Ephara, God of the Polis - Flash & Taxes

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pokken
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Post by pokken » 3 years ago

So I've been doing some noodling about Cosmic Intervention.

It appears that it combines with Mystic Sanctuary to create a bit of a loop - not infinite but high value - if you have a way to sacrifice or destroy the sanctuary. That'd be something like Strip Mine.

If you were to say, cast intervention, then fetch up a Mystic Sanctuary, then strip mine it, at the end step you would return Strip Mine, fetchland, and Mystic Sanctuary, then put Cosmic Intervention back on top. Then assuming you triggered Ephara, you could perform the same another time.

In practice that's a bit awkward, especially since sacrificing lands is a few and far between effect in UW, but you can remember to always fetch Mystic Sanctuary if doing the fetchland dance with Cosmic Intervention - so even as random value, you can say:

* Cast Cosmic Intervention
* Crack two fetches, ideally get +2 islands - only one must be an actual Island fetch
* Return both fetches at the end step, crack them again, second one gets Mystic Sanctuary
* Put Cosmic Intervention on top if you have island count
* Next upkeep hopefully draw with Ephara and get Cosmic Intervention
* Next Endstep return your fetches.

So for 4 mana you go +4 lands and have your Cosmic Intervention back. And the mana from all the fetches very likely gives you enough mana to do this again on the 2nd player's turn - although you can't get sanctuary again, going up +8 lands for 8 mana is pretty absurd.

I'm pretty stoked about this, hopefully I'm understanding it right.

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Post by pokken » 3 years ago

So I've been goldfishing the deck a lot to help me get my shuffling technique back since it's been so long since I've played. It's difficult to shuffle the super thick KMC perfect hards when out of practice.

Something I've noticed is that it is often better to go for Spellseeker than Soulherder off the first Recruiter of the Guard, but that Whitemane Lion I think is actually the usually optimal play.

Soulherder is the most mana efficient, but Spellseeker is the most powerful (since it can get two combo pieces off Ephemerate). Herder costs 3 to get your second recruiter activation, Spellseeker costs 4, and Whitemane Lion costs 5. However, Lion generates more cards and less aggro *and* some protection for Recruiter of the Guard.

One thing I noticed in testing is that I'm prone to over-extending with Spellseeker - the mana it costs to set up the combo off of it and Recruiter of the Guard is a lot (usually 10+ mana) so doing the ephemerate each for Enlightened Tutor and Karmic Guide and/or Body Double to complete the combo means you're spending around 13 mana (5, 5, 1, 2).

Still, it's nice to have that option to go for completing the combo.


-------------------------------------------

Another thing I've noticed re: Jeweled Lotus - sometimes it's nice to have the option to Enlightened Tutor for lotus - it enables a turn 2 Ephara without having to commit to Mana Crypt and also more than once allowed me to go turn 2 Ephara + 1-drop (Ponder and Weathered Wayfarer, in testing).

It's basically never right to e-tutor for Sol Ring on turn 1 since you wind up with a turn 3 Ephara, but having Lotus or Crypt depending on my hand is nice. For example, if I have a Hour of Revelation in hand I don't want to take a bunch of damage from crypt before I blow it up.

I've also had a couple turn 1 Ephara, God of the Polis and one time I did need to scry with Charming Prince to hit my third land it was pretty great. The amount of deck manipulation makes a lot of Lotus hands fix themselves.

One thing I'm noticing as well is that my hand often gets clogged with 4-drops these days that I'd rather not tap out for so I am anticipating I'll want to cut some of them at some point.

Can't wait to get playing again!

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Post by shermanido37 » 3 years ago

My thinking is that Faerie Artisans gives us a Stunt Double each time an opponent plays a card, therefore it's pretty ridiculous paying the same amount for one clone as for an engine that creates a bunch of them.
I am running that card in the other 99 though, since there's no such engine there.

Of course I also recommend you cut Archaeomancer, but it's clear you're not going to do that. Though full disclosure, I'm also playing that card in my other 99, along with a package to abuse it.
I'd also consider cutting Selfless Squire. It's definitely a cute card, but I don't think it does something that can't be done in more efficient or flexible ways.

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Post by pokken » 3 years ago

shermanido37 wrote:
3 years ago
My thinking is that Faerie Artisans gives us a Stunt Double each time an opponent plays a card, therefore it's pretty ridiculous paying the same amount for one clone as for an engine that creates a bunch of them.
I am running that card in the other 99 though, since there's no such engine there.

Of course I also recommend you cut Archaeomancer, but it's clear you're not going to do that. Though full disclosure, I'm also playing that card in my other 99, along with a package to abuse it.
I'd also consider cutting Selfless Squire. It's definitely a cute card, but I don't think it does something that can't be done in more efficient or flexible ways.
Yeah I think those are probably the right cuts. Archaeomancer probably never cut with Ephemerate. I still kinda want to play another blink spell at some point, and thinking about slotting Phyrexian Altar too.

I kinda miss Phyrexian Metamorph a lot too, 3 is a lot less than 4.

I think Stunt Double has some advantages over Artisans by virtue of having flash, and being able to guarantee long term copying of a static effect, but so far it's been hit or miss to me. I rarely want to spend 4 mana on it.

Selfless Squire is super dope, kind of a sweeper-ish card. It's interesting how often this deck can just put a 10/10 to work killing people too. But this one I need to play a few times in person to see how it rolls. Online it was usually winmore but people online interact a lot less so I would always get obscene board states that generate way too many cards.

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Post by ZenN » 3 years ago

pokken wrote:
3 years ago
Selfless Squire is super dope, kind of a sweeper-ish card. It's interesting how often this deck can just put a 10/10 to work killing people too.
I once saw a Saskia the Unyielding player flash in a Selfless Squire to prevent 48 damage to themselves, and then on the following turn play Saskia and kill two people. That was something.
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Post by pokken » 3 years ago

2021/02/08 - Small manabase update

Cut Myriad Landscape and Glacial Fortress for Fabled Passage and Field of the Dead

I'm pretty confident that Field of the Dead is going to be way better than I have imagined in this deck, and I think Fabled Passage should be great with the new fetch tech. Glacial Fortress is one of the worst lands in the deck not having a land type and has been very bad for me before. That said, Fabled Passage being basically just as bad in possibly more hands is definitely a concern for me.

Gonna give it a try anyway and see.

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Post by SocorroTortoise » 3 years ago

It's a minor upgrade, but adding some snow basics makes Field a hair more reliable. I'm a fan of 1 of each snow-covered, then make a point of grabbing those when you tutor basics. Less chance of drawing into additional copies of the snow-covered/non-snow-covered basic you already have that way. Marginal upside given that you already have a pretty diverse manabase, but I'm not seeing any reason for you to avoid them in your list and there's not really meaningful hate for them at this point.
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Post by pokken » 3 years ago

SocorroTortoise wrote:
3 years ago
It's a minor upgrade, but adding some snow basics makes Field a hair more reliable. I'm a fan of 1 of each snow-covered, then make a point of grabbing those when you tutor basics. Less chance of drawing into additional copies of the snow-covered/non-snow-covered basic you already have that way. Marginal upside given that you already have a pretty diverse manabase, but I'm not seeing any reason for you to avoid them in your list and there's not really meaningful hate for them at this point.
Yeah I think you're right. They kinda muck with my aesthetic with the nyx basics but I'll see if I can find some foils I like.

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Post by shermanido37 » 3 years ago

pokken wrote:
3 years ago
Archaeomancer probably never cut with Ephemerate
Ephemerate is a brilliant card for us on its own - it doesn't need a weak 4 drop to be good. However, I'm pretty sure you can't say that the other way around.
The key to combos (that aren't CEDH) is making sure that each card does things outside of the combo. A 4 mana 1/2 that gets you a card or two on average, just does not hold up, especially when compared to cards that offer superb card advantage on their own, like Faerie Artisans and Keeper of the Accord.

If you're that ecstatic about recurring Ephemerate, you should probably just combo it with Spellseeker (which loved it anyway) along with Mistveil Plains. If you flicker Spellseeker with the Rebound, the triggered ability goes on the stack after Ephemerate goes to the graveyard, giving you just enough time to hold priority and tuck it with Mistveil. Then when the triggered ability resolves you can just tutor back for it.

I mean frankly, if you're going to want to abuse marginal cards, you may as well play Meloku the Clouded Mirror to endlessly combo with Mystic Sanctuary and Field of the Dead. At least Meloku is a good Ephara card on its own, even if it doesn't hold up to the highest standards.

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Post by pokken » 3 years ago

shermanido37 wrote:
3 years ago
pokken wrote:
3 years ago
Archaeomancer probably never cut with Ephemerate
Ephemerate is a brilliant card for us on its own - it doesn't need a weak 4 drop to be good. However, I'm pretty sure you can't say that the other way around.
The key to combos (that aren't CEDH) is making sure that each card does things outside of the combo. A 4 mana 1/2 that gets you a card or two on average, just does not hold up, especially when compared to cards that offer superb card advantage on their own, like Faerie Artisans and Keeper of the Accord.

If you're that ecstatic about recurring Ephemerate, you should probably just combo it with Spellseeker (which loved it anyway) along with Mistveil Plains. If you flicker Spellseeker with the Rebound, the triggered ability goes on the stack after Ephemerate goes to the graveyard, giving you just enough time to hold priority and tuck it with Mistveil. Then when the triggered ability resolves you can just tutor back for it.

I mean frankly, if you're going to want to abuse marginal cards, you may as well play Meloku the Clouded Mirror to endlessly combo with Mystic Sanctuary and Field of the Dead. At least Meloku is a good Ephara card on its own, even if it doesn't hold up to the highest standards.

While I acknowledge that archaeomancer is not a great card it is a very good care and mechanically unique at its price.point..4 is the cheapest spell recur in the game on a dude.

So the thing to remember is that not all cards are equal. Typically our instants and sorceries are of outsized power. Recurring rift or winds is a lot more powerful than drawing a card off the top.

Do I wish it was eternal witness? Yup. But it's a lot easier and more mana efficient to ephemerate lock with arch than mistveil plains even neglecting the opportunity cost of having to find plains. Arch ephemerate and any bomb spell is an easy to achieve soft lock.

Mistveil costs essentially two to activate plus losing one Mana by entering tapped. So that's already two mana more expensive a lock than arch and costs two more every time. And is not a.lock once your targets are gone..

Meloku is not really a comparison. I never want to bounce lands and it requires multiple pieces and costs 5 and also has an activation cost. Every time you activate it you go down a land which is awful.

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Post by ZenN » 3 years ago

I can't count the number of times I've wished Archaeomancer was a 1UU. It may not seem like much, but it would be so, so much better. I agree that going the Mistveil Plains route is a little clunky, but I also agree that Archaeomancer sucks. It unfortunately just often feels like a necessary evil in non-green decks when you want to be reliably recurring a spell.

Unrelated, I just looked at your list in detail for the first time in a while. Here are some thoughts I had while doing so:
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Maelstrom Wanderer a.k.a. The Kool-Aid Man
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Post by pokken » 3 years ago

ZenN wrote:
3 years ago
Unrelated, I just looked at your list in detail for the first time in a while. Here are some thoughts I had while doing so:
I'm surprised you haven't slotted in a Glorious Protector.
I feel like Generous Gift would be better than Unexpectedly Absent.
Call me crazy, but I feel like Felidar Retreat would do a ton of work here. You'd get the same benefit that you get from Field of the Dead with instant speed creatures by holding up fetches, but also it would give you a solid way to pump up your team of otherwise wimps for some serious beats.
Moorland Haunt or Castle Ardenvale would probably serve you well.
Some good thoughts!

* I have a protector on tap just hasn't gotten here in the mail yet
* Unexpectedly Absent is Spellseeker and Muddle the Mixture tutorable and a way better card. I'm really particular about that one though lol. In 3 color decks where ww is harder I can see Gift, but beating indestructible is more important to me than killing lands.
* Felidar Retreat is good. The issue is that it's a 4 cmc enchantment which is vulnerable to enchantment removal, not recurrable via any means in the deck. I'm actually looking at cutting my last remaining enchantment. I do think it could be really dope with my upcoming changes of Cosmic Intervention and using Brought Back and such though. My issue is mostly the cmc and the vulnerability.

There's another poster who commented a few times who is using it and really likes it. I think I'd want to be up to 5-ish enchantments and also playing Cavalier of Dawn before I'd be on that very hard, but again I could be super wrong. 0 mana creature generation at instant speed is really hard to come by and it's definitely possible I am misevaluating the card.

* Castle Ardenvale and Moorland Haunt and Kjeldoran Outpost are all pretty decent. My experience has been that the 5 mana one is way too slow. I had Moorland Haunt when the deck was much worse and I never activated it once over like a year. 3 mana is a LOT for a token.

The problem with haunt now is that it exiles dudes and I rarely want to exile anything from my bin, but also that it taps for colorless and I've realllly trimmed on those.

I think that if I were to cut Emeria, the Sky Ruin at any point, Ardenvale would be the right one to run since it has the lowest opportunity cost. Right now I have a high demand for plains though. Ardenvale is nice cos it supports Field.

Definitely appreciate your comments as always!

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Post by shermanido37 » 3 years ago

As a cube player, I can testify to the power of effects that come on lands rather than on spells.
Engineered Explosives is great in constructed yet far from a success in cube, as well as EDH. However, put that effect on a land, like Blast Zone, and it becomes so unbelievably flexible that it just blows EE out of the water.
So while Felidar Retreat is a decent card, the fact that you have to pay 4 for it just puts it miles below Field of the Dead, especially in a singleton format like EDH where Field's downside is negligible.

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Post by ZenN » 3 years ago

Oh, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying it's as easy to slot in as Field of the Dead, but it's very strong. I've been consistently impressed with it in every deck I've tried it in. It can close out a game pretty quickly in a deck with a lot of fetch lands.

@pokken Now that you mention Cavalier of Dawn, actually, I've been particularly happy with that thing in my ETB list.
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Post by pokken » 3 years ago

ZenN wrote:
3 years ago
Now that you mention Cavalier of Dawn, actually, I've been particularly happy with that thing in my ETB list.
It's real good. I find it a hair expensive because my mana is not quite as explosive - there's not as many 'blink wood elves 7 times for a billion mana' effects. I could see the argument for retooling with less Body Double / Reveillark and more Cavalier of Dawn. It might even be right to shave a couple of my 4-drops for bigger power 5-drops like cavalier. I've got one in the binder for tryin eventually.

I think I'd want to run a bigger pile of artifacts/enchantments for it though, and to be fair there are a lot of good ones out there for this deck.

At times I also wonder if I should be shaving back more on the ETB effects and roll toward more hatebears, given how many sick ones there are now. But I think I really need a Stony Silence bear before I can do that :P

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Post by ZenN » 3 years ago

pokken wrote:
3 years ago
ZenN wrote:
3 years ago
Now that you mention Cavalier of Dawn, actually, I've been particularly happy with that thing in my ETB list.
It's real good. I find it a hair expensive because my mana is not quite as explosive - there's not as many 'blink wood elves 7 times for a billion mana' effects. I could see the argument for retooling with less Body Double / Reveillark and more Cavalier of Dawn. It might even be right to shave a couple of my 4-drops for bigger power 5-drops like cavalier. I've got one in the binder for tryin eventually.

I think I'd want to run a bigger pile of artifacts/enchantments for it though, and to be fair there are a lot of good ones out there for this deck.

At times I also wonder if I should be shaving back more on the ETB effects and roll toward more hatebears, given how many sick ones there are now. But I think I really need a Stony Silence bear before I can do that :P
Yeah, sucks that green got the Stony Silence hate bear instead of white.
If you did want to play more 5 drops, something like God-Eternal Oketra would probably be really strong here, too, what with bouncing your own creatures to replay and such.
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Golos, ETB Pilgrim - Value Town
Maelstrom Wanderer a.k.a. The Kool-Aid Man
Korvold, Fae-Cursed King - OM NOM NOM
Kykar, Wind's Fury - Spellslinger + Tokens

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Post by pokken » 3 years ago

ZenN wrote:
3 years ago
Yeah, sucks that green got the Stony Silence hate bear instead of white.
If you did want to play more 5 drops, something like God-Eternal Oketra would probably be really strong here, too, what with bouncing your own creatures to replay and such.
Aaaagreed. It makes no damn sense to me and pisses me off a lot :)

yeah God-Eternal Oketra is high on my list of dudes to try if I ever stop running the Altar of Dementia combo, since they kinda serve the same purpose (closing out the game). Akroma's Will is pretty insanely cool as well.

There's even a section on those in the primer nowadays.

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Post by shermanido37 » 3 years ago

I'm holding out hope for Modern Horizons 2. The first was absurdly pushed, and that was even without a broken standard as a background. Since then we've had Oko, Uro, Companion, Omnath, and now Tibalt in standard sets, as well as a new printing of Black Lotus in a commander set. Cards that want to stand out to Modern (or to Magic in general) now have a much higher bar to stand up to. And while I predict that we won't see another Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis + Altar of Dementia turn 2 combo, cards like Urza, Lord High Artificer, Arcum's Astrolabe, Wrenn and Six, Seasoned Pyromancer, Prismatic Vista, Force of Negation etc. have affected multiple formats. I'm curious to see what they print next.

The big caveat to that hope, though, is the current state of modern.

If we exclude Burn, since it's primarily red, white is being run in 4 of the top decks in Modern: Spirits, Hammer Time, Heliod Company, and Uro Omnath nonsense. That's even without mentioning Death and Taxes.
Notably, Ranger-Captain of Eos is big in Heliod Company and demonstrates how powerful is a good effect on a small creature fetchable by Collected Company. The card both fetches Walking Ballista and protects the combo from interaction. Because of that, I believe that they will be careful with what they print next for white weenies. My prediction would be that they either print a 5-6CMC beast of a finisher, or a 3CMC noncreature hate effect. I'm hoping for the former - it's been a while since white got a good finisher.

It might be that blue gets something broken... I mean it does tend to get the most powerful cards out of cycles, like in the case of Force of Negation. And the existence of Hullbreacher proves that blue can get terrifying hatebears. But Hullbreacher's printing caused a ton of backlash against WotC for crapping on white and giving good stuff to blue instead, so even if blue does get something broken, it probably won't be a hatebear.

Unrelated, but my personal hopes are that they print something good in black. It's the most underrepresented one as it stands (excluding CEDH), and if you ignore the Oven Cat combo it didn't get a lot of good stuff these past few years. Yawgmoth, Thran Physician was a step in the right direction, but I feel like something more can come out of the color that's supposed to be the embodiment of ambition.

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Post by pokken » 3 years ago

Yeah, I think it's pretty likely based on the complaining schedule (e.g. the complaints back in summer of last year are probably what are driving what's in Modern Horizons 2) that we'll get some great white cards, probably bombs, in MH2.

Weirdly the thing about that set I am most stoked about is seeing easy access to fetchlands for everyone. it slows the game down a bit but they're just really good.

Ranger-Captain of Eos is definitely a great card. I really am a fan of those narrow tutors for white, would love to see some Collected Company type effects in white (e.g. dig 7 put the 2 power or less creatures into play).

It's definitely been fun the last couple years since we seem to get something neat every set. I suspect there's some Ephara fans out there in R&D :P Nadir Kraken is just so well designed to support Ephara mechanically it makes me suspicious.

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Post by pokken » 3 years ago

2021/02/10 Update

So this is was a really hard call, but without swords or a way to find her I've found Linvala, Keeper of Silence to be quite hit or miss. She is super powerful against some commanders in particular (looking at you Golos, Tireless Pilgrim) but I'm going to try without her for a bit while I assess Stunt Double a bit more.

CUT ADD
The reason I am slotting in Phyrexian Altar is that I feel very strongly that this deck is going to want access to another sac outlet with the addition of Cosmic Intervention. This card is a huge powerhouse, and creates some powerful engines with Archaeomancer. It's not infinite but it could be 'get all the fetchable lands out of your deck in one turn cycle' good.

Altar also strongly synergizes with Nadir Kraken and Keeper of the Accord, allowing you to control your creature count to generate additional triggers while also making mana if needed.

And of course it fills in for Altar of Dementia creating infinite combos a variety of ways with Reveillark.

So while it does increase my attack surface for artifact/enchantment removal, at least it's Sun Titan recurrable unlike Smothering tithe.

Looking forward to trying it out. I'm unsure if I am accidentally becoming a weird Azorius aristocrats deck but if it happens it happens.


------------------------------

a brief note re:Kaldheim foils
They seem to have some of the extra-thick-curliness of CMDR Legends but man they are beautiful. Glorious Protector is truly stunning.

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Post by shermanido37 » 3 years ago

Phyrexian Arena certainly goes up in value as you get token generators, especially the free ones you mentioned. Don't forget you can use Faerie Artisans tokens before they disappear.
It's a shame, too. I had traded away mine thinking I wasn't going to be using it, back when it was about at half its current value, but with more cards making it worthwhile it seems like it could have been super powerful.
At least I have Blasting Station as a good option to control the board.
I will say that I predict Cosmic Intervention to be a bit of a win-more card, even with sac outlets.

However, I disagree with your assessment of Linvala. At the very least, her body is one of the biggest ones that we have at our disposal, especially ones with hate effects on them.
Also, the more competitive your opponents are, the better she gets. Sure, she doesn't do a lot versus ETB the gathering, but as soon as your opponents start to spice up their plays with cards like Deathrite Shaman, Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, the more threatening she becomes.

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Post by pokken » 3 years ago

shermanido37 wrote:
3 years ago
Phyrexian Arena certainly goes up in value as you get token generators, especially the free ones you mentioned. Don't forget you can use Faerie Artisans tokens before they disappear.
It's a shame, too. I had traded away mine thinking I wasn't going to be using it, back when it was about at half its current value, but with more cards making it worthwhile it seems like it could have been super powerful.
At least I have Blasting Station as a good option to control the board.
I will say that I predict Cosmic Intervention to be a bit of a win-more card, even with sac outlets.

However, I disagree with your assessment of Linvala. At the very least, her body is one of the biggest ones that we have at our disposal, especially ones with hate effects on them.
Also, the more competitive your opponents are, the better she gets. Sure, she doesn't do a lot versus ETB the gathering, but as soon as your opponents start to spice up their plays with cards like Deathrite Shaman, Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, the more threatening she becomes.

I think the odds of Linvala coming back in for either Keeper of the Accord, Cosmic Intervention or Selfless Squire are fairly high. But I really want to see Squire in action in person before I make a call on it.

I'm fairy sure that Cosmic Intervention turns out to be an insane bomb but I've been wrong before :) See the year or two I did not run Faerie Artisans.

Keeper has been, in goldfishing, a very hard card to clock. It's just too dependent on other boards to get a confident read on it.

I wish it wasn't quite so annoying to get my exact list in MTGO or I'd playtest more, just doesn't really do what I want if I have to avoid cards like $100 Jeweled Lotus and what not. Eventually I imagine I'll be able to do some paper here.

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Post by capitacommunist » 3 years ago

pokken wrote:
3 years ago
2021/02/08 - Small manabase update

Cut Myriad Landscape and Glacial Fortress for Fabled Passage and Field of the Dead

I'm pretty confident that Field of the Dead is going to be way better than I have imagined in this deck, and I think Fabled Passage should be great with the new fetch tech. Glacial Fortress is one of the worst lands in the deck not having a land type and has been very bad for me before. That said, Fabled Passage being basically just as bad in possibly more hands is definitely a concern for me.

Gonna give it a try anyway and see.
Although I fully agree on the strength of the recent fetch tech, I don't think worsening your mana base to deepen it is worth it. If you're inclined to have more synergy with it, I would recommend playing Strip Mine / Wasteland instead.

How have you found Nimbus Maze to be - I've looked at it before but never tried it as it seemed worse than more color certain options.

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Post by pokken » 3 years ago

capitacommunist wrote:
3 years ago

Although I fully agree on the strength of the recent fetch tech, I don't think worsening your mana base to deepen it is worth it. If you're inclined to have more synergy with it, I would recommend playing Strip Mine / Wasteland instead.

How have you found Nimbus Maze to be - I've looked at it before but never tried it as it seemed worse than more color certain options.
So losing fort for passage is a bit of a wash to me. Both have very awkward early sequences where they have to be put in tapped and are virtually guaranteed to come in untapped later. Passage is a little worse early but plenty of times I've had like fortress sea of clouds as my lands. Gonna have to see how it goes tho you could be right.

Nimbus maze is not a great land but it's a necessary evil to support displacer. It also does good work supporting field.

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pokken
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Post by pokken » 3 years ago

Some random updates from goldfishing:

* My testing suggests that Field of the Dead is bonkers good. Even without having added snow basics I can trigger it reliably by turn 6 or 7, because of all the random land ramp effects.

* 100% of the time I see Jeweled Lotus I am ridiculously stoked to see it. Turn 1 Ephara is batcrap insane.

* Keeper of the Accord seems to be *very* good even at just catching you up if you miss a land drop. Nobody is going to remove keeper to stop you from catching up on lands. I had multiple playtest games where I was able to keep somewhat riskily because I could curve Ephara into Keeper and assume it would likely fix missing a land drop.

* Nadir Kraken is *reallly* good with Phyrexian Altar.


Hopefully gonna get out for a few games sometime soon - I am pretty stoked to try out the new designs.

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