Teval, Arbiter of Virtue is one of the new Spirit Dragons introduced in Magic: The Gathering’s Tarkir: Dragonstorm set. Each of the clans of Tarkir has a Spirit Dragon working with them, with Teval being the dragon of the Sultai (black/green/blue) clan.
This version of Teval is the first time delve has been on a card in a Standard set since the original Tarkir block. While it technically doesn’t have delve, it gives every spell you cast the ability. There are a lot of things Teval can help you do. If you like milling yourself and casting giant spells, Teval is the perfect commander for you.
Decklist
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Commander: Teval, Arbiter of Virtue |
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Aftermath Analyst |
Ancient Cellarspawn |
Barrowgoyf |
Colossal Grave-Robber |
Eternal Witness |
Golgari Grave-Troll |
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Golgari Thug |
Hedron Crab |
Hermit Druid |
Hydroid Krasis |
Kheru Goldkeeper |
Hydroid Krasis |
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Kheru Goldkeeper |
Laboratory Maniac |
Llanowar Elves |
Magus of the Mirror |
Molt Tender |
Muldrotha, the Gravetide |
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Nyx Weaver |
Platinum Angel |
Platinum Emperion |
Sidisi, Brood Tyrant |
Six |
Skull Prophet |
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Stinkweed Imp |
Sticher’s Supplier |
Tasigur, the Golden Fang |
Teval, the Balanced Scale |
Tormod, the Desecrator |
Underreal Lich |
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Willow Geist |
Breach the Multiverse |
Death Begets Life |
Doppelgang |
Exsanguinate |
Farseek |
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Life from the Loam |
Nature’s Lore |
Profane Transfusion |
Repay in Kind |
Their Number Is Legion |
Three Visits |
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Torment of Hailfire |
Toxic Deluge |
Treasure Cruise |
Beast Within |
Drown in Dreams |
Frantic Search |
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Grisly Salvage |
Aehterflux Reservoir |
Arcane Signet |
Fellwar Stone |
Hedge Shredder |
Mesmeric Orb |
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Pact Weapon |
Sol Ring |
Soul Conduit |
Talisman of Curiosity |
Talisman of Dominance |
Talisman of Resilience |
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Whip of Erebos |
Deadbridge Chant |
Dredger’s Insight |
Out of the Tombs |
Ripples of Undeath |
Sultai Ascendancy |
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Teval’s Judgment |
Command Tower |
Deathcap Glade |
Dreamroot Cascade |
Drowned Catacomb |
Exotic Orchard |
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Flooded Grove |
x6 Forest |
Hinterland Harbor |
x5 Island |
Mystic Sanctuary |
Nurturing Peatland |
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Rejuvenating Springs |
Shipwreck Marsh |
Sunken Hollow |
x7 Swamp |
Underground River |
Waterlogged Grove |
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Woodland Cemetery |
Yavimaya Coast |
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The decklist contains 29 creatures, 14 sorceries, four instants, 12 artifacts, six enchantments, and 34 lands. Many of the permanents allow you to mill yourself, loading up your graveyard to exile cards for delve costs.
Key Cards
Teval, Arbiter of Virtue
The commander of the deck, Teval, Arbiter of Virtue is its most important piece. It gives all your spells delve, allowing you to cast large spells for a steep discount, so long as you have a cards in your graveyard to exile (something the deck can easily manage).
Teval will always cause you to lose life equal to a spell’s mana value even if you don’t delve. Be very careful about your life total to avoid burning yourself as the effect is mandatory.
The lifelink that Teval has is very important, as it helps you recover the life you lose when you cast a spell. Since you want to gain as much life as you can, it’s often better to use Teval as a blocker rather than attacker so you can block multiple attackers in one turn cycle to gain more than six life.
Platinum Emperion
Teval can become very damaging very quickly, so cards that can cut off the life loss are critical for the deck to succeed. Platinum Emperion is the best way, as it prevents your life total from changing in any way. This ability cuts off both life loss and life gain, allowing your life total to stay static (unless it gets removed).
Platinum Emperion is best used when you have a lot of spells you want to cast while Teval is out. This prevents the negative effects from Teval triggering, while still reaping the rewards of casting a spell for cheap after delving it.
Doppelgang
Doppelgang requires a hefty mana investment, something that Teval helps to discount substantially. This allows you to cast Doppelgang with a large “X” payment, copying a ton of different permanents.
Doppelgang is involved with a very mana-intensive combo that normally wouldn’t be possible in many cases. However, thanks to Teval letting you delve to help pay the costs, the combo becomes much easier since you can pay significantly less actual mana if you have cards to exile. Here’s how the combo works.
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Prerequisites: Doppelgang in hand, Eternal Witness on the battlefield. |
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Step 1: Cast Doppelgang for X=15 (you will also need one green and one blue mana as well). |
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Step 2: Target Eternal Witness and at least four mana-producing permanents that can tap the turn they enter. |
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Step 3: This will create 5 copies of each. Eternal Witness’ token copy will trigger, choose Doppelgang to return to hand. You can return any other cards you want from the extra token copies. |
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Step 4: Repeat steps 1-3, using 17 of the mana-producing tokens (leaving you with 8 extra mana available from when you started). |
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Step 5: Once you make infinite mana and tokens, you can start copying any other permanents on the battlefield. Make sure to target Eternal Witness each time, though! |
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Result: Infinite tokens, infinite mana, infinite copies of any permanents on the battlefield. Return all cards from your graveyard to your hand. |
Deadbridge Chant
Deadbridge Chant provides you with a lot of what Teval wants to do. Milling ten cards allows you to quickly fill your graveyard with cards to delve with. Deadbridge Chant also gets you a creature from the graveyard on the battlefield for free, and if not a creature, the card back into your hand.
Deadbridge Chant doesn’t cast the spell chosen, so if you get to put a creature on the battlefield, you won’t have to worry about Teval dealing damage to you. You can get Deadbridge Chant onto the battlefield for just two mana with Teval on the battlefield, which is something you want to do as quickly as possible.
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How To Play The Deck
A Teval, Arbiter of Virtue Commander deck is all about filling your graveyard as quickly as possible to cast big spells for little mana investment. The trade-off to such a powerful effect is you’ll be paying a ton of life in order to cast spells at all. Luckily, there are many life manipulation options available that turn this weakness into a threat.
If you’re running low on life, Soul Conduit or Magus of the Mirror can give your low life total to an opponent. You can also use Repay in Kind to make all players’ life totals equal to the lowest one.
When it comes to cards with “X” in their casting cost, you often want to be dumping a lot of mana into the X. The amount used for X can be discounted with delve, allowing you to easily cast it for a high value. Cards that prevent you from losing the game and your life total from changing are critical, as these are the primary ways to stay in through all the burn damage.
The primary win condition of the deck is winning through combat. This can be done with the Doppelgang and Eternal Witness combo, or by bringing everyone’s life totals down so low with your utility cards to easily take out the remaining life totals. Since you mill so much, it’s possible to mill yourself out and win with Laboratory Maniac.
The biggest weakness of the deck is itself. Delve is an amazing ability, but since you want to cast multiple big spells, the burn damage can rack up very quickly. You need to make sure to have ways to lower the burn damage on the battlefield before you bring out Teval. You do a ton of damage to yourself, so your life total is always going to be something you need to watch, or else you may get locked out of casting spells at all.
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