Ephara, God of the Polis - Flash & Taxes

[WizardMN]

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.

Pokken got me onto Image as well and I like it a lot. I actually cut all clones but this and Stunt Double because I really like playing on my opponents' turns. I make an exception for Image though

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.

I never got around to adding this to my list. I prefer Unexpectedly Absent so I don't need to give them a creature. And I actually cut Cavalier of Dawn (for now anyway) due to space and because it gave them a creature. I do agree that it is a solid card and if you are trying to protect combos it might come in more handy there.

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.

I added this to my list because of the potential life gain aspect stapled onto it. I am glad to hear it seems to be working out though as I haven't gotten a game in since adding it in mine. I am still not entirely sold on the card, but hearing how it is working out in the real world is helpful.

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 haven't been sad about cutting Vessel in my deck so it isn't really worth it. I like Stormscape Familiar but I don't think I would go any further than that. In a pinch, I might even cut it if I had to. At some point, the cost reduction isn't worth it anyway so either one is more about getting off the ground a little faster which is why I would only go with one.

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.

I don't run fetches in 2 color decks either for the same reason. Having one fetch is probably better than having zero but I just like not having them sometimes and just like letting the deck work and draw me into what I need.

[pokken]

Hello, what about this one ? :

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

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

I really like the design of that card and would probably play it in spirit tribal, but in the main build probably not. Pretty situational. I often want my guys to chump block. Vastly more likely to play if it had flying and didn't have to discard to be safe to attack with.

That said I think there is definitely an avenue to play where you take advantage of the free discard; more reanimation heavy, using spells from the graveyard, etc. I could see that card being real good in a build playing JVP and Spelltwine and such. Very high velocity.

Also kinda decent with the Knowledge Pool and Eye of the Storm effects if you want to go heavy on magistrate/lavinia lock.

Bottom line I think it has fringe applications.

I haven't been sad about cutting Vessel in my deck so it isn't really worth it. I like Stormscape Familiar but I don't think I would go any further than that. In a pinch, I might even cut it if I had to. At some point, the cost reduction isn't worth it anyway so either one is more about getting off the ground a little faster which is why I would only go with one.

I think the familiars have much higher payoff in decks that want to cast the same spell over and over. Eerie Interlude + Archaeomancer for example gets *massively* better when it costs 1W, and infinitely better when it costs W (with two white cost reducers).

Schal's deck endgame basically appears to be very heavy on spam Ghostly Flicker Eerie Interlude or Momentary Blink.

Their list has all these repeatable spells that really benefit from the familiars:

• whitemane lion
• stonecloaker
• momentary blink
• forbid
• ghostly flicker
• eerie interlude
• cryptic command

For example, setting up the Cryptic Command + Archaeomancer loop costs 1UUUUU which is pretty darned attractive to say, fog + draw a card.

Needless to say I am huge on the cost reducers over mana rocks. There's a lot of generic mana costs and we're often tutoring for stuff with generic mana costs to close the game out.

[shermanido37]

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.

Hard disagree on this one. Hatebears are not necessarily getting narrower or worse.
From your complaints about them, it would almost like Drannith Magistrate wasn't printed. Furthermore, Hushbringer is itself an extension of cards that were already seeing play in Ephara - Hushwing Gryff, giving up flash for lifelink (which makes for a better beater) and hating on a totally new effect which we haven't seen before. There are some very wide effects printed recently - they can't be printed too often because they can warp things a LOT.

One of the issues I see is that they do not seem to want to give us tools to really engage with planeswalkers

Again, you're forgetting a really cool dude by the name of Deputy of Detention. Perhaps he's not a total answer to planeswalkers, but he definitely stops them from snowballing, one at a time. In terms of flavor, white's way of dealing with PWs is mostly either Oblivion Ring effects or killing them with fliers. Now we have Barrin, Tolarian Archmage to bounce them directly, but before we didn't even have that.

My own two cents on the hatebear heavier build is that it pretty much functions like prison, except your stax pieces come at instant speed, replace themselves in your hand, and present board presence. Players will lose more and more card advantage, while you bury them with your consistent CA that can't be destroyed.
The problem then becomes that you need to protect yourself from the giant bodies that have probably resolved, even without their ETB effects or activated abilities. This is why my stance is that it's no problem getting rid of Torpor Orb effects - you will probably consistently see attackers heading your way, and if not - you're probably winning anyway. If the bodies are too big to handle, wipe everything away, then start over - except this time you probably start with more cards than your opponents.

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

True, she's a great card for us, but aren't you overstating the lifegain on this card? Our creatures will usually be 2-4CMC, and those amounts of lifegain are nothing to write home about. Also, we don't really have that much legenaries, and even if we do those are cards we rarely want to throw away.

2 cents on LTB creatures - most of them I've found not to be worth it, with the exception of Vesperlark - cheap, relevant and great body. No complaints.

I agree about Ghostly Pilferer - even though I'm running the Knowledge Pool combo now there is no way I'd like to run this card.

[pokken]

True, she's a great card for us, but aren't you overstating the lifegain on this card? Our creatures will usually be 2-4CMC, and those amounts of lifegain are nothing to write home about. Also, we don't really have that much legenaries, and even if we do those are cards we rarely want to throw away.

Suppose you do this sequence:
Recruiter of the Guard for Niambi, Esteemed Healer, niambi recruiter next turn gain 3 (draw 2)
Recruiter of the Guard for Soulherder, blink niambi bouncing recruiter gain 3

It adds up particularly if you want to protect Recruiter from sorcery speed removal (which I often do). I envision getting niambi as the best thing to do after recruiter most of the time; used to be whitemane or Karmic guide or soulherder (depending on your board state and mana).

Many of the critters we want to reset with her are 3 or 4 mana too (spell queller, venser, etc.).

I think the incidental lifegain could easily be 10-20 points in a game where you got her early.

She's also an additional partial out to any infinite blink combo with Palinchron since you can gain infinite life by blinking her to bounce palinchron.

I don't wanna oversell it but I think she's going to be very good.

[pokken]

So as sure as I am about Niambi seeing play I am not sure about Barrin, Tolarian Archmage.

If he had Flash, 100% in. Without flash I am just not sure he's quite good enough. Barrin is like niambi a really good recruiter target when you're low on cards (just bounce recruiter, then cast it again, draw a card).

Interestingly, he creates infinite draw with Teferi, Time Raveler if you have infinite mana (cast barrin bounce teferi, draw a card, repeat), which is kinda cool. But also a pretty powerful just general sequencing thing to go -- Teferi, activate to bounce barrin, play barrin to bounce teferi, go up +3 cards (one teferi, one ephara, one barrin) for 9 mana that you can break up over multiple turns. There are probably a few other cool synergies with walkers I am missing.

He also is generally really good with planeswalkers with very strong minus abilities -- see Elspeth, Sun's Champion and of course good at taking other people's walkers off their ultimates which has some utility.

I think I will probably try to play him. He's got realistically decent tempo capabilities and checks all the boxes for an ephara creature except flash (recruiterable, larkable,etc). Being legendary for niambi is a nice side effect.

[AliasGreg]

Barrin is a nope for me.
No flash, can't bounce himself and PWs are rare in my play group.
Also if you blink him EOT (with Thassa for example), you don't draw a card.

[pokken]

Barrin is a nope for me.
No flash, can't bounce himself and PWs are rare in my play group.
Also if you blink him EOT (with Thassa for example), you don't draw a card.

Pretty reasonable analysis. Not having flash is a big problem with the card. I'd have preferred it at 2uu with flash by a landslide, and I don't know that it's too strong to be 1UU and have flash. Although it would be pretty powerful in standard.

One borderline autoinclude (niambi) in a set is good enough I think.

It's really hard to find slots these days anywho.

[schai]

I never got around to adding this to my list. I prefer Unexpectedly Absent so I don't need to give them a creature. And I actually cut Cavalier of Dawn (for now anyway) due to space and because it gave them a creature. I do agree that it is a solid card and if you are trying to protect combos it might come in more handy there.

I do like that it can be more easily tutored for via Spellseeker/Muddle. I've found that a 3/3 is usually irrelevant and just gets swept up by a board wipe down the road. If you're not the dominant player, the 3/3 can also be used to help kill your opponents and their planeswalkers, assuming your playgroup doesn't hold grudges.

I haven't been sad about cutting Vessel in my deck so it isn't really worth it. I like Stormscape Familiar but I don't think I would go any further than that. In a pinch, I might even cut it if I had to. At some point, the cost reduction isn't worth it anyway so either one is more about getting off the ground a little faster which is why I would only go with one.

I think I'm half convinced. I'll try cutting Vessel for the Sapphire Medallion and see how it plays out. I think going something like Archaeomancer + Ghostly Flicker or something for 5 mana seems really nice. Still scared of board wipes setting me back too much. I personally haven't found that I have trouble drawing cards in the mid game, so not sure how much a 1/1 flier matters vs the slightly better resiliency.

I'm not as hot on Niambi and even less so on Barrin.

Niambi is fairly mana intensive (no benefit from Medallion effects), and unfortunately does not bounce herself, so she requires more setup. If you aren't using it to save your guys from removal, then she is a very expensive blink effect, and the deck is already pretty mana hungry as is. The activated ability is mostly trinket text I feel, as the only Legendaries I have are Venser and Thassa, which I feel like are almost always better than 2 cards, especially since they'll replace themselves usually.

Barrin, I mostly agree with the other's assessment. No flash, and can't bounce itself. Venser this is not. The card draw is also pretty incidental, though it does make cards like Familiar's Ruse marginally better. Maybe even Crystal Shard, an old budget card I've since cut. It also doesn't synergize well with Whitemane and Stonecloaker, which you really want to hold in your hand til the end of your opponent's turn to blink in.

Another thing I really like is not running any Planeswalkers. The fewer reasons we give others for attacking us, the better.

[pokken]

I would always play the familiars first but I don't run a lot of non ephara card draw. I don't mind blocking with them and weirdly the 0/3 one blocks a lot of pecks heh. Tymna etc.

[schai]

It's really hard to find slots these days anywho.

Truer words have not been spoken. When I need slots, what I've done multiple times is scratch the list completely and rebuild it with what I remember as the absolute essentials. I've done so twice with Ephara now.

[pokken]

I have never done a scratch rebuild in like 6 years of this deck, lol. I think I've changed as many as 10 cards at a go.

Believe I have a log in the op of every change

[shermanido37]

It's really hard to find slots these days anywho.

Truer words have not been spoken. When I need slots, what I've done multiple times is scratch the list completely and rebuild it with what I remember as the absolute essentials. I've done so twice with Ephara now.

The thing with "scratch the list and start with the absolute essentials", is that there are so many essential cards for the deck that you're starting out with limited space either way. I should know - I've done it enough times.

[pokken]

Core 2021 Set Review

Autoincludes
Niambi, Esteemed Healer - Almost strictly better Deputy of Acquittals with badly needed lifegain on a synergistic card. The downside is I have shed tons of legends, so her second ability is not amazing, but I have a handful and could always add some more if she's that good.

Considerations
Barrin, Tolarian Archmage - Solid engine piece, backup card draw, does something new (hurt ultimatting planeswalkers), also provides a potential to combo with our own planeswalkers.

Mangara, the Diplomat - Decent card draw effect but suffers from not being recruiterable and fairly expensive. Possibly playable as an alternative to Windborn Muse in some metas.

Selfless Savior - pretty strong option for people playing Ranger of Eos which is still very playable.

Shipwreck Dowser - Potential upgrade if needing another archaeomancer effect.

Teferi, Master of Time - A very powerful planeswalker that provides extremely high velocity and can remove a creature. More for a planeswalker heavy build but very good.

Alternate build value
Teferi's Ageless Insight - If you want to draw a ton of cards this seems reasonable in slower Ephara builds particularly those looking to cast more sweepers.

Sublime Epiphany - Spell heavy build, combos with Naru Meha, Master Wizard could use this as a wincon that's fairly easy to find. I could see this playing really well with a deck that wants to play token spells like Call the Coppercoats and Benevolent Offering. Very powerful effect at instant speed in general.

Shacklegeist - Very strong spirit tribal payoff card

Speaker of the Heavens - Solid lifegain enabler. Upgraded Thraben Doomsayer which was always borderline playable.

Basri Ket - Pretty feasible to ultimate cheap sun titan'able walker, probably good for a walker heavy built that wants to use walkers to make tokens.

Basri's Lieutenant - Very solid with a counter theme that sacs tokens. Easy to combine with a something like Heliod, Sun-Crowned or Cathars' Crusade to create a token every turn and also pump your team. Lots of opportunities.

Griffin Aerie - Decent lifegain enabler

Idol of Endurance - Really strong in an affinity deck, borderline playable in a deck with lots of cheap ETBs. Pretty nice that you can recur it with Sun Titan. Solid value.


Summary

Overall a solid set for us, one autoinclude and a bunch of pretty interesting cards and some decent reprints. I am very excited to play with Niambi, Esteemed Healer for sure.

[WizardMN]

That is a good write up and reminds me I need to do the same for my Primers

I do think Niambi, Barrin, and Teferi at the very least will make their way into my list even for "testing" status to start with.

[pokken]

I think that Teferi is really deceptively powerful. Digging 4 every turn is just a ton.

There're a lot of ways to set that up to be absolutely absurd, but with Ephara it's just solid goodstuff to be able to see so many cards.

Not looking forward to seeing it crop up in super friends decks though.

[Usagi]

I am really sad that we can't play this

[shermanido37]

No way! Times like these really emphasize how if hybrid mana were allowed, everyone could be much better off.

[pokken]

Yeah I was pretty bummed about that too. I don't think I would play it though in retrospect because it doesn't hit stuff I don't control. Displacer is a pretty huge upgrade. Still it would be a pretty good wincon.

Hopefully if there's a cool selesnya legend there'll be a cool azorius legend, but ya never know.

---

on an unrelated note I saw my most hilarious MTGO bug ever where someone else cast intuition and the person didn't select a card, and they got all three. guy was like 'If I'd known that was gonna happen I woulda picked better cards.'

[shermanido37]

Yes, since it's allied colors there will be an azorius legend, blue creature with a W/U ability.

The thing about the unicorn is that it might not target opposing stuff, but it's tutorable via Thalia's Lancers. That is great to have.

[pokken]

MEH. Flier nonsense. Sadly won't really work for us but there's a lot of fun stuff you could do in say a spirit-heavy build.

[shermanido37]

I actually love it for Zedruu-esque decks, since you get the choice of what each player gets. And as I think with Kykar, losing a token and getting something from your opponent is very cool.
Also, you have to admit the art is awesome.

[pokken]

It makes me hopeful we will eventually get a tutor for fliers with all the flier bonuses

[pokken]

Winds of Abandon just triumphantly won me another game against two five color decks that got horked by it really hard - got a couple gods, morophon, golos, a few enchantresses. People are really sleeping on that card still (4% of white decks?!!?). One-sided exile sweepers man

Had I used Cyclonic Rift the player would have been left with the ability to play their hand back out and draw a ton of cards; had I used Supreme Verdict or Hour of Revelation they would have had 4 gods - both of those would have also reset my board. I made a 13/13 Soulherder with winds and then put them on a 2-turn clock instead.

The suite of sweepers of verdict/hour/rift/winds is just pretty much the nuts in my opinion.

To be fair soulherdering my cloned Golos, Tireless Pilgrim really did help by putting me up 2 lands, enabling me to winds with Spell Queller backup. And Golos played Awakening -- do not play awakening against Ephara

[shermanido37]

Cards like Awakening are such a big reason to move to Bant versus just azorius. Aluren is another example.

For the record, Terminus seems that it would have had much the same effect. I run it alongside the suite of sweepers that you mentioned and so far have not been disappointed.

[pokken]

I had recruiter soulherder and clone out. Terminus woulda reset my board instead of giving me a 13/13.

Definitely good reasons to go bant. Honestly noble hierarch and birds are plenty lol.

But I'm very happy with ephara's resiliency and the greedy emeria mystic sanctuary manabase has been great. Can't really do that with forests. Cradle is awesome but makes for a very explosive deck that does things very differently..

I honestly do not see how you could play this style of deck and not prefer tymna over most bant commanders tho. If you're going to force something so obviously overpowered as chulane might as well go all the way and play tymna thrasios who are even better suited.