I first heard about Commander (then known only as Elder Dragon Highlander) about five years ago. My first deck was built around Lyzolda, the Blood Witch, and it was awful. I had no idea how different EDH was from other formats, and the deck was a B/R aggro brew filled with cards such as Gobhobbler Rats. Multiplayer games run long with 40 life, and you don't want to be casting Rats when your opponents are casting Dragons. The deck didn't last a week.

My second attempt was built after I was better informed. I built Teneb, the Harvester and filled it with ramp spells, board sweepers, and fatties. It was awesome.

I'm a serious Timmy/Spike. I like to win, but I play for the experiences and drama. I love the way a well-timed Wrath of God can turn a game around, and my favorite victory is scraping by at 1 life because I played just right. Teneb was the perfect deck for me because the ramp let me make big plays, and winning was all about figuring out just when to cast my spells.

I built other decks, many of which remain to this day, but Teneb was my baby. He got sweet Russian copies of Profane Command, Austere Command, and Primal Command. He was my first deck to have shock lands. When I pulled a Bayou out of my prize packs at the Zendikar prerelease, it seemed like fate.

Teneb continued to grow in power as I collected old-school staples like Demonic Tutor and Vindicate. Ken Nagle helped out by giving us Worldwake, with Terastodon and Avenger of Zendikar. As my other decks became more tightly-themed, Teneb grew into a good-stuff powerhouse of ramp, control, and recursion. He was a fun deck to play as the eight-hundred-pound gorilla: I'd pull him out and be playing archenemy from turn one.

Then came Primeval Titan.

It was love at first sight. My friends and I joked that he had been specifically designed for me.¹ When I applied for the GDS2, I listed Primeval Titan as my favorite card to play.

Prime Time's combination of fun and power meant that I found myself tutoring and recurring him every single time I could. He started to overshadow Teneb as the deck's centerpiece—why gamble on maybe reanimating a creature next turn when I could just grab Kor Haven and Strip Mine now?

At first, I was okay with this shift, but things slowly got out of hand. Eventually, I was casting Exsanguinate more often than Teneb. The deck had become markedly less fun, feeling like an auto-pilot combo deck rather than a series of interesting strategic decisions. I figured it was acceptable to have one deck in my stable that focused on power rather than interaction or variety.

The final straw came when I realized that the deck wasn't even good in a competitive meta. It could stomp casual decks when the social contract protected it from fast combo and mass land destruction, but it wasn’t going to beat Hermit Druid or Armageddon. Why would I want a deck that only exists to beat up friends in a boring and repetitive manner?

The Banning of Prime Time

Just as I was mulling over what to do with the deck and whether to cut Primeval Titan entirely, he was banned. This very article was mostly finished, and it had just become a lot more topical.

I think the experience I had with Primeval Titan in Teneb matches many people’s experiences with him in Commander as a whole. Until the turn when you actually win the game, Prime Time is almost always better than anything else you could be doing. It doesn’t matter whether you’re casting him, tutoring for him, copying him, or reanimating him from someone else’s graveyard. He was a massively format-warping card, with too many games coming down to: “Who can get the most Prime Time triggers?”

So, as much as it pains me to see my favorite card banned, I think it’s good for Commander. Not everyone had this experience with the Titan, but enough people did that it was hurting the format.

All that leaves is what to do with Teneb. As my oldest and most cherished deck, I think he deserves the effort to make him fun and powerful again. It will take some time to bring him to where I want him, but here’s the point where I’m starting:

"Teneb, the Harvester"

• Commander (0)

• Land Search (15)
• 1 Expedition Map
• 1 Crop Rotation
• 1 Sylvan Scrying
• 1 Nature's Lore
• 1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1 Wood Elves
• 1 Knight of the Reliquary
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Realms Uncharted
• 1 Explosive Vegetation
• 1 Skyshroud Claim
• 1 Reap and Sow
• 1 Oracle of Mul Daya
• 1 Crucible of Worlds

• Threats (11)
• 1 Tooth and Nail
• 1 Terastodon
• 1 Avacyn, Angel of Hope
• 1 Angel of Despair
• 1 Avenger of Zendikar
• 1 Rune-Scarred Demon
• 1 Novablast Wurm
• 1 Pelakka Wurm
• 1 Spearbreaker Behemoth
• 1 Geth, Lord of the Vault
• 1 Kokusho, the Evening Star

• Card Selection (13)
• 1 Grisly Salvage
• 1 Sensei's Divining Top
• 1 Mirri's Guile
• 1 Sylvan Library
• 1 Demonic Tutor
• 1 Phyrexian Arena
• 1 Eternal Witness
• 1 Greater Good
• 1 Harmonize
• 1 Ambition's Cost
• 1 Jarad's Orders
• 1 Primal Command
• 1 Praetor's Counsel

• Reanimation (5)
• 1 Beacon of Unrest
• 1 Unburial Rites
• 1 Profane Command
• 1 Karmic Guide
• 1 Crime // Punishment

• Sweepers (7)
• 1 Rout
• 1 Hallowed Burial
• 1 Terminus
• 1 Austere Command
• 1 Akroma's Vengeance
• 1 Life's Finale
• 1 Fracturing Gust

• Spot Removal (10)
• 1 Snuff Out
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Snuff Out
• 1 Mortify
• 1 Putrefy
• 1 Vindicate
• 1 Maelstrom Pulse
• 1 Beast Within
• 1 Return to Dust
• 1 Acidic Slime

• Land (38)
• 1 Murmuring Bosk
• 1 Bayou
• 1 Overgrown Tomb
• 1 Godless Shrine
• 1 Temple Garden
• 1 Krosan Verge
• 1 Windswept Heath
• 1 Verdant Catacombs
• 1 Marsh Flats
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Twilight Mire
• 1 Fetid Heath
• 1 Wooded Bastion
• 1 Orzhov Basilica
• 1 Golgari Rot Farm
• 1 Selesnya Sanctuary
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Sungrass Prairie
• 1 Horizon Canopy
• 1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Sejiri Steppe
• 1 Vesuva
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Kor Haven
• 1 Phyrexian Tower
• 1 Strip Mine
• 1 Tectonic Edge
• 4 Forest
• 2 Plains
• 2 Swamp

Buy This Deck

¹ My three favorite things to do in Magic are search for lands, wrath, and attack with huge creatures. Novablast Wurm brought us a 7/7 that wrathed on each attack, and Primeval Titan was a 6/6 trample that ramped by turning sideways. I've joked that the only combination left is Ramp of God: : Destroy all creatures. Search your library for a basic land and put it onto the battlefield tapped.