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Tevesh Szat and his puppets

Commander / EDH Aristocrats BRG (Jund) Value Engine

kraizor

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Land (36)

Artifact (7)

Creature (22)

Enchantment (8)

Instant (6)

Planeswalker (4)

Commanders (2)

Commander: altered Tana, the Bloodsower
Commander: Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools

Sorcery (15)

Maybeboard

Creature (3)

Land (2)

Instant (1)

Welcome to the world of Jund sacrifice starring Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools!

and background actor Tana, the Bloodsower.

WIP Description!

A legitimate question, considering I kind of make fun of her.
First of all, I like the colors of jund and how they play out in a game of commander. I kind of slept on Korvold, Fae-Cursed King and other Jund Commander which embrace the sacrifice mechanic. Following this, nearly all of them were built by my friends in my playgroup and I did not want to build one with the same commander and basically the same cards.

Jumping forward to commander legends: I heard, they were reintroducing the partner mechanic so I had high hopes for a Jund sacrifice commander or partners with which I can embrace my idea. Upon seeing the spoilers and especially Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools I immediately jumped to my drawing board, though I knew there was only one partner I would be able to partner him with to play Jund.

Was it worth it? I mean, Tana, the Bloodsower is mediocre at best. Even Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin outclasses her by a mile. Being one mana cheaper, mono colored and giving the creatures upon attack and not damage. Damn!
Nonetheless, even if I will most likely not be able to make full use of her due to streamlining to go wide rather than big I thought it is worth it to try it out. Due to her I will be able to:

1. play my long awaited Jund sacrifice theme and access to 3 powerful guilds.
2. have access to good ramp
3. Basically have a one time Harmonize in my Command zone when controlling Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools.

Additionally, we had access to a mechanic that has always sounded pretty mediocre: Act of Treason Gain control of target creature until end of turn? Okay, I guess?
With Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools on the other hand, a card like Harness by Force becomes a powerhouse. Having Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools on the board and casting Act of Treason basically means: , Destroy target creature, draw 2(or 3, because we aim for the commanders) which sounds pretty bonkers to me.

All this hyped me to build a kind of different Jund sacrifice deck.

EDIT: I honestly have to say, that I underestimated the power of Tana, the Bloodsower. Being able to chip some damage here and there and create some tokens is pretty valuable with a partner commander like Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools.
I will try to find more ways to set her up to be more effective overall.

Preferably, seven cards of Magic The Gathering. :)

Jokes aside, a hand should always contain 3-4 lands additionally at least one ramp card and Disruption/Token generators. 1. Blood Crypt
2. Birds of Paradise
3. Bitterblossom
4. Forest
5. Spire Garden
6. Terminate
7. Vraska, Golgari Queen
This is one of the better hands to keep obviously. Casting costs are not higher than and we got everything we need.
We definitely do not prefer a Claim the Firstborn or the likes, due to not getting full value out of it in the first turns.
That is the reason we only play 8 of these spells, to ensure we draw them, though not enough to always have them on our starting hand.

Our game plan focuses around gathering huge amounts of tokens which with the likes of Ophiomancer or Bitterblossom.
The tokens generally serve 2 important things:

1st of all: We can sacrifice them for value for example with Ashnod's Altar to create explosive turns with huge amounts of mana or chip damage with the likes of card:Goblin Bombardement and Bastion of Remembrance.
We can also lockdown creature based decks with our beloved Dictate of Erebos.

2nd: To protect our commander Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools. Obviously, he can protect himself pretty good, though I can confirm that nearly every commander player is getting triggered by his last ability so they want to have him from the board ASAP. Which means, we have to throw pretty much everything between him and our opponents. As a side note: I was not able to activate his ultimate even once, which shows how afraid people are from his ability. On the other hand, I do not think that we need his ultimate to go complete mental.

While our opponents try to hammer away our beloved commander, we are building our way to victory.
When trying to kill our opponents, we also have two different ways on our hand:

1st: Good ol' overrun with Craterhoof Behemoth or another decent option: Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest. This card can provide us with another overrun-esque effect besides not having trample at our hand, which can be a heavy downside.
Nonetheless, the amount of damage you can put out in one turn can be so devastating for you opponents to not be able to crawl back into the game.

2nd: Chip damage! We bring them down with cards like Zulaport Cutthroat and Blood Artist. Creating lots of tokens to then sacrifice them for huge damage which follows the demise of our opponents.

Another option, though not really reliable is Torment of Hailfire, which also helps to win the game on the spot.

Removed:

  1. Captivating Crew
  2. Plunge into Darkness
  3. Grim Backwoods
  4. Forest
  5. Necropotence
  6. Jeering Instigator
  7. Mycoloth
  8. Reassembling Skeleton
  9. Traitorous Greed
  10. Elvish Mystic
  11. Costly Plunder
  12. Birthing Pod
  13. Kazuul's Fury  
  14. Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin
  15. Judith, the Scourge Diva

Added:

  1. Reflecting Pool
  2. Ophiomancer
  3. The Akroan War
  4. Fire-Lit Thicket
  5. Yawgmoth, Thran Physician
  6. Sarkhan Vol
  7. Sol Ring
  8. Kari Zev's Expertise
  9. Harness by Force
  10. Chittering Witch
  11. Village Rites
  12. Doubling Season
  13. Purphoros, God of the Forge
  14. Craterhoof Behemoth
  15. Bastion of Remembrance

Possible additions:

  1. Mass Mutiny
  2. Diabolic Intent
  3. Rankle, Master of Pranks
  4. Goblin Sharpshooter
  5. Garruk, Cursed Huntsman

Explanation:

Land base//Ramp

Cutted Forest and Grim Backwoods for Reflecting Pool and Fire-Lit Thicket for an overall better landbase.

Elvish Mystic had to go, because I forgot to include our beloved artifact Sol Ring.
Kazuul's Fury   did not make the cut, due offering not enough power for the amount of mana and generally having enough options to do damage to creatures or steal them with Sarkhan Vol.

TREASON!

Captivating Crew, Traitorous Greed and Jeering Instigator were cut for The Akroan War, Harness by Force and Kari Zev's Expertise due to lower costs and essentially more utility.

Captivating Crew needs 8 Mana to even be relevant and for the most time only got shutdown immediately.
I had to question myself, if Captivating Crew is worth to run to have another body to throw in front of my commander and came to the conclusion that Harness by Force just suits my playstyle and the deck better.

Traitorous Greed offers two mana though arguably just a worse version of Kari Zev's Expertise.
Jeering Instigator lost its charm due to being the only Morph card in my deck which literally screams: "I WANNA STEAL YOUR CREATURES!" when I play it out as a morph.

Last but not least, I included Sarkhan Vol, because he provides us with an anthem effect which suits our armies of tokens and Tana, the Bloodsower and can still other people's creatures as a worthy sacrifice for Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools.

Card draw

Plunge into Darkness, Costly Plunder and Necropotence were cut for Yawgmoth, Thran Physician and Village Rites, because Yawgmoth, Thran Physician suits the role for Necropotence plus proliferate upside.

Costly Plunder is just a worse version of Village Rites.
Plunge into Darkness though not primarily a draw card was cut for having more than enough draw at the ready.

Tokens

Mycoloth had to leave as more often than not it was destroyed before getting the first trigger. Chittering Witch replaced him, as I get immediate value + have a sacrifice effect built on top of it.

Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin has the same problem, though I will look, if I can get him back into the squad. Ophiomancer took his place for helping with blockers and sacrifical lambs.

General synergy

Reassembling Skeleton, Judith, the Scourge Diva and Birthing Pod were cut for Doubling Season, Purphoros, God of the Forge, Craterhoof Behemoth and Bastion of Remembrance.

Judith, the Scourge Diva is better suited for a nontoken aristocrats deck while Purphoros, God of the Forge and Bastion of Remembrance are just powerhouses for token decks in these colors in general.

Birthing Pod works better in decks which are optimized for it also known as: not this deck.
Reassembling Skeleton is definitely a good card, though ended up not being entirely necessary, as I generate enough tokens to sacrifice.

Doubling Season + Tokens = profit!
Craterhoof Behemoth + Tokens = profit!

Removed:

  1. Awakening Zone
  2. Deathrite Shaman
  3. Woe Strider
  4. Bedevil
  5. Terminate

Added:

  1. Viscera Seer
  2. Arcane Signet
  3. Sword of Truth and Justice
  4. Dragon Broodmother
  5. Dreadbore

Possible additions:

  1. Mass Mutiny
  2. Diabolic Intent
  3. Rankle, Master of Pranks
  4. Goblin Sharpshooter
  5. Garruk, Cursed Huntsman

Explanation:

Focusing more on getting Tana, the Bloodsower on turn 3 so I added Arcane Signet to be able to swing in turn 4 for some damage and get those Saprolings. Additionally, I playtested the card Sword of Truth and Justice, while not being the best of the swords, one swing with an equipped Tana sets her up to be a real threat and huge token generator.

Viscera Seer for Woe Strider to tighten the mana curve.

Dreadbore for Bedevil and Terminate as I recognized to be fully suited with creature removal with my Act of Treason'ish effects.

Last but not least, Dragon Broodmother helps 1st to gain load of tokens/and or real threats., but also trigger effects like Dictate of Erebos which makes it a solid addition to the line-up.

Feedback is always welcome!

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96% Casual

Competitive

Revision 10 See all

(4 years ago)

-1 Claim the Firstborn main
-1 Damnation main
-1 Dragon Broodmother main
-1 Dreadbore main
+1 Garruk, Cursed Huntsman main
+1 Gaze of Granite main
-1 Llanowar Elves main
+1 Rampant Growth main
+1 Shatterskull Smashing  Flip main
+1 Strip Mine maybe
+1 Sword of Light and Shadow main
+1 Wasteland maybe