Commander: Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle

Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle is a Commander that begs us to build combos around him. Let's see what we can do, given that we are restricted to Mono White!

Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle

The first thing we wanted to do is find all of the decent self-milling options that are available to us in just white and colorless, to see if this deck would even be plausible. We found these strong options:

1 Codex Shredder
1 Excavated Wall
1 Gate to the Afterlife
1 Perpetual Timepiece
1 Relic Golem
1 Altar of Dementia
1 Ghoulcaller's Bell
1 Grindclock
1 Grinding Station
1 Mesmeric Orb
1 Millikin
1 Shard of Broken Glass
1 Shriekhorn
1 Wand of Vertebrae
1 Hazoret's Monument
1 Mask of Memory
1 Skeleton Key
1 Smuggler's Copter
1 Zephyr Boots

If we're hurting for more of this effect, we also found some additional ways to fill the graveyard, but we think that these are a step weaker for this strategy and will only include some if we need to.

1 Hair-Strung Koto
1 Keening Stone
1 Millstone
1 Sands of Delirium
1 Screaming Shield
1 Tower of Murmurs
1 Whetstone
1 Jalum Tome
1 Key to the City

Now that we've guaranteed that we can turn a bunch of cards face up, we needed to take a look at the small creatures that we can potentially return from our Historic triggers. There are several obvious slam dunks, such as Trusty Packbeast, Treasure Hunter, and Scrap Trawler, but it turns out there are really just a ton of options available and we'll have to trim it down to decide which combos we want to focus on.

1 Trusty Packbeast
1 Treasure Hunter
1 Salvage Scout
1 Glint Hawk
1 Leonin Squire
1 Restoration Specialist
1 Skyclave Apparition
1 Aviary Mechanic
1 Kami of False Hope
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Kor Skyfisher
1 Selfless Savior
1 Myr Retriever
1 Scrap Trawler
1 Junk Diver
1 Workshop Assistant
1 Ornithopter
1 Filigree Familiar
1 Foundry Inspector
1 Salvager of Ruin
1 Skyscanner
1 Mentor of the Meek
1 Memnite
1 Cathodion
1 Burnished Hart
1 Myr Moonvessel
1 Perilous Myr
1 Jhoira's Familiar
1 Ranger-Captain of Eos
1 Recruiter of the Guard
1 Scrapyard Recombiner
1 Leonin Relic-Warder
1 Benevolent Bodyguard
1 Shimmer Myr
1 Pilgrim's Eye
1 Bounty Agent
1 Vesperlark
1 Phyrexian Walker
1 Knight of the White Orchid
1 Palladium Myr
1 Militia Bugler
1 Dauntless Bodyguard
1 Mangara of Corondor
1 Wall of Omens
1 Selfless Spirit
1 Skittering Surveyor
1 Daxos, Blessed by the Sun
1 Heliod, Sun-Crowned
1 Bygone Bishop
1 Remorseful Cleric
1 Thraben Inspector
1 Mother of Runes
1 Auriok Salvagers
1 Ranger of Eos
1 Scarecrone

What a list to consider! Trimming this down will be fun. We also want to jam in some cheap historic triggers, so let's find all of the awesome artifacts that can be cast for cheap or that can contribute to our combos:

1 Conjurer's Bauble
1 Lodestone Bauble
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Skullclamp
1 Blasting Station
1 Krark-Clan Ironworks
1 Urza's Bauble
1 Mishra's Bauble
1 Desecrated Tomb
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
1 Phyrexian Altar
1 Relic Vial
1 Implement of Improvement
1 Genesis Chamber
1 The Birth of Meletis
1 Elspeth Conquers Death
1 Chromatic Sphere
1 Chromatic Star
1 Mox Amber
1 Mox Opal
1 Mana Vault
1 Jeweled Lotus
1 Mana Crypt - Book Promos
1 Terrarion
1 Springleaf Drum
1 Barbed Sextant
1 Paradise Mantle

These are some more artifacts that we think are awesome with Teshar but could see them not making the cut depending on the composition of your specific list.

1 Ichor Wellspring
1 Claws of Gix
1 Soul-Guide Lantern
1 Aetherflux Reservoir
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Mystic Forge
1 Mycosynth Wellspring
1 Semblance Anvil
1 Sunbeam Spellbomb
1 Oketra's Monument
1 Culling Dais
1 Cloud Key
1 Sword of the Animist
1 Lotus Petal
1 Golden Egg
1 Guild Globe
1 Prophetic Prism
1 Arcum's Astrolabe

We might be tight on space after looking at all these sweet options for the deck, but there are still some support cards for the strategy that are just too perfect not to mention.

1 Fanatical Devotion
1 Brought Back
1 Faith's Reward
1 Second Sunrise
1 Sevinne's Reclamation
1 Board the Weatherlight
1 Citywide Bust
1 Open the Vaults
1 Steelshaper's Gift
1 Martyr's Cause

We'll want to include as many cheap mana rocks as we can obviously, since they both give us historic triggers and let us curve out Teshar earlier. Here are all the options available to a mono white deck (besides the $$$ Moxes mentioned earlier).

1 Mind Stone
1 Gold Myr
1 Sol Ring
1 Everflowing Chalice
1 Arcane Signet
1 Marble Diamond
1 Prismatic Lens
1 Fellwar Stone
1 Thought Vessel
1 Coldsteel Heart
1 Hedron Crawler
1 Sphere of the Suns
1 Star Compass

The manabase for a mono colored deck is pretty easy, but there happen to be quite a few lands that contribute to our artifact strategy:

1 Sequestered Stash
1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
1 Sejiri Shelter/Sejiri Glacier
1 Ondu Inversion/Ondu Skyruins
1 Buried Ruin
1 Inventors' Fair
1 War Room
1 Phryexia's Core
1 High Market
1 Secluded Steppe
1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
1 Command Beacon
1 Arch of Orazca
1 Castle Ardenvale
1 Myriad Landscape

That's all for now! We are really excited about this archetype, so we'll be building a custom version of this deck and putting it for sale on our website. Be sure to check back later for that, or feel free to browse our other Custom Commander decks! Thanks for reading!

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Michael Schuller