Teeg Says 'No!' *PRIMER*

Commander / EDH GW (Selesnya)

NV_1980

Creature (42)

• 1x Alms Collector
• 1x Angel of Jubilation
• 1x Archivist of Oghma
• 1x Archon of Valor's Reach
• 1x Augur of Autumn
• 1x Aven Mindcensor
• 1x Beast Whisperer
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Collector Ouphe
• 1x Craterhoof Behemoth
• 1x Drannith Magistrate
• 1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
• 1x Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines
• 1x Esper Sentinel
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Fauna Shaman
• 1x Giver of Runes
• 1x Grand Abolisher
• 1x Guardian of Faith
• 1x Linvala, Keeper of Silence
• 1x Lotus Cobra
• 1x Luminous Broodmoth
• 1x Mangara, the Diplomat
• 1x Mother of Runes
• 1x Myrel, Shield of Argive
• 1x Qasali Pridemage
• 1x Recruiter of the Guard
• 1x Rhys the Redeemed
• 1x Runic Armasaur
• 1x Sanctum Prelate
• 1x Saryth, the Viper's Fang
• 1x Scavenging Ooze
• 1x Seedborn Muse
• 1x Selfless Spirit
• 1x Shalai, Voice of Plenty
• 1x Sigarda, Host of Herons
• 1x Sun Titan
• 1x Tajuru Preserver
• 1x Vigor
• 1x Weathered Wayfarer
• 1x Yasharn, Implacable Earth
• 1x Yisan, the Wanderer Bard

Land (36)

• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Bountiful Promenade
• 1x Brushland
• 1x Canopy Vista
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 6x Forest
• 1x Fortified Village
• 1x Gavony Township
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Minas Tirith
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 7x Plains
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Sunpetal Grove
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Temple of Plenty
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Bastion
• 1x Wooded Foothills
• 1x Yavimaya Hollow

Instant (4)

• 1x Heroic Intervention
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Teferi's Protection

Commander (1)

Enchantment (15)

• 1x Aura Shards
• 1x Aura of Silence
• 1x Authority of the Consuls
• 1x Deafening Silence
• 1x Exploration
• 1x Land Tax
• 1x Mirri's Guile
• 1x Monologue Tax
• 1x Privileged Position
• 1x Smothering Tithe
• 1x Smuggler's Share
• 1x Sterling Grove
• 1x Stony Silence
• 1x Sylvan Library
• 1x Wheel of Sun and Moon

Artifact (2)

• 1x Null Rod
• 1x Sol Ring

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Welcome to Teeg Says ‘No!’ {G}{W}!

Hi there! Welcome to the primer of my Selesnya, hate-bears deck; commanded by Gaddock Teeg. Beware of politicians, because like magicians they use words to transform reality into something that’s worth pursuing to their constituents, and worth dreading by their opposition. Teeg protects his people, by denying what you want to cast or use. He uses the laws of magic AND logic to deter you from your path and he has many, powerful followers that gladly spend their time (and lives) realizing his ends. Your creatures’ attacking/defensive capabilities: negated. Their triggered/activated abilities: useless. Your spells: powerless. Get ready for grand stretches of doldrums that will last long (unless you find the means to counteract them), punctuated by short moments of sheer terror. This deck is meant to be played casually. It’s not meant to be used in a competitive fashion, but of course I welcome anyone to try! Feel free to comment on anything you (dis)like throughout this primer; I hope you will enjoy it!

Why Gaddock?

He’s more or less the quintessential hate-bears commander. For a CMC of just 2 (for his first casting), I get a 2/2 commander that prevents anyone from casting CMC4+ non-creature spells, including those pesky X-spells that so many players use as infinite-mana dumps. Of course this puts a giant targeting cross on my forehead, but that’s ok as Teeg’s Selesnya friends are useful and he’s just the beginning of all that inhibits!

Strengths and Weaknesses

I use the following parameters to determine the strength of the deck. For each, I allocate a score of 5 (very good), 4 (good), 3 (mediocre), 2 (bad) or 1 (very bad); when totalized this score represents the power rating of the deck.

• Mana: indicates the availability of mana sources within the deck.
• Ramp: indicates the speed at which mana sources within the deck can be made available.
• Card Advantage: indicates availability of filter- and draw resources represented within the deck.
• Overall speed: indicates the deck’s potential for pace, based on resource availability and mana curve.
• Combo: indicates the measure of combo-orientation of the deck.
• Army: indicates the deck’s creature-army strength.
• Commander: indicates how much the deck is commander-oriented/dependent (less dependency is better).
• Resilience: indicates the measure in which the deck can prevent and take punches.
• Spellpower: indicates the availability and strength of high-impact spells.

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Mana: 2

Truthfully, this might be one of the worst decks I have when it comes to providing additional mana next to its land-base. There is some of course. Two mana dorks, three treasure generating-enchantments and a single mana rock provides a bit of extra mana-generating capacity.

Ramp: 3

Of course I can find some additional lands! From various different sources actually, including four creatures and two enchantments.

Card Advantage: 5

Hate-bears becomes especially effective once one can combine a number of different restriction cards simultaneously in truly devastating combinations. So a lot of additional card-finding mechanisms have been added to make sure this happens regularly. Amongst the opportunities are included seven (conditional)-draw options, three tutors (of which one is repeatable), one scry card and one top-deck resource (for lands and creatures).

Overall speed: 4

Though this deck doesn’t contain that many mana resources, its speed can still be quite high due to its ramping resources, card-advantage and the low average CMC the deck has (with 45 of its cards sitting at <= CMC 3).

Combo: 1

Nope, none of those in here.

Army: 5

Plenty of combat-power in this deck, ready to be unleashed on the opposition! None of the creatures are particularly strong and the vast majority of them just form a piece of the hate-bear puzzle. The deck also includes some token-soldier generation as well as decent combat boosters for the entire army.

Commander: 5

Gaddock Teeg’s power is pretty spectacular and his presence makes life very hard on some types of deck. However, he’s definitely expendable and can also be replaced with cards that are slightly less powerful but share similar characteristics.

Interaction: 5

Preventing others from doing what they want is this deck’s forte. Inhibition is the name of the game, for the most part; especially when it comes to opposing spell-casting. No fewer than ten opportunities to inhibit non-creature spell and counter spell casting, five spells to destroy permanents and six other inhibitors of various types.

Resilience: 5

Adding great resilience to a deck that has some massive inhibition options insures that it becomes very hard to truly harm its controller. This deck offers a few protection options (two cards), some hexproof (three cards), a few indestructibility options (four cards) and some excellent recursion (four cards). On top of that, I have two ways to save all my permanents from wipes.

Spellpower: 4

Most of this deck’s high-powered spells reside in the enchantment section (ten cards) but there’s also a few excellent instant protection spells in here.

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Total power score: 39

The reason for this deck’s relative high power-score is multifold. First off, it’s easy to get off the ground due to its nice balance of resources and low average CMC. Second, it impacts every opponent participating in a negative way; some more than others depending on the inhibition I can play and the opposing decks I’m facing. Especially the casting-inhibitions can be brutal on most decks. Third, it’s resilient and its permanents are very hard to get rid of.

General strategy

The general idea is to stack up on inhibition resources (usually in the form of creatures) the combinations of which strengthen one another, and eventually have enough force to overwhelm the opposition through combat. There’s a few game-finishers in here that help the latter bit along. Some general notes on the deck’s use:

1. It requires a conservative style of play. Survival of the deck’s wielder (and his/her permanents) should take precedence over trying to do massive amounts of damage (unless the latter can close out a game in one’s favor of course).
2. Attack whenever it’s possible to do so without losing (many) forces. There’s no rush to close out games and the more I can stack inhibition upon inhibition, the harder it will be for opponents to really hurt me anyway. Might as well take my time and finish it with an all-out attack once the means become available for one.
3. Keep going with the casting of inhibition-spells and stack those effects; hate-bears always puts a target on one’s forehead, so one’s all in or one’s out.
4. Teeg’s casting-inhibition is very powerful and should be in-game as much as possible. Try to keep him alive (do not attack or block with him), though not necessarily at all cost as he’s cheap to recast.
5. Destruction-resources need to be used sparingly; the deck doesn’t have many. I’ve included the ones in here to get rid of opposing artifacts/enchantments that specifically somehow destroy or inhibit my creatures and/or artifacts and enchantments. I’ll leave creature destruction purely up to combat.

Starting hand

At least three cards in the starting hand ought to be lands (or two lands and a cheap-to-cast dork/ramp/rock like Birds of Paradise, Exploration, Lotus Cobra or Sol Ring. This is a must; I’m not going to start a game without this hand (even if I have to mulligan down to three cards). The ideal hand would also contain some additional ramp and/or low-cost draw options.

Early game

You’re not going to be needing oodles of mana to make a major difference with this deck. Start out with a bit of resourcing (focusing more on additional draw than mana sources) and then switch primary casting to inhibition (and resourcing secondary). Aside from the cards mentioned in the previous section, some excellent early draw resources include stuff like Augur of Autumn, Esper Sentinel, Mirri's Guile and Sylvan Library while Land Tax and Weathered Wayfarer can fulfill some additional mana needs.

Once some basic resources are standing, I’ll focus on slowing the opposition down by introducing some early inhibition OR by focusing on cards that allow me to benefit from certain opposing actions. Cards belonging to the prior category would be Aura of Silence, Authority of the Consuls, Collector Ouphe, Deafening Silence, Drannith Magistrate, Grand Abolisher, Null Rod, Sanctum Prelate and Stony Silence, while cards from the latter category would include Archivist of Oghma, Aven Mindcensor, Runic Armasaur, Smothering Tithe and Smuggler's Share.

Mid-game

By now chagrin has set in on what I’m preventing and players will be looking to remove my stuff from the field so that their plans can proceed unimpeded. Hexproof and protection is required to keep my stuff firmly situated on the battlefield. Resources to ensure that are numerous in this deck. They include Giver of Runes, Mother of Runes, Privileged Position, Shalai, Voice of Plenty, Sterling Grove and Tajuru Preserver. There’s also some one-shot deals included to keep my forces where they are, like Guardian of Faith, Heroic Intervention, Selfless Spirit and Teferi's Protection. In case something of mine actually dies/is destroyed, there’s plenty of means available to return that to the battlefield. Some examples: Eternal Witness, Luminous Broodmoth, Sun Titan and Wheel of Sun and Moon.

With the utilities setup to keep my continued presence a (near) certainty on the battlefield, it’s time to hammer down some more on the inhibitions I can setup for my dear opponents. Slightly more expensive to cast resources like Angel of Jubilation, Archon of Valor's Reach, Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines, Linvala, Keeper of Silence, Myrel, Shield of Argive, Sigarda, Host of Herons and Yasharn, Implacable Earth.

End-game

It’s fun to keep stacking inhibition upon inhibition onto my opponents’ shoulders, but there comes a time when they’re practically begging me to end it and put them out of their misery. Quite a few game-finishing creatures have been added to turn such ambitions into reality. I’m talking Craterhoof Behemoth, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, Saryth, the Viper's Fang and Vigor.

Combos/synergies

There’s some fun to be had when combining Seedborn Muse with the following cards in this deck:

• Gavony Township/Shalai, Voice of Plenty: I can use some mana to give every creature of mine +1/+1, and then do it again during someone else’s turn.
• Rhys the Redeemed: generating tokens becomes a lot more fun when one can do it multiple times per turn-cycle.
• Saryth, the Viper's Fang: a fun one; allows me to benefit from her granting deathtouch to all my stuff during my attacks, and then hexproof during all turns on which I’m just defending.
• Yisan, the Wanderer Bard: tutor for a potentially more powerful new creature every turn instead of just during my own turn; makes my board-state much more problematic for the opposition much faster.

Card Choices

Lands

My reliable sources of mana, and some utility:

• Arid Mesa/ Flooded Strand/Marsh Flats/Misty Rainforest/ Verdant Catacombs/Windswept Heath/Wooded Foothills: the lands I use to filter through my deck, which enables me to find the cards that matter to my strategy quicker.
• Command Tower/Exotic Orchard/Mana Confluence/Reflecting Pool: great all-color mana lands that have very few disadvantages in their use.
• Bountiful Promenade/Brushland/Canopy Vista/Fortified Village/Sunpetal Grove/Temple Garden/Temple of Plenty/Wooded Bastion: lands that provide Selesnya mana, that depending in circumstances enter the battlefield tapped or untapped. I’ve tried to incorporate the best MTG has to offer on this front, except for the original dual lands which are outside my (and most players’) price-range.
• Gavony Township: an excellent mana sink if I’m not using it for anything else, deadly when combined with Seedborn Muse.
• Minas Tirith: a draw resource of which the requirements are easy to obtain.
• Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx: very useful mana battery in a permanent-rich deck; especially when said permanents are hard to get rid of.
• Yavimaya Hollow: a great tool to keep my valuable creatures alive and kicking.

Mana and ramp

The cards I use to accelerate mana-availability:

• Augur of Autumn: allows me to top-deck lands, which is just beautiful and later creatures which is even better.
• Birds of Paradise: just a decent dork.
• Exploration: because playing more lands than one a turn creates more available resources faster.
• Land Tax: cheapest form of ramp to cast, and yet so powerful because it can be repeated whenever I’m somehow behind in land count.
• Lotus Cobra: putting lands on the battlefield now yields an energy potential without tapping said lands.
• Monologue Tax: there will be no free oratories in my city!
• Smothering Tithe: an easily triggered treasure-generator
• Sol Ring: are there EDH decks without this card?
• Weathered Wayfarer: as long as I’m behind on lands with someone, I can use this to grab one.

Card Advantage

The mechanisms that provide me with card advantage:

• Alms Collector: so many decks feature spells enabling mass draw; this guy disables that feature and allows me to benefit while doing so.
• Archivist of Oghma: searching your libby now has a price.
• Beast Whisperer: would be insane not to include this with so many critters in the deck.
• Esper Sentinel: unless you pay tax over your non-creature spells, I draw.
• Fauna Shaman: ideal to tutor for some combo pieces, should I need them.
• Mangara, the Diplomat: Mangara’s silky tongue might not always be enough to keep others from attacking (or casting twice a turn), but he’s enough to make them think twice.
• Mirri's Guile: helps me to determine what I draw.
• Recruiter of the Guard: useful tutor that allows me to find the majority of my creatures.
• Runic Armasaur: of course you can use that ability! Of course! Go ahead (make my day)!
• Smuggler's Share: you’re not going to get a major advantage over me without me benefiting.
• Sylvan Library: gives me such power as an additional card (that can be key to victory) is just a few life-points away.
• Yisan, the Wanderer Bard: play me a tune! The one with CMC1! Or CMC2 … maybe CMC3?

Inhibition

My mission is to stop you from doing stuff, and these cards will enable me to do that.

• Angel of Jubilation: temple-of-doom-sacrifices are a thing of the past.
• Archon of Valor's Reach: great combatant with an even better, toolbox-inhibition property.
• Aura of Silence: let’s add some tax to your most powerful, permanent spells.
• Authority of the Consuls: when your stuff enters the battlefield, it must bow (it’s polite).
• Aven Mindcensor: search all of your cards? Nah … a slight sub-selection will do.
• Collector Ouphe: that’s a nice paper-weight you have there.
• Deafening Silence: you’ve just been put on NCS rations, have fun with that.
• Drannith Magistrate: a GY-strategy? Casting from exile? That’s such a shame…
• Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines: not added for my benefit (almost no ETB-abilities in my deck), but instead added to keep you from benefiting from yours.
• Grand Abolisher: no-one gets to cast outside of their own turns; completely disables blue counter-decks.
• Linvala, Keeper of Silence: so powerful it almost defies belief; many creatures’ value in the game depends entirely on their activated abilities and this wonderful angel shuts them all down.
• Myrel, Shield of Argive: allows for some major disruption on the opposing side during my turns and generates tokens upon attacking to boot; what’s not to love?
• Sanctum Prelate: choosing 2 or 3 when casting this gem disables a hell of a lot of stuff; mostly yours.
• Scavenging Ooze: graveyards can be great places to find food for this guy.
• Stony Silence: you can shake it all you want, it still won’t work!
• Yasharn, Implacable Earth: a boar that drops the heavy end of its tusks on a lot of Golgari, Grixis, Jund and Orzhov decks in that it disables some of their most powerful abilities and combos.

Protection

You were doing what now? These cards allowed me not to notice.

• Eternal Witness: brings back whatever I need.
• Guardian of Faith: whenever a wipe hits, now you see them … now you don’t.
• Giver of Runes/Mother of Runes: are you really saying that you’re trying to destroy, maim or otherwise harm that? But, but … it’s your friend?!
• Heroic Intervention: here comes the pain! Or, maybe not.
• Privileged Position: you get hexproof! You get hexproof, You get hexproof! Everything gets hexproof!
• Selfless Spirit: some undead preserve the life of others; how nice.
• Shalai, Voice of Plenty: can’t protect herself; just everyone else.
• Sigarda, Host of Herons: shuts down a whole bunch of Golgari, Mardu, no-one will force me to get rid of my treasured permanents anymore.
• Sterling Grove: hexproof board-lock when combined with others permanents that grant immunity from hostile spells to everything else.
• Sun Titan: the answer to: what if a resurrection engine could fight?
• Tajuru Preserver: those Eldrazi are cool … too bad annihilator doesn’t work though.
• Teferi's Protection: love the looks of dismay when opponents, thinking they’ve just played a winning set of cards, wind up having everything they’ve just done invalid.
• Vigor: what doesn’t kill them, makes them stronger.
• Wheel of Sun and Moon: infinite recycle of all my stuff.

Utility

A smattering of cool stuff that strengthens my permanents or destroys yours.

• Aura Shards: lots of creatures entering the battlefield on my side, gives me a lot of munition for this wonderful enchantment.
• Craterhoof Behemoth: the ultimate army booster; works extremely well with big forces.
• Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite: completely wrecks opposing weeny-token armies while greatly strengthening my own critters.
• Path to Exile/Swords to Plowshares: cheap exiling that is awesome.
• Qasali Pridemage: with some recurrence, this kitty turns into a nightmare for non-creature permanents.
• Rhys the Redeemed: plenty of uses for Elf tokens, or others for that matter.
• Seedborn Muse: untapping Sisay literally every turn accelerates tutoring a great deal.

Notable exclusions

Some cards that didn’t make the cut but were considered:

• Archon of Emeria: not a bad card, but the fact that she prevents me from casting more than a single creature per turn is a turn-off.
• Rest in Peace/Soulless Jailer: I like having some resurrection options in this deck, and these fly in the face of having such options available.
• Thalia, Heretic Cathar: great creature that slows down the opposition a lot and therefore occasionally replaces Sanctum Prelate (when I know I’ll be facing a creature-heavy meta).

Thank you for reading!

I appreciate the time you took to read my primer. Hopefully it was entertaining and useful to you. If so, feel free to leave a +1 and/or feedback of any kind in the comments below. Thanks again!

Date added	2 weeks
Last updated	1 week
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	13 - 0 Mythic Rares 63 - 0 Rares 9 - 0 Uncommons 2 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.88
Tokens	Copy Clone, Elf Warrior 1/1 GW, Soldier, Treasure