*Please note that along with the decklist itself, this primer provides every correct art for the cards that I run. These are not necessarily the printings that I own, they are just the most ideal (I don't bother with basics, the arts I run are too hard to find. That being said, run mirage plains C, and the Taiwanese graveyard apac swamps).
*The maybeboard is admittedly large. There are many good options in , and the cards that I list would be great in Teysa.
Teysa is pretty much the only commander that I think I will ever play. She can shift from weenies, to stax, to all out degenerate combos. Imagine what she could do if Painter's Servant or Braids, Cabal Minion were legal. I've spent most of my time in EDH playing her, and this is my most tuned list so far.
Although the deck is only two colors, there are a lot of unique and impactful cards that can be included. As long as you put time into it, you can end up with a highly competitive, yet unique list. I love the idea of really making a commander your own. I was playing a 5 color General Tazri reanimator deck that was fun, but it got too much hate, and it was fairly inconsistent. Teysa is rarely inconsistent, but at least when you lose, you can take solace in the fact that you're not playing the most cookie cutter deck in your pod.
Another large benefit of Teysa is that you can run her at two different speeds: the first being ultra-competitive and degenerate, the second being fun, and possibly less combo oriented. Even my list, which is the most competitive that I could make her without playing banned cards, is usually playing fair magic (UNTIL YOU COMBO OFF). Even when the inevitable happens, people love it! Teysa's combos are wholly unique and fairly difficult to assemble. Just let them know that you worked for it, and that they should've had disruption. This isn't Sanguine Bond and Exquisite Blood!
After playing her against most strategies, I can say that Teysa is pretty resilient. I felt forced to include Crucible of Worlds just because of the possibility of Armageddon. Plus you can Wasteland and Stripmine people out of a game if you feel like it. Also, I run Chromatic Lantern to protect against Blood Moon. Honestly, I think that lantern should be run in every commander deck. Even if I played 40 mountains, I'd still use it.
Although competitive lists can be more expensive, one benefit is that if you already play modern or legacy, you have many of the costliest cards. And if you're not thaaaaaat invested in her, just make proxies. I do all the time for cards I can't get my hands on, and if anyone objectifies, just tell them that COMMANDER IS NOT A REAL FORMAT. Or just say it's casual. Whichever one will garner the least hate I suppose.
I think that a lot of people assume that since you need tokens to combo off (ideally), that the deck needs a ton of token generators. This is super false! There are very few token cards that you actually need to combo, and in my opinion, it is much smarter to devote a large portion of the board to cards that are going to help you combo off (i.e. Academy Rector/tutors), and just straight up control and card advantage elements.
I do think that it is important to acknowledge that Teysa is not tier 1. She just isn't. All of her combos require her to be out. That being said, she's only 3 mana, and depending on how you sequence your spells, and how well your opponents know your list, you can finish off games super early. Not to mention the ease of using a two-color manabase. Cost-wise, it's amazing, considering you only need one dual, fetch, filter, etc. I hardly ever have mana troubles with Teysa. Right now, I think that the land count is perf, but depending of what you want to get out of it, I see no harm in making some changes. She is also orzhov, which means that regardless of whether or not she's tier 1, you still have access to the best two colors in edh. There is pretty much an answer for anything you can think of in and .
People often sleep on Teysa, and just assume that you're running some half-assed token list. Let's prove em' wrong. Half the time, opponents don't even know that I'm in the process of comboing off. Let them ignore her, because depending on the type of board you can assemble, the game can be over pretty quickly.
Some Different Card Choices I Have Made
- Golden Wish: It makes the deck slower, and thus more fun to play against. I didn't remove any other pieces of artifact synergy that I have, just Blasting Station. It is objectively the least fun combo piece that I run. Running wish also means that I can have more combo pieces outside of the game than I would not be willing to run normally, such as Altar of Dementia
- Imp's Mischief: It's a kill spell, and you can fizzle counterspells with it. I recommend checking out the rules text for it.
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=122434
- Meteor Crater: I took out Caves of Koilos for it. After the first few turns, it's just as good if not better, plus I'm not running any cards that require wastes mana.
- City of Traitors: Sometimes I want two mana instead of one. Plus I can get it back with crucible. Didn't want the damage from Ancient Tomb, Temple of the False God is a great replacement.
