Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Teysa's Tokens Update

Last week I talked about a Teysa token based deck. During the week I had a chance to play it, makes some changes.

The deck I am currently running can be found here.

First off the error from last week. I misread Spawning Pit as making black creature tokens instead of colorless ones. This hampers the combo that was the reason for its inclusion. Despite this I still ran it, and found it to be useful for a quick recovery from a Wrath of God. In one game, post-wrath, I had twenty-two counters on it.


So, while it was not as good as I had originally anticipated, I still feel it is good enough to warrant an inclusion in the deck.

I was also using Ashnod's Altar, and Blasting Station as my other sacrifice outlets. I found the Altar to be horribly narrow, and if I had a Spawning Pit or Blasting Station I would always rather sacrifice tokens to them rather than to the Altar.

In the games I played I often found I could get through for decent amounts of damages at most stages of the game, but would have much rather had access to a Blasting Station to force damage through. To account for this I upped the number of Blasting Stations, removing Ashnod's Altar completely, and added some tutors to the deck.

Demonic Tutor was my first choice due to it's insane power. My second choice tutor was Beseech the Queen.


Not only does it have incredible art, it is a very effective tutor in this deck. Our primary tutor targets will be Teysa, Twilight Drover, Blasting Station, or a second Nether Traitor. That means if we can cast Beseech the Queen we can go and get any of them, as they all cost three or less, and we will occasionally get the benefit of it only costing three, which is very important, as the deck has lots of uses for its mana.

For card draw the list was originally running Altar's Reap. I often found that the ability to cast Altar's Reap as an instant was rarely relevant as the deck was mostly spending mana during it's turn. Occasionally it would allow you to hold up Crib Swap mana, and Altar's Reap before your turn, but I did not feel that this was enough to justify running Altar's Reap over Skullclamp.

As far as the big token making spells go, Necromancer's Covenant won over Oona, Queen of the Fae. I found Oona to be too mana intensive, and inconsistent. When you cast a Covenant you are much more likely to gain a large number of tokens, than you are with Oona, as you usually have to wait a turn before doing anything major with Oona, and that turn gives your opponents a chance to answer her, which they will often do as they know exactly what is going down if they don't. Covenant has a bit more of a surprise factor, and it acts as targeted graveyard hate.


You may be surprised to learn that a card that works very well with Necromancer's Covenant is Grave Titan. The token producing titan is a perfect fit, and he knocked out a couple of Belfry Spirits for his spot in the deck. Belfry Spirit was good, but as a five mana 1/1 he does not impact the board enough when he hits. This is a problem unknown to the Grave Titan.

The original list has a severe problem in that its three mana slot was clumped, while nothing existed at four. This was rectified through the inclusion of an Innistrad token maker that fits in nicely with our new zombie sub-theme; Moan of the Unhallowed.

Last week I suggested removal such as Necrotic Sliver or Vindicate be included in the deck, as this allowed us to deal with Planeswalkers, as well as artifacts and enchantments. But, as a friend of mine pointed out, the Blasting Station + Nether Traitor combo can also take out Planeswalkers. As a result I subbed out my Necrotic Silvers for another widely under-used removal piece:



As for the rest of the deck most of the changes were just tinkering with numbers to fit in some of the new cards. Some changes were also made to reflect the introduction of tutors. For example, Bitterblossom was cut to a one of, as the deck never wants to see two, so having one we can tutor for seems much more efficient.

I am also looking to include some number of Elspeth Tirel, as her interaction with Teysa is incredible, but at the moment she is just waiting in the wings.

Until next week don't forget to follow me on twitter (@DelverofSecrets), or send me an e-mail,
-DelverofSecrets

No comments:

Post a Comment