Patience | Building Your Teval, The Balanced Scale Commander Deck

Teval, The Balanced Scale looks pretty tame at first glance. Flying is nice. Milling a few cards is fine. Getting a land back feels cute. Then you read the last line, and everything clicks.

“Whenever one or more cards leave your graveyard, create a 2/2 black Zombie Druid.”

Oh.

Oh no.

We’re cooking now.

Teval is secretly a value engine disguised as a fair midrange commander. She rewards you for attacking, for filling your graveyard, and for using it like a second hand. If you enjoy decks that grind, snowball, and turn random scraps into an undead army, you’re in the right place.

What Makes Teval So Fun

A Teval Commander Deck does not ask you to jump through weird hoops. You are not building around some narrow combo. You are just playing Magic and getting paid for it.

Every attack mills three cards. That alone feels great because self-mill is a feature, not a bug, in this deck. Then you get to return a land from your graveyard straight onto the battlefield tapped. That is quiet ramp every single turn.

But the real spice is the zombie clause. Any time a card leaves your graveyard, you make a 2/2 Zombie Druid. Reanimate something? Zombie. Escape a spell? Zombie. Exile your own card for value? Zombie.

Teval turns resource management into a creature factory. You are basically composting your graveyard into an army.

Early Game Strategy

Early game is all about setup. You want cards in your graveyard and Teval attacking as soon as possible.

This is where self-mill creatures shine. Stitcher’s Supplier is an all-star, dumping three cards early and then doing it again when it dies. Satyr Wayfinder finds lands while filling your graveyard. Skull Prophet ramps you while loading the yard. Everything you do is setting up future turns.

Once Teval hits the battlefield, protect her. You want her swinging every turn. Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots are clutch here. The first time you mill a land and immediately put it into play, you feel the engine start to hum.

And yes, you actively want to mill lands. Watching one hit the graveyard and then bringing it right back feels illegal. It is not. It is just good deck building.

Mid Game Strategy

This is where the deck starts feeling unfair in a very polite way.

Teval is attacking regularly. Your graveyard is stocked. Now you start using it.

Cast Eternal Witness to grab something back. A card leaves your graveyard. Zombie. Escape Uro. Zombie. Delve a spell. Zombie.

You are not even trying to go wide, and suddenly you have a board.

You can also get sneaky with exile. Scavenging Ooze does not just hate on opponents. You can eat your own cards for value and still trigger Teval. Even Bojuka Bog can target yourself if you need to reset and refill later. It feels wrong. It is right.

At this stage, you look helpful. You stop scary plays. You rebuild faster than everyone else. Meanwhile, your board keeps growing.

Late Game Strategy

By now, you are the problem.

Not explosive scary. More like “why do you have eleven lands and eight creatures?” scary.

This is when you turn value into a win. Overwhelming Stampede and Beastmaster Ascension end games out of nowhere. Craterhoof Behemoth does exactly what Craterhoof always does, and people suddenly check their removal.

But you can also grind forever. Muldrotha keeps your graveyard online. Life from the Loam makes sure you never miss land drops. Splendid Reclamation turns your graveyard into a second ramp phase.

The best part is that every card leaving your graveyard still makes zombies. You rebuild while everyone else is still scooping up cards.

5 Must-Include Cards

Teval’s Judgment

This card is basically Teval’s theme song.

Whenever one or more cards leave your graveyard, you get to choose a reward you have not chosen that turn. Draw a card. Make a Treasure. Create a Zombie.

That means every graveyard interaction becomes a mini menu of value. Early in the turn, you draw. Later, you grab mana. Then you finish with a zombie. It stacks up fast.

In Teval, you are triggering this constantly. Reanimation. Escape. Muldrotha casts. Everything feeds Judgment. It turns your natural gameplay into a full engine of cards, mana, and bodies.

Life from the Loam

This is the backbone of your deck.

Return three lands. That is already solid. But dredge is where things get gross. Instead of drawing, you mill three and bring Loam back to your hand.

So the loop becomes: Mill lands. Get them back. Attack with Teval. Put more lands into play. Repeat.

You never miss land drops. Your graveyard stays stocked. Your deck feels unstoppable. This card turns Teval into a ramp commander without ever playing Rampant Growth.

Colossal Grave-Reaver

This thing is secretly busted.

It flies. It mills when it enters or attacks. And whenever creature cards hit your graveyard from your library, you put one straight onto the battlefield.

No mana. No casting. Just vibes.

With Teval out, you are milling from two directions and cheating creatures into play. It snowballs fast and turns random mills into real threats.

Muldrotha, the Gravetide

Muldrotha is your late-game safety net.

Every turn, you get to play a land and cast a permanent of each type from your graveyard. That is already ridiculous.

In Teval, it is even better. Every permanent you replay leaves your graveyard, which triggers zombies and Teval’s Judgment if it is out. You are double dipping on value.

Removal barely matters anymore. You just rebuild. Again. And again. And again.

Phyrexian Altar

This is where things get dangerous.

Sacrifice a creature. Get mana of any color.

In Teval:

• Sacrifice a zombie.

• Get mana.

• Recur something.

• Zombie trigger.

• Make another token.

Even without infinite combos, this card gives you explosive turns, perfect mana fixing, and total control over your board. It turns your army into raw resources and opens the door for combo finishes if you want to go that route.

Is A Teval, The Balanced Scale Commander Deck Right for you?

Teval is one of those commanders who feels fair until it suddenly isn’t. You are not storming off. You are not combo-killing the table. You are just slowly outpacing everyone until they realize they are buried under lands and zombies.

You attack. You recycle. You grind. You win.

If you want to dip your toes into Graveyard recursion without looking like a big threat at the table, Teval is a blast to pilot. Every game feels different, and every graveyard tells a story.

And as always, all cards here can be picked up from our friends at TCG Player!.