Ephara Away

Commander / EDH*

GarrettBBQ

Creature (43)

• 1x Angel of Condemnation
• 1x Angel of Glory's Rise
• 1x Angel of Serenity
• 1x Archaeomancer
• 1x Augury Owl
• 1x Avacyn, Angel of Hope
• 1x Brago, King Eternal
• 1x Bruna, the Fading Light  ^{Flip  Meld}
• 1x Cataclysmic Gearhulk
• 1x Champion of Wits
• 1x Cloudblazer
• 1x Diluvian Primordial
• 1x Drowned Rusalka
• 1x Duplicant
• 1x Evangel of Heliod
• 1x Felidar Guardian
• 1x Flickerwisp
• 1x Gisela, the Broken Blade  ^Meld
• 1x Glint-Nest Crane
• 1x Godhead of Awe
• 1x Goldnight Commander
• 1x Karmic Guide
• 1x Knight of the White Orchid
• 1x Lavinia of the Tenth
• 1x Mentor of the Meek
• 1x Mulldrifter
• 1x Nephalia Smuggler
• 1x Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1x Recruiter of the Guard
• 1x Reflector Mage
• 1x Restoration Angel
• 1x Reveillark
• 1x Sage of Epityr
• 1x Saltskitter
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Springjack Shepherd
• 1x Stonehorn Dignitary
• 1x Sun Titan
• 1x Thalia's Lancers
• 1x Thraben Inspector
• 1x Trinket Mage
• 1x Venser, Shaper Savant
• 1x Wall of Omens

Land (38)

• 1x Azorius Chancery
• 1x Cephalid Coliseum
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Glacial Fortress
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Inventors' Fair
• 4x Island
• 1x Meandering River
• 1x Moorland Haunt
• 1x New Benalia
• 1x Nimbus Maze
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 9x Plains
• 1x Port Town
• 1x Prahv, Spires of Order
• 1x Prairie Stream
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Seachrome Coast
• 1x Springjack Pasture
• 1x Temple of Enlightenment
• 1x Temple of the False God
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Tolaria West
• 1x Tranquil Cove

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Hour of Revelation

Commander (1)

Instant (9)

• 1x Abolish
• 1x Cloudshift
• 1x Eerie Interlude
• 1x Essence Flux
• 1x Ghostly Flicker
• 1x Ghostway
• 1x Momentary Blink
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Swords to Plowshares

Artifact (8)

• 1x Akroma's Memorial
• 1x Ashes of the Fallen
• 1x Azorius Signet
• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Conjurer's Closet
• 1x Panharmonicon
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring

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"Civilization is the sum of Ephara's gifts."

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Commander as a format

I want to make this very clear, this deck is not meant to be cutthroat. I chose this deck because it is my favorite color combo, and I love blink effects. I like to play commander to have fun with my friends, not to win turn one with Hermit Druid or make my opponents cry with Winter Orb and Armageddon. This deck represents me as a person and me as a magic player.

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Why Ephara?

You may ask, why use Ephara, when other Azorius/Blink commanders exist that are far better? Well...

• Grand Arbiter Augustin IV: At the risk of being hung up on a tree by anyone I play with, I'll pass on this guy.


• Roon of the Hidden Realm: Other than the fact that this card is not available in foil (at normal size), Roon is a little slow for my taste. I feel like he is a commander that you often won't cast until the late game because he isn't as powerful as your other five mana plays. I also don't enjoy Bant as much as Azorius. Green is my second least favorite color in magic, and for my main commander deck, I chose to stick with two colors.


• Brago, King Eternal: His rule may persist beyond death, but he isn't right as the general for this deck. Ephara serves as a card draw engine that is very difficult to interact with, while Brago is a blink engine that is harder to trigger and easy to interact with, but has a huge upside. Brago serves as the lieutenant in the deck, but I'd rather see him just once in awhile then every single game.


• Ephara, God of the Polis is a draw engine as long as I have creatures, and can get very out of hand especially with Saltskitter. Also, I really like Ephara. She isn't used as much as the commanders listed above, and I like to be unique.

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Why play this deck?

You might enjoy this deck if you:

• Don't need to win every game of commander you play
• Love blinking stuff
• Like intricate synergies
• Are on a budget

You probably won't enjoy the deck if you:

• Are super competitive
• Love it when your opponents can't cast spells
• Would rather play a "goodstuff" deck than a synergistic one
• Hate blue/white
• Hate fun

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Win Conditions

Well it turns out I need to have a way to win the game eventually. Drawing cards is great, but you gotta end a four hour game of commander at some point, so how do I do that?

• Goldnight Commander, Evangel of Heliod, Captain of the Watch, Akroma's Memorial: Blink an Evangel of Heliod or Captain of the Watch lots of times a get tokens. In combination with Goldnight Commander and Akroma's Memorial, you can make a really janky Overrun.


• Akroma's Memorial, Day of the Dragons: Speaking of jank, this combo right here lets you exile all of your creatures and get that many 5/5 dragons! Akroma's Memorial gives all of them haste, and then you can win the game! If someone gets rid of the Day of the Dragons, however, you just got all those ETBs again.


• Psychosis Crawler: While it is very easy to interact with, it can just kill the entire table. Once the opponents realize they have taken 10 or 15 damage from this, they usually decide to put a stop to it. But that doesn't mean that it isn't super fun to just durdle around and still slowly kill everyone!


• Diluvian Primordial: When I added this card to the deck, I didn't really expect it to be a wincon. But good lord, this card can do some disgusting things. I've said it before and I'll say it again: if you lose to Diluvian Primordial, you have no one to blame but yourself. Angry that I cast the Armageddon in your graveyard? Maybe don't play dumb cards in your deck next time. In the long game, this card is just silly. I have been known to cast The Great Aurora with 32 soldier tokens in play. It's a good time.


• Synthetic Destiny: Yup, here it is. The granddaddy of wincons. Insurrection has nothing on this. This card combined with tokens let you flip your deck over for all of the creatures, and then you can untap and kill everyone with them. VALUE.

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Other Directions to take the deck

There are many ways you can build an Ephara deck. As you can tell, I built mine using subthemes, which included Reanimation, Humans, Card Drawing, Sacrifice, and Blinking.

I've seen other Ephara decks that use Stoneforge Mystic and take the deck in a more equipment based direction.

Also, some decks are created for the sole purpose of drawing lots of cards off of Ephara. Cards that are great for this are Commander's Authority, Followed Footsteps, Luminarch Ascension, Sacred Mesa, Mirror-Sigil Sergeant, Hanweir Militia Captain  , and of course Saltskitter.

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Why aren't you playing X?

These are all cards that I considered (or am considering) for the deck, that were cut for one reason or another.

• Deadeye Navigator, Eldrazi Displacer: Deadeye is a little bit unfair. He is six mana, but it's going to be hard to lose the game once he resolves. I'd rather creatively bounce my creatures. Eldrazi Displacer, on the other hand, seems a bit more fair at three mana to activate, especially when it takes colorless mana. However, I decided against playing it for the time being because I didn't feel like I had enough colorless sources. This is one that I might change my mind on eventually.


• Meddling Mage, Iona, Shield of Emeria: Once again, I don't want to keep my opponents from casting spells. Its frustrating and makes people not want to play. Iona is too oppressive when playing against mono colored decks. Making it so my opponent has to top deck an Oblivion Stone or they die doesn't seem like much fun for them.


• Peregrine Drake, Great Whale, Palinchron: All of these make infinite mana with Ghostly Flicker and Archaeomancer or Mnemonic Wall a little to consistently for my taste.


• Snapcaster Mage Ol' snapperson is off the squad for the sole reason that he's too expensive. I think he'd be very good in the deck, but I just don't want to buy one right now.


• Draining Whelk and other counterspells: I don't like playing counterspells in casual formats. In standard I'll play four of Ojutai's Command all day long, but not in commander. I usually advertise the fact that I don't play counterspells to my opponents before the game starts, so that we can hope to reach a mutually assured destruction agreement of sorts.


• Venser, the Sojourner: I'm not a huge fan of planeswalkers in commander, as they usually give your opponents a reason to attack you. Venser might make the cut as some point down the road, but for now he'll stay in creature form.


• Rishadan Brigand and other ilk: Excuse me while I vomit everywhere. I don't like playing this card for the same reason that I don't like playing lots of board wipes; complicated board states in commander are fun. If I want to remove a creature, I'll use creatures that target one, like Angel of Serenity or Reflector Mage. The idea is that you blink the Brigand lots of times and kill everything, but nah.


• AEtherling and other self-bouncing or self-blinking creatures: I actually did play cards like this before, but it wasn't strange enough. It wasn't explosive enough, I was just drawing cards and accomplishing nothing else. If you want to have a deck that is built around triggering Ephara, God of the Polis, then cards like this are totally the way to go.


• Rite of Replication Ah, good old nine-mana-win-the-game. Well, Cyclonic Rift is seven, but I digress. This card was in the deck for awhile, but it just always won the game. This wasn't because I set it up or anything, it was just because the card is disgusting!! I'll stick to Synthetic Destiny and Day of the Dragons, thank you very much.


• Luminarch Ascension: Disregarding the fact that this card is super unfair, it is a great way to get a target placed on your back.

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Ultra Budget Cuts

The deck is not too expensive for most cards (barring any foils), but there are a few that cost a little too much.

• Tolaria West: I use this solely to get Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, so it can easily be replaced by the good old basic Island. I only have a foil because I got mine from FTV.


• Akroma's Memorial: This one is tough to replace. This is really the only haste-giving-effect in blue/white. Cutting it gives the deck much less of an explosive potential late game. I can only think of two ways to replicate this effect. You can cast Reins of Power twice to give your creatures to an opponent only to immediately steal them back so they have haste. Or, you can use George Clooney himself (Odric, Lunarch Marshal) in combination with something like Swiftfoot Boots.


• Avacyn, Angel of Hope: Once again, a card I only have because of FTV. Avacyn can be pretty easily replaced by any big reanimation target, like Blazing Archon or even good old H.G. Inkwells (Inkwell Leviathan).


• Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  : He's thankfully fallen from his $100 price tag, but is still pretty pricey. He's mostly in the deck to flashback spells, but a Scrivener should do the trick.


• Hallowed Fountain and any other land: Honestly I'm playing most of the blue/white duels that exist, but basic lands can be swapped out for any of them, at the cost of some consistency.


• Chrome Mox: This is another one that is a little hard to replace, as it is the best non-Sol Ring target with Trinket Mage. Wayfarer's Bauble will do the trick, though, and works great with Sun Titan.


• Recruiter of the Guard: Not sure how you're going to replace this one. This is a pretty unique effect in these colors, so no real budget options here.


• Phyrexian Metamorph: Any clone works just fine here. Even Clone! Stunt Double is also pretty sweet.


• Ghostway: Eerie Interlude is already in the deck, and this is an effect that isn't too common. However, commander staple Sudden Disappearance is a sorcery-speed way to get a sort-of similar effect. Also, it can hit your oppoents' board.


• Duplicant: Easily replaced by Phyrexian Ingester, which only has the downsides that it can't be brought back with Reveillark and costs one more mana.


• Cyclonic Rift: The effect at instant speed doesn't really exist anywhere else (which is probably a good thing). However, any Wrath of God-like effect works fine.


• Venser, Shaper Savant: No other creatures can bounce spells, but AEthersnipe or Riftwing Cloudskate are very good at bouncing permanents.


• Path to Exile: Crib Swap can be used on your own creatures to trigger Ephara, God of the Polis, and Reality Shift gets the job done as well.


• Reveillark: This is a totally unique effect that has no cards that are even remotely similar. Cutting this card means the graveyard trio (along with Angel of Glory's Rise and Karmic Guide) is much weaker. Cutting Reveillark can make the deck much less resilient to board wipe, so be forewarned.

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This deck as a whole

This deck is really, really fun. It isn't super opressive or punishing, it isn't obnoxious to play against, (unless my turns take a long time, which does happen sometimes) its just good, clean, synergistic magic.

As for the foil cards, I'm currently working on pimping out the deck. I still need a few of the more expensive ones, and I'd like to get a Tundra at some point.

Date added	8 years
Last updated	7 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	10 - 0 Mythic Rares 37 - 0 Rares 25 - 0 Uncommons 14 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.65
Tokens	Champion of Wits 4/4 B, Clue, Goat 0/1 W, Soldier 1/1 W, Spirit 1/1 W