Teferi,  Temporal Archmage | Art by Tyler Jacobson

Underpaid? No worries.

Under any circumstances, especially with a tight budget, is Teferi, Temporal Archmage an underrated Power Level 10 competitive commander?

No.

It's power level 11.

That's right, we're talking borderline bannable.

If you've ever felt like mono blue control was too weak in Commander, this highly optimized list will open your mind to the underrated juggernaut it can be.

The key to our plan is that we're running a metric buttload of underrated cards that NOBODY will see coming, least of all you. Allowing you to safely fly under your opponents' radar until you're in the perfect position to pop off.

Step 1: Ramp

cEDH decks live and die by how quickly they can assemble their wincons, which is why a solid half of our deck is underrated ramp. That's right, mono-blue planeswalker ramp.

Coral Atoll is a powerhouse for our blue guy. A land that taps for 2, and one is colored? It's like we're running two copies of Ancient Tomb, except one of them gives you colored mana AND doesn't hurt you! It's also a great way to avoid those pesky Carpet of Flowers. In fact, it's such an underrated banger that we don't even need the original Ancient Tomb. It's not even good in cEDH anyway, who wants to trade life for mana!?

Our build centers around untapping as many big mana rocks as possible. We have an all-star lineup here. Sol Ring, Thran Dynamo, Worn Powerstone, Ur-Golem's Eye, Dreamstone Hedron, the whole gang of underrated artifacts that tap for at least two. If it taps for some colorless mana, we've got it. Eventually we're going to ramp into a big-ass Everflowing Chalice that we can abuse with our huge supply of untappers. We don't really go infinite; sadly Teferi can't go infinite with any combination of artifacts and mana rocks, but 20 mana on turn 11 is basically the same thing.

Anyways, the list is pretty optimized as is, meaning we can't fit many untappers. Intellectual Offering grants fantastic underrated card advantage and untaps with zero possible downsides.

Step 2: Discombobulate

We also have a small army of underrated Morph creatures that will throw your opponents off every time. Face it, whenever you see an opponent plop a Morph 2/2 down in Commander, it's always some weak sauce like Den Protector or Vesuvan Shapeshifter. You want to really throw someone off? Flip summon a Dulcet Sirens to force your enemies to fight, turn an opponent's board wipe into ramp with Zoetic Cavern, pretty much Time Walk for only seven mana with Brine Elemental, etc. Folks expect a Counterspell, nobody in their right mind would ever suspect Shaper Parasite would uncounterably underratedly -2 their Najeela, the Overrated or Tymna out of the blue.

As far as maintaining card advantage goes, don't you worry because we're packing heat. Concentrate is a draw three for only four mana. Look out Harmonize, how's it feel to have your color pie poached for once? There's also the bonkers underrated Well of Ideas, which lets you draw four extra cards in the turn cycle it drops. Pretty much a better Necropotence that doesn't cost life, with a handful of minor downsides that probably won't come into play.

Step 3: Win

Once we're overflowing with enough insight and mana to bury someone, we need some wincons to dump said mana into. Just like Aboshan did to Mirari with zero lasting consequences.

It's cliche, but Teferi, Temporal Archmage famously combos hard with one specific card.

Rite of Replication

Who needs infinite juggling sessions when you can use Teferi's -1 to untap your mana rocks and plop down five extra copies of Stormsurge Kraken? Either you're killing someone next turn, or you're drawing more cards than you'll ever need.

Not good enough for you?

Since you now possess a militia of hexproof beasts to defend your ridiculous general, just use him to gain Infinite™* mana again next turn and Distorting Wake everything your enemies ever rated good enough to play. Nobody expects mono-blue to pretty much drop a Craterhoof Behemoth.

In Conclusion

Teferi, Temporal Archmage is far from overrated.

If you're interested in trying this out, our sponsor has the entire decklist prepackaged with some extra goodies here. Don't worry, the seller is highly Rated.