp
Skullclamp. Has great synergy with the Altar's letting you cycle through a lot of cards for that one card you need almost for free.
Skirsdag High Priest: Does a lot of work for 2 mana. Is easily turned into a Bitterblossom in the mid game since tapping creatures does not really bother this deck.
Marsh Flitter: 3 black bodies off one card. Still nice.
Increasing Devotion: The tokens are not black I know. But, sometimes you just need a good head start on the boards and this is a great card for coming back from a wipe or feeding a sac outlet etc.
Cloudgoat Ranger: 4 white bodies off one card. Wish it was black tokens but black is running thin of solid token making cards and its important that they are creatures. Still a really good card though.
Requiem Angel: On the high end of the curve. But provides a very powerful 2x token output.
Pawn of Ulamog: Provides more advantage from your non-token creatures dying.
Elspeth, Sun's Champion: Both abilities are solid in this deck. Feel free to run this to top your curve off.
Ogre Slumlord: Essentially the same as the above two but deathtouch rats. And despite all there rage, i pulled a foil one and its cool looking.
Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder: Comes only second to Teysa in sheer power. This card is stone nuts and you can always keep him around by sacing the thrulls. Recast creatures with
Phyrexian Reclamation: = Value town.
Teysa, Orzhov Scion: The main focus of the deck. She is one crazy girl that doubles the value of most the cards in the deck which pushes this deck to powerful limits. Probably going to see a new version of her in Dragon's Maze. I hope wizards does a good job. They have big shoes to fill.
Combo and Synergy
Marsh Flitter + Nim Deathmantle + Ashnod's Altar = infinite colorless mana and infinite creature enter/leave play triggers. With Teysa/Ogre Slumlord/Pawn of Ulamog/Requim Angel out it adds Infinite tokens.
Twilight Drover + Ashnod's Altar = sac a token to the altar put a counter on drover. pay Wto put two more in play. repeat for W. add in Phyrexian Altar to sac the other token for infinite enter/leave play triggers adn to make drover a 100000/100000. add in Blasting station for infinite damage
Zombie Infestation + Carnival of Souls + Suture Priest + Skullclamp + any free sac outlet = the crown jewel of convoluted combo's cycle thorugh your deck netting the effect of whatever free sac outlet you choose up to the amount of cards in the deck.ill explain
Discard two cards to Zombie infestation
2/2 black zombie comes into play
gain 1 Black mana from carnival
suture priest cancels out carnival of souls life loss
use mana to equip clamp to zombie
use free sac outlet to kill zombie
draw two cards
repeat process
This gets a whole lot more crazy when you Add Teysa. since the zombies are black. each death will net you another creature and another black mana. win from there
4.3 Utility and Card Draw:
The cards that keep the cogs greased and the deck firing on all cylinders. I feel that card advantage outside of Skullclamp, is one of the major lackluster's of this deck and will be where i am focusing more of my optimization in the future.
Phyrexian Arena: Solid card draw. This deck doesnt need to draw 100000 cards to win. its the small cheap things in life.
Dark Prophecy: A recent addition to the family. This card has been nothing short of amazing. The life loss while unavoidable is easily mitigated and carries its weight in card advantage. This card is better than Necropotence in this deck. FACT
Grave Pact: You will be sacing creatures all day. So should your opponents. Except your usually left with more creatures at the end of all of it. Breaking the symmetry.
Carnival of Souls: This deck has a lot of creatures entering the battlefield and why not have some free mana while your at it. the life loss is easily negated with cards like Suture Priest, Blood Artist, Vizkopa Guildmage.
Martyr's Bond: Grave Pact on steriods. Im still investigating finding ways to sac my own non-creature permanents to make this thing so much more broken. Haven't found a effective way yet. Outside of a trading post or something.
Necrotic Sliver: He is black and white which is good and easily recurred from the graveyard, repeatable Vindicate.
Grim Haruspex: Solid card draw on a black body. Although non-token, testing has confirmed that your still drawing tons from your non-token creatures dying. Thats why you have cards like Return to the Ranks and Yawgmoth's Will.
Cathars' Crusade: I know I made an point not to run swarm strategies but this card is so powerful on its own you don't NEED anything else. Your creatures will get dumb-big quickly. Providing that extra dimension of winning.
Trading Post: Makes a guy. Sac a guy to get that much needed Ashnod's Altar back or sac that useless signet for some cards. Very clutch.
Vulturous Aven: Black creature + card draw + sac outlet . A lot of value for 4 mana
Smokestack: I have wanted to run this card for years and i have never been able to get a hold of one until now when i saw it waiting for me at my LGS. You can easily break the symmetry with this card especially in the early game when most decks can't handle it. Essentially this stops the bigger decks from going too far into the late game which is out of this decks jurisdiction of power. Much like Braids, Cabal Minion. You can drop something simple and easy like a Bloodghast or Nether Traitor on turn 2. Turn 3 play Teysa. Turn 4 play Smokestack. If if sticks it is pretty much good game. You can survive the early destruction far easier than most decks and weasel your way to the top of board position. Much like the deck as a whole. This card requires HEAVY amounts of skill and foresight and that is why i love the card.
Aura of Silence: This is still in testing. There is a lot of high powered artifacts and enchantmentments in my meta and this is a solid card to slow them down and a political removal spell.
Buried Alive: Usually gets the Grave bros. But getting a Karmic Guide, or a Sun Titan, or even a sac outlet to reanimate is powerful. This card is almost never dead.
Utter End: Solid removal. I am usually a stickler when it comes to single target removal in multiplayer but this compliments the removal suit very well. The fact that it is instant means you can use your mana effectively on other players turns when you cant/dont need to on yours.
Suture Priest: A small value card that also punishes/stops infinite creature combos also ( looking at you earthcraft/squirrel's nest)
Plunge into Darkness: Mainly here for the first ability but the fact it can soft tutor is a big bonus. this plays well with Blood Artist and Vizkopa Guildmage and is super cheap for all it does.having instant speed sac outlet that's not an permanent can leave opponents stunned.
Dimir Machinations: Just here for the transmute. 3 and 4 cost spells are the most potent and abundant in the deck. Or cast it to get those pesky Tops.
Smothering Abomination: This card was made for decks like this. When it was spoiled i asked if wizards read my primer. His last ability lets you draw free cards just by simply playing the deck.
Blood Artist: Him and Falkenrath Noble are the primary win cons. They fly under the radar until its too late and you win.
Zulaport Cutthroat: Arguably better version of blood artist. mostly the creatures dying will be yours so this kills quicker in multiplayer games. A must have.
Vizkopa Guildmage: Another mana efficient win condition. Usually combines with Suture Priest and Soul Warden to do massive life loss to all opponents. But its best friend is Kokusho, the Evening Star.
Nether Traitor: My favorite of the three. this guy usually gets sent to the grave more times then anyone.
Pious Evangel: This card is either Soul Warden or Blood Artist depending on what you need at the time. The fact that you can choose makes it that much better.
Bloodghast: Usually only gets to come back once a turn. but that is still very powerful in this deck.
Reassembling Skeleton: perhaps only second to the Traitor. You don't care about this guy coming in tapped. Very powerful.
Stoneforge Mystic: Usually Skullclamp number 2. But sometimes getting Nim Deathmantle is what you need to do too. Then use her for sac fodder later.
Dimir House Guard: Very important transmute that also doubles as a free sac outlet when needed. Utility much?
Rotlung Reanimator: Cheap black creature that leaves a black body when it dies. With Teysa out his death nets a total of 3 tokens down the line which is awesome.
Xathrid Necromancer: Similar to Rotlung but actually a little better since we play a good majority of humans as well. Worth running both.
Mentor of the Meek: I love i can play this card effectively. MOST creatures in this deck will net you card draw for 1 mana.
Anguished Unmaking: Solid removal in colors. Every commander deck needs solid removal.
Combo and Synergy
Blood Artist + Vizkopa Guildmage + Falkenrath Noble = lightning bolt a single opponent and shock everyone else when creatures die (activate guildmages 2nd ability multiple times for increased magnitude.
Vizkopa Guildmage + Soul Warden = Each player loses a life when a creature enters your field. this is much easier to duplicate multiple times for the win then with blood artist. although the effect doubles when artist is out.
Nether Traitor + Phyrexian Altar + Teysa = Infinite mana
Reassembling Skeleton + Phyrexian Altar + Teysa = creates enough mana to infinitely sacrifice and reassemble the Skeleton (feeding etb/ltb triggers)
Reassembling Skeleton + Mentor of the Meek + Ashnod's Altar = Repeatable card draw for B (add Teysa to gain +1 Spirit ETB everytime)
Reassembling Skeleton + Mentor of the Meek + Phyrexian Altar = Repeatable card draw for B1 (add Teysa to gain +1 Spirit ETB everytime)
Any of the above 3 + Cathars' Crusade = grow the rest of your creatures bigger ( add Teysa to the field for 2x effect)
Any of the above 3 + Pawn of Ulamog/Requim Angel/Ogre Slumlord/Teysa = nets 1 token each time they die.play multiple token producers for more tokens
Carnival of Souls + Suture Priest = free black mana everytime a creature enters your field. helps negate life loss
Carnival of Souls + Zombie Infestation + Skullclamp + Teysa + free sac outlet = this can almost infinitely go through your deck triggering any etb/ltb effects and w/e the sac outlet is up to how many cards you have left . if you need life better have suture priest, blood artist etc out
Vizkopia Guildmage + Plunge into Darkness = amass a medicore amount of tokens and sac them all for 3 life each while bolting your opponents while you tutor. you lose life from plunge's second ability if you so choose to entwine but gain 3 fold back from Guildmage. stack Guildmage ability multiple times for cheap damage.
Vizkopia Guildmage + Extort Ability's = massively amplify drain damage the more players there are
4.4 Sacrifice outlets:
Without these cards this deck is just a do nothing turn small creatures sideways deck. Its important to always have an sac outlet present even if it costs mana to activate. Without one, your just a sitting duck. I think another weak spot in the deck.
Cartel Aristocrat: B/W cards in this deck are amazing. They feed both of Teysa's abilities in one shot just by themselves. And this one serves as a cheap sac outlet while your at it. BONUS: Flavor (card discontinued but still a solid choice nontheless)
Dimir House Guard: See above
Maw of the Obzedat: Sacrifice outlet AND an anthem. Can not ask for much more out of a card for 5 mana. Being both colors is also a plus for Teysa.
Sadistic Hypnotist: Sorcery speed? So what. Just drop him and go to town on your opponents hands. Mind Rot per creature is amazing. Warning: may cause premature rage quits.
Ashnod's Altar: Perhaps the most powerful sac outlet ever in magic. Makes a ridiculous amount of mana. This card "combos" with pretty much everything in the deck.
Blasting Station: Another win con and sac outlet. I like tapping and untapping cards a lot .
Phyrexian Altar: Another powerful altar . Sometimes you will need colored mana. And its good to have two of these when your tight on mana.
Skullclamp: Broken to Hell. Needs no explaining.
Trading Post: See above
Meekstone: Virtually none of your creatures will be affected by this or even live long enough to care. This is perhaps the best card in terms of defense you can run for the mana cost to protect against huge swings from the opposition. If that is a problem in your meta, I would suggest this.
Spawning Pit: See above
Fleshbag Marauder: Cheap early answer to those players playing reanimate Sheoldred, Whispering One on turn 2. Also easily recurred from the graveyard multiple times.
Viscera Seer: The cheapest sac outlet there is. Scrying is good too for getting through those land packets etc.
Pontiff of Blight: Very powerful finisher that you can sink your mana into with a lot of stay power later in the game. You can just sink mana in the spells you cast weather the spell itself is relevant or not and just finsih off your opponents. Also goes well with Vizkopa Guildmage.
Combo and Synergy
Sun Titan + Fleshbag Marauder = use titan to bring back Marauder to make everyone sac a creature every turn.
Fleshbag Marauder + Sun Titan + Teysa/Pawn of Ulamog/Requiem Angel/Ogre Slumlord = Net a token in addition to everyone sacing a creature every turn. stack token makers for additional tokens
Spawning pit + Teysa = sacing a black creature then the white spirit you get from it will make spawning pit say " pay 1 put a 2/2 token into play. add in requiem angel for an additional spirit
The most important concept to keep in mind here is the player. This is not a pick up and play deck. It requires a somewhat advance understanding of game play and because of an over abundance of different card interactions within the deck, it requires a lot of playing to get comfortable with. I myself, am still discovering new interactions every day. I do not recommend such a deck to new players. But this comes down to the player itself. I have found myself in many situations where all i had to do to win was play Darkest Hour and then win. But i simply WOULD NOT play it. I wanted the game to play out more and i wanted my opponents to lose to a Falkenrath Noble. This deck plays with knives, much like The Joker. You want to savor the moment. This is perhaps the most fairest deck i can put together that manages to be powerful at the same time. A feat i am very proud of. Sorry guys, No janky Triskelion combos here #Yawn. Even the combos imo are fair (most require >3 cards to setup). This is a deck that abuses tokens and creatures dying. Creature death brings player life.
PILOTING THE DECK:
OK! we get it . So how do I pilot this beast?
This deck's engine is based off of sacrificing effects. Whatever you need from your deck to win, you can achieve from some permanent at the cost of sacrificing something (usually creatures). Early value cards like Bloodghast, Bitterblossom, Viscera Seer, and Teysa can accelerate your board very early in the game. Having Teysa out is the key to acquiring a critical mass of tokens and creatures on the board. Use her second ability to essentially double the output of your sacrifice outlets. You have Ashnods's Altar and Phyrexian Altar for extra mana on your turns, Viscera Seer for digging, Skullclamp for drawing cards, Trading Post is all around utility that can get you your destroyed artifacts back from the graveyard, and hand disruption from Sadistic Hypnotist. In addition to having Teysa out, to further garnish huge buckets of tokens/sac effects, play creature spells such as Ogre Slumlord, Marsh Flitter, Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder,and Requiem Angel. To further feed off of your sac engines. You can abuse these cards with repeatable graveyard recursion in the form of Nim Deathmantle, Karmic Guide, Hell's Caretaker, Sun Titan, etc. Use these cards to accelerate those leave/enter the battlefield triggers that win you the game from cards such as Blood Artist, Cathars' Crusade, Kokusho, the Evening Star, Mentor of the Meek, Falkenrath Noble, Reveillark etc. One of the great things about these plays is the minimum amount of mana needed to play them. You can be tapped out most the time while doing the above and not be remotely bothered by it. Do not be afraid to over extend with this deck too. You can set up your field to gain advantage from board wipes. consider the following.
-You have on the field the following..
Pawn of Ulamog, Ogre Slumlord, Nether Traitor, and Reveillark . your opponent casts Wrath of God. You get 4 eldrazi tokens, 3 rat tokens, and a lark trigger to bring back the other two creatures. There boards are empty.
add in Teysa, Orzhov Scion. You get all the above + 3 spirit tokens.
add in Blood Artist. You get all the above + 6 point drain
add in Cathars' Crusade. You get really big tokens post wrath.
You get where this is going! This is not a Christmas land scenario this is what the deck does and this is what Teysa enables. You usually don't want to be worried about your creatures (even Teysa) going to the graveyard all the time. Cards like Immortal Servitude and Unearth are cheap and very potent in a deck with such a tightly woven creature curve. Teysa is VERY critical to this decks game plan. without her, you are not gaining much value off your creatures dying. The loss of life racked up from creatures like Blood Artist or Vizkopa Guildmage add up Quickly. Even with 3 other players. You can usually finish off the opponents in the late game with some of the heavy hitters like Sun Titan or Requiem Angel or even a mass of tokens if plan A burns out. The deck is very weak to dedicated combo decks and generally decks that play much more unfair strategies. (Elves, Zur, Teffari etc) . It can also put a big target on your head if you need to push more permanents through the board and people start realizing that your winning off those creatures being sac'd to a Cartel Aristocrat. Typically a game of 3-4 players is optimal. More players usually means your better off setting up a combo to win.This brings me to my next point. And that is politics. I will lightly tread on this topic as it is heavily subjective and varies from playgroup to playgroup but you can use Teysa as insurance in a mulitplayer set up. Lets see scenario 2.
opponent 1- has an Ulamog, the infinite gyre out
opponent 2- has an empty board because hes playing mono U like a wuss (jk ;))
yourself - has 3 white tokens and Teysa out.
usually you would just use Teysa's first ability and eliminate the Ulamog in the most effective way possible. BUT, if your smart, you can enact the following.
lets say the turn is on opp 2 and he is digging for an answer for that Ulamog. You dont really care about it because you have an answer. but o wait! you have no cards in hand and your in topdeck mode. This sucks . Your opponent reveals a Blue Sun's Zenith off the top of his library from lets say a Future sight. What could you do? You can use Teysa as a bribe to force Opp 2 to make the BSZ target you to refill your hand. and in return you will remove the lethal Ulamog from the game. BOOM! That is how you get stuff done the political way.
What about protection and our disruption and all that good stuff?
This deck has plenty of ways to both disrupt and protect your game while simultaneously pushing you forward in your plan. Faith's Reward is wrath insurance as well as leaves/enters play abuse. Aura of Silence helps to bog down your opponents ridiculous permanents like Doubling Season, Humility, Omniscience, Swords etc. Necrotic Sliver for anything you might of missed. Vault of the Archangel for favorable combat swings. Braids, Cabal Minion and World Quellar are good against ramp decks and keeping your opponents out of the late game where your deck is weakest.
This deck has a hard time dealing with artifact and enchantment based control cards. Humility for instance as i mentioned earlier is a real killer. Save your removal if you expect this card coming up. The deck also seems to have a big weakness towards artifact/enchantment removal itself. Usually you require to play all your juicy power cards like Ashnods Altar and Skullclamp all at once and their is very minimal ways to get them back once gone. This deck will just durdle around if all you have are creatures. So the best thing to do is apply an even amount of pressure in the mid game. You want to strike with the big blow out Blood Artist kill in one turn. even if its not for lethal. you can wrap up the rest with a well timed Exsanguinate or Good Ol' beats with Requiem Angel or Sun Titan etc. Not all hope is lost. Because your cards are not as threatening by themselves as much as the average EDH deck, you can use this advantage to bargain with the threatening player at the board who will waste there permission to answer more prominent spells on someone else. I call this flying under the radar. What is more threatening? a Mono Black player with a Caged Sun out? or a Token deck with a Trading Post? most the time it will be the former.
EARLY GAME:
Trying to find a hand with low cost spells is ideal. nothing over 4 or 5 mana needs to be in your hand. In fact all the powerful spells and win conditions cost 3 or less. Developing your land base is of course important but being stuck at even 2 lands with a skullclamp and bloodghast is winning in this deck. The land base is not as important in this deck as most other decks you are used too. I usually end up with ~10 at the end of the game. Aggro usually is not a problem because creating a board presence is easy for you while other good stuff decks do not dedicate squat early on and get picked on for it. (Ramp decks more so)
MID GAME:
This is really where the deck functions best. If the board is clogged up at this time, casting a wrath here is real good. Even when you have a board too. You can usually swing that to your advantage. Unless you had mana acceleration hand you will usually be casting 1-2 spells a turn here. But that is ok. This is where the power play comes in. Drop your Altar and make plenty of mana. Throw out a Ogre Slumlord and cast Teysa. Your opponents typically will need to answer your deck because you are about to win or they cant because it is still relatively early in the game. This is where the so called "engine" needs to set up. the deck uses creatures to generate all resources the game needs. (mana, card draw, life). you need to find a balance of these in order to get it running. Once you can generate mana to supplement card draw than your practically unstoppable.
LATE GAME:
The deck become less powerful at this point but can still win. The problem here is that by now most EDH decks are playing there really big flashy EDH cards (Genesis Wave, Omniscience, Generals) and this deck can not out power these plays card for card. You must compensate by playing extra cards each of your turns. If your unfortunate enough to not have a draw source and are out of cards and falling behind...well.. welcome to magic. The game is 50% luck and this happens. Adjusting card slots to overcome this is one thing you can do. I usually don't because at this point in the game if I am not winning i am ready for game 2. I know my fate.
The reason i am not running...
~Darkest Hour~
Well i kind of am. I actually have the card tucked behind one of my swamps. But why? Simply because the card is TOO powerful with Teysa, Orzhov Scion. It is too easy to win and any tutor in your hand just simply means you go get the card and win. Now i DO play it sometimes. Usually in a more competitive 1v1 duel where the power is needed. It really depends on who i am playing and how many. I was just tired of being the "combo" guy. That is not what i wanted out of this deck. For those of you who do not now the combo;
Darkest Hour + Teysa, Orzhov Scion's second ability: means that whenever ANY creature you control other then Teysa dies put a 1/1 white spirit into play. the white spirit becomes black, thus allowing you to keep doing it. this makes pretty much every other card in the deck. Super Saiyens of their former selves
Skullclamp: pay 1 draw 2 cards
Ashnod's Altar: infinite colorless mana
Phyrexian Altar: infinite color mana
Twilight Drover: 1000000000/100000000 dude
you get the idea i hope.
~Living Death~
Essentially a combo card. I have always despised this card being played against me so i do not run it for that reason. But it can easily be added in the deck.
~Mikaeus, the Unhallowed~
Too Cheaty for me. I also hate playing against this guy because its ALWAYS followed by a Triskelion and it is just totally lame sauce.
/
Cards to try out or cut etc
~working on~
- Card draw effects.
- creature based answers to non-creatures spells.
~ Wish list/cards to try out~
Black Market
Victimize
Infernal Tribute
Strands of Night
Eldrazi Monument
Mana Crypt (more like wallet crypt )
Deck Updates
02/23/13 no changes
03/01/13 - wasteland + Yawgmoth's Will . wanted to cut down land size even more and wanted to receast some sorcery spells and Will is powerful in its own right
03/22/13 - salt flats, cartel aristocrat + kokusho, the evening star, Braids, cabal minion. Salt Flats is just horrible. cartel was a pretty easy to cut as it was just a filler card .Kokusho comes in because him dying is very bad for the opponent. Braids works with this deck because you can afford to play around her effect. lots of decks can't. Particularly control decks.
05/05/13 - Marty's Bond, + Obzedat's Aid .Martyr's Bon was a little redundant with Grave Pact already in the deck and its "other" part of the ability that Gravepact doesn't have rarely did anything. Obzedat's Aid is a very versatile power house care. The card is almost never dead and pulls more then its weight in mana.
07/21/13 - created a sub deck based off my original list with a Human/Cleric subtheme.(retired)
08/20/13 updated deck to post M14 list
02/07/14 - born of the gods deck update see thread for changes
08/09/14 - M15 updated
10/03/14 - Khans updated did some stuff but forgot
07/26/15 - DTK Updated -
12/04/15 - BFZ updated -
08/10/16 - SOI block updated. no changes
09/29/16 - Kaladesh - see page 30
09/14/17 - Hour of Devastation updated
Game Plays
VS Doran, the Siege Tower
his deck was a semi competitive Voltron Equipster deck with a Big Butt tribal Theme.
i had a nice hand i played Stoneforge Mystic turn 2 . mana rock next turna and played the Skullclamp i got with SFM. i Drew a Buried alive soon after to get Blood Ghast, Nether Traitor, and Reveillark. he played doran on turn 3 per usual doran decks and an Unstoppable Ashchampioning Treefolk Harbinger . the trample kind sucked while i was setting up my board. eventually i got teysa out and went crazy with Sclamp and Bloodghast/Traitor. i drew a vampiric tutor to get Blood Artist and then drew Reanimatetargeting Reveillark 2 turns later. i had an early Soul Warden out to help against his trampling guys who had Sword of Feast and famine and Greaves on him. ( i kept removing doran from the game with Teysa's first ability before he could equip him). for some reason he played a go for the throat on my blood artist when i played it. i wasnt worried because i had an reanimate on the Lark in my GY in hand. so i casted Reanimate on lark. sklamped into a Phyrexian Altar. he attempted to bog my GY next turn so i had to lark in respone to get my blood artist and an PAwn of Ulamog that was put in there earlier. and lost the lark and nether traitor to the Bojuka Bog. Finally i drew Ogre Slumlord so my board was
Teysa + Pawn of Ulamog + Blood Artist + Bloodghast + Phyrexian Altar + Ogre SLumlord + Soul Warden
from their i just proceeded to grind him out over the next few turns with blood artist ( he gained lots a life from a Batterskull) eventually i drew nim deathmantle and just kept replaying the Pawn of Ulamog for doing 4 damage to him per trip to the Graveyard. he was playing Sun Titan on the other side at the time getting back Bog and what not. Luckily its not instant speed lol. i Won
did some more playtesting the past 2 days with the new additions above^
Braids, Cabal Minion and Kokusho, the evening star were both all stars i am very impressed with both of them as they both pretty much won me 2 games.
First Match was a 3 player vs The Mimeoplasm and Rakdos, Lord of Riots both were semi-competitive.
cant remember what happened much as it was the other day but i do remember having both of them at 15~ life and i top decked Kokusho and played him. Sacd him to Ashnod's Altar draining them for 5 each then i Faith's Rewarded him back into play and then sacd him again with all my tokens ( i had a falkenrath noble out) and that finished them off. it was epic. the game was pretty grindy like the deck is supposed to play out geting there with a couple duders and tokens , forcing the rakdos player to attach the Mimeoplasm (as i held up Teysa's first ability) that story goes hand in hand with how the deck can be politically like i wrote about in the OP. i pretty much said "attack me and i remove him. attack him and maybe i wont".
the second game i just got done playing a couple hours ago its pretty fresh in my head
its was a 4 player game vs-
Progenitus- a tuned combo deck with all the ridiculous 2 and 3 card combos in it
Ghave, Guru of Spores - another well tuned dedicated combo deck
Trostani, Selesnya's Voice - way less competitive token/big stuff deck. player isnt a "hardcore" magic player but isnt horrible either-type-deal.
i was playing against two other combo decks so i knew the game wasnt going to last very long so i knew i had to start out fast with disruption. and i ended up keeping just the right hand. i forgot what it was but pretty much what happend during the game is Braids provided enough disruption to slow them down while i beat everyone with duders. i played a first turn soul warden. G/W does nothing relevant really plays some crappy enchantment or something. Ghave player tutors for a tutor and tutors some more throughout the game. setting up his hand ( he had earthcraft/squirrel nest combo setting up). Progenitus was getting land screwed pretty hard. he came out fast with a Grim Monolith and Nim Deathmantle but got stuck on 3 lands which didnt help that Braids was out.
anyways. so i play braids around turn 3-4 with the help of sol ring i pop out an Twilight Drover as well. G/w player has like no board so he sacs land. ghave player sacs land also since he has no board. and then so does progenitus .im keeping myself afloat with spirit tokens from the drover and later on Reassembling Skeleton. the turn after i drop Braids i drop World Queller ( Just added him before the game) . i Lol to myself in my head. the G/W player actually provided some disruption his next turn by casting Naturalize on GhavesEarthcraft ( had he not, ghave would of won) and Oblivion Ring on my braids. ghave continues to tutor and regrowth while the progenitus player gets to do nothing due to land screw. i get my braids back 2 turns later naming enchanment on the World Queller ( g/w player had 2 enchantments out). the turn after i played queller i drew Sadistic Hypnotist and went to town on ghaves hand.
The game ended 2 turns after Braids came back from under the O-ring and i droppedCathars Crusade to "wrap it up". Neither combo deck or g/w player played enough non-land permanents to keep up, they had like nothing out lol thus they all scooped after i ate Ghaves hand and prog was getting mana screwed and g/w was saccing lands all day. it was awesome. <3 Braids
Progenitus player made a motion that i should run Smokestack in my deck
i rebuttal with the fact that im broke and no one in the world has a Smokestack for trade . also i was just trying out this attrition angle in my deck to give myself some early disruption and keep unfair decks fair (which it did as in the above example without braids combo players would've won turn 3) so ill be looking to try Smokestack out now. and maybe Balancing Act
Thanks for reading
Credits
Thanks to the other dedicated Teysa players on the forum (mostly Blackjack68) for the inspiration to make this thread.
Thanks to closetvictorian here on the forums for the Altered Art Teysa. You did an wonderful job
the artists web page. HERE
Thanks to all the EDH/Commander players here on the forums for keeping the game alive and also visiting my thread.
Thanks to Coffee for existing and keeping me on it.
Thanks to the Primer Committee for being there to help me out with the overall direction of the thread format
Closing Statements, Guides, and other sources
12/01/14 - I wanted to make a quick note regarding the layout of this primer . I have received a lot of comments asking why i mention certain cards in parts of the primer but do not run them. There are a couple reason for this.
1) although i post the exact list i am running at any given time i want other players to realize that their are plenty of options on how to put the deck together while the core of the deck remains the same.
2) i whole-heartily discourage cut-throat spiky playing therefore i can not believe that one particular set of cards is the best choice. This goes hand in hand with the fact i have purposely neutered certain facets of my own deck but still choose to mention other dimensions of game play (e.g. darkest hour)
3) i hated seeing other primers but not really having a good idea of what the deck was about with only 99 cards being mentioned. i feel including every magic card that could be reasonable for Teysa in one primer breeds more creativity and paints a better picture of the deck.
4) yolo
Here is a video guide to Teysa done by Bacl on his youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tFd3xySPG4. If you like what you see i would suggest subscribing!
For players interested in an B/W general with a control shell i suggest looking at Kaim's Obzedat, Ghost Council primer HERE
hey there we go! didnt even notice that one. i will add it to the wish list. i know there are cards out there i am just straight up forgetting about that should be in here lol. Thanks!
Infernal Tribute will let you sac a non-token permanent.
--Evil
In you post you said you didn't want to be the "combo guy" but your running blasting station... The moment I see blasting station I think oh great here comes the combo.
How has hell's caretaker been doing for you? I used to run it in a deck and it would always get removed.
yeah i was looking at infernal tribute i thought maybe it was a bit mana heavy . but im going to add it to the consider board.
hey thanks man. yeah i dont know why it is doing that. i have the same set up and resolution. so il be working on fixing that.
Blasting station is powerful even without running Darkest hour so i kept it in. as for Hell's Caretaker. I will admit hes a bit slow having to wait a full turn lol but people usually wont try to go after him when your graveyard is just Marsh flitters and other par jank . sometimes you can be sneaky and sac a dude on your board during your upkeep and bring them back that turn. most the time though dropping a Hells caretaker is outshined by my opponents Sheoldred or other big dudes on the bored. so no one really cares for him.
- might of fixed the screen problem anyone else let me know if its causing trouble
The only suggestions i would have is to add Harvester of Souls,Field of Souls and Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
see! didnt even know cards like Field of Souls existed. im discovering new cards every day .even when ive searched through all the sets . i tried Harvester but the nontoken clause really blows. i didnt like him in here. also ran sorin and i can see a reason for most people playing him i just cut all the planeswalkers because for some reason players in my group go bat crazy and eliminate them before you get to do anything. its weird. great suggestions though. good luck with your build! let me know if i can be of some help/
My only suggestion is Mind Slash. I don't know what your meta is like, but I've found this card invaluable in combating combo decks.
stuff
btw regarding pact affects, why no Braids, Cabal Minion or Butcher of Malakir?
Mind slash is brutal and i have one just in case. Im just not too worried about peoples hands too much. if lots of combo and mono blue decks were present it will be the first one in
Market is another good card. it just cost too much and i dont need an insane amount of mana outside of the two altars. Attrition i dont run because i have plenty of creature removal and its even on Teysa too. these are all really good enchantments. but i dont want to make this an enchantment.dec lol id rather have all those abilities on creatures.
Butcher cost too much and i have the 2 pacts already. 3 is not needed
braids is a little too slow for me . trying to cut down on the upkeep effects also.
great suggestions guys.
Sacred Mesa is obscenely good and can be recurred with Sun Titan. One of the cards I tutor fore asap.
Stairwell isn't as good as Sacred Mesa from the perspective of not being recur-able with Sun Titan and giving your opponents creatures as well. But it does give you two for everyone one they get if Teysa is out when they all die.
Jar of Eyeballs has good synergy with our deck and will dig harder than anything else you could run.
Crypt Rats is a recurring wrath (albeit one that protection from black/indestructibility prevents)
Also was Grave Titan just to mana intensive? Its only one more mana than Cloudgoat Ranger and produces black tokens.
In terms of including cards
Martyr's Cause is a very good sac outlet, not only is it an enchantment making it a pain to get rid of in EDH, it also lets you play politics by saving other people's creatures or stopping them from dying while keeping yourself almost immune from damage.
Mimic Vat steal big dudes or more importantly in this deck, lets you replay guys who bring their token friends with them each turn.
Knight-Captain of Eos token generator, limited sac engine and repeatable fog, I like him quite a lot and am rarely sad to play this guy. He is up at 5CMC though so may be too high on your curve. On the other hand he also gets recurred by Revallark
Lifeline Super strong artifact that lets you flood the board each turn with your token producing creatures. This also works on your opponents but you should be able to out token them and with a Blood Artist out you should win or be close to winning after one turn cycle.
Minion Reflector another high cost-ish artifact but is very good late game letting you double token production, personally I am on the fence about including this card but it might work better with your lower mana curve
Cards I am not a fan of
Immortal Servitude Just personal preference, I've found one shot sorceries need to be very good in order to run them and I think this one falls just short. From your list it seems that in a real game its going to be hitting 2, or maybe 3 creatures at once.
[CARD]
Pawn of Ulamog[/CARD] + Spawning Pit I think the fact that the tokens are colourless really hurts these cards. Spawning Pit's tokens are too big the clamp for cards so they are just fodder for sac engines, but dont work with Teysa. You have altars for sac-mana which also leads me away from the Pawn.
Cartel Aristocrat There are two things I really dislike about this card. It cannot sacrifice itself and its sacrifice effect does not do a whole lot. The fact that it is black and white is helpful but I don't think that's enough to settle for half the cake. You want the creatures dead but also for the sac effect to do something. I suspect that most of the time you play this card you would be just as happy playing something like Bloodthrone Vampire, the latter however also gives you the option to swing at your opponent for a million.
Just my opinion, would be interested in what you think.
I will definitely be adding Phyrexian Reclamation to my deck, had no idea this card even existed. I was on the fence about Vizkopa Guildmage but you've convinced me to give it a whirl
WB Teysa, Orzhov Scion 1v1 French
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
R Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
i have tested stairwell and and sacred mesa. i could never get them to work right for me. maybe it was bad luck at the time or something. couldnt hurt to revisit some of these
grave titan is really good actually he has been on my watch list im just afraid he might cause too much attention when i play him. il look into it.
glad to hear i can help others out!
those are all very strong choices. especially the vat. i think i tried some of those out before i cant remember lol but they all warrant testing.
your mostly right about immortal servitude. being one of the newer cards in the deck im giving it more time to try out. i cant really complain though. the card has been treating me well. every time i drew it . it was getting me 2-4. even only getting back 2 guys . thats still incredible seeing how most the times i only need that one last guildmage or blood artist to get going.
pawn of ulamog has been amazing for me. im going to go in depth on this card when i finish the combo and synergy sections.
cartel aristocrat . this could probably be cut for one of the cards mentioned here so far on the forum.
thanks for the replies and card advice everyone ! let me know if i can be of further assistance also.
Crypt Rats is a very powerful card in EDH. i think it deserves some testing. if it was good enough i would even cut a wrath effect for it.
Banner by Nakamura, Thanks!
EDH Math
EDH Decks:
Ghost Council: The Magic Mafia of Orzhova
BB Drana: Down with the Sickness
Rasputin: Reality is Broken
Vish Kal Bleeder: Bloody Kisses
Teysa, Orzhov Dominatrix
Stonebrow: Breaking Things
BWR Kaalia Punisher: Heaven's on Fire
Grimgrin: Dead Reckoning
thanks man ! i appreciate it! they did a good job
RRRAshling, the PilgrimRRR
UUUThadda Adel, AcquisitorUUU
that sounds amazing. im going to add him to the wish list. I have Hells caretaker in there already and he pretty much does the same thing but repeatable. ill test both of them at the same time though.
- i will be doing some playtesting this weekend. and finishing up the combo and synergy sections of the Thread
- Wasteland
+ Yawgmoth's Will
haha very nice. im trading one from a friend today hopefully. going to try it out
1x Teysa, Orzhov Scion
Creature (22)
1x Academy Rector
1x Blood Artist
1x Bloodghast
1x Captain of the Watch
1x Cloudgoat Ranger
1x Crypt Rats
1x Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder
1x Falkenrath Noble
1x Fleshbag Marauder
1x Grave Titan
1x Karmic Guide
1x Knight-Captain of Eos
1x Marsh Flitter
1x Mentor of the Meek
1x Nether Traitor
1x Ogre Slumlord
1x Reassembling Skeleton
1x Reveillark
1x Sengir Autocrat
1x Sun Titan
1x Twilight Drover
1x Weathered Wayfarer
1x Caves of Koilos
1x Command Tower
1x Isolated Chapel
1x Marsh Flats
1x Phyrexian Tower
21x Plains
1x Springjack Pasture
11x Swamp
1x Vault of the Archangel
1x Volrath's Stronghold
Enchantment (13)
1x Angelic Renewal
1x Animate Dead
1x Bitterblossom
1x Cathars' Crusade
1x Darkest Hour
1x Grave Pact
1x Land Tax
1x Marshal's Anthem
1x Martyr's Bond
1x Phyrexian Arena
1x Phyrexian Reclamation
1x Sacred Mesa
1x Seal of Cleansing
1x Ashnod's Altar
1x Coalition Relic
1x Darksteel Ingot
1x Jar of Eyeballs
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Nim Deathmantle
1x Orzhov Signet
1x Phyrexian Altar
1x Skullclamp
1x Sol Ring
1x Wayfarer's Bauble
Sorcery (8)
1x Austere Command
1x Buried Alive
1x Diabolic Intent
1x Diabolic Tutor
1x Hour of Reckoning
1x Idyllic Tutor
1x Retribution of the Meek
1x Vindicate
Instant (5)
1x Argivian Find
1x Enlightened Tutor
1x Mortify
1x Oblation
1x Return to Dust
thats a very solid list! i like the Argivian Find too. wish they had that on a 1 mana dude lol. i see you got the angelic renewal "combo" in there also. very nice
yeah making bi-enemy colored edh decks with solid mana bases is always been a challenge. there just isnt enough lands to make them as solid as ally colored mana bases .even with all the b/w lands ever printed the mana base is still shaky sometimes. ESPECIALLY when your curve is so low. cant win them all though.
how does yours run? what decks to play against? what cards annoy you? (i hate sigarda, shuts down pretty much the whole deck). etc?