Ephara, God of the Polis - Flash & Taxes

[WizardMN]

First, if this is true, this appears to the Vanguard card getting its second Legendary.

Second, I think I would play this. I prefer it over Brazen Borrower // Petty Theft (which I think I already cut anyway?) and gives a number of decent lines. The second ability becomes a little harder to make good use out of though. Maybe with some Eldrazi Displacer shenanigans? Venser, Shaper Savant helps too but it seems odd to use these on our own stuff for "just" a card.

[pokken]

Being another card that allows displacer to protect itself which is very nice, a la whitemane etc.

With whitemane and stonecloaker and even venser I've got a lot of ways to dig some extra cards with his end step trigger.

Bouncing Planeswalkers is not amazing but I have seen the need for it before.

It also works w cartographer hawk I guess

[shermanido37]

So suddenly, Whitemane Lion is Divination each turn? Plus Barrin is YEETing something on entry for more abusable shenanigans?
I don't think it will push out Brazen Borrower // Petty Theft for me, that card is super solid on its own. But the potential is unreal, so something will certainly leave the list for it.
If I'll go along with the Knowledge Pool changes as planned, I'd also like ways to play around the Pool while other stumble through it. Scroll of Fate is great to put stuff into play, draw cards from it then blink it with Closet effects.

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On another note, as the product of a random Mystery draft (tons of fun, highly recommended), I now have a foil Intruder Alarm. I'm trying to think of ways to break it, whether in Ephara or not.

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EDIT: Niambi, apart from being a strictly better Deputy of Acquittals, is a juicy piece of tech that helps us with lifegain. I also like the last ability to help us with bad legendaries in a pinch. Not sure if she'll make it in, but it's definitely worth considering.

[Rumpy5897]

Intruder Alarm was a formidable value/combo piece in my Kumena fishsticks deck. Draw for days, untapping and shenanigans in other people's turns. Might be up your street.

That Barrin is likely legit, it also leaked earlier as part of a larger batch that has just about entirely come true by now, and there's known new Barrin art. Note it says your end step only, so unless someone messed up card text from memory it doesn't strike me as super exciting.

I'm not sure how I feel about your pursuit of ETB value shenanigans. I'm not saying it makes the deck worse or something, but at what point do you just fess up that you'd be better off jamming Brago in the command zone? I had a similar situation with my Tromokratis, where I ended up with a somewhat archetypical mono blue tempo/control shell and would have likely been better off swapping the driver.

[pokken]

I'm not sure how I feel about your pursuit of ETB value shenanigans. I'm not saying it makes the deck worse or something, but at what point do you just fess up that you'd be better off jamming Brago in the command zone?

So I'll let you in on a dirty little secret about blink decks that I've discovered but is not amazingly intuitive:

Blink decks mostly *suck* if you don't find a dude who draws cards to blink. And so you have to devote a lot of effort to that. And many times if people get rid of it you're boned. I've totally upended a Brago player's game by killing his Wall of Omens before.

Every blink deck I have ever played has suffered from this. If I don't find fblthp or wall of omens or whatever the deck doesn't really work. It creates wildly swingy gameplay experiences where you have to have critical mass of those effects and tutors to find them.

Ephara just does not give a crap. She turns every ETB dude into card draw and so you'll notice I don't even play the arguably best ETB draw spell in the colors (Mulldrifter) because I don't have to do that.

It's a very, very different play style that lets you do things differently. I don't even really need a blink engine - it's nice but I can usually just chain the medium creatures into an endgame.

And none of that is before getting into how much more resilient Ephara is. I think she's died once in my last 10 games.

I actually think Ephara just creates a better experience overall (for everyone) as a blink commander than Brago despite his combo potential being higher - that style of gameplay of trying to force through Brago attacks is just ugh. Telegraphed and awkward.

That said, I definitely empathize with the concerns over it becoming a blink deck - it surely has drifted into more Flickerwisp and less Thalia, Guardian of Thraben as far as its focus goes, but it's also brought a ton of flash / instant speed shenanigans which makes the deck pretty interactive.

I think it brings a lot to the table that's different from a typical blink deck.

[pokken]

Just to add, part of it is that Wizards is printing insanely powerful cards that push the blink and tempo envelopes - while the hatebears they are printing are largely either too narrow or require a whole deck rewrite, (e.g. Hushbringer. I did play Hushbringer for a while but without a sac outlet it's really dangerous in this deck since some of the most powerful cards are in our colors Reveillark and Karmic Guide.

One of the issues I see is that they do not seem to want to give us tools to really engage with planeswalkers, so we get nonsense like Suncleanser that inexplicably doesn't kill planeswalkers or strip counters off permanents, so becomes way too narrow.

I do think there is a possibility that we could have some pretty good game by retooling as a Torpor Orb heavy hatebear deck and I do have that in the back of my mind. We now have 3 usable copies of Torpor Orb on a stick - Tocatli Honor Guard, Hushbringer and Hushwing Gryff, as well as a pretty nice stable of playable hatebears:

• containment priest
• aven mindcensor
• remorseful cleric
• alms collector
• windborn muse
• kataki, war's wage
• thalia, guardian of thraben
• thalia, heretic cathar

And others.

I am not sure what would make that deck tick - the problem is that the torpor orb package turns off so many of our best creatures:

• karmic guide
• spellseeker
• recruiter of the guard
• whitemane lion
• spell queller
• gilded drake
• venser, shaper savant

It's a tough conundrum - Recruiter and Spellseeker in particular, but also the countermagic guys and gilded drake are really, really important. But on the flipside I do not think that the hatebear package is strong enough without heavy torpor orb effects.

It's possible that the hatebear deck has to lean harder on actual countermagic, but unfortunately a lot of the spells you would like to use to protect your guys (Eerie Interlude and Ghostway for example) are quite a bit weaker without ETB dudes. And also, sweepers are generally worse when you have to give up your board control elements.

All in all it's really complicated. I've been pretty well enjoying the tempo for now, and people seem to really dislike playing against most of the hatebears, so I'm just gonna keep rolling and try not to become a pure tempo/etb deck

[pokken]

WOWSA. See what I mean about cards pushing the UW Tempo/ETB philosophy?

Niambi, Esteemed Healer

First autoinclude of the set. Lifegain on a Deputy of Acquittals that has a very useful activated ability?? What in the world

And did I mention lifegain we can use? Sheesh. That is a ridiculous autoinclude - we even have a reasonable number of legendaries we could toss, and could add a few more pretty easily.

[Wallycaine]

Just to add, part of it is that Wizards is printing insanely powerful cards that push the blink and tempo envelopes - while the hatebears they are printing are largely either too narrow or require a whole deck rewrite, (e.g. Hushbringer. I did play Hushbringer for a while but without a sac outlet it's really dangerous in this deck since some of the most powerful cards are in our colors Reveillark and Karmic Guide.

One of the issues I see is that they do not seem to want to give us tools to really engage with planeswalkers, so we get nonsense like Suncleanser that inexplicably doesn't kill planeswalkers or strip counters off permanents, so becomes way too narrow.

I do think there is a possibility that we could have some pretty good game by retooling as a Torpor Orb heavy hatebear deck and I do have that in the back of my mind. We now have 3 usable copies of Torpor Orb on a stick - Tocatli Honor Guard, Hushbringer and Hushwing Gryff, as well as a pretty nice stable of playable hatebears:

• containment priest
• aven mindcensor
• remorseful cleric
• alms collector
• windborn muse
• kataki, war's wage
• thalia, guardian of thraben
• thalia, heretic cathar

And others.

I am not sure what would make that deck tick - the problem is that the torpor orb package turns off so many of our best creatures:

• karmic guide
• spellseeker
• recruiter of the guard
• whitemane lion
• spell queller
• gilded drake
• venser, shaper savant

It's a tough conundrum - Recruiter and Spellseeker in particular, but also the countermagic guys and gilded drake are really, really important. But on the flipside I do not think that the hatebear package is strong enough without heavy torpor orb effects.

It's possible that the hatebear deck has to lean harder on actual countermagic, but unfortunately a lot of the spells you would like to use to protect your guys (Eerie Interlude and Ghostway for example) are quite a bit weaker without ETB dudes. And also, sweepers are generally worse when you have to give up your board control elements.

All in all it's really complicated. I've been pretty well enjoying the tempo for now, and people seem to really dislike playing against most of the hatebears, so I'm just gonna keep rolling and try not to become a pure tempo/etb deck

For a Torpor Orb Hate Bears type deck, it's possible you might look into ETB drawback guys? The first thought I had for closing out games was Wormfang Manta plus a repeatable blink effect gets you infinite turns. Of course, unless you've got a lot of Leave the Battlefield triggers, it's possible that there won't be enough value out of a repeatable blink effect to have it in there. But maybe it can at least trigger Ephara more easily? Angel of Condemnation is one off the top of my head that might have enough utility in blinking out your own taxes until eot, or triggering Ephara on turns you don't have something to play. Plus you can at least repeatedly trigger Reveillark, Slithermuse, or Boreas Charger. Other honorable mentions in the "Leaves the Battlefield" theme include Floodgate, Meadowboon, Nevermaker, Saprazzan Bailiff (Special mention for having an ETB drawback), Toothy, Imaginary Friend, Vesperlark, and Watcher for Tomorrow

[pokken]

For a Torpor Orb Hate Bears type deck, it's possible you might look into ETB drawback guys? The first thought I had for closing out games was Wormfang Manta plus a repeatable blink effect gets you infinite turns. Of course, unless you've got a lot of Leave the Battlefield triggers, it's possible that there won't be enough value out of a repeatable blink effect to have it in there. But maybe it can at least trigger Ephara more easily? Angel of Condemnation is one off the top of my head that might have enough utility in blinking out your own taxes until eot, or triggering Ephara on turns you don't have something to play. Plus you can at least repeatedly trigger Reveillark, Slithermuse, or Boreas Charger. Other honorable mentions in the "Leaves the Battlefield" theme include Floodgate, Meadowboon, Nevermaker, Saprazzan Bailiff (Special mention for having an ETB drawback), Toothy, Imaginary Friend, Vesperlark, and Watcher for Tomorrow

I think the majority of the LTB/ETb-drawback stuff is just not quite enough of a cohesive deck and the synergies are iffy, but Wormfang Manta is definitely a good potential buildaround. But you're right that the blink effects lose a lot of utility. However, Containment Priest is a card that makes blink effects very powerful on offense so might be something there.

Dumb thing about wormfang manta...it's Recruiter of the Guard tutorable Baaaah.

Angel of Condemnation was actually a card that was in the deck at one point. It's pretty powerful. I'm not sure there is quite critical mass of those effects.

It's also possible that the best way to play the ETB hate guys is to just run enough sac outlet combos to be able to sac them when you want to win (there're two pretty good sac outlet combos we have access to = Phyrexian Altar + Brought Back and Altar of Dementia + Reveillark, and there's a Blasting Station combo around too).

All in all I think giving up Recruiter of the Guard is just going to reduce the consistency of that approach too much to make it right for me.

I will note that planeswalkers are also very good with hatebears - turning them into threats and many of them are decent blockers (e.g. Thalia, Heretic Cathar). So another potentially good way would be to play a good number of planeswalkers that your hatebears can defend in combat.

I think the first way I would try that deck is just to play almost entirely hate effects - 20+ hatebears and no synergy or enablers then a hefty pile of removal spells and counterspells. Test and see if you can just win games with bear beats, then see what other sorts of enablers you wish you had. Maybe try stuff like Opposition or Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, maybe Heliod, Sun-Crowned?

It's possible Hokori, Dust Drinker + Sword of Feast and Famine would be a good way to go as well.

[pokken]

Lifegain Ephara got some new toys if anyone's doing that--

Speaker of the Heavens and Griffin Aerie both seem pretty playable, although I think Aerie missed out on not "of each end step" which woulda been fine and way more interesting.

[Wallycaine]

For a Torpor Orb Hate Bears type deck, it's possible you might look into ETB drawback guys? The first thought I had for closing out games was Wormfang Manta plus a repeatable blink effect gets you infinite turns. Of course, unless you've got a lot of Leave the Battlefield triggers, it's possible that there won't be enough value out of a repeatable blink effect to have it in there. But maybe it can at least trigger Ephara more easily? Angel of Condemnation is one off the top of my head that might have enough utility in blinking out your own taxes until eot, or triggering Ephara on turns you don't have something to play. Plus you can at least repeatedly trigger Reveillark, Slithermuse, or Boreas Charger. Other honorable mentions in the "Leaves the Battlefield" theme include Floodgate, Meadowboon, Nevermaker, Saprazzan Bailiff (Special mention for having an ETB drawback), Toothy, Imaginary Friend, Vesperlark, and Watcher for Tomorrow

I think the majority of the LTB/ETb-drawback stuff is just not quite enough of a cohesive deck and the synergies are iffy, but Wormfang Manta is definitely a good potential buildaround. But you're right that the blink effects lose a lot of utility. However, Containment Priest is a card that makes blink effects very powerful on offense so might be something there.

Dumb thing about wormfang manta...it's Recruiter of the Guard tutorable Baaaah.

Angel of Condemnation was actually a card that was in the deck at one point. It's pretty powerful. I'm not sure there is quite critical mass of those effects.

It's also possible that the best way to play the ETB hate guys is to just run enough sac outlet combos to be able to sac them when you want to win (there're two pretty good sac outlet combos we have access to = Phyrexian Altar + Brought Back and Altar of Dementia + Reveillark, and there's a Blasting Station combo around too).

All in all I think giving up Recruiter of the Guard is just going to reduce the consistency of that approach too much to make it right for me.

I will note that planeswalkers are also very good with hatebears - turning them into threats and many of them are decent blockers (e.g. Thalia, Heretic Cathar). So another potentially good way would be to play a good number of planeswalkers that your hatebears can defend in combat.

I think the first way I would try that deck is just to play almost entirely hate effects - 20+ hatebears and no synergy or enablers then a hefty pile of removal spells and counterspells. Test and see if you can just win games with bear beats, then see what other sorts of enablers you wish you had. Maybe try stuff like Opposition or Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, maybe Heliod, Sun-Crowned?

It's possible Hokori, Dust Drinker + Sword of Feast and Famine would be a good way to go as well.

Heavy on the hatebears does seem like a solid choice. I do think seeding little synergies like Containment priest with blink effects and Hokori and sword are a strong choice, and seeing which of those are powerful enough on their own to be worth inclusion.

[pokken]

Agent of Treachery is very good. First game out stole an opposing Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite which was a bit of irony.

I had another Sun Titan game where it ramped me a bunch (man I love Sun Titan).

Sunscape Familiar's first outing was pretty ridiculous, allowing me to spell queller and venser for 5 mana which created a ton of interaction despite me drawing 0 counterspells in like 30 cards, when I desperately needed one.

Winds of Abandon puts in work as always, killing Uril, the Miststalker twice and Elsha of the Infinite once and nailing an entire board of white creatures. That card is just the nuts.

I had a very awkward draw this game with sunscape and 2 lands, but needing to hit a 3rd land drop - I normally don't keep those but I had mulled once already, and my runner land was Prairie Stream which etb'd tapped on turn 3 and set me back an entire turn. Then I missed my turn 4 land drop and had to cast ephara and pass.

Weathered Wayfarer figured prominently in getting me back in the game, making Nykthos +3 or +4 mana, hitting Emeria, and stacking me with plains. It also sealed the game fetching Misty Rainforest to fetch up my Mystic Sanctuary to reuse Winds of Abandon.

The screwing by Prairie Stream was very frustrating, basically any other land and that hand is a turn faster - I need it for plains/island count but boy can it be annoying.

Of new cards I also saw Deputy of Detention and it was basically pointless as it has been every time I've seen it. I coulda cast it for UW but I had other options. I suppose I would have hit Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite with it had I not had both Gilded Drake *and* Unexpectedly Absent *and Agent of Treachery in hand.

Mystic Sanctuary continues to be absolutely great. Pretty sad I slept on that for so long. Fetching up a sweeper is gross.

I did add Knight of the White Orchid in for Pearl Medallion since I want to try it out, did not see it.

Fundamentally I think the deck is in just a great place right now, current MTGO list is:
https://deckbox.org/sets/2675533

If anyone wants to keep up with it.

[darrenhabib]

I'm starting to build a Niambi, Esteemed Healer helmed deck.
So I wanted to mention that if you want to etch out advantages you can replace some lands with Legendary Lands to give you more discard outlets for her.
Eiganjo Castle, Flagstones of Trokair can replace 2 x Plains.
Minamo, School at Water's Edge, Oboro, Palace in the Clouds, Tolaria to replace 3 x Island.
Gemstone Caverns could replace say Nimbus Maze and never underestimate this cards ability to put you a turn ahead each game if in your starter.

The downside is that Mystic Sanctuary or Emeria, the Sky Ruin might be delayed in some cases.

[pokken]

I'm starting to build a Niambi, Esteemed Healer helmed deck.
So I wanted to mention that if you want to etch out advantages you can replace some lands with Legendary Lands to give you more discard outlets for her.
Eiganjo Castle, Flagstones of Trokair can replace 2 x Plains.
Minamo, School at Water's Edge, Oboro, Palace in the Clouds, Tolaria to replace 3 x Island.
Gemstone Caverns could replace say Nimbus Maze and never underestimate this cards ability to put you a turn ahead each game if in your starter.

The downside is that Mystic Sanctuary or Emeria, the Sky Ruin might be delayed in some cases.

When Gemstone Caverns gets reprinted I will definitely grab one in foil for this deck, they're just too much right now lol.

I think as a commander that ability it's a gimme to play all the legendary lands. I'm a bit hesitant on doing it just to support her in this deck - I think I'll have to see how often I care that much about activating it.

Emeria and Mystic sanctuary are just so nonsensically good at ending games, I'm not sure giving them up or weakening the pretty extreme inevitability is worth potentially drawing two cards a couple times.

On a tangent, I do think Niambi, Esteemed Healer is a ridiculously cool commander. I think you could probably play it very similarly to Ephara. I don't know that I would be able to restrain myself from running all the untap creatures Pestermite and Bribery on the off chance I could kiki-jiki someone

I bet there are some pretty cool things you could do with reanimating/casting legends from the bin as well.

[pokken]

Some commentary on the cuts to artifacts/enchantments --

I have noticed that with the serious reduction in artifacts/enchantments that the deck has been really, really resilient to most of the removal people play. Creature removal is rarely all that useful since most of my creatures either generate value or I don't care that much about them, or I can reanimate them. Enchantment and artifact removal has very few targets.

I noticed that effects like Aura Shards that used to be a real problem for me are almost inconsequential; an opponent had an aura shards and was able to kill exactly my sol ring the entire game as opposed to popping my sword, sacred mesa, etc. Everyone always has artifact/enchantment removal and it's largely dead against this deck now which is really nice. Even my ramp is far less susceptible to that.

Having my combo pieces being creatures and instants has been really nice, much less telegraphed and oddly more resilient to removal since I can reanimate any of them pretty easily.

I'm thinking if we get some more decent hate effects I might like to cut even further down on artifacts - maybe we'll get something stronger than Kataki, War's Wage at some point.

[pokken]

Rule 1 - do not play craterhoof behemoth and not tpk.

Pretty interesting game here where I had a really awkward start, misclicked something, and still squeaked it out with combination of overwhelming card and mana advantage due to Smothering Tithe and Intuition.

I think this game probably hinged on the rug player's decision to Recurring Insight while I had Smothering Tithe. I probably got 20 treasure tokens total which put me basically in an unstoppable position. He was trapped and had to I guess but personally I would try almost anything else.

This was my first game with turn2 Drannith Magistrate before anyone had their commanders down and it was everything I expected; shut everyone down and forced them to sweep the board to get rid of it, and by the time it died I was pretty far ahead on cards despite having to Intuition for 3 lands (UGH).

Had I not Snapcaster Mage'd intuition I could have own the game with a combo but I decided to stick it out with my old value plan of Sun titan+reviellark+recruiter, which worked out pretty well.

I did a lot of blink nonsense, but the game ultimately ended when one of the two players left decided to kill the other one with triple-hoof and his board of two creatures (bribery + 2 clones). He got himself to 102 life and thought he was safe.

It's a good thing he didn't swing at me as I had Selfless Squire in hand and that would have been sweet. Crushing Hoofdad is my favorite aspect of that card, and it was worth the price of admission even though I didn't have to use it. But he killed the other player and then passed with 102 life thinking he was safe.

I end step Teferi, + spellseeker for ephemerate and ephemerate spellseeker. Untap ephemerate spellseeker and I'm loaded full of removal and stuff.

But previously I had recruitered for Stunt Double so I played double as a craterhoof and blinked it 3 times with Eldrazi Displacer and hit him to -70 from 102.

Eldrazi Displacer is a magic card

[shermanido37]

I will say that Flagstones of Trokair is a stupid cool combo. I run both Kjeldoran Outpost and Lotus Field, so it is a very good land to sac. Not to mention that once you do sac it, you can bring in duals untapped.
The reason I run these lands, despite them potentially putting me slightly back, is because they keep Weathered Wayfarer, Land Tax, and Tithe online at all times. These help ensure a steady stream of cards and land drops.

the hatebears they are printing are largely either too narrow or require a whole deck rewrite

So I started writing a response to this in detail, but it couldn't post it for some reason. Hopefully will do so today.
The short version, for now, is that I strongly disagree with this statement, and that I think hatebears are actually becoming more solid.

[pokken]

It is definitely true they've printed some good bears. I feel like they're missing some really key and very obvious areas though. Artifact and activated abilities are the two that jump out that we're fairly weak to.

I do really appreciate seeing remorseful cleric as white had a huge gap in grave hate for a long time. And Lavinia and drannith magistrate plugged some other holes.

Maybe you're right, I guess I'm just salty that walkers and artifacts are such obvious problems and don't get decent hate heh.

[schai]

Hi all,

I love Ephara as a commander and wanted to share my decklist as I've been lurking around this thread for while now. It's been a great resource and place for discussion. I've never posted on Nexus before (more active on reddit and Discord, but haven't found any good resources for Ephara specifically), so here goes.

Here's my list:

Decklist

My deck started as a budget build but I've slowly upgraded the pieces over time, but I'm still refraining from some higher power pieces like duals/Mana Crypt/Force of Will/Gilded Drake since I want this to be my less cutthroat deck (though it's deceptively powerful). Despite its more humble origins, I've found that we've reached many of the same conclusions (referring mostly to Pokken's current build). Some key points:

1. Due to initial budget restrictions, I heavily leaned into the Cloudshift/Ephemerate/Ghostly Flicker synergy with Archaeomancer/Salvager or Secrets/Mnemonic Wall (I might add in Shipwreck Dowser. While it can't be Reveillark'd, a 3/3 prowess is much better than a 0/4) . Repeated 1-mana to draw a card was very powerful, especially when neither of the cards were bad on their own. I still think this is a very powerful synergy that also appears fairly innocuous to your opponents until you start going off with it. Also very fun with Mentor to just Cloudshift 5+ times in one turn.

2. I run 2 main infinite combos. The primary one is a single copy of Time Warp that I can rebuy with all the Archaeomancer effects and is completely tutor-able with a single Recruiter of the Guard over a couple turns. It's a very compact combo that also doesn't suck as a card on its own. Second is the infinite mana combo with Peregrine Drake. No Palinchron due to budget, but Peregrine drake is a bit cheaper in mana and can be Reveillark'd. I just wish it was a 2/2 for recruiter. You can also use Archaeomancer and Ghostly Flicker to generate infinite mana, in addition to the typical Displacer/Navigator.

3. Agent of Treachery is huge. I was on this since it came out. Not sure if any of you play standard, but it was recently banned for being oppressive, which I completely agree with. It synergizes very well with all the Cloudshift effects, Thassa, Soulherder, Displacer, etc, and I can even cheat it in with Scroll of Fate. What I also like about this and the clone effects is that they scale well with power level. The stronger your opponent's threats are, the more of a beating this is.

4. Lastly, I lean more heavily into noncreature spells and countermagic. This was again initially due to budget, as many counterspells and removal spells are very cheap and were a good way to help me stay in the game long enough to get my engines rolling. I could also use them sparingly since Ephara often doesn't appear to be a threat in the early game and I would only use it when threatened, which was rare. They also synergize very well with the Archaeomancer suite well (can you tell how much I love Archaeomancer?).

Thank you for your time!

[shermanido37]

Thank you for posting your list! It's always nice to discuss choices and synergies.

You definitely seem to be heavier on the blink plan similar to pokken, but I have my concerns about your list:
Familiar's Ruse is a really cool card, but having the bounce be an additional cost very limiting. Counterspells are something you really want to be able to cast after a mass removal.
Unpopular opinion: Phantasmal Image is no longer worth it in Ephara. When we played Whitemane Lion and Stonecloaker all day, the card was amazing, but now we're relying more heavily on Closet engines like Soulherder, Thassa, Deep-Dwelling etc., which target the creature and make it sac itself. It's a great card, but with blink engines we are better off with Phyrexian Metamorph or Stunt Double.
Generous Gift seems rather mediocre to me. You are in the color of Oblivion Ring and specifically Deputy of Detention, why not run that card? I'm also not a big fan of Heliod's Intervention.
As a last note, I'd like to say that I feel like you are running a bit too few creatures. Blink engines are great, but only if they have what to blink.

I do like your versatility, though, with the infinite mana outlets and extra turns it's probably easier for you to find ways to win.

[pokken]

Hi all,

I love Ephara as a commander and wanted to share my decklist as I've been lurking around this thread for while now. It's been a great resource and place for discussion. I've never posted on Nexus before (more active on reddit and Discord, but haven't found any good resources for Ephara specifically), so here goes.

Here's my list:

Decklist

My deck started as a budget build but I've slowly upgraded the pieces over time, but I'm still refraining from some higher power pieces like duals/Mana Crypt/Force of Will/Gilded Drake since I want this to be my less cutthroat deck (though it's deceptively powerful). Despite its more humble origins, I've found that we've reached many of the same conclusions (referring mostly to Pokken's current build). Some key points:

Thank you for your time!

I like your list very much. It's almost exactly what I would envision a more spell heavy ephara build to be even including the choice of combo.

My only comment that I'm fairly sure of is about the ramp package. I think you would see a lot more benefit from the familiars than the colorless 2 drop rocks. I am very against thought vessel in this deck as the discard to hand size is a meaningful part of strategy often. And mind stone is just lower impact (3 Mana draw a card) than a creature ramp spell. Similarly I do not care for reliquary tower.

The primary thing I think you can do is start working on acquiring the fetch manabase. It really is worth it and the Khan's ones in particular are affordable and at very low prices.

Grasp of fate is a card I think is independent powerful but a bit medium without a way to reuse it to abuse gilded Drake. I'd probably cut that for another good creature.or with your spell count merchant scroll.

Otherwise what I mostly have are questions:
1. Is deadeye navigator good? It feels like both a removal magnet and a good way to blow your turn due to essentially costing 8 t use with any safety. My instinct is it's probably worse than mistmeadow witch a high percentage of the time specifically with how high impact your etbs are. With that peregrine Drake obviously becomes less good but still has ghostly flicker and displacer.

2. How is Rhystic Study? I acquired a judge promo of it a while back and I acknowledge its power from cedh obviously it just feels like it maybe doesn't develop your board as much as I'd like. However I don't think creature combat is as important to you so might make sense.

3. Has eerie interlude been good? It seems pretty strong enough so that I've got one in the ephara binder. I am lower on archaeomancer effects but it might be good enough for dodging sweepers.

4. Have heliods intervention and generous gift been good? I feel like those are both borderline and high percentage to be worse than creature equivalents but with the high recursion count I can see it

Re: phantasmal image

My muddleable sun titan clone will need to be pried from my cold dead hands at this point the number of games its efficiency have won. It's worth talking about but I don't know that I could give up what it brings.

I do miss etutoring for metamorph tho.

[pokken]

Wow. Spirits are already a really good tribe for Ephara with cards like Spectral Shepherd and Rattlechains and Spell Queller and even Geist of Saint Traft.

I bet there's a really fun Ephara spirit tribal deck out there.

WE also got this guy officially which is prety nice:

Cards that can be blinked to protect displacer are very nice, and he provides a decent source of additional CA. Definitely something I will consider playing - I usually hesitate to play things that *just* provide card advantage (E.g. mulldrifter) but things that have some utility and CA are nice.

[AliasGreg]

Hello, what about this one ? :

Free discard, draw of commanders being cast, cascade, ...

(I subscribed after you gave me the link on reddit)

[schai]

Thanks for the feedback guys! I love discussion like this.

Familiar's Ruse: this card is mostly a carry-over from the budget days but in a lower-power environment, it's allowed me to rebuy my Archaeomancer (somewhat of a lock for 6 mana a turn), Spellseeker/Recruiter. In an environment where I'm expecting to counter spells more regularly, I'd cut this for a more versatile counter.

Phantasmal Image: I simply just love clones. I actually had Clever Impersonator in here as well before. I mostly like it for its Sun Titan recursion. For 2 mana, it does a pseudo Ephemerate impression by rebuying an ETB. If it dies after it's not a huge deal. Copying an opponent's big threat is just gravy. I haven't seen your latest list, but are you off Whitemane and Stonecloaker? We're not as reliant on them as before, but I think they're still worth it.

Generous Gift. I really prefer instant-speed interaction. The philosophy behind Ephara is to lay low and not present an immediate threat until I can set up my engines. As such, I need to conserve my resources and only use them when threatened.Holding up removal or counter magic has been a great way to deter people. Generous Gift is the most versatile of these. I could see Unexpectedly Absent in place of this, but this has the ability to hit lands.

Heliod's Intervention is NUTS. Tutorable with Spellseaker and Muddle the Mixture, it's often a one-sided board wipe at instant speed. Almost every deck runs relevant artifacts and enchantments and getting to 3/4/5+ for 1 can often turn the tide in your favor.

Familiars - I will have to experiment with these as I have not tried. Thought Vessel is definitely very mediocre and would be the first to go. I'm a bit scared about being more vulnerable to board wipes, as it would set me back on both "mana" and board. I'm not going to defend Reliquary Tower. It's not a great card. I'm still fiddling with the right amount of colorless density for Displacer. I could see this becoming Nykthos or Strip Mine.

Fetches - I actually have fetches, but I'm still hesitant on putting them in. I realize how much better it would make Sun Titan, but I'm intentionally trying to keep the power level lower in this deck, and off-color fetches was just one of the artificial restrictions I imposed on myself. In a tuned list, yes absolutely.

Grasp of Fate - If I had the budget for Gilded Drake, this would be an easy swap. I will note that this card has gotten marginally better with the new Commander Rules. When you exile an opposing commander, they have to choose Command or Exile, and if they choose Command, they will not get it back when Grasp LTBs.

Deadeye is a very end-game card. I usually only cast it when I have counter spell protection and 10+ lands. It's mostly there to close out games and usually wins on the spot. Blinking a Venser, Spellseeker, Archaeomancer, or Agent of Treachery is game over. I admit it is a bit of a win-more card. I could actually see cutting this and simply going for more value cards. By the time we can cast this with protection, the game is usually under control anyway.

Rhystic is good. It either slows down your opponents to match your own speed (Ephara is not a blazing fast deck, let's face it), or it acts as a backup draw engine if Ephara somehow got removed or I'm not drawing creatures. It's still probably the best card-advantage engine for 3 mana out there. That said, Rhystic is a huge target which I like to avoid, and would be one of the reasons I cut it if I do. Good thing it's Sun-Titan-able.

Eerie Interlude - It's okay. I don't save it to try and blow out someone's board wipe, thought it is sweet when that happens (also fun with our own board wipe!). It's mostly just a second Ghostly Flicker for Archaeomancer shenanigans. I will also add that having a density of Cloudshift effects is never bad since they're still cantrips in the worst case, especially in a creature-heavy list with lots of ETBs.

See my earlier comments on Heliod's Intervention/Generous Gift. Short answer is I like them both.

[WizardMN]

Cards that can be blinked to protect displacer are very nice, and he provides a decent source of additional CA. Definitely something I will consider playing - I usually hesitate to play things that *just* provide card advantage (E.g. mulldrifter) but things that have some utility and CA are nice.

I am on the other side of this as I do play Mulldrifter Sometimes *just* CA is good enough. But I still think Barrin has some really good applications, especially with Eldrazi Displacer (though, everything does). The card draw and bounce on one card seems like it can be really important.

@AliasGreg
Ghostly Pilferer is slow. And sort of ties into the conversation about Barrin to be honest. Though, the issue is that it only draws cards and doesn't do the other important part of Barrin which is bounce something. Even when compared to Mulldrifter it isn't worth it. In the long run it does more but costs 2 mana each upkeep to get that card. Getting a card off a Commander being cast, or something from a graveyard is nice, but we then become reliant on our opponents actually doing something and I don't think it is worth it. I would take Mulldrifter over it any day since I want cards now; not at an indeterminate point in the future. And I am cheap and don't want to pay extra for them