Hello all, I'm back with a new deck based around the new Blue / White God from Born of the Gods, Ephara, God of the Polis. The deck is built around creatures with the Flash keyword, which allows me to play them on other players' turns to get additional card draw from Ephara. Since I'm going to be leaving mana open to play creatures with Flash, I figured a good amount if Instants would fit right in, which is great since blue and white have a lot of good options. This naturally led me to a controllish deck, though it can definitely go aggressive by playing a bunch of Flash creatures on the end step, then untapping and attacking with them. Here the decklist that I have currently, although there are many improvements to be made:
While it may not be insane, whitemane lion is pretty much the best for reusable draw. Can even save your guys if need be
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Hey guys so I've actually moved on from commander on to 60 card decks so I don't have any commander decks.
Anyway I've started my own gameplay channel in which I play games (Magic also)
I dint see why you would run Scout's Warning, Leyline, or Orrery. These cards do next to nothing for you. While I see the appeal of Austere Command EOT, these cards do little else. Especially when you are lacking powerhouses like Cryptic Command. If you must keep one; Leyline is the best, but I don't think any of them have a place in a deck that is 80% instants/flash.
I dint see why you would run Scout's Warning, Leyline, or Orrery. These cards do next to nothing for you. While I see the appeal of Austere Command EOT, these cards do little else. Especially when you are lacking powerhouses like Cryptic Command. If you must keep one; Leyline is the best, but I don't think any of them have a place in a deck that is 80% instants/flash.
The thing is, there are only 27 cards that are either instants or have flash, which is actually only about 43% of my nonland cards. Being able to play my general and the other 57% at instant speed is an awesome benefit of these cards. My deck wants to tap out as infrequently as possible so that I can always hold up countermagic or at least represent the illusion that I have it. Being able to play mana rocks, sweepers, and all my other cards at instant speed is a huge benefit to this plan. Casting Twilight Shepherd in response to a sweeper or Glen Elendra Archmage in response to a dangerous non-creature spell is so much more useful than having to run them out at sorcery speed. Instant speed sweepers or finishers like Baneslayer Angel and Ætherling are pretty awesome as well.
I got a chance to play a few games with this deck over the past couple days, and while Leyline of Anticipation was good if I could start with it in my opening hand, I never really found myself wanting to cast Leyline or Vedalken Orrery until I had enough mana that I could leave some open while also running one of them out. Teferi is still good because he can be cast at instant speed anyway to enable more instant speed shenanigans, and he disrupts other decks which try to interact at instant speed. I think maybe I will cut Orrery but leave Leyline for now, since I would still like to have access to the effect, but I don't want to draw it all the time, and having multiples is overkill. I'm also going to plan on leaving Scout's Warning in for now, since it's an instant itself, cantrips, and lets me play Ephara for 5 mana at end of turn, helping her to avoid counters, which tend to be the main way of dealing with her.
Mother of Runes just didn't really work very well in this deck, since I rarely had more than one or two creatures in play at a time, and I have a lot of other ways to protect them, such as bouncing them back to my hand or just countering the removal spell. It's an awesome card overal, but I don't think it's a good fit here. As for the lands, just being able to eliminate a couple of ETB tapped lands is great. However, I'm feeling like I need to reduce my number of colorless lands by one, since this deck can be fairly color intensive at times. I also think I want to get my overall land count back to 38, since hitting all of my land drops for as many turns as possible is something that this deck really wants to do.
I think this deck only has room for one counter at six mana, and Draining Whelk fits better overall than Time Stop, since it cantrips off of Ephara and gives me a nice body to get in some beats with afterward. Also, bouncing back to my hand to counter something else later is really awesome. Hinder seems like a strict upgrade to Rewind for this deck. Being able to tuck generals is really nice, and I don't really want to have to spend four mana on a counter, even if it does untap the lands afterwards. Lastly, Orrery hasn't seemed at all necessary, so I'm going to cut it in favor of a card which does a lot of nice things, and at the very least can give me chump blockers and draw cards.
I may end up cutting Leyline of Anticipation as well, but I am going to give it more time to prove itself since it is mainly just better than Orrery. Being an enchantment makes it harder to remove, and it can start the game on the battlefield if I have it in my opening hand, which is really powerful and lets me represent countermagic as early as turn two while still developing my own board.
I'm thinking about trying to fit a Brainstorm in here somewhere, particularly because it interacts so nicely with Terminus, but also just to have another way to draw some cards at instant speed. I'm still trying to decide what would be a good cut right now.
The biggest issue I have with this deck right now is a lack of good finishers. Ætherling is a good one, and Baneslayer Angel is pretty solid as well, but in a 100 card deck, I need more than two ways to close people out, and a few more efficient threats would be excellent. I am definitely taking suggestions as to what these could be.
Saving Grasp is cool because it has a cheap mana cost, but the effect is pretty weak, and it's very conditional. It also just isn't that powerful. There are so many more options that just have a bigger effect.
I've got a copy of Land Tax on the way, so I need to cut a card and add that in. I'm kind of hesitant to reduce my creature count, but Saltskitter seems like the weakest card to me. It's pretty good if it gets going and my opponents are playing a lot of creatures, but I have to cast it at sorcery speed on my own turn, and it's extremely underwhelming outside of the ability to get more draws off of Ephara.
Is there a reason that Luminarch Ascension isn't in here? It's a finisher, a critter maker, and an all-around great card. Seems perfect for your needs!
Is there a reason that Luminarch Ascension isn't in here? It's a finisher, a critter maker, and an all-around great card. Seems perfect for your needs!
It definitely seems like a card I should try to fit in somewhere. It's not as reliable as Sacred Mesa and it will definitely make me a target, but the fact that it makes such large bodies and still triggers my draws off of Ephara means that it should be worth it most of the time. Definitely a card that I will add to mu wishlist and pick up when I have a chance.
Random card thoughts:
-Erratic Portal seems worth having, especially if you already have its cousin Crystal Shard in here.
-Galepowder Mage? He's a classic flicker guy and is neat if you don't have a guy to cast or want to save a flash guy for a trick.
-Lavina of the Tenth isn't a bad dude to have access to, despite not having flash. Pro-Red can be a handy piece of evasion to have around.
-Ghostly Flicker. So much amazing.
-Equilibrium seems pretty cool here if you go deeper into the flash thing.
-I hate saying it... but Deadeye Navigator?
One thing I'm noticing is that you've chosen to go style over substance. There's a lot of synergy here, but very little effectiveness. Stuff like Deputy and Pestermite are cool and everything, but they're not *doing* anything other than be cute with Ephara. Someone else is just gonna flip Avenger of Zendikar and something else scary off of a Maelstrom Wanderer and look at you awkwardly. You have no brute force, just cute synergies. Stuff like Sun Quan, Lord of Wu, Venser, the Sojourner, Galepowder Mage, Luminarch Ascension, and Akroma/Elesh Norn/Avacyn would give you some more ability to punch above your weight while also not being terrible cards for your theme (they're either all guys or flicker stuff).
Your other option is to leverage your prodigious card draw into a combo win. Archeomancer + Palinchron/Peregrine Drake/Great Whale + Ghostly Flicker is infinite ETBs for anything and infinite mana. I feel like you can do something there, even if it is *absurdly* boring. Rasputin Dreamweaver instead of the untappers isn't infinite but provides you stupid amounts of colorless mana (5 colorless mana per blue mana). If you run a bad card like Gemstone Array you can make infinite colored mana by bending the colorless mana into whatever you want.
Random card thoughts:
-Erratic Portal seems worth having, especially if you already have its cousin Crystal Shard in here.
-Galepowder Mage? He's a classic flicker guy and is neat if you don't have a guy to cast or want to save a flash guy for a trick.
-Lavina of the Tenth isn't a bad dude to have access to, despite not having flash. Pro-Red can be a handy piece of evasion to have around.
-Ghostly Flicker. So much amazing.
-Equilibrium seems pretty cool here if you go deeper into the flash thing.
-I hate saying it... but Deadeye Navigator?
Erraric Portal seems good enough if I can find a slot for it. I want to keep my creature count high enough so that I can reliably trigger Ephara, so I don't want to end up cutting too many creatures for noncreatures. As far as Ghostly Flicker and Galepowder Mage, I am not really going for a flicker type deck, as that's a strategy I already see quite a bit of in my playgroup. I'm fine with bouncing stuff back to my hand and playing it again, but I just find the flicker effects to be very boring, and I am hesitant to run them. That's the reason why Deadeye Navigator is not in here. I'm sure it would be very good, but it's one of my absolute most hated cards in the format and I try to avoid playing it at all costs. Also I don't want to be running a ton of creatures that force me to tap 8 mana on my own turn, since I always want to be leaving up mana to do things during other players turns. Lavinia doesn't seem good enough to me without playing a lot of flicker effects. She costs 5 mana on my own turn, and doesn't advance me very far towards winning the game. I guess she's good against aggro decks and token swarms, but I have several wrath effects already, and I don't think there are enough really aggressive decks in my playgroup to warrant her inclusion. Equilibrium is potentially nice because it can also bounce opposing creatures much more easily than Erratic Portal or Crystal Shard, but it is a bit more conditional in terms of ability to bounce my own creatures. Do you like Equilibrium or Erratic Portal better?
One thing I'm noticing is that you've chosen to go style over substance. There's a lot of synergy here, but very little effectiveness. Stuff like Deputy and Pestermite are cool and everything, but they're not *doing* anything other than be cute with Ephara. Someone else is just gonna flip Avenger of Zendikar and something else scary off of a Maelstrom Wanderer and look at you awkwardly. You have no brute force, just cute synergies. Stuff like Sun Quan, Lord of Wu, Venser, the Sojourner, Galepowder Mage, Luminarch Ascension, and Akroma/Elesh Norn/Avacyn would give you some more ability to punch above your weight while also not being terrible cards for your theme (they're either all guys or flicker stuff).
Deputy and Pestermite are definitely things that should be removed, but as I mentioned earlier, I want to keep my creature count high enough that I can trigger Ephara reliably. I think switching Deputy for Whitemane Lion would be a pretty good switch since the Lion can bounce itself to give me some extra draws for the low price of just two mana. I definitely hear what you are saying about the lack of brute force. It's definitely a problem I have been having with my decks: As I have tried to make them more efficient, they have lost some of their raw power in exchange for a lower mana curve and more utilitarian spells. I think there's a good balance to be found, and while many EDH players seem to end up too far onto the brute force side, I think I'm too far onto the efficiency side. Venser seems okay, but I don't usually generate a huge board presence, so I'm not sure how much damage he will really be able to push through. His flicker ability is alright, and I feel like he's the kind of card I can add to my deck and utilize for flickering without turning it into a flicker deck, but I don't know if he would make the cut over some of your other suggestions. Luminarch Ascension we discussed previously, and I agree that it would be a really great addition. I'm not sure I like Sun Quan because, as I said, my deck usually doesn't generate a large board presence, and just pushing through four unblockable damage per turn isn't so great for 6 mana. Avacyn and Elesh Norn are both fantastic bombs as usual, but their price tags are definitely getting up there, so I will have to do a little bit of searching, particularly with Elesh Norn.
Your other option is to leverage your prodigious card draw into a combo win. Archeomancer + Palinchron/Peregrine Drake/Great Whale + Ghostly Flicker is infinite ETBs for anything and infinite mana. I feel like you can do something there, even if it is *absurdly* boring. Rasputin Dreamweaver instead of the untappers isn't infinite but provides you stupid amounts of colorless mana (5 colorless mana per blue mana). If you run a bad card like Gemstone Array you can make infinite colored mana by bending the colorless mana into whatever you want.
Just some thoughts.
The combo option is not one that I love, but it might be nice to have one combo that I can dig up if I need to finish the game. I was thinking of trying to include Sphinx's Revelation in this deck somewhere, but maybe Blue Sun's Zenith would be a better choice if I go the infinite mana route since I can use it to just mill everyone out and win that way.
Erraric Portal seems good enough if I can find a slot for it. I want to keep my creature count high enough so that I can reliably trigger Ephara, so I don't want to end up cutting too many creatures for noncreatures. As far as Ghostly Flicker and Galepowder Mage, I am not really going for a flicker type deck, as that's a strategy I already see quite a bit of in my playgroup. I'm fine with bouncing stuff back to my hand and playing it again, but I just find the flicker effects to be very boring, and I am hesitant to run them. That's the reason why Deadeye Navigator is not in here. I'm sure it would be very good, but it's one of my absolute most hated cards in the format and I try to avoid playing it at all costs. Also I don't want to be running a ton of creatures that force me to tap 8 mana on my own turn, since I always want to be leaving up mana to do things during other players turns. Lavinia doesn't seem good enough to me without playing a lot of flicker effects. She costs 5 mana on my own turn, and doesn't advance me very far towards winning the game. I guess she's good against aggro decks and token swarms, but I have several wrath effects already, and I don't think there are enough really aggressive decks in my playgroup to warrant her inclusion. Equilibrium is potentially nice because it can also bounce opposing creatures much more easily than Erratic Portal or Crystal Shard, but it is a bit more conditional in terms of ability to bounce my own creatures. Do you like Equilibrium or Erratic Portal better?
I prefer Equilibrium, it's more interesting and probably better than Portal.
While I share your distaste for Deadeye, it really *is* a great card. Probably too good, but still. It lets you draw a card off Ephara every turn and probably get value besides. It's worth having, sadly. He's expensive and hated, but he's a cannon and you need the firepower he brings.
Ghostly Flicker *is* primarily a flicker card and I get not wanting to go deep on flicker, but that being said, it's also just good enough with Archeomancer to warrant a slot anyway. Combined with other effects it's just great. I really recommend trying it out. With Venser and Archeomancer it becomes "2U: Counter a spell/bounce a permanent.", which is pretty damn good. It resets Draining Whelk and Glen Elendra Archmage, draws a million cards with Mulldrifter, ramps with Solemn, reassigns Phyrexian Metamorph, untaps Trading Post and Strionic Resonator, acts as recursion with Sun Titan, is grave hate with Stonecloaker, and saves you from overwhelming alpha strikes with Seht's Tiger. You run so many ETBs that Ghostly Flicker is just worth it. I get not wanting to go flicker, but this one is worth it, I promise you. That it does obnoxious stuff with Archeomancer is just gravy.
Deputy and Pestermite are definitely things that should be removed, but as I mentioned earlier, I want to keep my creature count high enough that I can trigger Ephara reliably. I think switching Deputy for Whitemane Lion would be a pretty good switch since the Lion can bounce itself to give me some extra draws for the low price of just two mana. I definitely hear what you are saying about the lack of brute force. It's definitely a problem I have been having with my decks: As I have tried to make them more efficient, they have lost some of their raw power in exchange for a lower mana curve and more utilitarian spells. I think there's a good balance to be found, and while many EDH players seem to end up too far onto the brute force side, I think I'm too far onto the efficiency side. Venser seems okay, but I don't usually generate a huge board presence, so I'm not sure how much damage he will really be able to push through. His flicker ability is alright, and I feel like he's the kind of card I can add to my deck and utilize for flickering without turning it into a flicker deck, but I don't know if he would make the cut over some of your other suggestions. Luminarch Ascension we discussed previously, and I agree that it would be a really great addition. I'm not sure I like Sun Quan because, as I said, my deck usually doesn't generate a large board presence, and just pushing through four unblockable damage per turn isn't so great for 6 mana. Avacyn and Elesh Norn are both fantastic bombs as usual, but their price tags are definitely getting up there, so I will have to do a little bit of searching, particularly with Elesh Norn.
Galepowder and Venser I can see skipping. Just thought I'd recommend them because they're solid dudes.
Sun Quan I actually think you should look at a little closer. While he isn't super amazing, he does let your dorks get through anything and lets you burn people down pretty fast. He breaks stalemates, which is really nice and I have this feeling that you'll be able to fight people to stalemates pretty well. The idea of having these big bombs is to break stales, right? Sun Quan does that better than almost anything else you could have. Venser does too, but less well (save for getting the ultimate, which is *nuts* but unreliable).
The combo option is not one that I love, but it might be nice to have one combo that I can dig up if I need to finish the game. I was thinking of trying to include Sphinx's Revelation in this deck somewhere, but maybe Blue Sun's Zenith would be a better choice if I go the infinite mana route since I can use it to just mill everyone out and win that way.
USZ is a nice option, yeah. I personally prefer Sphinx's Rev though. If you include Ghostly Flicker (no seriously, do that) and run with the Archeomancer mana loop you can then flicker through your deck with a card drawer (Mulldrifer, etc), find Venser the guy, and boomerang everyone's everything, along with countering everything everyone ever plays again, making the game over by default. USZ is pretty irrelevant here, since while it does kill everyone, so does preventing anyone from ever having anything. Sphinx's Rev on the other hand is a good mid-game play when you just need a fresh hand and some life to stave off the early beats.
A few random thoughts I've just had:
-Try out Rout and Fated Retribution instead of Wrath and Verdict? They're more expensive, but let you play the flash game well. Rout is well costed for just being a Wrath so shouldn't be an issue and you don't run any walkers so Retribution doesn't cost you anything and is quite the surprise for Superfriends decks, who hate to see it.
-Jace, the Mind Sculptor? He's stupid pricey, but if you've got one laying around, he's undeniably powerful. Also, Jace, AoT isn't half bad either and is cheap right now thanks to the Duel Deck that just came out.
-On the planeswalker thing, you've got access to Elspeth and Tezzeret 1. I don't like Elspeth 1 here, because she doesn't do anything you care about. Elspeth 3 is decent though, her wrath effect is pretty nice and she can help you win through her emblem and dudes. You also have a good number of artifacts, making Tezz a thought. You could include a few equipments (Swords? Jitte?) and Tezz as a package. He also untaps Strionic, your many rocks, and Trading Post, which seems alright. Not sure about him though.
-Keep Saltskitter! He's so awesome! Loving the Saltskitter tech.
Render Silent seems better than Absorb. It's really good at countering cards with cascade (Maelstrom Wanderer). It also can also hose one of your opponents' turns if they want to cast a bunch of spells in one turn.
Karmic Guide is good recursion when you're playing all of those blink effects in your deck. It's obviously bad when you have Rest in Peace in play, but still a card that is worth considering.
I had a thought. A terrible, terrible thought. I think I'm gonna try this in my Ephara (putting it together right now) and it makes me feel dirty. Here's the package:
I think that Ephara might be my ticket to living the dream: since she draws so many cards I should be able to assemble it decently well (getting the mana is tougher though). It'll only go off once and be completely worth the stunned looks. Not sure how to win off of it, but I'll figure something out. Just swing out with all the dudes/cast all the things? Who knows? Should be worth a laugh, thought you'd giggle at it.
I had a thought. A terrible, terrible thought. I think I'm gonna try this in my Ephara (putting it together right now) and it makes me feel dirty. Here's the package:
I think that Ephara might be my ticket to living the dream: since she draws so many cards I should be able to assemble it decently well (getting the mana is tougher though). It'll only go off once and be completely worth the stunned looks. Not sure how to win off of it, but I'll figure something out. Just swing out with all the dudes/cast all the things? Who knows? Should be worth a laugh, thought you'd giggle at it.
Yeah that is a pretty sick package. We don't really have a consistent way to find Academy Rector of to kill it though, so we may not be able to use it very reliably.
This looks like a really cool deck! I definitely like to see the bounce version of an ETB deck over a blink deck, just because they're so much less common. That in mind, I'd say Azorius Æthermage is great for your deck. I'd also suggest Cloud Cover if it wasn't already in your wishlist; that card is sweet tech
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"Insanity" is just the label given to my point of view by those who don't understand.
In the end though I lost to a cyclonic rift and an extremely lucky Temporal Mastery.
I'm actually not sure that I want to get my devotion up to seven because it makes Ephara much easier to kill. As an enchantment she's really hard to get rid of, but when she becomes a creature, she is vulnerable to Path to Exile, Swords to Plowshares, or even worse, something like Spin into Myth. I just added in Dust Elemental, but I haven't had a chance to try it out yet, seems awesome though. I do like the idea of a miracles sub-theme. Being able to flip them and cast them at instant speed, even when they are sorceries, is really nice. Brainstorm is a another card that I need to fit in here that works really well with Miracles, and Entreat the Angels would be another good win condition.
If your meta is full of exiling and tucking removal then maybe getting devotion isn't the best thing ever. I think its a risk worth taking though. People are running more Return to Dusts and Deglamers then ever these days anyway. Personally I've switched from all destroy removal whenever possible due to Theros gods and there are more to come. Having her as a beater is just another way to create board and try and win.
The miracles thing was pretty good. He went all in and even had Banishing Stroke, which I'm not sure is the best idea. It was quite annoying to loose my general though.
Hello all, I'm back with a new deck based around the new Blue / White God from Born of the Gods, Ephara, God of the Polis. The deck is built around creatures with the Flash keyword, which allows me to play them on other players' turns to get additional card draw from Ephara. Since I'm going to be leaving mana open to play creatures with Flash, I figured a good amount if Instants would fit right in, which is great since blue and white have a lot of good options. This naturally led me to a controllish deck, though it can definitely go aggressive by playing a bunch of Flash creatures on the end step, then untapping and attacking with them. Here the decklist that I have currently, although there are many improvements to be made:
Average CMC: 3.10
1 Ephara, God of the Polis
Artifact (9)
1 Azorius Signet
1 Crystal Shard
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Skullclamp
1 Sol Ring
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Talisman of Progress
Creature (24)
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Body Double
1 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
1 Clever Impersonator
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Gilded Drake
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
1 Hero of Bladehold
1 Karmic Guide
1 Mother of Runes
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Restoration Angel
1 Reveillark
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Sower of Temptation
1 Stonecloaker
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Sun Titan
1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
1 Trinket Mage
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
1 Whitemane Lion
1 Detention Sphere
1 Future Sight
1 Land Tax
1 Treachery
Instant (18)
1 Arcane Denial
1 Brainstorm
1 Counterspell
1 Cryptic Command
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Disenchant
1 Dissipate
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Evacuation
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Force of Will
1 Intuition
1 Memory Lapse
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Pact of Negation
1 Path to Exile
1 Remand
1 Swords to Plowshares
Planeswalker (1)
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Sorcery (6)
1 Austere Command
1 Bribery
1 Ponder
1 Rite of Replication
1 Terminus
1 Wrath of God
1 Academy Ruins
1 Adarkar Wastes
1 Arid Mesa
1 Blighted Cataract
1 Celestial Colonnade
1 Command Tower
1 Flooded Strand
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Hallowed Fountain
9 Island
1 Kor Haven
1 Moorland Haunt
1 Mystic Gate
1 Nimbus Maze
6 Plains
1 Polluted Delta
1 Prairie Stream
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Riptide Laboratory
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Skycloud Expanse
1 Strip Mine
1 Temple of Enlightenment
1 Windswept Heath
GUB [Retired Primer] The Mimeoplasm BUG
Modern: UR Storm RU
Cube: WUBRG Pauper Cube GRBUW
Credit for the banner goes to DarkNightCavalier at Heroes of the Plane Studios
Anyway I've started my own gameplay channel in which I play games (Magic also)
Twitch:
https://www.twitch.tv/dies_to_doom_blade
Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/UpsidedownHandshake
Yeah, he seems worthwhile. I must have missed him when going through all the flash creatures.
Scout's Warning is definitely a card I forgot about because I haven't seen it in so long, but it goes really nicely in this deck. Great find.
GUB [Retired Primer] The Mimeoplasm BUG
Modern: UR Storm RU
Cube: WUBRG Pauper Cube GRBUW
Credit for the banner goes to DarkNightCavalier at Heroes of the Plane Studios
DEN is pretty awesome, as is duplicant. I also like mirror-sigil sergeant, brimaz, king of oreskos, and paradox haze.
Awesome looking deck, love the general.
:symr::symu::symb:Nicol Bolas Control: symr::symu::symb:
:symr::symg:Ruric Thar, the Unbowed Beatdown :gruul::symgr:
:symg::symb::symw:Karador, Ghost Chieftain Recursion Control :symw::symb::symg:
Mind Stone -> Vedalken Orrery
Sphinx of Uthuun -> Leyline of Anticipation
Thassa, God of the Sea -> Saltskitter
Intuition -> Evacuation
Midnight Haunting -> Seht's Tiger
Momentary Blink -> Venser, Shaper Savant
Rapid Hybridization -> Swords to Plowshares
Vivid Creek -> Ætherling
Vivid Meadow -> Calciform Pools
Gargoyle Castle -> Winding Canyons
Temple of the False God -> Mystic Gate
GUB [Retired Primer] The Mimeoplasm BUG
Modern: UR Storm RU
Cube: WUBRG Pauper Cube GRBUW
Credit for the banner goes to DarkNightCavalier at Heroes of the Plane Studios
My Blog About It
The thing is, there are only 27 cards that are either instants or have flash, which is actually only about 43% of my nonland cards. Being able to play my general and the other 57% at instant speed is an awesome benefit of these cards. My deck wants to tap out as infrequently as possible so that I can always hold up countermagic or at least represent the illusion that I have it. Being able to play mana rocks, sweepers, and all my other cards at instant speed is a huge benefit to this plan. Casting Twilight Shepherd in response to a sweeper or Glen Elendra Archmage in response to a dangerous non-creature spell is so much more useful than having to run them out at sorcery speed. Instant speed sweepers or finishers like Baneslayer Angel and Ætherling are pretty awesome as well.
GUB [Retired Primer] The Mimeoplasm BUG
Modern: UR Storm RU
Cube: WUBRG Pauper Cube GRBUW
Credit for the banner goes to DarkNightCavalier at Heroes of the Plane Studios
Also made a few more changes:
Azorius Chancery -> Reliquary Tower
Azorius Guildgate -> Moorland Haunt
Mother of Runes -> Scout's Warning
Mother of Runes just didn't really work very well in this deck, since I rarely had more than one or two creatures in play at a time, and I have a lot of other ways to protect them, such as bouncing them back to my hand or just countering the removal spell. It's an awesome card overal, but I don't think it's a good fit here. As for the lands, just being able to eliminate a couple of ETB tapped lands is great. However, I'm feeling like I need to reduce my number of colorless lands by one, since this deck can be fairly color intensive at times. I also think I want to get my overall land count back to 38, since hitting all of my land drops for as many turns as possible is something that this deck really wants to do.
GUB [Retired Primer] The Mimeoplasm BUG
Modern: UR Storm RU
Cube: WUBRG Pauper Cube GRBUW
Credit for the banner goes to DarkNightCavalier at Heroes of the Plane Studios
Time Stop -> Draining Whelk
Rewind -> Hinder
Vedalken Orrery -> Trading Post
I think this deck only has room for one counter at six mana, and Draining Whelk fits better overall than Time Stop, since it cantrips off of Ephara and gives me a nice body to get in some beats with afterward. Also, bouncing back to my hand to counter something else later is really awesome. Hinder seems like a strict upgrade to Rewind for this deck. Being able to tuck generals is really nice, and I don't really want to have to spend four mana on a counter, even if it does untap the lands afterwards. Lastly, Orrery hasn't seemed at all necessary, so I'm going to cut it in favor of a card which does a lot of nice things, and at the very least can give me chump blockers and draw cards.
I may end up cutting Leyline of Anticipation as well, but I am going to give it more time to prove itself since it is mainly just better than Orrery. Being an enchantment makes it harder to remove, and it can start the game on the battlefield if I have it in my opening hand, which is really powerful and lets me represent countermagic as early as turn two while still developing my own board.
I'm thinking about trying to fit a Brainstorm in here somewhere, particularly because it interacts so nicely with Terminus, but also just to have another way to draw some cards at instant speed. I'm still trying to decide what would be a good cut right now.
The biggest issue I have with this deck right now is a lack of good finishers. Ætherling is a good one, and Baneslayer Angel is pretty solid as well, but in a 100 card deck, I need more than two ways to close people out, and a few more efficient threats would be excellent. I am definitely taking suggestions as to what these could be.
GUB [Retired Primer] The Mimeoplasm BUG
Modern: UR Storm RU
Cube: WUBRG Pauper Cube GRBUW
Credit for the banner goes to DarkNightCavalier at Heroes of the Plane Studios
Saving Grasp is cool because it has a cheap mana cost, but the effect is pretty weak, and it's very conditional. It also just isn't that powerful. There are so many more options that just have a bigger effect.
I've got a copy of Land Tax on the way, so I need to cut a card and add that in. I'm kind of hesitant to reduce my creature count, but Saltskitter seems like the weakest card to me. It's pretty good if it gets going and my opponents are playing a lot of creatures, but I have to cast it at sorcery speed on my own turn, and it's extremely underwhelming outside of the ability to get more draws off of Ephara.
GUB [Retired Primer] The Mimeoplasm BUG
Modern: UR Storm RU
Cube: WUBRG Pauper Cube GRBUW
Credit for the banner goes to DarkNightCavalier at Heroes of the Plane Studios
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, Radha, Heir to Keld, Barrin, Master Wizard, Prime Speaker Zegana, King Macar, the Gold-Cursed, Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer, Patron of the Orochi, Nicol Bolas, Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind, Hanna, Ship's Navigator, Marton Stromgald, Thriss, Nantuko Primus, Cromat, Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter
It definitely seems like a card I should try to fit in somewhere. It's not as reliable as Sacred Mesa and it will definitely make me a target, but the fact that it makes such large bodies and still triggers my draws off of Ephara means that it should be worth it most of the time. Definitely a card that I will add to mu wishlist and pick up when I have a chance.
GUB [Retired Primer] The Mimeoplasm BUG
Modern: UR Storm RU
Cube: WUBRG Pauper Cube GRBUW
Credit for the banner goes to DarkNightCavalier at Heroes of the Plane Studios
-Erratic Portal seems worth having, especially if you already have its cousin Crystal Shard in here.
-Galepowder Mage? He's a classic flicker guy and is neat if you don't have a guy to cast or want to save a flash guy for a trick.
-Lavina of the Tenth isn't a bad dude to have access to, despite not having flash. Pro-Red can be a handy piece of evasion to have around.
-Ghostly Flicker. So much amazing.
-Equilibrium seems pretty cool here if you go deeper into the flash thing.
-I hate saying it... but Deadeye Navigator?
One thing I'm noticing is that you've chosen to go style over substance. There's a lot of synergy here, but very little effectiveness. Stuff like Deputy and Pestermite are cool and everything, but they're not *doing* anything other than be cute with Ephara. Someone else is just gonna flip Avenger of Zendikar and something else scary off of a Maelstrom Wanderer and look at you awkwardly. You have no brute force, just cute synergies. Stuff like Sun Quan, Lord of Wu, Venser, the Sojourner, Galepowder Mage, Luminarch Ascension, and Akroma/Elesh Norn/Avacyn would give you some more ability to punch above your weight while also not being terrible cards for your theme (they're either all guys or flicker stuff).
Your other option is to leverage your prodigious card draw into a combo win. Archeomancer + Palinchron/Peregrine Drake/Great Whale + Ghostly Flicker is infinite ETBs for anything and infinite mana. I feel like you can do something there, even if it is *absurdly* boring. Rasputin Dreamweaver instead of the untappers isn't infinite but provides you stupid amounts of colorless mana (5 colorless mana per blue mana). If you run a bad card like Gemstone Array you can make infinite colored mana by bending the colorless mana into whatever you want.
Just some thoughts.
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, Radha, Heir to Keld, Barrin, Master Wizard, Prime Speaker Zegana, King Macar, the Gold-Cursed, Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer, Patron of the Orochi, Nicol Bolas, Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind, Hanna, Ship's Navigator, Marton Stromgald, Thriss, Nantuko Primus, Cromat, Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter
Erraric Portal seems good enough if I can find a slot for it. I want to keep my creature count high enough so that I can reliably trigger Ephara, so I don't want to end up cutting too many creatures for noncreatures. As far as Ghostly Flicker and Galepowder Mage, I am not really going for a flicker type deck, as that's a strategy I already see quite a bit of in my playgroup. I'm fine with bouncing stuff back to my hand and playing it again, but I just find the flicker effects to be very boring, and I am hesitant to run them. That's the reason why Deadeye Navigator is not in here. I'm sure it would be very good, but it's one of my absolute most hated cards in the format and I try to avoid playing it at all costs. Also I don't want to be running a ton of creatures that force me to tap 8 mana on my own turn, since I always want to be leaving up mana to do things during other players turns. Lavinia doesn't seem good enough to me without playing a lot of flicker effects. She costs 5 mana on my own turn, and doesn't advance me very far towards winning the game. I guess she's good against aggro decks and token swarms, but I have several wrath effects already, and I don't think there are enough really aggressive decks in my playgroup to warrant her inclusion. Equilibrium is potentially nice because it can also bounce opposing creatures much more easily than Erratic Portal or Crystal Shard, but it is a bit more conditional in terms of ability to bounce my own creatures. Do you like Equilibrium or Erratic Portal better?
Deputy and Pestermite are definitely things that should be removed, but as I mentioned earlier, I want to keep my creature count high enough that I can trigger Ephara reliably. I think switching Deputy for Whitemane Lion would be a pretty good switch since the Lion can bounce itself to give me some extra draws for the low price of just two mana. I definitely hear what you are saying about the lack of brute force. It's definitely a problem I have been having with my decks: As I have tried to make them more efficient, they have lost some of their raw power in exchange for a lower mana curve and more utilitarian spells. I think there's a good balance to be found, and while many EDH players seem to end up too far onto the brute force side, I think I'm too far onto the efficiency side. Venser seems okay, but I don't usually generate a huge board presence, so I'm not sure how much damage he will really be able to push through. His flicker ability is alright, and I feel like he's the kind of card I can add to my deck and utilize for flickering without turning it into a flicker deck, but I don't know if he would make the cut over some of your other suggestions. Luminarch Ascension we discussed previously, and I agree that it would be a really great addition. I'm not sure I like Sun Quan because, as I said, my deck usually doesn't generate a large board presence, and just pushing through four unblockable damage per turn isn't so great for 6 mana. Avacyn and Elesh Norn are both fantastic bombs as usual, but their price tags are definitely getting up there, so I will have to do a little bit of searching, particularly with Elesh Norn.
The combo option is not one that I love, but it might be nice to have one combo that I can dig up if I need to finish the game. I was thinking of trying to include Sphinx's Revelation in this deck somewhere, but maybe Blue Sun's Zenith would be a better choice if I go the infinite mana route since I can use it to just mill everyone out and win that way.
GUB [Retired Primer] The Mimeoplasm BUG
Modern: UR Storm RU
Cube: WUBRG Pauper Cube GRBUW
Credit for the banner goes to DarkNightCavalier at Heroes of the Plane Studios
I prefer Equilibrium, it's more interesting and probably better than Portal.
While I share your distaste for Deadeye, it really *is* a great card. Probably too good, but still. It lets you draw a card off Ephara every turn and probably get value besides. It's worth having, sadly. He's expensive and hated, but he's a cannon and you need the firepower he brings.
Ghostly Flicker *is* primarily a flicker card and I get not wanting to go deep on flicker, but that being said, it's also just good enough with Archeomancer to warrant a slot anyway. Combined with other effects it's just great. I really recommend trying it out. With Venser and Archeomancer it becomes "2U: Counter a spell/bounce a permanent.", which is pretty damn good. It resets Draining Whelk and Glen Elendra Archmage, draws a million cards with Mulldrifter, ramps with Solemn, reassigns Phyrexian Metamorph, untaps Trading Post and Strionic Resonator, acts as recursion with Sun Titan, is grave hate with Stonecloaker, and saves you from overwhelming alpha strikes with Seht's Tiger. You run so many ETBs that Ghostly Flicker is just worth it. I get not wanting to go flicker, but this one is worth it, I promise you. That it does obnoxious stuff with Archeomancer is just gravy.
Galepowder and Venser I can see skipping. Just thought I'd recommend them because they're solid dudes.
Sun Quan I actually think you should look at a little closer. While he isn't super amazing, he does let your dorks get through anything and lets you burn people down pretty fast. He breaks stalemates, which is really nice and I have this feeling that you'll be able to fight people to stalemates pretty well. The idea of having these big bombs is to break stales, right? Sun Quan does that better than almost anything else you could have. Venser does too, but less well (save for getting the ultimate, which is *nuts* but unreliable).
USZ is a nice option, yeah. I personally prefer Sphinx's Rev though. If you include Ghostly Flicker (no seriously, do that) and run with the Archeomancer mana loop you can then flicker through your deck with a card drawer (Mulldrifer, etc), find Venser the guy, and boomerang everyone's everything, along with countering everything everyone ever plays again, making the game over by default. USZ is pretty irrelevant here, since while it does kill everyone, so does preventing anyone from ever having anything. Sphinx's Rev on the other hand is a good mid-game play when you just need a fresh hand and some life to stave off the early beats.
A few random thoughts I've just had:
-Try out Rout and Fated Retribution instead of Wrath and Verdict? They're more expensive, but let you play the flash game well. Rout is well costed for just being a Wrath so shouldn't be an issue and you don't run any walkers so Retribution doesn't cost you anything and is quite the surprise for Superfriends decks, who hate to see it.
-Jace, the Mind Sculptor? He's stupid pricey, but if you've got one laying around, he's undeniably powerful. Also, Jace, AoT isn't half bad either and is cheap right now thanks to the Duel Deck that just came out.
-On the planeswalker thing, you've got access to Elspeth and Tezzeret 1. I don't like Elspeth 1 here, because she doesn't do anything you care about. Elspeth 3 is decent though, her wrath effect is pretty nice and she can help you win through her emblem and dudes. You also have a good number of artifacts, making Tezz a thought. You could include a few equipments (Swords? Jitte?) and Tezz as a package. He also untaps Strionic, your many rocks, and Trading Post, which seems alright. Not sure about him though.
-Keep Saltskitter! He's so awesome! Loving the Saltskitter tech.
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, Radha, Heir to Keld, Barrin, Master Wizard, Prime Speaker Zegana, King Macar, the Gold-Cursed, Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer, Patron of the Orochi, Nicol Bolas, Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind, Hanna, Ship's Navigator, Marton Stromgald, Thriss, Nantuko Primus, Cromat, Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter
Karmic Guide is good recursion when you're playing all of those blink effects in your deck. It's obviously bad when you have Rest in Peace in play, but still a card that is worth considering.
Deputy of Acquittals -> Whitemane Lion
Twilight Shepherd -> Dust Elemental
GUB [Retired Primer] The Mimeoplasm BUG
Modern: UR Storm RU
Cube: WUBRG Pauper Cube GRBUW
Credit for the banner goes to DarkNightCavalier at Heroes of the Plane Studios
-Academy Rector
-Omniscience
-Mystical Tutor and Long-Term Plans
-Enter the Infinite
I think that Ephara might be my ticket to living the dream: since she draws so many cards I should be able to assemble it decently well (getting the mana is tougher though). It'll only go off once and be completely worth the stunned looks. Not sure how to win off of it, but I'll figure something out. Just swing out with all the dudes/cast all the things? Who knows? Should be worth a laugh, thought you'd giggle at it.
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, Radha, Heir to Keld, Barrin, Master Wizard, Prime Speaker Zegana, King Macar, the Gold-Cursed, Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer, Patron of the Orochi, Nicol Bolas, Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind, Hanna, Ship's Navigator, Marton Stromgald, Thriss, Nantuko Primus, Cromat, Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter
Yeah that is a pretty sick package. We don't really have a consistent way to find Academy Rector of to kill it though, so we may not be able to use it very reliably.
GUB [Retired Primer] The Mimeoplasm BUG
Modern: UR Storm RU
Cube: WUBRG Pauper Cube GRBUW
Credit for the banner goes to DarkNightCavalier at Heroes of the Plane Studios
RKumano, Machine Gun YamabushiR
It played True Conviction which adds a lot to devotion is turns small creatures into big beaters.
Dust Elemental was a huge beating when combined with wraths.
He also had a miracles Scroll Rack theme.
In the end though I lost to a cyclonic rift and an extremely lucky Temporal Mastery.
GWUBAtraxa, Praetor's Voice PrimerGWUB
GWURoon Bant Blink WhateverGWU
BRGLord Windgrace LandsBRG
I'm actually not sure that I want to get my devotion up to seven because it makes Ephara much easier to kill. As an enchantment she's really hard to get rid of, but when she becomes a creature, she is vulnerable to Path to Exile, Swords to Plowshares, or even worse, something like Spin into Myth. I just added in Dust Elemental, but I haven't had a chance to try it out yet, seems awesome though. I do like the idea of a miracles sub-theme. Being able to flip them and cast them at instant speed, even when they are sorceries, is really nice. Brainstorm is a another card that I need to fit in here that works really well with Miracles, and Entreat the Angels would be another good win condition.
GUB [Retired Primer] The Mimeoplasm BUG
Modern: UR Storm RU
Cube: WUBRG Pauper Cube GRBUW
Credit for the banner goes to DarkNightCavalier at Heroes of the Plane Studios
If your meta is full of exiling and tucking removal then maybe getting devotion isn't the best thing ever. I think its a risk worth taking though. People are running more Return to Dusts and Deglamers then ever these days anyway. Personally I've switched from all destroy removal whenever possible due to Theros gods and there are more to come. Having her as a beater is just another way to create board and try and win.
The miracles thing was pretty good. He went all in and even had Banishing Stroke, which I'm not sure is the best idea. It was quite annoying to loose my general though.
GWUBAtraxa, Praetor's Voice PrimerGWUB
GWURoon Bant Blink WhateverGWU
BRGLord Windgrace LandsBRG