After receiving some Christmas money, I decided to spend some of it on upgrading and revising this deck.
Here are the changes:
Docent of Perfection
Flip -> Sacred Mesa
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The Docent severely under-performed for me, and I've never gotten to flip it, despite having 6 additional wizards in the deck. It mostly acts as a flying beater that will make an occasional wizard token before getting killed.
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As for Sacred Mesa, I've been testing the card out for a while and really like it. It generates card advantage with Ephara and can serve as a combat trick, creating instant-speed blockers and it can also work as a mana dump in the late game.
Tragic Arrogance -> Supreme Verdict
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Part of the benefit of playing Ephara, God of the Polis is that she is indestructible, but Tragic Arrogance does nothing to support that. I should not be playing a board wispe that can make me lose my indestructible commander.
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Supreme Verdict was just reprinted in Iconic Masters so now was a good time to pick it up on the cheap.
Cataclysmic Gearhulk -> Austere Command
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The same reasoning for removing Tragic Arrogance applies here to the Gearhulk. I generally ended up sacrificing the Gearhulk itself so it usually ends up being a very inefficient and expensive board wipe.
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Austere Command is very versatile, and can get rid of creatures, enchantments, and artifacts, just like Cataclysmic Grearhulk. It also pairs nicely with Ephara because indestructible protects her from the creature and enchantment destruction clause.
Dictate of Heliod -> Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
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I needed to use Dictate in another deck and it never really performed well in this build.
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I've always wanted a Praetor, and Elesh Norn fits the my strategy of controlling the board and then swinging with an army of hate bears and control creatures. She'll also help stop some of the token decks in my meta.
Meandering River -> Nimbus Maze
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Tapped land that does nothing when it enters the battlefield needs to come out.
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Nimbus maze is a nice, untapped land that will also help with Eldrazi Displacer mana.
Azorius Guildgate -> Tolaria West
Portal Mage -> Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
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Portal Mage is almost always a dead draw in my hand, and half of my games are 1v1 commander where it is pretty useless. I'll probably keep it around as a sideboard card for multiplayer games with aggro decks.
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Teferi is a must for this deck, and I was super excited to see him get reprinted. I love playing a "Draw-Go" style with this deck and Teferi is perfect for my needs.
Deputy of Acquittals -> Luminarch Ascension
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Playing the Deputy is very conditional, and she rarely comes out of my hand. She unfortunately also doesn't have the ability to self-bounce like Whitemane Lion, so she can't be used for card advantage with Ephara.
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Luminarch Ascension is a pretty good Magic card and it provides another way of churning out instant-speed tokens, but as opposed to Mobilization, it make 4/4 flying angels. Awesome!
Condemn -> Path to Exile
- Nearly a strictly better upgrade
In addition to the card changes, I also ordered the tokens that this deck uses (the Pegasi look awesome) and I've purchased some of what I think are the cooler looking basic lands. I got the panorama Plains from Ice Age, and the original Islands (sadly with the white-bordered Unlimited Edition art because I'm too poor to afford the black-bordered Alpha or Beta version.
That's all for this upgrade. My deck has been performing fairly well and it is a blast to pilot. I even pulled off a turn 5 win the other day, ramping early with Sol Ring, and playing Eldrazi Displacer followed by a Peregrine Drake making infinite mana and pretty much locking everybody out with my control creatures.
