Howling Resurgence - Modern Blink
Modern
SCORE: 51 | 12 COMMENTS | 8968 VIEWS | IN 35 FOLDERS
But Pal, where is [[Ephemerate]]? —Aug. 16, 2019
Ephemerate is a great card, but it is a worse copy of Soulherder. Its single-target blink doesn't leave the deck with a good lategame. Imagine this:
- 5 Life =
- 3/3 Beast =
- Drain 3 life =
- Return target card from your graveyard to your hand =
- Draw a card =
These are the mana cost equivalents of blinking Thragtusk, Siege Rhino, Eternal Witness, and Wall of Blossoms with Eerie Interlude. In this minor example, a spell that does all of this would cost eight mana. That is a gigantic swing in card advantage, one that also blanks boardwipes. Ephemerate is good, don't get me wrong, but it is slow. It lacks the explosiveness of Interlude. Interlude also protects the deck against boardwipes while Ephemerate leaves it wide open to them. Finally, Ephemerate does a better job at dodging spot removal, however, spot removal is already a loss for the opponent because every creature impacts the battlefield upon entry.
As one final thought to leave you with, imagine the Chord play which I mentioned in the deck tech (that you should have read). On your opponent's turn, you can Chord of Calling for Soulherder, tapping all of your creatures to convoke. If your opponent targets the Soulherder with a Lightning Bolt, you can Interlude all of your tapped creatures to grow the herder out of Bolt range. Your opponent is now staring at an immediate 5/5+ Soulherder. Ephemerate would simply dodge the removal with little value generated.