This is my Teysa, Orzhov Scion combo deck. It was the first Commander deck I built and I've tinkered with it over the years. This is the final product of the past couple of years tinkering and I can finally say that I am happy with this build both price-wise and mechanically. I understand that there are quite a few cards that I could put in such as Ancient Tomb and the like, but due to availability and budget, I've decided against them.
This build, like most builds, revolves around the combo with Teysa and
Darkest Hour
, which with a sac outlet and at least one other creature, can go infinite in many ways. I've constructed the deck in order to have many different enablers that can go infinite. With Teysa, Darkest Hour, and one creature, one of any of these cards or combinations can go infinite:
Blasting Station: Damage
Smothering Abomination and a sac outlet: Card Draw
Skullclamp and Ashnod's Altar: Card Draw
Ashnod's Altar and Mentor of the Meek: Card Draw
Zulaport Cutthroat or Blood Artist and a sac outlet: Drain
Soul Warden or Suture Priest and a sac outlet: Life
Viscera Seer: Scry
Altar of Dementia: Mill
Ashnod's Altar: Colorless Mana
Phyrexian Altar: Colored Mana
Sadistic Hypnotist: Discard
Anointed Procession and a sac outlet: 1/1 Spirits
Cathars' Crusade and a sac outlet: +1/+1 Counters
Razaketh, the Foulblooded: "infinite" tutor (not really infinite, but you should be able to search for any pieces you need with enough life)
In addition to the Darkest Hour combos, there are a few more combos that can go infinite without Darkest Hour. However, they take a bit more set-up to pull off. Nim Deathmantle paired with Ashnod's Altar and at least two creatures can work wonders when one of the creatures has an ETB effect, allowing for infinite ETB triggers. Karmic Guide sacrificed to Ashnod's Altar along with another creature, then returned with Nim Deathmntle, can return any creature in your yard. Some of the best targets are the Titans, who can either give tokens or recur cheap permanents (including lands) or Reveillark, who can recur almost every creature in the yard. Where this can kill is with Zulaport Cutthroat or Blood Artist who will trigger each time something dies. However, the best target in my opinion for recurrence shenanigans with Nim Deathmantle is Sengir Autocrat who brings four tokens along with himself. If you have Ashnod's Altar or Phyrexian Altar, he can be recurred indefinitely with Nim Deathmantle, bringing his tokens with him each time. This of course can win games with Cutthroat or Artist.
Tokens are an important strategy to this deck, so many cards in this deck can produce them. Cards like Grave Titan, Bitterblossom, Hanweir Militia Captain
, and Ophiomancer, are chief among these, providing consistent token production without having to spend resources after hitting the field. However, Pawn of Ulamog, Hidden Stockpile, Twilight Drover, Sengir Autocrat and Lingering Souls can also produce tokens with a bit of investment.
There are a lot of combo pieces in this deck, so many that opponents are bound to remove them. For this reason, recurrence is a must. Luckily, these colors have plenty of it. Nim Deathmantle can recur creatures, but takes set up to do so, and should really only be used to conduct combos. However, Sun Titan, Reanimate, Karmic Guide, Reveillark, Obzedat's Aid, and Liliana, Defiant Necromancer
can fulfill practically any recurrence need depending on the situation. Obzedat's Aid recurs any permanent, Karmic Guide can recur any creature, Reveillark brings back any two 'weak' creatures, Reanimate recurs any creature from any yard, and Liliana can recur almost any creature with enough setup. In my opinion, Sun Titan is the best all around. While his recurrence is locked by CMC, he can recur consistently each turn if not answered, and can bring back noncreature permanents, even lands. This includes important combo pieces like
Darkest Hour
or Blasting Station to name a few. I've opted almost exclusively for battlefield recurrence exclusively, as returning things to your hand is too costly and gives away your plan. However, I do run Skull of Orm exclusively to return Darkest Hour in a pinch, and Buried Ruin, while only returning artifacts to hand, is tacked onto a land, and can bring back the skull if needed.
On the subject of combo pieces, you are more than likely going to draw a few over the course of the game, but you will sometimes find yourself needing at least one more card to go off. With Black this isn't an issue. We have access to the objectively best tutors. Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Razaketh, the Foulblooded, and Beseech the Queen fill this roll perfectly. In White, we have Enlightened Tutor to search up artifact or enchantments. While there are only two Equipments in the deck, they are very strong. Stoneforge Mystic can get them for us, while also being a body to sac later for combos, or recur to search for the other equipment. Lastly, there is Buried Alive. Since we can recur efficiently, this can pop combo pieces into our yard for use later. However, I usually go for the trio of Nether Traitor, Reassembling Skeleton, and Bloodghast. These creatures are easily recurrable, and can enable combos, r be used as sacrifices for useful effects from Grim Haruspex, Skullclamp, and others
Being a combo deck, we need to make sure we can protect ourselves. While we can't do much to stop people from removing our pieces, we can definitely keep their own fields under control while we work for our combos. For spot removal, I've opted mostly for Exile, as EDH is loaded with recurrence. Path to Exile, Swords to Plowshares, and Utter End should deal with most things, but I do run a Vindicate to get rid of lands if needed. However, sometimes its best to clear the board in order to survive. Most of these wipes our meant to be one-sided. Retribution of the Meek and Dusk clear our opponents boards while leaving ours mostly untouched while serving us more later to return things to our hand. Grave Pact, while not a board wipe, can put a huge dent in combat strategies due to how our deck works. However, some of our opponents' creatures can still get under these, so I still run "full" board wipes like Wrath of God. Rounding out the board wipes is Merciless Eviction and Martial Coup. Eviction can get rid of any nonland permanents of the chosen type permanently; but if you select creatures, be sure to sacrifice your creatures for later recurrence before doing so. Martial Coup works well in our deck, destroying all creatures, but leaving us with some tokens to be used in combos later.
For battlefield control not including boardwipes, I run Smokestack, Authority of the Consuls, and Meekstone. Authority stops haste and gains us a bit of life, and when paired together with Meekstone, will ensure that large creatures stay tapped down. Smokestack gets out of hand fast. If we have enough token generation, e can usually keep this on the field for quite a while. And if it gets too out of hand even for us, we can sacrifice it to itself. This cards also works well with Grave Pact. When coupled together, our opponents will run out of creatures fast, and then have to start eating their lands.
All in all, this deck can be pretty consistent and deadly, and is a severe headache to your opponents. I hope you enjoyed this look into my build.
