Necronomicon | Teysa Karlov | Primer

Commander / EDH Masterful

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Triple Update: WOE + WHO + LCI —Nov. 9, 2023

Hello all, it's been a while! I haven't had too much time to Magic lately, and the recent sets have been lacking in aristocrat support, but Lost Caverns of Ixalan has piqued my interest. Let's get right into the cards!

IN

• Market Gnome: This guy is awesome and everything you want to see in an aristocrat. He's the cheapest death-trigger-draw in the game and the only one at 1-mana. Not only does he replace himself at the bare minimum, giving us free fodder, but he gets more value with Teysa.
• Omarthis, Ghostfire Initiate: I've slept on this card for a while, and I'm now convinced he's better than Hangarback Walker. Hangarback is a better turn-2 play if we pump it up, but that's slow and isn't viable lategame. Omarthis is a Sultai Emissary at the bare minimum, but he can be upcasted for more mana. While the dream would be to have both Hangarback AND Omarthis on the board at once, I can't justify having too many 2-drop token makers when we already have many efficient 1-drops.

OUT

• Hangarback Walker: As discussed, Omarthis is an upgrade. If my playtesting proves me wrong, I could switch back in the future.
• Crawling Chorus: I decided to cut this for the gnome since it's technically our worst 1-drop fodder piece with its token being unable to block. I am considering cutting Plumb the Forbidden instead if I find more creatures/fodder to feel better as I continue to test.

OMISSIONS

• Stroke of Midnight: This is definitely a great removal spell, but I find holding up 3 mana to be very difficult in a vastly sorcery-speed deck with less-than-ideal ramp.
• Beseech the Mirror: This is a great tutor when effectively used, especially for our powerhouse 4-drops like Luminous Broodmoth, Elenda, the Dusk Rose, or Battle Angels of Tyr. However, the requirement of needing to sacrifice an artifact, enchantment, or token is too inconsistent. While we have access to many tokens in this deck, that's usually after we already pulled the trigger on our boardstate. Ideally, we want our tutors before we start sacrificing, and this card is nigh unusable without paying the bargain.
• Moonshaker Cavalry: While this undoubtedly could end games if we play it on a board with 5+ creatures, 8 mana is unreasonable in a deck with as limited ramp as we have. Most of our ways to make lots of mana already require us to me sacrificing creatures or comboing, neither of which are conducive to the cavalry.
• Lich-Knights' Conquest: Only being able to sac artifacts, enchantments, or tokens is too limiting. Even though we have a decent amount of creature tokens in the deck, most of them are conditional based on our creatures dying. We'd much rather rely on the unconditionality of Living Death.
• Tangled Colony: No one in their right mind would ever block this, especially if we have Teysa out. 3 Damage per attack isn't high enough to justify either.
• Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation  ^Flip: Too expensive and requires further setup to get value. Its death-trigger isn't copiable, but that does make it quite resilient. I wouldn't blame anyone for playing this card in Teysa since it does seem quite fun to land.
• Clavileno, First of the Blessed: This is an interesting card. If he attacks, it becomes a great death-trigger, especially when copied. He can also help out the odd vampire we happen to have, but needing to attack is too costly of an investment and makes him a bad draw lategame.
• Miner's Guidewing & Mintstrosity: Exploring and food aren't good enough value to warrant a deckslot.
• Sanguine Evangelist: This is decent at enabling an aggro strategy with tokens and Teysa's vigilance + lifelink. I'd rather have more value from death triggers or bigger/more tokens though.

Like always, I love to hear any discussion or feedback. Let me know any cards you think I missed or want to discuss, and I'll respond to every comment eventually!