Hi my name is Gomez I been a magic collector for at least 3 years by now
although I never played when the guild pact arrived I feel in love with the
orzhov and especially with teysa as soon as I discovered she could be mind
bended in order to produce spirit tokens that can be recycled I thought it
could be exploited

20 lands
4 Forbidden Orchard
4Godless shrine
4 Plains
4 Swamp
2 Island
2 Forest

27 creatures
4 Teysa
3 Twilight Drover
4 Soul warden
4 Festering Goblin
4 Plagued Rusalka
4 Belfry spirit
4 Nantuko husk

12 other spells
4 Mind bend
4 Doubling Season
3 Mortify
1 Glare of subdual
2 Orozhov signet

Thanks for your time

Teysa, Orzhov Scion sure is a popular card here in the deck garage.  And I don't wonder why, just look at all that combo potential!  The deck seems pretty powerful; once you've got a Teysa out and Mind Bended so that all instances of "white" become "black" (or vice versa, either way works), you have an infinite creature engine.  And you've certainly got plenty of ways to abuse the constant comiing and going of creature tokens, which is an excellent start.  What I want to do here is apply some principles that work with any combo-based deck.  When you build a deck based on a combo, you have three responsibilities:

 

1) Get all the pieces of the combo in place as soon as possible.

2) Don't let your opponent do anything that could interfere with you comboing out before you're ready (the obvious example is to win the game)

3) Once the combo goes off, be able to win almost right away.

 

Responsibility number one is basically just making the deck faster, so you get all your combo pieces out sooner.  There are two ways to do that with this deck; the first is to take out Green entirely (Glare of Subdual and Doubling Season are nice, but not needed), and the second is to add some card drawing.  So take out the Green cards (all five of them) and add in two Compulsive Research and three Dimir Guildmage.  The Guildmage is there because you don't really need that much blue mana, and you don't want too many cards that you can't cast without it.

 

Responsibility number two isn't as complicated as it sounds.  Most times it just means that you don't let your opponent win until you're ready to win yourself.  Other times, if you have to play one combo then and then play another like in this case where Teysa must already be in play when you Mind Bend), it means not letting your opponent play Putrefy or some such on your win condition.  For this deck, you already have plenty of one-drop creatures to hold off your opponent's early rush (especially the Goblin and the Rusalka who can often take out creatures bigger than themselves), but I'm a bit concerned that the biggest creature in your deck is a 2/3.  I would suggest removing one copy each of Soul Warden, Festering Goblin, and Plagued Rusalka for three copies of Souls of the Faultless.  This mass of ghosts does a wonderful job of discouraging attacks and keeping you alive long enough to do your thing.  And speaking of which, let me give you a piece of play advice: don't cast Teysa until you've got a Mind Bend in hand and everything else in place.  Once you have Teysa and Twilight Drover on the board, any shrewd opponent will figure out what's coming and take steps to stop it.  Your opponent will burn, bounce, counter, or otherwise deal with Teysa at first opportunity, so you want to be able to "go off" as soon after she comes out as possible.  Also, if you wait to cast Teysa, there's a good chance you'll draw a second Teysa while you're waiting.  If Teysa #1 bites a Volcanic Hammer, it's good to know you've already got Teysa #2 to keep the pressure on.

 

Now, on to responsibility number three.  Teysa and Mind bend may be the whole combo, but if Mind Bent Teysa is your only creature, what good is she?  You want to have everything else you need already out- that means a Husk and/or a Drover, plus a few sackable creatures like Goblins or Bat tokens.  The ideal "third piece" to this combo would probably be something like Scorched Rusalka, where you could turn creatures directly into damage at your opponent's face.  But it's not worth going into a fourth color for, so the Husk and Drover should do fine.  When Dissension comes out, you may want to consider Pride of the Clouds.  If nothing else, you can always attack with 1/1 flying tokens for the win.

 

That pretty much covers the bases for this deck, and combo decks in general.  I'm glad to have the opportunity to do this, because I really believe that a lot of people can use the strategies and advice I've gone over today.  I'll wrap up with a few suggestions for possible sideboard cards.

 

Leyline of the Meek- This card would've made the maindeck were it not for two things.  One, I couldn't find anything worth cutting for it, and two, it gives a bonus to ALL creature tokens, not just yours.  It's terrible to put this into play at the beginning of the turn, only to see a turn two Selesnya Evangel, but it's very nice to bring tis in after your opponent plays Night of Souls' Betrayal in game one.
 

Long-Forgotten Gohei- Most of your tokens are Spirits.  So are the Rusalka, Souls of the Faultless, and Belfry Spirit (though the tokens it makes are Bats).  The Gohei could be helpful, especially if you find a few Arcane spells that look worth a shot.
 

Storm Herd- If the game ends up running long against a passive opponent, this thing will fill your sky with Pegasi for Teysa to recur.  And with a Soul Warden in play, it also doubles your life total.  That's pretty much game.

Skeletal Vampire- This guy prefers Bats to Spirits, but he does give you two token creatures to play with, plus an option to make more.  And he's a 3/3 flier, which isn't bad.

Ribbons of Night- Good removal spells are always useful.  I just wasn't sure what to replace.  Besides, you have Mortify, which is probably better than the Ribbons.

 

 

Good luck, BMoor