Masterful what about corpse knight. For our token generation damage.

Corpse Knight

V6e6n6om I’d rather play Vindictive Vampire or Falkenrath Noble . Corpse knight’s not a death trigger so Teysa can’t double it, and I don’t have enough token cards to take advantage of it otherwise. I could see it in a list with 20-30 token generators, or something more budget, but right now, it doesn’t do enough.

I've been away for a bit, but I'd like to address the general comments since I've been gone, so here goes.

alika Nether Traitor is definitely good but I prefer Reassembling Skeleton . I haven't needed the redundancy because of all my tutors, and (thankfully) my playgroup doesn't play much grave hate. If you're having trouble with sticking skeleton or accessing him, I'd definitely play traitor as well. As for Bloodghast or Brood of Cockroaches , they wouldn't be bad in a deck like this, I prefer 3 immediate creatures over one per turn, especially when 3 creatures is often all I need to draw into more. I'll add both to the maybeboard though, good suggestions, thanks for liking the deck, and sorry for the late reply!

sub780lime and phsycord, I'll change the wording to: The tokens can then be sac'd with a sac outlet, as it makes more sense. Thanks for correcting this.

Would Skeletal Vampire be useful as a token generator or too expensive?

Due to the amount of life gain these decks can use, I'm surprised no one has mentioned Vizkopa Guildmage . Essentially double the damage of the already doubled aristocrats. I know it would need ramp for consistency but it still seems worth it to me

I love this build! I don't have Recruiter of the Guard but might be getting it soon, which cards do you usually find with it? Thanks!

Tiddlydon Yeah, I'd say Skeletal Vampire is too much mana to replace any of the cards currently in the deck, especially since it's not a death trigger. It wouldn't do poorly though in a budget build, but I'd still personally rather play token generators that work off death triggers like Ogre Slumlord or Requiem Angel .

SwordOfMorning I don't usually kill with token damage, so I wouldn't play Vizkopa Guildmage . I could see running it in more of a token-centric lifegain build. This build doesn't actually gain as much life as you might think which is why I don't play lifegain payoffs.

Sabelaine Recruiter of the Guard isn't super necessary to the success of the deck, he just makes it more consistent. I mainly use him to start a Ranger of Eos death chain, but he can also get Blood Artist and friends which are the main wincons. If you're willing to spend the money he's a great addition.

What about Vilis, Broker of Blood ? Doesn't really care about death triggers but with the amount of life gain this would seem quite a good card.

Jaxters Vilis didn't surprise me at first, but I've been looking into him recently, and it seems like he'd be insanely good. There are 24 cards in the deck currently that cause self-lifeloss, so I'll probably find a spot for him.

Masterful great looking Teysa aristocrat commander deck you put together

Masterful i'm testing your list and it's very solid, THX. I changed just one thing: -IN Hangarback Walker -OUT Hunted Witness

Hangarback Walker it's pretty strong in the mid game and with Black Market and the other ramps you can cast it for high values. The only cons are that you can pick it from gy only with Phyrexian Reclamation , but still, you can tutor for it in the same way as Hunted Witness . Also it's a great top deck!

Apologies for my lack of comment-response; I've been busy with college. Now that finals are done, I'm making a few updates to the list and am excited for what new death-defying underworldly orzhov shenanigans we get out of new Theros.

SirChris39 Glad you liked the deck back in September! Hope you still do haha

Zordy93 Walker is coming in. I don't know why I've taken this long to realize it exists in the way it does. I've tested it recently and the fact that it dies on entry from the graveyard isn't completely irrelevant. It's a free trigger from things like Lifeline or Command the Dreadhorde .

Been lurking for a while now, and have to say this is really a solid Teysa list. What do you think about the new spoiled Nightmare Shepherd ?

Hey, I'm building this deck and wanted to get your take on Lifeline . I'm worried that my opponents might benefit greatly from this card. Should I just use it when I'm sure I can combo off?

esperdeathblade Shepherd is pretty insane, to the point where it's basically another Teysa. Unfortunately, Teysa can't double Shepherd's trigger because of the exile clause, but they still work really well together. It's may be the only Theros Beyond Death card I put in.

ToeJam Lifeline is an inherently risky card, so you should only use it when you know it'll give you more value than your opponents. If you have an established board state with a sac outlet, you can continuously sac your creatures on each opponent's turn for value or use your creatures to repeatedly block your opponents'. If your opponents have a big board that needs to die ASAP, that's when you shouldn't play lifeline. Basically, play it if you're ahead or to lock up the board. If you ever really need to kill something with lifeline on board, all of our single-target removal is exile.

However, if your meta has a lot of creature + graveyard shenanigans, I'd take lifeline out. Even though it helps our deck a lot, if too many opponents are also benefiting from it as much as we are, we're at a deficit.

The question is, what comes out for Nightmare Shepherd? :D

sub780lime I took out Massacre Wurm, Athreos, God of Passage, and Priest of Forgotten Gods for Nightmare Shepherd, Ministrant of Obligation, and Victimize. Aristocrats has so many good cards that every cut really hurts, but honestly, I'd take out any of these three for Shepherd. It's such a good card and basically another copy of Teysa.

Why Victimize in place of Priest of Forgotten Gods?

sub780lime Priest wasn't specifically cut for victimize since I made all the cuts at the same time. I found that wurm, athreos, and priest were under-performing, and I needed shepherd, more fodder, and more recursion. I cut priest because she did nothing particularly well and what she did do, she did too slowly. Because I wanted more consistent recursion, I included victimize to act as a cheap yet powerful way to get value, bring back combos pieces, or establish a board presence when behind.

Makes sense! I am considering this change

Bastion of Remembrance is going to be nice in here :)

These new cards from Ikoria are incredible for Teysa. On top of all, there's Luminous Broodmoth. An auto include here i think, swapping out Nightmare Shepherd maybe.

phsycord Bastion does seem very good. I like how it comes with a body and doesn't die to creature removal. I'm not sure if 3 mana is too much for a blood artist, but I currently want to find a place for it.

esperdeathblade Luminous Broodmoth is insane and definitely better than Nightmare Shepherd, but I'm not sure if I want both or just the moth.

Masterful in my list I don't play Kokusho, so it was an easy upgrade from Vindictive Vampire. In my opinion it's a nice piece because it has to draw single target removal or otherwise you win the game in the long run. This could also be a disadvantage because people spend their removal on you. Really depends on the amount of boardwipes vs enchantment removal in your meta.

Luminous Broodmoth goes infinite either with Solemnity or the Undying or Persist Mechanic, which could be potentially gamebreaking. I am currently debating of including Solemnity because this is usually the win with a sack outlet. I currently run both Nightmare Shepherd and the Moth, but my whole gameplan revolves around finding clamp and drawing a bunch instead of your reanimate subtheme. So I see why think you don't need both. Feel free to check it out here Teysa Karlov's Citadel.

I wanted to ask how you feel about your card draw in your deck. Do you have enough? I am currently playtesting Mentor of the Meek in my list, but I would like to hear your opinion on it.