MTGNexus

This is a pretty beefcake one. Not having flash is a problem, but it's a tutorable generic answer to a lot of problems. Likely better than Skyclave Apparition by virtue of being more flexible. Being able to repeatedly blink it for tokens is very nice, and fixing 3 land hands is also nice.

Being able to reset recruiter and keep it stored safely in your hand is really a nice sequence. Little under the radar. Sadly I think it might be a little too slow.

The sheer power level of merfolk this set, such as Emperor Mihail II and Vodalian Hexcatcher, there might be a casual Ephara Merfolk deck at this point. There're a lot of good old merfolk and a bunch with flash too.

A couple small, boring, manabase related thoughts:

(1)
If you have a modal land like Sea Gate Restoration // Sea Gate, Reborn for example, you can fix a low land hand with Mystical Tutor. But is that useful enough to bother not just tutoring for Tithe? I *guess* it might be useful?

Anyone played Sea Gate Restoration // Sea Gate, Reborn and have opinions? I might be able to find room for it.

(2)
I find myself wondering with some regularity if I should be playing Mistveil Plains, despite the ETB tapped annoyance. It's such a good card sometimes. What lead me to cut it is that the games I play Ephara in tend to be way too fast to bother with that kinda grindy nonsense.

my decklist is apparently out of date. sigh. I do in fact have a lion sash in it. Working on fixing whatever is wrong with it.

note: fixed. apparently cut Stonecloaker for Lion Sash and forgot about it.

Spellseeker for Jwari Disruption is an ok option, and in my Kykar I have Silindi Vision since it's a decent cantrip to have on a land for a spellslinger deck.
In white, I like Emeria's Call most, and I also have Ondu Inversion, which in my opinion should see more play.

I still like Mistveil Plains, especially in blink builds. Tucking your used Mana Drain then blinking Spellseeker to get it back is just obnoxious, and fairly strong even if only once per round.

I was thinking of doing some brewing on an Ephara concept with the core concept being cloning Ephara to generate more draw. I was just curious if anyone has tried anything like this. At some point it feels like an army of gods becomes a real threat to turn sideways with.

The fact that ephara has indestructible and the deck has access to blue counter magic really plays towards making it harder to disrupt this clone concept.

ISBPathfinder wrote: ↑

1 year ago

I was thinking of doing some brewing on an Ephara concept with the core concept being cloning Ephara to generate more draw. I was just curious if anyone has tried anything like this. At some point it feels like an army of gods becomes a real threat to turn sideways with.

The fact that ephara has indestructible and the deck has access to blue counter magic really plays towards making it harder to disrupt this clone concept.

Yeah, the challenge with it really is that the various clone effects that would clone Ephara in a non-legendary way tend to require her to be online first, so that gets a little awkward?

Generally I'm not a fan of the whold sakashima train, but I'm sure it'd generate a pretty ridiculous stream of card advantage.

Clones is probably a really good way to build this deck though, I used to have a lot more in there (metamorph and impersonator). And a ton have come out recently, even nice flex stuff like Glasspool Mimic // Glasspool Shore.

TLDR Never tried it, not super in love with the idea, but I think it would be very strong. Tension between getting Ephara online so you can clone her and wanting to be more reactive is the key challenge.

2022/10/04 Changes

I have a lot of other things I want to try but Archivist of Oghma has been horrendous. Literally only good if opponents are on fetchlands; it does go off if they are, but an old mantra I have an easy time forgetting is that cards need to do more than draw cards in this deck for the most part. I may play the archivist again but it has been a total whiff every time I've run it.

So I'm cutting Archivist of Oghma for Stenn, Paranoid Partisan which adds one to my ramp count and also gives me a pretty solid sequence into Ephara on turn 3.

My results with Archivist of Oghma has been mostly the same as yours. I didn't have very high hopes in the first place but its been fairly underwhelming for me across all my testing of it.

I thought about adding Archivist of Oghma to my Selvala, Explorer Returned, but after some proxy-testing I came to the same conclusion: It's not consistent enough and some kind of trap. Stenn, Paranoid Partisan on the other hand looks amazing, need to get my hands on a copy!

Scholar of New Horizons feels like a pretty solid turn 2 ramp spell. It's sad that it doesn't make a turn 3 ephara but having repeated ramp makes it probably right to play as long as you can dig some counters out. I'm not sure if I have enough counter effects, will need to look.

Absolutely slam dunk in breena of course.

I think the positive synergy with glen elendra and working with kraken and lion slash are probably enough for me to give it a go. Probably swap in for expedition map I think just because it's a dude and mostly does the same thing (although not ramping with ancient tomb is bad)

Very neat card.

Well we have a slam dunk, Loran of the Third Path!

Scholar is decent with blink to refresh its own counter, but not up to par in my opinion. Blink synergy prefers Knight of the White Orchid or the vigilant puppers to use for ramp.

Loran is amazing for us. Great with blink, but also stellar if you run Spirit of the Labyrinth like me. Will probably include.

Scholar being able to generate multiple ramp without blinking is pretty good. The interaction with glen elendra specifically is superb. A soft lock like that that ramps and draws cards is dope.

I'm considering playing Urza's Sylex. The second part is gravy - the main part is destroying a huge chunk of the opponents' lands along with other permanents while keeping Ephara alive. This is a card that doesn't care much about card type, including lands, which is pretty rare.

shermanido37 wrote: ↑

1 year ago

I'm considering playing Urza's Sylex. The second part is gravy - the main part is destroying a huge chunk of the opponents' lands along with other permanents while keeping Ephara alive. This is a card that doesn't care much about card type, including lands, which is pretty rare.

Urza's Sylex seems defensible especially if you're on Trophy Mage type dudes.

--

Myrel, Sheild of Argive is an interesting card! 4 drops are very crowded here, but this thing is a wincon in a box that includes a seriously powerful hatebear effect. I have a few soldiers incidentally too, which is neat.

I could definitely see playing that in something that went heavier on soldiers, like a Ranger of Eos type build, and it's exceptional with Soul Warden effects of course. Guaranteeing a trigger for Ephara without mana during your turn is a decent floor for a card, but there's a lot of synergy with a lot of effects and the hatebear effect is quite strong.

Interestingly, going further in on hatebears makes this tend to be better too since a lot of hatebears effects are soldiers. Thalia, Heretic Cathar for example.

Overall definitely a card worth thinking about, particularly if we see a soldier tutor which would be really good for us period Recruiter of the Guard says hellooo

Notice that this soldier is no Hero of Bladehold, so the tokens don't come into play attacking - they're just standing by the side as their captain gets murdered in combat, and the defending player survives unscathed.
I think that we generally like cheaper creatures for hate effects, like Grand Abolisher, unless they're game altering and potential win conditions, like Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir.

shermanido37 wrote: ↑

1 year ago

Notice that this soldier is no Hero of Bladehold, so the tokens don't come into play attacking - they're just standing by the side as their captain gets murdered in combat, and the defending player survives unscathed.
I think that we generally like cheaper creatures for hate effects, like Grand Abolisher, unless they're game altering and potential win conditions, like Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir.

In our case I think leaving blockers is significantly better than hero running them onto the pikes! This critter makes *blockers*.

I don't think that it's quite right for my deck but I could 100% see a build focused on soldiers being legit, there're probably 15-20 solidly playable soldiers.

Captain is a 3/4 too, not that often you can't find someone to swing a 3/4 at.

random musings

I've been thinking a lot about Naiad of Hidden Coves lately. This one has a lot of applications, especially with Eerie Interlude type loops, but with the obvious Whitemane Lion of course. There're a *ton* of spells I want to cast in other people's turns, and making Forbid locks cheaper while also doing the Pearl Medallion work for Whitemane is really nice.

Kinda dovetails into potentially moving more into Eerie Interlude effects, which I've long thought are probably really good in this deck (duh). Really would like another Archaeomancer at 4 dangit.

Also been thinking about adding Trinket Mage, it's got some sequencing advantages--since I can do stuff like card Jeweled Lotus and turn 4 ephara + something else. Or get Crypt/Sol Ring. It combos pretty hard with Displacer Kitten as well (as previously discussed).

Still thinking really hard about whether I want to do a ground up rebuild, drift into a 8/9 power level, or try to keep palling around the way I am.

The current state of the deck is such that it really struggles to deal with just random 6/6's attacking me. But I also haven't played for a while. I really miss having any board presence at all, the board presence in this deck now is a bunch of 1/1s and then you combo

I like the Naiad, but I think I tried testing it and was disappointed.
For Ephara, the colored mana is a big concern, to the point where Naiad's mana boon isn't significant, and it's also surprisingly difficult to abuse. Maybe a deck like mine with a bunch of hatebears could do it, but even then there are some big 4 drops we cast during our turn that the naiad won't help with, which is s pain. On top of that, she's incredibly vulnerable and dies to just about anything because of the enchantment type. To me, she's a cute card, but probably less competitive.
If you're into being competitive and are looking for ways to fetch Lotus, I'd recommend Urza's saga. The card has completely broken Modern for a reason. It creates cheap and fat tokens at instant speed, then fetches pieces of power. Trinket costing 3, being a mere 2/2 and fetching to hand vs battlefield, puts it leagues below saga.

shermanido37 wrote: ↑

1 year ago

Trinket costing 3, being a mere 2/2 and fetching to hand vs battlefield, puts it leagues below saga.

Generally on board with your thinking but it's worth noting that trinket putting to hand is very relevant for Displacer Kitten shenanigans That's where you want it. And to chain out all your 0/1 drop artifacts.

I think you're probably right that I need to get an Urza's Saga, it does a lot of what this deck wants. Even the instant speed dude making is good. I put it on the list a while back but haven't been doing much trading and I'm certainly not shelling out $60 cash for it when I have so much cardboard sitting on the shelf these days. What I need to do is muscle up to do another buylist order I guess, but I keep hoping there'll be a vendor event in my area.

shermanido37 wrote: ↑

1 year ago

I like the Naiad, but I think I tried testing it and was disappointed.
For Ephara, the colored mana is a big concern, to the point where Naiad's mana boon isn't significant, and it's also surprisingly difficult to abuse. Maybe a deck like mine with a bunch of hatebears could do it, but even then there are some big 4 drops we cast during our turn that the naiad won't help with, which is s pain. On top of that, she's incredibly vulnerable and dies to just about anything because of the enchantment type. To me, she's a cute card, but probably less competitive

So I have personally found the familiars and Pearl Medallion to be extremely good. But costing 3 mana vs. 2 is a big one, and the vulnerability is worth thinking on. That said, if I switch to playing stuff like Naiad that's more of a move toward less competitive, but still fun, ideally?

I think just the simple synergy with Whitemane Lion and Venser, Shaper Savant / Spell Queller effects is probably close enough for a casual deck to be really good, especialy as it comes on a body. But appreciate the practical feedback for sure

I still maintain that Displacer Kitten is not a staple in Ephara. Yes, it's incredible with Forbid loops, but generally I haven't encountered enough noncreatures to power it in the way that 4 drops in this deck have to prove themselves. However, you're welcome to prove me wrong with practical experience.

shermanido37 wrote: ↑

1 year ago

I still maintain that Displacer Kitten is not a staple in Ephara. Yes, it's incredible with Forbid loops, but generally I haven't encountered enough noncreatures to power it in the way that 4 drops in this deck have to prove themselves. However, you're welcome to prove me wrong with practical experience.

My experience has been that it is utterly dominant - but I run a higher non-creature count I think than most (and particular a higher instant count, and cantrip count). Admittedly I have not played a *ton* with it, but enough for me to be sure it's the most powerful thing Ephara decks can be doing -- recruiter chains for kitten end the game very fast. They're fragile, unfortunately, depending largely on Kitten/Spellseeker.

If I were tooling for optimal power I would jam all the 0/1 drop busted rocks back in and focus on that as my gameplan, with Hullbreaker Horror as the backup piece.

That said, I'm seriously still on the fence about whether I even want to play it. Right now I'm playing it over Thassa, Deep-Dwelling as a way to chain Time Warp effects with Archaeomancer which works really well, but every time I see it it warps the game so hard it's concerning.

My gut instinct with Ephara is that recursion and Devastating Mastery / Hour of Revelation loops are the best way for *me* to play, and so the likelihood of me drifting back that way is high. I just have more fun not being so wobbly with the mana rocks, because it just feels like a %$#% Urza, Lord High Artificer deck that way.

I might try out the horror/kitten artifact combo build at some point just for fun though. I'm like, 99% sure it's the best way to run the deck. Sadly it's like the 30th best kitten deck

Experimental build Alpha

A lot to unpack here;

I made a TON of deep cuts to get the whole 'flicker archaeomancer' engines going. I kept some of the powerful engine-in-a-box cards. The core engine here is to get Archaeomancer and a blink spell live, and ideally combine it with a land untapping guy or a land ramp guy to get seriously out of control.

There're a few fairly compact combos of:
Phantasmal Image Palinchron Capsize
Trinket Mage Displacer Kitten (should enable you to get an overwhelming mana advantage and set up some kind of loop pretty easily)
Stenn, Paranoid Partisan The Reality Chip Sensei's Divining Top (should draw our deck into Palinchron Capsize combo or Temporal Manipulation combo)
Ghostly Flicker Peregrine Drake / Palinchron Archaeomancer
Recruiter of the Guard remains a one card combo with enough mana, finding Spellseeker and Ephemerate into Displacer Kitten or Stenn, Paranoid Partisan combo (since chip, stenn and top are all searchable off of spellseeker or recruiter)

Because Archaeomancer is so important we have Salvager of Secrets as a backup.

Anyway, gonna give this a go and see how it is. I'm not sure what I would pivot towards if I wanted to, maybe Displacer Kitten focus or maybe pivot toward more Stenn combo.

A huge downside with the draw your deck combos is you need Thassa's Oracle or some other type of combo win to actually close the game, so those have some issues.

Another thought I kinda am noodling on is going full ham into Yorion, Sky Nomad / Restoration Angel Felidar Guardian shenanigans, since we can set up the same kinda loops with stuff that way where we freely draw a card off ephara every turn and retrigger a bunch of etbs.

For this build as is I think I need to find room to get Phyrexian Altar and Cloud of Faeries back in, and very possibly need Rally the Ancestors for combo/ramp enablement.

Howdy! Is there a "budget" version of the deck buried somewhere in these 1000 posts? I've had my eye on this primer for a while and I'd like to give a basic version of the deck before blowing a huge amount of dough on fancy cardboard. Got room in my roster for a WX deck and I'm itching to fill the void