Teysa - the Daily Grind

Commander / EDH* Infinite Combo Reanimator Tokens WB (Orzhov)

Rahvin2015

Instant (4)

• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Sorcery (7)

• 1x Austere Command
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Exsanguinate
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Yawgmoth's Will

Enchantment (11)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Bitterblossom
• 1x Blind Obedience
• 1x Dark Tutelage
• 1x Darkest Hour
• 1x Dictate of Erebos
• 1x Grave Pact
• 1x Land Tax
• 1x Martyr's Cause
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Phyrexian Reclamation

Artifact (19)

• 1x Altar of Dementia
• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Blasting Station
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Crucible of Worlds
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Helm of Possession
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Meekstone
• 1x Mox Opal
• 1x Nim Deathmantle
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Pithing Needle
• 1x Rings of Brighthearth
• 1x Scroll Rack
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion

Creature (25)

• 1x Aven Mindcensor
• 1x Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Cartel Aristocrat
• 1x Crypt Ghast
• 1x Dark Confidant
• 1x Diregraf Colossus
• 1x Fiend Hunter
• 1x Grave Titan
• 1x Gravecrawler
• 1x Mirror Entity
• 1x Necrotic Sliver
• 1x Nether Traitor
• 1x Ophiomancer
• 1x Reassembling Skeleton
• 1x Recruiter of the Guard
• 1x Rotlung Reanimator
• 1x Soul's Attendant
• 1x Spirit of the Labyrinth
• 1x Stoneforge Mystic
• 1x Sun Titan
• 1x Twilight Drover
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Vizkopa Guildmage
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

Land (32)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Deserted Temple
• 1x Fetid Heath
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Maze of Ith
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 5x Plains
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Strip Mine
• 10x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Field
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Commander (1)

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Maybeboard

Instant (4)

• 1x Mortify
• 1x Shred Memory
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Unmake

Sorcery (11)

• 1x Beseech the Queen
• 1x Bitter Ordeal
• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Debt to the Deathless
• 1x Fumigate
• 1x Martial Coup
• 1x Merciless Eviction
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Retribution of the Meek
• 1x Vindicate
• 1x Wrath of God

Enchantment (8)

• 1x Call the Bloodline
• 1x Carnival of Souls
• 1x Martyr's Bond
• 1x Mind Slash
• 1x Necromancy
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Spirit Bonds
• 1x Zombie Infestation

Artifact (12)

• 1x Aetherworks Marvel
• 1x Basalt Monolith
• 1x Claws of Gix
• 1x Ensnaring Bridge
• 1x Jar of Eyeballs
• 1x MImic Vat
• 1x Orzhov Cluestone
• 1x Orzhov Keyrune
• 1x Panharmonicon
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Smokestack
• 1x Trading Post

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
• 1x Kaya, Ghost Assassin

Creature (30)

• 1x Academy Rector
• 1x Bloodghast
• 1x Burnished Hart
• 1x Coffin Queen
• 1x Demon of Dark Schemes
• 1x Dimir House Guard
• 1x Eidolon of Rhetoric
• 1x Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder
• 1x Falkenrath Noble
• 1x Grand Abolisher
• 1x Grim Haruspex
• 1x Hanweir Militia Captain  ^Flip
• 1x Hell's Caretaker
• 1x Karmic Guide
• 1x Liliana, Heretical Healer  ^Flip
• 1x Mentor of the Meek
• 1x Phyrexian Revoker
• 1x Requiem Angel
• 1x Reveillark
• 1x Sadistic Hypnotist
• 1x Sengir Autocrat
• 1x Skirsdag High Priest
• 1x Smothering Abomination
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Soul Warden
• 1x Suture Priest
• 1x Thalia, Heretic Cathar
• 1x Weathered Wayfarer
• 1x World Queller
• 1x Xathrid Necromancer

Land (2)

• 1x Emeria, the Sky Ruin
• 1x Volrath's Stronghold

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Help and comments desperately needed and very much apreciated.

Teysa, Orzhov Scion is made for sacrifice. Sure, you can play with tokens to go wide and crush opponents under weight of numbers and anthem effects. Maybe I'll do that next time.

But this deck will be all about abusing sacrifice for value, and making life miserable for everyone else at the table. I've tried similar strategies using Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder, with mixed results - his high cost and limitation on creatures cast made him feel very slow. Teysa, on the other hand, not only creates tokens but provides a sacrifice outlet and a way to actually use the tokens, while being much cheaper to cast. Obviously, I'll be going nuts on token production, sacrifice outlets, and ETB/LTB triggers.

My meta ranges from cutthroat to casual. I enjoy Teysa's ability to be played as grindy midrange control or fast combo without really needing to change the list at all.

My main plan is to deny key creatures using Teysa's exile ability, while crippling opponents with hate bears and similar effects. I've included Spirit of the Labyrinth to shut down card draw, and built in multiple "put card in hand" effects like Dark Confidant and Necropotence instead of my own draw effects to put me at an advantage. The main win condition is slow life drain from Blood Artist triggers.

As secondary or just more cutthroat win conditions, there are multiple infinite combos that can either generate infinite mana or simply kill the table in a single turn. These are all 3-5 card combos, so should generally not be considered "unfair," and are usually only used after the game has drawn out for a bit and needs to end (or if I'm too close to losing).

Cards I'd like to find room for

• Mirror Entity, which can provide a tertiary "go wide" win condition, but also can be activated for 0 while Necrotic Sliver is on the board, which could let me destroy an awful lot of permanents.

• Aetherworks Marvel would generate a very large amount of in this deck. I already have tools like Scroll Rack and scry effects to stack the top of the deck with good bombs to cast for free (Grave Titan, Sun Titan, etc). I'd like to give it a try and see how well it works.

• Ghostly Prison would be nice as a defense against other token decks and to just slow down aggressive opponents. I expect to have trouble against the likes of Kaalia of the Vast unless I have Teysa and three white creatures on the board, and Kaalia can typically come out faster than I can set that up.

• Martyr's Bond, because I already have two Grave Pact effects, and more is always better. The problem here is the cost. The rest of the deck is weighted strongly toward black, so adding another cost might force me to retune the mana base. Worse, it's another 6cmc. Adding too many of these high-cost cards starts to really hurt with Dark Confidant as one of my main engines for card draw. I want to keep the deck's average cost as low as possible. Even so I'm tempted, just because the effect is so powerful. This one is objectively better than the others, too, since simple sacrifices of Wayfarer's Bauble and Expedition Map would force opponents to sacrifice their own artifacts.

• World Queller for similar reasons to Martyr's Bond, and with similar negatives. High cost and heavy white devotion make me hesitant, but forcing additional sacrifice, of the card type of my choice, would be delicious.

• Grand Abolisher would be great for obvious reasons. I play against a lot of blue (which is also partially why Spirit of the Labyrinth is here), and counterspells are annoying. I'm just not sure what to cut for a slot, the card always feels like it's not doing anything (even while it does a lot; like Null Rod's flavor text, "it does nothing"), and the cost is again weighted strongly to white.

• Chainer, Dementia Master would be a direct upgrade for Hell's Caretaker, but just costs so much both to cast and use. Alternatively I could use Demon of Dark Schemes, particularly if I'm also using Aetherworks Marvel, but the ETB trigger would kill all of my tokens (not necessarily a bad thing since the black ones would just be relaced with fresh spirits). The would be easy to keep flowing, and his activation is easier both on devotion and life as compared to Chainer. Also since he's not legendary, Liliana could potentially resurrect him. I may be talking myself into the Demon here. Still, the CMC is very high; I can only afford so many 6CMC bombs in the deck.

Date added	7 years
Last updated	7 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	11 - 0 Mythic Rares 48 - 0 Rares 20 - 0 Uncommons 6 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.44
Tokens	Emblem Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Faerie Rogue 1/1 B, Snake 1/1 B, Soldier 1/1 W, Spirit 1/1 W, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	Cool stuff