Necronomicon | Teysa Karlov | Primer
Commander / EDH
SCORE: 375 | 432 COMMENTS | 112988 VIEWS | IN 169 FOLDERS
Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle Earth —June 16, 2023
I'm pleasantly surprised by this set. I went into this set with zero expectations, but given its a modern set technically, we got a few new powerful cards.
IN
- Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff: This guy slows our opponents down or ramps us, and only for 2 mana on a body! He's great ramp in the early game and turns into good fodder. I'd say he's better than both Loyal Warhound and Knight of the White Orchid, and he's probably the best ramp creature in Orzhov colors.
- Orcish Bowmasters: At the very minimum, he's two creatures in one and pings an opponent's mana dork. He sticks around to slow our opponents' draws, and if they do draw too much, he keeps making fodder for us and pinging. When behind, he can grow a big army that when combined with Teysa's vigilance and lifelink, can be a great board staller.
OUT
- Loyal Warhound: It was a tossup between the dog and Knight of the White Orchid to be replaced by Lotho. Knight costs WW, but since you tend to play this type of card on turn 3, we usually have WW by then. While dog does die to skullclamp, knight's land comes in untapped which smooths out the rest of our turn.
- Sultai Emissary: I considered Hallowed Spiritkeeper, but emissary is probably the best pick for a cut. He's my pet card, but bowmasters has a much higher ceiling, even if they don't have a death trigger. Repeatable pings, fodder with a sac outlet, dissuading draws, or a big token are all great for one 2 mana creature.
OMISSIONS
- The One Ring: This card is great, but our other card draw is more synergistic. We could support this card since we have a good amount of lifegain, but 4 mana is steep for a slow-ish card. The protection is nice, but we are already good at defending ourselves with all our chump blockers.
- Mirkwood Bats: This is quite a bit worse than you may think for Teysa. It's not a death trigger, so Teysa doesn't double it, and only triggering on tokens cancels out the benefit of triggering on creation + sacrifice.
- Denethor, Ruling Steward: He's a fine generic, aristocrat all arounder, but his ceiling isn't high enough to be better than any cards in the current list. Creating one token per round, not being doubled by Teysa, and 2 mana for the sac outlet is mediocre at best.
I also updated the list categories, changing "Ramp" to "Mana" and including all of our mana creators other than lands. That's all for LTR though! This was a great set in my opinion, giving us two very powerful new cards that are a combination of fodder, taxers, and value.
Housegheist says... #2
I do think Elesh Norn Flip would provide protection on her front, because each of our creature blocking an enemies attack would trigger to drain to. As you described, you focus a little more on Teysas 2nd ability… with Norm, our opponent has to decide to take the attack or block or creatures which equals in life loss, too. She also has a sac-effect and her backside does everything this deck wan’t to do… i wouldn’t push her aside that quick ;o)
May 1, 2023 6:24 a.m.
Housegheist New Elesh Norn Flip is a pillow fort card on the front, which while useful in a vacuum, doesn't synergize with any of our cards or strategy. I'm not sure if I'm missing something, but what does Norn's frontside have to do with Teysa's second ability? Her sac outlet is a nice addition, but 3 mana and having to sac at least 3 creatures is a tough restriction when we have access to much better sac outlets. For 4 mana, our cards like Luminous Broodmoth, Pitiless Plunderer, or Battle Angels of Tyr can end games if left unchecked. Norn is much slower and needs additional investment to start providing value. She's not bad, but I think we have better options.
May 1, 2023 7:48 p.m.
Housegheist says... #5
Her frontside favours Teysas 2nd ability by the choice our Opponents have to make. Either take the dmg or chump block our small creatures and take 2 anyway. Since our token creatures have vigilance we can use them for blocks, too, which would trigger Elesh Norn Flips frontside too.
I admit that she seems like pillow-fort-ish card at first glance, but with vigilance in particular she favours your new approach to fokus a little bit more on the Vigilance/Lifelink ability of Teysa. So, yes. The frontside is more protective, but could and will drain opponents constantly. Either with attacks or blocks…
And the backside is a repeatable sweeper with build in creatures which are protected of said sweeper (double strike and the buff is a nice addition, too). Not bad either.
She works different than any of your suggested cards but i already noticed, we often have different approaches or evaluation of cards. Could be due to the powerlevel of our Pods. :o)
May 2, 2023 1:03 a.m.
So, from this set, I'm only seeing Mirkwood Bats as a good card to add. Nothing else is striking me. Thoughts??
Also, I kind of miss Bolas's Citadel. Think I might put it back in.
Masterful says... #1
Starpact Sorry for the late reply! Tombstone Stairwell can be a very powerful card, but it's also super risky. While usually the aristocrat deck has the most to gain out of that much fodder, helping 3+ opponents at the same time is a huge drawback. If any of our opponents are playing some sort of token or aristocrat deck, which is very common, stairwell will help them just as much if not more. Lifeline is quite similar and a card I used to play. I tend to go the safer route of playing small fodder creatures that make tokens when they die, but you can play with these huge impact cards if you want.
jelwell We don't have enough direct damage or big attackers to flip battles consistently. The current battles are also not good in aristocrats. Invasion of New Capenna Flip is the closest to being playable, but it's sorcery speed, requires a sac, only hits creatures and artifacts, and the flipside is useless for us.
Halestor19 We barely don't have enough room for Village Rites and the like. They're a great budget replacement for tutors though. Elesh Norn Flip doesn't bring anything for our strategy on her front side, and her backside is too expensive to justify in my opinion, but you can definitely play her if she's your pet card.
April 29, 2023 6:55 p.m.