Teysa, Token Shenanigans

Commander / EDH* mookie990

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further optimizations —Sept. 3, 2018

Making some additional changes, mostly focused on making the deck a bit more consistent and removing situational cards.

-Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim - I like the card, but I don't have nearly enough lifegain for her second ability to ever be relevant. The first ability is fine, but I strongly prefer sac outlets that don't cost mana - this deck doesn't have that much ramp, so being able to spend mana on things other than spells is a luxury.

-Oracle's Vault - as above. 2 mana at sorcery speed is a bit pricey for card draw, and it is rare to get more than three or so cards out of it.

-Twilight Drover - costs mana to make tokens. A very powerful token producer when it is active, but I've noticed myself actually having difficulty both having tokens and a way to kill them off.

-Batterskull - never really fit the theme of the deck. I'll probably try to find another home for it.

-Elspeth, Knight-Errant - my general heuristic is that planeswalkers won't live more than a single turn, and Elspeth isn't worth it if she only makes a single token.... and to be honest, even if she never dies and makes a single token every turn forever, that's pretty underwhelming too. The ult is great, but I want my cards to be a bit more consistent.

-Sorin, Lord of Innistrad - as above. Tokens are good, but planeswalkers are underwhelming if they don't stick around for long.

-Tymna the Weaver - great draw engine, but this deck is pretty bad at attacking. 1/1 spirits from Teysa are great at doing so, so may bring Tymna back if I can have them more consistently.

-Grand Abolisher - a bit win-more. Good for protection while comboing off, generally useless otherwise. Would be better if I were more all-in on combo, I suppose.

-Open the Armory - if this were Stoneforge Mystic, I would still run it. Unfortunately, it doesn't provide a body, which makes it much worse. It might still be running just as a second copy of Skullclamp, but...

-Swords to Plowshares - this deck has issues with card advantage. Swords is a fantastic card, but this isn't a control deck, and it's better for me to deal with problems by letting my opponents deal with them, or sweeping them away with a wrath or Grave Pact.

-Commander's Sphere - as ramp goes, it's a bit below the curve. One could argue for cutting a different mana rock instead, but I think the upside of being able to cycle is lower than the upside of my other mana rocks.

-Evolving Wilds - would be alright if I still had some of the 'if you have less lands than your opponents' cards that were in previous versions of this deck, but the only synergy I currently have is Sun Titan.

-Thespian's Stage - I don't have any lands worth copying, and the number of colorless lands I'm willing to play is limited. If only I were running Urborg + Coffers....

+Martyr's Cause - I'm generally of the opinion that enchantments are the sturdiest card type and the best sacrifice outlet. This deck has a severe problem with its sac outlets being killed off, so I'm hoping that this will be inoffensive enough to stick around. Being able to negate damage from large creatures with trample is also a significant upside (this deck sucks at blocking trample damage).

+Gilded Lotus - one of the better mana rocks in the format. Tapping for colored mana is pretty relevant for this deck.

+Animate Dead - one of the best reanimation effects in the format. This deck isn't that focused on reanimator (most of the creatures are pretty small), but it can be brought back by Sun Titan, and hitting things from opponents' graveyards is also a huge upside.

+Leonin Relic-Warder - testing. It was recently brought to my attention that this combos with Animate Dead to produce infinite death triggers, and it's a reasonable enough card by itself that I don't mind including it.

+Black Market - testing. This deck isn't generally designed to work with large amounts of mana, so I don't know how well it will work, but the potential upside is high at least.

+Pitiless Plunderer - as with Black Market, producing mana from death triggers seems useful. Treasure is a bit more convenient to use as well, even if it only triggers off my own creatures.

+Mind's Eye - testing. It's a pretty solid card draw engine in a multiplayer format, and one mana per card hopefully shouldn't be too expensive.

+Sepulchral Primordial - testing. It's one of the best army-in-a-can creatures in the format, and being able to provide multiple bodies is certainly relevant.

+Bloodsoaked Champion - testing. This deck doesn't attack that often, but it really wants another creature that can bring itself back from the graveyard. I think the condition on this makes it weaker than Reassembling Skeleton, but being a human isn't irrelevant.

+Pawn of Ulamog - testing. Over time, I've come to the opinion that this deck's true strength is 'double-dipping' - the ability to benefit from sacrifice abilities multiple times from a single creature. Producing another body that can generate mana (and sacrifice itself if necessary) seems pretty good.

+Open the Graves - an enchantment that allows for triple-dipping alongside Teysa? Seems sweet.

+Temple of Silence - fixing is good.

+Buried Ruin - testing. I like the idea of being able to recur Skullclamp or a sac outlet, but grabbing back Expedition Map for Thawing Glaciers + Emeria is also a possibility.