Both Cloud of Faeries and Luminarch Ascension are two drops, so they can be tutored by Muddle. Both can be tutored additionally by at least one other tutor, namely Recruiter and ET. Walking Ballista would be tutorable by Trinket Mage, Enlightened Tutor, and Recruiter.
The infinite mana plan needs at least two more slots, most likely three or even four, none of which has been tested before.
Luminarch Ascension is a tried and true one card powerhouse but not a combo.
The choice is up to you.
EDIT: It suddenly occurred to me. We benefitted from infinite turns beforehand - how about we give Nexus of Fate a try?
It certainly seems very good. I'm a little fuzzy on how many wipes that allow regeneration we can stomach, esp. those that don't also get rid of planeswalkers (ugh, I am not looking forward to the # of superfriends decks we're going to be seeing).
I am slightly inclined to play Hour of Revelation first I think but it certainly could be very good.
That said, it does create a pretty hard lock with Archaeomancer so that's something to think hard about. Quite a bit stronger than Evacuation despite the instant speed.
Kefnet looks amazing for a spell slinger build. Copying removal (including mass removal) and never dying (third from the top is no problem for us) is just so consistent it's unreal. I'm looking forward to seeing Oketra
Kefnet looks amazing for a spell slinger build. Copying removal (including mass removal) and never dying (third from the top is no problem for us) is just so consistent it's unreal. I'm looking forward to seeing Oketra
Yeah I am annoyed they left Oketra for last and showed these awesome dudes because my hopes are now super high
Kefnet is an amazingly cool design. I am sure I will put it in another deck.
So far the set is pretty bummer for me, most of the cheap walkers are crappy and Spark Double is good but very inconsistent. Getting a second Ephara is something very few other cards can do (Sakashima mainly). But having to turn her into a creature first is lame.
New Oketra seems good in a creature heavy build, especially in combination with cards like Whitemane Lion, which can create quite a few tokens over time.
I think our deck would rather run Oketra's Monument rather than this clunky, expensive creature with no evasion. The Monument's tokens might be smaller, but it's much more useful overall and not as taxing to use properly. Maybe a blink deck would appreciate her more.
So I think the difference between making 4/4s with vigilance and 1/1s is pretty substantial, and being hard to get rid of (read: mostly impossible) is pretty nice.
She combos with any bounce creature to become a wincon over the course of very little time.
Think you might be underselling a little but I'm not sure. 5 mana is a lot, and the body is pretty bad without swords.
I'm still noodling on it but I like the design a lot and may give it a try once the price settles. I don't see how a foil of that is more than $5 or so
I can definitely see the appeal of Kefnet and slinging spells. Spells are generally much better than creatures in EDH anyway and in azorius in particular.
New Teferi is probably a house in that build. Lots of really strong avenues of play.
I'll probably be sticking with critters but I may try some of the new walkers here and there, and maybe Oketra.
Fundamentally this set is about planeswalkers, and this deck doesn't really want many walkers because they aren't dudes. Some of them make dudes but it's the exception and they never do it at instant speed really. Still, there are some cool supporting effects in this set and some of the walkers are decent. Overall just not that much of interest for us though.
The secondary theme of the set being proliferate mechanics are doubly not interesting to us, which really is the nail in the coffin for this set offering much of interest.
The minor theme of the Gods actually had me quite interested as repeatably available creatures are great for this deck. Unfortunately Kefnet came out to be highly spell focused and Oketra has the Oketra's Monument effect where it doesn't really enable us to trigger Ephara more reliably.
In terms of how this set affects Ephara it's probably more that we should expect to have to deal with more planeswalkers going forward as there are a lot of static abilities on walkers in this set that are rather desirable. This probably means adding a sweeper that destroys walkers as a reasonable thing (e.g. Hour of Revelation).
Spellslinger builds will really like Kefnet of course.
Lands & Artifacts
Most of the lands in this set are really inappropriate to Ephara, being colorless or requiring recycling to be effective - since we don't play crucible effects really they aren't that appealing.
None of the colorless cards in this set are any good for us, but Parhelion II is a reasonable budget finisher - making 8 power and triggering Ephara every turn is nice, but no guarantee we'll make 4 power all the time. I won't be trying it but it's not bad. The submersible is bleh.
Multicolored
There are not a lot of azorius card sin this set. The only one that particularly interests me is Teferi, Time Raveler who is quite powerful. His static ability is almost worth considering on its own since it's very strong in our deck. But sadly his planeswalker abilities are rather underwhelming in our deck. I will pick a foil up if it gets cheap but i really do not anticipate that sadly.
Blue
The blue cards in this set seem to be focused fairly heavy on spells in general andthe creatures are rather poor. Not a single one with flash as far as I can tell. In general the theme of blue in this set is not that interesting to me in this set and it offers almost nothing to Ephara.
Without plus ability, Kasmina, Enigmatic Mentor still offers probably the most of any card in the set from blue, but it's not quite enough in my opinion. +2 tax is really medium in EDH, and making two tokens in successive turns for 4 mana is just not where we want to be. It's much weaker than Gideon, Ally of Zendikar in that slot and we don't play him.
Flux Channeler gets an honorable mention for being very strong, but not really doing anything in our deck sadly. The various other proliferate and token making mechanics are not horrible but don't really bring much to the table.
White
White is basically as bad as blue, the walkers are bad for us and the large number of proliferate critters would be great if we had a +1/+! counter or walker theme.
Probably the brightest spot of the set is God-Eternal Oketra and that's not particularly bright; she offers a way to turn whitemane lion into Luminarch's Ascension essentially, which is nice. 4/4 tokens are much stronger than the tokens this deck typically makes. The best thing Oketra brings is that once she sticks (and she is tutorable by Lancers!) she is never going away--we will usually draw her back very quickly due to Ephara.
Overall though, her cost is high and her 3/6 body is really underwhelming without an equipment theme to take advantage of doublestrike. Additionally since her ability requires us to have creatures in hand it's pretty bad off the top deck and doesn't really draw us any cards.
Again, the proliferate mechanics are rather strong but not really relevant to us.
Of the walkers, Teyo, the Shieldmage is not too bad - offering a decent static effect, being sun titan recurrable, and making tokens is not a bad place to be.
Tomic, Distinguished Advokist is an interesting hatebear, but in general I think much too narrow and generally worse than graveyard hate.
Conclusion
This set is a total bust, and it makes me scared for what EDH might turn into (and magic in general). I emphatically despise the proliferate mechanic with walkers and am not excited to see the mechanic proliferate planeswalker decks, which are generally top 5 on the worst experiences in EDH for me.
Probably the brightest aspect of this set for me is getting to jam all those cool proliferate cards into my Atraxa land counters/+1 counters deck.
Wow, modern Horizons sure has a lot of interesting stuff for us. I am looking forward to going line by line through it but at the very least I think Winds of Abandon is a shoe in - muddleable, spellseekerable one sided board wipe is quite strong even with a ramp effect.
The Ranger-Captain of Eos is probably not unreasonable though I don't think it fits well with my strategy. Obviously we're bummed not to get a Horizon Canopy for our colors, but this set design seems primed to push the type of efficient cards we want to run so I'm excited to see how it shapes up.
Urza is actually rather good in an Ephara Artifacts deck, straight up win condition actually.
The white Beast Within Generous Gift is quite good, though I am not sure I will run it. I also like Serra as discussed, and Giver of Runes is not unplayable.
Splicer's Skill even offers some fun ideas for a budget spellslinger Ephara I think - that plus Capsize with enough mana creates a pretty sturdy engine.
With a second Astral Drift effect, if they print enough cycling support, there might be a cycling build as well. You've got Drake Haven as a third engine too. The difficulty with that is probably figuring out reusable cycling effects and I'm not sure how that would work
Sword of Truth and Justice seems like it might have some potential with a few more walkers to be honest. There're a few really good ones that distribute +1/+1 counters (e.g. Ajani Steadfast).
I'm much more lukewarm on the effect of MH1 towards Ephara to be honest, though towards the rest of MTG it is absolutely crazy.
Serra does not really belong here IMO, since the token is spawned very rarely, and since the anthem effect is only for fliers and only on our turn. What Serra is screaming for is some synergy with either Proliferate or with fliers, something like a proactive Lingering Souls deck or an Isperia the Inscrutable deck. As it is, it's way too low impact, especially considering the kind of heavy lifting we want our 4 drops to be doing. If I were looking or the Worship effect, I'd probably stick with Confinement as I've already mentioned multiple times - it's just much less vulnerable than a PW in EDH.
Urza will be incredibly expensive as he is a threat, a mana tool and a win condition all in one - even if it is only for the artifact deck. If he were to fit in an Ephara build it would only be because of his ability to tap artifacts for mana, and even then it might be underwhelming since there are cards like Inspiring Statuary which are much less restrictive, cost less and are easier to fetch.
I did like Ranger-Captain of Eos. It's a 3 drop rather than a 4 drop and it can sac itself to save us from an opponent's critical turn (we don't really care about it staying on the battlefield that much). It's also very reminiscent of Hope of Ghirapur, a card that it can actually fetch. For sure, though, the both of them are pretty silly with Sun Titan.
I won't be running it, though. I just don't have enough interesting one drops.
Which leads me to Giver of Runes, or Other of Runes as I call her. I'm actually heavily considering slotting her in, though Mother of Runes isn't that helpful to be honest. One drops can be great tools for the deck - they come down early to help us establish board presence, help us survive until we can get the Ephara engine rolling and protect ourselves for real, and they also replace themselves if we already have Ephara. I still strongly consider one drops like Kami of False Hope - Spore Frog often wins my Karador games. In any rate the discussion of one drops is one that I heavily encourage, and Other of Runes will be right in the middle of that discussion trying to win me over.
I actually think Generous Gift is great. Getting rid of everything is just strong, and effects like Oblivion Ring don't last very long in EDH. We can also use it on our permanent in a pinch, transforming it into a blocker and drawing a card with Ephara. I'll probably acquire a copy somehow, but I much prefer Deputy of Detention to it, though running both is definitely not a bad idea.
Sword of Truth and Justice really isn't what we're looking for. As of now there aren't many planeswalkers that crack the playability level for us (mostly Elspeth, Knight-Errant and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar), especially not instead of hate creatures. The top swords for this deck were and still are Fire and Ice, Feast and Famine, Light and Shadow - strong effects that justify the restriction of needing a creature to connect with face and happening only once per round.
However, Sword of Sinew and Steel tickles my fancy much better: artifacts and planeswalkers can both be used to target opposing commanders, and commander-killing on a stick is always a powerful effect. Other than that this card is a continuous mana-rock destroyer, which is always useful in EDH. This might warrant testing equipment package again with Stoneforge Mystic - I think that having a couple of good swords and a couple of ways to fetch them is always a useful utility option.
Splice onto Instant / Sorcery is a great mechanic. Repeatable 3/3 tokens is great for Ephara. Both of these have the makings of a potential staple - but it costs 2W and an instant / sorcery each time, so I'd delegate this synergy to special spellslinger builds.
Something along the lines of Monastery Mentor, Metallurgic Summonings, Docent of Perfection, Splicer's Skill. With that have a bunch of cheap instants / sorceries like Opt, Brainstorm, Swan Song, etc... I do not recommend paying 6WUU for repeatable Capsize and token while players are blowing up their board states. The only good synergy is with Forbid: 3WUU + discarding two cards, for a repeatable 3/3 and a counter effect is strong, especially when you draw a card the next upkeep and mitigate the card disadvantage. But is this really better than Sacred Mesa? I think not.
Astral Drift and Astral Slide along with Drake Haven seem like waaaay too much of a stretch in terms of Ephara synergy. Getting these effects consistently is a serious problem, and cycling cards otherwise does absolutely nothing, even with miracle effects like Terminus and Devastation Tide. Color me unimpressed.
EDIT: I forgot to mention Winds of Abandon, which is the only windmill slam in the set so far, but it'll probably be waaaay too expensive to lay my hands on.
So I obviously agree with your assessments for the most part with my build, but I think:
1) Urza is stellar in a thopter / myr based build where your thopters and dudes become haste mana dorks. That deck is definitely there now just would take a long time to refine. Cards like Thopter spy Network.
2) Sword of Truth and Justice - I think you might be undervaluing that in, specifically, a build that wants to finish by making +1/+1 counters on its dudes. The difference between it and other swords is that it's a closer - if you have a few dudes with +1/+1 counters and you start proliferating, it gets out of hand very quickly. No other sword is going to represent a +10 power swing like this could. The thing is it's very specifically going to in a deck playing cards like Mikaeus, the Lunarch and Ajani Goldmane and that is not my deck.
3) Astral Slide et al - I promise you there is a very decent cycling deck to be built with Ephara. The ability to turn cycling into ephara triggers and ETB triggers, the ability to cycle/exile stuff with Containment Priest and even blink her to allow you to blink your stuff. There is absolutely a deck there. It's not a top tier one or anything but it'd be a very fun semi-casual way to play Ephara.
Winds of Abandon should be around 5 bucks. Casuals won't like it in EDH most likely. I wouldn't stress about it. Stress about me needing a foil
SCG already has these on preorder for 5 bucks if you want one
Oh, obviously the new fetchland (Prismatic Vista) is an easy win for this deck. Some drunkies seem to think it should be 30 bucks nonfoil tho?:P I need several and a foil for Ephara, ugh.
Wow, that Vesperlark is maybe something I am interested in. It only gets about 10 creatures but it combos infinitely with blasting station and any clone. I'll need to noodle on that a little. It's definitely very strong. Maybe if I played a few more clones? I dunno.
On one hand it's much weaker than lark, but on the other it's recruiterable and much cheaper.
I think I would need to retool the deck with more cards to take advantage of it for it to be really good, but it's definitely something to think about. Probably pretty easy to play a few more clones.
I really hope they make some kinda tutor for flying creatures
What the hell. I have no idea why they would shut down MTGS!!!!
Everything that had been posted so far will be kept in read-only archives, so at least that's a relief, but it will be impossible to write new posts etc.
Considering we've had a lot of hours' worth of discussion about Ephara and considering I'd still like to discuss more, do you think you'd like to create a thread on another website somewhere? Possibly in this "new home" they've mentioned.
I haven't finished porting and rewriting all the content but I am going to have to now I guess heh.
The big issue with Tappedout is that the comment system is really crap compared to forums. Replies and all that, context, etc.
So if you have any better suggestions I'd welcome them. I considered Reddit but it's too aggressive on archiving for my tastes. I may also build a webpage but again it suffers from the same issues as Tappedout which is the lack of thread based commenting.
Looks like we got ourselves a decent hatebear
If anyone is running Kira, Great Glass-Spinner, this guy is not as good if they cast only one spell on your stuff, but great if there is more than one. This guy also protects all our permanents instead of just creatures, so that's another important point.
I also love the synergy with all the random tribal things. This guy is great with Devout Chaplain, Shared Triumph, etc.
So I think you might be underselling this card actually. Unlike Kira it protects you and your lands and even Ephara when she's not a creature. So random combos that rely on infinitely targeting you with stuff are shut off, people have to pay extra to strip mine you, maze of ith costs one more, etc. All kinds of effects this hits.
I am pretty sure I will play this card if I can find a foil for a price I am happy with.
It's also recruiterable and protects itself some.
I'm pretty sure the card is enough to cause all kinds of mistakes, for sure, and also to dissuade opportunity attacks (where people do stuff like, say, try to crystal shard your guy to make you pay mana, etc.).
Incidentally it shuts off Altar of dementia combos as well, which are rather common. Pay 1 per attempt
That said, I suspect whethe this is good is highly meta dependent. More sweepers make this guy worse obviously.
Allows us to dig 4 every time we blink it or bounce it, which ought to be pretty easy to achieve.
On a related note I am playing the hell out of that in Inalla, Archmage Ritualist - 3 to dig 4 twice is pretty darn good.
I don't think I'll actually play it in Ephara cos it's not my style but it's definitely high on the power level.
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SoulHerder I am not sure about. It does get huge fast and it generates a card per turn generally, probably weaker than Saltskitter except that it is 1) recruiterable and 2) can create recruiter loops on its own. \
My gut instinct is this card is very strong and a shoe in for the deck. Pretty easy sub for Flickerwisp in my mind, does a lot of the same stuff but also goes nuts in a few scenarios. Free blink is really powerful.
Yeah it's definitely very strong in this deck, although by the time you get the engine online it's tough to say if you need more CA?
The thing that I think is good about it is the selection more than the CA. You get to go 4 cards deep which is quite a lot if you're looking for something specific.
huh. Recruit the worthy seems deceptively good (sprout swarm in our colors, but cheaper w/o convoke). It's instant, it triggers mentor and can be mystical tutored for, it's reduced by pearl medallion and stormscape familiar. It's harder to remove than sacred mesa / mobilization, but less cost effective after the first activation.
It's better than Oketra's monument for sure. If it had Convoke I think it would be 100% in. Kinda wish they'd done that.
Cunning Evasion is actually very strong as well. Powerful combat mechanic that synergizes with our gameplan.
Wow, sad times, this is probably either my last or second to last set review on this primer. Overall, this set is great, it has several cards that are sure to become Ephara staples, and at least two that are going instantly into my deck (at great expense in foil so might take a while:P).
This set is designed with exactly the low to the ground, efficiency focus that my Ephara deck is built around, so it's natural to see tons of things that might go in my deck or that might go in an Ephara deck in general. This set seems particularly kind to Spellslinger Ephara and Artifact Ephara builds, though several standouts exist for me. I hope they do one of these every couple years
There are so many cards I am just going to discuss them all.
White
Astral Drift - This card allows for some redundancy in a cycling deck which is nice, and cycles itself so it's very clean at that. I believe a fairly strong cycling build is a possibility with Ephara, though obviously it's not my build.
Dismantling Blow - Fairly strong budget option for artifact/enchantment removal, not really my cuppa.
Ephemerate - For a more blink focused build this is very strong. Being able to repeat it with Archaeomancer for example is really strong. Generate a lot of value, and also good with prowess cards like Monastery Mentor
Generous Gift - White beast within is a good card, go figure
Ranger-Captain of Eos - Strong card, has some applications, but generally not quite board effecting enough for me especially since I cut my ranger package. But worth considering.
Recruit the worthy - Very strong card in a spellslinger build, could create some crazy value with cost reducers, prowess enablers. Obviously goes infinite with Paradox Engine easily if you're into that
Splicer's Skill Kind of similar to Recruit but just worse mostly. Very expensive, very slow engine. Probably fine in a budget spellslinger build.
Vesperlark - Very strong card, combos with clone + blasting station. definitely something I am considering, will get a foil when they're cheap Watch this card in modern as it's quite powerful and a much faster reveillark.
Watcher for Tomorrow - Powerful source of repeated card advantage but more importantly selection. Is recruiterable and is also a wizard which is a common tribe in our deck - could play wizardcycling guy for example. It's strong but I prefer not to play this kind of card as it's too dependent on having an engine online to be strong.
Archmage's Charm - Very good in a spell slinger build, as 1 CMC permanents are real problems in EDH. Jacking a sol ring or mana crypt can be good enough but there's a lot more going on - lots of 1 cmc combo pieces. It's not better than any of my counterspells however, and the UUU cost is quite prescriptive.
Cunning Evasion - Muddleable, e-tutorable, very very strong effect. Force people to choose between letting you reuse ETB effects and taking damage. Extremely strong, subtle card. I will definitely pick up a foil to try.
Force of Negation - Neat, but not good enough for us, too narrow. Creatures are a big problem in EDH.
Echo of Eons - Straight up EDH good stuff that I think is probably worth considering. I won't play it and I surely won't pay a bajillion dollars for a foil for good stuff that isn't on theme. It's good though, especially in spellslingery builds.
Moonblade Shinobi and Mist-Syndicate Naga - Very strong budget enablers that might be good enough on their own own if they had evasion. Not for me. but good.
Urza, Lord High Artificer - Very strong in the artifact deck. Very! The amount of ramp this represents in say a thopter token deck is unreal. Could enable some infinites as well.
Multi
Unsettled Mariner is really it here. This card is very strong. I won't be getting one out of the gate because I think it's too subtle for most metas, and want to see if the price drops too. It's surely more powerful in non-EDH Constructed than it is in EDH, because the mana denial is much less impactful - and it's also a hot button removal target. I do like the design however and will consider picking one up if it gets cheap.
Lands and Colorless
So now in seven years or so we can have an ally color UW draw land? Bleh, I hope we don't have to wait that long. This cycle is awesome.
Hall of Heliod's Generosity is a very strong effect that, if we were running more enchantments, would be great. Our enchantments are super potent. There are tons of potent enchantments in this color combo. I'd consider it in some decks over Academy Ruins.
birthing Boughs - This is a relatively cheap effect that is trophy mageable which is nice. I think it'd be a cool budget card in an artifact build that's focused on stuff like Unwinding Clock and possibly artifact activated ability cost reductions.
Sword of Truth And Justice - I can definitely see a proliferate build wanting this, with several more walkers (maybe 10 or so) and some more +1/+1 counter effects like Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit. There's enough support this card could let you turn the corner and make a huge army. I like it. But not for my build.
Sure Includes
Soulherder - This card is basically conjurer's closet that is a potential win condition in itself. Creating giant creatures is something this deck is not great at, and having a big fattie can really open a lot of doors. This creature can seriously get out of hand and it's deceptive in its power. Being able to get this with Recruiter of the Guard and then immediately trigger recruiter again is just absolutely money in the bank. This is the #1 recruiter target you should be getting and it will go immediately into my deck.
Definitely the best card in the set for us and an autoinclude in my opinion.
Prismatic vista - This easily replaces Nimbus Maze and is straight up better, it gets us a plains or an island as we need it. It's very strong. It entices me to go up on the fetch count and consider playing Crucible of Worlds honestly.
Winds of Abandon - This card is extremely strong, a sweeper that is spellseekerable and also one sided. Giving your opponents a bunch of lands will cost you, but most optimized decks won't have so many basics that it's crazy punishing. And it can also do the role of single target removal if needed. This card is great and will become an EDH staple almost for sure.
As much as I appreciate Soulherder, I don't think it's anywhere near slam dunk material in my build. White it definitely does grow, reuse ETB abilities etc., I would definitely not count on this guy as a wincon. Even if he becomes huge he's still a vanilla attacker, and is very weak to opposing bounce effects. I might slot him in, but it's much less certain than, say, Unsettled Mariner and the afforementioned land.
Honestly, with cards like Birthing Boughs it would simply be better for artifact builds to run Paradox Engine and combo out with infinite mana, drawing infinite cards, then letting Blasting Station / the combat step loose.
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The infinite mana plan needs at least two more slots, most likely three or even four, none of which has been tested before.
Luminarch Ascension is a tried and true one card powerhouse but not a combo.
The choice is up to you.
EDIT: It suddenly occurred to me. We benefitted from infinite turns beforehand - how about we give Nexus of Fate a try?
Bounce our Recruiter or our critical hatebear, then get rid of the rest of the creatures.
I am slightly inclined to play Hour of Revelation first I think but it certainly could be very good.
That said, it does create a pretty hard lock with Archaeomancer so that's something to think hard about. Quite a bit stronger than Evacuation despite the instant speed.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
Yeah I am annoyed they left Oketra for last and showed these awesome dudes because my hopes are now super high
Kefnet is an amazingly cool design. I am sure I will put it in another deck.
So far the set is pretty bummer for me, most of the cheap walkers are crappy and Spark Double is good but very inconsistent. Getting a second Ephara is something very few other cards can do (Sakashima mainly). But having to turn her into a creature first is lame.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
I'm honestly thinking of changing my deck to a spellslinger just because of God-Eternal Kefnet. Doubling tutors, removal, Brainstorm and Tithe,
Nexus of Fate, Teferi's Protection... It's just stupid. Not to mention I run Scroll Rack now for the Terminus package and it all just becomes too good to be true. We could even get away with Approach the Second Sun as another wincon.
She combos with any bounce creature to become a wincon over the course of very little time.
Think you might be underselling a little but I'm not sure. 5 mana is a lot, and the body is pretty bad without swords.
That said, that card plus Sword of Feast and Famine plus Whitemane Lion is going to go ape*****. Could easily crap out 20 or 30 zombies.
I'm still noodling on it but I like the design a lot and may give it a try once the price settles. I don't see how a foil of that is more than $5 or so
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I can definitely see the appeal of Kefnet and slinging spells. Spells are generally much better than creatures in EDH anyway and in azorius in particular.
New Teferi is probably a house in that build. Lots of really strong avenues of play.
I'll probably be sticking with critters but I may try some of the new walkers here and there, and maybe Oketra.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
Introduction
Fundamentally this set is about planeswalkers, and this deck doesn't really want many walkers because they aren't dudes. Some of them make dudes but it's the exception and they never do it at instant speed really. Still, there are some cool supporting effects in this set and some of the walkers are decent. Overall just not that much of interest for us though.
The secondary theme of the set being proliferate mechanics are doubly not interesting to us, which really is the nail in the coffin for this set offering much of interest.
The minor theme of the Gods actually had me quite interested as repeatably available creatures are great for this deck. Unfortunately Kefnet came out to be highly spell focused and Oketra has the Oketra's Monument effect where it doesn't really enable us to trigger Ephara more reliably.
In terms of how this set affects Ephara it's probably more that we should expect to have to deal with more planeswalkers going forward as there are a lot of static abilities on walkers in this set that are rather desirable. This probably means adding a sweeper that destroys walkers as a reasonable thing (e.g. Hour of Revelation).
Spellslinger builds will really like Kefnet of course.
Lands & Artifacts
Most of the lands in this set are really inappropriate to Ephara, being colorless or requiring recycling to be effective - since we don't play crucible effects really they aren't that appealing.
None of the colorless cards in this set are any good for us, but Parhelion II is a reasonable budget finisher - making 8 power and triggering Ephara every turn is nice, but no guarantee we'll make 4 power all the time. I won't be trying it but it's not bad. The submersible is bleh.
Multicolored
There are not a lot of azorius card sin this set. The only one that particularly interests me is Teferi, Time Raveler who is quite powerful. His static ability is almost worth considering on its own since it's very strong in our deck. But sadly his planeswalker abilities are rather underwhelming in our deck. I will pick a foil up if it gets cheap but i really do not anticipate that sadly.
Blue
The blue cards in this set seem to be focused fairly heavy on spells in general andthe creatures are rather poor. Not a single one with flash as far as I can tell. In general the theme of blue in this set is not that interesting to me in this set and it offers almost nothing to Ephara.
Without plus ability, Kasmina, Enigmatic Mentor still offers probably the most of any card in the set from blue, but it's not quite enough in my opinion. +2 tax is really medium in EDH, and making two tokens in successive turns for 4 mana is just not where we want to be. It's much weaker than Gideon, Ally of Zendikar in that slot and we don't play him.
Flux Channeler gets an honorable mention for being very strong, but not really doing anything in our deck sadly. The various other proliferate and token making mechanics are not horrible but don't really bring much to the table.
White
White is basically as bad as blue, the walkers are bad for us and the large number of proliferate critters would be great if we had a +1/+! counter or walker theme.
Probably the brightest spot of the set is God-Eternal Oketra and that's not particularly bright; she offers a way to turn whitemane lion into Luminarch's Ascension essentially, which is nice. 4/4 tokens are much stronger than the tokens this deck typically makes. The best thing Oketra brings is that once she sticks (and she is tutorable by Lancers!) she is never going away--we will usually draw her back very quickly due to Ephara.
Overall though, her cost is high and her 3/6 body is really underwhelming without an equipment theme to take advantage of doublestrike. Additionally since her ability requires us to have creatures in hand it's pretty bad off the top deck and doesn't really draw us any cards.
Again, the proliferate mechanics are rather strong but not really relevant to us.
Of the walkers, Teyo, the Shieldmage is not too bad - offering a decent static effect, being sun titan recurrable, and making tokens is not a bad place to be.
Tomic, Distinguished Advokist is an interesting hatebear, but in general I think much too narrow and generally worse than graveyard hate.
Conclusion
This set is a total bust, and it makes me scared for what EDH might turn into (and magic in general). I emphatically despise the proliferate mechanic with walkers and am not excited to see the mechanic proliferate planeswalker decks, which are generally top 5 on the worst experiences in EDH for me.
Probably the brightest aspect of this set for me is getting to jam all those cool proliferate cards into my Atraxa land counters/+1 counters deck.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
The Ranger-Captain of Eos is probably not unreasonable though I don't think it fits well with my strategy. Obviously we're bummed not to get a Horizon Canopy for our colors, but this set design seems primed to push the type of efficient cards we want to run so I'm excited to see how it shapes up.
Urza is actually rather good in an Ephara Artifacts deck, straight up win condition actually.
The white Beast Within Generous Gift is quite good, though I am not sure I will run it. I also like Serra as discussed, and Giver of Runes is not unplayable.
Splicer's Skill even offers some fun ideas for a budget spellslinger Ephara I think - that plus Capsize with enough mana creates a pretty sturdy engine.
With a second Astral Drift effect, if they print enough cycling support, there might be a cycling build as well. You've got Drake Haven as a third engine too. The difficulty with that is probably figuring out reusable cycling effects and I'm not sure how that would work
Sword of Truth and Justice seems like it might have some potential with a few more walkers to be honest. There're a few really good ones that distribute +1/+1 counters (e.g. Ajani Steadfast).
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
Serra does not really belong here IMO, since the token is spawned very rarely, and since the anthem effect is only for fliers and only on our turn. What Serra is screaming for is some synergy with either Proliferate or with fliers, something like a proactive Lingering Souls deck or an Isperia the Inscrutable deck. As it is, it's way too low impact, especially considering the kind of heavy lifting we want our 4 drops to be doing. If I were looking or the Worship effect, I'd probably stick with Confinement as I've already mentioned multiple times - it's just much less vulnerable than a PW in EDH.
Urza will be incredibly expensive as he is a threat, a mana tool and a win condition all in one - even if it is only for the artifact deck. If he were to fit in an Ephara build it would only be because of his ability to tap artifacts for mana, and even then it might be underwhelming since there are cards like Inspiring Statuary which are much less restrictive, cost less and are easier to fetch.
I did like Ranger-Captain of Eos. It's a 3 drop rather than a 4 drop and it can sac itself to save us from an opponent's critical turn (we don't really care about it staying on the battlefield that much). It's also very reminiscent of Hope of Ghirapur, a card that it can actually fetch. For sure, though, the both of them are pretty silly with Sun Titan.
I won't be running it, though. I just don't have enough interesting one drops.
Which leads me to Giver of Runes, or Other of Runes as I call her. I'm actually heavily considering slotting her in, though Mother of Runes isn't that helpful to be honest. One drops can be great tools for the deck - they come down early to help us establish board presence, help us survive until we can get the Ephara engine rolling and protect ourselves for real, and they also replace themselves if we already have Ephara. I still strongly consider one drops like Kami of False Hope - Spore Frog often wins my Karador games. In any rate the discussion of one drops is one that I heavily encourage, and Other of Runes will be right in the middle of that discussion trying to win me over.
I actually think Generous Gift is great. Getting rid of everything is just strong, and effects like Oblivion Ring don't last very long in EDH. We can also use it on our permanent in a pinch, transforming it into a blocker and drawing a card with Ephara. I'll probably acquire a copy somehow, but I much prefer Deputy of Detention to it, though running both is definitely not a bad idea.
Sword of Truth and Justice really isn't what we're looking for. As of now there aren't many planeswalkers that crack the playability level for us (mostly Elspeth, Knight-Errant and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar), especially not instead of hate creatures. The top swords for this deck were and still are Fire and Ice, Feast and Famine, Light and Shadow - strong effects that justify the restriction of needing a creature to connect with face and happening only once per round.
However, Sword of Sinew and Steel tickles my fancy much better: artifacts and planeswalkers can both be used to target opposing commanders, and commander-killing on a stick is always a powerful effect. Other than that this card is a continuous mana-rock destroyer, which is always useful in EDH. This might warrant testing equipment package again with Stoneforge Mystic - I think that having a couple of good swords and a couple of ways to fetch them is always a useful utility option.
Splice onto Instant / Sorcery is a great mechanic. Repeatable 3/3 tokens is great for Ephara. Both of these have the makings of a potential staple - but it costs 2W and an instant / sorcery each time, so I'd delegate this synergy to special spellslinger builds.
Something along the lines of Monastery Mentor, Metallurgic Summonings, Docent of Perfection, Splicer's Skill. With that have a bunch of cheap instants / sorceries like Opt, Brainstorm, Swan Song, etc... I do not recommend paying 6WUU for repeatable Capsize and token while players are blowing up their board states. The only good synergy is with Forbid: 3WUU + discarding two cards, for a repeatable 3/3 and a counter effect is strong, especially when you draw a card the next upkeep and mitigate the card disadvantage. But is this really better than Sacred Mesa? I think not.
Astral Drift and Astral Slide along with Drake Haven seem like waaaay too much of a stretch in terms of Ephara synergy. Getting these effects consistently is a serious problem, and cycling cards otherwise does absolutely nothing, even with miracle effects like Terminus and Devastation Tide. Color me unimpressed.
EDIT: I forgot to mention Winds of Abandon, which is the only windmill slam in the set so far, but it'll probably be waaaay too expensive to lay my hands on.
1) Urza is stellar in a thopter / myr based build where your thopters and dudes become haste mana dorks. That deck is definitely there now just would take a long time to refine. Cards like Thopter spy Network.
2) Sword of Truth and Justice - I think you might be undervaluing that in, specifically, a build that wants to finish by making +1/+1 counters on its dudes. The difference between it and other swords is that it's a closer - if you have a few dudes with +1/+1 counters and you start proliferating, it gets out of hand very quickly. No other sword is going to represent a +10 power swing like this could. The thing is it's very specifically going to in a deck playing cards like Mikaeus, the Lunarch and Ajani Goldmane and that is not my deck.
3) Astral Slide et al - I promise you there is a very decent cycling deck to be built with Ephara. The ability to turn cycling into ephara triggers and ETB triggers, the ability to cycle/exile stuff with Containment Priest and even blink her to allow you to blink your stuff. There is absolutely a deck there. It's not a top tier one or anything but it'd be a very fun semi-casual way to play Ephara.
Winds of Abandon should be around 5 bucks. Casuals won't like it in EDH most likely. I wouldn't stress about it. Stress about me needing a foil
SCG already has these on preorder for 5 bucks if you want one
Oh, obviously the new fetchland (Prismatic Vista) is an easy win for this deck. Some drunkies seem to think it should be 30 bucks nonfoil tho?:P I need several and a foil for Ephara, ugh.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
At least its' green sun's zenithable so I can put it in Gitrog for the lols.
Hopefully we get a suppression field bear to make up for it. with flying. and flash
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
On one hand it's much weaker than lark, but on the other it's recruiterable and much cheaper.
I think I would need to retool the deck with more cards to take advantage of it for it to be really good, but it's definitely something to think about. Probably pretty easy to play a few more clones.
I really hope they make some kinda tutor for flying creatures
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
Everything that had been posted so far will be kept in read-only archives, so at least that's a relief, but it will be impossible to write new posts etc.
Considering we've had a lot of hours' worth of discussion about Ephara and considering I'd still like to discuss more, do you think you'd like to create a thread on another website somewhere? Possibly in this "new home" they've mentioned.
I will definitely open something up.
I will most likely move it here:
https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/ephara-flash-taxes/
I haven't finished porting and rewriting all the content but I am going to have to now I guess heh.
The big issue with Tappedout is that the comment system is really crap compared to forums. Replies and all that, context, etc.
So if you have any better suggestions I'd welcome them. I considered Reddit but it's too aggressive on archiving for my tastes. I may also build a webpage but again it suffers from the same issues as Tappedout which is the lack of thread based commenting.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
Looks like we got ourselves a decent hatebear
If anyone is running Kira, Great Glass-Spinner, this guy is not as good if they cast only one spell on your stuff, but great if there is more than one. This guy also protects all our permanents instead of just creatures, so that's another important point.
I also love the synergy with all the random tribal things. This guy is great with Devout Chaplain, Shared Triumph, etc.
I am pretty sure I will play this card if I can find a foil for a price I am happy with.
It's also recruiterable and protects itself some.
I'm pretty sure the card is enough to cause all kinds of mistakes, for sure, and also to dissuade opportunity attacks (where people do stuff like, say, try to crystal shard your guy to make you pay mana, etc.).
Incidentally it shuts off Altar of dementia combos as well, which are rather common. Pay 1 per attempt
That said, I suspect whethe this is good is highly meta dependent. More sweepers make this guy worse obviously.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
https://www.mtgsalvation.com/cards/modern-horizons/36517-watcher-for-tomorrow
Allows us to dig 4 every time we blink it or bounce it, which ought to be pretty easy to achieve.
On a related note I am playing the hell out of that in Inalla, Archmage Ritualist - 3 to dig 4 twice is pretty darn good.
I don't think I'll actually play it in Ephara cos it's not my style but it's definitely high on the power level.
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SoulHerder I am not sure about. It does get huge fast and it generates a card per turn generally, probably weaker than Saltskitter except that it is 1) recruiterable and 2) can create recruiter loops on its own. \
My gut instinct is this card is very strong and a shoe in for the deck. Pretty easy sub for Flickerwisp in my mind, does a lot of the same stuff but also goes nuts in a few scenarios. Free blink is really powerful.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
The thing that I think is good about it is the selection more than the CA. You get to go 4 cards deep which is quite a lot if you're looking for something specific.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
It's better than Oketra's monument for sure. If it had Convoke I think it would be 100% in. Kinda wish they'd done that.
Cunning Evasion is actually very strong as well. Powerful combat mechanic that synergizes with our gameplan.
Lots and lots of new toys in this set so far!
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
Wow, sad times, this is probably either my last or second to last set review on this primer. Overall, this set is great, it has several cards that are sure to become Ephara staples, and at least two that are going instantly into my deck (at great expense in foil so might take a while:P).
This set is designed with exactly the low to the ground, efficiency focus that my Ephara deck is built around, so it's natural to see tons of things that might go in my deck or that might go in an Ephara deck in general. This set seems particularly kind to Spellslinger Ephara and Artifact Ephara builds, though several standouts exist for me. I hope they do one of these every couple years
There are so many cards I am just going to discuss them all.
White
Astral Drift - This card allows for some redundancy in a cycling deck which is nice, and cycles itself so it's very clean at that. I believe a fairly strong cycling build is a possibility with Ephara, though obviously it's not my build.
Dismantling Blow - Fairly strong budget option for artifact/enchantment removal, not really my cuppa.
Ephemerate - For a more blink focused build this is very strong. Being able to repeat it with Archaeomancer for example is really strong. Generate a lot of value, and also good with prowess cards like Monastery Mentor
Generous Gift - White beast within is a good card, go figure
Giver of Runes - It's better than mother of runes in our deck but I cut her. If running ranger of Eos she's very good.
Ranger-Captain of Eos - Strong card, has some applications, but generally not quite board effecting enough for me especially since I cut my ranger package. But worth considering.
Recruit the worthy - Very strong card in a spellslinger build, could create some crazy value with cost reducers, prowess enablers. Obviously goes infinite with Paradox Engine easily if you're into that
Splicer's Skill Kind of similar to Recruit but just worse mostly. Very expensive, very slow engine. Probably fine in a budget spellslinger build.
Vesperlark - Very strong card, combos with clone + blasting station. definitely something I am considering, will get a foil when they're cheap Watch this card in modern as it's quite powerful and a much faster reveillark.
Blue
Tribute Mage - This card is very good, not quite good enough for my deck but if the hybrid mana rule ever changes and we can play Thopter Foundry[/card it is a shoe in. It's almost good enough on its own as there are a ton of 2 mana artifacts we could play. Nicer than Trophy Mage in some ways because it curves out of Ephara (e.g. you can cast Ephara on 4, then this+2 mana on 5).
Watcher for Tomorrow - Powerful source of repeated card advantage but more importantly selection. Is recruiterable and is also a wizard which is a common tribe in our deck - could play wizardcycling guy for example. It's strong but I prefer not to play this kind of card as it's too dependent on having an engine online to be strong.
Archmage's Charm - Very good in a spell slinger build, as 1 CMC permanents are real problems in EDH. Jacking a sol ring or mana crypt can be good enough but there's a lot more going on - lots of 1 cmc combo pieces. It's not better than any of my counterspells however, and the UUU cost is quite prescriptive.
Cunning Evasion - Muddleable, e-tutorable, very very strong effect. Force people to choose between letting you reuse ETB effects and taking damage. Extremely strong, subtle card. I will definitely pick up a foil to try.
Force of Negation - Neat, but not good enough for us, too narrow. Creatures are a big problem in EDH.
Echo of Eons - Straight up EDH good stuff that I think is probably worth considering. I won't play it and I surely won't pay a bajillion dollars for a foil for good stuff that isn't on theme. It's good though, especially in spellslingery builds.
Moonblade Shinobi and Mist-Syndicate Naga - Very strong budget enablers that might be good enough on their own own if they had evasion. Not for me. but good.
String of disappearances - Pretty good with Archaeomancer? Neat card.
Urza, Lord High Artificer - Very strong in the artifact deck. Very! The amount of ramp this represents in say a thopter token deck is unreal. Could enable some infinites as well.
Multi
Unsettled Mariner is really it here. This card is very strong. I won't be getting one out of the gate because I think it's too subtle for most metas, and want to see if the price drops too. It's surely more powerful in non-EDH Constructed than it is in EDH, because the mana denial is much less impactful - and it's also a hot button removal target. I do like the design however and will consider picking one up if it gets cheap.
Lands and Colorless
So now in seven years or so we can have an ally color UW draw land? Bleh, I hope we don't have to wait that long. This cycle is awesome.
Hall of Heliod's Generosity is a very strong effect that, if we were running more enchantments, would be great. Our enchantments are super potent. There are tons of potent enchantments in this color combo. I'd consider it in some decks over Academy Ruins.
birthing Boughs - This is a relatively cheap effect that is trophy mageable which is nice. I think it'd be a cool budget card in an artifact build that's focused on stuff like Unwinding Clock and possibly artifact activated ability cost reductions.
Scrapyard Recombiner - This is a very powerful effect in the artifact build, getting some of the best constructs such as Hangarback Walker and Walking Ballista.
Sword of Truth And Justice - I can definitely see a proliferate build wanting this, with several more walkers (maybe 10 or so) and some more +1/+1 counter effects like Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit. There's enough support this card could let you turn the corner and make a huge army. I like it. But not for my build.
Sure Includes
Soulherder - This card is basically conjurer's closet that is a potential win condition in itself. Creating giant creatures is something this deck is not great at, and having a big fattie can really open a lot of doors. This creature can seriously get out of hand and it's deceptive in its power. Being able to get this with Recruiter of the Guard and then immediately trigger recruiter again is just absolutely money in the bank. This is the #1 recruiter target you should be getting and it will go immediately into my deck.
Definitely the best card in the set for us and an autoinclude in my opinion.
Prismatic vista - This easily replaces Nimbus Maze and is straight up better, it gets us a plains or an island as we need it. It's very strong. It entices me to go up on the fetch count and consider playing Crucible of Worlds honestly.
Winds of Abandon - This card is extremely strong, a sweeper that is spellseekerable and also one sided. Giving your opponents a bunch of lands will cost you, but most optimized decks won't have so many basics that it's crazy punishing. And it can also do the role of single target removal if needed. This card is great and will become an EDH staple almost for sure.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
It also brings back key cards like As Foretold, Luminarch Ascension, etc. while also bringing back several key creatures in Spirit of the Labyrinth, Eidolon of the Great Revel.
As much as I appreciate Soulherder, I don't think it's anywhere near slam dunk material in my build. White it definitely does grow, reuse ETB abilities etc., I would definitely not count on this guy as a wincon. Even if he becomes huge he's still a vanilla attacker, and is very weak to opposing bounce effects. I might slot him in, but it's much less certain than, say, Unsettled Mariner and the afforementioned land.
Honestly, with cards like Birthing Boughs it would simply be better for artifact builds to run Paradox Engine and combo out with infinite mana, drawing infinite cards, then letting Blasting Station / the combat step loose.