"Teneb Rock"

[SpencerForHire]

When I last posted in these forums I was but a naive newbie to EDH.  Unable to really find a general or a deck that was to my liking,  I first tried to be cute with a deck focusing on producing a large amount of tokens; which were then used to do explosive sacrifice affects.  This strategy quickly fell through as I learned what other decks in my area looked and played like.  I was unable to ever develop a sufficient amount of tokens to do anything "fun" without developing a high amount of my opponent's attention.

Frustrated by my first failing deck, I immediately took out 70% of the cards I had originally picked up, proxied out a newly brainstormed deck and jumped into the fray.  Several incarnations later, my new favorite deck has been butting heads with the best of them.  Although it does not always win, my deck is usually a prime contender and contains a large amount of subtlety along with the finishing power and early game control to be a strong contender in my local metagame.

I present for your consideration:  Teneb, the Harvester

Creature:
Solemn Simulacrum
Puppeteer Clique
Genesis
Academy Rector
Sakura-Tribe Elder**
Yavimaya Elder
Wood Elves**
Krosan Tusker
Cemetary Reaper*
Angel of Despair
Woodfall Primus
Mystic Enforcer
Eternal Witness
Adarkar Valkyrie
Iona, Shield of Emeria
Duplicant
Sundering Titan
Reya Dawnbringer
Divinity of Pride
Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
World Queller
Yosei, the Morning Star
Spiritmonger

Sorcery:
Restock
Primal Command
Tooth and Nail
Crime/Punishment
Hymn of Rebirth
Identity Crisis
Kodama's Reach
Plow Under
Vindicate
Maelstrom Pulse
Austere Command
Hallowed Burial
Day of Judgment
Damnation
Wrath of God

Instant:
Chord of Calling
Path to Exile
Condemn**
Swords to Plowshares
Putrefy
Mortify

Artifact:
Mana Crypt
Sol Ring
Coalition Relic
Darksteel Ingot
Oblivion Stone
Crucible of Worlds
Mind's Eye

Planeswalker:
Garruk Wildspeaker

Enchantment:
Survival of the Fittest
Sylvan Library
Pernicious Deed
Luminarch Ascension
Oblivion Ring
Faith's Fetters*
Debtor's Knell

Land:
Savannah
Scrubland
Bayou
Overgrown Tomb
Temple Garden
Godless Shrine
Horizon Canopy
Krosan Verge
Verdant Catacombs
Marsh Flats
Windswept Heath
Urborg,  Tomb of Yawgmoth
Maze of Ith
Kor Haven
Wasteland
Strip Mine
Swamp x8
Plains x7
Forest x9

The deck is quite simple:  I utilize a slew of control cards (from spot removal to board clear) along with a chunk of mana-ramping to keep myself safe and in contention.  Once I am in a position where I have the mana to play the big guns, I can create several strong situations, from control locks via crucible, or Survival of the Fittest recursive tricks (with Knell, Reya, or Teneb), or simply capitalize on weakened opponents a variety of two-for-one affects.

This deck plays very much to my style and is tuned to be of the same approximate power level as other decks in my meta.  if I find myself underpowered, I can add in cards such as Vampiric Tutor and Demonic Tutor down the road to give me an equal footing to the other top decks.  However, for now, my deck is on the level and I choose to only run so many tutors for this reason.

Cards starred (*) are marked as such because they are waiting to be cut, for more powerful cards I either haven't picked up yet or because I haven't found a replacement yet.

Cards double starred (**) are marked to be removed if I can find a more efficient affect of the same genre (spot removal for spot removal, accel for accel, etc).


Cards I'm Intending on Fitting In:
Sorin Markov
Regrowth
Phyrexian Arena
Knight of the Reliquary

[Matt]

STE is really awesome, I don't think it should be starred (much less double-starred).

No Disk?

[SpencerForHire]

STE has been awesome and it is only on the borderline of getting removed.  It just doesn't feel as powerful as an affect as I identify with EDH.  Double star is identical to start except it has to be replaced by a similar affect, it means nothing else than that.

I do not run disk because it takes a turn, and that is the only reason.  There is a lot of removal,  whether it is just in my meta or in all metas, but either way, disk gets blown up quite often.  I would rather just not expose myself to that weakness since I'm rather content with my board control.  On top of this simple point, I like being able to control when I blow up enchantments so I can keep a hold of things like Debtor's Knell or Survival through a board reset.

[JACO]

That seems like a nice deck. Without having played it I feel like I'd want to do this for myself though:
-1 Wood Elves
-1 Cemetary Reaper
-1 Plow Under
-1 Chord of Calling
-1 Faith's Fetters
-1 Divinity of Pride or Luminarch Ascension

+1 Painter's Servant
+1 Withered Wretch
+1 Demonic Tutor
+1 Vampiric Tutor
+1 Phyrexian Arena
+1 Myojin of Night's Reach

There's no reason not to play the best cards. I don't think those changes would make your deck over the top, but rather a little more consistent, which is always a problem in EDH. Phyrexian Arena is one of the best black cards, period. Also, you have Iona and Tooth and Nail, so there's no reason not to make your Tooth and Nail game ending by including Painter's Servant.

[SpencerForHire]

I have intentionally chosen not to include Painter's Servant with my Iona combo,  it is an instant lock but I really don't care that much to do it.  Often my Tooth and Nail wins the game anyways with Angel of Despair/Sundering Titan/Woodfall Primus or a variety of other neat stuff.  I guess I really don't feel compelled to put in the hard lock cause it seems pretty cheese and I fairly consistently control the board as is.  I'm aware that isn't a very compelling argument but I will say Painter's Servant occurred to me and I have no urge to run it.

I'm also not sweating graveyards too much, I have plenty of affects that capitalize on other peoples graveyard and a graveyard removal card if I really need it (Identity Crisis) so I don't feel I need to replace Reaper with Wretch necessarily as much as just anything better.

The tutors, as I've stated feel like they would push me over the top to critical mass or at least make me a target.  A lot of people play with the tutors in my area and generally either are forced to 'win' on the spot or die trying.  I'm still quite tempted to run them but have to mull over it a little bit longer.

Phyrexian Arena is a strong card that I am considering, as I've said, I just need to get a nice black bordered one when I get a chance.

Myojin, now there is a  card that really didn't occur to me too much.  The question at this point is what I would want to remove for it, Divinity seems possible because it's a pretty vanilla 8/8, Fetters also seems possible...  I will say that Luminarch Ascension is much to strong to get cut, Similarly I think Chord of Calling, although expensive can be particularly amazing; giving you the answer on someones end step.  Plow Under is just alright but has definitely come through for me a few times.

[Matt]

Divinity is strong, lifegain is better in multiplayer than you'd expect.

I don't know why your group considers tutors to be incredible cards. They're much less powerful than, say, Ascension or Rhystic Study or something.

I would definitely cut the Plow Under, that seems terrible unless you're 1v1ing.

[SpencerForHire]

My current consideration is:

-1 Cemetery Reaper
-1 Plow Under
-1 Wood Elves

+1 Demonic Tutor
+1 Vampiric Tutor
+1 Phyrexian Arena

I think I can afford to lose Wood Elves as an accelerant if it meant I picked up a tutor which could at worse case grab me the land I needed to ensure I was not missing land drops.  Plow Under like I said was "just alright" but I'm fairly certain tutoring or drawing into a strictly better answer would be just better.  We'll see if and when these changes come to pass.