So it came to my attention recently that I did not have Myriad Landscape in this deck. It's not an amazing card but it feels like a pretty serious gimme for a deck that is so mana hungry and so bad at ramping.
Because of its fetchableness, I think farmland probably needs to stay, but it has been pretty bad generally - Fair I am not in love with, and temple is a super hard cut because of the flavor (being Ephara's temple).
After those, I think nimbus maze is probably the worst land otherwise (given it can occasionally leave you mana screwed).
Tolaria West is another potential cut which is rather slow and often has to be played as an ETB tapped Island. this is probably the worst land overall I guess.
Anyone have thoughts? Am I mis-evaluating Landscape?
It actually seems fair. If you get an early Ring or crypt out it can bring out a T3 Ephara. It can also help fuel Emeria, as well as be pretty good with your Crucible.
Out of the lands you've mentioned there is no doubt I'd slot out Tolaria West. I feel like that card never really functions like a land and have been second guessing it myself. Though I am planning to slot out Inventors' Fair before that.
I don't think I'll slot this land in, though. I don't have Crypt to pop it early, or Crucible to bring it back. I have it in my soon-to-be Windgrace deck and it's bogus there, but it's not particularly amazing otherwise.
In general I think landscape will enable a few more keeps (e.g. plains+landscape+mana crypt is a bit less sketchy a keep than plains/island/crypt). Similarly, tithe, plains, landscape will get you to T4 Ephara at least.
But the main advantage I think is a bit of midgame mana acceleration when you have to keep mana up; keep a counter up and still ramp from 6-7 seems reasonable. for the cost of one tapland, since by the time we're there the game is most likely going to last the duration we want it to.
Update 1/29/2019
Cut Tolaria West for Myriad Landscape - just felt this would make my mana a little more consistent, and getting double plains is really powerful with Emeria.
I joined the changes together since I've not played any games in between but I also added body double in place of sakashima's student. Not 100% sure that's right but it's relatively easy because student is not available in foil
The mana efficiency of student can't be denied and it's quite powerful with Boreas Charger but I couldn't think of what else was right. It might be that Archaeomancer is worse but I want to give that card a shake at least as it always seems like it'd be good to me.
I lost because I went for the blasting station combo too early and became archenemy, BUT, the combo is very strong and it's fairly easy to assemble. Lesson learned: Slow roll a little As always. I don't know why I think I have a read on the table sometimes and just go for things, but eh, it's work night
Overall the deck is just really flowing very well. I am kinda questioning the whole equipment approach though, as the things I were playing against were going waaaaay over the top of equipment. So looking forward to thinking about some different ways to approach that.
I'm wondering if I might need a few more lifegain elements as I often lose to trickles of life in the end - things like getting blasted with Kokusho and a couple mana crypt hits and I'm often in the red mid game and have no way to recover. One of the reasons I really want to try Teferi's Protection but mine literally seems to have gotten lost in the frigging mail so still trying to recover it.
I'm wondering if I might need a few more lifegain elements as I often lose to trickles of life in the end - things like getting blasted with Kokusho and a couple mana crypt hits and I'm often in the red mid game and have no way to recover. One of the reasons I really want to try Teferi's Protection but mine literally seems to have gotten lost in the frigging mail so still trying to recover it.
I am not sure if it is too slow for your meta, but Resolute Archangel has done wonders for me. I remember one game where it gained me something like 80 life (I got it onto the field 3 times) and there have been other games where just resetting my life total once was the difference between winning and losing. It has been good for me due to life lost from Mana Crypt and Ancient Tomb as well as getting beat down in the early game.
Otherwise, I would agree on the Teferi's Protection so hopefully you can recover your lost card.
I actually have a foil resolute archangel I had set aside for considering that. The only challenge I have with it is there's really no way to find it except drawing into it which makes it fairly unreliable.
Historically I've used Jitte and SOLAS to handle this, but the 3 life a hit from sword was kinda meh.
Couple other options I've considered:
--dropping in a batterskull - it provides for a very slow way to trigger Ephara, protects itself, and is fairly tutorable.
--grabbing an Aegis of the Gods as a method of defending against targeted triggers (dragon decks seem to get me a lot with stuff like scourge of valkas).
--scouring for some good Recruiter of the Guard targets to gain a buncha life.
Auriok Champion may be strong enough to consider since at least it protects itself a bit better than the little soul sisters.
Sadly none of those approaches are quite as explosive as the archangel.
Meh, bit of food for thought I guess. I can also try to play better
The best I can figure for the Archangel, in terms of getting to it more consistently, is running Long-Term Plans. I don't know that you *should* use it but White/Blue has issues trying to get creatures so it is a real concern that you won't get to it when you need it.
Batterskull and Jitte seem the best options for what you have above. I used to have Jitte in Thassa for the life gain. I preferred it over Batterskull since it was cheaper and Thassa made things unblockable. I think Ephara would likely go towards Batterskull since, as you said, it works a bit better with her.
Oketra’s Last Mercy is the only other card I really see that would allow for mass life gain. Not being able to untap lands is likely too much of a drawback though.
I don't see anything that stands out as being a great tutor option for Recruiter (though I could have missed something).
I currently have Jitte, but I think I could work B-skull in somehow. Will ruminate on it. it's fat enough that it becomes a wincon when you slap it on like a Reveillark or something late game (or even a pegasus token).
It might be that Archangel of Thune is better than either as I consider it. She's a little slow but a little lifegain and the pump can dissuade attackers.
Think I will maybe just try to tighten up my game and try it as it is a few more times, honestly I nearly won a game of archenemy against some very good decks through lots of disruption so I don't think I should take that too hard.
(The way I lost is that before Blasting Station came off suspend with lark+guide+phantasmal lark on board, someone cast Living Death to essentially kingmake the dragons player who offed me with Scourge of Valkas triggers then immediately won, after the entire table was thrashing at my wall of larks for several turns).
My current list runs Solitary Confinement as a way to deal with damage - keep in mind it also mitigates Crypt life loss. The drawback of two cards is much more easily managed in our deck than that of Time Walking yourself.
I play with it in cube, and Batterskull is a beast. It's one of the best stabilizers out there. However, it's somewhat mana intensive, since you want to be able to protect it as soon as you play it.
I also thought of Knight-Captain of Eos since it's very cute with Mobilization or with blink tech. Honestly I really hope that the knight-captain is good enough, because I really feel like messing with that card.
Also reminding you that Peacekeeper is a card.
They're both only for combat, though, and it seems like your problem is with noncombat damage. A card that popped up into my head is Purity, though it's completely unusable.
Archangel of Thune is great if you already have lifegain in the rest of the deck. If you don't, it's just bad. Also I'm iffy on Teferi's Protection here. It's an insane card, but it can leave us in a bit of a pickle - if we were stuck in a spot where we had a massive board presence against us, my recommendation would be to dig for more cards, to try and find an answer. TP also locks us out of using our lands and makes Ephara nonexistent, so we can't interact with our opponents just as much as they can't interact with us. That's why I prefer Solitary Confinement in that role.
Yeah it's weird it's happened 3 times now that I got got (or nearly enough) by direct damage in recent memory - purphoros 1x, dragon bs 2x (once with scourge once with warstorm surge). Hushwing Gryff is a great answer to the dragon and purphoros stuff, and has been good.
I've also struggled a little with that Neheb deck, though I think that deck is just how it is--glass cannonny. When I had removal it was fine.
Peacekeeper I actually slotted out because combat wasn't getting me that much--my deck tends to present a fairly annoying attack surface. Sometimes I was getting slammed with haste creatures (Gishath is one I remember). Interestingly, Batterskull's big booty presents as a decent blocker with an equip, or a double block, etc.
Confinement seems really decent and something I'll really need to noodle on. It's really outside of archetype, but it is a very powerful way to close a game -- and furthermore is absurd with Sun Titan which is a common win condition for me. The foil is a bit annoyingly pricey but maybe I can pick one up at the GP here next month.
I made a few other acquisitions at GP Cle, and would love thoughts on a few of them I may want to play, but chiefly:
Topic 1
Got an FTV Mox Diamond, and I am pretty sure this deck should play it. I'm just not sure what to cut. I believe we could cut a land with tithe/boreas charger/etc. but I surely do not want to cut any business creatures and prefer not to go down any colored sources or plains, and prefer to keep the colorless count close, so that kinda makes it tough
As far as cards in the main deck, it is possible MD is better than Fellwar Stone in this deck but it's touch and go there. That's the only mana rock I could see cutting since it's inconsistent at making colors.
Topic 2
I have a pile of foils I acquired I am thinking of slotting in for the stoneforge package of Greaves/SFM/Sword, and they are below (assuming the teferi's protection THE SECOND ONE TO BE LOST IN THE FRIGGING MAIL ever gets here)
What do you guys think? Is that an insane plan? My thinking is that SFM/Sword/Greaves (and maybe one other card, helm of possession) perhaps which has underperformed for a bit, or possibly Flickerwisp (since I cut Vial it's much less powerful).
With the two buyback instants (capsize, forbid) and all the ways to repeatedly find instants now, I think Monastery Mentor is very likely to work as an endgame engine - it should be pretty easy to set up chains where you're making multiple monks a turn cycle, or at minimum one every main phase.
I have this feeling every time I read Sword that I am going to severely regret cutting it, but SFM has been very underwhelming for a while; I can usually find Jitte if I want it, and Sword has such a target on its back that I haven't had it survive a turn cycle in quite a while.
It's possible I should be considering some other finisher than Archangel, perhaps even something like Cathars' Crusade, but I'm really iffy on that.
I wouldn't cut a land for Mox Diamond, it reduces the playability of the card. Instead, I would relace Fellwar Stone with it like you said.
There is absolutely no reason to put Archangel of Thune in this deck. Lifegain isn't something we do often so it would end up a dead card. The same goes for Cathars' Crusade. Bribery is cute but it has no synergy with the rest of the deck, which is a bit boring. Monastery Mentor however is very solid. Tutorable and abusable, and good on its own even without evolving into a wincon. It reminds me of AEtherling in that regard.
Teferi's Protection is stupid. I have no idea why they printed that card but I love that they did. There is even a way to make it into a wincon: Balance. With balance on the stack, casting TP in response means that your stuff phases out before Balance sees them, making them have to sac all their lands and their creatures.
However, since EDH is a sane format, Balance is banned. However, there are similar effects we can use to similar effect! Restore Balance - tutorable with Tolaria West and Mystical Tutor, castable through As Foretold. This is probably the preferred choice. Balancing Act - even stronger than the original Balance, but much less tutorable. And it demands a bunch of mana to use. Magus of the Balance - slow, telegraphed, but tutorable, draws us a card, and can be recurred with matching engines like Teshar or Sun Titan.
I've already voiced my opinion on SOFAF, I would not get rid of that card. However I'd be ok with cutting greaves. Flickerwisp is a fine cut. I'd also recommend Body Double, Archaeomancer. SFM is possible since you only have 2 equipments without greaves.
I think because trophy mage and muddle and e-tutor I can get by without SFM, and I don't have batterskull to cheat in with it.
I think you are right about Mox Diamond - I'll probably try swapping it for fellwar stone and see what happens.
If i were to cut Sword, I would need another way to help close the game, but maybe it's right to leave it. Really hard to know. My thinking is that Archangel is pretty great at closing the game on its own - bash for 3, pump the entire team, etc.
Appreciate the input as always man. Maybe I'll try just working TP and Mentor and Mox in and go from there.
Sensei's divining top might be something I should think about working in with mentor too, something else to think about. Hmmmm.
I'd prefer a cheaper, consistent +1/+1 effect, than a more expensive pump effect that might possibly stack.
In that regard Spear of Heliod is better than any of your suggestions (even tutorable with Trophy Mage). In fact there's even Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, which is both a token producer and an unconditional +1/+1 for the rest of the game.
After thinking about it, if you're not using TP as a wincon, Solitary Confinement might again be better for you. It doesn't protect against as much stuff but it lasts for potentially much longer, and can be brought back by Sun Titan.
I think Gideon Ally might be a good way to go. I also like Ajani Steadfast since it gives a way to generate some lifegain while also presenting a mostly game locking emblem.
I think the big flaw with Archangel is probably that he has to wait a turn cycle to do anything for the most part.
Spear of Heliod is just not where I want to be - the ability is not unreasonable but it's not enough of a steamroller. Really we're looking for something that can make our creatures very good sized and threaten fairly quick lethal swings. Kind of Elesh Norn-esque.
It might be that playing another sword (Say, SOFAI) is right over any of the random anthems or even stoneforge, but I'm just fuzzy on that. I think I might need to jam a few more games before trying to make calls about that.
My top and teferi's protection got here, so I decided to make this whole round of changes. I really feel like this deck wants top, esp. with Mentor in there. I've really wanted more card selection and it's a relatively cheap way to do it.
I'm having a little debate with myself about trying to work a little more card selection in too - ponder and brainstorm, in particular - but I'm not sure those are right from a tempo perspective in this deck. Probably are, but I need to think about that one a bit longer.
Back when I first started playing this deck I cut top mostly because I just was too slow with it, but in general my pace of play has improved enough that I think I can bring it back.
I've been having a couple issues with Helm for a while now, primarily the sheer amount of mana required for it. It's super good, but since I have another sac outlet now that's quite searchable, I think it's less important. I also stopped running Peacekeeper which is one of the reasons I had helm.
I still think it's quite good but I've run into scenarios many times where I did not want to sacrifice anything to it, or didn't want to commit the amount of mana. I think it may have been more critical when I was running less removal overall.
With Top in the deck you absolutely need to get Trinket Mage in the deck. It fetches you some 4 cards, even more than Trophy.
With Trinket there's one card that's considered a wincon, but it's really bad mannered - Elixir of Immortality. Since it shuffles our library back the only thing we have to do is wait for our opponents to mill themselves out. Though this strat doesn't work if they have an Eldrazi titan of some kind.
There's also Altar of the Brood which is another combo with Reveillark, a clone and a sac outlet.
Another thing is to build on the Top and add in Terminus, along with maybe Scroll Rack.
Generally speaking, Cyclonic Rift and maybe Evacuation are my preferred methods of non-destruction sweepers in this deck because of the amount of recursion available to us. I'll noodle on that though, as I coincidentally also have a couple foil Terminus sitting around from when I played Legacy Miracles
Trinket mage makes me wonder about possibly getting a Hangarback walker, as well.
I'm gonna make myself jam a few games before making any more serious changes. I did pick up an invocation Opposition which I'm giving some thought to trying out as a wincon, as this deck is very good at flooding the board with crappy creatures.
We could utilize Trinket to slot in a Deadeye Navigator + Palinchron + Walking Ballista combo. In fact, we could replace Deadeye with Eldrazi Displacer to much the same effect. In fact, if we count on having Ancient Tomb we could even get away with swapping Palinchron for Cloud of Faeries.
By extension, having tons of mana could also lead to Venser, Shaper Savant blink loops where we slowly bounce their board into their hand then win from there.
Slotting in Drift of Phantasms could help tutor for it, plus it tutors for a bunch of other stuff we often need.
If you still want more wincons, just slot Luminarch Ascension back in and start beating face
Opposition is an interesting card. I tinkered with it when I had more token generators, but I was disappointed. It's really only useful if you have a cheap token engine, and even then it's easily outclassed - for example it did nothing versus the enemy Krenko, Mob Boss, which could virtually ignore it as he would use his ability in response and outscale me beyond anything my mana could achieve.
It depends heavily on your meta, but it could be serviceable. I wouldn't see it as a wincon on its own, though.
Yeah I have definitely been considering Luminarch Ascension more of late, I tend to want the game ground to a halt.
Ancient Tomb pings you for 2 so going infinite with it doesn't work unfortunately, but Nykthos works pretty easily - it's even feasible to make displacer+cloud of faeries go off with Nykthos I think.
But I'm gonna just chill for a while I think, try to play some more games. I need to get out on a Friday where I have more time to play one of these days.
I think that Cloud of Faeries could be a really reasonable inclusion actually, I hadn't really considered that it would go infinite with Nykthos, a colorless source, and Eldrazi Displacer as long as Nykthos is +4.
I don't want to start down that slippery slope of too many combo pieces though at this point.
My thinking right now is Temple of enlightenment is a potential cut, but I'm also considering Inventors' Fair or Irrigated Farmland.
Because of its fetchableness, I think farmland probably needs to stay, but it has been pretty bad generally - Fair I am not in love with, and temple is a super hard cut because of the flavor (being Ephara's temple).
After those, I think nimbus maze is probably the worst land otherwise (given it can occasionally leave you mana screwed).
Tolaria West is another potential cut which is rather slow and often has to be played as an ETB tapped Island. this is probably the worst land overall I guess.
Anyone have thoughts? Am I mis-evaluating Landscape?
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
Out of the lands you've mentioned there is no doubt I'd slot out Tolaria West. I feel like that card never really functions like a land and have been second guessing it myself. Though I am planning to slot out Inventors' Fair before that.
I don't think I'll slot this land in, though. I don't have Crypt to pop it early, or Crucible to bring it back. I have it in my soon-to-be Windgrace deck and it's bogus there, but it's not particularly amazing otherwise.
In general I think landscape will enable a few more keeps (e.g. plains+landscape+mana crypt is a bit less sketchy a keep than plains/island/crypt). Similarly, tithe, plains, landscape will get you to T4 Ephara at least.
But the main advantage I think is a bit of midgame mana acceleration when you have to keep mana up; keep a counter up and still ramp from 6-7 seems reasonable. for the cost of one tapland, since by the time we're there the game is most likely going to last the duration we want it to.
Looking forward to trying it out.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
Cut Tolaria West for Myriad Landscape - just felt this would make my mana a little more consistent, and getting double plains is really powerful with Emeria.
Cut Sakashima's Student for body Double - a change I'd been meaning to make and forgot to do.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
The mana efficiency of student can't be denied and it's quite powerful with Boreas Charger but I couldn't think of what else was right. It might be that Archaeomancer is worse but I want to give that card a shake at least as it always seems like it'd be good to me.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
I lost because I went for the blasting station combo too early and became archenemy, BUT, the combo is very strong and it's fairly easy to assemble. Lesson learned: Slow roll a little As always. I don't know why I think I have a read on the table sometimes and just go for things, but eh, it's work night
Overall the deck is just really flowing very well. I am kinda questioning the whole equipment approach though, as the things I were playing against were going waaaaay over the top of equipment. So looking forward to thinking about some different ways to approach that.
I'm wondering if I might need a few more lifegain elements as I often lose to trickles of life in the end - things like getting blasted with Kokusho and a couple mana crypt hits and I'm often in the red mid game and have no way to recover. One of the reasons I really want to try Teferi's Protection but mine literally seems to have gotten lost in the frigging mail so still trying to recover it.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
Otherwise, I would agree on the Teferi's Protection so hopefully you can recover your lost card.
Historically I've used Jitte and SOLAS to handle this, but the 3 life a hit from sword was kinda meh.
Couple other options I've considered:
--dropping in a batterskull - it provides for a very slow way to trigger Ephara, protects itself, and is fairly tutorable.
--grabbing an Aegis of the Gods as a method of defending against targeted triggers (dragon decks seem to get me a lot with stuff like scourge of valkas).
--scouring for some good Recruiter of the Guard targets to gain a buncha life.
Auriok Champion may be strong enough to consider since at least it protects itself a bit better than the little soul sisters.
Sadly none of those approaches are quite as explosive as the archangel.
Meh, bit of food for thought I guess. I can also try to play better
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
Batterskull and Jitte seem the best options for what you have above. I used to have Jitte in Thassa for the life gain. I preferred it over Batterskull since it was cheaper and Thassa made things unblockable. I think Ephara would likely go towards Batterskull since, as you said, it works a bit better with her.
Oketra’s Last Mercy is the only other card I really see that would allow for mass life gain. Not being able to untap lands is likely too much of a drawback though.
I don't see anything that stands out as being a great tutor option for Recruiter (though I could have missed something).
It might be that Archangel of Thune is better than either as I consider it. She's a little slow but a little lifegain and the pump can dissuade attackers.
Think I will maybe just try to tighten up my game and try it as it is a few more times, honestly I nearly won a game of archenemy against some very good decks through lots of disruption so I don't think I should take that too hard.
(The way I lost is that before Blasting Station came off suspend with lark+guide+phantasmal lark on board, someone cast Living Death to essentially kingmake the dragons player who offed me with Scourge of Valkas triggers then immediately won, after the entire table was thrashing at my wall of larks for several turns).
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
I play with it in cube, and Batterskull is a beast. It's one of the best stabilizers out there. However, it's somewhat mana intensive, since you want to be able to protect it as soon as you play it.
I also thought of Knight-Captain of Eos since it's very cute with Mobilization or with blink tech. Honestly I really hope that the knight-captain is good enough, because I really feel like messing with that card.
Also reminding you that Peacekeeper is a card.
They're both only for combat, though, and it seems like your problem is with noncombat damage. A card that popped up into my head is Purity, though it's completely unusable.
Archangel of Thune is great if you already have lifegain in the rest of the deck. If you don't, it's just bad. Also I'm iffy on Teferi's Protection here. It's an insane card, but it can leave us in a bit of a pickle - if we were stuck in a spot where we had a massive board presence against us, my recommendation would be to dig for more cards, to try and find an answer. TP also locks us out of using our lands and makes Ephara nonexistent, so we can't interact with our opponents just as much as they can't interact with us. That's why I prefer Solitary Confinement in that role.
I've also struggled a little with that Neheb deck, though I think that deck is just how it is--glass cannonny. When I had removal it was fine.
Peacekeeper I actually slotted out because combat wasn't getting me that much--my deck tends to present a fairly annoying attack surface. Sometimes I was getting slammed with haste creatures (Gishath is one I remember). Interestingly, Batterskull's big booty presents as a decent blocker with an equip, or a double block, etc.
Confinement seems really decent and something I'll really need to noodle on. It's really outside of archetype, but it is a very powerful way to close a game -- and furthermore is absurd with Sun Titan which is a common win condition for me. The foil is a bit annoyingly pricey but maybe I can pick one up at the GP here next month.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
Topic 1
Got an FTV Mox Diamond, and I am pretty sure this deck should play it. I'm just not sure what to cut. I believe we could cut a land with tithe/boreas charger/etc. but I surely do not want to cut any business creatures and prefer not to go down any colored sources or plains, and prefer to keep the colorless count close, so that kinda makes it tough
* Inventor's Fair has somewhat underperformed for me
* Irrigated Farmland and Temple of Enlightenment are both quite bad, the latter I want to keep for flavor reasons but willing to sacrifice it.
As far as cards in the main deck, it is possible MD is better than Fellwar Stone in this deck but it's touch and go there. That's the only mana rock I could see cutting since it's inconsistent at making colors.
Topic 2
I have a pile of foils I acquired I am thinking of slotting in for the stoneforge package of Greaves/SFM/Sword, and they are below (assuming the teferi's protection THE SECOND ONE TO BE LOST IN THE FRIGGING MAIL ever gets here)
What do you guys think? Is that an insane plan? My thinking is that SFM/Sword/Greaves (and maybe one other card, helm of possession) perhaps which has underperformed for a bit, or possibly Flickerwisp (since I cut Vial it's much less powerful).
With the two buyback instants (capsize, forbid) and all the ways to repeatedly find instants now, I think Monastery Mentor is very likely to work as an endgame engine - it should be pretty easy to set up chains where you're making multiple monks a turn cycle, or at minimum one every main phase.
I have this feeling every time I read Sword that I am going to severely regret cutting it, but SFM has been very underwhelming for a while; I can usually find Jitte if I want it, and Sword has such a target on its back that I haven't had it survive a turn cycle in quite a while.
It's possible I should be considering some other finisher than Archangel, perhaps even something like Cathars' Crusade, but I'm really iffy on that.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
There is absolutely no reason to put Archangel of Thune in this deck. Lifegain isn't something we do often so it would end up a dead card. The same goes for Cathars' Crusade.
Bribery is cute but it has no synergy with the rest of the deck, which is a bit boring.
Monastery Mentor however is very solid. Tutorable and abusable, and good on its own even without evolving into a wincon. It reminds me of AEtherling in that regard.
Teferi's Protection is stupid. I have no idea why they printed that card but I love that they did. There is even a way to make it into a wincon: Balance. With balance on the stack, casting TP in response means that your stuff phases out before Balance sees them, making them have to sac all their lands and their creatures.
However, since EDH is a sane format, Balance is banned. However, there are similar effects we can use to similar effect!
Restore Balance - tutorable with Tolaria West and Mystical Tutor, castable through As Foretold. This is probably the preferred choice.
Balancing Act - even stronger than the original Balance, but much less tutorable. And it demands a bunch of mana to use.
Magus of the Balance - slow, telegraphed, but tutorable, draws us a card, and can be recurred with matching engines like Teshar or Sun Titan.
I've already voiced my opinion on SOFAF, I would not get rid of that card. However I'd be ok with cutting greaves. Flickerwisp is a fine cut. I'd also recommend Body Double, Archaeomancer. SFM is possible since you only have 2 equipments without greaves.
I think you are right about Mox Diamond - I'll probably try swapping it for fellwar stone and see what happens.
If i were to cut Sword, I would need another way to help close the game, but maybe it's right to leave it. Really hard to know. My thinking is that Archangel is pretty great at closing the game on its own - bash for 3, pump the entire team, etc.
Appreciate the input as always man. Maybe I'll try just working TP and Mentor and Mox in and go from there.
Sensei's divining top might be something I should think about working in with mentor too, something else to think about. Hmmmm.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
2019/02-27 -
Cut
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UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
In that regard Spear of Heliod is better than any of your suggestions (even tutorable with Trophy Mage). In fact there's even Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, which is both a token producer and an unconditional +1/+1 for the rest of the game.
After thinking about it, if you're not using TP as a wincon, Solitary Confinement might again be better for you. It doesn't protect against as much stuff but it lasts for potentially much longer, and can be brought back by Sun Titan.
I think the big flaw with Archangel is probably that he has to wait a turn cycle to do anything for the most part.
Spear of Heliod is just not where I want to be - the ability is not unreasonable but it's not enough of a steamroller. Really we're looking for something that can make our creatures very good sized and threaten fairly quick lethal swings. Kind of Elesh Norn-esque.
It might be that playing another sword (Say, SOFAI) is right over any of the random anthems or even stoneforge, but I'm just fuzzy on that. I think I might need to jam a few more games before trying to make calls about that.
Another option I haven't considered extensively is running Avacyn, Angel of Hope or Emeria Shepherd or some other 7-8 cmc bomb. Maybe even Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur. But that might be a reasonable way to go. Heck, maybe even Iona.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
http://epicstream.com/news/JakeVyper/New-Magic-The-Gathering-Product-Modern-Horizons-Revealed
Serra the Benevolent may be what we're looking for worship after one turn? Makes tokens? anthems our team?
I don't want to guess at what that foil is gonna set me back but whateeeehver.
edit: oh wow did I misread the first ability. It's just OK. But a worship walker who makes tokens seems ok still.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
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My top and teferi's protection got here, so I decided to make this whole round of changes. I really feel like this deck wants top, esp. with Mentor in there. I've really wanted more card selection and it's a relatively cheap way to do it.
I'm having a little debate with myself about trying to work a little more card selection in too - ponder and brainstorm, in particular - but I'm not sure those are right from a tempo perspective in this deck. Probably are, but I need to think about that one a bit longer.
Back when I first started playing this deck I cut top mostly because I just was too slow with it, but in general my pace of play has improved enough that I think I can bring it back.
I've been having a couple issues with Helm for a while now, primarily the sheer amount of mana required for it. It's super good, but since I have another sac outlet now that's quite searchable, I think it's less important. I also stopped running Peacekeeper which is one of the reasons I had helm.
I still think it's quite good but I've run into scenarios many times where I did not want to sacrifice anything to it, or didn't want to commit the amount of mana. I think it may have been more critical when I was running less removal overall.
Time will tell on that one too I guess.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
With Trinket there's one card that's considered a wincon, but it's really bad mannered - Elixir of Immortality. Since it shuffles our library back the only thing we have to do is wait for our opponents to mill themselves out. Though this strat doesn't work if they have an Eldrazi titan of some kind.
There's also Altar of the Brood which is another combo with Reveillark, a clone and a sac outlet.
Another thing is to build on the Top and add in Terminus, along with maybe Scroll Rack.
Generally speaking, Cyclonic Rift and maybe Evacuation are my preferred methods of non-destruction sweepers in this deck because of the amount of recursion available to us. I'll noodle on that though, as I coincidentally also have a couple foil Terminus sitting around from when I played Legacy Miracles
I don't like the Altar of the Brood combo at all since it does almost nothing by itself, unlike blasting station.
Trinket mage makes me wonder about possibly getting a Hangarback walker, as well.
I'm gonna make myself jam a few games before making any more serious changes. I did pick up an invocation Opposition which I'm giving some thought to trying out as a wincon, as this deck is very good at flooding the board with crappy creatures.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
By extension, having tons of mana could also lead to Venser, Shaper Savant blink loops where we slowly bounce their board into their hand then win from there.
Slotting in Drift of Phantasms could help tutor for it, plus it tutors for a bunch of other stuff we often need.
If you still want more wincons, just slot Luminarch Ascension back in and start beating face
Opposition is an interesting card. I tinkered with it when I had more token generators, but I was disappointed. It's really only useful if you have a cheap token engine, and even then it's easily outclassed - for example it did nothing versus the enemy Krenko, Mob Boss, which could virtually ignore it as he would use his ability in response and outscale me beyond anything my mana could achieve.
It depends heavily on your meta, but it could be serviceable. I wouldn't see it as a wincon on its own, though.
Ancient Tomb pings you for 2 so going infinite with it doesn't work unfortunately, but Nykthos works pretty easily - it's even feasible to make displacer+cloud of faeries go off with Nykthos I think.
But I'm gonna just chill for a while I think, try to play some more games. I need to get out on a Friday where I have more time to play one of these days.
I think that Cloud of Faeries could be a really reasonable inclusion actually, I hadn't really considered that it would go infinite with Nykthos, a colorless source, and Eldrazi Displacer as long as Nykthos is +4.
I don't want to start down that slippery slope of too many combo pieces though at this point.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall