This is my list, as of 12 March 2007:
// Lands
2 [US] Serra's Sanctum
4 [B] Savannah
2 [A] Taiga
4 [ON] Windswept Heath
2 [P3] Plains (1)
6 [UG] Forest
// Acceleration
4 [DIS] Utopia Sprawl
4 [US] Exploration
// Engine
4 [US] Argothian Enchantress
4 [ON] Enchantress's Presence
// Utility
1 [MR] Rule of Law
1 [WL] Aura of Silence
1 [VI] City of Solitude
4 [IN] Sterling Grove
2 [LG] Sylvan Library
1 [PLC] Seal of Primordium
1 [OD] Holistic Wisdom
1 [OD] Karmic Justice
1 [DIS] Seal of Fire
// Lock
1 [CHK] Ghostly Prison
2 [LG] Moat
2 [VI] Elephant Grass
4 [JU] Solitary Confinement
// Win
1 [ON] Words of War
1 [MI] Sacred Mesa
// Sideboard
SB: 1 [VI] City of Solitude
SB: 1 [WL] Aura of Silence
SB: 2 [DIS] Seal of Fire
SB: 1 [OD] Karmic Justice
SB: 2 [VI] Elephant Grass
SB: 3 [MR] Rule of Law
SB: 1 [TE] Light of Day
SB: 1 [MM] Spiritual Focus
SB: 1 [MI] Null Chamber
SB: 2 [TE] Choke
Card Choices:
Let me explain the mana base first: I run 8 basic land, 4 fetches (four is all you need: I need to be able to grab the basic plains against goblins when I really need it, and you find yourself wanting more mana than shuffle effects). The two sanctums are completely necessary. I know it sucks to have one in your opening hand, but its playable if you have an exploration or a forest. Then its just a non-basic plains.
Acceleration: I think that its pretty much self-explanatory. Utopia sprawl is so good. Unless youre playing against ports. But, then you get to keep your duals. Aydunno.
Engine: I think you only need 8 enchantresses. Bearded judge at TMDOII said I should run the 0/2 one, as well, but shes not untargetable, nor much better at blocking than the ol argothian one.
Tool box: First of all, ROL main boarded: Thoughts? Im not sure I like it, but its nice to have something to tutor into game 1 v. combo, if you have the chance to go that long. Ill get to that later.
-Aura of Silence: So good against affinity, and any artifact mana based combo. The 1WW cost is kind of difficult to pull off sometimes, but its certainly worth it. And its much eaiser than getting the WG of grove, once you have sanctum.
-City of solitude: I hate blue cards, when Im playing this deck. Helps, a bunch. And, its easily boarded out against goblins and survival.
-Sterling Grove: This must be a 4-of. Early game, its tough to come by the white mana to cast it, and late game, its tough to come by the green mana to cast it (I almost want to run cradle or something its so hard to get green when Im combo-ing out.). But it makes shit tough to blow up, and it tutors for your answers. Necessary.
-Library: I dont like it, at all. But its great against combo. And better in pairs than mirris guile. And, when not under confinement, it can combo nasty with WOW.
Seal of primordium: Eats vials, man-lands, crucible, chrome and diamond moxen, and its the right color. I like it.
-Holistic wisdom: This is the single weakest looking card in the deck, but I wouldnt get rid of it for the world. It pulls back wasted sanctum, countered confinement, and seal of fire to kill remaining meddling magi.
-Karmic Justice: I dont like this main board, but I think its necessary, with the amount of wastelands and engineered explosives floating around. And green goblins scares the shit out of me, with their possible tranquil domains. Wrath + Armageddon for 3. Ill take it. Makes deed a scary play for black players.
-Seal of Fire: Tutor for it against meddling mages, hippies, and . . . goblins. Boarding in the other two against goblins is a good play. Answers first turn lackey.
Lock pieces:
Theres no Squee here. I hate that. Hes my 61st card. The first cut, if I need to get under 61. Dont play him. Im trying not to. The problem is that its tough to persuade myself. Look at this data: This is from my reports and additional notes on the last 3 tournaments (the only three where I played enchantress). I attributed each of these games to Squee + confinement FTW.
Gagg:
round 1, game 1 v. solidarity
round 2, games 1&3 (game 3 had double grove lock, too) v. show & tell
round 3 game 1 v. duck hunt
round 4 game 2 v. mono red goblins
top 4 game 2 v. 3color AS
TMDO day 1:
round 1 game 2 (with grove lock) v. mono red goblins
round 3 game 1 v. red death
round 4 games 1 +3 v. RG goblins (jeff folious)
TMDO Day 2:
Round 1 game 2 v. UBR affinity
Round 3 games 1 & 2 (double grove lock both times) v. Matt's survival
Round 4 game 1 v. UBW landstill
Top 8 games 1+2 v. RG goblins (agent cody mannion)
The problem is, though, that he is hand clog when youre not just sitting dead under confinement. At the Gagg I was running two, and I had to hardcast it against Bennett Toms BR goblins. I dropped one for TMDO, and I did real well in swiss. But against Watcher in the top 4 I actually had to hard cast him again. Shit with a quick clock really makes me have to play him. I dont like admitting it, I dont like thinking about it. Squee confinement is like cheating. But I guess every good beginning has to come to an end. Ill miss you, my goblin naboob. Ha. Boob.
I moved my third elephant grass from main back to the board in favor of some trash. The rest is the same.
Win: I dropped my second mesa that I was running at TMDO. One is enough. And Form of the Dragon was just a hilarious mistake. It was fun, though.
Board:
-City: no brainer. I mull into this against blue control
-Aura of silence: A second gives affinity headaches. And tendrils combo w/artifact mana.
-Seal of fire: I discussed this earlier. So good.
-Karmic justice: In against a bunch of stuff I dont like. Like BG for deeds.
-Grass: Duh.
-Rule of law: I need four for combo. Man, I use italics a lot. Being able to mull once and almost be albe to say that Ill have it (and the mana to power it out turn two) is real good.
-Light of day: I need a solid answer to black decks. Or maybe not. I cut Sacred ground for this. Which, I think, is a weaker card overall. Aydunno. Random Black.dec is scary for me.
-Spiritual focus: I almost cut this card. But its great against IGG combo. Which gives me enough time to tutor for and play it. Makes the matchup hilarious. I gotta give Spatula the credit on this one.
-Null Chamber: Name tranquility against TES. Name engineered explosives against various fish and Landstill builds. I wish I could have two out at once. Thatd be like cheating.
-Choke: Blue decks can eat my shit. Get a grove out so solidarity cant chain it on your endstep.
61st cards (this comes from my days as a SWCCG player; after you write out your list, youd list the cards you want in, but didnt fit [in star wars you can play only 60 cards]. Thusly, this is not a list of cards to make your sixty first card. People make fun of you for that kind of stuff.):
-Mirris Guile: From what I hear, library is just better than this. I picked up a Chinese one from a dollar box at gaming, etc., and I really want to play it. Functions under confinement (really nice to string together 1 enchantment after another until you can start drawing two or three off of each one).
-Worship: I really want to throw it in the board, but I cant find the space. And, youd only need it against goblins.
-Parallax Wave: I want to test 1 moat, 1 wave, but I dont have the wave, and double moat works fine. Id only use it to hide a mage on one of my win conditions, or confinement. I think that it might be good to hide siege gang commander or sharpshooter when you have moat out but arent ready for confinement. I just dont have room for it.
-Ivory mask: against goblins with a moat, this is almost as good as confinement. Better, I think, in that you dont have to ditch a card. But the 2WW is tough to get early enough for it to matter. Id love to get it out against combo, and its possible (though unlikely) to whip it out turn two. I want it but I cant fit it.
-The entire blue splash for Words of Wind: This is kind of nice, but I find myself thinking that I have to leave out my control element in order to pull off the combo. And, to be completely fair, I dont know how to put the combo together. Rancor, cloud of faeries, serras sanctum, and a trop with a utopia sprawl on green seems like you can go infinite. And you get trade routes, which means you can get dumb amounts of mana with sanctum. Maybe we could discuss that at a greater length later.
-Black splash: This gives access to cadaverous bloom. And use of your ridiculous storm count that you can generate.
-Multanis Presence: This card is pretty cool, Ill admit. Id love to fit one or two in my board, but I already dont have issues with decks with counterspells. Ill put this on the back burner until I can think more about it.
-Ground Seal: If youre going to run squee, or eternal dragon, or any other graveyard-oriented hotness, you really might want to look into this. And, it double-cantrips with your enchantress effects. I wish IGG targeted cards in that players graveyard. Then this would be a 1-of main, and a 1-of board. Might want to think about it, anyway. Or not.
-Seal of cleansing: Seal of primordium is better. And, for my money, aura of silence is better. When youre going to try and go into confinement, youll never be short on white mana. Only early game is it taxing.
-Genjus: These dont make me go crazy. Theyre only good against agro, and you shouldnt be afraid of agro. Know whats good against it? Half your deck. Try em if you like, if you dont have moats. Not for me.
-Blessings: I dont dig it. Re-animator gets around them by just being faster. And solidarity is able to play around them if theyre even a little competent.
-Fat in the board: Something like an eternal dragon seems nice against landstill, after they board out their creature hate. I just dont have room in the board for it. Try it yourself. Maybe an exalted angel.
-Circle of Protection: Red: Dudes, you beat goblins if youre doing it right. You neednt fret over any more of that.
-Spreading algae: I tried it at TMDO. I played against 1 black deck. And he just didnt tap that swamp. Maybe if theres a lot of black in your area. Its really nice, because it comes back to your hand, and you can draw off of it after you play it again. And if fucks up braids? Or stax. With black in it.
-Humility: I hear its good against goblins and other agro. But I dont like it. Makes my enchantresses bad. Makes my pegasuses not able to fly over my moat. I guess if you really need to beat goblins, then you should run it in your board. I still dont like it.
-Sacred ground: I dont dig it. I played it all three days that I ran my deck. I put it in against two different landstill decks, 1 goblins build at the GAGG (the mono-red guy), and the red death that I beat. Never saw it once. Its really good, when youre able to get it out. I just never wanted to waste a tutor on it. Try it yourselves.
-Chalice: Spatula wanted me to think about it, but I just dont like it. All of my sweet stuff falls in the 1-3 range, and I just dont want to lock myself off of anything amazing like that. Maybe for 0 against TES.
Match-ups (I will tolerate no player-hating on my match up lists. Im not putting down percentages, and if you want to offer them, fine. I dont want any theres no way you do that well shit. If you dont think Im right, play it in a tournament [MWS doesnt count for anything], and post your report.):
-RG Goblins: Pre-board is extremely favorable for you. Or, I should say, it was with both of my last two lists. I muddled the mixture a bit by adding the ROL. They have nothing to disrupt your confinement, nor your combo, scept maybe a needle or two. Boarding: -1 City, -1 Aura of silence, -1 Rule of Law, -2 Library; + 2 E-grass, +2 Seal of fire, + Karmic Justice. I leave in the seal of primordium so you can tutor for it/rip it in order to deal with a needle if they put one on your wins. Even more favorable after boarding. All you have to worry about is tranquil domain, really. Krosan grip is just an un-counterable, worse (against you) disenchant against you. This is the same for RW goblins. (Like, exactly). I like Justice against Armageddon better than I like it against tranquil domain.
-Solidarity: Game 1 is just you digging for ROL via Grove, holistic-ing shit back if they counter it, and trying to resolve confinement/double grove. I havent lost a game 1 to solidarity, ever (I played shady and Gearhart), but it seems to me that if you arent made of solid luck Id call game 1 unfavorable, almost extremely. Their fundamental turn is turn 4, yours is five or so. Boarding: -2 Elephant grass, -2 moat, -1 ghostly prison, -1 seal of primordium, -Aura of silence, - karmic justice; +3 ROL, + 1 Null chamber, +2 choke, + 1 city of solitude, + 1 Seal of fire (This is kind of weak, but I have 8 dead cards main, and Id like to have another one drop, having lost the two e-grasses. And you can fetch a taiga w/o having to worry about wastes). Post board this is a riot. You have so many must-counters that their paltry 8 counters wont hold up to anything. I think I used counter too much in that last sentence.
-Threshold: Neither of these is much fun for you. Id call it between even and unfavorable. They have all kinds of early-game disruption (both builds), magi (white), fliers to get over moat (both, though, to be fair only 1-3 in either build), and reach (red). I havent played against either build in a tournament, which is weird (I think its among the best decks in the format). I do believe, however, that it gets better post board. Lets look at my choices v. UGr Thresh (I honestly have played against that only twice, and both times were against UGw, on an older list without side boarding): -Rule of Law, -1 Elephant Grass, - Seal of fire; +2 choke, + City of solitude. Depending on what theyre gonna put in, you should keep the karmic justice. Tutor for it and drop it, because Engineered Explosives at 3 sucks nuts. Armageddon and wrath (with the exception of a mongoose or two) for the cost of a grove is worth it for me. Board in the second if they make it to game 3 and you see the explosives. Boarding v. UGw: -1 Rule of Law, -2 Elephant grass; + City, + Seal of fire, + Karmic Justice. Ive won against Armageddon only once, and it was tough. 3 Color angel stompy. Friendly Phil Stolze knows what hes doing. Ive seen more of these builds running Engineered Explosives, too. Let me know how you guys do against thresh Im interested.
-Landstill: uhh. . . I hesitate to call this favorable. Ive had great success, but I cant say you will (whole Gods chosen people thing). Against UB youre golden game 1; run for confinement before echoes, then take your time shocking them out or whatever. Against UW theyll have some sort of disenchants main boarded, maybe. So play around that. Bitches Hoes West Coast is more difficult. I mean, if they can find lands that make mana. Anything with xBG is scary for you, because of pernicious deed. So well settle on even pre-boarded versus the various colors, then get on to boarding: -2 elephant grass, -1 Seal of fire, -1 Ghostly Prison, -1 Rule of Law -; +2 Choke, + Karmic justice, + city, + Null chamber. Name Explosives on chamber if they dont have green, deed if they do. Id say post board this gets favorable to very favorable. Depends a lot on what they board in.
-Red Death: Favorable. Elephant grass is real nice, from what I hear. Its tough to deal with a 1st turn negator, but luckily I never had to. Boarding: -ROL, -City, -Aura of silence, -Seal of primordium, -Ghostly prison; +light of day (they scoop to this), +2 Elephant grass, +Spiritual focus, +Karmic Justice. Maybe we should switch the aura of silence for the seal of fire. Like, leave the Aura in. Distopia could get nasty. But I dont play non-permanents. This becomes very favorable post-board. Five Cannot Attack effects is a pretty good ratio. Then just win before they get like 4 disopias online.
-Survival: There are like 20 ways to play survival. Ill pretend Im playing against RGBSA. Even, or maybe unfavorable pre-board. Unless they dont have reverent silence or tranquility or one of its bastard brothers as a wish target. I mean, they have plenty of hand-rape. And, when they get survival out, a decent clock. Boarding: -City, -ROL, -2 Elephant grass (this is assuming they have the wish target); + Karmic Justice, +2 Seal of fire, +Spiritual Focus. Post-board, it gets reasonable. Even, or favorable, Id say. Other variants dont have the ridiculous toolbox that RGBSA have, so the most youll have to worry about pre-board is a viridian Zelot or something. Yknow, the guy for GG that has GG: disenchant. Im 4-0 against GWrb and GWru Survival.
-TES: This is only here because I test against it so much (I live near wastedlife). Game one, you probably lose. Very unfavorable. The one rule of law main board is there incase you can get to pull it out, and have a grove out for protection (I hear theyve started running hull breach in stead of tranquility, which is amazing for us. Boarding: -1 Seal of primordium, -1 Seal of fire, -1 city, -1 karmic justice (doesnt matter youll either lock it down or it wont be relevant their land doesnt stick around long enough here are a couple more hyphens - - - ), -1 ghostly prison, -2 moat; +Elephant grass, +3 ROL, +1 Null chamber, +1 Aura of silence, +1 Spiritual Focus (in case they have to go for IGG instead of d-returns). Post board: Even. game 2 if you have three land or two land and a utopia sprawl (why doesnt it sound right to say an utopia sprawl) you're golden for the turn two ROL. I add the elephant grass in case they go for the warrens. Ideally, you will go first turn: mana explosion. Turn two ROL, turn three aura of silence turn four aura of silence turn five null chamber naming either hull breach (if they have wished for it) or tranquility (if they haven't, or if they pulled it out with wish game 1)(if they run both, youll be in trouble). Thats as close to perfect as it gets. If you win game two (assuming you lost game 1 and thusly didnt win the match), then hell probably win game 3, unless he keeps a trash hand and you get another good one. So: Very unfavorable, even, unfavorable. Good luck. (youll need it)
Less likely and thusly less detailed match-ups:
-Train wreck: I dont theres a way to win this. Scariest match-up, period. Null chamber on deed doesnt even work, because theyll have two or three crime/punishment as well. Dedicated Land destruction is pretty hard. Only gets a little better post-board
-Stax (or angel stax) (or anything variant): You play 60 permanents. And two aura of silences post board. I dream about match-ups this good.
-Affinity: Shit's tough. They are really fast at the start of the game, but then they usually run out of gas. Elephant grass is pretty important here. Pyrostatic pilar sucks to play against, and in my expierance (all two of the decks I played against) they don't need to sweat it much. I would call it Unfavorable/even. (for clarifaction, all of these with a slash in them connotate pre and post board)
-Wombat (MWC): if they went with the plan of wining against combo, you win, because they dont have vengeance. If they do have vengeance, then I think you lose. Even with karmic justice x2. No joke.
-MUC: No clock + islands = you prolly win. Depends on player and the way they build their deck. You play enough basics that back to basics isnt that scary.
-Angel Stompy: Cataclysm is real bad for you. Null chamber that shit. If they dont run any, then youre golden. Watch out for geddon post-board. And acid rain. I saw that played once. Itd suck.
-IGGYPOP: Jesus, thinking about how much better TES is than this made me remember to write up the TES match-up. This has gotten eaiser and eaiser for Enchantress, having moved its fundamental turn from turn 2 or three to turn 3-5. The addition of white, in my opinion, makes the deck only a little better against control. Anyway, you should definitely be able to make it under confinement by then. I have faith in you. Post board just name tendrils with null chamber, and get Spiritual Focus out. Then laugh your ass off. I gotta give Spatula credit on this. Even/favorable.
-Deadguy: This is the only match where Id want a sacred ground. Re-read Red Death, then worry about more land destruction via vindicates. Even/favorable.
Goldfishing:
Im not going to walk you through opening hands, because, unlike combo (where your hand matters now, and what youd draw into in the next ten usually doesnt matter) you dont have an OMG I win turn 1 hand. You have ideal hands. Heres one:
Enchantress Presence
Forest
Forest
Exploration
Utopia Sprawl
Plains
Argothian Enchantress.
But youre not going to get that. Here is you youd throw away:
Moat
Taiga
Exploration
Utopia Sprawl
Solitary Confinement
Aura of Silence
Exploration
No enchantress effect is usually an iffy hand. And so are one land-ers. But heres a one-land-er youd keep:
Forest
Utopia Sprawl
Argothian Enchantress
Utopia Sprawl
Sylvan Library
Aura of Silence
Sterling Grove
Heres another one youd throw away:
Plains
Exploration
Solitary Confinement
Serras Sanctum
Seal of Primordium
Sterling Grove
Moat
But then heres a Sanctum hand youd keep:
Forest
Utopia Sprawl
Moat
Enchantress Presence
Serras Sanctum
Sterling Grove
City of Solitude
Having a basic forest is so important. I cant stress that enough. Wasteland sucks to play against. Specially after going Savannah, utopia sprawl, go. Port sucks, too, but there are plenty ways around that.
Additional Reading:
I went through nine pages of stupid legacy articles on TML, and twenty five on Star City, trying to find stuff about enchantress. I found three decent articles, which address and (have links to) Blue enchantress (words of wind combo) and black enchantress (for a tendril of agony kill. Which, by the way, I will be looking into putting together someday).
Cavius the Great put this one together. Looks solid.
This is Spatula convincing ig'nant hoes that he's right (and he is)
This one's a guy named Scooba and some hippy pirate aruging between the builds. Some good ideas here and there, though. Spatula is here as well.
This is the orrigional Enchantress Thread from the Source. Spatula started it. (if you can't tell, he's been pretty influential in making enchantress a good deck)
I don't know if Props are usually included in Primers, but I'm going to at least thank two people: Jim Lampman, for getting me to play the deck in the first place, and Matt Elgin. Without Matt's suggestions and previous discussions to read, I don't think I'd've made it as far as I have already.
Enjoy!
Just wanted to toss out a quick "thank you" for refreshing a deck and starting out a new thread with a detailed opening post.
If you didn't know why we think you should be paying attention to Enchantress, it's because of the deck's back to back to back top 8 at some larger and diverse NE tournies (GAGG, TMLO 1 and 2). Not even Goblins was able to accomplish that.
Unfortunately, I think that Enchantress may suffer from that dreaded "hard-to-play-deck" syndrome. People may pick it up, play it poorly, lose, and then decry it. I always had a soft spot for the deck but Norm and JP would ream me out whenever I tried to play it. Hopefully, it can make day 2 at the GP.
Why wouldn't you just name Burning Wish?turn five null chamber naming either hull breach (if they have wished for it) or tranquility (if they have, or if they pulled it out with wish game 1)(if they run both, youll be in trouble).
I tried that once, and named the wish, (I'm no longer familliar with the optimal list), and he had put Trainquilty in mainboard, then hellbent tutored for it FTW. It's eaiser to just take the one you're worried about, rather than running the risk of him having main-boarded it.
@lonelybaritone - I'm glad to see you posted a link to my Enchantress Bloom decklist. I'm quite flattered to be honest. I also think that there is another thread on the decklist, by me, on this forum floating around somewhere. If it's ok with you, I'll post my most current list in the near future on this thread, with your consent of course. Oh and gratz on doing so well at the Mana Leak Open 2. You deserve much props.
First, My Enchantress build:
// Lands
4 Windswept Heath
2 Wooded Foothills
2 Taiga
4 Savannah
2 Plains
3 Forest
2 Serra's Sanctum
// Enchantresses
4 Argothian Enchantress
4 Enchantress's Presence
// Mana Accel
4 Exploration
4 Utopia Sprawl
3 Elvish Spirit Guide
// Wincons
1 Words of Worship
1 Words of War
// One Drop Enchantments
4 Elephant Grass
3 Genju of the Cedars
// Two Drop Enchantments
3 Sylvan Library
3 Sterling Grove
1 Seal of Primordium
// Three Drop Enchantments
2 Solitary Confinement
1 Holistic Wisdom
1 Aura of Silence
1 Karmic Justice
// Four Drop Enchantments
1 Moat
// Sideboard
SB: 2 Solitary Confinement
SB: 1 Aura of Silence
SB: 2 Choke
SB: 1 City of Solitude
SB: 1 Sacred Ground
SB: 2 Karmic Justice
SB: 4 Rule of Law
SB: 1 Seal of Primordium
SB: 1 Null Chamber
Now for the card choices:
Lands: Its red splash Enchantress, but with only 1 red card and immense drawing and fetching power, finding that single red is rarely a problem.
Enchantresses: Very standard 8 selection (lonely baritone is right in saying Verduran Enchantress is utter trash. Sure, she can block a lackey, but on turn 2 that may not matter much since the goblins will simply blow her up anyway)
Mana Accel:
Utopia Sprawl: This used to be Wild Growth until I realized that I am running 4 non-forest lands. Duh much?
Exploration: Lets me drop all the lands I'll be digging up. Very good.
Elvish Spirit Guide: Early on this card can let me drop a Turn 1 Argothian, a Utopia Sprawl, an Exploration, and any other one drop Enchantment I might want to, or one of 2432 other great plays. If you draw it later on you can use it to power out more enchantments by having that extra bit of mana (it can really screw with your opponent's math). If nothing else it is a body to chump with.
Wincons:
Words of War: This card is fast and effective (often taking no more than 2-3 turns to kill my opponent. It is worth the red splash.
Words of Worship: Most people will probably go "huh?" to this, but I personally like it. Since you aren't drawing cards you can't be decked and very few aggro decks can handle someone gaining 20+ life a turn (with Sylvan Library you can gain 15 a turn + 10 for every other library in play)
One Drop Enchantments:
Elephant Grass: Slows down every aggro deck there is without serious cost to this deck (Enchantress is a great deck for generating a massive pile of mana). It even has some effect on TES, which is nice.
Genju of the Cedars: This dude is a one drop that can deal with almost any creature a deck will throw at you. He is inexpensive to play and is never a dead card. (I would honestly prefer Genju of the Fields, but with only 6 plains and a white cost the card is far less playable). He is also a wincon is a pinch.
Two Drop Enchantments:
Sylvan Library: This card lets me essentially choose the best of my top three cards for free. The advantage of this over Mirri's Guile is that this works with Words of War/Worship to generate the effect in triplicate every time. Another advantage is that in a situation where you don't care too much about your life total this card lets you draw an extra card occasionally (funny note with Words of Worship, for one colorless mana you can draw one cards and still gain one life while choosing the best of your top two cards, not a bad deal overall.)
Sterling Grove: Protects my enchantments and serves as a tutor, is nice.
Seal of Primordium: Enchantment, stops pesky needles, is green. Seems good.
Three Drop Enchantments:
Solitary Confinement: Although you cannot get an actual lock with Solitary, you can keep it up long enough that you have a good chance at winning. I will probably up this later to 3 because of its usefulness.
Holistic Wisdom: Recur useful enchantments as the price of an enchantment in hand. Its not like I run out of those often.
Aura of Silence: Stops pesky needles and Stax decks.
Karmic Justice: Lego recommended I try this because of problems with people blowing up my lands. I liked Scared Ground better for sometime, until I had a Karmic Justice out and some nuked all my enchantments. All 10 of them. Yea, he wiped his own board and my 2 Argothians scoffed my loses off.
Four Drop Enchantments:
Moat: Good vs aggro. 'Nuff zed.
Sideboard:
Solitary Confinement: This comes in vs combo on account most of my cards are dead versus it and they have to remove Solitary somehow before they can finish comboing out.
Aura of Silence: Stax builds (leave my lands alone please) don't like this card, anyone running a pile of artifact mana accel doesn't like it either. I like to bring this in vs any deck running LED (it cuts down the amount of mana you get by recurring the diamond by half)
Choke: I hate you Solidarity. I really do.
City of Solitude: See above.
Sacred Ground: This is destined to be changed as soon as I can think of something better, but until then I will bring this in against dedicated LD strategies.
Karmic Justice: Good against land destruction and enchantment destruction. This comes in vs decks like Stax, DGA, MGC, and most decks running Armageddon (sometimes). Sadly Cataclysm gets around this card, but Trainwreck does not.
Rule of Law: The ultimate anti-combo tech in Enchantress.
Seal of Primordium: In case I need more artifact hate.
Null Chamber: This card is the ultimate utility. Run it. I wish I could have 4 copies maindecked, but that's dumb.
On a side note I may just steal some of Baritone's anti-black tech. Spiritual Focus is really amazing against discard and Light of Day shuts down almost every black deck in the format. They must have another color (Trainwreck) or be playing Nevy's disk.
EDIT: I never realized my list was so close to Baritone's. I feel stupid now. Enjoy the larger card choice descriptions?
I have been meaning to pick this deck up but I dont know where to start. I have lots of questions:
1) What is the skeleton of the deck? I know the deck revolves around Argonthian Enchantress and Enchantress's Presence. But what are the other Enchantments needed in the basic of the deck.
2) I currently do not own any duals. I did hear that this deck is the best dual color deck to run without the need of original duals. Will this deck be okay with just G/W?
3) With Qasali Pridemage and Trygon Predator being a common sight, would that be detrimental for the deck?
4) I am currently playing Quinn. Would you guys say that the playing style would be the same as that deck? Control early game, toolbox whatever you need then win big late game.
Thanks!
Hi!
I've been playing this deck with some proxies for 2 months now, still getting all the cards needed... This is what i consider to be the skeleton of the deck:
4 Argothian Enchantress
4 Enchantress's Presence
4 Elephant Grass
3 Runed Halo
2 Solitary Confinement
1 Oblivion Ring
4 Sterling Grove
4 Wild Growth
4 Utopia Sprawl
2 Chrome Mox
1 Replenish
2 Kill Cards
2 Serra's Sanctum
18 other lands
Still no sure about the moxes, they can be very good or...useless ... it depends when and where you draw them, but accelarating into turn 1 enchantress and giving you some speed is very good in ths deck, since it's a deck that needs is time to get going. The deck is performing fine with only two colors, i'm running Sacred Mesa and Sigil as kill cards, sometimes i feel the need for an extra kill card, that being the case i would add another sigil.
Runed Halo as been MVP, since it answer so many cards like trygon predator, tendrils of agony, creatures from reanimator, you name it, sometimes is hard to know what to name with it, but with knowledge of the metagame you'll get it. If you are afraid of running into too many krosan grips and pridemages i would add another replenish to the deck.
This is a list from the top of my head, maybe i'm forgetting something. This is a deck that can be tweaked to the metagame you're in, it always have some free spots where you can MB some hate cards like, ground seal, choke, city of solitude.
Hope it helps and that my english isn't too bad...
I usually tend to build budget versions of the decks that I want to play before I actually play them. Surprisingly, I find that some of the budget options to be better on my meta (I pilot my budget Quinn deck better than my list with actual Painter-Stone combo-kill). That being said, would Elvish Spirit Guide or even Lotus Petal be a better choice (I have the two mentioned cards, I currently do not have Chrome Mox). Elvish Spirit Guide could also be a creature late game. Speaking of win cons, would 2x Sigil + 1x Sacred Mesa work?
I haven't had really problem on what to name with Runed Halo. I use it in my Quinn deck and so far, it has not disappoint me. I'll try to get my own rough copy of the deck and test it on MWS. See if I like it.
Thanks!
The deck works well without chrome mox, ESG and Lotus petal are cute, but are even worst topdecks than chrome mox latter in the game. If you're not going to run chrome mox, try to run something like Enlightened tutor, wich is a good turn 1 play. The beauty of this deck, is that you can try a lot of different things ;)
edit: Thanks for the props, and for revitalizing the deck we love to make people love to hate.
I think Light of day is kind of meh. Moat, Elephant Grass, Ghostly Prison, and Seal of Fire all ready do a good job of keeping their men down. I don't think using a SB slot for a narrow way of doing the same thing is a very good expenditure, especially as its 4 mana, and the way they beat you is discard and LD, not with critters. The best anti-black cards are either Spreading Algea(but you really want to run 3x or 4x, or it's not worth it), Compost, and Spiritual Focus(which I like best right now cause it has some splash damage vs. combo).
I think it's interesting how some changes in combo have made the deck more viable; Solidarity without a way around Grove+Confinement lock changes it from an auto-loss to winable, especially with MD CoS. IGGy becomes a lot easier with the Focus tek.
re:Chalice -
The thing is that turn 1 you can drop it for 0 without losing anything, and by turn 2 you've still used whatever your first turn accelerant is, so dropping it for 1 isn't that devestating. You still draw cards off of an enchantment that's countered by CotV, so it's much more favorable for you.
The other thing is, and this may seem stupid, since I haven't gotten a chance to thoroughly test it, but it can come in with Multani's Presence post-board vs aggro-control decks like Threshold or even Pikula. Combo-riffic? I'm not sure, but it's something to think about.
Early one morning while making the round,
I took a shot of cocaine and I shot my woman down;
I went right home and I went to bed,
I stuck that lovin' .44 beneath my head.
@ Cait_Sith: Your list is very close to Zack's list in the first post. It's easiest to discuss your deck by first listing the changes. The changes you've made are:
-1 Sacred Mesa
-1 Moat
-1 Ghostly Prison
-1 Seal of Fire
-1 City of Solitude
-1 Rule of Law
-1 Sterling Grove
-2 Solitary Confinement
-1 Land
+1 Words of Worship
+2 Elephant Grass
+3 Genju of the Fields
+1 Sylvan Library
+3 Elvish Spirit Guide
Words of Worship over Sacred Mesa: This seems like a pretty bad choice to me. My guess is that you've only ever played the deck on MWS. Words won't actually ever win you the game, and in a tournament setting you can't afford to be sitting around turn after turn while an annoying opponent refuses to concede. You often need something that actually wins.
Elephant Grass over Moat and Ghostly Prison: This change is the most justifiable of the changes you've made, but I still don't like it. I could see cutting the Prison for another Grass, but that second Moat is crucial. Moat is so important in the mid to late game when your opponent can pay for Grass, even if you can afford to keep it in play.
Genju over Seal, CoS, and RoL: You claim Genju as a blocker and occasional win condition. Without testing, I would assume at best that makes your Threshold and Goblins matchup slightly better (although I'm thinking wasting all that mana will often hurt your development, putting you in a bad position going into the late game where the deck usually shines.) CoS helps your Solidarity and Threshold matchups a lot, and RoL, despite being probably the weakest maindeck card, is one of your best game 1 tools against combo.
1 Sylvan Library over 1 Sterling Grove: You've got a second Words, meaning your Sylvan Libraries are going to be slightly more useful, but I've already advocated removing that Words. Even if you desperately need to fit a 3rd Sylvan Library (which I'm guessing you don't) do it somewhere else. Sterling Grove is crucial. Play 4.
ESG over 2 Confinement and a land: I used to play ESG in the deck, and I liked it for a while, but with more and more testing I liked it less and less. He creates some explosive starts, but it means one less permanent in your hand, meaning one less card to keep your engine running in the midgame. He's (she's?) usually a terrible topdeck after turn 3 or so. Not to mention that you should at the very least get that 3rd Confinement back in there right now. Confinement lock will win the vast majority of your games. I'd really rather have 4, but 3 is the bare minimum I would play. Often, having the extra means you can play one that you can't sustain, knowing that you'll be able to kill it in a turn or two and still dig into another one.
Keeping 2 Confinement in the board doesn't make sense to me either, as there isn't a single matchup where I would want to board out 2 Confinement, so I'd want to bring them in every round. That suggests a maindeck card to me.
Okay, so I've basically just advocated that you play the exact same main as baritone. That's cuz he's the bomb. There are definitely changes I could see making with testing, but overall his list is really strong. Your post seemed to suggest that you haven't looked at his list much, so go ahead and test it out. You'll occasionally get frustrated with dead cards in certain matchups, but I think the versatility of his toolbox approach outweighs the occasional dead card. Oh, and don't tell him I said this, put Squee back in, cuz more people will scoop to you.
@Lego: I will explain my reasons to you:
I am going to start with the most important change, the Genjus:
Genju vs Seal of Fire: Both have CmC 1, so that is good. Although Seal of Fire is much better early game, like you said this is not an early game deck. Once Thresh reaches threshold my Genju can be activated to eat mongeese at will. Even "trading" with a Werebear often ends up in my favor because I have a one drop enchantment back in my hand. I replay it, draw cards, and still gain card advantage. Seal of Fire becomes much weaker once Thresh hits its mark because it cannot kill any of Thresh's men (although it can kill Meddling Mage, most Thresh builds seem to be drifting away from having it Md).
Genju vs City of Solitude: Genju costs 1 and is good in a variety of matchups while City of Solitude is good primarily vs Solidarity and can cause small problems if you wanted to activate an ability when it is not your turn.
Genju vs Rule of Law: Outside of combo this is one of those "duh" things. Rule is a poor choice against Aggro decks (in fact it is almost dead, if you play it you limit yourself to one enchantment per turn unless you use one of your own to destroy it). Genju is never dead since it is always just one green mana for free cards, a good trade off.
Words vs Mesa: You are right in saying that Mesa is a better wincon. However, Words of Worship is STILL a wincon in an emergency and also is a major wrench in tempo. If you are close to dieing then you can simply gain 10-15 life and ensure that you will win.
Elephant Grass vs Moat: This is actually probably a good idea. I used to run a Words of Wilding so multiple Moats were bad, but since I dropped it I like this shift.
Elephant Grass vs Ghostly Prison: I like the one drops better personally and Elephant Grass hates nicely on the evil black decks, not to mention my 3 drop slot is on the fullish side, and since I am not running Mesa paying the for cumulative upkeep is much less of a problem.
ESG vs Land: This just seems silly to argue because of how strange it would be. Instead the focus will be on how important Confinement is.
ESG vs Confinement: This is ultimately late game vs early game. Confinement is more restrictive, but one it comes down it dominates the game. ESG allows for powerful and explosive openings that greatly improve your ability to control the midgame. Since I have so many one drops both cards are very good choices and it comes down to the meta. In an undefined meta you are correct in advocating Confinement over ESG, so if I were to take this to GP I would take Confinement most likely.
Library vs Grove: Since I cut a Words of Wilding I might make this change because Library is nowheres nearly as important as it used to be (3 dudes every single turn is hard for most decks to stop, even goblins).
I had a bunch of stuff written out about why CoS, RoL, and Seal of Fire were good, but I deleted it, because if you don't think your meta warrants them, then that's okay. Quick explanation though:
CoS helps in pretty much any matchup where your opponents play blue. Resolving this against Threshold, Fish, MUC, and sometimes even Solidarity, more often than not just wins the game.
RoL is a necessary evil due to the rise in combo. If you don't see that rise, or just want to throw away game 1, don't play this.
Seal of Fire is a great utility card. As baritone said, you tutor for it against Mage, Hyppy and Goblins, and bring in the others against Gobs. It's not really meant to stop your opponents from killing you (every other card in your deck does that) but to take care of utility dudes. Plus, winning with Seal of Fire is pimp.
@ Genju: It ties up mana, encourages you to play the deck incorrectly, can't attack with a Moat in play (ideally you'll always have one of these in play,) and probably other arguments that I'm forgetting. As I see it, you provided three arguments for Genju: he can attack, he can block, and he's an enchantment. Instead of spending three mana a turn to attack with Genju, why don't you use that mana to drop the lock, at which point winning becomes elementary? And instead of spending three mana to block, why don't you use that mana to make their creatures completely irrelevant? If you're just playing it to draw a card, Ground Seal is probably a better choice.
Chances are I'm not going to convince you not to play it though, so I'll just move on.
Let me get this straight. Words of Worship is there for all those games where you've done nothing for several turns and are therefore almost dead, but have a Sylvan Library out which has yet to give you any cards whatsoever that you can use to win? Seems limited.
[QUOTE=Cait_Sith;117031]Elephant Grass vs Moat: This is actually probably a good idea. I used to run a Words of Wilding so multiple Moats were bad, but since I dropped it I like this shift.[/QUOTE
Good, now when you add the second Moat that'll give you one more reason to drop the Genjus.
This actually isn't about late game vs early game at all. This is mostly about ESG not being very good, and Confinement needing to be a 4-of. I think I was wrong in comparing the two slots, as I have a hard time imagining someone looking at the deck and saying, "Needs less Confinement, more ESG." They were just the last cards I had to mention in the list of changes you made. So I'll discuss them individually:
ESG allows you to occasionally play a first turn Argothian, and gives you a couple more options in the first 2-3 turns at the expense of card disadvantage. The first assumption you make in playing the card is that this is a good trade off. I'm not sure it is, as it always means you'll have one less enchantment or land to play, stunting your development. Even if it turns out that this trade is worth it, ESG is dead every turn thereafter. I think the combination of the card disadvantage, the relatively small boost that it gives you, and the overwhelming suckiness of this card late game is good enough reason not to play it, but if it's been good for you in testing, I can't refute that.
As for Confinement, you must play the deck considerably differently than I do. I wouldn't even consider playing less than 3, and I'd have to have a pretty good reason not to play 4. This card is responsible for something stupid like 75% of game wins. I don't even know how to have this argument because I can't imagine a reason why you'd play 2. It's "more restrictive"? What does that even mean? If it means what I think you're trying to say, then that's even more reason to run more than 2. If you can explain your reasoning here a little better, I might know how to respond.
Words of worship is a really good card against burn but against other decks, it is utterly useless. Maybe SB it against burn, but I don't think burn decks will be a problem.
Last edited by Radley; 03-15-2007 at 08:40 PM.
Random though: Gaea's Touch as extra Explorations?
YOU'RE GIVING ME A TIME MACHINE IN ORDER TO TREAT MY SLEEP DISORDER.
I posted a version, when apparently I should have just replied here. My apologizes. Bitterblossom as a one of in enchantress? The black shouldn't be hard to make, it always produces, but only one at a time.
City of Solitude can really screw you too if you are not careful. Giving your opponent carte blanche with your board can be deadly. I have a need for it, since i can kill in one hit. Which brings me to a question, What does city of solitude do against counterbalance?
Personally, I think the Words versions are to slow and costly. The version I play utilizes the card draw engine into a combo.
Last edited by Gibbie_X; 12-02-2008 at 05:29 PM.
You can't win, you can't break even, you can't get out of the game....
I hear edt's got Jamie Wakefield locked in his basement, and keeps pumping him tapes of fatties getting hit with Wrath of God...
This message has been deleted by Nihil Credo. Reason: Syphilis - Who did Nihil Credo give Syphillis to?
City of Solitude prevents Top from functioning on your turn, and does nothing against Counterbalance.
Early one morning while making the round,
I took a shot of cocaine and I shot my woman down;
I went right home and I went to bed,
I stuck that lovin' .44 beneath my head.
Bitterblossom as a one-of seems like a terrible idea, no offense. It's much too slow to act as a wincon, since it would basically have to be tutored up with Sterling Grove and only pumps out one dude a turn. Compare that to Sacred Mesa, which I'm still a huge fan of. Same function as emergency chump-blocker producer, but it actually wins games once it gets active too. Especially if you think Words of War is too slow, Bitterblossom is just bad. Beyond that, it does nothing to make our bad matchups like combo any better. I've been experimenting with 3 Thoughtseize main though as an extra weapon against CB and combo and to force through my first enchantress. So far it's been promising.
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