8/15/19

TINKMASTER'S MODERN EPHEMERATE

MTGO user Tinkmaster managed to 5-0 a league with this masterpiece. This deck has a number of cantripping creatures, as well as Reflector Mage and Eternal Witness as blink targets. In addition to Ephemerate, Soulherder makes an appearance as a blink effect. Once the deck has generated enough value, it can finish the game off by looping Time Warps with Eternal Witness and Soulherder.
Collected Company ties the deck together. It can hit multiple creatures in one go, and is another great option to hit with Witness. Imagine Companying into Soulherder and Witness, immediately returning the Company to your hand, and getting to return something else when you blink Witness at your end step.
I wonder if there’s a way to add more infinite loops to this deck. If creatures can blink each other back and forth (like Restoration Angel and Felidar Guardian), they can make an arbitratrily large Soulherder. Knight of Autumn is currently in the sideboard, but seems like it could be in the maindeck given how well it synergizes with the blinks. While it can’t be hit with the rebound half of Ephemerate, I would still consider Spell Queller in this deck as a way to interact more. One of the biggest risks for value decks like this is getting run over by combo.
Another thing to consider is that this deck doesn’t have to be Bant colors. Esper variants have also been popping up in the 5-0 lists.