Ephara, God of the Interaction

Commander / EDH Exile Flash WU (Azorius)

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Creature (39)

• 1x Aven Mindcensor
• 1x Cathar Commando
• 1x Cavalier of Dawn
• 1x Cemetery Illuminator
• 1x Cloud of Faeries
• 1x Deadeye Navigator
• 1x Eldrazi Displacer
• 1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
• 1x Faerie Artisans
• 1x Felidar Guardian
• 1x Glasspool Mimic  ^Flip
• 1x Glen Elendra Archmage
• 1x Glorious Protector
• 1x Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
• 1x Guardian of Faith
• 1x Heliod, Sun-Crowned
• 1x Hullbreaker Horror
• 1x Knight of the White Orchid
• 1x Loyal Warhound
• 1x Nadir Kraken
• 1x Palinchron
• 1x Peregrine Drake
• 1x Ranger-Captain of Eos
• 1x Restoration Angel
• 1x Shrieking Drake
• 1x Skyclave Apparition
• 1x Solitude
• 1x Soulherder
• 1x Spectral Sailor
• 1x Stormscape Familiar
• 1x Subtlety
• 1x Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
• 1x Thassa, Deep-Dwelling
• 1x Trinket Mage
• 1x Venser, Shaper Savant
• 1x Walking Ballista
• 1x Wall of Omens
• 1x Wavebreak Hippocamp
• 1x Welcoming Vampire

Land (31)

• 1x Castle Ardenvale
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
• 1x Fabled Passage
• 1x Glacial Fortress
• 8x Island
• 1x Moorland Haunt
• 1x Nimbus Maze
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Otawara, Soaring City
• 7x Plains
• 1x Prairie Stream
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Roadside Reliquary
• 1x Scavenger Grounds
• 1x Springjack Pasture
• 1x Temple of the False God
• 1x Tolaria West

Artifact (11)

• 1x Altar of the Brood
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Azorius Signet
• 1x Moonsnare Prototype
• 1x Panharmonicon
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Springleaf Drum
• 1x Sword of Hearth and Home
• 1x Talisman of Progress
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Vedalken Orrery

Commander (1)

Instant (13)

• 1x Cloudshift
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Eerie Interlude
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Ephemerate
• 1x Essence Flux
• 1x Familiar's Ruse
• 1x Ghostway
• 1x High Tide
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Swords to Plowshares

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Leyline of Anticipation
• 1x Smothering Tithe
• 1x Teleportation Circle

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Sea Gate Restoration  ^Flip
• 1x Vanquish the Horde

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Ephara, God of the Interaction

It’s not a coincidence, that Ephara, God of the Polis looks familiar to the ancient greek god “Lady Justice”. You are the law! So get rid of the criminal scum and protect your people. You decide what is allowed and what is a crime. Banish the evil forces of your opponents and interrupt their plan to win the game.

If you like the control game and have no problem with the role of the judge in all actions, you will like this deck. If you are the aggro (uninspired) type of player, you will not have much fun. This deck has many elements, but it is neither super-fast nor aggro.

Have fun with my little guide “Ephara, the God of Interaction”. I’m open for questions and suggestions. If you like the deck idea, feel free to leave a comment and a rate the deck.

Note: I’m not a native speaker, and I hope my english is not too bad. This is my first reader I wrote, and I hope you enjoy my deck.

{WU}Gameplan{WU}

Deck Idea

I wanted to make a very interactive Commander Deck. I’m a classic green player, so normally I like to ramp and play with big creatures. Furthermore, I looked at my decks and recognised I never played {WU}Azorius before. I decided that I want a commander with a lot of card draw obviously Ephara, God of the Poliswas the perfect fit. My first priority was, that I want a constant card draw, so I play a lot of creatures. The deck is a mid-range / late game deck. You do a lot of interactive stuff, and simultaneously you slow the game. Your plan is, to play the underdog-game and draw constantly cards. You should get a lot of card advantage and outplay your opponents with the time. This strategy is really attritional for your opponents because you simple make too much value.

Gameplan A - Combos

I play many combos, but those are not the easiest to accomplish. The best combo is definitely the Heliod, Sun-Crowned + Walking Ballista . In a normal game, I just draw cards and interrupt the win conditions of the other players and finish them with my own combo. Check the chapter “Combos” there you see all the combos I run.

Gameplan B - Beatdown Strategy

The second road of winning the game is a beat down strategy. The deck has a lot of board presence with 38 creatures. Ephara, God of the Polisis an indestructible badass commander, and her body with 6/5 is not to underestimate. Beaters like Thassa, Deep-Dwelling, Heliod, Sun-Crowned ,Hullbreaker Horrorand a lot of flyers can make an excellent army. The best scenario is, when your opponents play a boardwhipe, and you can just escape it with cards like Glorious Protector.

Commander

Ephara, God of the Polis

Ephara, God of the Polis is a fantastic draw-engine. I wanted to max out her ability with flash and blink spells and creatures with permanent value like Nadir Kraken. On your turn you play small creatures without flash, and on the other turns you play the cards with flash. Ephara, God of the Polis is great against mass removal spells, even when you can’t save your board, she normally stays on the board. Some Ephara builds, want her to stay as an enchantment and doesn’t play that many creatures. Ephara is for 4 cmc not really expensive so when she got exiled as a creature it's fine. I can’t remember a game where I have to pay more than 6cmc. The most mass removals are “destroy” Spells (in the past I saw a lot more Ugin, the Spirit Dragon play).

When your opponents play an aggro gamestyle, just leave her untapped or blink her after the attack. When you have a good board presence, make pressure! Your opponents do not like to attack you because of the flash and blink spells.

Flash

Beside of “dredge” I think „flash“ is one of the strongest abilities in the game. Especially with counter- and removalspells. Your opponents hate to attack you because they don’t know if you flash Hullbreaker Horror or Solitude on the battlefield.

Natural Born Flashers

Aven Mindcensor or Cathar Commando are just examples of excellent flash creatures. I call those creatures "Natural born flashers".

Global Flash

Sadly, flash creatures in general are more expensive than normal creatures. A Skyclave Apparition with flash is brilliant. You exile a nonland permanent and draw a card thanks to Ephara. Cards that gives you flash are Leyline of Anticipation, Artifact Sacrifice and my favourite Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir.

Teferi is such a nice hatebear. In this scenario, you have your Combo on your hand, and Teferi just wins you the game. On the turn before your own turn you just flash him on the battlefield, your opponents are not able to interrupt your winnig combo.

Ramp

Mana Rocks

Just rocks. When you want to build a really competitive version of this deck then you have to replace a lot of the rocks with Mana Crypt, Chrome Mox etc. I really like Springleaf Drum and Moonsnare Prototype. Both are 1 drops and you always have creatures with summoning sickness, so use them as your Mana source.

{1}Sol Ring, Moonsnare Prototype, Springleaf Drum; {2} Arcane Signet, Azorius Signet, Talisman of Progress, Thought Vessel.

ETB and Blink:

Knight of the White Orchid is such a good target to blink because you can get lands like Prairie Stream and these lands are untapped. Sword of Hearth and Home was the last card I added, and I really like it. It is a bit of an investment (cmc) but it's a perfect fit with your ETB creatures and land ramp is awesome. With your massive Card draw you normally don't miss a regular landdrop, that's the reason I don’t play Land Tax (and you get no Ephara trigger).

Loyal Warhound, Knight of the White Orchid, Sword of Hearth and Home.

Other

Stormscape Familiar is a cheap draw spell for Ephara and makes all white spells cheaper, really nice creature. Smothering Tithe is insane good in the commander format, every white deck want to play it. Grand Arbiter Augustin IV is the Azorius creature! He ramps and taxes everything. He fits perfectly in our main gameplan to stretch the game.To finish with your Palinchron our High Tide can help or use it for [card:Hullbreaker Horror] or a another big spell.

Combos

Combos are your way to win. I really like all of my combos, because cards like Palinchron or Shrieking Drake are strong on their own. Normally I keep them on my hand, but sometimes when you have everything under control you can easily play your Peregrine Drake to raise your value with Ephara.

Some Ephara, God of the Polis decks build infinite turn decks. I already play a commander deck with this deck strategy, and I just wanted to avoid it because it is really no fun for your playgroup (stay a while and listen). Check “Aesi, the Tyrant of Time” when you want to see a some combos with infinite Turns.

Infinit Mana Combos

1. Cloud of Faeries + Panharmonicon + Shrieking Drake or alternative Venser, Shaper Savant, Peregrine Drake (+ infinit ETB)
2. Deadeye Navigator + Peregrine Drake or Eldrazi Displacer + Palinchron (+infinit ETB)
3. Cloud of Faeries + Deadeye Navigator + Panharmonicon or Eldrazi Displacer (+infinit ETB)
4. Cloud of Faeries + Deadeye Navigator + Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx or Eldrazi Displacer (+infinit ETB)
5. Palinchron + Panharmonicon

Infinit Mana Outlet

1. Deadeye Navigator+Wall of Omens or Eldrazi Displacer and Walking Ballista
2. Walking Ballista
3. Spectral Sailor + Walking Ballista
4. Deadeye Navigator+Altar of the Brood or Eldrazi Displacer

Altar of the Brood

Strong card in the deck, you can make many infinite ETB to win the game with this card.

1. Altar of the Brood + Felidar Guardian + Restoration Angel or Glasspool Mimic  

The Key Combo!

Heliod, Sun-Crowned + Walking Ballista

This combo is strong. It is just too easy to tutor. All tutors I play target this combo. Enlightened Tutor is really expensive $$ but it is just too good not to play. When you have Enlightened Tutor just wait for one combo piece and this card finish the game.

Card Draw

Ephara, God of the Polis

Ephara, God of the Polis is your engine. Play a bunch of creatures and generate value. Faerie Artisans and Saltskitter are perfect. They just let Ephara trigger for no further Mana. Nadir Kraken is expensive, but this creature is your "zero too hero" card. When the game really sucks, and you think it's all over, you just have to play Nadir Kraken and pay the Mana and draw cards. You get a nice beater and a lot of tokens.

Other

Welcoming Vampire is a no-brainer for this deck. Rarely you play more than one creature on a turn and most of your creatures have base power 2. Wavebreak Hippocamp is super strong with your flash cards.

Interactive Spells

Most of the flash creatures have impressive ETB like Solitude or Subtlety, but when you play Azorius you have to play removal and counterspells.

Counter Spells

Most of the counterspells are good but not awesome. Like in the chapter "Mana Rocks" you can easily upgrade the counterspells with expensive cards like Force of Will, Mana Drain to achieve the next power level.

Muddle the Mixture, Counterspell, Swan Song, Pact of Negation, Familiar's Ruse

Muddle the Mixture is a good tutor for Cloud of Faeries or Wall of Omens.

Familiar's Ruse is a hard counter for 2 and you get your best ETB creature back to your hand.

I really like creatures with counterspell potential. Glen Elendra Archmage synergies with your blink strategy. Hullbreaker Horror is a huge investment, but you are nearly unstoppable with global flash.

Glen Elendra Archmage, Subtlety, Venser, Shaper Savant and Hullbreaker Horror

Point Removal

Cavalier of Dawn can kill everything except for lands. His devotion is nice too, and you can get value out of your graveyard.

Cavalier of Dawn, Solitude, Skyclave Apparition, Swords to Plowshares

Mass Removal

The deck has a lack in mass removal. I started this deck with five mass removal and realized, that often I have one of the stronger boards and I would weak myself with a mass removal spell. In any other deck, I'm really uncomfortable with just two mass removal, but in my experience it works out really fine.

Cyclonic Rift, Vanquish the Horde,

Exile Spells

Flicker(blink) spells are perfect for your commander. Sometimes you can not play a creature in your opponent's turn, so just flicker them and let Ephara, God of the Polis trigger again. Obviously, you want to flicker a creature with an ETB effect.

Ephemerate, Cloudshift and Essence Flux help to avoid point removal and let you trigger your ETB creatures one more time. In my playgroup, it's a big difference between one and two Mana spells, so I prefer those instead of spells like Momentary Blink.

Point Exile

Ephemerate, Cloudshift, Essence Flux and Creatures Felidar Guardian, Restoration Angel

Mass Exile

Ghostway, Glorious Protector, Eerie Interlude

Constant Exile

Safes your Mana for your opponents turn and creates constant value.

Sword of Hearth and Home, Soulherder, Teleportation Circle, Thassa, Deep-Dwelling

Tutors

To run a successful commander deck, you have to play some tutors. The tutors I play focus on the Heliod, Sun-Crowned + Walking Ballista combo.

Tutors

Most of the tutors speak for themselves. Ranger-Captain of Eos is a strong Tutor because you can blink him, and he gives you protection during your winning turn.

I don’t know why are so few people play Tolaria West this land is incredible. You can tutor Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, Scavenger Grounds and Walking Ballista or play it as a tapped land for under 1$. What a great tutor!

Tolaria West, Ranger-Captain of Eos, Trinket Mage, Enlightened Tutor

Cards you want to tutor

Heliod, Sun-Crowned + Walking Ballista ,Altar of the Brood

Graveyard Hate

Graveyard Hate

First of all I think I run the absolute minimum of GY-hate cards. Cemetery Illuminator has good stats and is an awesome target for your blink spells. He gives you some kind of card advantage and good graveyard hate.

Scavenger Grounds, Cemetery Illuminator

Lands

Maybe you think 31 lands are way too few but with Glasspool Mimic   and Sea Gate Restoration   you play 33 lands this is indead few, but with Ephara you draw so many cards, that you normally don’t miss a land drop.

Utility Lands with impact:

Scavenger Grounds, Tolaria West, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

Ephara Lands:

Maybe you don’t have a lot of cards in your hand because of a discard deck or something similar. Those lands help you to get back in business.

Moorland Haunt is my favourite, it makes flying chunk blockers for just two manas. This deck doesn’t depend on GY play, so we don't really need our creatures in our GY.

Castle Ardenvale, Moorland Haunt, Springjack Pasture

Date added	2 years
Last updated	1 year
Key combos	Deadeye Navigator + Peregrine Drake Eldrazi Displacer + Palinchron Altar of the Brood + Felidar Guardian + Restoration Angel Palinchron + Panharmonicon Heliod, Sun-Crowned + Walking Ballista Cloud of Faeries + Panharmonicon + Shrieking Drake Cloud of Faeries + Deadeye Navigator + Panharmonicon Cloud of Faeries + Deadeye Navigator + Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	12 - 0 Mythic Rares 44 - 0 Rares 16 - 0 Uncommons 13 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.03
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Copy Clone, Goat 0/1 W, Golem 3/3 C, Human 1/1 W, Illusion */* U, Spirit 1/1 W, Tentacle 1/1 U, Treasure
Folders	Ephara