Necronomicon | Teysa Karlov | Primer

Commander / EDH Masterful

SCORE: 367 | 424 COMMENTS | 105501 VIEWS | IN 176 FOLDERS


War of the Spark so far... —April 5, 2019

New cards from War of the Spark are here for speculation! We actually get a bunch of amazing new additions with this set as you'll see below. Testing will be underway soon. I'm giving each card a speculative score out of 5 based on how good I think they will be at the time of writing this.

Bolas's Citadel: Personally, this is my favorite card from the set. With the low cmc of this deck, chaining together many spells off the top would be really powerful as long as we don't hit two lands. I'm optimistic about this one, but the mana cost may be too much. We'll see in testing. 4/5

Cruel Celebrant: Absolutely beautiful. Wizards can print as many Zulaport Cutthroats as they want, and I will keep buying them. Another wincon and addition to the Blood Artist and friends crew is always welcome. 5/5

Herald of the Dreadhorde: This card won't make the cut. At four mana, it only provides a single creature as a death trigger and nothing else. It being a 3/2 and the token being an army don't matter since we care about quantity rather than quality in terms of tokens. And in terms of quantity and efficiency it's just a worse Doomed Traveler. 2/5

Kaya's Ghostform: This card is very probably almost very good. It acts as a second death trigger which is especially powerful for things like Archon of Justice or as a revive for our planeswalkers or commander. It is useless on its own though. I'm too unsure on its overall usefulness at the moment and will need to test it. 3.5/5

Liliana, Dreadhorde General: This is an absolute bomb with Teysa. It does everything we want to be doing: drawing cards when our creatures die, making tokens, and sacrificing our and our opponents' creatures. Plus its ultimate is basically just a game-winner. 5/5

Liliana's Triumph: If an effect like this is necessary for your playgroup, Fleshbag Marauder or Plaguecrafter would have better results due to allowing you to sacrifice a creature yourself. However, if you feel the need for this effect at instant speed, this might be viable. Personally, I'm gonna stick it in the meta-dependent category. 3/5

Rising Populace: Big creatures aren't supported too well in our aristocrats shell, but if you really want something to satisfy the inner Timmy within you, I'd play Yahenni, Undying Partisan. 2.5/5

Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord: He doesn't do much to support the playstyle of the deck other than recurring creatures, and there are more efficient ways to do that effectively. Look at the recursion section of the maybeboard for options. 2/5

Expect more when more cards are revealed from this set, but I feel things won't get much better than this.

In favor of Citadel, Celebrant, and new Liliana, Hangarback Walker, Gate to the Afterlife, and Elspeth, Sun's Champion have been cut. Walker and Gate are both solid cards but not as essential as most of our others. They may return. New Liliana does much more than Elspeth did, and Elspeth wasn't the best in slot anyways.

patrikl says... #1

Despite what you said earlier I think Nether Traitor is much better than reassembling skeleton, even if you say the skeleton can be brought back anytime you can also do that with the traitor as long as you have other creatures and if you have no other then you have bigger problems than that, the traitor basically doubles any death trigger for 1 black mana (half the cost of the skeleton) and it can make infinite mana + death triggers with a single token on death card and Phyrexian Altar , the infinite mana is amazing because it let's you combo earlier and play other threats if you don't have a card like zulaport. I think both deserve a place in the deck.

Also Nim Deathmantle is too strong to ignore having so many ways to generate mana on death and create tokens. Have you tried Gate to the Afterlife ? its really good, even if it is a loot effect you usually just need something specific to combo out, I tested it in my shirei deck and I think it's much better than harvester of souls just because it gets earlier into play.

And maybe is because of my love of shirei but I think Lifeline is ridiculous in a deck like this even if your opponents can use it your deck is designed to abuse it more and it also protects your board against mass removal if you have a free sac outlet which is always a weakness in decks like this that try to stablish board presence and get your engine going.

Anyway, amazing primer! you gave me lots of ideas for my own teysa deck.

February 26, 2019 11:35 a.m.

Masterful says... #2

patrikl Nether Traitor is good for the reasons you mentioned, but that doesn't mean its better than reassembling skeleton. They're quite different, and neither is better than the other. I personally like skeleton more because it's more independent than traitor. Skeleton can go off with just a sac outlet and a mana-producer while traitor needs consistent other creatures. However, traitor does need less mana producers to go off, so I'm gonna find a place for it for consistency's sake. I've found that many wins come off of reassembling skeleton, so having another one will be helpful.

Nim Deathmantle is basically a more expensive reassembling skeleton that can loop other creatures instead of just itself. If I'm going to be looping something, the game is going to end soon, especially with the amount of death-trigger-card-draw in the deck. Personally, skeleton and traitor are preferable to deathmantle because they cost less to loop. However, deathmantle only requires generic mana which is a big plus, especially in terms of Ashnod's Altar . I'm not completely closed to the idea of deathmantle, but I currently I feel like its too specific in its needs for a combo. I understand its power though and if the maybeboard was ordered it would definitely be close to the top.

Gate to the Afterlife does actually seem a lot better than Harvester of Souls because finding specific combo pieces is very often the plan. I'll definitely include it instead of the ladder.

Yeah Lifeline is insane. I'm definitely gonna replace something for it. For now, I think its gonna be krav, regna, and harvester out for lifeline, traitor, and gate. I like krav and regna, and I'd like to find a place for them again, but for now, they're pretty slow to help the engine while the cards you mentioned do so much more efficiently.

February 26, 2019 4:04 p.m.

patrikl says... #3

Wow, thanks for addressing all my points and trying out most of the cards I suggested. I have tried to optimize my Shirei list and those are great performers there. Now I don't have much experience in white for this kind of deck so I wanted to ask you What are your thoughts on Enduring Renewal ? It can loop a 1 mana creature with Phyrexian arena but I don't know if the drawback is worth it or if it even adds enough to the deck.

February 26, 2019 5:18 p.m.

Masterful says... #4

patrikl Enduring Renewal is weird and I'm not too familiar with it. It does combo with phyrexian altar or a sac outlet and pitiless plunderer to death-loop a 1 mana creature, and it gives a lot of value when we already have an advanced board-state. However, it can easily backfire and disallow us from drawing into some creatures we need. It's similar to Reassembling Skeleton in that it loops creatures. From what I can tell at the moment, it seems worse because of its potential backside when the upside is only that it can loop for 1 mana less. I might be wrong however, and further testing might prove the upside is better than I thought. Another deck that has more recursion than mine might be able to take advantage of how it fuels the graveyard. It also might be funny to test it with Ornithopter for a free death loop.

February 26, 2019 8:10 p.m.

Spartin23 says... #5

How do you feel about Sadistic Hypnotist ? It's a bummer that it is only sorcery speed, but it can still give you card advantage along with a free sac outlet.

February 27, 2019 12:51 p.m.

Masterful says... #6

Spartin23 Sadistic Hypnotist is a pretty bad sac outlet but a good way to achieve card advantage. It's definitely a control-ey card, so it's comparable to Dictate of Erebos and Grave Pact , but since it's a creature, I'd say it's more along the lines of Butcher of Malakir . Because of its mana cost, it's probably better than butcher, and can be opted in instead of one of the Grave Pact effects, especially if your playgroup is heavier in the control department and plays less creatures. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll add it to the maybeboard.

February 27, 2019 8:49 p.m.

h0ly_danc3r says... #7

Did regna prove useful? I was considering adding Regal Bloodlord and Crested Sunmare since our playgroup has a lot of wipes

March 1, 2019 4:53 p.m.

Masterful says... #8

h0ly_danc3r Regna was good but mainly to tutor and provide sac fodder to Krav. I ended up taking them out in my latest update, but I want to find a place for them again at some point. If you're going for more of a lifegain package, then bloodlord and sunmare definitely seem good, but I'd include some more consistent lifegain death triggers to make sure you can gain life each turn no matter what. Some cards I can suggest are: Ashes of the Abhorrent (especially if your playgroup has graveyard shenanigans), Gate to the Afterlife (which I've decided to include just for the looting), Pious Evangel  Flip, Proper Burial , and maybe Deathgreeter .

March 1, 2019 8:48 p.m.

Drtongue says... #9

Night Incarnate could work as a possible wrath effect. Casting it for it's evoke cost should still trigger Teysa, giving all creatures -6/-6.

March 2, 2019 8:41 p.m.

Masterful says... #10

Drtongue Yeah that would work with Teysa out as a budget board-wipe, but there are better options that don't require Teysa on board. I'd rather play basic white wraths since they're unconditional, but Night Incarnate does work with Phyrexian Reclamation so there's that.

March 3, 2019 2:58 a.m.

sub780lime says... #11

I've been hunting around for a base I like to make Teysa Karlov . I was less focused on the necromancy side of things in the build I was targeting, but man does this deck look fun. Well done!

March 13, 2019 2:12 p.m.