With Nimbus Maze, you might be getting to a critical mass of colorless sources to go with Eldrazi Displacer. It'd be like playing with Roon, except you don't have to lose 5cc worth of tempo and cross your fingers hoping to untap with it.
Oh because of all the fetches and land tax and duals I have always run nimbus maze. Sadly I am still way away from displacer mana because most of my mana rocks are colored mana only.
I'd need to add something like 5-6 more sources I think to be reliable.
I tried to avoid severe breaks of theme like Eldrazi or Phyrexians, so I conciously omitted some gameplay-wise optimal choices, but I'm quite satisfied with the state of the deck.
Yeah sadly that's just not enough, and I can't give up the mana colors either. Deck is already pretty greedy for pips.
I've done a lot of pondering about it but just don't think displacer is worth what has to be done to the manabase. To get 5 more colorless sources is asking a lot, esp. when we want to make UW on turn 3 every game and eventually both UUU and WW, and lots of UW spells.
I may just slot it in someday and see if it works. There're a lot of incidental ways to fish out lands or rocks in the deck.
1) Very interesting equipment package. No stoneforge seems like probably an oversight to me. Also interested in some of the more fringe stuff like dowsing dagger and conqueror's flail. Flail seems pretty decent. Not sure about dagger.
2) Pretty enchantment heavy, particularly from the removal perspective. I think you may want to consider some of the better removal spells (esp. Return to Dust). As cool as those things are with sun titan they give your opponents a lot of angles to attack from (particularly Imprisoned in the Moon).
3) How as Bishop of Rebirth been? That seems pretty solid to me but never really had room at 5 to give it an honest shake.
4) Probably my biggest recommendation would be to explore the Ramp section of the primer. Stormscape Familiar is very good. You could probably stand a few more pieces of ramp, especially the creature ones.
Deck looks very solid, and mostly am picking at nits
Most of my not obvious choices are pretty much personal preference. I tend to have a mindset for a deck that I prioritize over absolute best choices. In case of Ephara, I just wanted to build her a bit fort/tax-ish.
My ramp package is not really finished. Most importantly I want to add a Land Tax, but I'd prefer the judge version, that is a bit pricey. I'm not too restricted by budget, but I'm upgrading over time (that's also why I run no Stoneforge Mystic yet, just didn't get one so far)
I added the Bishop as a backup Sun Titan, but since I don't get nearly as much playtime as I'd like these days, I haven't much of a record for him so far (same with Dowsing Dagger).
So overall this set appears to be a complete bummer for Ephara. On the flipside it's a huge win for my other main deck (Gitrog Monster) so that should be fun. The set is focused on lands and that's not really a major theme for me, and the creatures are somewhat derpy and tribal focused which tends to be bad for me since I'm interested in playing goodstuff creatures--it seems common for sets with tribal synergies to have weaker individual creatures. Furthermore, none of the tribes seem centered in Azorius colors so there aren't a lot of multicolored cards in that scheme which is another gap for us.
Anyway, here's a quick run through of cards I think have some potential.
The Immortal Sun
It's treasure mageable, it's tutorable pretty easily, and it's a powerful effect that anthems our creatures. I don't think I'd play it unless I wanted to run a treasure mage but if so it's pretty strong. Planeswalkers are often an issue in EDH these days, surprisingly, and we can live without ours.
Expel from Orazca
This card is a pretty playable removal spell I guess if you are running a lot of them, but I would not touch it in my build. Much worse than Unexpectedly absent, but probably better than Reality Shift for the most part. We'll almost always hit city's blessing.
Nezahal, Primal Tide
This card is actually deceptively strong I think in a multiplayer game. I think it's reasonable to consider if you play slightly more ramp than me, since the slow blink effect is quite strong in Ephara, and it's got multiple powerful effects and a reasonable body. It's probably really strong in a deck wanting to play cards like Emeria Shepherd, and more reanimator effects, as it strongly enables that theme by chucking cards in your yard at little cost, behaving somewhat like an open discard outlet.
I'd think of it kind of as a cross between consecrated sphinx and aetherling, which is really strong in this deck. I will most likely try cutting Aetherling for it for a while if I ever get into playing a lot more again.
Timestream Navigator
With recruiter of the guard searching for this guy, there're a lot of sequences that end to infinite turns (cloudstone curio + recruiter + lightning greaves, venser + greaves + recruiter).
I expect I will try this card because it's cheap, decent value on its own, and has a lot of ways to end in infinite turns. It's kind of the low opportunity cost infinite combo this deck wants I think, on an independently fairly powerful card. If I had a pick for best Ephara card of the set it's probably this.
On top of all that it's recurrable by titan and reveillark. Evoking a reveillark late game will often end in an infinite combo (since lark getting this + recruiter is so close to assembling victory).
I'm pretty excited about this card, far more the more I think about it. I don't normally run infinite combos, but for the most part infinite creature combos are somewhat derpy in this color scheme.
Honorable mention for being a really strong human tribal card you could play, and its funny wombo with Elesh Norn where it kills something every time it attacks. I think it's worth considering as a funsy card or if you're trying to play humans for some reason. I like the card design a lot, but what I've found is that "on attack" triggers are somewhat weak. It is a hilarius way to kill an opposing elesh norn in an elesh norn duel, which happens a disturbing amount for me
Sadly literally nothing from White makes even the considering list.
I picked up a foil mimic vat, giving some thought to squeezing that and timestream navigator in, since there're just so many ways to set that up.
I'm not sure if vat is really the right way, probably mistmeadow witch or eldrazi displacer is better. I also got a foil eldrazi displacer in case that's the right way to go.
Anyone have any thoughts on TS navigator? Too cute?
I'm thinking mistmeadow witch might be the right card, since you can just chain into the entire combo with recruiter;
recruiter -> witch -> blink -> timestream -> gg.
Doesn't even cost all that much mana (3+6+6) and can be split up.
Way, way too cute. Besides, we already looked at Séance for a card that brings stuff out of the yard, and it does its thing much MUCH better for us than Mimic Vat.
Displacer definitely seems like the way to go blink-wise.
Ehhh, are you sure that recruiter for witch, blink for navigator is too cute? that feels like a fairly straightforward way to win the game to me. Pretty small cost since Witch is independently fairly strong and navigator can be played for value and reveillarked back (hell the entire combo can be larked back in one go pretty much).
I think I'll give it a try with just witch and navigator and think about vat later perhaps. Vat being tutorable with trophy mage seems reasonable.
Another thing is that recruiter + navigator + cloudstone curio wins the game (play navigator, bounce recruiter, win) a significant portion of the time too (though requires a turn of setup without haste enabler).
Most of that other stuff is not really tutorable or requires multiple turns of setup. But witch and recruiter and venser and curio are all fetchable with multiple angles pretty much.
I think Luminarch is worth considering but I think it makes you more public enemy #1 for the most part, dunno though. I never had much luck with it.
I still think it's not worth it for several reasons:
1. Too much of your reasoning lately has been around Recruiter. Granted, the card is ridiculous, but what if someone takes care of it? Navigator and Witch are very underwhelming by themselves, and it's still a 3 card combo in a deck with few tutors.
2. As funny as it sounds, I'm not sure infinite turns can be all that effective for us.
When I considered slotting in Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur, I did the math and I'd need 8 turns to kill someone with him. In 8 turns I'd end up drawing 56 cards with his effect, not to mention 8 more cards from draw step and possibly much more cards from Ephara. In short, I'd be statistically more likely to kill myself with this card before taking anyone else out.
I'd argue the same about your combo. True, it does bring us infinite turns, but what will they bring us? 3+6+6 mana per turn to execute the combo is a LOT, even if you can split it up the first time, so you won't be casting much spells. The only creature that will stay on the battlefield will be Mistmeadow Witch, a measely 1/1, so they don't give you a way to close out with damage - even if you combine their devotion to white and blue it's not enough to animate Ephara and make her dance.
So what will you end up doing in all those extra turns? Drawing two cards per turn is what. It's pretty nice, but not enough to win with in my opinion.
Once you have the pieces on the board the mana cost is only 10 (activate nav = 4, activate witch = 4, play nav = 2, so 10). ** See below this actually requires a flash or haste enabler unfortunately since witch is a slow blink**
With infinite turns I can guarantee a table kill by any number of means. Just playing all my creatures and then casting elesh norn will do it. You'll go up one mana every 1.5 turns out of 35 or so turns; by turn # 20 you should have at least 13ish free mana plus any mana rocks you've drawn.
I'll also draw Venser (or Lancers for recruiter), ultimate, and then exile everyone's permanents. And once venser is on the table the cost goes down to 6 since he blinks recruiter for free (assuming a haste enabler or teferi ofc). Or draw As Foretold or Aether vial or Nykthos which makes the whole mana thing meaningless, or sword of feast and famine.
Just a little bit of pondering will show that infinite turns is 100% of the time a guaranteed table kill;
* assume we have 70 cards left in library at time of activation and exactly the 10 mana needed to execute
* We will take 35 turns drawing 2 cards per turn
* We will play a land at least every 1.5 turns, but more than likely every turn because we have effects that can find lands
* By turn 15 of 35 we should have 10 extra mana, which guarantees at least 25 turns of 10 free mana to do what we please, which means casting creatures and / or making 3+ sacred mesa tokens a turn.
* There are numerous cards in the deck that guarantee a table kill (cloudstone curio + venser shaper, venser sojourner, elspeth, elesh norn, sacred mesa)
* Also do not forget we get an attack step and have a commander in there; we can just bang away at people with Ephara until they die.
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My worry is more that the lack of haste enablers makes it too hard to set up and that you will often need to just let navigator sit on the table by itself for a turn to win; but my thinking is that generally I am OK with a 2 mana investment to draw a card next upkeep. Much of the time it will be better/safer to get whitemane lion but in some games going for the jugular will be right.
Probably the time that makes sense to go for it is if you already have stoneforge mystic; so if you for example went recruiter -> witch,blink -> mystic -> greaves, that would be a great slow roll setup.
While the combo does hinge on Recruiter I think that's okay. We draw a lot of cards and lots of decks play two card combos. We only have to play one bad card so I think that's worth at least trying out.
Witch being a slow blink is also a bit of a wrench I hadn't been thinking about; it means the haste enabler is required to go off which is tough. From a sequencing perspective I think that might make witch not work -- you wind up having to get curio with trophy mage instead.
I'll need to think of the proper angle to deploy it in one turn; obviously stoneforge->lightning greaves fixes it but that's a little hinky to depend on.
Eldrazi Displacer obviously fixes it but it's not recruiterable. Nephalia Smuggler fixes it but it's quite a bit weaker than Witch in a vacuum.
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It's probable that mistmeadow witch is just an unnecessary complication, and the correct route is just:
Recruiter -> Trophy mage -> Cloudstone Curio -> Play any creature bounce recruiter -> Recruiter for navigator.
The setup loop costs 3+3+3+X+3+2, but generally does a lot of stuff we want to be doing and can be spread out over any number of turns as you have mana.
The combo loop then costs, starting with recruiter in hand and navigator on board:
Activate navigator (4)
Play recruiter (3)
Play navigator (2), bounce recruiter
Then each turn you repeat activating navigator, play recruiter from hand, play navigator to bounce recruiter.
So my thinking right now is I will just try that out. You can do extra loops with recruiter of course.
Okay, the Trophy Mage into Cloudstone Curio option sounds a lot better than trying to mess around with the Witch. Curio is also fetchable with Enlightened Tutor, and with your artifact count I'd consider running Inventors' Fair as another tutor. Fair can also help justify the inclusion of Displacer. All of these cards are good on their own (except for Navigator), and help us do what we want if the combo isn't in reach.
Another note, if we're in a ditch or we want to save Recruiter, we can tutor for Navigator with Muddle. If it seems to work that well for you, I'd consider slotting in Drift of Phantasms to look for Recruiter, since it's becoming so vitally important.
Yeah I think inventor's fair is good enough to be in the deck for sure, need to give some thought to how I make room for it. Might be a reasonable sub for Aether Vial tbh (which has been superbly lackluster recently).
I want to like drift but I think it's hard to justify unlike Muddle which is at least really good on its own (and gets cheaper cards). I think I would be inclined to try another card advantage generator before that.
Don't forget Fair can be fetched by Lancers.
So you can go either Lancers -> Fair -> Curio, or Recruiter -> Trophy -> Curio, OR Tutor -> Curio.
Also Recruiter -> Navigator, or Muddle -> Navigator.
Seems much more reliable as a combo plan.
As a combo player myself I can strongly recommend increasing tutor count, so you might even be looking at something like Long-term Plans or Ring of Three Wishes.
I don't play your list so I'm not sure what's best and what doesn't work, but personally I'd probably cut Ranger of Eos before Vial.
Remember ranger -> wayfarer -> fair haha. There're so many chains it's tough to remember them all.
I don't know that I'd ever cut ranger of eos, tutoring for mom + serra ascendant wins games that might otherwise be unwinnable. It's tough to feel until you've played it. I've seriously considered it a few times and every time I do I'll immediately blow a game out with ranger. It's hard to pack that much card advantage into one package in this deck. I've honestly considered playing that shrieking drake since the chain of ranger->drake->do all kinds of bs is pretty powerful.
Anyway, I'll let ya'll know when I get a few games with it.
My thinking is primarily that the combo should just be an incidental thing you can do to end a game suddenly, not a thing we focus on. this deck is primarily a midrange deck really and if the combo was the focus I'd probably play like Intuition and other powerful effects like that -- and maybe the Reveillark combo.
2/24/2018
I picked up a foil Timestream Navigator to try out as a combo outlet with Recruiter of the guard and cloudstone curio. I replaced the card that's been the worst for a while now (Grand Abolisher). I will update the main deck notes if Timestream turns out to be good.
I've had two games in a row where I could have easily won with Timestream infinite turns. The Curio loop happens surprisingly fast, and it's pretty easy to get lightning greaves to make it happen right away if needed. I really think this is going to be good, but we'll see. Even a value extra turn might be worthwhile now and then.
Merfolk Trickster
UU
Creature — Merfolk Wizard
2/2
Flash
When Merfolk Trickster enters the battlefield, tap target creature an opponent controls. It loses all abilities until end of turn.
Great way to deal with Indestructible.
Wizard's Retort
1UU
Instant
This spell costs 1 less to cast if you control a Wizard.
Counter target spell.
Naban, Dean of Iteration
1U
Legendary Creature — Human Wizard
2/1
If a Wizard entering the battlefield under your control causes a triggered ability of a permanent you control to trigger, that ability triggers an additional time.
Oath of Teferi
3WU
Legendary Enchantment
When Oath of Teferi enters the battlefield, exile another target permanent you control. Return it to the battlefield under its owner's control at the beginning of the next end step.
You may activate the loyalty abilities of planeswalkers you control twice each turn rather than only once.
This is definitely the most powerful of the Oaths, but unjustifiable if we only have 2 planeswalkers.
So if you went heavier on walkers it might be OK, but I think that's another deck.
Naban, however, is potentially really good. If there's much more wizard support it could easily become a staple, since trophy mage is a wizard -- it's a shame recruiter isn't haha
Interestingly, I think Naban makes wizards double trigger curio, which possibly opens up some loops I am not putting together. It definitely is absurdly strong with Venser. Being able to have venser just be reusable is very powerful (bounce himself and whatever).
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Speaking about Venser, I Think he is one of the most powerful cards in the deck lately. I've won several games recently with venser lockouts. One of them was my AS Foretold got to 4 and I had a cloudstone curio out -- this was nuts. I ended the game casting Venser every turn, returning Recruiter to my hand, and then recruitering for something and bouncing it again with Venser.
This was the second in a run of games that made me think that Timestream Navigator is playable; Curio loops are actually really easy to start.
I'm really hoping they sneak some more wizard support into Dominaria. It's borderline on whether Vedalken Aethermage might be really playable which is super exciting.
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And that reminds me that I wanted to talk a little about As Foretold. This card has let me win games I had no business winning, and I really like it. The mana advantage in this deck is great because we almost always have cheap cards to play--not all decks have as wide a curve, but we do. Most games I start taking advantage of it when it ticks to 2.
It's now a card I will readily Enlightened Tutor for because it's low key and generates something we struggle to get--mana advantage.
I'm looking forward to jamming some games tonight!!
Only got one game in tonight but it was dominant, despite both players largely working against me the entire game.
I lost my curio to return to dust early but was able to play keep-away with cyclonic rift and venser until I ultimatted Elspeth, then finished the game with 3 turns in a row due to timestream navigator, lightning greaves, and phyrexian metamorph. I had a pretty hard lock with Elesh Norn + Elspeth emblem and multiple swords, but it ended instantly due to the turns.
I think Timestream might be the truth. It's a ridiculous topdeck a lot of the time, and one extra turn on a stick is usually plenty.
I didn't quite anticipate how busted it might be with clones. Like, it's pretty easy to set up 2-3 clones of timestream and just chain extra turns late in the game.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
On the way or already in the deck:
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
I'd need to add something like 5-6 more sources I think to be reliable.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
Your colorless lands are Ancient Tomb, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, Academy Ruins, Adarkar Wastes, Mystic Gate, Nimbus Maze, and possibly Strip Mine.
If you're looking for some good colorless lands, I suggest Moorland Haunt (worst of these), Reliquary Tower and Winding Canyons.
1 Ephara, God of the Polis
Creature
1 Boreas Charger
1 Clever Impersonator
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Stunt Double
1 Spark Double
1 Fatespinner
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Mother of Runes
1 Recruiter of the Guard
1 Soulherder
1 Voidmage Husher
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
1 Meddling Mage
1 Leonin Relic-Warder
1 Grand Abolisher
1 Deputy of Acquittals
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Daxos of Meletis
1 Containment Priest
1 Knight of the White Orchid
1 Reflector Mage
1 Whitemane Lion
1 Spell Queller
1 Faerie Artisans
1 Trophy Mage
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Portal Mage
1 Hushwing Gryff
1 Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle
1 Remorseful Cleric
1 Lavinia, Azorius Renegade
1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
1 Stonecloaker
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Restoration Angel
1 Thalia's Lancers
1 Deadeye Navigator
1 Sun Titan
1 Leyline of Anticipation
1 Sacred Mesa
1 As Foretold
1 Land Tax
1 Spirit of the Labyrinth
Land
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Tolaria West
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Temple of Enlightenment
1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Prairie Stream
1 Port Town
1 Nimbus Maze
12 Island
13 Plains
1 Sea of Clouds
1 Hall of Heliod's Generosity
Artifact
1 Talisman of Progress
1 Aether Vial
1 Vedalken Shackles
1 Azorius Signet
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Sol Ring
1 Pearl Medallion
1 Thought Vessel
1 Cloudstone Curio
1 Conqueror's Flail
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Sinew and Steel
1 Walking Atlas
1 Dusk // Dawn
1 Terminus
1 Time Wipe
Planeswalker
1 Venser, the Sojourner
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
I tried to avoid severe breaks of theme like Eldrazi or Phyrexians, so I conciously omitted some gameplay-wise optimal choices, but I'm quite satisfied with the state of the deck.
W(W/U)U Ephara - Flash & Taxes W(W/U)U || B(B/G)G Meren - Circle of Life B(B/G)G
RGW Marath - Ever shifting Wilds RGW || (U/R)C(W/B) Breya - Artificial Dominion (U/R)C(W/B)
UBR Becket Brass - take what you can, give nothing back UBR
Yeah sadly that's just not enough, and I can't give up the mana colors either. Deck is already pretty greedy for pips.
I've done a lot of pondering about it but just don't think displacer is worth what has to be done to the manabase. To get 5 more colorless sources is asking a lot, esp. when we want to make UW on turn 3 every game and eventually both UUU and WW, and lots of UW spells.
I may just slot it in someday and see if it works. There're a lot of incidental ways to fish out lands or rocks in the deck.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
1) Very interesting equipment package. No stoneforge seems like probably an oversight to me. Also interested in some of the more fringe stuff like dowsing dagger and conqueror's flail. Flail seems pretty decent. Not sure about dagger.
2) Pretty enchantment heavy, particularly from the removal perspective. I think you may want to consider some of the better removal spells (esp. Return to Dust). As cool as those things are with sun titan they give your opponents a lot of angles to attack from (particularly Imprisoned in the Moon).
3) How as Bishop of Rebirth been? That seems pretty solid to me but never really had room at 5 to give it an honest shake.
4) Probably my biggest recommendation would be to explore the Ramp section of the primer. Stormscape Familiar is very good. You could probably stand a few more pieces of ramp, especially the creature ones.
Deck looks very solid, and mostly am picking at nits
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
My ramp package is not really finished. Most importantly I want to add a Land Tax, but I'd prefer the judge version, that is a bit pricey. I'm not too restricted by budget, but I'm upgrading over time (that's also why I run no Stoneforge Mystic yet, just didn't get one so far)
I added the Bishop as a backup Sun Titan, but since I don't get nearly as much playtime as I'd like these days, I haven't much of a record for him so far (same with Dowsing Dagger).
W(W/U)U Ephara - Flash & Taxes W(W/U)U || B(B/G)G Meren - Circle of Life B(B/G)G
RGW Marath - Ever shifting Wilds RGW || (U/R)C(W/B) Breya - Artificial Dominion (U/R)C(W/B)
UBR Becket Brass - take what you can, give nothing back UBR
Probably not the best card to put in the deck, but you've got to admit that casting this in response to an enemy Rite of Replication or a Clone Legion or Krenko, Mob Boss or Ghave, Guru of Spores or Dark Depths combo is hilarious.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
So overall this set appears to be a complete bummer for Ephara. On the flipside it's a huge win for my other main deck (Gitrog Monster) so that should be fun. The set is focused on lands and that's not really a major theme for me, and the creatures are somewhat derpy and tribal focused which tends to be bad for me since I'm interested in playing goodstuff creatures--it seems common for sets with tribal synergies to have weaker individual creatures. Furthermore, none of the tribes seem centered in Azorius colors so there aren't a lot of multicolored cards in that scheme which is another gap for us.
Anyway, here's a quick run through of cards I think have some potential.
The Immortal Sun
It's treasure mageable, it's tutorable pretty easily, and it's a powerful effect that anthems our creatures. I don't think I'd play it unless I wanted to run a treasure mage but if so it's pretty strong. Planeswalkers are often an issue in EDH these days, surprisingly, and we can live without ours.
Expel from Orazca
This card is a pretty playable removal spell I guess if you are running a lot of them, but I would not touch it in my build. Much worse than Unexpectedly absent, but probably better than Reality Shift for the most part. We'll almost always hit city's blessing.
Nezahal, Primal Tide
This card is actually deceptively strong I think in a multiplayer game. I think it's reasonable to consider if you play slightly more ramp than me, since the slow blink effect is quite strong in Ephara, and it's got multiple powerful effects and a reasonable body. It's probably really strong in a deck wanting to play cards like Emeria Shepherd, and more reanimator effects, as it strongly enables that theme by chucking cards in your yard at little cost, behaving somewhat like an open discard outlet.
I'd think of it kind of as a cross between consecrated sphinx and aetherling, which is really strong in this deck. I will most likely try cutting Aetherling for it for a while if I ever get into playing a lot more again.
Timestream Navigator
With recruiter of the guard searching for this guy, there're a lot of sequences that end to infinite turns (cloudstone curio + recruiter + lightning greaves, venser + greaves + recruiter).
I expect I will try this card because it's cheap, decent value on its own, and has a lot of ways to end in infinite turns. It's kind of the low opportunity cost infinite combo this deck wants I think, on an independently fairly powerful card. If I had a pick for best Ephara card of the set it's probably this.
On top of all that it's recurrable by titan and reveillark. Evoking a reveillark late game will often end in an infinite combo (since lark getting this + recruiter is so close to assembling victory).
I'm pretty excited about this card, far more the more I think about it. I don't normally run infinite combos, but for the most part infinite creature combos are somewhat derpy in this color scheme.
Warkite Marauder
Honorable mention for being a really strong human tribal card you could play, and its funny wombo with Elesh Norn where it kills something every time it attacks. I think it's worth considering as a funsy card or if you're trying to play humans for some reason. I like the card design a lot, but what I've found is that "on attack" triggers are somewhat weak. It is a hilarius way to kill an opposing elesh norn in an elesh norn duel, which happens a disturbing amount for me
Sadly literally nothing from White makes even the considering list.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
I'm not sure if vat is really the right way, probably mistmeadow witch or eldrazi displacer is better. I also got a foil eldrazi displacer in case that's the right way to go.
Anyone have any thoughts on TS navigator? Too cute?
I'm thinking mistmeadow witch might be the right card, since you can just chain into the entire combo with recruiter;
recruiter -> witch -> blink -> timestream -> gg.
Doesn't even cost all that much mana (3+6+6) and can be split up.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
Displacer definitely seems like the way to go blink-wise.
Win-condition wise, we can go for a Azor's Elocutors way of winning the game, something like Celestial Convergence or Darksteel Reactor or Felidar Sovereign or Test of Endurance perhaps, though I would sooner simply slot in Iona, Shield of Emeria and prevent them from playing while Iona beats them into the ground. Bribery is also much more valid than slotting in a bunch of dead cards.
I can also vouch for the effectiveness of Luminarch Ascension, also fetchable with MtM.
Celestial Colonnade can also put in an impressive amount of work.
My list has Rest in Peace slotted in as a staple, so Helm of Obedience could be a great combo, especially since we have Enlightened Tutor to search for both, or possibly Muddle the Mixture to find RIP.
I think I'll give it a try with just witch and navigator and think about vat later perhaps. Vat being tutorable with trophy mage seems reasonable.
Another thing is that recruiter + navigator + cloudstone curio wins the game (play navigator, bounce recruiter, win) a significant portion of the time too (though requires a turn of setup without haste enabler).
Most of that other stuff is not really tutorable or requires multiple turns of setup. But witch and recruiter and venser and curio are all fetchable with multiple angles pretty much.
I think Luminarch is worth considering but I think it makes you more public enemy #1 for the most part, dunno though. I never had much luck with it.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
1. Too much of your reasoning lately has been around Recruiter. Granted, the card is ridiculous, but what if someone takes care of it? Navigator and Witch are very underwhelming by themselves, and it's still a 3 card combo in a deck with few tutors.
2. As funny as it sounds, I'm not sure infinite turns can be all that effective for us.
When I considered slotting in Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur, I did the math and I'd need 8 turns to kill someone with him. In 8 turns I'd end up drawing 56 cards with his effect, not to mention 8 more cards from draw step and possibly much more cards from Ephara. In short, I'd be statistically more likely to kill myself with this card before taking anyone else out.
I'd argue the same about your combo. True, it does bring us infinite turns, but what will they bring us? 3+6+6 mana per turn to execute the combo is a LOT, even if you can split it up the first time, so you won't be casting much spells. The only creature that will stay on the battlefield will be Mistmeadow Witch, a measely 1/1, so they don't give you a way to close out with damage - even if you combine their devotion to white and blue it's not enough to animate Ephara and make her dance.
So what will you end up doing in all those extra turns? Drawing two cards per turn is what. It's pretty nice, but not enough to win with in my opinion.
With infinite turns I can guarantee a table kill by any number of means. Just playing all my creatures and then casting elesh norn will do it. You'll go up one mana every 1.5 turns out of 35 or so turns; by turn # 20 you should have at least 13ish free mana plus any mana rocks you've drawn.
I'll also draw Venser (or Lancers for recruiter), ultimate, and then exile everyone's permanents. And once venser is on the table the cost goes down to 6 since he blinks recruiter for free (assuming a haste enabler or teferi ofc). Or draw As Foretold or Aether vial or Nykthos which makes the whole mana thing meaningless, or sword of feast and famine.
Just a little bit of pondering will show that infinite turns is 100% of the time a guaranteed table kill;
* assume we have 70 cards left in library at time of activation and exactly the 10 mana needed to execute
* We will take 35 turns drawing 2 cards per turn
* We will play a land at least every 1.5 turns, but more than likely every turn because we have effects that can find lands
* By turn 15 of 35 we should have 10 extra mana, which guarantees at least 25 turns of 10 free mana to do what we please, which means casting creatures and / or making 3+ sacred mesa tokens a turn.
* There are numerous cards in the deck that guarantee a table kill (cloudstone curio + venser shaper, venser sojourner, elspeth, elesh norn, sacred mesa)
* Also do not forget we get an attack step and have a commander in there; we can just bang away at people with Ephara until they die.
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My worry is more that the lack of haste enablers makes it too hard to set up and that you will often need to just let navigator sit on the table by itself for a turn to win; but my thinking is that generally I am OK with a 2 mana investment to draw a card next upkeep. Much of the time it will be better/safer to get whitemane lion but in some games going for the jugular will be right.
Probably the time that makes sense to go for it is if you already have stoneforge mystic; so if you for example went recruiter -> witch,blink -> mystic -> greaves, that would be a great slow roll setup.
While the combo does hinge on Recruiter I think that's okay. We draw a lot of cards and lots of decks play two card combos. We only have to play one bad card so I think that's worth at least trying out.
Witch being a slow blink is also a bit of a wrench I hadn't been thinking about; it means the haste enabler is required to go off which is tough. From a sequencing perspective I think that might make witch not work -- you wind up having to get curio with trophy mage instead.
I'll need to think of the proper angle to deploy it in one turn; obviously stoneforge->lightning greaves fixes it but that's a little hinky to depend on.
Eldrazi Displacer obviously fixes it but it's not recruiterable. Nephalia Smuggler fixes it but it's quite a bit weaker than Witch in a vacuum.
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It's probable that mistmeadow witch is just an unnecessary complication, and the correct route is just:
Recruiter -> Trophy mage -> Cloudstone Curio -> Play any creature bounce recruiter -> Recruiter for navigator.
The setup loop costs 3+3+3+X+3+2, but generally does a lot of stuff we want to be doing and can be spread out over any number of turns as you have mana.
The combo loop then costs, starting with recruiter in hand and navigator on board:
Activate navigator (4)
Play recruiter (3)
Play navigator (2), bounce recruiter
Then each turn you repeat activating navigator, play recruiter from hand, play navigator to bounce recruiter.
So my thinking right now is I will just try that out. You can do extra loops with recruiter of course.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
Another note, if we're in a ditch or we want to save Recruiter, we can tutor for Navigator with Muddle. If it seems to work that well for you, I'd consider slotting in Drift of Phantasms to look for Recruiter, since it's becoming so vitally important.
I want to like drift but I think it's hard to justify unlike Muddle which is at least really good on its own (and gets cheaper cards). I think I would be inclined to try another card advantage generator before that.
Picked up a foil inventors' fair just in case
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
So you can go either Lancers -> Fair -> Curio, or Recruiter -> Trophy -> Curio, OR Tutor -> Curio.
Also Recruiter -> Navigator, or Muddle -> Navigator.
Seems much more reliable as a combo plan.
As a combo player myself I can strongly recommend increasing tutor count, so you might even be looking at something like Long-term Plans or Ring of Three Wishes.
I don't play your list so I'm not sure what's best and what doesn't work, but personally I'd probably cut Ranger of Eos before Vial.
I don't know that I'd ever cut ranger of eos, tutoring for mom + serra ascendant wins games that might otherwise be unwinnable. It's tough to feel until you've played it. I've seriously considered it a few times and every time I do I'll immediately blow a game out with ranger. It's hard to pack that much card advantage into one package in this deck. I've honestly considered playing that shrieking drake since the chain of ranger->drake->do all kinds of bs is pretty powerful.
Anyway, I'll let ya'll know when I get a few games with it.
My thinking is primarily that the combo should just be an incidental thing you can do to end a game suddenly, not a thing we focus on. this deck is primarily a midrange deck really and if the combo was the focus I'd probably play like Intuition and other powerful effects like that -- and maybe the Reveillark combo.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
I picked up a foil Timestream Navigator to try out as a combo outlet with Recruiter of the guard and cloudstone curio. I replaced the card that's been the worst for a while now (Grand Abolisher). I will update the main deck notes if Timestream turns out to be good.
I've had two games in a row where I could have easily won with Timestream infinite turns. The Curio loop happens surprisingly fast, and it's pretty easy to get lightning greaves to make it happen right away if needed. I really think this is going to be good, but we'll see. Even a value extra turn might be worthwhile now and then.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
UU
Creature — Merfolk Wizard
2/2
Flash
When Merfolk Trickster enters the battlefield, tap target creature an opponent controls. It loses all abilities until end of turn.
Great way to deal with Indestructible.
Wizard's Retort
1UU
Instant
This spell costs 1 less to cast if you control a Wizard.
Counter target spell.
Counterspell copy. Except it's actually counterspell.
Naban, Dean of Iteration
1U
Legendary Creature — Human Wizard
2/1
If a Wizard entering the battlefield under your control causes a triggered ability of a permanent you control to trigger, that ability triggers an additional time.
This is a flexible card, potentially bad but also very interesting. It goes well with my Silumgar Sorcerer, but mostly goes best with Venser, Shaper Savant, Snapcaster Mage, Vendilion Clique (if you have it), Trinket/Trophy.
Oath of Teferi
3WU
Legendary Enchantment
When Oath of Teferi enters the battlefield, exile another target permanent you control. Return it to the battlefield under its owner's control at the beginning of the next end step.
You may activate the loyalty abilities of planeswalkers you control twice each turn rather than only once.
This is definitely the most powerful of the Oaths, but unjustifiable if we only have 2 planeswalkers.
Naban, however, is potentially really good. If there's much more wizard support it could easily become a staple, since trophy mage is a wizard -- it's a shame recruiter isn't haha
Interestingly, I think Naban makes wizards double trigger curio, which possibly opens up some loops I am not putting together. It definitely is absurdly strong with Venser. Being able to have venser just be reusable is very powerful (bounce himself and whatever).
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Speaking about Venser, I Think he is one of the most powerful cards in the deck lately. I've won several games recently with venser lockouts. One of them was my AS Foretold got to 4 and I had a cloudstone curio out -- this was nuts. I ended the game casting Venser every turn, returning Recruiter to my hand, and then recruitering for something and bouncing it again with Venser.
This was the second in a run of games that made me think that Timestream Navigator is playable; Curio loops are actually really easy to start.
I'm really hoping they sneak some more wizard support into Dominaria. It's borderline on whether Vedalken Aethermage might be really playable which is super exciting.
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And that reminds me that I wanted to talk a little about As Foretold. This card has let me win games I had no business winning, and I really like it. The mana advantage in this deck is great because we almost always have cheap cards to play--not all decks have as wide a curve, but we do. Most games I start taking advantage of it when it ticks to 2.
It's now a card I will readily Enlightened Tutor for because it's low key and generates something we struggle to get--mana advantage.
I'm looking forward to jamming some games tonight!!
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
I lost my curio to return to dust early but was able to play keep-away with cyclonic rift and venser until I ultimatted Elspeth, then finished the game with 3 turns in a row due to timestream navigator, lightning greaves, and phyrexian metamorph. I had a pretty hard lock with Elesh Norn + Elspeth emblem and multiple swords, but it ended instantly due to the turns.
I think Timestream might be the truth. It's a ridiculous topdeck a lot of the time, and one extra turn on a stick is usually plenty.
I didn't quite anticipate how busted it might be with clones. Like, it's pretty easy to set up 2-3 clones of timestream and just chain extra turns late in the game.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall