MTG Salvation

What about Rakshasa Deathdealer?

Quote from minimagicmonster »

What about Rakshasa Deathdealer?

Rakshasa Deathdealer is a great house but I don't think he is a good fit for his deck. He's good in maybe a rock build that relies on the early game. But I like Rakshasa Deathdealer. Its a awesome card. Just not for this deck.

I haven't checked this thread in a while but now I see 6 artifacts in here. When did the author of this thread change?

Quote from Legion564 »

I haven't checked this thread in a while but now I see 6 artifacts in here. When did the author of this thread change?

I did it just for you! Seriously though, aren't you proud?

I haven't seen you on the thread at all lately. How is your list with Teneb? Any thoughts on the new set? I actually haven't seen your list. You should post it and share with the other Teneb players All the best!

Ive taken apart all my decks and plan on putting your list to try out soon. I really like the planeswalker theme as Ive never tried it before. Pretty sure Ive asked you this before but since you have blasting station now would you put in corpse dance? Also I like Viscera Seer a lot too what do you think is a reasonable but for those?

Quote from Legion564 »

Ive taken apart all my decks and plan on putting your list to try out soon. I really like the planeswalker theme as Ive never tried it before. Pretty sure Ive asked you this before but since you have blasting station now would you put in corpse dance? Also I like Viscera Seer a lot too what do you think is a reasonable but for those?

That's awesome! I'm really excited now, please share the list when you build it. I'd be more than happy to help you with anything you need. The planeswalker theme, in my opinion, gives it that extra dimension of power and flexibility that you don't really dive into in Abzan colors.

Corpse Dance is a good card. I personally don't run it because my list is pretty tight as it is, and I do fine with Animate Dead. But I think it is a good card. You should run some more creatures in your list if you do play it. When you put in extra reanimation effects, you'll start building a reanimation deck with Teneb, which is fine. Thats the classic way of building Teneb and it is strong as it is. I think you should run it, but add some more creatures than me if you do so you can make it more relevant during games.

Viscera Seer is a really cheap sac outlet and I think is good at what it does. It is a little dead if you're not comboing, but with a infinite combo you can stack your deck. I personally don't stack my deck just because its not my style. You have to be a super meticulous player and know your deck inside and out. While I do, I would rather just spend the extra mana for a different outlet. That being said, Seer is a viable option and you could absolutely run him in your build.

I hope that helps! Stop by more often with any of your other questions. All the best and good luck!

What combos do you usually pull off when you get your infinite engines going? Do you have a few favorites or do you usually win with walker abilities?

Quote from Legion564 »

What combos do you usually pull off when you get your infinite engines going? Do you have a few favorites or do you usually win with walker abilities?

I want to say I often get Karmic Guide/Lark combo online, but that would be a lie. One or the other usually gets hated out before I can bring both in. Because of that, I may start running Tooth and Nail. The combo I often set up (usually by accident) is Sun Titan and Saffi Eriskdotter. Its the easiest to set up since Saffi can be in the graveyard pretty incognito, and if I can cast Sun Titan then bam, combo assembled. My favorite engine is probably Sadistic Hypnotist with the Titan/Saffi combo. Its very fragile and creature based but making all my opponents discard their hands doesn't make a "oops I win" situation but gives em a really strong advantage. Combos, as far as I've seen in testing, is more of a go to if I am losing. But usually I win through Walker effects and just really good creatures. I so far have been winning with both versions of Elspeth and wraths that just shut down the board. But every game is different with this deck, which is what I really like about it.

Oh I meant like what do you use to do the damage? Is it usually blasting station? Or some other source of damage?

Quote from Legion564 »

Oh I meant like what do you use to do the damage? Is it usually blasting station? Or some other source of damage?

Teneb But seriously, I do use Blasting Station most of the time since it nails opponents directly. I can tutor for it pretty easily with my Demonic Tutor, Liliana, and Enlightened Tutor. Thats the only way I can do direct damage with a sac outlet. Otherwise, I blow up permanents with Acidic Slime or strip answers with Hypnotist, then slowly grind players out. Many of the combos I use are more for control than instant win. Does that answer your question? Thank you for all of your input all the way! I'M looking forward to seeing your deck!

So we have alot to dive into this set. I am going to mainly talk about the walkers and important support cards I feel should be added in. If you want to suggest other cards, shout out down below:

Nahiri, the Lithomancer: I don't think she is a good fit for this deck. Her +2 can give us a body, but do keep in mind the only equipment we run is Lightning Greaves. So thats where her other attributes go to waste. Her -2 is useful, if we had any equipment. Because she is not abuseable with Doubling Season, her final isn't really worth considering. True, a helpful equipment could put Teneb over the top, but its just too narrow of an ability to make work. Besides, one bounce spell can ruin her entire ultimate. Overall, she is a great walker but has no place in this build.

Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath: We have a little more meat to work with here. That being said, he isn't Doubling Season bait. His +2 is a meek ability. His -2, however, maybe worth the inclusion. A 5/5 demon token every turn is pretty useful and has evasion, which means he can steadily produce tokens for a little while. His ultimate isn't game changing, however can give us lots of value out of some of our late game creatures. I'm on the fence about this one. He seems like a strong utility walker, but he doesn't help our game plan at all. You are either going to send him under the bus for his tokens, or try to keep him alive so you can get an emblem that MAY help you. In most cases, he is a can of 5/5 demons.

Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury: A little more goodstuff, Freyalise was built for mono green decks more so. While she can be abused with Doubling Season, its super conditional and is basically a 5 mana draw spell, which if that was the case, I would rather run Regal Force. For normal evaluation, her +2 is good for some ramp and a body to block. Her -2 is... useful? I'm not sure, I am really excited for her in my Selvala build, but not in Teneb.

Besides the planeswalkers, we didn't really get much. This is okay, I am pretty comfortable with where the deck is at this moment. There were some cards I would like to test however:

Comeuppance: This seems like a good fog for our walkers and us for alpha strikes and overall crazy plays. My issue with this is that we can't usually bring it back to our hand for second usage, so it is really a one time fog. I feel like Constant Mists with Life from the Loam would be better. The other issue is that it is a dead draw and will often sit in our hand for those special times when we are about to die. Usually also, players alpha strike with a Plan B (i.e. Counterspells) so this maybe a hopeless card. Regardless, I'll give it a whirl.

Everything else doesn't seem like it will fit. I will report more once I actually play with the cards, but as of right now, no changes to the deck. I would love your input and what cards you have been using from the new set!

I added new cards and took some ones out. Lately, this deck has been very slow with such a high curve. I added more of an Enchantment theme in order to lower to curve and make use of our dependency on those cards. We consequently don't run that many artifacts anymore, which is a bummer, but I am okay with that.

Some notable changes:

The Chain Veil: This card did too little. Now that the deck is more prominent in my meta, its hard getting this card to do good value with my 'Walkers dying all of the time. It is too expensive and clunky.

Humility: This card, however, synergies more naturally with 'Walkers, since while all the threats get smaller, the 'Walkers get larger and just generate me more value.


Let me know what you guys think! This deck is undergoing some changes, and I would love to hear the communities input.

Do you think you could play Rings of Brighthearth?

Rings of Brighthearth would actually be a really strong card in this build, I haven't thought about that yet. I am not quite sure what to cut in its stead, but I will test it out and let you know. But if you're thinking of playing it, I would go for it. You could tutor it easily with Enlightened Tutor so its not totally unreachable. And you have enough draw to get it with another 'Walker. I think it is probably the next best thing to Doubling Season. What are some other thoughts on this card?

I will try testing that out.

Also,

Do you maybe have a list for a non-planeswalker build?

Quote from minimagicmonster »

I will try testing that out.

Also,

Do you maybe have a list for a non-planeswalker build?

I used to have one, but I scrapped it a while ago. If you'd like, I can draft one up and post it by the end of the week. Would that work? What exactly are you looking for?

I uploaded an Alternative Build for Teneb that minimagicmonster was interested in. The build is a much more classic take on WBG in Commander, basically a deck built around Birthing Pod. I am excited about this list since this is how Teneb use to look in his early days, so rebrewing the list was a great nostalgia throwback. I enjoyed it immensely.

In other news, the big change is as follows:

Greater Good -> Rings of Brighthearth

Honestly, Greater Good is a amazing card, but this list doesn't have that many creatures to utilize it to its fullest. Also, it can't be an infinite combo outlet since there is only so much of your deck you can mill before you lose the game. Perhaps if I was running an Eldrazi, it would be a much more useful outlet. However for now, Rings will go in its place for testing.

Any comments, questions, or concerns? Please give me some feedback. This list is still evolving and this process is far from over. If the community has any input, it would really benefit the other viewers and take this build to the next level.

Saffi Eriksdotter / Karmic Guide / Reveillark / Sadistic Hypnotist - even with the combo that you can pull off I feel you are just too creature light to really support these guys. I think they can be strong in a Survival combo sort of deck but unless you find yourself pulling this off often I feel like you are devoting a lot of cards that dont fit into the list. How are you not running Survival of the Fittest to set this up if you are at least going to run them all? Personally I think you would be best off by cutting them all which would free up four slots. I feel like it would be difficult to protect your walkers just looking at this list which I suspect you could turn these cards into things that better protect them.

Prismatic Omen -> Coalition Relic this seems like an upgrade.

Animate Dead -> Necromancy I have personally always preferred Necromancy over Animate Dead just because it has that option of flash rezing if you need it.

Torpor Orb / Null Rod / Damping Matrix / Stony Silence just some random hate cards that could go in here if you want. I dont feel like any of these are a must by any means but they are worth considering.

Bitterblossom might give some good returns as far as just cheap mana blockers.

Quote from ISBPathfinder »

Saffi Eriksdotter / Karmic Guide / Reveillark / Sadistic Hypnotist - even with the combo that you can pull off I feel you are just too creature light to really support these guys. I think they can be strong in a Survival combo sort of deck but unless you find yourself pulling this off often I feel like you are devoting a lot of cards that dont fit into the list. How are you not running Survival of the Fittest to set this up if you are at least going to run them all? Personally I think you would be best off by cutting them all which would free up four slots. I feel like it would be difficult to protect your walkers just looking at this list which I suspect you could turn these cards into things that better protect them.

Prismatic Omen -> Coalition Relic this seems like an upgrade.

Animate Dead -> Necromancy I have personally always preferred Necromancy over Animate Dead just because it has that option of flash rezing if you need it.

Torpor Orb / Null Rod / Damping Matrix / Stony Silence just some random hate cards that could go in here if you want. I dont feel like any of these are a must by any means but they are worth considering.

Bitterblossom might give some good returns as far as just cheap mana blockers.

You think I should take out the infinite combos entirely? It would free up a lot of space. If I do that, should I make this build more creature-centric? I feel okay with that idea. While I can assemble the combos pretty easily, I could see making the deck list much more compact.

Prismatic Omen is a enchantment though. If I ran an artifact in its place, I may run Chromatic Lantern instead. Its mainly in for mana fixing and getting around Blood Moon.

Agreed. I shall make that change. Animate Dead is a lot cheaper, but I can see the benefits of flash. What if I ran both?

Hushwing Gryff fills the roll of Torpor Orb pretty well. However, Stony Silence seems awesome. I feel like if I run that, I should take out Mana Crypt and Sol Ring. What do you think?

Bitterblossom seems awesome. I may need some way of gaining life, since I lose a lot from Phyrexian Arena and such.

Thank you so much for the input ISB. I will look for some of these cards and think about taking out the combo side of the deck.

ooops I meant to link Chromatic Lantern and not Coalition Relic lol.

Spike Weaver could be a fun addition to the list to just push fogs a bit further. It works well with reanimation as well which is a plus.

Exploration also feels out of place here. I generally like it more in card advantage / draw heavy decks or decks who try to explode out quickly.

You need more draw too.

Quote from ISBPathfinder »

ooops I meant to link Chromatic Lantern and not Coalition Relic lol.

Spike Weaver could be a fun addition to the list to just push fogs a bit further. It works well with reanimation as well which is a plus.

Exploration also feels out of place here. I generally like it more in card advantage / draw heavy decks or decks who try to explode out quickly.

You need more draw too.

Spike Weaver is great, I have been thinking about adding it in for some time.

What other draw do I need? Greater Good should come back in probably; I would need more creatures to make it work. Also, should I add Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre or Kozilek, Butcher of Truths to prevent myself from decking?

So far, here are the possible changes:

OUT -

• Prismatic Omen
  
• Reveillark
  
• Sadistic Hypnotist
  
• Animate Dead
  
• Dimir House Guard
  
• Exploration
  
• Altar of Dementia
  
• Tooth and Nail

IN +

• Spike Weaver
  
• Chromatic Lantern
  
• Stony Silence
  
• Bitterblossom
  
• Necromancy

I want Saffi Eriksdotter to stay in because she s great on her own and can really protect Teneb. Same for Karmic Guide being just really good recursion on its own.

How many creatures should I average in this build? I feel like I should have 20 if I am taking the combo element out of it.

Thank you for the Birthing Pod list! I am going to get the stuff to build it right away! Thank you!

You're welcome! You don't have to build it with Haakon like I did, just replace the Knight matters cards with other value spells. Best of luck, show me when its done!

My issue with say Karmic Guide is what does it do that Beacon of Unrest doesn't do better?

The reasons to run Karmic Guide are generally speaking that you have interactions with creatures that you plan to abuse with it. Cast Karmic Guide, Skullclamp it, Birthing Pod off of it, flicker it, chain it down with clones for blockers. If you had Survival of the Fittest and creatures in list I could see going with it but you are creature light with light to no creature abuse either.

In this particular list, you really are not abusing creatures which makes me think you are generally better off not running it here. Don't get me wrong, I think its an amazing card but here it is just a chump blocker for a turn really. You are better off rezing from anyone's yard with black reanimation in a deck that doesn't abuse creatures well.

I'm confused, what happened to the Planeswalker build??? The info on the deck talks all about it, but then I only see one of them in your build