Chittering Witch

Creature — Human Warlock

When this enters the battlefield, create a number of 1/1 black Rat creature tokens equal to the number of opponents you have.

{1}{B}, Sacrifice a creature: Target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn.

Tokens

• Rat 1/1 B

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Casual	Legal
Custom	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal

Discussion (32)

Guerric on Teysa, Orzhov Scion: Life and Death

3 months ago

Hi wideline1414! I've been playing Teysa for years, and have had at least three distinct variations of the deck. She's definitely one of my favorite commanders, and the version I'm playing now is very powerful whereas the second incarnation of the deck ended up playing terribly. I am working on writing a full primer for it, but I write very full and ambitious primers and I haven't quite got the time to commit to it yet. I think my biggest piece of advice is that Teysa can do a lot of things, but she can't do everything well, so you really need to focus on the way you want to play her. She can be a great honest token deck, an aggressive and powerful multi-combo deck, an aristocrats deck, or an orzhov goodstuff sort of deck, but she can only do one of these well.

The original version of the deck was a relaxed Orzhov control deck that focused mostly on generating white tokens and using Teysa's exile ability as a sort of threat to get people to leave me alone. I had the Darkest Hour in the deck as a way to win, but I didn't rush towards it, and I usually won via token pump cards like Jazal Goldmane and Mirror Entity. I also had lots of boardwipe and interaction that Orzhov is good with, as well as a bunch of token generating Elspeths, and it could grind out games real well. I really enjoyed the relaxed approach of the deck, but felt like I wasn't getting the most out of Teysa's ability since I didn't have a ton of black token generators, so I set about to rework it to get more value.

I started out well by adding Chittering Witch, Sengir Autocrat, Dreadhorde Invasion, and a bunch of other black token oriented cards. I still run these cards today. Where I went wrong was in stuffing way too many expensive good stuff cards like Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite and K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth. My mana curve became accordingly less palatable, and I just found the deck was trying to do too many things to really get anywhere.

Third time's a charm as they say, so I cut most of the good stuff and pretty much all of the token pump support to lean more heavily into combo-control with a life-gain subtheme. The great thing about the Darkest Hour combo is that there are so many cards that support it that are also good on their own, so I made sure to have lots of sac outlets, a few aristocrats, Blasting Station, and both Ashnod's Altar and Phyrexian Altar to make infinite mana to power mass drain spells like Debt to the Deathless, Exsanguinate, and Torment of Hailfire. I also put the Reveillark/Karmic Guide combo in for another combo route. The deck can win without these cards by just draining people out, possibly with mana generated by Smothering Tithe and Pitiless Plunderer, but combos are the thing to go to. My favorite part about all previous versions of the deck were abusing Bolas's Citadel and Necropotence, so I added in the soul sisters, Daxos, Blessed by the Sun, and some other lifegain stuff to support this. The deck as is getting to the point where I won't play it as often with my playgroup because the win rate is getting pretty high.

I like the current version of the deck best, but you should do what is good for you. I'd just focus. If you want to care about attacking with spirit tokens, then by all means play Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, Jazal Goldmane, and others. Just try to keep your curve low and have lots of token generators and sac outlets. In my first version of the deck I played most of the Elspeths, and even in the current one I still play Elspeth Tirel and Elspeth, Sun's Champion and they rock the house. If you want to lean into combo or aristocrats, you might want to play fewer of the above cards.

If you are interested in my current list, you can find it here- https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/teysa-combo-with-superfriends/?cb=1645410923. Hopefully in the next month or so I'll finally get to the primer! Until then, happy magic, and enjoy the best Teysa!

Grubbernaut on Kenrith, the Omnipotent

4 months ago

With Kenny, I like sac effects because it guarantees I can reanimate the creature for value. Fleshbag Marauder, Demon's Disciple, Merciless Executioner, Plaguecrafter, etc.

Bloom Tender is great, as is Phantasmal Image. Of course, Dockside+loops. Ranger-Captain of Eos is great with recursion. Cataclysmic Gearhulk is also a good backup plan for when things go wrong, and easier to reuse because you can sac it to itself. On that note, any of the Altars or other sac outlets are great. There's Peregrine Drake loops, too, and it's also just great for value if you have a cost reducer out for Kenny.

Some cards I think would be worth considering swapping out: Esika, God of the Tree  ^Flip, Burnished Hart, Ethersworn Adjudicator (IMO, Caustic Caterpillar is best, or Cathar Commando for artifact/enchantment hate), Ghostly Prison, Propaganda, Celestial Dawn.

You could probably justify going down on lands if you upped your dork count, which would play really well if you added Ashnod's Altar to use them for mana later. City of Brass is also a pretty budget rainbow land. Chittering Witch is a good source of removal, blockers, or fodder for sac effects. Renegade Rallier and Sun Titan can make for some explosive turns, as well. Shriekmaw is great for targeted removal that can later be reanimated. Cowardice and Willbreaker are more nice effects like Horobi. Fires of Invention can be another effect like Wilderness Reclamation, and doesn't limit Kenny's activations.

But finally, my absolute most favorite card when playing casual Kenny is Final Parting. Basically another Jarad's Orders, but adding Unburial Rites or Priest of Fell Rites makes it a tight package to reanimate a fatty, or tutor one of your enchantments if needed.

Cheers!

9-lives on

7 months ago

Thanks, Grubbernaut! Unfortunately, I think Eaten Alive is more useful than those instants and sorceries, as exiling can't be prevented by indestructible or hexproof, and on top of that I can sac a rat. And I can't play Chittering Witch with Lurrus, as she's a permanent with >2 MV, but seems to be incredibly useful.

Grubbernaut on

7 months ago

Fatal Push, Bloodchief's Thirst, Infernal Grasp for removal.

Pack Rat is really good, but I think you'd be better off playing non-tribal to increase the overall card quality; the payoff of having a lot of relatively weak creatures just to get some buffs isn't great. I think Piper of the Swarm is interesting, though.

Chittering Witch is neat if you stick with tribal.

NorinTheWise on R.O.U.S. (Rodents of Unusual Size)

9 months ago

TheMeadiator: Thanks! It is a lot of fun to pilot.

I have gone back and forth on Chittering Witch. This deck has become pretty streamlined/tuned so it is hard to find cards to replace. In this deck, a 4 mana creature should have a resounding impact, but this card doesn't do hard work until you use its ability. The 2/2 is irrelevant, the deck focuses more on Rat Colonies than tokens, and although 2 mana for -2/-2 sounds like a good investment, you would have to pay 6 mana to get rid of a 5/5. Black has significantly better options.

TheMeadiator on R.O.U.S. (Rodents of Unusual Size)

10 months ago

What a great deck!! I love the name, the theme - everything. This looks like a blast to play.

Have you thought about Chittering Witch as a sac outlet for all your rats? Could nuke something big, depending on how many tokens/colonies you have out.

Either way, this deck seems like so much fun.

GrixCHIM on Ayara Rat Plague EDH

1 year ago

I see your deck is budget, and I wanted to suggest some budget inclusions for cards that would create tokens that also trigger Ayara's drain ability.

Chittering Witch creates RAT tokens!!

Abhorrent Overlord Generates a LOT of harpy tokens as your devotion to black will be large with Ayara in play.

Rise of the Dread Marn is a great way to refuel your board with black creatures after a board wipe or large death effect.

Lab Rats is a great way to slowly add more rats to the field with enough mana for the buyback price.

Josu Vess, Lich Knight can be brutal with Ayara on the battlefield if the kicker cost is paid.

Necrotic Hex can be a good board clearing effect that also makes black creatures.

Your deck could also use some cards to help find your enjoyed rat cards. Some budget options in black include Diabolic Tutor , Mausoleum Secrets , and Ratcatcher !

Some cards you're using aren't especially great in a singleton format. Cards like Compound Fracture and Hunt for Specimens could be replaced with Defile and Callous Bloodmage respectively.

Have fun playing EDH! The best suggestion is to play with others and learn what cards you like and dislike using and adapt with new cards that fit your budget.

DadHumanPraetor on Ladies (Coven) Night

1 year ago

Ayara, First of Locthwain has witch vibes and Ophiomancer and Chittering Witch and Grim Haruspex kinda synergize. Surprised Cauldron Familiar isnt already in here?