Ephara, God of the Polis

[WizardMN]

Here are my thoughts regarding Wilds of Eldraine and the Wilds of Eldraine Commander set:

White Cards

Werefox Bodyguard - I always like more Flash creatures and removal options are top of that list. But there are a lot of good current options that I am not sure I want to dilute the deck too much with temporary options like this one.

[WizardMN]

Here are my thoughts regarding Lost Caverns of Ixalan, Murder at Karlov Manor, their Commander Decks, and the Doctor Who Commander set. I know I have not been keeping up so hopefully this covers all the sets I have missed:

White Cards

Get Lost - This is actually one of the better white destruction spells in recent sets in my opinion. It can hit 3 card types and the trade off doesn't seem that great for the controller of the permanent that was destroyed.

Unexplained Absence - 4 mana instant to exile up to 3 permanents (most likely wouldn't exile anything I control in most cases) seems like a pretty good rate. I realize they get a 2/2 back, and possibly bigger depending on what is face down, but I still like the versatility of dealing with multiple threats at once. I think I might give this a try in a couple decks.

Colorless and Land Cards

New dual typed lands - More fetchable lands is always good and I don' think these are too bad. However, I am wary about the effect entering tapped all the time would have. I will probably pick some up but I am not sure I will ever get to the point of actually playing them considering all the better alternatives.

[pokken]

I've been interested in trying Charismatic Conqueror -- seems worth thinking on, even though it's a bit of a punisher card that gives a lot of choices, it helps answer haste creatures which are a huge problem for Ephara.

[WizardMN]

I think I completely overlooked that card. Which is to be expected when having to go through as many cards as I did. But that seems pretty solid. Granted, they can tap their creature(s) to ensure we don't get a token, but it seems more likely than not that we will just get the tokens out of it. And, as you alluded to, if they do tap things it slows them down anyway. So, either they can't attack or we get blockers. Either of which is good though the latter triggers Ephara.

I will add it to the list.

[WizardMN]

2/19/2024

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

CUTS

1 Arcane Signet

ADDS

1 Unexplained Absence

Approximate Total Cost:

I am going to try this swap. I don't really have a lot of cards I like the idea of cutting so Arcane Signet was the main thing I could come up with. It does potentially slow the deck down but I wanted to try Absence out.

I was going to try out Charismatic Conqueror which does seem like a pretty good option for the deck. However, it isn't online and I am trying to get away from having decks being different in paper and online. So until it gets online, I probably won't do much with it.

[pokken]

It is really embarrassing that they haven't figured out the commander card lag on mtgo yet like why make it hard for people for no reason?

[WizardMN]

Agreed. And the gap is just getting wider and wider each year. All of Doctor Who, for example, is missing online. And I don't think there is anything in that set that really stands out as being impossible to implement. They just don't have the time. Which sucks quite a bit for people that like to use that platform to, you know, play Magic....

[WizardMN]

Here are my thoughts regarding Outlaws of Thunder Junction and the associated Commander set:

White Cards

Angel of Indemnity - I like the effect of the Angel and the easiest comparison is to Sun Titan. The most obvious issue is that Angel does not trigger on attack. And it costs 8 extra mana to get another couple triggers. Losing out on the attack trigger is a big deal though and I doubt I will see too many scenarios where I will use Encore.

All that being said, this is likely the best deck I have for this deck. I am able to blink the Angel using other cards so I can possibly use that to get more use out of this. I might try it in this deck but I don't have really high hopes for its efficacy.

Aven Interrupter - This seems like a great card for this deck but I really don't like Plotting an opponent's card. Granted, this makes it cost 2 more mana to cast from exile but that isn't often going to be enough to truly stop whatever it is I want to stop. It works great against X spells and does have some residual effects against things like Muldrotha, the Gravetide which is nice.

I am not sure where I stand on this in terms of whether I want to give it a try. I am leaning towards "no". After all, I have blue so if I want to counter something, I will just counter it. Exiling an Uncounterable spell is likely to happen so infrequently that it doesn't matter much.

Final Showdown - An instant timing wrath is excellent and one that allows for additional effects to save one of my creatures and/or being able to deal with indestructible or Undying creatures. This might be among my favorite cards in the set.

Fortune, Loyal Steed - I like the idea of "free" blinking, especially to trigger to Ephara. There are a few cards that also benefit from being blinked and even the Steed lets me Scry. I do like that it encourages combat as well. Of course it might just get blocked and killed in combat right away.

Blue Cards

Smirking Spelljacker - This is a better effect than Aven Interrupter even though it is a little more expensive. I do like creature based counter spells in general and this one lets me steal a spell which would be a big turning point in the game. 5 maan is high but not too high so I will likely try to find a way to fit it in the list.