kirbysan Vraan is a complete tragedy and it pains me to even think about.

At this point I'd probably agree that Dark Prophecy is better than Weatherlight Compleated. I'm definitely gonna replace it, but I'm not sure if prophecy is going back in. Triple black is super tough and a Village Rites type card might be better. I also like jelwell's Imperial Seal suggestion. I've also been realized recently how strong Solitude would be in our list. It's another copy of Swords to Plowshares and while it does 2-for-1 us, it makes up for it by costing 0 mana, giving us a death trigger, and being a reanimation target.

jelwell I wouldn't say Body Launderer is a very good recursion card. It's nice that it's on a creature, but it's not consistent since we need a sac outlet. Conniving is nice for better card quality, but we don't many good ways to take advantage of the discard. This essentially just makes him a 4 mana reanimate that can potentially double reanimate with Teysa out. At that point, Victimize would probably be better if you really need a double reanimate at 1 less mana and not needing a separate sac outlet but only a fodder piece. Launderer also conflicts with Teysa in the 4 drop slot. I prefer Reanimate or Animate Dead over victimize since while they don't reanimate two creatures, they cost much less mana, don't require a sacrifice, and can target opposing graveyards. This gives them utility in the early and late game to cheaply bring back a fodder piece or reanimate an opposing Avenger of Zendikar.

Storm of Souls is good. I've tried it and Command the Dreadhorde out a lot and they both test well, but I didn't find a spot for either in the current build. I've been using Living Death as our sole mass recursion piece, but I've been missing a separate piece for redundancy that doesn't also come with a board wipe, so I might bring one of them back. I think its fair to run either since they both have their strengths and weaknesses.

Chittering Skitterling and Scheming Aspirant would’ve been perfect if not for the focus on the new toxic mechanic. There may be a new phyrexian aristocrat commander coming out soon that could take advantage of these cards.

Masterful what about vat of rebirth ? https://www.magicspoiler.com/mtg-spoiler/vat-of-rebirth/

With Teysa we will stack the counter on it easily. My main concern is the necessity to tap it for it's ability.

Vat of Rebirth is a great budget card but rather slow in this particular deck. 4 Art/Cr have to go the the yard before you can activate it on sorcery-speed… is not what you can wait for in this deck. Idf activation would work with instant speed and the trigger would be on each player… that would be really nice!

With Teysa you only need 2 creatures to go to your graveyard instead of 4 to get your creature back, we have lot of creatures that will create 2 token on death, that mean that each turn you can get 3 death trigger. I mean it's not as good as Luminous Broodmoth but it's less vulnerable.

kirbysan Yeah it's unfortunate we aren't getting many aristocrats this set.

Eloniel Vat of Rebirth is slow. If you're in a snowballing game, you might only get one activation. But if the game is super grindy and gets boardwiped many times, that's where this really shines. I would sooner run Animate Dead since it's more proactive and still strong after a boardwipe, but this isn't bad. Like Housegheist said, this is a strong budget option. I could also see playing it in a super slow meta.

Masterful Crawling Chorus is a good fodder piece that's just been spoiled. What do you think? Might be good to add it in.

Foster_I_Am I vote it replaces Sultai Emissary. It's 1 less and doesn't remove from the top of deck and both creatures are 1/1's so die easily to Skullclamp

Foster_I_Amkirbysan Crawling Chorus is definitely a great new addition, even though it's a bit boring. Currently, I'm torn on replacing either sultai emissary, carrier thrall, or ministrant. Here's a breakdown of my thoughts:

Sultai Emissary

• A manifest is not a token, so it triggers all our non-token death triggers, including Grim Haruspex, Midnight Reaper, Pawn of Ulamog, and Luminous Broodmoth. Not that it comes up super often, but manifests have a particularly interesting interaction with broodmoth. If any manifested permanent dies, like a land, it will come back with a flying counter.
• We can flip over the permanent if it's a creature, meaning manifested creatures are not only fodder but card draw. Because we have 35 creatures, Emissary will effectively draw us a card one third of the time.
• The downside is that he's 2 mana for a fodder creature, and the manifest doesn't die to Skullclamp.

Carrier Thrall

• Tokens can sac themselves and provide mana. He effectively pays for himself with Teysa out.
• Both sides die to Skullclamp.
• Unfortunately 2 mana to play.

Ministrant of Obligation

• With Teysa out, has 5 bodies for one instead of 3.
• 3 mana is even more unfortunate than 2.

Currently, I'm considering ministrant more heavily because of how inflexible 3 mana is. I was already thinking of replacing him for Hallowed Spiritkeeper because of more potential upside, so this might be the right time to replace.

Masterful Thanks for that insight! Yeah I thought Sultai Emissary was not that great and my buddies all said "mehh" lol. But now that you explained it that way - ?It might be worth adding in to test. Still not to sure how I feel about manifesting a land. The interaction with Broodmoth seems a bit niche as well. Just doesn't seem all that "consistent"

Of those I do think Ministrant or Sultai might be the cut (leaning towards Sultai). I cut Hallowed Spiritkeeper as well but looking back - It was always a solid card for me, won me a few games haha.

Keep the updates and thoughts coming!

Foster_I_Am The broodmoth interaction isn't a consistent reason to run emissary, I meant it as more of a fun fact haha. Hallowed Spiritkeeper is good because its ceiling is high, but compared to other fodder pieces, its floor is low. In comparison, Sultai Emissary has a medium floor and ceiling. Crawling Chorus will definitely have a place instead of Ministrant of Obligation, but I'm still considering replacing emissary with spiritkeeper.

It has to be noted, that the ministrant tokens can chump-block flying creatures!

Hey Masterful, not sure if this is for a reason but you're only sitting at 99 cards in your deck.

Pharac Thanks for the heads up, looks like I forgot to put Chrome Mox in the main list. Should be fixed now.

Housegheist They do indeed!

Have you considered Clever Concealment from the Phyrexia Commander set? Unlike Teferi's Protection, it doesn't prevent your life total from changing, but the Convoke means it should be free quite a lot of the time.

Calum13395 Clever Concealment is good in aggressive creature based decks since they lose if they get their board wiped. We're pretty resilient to wipes, and even if its an exile wipe, we can sac our board in response. It's not bad, but it's niche. Teferi's Protection costs more mana but saves us and gives us another turn. Concealment saves creatures but not our life.

Hi Masterful love the guide! What are your thoughts on Tombstone Stairwell? Just having 2-3 minions in the grave represents 8-12 death triggers per turn cycle. Playing this in the mid to late game might just win us the game with a Blood Artist effect on board.

Any battles you have your eye on Masterful ?

Looking at all the cards from the new set, I’m not seeing anything jumping out at us. Corrupted Conviction seems good, but we cut a lot of those cards just recently. One mana for a sac and 2 cards sounds good though. Especially at instant speed. I don’t see any battles that work for us. I want to find a spot for Elesh Norn  ^Flip because I love her but she definitely isn’t as optimal as other cards.

Additionally, loving all the new variants for our girl. I did get my hands on a serialized version. 071/500 over here. Anyone get there hands on a number??

Starpact Sorry for the late reply! Tombstone Stairwell can be a very powerful card, but it's also super risky. While usually the aristocrat deck has the most to gain out of that much fodder, helping 3+ opponents at the same time is a huge drawback. If any of our opponents are playing some sort of token or aristocrat deck, which is very common, stairwell will help them just as much if not more. Lifeline is quite similar and a card I used to play. I tend to go the safer route of playing small fodder creatures that make tokens when they die, but you can play with these huge impact cards if you want.

jelwell We don't have enough direct damage or big attackers to flip battles consistently. The current battles are also not good in aristocrats. Invasion of New Capenna  ^Flip is the closest to being playable, but it's sorcery speed, requires a sac, only hits creatures and artifacts, and the flipside is useless for us.

Halestor19 We barely don't have enough room for Village Rites and the like. They're a great budget replacement for tutors though. Elesh Norn  ^Flip doesn't bring anything for our strategy on her front side, and her backside is too expensive to justify in my opinion, but you can definitely play her if she's your pet card.

I do think Elesh Norn  ^Flip would provide protection on her front, because each of our creature blocking an enemies attack would trigger to drain to. As you described, you focus a little more on Teysas 2nd ability… with Norm, our opponent has to decide to take the attack or block or creatures which equals in life loss, too. She also has a sac-effect and her backside does everything this deck wan’t to do… i wouldn’t push her aside that quick ;o)

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Housegheist New Elesh Norn  ^Flip is a pillow fort card on the front, which while useful in a vacuum, doesn't synergize with any of our cards or strategy. I'm not sure if I'm missing something, but what does Norn's frontside have to do with Teysa's second ability? Her sac outlet is a nice addition, but 3 mana and having to sac at least 3 creatures is a tough restriction when we have access to much better sac outlets. For 4 mana, our cards like Luminous Broodmoth, Pitiless Plunderer, or Battle Angels of Tyr can end games if left unchecked. Norn is much slower and needs additional investment to start providing value. She's not bad, but I think we have better options.

Masterful

Her frontside favours Teysas 2nd ability by the choice our Opponents have to make. Either take the dmg or chump block our small creatures and take 2 anyway. Since our token creatures have vigilance we can use them for blocks, too, which would trigger Elesh Norn  ^Flips frontside too.

I admit that she seems like pillow-fort-ish card at first glance, but with vigilance in particular she favours your new approach to fokus a little bit more on the Vigilance/Lifelink ability of Teysa. So, yes. The frontside is more protective, but could and will drain opponents constantly. Either with attacks or blocks…

And the backside is a repeatable sweeper with build in creatures which are protected of said sweeper (double strike and the buff is a nice addition, too). Not bad either.

She works different than any of your suggested cards but i already noticed, we often have different approaches or evaluation of cards. Could be due to the powerlevel of our Pods. :o)

So, from this set, I'm only seeing Mirkwood Bats as a good card to add. Nothing else is striking me. Thoughts??

Also, I kind of miss Bolas's Citadel. Think I might put it back in.