Continuing from my Sygg, River Cutthroat article, I'm bringing another one of my old decks out of the vault. Teysa, Orzhov Scion was the first Commander I ever built, and I throw the deck back together with revisions every once in a while. This exact deck list is not one that I have played yet, as it is updated to include cards from post-Theros (the last time I built the deck), but I plan to be tossing it together in a week and playing it myself.
What's the Core Strategy?
The deck performs similarly to my Lyzolda, The Blood Witch deck - it's an aggro-based attrition deck relying on sacrificing creatures. The main difference is the deck is more about securing a large board state by flooding the battlefield with tokens, as opposed to Lyzolda's graveyard shenanigans.
Teysa's main use as a general is simply sitting on the battlefield, ready to be used for removal at any moment. But her second ability comes into play more often than one would think. One of my favourite uses of it is Skullclamp on Bloodghast or a token made by Bitterblossom drawing two cards, then using Skullclamp on the Spirit token produced by Teysa. Draw four cards for two mana every turn seems pretty strong, no?
Just Turn Everything Sideways
Besides these few synergies, and a couple of more obvious ones, the deck is mostly just token aggro. I don't like running "anthem" effects, because they tend to be dead draws if I'm trying to draw an out, or a way to win, but there a few cards in the build that pump up my board state to speed up games. Drana, Liberator of Malakir can get out of hand really quickly if not dealt with properly.
The Decklist
That's all for this week, I hope you enjoy another of my favourite Commanders! Been missing this deck so much that I've been paying an arm and a leg to build it again. Next week I'm going to start a short series on Five-Colour Commander decks. Have a great week everyone, and thanks for reading!
