This is one of those characters where there's almost too much material to reference for the build with ten different cards that directly represent him and another couple dozen of cards that reference, portray him, or include a quote from him. That's more than I can include in the build, so I tried to feature the most pertinent abilities. As always, this build is conceptualized entirely in a vacuum, with choices made in my best attempt to fit the character. These choice may not hold up in a campaign with different themes and should be adjusted accordingly.
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With that, let’s get into the build for Teferi from Magic the Gathering!
Illustration by Chris Rallis
TEFERI
CHARACTER Teferi Akosa
SOURCE Magic the Gathering
BUILD GOALS
o Teferi is a planeswalker hailing from Dominaria and is a powerful chronarch, a wizard specializing in time manipulation
o He is primarily associated with blue mana, representing logic and perfection through knowledge, but is also aligned to white mana, which embodies morality and order
o His single creature card, ‘Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, is a monoblue creature that grants flash to your creatures and prevents opponents from casting spells quickly
o While referenced in other cards, his remaining direct representations are planeswalker cards that have a variety of abilities and too many to cover
o Many have scrying effects, allowing him to look at cards in the library and order them, or the ability to draw two cards and then discard one, representing him choosing a timeline to travel down
o Among his more offensive effects are phasing enemies out of existence, preventing them from interacting with anything
o Many of his effects allow him to slow down the spells of his enemies while also casting spells quicker and untapping creatures, allowing them to act when they would otherwise be unable to
o While typically only found on his cards associated with white mana, some of Teferi’s powers also allow him to restore life
o Teferi was a student at an academy for magic that got caught in a slow-time bubble and was later rescued by several of his friends. In school, he was something of a prankster, who would use magic to jolt others
LEVEL 1
Ancestry & Heritage: Versatile Human
o Ability Boosts & Flaws: +Intelligence, +Wisdom
o Ancestry Feat: Natural Ambition – Counterspell
o General Feat: Toughness
Background: Time Traveler
o Ability Boosts: +Intelligence, +Dexterity
o Skill Increase: Academia Lore (trained), Planes Lore (trained), Warfare Lore
Class & Subclass: Divination Wizard with Spell Substitution Arcane Thesis
o Class Ability Boost: +Intelligence
o Skill Increase: Acrobatics (trained), Arcana (trained), Crafting (trained), Medicine (trained), Occultism (trained), Religion (trained), Society (trained)
o Spellbook: Cantrips – daze, detect magic, gale blast, light, mage hand, phase bolt, read aura, spout, shield, time sense; 1st – hydraulic push, illusory object, magic missile, shocking grasp, synchronize
Details
o Ability Boosts: +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Intelligence, +Wisdom (Str 10, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 18, Wis 14, Cha 10)
As per his single creature card, Teferi is built as a human wizard. Without any standout heritage, the versatile human heritage allows him to pick up Toughness so that he can hang in the fight a little longer. From his ancestry feats, he’ll use Natural Ambition to grab Counterspell. This is difficult to pull off early, but Teferi is rooted in blue mana and there’s no truer expression of this color identity than countering spells. Aside from his own mastery of time magic, Teferi spent some time caught in a time distortion field, which will be achieved with the time traveler background. From this, he’ll game Academia Lore for his time at the Tolarian Academy, Planes Lore since he is a planeswalker, and Warfare Lore since one of his cards creates and empowers knights. Many of Teferi’s cards include an ability to draw two cards but then requires you to discard a card. I feel that this represents him peering into the future and choosing a course of action. This in turn slots in nicely to a divination wizard, using the Spell Substitution arcane thesis to also represent him choosing the spells he wants to keep. Time sense and warp step are the only real first level options that interact with time manipulation, but he also takes shocking grasp because in his mischievous youth, he mastered a spell to jolt people with a handshake, like a joybuzzer. Additionally, Teferi has some effects to limit but not completely shut down the spell slinging of his opponents, which can be handily represented by the stupefied condition. An early option of inflicting that comes from the befuddle spell.
LEVEL 2
o Class Feat: Spellbook Prodigy
o Skill Feat: Recognize Spell
o Gear: everburning torch
LEVEL 3
o General Feat: Prescient Planner
o Skill Increase: Arcana (expert)
o Spellbook: 2nd – impeccable flow, loose time’s arrow
o Gear: hand of the mage, everburning torch, psychopomp mask
LEVEL 4
o Class Feat: Linked Focus
o Skill Feat: Magical Shorthand
o Spellbook: 2nd – touch of idiocy
o Gear: hat of the magi, brooch of shielding, hand of the mage, everburning torch
LEVEL 5
o Ability Boosts: +Dexterity, +Intelligence, +Wisdom, +Charisma (Str 10, Dex 16, Con 12, Int 19, Wis 16, Cha 12)
o Ancestry Feat: Clever Improviser
o Skill Increase: Medicine (expert)
o Spellbook: 3rd – day’s weight, impending doom, temporal twin
o Gear: healer’s gloves, hat of the magi, pendant of the occult, hand of the mage, everburning torch, psychopomp mask
Given the time that Teferi spent studying at the Tolarian Academy, Spellbook Prodigy will make it easier for Teferi to learn spells and its effects should stack with the Magical Shorthand skill feat. Linked Focus is another generally useful feat that will allow Teferi to turn back time to both regain a spell and a focus point, so that he can use diviner’s sight an additional time per day. For those spells that Teferi can’t counter, he can use Recognize Spell to know what’s coming for the party. In addition to his skill feats, Teferi begins investing some skill increases in Medicine since a few of his cards have healing capabilities. Given his ability to peer through time, he will of course have Prescient Planner so that he can pull out an item he needs for the event he saw coming. Clever Improviser feels like a fair fit for a characters who has walked through and experienced multiple planes and learned to survive each of them.
Teferi starts picking up a few time spells with this block, adding the likes of loose time’s arrow to give himself and his allies additional actions, day’s weight delivering the wear and tear of a whole day on a creature, and temporal twin allowing Teferi to pull a duplicate of himself or ally from the time stream – like when you have a Planeswalker and a creature version of a character out simultaneously though this duplicate is fairly simple. Haste is a solid buffing ability for Teferi that allows him to grant a companion some extra time. Touch of idiocy is an additional and longer lasting means of Teferi inflicting stupefied.
Illustration by Magali Villeneuve
LEVEL 6
o Class Feat: Time Mage Dedication
o Skill Feat: Battle Medicine
o Spellbook: 3rd – curse of lost time, time pocket
o Gear: +1 explorer’s clothing, azure briolette aeon stone, healer’s gloves, hat of the magi, brooch of shielding, hand of the mage
LEVEL 7
o General Feat: Prescient Consumable
o Skill Increase: Arcana (master)
o Spellbook: 4th – morass of ages, time jump, winning streak
o Gear: codex of unimpeded sight, +1 explorer’s clothing, agate ellipsoid aeon stone, healer’s gloves, hat of the magi, pendant of the occult
LEVEL 8
o Class Feat: Chronomancer’s Secrets – Stasis
o Skill Feat: Quick Recognition
o Spellbook: 4th – seal fate, stagnate time
o Gear: ring of wizardry (type I), codex of unimpeded sight, staff of divination, +1 explorer’s clothing, azure briolette aeon stone, healer’s gloves
LEVEL 9
o Ancestry Feat: Incredible Improvisation
o Skill Increase: Medicine (master)
o Spellbook: 5th – clairaudience, quicken time, rewinding step
o Gear: +1 resilient explorer’s clothing, ethersight ring, ring of wizardry (type I), codex of unimpeded sight, agate ellipsoid aeon stone, +1 striking staff
LEVEL 10
o Ability Boosts: +Dexterity, +Intelligence, +Wisdom, +Charisma (Str 10, Dex 18, Con 12, Int 20, Wis 18, Cha 14)
o Class Feat: Quickened Casting (Wizard)
o Skill Feat: Continual Recovery
o Skill Increase: Nature (trained)
o Spellbook: 5th – banishment, stagnate time
o Gear: vigilant eye, +1 resilient explorer’s clothing, wand of dumbfounding doom (3rd-level), ring of wizardry (type I), codex of unimpeded sight, staff of divination
As soon as he can, Teferi takes the Time Mage Dedication, which gives him an additional focus spell that he can use to save an ally or himself from danger. This is handy, but probably not the must useful of dedication feat. However, it will allow him to gain access to Chronomancer’s Secrets – and with it, the stasis focus spell. This will reflect Teferi’s to phase out enemies or allies, either removing foes for a round to turn the tide or saving an ally in a pinch. Further exploring his concept of time manipulation is actually a feat from his wizard class – Quickened Casting lets him cast a single spell faster once per round, letting him potentially squeeze two spells into a single round, which may help create the feel of his cards that allow spells to be cast outside of their normal parameters. Battle Medicine will allow Teferi to restore life in the midst of combat and Quick Recognition will both let him identify spells as a free action and set him up for another feat down the line. Continual Recovery rounds out his skill feats for this block, letting him keep his allies in tip-top shape. Prescient Consumable builds out of Prescient Planner much like Incredible Improvisation expands upon Clever Improviser.
Curse of lost time allows Teferi to affect items or creatures with temporal magic, morass of ages forms a distortion in time that turns an area into difficult terrain, and time jump can help Teferi get out of a tight spot as can rewinding step though it takes careful planning. Other good options include stagnate time to slow enemies, seal fate as Teferi sees their future, and then quicken time to gain quickened when they start their turn there.
LEVEL 11
o General Feat: Incredible Initiative
o Skill Increase: Occultism (expert)
o Spellbook: 6th – cast into time, collective transposition, scrying
o Gear: specialist’s ring, greater hat of the magi, vigilant eye, +1 resilient explorer’s clothing, ethersight ring, ring of wizardry (type I)
LEVEL 12
o Class Feat: Clever Counterspell
o Skill Feat: Ward Medic
o Spellbook: 6th – feeblemind, temporal ward
o Gear: +2 resilient explorer’s clothing, specialist’s ring, wand of dumbfounding doom (4th-level), vigilant eye, brooch of inspiration, wand of dumbfounding doom (3rd-level)
LEVEL 13
o Ancestry Feat: Hardy Traveler
o Skill Increase: Occultism (master)
o Spellbook: 7th – plane shift, time beacon, true target
o Gear: ring of wizardry (type III), +2 resilient explorer’s clothing, vigilant eye (greater), wand of dumbfounding doom (4th-level), greater hat of the magi, greater healer’s gloves
LEVEL 14
o Class Feat: Reflect Spell//Quickened Casting (Time Mage Dedication)
o Skill Feat: Trick Magic Item
o Spellbook: 7th – momentary recovery
o Gear: vigilant eye (major), ring of wizardry (type III), greater codex of unimpeded sight, +2 resilient explorer’s clothing, greater staff of divination, specialist’s ring
LEVEL 15
o Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Constitution, +Intelligence, +Wisdom (Str 12, Dex 18, Con 14, Int 21, Wis 19, Cha 14)
o General Feat: Fleet
o Skill Increase: Arcana (legendary)
o Spellbook: 8th – summon irii, summon archmage
o Gear: +2 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, vigilant eye (major), pale lavender ellipsoid aeon stone, greater staff of impossible visions, greater brooch of inspiration, bravery baldric (flight)
With the earlier Counterspell and Quick Recognition, Teferi can take Clever Counterspell to counteract any spell, even ones that he doesn’t have prepared. Further expanding upon that is Reflect Spell, which this build specifically takes based on Teferi’s ability to cast spells outside of their usual time. It allows him to cast a ‘sorcery’ during his opponent’s turn, but if this seems like too much of a stretch, Quickened Casting from the time mage archetype is a solid second option – if it works the way I think it does. I’ll admit, I’m a little unsure of it, but both the wizard class and time mage archetype offer the Quickened Casting feat. Teferi picked it up earlier from his class, but during this block, he can take Quickened Casting from his archetype, giving him two uses a day. Potentially, he could Quickened Casting two spells in the same turn, allowing him to get off spells that he would otherwise never be able to. Ward Medic further expands Teferi’s ability as a healer, quite possibly beyond his cards, but we’ve invested this much in Medicine, might as well make use of it. Being a far-ranging traveler who has encountered a variety of magical items and practices, both Trick Magic Item and Hardy Traveler seems like a natural fit.
Teferi finally picks up a damaging time spell with cast into time, which behaves as a mini-enemy phasing effect by removing the target until the end of his turn – which could potentially open up some movement opportunities for him. He’ll grab a few other time based spells such as temporal ward, time beacon, and summon irii, the last of which works particularly well with an MtG character where summoning is a main part of the game. The most brutal counter to enemy spellcasters is feeblemind, which he can pick up during this block. Finally, he wouldn’t be much of a planeswalker if he didn’t have plane shift.
Illustration by Wesley Burt
LEVEL 16
o Class Feat: Purge of Moments
o Skill Feat: Unified Theory
o Gear: robe of the archmagi, olivine pendeloque aeon stone, ring of wizardry (type IV), vigilant eye (major), greater staff of impossible visions, greater codex of unimpeded sight
LEVEL 17
o Ancestry Feat: Heroic Presence
o Skill Increase: Medicine (legendary)
o Spellbook: 9th – bilocation, foresight
o Gear: orange prism aeon stone, wand of continuation (6th-level), robe of the archmagi, olivine pendeloque aeon stone, pale lavender ellipsoid aeon stone, vigilant eye (major)
LEVEL 18
o Class Feat: Timeline-Splitting Spell
o Skill Feat: Quick Identification
o Gear: diadem of intellect, wand of dumbfounding doom (7th-level), orange prism aeon stone, major staff of impossible visions, +2 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, ring of wizardry (type IV)
LEVEL 19
o General Feat: Feather Step
o Skill Increase: Society (expert)
o Spellbook: 10th – gate, time stop
o Gear: +3 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, diadem of intellect, chronomancer staff, orange prism aeon stone, robe of the archmagi, wand of continuation (6th-level)
LEVEL 20
o Ability Boosts: +Constitution, +Intelligence, +Wisdom, +Charisma (Str 12, Dex 18, Con 16, Int 22, Wis 20, Cha 16)
o Class Feat: Spell Combination
o Skill Feat: Legendary Medic
o Skill Increase: Deception (trained)
o Gear: greater robe of the archmagi, +3 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, archivist’s gaze, chronomancer staff, wand of dumbfounding doom (7th-level), orange prism aeon stone
Purge of Moments is a nice way to represent Teferi’s phasing out mechanic that in this case, it specifically only functions for him. Timeline-Splitting Spell is an awesome metamagic feat that allows Teferi to briefly view the timeline and see which spell would be more effective before settling on one to have be reality. This matches well with his ability to draw cards and then pick what he wants to keep, but more it actually being put into practice. Wizard has some generally good but somewhat boring feats, but Teferi is going to go for one of the more exciting options in the form of Spell Combination. This allows him to mix two spells together to unleash at once, another way of him getting off multiple spells like nobody else would ever be able to. Unified Theory expresses Teferi’s mastery over arcane knowledge and allows him to use Trick Magic Item with his Arcana, regardless of the spell contained in whatever object he’s using. With his healing capabilities and association with white mana, taking Heroic Presence to give him an innate zealous conviction feels appropriate for his final ancestry feat.
The most important spell in this block is Teferi’s 10th-level spell – time stop. This specifically represents Teferi, Master of Time, which after your initial turn, allows you to take two additional turns for a total of three turns – just like what time stop grants.
FREE ARCHETYPE SUGGESTIONS: The free archetype rules allows Teferi to delve deeper into his Time Mage Dedication, letting him take options such as Quickened Casting, Into the Future, Read Disaster, and Echoing Spell without sacrificing any of his wizard feats for them. With these freed up wizard feats, options such as Split Slot, Bond Conservation, Superior Bond, and Infinite Possibilities stand out. Alternatively, Teferi could build into Magaambyan Attendant Dedication and then the Halcyon Speaker Dedication, mainly so that he can take tortoise and the hare and possibly heal.
BUILD CONCLUSION
This build features Teferi as a versatile human divination wizard with the spell substitution arcane thesis and the time traveler background. With a history as a student at the Tolarian Academy, Teferi has Academia Lore, Spellbook Prodigy and Magical Shorthand, and shocking grasp to represent one of his favorite pranks. As a chronarch, his primary focus is on time magic, but he also has some focus on seeing what the future holds and then choosing a path (‘Teferi Akosa of Zhalfir,’ ‘Teferi, Master of Time,’ ‘Teferi, Temporal Archmage’), which is represented by his divination school of magic and the spells that he gains from it. Options such as diviner’s sight, foresight, and the like provide more direct means of representing this. Teferi is able to phase out enemies (‘Teferi, Hero of Dominaria,’ ‘Teferi, Master of Time,’ ‘Teferi, Timeless Voyager’), temporarily removing them from combat to turn the tide and has options such as stasis, banishment, or cast into time to represent this though the latter only causes them to disappear until the end of his turn. To represent his slowing down of enemies and speeding up allies, Teferi uses spells such as haste, slow, quicken time, stagnate time, and winning streak. With some of his cards (‘Teferi, Timebender,’ ‘Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset’), granting minor healing, Teferi will invest in Medicine and take some of its related feats, such as Battle Medicine. Many of Teferi’s cards allow spells or Planeswalker abilities to be activated outside of your turn (‘Teferi, Temporal Archmage’ and ‘Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir,’), which he will try to achieve through options such as Quickened Casting speeding up his casting or Reflect Spell allowing him to turn spells back on their owners, affecting them with spells outside of his turn. Certain cards (‘Tefer, Time Raveler’ and ‘Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir’) limit the spellcasting of opponents, which he can do with options that provide the stupedfied condition such as befuddle, feeblemind, and touch of idiocy.
For this build, Teferi is a troublemaking traveler who triggers tears in terrors by tampering with time and tactically turning torturous totems topsy-turvy.
Illustration by Heonhaw Choe
Lemme know what you think and what other builds you would like to see!
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Have a fantastic Friday!
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