Necronomicon | Teysa Karlov | Primer

Commander / EDH Masterful

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Commander Legends —Nov. 8, 2020

Now that Commander Legends has fully been revealed, I've been evaluating the cards for this deck. So far, none of the cards jump out at me as auto-includes other than Vault of Champions, but some have come close. Here are my takes:

• Elvish Doomsayer: The new counterpart to Elvish Visionary provides good disruption with a death trigger, but this doesn't advance our gameplan enough. The cheap death trigger slots need to be taken up by Blood Artists and token-generators.

• Eyeblight Cullers: These guys provide tokens, but 5 mana is too much for an effect like this. For 4/5 mana, we're already doing much more powerful things like exiling permanents with Archon of Justice or doubling up our creatures with Luminous Broodmoth or Nightmare Shepherd. For those in budget builds, this is probably a good replacement for Knight of the Last Breath if you're running it.

• Jeweled Lotus: This deck doesn't rely too heavily on Teysa to function, and she does poorly without other board presence, so turboing her out on turn 1 or 2 doesn't do much for us. In fact, playing her too early can be a detriment since she can be incidentally removed before we can use her effectively.

• Opposition AgentGC: This is a single-card powerhouse. I can see including it in a tutor-heavy/spiky meta.

• Phyrexian Triniform: I want to play this super bad, but I don't see how I could justify the mana cost. In a heavier reanimation build, I could see it working.

• Promise of Tomorrow: It's decent boardwipe protection and a cool way to double up on our triggers, but it does a worse job than Luminous Broodmoth or Nightmare Shepherd. Having to sacrifice our entire board to get the creatures back is asking a lot.

• Szat's Will: If we could reliably trigger both abilities almost every cast, I would consider it more. Since Teysa isn't always out and is a high priority kill-target, this card gets much worse.

• Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools: This guy's probably the closest any of these cards are to making it into the deck. He starts off slow, but drawing at least two cards every turn or pumping out tokens is strong, especially when he gains loyalty either way. In addition, his ultimate is potentially game-winning. I have a feeling he'll end up being one of the most hated cards from the set with that ticking time bomb of an ultimate.

• Thalisse, Reverent Medium: Unfortunately, my earlier takes on her leak were based on a false translation. Right now, she's too slow for this deck, but in a build with more token-density, she could be good.

I'm going to continue looking into these and other cards from the set. What are your thoughts? Leave a comment below, and I'll probably respond. I'd like to hear some differing opinions on the new cards.

EDIT: Vault is more consistent than reflecting pool and orchard. And our mana base as a whole is consistent enough that we can afford to take a multicolor land out in favor of another basic for Land Tax reasons.

IN:

• Vault of Champions

• Swamp

Out:

• Reflecting Pool

• Exotic Orchard