Introduction
Welcome to Abzanecromonicon, an Abzan Aristocrats-style deck centered around new RNA addition and future EDH all-star
Teysa Karlov
for Standard! I would recommend this or a similar deck for those that like lots of synergies and complex interactions or those that like completely taking over the game if left unchecked for a turn or two. This is the beta product I've been tuning on MTGA since RNA dropped: it's not quite perfect and the curve is a little wonky, but I'm working on ironing it out and totally open to suggestions. Let's get started!
Setting Up
We're running 15 1-3 drops that create tokens on their dies triggers for maximum value and interaction with Teysa: 4 copies of
Hunted Witness
,
Doomed Dissenter
, and
Deathbloom Thallid
with 3 copies of
Tithe Taker
. While already Standard playable in some decks, these cards become even better with Teysa on the board, turning into formidable sacrifice engines creating two vigilant, lifelinking creatures we can both pressure and play defense with. Tithe Taker is especially good against control decks or decks like Drakes that are looking to play
Settle the Wreckage
, cantrips, or burn spells during your turn and I'd recommend bringing in the fourth copy during game 2 in these matchups.
Teysa and Sac Outlets
Ideally, after Teysa hits the board, we can pressure with our existing tokens and use other creatures with dies triggers to chump block or trade on the backswing, creating our little army of of lifelinking vigilant dorks for our next turn. However, oftentimes the opponent won't block, won't attack, or won't have creatures to interact with. Enter our spells
Costly Plunder
,
Vicious Offering
, and
Final Payment
, which all offer card draw or removal with an instant speed sac outlet printed on the card, giving us a valuable 2-for-1 once our death fodder dies.
Ravenous Harpy
and
Whisper, Blood Liturgist
are our best sac outlets on a body. Harpy is the cheapest and most repeatable sac outlet in the deck which can also get huge quickly if left unchecked. Whisper is one of the spiciest cards in the deck, creating extra value when we're saccing our creatures for benefit and bringing back token spawners from the graveyard for more saccing and vice versa. She's also real helpful in the mid to late game since Teysa (understandably so) is a
Lava Coil
magnet, so having an extra copy of her in the graveyard can be helpful for Whisper to reanimate. Even one activation of Whisper with two dies creatures and one in the graveyard can swing the tides of a game.
Finishing the Game
Our two best finishers are
Elenda, the Dusk Rose
and
Poison-Tip Archer
. I can't describe how bonkers Elenda is in this deck. I was hesitant at first to run her, because losing her to
Shock
or
Lightning Strike
on your end step makes her feel like a terrible card. However, Teysa allows both of Elenda's triggered abilities to double, giving us double lifelinking power and then double Vampire tokens once she dies will stabilize you at nearly any life total and win us the game.
Poison-Tip Archer
takes the less explosive route, pinging our opponent for 1 or 2 every time our hordes of creatures chump or get sacced. Having one on the board is a threat that must be answered ASAP, having two is almost assured victory. They're not the best
Blood Artist
-type card ever printed, but they give us a decent deathtouching body that can trade with a
Carnage Tyrant
or
Crackling Drake
while winning us the game over the course of time. Finally,
Vraska, Golgari Queen
is a less spicy but also important win con that gives us some much-needed removal, ability to sacrifice, and a game-winning ult if left unchecked.
Potential Inclusions (Maybeboard)
My first draft of this deck was essentially a Saprolings tribal deck splashing white for Teysa featuring
Tendershoot Dryad
and
Thallid Soothsayer
. I veered away from this style deck because I really wanted to maximize Teysa synergies in the final product, and while adding vigilance and lifelink to our Saproling tokens getting buffed by anthems is great, having Deathbloom Thallid and
Slimefoot, the Stowaway
as our only dies trigger payoffs didn't feel powerful enough. Tendershoot remained in the deck after the first rounds of cuts since it's so powerful in any tokens strategy, but recently cut it due to minimizing other Saproling presence in the deck and the power potential for Elenda is even higher.
March of the Multitudes
can be a great one-time power swing and synergizes with vigilant creatures, but I ultimately wanted to turn away from cards that didn't work well with the sacrificing/aristocrats/recursion theme. Finally,
Seraph of the Scales
and
Ajani, Adversary of Tyrants
are two fantastic creatures in the deck but were cut since we're already running so many 4-drops. Between our curve topping out with Teysa, Elenda, Poison-Tip, and Whisper, there just wasn't room to have a functional deck.
Conclusion
Thanks for reading up on Teysa Abzanecromonicon for Standard! If you have any suggestions, please let me know below. If you happen to build the deck, I hope it's been as fun and powerful for you as it has for me! :D
