Sephara, Sky's Blade
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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Arena Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Gladiator Legal
Highlander Legal
Historic Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pioneer Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Sephara, Sky's Blade

Legendary Creature — Angel

You may pay and tap four untapped creatures you control with flying rather than pay this spell's mana cost.

Flying, lifelink

Other creatures you control with flying have indestructible. (Damage and effects that say "destroy" don't destroy them.)

Recommendations View more recommendations

raspberryfish25 on The Kaalia Battalia

1 month ago

Hey, I really enjoy your Kaalia deck but, one thing I noticed, you don’t have a lot of ways to protect Kaalia while she is on the board. A few cards I run in my personal Kaalia deck to help with this are: Galadriel's Dismissal, Teferi's Protection, Mithril Coat, Sephara, Sky's Blade, Earnest Fellowship, Malakir Rebirth  Flip and, Sejiri Shelter  Flip.

Both Teferi’s Protection and Gladriel’s Dismissal basically do the same job of not just protecting Kaalia but your entire board from spot removal and mass removal. Gladriel’s Dismissal also has the two added bonuses of in a pinch just being able to protect Kaalia or using it on your opponent to remove all their blockers for a turn. Mithril Coat is more niche but, has protected Kaalia a few times from targeted removal spells. What I like about the coat is I can play it at instant speed so I can possibly bait an opponent into waisting one of their removal spells on Kaalia. Sephara, Sky’s Blade is a slightly worse Avacyn, Angel of Hope which you are already running. Earnest Fellowship is a card I find a lot of people sleep on. At first glance the enchantment does not look like it would do that much but with it out you’re giving Kaalia protection from the three most prominent removal colors. I have had this card in my Kaalia deck for years and I have lost count how many times an opponent has went to cast a removal spell on Kaalia only to realize that they can’t because Kaalia has protection from it. Lastly, both MDFCs should almost be an auto include because they only things they are replacing is a basic plains and swamp.

I see you run a lot more spot removal then I personally do in my Kaalia deck which is not a bad thing I have just found it is not as necessary. Instead, I focus more on mass removal because, I have found in most games getting rid of one or two cards on the battlefield does not help me when I am behind. However, resetting the board when the table has shut me down helps me out immensely allowing me to claw back into the game.

A few mass removal cards I would consider are Damn, Farewell, Crux of Fate, and Scourge of Kher Ridges. Damn is just an upgraded version of Damnation because it has the flexibility to be spot removal or mass removal. Farewell is arguably the best removal spell in the format because outside of Planeswalkers it can deal with anything making it so versatile plus as an added bonus it exiles instead of destroys. Crux of Fate is unique because your deck is already running a ton of dragons so why not possibly save your board of dragons while you clear everything else out of your way? Speaking of dragons, I stumbled upon Scourge of Kher Ridges awhile back and man has this card impressed me so much. You cheat it into play with Kaalia then for you get to do 2 damage to all creatures without flying! Best thing is you can activate the ability as soon as Scourge hits the table. As long as Scourge is out you are able to shut down all non-flying creatures. Plus 99% of the creatures in your deck have flying so you don’t have to worry about any of your creatures taking damage.

Sorry if this was a longer than normal post. Overall, I really like the direction you took your Kaalia deck.

Worrad75 on Pia-tiful Impulse Control

2 months ago

Keeping a record of the changes I make here.

took out Surge of Salvation for Island Sanctuary

This deck can take some time to assemble a lethal board, and we need a way to dissuade attackers. Surge is a fantastic 'gotcha' combat trick, but it doesn't do much for us if we exile it at sorcery speed. Island sanctuary allows us to trade our card for turn for security; it blocks ground creatures, we print fliers like crazy so flying attackers dont typically scare us, and islandwalk will never matter for us. The card disadvantage isn't nothing, but this deck has plenty of ways to generate advantage from exile.

took out Faithless Looting for Dragon's Rage Channeler

This is simply too much value to ignore. We have 50(!!) noncreature spells in our deck. FL is in there to help generate velocity when we get stuck with our hand, but DRC simply blows it out of the water in terms of card selection. Filling our graveyard is also semi-relevant, as we run Reconstruct History, and having an extra 3/3 flier certainly contributes to our gameplan of smacking our opponents repeatedly.

took out Cursed Mirror for Loran of the Third Path

This swap is somewhat based on goldfishing impressions, which means there's a chance it gets reverted with more reps in a real pod. Cursed Mirror gives us velocity as a ramp piece (albiet at 3 mana), while offering incredible upside to copy something like a Professional Face-Breaker, not to mention your opponents creatures. The issue lies in the makeup of our deck; as currently constructed, we have only 18 creatures, and 10 of them are legendary. This makes the Mirror's upside more of a "hope your opponents have something cool to copy" rather than it's more powerful use of "get one of your effects doubled temporarily" due to the lack of available targets on our own board. While Loran doesn't ramp us, she gives us both interaction and non-exile card draw, both areas that this deck is a bit light on.

took out Cosmic Intervention for Boros Charm

Cosmic intervention was initially included due to Pia's natural synergy with fortell cards. However, the closer you look at situations in which you are likely to need Intervention, you start to realize how next-to-useless that extra Thopter is. Additionally, one of the massive upsides to Intervention is re-enabling ETB effects, which we currently only have 2 of in the deck. Boros Charm on the other hand actually manages to save our board from damage/destroy effects, while also giving us more flexibility. We have a handful of large creatures/effects that benefit from double strike (14 points of lifegain off Sephara, Sky's Blade, anyone?), and if all else fails the 4 life can be meaningful, as this deck tends to deal death by 1000 cuts. Exiling CI off the top at sorcery speed feels like a whiff; exiling BC feels the world is your oyster.

Dropping a Mountain for Land Tax

This is a bit of an experimental swap, as it's possible we actually want to leave more lands in the deck so they can be exiled off the top. This will mean in games where we have LT in our openning hand (the ideal start), we will exile fewer lands and more nonland cards. We'll be playing the lands every turn to be able to play the extra spells, but we'll also miss out on the value of playing lands from exile. That being said, there is undeniable value to be had by being a bit greedy here.

mlequesne on Birds with Counters

1 year ago

Hi friend, I love your deck :)

I've actually loved birds tribal since odyssey, and actually I've been lately thinking to build a Derevi bird deck. I have some non-bird suggestions:

See you friend :)

Guerric on [Primer] Helming the Host of Heaven *Update*

1 year ago

As I continue to ponder the Breathkeeper Seraph/Pyre of Heroes combo, I think I am leaning towards putting it in the deck. This change would almost certainly accompany swapping Steelshaper's Gift for Enlightened Tutor, though I'll probably wait till the latter is reprinted in order to do that. While the combo itself is what draws a lot of people, this deck works very well without it, and it would be a mistake to build the deck around it. That being said, the utility offered by both pieces even on their own is worthwhile. The pyre is just a great utility tutor in its own, and one of the few ways we can grab any angel in the deck we want, including the seraph if we have a five drop. It can be really helpful in grabbing our hate pieces, including Linvala, Keeper of Silence and Angel of Jubilation (even though the latter shuts the pyre off, we'll still be glad to have her against lifepay and sacrifice shenanigans). We can sacrifice the seraph to it to grab Sephara, Sky's Blade, and then can pair it to seraph when she returns in order to give us a really mean indestructible board state that will be difficult to get around. We could use it to get Brisela, Voice of Nightmares  Meld  Meld out, and can even sacrifice the seraph to get Bruna, the Fading Light  Meld, bonding it to Brisela when it returns. We could also sac a three-drop to get Serra Paragon, and the immediately get back said three drop with paragon's ability, and then can keep the same thing with other one, two, and three drop angels, getting focused "card draw" out of the equation. We can do the same thing by sacrificing the seraph to get out Emeria Shepherd which we can then use to get it back immediately if we have a plains in hand. Even on its own the seraph can protect Giada, Brisela, Sephara, or any other angel that is critical to our gameplan.

Needless to say, I think it would be a mistake to not include this combo, though I also think it would be a mistake to get too excited about it and build around it as it could compromise our main plan which is goldfishing and killing the table. This combo gives us some resilience and allows us to potentially leverage our angel library as a resource. It's great, but it's not essential. As such, a surgical approach would work best. I think I am likely to cut Darksteel Mutation and Starnheim Unleashed to put it in. I'll add Kabira Takedown  Flip into the mana base to keep my removal at parity, and cut the worst removal piece, which is mutation. Starnheim Unleashed is an awesome card in the deck and I am reticent to cut it, but this combo is just better. I'd still recommend playing it for anyone who has room in their list.

Including the pyre also raises the question of other pieces that could be included. Inspiring Overseer is one I've had my eye on for awhile, and it is great here as we can sac it to get four drops and then get it back when paired with the seraph. It was already good with Sword of Hearth and Home for getting a draw engine going, and will be great with Serra Paragon and Emeria Shepherd as well. It's not essential by any means and we have to consider the floor of the card which is that it is an over-costed, one-off angelic version of Elvish Visionary, but at the three drop slot it gets some consideration at any rate because of the times where it can be really good.

The other card that should be considered now is Archangel of Tithes. This wasn't high priority before because we rarely needed either of its abilities since we usually have enough huge blockers to deter attacking and our flyers don't often have issues with blockers. Nonetheless, it is a great toolbox piece against infinite attack step/attacker combos like Godo/Helm Kiki-Jiki/Village Bell Ringer, etc. These combos still kill us because they can generate enough attackers to get around and eventually kill our defenders, but with the archangel they'll never be able to pay for it, making it a helpful hate piece much like Linvala and Jubilation are.

I currently don't have slots to add these, but will be keeping an eye on things to potentially cut to potentially add them.

Delphen7 on Squadron Hawk in Modern?

1 year ago

This may just be wistful fancy, but I really want to get Squadron Hawk to work in modern.

I can't find a shell though. I come up with Solitude and March of Otherworldly Light, plus maybe Sunscour, and then I get stuck.

I'm just going to run though my thoughts on the list I'm trying to craft and hope someone sees something I haven't.


Direction of the List

  • I ultimately want something that utilizes the usefulness of the search effect of the hawks, while ideally being mono white.
  • At one point I ended up with a list similar to Death and Taxes at one point, but I didn't like the dilution that Hawk caused in that list as Hawk's not a prison piece.
  • Brought Back is a card I keep looking at, but it wants lots of etbs/fetch effects, and that doesn't seem to feed overall into the controlly plan I have thus far with Solitude/March

Pros of the Hawks:

One hawk leads to

  • 3 white cards in hand
  • 3 creatures in hand
  • 3 flyers in hand
  • 3 cards with the same name in hand

Same Name

  • I couldn't find anything good in modern that cares about shared names or naming a specific card (Aside from Mirror Box, but that requires different setup), so I scrapped this one pretty quickly.

Flying

  • This feels promising, as Sephara, Sky's Blade looks like an interesting payoff. However she requires a lot of flyers, and she likes the cheaper ones better. Although now I think about it an Aether Vial shell with her would be interesting...

White Cards Matter

  • Solitude, March, and Sunscour are the only good cards I could find in modern that cared about white cards in hand. And honestly, Solitude and March will probably make the list regardless

Creature Cards

  • I didn't find anything in mono white that really cared about having creatures in hand, but I haven't dived too deep into this one yet.

And that brings me here. Is there a potential home for Squadron Hawk, or is it just a meme at this point? All suggestions/thoughts welcome :)

(Disclaimer: I know Hawks are bad. I just want a functioning list)

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