Ephara has some interesting game text (and as
always, unlike Aaron Forsythe, I do mean that as
a compliment). She promises a continuous stream
of cards - as long as you have a continuous
stream of creatures. Ironically, a continuous
stream of cards does more to guarantee you a
continuous stream of creatures, but fortunately
Ephara is in the right colors for her game text.
Between Cloudshift effects and the ever-popular
Whitemane Lion style of creature, a deck built
around Ephara can easily turn into some kind of
crazy out-of-control zone transition machine.
Today's card of the day is Ephara, God of the
Polis which is a four mana White and Blue
Indestructible enchantment that becomes a 6/5
with Devotion seven to White/Blue and each turn
has you draw a card during the upkeep step if a
creature entered the battlefield under your
control on the previous turn. Token
production, Flash, and enter the battlefield
effects are some of the top avenues of support
for this card and drawing an extra card both on
your turn and potentially the opponent's is
solid card advantage that fuels itself by
providing more cards to maintain the effect each
turn. This is a more subtle god than most
of the others, but it works well in a Blue/White
token design and Blue offers multiple Flash
options as well.
In Limited gaining the advantage of an extra
card after each of your turns is easy enough to
manage and any god is at least playable, so this
is worth a first pick in Booster and very much a
consideration for working around in Sealed.
Card advantage attached to a potential
Indestructible 6/5 for four mana is a bargain
and should only be sideboarded if both the Blue
and White pools are unusable.
Ephara, God of the Polis is the least the
flashy of the new gods, but it may be the
easiest to use. All that you have to do as a
player is put creatures onto the battlefield and
then remember to draw a card! Brimaz, King of
Oreskos looks like a great creature to use with
Ephara. This god may be overlooked right now
because U/W is dominated by control. I have a
hunch that Ephara, God of the Polis will become
a top card when Ravnica block rotates out of
Standard. For some of you, an indestructible 6/5
for 4 mana is hard to overlook but that is
exactly what is happening. Ephara, God of the
Polis would be an interesting card to draft. She
could easily be a 1st pack hit or a 3rd pack
miss. Overall, this god is underwhelming but
future cards could easily change that.
