[Developmental] GW Opal-Wave

[Freggle]

Opal-Wave

Opal-Wave is a Green White deck designed to maximize the interaction between of Opalescence and Parallax Wave & kill with attacking enchantment creatures.

The Deck uses the Green for filtering and Card Draw, and White for Controlling the board and killing


Deck (60)

Kill Cards:
4 Opalescence
1 Starfield of Nyx

Card Selection and Draw:
4 Sylvan Library
4 Kruphix's Insight
2 Commune with the Gods
2 Enlightened Tutor
4 Enchantress's Presence

Ramp:
4 Utopia Sprawl
4 Wild Growth
1 Fertile Ground

Enevitability:
3 Replenish

Disruption:
4 Parallax Wave
1 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Oblivion Ring

Mana Base: (20)
4 Serra's Sanctum
4 Windswept Heath
2 Wooded Foothills
2 Plains
2 Savannah
6 Forest



Sideboard:

4 Eidolon of Rhetoric
3 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Sphere of resistance
3 Carpet of Flowers
2 Banishing Light

Understanding the Deck Interactions

Opalescence & Parallax Wave:
With both Opalescence and Parallax Wave on the battlefield Parallax Wave is a 4/4 creature.
Parallax Wave can target itself with its own exile ability this will exile Parallax Wave. When Parallax Wave exiles itself it triggers it’s own exit the battlefield clause and returns itself and all of the other exiled creatures exiled by Parallax Wave to the battlefield. This will reset the Fading counters to 5.

Opalescence & Parallax Wave: Infinite Creature Exile Combo [Holding Priority & the Stack]
If you target an opposing creature with Parallax Wave, hold priority then target Parallax Wave the stack will look like below:

Top
[Parallax Wave Exile Trigger – Targeting Parallax Wave]
[Parallax Wave Exile Trigger – Opponent’s creature]
Bottom

The stack will resolve top to bottom and start with the exile ability targeting Parallax Wave. This will then trigger Parallax Wave’s Exit the battle field trigger. The stack will then look like below

Top
[Parallax Wave Return to Battlefield Trigger]
[Parallax Wave Exile Trigger – Opponent’s creature]
Bottom

Parallax Wave will then return to the battlefield with a fresh set of 5 counters on it. In the Game of Magic this is treated as a new object, and no longer has any relation to the exile trigger remaining on the stack. Then the stack will look like follows

Top
[Parallax Wave Exile Trigger – Opponent’s creature]
Bottom

This will exile the opponent’s creature indefinitely as there will be no exit the battle field trigger from the Parallax Wave that exiled the creature since that copy has already left the battlefield. This can be repeated indefinitely.

Opalescence& Parallax Wave and Infinite Creature removal Evasion
The “blink ability” can also be used to evade all non-split second removal.

Top
[Removal Targeting Parallax Wave]
Bottom

Top
[Parallax Wave Exile targeting itself]
[Removal Targeting Parallax Wave]
Bottom

Parallax Wave exiles itself triggering the exit the battlefield trigger

Top
[Parallax Wave exit the battlefield trigger]
[Removal Targeting Parallax Wave – Now Gone]
Bottom


Parallax Wave returns back to the battlefield as a new copy

Top
[Removal Targeting Parallax Wave – Now Gone]
Bottom

The removal spell fizzles due to lack of target.


Parallax Wave, Opalescence, Oblivion Ring: Infinite Permanent removal
Oblivion Ring enters the battlefield and triggers.

Top
[Oblivion Ring Enter the Battlefield Exile Trigger Targeting Permanent]
Bottom

Use Parallax Wave to target Oblivion Ring to get the following Stack

Top
[Parallax Wave Exile Trigger Targeting Creature Oblivion Ring]
[Oblivion Ring Enter the Battlefield Exile Trigger Targeting Permanent]
Bottom

Parallax Wave trigger resolves exiling Oblivion Ring

Top
[Oblivion Ring Enter the Battlefield Exile Trigger Targeting Permanent]
Bottom

The Permanent is removed

Blink Parallax Wave to bring back both 5 counter Parallax Wave and Oblivion Ring. Oblivion Ring can choose a new target and is considered a new object and when leave the

Evading Wrath Effects

Hide select enchantments under Parallax Wave, and let the Wrath resolve. All creatures under Parallax Wave will return to the Battlefield


Playing the Deck

...forthcoming

[Claymore1]

Hey Freggle, I'll support you. Specially when it comes to Enchantress discussions, I'll gladly help out.

A couple of things I've noted is your heavier reliance on replenish, as well as a few possible switches.
Seeing as you are using the Kruphix and commune, woudn't Vessel of Nascency be better of in this build?
It synergizes more with the deck's Enchantress, Sanctums and Replenish.

I was going to mention Abundant Growth, however, since the plan is the mana ramp and not the color fix, then since it is on color, then perhaps Trace of Abundance may be a better choice. It will protect the sanctums and also versus cards like Rishadan Port.

This may be the build where you can instead run Living Wish, allowing you to run more utility, and have game one answers to most decks by wishing for Maze of Ith, Teeg, or simply dropping a peace keeper, as well as acting as an extra sanctum or enchantress. Or simply wish for Emrakul as your last resort if your main strategy fails.

Graveyard hate that your deck is lacking, but won't be affected by, is with the use of Ground Seal. It does not hurt you, but it shuts off any target based cards such as Life from the Loam, Deathrite Shaman, Surgical extractions and such. Works great too with replenish.

Also this is just some random fun thing :)...
Seeing a syou run a heavier Replenish count, and also noticing you're just one Oblivion ring short.
For the fun and lulz, of things, you could squueze in the 3rd oblivion ring and a Eidolon of Blossoms for the possible "Draw X cards" by messing with 3 O-rings effects exiling each other while triggering blossoms. It'll be fun, but not worth it... that's why I mentioned its just a random thought. :)

[area]

Finally, a reason for four Sylvan Libraries that isn't Plug.

I never liked the 1-of Leyline maindeck when I was playing Lejay's original Omnitell. Not nearly so bad here though, given it can be cast easily, but still leaves an odd taste in my mouth.

Why the Oblivion Ring / Banishing Light split? In traditional enchantress the latter is better as you can use it to cantrip if they don't have any targets and you don't want to eat something of your own, but I would have thought the combo benefits would have outweighed that.

By virtue of the fact you have Sylvan Library over Mirri's Guile can I assume you're finding yourself paying the life for cards often?

Regarding Ground Seal, I'll just point out it's not quite perfect as it messes up Starfield.

Really looking forward to sleeving this up.

[Freggle]

Finally, a reason for four Sylvan Libraries that isn't Plug.

I never liked the 1-of Leyline maindeck when I was playing Lejay's original Omnitell. Not nearly so bad here though, given it can be cast easily, but still leaves an odd taste in my mouth.

Why the Oblivion Ring / Banishing Light split? In traditional enchantress the latter is better as you can use it to cantrip if they don't have any targets and you don't want to eat something of your own, but I would have thought the combo benefits would have outweighed that.

By virtue of the fact you have Sylvan Library over Mirri's Guile can I assume you're finding yourself paying the life for cards often?

Regarding Ground Seal, I'll just point out it's not quite perfect as it messes up Starfield.

Really looking forward to sleeving this up.

The MD Leyline of Sanctity can be cut. It there to give us more game against burn and combo. A given the casting cost of most of the cards in the deck it may be a good deck for 3 ball. (Trinisphere)

Oblivion Ring / Banishing Light Split is designed to play around a Meddling Mage / Pithing Needle combo locking out the deck, or to play around surgical. Even when everything is going wrong you can still potentially win.

I do pay life for cards using Sylvan Library fairly often, but it's obviously conditional. Also the 2/2 body is nice vs. a 1/1 under Opal.

Enjoy, let me know how it goes or what improvements you make.

[square_two]

How necessary is Enlightened Tutor when you are playing 4 Kruphix and 2 Commune? Would it be worth it to cut them in order to go up to a full playset of Commune? Or it could be a couple of Sterling Grove which come back from Replenish (and loop themselves if you draw more Replenishes) and draw cards from Enchantress's Presence, and are keepable when hit from Kruphix.

Eidolon of Blossoms works well to draw cards once the combo is achieved. And it can be semi-protected by the wave if Opal isn't out quite yet. Seems like Eidolons might be better if Sterling Grove is added since it does help to protect them and achieve a higher density of enchantments.

I was looking at the other "Words of" cards in the cycle...Words of Worship could gain you 15 life a turn with a Sylvan Library. Might only be impressive against Burn though. Leyline from the side sounds easier to get going, and also helps with Storm.

[Freggle]

How necessary is Enlightened Tutor when you are playing 4 Kruphix and 2 Commune? Would it be worth it to cut them in order to go up to a full playset of Commune? Or it could be a couple of Sterling Grove which come back from Replenish (and loop themselves if you draw more Replenishes) and draw cards from Enchantress's Presence, and are keepable when hit from Kruphix.

This is interesting. Up until earlier this week I was playing a full playset of Commune with the Gods. Athough I did not feel making the change was necessary it seem like Enlightened Tutor it too powerful of a card not to test so I added (2). Enlightened also allows us to topdeck Artifacts should we go 3ball or Sphere of resistance as our combo hate of choice.

One thing to note: Sterling Grove provides shroud not hexproof. this prohibits Parallax Wave from targeting itself or any other enchantment you own. However, if the combo is in place you can sacrifice it to to topdeck tutor for something say Enchanted Evening? That's probably too cute, but with Opalescence & Enchanted Evening on the battlefield Parallax Wave can exile anything without the help of Oblivion Ring. It also turn all lands into 0/0 creatures "killing" them and not allowing anyone else to keep another land into play so long as they are both on the battlefield. Again, probably too cute. Sterling Grove is interesting, and should be tested, but not certain it will make the cut yet.

Eidolon of Blossoms works well to draw cards once the combo is achieved. And it can be semi-protected by the wave if Opal isn't out quite yet. Seems like Eidolons might be better if Sterling Grove is added since it does help to protect them and achieve a higher density of enchantments.

Your better off with Ground Seal if you want to draw your whole deck under the combo because you can control the draw. A large Replenish can deck you since Eidolon's draw is not a may ability. Further more the loose graveyard hate Ground Seal gives you just being Ground Seal isn't bad and keeps the curve of the deck lower.

I was looking at the other "Words of" cards in the cycle...Words of Worship could gain you 15 life a turn with a Sylvan Library. Might only be impressive against Burn though. Leyline from the side sounds easier to get going, and also helps with Storm.

It's not bad, but likely falls under the too cute. It could pull you out of Tendrils range, and it can regain lost life from Sylvan Library draws, but I'm still not sold it's worth the slot.

[Freggle]

How necessary is Enlightened Tutor when you are playing 4 Kruphix and 2 Commune? Would it be worth it to cut them in order to go up to a full playset of Commune? Or it could be a couple of Sterling Grove which come back from Replenish (and loop themselves if you draw more Replenishes) and draw cards from Enchantress's Presence, and are keepable when hit from Kruphix.

Eidolon of Blossoms works well to draw cards once the combo is achieved. And it can be semi-protected by the wave if Opal isn't out quite yet. Seems like Eidolons might be better if Sterling Grove is added since it does help to protect them and achieve a higher density of enchantments.

I was looking at the other "Words of" cards in the cycle...Words of Worship could gain you 15 life a turn with a Sylvan Library. Might only be impressive against Burn though. Leyline from the side sounds easier to get going, and also helps with Storm.

In testing vessel of nascency is not very good in this deck, however Sterling Grove is quite powerful for the A+B combo deck.

Also, if there is only 1 on the battlefield its very good even while comboing:

Sterling, Opal and Parallax wave on the battlefield, and you want to exile an opponents creature:

1. Wave targets Sterling, Let trigger resolve. Sterling is now exiled by wave.

2. Target Creature, hold priority, Target wave. Let triggers resolve.

Wave and sterling will return, then opponents creature will be exiled.

You can also do this to "blink" sterling to protect it from removal.

[Freggle]

Hey Freggle, I'll support you. Specially when it comes to Enchantress discussions, I'll gladly help out.

A couple of things I've noted is your heavier reliance on replenish, as well as a few possible switches.
Seeing as you are using the Kruphix and commune, woudn't Vessel of Nascency be better of in this build?
It synergizes more with the deck's Enchantress, Sanctums and Replenish.

Claymore, Thank you. I haven't posted how to play the deck, but Replenish is just an option. You can easily play the deck without ever casting a Replenish.

Vessel of Nascency is a card I do have my eye on, but have not tested it. I'm trying to keep the deck to as little Activated abilities as possible to reduce hate. ...don't want to roll over to multiple Pithing Needle or Suppression Fields

I was going to mention Abundant Growth, however, since the plan is the mana ramp and not the color fix, then since it is on color, then perhaps Trace of Abundance may be a better choice. It will protect the sanctums and also versus cards like Rishadan Port.

Haven't tried it. It could work.

This may be the build where you can instead run Living Wish, allowing you to run more utility, and have game one answers to most decks by wishing for Maze of Ith, Teeg, or simply dropping a peace keeper, as well as acting as an extra sanctum or enchantress. Or simply wish for Emrakul as your last resort if your main strategy fails.

I'd first test more Enchantments as alt wins, then venture into other cards to maximize the decks engine and staying power. Two Cards in mind are Words of Wilding (Combos with Sylvan Library), and Sacred Mesa.

Graveyard hate that your deck is lacking, but won't be affected by, is with the use of Ground Seal. It does not hurt you, but it shuts off any target based cards such as Life from the Loam, Deathrite Shaman, Surgical extractions and such. Works great too with replenish.

Original version did play Ground Seal, but was cut for other more impact cards. Opal, Wave, and Seal allows you to draw your whole deck FYI

Also this is just some random fun thing :)...
Seeing a syou run a heavier Replenish count, and also noticing you're just one Oblivion ring short.
For the fun and lulz, of things, you could squueze in the 3rd oblivion ring and a Eidolon of Blossoms for the possible "Draw X cards" by messing with 3 O-rings effects exiling each other while triggering blossoms. It'll be fun, but not worth it... that's why I mentioned its just a random thought. :)

That is a little magical Christmas land, but in earlier versions I have done this. More Oblivion Rings is not a bad thing though. It helps fend off Teeg, Sup Fields, Revoker, Counterballance to allow us to combo. Likely one more Oring is correct.

[Kid]

Quick question for you guys!
What if the opponent target Opalescence and not Parrallex Wave? You cannot save both right?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Freggle]

Quick question for you guys!
What if the opponent target Opalescence and not Parrallex Wave? You cannot save both right?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm assuming Opalescence is being targeted with some legal "kill spell" for enchantments in this scenario.

This also assumes there is only one Parallax Wave on the battlefield.">Opalescence and one Parallax Wave on the battlefield.

Opalescence is not a creature (and therefore can not be targeted by creature kill spells) and can not be exiled by Parallax Wave.">If the above is true then Opalescence is not a creature (and therefore can not be targeted by creature kill spells) and can not be exiled by Parallax Wave.

Parallax Wave and two Opalescences then each Opalescence make the other a creature and Parallax Wave then can exile to save the targeted Opalescence.">If there is one Parallax Wave and two Opalescences then each Opalescence make the other a creature and Parallax Wave then can exile to save the targeted Opalescence.

Parallax Wave one Opalescence and one Sterling Grove in play the only creature / enchantment that can be targeted is Sterling Gove, but Gove can be exiled / saved by Parallax Wave. If a second "kill spell" is played to target Opalescence or Parallax Wave you can in response exile Parallax Wave triggering it exit the battlefield clause to return itself and Sterling Grove to the battlefield. This will then give Opalescence and">If there is one Parallax Wave one Opalescence and one Sterling Grove in play the only creature / enchantment that can be targeted is Sterling Gove, but Gove can be exiled / saved by Parallax Wave. If a second "kill spell" is played to target Opalescence or Parallax Wave you can in response exile Parallax Wave triggering it exit the battlefield clause to return itself and Sterling Grove to the battlefield. This will then give Opalescence andParallax Wave[/cards] shroud, and the spell still on the stack will fizzle on resolution.

Hopefully that clears this up.

[Fjaulnir]

Never played this before, ran it through a league today and finished 3-2 despite some play mistakes. I could easily have finished 4-1; I just didnt realise I could O Ring a Pithing Needle on Parallax Wave to then exile the Sylvan Library (I had Opalescence in play so it was a creature). I O Ringed the Sylvan and died to not being able to exile stuff anymore with P Wave for the rest of the game (I was 1-0 and got him down to 2-3 life before dying to a Delver, so it definitely would have finished 2-0 in that case (and 4-1 total) instead of 1-2 and 3-2 overall.


Beat 4C Loam, 12-post Eldrazi, Eldrazi Aggro; lost (due to being unfamiliar to the deck as mentioned in the above scenario) to RUG Delver; and to BUG Delver due to just losing/being 1 turn too slow to play a 2nd Replenish in a row - first one got countered.


The deck was a lot stronger than I expected, I just played it as a gimmick/joke!

[mistercakes]

With any deck running 4 Sylvan library, would it not make sense to try to play at least 1 abundance?

[HouseOfCards]

Is 4 sylvan library really better than 4 argothian enchantress in an enchantment based deck? I'm new to the legacy enchantress archetype so i'm looking to learn here.

[Freggle]

Is 4 sylvan library really better than 4 argothian enchantress in an enchantment based deck? I'm new to the legacy enchantress archetype so i'm looking to learn here.

Yes, because it can be found with Kruphix's Insight, and Commune With the Gods using less cards slots, and fueling absurd Replenishes

[Freggle]

Never played this before, ran it through a league today and finished 3-2 despite some play mistakes. I could easily have finished 4-1; I just didnt realise I could O Ring a Pithing Needle on Parallax Wave to then exile the Sylvan Library (I had Opalescence in play so it was a creature). I O Ringed the Sylvan and died to not being able to exile stuff anymore with P Wave for the rest of the game (I was 1-0 and got him down to 2-3 life before dying to a Delver, so it definitely would have finished 2-0 in that case (and 4-1 total) instead of 1-2 and 3-2 overall.


Beat 4C Loam, 12-post Eldrazi, Eldrazi Aggro; lost (due to being unfamiliar to the deck as mentioned in the above scenario) to RUG Delver; and to BUG Delver due to just losing/being 1 turn too slow to play a 2nd Replenish in a row - first one got countered.


The deck was a lot stronger than I expected, I just played it as a gimmick/joke!

Glad you enjoyed it. It certainly packs a punch. Let me know if / how you tweak the list if your interest in it has continued.

[Fjaulnir]

I haven't had much time to test lately, but just wondered what the chances are that there's a version of this deck that wants Thought Scour to clear your Sylvans/Guiles and mayhap Search for Azcanta?

It would mean going bigger in on Replenish but worst case vs Graveyard hate it'll still cantrip (would only be bad vs Surgical, not RIP/Leyline per se). Maybe Attunement would be an auto include then as well but I'm not sure that's necessary, as Scour (and Azcanta) are already good by themselves...

[mistercakes]

if you're going to use attunement, would be cool to run with pursuit of knowledge. i always wanted to pair them together in a deck.

[Fjaulnir]

if you're going to use attunement, would be cool to run with pursuit of knowledge. i always wanted to pair them together in a deck.

Don't need Attunement for that though - this deck already runs 4 Sylvan Library?

[mistercakes]

oh i just meant in a UW shell. also if attunement is in play and you cast it, you don't need to pass the turn. so that's sorta cool. dunno if that's even any good even with replenish. prob just a win more.

[kombatkiwi]

I haven't had much time to test lately, but just wondered what the chances are that there's a version of this deck that wants Thought Scour to clear your Sylvans/Guiles and mayhap Search for Azcanta?

It would mean going bigger in on Replenish but worst case vs Graveyard hate it'll still cantrip (would only be bad vs Surgical, not RIP/Leyline per se). Maybe Attunement would be an auto include then as well but I'm not sure that's necessary, as Scour (and Azcanta) are already good by themselves...

Has anyone seriously tested Vessel of Nascency yet?
I agree that it would probably make you want to think about replenish more, but this is where I would start if you wanted that effect rather than adding another color