I have some decks that are part of my arsenal that I always come back to year-after-year, just because I enjoy elements of them so much and of course because they work.
But I never really get the opportunity to take the time to post them (on forums here) as set after set rolls around from Wizards of the Coast and I'm constantly posting on "the latest and greatest" commander decks I build. I never give my older tried and true decks the love to share and explain some of them. So here goes.
This deck I've simply named "Ephara Tokens" and I've been playing it on and off for at least the last 4 years.
It's a draw-go-control deck that simply wants to drag the game on forever. It's one of my few decks that I will constantly get games going to 20 or more turns.
Rather than playing a horde of flash creatures, the way this deck get's advantages is through token producing outlets that will trigger Ephara on each opponents turn.
I highly recommend this deck if you want games to go on for a long time and want a deck that is simply good against basically everything. Sick of opponents comboing out? Opponents like running you over with creatures? It's got a plan against most archetypes.
Part of the reason for token generators and not specifically creatures is that there is a lot of board removal in the deck and we want to have draw engines remain in play after casting many of these.
As you can see these are mainly from enchantments that require investing various amounts of mana to produce a token creature.
Oketra the True and Heliod, God of the Sun are indestructible and combining this with Ephara indestructible, you have a really long-term draw engine that is hard for opponents to deal with. Let's put it this way, with counterspell backup as well it's impossible for your opponents to stop you from having these indefinitely.
The idea is simple. You just want to produce a single token during each of your opponents turns so that you draw a card each players turn. Once the game goes long you are probably drawing 5 cards each round in a 4 player game.
The deck is designed for attrition and we are trying to get the game state into a position that everything that players are doing is "fair".
You can see this from a few cards like Spirit of the Labyrinth, Rule of Law, Arcane Laboratory, Humility, that all players are not doing anything too busted.
Sacred Mesa is the most mana efficient of the token generators and one of the best cards in the deck. Sure it doesn't have the indestructibility of Oketra the True and Heliod, God of the Sun but you can really get the draw going efficiently.
The way you are using these token creatures as well is simply to block as much as possible to preserve your life total. Honestly you're are not amassing a token army at all, except for the very very last stages of the game, and I'm taking about around turn 15 or usually more. Even then it's for pecking in damage, just a simple inevitability once all the rest of the lock down has happened.
It must be noted that because all the token creatures have 1 toughness, Skullclamp is another great source of draw with these.
This is the ultimate control deck, and with a steady flow of card draw you will be able to span the removal almost certainly in time for the next potential wipe.
There is also creature specific removal in Supreme Verdict, Terminus and Austere Command can do a bunch of modes.
Terminus is nice with Ephara draw triggers happening on opponents upkeep, as it will mean the first card you draw for the turn, meaning it'll cost you every so often.
All in all the deck is designed so that the impact of the removal is minimal for you. Sure you will get cards that are hit by these, but you are never committing to the board majorly until you are really set up and have a firm grip on the game.
Even creatures that you might cast, at least they are normally replaced by Ephara draw trigger.
Plus you'll see later on that there are a number of ways to get your enchantments back from graveyard.
Oblivion Stone can be combined with Academy Ruins to have an indefinite ability to wipe the board each turn.
The reason the deck doesn't want to use mana rocks is that we are casting a lot of mass non-land removal, which invariable we will be casting many times during a game.
This might not seem like much, but when your game plan is to make the game last as long as possible, getting extra lands into play overtime really adds up.
Walking Atlas and Dreamscape Artist are great as you get additional draw off Ephara so you have the fuel to keep them going every turn for a guaranteed additional land.
Search for Azcanta, Treasure Map, Thaumatic Compass are transform lands, and getting a board that survives your mass removal cards means that you don't get any disadvantages from them. So they are both land ramp and continuous advantages.
Druidic Satchel is a sort of tech card and you can even use Sensei's Divining Top and Scroll Rack to set it up how you want. All the abilities are relevant, as it's a token generator for Ephara draw, but mainly you want the land ramp.
There is even Stoneforge Mystic that can search for Sword of the Animist (or Skullclamp) for getting precious extra lands into play.
This is where you use your life total as a major resource and let most permanent spells resolve as you can almost always deal with them. So really the counterspells are only for the most powerful spells cast that effect the game on the stack.
So I'll reiterate that the way to win is to be as patient with what to use these spells on as possible. I mean as patient as a Christian waiting for marriage..
Forbid is the best over the longer game as you can easily discard cards as you accumulate additional draws with Ephara.
Or you deploy them once you've got a firm grip on everything that could possible go on in the game.
Humility work excellent with your token generators as most of them are 1/1's anyway. Only Oketra the True get's effected by the card.
But you do need to be careful with your devotion for Ephara and Heliod, God of the Sun not wanting them to be creatures.
In fact you really want to avoid making these creatures at all, as you can expose them to exile effects like Swords to Plowshares. However there are times that you want the indestructible blocker (or attacker) so the game will dictate if you deploy enough devotion to turn these on as creatures.
Greater Auramancy and Starfield of Nyx are a reflection of protecting or getting back key enchantments in the deck, including your token generators.
Again you want to in general avoid having your enchantments turn into creatures as they are more exposed to removal, so with Starfield of Nyx you want to avoid getting 5 enchantments in play most times.
There is also Replenish as a way to get back all your enchantments that may have ended up in your graveyard, often even from your own mass removal.
Hall of Heliod's Generosity also allows you to keep putting back your best at the time enchantment that you might want.
I will point out that often you will have hand sizes greater than 7 cards down the stretch and you will probably have to discard due to hand size. It's tempting to have Reliquary Tower in the deck to save on resources this way, but it's better to leverage off Starfield of Nyx and Replenish for a longer term plan as they are very mana efficient. So even if you don't have them (in play or hand) you can discard enchantments like this for this plan further into the game.
Rule of Law and Arcane Laboratory is to make sure that going down the stretch storm type decks can't unleash a massive turn to get around all your disruption, and the style of play of your own deck is that you only need to cast a few spells. Draw-go, draw-go.
My really tech cards for the long-term attrition game (the straws that break the camels back) are Martyr's Bond and Dismiss into Dream.
Martyr's Bond is a sacrifice effect for a number of card types. With the token creature generation it's impossible for your opponents to attack into you as you can block and it causes mass sacrifices.
My favorite play is with Sacred Mesa as you have to sacrifice a creature each turn, so this is just an Abyss which is usually too much as you've already taken away all your opponents resources usually at that stage (i.e. they are top decking).
But you can also use it for enchantments with the tokens produced from Heliod, God of the Sun.
Dismiss into Dream is the card that really makes sure that opponents can't play many (if any) creatures. The land base is specifically designed to have a number of cards that allow you to target creatures.
The "cost" of having these in the deck is very small (Land Tax for example), but it's great to have these eventually for the death-grip of Dismiss into Dream.
Minamo, School at Water's Edge and Eiganjo Castle can target Commanders or any legendary creatures for that matter.
Kor Haven and Spires of Orazca makes attacking seem like a bad option.
Tower of the Magistrate is the best as it can just target anything.
Arcane Lighthouse is in the deck just so you can get around hexproof and shroud.
One of the reason for Weathered Wayfarer is to search up for a number of these utility lands.
Enlightened Tutor, Idyllic Tutor and Academy Rector are for getting key enchantments that you might need at various stages of the game.
Obviously you can get the trigger off Ephara so at the very least replace themselves.
Stonecloaker and Venser, Shaper Savant can be used to bounce themselves for getting multiple Ephara triggers if wanting to use them this way.
Faerie Artisans is a house with the ability to not only trigger Ephara draw each players turn most times, but getting you ETB effects and additional blocker for most turns.