“My oath demands your destruction. You will go no further.“
Art:Teysa Karlov
by Magali Villeneuve
Table of Contents
Todays Featured Commander Is:
Teysa Karlov is a really sweet Orzhov commander who is absolutely perfect for both the aristocrat and token strategies. Being able to double death triggers is absolutely perfect for some of our ETB and LTB outlets and overall is just a really strong commander and makes for a really fun deck that combines the best parts of Orzhov and the best parts of token strategies! This deck is an absolute blast and a great deck for a mid power table! Without further adieu lets get it!
The Deck:
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Teysa Karlov Aristocrat Tokens!
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Why Teysa Karlov?
Teysa Karlov is a deck that makes our deck better in every way, not only can she make damage outlets like Blood Artist
and Zulaport Cutthroat
that much better by making them trigger twice as well as making all of our tokens better by giving them vigilance and lifelink! Teysa is the real deal for only 4 mana and makes our deck better in nearly every way!
Deck Overview:
This section contains information about cards in the deck and how they function within the deck! As well as highlighting some of my favorite cards in the deck! The infinite combos and loops in the deck are listed below in the “Main Win Conditions” Section.
Creatures:
Our creature package has an absolute ton of sweet cards in it! Two of my favorite being Mondrak, Glory Dominus
and Drivnod, Carnage Dominus
which are both so strong in this deck and both of these make our deck better in every way! We of course have a ton of strong token producers like Bloodline Keeper // Lord of Lineage
, Brimaz, King of Oreskos
and Adeline, Resplendent Cathar
as well as Ancient Gold Dragon
while we have a ton more these cards are absolute workhorses in the deck! We also have a few damage outlets for ETB and LTB like Blood Artist, Cruel Celebrant
, Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim
and Zulaport Cutthroat which are all pretty cheap to get out and have a very strong impact on the game! We also have a few cool utility creatures like Moonshaker Cavalry
and Luminous Broodmoth
which are both great cards for the deck, Moonshaker is an absolute game-ender a lot of the times and Broodmoth lets us bring back key creatures who may die to removal!
Planeswalkers:
One common theme among our Planeswalkers is the ability to create tokens as all of our planeswalkers interact really well with that! Liliana, Dreadhorde General
which is a decent token producer a super juiced up edict effect and a board wipe all in one. Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools
is a really cool card that can get us some tokens and some cards and if we get to that point we can also grab all of the commanders on the board, with Tevesh we typically focus on his plus! Elspeth, Sun's Champion
is a huge token producer, a board wipe and the game is pretty much over if we get Elspeth’s emblem out, while this is rare it did happen a couple times in testing! Kaya, Geist Hunter
s minus is basically a second copy of Anointed Procession
! Kaya also helps us a ton if we try to go into combat since we can buff and give all of our creatures deathtouch. We can realistically ult Kaya with little effort, but depending on what we have in our graveyard it is not always the right choice!
Instants:
We don’t have a ton of removal but we have more than enough to get by in Despark
, Anguished Unmaking
and Path to Exile
and Utter End
which are all cheap removal spells and the first two exiling is a really strong effect as well! Inkshield
is one of my favorite cards since it can prevent a huge attack and make a ton of tokens! In the late-game when we have a decent amount of mana or need some blockers we can use Secure the Wastes
to get some tokens!
Sorceries:
Lich-Knights' Conquest
is a super sweet recursion spell that is not getting a lot of love these days but in a deck like this is really strong! Blot Out the Sky
is a great token producer and a board wipe all in one. Damn
is a really strong card that can be great when we are falling behind! Increasing Devotion
is a really strong card that can give us 15 tokens which can be a huge utility for us! Night's Whisper
is a cheap and efficient draw spell that is nice and cheap and great at any stage of the game!
Artifacts:
We have a few powerful sacrifice outlets like Phyrexian Altar
, Ashnod's Altar
and Altar of Dementia
which are all strong combo pieces and great pieces to use as utility throughout the game as well! Since we produce a ton of tokens we can use Skullclamp
as a strong piece of card advantage and what deck will say no to 2 cards for only 1 mana! The One Ring
is a card that I found was really strong through testing and was an absolute bomb in this deck like it is in many others! Sol Ring
and Arcane Signet
are both really good pieces of mana ramp in a color combination that doesn’t have a ton!
Enchantments:
We have a decent amount of enchantments and a lot of them deal with tokens like Divine Visitation
, Luminarch Ascension
and Anointed Procession which are all great cards to make more and produce some tokens! Smothering Tithe
is a really strong piece of mana ramp for the deck that is just a bomb! Grave Pact
and Dictate of Erebos
are both great payoffs for the Aristocrat gameplan of the deck! Both of these are really great in conjuction with Haunted Library
which can be a strong way to get some tokens and continue the Aristocrat gameplan!
Land Base:
We have a pretty standard EDH landbase, we are a little more tuned than a casual deck but are not more tuned then something like a CEDH deck! We have pretty much every decent dual land in Orzhov colors like Godless Shrine
and Vault of Champions
. Marsh Flats
is a really strong on-color fetch that is a great option to grab many different lands! Castle Ardenvale
and Castle Locthwain
are both great lands with extra abilities like drawing cards and producing tokens!
Strengths of the Deck:
- A bunch of noncombat damage dealers through death triggers
- Decent amount of removal
- Combat is made easier by tokens and we are strong against aggressive strategies
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- Weak to creature hate
- Deck is weaker without Teysa out
- Very weak to key creatures / pieces being exiled
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Main Win Conditions:
Being able to double death triggers works really well since we have a ton of combos that give us infintie death triggers! While all of these combos may not win the game on their own we have so many death triggers and damage outlets we can trigger and help us end the game! We can always win through good old-fashioned combat but we also have combos that can be strong game-enders as well! A lot of our combos involve the same cards so we can easily transition into them! Below are all of the combos in the deck explained:
Teysa Karlov + Pitiless Plunderer
+ Reassembling Skeleton
+ Altar of Dementia
Requires:
All permanents on the battlefield.
Steps:
- Activate Altar of Dementia by sacrificing Reassembling Skeleton.
- Pitiless Plunderer triggers twice, creating two Treasure tokens.
- Resolve the Altar of Dementia ability, causing target player to mill two cards.
- Activate the Treasure tokens by tapping and sacrificing them, adding 1B.
- Activate Reassembling Skeleton by paying 1B, returning it from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped.
- Repeat.
Results:
Infinite ETB. Infinite LTB. Infinite death triggers. Infinite sacrifice triggers. Infinite mill. Infinite self-mill.
Pawn of Ulamog
+ Pitiless Plunderer + Reassembling Skeleton + Altar of Dementia
Requires:
All permanents on the battlefield.
Steps:
- Activate Altar of Dementia by sacrificing Reassembling Skeleton.
- When Reassembling Skeleton dies, Pitiless Plunderer and Pawn of Ulamog trigger.
- Resolve the Pitiless Plunderer trigger, creating a Treasure artifact token.
- Resolve the Pawn of Ulamog trigger, creating a 0/1 Eldrazi Spawn creature token.
- Resolve the Altar of Dementia ability, causing target player to mill cards equal to Reassembling Skeleton’s power.
- Activate the Treasure by tapping and sacrificing it, adding B.
- Activate the Eldrazi Spawn by sacrificing it, adding C.
- Activate Reassembling Skeleton by paying 1B, returning it to the battlefield from your graveyard.
- Repeat.
Results:
Infinite ETB. Infinite LTB. Infinite death triggers. Infinite sacrifice triggers. Infinite mill. Infinite self-mill.
Ashnod's Altar + Pitiless Plunderer + Reassembling Skeleton
Requires:
All permanents on the battlefield.
Steps:
- Activate Ashnod’s Altar by sacrificing Reassembling Skeleton, adding CC.
- When Reassembling Skeleton dies, Pitiless Plunderer triggers, creating a Treasure artifact token.
- Activate the Treasure by tapping and sacrificing it, adding B.
- Activate Reassembling Skeleton by paying 1B, returning it from your graveyard to the battlefield.
- Repeat.
Results:
Infinite colorless mana. Infinite ETB. Infinite LTB. Infinite death triggers. Infinite sacrifice triggers.
Pawn of Ulamog + Pitiless Plunderer + Reassembling Skeleton + Viscera Seer
Requires:
All permanents on the battlefield.
Steps:
- Activate Viscera Seer by sacrificing Reassembling Skeleton.
- When Reassembling Skeleton dies, Pitiless Plunderer and Pawn of Ulamog trigger.
- Resolve the Pitiless Plunderer trigger, creating a Treasure artifact token.
- Resolve the Pawn of Ulamog trigger, creating a 0/1 Eldrazi Spawn creature token.
- Resolve the Viscera Seer ability, causing you to scry 1.
- Activate the Treasure by tapping and sacrificing it, adding B.
- Activate the Eldrazi Spawn by sacrificing it, adding C.
- Activate Reassembling Skeleton by paying 1B, returning it to the battlefield from your graveyard.
- Repeat.
Results:
Infinite ETB. Infinite LTB. Infinite death triggers. Infinite sacrifice triggers. Infinite scry 1.
Pawn of Ulamog + Phyrexian Altar + Reassembling Skeleton + Zulaport Cutthroat
Requires:
All permanents on the battlefield.
Steps:
- Sacrifice Reassembling Skeleton to Phyrexian Altar, generating B.
- Pawn of Ulamog and Zulaport Cutthroat trigger.
- Pawn of Ulamog creates an Eldrazi Spawn creature token; sacrifice it to float 1 (trigger Zulaport Cutthroat again).
- Resolve both Zulaport Cutthroat triggers and drain opponent for 2.
- Activate Reassembling Skeleton for 1B, returning it to the battlefield from the graveyard.
- Repeat the sacrifice-recursion loop, draining opponent infinitely with Zulaport Cutthroat triggers.
Results:
Infinite ETB. Infinite death triggers. Infinite LTB. Infinite lifegain. Infinite lifeloss. Infinite lifegain triggers.
Pawn of Ulamog + Phyrexian Altar + Reassembling Skeleton + Blood Artist
Requires:
All permanents on the battlefield.
Steps:
- Sacrifice Reassembling Skeleton to Phyrexian Altar, generating B
- Pawn of Ulamog and Blood Artist trigger.
- Pawn of Ulamog creates an Eldrazi Spawn creature token; sacrifice it to float 1 (trigger Blood Artist again).
- Resolve both Blood Artist triggers and drain opponent for 2.
- Activate Reassembling Skeleton for 1B, returning it to the battlefield from the graveyard.
- Repeat the sacrifice-recursion loop, draining opponent infinitely with Blood Artist triggers.
Results:
Infinite ETB. Infinite death triggers. Infinite LTB. Infinite lifegain. Infinite lifeloss. Infinite lifegain triggers.
Pawn of Ulamog + Altar of Dementia + Reassembling Skeleton + Pitiless Plunderer
Requires:
All permanents on the battlefield.
Steps:
- Activate Altar of Dementia by sacrificing Reassembling Skeleton.
- When Reassembling Skeleton dies, Pitiless Plunderer and Pawn of Ulamog trigger.
- Resolve the Pitiless Plunderer trigger, creating a Treasure artifact token.
- Resolve the Pawn of Ulamog trigger, creating a 0/1 Eldrazi Spawn creature token.
- Resolve the Altar of Dementia ability, causing target player to mill cards equal to Reassembling Skeleton’s power.
- Activate the Treasure by tapping and sacrificing it, adding B.
- Activate the Eldrazi Spawn by sacrificing it, adding C.
- Activate Reassembling Skeleton by paying 1B, returning it to the battlefield from your graveyard.
- Repeat.
Results:
Infinite ETB. Infinite LTB. Infinite death triggers. Infinite sacrifice triggers. Infinite mill. Infinite self-mill.
Conclusion:
Teysa Karlov is a really fun Orzhov Commander who is really good at doing Orzhov things, while we are absolutely an aristocrat deck being able to have a token subtheme allows us to trigger our huge damage dealers and control the game from outside of combat! This deck is an absolute blast to play and is a cool take on the aristocrats and token strategies! Thanks for reading to the end and thanks for all of your support!