I made this deck after being inspired by 'Yuta Suzuki's Flickering Freak' - Shown Here. The use of Ephara, God of the Polis as a card draw engine in an aggressive creature deck got me excited for Born of the Gods.
At it's core, this is a White Weenie deck that splashes blue for Ephara, God of the Polis as well as a bit of removal and utility.
Generating tokens with Brimaz, King of Oreskos and Precinct Captain or flashing in Deputy of Acquittals during my opponent's turn keeps my hand full of threats.
Any comments on sideboard or maybeboard or just the deck in general would be much appreciated :)
Mainboard Card Breakdown
Creatures
Soldier of the Pantheon - Standard white one-drop. Pro-multicolour can make him very annoying against some decks and the addition of gaining life when my opponent casts a multicolored spell is a nice bonus.
Precinct Captain - Solid two-drop that adds 2 to my devotion and also creates tokens if he manages to hit a player. Having first strike is good against early aggro decks.
Deputy of Acquittals - Utility 2 drop that either lets me bounce and save one of my other creatures from targeted removal or can be used as a surprise blocker. Works even better with Ephara, God of the Polis to allow me to draw additional cards. If I can consistently bounce 2 Deputy of Acquittals in my turn and my opponent's turn then I can get the maximum card draw value from Ephara, God of the Polis.
Lyev Skyknight
- An aggressively costed flyer (3 power in the air for 3) he has a good body and an even more useful ETB effect. Able to lock down planeswalkers, creatures or artifacts for a turn can help swing the tempo in my favor. Skyknight is also able to attack Planeswalkers in the air if there are no opposing flyers / reach, which limits their effectiveness.
Fiendslayer Paladin
- Great against the Rakdos / Suicide Black aggro decks and even greater with Archangel of Thune.
Brimaz, King of Oreskos - Hail to the king baby! This guy is a monster 3-drop. Not only adding 2 devotion, but also having a good body (3/4), Vigilance AND making another token when attacking OR blocking. Absolutely a nightmare to deal with without having solid removal.
Ephara, God of the Polis - THE reason for putting this deck together. Reading comments before BotG released, Ephara seemed to fly under the radar a bit, even though there isn't really anything wrong with her. An indestructible 6/5 body for 4 that nets extra card draw in the right deck (IE. This one) is HUGE!
Archangel of Thune - Able to stabilize and win the game on her own, Archangel of Thune gets even better with a bunch of tokens and a few lifegain triggers. Azorius Charm becomes a large pump spell and Soldier of the Pantheon can punish my opponent for playing multi-colored spells.
Enchantments
Detention Sphere
- Adds 2 devotion to Ephara, God of the Polis and allows me to exile basically anything. Very popular in any U/W/x deck for good reason. It's damn good!
Thassa, God of the Sea - Placed under enchantments because she will very rarely become a creature in this deck. The scry trigger at the start of my turn can synergize nicely with Ephara, God of the Polis card draw. It also lets me sink any spare blue mana in to making creatures like Precinct Captain unblockable, guaranteeing some damage and a soldier token.
Instant Spells
Azorius Charm - Utility spells with 3 useful modes. Giving all creatures lifelink can help me stabilize. Bouncing an opponent's creature helps my tempo and drawing a card as a last resort is never bad.
Brave the Elements - Another utility / win con card. Can be used defensively to stop all of my creatures from being targeted / taking damage. Can ALSO be used to make all of my creatures un-blockable against a particular colour and swing for lethal damage.
Planeswalker
Elspeth, Sun's Champion - What really needs to be said about Elspeth? She's a solid win con on her own if she sticks. Making 3 weenies per turn, clearing my opponent's board of large threats or pumping all of my creatures and giving evasion in the form of flying, Elspeth fits this deck and it's curve perfectly.
Sideboard
Celestial Flare - Brought in mainly to combat R/G monster decks and hexproof decks by targeting the player and forcing them to sacrifice something. Neatly gets around Stormbreath Dragon pro-white.
Rapid Hybridization - 1 mana kill spell to deal with big creatures. Mainly against Stormbreath Dragon, but perfectly fine to use against
Desecration Demon
or
Polukranos, World Eater
too. Can also be used targeting my own Ephara, God of the Polis to net myself a 3/3 token and draw another card.
Glare of Heresy
- Anti-white card that lets me exile any white permanent. Creatures, Planeswalkers, even an opponent's
Detention Sphere
.
Pithing Needle - Still very good against almost any deck in the current standard. Stops activated abilities on Pack Rat, Maze's End, Jace, Architect of Thought, Ghor-Clan Rampager, AEtherling, just to name a few.
Revoke Existence - Most decks at the moment are running at least one god in them and Revoke Existence can remove them or their weapons (EG. Whip of Erebos) quite easily.
Rootborn Defenses - Against decks that have mass removal. Also has nice synergy with tokens and Ephara, God of the Polis by netting me another creature which can trigger another card draw WHILE making my creatures indestructible.
Edit
I few of my friends have been asking about why certain cards are in the maybeboard, so I decided a write a little bit about why each one was considered.
Maybeboard
AEtherling - A staple blue win-con, exiling him every turn has great synergy with Ephara, God of the Polis. However, double blue cost could be tricky and he feels to slow overall.
Angel of Serenity - Something I could ramp in to with Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx which has a nice exile effect. Can be used to remove threats from my opponent's side or bring stuff from my graveyard back.
Archetype of Courage - Giving all of my creatures first strike and removing it from my opponent's makes combat for them a lot less appealing.
Banisher Priest
- Exile a creature, give me a 2/2 body with 2 devotion is nice. Recently switched out in favor of
Lyev Skyknight
Beckon Apparition - I started thinking about graveyard hate and being able to exile something of importance from my opponent's graveyard AND get a token which can trigger Ephara, God of the Polis at instant speedseemed pretty good. However, there just isn't enough graveyard interaction around at the moment for it to matter.
Blind Obedience - Screws over hasted creatures and flash blockers and the extort gives me something else I can do with spare mana.
Curse of the Swine - Premium removal with a double blue cost.
Daring Skyjek
- Aggressive 2-drop which has evasion when battalion triggers.
Eidolon of Countless Battles - Creature / aura that becomes bigger with all of the tokens I have.
Frontline Medic - Giving my creatures indestructible when attacking means I can be swinging every turn without worrying about creatures dying from blockers.
Imposing Sovereign
- Similar to Blind Obedience, screws over haste creatures but now has legs.
Lavinia of the Tenth - I was using her as a "Detain everything" for a bit, but have found her more difficult than it should be to cast. Great at locking down most planeswalkers for a turn though.
Soul Tithe
- Taxing removal that is effective against removing gods or slowing my opponent's down.
Spear of Heliod - Double the effectiveness of my token's, puts Brimaz, King of Oreskos out of Mizzium Mortar range.
Strionic Resonator - A lot of my creatures as well as
Detention Sphere
have triggered abilities. Why not abuse them more?
Supreme Verdict - Sometimes you just need to clear the board since you are completely out-gunned.
Judge's Familiar - 1 drop flyer that forces opponent's to play around it when casting instants / sorceries.
Spirit of the Labyrinth - Can slow down opponent's card drawing without hurting my own too much.
