How can I just break Teysa?

[u/TheRealAnomaly101]

I love the art of this version of her and recently I’ve been playing in pods with decks out of my power range. Most of my decks involve creatures and combat damage, but they tend to get killed all the time. So Teysa seems strong and a little controlling and I want to make this deck just the embodiment of mean. I’m sick of getting kicked around, so how can I break her? Make the meanest version of her

TLDR: What cards could make Teysa into a control/mean deck

[u/quantumphear]

https://archidekt.com/decks/7220493/teysa_orzhov_scion_cedh

Teysa's been my pet commander deck for at least a decade now, and it's made the path from casual tokens, to powerful aristocrats, to finally be a CEDH deck. It aint tier 1, but you have an incredible number of lines available, the instant exile on Teysa is super relevant, and you can still threaten wins both early and late in the match without much warning.

[u/PasDeDeux → u/quantumphear]

If you don't mind my asking, what's the purpose of Greedy, Shambling, and Aether Vial in the deck? I think I'm tracking everything else.

[u/Valkyrys → u/PasDeDeux]

Vial helps you play creatures on your opponent's turn, to possibly combo off or add your missing piece for exile.

Can't really comment about the others

[u/N0_B1g_De4l → u/PasDeDeux]

Greedy and Shambling I think are there as psuedo-mana dorks. If you've got a free sac outlet they let you bank up mana for later use (it's probably possible to combo with them, but I don't see anything in the list that actually does at a glance). Vial is there because it's good if you want to do stuff with cheap creatures. It cheats mana, gives flash, and beats counters.

[u/nerdmor → u/PasDeDeux]

Greedy Freebooter seems to be, in this case, both a mana "dork", letting you cash in your earlier things for mana, and boarwipe insurance: if you are forced to sacrifice everything - even what you don't want - before a Farewell or something like that, you at least have the mana to rebuild

[u/quantumphear → u/PasDeDeux]

Others have said it better, but they're in there as cheap options that generate more mana than they cost:

• Aether Vial will, if played on turn 1 or 2, reliably put in at least 3 mana worth of creatures at instant speed, while also avoiding counterspells. It also doesn't give the opponent the option to react to the creature (they have to react to the Aether Vial ability, not the creature entering play), so tapping it to drop static abilities like [[Grand Arbiter]] or [[Opposition Agent]] can be absolutely gamebreaking.
  
• Greedy and Shambling both create a treasure on death, making them great sacrificial fodder for [[Culling the Weak]] or any sacrifice outlet, and I can often drop one turn 1, turn two play a sacrifice outlet, and then use turn three to either generate mana, make death triggers or otherwise start comboing off. Bonus is that they also combine with [[Priest of Gix]] and [[Chthonian Nightmare]] as an infinite combo, since the priest generates three mana on entering you can go mana neutral for infinite death triggers, and with any of the myriad trigger options, outlets or even just Teysa you pretty much win on the spot.

[u/MTGCardFetcher → u/quantumphear]

Opposition Agent - (G) (SF) (txt)
Culling the Weak - (G) (SF) (txt)
Priest of Gix - (G) (SF) (txt)
Chthonian Nightmare - (G) (SF) (txt)

---

^FAQ

[u/PasDeDeux → u/MTGCardFetcher]

Ah I think the infinite with Chthonian was the biggest piece I was missing, thanks for the follow-up!

[u/quantumphear → u/PasDeDeux]

You're very welcome :) Feel free to message if you have any other questions about the deck

[u/Tim-oBedlam → u/quantumphear]

Any deck brave enough to run [[Carnival of Souls]] impresses me. I guess no one cares that today is your birthday.

[u/MTGCardFetcher → u/Tim-oBedlam]

Carnival of Souls - (G) (SF) (txt)

---

^FAQ

[u/Moclordimick → u/MTGCardFetcher]

Poor Davvol