Opening Word
Teferi is very good; probably the best mono-blue commander right now. He's a one-card combo with [The Chain Veil] (Draws your deck and gets infinite mana). He's also versatile. It's possible to build him on a sliding scale somewhere between combo and stax, and you can sort of do it how you like, and adjust based on your results. The reasons to not go full stax are sort of debatable, because Teferi only breaks stax parity if he's in play. And he costs 6. And only for tap-down type stax cards.
My list is probably right in the middle of stax and combo.
Playing the Deck
The deck does one of two things, generally: either 1) play ramp into a some kind of big play to distract your opponents and fuel your own combo, or 2) play ramp into some kind of stax pieces that slow down your opponents, distract them, and give you time to assemble your own combo. This means hands with ramp are a lot better than hands without them, but sometimes you can play control for a while if you have a couple islands, mana drain, fluster, and force. That sort of hand can also win.
The main idea with Teferi is to get the Chain Veil combo going, then win with Ugin. (Ugin happens to be really synergistic with the whole deck, and a perfect wincon with chain veil).
Cards and Tactics
The high tide plan is very good, and pretty much enables wins out of weak board states where basically nothing else is going to get it done (like after someone resolved a Bane of Progress or a Cyclonic Rift or similar).
Candelabra is great for the high tide package; sometimes for untapping Mishra's Land or Lotus Vale; breaking parity on winter orb and back to basics; and filtering colorless mana into additional blue mana. The candelabra isn't required, it just helps out with one of the stronger tactics. It's not even required for high tide cause high tide is still good with frantic search and time spiral, and the general's -1.
Having big things: Sometimes you play Teferi turn 3, then on turn 4 you find you can produce 12 mana. Play something big and awesome. You can combo out with the Chain Veil, but if you can't do that, play Ugin, Jin-Gitaxias, Void Winnower, Tidespout Tyrant, Consecrated Sphinx, or Recurring Insight. These all basically win the game if they're not answered.
Spheres and Lodestone Golem: I've really liked Lodestone Golem. But I dislike sphere of resistance and trinisphere. Lodestone golem is frequently very strong; it punishes a lot of leaner decks that rely on less artifact mana than us. In this way, it's classically asymmetrical. And it blocks for Teferi. Although, it's less good in a build focused on interaction, cantrips, and cheap card draw. Remember spheres of all types make tutors and cantrips increasingly terrible.
Tidespout Tyrant: This goes infinite by bouncing two artifacts that tap for more than they cost. Like, say, a basalt monolith and a sol ring. Once you get infinite colorless you can bounce something else that produces blue, like a gilded lotus. Then if you can get infinite blue, you can bounce and recast Teferi and use his +1 each time, which draws your deck. Then you can cast as many spells as you have in your hand, and bounce every permanent your opponents have. It's pretty strong.
Blinkmoth Well: This combos with winter orb and static orb. You just tap them before your turn begins and then they don't function during your own untap step. Of course, they still prevent everyone else from untapping.
Brew Your own Teferi
Teferi can be built in different styles. My suggestion for making your own Teferi list is to include all the good artifact ramp, then make 4 piles of cards:
- tutors & card draw,
- stax,
- bombs,
- counterspells/interaction.
Rank each of these four groups. Like, for example, stax pieces: 1) stasis 2) winter orb 3) back to basics 4) tabernacle 5) cursed totem 6) grafdigger's cage 7) lodestone golem 8) static orb 9) tangle wire 10) sphere of resistance 11) embargo 12) frozen aether 13) land equilibrium 14) trinisphere 15) mana web 16) rising waters 17) torpor orb 18) overburden. Adjust your own orderings for your expected metagame. Then compare your 4 lists side by side and decide how far down each one you want to go. Include those cards. You can have successful decks that have more stax elements and less counterspells/interaction, and other successful decks might have more counters and big bombs, while fewer stax pieces. Remember there's sort of a tension between stax pieces and counterspells: the more stax you have, the worse your own counterspells are.
Good luck. This deck is awesome.
Flip
