Deathmonicon - Teysa Karlov Aristocrats EDH

Commander / EDH Aristocrats Bracket 4 Combo Sacrifice Tokens WB (Orzhov)

Austin_Smith_of_Cards

Creature (30)

• 1x Athreos, God of Passage
• 1x Bartolome del Presidio
• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Bloodsoaked Champion
• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x Cruel Celebrant
• 1x Doomed Traveler
• 1x Drivnod, Carnage Dominus
• 1x Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim
• 1x Elenda, the Dusk Rose
• 1x Esper Sentinel
• 1x Grim Haruspex
• 1x Hunted Witness
• 1x Karmic Guide
• 1x Kokusho, the Evening Star
• 1x Midnight Reaper
• 1x Ministrant of Obligation
• 1x Pawn of Ulamog
• 1x Pitiless Plunderer
• 1x Priest of Forgotten Gods
• 1x Reassembling Skeleton
• 1x Requiem Angel
• 1x Reveillark
• 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1x Smothering Abomination
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Teysa, Orzhov Scion
• 1x Tithe Taker
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

Sorcery (7)

• 1x Damn
• 1x Demonic TutorGC
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Grim Tutor
• 1x Kaya's Wrath
• 1x Living Death
• 1x Vindicate

Land (34)

• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Brightclimb Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Concealed Courtyard
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Fetid Heath
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x High Market
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Orzhov Basilica
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 4x Plains
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Secluded Steppe
• 1x Shattered Sanctum
• 1x Shineshadow Snarl
• 1x Silent Clearing
• 7x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Field
• 1x Temple of Silence
• 1x Vault of Champions
• 1x Vault of the Archangel
• 1x Westvale Abbey  ^Flip

Instant (9)

• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Corrupted Conviction
• 1x Deadly Rollick
• 1x Despark
• 1x Enlightened TutorGC
• 1x Malakir Rebirth  ^Flip
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Village Rites

Commander (1)

Enchantment (9)

• 1x Anointed Procession
• 1x Bastion of Remembrance
• 1x Bitterblossom
• 1x Dictate of Erebos
• 1x Divine Visitation
• 1x Grave Pact
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Smothering TitheGC
• 1x The Meathook Massacre

Artifact (9)

• 1x Altar of Dementia
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Hierarchy

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Liliana, Dreadhorde General

---

This is a brew of a 75% list for the queen of aristocrats, Teysa Karlov. Token generators, a little lifegain payoffs, and a couple infinite combos seems to be the way to go.

Early playtesting indicates she is extraordinarily powerful; her strengths are in padding your life total while threatening to dominate the board by either going wide or sacrificing enough creatures to Grave Pact effects to ensure no creature will ever hit the board against you again. Of course, there is also the route of continually sacrificing for value and grinding out opponents, which is probably the most dangerous strength of this list.

Right now a lot of brainstorming, any suggestions or interactions are welcome. I do not own all the cards, but once I solidify a list I’ll be trying to snap them up.

Essentials Breakdown

Card Advantage

Card drawing and filtering is essential in a format like EDH where we can only have one of each card, but since this list focuses so much on sacrificing creatures for value, we really need ways to refuel our hand to continue to feed the machine.

Esper Sentinel is a cheap early drop dork that draws us a few cards as mana rocks get built up, and can also be used as sacrifice fodder later.

Grim Haruspex and Midnight Reaper are both similar cards included for both being low on the curve and providing a repeatable source of card draw as our deck naturally does its thing. The life loss isn't so bad since we not only start with a high life total but also get incidental lifegain off our commander.

Priest of Forgotten Gods is getting experimented with as a death trigger enabler that gives us a bit of ramp and card draw.

Reveillark provides powerful recursion, and oftentimes the higher evoke cost won't be necessary since we have access to so many on-demand sacrifice outlets. Great utility in reanimating key combo pieces after a boardwipe, and is also half of the combo with Karmic Guide.

Smothering Abomination latches onto our natural sacrifice plan and helps to refuel our hand. An evasive 4-power creature isn't bad either.

Good old Sadbot is here to fix Orzhov's mana ramp problems as well as replace itself on death, sometimes twice.

Corrupted Conviction and Village Rites are cheap oneshot card draw effects that also synergize with our game plan.

Skullclamp is actually the nuts. "{1}, Sacrifice a creature: Draw four cards" would probably be never printed normally, even as a six or seven drop. And we can play it turn one!

Necropotence is a terrifying Magic card, but this list can make even more ample use of this infamous enchantment with its ability to naturally gain some life back. Oftentimes allows us to instantly draw into the combo pieces we need to win the game.

Liliana, Dreadhorde General is perfect for our list. Generates tokens, forces symmetrical sacrifice, and has a card draw triggered ability we get to double up on.

Mana Ramp

Not only do we want to consistently cast our high-costing spells, but we need to keep up with the mana disadvantage we're at in a multiplayer match.

Priest of Forgotten Gods is getting experimented with as a death trigger enabler that gives us a bit of ramp and card draw.

Sadbot was already mentioned in the card advantage category, but the consistent ramping is worth noting again.

Ashnod's Altar and Phyrexian Altar can be used to accelerate our mana with fodder creatures, but their true strengths is as combo pieces and free sacrifice outlets. More information can (will) be found in the combos section.

Arcane Signet, Mind Stone, Orzhov Signet, Sol Ring, and Talisman of Hierarchy is the current suite of mana rocks to support Orzhov's struggles with ramping options.

Smothering TitheGC has apparently earned its status as a game changer card, so it's funny to look back and see this powerhouse staple of white mana ramp initially included in the list from release as an uncertain playtest.

Targeted Interaction

There's going to be all kinds of crazy, powerful, and problematic permanents thrown our way, and we're going to need ways to reliably deal with them.

We usually have enough fodder lying around that Teysa, Orzhov Scion can be used as creature exile removal in a pinch, although its real strength is in producing fodder on its own that also helps us over the course of the game.

Anguished Unmaking and Vindicate provide a range of flexibility in potential targets to be handled.

Deadly Rollick is hard creature removal that becomes free as long as we have Teysa on the battlefield.

Despark gets rid of anything big and ugly that isn't a land, no questions asked. Since our multiple Grave Pact-ish effects can keep creatures in check, flexibility to deal with artifacts, enchantments, and planeswalkers is key.

Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares are white's all-star, cheap removal spells that permanently deals with an opposing threat.

Damn has flexible utility as a wipe for when we need the panic button, but also can be used as spot removal if we need to be more targeted and preserve our board.

Mass Interaction

For when the game is just getting out of hand, it's good to have a hard reset button available. Since a majority of the time we don't mind our stuff dying, we can use this to our advantage.

Damn has flexible utility as a wipe for when we need the panic button, but also can be used as spot removal if we need to be more targeted and preserve our board.

Kaya's Wrath is a standard creaturewipe that also buffers our life total. Chosen over Wrath of God since regeneration is increasingly rarer as time goes on in favor of indestructibility.

Living Death is a pseudo-boardwipe that this list can make extra use of by sacrificing all our creatures beforehand, floating a ton of mana or such, and immediately getting them all back.

Grave Pact and Dictate of Erebos are both effective creature culling tools, but it also doesn’t take too much board setup to create a lockdown situation where our opponents are unable to play creatures. Sometimes draws out concedes against certain decks.

The Meathook Massacre can be used to wipe out hordes of smaller creatures, although it has extra synergy by sticking around afterwards to get additional value doubled up by our commander.

Bojuka Bog nukes graveyard strategies, can be picked up with Orzhov Basilica to recycle the ability, and pairs nicely with Living Death to create a more one-sided effect.

Tutors

Since our deck does somewhat rely on piecing combo components together to get a win, we need ways to find them.

Sidisi, Undead Vizier lets us sacrifice fodder for a hard tutor, unfortunately doesn’t trigger twice with Teysa.

Enlightened TutorGC can be cashed in for any of our artifacts or enchantments, to get some early ramp, card advantage, a sacrifice outlet or combo piece.

Demonic TutorGC and Grim Tutor are among the strongest tutors in Magic, literally finds us whatever we want on-demand.

Diabolic Intent is identical to Demonic Tutor, with the additional cost of sacrificing a creature. I’d consider it a sidegrade as opposed to strictly worse.

The Pieces & Interactions (In Progress)

All spells and notable lands not mentioned in the essentials Breakdown will be explained here.

Creatures

Carrion Feeder and Viscera Seer are, most importantly, cheap, free sacrifice outlet for our combos. Once we can an infinite loop going, in the case of Feeder, we can make it infinitely large and beat down, or the Seer can put the exact card we need on top of our library.

Doomed Traveler and Hunted Witness are cheap dorks that don't look all that much, but will still go infinite with Ashnod's Altar and Nim Deathmantle.

Blood Artist, Cruel Celebrant, Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim, and Zulaport Cutthroat are our main payoffs once we can get an infinite recursion loop going; the payoff being winning the game. Until then, they're really good at pressuring opponents and padding our life total. Elas also has a bonus serving as an early aggro deterrent thanks to deathtouch.

Reassembling Skeleton and Bloodsoaked Champion are combo pieces that go infinite with a number of other cards, and serve as excellent sacrifice fodder to get early to mid game value.

Kind of a sidegrade to Grand Abolisher, Tithe Taker was chosen for its afterlife trigger while still deterring interaction during our turn.

Athreos, God of Passage is a highly resilient threat that provides recursion for our fodder. Sometimes it also turns into hefty life loss for our opponents if looping a creature ends up being too problematic.

Ministrant of Obligation and Seraph of the Scales are efficient mid-drops that each generate plenty of tokens on death, and both can go infinite relatively easily with Nim Deathmantle and Ashnod's Altar.

Pawn of Ulamog and Pitiless Plunderer are similar to the Altars in that they combo with certain cards to go infinite (even more so with Teysa), but their respective abilities to generate fodder creatures and Lotus Petals on one of our creatures dying is by itself powerful enough to warrant inclusion.

Yahenni, Undying Partisan wins games. It might not look much at first glance, but the haste coupled with the ability to get really big out of nowhere, and utility as a free sacrifice outlet makes it one of the best cards in the list.

Elenda, the Dusk Rose is initially overcosted and squishy, but being played into a full board with lots of fodder grows her very quickly, and when she does die, she creates so. Many. Tokens.

Karmic Guide is one of our more critical higher mana cost cards, as it is half of the combo with Reveillark for infinite recursion, but also can get back any creature we need from the graveyard.

When it comes to bombs, Kokusho, the Evening Star is about as good as it gets for this list. Strong evasive body, and a death trigger that opponents may auto-scoop to if a sac outlet and Teysa are out.

Requiem Angel is one of the cornerstone token generators in this list; unlike most of our other generators, the Angel triggers off of non-Spirits instead of nontokens. Not only does this get extra EXTRA usage from some of our creatures, but with Divine Visitation we create an infinite loop since the Spirits will be created as Angels instead.

Noncreature Spells

Malakir Rebirth   helps pad our land count for when we really need to hit that land drop, but also can be used to extend a sacrifice value play or save our commander from some removal.

Altar of Dementia is a free sacrifice outlet and wincon that can mill out anyone with any infinite recursion loop.

Bitterblossom and Skrelv's Hive are cheap token generators that steadily provide fodder over the course of the game.

Bastion of Remembrance is a Blood Artist variant that doesn’t go away to a creature boardwipe.

Anointed Procession is a powerful tool that doubles our tokens, not just on death triggers. This includes stuff like Treasure tokens, which can really pull us far ahead into the game. This can also outright unlock combos with less pieces required.

Divine Visitation allows us to switch from a sacrifice archetype, and just go full-blown tokens and beat down. Of course, it also has special interactions with Blasting Station and Requiem Angel that enables gross combo potential.

Lands

Barren Moor and Secluded Steppe are a pair of cycling lands for either mana or digging a little deeper.

Phyrexian Tower is a repeatable sacrifice outlet that also provides additional ramp.

Vault of the Archangel is admittedly here because I like the gothic flavoring, but it does provide a threatening defense by giving our board deathtouch.

Westvale Abbey   generates tokens for us to sacrifice, but can also transform into a significant threat if need be.

Degenerate Combos (Eww)

Some combos I either saw from other sources or came up with:

Teysa Karlov + Pitiless Plunderer + Reassembling Skeleton / Bloodsoaked Champion + sac outlet = infinite dies triggers

Teysa Karlov + Pawn of Ulamog + Reassembling Skeleton / Bloodsoaked Champion + Phyrexian Altar = infinite colorless mana & dies triggers

Teysa Karlov + Requiem Angel + Divine Visitation + sac outlet = infinite angels & dies triggers

Date added	6 years
Last updated	6 hours
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 0 Mythic Rares 47 - 0 Rares 19 - 0 Uncommons 15 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.79
Tokens	Angel 4/4 W w/ Vigilance, Eldrazi Spawn 0/1 C, Faerie Rogue 1/1 B, Human Cleric 1/1 BW, Human Soldier 1/1 W, Morph 2/2 C, Soldier 1/1 W w/ Lifelink, Spirit 1/1 W, Spirit 1/1 WB, Treasure, Vampire 1/1 W, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	White Back, Aristocrat, Ideas, Orzhov, Deathmonicon - Teysa Karlov Aristocrats EDH