Land (39)
- 1x Bojuka Bog
- 1x Caves of Koilos
- 1x Evolving Wilds
- 1x Fetid Heath
- 1x Ghost Quarter
- 1x Godless Shrine
- 1x Isolated Chapel
- 1x Lake of the Dead
- 1x Marsh Flats
- 1x Maze of Ith
- 1x Orzhov Basilica
- 1x Orzhov Guildgate
- 7x Plains
- 1x Reliquary Tower
- 1x Scrubland
- 1x Strip Mine
- 8x Swamp
- 1x Tainted Field
- 1x Temple of Silence
- 1x Temple of the False God
- 1x Urborg
- 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
- 1x Vault of the Archangel
- 1x Vesuva
- 1x Volrath's Stronghold
- 1x Wasteland
Instant (7)
Sorcery (17)
- 1x Ancient Craving
- 1x Army of the Damned
- 1x Ashes to Ashes
- 1x Council's Judgment
- 1x Damnation
- 1x Day of Judgment
- 1x Debt to the Deathless
- 1x Decree of Pain
- 1x Demonic Tutor
- 1x Diabolic Tutor
- 1x Increasing Ambition
- 1x Mastermind's Acquisition
- 1x Merciless Eviction
- 1x Obzedat's Aid
- 1x Unburial Rites
- 1x Vindicate
- 1x Wrath of God
Enchantment (11)
-
1x
Arguel's Blood Fast
Flip
- 1x Banishing Light
- 1x Bitterblossom
- 1x Blind Obedience
- 1x Gideon's Intervention
- 1x Nevermore
- 1x Oblivion Ring
- 1x Oubliette
- 1x Phyrexian Arena
- 1x Profane Procession Flip
- 1x The Eldest Reborn
Planeswalker (4)
Commander (1)
Artifact (12)
- 1x Batterskull
- 1x Chromatic Lantern
- 1x Crucible of Worlds
- 1x Orzhov Cluestone
- 1x Orzhov Signet
- 1x Sensei's Divining Top
- 1x Sol Ring
- 1x Staff of Nin
- 1x Sword of Feast and Famine
- 1x Sword of Fire and Ice
- 1x Thran Dynamo
- 1x Witchbane Orb
Creature (9)
Sideboard
Sorcery (6)
Enchantment (5)
Instant (2)
Planeswalker (1)
Land (1)
Teysa, Orzhova's Pimp
1. Why Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts?
2. Overview
3. Removal
4. Creatures
5. Voltron Pieces
6. Card Draw
7. Tutoring
8. Recursion
9. Notable Lands
10. Miscellaneous
11. Changelog
Why Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts, you may ask? Because. Okay okay, so I'm a true lover of black magic, and my favorite color to splash with black is white. The Azorious may have bureaucracy nailed down, but I'd rather feel like I'm in The Godfather. But as to why this Teysa, and not the "good" Teysa, I really just wanted to play a more casual control deck than a combo deck. I spent a lot of time playing against a Teysa, Orzhov Scion combo EDH list and it really wasn't that fun. Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts, despite the 7 CMC, fills two rolls at once: she offers a form of control by destroying creatures that deal damage to you (and then giving you a 1/1 flier) as well as the great Voltron combo of both vigilance and protection from creatures. Always hits for damage, can safely block. The 4/4 body isn't too impressive for a Voltron general, but general damage is just a win condition, not the purpose of the deck. Also, Karla Ortiz's art is phenomenal.
Oh yeah, pretty much everyone will ignore whatever you're doing anyway. If anything, they'll keep you around longer because you're protecting the entire table from other massive threats.
Oh yeah, pretty much everyone will ignore whatever you're doing anyway. If anything, they'll keep you around longer because you're protecting the entire table from other massive threats.
It's a BW control deck with some win conditions. Lots of removal, draw, tutors, and cool cards I like. A few differing win cons to keep the deck from getting stale and keeping opponents on their toes. Not too much to really say. Cool combos are Sorin Markov + Blood Baron of Vizkopa, and Army of the Damned + Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite.
24 cards dedicated to removal other than Teysa's built in destroy effect.
Wrath effects: Damnation, Day of Judgment, Decree of Pain, Merciless Eviction, Wrath of God. Really nothing to say here.
Targeted: Ashen Rider: High CMC, but exile on ETB and death. Great recursion target. Ashes to Ashes: Cool card. Must target two creatures on cast, but this usually ins't an issue. Council's Judgment: Honestly a must-run. Too good of an effect and the amount of people that misunderstand the will of the council mechanic usually ends in your favor. Disenchant, Path to Exile, Return to Dust, Swords to Plowshares, Unmake, Utter End, Vindicate, Vraska's Command: All self-explanatory.
Profane Procession /Tomb of the Dusk Rose: Okay, so this card is secretly better than you think. Lands early, is repeatable exile, and then you get access to the creatures you exile. But the real kicker? Exiling commanders doesn't count towards the "three and then flip" text. Yup. Well, assuming when you exile a commander it's owner returns it to the command zone, anyway. It can lock Voltron decks out of the game entirely.
Preventative: The best kind of healthcare. I mean "removal." Nevermore and Gideon's Intervention just keep you (and others at the table) from a major threat. Useful for more than just decks that entirely rely on their generals, but that's how you'll use them most of the time.
"Weak" Exiling: Oblivion Ring is the best of this crowd, with Oubliette and Banishing Light each having different negatives. One doesn't clear counters or enchantments, targets when cast, and can only hit creatures, the other allows generals removed by it to come back into play if it's removed. Removed and replaced with The Eldest Reborn for testing. Soft Removal: Maze of Ith is more protection than removal, but it removes creatures from combat.
Land Hate: Man, if I could play a Pox list in EDH I would. But Strip Mine and Wasteland are as close as I dare get.
Wrath effects: Damnation, Day of Judgment, Decree of Pain, Merciless Eviction, Wrath of God. Really nothing to say here.
Targeted: Ashen Rider: High CMC, but exile on ETB and death. Great recursion target. Ashes to Ashes: Cool card. Must target two creatures on cast, but this usually ins't an issue. Council's Judgment: Honestly a must-run. Too good of an effect and the amount of people that misunderstand the will of the council mechanic usually ends in your favor. Disenchant, Path to Exile, Return to Dust, Swords to Plowshares, Unmake, Utter End, Vindicate, Vraska's Command: All self-explanatory.
Profane Procession /Tomb of the Dusk Rose: Okay, so this card is secretly better than you think. Lands early, is repeatable exile, and then you get access to the creatures you exile. But the real kicker? Exiling commanders doesn't count towards the "three and then flip" text. Yup. Well, assuming when you exile a commander it's owner returns it to the command zone, anyway. It can lock Voltron decks out of the game entirely.
Preventative: The best kind of healthcare. I mean "removal." Nevermore and Gideon's Intervention just keep you (and others at the table) from a major threat. Useful for more than just decks that entirely rely on their generals, but that's how you'll use them most of the time.
"Weak" Exiling: Oblivion Ring is the best of this crowd, with Oubliette and Banishing Light each having different negatives. One doesn't clear counters or enchantments, targets when cast, and can only hit creatures, the other allows generals removed by it to come back into play if it's removed. Removed and replaced with The Eldest Reborn for testing. Soft Removal: Maze of Ith is more protection than removal, but it removes creatures from combat.
Land Hate: Man, if I could play a Pox list in EDH I would. But Strip Mine and Wasteland are as close as I dare get.
Army of the Damned: I love everything about this card. 13 2/2 zombies and then flash it back. Yes please! Not strong, but unbelievably cool. Amazing followup to a wrath.
Bitterblossom: Not as impressive in EDH, but 1/1 fliers make great wielders of swords, Batterskull, and +X/+X buffs for constant blockers or attackers.
Blood Baron of Vizkopa: 4/4 lifelink with protection from the two most prominent removal colors. Oh and it can become a 10/10 with flying on top of that? Another great "hey look, I do more than kill things" win con to suddenly drop.
Grave Titan: Value. He's a scary dude if ignored.
Bloodline Keeper
/Lord of Lineage: Another personal favorite from Innistrad. Makes vamps and then buffs them. Fun fact: Blood Baron is a vampire and one of the Sorins makes vampires.
Speaking of him, Sorin, Lord of Innistrad. He makes vampires, buffs all creatures via emblems, and can function as removal and recursion all at once. You can even hit your own Ashen Rider with his ult.
elesh norn, gran cenobite: Remember how we keep making all of these 1/1 and 2/2 tokens? Well know they all get +2/+2 and your opponents' creatures are all shitheads.
Bitterblossom: Not as impressive in EDH, but 1/1 fliers make great wielders of swords, Batterskull, and +X/+X buffs for constant blockers or attackers.
Blood Baron of Vizkopa: 4/4 lifelink with protection from the two most prominent removal colors. Oh and it can become a 10/10 with flying on top of that? Another great "hey look, I do more than kill things" win con to suddenly drop.
Grave Titan: Value. He's a scary dude if ignored.
Bloodline Keeper
/Lord of Lineage: Another personal favorite from Innistrad. Makes vamps and then buffs them. Fun fact: Blood Baron is a vampire and one of the Sorins makes vampires.
Speaking of him, Sorin, Lord of Innistrad. He makes vampires, buffs all creatures via emblems, and can function as removal and recursion all at once. You can even hit your own Ashen Rider with his ult.
elesh norn, gran cenobite: Remember how we keep making all of these 1/1 and 2/2 tokens? Well know they all get +2/+2 and your opponents' creatures are all shitheads.
Eslpeth, knight errant can make dudes, sure. Or she can give +3/+3 and flying. And of course her ult is game-winning most of the time. Sword of Fire and Ice, Sword of Feast and Famine, Batterskull is the rest of the "package." Again, this isn't really a Voltron deck. These usually end up on tokens or Titans.
I don't really know what there is to say about the likes of Ancient Craving, Phyrexian Arena, Sensei's Divining Top, and Staff of Nin. Seen everywhere.
Arguel's Blood Fast
/Temple of Aclazotz: I've talked before about how Night's Whisper is the most efficient mana+life:cards drawn ratio out there, and I'm testing Arguel's in it's place. I don't expect Arguel's to flip ever, really. But I'm thinking in a control deck the investment into an repeatable enchantment might be worth it over Night's Whisper in the long game. If it ends up being way too slow, I'll swap back.
Why no Necropotence? I don't want to exile cards in my graveyard. I like my recursion.
Arguel's Blood Fast
/Temple of Aclazotz: I've talked before about how Night's Whisper is the most efficient mana+life:cards drawn ratio out there, and I'm testing Arguel's in it's place. I don't expect Arguel's to flip ever, really. But I'm thinking in a control deck the investment into an repeatable enchantment might be worth it over Night's Whisper in the long game. If it ends up being way too slow, I'll swap back.
Why no Necropotence? I don't want to exile cards in my graveyard. I like my recursion.
Demonic Tutor, Diabolic Tutor, Increasing Ambition, Liliana Vess, Solemn Simulacrum, Rune-Scarred Demon. Nothing new. The latter two are great with recursion.
My sideboard (which will eventually get a run down) exists solely for Mastermind's Acquisition's second mode. Why run both Mastermind's and Diabolic? Because. Maybe I'll need to Diabolic into Mastermind's.
My sideboard (which will eventually get a run down) exists solely for Mastermind's Acquisition's second mode. Why run both Mastermind's and Diabolic? Because. Maybe I'll need to Diabolic into Mastermind's.
Crucible of Worlds: Keep fetching, or just run a Strip Mine/Wasteland engine. Obzedat's Aid: It's just good. The only downside is it only hits your graveyard. Sun Titan: Not a great creature as much as it is great as getting all of those CMC 3 or less enchantments back to the battlefield. I mean, he's also a great candidate for Sword of Feast and Famine. Unburial Rites is my last remaining "traditional" Reanimate, but it can be cast twice thanks to flashback. And Volrath's Stronghold is there as a slower backup.
Lake of the Dead: Great with Crucible, and pumps out mana for that one really cool spell I'll talk about in a bit. With an Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth on the field Lake can be sacrificed to itself.
Vault of the Archangel: All those tokens now have lifelink and deathtouch. Seems fine.
Vault of the Archangel: All those tokens now have lifelink and deathtouch. Seems fine.
Blind Obedience: No real synergy with the deck, but extort is nice to offset other minor life loss, and slowing down fast decks is never bad.
Debt to the Deathless: Ramp out some serious mana with Lake of the Dead and Thran Dynamo to just become the realest pimp at the table, if you don't outright kill a few people in the process. One of my favorite cards in the deck.
Liliana, Heretical Healer /Liliana, Defiant Necromancer: Testing phase. I don't know if I still have enough non-tokens to trigger her flip, but Defiant Necromancer is really solid with some table-wide discard, good-enough recursion, and a top=tier ult emblem for a format filled with wrath effects. Again, some more amazing Karla Ortiz art, so we'll see.
Sorin Markov: Play Blood Baron. Follow up with Sorin and his -3. Start beating face. Or like life drain and then mind control but that sounds fair and not cool. What is this, some Mindslaver deck? Pfft.
Witchbane Orb: Yeah, laugh at me all you want, but you can't target me with your laughter, so ha. Curses are annoyingly prevalent at my main table so I run this over Leyline of Sanctity.
Debt to the Deathless: Ramp out some serious mana with Lake of the Dead and Thran Dynamo to just become the realest pimp at the table, if you don't outright kill a few people in the process. One of my favorite cards in the deck.
Liliana, Heretical Healer /Liliana, Defiant Necromancer
: Testing phase. I don't know if I still have enough non-tokens to trigger her flip, but Defiant Necromancer is really solid with some table-wide discard, good-enough recursion, and a top=tier ult emblem for a format filled with wrath effects. Again, some more amazing Karla Ortiz art, so we'll see.
I mean, Show
Sorin Markov: Play Blood Baron. Follow up with Sorin and his -3. Start beating face. Or like life drain and then mind control but that sounds fair and not cool. What is this, some Mindslaver deck? Pfft.
Witchbane Orb: Yeah, laugh at me all you want, but you can't target me with your laughter, so ha. Curses are annoyingly prevalent at my main table so I run this over Leyline of Sanctity.
04/30/2018: Updated the deck and wrote the primer.
05/22/2018: -Grasp of Fate +The Eldest Reborn: I hate Grasp, but Eldest seems fun.
Well thanks for taking the time to read this or simply check my list out! Recommendations are welcomed! I know soon I'll have a rundown on what I'm running in my sideboard.
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| Date added | 10 years |
| Last updated | 5 years |
| Legality | This deck is Commander / EDH legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 16 - 2 Mythic Rares 42 - 6 Rares 19 - 7 Uncommons 8 - 0 Commons |
| Cards | 100 |
| Avg. CMC | 3.97 |
| Tokens | Emblem Elspeth, Knight-Errant, Emblem Liliana, Defiant Necromancer, Emblem Ob Nixilis Reignited, Emblem Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, Faerie Rogue 1/1 B, Phyrexian Germ 0/0 B, Soldier 1/1 W, Spirit 1/1 WB, Vampire 1/1 B w/ Lifelink, Vampire 2/2 B, Zombie 2/2 B |
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