Conditions Allow - Moira and Teshar EDH
(Moira and Teshar | Art by Josh Hass)
Heroes Never Die
Hello, and welcome back to Conditions Allow, where I take a legendary creature with a drawback and build a deck to turn it into a strength. This week I'm returning to March of the Machine to build Moira and Teshar.
Moira and Teshar have both fallen to the Phyrexian Oil, but that only increases their power through seamless teamwork. Just like Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle, they bring a nonland permanent from your graveyard into play whenever you cast a historic spell, but Moira now lets you grab creatures of any size. In exchange, those creatures will be exiled at end of turn or if they would leave play. While there are plenty of cards that can take over a game by entering play once, you can also Flicker the permanents brought back by Moira and Teshar to keep them around permanently. First, though, you need to get cards into your graveyard and decide which historic spells you'll use to get them back out.
The Graveyard is Full
Starting off with the creatures, there are plenty of self-mill staples to choose from. Mire Triton adds a little incidental life gain, while Undead Butler mills one extra card and can grab a creature back to your hand when it dies. For sheer number of cards milled, however, there's no beating Stitcher's Supplier. Of course, I'm also including Entomb and Buried Alive to get the exact cards you need.
I also want to include a few artifacts in this category as well. You generally want to cast these before Moira and Teshar to get set up, but they're more valuable when drawn late, since they trigger your commander, and while these artifacts don't synergize with the flicker effects I'll discuss later, having repeatable self-mill is valuable for getting the cards you need into the graveyard. Collector's Vault also has the distinction of being the only way to discard big creatures that get stuck in your hand.
The Rest is History
To trigger Moira and Teshar as often as possible, I'm filling the card draw and interactive slots of this deck with as many artifacts as possible. Mishra's and Urza's Bauble aren't impressive on their own, but they look much more impressive when accompanied by a big creature. Also keep in mind that Moira and Teshar can bring back any nonland permanent. If you need extra cards, you can bring back Soul-Guide Lantern, or if you need to get rid of a pesky enchantment, Dispeller's Capsule.
By far the beset artifact for this deck is Sensei's Divining Top. You can return it to the top of your library before each of your turns to ensure you have a historic spell to cast while also fixing the top of your library to avoid drawing any cards you'd rather mill straight to the graveyard. Voyager Staff is a close second, however, since it brings a creature back with Moira and Teshar and then immediately flickers it to dodge the end-of-turn exile clause on your commander's ability.
On the Path to Exile
Flickering your creatures works to circumvent Moira and Teshar's ability because the creatures they return are only put into exile if they would go to anywhere else from the battlefield, so if they are heading to exile already, the replacement effect won't apply. This lets you use Teleportation Circle to have your creature enter as a new game object and stick around. Moira and Teshar also gives your creatures haste, so Far Traveler can fulfill the same role. Alternately, you can stack Athreos, Shroud-Veiled's ability first so that when your creature is exiled it gets returned to play.
There's also plenty of one-time Flicker effects to use as well. Moira and Teshar's ability isn't limited to once a turn, so I'm a big fan of Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward. Especially after a board wipe, you can bring back all your big creatures then exile them with Abdel. Then, when he gets exiled at end of turn, all your other creatures will return to play.
This exile trick also works with other reanimate effects, like Whip of Erebos and Spirit-Sister's Call. Neither of these are as powerful as Moira and Teshar, but it's always good to have a little redundancy built into your deck. The lifelink from Whip of Erebos is also valuable on its own, while Spirit-Sister's Call puts your creatures back into the graveyard to be brought back again, recycling powerful enter-the-battlefield effects.
The Main Act
This brings us to the actual creatures being reanimated. Because of the heavy flicker subtheme, I'm focusing on powerful enter-the-battlefield effects. Moira and Teshar also give these creatures haste, so Sun Titan and Archon of Cruelty are especially powerful. Most of these creatures will enter twice in a turn, so Massacre Wurm and Overseer of the Damned are excellent removal.
Cavalier of Dawn is on the smaller end of creatures you can reanimate, but when it dies you get to return an artifact from your graveyard to your hand. As long as you can flicker Cavalier of Dawn, you can loop it into play every turn to keep troublesome permanents in check. Not to mention the extra card draw from Baubles and removal from Capsules.
When it comes to actually ending the game, I'm including a single copy of Gray Merchant of Asphodel. Between Buried Alive, Entomb, and Razaketh, the Foulblooded this won't be hard to find, and your devotion grows quickly with this many big Demons in your deck.
Add a little more removal and a bunch of lands, and here's the finished deck.
Moira and Teshar
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Moira and Teshar seem to have been somewhat overlooked, with just under 400 decks on EDHREC, but they pack quite a punch. Adding a big body to every artifact you cast is a lot of value, and it isn't difficult to circumvent the exile clause they impose. Plus, with so many big creatures to choose from in white and black, you can customize this deck to play pretty much however you want.
But what do you think? Are there any cards or synergies I've overlooked? Let me know in the comments, and thanks for reading!
