At Death's Door

Commander / EDH Aristocrats Competitive WB (Orzhov)

kyleskickinit

Creature (35)

• 1x Athreos, God of Passage
• 1x Big Game Hunter
• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Bloodsoaked Champion
• 1x Butcher of Malakir
• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x Cruel Celebrant
• 1x Doomed Dissenter
• 1x Endless Cockroaches
• 1x Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder
• 1x Fleshbag Marauder
• 1x Grave Titan
• 1x Gravecrawler
• 1x Hell's Caretaker
• 1x Kambal, Consul of Allocation
• 1x Marsh Flitter
• 1x Mentor of the Meek
• 1x Midnight Reaper
• 1x Nantuko Husk
• 1x Nether Traitor
• 1x Ogre Slumlord
• 1x Ophiomancer
• 1x Pawn of Ulamog
• 1x Pitiless Plunderer
• 1x Plaguecrafter
• 1x Reassembling Skeleton
• 1x Sengir Autocrat
• 1x Smothering Abomination
• 1x Sun Titan
• 1x Tattered Mummy
• 1x Teysa Karlov
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Whisper, Blood Liturgist
• 1x Yahenni, Undying Partisan
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

Land (35)

• 1x Arcane Lighthouse
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Buried Ruin
• 1x Concealed Courtyard
• 1x Crypt of Agadeem
• 1x Fetid Heath
• 1x Ghost Quarter
• 1x High Market
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Mistveil Plains
• 1x Mortuary Mire
• 9x Plains
• 14x Swamp
• 1x Westvale Abbey  ^Flip

Artifact (8)

• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Blasting Station
• 1x Nim Deathmantle
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Smokestack
• 1x Sol Ring

Sorcery (5)

• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Killing Wave
• 1x Merciless Eviction
• 1x Victimize

Commander (1)

Enchantment (11)

• 1x Anointed Procession
• 1x Attrition
• 1x Black Market
• 1x Dark Prophecy
• 1x Darkest Hour
• 1x Dictate of Erebos
• 1x Dreadhorde Invasion
• 1x Mind Slash
• 1x Open the Graves
• 1x Oversold Cemetery
• 1x Phyrexian Reclamation

Instant (4)

• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Despark
• 1x Mausoleum Secrets
• 1x Return to Dust

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion

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Sideboard

Creature (29)

• 1x Abyssal Gatekeeper
• 1x Blood Seeker
• 1x Bloodthrone Vampire
• 1x Cadaver Imp
• 1x Deathgreeter
• 1x Doomed Necromancer
• 1x Doomed Traveler
• 1x Dutiful Attendant
• 1x Elenda, the Dusk Rose
• 1x Grim Haruspex
• 1x High Priest of Penance
• 1x Hope of Ghirapur
• 1x Hunted Witness
• 1x Kami of False Hope
• 1x Karmic Guide
• 1x Kokusho, the Evening Star
• 1x Merciless Executioner
• 1x Requiem Angel
• 1x Reveillark
• 1x Sadistic Hypnotist
• 1x Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker
• 1x Shriekmaw
• 1x Sifter of Skulls
• 1x Soul Warden
• 1x Soul's Attendant
• 1x Suture Priest
• 1x Twilight Drover
• 1x Vindictive Vampire
• 1x Xathrid Necromancer

Sorcery (4)

• 1x Debt to the Deathless
• 1x Exsanguinate
• 1x Living Death
• 1x Reanimate

Instant (1)

• 1x Mortify

Artifact (3)

• 1x Desecrated Tomb
• 1x Genesis Chamber
• 1x Spawning Pit

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Dark Privilege

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This is a Teysa, Orzhov Scion aristocrats deck list, though it's also been designed to play well with Athreos, God of Passage or Teysa Karlov at the helm. This deck tries to play aristocrats through attrition and sacrificing large amounts of creatures, grinding down opponents slowly until it finishes them off or combos out. It focuses on mass-sacrifice of creatures and tokens rather than singular large death triggers (like Meren would play). Generally winning will occur in one of two ways, through large amounts of Blood Artist triggers or through Grave Pact effects followed by swinging into an open board.

I originally conceived this deck as a Teysa, Orzhov Scion aristocrats deck which utilized many of the cheap black creatures I had laying around from my mono-black Shirei deck. However over time it evolved into a Teysa Karlov deck, then an Athreos deck and finally back into a Teysa, Orzhov Scion deck. Because I sometimes like to switch out the commanders for the other popular Orzhov Aristocrats generals, there are a few things in the deck which which might seem out of place. I've described the reasons below.

Oddities

• In general cheap creatures are preferred over higher CMC creatures. This helps to stay on the theme of summoning and saccing multiple creatures each turn, but also helps Athreos when he is the commander, as larger creatures often can't be recast on the same turn.

• Cards that produce colorless or white tokens such as Sifter of Skulls and Requiem Angel were excluded because they do not activate Teysa, Orzhov Scion's token doubling. (Usually we want multiple death triggers, not to activate her exile effect)

• Black creatures are preferred for the same reason. So something like Doomed Dissenter is included over Doomed Traveler , because it will trigger Teysa, Orzhov Scion twice.

• Larger creatures and death triggers are excluded such as Angel of Despair or Kokusho, the Evening Star . The deck tries to win through having multiple triggers, not one big one. Some cards do a smaller but similar effect like Tattered Mummy which can be more easily recast.

• Anguished Unmaking is replaced with Despark . I believe in most cases this will be a cheaper price for the same benefit as most artifacts or enchantments that need to be answered will be CMC 4 or more.

• One-off creature removal is entirely excluded as there are plentiful ways to deal with creatures in this deck that are repeatable such as Attrition , Teysa, Orzhov Scion and Dictate of Erebos .

• Exsanguinate effects are omitted. These cards want infinite mana, and since this list only generates infinite mana through creature recursion loops, a blood artist will have the same effect.

• One shot reanimation effects like Reanimate are excluded. Repeatable recursion effects are preferred throughout. This is a personal preference, but also helps the deck be more consistent outside of the general so that Teysa Karlov and Teysa, Orzhov Scion will still have consistent and repeatable recursion, even though Athreos will often do it better.

Substitutions

• This list does well against creatures, however storm and spellslinging decks are a major weakness. Hope of Ghirapur and Kambal, Consul of Allocation should be slotted in if you know you will be competing against one of those decks. If your meta is particularly aggressive with these strategies I would recommend taking the deck in a more Stax direction, though I won't outline that here.

• In a Athreos, God of Passage deck, some recursion can be replaced with more Fleshbag Marauder effects or more varied sac outlets.

• In a Teysa Karlov deck, some of the creatures that create black tokens should be taken out like Noosegraf Mob and replaced with cards like Requiem Angel or Sifter of Skulls

Combos

• Any Nontoken Creature + Teysa, Orzhov Scion (must be black)/ Pawn of Ulamog / Ogre Slumlord / Desecrated Tomb + Nim Deathmantle + Ashnod's Altar

• Marsh Flitter / Sengir Autocrat / Grave Titan / Doomed Dissenter (needs one more initial creature)/ Pawn of Ulamog (needs one more initial creature) + Nim Deathmantle + Ashnod's Altar

• Marsh Flitter / Sengir Autocrat / Grave Titan / Doomed Dissenter (needs one more initial creature) Pawn of Ulamog (needs one more initial creature) + Nim Deathmantle + Phyrexian Altar / Pitiless Plunderer (and sac outlet) + Teysa, Orzhov Scion (must be black)/ Pawn of Ulamog / Ogre Slumlord / Desecrated Tomb

• Any Creature + Darkest Hour + Teysa, Orzhov Scion + Sac Outlet/ Blasting Station

• Gravecrawler + Phyrexian Altar / Pitiless Plunderer (any sac outlet) + Any Zombie

• Any Self Recurring Creature + Phyrexian Altar / Pitiless Plunderer (and sac outlet) + Teysa, Orzhov Scion (must be black)/ Pawn of Ulamog / Ogre Slumlord / Desecrated Tomb

• Any Self Recurring Creature + Ashnod's Altar + Pitiless Plunderer

• Karmic Guide can be slotted in for another combo with Reveillark

• Either a Teysa Karlov , or Anointed Procession will make any of these combo's much easier to perform and usually results in infinite tokens.

If you have any suggestions for this list, please leave a comment!

Date added	5 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	4 - 1 Mythic Rares 37 - 14 Rares 28 - 10 Uncommons 8 - 13 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.06
Tokens	2/2 C Artifact Creature Spawn, Bat 1/1 B, Eldrazi Scion 1/1 C, Eldrazi Spawn 0/1 C, Emblem Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Goblin Rogue 1/1 B, Human Cleric 1/1 BW, Morph 2/2 C, Myr 1/1 C, Rat 1/1 B, Serf 0/1 B, Snake 1/1 B, Soldier 1/1 W, Soldier 1/1 W w/ Lifelink, Spirit 1/1 W, Thrull 1/1 B, Treasure, Vampire 1/1 W, Zombie 2/2 B, Zombie Army 0/0 B