Best Cards for Teysa Karlov in Commander (2026)
Teysa Karlov is one of the most powerful aristocrats commanders in all of Commander, doubling every single death trigger from your permanents. If you want to build a deck that turns every sacrifice into overwhelming value, Teysa is the general for you. In this guide, we'll cover the best cards to include in your Teysa Karlov EDH deck for 2026.
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1. Blood Artist
Mana Cost:
Type: Creature — Vampire
The original aristocrats payoff and still one of the best. With Teysa on the field, Blood Artist's trigger doubles, meaning each creature death drains for 2 life instead of 1. In a sacrifice loop, this adds up to lethal damage incredibly fast.
Why it's great:
- Primary win condition in aristocrats
- Triggers on any creature death, not just yours
- Teysa doubles the drain to devastating effect
2. Pitiless Plunderer
Mana Cost:
Type: Creature — Human Pirate
Pitiless Plunderer is absolutely essential in Teysa. When your creatures die, you get Treasure tokens—and with Teysa doubling this, you get two Treasures per death. This enables explosive combo turns and goes infinite with cards like Reassembling Skeleton and a free sac outlet.
Why it's great:
- Creates mana per creature death, doubled towith Teysa
- Enables infinite combos
- Ramp and payoff in one card
3. Zulaport Cutthroat
Mana Cost:
Type: Creature — Human Rogue Ally
Another cornerstone aristocrats card. Unlike Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat only triggers on your creatures dying, but it hits each opponent instead of just one. In a four-player pod, that's 6 life drained per death with Teysa out.
Why it's great:
- Hits all opponents simultaneously
- Perfect redundancy for Blood Artist
- Low mana cost for maximum value
4. Skullclamp
Mana Cost:
Type: Artifact — Equipment
Skullclamp is one of the most powerful card draw engines ever printed, and Teysa makes it even more absurd. Equip it to a 1/1 token, it dies immediately, and you draw 2 cards. With Teysa? You draw 4 cards per 1/1 creature sacrificed. This is how you find your combo pieces.
Why it's great:
- Draw 4 cards per creature death with Teysa
- Equip cost of only
- Turns tokens into massive card advantage
5. Dictate of Erebos
Mana Cost:
Type: Enchantment
Board control at its finest. Whenever a creature you control dies, each opponent sacrifices a creature. With Teysa, they sacrifice two creatures. This can quickly clear opposing boards while you rebuild with recursive threats.
Why it's great:
- Controls the board through attrition
- Flash allows for surprise plays
- Doubled by Teysa for devastating effect
6. Grave Pact
Mana Cost:
Type: Enchantment
The original Dictate of Erebos effect. Running both is essential for consistency. Between these two enchantments, you'll keep opponents' boards clear while sacrificing tokens and disposable creatures.
Why it's great:
- Redundancy with Dictate of Erebos
- Harder to remove than creatures
- Creates oppressive board states
7. Elenda, the Dusk Rose
Mana Cost:
Type: Legendary Creature — Vampire Knight
Elenda grows every time another creature dies, then explodes into Vampire tokens when she dies. With Teysa, Elenda creates double the Vampire tokens on death, potentially creating a massive army from a single sacrifice.
Why it's great:
- Grows throughout the game
- Death trigger creates double tokens with Teysa
- Works as both payoff and sacrifice fodder generator
8. Karmic Guide
Mana Cost:
Type: Creature — Angel Spirit
Karmic Guide is a combo piece that enables some of the most powerful loops in Teysa. Combined with Reveillark and a sacrifice outlet, you can create an infinite loop that triggers all your death effects repeatedly.
Why it's great:
- Essential combo piece
- Reanimates key creatures
- Part of the classic Reveillark combo
9. Reveillark
Mana Cost:
Type: Creature — Elemental
Reveillark's death trigger returns two creatures with power 2 or less to the battlefield. With Teysa, this becomes four creatures. Looping Reveillark with Karmic Guide creates infinite death triggers to win the game.
Why it's great:
- Returns four creatures with Teysa's doubling
- Infinite combo with Karmic Guide and a sac outlet
- Excellent value even without going infinite
10. Viscera Seer
Mana Cost:
Type: Creature — Vampire Wizard
The gold standard for sacrifice outlets. Viscera Seer costs only
Why it's great:
- Free, repeatable sacrifice outlet
- Scry helps find key cards
- Only costs
11. Yawgmoth, Thran Physician
Mana Cost:
Type: Legendary Creature — Human Cleric
Yawgmoth is a sacrifice outlet, card draw engine, and removal spell all in one. Pay 1 life, sacrifice a creature, and put a -1/-1 counter on any creature while drawing a card. With undying creatures like Geralf's Messenger, you can go infinite.
Why it's great:
- Multi-purpose sacrifice outlet
- Built-in card draw
- Synergizes with undying creatures for combos
12. Anointed Procession
Mana Cost:
Type: Enchantment
Many of Teysa's best death triggers create tokens. Anointed Procession doubles those tokens, which means death triggers that create tokens are quadrupled when combined with Teysa's doubling. Pawn of Ulamog becomes absolutely insane.
Why it's great:
- Quadruples token-creating death triggers
- Synergizes with the entire deck strategy
- Creates exponential value
13. Pawn of Ulamog
Mana Cost:
Type: Creature — Vampire Shaman
When your nontoken creatures die, Pawn of Ulamog creates 0/1 Eldrazi Spawn tokens that can be sacrificed for
Why it's great:
- Creates tokens on death (doubled by Teysa)
- Tokens provide mana when sacrificed
- Excellent synergy with token doublers
14. Phyrexian Altar
Mana Cost:
Type: Artifact
Phyrexian Altar is the most powerful sacrifice outlet for combo purposes. Sacrificing creatures for colored mana enables infinite loops with cards like Reassembling Skeleton and Pitiless Plunderer. This card is a centerpiece of most Teysa combos.
Why it's great:
- Generates colored mana from sacrifices
- Enables multiple infinite combos
- Critical combo piece
15. Luminous Broodmoth
Mana Cost:
Type: Creature — Insect
Luminous Broodmoth returns nonflying creatures to the battlefield with a flying counter when they die. This creates incredible persistence for your aristocrats payoffs and can enable infinite loops when combined with certain sacrifice engines.
Why it's great:
- Brings back key creatures automatically
- Creates persistent board presence
- Combos with sacrifice outlets
Build Your Dream Teysa Deck
Teysa Karlov rewards careful deckbuilding with explosive, synergistic gameplay. Focus on including a balance of death trigger payoffs like Blood Artist and Zulaport Cutthroat, efficient sacrifice outlets like Viscera Seer and Phyrexian Altar, and recursive threats that keep the engine running.
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