Ephara, God of the Polis - Flash & Taxes

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WizardMN
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Post by WizardMN » 2 years ago

I have never felt too bad about playing against Ur-Dragon. It is powerful and definitely not one you can just leave alone, but it always felt like the right kind of power level for EDH. Volo, on the other hand, I agree with. He seems innocuous enough but man can he go off. You basically cannot let him live which puts a strain on resources.

I think Mastery and Denial are both fine adds. I have yet to cast a Mastery in any game with anyh of my decks but it seems alright. Not as good as Hour of Revelation of course but a good out to just resetting things where we should be able to rebuild a little easier due to Ephara.

Glad you got a game in though and it doesn't sound like it went totally sideways so that is good.

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Post by pokken » 2 years ago

WizardMN wrote:
2 years ago
I have never felt too bad about playing against Ur-Dragon. It is powerful and definitely not one you can just leave alone, but it always felt like the right kind of power level for EDH. Volo, on the other hand, I agree with. He seems innocuous enough but man can he go off. You basically cannot let him live which puts a strain on resources.

I think Mastery and Denial are both fine adds. I have yet to cast a Mastery in any game with anyh of my decks but it seems alright. Not as good as Hour of Revelation of course but a good out to just resetting things where we should be able to rebuild a little easier due to Ephara.

Glad you got a game in though and it doesn't sound like it went totally sideways so that is good.
I think you tend to play more sweepers and removal than most? For me, when I'm playing my sweeper light decks, I always just get annihilated. Some of the new Ur Dragon tech like Hellkite Courser, Terror of the Peaks, Old Gnawbone and similar is just absolutely oppressive. You either have tons of removal to squash him or take 30 to the dome.

The last game we played (with other decks) Ur Dragon lethalled one person on turn 4 with a turn 3 Terror of the Peaks into turn 4 Hellkite Courser (kaboom), then killed me the next turn with the Atarka, World Render that dropped off Ur Dragon, on turn 5. My decks that are more loaded for bear tend to do fine but anything without 15 pieces of interaction will struggle. I feel like the deck is pretty over the top now, putting basically turn 4 or 5 pressure every game. Just Goldspan Dragon being a 4 drop is unreal-- they've really been pushing the power of 4-6 drop dragons, and when they're coming out on turn 3 it's quite rough.

The pivotal point in this game though came where Ur Dragon had the chance to kill Venser or Volo with Scourge of Valkas and chose Venser, so I blinked venser, but had to let Volo's Wandering Archaic // Explore the Vastlands cast Ephemerate as well. He manowar'd Ur Dragon's other dragon, then killed my Venser, Shaper Savant before I could ephemerate it, leaving me basically out of the game. Ur Dragon was basically grudging me for bouncing one of his ramp spells (horn of whatever) because I had zero other targets at the time, and just made a play that cost us both the game (we later discussed and he had wanted me to discuss it with him, but I'm like once something is on the stack I assume it's there and you don't want to talk about it:P).

As I think on it in retrospect, I think that I made a mistake antagonizing Ur Dragon at all, I should have forced Volo to deal with him and just had Venser bounce himself to get my cards flowing, however slowly. Or not kept a hand that banked on not enough creatures--Venser+Ephemerate seemed like a reasonable thing to try with turn 2 Ephara but it did not work out. Possibly should have waited anyway.

It was a great play on Volo's part, but really should not have happened; Ur Dragon should have known better than to leave Volo with Man-o'-War and Wandering Archaic // Explore the Vastlands to do his copying bullcrap when I was quite behind with no board other than Ephara and Venser and a Mox Diamond (that'd long since been left in the dust:P).

So, probably as much me bein rusty I guess as anything.

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Post by WizardMN » 2 years ago

I get that for sure. I have never had a game with Ur-Dragon go quite that quickly (I am used to them doing a slow build up to something insane later but the slow build up is often enough time to do something). Turn 4-6 is probably too fast to really get a foothold against them, I agree.

I am not sure on the antagonizing Ur-Dragon part. Though, I will admit, it is one of the more frustrating things about playing in groups. I get the idea that perhaps you made a play that affected them negatively, and maybe even wasn't the greatest play in hindsight, but I usually subscribe to the school of "retaliate once to make a point but then get back to the actual game". Even then, I try not to do it if there is a legitimate threat somewhere else but I can accept someone giving the one-shot back at me and then leaving it be. But having someone hold a grudge for the rest of the game is frustrating especially when another player is clearly going off.

I don't think you did anything wrong from a game perspective necessarily. Ur-Dragon just needs to take their lumps a little better. But, as flawed humans, I doubt any of us do that very well :P

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Post by pokken » 2 years ago

WizardMN wrote:
2 years ago
I get that for sure. I have never had a game with Ur-Dragon go quite that quickly (I am used to them doing a slow build up to something insane later but the slow build up is often enough time to do something). Turn 4-6 is probably too fast to really get a foothold against them, I agree.

I am not sure on the antagonizing Ur-Dragon part. Though, I will admit, it is one of the more frustrating things about playing in groups. I get the idea that perhaps you made a play that affected them negatively, and maybe even wasn't the greatest play in hindsight, but I usually subscribe to the school of "retaliate once to make a point but then get back to the actual game". Even then, I try not to do it if there is a legitimate threat somewhere else but I can accept someone giving the one-shot back at me and then leaving it be. But having someone hold a grudge for the rest of the game is frustrating especially when another player is clearly going off.

I don't think you did anything wrong from a game perspective necessarily. Ur-Dragon just needs to take their lumps a little better. But, as flawed humans, I doubt any of us do that very well :P
So I talked it over with the ur dragon player who's a good buddy of mine and we agreed we were both being dumb, lol. We didn't correctly assess the threat of volo and I had some prior game scarring from gettin ruined by Dragons :P He overreacted by scourging venser and I probably should not have poked him to begin with. Neither of us had played against Volo and it got waaay out of hand really fast.

--

Looking forward to jamming some more games this week. It seems like a lot of the community is catching up power level wise. One thing I am giving some thought to is going even further in my anti-ramp journey and swapping Impulse in for Arcane Signet, possibly adding Crucible of Worlds as a more reliable source of land drops - though I'd love to see that effect on a creature in white, really. No reason at all it couldn't be.

Also strongly considering adding Devastating Mastery or Vanquish the Horde as options. I'm hopeful we get some more creature effects for interaction as stuff like Solitude and Skyclave Apparition both seem to be pretty solid, but I wouldn't mind like....a cheaper Angel of the Dire Hour or something :P

Still quite excited for this upcoming set, as spirits often bring a lot of adjacent stuff that synergizes with Ephara (blinking, flash), and I believe there is a new spirit commander deck.

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Post by shermanido37 » 2 years ago

Overcharged Amalgam is a great start to the spoiler season and will probably be making my list.
I'm also looking into Devastating Mastery - Planar Cleansing effects have proven to be quite powerful, especially when they're cheap, and I consider the drawback to be next to meaningless in multiplayer - in fact it can be a political play that gains you favor, which Ephara really needs.
However, Vanquish the Horde is more meta dependent in my opinion, even though it's almost certainly going to be super cheap. There's a reason why Day of Judgement effects are seeing less play - they kill only creatures and not indestructibles, which are becoming more and more common.

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Post by pokken » 2 years ago

shermanido37 wrote:
2 years ago
Overcharged Amalgam is a great start to the spoiler season and will probably be making my list.
I'm also looking into Devastating Mastery - Planar Cleansing effects have proven to be quite powerful, especially when they're cheap, and I consider the drawback to be next to meaningless in multiplayer - in fact it can be a political play that gains you favor, which Ephara really needs.
However, Vanquish the Horde is more meta dependent in my opinion, even though it's almost certainly going to be super cheap. There's a reason why Day of Judgement effects are seeing less play - they kill only creatures and not indestructibles, which are becoming more and more common.
sweet hibbity bibbity Overcharged Amalgam is no maybe about it, that's the most autoinclude creature we have had since I don't even know :)

A flying 3-3 4 mana counterspell that also stops triggered abilities? My lord. That card is almost good enough to rebuild the entire deck around having cheap instant sped blinks tbh. As is, it goes amazingly well with setting up Soulherder + Whitemane Lion (which is already really good).

It also really ups the stock of incidental token production like Nadir Kraken and Field of the Dead.

Agree re: Devastating Mastery - the side effect is honestly a powerful political tool if 2+players are left. Rarely is one of them an actual threat and them being slightly more threatening is good for us usually.

I agree re: Vanquish, but the efficiency is pretty unreal though.

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Post by shermanido37 » 2 years ago

I wouldn't overrate the zombie. 4 mana is a lot to keep up, and sacrificing a creature is a real cost. This card is not quite nearly Venser, Shaper Savant, even if the body is better.

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Post by pokken » 2 years ago

shermanido37 wrote:
2 years ago
I wouldn't overrate the zombie. 4 mana is a lot to keep up, and sacrificing a creature is a real cost. This card is not quite nearly Venser, Shaper Savant, even if the body is better.
4 is a lot, but I've played Venser, Shaper Savant for years, and dealt with the inability to counter triggers with any of my counterspells enough that I have a foil Disallow in my ephara binder :P

There are just so many abilities you can get with this that win you the game or save it.

I think it's an autoinclude, although I actually would have preferred a 2/2 :P

I'm thinking now that it's probably not worth trying to jam more instant speed blink effects in - the sacrificing requirement makes that pretty tough to set up as you set your board back.

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Post by pokken » 2 years ago

I'm not sure but engulfing tide from the new set may be what we were looking for as a third wrath that hits everything and beats indestructible. It has some serious downsides, but a lot of upside as well. 2UU is a great price point for this effect, and is functionally superior even to a miracle'd Devastation Tide which we'd have to play 3UUW for most of the time.

It very well might have a draw 2 or 3 stapled to it as well which is kinda nice. Usually at least a draw 1.

Sets up a pretty nice 8 mana soft lock with Archaeomancer as well.

That said, letting them choose is...very risky :) Womp.

(My first read on this was that we choose - much, much worse if they choose, and probably unplayable)





Eh, seems pretty good, easy to forget about Emeria Angel which is not quite good enough (and works on any landfall not just playing a land), but the added utility of being a flash creature with graveyard hate might be enough to be playable, especially if you get an instant and get to generate creatures off of instants.

It's kind of interesting in that it does an impression of cards like Monastery Mentor and Emeria Angel who have both been either in the deck or could be, but also has flash and a little graveyard hate.

One potential upside is getting an artifact creature, which lets us use Sensei's Divining Top and also Whitemane Lion to make a lot of bodies pretty fast.

I'll definitely think about it, though I don't think it's quite good enough making 1/1s.

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Post by shermanido37 » 2 years ago

I don't see a world where you're running this and not running Keeper of the Accord. Create tokens and ramp lands while doing nothing vs. flash creature that exacerbates cards that you're already playing. The card seems to be a pretty trash mythic in my eyes.
Devastation Tide, Time Wipe, and Evacuation are the premium wipes for Ephara that combo with Archaeomancer, and to me they seem quite enough. Engulfing Tide letting our opponent keep their Kozilek, Butcher of Truth while we have to bounce everything to hand is a big no-no for me.

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Post by pokken » 2 years ago

shermanido37 wrote:
2 years ago
I don't see a world where you're running this and not running Keeper of the Accord. Create tokens and ramp lands while doing nothing vs. flash creature that exacerbates cards that you're already playing. The card seems to be a pretty trash mythic in my eyes.
Devastation Tide, Time Wipe, and Evacuation are the premium wipes for Ephara that combo with Archaeomancer, and to me they seem quite enough. Engulfing Tide letting our opponent keep their Kozilek, Butcher of Truth while we have to bounce everything to hand is a big no-no for me.
The main thing that cemetery dude has over keeper is being flash and incidental grave hate. I don't think it's enough to play a 4 drop, honestly. The 4 drop creatures I am currently:
Of these, I think archaeomancer, glorious protector and selfless squire have arguments to cut, but venser/artisans/archmage are pretty monstrous. The soft locks with archmage have always been so good, venser is obvious, and artisans is probably the most powerful 4 drop in the deck.

But when you look at those cards and the things they offer - they all offer a ton of utility other than being engines, except for Selfless Squire who is a strong piece of interaction.

I think you're right in the end, if Keeper wasn't good enough there's no world in which I'm cutting one of these things for incidental grave hate with an awkward engine.

At 1WW I think it's something we play though.

--

And I obviously came to the same conclusion re Engulfing Tide :) Leaving their best permanent is bad news. Leaving their worst permanent would have been fine.

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Post by Wallycaine » 2 years ago

pokken wrote:
2 years ago



Eh, seems pretty good, easy to forget about Emeria Angel which is not quite good enough (and works on any landfall not just playing a land), but the added utility of being a flash creature with graveyard hate might be enough to be playable, especially if you get an instant and get to generate creatures off of instants.

It's kind of interesting in that it does an impression of cards like Monastery Mentor and Emeria Angel who have both been either in the deck or could be, but also has flash and a little graveyard hate.

One potential upside is getting an artifact creature, which lets us use Sensei's Divining Top and also Whitemane Lion to make a lot of bodies pretty fast.

I'll definitely think about it, though I don't think it's quite good enough making 1/1s.
Just a quick note: this only acts as a Emeria Angel if you exiled a land for its ETB, or in corner cases with exiling an artifact or enchantment and playing a land with the same type.

It's definitely an interesting card to evaluate, and I feel like it's going have a lot of interesting variance. It feels like the ideal scenario for Ephara is going to be dropping it to counter a recursion spell on an instant, and having a hand full of interaction to keep triggering it and drawing cards from Ephara. But I agree that hitting creatures is kinda win more unless you have a particular combo going.

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Post by pokken » 2 years ago

Wallycaine wrote:
2 years ago
Just a quick note: this only acts as a Emeria Angel if you exiled a land for its ETB, or in corner cases with exiling an artifact or enchantment and playing a land with the same type.

It's definitely an interesting card to evaluate, and I feel like it's going have a lot of interesting variance. It feels like the ideal scenario for Ephara is going to be dropping it to counter a recursion spell on an instant, and having a hand full of interaction to keep triggering it and drawing cards from Ephara. But I agree that hitting creatures is kinda win more unless you have a particular combo going.
Yeah, it's more like it's kind of a mediocre version of a bunch of cards that are borderline good enough - sometimes it can impersonate either Monastery Mentor or Emeria Angel and it has a little bit of upside an downside over both (e.g. no prowess on the monks, no flying, no triggering on multiple landfalls for angel, etc.)

I could definitely see it playing in an Ephara deck that already wants as many copies of Monastery Mentor as possible and I think that's its second best angle.

The best angle I think is in an Ephara deck focused on Shimmer Myr type stuff that wants to play a ton of artifacts and make bodies off them. Which I've long thought is a playable build. It's so easy to exile an artifact creature from your bin. You could also exile an artifact/enchantment and have a lot of both of those I guess?

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Post by Wallycaine » 2 years ago

The one significant upside it has going for it is the native flash. And even though it's weaker version of each individual effect, there's something to be said for the utility of being able to pick (with some limitations) which effect it's going to be. Hand full of land and flash creatures? Making a weak Emeria Angel at the last opponent's end step is a nice way to keep the cards flowing. Lot of non-creature artifacts? Weak Monastery Mentor isn't the worst spot to be in, especially at flash speed. It's plausible that the modality may make it stronger than the individual parts. Of course, it's also plausible that there will be enough times where you can't pick the effect you want because there isn't the right card type in the graveyard, or have to pick between the "graveyard interaction" side of things and the "token generation" side of things that it ends up disappointing.

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Post by pokken » 2 years ago

Wallycaine wrote:
2 years ago
The one significant upside it has going for it is the native flash. And even though it's weaker version of each individual effect, there's something to be said for the utility of being able to pick (with some limitations) which effect it's going to be. Hand full of land and flash creatures? Making a weak Emeria Angel at the last opponent's end step is a nice way to keep the cards flowing. Lot of non-creature artifacts? Weak Monastery Mentor isn't the worst spot to be in, especially at flash speed. It's plausible that the modality may make it stronger than the individual parts. Of course, it's also plausible that there will be enough times where you can't pick the effect you want because there isn't the right card type in the graveyard, or have to pick between the "graveyard interaction" side of things and the "token generation" side of things that it ends up disappointing.
Yeah, it's possible that the whole is more than the sum there. I'll probably pick one up for posterity but I think the combination of mana value 4 and not being recruiterable will make it not quite good enough.

I think the thing I like the most about it is all the branches - you pick what you need based on what your hand is and so it's probably going to create a more dynamic feel in gameplay. As opposed to Monastery Mentor where you have to bring a certain pile of instants and you know what you're doing for sure every time. It's a lot less linear than many other options.

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Post by pokken » 2 years ago

Mirrorhall Mimic is pretty powerful. Functionally a game winning combo with Agent of Treachery and also Serra's Emissary.

Not sure it's quite good enough for me but it's a darn nice clone.

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Post by pokken » 2 years ago



Hrum.

3/1, weird first strike shenanigans, open discard outlet for discarding fatties and/or combo pieces..

This card is pretty hard to evaluate but I think it might actually make the list. It doesn't actually generate card advantage but velocity, but costing 0 mana to generate velocity and being much cheaper than other cards that do similar like Saltskitter, Being able to protect itself at a cost of extra cards is very good too.

I don't think we ever tutor for that card, but I imagine we'd be fairly happy to see it most of the time? I dunno.

The cards like Cloudseeder I tried that did this didn't net you a guaranteed draw 4/discard 4, and making a single body was not good enough. 4 cards of velocity is an awful lot. Cloudseeder costing mana was also impactful a lot.

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Post by Rumpy5897 » 2 years ago

Yeah, this feels quite good here. While I don't play the deck, from my outsider perspective I'm more excited by this card than the flash counter dude. Two mana for repeated rummage on off turns is good for finding the engine that will obsolete this :P
 
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Post by pokken » 2 years ago

Rumpy5897 wrote:
2 years ago
Yeah, this feels quite good here. While I don't play the deck, from my outsider perspective I'm more excited by this card than the flash counter dude. Two mana for repeated rummage on off turns is good for finding the engine that will obsolete this :P
There's quite a bit of graveyard shenanigans too, from Sevinne's Reclamation to Sun Titan to Karmic Guide and Reveillark etc., even Emeria, the Sky Ruin and Body Double.

It's certainly very efficient mana-wise.

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Post by shermanido37 » 2 years ago

I actually really like it. It has pseudo-vigilance, its best ability is mana-free, and giving it first strike is pretty damn good at both offense and defense, especially considering its cost. With both this and Forbid, I might actually start to consider more graveyard shenanigans...

Also, with this set, I just might end up creating a third Ephara list as a spirit tribal. They are quite formidable.

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Post by pokken » 2 years ago

shermanido37 wrote:
2 years ago
I actually really like it. It has pseudo-vigilance, its best ability is mana-free, and giving it first strike is pretty damn good at both offense and defense, especially considering its cost. With both this and Forbid, I might actually start to consider more graveyard shenanigans...

Also, with this set, I just might end up creating a third Ephara list as a spirit tribal. They are quite formidable.
Yeah I think there is definitely spirit support for Ephara at this point. Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit was almost good enough just as a card.

I'm getting closer and closer to just sucking it up and adding Crucible of Worlds lol :)

Oh, it's very good with Land Tax also. That's nice. Might be worth thinking about bringing that back if I keep cutting down on rocks.

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Post by pokken » 2 years ago

Well, cemetery illuminator is our (near?) autoinclude for the set. Repeatable graveyard hate with card advantage.

Hullbreaker Horror is not an autoinclude but a very viable wincondition. Tide spout is "better" but flash and uncounterable and a mana cheaper is pretty legit.

With that plus tidespout I think there might be an opportunity for just doing multicasts as the win angle. Pretty brutal really and comboing with mana rocks is very powerful.

Definitely one to pick up. I love how it naturally beats rule of law effects too lol.

edit--



Thinking about a possible major retool with Hullbreaker; I always had really good luck with Tidespout Tyrant but him being the only out was problematic if he got removed. Having a potential second copy is intriguing.

One issue with that is that many of the cards that I currently play as combo pieces - Body Double and Karmic Guide for example - are very good with setting up Intuition packages with Hullbreaker Horror.

Assuming I wanted to go that way and tighten up my combo angle quite bit, here are some things I could add/remove:

Reveillark - not needed
Altar of Dementia - not needed
Sevinne's Reclamation - questionable, no longer needed for intuition packages. Although it does make Intuition get the entire infinite mana combo with this guy (get reclamation + 2 mana rocks).
Serra's Emissary - just an easy cut for the breaker
Agent of Treachery - fairly easy cut for Tidespout Tyrant potentially, just by virtue of being on the top end of the curve

If I were to play more flash creatures and less ETB shenanigans, I could probably make do without some of the slow blink value engines, so cards like: Become a little iffy - Still pretty good, but I could see them being on the chopping block.

Because of the Tyrant effects comboing with mana rocks pretty easily we likely want to add back in some of those, especially Chrome Mox, but also all the signets that now make infinite colored mana with two rocks. So that means probably that:

Knight of the White Orchid and Ornithopter of Paradise are on the chopping block at minimum for Azorius Signet and Chrome Mox.

With less emphasis on Reveillark shenanigans I think Cathar Commando potentially is cuttable, especially since my combo now deals with all problem permanents.

Trinket Mage's stock goes up an awful lot, but it's also a very nice blink target. It's possible that Tolaria West becomes useful again too since finding a combo piece is very nice (which also makes Expedition Map great).

Archaeomancer and Ephemerate are still *fine* but I think they become cuttable if I'm trying to do Tyrant lock as a wincon, especially since Arch is so damn slow. Ephemerate probably stays because of the Spellseeker line to find Intuition.

Skyclave Apparition is probably cuttable as another derpy ETB effect that is largely unnecessary at sorcery speed.

Brought Back probably less good without the sac outlet, although it still works as bad Rampant Growth and to defend critters.

Hmmmm. I might need to fork the list for this, and I definitely need to add Mana Vault.

The stock of cards like Vanquish the Horde definitely go up a bit when you can go from no creatures on board to winning immediately after an end step play with not that much mana.

With either Tidespout Tyrant or Hullbreaker Horror being functionally one card combos, I think there's an argument to be made for playing Long-Term Plans as well.

Recruiter of the Guard makes a pretty snappy 2 card combo with either, in that you can get Trinket Mage for a combo rock then bounce the mage with the rock and get a second rock (all for only bout 7 mana if you get Mana Crypt).

Oh, and Fleeting Spirit is a pretty good way to get either of these guys in the yard if I need to get more mana efficient. Makes me wish there was an actual efficient reanimate in white like Animate Dead. Maybe Emeria Shepherd is good enough to think about as a third fatty.

I guess I'll stew on it a bit and see if I'm right but I think this line is quite a bit more compact and mana efficient. The struggle really is with finding it being largely dependent on Intuition, but I have a lot of potential ways to find pieces.

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Post by shermanido37 » 2 years ago

Honestly, I appreciate the card as a combo engine and everything, but I just love it as a flash nonsense enabler. With Rule of Law effects this may as well win the game for me on the spot.
With that in mind I don't see a point to removing cards that are just flat out good. Ephemerate has been bananas good for me. Thassa, Deep-Dwelling, Skyclave Apparition, and some other friends will likely be staying in my list even if I do choose to play the combo.
However, you are right in that if you play both Tyrant and Horror, you will probably not be playing any other 7+ cost cards, and maybe even not 6+. Let me know how it goes and I might make up my mind. I will probably never try to acquire Intuition, though, and it's kind of annoying that Long-Term Plans is now 4$.

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Post by pokken » 2 years ago

shermanido37 wrote:
2 years ago
Honestly, I appreciate the card as a combo engine and everything, but I just love it as a flash nonsense enabler. With Rule of Law effects this may as well win the game for me on the spot.
With that in mind I don't see a point to removing cards that are just flat out good. Ephemerate has been bananas good for me. Thassa, Deep-Dwelling, Skyclave Apparition, and some other friends will likely be staying in my list even if I do choose to play the combo.
However, you are right in that if you play both Tyrant and Horror, you will probably not be playing any other 7+ cost cards, and maybe even not 6+. Let me know how it goes and I might make up my mind. I will probably never try to acquire Intuition, though, and it's kind of annoying that Long-Term Plans is now 4$.
It is a good point that white mane lion plus tyrant effect is borderline hard lock so may be worth jamming at least archon but possibly eidolon.

These cards are pretty dominant as just engines - cards like curio and that enchantment that lets you pay one to bounce a dude have always been borderline playable. And these just win too sometimes

I think the challenge really is I have a serious glut of fairly overcosted creatures taking up space but what I might do is try a small switch and just cut the fatties and lark plus altar and the mana ramp dudes. Pretty straight swap.

I do think ephemerate and thassa probably stay but gotta think on that. Ephemerate is a very strong way to defend krak for sure.

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shermanido37
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Post by shermanido37 » 2 years ago

New soulbond angel Breathkeeper Seraph is worth a mention. Bond with an important creature to protect it, as well as re-bond when it comes back. Bond with any creature to protect the angel, so that when it dies it comes back and can bond with any other creature.
With a sac outlet this becomes a constant source of card draw, and with outlets like Phyrexian Altar or Ashnod's Altar can be massive over time.
It's no proper combo piece, but a great engine over time to be sure.

I do think Equilibrium is decent in a budget build, but nowhere near inclusion as power levels go up.

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