Thursday, January 23, 2014

Ephemeral

Sometimes, the most difficult part of building a new deck is the name. This wasn't one of those times. Ephemeral is a nice little Pelican song that I felt really fit the nature of this deck. That nature? Agent of the Fates and any enchantment.

"Auras, you mean?"

Alright, alright, you win, Kor Spiritdancer.

So between the Spiritdancer and the Agent, the obvious thing to do was to put this on the Boggles track. If the deck is already built, why not use the tested ideas? This meant adding green and that is where, as you might hear in a Dukes of Hazzard voice over, everything got stickier than a pickle in a jar.

Or something, I was eight when the Dukes of Hazzard was on, I just remember an orange car jumping rivers to a horn playing "Dixieland". Starting decklist:
4 Kor Spiritdancer
4 Agent of the Fates
4 Gladecover Scout
4 Slippery Bogle
3 Umbra Mystic

3 Rancor
3 Hyena Umbra
4 Ethereal Armor
3 Snake Umbra
1 Daybreak Coronet

4 Dismember

6 Forest
5 Plains
4 Swamp
1 Orzhov Guildgate
1 Orzhov Basilica 
1 Selesnya Guildgate
1 Selesnya Sanctuary
1 Golgari Guildgate
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Evolving Wilds
I showed the deck to Jason and he suggested Femeref Enchantress because it would increase the card drawing effects. I had two, so I cut two Slippery Bogles to add them. I also thought I had Felidar Umbras but no, I don't, so Snake Umbra it is, because I love Snake Umbra.

Then I started goldfishing the deck and that's when I saw trouble. What a mess that mana base is! Trying to get BB and G and W all without spending a lot of money on the mana is very, very difficult. Too difficult, as it turns out, as there were too many lands that entered tapped and too much demand for BB by turn 3, but G and GW on turns 1 and 2, respectively. I was worried I was going to have to make changes.

I played the deck against Fuz and Noah with similarly frustrating results (and a lightbulb that said I should've named this deck 'Tiny Dancer' but oh well. I have too many decks that start with T anyway). The biggest enemy I had was my mana and I could never get Agent of the Fates online because I just couldn't cast him.

Ephemeral is going to have to change to do what I want it to do. 

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