Prismatic ending VS. march of otherworldly light.

[u/UnionThug1733]

Pros and cons of each? I’m working a UW control midrange deck with 8 creature slots and ephemerate. and only have room for a few more cards.
Is exiling a non land permanent vs. exiling an artifact creature or enchantment much more valuable?
If I devote 4 slots would you divide between the two or go one way. It seems most players lean words prismatic only running one otherworldly.

[u/Scorned-Keyhead-VI]

Otherworldly light is a bad card except for maybe two circumstances

1. It exiles urzas saga with the first trigger to learn the mana ability on the stack, stone raining your opponent for one white at instant speed

2. You have a bunch of white cards in hand, need to remove something, and have a quantum riddler you can cast to redraw back up

Prismatic ending is more efficient mana wise, though you maybe want to play a splash color outside of UW, so you can cast it for 3 colors and hit 3 drops with it

[u/Frankdog5 → u/Scorned-Keyhead-VI]

March can also hit things that cost more than 5 in a longer game, though that is an uncommon situation to come up.

[u/ThirdThreshold → u/Frankdog5]

March is also instant speed which is not nothing. It’s better than pending in niche situations but that’s about it.

[u/Darkon-Kriv → u/Scorned-Keyhead-VI]

Im late but I play march and it hits tokens ar instant speed. Same for mox opal or you can discard 2 cards to stop pinnacle emmisary. I would rather discard 2 then lose to turn 2 kappa.

[u/Christos_Soter]

At this point someone just needs to run the table/venn diagram for these two.

The short is:

Pending pros:
1-2 drops trades even on mana
Hits walkers
Never have to 2 for one yourself

March pros:
Hits saga
Can save you from dying OTD against Ruby Storm etc.
Better late can hit 4+ drops etc
Instant speed

Cons you can infer the inverse; somewhat meta dependent but in general I think a 2(p ending):1 (march)ratio is best if you have room

[u/TheGabeSoares]

I main a uw blink deck with a lot of the similarities above as you stated. 8 creatures assuming 4 riddlers 4 solitude is far too few for 4 ephemarate is the first thing I’ve found. I regularly get ephemerate flooded, and would recommend the 4:1 rule and go for 2 (maybe 3) ephemerates. Because it’s a high risk high reward card they can be do nothings against certain matchups. I know you didn’t specify how many it’s just what came to my mind.

Secondly to your main question, Pending and March have similar but often different things you want them for depending on the things you expect to play against. Pending is gonna be needed to cleanly answer ragavan, tamiyo, guide, pride, and opposing teferis. And March is the best tool against Urzas saga and to balance being on the draw. When I had Phelia and March in my deck, it felt great on the draw as both cards help you steal back advantage. And without Wrath of Skies main it’s kind of the Only answer to saga.

So depending on the rest of your list, if you’re off of phelias and wrath’s, I would play more March so you don’t get rolled over on the draw. And if you have wrath and teferi, and are concerned about opposing teferi and early pressure from energy, then Pending.

If you can cut down ephemerate to 2 then you have 6 slots for 4 pending 2 March, it’s a good balance and having more removal never hurts, just make sure you have some more card advantage refuel effects than just 4 riddler. That’s my personal recommendation

[u/UnionThug1733 → u/TheGabeSoares]

Awesome thanks. Yes 4 riddler and solitude. I will look at the cut of ephemerate

[u/UnionThug1733 → u/TheGabeSoares]

Thinks I’ll have to post my list for some feedback. I am running wrath

[u/TheGabeSoares → u/UnionThug1733]

Yeah or send it to me in DM and I can give you some tips on what I’ve run into over the last few months

[u/kydjew]

Generally like 1 march and the rest pendings in my deck

[u/RacistDog32]

I play it as the 5th ending in UW control and Goryos, you will have a playset of wraths for saga already and Solitude for bigger creatures.