Ephara, God of the Polis - Flash & Taxes

[pokken]

So I saw another newish card here I'm not sure I ever discussed:

This card seems potentially really strong. Conceptually it should:

* Deter chip damage attacks, since you draw a card and make a dude
* Trigger off of Fetchlands (which I have ~8 of) as well as Ancient Tomb and Mana Crypt
* Be relatively innocuous in general

It's a shame that it costs 4 which bumps with Ephara, but it's quite a strong card I put on my list to acquire a foil for.

I think it's not quite strong enough to play it, but if I were wanting to go heavier on enchantments it feels like a shoe-in.

--

Another card on my radar is:

This card has a lot of mixed opinions but I think it is likely to outperform Rhystic Study at many tables these days. I will likely get one if they make a judge promo or some other foil, but it's not quite good enough for me to play in non-foil.

All that said, something we really need to watch for in permanents in this list is being Sun Titan targets. A major way for us to start value chain in a late game is Emeria, the Sky Ruin → Sun Titan, at least with my current build.

So bringing back like a Rhystic Study or Sacred Mesa is significantly better.

4 CMC is and has always been a really ugly spot in an Ephara deck where it has a lot of downsides, and a lot of times you're better off playing a worse card that comes out before Ephara and is Titanable, or comes out after Ephara and is more powerful (e.g. The Watcher in the Water // Illustrious Wanderglyph/ Elspeth, Sun's Champion )

--

And one last card to think about:

This card has been on my radar for a long time and I'm debating pushing a couple Pearl Medallion / Baral, Chief of Compliance type effects into the deck. The reasoning is that, despite its mana cost, the card is:

* incredibly hard to interact with (requiring a counterspell)
* Able to be found by Spellseeker and Mystical Tutor and potentially other instant tutors if needed
* able to be recurred with Mystic Sanctuary if needed

We can hope that someday they make a color shifted Sprout Swarm for us, since that's pretty much the ideal :D

That said, it makes 1/1s and really we would like to be more impactful on the board with wincons if possible. For now I think it's a hair slow.

--

I also have a question for the community -- anyone had any luck with Charismatic Conqueror? How is it playing out?

[pokken]

Man this control build of Ephara is absolutely a riot to play. It takes a while, but I'm getting faster and faster at managing the triggers.

I went absolutely off last night; Illustrious Wanderglyph got to show up, and unfortunately immediately died, but I was able to chase it with Stenn, Paranoid Partisan + free Sensei's Divining Top, and Fleeting Spirit.

best play of the night was turn 5, I untapped with just Ephara and an Urza's Saga which got Sensei's Divining Top which I immediately spun then tapped, then went to main phase and slammed Hour of Revelation . Really not much sweeter than that. :D

The corner was completely turned after I was able to:
* Sevinne's Reclamation a Scalding Tarn
* cast my Cosmic Intervention I'd previously fortold
* play Scorched Ruins
* crack and re-crack my Scalding Tarn getting a billionty more zombies, have my two sac'd lands come back for even more zombies
* draw Mana Drain off of the Field of the Dead zombie triggering Ephara (mind you, I made like 8 zombies)
* subsequently have the third player forget I had drawn Mana Drain and cast an Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre into it
* untap with +11 mana, cast Spellseeker, overload a Cyclonic Rift, beat face for >50

and I am skipping lots of stuff :D Nadir Kraken and Teferi, Master of Time both putting in appearances.

So far it feels like people in general don't have tons of patience to play against the long game the current build represents, but I am not really having that much trouble closing it out so not feeling a huge need to add stuff like Moonshaker Cavalry.

I think I'm striking a pretty decent balance of being a control shell but having distinct play patterns from a typical azorius control deck. The token bodies do a nice job of stalling the game out against most opponents, and it feels like there's juuuust enough interaction & sweepers to keep things going.

It's a bit unfortunate how dead the strategy can be to a Heroic Intervention sometimes (since we often need to depend on sticking a Vanquish the Horde, but at least at this very moment I'm managing to get people with the cheap sweepers while shields are down most of the time (e.g. Vanquish the Horde, Hour of Revelation and Supreme Verdict).

Giving some thought to adding Terminus since I have access to more things that beat it like Field of the Dead and Felidar Retreat. It, like Farewell, stuffs a lot of the things people try to do to beat sweepers. And it's another massive tempo positive one.

--

I finally broke down and ordered a Charismatic Conqueror just to see if it's good.

[pokken]

While I ponder what card I cut for Charismatic Conqueror (probably Saltskitter?) I wanted to write a little about my experience with Urza's Saga in this deck.

Well, firstly, Urza's Saga is a very, very strong card. In Ephara, specifically, it offers some extensively cool lines of play.

* On turn 1 you can play Weathered Wayfarer, get Urza's Saga and play it on turn 2, get an Ancient Tomb on turn 3, then on turn 4 get Sol Ring, activate Urza's Saga on its way out with Ancient Tomb, then cast Ephara and trigger her with the construct. (note: i have cut Ancient Tomb but it is probably correct to play given synergy with wayfarer)

* there are similar lines to enable quite a lot of ramp using Sevinne's Reclamation, Brought Back or Myriad Landscape, or even a foretold Cosmic Intervention. I have created some pretty crazy board states with Cosmic Intervention and Urza's Saga (where you get your map, saga and whatever fetchlands you could hoard back, and then set up to do it again with Mystic Sanctuary

* On turn 1, if you play Urza's Saga as your first land, you can guarantee a turn 3 Ephara by getting Sol Ring. Having a pain-free outlet to turn 3 Ephara is very nice in the land zone.

* In the mid game you can get Sensei's Divining Top or Expedition Map for Field of the Dead and also use the second mode to make a construct for an affordable rate (at instant speed potentially getting two triggers off Ephara. Being able to Saga → Map → Mystic Sanctuary is another potential out to bad board states. It can also be correct to find Emeria, the Sky Ruin.

* simply making two constructs during the life of the saga can be great, depending on the phase of the game. They're instant speed so they can generate extra cards, and they can also generate pretty good sized creatures (although obviously not huge in this deck, even a pair of 4/4s can do some work)

Because Saga puts us down a land it also enables things like Tithe and Cartographer's Hawk and of course Land Tax and Knight of the White Orchid as you like.

Overall I have found the card to be an exceptional inclusion, far better than I'd anticipated. I know this is not super shocking, but, you should probably be playing it :D

--

Along the vein of *SCD* another card worth discussing is Cosmic Intervention. In this particular shell, CI is an extremely powerful card advantage and interactive spell that can easily be a game winner.

Cosmic Intervention in a slow control shell such as this, is:

* extremely mana efficient due to foretell. dropping the cost of a spell early is
* can protect your board winning state
* can generate endgame ramp through the obvious Scalding Tarn (et. al.) interactions
* can generate a game winning board state with our landfall effects (Felidar Retreat and Field of the Dead). Just a couple fetchlands and creative sequencing can make a massive board state.
* has extremely advantageous sequencing options that can generate wins at surprising times
* has extremely powerful interactions with self-sacrificing permanents that we have such as Elspeth, Sun's Champion and Expedition Map beyond fetchlands, also Flesh Duplicate and Solitude.
* creates a functional combo with Vanquish the Horde setting up a Wipe+Protection effect for 4 mana (again extremely efficient) and similarly with Hour of Revelation.
* creates a way to set up Emeria, the Sky Ruin endgames easily, often generating +4 plains on one card
* can combo with Farewell in some sequences, wherein we can store some of our things in the exile zone while wiping graveyards (e.g. you swing out with your team, cast Cosmic Intervention before the combat damage step, crack your fetchland(s), then Farewell in second main phase, wiping creatures, artifacts and graveyards).

In my opinion, Cosmic Intervention is a marquee card of this deck if you're able to run the fetch manabase with Field of the Dead

--

And one more somewhat related *SCD*, Field of the Dead.

It's pretty subtle, but, in general, the ability of field and a fetchland to generate two Ephara draws a turn and two bodies is extraordinarily powerful and absolutely worth it. Mana free generation at instant speed is already very good, as I know from having played Thraben Doomsayer a decent amount. But getting two triggers and two bodies per fetchland is exceptional.

It is eminently feasible to through a combination of fetchlands and recursion to generate board states that are enough to close the game out in just a couple turns.

Honestly it's been good enough to make me think about trying Thespian's Stage and/or Vesuva (for copying other people's fields as well!).

One of the reasons I play 38 lands in this deck, despite having a high rate of filtering, is to be able to support having all the fetches and various land based tools.

There is indeed a little bit of tension between Field wanting 7 lands and Scorched Ruins but heretofore it's been OK; being able to combo the Lotus Field efffects to generate some more triggers off of Field with recursion has been decent actually. (since if you go down to 5 lands and then Brought Back them, you get more zomboes).

[WizardMN]

While I ponder what card I cut for Charismatic Conqueror (probably Saltskitter?) I wanted to write a little about my experience with Urza's Saga in this deck.

That is still one of my first thoughts when it comes to cards to cut. It fuels Ephara reasonably well but so do a lot of cards.

Urza's Saga

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Well, firstly, Urza's Saga is a very, very strong card. In Ephara, specifically, it offers some extensively cool lines of play.

* On turn 1 you can play Weathered Wayfarer, get Urza's Saga and play it on turn 2, get an Ancient Tomb on turn 3, then on turn 4 get Sol Ring, activate Urza's Saga on its way out with Ancient Tomb, then cast Ephara and trigger her with the construct. (note: i have cut Ancient Tomb but it is probably correct to play given synergy with wayfarer)

* there are similar lines to enable quite a lot of ramp using Sevinne's Reclamation, Brought Back or Myriad Landscape, or even a foretold Cosmic Intervention. I have created some pretty crazy board states with Cosmic Intervention and Urza's Saga (where you get your map, saga and whatever fetchlands you could hoard back, and then set up to do it again with Mystic Sanctuary

* On turn 1, if you play Urza's Saga as your first land, you can guarantee a turn 3 Ephara by getting Sol Ring. Having a pain-free outlet to turn 3 Ephara is very nice in the land zone.

* In the mid game you can get Sensei's Divining Top or Expedition Map for Field of the Dead and also use the second mode to make a construct for an affordable rate (at instant speed potentially getting two triggers off Ephara. Being able to Saga → Map → Mystic Sanctuary is another potential out to bad board states. It can also be correct to find Emeria, the Sky Ruin.

* simply making two constructs during the life of the saga can be great, depending on the phase of the game. They're instant speed so they can generate extra cards, and they can also generate pretty good sized creatures (although obviously not huge in this deck, even a pair of 4/4s can do some work)

Because Saga puts us down a land it also enables things like Tithe and Cartographer's Hawk and of course Land Tax and Knight of the White Orchid as you like.

Overall I have found the card to be an exceptional inclusion, far better than I'd anticipated. I know this is not super shocking, but, you should probably be playing it :D

I appreciated the write up. I have looked at Urza's Saga every so often based on its power level but never really pulled the trigger on it. I am still debating it as my build doesn't have as many hits as yours but your comment about it fueling things like Tithe is interesting. I am still not sure I am there yet, but I might do something with it eventually.

Cosmic Intervention

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Along the vein of *SCD* another card worth discussing is Cosmic Intervention. In this particular shell, CI is an extremely powerful card advantage and interactive spell that can easily be a game winner.

Cosmic Intervention in a slow control shell such as this, is:

* extremely mana efficient due to foretell. dropping the cost of a spell early is
* can protect your board winning state
* can generate endgame ramp through the obvious Scalding Tarn (et. al.) interactions
* can generate a game winning board state with our landfall effects (Felidar Retreat and Field of the Dead). Just a couple fetchlands and creative sequencing can make a massive board state.
* has extremely advantageous sequencing options that can generate wins at surprising times
* has extremely powerful interactions with self-sacrificing permanents that we have such as Elspeth, Sun's Champion and Expedition Map beyond fetchlands, also Flesh Duplicate and Solitude.
* creates a functional combo with Vanquish the Horde setting up a Wipe+Protection effect for 4 mana (again extremely efficient) and similarly with Hour of Revelation.
* creates a way to set up Emeria, the Sky Ruin endgames easily, often generating +4 plains on one card
* can combo with Farewell in some sequences, wherein we can store some of our things in the exile zone while wiping graveyards (e.g. you swing out with your team, cast Cosmic Intervention before the combat damage step, crack your fetchland(s), then Farewell in second main phase, wiping creatures, artifacts and graveyards).

In my opinion, Cosmic Intervention is a marquee card of this deck if you're able to run the fetch manabase with Field of the Dead

I am still running this in my deck. I like a lot of things it can do for us. I still haven't gotten most of those use cases come up but I also haven't played Ephara in a long while.

Field of the Dead

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And one more somewhat related *SCD*, Field of the Dead.

It's pretty subtle, but, in general, the ability of field and a fetchland to generate two Ephara draws a turn and two bodies is extraordinarily powerful and absolutely worth it. Mana free generation at instant speed is already very good, as I know from having played Thraben Doomsayer a decent amount. But getting two triggers and two bodies per fetchland is exceptional.

It is eminently feasible to through a combination of fetchlands and recursion to generate board states that are enough to close the game out in just a couple turns.

Honestly it's been good enough to make me think about trying Thespian's Stage and/or Vesuva (for copying other people's fields as well!).

One of the reasons I play 38 lands in this deck, despite having a high rate of filtering, is to be able to support having all the fetches and various land based tools.

There is indeed a little bit of tension between Field wanting 7 lands and Scorched Ruins but heretofore it's been OK; being able to combo the Lotus Field efffects to generate some more triggers off of Field with recursion has been decent actually. (since if you go down to 5 lands and then Brought Back them, you get more zomboes).

I don't play any of those lands in my build But Field of the Dead and its interaction with fetches is nice. I would say that the 7 different lands can be an issue. At least, in my build it might due to how many basics I am running. I have 16 whereas you have 7. Granted, I haven't updated my mana base in a long time so I might want to go down on some basics eventually. If I do, I might look at Field of the Dead a little closer.

I honestly should start looking at it for Lord Windgrace but I can see where it becomes a big hit for a control shell like this. I know I have definitely had a difficult time playing against it where I wrath and then I have to deal with 6+ zombies again the next turn. Or more depending on the deck.

[pokken]

I actually have 12 basics but the snow covered mix helps it out.

I'd say I would not run field or cosmic without the fetches so I'd want to be on that.

For windgrace 100% want field. His minus ability is so strong there since field defends him.

I think urzas saga belongs in almost all ephara builds. If you have even one target other than sol ring / crypt (and I think top is phenomenally synergistic with ephara).

Just turn three ephara in the land slot is amazing. But late game making some bros and fetching top is sick. Hell you can do worse than two guys and a sol ring late game.

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Unrelated side note. I just realized recently that Charismatic Conqueror can actually really go off against treasures. So a big dockside is set back an entire turn if they don't let you have tokens. Same with problem cards like tivit and smothering tithe (although tithe they can often wait).

I think the card will prove less of a pointless punisher than I thought due to mana rocks and treasures people want now. And if it doesn't it'll slow people down a bit.

There may be situations where we want to let someone try to go infinite with dockside even because it might leave us with infinite tokens; or even just say let them temur sabertooth 10 times for 40 tokens for us and then kill it. There are probably quite a few combos that are tight like that (anything depending on a mana rock entering untapped for example).

It's a deceptive card for sure but I am excited to see if it works the way I expect. I think people will also want blockers a decent amount.

[pokken]

Sand scout means I have to write a serious update this time, and also find a stupid desert to play :D

I n retrospectI doubt this card finds a home but angel of indemnity probably does

[Uncle_Krupi]

[pokken]

smirking spelljacker.jpg

That guy seems playable for the most part. I think it's exceptional in a blink build, since you both lock people out of their spells and can generate serious value. Probably not good enough for me with just the one blink outlet and no Whitemane Lion shenanigans.

[cheonice]

Hm, is the angel really that much better than Sun Titan? How many important cmc 4 cards are we running that are worth ressurecting?

[pokken]

Hm, is the angel really that much better than Sun Titan? How many important cmc 4 cards are we running that are worth ressurecting?

So for me anyway, the encore ability is extremely likely to get multiple lands (since I'm so high on fetchlands). Buuut the key is the 4 CMC ability lets me hit some key permanents like Felidar Retreat and Teferi, Master of Time and Faerie Artisans. So a few big hits.

Given the small landfall theme I can generate some pretty gameending value on the encore activation; something like Felidar Retreat and two fetchlands cracks everybody for 9 in the air and leaves me with retreat and fetchlands (or potentially leaves with with some number of cat tokens and/or field of the dead tokens, or lets me draw two more cards with Ephara by cracking subsequently.

I think the explosiveness of winning out of nowhere with it is pretty worth trying. I think it's more in the slot of replacing The Watcher in the Water or Windshaper Planetar but I dunno.

The big flying lifelink body can really let you race too which is nice. And it can do the Sun Titan dance with Flesh Duplicate and Phantasmal Image.

Interestingly, the big angel also lets you run some more clone effects if you want since many are 4 CMC, so you can do a pretty strong chain there if you want. Having two of this effect might actually make Glasspool Mimic // Glasspool Shore worth thinking on as well.

I'm a little turn personally but I think the combination of flying/lifelink being > vigilance, and the ability to encore later is prety nice.

You can single handedly set up Emeria, the Sky Ruin almost off of the angel - it hits, then you encore and get 3 more plains and you're in serious business.

[pokken]

OTJ Set Review

Actually quite a lot of considerations for this set. Lots of flash and stuff. And the modal spells tend to go well.

Angel of Indemnity - As discussed, this card retrieves a few core permanents of the control build and creates some explosive kill potential with its Encore ability that can come out of nowhere. I think this card should probably replace The Watcher in the Water but I am going to noodle on it. It might be a solid replacement for Elspeth, Sun's Champion as well though that's iffier. I'll keep thinking about this; I've also been debating powering down the ramp package.

Claim Jumper - if I do a retool of the manabase to eliminate mana rocks again, I might try this card out. Being able to generate more advantage from Azorius Chancery and Scorched Ruins is interesting.

Aven Interrupter - Reasonable counterspell-ish card on a flash body, being recruiterable is useful for other Ephara builds. Don't think I will play this but it's good to think about.

Smirking Spelljacker - This one is actually more of a consideration because it lets me potentially gain game-winning advantage out of nowhere. The cost and small body is a bit of a problem. Overall decent card, but very very powerful with a Eldrazi Displacer effect.

Final Showdown - I think this is a potential replacement for the Terminus I was thinking of running. Very flexible, The mana cost is a bit of an issue though, so I think I might skip it in this deck.

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I decided not to think any more about Sand Scout -- the deserts are so much worse in the manabase than the things they'd have to replace (Mox Diamond or Scorched Ruins basically). If we had deserts with basic land types I would reconsider.

[pokken]

I think coming update will continue my de-tuning of this deck, cutting moxen and jeweled lotus (as well as Trinket Mage who is there primariy to support Lotus), for Devastating Mastery, potentially Terminus and some less explosive ramp (maybe Knight of the White Orchid and now that Scholar of New Horizons has some more support (surprisingly many counters now! even cute Flesh Duplicate and Urza's Saga interactions). Likely Myriad Landscape comes back too.

I want to get this deck to a place where I can play it more than once a night, which is a delicate balance.

I'm really torn on using sweepers as the alternative to ramp; it can be frustrating for people to play against. That said, it is frustrating to play against all the insane value pieces people play nowadays so being able to Devastating Mastery to bring it back is satisfying for me :D

--

If anyone can think of any cards more in the vein of Elspeth, Sun's Champion and Felidar Retreat that both develop your board and threaten to win the game that I'd be very interested in trying to develop more board presence vs. having to sweep.

The issue with cards like Sacred Mesa is that they don't really allow you to race; if I deploy a Felidar Retreat I am going to put so much more power into play that a spot removal spell or two can be enough to race. But with Mesa, it's so slow it requires a sweeper almost all the time to support.

--

The more I think on it, this deck might really support Selfless Squire as a wincon. A single 20/20 can really close it out if you're a control shell (sometimes). I've had good luck with it in the past.

I thought I'd remembered another Portal Mage variant but I can't seem to remember it :D

[pokken]

2024-04-19

power down update for the control shell.

cut

• mana crypt
• chrome mox
• jeweled lotus
• mox diamond
• trinket mage
• rhystic study

add

• myriad landscape
• azorius chancery
• walking atlas
• scholar of new horizons
• knight of the white orchid
• devastating mastery

Note to self: Intuition is in this deck to get Field of the Dead Sevinne's Reclamation and Crucible of Worlds which creates a very resilient endgame (or sometimes Emeria, the Sky Ruin)

I almost cut it then finally remembered what it was for :D

--

I wanted to write a brief commentary also on why I feel so strongly about the land count and why there are so many;

* Missing casting Ephara, God of the Polis on turn 4 is absolute death for this deck as designed.
* Field of the Dead and Felidar Retreat are incredibly powerful finishers
* supporting Scorched Ruins package is pretty key to enabling end game ramp off of Cosmic Intervention effects
* Emeria, the Sky Ruin is another key engine that requires having a high enough plains count
* Mystic Sanctuary loops with the various bounce/sac packages are a potential end game loop as well and require island count

I could definitely see approaching the manabase differently but it doesn't feel like I can do all these things I want to do without getting up close to 40 lands.

I even kinda want to add Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire at some point :D

Anywho, somehow this is basically a lands deck. wheeee

[TheAmericanSpirit]

I thought I'd remembered another Portal Mage variant but I can't seem to remember it :D

Portal Manipulator?

[pokken]

I thought I'd remembered another Portal Mage variant but I can't seem to remember it :D

Portal Manipulator?

Ahh yeah. I remember now it has the very unfortunate text that loses to hexproof.

[Cyax]

I wanted to write a brief commentary also on why I feel so strongly about the land count and why there are so many;

* Missing casting Ephara, God of the Polis on turn 4 is absolute death for this deck as designed.
* Field of the Dead and Felidar Retreat are incredibly powerful finishers
* supporting Scorched Ruins package is pretty key to enabling end game ramp off of Cosmic Intervention effects
* Emeria, the Sky Ruin is another key engine that requires having a high enough plains count
* Mystic Sanctuary loops with the various bounce/sac packages are a potential end game loop as well and require island count

I could definitely see approaching the manabase differently but it doesn't feel like I can do all these things I want to do without getting up close to 40 lands.

It's actually correct to run closer to 40 lands in non-CEDH decks according to some articles that crunched the statistics. If you are not running efficient combos and fast mana, hitting your early land drops is important to start building a meaningful boardstate. A hand with a bit too much mana and card draw is completely playable unlike a hand that has to keep topdecking lands to even play. And running Ephara as the commander gives you even more options to play through a mana flood.

I find that most decks lack enough strong cards to justify skimping on lands.

[pokken]

Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd Looking pretty strong honestly. Not that many 2 cmc recruiterable flash dudes who can trigger in your main every turn with another body. Can even reset planeswalkers and retrigger map and such. Cool card.

[pokken]

Had a pretty good game with Ephara in which, was is becoming typical, at least one player starts shuffling up out of sheer demoralization. Against Tivadar of Thorn, Zask, Skittering Swarmlord and Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist in which I dunno stuff happened.

I can't pretend to remember everything that happened in this game, but here are some highlights:

* I started the game with land,land, Lotus Vale → Crucible of Worlds which went well. Turn 4 Ephara into The Watcher in the Water which was fine. Until some jerk killed it.
* my Lotus Vale was threatened with strip mining and then copied with Vesuva. if people start strip mining my stuff I am going to put Strip Mine back in my decks until they stop. ya don't want none of that smoke people. :D
* I Intuition'd for Illustrious Wanderglyph, Field of the Dead and Cosmic Intervention with the plan to
- play Field of the Dead with Crucible of Worlds
- play Mystic Sanctuary getting back Cosmic Intervention the subsequent turn and then Devastating Mastery with CI while cracking multiple fetchlands,
- some bungholio erases my graveyard before that plan can come to fruition. It was such a pretty plan.

* I Windshaper Planetar'd 6 damage attack from Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist before reading that the 7 equipments on it somehow totalled to 6 damage, thinking I was making a sweet play. it was..ok! I got to draw a card.

* I cast Farewell and Clever Concealment'd my board so I could protect Ephara and get the enchantments.

* I cast Teferi's Protection as Fog, its normal mode in this deck

* At the end of the game I set down 3 copies of Walking Atlas and Felidar Retreat and the last player finally scooped. Very glad I put Walking Atlas in, it was frigging bananas with Field of the Dead.

* I Muddle the Mixture'd for Cyclonic Rift instead of Winds of Abandon, making the game take twice as long as it should have.

* again, how bout that Field of the Dead. It made so many zombies and drew so many cards and didn't cost any mana.