Ephara, God of the Polis

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pokken
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Post by pokken » 3 years ago

My current Ephara deck is around $280 on MTGO, even with the grossly overpriced brazen borrower, so not much of an investment considering you can sell it for 200-ish.

I will say not that many people run infinites on MTGO. It's the exception that a game ends to a combo and it's not me doing it, outside of the CEDH rooms. Part of that is that negotiating combos on MTGO is a bit goofy, not everyone recognizes every combo and sometimes people are salty etc.

Most decks I run into a pretty high powered but make some budget concessions and are trying to win via huge value plays. Pretty good testbed since it's fairly close to a strong paper meta.

Prices are a bit high overall but I think you could still buy a complete EDH card collection for less than half of one of my paper decks so I think it's worth doing if you think you'll get some reps in.

I haven't been feeling it much lately because the weather turned here and I'm outside doing house stuff or bbq'ing or whatever a lot of the time :)

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Post by WizardMN » 3 years ago

I almost pulled the trigger a month and a half ago to build 3 of my decks in MTGO: Ephara, Karador, and Sygg. And that came out to be about $325 (since there is some overlap). Now, I did exclude probably the 10-12 most expensive cards (across all 3 decks) from that and I figured I would just swap them out for something else. The fact that selling on MTGO is still fairly simple does offer a bit of "protection". But there are still some cards that are astronomically expensive that I just wouldn't include them at all. Which means that my decks wouldn't be the same. They would be really close, but not the same.

It still might be worth a try though. It is harder to justify now with it seeming like things are turning the corner for in person play and, as you mentioned, going outside is nice too. There is only so much time I have now that fishing, golf, and softball are getting going :) :)

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Post by ZenN » 3 years ago

I have such a hard time justifying paying real money for digital cards. It just doesn't feel right.

I play a lot on Cockatrice on and off though, usually to test things before building them in paper. However, over the course of the pandemic, I've been playing every few nights on Cockatrice + Discord with the people I usually play in person with. It has been delightful, and a great opportunity for us to all try new things, make much more drastic deck changes just to see how it works, etc.
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Post by WizardMN » 3 years ago

ZenN wrote:
3 years ago
I have such a hard time justifying paying real money for digital cards. It just doesn't feel right.

I play a lot on Cockatrice on and off though, usually to test things before building them in paper. However, over the course of the pandemic, I've been playing every few nights on Cockatrice + Discord with the people I usually play in person with. It has been delightful, and a great opportunity for us to all try new things, make much more drastic deck changes just to see how it works, etc.
I get your feeling on digital cards. The main saving grace is the ease in which the costs can be recouped. And most of the time, the sell price and buy price are pretty close so there is very little money lost. At least, far less than buying and selling paper cards due to fees most places have,

I tried to get my group to do this too and I couldn't get them on board with it. I would have preferred that, but MTGO does have a nicer interface and can be played against strangers without having to worry about rules misinterpretations.

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Post by pokken » 3 years ago

ZenN wrote:
3 years ago
I have such a hard time justifying paying real money for digital cards. It just doesn't feel right.
I am currently +$100 on my mtgo collection :P

It seriously takes like, 30 minutes to sell the entire thing and I can keep track of what it's all worth by clicking a single button in Cardhoarder's UI.

Not to side-track too far here off of Ephara :)

Re: Rules interpretations
It is very nice not having to play judge, I tell ya what. I'm not as knowledgeable as Wiz but I am one of the rules guys at my shop who know 90% of the correct interpretations, and 2-3 times a night I'm answering judge questions. On Cockatrice/Untap having to police the entire board while barely being able to see it is frigging annnnnoying.

Re: Differences

For my Ephara mtgo build the only swap I made was brazen borrower → capsize because I didn't want to spend 20 bucks on a standard staple. It's a bit annoying but whatever, very small change in utility.

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Post by WizardMN » 3 years ago

With the full spoiler of Core 2021 and Jumpstart, I have decided to finally post some of my thoughts on new cards. I will separate then by color but Jumpstart and Core 2021 cards will be lumped together.

Ephara ended up with a lot of potential new toys. I didn't go too far in depth on some options that would make sense in other builds (like Inniaz, the Gale Force which seems more at home in a more flyer heavy build) but there are still a number of cards to consider.

Here is what I can see as being potentials:

White Cards

Angelic Ascension - With our counterspells and other removal, it is tough to add in a "worse" version of Generous Gift. I put "worse" in quotes because exiling and 2 mana is better, but giving a 4/4 flyer and not hitting lands are significant differences. And Gift is already not being played in the deck so it is tough to say this should too. If I was already playing Gift and wanted another spot removal card, I could see this being a worthy inclusion.

Basri Ket - Basri is sort of on the edge here. He is much cheaper than Elspeth, Sun's Champion for "free" tokens, but the free tokens are only by ticking him down which means every third turn. We don't really care about the +1 either so I think having to wait 2 turns in between each activation for tokens means he isn't good enough.

Mangara, the Diplomat - Mangara is too slow for this deck and does something we are already far better at doing with basically everything else in the deck. It is cute, but not really something we need here.

Rambunctious Mutt - Finally, our own Reclamation Sage. Or, more accurately, Indrik Stomphowler. This is an effect I really want, but 5 mana is just too much. I think I would give it serious consideration at 4 mana with 3 being the sweet spot to be a real colorshifted Rec Sage. But, at 5 mana, even with being able to blink it, I think the cost is too high.

Speaker of the Heavens - A 1 mana "get a free token" is really nice, but this deck isn't really known for gaining life. Most of the time, I only get back to my starting life total if at all. So, I think that the requirement for the ability is likely never going to be met and thus the card ends up as just a 1/1 Vigilance Lifelinker.

Now, to be fair, the card comes down super early and does gain life on its own. It also is really cheap to trigger Ephara. I think there are some arguments to be made for it if the deck includes more than a couple incidental life gain effects. But, for now, I think it is a pass.

Blue Cards

Barrin, Tolarian Archmage - First off, not having Flash makes this a tough "autoinclude". So, it definitely isn't an autoinclude. But, I think that is has some options to reuse some of our stuff and get more card draw out of it. It is also good to bounce an opponent's God or Planeswalker that is near Ultimate, but I am pretty sure that the most likely lines include bouncing our own stuff and then recasting them later. And getting a card out of the deal as well. It also "combos" reasonably well with Whitemane Lion just doing its own thing so we get some added benefit there too. It also plays well with Cartographer's Hawk if the Hawk actually works the way I want it to.

It is a card I am willing to try. As with a few cards that are new, the desire to play with new cards can sometimes overshadow how mediocre a card might be. I am starting to lean towards that for Barrin but I like the effect and am willing to give it a try.

Discontinuity - I don't remember if I ever had Time Stop in this deck (and I am too lazy to go back through my Change Log) but it isn't an effect I think was ever needed. However, with that being said, the ability to end our own turn for 2 mana while still providing a way to end another player's turn for the full 6 makes this a strictly better Time Stop. It still isn't an effect I think I want, but since the deck runs a good amount on other players' turns, 2 mana to get around something catastrophic to our board might not be the worst thing to have in our back pocket.

Ghostly Pilferer - This card is just too slow. It comes down cheap which triggers Ephara pretty well, but having to spend 2 mana each turn to draw a card isn't what I want to do. I already cut Nadir Kraken (perhaps too soon) due to the added cost. Having another thing that still provides a card (since the token from Kraken gives us a card) but without a token and at double the cost is not a good use of our mana.

Ormos, Archive Keeper - I like this almost entirely for the activated ability. It is cheap and reusable, turns 3 cards into 5 (so with enough mana, we could turn a 3 card hand into 20+ if we really wanted to), and comes with a big body. I wouldn't expect the replacement effect to come into play too often but having the option might not be bad.

I think the only thing dragging this card down is the mana cost. 6 mana is a lot. And not having Flash makes it seem like a lot more. There might be a case to make where this is better in the long run than Dream Eater (can't bounce, but draws more cards) or Cloudblazer. But, I think I still prefer either of those to the Sphinx in this deck due to their synergy with the flicker effects the deck has.

Sublime Epiphany - Now, with all the talk of 6 CMC being a big deal, I think this one might be pretty close to being worth it. 6 is still a lot but the uses it has are pretty good. Even if I *just* wanted to use it as a Counterspell, I get the added bonus of being able to draw a card, bounce an opposing permanent, *and* copying something I already have (which probably triggers Ephara again). That is a lot of value.

Again, 6 mana is a lot, but I think the extra two mana still makes it an easy swap for Summary Dismissal. The main reason that has stuck around is because of things like Eldrazi or Storm and Epiphany takes care of either one while doing a lot more.

Also, as more a rules nuance that is weird, you can bounce your own creature and still make a copy of it even though the order the steps are performed bounces the creature first. This is because targets are not re-checked in the middle of a spell resolving; they just check the second time right before it starts resolving. If the target goes away in the middle, it uses the Last Known Information of the target to make a copy of it. So, we can save our Venser and create another Venser if we want. Which actually makes it a little better than Stunt Double (at least in that specific instance).

Teferi, Master of Time - This seems really good as well and he isn't too hard to protect. Being a 4 drop means he is in a weird spot, but looting and removal (similar to bounce but not quite as effective) are good abilities to have. In a 4 player game, the most common plays are going to be "draw/discard 3 and Phase out 1" every turn cycle. If we get to the ultimate, great, but I wouldn't play it to try for it. Repeatable, "free" removal every turn cycle is pretty good and works well with Land Tax as well to give us cards to discard. I think there is reason to try this out and this might be enough reason to cut the curve down and get rid of Dream Eater since the effects are close enough to the same.

Teferi's Ageless Insight - This deck already draws enough cards that I don't think taking a turn off to turn Ephara's ability into "Draw 2" is needed. Interestingly, I think it is probably "worth it", just like Teferi above is worth it, but is just unnecessary. I might change my mind if I see others trying to use it, but for now I will stay away from it.

Multicolor and Land Cards

Niambi, Esteemed Speaker - The activated ability will likely never be activated. Even if I add in Jace and Barrin above, I am still at 6 other Legendaries I think so it is going to be rare to want to pitch any of them for cards. But, her ETB works with Barrin, it saves creatures and allows me to re-use them like Barrin, Whitemane Lion, and Venser do. The only thing is that she can't bounce herself like Lion and Venser to provide some additional incidental benefits.

The life gain is also good. Now, the majority of our creatures are low CMC which means we are looking at 3-4 life at most for most of the creatures we bounce, but it is still a form of life gain that we can use with things like Restoration Angel and Eldrazi Displacer if we absolutely need some more life right now. She will find a spot in the deck somewhere but, as with a lot of cards, trying to find that spot will be tough.

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Post by pokken » 3 years ago

Teferi's phasing has a small edge over bounce against opposing blink decks by denying them both an etb and potentially blanking a blink effect. I do like that.

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Post by WizardMN » 3 years ago

Which is a fair point. On the flip side though, it doesn't cost the opponent anything to get their creature back. At least with bouncing an Avacyn or something, they still need to invest that mana to recast her. With Phasing she just comes back for free. And I can counter it on the recast which I can't do with Phasing.

Though, they also do need to wait until the start of their next turn so Phasing out something with Flash (or even just something on their turn) means they have to spend the turn cycle without it. In the example of Avacyn, this gives everyone an opportunity to wrath their board before their stuff becomes indestructible again without giving the Avacyn player the option of recasting Avacyn.

Pros and Cons on both sides for sure, but I do think that in a lot of cases, I prefer Phasing over Bouncing for a few more corner cases.

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Post by WizardMN » 3 years ago

I finally bit the bullet and bought this deck online. There were a couple expensive cards for this deck: Land Tax and Gilded Drake. I decided to splurge on the Drake (thankfully, based on my game below) but I skipped over Land Tax. I just threw The Birth of Meletis in instead. Not nearly the same but gets me a land and an Ephara trigger so it was something worth including to try to replace Land Tax.

The game I played was against Omnath, Locus of Rage, Barktooth Warbeard, and Sram, Senior Edificer. The Warbeard deck was, as somewhat expected, sort of janky. I don't know if they were trying to get to something but they didn't really do a lot.

I went pretty slow. I got Ephara down turn 4 and the only play before that was Arcane Denial on Sram. I know giving them two cards isn't ideal but I wanted to slow them down as I know Sram can get out of control pretty quickly.

They ended up casting him a couple turns later but didn't have much in hand at the time. I think they got 1 or 2 triggers a turn. The bigger concern was Barktooth landed a Mana Flare which actually wasn't as scary as it could have been. I still held back with spells and Omnath didn't do nearly as much as I thought they would. They did have one big turn with Omnath, Harrow, and Scampering Scorcher. They had a decent sized army and attacked Sram. Sram had 3 creatures with Protection from Creatures but two were tapped. The other was Auriok Champion that was a 4/4. So, they blocked 2 creatures but still took 14 damage so not nothing.

Even though Sram had a reasonable board state, Omnath's was too much so they cast Realm-Cloaked Giant // Cast Off to blow the board. I cast Eerie Interlude to save my Selfless Squire and Sea-Dasher Octopus. Sram cast the Giant side of the Adventure the same turn and equipped Bonehoard to it to make it pretty big.

My creatures came back in the end step and drew me a card next turn. The Octopus also got to attack to finally draw me a card from its trigger. Importantly though I landed a Faerie Artisans and this was the beginning of the end for people. I got an Omnath which went away pretty quickly when Barktooth cast their creatures and Sram cast Sram and a Stone Haven Outfitter.

Sram tried rebuilding with some equipment and then attacked me with their big Giant but I just blocked with the token they gave me. I moved to my turn and cast Selfless Spirit and Gilded Drake to steal Omnath. I attacked with Ephara and passed turn.

Omnath took their turn and cast Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar followed by Craterhoof Behemoth. I am not sure why since they only had the two creatures on board. I think they wanted to attack me but my copy of Craterhoof made my creatures huge so they couldn't.

Barktooth then cast Animate Dead to reanimate the Gilded Drake that had died when I attacked Omnath with Ephara, God of the Polis. They reanimate it and it triggered, targeting my Faerie Artisans. But, I got a token copy of Drake which just stole the Drake they Reanimated. Which effectively negated their control change so now I had my original Drake and a copy.

Sram attacked me with the Giant and I cast Stunt Double to copy Drake to steal their Giant. I also cast Phantasmal Image on my turn to make another copy of Drake to steal the Stunt Double/Drake they got. I did this because they equipped it and I theirs was bigger :) This meant there were 4 Drakes on the battlefield.

I then cleared out their board and prevented them from attaching anything to a new creature so my Drake stayed Equipped. At one point, they did try to cast Fell the Mighty targeting the Drudge Skeletons of Barktooth so I just cast Swords to Plowshares on it to prevent the spell from resolving.

On my next turn I just swung out at both players. I swung at Sram with the Drake that was still equipped with their Bonehoard for exactly lethal and swung 30 more at Barktooth which killed them too.

Overall, Drake was a powerhouse and Selfless Squire gave me a few lines I could have used if needed (using Capsize to bounce it to hand and recast it or Whitemane Lion towards the end of the game). I never needed to use them but I always had them in my back pocket. In fact, I was going to bounce the Squire and Octopus back to my hand with Capsize and cast Mystical Tutor for Hour of Revelation (thanks Mana Flare for all the mana :P ) but Sram cast Cast Off first so I didn't see a reason to do that.

Dream Eater came in handy at the end too to bounce something of Sram's, though I should have done it on their turn not mine. I had a ton of mana so it didn't really matter.

I never really saw any rocks except off the Surveil from Dream Eater and I put it into the yard since I didn't need it.

The deck played very well. I was mostly interested in Omnath since Aggro can be tough but they did miss 2 land drops early. Not that it really mattered since they got going eventually. I didn't see anything I thought was underwhelming. Maybe the Octopus since I couldn't attack until the board was cleared but I still like the card for a cheap Flash creature to trigger Ephara and potentially giving me a card later. I will continue watching it as it might just not do enough.

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Post by pokken » 3 years ago

WizardMN wrote:
3 years ago
though I landed a Faerie Artisans and this was the beginning of the end for people
MTGO and people misunderstanding how Faerie Artisans works and getting blown out by it - iconic duo ;)

The one where a guy tried to Kogla my artisans is still my favorite.

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Post by WizardMN » 3 years ago

I remember reading that and I actually was hoping Omnath was going to tutor for an Apex Altisaur or something to get rid of my Artisans so I could blow them out the same way :) I do get the issues though and "Exchange" tends to be somewhat more confusing when things change control before the exchange happens. Or, they just hoped I wouldn't catch it and try to steal something else with my token. Either way.

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Post by WizardMN » 3 years ago

Here are the new changes I am going to try out:
06/30/20
Approximate Total Cost:

I had Dream Eater as a cut to make. I really like the card though so I couldn't quite bring myself to cut it just yet. Instead, I decided on Summary Dismissal as a straight swap for Epiphany, and then decided on trying to cut Timetwister here. I have slowly been cutting Twister effects in most decks anyway and I think it is time to try to do so here as well.

Terminus is being cut just to make room. I was never really sold on it to begin with and I haven't ever seen it in a game. I think it is a good card but it isn't something I have found I really need. I still think I like Settle the Wreckage over it anyway and I am not running that.

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Post by WizardMN » 3 years ago

I played a game online against Kadena, Slinking Sorcerer, Zilortha, Strength Incarnate, and Torbran, Thane of Red Fell.

I started off really poorly actually. If I was paying more attention, I should have probably mulled the hand since I had a couple lands that didn't tap for color with the hand I kept. Mystic Gate gave me both colors with the Island I kept, but my mana was weird for most of the game due to this. And, of course, one land was Temple of the False God which was awkward with only 4 lands.

I ended up casting Recruiter of the Guard for Cartographer's Hawk and then cast Ephara the next turn followed by the Hawk and Faerie Artisans in the same turn. This was after Torbran cast Hour of Devastation since Kadena had a turn 1 Burgeoning which ramped them hard. They had a good board, especially after turning Thelonite Hermit face up so the Hour was definitely needed.

Artisans got me a Kadena, a Morph, and Zilortha before Zilortha killed it. But, now I had my own Zilortha.

Kadena ended up getting rid of their Zilortha since it was a 16/15 coming at them. Torbran landed a Burning Earth which was huge with Torbran on the field. I was going to take 12 damage if I wanted to tap out. My plan was actually to wait for their turn, tap out and then, in response to the triggers, cast Selfless Squire so I had a big creature. But, Zilortha didn't like it either so they took a lot of damage but managed to get rid of Torbran. I swung into Torbran with Zilortha and Hawk. This was the second, and last, land Hawk got me.

Kadena conceded a little later as they said they had to leave. They weren't in a bad position so it wasn't a rage scoop or anything.

Zilortha ended up casting Chandra's Ignition on their Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma which was a 9/8 thanks to Xenagos, God of Revels. It cleared my board and killed Torbran.

I flashed in Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir and then cast Cloudblazer on my turn to turn on Ephara. I swung for 9. I was at 14 at this point.

In response to my Teferi, Zilortha tutored for God-Eternal Rhonas. They cast it on their turn to make Goreclaw an 8/3. Xenagos triggered to give Rhonas +x/+x and Haste. I cast Sublime Epiphany to counter the trigger, bounce Goreclaw, copy Cloudblazer, and draw a card. It was a good first showing for the card :)

I did cast Barrin, Tolarian Archmage the next turn to bounce Rhonas but I didn't actually have to since they were at 4 life and I had two Cloudblazers. I still wanted to cast it though.

This game actually ended up being very much decided by the other players. I didn't get a wrath until later so Torbran wrathing and Zilortha killing Torbran paved the way for me to be able to swoop in for the win. I am not upset about it or anything; sometimes that is what the deck does. It worked out pretty well in the end.

I did like the addition of Epiphany but one instance where I got to use 4 modes is hardly a good indicator of the "average" use. I will keep playing with it and seeing where it goes. Barrin was less useful but, again, he came around sort of late anyway so it is hard to say he is bad.

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Post by pokken » 3 years ago

I definitely need a foil epiphany for the collection. That card is a powerhouse despite being about 1 mana more expensive than I want.

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Post by MeowZeDung » 3 years ago

WizardMN wrote:
3 years ago
I cast Sublime Epiphany to counter the trigger, bounce Goreclaw, copy Cloudblazer, and draw a card. It was a good first showing for the card
I'm jelly.
Kykar primer and other active decks (click!)

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Post by WizardMN » 3 years ago

I played this deck online for a couple games. I will separate them out below but the first was mostly about me not getting mana and, likely, a misplay.
Game 1
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The first game was against Elenda, the Dusk Rose, Meren of Clan Nel Toth, and Winota, Joiner of Forces. I actually started off with a decent hand that let me get Ephara down turn 3. Then, I missed a 2 land drops. Elenda scooped early and Meren wasn't doing a lot.

But, Winota got down Grand Abolisher which really messed things up for me. I had a Selfless Squire and an Hour of Revelation in hand. Squire couldn't be cast on their turn thanks to Abolisher. Meren found this out too when Winota went for the alpha strike and they couldn't activated their Spore Frog.

I ended up casting an early Angel of Finality just to trigger Ephara but I realized later I should have just cast Mystical Tutor to get Supreme Verdict to wrath Winota's board and get rid of the Abolisher.

Instead I had been hoping to get my third White source to cast Hour but it never happened. So, Winota just overran on turn 5.

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Game 2
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The second game was against Golos, Tireless Pilgrim, Ayara, First of Locthwain, and Isamaru, Hound of Konda. The game started of slow on my side with just an early Sensei's Divining Top but I never really got much for creatures or removal. I cast a Restoration Angel just to trigger Ephara and did what I could to not die to Isamaru who kept coming after me. I realized they couldn't get into Golos (well, they could once but didn't) but it still seemed shortsighted to go after me since I had the weakest board state.

I was able to stave them off for a while anyway. They ultimately conceded, along with Ayara because, well, Golos.....

I stuck it out though. I saved myself via a Selfless Squire and bounced it with Barrin, Tolarian Archmage to use it again if needed. The next turn Golos just went infinite though with Grand Architect and Pili-Pala. They also had Jace, Wielder of Mysteries to activate once they exiled all the cards in their library with Golos.

The problem was that I had Sublime Epiphany and Top on the field to dig for something if I needed to. So, I asked them to play it out. I hinted at the fact that I had an answer but the combo isn't fast and MODO doesn't allow for shortcuts with this so they sat there for about 35 minutes just generating mana and casting stuff and drawing cards off Song of Creation. They had 4 effects to get rid of lands but they never used them for that.

In any case, as expected with someone that got to cast their entire library (no matter how slow) they ended up winning. A couple Eldrazi along with a Dramatic Reversal and Isochron Scepter combo meant they just got to Proliferate all their Walkers with Contagion Engine over and over. A Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God gave them a little redundancy and a few other on the board meant that my Epiphany wasn't actually going to be enough unless they made a major misplay. They just ultimated Bolas which I had to counter but then I was left open to combat damage and the loop after combat anyway.

All in all, I did sort of get a perverse pleasure out of making them play it out (I still could have won after all) but in reality the game was over once they got a few extra pieces on board.

It is hard to look at one game and say "See, this is the problem with Golos" but the entire game felt pretty tough. I didn't want to Path since Golos comes back again for basically without paying the tax and I was hoping we could sort of gang up on the Golos player but it never really happened. I had wanted to get a wrath but it never came and, really, even if it had, Golos just comes down again.

It actually seemed like this pilot made it easy on us by not running (or not getting) Field of the Dead but it almost seems to be a weird thought to have: that the deck apparently willfully handicapped itself with a card that should be in basically every Golos deck and we still had no real game against it.

In any case, the time I waited for them to play out the game gave me time to write up the summary so there is that I guess :)

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Post by pokken » 3 years ago

Golos is tough Ephara because he overwhelms her stately pace :P Eidolon of Rhetoric has saved my bacon there in previous games but nowadays I just have to focus on stealing it. I have tutored for Gilded Drake against Golos a bunch.

Cloning it and repeatedly blinking it is not bad either, as it helps you keep up with lands at least.

The version I am playing now with no infinite combos has an even harder time going over those types of decks, but Agent of Treachery is kinda my end game against those guys - just start stealing all their stuff.

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Post by WizardMN » 3 years ago

Yeah, you mentioned Drannith Magistrate in your thread as well and I like the idea of stealing it with Drake. I haven't added Agent yet and at 7 mana I can see it being a little slow, but it is another good option. I might have to tweak the deck a little more to make it more resilient against decks like Golos, Tireless Pilgrim or Maelstrom Wanderer.

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Post by pokken » 3 years ago

Just to cross-post I would consider trying Sower of Temptation first in this deck. It's real, real good with Thassa and decent with a lot of other cards. Even just blinking it is often really good (it's fine to give something back if it gets you the new best thing or even just protects your sower from removal.

Most of those problem decks have a very low removal count and struggle to deal with a resolved sower. It was a housecleaner in my Thassa deck.

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Post by WizardMN » 3 years ago

I played another game last night and I think I made a number of crucial mistakes. The first might have just been the hand I kept. I played against Rashmi, Eternities Crafter, The Ur-Dragon, and Mangara of Corondor.

I started off with 5 lands, Mana Crypt, and Stormscape Familiar, I cast Ephara turn 2 followed up by Familiar on turn 3 but since my hand was mostly lands, I didn't get a lot to do.

I was somewhat scared of Rashmi since The Ur-Dragon wasn't going too fast. So I tried to slow them down at first. I removed Rashmi and countered her the second time. And countering her turned out to be a mistake since I ended up tutoring for Hour of Revelation to wipe the board since Mangara had some things I didn't want them to have.

I had intended on getting Cleansing Nova which is why I countered Rashmi, but it turned out to be a wasted counter. And I fired off Hour way too soon. I know this deck needs to be more patient but I just got antsy I guess.

That turned out to be the last major thing I did in the game. I drew too many lands and couldn't get enough creatures to trigger Ephara. So, my board was empty after the Hour and I couldn't get anything going. I did have one play at the end with Mulldrifter trying to find a wrath, Selfless Squire, or Teferi's Protection but it was all for naught.

I ended up getting run over by The Ur-Dragon pretty easily. It is hard to throw away a turn 2 Ephara hand so I am not sure if I would mull that again in the future. But I know I need to wait a little longer to blow the board. The game was still really early and I had no immediate threat of dying. And since I spent that wrath so casually, I had no chance of getting back into the game later.

Not a whole lot else to say beyond chalking it up to a learning experience.

Click here to view game 5 in main post

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Post by pokken » 3 years ago

I woulda kept that hand for sure. Sometimes you roll the dice and they come up snakes :) I kept 6 lands and whitemane lion the other day so I'm a bad dude on the greedy keeps.

I too regularly find I have wrathed too early. It's hard to keep holding for the last minute. I think countering Rashmi was probably the wrongest though. I try to hold my countermagic to defend sweepers or prevent gamewinning plays only.

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Post by WizardMN » 3 years ago

Yeah, my dislike of "free" stuff sort of drove my decision there. Looking back, having Rashmi out isn't exactly the worst thing anyway and arguably makes them more of a threat. I could have just let her go and let Ur Dragon focus on her eventually.

But, being patient with counter magic is important too. I am not sure why I was in such a rush to "control" the game, but I will definitely try to hold off next time.

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Post by WizardMN » 3 years ago

I played this game against Golos, Tireless Pilgrim, Sydri, Galvanic Genius (Book tribal), and another deck (I already forgot) last night.

This was a super fun game with one major misplay (that I was not punished for, but I should have been). I got down Ephara on turn 4 followed by Gilded Drake the next turn (or turn after) to steal Golos. I was feeling pretty good about this place when Golos Transmuted something for Astral Drift to flicker Golos and get him back. It felt even worse because if I had drawn a land that turn, I could have cast Drake *and* Thassa, Deep-Dwelling to get a tutor out of Golos :)

So, now they had my Drake and Golos back. two turns later I draw Charming Prince. I flicker Drake and steal Golos back. I was able to flicker him with Thassa this time around but I just got a Temple of the False God since I felt like the mana was good there.

They ended up having to wrath to get rid of Golos. I cast Eerie Interlude to save the rest of my team but now my Drake was dead so no shenanigans with Thassa and Prince :(

I was still doing pretty well though. Teferi, Thassa, Ephara, and Prince were on board so both Gods were on and I was going some pretty good damage. Golos tried to swing at me with a massive Golos but I cast Selfless Squire to save me and give me a big creature in return.

Next turn, I Capsized their Field of the Dead and cast Winds of Abandon. I am actually not even sure if I needed to since I don't think they run a lot of basic but I wanted their board completely clear. I swung into them but couldn't quite kill them.

Throughout all this, Golos was getting their Gates out for a Maze's End win. I had to have asked about 8 times during this game asking them how many gates they had. Eventually, they got to 7 and this is where my misplay came in. They cast Circuitous Route which would have given them 9 and End's activation would give them 10. I cast Mana Drain. They attempted to flicker Golos and they had a Panharmonicon on the field which would have done the same. I spun Sensei's Divining Top to get Spell Queller to stop the flicker.

They ended up having another Flicker effect in hand that they did not cast for some reason. I think they got confused with Teferi or forgot how much mana they had since they had activated Golos twice this turn.

The misplay was mostly the mana I tapped. I only had 4 mana open after Mana Drain and only one was Blue. This cut me off from Capsize which should have either bounced Maze's End or Golos himself (assuming they didn't have the mana to cast him again that turn; I forget how much they had). Since I didn't, I was left shield's down if they wanted to cast another Flicker spell.

Luckily they missed it so I killed them next turn. I was able to Rift to clear everyone's boards and just beat down from there,

I think my inclusion of Sea-Dasher Octopus as a fun card was somewhat ill-advised. I like the card still, and it did draw me a card, but this deck is slow enough where a 2/2 isn't getting through often and I would have preferred it to be a counter spell or removal spell instead. I think I will have to come up with something else in this spot. Perhaps this is where Sower of Temptation comes in.

Otherwise, I have no complaints about the deck. As always, they are likely some things to think about, especially with some recent conversations about potential includes, but it seems to be working like I want it to.

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Post by WizardMN » 3 years ago

I played this tonight and had a decent game with it. I didn't win and a lot of it was due to the lack of blue mana unfortunately.

I played against Kadena, Slinking Sorcerer and Tuvasa the Sunlit.

I started off with a turn 3 Ephara thanks to Kadena's Helm of Awakening. But I only had 1 blue source when I did it. I cast Spellseeker to get Winds of Abandon and held onto it. I then cast Barrin, Tolarian Archmage to return Spellseeker to hand. I recast Spellseker next turn to get Cyclonic Rift.

I left open mana for Selfless Squire next turn which I ended up casting to prevent 22 damage. Tuvasa really didn't like this for some reason so they tried to get rid of the Squire. I cast Stonecloaker to save it though.

I was sort of stabilizing when Kadena cast Villainous Wealth targeting me. I tried to counter it with Mana Drain but they turned up Stratus Dancer and countered it. I had three mana left which wasn't enough for Squire and also wasn't enough Blue to cast my Disallow in hand to counter the trigger. So, they got my Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir and Selfless Spirit. They cast an End Hostilities they had stolen earlier with Kheru Spellsnatcher and used the Spirit to save their board.

I died to an alpha strike of a bunch of 2/2 tokens from Thelonite Hermit. Tuvasa died shortly after.

I had already mulled once in this game and had 6 lands in hand and a Path to start with. I didn't want to just throw it away but I did only have Prairie Stream as a blue source. And I didn't have a lot of creatures to trigger Ephara. I was still in a really good spot for most of the game though. The Dancer just got me unfortunately and I was one mana short to just cast Squire as well which would have allowed me to cast Cyclonic Rift to bounce everything to my opponent's hands.

Maybe I should have thrown the hand away and tried for a better 6, but I still felt the deck was able to do quite a bit as it was. I did get a little greedy with not wrathing when I could since I was banking on Selfless Squire to get me through one more turn. I still had Winds in hand that I was reluctant to cast as Kadena had 12 creatures but I could have cast Supreme Verdict. I was holding off on *that* because my board was actually pretty good. The Wealth into Spirit into End Hostilities wasn't something I was counting on.
Last edited by WizardMN 3 years ago, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by pokken » 3 years ago

The kadena decks hit on a real tough axis. Can't really interact with the morph abilities and theyll drown you in cards too. I usually like to keep their boards clear when shields are down, but they often have a flip counter too.

Usually I beat them if I can stop them from getting a flash engine online.

I definitely have noticed since going to get full on derplord fetch manabase that I'm a lot less blue constrained. It's possible adding like fabled passage and prismatic vista would help and not push too hard.

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