#zhalfir

[xantchaslegacy]

The next visit to Zhalfir will culminate in Wrenn’s seed/sapling bearing fruit called “sparkmangoes” that will allow characters to become full fledged planeswalkers. These fruit will be a driving factor and coveted prize when the planned Marvel crossover (gets strangled from behind)

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Restless Dead by Ian Miller

[magicwithclass]

28 Asmira, holy avenger and I have more somewhere. I think this card is criminally underrated and overlooked. Did you know Asmira is the top commander for selesyna aristocrat decks on edhrec? That alone should make you stop and wonder if asmira is worth picking up a couple of copies. Green/white aristocrats is a functional yet underpowered deck that let's you use a lot of cards that aren't seen in other more generic decks. Selesyna aristocrats is just not a deck you see every day but if you look at some of the deck lists online then it as a unique more budget build if you are looking for some rarely done themes. It isn't even that unplayable as a commander for the theme as the ability on Asmira is not limited to once per turn. It is annoying that the counters enter the battlefield all at once and not until end of turn but at least it triggers on the end step of every turn. Flying for invasion is also thankfully included as I want my commander to get through if I am making it really big. I wonder how many people have won with commander damage using Asmira as the commander? Maybe you can join those illustrious ranks? Selesyna is also the color combintion that synergies most with +1 +1 so maybe that can be a subtheme in the deck. I was surprised that this card was almost 30 dollars in September 2020. This was right before all the buyouts so this could have been one of the first buyouts that led to the spikes in old school mtg in 2021. I can see why this card was one of the first cards targeted. It can be your commander and it is one of the few two color commanders on the reserved list. The fact that it is almost playable even now and can lead a popular deck strategy in aristocrats in an unusual color combination contribute to this card's spikes. The spike in 2020 was short lived and I would love to learn why the attempt failed but the card rebounded in 2021 when the entire reserved list basically climbed. The card remains at less than 2 dollars but if selesyna aristocrats ever becomes a theme or gets a commander precon or even gets another playable commander then this card may start rising in price again. If you can get a near mint copy for under a dollar I would say that there are worse deals and greater risks. While this card may never return to its insane highs, the future is unknowable. In the story, Asmira was a leader during the mirage and visions eras. She had visions and could most clearly interpret teferi's aid. She has not been seen or referenced much in recent mtg lore but now that zhalfir is its own plane maybe a visit to zhalfir will show asmira's fate.

[overgrown-estate]

So, Ajani and Nissa are healed or saved from phyresis. Like Venser did for him, Karn gave up his spark to cleanse the sparks of Ajani and Nissa. Though more so to Ajani as Nissa's spark began to crumble before being returned to her body. What this means for Nissa, who knows? Can we just let her evolve into an elemental already ala Elspeth into an angel and get her out of the story?

Tally by end of MOM story: Zhalfir and New Phyrexia switch places. New Phyrexia is now cut off from the Multiverse. And Zhalfir is now part of the Multiverse but on it's own rather than returned to Dominaria? Is that right?

Wrenn had an acorn that Teferi took before she burned out. Teferi planted Wrenn's acorn in the now returned Zhalfiir and, apparently, Wrenn will return once she's all grown up again.

Tamiyo still exists as magical story characters and lives with her family, Tyvar succeeded in killing the phyrexian sea serpent, phyrexians on Kaladesh shut down before they could kill Chandra's mother. The only thing not confirmed was whether Nahiri was still alive or was she really crushed to death. I guess that's something that might be addressed in Aftermath, but if she did survive somehow she's basically shut down like Ajani and Nissa were but under a pile of rubble.

[danco110]

“Thank you,” Koth sighed.

“Always.”

Elspeth took flight on radiant wings, away from her Vulshok friend. Soon she was hovering high above the Zhalfirin village, anxiously clapping a hand across her face as she berated herself.

“‘Always’? I couldn’t say anything…actually friendly to him? ‘You’re welcome, Koth,’ perhaps? Or maybe, just maybe, ‘Goodbye’? Argh, what is wrong with me!”

Elspeth glared over her shoulder at her new feathered appendages. “Is it…an angel thing? I know most every angel I’ve met has been rather…cold. But still, there’s, er…Lyra…Tariel, technically…there were Bruna and Gisela…And besides, I wasn’t born an angel! Doesn’t seem fair I should have to act so…distant.”

Elspeth uselessly clenched her fists, trying and failing to ignore the sound of wingbeats behind her. She hung her head to gaze sullenly at the village below.

“I just wish I could say goodbye to you, Koth…”

Elspeth noticed some movement out of the corner of her eye. Looking up, she saw another angel floating beside her. The new arrival’s wings beat in time with Elspeth’s as she offered the planeswalker a small, patronizing smirk.

“First time?”

Elspeth’s expression crumpled into a mix of angst and confusion, as though she were unsure how to react to this other angel.

“Huh?”

“I’m ascended too,” shrugged the seraph. “And yes, sorry to say, but the wings affect how you talk. Or, rather, being an angel affects how you talk…to mortals. But hey! At least you’ll be able to protect them a lot better now!”

Elspeth buried her head in her hands, a gesture made somewhat awkward by nature of her remaining upright in the air.

“What a relief,” she groaned into her palms.

[While I think angels just inherently speaking like they do has more interesting implications, and while it would explain Elspeth’s sudden change in speech and behavior…I kinda feel like, if you’re socialized and taught from ‘birth’ that you are a deity, savior, and leader to those literally and figuratively beneath you, that might lead to some minor variation in speech patterns…at the very least.]

[almostlookedhuman]

[pmiller1]

So... does this count as the 3rd time that a plane got renamed?

From Argentum to Mirrodin to New Phyrexia to now Zhalfir.

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Jolrael, Voice of Zhalfir

Artist: Scott M. Fischer TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[esperchallenge]

Day 1: Snoozetown, Zhalfir

The Commander

The commander for this first list is Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir, first printed as the face commander of the esper Cavalry Charge precon, released alongside the set March of the Machine. He is the fifth commander to be printed with Eminence, only seen before in the 2017 Commander set. Eminence is powerful because it gives your commander an effect on the game while they're still in the command zone: the only limitation is that all the Eminence abilities work with a single creature type. In Jabari's case, that's knights.

(more under the cut)

Jabari allows you to loot a card once per turn cycle when you attack with a knight. On its own, this isn't that powerful, giving you a small amount of card selection. The true power comes out when Jabari himself hits the battlefield. His last ability lets you reanimate any knight in your graveyard, returning it to the battle for free, as long as Jabari can connect with an opponent. He has flying to help him get through, and first strike allows you to pull shenanigans, since what you reanimate will hit the battlefield before normal damage happens. This means you can bring back a lord effect during first strike damage and pump the rest of your knights when they all connect afterwards.

The obvious way to build Sidar Jabari is knight typal, but you can also go more of a reanimator route, playing cheap knights that let you put your finishers into the graveyard to reanimate in any number of ways. You could also go for an aristocrats strategy: there are multiple knights that have a blood artist-adjacent effect. One last option is to build around the card Nazgûl, as they're knights that scale each other up, and you can run nine of them in the deck. You could even run Conspiracy-type effects and make all your creatures wraiths as well as knights!

The Decklist

Since this is my first decklist in the challenge, I decided to go the obvious route and build a knight typal deck. There will be other chances to go in a more goofy direction. The name of the deck, Snoozetown, Zhalfir, is a reference to the fact that I admittedly went the boring route and also because you're trying to go Knighty Knight lol.

This is a creature heavy deck, with 43 total creatures including the commander. There are a surprisingly high number of lords for the knight type. We have 14 total lord effects in the deck, ranging from pumping power and toughness to giving them abilities like double strike, indestructible, and even horsemanship.

The lands and ramp are from a basic manabase package of lands and rocks that I'll be using in most of my decks, filling it out with basics, unless they call for any additions or changes. For this deck, I've added a Three Tree City to the lands, and an Urza's Incubator to the ramp.

The Standout Cards

Haakon is an absolute house in this deck. He acts as a backup way to get your knights back from the graveyard, if your commander is starting to get prohibitively expensive. He also allows for some of my favorite tech in the game: he specifically allows you to recast knight spells from your graveyard, and you know what are technically knight spells?

That's right: Kindred Changeling cards! We are running two removal spells that count as knights, so you can cast them as many times as you'd like when Haakon is out.

The Council of Four is the one non-knight creature in the deck, but I assure you, it's well worth the inclusion! The best part of this card's text is the word "player" because then you can trigger its effect as well. Even if your opponents are avoiding triggering The Council, you can feel free to cast two spells to make another body, or swing with a knight to loot, triggering the first ability and drawing you an additional card.

The Win Conditions

The first, most obvious way to win is to build up a board of knights and turn them sideways. With enough lords and bodies, you should get through eventually, and cards like Knights' Charge and Moonshaker Cavalry just speed up the process.

If, for some reason, you can't attack, be it a board stall or pillowfort cards, you can just work on building up a decent board, then cast Curry Favor, draining everyone out, or work towards some Syr Konrad or Corpse Knight shenanigans.

Final Thoughts

This was a fun place to start! Typal decks are usually fairly straightforward, but knights have some fun options. All-in-all, I feel good about my first deck in the Challenge.

Talk to you next time, when I go over my Urza, Chief Artificer list!

[whatsthatmagiccard]

You are asked by Wotc to flavour the next five "Soul of [Plane]" cards. What five planes do you choose and what colour(s) are they?

Naturally, after the five monocolors and colorless, we get the allied pairs.

WU: Soul of Zhalfir

UB: Soul of Amonkhet

BR: Soul of New Capenna

RG: Soul of Ikoria

GW: Soul of Bloomburrow

Note how these choices mostly suck.

[madcat-world]

Jolrael, Voice of Zhalfir (1 of 2) - Lorenzo Mastroianni

[xantchaslegacy]

This RULES; words cannot express TT ^ TT

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Latulla, Keldon Overseer by Brom

[mtg-smash-or-pass]

[overgrown-estate]

95 Geth, Thane of Contracts, by Martin de Diego Sadaba for "Phyrexia: All Will Be One"

96 Compleated Huntmaster, by Alex Brock for "March of the Machine"

[magicjudge]

If I have a Kwende, Pride of Femeref in my graveyard and hit someone with Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir's first strike, reanimating Kwende, will Jabari deal damage again this combat?

Yes, he will.

When there are two combat damage steps in combat because of a creature with first strike or double strike attacking or blocking, they act as completely separate steps with triggers resolving and players able to cast spells and activate abilities between them.

In the second combat damage step, the only creatures to assign and deal combat damage are creatures with double strike and creatures that either didn't already assign combat damage in the first combat damage step.

Since Sidar has double strike at that time, he will assign and deal combat damage just fine in that second combat damage step.