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:
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.
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.
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.