Want to play a draw-go style deck that isn’t straight control? Want to draw cards and attack with creatures? This U/W flash deck is just what you’re looking for!
Decklist – U/W Flash with Ephara, God of the Polis
| Ephara, God of the Polis |
Creatures (36)
| Containment Priest | |
| Faerie Mastermind | |
| Niambi, Esteemed Speaker | |
| Snapcaster Mage | |
| Adeline, Resplendent Cathar | |
| Aven Mindcensor | |
| Brazen Borrower |
| Aetherling | |
| Deadeye Navigator | |
| Torrential Gearhulk | |
| Sun Titan | |
| Hullbreaker Horror |
Planeswalkers (6)
| Niko Aris |
| Teferi, Time Raveler | |
| Elspeth, Knight-Errant | |
| The Wandering Emperor | |
| Teferi, Hero of Dominaria | |
| Elspeth, Sun’s Champion |
Artifacts (1)
| Jeweled Lotus |
Enchantments (1)
| Rhystic Study |
Instants (14)
| Brainstorm | |
| Ephemerate | |
| Opt | |
| Swords to Plowshares | |
| Counterspell | |
| Cyclonic Rift | |
| March of Otherworldly Light | |
| Archmage’s Charm | |
| Force of Negation | |
| Render Silent |
| Akroma’s Will | |
| Clever Concealment | |
| Release to Memory | |
| Force of Will |
Sorceries (4)
| Ponder | |
| Supreme Verdict | |
| Farewell | |
| Ondu Inversion |
Lands (37) + 2 MFDCs
Deck Tech
Primary Game Plan
We are looking to draw a card off of our commander on our upkeep as often as possible by playing a ton of flash creatures and other ways of having a creature enter the battlefield on our opponent’s turn. Draw-go with a twist, as we want to tap out at the end of our opponent’s turn by flashing in a creature, ideally one that will disrupt their game plan, then untap and draw an extra card. Of course, we also want to draw an extra card on our opponent’s upkeep. For this purpose, we play a lot of creatures and Planeswalkers that, once on the battlefield, will make creatures without further mana investment from us. The balance of the deck is between these two kinds of creatures and our gameplay will be largely dependent on which ones we draw.
Ephara the Card Drawer
I love this card. She is one of my favorites, as is Brimaz, King of Oreskos, which is from the same set and pairs well with the god. As a 4-drop that doesn’t immediately impact the board, she never found a home in Standard, short of a 1-of, fun-of. As a commander, though, she offers a powerful static ability in two colors that can abuse it with efficient power-to-mana ratio creatures, all while being difficult to deal with as an indestructible enchantment/creature. She also functions as a potent game-ending threat once we have enough devotion.
It can be hard to tap out on turn 4 when our deck plays so well at instant speed, but the sooner we get our card-draw engine online, the sooner we can run away with the game through sheer card advantage. We play Jeweled Lotus because the sooner we get our commander down, the better, and it lets us play her as early as turn 1. Even if we don’t have a lot of creatures with flash in hand, it is worth casting her as soon as possible. She is the centerpiece of the deck. Without her, we will be able to keep up for awhile, as most of our creatures are individually powerful, but not deep into the late game. Many Commander decks will play more bombs and finishers than we have, so it is our card advantage that will keep us competitive in a long game.
Creatures with Flash
Blue and white have a lot of powerful creatures that can be cast at instant speed. We play 20 of them, which gives us 20 ways to trigger Ephara, God of the Polis on our opponent’s turn so that we draw an extra card on our upkeep (we have more ways than this, but more on that later). All of these creatures have an enter-the-battlefield (ETB) effect that makes them powerful on their own. As I’ve said before, cards that do only one thing in Commander are rarely good enough to make the cut and these are no exception. We aren’t just jamming flash creatures, but looking to gain extra value from their ETBs. Furthermore, we have ways to abuse their ETBs by blinking them or returning them to our hand. This is a subtheme of our deck and gives us the ability to grind out games that would otherwise be out of reach. However, the drawback of all this value is most of our creatures are underpowered when it comes to power and toughness, making winning through combat with them a lengthy affair.
Aven Mindcensor – nerfing a Demonic Tutor can be huge. Nerfing an Expedition Map can also be worth it. The 2/1 body with evasion is relevant.
Brazen Borrower – the flexibility of this card is well known to Modern players. Ideally, we cast Petty Theft to bounce a problematic permanent that we can then counter, before casting Brazen Borrower to draw an extra card and speed up our clock.
Cemetery Protector – this card is amazing in our deck. It gives us some graveyard hate, which is crucial in any Commander deck, while turning our noncreature spells and lands into creature producers that trigger Ephara, God of the Polis. This card does both things that we want: it can be cast on our opponent’s turn and it can give us a creature on either turn. The 3/4 body for 4 mana is respectable.
Containment Priest – shuts down strategies looking to reanimate or otherwise cheat big fatties into play. Be careful, though, as the priest also shuts down some of what we are trying to do. Be sure not to cast Ephemerate on one of your creatures with Containment Priest out. Not that I’ve ever made that mistake…
Errant and Giada – as of this writing, this card has only just been printed and wow, it’s as if Wizards had this deck in mind when they designed it.
Faerie Mastermind – a new addition that took the place of Deputy of Acquittals. The new faerie is a powerful card-draw engine on a respectable body with evasion, but I’m not convinced it’s better than the deputy. The latter gives us a way to protect our best creature or bounce the creature with the best ETB effect so we can reuse it. It’s possible both creatures deserve a spot.
Glorious Protector – offers protection from sweepers for our other creatures. Foretell is a bonus that gives us flexibility.
Guardian of Faith – offers unrestricted protection from sweepers, unlike Glorious Protector, which only lets us save non-Angels.
Hullbreaker Horror – we are paying full value for this kraken, but it’s worth it. It turns our flash creatures into Remand (assuming we have our commander out). It’s also one of our best ways to abuse our creatures’ ETB effects repeatedly or answer difficult nonland permanents. The 7/8 body makes it a legitimate finisher, too.
Niambi, Esteemed Speaker – another way to get a second ETB from one of our creatures, the life gain is an added bonus. The ability to draw cards off of her is gravy, unless you’re missing land drops with a hand full of legendary creatures.
Nimble Obstructionist – no one plays around this card. Sometimes we’ll just want to draw off of Ephara, God of the Polis and have a faster, evasive clock. Other times we will blow our opponent out when they try and ultimate a Planeswalker or crack a fetch.
Restoration Angel – the best flash card to pair with our creatures with powerful ETBs. Another flier on a relevant body. Anyone who played Standard when this angel was legal needs no explanation of her power.
Sigrid, God-Favored – answers our opponent’s biggest attacker or best blocker. Protection from God creatures is not irrelevant, given how powerful the god cycles are.
Snapcaster Mage – Magic’s premier flash creature, if you haven’t played with or against it in Modern, Legacy, or Vintage, this card is amazing. It sees less play now than it did 10 years ago, but while it’s fallen out of favor with Modern players, it’s still an all-star in Commander.
Solitude – anyone who plays Modern knows how powerful this card is. A Swords to Plowshares on a body. The flexibility it gives us is amazing, all while giving us an Ephara, God of the Polis trigger. Since it’s exile ability triggers upon entering the battlefield, we can repeatedly abuse it with our various blink effects.
Spell Queller – another Modern staple, this time a sort-of Counterspell on a stick. More often than not, it plays like a Counterspell. Our blink shenanigans mean we can counter something more threatening later.
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir – gives all of our creatures flash, while also shutting down our opponent’s instants.
Torrential Gearhulk – one of our most powerful flash creatures, the 5/6 body makes it a legitimate threat to close out a game, even without casting our best instant from the graveyard for free.
Vendilion Clique – a 3/1 flier that gives us near-perfect information of our opponent’s hand, while also snagging that hand’s most problematic nonland card. For those not familiar with it, we can target ourselves if we have a dead card or need to find a land.
Voracious Greatshark – what a card! A shark with flash that counters creatures or artifacts? Okay!
Honorable Mention
Release to Memory – we nuke our opponent’s graveyard and get a 1/1 token for each creature exiled this way, all at instant speed.
Creatures Who Can Trigger Ephara, God of the Polis Repeatedly
These are the creatures we cast on curve and use to trigger Ephara, God of the Polis repeatedly on our opponent’s turn without further mana investment from us, thereby letting us hold up mana to cast our flash creatures to trigger Ephara, God of the Polis on our own turn. These are some of our best creatures for closing out games, in that many can create an army on their own or with just a little help.
Adeline, Resplendent Cathar – a new addition, this knight can easily produce her own army on the right board.
Aetherling – one of our finishers, it also blinks itself for a single blue mana, allowing us to trigger Ephara, God of the Polis repeatedly on both our turn and on our opponent’s. For those who didn’t play it in its Standard hey-day, if played correctly, this shapeshifter is nearly impossible to kill.
Brimaz, King of Oreskos – one of our best creatures to trigger Ephara, God of the Polis on both our turn and our opponent’s turn. Also, one of my all-time favorite cards.
Castle Ardenvale – okay, so this is a land, but it is a way we can make creatures, either on our turn or on our opponent’s.
Deadeye Navigator – a powerful blink effect that can protect our best creature for 1U, all while triggering our commander.
Geist of Saint Traft – the 2/2 body dies easily in combat, but on the right board or with the right answers in our hand, we will be able to get lots of attack triggers out of this hexproof threat. Even without all that, turn 3 Geist of Saint Traft, turn 4 Ephara, God of the Polis, attack for 6, and draw a card on our opponent’s upkeep is worth it, even if the geist dies in combat.
Glen Elendra Archmage – we get two Ephara, God of the Polis triggers out of this faerie wizard thanks to persist. We also get to counter a noncreature spell along the way if we’re lucky.
Heliod, God of the Sun – gives our team vigilance, while giving us the ability to make a creature on our opponent’s turn or our own. Another of our best finishers.
Keeper of the Accord – the key text here is “at the beginning of each opponent’s end step,” as this will trigger Ephara, God of the Polis and let us draw an extra card on our upkeep. The mana ramp is nice, too.
Mirrex – another land that lets us make a creature on our opponent’s turn.
Platoon Dispenser – a card-draw engine that makes an army at instant speed, thereby drawing us more cards off of Ephara. That it’s a colorless creature diversifies our threats against any kind of pro-white or pro-blue shenanigans, while Unearth gives us extra value.
The Council of Four – a new addition, I love this card. It punishes our opponents for doing what we all want to do in a long game – draw extra cards and do more than one thing a turn. The drawback, of course, is our opponent can play around it, but that’s already a win for us.
Sun Titan – we have lots of targets for its ETB and attack triggers. The card advantage built in to this 6/6 body is why this giant sees so much Commander play. Note that it is a nonbo with Containment Priest and creatures in our graveyard.
Utility Creatures
These creatures have powerful ETB effects that we want to abuse.
Deputy of Detention – a great answer for tokens or a must-kill commander that comes down early.
Reflector Mage – a powerful tempo card that can keep an opponent’s commander off the battlefield indefinitely, particularly if we have a few blink effects to target it with.
Skyclave Apparition – another target for our blink effects, this is a flexible answer for problematic permanents.
Abusing ETB Triggers
This is not our primary goal, but we play a number of cards not mentioned above that allow us to get extra value out of the various ETB triggers on creatures we control, all while giving us another Ephara, God of the Polis trigger. It should be noted that we play numerous creatures that allow us to blink or recast our creatures on top of the cards below.
Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines – a recent addition that I still haven’t play-tested much, Mom passes the eye test, at the very least (she’s pretty good in other formats, too). There will be times when all that text won’t do much, but a 4/7 vigilant blocker isn’t so bad, and she will almost always draw out a kill spell or sweeper.
Ephemerate – Modern’s premier blink spell, we get to do it twice.
Niko Aris – their +1 guarantees one of our creatures gets through blockers, while returning it to our hand to recast later. Don’t sleep on the power of unblockability. I’ve punched through the final points of damage on a clogged board more than once with this ability.
Teferi, Time Raveler – does a lot of what we want. His static ability is obnoxious to play against but synergizes too well with our flash creatures to pass up. His -3 can bounce our own creature so that we get more value out of it.
Planeswalkers
Speaking of Planeswalkers, these give us some of our best ways to repeatedly trigger Ephara, God of the Polis, as they don’t require a mana investment once they’re on the battlefield to use and their ultimates give us an alternate win condition.
Elspeth, Knight-Errant – her +1 creates a token that lets us trigger Ephara, God of the Polis on our opponent’s upkeep while working towards a game-ending ultimate. Her other +1 can close out a game quickly if our commander is a creature.
Elspeth, Sun’s Champion – arguably the best 6-mana Planeswalker in the game, her +1 gives us 3 tokens, while her -3 will very often function as a 1-sided boardwipe.
Teferi, Hero of Dominaria – a Planeswalker that only barely works with our strategy, as we can tick down and tuck our own creature so as to recast it on another turn. However, his +1 can often untap enough lands that we can still flash a creature in on our opponent’s turn, and his ultimate will quickly close out games.
The Wandering Emperor – a new addition and one-of-a-kind, this Planeswalker has flash! And we can activate her abilities at instant speed the turn we flash her in. She gives us another way to trigger Ephara, God of the Polis on our upkeep with her -1.
The Rest
The remaining spots are taken up with answers (counter spells, kill spells, Cyclonic Rift), card draw (Rhystic Study feels so right in this deck), and a bit of ramp (Jeweled Lotus). We also have a couple of tricks up our sleeve to protect our team and close out games, (Akroma’s Will and Clever Concealment).
As usual, this is one place we can make any number of changes. Is Dovin’s Veto better than Force of Negation? Is Disallow better than Render Silent? Cryptic Command over Archmage’s Charm? I will say one thing here: Render Silent is amazing in Commander. Games go long and opponents will try to play around our counter magic by casting 2 or 3 spells in a turn. Not with Render Silent!
Flex Spots
This deck is sneaky good. Playing at instant speed is itself inherently powerful, but when you combine that with all the ETB triggers on these flash creatures, some of the best Planeswalkers in the game, and some of Magic’s premier answers, you end up with a deck that has game against just about anything. Toss in a commander that is difficult to deal with while also drawing us cards…well, you get the drift. That being said, we could play even better answers. Mana Drain, Cryptic Command, and Fierce Guardianship) increase the power level. Leyline Binding and Prismatic Ending are new cards that add flexibility to our current removal. Flawless Maneuver just got a reprint that has dropped its price to under $10, which makes it a possible upgrade for Akroma’s Will or Clever Concealment. We could make room for mana rocks that would help get us to our big finishers faster or help us cast a spell on our turn and a spell on our opponent’s turn to maximize Ephara, God of the Polis triggers sooner than turn 5 or 6.
A note on mana rocks – many of our creatures are mana restrictive, requiring double blue or white, or both blue and white in their casting costs. This makes using colorless mana more tricky, so if you choose to go this route, keep this in mind.
Because this deck is sneaky good and because it is a draw-go control-style deck, even if it’s not a traditional control build, we can also make changes to decrease the power level. We could cut down on the amount of counter magic we play, or choose more varied answers than Swords to Plowshares for removal that don’t see play in nearly every deck that can run them. Snapcaster Mage and the two Teferi Planeswalkers are fairly expensive staples of traditional U/W control decks. Replacing them with cheaper cards that do similar things can offer us both a different play experience and help our opponent’s salt levels. Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, for instance, is a cheap Planeswalker (currently less than $4) that synergizes with our strategy. Karn, Scion of Urza is about twice as expensive as Gideon, but also creates a token that will trigger Ephara, God of the Polis. These are Planeswalkers that can be substituted in for the more control-style Walkers that people see so much of in Modern.
Here are some other cards that could easily be slotted in the deck:
| Consider | |
| Preordain | |
| Scout’s Warning | |
| Serum Visions | |
| Brought Back | |
| Dennick, Pious Apprentice | |
| Deputy of Detention | |
| Disdainful Stroke | |
| Prince Imrahil the Fair | |
| Scheming Fence | |
| Detention Sphere |
| Disallow | |
| Flickerwisp | |
| Hushwing Gryff | |
| Monastery Swiftspear | |
| Crafty Cutpurse | |
| Raff Capashen, Ship’s Mage | |
| Smothering Tithe | |
| Teleportation Circle | |
| Oath of Teferi | |
| Windshaper Planetar |
These cards can be divided into several categories: cantrips/card draw, counter spells/answers, blink effects, flash creatures, and value/utility cards. This is not an exhaustive list of cards that fit these categories, but it should give you a starting point. Many of these cards used to be in the deck and have been cut to make room for cards I consider better or want to try out. In other instances, I play the cut card in another deck (Scheming Fence, for example) and I am looking simply to diversify my game play. My point is that none of the above cards are wrong or bad for the deck. It’s up to you and your budget!
A card that deserves mentioning by itself is Divine Visitation. We aren’t a devoted token deck, but we play enough token producers that this enchantment could easily be slotted in and increase the power level of the deck. I play the card in my Mardu token deck and so have left it out here, but it is really, really good.
Ideal Hand and Game Play
Our most ideal hand has Jeweled Lotus in it so that we can play our commander on turn 1 and start drawing extra cards as soon as possible. The absolute nut draw aside, we are looking for creatures along our curve, plus an answer or cantrip to dig for what we want. We don’t play any 1-drop creatures, so we will often play a land and pass on turn 1. Of our early-game creatures, we are looking for cards that set us up for some explosive turns once we have Ephara, God of the Polis down – Adeline, Resplendent Cathar, Brimaz, King of Oreskos, Geist of Saint Traft – or slow down our opponent to give us time to get our commander down – Reflector Mage, Spell Queller, Vendilion Clique. A hand with one creature and either counter magic or kill spells is acceptable, given our goal to start drawing extra cards (and hopefully creatures) with Ephara, God of the Polis. We run 36 creatures so our odds are good that we draw into some even if we keep a creature-light hand.
As to game play, there are two general ways our deck will play. First, we have an aggressive start with creatures like Brimaz, King of Oreskos, Geist of Saint Traft, and Adeline, Resplendent Cathar and follow this up with either our 5- and 6-drop finishers to put the game away, or with our flash creatures that we use to answer our opponent’s plays. This kind of draw resembles the tempo style decks of 60-card formats (Delver in Legacy and Izzet in Modern, for example).
Second, we have a reactive hand full of counter spells, prison-style creatures, or flash creatures. When this happens, our deck will play much more like a control deck than an aggro one. In either scenario, I strongly recommend getting Ephara, God of the Polis down as soon as possible. She is the engine that keeps us in long games, regardless of which start we have.
A few more notes on our value creatures: a 3-drop that makes tokens into Ephara, God of the Polis is a powerful play. Some of our flash creatures in the 2- and 3-drop slot are best used after we cast our commander and not on curve. That being said, don’t miss an opportunity to counter something with Spell Queller on turn 3 just because you want to get value out of Ephara, God of the Polis. Waiting until turn 5 to start interacting with your opponent will often lead to defeat.
As I’ve mentioned above, we only play a few true haymakers/finishers, and many of those are Planeswalkers and easy to attack down. About half of our early creatures are overpowered for their mana cost, like Brimaz, King of Oreskos, but once we get to the late game, they lose much of their effectiveness. Our biggest route to victory at this point is through card advantage. If we are playing one spell a turn in the late game, our spells will more often than not be outclassed by our opponent’s. The solution to this is having more than one spell to cast in the late game in order to out-tempo our opponent. With this in mind, we want to make our land drops and get Ephara, God of the Polis online as fast as possible. Once we reach turns 5 and 6, we are really hoping to stick a Planeswalker or another engine for repeatedly abusing Ephara, God of the Polis without having to commit more to the board or empty our hand. Our Elspeths or The Wandering Emperor are great at this, but even a turn 6 Reflector Mage to bounce one blocker, plus a kill spell to take care of the other in order to attack with Brimaz or Geist of Saint Traft is a good play for us. In a perfect world, we would still have counter magic up in this scenario, as well.
Weaknesses
As discussed above, we are sacrificing late-game power for early game interaction and repeatable ways to trigger Ephara, God of the Polis. If we can’t disrupt our opponent’s strategy enough, their threats may just run away with the game. We are largely playing a fair game, looking to attack our opponent over several turns, rather than combo off. We have counter magic and thus ways to interact with both fair and unfair strategies, but if we don’t have the right answers, combo decks, or decks playing big bombs, won’t care about our early threats, take some hits, and then do their thing and win. Finally, as with any creature-based strategy, we have to play around sweepers. We are incentivized to play creatures to trigger Ephara, God of the Polis, but we have to be wise about our choices. Ideally, we will have a mix of threats – Planeswalkers and creatures that produce creatures – in order to play around boardwipes. Plus, we do play two spells that will allow us to survive a sweeper, as detailed above.
Conclusion
This deck is so much fun to play and more powerful than it may first appear. Its sum is greater than its parts, as they say. It is a great pseudo-control deck that will satisfy midrange and tempo players alike. If you like aggressive strategies but don’t like running out of steam on turn 5 or 6, this deck is a good choice for you. We have answers and really fun threats. Ephara, God of the Polis and Brimaz, King of Oreskos are two of my favorite cards of all time and they synergize so well together. We can easily pivot from an aggressive game plan to a reactive one, or vice versa, all while drawing a ton of cards to keep us in the game.
What do you think of the deck? What cards would you definitely slot in? Take out? Let me know in the comments!
