As someone who constantly tweaks, scraps, and rebuilds, it really says something about this deck that I've had it together for almost two years now. There is nothing broken about the deck, but it is absolutely a blast to play with. If you like drawing cards, especially on every upkeep, you will love this deck.
Commander
U/W has always been one of my favorite color combinations (second only to U/R...) and "Ephara, God of the Polis, the indestructible enchantment creature - god we couldn't fit any more words on this type-line" is a perfect card draw engine that also serves to be extremely difficult to remove, and a good source of damage when you get to that point in the game. We use a lot of seemingly ridiculous creatures to try and abuse her ability on every upkeep. While her card-draw ability is absolutely bonkers, it takes some time to really build up your hand, so people don't necessarily see you as a huge threat early on. This is important when you start working politics into your EDH game. Overall, she does exactly what I want the deck to do. She sits tight and draws cards for a little bit, building up and shaping our hand. She stays out of the spotlight, earning us some time in the early game by typically being assessed as a low-priority threat. And she can swing the game around in one turn w/ a miracle on your opponent's turn searched up by Mystical Tutor after you put a creature into play. Or you can strap her up w/ a Sword of Feast and Famine and Go. To. Town.
How I Play the U/W Goddess
The first few turns with this deck are usually land, go. Ideally, we'll hit a mana rock on turns one or two (doesn't happen much because I don't play many...) so we can get our general down on the board as soon as possible. Barring the rocks, you can sometimes sneak an early Crystal Shard or Eldrazi Displacer into play while no one is looking. If someone gets rid of one of these things, you can glare at them menacingly, but keep your mouth shut because your deck doesn't do anything yet.
Anyway, get Ephara, God of the Polis onto the field assuming you don't have a Solemn Simulacrum (henceforth referred to as 'Sad Robot' or any variation thereof) or... No, Sad Robot is like the only play better than Ephara on turn 4. So get your general on the board and then get ready to do nothing for a while, because we are hopping on the durdle-train straight to do-nothingville. Start dropping cards that don't do anything like Whitemane Lion or Venser, Shaper Savant or Saltskitter. Guys, let me tell you about Saltskitter... This thing is a mother-@#&Y*ing all-star in a 4-player game. No one wants to remove the 3/4 that does absolutely nothing (like, nothing... seriously, most of the time it can't even block), but this ridiculous wurm thing draws you a card on every upkeep. Anyway, enough about Saltskitter. You can see the idea. Get creatures to come in every turn and build up a hand. Don't forget to hit a Reliquary Tower somewhere along the way, or make sure you pitch things to discard that can easily be returned with the likes of Reveillark, Sun Titan, or Karmic Guide. Those are your late game cards that are really going to let you close it out.
So discarding isn't really a problem in this deck as long as you keep in mind what you want to be doing in the late game. In EDH, I tend to shy away from infinite combos or anything that is too "oppressive" or "degenerate." So the most broken thing I do in this deck is draw a card on every turn or possibly get you in a little soft-lock with cards like Evacuation, Cryptic Command, and Mystic Confluence; and cards like Archaeomancer and Mnemonic Wall. I typically avoid time magic like the plague, but Temporal Mastery is extremely fair in my opinion, and... Oh man, let me tell you, it is so satisfying to miracle this card on your opponent's turn and watch them have to play their turn in complete dread. I honestly don't even do anything too broken with Reveillark and Karmic Guide. They are just incredibly value engines going into the late game.
Finishing the Game & some 'Tactics'
So we've been durdling all this time, and ideally, we haven't drawn a target on our chest yet. We might have some artifacts on the board (oh please let there be a Crystal Shard...), our general, and some lands that don't do anything. And hopefully, someone has died. We're not trying to become raid-boss first or even second. Hell, not ever becoming raid-boss w/ this deck is perfectly appropriate. Let the other folks at the table duke it out and waste their resources on each other. If you need to do things, be politically smart about it and make some allies along the way. Someone letting you hit them w/ a Sword of Feast and Famine or Sword of Fire and Ice can get you some reach in a turn that you need it or draw you into the creatures you need to fuel your general. But don't make any enemies.
So once we're down to at most 3 people at the table, we want to start using our soft-locks that we've ideally drawn into. Keeping your opponents from attacking every turn by casting Evacuation during attack steps and recurring it w/ Archaeomancer will force them to use resources on these cards that just let you stall the game out. This 'combo' can work with Cryptic Command and Mystic Confluence as well. Just be sure to use one of the modes to return your creature that recurs spells to your hand.
Now, we've burned our opponent out of quite a few resources. It's time to leave creatures on the board, search up our swords w/ Stoneforge Mystic and Trophy Mage. Guys, Trophy Mage searches up Crystal Shard. I'll repeat that. Trophy Mage searches up Crystal Shard (if I haven't gotten the point across about Crystal Shard yet, you're going to have to find me another dead horse...). Yea, so we strap up our doods with whichever sword is most relevant to our opponents colors and go to town. You really want to get Feast and Famine first because it basically doubles your resources every turn. It's fantastic.
Another great way to end the game is to get a bunch of angels off of Entreat the Angels and beat face. If you have any sort of board presence w/ swords already, just Mystical Tutor for Temporal Mastery and watch as the tears drip into the newly scooped pile of cards in front of your opponent. If not, just go get Entreat and play a bunch of angels on their turn... Then beat face. Avacyn, Angel of Hope is a great card to protect your board. You can often pitch her to early game discard effects or wheels and just bring her back with your Karmic Guide later.
Notable InteractionsI want to mention some really cool interactions between cards in this deck, because there are quite a few, and some of them can get a bit tricky on rules. I recently added the card Mangara of Corondor (henceforth referred to as the Mangara of Coriander) and he's now one of my favorite cards in the deck. For one, he makes the board state very awkward. I don't feel at all bad dropping Mangar of Coriander onto the board on turn three or even into a delicious broccoli soup. He's a 1/1 so he doesn't look too scary, but he threatens to remove your opponents' most important permanents (yes, just permanent). Here's the thing about our Mangara of Coriander: removing himself from the game is not part of the activation cost of his ability. This means that if you activate Mangara of Coriander, target your opponents Darksteel Forge then subsequently cast Momentary Blink targeting your Mangara, your Mangara ability will go on the stack, then Momentary Blink will go on the stack above it. Blink resolves, exiling and returning to play your Mangara. Then your Mangara ability resolves, but since this is a much more different new Mangara of Coriander (Mangara of Cilantro?) the ability exiles your opponents artifact and nothing else. You can do the same thing with cards that return Mangara to your hand such as Deputy of Acquittals, Whitemane Lion, or Stonecloaker.
Karmic Guide is the source of an incredible amount of power and card advantage in this deck. You're often returning Reveillark and then not paying Karmic Guide's echo cost to sort of loop the two. It's wonderful. You can also use flicker/blink or bounce effects on your own upkeep to get around the echo cost while potentially returning something else from your yard. Just be careful not to try and Restoration Angel your Karmic Guide or the Vorthos of your group will call you out on it. Anyway, Karmic Guide she's an engine.
Eldrazi Displacer plays nicely w/ pretty much every creature in the deck. Late game, if you can get an Eldrazi Displacer onto the field with a Draining Whelk or even just a Spell Queller, you can get your opponents in some pretty dirty locks. Similarly, the Displacer with Reflector Mage makes it really difficult for your opponents to keep their general on the field. Displacer with Reveillark gets out of hand rather quickly as well. Just pray you haven't been Bojuka Boged yet.
Drawbacks to the Deck
It's soooo slow... Like holy cow the curve is stupid high. Try not to play this deck in duel commander if you can avoid it.
It's succeptible to strategies that do unfair things out of the graveyard. Stonecloaker is pretty much the only thing we have against graveyard decks, and it is targeted = /. It's also pretty easy to remove Stonecloaker with his bounce trigger on the stack.
If you don't draw any creatures, you're going to lose the game. Really, I don't think I need to say much more than that, except that it does happen sometimes, and it does suck.
Wrap this up
This deck is incredibly fun to play if you enjoy durdling and drawing tons of cards. Be careful who you piss off when you're playing this deck. Try to let other people answer threats if at all possible and slowly build your hand to something you can play with. You're going to be searching your deck a lot, so try to be quick about that to avoid annoying your playgroup. I would love to hear what people have to say about the list, and I am happy to answer any questions about the deck.
