[EDH / Commander] B/W Teysa Karlov Budget

[WizardSpartan]

B/W Teysa Karlov Budget

I want to get it down to around $50. I already own the Vampiric Tutor and Ashnod's Altar, so I don't include those in the price of the deck. I used the discussion made about cutting cards (https://deckstats.net/forum/index.php/topic,42562.0.html) already, but so many expensive cards are entirely too good in this deck.
Just a note: A lot of cards belong in multiple categories, like: many of the ramp creatures and card draw creatures are fodder for sacrificing stuff, a lot of ramp also involve death triggers & card draw, a lot of sacrifice outlets provide ramp and card advantage, etc. This means that if my individual categories seem small, many cards fit in multiple categories, meaning each category is actually larger.
Thanks for all the help! I'm really excited to build a deck around Teysa Karlov!

[Ylhyssia]

Cutting Ancient tomb would be a good start, it's a 25-30$ land. It is an extremely good land but it's not required for this deck to run, especially not on a 50$ budget, this card would eat half of your budget on its own.

Flesh Carver is 5$. There are cheaper sac outlets out here, like Fanatical Devotion or Martyr's Cause. They're both free sac outlets, and are enchantments, so they should be harder to remove.

Solemn Simulacrum is a 5$ card, and it's not the best draw card with Teysa. You could add something that can be repeated instead, like Dark Prophecy, Dawn of Hope, or Mentor of the Meek. It kinda sucks to lose the ramp, but when cutting prices we have to make choices.

You could replace Anguished unmaking with a cheaper removal that doesn't remove any permanent. It wouldn't be as good, but you already have Utter End, which is already the budget version of it. Tragic Slip or Unmake would be much cheaper.

My brain also wants to tell you to remove Smothering Tithe, because it's a 5$ card, but damn does it hurt my heart to suggest this cut because it's an amazing card and I love it.

[WizardSpartan]

I forgot to mention I owned both Ancient Tomb and Solemn Simulacrum, so cutting them would be unnecessary.
I agree with you and cut the mentioned cards for cheaper alternatives. When I have more time, I'll find a spot for Dawn of Hope and Dark Prophecy because both are fantastic cards and provide needed card draw. Thanks for the suggestions!

Revision 2

Added/removed cards:
-1 Anguished Unmaking
-1 Flesh Carver
+1 Nantuko Husk
+1 Tragic Slip

[WizardSpartan]

Goes infinite with Reveillark.

Revision 7

Added/removed cards:
-1 Palace Siege
+1 Karmic Guide

[WizardSpartan]

Making it a bit more budget and swapping in Dark Prophecy cuz it works with tokens.

Revision 9

Added/removed cards:
-1 Dutiful Attendant
-1 Teysa, Orzhov Scion
-1 Vindictive Lich
+1 Dark Prophecy
+1 Field of Souls
+1 Harvester of Souls

[Judaspriester]

Hmm.. about your Ramp: what about Orzhov Signet and Fellwar Stone? Both are very budget friendly.

Then, as already mentioned at your Muldrotha deck, Diabolic Intent could be an interesting (but not that cheap) option.

Do you really need Scoured Barrens? I think it could be replaced with a basic land or Exotic Orchard for a little more speed. Same goes for Terramorphic Expanse.

For carddraw, Well of Lost Dreams?

If you need some more control, Gideon's Intervention and Darksteel Mutation could be interesting, especially to shut enemy commanders down.

For recursion: Oversold Cemetry and Sun Titan could be interesting.

[WizardSpartan]

Hmm.. about your Ramp: what about Orzhov Signet and Fellwar Stone? Both are very budget friendly.

Then, as already mentioned at your Muldrotha deck, Diabolic Intent could be an interesting (but not that cheap) option.

Do you really need Scoured Barrens? I think it could be replaced with a basic land or Exotic Orchard for a little more speed. Same goes for Terramorphic Expanse.

For carddraw, Well of Lost Dreams?

If you need some more control, Gideon's Intervention and Darksteel Mutation could be interesting, especially to shut enemy commanders down.

For recursion: Oversold Cemetry and Sun Titan could be interesting.

All of my current ramp synergizes with Teysa (except for Commander's Sphere & Sol Ring), so I don't really want to trade out some synergy.
I would like to run Diabolic Intent, what should I cut? I'm thinking Strionic Resonator because only a few of my triggers are worth the mana and hassle. Do you know if the additional trigger from Strionic Resonator triggers an additional time because of Teysa Karlov's ability? It doesn't, right? 
I'm not that worried about taplands. My group is non-competitive, and during the early-game, my deck is designed to look weak, so I won't attract attention. I am more worried about hitting the right colors than losing a bit of tempo.
My deck isn't themed around life gain at all. It is an Aristocrats-Tokens deck. If I wanted to run life gain, then I'd add Dawn of Hope.
I would like Darksteel Mutation, but my removal slots are pretty tight. What do you think would be a good cut?
Sun Titan doesn't synergize with Teysa, and he doesn't go infinite with Reveillark like Karmic Guide does. Plus he has a high mana cost.
Oversold Cemetery is nice, but it's missing a couple things:
1. It has the requirement of 4 or more creatures in the yard, which I don't want to rely on.
2. It says to put the returned card to my hand, which I don't like as much as to the battlefield.
I just like Phyrexian Reclamation more as a cheap, repeatable piece of reanimation.

[Soren841]

Except your commander can be removed and doesn't start in play. Synergy is all well and good but removing good cards for bad cards that synergize with Teysa does NOT make your deck better it makes it worse.

[Morganator 2.0]

Almost all of your ramp cards are 3 mana or more, making your deck slower than if you included 2-mana ramp. The synergy with your commander does not make up for this downside.

[WizardSpartan]

I would like to include Fellwar Stone, also, but I am unsure as to what to cut. Am I just severely overestimating the usefulness of Pawn of Ulamog, Pitiless Plunderer, Revel in Riches, and Sifter of Skulls? They provide ramp, work with Teysa, and produce more fodder creatures for sac outlets if I don't need the ramp. Should I cut Pawn of Ulamog/Sifter of Skulls (Not Pitiless Plunderer or Revel in Riches because they are my backup win con)? I feel like Solemn Simulacrum was the right cut because it was 4 mana and Teysa Karlov only provides an extra card 1 time when it dies. Maybe I made the wrong decision.

Revision 10

Added/removed cards:
-1 Solemn Simulacrum
+1 Orzhov Signet

[Judaspriester]

Keep Revel in Riches,  Pitiless Plunderer and Smothering Tithe in. Its an good win con and fits into the deck.

The "problem" with Pawn of Ulamog and Sifter of Skulls is, that they are only good, if your deck works. If it doesn't work, they are just dead drops. Cards like Fellwar Stone and Orzhov Signet are worse if the deck works, but they also do their job if its not.

Cutting Solemn seems fine to me.

The Stronic Resonator will give you only 1 additional trigger, so yes, it seems legit to cut it.

For additional cuts: Cartel Aristocrat and Pious Evangel. If you need slots for more mana ramp, I think you could replace 1-2 lands.

[WizardSpartan]

Keep Revel in Riches,  Pitiless Plunderer and Smothering Tithe in. Its an good win con and fits into the deck.

The "problem" with Pawn of Ulamog and Sifter of Skulls is, that they are only good, if your deck works. If it doesn't work, they are just dead drops. Cards like Fellwar Stone and Orzov Signet are worse if the deck works, but they also do their job if its not.

Cutting Solemn seems fine to me.

The Stronic Resonator will give you only 1 additional trigger, so yes, it seems legit to cut it.

For additional cuts: Cartel Aristocrat and Pious Evangel. If you need slots for more mana ramp, I think you could replace 1-2 lands.

Ok, good. It seems we're on the same page. When I think about it,  Pawn & Sifter are win more cards (like you said), and I don't really like win more cards (Unless they win really well)
It doesn't show in the decklist on the forum, but all the cards in the maybeboard are upgrades and Pious Evangel is already taken as a cut for one of those upgrade cards. I thought I could shave a land, just wasn't sure. When I originally put Strionic Resonator in, I didn't quite realize how it worked (or didn't work) with Teysa, so it's out. I hope to find more cards to swap out Pawn of Ulamog/Sifter of Skulls (only 1 of them) but can't think of any (in my budget) to swap in.

Revision 11

Added/removed cards:
-1 Strionic Resonator
+1 Diabolic Intent
+1 Fellwar Stone

Changed amounts:
-1 Swamp

[khalitas18]

bastante flojo el mazo

[Judaspriester]

about cards to swap Pawn of Ulamog/Sifter of Skulls, what about Mind Stone? Another cmc2 mana rock and later on you can use it as one time card draw.

Btw, to explain the problem with Strionic Resonator, lets look what happends on the stack:
1. a creature death trigger goes on the stack
2. Teysa triggers and copies 1
Now you can copy 1 or 2 with Strionic, but even if you copy 1, there is no additional creature that dies, so Teysa won't trigger twice.

[WizardSpartan]

about cards to swap Pawn of Ulamog/Sifter of Skulls, what about Mind Stone? Another cmc2 mana rock and later on you can use it as one time card draw.

Btw, to explain the problem with Strionic Resonator, lets look what happends on the stack:
1. a creature death trigger goes on the stack
2. Teysa triggers and copies 1
Now you can copy 1 or 2 with Strionic, but even if you copy 1, there is no additional creature that dies, so Teysa won't trigger twice.

Makes sense, makes sense. I didn't think about it too hard when I included Strionic Resonator.
I like Mindstone a lot. I'll consider it. Which do you think would be a better cut? Pawn of Ulamog is cheaper mana-wise, but is harder to consistently cast. Sifter of Skulls is easier to cast, but more expensive mana-wise. I'm thinking of cutting Pawn of Ulamog simply because the tokens it spawns are 0/1s, not 1/1s.